Chapter 10
Revelation
At the Institute
Yesterday Dean had arrived late at night with his mother. Everyone was shocked at how Dean had retrieved her all by himself. Everyone was thrown off at the way Dean acted after he found out what happened, when in reality he was just picking his moment. Of course Dean hadn't told anyone that he almost murdered Mystique but was stopped by a mysterious voice in his head.
After Dean returned last night he took a trip with the Professor and Logan to drop off his mother at home where she belongs. Of course they stayed a little longer due to the conversation Dean had with his parents concerning his abilities. Oh and what a conversation it was.
Flashback
Dean sits down by the couch waiting for his questions to be answered. His parents sit down across from him with worry all over their faces. "So, tell me everything." Dean says bluntly.
His mother sighs and prepares herself for what he's about to say, "Son, you could do these amazing things all your life. You were always the best at everything you did. But you always had a thing for fighting; it was in your blood. It is in your blood. The reason why you are the way you are, is because you are the descendant of the great Achilles himself." His mother says with pride in her voice. What his mother says makes his eyes widen and leaves him speechless.
"You have the power of the greatest warrior who ever lived running through your veins. The reason why you were so fond of fighting is because it's part of who you are. I know this is a big shock to you, and I know that a lot of things make sense now. Like why you're stronger, faster, smarter, more agile, more flexible, and even why most things can't pierce your skin." His mother went on.
"But how? Wouldn't a bunch of super-powered beings attract attention?" he finally says.
"The gene itself is passed down from parent to child yes, but it only activates every hundred years or so. You just happened to be the lucky one." she said.
"But still, some of these abilities don't make sense. I never heard of Achilles having a better sense of smell-"
"There is no way to know for sure, the only ones who ever knew his true abilities were the gods. But one thing is for certain, no ordinary man can beat you. The reason why you never heard of Achilles using some of these things may be that they were never mentioned or perhaps he never noticed them enough to utilize them. He lived in a simpler time when all you needed was strength and speed. But now the world has evolved and so have you, the way people fight today is more complex than it has ever been. You have way more potential than he ever did." His mother said with pride.
That last part could be questionable but Dean doesn't pay much attention to it, "I understand, I guess." Dean said.
"I know this is a lot to take in but you have to have faith in your own ability. You're going to face challenges ahead of you; I know this, every other member of the family who inherited the gift of Achilles did. Just remember something when you're out there, you can't always have an easy win, sometimes you have to sacrifice something in order to win the battle. And you can't let emotion blind your judgment, no matter how cold it sounds. For the greater good you might have to sacrifice something to win in the end. Don't be afraid to do that, remember, no sacrifice no victory." His father said.
"Thanks Dad" Dean said getting up ready to leave.
His father stops him, "Oh wait, before you go. I need to show you something, come with me" His father led him to the basement.
His father opens a hatch to an underground safe that was covered by lots of stuff, "Can you pick up that chest for me? I don't wanna hurt my back."
Dean smiled, "Sure Dad" he lifted the big chest out of the safe with ease.
His father unlocked the chest and opened it, revealing a set of armor. It shined brightly in the chest with gold and silver.
Dean gave it a good look over before realizing something "Is that…."
His father nodded, "It is" He pulled out the helmet, "This is Achilles' armor, the one that was created by Hephaestus himself."
"How strong is it?" Dean asked.
"As far as I know, it's indestructible." He said.
"So….this is mine to have?" Dean asked.
"Well, yes and no. I'm showing you this so you know that it's here waiting for you. Whether you take it now depends on whether you're ready for it or not, are you?" he asked
Dean thinks about it, it would be a great asset to have this kind of armor on his side. But he fears that he would slowly grow to rely on it, and he's looking to improve his skills before anything else. "No, right now I'm not. One day I will be, and when I am it'll be here waiting for me."
"I'm proud of you son, now go embrace your heritage." His father said with a smile.
End Flashback
For the whole trip back he was silent. It all makes sense even though he had no idea. He always knew that he was special, but the descendant of a great warrior? Now that is a great honor. But now one last thing remains, the voice. Who is it? It would take hours of probing his mind for it to be penetrable, and that would be noticeable.
He decides to get some fresh air outside. It is now night time and the full moon is shining brightly. He slowly makes his way outside carefully not alerting the others so no one bothers him. He enters the woods and stops after leaving a good distance between him and the institute. Now would be a good time as any to try and speak to the voice.
"Reveal yourself!" he yells out trying to get the attention of the voice.
'It seems you have found your answer young one.' the voice said.
"About my heritage yes, but I still don't know who you are and what you want." Dean said.
'My motives will be revealed in time. As to who I am, you should have an idea now.' It said as if it should be obvious who he is.
"I don't know. You could be anybody. For all I know you're God." He said.
The voice chuckles, 'Close, but oh so far. Try the King of Olympus.' It said.
Dean slaps himself for not knowing sooner, "Well if it isn't captain thunderbolt himself. Zeus." He said sarcastically. When he said his name though he heard thunder ruble in the distance.
'Correct' he said cheerfully.
"I should have known. So why are you speaking to me? My father didn't mention anything about weird voices in my head." he asks getting back to the point.
'Because none of your ancestors have ever experienced that.'
"So why me?"
"You are different than the others. You are the most similar to Achilles and yet the most different."
"How's that?"
"All of those before you with the gift of Achilles weren't as powerful as the original, all of them had significant differences. But you? You are very similar to Achilles because your abilities are almost at the same level as his."
"But then how am I different?"
"You are different because you have new skills that your Ancestor never had. And you do not have his weakness either."
"How is that possible?"
"Hmmmm, what is it you mortals call it, evolution? Yes that's what it is."
Dean thinks about it and it makes sense, due to evolution the Achilles gene was passed down from father to son and over the course of thousands of years the gene has been perfected, so to speak. "But that still leaves out why, why are you doing this?"
"With all these mutants spreading around the world, there will be a war in the future to decide who will rise and who will fall. Humans or mutants, the war will be so destructive that there will be nothing left but barren wasteland, an empty shell of what the earth used to be like. I have foreseen this and it must be stopped at all costs, and in order to stop it I need a worthy champion capable of carrying out this task. Gods cannot interfere with human affairs, at least not directly. I wish for you to be my champion. Do you accept my offer?"
This is something Dean really had to consider, becoming a champion of the gods, probably lots of responsibility, saving the earth from ultimate destruction, the world on top of his shoulders as if he were Atlas the Titan holding it up. That might be dangerous, but it might be fun too, aside from the point that the world was at stake.
"If I accept your offer, what happens to me?" Dean asked.
"If you accept then when the time is right I will test you by undergoing trials of my choosing in order for you to prove to me that you are worthy of this task. After you complete your trials I will personally train you to complete the process, then and only then will you be ready to take on your biggest challenge."
"If I do this, do I gain anything else besides training with you?"
Zeus chuckles, "In time you will be rewarded, yes."
"How can I trust you though?" Dean asked.
"You cannot, this is a leap of faith. I will warn you beforehand that if you do accept my offer there will be great power but there will also be great pain, are you willing to risk it?"
Dean sighs, there's always a price. Promises like this always have a price to pay, but what will Dean have to sacrifice to do this? Dean's father's words echo in his head, "No sacrifice, no victory". He knew what he had to do.
"I accept your offer." Dean said with a straight face. "Now when do these trials begin?"
'They will begin when you learn to utilize all your abilities to their fullest and reach your full potential as a mortal. Until then I will guide you when necessary. For now I leave you with these my champion…' he said as random thunder struck the ground in front of him temporarily blinding him.
Dean waits till the scorched ground clears up so he can see what the hell just happened. The smoke clears and Dean Spots what seems to be metal gauntlets? He takes a closer look and picks them up. They shine in the moonlight in a silvery way and he also spots yellow thunderbolts on each side of them.
"I'm guessing that you won't tell me how to use them so I can keep myself busy?" he says out loud but with no answer. "That's what I thought." He makes his way into the institute and he finds Storm looking out the window.
"Hey Storm, What'cha lookin at?" he asks hoping she didn't notice the random thunder.
"I felt some thunder, but today there's a clear sky. It doesn't make sense." She said.
Dean shrugs as he passes by her, "The world is a weird place."
At The Boarding house
The brotherhood woke up this morning to a very pissed off Mystique. Apparently Dean had snuck in the house last night and rescued his mother. And for some reason she was really vague as to how he managed to beat Mystique. They figured that she got her ass handed to her.
The brotherhood didn't go to school today because Mystique had them doing exercises. Probably because they screwed up and Dean took them out like they were flies. They are all now relaxing in the lounge area trying to recover from their workout. Exercising wasn't part of their daily routine so they were always sore whenever they did do it.
"Mystique is gonna kill us one of these days yo, I can't feel ma legs." Toad complained.
"You're talkin, I have super strength and I can barely feel my arms." Fred said rubbing his biceps.
"Let's just hope we don't run into 'him' for a while." Pietro said, 'him' being Dean.
"You know what; maybe all this exercise is good for us. So next time we'll be more prepared against him and the X-geeks. Plus we're supposed to be getting help one of these days right?" Lance said standing up.
"I'm not sure exactly" said Mystique entering the room. "I haven't heard from your father Pietro, have you?" she asked.
"Hey don't look at me, he doesn't tell me anything." He said.
"Exactly" they all hear a voice from the doorway. They all look to find Magneto standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.
They all stand up, "Father" Pietro said.
"You failed me." Magneto said to Mystique.
"It's not my fault, he's more formidable that I expected-"
"You underestimated him and that was your undoing. You will not try this again for I fear he will not be as merciful. Now I want you all to meet your new teammates." He points to the door where two people come in, a boy and a girl. The girl is blonde with blue eyes and is wearing purple spandex leggings with black boots, a black shirt, and a black jacket over it. The boy has black hair and what seems like red eyes. He is wearing black jeans with a red shirt. "Fever pitch, Phantazia, welcome to the Brotherhood."
At the Institute
Dean had decided to gather everyone in the lounge area to reveal what he had learned today. Except for the part where Zeus can speak to him telepathically, which he figured he would save for another day because that was beyond creepy. They had all gathered around Dean and he explained how he came to be so powerful. From the beginning with the first Achilles, all the way to Dean thoroughly explaining his diverse abilities.
Scott stands up, "Ok hold on, everything you just said just gave me more questions that I want to ask. Like how come nobody noticed super-powered beings walking around for thousands of years? Or does this mean that the ancient Greek gods existed?"
"All of it is true and can be explained. The reason nobody noticed my super genes before is because it only activates every hundred years or so." Dean said.
"Hey isn't it kinda funny how like his codename is Achilles and that's how he got his powers?" Kitty said.
"Yeah, actually that is kind of funny" Dean replied with a smile.
"But what about the so-called 'gods'?" Scott asked again.
"Surprisingly I can explain that too" he pulls out the gauntlets he found. "When I was outside thunder hit the ground not too far away from me and I found these there." He said showing the gauntlets.
Everyone got up and marveled at the beautiful craftsman ship of the metal. "Vhoah, that is cool!" Kurt said.
"Yeah man, check out the thunderbolts on the sides, wicked." Evan said.
"So that explains the thunder I felt earlier, I knew it was strange for a clear skied day." Storm said.
"But does it really mean that Greek gods exist?" Jean asked.
"Well normally I would think that armor doesn't fall from the sky traveling in thunder during a clear skied day." Dean said sarcastically.
"Good point" Jean replied.
"How bout we give these babies a test run, just to see how much they can take." Logan said with a grin.
Dean returns with his own grin, "I actually like that idea, let's go for it" he said.
All the X-men gathered in the danger room suited up and ready to test out Dean's new gauntlets. Dean was wearing the gauntlets and he had to admit that they were a nice fit. They looked like they were going to be uncomfortable but surprisingly they weren't.
"Ok first up is Spyke, let's see what you got." Logan said signaling Spyke to shoot some bone spikes.
"Alright then" Evan said as spikes sprouted on his arm before shooting right out of his arm. Dean blocked each spike with his gauntlet and every spike that hit his gauntlets shattered on impact.
"That settles for basic projectiles, Storm throw some lightning at him." Logan said. Storm does as he says and projects some lightning at Dean, Dean blocks it with his gauntlets and they seem to absorb it or something because that didn't even leave any scorch marks.
"Pretty good, Cyclops you're up" Logan signaled Scott to shoot his optic beam. "Let's start out with a small one and see how that goes".
"Got it" Scott shot a small optic blast at Dean. It hit one of his gauntlets and bounced off into a different direction. 'Hmm, that could be useful' Dean Thought.
"Ok now let's try an ongoing blast." Logan said. Scott fired his optic beam; Dean formed an X with his hands to block the beam. The beam hit the gauntlets head on and it stopped traveling there. The force of Scott's optic beam pushed Dean back a few feet but stopped there before he started pushing forward.
"That's enough Cyclops" Logan said. Scott stopped. Dean's gauntlets were smoking a little but it cleared in seconds to reveal that the optic beam didn't even scratch them.
"Vhoah! Now that is some seriously tough material" Kurt said.
'Tough material?' Dean thought to himself. Dean looks at his gauntlets and then he looks at Logan. "Hey Wolverine, why don't you take a slash at it" he said raising his guard.
"I don't know kid, if it doesn't work you're gonna lose a hand." He said.
"Trust me on this one" Dean said with confidence.
"Your funeral kid" he said as he unsheathed one claw so he doesn't accidentally cut him with the other two. He slashes at it, it makes a loud ding when it collides and to everyone's surprise the slash was blocked. "This is definitely the real deal" Logan said in surprise.
"I guess that settles that" Scott said.
Logan suddenly gets an interesting thought. "Alright, Achilles you stay here. The rest of you can go." Logan said. Everyone else leaves to go change leaving Logan and Dean in the Danger room. "Now then, I seem to have come up with another way to hone some of your skills." Logan said with a grin on his face.
"So what is it?" Dean asked curiously.
"We're gonna work on your sword fighting skills." Logan said happily.
"And how do you suppose to do that?"
"Well, I use my claws and you can use adamantium swords produced by the Danger room."
"Ah so the blades don't break against your claws I get it."
"Exactly, this will just take a sec." Logan said going up to the observation room and programming a simulation they can use. About 5 minutes later he comes back.
"Activate simulation swordplay" Logan said out loud as the room changes to an open grassy field with two swords stuck in the ground in front of Dean.
Dean lifts them out of the ground; they feel about the same weight as his swords so this shouldn't be any different. Logan pops a claw on each hand. "We'll start with one on each hand and move our way up as you get better." Logan said.
"Alright" he flips the swords "Let's do this". Logan charges first slashing at Dean testing the boy's defenses. The boy is keeping up and returning with some of his own attacks. Logan is able to block them with ease; he can tell the boy is still warming up. Dean decides to step up his game and attack with everything he's got. Dean manages to slice at Logan's chest and opens up a gash. Logan ignores it for he knows it won't stay there for long.
Logan knows that the boy heals fast so it's ok if he gets a little hurt. Even though his healing factor isn't on par with Logan's yet. Logan cuts Dean right by his bicep and he continues his attack. Dean forgot about his newly acquired armor pieces and decides to utilize them. Logan went to cut Dean again but Dean blocked with his gauntlet.
Logan notices this and decides to take a different approach. This time Logan attacks lower than he did before, taking Dean by surprise. Logan slashes at his right leg and manages to make a flesh wound. 'I have to watch out for those low blows, they're harder to avoid' Dean Thought to himself.
Their blades continue to clash repeatedly with great speed. Logan decides to end it and attacks with his full fury slashing with speed that Dean can barely keep up with. After a few minutes of the onslaught Logan manages to discard Dean's swords leaving him weaponless and defeated.
He retracts his claws, "End simulation" the room changed to the normal metal room, "Not bad kid, I'm surprised you could even keep up with me for that long." Logan said.
"Well I didn't know that you could move that fast with your claws. We should add this to our weekly schedule so I can improve on this too." Dean added.
"Good idea. That way you can get some more experience with weapons." Logan said.
"I mean I can use other weapons besides swords you know. I just prefer them." Dean said.
"I'll be the judge of that one. Now let's stitch up those wounds of yours, we wouldn't want anybody getting the wrong idea at school." Logan said leading Dean to the infirmary.
"I really wouldn't even bother; they'll be healed by morning." Dean said.