Written by Darkstorm5000
Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution, the X-Men, and other related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group and Film Roman Productions, are used without permission and not for profit.
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Chapter 3- Train in Vain
"…will conclude today's lesson. For our next class, we will be covering derivatives and differentiations, so I want each of you to read through chapter 6 for your homework assignment. I strongly advise that you pay particular and careful attention to the Lagrange, Leibniz, and Newton notations, as these rule-variations will also be on your upcoming quiz."
With his instructions now given and the calculus book on top of his desk now closed, Professor Xavier proceeded to dismiss his undersized class, which consisted of Ororo Monroe, John Proudstar, and Mariko Yashida. Professor Xavier sat there and watched as his three students all stood up from their chairs, which had been placed in a semi-circle pattern before him in front of his rectangular wooden desk, and then turned around to exit from his study.
"Man, I'm never gonna get this calculus stuff!" Was the self-declaration made by John, as soon as he and his classmates were out in the hallway and on the other side of the now closed door to the Professor's study.
In addition, John loudly slapped the fairly thick calculus textbook in his hand up against the side of his jeans, to help further illustrate his sense of frustration when it came to understanding the subject of advanced mathematics.
"I must say that I am feeling very much in agreement with you." Ororo now added, as she too was experiencing a bit of trepidation similar to John's. But, Ororo herself was content in holding her textbook up against the front of her rose-colored blouse with both arms criss-crossed in front of her, as the trio now made their way down the hallway corridor together.
Her worry was in spite of the fact that Ororo had made considerable strides in a very short amount of time when it came to academics. Especially when taking into account that she, until recently, had received very little in the way of a formal education. Most of Ororo's turbulent childhood had been spent living as a thief on the streets, and instead of being taught in the confines of a traditional classroom setting, had learned the majority of her influencing life-lessons from the school of hard-knocks.
"You guys are getting yourselves worked up over nothing. All you have to remember when working with integrals or derivatives, is to take it one step at a time." Mariko reassuringly told her two classmates, as she had slipped her calculus textbook into the small Hello Kitty bookbag slung over her right shoulder, while they continued on.
"Yeah, or we could do like him, and just go on summer vacation early." John smirkingly replied, as he, Mariko, and Ororo now arrived at the mansion's living room entrance, only to be greeted by the sight and sound of their other classmate in there.
"Givitaway givitaway givitaway now,
Givitaway givitaway givitaway now,
Givitaway givitaway givitaway now,
Ahhhhh... AW, YEAH!"
Who, had been conspicuously absent from today's class with the Professor. And now, they could see how he had been so productively utilizing that time.
"Oh, hey guys." Morph replied, as he suddenly paused from his rocking-out imitation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and quit jumping up and down long enough to realize that he was no longer in the living room by himself.
"Hey…uh, yourself there Morph." Mariko replied with a modest grin, as she and the others couldn't help but notice Morph's rather striking appearance, as he stood there in front of the TV shirtless with just a pair of tight spandex pants and boots on.
But, what drew these astounded glares from Ororo, Mariko, and John was the fact that Morph's entire body was covered in a shiny, metallic-hued silver paint, all in addition to him having a number of varying and odd-shaped horns that were sticking out all over from heat to toe.
"Don't tell me you're working on some sorta extra-credit dance assignment for music appreciation?" John jokingly said, as he came over and took a seat on the sofa behind Morph, dropping his calculus book down on the coffee table in front of him with a heavy thud.
"Nah, I'm just taking a break and unwinding a little bit with this week's Top Twenty countdown on The Video Channel." Morph replied, as he turned around to face John, all the while transforming his physical features back to his plain clothed, pasty skin-toned baseform that he generally maintained.
"Unwinding, from what, exactly?" Ororo said and asked Morph the question foremost in all of their minds, as she came and took a seat on the sofa beside John, astutely grabbing the remote off of the coffee table, before he or anyone else could get to it first.
"From the way Morph's spazzin' out in here, I'd say it's from him reaching the max-limit of how much TV he can watch before his head is about to pop." John quipped, as he relaxingly placed both of his broad arms up on the back of the sofa and sank back into it, while the music video that had been playing on TV was now coming to an end.
"I've still got a few days worth of boob-toobage space left upstairs, so no worry there. I even think I can hit all the major channels bein' pulled in by that huge satellite dish Professor Xavier's got out back, before the old gray-matter finally does conk out." Morph replied with a huge sarcastic smile, and lightly tapped against the side of his right temple with two of his fingers, before he continued, "Actually, I've been waiting for all of you to get finished with the Professor. I've got a one-on-one session with him next."
"Tutoring, huh?" Mariko assumingly inquired, having in the meantime taken a seat in another chair that was adjacent to the sofa and laid her bookbag off to its side, all the while Ororo had begun channel-surfing with the remote now in her hand.
"Sorta. He wants me to work with him on writing an upgrade to the Danger Room's computer software. I mean, seeing as I am pretty good with that kinda stuff." Morph crossed his arms over in front and replied, doing so with an obvious hint of pride in his voice at having been selected for such a special task by their Headmaster.
"Since when do you know the first thing about computers?" John scoffingly asked, as he suddenly sat up straight on the sofa. It had never even occurred to John, or the others for that matter, that someone as hyperactive as Morph could have any interests that lay outside of his usual goofing-off.
"Well, since I built my first one when I was six." Morph answered John, this time with a more serious expression, before he then turned his attention back over towards Mariko, "So, once we get finished making the repairs to the Danger Room, we'll be back in business running training-sims again in there with your favorite person."
And with that statement, Mariko knew exactly to whom Morph was referring.
"Hmmph. Can't wait." Mariko groaned in response, as she sat there in the chair with her curled-up hand serving to prop up the downcast look on her face, her tone for the first time this afternoon far less enthusiastic than it had previously been.
"Speaking of Logan, has anyone seen him lately?" Ororo now asked, as she sat leaning slightly forward on the sofa and attentively continued her search through the numerous channels and programs on this big-screen television before them.
"Been spending most of his time hangin' out in the woods around the mansion." John looked over and replied to Ororo, before turning back to see that she had stopped on a news-alert being broadcast on one of the local channels.
"Knowing that big jerk, he's probably out there yelling and screaming at Bambi, blaming him for screwing up and getting his mother killed." Mariko scornfully replied from her seated vantage off to the side, which was also the first time that the others had ever heard her make anything that remotely resembled a belittling remark about another person.
And, it also revealed to them just how deeply Logan's beratement of Mariko a few weeks earlier had hurt her feelings, and that she still very much carried that pain around inside of her. But just then, all four teens' attention was immediately drawn over to the television as the on-the-scene reporter came on to deliver this live report from downtown Manhattan.
"…subterranean creatures' rampage was once again halted and turned back, thanks to the efforts of the super-powered sensations aptly dubbed as The Fantastic Four. Whom, you may recall gained their own bizarre abilities following an orbital accident last year while onboard an experimental spacecraft designed by noted scholar Dr. Reed Richards, who was also present at the time of this freak occurrence…"
"Man, if the Prof wasn't so paranoid about the public knowing about us mutants, we could SO be as big as those guys. I'm talking Fantastic 5 here guys!" Morph said to the others, as the news report went on to catalog the extensive damage left in the wake of this desperate battle in the heart of New York City.
"…But, their most outspoken critics and detractors have not hesitated to point out, time and again, the fact that these strange and unusual incidents within the confines of the city didn't start happening on a seemingly regular basis until the Fantastic Four's much publicized, and very controversial decision, to purchase and then convert the upper levels of the Baxter high-rise building into their official headquarters in the heart of downtown Manhattan. There have also been rumors of a petition being floated around by some of their neighbors that would force the Fantastic Four to move, citing a litany of disturbance of the peace counts, along with fears of there being possible contamination to the area from the same radiological exposure from outer space that originally gave them their fantastic powers…"
Meanwhile, Morph had stopped paying attention to the news report on TV, his thoughts having now drifted off further into his daydreams of him and his teammates becoming super-powered celebrities, and receiving the world-renowned accolades associated with such a level of social status.
"I can see it now, The Amazing Morph and Friends. Mariko and Ororo, you two would be my beautiful and very able-bodied sidekicks. John, you could be my numero-uno amigo and all-around ladies man, second only to me of course, who works part-time as a used car salesman when you're in your secret identity. And Logan, he would be the grouchy, but slightly loveable landlord, who lives on the floor below our penthouse headquarters. And the Professor, the Professor he…"
"Um, looks like he's gone off into another one of his Three's Company fantasies. Again." Mariko said, as she, Ororo, and John sat and continued their observation of Morph's uninterrupted chatter, which was thanks to his sometimes overactive-imagination.
"And, if it's like last time, he might be off in la-la land for a while too." John added with a sigh, as he once again sank back into the sofa.
"Still, it's better than having him run around the mansion and shout 'Homey don't play that' at us every five seconds." Mariko smirked, as she reminded them of Morph's antics from just the other night.
"Or worse yet, having to watch him use his powers to turn himself into a fish out-of-water, and then flop around helplessly all over the kitchen floor." Ororo also posed to them, while Morph was now completely oblivious to their conversation about him, he himself currently too preoccupied with rambling off the main plot of this figmental life of his in greater detail.
But neither Morph, nor the rest of his teammates', could ignore the sudden sensation of the entire mansion shaking around them, as an explosive sonic-boom seemed to erupt from out of nowhere directly above the Institute. Which, rocked them all right out of their seats and knocked them down to the floor.
"What…the HELL was that?!" John was the first to wonder very much aloud, after picking himself up off of the floor and quickly jumping to his feet, relaying through his statement the exact sentiments of what the others in the room were also thinking at that moment.
Then, they all received at least a partial answer from Professor Xavier, who contacted them from his study through a telepathic psi-link that he maintained with all of his students.
"I fear that Logan is under attack and in grave danger. Sunfire, since you are the fastest in the air and capable of reaching him first, I want you to head to the southeastern edge of the estate without delay. The others will be along shortly." Were the brief and only instructions given to them by Professor Xavier.
Noting his having referred to Mariko by her code-name, and the sense of urgency relayed to them through Professor X's mental message, his students' all knew that this was a matter that the X-Men were about to become involved in. And Mariko did just as been requested of her without any second-thoughts, hopping up from her chair and dashing off from the living room through the foyer to the front door of the mansion. Where upon opening it, she ignited her 'atomic flame' and enveloped her entire being in a radiant ball of energy, rapidly building it up in intensity before launching herself from the concrete steps of the front stoop just ahead of her fellow X-Men, who were following closely behind in her footsteps.
It was a catapulting effect that Mariko and Professor X had developed using her mutant powers, which she had been practicing and perfecting during her solo Danger Room sessions for a while now. And the sheer sight of her rocketing through the air like a streaking arrow that had been set ablaze now displayed to her teammates', without a doubt, how and why she had earned the codename of Sunfire.
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For the last couple of weeks, ever since 'the incident' down in the Danger Room, there had been a very noticeable friction left between Logan and the rest of his fellow X-Men. But, when the Danger Room unexpectedly went on the fritz not too long afterwards, it wound up putting the team's daily training sessions on an unavoidable hiatus. It also provided Logan with even more of an excuse to distance himself from the Institute's other residents, with the proverbial loner spending more and more of his time off alone in the dense woodland areas that lay around the mansion.
And while Logan would have preferred to retain his secluded isolation out here, circumstances beyond his control had come and decided to interject themselves to the contrary.
"Professor, is this attack related to the news report that we just saw from New York City?" Sunfire telepathically asked, as she quickly flew over the estate grounds towards the destination coordinates that Professor Xavier had relayed through his psi-distress call to her and the other X-Men.
"From what I can gather, I do not believe so. But, I suggest that we hurry, so as to find out for certain." Professor Xavier replied, as he then abruptly cut his communication with Sunfire and put all of his concentration towards telepathically pointing her in the direction that he had last sensed Logan, where the feral X-Men had registered a tremendous of pain before being knocked unconscious.
In a matter of seconds, Sunfire was right over the area that Professor X had mentally dispatched her towards. Almost immediately, she spotted Logan lying down in a small clearing within a thick tree grove in an outlying section of the estate property, and observed that he was indeed out cold. Sunfire then saw that someone else was down there with Logan, someone who was currently standing right over his unconscious form.
An individual, who himself was dressed in a hooded, red-and-white jumpsuit that had been fashioned to strongly resemble a Canadian flag wrapped around his entire body. Which, had earned him the codename of Weapon Alpha from the Canadian government's clandestine Department H.
Logan, who himself had been designated as Weapon X initially during his tenure with Department H, before reverting back to his codename of Wolverine, had been involved in a fairly friendly conversation with this man a few minutes prior to Sunfire's arrival. Which is usually how Logan and James MacDonald Hudson's interactions began, but rarely ended. And just as the last time when they had talked, emotions soon got in the way and managed to get the better of each man.
Their conversation then escalated into an outright confrontation that wound up turning very violent, very quickly, as a result of their contentious disagreement about Logan not living up to the responsibilities that Mac felt his former partner owed to their home country, and most especially to him. Although unknown to Mac, Logan had thought that he was doing just that? Logan's decision had been far more complicated then he had let on, due to the 'real' reason that he had decided to leave, which was out of the deep respect that he held for his old friend.
Regardless, at the moment the only thing that Sunfire cared about was the fact that her teammate appeared to have been laid out flat by this mysterious masked individual, and that it was now up to her to come to Logan's aid.
And that is exactly what she did.
Rocketing downward and launching into a specific attack angle, Sunfire cut loose with a concentrated heat-blast against an unawares Weapon Alpha, whose attention was completely preoccupied with his fallen quarry before him. Weapon Alpha wound up paying the price for his negligence, as he was nailed square in his back by this searing jolt from above, all thanks to his inattention.
"Arrrgghh…I've got incoming!" Weapon Alpha said, his attention now most definitely grabbed, as he turned to look back up at Sunfire hovering overhead and seemed to be speaking to an unknown third party through some form of two-way communicator built into his suit, "Somebody, give me some stats on, whoever, that girl up there is!"
This, as sparks and a few small flames had shot out of from some of the decorative suit's miniature sensor-packs that were located at and around the point of impact. Sunfire had managed to fry and damage some of the suit's circuitry underneath all in one shot, before these small fires were quelled by the suit's internal extinguishing system. But, steeling himself to face this latest entrant, Weapon Alpha would quickly prove that the unique outfit he had on was not being worn merely for show or out of some vain desire to be fashionably different, but that this skin tight cybernetic exo-suit had functionality that literally turned its wearer into a living weapon of war.
After the visual scanners affixed to the small, transparent plates in the eyelets of Weapon Alpha's mask had surveyed and then relayed images of Sunfire hovering up above back to Alpha-Base, a quick and thorough assessment of her powers and abilities had been completed. With that raw data expeditiously processed, a course of action had been determined and those orders relayed back to Weapon Alpha through his comm-link, which revealed her perceived weaknesses and how best for him to exploit them tactically.
Unleashing an enormous concussive repulsor-beam right at Sunfire, Weapon Alpha proceeded to make the most of the information at his disposal. While Sunfire easily dodged the beam, and then a second one aimed at her immediately right afterwards, she was unwittingly playing right into Weapon Alpha's strategy. Now that he was getting a better idea of her maneuvering capabilities in the air, Weapon Alpha knew the best way to approach, and then finish, this fight with Sunfire.
After firing a third repulsor-blast that Sunfire also dodged, this time almost effortlessly, Weapon Alpha caught her off-guard by simultaneously launching himself up into the air right behind the blast, flying towards Sunfire at near super-sonic speeds. The resulting thrust of his suit manipulating the Earth's electro-magnetic and gravitational fields to accomplish this feat, wound up creating yet another sonic-boom similar to the one heard above the mansion earlier, in addition to driving a twenty-foot deep crater into the ground beneath him.
But, Sunfire wasn't given the luxury or even the opportunity to observe this, as Weapon Alpha landed a single and devastating body-shot against her left side, breaking two of her ribs and knocking the wind out of her as a result. Now left unconscious herself, Mariko tumbled down helplessly from far above the Earth, and without her powers to help slow or cushion her fall. But, she certainly would not be without help for long.
Running and arriving just in time to catch her, a now revived Wolverine managed to jump and grab the falling Sunfire in his arms, doing a front-flip and a forward tumble on the ground to counteract the momentum of her fall, and used his own body as a cushion to prevent Sunfire from being further injured. Placing her out gently on the ground before him, Wolverine then stood back up and turned his attention to his old friend, who was now landing in this open clearing a few yards from the pair.
"So, you taken to beatin' on defenseless girls now, Mac?" Wolverine admonishingly asked, as he stood and ripped off what was left of the shredded marigold-colored lumberjack shirt, which he had been wearing before this fight started.
"Ha! In case you haven't noticed, that girl is anything but defenseless. Besides, she attacked me first and decided to involve herself in this sanctioned military operation. That makes her a hostile combatant, and fair game under the rules of engagement. You should know that better than anyone, Logan!" Weapon Alpha bitterly replied, as he stood in a prepared stance directly across from Wolverine, both men ready to continue this battle at a moments notice.
And so they did, as Wolverine popped the adamantium claws from his hands with a smooth 'Snikt' sound, and Weapon Alpha supercharged his guardian suit with a repulsor energy field that enclosed around his entire body. Wolverine didn't waste anytime in launching into an attack of his own, with claws and blind rage now being dished out against Weapon Alpha.
Weapon Alpha knew from first-hand experience precisely how dangerous Wolverine could be with those indestructible claws of his. But, even though his pressure force-field provided almost little to no protection against energy-based weapons or attacks, Weapon Alpha had been the one who had developed it originally as a means of gaining a distinct advantage in close-range and hand-to-hand confrontations especially, by the wearer being able to deflect solid matter projected at it. And, he estimated that it would only be a matter of time before Wolverine either slipped up and fell into another one of his mindless beserker rages, and once again gave him an opening to take him down for good. Or would just plain tire himself out, as evidenced by the fact that Wolverine's feverish hacking and slashing attacks were not penetrating Weapon Alpha's artificially generated force-field.
What Weapon Alpha had not accounted for, however, was the fact that Sunfire had only been the first arrival, in what would be a slightly larger contingent of reinforcements to come.
"Gaanng-way! Morph-ball special comin' thru!"
But, just as Weapon Alpha was hearing the first part of this exclamation, and before he could even react, he was hit in the center of his chest with an object that, ironically enough, seemed to be traveling at the speed of sound itself as it passed right by Wolverine and connected with its intended target. And, despite the fact that his pressure-field in theory should easily block out any form of solid physical attack, the force behind this large metallic shot-put was great enough that Weapon Alpha still managed to feel it a little, and he let out a barely audible 'Whoomph' when it hit. He was then thrown backwards from the momentum of being struck by such a dense object and was sent hurtling through the air, only stopping when he crashed into the large trunk of a nearby oak tree behind him.
"Aaannnd, yer out!" Were the next words spoken as Morph, who in the guise of a large talking steel-baseball, bounced around on the ground beside a slightly dazed James Hudson, before proceeding to transform himself into a large wooden baseball bat with human-like legs and arms.
"And, Bat-man has left the building…" Morph jocularly said next, as he sprouted bat-wings on the back of his Bayville-slugger body, and then flew off up above the surrounding tree line.
Meanwhile, the sound of thunder rolling could now be heard off in the distance, as the sky went from mostly sunny to being overcast with pitch-black clouds in only a matter of a few seconds. Which announced the arrival of Storm to this altercation, as she gracefully descended down into the clearing upon heavy wind-gusts that now swirled about, her eyes now aglow with a bright-white iridescence that stood in stark contrast to the atmosphere above them.
Storm was joined down here by Thunderbird, who before using Morph to play catch with Weapon Alpha, had gone and broken off a very large branch from another of the nearby trees. And as T-bird made his way over towards a now mostly-recovered Weapon Alpha, he was gently tapping one side of this hastily-made wooden club against the open palm of his other hand. It was all in anticipation of Thunderbird getting to be the next batter up and finish what he and Morph had started, by using this stranger's skull now in place of a 'Morph-ball', or an actual baseball.
But, Weapon Alpha's real concern was with Storm. Once the X-Men's field-leader had gotten the opportunity to briefly appraise the situation, the first thing that she noticed was Mariko lying slumped over on the ground behind Wolverine. The result was a frighteningly powerful lightning-bolt that lit up the sky and struck from the thunderclouds above, hitting Storm directly as she absorbed this huge electrical discharge entirely, and did so without batting an eye. It caused Storm's entire body to crackle and radiate from the tremendous voltage now flowing through her. And judging from the infuriated look that she shot over in his direction, Weapon Alpha had a good idea as to where, and to whom, Storm was planning on sending all of this extra juice now at her disposal.
"Alpha to Alpha-Base. I'm scrubbing this mission-op, there have been too many unknown variables introduced." Weapon Alpha said into his comm-link, and then paused a moment as if he were listening to an individual on the other end saying something to him, before he responded to them, "No, just leave the Epsilons there in the transport. I'll be returning to the rendezvous-point shortly."
Weapon Alpha then made a brief scan of all the other individuals in the clearing now there with him, before turning to speak to Logan. Although, his words could have been taken as being a warning to them all.
"This isn't over, Logan. General Chasen wants you back, one way or another, so that you can answer for your betrayal. And, next time you can be sure that the rest of The Flight will be with me, to help even the numbers up against you and your new friends!" Weapon Alpha scathingly remarked to them, an instant before he used his guardian suit to take to the sky, disappearing over the horizon in just a matter of a few seconds.
Left behind in the aftermath of this climactic battle, the X-Men should have been celebrating their apparent victory. But instead, they were left with nothing but questions and wondering what it was that had just happened? Particularly for one amongst them, who had missed Weapon Alpha's fairly dramatic departure.
"Owww…" Mariko moaned, as she had just regained consciousness and was beginning to stir, now slowly turning herself over so that she could sit up on the grassy patch underneath her. Mariko then suddenly felt a sharp pain in her side, which was from the damaging blow that Weapon Alpha had delivered to her earlier.
"So, who the hell was that guy anyways?" John asked, as he by this time had dropped the large tree-branch from his hand, and used a single finger to point up over the horizon in the general direction that Weapon Alpha had departed towards.
Which caused Mariko to instinctively look up into the sky where John was pointing, a sky that had now been returned back to its previous serene and mostly sunny state by Ororo. Mariko then surveyed the entire horizon with her innate mutant ability to view objects through heat resonation, a trait that she shared in varying degrees with a few of her fellow X-Men, but was still unable to locate any traces of Weapon Alpha.
"An old friend. One, who ain't feelin' all too-friendly with me at the moment, though." Logan replied, as he walked over into the center of the loose circle that they were all standing in and replied to John's question about this individual, who had shown up and started a small-scale war at their front door.
"Big surprise there." Morph sarcastically remarked about Logan's comment, which relayed his opinion of Logan's brash way of treating others, including them, and the remaining animosity that he felt towards him because of it.
"And he ain't gonna be too happy with any of you either, for that matter. Especially, after what just happened out here today." Logan was saying, when his tone started to become more agitated and angry, " Speaking of which, I don't recall askin' any of you kids' to come out here and get involved in this anyways?!"
Then, almost on cue, Logan received an unexpectedly vocal answer to his rhetorical question, and once again from a most unexpected source.
"You didn't and shouldn't have to! We're X-Men, and that means we look out for each other and watch each other's backs, simple as that. Even, if you don't want to get that through that thick-skull of yours!" Mariko sharply and loudly replied to Logan, as she quickly jumped up to her feet from the ground where she had been seated, clutching her side with a single arm in the process, as she finally and symbolically stood up to Logan as well.
"If you attack one of us, then you attack all of us." Ororo said next, as she echoed Mariko's sentiment, standing there with both of her arms folded over in front of her.
"Yeah, 'Pops'." John ribbingly remarked, doing so with an appellation for Logan that was in direct correlation to his constantly referring to them as 'kids'.
"Ditto." Morph added last, deciding for just this one time to allow his teammates' to have the last say for a change.
Then, still reeling from her extremely painful injury, Mariko doubled-over from the strain now being placed against her broken ribs from having been standing back upright again, and almost passed out from an overwhelming dizziness and disorientation that rapidly hit her. Luckily, John's incredible speed and agility allowed him to rush the short distance over to where Mariko was and catch her before she fell down. John then picked his injured teammate up into his massive arms, cradling her semi-faint form in them.
As John tended to Mariko, Logan stood there staring and silently watching them all. Then, he spoke again.
"Better get her to the infirmary, make sure there's no internal bleeding or anything." Logan told them in a fairly cold tone in reference to Mariko, before he then turned around to head back off into the surrounding forest.
Morph, Ororo, and John with Mariko in his arms, all shook their heads at Logan's rather blasé remark and responded by doing much the same as him, quickly turning in the direction towards the mansion so that they could go and tend to their friend's injuries. That is, until they were stopped right in their tracks.
"Guys…"
As Ororo, Morph, John, and a now mostly conscious Mariko turned around to face Logan, they saw him standing there a few yards away and looking right back at them.
"Thanks. All of you." Logan now said to the rest of the X-Men, in reference to them having put their own safety and very lives on the line for him.
Even though it probably wasn't the most eloquent of phrase that could have been uttered, there was an unmistakable hint of sincerity in Logan's voice, which the other X-Men immediately picked up on. As Logan then turned back and disappeared into the thicket off in the distance, the others' now hurried to get Mariko back to the mansion.
And after what they had all been through together this day, the X-Men were now left with a sense that they had just reached something of a new understanding with one another. One, which could perhaps be built upon by them all. Especially with Logan, as he had now begun an earnest re-evaluation of his own opinions and feelings about living and working alongside these 'kids'.
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A/N: I just wanted to briefly acknowledge and give credit to UXM #109 written by Chris Claremont and Byrne, for being a significant source and frame of reference for this chapter. And if you haven't had the chance to read it or the other classic X-stories from this era, I highly recommend it for any lover of the X-Men, even if you're strictly a fan of the Evolution series.