Avengers Academy (2010 series) #31

While the Avengers and X-Men fight over Hope Summers and the Phoenix Force, Wolverine and the Avengers dropped Utopia's X-students off at the Avengers Academy 'for their own protection' and told the Academy students to make sure they didn't leave. They also dropped off amnesiac villain Sebastian Shaw and he *was* put in a cell. But he recently was told about his evil past and now he's escaped and has taken down the adults Hercules, Madison Jeffries and Tigra. And he found the students arguing.

He tells the Academy students that he'll leave them alone if they don't interfere. But X-scientist Kavita Rao gets in touch with Hazmat (Jenny Takeda) to tell her what Shaw has done to the teachers and that they believe he intends to murder the X-kids (to get revenge on their teacher Emma Frost for mind-wiping him). Jenny blasts Shaw and calls on her classmates to help her. Reptil (Humberto Lopez) turns into a giant prehistoric snake and wraps him in his coils. But while he lost his memory of his evil self Sebastian had befriended some of the X-kids and now Transonic (Laurie Tromette) attacks Hazmat to defend him. Jenny's boyfriend Ken Mack (Mettle) leaps to *her* defence and a melee begins. White Tiger (Ava Ayala) contends with feral Primal (Teon Macik) while Striker (Brandon Sharpe) and Surge (Nori Ashida) clash with their electric powers.

Jenny protests that Shaw wants to kill the X-kids but X-23 (Laura Kinney) (an X-kid in the Academy) says her instincts tell her otherwise. She asks the 3 Stepford Cuckoos to read his mind but they say they can't get past Frost's barrier. Laura asks the opinion of Finesse (Jeanne Foucault), defeating Prodigy (David Alleyne) who like her has a library of rapidly-learned skills. Jeanne tells her that his body language and tactics suggest he wants to help the X-kids escape. They all stop fighting and Shaw asks if his old self would really hurt children.

The 4 adults have arrived with Juston Seyfert in his Sentinel robot. They've overhead what's been said and apologise for misjudging Shaw, but Tigra (Greer Nelson) says they still can't let the X-kids leave. But X-23 says *she* can't let them stop them. She's heard all the arguments on both sides but believes they have earned the right to make their own decisions. And Foucault declares she stand with Kinney. Mettle and Hazmat join her. And Hercules, Jeffries and Rao too. Tigra finds herself standing alone.

She makes a quick decision. She reminds them it's her *job* to stop them from leaving. And she impresses on them that there are security cameras *everywhere*. And she says they're not leaving without a fight. The 2 sides clash and nearly everybody gets what she was hinting at. But Greer tackles Laura and makes sure she understands that it's only a pretend fight, because Kinney's not good at understanding human behaviour. Striker zaps Hercules who hams it up pretending to be hurt. Reptil swings a dinosaur tail at Jeanne, the girl he loves, because he thinks the Avengers are right and she commends him for it as she throws him at Brandon who is grateful for the distraction from Herc's 'dying' oration. Juston's Sentinel has Shaw wrapped in metal coils. He's in awe of the man who created the Sentinels, or at least paid for them, but Sebastian can't remember it so he checks that the robot is capable of self-repair before smashing its inner workings. Lightspeed (Julie Power) pretends to be overcome by a duststorm from Dust (Sooraya Qadir), and Brandon compliments her on *her* acting as Herc's monologue continues. She says her acting career is on the up. Primal doesn't understand its a pretend fight and White Tiger asks for help because she doesn't want to hurt him. His fellow Light Velocidad (Gabriel Cohuelo) is able to make him go to sleep, but he collapses on Tiger pinning her down.

Tigra pretends to be zapped by Surge and the X-kids are declared the winners. Shaw says they are now free to leave if they want, but he'll make his own way because he believes  his presence with them would cause problems. Greer swears that if he does anything to make her regret this she'll come after him. He acknowledges that and dives into the ocean. Atlantean Crosta follows him. The security measures against teleportation have gone so Pixie (Megan Gwynn) can take them wherever they want. Some want to rejoin the X-Men, others want to find Hope. Nori and Sooraya welcome Laura back into the X-fold but X-23 elects to remain at the Academy because they (especially Jeanne) helped her reach her own decision without pressurising her. Dust hugs her and says she'll always be welcome back with them. And Pixie takes them all away ...

... except Loa (Alani Ryan) who stays for the California surfing. Tigra worries about how she's going to explain this to Captain America (and headmaster Giant-Man). And everyone decides to enjoy themselves. Tigra at least thinks they've formed a bond between the young Avengers and X-Men.