Across The Worlds ⊳ Peter Parker

71 | MUTANT AND PROUD

"DO YOU THINK this is a good idea?" Logan asked Professor X as he looked down at Nayara working in hand to hand combat with Gambit. The brunette was able to wrestle him out on the last match.

Professor X looked up to him with a small smile. "She might as well practice." Professor X told him. "And she didn't survive just out of luck. She knows her way." He added.

Then he pressed a bottom and a laser beam shoot out. Gambit swore loudly, pushing Nayara to the other side of the hall as the laser hit where they had been. Logan scoffed, looking down at the training facility.

"That wasn't a warning." Nayara commented to Gambit. Nayara then avoided the second laser, and just as one was about to hit her, she raised her wrist up and opened the red, white, and blue shield that Steve had given her long ago. It was her survival mode kicking in.

A look of shock passed through the Professor X for a second. "Can you jump?" Nayara said to Gambit who threw a card against one of the beams. She nodded to her shield. "Come on, I saw it in a movie once." Nayara said, and while he ran she used her force to push him. Of course she wasn't Captain America, but Gambit could jump. Then it destroyed one of the laser.

Then as one was about to aim at them, she threw the shield as best as she could. It missed for a second, but Gambit was two steps ahead of her, trowing one of his cards so it crashed against it. "I need to work on my aim." Nayara said to him with a small smile. She signaled it to go back to her wrist.

Logan turned off the training program, closing the session. Nayara turned off her shield and high five Gambit. "Not bad." He noted. Nayara couldn't stop smiling.

"Thank you." Nayara said, bowing as an artist and Gambit returned it.

. . .

The brunette looked at the news that were playing in the living room. Cyclops was watching them in silence. Photographs of the Sentinel Services, expanding the production of the Sentinel Machines appeared.

She didn't say anything, but she too could see the pressure that Cyclops held on his shoulders. "You are hitting the production plant, right?" She quietly asked. The hero looked over his shoulder at Nayara. On that moment she resembled the same scared students that fled the school.

Cyclops sent her a reassuring smile. "We are keeping watch on it." He said to her. The same answer he gave the students. She didn't need that kind of pressure on her shoulders, not at that age. No one did.

"I knew what might happen before it did. I was just hoping we win this time." Nayara commented to him. "I am just wondering why Magneto hasn't done anything. For someone who called himself the defender of mutants, his quietness is uneasy." She added, seeing the ad that was showing on television. One about how to recognize mutants.

Then she laughed. "Or maybe Mystique is running the country, and is just letting this roll because it makes him more powerful." Nayara added. Cyclops turned quickly back to her, as if her idea wasn't as far fetched.

The brunette recognized the look he had. "You don't think...I mean. It will make sense." Nayara said as she thought about it. She share the same knowing look with Scott Summers. "Magneto will more momentum on his actions. It will point towards him being right all alone. It wouldn't damage his reputation, he will be playing both sides." Nayara said honestly.

Scott Summer looked at her with amazement but in silence. "Get Professor X to check on that." Scott said to her.

"Okay, but if I am correct...how are we supposed to expose it?" Nayara asked him curiously, her eyes going back to the news. One commenting about Steve Rogers. Her heart sank looking at the image of her closest friend, her guardian in a world that was unknown to her.