Jack was wavering in and out of concisousness. Something, manythings in his body were broken, he could tell that he was hurt badly. He wavered on the edge of concisness. He came to only to see the abomination standing before him. With one lung punctured Jack could not speak very loudly or very fast. When he spke it was punctuated by gasps. "You *Gasp* and your kind are an abomination. Why *gasp* don't all of you do yourselves *wheeze* and the world a favour and kill yourselves. *Cough*"

In a defiant gesture gathered his strength and spat, aiming at Alex's feet. It fell far short. Having expended so much energy, Jack lapsed mercifully into unconscious. As he drifted away he thought to himself that at least he did not have to stand that repulsive creature in his unconscious mind. He could escape from the blight of mutants on this earth, for now.

Hades walked towards Alex. In the same authoritative tone that he used during training he spoke to Alex. "Alex! Stand Down! That's enough!"

Hades placed an arm on Alex's wrist. "Enough." He said softly. After retrieving the knife and ensuring that Alex would not "fly off the handle" so to speak or attempt to attach the down men he gestured to both his students and headed outside.

Hades stopped at a quiet part of the grounds in a ring of tall trees.

"Jude, well done back there, you kept cool and calm and used your mind."

He turned on Alex. "You!You almost got yourself killed. In a tactical situation remember this mantra, first save yourself then your buddy then others. In situations like this you and your buddy" He indicated Jude "Have at least some training, you don't know if others have or not, so first save yourself then your buddy, so that together you have the most strategic resources at your disposal to do the most good."

He waited for the response of his two students. Dear lord when did he start taking young-lings under his wing. He was getting soft. Jude would probably respond with a question or two, he seemed to be the more level headed one. Alex was probably going to vent. explode in rage and then calm down. He was a good kid at heart but he had much growing and maturing to do. Either that or there was a depth that Hades so far had not seen.

Alex could feel his hands trembling, the want to act on baser instinct pressing in on him. He wanted to attack the man, remove him as a problem. He had never thought of someone that way and it terrified him, there was something sincerely wrong with those thoughts.

Jude was suddenly there, wearing his face and speaking like a pseudo Jiminy Cricket, "I don't want this blood on my hands. He isn't worth it, man." He could feel his lips curl into a snarl and he raised the knife toward Jude. "Shut up! I'm not-I wasn't going to-" He couldn't even find the right words. Not that it mattered, Hades stepped up and took control of the situation.

"Alex! Stand down! That's enough!"

The young man flinched at the order, lowering the knife a fraction, only to relax completely when the man took the knife from him. He followed outside, sparing a glance at the unconscious men and hoping they'd stay that way until the police arrived.

"You! You almost got yourself killed. In a tactical situation remember this mantra, first save yourself, then your buddy, then others. In situations like this you and your buddy," He indicated Jude, "have at least some training. You don't know if others have or not, so first save yourself, then your buddy, so that together you have the most strategic resources at your disposal to do the most good."

He remained quiet while the man berated him, eyes downcast, caught between anger and self-loathing. "It was the only thing I could think to do, they were threatening kids, innocent people. I know it wasn't the smart thing, but it was better than waiting it out and I'd much rather have my own blood spilled than someone else's. At least then...at least then it'd be worth something."

If other people died for his sake, especially when those people weren't involved in his problems, then it'd just be pointless murder. At least if he died attempting to distract the attackers, bait them his direction, then it'd be worth it. Worth more than what he's done so far with his life, which was playing hapless victim again and again. Didn't seem to matter where he went, his life just seemed like one endless tragedy.

With nothing to do but wait for the trial to come, his own worth as a person had been ringing in his head. What worth was someone, like him, who only ever seemed to bring trouble? What worth was he if he couldn't save someone else in trouble? The trouble he brought down on them. It wasn't right to hide and wait, "I'm not worth the lives of innocent people and beside, you needed a distraction."

> "Shut up! I'm not-I wasn't going to-"

Alex-faced-Jude flinched at the sharp words. Real-Alex was still pretty riled up. Real-Alex also still had his real-knife until the teach got around to disarming and dismantling the guy.

Sure Alex wasn't gonna hurt the invader. Jude would have liked to believe that, but even the Wong reacted like Alex had gone a little off the deep end.

The praise from teacher was nice, and it took all of Jude's acting skills to not smirk out his satisfaction at Alex with Alex's own face. His victory was tempered, though, once he remembered what had actually transpired. People got hurt. They should probably call the police and that would open up the campus for all kinds of scrutiny that they didn't want.

Not that the X-men were hiding anything. Cue eye roll.

>"...I'm not worth the lives of innocent people..."

Jude sighed heavily. "That's serious X-men talk. Self-sacrificing and self-deprecating and self-destructive to a fault. Seriously. You must have studied under one of them." Jude was pretty sick of the x-attitude. That was why he'd insinuated himself with the Wong for lessons. At least seifu was all about smashing face in the name of empowerment.

Whatever. There weren't going to be any more lessons today anyway.

"If you need me, I'll be in the administrative office talking to the police." Because as a junior X, he was pretty sure he was obligated to do that much at least. Ah, but... he should probably swap faces first, huh?

Ahh the self loathing. Truly there was nothing much under the sun. Inwardly Hades sighed. Jude seemed to agree, judging by his eye roll.

"Jude, a minute."

He turned to Alex. "Alex, I am not the correct person to talk to you about your self worth, I will say this once only so listen carefully. There are people in this world who will hate what is different and express it in different ways, the ridicule of blonds in one country, making gingers the but of jokes in another. No matter where you go some will hate you for being a mutant plain and simple. Some will be content to hate at a distance or simply give you the cold shoulder, others may express it more... actively to you and those around you. Their hatred is independent of what you think of yourself, period. That you have no control over, what you can control is your response. That is for you to decide." This was no pep talk so Hades moved on, swiftly. 

"And distraction? Alex, think clearly for a minute, you can create distractions and decoys out of biomass, with your mutation they are the proverbial dime a dozen, I did not spend this much time training you for you to just throw it all away. Alex, you may not know my whole story, there are none alive who do, but you know enough to realize that I have some experience in picking people. Alex, I picked you because you have potential. But if you are set on being a martyr then I will take my knife back."

Hades was a master at masking emotion, it was one of the things he was trained to do. Outwardly he did not show it was he was beginning to loose patience with Alex and his self pitying attitude. Hades had the patience of a hunter, but if the child was dead set on getting himself killed, there Hades had no time for him. If Alex handed the knife back, he would not see Hades again. He turned to Jude, the one who seemed to have his screwed on a little better than Alex.

"Jude I will make you the same offer" said Hades. Jude had probably figured that there was more to Mr Wong than met the eye, if he could not see that, then his loss. "From what I hear, attacks like this one may get more frequent and violent. I can share with you my knowledge and experience, I can equip you to better defend and if need, attack to ensure the safety of others."

He paused.

"If you are interested that is."

Hades tended to think strategically. With the increase in violence against mutants in the city and the META program causing the chaos that it was, hatred towards mutants would reach a tipping point, it was only a matter of time. This time it would be attacks in the open from the government, it would be gorilla warfare, attacks by groups of vigilantes. Hence the more people he could train and equip to deal with the situation the better.  In Jude he could see the makings of an excellent infiltrator as well as all rounder, especially with his mutation. Alex had the potential to make an excellent scout as well as ranged attacker, that is if he got his act together.

They were acting like he was actively looking to get himself killed, like the risk he took putting himself out there was uncalled for. That what he was saying, that he wasn't the lives of at least twenty other innocent people, was some how ridiculous. This wasn't about his self-worth, this was about logistics. The life of one person is worth sacrificing if it meant saving twenty times more. Okay, there was a small part of him that hated himself for causing this trouble in the first place. But it wasn't in control here, he was sure of that.

"...Their hatred is independent of what you think of yourself, period. That you have no control over, what you can control is your response. That is for you to decide."

True but-

"And distraction? Alex, think clearly for a minute, you can create distractions and decoys out of biomass, with your mutation they are the proverbial dime a dozen, I did not spend this much time training you for you to just throw it all away...I have some experience in picking people. Alex, I picked you because you have potential. But if you are set on being a martyr then I will take my knife back."

Alex glared up at him, looking like the miffed teen that he was, "This isn't about me being a martyr! They needed a clear target, one they'd hesitate to shoot right away. If I threw an animal at them, if I scared or startled them with a swarm, they might have shot wildly, killing someone innocent as a result. Those kids weren't prepared for combat, we were, I was. I made a split second decision to weigh my life against theirs and came to the conclusion that I might survive a gun shot better than they would and if I didn't, at least I gave them a chance. You may not have liked the distraction that I went with, but that's too bad. It's already happened, so I'll be keeping my knife, thanks."

Wow that felt good, he never actually blew up on someone like that. It felt good, really good. It was weirdly satisfying, though knowing Hades, the man might shrug it off or come back at him with some self-righteous comment. Hell, he might even backpedal. It was hard to say with him sometimes.

Cringe.

They needed a clear target? Well, Alex wasn't bulletproof. That Jude knew of, anyway. Jude opened his mouth to tell Alex all about how it wasn't about this one fight, how saving 20 people was just the tip of an iceberg that he sounded hella intent on impaling himself upon, but... well... that wasn't Jude's job. The teen shut his face. He would let the martial arts guy sort him out, though.

> "Jude I will make you the same offer... If you are interested that is."

He really did have to get to the office. And change faces. But this felt like the sort of decision that was weightier than just 'meet every Thursday.' Maybe because the Wong had just wrecked a bunch of people and was still pretty cool about it. Maybe because he wasn't dating his mom. Either one qualified him 100x more than the other male adults that hung around the Mansion.

"Knowledge and experience sounds good." He nodded. Because nodding seemed to imply that he understood the gravitas of the situation. At least, that's what he was hoping it meant.

"If you'll excuse me..." He turned to see the sound-based girl. He winked, out of habit more than anything else, and made his way toward the door while he thought Jude thoughts and tried to reclaim his own face before making a report.

Hades nodded at the departing Jude, he would speak with him later. Turning to Alex, Hades told the young mutant. "I want to step up the schedule. I will test you in two weeks, train hard. Once you have passed the test You can choose to learn other skills if you are interested."

At that moment a innocuous strap on his writ vibrated in a particular pattern. Outwardly Hades showed no sign he had noticed, but inside his mind had already started shifting, that pattern meant an important task or an urgent call.

Turned back to Alex, he said. "I have some things I need to take care of, so watch your back. When he gets back, tell Jude I will start sparring with him when I return. Until then you know how to reach me if the need arises." 

And with that Hades departed.