Chapter 1: Inspiration
Scott's Point of View
It has been a year. A year since the incident has happened, the Institute explosion that decimated most of the building, mainly the part that was above ground. Still, to this day, there is no home for me, nowhere for me to go. I have thought about staying at the Institute, or what's left of it, but I can't stand to be around Logan. Not after what he did. I actually can't stay there simply because of the memories of all the students leaving, all the X-Men as well: Piotr Rasputin, Kurt Wagner, Kitty Pryde, Bobby Drake, Rogue, Ororo Monroe, Forge, and all the others. Watching each and every one of them leave killed me a little inside. With each car that drove away, another piece of my soul was lost, not that there was much left after Jean was lost. I've been on the road ever since the incident, trying to forget. The two people I can never forget though are Jean and the Professor.
The memory of Jean and the Professor stings my mind as if a hundred wasps were stinging my ass. The most painful part is Jean. I'll never forget the pain I felt when I saw that Jean was gone. At that moment I couldn't even stand, I immediately collapsed, my legs buckling underneath me. While everyone else was panicking over the Professor being gone, I couldn't help but focus on Jean's disappearance. I felt horrible about it and still do. After everything the Professor had done for me, I was only worrying about Jean when they first disappeared. In the end, I was worrying about the Professor just as much as Jean, but Hank was already looking for the Professor so I took on finding Jean. I swore that I wouldn't stop until I found her. Even though Logan said he would be looking for Jean too, I decided to look alone, refusing to socialize with that creature. Still, I look for her, only to see her smile again. Even though they all said I would never find her, I refuse to quit.
Now I drive down the highway, going to another small town, my motorcycle purring away. Recently, I've been thinking about going back into the field as an X-Man to fight back against the MRD, the Mutant Response Division. Put the team back together, and battle a new threat. I've seen so much destruction done by the battles between Mutants and the MRD that now the MRD is even arresting humans for harboring Mutants, or so I've heard. On a few occasions, I have had to face the MRD myself. They never back down from a Mutant no matter how powerful we are.
An explosion suddenly roars through the sky, erupting in my ears, and I work to retain my balance on my motorcycle as the shock wave passes. I come to a halt, and look off in the direction that the explosion came from, seeing smoke rise from the horizon. Soon, I begin to remember the good old days when I was a hero, saving people who only want for me to not exist. No matter how cruel those people would be, I was always the bigger person, and would prevent innocent lives from being lost.
Guess it's time to get back in the action, I silently decide. I don my costume for the first time since the incident, and drive off to face the problem at hand. My glasses are replaced by my visor, and it feels foreign but familiar on my eyes. My classic yellow and blue uniform is covered by a dark grey trenchcoat, a new addition to my uniform after the incident. As I drive up to the wreck, I see a couple being carried out from the debris. One is an African American man with a goatee, and the other is a Caucasian woman with long wavy red hair, reminding me of Jean.
"No, Erica, she's still in there!" the lady yells at the people around her. I take that as my mission, and dive straight in. I blast a wall apart to get in, and make sure to avoid the larger flames even though my suit is fire proof, but only to a certain limit. The heat is what really kills me in there though. No matter where I turn it only gets hotter, but I can't back down as long as a life is at stake. As I weave my way through, I start to hear a little girl calling for help. I blast through another wall, and see a little girl cowering in the corner with a stuffed animal. She has a dark shade of skin, but not as dark as her father's along with her mother's hair though a little darker.
"Are you… are you going to help me?"
"Yes, come on now. Let's get you out of here." I pick her up, and begin to carry her out of the field of fire. I use my own body to shield her from the flames, even though the flames are beginning to dig through my costume. All I can hear are the flames crackling and the girl's screams. I remember when I would be finding young Mutants to save, when we were first fathering up Mutants who were lost and confused like Shadowcat and Nightcrawler. Enough with the memories though, this girl needs to get to safety, and fast.
The girl is beginning to get a bad cough, and I can't tell if it's from screaming too much or the smoke.
"Close your mouth, and keep your hands over your mouth and nose. It'll help keep the smoke from getting into your lungs." I can't check if she is following what I'm saying, but I just have to hope she is listening. As I come around a corner, I see a leaking gas tank that is about to go up in flames. "Oh shit!" I run back just as the flames hit the gas tank. The explosion blows us away, and I use my body to shield the girl. As I get up, I see a clear way out. I rush through, and roll over onto my back to keep the girl from getting hurt by the impact.
I look into the sky as everything begins to fade to black. People are crowding around, and I feel someone take the girl from my arms. Before I go under, I crack a smile as my mission is accomplished.
I wake up in an RV, and I feel we're on the move. I feel shreds of clothing on, but know my costume is gone. I don't know where we're going, but I plan to find out. The little girl is standing over me, along with her mother, who is applying medicine to me, probably burn ointment. As I begin to get up, I feel a hand push me back down.
"Your wounds are pretty severe. Let us help. It's the least we can do."
"The MRD… they'll arrest you for helping me."
"Let us deal with the MRD. I'm Randy, by the way," the father says from the front of the RV.
"Now, let us help. I'm not letting you back out there with all these burns untreated." I give up, and just lay back down as she begins to apply some more burn ointment.
The next thing I know, I'm at their house, waking up in the guest room. I notice that someone has dressed me in regular street clothes, and switched out my visor with my classic red shades. The little girl is back, and I see a pair of big brown eyes looking at me. It is the same look I would get when a young student saw me walk into the room.
"Hey, little one," I say, trying to seem friendly.
"Hi, my parents are across the hall, in the kitchen, if you want to see them."
"What about my bag? Do you know where that is?"
"It's over there," she answers as she points over to a corner of the room. I get up, a surge of pain rushing through my sore, burned body, and pick up my bag. I hear her parents talking through the wall though, and decide to eavesdrop.
"Carl has got the whole neighborhood freaking out," the mother says in an angry tone.
"I guess we had to expect that." I decide to come out, and they seem glad to see me up and about.
"I should get going before the MRD shows up." The father seems to flare up in anger slightly at the mention of the MRD.
"They're already on their way. There's nothing you can do, now." The blades of a helicopter start to roar through the walls, and I know my time is up.
This is going to get ugly. I switch out my shade with my visor, and run outside to see a barricade of MRD agents. I blast one of the vehicles, and the agents instantly scatter in a panic. A few keep their composure though, and begin to open fire. I roll behind a car, and begin to blast away at the MRD. The last time I faced off against them, I had the help of a Mutant who was like a werewolf. She decimated the MRD, but sadly, I lost sight of her in the chaos of the battle. I don't know where she is now, but I hope she's safe.
As the MRD begin to reorganize, I decide to make a break for it. I'm hoping that the rumors aren't true, but I'll stay hiding in the trees until I see the MRD leave. As I look out, I see Randy talk to who looks like the commanding officer. The man points to a helicopter, and the MRD begin to push the family towards the helicopter. I take this as my moment to strike, and blow up one of the trucks with an optic blast. I drop back down to the ground, and disarm two agents with some moves I learned from my years of training at the institute. Before I can get a shot at the helicopter, one of the MRD agents fires a net at me. My optic blast shreds through the next, and I take out the agents along with two guys offering support. When I look back up, the helicopter is gone, and it's just me and the commanding officer.
"It's just you and me, now," the commander says.
"I guess so, Captain Obvious," I respond. I disarm the commander with a focused optic blast to his hand, and decide to face off against him hand to hand. The commander charges at me, and I quickly use a maneuver to knock him to the ground. As he gets back up, he throws a right hook which I block and counter with a right uppercut, which knocks him to the ground once more. His head slams against the concrete, and his eyes roll back into his head. Before leaving, I check all of the agents to make sure they're still breathing, which they do, and I get back on my motorcycle, riding off to wherever the road takes me.
This small rescue mission is turning into something big, and it doesn't look pretty. I'm going to some real help if I'm going to set that family free. It'll take too long to gather up the X-Men. Although, there might be one or two still at the Institute with Logan. As much as I would hate to admit it, he might just be be the only chance I have at some back up.
With that, I drive off to what remains of the Xavier Institute. Being back here brings back a lot of memories I would prefer to have forgotten. All the time I spent with Jean, the explosion, saying goodbye to everyone. It all just opens up old wounds. The burns hurt too, but over my many years as an X-Man, I have learned to fight on despite the pain. Some would say my pain tolerance can match up with Logan's, but I know the truth.
As I walk through the ruins, I step onto a metal plate that feels like there is nothing underneath. I lift the plate to see a hole that was once an elevator shaft to the lower levels. I grab a rape from my pack along with a metal rod to keep hold of the rope. After testing how deep it is by dropping a rock into it, I slam the metal rod into the ground to where it is nice and firm in the ground. Then I tie the rope around the rod, and begin to climb down. Once I'm close to the bottom, I begin to hear what sounds like a science lab.
That must be Hank, or maybe it's Forge.
It doesn't take long to reach the bottom, and I instantly begin a search for any stray X-Men. The only door I see open in the hallway though had a small light creeping out, and is also the source of the volley of sounds I've been hearing. I decide to take a look inside, and I see only Dr. Hank McCoy, better known as Beast, inside, in the middle of an experiment.
"Hank," I call out. He darts his head up, and a look of enlightenment is splattered onto his blue furry face.
"Scott! It's great to see you, again! How have you been?"
"I've been better; I still haven't found Jean. What are you up to?"
"I'm still looking into what happened with the explosion, trying to find the source. I've so far found there is no sign of explosives, electromagnetism, or any other suspicious materials."
"That rules out the MRD and Magneto. I doubt Erik would have done this though, he would never spill Mutant blood."
"That's true, Scott. Now, why are you here? Logan's out on another one of his trips looking for Jean if that's why. He'll be back in a few days."
"I'm actually glad he isn't here. Is there anyone else left?"
"No, it's just been Logan and I here. Everyone else has gone off to their own homes or on their own adventures. Why do you ask?"
"The MRD arrested a family for harboring me after I saved their daughter from a fire. I'm going to get them out, and I came to see if I could get some help." Concern begins to dawn on Hank, and I'm not sure whether to be glad or worried.
"So, it is true, they're arresting non-Mutants now. This isn't good, Scott."
"I know, Hank."
"They don't deserve to be in there, but I'm not sure if we would be able to get them out, just the two of us." I knew this was coming. Hank always was against violence.
"We can't let those people stay in there," I protest. "The MRD will torture them!"
"You're right, Scott," Hank agrees.
"So, you'll help me?"
"Yeah," Hank surrenders, "I'll help."
"Thanks, Hank," I gratefully respond.
"Well, it'll be just like old times. You, me, Warren, Bobby…" Hank pauses, and the pain fills up my eyes. When the Professor first opened the school, there were only five of us: Hank, Bobby, Warren, Jean, and I. Warren left after the team began to expand and the MRD was founded. He was given protection by his father, and uses his money to help out any Mutant group that has the same goals at the X-Men. Then the incident happened and everyone just split up. "I'm sorry," Hank begins, "I didn't mean to…"
"It's fine, Hank," I forgive as my eyes begins to water up, "I'll be fine."
"We'll find her, Scott, eventually, along with the Professor."
"Yeah, it'll just take time. Meanwhile, we have an innocent family to save."
"I'll go grab my uniform," Hank says, rising from his lab table.
"I'm going to need a new one. I lost mine in a fire," I respond as I follow him into the storage room filled with spare uniforms. "It felt like being an X-Man again when I put that uniform on. Felt like the good old days."
"If only…" is all Hank has to respond with as he leaves to get his uniform.
Hope the readers enjoy the first chapter. I'm a huge X-Men fan, and want to do Cyclops some justice after his bastardization in Wolverine and the X-Men and the X-Men movies. Love them both, but want to give Cyclops some time to shine. Please review.
