Cover Up The Sun

Chapter 6

Author Advisory (please read;)

This chapter involves some pretty in-depth discussion of religious themes from the point of view of a devout Catholic. If you are uncomfortable reading such things, either because you are not yourself religious or because you are, you may want to skip the second scene entirely. This chapter also involves discussion of self-harm in the form of cutting. I am not myself a cutter, so I sincerely apologize if I disrespect or offend any of my readers. 

And lastly, possible (?) OOC'ness on the part of Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner. The motives and actions described in this chapter are based on a perception of Nightcrawler's character I built almost entirely out of a three-sentence exchange in X-Men 2. Storm notices that Kurt has scars on his skin that seem to be self-inflicted and asks him about them. They have the following dialog: 

Nightcrawler: They're angelic symbols, passed on to mankind by the archangel Gabriel.

Storm: They're beautiful. How many do you have?

Nightcrawler: One for every sin. So quite a few.  

The implication is first that Kurt is pretty religious, since most casual Christians wouldn't be able to recognize let alone reproduce angelic symbols, and secondly that Kurt cuts himself as a way to atone for sins, either real or perceived. This got me thinking about what sort of effect Kurt's very visible mutation would have on his spiritual life and vice versa. I really do not know how well this fits in with Nightcrawler's character in other versions of the X-Men canon, since as far as I know the self-scarification only ever appears in X2.

Also, I have absolutely no idea how religion and spirituality work in Marvel's Asgard. I just pulled that whole section out of my butt. Does it show?

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Near the end of January, Piotr Rasputin – the mighty Colossus – returned (temporarily) from his missions in Arizona. Piotr was also the older brother of Illyana Rasputina, and he had approached Loki very coldly, suspiciously, at first. That lasted until he'd actually sat in with one of Loki and Illyana's lessons – Loki hadn't been pleased about that, but it was clear that he couldn't force Piotr out short of physically incapacitating him, and that was a battle he didn't intend to pick.

Once he witnessed the way Illyana was able to relax and open up, how under Loki's guidance she was able to use small magics again, Piotr's attitude reversed on the spot and he apparently now considered Loki one of his greatest shield-brothers. His effusive enthusiasm was annoying, but Colossus was held in high regard by the other X-Men, and Loki had enough trouble from Storm to not wish to make any more enemies among that group, so he tolerated it.

Piotr was only in town from Thursday through Sunday, and naturally wished to spend as much time with his fellow X-Men as possible before he had to return to his post. Piotr, Hank, Jean and Loki ended up in the teacher's canteen more often than not; Loki would have just as soon done without Piotr, as he was not enormously fond of the boy's somewhat brainless sentimentalism, but he found himself dragged along.

Given that there was a substantial (for mortals) age differentiation among them, the three current and former X-Men tended to fall back on tales of valorous battle – a familiar enough subject for Loki – and anecdotes about other mutants all three of them knew. More often than not this was Nightcrawler, aka Kurt Wagner, the dark blue-furred mutant that Loki had met so briefly and inauspiciously during his first week at the school.