Chapter Text
The children walked out of the bank building with a horde of frightened citizens and saw that it had been swarmed by police cars and news reporters. Séance lazily waved to the crowd before his hand was batted down by Kraken and they all got into line. As the news cameras began filming and taking pictures, the reporters began yelling questions at the children, turning into a melting pot of voices.
“Are you kids okay?”
“What happened?”
“Did you take out the robbers yourself?”
“Why are you wearing school uniforms?”
“Where are your parents?”
They all for the most kept quiet, smiling politely for the cameras; though some of them were wincing under their masks.
“that’s enough.” The old, eccentric, and British voice of Sir Reginald Hargreeves spoke as he stepped in front of the children, his monocle gleaming in the sun as he spoke again. “The world is changing. There are some among us, gifted with abilities far beyond the ordinary. Those which you call mutants. I have found and raised 7 such children, the Umbrell-X Academy.” He moved out of the way for a moment for the reporters to get a good view of all 7 children. Of course, the part about them being an ‘academy’ was entirely false. However, in the eyes of the public, an academy of young orphaned mutants being raised by a kind and somewhat weird billionaire was much easier to get behind. I mean, just look at Xavier’s school for gifted youngsters.
“Mr. Hargreeves, the daily bugle, what exactly happened to their parents?”
“…they abandoned them. Left them on the streets. I’m giving them a better life here and are taken care of in the best possible environment.” Another lie to further plant the image of the Umbrell-X ‘Academy’ into the minds of New Yorkers as a good thing. He then turned toward the siblings, “Come along now children. It’s time for your promised ice cream.”
The Hargreeves all cheered and got excited at the prospect of ice cream, following Sir Reginald eagerly like a gang of ducklings. A few blocks away at a small ice cream stand, the children all crowded around the stand and began talking over each other to try and get their ice cream first. Five, fed up with the noise, simply climbed up onto the stand and got himself a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream before everyone else. The others eventually got their ice cream scoops and turned to Reginald only to see him already walking away.
“I have important matters to attend to right now children. Grace shall come to pick you up in a few hours so try to keep yourselves busy until then.” He very shittily explained before disappearing into a limo that was pulling up.
The Hargreeves' glanced at each other before they all went off on their own ways. Allison and Luther headed off to a local park to feed the ducks some of their cones, Diego headed into a weapon dealer to browse the knife selection, and Klaus headed off to a dark alley in a very suspicious manner, probably for drugs. That left Five, who was purely focused on eating his very much well-deserved ice cream in his opinion, as well as Ben and Vanya.
“…hey guys?” Vanya shyly spoke up, fidgeting with her skirt nervously.
“yeah?” Five replied with a mouth full of ice cream. Ben looked over at her as well.
“I-… can you guys come with me trying on clothes?”
“…why do you need us for that?” Ben asked confused.
Vanya flushed slightly and stumbled over her words as she tried to figure out how to word her request properly. “well I- I just… wanted to um, try on some…boy clothes. And I don’t really feel comfortable going into a store by myself and trying them on, you know?”
Five and Ben shared a mutual look as their shared brain cell bounced around before finally realizing what Vanya wanted and letting out a collective ‘ohhhhh’. Ben spoke up as Five nodded and shoved his entire ice cream cone into his mouth. “yeah, of course, we can.”
Vanya smiled slightly and took both of their hands in hers before the three headed off to the nearest shopping mall.
“Welcome back Sir. We’ve been tracking the movement of the phoenix and it seems to be returning to Earth in 8 weeks. The bonding process should take around eight days depending on how compatible Number Seven and the Pheonix are.”
“Have you managed to find where it will be landing?”
“yes sir. Up in the forests of Professor Xavier’s school.”
“Excellent. Make preparations to head up there in eight weeks. Use whatever necessary to capture the force and bring it back.”
“yes Sir.”