The girls' screams alerted Scott, Jean and Ororo that were sitting
near the basketball court. Many students were already regrouped
where the girls where when they arrived. They were immediately let
through the circle and were showed Logan's unconscious form. He
was quickly brought inside, held by Scott, Bobby, John and two
other students. No one could deny, Logan was very heavy.
He was brought to the med lab in the basement where Jean discovered that he was not only unconscious, but also wounded. There were scars on his arms and particularly deep marks in his neck, suggested that he had tried to be strangled. Jean started plugging him to machines and IV tubes, when finally, Kitty told her about the other person they had seen running away.
"Someone is on the grounds?" Scott asked, as he saw the three girls nod. "Okay, we'll do a search."
Before he could precise that only the 'adults' would do the search, all the students were outside, looking for the intruder.
Rogue wanted to know if this person was the one that had harmed 'her' Logan, and so was also looking for the prowler. It was behind the school, near the green house that Bobby saw him first.
"He's over here!" he started shouting to everyone, who ran into his direction. Scott and Ororo arrived, and all looked up the tree in which the person was supposedly hiding.
"Listen, we're not going to hurt you," Scott started, catching sight of a black piece of clothing between branches and big leaves. "Come down."
The person didn't move, but some sort of noise was heard above their heads. They waited minutes, talking to the person and trying to convince him to come down. Nothing worked.
Scott contacted Jean telekinetically, and she told him that she was on her way. A few moments later, she was outside, under the tree. She tried calling the person, but nothing happened. She tried to enter his mind, but she met powerful shields. "Okay, I kneed to be alone with him," she said finally. "Go inside," she commanded to all the students, who reluctantly obeyed. She eyed Scott, seeing that he wasn't moving.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Jean," he said slowly, looking up at the tree. "We don't know if this person is dangerous." "Don't worry, Scott," she said with a warm smile. "Go, I'll come after."
Scott walked away very slowly, looking up at the tree, as if he was warning the person up there. Jean sighed and sat down at the base of the trunk. A few moments later, she started talking.
"Are you sure we shouldn't check if she's alright?" Scott asked to Storm for the tenth time. "You never know, maybe this black fellow's the guy who attacked Wolverine."
Rory looked up at the ceiling and sighed deeply, her hands on her hips.
"Scott!" she said warningly. "Jean knows what she's doing."
Scott snorted.
"I know she knows what she's doing, I just want to make sure what she's doing is safe," he said protectively, walking around the main hall. He eyed the central door a couple of times, and continued walking in circles. Ororo just watched him, visibly amused as she simply leaned on the wall. Suddenly, they heard the professor's wheelchair approaching. They turned towards one of the hallways and saw him coming, pushed by John who was visibly tempted to go faster with the wheelchair.
"Thank you John," the Professor said as the boy stopped him in front of Storm.
John walked back from where he came, dribbling a fireball he had formed in his hands.
"This mutant. outside," the professor said. "He's very scared. Be very calm around him."
Scott was about to ask something when they all heard the door's handle turn. They all looked at it as Jean opened it, not looking at them, but at something behind her. She walked in almost backwards, looking at something that was behind her.
"Come on," she whispered welcomingly.
A shiver ran down Scott and Ororo's back as they saw a black- gloved hand grab the doorframe, and someone peek inside from one of the sides. They couldn't see his face, since it was covered, like all his body, by layers of black tissue. Very slowly, that person came in, watching everyone in the room. Finally, he arrived in the middle of the entrance hall. Since his appearance at the door, he had been half-crouched on the floor, like a scared animal.
"Professor, this is Nightmare," Jean said, showing him the crouched person. "I think he has lost his ability to speak."
"Welcome to my school, Nightmare," the professor said. "Would you like to eat something?"
The creature had a hesitant move, then it tried to hold himself on his legs. He wobbled for a few seconds, but stayed up. It was then they realized that he was very tall for his age, which Jean estimated was seventeen. He was almost as tall as Scott, but seemed much more frail and weak. Jean and Rory started walking towards the kitchen, followed by Nightmare and the Professor and Scott behind him.
In the kitchen, they served Nightmare a plate of food, and they were astonished to see how much he ate. First of all, he didn't use a fork and knife, but ate with his gloved hands that stayed strangely clean. He had made sure that they couldn't see his mouth, as he had barely moved the piece of material covering his face. He sat on the chair in a crouched position, as if ready to jump aside and run away. When he finished eating, he just sat there, watching at the empty plate for some time, then at the people that had fed him. Suddenly, he sort of had a jump, but stayed in place. It was like if he was trying to ask something.
"What is it?" Scott asked, wondering what the boy meant by his jumps and signs.
The boy crawled out of the room, followed by all the others. He got up on his feet and walked around.
"Jean, what is he doing?" Ororo asked, looking at him tap the walls and look around.
"I have absolutely no idea," Jean said, looking at the boy.
Suddenly, Nightmare stopped walking around and started his singular crawling. The professor noticed that he seemed to be more used of walking that way, than on his two legs. He also noticed that he was more agile and alert than all of them. Nightmare crawled up to Scott and got on his two legs, not without wobbling a bit. Scott just watched as the boy searched under his numerous covers, finally pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. He slowly handled it to Scott, who took it, now wondering why was the boy completely covered. Nightmare backed away as soon as the small and ripped sheet was out of his hands, into Scott's. Scott looked at it for a moment than unfolded it. There were two names written on it, along with the school's address. The first thing that was written was Logan's alias, Wolverine. Under it was Professor X's full name. Jean and Ororo read it, not sure of what Nightmare wanted. After they asked him again what he meant, he crawled to Jean, who was holding the paper, and tapped on Wolverine's name.
"Maybe he's looking for Logan," Rory suggested.
They all agreed that it was probably that, and so they showed Nightmare the elevator to go to the lower levels. While going down, they could all see that Nightmare was avoiding being close to them. When the door opened, he almost ran out of the elevator. He started his weird crawling again as he followed Jean to the lab. He immediately saw Logan on the medical table, and jumped to his side. There, he just waited.
Jean looked at the monitor's charts and saw that Logan was just getting better and better.
Fifteen minutes after their entry in the med lab, Logan opened his eyes. He immediately started grumbling. He tried to get to his feet but he fell back on the med table in exhaustion. He recognized the X-Men around him.
"Uh . . . hello," he said, without moving again. "Thought I'd drop by, and see how you weirdoes were doing."
They all looked at him sarcastically, as he coughed lightly.
"Where's the kid?" he asked suddenly, trying to get up again.
"Nightmare's fine," the Professor said.
Logan looked at him incredulously.
"How did you find out his name?" he asked.
"He wrote it on a piece of paper," Jean said. "I arrived to make him come in."
"Well that's a miracle," Logan said derisively, as he passed his legs to the side of the table.
"What is?" the Professor asked, interested in knowing what Logan knew about the boy.
Logan spotted Nightmare squatting in one of the seats, not too far away.
"I'll tell you later," Logan mumbled.
They all looked at him questioningly as he walked to the boy.
"Hey, Dim," he said. "Here's the place I told you about. I want you to think about your opportunities, kid. Tell me what you think of this place after, okay? I'll just go talk to these folks for a while. I want you to go look around."
Nightmare nodded and walked out slowly, walking on his two legs this time. Once he was out, the X-Men all started to ask him questions.
"Hey, would you let me talk?" Logan said after a while, not being able to catch what they were saying.
"Who is Nightmare, Logan?" the Professor asked, as Logan and the others sat in some of the chairs.
"I found the kid up North. Middle of the forest, just freezing," Logan said. "He . . . he has a mutation similar to the one Rogue has."
They all looked at him, telling him to continue.
"It's a bit more complicated than Marie, though," he continued. "He harms people by . . . gee this is a bit hard to explain . . . well, when he touches them, when he sees them, when he thinks of them and all . . ."
"How can it be?" Jean asked. "He's been seeing us all this time, he's visibly made decisions involving us, so he sort of thought of us . . ."
"Jean you got it all wrong," Logan said. "First of all, the kid didn't see you, he felt you. All this time he has his eyes blindfolded. He can't really think of you, because he didn't see you thus can't picture you. Yes, after knowing someone long enough that way, you can picture this person, so that's why he was hiding up north. He can't stay around the same people because after a while, he can picture them. For the skin, he does like Rogue and covers himself up, but it still goes farther than that because he can't speak also."
They all just looked at him.
"I can't explain it, but all his mutation is based on the five senses, or something like that. All but the hearing. To compensate his loss of sight, touch and voice, he has a very exceptional sense of hearing. That way, he can locate you from the noise you do. That's also why he always crawls around. He needs to feel everything, to know where you or other objects are."
"This is a complicated mutation," Scott exclaimed.
"I . . . I would need to make him pass a medical exam to establish a diagnosis," Jean said slowly. "But . . . helping him would be a little harder than all the others. And first of all, how will I be able to give him his medical exam?"
"He's able to control most of his power under a short period of time," Logan said. "But just for about ten minutes."
"That'll be fine, then," Jean said.
"Oh, and I forgot to tell you," Logan continued. "He is extremely scared of hurting people so he probably wont . . . euh . . . socialize with the students very quickly. And plus, how do you want the poor kid to do to become their friend?"
"That is going to be one problem," the Professor said. "I bet Jean will have found some sort of way to make him control his power a bit more. After all, we don't want him to loose his mind because of this mutation of his. I've never seen anything like this before."
"And how come you were hurt?" Ororo asked.
"Ah . . . well, you know, I've known the kid for something like three weeks and we talked. Well, I talked and he wrote back. After a while, even without him really noticing its like if a picture appeared in his mind. It happens with everyone he knows for too long. After that, its just a matter of time before a question passes in his head, like maybe he's wondering where I am in the room, and so he relates to that mental picture and so I get this huge blow coming out of nowhere."
"Strange," Jan said, taking a notebook from the counter, and started noting things in it.
"Well, then you should go find your friend," the Professor said, directing his wheelchair to the door as the others followed him. "We could try to give him his medical exam now."
"Okay, I'll go get him and explain everything," Logan said, passing him.
They took the elevator, and reached the first floor. There, Logan left the professor and went looking for his little friend. **********
REVIEW! IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT!!!!!
He was brought to the med lab in the basement where Jean discovered that he was not only unconscious, but also wounded. There were scars on his arms and particularly deep marks in his neck, suggested that he had tried to be strangled. Jean started plugging him to machines and IV tubes, when finally, Kitty told her about the other person they had seen running away.
"Someone is on the grounds?" Scott asked, as he saw the three girls nod. "Okay, we'll do a search."
Before he could precise that only the 'adults' would do the search, all the students were outside, looking for the intruder.
Rogue wanted to know if this person was the one that had harmed 'her' Logan, and so was also looking for the prowler. It was behind the school, near the green house that Bobby saw him first.
"He's over here!" he started shouting to everyone, who ran into his direction. Scott and Ororo arrived, and all looked up the tree in which the person was supposedly hiding.
"Listen, we're not going to hurt you," Scott started, catching sight of a black piece of clothing between branches and big leaves. "Come down."
The person didn't move, but some sort of noise was heard above their heads. They waited minutes, talking to the person and trying to convince him to come down. Nothing worked.
Scott contacted Jean telekinetically, and she told him that she was on her way. A few moments later, she was outside, under the tree. She tried calling the person, but nothing happened. She tried to enter his mind, but she met powerful shields. "Okay, I kneed to be alone with him," she said finally. "Go inside," she commanded to all the students, who reluctantly obeyed. She eyed Scott, seeing that he wasn't moving.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea, Jean," he said slowly, looking up at the tree. "We don't know if this person is dangerous." "Don't worry, Scott," she said with a warm smile. "Go, I'll come after."
Scott walked away very slowly, looking up at the tree, as if he was warning the person up there. Jean sighed and sat down at the base of the trunk. A few moments later, she started talking.
"Are you sure we shouldn't check if she's alright?" Scott asked to Storm for the tenth time. "You never know, maybe this black fellow's the guy who attacked Wolverine."
Rory looked up at the ceiling and sighed deeply, her hands on her hips.
"Scott!" she said warningly. "Jean knows what she's doing."
Scott snorted.
"I know she knows what she's doing, I just want to make sure what she's doing is safe," he said protectively, walking around the main hall. He eyed the central door a couple of times, and continued walking in circles. Ororo just watched him, visibly amused as she simply leaned on the wall. Suddenly, they heard the professor's wheelchair approaching. They turned towards one of the hallways and saw him coming, pushed by John who was visibly tempted to go faster with the wheelchair.
"Thank you John," the Professor said as the boy stopped him in front of Storm.
John walked back from where he came, dribbling a fireball he had formed in his hands.
"This mutant. outside," the professor said. "He's very scared. Be very calm around him."
Scott was about to ask something when they all heard the door's handle turn. They all looked at it as Jean opened it, not looking at them, but at something behind her. She walked in almost backwards, looking at something that was behind her.
"Come on," she whispered welcomingly.
A shiver ran down Scott and Ororo's back as they saw a black- gloved hand grab the doorframe, and someone peek inside from one of the sides. They couldn't see his face, since it was covered, like all his body, by layers of black tissue. Very slowly, that person came in, watching everyone in the room. Finally, he arrived in the middle of the entrance hall. Since his appearance at the door, he had been half-crouched on the floor, like a scared animal.
"Professor, this is Nightmare," Jean said, showing him the crouched person. "I think he has lost his ability to speak."
"Welcome to my school, Nightmare," the professor said. "Would you like to eat something?"
The creature had a hesitant move, then it tried to hold himself on his legs. He wobbled for a few seconds, but stayed up. It was then they realized that he was very tall for his age, which Jean estimated was seventeen. He was almost as tall as Scott, but seemed much more frail and weak. Jean and Rory started walking towards the kitchen, followed by Nightmare and the Professor and Scott behind him.
In the kitchen, they served Nightmare a plate of food, and they were astonished to see how much he ate. First of all, he didn't use a fork and knife, but ate with his gloved hands that stayed strangely clean. He had made sure that they couldn't see his mouth, as he had barely moved the piece of material covering his face. He sat on the chair in a crouched position, as if ready to jump aside and run away. When he finished eating, he just sat there, watching at the empty plate for some time, then at the people that had fed him. Suddenly, he sort of had a jump, but stayed in place. It was like if he was trying to ask something.
"What is it?" Scott asked, wondering what the boy meant by his jumps and signs.
The boy crawled out of the room, followed by all the others. He got up on his feet and walked around.
"Jean, what is he doing?" Ororo asked, looking at him tap the walls and look around.
"I have absolutely no idea," Jean said, looking at the boy.
Suddenly, Nightmare stopped walking around and started his singular crawling. The professor noticed that he seemed to be more used of walking that way, than on his two legs. He also noticed that he was more agile and alert than all of them. Nightmare crawled up to Scott and got on his two legs, not without wobbling a bit. Scott just watched as the boy searched under his numerous covers, finally pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. He slowly handled it to Scott, who took it, now wondering why was the boy completely covered. Nightmare backed away as soon as the small and ripped sheet was out of his hands, into Scott's. Scott looked at it for a moment than unfolded it. There were two names written on it, along with the school's address. The first thing that was written was Logan's alias, Wolverine. Under it was Professor X's full name. Jean and Ororo read it, not sure of what Nightmare wanted. After they asked him again what he meant, he crawled to Jean, who was holding the paper, and tapped on Wolverine's name.
"Maybe he's looking for Logan," Rory suggested.
They all agreed that it was probably that, and so they showed Nightmare the elevator to go to the lower levels. While going down, they could all see that Nightmare was avoiding being close to them. When the door opened, he almost ran out of the elevator. He started his weird crawling again as he followed Jean to the lab. He immediately saw Logan on the medical table, and jumped to his side. There, he just waited.
Jean looked at the monitor's charts and saw that Logan was just getting better and better.
Fifteen minutes after their entry in the med lab, Logan opened his eyes. He immediately started grumbling. He tried to get to his feet but he fell back on the med table in exhaustion. He recognized the X-Men around him.
"Uh . . . hello," he said, without moving again. "Thought I'd drop by, and see how you weirdoes were doing."
They all looked at him sarcastically, as he coughed lightly.
"Where's the kid?" he asked suddenly, trying to get up again.
"Nightmare's fine," the Professor said.
Logan looked at him incredulously.
"How did you find out his name?" he asked.
"He wrote it on a piece of paper," Jean said. "I arrived to make him come in."
"Well that's a miracle," Logan said derisively, as he passed his legs to the side of the table.
"What is?" the Professor asked, interested in knowing what Logan knew about the boy.
Logan spotted Nightmare squatting in one of the seats, not too far away.
"I'll tell you later," Logan mumbled.
They all looked at him questioningly as he walked to the boy.
"Hey, Dim," he said. "Here's the place I told you about. I want you to think about your opportunities, kid. Tell me what you think of this place after, okay? I'll just go talk to these folks for a while. I want you to go look around."
Nightmare nodded and walked out slowly, walking on his two legs this time. Once he was out, the X-Men all started to ask him questions.
"Hey, would you let me talk?" Logan said after a while, not being able to catch what they were saying.
"Who is Nightmare, Logan?" the Professor asked, as Logan and the others sat in some of the chairs.
"I found the kid up North. Middle of the forest, just freezing," Logan said. "He . . . he has a mutation similar to the one Rogue has."
They all looked at him, telling him to continue.
"It's a bit more complicated than Marie, though," he continued. "He harms people by . . . gee this is a bit hard to explain . . . well, when he touches them, when he sees them, when he thinks of them and all . . ."
"How can it be?" Jean asked. "He's been seeing us all this time, he's visibly made decisions involving us, so he sort of thought of us . . ."
"Jean you got it all wrong," Logan said. "First of all, the kid didn't see you, he felt you. All this time he has his eyes blindfolded. He can't really think of you, because he didn't see you thus can't picture you. Yes, after knowing someone long enough that way, you can picture this person, so that's why he was hiding up north. He can't stay around the same people because after a while, he can picture them. For the skin, he does like Rogue and covers himself up, but it still goes farther than that because he can't speak also."
They all just looked at him.
"I can't explain it, but all his mutation is based on the five senses, or something like that. All but the hearing. To compensate his loss of sight, touch and voice, he has a very exceptional sense of hearing. That way, he can locate you from the noise you do. That's also why he always crawls around. He needs to feel everything, to know where you or other objects are."
"This is a complicated mutation," Scott exclaimed.
"I . . . I would need to make him pass a medical exam to establish a diagnosis," Jean said slowly. "But . . . helping him would be a little harder than all the others. And first of all, how will I be able to give him his medical exam?"
"He's able to control most of his power under a short period of time," Logan said. "But just for about ten minutes."
"That'll be fine, then," Jean said.
"Oh, and I forgot to tell you," Logan continued. "He is extremely scared of hurting people so he probably wont . . . euh . . . socialize with the students very quickly. And plus, how do you want the poor kid to do to become their friend?"
"That is going to be one problem," the Professor said. "I bet Jean will have found some sort of way to make him control his power a bit more. After all, we don't want him to loose his mind because of this mutation of his. I've never seen anything like this before."
"And how come you were hurt?" Ororo asked.
"Ah . . . well, you know, I've known the kid for something like three weeks and we talked. Well, I talked and he wrote back. After a while, even without him really noticing its like if a picture appeared in his mind. It happens with everyone he knows for too long. After that, its just a matter of time before a question passes in his head, like maybe he's wondering where I am in the room, and so he relates to that mental picture and so I get this huge blow coming out of nowhere."
"Strange," Jan said, taking a notebook from the counter, and started noting things in it.
"Well, then you should go find your friend," the Professor said, directing his wheelchair to the door as the others followed him. "We could try to give him his medical exam now."
"Okay, I'll go get him and explain everything," Logan said, passing him.
They took the elevator, and reached the first floor. There, Logan left the professor and went looking for his little friend. **********
REVIEW! IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT!!!!!
