A/N: Well, here's chapter two of the story. A few notices before you start reading, however. First, I don't speak a word of German, or any other languages but English (and a little Spanish), so the translations in this chapter, and all the other chapters where they are needed, are courtesy of Google Translate. These translations will appear at the end of the chapter in italics. The number in parenthesis will correspond to the translation number at the end of the chapter. If there are any errors, please let me know and I'll correct them.

Second, after this chapter, the ratings will probably be going up. Chapter 3 is going to have some somewhat graphic violence, and chapter 4 will have a LOT of blood in it. That is why I might have to rate this story M before I'm done.

I think that's all I need to say, so lets get on with the story, huh?

Oops, almost forgot the disclaimer: I own nothing but my O/C and the storyline. (Do I really need to put that in every chapter?)

Chapter 2 - Medical

The elevator doors opened and Hank and John walked out. The hallway here was silver metal, as were most of the basement levels. John looked down the hall both ways before following the doctor to the right. Halfway down the hall, Hank opened a door on the left side. "Come on in."

John entered the room, and was followed by Beast. Looking around, he realized that this wasn't much of a lab, and Hank probably guessed that thought. "This is just a waiting area. The actual lab is through here." He walked through a set of double doors that swung both ways. Again, John followed him, taking in everything he was seeing. The room he was now in was actually another hallway. To the left, he noted, was two rooms with their doors open. He assumed these were typical exam rooms or hospital rooms. To the right, which the hallway was much longer in this direction, were several doors, many of them with signs on them. Those would be the more hi-tech areas of the lab. Hank led John to the left, and to the room on the left of the hall.

As he entered this room, John noticed that it appeared to be more of a surgical room than a hospital room. The operating table was in the middle of the room with a light fixture hanging overhead. Various monitors were plugged in but not turned on, though the table itself looked more like a normal bed than a surgery bed. John looked at the room nervously. "You know, the last time I was in a room like this they were giving me gene therapy." He shuddered at the memory, it was a painful and unpleasant one.

"I'll try to make this one go better than that one did. Here, change into this, if you would, please." Hank handed him a hospital gown. "You can leave your underwear on, but everything else needs to be taken off. You're going to get x-rays and an MRI done on you tonight."

"All right. I've been in hospitals enough to know about those. They aren't what I'm concerned about." John said as took the gown and began to take his clothes off.

Meanwhile, whether John was aware or not, on the other side of the mirror that made up the far room of the chamber, two people were watching. "You sure it's safe for him to stay here, Chuck?" Logan asked.

"It's as safe for him to be here as it was when you first arrived." Despite the vote of confidence, Logan knew that something was still troubling the professor. As they continued to watch, they found themselves both surprised for the second time that night. Charles could only voice what Logan was thinking "Oh my God."

A couple hours later, John had been taken to the other end of the lab and had a full body x-ray and a full body MRI scan. Now he was laying down in the surgical bed and Hank was getting some supplies from various cabinets in the room. "Lets see, we'll need about five vials of blood, a skin sample, a hair sample, a urine sample, and......... oh...."

"What is it?"

Hank looked at his patient with a little bit of sadness in his eyes. "One of the things I'm going to need is a bone marrow sample. I'll need to take it from your hip bone. I'm going to need to give you a sedative in order to do that."

"No, you won't. I don't need a sedative. And no offense, but I don't trust you enough to let you drug me. Besides, I want to have a clear head."

"You will most certainly need a sedative, taking bone marrow is NOT like taking blood, I'll be drilling into your bone and drawing material out of it."

"Yes, I know. I have an extremely high tolerance for pain. And besides, I'm refusing the drugs, so you really can't force me to take them unless my life depends on it."

Beast laughed a little bit at his comment. "No, you're right, I can't. However, I can say that the marrow will be the last thing we do, and I will have a sedative ready in case it's needed."

John smiled at Hank."Thanks, Doc."

On the other side of the glass, Logan and the Professor were still watching. Logan was surprised at the conversation in the lab. "He's not taking a sedative? Is he crazy?"

"I don't think so. He obviously is no stranger when it comes to suffering, but I don't think he knows exactly what it is he's in for." John looked at the mirror as Charles finished his statement, and both men suddenly remembered about his ability and that he was very much aware of their presence in that room.

"All right, John, while I'm getting the samples I need, I'm going to be monitoring your brain waves and heart rhythms, all right?"

"That's fine with me, as long as I don't have to get my head shaved." John and Beast both laughed at his comment.

Hank then set to putting the sensors on John's head and chest and hooking up the wires. The whole process took about five minutes, and a few more minutes to get the machines running. However, when the brainwave machine began to work, it appeared to be receiving interference. John, having removed his sunglasses when he changed clothes, looked up at the monitor. "Oh, sorry about that." As he spoke, the interference cleared up and the monitor began working normally. As Hank gave him a confused look, he replied. "The electrical impulses that my brain processes when I'm using my telepathy can sometimes interfere with machines like this. I'm just used to constantly being aware of my surroundings beyond what I can see that sometimes I forget that in cases such as these, I can't use that ability."

"Oh, that's good to know, I suppose." Hank then set to work applying the rest of the sensors.

Once he was done, Hank began getting samples, the urine one having been gotten before John had been hooked up. Beast was a little surprised that John didn't flinch at all when he stuck him with the needle to draw his blood. After getting five small vials of the red liquid, Beast withdrew the needle. "I think I can honestly say that other than Logan, I don't know if I've ever seen anyone that didn't have any reaction at all to needles."

"I'm used to them." John smirked at the doctor, in an attempt at trying to ease his somewhat obvious nervousness about the proceedings.

Beast seemed to think about this statement for a few seconds before replying. "Yes, I suppose you probably are, judging by your condition." Now he smirked at his patient as John's smirk faded into a bit of a scowl at being reminded of his painful past. Before he could respond, though, Beast continued. "Well, now its going to get worse, I need a skin sample. Just a small patch from your arm will be enough. It won't even leave a scar and in four or five days, it will be completely healed."

John scoffed a little at Hank's comments."It will barely take one day, Doc." Hank paused for a second, scalpel already in hand, at John's comment, before smiling and beginning to cut into his upper arm. John hissed in pain and tensed up slightly, but after a couple seconds relaxed and didn't give any further reaction to Beast as he went about his work with his small knife.

Beast was extremely impressed with John's indifference to the damage he was doing. He wasn't cutting very deep, just enough to take the skin and not cutting into the muscles or nerves, so it wasn't nearly as painful as it could have been, but to have almost no reaction to it, especially without being numbed up first, he didn't even know if Logan could have done that.

After about a minute of cutting, Hank slipped away with the scalpel, placing the tissue he'd removed in a petri dish he'd brought specifically for that purpose. He then returned to John and bandaged up the quite bloody wound. When he was done, he looked at John, the only thing on his face was a look of concern. "The only thing we have left to do now is the marrow. Before I begin, I'm going to once again recommend that you take a sedative. This is going to hurt quite a bit more than what you've had so far."

"I'm not going to need it, Hank." John's confidence didn't completely abate Hank's worry. Hank had had bone marrow drawn from himself once, and even with the sedative he had been given it was probably the most painful thing he'd ever experienced. Beast shot a look back at the mirror, knowing that the professor was still there, watching, asking without asking whether he should take John at his word. From the other side of the glass, the professor's equally silent response was given. You can't force him to take it. You'll have to trust him.

Beast then grabbed the needle and John for the first time was able to see how big it actually was. Upon seeing it, John did something he hadn't done in quite a long time, he started second guessing himself. However, his doubts were quickly overcome by his pride and self confidence, and he nodded to the blue-furred man to continue.

Sighing, Hank looked back at John and muttered a short silent prayer before forcefully sticking the needle into John's hip. Immediately John's eyes rolled back in their sockets before closing as his entire body tensed up, his heart rate increasing dramatically as the brain monitor completely scrambled due to a sudden increase in the target's brain activity. At the same time, in the watching area, Xavier screamed and grabbed his head in immense pain. Logan recognized right away that John was projecting the pain he was in and the Professor was receiving it as if it was happening to himself. There was nothing he could do, however, other than watch the scene unfold around him.

Hank watched John's heart rate as it continued to climb. 100, 110, 120... If it increases much more, he'll go into cardiac arrest. Hank took his hand off of the syringe in John's hip and grabbed another along with the sedative he'd prepared. He filled the syringe as full as he could and prepared to jab it directly into John's heart, knowing that it was the only way to calm it down fast enough to keep him alive. Before the needle could come close enough to John's chest, however, a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist and held him still. Hank looked at the hand in surprise, realizing quickly that it belonged to John. A few seconds after grabbing Beast's arm, John's heart rate began to return to normal and his body started to relax. After about a minute, John opened his eyes once again.

"OK, that hurt a lot more than I thought it would." he said, smiling at the Doctor as he let go of his wrist. He looked around the room for a few seconds before adding. "Sorry about that, Professor."

Logan, on the other side of the mirror, couldn't suppress the slight chuckle that came at John's apology. When he looked at his companion, however, he suddenly became concerned again. Charles was no longer holding his head in pain, but he was breathing very heavily, and obviously hadn't recovered from the shock of John's actions as quickly as the younger man had. However, Charles sent a silent note of acceptance toward John before turning to his friend. "I'll be all right, but I think I'm going to need to lay down until morning." Turning himself around, he left the room as Logan watched before the latter turned back to the operating room.

"Are you all right, John?" Beast was concerned as well, though he had no idea what had happened to the Professor.

"I will be. So will Charles. Give me a minute, then go ahead and take what you need." Beast looked at his patient confused for a second before John pointed to his head. Then the mutant doctor realized what had happened and his expression softened slightly.

"He felt your pain, didn't he?"

"Yes. I can usually contain it within myself, but when I'm tired like I am right now, my barriers are weaker and sometimes I will project stronger emotions, like pain." John sighed and looked away from Hank before continuing. "I should have been smarter than that. I should have warned him."

"He knew it was a possibility, being this close to you."

"Still, I don't like him suffering for me." He looked at Hank for a second, then down at the needle still embedded in his side. "OK, you can continue whenever you're ready."

Hank sighed himself, then took the syringe and pulled out the marrow he needed. John hissed in pain again, but didn't tense up as much as he had before. Hank realized he must have been mentally preparing himself for the pain that was to come while they were talking. After filling the syringe, he pulled the needle out of John's hip and quickly bandaged it up. "All right, that's everything I need. Unfortuantely, we don't have a room ready upstairs for you, so you'll have to stay in this room tonight. I suppose I should mention to you that because this is a lab and hospital area, there are security cameras in this room and most of the other rooms on this floor. Although, by now you've probably already realized that."

"I was aware. It's not a problem. Fact is I'm used to being monitored all the time, though it has been a while." John tried to get off of the table, forgetting that he was still hooked up to all the monitoring devices until they pulled at him and he fell back against the side of the steel table he'd been laying on.

"John! Are you all right?" Beast was moving over to help his patient quickly for someone his size, but John was already picking himself up off the ground by the time he got to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Forgot about these." He pointed to the various patches on his body. "And my leg is killing me right now."

"Well, I'm done monitoring you, I have all the data I need, so we can remove those, if you'll get back onto the table for a minute." Beast helped him back onto the table, and began removing the devices. "Where were you trying to go, anyway?"

"The restroom, other than peeing in that cup for you, I haven't had a chance to use one since I got off the plane this afternoon."

Several thoughts ran through Hank's mind, as they did Logan in the next room. Hank however, was the only one capable of asking them out loud, however. "You would have had to have landed in New York City if you came from Europe as Charles suggested. How did you get here from there?"

John looked at him for a few seconds, not wanting to answer that question, eventhough he knew it would be asked eventually. "I have my ways. Maybe tomorrow, I'll tell you, but for now, I'm tired." He noticed that Hank had finished undoing all the patches and monitors, and got back off the table. "I'm going to use the restroom, then I'm going to try to get some sleep."

"All right. My room is at the other end of the hall. If I'm not there, I'll be in another part of the lab probably, should you need anything."

"Thanks." John bowed slightly, then turned and limped from the room. Logan, realizing that nothing else would be happening that he needed to be present for, removed himself from his isolation and went to bed himself.

A slight noise, a puff of smoke, and a sudden smell of brimstone signaled the arrival of a certain mutant the next morning. He had heard of a mysterious stranger arriving at the mansion the night before, and was anxious to meet this person. He'd teleported himself into the watching room Logan and Charles had been in the night before. As he looked into the surgery room, he noticed a Caucasian man with fairly long brown hair laying on the surgical table, his eyes closed and his arms crossed over his chest and covered from the shoulders down by a sheet. If the mutant didn't know better, he'd swear the man in the other room was dead.

Another small sound, almost a thudding noise, was heard, once again accompanied by smoke and brimstone, as the mutant disappeared from the room he was in and appeared on top of the light fixture in the surgical room. From this vantage point, he realized he could get a better view of the newcomer. He was quite startled when the man began to speak.

"A blue skinned man who is not the Doctor? You a relative or something?"

The mutant was speechless for a minute, but recovered enough to finally speak. "No, we aren't related." He analyzed the situation for a minute, before adding. "You haven't opened your eyes, how did you know I was here or what I look like?"

"I smelled you when you teleported in. As for your look, I'm pretty sure you've heard about my abilities by now."

"Ja, I've heard you're psychic."

"Among other things, yes." John paused for a second. "You might want to come down from there. The support you're leaning on is loose."

"Vas?" The blue mutant tensed up slightly and in doing so inadvertently leaned even more on the support John had mentioned. It creaked and gave slightly, causing the mutant to scream a little and teleport down to solid ground. "How did you know that?"

"I heard it last night." John finally opened his eyes, and much like Charles and Logan the night before, the blue mutant was shocked to see them glowing faintly. John realized this and blinked a couple times, the glow dissipating and his eyes returning to normal. He was finally able to see the blue man in better detail.

The man was indeed blue skinned, however unlike Hank, his skin didn't appear to be very hairy, at least not what John could see. He had long black hair, almost to his shoulders. His clothes were more or less typical of a teenager, khaki pants with a white t-shirt and a brown flannel shirt over it. He had a blue tail swaying behind him and only three fingers on each hand, John noticed. He smiled at the unexpected company and held out his hand. "I'm John."

The mutant took his hand and shook it eagerly. "Kurt Wagner."

The way he said the name struck something in John's memory. After a minute, John spoke again, though, this time, not in English. "Du bist der Zirkuskunstler als Nightcrawler bekannt?"(1)

"Vas? Sie Sprechen Deutsch?"(2)

"Enough to get by on simple conversations. I'm by no means fluent." John sat up and got out of bed. Walking past Kurt to his clothes, which were still sitting on the chair he'd placed them on the previous night. As he did so, he couldn't help but hear Kurt's gasp. He stopped suddenly. He knew what Kurt had seen, it was the same thing that the others had noticed last night.

Kurt had watched John as he passed and noticed that his back was covered with scars. Kurt had tried to count them, but there were so many and they intersected so much he lost count at twenty, but he had to guess there were at least twice that. There were also a few scars on the back of his legs, including one that looked like it had run completely from the back of his left knee almost all the way down to the ankle.

"Mein Gott. What happened to you?"

John removed the gown that had covered him and placed the blue t-shirt he'd worn the previous day on before turning to Kurt and answering simply. "Sins of my past. The pain of these scars has long since left me." He smiled, but Kurt could tell he was embarrassed about them.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"I know." John grabbed the jeans and sat down in the chair to put them on. "My past isn't something I'm comfortable talking about, at least not in detail. Maybe some day I can tell you and the others about it, but not today." John finished with his pants and put on the socks and shoes that were on the floor where he'd discarded them before standing up and walking back toward Kurt.

Kurt stepped aside, suddenly a little frightened of the newcomer as he was suddenly aware that if anything happened, he would be in deep trouble. John walked by him to the other side of the bed and picked something up, before turning back around to Kurt smiling. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, there is no need." He paused for a minute before adding. "Is it too early to get something to eat? I haven't had anything since I got off the plane yesterday."

Kurt smiled, as he suddenly remembered that that had actually been the reason he'd come down to the lab to begin with. "Ja, most of the others are already in the kitchen. Come on, I can introduce you to them!" Kurt turned and ran out the door, with John hot on his heels.

Translations:

1. You're the circus performer known as Nightcrawler?

2. You speak German?

A/N: Well, another chapter done. Please leave feedback, whether positive or negative, it is appreciated! Also, I changed a few things on the summary and re-edited part 1 to take out a few spelling mistakes I noticed and add a couple of things I'd forgotten. I realized that this story is, or at least will be, more of a romance story to some extent, and calling it Sci-Fi was kinda repetitive, since it IS a comic book story. I also added Logan to the featured characters, since he will be a major player in this story. Next chapter should be fun, Kurt and John go for breakfast, and things get interesting for some of the characters.