Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Here we are at last, the tenth chapter! I deeply apologize for the nearly two month wait on this one, and for such a short chapter– but I am hoping to upload at a normal rate once again. That said, enjoy!
Max Dillon slowly came to, blinked his eyes as a bright light above him shone in his face. He sat up, surprised to find that he was not restrained. Looking down, he pulled up his shirt to reveal three long cuts, stitched shut.
"Gah, fuck!" he winced, his injuries sending pain flaring through his gut. He remembered getting captured, but he had passed out from his wound shortly after. After all the trouble he had caused, he had been expecting to be chained to a wall. Of course he would be able to escape no matter what prison they held him in. he cracked his knuckles, examining the pristine white room around him; everything from the pillows on the bed to the door were a blinding white.
Too bad I'm about to scorch it all. Dillon thought to himself smugly as he drew his hand back. He thrust his arm in the direction of the door to blast it down– but nothing happened. Thoroughly confused, he attempted to destroy the door once again, only to witness the same result. "No… No! No!" He cursed loudly, punching the wall in rage. "It can't be gone: that bastard scientist lied to me." He threw another punch at the wall.
"Ah, Mr. Dillon," A voice spoke through a speaker in the ceiling. "I'm glad that you have awoken so soon. I see you've discovered that your powers are no longer present, but I would like to assure you that they can be returned."
"Who the hell are you?" Dillon snapped sourly. "You expect me to believe you'd just give my powers back?"
"Of course not." The voice replied. "I want you to see something; If you would be so kind as to direct your attention to your left wrist."
Dillon instinctively looked at his wrist. Examining it closely he noticing something he hadn't before. Just below the skin he could see and oval shaped object, no larger than an apple seed, which let out a gentle blue pulse in time with his heartbeat. "What is this thing?"
"An inhibitor chip. Many of my students utilize them in order to safely interact with others. Although it is clear that you are no mutant, it surprisingly has an equal effect on you."
"How the hell do I get it out?"
"You don't. the only way to regain your powers is through surgical removal of the chip by our very own doctor. Doing so by any other means could quite possibly negate your powers for good. If you want it out, I suggest you behave yourself." The voice paused for a moment. "Why don't you take a walk around the campus, see what you think of the school."
There was a loud click as the door unlocked and gently swung open, which at first startled him, but Dillon quickly gathered his senses and exited the room. There was a long hallway that stretched out in front of him, and at the end of it a door slid open, revealing the obvious interior of an elevator. Dillon hesitantly walked down the hall and stepped into the elevator, staring at the series of buttons, strangely labeled things like "med bay" or "Cerebro". The strangest of them all was the floor represented by a bright red, triangular button labelled "Danger Room". As he was searching through the buttons, one lit up, drawing Dillon's attention to it. The button, which had previously been hidden amongst the sea of buttons, was labeled "Main Floor". He pressed it and the elevator started moving upwards.
Logan was, to put it simply, pissed. Over his time at the school, he had become a sort of a father figure to the students. Sure, it was gruff, often grumpy figure, but the students still looked up to him. Despite what he would have thought impossible only ten years ago, he enjoyed being a role model, and took his job of ensuring the student's safety very seriously. Of course his real job at the school was to teach history, but he was still getting used to the thought of actually teaching.
He was very protective over the students, and when he had realized that he was responsible for wounding one of them, he was mortified. The normally stone cold Wolverine was wrought with regret. Why had he been so careless? Why hadn't he been able to stop the intruder sooner? The fact that it was Chloe only increased his dread. The girl had only been attending the school for a few months and wasn't even a mutant, yet she had the courage to confront a superhuman.
The confrontation had been a foolish idea and had nearly gotten her killed, but that was something Logan could relate to. Brash decisions were his strong suit, and he was no stranger to brushes with death, even with his regenerative powers to aid him. That said, Logan was completely opposed to letting the intruder roam free around the campus, but the Professor's decision was final.
The burly man was waiting in the main foyer as the elevator doors that sat next to the staircase dinged and opened, revealing a bandaged figure. Logan frowned and marched toward the young man from where he had been leaning against the wall. As he neared the man, he could tell that he was indeed, very young. When they had battled, Logan had been too preoccupied by his pain to pay attention to any details such as this.
"You've got to be kidding!" the young man groaned upon seeing Logan. "Why you still here? You live here or something?"
"Yeah, something like that." Logan growled.
"now Logan," The professor spoke, having approached them without either of them noticing, as they were too busy staring each other down. "I know that we all started on quite a poor note, but I believe that we can make the best of this situation."
"Yeah, I heard you the first damn time. But how am I supposed to let this guy just waltz around the mansion after what he did?"
"His powers are being contained Logan; he's basically human now." Charles spoke at first, but regretted his words when he saw the grimace on Logan's face.
"Humans have done far worse things than any mutant, Charles. I'm a testament to that." Logan nearly spat those last words out as he turned on his heel and marched away from the professor and Max Dillon.
"Where is he running off to?" Dillon asked the professor.
Logan, who easily heard the question shouted over his shoulder. "None of your damn business!"
Chloe gasped suddenly, her eyes snapping open as she sat up abruptly, only to be knocked back down by the excruciating pain in her stomach. Her vision went black for a moment due to the pain, and there was only one word she was able to get out. "Fuck!"
"Chloe!" A familiar voice gasped. There was a vigorous scuffle of feet and the sound of someone tripping over medical equipment, but then there was a hand clasping her own firmly. Chloe felt something wet dripping onto her forearm. Tears. "Max...?" She breathed, slowly raising her head as her vision cleared. Sure enough, there the small gold was, kneeling beside her bed, wiping away the flow of tears. "I was so worried... so scared!" Max moved to kiss the girl's forehead, squeezing her hand. "I'm glad you're awake!"
The first words that came to Chloe's lips were "Fuck, that was stupid… Can you help me sit up?"
"Do you remember what happened?" Max asked, helping her girlfriend sit herself up in bed.
"I remember jumping into the middle of the shit storm, hitting that asshole in the head with a table leg…" She went quiet for a moment, pulling up her shirt to look at the bandages around her waist. "Is Logan okay?" She asked.
"Logan is fine. He was really worried about you though; he feels really guilty that you got hurt." Max replied, sitting on the edge of Chloe's bed. "He blames himself for what happened."
"That's hella lame," Chloe winced, trying to make herself comfortable. "It was my own fucking fault for jumping into the middle of a mutant battle." She paused before looking at Max's tear streaked face. "Are you holding up okay, Max?"
"Yeah…" She sniffed, wiping away her tears. "I was just so fucking worried!" she broke down and carefully hugged her girlfriend as to not bump her injuries as she let her tears fall out uncontrolled.
"Hey, hey, It's okay, Max" she kissed the top of her girlfriend's head to comfort her. "I'm here, everything is going to be ok."
"Do you promise?" Max sniffed. She felt miserable that she was a mutant, with unbelievable powers and yet it was Chloe who always managed to be so strong.
Chloe tilted max's chin up, kissing her gently. "Yeah, I promise."