Hey folks! Just wanted to say that I *had* a better start of this chapter,
but it got erased, and so I redid it, but it's not as good. I'll redo the
part with the flower one day. And for the problem with Nate's back, you get
to know stuff about it in this chap, but I can't really say too much about
it because it's a surprise.
Special thanks for my reviewers: Little Angel, Lily, Tigereyes, Prostar99, Shade and JB. You are all very very appreciated. ^_^
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 38: Evolution of a mutation
Seeing that time was passing rather quickly and that Nathan didn't seem to be on his way back, Ororo decided to go see if everything was all right at his home, but only arrived to see ambulances and police cars driving away in the rain, leaving Nate's parents in the doorway.
Storm was tempted to go talk to them to know what had happened to Nathan, but quickly changed her mind seeing their unfriendly faces as they walked back to their now completely destroyed living room.
She didn't move for a couple of minutes, waiting to see if Nathan was going to reappear on the street, but he obviously didn't. Her main problem now was that she had no idea where he was, and needed to reach him before the police did, because they were now looking for him for numerous felonies.
Seeing no other solution, Ororo silently slipped into the Cages' garden to go fetch Pegasus that she had heard barking. He would know where his master would be, and that is how Ororo was dragged into the forest and found Nathan, unconscious, lying in the middle of a pile of leaves and mud.
With a lot of effort, she half dragged, half carried him to the jet, vaguely followed by the dog until he decided to return home. Cyclops helped Storm place Nate in the back of the jet, before taking off and flying towards the mansion. Nathan stayed unconscious during the whole flight, but woke up right after landing to force them to leave him alone and not bring him to the med lab, since it was the last thing he felt he needed, even if he had numerous infected wounds.
He ran to his room and locked himself in, not wanting to be bothered by the others who would surely want to know what was wrong. He didn't wait too long for the others to go to sleep, and when he was certain that no one would be wandering down the halls, he opened his door, crept outside into the hall and tiptoed to the kitchen where he started searching the cupboards for something to drink. He soon found Logan's private beer compilation, and swiftly borrowed a crate that he brought back to his room.
After locking himself in again, he opened the window, leaned on the side and decided to sit on the roof. It was wet and slippery, but he made it to the top rather easily, holding the crate in his arms. When he finally settled down, growling because of the cold that was quickly regaining him since his clothes were already wet from his staying in the woods, he found out that he didn't have a bottle opener.
Rumbling, he easily created a dagger that came out of his wrist and used it to open his first bottle that he gulped down in one shot. Using the same dagger he had created, he opened a second bottle, this time starting to mutter to himself how his life sucked and that he was jinxed for eternity.
He was finishing his fifth bottle when he started playing with his mutation, creating daggers, and he soon noticed that they were starting to . . . fade. Unconsciously, he thought of something else, as if he was trying to form it . . . and it worked.
Thinking of a flower made one appear in his palm, right after some sort of blue light covered his whole hand. The flower, something that looked like a blue rose, looked so real that it almost frightened him. It was then he remembered hearing that he would be able to form a larger variety of things, but he wasn't in the state to remember who had told him that.
He made the rose disappear and made a small bird appear in his hand. He noticed that the daggers were the only thing that seemed to come out of his wrists. Other objects appeared in the palm of his hand when he concentrated and thought of them carefully.
He amused himself as he created different objects including money, a teddy bear and a CD. He knew these objects weren't exactly real. They were, as the professor said, the link between the belief of others and his own mind. If the others practiced a very long time and got used in believing what he was doing wasn't real, his mutation would be useless against them.
Finally, he stopped using his mutation and concentrated on the fact that his 'parents' had lied to him all these years, making him start drinking again.
He stayed on the roof for the rest of the night, and when the stars started to fade away and the first rays of sunshine were seen through the clouds that were slowly disappearing, he got up and descended to his room, where he took a shower and changed into drier clothes. His wounds had closed and only dark marks were left to be seen.
Knowing that Jean would call him to the med lab and that students were going to ask questions, he decided to try and avoid them and so to go in a place he knew they wouldn't look immediately because he never went there: the Danger Room.
It was empty this early in the morning, since everyone was probably not even up yet, or simply eating in the kitchen.
He entered the changing room and took an X-Men suit that he quickly slipped on. He came back in the large room, but it was only then that he thought about the main problem: he didn't know how to program anything. Growling and cursing he started kicking the wall in frustration.
"Wouldn't you prefer kicking some real shit, kid?" he heard a familiar voice ask from behind him.
He turned around sheepishly and saw Logan leaning in the doorframe, smoking a cigar, a little smile on his unshaven face.
"Let me program it for ya," he said, walking to a door on the other side of the room.
Nathan didn't say anything and watched him go up to the command room. On the other side of the glass window, Logan pressed on a few buttons and soon enough, Nathan was brought into a virtual forest.
Nate spent more that two hours fighting virtual mutants, animals or humans, and when Logan finally decided to make him stop, he found the boy with purple eyes covered with sweat, yet asking for more.
"Kid, I think that's enough for today," Logan said calmly, walking over to him. "So, why did you come here so early?"
Nathan sat down, leaning against the wall and took the time to catch his breath before answering.
"To hide," he simply answered.
"From what?" Logan asked, also sitting down. "There's nothing to hide from here."
"Of course there is," Nathan objected, thinking about what had happened. "No matter how hard I try, something always happens to screw up my life."
"It can't be that bad," Logan said, frowning.
"Hell, it can. My whole life was a lie. The two people I considered my parents weren't at all and now reject me. I don't even know who I am," Nathan said calmly. "In fact, it's just like Magneto said: I'm not in my family here or there. I wonder how he knew."
"I don't know who I was before, but I have the choice to decide who I'm gonna be tomorrow," Logan growled. "You should do the same thing. Just forget about the past and focus on the present and the future."
Nathan smiled, leaning on the wall even more.
"I know I won't be able to do that. I'm too curious," he said. "Some time soon, I'm going to start questioning myself about why I really am, and I'm going to have to . . . hum . . . Never mind."
Logan was about to say something else when they heard the door open, and saw Jean walk into the Danger Room, not looking too happy. She sighed seeing Logan and Nathan together.
"Nathan," she warned. "In my office NOW, or else."
"Jean, I don't need this now," Nathan muttered, staying where he was.
"Fine," she said, before using her power to life Nathan off the ground while he yelled in surprise.
Logan just laughed watching the red-head march towards the exit with Nathan floating a few feet behind her. But Nate wasn't stupid and knew that Jean didn't know about his evolved power yet. He made his palms face each other and soon enough a blue orb started floating between his hands. It grew bigger and bigger, taking the shape of a human being, and finally taking Nate's traits. He made himself move forwards and fell to the floor with a large thud while the double he had created floated behind Jean since she thought he was Nathan.
Nate couldn't help start laughing seeing that Jean didn't notice anything. He got up and smiled at Logan before running off to change back into his clothes and disappear before Jean noticed the trickery.
Logan sighed deeply once he was gone.
~~~~~~~~~~
Not too long after arriving in the med lab, Jean noticed that the person she was controlling with her power wasn't Nathan. Once she guessed that, the illusion in front of her vanished and it was then that she had to start her search for Nate again.
She found him in the garage and it was then he had to give up and be brought to the mad lab while he kept repeating that he didn't need a medical exam and that he wanted to be left alone.
"Sit down and stop being such a baby," Jean told him, waving towards the X- Ray stand. "I need to check your shoulder blades. There's something strange going on with them, but I can't put my finger on it."
Nathan growled in discontentment but obeyed. He laid on the cold metal platform in silence while the machine took X-Rays of his shoulders.
When it was over, she made him sit on a chair while she waited for the X- Rays to become visible, and when they did, she gawked at the pictures that she placed to the light, in order to see them better.
"What's the problem with me now?" growled Nathan, slumping in his chair. "My shoulders turned into marshmallow? In knives? Or they're simply gone?"
"None of the above," Jean muttered. "Hum . . . besides the fact that they're breaking up and are now three times their size . . . because of the X-Gene."
Nathan laughed sardonically.
"Well, it's just-"
"Would you stop that?" Jean interrupted, watching the other pictures. "It seems that . . . the bones in your shoulders are sort of growing, I think. If it keeps up like that, you could get . . . paralysed."
"Just GREAT," Nate yelled. "My life couldn't get many better, but with that, you just made my day, Jean . . . which comes back to say that I'm jinxed."
Nathan stormed out of the room without Jean being quick enough to stop him, but she could still hear him in the hallway.
"I'm so sick of all of this," he was saying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two chapters left . . . muahahah.
Review! I want loads of reviews!
Special thanks for my reviewers: Little Angel, Lily, Tigereyes, Prostar99, Shade and JB. You are all very very appreciated. ^_^
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 38: Evolution of a mutation
Seeing that time was passing rather quickly and that Nathan didn't seem to be on his way back, Ororo decided to go see if everything was all right at his home, but only arrived to see ambulances and police cars driving away in the rain, leaving Nate's parents in the doorway.
Storm was tempted to go talk to them to know what had happened to Nathan, but quickly changed her mind seeing their unfriendly faces as they walked back to their now completely destroyed living room.
She didn't move for a couple of minutes, waiting to see if Nathan was going to reappear on the street, but he obviously didn't. Her main problem now was that she had no idea where he was, and needed to reach him before the police did, because they were now looking for him for numerous felonies.
Seeing no other solution, Ororo silently slipped into the Cages' garden to go fetch Pegasus that she had heard barking. He would know where his master would be, and that is how Ororo was dragged into the forest and found Nathan, unconscious, lying in the middle of a pile of leaves and mud.
With a lot of effort, she half dragged, half carried him to the jet, vaguely followed by the dog until he decided to return home. Cyclops helped Storm place Nate in the back of the jet, before taking off and flying towards the mansion. Nathan stayed unconscious during the whole flight, but woke up right after landing to force them to leave him alone and not bring him to the med lab, since it was the last thing he felt he needed, even if he had numerous infected wounds.
He ran to his room and locked himself in, not wanting to be bothered by the others who would surely want to know what was wrong. He didn't wait too long for the others to go to sleep, and when he was certain that no one would be wandering down the halls, he opened his door, crept outside into the hall and tiptoed to the kitchen where he started searching the cupboards for something to drink. He soon found Logan's private beer compilation, and swiftly borrowed a crate that he brought back to his room.
After locking himself in again, he opened the window, leaned on the side and decided to sit on the roof. It was wet and slippery, but he made it to the top rather easily, holding the crate in his arms. When he finally settled down, growling because of the cold that was quickly regaining him since his clothes were already wet from his staying in the woods, he found out that he didn't have a bottle opener.
Rumbling, he easily created a dagger that came out of his wrist and used it to open his first bottle that he gulped down in one shot. Using the same dagger he had created, he opened a second bottle, this time starting to mutter to himself how his life sucked and that he was jinxed for eternity.
He was finishing his fifth bottle when he started playing with his mutation, creating daggers, and he soon noticed that they were starting to . . . fade. Unconsciously, he thought of something else, as if he was trying to form it . . . and it worked.
Thinking of a flower made one appear in his palm, right after some sort of blue light covered his whole hand. The flower, something that looked like a blue rose, looked so real that it almost frightened him. It was then he remembered hearing that he would be able to form a larger variety of things, but he wasn't in the state to remember who had told him that.
He made the rose disappear and made a small bird appear in his hand. He noticed that the daggers were the only thing that seemed to come out of his wrists. Other objects appeared in the palm of his hand when he concentrated and thought of them carefully.
He amused himself as he created different objects including money, a teddy bear and a CD. He knew these objects weren't exactly real. They were, as the professor said, the link between the belief of others and his own mind. If the others practiced a very long time and got used in believing what he was doing wasn't real, his mutation would be useless against them.
Finally, he stopped using his mutation and concentrated on the fact that his 'parents' had lied to him all these years, making him start drinking again.
He stayed on the roof for the rest of the night, and when the stars started to fade away and the first rays of sunshine were seen through the clouds that were slowly disappearing, he got up and descended to his room, where he took a shower and changed into drier clothes. His wounds had closed and only dark marks were left to be seen.
Knowing that Jean would call him to the med lab and that students were going to ask questions, he decided to try and avoid them and so to go in a place he knew they wouldn't look immediately because he never went there: the Danger Room.
It was empty this early in the morning, since everyone was probably not even up yet, or simply eating in the kitchen.
He entered the changing room and took an X-Men suit that he quickly slipped on. He came back in the large room, but it was only then that he thought about the main problem: he didn't know how to program anything. Growling and cursing he started kicking the wall in frustration.
"Wouldn't you prefer kicking some real shit, kid?" he heard a familiar voice ask from behind him.
He turned around sheepishly and saw Logan leaning in the doorframe, smoking a cigar, a little smile on his unshaven face.
"Let me program it for ya," he said, walking to a door on the other side of the room.
Nathan didn't say anything and watched him go up to the command room. On the other side of the glass window, Logan pressed on a few buttons and soon enough, Nathan was brought into a virtual forest.
Nate spent more that two hours fighting virtual mutants, animals or humans, and when Logan finally decided to make him stop, he found the boy with purple eyes covered with sweat, yet asking for more.
"Kid, I think that's enough for today," Logan said calmly, walking over to him. "So, why did you come here so early?"
Nathan sat down, leaning against the wall and took the time to catch his breath before answering.
"To hide," he simply answered.
"From what?" Logan asked, also sitting down. "There's nothing to hide from here."
"Of course there is," Nathan objected, thinking about what had happened. "No matter how hard I try, something always happens to screw up my life."
"It can't be that bad," Logan said, frowning.
"Hell, it can. My whole life was a lie. The two people I considered my parents weren't at all and now reject me. I don't even know who I am," Nathan said calmly. "In fact, it's just like Magneto said: I'm not in my family here or there. I wonder how he knew."
"I don't know who I was before, but I have the choice to decide who I'm gonna be tomorrow," Logan growled. "You should do the same thing. Just forget about the past and focus on the present and the future."
Nathan smiled, leaning on the wall even more.
"I know I won't be able to do that. I'm too curious," he said. "Some time soon, I'm going to start questioning myself about why I really am, and I'm going to have to . . . hum . . . Never mind."
Logan was about to say something else when they heard the door open, and saw Jean walk into the Danger Room, not looking too happy. She sighed seeing Logan and Nathan together.
"Nathan," she warned. "In my office NOW, or else."
"Jean, I don't need this now," Nathan muttered, staying where he was.
"Fine," she said, before using her power to life Nathan off the ground while he yelled in surprise.
Logan just laughed watching the red-head march towards the exit with Nathan floating a few feet behind her. But Nate wasn't stupid and knew that Jean didn't know about his evolved power yet. He made his palms face each other and soon enough a blue orb started floating between his hands. It grew bigger and bigger, taking the shape of a human being, and finally taking Nate's traits. He made himself move forwards and fell to the floor with a large thud while the double he had created floated behind Jean since she thought he was Nathan.
Nate couldn't help start laughing seeing that Jean didn't notice anything. He got up and smiled at Logan before running off to change back into his clothes and disappear before Jean noticed the trickery.
Logan sighed deeply once he was gone.
~~~~~~~~~~
Not too long after arriving in the med lab, Jean noticed that the person she was controlling with her power wasn't Nathan. Once she guessed that, the illusion in front of her vanished and it was then that she had to start her search for Nate again.
She found him in the garage and it was then he had to give up and be brought to the mad lab while he kept repeating that he didn't need a medical exam and that he wanted to be left alone.
"Sit down and stop being such a baby," Jean told him, waving towards the X- Ray stand. "I need to check your shoulder blades. There's something strange going on with them, but I can't put my finger on it."
Nathan growled in discontentment but obeyed. He laid on the cold metal platform in silence while the machine took X-Rays of his shoulders.
When it was over, she made him sit on a chair while she waited for the X- Rays to become visible, and when they did, she gawked at the pictures that she placed to the light, in order to see them better.
"What's the problem with me now?" growled Nathan, slumping in his chair. "My shoulders turned into marshmallow? In knives? Or they're simply gone?"
"None of the above," Jean muttered. "Hum . . . besides the fact that they're breaking up and are now three times their size . . . because of the X-Gene."
Nathan laughed sardonically.
"Well, it's just-"
"Would you stop that?" Jean interrupted, watching the other pictures. "It seems that . . . the bones in your shoulders are sort of growing, I think. If it keeps up like that, you could get . . . paralysed."
"Just GREAT," Nate yelled. "My life couldn't get many better, but with that, you just made my day, Jean . . . which comes back to say that I'm jinxed."
Nathan stormed out of the room without Jean being quick enough to stop him, but she could still hear him in the hallway.
"I'm so sick of all of this," he was saying.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two chapters left . . . muahahah.
Review! I want loads of reviews!