Chapter 9: The Best there is at What I Do
Running. That's what he had been doing for so long. Always running, always on the move. Always trying to stay ahead of them. The ones who erased his past and turned him into a weapon. Leaving him with nothing but one name... Logan.
Logan tromped through the Canadian wilderness, his head low and his hands stuffed in his pockets. There wasn't any civilization for miles, but he didn't care. He didn't need it.
His ear twitched at a slight sound carried on the wind. He froze, sniffing the air to try and catch the scent of whatever was out there. Around him, he heard stealthy footfalls in the snow around him, much too large to be an animal.
Logan let out a growl that could be described as animalistic. He pulled his hands from his pockets, clenching them into fists. From in between his knuckles, three blades shot out, piercing his skin to form long claws on both hands. He broadened his stance, darting his eyes in either direction, and baring his teeth as if daring whatever was out there to show itself.
"Come on bub," he said to seemingly no one. "Come out and show yourself."
His only answer was unnerving silence. Just then, his ears picked up the smallest rustling branches from off to his left. Logan turned towards the sound, then was immediately knocked back by a bullet hitting him right between the eyes. He fell back in the snow, landing in a heap. Once he fell, an entire army of men emerged from all around him, all of them training their weapons onto him.
"Is he… dead?" One of the younger members of the team questioned.
"Not a chance." one of the older soldiers replied.
As if to prove him right, Logan sat right back up, the bullet slowly pushing itself out of his head. The bullet fell into the snow, the wound closing almost instantly.
"Shoot him!"
As the soldiers began opening fire, Logan charged at them. He quickly slashed two of the soldiers with his claws and straight up stabbed a third one. As more soldiers came up, Logan threw one soldier he stabbed at them, knocking them to the ground. He then sliced up the guns of more soldiers coming at them. Once they were disarmed, he slashed and sliced at them without a moment's hesitation. While Logan was mowing down the soldiers with no problem, a single man stood at the head of a large platoon of Mutant Response Division soldiers.
"Send in the retrieval squad." he commanded.
With that, the MRD soldiers moved in. They then fired electric darts at Logan. As they made contact with his skin, electricity surged through his body. His metal bones only amplified the shock. As he fell to his knees in pain, the man in charge of the MRD forces, a Colonel Moss, smiled widely.
"Been waiting a long time to get you back, Wolverine." Moss sneered, his fingertips dancing on a set of three scars across his face. "You have a lot to answer for."
"Up… yours… Moss." Logan said, groaning in pain.
Moss just growled in fury. He gave a signal for the MRD to hit him again, which they did. As Logan howled in agony. As they continued firing, some strange red laser hit one of the soldiers, sending him flying back. The other soldiers and Moss turned to see three individuals in uniquely designed costumes standing before them. One was a man in a blue and yellow outfit and a special visor on his eyes. Another was African-American woman with white hair and a white costume with a long cape flowing behind her descended from the sky. The final was a young woman in a yellow and blue costume with long flowing red hair.
"Jean, get him free of those lines." The man ordered. "Storm, make it rain."
The two women nodded and moved out. Storm flew into the air and raised her hands, summoning a powerful rain storm. The soldiers were blinded by the downpour on their visors, allowing the leader to blast at them one by one. While the soldiers were being distracted, Jean made his way to Logan and used her telekinetic powers to remove the tasers from his body. Finally free from the pain, he slumped over in relief, only to be caught by Jean.
"Easy there." she said in a soothing tone. "You're safe now."
Logan slowly looked up to see the vision standing before her.
"My name's Jean." She told him, smiling down at him as the rain poured down over them both. "What's yours?"
"... Logan."
…
Within a few hours, Logan was taken by Jean, Storm, and third one, who he later learned was called Cyclops, to a large mansion in rural New York. It was an expansive estate with grounds that seemed to go on forever. As the large jet, dubbed the Blackbird, landed in what appeared to be a basketball court, Logan could see several children running around. Even from a distance, he could see that they were all mutants. As the Blackbird lowered itself down to an underground hanger underneath the basketball court, Logan saw a bald man in a wheelchair was waiting for them. Once the Blackbird landed, the four of them got out as the man rolled up to greet them.
"Welcome back." he greeted. "I see the mission was successful."
"Yes, it was." Cyclops confirmed. "We managed to get him out of there safely."
"Welcome Logan." the man greeted turning to him. "I'm Professor Charles Xavier."
Logan's instincts flared, telling him that the Professor was not someone to be taken lightly. He assumed a defensive stance as he eyed the Professor carefully.
"How do you know my name?" he demanded. "And why did you bring me here?"
Let us just say you're not the only one with… talents.
Those words came from the Professor, but his mouth didn't move. This made Logan more confused than ever.
"What is this place?" he asked, though he seemed more curious than defensive now.
"Well to the public, we're just a school for gifted youngsters." the Professor explained, speaking this time. "In truth however, this is a home for mutants. Those with special or inhuman gifts. Not unlike yourself."
"You are not the first mutant the Professor has rescued." Jean informed him. "He's saved many of us, whether from the MRD or from those who would use us for our gifts."
"How?" Logan questioned.
Cyclops chuckled slightly.
"It would just be easier to show you."
…
Within a few minutes, Logan and the others were standing in front of a massive computer system complete with a headset, presumably used by the Professor.
"This is Cerebro." The Professor explained. "It amplifies my psychic powers to locate mutants anywhere on the planet."
"And this is how you found me?" Logan asked.
"Yes." the Professor confirmed. "We use it to find and help wayward mutants."
"And the… colorful costumes and codenames?" Logan questioned.
"An idea one of my students came up with." The Professor explained. "While the team was indeed my idea, my students are the ones who decided to call the team the X-Men. They even designed their own costumes and created their own code names."
"Like Storm and Cyclops? What do they call you? Wheels?"
The Professor chuckled a bit in response.
"Professor X actually." he corrected. "But I did not have you brought here so I could talk about myself. I want to help you Logan."
"And why would you want to help me?" Logan asked intrigued.
"Your mind has suffered terribly." The professor replied, his face becoming sympathetic. "Your memories have been taken from you, stripping you of who you were, and who you are meant to be. I merely wish to help you remember."
Logan let out a snort.
"No offense Professor," Logan responded. "But given the job those Weapon X bozos did on me, I don't think even you could help me."
"Professor Xavier is one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet." Jean insisted. "If anyone can help you, it's him."
Logan glanced over at Jean, then back at the Professor. Finally, he let out a sigh and smiled.
"Well, I ain't got anywhere better to go." he relented. "I'll stick around. But don't expect me to wear one of those stupid outfits."
…
Sometime later, Logan, now going by his old codename, Wolverine, found himself fighting alongside the X-Men as one of their own. He even had his own yellow costume with a mask that had navy blue exaggerated eye pieces. His blue gloves had been specially designed to allow him access to his claws without destroying the gloves. Now, Wolverine and the X-Men were up against the Brotherhood of Mutants, a group of mutant extremists who believed that Mutants were destined to rule the world. Their latest plan involved kidnapping renowned mutant hater Senator Robert Kelly. One of the members, Domino, was laying down some heavy fire on the X-Men, her bullets constantly hitting their mark. Unfortunately, that mark was Wolverine, who drew her fire as the others moved in.
"Better get moving, Summers." Logan spat. "Just cause I'm bulletproof doesn't mean I like getting shot."
"Working on it Logan!" Cyclops called out, trying to blast at Toad.
Toad kept bouncing around, avoiding each optic blast Cyclops tried to deal out to him. Storm watched Toad's movements, slowly becoming more and more annoyed with him.
"Scott, let me handle him." she insisted. "I'm curious to see what happens when a toad is struck by lightning."
Storm then summoned intense storm clouds, that shot out a lightning bolt at Toad. As he got hit, he fell to the ground, moaning in pain.
Meanwhile, the overly obese Blob was duking it out with the metal clad Colossus. While a hard blow from Blob sent Colossus skirting back a bit, he quickly ran forward and delivered one blow to the face after another. Until finally, one final punch knocked him to the ground.
Jean meanwhile, was duking it out with the blue skinned shapeshifter, Mystique. The two women were trading blows back to back, their martial arts prowess almost equal. However, Mystique help a slight advantage over Jean, one she used to catch the red head across the head, knocking her aside.
"Jean!" Logan exclaimed.
Without thinking straight, Logan bolted away from Domino's line of fire and tackled Mystique to the ground. He then began wailing on her while Domino set her sights on Cyclops. She took her shot and nailed Cyclops in the side, causing him to fall to the ground in pain. Before Domino could get off another shot, Cyclops mustered enough strength to get off an optic blast, taking her out.
"Scott!" Jean called out running over to him.
As Wolverine got back up after taking Mystique out, he turned to see Jean checking the extent of Scott's injuries. Thankfully, the bullet seemed to have passed right through his side. He was going to need a doctor, but his life wasn't in any immediate danger.
"I'll be alright…" Cyclops replied.
"We need to get out of here!" Jean declared. "Piotr, get the Senator!"
Colossus grabbed a large sack that had been carried by Blob before the fight began. It was wriggling around, no doubt due to its angry occupant.
"I have him!"
"Then let's get out of here!" Wolverine snarled.
…
After the battle, Cyclops was taken to the medical bay where he was looked over by Hank McCoy, better known as Beast.
"You got lucky Scott." Beast informed him as he wrapped the bandages around his stomach. "Had the bullet been any higher it would have nicked an artery."
"That's good to hear." Scott replied before turning to Logan. "Where were you?"
"Protecting my team mate." Wolverine replied.
"You were supposed to be keeping Domino occupied!" Scott snapped.
"Jean went down, what was I supposed to do?"
"Trust that she could take care of herself!"
Jean let out a frustrated sigh.
"Again with this?!" she snapped. "I swear, ever since Logan joined this team, you two have been at each other's throats! You're a team! Act like it!"
"It's not my fault he can't follow a single order!" Scott insisted.
"Gentlemen, Miss Grey, perhaps this conversation could wait until after Scott had healed?" Hank suggested.
"Good idea Hank." Jean agreed walking out.
Wolverine and Cyclops shared one last glare, then the former stalked out of the medical wing.
…
Logan sat on the roof of the mansion, a cigar in his mouth and a few empty cans of beer around him. As he took a long drag from the cigar, Jean walked up beside him.
"You know the Professor has a policy against smoking, right?" she told him, sitting down beside him.
"Sorry." he apologized throwing the cigar away. "What brings you up here?"
"I found something." she told him.
She reached into her pocket, pulling out a pamphlet.
"The Smithsonian has recently opened an exhibit on World War II. Specifically, about Captain America and the Howling Commandos."
"Super soldier from World War 2?" he asked. "Why so interested in that?"
"Because amongst the Commandos was a Sergeant named James Howlett." She explained. "Though he was called Lucky Jim by his friends."
She opened the pamphlet, revealing a copy of an old photograph. She showed the picture to him, tapping her finger against one of the men in the photo.
"Doesn't he look familiar?" she asked with a smirk.
Logan went wide eyed at the sight.
"That's… me."
Jean's smirk became a genuine smile.
"You were a war hero Logan." she told him. "And your name was James Howlett."
"James Howlett." he repeated, looking down a bit. "It's something, not being able to recognize your own name."
"Give it time." She told him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "Soon, it will be like you never lost it."
While they were talking, Scott happened to walk outside and see the two on the roof. When he saw Jean's arm around Logan, and the way he seemed to be leaning into her, he began to seethe in rage.
…
"Ain't it past your bedtime, shades?" Logan growled.
He'd been out enjoying a night time walk when he'd been interrupted by a pissed off Scott. Scott approached Logan, the latter keeping his back to the former.
"Saw you talking with Jean earlier." Scott told him.
"That so wrong?" Logan asked. "Didn't think I needed permission to talk to people."
"Depends." Scott responded. "What were you talking about?"
"None of your damn business, Summers." Logan snapped.
"When I see a teammate getting closer than he should with my girl, I make it my business." Scott declared.
"Your girl?" Logan repeated, finally turning around. "You know what, Summers? You got a lot of nerve talking about Jean like that. She ain't your possession, and she ain't no prize. So stop talking about her like that before I make you regret every word."
He turned away, preparing to leave the confrontation at that. However, that's when he felt the painful burn of Scott's laser vision as he struck him in the back. He let out a howl of pain as he went skidding across the lawn, landing face first in the dirt with smoke rising off of his back. He was just picking himself up off the ground as another blast from Scott put him flat on his stomach again.
"I've put up with a lot of your shit since you've joined the team, Logan." Scott told him. "Your disregard for the rules, your blatant disrespect for the chain of command, all of it."
Logan snarled and tried to get up again, only to get blasted.
"I've ignored it because you're an asset to this team, but I can't keep quiet about you taking Jean from me." Scott went on.
"... anything I took was freely offered." Logan countered. "That should tell you something, Summers."
With that, Scott screamed in rage before ripping off his glasses fully and blasting at him again. This time, Logan rolled onto his back and held up his claws, blocking the blast. It rebound back at Scott, hitting him in the eyes and knocking him to the ground. He then got to his feet, pushing forward in an attempt to get close to Scott, no doubt to claw out his eyes.
Thankfully, before the fight could escalate further, a cloud of blue smoke appeared above them. Two mutants, Kurt Wagner, better known as Nightcrawler, and his girlfriend Alexis, AKA X-Gene, landed between the two. X-Gene grabbed Scott before shoving his glasses back into place. Nightcrawler meanwhile grabbed Logan, doing his best to hold the mad mutant back.
"Are you two out of your Goddamn minds?!" X-Gene shrieked. "What were you thinking?!"
"Vhis is no vay to settle differences, gentlemen!" Nightcrawler insisted.
The two were still snarling and glaring at one another, still itching to finish what they started. That's when a new voice spoke up.
"What's going on out here?"
All four of them turned to see Jean walking out, a robe over her nightgown and half of the X-Men behind her. Upon laying eyes on the scene, and the state of Logan's healing skin, her gaze hardened. Scott straightened up, looking both surprised and sheepish.
"What happened?" Jean demanded.
"Scott attacked Logan." X-Gene reported.
"Ja." Nightcrawler agreed. "Ve came to stop ze fight."
Finally coming to his senses, Logan put away his claws as Jean went over to Scott.
"You did what?" She questioned. "Why? What's gotten into you?"
"I… I thought he…" Scott tried to respond, now feeling really stupid.
"I expected this kind of behavior from Logan, Scott, but not from you." She chastised. "In what universe would that even be considered a good idea?"
Scott didn't answer. In fact, he couldn't answer. Any words of protest died on his tongue as he looked down in shame. Alexis finally felt safe enough to release him, sighing in relief. Jean gave a small nod of satisfaction, then turned to Logan. She opened her mouth to chastise him as well, but paused when she saw the look on his face.
Logan looked betrayed and hurt, his eyes actually glistening slightly. He backed away in shock, Jean's words burning more than even Scott's optic blasts. Before anything more could be said, he turned and walked towards the mansion, the X-Men parting ranks for him as he did. Jean went wide-eyed, quickly giving chase.
"Logan!" she called out. "Logan!"
…
Logan grabbed the few belongings he had in his room, stuffing them into a beat-up old duffel bag. He empties every drawer and raided the bathroom before finally zipping it shut and slinging it over his shoulder. As he opened the door to leave, Jean was there to greet him, her hand poised to know. When she saw the bag in his hand, her face fell.
"Logan, wait." she insisted. "Where are you going?"
"Not sure." he answered with a shrug. "Probably start in DC. Follow up on that smithsonian thing you told me about with the Commandos."
"Logan, if this is about Scott-" Jean tried.
"You were right back there." Logan interrupted. "If the situation were reversed, I would have done the same."
"Logan, I didn't mean it like that." Jean insisted.
"Maybe not," Logan replied, "but if I weren't around, you and Summers wouldn't be having any trouble."
Jean scoffed slightly at that.
"Scott and I had problems long before you showed up." She told him.
Logan slipped past her, making his way down the hallway, but Jean caught hold of his arm. He paused, turning back as she met his eyes.
"Please..." she seemed to beg, "Don't go because of something stupid like this."
Logan took her hand in his, running his thumb over the back of her hand before sighing.
"See ya around, Jean." he told her.
He then began walking off, her hand slowly sliding free of his grip as he walked down the hallway.
…
Out in the garage, Logan saddled his motorbike, peeling out of the X-Mansion without looking back. Once again, he was alone. He looked at the pamphlet Jean had given him, clutching it tightly.
"James Howlett." he repeated. "Who were you?"
...
One more chapter before the main story can begin. Hope you're all on the edge of your seats
Wolverine: thinking the one from Hulk Vs. pretty much any version voiced by Steve Blum
Other X-Men characters mainly reminiscent of the animated series
Also this chapter was edited to be in continuity with my Co-Author, Author Of The Insane's X-Men story, X-Gene, hence the inclusion of the titular character. Check it out when you get the chance.
