At the same time Professor Xavier was having his session with Brody, Logan
was watching over the Danger Room practice. Beside him Matt, Trenton, and
Bryann were also watching. The three youngsters had powers that wouldn't
be helpful in the mission as well as the numbers would have been uneven if
they did participate.
In the Danger Room a tournament had been going on for an hour already. It was the New Mutants and X-men against the Hellraisers in a tournament. Eliminations occurred when one of the fighters was knocked off the small platform, surrendered, or just plain knocked unconscious. It all seemed like a bad rip off of Mortal Kombat, without the death.
Kyran smirked as he watched the fight in progress. It was Kurt versus Ian. Things weren't looking too good for the blue furred mutant. In fact, Kyran noticed that while Kurt was growling in annoyance, Ian was laughing as if he was having the time of his life. Kurt couldn't even hit the older boy as the Australian would even phase through an attack or float above it.
"C'mon Nightcrawler!" Kurt's teammates urged.
At the same time Ian's team watched in silence. It was something that had been ingrained in them from the Facility. When watching one of their teammates fight they had just learned to be quiet so as not to draw more attention to themselves. It was some kind of survival instinct they had that they just couldn't lose.
Ian watched as Kurt flipped to his feet, a cocky grin crossing the Australian boy's face. He knew he was good, untouchable in fact. His fight with Kurt was merely for entertainment as he could end it at any point. In .05 seconds his body could go from being hardly there to being as dense and impenetrable as Adamantium.
"C'mon mate, just surrender so I don't have to hurt ya." Ian said.
"Grrrr!"
BAMF!
WHUMP!
Thump.
"Ouch, bet that hurt." Bobby mumbled.
Ian knelt down and checked on his opponent. When Kurt had ported behind him and tried to jump him his first instinct had been to make himself as dense as possible. The sound of Kurt's impact with his body had sounded painful and he was worried he may have seriously injured the younger boy. He was relieved to find the teen was just knocked unconscious.
"Winner by K.O, Shift!" Matt announced from the control booth. Logan was watching the four boys as they took turns announcing the winners of the fights and who was facing who next from a list Logan had wrote up.
"Next is...Jean Grey VS Tartarus." Bryann announced.
Adam smirked at Jean as the two of them got onto the small platform. He planned on living up to his codename and make her run screaming to Scott's arms. He enjoyed scaring the life out of people with his all too real illusions. Without thinking about it he always knew what other people feared. From their little fears about being laughed at to the most terrifying things. And nothing gave him greater pleasure than using that against them.
"Fight!" Bryann exclaimed through the intercom.
"So Jean, your telekinesis is pretty powerful, but can you use it when you can't see your opponent?" Adam asked tauntingly.
Jean was just about to 'push' the arrogant boy off the platform when suddenly the world shifted and changed. She was no longer in the Danger Room. For all she could tell she was in a dark, barren place. Miles away she could see Scott with his visor off, crucified on a cross, and the worst part were the knives floating in front of him.
"Scott, no!!!" Jean shouted.
She took off running toward the distant cross in a desperate attempt to save her friend. She nearly cried when one of the sharp objects, a knife, flew forward toward Scott's stomach. Jean pointed at the knife and tried to stop it, but the weapon kept going, right through Scott's flesh. At that she did cry, surprised and horrified by the sight of blood staining Scott's once pure white shirt.
"Can't save him, can ya?" A distant voice taunted.
"Yes I can! I have to save him!" Jean yelled back.
"You're not good enough." The voice taunted.
Another knife flew forward and again Jean tried to 'throw' it in a different direction. It didn't work and the knife still sliced clean through Scott's thigh. His pained scream brought tears to Jean's eyes. She realized she really couldn't do it. She really wasn't strong enough.
"Give up Jean Grey. You can't save your precious boy." The voice said. "You've lost. Give up."
"No, I have to save him." Jean cried.
A taunting laugh followed. "Your powers aren't good enough. Just give up."
"No!"
She heard a distant growl of annoyance and then six of the knives flew forward. She could hear Scott's in take of breath and frightened whimpering. As with the last two times she tried to use her telekinesis to alter the course of the deadly weapons, but as before there was nothing she could do. She watched with tear filled eyes as one knife pierced Scott's shoulder. Another tore through his other thigh and a third sliced the boy's cheek open, while a fourth embedded in the wood right below a very sensitive part of Scott's anatomy. The fifth knife cut off a finger, but the sixth is what did the damage. The sixth knife pierced Scott's lung with a sick sound that made Jean's stomach twist.
"Scott!!!!!"
Jean dropped to her knees and sobbed out loud as the crucified Scott began coughing up blood. She could barely hear his wheezing breath over the sound of her own crying. When she looked up her eyes locked with Scott's and that's when she realized he wasn't wearing his visor. Her sob turned into a gasp of shock as she realized something for the first time. She couldn't hear or feel anyone. Normally she could at least feel the others, she could hear thoughts being projected.
Adam watched Jean crumpled on the ground with a smirk of satisfaction on his face. He knew he was merely moments away from getting her to surrender.
"He's dying now Jean. You couldn't save him and you still can't. Just give up." Adam coaxed mockingly.
"I don't have to save him." Jean said, her voice suddenly sounding strong. Strong and angry. "Because this isn't real!"
Adam gasped in shock as Jean instinctively threw her arm out to where she had last seen him. He realized too late that he hadn't moved from his starting place. He had only enough time to yelp before he felt like he'd been punched in the head. The force of the telekinetic punch threw him backward and right off the platform.
"Winner by knocking her opponent off the platform, Jean Grey!" Jamie announced.
Jean shakily made her way off the platform and was immediately enveloped in a hug from Scott. It was just a friendly comforting hug as everyone had heard her desperate shouts as well as Adam's disgusting taunting. She hugged him tightly, crying into his chest as the sheer emotion of what she had seen caught up with her.
"Do you want us to stop?" Scott asked softly.
Jean shook her head. "No-no, keep going. I'll be okay."
Meanwhile, Kyran confronted Adam as the illusionist got to his feet. "You asshole! You can project any kind of illusion with your power. Why do you insist on trying to hurt everyone?"
"Oh lay off Kyran! No one was hurt." Adam snapped, rubbing his head.
"You're a fucking prick, y'know that? One of these days you're going to regret hurting everyone like you do."
Adam rolled his eyes. "Yes daddy."
"Ahem." The Danger Room went silent at the sound of Logan's voice. "If no one is hurt continue with the fights."
"Rogue VS Nemesis." Jamie announced.
"Isn't he too young to fight?" Rogue asked.
"You obviously haven't paid much attention to him." Kyran replied. "I know I'm not your leader or anything, but listen to me when I tell you not to underestimate him, or any of us."
"I'll make sure I don't." Rogue said, rolling her eyes.
As tough as Rogue was she learned her lesson real quick. Trenton had no sooner said the word fight than Willy disappeared from sight. She took a tentative step forward and gasped when her feet were kicked out from under her. Rogue hit the ground and then flipped back to her feet. She looked desperately for her foe, but Willy was still invisible. Irritation boiled up inside her as she knew there was no way to fight an invisible foe, not when her teammates were making such a racket that she couldn't hear anything. She started to take a step backward when a peel of thunder cracked through the air and Rogue was knocked into the air and off the platform by the shockwave.
"Winner by knocking his opponent off the platform, Nemesis!" Matt announced.
The next fight was Bobby versus Erik. That fight didn't last long either. Erik melted into his liquid form and then reformed into a liquid metal tiger, but he failed to remember Bobby's power. As the tiger made a leap Bobby iced the ground while moving out of the way. Erik's feet hit the ice and even as he dug his claws into the ice he still went sliding right off the platform.
Ray versus Jesse was real quick. As soon as the word fight left Jamie's mouth Jesse hit Ray with a full blast of static right into the younger mutant's mind. Ray passed out within a few minutes and the rest of the room was left wincing.
Finally it came down to the last fight. It was the fight to determine which team would win the tournament. And as everyone expected from the beginning it was down to Kyran versus Scott. Everyone was looking for it to be a real blood bath as the two rivals finally got a hold of each other.
"Alright guys, we want a fair fight. No biting, clawing, hair--."
"Jamie." Logan growled.
"Fight!"
Instantly Kyran was covered in his shadow armor, much to Scott's displeasure. That meant, as long as Kyran had himself braced, Scott's optic blasts really wouldn't do any good. No one knew yet what the weakness in Kyran's armor was, though all of his teammates insisted there was one, not even they knew. It was Kyran's most closely guarded secret.
"C'mon then Goggles. This is round...five?" Kyran taunted. "Think you'll ever win one?"
"Cocky bastard." Scott grumbled.
The two opponents eyed each other, both hoping to find some kind of quick solution. Scott realized real quickly that all he had to do to win was blast the platform under Kyran's feet. However, he didn't want the fight to end like that. He knew he wasn't always going to have that advantage against Kyran and if they ever became enemies again he wanted to know what he could do against the older boy.
So, the fight came down to a good old-fashioned brawl. Unfortunately for Scott it was like punching a brick wall. The fight wasn't doing him any good. He could feel he had a swollen lip and a bruised jaw already. Worse than that was the fact that Kyran was very slowly backing him toward the edge of the platform.
Scott wasn't going to let himself get beat. He didn't want to give Kyran something more to brag about. He knew if he let the shadow wielder win then he would never hear the end of it. Kyran would gloat and rub it in his face in front of everyone.
"I though you were tougher than this Goggles." Kyran taunted.
Kyran went for a round house kick and that's when Scott let loose an optic blast. The force of the blow not only surprised Kyran, but seeing as how one foot was in the air for a kick, it sent the older boy tumbling. Kyran managed to dig a shadow claw into the platform just before he went over the side. He grunted and tried to pull himself back up, but he was slipping. So, he formed the back of his armor into wings and flew back up onto the platform. He was met with an irritated Cyclops.
"Miss me?" Kyran asked.
"Cocky b--."
"Yeah, everyone knows I'm a cocky bastard. Now why don't you teach me a lesson Goggles?"
"Gladly." Scott growled. "Why don't you ditch the armor and fight fair?"
"Only if you won't use those optic blasts of yours."
"Fine."
Kyran dropped his armor and told his shadow to stay out of it. That's when the fight got real dirty. Scott knew he was going to have a few bruised ribs. Kyran was sure he was going to have a black eye, but that didn't stop the fight from getting rougher. The two rivals were going at it as if they were still on different sides. It was getting bloody and brutal before something finally happened.
Kyran sent Scott tumbling with a viscous kick. He leapt to follow with another kick when Scott instinctively shot him with an optic blast. The force knocked the breath and the sense out of Kyran and sent him flying over the side of the platform. It was a good thing the platform wasn't high up as Kyran landed with most of his weight on his shoulders and neck.
Instantly Kyran's team was at their leader's side, checking to make sure he was okay. They were all relieved that other than a headache and being a little bloodied from the fight he was fine. Adam and Erik helped him to his feet as the X-men and New Mutants joined them.
Kyran looked up at Scott who was still on the platform. "I'm not a sore loser Scott, but we made a deal. I'm sorry you feel you have to play dirty in order to beat me."
"Yeah, that wasn't cool Summers." Erik growled.
"I didn't mean to." Scott said defensively.
Kyran narrowed his eyes. "Next time I won't make the mistake of trusting you."
In the control room Logan sighed as he watched the Hellraisers leave the room. He realized pretty quickly that things between the Hellraisers and the New Mutants and X-men were only getting worse. He knew something would have to be done before the conflict tore the Institute apart.
In the Danger Room a tournament had been going on for an hour already. It was the New Mutants and X-men against the Hellraisers in a tournament. Eliminations occurred when one of the fighters was knocked off the small platform, surrendered, or just plain knocked unconscious. It all seemed like a bad rip off of Mortal Kombat, without the death.
Kyran smirked as he watched the fight in progress. It was Kurt versus Ian. Things weren't looking too good for the blue furred mutant. In fact, Kyran noticed that while Kurt was growling in annoyance, Ian was laughing as if he was having the time of his life. Kurt couldn't even hit the older boy as the Australian would even phase through an attack or float above it.
"C'mon Nightcrawler!" Kurt's teammates urged.
At the same time Ian's team watched in silence. It was something that had been ingrained in them from the Facility. When watching one of their teammates fight they had just learned to be quiet so as not to draw more attention to themselves. It was some kind of survival instinct they had that they just couldn't lose.
Ian watched as Kurt flipped to his feet, a cocky grin crossing the Australian boy's face. He knew he was good, untouchable in fact. His fight with Kurt was merely for entertainment as he could end it at any point. In .05 seconds his body could go from being hardly there to being as dense and impenetrable as Adamantium.
"C'mon mate, just surrender so I don't have to hurt ya." Ian said.
"Grrrr!"
BAMF!
WHUMP!
Thump.
"Ouch, bet that hurt." Bobby mumbled.
Ian knelt down and checked on his opponent. When Kurt had ported behind him and tried to jump him his first instinct had been to make himself as dense as possible. The sound of Kurt's impact with his body had sounded painful and he was worried he may have seriously injured the younger boy. He was relieved to find the teen was just knocked unconscious.
"Winner by K.O, Shift!" Matt announced from the control booth. Logan was watching the four boys as they took turns announcing the winners of the fights and who was facing who next from a list Logan had wrote up.
"Next is...Jean Grey VS Tartarus." Bryann announced.
Adam smirked at Jean as the two of them got onto the small platform. He planned on living up to his codename and make her run screaming to Scott's arms. He enjoyed scaring the life out of people with his all too real illusions. Without thinking about it he always knew what other people feared. From their little fears about being laughed at to the most terrifying things. And nothing gave him greater pleasure than using that against them.
"Fight!" Bryann exclaimed through the intercom.
"So Jean, your telekinesis is pretty powerful, but can you use it when you can't see your opponent?" Adam asked tauntingly.
Jean was just about to 'push' the arrogant boy off the platform when suddenly the world shifted and changed. She was no longer in the Danger Room. For all she could tell she was in a dark, barren place. Miles away she could see Scott with his visor off, crucified on a cross, and the worst part were the knives floating in front of him.
"Scott, no!!!" Jean shouted.
She took off running toward the distant cross in a desperate attempt to save her friend. She nearly cried when one of the sharp objects, a knife, flew forward toward Scott's stomach. Jean pointed at the knife and tried to stop it, but the weapon kept going, right through Scott's flesh. At that she did cry, surprised and horrified by the sight of blood staining Scott's once pure white shirt.
"Can't save him, can ya?" A distant voice taunted.
"Yes I can! I have to save him!" Jean yelled back.
"You're not good enough." The voice taunted.
Another knife flew forward and again Jean tried to 'throw' it in a different direction. It didn't work and the knife still sliced clean through Scott's thigh. His pained scream brought tears to Jean's eyes. She realized she really couldn't do it. She really wasn't strong enough.
"Give up Jean Grey. You can't save your precious boy." The voice said. "You've lost. Give up."
"No, I have to save him." Jean cried.
A taunting laugh followed. "Your powers aren't good enough. Just give up."
"No!"
She heard a distant growl of annoyance and then six of the knives flew forward. She could hear Scott's in take of breath and frightened whimpering. As with the last two times she tried to use her telekinesis to alter the course of the deadly weapons, but as before there was nothing she could do. She watched with tear filled eyes as one knife pierced Scott's shoulder. Another tore through his other thigh and a third sliced the boy's cheek open, while a fourth embedded in the wood right below a very sensitive part of Scott's anatomy. The fifth knife cut off a finger, but the sixth is what did the damage. The sixth knife pierced Scott's lung with a sick sound that made Jean's stomach twist.
"Scott!!!!!"
Jean dropped to her knees and sobbed out loud as the crucified Scott began coughing up blood. She could barely hear his wheezing breath over the sound of her own crying. When she looked up her eyes locked with Scott's and that's when she realized he wasn't wearing his visor. Her sob turned into a gasp of shock as she realized something for the first time. She couldn't hear or feel anyone. Normally she could at least feel the others, she could hear thoughts being projected.
Adam watched Jean crumpled on the ground with a smirk of satisfaction on his face. He knew he was merely moments away from getting her to surrender.
"He's dying now Jean. You couldn't save him and you still can't. Just give up." Adam coaxed mockingly.
"I don't have to save him." Jean said, her voice suddenly sounding strong. Strong and angry. "Because this isn't real!"
Adam gasped in shock as Jean instinctively threw her arm out to where she had last seen him. He realized too late that he hadn't moved from his starting place. He had only enough time to yelp before he felt like he'd been punched in the head. The force of the telekinetic punch threw him backward and right off the platform.
"Winner by knocking her opponent off the platform, Jean Grey!" Jamie announced.
Jean shakily made her way off the platform and was immediately enveloped in a hug from Scott. It was just a friendly comforting hug as everyone had heard her desperate shouts as well as Adam's disgusting taunting. She hugged him tightly, crying into his chest as the sheer emotion of what she had seen caught up with her.
"Do you want us to stop?" Scott asked softly.
Jean shook her head. "No-no, keep going. I'll be okay."
Meanwhile, Kyran confronted Adam as the illusionist got to his feet. "You asshole! You can project any kind of illusion with your power. Why do you insist on trying to hurt everyone?"
"Oh lay off Kyran! No one was hurt." Adam snapped, rubbing his head.
"You're a fucking prick, y'know that? One of these days you're going to regret hurting everyone like you do."
Adam rolled his eyes. "Yes daddy."
"Ahem." The Danger Room went silent at the sound of Logan's voice. "If no one is hurt continue with the fights."
"Rogue VS Nemesis." Jamie announced.
"Isn't he too young to fight?" Rogue asked.
"You obviously haven't paid much attention to him." Kyran replied. "I know I'm not your leader or anything, but listen to me when I tell you not to underestimate him, or any of us."
"I'll make sure I don't." Rogue said, rolling her eyes.
As tough as Rogue was she learned her lesson real quick. Trenton had no sooner said the word fight than Willy disappeared from sight. She took a tentative step forward and gasped when her feet were kicked out from under her. Rogue hit the ground and then flipped back to her feet. She looked desperately for her foe, but Willy was still invisible. Irritation boiled up inside her as she knew there was no way to fight an invisible foe, not when her teammates were making such a racket that she couldn't hear anything. She started to take a step backward when a peel of thunder cracked through the air and Rogue was knocked into the air and off the platform by the shockwave.
"Winner by knocking his opponent off the platform, Nemesis!" Matt announced.
The next fight was Bobby versus Erik. That fight didn't last long either. Erik melted into his liquid form and then reformed into a liquid metal tiger, but he failed to remember Bobby's power. As the tiger made a leap Bobby iced the ground while moving out of the way. Erik's feet hit the ice and even as he dug his claws into the ice he still went sliding right off the platform.
Ray versus Jesse was real quick. As soon as the word fight left Jamie's mouth Jesse hit Ray with a full blast of static right into the younger mutant's mind. Ray passed out within a few minutes and the rest of the room was left wincing.
Finally it came down to the last fight. It was the fight to determine which team would win the tournament. And as everyone expected from the beginning it was down to Kyran versus Scott. Everyone was looking for it to be a real blood bath as the two rivals finally got a hold of each other.
"Alright guys, we want a fair fight. No biting, clawing, hair--."
"Jamie." Logan growled.
"Fight!"
Instantly Kyran was covered in his shadow armor, much to Scott's displeasure. That meant, as long as Kyran had himself braced, Scott's optic blasts really wouldn't do any good. No one knew yet what the weakness in Kyran's armor was, though all of his teammates insisted there was one, not even they knew. It was Kyran's most closely guarded secret.
"C'mon then Goggles. This is round...five?" Kyran taunted. "Think you'll ever win one?"
"Cocky bastard." Scott grumbled.
The two opponents eyed each other, both hoping to find some kind of quick solution. Scott realized real quickly that all he had to do to win was blast the platform under Kyran's feet. However, he didn't want the fight to end like that. He knew he wasn't always going to have that advantage against Kyran and if they ever became enemies again he wanted to know what he could do against the older boy.
So, the fight came down to a good old-fashioned brawl. Unfortunately for Scott it was like punching a brick wall. The fight wasn't doing him any good. He could feel he had a swollen lip and a bruised jaw already. Worse than that was the fact that Kyran was very slowly backing him toward the edge of the platform.
Scott wasn't going to let himself get beat. He didn't want to give Kyran something more to brag about. He knew if he let the shadow wielder win then he would never hear the end of it. Kyran would gloat and rub it in his face in front of everyone.
"I though you were tougher than this Goggles." Kyran taunted.
Kyran went for a round house kick and that's when Scott let loose an optic blast. The force of the blow not only surprised Kyran, but seeing as how one foot was in the air for a kick, it sent the older boy tumbling. Kyran managed to dig a shadow claw into the platform just before he went over the side. He grunted and tried to pull himself back up, but he was slipping. So, he formed the back of his armor into wings and flew back up onto the platform. He was met with an irritated Cyclops.
"Miss me?" Kyran asked.
"Cocky b--."
"Yeah, everyone knows I'm a cocky bastard. Now why don't you teach me a lesson Goggles?"
"Gladly." Scott growled. "Why don't you ditch the armor and fight fair?"
"Only if you won't use those optic blasts of yours."
"Fine."
Kyran dropped his armor and told his shadow to stay out of it. That's when the fight got real dirty. Scott knew he was going to have a few bruised ribs. Kyran was sure he was going to have a black eye, but that didn't stop the fight from getting rougher. The two rivals were going at it as if they were still on different sides. It was getting bloody and brutal before something finally happened.
Kyran sent Scott tumbling with a viscous kick. He leapt to follow with another kick when Scott instinctively shot him with an optic blast. The force knocked the breath and the sense out of Kyran and sent him flying over the side of the platform. It was a good thing the platform wasn't high up as Kyran landed with most of his weight on his shoulders and neck.
Instantly Kyran's team was at their leader's side, checking to make sure he was okay. They were all relieved that other than a headache and being a little bloodied from the fight he was fine. Adam and Erik helped him to his feet as the X-men and New Mutants joined them.
Kyran looked up at Scott who was still on the platform. "I'm not a sore loser Scott, but we made a deal. I'm sorry you feel you have to play dirty in order to beat me."
"Yeah, that wasn't cool Summers." Erik growled.
"I didn't mean to." Scott said defensively.
Kyran narrowed his eyes. "Next time I won't make the mistake of trusting you."
In the control room Logan sighed as he watched the Hellraisers leave the room. He realized pretty quickly that things between the Hellraisers and the New Mutants and X-men were only getting worse. He knew something would have to be done before the conflict tore the Institute apart.