Dr. Miles Cross's Office, Sept 27 and on.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria thought for a moment. "Have you ever seen a school choir that has one person in it who's completely, utterly tone deaf, but is oblivious to the fact and no one seems to have the heart to tell them that?"

[Miles Cross]

"You feel he's unqualified."

[Victoria Valentine]

"I think that he's utterly incompetent in all of the fields that he's trying to pretend to have expertise in. I don't deal well with incompetence even when I choose to deal with it, and I certainly don't like it being thrust upon me."

[Miles Cross]

"Victoria...." Miles stops to think.

"Are you worried he's going to bring down the team, or cause you to fail, or is it more of a stance on principle?"

[Victoria Valentine]

"No, you misunderstand me. I think that the team can manage despite his incompetence. Or at least work around it. And there is no possible way that he could make me fail. I said that I don't deal well with incompetence. It annoys me. Excessively. Merle is a buzzing mosquito that doesn't seem to want to stop landing on you and biting you. Harmless in the long run, true, but when a mosquito bites you, you swat it."

[Miles Cross]

"Still, swatting is one thing, assault is another. I'll let you in on a little secret--glancing over some of the reports, it seems that you're opinion of Merle is not entirely unshared. Yet it seems noone has gone up to him and tried to correct him, to explain where he's going wrong. They've all just decided to scoff at him, threaten him, or, in your case, actually assault him.

Wouldn't it be better if you tried to talk to him? He's not unintelligent; in fact, looking at his test scores, he's quite the opposite. It sounds like he's trying to get closer to you--I'm not sure he really has too many friends around campus yet. Maybe a subtler approach would pay greater dividends, even if you don't want any sort of relationship with him."

[Victoria Valentine]

"It might, but I'm neither a team leader, and advisor, nor do I care about his development. For all I care, he can vanish tonight and never be seen again. I simply don't want to deal with him. Something that he didn't seem to be able to grasp, since I was called down here."

[Miles Cross]

Miles sighed. "Victoria, you can't expect to attack an injured person and have them go 'oh well, let's forget the whole thing'. By confronting him in that manner, you've actually extended your dealings with him--he would be well within his rights to report you as being some sort of 'out of control monster'. It's hard to tell if he's actualy afraid of you or just angry, but he seems to think you're some sort of loose cannon."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Is this where I point out that I'm not the one who charged a car to start ripping it up during a hostage situation, resulting in a hostage being killed?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "If he's going to report me, he can report me. If he wants to be afraid of me, that's fine. I really don't care. As ever, all of his problems will go away if he simply stays away from me."

[Miles Cross]

"If we're going to start pointing fingers there, I might have to point out that his mission went off much smoother than your own. I'm just saying that everyone else seems to be able to coexist with Merle, like him or not. Clearly, you fall into the latter catagory--and that's alright. Personalities don't always mesh well. You just need to be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. Like I said before, you're not in trouble--yet. Not from me, at any rate; that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to listen and give advice. And my advice to you would be if you can't correct him; ignore him. If he doesn't address you with what you feel is respect, either correct him or refuse to reply until he does so. Physical violence is just going to create a headache for everyone; especially when he gets off his crutches. You're tough, too, but I don't think we want to see a super-powered brawl in the cafateria."

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria shrugged. "His behavior dictates the treatment he's given. If other people want to baby him, that's their prerogative. If he's going to insult me, though, I'm going to treat him accordingly. I'm more than capable of taking the consequences for it."

[Miles Cross]

Miles sighs. "As long as you are aware there ARE consequences. I can't imagine, however, that the powers that be in charge of the X-teams will be keen on allowing a fued between two members to continue into a physical brawl. I strongly urge you to use caution. I'm saying he's not aware you're insulted by his actions; he thinks that your responses are a result of a mental illness.

As a Trained Professional, I believe I can say that that's not the case, unless a perhaps inflated opinion of oneself has suddenly qualified as a mental illness.

But, so long as this lack of communication exists between you, this fued is only going to grow. If you're prepared for that, you're a big girl and can make your own decisions. I've said my piece there; it's up to you to decide how to act upon it."

[Victoria Valentine]

At this point, it finally became obvious that Victoria only had a very tenuous grip on her temper. "And again... it is not my job to ensure that Merle is not the socially inept fool that he is," she said through gritted teeth. "I have my own problems to deal with, and babying idiots isn't one of them."

"However, if he's going to spread rumors that I have a mental illness, then perhaps my reaction wasn't so unfounded," she said, standing up.

[Miles Cross]

"Ms. Valentine," Miles said in a deeper voice. "Fine. If that's the way you want to look at it, consider it this way--continuing to antagonize Mr. McClintock, whether you feel he deserves it or not, is just going to create obstacles for you--obstacles of your own creation. No, you can't control Merle's actions--but you can control your own. That's what you're in charge of. Cut him down with words, if you must, complain to high heaven about his behavior, but if this escalates, you could find yourself on the outside looking in, both of the teams and of the university."

His voice softens again. "And neither of us want that."

[Victoria Valentine]

"I did not antagonize him," Victoria snapped. "And what use are words used on someone utterly incapable of comprehension? Do you try reasoning with the raccoon that's going through your trash and making a mess? No! You throw something at it!"

[Miles Cross]

"Throwing an injured man halfway across the room is escalation, at the very least. He took a bullet in the hip; he was unable to defend himself. This isn't all Merle's fault, Victoria--you're not the only one who interacts with him, but you're the only one who can't seem to keep your treatement of him on a somewhat subdued level. Is he that offensive to you?"

[Victoria Valentine]

"He. Insulted. Me," she said slowly trying to regain her composure. "And when someone does that, you ensure that they don't repeat the mistake. In his case, the method he understands is corporal punishment."

"And please, I just tipped him over the table. Do I look like I could throw someone like him across a room?"

[Miles Cross]

"No. I don't. Your file says you can't.

Which makes the security footage very, very interesting."

[Victoria Valentine]

Fuck "I don't know what to say, then. I can't do what I can't do."

[Miles Cross]

"Here's where I'm going to remind you that anything you say in here never leaves this room. Would you mind telling me what happened? People don't, suddenly, gain the ability to throw 6 feet plus people fifty yards."

[Victoria Valentine]

"That's right, they don't. So I'm going to tell you that I have no idea how it happened, and we're going to leave it at that."

[Miles Cross]

"Alright, if you don't want to talk about it, that's your perogative. There's no reason to be afraid of it, though."

[Victoria Valentine]

"I'm not afraid of it. I just have no idea how it happened, and I really don't feel like being prodded to find out. It was a fluke."

[Miles Cross]

"If you say so," Miles said, jovally. "You certainly don't have to be prodded--that would require a physician or something, and I'm, actually, by law not allowed to talk about what goes on during a session, so you don't have to worry about that. But, if you're convinced that it's a fluke, you certainly don't have to open up about it."