The X-Project

On the way back from Wyoming, Forge and Lil try and unwind with some banter. It is not very successful.



As the Blackbird rose into the air, Forge sent a final farewell over the SHIELD communication net before logging off and pulling up the return flight plan to Westchester. Once the jet had reached its cruising altitude, he gave a nod of acknowledgement as Cyclops left the co-pilot seat, to be replaced a few moments later by Lil. Forge handed the tall blonde a headset and set the jet's controls to partial autopilot, stretching his limbs momentarily.

"So," he asked casually, "I didn't see much from in here - what in the bluest of blue hells happened to just make the whole group just fall down like that? Be a shame to get those kids to safety only to brain-fry half of them."

"Not a fucking clue," Lil admitted with a sigh as she leaned back in the chair. Her face was smudged and her uniform stained with blood that obviously did not belong to the invulnerable giantess. "Mosta the ones near us were down for the count before whatever happened happened and I was a little distracted withdragging Garrison and Nathan's asses outta the closet we ended up in so your guess is as good as mine."

"Trojan Horse thing," Forge summarized, remembering that Lil might not have read the original Youra mission reports. "Sort of like a psionic booby trap in Cable's brain that these bastards used as a leash. I have absolutely no idea how it works, to tell you the truth. I'm just glad we got all of you out with minor scrapes and bruises."

Impishly, he grinned and winked at Lil. "It'd be a shame to take you back all battered and bruised for your new boy toy."

Green eyes glared playfully - mostly - at the short man next to her. "Boy toys are for cougars and I sure as hell ain't old enough to be onna those yet," she said with a half smirk before Lil turned her gaze out the window. While she still hated flying, the Blackbird was a much better way to travel than commercial liners. "Scrapes and bruises and a buncha kids who could have time-bombs in their brains," came the softer mutter. "At least it's over."

"He touched your bike and you didn't kill him," Forge teased back. "You liiiiike him. You want to make baaaaaabies."

Noting Lil's sudden change of mood, Forge glanced back in the cabin at those of his teammates who were looking somewhat worse for wear. "Hopefully the kids will be fine," he said. "I mean, look at Kyle. the X-Men pulled him out of a Mistra training facility, and he doesn't have anything freaky woo-woo in his brain at least."

"You looking to have to replace another arm, Tiny?" she snapped, her attention back on the pilot. "I ain't looking to make babies with any machine man after this run. Fuck, with any man period. Fucking kids getting used as weapons and shit." Lil shook her her head then heaved a heavy sigh. "If they're lucky, they're gonna end up like Kyle; like you said we don't if they gotta have their brains fried or God knows what else to make sure there ain't gonna be any trouble."

Forge sobered up and nodded his head quietly. "Sorry, I just - gallows humor, you know? I don't know what you're expecting when you get back up to Alpha Flight, and I haven't been with the X-Men as long as some of the folks back there, but there's a lot of messed-up shit in the world, and we get dropped into the middle of more than our share. We've all got our own ways of dealing with it. It's like they say, better to build a hundred terawatt helium-xenon laser than to curse the darkness, right?"

Lil started to roll her eyes at the technobabble but caught herself and instead offered Forge a small but appologetic frown. "Too much messed-up shit," she agreed. "Especially when it involves fucking kids." Planting her elbow on the armrest, she cupped her cheek and continued to scowl.

"Don't make that face, it'll stick that way," Forge chided as he turned his attention momentarily to an air traffic report, then subtly adjusted the plane's flight path. "So you really want this Alpha Flight thing, huh?" he asked suddenly. "You think your Department H are the right people to be running a mutant response team?"

"If I didn't want it and didn't believe in it, do you honestly think I'd still be here?" the blonde asked in return. "With all the weird shit that goes on plus my own problems back home? Not a fucking chance. I want it and I'm gonna get it."

Forge thought about that for a moment. For as much as Lil could be an annoying pain, he considered her an important part of the team, as he did Garrison. The thought of eventually losing them to a fledgling program run by government officials - cross that bridge when you come to it, sport, he reminded himself.

"Any closer to getting those resolved?" he asked, giving Lil an innocent glance. "Just askin'."

"You're assuming Lex is my boy toy," Lil reminded him, though this time the eyeroll couldn't be helped. "How do you think it's going?" Madison was doing his own training with the team, which naturally kept him quite busy which was a perfectly valid reason for why she hadn't heard from him in over a month - or so she told herself. "We both got alotta stuff going on right now which just means I gotta wait until I get home to -"

She cut herself off, throwing her hands in there. "And why the fuck am I even tell you all of this? Jesus Christ, can we focus on something else?" Anything else. "Teach me how to fly this fucking plane right or something."

Forge smiled widely. "Because I'm awesome and you have a thing for little skinny tech geeks which is why I frustrate you so much when I remind you of your husband who you're still loyal to in your heart and that totally messes you up which is kinda ironic since in all other ways you're the badass invulnerable uber-babe."

He pointed to the console in front of Lil. "Also, shotgun doesn't fly, but shotgun gets to work the navigation console. Current altitude and heading, GPS position, airspeed, time and distance to next routing point, time and distance to destination. So easy a caveman could do it."

"Maddy's taller and you've got competition in the tech geek realm now that Lex is here, Tiny," she told him, a hint of her impish smirk returning to her lips. Glancing over the console, Lil studied each read out before turning to look at Forge again with brow quirked in amusement.

"Uber-babe?"

"It's a purely scientific term, I assure you."