Snakehead
51
Ray Crisp lay back in his old niche in The Tunnels, exhausted. His ragged blankets had been given to other Morlocks when he left the tribe, but fortunately it was not cold this time of year.
Ray pulled out his cell phone as he heard a familiar ping.
"Who would be texting me at this time of night?" It was 3 AM, far past curfew at Xavier's.
It was Thomas, of course.
It was a warning that Hellcow had been spotted in the area.
Maybe she wants us to eat more chicken? He snorted, I'm in The Tunnels, there are no vampire cows here. Now go to bed, you have DR tomorrow, remember.
He could practically hear Thomas frowning. It was kind of funny, in a way.
His friend was worried about him being attacked by a vampire cow when there were sentinels and violent anti-mutant fanatics running around. Not to mention rapists, pedos, gang-bangers and just plain thugs...
Still, it was a nice thought.
He wasn't really used to having people care about his welfare, not at home, not on the streets, even some of The Morlocks hated him for looking too 'pretty' in their opinion. Not all of them, of course, but after everything that had happened some of The Morlocks did not consider him a welcome guest...
And, of course, there was Callisto. She was convinced that Ray was trying to lure Scaleface away to the Upworld, with its hate and fear and bigotry. Not to mention Scaleface leaving The Morlocks would cost the tribe as a whole a powerful asset. She was a strong worker and invaluable for her ability to help carve out new tunnels and defend the tribe. But Ray had no intention of pressuring her to leave. He would like that he and Scaleface could live in the same world, but he respected her wishes and she respected his. It hurt, but it was better than not seeing her at all.
He wasn't a Morlock anymore, Callisto had made that clear when he left. The first time he'd returned, they'd attacked him, and, as a final blow, had Scaleface guard him. Eventually they had come to respect him again, but now he was here as a guest, a friend, but not a tribesman. He had a new tribe now.
The X-Men.
He texted Thomas back. One word.
Thanks.
...
The next morning
The El Camino pulled into the mansion's garage, shining like a new penny in the morning sunlight.
Ray got out of the vintage car and locked it.
"How'd it go?"
"Not a scratch on her." Ray tossed Thomas the keys.
Thomas grinned wickedly, "The car or Scaleface?"
"Either one. But I may have a few cuts and bruises..." Ray laughed "Did you think Hellcow was going to attack your car?"
"You never know. Mad vampire cow..."
They walked into the mansion.
Ray yawned and stretched, "I'm going to take a nap."
"Lucky you. I have DR."
'C'mon, it' not that bad."
"Mr. Logan doesn't have it in for you. Scott and I..."
"To be fair, you did insult him, undermine his authority in front of the whole student body and punch him in the face. And then your brother punched him in the face." Ray pointed out.
Thomas pouted childishly, "Well he deserved it!"
"If we went around punching everyone who deserved it nobody on earth would have any teeth left." He frowned, "Did you sleep at all last night?"
"Yes. I wasn't waiting up all night for you, if you're wondering."
"Worried about me?" He smiled. "I'm touched."
Thomas shrugged, "Hey, if you get killed, I might have to room with Roberto..."
"He used to be my roommate," Ray replied, "I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
...
Scott smirked, "It's good to see you're back in working order, Thomas."
Thomas grumbled something under his breath. Danger Room. He hated The Danger Room, and he didn't much like Scott Summers, either. He'd been able to skip it because of his broken arm and ribs, but after being healed, he was back in the virtual torture chamber.
Simon Hall, Neophyte, newest member of Team-C, looked excited, this was his first time in DR training. Tom figured his excitement would die down pretty quickly, but you never know. The sweet, shy, red-haired Swiss farm boy might be a secret masochist.
"So, wha's today's torture, yo?"
Scott glared at Todd, "As this is Simon's first session, it will be low level. The objective will be the blue button on the far wall." He pointed to said button, "That's all I'm going to say about it. Good luck Simon, Angelo, Jamie..."
"What about the rest of us?" Tabby asked.
Scott simply walked out of the room.
"You shoulda' hit him harder, yo!" Todd turned to Thomas.
"I hit him as hard as I could... But remember that nice bruise Rick gave him?"
"You HIT Mr. Summers?" Simon looked at Thomas in horror.
"Once you get to know him better, you'll want to hit him too."
"I doubt-"
The floor exploded into writhing, metallic tentacles.
"This'll come in handy if we ever fight Cthulhu!" Bobby laughed, dodging and freezing tentacles, "I bet Shades loves that tentacle smut..."
"Tentacle smut?" Simon asked in confusion as he evaded another.
"You really don't want to know!" Several Jamies shouted at once.
Simon jumped onto the nearest tentacle and vanished, only to appear seconds later, emerging from another tentacle on the other side of the room, and pressed the blue button.
The simulation ended instantly.
"Whoa, dude..." Bobby voiced the opinions of everyone in the room.
"I can travel through through almost any physical matter by bonding with it." Simon explained, "I can even travel as rain."
"How do you keep your consciousness intact when split into thousands of raindrops?" Jamie asked in awe.
"I don't know. I just do it."
"Not even Kitty can do that!"
Scott walked into the room, mouth open in shock.
"That did not just happen..." He rasped.
"That most certainly did happen." Tabby smirked, "How long did that take? 45 seconds?"
"Once he hit the tentacle, 15 seconds." Angelo said, rubbing his goatee in thought.
"Uh..." Scott shook his head, "DR is over." He had to tell Xavier about this.
All of the students except Simon cheered.
...
"You should have seen his face!" Bobby almost fell over, "I thought he was gonna' faint!"
Ray grinned, "I wish I could have seen it."
"They're going to see how well he can fight, next. He may be in Team-B before the week's over."
Ray shook his head. His first Danger Room experience had been anything but impressive, he'd panicked and nearly fried Roberto by mistake... Okay, maybe it wasn't just dumb luck that he just happened to hit the most annoying boy he knew at the time, but he had panicked. Alien tech? Solid holograms? It was like The Holodecks from Star Trek. And didn't they break down every other episode, putting the whole ship in danger?
"You remember that time the brat reprogrammed the DR to beat us half to death?"
Bobby frowned, "How could I forget? I still feel sore whenever I look at Jamie."
Ray grinned wickedly, "Remember what we did to him?"
Bobby returned the grin, "Oh yeah, that was totally worth the detention. I bet he's still tasting Kitty's special lentil soup."
"It always amazes me that she was able to burn the water..." Ray laughed, "It's like her mutant power is to ruin whatever food comes near her."
Bobby groaned, "My toe still hurts from that time I dropped one of her meatballs on it..."
"Remember what they did to the garbage disposal? I don't think Wolverine could slice through those things..."
"I think she mixed adamantium in with the ground beef."
"At least the teachers all came together and permanently banned her from the kitchen. It's bad enough to have to worry about Magneto, sentinels and crap, but to come home to find Kitty in the kitchen..." He shuddered dramatically.
...
To be continued...
Notes:
For the sake of the story, solid holograms, such as DR tentacles, count as physical objects Simon can enter. I mean, if he can become rain he can become solidified light.
Ray and Bobby force-fed Jamie Kitty's cooking.
I know, that's not how people text. But I never text, so I don't know the language.
