Chapter 17:
All they could do was go back inside as night came Logan and Scott walked back to the med lab that was in pitiful state. Ororo was a bit shaken, and was helping Jean to get up. Cyclops joined her.
"Are you all right?" he asked to his fiancé.
She nodded quickly and brought her hand to her forehead.
"What did he do to her?" Scott asked to the professor.
"I don't exactly know, but I think he borrowed her mutation to distract you from him, and then use her mutation to get rid of your visor," the Professor said.
"How can he 'borrow' a mutation?" Scott said skeptically.
"Maybe it's a facet of his mutation. When in need, he can steal mutations for a short period of time. If he uses it too much on the same person, he could get the mutation permanently, but that's another story."
"What did he mean when he talked to you before going?" Logan asked.
"When I tried to convince him in Nathan's head, I saw that he was a great fighter, master in many forms of martial arts and sword fighting. When he's angry or afraid, he uses those abilities. He's smart. He knew I was trying to convince him and he knew I wouldn't succeed. He knew that I was risking Nathan's sanity by entering his mind and coming to him like that. I didn't know his other self would be so strong. Nathan was so weak these past days I thought he would be too."
"What are the daggers about?" Jean asked, pulling out the one that was in the wall.
She looked at it for a moment, turning it to the light.
"Don't touch it Jean," the professor said, seeing what she was doing.
Jean turned to him for an explanation and before she had time to react, and drop the object, it started melting away into thin air. Quickly, Scott used his beam to throw it out of Jean's hand before it burned her. The rest of the sword lay on the floor, and burned away.
"Okay," they all heard Storm whisper, wondering. "So what was that power about?"
"That, I have absolutely no idea," the Professor said. "but what you don't understand is that it depends in what mood he's in to use that mutation . . . well, that's what I think it is."
Maxim stormed into the room.
"Where's Nathan?" he shouted in a heated tone.
There was a moment of silence.
"He couldn't control his mutation anymore and his emotions transformed him into another self. He ran away but we'll find him," Logan said.
"We'll need your help," the Professor added. "He's heading for New York and we need to find him before his anger towards humanity pushes him to . . . do things."
Max went livid.
"You think he could kill people?" he asked, now that his anger had passed.
"He already has, Maxim," the Professor simply said. "Will you help us?"
"Y . . . yes," Maxim mumbled.
"We'll take the jet to get there faster," Scott said. "Jean, call the younger X-Men with your power."
Jean concentrated for a moment, closing her eyes.
"There coming," she said after a while.
"Excuse me, but what's an X-Man?" Max asked.
Jean smiled and explained everything to him, about what they did and all.
"You don't control your power yet, so we'll only give you a suit because we need you," she said. "Don't try to use your power if it gets nasty."
Max accepted everything and joined the team.
~~~
Max was impressed by the jet. He would have never suspected one to be hidden in the school. He saw that what they called the 'younger X-Men', were students his age. The three girls that had come to visit him were there, and there were two other boys, Bobby and John. "Now, from now on we call ourselves by our aliases until we get back," Scott said with authority. "Max, this is Shadowcat (Kitty), Jubilee, Rogue, Iceman (Bobby) and Pyro (John). For tonight you'll be called Rocket."
Max put on his suit with the others and entered the jet. He sat in the back, next to Pyro, in front of Rogue and Jubilee, with Kitty to his right. The older X-Men were more in front. Scott was driving and Storm was the co- pilot. Logan was behind Storm and Jean was behind Scott, because she would use her power to try and locate Nathan.
Using Cerebro, the Professor had told them that Nathan was going for the docks. They arrived there relatively fast, and landed on a flat warehouse roof as soon as they saw no one was near.
"Okay, now I want groups of two," Cyclops said. "Wolverine with Rogue, Iceman and Jean, Shadowcat and Storm, Jubilee and Pyro, me and Rocket."
Cyclops explained to everyone what his plan was, and they all split up, ordered to report if they saw Nate.
~~~
Logan and Rogue went looking towards the water.
"So, Marie," Logan started. "You like this guy?"
Rogue went a dark shade of red, but tried to hide it, to Logan's amusement.
"Yeah. . . He's nice," Rogue said, lightly embarrassed. "What do you think of him?"
"I find he's okay," Logan said. "He's one of the rare kids in the school that doesn't avoid me."
Rogue sniggered, looking around a pile of fish-smelling crates.
"How does Cyke expect catching Nate?" She asked, walking beside the water. "If he was strong enough to fight you, Cyclops, Jean, Storm and the Pro-"
"It wasn't exactly that, kid," Logan said, trying to avoid talking about that fight that had lightly embarrassed him and the others. "Nathan's a strong mutant, and he can be dangerous. Scooter wasn't even sure of separating everyone."
"Hey, he doesn't even control his power fully, and we're ten trained mutants. It's not like he has a great advantage," Rogue said as she kept looking around the docks. Suddenly, she stopped, sensing that Logan wasn't following her anymore. She turned around and saw him sniffing the air.
"Somethin's not right," he said, sniffing again. "Rogue, we need to get back to the others. Now."
"What is it?" Rogue asked, just a little panic in her voice as she realized how hostile the place looked when you saw it a certain way.
"Come here," Logan said, sniffing again. "I smell. . . things. Wait. . . this smell . . . it's familiar. . . Rogue, we're not alone. . ."
Rogue reached him, now really uncertain. A shadow appeared on the cemented floor, right next to their forms. Logan unsheathed his claws as he and Rogue looked up at the roof of the nearest warehouse. The shadow disappeared.
"It's not Nathan," Logan said. "We're definitely not alone."
He pulled Rogue's arm as they walked away quickly.
"We need to find Scooter and the others," Wolverine continued. "It feels like a trap . . . or something."
~~~
In the meantime, on the other side of the docks. . .
"I'm telling you Jean," Bobby said for the fifth time. "It's the egg that came before the chicken."
Jean sighed noisily but smiled, not sensing anyone nearby.
"Fine, have it your way, snow-man," she said.
"It's Iceman to you," he said, visibly not looking around for Nathan too much. "Why couldn't you and the Professor control Nathan?"
Jean paused, and looked at the teenage who had asked her the question.
"Because. . . He was too strong," she said.
Bobby shook his head negatively.
"No, it's because he was prepared and already knew things. It's like if he planed everything," Bobby said.
Jean thought about what he had just said and her eyes grew bigger.
"Of course!" She shouted. "Ice, you're a genius!"
Iceman just looked at her, puzzled.
"If we want to catch him, it has to be a way in which he wasn't planned anything!" Jean said. "But. . . Bobby? It's. . . Bobby! He dragged us out here! He knew we were going to follow him!"
"Okay, now we're in trouble," Iceman said. "We need to warn the others. Use your power, Jean."
Jean concentrated, but her eyes widened again.
"I. . . It's not working!" she exclaimed. "What the hell is happening?"
Bobby aimed his hand to a crate, waited a few seconds.
"My power's not working either!" he shouted in surprise.
"Quick, we need to find the others," Jean said. "I don't like what's happening."
~~~
On another side of the docks . . .
Storm kept a look out as Kitty walked through one of the warehouses' walls.
"Nothin' in there," she said, walking back through.
Storm sighed noisily and walked away to the next warehouse, forming a long trail of mist behind her.
"I wonder why he came here," she said. "Of all places, why here?"
Shadowcat walked to her, and sat on one of the nearby crates.
"Look!" she said, after a while. "There's Jubilee."
Storm turned towards the direction Kitty was indicated and saw Jubilee walking towards them, looking furious. She reached them and looked up in the air.
"Why am I always paired with that idiot?" she exclaimed.
"Where is he?" Kitty asked, seeing that John wasn't following behind her friend.
"We were looking around over there, and then we see this shadow turn a corner, and so I'm ready to contact Scott or Jean, when this retard and I hear this big crashing noise around the corner. He runs around to go see what happened, I don't move just yet. I waited a couple of seconds, then I look around the corner, and I see no one. I walk around, but Pyro's just gone. I have no idea where he is."
"Oh, no," Storm whispered. "Come, we'll go find the others."
They walked down one of the isles, passing many warehouses, when they nearly bumped into Logan and Rogue.
"We gotta get back together," the Wolverine said, finally letting go of Rogue's arm.
"Where's Pyro?" Rogue asked, seeing that John wasn't there.
"He's somewhere out there," Jubilee said, vaguely pointing behind them. "Alone."
Logan cursed, and they all looked at him.
"Don't you smell that?" he said, sniffing.
"Yeah, its smells fishy," Jubilee said, her eyes narrowing, being serious.
They smiled, seeing the Wolverine trying to abstain himself of loosing his cool.
"Not that," he growled, as they all tried to smell something.
"I know that smell . . ." Storm said. "It's . . ."
She looked at Logan wide eyed.
"Gasoline!" Kitty said looking around.
"Someone's spreading that stuff around the whole damn place," Logan said, sniffing again, starting to walk in the opposite direction.
"Why would Nathan want to harm us all?" Jubilee said, trying to keep up with the Wolverine's steps.
"It's not Nathan," Logan said. "Well, I don't think so."
After a few minutes of walking around, they stopped near the water. Storm leaned against the wall.
"I'll create rain, so when this person starts the fire, it wont be as bad, and maybe we will be able to control it," she said, her eyes turning silvery white. They watched, expecting to see clouds cover op the sky.
Nothing Happened.
"It's not working!" she said, confused.
They heard footsteps and saw Jean and Iceman appear around the corner.
"Our power's don't work!" the teenager exclaimed.
Soon, they realized that none of their powers worked.
"Have we lost our mutations?" Rogue exclaimed happily, carefully, she touched Bobby's hand, and nothing happened. A yell of joy was heard as she jumped to his neck.
"I can touch you! I can touch you!" she shouted, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. She jumped from one person to another, holding each of them in a tight embrace.
"Jean?" Logan asked, seriously trying to stay calm as she turned to face him. "It there a fu**ing explanation for this?"
"Sorry, I don't have it," she said grumpily. "This isn't logical."
They waited where they were a couple of minutes, just watching Rogue jump from one person to another. Logan started walking around, and stopped near the next warehouse. Jean walked to him and looked at where he was looking. The others quickly joined them when they heard Jean shout.
"Nathan!" she said, one fist in the air. "Come down here this instant!"
They all saw two legs dangling from the side of the warehouse's roof. Jean was about to shout something again, when Logan placed his hand in front of her mouth.
"It's not the kid," he said, silently walking to the legs.
He placed himself just under them, and pulled. A black from fell to the ground with a large thud. The X-Men quickly surrounded it, ready for anything, but it didn't move.
Jean leaned towards it, and turned it around to see his face. It turned out that the person looked like a knocked-out policeman. There was a rivulet of blood running down the side of his temple, and he was breathing steadily. It looked like he had been drugged.
"He won't be waking up soon," Jean said. "But he'll be okay."
A long yell was heard and they all got up and placed themselves in a fighting position, ready to be attacked.
Logan unsheathed his claws, yelled and cursed as his healing ability didn't work and left the three marks between his knuckles start bleeding as Logan shook his hands in pain.
"We're in no condition to fight," Storm said, knowing that someone had to be the voice of reason. "We don't have our powers."
A second yell was heard, and this time they all recognized who had shouted.
"Looks like Scooter's in trouble," Logan said, forgetting the pain in his hands for a half a second.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That was a little complicated chapter. Nathan's going to fight himself, and the next chap is going to be even more complicated. I hope I don't mess up the next chapter. What I want to happen is a little difficult to explain and even more to write.
(And I'll try and clear out the thing about Nathan's mutation. It's a bit hard to explain what it is.)
All they could do was go back inside as night came Logan and Scott walked back to the med lab that was in pitiful state. Ororo was a bit shaken, and was helping Jean to get up. Cyclops joined her.
"Are you all right?" he asked to his fiancé.
She nodded quickly and brought her hand to her forehead.
"What did he do to her?" Scott asked to the professor.
"I don't exactly know, but I think he borrowed her mutation to distract you from him, and then use her mutation to get rid of your visor," the Professor said.
"How can he 'borrow' a mutation?" Scott said skeptically.
"Maybe it's a facet of his mutation. When in need, he can steal mutations for a short period of time. If he uses it too much on the same person, he could get the mutation permanently, but that's another story."
"What did he mean when he talked to you before going?" Logan asked.
"When I tried to convince him in Nathan's head, I saw that he was a great fighter, master in many forms of martial arts and sword fighting. When he's angry or afraid, he uses those abilities. He's smart. He knew I was trying to convince him and he knew I wouldn't succeed. He knew that I was risking Nathan's sanity by entering his mind and coming to him like that. I didn't know his other self would be so strong. Nathan was so weak these past days I thought he would be too."
"What are the daggers about?" Jean asked, pulling out the one that was in the wall.
She looked at it for a moment, turning it to the light.
"Don't touch it Jean," the professor said, seeing what she was doing.
Jean turned to him for an explanation and before she had time to react, and drop the object, it started melting away into thin air. Quickly, Scott used his beam to throw it out of Jean's hand before it burned her. The rest of the sword lay on the floor, and burned away.
"Okay," they all heard Storm whisper, wondering. "So what was that power about?"
"That, I have absolutely no idea," the Professor said. "but what you don't understand is that it depends in what mood he's in to use that mutation . . . well, that's what I think it is."
Maxim stormed into the room.
"Where's Nathan?" he shouted in a heated tone.
There was a moment of silence.
"He couldn't control his mutation anymore and his emotions transformed him into another self. He ran away but we'll find him," Logan said.
"We'll need your help," the Professor added. "He's heading for New York and we need to find him before his anger towards humanity pushes him to . . . do things."
Max went livid.
"You think he could kill people?" he asked, now that his anger had passed.
"He already has, Maxim," the Professor simply said. "Will you help us?"
"Y . . . yes," Maxim mumbled.
"We'll take the jet to get there faster," Scott said. "Jean, call the younger X-Men with your power."
Jean concentrated for a moment, closing her eyes.
"There coming," she said after a while.
"Excuse me, but what's an X-Man?" Max asked.
Jean smiled and explained everything to him, about what they did and all.
"You don't control your power yet, so we'll only give you a suit because we need you," she said. "Don't try to use your power if it gets nasty."
Max accepted everything and joined the team.
~~~
Max was impressed by the jet. He would have never suspected one to be hidden in the school. He saw that what they called the 'younger X-Men', were students his age. The three girls that had come to visit him were there, and there were two other boys, Bobby and John. "Now, from now on we call ourselves by our aliases until we get back," Scott said with authority. "Max, this is Shadowcat (Kitty), Jubilee, Rogue, Iceman (Bobby) and Pyro (John). For tonight you'll be called Rocket."
Max put on his suit with the others and entered the jet. He sat in the back, next to Pyro, in front of Rogue and Jubilee, with Kitty to his right. The older X-Men were more in front. Scott was driving and Storm was the co- pilot. Logan was behind Storm and Jean was behind Scott, because she would use her power to try and locate Nathan.
Using Cerebro, the Professor had told them that Nathan was going for the docks. They arrived there relatively fast, and landed on a flat warehouse roof as soon as they saw no one was near.
"Okay, now I want groups of two," Cyclops said. "Wolverine with Rogue, Iceman and Jean, Shadowcat and Storm, Jubilee and Pyro, me and Rocket."
Cyclops explained to everyone what his plan was, and they all split up, ordered to report if they saw Nate.
~~~
Logan and Rogue went looking towards the water.
"So, Marie," Logan started. "You like this guy?"
Rogue went a dark shade of red, but tried to hide it, to Logan's amusement.
"Yeah. . . He's nice," Rogue said, lightly embarrassed. "What do you think of him?"
"I find he's okay," Logan said. "He's one of the rare kids in the school that doesn't avoid me."
Rogue sniggered, looking around a pile of fish-smelling crates.
"How does Cyke expect catching Nate?" She asked, walking beside the water. "If he was strong enough to fight you, Cyclops, Jean, Storm and the Pro-"
"It wasn't exactly that, kid," Logan said, trying to avoid talking about that fight that had lightly embarrassed him and the others. "Nathan's a strong mutant, and he can be dangerous. Scooter wasn't even sure of separating everyone."
"Hey, he doesn't even control his power fully, and we're ten trained mutants. It's not like he has a great advantage," Rogue said as she kept looking around the docks. Suddenly, she stopped, sensing that Logan wasn't following her anymore. She turned around and saw him sniffing the air.
"Somethin's not right," he said, sniffing again. "Rogue, we need to get back to the others. Now."
"What is it?" Rogue asked, just a little panic in her voice as she realized how hostile the place looked when you saw it a certain way.
"Come here," Logan said, sniffing again. "I smell. . . things. Wait. . . this smell . . . it's familiar. . . Rogue, we're not alone. . ."
Rogue reached him, now really uncertain. A shadow appeared on the cemented floor, right next to their forms. Logan unsheathed his claws as he and Rogue looked up at the roof of the nearest warehouse. The shadow disappeared.
"It's not Nathan," Logan said. "We're definitely not alone."
He pulled Rogue's arm as they walked away quickly.
"We need to find Scooter and the others," Wolverine continued. "It feels like a trap . . . or something."
~~~
In the meantime, on the other side of the docks. . .
"I'm telling you Jean," Bobby said for the fifth time. "It's the egg that came before the chicken."
Jean sighed noisily but smiled, not sensing anyone nearby.
"Fine, have it your way, snow-man," she said.
"It's Iceman to you," he said, visibly not looking around for Nathan too much. "Why couldn't you and the Professor control Nathan?"
Jean paused, and looked at the teenage who had asked her the question.
"Because. . . He was too strong," she said.
Bobby shook his head negatively.
"No, it's because he was prepared and already knew things. It's like if he planed everything," Bobby said.
Jean thought about what he had just said and her eyes grew bigger.
"Of course!" She shouted. "Ice, you're a genius!"
Iceman just looked at her, puzzled.
"If we want to catch him, it has to be a way in which he wasn't planned anything!" Jean said. "But. . . Bobby? It's. . . Bobby! He dragged us out here! He knew we were going to follow him!"
"Okay, now we're in trouble," Iceman said. "We need to warn the others. Use your power, Jean."
Jean concentrated, but her eyes widened again.
"I. . . It's not working!" she exclaimed. "What the hell is happening?"
Bobby aimed his hand to a crate, waited a few seconds.
"My power's not working either!" he shouted in surprise.
"Quick, we need to find the others," Jean said. "I don't like what's happening."
~~~
On another side of the docks . . .
Storm kept a look out as Kitty walked through one of the warehouses' walls.
"Nothin' in there," she said, walking back through.
Storm sighed noisily and walked away to the next warehouse, forming a long trail of mist behind her.
"I wonder why he came here," she said. "Of all places, why here?"
Shadowcat walked to her, and sat on one of the nearby crates.
"Look!" she said, after a while. "There's Jubilee."
Storm turned towards the direction Kitty was indicated and saw Jubilee walking towards them, looking furious. She reached them and looked up in the air.
"Why am I always paired with that idiot?" she exclaimed.
"Where is he?" Kitty asked, seeing that John wasn't following behind her friend.
"We were looking around over there, and then we see this shadow turn a corner, and so I'm ready to contact Scott or Jean, when this retard and I hear this big crashing noise around the corner. He runs around to go see what happened, I don't move just yet. I waited a couple of seconds, then I look around the corner, and I see no one. I walk around, but Pyro's just gone. I have no idea where he is."
"Oh, no," Storm whispered. "Come, we'll go find the others."
They walked down one of the isles, passing many warehouses, when they nearly bumped into Logan and Rogue.
"We gotta get back together," the Wolverine said, finally letting go of Rogue's arm.
"Where's Pyro?" Rogue asked, seeing that John wasn't there.
"He's somewhere out there," Jubilee said, vaguely pointing behind them. "Alone."
Logan cursed, and they all looked at him.
"Don't you smell that?" he said, sniffing.
"Yeah, its smells fishy," Jubilee said, her eyes narrowing, being serious.
They smiled, seeing the Wolverine trying to abstain himself of loosing his cool.
"Not that," he growled, as they all tried to smell something.
"I know that smell . . ." Storm said. "It's . . ."
She looked at Logan wide eyed.
"Gasoline!" Kitty said looking around.
"Someone's spreading that stuff around the whole damn place," Logan said, sniffing again, starting to walk in the opposite direction.
"Why would Nathan want to harm us all?" Jubilee said, trying to keep up with the Wolverine's steps.
"It's not Nathan," Logan said. "Well, I don't think so."
After a few minutes of walking around, they stopped near the water. Storm leaned against the wall.
"I'll create rain, so when this person starts the fire, it wont be as bad, and maybe we will be able to control it," she said, her eyes turning silvery white. They watched, expecting to see clouds cover op the sky.
Nothing Happened.
"It's not working!" she said, confused.
They heard footsteps and saw Jean and Iceman appear around the corner.
"Our power's don't work!" the teenager exclaimed.
Soon, they realized that none of their powers worked.
"Have we lost our mutations?" Rogue exclaimed happily, carefully, she touched Bobby's hand, and nothing happened. A yell of joy was heard as she jumped to his neck.
"I can touch you! I can touch you!" she shouted, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. She jumped from one person to another, holding each of them in a tight embrace.
"Jean?" Logan asked, seriously trying to stay calm as she turned to face him. "It there a fu**ing explanation for this?"
"Sorry, I don't have it," she said grumpily. "This isn't logical."
They waited where they were a couple of minutes, just watching Rogue jump from one person to another. Logan started walking around, and stopped near the next warehouse. Jean walked to him and looked at where he was looking. The others quickly joined them when they heard Jean shout.
"Nathan!" she said, one fist in the air. "Come down here this instant!"
They all saw two legs dangling from the side of the warehouse's roof. Jean was about to shout something again, when Logan placed his hand in front of her mouth.
"It's not the kid," he said, silently walking to the legs.
He placed himself just under them, and pulled. A black from fell to the ground with a large thud. The X-Men quickly surrounded it, ready for anything, but it didn't move.
Jean leaned towards it, and turned it around to see his face. It turned out that the person looked like a knocked-out policeman. There was a rivulet of blood running down the side of his temple, and he was breathing steadily. It looked like he had been drugged.
"He won't be waking up soon," Jean said. "But he'll be okay."
A long yell was heard and they all got up and placed themselves in a fighting position, ready to be attacked.
Logan unsheathed his claws, yelled and cursed as his healing ability didn't work and left the three marks between his knuckles start bleeding as Logan shook his hands in pain.
"We're in no condition to fight," Storm said, knowing that someone had to be the voice of reason. "We don't have our powers."
A second yell was heard, and this time they all recognized who had shouted.
"Looks like Scooter's in trouble," Logan said, forgetting the pain in his hands for a half a second.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That was a little complicated chapter. Nathan's going to fight himself, and the next chap is going to be even more complicated. I hope I don't mess up the next chapter. What I want to happen is a little difficult to explain and even more to write.
(And I'll try and clear out the thing about Nathan's mutation. It's a bit hard to explain what it is.)