Here's the disclaimer part. All the X-men characters are Marvel's, sue me and I'll be forced to sell my beloved used-tissue collection which would break my heart! David, Alex and Danny are mine, if you want to use them then go right ahead. Please, please, please review! Cheers
Part 3
It's amazing how things can change in the space of six minutes. Yesterday, David was a normal twenty-something bloke, worrying about the things a normal twenty-something bloke worries about. His family, girls, his friends, girls, who's going to win the Football League Championship this year, girls, and then things were put into perspective for him through the random and divine occurrence of chance.
Aspects of mutantcy usually appear when you hit adolescence, his hadn't. It can also activate when you find yourself in highly stressful circumstances - some theorising that the abilities that develop in these situations reflect the need to escape it - his had. When he had been attacked in the alley-way, when his friend had been brutally crippled and he finally accessed his powers to defeat the insane Sam, even though it terrified him when he felt his entire body transform before his eyes, he felt whole.
But where should he go? What should he do? Who can he trust with such a life-altering secret? He knew of only two people that he would always trust with anything he needed to tell.
He wished Alex and Danny were here.
David had let these thought's sift through his mind ever since he had stepped off of the train in Central London and found a decent, secluded café where he had decided to rest and plan the next stage of his 'escape'.
The train journey had been , problematic. He had had to swap seats three times after he realised that his abilities were randomly activating and the people sitting opposite him had started to worry when his skin began to ripple. The mechanism used to trigger his powers was not yet a conscious one and neither was it controllable, the only way he could stop himself from going any further was by relaxing as much as he could, easier to say when your body feels so strange and your getting funny looks from everyone around you.
His first plan was to travel to Dover and get a ferry over to France but had to scrap that when he remembered that his passport, and most everything else that he owned, was still at his house. With Al's card he had managed to get some cash and buy some new clothes, he knew enough about covering his tracks to get as much out as possible so that they couldn't trace the card wherever he went. London had seemed the nearest, and most crowded, place to go when he couldn't get out of the country and he knew it pretty well having worked there for a number of years. The summer sun had brought a lot of tourists so the central areas of London were packed with people and he could easily loose himself in the crowd if he needed to. Besides he liked the place, the hustle and bustle of the afternoon rush hour and about a million tourists vying for the same bit of pavement was something he enjoyed watching, especially in the good weather.
He hadn't felt so relaxed all day and, suddenly the world didn't seem too different after all.
***
Professor Xavier's eyes widened as he sat in front of Cerebro, inspecting the manifestation of a new mutant and analysing the results. "Good lord, this is incredible."
'Hank, Bobby please come to see me in my study as soon as possible' He called out telepathically ' I have located a new mutant and it has a very strong mutagenic signature'
'We'll be there shortly Professor', came Hank's reply.
***
"It's seems that the mutant has manifested itself in England," Xavier began, "London, to be more precise, and the potential power of this mutant is undeniable. I have studied the local papers from the area and found a rather unusual murder that occurred at the same time as the manifestation."
"Are you saying that this mutant may have committed it?" Hank asked.
"I'm saying that it may have been caused by the mutant accessing his powers for the first time, yes. But the circumstances surrounding the case are also interesting. It seems that the murder-victim attacked two young men, crippling one of them and beating the other. He was then thrown backwards onto a concrete wall some fifty feet away, blowing a hole in the back of it as well. Obviously this not something a normal human is capable of performing. The suspect for the crime, David Edwards, absconded from the hospital after escaping from his room, we have to find him before he can do any more harm with his powers while he cannot control them."
"Well that's typical." Bobby grinned, "I've just got a 25 point word in scrabble and Hank was going to take me on a Twinkie run, now I'm off to London without any at all!"
"I'm sure I have a few left in the refrigerator in my lab Robert." Hank replied, secretly agreeing with his friend and hoping that he was right.
"With or without your Twinkies, Iceman, " Xavier said sternly. "This mutant must be found and helped if we can. If he cannot learn to control his powers soon then he may hurt more innocent people, whether he wants to or not."
"We'll depart immediately sir, we should be at London within the next eight hours," Hank glanced at Bobby, "Adding a little for a stop at the refrigerator in my lab."
***
David looked at his watch
Six Forty-five, that should give me enough time before my train leaves. He thought.
It had been four hours since he had sat down at the café and they had been well spent. He had a plan and, very soon, a full stomach.
He had ordered his favourite food, a big juicy steak, with all the trimmings and, as it was served, he settled down to enjoy it. The meal was then rudely interrupted by the presence of a snotty American couple who were outraged to see that someone had taken *their* favourite table and at *their* favourite time to dine there. The man was a small, obviously dominated, almost pathetic creature, wearing the customary tourist leisurewear with one of those annoying golf caps that look too much like a Frisbee for it to be appropriate to wear on the head. The wife was vast, it amazed David that the woman had managed to fit through the door and could just picture her on her Kentucky farm making god-knows how many cakes for the hundreds of kids that she and her husband had somehow managed to produce. Just the sheer mechanics of it were enough for David to nearly forget about eating for the foreseeable future. She was wearing what looked like a tent with doilies on it, little flowers seemed to be everywhere and the thin tassel showed that, somewhere in there, there was a belt as well.
But that wasn't the part that repelled David, the woman's voice and behaviour was vulgar and rude. The waiter, who obviously didn't give a damn about the couples *rights* to the table, offered any of the many other tables to them but due to the wives increasingly eccentric and shrill, protests they elected to wait until David had finished.
Then began the psychological warfare, first it was the evil eyes from the wife and the pleading look from the husband who was clearly terrified for his life or manhood, or both. While he could certainly understand the man's position and had no problem with him in particular, David refused to crack under the pressure and so the pointedly-hinted-conversations started.
"Oh look at the time Cletus," The woman said, with a mocking surprise in her voice, "It's so late I'll be dead on my feet before we get something to eat."
Or.
"I hope they don't lock the front door of the hotel if we're going to be out so late."
David's favourite one had to be
"I think I might faint if I don't eat something soon."
That was a joke if ever he had heard one. He managed to contain a laugh that threatened to erupt from him and carried on chewing at his steak. He had managed to master the art of selective hearing years ago while seeing one of his old girlfriends. The woman had been fully capable of talking the hind-legs off a donkey but none of the local farmers were willing to test the theory, fearing the loss of one of their livestock after meeting the girl. Her beauty, however, was also not in dispute and being the shallow, chauvinistic pig that he was, David had managed six months before he finally succumbed to the unfettered horror that was her voice.
The steak had been very good and, apart from the American couple, he had enjoyed it. The lady looked over, saw that he had taken his last bit and began to make melodramatic gestures to her husband to begin picking up the many shopping bags littered on the floor of the café. Seeing this, David motioned the waiter over and asked,
"Excuse me, waiter?"
"Yes sir?"
The woman's ears pricked up, she looked over at the table with that damn kid on it and saw the waiter approaching him, replying to something. She strained harder to hear over the incessant noise of her good-for-nothing husband.
"I thought I'd better let you know I'm finished," David said, casting a glance at the couple. The waiter picked up on this and sent a message back. With his face a mixture of amusement and need for revenge, the waiter casually asked,
"Would you like to see the dessert list sir?"
With that he opened up the menu, keeping its back turned to the gradually closing couple, revealing a napkin with the words,
IT'S ON THE HOUSE !
And an arrow pointing the Americans way. David understood immediately and, with his own need for revenge to satisfy, played along with him.
"Why not indeed" He said grinning and took the menu from the waiter, being careful not to show the message to the gradually reddening wife and cringing husband. By this time the couple had managed to sneak up almost to the table and had heard every word.
"You're having desert now?" The woman asked scornfully. "Can't you see we're hungry as well?"
"Well I'm sure you are," David admitted as innocently as possible, "But there are plenty of other free tables in the café so why don't you take one of them." It was a perfectly logical argument, one which he knew had already fallen flat on its face when the waiter had attempted to subdue the woman with it earlier, but David couldn't think of anything else to say.
The woman's face grew even redder with this argument and David wondered if he had, again, bitten off more than he could chew. "You dare talk to me like that?" She said, obviously not used to being spoken back to - which was understandable considering the husbands current manoeuvring of dropping back towards the door, as if waiting for some bomb to explode. He was sure that he could see the veins in her head begin to grow and a cursory glance at the increasingly worried waiter confirmed his suspicions.
David decided that enough was enough, aggravating the woman any further would only lead to more arguments and the tension in the room was beginning to intensify. "I'm not talking to you in any particular way at all madam, I'm just simply pointing out an alternative to the situation we have found ourselves in." He said as diplomatically as possible but it only seemed to enrage the woman more.
"Well, I am not going to stand here and have my intelligence insulted by some snot-nosed punk, now why don't you be a good boy and move!" She shrieked, anger and outrage dripping from every word. Her hand struck the table with a surprising amount of strength, causing the cutlery and glasses to jump into the air and his drink to spill onto his lap.
David looked up from his soaking trousers to see that the waiter had become visibly shocked by this turn of events and his eyes pleaded for him not to carry on the ruse any longer. David agreed with him. None of this was helping maintain what little control he had of his new-found abilities and his anger was not helping the matter, he could feel the tremors start throughout his body and knew that he would have another 'attack' if this carried on for much longer.
David slowly rose from his chair lifting his hands to try to placate the woman, "OK, OK, I'm sorry, there's no need for this to go any further." He turned his head to the waiter, "Can I have my bill please? I'll meet you at the cash-till once I've picked my things." The waiter nodded, silent gratitude permeating from every pore of his body. The husband had significantly relaxed from his, almost foetal, position by the front door and gradually moved nearer to his dominant other.
But the woman was on a roll. "You damn Brits think you're so damn superior," She spat, "But you should be thanking us Americans for your position in the world. We've bailed you out of two World Wars and then, when we need your help in Vietnam, you turn and run from the fight. I don't know why any daughter of mine would want to live in a country like this."
David could think of a few reasons and felt only sympathy for the poor girl. Fancy travelling to a country on the other side of the world in an attempt to extricate herself from these freaks of nature and then they turn up and start hassling the locals. His mind was racing to think of ways out of the situation , he couldn't take much more of this abuse without succumbing to the tension in this place and, quite literally, letting loose but the woman wasn't letting up. She stood only a few feet away from him and he could feel her anger intensify as she continued ranting.
He tried to block her out and just let her finish but it was no good, there was no way to relax enough that he could control his abilities. He closed his eyes, fighting a impossible struggle with his own body but it was to no avail. The woman suddenly became silent and when David opened his eyes he could see why, his whole body had begun to ripple in front of them. The steaks of lightening increased in intensity and with a cry of pain and joy, David lost control.
***
Bobby was happy, not only had the Beast managed to produce six Twinkies from his fridge but had also managed to procure a box of Sugar-Bombs as well, which he was happily munching through as they touched down at Heathrow Airport. They had also been lucky with the flights and had managed to get tickets for an almost immediate departure, coupled with Hank's unique, and large, physique - even with an image-inducer safely turned so not to attract any unnecessary attention - that always required First Class seats Bobby was very content.
As they collected their luggage from the carousel, he began griping that the Heathrow administration that there was no special section for 'Superhero's'.
"Come on Blue, we've saved this world more times than I can remember, you'd think that the least they could do was to not make us wait for our bags!"
"Again, Robert," Hank dead-panned, slapping his friend on the back and knocking the wind out of him, "You have discovered the essence of our troubles with the Homo Sapian community. Do you think Magneto would call an end to arms if they agreed to a faster turn around time with our luggage? Here I was thinking I was the genius but I can only cower beneath the unfettered intellect that stands before me!"
"And don't you forget it." Bobby replied happily.
Minutes ticked by as passengers arrived and left with their respective luggage, leaving the two feeling rather low and bored. Bobby saw something creep into his field of vision. "There they are!" He exclaimed, "Lets get 'em quick so we can blow this popsicle stand before I have to cover the entire area with an interesting new colour scheme called 'Hint of Ice'!" He grabbed the first bag and started running towards the exit as fast as he could.
"Thank god for that." Bobby said, slowing down after finally finding the front entrance to the airport and slamming his bag down onto the floor so he could sit on it and rest for a while. "I thought I was going to freak out in there, what's the time?"
"A quarter to six Robert," Hank replied, catching up to his friend, three suitcase's perched uncomfortably on his person. "And may I suggest that you not sit upon my luggage, the Professors mobile Cerebro unit is housed within its confines and I would hate to have to attempt the tracking of this mutant without the necessary equipment."
"Whoops, sorry about that Blue."
"No harm done, lets get it out and have a stab at finding this David before dinner-time shall we? If successful we could take him out to dinner and let him get acquainted with us before we take him back to the mansion."
"Sounds good Hankster, lets go."
***
"I'm telling you it's left." Hank argued, it had been an hour since leaving the airport and they were slowing closing in on their target. Bobby sat on the passenger seat, analysing the readings from Cerebro and shacking his head in response to his friends statement.
"Yeah right, have you got your glasses on?" He joked, " It's so right I can't believe you're saying left."
"You, my hypothermically inclined friend, have the navigational skills of a small child, while I, the blushing, blue, Beast, have…"
"The biggest brain and, downright, biggest incisors I've ever seen but no more skills in the direction department than I do!" Bobby interrupted. "Come on Hank, do you remember the time we went on a Midnight Twinkie run in California? You were sure you knew exactly where we were going but somehow managed to drive us from Los Angeles to Las Vegas when the nearest shop was no more than ten minutes away!"
Hank thought for a moment, "Ok, right but I have to add into the record of this journey that I am against such blatant use of 'older-than-six-month' material in a an attempt to sway my judgement."
"Whatever Blue, just step on the gas please, I'm starving and the sooner we find David the sooner we can eat." Bobby glanced at the mobile Cerebro unit, "We're getting closer, the signal's getting stronger as we're approaching him."
"It's not supposed to do that." Hank said grimly.
"What do you mean?"
"The signal isn't supposed to get stronger unless the actual power signature of the mutant increases."
"Which is bad, yeah?"
"Very." Hank replied, the mood growing more sober and anxious, he sneaked a glance at the unit, "How far out are we?"
"Not far, if we get round this corner then it should be straight down for a few blocks and we're there." Bobby said, "Do you think I should ice up and get over there.?"
"Not yet Robert. It'll only bring attention to the boy's plight and if nothing has happened to cause alarms then it will have alerted the population to our presence. Get out and run down there, you'll probably be faster than I will be in all this traffic, haven't these people heard about global warming?"
"Probably not Blue, I'll see you down there."
"Try not to use your powers unless absolutely necessary Bobby."
Bobby waved an arm behind him, letting Hank know he was heard, and ran down the road as fast as he could, he'd left the Cerebro unit in the car but had memorised the location of the mutant and hurried to the location. He had almost got there when he heard a scream erupt from a restaurant just in front of him. Fearing for the worst he ran through the entrance and stopped cold.
In front of him was a man about the same age as he was but was glowing and gradually getting brighter. He could see the man's face, it was contorted with concentration, like he was trying his hardest to overcome whatever was happening to him, electric pulses seemed to be moving up and down his body in some random pattern.
Bobby slowly moved towards him. "David?" He said gently. "Please, don't be afraid I'm not the police, I'm simply here to help you."
David unclenched his eyes and looked towards the new person in the room. "Wh-Who are you? I can't control this for much longer, I don't want to hurt anyone."
"I know David." Bobby kept his eyes on David as he began to gradually shepherd the other people out of the restaurant. Most of them had been too shocked to move but, there was an obviously American couple that were standing quite close to David and he gently grabbed them by their arms, "Ma'am," he whispered to the woman," I'd suggest that you'd better get out of here now" She silently nodded and turned towards the door, the man looked as if he was about to cry.
"My name is Bobby Drake, I'm here to help you." He said finally after they had been left alone. "I know you must be scared and terrified of what is happening to you."
"How could you?" David interrupted accusingly, " You can't possibly know what it's like to see your body change in front of your very eyes."
"Actually David, I do." With that Booby took a quick glance out of the window and then turned back, he began to ice over, flesh and bone turning into living ice, his features and body taking on a much more defined look. David gasped at the sight.
"I'm a mutant like you," He continued, "But I've learned to control my powers and use them for the good of the world, I'm an X-man." He said proudly and realised just how much that actually meant to him.
David eyes widened, his tension slowly dissipating as he saw what he could only describe at that moment as a kindred spirit. "You're a mutant?"
"Yep, and proud of it." Bobby smiled, he could see that the gamble had paid off, David was gradually powering down, he could see the other man's body relax visibly and felt that now would be the time to power-down himself. "I live in America with a team called the X-men, you may have heard of them." He asked quizingly, if David knew about them then it would be useful to see how he feels about the team.
"Yeah, I've heard of 'em," David smiled and began walking slowly towards Bobby, he suddenly realised he had returned to his normal state and gave out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank god for that, I thought I was going to kill someone again."
At that moment the Beast raced through the entrance and into the dining area, "Bobby?" He called out, "Are you OK?"
"Fine Blue." Bobby smiled gently, he motioned with his hands to stay back and relaxed then turned back to face David. "David, I'd like you to meet my best friend, Hank McCoy, aka the Beast." He lifted his arms in the direction of Hank and made an exaggerated bow in an attempt to lighten the mood.
David gave a broad smile in the direction of Hank, "The Beast?" He said, hero-worship etched in his voice, "I've always wanted to meet you, but aren't you blue?"
"Usually dear boy." Hank replied warmly, shaking David's hand as he offered it to him. "But I'm sure you can agree that walking around a strange city while covered head to foot in blue fur does make you somewhat of a spectacle and a frightening sight." David nodded in agreement while Hank continued on a more serious note. "As much as I hate to cut this conversation short I'm afraid that time is of the essence, we must be away before your 'boys in blue', as it were, arrive and attempt to arrest you David, I suggest we try the back door."
***
It was a good while until they stopped running, the coast was clear, in all honesty they had probably lost their tail a long time ago. With Bobby using his abilities to ice up every lock and Hank taking advantage of his strength to place large obstacles in their way, the police had no chance of catching them. Bobby had managed to evade the helicopters by cooling the moisture in the air above them, creating rain clouds and a torrential downpour that was so thick that they couldn't fly in the area around the trio.
They had managed to travel a fair distance, using the tubes and trains, sudden showers enveloped them whenever they headed into the outside to ensure that no-one could have followed them.
"Well that's one problem," David said, bending over and placing his hands on his knees, he was wheezing hard and felt a lot less fit than either of the two men in front of him. "But how the hell do we get out of the country? As soon as I go near an airport I'm bound to be picked up."
"Never fear David I have already called for back-up." Hank replied, eager to see his reaction to the technological marvel the young man was about to witness. "We were hoping that it would be possible to get you out without much trouble but we have other means of transport than just the commercial sector."
With that he pointed into the sky and directed David to a huge plane in the sky, it was a giant machine but made hardly any sound, as it began to land he could feel, and see, the force of the engines on himself and the ground but the noise was surprisingly low. He looked, dumbfounded at the Beast, "How is that possible?" He asked
"We can discuss it later but right now we must depart this fair country and return to our base of operations in America. It is your choice to come us David, if you do not wish it, you can go back and we will never bother you again."
"Not go with you?!" David exclaimed, amazed that Hank had even given it thought that he would not join them. "You gotta be kidding mate, this is a once in a lifetime chance and if you can help me control my powers then for the sake of everyone I hold dear I've got to go with you."
Hank smiled, he had felt an instant liking for this lad, he was like Bobby in a lot of ways, and knew that this was no cold-blooded killer as soon as he had laid eyes on him. Bobby had told him about how much David had tried to control himself in the restaurant and felt sure that this was the right course of action. Concerns be damned.