Chapter 21

Unexpected outcome

At the institute

Dean decided to go outside this morning to go through his exercises. He was getting more and more used to doing things out there where nobody would disturb him. The same could be said about the danger room except when Logan needed to use it for himself. Hence why he's outside.

Dean was working on his technique, Logan's sessions with him were really paying off.

His speed definitely improved which it should when you have to keep up with someone like Logan. His strength probably increased a little bit too but probably not by much, the majority of the session is trying to catch up with Logan. Also he's slowly adapting to Logan's style of randomness, it helps by being less predictable.

After he finished he decided to practice using his power.

Dean tried to calm his body and focus his power. He could feel the lightning flowing through him, it sort of felt like feeling your blood cells moving inside your body, except there was a way to control them. But feeling the lightning and controlling it are two different things.

Dean focused all his attention to his right palm, trying to focus the lightning within to that specific spot.

Lightning started to crackle around his right hand ever so slightly.

Dean tried focusing more of the energy to his palm. Slowly but surely he could feel it building up in his palm and the lightning started crackling faster and faster until a lightning bolt formed in his hands.

Dean looked at it and studied it like he'd never done before. It looked just like he would have imagined a lightning bolt would look like, except it was much cooler that he could control it.

'Now let's see just what it can do' Dean thought. He looked around and spotted a tree far off from the rest, an easy and open target.

Dean pulled back his hand and threw the lightning bolt at the tree. The bolt hit the tree dead center and split it in half.

'Now this is interesting' Dean thought.

Later on at Bayville High

Rogue was on her way to chemistry thinking about something that had been happening lately. She'd been having this dream of a woman with a baby running away from wolves for a while now, ever since she came to the institute.

It's been getting worse every week. It seems to be getting longer as if it was a memory, but that's impossible because Rogue has never been chased out of a castle.

Rogue happened to see Dean around the corner, she motioned to wave to him but stopped when she spotted Jean right next to him.

Rogue frowned. It seemed like whoever Rogue started to like Ms. Popularity would get all the attention from them and Rogue would remain invisible.

First it was with Scott, now the same thing was happening with Dean. Is she destined to live alone her whole life? She wished she never was a mutant so she could have lived a normal life.

"Hey Rogue" Rogue looked and spotted Dean waving.

'Did he just notice me when he was with Jean?' Rogue thought, "Um hey" she waved back, 'Maybe there's hope after all' she thought with a smile on her face.

"So what do you have next?" Jean asked.

"I have Global history, could be worse" Dean said optimistically.

"It could definitely be worse, I have physics. But lucky for me I find physics easy" Jean boasted.

Dean came to a stop outside Jean's classroom, "So here we are"

"Thanks for walking me to class, so will I see you at lunch?" Jean asked.

Dean smirked, "It seems like somebody wants my company"

"Well, maybe a little" Jean teased him.

"Tell you what, I'll see what I can do but I'm not making any promises" Dean said.

"Ok then, see you later" Jean entered the classroom.

Around the corner someone else was watching this, Scott.

Dean had just sat down right by the window so he could look outside instead of listening to whatever the teacher was saying. He didn't feel like paying attention today, for some reason he just felt tired.

Slowly his eyes closed and his mind drifted far beyond the walls of the school. Down, below the surface, into the depths. He heard whispers of a dark voice.

'Another pawn makes itself known' the dark voice echoed from its depths.

'Shall I find him?' another voice asked. This one sounded more normal.

'No…leave him for now. He needs time to grow…to become my instrument' the dark voice said.

'Is he the one to betray them?' the other voice asked.

'It doesn't matter. I will twist his mind and show him why they call me the crooked one' the dark voice said as it reached out to grab hold of Dean, 'Let's see what I can find'

Dean then woke up in the middle of class with a small headache.

'What the hell was that? I never had a dream like that before' Dean thought as he rubbed his head. It felt like something was trying to invade his mind, luckily he woke up.

All of a sudden someone walked in to the classroom, obviously late. He noticed that it was Eileen.

"Excuse me young lady, but why are you so late?" Mr. Teacher asked. Dean couldn't remember his name.

Eileen turned to face him and gave him a look over. She approached him and ran her finger down his shirt, "I was a little busy, you think that you could let it slide?" she said with a pretty smile.

Mr. Teacher turned pale white.

"I'll take that as a yes" Eileen said before sitting down right next to Dean.

The rest of the students started laughing and staring at Eileen.

"Miss me?" Eileen said.

"It seems like you just can't get enough of me, can you?" Dean asked leaning on his fist trying to ignore her.

"It seems like it" Eileen said staring at him, "So what can you do? The other guys don't like to talk much about you. Seems like you hurt their pride or something"

"I did more than just hurt their pride. And I'm sure that you'll find out soon enough just what I can do" Dean said.

"Oh but I want to know what you can do now" Eileen said as she put her hand on his chest feeling his physique, "That's a nice body you got there"

Dean took her hand and gently placed it on her desk, "Listen, I know what you're doing, and I'm not interested"

Eileen frowned, "Why not?" she moved her desk closer to his

"Girls that throw themselves at me tend to have ulterior motives" Dean said. This was starting to feel awfully familiar, like a certain blonde from his past.

Eileen moved her desk closer to his to the point where they were touching. She leaned closer, their faces inches apart, "C'mon" she whispered, "I know you want me"

Dean could feel her warm breath on his face. His body was telling him to give in to his temptations but his mind knew better than that, he will never allow himself to be fooled by a female ever again.

Dean pushed her desk away from his, "I don't want anything from you"

The bell rung signaling the end of class.

Dean left in a hurry along with everyone else in the class.

Eileen watched him leave with a confused expression. What just happened? Any boy would be lucky enough to even catch a glance from her, yet alone have her attention. With her looks she should be able to have any boy she wants, and this one has the audacity to say no?!

Eileen clenched her fists in anger and purple smoke came out of her eyes, 'What makes him think he's so special? He should be begging me for my attention!'

Later on at the Institute

Dean hurried into the Professor's study.

Charles sighed, "Dean—"

Dean remembered, "Knock, right, gotta remember to do that. I've been meaning to show you something" He summoned a lightning bolt to his palm.

"Interesting" Charles said staring at the bolt of lightning, "Do you know its extents?" Charles asked referring to Dean's new ability.

"No, but I'm more than willing to find out" Dean said truly eager to test his new-found power.

Dean was outside with Logan.

Lined up across from Dean stood a dozen targets for him to hit.

"All right kid, whenever you're ready" Logan told him standing a few feet back.

Dean summoned a lightning bolt to his hand and threw it at the first target. It hit dead on. He summoned another one and hit the next target. He went through the targets one by one hitting them all with perfect accuracy. For the last two Dean decided to step up a notch, he summoned a lightning bolt in each hand and threw them both hitting them simultaneously.

Logan looked at all the targets that were marked with scorch marks, some more than others. The youngster's accuracy impressed him.

"Pretty good kid" He said as he looked back at him. Dean looked a bit pale and was breathing heavily, "Hey you ok?" he rushed over to him to make sure he was ok.

"I'm fine" Dean reassured his older friend, "Seems like using the lightning too much drains me"

"Your body probably isn't used to using it so much yet" Logan said using his common sense, which was true, "Your body will slowly adapt to it"

"I'm sure it will" Dean said still breathing heavily.

"Also, not all of your bolts had the same amount of power in them" Logan said observing the targets carefully.

"How did you figure that out?" Dean asked.

Logan approached the targets and pointed out two specific ones, "Look at these two, one is way more scorched than the other" and he was right, to the untrained eye it wouldn't seem like much but to those two they could clearly see the difference in the two.

"I guess I still need work controlling it" Dean said.

Everyone had gathered in the Danger room suited up for their daily training. Logan had yet to come out and inform them of what they were doing or what their objective was so they just sat there for a few minutes.

"What is taking so long?" Kitty complained.

"I know right, I don't think I've ever actually wanted to do a danger room session" Evan admitted.

"Don't jinx it, he might give us some crazy workout that we're going to feel for weeks" Kurt said.

"Relax guys, Logan's probably setting up the simulation or something" Scott said.

"I just hope he hurries up because I'm getting bored" Dean said holding himself in the air with one hand.

Jean laughed at the sight of Dean, "What are you doing?"

Dean's face had a goofy smile, "I'm keeping myself busy"

"I want to see what you're going to do when you run out of ways to push yourself" Scott said with probably a little too much satisfaction in his voice.

"I'll figure something out" Dean said before pushing himself off the ground. He flipped in the air and landed safely on the floor like it was easy.

"But until then you'll just have to settle for me" Logan showed up dressed in his uniform, "I was talking with the Professor about what I have planned for today and he agrees with me that it's ok"

"Uh-oh" Evan said in fear.

"Ya, does not sound good for us" Kurt agreed.

"This is what's gonna happen. Me versus the rest of the team. I want to see how you do against a real opponent" Logan said.

"Wait you actually think like that you stand a chance?" Kitty said.

"Well let's just say that I have faith in my ability" Logan confidently.

"I think this could be good for the team, yeah let's do it" Scott said.

Dean considered how Logan might win. He's trained with all of them and seen them during their danger room sessions. He knows their fighting styles, their habits, and their weaknesses.

"Even though we'll probably win, I predict pain" Evan said.

"I second that" Kurt said.

Rogue looked at Dean, "You're awfully quiet" she whispered.

"Trying to stay focused, figure out what his strategy will be" Dean said looking serious.

"Alright everyone take your positions. Once the simulation starts you go, it ends when I say so" Logan said.

Dean stretched out, "Well guys good luck, try not to suck"

"Easy for you to say" Kitty said with concern.

"Alright X-men, be ready" Scott announced and they all take their positions.

"Begin simulation" Logan said.

The danger room turned into an open outdoors with a forest in the background and a lake behind him.

Right off the bat Cyclops shot an optic blast at Wolverine who dodged it with ease.

Wolverine maneuvered quickly so he could be closer to the trees.

Spyke shot spikes at him hoping to pin him to a tree.

Wolverine caught two of them and threw them at Rogue who was trying to sneak up behind him hoping to end things quickly by absorbing him. Rogue was pinned to a nearby tree.

Wolverine then went into the woods.

"Damn it" Cyclops said.

"What is it?" Shadowcat asked.

"All those trees give him great cover to move around without being seen. He has the advantage. If we go in there to look for him he can pick us off one by one" Cyclops said.

Dean would remember that strategy for the future.

"What do we do then?" Spyke asked as he helped Rogue off the tree.

Cyclops thought about it, "Wolverine has really good hearing so us talking out loud might give away our strategy. Marvel Girl, set up a telepathic link"

"On it" Marvel Girl said. She looked at Warrior, "I'm going to need you to let me in"

"Just don't go snooping around" Warrior allowed her to breach his mind.

'There, we're linked' Marvel Girl said.

'Good, let's split up into groups. That way he'll get the notion that we're easy targets. Shadowcat with Rogue, Nightcrawler with Spyke, and Marvel Girl with me' Cyclops thought.

'Wow, you really just singled me out didn't you?' Warrior thought with an attitude.

'No' Cyclops put his hand on Warrior's shoulder, 'I got a special job for you'

Wolverine was hiding in one of the trees, waiting for the teens to try and get him.

He smelled several scents approaching him from different directions.

The closest was Marvel Girl and Cyclops. The telepath could probably sense where he was, her raw power made her the biggest threat. Which means that he needs to take her out first and fast.

He leaped from tree to tree to get closer.

'He's moving in' Marvel Girl thought as she sensed him.

'Everyone get into position, this has to be perfect in order to work' Cyclops thought.

Cyclops fired a couple of optic blasts at the feral mutant trying to snipe him out of the air but he was too fast.

Cyclops then aimed at the tree Wolverine was about to leap to and blasted it in half.

Wolverine, having no other choice, landed on the top half and leaped off of it sending it flying down at the teens.

Marvel Girl grabbed the incoming log with her telekinesis giving Wolverine the distraction he needed to sneak up behind her and knock her out.

The log fell on top of Cyclops.

Nightcrawler then teleported right next to them with Spyke who shot a few bone spikes at Wolverine.

Wolverine deflected as many as he could but two grazed his side.

Nightcrawler grabbed Cyclops and teleported him away from the log.

Cyclops and Spyke then both fired their projectiles at Wolverine but he was too fast, he dodged everything.

Nightcrawler then teleported behind him and grabbed Wolverine before teleporting again. He teleported about fifty feet above the lake and let him go.

Luckily Wolverine got a hold of Nightcrawler's tail before he teleported away.

"Aah!" Nightcrawler yelped. His appendage was quite sensitive.

They teleported back to the ground and Wolverine slammed Nightcrawler into a tree knocking the wind out of him.

Shadowcat then phased out of the ground with Rogue.

Rogue took off one of her gloves and went to grab Wolverine. This would be tricky, the only places he had exposed skin was his neck, part of his face, and his biceps. Rogue reached for his bicep.

Wolverine, who smelled her behind him, grabbed her hand and threw her forward at Spyke and Cyclops.

Cyclops managed to leap out of the way but Spyke, in a way, took a Rogue to the face and was knocked down.

Cyclops fired an optic beam at Wolverine. He dodged it by moving to the side, letting it hit Shadowcat who went to grab him.

Wolverine dodged a couple of optic blasts as he ran towards Cyclops and knocked him dizzy with a single punch.

Cyclops dropped to one knee, his head was spinning.

"Dividing your forces for separate surprise attacks? Not the best idea, but then again nothing really surprises me" Wolverine said.

Warrior jumped down from one of the trees and hit Wolverine with a double axe handle. He then wrapped his arms around Wolverine's and held him in a full nelson.

Wolverine struggled to free himself but Warrior's hold was strong.

Rogue then ran over and grabbed his neck, absorbing his life force for just a moment just to prove a point.

"What were you saying about surprises?" Dean asked with a smirk.

"You win, now let go of me kid" Logan said admitting defeat.

Dean let go off him.

Rogue felt Logan's power surfacing. Her body suddenly felt lighter and more energized due to his healing factor and augmented strength. Then she felt something growing in her hands.

Rogue yelped from a surge of pain as three bone claws came out of both her hands between her knuckles.

"Whoa you ok?" Dean asked as he was taken off guard from the change.

The pain subsided and she relaxed, "It's nothin bub" Rogue realized what she said, "Oh god I'm talking like him" she said with fear in her voice.

Logan couldn't help but smirk, "End simulation"

The danger room returned to normal.

The others gathered around Logan.

"Not bad shades. Using Jean as bait, and saving your next best person for when I was off guard. Solid plan" Logan congratulated him, "As far as the engagement you all approached it well without flaws, except for you" he said to Dean, "You surprisingly held back, why?" he asked with curiosity.

"I needed to figure out your style of fighting multiple enemies. I saw how everything you did was pure instinct, when you were in the moment nothing caught you off guard. That's why I waited until you relaxed to make my move" Dean said.

Logan nodded, "I see. But even though you accomplished your goal you used your teammates to achieve victory. That won't always be a good idea" he warned the teen.

"I'll keep that in mind" Dean said.

"Now go clean up and come back. Forge should be here soon to test that new gizmo of his" Logan said.

"Am I going to be the test dummy again?" Kurt asked.

"I wouldn't know Elf" Logan said.

A while back Forge tested a theory he had about Kurt's powers. Forge believed that when Kurt teleports he actually passes through another dimension. And of course he was right.

Forge created a machine that would slow down his teleportation process in order to see this other dimension but the time Kurt spent there was still too brief to learn anything. Which is why he's changed his approach.

After the team changed they came back down to the danger room where Forge was making the last adjustments to his device while Logan and the Professor waited.

Dean looked at him with curiosity. Forge had long dark hair, he was about 5, 9, skinny, with deeply tanned skin. His right forearm was cybernetic with tools coming out of it. He was tinkering with something, a machine standing on 3 legs with a small canon on top of it.

It resembled the shrink ray from Honey I shrunk the kids.

"Hey Forge how's it going?" Scott greeted him.

Forge noticed the others and his right arm transformed back into a regular hand, "Hey guys"

Everyone except Dean greeted him seeing as he never met him before.

Charles came up to him, "Forge I would like for you to meet Dean, I don't believe you two have met before"

Forge looked at the dark haired teen and offered his hand, "Hi, nice to meet you"

Dean shook it, "It's nice to finally meet you Forge, I've wanted to meet you ever since I heard what you can do. Maybe you can upgrade the danger room while you're here"

"You need to get a life kid" Logan laughed lightly.

"Tell me that again when I beat you" Dean said smirking.

Logan rolled his eyes, "Whatever you say"

"Forge are you nearly finished?" Charles asked.

Forge went back to tinkering with his contraption, "Yeah I'm almost done. I got so excited when I dreamt this up a week ago"

"What does it do exactly?" Dean asked as he got a better look at what he was working on.

Forge finished, "What it does, or at least what I'm hoping it does, is open a gateway to the dimension Kurt passes through"

"Hoping?" Evan asked.

"Yeah hoping doesn't quite inspire confidence" Jean said.

"Well not all my inventions work on the first try" Forge said sheepishly.

"Whatever just don't point it at me" Rogue said feeling unsafe.

"Of course not" Forge placed it into a proper position and aimed it forward, "Let's try it out"

Charles received a telepathic message from Ororo, "I hate to leave at such a grave moment but Ororo needs me for something. I'll return shortly" he rolled away.

"That's awfully convenient" Kitty said.

"If that's not a bad omen I don't know what is" Scott said.

"You're all being a bunch of pussies" Dean said flat out.

Logan chuckled, "Even though I agree with bolt boy let's all stand back"

Kitty laughed, "Bolt boy, that's a good one"

Dean shook his head, 'Great, now I have a nickname too'

Forge turned on the machine and it lit up in response, "Ok, everyone. We're about to go where no man has gone before"

"Actually I'm good with just seeing where no man has gone before" Kitty said.

Dean smirked, "Figures you'd be a Star Trek fan"

Forge shrugged, "It was one of the better shows in the 70's" he activated the machine, "Portal opening in 5..4..3..2..1.."

The machine fired black energy forward and began slowly opening a hole.

"Looks like its working" Forge said happily.

The hole expanded but was still too dark to see what was on the other side.

"I don't see anything" Dean said.

"The veil between dimensions hasn't been breached yet, give it a little time" Forge said increasing the energy output of the machine.

Kitty felt an invisible force pulling her towards the portal, "Guys, why do I feel like something's pulling me?"

"The portal creates a gravitational field the larger it gets, I'll keep it from getting too big" Forge said as he pressed a button making the machine project the same amount of energy.

The hole was the size of a door but slowly the darkness faded and began to reveal what was on the other side. The image was blurry but the first color they could distinguish was red.

Small sparks of electricity came out of the machine and it started shaking.

"What's going on?" Logan asked with worry in his voice.

"I don't know" Forge said inspecting the machine.

Suddenly the energy output increased tenfold tripling the size of the portal and was still growing fast.

The portal started pulling all of them towards it fast.

Logan instinctively extended his claws and stuck them into the ground, preventing him from being dragged, and grabbed the nearest person with his other hand. Forge.

Forge grabbed onto the only thing he could, the machine, to keep it from getting sucked in.

The others had nothing to hold on to so they were pulled in.

"Whoa!" Evan tried to resist the gravitational pull but it was too strong. He was sucked into the portal.

"Evan!" Scott shouted. The momentary distraction made him lose his balance and fall forward.

Jean grabbed him with her telekinesis and tried to keep herself and him in place.

Dean ran as fast as he could away from the portal which bought him some time. Rogue, who was ahead of him, was being pulled back too fast for her to do anything.

Dean dug his fingers into the metal ground and grabbed onto her gloved hand.

"No way! I'm not getting lost!" Kurt teleported a little ahead but as he reappeared in the air the gravity pulled him back before he could land on the ground sending him tumbling through the air.

Kitty saw Kurt incoming towards her so she instinctively became intangible allowing him to phase through her.

Kurt then knocked into Scott and they both got sucked in.

Kitty lost her focus and became tangible just long enough to be pulled in.

Jean grabbed her with her telekinesis at the last second but was struggling, the portal was growing and the gravitational pull was increasing.

"Forge trash that thing!" Logan shouted.

"No! It'll take me days to rebuild!" Forge said.

Rogue noticed her hand was slipping out of her glove, "Dean I'm slipping!"

"Hold on!" Dean tried pulling her forward to grab onto him but her glove slipped off entirely making her tumble through the air knocking into Jean resulting in the three girls to be sucked in.

"Fuck!" Dean shouted. There wasn't much left to do. He looked at Logan and Forge, "You better fix that thing fast!" he let go of the ground and was pulled back fast. But before he went through the portal he threw a lightning bolt at the machine damaging it just enough to shut it off as he was sucked into the portal.

Author's note: Our young heroes have gotten themselves into another tricky situation, I wonder how that will turn out...