Hello again my fellow X-Men fans! Here is the next installment. I do not believe I put a disclaimer in the first chapter so I will do that now just so that no one will sue me! ;P
Disclaimer: I own nothing pertaining to X-Men or X-Men: Evolution, or any related media. I do, however, own my little character Mutant W! (You find out her name in this chappie!!!)
I think I am good now. So you all go read chapter two and please review!! (Hey, that rhymed…)
Chapter Two-"Interesting Developments"
Three days had passed since the night the X-Men rescued Mutant W. Scott, Kurt, and Kitty were dying of curiosity and were quite hard put not to tell anyone about her. Ororo was curious as well but continued performing her duties around the school. Logan and Professor X were Mutant W's most frequent visitors.
At one visit soon after her arrival, Logan finally spoke what had seemed to be on his mind since the arrival of this mutant.
"There's just one thing I can't stop thinking about, Professor," he said as they entered the infirmary.
"And what is that, Logan?"
Logan explained haltingly, with great difficulty, "I just can't understand… In the alley the night we rescued Mutant W, she was so…scared, so terrified, of me. I mean… Am I a monster, Charles?"
Professor Xavier turned his wheelchair around to face the distressed mutant. He said logically, "Logan, think. It was a stormy night, it was dark, she had just been savagely beaten by a gang; if I were her, I would have been scared of anything at that particular moment!"
Logan sighed and said, "Yeah…" but seemed unsatisfied, though he chose not to pursue the issue. Upon reaching the bed of Mutant W, Logan finally noticed that there wasn't a sling on either of her arms.
"Hey Charles," he addressed the Professor," Did they do any X-rays on her?"
"I don't believe so, Logan. They hadn't detected broken bones, so they didn't think it necessary."
"But when I was there the other night, I swear I saw those punks break her arm!"
"Are you sure?"
"If it wasn't for the storm, I could've heard the bones snap."
The Professor then requested the infirmary staff to get an X-ray on the mystery mutant. They did this, and the results came in not too long after. Professor X went to view the x-rays while Logan stayed with Mutant W. Again he looked at the enigma who had so suddenly come into their company. She still looked pretty beat-up, but she was indeed cleaner. He could tell for sure now that her hair was a deep brown. Her features looked tired and care-worn; she looked only about seventeen years old.
Upon the Professor's return to the mutant's bed Logan asked, "Well? Where any broken?"
"No, there weren't," the Professor said strangely.
"How is that possible?" Logan demanded.
"Look at this," he replied calmly, handing Logan an x-ray he had been holding. Logan held it up to the light on the ceiling and his eyebrows furrowed in incredulity. "Adamantium…?" he said in disbelief, only half a question. The Professor nodded; someone had injected this mutant's bones from her fingertips to halfway between her wrist and elbow with adamantium.
Mutant W was dreaming. She was recalling the night in the alley. Her poor mental stability at the time caused what she saw, the real situation, to become warped, transformed into a nightmare.
She was in the alley. It was raining. It was raining so hard that the little drops stung when they hit her, biting her flesh. Then, there was pain, enormous pain. Someone was kicking her, punching her, she couldn't stop them. She tried to get away but she couldn't. A thought struck her: why not use her power? No, she couldn't do that. If she did that they might see, might know. No matter what, she could not use her power.
In one last attempt to free herself of the beating she threw herself to the side. She opened her eyes to view her assailant. Standing there in the pouring rain was a huge man with blades coming out of his hands, glaring down at her malevolently. She froze in terror. Her heart stopped. He must be from them! He has come to take her back…there! The man sneered as he saw her fear.
Suddenly her terror enveloped her, and she felt herself spiraling…spiraling…down into darkness.
Logan furrowed his brow as he saw the troubled look on the mystery mutant's face. This was the first sign of life besides breathing they had seen from the mutant in three days. Logan had been sitting by her bed for about an hour; he and Professor Xavier had been sitting shifts with the mutant so that they could explain what happened to her right when she woke up. Logan had sat more shifts than the Professor, partly because the Professor had more duties to attend to, but more so because Logan was so strongly intrigued by this mutant.
At that moment, Mutant W stirred. In her mind she had been reliving her fall into unconsciousness, but now the nightmare caused her mind to go full throttle into the real world.
Logan watched her, hoping she would finally wake up. With his heightened sense of hearing he could hear Professor X's wheelchair coming down the hallway far away. That would be even better, to have both of them there, Logan thought. And it turned out to be quite true.
Mutant W finally woke and opened her eyes, just as suddenly as she had closed them in the alley almost a week ago now. She just blinked at first, getting used to the light, and adjusting her vision, waiting for the blur to clear. As soon as she could see clearly she immediately began to panic. She looked down at her arm and saw the tube, not noticing it was attached to an IV, and then looked around frantically, her eyes wide, and saw all the scenery, so similar to a laboratory. Then she saw Logan. She gasped as she realized this was the man from her nightmare! She began to panic and tried desperately, frantically to get away, attempting to push herself backwards from the now standing, and rather, if unintentionally, imposing figure.
Logan looked down strangely as he felt the hair on his arms and neck begin to rise for no apparent reason. He thought of the night in the alley, but shook his head and concentrated on trying again to calm her, but to no avail. She began to almost push herself off the bed, never taking her fright-filled eyes off of Logan. He used his mind to call to Professor X, telling him urgently to come quick.
"Kid, I'm not going to hurt you! I promise!" Logan tried again, almost pleading. Just in the nick of time, the Professor came in. Instantly taking in the scene, and having sensed the potent feeling of fear from down the corridor he immediately said to Mutant W, "You can relax. We're not going to hurt you."
"That's what I tried to tell her," Logan said quietly to Professor X.
The Professor used his mind to calm her slightly, and she stopped struggling to get away, but she was very jumpy and her eyes remained like those of an animal surrounded by predators. Logan saw her fear of him again and backed behind Professor Xavier in shame. For the first time, the mutant spoke:
"Who are you? And why did you take me back to the lab?!" Her voice sounded raw, and cracked terribly from lack of use, but still she sounded strong and almost dangerous, attempting to cover up her fear. Well, as dangerous as a person on a hospital bed with an IV sticking out of their arm can sound.
"This isn't a laboratory," the Professor said calmly and gently, though very confused, "It's a school." The mutant looked at him quizzically.
"A-a school?" she ventured. She seemed genuinely curious, but she soon put her guard back up and looked at the two mutants with great distrust in her eyes.
"Please, sit back," the Professor suggested. She looked at him suspiciously, then got back under the thin hospital covers and sat back on the upright pillows.
"Now, all I ask is that you listen to what I have to say before making any judgments," the Professor went on. "My name is Professor Charles Xavier, and I am in charge of this building you are in."
"The school?" Mutant W interrupted, saying the word like it was new to her, and seeming to like the sound of it.
"Not exactly," the Professor continued, "This is a place where some of the school's students can stay; a kind of dormitory. It is, however, just for students like you."
At this a look of alarm returned to the young mutant's face. She opened her mouth as if to deny but Professor X cut her short. "Now, listen. You don't have to be ashamed of your gifts. There are others like you, and they all stay here; all the ones going to Bayville High, anyway."
The mutant closed her mouth and cocked her head, glaring at the Professor somewhat skeptically.
"I've asked one of our students to come and meet you," Professor X said, "She should be arriving right now."
At that moment a fairly tall and slender girl walked in with a long brown ponytail and a perky step. She walked over to the bed and stood next to Logan, giving Mutant W a friendly smile. Mutant W just looked at her with curiosity, then her eyes just naturally drifted to Logan standing next to her and wariness came back to her pale, wan face. Logan shifted uncomfortably. Mutant W looked back at the Professor as he began again to speak.
"This is Kitty Pryde, she was one of the mutants who rescued you," he introduced. After he said this Kitty waved and gave a cheerful, "Hi!"
"Mutants? So she goes to this school too? And she's a-a mutant?" Mutant W asked cautiously, suspiciously. Professor looked at Kitty and nodded, so she said, "Yeah, basically! It's totally cool." Mutant W just blinked so Professor X explained, "You see, Kitty stays here at the Xavier Institute because she is like you." Mutant W gave him a confused look with not a little doubt. "Kitty? Why don't you show her what it is that you can do?" At this Kitty nodded enthusiastically and promptly walked right through the bed, to Mutant W's infinite shock.
Her eyes widened in surprise and astonishment as she let out a startled gasp. She looked swiftly back at Professor X. "Kitty has the ability to walk through solid objects," Professor explained. "And I have the power of telepathy, using my mind to communicate and more." He tactfully left out the mention of Logan, at least for now.
Mutant W interrupted with, "So everybody can do something, um…unique here?"
"Exactly. Every one of the students staying at the Xavier Institute can do something special. These people are mainly known as mutants, and there are even more in the world than those staying here, looking for guidance. Some, however, do not have good intentions. What we do here at the Institute is try to stop these rebel mutants to try and one day achieve peace between ourselves and non-mutants. We call ourselves the X-men," the Professor finished.
Mutant W, with her mouth slightly agape, looked from Professor Xavier to Kitty, and back to the Professor again several times, always avoiding Logan.
"X-men?" she said, with an air of both sarcasm and intrigue. She put her hand to the stitched-up cut on her forehead and said, "I think I need some sleep." A very exhausted look came over her face.
"Of course," the Professor said understandingly, "We'll come visit you again tomorrow when you've rested." Mutant W shot a wary glance at Logan as he turned to walk out, scowling down at his boots.
"Yeah, see ya!" Kitty called back amiably. She and the Professor turned to follow Logan out of the door. Professor X then turned around and asked, "One more thing before we go. What is your name?"
Mutant W looked down for a moment, as if racking her brain trying to remember. Then she looked up at them and replied softly, "My name's Regina."
"Well, good-night, Regina," Professor X said with a smile and turned to go, with Kitty right behind him. Logan turned to look at Mutant W, now Regina, before he closed the door. He saw her roll over and sigh, obviously not going to be able to fall asleep right away.