CH2
The heat of the fire was imense. Iceman had attempted to freeze the flames, but his ice turned to steam before it even touched the fire. "Where's Pyro when we need him?" he said to himself. The only one that was willing to move close to the craft was Wolverine, who was undisturbed due to his healing factor. Skin turned red, blistered, and burned, only to turn pink and start the cycle over. "Keep everyone back," he barked to the others. "I don't want whatever's inside this thing to get anyone."
Suddenly there was a movement and a sound of metal creaking and groaning from within the flames as a figure began to move forward towards the feral man. It looked as though a shadow had suddenly taken the form of a human. It was as black as a starless sky, except for the eyes, which were pure white and took up two spots on Its face, on either side of its nose, that lay above where the mouth should be, except that there was no mouth. Its body looked almost as though It worked out everyday, not overly, but enough to define Its muscles.
Wolverine popped his claws with a snikt and stood his ground, waiting for the figure to attack. "Alright, bub. That's far enough." He said to the figure as It stepped out of the fire and into his field of vision. The figure did not speak, but continued to move forward. "I ain't sayin' it again," Wolverine said as he took up a fighting stance. But the figure refused to even acknowledge that Wolverine was even there. It simply walked as though It didn't have a care in the world. "That's it, bub," Wolverine said as he raised his fists. WIth a cry like a wild animal, Wolverine jumped at the figure, claws extended, aiming for Its throat.
Just before Wolverine hit his mark however, the figure grabbed his fist and held it there, before looking down at the hand with the extended claws as though curious about them. The shorter man did not understand why the figure wasn't attacking him, especially when he was at the thing's mercy, but It continued to stare at his claws, unnerved by the look on Wolverine's face. Then, as though It had lost interest, Wolverine was free, and It continued Its trek towards the crowd. "Don't think so, bub," the feral said as he grabbed the things left shoulder with his left had and ran his right hand, claws and all, through the figures back.
The figure stopped and looked down at Its chest and observed the three pieces of metal that had suddenly appeared through Its chest. It then lifted one hand and touched one of the claws that obstructed and otherwise smooth chest of sculpted blackness. Cyclops and the rest watched with baited breath as whatever It was ran a hand of darkness across the indestructible metal. Then, as though nothing had happened, the figure looked up, dropped Its hand to Its side. A neon blue fluid began to drip out of the wounds as the figure started to walk forward once more, only to close after the claws were removed with a sickening 'schoolp'. "What does it take to put this guy down?" Cyclops asked no one in particular.
Meanwhile, the figure had turned around and stared at the shorter man. It leaned its head to the side as if It was studying Wolverine. Then, as though It suddenly realized that he was there, and found him a threat, the figure grabbed Wolverine around the throat and lifted him off the ground with Its right arm. Wolverine was surprised, but reacted by slashing at the figures arm, cutting It off between the wrist and elbow. As the feral dropped to the ground, gasping for air, the figure looked at the neon blue stump that was Its arm two minutes before. Cyclops and the crowd watched as Wolverine fell to the ground and the thing stared at Its bloody stump. As they watched, the wound began to close and regenerate into an arm, which It flexed experimentally before turning around and resuming Its calm demenor of walking towards the now frightened group.
Mystique clutched an unconsious Magneto tightly to her chest hoping to protect him from whatever this thing was. She remembered how the night had started normal enough, or at least as normal as it got around the Xavier Institute. Wolverine was downstairs in the Danger Room doing God knows what, Magneto was in the mansions expansive library finishing 'The Count of Monte Cristo' for the the eighth time that year, Iceman, Jubilee, and Rogue were enjoying a nice evening on the grounds. Shadowcat and Colossus had snuck off to an empty room of the mansion like they had been doing since they started dating two weeks ago, and Cyclops had decided that it was time to give his bike a tune-up.
Ever since they had found Cyclops wandering around the Alkali area with amnesia he had been a bit more reserved about himself, seemingly taking a page from Wolverine's book. After they helped him remember who he was, he never spoke about his experience with Jean at Alkali and they never asked. They left him to deal with his own demons, and he was glad they left it alone.
Of course with all of the other senior members of the mansion staff, as well as the older students gone, that left Mystique watching the rest of them, which she was not happy about, but they had not bugged her for twenty minutes, so she was enjoying the freedom in a patio lawn chair. "Auntie 'Stique!" one of the younger ones cried. She hated that name. No, she loathed that name, but Charles had told her to be patient with the younger kids, and simply remind them that her was Mystique. She would like to remind them with the business end of a club, but she liked her life here, whether she admitted it or not, and prefered it to the years she spent wandering from place to place, so risking that was out of the question. So she forced a smile and counted to three before responding. "Yes, Jamie?" she asked the eleven-year-old who had yet to earn a 'Mutant Name', as Magneto called them. She was sure that he was going to say that one of the older kids had taken something of his. Being the youngest kid in the entire school meant that he was picked on a lot.
"There's a lot of noise coming from that direction." He pointed to the north of the mansion. Mystique listened. "That's just thunder, Jamie." she told him. But she knew that she was lying. There wasn't a cloud in the sky that night, and the forcast was not predicting any rain for at least another week. "Why don't you go get everyone else and tell them that we're going inside?" she said to the young African-American. "Okay," came the reply.
Mystique stood from the patio chair and walked to the intercom that Xavier had installed last month. "Erik," she said, pressing the button for the library. "Yes, Mystique" "Get everyone down here, now. I think that we may have a situation." With that, she started to get the kids that Jamie either had not reached, or had ignored him. Minutes later Magneto, Wolverine, Colossus, Shadowcat, Jubilee, Rogue and Iceman were on the back patio asking what was so important.
"Listen," she told them. The sound had increased from sounding like distant thunder to a low rumbling. A moment later, they saw a fireball on the horizon come barrelling toward the mansion, ready for head on collision. " 'rik, what is that?" asked a confused Wolverine. "I'm not sure, but it appears to be a space craft of some kind." "Well, can you stop it? It's made of metal, right?" "I can try," Magneto stated. "but that thing is moving fast." "Well, if you don't try, everything in this school is going to become the next Roswell, New Mexico." Magneto walked forward and did some math in his head. If its rate of speed remained constant...
Magneto raised his hands in front of him and triggered his metal manipulation. The craft seemed to hit a wall of nothingness, but kept coming. Magneto doubled his push on the craft, causing his head to ache. The craft began to dip and sway, but its speed faltered only a little bit. Then Magneto took his hands and drove them straight towards the ground, hoping that the friction of the earth would help slow the craft down. The crafts speed started to slow exponentially, causing a fire in its wake. Magneto gave one final push before the strain of his power caused him to pass out onto the ground. "Erik!" Mystique cried. She ran to his side where she cradled him in her arms, not knowing what to do.
Cyclops placed a hand to his visor, ready to shoot the being if It tried to attack. "Rogue, Iceman, Colossus. Get ready for attack pattern Delta. Shadowcat, Mystique. Don't let It near the kids." The tall, muscular leader of the X-men began to slowly walk towards the dark being, keeping himself between it and the others. "Who are you?" He called out. The figure didn't respond, but continued Its trek forward. "If you don't answer we'll have no choice but to respond with force!"
"Oh yeah, big threat," Wolverine gasped out. Getting to his feet, Wolverine began to move towards the black figure, ready to cut the being to pieces if need be. As the feral was about to pounce, Cyclops had chosen that moment to fire his optic blast. The figure reacted instantly by twisting around and grabbing Wolverine. Then, without breaking stride, continued into a full circle and used the animal man as a shield. The optic blast obliterated the smaller mans back down to the Adamantium bone, and searing several organs as he cried out in pain.
"Logan!" Rogue cried out, rushing into action, which sparked Colossus and Iceman to follow suit. "Rogue, no!" Cyclops yelled in vain. Colossus had already triggered his mutation which gave him a iron shell around his whole body. Iceman meanwhile had "gone frosty" as Wolverine called it, which mean he had turned his body into a living iscicle. Rogue had reached the dark being after removing her gloves on the run. "Leave 'im ahlone!" she cried as she jumped toward the firgure that had dropped the unconcious Wolverine, and reacting to Rogue instead. She had grabbed at the dark figures neck, wrapping her hands around it, hoping to choke It as she drained Its lifeforce. "Yah power's now mine." she said as she could feel a dark feeling climb up her arms. The being didn't move or writh in agony, but instead stared at her as It had with Wolverine. Then, in a softly booming voice, It spoke, frightening Rogue into letting go as the dark feeling receeded. "Power." Before It could say anything else however, Iceman and Colossus chose to intervine. "Rogue, duck!" Iceman yelled, hoping to freeze the being and then shatter It into pieces.
The figure simply walked through the ice as though It wasn't there and stood Its ground when Colossus hit It in the face, causing It to fly fifty feet backwards. It had just picked itself up, when the large shadow of the Blackbird loomed overhead. The experimental jet began a fast and steady decent, as the ramp lowered before the Blackbird had even touched the ground, the familiar gleam of a wheelchair in the hatchway.
'Enough!' came the booming psychic voice of Charles Xavier.
The dark being looked at the X-Jet with little interest, before walking towards the crowd again. Logan got ready for another fight, when he saw Xavier wheel down the ramp towards him. "Don't Logan. We don't know if he's a threat." "What makes you say that?" Logan asked. "He didn't attack you until you attacked him for starters," the professor answered. "I meant, what makes you think that things a guy?" "Call it a hunch," the psychic smiled.
As they talked, the figure had made its way to the edge of the group of people as they moved out of its way. It didn't seem to even notice them as it continued on its way. It had made it though the crowd and to the hedge that was on the other side. There it stopped before Jubilation Lee, where it reached out with its hands towards her. As she froze not knowing what to do, it reached past her and delicately pulled a single red rose from the space next to her head. After plucking the flower, the dark being sat on the ground and began to caress the rose. Xavier looked at Logan. "Still think that we should destroy him?" "Can it, Chuck."
The dark being sat on a table in the medical bay underneath the mansion, still caressing his flower. Magneto had been released an hour earlier with strict instructions on bed rest and taking the next few days easy. The rest of the school was sent to bed as well, except for the staff and older students who were waiting for Xavier in his office.
Hank McCoy, whom the Professor had brought back just in case, stood before the unknown humanoid, with a medical chart in hand, looking over the results to the simple physical he had run, relaying everything to Xavier who was next to him.
Height: 6'
Weight: 540 lbs, unknown density.
Pulse: Five hundred beats per minute.
Blood Pressure: 500/337.
Cardiovascular: N/A due a possible lack of lungs; more tests needed.
Ear/Eye: Ear appears normal enough, though eyes lack pupils, therefore cannot be charted.
Reflexs: Seemingly normal for human.
Pressure Reflex: Unresponsive, even to large amounts of pressure.
Sinus Check: N/A due to possible lack of lungs; more tests needed.
"I must say, Charles, I have never come up with stranger results. Even counting all the different physiological differences among the students, this man tops them all. Other than the basic physical apperance of a human, he really doesn't have much in common with us." "And what do you think of his psychological state of mind?" Xavier asked the blue mutant.
"Without proper tests it is unable to determine how stable he is. He could snap and kill us both right now, but I could say the same about any normal person that I met on the street. Though he does seem to be underdeveloped in the state of comprehending things. It's almost like he's a newborn." The doctor replied. "Do you think that it would be okay to place him in with the students?"