Margo was being pushed from every direction at once.

To be fair, it was New York City, and she was always being pushed from every direction at once; at this hour in the morning, even the taxis looked like they were seriously considering pushing their way through the traffic. Margo was used to the crowds and to everything else the city had to offer, which surprisingly often included protest groups shoving their way down the street and waving their posters in her face. That was why she didn’t even think to walk the other way when she saw one such group approaching, at least not until she got close enough to see GO HOME, X-MEN, YOU’RE DRUNK on a neon yellow poster board.

She would have laughed if she hadn’t known perfectly well that this meant trouble.

The X-men, and mutants in general, had always been a controversial topic. Now, after Odessa and the televised rallies in the days following, in which a certain pink-haired X-man preached about peace and love and unicorns “in the face of hatred”…

The girl wasn’t surprised to note that the first sign she had seen had been one of the few in better taste. X-MEN=POLICE BRUTALITY, read another. Another, X-FREAKS.

“The X-men don’t do anything! What does the X-men even stand for, exit?” The voice came from her left, and prompted a chorus of shouts all around her.

“X-actly what we’re not looking for!”

“X-tremely useless!”

“Their leader is a PIRATE. And he focuses more on booty-“ drawing raucous laughter from both the protestors and the surrounding crowd- “than on protecting the people that count.”

“I heard the pink haired one eats babies!”

“X-terminate the freaks!”

Margo, in the meantime, was looking for a way out.

Oh my. One moment, she had been walking to one of her favorite coffee cafes to get a nice little cup and a muffin or a biscotti, then the next, she'd run into a parade of protesters. It stopped her flat like a wall. Her jaw dropped in disbelief.

She had stopped next to a woman with chestnut brown hair and hazel eyes. She looked like she might have a tiny bit of Asian heritage. As far as age went, she was 17 or 18, maybe even 19. At that age, it was sometimes hard to tell. This person was named Margo, but she didn't know that. All she knew was what she was seeing with her own eyes.

"Booty?" She blinked, and spoke out loud. Her tone was incredulous. These signs were ridiculous. "Seriously? Sam might be lazy... maybe even have a drinking problem... but he sure as hell doesn't run off to chase skirts when people are in danger. The X-men are just in a slump... they could probably use some help and constructive criticism."

Her head turned to the woman next to her, as she suddenly noticed she was talking out loud and at length with her running commentary on the protest group. "Can you believe this crap?" She scoffed.

Okay, so this was a little ridiculous. The woman standing next to her in the crowd thought so too— thought very incredulously, out loud.

>>“Can you believe this crap?”

Considering that the X-men were basically glorified vigilantes led by a pirate with a drinking problem… considering that they were mutants, and people these days saw even mutant children as a threat… yes, yes she could. Margo shrugged, more out of resignation than apathy.

“Were you going somewhere before they came along?” she suggested, before turning away and nudging her way through the crowd. She assumed the woman would follow, or she hoped so; that was an interesting idea, about how the X-men could use some constructive criticism.

"Coffee," she said. For some reason, she felt compelled to follow. Maybe it was to preach. Maybe it was to share her opinion. The girl hadn't been completely opposed to it, and she was so irate with the protest that she had a lot more to add.

"They're blocking my favorite coffee place." Amelia mourned. "With all this Cafas eats babies, The X-men Should Build a Wall stuff. Seriously, who comes up with this? I saw one that said 'X-men Destroy Public Property for fun.' Who did that? Did something get broken while they were saving lives. ... Granted, I think someone blew up one of those police robots, instead of being calm and sorting the problem out calmly and rationally, but--" She trailed off.

"My name is Amelia, by the way. If I'm bugging you with the rant, tell me. I don't have to complain about this junk. It's just something I feel a little bit connected to. I almost was one, but I felt like they'd lost their way. And I personally know the pirate."

Someone blew up one of the META bots? That was hardly something Margo would complain about, but leave it to protestors to interpret it as “the X-men destroy public property for fun!” Slow. Clap. It out.

“I would invite you to the coffee place I work at, but, you know, then I’d have to work. Do you mind if I tag along with you for a bit?” She fell in step with the other woman, hanging back just enough to let her take the lead. Maybe they would just walk, or maybe they’d find a nice cafe down the street so Amelia could get her coffee. “I’m Margo, and no, do go on. I, uh… it’s something I’m a little connected to too.”

>>“I would invite you to the coffee place I work at, but, you know, then I’d have to work. Do you mind if I tag along with you for a bit?”

Amelia laughed a little. Seemed like she'd be good company. Did she mind? "Not one bit."

She led the way.

They couldn't go to her favorite coffee place in the area, but that didn't mean they couldn't go to her second favorite place. It was only half a block away. She ignored the protesters as they widely skirted around the group, and took a side street.

"Nice to meet you, Margo." Amelia said. The girl had said she was connected to the X-men, which made Amelia curious. "How are you connected to the X-men?" She asked.

The girl could have been a former X-men. She could have dated an X-men. It wasn't far-fetched. She herself was guilty of that one, though not Sam the pirate. Not that he wasn't a handsome fella. Just not her type. It could have been any other good number of things.

How was she connected to the X-men?

“Depends on who you are to them.” Logically, it wouldn’t do to spill the beans to a woman she’d met just minutes ago, or worse, a close friend of Cold Steel himself. She was only teasing, though. She liked Amelia. “I stay at the Mansion, so I know a lot of the X-men. I, well,” she laughed, like the troublemaking teenager that she was, “last summer, I may have set their jet on fire. Accidentally!”

Technically, it had been Jude. Who was an X-man. Who Margo was not going to bring up, so if Amelia did let something slip, he wouldn’t need to get involved.

“What about you?” she asked, as they took a side street to avoid the protestors. Amelia had almost been an X, and she knew Sam the pirate personally. Margo knew something of the kind of people who were almost X-men, and she had to wonder what the other woman was doing with her life now and how she had gotten involved in the first place.

“Oh, and by the way? I absolutely agree with you that the X-men need help and some constructive criticism.” Now that she considered it, a lot.

Apparently, she had asked The Question. The big burning question that made people paranoid and cautious. Wow, that was funny. As if being connected was some faux pas. She answered the question mildly, of course, but that response had made Amelia want to tilt her head and look at Margo strangely. She didn't, it had.

This girl had set fire to the x jet? That actually did make Amelia tilt her head. "Huh." She said. "I thought Mirror had crashed that already." She supposed the X men just had money to burn.

What about her? "I helped out at the mansion and worked with Sam." She answered candidly. "I dated Mirror. Dumped her. Tried the X men thing with him briefly, and decided... They weren't doing enough for the whole world, and that we needed to leave the small crime in New York to the police, because we were basically a city sponsored group of vigilantes." And since she had said the X men could use constructive criticism, she added. "I'm planning to join the police to help New York on the small scale, but I think the X men need to be better than that, and set their sights on helping the world on a large scale... They've got all that potential to do great things, but aren't using the power responsibly. I wish someone would come in and help them with that."

She frowned. It was a big deal. Sad, really. All that potential, being wasted stopping muggers and punching robots. When they could have been doing something great. "It's like this show I watched, where this guy had the option to become leader of this league of assassins, but their power and darkness scared him. He could have led them to greatness, turned the league of assassins into the league of Habitat for humanity or something, and built houses for the homeless. But instead, he fought against them and ultimately destroyed them from within. Okay, maybe not quite like that, but... He could have changed them from inside. Instead, he ruined them because he didn't understand what they could do for the world."

Mirror, the gender shifter. Right. Margo listened with a growing sense of interest, and insight into what exactly this woman thought of the X-men.

“Then we agree perfectly.” Not that she would ever date Mirror, or join the police, but that wasn’t what she meant. “I think the X-men have a great vision. They have so much potential, but they don’t use that power responsibly.” That was basically what Amelia had said. “Like, they stop bank robberies. Your police friends could do that. And that’s not even most of the time, most of the time they just smash META bots and get drunk. Oh, look, Odessa happened? We couldn’t get there in time, so let’s just talk about peace and make it worse by making everyone hate us. X-losers on three!”

She took a deep breath, let it out. “Sorry,” she said, “I should go back and join the protestors, huh?” She hadn’t meant to say all of that, but it was just so frustrating. As for wishing someone would come in and help the X-men with that… that was a dangerous topic, because that was where “they” became “we.”

“Hypothetically,” Margo began, and meant nothing of the sort, “I want to change the X-men from inside. Can I get the opinion of an ex-X?"

Techically, Amelia was not an Ex-X. She was an Ex-X Ex. But she didn't need to split hairs, there. They agreed on the important things. Bank robberies could be led to the police. The police even had a division, Mutant Related Crimes, geared specifically towards that end. Before that division had existed, the X-men would have served a purpose stopping violent mutant offenders, but now... now, the help certainly was nice for the police, but it was a redundant sort of help. And destroying robots (that were probably malfunctioning) did not help the situation. Breaking is not fixing.

Amelia nodded at what Margo was saying, her brow crinkled in thought. 'X Losers on three' had been silly, and maybe a little fitting. After she was done talking, Amelia felt it appropriate to chime in.

"As an Ex-X" Ex, Amelia began. "I would have to say you don't need to join those protesters. You don't need to apologize for having opinions and being frustrated. It is frustrating. But I think you're a step above those people. They're doing a hypocritical thing and shouting words at the X-men for their shouting words. What you're suggesting..." And this was where things got interesting. "Is actual action. A coup. And that is far more productive."

Changing the X-men from within. Even if they didn't try and seize control, the whole idea had the underlying thought of change from within. A new member could inspire the team to do greater things. Her mind was processing it, and she liked what she thought. Sam's largest problem was that he wasn't very happy, and he was overwhelmed. He had a lot of personal drama. When that happened, one really didn't have much time to spare thoughts to leading global efforts promoting mutant equality and understanding. That was a tall order. He had done what he could. She cared about the man. It wasn't as if she wanted them to get rid of him. He was part of the team, and as long as he wanted to be part of the team, he should continue with that. And all the other X-men should have input on this, too.

Personally, she didn't want to assume total control. She wanted to help them help themselves. For that, they didn't really need a bunch of extra voices. But it never hurt. Helped people get heard.

"I'd say if we wanted to do this," Amelia said. "We should see if anyone else is interested, and start sharing ideas."

Margo had not been suggesting a coup— at least, not in the traditional sense of the word. She did, however, find the idea interesting enough to send her thoughts flying in a dozen different directions at once.

Could she do that? More importantly, did she want to?

Cold Steel might be a terrible leader for the X-men, but he was a powerful mutant and he had experience. She wouldn’t want to try to take him on; for that reason, she didn't want to drive him away from the team, either. To be honest, Margo wasn’t sure what she would do if it came down to that.

She was just…not going to think about that right now. She was going to think about anyone else who could be interested and how to let them know about this. Preferably, without letting the current X-men know about it.

“Do you still talk with the X-men?” Margo wanted to know of Amelia.

"Yes," Amelia replied simply. Then she added in some complications. "I'm friends with several. Shin, Kealey, Mirror, Evelyn. And I guess Sam kind of sees me as his assistant. I've been working at the mansion as a greeter for the past few years. And I guess sometimes, I'm his secretary by accident?"

Amelia shrugged. Hey, it happened.

Did that count as a conflict of interest?

They reached the coffee place, which was called "High Noon." Amelia led the way inside the quaint little Western-themed coffee cafe. She placed her order, and paid.

Yes, Amelia had friends on the X-team. She listed names. Margo didn’t recognize any of them besides Mirror and Sam, but she’d probably seen the others around and just never put names to their faces. “How are you a secretary by accident?” she asked, letting her curiosity sidetrack her for a moment.

The cafe that Amelia chose was Western themed. Margo thought it altogether charming; she glanced over the menu and ordered a chai, for lack of anything else to do. Steaming drink in hand, she made her way over to Amelia while fishing her phone out of her pocket with the other.

“I know some people who might be interested,” she said, “but I’ll have to get back to you on that. In the meantime, do you have any other ideas to share?”

How does one be a secretary by accident? "Easy. It isn't my job. But that doesn't stop Sam from asking me to do stuff a secretary would do. And the whole "mansion greeter" job leaves a lot of free time to fill answering phones and keeping track of schedules, so. I'm not a secretary. But Sam tried to make everyone in his life his personal secretary." She was smirking, even though what she had described sounded awful... And maybe illegal. "If he could, he'd probably make everyone wear pencil skirts, too. But that's where I draw the line."

"Mansion greeters are people who show new students around the Xavier sister school mansion, by the way." She added. "They handle new arrivals and new admissions, and answer a lot of questions."

Mocha is godly. Her brother would have called her a wimp for adding sweetness to the bitter love that is coffee. Blacker than a moonless night. Hotter and more bitter than hell itself. That is coffee. That's what her brother would say. Or, well, whatever video game character he had probably stolen it from. She could google. She was wise to his schemes.

Margo asked if she had any ideas. She knew some people. Amelia answered her, with that in mind. "Group projects always help the community. Fund raising for charities like the one for Odessa and the families of the victims. Lots of other good charities, too. Building houses. Offering aid in other ways. Humanitarian work would help the Xmen look more "human", if you get what I mean. That's a good start for showing the public a different side of the X men face. I'm sure there's more we can do with our powers, but that's a good start."

Fighting for world peace just might be outside the X men's reach. Not outside their power. But the second they stepped into the world field like that, there was no going back. Foreign excursions like the one in Romania were difficult to manage. Political mine fields outside their jurisdiction. The UN probably had not liked their attempt to help in Romania... And she had not been a part of that. She had only heard stories. But that sort of help was definitely something the team could do in the future. They'd just need to be careful... Not to become world police. Unless the world wanted that sort of help.

Amelia drank her mocha and mulled over thoughts. "What about you? What do you think?"

Margo laughed at what Amelia said about pencil skirts. In all seriousness, though, Sam sounded like exactly the type of guy who would need help with the X-men. “What does Sam do with his life?” she wanted to know. Get drunk? Wander around shirtless in public, as a plethora of photos on the bird watching forums would suggest? She didn’t know him personally, but Amelia did. What could Amelia see in him?

She sipped at her chai. It was spicy and milky, as it should be, and tasted just a little bit like licorice. That was the thing about chai, no two coffee shops made it exactly the same; she had yet to decide whether she liked this version or not.

Amelia was talking group projects, fundraising, serving the community. Margo nodded along. Sure, she could do that. She had been doing that kind of volunteering since she was, like, twelve; at first to get away from an empty home, more recently to fill requirements for college. To do that kind of thing with the X-men, as a team, or even individually as X-men, or to lend the team’s support to a certain cause… all of those were good starts.

What did she think?

“I think that one of the problems with the X-men right now,” said Margo, “is scope.” Was that the right word? “Like, community work is a great start, but they need to do more.” She took a sip of her chai and thought about it. “I know things get messy, legally, if the X-men try and act without jurisdiction or whatever in a foreign country. I want to see things on that scale eventually, though. For now? Fix things with the police.” For Margo, that was a priority; she could practically see the fallout coming, if things kept going the way they were.