Chapter 13
Test time
At the Institute
Charles had asked Dean to speak to him before he went to school, he didn't say why.
Dean walked inside Charles's office without even knocking.
"You may enter" Charles said sarcastically.
"Seeing as you always know when someone is coming" Dean replied with his own sarcasm.
"Regardless of my telepathy it doesn't make it any less rude. Scott has told me that you've met the Brotherhood" Charles said.
'Scott is a teacher's pet' Dean thought, "Yeah, what about it?"
"I would advise you to stay clear of them, I don't want you causing any trouble" Charles said.
"Listen Prof, I may seem like the type that looks for trouble but I'm not. I try to avoid unnecessary confrontations, but I won't let anyone push me around. Ever" Dean said sternly.
"As long as you don't abuse your power and avoid using it in public" Charles said.
"Agreed" Dean nodded.
"Also, the Brotherhood have their own sort of mentor. A woman named Mystique" Charles said.
"I'm guessing I'll be seeing her soon" Dean guessed.
"Quite, she has the ability to shapeshift into any person she wants. And she's your principal" Charles said.
"Well that's awesome" Dean said sarcastically, "Another reason not to like the principal"
Charles laughed.
Later at Bayville high
Dean walked out of his classroom feeling relieved that it was lunchtime.
"Hi Dean!" 3 voices said in unison.
Dean let out a sigh and turned around to face the 3 almost identical looking girls named Missy, Sissy, and Chrissy.
"Hello ladies" Dean said unamusingly.
"We didn't see you yesterday" Missy said with a frown.
"Yeah something came up, maybe next time" Dean said walking past her.
Missy froze, "Did he just like blow me off?!"
"O-M-G" Sissy said shockingly.
"That's so hot" Chrissy admitted.
"I don't think he realizes who he's dealing with" Missy said with a smirk.
As Dean made his way to the lunchroom he spotted the Principle glaring at him.
"Mr. Nobili" Ms. Darkholme said.
"Yes Principal Darkholme?" Dean asked.
"I would like to have a word with you in my office, now" Ms. Darkholme led the way to her office.
'Great, what's this about now?' Dean followed her into her office and sat down and waited for whatever it is she wanted.
"Now I am correct in saying that you are the newest student in the Xavier Institute?" she asked.
"Yes I am, so?" Dean asked.
"So what made you go there in the first place?" she asked optimistically.
"That's none of your business…Mystique" Dean stood up.
"It seems Xavier has already warned you about me" Mystique said.
"Yeah he mentioned how you can be a little sneaky sometimes" Dean said.
"My dear boy, I am not sneaky" Mystique morphed into her natural form. Her skin was blue like Kurt's, she had red hair, and she wore white clothing, "I just cover my tracks well"
Dean took a good look at her natural form, 'She's hot' he thought but not showing the same enthusiasm, "You look like a smurf with red hair"
Mystique frowned at the comment, "Your childish humor doesn't amuse me. Regardless, I would like it if you joined the Brotherhood"
"Why should I?" Dean asked.
"You see Xavier and I have very different views of the world. He thinks that humans and mutants can coexist in a peaceful world full of sunshine and rainbows in fairytale land. But I look at things more realistically, humans will fear us, hunt us down like animals because we are superior to them. The truth is mutants should roam this planet, we are the next stage in evolution, and there's nothing anyone can do to change that" Mystique said.
Dean chuckled, "Sorry, but I'm not buying what you're selling. I'm not the kind of person who agrees to oppress people, it's not my style" in his eyes Mystique's goals mirrored those of Strucker.
Mystique looked disappointed, "I see it will be difficult to change your mind"
"Try impossible" Dean added.
"With the right incentive anything is possible" Mystique said.
"No. Now I'm going to leave, this discussion is over with" Dean turned around and opened the door.
'He is a stubborn one' Mystique thought reverting to her disguise again, "This isn't over boy. I always get what I want" She said with a grin.
Dean walked outside and turned around, "Well if you want my ass so badly why don't you kiss it?" and before she could react to the statement he closed the door behind him.
Mystique picked up a stapler and threw it at the door in anger, 'that tongue of yours is going to cost you dearly boy'
But before she did anything drastic she needed to see how he would fair against her Brotherhood. No sense in going through trouble for nothing.
Rogue went on the food line and picked up a tray.
But before she could do anything the tray was snatched out of her hands by Chrissy, "Thank you" she said with a snotty look.
Rogue glared at the blonde, 'If it weren't for the Professor'
Rogue grabbed another one but Sissy took it from her, "I'll take that"
Rogue clenched her hands, 'Stay calm' she tried her best not to snap.
Missy then took the tray Rogue was reaching for and skipped her, "Freak" she said and the three blondes laughed.
"Bitch!" Rogue went to punch Missy but someone grabbed her arm, "I don't think you should do that"
She turned around and saw Dean holding her hand.
"Let go of me" Rogue said and Dean did so.
"Aw is the little freak having a fit?" Chrissy made fun of her and the blondes laughed.
Dean had to hold Rogue back from tearing them apart, "Let me at 'em!"
"Rogue calm down, you're making a scene" Dean whispered to her, "There's other ways to get back at them"
Rogue listened to his words and calmed herself. She stormed out of the cafeteria.
The three blondes might be the it girls of the school but that didn't make them any less mean, he was sure of that.
Dean quickly filled his tray and left before the blondes could bother him again.
After school Dean came by the football field, only due to a lack of things to do.
Duncan and the rest of the football team were in the middle of practice.
Missy, Sissy, Chrissy, and the rest of the cheerleading squad were nearby stretching and preparing for their own practice.
The coach had the players tackling dummies.
'What am I even doing?' Dean thought. He spotted Jean sitting by the bleachers, 'Oh right'
One of the players spotted Dean, "Hey Duncan look who showed up"
Duncan looked back and saw Dean chatting with Jean, and having fun.
"Looks like she likes his company Dunc" Matt said teasing him.
"New guy's gonna replace you" Ryan said in a similar fashion.
"How bout you shut up you faggots" Duncan said knocking into the dummy with all the force of his body knocking it back slightly.
"So you're not going to?" Jean asked.
"Football doesn't really interest me. Now if there was a UFC team or something like that I'd be the first to join" Dean said.
"Oh, then why bother showing up?" Jean asked.
"To tell Duncan in person, and to see you" Dean said with a bright smile
Jean blushed.
Duncan saw Dean get a reaction out of her and was fuming.
"Hey Matt pass me the pigskin" Duncan said.
Matt passed him the football.
Duncan caught the ball and aimed it at Dean's face, "No one tries to steal my girls" he threw the ball with all his might.
"Jean have you ever gotten curious and read Duncan's mind?" Dean asked.
"No! I'd never, I'm not supposed to do that" Jean said. But then she wondered why he would ask such a thing, "Why?"
Dean was about to say something but he paused as he caught an incoming football that would have hit his face with one hand, "Just curious"
Matt and Ryan started laughing hysterically, "He caught it with one hand!"
Duncan felt embarrassed, how could he have caught it when he wasn't even looking?
Dean threw the football back.
Duncan caught it but was knocked back from the force of the throw.
"How you getting home?" Dean asked.
"I was going to wait for Duncan but practice is taking too long" Jean said.
"I can give you a ride if you want" Dean offered.
"That would be great, let's go" Jean said walking with him.
They approached Duncan.
"Hey Duncan it's getting late so I'm going home with Dean" Jean said.
Duncan glared at Dean before looking back at Jean, "C'mon Jeanie just wait for me"
"Sorry Duncan I have things to do, don't worry I'll see you tomorrow" Jean said walking away.
Dean stood still as he locked eyes with the star quarterback.
"You coming?" Jean asked Dean.
"You go on ahead, I just need to have a little talk" Dean said approaching Duncan.
Jean, oblivious to Duncan's behavior, did as he asked.
"Tell you what, Dean, you can forget my little offer. I have no respect for a girlfriend stealer" Duncan said.
"Funny, I have no respect for guys who take advantage of girls" Dean said.
"Listen carefully" Duncan said grabbing Dean's shirt, "You better stay away from my girlfriend, or else" he warned.
Dean laughed internally, 'Oh you have no idea what you just did' he thought, "Don't worry, I won't. I know better than to piss off the captain of the football team"
Duncan smiled, "You're really not as dumb as you look" he let go of Dean, "Now hit the road chump"
Dean turned around and walked away, "Fine" he went to his parked motorcycle where Jean was waiting.
"Everything good?" Jean asked.
"Perfect" Dean said with a grin.
Later on Dean found himself once again with nothing to do, a bit of a reoccurrence. He wandered around the Institute for a little, taking in the beautiful green scenery.
As Dean wandered he spotted Rogue sitting on a bench reading a book.
'I don't think I've ever seen a pretty girl's nose so deep in a book' Dean thought as he approached her.
Rogue looked up as she noticed a shadow loom over her.
"What do you want?" Rogue asked with a slight attitude.
Dean was surprised by her rude response. He's getting tired of this girl's attitude, "Hello to you to Rogue, how was your day? You see now that's a regular conversation starter"
"Obviously I'm not looking to have a conversation" Rogue said turning a page.
"And that's what I don't get about you. Someone's nice to you, doesn't treat you any different for being antisocial, and on top of that I prevent you from making a bad decision. After all that you don't feel the least bit obligated to at least acknowledge me?" Dean asked.
Rogue turned another page, "No"
Dean threw his hands up in the air, "I can't believe this girl!"
"You can go now, you're disturbing my reading time" Rogue said turning another page.
Dean stood still, "You know what? I'm not moving an inch until you tell me what your problem is with me"
Rogue got up and went to leave.
Dean stepped in front of her and crossed his arms, "Hold on a sec"
"Why should I? Cause ya kissed my hand like a gentleman? I know what you want. All you boys are the same, just looking for one thing well it's a good thing mine's off limits" Rogue said.
"Look at you, you don't even know me and you're jumping to conclusions" Dean leaned closer to her, "I was being nice to you before but obviously you're the type of girl that appreciates honesty, is that what you want?"
"Yea, I'd like to hear this" Rogue said crossing her arms.
"I do sympathize for you, because going through life not being able to touch another person is torture whether you're willing to admit it or not. Now this—"Dean tried to think of a good way to describe it, "Wall that you're putting up around yourself is only going to hurt you, not protect you. If you don't let yourself care for others how do you expect them to care about you?"
"I don't, I'm fine on my own" Rogue insisted.
"See right there, you're doing it again. You've given up on any hope of things ever improving" Dean said.
"Cause they're not! I'm always going to be alone, I'm better off learning to live with my curse now rather than foolishly hoping on it getting better" Rogue said suddenly blurted out.
Dean shook his head, "You're wrong. Because, one day you're gonna learn to control your powers and you're going to need some experience in dating if you want your heart intact. Because back where I'm from guys would go head over heels to be with a beautiful girl like you" He said with honesty, Rogue was beautiful.
Rogue stared at him for a second, 'He called me beautiful, after everything I've said…No, don't listen to him', "That's nice and all coming from one of the popular kids"
"How exactly am I popular?" Dean asked.
"What do you think? I don't see those three blondes staring at you all the time? You're strong and rich and you get the pretty girls. A spoiled kid like you wouldn't understand my life" Rogue said.
Dean looked a little sad at hearing that, "I don't blame you for thinking that, but like I said before, you don't know me" he walked past her.
Everyone had gathered in the observation room where they had a full view of the Danger Room. Seeing the newbie go at it in the danger room was like an ongoing tradition for those at the Institute.
Everyone had to go through the same thing. The first danger room session, on your own, difficulty setting random. No one has completed it fully on their first try.
"Now Dean you need not worry about being hurt but here, we work as a team, and for that to work each individual must know what the others in that team are capable of" Charles said.
"Alright then, let's get on with it" Dean said heading to the changing room.
After a couple of minutes Logan went to fetch the kid from the changing room. He knocked before walking in to find the kid not looking too happy.
The uniform was black with a yellow belt with an X on the buckle and red patches on the shoulders also with X's and to top it off were yellow boots and gloves. It felt tight everywhere, like spandex.
"What is this stuff?" Dean asked.
"They're made of a material with an unstable molecular structure. They absorb energy...like the kinetic energy of a bullet but a straight shot at close enough range will get through" Logan said.
Dean nodded, "Do I have to wear this though?"
Logan groaned, "If you want to customize your own outfit you'll have to earn it kid, just like everyone else. In the meantime move your ass into the Danger Room" he said threateningly.
Dean moved along not acknowledging the threat. He walked inside the spacious area and came to a stop In the middle of the Danger Room.
Jean was ogling Dean, the uniform was showing off his muscular physique. She had to say that she has never seen those uniforms look so good.
Logan addressed him over the microphone, "Ok kid first let's check your speed. So when you're ready I want you to start running slowly and then work your way up to your maximum"
"No problem" Dean said stretching a little.
"I didn't know we could do that" Scott said.
"Forge and I upgraded the danger room. We fitted sensors inside the metal plates and designed a way to measure large amounts of strength" Charles said.
Dean started off at a normal paced jog before he started running and slowly accelerated.
Up in the control room Logan was watching the reading of Dean's speed as he passed 50 mph. 60. 70. 72. 75. It stopped rising there.
"Alright kid you can stop" Logan said through the mic.
Dean came to a stop.
"How are you feeling kid?" Logan asked.
"Fine" Dean said not looking drained at all.
Logan checked the readings of the sensors, "Interesting"
"What is it Logan?" Charles asked.
"The kid's heart rate and breathing never increased once. He probably could have kept that up for a while" Logan said.
"So what's next?" Kitty asked.
"We're going to see how strong he is half pint" Logan informed Kitty.
Logan then activated a program and part of the roof dropped down on hydraulic pumps.
"Stand under it, put your hands on it, and I'll slowly increase the weight. I'll stop when I think you've had too much" Logan said in the mic.
Dean does so placing his hands on the underside of it.
Logan slowly increased the pressure to simulate a few pounds to start with.
Dean stood there showing no sign of strain at all.
Logan increased the pressure. It passed 100 and Dean still showed no signs of effort on his part. He continued to increase the weight. It passed 200...400...600...800...1000.
"He is strong" Evan muttered.
Logan on the other hand could see the first signs of stress on the kid's face.
The reading reached 1300 pounds and Dean is definitely starting to struggle. At 1450 he looked on the verge of collapse.
Logan stopped it and Dean dropped to one knee.
Dean got back on his feet, that was a little draining but he felt ok, "How did I do?"
Logan looked down at the reading at the point he stopped it at. 1500 pounds. If this was Dean at 15 only heaven knows just how strong he will be when he's fully grown.
"Your top speed was 75 mph and your max lift was 1500 pounds" Logan said through the mic.
At least Dean had improved from before.
"Are you ready continue?" Logan asked through the mic.
"Yeah I'm ready for anything" Dean replied like nothing happened.
Logan snorted, this kid was really somethin. He never met someone so confident apart from himself. He couldn't wait to see him fail his training session.
"Ok then. Next you're gonna go through an obstacle course so we can see how well you can…adapt to your environment. Your objective is to survive" Logan said with a wicked grin as he activated the simulation.
Evan quickly grabbed the mic, "May god have mercy on your soul"
Logan pushed him back, "Sit back porcupine, no one can help him now" he put his feet up on the panel.
Dean waited until he heard movement inside the metal walls.
Several holes opened up in the walls and turrets come out.
All the turrets aimed at the boy and started shooting plasma shots at him.
'Oh yeah what an obstacle course' Dean thought sarcastically as he dodged.
His adrenaline went into overdrive as his body reacted faster than it had in a long time. Dean moved from side to side dodging the plasma shots with ease.
"That's not right" Kurt said.
"Look at him go" Rogue said sounding impressed.
"The kid's fast, big deal" Logan said adding more obstacles.
More turrets came out of the wall, and not just one type.
A different kind of turret opened up behind Dean and shot a few buzz saws at him. He heard the saws behind him and turned around.
Dean carefully dodged each one of them not wanting to be sliced to pieces. He then saw three metal spheres floating in the air, "Oh what the fuck is this?"
The spheres grew spikes and flew at him.
'Oh shit' Dean thought as he carefully avoided the first and second one then he jumped on the third one and leaped away from the surrounding mayhem.
Dean took a second to look around for anything else, nothing different yet.
He continued to dodge the plasma shots from the turrets only now he was running right for them, offense was his best style of fighting.
A turret came out of the wall in front of Dean and instantly aimed at him.
'I wonder if this is going to work' Dean thought. Leaving him no choice but to go through it he smashed the turret with his fist breaking it to bits.
'Ow!' Dean thought rubbing his knuckles, punching steel head on hurt.
Perhaps a slightly less direct approach would work.
Dean ran towards another turret, jumped, and slammed into it with his shoulder breaking it.
Due to his momentum Dean collided with the wall where he pushed off with his feet, landed with a roll on the floor, and continued to run so he could keep his momentum going.
More turrets came out, 'back to running' Dean thought as he started running around the room again.
A turret opened up in front of him.
Dean jumped over it before it tried to shoot him up close and ripped it off its hinges. While he was doing this another turret opened up from the floor and shot a claw to grab Dean.
It succeeded. There are only so many things Dean could keep up with.
The grapple hoisted him up to the where he was point blank range but before it could shoot Dean grabbed the cable from the grapple and ripped it releasing him.
Back on the run another turret shot a claw at the boy.
Dean ran up to the wall and back flipped off of it. He landed on the cable and pulled it off of the turret.
The teenager grabbed the cable and swung around building momentum. Dean then threw the cable at the nearest turret destroying it.
"He seems resourceful" Charles said.
Dean continued to avoid plasma shots.
Another turret fired a claw at Dean. Then, conveniently, metal barriers came out of the floor blocking his current path. They stood about 3 meters high, nothing too difficult.
Dean jumped avoiding the claw and it imbedded into the metal wall jamming it. He then jumped from barrier to barrier doing his best to avoid getting shot.
"And creative" Jean said.
The last barrier retracted into the floor resulting in an unplanned landing. Dean landed with a roll and stopped to take cover behind the barrier.
The barriers suddenly disappeared along with the turrets.
Dean sat down to relax, thinking it was over.
"Checkmate" Logan said pressing a button.
All of a sudden the floor he was sitting on sank. The edges of the circular room sank forming a ring shaped trench.
Then two large holes opened up on the far east and west sides of the danger room.
A massive metal sphere dropped out of the hole on the west side.
Dean heard the loud Thud! As it landed on the ground.
"What the hell is that?" Dean wondered out loud. He heard something big approaching then spotted the massive sphere rolling towards him.
"Oh we're playing Indiana jones now" Dean said making a run for it.
He outran the sphere by miles, so much that he ran all the way around behind it.
"That was simple enough" Dean said.
As he reached the east side of the danger room another massive metal sphere dropped in front of him.
"Fuck" Dean abruptly came to a halt and ran back.
'Let's see, two giant balls of death are coming towards me' Dean looked up at how deep he was, 'Shit I can't jump that high' he thought, he must be at least 8 meters deep.
Dean heard the spheres closing in on him.
"Looks like that's it" Rogue said.
'C'mon think, what would Indy do?' He thought. A thought occurred to Dean, a bit of a longshot, 'But it just might work'
Dean waited patiently. When the spheres were close enough he jumped towards one of them. He quickly jumped off of the sphere towards the other one and then jumped off that one and onto the higher platform.
Dean looked around so he didn't make the same mistake, no more turrets and no more weird things flying at him. He exhaled in relief.
"FUCK YEAH!" Dean yelled in triumph.
"Well that's like a little unexpected" Kitty said happily.
"He…" Evan struggled to say the words.
"He just…" Kurt felt the same way.
"He passed" Logan said reluctantly. Once again the boy proved himself better than they expected.
"How the hell did he pass?!" Rogue said not believing her eyes.
"Looks like there's more to him than meets the eye" Jean said with a smirk.
Scott remained silent, basking in his hateful thoughts.
"I can't believe this" Logan said truly not. He leaned forward and spoke into the mic, "Congratulations, you're the first one to ever complete their first danger room session on their first try"
"That's because they weren't me" Dean said with a cocky grin.
"Ok kid, that's all for today. For now just get changed and meet us back in the infirmary" Logan said through the mic and proceeded to make his way to the infirmary as he fumed.
Dean changed into his regular clothes and returned to the infirmary.
He found Charles and Logan looking very concerned.
"What's with the weird faces?" Dean asked.
Charles looked over the results, "Well we've discovered a number of things about you"
"Yeah" Dean nodded.
"As far I can tell you are in perfect health and I mean perfect. There are no signs of disease of any form anywhere, your healing might be comparable to Logan's. Also for some reason your body is producing 1124 watts of electricity which is absurd. And you're exuding a high concentration of pheromones" Charles read from his list.
"What's a pheromone?" Dean asked.
Charles tried to think of a proper way to explain, "A pheromone is a chemical factor that triggers a social response from the opposite sex"
"Social response?" Dean didn't quite understand.
"It means girls wanna sleep with you" Logan said.
Dean remained silent for a moment, "…I don't know whether to feel flattered or insulted"
They both still looked concerned.
"There's something else isn't there?" Dean could tell from their faces.
"We have found something most unusual about your DNA" Charles said bluntly.
Dean looked at them strangely, "Well what is it?"
"I scanned it and there is no x-gene" Charles said.
"This means you just did all that stuff back there without any mutant powers" Logan said clearing that up for him.
"Oh" Dean said not knowing what else to say.
"And something else. Your DNA strands…there's something strange about it…" Charles seemed reluctant to continue.
"What?" Dean asked wanting to know.
"Well…it seems about 65% of your DNA is….well….unknown" Charles said.
Dean raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean unknown?"
Charles's brow furrowed, "That it cannot be identified, I've never seen such a thing"
Dean wasn't sure what to think or say….what does that mean for him? Only time will tell.
Author's note: Unknown you say? well I wonder what that could mean. Once again our protagonist shatters all expectations, and seems to have a scheme brewing for Duncan. Next chapter we'll see how Dean fares against the Brotherhood. Also for those of you who like to leave questions I would ask that you do so while signed into a profile so that way I can actually reply and answer