Noah's outfit: . , Also I apologize before hand for the lack of ability to copy and paste on
Ch. 6: what have you done?
"Good morning, Love." This made two days she had woken up with Charles next to her and it wasn't any more comfortable when her mind went wild.
"Sleep well?" she stared at him, giving a small nod and trying to bury herself in the blankets again, Charles chuckled. "Not a morning person, I see. Well, maybe I can fix that." He sat up slightly and pulled the covers off her face, she groaned and playfully shoved him away.
"Mmm….no…." leaning over her torso he stared down at her before closing the space.
"Wake up, love. We have an early flight out." He got out of the bed and walked towards the bathroom.
"You're obnoxious, Charles. It's your fault I'm so tired." He glanced back, now shirtless, Noah turned her head away from him.
"How is it my fault?"
"How isn't it?"
"Touché, love." He closed the door and she heard the water turn on, she hesitantly got out of bed.
'gone to the airbase, bring the crate marked X –Hank'
Charles opened the door to Hanks lab, Noah was startled at the mess.
"What the hell happened here?" Erik inquired as Charles traipsed through the wreckage, careful of where he stepped.
Once he motioned it was safe to advance everyone hurried over to the crate hank had indicated in his note.
"Hank has been busy."
"do we really have to wear these?"
"Aw, is Havoc afraid of chafing?" Alex shot Noah a look of displeasure.
"There's none of us mutated to endure extreme G-force or being riddled by bullets, so I suggest we suit up." Noah looked at the strange suits before Charles closed the case.
"I'm not sure what he was thinking with mine, but I might just kill him."
"Well, practicality, Noah, he had to make modification that would benefit all of our mutations." She sighed,
"I'm also not sure I'll enjoy it being skin tight…it will leave little to the imagination."
"is that a bad thing, love?" he winked at her, she now felt even more self-conscious as she went to the bathroom to change, they were leaving for the airbase in 10 minutes.
As Noah looked in the mirror she was even more appalled "Does he hate me?" Charles wrapped his hands around her waist, his head in the crook of her neck.
Noah's suit was full body, as was everyone else's, but only one side had a sleeve, the other did not, it was also two separate pieces, the top was cut sort of like a qi-pao dress from China, only shorter, stopping just at the end of crotch, her pants were like everyone else's.
"well, now that you're changed, shall we go?" Noah nodded and they left, unaware of what to expect.
Everyone stood staring at the jet they'd be traveling in. "Where's hank?" all eyes shifted to Raven.
"I'm here." when their friend emerged he looked very different from when they'd last seen him.
"Hank?" Noah stared at the now fur covered mutant with interest, how had his appearance changed so much?
"it didn't attack the cells, it enhanced them. It didn't work."
"Yes it did hank, don't you see? This is who you were meant to be. This is you. No more hiding."
"You've never looked better man." Erik had tried to compliment him, but hanks arm shot out and wrapped around the metal manipulators neck.
"Don't. mock. me!" he stared Erik down as his grip tightened. Noah watched in horror.
"Hank, Hank put him down immediately. Hank, HANK!" Hank finally let go of Erik, watching him drop to the ground, gasping for air.
"I wasn't." Noah watched him, fearfully, hiding behind the others.
"even I gotta admit you look pretty bad ass." Hanks attention fell on Alex. "I think I got a new name for you, Beast."
"You sure you can fly this thing?"
"Of course I can, I designed it."
As the plane flew over the embargo line, Noah felt nausea hit her like a brick, there was no guarantee any of them would come out of this alive.
"it looks pretty messy down there."
"The crew of the Aral sea are all dead. Shaw's been there."
"he's still here, somewhere." Erik had an angry look on his face.
"he's set the ship on course for the embargo line." The feeling of dread got stronger as everyone kept talking.
"If that ship crosses that line, our boys will blow it up and the war begins." Moira's two cents did nothing to ease her thoughts.
Charles took note of Noah's distress and gave her hand a firm squeeze. "Relax love, your mind is in a frenzy."
"I know I need to calm down, Charles, but impending doom makes that really hard!"
"What if those men aren't our boys?" a sudden missile launch headed for the plane, Hank quickly avoided the collision, sending the plane into a spiral.
"Hang on!" Hank finally managed to even out the plane.
"A little warning next time, professor." He scolded Charles.
"Sorry about that, is everyone alright?" Noah lurched forward and emptied the contents of her stomach into a small paper bag.
"I think Nymph is a little worse for wear…" Raven gave the girl a sympathetic look, rubbing her friends back in small circular motions with one hand while the other held back her hair.
"That was inspired Charles." Moira went about pushing buttons and flipping switches, "Thank you very much but I still can't locate Shaw."
"He's down there, we need to find him, now." Erik's determination was still strong, Noah looked up, still nauseous.
"Can…can we please land this thing?" Raven had braided her hair back for her, much to her appreciation.
"Is there anything unusual on the radar or scanners?" Hank turned his attention away from flying for a moment.
"No, nothing."
"well, then he must be under water. And obviously we don't have sonar." He turned back towards the windshield.
"Yes we do." All eyes landed on Sean now. "Are you crazy?!" Noah gave the red head a look.
"Hank, level the bloody plane!" Charles, Sean and Erik gathered by the escape hatch.
"Whoa, you back right off" Erik raised his hands in surrender, Noah unbuckled her seatbelt, needing to move.
"Noah, love, be careful!"
"Beast, open the bomb bay door!" Noah felt the wind turbulence rush through the area, enjoying the sudden wave of fresh air.
"Remember, this is a muscle, you control it! You'll be in here the entire time!" he placed his fingers to his temple. "We'll see you soon! On my mark! Three, Two, One, Go!" Sean pencil dived out of the hatch, the sound of his screeching filled the area.
"Alert the fleet, they may want to take their camera's off." Charles kept his mind trained on Sean.
"Banshee's got a location on Shaw. You ready for this?"
"Let's find out." Beast opened the doors again, letting the wheels drop towards the waters surface.
"Noah, we may need your help, think you can handle it?" She stared at Charles for a few moments before answering.
"Depends on what you need."
"Just stand by, incase Erik falls we'll need you to use your powers to bring him back up."
"So…you're going to use me as a human rope?"
"Basically, yeah."
"I see how it is. Use your relationship with me to abuse my powers." Her sarcasm was heavy, Charles rolled her eyes.
"Just get over here, Nymph, You're on standby." She rolled her eyes and went to stand by the edge of the bomb bay doors, watching as Erik forced the submarine out of the water and into the air.
As they kept flying towards the beach Noah caught something out of the corner of her eyes, "Charles!" the brunette turned his eyes towards where she was pointing to see a small twister forming.
"Nymph, pull him back in, quickly!" the vines quickly shot from her arm and wrapped around Erik's waist, yanking him back into the plane.
"Close the doors!" Hank grabbed the steering wheel and shifted them away from the twister, the doors still open.
"Hold on guys, it's gonna get bumpy." Erik dropped the submarine onto the beach, it landed sideways and rolled over, taking out several rows of trees on the shore.
"Well done, Nymph, well done." The ship crash landed as the harsh tornado ripped apart the plane, Noah's body collided with the hard metal walls s they rolled, Erick pinned Charles down using his powers, however he hadn't been fast enough grabbing onto her and she slipped out of his grasp.
"Noah!" Raven looked her over as she unbuckled her seatbelt, "Noah, speak to me!" Raven got no response as the familiar silver glow enveloped her body, everyone let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Moira, Moira are you alright?" Charles was genuinely concerned; she was the only non-mutant on the plane.
"Yeah, Yeah I'm alright."
"Erik, can you carry Noah, just set her down out of harm way until she recovers." The metal manipulator complied, picking up the small blonde in her dormant state and walking off.
"I've read the teleporters mind, Shaw's drawing all the power out of his sub, He's turning himself into some kind of nuclear bomb."
"we have not time, the Geiger count's going out of control."
"Alright Moira, this is what we're going to do., Moira get on the radio, tell them to pull the fleets out immediately,
"I'm going in." Charles glanced back at Erik momentarily, dividing up the responsibilities.
"Beast, Havoc back him up. Erik, I can guide you through once you're in I need you to shut down whatever it is that's blocking me, now let's just hope to god it's not too late for me to stop him."
"Got it." Erik took up towards Shaw's submarine.
"Good luck!" Raven watched the silver glow fade from Noah's body. "Charles, looks like Nymph is back up and running." Charles cast a glance back for a split second, if he were being honest to himself, he wanted her out of harm way, but he knew if he refused to let her help she'd resent him, she was in this as much as everyone else.
"Nymph, welcome back to the world of the living. Raven, stop!" Raven had made to go help the others but Charles had demanded she stay put, Noah looked around groggily, noting she was now on a beach.
"I'm going to help them!"
"We don't have time for this, anything comes in that entrance you're taking care of it, yes?"
"Fine." Raven conceded, taking her post
"When did I get outside?" Charles gave her a long hard look, trying to figure out what to have her do.
The sudden smell of sulfur reached Noah's nose and she cringed, the red teleporter was close, maybe if she concentrated hard enough to could grab him. Placing her hand on the ground she watched as the vine's stretched and crawled over the sand, headed for the red mutant. Charles watched with interest, seeing what she was doing, if she could detain him they could take him out.
'clever move, love.' Noah smiled at his compliment seeing her vines catch their target, ensnaring him like prey in a spider's web, what she did next astounded Charles, from the leaves of the vines, small gold orbs bloomed like flowers.
'how long have you been able to do that?'
'not long, actually figured it out after that gold flower thing a dinner the other night. We'll see how effective it is.'
"Don't move, if you set one of those off I can guarantee they'll kill you." The red mutant stared back at Noah with anger, but he did not struggle, instead he just teleported, taking her with him.
"Noah!" one second she was on the ground, the next she was in the air, she refused to let up though and the second her arm was jerked it set off all the explosions, she was quick and shielded herself. The other's watched from the ground.
He teleported behind her and wrapped his tail around her neck, choking her, a sadistic smile on his face as she clawed at his tail to get free, finally he dropped her, something catching his eye as it fell from her pocket. He quickly seized it and went to grab onto her again, he was going to use the girl to make them surrender.
"We believe Shaw's trying to detonate some sort of nuclear bomb." Moira called out of the radio channel as Erik made a bee line for Shaw's submarine, ripping some of the side paneling away he ran in, taking out riptide in the process.
"Erik, make for the middle of the vessel, that's the point my mind can't penetrate. We have to assume that's where Shaw is." Alex and Beast had joined the fight once more, trying to get the red demon-like mutant away from Noah.
"Nymph, go!"
"No way!" Noah's defiance wasn't appreciated in the current situation. "We're a team, we'll stick together! Besides, three against one has much better odds!"
The red mutant had his tail around Alex's neck and was helping him wreak havoc on the military ship, the red energy beams blasting wherever it was pointed. Beast tackled him and they disappeared.
"That's the nuclear reactor, disable it." back on the ship Alex and Noah had been detained.
"Stop, don't move." Noah looked at the men, slightly alarmed but kept her hands raised to show she meant no harm. That's when she spotted Angel.
"Everyone, get down!" Noah created another vine shield around her, Alex and the soldiers as the winged girl spit the acid like fire balls. That moment was when Sean chose to resurface from the water.
"Erik, you're there, you've reached the void."
"He's not here. Charles, Shaw's not here! He's left the sub."
"What? He's got to be there, he has to be, there's nowhere else he can be, keep looking."
"And I'm telling you he's not. There's no one here god dammit!" the connection was suddenly cut.
"Erik? Erik?!"
The teleporter was back, Noah felt his tail wrap around her waist before he moved again, they reappeared outside the submarine. As soon as Charles exited the plane he was met with this sight. Not far away, thanks to Angel, Sean and Alex crash landed on the sand.
"Noah?! What are you planning Azazel?!"
"He's back! Erik, whatever you're doing, keep doing it, it's starting to work." He kept his eyes trained on Azazel and Noah, but his mind trained on Erik.
"It's working; I'm starting to see him but I can't yet touch his mind." He knew if he played his cards right he could avert two major crises.
Angel had her sights locked onto Sean and Alex, Alex shot her down using his energy beams and slicing her wing so she wasn't able to fly anymore.
"Stop, Azazel!" the red mutant looked back, seeing Shaw, he then looked down at the girl he was holding hostage.
"Release the girl, she is of no use to us." Azazel complied, Charles watched the exchange confused. Noah however took this opportunity to attach a small gold orb to Azazel's tail before letting it explode. He let out an agonized cry as the tip of his tail was blown off.
"Don't. EVER, touch me. Again! Next time I'll blow off the whole thing." Noah ran off to help Alex and Sean fend off the land bound Angel as beast took out Azazel with a swift punch to his chest. Shaw shifted back into Raven.
"Erik, Please Erik, No" Noah didn't know what was going on inside the submarine. "Please, Erik…" Charles' sudden scream startled her as it echoed in her mind, ruining her concentration and distracting her from the fight at hand.
All eyes were on Erik as he re-emerged from the submarine, Shaw's dead body in front of him.
"Today, our fighting stops!" Erik dropped the corpse to the ground before Landing safely.
"Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters. The real enemy is out there." Erik motioned to the ships in the bay. "I feel their guns, moving in the water. Their metal, targeting us. Americans, Soviets, Humans. United in their fear of the unknown. The Neanderthal is running scared my fellow mutants." He shot a glance to Charles.
"Go ahead, Charles, Tell me I'm wrong." A small vile of green liquid caught Azazel's eyes, he had planned to use this on the girl earlier, inconspicuously he picked it up and hid it in his hand.
Charles confirmed Erik's suspicion and sent Moira off on another task. All of the mutants watched in horror as the navy ships launched their missiles at the beach, they planned to kill all of them after they'd just saved their lives. Erik managed to stop them, turning them around to re-launch at the naval crafts.
"Erik, you said yourself, we're the better men. This is the time to prove it. There are thousands of men on those ships, Thousands of good, honest, innocent men, they're just following orders."
"I'd been at the mercy of men just following orders, Charles, Never again." And with that he sent the missiles flying back.
"Erik, release them!" He charged Erik, tackling him to the ground, Noah watched in horror, some of the missiles exploded in mid-air, falling into the water below. In all the Chaos Azazel decided now was the best moment to act.
"Stop it, I don't want to hurt you!" As Charles and Erik wrestled with one another Azazel had snuck up behind Noah.
"Erik, Stop!" Azazel inched closer to his mark, as Erik continued to redirect the missiles back to their desired target. Moira took out her gun and began to shoot at Erik, the bullets deflecting, Noah made a shield around Charles, making sure he wouldn't get hurt. The red skinned Mutant was now directly behind his target, he was just waiting for the opportune moment, he wanted them to witness what he was about to do, though he did not know himself what would happen when he injected the liquid.
Erik continued to deflect the bullets, that's when Charles noticed Azazel, he was thankful she had put up the barrier to protect him from the barrage of bullets but what happened in the next few seconds horrified him.
Moira and Erik were deterred by a sudden agonized scream. All eyes fell on Noah and Azazel.
"No…" everything seemed to move in slow motion, Erik watched horrified as Noah's body flashed between the silver and gold glow she occasionally had, her eyes flickering rapidly as her hair changed from blonde to silver, the front two strands turning gold.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Charles ran toward her, trying in vain to calm her and get her to stop screaming. Erik set his sights on Azazel, angry the mutant had hurt one of their own.
"Noah, Noah I'm here, it's alright, it's alright, shh." He was really trying to calm her down. Raven crouched next to them.
"Noah…" Raven Took Noah's hand in hers as Charles brushed a now gold strand of hair from Noah's face. The vine marking around her wrist had spread, circling around the half sun, half-moon mark and twisting around her arm, up around the back of her ear.
Noah opened her eyes when the pain subsided, one eye was gold and the other silver.
"Oh, Noah…" Azazel looked pleased with himself, Erik however looked pissed, as he stared down at his friend.
"Us turning on one another, it's what they want, I tried to warn you, I tried to warn all of you." He glanced at Charles.
"I wanted you by my side. We're brothers, you and I. All of us, together, Protecting each other. We want the same thing." Charles looked away from Noah for a second.
"Oh, my friend, I'm sorry, but we do not." Erik looked at the others.
"If society won't accept us, we form our own. The humans have played their hand, now we get ready to play ours. Who's with me?"
"Look at what's happened because of what you wanted, Erik." Charles placed Noah's head on Raven's lap as he stood.
"Because of you Noah's mutation was accelerated, you couldn't set aside your petty revenge scheme to save someone's life." All eyes were on Charles, Angel looked over at her former friend with sympathy.
"Charles…please, no more fighting." Her voice was weak and hoarse from screaming, Raven helped her sit up. Erik looked at the now silver and gold haired mutant.
"Noah, this is who you were meant to be, Azazel only helped you get there." She shot him a look.
"Erik!" the metal user immediately shut up, "whether this was who I was meant to be or not, because of your arrogance I can no longer live a normal life, I can't go back to school, I can't see my friends again…it's your fault." Noah's eyes drifted up to raven, "
Raven, I don't need to be a telepath to know you want to go with him, just promise me you'll come visit." Raven smiled down at her friend, Erik took her words to heart, if he hadn't been hell bent on killing Shaw, none of this would have happened, he could have stopped it.
"No more hiding." He extended his hand to the blue skinned girl. Raven gently set Noah down on the sand before walking over to stand next to Erik.
"Beast, never forget! Mutant and proud!" with that Erik, Riptide, Angel Azazel and Raven all vanished.
"So, how many student's do you think you'll have here, once you get the academy up and running?" Moira walked alongside Charles, up the pathway to the mansion.
"As many as Noah, Hank and I can manage. There are an impossible number." Charles glanced up, seeing Noah watching them from the window, he smiled and waved up at her, she waved back but he hadn't seen her smile since the day before the battle on the beach.
"she's been so distant; I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried."
"You know; one day the government is gonna realize how lucky they were to have Professor X on their side. All of you, really." Charles cringed at the code name.
"Well, I suppose I am a real professor now. Next thing you know I'll be going bald."
"We're still on the government's side, Moira. We're still G-men. Just without the G."
"No, You're your own team now, it's better. you're…X-men."
"Yes, well, I like the sound of that."
So that ends. Chapter 6. I know it's ridiculously long, but I wanted to finish up the movie section on a strong note. I'll be working on chapter now where Hank is building cerebro and Charles begins hunting for mutants for the academy. Noah will have some exciting new firsts, but you'll have to keep reading to find out what they are.
As usual reviews keep the story going so let me know what you think and what you want to see happen between Noah and Charles in future chapters.
