Ch 1
"Well, well, well, look what we got here boys, ole Jake came out all by himself." Jake Crain had been used to getting into fights. Hell, when you live in a trailer park, sometimes you have nothing better to do than fight. Now here he was with 5 kids surrounding him. He had ventured off into the woods to seek a little solitude from his parents they had been getting pretty angry with him lately about all the fighting. "So Jake not so tough without all your buddys, are you? What's say we make this quick on ya."
"Yea, Jake we gonna teach you and your buds a lesson one at a time. And since your pretty much the ringleader of your little crowd, you'll be the first example." It was true he had this way about him that made others listen to him. They would look to him for direction. He didn't mind even though times like these he wished it wasn't like that.
"Seriously Crain, how many of us do you honestly think you can fight." That was it, they had pissed him off a little now. He charged at one of the bigger kids and punched him in the face but before he could get any further one of the other kids grabbed him from behind. "Now, now, did you really think it'd be that easy. We're gonna make you pay Crain." He punched him once in the stomach and started laughing when Jake let out a small groan.
"Quit this… if you quit now I won't come back and get you." His answer was another punch. They were gonna do this the hard way and it wasn't doing any good but to make Jake even angrier. They were now hitting him in the face and blood started to pour from his nose.
Suddenly a burning sensation started to overtake Jakes body and started to scream out in pain much to the other boys' pleasure. "Whats the matter Jake can't take a little pain?" But even after they stopped punching him, he still screamed out in pain and the boy who was holding on to him couldn't hold on anymore. As soon as he let go he looked at his arms and it looked as though they had been burned.
"Holy shit!" It was like nothing they had ever seen. Jake burst into flames and it was quickly spreading to the trees that surrounded them.
"Help me." He pleaded with the other kids but they had already taken off running.
Logan come cerebro immediately!
Within seconds Logan ran into cerebro and watched as the professor put down the helmet that he wore. "What is it Chuck, from the way you were talking to me it seemed like this was pretty important?"
The professor turned his chair around and slowly wheeled over to Logan. "A young mutants powers just turned up on cerebro but this isn't your normal recruiting situation Logan. His powers pretty much let him control the element of fire but that's not the full extent of his powers. He was in a wooded area when he accidentally caused the trees to catch fire. I need you to get two of the students to go there with you and see what you can do to help him out. I will send the coordinates to the blackbird so that you can find your way."
"Sure thing Chuck. I'll grab Bobby and Amara and we'll head there in less than 5 minutes." With that he turned and walked to the elevator to find Bobby and Amara.
"Logan, where are we going?" Bobby asked. They had just taken flight and were now headed towards there destination. He was kind of grateful that Logan had came for him to help with this. Ever since the professor let him take a spot on the X-men team it seemed like the danger room sessions doubled.
"According to the coordinates that the professor gave me, we're going to Louisiana." Once Logan got into the plain and saw that the location they were headed to was so far away, he wasn't so happy about bringing Bobby along with him. Yea since Apocalypse he had matured a little but when he said a little he meant it. "Now do us all a favor and just be quiet and don't be too annoying. Hell if you don't, I might even teach you to fly the blackbird on the way back."
"What, no fair. What about me?" Amara was stunned to see that Logan would even offer that to Bobby cause now there would be no way they would hear the end of it when Logan didn't let Bobby fly on the way back. Logan chuckled at the girl and looked back to the sky. "Well what about this boy, whats his story?"
"Well from what the professor sent to the computer here, his name is Jake Crain. His powers thus far is emitting fire from his body but who knows to what extent that is. He is 16 years old, wow, his mutation came along kinda late you think."
"Yea, hmm… 16 years old, I wonder if he's cute." Amara smiled to herself, this could be quite the trip after all. "Bobby this could serve to be an interesting relationship between the two of you. Bobby?" She looked over to him and noticed him already asleep. Maybe he wouldn't be too annoying afterall.
"Yea kid, if you want to get some sleep yourself feel free, I'll be okay up here." At first she was going to disagree but she thought otherwise and decided to go ahead and take him up on his offer. Right as she was starting to doze off she heard Logan mumble "kids," and heard him chuckle lightly to himself.
"Hey you two, we're here. Get up." As they walked down the stairs at the back of the blackbird they saw a group of people looking onto the now smoking woods. That would be the best place to begin looking for this new mutant and started walking that way.
"I'm telling you sir, we were in the woods with him and he just burst into flames. We took off running. I think he was one of those mutants we hear about on TV?" Some kid was telling a gruff looking man something about this kid.
"Well Crain, ya kid burnt up all da trees. Ya neva told us ya kid was a mutie." The gruff man was now poking his finger in another mans chest. "Waddya gonna do about 'em huh."
"Lets find him first, Kenneth. Then we'll do whatever with him." The kids father seemed to not care once he found out his son was a mutant.
"Look Iceman and Amara, we gotta find this kid and we gotta find him before those people do. I'm gonna go and talk to that kid and see where they were and what he knows. You two go in there and look for him. Spread out but stay in touch." Amara and Bobby took off into the woods out of Logan's sight. Now to the kid who seemed to know a little bit about all this. "Hey you," the kid looked up as he heard Logan's voice, "wheres Jake?"
"Who are you and why should I tell ya? Serves that little punk right whats gonna happen to him when they get ahold of him." Logan didn't want to resort to this kind of behavior but he needed to find this kid and he needed to do it as soon as possible. He grabbed the kid by the collar of his shirt and unsheathed his claws. "What the hell, Sir I'll tell ya whatever ya wanna know just don't kill me."
"Kid I ain't gonna kill ya, but if you don't start talking, you might end up getting a little hurt." Logan said as he retracted the claw once again.
"He was on one of the hills up there." The kid pointed in the direction of a bunch of hills. Logan tossed to the kid to the side and started to run in the direction the kid pointed. He placed his finger on his communicator and spoke to Amara, "Magma, he was somewhere in that group of hills, go there and look for him. Icmean you go to the surrounding area and check there. I'll be there soon to help you out Magma."
Amara quickly went to the area Logan told her to and started to look around. Most of the fire was out by now but there were some small ones that were still struggling to stay lit. Then she saw an area where the fire was blazing a bit. She ran that way and upon getting there was mesmerized by what she seen. The kid, Jake, was laying on the ground, the fire surrounding his body leaving his clothes unharmed. He looked unconscious and she didn't know exactly what to do. "Wolverine, I found him, he's unconscious and the flames are still surrounding his body. I'm not sure exactly what to do with him."
"Hold on, Ice cube meet me up there. We'll see what we can do when we get up there." It wasn't long until both Bobby and Logan ran to Amara's side. "Ice cube, try to put out the fire with your ice."
It worked pretty much right away. The sudden chill over his body seemed to wake Jake. "Who are you?" He asked as he looked in surprise to the 3 spandex clad people standing before.
"We're friends, we want to help you with your mutation but we gotta get you out of here first. People from your neighborhood ain't to happy about you burning up these woods."
Logan said looking back to where they now saw the neighborhood slowly approaching.
"But my parents, what about them? I can't just leave them."
"Kid, your parents are with them. They're all coming after you and we need to get you out of here." With that he got up and started walking with them. It wasn't long until they heard the sound of a shotgun. With that Logan turned and looked back at the group of people that had caught up with them.
"Stop right there. You don't know what my son did, and you don't know what he is." The boy's father said. He started approaching them but Bobby stepped in front of Jake.
"No you stop. We know what your son is." With that Bobby iced up and continued looking the man in the eye. Amara joined suit and walked next to Bobby. "He's just like everyone else here. You just can't accept it."
"Monsters, their all monsters, kill the mutants." He looked to the side but the other people were too shocked by Iceman and Magma. He grabbed the shotgun and was about to take aim but Logan thought against it.
"I think not bub." He sliced the barrel off the shotgun and ripped it from the mans clutches. "Now why don't you leave them alone. He's your son for crying out loud. Your tryin to kill your own damn son."
"I have no son."
Logan just looked at the man in disgust. He couldn't believe that the man would turn on his own son just for him being a mutant but it wasn't entirely unheard of. He turned from the spot and walked back to the 3 teenagers and motioned for them to follow him. At first Jake didn't follow him but Bobby grabbed his shoulder and said to him. "Come on man, I'll tell ya a little about my family."