Chapter 6

Crimson Knight and the "New" X-Men

A few days later, Ms. Marvel comes to the Institute to explain that Joshua/Icarus was found dead with "NIMRC" written in blood near his body. Wade, in his normal clothes, and the remaining students have gathered in the living area of the mansion to talk about Stryker's attack and the information that Ms. Marvel brought to the X-Men while the X-Men are out on a mission. Scott/Cyclops told all the students to stay there no matter what happens and Wade stayed to help protect the students.

"What do you think NIMRC meant?" Nori/Surge asks the group.

"He was probably trying to write something, but died before he could finish," Wade answers.

David/Prodigy takes some time to think about the letters. "Nimrod. He wasn't able to finish the O or D," David tells the group.

"That makes sense," Wade says casually.

"How does that make sense?" Julian/Hellion asks loudly.

"Oh sorry I guess you don't know, Nimrod is a super sentinel from the future and Stryker's Gauntlet did look like Nimrod's arm from what I have seen of it in the records. Also, I think Cable recently fought a Nimrod and damaged it. That could have been it, thanks to the wonders of time travel," Wade explains to everyone.

"Wait if that's all there was why did Joshua try to warn us about it?" Julian/Hellion exclaims.

Wade sees a red light flashing in the corner of the room and walks over to it and sees that it is a PDA like device. When Wade picks it up a GPS target displays in Texas with an SOS message appears stating that Forge is in danger.

"What is it?" Nori/Surge asks Wade.

"It's an automated SOS from Forge, but it doesn't state what the issue is," Wade tells her and tosses the device to her.

"Well then we have to go help him. The X-Men are gone and we are the only ones that can help," Nori tells everyone and looks at Wade.

"Hey don't look at me; I'm just here your team leader. Of course if you go I'm coming along as well," Wade tells her as his costume appears on him.

"You're not going to try to stop us?" Nori/Surge asks him confused.

"I said I would help protect you, but I'm not your babysitter, hell we are the same age. As far as I am concerned we are equals," Wade tells her with a smirk.

"I didn't expect either of you to do something like this, I thought you both would be too scared," Julian/Hellion says in a smug tone as he stands up.

"Julian, why do you always have to be an ass?" Nori/Surge asks him. "Okay everyone you have five minutes then we head out. Meet in the hanger."

Many of the mutants head into the underground of the X-Mansion to where the X-Men hold all of their high tech gadgets, training rooms, ect to prepare to answers Forge's call to help. Wade heads straight to the hanger and preps the backup Blackbird for flight while the students get ready for combat. Beth/Lady Maude, in a greenish costume with "X's" on the shoulders, walks into the hanger as Wade exits the Blackbird.

"Wade, I'm kinda nervous about this. What if this is out of our League?" Beth/Lady Maude asks in a concerned tone.

"Maybe it is, but if you feel like that then don't go. Every hero goes through this at least once Beth and it is perfectly normal. Only one thing matters though, are you going to let your nerves or fear keep you from going out? No one will judge you if you choose to stay behind," Wade comforts his cousin.

"So you went through things like this? How did you get over it?" Beth/Lady Maude curiously asks him.

"Of course I did and I still do from time to time. I'm feeling nervous now as well. I'd feel much more comfortable going alone because then I would be the only one in danger, it makes it easier that way. Julian is smarter than he thinks honestly; we are warned about Nimrod and then less than twenty-four hours later we get a distress call from Forge. Doesn't that seem a little odd to you? Nothing is every that simple in this line of work. We are likely going into a fight with a machine, from the future, designed to kill mutants," Wade explains to her. "If you come Beth make sure it is for the right reasons. You can be a great hero, but only if you want it."

Nori/Surge, Santo/Rockslide, Cessily/Mercury, David/Prodigy, and Laura/X-23 all walk into the hanger in their uniforms and battle ready. As they walk up to the Blackbird Wade and Beth/Lady Maude relax a bit after having that conversation.

"So are we ready to go?" Nori/Surge asks Wade and Beth/Lady Maude.

"Yea, we are ready to go Surge. I've even locked the navigation into Forge's distress signal. The X-Men sure have some fancy toys," Wade tells Nori/Surge.

"Okay then let's get going then," Nori/Surge tells the team and enters the Blackbird.

The other young X-Men and Wade follow her with Wade taking a seat in the pilot seat and David/Prodigy in the co-pilot seat. The team launches almost right away to save Forge. Even with the Blackbird's speed they do have a little time before they arrive to plan, but seeing as they didn't have much information going into the situation there isn't much discussion outside of pairings and duties. Laura/X-23 was assigned security to track and detect enemies; Julian/Hellion and Beth/Lady Maude were assigned as the front and rear guard respectively, and the others filling in the middle. Once they arrive they enter the skyscraper from the roof and proceed as planned until they reach Forge's workshop. The entire building is quiet and poorly light with no sign of Forge or anyone else.

"Its way to quiet, I have a bad feeling about this," Wade tells the others unsheathing Olihandrew.

"Awww you scared big hero?" Julian/Hellion mocks.

"No, my bad feelings usually come with good reason," Wade explains to Julian/Hellion.

Wade and Laura's eyes widen as they sense it. "SCATTER!" They both yell as they and the rest of the team jump out of the way as a large blast of energy flies by them barely missing the slower members. Out of the far side of the room, where the blast originated, a pinkish robot hovers out of the shadows.

"Engaging new targets, compensating for magically enhanced human," Nimrod's robotic voice echoes throughout the room.

"Don't take it on solo! It's a mutant killer with future tech and it looks fully operational!" Wade relies to the others.

"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH FORGE!?" Nori/Surge screams sending a large burst of electrical energy at Nimrod, which barely slows it down.

Nimrod attempts to fire a blast at Nori/Surge just to be hit by a telekinetic combo blast by Beth/Lady Maude and Julian/Hellion. "Surge, calm down or you'll end up being a liability to your team! Focus on right now and we'll worry about the rest after the fight!" Wade shouts and then sends a Nova at Nimrod which does nothing to it.

"I got him!" Cessily/Mercury yells as she jumps on Nimrod's back and stabs it with her arms in the shape of blades. While it does penetrate Nimrod's armor it sends an electrical shock into her causing her intense pain. Laura/X-23 jumps into the fray and cuts Cessily's/Mercury's hands off freeing her from the painful electrical shock. Fortunately, Cessily's/Mercury's liquid metal body allows her to reform her hands.

Wade charges Nimrod and slashes at it with Olihandrew cutting into its armor. "Its barrier doesn't seem to block physical attacks. Good to know, but he need that barrier knocked out for our big guns," Wade thinks to himself. He notices that Nimrod is readying a blast to fire at him and he activates his Crimson Shroud. Four red ribbons come from Wade's back and form a force field in front of him to block the shot. As Nimrod fires it shatters the left side of the shield, pushing Wade back and grazing his face ripping through the left side of his mask. As Wade lands on the ground he is utterly shocked, his Crimson Shroud has never buckled before much less scatter like that. Wade sees Nimrod go for a killing point blank blast on Laura/X-23. He uses what's left of his Shroud to form a shield over his right arm and puts Olihandrew in his left hand. He blitzes to Laura/X-23, blocks the blast with his shield, wraps his left arm around Laura/X-23 and blitzes both of them away as the shield scatters and his arm is engulfed by the energy blast.

They appear in the corner of the room about seven feet away from Nimrod. Wade's arm is burnt and bloody from the blast tearing through his Crimson Shroud and magic armor, his face full of pain and aggravation. "Your arm…" Laura/X-23 says. "I would have been fine."

"I doubt that. That blast tore through my defenses and still hurt me this badly. Even if you could recover from it, and I would be willing to bet you could, there are two problems with it," Wade grunts in pain. "One, you would have been hurt, and two, you would have taken too long to recover. I need you to beat this bastard, so listen to what I'm about to say and follow it to the letter. We do this right and we go home with a few cuts and bruises."

The others continue to fight Nimrod but with very little effect with Nimrod able to counter most of their powers and attacks with ease. Fortunately, with a combination of Nori/Surge unleashing her powers at her max by removing the gauntlets and Julian/Hellion distracting Nimrod they manage to knock out Nimrod's barrier. This is exactly what Wade was waiting and he charges Nimrod with Olihandrew in his left hand. Nimrod notices this and readies to blast him, but Wade parries Nimrod's arm knocking it out of the way as the blast fires. Wade then ducks down and Laura jumps over him and starts cutting into Nimrod's body exposing its insides. As Nimrod reacts to throw Laura off she uses the machine as a springboard and jumps backwards away from it. Wade then leans back up and as he takes a step forward and swings a glowing red Olihandrew into the opening in Nimrod's armor sending a massive red wave of energy toward Nimrod engulfing it entirely and the wave crashes into the wall and continues until it blows out the side of the building as well. Only pieces of Nimrod remain after the dust settles and most of the teenage heroes catch their breath after the battle, but Nori/Surge rushes to look for Forge.

"Holy crap! Why didn't you start with that!?" Julian/Hellion inquires.

"Because I can't really control it yet, it was supposed to be smaller and much more focus not a wide area blast like that. While it looked pretty it was only about half its intended strength and it used up basically all my energy. Go with Surge and help her find Forge," Wade answers taking a knee to rest.

Beth/Lady Maude, walks over to Wade and sits down next to him. "You okay CK?"

"CK?" Wade says with a smirk.

"Yep, it's easier than saying Crimson Knight all the time," Beth/Lady Maude says with a smile.

"You still nervous?" Wade asks her.

"No when the fighting started everything just went away. I was completely in the moment trying to take everything in, watching my teammates, I didn't have time to worry," Beth/Lady Maude explains.

"I knew you would be alright. I do this because for me it is the only path I see. I have power so I should use it for the right cause. Looks like you are cut out for this life after all," Wade tells her with a smile.

"Is your arm going to be okay? We should go ahead and treat it," Beth/Lady Maude tells him.

"Oh when did you take first aid? It should be fine, but I'm not sure how long it'll take to heal. I've never had damage this extensive before," Wade tells her as Laura/X-23 crouches down in front of him holding a medical kit.

"I went to the Blackbird and got this to treat you," Laura/X-23 tells him as she opens the kit and starts treating Wade's arm.

Nori/Surge and Julian/Hellion come back into the room with Forge and Storm while the rest of the young X-Men look around the room with the exception of Laura/X-23 who is treating Wade's arm.

"Laura, I know it's not easy for you at the Institute, but I'm glad you decided to come and have stayed even though Emma seems to hate that you were let to stay. I guess Scott still has a few redeeming qualities to him after all," Wade tells her with a smile.

"You know about what Emma is doing then?" Laura/X-23 asks him.

"Just that she wants you gone. What else has she done?" Wade asks her.

"She has been sending unpleasant images into my head, making me see things," Laura/X-23 tells him.

"What kind of things?" Wade asks in a serious tone.

"My mother's corpse mostly, but please don't interfere. I promised Logan I would try to stay and make this work," Laura/X-23 tells him.

"Laura…I…that's not easy for me to do, you know what kind of person I am, but fine I promise I will let you handle it," Wade says with a sigh as Laura/X-23 finishes with the bandage.

"I can't believe you kids beat Nimrod," Forge says surprised.

"It is quite an accomplishment to be sure," Ororo/Storm adds.

"Is there anyone here? If not I suggest we get back to the Institute. I'm sure O*N*E* is getting ready to send out the troops to find you all," Wade tells them.

The team, along with Forge and Storm, board the Blackbird to return to the Xavier Institute and the flight back is uneventful as is the rest of the night once they get back. The worst part was the lecture they all got from Scott/Cyclops about leaving without permission, but praising them on beating an opponent like Nimrod on their own.

Author's Note: So I tried a new way to spilt identify the heroes in this chapter because of the volume of the characters and ended up hating it and cutting much of the combat because of it, so I will start using the character's superhero names for the lesser known characters and given names for the more popular heroes going forward.