X-MEN 2
PRELUDE
More and more changes are happening than ever and now that mutants have less to fear with Mystique in present form as Senator Kelley. The mutant registration act therefore was not passed. More and more people are starting to accept mutants since now more and more children are discovering their powers. But just as many are starting to dislike the mutants also, so there is finally a balance between good and bad. Or at least that's what everyone at Xavier's School for the Gifted…
Chapter 1: The New Beginning
Rick Cage sits on his chair in front of his computer just playing games and other things like he always does on his spare time. Suddenly he hears screaming from his mother and father, which he had gotten used to because he had heard it every moment of every day for four months. He just dismissed it as another bickering moment of theirs. "Their probably arguing over who has to do the dishes or something petty and stupid like that. Why the heck cant they just stop? I mean four months ago they were snuggling and hugging and kissing now they wont come within a mile of each other without the other one threatening to call the cops on them. Geez will it ever end?" Rick just kept on playing until he suddenly heard a loud screech from his mom and then a thud. Rick sat there stunned somehow he knew what had happened and knew what he was going to see if he went into the living room. He knew that his dad had at the very least hit his mom and knocked her onto the floor. Rick braced himself as he turned the doorknob of his room.
He stepped into the hall and looked down at his feet, which were slowly getting wet. As he looked down he saw his moms lifeless body face-up and bleeding from somewhere on her back. By the looks of it she was already dead. Slowly he looked up tears slowly filling his eyes. There standing down the hallway was his father. He had a beer bottle in one hand and a knife from their kitchen in the other. The knife, as well as his hand, was covered in blood. "I didn't do nofin." His father said obviously drunk. Rick couldn't say anything but slowly he felt a hatred and power rising up inside of him. He couldn't move or think. He started to notice that he was making his fists into balls but he wasn't telling his arms to do it. His watery vision turned into a pure red, watery vision. Suddenly he let out a scream that literally echoed for miles. He was now so angry that an almost second mind had taken over now and Rick knew what it was going to do and didn't try to stop it because he knew his father deserved it. Rick looked at his arms and they were getting slightly more bulky and he threw his arms up and the walls around him exploded as a shockwave exploded from his body. Lots of debris flew around and none of it hit Rick almost like there was a protective shield around him. Suddenly all the debris that was now on the ground started lifting up as Rick slowly lifted his arms. The debris pieces of wood and plaster and paint chips all flew at his father at such a fast speed it was barely seeable to the untrained eye but Rick saw its movement clear as day. Rick's father had a few splinters and cuts on him but nothing too serious. This angered Rick more as he yelled again with a blood- curdling shriek. As he screamed the flood and the walls gave way as his invisible power shield expanded to a perfect circle of ten feet in all directions.
You could now see into the rooms next to him. "What are you?" His father asked in aw
"Your worst damn nightmare!" Rick opened his palms up and in them he could see two energy balls in them. He just stared his father down. His father could see that the energy balls were extremely large now. They had expanded to the size to his arms. Rick pointed his palms at his father and clamped his wrists together. His father was going to have no more of this and he charged at Rick. "BIG MISTAKE BUDDY!!!" Rick shouted as his father charged at him. Suddenly his father stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't move!
Rick let out a shout as the energy balls exploded forward from his hands to form a beam that hit his father squarely in the chest. It launched him flying backwards through the living, passed the kitchen and up against the dining room wall. Right as he hit the wall the plasma beam exploded and there was so much dust and debris flying around that nothing could be seen. When the neighbors looked outside to see what had happened they saw that the Cage's right half of the house was gone. And the other half was in bad shape. When they looked inside for survivors they saw the Cage's kid Rick on the floor. Suddenly the woman who had gone to investigate felt a large gust of wind fly over her and then she saw nothing because a dust storm was all around her and the house. She felt another gust of wind and then the dust cleared and Rick was gone! Slowly Rick woke up on a cold medical table to a mans voice telling him to wake up. He could tell he was in a hospital because of the hospital smell. He sat up and saw five people around him. He quickly got very scared. He was in a weird medical lab and lots of people were around him. "Hello, I'm Professor Xavier. How are you feeling?" A man in a wheel chair said to him. His voice was also the voice that was in his head that woke him up. Rick decided not to answer. "There is no need to be afraid. Our people know about you and brought you here before you could do any damage but unfortunately it was too late." Somehow Rick knew that these people were friendly and slowly opened his mouth to speak. "I'm… Ric…." The Professor interrupted him "Wait that is no longer your name what is the name you will your new name be? You are a mutant now. Have you heard of them?"
"Yes, many of my friends are mutants."
"Good. Now we aren't sure what exactly your ability is but if it is not controlled soon I believe it will cause some serious damage. We do know it is triggered by anger."
"My name will be…hmmm…it will be Rage." He thought of it because his name was Rick Cage. If you take the "ick" off of Rick you get R and take out the C in Cage any you get R Age…or Rage.
"Very good name. Now are you okay?"
"Never better actually."
"Good you will be living here. This is my school for mutants. Some can't have interaction with the outside world because of their powers others just have nowhere to go. In your case both, your parents are dead and your ability could cause harm to the outside world."
"I understand. Did I kill him?"
"Well yes and no. Yes you are the person who did it but also no you had no control over it."
"This is Jean Grey." He pointed to a beautiful red haired woman next to him. She was probably in her late 20's. "This is Cyclops." He pointed to a man who was holding Jean's hand. They were obviously a couple. Cyclops wore a pair of red sunglasses that were red tinted. "This is Logan." He pointed to a man who looked slightly disgruntled and hadn't had a shave in 2 years. Yet he had a certain sternness that was very cool about him. Rage knew that he and Logan were going to get along well. "And this is storm." He pointed to a pretty black woman with pure white hair. She seemed pretty cool. Suddenly the door to the room opened as a girl no older than 14 entered. She was very pretty. She had mostly brown hair except a pure white streak in the front part of her hair. She was covered from head to toe in anything. "Ah! And this is Rogue." The Professor said pointing to the girl who had just entered. Rage immediately hopped off the table and squirmed his way to Rogue. He stopped a foot from her and held out a hand and said "Hello I'm Ri…Rage"
"Oh hello…I'm Rogue" She held a stocking covered hand. Rage shook her hand.
"Rogue will show you to your room and around the campus. Rage this is a new beginning for you forget everything that you did before this. You are no longer who you were. You can start all over any mistake you have made has been erased start a new life and do whatever you want with it." The Professor said. Rage totally loved the idea of this school and that he was a mutant. Rage turned to everyone and gave everyone a grin.
"C'mon. I'll show you around. You get to bunk with me." Rogue grabbed Rage's hand and started to bring him with her. They past many places and then they went up a flight of stairs to room 617. She opened the door and to Rage's surprise there were people ready to welcome him inside. There were two girls and a guy. "Rage that is Jubilee and that is my friend Shadowcat. And that handsome guy over there is my boyfriend Bobby.
Rage could tell his expression changed drastically because they were all looking at him funny. Suddenly Rage felt the same feeling he had after he saw his father. Suddenly his color-filled vision turned all different shades of red. He could feel his muscles getting larger and he could feel and aura of power building around himself. He didn't want to hurt anybody so he tried to make it stop. He no longer had control over his own body!
He felt the ground give way out from under him as his aura grew. He noticed there was no ground under him but he was still at the same level as the ground. He was floating! Everyone in the room was backed against the far wall. Suddenly Rage heard everything bad that had been said to him flash through his mind and he saw all the bad things that had happened to him. Suddenly all he wanted was revenge for all that had happened to him. His shirt tore open, as his body grew more muscular. Rage charged at Bobby but suddenly stopped by something in his way. The next thing he saw was Wolverines face and the sound of his claws coming out and severe pain. Everything went black. Rage woke up to the same hospital smell and the cold table. He opened his eyes and tried to sit up but was held back by arm and leg restraints. "Rage?" Said the voice of Jean Grey. "What happened? I need you to explain what you feel when these episodes of anger occur." She said in a voice very soft. "Oh okay…well…hmm," Rage tried to remember but for some reason he couldn't. "I'm sorry I can't remember anything." Rage just couldn't remember. The door to the hospital opened as The Professor wheeled his way into the room and up next to Rage. "Just relax Rage this wont hurt one bit." The Professor entered Rage's mind and searched for his latest memories. He found them and found the memory of what had happened. The Professor was filled with immense anger and hatred not yet fathomed to anyone. And at the same time he felt extreme power. The Professor knew his mental abilities block him from entering his mind while he's mad because he has tried to enter his mind and calm him down before with no success but he can sense Rage's extreme power building when he does get angry. The Professor exits Rage's mind satisfied and with a plan. "Rage, were you ever popular in school?" The Professor said.
"No…I was constantly picked on and beaten up."
"Did you ever try to do anything about it?"
"No I always figured that I couldn't do anything."
"Well then I know the cause of these episodes and maybe how to control them. Jean bring him to the danger room and meet me in the observatory." Rage was brought to a very large room made completely of a weird metal. As he stood there in the room he started to remember the incident and got more and more angry thinking about it then he looked at his stomach, which had a large patch over it. He lifted off the patch to see three stitched-up marks, obviously Wolverines claws. He started to hate everything and he felt the same feeling of hatred and once again he felt his muscles bulge and the aura around him. Only this time the ground didn't give way to the aura. That made him angrier making him think that something can stop him. He yelled a loud angry yell and his aura expanded to a 12-foot circle and he now was extremely large he felt the red go over his eyes and then he powered up his aura some more. Now it was a 15-foot aura. Plasma bolts started to appear inside the aura. He charged his aura up even more and instead of it expanding it shrank to a 2-foot aura that was around him. The aura also changed colors from clear to blue, light clear blue. He felt his hair moving from the immense power he was creating and then a strand of it flapped in front of his eyes and he saw that his hair had gone blue! Suddenly he wasn't angry anymore he could move again and he had control of his actions but he still looked powered up. He heard the Professor in his head say, "Good work now that you can control the anger lets test your power I'll send in a few different things alright?" Rage nodded his head knowing the professor could see him. He looked around and saw a large purple and pink human-robot thing. He had heard of these they were called Sentinels. Created by the government to kill all mutants. This one launches a plasma beam right at Rage and he quickly rolled out of the way and launched two plasma balls from his hands at it they hit it and exploded. There wasn't much damage done to it. This wasn't going to be easy. He was amazed how quickly he could move. Rage concentrating on turning his energy field that is around him into a shield. As he did so the attacks from the Sentinel were lessened. Rage used his time to charge up plasma balls in his hands. After minutes of charging the balls were as big as his power shield. He clamped his wrists together and fired the plasma ball mixed with the other one in his hand made a blast just about 20 feet in all in a perfect circle. The blast hit the sentinel and exploded with a massive explosion. The explosion was so large it shook the ground like a bad earthquake. Once the smoke and debris settled all that was left standing of the sentinel was the tip of one of its fingers. Rage promptly walked over to the fingertip and without any effort launched a small baseball sized plasma ball at it and it vaporized. Rage was tired and also out of power. He looked at the door he came in and saw the professor standing there with a smug grin on his face. "Good work. Everyday after your last class meet me here for more and more training. I would like to see if I could develop the full potential of this immense power of yours." Rage nodded and then his muscles went back to normal size and his hair returned to its normal color. Suddenly Rage felt so weak he couldn't stand or even keep his eyes open. He fell to the floor and then that was the last thing he remembered. This time he woke up in his own bed. And also as a change from what had happened twice before Logan was in a chair next to him. Rage sat up and asked Logan "How long have I been out? I feel like I've slept for days."
"You have been actually."
"Wow really?"
"Yup three to be exact." When he said three his three claws on his right hand came out.
Rage stared at Logan wondering why he passes out when he uses his powers. Then almost on queue he heard the professor's voice in his head saying, "The reason why you pass out when you use your powers is because your body cant handle such an immense amount of energy and it needs to recharge so your body's way of doing that is sleeping."
Rage thought about it for a second and thought it was pretty logical. Logan said after a minute, "The queball in your head?" Rage chuckled because he thought calling the professor that was pretty offensive but funny. "Yeah he's in there." Logan grunted and slipped his claws back into place. He promptly stood up and left the room. "I'd like to see one of your training cessions. So tell me when you're going to train with the queball okay?" Rage nodded his head in recognition. Logan opened the door to Rage's room and left. Just after Logan left Rogue showed up and sat down in the chair Logan had been in.
"You okay?" Rogue said gently.
"Yeah, I am. What time is it?"
"3:00. School just got out."
"Wow! I have to go train."
"Really? Can I watch?"
"Yeah, and bring Logan he wanted to watch also."
"Okay."
Rage stood up, feeling very ready to train, and left letting Rogue leave before him.
Meanwhile at the hiding place of Magneto, Mystique was looking at the floor plans for the plastic jail cell Magneto. She snapped her fingers and walked out of the room. Toad stood with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, it was bandaged. Sabertooth stood next to Toad with bandages around his bandages around his abdomen. Mystique then entered the room and showed the other two several points on the plans.
"Sabertooth, you take the south entrance and take care of the two guards. Toad, use the control panel on the north side to open the door and let me in. You two will have to sneak your way in but I'll disguise myself as a guard." Sabertooth and Toad nodded.
"We'll do it in two weeks giving you guys enough time to heal."
The outside of the school was calm and still and quiet except for an occasional person or two walking by. Rage wondered why they were outside and not inside of the training room. Logan crossed his arms and grunted impatiently. Rogue stood there also with her arms crossed. They were waiting in the middle of the main field of the school because the professor had told them to meet there instead of the training room. Finally after waiting ten minutes the professor showed up with Cyclops and Jean.
"Alright, why are we here?" Logan asked irritably.
"Yeah I wanna train, not stand around admiring the scenery that I see everyday." Rage said.
"Were going to all train in a tournament. There are no rules except any killing. Serious injury and unconsciousness is all perfectly all right. Don't hold back no matter how much they are your friends. Use any attack it does not matter."
Everyone looked at him funny and then Logan laughed.
"You want me too fight these weaklings? I will win."
"Don't be so arrogant. We are probably all stronger than you." Cyclops said in everyone's defense.
"I don't know about you guys but I don't need Cyclops standing up for me. I can hold my own weight." Rage said.
The professor just started wheeling away obviously not listening to everyone's petty bickering. Everyone just shut up and followed him. He soon turned around and faced everyone.
"Now, I will set up a barrier that will not let anything go past a certain point. This barrier is made of Adamantium and cannot be taken down by anything. I hope it will hold."
The professor moved to a control panel and typed in a code and instantly a silver dome 28 feet into the air formed over them. It was also about 80 feet wide and was a good size.
"Rage, Logan, your up first" the professor said hastily.
Everyone backed up to the edge of the dome so that the two could fight in the center.
"Alright professor but this will be quick and easy." Rage said confidently.
"HA! Kid you will be torn up!" Logan said angrily.
Rage just nodded his head in a "yeah right" manner. Logan stepped into the center of the dome and Rage did the same facing him. Lagan threw his jacket behind him and Rage threw his jacket to Rogue who promptly caught it.
"Alright, make this good and don't hold back alright?" The professor said.
Logan and Rage nodded just staring at each other intently. They were very tense even though they tried not to show it. No matter how cocky Logan was it was still hard to tell if the kid was stronger than him or not. Logan then said in a whisper "Kid I wont use my claws because the metal around my bones will be painful enough for you."
Rage laughed and responded, "Well than that will be your demise because I know I will dodge all of your punches." Logan didn't respond. Instead he lashed out with his right hand. He made his hand into a fist and tried to hit Rage in the chest but suddenly Rage jumped over Logan and landed smoothly behind him with their backs to each other. Rage quickly rammed his elbow into Logan's back. Logan turned around and laughed clearly not affected by the hit. Rage smirked and since his hand was still to Logan's back he opened his hand and made his palm face Logan's back. Quickly Rage let out a blast of plasma the size of a basketball into Logan's back. Logan went flying forward very fast and landed on the ground hard. Logan slowly got up and looked behind him to see where the blast had hit him his shirt had ripped open. Logan promptly ripped his shirt off and threw it aside. Now Logan had anger in his eyes that only fierce animals have. Rage stood there with his palm still forward. He let his arm loose and drop to his side. Rage laughed and said "Aww, did I hurt the little baby?" Logan snarled an animal snarl and lunged forward with all his speed. Logan shoved his arm forward in a punch but at the last second extended his claws. The claws pierced through Rage easily. Rage felt immense pain in his right shoulder and then Logan slipped the claws back into his arm. "Aww, did I hurt the little baby?" Logan said smirking and mocking Rage. Rage stumbled backwards hunched over and holding his right shoulder. From where the rest of the people were he heard gasps and the professor saying something, which he didn't catch. Rage was mad and in pain. Rage looked up from the ground and stared at Logan. Suddenly he didn't feel the pain any longer instead an overwhelming sense of power came over him. He stood upright feeling blood dripping down his arm. He shouted a large and loud shout of anger and almost evilness. He felt a surge of energy as a clear-blue aura of power charged around him. He felt his vision slightly blur as his eyes turned red. His hair stood up and turned crimson red. He smiled and jumped into the air and landed on top of Logan using the force of gravity and his own weight to slam Logan. Since he jumped the height of the dome the force of gravity acting with his weight was immense. Logan grunted as he was forced down to the ground. He coughed because he had the wind knocked out of him but as he coughed he also gasped as Rage shot a large ball of plasma at him. It was blue and very large about the size of a car. It hit Logan with extreme force. The blast made a crater the size of half of the dome's diameter. It was a round crater about 10 feet deep. When the smoke and dust cleared there was the life less figure of Logan in the center of the crater. He had second-degree burns over his entire body and some of the skin had been burned clean off and was now exposing shiny silver metal. Rage saw the wounds weren't healing meaning that either he was dead or unconscious. He saw some movement so he knew he wasn't dead. Suddenly Rage realized he couldn't control himself. Rage lifted his hand and launched another plasma ball at Logan, This one even bigger than the first, this one being about the size of an elephant. This was a death-blast and almost nothing could live through it. Rogue jumped in front of the blast at the last second and was blown into Logan, as the crater was almost the size of the dome. Suddenly Rage had control again but he was very tried and his whole body ached so he powered down as the claw hits still bled from his shoulder. Rage ran over to Rogue with his last bit of strength yelling for her. He couldn't hold himself up any longer and he collapsed on top of Rogue's burnt unconscious body. Rage kept drifting in-and-out of consciousness every time he did he'd apologize for hurting anyone and then would go out of consciousness again. His mind was all mixed up and his body ached like the weight of a car was on every atom in his body. Once when he was conscious he noticed everyone huddled around Rogue all looking agitated and worried.
The world came back to him now like a fade-in of a camera but everything was blurred. Soon he was able to see clearly. His body still ached and the room was dark. There were a few lights over some tables, which had large objects on them. It hurt Rage to move his head and look around but he noticed that the large objects were Rogue and Logan. There didn't seem to be anyone else in the room. Logan had large, slightly reddened from his blood, bandages all over his chest and legs and arms. Rogue was bundled with a blanket covering most of her. The door to the sickbay opened and there was Cyclops, Xavier, and Jean in the doorway. The professor went off to look at some machinery that was hooked-up to Logan and Rogue. Jean came over to Rage as Cyclops just looked at the table. As Jean approached she frowned seeing that Rage was awake. Rage was now fully awake and aware what he had done. Rage was so angry with himself as he looked at the lifeless body of Rogue two tables away from him. Jean didn't say anything but just looked at him. Rage sat up feeling so much pain it made tears come to his eyes but he didn't care because he wanted to see if Rogue and Logan were alive. Rage ripped off the different instruments attached to himself and moved himself off of the table to try and stand but as he tried to stand his legs didn't lock and he just fell. Rage was feeling a horrible pain all over and suddenly he couldn't use his legs because he had not enough strength. He crawled past Logan's table and over to Rogue. He used his arms to lift himself up. He heard Jean shouting at him to stop and felt her tugging on his arms but he didn't care he wanted to be with Rogue. He looked at Rogue who only had her face showing under the covers and her face was pale and her eyes were closed.
"She…she.. didn't make it Rage. She died a few minutes ago. I'm so sorry." Jean said reluctantly as Rage looked at Rogue. Rage felt tears in his eyes as he started crying hysterically. Rage knew that this was the second bad thing the world had experienced because of his powers. The world had given him a gift. This gift he couldn't control or use correctly, he felt unworthy of a power so immense.
"This is the second person I've killed because of my damn curse of power. I nearly killed Logan also. I can't control it and therefore I am not worthy to have it. But unfortunately I can't get rid of it without killing myself. I don't deserve to live. I am a danger to anyone who comes in contact with me." Rage said. Rage could not live with the feeling of killing his father and first girlfriend. Rage thought that he could easily kill himself just by powering up to his full power and restraining the energy inside. Basically he would explode, quick and easy. Then he realized that he wasn't sure if that would work.
"Professor, is my power strong to kill myself if the energy is harnessed and not released?" Rage said.
"Yes."
"Then if it kills things alive because it puts so much energy on one place, then maybe it can give energy, like a sort of double negative. My power is a negative energy, it kills, so then wouldn't it do the opposite for things already dead? I mean if you think of my power, as death bringing energy then it is a negative right? Well if something is already dead it already has the death-bringing energy inside of it right? Well those are two negatives like in a mathematics equation; they cancel each other making the outcome the exact opposite of what you had originally. So all I have to do is concentrate my energy on giving instead of releasing."
"No that wouldn't work because giving and releasing are the same thing. And besides this theory is just that, an unproven theory that sounds sort of logical. Besides what if your energy isn't negative?" Cyclops said agitatedly.
"No Scott your wrong. Giving and releasing isn't the same thing. If you have two doves in a cage and you open the first one's cage and the dove flies away, then it is released. But if the second dove, still in its cage, is given to your friend then you have given it to him. And this theory sounds very logical." Xavier said in Rage's defense.
"Theory of Life Bringer, that's what I will call it. I'll show you the equation when I bring Rogue back." Rage said as he moved closer to Rogue. Jean slipped a stool for Rage to sit on so he wouldn't have to hold himself up with his arms.
"But that means that the two combined right? I mean the two negative death energies. So that means either one or the other is absorbed right?" Cyclops said.
"Yeah, it means either I'll die or all my energy will be sucked out of me. And obviously the one giving won't receive it right? I mean if you give a friend a chocolate bar it doesn't just all of a sudden come back to you right? Its simple and logical."
PRELUDE
More and more changes are happening than ever and now that mutants have less to fear with Mystique in present form as Senator Kelley. The mutant registration act therefore was not passed. More and more people are starting to accept mutants since now more and more children are discovering their powers. But just as many are starting to dislike the mutants also, so there is finally a balance between good and bad. Or at least that's what everyone at Xavier's School for the Gifted…
Chapter 1: The New Beginning
Rick Cage sits on his chair in front of his computer just playing games and other things like he always does on his spare time. Suddenly he hears screaming from his mother and father, which he had gotten used to because he had heard it every moment of every day for four months. He just dismissed it as another bickering moment of theirs. "Their probably arguing over who has to do the dishes or something petty and stupid like that. Why the heck cant they just stop? I mean four months ago they were snuggling and hugging and kissing now they wont come within a mile of each other without the other one threatening to call the cops on them. Geez will it ever end?" Rick just kept on playing until he suddenly heard a loud screech from his mom and then a thud. Rick sat there stunned somehow he knew what had happened and knew what he was going to see if he went into the living room. He knew that his dad had at the very least hit his mom and knocked her onto the floor. Rick braced himself as he turned the doorknob of his room.
He stepped into the hall and looked down at his feet, which were slowly getting wet. As he looked down he saw his moms lifeless body face-up and bleeding from somewhere on her back. By the looks of it she was already dead. Slowly he looked up tears slowly filling his eyes. There standing down the hallway was his father. He had a beer bottle in one hand and a knife from their kitchen in the other. The knife, as well as his hand, was covered in blood. "I didn't do nofin." His father said obviously drunk. Rick couldn't say anything but slowly he felt a hatred and power rising up inside of him. He couldn't move or think. He started to notice that he was making his fists into balls but he wasn't telling his arms to do it. His watery vision turned into a pure red, watery vision. Suddenly he let out a scream that literally echoed for miles. He was now so angry that an almost second mind had taken over now and Rick knew what it was going to do and didn't try to stop it because he knew his father deserved it. Rick looked at his arms and they were getting slightly more bulky and he threw his arms up and the walls around him exploded as a shockwave exploded from his body. Lots of debris flew around and none of it hit Rick almost like there was a protective shield around him. Suddenly all the debris that was now on the ground started lifting up as Rick slowly lifted his arms. The debris pieces of wood and plaster and paint chips all flew at his father at such a fast speed it was barely seeable to the untrained eye but Rick saw its movement clear as day. Rick's father had a few splinters and cuts on him but nothing too serious. This angered Rick more as he yelled again with a blood- curdling shriek. As he screamed the flood and the walls gave way as his invisible power shield expanded to a perfect circle of ten feet in all directions.
You could now see into the rooms next to him. "What are you?" His father asked in aw
"Your worst damn nightmare!" Rick opened his palms up and in them he could see two energy balls in them. He just stared his father down. His father could see that the energy balls were extremely large now. They had expanded to the size to his arms. Rick pointed his palms at his father and clamped his wrists together. His father was going to have no more of this and he charged at Rick. "BIG MISTAKE BUDDY!!!" Rick shouted as his father charged at him. Suddenly his father stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't move!
Rick let out a shout as the energy balls exploded forward from his hands to form a beam that hit his father squarely in the chest. It launched him flying backwards through the living, passed the kitchen and up against the dining room wall. Right as he hit the wall the plasma beam exploded and there was so much dust and debris flying around that nothing could be seen. When the neighbors looked outside to see what had happened they saw that the Cage's right half of the house was gone. And the other half was in bad shape. When they looked inside for survivors they saw the Cage's kid Rick on the floor. Suddenly the woman who had gone to investigate felt a large gust of wind fly over her and then she saw nothing because a dust storm was all around her and the house. She felt another gust of wind and then the dust cleared and Rick was gone! Slowly Rick woke up on a cold medical table to a mans voice telling him to wake up. He could tell he was in a hospital because of the hospital smell. He sat up and saw five people around him. He quickly got very scared. He was in a weird medical lab and lots of people were around him. "Hello, I'm Professor Xavier. How are you feeling?" A man in a wheel chair said to him. His voice was also the voice that was in his head that woke him up. Rick decided not to answer. "There is no need to be afraid. Our people know about you and brought you here before you could do any damage but unfortunately it was too late." Somehow Rick knew that these people were friendly and slowly opened his mouth to speak. "I'm… Ric…." The Professor interrupted him "Wait that is no longer your name what is the name you will your new name be? You are a mutant now. Have you heard of them?"
"Yes, many of my friends are mutants."
"Good. Now we aren't sure what exactly your ability is but if it is not controlled soon I believe it will cause some serious damage. We do know it is triggered by anger."
"My name will be…hmmm…it will be Rage." He thought of it because his name was Rick Cage. If you take the "ick" off of Rick you get R and take out the C in Cage any you get R Age…or Rage.
"Very good name. Now are you okay?"
"Never better actually."
"Good you will be living here. This is my school for mutants. Some can't have interaction with the outside world because of their powers others just have nowhere to go. In your case both, your parents are dead and your ability could cause harm to the outside world."
"I understand. Did I kill him?"
"Well yes and no. Yes you are the person who did it but also no you had no control over it."
"This is Jean Grey." He pointed to a beautiful red haired woman next to him. She was probably in her late 20's. "This is Cyclops." He pointed to a man who was holding Jean's hand. They were obviously a couple. Cyclops wore a pair of red sunglasses that were red tinted. "This is Logan." He pointed to a man who looked slightly disgruntled and hadn't had a shave in 2 years. Yet he had a certain sternness that was very cool about him. Rage knew that he and Logan were going to get along well. "And this is storm." He pointed to a pretty black woman with pure white hair. She seemed pretty cool. Suddenly the door to the room opened as a girl no older than 14 entered. She was very pretty. She had mostly brown hair except a pure white streak in the front part of her hair. She was covered from head to toe in anything. "Ah! And this is Rogue." The Professor said pointing to the girl who had just entered. Rage immediately hopped off the table and squirmed his way to Rogue. He stopped a foot from her and held out a hand and said "Hello I'm Ri…Rage"
"Oh hello…I'm Rogue" She held a stocking covered hand. Rage shook her hand.
"Rogue will show you to your room and around the campus. Rage this is a new beginning for you forget everything that you did before this. You are no longer who you were. You can start all over any mistake you have made has been erased start a new life and do whatever you want with it." The Professor said. Rage totally loved the idea of this school and that he was a mutant. Rage turned to everyone and gave everyone a grin.
"C'mon. I'll show you around. You get to bunk with me." Rogue grabbed Rage's hand and started to bring him with her. They past many places and then they went up a flight of stairs to room 617. She opened the door and to Rage's surprise there were people ready to welcome him inside. There were two girls and a guy. "Rage that is Jubilee and that is my friend Shadowcat. And that handsome guy over there is my boyfriend Bobby.
Rage could tell his expression changed drastically because they were all looking at him funny. Suddenly Rage felt the same feeling he had after he saw his father. Suddenly his color-filled vision turned all different shades of red. He could feel his muscles getting larger and he could feel and aura of power building around himself. He didn't want to hurt anybody so he tried to make it stop. He no longer had control over his own body!
He felt the ground give way out from under him as his aura grew. He noticed there was no ground under him but he was still at the same level as the ground. He was floating! Everyone in the room was backed against the far wall. Suddenly Rage heard everything bad that had been said to him flash through his mind and he saw all the bad things that had happened to him. Suddenly all he wanted was revenge for all that had happened to him. His shirt tore open, as his body grew more muscular. Rage charged at Bobby but suddenly stopped by something in his way. The next thing he saw was Wolverines face and the sound of his claws coming out and severe pain. Everything went black. Rage woke up to the same hospital smell and the cold table. He opened his eyes and tried to sit up but was held back by arm and leg restraints. "Rage?" Said the voice of Jean Grey. "What happened? I need you to explain what you feel when these episodes of anger occur." She said in a voice very soft. "Oh okay…well…hmm," Rage tried to remember but for some reason he couldn't. "I'm sorry I can't remember anything." Rage just couldn't remember. The door to the hospital opened as The Professor wheeled his way into the room and up next to Rage. "Just relax Rage this wont hurt one bit." The Professor entered Rage's mind and searched for his latest memories. He found them and found the memory of what had happened. The Professor was filled with immense anger and hatred not yet fathomed to anyone. And at the same time he felt extreme power. The Professor knew his mental abilities block him from entering his mind while he's mad because he has tried to enter his mind and calm him down before with no success but he can sense Rage's extreme power building when he does get angry. The Professor exits Rage's mind satisfied and with a plan. "Rage, were you ever popular in school?" The Professor said.
"No…I was constantly picked on and beaten up."
"Did you ever try to do anything about it?"
"No I always figured that I couldn't do anything."
"Well then I know the cause of these episodes and maybe how to control them. Jean bring him to the danger room and meet me in the observatory." Rage was brought to a very large room made completely of a weird metal. As he stood there in the room he started to remember the incident and got more and more angry thinking about it then he looked at his stomach, which had a large patch over it. He lifted off the patch to see three stitched-up marks, obviously Wolverines claws. He started to hate everything and he felt the same feeling of hatred and once again he felt his muscles bulge and the aura around him. Only this time the ground didn't give way to the aura. That made him angrier making him think that something can stop him. He yelled a loud angry yell and his aura expanded to a 12-foot circle and he now was extremely large he felt the red go over his eyes and then he powered up his aura some more. Now it was a 15-foot aura. Plasma bolts started to appear inside the aura. He charged his aura up even more and instead of it expanding it shrank to a 2-foot aura that was around him. The aura also changed colors from clear to blue, light clear blue. He felt his hair moving from the immense power he was creating and then a strand of it flapped in front of his eyes and he saw that his hair had gone blue! Suddenly he wasn't angry anymore he could move again and he had control of his actions but he still looked powered up. He heard the Professor in his head say, "Good work now that you can control the anger lets test your power I'll send in a few different things alright?" Rage nodded his head knowing the professor could see him. He looked around and saw a large purple and pink human-robot thing. He had heard of these they were called Sentinels. Created by the government to kill all mutants. This one launches a plasma beam right at Rage and he quickly rolled out of the way and launched two plasma balls from his hands at it they hit it and exploded. There wasn't much damage done to it. This wasn't going to be easy. He was amazed how quickly he could move. Rage concentrating on turning his energy field that is around him into a shield. As he did so the attacks from the Sentinel were lessened. Rage used his time to charge up plasma balls in his hands. After minutes of charging the balls were as big as his power shield. He clamped his wrists together and fired the plasma ball mixed with the other one in his hand made a blast just about 20 feet in all in a perfect circle. The blast hit the sentinel and exploded with a massive explosion. The explosion was so large it shook the ground like a bad earthquake. Once the smoke and debris settled all that was left standing of the sentinel was the tip of one of its fingers. Rage promptly walked over to the fingertip and without any effort launched a small baseball sized plasma ball at it and it vaporized. Rage was tired and also out of power. He looked at the door he came in and saw the professor standing there with a smug grin on his face. "Good work. Everyday after your last class meet me here for more and more training. I would like to see if I could develop the full potential of this immense power of yours." Rage nodded and then his muscles went back to normal size and his hair returned to its normal color. Suddenly Rage felt so weak he couldn't stand or even keep his eyes open. He fell to the floor and then that was the last thing he remembered. This time he woke up in his own bed. And also as a change from what had happened twice before Logan was in a chair next to him. Rage sat up and asked Logan "How long have I been out? I feel like I've slept for days."
"You have been actually."
"Wow really?"
"Yup three to be exact." When he said three his three claws on his right hand came out.
Rage stared at Logan wondering why he passes out when he uses his powers. Then almost on queue he heard the professor's voice in his head saying, "The reason why you pass out when you use your powers is because your body cant handle such an immense amount of energy and it needs to recharge so your body's way of doing that is sleeping."
Rage thought about it for a second and thought it was pretty logical. Logan said after a minute, "The queball in your head?" Rage chuckled because he thought calling the professor that was pretty offensive but funny. "Yeah he's in there." Logan grunted and slipped his claws back into place. He promptly stood up and left the room. "I'd like to see one of your training cessions. So tell me when you're going to train with the queball okay?" Rage nodded his head in recognition. Logan opened the door to Rage's room and left. Just after Logan left Rogue showed up and sat down in the chair Logan had been in.
"You okay?" Rogue said gently.
"Yeah, I am. What time is it?"
"3:00. School just got out."
"Wow! I have to go train."
"Really? Can I watch?"
"Yeah, and bring Logan he wanted to watch also."
"Okay."
Rage stood up, feeling very ready to train, and left letting Rogue leave before him.
Meanwhile at the hiding place of Magneto, Mystique was looking at the floor plans for the plastic jail cell Magneto. She snapped her fingers and walked out of the room. Toad stood with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, it was bandaged. Sabertooth stood next to Toad with bandages around his bandages around his abdomen. Mystique then entered the room and showed the other two several points on the plans.
"Sabertooth, you take the south entrance and take care of the two guards. Toad, use the control panel on the north side to open the door and let me in. You two will have to sneak your way in but I'll disguise myself as a guard." Sabertooth and Toad nodded.
"We'll do it in two weeks giving you guys enough time to heal."
The outside of the school was calm and still and quiet except for an occasional person or two walking by. Rage wondered why they were outside and not inside of the training room. Logan crossed his arms and grunted impatiently. Rogue stood there also with her arms crossed. They were waiting in the middle of the main field of the school because the professor had told them to meet there instead of the training room. Finally after waiting ten minutes the professor showed up with Cyclops and Jean.
"Alright, why are we here?" Logan asked irritably.
"Yeah I wanna train, not stand around admiring the scenery that I see everyday." Rage said.
"Were going to all train in a tournament. There are no rules except any killing. Serious injury and unconsciousness is all perfectly all right. Don't hold back no matter how much they are your friends. Use any attack it does not matter."
Everyone looked at him funny and then Logan laughed.
"You want me too fight these weaklings? I will win."
"Don't be so arrogant. We are probably all stronger than you." Cyclops said in everyone's defense.
"I don't know about you guys but I don't need Cyclops standing up for me. I can hold my own weight." Rage said.
The professor just started wheeling away obviously not listening to everyone's petty bickering. Everyone just shut up and followed him. He soon turned around and faced everyone.
"Now, I will set up a barrier that will not let anything go past a certain point. This barrier is made of Adamantium and cannot be taken down by anything. I hope it will hold."
The professor moved to a control panel and typed in a code and instantly a silver dome 28 feet into the air formed over them. It was also about 80 feet wide and was a good size.
"Rage, Logan, your up first" the professor said hastily.
Everyone backed up to the edge of the dome so that the two could fight in the center.
"Alright professor but this will be quick and easy." Rage said confidently.
"HA! Kid you will be torn up!" Logan said angrily.
Rage just nodded his head in a "yeah right" manner. Logan stepped into the center of the dome and Rage did the same facing him. Lagan threw his jacket behind him and Rage threw his jacket to Rogue who promptly caught it.
"Alright, make this good and don't hold back alright?" The professor said.
Logan and Rage nodded just staring at each other intently. They were very tense even though they tried not to show it. No matter how cocky Logan was it was still hard to tell if the kid was stronger than him or not. Logan then said in a whisper "Kid I wont use my claws because the metal around my bones will be painful enough for you."
Rage laughed and responded, "Well than that will be your demise because I know I will dodge all of your punches." Logan didn't respond. Instead he lashed out with his right hand. He made his hand into a fist and tried to hit Rage in the chest but suddenly Rage jumped over Logan and landed smoothly behind him with their backs to each other. Rage quickly rammed his elbow into Logan's back. Logan turned around and laughed clearly not affected by the hit. Rage smirked and since his hand was still to Logan's back he opened his hand and made his palm face Logan's back. Quickly Rage let out a blast of plasma the size of a basketball into Logan's back. Logan went flying forward very fast and landed on the ground hard. Logan slowly got up and looked behind him to see where the blast had hit him his shirt had ripped open. Logan promptly ripped his shirt off and threw it aside. Now Logan had anger in his eyes that only fierce animals have. Rage stood there with his palm still forward. He let his arm loose and drop to his side. Rage laughed and said "Aww, did I hurt the little baby?" Logan snarled an animal snarl and lunged forward with all his speed. Logan shoved his arm forward in a punch but at the last second extended his claws. The claws pierced through Rage easily. Rage felt immense pain in his right shoulder and then Logan slipped the claws back into his arm. "Aww, did I hurt the little baby?" Logan said smirking and mocking Rage. Rage stumbled backwards hunched over and holding his right shoulder. From where the rest of the people were he heard gasps and the professor saying something, which he didn't catch. Rage was mad and in pain. Rage looked up from the ground and stared at Logan. Suddenly he didn't feel the pain any longer instead an overwhelming sense of power came over him. He stood upright feeling blood dripping down his arm. He shouted a large and loud shout of anger and almost evilness. He felt a surge of energy as a clear-blue aura of power charged around him. He felt his vision slightly blur as his eyes turned red. His hair stood up and turned crimson red. He smiled and jumped into the air and landed on top of Logan using the force of gravity and his own weight to slam Logan. Since he jumped the height of the dome the force of gravity acting with his weight was immense. Logan grunted as he was forced down to the ground. He coughed because he had the wind knocked out of him but as he coughed he also gasped as Rage shot a large ball of plasma at him. It was blue and very large about the size of a car. It hit Logan with extreme force. The blast made a crater the size of half of the dome's diameter. It was a round crater about 10 feet deep. When the smoke and dust cleared there was the life less figure of Logan in the center of the crater. He had second-degree burns over his entire body and some of the skin had been burned clean off and was now exposing shiny silver metal. Rage saw the wounds weren't healing meaning that either he was dead or unconscious. He saw some movement so he knew he wasn't dead. Suddenly Rage realized he couldn't control himself. Rage lifted his hand and launched another plasma ball at Logan, This one even bigger than the first, this one being about the size of an elephant. This was a death-blast and almost nothing could live through it. Rogue jumped in front of the blast at the last second and was blown into Logan, as the crater was almost the size of the dome. Suddenly Rage had control again but he was very tried and his whole body ached so he powered down as the claw hits still bled from his shoulder. Rage ran over to Rogue with his last bit of strength yelling for her. He couldn't hold himself up any longer and he collapsed on top of Rogue's burnt unconscious body. Rage kept drifting in-and-out of consciousness every time he did he'd apologize for hurting anyone and then would go out of consciousness again. His mind was all mixed up and his body ached like the weight of a car was on every atom in his body. Once when he was conscious he noticed everyone huddled around Rogue all looking agitated and worried.
The world came back to him now like a fade-in of a camera but everything was blurred. Soon he was able to see clearly. His body still ached and the room was dark. There were a few lights over some tables, which had large objects on them. It hurt Rage to move his head and look around but he noticed that the large objects were Rogue and Logan. There didn't seem to be anyone else in the room. Logan had large, slightly reddened from his blood, bandages all over his chest and legs and arms. Rogue was bundled with a blanket covering most of her. The door to the sickbay opened and there was Cyclops, Xavier, and Jean in the doorway. The professor went off to look at some machinery that was hooked-up to Logan and Rogue. Jean came over to Rage as Cyclops just looked at the table. As Jean approached she frowned seeing that Rage was awake. Rage was now fully awake and aware what he had done. Rage was so angry with himself as he looked at the lifeless body of Rogue two tables away from him. Jean didn't say anything but just looked at him. Rage sat up feeling so much pain it made tears come to his eyes but he didn't care because he wanted to see if Rogue and Logan were alive. Rage ripped off the different instruments attached to himself and moved himself off of the table to try and stand but as he tried to stand his legs didn't lock and he just fell. Rage was feeling a horrible pain all over and suddenly he couldn't use his legs because he had not enough strength. He crawled past Logan's table and over to Rogue. He used his arms to lift himself up. He heard Jean shouting at him to stop and felt her tugging on his arms but he didn't care he wanted to be with Rogue. He looked at Rogue who only had her face showing under the covers and her face was pale and her eyes were closed.
"She…she.. didn't make it Rage. She died a few minutes ago. I'm so sorry." Jean said reluctantly as Rage looked at Rogue. Rage felt tears in his eyes as he started crying hysterically. Rage knew that this was the second bad thing the world had experienced because of his powers. The world had given him a gift. This gift he couldn't control or use correctly, he felt unworthy of a power so immense.
"This is the second person I've killed because of my damn curse of power. I nearly killed Logan also. I can't control it and therefore I am not worthy to have it. But unfortunately I can't get rid of it without killing myself. I don't deserve to live. I am a danger to anyone who comes in contact with me." Rage said. Rage could not live with the feeling of killing his father and first girlfriend. Rage thought that he could easily kill himself just by powering up to his full power and restraining the energy inside. Basically he would explode, quick and easy. Then he realized that he wasn't sure if that would work.
"Professor, is my power strong to kill myself if the energy is harnessed and not released?" Rage said.
"Yes."
"Then if it kills things alive because it puts so much energy on one place, then maybe it can give energy, like a sort of double negative. My power is a negative energy, it kills, so then wouldn't it do the opposite for things already dead? I mean if you think of my power, as death bringing energy then it is a negative right? Well if something is already dead it already has the death-bringing energy inside of it right? Well those are two negatives like in a mathematics equation; they cancel each other making the outcome the exact opposite of what you had originally. So all I have to do is concentrate my energy on giving instead of releasing."
"No that wouldn't work because giving and releasing are the same thing. And besides this theory is just that, an unproven theory that sounds sort of logical. Besides what if your energy isn't negative?" Cyclops said agitatedly.
"No Scott your wrong. Giving and releasing isn't the same thing. If you have two doves in a cage and you open the first one's cage and the dove flies away, then it is released. But if the second dove, still in its cage, is given to your friend then you have given it to him. And this theory sounds very logical." Xavier said in Rage's defense.
"Theory of Life Bringer, that's what I will call it. I'll show you the equation when I bring Rogue back." Rage said as he moved closer to Rogue. Jean slipped a stool for Rage to sit on so he wouldn't have to hold himself up with his arms.
"But that means that the two combined right? I mean the two negative death energies. So that means either one or the other is absorbed right?" Cyclops said.
"Yeah, it means either I'll die or all my energy will be sucked out of me. And obviously the one giving won't receive it right? I mean if you give a friend a chocolate bar it doesn't just all of a sudden come back to you right? Its simple and logical."