Chapter 8

DC

Marvel

The Newest Marvel

*** Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters ***

"Identification?" A large Sentinel demanded of Clark.

In his red truck Clark presented his state I.D to the massive behemoth. The large purple machine had a red light scanned him and his truck as if to asset him as a threat or not.

"Oh you're the new science teacher! Dr. McCoy's been expecting you." The large machine said in such a conversational way that took Clark off guard. Apparently it must have seen Clark's expression as it clarified for him.

"Haha, surprised right? Don't worry bud, there is a man inside this machine."

Now that did surprise Clark, he thought all Sentinels were automated. The machine rose back to it's full heights and gestured forward.

"Alright, everything checks out, in you go."

Clark turned in the direction just in time to see the gates to the Xavier Mansion open up. If Clark had to describe this place in one word, it was expansive. Green fresh grass grew neatly beside the circular asphalt road as he made drove in. He noted there were no cars in the vicinity, he suspect the X-Men must have private parking else where.

After a leisurely drive that took less than three minutes, Clark finally pulled up to the front of the Xavier Mansion. Stepping out of his truck, Clark took a moment to look at his reflection in the window. His hair were slicked straight to look smart, though it ended up looking dorky on him. He wore a light bluish blazer with a matching black tide. In all honesty he kind of looked like a stiff, BUT first impression counted for everything. He was a professional so he'd presented himself as much. Adjusting his glasses frame he gave himself a nod of confidence before he made his way to the front door of the Xavier's Mansion.

KNOCK KNOCK

Clark face palm as he noticed the doorbell. However before he could push it, the door opened to reveal the face of a purple hair Asian woman, probably of Japanese descent, if he guessed right. The woman was wearing a black leather jacket over a white t-shirt with white pants. Oh and did he forget to mention she was an absolute knock out?

"Yes?" the Asian woman asked politely, which surprised Clark a bit, there was a very strong British accent to it.

"Ah, I'm here for the interview with Dr. McCoy?" Clark informed the woman. He noticed her eyes widen as she did a double take and looked at him again, her eyes was clearly roaming all over him.

"You're Clark Kent?" the Asian woman asked, surprise clear in her tone. "Jean's childhood friend, Clark Kent?"

Clark blink at hearing the woman words before he slowly smiled softly. Jean told them about him? Clark had to admit he was touched that she still consider him important enough to share with people. So he proudly puff out his chest and nodded.

"The one and same Mrs.…?"

"Braddock, Betsy Braddock, and I am not a mrs, just a miss," The woman introduce herself with a welcoming smile.

"Well, Hank's been expecting you, follow me."

With that, she opened the door wide and saunter into the house. That was the only way Clark could describe. And try as he might he found his eyes drifting lower before snapping it back up forcefully. He ruefully shake his head and joking mused that her hypnotic behind was Betsy mutant ability before his thoughts turned to more gentlemanly thoughts.

Clark decided to distract himself from the woman by looking around at the structure, it looked old, almost antiquate.

"Feel free to ask me about anything if you're curious." the woman, Betsy, spoke up to start polite conversations as she kept on glancing back to make sure he was still following her.

"Thank you," Clark nodded when he turned to his right and saw the back area of the Mansion that was filled with teenagers playing around.

"Are those the remaining..."

"Yes, they are," Betsy sighed as she too looked outside before they continue their journey. Clark realized that the decimation of the mutant race might have been a bit sensitive subject.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," Betsy answered as she looked at him with a smile. "It happened, we've most accepted it."

Clark gave a thankful smile before he decided to ask her some other question he was curious about.

"So... Jean told you about me?"

The woman gave a small curt nod.

"You were the catalyst for her awakening to her powers so it was hard not too," Betsy gave him a knowing look and Clark had to rubbed the back of his neck in a sheepish manner. He had forgotten about that, all he remembered was waking up in the hospital after pushing Annie out of the way. Jean powers that manifested was something he found very fascinating and to be honest, jealous of at the time.

"How did it come up?" Clark question and saw the woman raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, when you are teaching New Mutants, you'd often share the origin of your powers, so to speak," Betsy explain as she suddenly stop in the middle of a large room and began to press several buttons that Clark failed to notice before, probably because it was flushed in with the rest of the setting.

"Though she never shared your name except among those closest to her."

"Really?" Clark had to admit he was flattered that he became a subject for her to draw upon for young mutants.

"Nothing bad I hope?"

Betsy smiled at his quip and usher him into the elevator. Clearly there was an underground complex at the Xavier Institute.

"Oh she spoke fondly of you, believe it or not, when a mutant awaken their power, the first thing they fear is rejection from those closest to them. You accepted her without hesitation, that is a very special thing for us. Not everyone is as accepting and we all know children could be cruel without meaning too."

Clark merely nodded but to him he truly never saw anything different about Jean back then, in fact he was hoping to get similar powers. He smiled as he remember the days he had Jean around in his head and how she used it to talk with him in class. He had to said he felt bad doing it while the other kids had to keep quite but it was fun bit of harmless rebellion. That was when he remembered the third member of their little group.

"Well Annie was a bit hesitant until she came into powers of her own, speaking of, where is she? Does she teach here also?"

The beautiful woman sighed as the elevator door open to reveal a massive sterile looking complex. It was quite amazing in Clark eyes.

"Unfortunately, she was one of the ones who lost her powers in the Decimation. It hit her harder than we thought, last I heard she returned to her hometown."

"Oh..." Unlike Jean, Annie rarely ever wrote back and by the time they were 13, Annie letters stopped completely where as Jean's continued. He wonder if he should offered his condolences but perhaps that might be too inappropriate.

"And here we are, Hank's lab," Betsy arm flourish playfully to show three large window panels that allow people to look into the place.

The first thing that grabbed Clark attention was the beautiful black woman with platinum color hair. It was Storm, one time leader of the X-Men. He figured she was back here to visit her friends since he knew she was the Black Panther's wife now. The second thing that he noticed after that was the large beastly creature she was conversing with, Clark had known the Dr. McCoy Beast form was blue but the Beast he saw now resembled a lion more than the older pictures he saw.

The door opened automatically for Betsy as she entered the room, Clark could only obediently follow her. He saw Beast ears perk up and immediately turn in their direction. Storm who was in the middle of laughing turned to look at the new guest.

"Hank, your newest assistant, Clark Kent here," Betsy introduced grandly as if Clark was some V.I.P guest. Clark noticed the beautiful Queen of Wakanda eyes widen right away as she took gave him the same roaming look Betsy did earlier.

"The Clark Kent?" Storm asked looking between Betsy and Clark. He couldn't help but worried on why they were react like this, exactly what did Jean tell them about him?!

"At your service your err majesty?" Clark gave an awkward bow in respect and felt his ears turn red when a low animalistic rumbling could be heard along with peels of laughter from Betsy. He looked back to Storm and saw she had a very put upon look.

"Please, just Ororo, is fine," Storm sighed as she extend a hand to warmly greet him.

"Mrs. Ororo," Clark shook her hand before he turned to Dr. McCoy and extend his hand also to the man who he'd be working for. Large furred hand encompassed his own as Hank McCoy welcomed him.

"Dr. McCoy. I just want to say thank you for the opportunity."

"Please, Just Hank, we'd be colleagues so lets make it as easy for each other shall we or do you want me to call your Mr. Kent the entire time?"

"Clark's fine," Clark said grinning. He had to admit he was looking forward to work with Hank McCoy.

"Now if you'd ladies, excuse us, I need to get Mr. Kent here up to date on my projects," Hank told his two friends before he turned back to his newest employee.

"Although, I do believe we do need to take do a standard physical to make sure you are 100% healthy but mainly so we know what your baseline looks like in case something ever happens here. Oh and a standard wavier of course."

Clark eyes widen a bit at that. "Waiver? From what?"

Even with an inhuman face Clark could make out a grimace on the blue furry mutant face. "Anything, airborne virus, nano virus, alien take over, infection, becoming an incubator for an insect alien race… etc etc."

"T-That happens often?" Clark tried to lightly joke but saw the distant look on Hank, Ororo, and Betsy face, as if they were veterans reliving a war fought long ago in their heads. Perhaps he should have put more thought into taking this job…

*** Xavier Institute- Headmistress Office***

Jean was so engrossed in her works when she got a telepathic call from her friend and fellow telepath, Psylocke.

-Jean~~~!-

Jean was instantly on guard at Betsy coquettish tone.

-Yes~~~~?-

-You might want to come to Hank lab, now, your friend Clark is here.-

Jean stood up right away and sent angry thought at Psylocke.

-You couldn't have called me earlier? I haven't seen him in years!-

- I am going to ask you a serious question okay? Just hear me out okay?-

Jean waited patiently for Psylocke to get on with it.

-Was this your backup plan in case it didn't work with our Scott or Logan bec-

Jean only response to that was completely blocking Psylocke and ignoring her. Rolling her eyes at her friends antics she began to make her way to Hank's Laboratory. She was a bit jittery and nervous but that was because she hadn't seen Clark in over ten years!

In a way, Clark was her best of friend in addition to her first one. One that completely accepted her for who she was and through the year continue to show support through his letters. In retrospect she found it amusing that Scott use to be so jealous of Clark during their relationship. She couldn't help it, it was just Annie and her in a mansion pretty much by themselves until Scott, Bobby and Warren showed up. Then there was that one side rivalry Annie had with her over Scott for his affection. It had strained their friendship but she could always turn to Clark to hear her problems or simply hear about his normal every lifestyle. It allowed her a glimpse in what she felt was a gilded cage back then.

Reaching the elevator, she punched in the code that allowed her to travel to their underground complex. The trip downward allowed her to reminiscence a bit more about her childhood.

Jean fondest memories as a child was when she, Clark, and Annie would take turn to have sleepovers at each of their parents houses. Annie house would always have milk and cookies before they would watch a cartoon movie. Clark had junk food and select scary movies just to frighten them on purpose, those night they would cuddle up to Clark. Sure he was smaller than them, but they still felt safe for some odd reason.

Then the accident happened… Jean often describe it in her class of how her power awaken but they could not truly understand that she felt Clark dying in her arms back then. To this day she could not explain it, she felt his consciousness, the light of his soul slowly ebbing out of him until it just stopped at the very final moment. Then just like that, he was back.

The elevator doors open and Jean, still lost in thought, walked as if on autopilot toward the lab. Approaching Hank's Lab she steel herself for meeting her old friend. She wondered how much he changed, did he get those muscle he told her he was aiming for as a teen. She had to giggle at the thought, Clark describe in painful detail his failure to lift even twenty pounds at 14, she was able to do twice that at that time with ease. Somehow she doubt it, he'd be the adorkable scrawny scrappy boy she met as a child.

"Sorry I'm late Hank where's Claaaa-rk?" Jean finished off her question as she stared at the shirtless man that Hank was examining. Where other male member of their X-Men team might have more bulging muscles wiry frames, the man sitting on Hank's bed look as if he was simply sculpted and given life. That's when said man turned around and she saw him. Deep baby blue eyes that she found fascinating a kid, midnight dark hair that she use to love messing around with cause she was taller, but really because it made him looked cute, on a shy smile that he use often when he felt embarrassed or flustered.

"Jean?" a deep rich voice asked her with familiarly.

"Y-yes," Jean answered and saw his shy reserved smile was morphed into a genuinely happy one as he stood up and, before she knew it, she was in his arms as he hugged her.

The first thing that Jean noticed was how good he smelled, she couldn't help it, he was yummy. The other things that all flooded her at once was how solid he felt, solid and smooth as she couldn't help but noticed he was hairless. Finally the last thing was that he was very warm. Comfortably so… for reason she couldn't not even know, she felt her face get extremely hot.

However all too soon, the hug was over, and he untangled himself from her before he stood before her waiting for her to speak.

"I- um, that is..." Jean began before she got a hold of herself. "Ahem. Sorry, Clark, I was just caught off guard on how-"

'Sexy'

"-different you looked."

"Well you're pretty as always, not much changed there." Clark gave her a pointed look with a familiar lopsided smile she always thought made him look goofy but now.... This was beginning to make her angry at herself.

"Perhaps we should finished up the exam before you two catch up?" Hank spoke up interrupting the two reunion.

Jean saw Clark became embarrassed as he moved back to the examination table but followed by Hank who gave her a look that told her he was barely containing his laughter.

"You'd been holding out on us Headmistress."

Jean jump startled and turn to see, Kitty, Psylock and Ororo sitting by the nearby medical bench eating popcorn between the three of them. Their eyes went over to where Clark was being exam barely giving her a glance.

"How long you'd been sitting there?!"

"The entire time," Kitty Pryde aka Shadowcat flicked a popcorn in her mouth while grinning at her friend.

"Now I know why Scott and Wolvie had good reason to feel threaten. Hubba hubba!"

"Shut up!"

For some reason, she felt angry that her three eyes eyes was glued to Clark form. Sure they all had a medical training but it did not sit right with her.

"Out." Jean firmly stated as she pointed to the door.

"Aww, come on!" Kitty whined but saw the stern look in her friend eye and resigned.

"Good friends share Jean."

"Out Kitty, you too Betsy and Oro, I can't believe you, you're married!" Jean admonished her friends as the three women exited.

"I don't want to her that from you Jean," Storm responded with an amused scoffed. "Or was the sexual tension between you and Logan just a figment of our imagination?"

Jean blushed at bit, lord know her love life was complicated but still…

"Clark's a friend, I like for him to feel welcomed and not like he's in a zoo with the way you three were eyeing him!"

"I'd be his friend," Kitty replied with a wolfish grin on her face. "A REALLY good friend."

"I too, am interested in forging a friendship," Psylocke informed Jean but the way she licked her lips did not make Jean feel at ease at all.

Jean gave a deep sigh at the look on her two friends. It looked like she would have to protect Clark just like when they were kids.

'You owe me Clark!'

TBC