Chapter 5
"That place has one of the most advanced security systems in the world," I said, a little nervous, "It won't be easy getting in there."
"No Problem, we'll go and talk with a friend of mine," Wolverine said.
"What kind of friend?" I asked.
Wolverine led me into one of the worse parts of the city, where we went into a condemned building. He used his claws to cut down a few boards that had been nailed to the door.
The building looked completely different on the inside. From the street, it looked like it was a minutes from falling down, with worn brick and broken windows. But, in here, it looked like a high-tech science lab. And, there was a man at work on a machine of some sort when we walked in the door.
"Forge, we need your help," Wolverine said to him.
The man looked up from his work and walked over to us. "Ah, Wolverine, what can I do for you?"
"Who is this guy?" I asked. He didn't look familiar to me.
"Forge here is a mutant. Really smart. We just stopped here for a little tech support so we could bust into the institute."
"The institute? You sure you want to do that?" Forge asked, raising his eyebrows.
"You bet we do. All we need is some weapons and a little hacking job. I don't want my own home attacking me while I try to save it," Wolverine said.
"You got it, Wolverine. Take those weapons out of the back room. I'll be ready to hack Xavier's system in an hour."
In an hour, Wolverine and I made our move toward the Xavier institute, where we would fight to save the other mutants. With any luck, one of them would be able o help us sort this whole mess out.
And to think, I had been so evil before the humans started all of this. I wanted to destroy them so badly; because that was the only way I thought that we mutants could find peace on earth. But, I've come to realize after all of this time that attacking them was a bad idea, that maybe Xavier could have been right. If all mutants had used their powers to help mankind, we might have been accepted. But, it was too late for any of that now. All that mattered now was helping my people when they needed me the most, and I planned to do everything in my power to free them.
No sooner had we hopped the fence, the defense lasers popped out of the ground. They began firing right away, but they didn't seem to know where we were. "Good, Forge hacked the system. That's one less problem for us to deal with," I said, jumping on top of one of the cannons.
"Keep going. This system has a fail-safe. In about ten seconds, they'll be shooting right again, then we're sitting ducks," Wolverine shouted.
No sooner had the words left his mouth, the lasers jumped to attention. "Crap," I said, hopping off of the laser. They were now shooting like mad, and they were pretty accurate. I hopped behind tree and between lasers trying to avoid the shots, and a lot of the property was damaged in the process. But, we got to the door safe enough.
Our next challenge lay inside the mansion itself. No sooner had we crossed the threshold, metal security doors came slamming down, trapping us inside. Lasers came popping down out of the ceiling, all aimed and ready.
The lasers began shooting. I jumped up, dodging the shots and rolled in mid- air. The lasers fired, but missed and hit each other. But, I hadn't been able to avoid all of the beams. One hit me in the leg, and I fell down hard.
Wolverine rolled through, scooping me up as the lasers came shooting down. He cut his way through a security door and we were in another level of the mansion, what looked like a library.
Wolverine set me down. "You should have been more careful," he said.
"Yeah," I said, rubbing the wound on my leg, "easy for the indestructible guy to say. Us mortals have a bit more trouble surviving things like that."
"Well, Shorty, it looks like you're out of commission for a while. I'll just have to get through here the rest of the way myself."
I climbed to my feet, and almost fell to my knees; my leg hurt so much. "Like hell you are," I said, "I came this far, I'm not giving up now." I limped up to a door on the other side of the room, "I've been through worse than this, I'll manage. In fact, I'm feeling better already." I opened the door up, and walked through. Then, I fell about thirty feet.
"You idiot!" Wolverine shouted, "That's the Danger Room!"
Luckily, I landed on my feet. Although, it did hurt to land like that. My leg wouldn't fully recover for a little while, so I'd have to avoid long falls for now. Until hen, it was crucial that I got out of the Danger Room.
But, It was too late. The room started up and holograms were activated. I was standing inside of a construction site. And, coming at me, was Juggernaut!
He rushed forward, headfirst. No surprise there. Juggernaut was never much of a tactician. I easily jumped over him and swung myself up higher onto the rafters. Splat! I slimed Juggernaut in the face, although it didn't do a whole lot.
Wolverine landed down beside me, "He's a robot, that slime won't do you any good," his claws came out of his hands, "Good thing that's not the real Juggernaut."
He jumped down and dug his claws into our foes armor. The robot cut right in two, and showed itself for what it really was. But, before we could celebrate our victory, more robots appeared. This time, there was a horde of Sentinels.
"You've got to be kidding," I said.
"Someone must know that we're in here," Wolverine said. He used his claws to cut a robot to shreds. I drew a laser from my coat, one that Forge had given me for the mission. I fired it three times, vaporizing just as many Sentinels. The two of us continued until the next robot assailants appeared.
This time, it was Nightcrawler and Sabretooth. I lunged on Nightcrawler, who hopped up on the rafters to avoid me. I continued in hot pursuit. We jumped and swung from rafter to rafter, and I felt bloodlust boil up inside me. I would rip him to pieces, if it was the last thing that I ever did!
The robot teleported up high, but I was ready. With ease, I shot my tongue and grabbed its leg, pulling it back down to me. Then, I kicked it square in the head, knocking it back into a wall.
The robot retaliated by lunging back on me, and we were in an air-brawl. We kicked and punched and pounded on each other until we hit the final set of rafters. Then, I kicked him off of me and shot slime out, hoping to pin his body to the wall.
My foe, however, had other plans. He teleported away from my attack and counter-attacked with a sword, which I blocked with my laser. The laser fell to pieces, but I used the extra time it had bought me to rip the sword from Nightcrawler's hands and drive it through his skull. The hologram faded instantly, and the robot sizzled as it fell to the ground.
Wolverine was having trouble of his own. The robot Sabretooth slammed him back into a wall, and he got kicked in the ribs before he could stand up. Wolverine raised his claws and jumped down on Sabretooth, but was caught and tossed back into a wall. Those claws just weren't going to get the job done this time.
And the beating continued. Wolverine was beaten against walls and rails and even against the ground. Saretooth rushed in for the kill, Wolverine lying helpless on the ground. All looked lost.
Then, Wolverine sprang to life at the last second, digging his claws into his robotic foe. Again, the robot collapsed into a pile of scrap. The holograms in the room faded. "The room must have lost power," Wolverine said, climbing to his feet, "They would have kept throwing those things at us, otherwise."
"Yeah," I agreed, hopping down. I had taken the sword Nightcrawler had been using as my own. Never know when you'll need something like that again. And so we proceeded toward the door, until a man came in to greet us.
"Hello, boys," he said calmly.
"That place has one of the most advanced security systems in the world," I said, a little nervous, "It won't be easy getting in there."
"No Problem, we'll go and talk with a friend of mine," Wolverine said.
"What kind of friend?" I asked.
Wolverine led me into one of the worse parts of the city, where we went into a condemned building. He used his claws to cut down a few boards that had been nailed to the door.
The building looked completely different on the inside. From the street, it looked like it was a minutes from falling down, with worn brick and broken windows. But, in here, it looked like a high-tech science lab. And, there was a man at work on a machine of some sort when we walked in the door.
"Forge, we need your help," Wolverine said to him.
The man looked up from his work and walked over to us. "Ah, Wolverine, what can I do for you?"
"Who is this guy?" I asked. He didn't look familiar to me.
"Forge here is a mutant. Really smart. We just stopped here for a little tech support so we could bust into the institute."
"The institute? You sure you want to do that?" Forge asked, raising his eyebrows.
"You bet we do. All we need is some weapons and a little hacking job. I don't want my own home attacking me while I try to save it," Wolverine said.
"You got it, Wolverine. Take those weapons out of the back room. I'll be ready to hack Xavier's system in an hour."
In an hour, Wolverine and I made our move toward the Xavier institute, where we would fight to save the other mutants. With any luck, one of them would be able o help us sort this whole mess out.
And to think, I had been so evil before the humans started all of this. I wanted to destroy them so badly; because that was the only way I thought that we mutants could find peace on earth. But, I've come to realize after all of this time that attacking them was a bad idea, that maybe Xavier could have been right. If all mutants had used their powers to help mankind, we might have been accepted. But, it was too late for any of that now. All that mattered now was helping my people when they needed me the most, and I planned to do everything in my power to free them.
No sooner had we hopped the fence, the defense lasers popped out of the ground. They began firing right away, but they didn't seem to know where we were. "Good, Forge hacked the system. That's one less problem for us to deal with," I said, jumping on top of one of the cannons.
"Keep going. This system has a fail-safe. In about ten seconds, they'll be shooting right again, then we're sitting ducks," Wolverine shouted.
No sooner had the words left his mouth, the lasers jumped to attention. "Crap," I said, hopping off of the laser. They were now shooting like mad, and they were pretty accurate. I hopped behind tree and between lasers trying to avoid the shots, and a lot of the property was damaged in the process. But, we got to the door safe enough.
Our next challenge lay inside the mansion itself. No sooner had we crossed the threshold, metal security doors came slamming down, trapping us inside. Lasers came popping down out of the ceiling, all aimed and ready.
The lasers began shooting. I jumped up, dodging the shots and rolled in mid- air. The lasers fired, but missed and hit each other. But, I hadn't been able to avoid all of the beams. One hit me in the leg, and I fell down hard.
Wolverine rolled through, scooping me up as the lasers came shooting down. He cut his way through a security door and we were in another level of the mansion, what looked like a library.
Wolverine set me down. "You should have been more careful," he said.
"Yeah," I said, rubbing the wound on my leg, "easy for the indestructible guy to say. Us mortals have a bit more trouble surviving things like that."
"Well, Shorty, it looks like you're out of commission for a while. I'll just have to get through here the rest of the way myself."
I climbed to my feet, and almost fell to my knees; my leg hurt so much. "Like hell you are," I said, "I came this far, I'm not giving up now." I limped up to a door on the other side of the room, "I've been through worse than this, I'll manage. In fact, I'm feeling better already." I opened the door up, and walked through. Then, I fell about thirty feet.
"You idiot!" Wolverine shouted, "That's the Danger Room!"
Luckily, I landed on my feet. Although, it did hurt to land like that. My leg wouldn't fully recover for a little while, so I'd have to avoid long falls for now. Until hen, it was crucial that I got out of the Danger Room.
But, It was too late. The room started up and holograms were activated. I was standing inside of a construction site. And, coming at me, was Juggernaut!
He rushed forward, headfirst. No surprise there. Juggernaut was never much of a tactician. I easily jumped over him and swung myself up higher onto the rafters. Splat! I slimed Juggernaut in the face, although it didn't do a whole lot.
Wolverine landed down beside me, "He's a robot, that slime won't do you any good," his claws came out of his hands, "Good thing that's not the real Juggernaut."
He jumped down and dug his claws into our foes armor. The robot cut right in two, and showed itself for what it really was. But, before we could celebrate our victory, more robots appeared. This time, there was a horde of Sentinels.
"You've got to be kidding," I said.
"Someone must know that we're in here," Wolverine said. He used his claws to cut a robot to shreds. I drew a laser from my coat, one that Forge had given me for the mission. I fired it three times, vaporizing just as many Sentinels. The two of us continued until the next robot assailants appeared.
This time, it was Nightcrawler and Sabretooth. I lunged on Nightcrawler, who hopped up on the rafters to avoid me. I continued in hot pursuit. We jumped and swung from rafter to rafter, and I felt bloodlust boil up inside me. I would rip him to pieces, if it was the last thing that I ever did!
The robot teleported up high, but I was ready. With ease, I shot my tongue and grabbed its leg, pulling it back down to me. Then, I kicked it square in the head, knocking it back into a wall.
The robot retaliated by lunging back on me, and we were in an air-brawl. We kicked and punched and pounded on each other until we hit the final set of rafters. Then, I kicked him off of me and shot slime out, hoping to pin his body to the wall.
My foe, however, had other plans. He teleported away from my attack and counter-attacked with a sword, which I blocked with my laser. The laser fell to pieces, but I used the extra time it had bought me to rip the sword from Nightcrawler's hands and drive it through his skull. The hologram faded instantly, and the robot sizzled as it fell to the ground.
Wolverine was having trouble of his own. The robot Sabretooth slammed him back into a wall, and he got kicked in the ribs before he could stand up. Wolverine raised his claws and jumped down on Sabretooth, but was caught and tossed back into a wall. Those claws just weren't going to get the job done this time.
And the beating continued. Wolverine was beaten against walls and rails and even against the ground. Saretooth rushed in for the kill, Wolverine lying helpless on the ground. All looked lost.
Then, Wolverine sprang to life at the last second, digging his claws into his robotic foe. Again, the robot collapsed into a pile of scrap. The holograms in the room faded. "The room must have lost power," Wolverine said, climbing to his feet, "They would have kept throwing those things at us, otherwise."
"Yeah," I agreed, hopping down. I had taken the sword Nightcrawler had been using as my own. Never know when you'll need something like that again. And so we proceeded toward the door, until a man came in to greet us.
"Hello, boys," he said calmly.