Having returned earlier in the day, Logan tried to ignore the feeling of two lasers burning their way into the side of his head as he sat outside the danger room.
Xander Harris glared at the first successful test of the project that had created him.
He knew, intellectually, that the man had little to do with what had happened to him, but that did little to dull the feeling of rage Xander felt every time he saw the man.
"It won't make you feel any better."
Blinking, he drew his mind back to the real world. "What?"Xander asked, confused, before the mutant nodded at his clenched fists. Looking down, Xander took a deep breath to calm himself.
Logan watched as the boy retracted his claws slowly back under his flesh. The three on the knuckles he could understand but he was still confused about the extra foot long blade from his wrist.
"Sorry. It's not you sir." Xander half lied as the older man snorted.
"Bull kid. You mean to say it's not 'who' I am, but 'what' I am." Logan said before taking it a step further. "More likely, it's 'what' I represent."
Flinching at the words, Xander hung his head in shame before nodding.
"That's what I thought, don't worry about it kid, happens to me all the time." The older mutant said as Xander looked back up at him.
"Really? When?" Xander asked as the man simply shrugged.
"Every time I look in a mirror." He confessed just as the door they were waiting outside of opened to admit Bobby Drake and Kurt Wagner.
Standing up from his seat, Xander looked at the open door as the Danger Room reset itself for its newest victims. "How come we got stuck together?" Xander asked and continued when he noticed the instructor's quizzical look. "They know I can barely stand to look at you without the urge to carve my name in your face. Why add more stress to that by putting us into a combat environment?"
Considering his answer a moment, Logan finally shrugged. "Probably because the more you dislike someone, the greater the odds are it will come up in a critical situation, better to know if you're capable of working through it and achieving the objective here, rather than when it really counts." The Canadian mutant said before heading for the entrance.
Nodding at the answer, Xander followed him towards the room. "Ooh, and here I thought it was because I'd have trouble killing you if I snapped again." The Sunnydale native said as he waited for the door to cycle.
"Well there is that."
--
In the Observation room, Charles Xavier watched with Aurora and Scott to see how the two 'wild' mutants would handle a surprise rescue mission.
"Which mission did you give them?" Scott asked curiously as the two students that had just been through a mission joined the four teachers to watch.
"Random, I didn't want Logan to have an unfair advantage." The headmaster of the school said as he watched the room turn into a wooded glade.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Bobby said as Kurt simply nodded.
--
Xander felt his senses sharpen as he tried to find the enemy he knew was near. He could smell him, hear him. Feel him.
For a moment, he wondered if this was how Buffy felt when a vampire was near before shaking the thought off. Now wasn't the time for that.
"Aww… so the sawed off little runt finally decided to pay his ol'pal Victor a visit."
Turning towards the sound, Xander blinked as a six and a half foot tall yellow sasquatch stepped out from behind a tree.
"What's wrong Wolvie… you never visit anymore… did I hurt your feelings?" the massive man taunted as Logan extended his claws.
"Not a chance, Creed. I just got bored with you." Logan responded.
As the two bantered, Xander tried to move silently around the obvious enemy.
Unfortunately, Xander wasn't as quiet as he should have been as the massive man turned his gaze towards him with a smirk. "What's this? The punk brought a dance partner already?" the man said before striking a wounded pose for a second and then letting it drop with an insane grin. "Guess it's a good thing I brought one of my own." Sabertooth mocked before looking up.
Following his opponent's gaze, Xander felt his vision darken as he finally noticed the bound form trapped above him.
He didn't understand how he had missed it for so long and in truth he really didn't care, the yellow trench coat was very familiar to him.
--
In the observation room the gathered mutants had a single unifying thought that was voiced by the blue furred German.
"Oh Shit." Kurt whispered as he looked down at the hate filled eyes of his friend.
--
The holographic forms created by the danger room were completely artificial, no real thoughts or feelings other than those recorded and predicted by the alien computer system.
They were the perfect training tool, unable to feel fear, or joy. Hope or despair. Anger or happiness. They simply existed to follow directions from the computer. Therefore, when the rippling snarl from the younger ofthe two opponents echoed around the false glade, the hologram was unable to feel the proper amount of fear at the primal sound.
Logan, on the other hand, knew exactly what it meant.
With a snarl of his own, Wolverine rushed to try and get in between the towering mutant and Xander. He didn't make it.
--
Buffy hummed happily as she double checked her hair in the mirror. She had a date with the cute sales clerk from the sporting goods shop tonight and she really hoped nothing hellmouthy would put a stop to that.
--
Riley Finn slammed his head against the wall as he tried to accept what had happened. "You mean to tell me that I have a date with one of our objectives?" he hissed at the five man team he had been working with when they snickered at his predicament.
Only after their mirth died slightly did the sergeant finally cut the young lieutenant some slack. "It's a perfect setup sir. Get some pictures of the inside of her purse, if at all possible, then we make up some duplicates with trackers and mics and our job gets a lot easier." The man said as Riley returned to banging his head against the wall.
--
(A/N) hope you all enjoy this.
-Tjin
