Family 10.6

** AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey there! I wanted to let you know that I've decided to publish the entire backlog of Rogue Evolution on my website, artoflupin.com. There you'll find chapters as far ahead as "Snow Fall 11.6", and in a couple of weeks, I plan on having the log on my website be a chapter ahead of any other site I post to!

If you'd prefer to wait for uploads here, no worries, uploads will continue here as scheduled.

Thanks! **

"Well, that's remarkable son! Just remarkable." Douglass MacArthur said for the 5th time in a row since he appeared on the Danger Room floor. While in the control center over-seeing the student's well-rehearsed exercises, Xavier must have provided some sort of refreshments since Scott's dad was still sipping on bourbon that looked several fingers deeper than the stout square glass was likely intended to hold. Anna found it interesting too that it was only MacArthur was drinking while Xavier and Ororo, who had joined him in the booth prior, were stone-cold sober as per usual.

It was at MacArthur's insistence that the adults join the students on the Danger Room floor. Something Xavier usually would never allow as he always wanted to have someone in the control room while students were on the floor for the sake of safety. But the Professor made an exception providing all the little Wall-E look-alikes capable of any real damage had been put away for the day and Scott was just blasting away at targets. Why she and the rest of them were still there, Anna had no idea, but this was Xavier and MacArthur's show and she wasn't about to question what was going on for fear of being absorbed into the circus unfolding before her. It was apparent the others were on a similar wavelength as they too interlocked their hands or stared at their feet while Scott obliterated moving holographic images of robots with ruby blasts from his eyes.

"Remarkable son, just remarkable." MacArthur took another sip of amber from his crystal glass. "Look's a lot better. A lot faster than last time I was there."

'A lot faster?' Anna thought. 'The fuck did that even mean?' She felt Jean look at her as they stood shoulder to shoulder and the other girl snickered. It was then Anna noticed Jean wasn't wearing her earrings.

"So tell me, professor-" MacArther extended a finger from his drinking hand as if he was getting ready to make a point. "How does all this combat mumbo help get my boy's condition more under control?"

Xavier continued to watch Scott like a hawk. His student was atop a raised platform and had wrapped his arm around a pole so he could get a better bead on a target wedged in a tight spot between two wide bricks.

"The Danger Room is a safe environment for the students to push the bounds of their abilities. When Scott first arrived, he was afraid to take his protective glasses off and shoot a target 10 feet away. Now, through various trial, hes found ways of using his gift to move and even manipulate objects through nothing but his energy beam. He's even managed to alter the power level of his eye beam's output with the aid of his visor and home-brewed technique." He watched as Scott eliminated two targets with one blast using a well-placed mirror. "At my institute, we revive mutants looking to learn to learn how to crawl with their abilities, and we teach them how to run." Xavier looked up at MacArthur. "You have a talented son. He is without one of my best and brightest. It's why he's the team leader of the X-Men."

MacArhur's upper lip stiffened, causing his salt-and-pepper mustache to bristle. "That all sounds swell, but how does this exactly fix the boy's condition?"

"His 'condition,' sir?"

MacArhur gave a little snort and swished his burbon, "His eyes. How is all this combat training fixing the boy's eyes? When is going to be able to walk into a building without wearing sunglasses like hes some sort of Matrix character? I didn't agree to send him here so he could shoot his little lasers better. I sent him here to get it under control."

"I see. Yes, well, we have yet to find a method for Scott to fully function without the aid of his glasses. I have another student who has the ability to fully mimic another student's gift and she seems to be able to control the optical blast without any sort of issue. Unfortunately, she is unable to give any further insight as to how she is able to control the ability and not Scott. I'm afraid, Mr. MacArhur, you may need to accept that your son may need the aid of special glasses indefinitely. Thankfully it's a very treatable problem. The components required to manufacture his glasses aren't rare and I have other students who have more much more invasive conditions to overcome that come in conjunction with their gifts."

"And whats all this guff about 'gifts' and 'gifted' you keep throwing around they're normal words. Professor, I don't mean no disrespect, but throwing around politically correct words like 'gifted' are only confusing the issue. You're mutants. You all got weird stuff you can't control and I understand these kids come here to get fixed. Lay it out plain so normal folk can actually understand." MacArthur took another sip of his drink. "I swear," he smacked his lips, "you tight-belted liberals make things way more complicated than they need."

Xavier shifted his weight in his chair over to one elbow. With this, Jean and Anna's eyes met for a second time.

"Mr. MacArthor, you're the owner of several successful garages in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach in Florida, correct?"

"Yes-sir! Mac Motors, where with every new transmission, the oil change is free!" He snorted and elbowed Xavier's shoulder.

"Right." Xavier interlocked his hands together in his lap. "I bet you've had no limit to half-cocked, undersexed, men walking into your garage telling you what you are doing wrong with their car though you've had a lifetime of experience."

"Hell, you don't know the half of it. When I started out in Dallas, I had this one fella cuss me out for telling him he better drain the 5W-20 out of his truck for-"

"I bet that made you rather upset."

A strange wide-mouth expression took MacArthur's face that made him look like a frog. "Course! You can't just walk into a man's garage and call him an idiot! Especially when his working on your POS junker!"

"Excellent. I'm glad to hear you see it my way, Mr. MacArhur." Xavier raised his chin. "Scott, that's enough for the demonstration, thank you. Why don't you and the others call it an evening, yes?"

Scott, forehead slick with sweat, dropped off one of the platforms and landed on the ground with wobbly legs. "Hey!" He walked over and flashed a sunbeam of a toothy smile at his dad. "How was that? I know I've got some room for improvement, but I've been working with the team pretty closely and I think we got something good going!"

MacArthur was pulled out of his thoughtful daze and looked at his stepson as if for the first time. "Oh, it was good, Scott. Real good, boy."

"Thanks!" Scott's goofy grin turned towards Jean who gave him a shy smile back. At his lead, the rest of the X-Men left the Danger Room. All, Anna noticed, except MacArthur who stood there with a sort of stupified daze.