FERAL BONDS
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with the X-men or a small island in the Pacific. This is for fun, nothing more.
"Gawd, not today" Rogue sighed as she watched the train wreck of her day get even worse as Lance once again tried to get Kitty to go on a date with him, for the third time, today.
Rogue sighed.
Again.
Loudly.
Kitty's valley-girl voice pierced the din of the mid-break hallway. "Like, are you even listening to me? I said no!"
Lance, unperturbed by this seeming act of denial on Kitty's part grinned as he leaned against her locker. "Come on babe, you know we are perfect together. You remember how well we meshed when your powers came out."
Rogue debated whether or not sticking around was even worth listening to Lance make an ass out of himself in public again, or if she would just deal with Kitty's whining that she got left behind once she got back to Baldy's. A brief mental image of Kitty whining and moaning again flashed through her head. Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Rogue slammed her locker door closed and stalked down the hall. Shoving an unlucky freshman out of her way, she grabbed Lance's shirt and slammed him into the wall.
"Listen to mah Alvers, leave Kitty alone or ah'm gonna put yah in the Gawd damn hospital again, YA HEAR MEH!"
Normally, this declaration would have caught the attention of at least a few passing students, but then again, they had gotten used to what had become called "Rogueisims" by the current reigning student council.
Lance raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey Rogue, little respect for an old teammate here?"
Rogue practically growled as she bounced Lance off the the brick wall. "Piss off Alvers. You ain't mah teammate, and you ain't mah friend, so just scram before I get mad."
Lance looked at Rogue's eyes and saw dancing sparks of flame in them and made his first intelligent decision of the week. "Sure Roguey, whatever." He mock rolled his eyes. "Don't worry Kitty, I'll call you later." With his last word said, he beat a hasty retreat as the bell rang. Rogue and Kitty just stood in the rapidly clearing hallway, neither of them saying anything that would break the companionable silence.
But of course, Kitty being Kitty, couldn't let something vile like a companionable silence live, spoke out. "Like thanks Rogue. I was getting like totally angry at him."
Rogue kept her mouth shut, thinking of the look she had started to see on Kitty's face just before she had jumped in, true, honest to goodness anger.
Snapping her fingers twice in front of her fashion victim's face, Kitty spoke. "You like, ok there Rogue?"
Rogue's attention snapped back from her musings to the spunky mutant that she had been rooming with since she came to the X-men. She shifted into her standard confident "I don't give a damn" pose and smirked at Kitty. "Of course ah'm fine, takes more than Alvers to screw meh up."
"Thanks again Rogue, I like owe you one." Kitty smiled and tore off down the hallway to yet another class.
Somewhere in the mountains of Colorado
The General stood with his hands behind his back, gazing stoically at the scene on the other side of the window before speaking. "Congratulations Dr. Sorenson, Home Watch is impressed with the progress you've been making with the new Weapon project. There is even talk that Secretary Douglas is revising his statement about you being a poor risk after your failure in Canada."
Dr. Sorenson tore his eyes off the final setup for the last implantation procedure and an oily political smile crossed his face. "Thank you General, the Secretary's tolerance has been invaluable in the reconstitution of the Weapon X program here in the States." 'You pompous ass, you Home Watch cretins don't know what you're dealing with here. Mutants in the military? A fantasy I've created to get funding.' His eyes slid over to another monitor in the console as it began scrolling data. 'Oh yes, with the Mk2 program almost complete, I'll have created the perfect mutant hunter!'
Leaning forward with a glint of madness in his eyes, he watched the monitor change to his favorite view, a brightly lit cage covered with filth in the center of a cavernous white room. His eyes blazed with determination when they fell on the lump of flesh that was in the corner, barely moving. After a few moments, he remarked, "After today General, there will only be one more implantation procedure to finish and the Mk2 will be on-line and operational." On the screen, men moved towards the cage armed with tranquilizer guns. They showed no reaction to the suddenly snarling body as it tore itself off the floor and lunged at the bars. Calmly raising their rifles, seven shots barked as one and the body smashed to the floor, still as death. The attendants waited a moment then removed the subject and left the screen.
"We already have the secure base prepped for it's training once you are done Doctor." The silence stretched for a few seconds before the General continued, "This time the subject is secure correct? We don't want a repeat of Canada Doctor."
Dr. Sorenson winced as he was once again reminded of the escape of his previous subject from the original Weapon X experiment. 'Wolverine' "Don't worry General, this location is completely secure." He rapped his knuckles against the glass separating them from the implantation lab. "Take this window for example, twenty-eight inches of hardened bulletproof glass that sandwiches four inches of BakeLite tactical foam. Not even the Oval Office is more secure than this room."
Before the General could respond, a gurney crashed through the doors and was maneuvered into the lab with an unconscious form laying on it. The white-clothed attendants rolled the subject to a nearly vertical harness and proceeded to strap it in spread-eagled and with his arms straight out to the sides.
The General's eyebrow arched at the obviously routine procedure and he asked, "How exactly do you restrain it? From the data we were given, the subject's enhanced healing factor would make it operationally immune to sedatives."
Sorenson grinned as he began to explain. "It's actually pretty easy to render him immobile when you know his genetic structure to the last base-pair General, and in all actuality, he's not sedated. You are correct, it wouldn't be practical to use a sedative on him, so we had to... improvise."
"How so Doctor?" The smile the doctor had was beginning to unnerve the General, there was more than a small hint of insanity peeking out from behind his eyes as he spoke now.
Sorenson stood up and the pair began walking to the observation window. "As I said, it's pretty simple. We don't use a sedative, we use a neurotoxin."
A brow lifted in question, "And that doesn't damage the subject?"
"No General, it doesn't." Lifting a finger to his chin for a moment, he continued. "Well, it does. The particular neurotoxin we use is exceedingly painful as it destroys the nerves in the subject's spinal column."
"You say that like it doesn't matter Doctor. Spinal nerve damage is serious."
Sorenson waved off the General's concern and continued. "Using the toxin has multiple benefits for us here General." His fingers started ticking off, "First, it's fast acting. Second, it's the only thing that will incapacitate it for more than a few seconds. Third, the subject never actually looses consciousness, and fourth, the subject has no long-term effects from the nerve damage. The enhancements we put into it's healing factor clear up the damage in fifteen minutes at the high end." Sorenson broke off as the scientists finished their setup and picked up their tools.
He smiled without turning. "Well General, here is the moment you traveled here to see, the implantation of adamantium into a living body." His grin grew even larger.
The General stared into the lab, speechless as he saw the subject start to move again."You are positive it is secure in there Doctor correct?"
Sorenson sneered. "Of course I am General. We have done this before."
The General saw the lab technicians pick up scalpels and begin making incisions. He swallowed hard. "What kind of anesthetic do you use on it? You said it burned sedatives out of it's system too fast."
A sharp bark erupted from Sorenson's mouth. "Anesthetic? You're correct General when you say that the subject burns it out of it's system too fast to be practical. So we took the easy route, we don't bother with anesthetic."
The General's face lost a touch of color. "So you are vivisecting it without a painkiller?"
Sorenson glanced at the General with a quizzical expression on his face. "Of course we are. It's just a mutant. In fact, is just a mutant that WE made. Who cares if we give it anesthetic or not?"
The General's eyes were locked on the now screaming and writhing figure in the next room. He followed each and every movement of the scalpels as they tore skin and muscle from bone and the results were attached to clamps on the harness. 'My God, are they spreading it's...no, not it's, his chest open?' The General caught a glance of a bloody hand winding a thick strip of metal around the boy's ribs and was forced to turn away when he saw the bluish-white glare of a welding torch spark.
The last thing he noticed before her strode from the room was the never ending screams.
Back at the Mansion
Logan strolled into Xavier's, still wiping the sweat of his body from the self-defense class he was paged from, his trademark scowl in full effect."What is it Chuck, I was busy. Those kids aren't gonna train themselves"
Xavier merely shook his head at Logan's gruff exterior, years of association with the taciturn man had taught him to read his mood. "We might have a new mutant on our hands Logan. Cerebro has been picking up intermittent signals from somewhere in Colorado. Unfortunately, it's not able to give any more information."
Logan snorted. "So...what? Is Cerebro broken again? Or is Half-Pint screwing around with the mansion?"
A rare chuckle escaped Xavier's lips. "Ms Pryde was my first suspect as well, but no, she had nothing to do with it. I had Ororo run a full diagnostic on Cerebro and everything is functioning normally. It seems as though the mutant is in our world for just a few seconds before it disappears again."
Logan flopped down on a couch after tossing his towel into a trashcan and stuck his trademark cigar into the corner of his mouth before replying. "So it's another porter like the Elf?"
Xavier sighed. "I don't honestly know Logan. I would like to say no due to the fact that Kurt is only gone for a fraction of a second between his teleports, and this mutant is gone for hours at a time." His hands raised to his temples. "And there is another concern. When I try to contact them telepathicaly, the only thing I can determine is that the mutant is in pain, great pain."
Logan sat back in the chair and chewed on the cigar, lost in his own thoughts about the mutant. 'Another porter like the elf. Great. Wait a sec...' Yanking the stub out of his mouth, he spoke. "You said somewhere in Colorado Chuck. Where exactly in Colorado are they?"
Xavier sighed. "I honestly don't know Logan. Cerebro is unable to narrow the search down any further due to the intermittent contact we are receiving. But I am worried, the mutant is in pain. We need to locate him or her as soon as possible."
"Well, don't know what you expect me to do about it Chuck. But I'll get the team ready for another field trip. I got a feeling we're gonna be heading out real soon.
Xavier turned back to Cerebro. "I hope so Logan, I dearly hope so." Xavier turned back to Cerebro.
AN: Ok. I know what you're all thinking. "This is exactly the same as before!" Well, it kinda is, but cleaned up and, heaven forbid, spellchecked!
Either way, I would appreciate constructive criticism, the more detailed the better. If you see something that looks out of place, let me know about it, I have no beta, so I'm going to have to inflict this on you all as is and I'd like to get better.