Disclaimer: I STILL don't own Marvel or anything they've made. Except for my copy of Ultimate X-men 21 which i bought from my local comic shop. That's mine. I've even got the receipt to prove it.
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Chapter 3

Close Call

I finally relaxed enough to sit normally in the seat and buckle myself in. I still couldn't believe what just happened, but I at least was able to speak now.

"So, 'goggles' what do they call you?"

The lanky guy seemed surprised by the nickname I just gave him, he turned his head from the jet controls in front of him and quickly replied "My name's Scott, the girl is Rogue, and the blue guy is Kurt."

Kurt decided to interject "So.. vat can you do?"

I looked at the ground. I wasn't even sure what I could do, or if I could even control it.

"Well... From what I can gather, I can make my hands into blades. I also seem to have this latent ability to piss off heavily armed bikers."

Rogue and Kurt both grinned at the joke.

"Vhen did you find out zat you could make blades?"

I silently panicked. I doubted they'd appreciate knowing they just saved a murderer, even if I didn't know what I did exactly.

"Um, I was putting some cash in a parking meter and next thing you know..." I made a poking motion with my right hand, "There was a hole in the meter and dimes were everywhere."

During my charade, Rogue looked at my hands and her eyes grew.

"Jesus! What the sam-hell happened to your hands?"

I suddenly remembered that my hands were covered in bloodstains.

It was time for me to launch off my second lie of the ordeal.

"Some Friends of Humanity members saw what I did and tried to beat the hell out of me. I put up a pretty good fight. I didn't notice the blood till now. As far as I know they're all still standing."

I was off to a great start. These people had saved my life and I was already lying through my teeth.

"Oh" Rogue replied in an understanding tone

That's probably the first time I really got a good look at Rogue. She was, in my opinion, drop dead gorgeous. Chin length brown hair with white streaks in the front, pale skin, and the most beautiful pair of green eyes I'd ever seen.

She was looking toward the front of the jet, out the main window.

If she noticed me, she probably would have thought I was delusional with how long I was just staring at her.

I quickly snapped out of my trance.

"So, what about the other guy up there, the one in the orange spandex?"

Kurt and Rogue both exchanged glances, then looked back at me. Their expression was as if I just lit my hair on fire.

"Zat's Logan", Kurt finally said

"And don't forget it, bub." The man called 'Logan' seemed to be a man of few words.


Thats when I started to feel a little dizzy.

"Woah, did we just do a 180?"

"No..." Rogue replied "At least ah don't think-- woah!"

I glanced down at the bandage to see what she was reacting too. My blood had seeped all the way through and slowly dripped onto the cabin floor.

My eyes went wide for a second and the dizzy feeling started to get worse.

"Woah! Think this thing..could go....any....."

My strength slowly dripped onto the floor. I could barely speak, then I finally lost consciousness for the second time.




I woke up in a strange room. White tiles above me and a steady beep coming to my left. I looked at myself and noticed I was in a bed. My ankle had a new bandage on it, much smaller but it was no longer bleeding.

I slowly pulled myself into a seated position and looked at my surroundings. I had cords reaching to my chest attached to small stickers. I immediately recognized the device as a heart monitor. Watching all those hospital dramas was starting to pay off.

"Hello?" I called out to the empty room

I soon heard a shuffling from the side of the room and in walked a large blue furry man slumped over almost like a gorilla.

"Ah, our new guest has awaken. How do you feel?" the blue ape asked of me.

"Um, fine I guess. Who are you? Kurt's dad?"

The blue man chuckled at the comment.

"No, but I see how you could easily be confused. My name is Hank McCoy. Most people call me Hank or Beast."

"Oh, I think I'll just call you Hank. Being called 'Beast' must not help your self esteem much." I replied.

"I've become accustomed to both, but thank you for your consideration."

"So.. What happened? The last thing I remember is barely being able to speak and my bandage turning bright red."

"Well," Hank sighed and began to fill me in, "You passed out and gave everyone quite a scare, luckily you were only two minutes from the institute. I was informed over the radio to be prepared for an emergency. As soon as you landed, Kurt 'ported you to the operating room where I removed the bullet and stitched the wound shut. We moved you in here after the bleeding stopped and the blood transfusion we gave you during the procedure finished up. You've been out for a good hour."

"I hope I didn't freak out Rogue too much, she looked like she was going to pass out before I did when she saw the bandage." I replied

"Oh, she was a little taken back but she's just fine. Seeing that much blood would give anyone a scare."

I thought back a bit on what Hank had told me.

"Wait, institute? I'm in a psycho ward?"

"No no no" Hank was quick to state, "This is Xavier's Institute for Gifted Children."

"Xavier? Is that the professor that Rogue was telling me about?"

"Yes, the very same." A voice said from behind Mr. McCoy.

A bald man with a green sweater, black shirt,and brown pants in a wheelchair steered himself from behind the large blue man and into my field of view.

"I am Professor Charles Xavier, I run this school. I teach the students how to control their 'gifts' away from the persecution of those who may fear their abilities."

Taken back by the formal introduction it took me a second or two to reply.

"So basically a mutant school?"

"Yes, Alan, a mutant school."

"Wait..how do you know my name? And how did you know where I was when you guys came to pick me up for that matter?"

A flood of questions rushed into my mind.

"I can solve both of your questions with one answer." the Professor replied, "I am a mutant myself, a telepath, we have a machine named 'Cerebro', It can amplify my powers to detect every mutant signature around the world, and..." he continued "It is specifically designed to warn us of new mutant signatures such as yourself. It gives us all the information about the person that would be in federal files. Along with your external appearance."

"A t-telepath? You can read my mind?"

I broke into a cold sweat.

"Yes" He replied "But I morally refuse to enter a person's mind without their express permission, and I have taught my other telepathic student that as well."

"Other?"

"Yes, you'll meet her as well as the other students once Hank here gives you a clean bill of health. Now I'd like to ask a few questions of you."

"Depends on the questions..."

He noticed my discomfort at the situation and motioned for Mr. McCoy to leave the room.

After he did the professor returned his focus on me.

"What was happening at the time your powers manifested? Shortly after Cerebro detected it, the power spiked and stayed there for 20 minutes. Then it sharply dropped back to it's original levels."

I couldn't lie to a telepath, of course the truth could have given me jail time. I squeezed my way into that little nook in between the two.

"Listen," I started reluctantly, "I honestly don't know what happened during that 'power spike', but I'd rather not talk about how my powers came up. Something happened that I'm not too proud of."

The professor looked like he was in deep thought for a moment. Then turned his head toward me.

"I understand. But, I want you to know that whenever you feel like you can speak about it, to come to me. It was wrong of me to ask you about this so soon after such an ordeal. I'll have someone show you to your room," The professor's answer surprised me, but at this point I wasn't in any mood to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"But, wait, you said I couldn't leave until Hank gave the ok," I replied, slightly confused.

"He did."

"But-"

~Remember?~ a voice echoed in my mind.

I quickly looked from side to side, then looked at the professor.

"Oh..right," I said, completely forgetting that he had told me he was a telepath.

A blond haired boy walked into my infirmary room wearing a uniform similar to Rogue's except it was entirely black with yellow gloves and boots.

"You called?" he said to Xavier.

Xavier nodded then motioned to me.

"Yes, Bobby. This is Alan Davidson, the mutant that was rescued earlier today. Would you care to escort him to the extra room we have set up for him?"

"Not a problem," Bobby replied. "Sorry about how long it took, I just got out of a danger room session. Trying to talk Logan out of anything is like arguing with a brick wall."

I gave a slight chuckle while the Professor just smiled. Looked like I had competition if I wanted to claim the jokester crown here too.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and was relieved to see that they didn't need to remove my jeans to stitch up the wound, just my socks and shoes. I noticed the bandage again and realized something. It was going to be a BITCH to walk.

"Do I get some crutches or something till this heals a bit more?" I inquired.

"Oh, right," I heard Hank say from the other room.

A minute or two later, Dr. McCoy emerged from the adjacent room with a pair of crutches.

"Here, walk with these for 5 days then it should be healed enough to not need them anymore," he stated in a very professional tone.

I took the crutches from him and got myself comfortable with walking with them by taking a few laps around the infirmary bed.

"Well, looks like he's got his sea legs back. Come on, I'll take you to your room." Bobby said while he smirked at his joke.

He slowly lead me out of the infirmary area to an elevator. We walked in and he pressed the button for the ground level.

As I stepped off to follow him the first thing I noticed was the immaculate living room. Large paintings adorned the walls and there was a large amount of elegantly made furniture.

"Holy moley," I softly said as I followed the jokester to the large staircase.

"Yep, impressive, ain't it?" he said.

"To say the least," I replied.

I turned to him and decided to ask a question that I would probably be asked about a billion times before the week was over.

"So, what's your power?"

"Oh," he said in a bored tone.

He pointed his hand toward a vase and shot a white stream of pure ice which froze the decorative object solid.

"A little of this, a little of that," he added coyly.

Great, I thought to myself, he's cocky too.

I soon found out that trying to get up the stairs on crutches is a pain in the ass to say the least. When we reached the top he pointed to the hallway on the far left and continued the search for my room.

"So, who picked you up?" Bobby questioned.

"Um, Rogue, Scott, Kurt, and..." The last name slipped my mind for a moment.

"Quiet guy, personality of a belt sander." I said.

My tour guide gave a chuckle.

"Oh, Logan, right?"

"Bingo," I replied. "By the way, how is Rogue? She get freaked out by the blood?"

"Hmm? Oh, she's fine, the queen of the goths probably got thirsty at the sight of it," he chuckled at his own idiotic joke.

"...She IS your teammate, right?" I was reaching for a reason for him to go below the belt like that.

"Yea," he replied. "She can be a bitch sometimes."

"Well, maybe it's because some of her teammates treat her like you do." I quickly said back.

By this time we had stopped outside of a door. I assumed it was my room.

"Why are you so quick to defend her?" He said in an almost angry tone.

"Well, why are you so quick to attack her?" I retorted, sounding equally pissed.

"Jesus, sounds like you've got a crush on her or something," he caught me off guard with that one.

"Um, no its.. um.it..er...I'm just...um.."


His eyes widened at my response.

"HOLY--!" he shouted "The ice queen's got an admirer!"

If I didn't need the crutches to keep me from falling on my ass, they would have been used to beat him to death at that moment.

"SHH!" I quickly tried to shut him up.

"This my room?" I said as I motioned to the door we were standing next to.

He nodded with a smart-ass grin on his face.

"Ok, now listen 'Snowflake'," That wiped that grin off his face faster than anything.

"It's not that, I'm just thankful that she and the others saved me," I snapped back.

I rested my weight on a single crutch and opened the door with my free hand.

I turned my head at him after I entered my room.

"Got it, Bob-o?"

"Fine," He angrily replied

"Good," I snapped back as I closed the door with one of my crutches.

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Thanks go out to all who have reviewed so far and to those who have read my story and haven't even reviewed. I urge you to review as well.

Thank you for your support, I will be adding more, here's to hoping I can keep this going... I refuse to leave you guys on a cliff hanger and stop writing.