4. First Taste of Action
Usually, Miguel is in a bad mood. This morning, bad mood was like saying his attitude was full of sunshine, rainbows, and warm fuzzies. Standing in the middle of a large cylindrical metal room, he tried to wake himself up. All he wanted was to sleep in the first ever bed he had until he woke himself up. Instead, his morning started with the warm blankets being ripped off his body and someone pulling his hair to drag him off the mattress. He didn't hear his shower running as he recited every curse in Spanish he knew before being thrown into the tub. Ice cold water shocked his system, forcing him to let out a yell in surprise. Logan, the one responsible for it all, left the bathroom while yelling at him about how he woke up late and it better not happen again. Miguel stared angrily at him as the icy water doused his near naked body since he only had a pair of boxers on.
The next thing he went through was uniform dressing. The locker room he walked through upon leaving the hanger yesterday was where he was led to, cursing along the way. He just about went on a killing spree when he was given a blue and yellow uniform by Cyclops with matching yellow boots and gloves. Now he stood drowsily, struggling to keep his eyes open as he waited for instructions with a leather-like suit pinching him whenever he moved.
"You up yet, Miguel?" Logan asked from the overhead observation deck, to which he was cursed at in both English and Spanish by the angry Mexican. He turned to Xavier and grinned. "You wanted him riled up, Chuck? He's riled up."
"Thank you Logan," Xavier replied with a hand to his temple, "but I feel as that may have been a mistake on my part. I'm getting a powerful mental…bombardment from him. His emotions are linked to his powers but it's like his mind is firing off everything he feels. I'm worried he may become mentally unstable if he doesn't learn to control them. If that happens, there's no telling what his powers would do."
Moving to flip a couple of switches and turn a few dials on a console in front of him, Charles Xavier readied the Danger Room for what he had in mind. "Now, Miguel, I'm going to start things off on level four since you have some fighting skills. Holograms of opponents will appear and attack you but will not leave any physical damage. However, if you're struck, you will receive a small electrical shock that feels similar to a bee sting."
"Just get the F#$k on with it." Miguel yelled back.
"Megan was right, Xavier said to Logan. "He can talk where you can understand him when he wants to."
Activating the preprogrammed Danger Room sequence, Xavier and Logan watched as several robotic drones armed with bow staffs advanced on the lone mutant. Taking stock of the five drones around him, Miguel's eyes flashed blue as he formed his claws again and waited for them to come closer. The first one was sliced along its mid-section as it wound up for an overhead attack. The second and third ones each had their heads decapitated as they charged him. He was nearly tagged by the fourth one as he kicked the fifth one back and buried his claws into its chest then delivered an uppercut swipe to the last. It exploded after a short delay with Miguel staring up at the observation deck.
"Very good," Xavier said over the intercom. "I'm adjusting the settings and location of the next skirmish.
"Whatevah," Miguel mumbled as the room around him shifted to become a destroyed city complete with dilapidated buildings, fire, gutted out cars, and smoke filled air. "What the hell?"
As he looked over the destroyed environment around him, a shadowed figure moved in from behind. Letting out a roar, Colossus leapt from a hill of brick and mortar with his fists above his head. He crashed down on the spot Miguel was standing in and created a large crater in the street.
Landing in a roll out, the clawed man looked up at the large Russian as he charged him. Miguel once again dodged his attack as the chrome plated mutant collided with a building then turn back his way. This time, Miguel slid through his legs and jumped up, bringing his clawed hands upwards through Colossus' body. The mutant fell to his knees and exploded in a shower of metal and cables.
"A damn robot?" Before he could question things any further, Miguel was kicked from behind by an incoming little man in a green and grey outfit.
Taking a swipe at his attacker, Miguel's clawed hand sailed over the smaller man's head as he leapt backwards like a frog or toad with his tongue whipping across the Hispanic man's face. Growing angrier, Miguel charged the hopper and tackled him to the ground. No sooner had he buried his claws into his fallen enemy's chest when a large fist connected with his jaw, sending him back several yards.
Rubbing his jaw, Miguel looked at who attacked him and felt his eyes grow wide when he laid eyes on the Juggernaut stomping towards him through the smoke in the air. His claws instantly went from blue to black as he kipped up and roared while charging the unstoppable mutant.
In the observation deck, Charles grimaced from the emotions he felt from Miguel. Jean was right, he was filled with nothing but anger and hate, more so when he saw the intimidating form of the Juggernaut. Images of water and tortured people flashed through his mind and was starting to cause him a great deal of pain. "Logan, cancel the program. It's…it's too much for me to go through. His head…his mind…feels as if it's on the verge of breaking down."
"Hold on, Chuck. I've got an idea." Moving before the control panel, Logan adjusted a few settings and activated the new orders.
Down on the training floor, Miguel was close to going insane with anger as he attacked the much larger mutant. Every time he was hit by Juggernaut it would only serve to make him go further to the edge of his emotional cliff. Succeeding in bringing the unstoppable force to his knees, Miguel rushed him from behind and buried his claws into his back. His helmet was the next to go as it was easily sliced off with the smaller of the two impaling the other in the throat and ripping his head off. Turning around and stomping away, Miguel waited for the robotic form of the one he blamed for his abuela's death to explode. When it didn't, he growled and turned back to it with a clawed hand raised but Juggernaut was no longer there.
Standing where the massive mutant was, was Megan in a similar uniform to Miguel's. Her wings were out and she stared into his eyes. The angered look on Miguel's face disappeared and his claws went back to their normal blue coloring but he didn't attack. It was a mistake that cost him as Pixie landed a spinning jump kick to his face and knocked him back.
The hologram city faded to nothing as the same went for the Pixie model around the robotic drone. Sitting up in time to see the Professor and Logan enter the training area, Miguel rubbed the spot he was kicked and looked at the two.
"What?" he asked with malice.
"Mister Cortez," Xavier said. "Your performance here was on par with some of the other X-Men. However, your mental readings were nearly off the charts."
"So? Mah powers are connected with what Ah'm feeling. Old news to me."
Charles and Logan glanced at each other a moment. "That was a hard hit you took from the Juggernaut drone but there's not a scratch on you. You have a healing factor?" Logan asked.
"Not when mah…my claws are out." Standing up, Miguel formed his blue claws again. "When they're out, Ah can't be hurt. Not even a bullet can hurt meh. Ah'm also stronger." He dissipated them and flexed his fingers into fists a few times. "When Ah'm not using them, Ah heal."
"How fast?"
"A cut takes a few seconds. A twisted ankle…bout' a day or two. I once had mah throat cut. Woke up three days later just fine."
"Yes," Xavier said. "I've noticed your mutant gene reading fluxes every time you unsheathe your claws. By my readings, it's almost as if you have two mutations, one triggering when the other one is not active. Tell me, is it possible for you to stay here for a while? I would rather like to work with you on developing your abilities."
"Sorry, Wheels. But Ah'm out of here after tonight. You wanted to see mah powers? Ah showed them to you. Now if Ah can just be comped for mah time-"
"Of course. But I would like to point out, while I never read another person's mind without permission, I couldn't help but detect massive amounts of emotional anomalies radiating from your psyche."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, your mind felt like it was falling apart. The angrier you became, the more emotions fired through your mind. If you do not seek help in controlling your anger better, it could destroy you."
Miguel froze at the Professor's words. They were very similar to what his abuela told him constantly and were among the last words the ever told him. Although he never noticed anything that could make him think he were in danger every time he lost his temper, dealing with a psychic such as the man before him made him reflect on what his abuela always told him. A sliver of fear came over him then was replaced by anger, ironically.
"You need to find a way to release it safely, Miguel. You unleash it all at once and that's what puts you in danger. Please, let me help you."
Letting out a sigh, Miguel let a sneer form on his face as he looked away from them. Before he could answer, another group of uniformed X-Men entered the Danger Room. Among them were Cyclops, Jean, Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee, Boom Boom, Shadowcat, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Magma, or Amara as he knew her, and Pixie.
"You don't have to give your answer this instant," the professor explained as Logan dismissed himself to meet up with the band of newcomers. "Feel free to think it over, but if you decide to stay, I can guarantee you a life you never thought you would have."
Miguel glared at Xavier then looked over at those who had just come in. While most talked to each other or Logan, Pixie was the only one to give him a smile and wave at him. He nodded slightly as his glare softened, not that much though, then turned back to the Professor. "I'll think about it."
Getting out of his blue and yellow uniform was an incredibly hard task. Since it was new, it was sticking to places he didn't want it to stick to. More curse words flooded from his mouth as he tugged and pulled it off until it finally lay on the floor and he stood over it wearing only a pair of boxers. He flipped it off then kicked it across the room as he was out of breath from his demonstration earlier and fighting to get the leather-like material off.
Sitting down for a moment, he caught his breath and tried to calm down. The struggle to get out of that uniform was causing him to lose his temper. He sat quietly, taking in deep breaths to lower his heart rate and calm down. Thinking back to what he just went through, he wanted so much for that drone of Juggernaut to be the real deal. It felt satisfying to kill the thing by ripping its head off like he did. The jumper before Juggernaut was an ugly little nuisance, and he had to admit, it felt good taking out the Colossus drone. But what really got his heart rate down was the image of Pixie when she appeared. Had she had been another male drone, he wouldn't have stopped. A female drone model, he may have hesitated as he had a rule against hitting women before remembering it was an automaton. But a Pixie drone, he couldn't bring himself to do anything against. Instead of becoming angry at this, he opened his eyes and gave a huff.
Shaking his head and feeling better, he grabbed a towel from his locker and headed over to the showers. Turning the water to come out hotter than normal, he stood with his arms outstretched to lean against the wall and let the scalding water cascade over him for a few minutes before washing himself and leaving to change where his earlier ensemble sat in front of his locker.
Wearing his usual cargo pants and boots, he slipped on a black shirt with a large 'V1' on the front and headed upstairs for something to eat. It was Sunday morning so if he heard correctly, breakfast was traditional southern style. If dinner was any indication of what kind of meals he would eat here, he supposed it may not be all bad to stay for a while. As long as no one pissed him off that is.
Breakfast was way more than he expected with piles of pancakes at the end of the table he and the others ate at last night. Bowls full of scrambled eggs, sausage patties, bacon, hash browns, biscuits, and gravy were all aligned like a buffet. Young men and women journeyed in and out of the kitchen with plates, utensils, and glasses of drinks to load up on the prepared food. If those living in the mansion fixed the meals and cleaned up afterwards then Miguel was in trouble since he couldn't cook anything other than tortillas and snake meat. After letting the others get what they wanted, he took his turn at the smorgasbord and got a little of everything. Seeing as how everyone scattered to eat or had formed their own cliques, he decided to just eat by himself at the table.
"'The era of Mattitude has arrived'. What is Mattitude, anyway?" Ororo asked as she came up behind Miguel.
"It's a wrestlin' thing," he replied before stuffing his mouth with a pancake.
After grabbing some eggs, bacon, and a biscuit, the white haired woman sat next to him. "How did your exercise go this morning? Anything happen with the Professor or Logan?"
"Look, Ah don't mean any disrespect, but Ah'm not what you call a 'people person'. Ah just want to eat and go to mah room."
"And why is that?" Ororo pressed.
"Just the way Ah've always been.
"Then you should consider changing your ways." She ate a forkful of eggs and drank a bit of coffee. "Around here, we work as a team. Professor Xavier, he formed this group to help young people develop their budding powers. Every mutant is welcome here but only a few are asked to be here. You are one of the few he has extended an invitation to. It is something not to be taken lightly."
"Whatevah you wanna think."
"Well, the only thing I think he did wrong here was not give you time to mourn properly. Scott told him what happened and he in turn has told me. No one else knows. If you need to mourn for your loss, I'll explain to Charles you need to do so. And if you ever want to talk to someone, know that I am always here to lend an ear. It's what we do, help each other."
"Again, no disrespect, but Ah don't need anyone. Ah took care of mahself and mah abuela this long and Ah can do so again now that it's just me. Ah don't need anyone's pity."
"It's not pity we offer. It's compassion." Knowing she wasn't getting through to him, Ororo tried a different approach, one that appealed to most men. "Today is Sunday. That means the den will be filled with the guys, mostly, while they watch the football games. If you want to join them, you're more than welcome to. Or if you want, you can watch the games on a TV in the storage room in the girl's wing of the mansion. It used to be a bedroom but we mostly put extra blankets and such in there. But doing so comes with a price."
"And that would be?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"For each game you watch in private, you grant Charles and myself a one hour session of your time a week, each. And that would include watching wrestling. I heard the next pay-per-view is coming up soon and The Rock is coming back to fight the champion for the title. You could watch it free with no one to disturb you." She pulled a key from her pocket and held it up to him.
Miguel looked at Ororo carefully and knew what she was doing. While it was true about him wanting to see his shows in private, it was also evident he wouldn't be able to do so without giving her and Xavier what they wanted in return.
"Cowboys play at noon against the Patriots," he said, getting up to leave and grabbing the key. "Raw's tomorrow and Smackdown's on Friday. That's three sessions a week unless there's a pay-per-view on Sunday night. Happy?"
"Very," Ororo said as she took a bite of her biscuit and smiled slightly. As she had been asked, she had managed to convince the newest addition to the mansion to work with the Professor. She sent Xavier a message through the link he had established between them about succeeding in getting Miguel to cooperate without getting angry where he and Logan had failed. Score one more for the fairer sex.