AN: I'm sorry for dragging my feet on this one guys. There isn't much of an excuse for my tardiness, but I'm kinda in trouble for writing this in the first place. My sorry butt got grounded for letting my grades dip in Spanish. I'm not supposed to use any electronics aside my phone until I get an A in there. Fat chance. So this chapter comes to you from a LOT of secretive work done late at night. Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution or any of Marvel's products. But one day, one sweet sweet day, I will own a personal fountain that is constantly flowing with the deliciousness that is Dr. Pepper.
Chapter 20
Wake Up
"Caliban, there are no excuses! I need you to find me a solution for our problem right now. And do not even think of mentioning her name as a possible solution. You know full well why she wouldn't suffice for this one."
As odd as it was that the man seemed to be talking to nothing but the air, it was even odder that he was floating in it miles above the ground and prying eyes. More odd still was the limp body dangling beside the man, lifted by an assortment of metals that formed together like a metallic flying carpet. Despite the oddities of his current situation, the speaker ignored the world as he focused on the voice filtering through the air and traveling directly towards him via his right hand, DJ.
"Caliban says that he may have found a cure, but it's no guarantee. Take him to the mansion on the hill and find the one that calls herself Revert. She will be able to mend his body, but as you know, only she can bring his soul back if he's departed. Hurry, Magnus. Caliban can sense your protégé's powers fading and he tells me that two others are planning to visit the same place your target is. If his senses are right, then it would be the two missing members of Squad 16 that weren't at the field with you. Caliban is unsure of whether of not the two are after your target, but it would be best to presume that their presence there is not good. Otherwise, the only trained adversary you will find there is the man called Wolverine."
"Good. Wolverine will protect his young and attack the two so savagely that he won't notice me sneaking one off. And if he does, a man made of metal cannot harm me. Our strongest weapon will be restored before this night is over with, and mark my words, Darius, our enemies will pay for giving him the opportunity to recover."
With an objective in hand, Magneto redirected himself and the flying metal carrying Gyro. They were headed towards Gyro's old home. To Magneto's oldest friend's mansion. They were headed to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters.
Eyes shifted back and forth, darting from anyone to everyone in seconds. No one would dare make eye contact, for fear of being reprimanded for it, or worse. At that very moment, tucked away in their new school in a strange room underground stuck with a strange burly man, eight preteen mutants stood in line and all but trembled in fear. Never before had any of them been smothered in a presence that expelled such anger. From snorting his nose to snarling his lips, Logan was giving off all the warning signs needed for the kids to know that the volcano was going to metaphorically erupt.
Logan was mad. He had had the entire night planned out perfectly in his mind. He was gonna eat dinner in a perfectly quiet dining room, have the living room entirely to himself so he could watch whatever telenovella that was on at the hour, then he could smoke what was left of his box of cigars with no one around but Storm to complain about it. And he knew exactly what she would've said and what to say back. He had figured out just exactly how to dance around her little scolding and warnings. But now he wouldn't get the chance to.
He had to baby-sit. Baby-sit kids that weren't even his responsibility. And their teacher, who had only been there for a few hours, had already run off to go avert a catastrophe without him. Why couldn't Storm stay with the kids while he got to go fight? Storm didn't even like fighting that much. But Logan lived off of it. Thrived off of it. Logan looked out among the kids lined in front of him and grinned.
"Well, you all were supposed to get your first DR session in order to break you in, and I'm not here to stop you. So your first Danger Room session is gonna be…surviving with me."
The kids all took a step back as three large claws sprouted between the knuckles on each of Logan's hands, now clenched in dangerous fists. "Activate session 372 on half. Set a timer for 10 minutes and start it in 7 seconds."
Before the New Mutant's eyes, the room responded to what Logan said and a virtual simulation corresponded, growing and developing into a slummy city neighborhood that was rundown and abandoned. And as the kids looked out and around them, Logan just counted down "6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1"
The kids just turned to look at him, all of them wide-eyes and obviously scared. "You were supposed to run. So I'm gonna count again. From ten this time. And you all will try to not lose. And by lose, I mean stay away from these claws."
The kids all turned and scattered, heading into the rough neighborhood separately and in a mad scramble. Logan just grinned and waited until all of them were out of sight before taking a whiff of the air. "This'll be too easy." With that, he was off after one of them. They'd all be out before the 10 minutes was up unless catastrophe struck.
Logan vaulted over a crumbled wall and scrambled onto the roof of a small building to take a good look of his surroundings. He had used this terrain a few times before with the more experienced students, but with so many environments, he had trouble remembering them all. This one, though, was his favorite one to run search and destroy in. It was near perfect for it. He was fixing to show these kids why. Spotting a tuft of blonde hair tucked behind a car near him across the street, Logan took a second to plan how he would get to the car before the kid got away. A streetlight was his solution.
Running to the edge, Wolverine jumped and grasped at the arm of the light pole, swinging off of it to fall on top of the car roof with a loud crunch. Sure enough, the blonde hiding behind it shrieked in terror and scurried away to get away. Logan smirked and hopped down before spotting a gift that had been left for him by his fleeing target. A small glowing marble. A dive later and the street was filled with a loud explosion that left Logan's ears ringing, but otherwise fine.
Gritting his teeth at being duped, Wolverine took off, aiming to make up for lost time by playing hard ball. A little roughening up would only do these kids good, right? As Logan began running down the street, attempting to catch up with Tabitha before she got too far away, Logan heard a computer voice call out indistinctly and stopped mid-stride. For some reason, the program shut down and the entire Danger Room fell back to its normal state. The kids were scattered out an about in various spots, each one confused by what was going on, because all of them knew ten minutes hadn't passed.
They began to work their way back to Logan, who was looking up to the control room hoping to see someone familiar up there. Not spotting anyone, Wolverine was about to head up there himself before Bobby ran up and asked "Hey Mister Logan, I know we're supposed to be training or whatever, but what's a Defcon 4? That doesn't sound like a training exercise."
Logan whirled around and grabbed the younger boy by the shoulders and gave him a small shake, scaring the teen near senseless as he asked "You're sure the computer said Defcon 4? If it did then this is very serious. Deadly serious."
Bobby didn't doubt Logan for a second as he nodded his head nervously. "Yeah. The computer said 'Intruders, activating Defcon 4.' Does that mean people are breaking into the mansion? Are we in trouble? Do we need to go up there and do something or…Are they here for us?"
Logan loosened his grip on the boy and turned away, facing the door and the only entrance to the room, watching it.
"No. You all are going to stay right here with me where I can keep you safe. If push comes to shove I'm going to need all of you to stay as close together as you can and work as a team to keep each other safe. There's not a chance that anyone who can make it through the mansion's defenses can be beaten by just on of you guys. But if you work together, you may just stay alive. Or, it could just be Xavier forgot to deactivate the defenses when he came home from the game." 'But I kinda doubt that.'
The kids all bunched up behind Logan in one big cluster, muttering among themselves in hushed tones. So much for their first day at the mansion. Wolverine was really wishing he had his cigar with him now. Oh how it would help some of the tension he was feeling right then. But he didn't have his cigar and he didn't have much time to wait either. Loud crashes were heard from outside the room and as they got louder and closer, the sounds suddenly stopped. The mutants inside the Danger Room held their breath for one single moment, waiting for something to happen. And slowly, something did.
An eerie creaking sound carried through the room and the thick door guarding the entrance fell into two pieces, perfectly divided. Behind the two pieces, cloaked in the darkness of the hallway, stepped 3 mutants. Logan snarled at the recognition of two of the mutants and cursed his luck at the unknown third person being there. This was about to be very messy.
"That wasn't so hard, was it Rift? And we kept our babysitter intact the entire way. The Boss better give us a raise for this. I don't see why he didn't stick Gameboy with her. He's the newbie after all. We shouldn't have to keep up with her while recovering our missing property."
The redheaded male talking was the same one Logan had seen in the underground lab. He had the ability to split things with his hands, if he remembered right. He was just the same now as he was then. His hair was jutting out in every direction and his eyes were narrowed and dark. The girl he was talking to, Rift, was an old face too. She still wore her loud flip-flops but now she was chewing on a piece of gum. Blowing it up into a large bubble and popping it annoyingly, the little blonde girl answered obnoxiously "Well of course. This place is a dump. Their yard is a total mess. And look at those kids. They're all wearing those ugly uniforms. What losers."
Logan growled at the insults, but didn't respond to the poke. Instead, he spit out "What exactly are you scum doing here? Go home to your daddy before I have to put you kids to bed myself."
"We're here to take back what's ours. Either you can give her up to us or we can go get her. In fact, screw the first option. I feel like killing you just the sake of it. I hope that'll comfort you in the afterlife."
With that, the young man dropped to his knee and placed both palms on the floor, channeling his destructive energy that split the floor into a giant chasm, with nothing but darkness in between. Wolverine dove out of the way of the speeding fissure, but not before shouting orders to his temporary students "Move!"
The group of younger teens scattered, pairing up as an instinctive security measure. Bobby, Sam, Amara, and Tabitha made it to one side of the divide; Jamie, Marley, Katie, and Ray to the other. The three students with Katie all seemed to sway on their feet as if hit with a dose of morphine. The three collapsed a moment after, hitting the floor in a dazed state and a glazed glossy look in their eyes. Katie looked ready to dissolve into tears, well aware it was her own powers causing such a reaction.
Wolverine hardly had time to take note of his student's actions, regardless of how distraught their situation now seemed. He had a more pressing matter on his hand, or more accurately, on his tail. Fissure, after living up to his name and dividing the room and separating the students while putting Wolverine on the evasive, followed up with a quick pursuit of Wolverine, charging in with a palm thrust that narrowly avoided the man's torso. Logan had seen what those hand's had done to the floor and decidedly didn't want the same done to him. Fissure followed Wolverine's dodge again with another open handed strike, utilizing some type of open hand to hand combat training, from what Logan could tell.
And he was darn good at it too, Logan decided. The man had attacked him with a swarm of flying palms that left Wolverine on the evasive so much he didn't even think to draw his claws as a deterrent for getting so close. Once he was given the moment to after a near endless physical assault from his redheaded adversary, Wolverine did unsheathe his claws, smirking at the man before him who was getting his wind back.
"Ready for my turn?" With a snarl, Wolverine lunged, aiming to stab the man through while he was still flat-footed and recovering. Fissure's eyes glinted over in an odd sheen, or maybe it was just a flare of the lighting, but as time seemed to crawl by and Logan's claws inched closer and closer to their mark, the man could've sworn that a smile crossed Fissure's face. Somehow, the younger man had managed to put his palms in front of Wolverine's claws and was merely waiting for the man to seal his own doom.
Fissure didn't seem to know that Wolverine's claws were Adamantium and nigh indestructible. He didn't care. If there was a single thing that his life had shown in all its hardships was one universal fact. Nothing can't be split. Everything else can.
It was over in a moment. Wolverine's lunge at the man had stopped short as the man jerked himself backwards, not actually expecting the Network agent to stand there and let Logan run him through. Not that it mattered. Wolverine stood blankly, his hand's still posed to finish out the stabbing motion needed to end Fissure's life, but he couldn't do it. His claws, his indestructible metal claws that had cut through everything he'd ever contacted, his personal attachment of death and pain, and the only thing in his life that had been consistent, no matter what he did or didn't remember, were now split cleanly in half down to their base in between his knuckles.
Pain, red hot and agonizing, jumped through Logan's hand and he instinctively retracted his weapons and bit back a roar of pain. He tried to cradle his hands to his chest in pain, but found himself knocked flat on his back, courtesy of Fissure's boot. The man soon towered over Logan and dropped his knee into Logan's gut, reaching for the pinned man's throat for a simple kill. Wolverine hadn't lived as long as he had as a fighter for nothing, however and even in pain and disorientation knew to keep the hands away from him at all costs.
A small struggle arose between Fissure and Wolverine as Wolverine grasped Fissure's wrists and made sure the younger man couldn't touch him. Fissure tried to press down on Logan, but it wasn't working. Wolverine had too much experience and conveniently had a metal skeletal frame that prevented him from feeling most of the pressure Fissure was applying. A beam of chilling ice hit Fissure in the side solidly, knocking him off of Logan and leaving a patch of thick ice on his black leather padded outfit. Wolverine picked himself up at the same time Fissure did, but he wasn't forced to protect himself from sheer cold like the Network agent was.
Bobby had picked himself up from the sidelines of the canyon in the DR floor and tried to assist Logan, allowing his powers to manifest in a layer of ice covering his body. He then began projecting his powers in an ice blue beam through his hands, attempting to trap the red head in a case of ice. Much to Bobby's disappointment, it wasn't working. Fissure merely held his palms out in front of the beam and it split in perfect symmetry in front of him. Bobby ditched his efforts as it showed to be unhelpful, instead turning to help his new teammates against Rift. The girl was having a ridiculously easy time avoiding harm, as everything the New Mutants threw at her was absorbed through left hand into a black hole. It was regurgitated at the same velocity it entered, firing from her right hand as she willed. It seemed like the girl wasn't even trying to press on an attack, but wasting time or stalling. So it seemed that there was a stalemate for that fight, as well as Wolverine's and Fissure's, where neither could get the upper hand in their melee.
Magneto had followed in behind the Network agents and waited for a moment while the two made a scene. He watched them from above, resting in the Danger Room's observation chamber. Gyro was laid on the room's table, growing paler and colder. The blood had stopped pouring from the wound, but that hardly satisfied Magneto. An injury like that couldn't be waved off just because the blood had stopped flowing and finally clotted. That itself was dangerous too, especially around the heart. Magneto turned from his Acolyte and examined the room beneath him, looking for his target. Caliban, his prized possession that he had collected from the sewer scum, a ragged assortment of mutants, had been worth locating and providing for the entirety of Morlocks. Caliban had located a mutant for him that could mend his broken tool. But Caliban was vague with his sensing and had only provided a gender and a name, leaving Magneto to do some small amount of guessing.
It couldn't be either of the girls fighting the Network agent. They were both using destructive powers, not the healing Magneto needed. So that left the other girl who was standing over three downed students, one of which was a girl who could be who he was looking for. The conscious girl was by herself and seemed distraught, unaware of what else was going on around her. So when metal erupted from the floor around her and picked her up, it was certainly a surprise. Magneto began to lift her as well as the other unconscious girl, when he was met with a sudden resistance. Magneto looked down at the girl and saw her panicking, too scared to think straight, let alone use her powers to resist. But yet something was holding her back. What was it?
Ghost was beside herself, literally and physically, on what she should do. Her assignment, helping Squad 16 recover their lost asset, was fairly straightforward. The girl they were after was an escapee with no where to go and easy to find. She often left a trail of bodies behind her wherever she went. But Ghost was at a loss because her objective was right in front of her. Subject 174852, I.D. Katie, codenamed Nurse, was being levitated by loose metals and lifted upwards to an observation chamber. Based on the information she had been briefed with, it was likely that it was Magneto in the chamber. Magneto was one of the biggest priorities that she had been briefed on for her sector, but she was no threat to the man. She was not properly equipped to deal with him in a more fatal way and her powers limited her very existence to sticking to the shadows.
Ghost could act even further than she was now and risk exposing herself, or she could wait and bide her time for better opening to reclaim her missing asset. The decision weighed in her mind and the woman eventually decided to let go of Katie and let the metal take her, as well as another girl, upwards and out of sight. Ghost left the room, making sure not to interrupt the fighting in anyway, lest her powers begin to undo and all her effort remaining undetected be lost. She had to find a way to that chamber without interacting enough with the world to reveal herself. Because even ghosts could be felt when they expressed their presence enough…
Magneto quirked an eyebrow as the resistance he was feeling vanished. There was something about it that stuck out in Magnus' mind that bothered him about it, as if he knew something that would explain the resistance, but couldn't remember exactly what. Regardless, he turned the new arrivals and looked over the frightened girl deposited before him. A feeling overcame him that was foreign, and even as it beset upon him, Magneto could tell it was the girls doing.
Euphoria. That was closest thing he could think of to describe the feeling. And it was becoming increasingly disorienting and the man felt it would soon render him unconscious. The girl was suffocating him in pleasure, raw and unwarranted. Magneto gripped on the table with his hands as he ground a loud a wavering shout of "Stop!"
The shout worked. The girl recoiled from him as if he'd hit her and the pleasure that had been running rampant in Magneto's mind dwindled, leaving him almost wanting. 'This girl's powers are dangerous. Remarkable, but dangerous. I have no use for her, however and it seems she isn't the girl I was looking for.'
Magneto kept his eyes on the girl, watching her movements as he instructed "Wake the girl. I need her for something. Stay calm and do as you're told and you'll be fine. Xavier would be furious with me otherwise."
Katie was wordless, still frightened and unable to think straight. She didn't know what to do asides what the man asked her. So she turned to Marley, who had been laid on the floor by the metal that had carried them up. The girl was still out of it from when Katie flooded her brain with endorphins earlier. Katie squatted down and grabbed Marley by the shoulders, shaking her roughly in an attempt to get the girl to wake up but it didn't work. She tried smacking her face a bit, not too roughly, but that didn't work either.
Katie could feel the magnetic mutant behind her getting impatient and decided on a more reliable method, if a bit unethical. She pinched Marley's nose shut and pushed up on the girl's jawbone, cutting of her air supply. A few moments later and Marley jerked to life, operating instinctively and flailing out in terror. Katie released her and Marley pushed herself away as she regained control of her breathing and took in her surrounding. She was a lot more subdues about nearly being suffocated than one would normally think a person should be, but that was just another perk of Katie's powers. No one was ever angry around her.
Marley's mind finally caught back up to speed and she turned to the girl asking "What's going on? Why is there a robot with a cape watching us? Where even are we?"
Magneto took a step forward, shattering the illusion of being a robot and stating "I need you to fix something, child. That is all you need to know. It's here on the table. Fix it, and you two will be free to join back with the others."
Marley pushed herself off the floor and looked over to the table that Magneto was pointing to. A gasp escaped her and Katie rose to see what was there. It was a boy. A boy that was covered in blood. His jacket was stained red in dried blood and there was still some leaking out from the wound in his chest.
"You want me to, um, fix that? He needs to go an emergency room and see some doctors or something. I'm not qualified to do something like this. I don't even know if I can."
"You can and you will. I was sent to you for a reason and now you are going to save this boy, save his life. You must."
Katie was almost tempted to ask the consequences, but knew better. This man had power, far beyond what she or Marley could do. That much was obvious from the way he withstood her flooding him with euphoria. So Katie nudged the girl beside her and nodded for her to do as she was told.
Marley walked over to the table and held out a trembling hand to the body, watching it rise and fall unsteadily and more blood pour out of the jacket. Marley couldn't tell where the wound was, the blood had dried and matted over the jacket, making it indiscernible where the source of life's liquid was coming from. Marley turned to look at Magneto for a moment, but all she could see was his dark red helmet, not the eyes boring into her from behind it. With a shiver, Marley turned back around and asked Katie for some help.
"I can't see where all the blood is coming from. Help me get this jacket off of him."
Katie did as asked and together they worked the still unresponsive boy out of his jacket, then his shirt as well when it became apparent that it was unhelpful too. Now the hole in his chest was visible and Marley could see what she was actually doing. Before she could muster up her powers to restore him, Marley watched as the boy's skin seemed to try and mend it back together, only to break back apart. Blood was trying to clot, but when it did, something else would rupture and blood would pour back out. Looking a little closer, Marley saw the cause. Inside the chest wound was a small white shard that looked incredibly similar to a picture she had seen before in biology class.
"Yes, he was shot with a bone. I wouldn't suppose that would stop you from healing him, now would it?"
Magneto's statement and question brought Marley back to the reality at hand that some boy was laying on a table bleeding like crazy in front of her.
"How is he not already dead? He's bleeding like crazy and must've been that way for a while?"
Marley didn't really expect and answer, but got one nonetheless.
"He's a mutant, like you two. His regenerative ability is what's kept him alive for the last half hour, but it's taking its toll on him. He won't last like this much longer. Now hurry and fix him!" The order was sharp and the tone harsh, but the massage was clear.
Marley thought about trying to use her powers while the bone shard was still inside of him, but the thought of the flesh mending back over with the bone shard in there gave her pause. She needed to get it out. But there was no way she could reach inside another person's chest just to save their life. It was disgusting. And dangerous. What if she accidentally killed him by making the wound worse?
Katie saw the hesitation in Marley's eyes and felt the impatience from Magneto rising, so she slipped and hand on top of Marley's and sent a small hint of calmness into the girl's nervous system. Marley smiled at the small form of contact, suddenly feeling a bit better. With a deep breathe, she reached out with her thin fingers and slowly pulled the bone shard out of the wound. The boy on the able jerked a bit from the wound being stirred up, and more blood began to pour out, but otherwise, things were fine.
Now that the bone was out of the way, Marley could step back and let her powers do this rest. Wiping the blood of her hands on the remains of the boy's already blood soaked shirt, Marley's hands began to glow yellow as she placed them hovering over the wound. In a flash of brilliant light that blinded the room, the wound disappeared beneath her hands. As she removed them with a look of confidence on her face, she was met with the sight of patch of gray skin, scarred and rough.
"What happened? I thought you could fix him. Why does he have a massive scar on his chest?" Magneto certainly didn't seem happy to see the scar either. The scar would mean that the body had a point of weakness. The scar painted a target on the boy's chest for any of his enemies to take a shot at.
"My powers restore things to their natural state. If an oak tree's bark cracks over time, I can't mend that, because it was how nature designed it. His body must've already been making scar tissue in order to replace what was lost. I merely removed the bone and restored the natural process already in place."
"I see… Is he safe to move again?"
Marley looked over the boy, whose chest was rising and falling at a much more even rhythm than before, before turning to the metal clad man and nodding. "He should be fine. When he wakes up he should be back to the way he was naturally."
Magneto seemed to think something over in his head before causing metal to spring to life before him, scooping up Luke off of the table and making towards the exit. He had to return to his base. If what this girl said is true, then that would mean that Mastermind's most certainly unnatural hold on him would've faded and he would be back under his own control again. That was not acceptable. Luke still had not come around to seeing thing's his was and until he did, he couldn't let such a powerful mutant slip through his hands. The power he saw in Luke was eerily similar to what he saw in himself.
"Wait! What about us? Are you just gonna leave us here? There are people here trying to kill us, after all. You could at least help us deal with them before you run off."
Magneto fixed his attention on the girl who had asked such a ridiculous request. Marley held her ground under the gaze of a man clearly her superior. If anything, she became even more emboldened, crossing her arms and looking expectantly to the metal man while Katie just shuffled nervously behind her.
'Maybe I took away too much of her nervousness?' Katie fretted to herself. Her powers may have just cut off Marley's instinctual survival responses when her natural fears were pushed back. The girl, unable to properly be afraid, would lose judgment and do something reckless.
Magneto didn't seem angry, though. In fact, he seemed amused. "Not everyone that you do a favor for will do the same for you. But you've interested me and I will give you my word to help you later on in time, when the situation isn't as dire as it is for me."
With that vouching, he lifted his young charge off of the table and towards the observation chamber's exit, planning to leave the mansion as quickly as possible and without alerting everyone else to his presence there. Katie watched the man leave, the boy floating behind him, before running out of the room after him.
"Wait a minute. I can help him. Just give me a moment." She latched onto Luke's arm and began releasing the brain chemicals needed to wake the boy up. After all, if Magneto had wanted them to heal the boy, surely him being awake would be a plus.
"Child, no, stop! What are you doing?" Magneto bellowed, forcing the girl to distance herself from Luke with random metals from the ceiling and floor. But the process has already been started. Invisible to them, Luke's brain began to fire off messages to jumpstart his body and restore consciousness. In seconds, his eyes fluttered open and he began to take in his surroundings from his floating metal bed.
Magneto immediately began pulling every bit of metal around into a giant coffin of metals around Luke, cutting him off from the world right as he was starting to enter it.
Magneto turned to glare at Katie, who was very confused as what was going on, when a yellow blast of energy soared by the girl's ear and hit the metal coffin. When the light disappeared, the metals had all been returned to their proper place in the building interior and Luke was left lying on his back on the floor. The boy quickly scrambled to his feet before turning to look at his rescuers.
They were new faces and he didn't know them at all. They were staring at him as if he had come back from the dead, which was weirding him out. Then, he realized he didn't have a shirt on. That would probably explain the uncomfortable stares. Ignoring the fact, he turned to the only other person in the area, the one responsible for him being where he was.
"Magneto. Did you really think that I wouldn't ever break out of Wacko's brain scrambling? That I wouldn't ever get control of myself again? And that I wouldn't try to maim you, and then bludgeon you to death with whatever limb I just tore off of you? I know we've bonded over my period of captivity, but you've pushed that envelope a little too far."
"I was attempting to prepare you, Luke. For that, you should be thankful. Now, you are more ready than ever to do what you must for the sake of mutant kind. And more so, you should realize how necessary it all was."
"Maybe so. But you've got till the count of three to get the hell out of here or me and you are gonna find out which planetary force is stronger, mine or yours."
The entire room rattled as every metal surface came to life for a brief moment. Katie and Marley were thrown to the floor as everything began to shake while Luke just hovered in the air, seemingly un-put off by the tremendous show of strength that Magneto was putting on. Marley prepared another flash of yellow energy, but before she could use it, the room stopped moving. Magneto slipped out of the hallway and fled to the mansion's exit. He had lost what he had been trying to save, and no amount of fighting would place it back in his hands. Luke had come back unto his own will and would likely never fall back to Mastermind's controlling again.
So the Master of Magnetism was left with no other choice but to retreat home to his base of operations and begin planning anew for his personal war.
At the departure of his captor, Luke turned to the two girls, who he now noticed to be suited up in X-men uniforms. That helped sink in the fact that he was finally home again. It also brought back the memories of what he had done to the actual X-men at a soccer field. So now it was time for him to get his facts straight and the two girls in front of him seemed like the perfect help.
"So, I got a few questions I need to ask you two. Answer them the best you can, please. What day is it?"
Katie looked to Marley, who just shrugged and stepped forward, replying "It's Thursday. Why? Do you not remember?"
Luke's eyebrows furrowed as he thought about the question. "Yes. No. Sorta. I remember I'm supposed to be here. That I had done some things to the others, the X-men, which I needed to apologize for. I remember everything I did since Asteroid M. You two don't know what I'm talking about, so never mind that. It's Thursday. So where are the X-men?"
Katie answered this one. "The older mutants all went to a soccer game for one of the older girls. Rebecca ditched us earlier with Mr. Logan because something was wrong at the game."
Luke nodded his head, cataloging and putting events in place. "So that means I attacked them tonight. Good. So what did Magneto ask you two to do?"
Katie answered again; as she was the only one awake at the time to justifiably answer the question. "He took me and Marley out of the Danger Room in order for one of us to heal you. That was Marley's doing, by the way. He had carried you in on metal and laid you on the table. You were bleeding all over the place so we had to remove your shirt to see the hole in your chest. She plucked the bone out and then restored your body with her powers. It caused you body to finish developing the scar tissue it was already making, and I guess it cleared your head from whatever Magneto had done to you."
Luke looked down to where the two girls were looking at on his chest. The spot was right next to his heart and even from craning his neck; Luke could still tell it was a pretty big scar. Bile rushed to the back of his through as he prodded at it with his fingers. There wasn't any soreness or discomfort like he would've expected there to be. It seemed that the eccentric girl's powers really worked wonders.
"Thank you, then. I guess you saved my life. So what are you guys doing here at the Institute? Are you two new recruits of something?"
"Yeah, you could say that. Me, her, and a bunch of other students our age just started here. We were in the middle of our first training session and these three guys broke in. Mr. Logan is fighting one of them and the other students are handling the second. I lost track of the third one when the fighting started. I can't even remember what she really looked like."
Luke soaked everything in, while his body loosened up and readied for action. He couldn't remember exactly who Mr. Logan was, but if he and other students were fighting, then he needed to help.
"Are they all still in the Danger Room?" Luke asked, already heading towards it. A loud crash was his answer, coming from the direction he was headed. Luke leaped out of the window to the observation chamber and fell to the room beneath, waving his arms and using his powers to slow his decent. Sure enough, there were two Network agents. Each was fighting against other mutants and it seemed that the fighting was in their favor, despite the numbers advantage that the Institute mutants had.
The two girls watched the boy free fall to the floor from above, leaning out of the observation chamber window. "Wow. Can you imagine doing something like that with your powers? I bet he can fly and do all sorts of other cool stuff. Man, I wish my powers were cool like that."
Marley propped up on the window and day dreamed about it, not realizing the danger she was in at that position. Katie let a small smile cross her face at the other girl's happiness. Katie wasn't much of a day dreamer herself, but the thought of flying was entertaining nonetheless as the two girls watched over to mutants below. Neither of them knew how to get down to the Danger Room from the room they were in, so it would be better to just stay put.
The third mutant girl in the room agreed. Ghost has made her way stealthily up to the observation chamber and discovered that not only had Magneto fled, but the other mutant had left to fight Fissure and Rift. That left her with only the two girls to deal with. Those odds were much more in her favor. Ghost silently walked behind the two, who were oblivious to her presence. That was her mutation. She could hide herself from others to the point where she almost didn't even exist. Only by making changes in her surroundings did her powers fade away.
Ghost spotted where her target was, as well as the other mutant girl with her. They were both leaning out of the window, watching everything going on below them. Oh, how simple this was going to be. In a short burst of speed and a simple push, Ghost sent Marley toppling out of the window to the hard floor hundreds of feet beneath. As the girl plummeted to her demise, screaming all the way, Ghost turned in her now revealed form to the terrified Katie, who was in tears next to the window sill.
"Are you ready to come back with us now? You've tried my mistress' patience with you, little girl. While you have worth in her eyes, she doesn't tolerate runaways or traitors. Bubbles didn't appreciate you messing with his emotions, either. I'm sure he'll have some choice words to tell you when I bring you back. Now move."
Katie pushed herself away from the windowsill, trembling and still looking at the window her almost friend had disappeared out of. She wasn't thinking about Ghost. She wasn't thinking about going back to what she had run away from. She was thinking about the scream that was still echoing in her ears and how little it seemed to matter to the monster that had caused it.
"How can you just stand there? You just killed a girl! A fellow mutant. She was innocent and harmless to you and you pushed her out of a window! What kind of sick person are you?"
Ghost was gone in a moment, reappearing directly in front of Katie and grabbing a fistful of hair, pulling the younger girl into her face to make sure she had her attention. "Just who are we, Katie? We're the monsters and freaks that pop out of nightmares. We're the things your mother told you weren't there when you were scared of the boogiemen under your bed. We are what make the world go round. You can't just escape us. No one can. This entire mansion is coming down eventually, with every mutant in it coming along for the ride. What's one girl in the grand scheme of the Network?"
"She matters to us. And I don't give a damn about the Network's grand schemes or dastardly plans. Butt out of our lives!"
A voice from the window caused Ghost to reel and release Katie, turning to face the speaker, only to be knocked flying by an invisible force and sent sprawling on the floor. Luke slipped back inside the window, letting go of Marley who rushed to Katie and wrapped the girl in a hug. The two girls began to cry into each others shoulders, distressed and emotionally exhausted as they were. Luke left the two to themselves while he stepped over to Ghost, watching her closely. Something wasn't right about her.
In a flash, the girl launched herself up and threw a dark pellet at Luke, catching him by surprise as it erupted in his face. The room filled with a dense and dark cloud of inky black. Luke began using his powers to flush the room out, sending the smoke out of the windows. When the room cleared, Ghost was gone. Luke slammed his fist on the table at her escape, but returned to his two fellow mutants.
"You two are both gonna be ok now, right? No one was hurt, we're all alive, and we're safe. Everything is better now."
"Thank you." Marley half-sobbed out, wrapped up as she was with Katie. "You saved me. I told you he could fly, Katie."
Luke just laughed and let the two girls calm down, resting on the table. Eventually, the two settled and wiped their eyes. They separated, flushed at the sudden attachment they had to each other. It was funny how they had connected over one of them nearly dying. Now that there was bit more normalcy in the room, Luke looked back down to the Danger Room he had only just been in. It seemed that things in there had shift tremendously in the Institute's favor. Rift and Fissure both had their limbs encased in thick ice and Fissure looked to have some nasty gashes on his arm if Luke could notice them from way up above.
"Now that all the fighting's done, why don't we go down and visit with all our friends? I've got some catching up to do and some introductions to make it seems. And I'm sure the guys down here are looking for you. So grab on and I'll take us down there."
The two girls looked at each other for a moment, faces red, before looking back at Luke. Luke's brows furrowed again as he wondered what the hold up was, before he instinctively shivered and realized he was still shirtless.
"Right. My bad. Are my old clothes still here somewhere? Or did they get ruined?"
Marley grabbed the blood-soaked shirt and jacket from off the floor and held them in her hand, flashing her yellow energy and restoring them to look new. She offered them to Luke, who accepted them graciously and quickly slipped them on. Now that he was more properly dressed, Katie and Marley moved closer and asked "So how exactly is this going to work?"
"I'm not sure. Something like this, I suppose." Luke said as he grabbed both of them by their shoulders. In seconds they began to shed weight and soon were scoped up under his arms like pets. The two girls shrieked in terror as Luke jumped out of the window and screamed the entire way down. Their fright was all for naught, as when they reached the ground, they landed softly were set back on their own two feet, feeling light headed.
"Sorry about that. I figured you two would've never agreed if I would've told you before hand. So now we're here and I need to make you to weigh your proper weight again. Hold still."
The two girls were still shaking off the free fall experience as he added their weight back, making a rough approximation for both of them. Like it really mattered anyways. After he finished and let go of both of them, they both in turn smacked him as hard as they could, getting a startled yelp from the gravity manipulating boy.
Wolverine walked up to the three and didn't give Luke the chance to turn around before unsheathing his claws and placing them along Luke's spine. "Don't move an inch, bub. You two, explain what's going on. Now."
The two girls were surprised by Logan's immediate actions and warned "No, Mister Logan, he's one of us. Or, one of you guys, actually. He helped us out and he used to live here or something like that."
Logan moved his claws and turned Luke around slowly, looking him over and giving him a good whiff.
"It's you alright. Got tired of playing damsel in distress when we lost you again? I was wondering when you would come around."
"It's not exactly fun being held captive all the time, Wolverine. You don't get first pick of anything, no one ever asks you what you want to eat, they just give you something, and I didn't go anywhere without Sabretooth following me. It sucked."
Wolverine just grunted before asking "So Sabretooth made it out with Magneto? I didn't figure he would get left behind. What about Mystique? Did he take her with you two?"
Luke nodded. "Yeah. He kept her around so she could explain her side of the story or whatever. She was a double agent or something for him and she had gotten in too deep for his liking. So they had a little spat and now their back to distrusting one another. It's a messy story. But on the bright side, I got to meet Magneto's other henchmen. Some German guy and a telepath. The telepath kept me under Magneto's whip and chain so I don't remember much of anything aside's Magneto lecturing me on mutant supremacy or whenever I was doing something for him."
Logan just nodded. "The team's out right now and should be headed back. They had a disaster at the Soccer game or something. We just rounded up the Network goons here for Xavier to deal with later. He'll look into your amnesia too, I suppose. I was stuck here playing with the new recruits when they attacked. How'd you get here?"
"Magneto brought me here, I suppose. I was at the soccer game under his control and I got shot or something. He brought me here to this girl" Luke recounted, pointing to Marley, "and told her to heal me. She did, but at the same time snapped me out of the mind control mess they had me under. So Magneto bolted when I woke up and I was going to help you guys down here. But some sneaky Network agent up in the observation room pushed Marley out a window and was about to kidnap Katie when I came to the rescue. The Network agent ran off after throwing a smoke bomb at me. So all that was left was for me to bring these two back down here."
After the story was retold, Wolverine grouped all of the students back up and told them that everything was alright. They were going to go back upstairs and seal off the Danger Room so the two goons that were frozen couldn't escape, even if they managed to break the ice. The younger students filed off towards the elevator while Luke and Logan looked over the two mutants on ice.
"You two attacked us in the lab upstate, right? Weren't there more of you guys last time? The one I saw wasn't with you the first time, but she couldn't make up for the other three. So where's the other half of your squad?"
"They'll be barging in here any minute now to free us and to get the girl back. You can't hold us here. You can't stop them from getting us out of here and taking what's ours back from Xavier."
Logan snorted before replying "You two ain't' going no where. We've got a house full of mutants between you two and them. There's not a snowball's chance in hell you guys are leaving till we're through with you."
"We'll see." With that cryptic reply, Fissure fell silent and stared at the floor. It didn't seem that they would get anything else out of him and the look Rift was giving them told them the same was true for her.
Logan and Luke left the two alone, locking up the Danger Room to full defense mode to be safe. Wolverine then led his old student to the elevator, making small talk.
"So what exactly do you even remember? You recognized me, you know Xavier, you know you have a team, and you remember the attack in the labs. That seems like a pretty good memory to me."
Luke just looked over to the man and replied fuzzily "I remember you, but I don't know you anymore, I don't think. Did we get along? Did we tell each other knock knock jokes or watch action movies till 3 in the morning? Did we go hiking together? Were we even friends at all? I know that you're Wolverine and I remember what you do, but I can't remember any interaction between us as people. Same with everyone else. I can't remember if I spent any time with you guys outside of the Danger Room or on missions. Those are the only times I remember."
The elevator doors opened wide for the two to get in, before lifting them up the ground floor. Wolverine stared at the ceiling, wondering if Charles would be up there waiting on him to help sort this mess out.
"We got along just fine, kid. Charles will fix you up, just you wait." Internally, Logan was wondering if Charles could do just that. After all, Logan had been with Xavier for years now and still couldn't remember all of his past.
Luke nodded. "Until he does, all I know to call you is Wolverine. The girls earlier called you Mr. Logan. Is that your name?"
"Yeah. Speaking of girls, which one were those goons after? They never told us specifically. But they acted like she belonged to them. I need to see if any of these new kids have any history in the Network. It's bad enough dealing with all the trouble housing one ex-agent. The last thing we need is two."
The elevator made it to the top and the two found the new students all clustered around in the lobby. The X-men had made it back, all still intact if a little banged up. Wolverine slipped through the crowd of students and found Storm and Rebecca trying to settle the kids down so they could get organized.
"Listen up! Xavier needs to rest right now and we'll be moving him to the med bay. I want all of you to report down there so Rebecca and I can check you over and make sure you're ok. Marley, if you'd like to assist us in restoring whatever injuries we do find, that would be greatly appreciated. Now go."
The students all began filling down the hall, Scott leading the way while pushing the Professor in his chair. Jean knew enough to properly put Xavier on an IV so he wouldn't dehydrate or starve while in the Astral Plane. Wolverine stopped the two staff members from following after the crowd of students and turned them around to see Luke, standing there rubbing the back of his head.
Storm just looked around to check with Logan, who merely nodded, before walking over to Luke and looking him up and down, asking "How are you, child? I see you are no longer under someone else's influence, but what about the shot? We all you start to fall out of the sky and feared the worst. I'm glad to see you alive and on your feet, but is it really wise? Surely you should be in the med bay with Xavier."
Luke just smiled at the woman, who was doting on him just a little. It was a nice feeling for Luke to see someone care for him, even if he couldn't remember why she would. He pounded his chest with his fist over the spot where he had been shot.
"I'm fine. Marley, or whatever that girl's name was, the one with the funny hair, she fixed me right as rain. I feel fine."
Ororo looked him over one last time to be sure, before grabbing the boy and giving him a soft hug. When Luke pulled back after a moment, he said "I remember what I did at the soccer field. I'm sorry for that. I can't remember much about you, asides your powers and us on missions, but I appreciate you caring for me after I had hurt you."
"Your memory is gone?"
"It's just spotty right now, is all. I can't remember much about anyone on a personal level. All I know about you right now is that you control the weather and we call you Storm."
Ororo's lips pursed into a frown. "Child, you may need to be in the med bay after all. Your skin looks so unhealthy and your memory has been tampered with. That seems like a very good reason to have you right next to Charles when he wakes up."
"What's wrong with Xavier? And was my skin not always like this? I thought it was."
Luke lifted up his arms and looked them over. They seemed normal to him, if a bit grey. It didn't seem too far out of the ordinary compared to the other students either.
Storm shook her head. "You didn't always look grey. I suspect its part of whatever Magneto did to you on the asteroid, but it's not abnormal. It just doesn't look healthy. Xavier, on the other hand, is combating a telepath in the Astral Plane. His body isn't being attended to at the moment, which is why we're caring for it in his place. I'm not sure how long he will be gone."
Luke nodded. It would've been crazy to expect anything around the house to be normal for once. All he remembered was misadventure and disaster around here in between all the training.
"So until Professor X wakes up, can I just go to my room? I don't want to waste space in the med bay if they can't do anything for me right now. And all that's on my agenda is seeing Xavier, so I can just wait it out up there, right?"
Storm agreed and let him scurry off to his room for rest while she went to the med bay to assist in checking up all the students. Her two co-workers, on the other hand, were still in the lobby talking.
"Who was that kid Storm was talking to? He looks kinda familiar but I haven't seen him at the mansion before. And he just ran off upstairs. Why didn't he report to the med bay?"
Logan looked off from where Luke vanished off to and returned his eyes on Rebecca. "That's Gyro. You haven't met him here yet, but you should remember him from your teacher job in Virginia. You were the one that sent that runt to us, after all."
It clicked for the woman who suddenly realized who the boy was. "That was Luke? But his skin…And he was at the game! He was with Magneto but he got hit by a bone bullet and started to fall out of the sky. I thought he died. All of the visions I saw of his powers faded out of my mind."
"He's fine now. I don't know the whole story yet and neither does the kid, but the bottom line is that he's back with us now and he's better than ever. So for now, let's just go sort through the kids while I think of ways you can pay me back for babysitting."
"Logan!"
AN: Well, I got through this chapter after all. So did you, I suppose. I hope you liked it and understand most of what's going on. Magneto, in the short time he had with Luke, got Mastermind to pull all of the memories that were irrelevant to Magneto's cause, and throw them away. So now Luke is left with an odd skin tone, another scar, and an altered memory. He'll get his memory fixed up before to long. I can't have too many cliché's running in the story at once. I feel so awful for doing so many already.
Chapter Title goes to a Wiz Khalifa song. I feel it was kinda appropriate, as Luke has returned and originally, I had planned for Xavier's trip to end as well. But then things started to stretch out a little long, so I ended it. I'll try to have the next chapter out before Christmas and I'm sorry for running a little late with this one. Review for me and tell me if you liked it! BigWillis, out!