Set after XMEN 3.
N/B: Scott Summers, Jean Grey & Professor Xavier are all still dead like at the end of X Men 3.
All characters completely and utterly copyright to Marvel comics. No profit, purely for fun, I love X Men!
Chapter 1: A Whole Army of Something
It had been exactly two and a half years since the death of Jean Grey. He remembered it well, fighting against everything to get up that hill, to reach her at the top, to convince her in vain that that wasn't who she was, and that the Jean Grey he knew was in there somewhere still. She just needed saving.
Oh, he had saved her alright, he thought bitterly. He had spent two and a half years trying to convince himself that what he did was right, but somehow he never managed to. He'd spent countless nights chanting over and over in his mind; I should have given her the damn cure.
But the cure couldn't have saved her. She had already seemed half dead then, mind and soul. She would never have been the same Jean, his Jean. Jean was so corrupt, some completely and utterly dirty in the sense that her entire being and innocence had been stripped of her, that it was almost impossible to find even an ounce of Jean. But he'd found it, at the mansion, in the medical room, holding onto her face, as she broke down in his arms. He'd found Jean when she begged him to save her, and he did, plunging his claws into her stomach, piercing her insides, piercing her soul. He had set her free.
"Logan?" Someone from his right asked him as he sat in the pub drinking his second bottle of beer. He hardly glanced up, ignoring them. The person gave him a jab in the arm and said more loudly;
"Logan." This time it wasn't a question, and the stone cold edge to their voice finally rose Logan's head. He gasped.
"Storm?" A woman, with shoulder length ash white hair grinned at him, her chocolate lips stretching over her pearly white teeth. Her eyes were dark and smiling at him as she leant over a bar stool to give him a tentative hug. Logan just froze under her touch, willing his arms like a robot to half heartedly hug her back.
"What are you doing here?" Logan asked her, motioning for her to sit. Storm did so, smiling at the bartender.
"A rum and coke, please." She said to him before turning back to Logan. Storm sighed and flicked her hair behind her shoulders. "I've been looking for you for half a year now, Logan."
"What for?" He asked her, taking a sip of his beer, staring at the rows and rows of bottles on the shelf behind the bar. "Missed me?" He smirked at her. She rolled her eyes comically.
"We need your help." Storm admitted, taking her rum and coke with a smile. She swirled the concoction in her glass before taking a gulp, relishing the feel of it as it ran down her throat in a comforting way. She was shaking as she placed her drink back down on the bar.
"Sorry Storm, I'm not into this whole X-Men thing any more." Logan mumbled, shrugging, not taking his eyes off the rows of bottles. "I haven't been for nearly three years now."
"I know Logan but this is urgent. I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't a dire emergency."
"What is it?" Logan sighed wearily, rubbing his tired eyes before finishing off his beer. He motioned to the bartender for another.
"It's Magneto." She replied, staring at his profile with a stone cold glare. Logan looked up at her then, curiosity and shock a mixture on his tired face. Storm realised just how much of a toll Jean's death was on him. She could see the dark circles under his eyes, the deep set worry lines on his brow and the loss of..well, the loss of Logan in his eyes.
"Magneto? Storm, you do realise he's human now-" Logan started lazily.
"No, he's not. That's the thing." Storm cut across him, but then Logan cut back across her sharply.
"We gave him the cure! He's not a mutant any more." Logan gritted through his teeth, accepting the beer the bartender pushed at him with a beady eye. "Go back to pulling pints." He spat at him before taking a long swig of his beer. The bartender shuffled to the other side of the bar. Storm eyed him strangely, but let it pass.
"For almost six months now he's been building an army-"
"He tried that trick years ago Storm. I doubt he's trying to do it again." Logan said, as he turned around to face her, beer bottle in hand.
"Will you just let me finish?" She snapped at him, rolling her eyes. Logan fought the urge to do the same notion back. Logan waved her to carry on. "He's been building an army with a completely different motive." She paused, waiting for Logan to say something. When he didn't, and just raised an eyebrow, she carried on. "He's planning on creating a new generation of mutants."
Logan stared at her then cracked up. Storm looked startled. Logan instantly stopped laughing and took a swig of his beer.
"Yeah fucking right Storm." Logan replied. "Either your just trying to get me back to the mansion or you're seriously just screwing with me."
"I'm serious Logan! Magneto is up to something. A whole army of something." Storm glared at him.
"Right, and how's he going to do that without any power?" Humour her, he thought.
"We don't know Logan!" Storm answered distressed. She polished off her drink and shook her head at another one as the bartender came over. He shrugged and moved off. "Logan, we think he's starting to get his powers back, we don't know how but they're getting stronger, almost like they're manifesting all over again and at high speed."
"How is that even possible?" Logan asked, fully intrigued now.
"We don't have a clue. That's why we need all the help we can get." Storm looked at him expectantly. Logan sighed a long sigh and rubbed his hands over his tired worn face for a long moment. When he eventually looked up he shook his head at her, much to her dismay.
"I can't go back Storm. I just can't." Logan admitted bitterly.
"Why not? Because of Jean?" Logan visibly flinched at her words. "She's dead, Logan. We have to move on, she would have wanted-"
"Don't tell me what she would have wanted for me." Logan spat at her, so venomously that Storm flinched at his words.
"You're not going to help us at all? You're just going to sit here, drink yourself to death and grieve over the loss of someone who died two and a half years ago." Storm half shouted, standing up off her stool so violently it topped over. The bar fell silent as everyone eyed the two mutants amongst the throng of humans glaring at each other with rage. Storm's eyes had become dangerously cloudy.
"Yes, pretty much, as I have been nearly every day since." Logan replied casually and incoherently. "There's no point trying to protect them-" Logan shot a filthy look at the other people in the bar, who shifted in their seats uncomfortably. "-they all bloody hate us anyway."
"That is so like you Logan." Storm said as she made her way to the door, zipping up her leather jacket. She stopped when she got to the door and turned around to look at the side of Logan's face, who had resumed staring at the back of the bar again.
"Remember what I told you Storm?" Logan said, not looking at her."All those years ago, about choosing the right side? Are you still sure you've chosen the right one?"
"Remember when I said at least I've chosen a side, Logan." Storm snapped back before exiting the bar, slamming the door behind her.
Sighing Logan left his empty bottle of beer on the wooden surface of the bar and made his way over to the boxing ring.
"Hey guys, up for a fight?" He asked them, leaning an arm on the side of the cage. Two beefy men exchanged glances before saying;
"Hell no, we know exactly what you are, you filth." They spat at him before laughing to themselves. Logan eyed the sweaty men with disgust before shrugging nonchalantly.
"No claws." Logan said, holding up his hands in mock surrender. The men exchanged glances before one of them grinned widely, missing half his teeth in his mouth.
"'right fine. It's on." The man said as his opponent jumped out of the cage, shaking his head.
"There ain't no way I'm betting against him mate." He said to his friend who was waiting for Logan as he removed his jacket and shirt.
"Fuck you Steve." The man said to Steve, who raised an eyebrow and moved off to the bar.
"You ready, freak?" The man grinned to Logan as he got in a fighting stance.
"Yeah, if you're ready to get-" Logan started as he adjusted the belt of his Jeans in the cage, but he was cut off abruptly by a blow to the stomach. Logan groaned, recovering as he quickly sparred the man in the face with two quick punches and an uppercut to the nose.
"Bastard!" The guy shouted as he stumbled backwards, his nose broken and bloody, his eye already pulsing largely. "What the actual fuck!"
"What's that?" Logan mocked, leaning forward sarcastically touching his ear, smirking to himself.
"Felt like I've been whacked in the face with something metal!" The guy screeched, searching Logan's hands with his eyes for something metallic.
"Not far off mate." Logan muttered as he flexed his fingers.
"Fuck this I'm out of here." The guy said as he climbed out the cage, clutching his nose.
"Well that was boring." Logan said aloud, as he turned to see everyone in the bar just staring at him. "Oh come on, not even an applause?" Logan waited, smirking. "Fuck you then. Fuck you all." Logan jumped down out of the cage and grabbed his shirt and jacket.
Storm was stood outside, leaning against the brick exterior of the bar waiting for Logan to come out. She'd decided she'd wait there all night if she had to. Staring up at the sky Storm switched the weather back and forth between sunny and cloudy, her mood slowly deteriorating as she waited. Suddenly there were cries from inside the bar as somebody cursed loudly. Storm peered through the cracked window, watching Logan as he hastily shoved his jacket and shirt back on, the guy behind him staring after him with a bloody face. Storm rolled her eyes automatically.
"Hey freak, you never paid for your beers, or that woman's." The bartender grinned to himself as he remembered the sexy black woman who'd ordered the rum and coke. Logan's eyes darkened.
"I suggest you stop thinking what you're thinking." Logan warned dangerously, his claws extracting from between his knuckles on his left hand. "Want to ask me to pay again, eh?"
"Logan enough." Storm said from behind him, after hastily sensing trouble brewing. Logan stared at the bartender, who'd cowered into the bottles at the back of the bar, causing two of them to fall to the floor with a crash. Storm placed a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off angrily, his claws retracting.
"Just get out of here, yeah? We don't want no trouble." Someone from the other side of the bar piped up.
"Bit late for that isn't it." Logan said as he kicked open the door of the bar and flung himself outside into the currently cold temperatures of Canada.
"What the hell was that?" Storm asked him angrily from his left. Logan stopped and faced her.
"Would you just leave me the hell alone?" Logan snapped at her before walking to his motorcycle.
"No Logan!" Storm said stopping him again. Logan sighed and rolled his eyes as she forced him to turn around and face her. "You may have chosen your side but there is no way I'm just going to leave you to destroy yourself."
"Oh Storm come off it, I'm fine." Logan said, continuing towards his motorcycle.
"Oh really? Drinking, searching for fights isn't destroying yourself?"
"I was drinking and fighting before I even met the 'X Men'." Logan reminded her, swinging a leg over his motorcycle.
"And you were destroying yourself back then, too." Storm pointed out, folding her arms across her chest.
"Look Storm, I told you I can't do this." Logan sighed out, revving his motorcycle.
"Can't, or won't." Storm asked, her eyes becoming cloudy again. Logan froze.
"Both." He said looking at her before zooming off down the road, ignoring Storm's screams;
"Logan! LOGAN!"