Commencement.

[Stern]

Stern shifted himself so he could better see behind him without taking his attention entirely off the terrorist.

"What?"

Confusion crossed his face for a moment as he looked out over the stadium.

"Where?"

The podium was one spot, but the commencement speaker didn't seem like a likely target for a terrorist action. It was too...precise.

"Think!" he whispered to himself. The adrenaline wasn't doing much for his thought process.

"The scoreboard?"

Clearly the man had the detonator with him. He wouldn't have shown up to the place if he had it set to a timer. He would have let the whole thing unfold on its own.

"Get it down, turn it off!" Stern shouted.

[Neutron]

"For what reason?"

Aslan replied in a patronizing retort.

"For these peoples? They so suddenly worthy of the living when we, us true brethren, is not?"

Anger flashed in his eyes.

"They hates both you and I, and the fear what we become."

[Stern]

"Mutant suicide bombers. What next?"

Stern slammed Neutron into the stands. What he said made an odd sort of sense. He was not totally unused to abuse, though he didn't suffer it terribly often.

Kids would try to snatch at his goggles, or call him names. Movie theatres wouldn't let him in because of his gift (minor, but enough of an annoyance that he couldn't do very much).

"I get that ok? But I don't see why you have to go and lay out reasons to back up their stupid fears!"

Stern leaned in to grab Neutron by the lapels again when he noticed the remote. He just had to disable Neutron so he could get to it without worry. He hefted Neutron out of the seat and shoved him towards the lower seats. Then he lunged for the remote.

[Neutron]

Aslan fell backwards, but was quick to recover, scrambling over seat tops to come back to higher ground, splashing across the younger man with an energetic lunge, causing him to spill painfully against the seats behind. He balled up one of his reinforced gloves, driving a sharp punch into his kidneys as he worked his leverage.

"They kill us irregardless. Better than doing nothing at all!"

[Stern]

Stern felt a sharp pain in his ribs as he was bucked into the seats. By reflex he managed to keep his throat from slamming down on the back of the bright orange seat. His lower back throbbed at Neutron's punch.

"Never said--"he started with a grunt, "--not to do anything."

He doggedly reached for the remote.

"Might do to make a more concerted and organized effort. Besides, what's the point if you die too?"

The pain in his kidneys was too much. Stern retracted his hand and turned sharply, throwing a wild punch at Neutron's jaw.

[Neutron]

Aslan smiled, taking the youngster's punch. His head rocked back and he smiled, blood-smeared teeth showing.

"I am ready to die for somethings greater than me."

He roughly hefted Stern up by the hem of his shirt, to eye level.

"Wakes and see the world for to what it is."

He then pivoted hurling Stern down the rows of seats below, precipitously close to the ledge to the top deck.

[Stern]

Stern's leg caught on the back of the seat in the next row down. He flailed wildly to regain his lost balance, but took a spill into the seats below. Feeling bruised, Stern climbed to his feet using the guard rail to haul himself up.

"Not--"he paused for breath and felt his ribs scream at him when his chest expanded. "Not cool."

Stern took a second and mentally checked himself. Nothing was broken, but he was sure he had some scrapes that were bleeding.

It was now or never. Stern mustered what strength he could and leapt up the seats towards Neutron. Once he reached the row just below his adversary, he thrust his hands towards the terrorist and blasted a bright flash of light as close to his face as possible.

[Neutron]

"Nyeeeet!"

Aslan's gloves were up to his eyes, but a moment too late. It was like staring into the sun itself. The pain subsided and he removed his hands, but his vision was filled with phantasms, the afterburns of retina overload that lingered after exposure to intense light. They pulsed dark to light, but were depthless and opaque. He could not see past them. Only at the periphery did an aurora of unfocused sight filter through, but to the point of being useless. He flailed about, working at the gasket of one of his gloves to open it up. That prankster yankee was going to have to learn a painful lesson for his treason against his own genes.

[Stern]

Stern nearly smiled. He managed to blind Neutron for the time being and decided to make the most of it.

He started with a solid punch to the man's face, followed by a blow to the ribs and then drove his knee into the older man's stomach.

Stern shoved the man aside and lunged for the remote. It looked almost like a remote for a television or DVD player. The college student picked it up and studied it for a moment, taking care not to press any of the buttons in case one of them wound up detonating the bomb.

It was only a few seconds, but Stern's anxiety levels made it feel like hours as he looked the remote over. "If I disabled it, would that keep the bomb from exploding?"

One person knew the answers. Stern turned around to face the device's creator. "What do you know about this?"

[Neutron]

Aslan laughed through bleeding lips, intrigued that Stern thought that he was in any position to answer that. Still half blind, he stared off in the direction of the kid's voice.

The glove gasket released, and Aslan slipped one hand free of its insulated prison. The air around his exposed fist began to shimmer, like looking to the horizon on a hot summer day.

"Drop it."

Aslan still couldn't see, but it didn't matter too much.

[Stern]

Stern instinctively drew back from the man's hand. "Whoa."

He still clutched the remote tightly in his hand. There was no telling what the man was all about: Stern was kind of hoping his powers were something friendlier. Unfortunately, it would appear that as far as destructive powers went, Stern's gifts were like a newborn puppy compared to the pit bull the other man had apparently unleashed.

"So, let's ask the dumb question. What is it that you can do?"

[Neutron]

It was such a juvenile question, but one that was really at the heart of the mutant movement, wasn't it? Aslan appreciated the kid's candor and willingness to ask, even in the face of an absurd situation. Otherwise he would have been pressed for time, but the idiot gallery below was still so befuddled by Walid's trickery that they hadn't yet dispersed.

Sensing that he had at least a moment to spare, Aslan removed a cigarette from his jacket with a gloved hand, touching the filter to his lips.

"My power is not so much. I resist the radiation."

[Stern]

Suddenly Stern managed to piece it all together. "That bomb," he said, "up there." he motioned with a nod of his head. "It's irradiated, isn't it?"

Apparently, he had reached that point of no return. He was afraid. The feeling froze his blood and made him feel very much alone. He had to settle this guy. If he didn't...

"Don't stand there and smoke!" Stern shouted. "How can you be so nonchalant?"

The young mutant closed the small distance between him and his opponent, and grappled Neutron's arm with the exposed hand.

He locked the man's arm out straight and clobbered him across the temple.

[Neutron]

Aslan took the strike, but barely. It dropped him to a knee and dazed him. The cigarette flew from his mouth, and he looked up to see a semi-solid blur coalescing in front of his vision, which now seemed to slowly be returning.

His arm was contorted in a way that he couldn't strike, but he didn't need to strike at all. The immense radiation his hand put out was enough.

The fabric at the sleeve of Stern's shirt began to wilt, grey, and then crumble away into what looked to be ash. The skin on his hand slowly broke out into inflamed welts, eventually crested by blisters.

[Stern]

Stern jerked his hand back, dropping the remote so he could get rid of his shirt.

Stern suppressed a shout of pain. Instead it came out as a low growl.

He really didn't want to get within range of Neutron now. What he saw on his hand terrified him. But he had to do something. Until he got a grip on what the man did to him, Stern assumed the hand was no good.

So instead he stretched out his good hand. "Archimedes, I hope for your sake that wasn't just a legend."

He began to focus the light radiating from his hand into a tight beam. It was hard--until now Stern had never considered something like it. He curled his fingers into a bowl shape, narrowing down a beam until it was just a pinpoint on the man's face. Then he upped the intensity.

"I really hope this works," he hissed to himself.

[Neutron]

The pinprick of light intensified into something searing, and the brief flash of pain brought Aslan's hand up in front of his face. The tiny dot of light managed to sear a jagged two inch scratch into his forehead and across the bridge of his nose before being broken by Aslan's glove. With his vision returning to him, Aslan pushed forward towards Stern, stooping so that he could pick up the remote.

A smell of burning rubber filled the air as the focused light beam intermittently gained the precision and intensity to sear the glove. It was far from a constant effect, and Aslan was only inconvenienced by it.

He pulled back, holding the remote to his chest.

"In time, you sees I will be right in the cause."

This mutant had great talent, that much could be seen. Aslan wondered to what end that would be put to. Hopefully, he would realize the truth about mutants and the world.

"Do you believes in God? Do not put the faith blindly. It is yourself you should believe. You are the God of simple peoples."

He smiled.

"As am I."

He then pointed the remote to the scoreboard, and pressed the detonation switch.

[Stern]

As Neutron advanced Stern's heart began to thump wildly against his chest. words caught in his throat and panic siezed his brain.

He hadn't felt more afraid or anxious since his last attach of achluophobia. Stern reacted by glowing brighter. Light surrounded him, expanding its radiance until Stern couldn't be seen.

Neutron's words were lost on Stern. The mounting knowledge of his failure hammered home over and over until the sound of the explosion reached him.

Stern's light flared for a moment.

Then he was gone.

When the light around the young mutant faded, he found himself surrounded by the coldest darkness he had ever seen. And yet, there was a brilliant source of light. Stern raised his head to look at it properly and his mouth dropped open in surprise.

It was the sun.

Stern looked in awe a moment or two before the lack of oxygen caused him to black out. Deep within him his subconsious worked with the advancing mutation. Once again Stern glowed brightly and disappeared from the edge of space, returning back to earth where he could survive another day.