Good. I dislike killing mutants. Rogue's expression at my matter-of-fact statement had nearly made me laugh. They only get better from there. We made our way back to Xavier's office while ignoring the looks directed at us. We arrived in time to see Logan walk past us, looking pissed. He gave me his customary snarl as we walked by. It was just the three of us, Alyssa and Amy in the professors office. "Matthew, we have a proposition for you. Most of us have agreed to let you stay here at the Institute." That was unexpected. Kitty and Rogue glanced at each other. "We only have one stipulation." Of course. "You allow me to examine your mind whenever I feel the need to. Anything I find will never be told to anyone else unless it threatens our students." Reasonable. Suspiciously so. "You aren't worried I'll murder you all in your sleep?" He looked irritated at that. "You will also have to stop attempting to provoke us. You must make an effort to cooperate." Sounds interesting. "How will your students feel about this? Most of them will give you a chance." So some of them won't. Good. Otherwise this wouldn't be any fun. "I accept, with one condition. Call me Victor. The name Matthew will cause confusion. Matthew is dead. I just happen to look like him." Xavier nodded seriously and then addressed the others. "Rogue, please show Amy to her room. Kitty, please show Alyssa to hers. Victor, Bobby is hurt over what he sees as your betrayal. I'm going to have you room alone." He told me my room was right next to my old one. I left as he was telling Kitty and Rogue where the others rooms where. I went to my room, put my backpack on the bed and went to shower.
"DANGER ROOM SESSION! NOW!" Came Logan's voice from down the hall. The Danger Room is a waste of my time unless I'm facing Laura. Then it would be fun. I stood up and left the room.I walked down to the DR and put on the suit I'd used before. I entered the observation deck to see most of the students there. "What are they doing here?" Logan smiled in anticipation. "I don't know, kid. Maybe they're hoping something interesting'll happen." A trap then. Maybe it will make it an actual challenge. "What's my mission? We're gonna do some hand to hand combat first, to see how good you are. Then, depending on how good you do, I'll choose another exercise." Maybe I won't fall asleep after all.
I took the elevator down to the ground floor and entered the empty room. A door opened on the other side of the room and Laura walked in. And suddenly everything makes sense. Who wouldn't want to watch two trained assassins fight? I bet Logan's grinning up there. "You two are gonna be fighting. No claws, and no fatal strikes. Other than that, anything goes. Begin." At first neither of us moved. We circled each other, waiting. Then, Laura jumped at me and kicked at my ribs. I blocked with my arm and jabbed my other arm towards her jaw. She ducked and aimed a punch at my chest. First mistake. I caught her hand with mine, pulled it towards me, and brought my elbow down on the back of hers. The sickening sound of bone snapping echoed throughout the room. The pain didn't even phase her. She immediately dropped to the ground and kicked my feet out from under me. I landed on my back and twisted my head to avoid her stomp. She's not bad. This is fun after all. The next time she tried to stomp my face I moved back and then my foot shot out and hit her kneecap. It forced her back a step andI leapt to my feet. My nose was met by her fist on the way up. The sound of cartilage breaking was duller and crunchier than bone snapping. It still hurt like mad though. Thankfully, pain doesn't bother me very much. I twisted to the side and took her follow-up punch on the shoulder. I grabbed her by the arm and flipped her over my shoulder. She slammed into the ground and before she could recover I reached down, gripped her head in both hands, and twisted.
When I saw that psycho break her neck I roared into the sudden silence. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YA DOING? I SAID NOTHING FATAL!" He looked up expressionlessly. "It wasn't." I sighed. He's deliberately misunderstanding. I glanced at the students. They looked slightly sick. They'd been having the time of their lives until he had snapped her neck. Clearly they hadn't thought he would do something like that to a teammate. They better believe it. This kid's really messed up. Laura's neck snapped back into position and she sat up. "You failed your objective. You dealt a lethal blow. Sounds like someone's pissed at being last years model." He replied. This kid thinks too much of himself. I'm gonna have to cure him of that. Laura looked annoyed. I interrupted them before they started fighting again. "Psycho, Squirt, break it up. You'll get a rematch in a few days Laura. Psycho get out of here." He his face remained expressionless as he exited the room.
Disappointing. She has good control. A real fight against her would have been interesting. I felt Xavier in my head. "You should prepare for school tomorrow, Victor." Now that was suprising. "You still want me to attend? I know nearly everything they teach there. I am sending you to learn about social interactions. I feel it would be good if you got used to being around others your age. And Victor? Do not attempt to provoke my students. That behavior will not be tolerated." His presence was gone. He seems determined to prevent me from having fun. Then I realized I had nothing to do with the rest of the day. As soon as the thought crossed my mind I heard familiar footsteps a few halls down.
They seemed to be coming in my direction. I would have thought her sister had told her not to speak to me. Alyssa hurtled around the corner and attempted to tackle me. She's quite strong for her age, I observed as I watched her try fruitlessly to push me over. "You're not afraid of me?" She looked up seriously. "You haven't done anything to make me afraid. You act scary but you saved me and my sister." Logical. "She wouldn't want you talking to me. Take me to her room please." She pretended to pout and then began walking. She stopped in front of one of the rooms and knocked. Amy opened it, looking tired. Upon noticing me her expression morphed into wariness. "What are you doing with my sister? Abducting her. I told her to take me to the air vents. She must have tricked me." She made a rude gesture with one hand and I took that as my cue to leave. I could hear them arguing behind me. "He's dangerous! I don't want you talking to him. He's nice and you're just jealous." They're both annoying. "Victor?" Xavier again. "Hank needs to give you a medical examination. Please meet him in the infirmary." And he was gone. Such a waste of time.
Dr. McCoy had just finished his examination. It was a standard physical examination. He had proclaimed me to be in good health. He was now examining one of the vials of blood he had taken. "Is that all Doctor? Yes, Victor. I'll let you know if anything unusual turns up in your blood." I suppose I better warn him. "Do not use my blood in transfusions." He turned to me curiously. "Why? It would save time if you just tested it." He looked like he wanted to know more but he waved towards the door. I thanked him for examining me and began the walk back to my room.
"Logan? Yeah Chuck? Please meet us in the infirmary." I was drinking a beer in the kitchen, having just finished training a group of students in the Danger Room. Sounds serious. I get upwalk to the elevator leading to the infirmary. I head down and enter the room where Laura, Hank, and Charles are already waiting. "What's this about, Chuck? Hank has just taken a sample of Victor's blood." I raise an eyebrow. "Yeah? And? It has an... interesting effect on organic material. Get to the point. It would be easier to demonstrate." He took a glass instrument and dipped it in a vial of blood. He removed it and let a single drop fall into another vial of blood. The entire vial began turning black. After a few seconds the entire thing was pure black. "His blood doubles as a biological weapon when mixed with any other blood type. It viciously attacks and converts other blood into duplicates of his." So he could kill us all by cutting his finger over a salad. That's just great. "I obviously haven't tested this but based on this vial of blood it would take only a few drops of his blood to kill an adult human." Damn. "Then what's his blood type?" I demand. "That is the basis of our problem. He doesn't have a blood type. Not one I can identify at any rate. The only other person I've seen like this Laura." Oh. I get it now. "So you want to see how it will react to her blood? Basically, yes." He cleaned Laura's arm with rubbing alchohol and inserted the needle into the crook of her arm. After retrieving two vials he withdrew the needle. He repeated the test but this time when he added the single drop of Victor's blood nothing happened. He frowned and then added another chemical. "Great Scott! What's happening furball? His blood-it's accelerated the healing factor of Laura's blood tenfold!" I scowled. Hank continued his explanation. "The chemical I just added was a powerful acid. When added to Laura's blood the acid would normally be destroyed in a few minutes. With Victor's blood it took seconds." Not all bad then. "What about my blood?" He paused. "I'm not certain, but it probably wouldn't kill you. It would only cause you pain until your healing factor managed to neutralize it." So this kid is even less human than I thought. At least it proves he doesn't want us dead yet. He could have just poisoned all the food with a few drops of his blood. They really went all out with him. And now I feel sorry for the kid. Goddamn. The professor looked grave. "Please do not mention this to the students. It will only make them fear him even more. We will only tell them if absolutely necessary." Charles is right. He's already disliked enough. "I'm gonna go then Chuck. Got places to be, Danger Room sessions to plan." He nodded and I left.
A/N: Ohhhhh new developments. 29 is rather impatient isn't he? Well say what you like about HYDRA but you can't claim his lifestyle there was boring. Oh, and try not to hate me for him beating Laura. His bones cannot be broken and due to the adamantium his punches are probably quite damaging. That and the fact they received similar hand-to-hand combat training gives him the definite advantage. Don't worry though, Logan would still kick his ass. I'm not trying to portray 29 as Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee rolled into one, I'm trying to portray the three of them as similar, but with slightly different strengths. Laura is good at killing humans. There's not much she can do in a straight up fight against an opponent she can't cut. (See: Kimura, Logan, X-29. And by can't cut I mean can't do very much real damage. The few places she can cut 29 and Logan to do real damage are the heart and certain veins and arteries. Cutting those wouldn't do much against someone who would heal them before they could lose any significant blood.) Logan has been taking down all different types of enemies in his lifetime, so he's pretty good at killing singular stronger enemies, but not as quick at killing humans as Laura is. 29 is somewhere in the middle. I'm not going to be giving much credence to the one time in the comics where Laura fought Logan. For one thing, it wasn't a real fight. For another, the whole rubbing-dirt into his wounds was totally implausible. If he couldn't heal when there was something inside him, one adamantium bullet in his brain would disable him for days at the very least. And one bullet to the heart would probably kill him. I would add some more stuff here, but if I did it would be longer than the chapter. So, until next time, read, review, and let me know if something in my story seems silly or implausible.