Chapter 35: The First Avenger, Reborn.
A couple weeks after the Mesmero incident and the X-Men entering a new alliance with David Xanatos, everyone was still slowly recovering from the ordeal, particularly Chelsea and Roxy. The former because of a concussion she had suffered and the second due to odd feelings she had been having since the incident.
Currently Chelsea was putting her jacket back on after Beast had done a routine blood test, and was now listening to the results as Gavin printed them out for the good doctor.
"Here you go." He said as he held out the results to Beast. As the man read it over, he hummed in intrigue as something caught his attention.
"What is it, Hank?" Chelsea asked.
"Well, there are two odd anomalies I'm noticing here with your DNA. First is reptilian genes…" The ape mutant stated.
"What about them?" The blonde inquired.
"Well it's the second one that irks me. There apparently seems to be an ancestral trait that you inherited specifically, which mingled with your X-gene. Making it older than it should be." He told her.
"Older?" Chelsea asked.
"I bet ya twenty big ones that you're probably descended from Tiamat herself." Gavin commented jokingly.
"Shut up. There's no way that's actually true." The dragoness huffed.
"Ya never know…" The boy chuckled. "Anyway, I gotta get moving. Later."
After that, Chelsea joined Logan on a ride on his motorcycle, but it was soon interrupted by a trio of HumVs and an Army chopper, which gave chase to them.
"What the hell? Why are they chasing us?!" Chelsea asked as they dodged the gunfire.
"If it's who I think it is, then I'm gonna be super pissed." Logan growled. They then went off road and in between two rocks and stopped two of the three, and Chelsea breathed fire at the tires of the third, causing it to flip over.
As soon as they were at an open area, it was at a cliff, which a helicopter flew in front of them, which caused Logan to deploy his claws and Chelsea to go dragon.
"Dragon Up!" She said as she transformed.
The helicopter suddenly turned its side to them and revealed that it was a SHIELD vehicle. The door opened up and a grizzled looking old veteran in army clothes wearing an eyepatch on his left eye came out. The man was an African American man with a beard and was also bald. He looked similar to Samuel L. Jackson.
"Hold it right there Logan. And tell your girlfriend to stand down, or we will fire on her." The man warned as the helicopter's turret gun pointed at Chelsea as her mouth filled with fire.
Logan growled before he turned to his draconic girlfriend. "You can stop now." He told her. The dragoness sighed as she turned back to normal as the copter landed as the man walked up to them.
"Fury…" Logan growled, then two or three more SHIELD soldiers came out of the woods, apparently scared out of their minds.
"What's your deal?" Chelsea questioned.
"Some crazy kid in red attacked us, scared half our guys to death, but we got him, he's dead now." One soldier said, still scared.
Logan and Chelsea looked at each other and sighed. "Gavin." They both deadpanned.
"You idiots mean to tell me you killed a kid?!" Fury snapped.
"Yeah, we had to to live, so we pumped him full of lead." The second soldier said, causing Logan and Chelsea to smirk at each other.
"So let me get this straight. All you did was shoot him?" The blond dragon asked, her smirk never waning.
"Um, yeah. Why?" The second asked.
"Well, we got nothing to worry about in that case." Logan said casually. "Ya see, that's just step one."
"Which means you guys forgot to do steps two through ten." Chelsea chuckled.
"Wait, what?" Fury asked intelligently.
"Ah Christ…" All three soldiers said as Gavin reformed out of smoke in front of them, his injuries completely gone.
"You done goofed." The pseudo vampire told them.
"How in the hell did you do that?!" The first soldier asked.
"Fuck you, that's how!" Gavin retorted.
Fury facepalmed as if he recognized the boy. "Well Gavin, I see you haven't changed at all." He sighed.
"Come on, Nicky. You know you love it when I'm like this." The boy told him jovially.
"You two know each other, Smokey?" Logan asked.
"You could say that." Gavin nodded.
"Who is this guy, anyway?" Chelsea asked while stomping towards Fury, getting in his face. "I mean seriously, you got a lot of nerve pal, interrupting my date like this."
"Why don't you just ask?" Gavin offered.
"Well?" The blonde prodded, ignoring the boy's statement.
"Nick Fury, director of SHIELD." The man told her. He then looked over at Logan. "The reason I'm here Logan, is because Rebirth has been stolen."
Gavin and Chelsea raised their eyebrows in confusion while Logan grabbed the man by his collar. "Impossible! There's nothing left of it. Rogers and I made sure of that!" He stated fiercely.
Fury gave him a 'get off my suit' look before sighing. "There was a backup. Since it was a touchy subject, we had it under level six security." The man explained. "Whoever did it was able to do this to titanium steel doors, as well as knock out security with magnetic interference, we're talking Mutant here." He continued.
Logan looked at the picture and knew only one person capable of this. "Magneto." He growled.
"What could he possibly want with it?" Gavin asked with a furrowed brow.
"That's what we don't know. But we need to get it back." Fury told them.
"We'll see what we can do, patch, but next time…" Chelsea said while poking him hard in the chest. "Point a gun at me again, and I'll show you why your ancestors feared dragons." She warned, causing the man to sigh.
(Later)
Chelsea was sitting in the main front room when she heard something small tapping on the screen door. As she turned to see what it was, she saw that it was as a small box tortoise.
Feeling a little curious about the tortoise's behavior, she went to the door and opened it before picking it up and holding it up to her face.
"What are you doing here, little fella?" She asked.
As if to answer her question before it even uttered a word, the little reptile's stomach rumbled. "Hungry." It told her. Almost immediately, she recognized its voice.
"Hey, you're the little tortoise I helped in the woods before." She said, smiling she brought him into the kitchen and set some lettuce in front of him on the table.
As the little guy continued to eat on the food in front of him, Gavin's bat Brownie flew in the kitchen after some bugs that got in, he was then soon followed by Gavin, Kurt and Rogue.
"Okay, Brownie. You've had your fill now let's- Huh?" He said before taking notice of the reptile eating lettuce on the table. "... What's with the box tortoise?" He asked.
"I saved this guy when I found him flipped upside down in the woods, now it looks like he found me again, so I'm giving him something to eat. Poor little fella sure was hungry." The dragoness said as she stroked the little guy's head with her finger.
"Are you gonna keep him?" Rogue asked.
"I dunno, maybe." She said as the tortoise looked up at her with its little brown eyes. "Whaddya say, little man?" The woman asked. She was answered by the tortoise rubbing its little head into her hand with its equivalent of a purr. The three teens chuckled at the show of affection.
"I guess that's his answer." Kurt commented.
"Well then welcome aboard, Mr. T." The woman smiled before Brownie buzzed by her head as he hid in Gavin's jacket as the lights started to flicker. Everyone looked up at the lights in confusion.
"Is that a power surge or…" Rogue trailed off.
"Cerebro at full power! Come on, we gotta see this!" The blue fuzzball said in excitement as he, Rogue and Gavin made their way to Cerebro's control room, Chelsea opting to bring her new pet with her as she followed them.
When they got there, Cerebro was being used by the professor, which had a map of the world with every mutant on the planet.
"*Whistle* That is a lot of mutants." Chelsea said as they walked up behind them, Mr. T in her hands.
"Yes, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of them." Xavier sighed, taking off his helmet.
"Any luck finding Magneto?" Gavin asked.
"No. His cloaking technology has been keeping pace with our detection, so that's making it difficult to locate him." The professor explained.
"What does he want with Rebirth, anyway?" Chelsea asked. "I mean, if what you said was true, it could kill him."
"Yeah, but that's with humans… I wonder what it could do to mutants?" Gavin wondered aloud.
"Good question." Chelsea nodded.
"Don't go getting any ideas." Logan snapped.
"Hey, Ah think Ah may know a way for us to find Magneto." Rogue told them. "Back when Gavin and Ah were in a standoff with him in that church, Ah grazed him and absorbed some memories of a metal dome, in the Sahara desert."
"Well, that narrowed our search to several dozen miles of sand for days." The scraggly man griped.
"I'm sure Ah could recognize some landmarks." Rogue said.
"You ain't goin', Rogue." Logan growled.
"Ah don't think you have a choice. The memories showed me that you won't be able to get in without magnetism or…" She said before Kurt cut her off.
"Teleportation!" He whooped. "The fuzzy boy is on the mission!" He exclaimed in excitement.
Logan groaned before he noticed Mr. T in Chelsea's arms. "Is that a tortoise?" He asked in confusion.
"Yep. He's the same one I found in the woods a while back. He found his way back here for food and I decided to adopt him." She said, sounding like it wasn't a big deal.
The scraggly mutant nodded. "Well at least you got someone to talk to while we're not here. Come on you two, we'll take the X-Velocity."
Gavin smirked as he melted into smoke, leaving the other two in confusion. All this talk gave him an idea.
(Elsewhere)
-Airspace, Sahara Desert-
As the three flew over the Sahara, Rogue and Kurt were being filled in about what happened to Captain America.
"So this Rebirth stuff causes humans to experience cellular breakdown?" Rogue asked.
"Yeah, and because it was still new stuff, they had no idea how to counter it." Logan explained.
"Did they ever get a chance to?" Kurt asked.
"No, me and cap made sure of it, or at least, so we thought." The scraggly mutant replied.
"There! Head east of that rock!" Rogue told him. Logan did so as they continued their way to the dome.
After they landed, Rogue got a detonator and they headed to the dome on ATVs, but as they did, they were unknowingly followed by a cloud of smoke.
On their way to their target location, they were peppered by missiles launched from who knows where, and were forced to abandon their rides in favor of teleporting into the facility.
Once they were in, they saw that someone was already inside the rebirth canister. As they headed to destroy it, Sabertooth came out of nowhere and attacked Logan.
The two used parts of their surroundings to try and subdue the other, but neither were willing to give ground.
As this was going on, Nightcrawler made his way to the controls and placed the bomb on it as he addressed the person in the tank.
"I'm doing you a favor. Zis stuff isn't exactly healthy." He told them.
"On the contrary, it's my salvation." The person said, the voice revealing the occupant to be Magneto. The blue mutant could only look at him in shock.
"Magneto? Vhat happened to you?" Kurt asked.
"I'm an old man, my enhancements have kept me alive until now, but now I only have a few months to live. But you see, these canisters, and the chemicals inside, can give mutants long life, and even heal the deadliest of diseases. It's a miracle in disguise." The magnet master explained. "This is my only chance, if you take it away, I will die eventually. Are you really that much like your mother?"
His words made Kurt freeze where he was. Was he like his mother? No, he wasn't. Letting go of the pin, he let the canister do its job, causing Magneto to suddenly and miraculously become younger.
Before he could destroy the controls afterwards, however, Gavin appeared out of nowhere and made him back up by pointing his sword at him.
"No way, Kurt. This stuff really does work, so I am not going to let you destroy a perfect medical breakthrough like this." The pseudo vampire said before turning to Magneto as he got out of the chamber. "And I know just how I'm gonna use it, too."
"Just how are you going to do that, if I may ask?" The magnetic mutant inquired as both Rogue and Logan came over to them.
"I'm gonna get this to Dr. Marks immediately. He's a very accomplished human surgeon who does a secret job as a mutant physician. And with this rebirth stuff? We could be looking at the new penicillin." Gavin said before looking at an angry Logan. "Listen Logan, I understand how you feel, but look at it this way. Sure it was bad for Captain America, but it could be something wonderful for all of mutant kind, it's like I always say: One man's damnation, is another's salvation."
"Translation: He thinks we should take something bad and use it to do some good." Rogue stated.
Logan glared daggers at Gavin. He wanted the thing that endangered the life of one of his closest war buddies to be erased, and here stood one of his charges, defending it and wanting to use it to help mutants everywhere. Sure, it was a noble goal, but a human hating mutant might use it as a weapon against humanity.
"And what if human hating mutants try to use it against humanity?" He asked, voicing his thoughts.
"Then we destroy it. Or at least fix it to where it won't be a problem. Whichever does the most good." The boy told him. "Trust me, Logan, I gave this plenty of thought."
"I must agree with young Gavin, Wolverine." Magneto stated as he called over his helmet. "Although I have made it clear that I do not trust humanity, the fact that a human doctor is helping our kind willingly intrigues me. And I too understand your pain, after all. I remember that night in Poland where you and Rogers saved a group of Jewish POWs. I know because I was there when I was a boy."
That revelation caused the three teens to look at him with wide eyes. Magneto was a prisoner of the Nazis in the second world war?
"You were a prisoner of the Nazis back then?" Rogue asked in shock.
"Yes, it is part of the reason why I am so bitter towards humanity now. However, recent events where humans have shown me kindness despite being a mutant, has… Made me think." Magneto said before sighing. "That being said, those exceptions still prove that there is a rule. Now…" he then turned to Logan. "Tell me Logan, what would the good Captain say if he found that what hurt him could be used as the salvation of millions?"
"... I don't know." The man sighed heavily. "But, I know him, he was the type that would have chosen saving millions instead of living another day if given the choice so…" he then faced the man. "I think he'd want to see good be done instead of evil."
Magneto nodded in agreement. "My sentiments exactly." He said.
"Vell I don't know about you guys, but I'd call zis an absolute vin." Kurt smiled as Logan groaned and Gavin chuckled.
(A few hours later)
Logan was in a room standing over a cryo chamber where none other than Captain America was inside, in stasis to preserve his life. Chelsea was there too, for emotional support.
"Hey Cap, been a long time. I just wanted to say that, today we had a victory, for you. Rebirth has been fixed, and now it'll help mutants everywhere have better lives. I just hope you could be here to see it." He then sighed shakily as his girlfriend hugged him. "You and me, we made a great team and… I swear on everything holy we'll find that cure, I promise."
"You don't have to look any further." Gavin said as he entered the room with Fury close behind. The two turned to them with raised eyebrows.
"How do you propose we do that?" The dragoness asked.
"Three words: Bone Marrow Transfusion." Gavin replied. "More specifically, from a mutant with a healing factor."
Logan's eyes went wide in realization. "Wait, are you saying…?!" He tried to ask.
"One of us can save his life." Gavin nodded.
"But how-?" The blonde asked.
"Logan, didn't you say that you healed your ex-fiancée's grandfather from a terrible sickness by giving him some of your bone marrow?" Fury asked.
"Yeah…" The man nodded.
"Well this is basically the same concept." Gavin added.
"Then you also realise that this is gonna hurt like hell, right?" The scraggly mutant asked.
"Eh, I've been shishkababed on a reed bar before, how bad can it be?" Gavin shrugged.
"And I had ripped out my own flesh before. This won't be that bad either." Chelsea added.
"I hope you're both right, then." Logan sighed.
"However we're going to need to see who has the best healing factor out of you three to see which will give us the best results, so we'll need to test them." Fury told them.
"Oh boy." The older two groaned. They then spent the next hour testing each other's healing factors and Gavin was the one to come out on top, being leagues better than the other two.
And with that Fury had Sampson Marks come over to perform the procedure, which allowed the boy to meet Chelsea's dad face to face.
"This is a very noble and selfless thing you're doing young man, but are you sure you're willing to go through with something this drastic for a man you've never even met?" The man asked the boy as he prepared him for the surgery.
"I'm sure. He's done a lot back then. It's high time he was paid back for his troubles." Gavin nodded seriously. "Besides, the good lord gave me these powers for a reason, might as well use them for good, right?"
"A man of faith. I respect that." Sampson nodded as he placed a knock out gas mask on Gavin. "Well then, let's see if you're right." He said as the boy drifted into unconsciousness and the surgery went underway.
(Six hours later)
Gavin groaned as he came to and noticed two things: 1. He was in a medical bed. 2. The areas in which his bone marrow was taken from ached like hell, just as Logan predicted.
"Well that confirms that I can still feel pain." The boy groaned as he laid back on the pillows. As he looked around he noticed that he was in the Institute med bay. 'They must have moved me.' He thought as three people entered: Sampson, Beast and Bast.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, sleepyhead." Bast joked.
"Did the procedure work?" The bed ridden boy asked.
"Miraculously, yes. Though it will still take Captain America time to wake from the effects of his cryo stasis." Sampson nodded. "In the meantime though, I suggest that you focus on your recovery for now." He then turned to Bast. "Miss Fatima, I'd just like to say that your help with the surgery and transfusion was very much appreciated. If you'd like, I could actually give you a position in my underground mutant clinic to help you obtain your medical degree."
"I would love that very much. Thank you." The catwoman nodded with a smile.
Gavin smiled as the two left him and Beast while the blue mutant helped him get comfortable before the others entered the room.
"Gavin, how are you feeling?" Xavier asked him.
"Yes Gavin, are you in any pain? Can we get you anything?" Ororo asked him.
"Don't go spoiling the kid." Logan stated.
"Yeah, the last thing we need is for him to get a big head." Chelsea added as Rogue walked over to him before the boy's brother and mother entered the room.
"We heard about what you did, brother." Devin commented.
"Yes, and I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of you for doing what you did." Amanda added as she hugged her bedridden son lightly.
"Thanks guys. I just hope that Cap won't be too mad that we repurposed Rebirth instead of destroying it." The boy sighed before smirking at his mother. "Say mom, how was your date with ol' Nick last week?" He asked, causing his mother to freeze where she stood.
"Wait, what?" Devin asked dumbly.
"Oh, I didn't mention? Mom started dating the director of SHIELD Nick Fury, last year. I mean, not that I can blame her, he had done a lot for her, and us over the years." The boy chuckled painfully.
"Oh really?" Devin smirked before he turned to their mother. "Should we expect a wedding between you two at some point?" He teased, causing his poor mother to go red in the face.
"D-DEVIN!" She stammered in embarrassment, causing the two sons to chuckle. Everyone else watched the scene in amusement, too.
"My oh my, how the tables have turned." Beast commented as he chuckled. Amanda could only cover her face to try and hide her embarrassment.
(Elsewhere)
Captain America slowly woke up a couple days later, and Fury was standing over him as he laid in a hospital bed.
"Welcome back Cap, sleep well?" The eye patched man asked.
The supersoldier groaned as he tried to speak. Fury wordlessly gave him some water, which he took. After downing it, he tried to speak again and got better results.
"How long was I out?" He finally asked.
"Almost seventy years, Cap. Right now you're in the headquarters of SHIELD, an organization formed by your old friends, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark." Fury told him. "I'm it's current director, Nick Fury."
"Was a cure actually found? After all this time?" The First Avenger asked, who now looked in the mirror across from him, showing he actually looked a little like Chris Evans.
"Not necessarily. You were given some bone marrow from a teenager with a naturally strong healing factor. That's the reason you're not dying anymore. That kid saved your life." The SHIELD director told him.
"Does He have a name?" Steve asked.
"It's Gavin." Logan said as he suddenly walked into the room, which caused the super soldier to look at him in surprise. "Hey there Rogers, you're looking better."
"Logan?" The blonde man asked. "You… You look like you haven't even aged a second."
"Perks of being a mutant with a healing factor." The scraggly mutant shrugged before sitting down in a chair next to him. "Now, how about we take this time to catch up?"
"Sure, that'd be great." The First Avenger said before his expression turned worried. "First Logan, I need to ask you something."
"What is it?" Logan asked.
"Bucky, he disappeared on our last mission against the Red Skull. Where is he?" Steve questioned.
Logan looked at him gravely. "Sorry Steve, but I don't know, none of us do. After that mission, Bucky just vanished somewhere in the Russian tundra. No one's heard from him or seen him since."
Steve nodded as he let out a heavy sigh, but he guessed it didn't matter right now. After all, he still had Logan to talk to.
Yes, it was a great day, because Steve Rogers aka Captain America, the First Avenger, was reborn.
Dragon Emperor0: And with that the setup is complete for the Vampyr's Vendetta arc to start next chapter. Because that transfusion Gavin gave Cap? He did it for more than one reason.
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah. He did it because it would mean the Cap owed Gavin a favor or two, and it was well done, too.
Dragon Emperor0: Fair warning though guys, this next arc? It's gonna be some John Wick meets I am Wrath, meets Rambo, meets V for Vendetta, meets Hellsing Abridged kinda shit. So don't expect it to be too fluffy, cuz Gavin's gonna do some nasty 'Lord Please Forgive Me for What I'm about to do' kinda shit.
ThermalsniperN7: And let's not forget the impending Cthulhu level insanity on the horizon.
Dragon Emperor0: HP Lovecraft, eat yer heart out. Well, see you guys next week.