~*~
While Nikki slept the sleep of the terminally emotionally dead, the thing inside him that was his power took it's chance and took over the unbalanced boy's body, pushing Nikki's own psyche back into his head. Nikki got up and moved off the bed with catlike silence. He looked down the corridor, then stalked through the house in silence, as if he owned it. He looked in on Scott and Lance slumbering together, and smirked wickedly before continuing. Maybe he could find and scare that little toad boy again?
Logan, on his midnight walk through the mansion, caught a glimpse of Nikki as he walked by the hallway. He stopped and stepped backwards raising his eyebrows.
"Hey Squirrel? What ch'ya doin' up this late?"
Nikki turned to Logan and growled gently. Nikki's memories still affected the thing inside him, and right now, he was seeing someone who wasn't only a threat to the powers superiority, but also someone who had very seriously hurt it's host. It stood up, still poised for attack, and grinned, although there was nothing humorous about it. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the baby-rapper." It said coldly
Logan blinked in shock, "What?" He asked furrowing his eyebrows, "What the hell are you talkin' 'bout?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about." 'Nikki' said beginning to circle. "What's wrong? You couldn't get it up for adults, you had to attack children instead? Mentally damaged children at that? What, did it make you feel like more of a man when they were CRYING for you to stop it? Hmm? You sick fuck." He spat.
"Nikki, you 'know' I'm not Alex." Logan frowned eyeing the boy.
The thing laughed. "You're not Alex?" It said nastily. "Well, I'm not Nikki." And it leapt at Logan, aiming to land on his head.
Logan ducked out of the way, his claws itching to come out but he held them in.
"You're that thing in his mind!" He growled, his knuckles began to bleed, "What the Hell do you want?!"
"You dead?" It said curtly, before drawing on Nikki's suppressed emotions of fear, anger and everything else that he hadn't been able to express, as well as Logan's aggression, angst and everything else, and fired the whole thing as a wave of dark energy that swept across the room in an unstoppable flood.
Logan staggered backwards, throwing his arms up to block the attack away from his face. When it didn't hit, he peeked over his arms and saw himself surrounded by a white energy shield and the walls around it burning and crumbling.
"Logan!" Xavier shouted trying to focus on the blast, "What's going on?"
Logan dropped his arms, "That thing in Nikki's mind is attacking, Chuck, what do ya think!?"
The crazed mutant stopped the power wave and re-attacked with a concentrated shot, aiming up and over to slam down on top of Logan, the carefully aimed power more likely to go through Xavier's shields.
The force of the attack threw Xavier back; his shield immediately fell exposing Logan to the attack. Logan screamed in pain as the attack ripped through clothes and skin.
Nikki's power stood, grinning from ear to ear. "You not getting off on it when the boot's on the other foot eh?" He said. "Of course, I'm enjoying this... although not in the same way you would." He seemed to be totally ignoring Xavier's presence, which was going to prove a very grave mistake.
"Nikki, stop it!!" Xavier shouted throwing the boy telekinetically against the wall.
Logan fell to his knees panting as his skin re-knit itself back together.
"Damn..." Logan growled watching his hand heal.
Nikki screamed and thrashed against the wall where he was pinioned, not caring that he was doing his body damage as he repeatedly threw his head back trying to get free. His body tensed as he summoned more power than before. A burning smell rose from his clothes as they started to smoke, his fingers burning black marks on the walls where they touched. His skin shone strangely without glowing and his hair stood on end, static crackling through it. His eyes dimmed and closed as the power mounted and a faint humming noise began. This did not look good. Nikki's power was prepared to break free of Xavier's hold, or kill them all trying.
Logan pulled himself to his feet as he watched in awe the spectacle before him. His face quickly healed over, creating new skin and eyelids. He blinked and rubbed a hand over his face before turning to Xavier, "Chuck! Yer gonna kill him or hurt yerself! Ya gotta let 'im go!"
"NO!" Xavier shouted, sweat beading up on his forehead.
The smell of burning flesh came from the boy, as his hands and feet started to burn. The brickwork in the wall began glowing red-hot and the carpet beneath the boy burst into flames. The screams grew in intensity as Nikki's body began to cave under the stress of the power that was building up in it. The boy's head forced itself down, then grinned painfully back at Logan. "If this... doesn't work... at least I'll be taking ... you with me." He snarled.
Logan raised an eyebrow at the statement, "Oh? An' how's that?"
He laughed . "I'll blow the whole place sky high." Then he gasped and his head flew back, his teeth clenching down on his tongue and blood ran down his mouth, sizzling in the heat. "No..." he gasped, struggling harder, as his eyes began bleeding. "The body is MINE."
Logan turned to Xavier, "Let 'im go!" He shouted angrily, "Chuck, you need to let him go!!!"
Xavier released his hold on Nikki and wiped at his forehead panting, "I fear, Logan, that I may have just done the worse possible thing..."
Nikki's body slid down the wall, but remained pinioned against it, shuddering hard. "It's MINE." The voice said, but underneath was a wailing noise. Suddenly, the body blurred. Where there had once been Nikki's body, there was now Nikki's body with a red image superimposed over the top of it. It separated and rejoined again and again, and then fell to the floor on its hands and knees, the carpet singeing but not on fire as it had been before. There was suddenly a kind of release and there was a blast of power, which blew through the room un-destructively, hurting about as much as a static shock. Nikki fell to his stomach, panting, shivering all over, eyes leaking tears down his hot face. He looked up at Xavier desperately and mouthed help.
Xavier closed his eyes and went into Nikki's mind trying to help the boy form whatever possessed him.
Nikki's head was a maelstrom of chaos, divided into thirds. One third was all Nikki, his thoughts tampered down and squashed as it tried to push back against the other two thirds, which was all red, raw power, occasionally crackling black. Nikki was in the form of his normal self, hand to hand with a red outline, fighting against it, trying to push it back. There were deep scores in the ground and the rest of his mind was smashing and recreating, in a constant state of flux. The howling noise above it all was terrible, but Nikki still managed to speak to Xavier. "Help, help, please... help me."
Xavier threw a force field around the red outline keeping it from attacking Nikki any further.
"You need to stop and leave this place!" Xavier shouted at the form.
"I don't need to do anything old man." The thing said. Nikki went and hid behind Xavier. "I can't make it stop.," He whispered. "It got out and I can't make it stop." His image had reverted back to its eight-year-old self.
"It's okay, Nikki." Xavier tried to reassure the boy as he hit the red outline with more force.
The red force swirled, then darkened to black, disappearing in the wake of Xavier's attack, leaving Xavier and Nikki alone in the emptiness of Nikki's mind.
Xavier dropped his arms to his sides, "Are you okay?" He asked turning to the boy, but also keeping a guard up at the same time.
Nikki nodded, sucking on his thumb, looking small and alone, but somehow settled at the same time.
Xavier glanced around, "Is it gone?" He asked hesitantly.
Nikki looked round and shrugged, not appearing worried.
"Ah, okay," Xavier smiled warily down at the boy, "Why don't we check, just to make sure?"
Nikki cocked his head, thinking, then shrugged, taking Xavier's hand with the one that wasn't currently occupied in his mouth.
Xavier walked along the passages in Nikki's mind checking random corners and such.
"He appears to be gone," Xavier said finally as he smiled down at Nikki, "Are you okay?"
Nikki nodded, still with his thumb in his mouth.
Xavier pulled himself free of Nikki's mind and turned to Logan who was staring down at him worriedly.
"It appears to have disappeared..." He said glancing over at Nikki.
Nikki fell to the floor and a red mass of energy swirled behind Xavier, taking Nikki's shape, remaining the red color outlined in black. "Thank FUCK for that." It said.
"Disappeared, huh?" Logan growled glaring at the red form of Nikki, "Alright bub, this time yer goin' down!" He shouted unsheathing his claws with a *SNIKT*.
The thing threw Logan a scornful glance. "Whatever meat head. You can't hurt me with those things." It waved an arm, making the paint on the ceiling above him bubble. "I'm en-er-gy." It said slowly. "Non-solid form." He turned. "Anyway, who says I was after you. I'm not caged by this little fuck's instability anymore. " He kicked Nikki in the ribs. "I can do whatever the hell I want, and I'm going to. But first... I'm gonna kill you guys slowly, one by one."
Logan lunged for the thing, "Logan wait!" Xavier shouted trying to pull together enough strength and energy to attack the thing taking Nikki's shape.
Nikki curled in pain as the foot burned him. He felt as weak as a kitten and watched in horror as the thing that was his power crowed about killing everyone. He wished that this had never happened. He wished Luke was here.
Before Logan could reach the thing something knocked him out of the way. He stumbled and fell to the ground before looking up and glaring at the culprit. A large brown wolf with glowing yellow eyes, it bared its' teeth at the thing in fury.
~*~
