Logan noticed him first.
The face of a man he hadn't seen in years entered the cafeteria, Samuel, or Sabertooth, as many knew him. The face of a man Logan had hoped he would never see again.
"Scott." He tapped the shoulder of the teenager sitting next to him.
"What is it?" The brown haired boy with ruby sunglasses looked up from his plate.
"Trouble." Logan nodded toward that beast like man who had just entered the cafeteria.
Logan watched intently as the animal followed another boy into a food line. He watched them exchange words, and he watched as the animal struck down to boy.
He smelt fear envelope the room immediately. Every student was running for their life as the attacker took out the security guards.
He stood up from his chair and stretched his hands down and formed two fists. He knew he was the only one who had a chance of stopping Sabertooth. He took a step forward only to be stopped by Scott.
"We have to get out of here!" He was trying to speak over the chaos in the room.
"We have to stop him!" Logan returned. He took another step. He looked on as the boy across the room changed skin color. 'He's one of us?' Logan questioned.
"Logan!" Scott grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "This isn't our fight. My uncle had a meeting with the Vice Principal, we need to find him."
Pulling back was the last thing Logan wanted to do. His instincts were already taken over. But a side of him knew Scott was right. This was the time to reveal his powers in public. It would only cause more panic to arouse. With a final glare at his former enemy, Logan backed down and followed Scott out the cafeteria door.
Todd's head was reeling. He hadn't expected any of this to happen. He had forced his drug to wear off to quickly; pain was surging through his body. All he wanted to do was collapse, but if he collapsed now he would die.
By this time the cafeteria was mostly empty. A few small crowds gathered a ways off to watch the fight. More cops were showing up, Todd new they wouldn't be able to do anything. This was his fight; he had to keep the other mutant away from them.
The man was moving to fast; it was hard to keep up with him. 'What is he?' Samuel was fighting to keep a step ahead of the animal's blows. 'Samuel… that is what the letter said his name would be.'
"Can't we just talk about this?" Todd asked dodging another close call.
Samuel let out a roar of laughter. "No. My employer does not take 'No' for an answer." He swiped at Todd's chest, tearing only more cloth. "You're surprisingly fast."
"Thanks. I was thinking of trying out for the Track or Gymnastics teams, but I figured they'd frown on the green skin." 'What am I doing? This is not a time to crack jokes.' He ducked under another blow and tried jabbing his fist into Samuel's stomach.
"How cute. He's trying to fight back." Samuel growled to no one in particular. He grabbed Todd's forearm before he could pull away and lifted him up. "Tell me, can toads fly?" He tossed his prey across the room and stalked after him.
'Not quite what I had planned.' Todd thought as he slammed into the floor and skidded a few more feet.
He saw Samuel getting closer and leaped off the floor, turned and ran towards the nearest wall.
"Running away? COWARD!" Samuel called out.
"Ya know tiger," Todd called out. "We toads as you called me, may not be able to fly, but we sure can climb walls." He leapt into the air and landed on the wall, sticking to it he began to climb up.
Samuel hadn't lied when he had called Todd a toad. In fact it was the only way that Todd had ever really been able to explain his powers. His skin was lost between brown and green, his eyes were yellow, and his hair was slightly longer and matted down by a gel like substance. His strength increased in his mutant form; he could leap heights, stick to walls and was more agile then anyone he knew.
Jason had joked about calling him Frog-Man in reference to Spider-Man. But Todd had always preferred to be called just Toad.
"Nice little trick worm."
"Why don't you come up here and we can talk things over?" Todd stopped climbing when he reached the point the wall met the ceiling.
"Fair enough." Samuel allowed a grin to form across his face. That's when Todd saw it. What looked like metal was extending over Samuel's already long fingernails, with new metal claws he begin to slowly climb the wall.
"CRAP!" Todd's plans were backfiring left and right; he hadn't expected Samuel to be able to pull a trick like that. 'I'm going to have to jump him.' He thought.
Samuel was picking up speed. Todd waited for him to get halfway up the wall, and then he let go of his hold. He fell straight into his oncoming attacker, knocking him off the wall and sending them both spiraling to the ground.
They hit hard. Samuel's body cushioned Todd's fall, but he still felt the effects.
He rolled off of Samuel and tried to stand up, he's body felt completely shattered. 'I know I broke something.'
He glanced down at his attacker. He was lying in the small cater the impact had caused. "He's down and out."
Applause erupted from the small crowds of students, as several teachers and cops were still trying to escort them out. 'They're probably just happy one of us won' Todd thought as he looked at them.
He caught sight of her in the crowd; Melissa had seen the whole thing. It was the look in her eyes that caught is attention first. It was a look of horror, but it wasn't directed toward him, she was looking past him. He noticed now that the clapping had stopped.
"You're going to regret that Toad!" The deep voice growled behind him.
Todd turned around slowly; he could feel Samuel's breath on his neck. 'I'm dead.'
Samuel didn't let him finish his turn; he grabbed Todd by the neck and lifted him up, his claws carefully digging into the flesh. "Nobody does that to me and lives!"
"Well there's always a first time!" Todd tried to form a smile but only chocked in pain.
"Not for you!" Samuel's grip tightened… and then ceased.
Todd fell to the ground, landing on his back. Waves of pain like nothing he had experienced rippled through his body. His vision was going blurry.
He saw Samuel's face cease in pain. He threw his hands to his head and fell to his knees; his whole body was shaking. He lifted his head to the sky and let out a roar that blocked out all other noise. Still screaming he managed to get up. His body was spazing; he could barely walk. He stumbled a few steps and then started running. He crashed through the window that connected the cafeteria to the outside world and kept running.
Todd didn't understand it, and he didn't care. His threat was gone. He could finally rest. He felt of new wave of peace sweep over him. He closed his eyes and let the darkness swallow him.
