Rusty and Skids have a connection that starts with something very practical: she can get close to him without being burned. For a kid whose powers first appeared by seriously hu…

Rusty and Skids have a connection that starts with something very practical: she can get close to him without being burned. For a kid whose powers first appeared by seriously hurting someone, that changes what being around another person can feel like. Sally’s force field protects her from his flames. But she has her own difficulty with closeness, because she can’t reliably lower that field at first. So they’re coming at the same problem from different directions. Rusty is afraid of what contact could do to somebody else. Sally has protection that keeps getting in the way of the contact she wants. That gives their relationship something to develop around besides simply putting two young characters together. They both have to learn control, and that control has a personal purpose. Being able to hold someone or touch them normally matters just as much as being able to win a fight. Their first encounter also establishes Sally as someone who will act for Rusty before there’s an established romance. She helps him escape Freedom Force and takes him toward the Morlock tunnels. He’s in trouble, she has a way to help, and she chooses to use it. Then X-Factor #16 puts that connection under a different kind of pressure. Rusty secretly agrees to let Masque change his face in exchange for helping the woman he burned. Sally has to work out what he’s doing and intervene when the situation turns against him. You can understand Rusty wanting to make amends and still see the problem with making that decision alone. He’s prepared to hurt himself because he feels responsible for someone else’s suffering. Sally is standing there seeing that he matters too, even if he’s having trouble treating himself that way.