Chapter 2: Guiding Light
"Professor, what's wrong?"
The voice had been that of Jubilee, one of Professor Charles Xavier's students. "It's Logan…I feel that he is in danger…pain…waves of pain and suffering are coming from him."
"Wolvie? Where is he? We have to help him!" Jubilation Lee was on her feet, ready to run for the door.
"Calm down, Jubilee…I don't know where he is…but I have my suspicions about what fate has befallen him. I must go to Cerebro now."
With that, Charles Xavier took a last sip of his tea and moved his wheelchair from behind his desk, and through his school to a room he'd visited many times.
Pain…intense…unending…like none he'd experienced before. Logan was assaulted over and over again by his worst enemies…by people he'd loved and lost…people he'd failed to protect…friends he'd thought he could trust. In the alley, Logan's body was healing…his throat mending, his punctured heart pumping blood, his liver and kidney functioning again. However, in his head, the poison administered by Sable Mueller was causing Logan to relive all of his most painful moments in life, and his healing factor was far too busy keeping his body alive to purge the poison. From the depths of his mind came a voice.
"Logan…Logan?"
"P…Prof…Chuck?" Logan's mind swirled images around him, each hallucination causing him pain in some way, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.
"Focus, Wolverine. You have been poisoned with a secretion from the mutant you have been in pursuit of. You must focus beyond your pain. I will help guide you to where you need to be."
Logan forced his thoughts back…back to when he'd started his hunt…to reflect on what he'd been trying to accomplish.
Westchester. Home of Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. A bright place, full of the hopes and dreams of children hoping to some day fit in and find a place in a world that fears and hates their kind…a school for mutants.
For years Charles Xavier had worked to help young mutants learn and control their powers, so that they could use their powers for the betterment of life and society. One such potential student had come to the notice of Professor X by way of Cerebro; a young girl named Chelsea Ling. Chelsea's parents had immigrated to New Jersey from China with her and her older brother. Myong Ling had been one of China's top nuclear physicists, and had no trouble finding a good paying career in the United States.
As gifted as Mr. Ling had been, however, he had not been prepared for the abilities his daughter would begin to exhibit at the age of eight. Chelsea had been able to mend the bodies of living creatures. She had first exhibited this ability when her cat had been hit by a car out in front of their home. The car had broken the cat's back, and it was to be put down. As Chelsea had held the cat and cried on the way to the veterinarian, the feline had undergone a miraculous recovery. To the vet and the Ling's, it appeared as if the cat had never been injured at all.
A week later, when Chelsea's brother was nearly burned to death at a friend's house from a fire caused when the boys' fireworks had gone awry, the Ling's had confirmed what they had believed since the incident with their daughter's cat. Chelsea had touched her brother, and his wounds had mended in front of her startled parents and neighbors.
Professor Xavier had found Chelsea Ling because of her mental anguish over her abilities…over her parents' and brother's fear of how she would be accepted…over the fear that they could again be the target of a persecution similar to the kind that had driven them from their native country. However, another man had also sensed Chelsea's dark emotions, and by the time Professor Xavier had gotten to the Ling's, the little girl was dead. She had been stabbed to death.
Something about Chelsea's death had bothered Professor Xavier…something about the look of fear locked upon her face at death…about the waves of dark emotion that had remained in and around the scene of the crime. Xavier had been so disturbed he had called Logan to investigate. Logan's animal keen instincts and senses had confirmed the professor's suspicions, and the X-Man known as Wolverine had been sent to find this man who had preyed upon the little girl, Chelsea Ling.
"Be careful, Wolverine…I don't know who or what we are dealing with here…but whatever he…or it is…is definitely motivated by something more sinister than you or I could ever imagine."
"I've got his sinister right here." Wolverine had popped his claws and growled, spitting to get the taste from his mouth. "Smell's a little muddled…but I'll find him…and I'll send him back to wherever he came from in a bag."
"I did not contact you to be an assassin…simply to find answers. Where will you begin, Logan?"
"The river…the guy that did this stinks of it…sewage…dead fish…waste chemicals…" Logan trailed off…wondering where to start his search.
"Your senses are without question the greatest I've ever seen, Logan, but even you said yourself that the smells were muddled."
"Look, Chuck, you may have never lived the streets, but even you know that when somebody new comes around…they don't go unnoticed. Someone's gotta know what was goin' on with this guy…someone had to have seen somebody suspicious. I think I may even know where to start askin' first." Logan looked to Xavier for a moment then asked, "Why don't you just find this guy with Cerebro?"
"Just as your senses are clouded by the different emotions that have been experienced here, so are mine by the waves of pain and fear…so much so that even my Cerebro enhanced mind becomes clouded and confused when trying to focus upon the emotions I've detected here. I'm afraid your…skills…are the only hope we have of ever finding out what really happened to Chelsea Ling. I shall follow your progress telepathically, and help whenever I can. Be careful, Wolverine..." Professor Xavier turned to leave, then hesitated a moment.
"Whatcha thinkin, Prof?" Logan lit a cigar and began sniffing the air.
"You may find it beneficial to pay a visit to the police department here. There is a detective who has been assigned to Chelsea's case…who may be able to guide you in a more specific direction."
"How do ya know we can trust the guy?"
"She was a student of mine…long ago."
"She?" Wolverine puffed from his cigar and grinned. "Mutie?"
"A minor manifestation of psychic ability…she could read the emotions of any person around her…feel their most primal instincts. I imagine she would enjoy meeting you, Logan." Professor Xavier smiled, pleased with his subtle, but friendly, banters with Wolverine.
Logan's grin remained for a moment as he continued to search for clues, then dropped as Xavier's comment finally sunk in. The X-Man furrowed his brow and "hmphed" under his breath as Professor Xavier began moving back to his limo to return to the mansion.
"Hey, Chuck, do me a favor."
"Yes, Logan?"
"Next time you want me to sniff out something for you, drink water or coffee before you show up…that tea stuff always throws off my nose a bit."
"I'll keep that in mind, Logan."
The X-Man smiled. It hadn't been much, but the true satisfaction came when Logan's nose picked up the smell of peppermint.