AN: It has begun! Everyone, prepare! Another school year has rolled around and now I can go back to my routine of school, work, then play instead of work and then sleep in shower. Gonna go to sleep tonight at 9 o freakin clock. That'll be the first in a long time. So Maybe you should do the same for when you start back school, if you're still attending one. If not, then go party it up. Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or any of it's products. Hip hip hooray!
Chapter 15
Pain
Oh, it was a beautiful day out. The sun was shinning, the birds were chirping, and a nice breeze was rolling through. Nature was at it's finest. Storm had done a magnificent job making sure the weather would be perfect for this weekend. Well, what's so important about this weekend, one might wonder. This weekend was the one weekend of the school year that Bayville school district offered it's own survival training camp, the infamous Ironback survival camp hosted by the resident Sergeant Hawk.
It was gonna be a sucky day, Luke decided. Nearly as soon everyone had gotten off of the bus and arrived, the surprisingly still well in shape old man started yelling in their faces about what they would be doing. Whoop dee do. He loved hiking, dangerous rivers, and rock climbing and did those as personal hobbies because they built character (Sarcasm at it's finest). The man continued to yell in their faces while he appointed Scott Sunders the leader of the group for his scholastic achievements. The purposeful mistake almost made Luke laugh, but when the old man's head swiveled around to look at him though his black shades, he straightened up.
He didn't like Sergeant Hawk by any means and he didn't like Scott being in charge either. Scott and Luke weren't friends but they weren't enemies either. Scott had the tendency to play too close to the rules and kept everyone on a tight collar during DR sessions. Luke could understand that some people needed a strong leader, but he didn't want to be shepherded around like a lost lamb by Scott. He was his own man for crying out loud. He had years of personal experience to guide him in any situation. And now Scott was gonna be calling the shots here too? Like that's gonna roll over well with everyone else.
Thinking of that made Luke look over to the Brotherhood lackeys that were standing in line. All of them had signed up for the camp when they heard the X-men were doing it. The group must've had something to prove, not that Luke could really see why. Maybe it was some spiteful action against Mystique after she left them to be rescued by the X-men instead of doing it herself?
Either way, they were there and they were sure to be a thorn in his side later. Maybe they could all get outta here before their secrets were exposed. The sergeant finished his speech and gave everyone ten minutes to throw their bags in the log cabins that made up the majority of the camps, then report to the rec field. Immediately, everyone started complaining. Kitty didn't think she'd make it out of the camp alive, Evan complained that he was a city kid, Kurt wailed about what they had done to deserve this, then Rouge planned to steal the school bus and go AWOL. Luke snorted to himself in mild amusement while Scott tried to run damage control and reign the group back in. Jean tried to help by saying that the Professor endorsed this place. They were supposed to take comfort in the fact that Xavier help fund a torture camp?
The team quit their bellyaching and grabbed their stuff, moving it to the cabins that made up the majority of camp. Inside the cabins was about as bland as could be expected. Bunk beds, thin mattresses, and a rather unpleasant smell to it, like old vomit.
"This is gonna be one heck of a weekend, huh guys?"
Evan and Kurt both grunted in agreement while they tossed their bags inside and made their way to the field. Already, the others were gathering around the former military man. Once everyone had gathered around, he began to call out orders, dividing up the students into groups. One set of teams would go do sprints around a marked track, while the other teams went and did the rope climb.(1) As luck would have it, the two teams sent to do the rope climb were the X-men and Brotherhood.
The sergeant picked members from each team as to who would go on the rope climb. He picked Luke, Kurt, Jean and Scott from the X-men to climb and Fred, Terrence, and Lance from the Brotherhood to climb. The objective was to climb the rope, zip line down to the rafts, then cross the river to the finish. The first two from each team would be the ones to board the raft and cross the river. At the sergeant's whistle, the two teams started their climb. When the Blob got a hold on his rope and began to pull himself up, the whole rope climb began to sag under because of the large teen's weight. His rope snapped and he fell to the ground, where he complained "I'm not built for this kinda stuff."
The others who were already halfway up recovered and reached the top. Terrence was the first one on the zip line, with Luke following soon after along with Lance and Scott. Luke weighed himself down to boost his speed on the zip line, zipping past the others and hitting the bottom first. He got a head start untying the raft while Terrence landed and did the same. Scott landed and made it to the raft just as Luke freed it. Lance made it to his raft and asked "You guys swim?"
Scott answered with a curious "Yeah, why?"
"Pity." Lance sent tremors at the two, who were sent into the water. Thankfully, Luke still had his hand around the raft's rope and pulled it over to him and climbed in. He then fished Scott out of the water and tugged the larger teen to safety. Luke grabbed the paddles and began to row the little rubber raft after the two Brotherhood while Scott sat at the front of the raft, ready to take a shot with his optic beam. Terrence must've seen him, or maybe was just trying to rub their lead in the X-geeks face, so he tensed up his arm before digging the paddle deep into the water and flinging a ton of it behind him, soaking an already wet Scott and blinding him.
Luke rowed in vain as the Brotherhood landed and trotted through the finish line banner. The two goons turned to each other and gave each other a hard high five, which left both of them shaking their stinging hands. The X-men docked soon after and made it to their dry teammates and looked over at the cheering Brotherhood. After they finished cheering, the team of misfits came over to rub it in the losers face.
"So how'd you like that bath, huh Summers? Maybe that'll teach you some scholastic achievements." Lance grinned at his soaked rival.
Jean stepped in for her fellow redhead's defense saying "You know if you hadn't of used your powers, you would've lost."
Amanda stepped in flipping her hair over her shoulder and smirking. "Whatever. You're just mad because your little boy toy isn't as perfect as you are."
Jean cocked an eyebrow and said "Well in case you didn't notice, your 'boy toy' lost right alongside mine."
Luke butted in with a "Hey! I'm nobodies toy. I am on occasion someone's boyfriend whenever they pay to me be, but I am never a boy toy!"
Terrence chimed in with "She was 12 years old you know. I'm pretty sure that doesn't count for anything but getting you on the sex offender list."
Luke glared at Terrence before saying "I was only a year older than her. And her dad still came to me before he came to you with that job, didn't she? So maybe you shouldn't run your trap that much until you get letters in the mail asking for you to take a girl out and get paid to do it."
Terrence smirked before pointing out "Her dad wanted an inconspicuous nobody to watch over his little girl at the fair in case she got mugged or kidnapped for being the CEO's daughter. I declined the job because it was too low grade for me. It was more befitting of someone with your little talent."
About that time, Sergeant Hawk blew his whistle and the little trash talking session was over. He then ordered the teams to stop their childish bickering and to drop and give him 60.
"You can't be serious, can you old man? We didn't sign up for the Marines." Terrence complained, taking a stand against the much bigger and a lot broader man.
The man leaned down and poked one of his meaty finger into Terrence's puffed out chest, deflating him a little. "The Marines would've already chewed up and spit out punks like you. Now I said drop and give me 100."
"This is bullcrap."
Regardless of his last statement, Terrence dropped to the ground just like the rest of his teammates and started to do his pushups. The group had collectively gotten maybe ten done before the Sergeant blew his whistle and shouted "Who told you that pushups counted if they weren't called out?"
The students all groaned before beginning to call out in unison "One…Two…Three…Four…"
Luke couldn't help but think to himself about what he was thinking about earlier today. 'This day really does suck.'
The teens finally made it to sixty pushups and all fell on their faces or rolled over on their backs. Luke sat up to see Terrence still going, counting through another forty pushups without slowing his pace. When he finished, the sergeant ordered "On your feet."
Everyone complied as the man began to pace around the group, preaching "Here at Ironback, we've got ways of weeding out the weaklings and punks," He gave Terrence a hard look, which the teen promptly returned two fold. "We fight it out in the wilderness, against the wilderness. You brats want to prove how tough you are? Fine. The first team to bring back a flag I planted on top of Mount Humiliation and bring it back to me wins."
"Cake walk. My team can take the afternoon off. I'll get it myself." Quicksilver boasted.
"Not if I get there first." Kurt interjected, ready to butt heads with the Brotherhood again.
Luke face palmed at the sight. Did those two want to get more pushups just after they finished the last set?
"It must be the whole team, or no one!" Hawk shouted, settling the small dispute between the two teens. "As proof I want a snapshot of the whole team at the top. Are we clear?"
'Does this man ever get tired of listening to himself shout?' Luke wondered while chorusing with the others "Sir, yes Sir!"
"You leave in five from opposite trails. Be ready." With that, the man strode off, eager to go yell at other students. The two mutant teams split up as well, making tracks to the trail starting points. Everyone wanted to win this little challenge and rub it in the other team's face.
"Better say your prayers, Sunder. Cause you aren't coming back from that hike."
"Oh, you got something to say, Rock tumbler? Cause I…" Scott retorted reaching for his shades only to have his arm caught by Jean, who was still trying to play mediator.
"We don't need our powers to beat you losers." Lance said, getting in Scott's face.
"Fine. We'll play it straight then. And you know what, we'll wave at you from the top."
The two turned from each other while Jean smiled and said "Good. That's the deal. We're all competing fairly. No powers. And I personally am very proud of…"
"Come on, Jean!" Scott muttered angrily, jerking the girl out of her blathering about fairness and marching her over to the trail starting point. The signal was given for them to start by a flare gun and Scott took off running, making tracks on the already beaten trail.
Everyone else followed behind him and tried to keep up. From a safe distance out of his earshot, the team started complaining.
"Jeez, you guys must've never pushed yourselves that hard before. This is some simple running. Just follow Scott and don't get left behind. That's all you have to do." Luke was getting sick of all the whining. Sure he hated following Scott when he was being so stubborn, but he wasn't gonna voice his complaints. That would be weak of him.
Everyone but Jean shot Luke dark looks while Jean herself caught up to where Luke was running ahead of the others. "Thanks. I know the others don't have a lot of team spirit right now, so I appreciate all the support can get to keep this a fair race."
Luke turned to the girl and chuckled a little at his senior. "This isn't a fair race. The Brotherhood are definitely using their powers and we're stuck following our leader who's been blinded his passion to win so he can't see that his team is falling behind."
Jean frowned a little at this and said "So are you saying you'd be a better leader?"
"Oh, of course not. But Summers isn't exactly setting a good example. I'm gonna go try and talk to him. Try to bring up the rear and push them forward. They aren't mad at you yet."
With that, Luke put more effort into his running and tried to gain ground on Scott, who was still out of earshot. Jean slipped back behind Evan, who was last, and started urging him forward by running right behind him.
The Brotherhood had made great time going up the mountain side and were using their powers, much Like Luke had predicted. Toad and Springload were jumping up the Cliffside with ease, spotting easy paths for Blob to take. Blob had a make-shift harness around himself, with ropes leading to Crystal, Avalanche, and Quicksilver scaling the Cliffside behind him.
"One slip and we're all dead. Crushed by the Blob." Quicksilver complained
"This is the fastest way up the mountain, Pietro. We're gonna beat Summers and the X-geeks so bad."
"This is also the smelliest way up the mountain." Crystal noted. And indeed, hanging directly below the Blob after he'd had lunch was a guaranteed assault on the nose.
Blob mad it to the top of the cliff and began tugging the ropes, hauling his dangling teammates to the cliff's edge. From there, they saw a mine shaft entrance that had been marked off.
"Toad and Springload are checking for a shortcut." Blob informed the three. Almost as soon as he said it, Toad came back out and croaked "There's a tunnel in there that's like a stairway to the top. Terrence is checking it out to make sure it's safe."
"Now we're talking!" Lance clenched his fist in excitement. The sight of him holding that flag was playing out in his mind. Summers as his group of loser friends wouldn't stand a chance!
"Well lets go then. I can't wait to see what our Soccer Queen's reaction is gonna be when we beat her and her little friends to the top." Crystal chimed, beaming happily.
"Looks like we don't need Mystique's help to beat the X-men. Just a little teamwork and bam!" Pietro shouted, before slipping through the warning signs that covered the mine entrance. The rest of the team followed, plunging into the dark tunnel.
At the top of the cliff, Scott was waiting with Luke and Kurt for the others to catch up. Glancing up to the mountain top, Scott saw nothing but bright sunlight, even with his shades. He turned to Kurt and asked "Pop up top and see if the flag is still there."
Kurt looked uneasy about the order, looking back at Jean, Rouge and Kitty catching up. "You know Jean won't like this." With a Bamf, he was gone, then back again. "Its still there. And no sign of the enemy either."
"Alright! Evan forget the equipment, just spike the rope all the way to the top. We can still beat them!"
Evan looked over at his leader like he was suffering from a heat stroke, asking "Are you sure? Ah, you look pretty sure to me."
Luke just sighed. It seemed that his talk with Scott went right through one ear and out the other. Apparently, slowing down for your teammates and thinking clearly didn't stop Cyclops from wanting to win so bad. Oh well, he tried.
Evan tied the rope to a spike and shot it pretty far up the mountain side, where it wedged in good and firm. Grabbing the rope, Scott started to climb, saying "That flag is ours!" He turned when he heard no one following him and saw everyone looking at him disappointedly. So much for their fearless leader who always played by the rules and did the right thing.
Jean just turned her head up to Scott and began climbing the mountain the old fashioned way. With a groan, Luke followed behind her, using his powers to help him stick to the rock whenever he started to slip. Gravitational attraction sure helped, even though everyone had just given Scott the cold shoulder for using powers. At least Luke wasn't using his powers blatantly like Scott had gotten Evan to do. Now he just had to make his way up the mountain without getting distracted by the view.
The Brotherhood had made it to the tunnel shaft that went up, where Terrence was waiting. Before the team could start to climb up on the worn wooden ladder steps, he said "The way up top is blocked because of a few loose boulders. I can't move them with just one arm."
Lance turned between him and Toad and said "You idiots! You guys probably just caused us to lose!"
Crystal put her hand on Lance's shoulder and calmed him, saying "Easy, Avalanche. Calm down before you bring the mountain down on top of us. I'll just go up there with Terrence and make sure he doesn't fall while using both hands to move the boulder, ok? No need to get us all killed inside a mine shaft."
Lance just grunted while the two mutant of choice began to climb. The other four guys followed soon after, but kept enough room for Crystal to have space to work with. Once Terrence got as high as he could, Crystal closed her eyes and concentrated on growing crystals in a flat platform right beneath the last step Terrence had his foot on. The crystal grew all the way across the shaft, giving Terrence a firm place to stand.
With much more ease than his first attempt, Terrence pushed on the boulders at the top, making them rock out of the hole they had formed. As the boulder began to move back and forth, it slipped out of it's self made groove and came tumbling down the shaft itself. Terrence threw himself to the side of the shaft as the several hundred pounds boulder crashed through the crystal platform and hurtled towards the bottom of the shaft, where it landed with a resounding thud.
"You guys ok?" He called, checking of his friends. They had started to grow on him a little and he didn't mind calling them his friends now. They all annoyed him at times, but he was positive he did the same to them. He made it a point to, some days.
"Yeah! Now hurry up before you get us all killed!" Pietro shouted back. The team climbed to the mountain top and found the flag was still there. Victory!
After making their way up the mountainside with nothing but dirty hands and strong backs, the X-men made it to the top of another cliff. An tremor caused the mountainside to shake, which in turn caused Evan, the last person climbing to fall. The teen would've surely plummeted to his death had Luke not grabbed onto him with his powers and flung him back up with a quick jerking motion. Jean caught the boy out of the air and set him down gently while Luke rubbed at his arm.
Kitty and Kurt rushed over to make sure he was okay, while Scott thought out loud. "That tremor must've been Lance. They've gotta be nearby. Jean, levitate us all to the top."
Ignoring the order, Jean stood up to Scott and said "No way, Scott. Just forget it."
"What's the difference, Jean? You just used your powers and we know that the Brotherhood are using theirs. What's the big deal?"
Indignant, Jean shot back "That was life and death! This contest between you and Lance isn't. Seems like X-men outta know the difference." That was a nice little lecture for the leader to chew on.
"Haha, hey Summers! How's the view from down there? Get used to this, baby, because from now on, the Brotherhood are always gonna be on top!" The team looked up to see the Brotherhood making the final climb to the flag.
Scott's jaw dropped for a moment, before it tightened up like a bank vault. "You guys cheated! Your tremors nearly got Evan killed."
Terrence spoke up from his spot on the mountaintop claiming "Lance didn't use his powers. A boulder fell and nearly squished us. That's what caused the tremor. Looks like you X-men are the only cheaters on this mountain."
"Us? Cheaters? Are you outta your mind?" Scott questioned, bamboozled by the logic Terrence was using.
"We saw the red head save Daniels. She used her powers, so she cheated. We won fair and square. Looks like you guys really do suck."
Jean grabbed Scott's shoulder and tugged him back before he could do anything rash, like start a fight.
"There isn't time for this, Scott. Just let it go. We made it to the top anyways."
The Brotherhood cheered over their victory and waved the flag around like crazy. They had a pretty good day after all. They showed up the X-men in both challenges and now they were gonna take a picture for proof. The team posed for the picture from the camera Pietro was holding when suddenly the X-jet came into the background.
Through the speakers, Storm called out "X-men. Professor X is in danger. So is Mystique." She added that last bit in hopes to gain the Brotherhood as well. Against the Juggernaut, they could use all the help they could get.
Terrence snorted and answered for his team. "We're through with that hag. Let her die with Xavier for all I care. You X-geeks can go run home to your big fancy mansion now. We've already beat you losers."
With that, the Brotherhood started their trek back down the mountain while the defeated X-men all clambered into the X-jet, with a little levitating help from Jean. Once inside and seated, Storm began to go over the situation with the team while they suited up.
"An unstoppable mutant named Juggernaut has come after the Professor for revenge against imprisoning him years ago. Wolverine is attempting to stop him, but we fear that he won't be enough. Apparently, Mystique is trying to use him to get her hands on Cerebro again. Juggernaut has turned on her, it seems, so she may be of help to us."
Luke laughed at that suggestion, before asking "So what does this Juggernaut guy do, exactly? And why did the Professor lock him up?"
"The Juggernaut is the Professor's step-brother, Cain Marko. Cain grew angry with Xavier once his relationship with his father turned sour and Charles was left with all of the inheritance. Cain didn't have an active X-gene, but he awakened it with mysticism and now with his enhanced X-gene, he is unstoppable. The only way to beat him is with Charles' mind, but the Juggernaut wears a helmet to protect himself from this. You will have to get that helmet off of him to have any chance of winning this."
'Enhanced X-gene? Why does that sound familiar? That's gotta mean something, right?' Luke questioned to himself as the mansion drew nearer. His inability to remember the term was pushed aside as the team rushed into the Danger Room, which was already trashed. Logan was face first on the ground, looking sorely defeated.
"Take a break, Wolverine. We've got it from here." Scott called out, getting the attention of the huge man in red who was towering over Mystique and Xavier. Way to blow the element of surprise Scott.
The man reached down to grab Xavier out of his wheelchair, but found himself held back by an invisible force that slowly lifted him up into the air. Jean managed to gasp out before she lost control "I'm losing him!"
Luke responded quickly and ran to the unstoppable just as he touched ground and tucked his shoulder in for a tackle, adding as much weight to himself as he could. The 800 lbs tackle hardly stumbled the man, but it gave Kurt enough time to port onto the Juggernaut's shoulder and grab a latch. The Juggernaut quickly threw him off and refocused on Luke, who was trying to slip all the extra weight off.
Unable to move himself in time, he could only watch in horror as the Juggernaut began his charge at his much smaller form. Crossing his arms in a meager defense, he was thrown back violently into the now dented DR wall and slumped down to the floor, his head swimming and his body aching. His arms were surely broken after that, so Luke was for all intents and purposes useless. His main medium to use his powers were now gone, even if he felt like moving. And after that hit from Juggernaut, he decidedly did not want to move.
Cyclops jumped into the fray, firing a steady burst into the unprepared Juggernaut's shoulder that annoyed the man at best. The hulking figure grabbed the remains of a DR robot arm and threw it at Scott. Ever the evasive one, Scott leapt out of the way as the arm crashed down on his previous location and exploded. Luke felt some of the shrapnel from where he was still lying on the ground, but could hardly notice it due to the pain he was still feeling in his arms.
Kitty phased down beneath the floor and snuck up on the oblivious Juggernaut, pulling his feet beneath the floor and stumbling the large man. Kurt, once again teleported to grab a latch, leaving only two unattended to. He jumped off of the man and scurried out of his reach as the man freed himself from the floor. Storm created a vortex around the man before he could start moving and toppled him, where her nephew was lying in wait. Evan sprouted several spikes from his arm before shooting one at a latch and knocking it lose.
He shot for the other one as well, but only hit the helmet, ringing it loud and irritating the already angry Juggernaut. The man charged and would've stomped Evan into the dirt if not for a timely Kurt porting him to safety. The reappeared across the room, but the Juggernaut followed them and began to give chase. Scott fired off more blasts, but they didn't even stumble the man once he was in motion.
Jean tried to lift him into the air again, with Storm adding more wind and even a few bolts of lightening, but again nothing stopped the Juggernaut. Luke watched all of this from his spot on the wall. It was almost funny seeing such a big guy chasing around two kids. If only their lives weren't on the line. If only Nightcrawler wasn't getting tired. If only they had a way to beat this guy.
Mystique was ever so slowly slipping away from Charles and closer to the broken door of the Danger Room. She had no reason to be here. Her mission had failed with the destruction of Cerebro. So she was going to slip out of here before she ended up splattered on the walls like the X-men would soon be. She looked over to Luke, who was simply sitting against the wall, still dazed from his earlier hit. Mystique was not going to let that happen to her.
Then she saw Luke begin to push himself up off the floor, using the wall to support himself since he couldn't steady himself with his arms. What was he doing? Surely he wasn't foolish enough to attack that monster of a man again. Not in the condition he was in. But yet there he was, struggling to stay upright, but going back into a fight that would kill him. She really needed to get out of here. Stupid X-men ideals of self-sacrifice or fighting to protect others made her nauseous.
Charles idly noted the departure of Mystique in preference to watch his students face his step-brother. It hurt him inside to see his students in such peril due his own cause. Especially watching Gyro. And now it seemed the team's luck had run out. The Juggernaut had started his march and wasn't going to stop till he had Charles' head. Charles then felt his powers pick something up in the back of his head and the telepath tuned in on it.
'Professor! Can you hear me?'
'Yes, I can, Luke. What is it? Are you ok?'
Luke's thoughts turned darker for a split moment, from which he bit back a retort about his current condition, Xavier assumed, before communicating his wishes mentally. 'Tell Jean to throw me whenever the Juggernaut starts his charge.'
The man did as asked, but couldn't help but ask what his youngest student had in mind. He didn't get an answer and felt determination bloom forth in Luke's mind.
Jean responded to the telepathic message from Xavier wordlessly, turning to her teammate on the wall. He gave her a nod to assure her of his wishes. Jean reached out and gripped onto Luke telekinetically, before watching the Juggernaut, who was still pursuing the team's teleporter and skater. The man had stopped himself from running into a wall and was about to turn face to start his run again, shrugging off Evan's spikes, Cyclops's optic blast, and Storm's hailstorm. Jean looked back again at Luke, who only gave her an exasperated look that told her to throw away.
Jean did. She picked Luke up a few feet, before tossing him airborne. She made sure to keep him upright, as she was sure he had a plan for being in the air. The teen was sent flying and ended up being directly over Juggernaut who was picking up speed going to other way.
Luke kicked out with his right leg, stopping himself in the air and sending him backwards, where he turned in the air. Before he could start to fall, he kicked out with his other leg and propelled himself forward to keep up with the Juggernaut, who had just stopped his charge yet again in order to locate Kurt. Luke was practically right on top of the man and was falling right on top of him. His legs were dangling uselessly beneath him, but that was fine for Luke's plan. He was sticking with the tried and true method to knock the Juggernaut down.
Adding on weight to himself once again, Luke only prayed in his head that he had enough in time. Sure enough, when he landed awkwardly onto the Juggernaut's shoulders, the man was sent tumbling forward and tripped, falling onto the ground with a loud thud. Luke landed much more gracefully, face first and he had couldn't use his arms, nor his legs. The pain was minor compared to the now stoked fire that was burning in his arms that had him rolling on the floor in agony.
Rouge had picked up on Luke's slack and ran forward, grabbing the last latch and taking the helmet with her too. The Juggernaut, angry at the loss of his helmet, pushed himself up and began his run to Charles, deciding to end it before it became too late. Midway through, he had to stop running to clutch his head from the obvious mental pain he was feeling from the Professor. He slumped to the floor, subdued and unconscious.
The Danger Room was then filled with a resounding cheer. All of students, save one, began to celebrate, high fiving the nearest person or giving each other hugs. Xavier seemed quite pleased as well, but he had to take stock of the situation quickly. Cain would only be unconscious for so long and there were other things to attend to. He gave out orders to his X-men, even though he longed to let them rest. Their work wasn't quite yet done.
"Logan, would you, Jean, and Scott like to escort me as I take Juggernaut back to his cell? I would very much appreciate the company." The three said yes immediately and began the collective project of moving Juggernaut. What a pain. Xavier turned to his other X-men and asked "Ororo, I fear Gyro needs some serious medical attention. I'll arrive as soon as I can, but please take him to the hospital and ask for Dr. Chase Masters.(2) He'll tend to all of Luke's conditions without question. Students, if you would go with Luke to keep him company."
Everyone agreed, except Luke, who had yet to be pulled off of the floor. He wasn't doing it himself. He was just gonna rest until he felt better. Then he felt hands on him, tugging gently at his shoulders till they rolled him over. He let out a groan in complaint, not meeting anyone in the eyes as they looked down on him. Kurt offered a hand to him and asked "Are you all right, Luke? You're arms, are they broken?"
"I sure hope so Kurt. If they aren't then I never want a broken bone I my body, cause this right here hurts. You're not pulling me up by these things. You could drag me by my hair before I let you pick me up by my arms."
Evan and Scott scooped him off of the floor by his shoulders and back and he swayed a bit on his own feet. He carefully took a step forward and felt his leg muscles give way under pressure. With his healing factor so distracted by his arms, his leg muscles would probably take forever to grow back. What a drag. After they changed into normal clothes, Storm began to shepherd her students to the garage where the X-van would be waiting. Evan and Kurt helped Luke hobble his way there, much to his shame. He felt pitiful. Thankfully, no one said anything about his injuries and they all tried to cheer him up.
None of them could be as mean as he could be and pick on someone who had already been kicked down. His friends were all a lot nicer than that. Evan even bothered to tell the story of when he broke his leg skateboarding. Everyone laughed and the mood was a light one. When they arrived at the hospital, which was relatively quick considering the distance, (Luke blamed this on Ororo's insane driving), they used the emergency room entrance. They found the receptionist area in the midst of chaos, but thankfully were able to get someone's attention quickly. Storm did the talking and got the team sent to the office of the doctor the Professor had instructed them to find.
His office was on the third floor, but when they found it, there was no mistaking why the Professor had sent them there. The office door was open and the room's owner was waiting on them all. He was dressed in formal attire topped with the traditional doctor's coat. The man had an impeccable handlebar mustache to boot, and his round glasses made all of the kids want to snicker. His British accent was icing on the cake.
"It seems that you would be the group Charles told me to watch for. You, young sir, come with me. I've already had a room cleared and marked with your name. I'll be in there momentarily to run some tests, even though I feel that your injuries are already obvious."
Luke left his friends behind to go to a room that was darkened and a machine took up the middle of the room. A room lit up on the side, enclosed by glass and filled with a table covered by monitors and screens. The doctor had slipped into the room and started up the computers before instructing Luke through the glass.
"Place your arms on X-ray. I need to know where they're broken at so I can set them."
Luke grit his teeth and did as told. In a flash, the doctor took the X-ray. Luke let his arms rest by his side where they were much more comfortable. The doctor cut the lights out and stepped out of his room, so Luke did the same. The doctor led him back to his office, where the team was still waiting.
The doctor went to his desk and began clicking on his computer before pulling an image of the X-ray that appeared on a larger monitor mounted on his wall. He then began pointing out all the fractures and breaks.
"You did a number on your arms, bucko. You'll be right as rain eventually, but you'll just have to tough it out till then. No surgery is required, but I will set them in a sling and let your body do the rest."
He gave the group a look before explaining further "I was Charles' roommate back at Oxford. I saw the same things in his studies of genetics as he did. He's kept me up to date on his students in case there was ever an emergency and you needed a doctor that Charles wouldn't have to adjust."
With that, the doctor left his room and went off, presumably to go get the slings for Luke. Luke turned to look at Storm, hoping she could enlighten them on his doctor. He seemed to be in such a hurry with his practice. He didn't explain anything to him or ask any questions. He just went with whatever he thought was right. That kinda made Luke nervous, as he didn't trust the man, even if the Professor did. Ororo just shrugged.
The man came back, but before anyone could react, he pulled a syringe out of his pocket and stabbed it into Luke's leg. A cry of protest weakly rung out from Luke, before a wave of something disorientating hit him.
"That was a small dose of morphine so I can set his arms without hurting him. No need to react so violently."
Luke saw everyone in the room settle back down, with Evan's spikes slipping back into his skin. He turned back to his doctor, eyeing him with even more distrust than before. Couldn't he have just announced his intentions before stabbing Luke? But no, he had to be all dramatic. Jerk.
Dr. Masters ignored the wary looks he was getting and grabbed his patient's arms, setting them into the slings after properly wrapping them. He set them into the slings after wrangling them onto his patient's neck. After he finished that, he opened the door to his office and told them to leave.
"If you stop down at the pharmacy, I prescribed you some pain medication for when the morphine wears off. Try not to lose them, because I will not prescribe any more to you if you do."
Storm herded all of the kids outside of the office, which was promptly shut after they left. All of the students were fuming after being treated so poorly by the man, but Storm made everyone laugh out loud when she voiced her own opinion.
"Someone must've tweaked his moustache when he woke up this morning."
She made a phone call to the Professor to inform him that they were done at the hospital and that there was no need for him to bother making the trip down there. When she hung up, the team made a trip to the pharmacy to pick up the prescribed medication before leaving. Luke couldn't wait to get home to the couch in the rec room. It was calling his name.
They arrived home in record time, yet again thanks to Storm's driving. Luke wasn't sure if it was the morphine or the car sickness that made him want to throw up. Once inside, he was informed by the Professor that he would have the week off to rest if he chose to do so. Luke nodded and thanked the man, then stuck his tongue out at Wolverine for being able to avoid his training sessions.
The man grunted and strode off, which was a victory in Luke's mind. He took his victory with a grain of salt though, as he jostled his arms and they began to throb. Luke headed to his room and grabbed his phone and headphones, moving as little as he could but still causing himself great amount of pain and discomfort. Rather than get settled on his bed for a nap, Luke saw the bottle of his pain medication sitting on his bedside. Storm must've dropped it by his room earlier.
Again, causing himself a large amount of pain in doing so, he opened the bottle and poured two out. A sense of apprehension hit him and settled in the back of his throat, but he quickly swallowed it just like he swallowed the pills. Settling down for his nap now, Luke put his iPhone on shuffle and let music drift him off to sleep.
AN: Well, that was quick. I'll admit that I could've updated this in June, but I figured I would give myself a break to proofread my terrible grammar. There's a picture on iFunny where someone says that they do their best proofreading after they hit the send button. So True! But that's not an excuse I can stand by, so I apologize. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter and weren't too disappointed that I didn't include the Brotherhood. But I had to make a point that they don't care about Mystique anymore. So that left all that room I had to fill in the Juggernaut fight. I don't like how it all turned out, but I couldn't picture it any other way. It DID let me start a very important plot thread that you guys may have picked up on already.
The little (1) was to note that I did something weird. I had no idea what happened to all the other kids at the first of the episode, so I improvised. Shouldn't be that big of a deal.
(2) was to deining that I did use the names of two doctors from the House series. Chase was my favorite House underling in the later seasons and I hated Masters, so to make this guy a balanced doctor, I blended the two. Plus, Masters is a Britian surname, I believe.
Chapter title came from Jimmy Eat World's song off of Future. I think this chapter title fits pretty darn well. Oh well. Read and review, tell me what you didn't like. I'm sure there was something. Big Willis, out!