Mutant Heart and Mutant Soul Chapter 4
Many more days passed since the night of Wolverines departure. Although after Logans little adventure with Creed it wasn't long before his little adventure was on the eleven o'clock news.
Scott and Jean were having an early lunch in the kitchen at the time watching some of the news when it came on for them. They were notified of it by watching Creed being arrested on the news with most of his men.
Scott was the first one to spot this when it came on the news. He nearly choked on his drink when he saw it. "I don't believe it."
Jean looked up from her meal and saw what Scott was getting so excited about. When Jean did she couldn't believe her eyes. "Creed!" She then used her powers to lift up the volume on the TV.
At the same time I came into the kitchen. I heard Jean shouting so I came to see what all the commotion was about.
I said "What's going on in here? I thought I heard you shouting in here Jean."
Scott and Jean put their fingers to their lips for silence.
Scott said "Sh, just listen to this." He pointed to the TV and the three of us listened to what was on it.
The scene was of an old warehouse and it was showing police taking men out of it. A reporter was in a studio explaining what was going on and the footage was being shown in a side window right next to her.
"Police as still puzzled over the incident down at the wharf. The friends of humanity were found and arrested for harboring weapons down in an old warehouse. A tourist passing by heard lasers being fired somewhere inside along with some yelling and crashed. Police don't actually know how this fight came to be but one thing is for sure authorities will get to the bottom of things sooner or later. For the time being Creed and his followers are locked up for the time being and well on the way to spending plenty of years in prison. Wait, wait a minute we're getting something."
There was a pause in this news report. During this time someone passed the reporter a piece of paper with something new on it. It took her less than a second to read what was on it. It took her less than a second to read what was on it.
The reporter looked up from it with a new light on her face.
"This just in while searching the warehouse for leads on the case authorities have found some strange markings on the walls. We'll bring it to you right now. Take it away Thomas."
The scene on the TV then changed from a reporter's studio to the scene of the battle zone inside of the warehouse. A cameraman and a reporter were filming policemen and investigators looking and examining something on a wall.
The reporter was walking about what was happening around him. "Thank you Anne as you can see investigators are examining certain marks on the walls. Authorities are stunned to find that these markings are actually one that came from an animal. I think they'll let us take a look now."
The reporter moved out of the way and the cameraman now had a clear view at what was on the wall. The reporters were right there were claw marks on the wall.
For the three of us these markings were instantly recognizable.
Scott let out a chuckle as soon as he saw them. "Looks like Wolverine have been busy." "No kidding." Jean now used her power to turn off the TV.
Jean said "Logans' lucky he didn't get caught this time. He really shouldn't be out there doing this time of stuff. I mean he can't tale on enemies like these every time he runs off."
"Who are the friends of humanity? I've heard about them but I don't actually know what they do."
Scott was the one to answer my question. He said "The friends of humanity are an organization dedicated to destroying mutants. Jeans right, Logan's lucky he wasn't killed."
"Yeah I guess so."
Right then the Professor came into the kitchen followed by Beast.
Charles said "Ah there you Silverstream it's your turn in the danger room."
Scott and Jean stopped eating when they heard this come out of the Professor.
As for me I froze right in my seat at Xavier's words. Fortunately I had an excuse ready and waiting for when someone told me this. "Uh sorry Professor but I'm going somewhere with Jubilee in a little bit."
Beast spoke up for the Professor with an unusually wicked smile was on his face. "Sacrifices must be made my dear, sacrifices must be made."
With a sigh I got up from my seat and followed the two of them out of the kitchen.
Not long after we left Scott and Jean followed close behind after they finished with their early lunch.
There was a huge urge for me to just use my powers and hide from them, but it quickly went away.
Only I went into the danger room since as you already know it was my turn to be in there. The others went into a place above the danger room where they could watch my progress.
"All right Silverstream, are you ready?"
"Yes I am Professor."
The Professor just nodded his head at me and Beast now spoke through the microphone.
He said "Now my dear Scott and Jean will be on standby in case you need any assistance."
"All right beast let's just get this over with," I said.
Without another word Beast activated the systems of the danger room. It was on a particular setting to make sure that I wouldn't get seriously damaged.
Out of a couple of holes in the floor came up a few robots. Once they were up their holographic programming activated and they took on the forms of different mutants.
I now went into a fighting position ready to attack or defend against them. The robots now when to attack me at the same time. I've been taking lessons from the other x-men lately in fighting so I was now able to finally fight against them.
When as the first one came I jumped onto its shoulder and did a huge leap off of it and onto the others in order to get to the other side of them. I kept jumping as fast as I could off of their shoulders. They even tried to grab me as I was jumping off of them. I got to the other side in about ten seconds and turned toward their backs as soon as I hit the floor again. There was a robot all the way in the back of the group and it started to attack me when I landed on the floor.
It was attacking with all it had in kicks and punches. All I could do to defend from its attacks were to block its efforts with my arms and when I couldn't block I just ducked down.
Not long after this one started attacking me the others joined in. I had to fight all of them at the same time.
The others were watching everything from where they were standing.
Jean was starting to get a little bit nervous of everything that was going on down here.
She said "Maybe one of us should go down and help her. We haven't put her against this many robots before."
"Don't worry Jean she's doing fine," Scott said. Scott could still see the worry on Jeans face so he wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders.
Back down in the danger room I was actually doing better than I had expected. I had gotten rid of most of the robots and only two of them were left standing.
These two robots had taken the forms of Mystique and a mutant that I didn't recognize. These two robots were using their agility to fight against me.
Starting to get tired I realized what I had to do to bring these two down. Bringing up certain thoughts and feelings I activated my mutant power.
Instantly the crescent moon on my forehead started to glow very intently on the robots. Thanks to the Professor and the training he had been giving me I was able to control how much light came out and what form it took. Right now I made sure that two bright beams came out of the mark and into the faces of the robots. Right when I realized that these two couldn't see me I turned off the light and went behind them.
The robots were turning their heads trying to find out where I was hiding. The two of them realized what I did a little too late.
I had opened up compartments into their backs and pulled out their wiring.
Immediately their holographic forms went away and they collapsed onto the floor.
I was breathing hard from the fight and other than a few bruises from the robots I was all right. I looked up at the others with a look of satisfaction on my face and the same look was on theirs as well.
Right then a voice that I instantly recognized spread through the entire chamber.
"You're getting better at that my dear."
I turned at that voice and saw Nightcrawler standing in the doorway. A smile appeared on my face when I saw him. "What are you doing back here? You're supposed to be visiting the monastery."
Hands on hips Nightcrawler just let his shoulders down in a shrug. He said "I decided to cut things a little short Silverstream."
Nightcrawler now looked up and saw the Professor along with the other three in the containment room above where we were standing. Nightcrawler held up a hand in greeting to our friends. They responded by doing the same thing but the Professor spoke into the microphone and through the speakers.
He said "Welcome back Kurt we didn't expect you back so soon."
"As I just told Silverstream I decided to come back a little early."
"Still welcome back Kurt things have been a little gloomy around her without you." With that the Professor now left the danger room in his hover chair. The other followed him close behind.
I left the danger room with Nightcrawler my hand within his. The two of us headed for Storms greenhouse on one of the top floors.
Storm seemed to allow anyone in there these days. I had to water some of her plants whenever I went in there. So I picked up a watering can and started giving water to some of Storms shrubs.
Nightcrawler stood at one of the corners watching me do my work with the plants. Eventually he offered to give me held with the plants in the greenhouse. I shook my head with a little smile on my face when I saw this. I turned to him still wearing that smile.
I said "Nightcrawler you shouldn't be doing this. I'm only doing it because I want to. No one ordered me to do it at all."
Kurt responded to my words with a very friendly smile on his face. He said "It's the same thing with me fraulen I just want to help out too. He then went back to watering the plants with me letting out a little laugh as he did so."
That caught me a little bit off guard and a frown appeared on my face as this had happened. For as I now knew of Nightcrawler he had never laughed with a squeak coming out of his throat but more like a gentle and soothing kind of sound.
The words coming out of him sounded like the ones my Nightcrawler would say only the laugh just wasn't him. It might've been too early to tell but something about Nightcrawler just wasn't right. There weren't many plants left for us to water so it didn't take long for the two of us to finish our job. Once we were done with that the two of us headed out of the greenhouse together.
The two of us headed for the mansions library so we could have some more quiet moments together reading our favorite books together.
I picked up one off of the shelves and started reading it. This book was one that I had looked forward to finish reading for a long time now. The book was from a section full of folk tales and legend of creatures from different worlds. Along with the histories of different places.
Nightcrawler went for a book in a section that he loved the most which was religion. He picked out a bible that he hadn't read before and he appeared onto the ceiling upside down reading the book. I was sitting down in an armchair close to him next to the libraries fireplace which was at the moment not in use.
During the time that the two of us were reading in the library we hardly talked at all except for an occasional word or two about our books. We were so mesmerized in what we were reading that we didn't want to turn our attention away from their words.
At one point after an hour or two I had finished the book I was reading and got out of the armchair I was sitting in. Closing the book I put it back on the shelf where I had found it. Next I went back over to the window I was sitting by before and looked out at the beautiful scenery right in front of me.
Not long after I was standing there I spotted an object moving our way down the road. It wasn't long before I figured out that a taxi was the object coming our way.
My curiosity immediately started to arise inside of me when this happened. My eyebrows burrowed together in great thought as I was thinking about what was the cause of this.
"Now who could be coming here in the middle of the day?"
My thoughts were soon answered when the taxi pulled up in front of the mansions gates and its passenger stepped out of it.
Gasping with surprise I saw who its passenger was, it was Logan.
As soon as he paid the driver for the ride from wherever he came from the taxi drove as fast as it could away from the mansion. Logan now pressed a button under a small speaker next to the gates. He spoke into it and a few minutes later the gates opened. He walked through them and they closed behind him as he did so.
The look of surprise on my face had now left and was replaced by a look of pure excitement on my face with joy covering the whole thing. I couldn't hold in the feelings that were flowing inside of me.
With a whoop I jumped into the air and ran straight out of the library to greet my friend.
Seeing how happy I was Nightcrawler was caught by surprise at my whoop of joy.
"Silverstream!"
But I had already gone out of the library.
Wanting to know what was the cause of my outburst he jumped down from the ceiling and went over to the window where I was standing before.
Immediately he wasn't happy at what he saw and it was Logan moving closer and closer to the front of the mansion.
A look of pure hate had now appeared on his face as he was watching what was happening down below on the front lawn.
A couple of seconds after he saw Logan he heard the front door of the mansion slam shut and less than a second later he saw me running straight for Logan my arms opened wide in welcome.
Dropping his bag Logan opened his arms for the hug I was about to give him. I greeted him with a yell of delight as the two of us embraced each other.
Watching our friendly greeting, Nightcrawler wasn't very happy with Logan's new appearance. Moving away from the window he went over to the fireplace and punched the wall right next to the fireplace and punched the wall next to it in anger.
"Why now? Why did he have to come here today just when I'm starting my plan?"
This man was extremely angry.
"That fool he'll ruin everything."
Back outside the mansion Logan and I were making our way back to the front door. Logan had an arm around my shoulder as we were heading back to the door.
I said "I saw what you did to the friends of humanity on TV Logan. Looks like you've been very busy my friend." I looked at him with one of my eyebrows raised with a mocking look in my eyes when I said what I said to him.
Logan gently squeezed my shoulder in response to my words.
Nightcrawler watched us walk back inside the mansion. The look of hatred was still on his face as he saw us walk through the door.
I helped Logan unpack his belongings when the two of us got to his room. Not long after we started unpacking his bag the Professors voice moved all throughout the mansion.
He said "X-men please report to my study I have something to speak to you about." As quickly as his voice came to our minds it quickly went away.
I let out a deep sigh when this happened.
I said "Ah well we might as well go see what Charles wants this time."
"You go on ahead Silver," said Logan. I'm almost done unpacking my belongings."
Because of his words I just nodded my head and left his room for the Professors study. On my way there I had to once again go through the entrance hall.
As I was passing through it the phone on a small table by the stairs down below started to ring. Since no one else was around I went down to answer it. The phone was still ringing when I got there.
Picking it up I answered who was on the end very politely and when I did the voice on the other end really surprised me.
"Hello," I said.
"Hello Silverstream this is Nightcrawler."
I was surprised to hear his voice on the phone just now. I had thought that Kurt was still in the mansions grounds I didn't know he had left. Since I had only been with him in the library less than an hour ago.
With a note of surprise in my voice I spoke to him back into the phone.
"Huh, Nightcrawler? But it can't be I saw you in the mansions library an hour ago. I didn't know that you left the mansion for the city," I said.
He said "What? I'm sorry Silverstream I wasn't in the library today nor was I in the mansion. Did you forget? I've been in the monastery for the past few days."
My shock was starting to grow by the minute.
"But that's impossible," I exclaimed.
So many thoughts were now going through my mind. If Kurt's words were true ten there was an imposter among us.
Right then the imposter came out from one of the hallways close by me. A look of relief appeared on his face when he saw me standing there.
"Ah there you are Silverstream I was looking for you come on we're going to be late for the meeting," he said.
As he was coming toward me the real Nightcrawler was trying to talk to me on the phone.
"Silverstream who was that I heard just now? Silverstream what's wrong," asked Kurt.
The imposter of my friend was now moving closer to me as Kurt was talking. I was going to have to finish this quickly. So I cupped my hand around my end of the phone and spoke as quietly as I could into it.
I said "I have to go, come back soon."
Kurt was about to say something else when I hung up the phone. At the other end of it the real
Nightcrawler was stunned at what had just happened. In shock he just stared at the phone in his hand.
He said "Now what was that about? She's never done that before."
At the mansion I was getting nervous the other Nightcrawler had finally reached me. He held out his hand to me.
He said "Come now Silverstream we mustn't be late for the meeting."
In order to not raise suspicion I took his hand and did what he said.
On our way there the fake Nightcrawler was trying to make conversation with me. I had a feeling that he wanted to know who I was talking to on the phone. In a matter of seconds he brought up the subject and I wasn't fooled one bit by the gentle not in his voice.
He said "Silverstream who was that you were talking to on the phone?"
There was an edge to his voice as he asked me this so I could see he really wanted to know who I was talking to. So there was no other choice but for me to lie to him.
With a perfect smile on my face I answered his question.
I said "Oh Nightcrawler it was just someone from the city who wanted to speak to the Professor. I told them he would call back as soon as possible."
"Oh all right," he said.
A new spring had now come into his step as we were walking through the mansion.
In the meantime Logan had just gotten to Xavier's study where some of the others were already waiting for us to arrive.
Scott was the first one to notice Logan when he arrived.
Scott said "Well look whose back."
Everyone turned to Logan and smiles now appeared on their faces.
"Wolverine." The Professor said "It's good to have you here with us Logan and right on time too. I have something very important to tell all of you."
"Wait a minute we're still missing Silverstream and Nightcrawler," Beast said.
Storm said "He's right we should wait for them."
They didn't have to wait long for the two of us to arrive in the study.
As soon as we entered it the Professor immediately started talking again. "Now then there are urgent matters that concern all mutants around the world," he said.
This caught all of our attention since this news concerned all of us.
"Go on Charles. Out with it," said Beast.
Just as the Professor was about to talk something strange came over Wolverine. He started sniffing a little bit and a searching look appeared on his face.
Then suddenly a look of shock and surprise appeared on his features.
"It can't be," said Logan. Attention was now turned over to him.
Jubilee said "What is it Logan?"
It took a while for him to answer her question he was doing a little more sniffing.
"Morph," he exclaimed, " Morphs here!"
"What!"
Logan's outburst got surprised cries out of everyone but Nightcrawler and me.
Having only been there for a few months I didn't know anything about previous members on the team that were no longer here. The only thing that Logan's words had gotten out of me was only a slight movement of my head. But the reaction that had been gotten out of Nightcrawler was surprising and now unexpected by me.
He flinched at what he just heard and took a few steps back from where he was standing. I could feel the tension coming out of him.
Wolverine sniffed one more time and turned his full attention onto Nightcrawler. Then by saying one word confirmed my suspicions about this guy being an imposter from the start.
"Morph," said Logan. Even though I had my suspicions hearing that name still surprised me since I didn't know who that was.
There wasn't any response out of the person next to me at all only the tension that I could feel coming out of his body. Only a couple of seconds later did we get something out of him.
He said "Why are you looking at me?"
"Don't play games Morph! Just what do you think you're doing," growled Logan.
"Logan what's going on," I asked.
He didn't answer my question. Logan just strode right over to the two of us. Feeling that something was about to happen I moved away from the spot and over to the others.
My instincts were very correct at this point.
At this time Logan took the imposters arms and lifted him up off the floor a little bit.
"Morph, what are you doing here?"
Unlike me the others weren't catching on to what was going on around them.
Hank, Gambit, and Scott moved quickly over to Logan and tried to get him to put who they thought was Nightcrawler down.
Logan wouldn't budge at all from his position.
Hank said "Logan my friend you are not well."
"Beast's right. Wolverine, you need to get looked over in the infirmary," Scott said.
Gambit said "Listen to them Wolverine you need to lie down."
"No I don't," snarled Logan. "I'm not the one with the problem here. Morph, why are you hiding from us?"
Logan gave the guy he was holding a shake as he said this.
With a final tug Scott, Hank, and Gambit finally were able to pull Logan off of the guy he was shaking. Even as they were it still took all three of them to keep Logan away from the fake Nightcrawler.
The fake one shook out his arms and looked at Wolverine with a raised eyebrow.
He said "He's gone crazy Logan obviously gone mad he must be destroyed!"
This caught many of us by surprise. The Nightcrawler we knew was such a gentle creature that he would never say such a thing like that.
Gambit let go of Logan and left him to Beast and Scott. He was touching his chin in great thought.
He said "Now that doesn't sound like something Nightcrawler would say."
Gambit then reached into his coat and pulled out one of his game cards. He now used his mutant powers to set it aflame and he threw it toward our so called Nightcrawler.
Then something very, very strange happened that confirmed Logan's words and my suspicions. When the flaming card landed in front of him, he didn't transport away from it only went straight into a shielding position. He lowered his arms when he realized that the card wasn't going to blow up in his face.
When he did he saw that all but Logan and I were looking at him with surprised looks on their faces.
Eventually a weird smile appeared on his face and a totally different voice came out of his mouth and the laugh that I heard him use before came out of him again.
He said "Well, well looks like I've been found out. The game is finally over."
And with that the imposter changed into his true form the so called mutant named Morph.
As I said before Wolverine and I were the only ones that weren't surprised by this. As the matter of fact they were all speechless even the Professor.
My eyes narrowed when I saw Morph shape shift into his true form.
I said "I knew that something wasn't right about you. Right when I heard you laugh in the greenhouse."
"What do you mean Silver," Logan said.
I said "Before this meeting I got a call from Germany and guess who was on the other end of it. It was Nightcrawler that was on the other end, it was Kurt. I was already starting to get suspicious before this but that call confirmed it."
A large sneer appeared on the face of Morph when I said this and that crazy laugh of his came out of his body.
He said "You figured it out so what that's still not going to change anything."
There was a slight pause it seemed for dramatics and then he said something else.
He said "Especially not after you left me behind to die."
I didn't know what he meant by this but everyone else seemed to. They all flinched at hearing his words Scott as resourceful as ever was the first one to recover from the shock of this introduction.
Scott held out his hands to show that he had nothing in them and he started to move slowly toward Morph.
Scott said "Now Morph you know that isn't how it really happened. We had our reasons to do what we did."
"Shut up," Morph yelled.
Morph now took something from a hidden compartment in his belt and threw something straight at Scott.
With her mind Jean used her power to stop what Morph threw in the air. Only Morph was prepared for this so he took out his gun. He held it out and pointed it straight at the small bomb. Pulling the trigger the blast that same out of the gun made that bomb explode in midair. It wasn't a huge blast but it was still big enough to knock most of us off our feet.
There wasn't any time for Jean or Charles to shield the rest of us from the bomb. Because of this distraction Morph was able to make a clean get away and find a new place to hide. The bomb that he threw was at a very close range to us so we were injured from his attack.
It took a few minutes for us to recover from that one attack.
Wolverine was the first one to get up because of his regeneration powers. The first one he went to check on was me. He moved quickly over to my side to see if I was all right.
"Silver," he said, gently shaking me.
My eyes fluttered for a second and then slowly my eyes opened. Logan helped me sit up as I was trying to make sense of what happened.
I said "Oh man what hit me?"
Once he knew I was all right he went to check on the others. There was no need to the other were fairing out just fine. They were all helping each other get back onto their feet.
It took both Beast and Gambit to get Charles back up into his hover chair.
The Professor was rubbing his head with one of his hands. He let out a groan as he was rubbing it.
"Is everyone all right," he asked.
Storm said "Besides a few scratches we're all right."
"Speak for yourself Storm," said Rogue.
Scott said "We'll go to the infirmary later, but right now we need to figure out what happened."
"I'll tell you what happened we were tricked that's what by someone who we thought our friend was," said Jubilee, angrily.
"Speaking of our friend where has Morph gone," said Beast.
That was when we all noticed that Morph was missing from the room.
The Professor now instantly sprang into action at this new piece of action. He decided to split us all into the groups in order to find out where Morph had gone to while Charles went to the control room in the lower levels. In order to see if he could find anything of Morph on the monitors.