Shadow for the first time in his life had no idea what to do. His extremely sensitive senses was quite simply bombarded with information. He stood in the large hall which is the canteen area of the school. The noise was quite simply deafening and had it not been for his healing factor he could have been made deaf by the loud noise. Shadow couldn't believe that so much noise can be generated by only a few hundred students, that for a moment he thought that if he blinded himself he can use the noise generated to see around the room.
Shadow scanned the room as if expecting one of the students to withdraw some kind of weapon to attack him. Yet none came. All of the students themselves varied from age from toddlers to middle aged adults, species from aardvarks to zebras and most obvious of all what kind of mutant they were. Some could easily pass off as a normal person, others couldn't even go down to the corner shop without making the front page headlines by a reporter who couldn't tell the difference between a terrorist attack and an errand.
The next thing to hit Shadow was the smell. The professor seemed to have made it his duty to make all the students feel included and had made what can simply be described as a super food court mixed with a buffet. He saw a stand with simple burgers and fries, yet he saw food stands for every country on the earth. From a giant bowl the size of an ocean filled with ramen to a lasagne the size of a ball room dance floor, all of these rich smells merged together to make what can only be described as liquid gold.
It was only when someone brushed slightly near him is when Shadow realized that he was standing there for a while. Unsure what to do, he walked to the burger section grabbed a few buns and seized a bottle of pop. Shadow tried to look casual about it, but he felt like he looked completely out of place, however few people even noticed he arrived.
'I will be outta here in a few hours and I can forget all about this' He thought to himself, as he tried to find somewhere to sit. After a while he found an empty booth tucked away near a booth with what appeared to be chili dogs.
Shadow was just biting into his burger when he felt a soft whoosh of air and sitting in front of him was the blue speedster boy, Sonic.
"So? How have you been doing" Sonic said in an overly cheerful voice.
Shadow pretended as if he had gone deaf paying more attention to his burger than the boy in front of him.
"I have just had a session with the professor, he told me that I can…" and he droned on and on and on about how he can potentially break the sound barrier, how he can generate gigawatts of energy. Sonic was about to talk about that he can see things in slow motion when Shadow finally spoke.
"Listen here bub." He said his voice full of venom he finally looked up only to see that the hedgehog girl, Amy Jubilee had joined the blue speedster.
Both of them looked at the black hedgehog though their large portion sizes. Sonic looked though his plate containing a mountain of chili dogs, while Amy had a bowl the size of a small bath tub filled with salad.
"Can you please just learn when someone wants to be left alone? I thought that your experience in the bar would have wacked some sense into you, but no. It didn't so can you please just leave me alone? I just want the prof to know what this Magneto guy wants with me, and then I will be on my way while you stay here."
"Left alone." Amy said softly under her breath "yeah I we get it, we had that experience too."
Shadow's eyebrows raised slightly, he had expected them to not talk, he expected a rude retort, he hadn't expected this.
"Ever since we became runaways all we had were each other and the clothes on our backs. We became mall rats, be were hitchhikers and we were homeless" Amy said as if unsure what to say, "Several times we wanted to be alone yes, but after sleeping in malls, benches and under bridges, after only eating fast food and soup kitchens, after run in with mobs and anti-mutant groups, we learnt that we are better off together."
Sonic nodded in agreement then said "that's putting it lightly, but we don't have 5 hours to talk about all that" as if unsure how to respond to this poorly put together statement.
Shadow only stated at his plate of food, 'true, being together may work out for them' he thought 'but not me. I prefer being on my own. They can join whatever this 'X – Men' thing is or not. I don't care. They can do whatever they want. But once the Prof finds out what this Mag – Whatshisname wants with me or not I shall be on my merry way and maybe I won't see either of these guys again unless if they find me or whatever'
"I would be curious to know how you know that 'Methilubus' or 'Withertooth' guy? And how did you get that metal skeleton?" Sonic asked Shadow out of the blue.
Shadow looked slightly stunned by this question, and Sonic knew that he had asked an offensive question and started rapidly stuttering apologies that fell of death ears.
Sonic was just about to say his 20th sorry when Shadow spoke "Let's just say that we have a little tradition" he said gruffly.
"What tradition?" Sonic said blurting out the first thing in his mind.
Shadow seemed to be stinging his words very carefully. He knew that it was futile to get these kids off him, but he refused to reveal too much.
"We fight a few times a year. Usually four times…Lets just say an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth."
"What do you mean?" Sonic said curiously "Did he like kill your girlfriend or something?"
The instant Sonic said that he wish he hadn't. Shadow's face turned cold, but before Sonic can comprehend what he had just said, Amy elbowed him looking slightly cross. "Ow!" Sonic yelled out looking at Amy annoyed. "What did you do that for?"
"For the 4th time this week you didn't think before you spoke Sonic! Remember that time in Oregon in the summer? When you got us in a fight in a sushi restaurant against an anti – mutant group and what appears to be the Yakuza because you couldn't hold your tongue! Or remember that time you got us thrown out of Las Vegas? You always speak without thinking! I don't know how many situations where I had to save you from people you have pissed offed or offended!"
"I beg your pardon!" Sonic said as if he had been slapped in the face "What did you just say? I don't think before I speak. You are a hypocrite!"
"What?" Amy fired back
"Remind me, what happened when we were in New York? And what happened to you in San Francisco?"
Amy looked as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar and that Sonic was her father scolding her.
"I blew up parts of Lady Liberty." Amy said quietly and with extreme guilt
"And?" Sonic said sounding like a judge delivering a sentence to a criminal
"I got kidnapped in San Francisco because I was getting to much attention. And you had to rescue me" She said even more guilty. "I know, we had this talk before"
Shadow watched on in quiet amusement watching these two bicker, it at least spared him of those thoughts of his past. That is what makes him unsuitable for this place, that fox professor is spending too much time worrying about the future if you ask him, and these two here are bickering about the past. He prefers to live for now. He gave a rare smile watching this as he sat up and left the couple arguing to each other.
Rouge sat wrapped up in her favourite blue blanket sitting in her favourite chair in the library. The library is the 3rd largest room in the mansion, and the Professor made sure that books on every topic was in the library. There were books that was older than the country, books that looked as if they had just been printed, books the size of a car and books as small as a postage stamps. The library seemed to have an infinite number of skyscraper bookshelves with books raging from various topics, from the history of Aardvark Abby in Afghanistan to Zucchini cooking for Zulus. Rouge curled up in her chair reading one of her favourite books, this was how she likes to spend her time whenever she needs some peace and quiet.
Unfortunately, peace and quiet makes her mind warp back to David, and how she nearly killed him. 'It's not your fault Rouge' one voice in her head spoke softly. This voice sounded like the professor, calm and forgiving, and never angry. He had such an understanding voice. 'Don't blame yourself. This is who you are now. Rouge. The untouchable mutant' then another voice in her head spoke. 'Do you know how dangerous you are?' the other voice said. This one sounded harsh and rough like if they have been shouting all day and hadn't had the chance to drink water. It sounded oddly like Magneto, but 10 times creepier 'You are a ticking time bomb. You can't touch someone without risking them dying. How much longer can you keep this up? What if you touch one of the kids and they become nothing more than a shell? You might turn into them?'
"Enough!" Rouge blurted out loudly and then slapped her mouth when she realised that she wasn't talking to anyone. 'Yeah. Right' the rough voice said 'Lets set a timer until something bad happens, lets say three or so days, and by then someone would be dead because of you!'
'No.' the calm voice said 'This is who you are now! Just accept it. You are not alone any more.'
'What?' the angry voice said in confusion
'I want you to talk to that Jubilee girl. You know that you can sense something like you in there. You know what I mean. She can't touch anything without it blowing up' the calm voice said
'And your point is?'
'That you can connect with someone that is like you haven't you heard a word I said?'
'Oh yeah!' The angry voice said sarcastically 'She would be in greater risk of dying because of you! You are like Medusa! Cursed by Athena to never to look at someone in the eyes ever again!'
'I thought the myth went when Athena gave her that gift because she was constantly getting harassed! You know? Now people will leave her alone in peace.'
'Right' the angry voice said
"I don't need to be a telepath to tell that your mind is in complete chaos right now" a voice in front of Rouge said.
Rouge nearly jumped right out of her skin. Standing in front of her was Jet fiddling with his trademark cards in one hand and holding a small pile of books like how a waiter in a fancy restaurant would hold a tray, one on New Orleans and the other on the history of the statue of liberty on the other.
"Jet!" Rouge cried out "What do you want?"
"Oh, nothing in particular." Jet said "I am letting you know that you are speaking out loud"
Rouge looked around the large library and she realised that everybody in the library was looking at her. Rouge buried herself in her book in embarrassment unsure on how to respond, for a second she was her confused 17 year old self, then without really thinking about it she put down her book and smiled. "So what?" She said grinning like if she was on laughing gas "They can't tell me what to do. I am not bothering them am I sugah? So let it be! I can do whatever I want to do."
A small part of Rouge told her that this sounded awful out loud, but she didn't care. She didn't care at all.
The den was typically empty at 9:00 PM, by that time almost all of the students were in their rooms going to bed. The den was one of the hang out areas for the students. A large drinks and snacks dispenser was almost always full no matter how many people bought how many drinks and snacks. A giant wide window opened up giving views of the court yard, and if one were to sit by the windowsill they would observe a world class sunrise, paintings of the said sunrise done by a Russian student called Big Rasputin also known as Colossus decorated the walls. A large row of arcade machines glowed faintly in the dark light, a giant plasma TV sat on one side of the room with several sofas surrounding it and a small table for board games sat in the middle of the room.
Rouge, Amy, Sonic and Jet sat at the games playing a card game that they have played several times with cheerful homeless people on trains to intimidating minor mafia bosses in malls.
"We have a lots of games here, but I feel like we are better of simply playing cards" Rouge said shuffling the deck, then eyeing the green hawk noted "And please don't have any funny ideas please Jet."
"What do you mean, madame Rouge?" Jet said in a mix between a mocking or confused tone "I mean we have a mountain of cards so…"
"I mean that you could hurt someone with your 'gift' like how I would by touching someone!" Rouge responded sharply "I mean remember when we've played Slap the Jack? Colossus, Knuks and the Prof could have ripped your neck off when you destroyed half of ze Den!"
"What can you do?" Sonic asked curiously.
Jet gave a slight smirk then walked to open one of the windows that led out to virtually nothing and took several steps back as if expecting a nuclear missile to come flying out of the window "Watch this!" he said pulling out a card out of thin air, he held it back as if he was about to throw it, and for a second the card glowed dangerously gold, then Jet threw it out of the window. For a moment nothing happened, then there was a soft flash and a bang like the force of a small bomb.
Sonic and Amy looked at this in confusion, unable to comprehend what they have just witnessed. As if reading their minds Jet responded "I can manipulate, generate and control pure kinetic energy"
"Really?" Amy said finally understanding what she had witnessed "that's sounds so cool!"
"How did you find out about this power?" Sonic said
Jet made a small face as if unsure how to answer him "I blew up a casino" he said vaguely.
Amy looked at Sonic with a face that read 'I will tell you later'
Sonic paused for a moment. After an incident in New Mexico, Sonic and Amy produced a hand signal language to communicate with each other when around some people they don't want to hear their conversation,
Sonic made some quick hand gestures to respond to her expression 'How did you find out?'
'found his diary' Amy responded
'what!? You of all people?'
"So?" Rouge said not noticing the hedgehog's hand signals "Shall we continue our game, shall we?"
Half an hour later Jet had steamrolled all three of the cardplayers and emerged victorious. However, he rewarded his new friends by offering them snacks and drinks.
"So Sonic." Jet said pouring him some soda "I hear that you are a speedster."
Sonic nodded "That is correct." He said
Jet paused and smiled sniffing the soda as if it was a fine wine "That must be a fun gift to have. I doubt that I can handle something like you with my gift if you know what I mean"
"Do you mean that you can make me go faster, stop me or make me explode?" Sonic said "Whatever it is please don't do the last one, I would prefer to be alive and you would get blood everywhere"
Jet chuckled "No, no, no! I mean make you stop or potentially make you go faster. However, I am better off with things that I can control like my cards"
"I see." Sonic said "So whatever you throw they explode?"
Jet seemed to pause for a moment then replied "Yes that is the general idea"
"Then you will love Amy" He said pointing at the half asleep hedgehog girl "Whatever she touches can explode half of the time."
"Is that a fact?" Jet said "and what can you do? Vaporise things that you run through?"
Sonic looked wide eyed at Jet as if he had reminded him of his worst memory. Jet seemed to have realised that he must have said something bad and made an excuse and disappeared before Sonic can string a word together.
Rouge looked at Amy's half-asleep state like how one would look at a mildly interesting painting. 'Should I wake her up' Rouge thought but before she can find something to nudge Amy with, she woke up with a start as if waking up from a nightmare.
"How long have I been asleep?" Amy asked in an ambiguous tone
"10 minutes" Rouge said
"Oh." Then she looked around her as if expecting to see a fire around her "90 nights without incident" Amy said out loud.
"What do you mean?" Rouge asked
Amy sighed "I have the ability to make fireworks out of my hands, and well lets just say that sometimes in my sleep my subconscious, I let them out….and…they…they never end well."
Rouge's eyebrows raised in interest "Why what happened last time?"
"No!" Amy cried "No I don't think you'll get it"
"Amy." Rouge said in a voice that sounded like the Professor "You are talking to someone who can kill someone by touching them so don't play the 'You will never understand me' gist"
Amy's expression changed slightly "One time I burnt half of someone's face off. However, he kind of deserves it as he was attempting to mug me"
Rouge made an unreadable expression in response to this, and only replied "Someone tried to kidnap me, but they only harmed themselves. Kinda got what was coming for them"
"I see." Amy said "I didn't know what to do before I came here. All I had before now was Sonic. He only gets half of what it is like. If you know what I mean"
"No, I don't" Rouge said "Enlighten me if you will"
"Sonic can vaporise people and things if he runs straight through them at a certain speed. He tries to minimise doing that, however there were a few incidents that I am sort of grateful for. Like the time where we had an incident in a skyscraper in San Francisco, and he also knows how to catch bullets when they have been fired and there had been multiple occasions where that skill got us out of tight corners, but he still needs work on that if I were to be frank. There were also occasions where I had to save him, from an incident we had in Seattle and the time we got in a fight in a sushi bar in Oregon with gangsters and the time where he nearly got us killed in Vegas"
Rouge nodded slightly "As I understand you also had an encounter with that guy, Shadow."
"Yeah." Amy said "I don't know how to describe him. But, well, he is like a father I never had. For use of a better word"
Rouge paused. She didn't know what to make of their new guest. But all she can sense was that something was wrong. Something was very wrong indeed.
Tikal Grey stood in the laboratory in front of the light board, staring at the X rays posted there. To one side sat Professor Xavier, and behind him stood the red echidna and Bunnie. All were dressed in comfortable clothes, as if they were about to go to bed and were about to change into their pyjamas. Tikal had done a few X rays on Shadow, and after examining them had called for the others immediately.
The X rays on the light board showed various angles of Shadow's skeleton, from the skull down to his fingers and toes. It looked more like a creation of a Deco architect than something natural, that was for sure. Much of the skeleton was streamlined, refined in many strange ways as if manufactured in a factory.
And the claws running from the back of his arms down to his knuckles looked downright menacing. The design was brilliant, allowing them to work based purely on muscle control. How he can bend his arms and wrists is anyone's guess, but ingenious all the same.
Even after an hour of studying the X rays, Tikal still can't believe what she was looking at. When the others arrived, she started by pointing out the bones, bright silver on the X ray, the looked at the Professor.
"The metal is an alloy called adamantium"
"You're joking" Knuckles cried
"I didn't think that this was possible" The Professor said, staring at the X rays his features as calm as always.
"Nor did I" Tikal said "Until today. Adamantium is supposed to be impenetrable, unbreakable and indestructible." She pointed at the X rays "All of that is adamantium"
"But how in the world did anyone even work it into shape?" The weather controlling rabbot asked
"It has been surgically grafted to his entire skeleton. Even around his joints and over his skull. I am even willing to bet that it is the same for the bones in his ear."
"Impressive" Knuckles said
"How could he have survived such a procedure like that?" Bunnie asked.
"His mutation" Tikal said, glancing at the professor as if she was answering a question in class "Shadow has uncharted regenerative capability, which enables him to heal rapidly. This also makes his age impossible to determine. For all we know, he could very well be much older than you Professor."
The 2 tailed fox laughed.
"Any idea on who had done this and why?" Knuckles asked
"He doesn't know" The Professor said quickly scanning Tikal's mind "Nor does he remember much of anything in his life before the operation happened. But he remembers the pain." The Professor sighed "This is something I dread. Experimentation on Mutants. We have all seen cases like this, but this takes the cake"
There was a long pause as the X men thought about what they have seen and heard.
It was Knuckles that broke the silence "So?" He said, "What do you think Magneto wants with him?"
The professor pointed at the X rays on the wall "I am not sure it is him that Magneto wants."
"The Adamantium?" Tikal asked
"That or it could be one of the other hedgehogs" The Professor said.
Tikal didn't answer
Nor did anybody else
The Professor knew that. Whatever Magneto was planning he didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.