Side Effects May Include . . .

Chapter Four – Something Unusual


POV – Beast

It had been along time since I had seen such severe injuries as Lance's, especially on one so young. Even though such a circumstance is not something the professor could have predicted, I am glad that he has seen fit to install the mansion with proper medical facilities.

Without them I don't think Lance would have pulled through, there is no way we could have taken him to a hospital, I don't want to imagine the reaction the doctors would have had, if they found out what Lance was.

I'll be the first to admit that I held little affection for the Brotherhood. They had no regard for the rules and absolutely no respect for authority, but I would never wish this upon them.

Lance wasn't too bad at chemistry even if he just did the subject to be in the same class as Kitty. He usually paid attention in that class as well, my theory is that he was trying to impress her by being studious, I'm not quite sure if it worked or not.

To be honest I was a bit surprised at the reactions from the rest of the Brotherhood. It was an eye opener. They always seemed selfish, too wrapped up in themselves to care about each other, but their panicked faces dissuaded me of that notion. Now, that I think about it, they always did work well together as a team, even if they never did beat the X-men.

After walking out of the Professor's office, I was almost bowled over by Pietro, dragging both Todd and Fred along. Professor X had already known about Lance's injuries and hence told the other adults. Unfortunately all we seemed to know about the accident was that Lance had been hit by a truck. I want to know why he would get out of his jeep and walk into on coming traffic, I never thought of Lance as suicidal.

The other thing that had me greatly concerned was the bruises and injuries that Lance had, that didn't occur as a result of the vehicle. There were deep cuts on his left leg that had become infected.

Thankfully it was easily treatable with antibiotics; those cuts had to be a couple of days old at least. They didn't look like they had been made with a knife; in fact I wasn't quite sure what had caused them.

The results of Lance's blood test began printing. Picking up the sheet carefully, I began to read. There were a number of minor deficiencies, mainly a lack of iron. Another thing that worried me was the gaunt appearance that Lance had gained. He looked very different to the trouble maker I remember from my old chemistry and gym classes. They were obvious signs of malnutrition.

There were also signs of high levels of paracetamol in his blood. The level was still low enough so that an overdose wouldn't occur just yet, although anymore and he would be heading into dangerous territory. Judging from the numbers, Lance must have taken a lot of Tylenol. It probably would have been needed though, what with the cuts and bruises already on his body.

My eyes wandered down the sheet. What is that? It was a multitude of chemicals mixed together. I had never seen such a combination before. Confusion clouded my mind. I never thought I would see some of these chemicals in a human let alone at the same time. They weren't the kind of drugs you find on the street or even in a standard laboratory. How could Lance get his hands on these materials? More importantly why? They weren't hallucinogens.

One particular drug stood out to me, it was a genetic enhancer. Extremely dangerous and experimental. It was still supposed to be in the preliminary stages of testing and I didn't think I would be seeing it in a human for a number of years, if ever.

The sound of Logan opening the door interrupted my musing. His expression was one of seething hatred, I found it quite shocking. Road accidents such as this unfortunately seem to be fairly commonplace around the country, so I didn't the need for such anger.

Logan's fists were also clenched in an obvious attempt to hold rein his fury in. I was at a loss at what to say to the man but thankfully he solved that problem for me by speaking first.

"That son of a bitch!" Logan spat whilst slamming his fist on the metal table, it came out with a slight dent where Wolverine's punch had struck.

"To whom would you be referring to?" my confusion was growing by the second. Had one of the Brotherhood caused a stir or was it something else entirely?

"I just went to check on the rock tumbler and I smelt something on him I shouldn't have," Wolverine's anger seemed to be increasing with every word, "Sabretooth. Some of those injuries were caused by Sabretooth, I'm sure of it."


Thanks to descendent for the review, your support is appreciated.