Chapter 114: Professor X Comes in Person
"I won't deny that Matthew Lawrence has a genuine combat ability, and he may well be the kind of talent you're looking for. But."
"I don't think he's suited for the Avengers." Natasha said it plainly.
Fury's eyebrow went up. "I'd like to hear why."
"It's simple." Natasha continued. "The Avengers Initiative needs people who will step forward and carry the weight when Earth is in genuine crisis. People who act."
"He is a superhuman, yes. But he also has a very strong sense of individual will. He does good things, but in terms of personality he's almost identical to Tony Stark. The same arrogance. If anything, even more particular about how things are done."
"Beyond that, I genuinely believe that even if you personally invite him to join, he won't accept. Because he will not submit to someone else's authority."
Fury listened to Natasha's assessment, which she had delivered with logical structure and supporting evidence, and nodded slowly.
"I understand."
"This superpower you mentioned, though."
The word stopped him.
He didn't know Matthew Lawrence had a superpower.
"...You didn't know?" Natasha looked at him with mild surprise.
Fury shook his head.
She had assumed Fury already knew about the telekinesis and that was what had prompted the idea of recruiting Matthew in the first place. Apparently not.
"I only found this out this morning." Natasha laid out the events of the office in full. She described what she had seen: the invisible force that had lifted the creature off the ground and sent it into the exterior wall of Stark Tower across the street.
Fury's expression shifted visibly as he heard it.
Using telekinesis alone to send something that size from one building to another... if that force were applied to a human being, it would crush them outright. And the additional factor, that the force was invisible and intangible, made it considerably more difficult to defend against.
A calculating look crossed his remaining eye.
He looked at Natasha and waved a hand. "Understood. Noted."
"As for the question of suitability, we need more observation and assessment time."
He stood and moved to the window, hands behind his back. "You've done solid work this period. Take the week off starting today, rest properly, and there'll be a new assignment waiting when you're back."
"Dismissed."
"Yes, Director." Natasha turned and left. She pulled the office door closed behind her considerately on her way out.
Fury heard the door click shut. He looked at the reflection in the glass and the file on his desk with MATTHEW LAWRENCE written on the tab. Something thoughtful moved across his face.
He was about to return to his chair and the financial reports when the door opened again.
He looked up.
"Something else, Natasha?"
"Just one thing I forgot to mention."
"What?"
"It's about Matthew Lawrence."
"What about him?"
"After he found out I'd entered his company under a false identity," Natasha said, "he mentioned reaching out to legal to file suit against us. The stated grounds were theft of proprietary documents."
"Did you steal anything?"
"No. I spent the entire time running errands for him. Food deliveries, dry cleaning. I never got anywhere near their confidential files." She said this with complete honesty.
"Then you've got nothing to worry about." Fury settled back in his chair with complete indifference. "No theft, no case. We have a legal department too, you know."
Natasha shrugged, turned, and left.
Half a month passed, smooth and quiet as standing water. Some small disturbances, nothing that broke the surface in any serious way.
During that stretch, Matthew sent Tony a dose of the company's perfected T-Virus. Tony was overwhelmed. The System logged it at 4,000 points, and he immediately insisted on building Matthew a full set of Iron Man armor in return.
Matthew didn't refuse the gesture outright. Instead he redirected it: he asked Tony to design power armor for Nemesis, using vibranium and sub-Adamantium alloy. Matthew would supply the materials; Tony would handle the technical design.
Tony agreed without hesitation.
With the System points continuing to accumulate day by day, the gap to the Pass reward threshold had shrunk to two thousand points. Twenty thousand was the milestone. Two thousand to go. Not far. A matter of waiting.
Matthew was taking it easy, watching the last stretch of distance close, when the desk phone rang.
He turned toward the window. The evening outside had deepened.
The voice on the line came through before he'd said anything.
"Boss. The surveillance on Miss Ada's villa went offline five minutes ago."
The office went quiet.
The wall clock continued its measured ticking.
Three seconds.
Matthew was on his feet. "Seal the perimeter. Now."
Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
Professor X lay still, then slowly opened his eyes. The blue irises carried something serious in them.
Moments later, a voice came from outside the door, carrying the particular edge of someone who had been woken up and had feelings about it.
"Charles, it's late. What is it?" Logan was already pushing the door open before he'd finished the sentence.
Whatever his tone said, his attention was entirely on Charles's state. That was the truth of it. Whatever words he used, he'd spent years keeping the man close. That was the Logan that mattered.
"Logan. Nikki's ability has gone out of control again. The range is larger than before."
"I need you to take me there."
Logan made a short sound of resigned irritation. He was already moving.
He got the wheelchair set up, lifted Charles, and had him in the car.
The same old car.
This time the passenger seat held not Storm but Charles Francis Xavier himself.
Logan drove fast, and the streets at night were nearly empty, so it took roughly forty minutes to reach the outer edge of Nikki's ability range.
Inside the car, Logan turned to look at the street.
Birds were suspended mid-flight. Falling leaves had stopped in the air. The whole world beyond the windshield had become a photograph: no motion, no resistance, no indication that time existed at all.
In that moment, watching it, the weight of what a time-based ability actually meant settled on him fully.
That was why Charles had come himself.
***
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