Chapter 3
Nightcrawler:
I stepped away from my new friends, and hopefully my new teammates. The door opened and I entered, blinded at first by the bright lights. As soon as the door closed the room changed, and suddenly I was in a forest. This was the holographic part Cyclops had warned me about in the danger room. Now came the "danger" part.
Suddenly two laser cannons emerged from the side walls behind me and began to blast the trees right around me. I jumped and did a triple front flip to land on an upper tree branch to avoid the shots, but the laser cannons followed me. I looked at their positioning, then got a bright idea. From the upper branch I leaped and landed right in between them. It probably looked like the stupidest thing I could have done, because then both cannons turned to me at point blank range. But that was what I wanted. I heard the mechanisms prepare to fire and zap, I was back in the upper tree branch. The cannons had fired on each other.
"Nice work," said the professor over a loudspeaker, "that was very resourceful."
"Coolio!" said Sharon.
I barely had time to acknowledge their compliments. Suddenly these cords emerged from the trees and began to grab my arms and legs. I teleported free of them to another tree but they kept coming. I needed to find a way to beat them, not run away from them.
zap, zap, zap, zap - I teleported from tree to tree in a circle, under branches and over branches. All of the cords followed me. As I had hoped they wrapped around the tree branches and were completely immobilized.
"Very well done," said the professor. "I believe you've more than proven your skill."
This time I stopped and smiled. Bad idea.
THUD - a robotic arm had come down on my shoulder. I turned around to see that the trees were gone and that there was now some sort of android attacking me. I quickly teleported to the other side of the room. It charged at me top speed and…zap… hit the wall. I had defeated it, but my shoulder ached afterwards. I didn't really care, because just then the door to the danger room opened and I knew that I had made it on the X-Men.
I exited the danger room to overwhelming congratulations and compliments.
"Good job," said Cyclops with a genuine smile.
"An exquisite performance!" said Beast. Then Sharon walked up to me.
"Knew you could do it," she said. "Don't worry about that robot, he gets everybody on the first try."
"Yes," said the professor. "We must be sure never to let our guards down."
"I know," I said, "or at least I know now." Professor Xavier smiled.
"That will be all for today," said the professor. "The decision has been made. Kurt, welcome to the X-Men."
"All right, all right!" Said Sharon. I beamed.
I left the underground area and returned to the main school. Sharon came with me, sharing stories of the first time she went in the danger room.
"I had the most trouble with the cannons," she said. "I wanted to use my rhino morph to destroy them but it was too slow. I ended up going with a rabbit and using your tactic." We talked for a long time and I laughed at all of her jokes (and she had a lot of them). Then a crowd of students came. They must have heard the news that I was joining the team, they all had a million questions to ask me and wanted to congratulate me. Eric and some of his friends came over.
"Hey Kurt," said Eric. "Why don't you come with us to celebrate?"
"Sure, we'll come," I said. I looked at Sharon.
"Um, you guys go ahead," she said. "I've got some stuff to do."
"Are you sure?" I asked. I could tell she wanted to go, but something made her sort of nervous, reluctant. She seemed to be debating it.
"Yeah," she said, assuring herself of her decision. "I'll catch ya later." She forced a smile.
"Come on," said Eric to me.
"Okay," I said. "Bye Sharon."
"See ya' later," she said.
Soon concern for Sharon was replaced by excitement. I couldn't believe everything that had happened! I had friends, I was on the X-Men, I was accepted, I belonged. It seemed too good to be true!
Phorm:
I watched as Kurt walked off with Eric and his friends. I didn't follow. Instead I walked back to my room slowly. Something was bothering me. I was happy for Kurt, happy that he was on the X-Men, happy that he had met some new friends, and yet something was bothering me.
I wanted to go with Kurt to his party, but there is just something about big social events that makes me feel uncomfortable. They remind me of when I was at my old school dances, my old life I guess you could say. It sounded stupid; I didn't want to go to Kurt's party because I was afraid to reminisce, but it was hard for me back then. I was alone most of the time, didn't have anybody I could really talk to. The only people I ever opened up to were my parents, and now they were gone.
A shiver went down my spine and I walked faster until I arrived at my room. I'd apologize to Kurt later for not coming, although I could never tell him why. I was just being silly, that was all. Why was I getting so worked up over a party? I opened my window and morphed golden eagle. I didn't want to think anymore right now, I wanted to fly. Most kids spend their time hanging out or doing homework. I usually spend my afternoons out leisure flying or looking for the Brotherhood members. Anything I could do to help.
I flew out of the window and let the warm air fill my wings. I flew away from the school and let the updrafts lift me high above the city of Westchester. It was a freedom I loved, leaving everything on the ground and just flying. But this wasn't a pleasure flight; it was a hunt. I used my binocular eyes to search the city below for a sign of the Brotherhood members; the sooner they were all found, the better. It was mid-afternoon when I saw something interesting. It was the guy from the fight at the UN Summit Meeting, Wolverine. I wondered what he was doing back in town so soon.
We'd never really met before, but I'd seen him when he was fighting with Sabertooth on top of the Statue of Liberty. I was a barn owl at the time, and when Sabertooth dropped Cyclops's visor I snatched it up in my talons and threw it back to Wolverine. He'd given me the weirdest look, then jumped back into the Statue's head.
Anyway, I saw Wolverine on a motorcycle pulling into an otherwise empty alley. He rode through a little ways then stopped. His nose twitched and suddenly I noticed that he wasn't the only one there.
Wolverine, behind you! I yelled to him with my telepathic communication. Just then the monstrous Sabertooth lunged at him from behind a wall, knocking him off of his motorcycle. His head must have hit the ground pretty hard because he was unconscious. Sabertooth was ready to attack again, and things looked pretty bad. It was time for Phorm, super bird!
I screamed the eagle's piercing cry and Sabertooth stopped. It also woke up Wolverine, but I wasn't done yet. I tucked in my wings and made a nose-dive strait for Sabertooth's head. I was a total kamikaze!
Now, an eagle's talons are sharp, very sharp, because they're designed to kill rodents. Maybe you've seen a bird-handler holding an eagle, how they have to wear those thick leather gloves? That's just to give you an idea of what it was like for Sabertooth as I scratched my talons into his forehead while flying at top speed. He looked up at the last moment and let out a snarl. I admit it wasn't an especially nice thing to do, but neither is attacking someone from behind.
I started to flap away when his clawed hand came down on my frail spine. I was knocked to the ground and couldn't move my wings. He'd finish me off with another hit like that. Lucky for me Wolverine was now fully awake. He ran at Sabertooth and knocked him away from me. They started fighting again and ignored the psycho bird that had become the psycho kid, and was now changing into the psycho grizzly bear. I admit attacking as an eagle was a little nuts, but now I could make up for it.
"GRRROOAAAARRRR!!!!!!" I bellowed. They both stopped dead and stared at the grizzly bear that had suddenly appeared where a golden eagle had been. I looked strait at Sabertooth, who was gripping Wolverine's arm.
You want a piece of me? I shouted telepathically. I stood on my hind legs and pointed to myself in a very human way.
Bring it on! I charged on all fours. It's surprising how fast a bear can run. They look all fuzzy and fat, but let me tell you, bear's are sheer power. Sabertooth let go of Wolverine and started to run away. We were probably an even match, but when you see a grizzly coming your way you don't really stop to consider the odds of the fight. I slowed down to a trot.
Yeah you better run, I said as he disappeared down the alleyway. Sabertooth was outta' here. Then I looked at a very bewildered Wolverine. He had his claws up as if ready to attack or defend.
Uh, hi, I said with an awkward smile. I remembered that a bear's smile is kind of scary when I saw Wolverine tense up. At least he didn't lose his cool.
"Let me get this strait," he said. "You're a talking bear. What does that make me, Dr. Dolittle?" I liked that movie! But now was not the time to discuss movie favorites.
I have telepathic communication and, well, I'm not really a bear. What should I do? If I demorphed he might freak out (as people often do when they see a bear turn into a human) and if I didn't he would probably just think he was nuts. I mean, who listens to a talking grizzly bear?
"All right so you're not a bear," he said, still looking very confused. "Then who are you? I heard your voice before, how do you know my name?" I decided I'd just demorph.
This is going to be very weird, but just try to remain calm. I'm going to change back into myself, then I'll try to answer some of your questions. I thought of being human again and slowly the shaggy brown fur of the grizzly melted into my skin and the huge bulk of the bear became little old me.
"My name's Sharon," I said with a smile. Then I looked at his claws. They didn't scare me as a grizzly, but now I wasn't a grizzly. He saw me look at his claws.
"Sorry," he said as he retracted them. "Now how about those answers."
"Um, okay, let me explain," I said. I took a deep breath and summarized quite a bit of information in very little time. I basically covered who I was, how I'd gotten involved in the Summit Meeting, and how I knew him. The whole speech took about two minutes, and when I finished my jaw was a little bit sore from speaking a mile a minute. Wolverine frowned in thought for a minute.
"Well all right then," he said. "So you were that owl back at the Statue of Liberty, and the kamikaze bird that attacked Sabertooth. Thanks for clearing things up," he said. How cool! He said kamikaze! That was my word!
"No problem," I said. "Are you going back to the mansion?"
"Sure, why not," he said. I think I liked this guy's attitude. He was independent, sarcastic, afraid of nothing...sounded like me. We'd just met in person for the first time, but I felt like I'd known him for a while. I morphed back into golden eagle and took to the air.
I'm gonna' see if I can find where Sabertooth ran off to, I said. He looked up but was too far below to object, which I didn't mind. He peeled out on his motorcycle and headed back to the mansion.
I looked for Sabertooth for a little while. I saw some footprints leading to a rundown subway entrance, but I didn't follow them. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. If I went down there and was attacked I wouldn't have anyone to back me up. I shouldn't have wasted so much time chatting with Wolverine. Maybe if I had run after Sabertooth I could have caught him. Oh well. I flapped back to the mansion. At least we'd found Sabertooth, and it hadn't been a boring afternoon.
Nightcrawler:
I stepped away from my new friends, and hopefully my new teammates. The door opened and I entered, blinded at first by the bright lights. As soon as the door closed the room changed, and suddenly I was in a forest. This was the holographic part Cyclops had warned me about in the danger room. Now came the "danger" part.
Suddenly two laser cannons emerged from the side walls behind me and began to blast the trees right around me. I jumped and did a triple front flip to land on an upper tree branch to avoid the shots, but the laser cannons followed me. I looked at their positioning, then got a bright idea. From the upper branch I leaped and landed right in between them. It probably looked like the stupidest thing I could have done, because then both cannons turned to me at point blank range. But that was what I wanted. I heard the mechanisms prepare to fire and zap, I was back in the upper tree branch. The cannons had fired on each other.
"Nice work," said the professor over a loudspeaker, "that was very resourceful."
"Coolio!" said Sharon.
I barely had time to acknowledge their compliments. Suddenly these cords emerged from the trees and began to grab my arms and legs. I teleported free of them to another tree but they kept coming. I needed to find a way to beat them, not run away from them.
zap, zap, zap, zap - I teleported from tree to tree in a circle, under branches and over branches. All of the cords followed me. As I had hoped they wrapped around the tree branches and were completely immobilized.
"Very well done," said the professor. "I believe you've more than proven your skill."
This time I stopped and smiled. Bad idea.
THUD - a robotic arm had come down on my shoulder. I turned around to see that the trees were gone and that there was now some sort of android attacking me. I quickly teleported to the other side of the room. It charged at me top speed and…zap… hit the wall. I had defeated it, but my shoulder ached afterwards. I didn't really care, because just then the door to the danger room opened and I knew that I had made it on the X-Men.
I exited the danger room to overwhelming congratulations and compliments.
"Good job," said Cyclops with a genuine smile.
"An exquisite performance!" said Beast. Then Sharon walked up to me.
"Knew you could do it," she said. "Don't worry about that robot, he gets everybody on the first try."
"Yes," said the professor. "We must be sure never to let our guards down."
"I know," I said, "or at least I know now." Professor Xavier smiled.
"That will be all for today," said the professor. "The decision has been made. Kurt, welcome to the X-Men."
"All right, all right!" Said Sharon. I beamed.
I left the underground area and returned to the main school. Sharon came with me, sharing stories of the first time she went in the danger room.
"I had the most trouble with the cannons," she said. "I wanted to use my rhino morph to destroy them but it was too slow. I ended up going with a rabbit and using your tactic." We talked for a long time and I laughed at all of her jokes (and she had a lot of them). Then a crowd of students came. They must have heard the news that I was joining the team, they all had a million questions to ask me and wanted to congratulate me. Eric and some of his friends came over.
"Hey Kurt," said Eric. "Why don't you come with us to celebrate?"
"Sure, we'll come," I said. I looked at Sharon.
"Um, you guys go ahead," she said. "I've got some stuff to do."
"Are you sure?" I asked. I could tell she wanted to go, but something made her sort of nervous, reluctant. She seemed to be debating it.
"Yeah," she said, assuring herself of her decision. "I'll catch ya later." She forced a smile.
"Come on," said Eric to me.
"Okay," I said. "Bye Sharon."
"See ya' later," she said.
Soon concern for Sharon was replaced by excitement. I couldn't believe everything that had happened! I had friends, I was on the X-Men, I was accepted, I belonged. It seemed too good to be true!
Phorm:
I watched as Kurt walked off with Eric and his friends. I didn't follow. Instead I walked back to my room slowly. Something was bothering me. I was happy for Kurt, happy that he was on the X-Men, happy that he had met some new friends, and yet something was bothering me.
I wanted to go with Kurt to his party, but there is just something about big social events that makes me feel uncomfortable. They remind me of when I was at my old school dances, my old life I guess you could say. It sounded stupid; I didn't want to go to Kurt's party because I was afraid to reminisce, but it was hard for me back then. I was alone most of the time, didn't have anybody I could really talk to. The only people I ever opened up to were my parents, and now they were gone.
A shiver went down my spine and I walked faster until I arrived at my room. I'd apologize to Kurt later for not coming, although I could never tell him why. I was just being silly, that was all. Why was I getting so worked up over a party? I opened my window and morphed golden eagle. I didn't want to think anymore right now, I wanted to fly. Most kids spend their time hanging out or doing homework. I usually spend my afternoons out leisure flying or looking for the Brotherhood members. Anything I could do to help.
I flew out of the window and let the warm air fill my wings. I flew away from the school and let the updrafts lift me high above the city of Westchester. It was a freedom I loved, leaving everything on the ground and just flying. But this wasn't a pleasure flight; it was a hunt. I used my binocular eyes to search the city below for a sign of the Brotherhood members; the sooner they were all found, the better. It was mid-afternoon when I saw something interesting. It was the guy from the fight at the UN Summit Meeting, Wolverine. I wondered what he was doing back in town so soon.
We'd never really met before, but I'd seen him when he was fighting with Sabertooth on top of the Statue of Liberty. I was a barn owl at the time, and when Sabertooth dropped Cyclops's visor I snatched it up in my talons and threw it back to Wolverine. He'd given me the weirdest look, then jumped back into the Statue's head.
Anyway, I saw Wolverine on a motorcycle pulling into an otherwise empty alley. He rode through a little ways then stopped. His nose twitched and suddenly I noticed that he wasn't the only one there.
Wolverine, behind you! I yelled to him with my telepathic communication. Just then the monstrous Sabertooth lunged at him from behind a wall, knocking him off of his motorcycle. His head must have hit the ground pretty hard because he was unconscious. Sabertooth was ready to attack again, and things looked pretty bad. It was time for Phorm, super bird!
I screamed the eagle's piercing cry and Sabertooth stopped. It also woke up Wolverine, but I wasn't done yet. I tucked in my wings and made a nose-dive strait for Sabertooth's head. I was a total kamikaze!
Now, an eagle's talons are sharp, very sharp, because they're designed to kill rodents. Maybe you've seen a bird-handler holding an eagle, how they have to wear those thick leather gloves? That's just to give you an idea of what it was like for Sabertooth as I scratched my talons into his forehead while flying at top speed. He looked up at the last moment and let out a snarl. I admit it wasn't an especially nice thing to do, but neither is attacking someone from behind.
I started to flap away when his clawed hand came down on my frail spine. I was knocked to the ground and couldn't move my wings. He'd finish me off with another hit like that. Lucky for me Wolverine was now fully awake. He ran at Sabertooth and knocked him away from me. They started fighting again and ignored the psycho bird that had become the psycho kid, and was now changing into the psycho grizzly bear. I admit attacking as an eagle was a little nuts, but now I could make up for it.
"GRRROOAAAARRRR!!!!!!" I bellowed. They both stopped dead and stared at the grizzly bear that had suddenly appeared where a golden eagle had been. I looked strait at Sabertooth, who was gripping Wolverine's arm.
You want a piece of me? I shouted telepathically. I stood on my hind legs and pointed to myself in a very human way.
Bring it on! I charged on all fours. It's surprising how fast a bear can run. They look all fuzzy and fat, but let me tell you, bear's are sheer power. Sabertooth let go of Wolverine and started to run away. We were probably an even match, but when you see a grizzly coming your way you don't really stop to consider the odds of the fight. I slowed down to a trot.
Yeah you better run, I said as he disappeared down the alleyway. Sabertooth was outta' here. Then I looked at a very bewildered Wolverine. He had his claws up as if ready to attack or defend.
Uh, hi, I said with an awkward smile. I remembered that a bear's smile is kind of scary when I saw Wolverine tense up. At least he didn't lose his cool.
"Let me get this strait," he said. "You're a talking bear. What does that make me, Dr. Dolittle?" I liked that movie! But now was not the time to discuss movie favorites.
I have telepathic communication and, well, I'm not really a bear. What should I do? If I demorphed he might freak out (as people often do when they see a bear turn into a human) and if I didn't he would probably just think he was nuts. I mean, who listens to a talking grizzly bear?
"All right so you're not a bear," he said, still looking very confused. "Then who are you? I heard your voice before, how do you know my name?" I decided I'd just demorph.
This is going to be very weird, but just try to remain calm. I'm going to change back into myself, then I'll try to answer some of your questions. I thought of being human again and slowly the shaggy brown fur of the grizzly melted into my skin and the huge bulk of the bear became little old me.
"My name's Sharon," I said with a smile. Then I looked at his claws. They didn't scare me as a grizzly, but now I wasn't a grizzly. He saw me look at his claws.
"Sorry," he said as he retracted them. "Now how about those answers."
"Um, okay, let me explain," I said. I took a deep breath and summarized quite a bit of information in very little time. I basically covered who I was, how I'd gotten involved in the Summit Meeting, and how I knew him. The whole speech took about two minutes, and when I finished my jaw was a little bit sore from speaking a mile a minute. Wolverine frowned in thought for a minute.
"Well all right then," he said. "So you were that owl back at the Statue of Liberty, and the kamikaze bird that attacked Sabertooth. Thanks for clearing things up," he said. How cool! He said kamikaze! That was my word!
"No problem," I said. "Are you going back to the mansion?"
"Sure, why not," he said. I think I liked this guy's attitude. He was independent, sarcastic, afraid of nothing...sounded like me. We'd just met in person for the first time, but I felt like I'd known him for a while. I morphed back into golden eagle and took to the air.
I'm gonna' see if I can find where Sabertooth ran off to, I said. He looked up but was too far below to object, which I didn't mind. He peeled out on his motorcycle and headed back to the mansion.
I looked for Sabertooth for a little while. I saw some footprints leading to a rundown subway entrance, but I didn't follow them. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. If I went down there and was attacked I wouldn't have anyone to back me up. I shouldn't have wasted so much time chatting with Wolverine. Maybe if I had run after Sabertooth I could have caught him. Oh well. I flapped back to the mansion. At least we'd found Sabertooth, and it hadn't been a boring afternoon.