Disclaimer: I own neither Beyblade nor X-Men: Evolution nor do I make any profit from this story.
[Chapter Nine: Blaze Warrior]
The meeting between the newest students at the Xavier Institute and the Brotherhood had to happen eventually. Kurt knew that as well as anyone. But no one expected that first encounter to go anything like this.
The Brotherhood came to school every so often, not as much now that the mutant secret was out, which meant almost never, but they did come. Kurt thought it was probably because of Kitty. Lance wanted to see Kitty, and school was about the only place that could happen without a battle breaking out, mostly. But they traveled in a pack—for protection, a distant part of Kurt's mind pointed out—so if Lance came to school at least one other would come too. This invariably cut down on Lance and Kitty's alone time, which didn't bother the brother-friend-protector part of Kurt's brain at all, but it also increased the chance of a fight, which definitely bothered the high school student.
This time Pietro had hitched along for the ride. He had noticed the two new students mixed in among the x-men's little group—they traveled in a pack too after all—and decided to have a little fun. In this case, fun meant stealing Tyson's hat. Tyson, who had not been enjoying his regular schooling as much as his mutant training, proceeded to chase after Pietro before anyone could warn him not to. Then, without warning, Tyson skidded to a halt and turned around. Kurt had followed his line of sight to find Pietro there. The little speed-demon had turned around, and Tyson had reacted almost instantly.
That had led to the current, Kurt supposed he had to call it a game, where Pietro ran from one spot to another, trying to see if he could lose Tyson. Surprisingly enough, he didn't seem to be able to shake him and Tyson even appeared to be speeding up.
Kurt looked at Max to see the blond's eyes dart back and forth over the yard.
"Can you follow him?" he asked.
"Only when he slows down to turn," said Max. "He's a moving bit faster than Dragoon usually does."
"You mean you really can see him?" asked Rogue.
She, Kurt, and Max were the only ones watching what was happening. Lance and Kitty were taking the opportunity to talk without distraction and the others weren't out of class yet.
"Well, he's slowed down some since they started," said Max. "I think he wants to know how fast Tyson can go."
"How fast can Tyson go?" asked Kurt.
Max frowned and searched his memory. "I don't know. A couple of years ago, some of our friends were kidnapped and Tyson had to run around to save them. The distances kept getting longer and the time kept getting shorter, but I don't think he paid much attention to how fast he actually was."
"Your friends were kidnapped?" asked Rogue.
She looked as shocked as Kurt. He at least kept up with beyblading news. He would have thought something would be printed about a kidnapping involving the Blade Breakers.
Max nodded. "Yeah, Kenny and Hilary, I was here in America, so I didn't know about it until later."
"Just to make Tyson run around?" she persisted.
"Well, what they really wanted to sensor readings off Dragoon, so they could try to clone a cyber bit-beast. They hadn't been able to draw him out, so they forced Tyson to—
Max cut off abruptly, his eyes widening. Kurt wasn't familiar enough with Max to tell what he was thinking from his facial expressions, but he recognized the look on his face. It was the same I've-discovered-something-that-might-change-the-laws-of-the-universe look that Dr. McCoy sometimes sported.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I've got an idea I want to try later," said Max, sounding perfectly innocent.
Kurt shivered. He hoped Max's idea didn't involve flooding the institute again. It took forever for his fur to dry, and everyone complained about a wet dog smell until they realized it was him. Then things just got awkward.
"I don't understand," said Rogue. "I thought Drigger was the fast bit-beast."
She had been reading up on beyblading since the new students arrived. It wouldn't do to sound like a Southerner and be completely ignorant.
Max grinned, happy to talk about beyblading, even they weren't discussing his bit-beast.
"You'd think that," he said, "because Drigger is known for his lightning attacks and because Tyson usually sweeps his opponents so impressively. But if you really look at the stats, Dragoon is the fastest bit-beast and Drigger is the powerhouse. When we first started beyblading it was really easy to tell which of us were strong in what area, but since then we've all improved a lot."
Max returned his attention to the power-play between Tyson and Pietro. Forcing Kurt's mind back to the situation at hand.
Tyson had increased his speed at least ten-fold. He was zipping back and forth at what had to be a slow jog to Quicksilver but at a pace faster than Kurt had seen anyone else use. Max was right at least that Pietro was slowing down. Even Kurt could follow him, and he didn't always have the best vision during daylight hours thanks to his mutation.
"What is going on here?" The outraged voice of principal Kelly pierced the relative calm of the afternoon.
Pietro smirked and darted toward the unfriendly man. Tyson followed him unthinkingly, then saw the man standing in his path. Kelly released a manly shout at the thing speeding toward him. Not quite sure how to stop, Tyson jerked to the side, upsetting his balance, and resulting in an impressive series of somersaults and tumbles until he eventually slowed to a stop.
"Tyson, are you okay?" asked Max running toward his friend.
"Make the ground stop moving," groaned Tyson.
Pietro stopped above the prone beyblader and dropped the hat onto his head. "Not too bad for an x-geek," he said. "Lance, you said hi to your girlfriend, now let's go."
Lance and Kitty sputtered, joining in odd harmony with principal Kelly's own attempts at speech.
"Leave off, man," said Lance finally. He managed something resembling a grimace in Kitty's direction before the two of them took off for the relative safety of the Lance's jeep and the Brotherhood's boarding house.
Left with only Xavier's students to vent to, Kelly turned his ire on them.
"What did you think you were doing?" he demanded. "I let you all back here with the provision that you wouldn't cause any trouble."
Kurt saw the direction this was heading and started mentally calling for Jean. She would be able to reach the professor and get him to sort this all out.
"So you're upset because you had to do your job."
Kurt groaned and prepared himself to leap to Max's defense. The kid didn't know that talking to Kelly didn't do any good.
"What did you say?"
Max glared up at the man from beside Tyson. "There is currently no law in any country revoking the rights of any person because of their genes. There is certainly no law here, in America, preventing school children from receiving an education. You, Principal Kelly, are out of line for suggesting that my friend, who risked injuring himself in order to prevent anything from happening to you, went out of his way to cause trouble. Especially, when he was provoked by an older, stronger student. I thought it was your job to prevent bullying and to make sure all of your students were safe on this campus."
Even if it wouldn't do any good, it was nice to hear Max giving Kelly a piece of his mind.
"You-you!" Kelly had been reduced to sputtering again.
"Of course," and now Max's glare had been replaced by far too sunny expression, "you might want to keep in mind that my mother is an internationally recognized scientist and performs highly classified research for the American government. She would be very, very upset if I told her that my friends and I couldn't go to school. She might even have to address the situation personally."
That shut Kelly up. He fumed silently for a minute or two before turning around and walking away. It was perhaps the least Kurt had ever heard him say.
"That," said Kitty, "was awesome. But I don't think the professor is going to be very happy about it."
Jean walked up to the group of students. She wore a frown no more reassuring than Kelly's had been. "I just saw principal Kelly. What happened?"
"I've been trying to reach you forever," said Kurt.
"I had to take Amara back to the institute. She said something's moving around underground that's not supposed to be there," Jean explained. "Now tell me what happened."
Max got to his feet and helped Tyson stand up. Kurt watched them thoughtfully. He hadn't heard Max say anything about his mother before. He wondered how much of what Max said was true. He saw Rogue giving them a similar look and decided to talk things over with her later. Meanwhile, Kitty tried to explain what had happened without letting slip to the psychic that she and Lance had been making out the entire time. That was almost as amusing as everything else combined.
--
Logan had to get away once in awhile. The fits struck infrequently and rarely lasted long, and few people could tell the difference between his "away" time and his normal anti-social behavior. But Charles knew better than to press him when he felt the need to leave.
Logan needed to be away—avoiding the fall out from the situation at the school this afternoon was just an excuse. Most of the time, he just needed to be alone and rid himself of the fear that came with caring for people. The need to be alone was unsurprising given how quickly he'd bonded with the new students. But now, something was driving him to go anywhere, to be anyplace except the institute. It was almost like a call, but since he made the resolution to leave, he had felt no tug in one direction or another. No further draw meant he was either making the whole thing up or that he had chosen the correct path to follow up until now.
He was driving away from people. He couldn't smell any recent signs of human habitation on the road he was taking. Even travel along this road was limited though it was still in good repair. He had driven this path many times before. Logan was finally starting to relax and consider the possibility that the urge to leave had come from within when the world took a deep breath…
…and plunged into violent upheaval.
The earth shuddered. Logan was thrown from his bike when he drove over a newly formed crack in the asphalt. He flew 50 feet through the air with his motorcycle not far behind then skidded another ten yards. The trees on either side of the road were shaking like mad things. Wind funneled into the open pathway at gale-force speeds. The mini-quake rocking the mountain made it too difficult for him to stand. For one brief moment, Logan wondered if he was going die crushed underneath a tree.
Then, from his prone position, Logan saw a pillar of fire thrust itself into being and fade away.
Still blinking the spots from his eyes, Logan realized that the chaos had stopped. The road had settled as if nothing had happened. Only a few hair think cracks showed where giant fissures had existed the moment before.
Wolverine looked up the mountainside. He could remember where the fire appeared and no doubt smell the trees it had set a flame. He dragged his motorcycle to the side of the road then started up into the forest.
A ten minute walk found him at the mouth of a tunnel. The edges of the opening still glowed with the heat that had forced it into being. Other than that small sign, Wolverine would have thought the opening had been there for ages. But there were few natural caves in this part of the mountains. He walked inside, never once thinking that it could be a trap.
The tunnel sloped gently downward and did not falter in diameter or direction. The walls were melted smooth, but Wolverine could rings upon rings stacked on top of each other that marked the progression of the flame. It was if a great drill had bored the hole into the mountain though even a drill would be less regular.
A few minutes of walking brought a flickering orange light into Wolverine's sight. He tensed, preparing to run if this was another jet of fire, though running probably wouldn't do him much good if he were caught. The light remained the same distance, still flickering gently. Wolverine approached more cautiously now. Something was down here.
He stopped, briefly, when his nose caught the scent of blood and his ears the sound of uneven breathing. Then he hurried forward, suddenly compelled again, and walked fully into the light.
Logan was in a cave so tall he could not see the ceiling. Stranger than that, the cave was a perfect circle and the only way out he could see came from the tunnel he had walked through. At the center was a fire pit depressed into the ground. What he saw as a small, flickering light was just the tip of an enormous fire burning there. But the most unusual feature of the cave, other than its existence at all, was the sunken relief of a phoenix carved into the wall opposite the tunnel.
He had always considered phoenixes, when he thought of them at all, to benevolent creatures or at least benign, but the he saw carved into the rock was anything but. The lines were thick and coarsely hewn as if the carver had poured his rage into his work. Logan could see the dark fury in its stance and almost feel the flames pouring from its wings. Blood dripped from it talons. With its head caught in profile, a single eye glowed menacingly. The scenes carved into the rock on either side were equally fearsome. Images of burning vistas littered with the fallen bodies of warriors, animals, even women and children, circled the whole cave. Logan could feel the death pressing at him from all sides and was reminded of his own lonely stretch of immortality.
A starved gasp brought Logan back to himself. Lying beneath the central carving was a person, a very bloody person. He hurried to the figure and knelt beside it. It was a boy not yet Scott's age. He was breathing in harsh pants and rasps and had raw, bleeding wounds everywhere. Logan knew he would be unconscious from pain like that, but when he moved to pick the boy up, the child forced one eye open and stared at him.
Though shocked, Logan wasn't deterred in the least. He needed to get this boy to a hospital as soon as possible.
Carefully, Logan picked the child up and turned to leave. Something hit his boot. Logan looked down. A beyblade was running into his foot over and over again. Logan looked closer. On the top of the beyblade was the image of a phoenix.
In one swift movement, Logan bent down, swept up the toy, and started running with the boy back out into open air. Memories of conversations started slipping through his head.
If anyone knows what's happened to us, it'll be Kai.
We're all here. Kai's bound to show up eventually.
If this happened because of our beyblades, then Kai will have known about it and probably got his powers under control already. He's like that.
Kai will probably flounce in here proud as king and mock us for not knowing anything and being weak. Then he'll settle down and help us figure out what's wrong without actually giving us the answers. He's good at things like that.
Kai knows. Kai understands….
Kai's dying.
Logan tried to ignore that final, morbid thought. He was on his bike with one arm locked securely around the semi-conscious boy. Then Logan drove like a bat out of hell.
- - - - -
End.
A/N: I told you Kai was close, right? And look, another update so soon. (Better than half a year, right?) It's a miracle. Or perhaps I'm trying to avoid the two term papers I have due in history. I'm rooting for miracle. And look, I don't even have any questions to answer since they were all "when's Kai going to get here?"
