Take the Long Way Home
Now you find out why Fury is in town. I won't give any hints, but I just hope he's got life insurance. D-Ark, I went over my previous chapters; you and Flame were right. I'll try and rectify the situation. And Flame? Next time you want to tell me something, just spit it out. I'm kinda stupid in some respects. And if any of you repeat that, I will find you.
Disclaimer: I don't own X-men evolution; but I can always dream can't I? But Shawn and Maria, in personality at least, are mine!
Chapter 5-Fury gets a headache
As Shawn burned rubber towards the Institute he could pick up the sounds of a massive argument. He recognized one voice, namely because it was using some fairly imaginative curses every second word, as Wolverine
'Something's going down.' Shawn thought. Ya think?! came the sarcastic reply. Shawn would have given a blistering retort, except at that moment something came into view that caused all rational thought to vacate the premises, and blind fury to take the helm in its absence. Maria was in some sort of electronic shackles and under the guard of several men who were armed with what appeared to be extremely powerful tasers, as well as some seriously lethal looking artillery. And she was sobbing. Uh…kid? No response. Shawn? Nada. Uh-oh
Shawn gave a strangled growl, scales popping out over his face, arms, and neck; and proceded to rush at the nearest unfamiliar face. That face just happened to have a patch over one eye and was currently engaged in a heated argument with Wolverine, Beast, Storm and the Prof. The sap never saw what hit him.
Agent Nick Fury had been in the middle of trying to convince the instructors to let S.H.I.E.L.D. take custody of X-23, or 'Maria', as she now insisted on being called, when he suddenly found his neck in the grip of a seventeen year old kid that either had a serious skin condition, or was currently being covered in scales. A pair of bat-like wings was sprouting from his shoulders, a long tail whipped through the air behind him, and he appeared to have claws, fangs, talons, and a small spike on the end of his nose. And currently looked quite capable of murder.
"You have four seconds to get her out of those shackles before I rip your spinal cord out and use it as a jump rope." 'Definitely capable of murder,' was Fury's first thought. The sound of several automatic weapons being aimed at the back of the kids head didn't even seem to phase the reptilian teen. Fury looked over at the instructors with a slightly worried expression.
"He's bluffing, right?" he asked. Wolverine gave him a measured look and a shake of his head that said it all. Unfortunately, this comment had only served to make the boy even more enraged.
"BLUFFING??!!!!" he roared. He seemed about to say something else, but the words appeared to stick in his throat. Fury actually thought that he could see smoke rising from the teen's nostrils, but that wasn't possible, was it?
Apparently it was.
SHAWN, TURN YOUR HEAD; NOW!!!! The mental voice that seemed to guide Shawn whenever he needed help most cracked like a whip in his mind. Shawn obeyed out of reflex.
And proceded to blast a fiery hole in the grass five feet wide and a foot and a half deep. Everyone stared, first at the crater, then at Shawn; then back to the crater. Shawn, in his shock, had dropped Fury. He stared at the crater for a moment, and then spoke.
"Well that was new."
"I guess we know exactly what his mutation can do now," murmured Beast. Storm nodded in agreement.
Fury got up, dusting himself off, looked at the hole, then at the holes creator. Apparently this was the kid Wolverine had told him would make his existence a, quote "Living hell", if he tried to remove X-23 from the institute by force. "Interesting," was the first thing that came to mind.
Shawn snapped out of his trancelike state to glare at the agent. "I almost barbeque your a** and all you can say is interesting! And I'm pretty sure that those four seconds are up."
At that moment, the pounding of feet was heard. The other students had heard the explosion and had come running. Sam and Rahne were the first to round the corner, and heard this little announcement. "You did that!?" Sam nearly shrieked, pointing towards the smoking crater.
"No the tooth fairy did; who do ya think did it?" came the sharp retort. Shawn appeared to be rapidly developing a tic (A nervous twitch for the uninformed.) in his left eye; apparently he had a tenuous grasp on an already slippery temper. He whirled to face Maria's guards and gave a grin that would have made Jaws proud. "I believe I told you to take those off of her. Since you can't or won't; I will." He stepped forward, his intentions easily readable in his eyes; right into the barrel of a plasma rifle.
"T-take one m-more step and y-you're fried gator bits," quavered the Lieutenant. Shawn would have gladly debated this if a low growling behind him hadn't caught his attention. He turned to see that he had backup.
Rahne was in werewolf mode and Sam looked ready to use any one of the soldiers as his landing pad; with Amara and Roberto glowering, and flaming, behind them. Bobby was tossing a very sharp looking icicle from hand to hand, eyes narrowed; Tabitha had a malicious grin and several 'cherry bomb's' primed and ready, while Scott had a hand near his temple, ready to blast. Ray and Kurt were both at the ready, the voltage was turned waayyy up on Berserker's fists, and the German was ready to 'BAMF' into action. A sharp 'SNKT', a deep growl, and a rumble of thunder from the rapidly darkening sky all told the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives that the sergeant had made a verrrrryyyyyy bad move.
(A.N.: I'm taking a page out of D-Ark's book if that's ok with him. Tabitha is with the X-men in this story.)
The professor wheeled into the middle of what could have become World War III and held up his hands as he urged every to calm down. "Everyone go into the mansion, we'll sort this out, without destroying anymore of the grounds." As he said this he sent a quick mental plea to Logan.
"Move or you all get fifteen extra sessions in the Danger Room of 'Cat and Mouse'!" 'Cat and Mouse' was one of the most feared training sessions; you went one on one with the feral X-man in a forest setting based on his home in the Canadian Yukon. Everyone who had been subjected to one of these called them 'the sessions from hell', even Scott.
Every one of the X-men and New Mutants grudgingly moved towards the mansion. As Rahne left, she was deep in conversation with her wilder side. The Scaled One is like us, pup her wolven side said. How so? I could sense the presence of another being within him, like I am within you, pup A dragon inside 'is head? That is what you would term it, yes. But it is far older than he is, older than even the Old Hunter (Logan) Do you think the Professor should know? If the Wheeled One needs to know we shall tell him. But I sense no ill intent from this spirit If you say so… She was jolted from her conversation by Sam putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Ev'ry thing ok?" he asked; faint concern in his eyes.
"Aye, jus talking wit the wolf. She says the new boy is like I am, but the wolf says whatever's in his head is much, much older than he actually is. She doesn't think that it has bad intentions, so I'm guessing we should prob'ly wait, Shawn'll tell us about it when he's ready."
"Alrighty then, race y'all to the rec room!" With that the two friends took off, confident that their instructors would handle the situation. But something nagged at the back of the lupimorphs mind. You should act on these feelings lest he be distracted by another, pup I'll be handling it in me own way, and in me own time! If that is what you wish
As the teens all trooped into the mansion, they found Rouge, Multiple, Jubilee, and Jean coming to investigate. Some of them stopped to fill them in on the situation.
*Back with our hero*
Storm had managed to calm down enough that she could calm the thunderstorm that was coming in. Wolverine and Beast were currently trying to keep Shawn from taking a swipe at the sergeant that had threatened him with a well done death. Beast had him in a full nelson, while Wolverine kept him from throwing any punches. Maria had stopped crying when Shawn had done his little pyrotechnics display and was now struggling against her bonds. Two of the guards readied tasers to subdue her.
"Stand down," Fury ordered. The agent turned to look at the two who had been about to rip the offending agents to pieces. Wolverine calmed down with effort, and Beast loosened up his grip on Shawn. "Look, if it were up to me I'd let her stay; she obviously wants to stay.
Maria interrupted. "It's not a matter of wanting to stay or not." Everyone looked at her, a glimmer of hurt being quickly suppressed in Shawn's eyes. "It's a matter of honor. I made a wager and I am bound to honor it after I lost."
Fury held up a hand. "Hold it a minute, what's this about a wager?" 'This is probably gonna give me an even bigger headache,' he thought, massaging the bride of his nose with his other hand. He had already decided to make sure that that idiot Lieutenant was bumped down to at least a corporal, and now he had to figure out what the hell was going on here.
"Simple," Shawn said. His inner companion had had to do some very fast talking to keep the soldiers from being turned into small bite sized chunks of ash. He was significantly calmer now. "I made a wager with her. We have a fight; she won, she could leave, she lost, she had to stay. She lost. Now get her out of those @#$#$%^%*@# cuffs before I lose my temper again!"
The arguments could have heated up (Pun intended) again if Beast hadn't asked a smart question. "Excuse me agent Fury?" At the agent's nod the scientist/ape continued. "Why exactly does Maria have to go with you?"
"My superiors believe that she may cause trouble if left unattended. I personally think she would cause more trouble at a base then she would here and would gladly leave her with you people if I could."
"Why not put her on a sort of probationary period? If she hasn't caused trouble within a certain length of time, she is to be left alone by S.H.I.E.L.D., permanently. What do you think?"
Fury ran a hand through his hair before giving a sigh. "I'll run the idea by the higher ups. Until they give me an answer on this, I believe it best for all parties involved that she remain at the institute." He turned to the Lieutenant. "Lieutenant, release the prisoner, now!" he growled. The soon to be private gulped and entered a sequence of numbers onto the keypad that was on the shackles Maria was wearing. They gave a click and fell off. The man then backpedaled away from the clone, until he was back within the comparative safety of his group. Fury turned to board the lead copter, saying over his shoulder as he left, "If my superiors don't like this idea, I'm afraid that she will have to come with me next time."
"Fine, but next time, come alone, ok? The idiot squad is likely to become the deep fried squad if they show up around here again," Logan responded.
Shawn ignored the agent and turned to see how Maria was holding up. "You ok?" he asked. Her response was a fist to his gut.
"I didn't want or need your help! Leave me alone!! I could have just escaped, so just let me handle things by myself!" So saying, she headed for the woods on the edge of the Institute's grounds. As she raced off, Logan made a move as if to follow her, but Beast laid a hand on his shoulder. "Let her go my friend," he murmured, "She needs to sort some things out apparently."
Shawn sat back on his knees and clutched his stomach. "Ouch. Remind me never to try the white knight routine on her," he groaned. Logan squatted down next to the boy and gave him a hefty slap between his wings.
"Cheer up Scaly, she just needs some time to herself. Anything broken?"
Shawn prodded at his ribs a moment before answering. "Just my ego," he replied. Then he noticed the state his clothes were in. "Awww man! This was my favorite shirt and pair of jeans!" As he spoke, his reptilian features seemed to melt back into his skin.
The professor and Dr. McCoy both gathered round the young man. "I believe we may need to run a few tests on you Shawn," Beast said
"Fine, just no needles." He shuddered. "I absolutely hate getting shots."
"I'm afraid that we may have to take some small blood samples, but nothing…major. Logan, could you please take him to the med bay? It appears he's fainted."
"Fine Chuck; but I wanna watch when he comes round." The X-man gave a malicious grin. "It should be fun."
Well? Not as long as my previous chapters, but I had a tough time writing it all out. And here's some character flaws for ya, he's got a short temper and he's afraid of needles! (Huge crowd points and laughs at Shawn "HAH-HA!") Anyways Caliente, I'm working on the poker game, it should be in one of the next three or four chapters. And I'm leaving the choice of Shawn's roommate in my reviewer's hands. Three votes for the same dude nets them the honor of being Shawn's roommate. So…Read & Review!!!