This is a crossover fanfic of X-Men Evolution and Metal Gear. While playing Peace Walker I noticed that my best recruit was codenamed "Wolverine" and it was kind of a no-brainer. In this story I use both the mutant's real names and mutant names without explanation as to who's who. So if you don't know who the characters are you will probably be confused by the usage of multiple names for them, and that's just too bad. :) After this first chapter you'll only need to know Wolverine. Probably.
Killers Without a Cause
Chapter I - Prologue
Nightcrawler dangled upside down from the high bar by his tail. He and some of the other young mutants had come to practice gymnastics with Coach McCoy, but were pleasantly surprised to find Wolverine instead. Beast was apparently on the verge of an important scientific breakthrough, and Logan had been pressed into service as his substitute.
"You need to calm down, Logan. You are one uptight dude," said Nightcrawler with his heavy German accent. His barbed tail released its hold on the bar and he gracefully dropped to his feet.
Kitty Pride poked her head through the vaulting horse and made a face.
"Yeah Logan, you should listen to Kurt and relax," she said and laughed.
Wolverine continued to ignore them, and clenched his teeth as he pulled his chin up past the bar in another rigid one armed pullup. He was hanging high in the air from the trapeze in the center of the room. Sweat dripped from his brow and his arm muscles bulged. He hadn't been expecting to actually teach. Xavier had conveniently forgot to mention that although today was a free day, the students were expected to spend some time practicing their extracurricular activities. Wolverine would definitely remember to ask for more specifics at his next mission briefing. Xavier always left out the unpleasant details when he was trying to sell Logan on an easy task like watching over the gym equipment. After all, he should have remembered that most important fact of nature: There's no such thing as a free workout, Bub.
Logan trembled slightly as his arm hoisted him for the one hundredth time. He dropped to his feet lightly, though the fall from the trapeze was close to ten feet and his bones were reinforced with an untold weight of adamantium. He reached for a towel and dabbed the sweat from his face, then tossed it in the bin. He paused to take in the scene. Nightcrawler was teleporting from once piece of equipment to the next and knocking them all over in pursuit of Kitty, who of course went right through them all. Bobby was crafting a gigantic ice ramp for Spyke. Rogue was being moody in the corner. The only two practicing gymnastics were Scott and Jean blushing at each other on the balance beam.
"Everyone knock it off. Stop. HEY!" Logan said, snarling the last word with his gravelly voice.
Everyone stopped except Nightcrawler and Kitty. In her surprise, Kitty caught a towel in the face and bounced off one of the room's padded walls. Nightcrawler luckily only had four feet to fall to the floor. All eyes fell on Wolverine.
"Listen up! I'm ain't yer coach, but ya can't be causing all this chaos," he paused to sniff the air, "and lunch ain't gonna be ready for another hour or so. So how bout ya all just sit down and play who can keep their trap shut the tightest while I hit this punching bag."
He glared around the room. Everyone was about to reluctantly obey. Almost everyone anyway.
"As if, Wolverine!" said Kitty, who had righted herself.
"Ja! If you want us to play 'nap time' you could at least tell us a story first," joked Kurt from the floor.
Wolverine slugged the bag once, then paused and tilted his head for a moment in thought.
"Ya know what? Fine. Whaddaya kids wanna know?"
The students froze and looked at each other in shock at Logan's out of character willingness to expatiate upon his past. Then they all rushed towards him while calling out innumerable questions.
"Have you ever knocked a guy out of his shoes?
"Do your sideburns just grow like that or do you trim them?"
"Do you have any phobias?"
"Did you really fight in World War II with Captain America?"
Wolverine raised a hand for them to stop. He stretched and sat down on one of the lifting benches. Pointing to Bobby, who had asked the last question, he responded.
"Yes, I did have the honor of serving with Cap," he said, "But, this yelling thing ain't gonna work out. Ya can ask me one more thing and we'll just concentrate on that."
The students bunched together and whispered. After some deliberation they broke the huddle and sat down at Logan's feet. Scott posed the group's question.
"Is Captain America the best soldier you have ever fought alongside? If not then who was and when did you serve with them?"
Wolverine spent very little time mulling over his answer before he knew what he was going to say. In truth, there was only one candidate for the position of ultimate soldier. He knew the skills of this man firsthand, as their relationship had both started and ended with Logan unconscious. Though Logan had not aged since that day and his old comrade had, the thirty years that had passed might not change the outcome of that fight.
"Well," Wolverine reached up and scratched the back of his neck, "To tell ya about the best soldier I ever worked with I haveta tell ya about how I got hooked into working for some scum in the CIA, and about how I was recruited into an outfit called the Militaires Sans Frontiers."