Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I making any money from the X-Men
characters. Thank you to Corrinth for the use of her character Dr. Ilehana
Xavier. I do own Blaze, and appreciate authors not using her without
asking.
A/N: Reviews always welcome!
Scene 14
Booby-traps. Right. Logan paced down the pitch-black corridor slowly, edging his feet forward, feeling the gradient steepen, and all the time sniffing, listening. Like he was supposed to be Indiana Jones or something...
He stepped on something. A pressure pad under his left foot triggered a sudden change in the air to his right. He reacted instinctively, slicing through the air with his claws. To his surprise a long, thin metallic knife fell clattering to the floor beneath his claw's indestructible blow. What was the catch? For a minute he stood still, the only sound his own breathing in the dark.
Slowly he itched forward again. His night vision may be good, but it wasn't perfect. Ilehana could have done this better than him; she'd have morphed into a cat or something else with good eyesight... With an electronic pulsing sound a laser cannon swung round through the corridor. Wolverine ducked and rolled, hearing rather than seeing the beam follow his movements. With a roar he jumped up above the beam, slashing at where he judged the cannon to be. He judged right, barely. The cannon faltered, then dropped at a bizarre angle, still emitting as it dangled, half cut through by Wolverine's claws.
With a second blow Logan finished off the cannon, before stopping to poke his leg, wincing. The laser had seared his flesh on his trailing leg. Already his fantastic self-healing ability was counter-acting the blow, but it still hurt. And ahead a motorised mechanism promised more fun.
"Arargh!" The Wolverine charged down the last stretch of corridor, using the gradient to build his momentum, claws ready. Ducking under the first swing of the rotating blades he stuck his claws in the wall above the next blade. Reaching down he wrenched out the mechanism. Ducking under another, dying swing he gave the other wall the same treatment and was able to bob and roll again under the blades with little difficulty. Indiana Jones eat your heart out!
Ahead, framed by clinical, white light was a doorway. Brushing fingertips against the wall he found the switch to activate the adimantium panel. For a moment he was blinded as the door swung open. Then he saw it, Magneto's newest experiment, and strapped to it ready to be tested on was...
"Oh great! Don't tell me I gotta rescue you?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"This is a sample of spinal fluid I took from Blaze when I got here." Ilehana indicated to her father that he look down the microscope at the stained fluid in the sample below. Besides it she had spectro-analysis and chromatography to back up her claims. There were no miracles in Dr Xavier's lab. "The dark purple stains indicate a neurotoxin, produced by Blaze's own cells, cause presumably by August King's tapering with her mind. This neurotoxin is what has put Blaze in this coma, it is degrading her nerve structure, slowing her impulses and rendering her unable to react to stimuli."
"I understand the principle," Charles Xavier looked up at his daughter from the microscope lens. "And that up until now there has been little you could do."
"That's right." Ilehana went to change the microscope slide. "The neurotoxin is a complex structure produced by her own cells, not even her own immune system can recognise it as damaging to fight it off. But this is what happened when I introduced a small amount, only ten micrometers, of Storm's miracle cure to a sample."
The Professor looked again down the microscope, squinting for a moment until his eyes focused. What he saw amazed him.
"There is none left!" And he was right; the purple dye was virtually non- existant. Ilehana smiled generously at her father.
"The test tube contained a virus, genetically engineered to combat that specific neurotoxin. More than that, the membrane signature of the virus is so similar to the neurotoxin that it triggers the attacking immune system to not only fight off the virus, but also the neurotoxin itself. This is the work of a highly specialised team, with access to huge quantities of data and funding. I couldn't have come up with an antidote this ingenious in a million years!"
"Will it help Blaze?" The Professor asked, bringing his daughter out of her mood of marvelling at scientific ingenuity.
"It will stop any more damage being caused, yes. But as for the damage already done, that is beyond the scope of the virus. It will take time, but with luck not too many of her nerves will have been damaged, so she should recover full health."
"And Gambit?"
"Ah, well." Ilehana brought out Gambit's most recent brain scan. "Gambit's injury is more natural. Yes, he has the neurotoxin in his extracellular fluid as well, but more worrying to me is the physical damage caused by repeated blows to the skull. Fortunately he bled out rather than accumulate blood around the brain in a pressure-building bruise. After I administer the virus, Blaze should come round in the next twenty-four hours. Gambit may still not come round; it depends on his will to fight the injury he has sustained. There is little else I can do."
"Alright." Xavier started for the door. "Do as you think best, Doctor. But Ilehana, don't take it too hard if Gambit doesn't make it. We all know you have done your best. No hospital could have treated him better."
"Thanks Dad." Ilehana watched him leave, wondering what she had done to deserve a father so caring...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "Who.. Whose there?" The pale-skinned, blue-haired woman strapped tightly to the mutation accelerator cried out as Wolverine entered the room. With a few paces he was by her bedside, claws bared.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." He muttered, slicing the tethers that held her as she looked up at him in a daze.
"I know you." Electra muttered as Wolverine removed her bodily from the table. "I've met you before."
"Yeah, you've tried to kill me before." He deposited her by the doorway and turned back to the deadly machine. It was remarkably easy to smash up Mystique's months of work. A flick of his claws there, a grunt-powered swipe here... Soon the mutation accelerator was in pieces on the floor, and Wolverine could turn to the bank of computer terminals in the far wall of the lab.
The CD slid easily, almost happily into the nearest disk drive. Logan stood back as its contents were scanned, and the computer screen began to turn to gibberish. As did the next, and the next, until every screen in the room had random letters and numbers falling over the screen, wiping Mystique's entire system clean. Well, thought Logan, serves 'em right for not making this more difficult.
"Okay, time to get you out of here." He said to Electra, but she had passed out. "I don't know what Magneto's given you, kid, but I hope its good. This is gonna be a bumpy ride." He slung her weight over his shoulder and headed back up the corridor, leaving the single CD corrupting the computer mainframe. "On our way, Cyclops. Get the 'bird ready."
"No problem!" Cyclops' voice came back clear over the radio. "But who's with you?"
A/N: Reviews always welcome!
Scene 14
Booby-traps. Right. Logan paced down the pitch-black corridor slowly, edging his feet forward, feeling the gradient steepen, and all the time sniffing, listening. Like he was supposed to be Indiana Jones or something...
He stepped on something. A pressure pad under his left foot triggered a sudden change in the air to his right. He reacted instinctively, slicing through the air with his claws. To his surprise a long, thin metallic knife fell clattering to the floor beneath his claw's indestructible blow. What was the catch? For a minute he stood still, the only sound his own breathing in the dark.
Slowly he itched forward again. His night vision may be good, but it wasn't perfect. Ilehana could have done this better than him; she'd have morphed into a cat or something else with good eyesight... With an electronic pulsing sound a laser cannon swung round through the corridor. Wolverine ducked and rolled, hearing rather than seeing the beam follow his movements. With a roar he jumped up above the beam, slashing at where he judged the cannon to be. He judged right, barely. The cannon faltered, then dropped at a bizarre angle, still emitting as it dangled, half cut through by Wolverine's claws.
With a second blow Logan finished off the cannon, before stopping to poke his leg, wincing. The laser had seared his flesh on his trailing leg. Already his fantastic self-healing ability was counter-acting the blow, but it still hurt. And ahead a motorised mechanism promised more fun.
"Arargh!" The Wolverine charged down the last stretch of corridor, using the gradient to build his momentum, claws ready. Ducking under the first swing of the rotating blades he stuck his claws in the wall above the next blade. Reaching down he wrenched out the mechanism. Ducking under another, dying swing he gave the other wall the same treatment and was able to bob and roll again under the blades with little difficulty. Indiana Jones eat your heart out!
Ahead, framed by clinical, white light was a doorway. Brushing fingertips against the wall he found the switch to activate the adimantium panel. For a moment he was blinded as the door swung open. Then he saw it, Magneto's newest experiment, and strapped to it ready to be tested on was...
"Oh great! Don't tell me I gotta rescue you?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"This is a sample of spinal fluid I took from Blaze when I got here." Ilehana indicated to her father that he look down the microscope at the stained fluid in the sample below. Besides it she had spectro-analysis and chromatography to back up her claims. There were no miracles in Dr Xavier's lab. "The dark purple stains indicate a neurotoxin, produced by Blaze's own cells, cause presumably by August King's tapering with her mind. This neurotoxin is what has put Blaze in this coma, it is degrading her nerve structure, slowing her impulses and rendering her unable to react to stimuli."
"I understand the principle," Charles Xavier looked up at his daughter from the microscope lens. "And that up until now there has been little you could do."
"That's right." Ilehana went to change the microscope slide. "The neurotoxin is a complex structure produced by her own cells, not even her own immune system can recognise it as damaging to fight it off. But this is what happened when I introduced a small amount, only ten micrometers, of Storm's miracle cure to a sample."
The Professor looked again down the microscope, squinting for a moment until his eyes focused. What he saw amazed him.
"There is none left!" And he was right; the purple dye was virtually non- existant. Ilehana smiled generously at her father.
"The test tube contained a virus, genetically engineered to combat that specific neurotoxin. More than that, the membrane signature of the virus is so similar to the neurotoxin that it triggers the attacking immune system to not only fight off the virus, but also the neurotoxin itself. This is the work of a highly specialised team, with access to huge quantities of data and funding. I couldn't have come up with an antidote this ingenious in a million years!"
"Will it help Blaze?" The Professor asked, bringing his daughter out of her mood of marvelling at scientific ingenuity.
"It will stop any more damage being caused, yes. But as for the damage already done, that is beyond the scope of the virus. It will take time, but with luck not too many of her nerves will have been damaged, so she should recover full health."
"And Gambit?"
"Ah, well." Ilehana brought out Gambit's most recent brain scan. "Gambit's injury is more natural. Yes, he has the neurotoxin in his extracellular fluid as well, but more worrying to me is the physical damage caused by repeated blows to the skull. Fortunately he bled out rather than accumulate blood around the brain in a pressure-building bruise. After I administer the virus, Blaze should come round in the next twenty-four hours. Gambit may still not come round; it depends on his will to fight the injury he has sustained. There is little else I can do."
"Alright." Xavier started for the door. "Do as you think best, Doctor. But Ilehana, don't take it too hard if Gambit doesn't make it. We all know you have done your best. No hospital could have treated him better."
"Thanks Dad." Ilehana watched him leave, wondering what she had done to deserve a father so caring...
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "Who.. Whose there?" The pale-skinned, blue-haired woman strapped tightly to the mutation accelerator cried out as Wolverine entered the room. With a few paces he was by her bedside, claws bared.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." He muttered, slicing the tethers that held her as she looked up at him in a daze.
"I know you." Electra muttered as Wolverine removed her bodily from the table. "I've met you before."
"Yeah, you've tried to kill me before." He deposited her by the doorway and turned back to the deadly machine. It was remarkably easy to smash up Mystique's months of work. A flick of his claws there, a grunt-powered swipe here... Soon the mutation accelerator was in pieces on the floor, and Wolverine could turn to the bank of computer terminals in the far wall of the lab.
The CD slid easily, almost happily into the nearest disk drive. Logan stood back as its contents were scanned, and the computer screen began to turn to gibberish. As did the next, and the next, until every screen in the room had random letters and numbers falling over the screen, wiping Mystique's entire system clean. Well, thought Logan, serves 'em right for not making this more difficult.
"Okay, time to get you out of here." He said to Electra, but she had passed out. "I don't know what Magneto's given you, kid, but I hope its good. This is gonna be a bumpy ride." He slung her weight over his shoulder and headed back up the corridor, leaving the single CD corrupting the computer mainframe. "On our way, Cyclops. Get the 'bird ready."
"No problem!" Cyclops' voice came back clear over the radio. "But who's with you?"