Charles watched helplessly as Erik pulled away from him, taking his hands and placing the gun between them. Holding his hands together softly the man said, "I'm going to take care of this, if any of his cronies try to come at you...shoot them. I know you don't want to hurt anyone but we don't have a choice here, protect yourself." it was a pure demand and Charles didn't have the energy to oppose it, so he only nodded.
Turning his back to his companion Erik rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles, "Alright Raven, I think this is what you've been waiting for." So began the fight, Charles watched in awe as Erik, with the help of Raven, tried to fight hand-to-hand combat with Shaw. The man had the power of taking in and pushing out energy so they had to be careful, doing more dodging than actual fighting.
With shaky hands, Charles looked down at the gun he held as he felt the two minds coming closer to them. Oh how he wished he had more control over this new power of his, it was easy to sense but not so easy to latch on and manipulate others like he knew he should be able to do. He had poorly assumed that his power would have come to him in a similar fashion to the others, suddenly and with pain but also coming on strongly. Not weakly as it were.
His body still felt weak, surprised himself that he could still stand after all of the electricity that had gone through his body so recently along with the almost-sexual assault just moments before. With will alone Charles forced his grip on the metal object to steady and stop shaking, he tried to harden his eyes not wanting Erik to see him for the first time in such a pathetic state.
Thinking of Erik, his mind Charles could feel even more so than their bond with his new gift and it felt wonderful. Not even pushing his mind into the other man's it was just a comforting sense of being near and physically close, similar to how the bond was a comforting feeling of being connected at all times even when apart.
He would watch and see when Raven started teaming up with Erik as they fought Shaw. Whereas the duo-team had more skill and physical power, Shaw kept either taking hits or blocking them but kept a smuggish look on his face, as if he were about to win. The helmet stayed steady on his head, Charles knew that to be the source of blocking his mental gift as he could literally feel his mind try to wrap around it only to slip off like it were feet on a wet slanted pavement.
WhatdoIdoWhatdoIdo he panicked and it seemed he had projected, Erik's steely eyes glanced back at him briefly only to have Shaw raise his hand and say, "Valiant effort, but not good enough." Touching Erik's stomach a small blast of energy came from the hand, everyone could hear the literal ribs crack inside of Erik's body.
"Erik!" Charles cried out and took a few steps forward until the other man, who had started to crumple to his knees but gritted his teeth to prevent crying out, held up a hand to silently say for Charles to keep put. It felt delayed but Charles felt a pain in his ribs as well, though not to the extent Erik had gotten it, and started to hunch over gripping his stomach with a gag of pain. G-Get his helmet off, I can help! He tried to push that thought into Erik's mind. Their eyes met again until Erik's head whipped around only to be fully grabbed by one of Shaw's hands. The older man gripped Erik's face hard and his lips then started to pull down into a twitching frown, "I remember you from the camps. You've grown."
Taking another step forward so that he would only be a few feet away Charles gripped the gun so tightly his knuckles had begun to turn white. "Don't touch him! Shaw, get your fucking hands off of him right now!" he demanded with all that he could muster.
"Why, because you love him? Love within a Cluster is so...vile. I should know, I cared so deeply for our dearly departed Emma but I suspect what you two have started feeling is much more than I ever could." moving his hand to grip Erik's chin the younger man didn't fight it, pain in his ribs were a big distraction and made it difficult to want to move.
Honestly, Charles didn't know what the feeling between he and Erik had become. It had started out just as it had with the others, only more flirty, but the more they had visited with each other and talked, the more Charles saw of Erik and felt when they were near...his heart had begun to beat faster at the mere thought of the other man. It was wrong to love another man, he had been told that since an early age when his mother had overheard him telling a friend he thought a boy was cute and promptly been slapped for it.
When they had met and Erik openly flirted with him it had sparked that age-old feeling, something he had felt seldom but a few times throughout his life only to usually suppress it with thoughts of that punishing slap and the words that had followed. Erik wasn't afraid of his sexuality and that had been appealing, made Charles want to accept that part of himself as well and perhaps give it a try. Until all of the recent events had occurred. Shaw seemed to have no qualms about having sex with another man as well, but Charles had a feeling the bastard would happily fuck anyone to create the Clusters he so desperately seemed to want.
"Look I'll...I'll come with you. No arguing, no fighting...I'll come with you and do what you want of me. Just leave Erik and the others alone." He could feel the irritation lingering off of Erik just hearing that, and though he couldn't see them he could practically hear Raven and Hank starting to argue with him as well from the other side of the world.
Erik...his helmet is made of metal, can you get that off of his head? still getting the hang of it the projection was a bit fuzzy like an out of range radio but the message made it through and he even heard the response. I've been trying, it's a weird metal and I can't get a grip on it...dammit! Charles, I'm going to do something stupid so just...stand back!
Be careful! There are two others about to round the corner behind him. Charles warned.
Just as promised two people, a man and woman, rounded the corner. Charles recognized one as Janos, the driver but didn't recognize the other. She had wings resembling a pixie yet when touching her mind he felt the name Angel more appropriate. Pressing two fingers to his temples Charles tried to concentrate and held out a hand to them and yelled, "Stop!" sure enough both of them froze in place.
"Well done Charles, Emma hadn't learned how to do that for months after we were birthed!" Shaw praised, that was until he heard the cracks in the ceiling above and saw Erik take his chance to scramble away from him on the floor in a crab-walk. The ceiling began collapsing over the man, too fast for him to move or let out a burst of energy from his body to save himself.
He was promptly crushed, his helmet falling off in the fall and rolling over towards Erik's lap. With a cry of pain the man disappeared under all of the fallen rubble, only a single hand sticking out from underneath and twitching on occasion. The man would probably live due to his gift but that didn't mean he hadn't been hurt badly for the time being.
Scrambling over, Charles dropped the gun and put his hands on Erik's shoulders, "Are you ok!?" he panicked with wide and watery blue eyes. With a quick nod and being helped up by supportive hands, Erik grabbed the gun and helmet, "We need to get out of here quick before they get through that or find a way around, come on!" He shoved the gun into his pants and took Charles' wrist in his hand before tugging him along to the elevator, thankfully still intact since the building damage hadn't come that far.
As the doors closed and the ride up became quiet, only broken by a small voice, "Your control over metal has become quite a lot better since I last saw you...only collapsing the part of the building you wanted. That's impressive."
With an exasperated voice, Erik still held his ribs tightly, "Charles, please. Is this really the time to go on about your obsession with these powers?" Seeing some hurt cross the others face softened Erik's normally cold expression. "Sorry. I'm...I'm relieved is all right now. That you're ok." He didn't go on about the panic they had all felt when they had felt Charles' pain and fear emanating from this building from thousands of miles away yet feeling it so clearly.
"We were all worried sick about you." Looking quite pleased a realization hit Charles, "Wait, we have to go down!" Launching himself at the buttons he hit the very bottom floor number. "What are you doing, we have to get out of here idiot!" his companion scolded.
"No, there are other people trapped here Erik! People like us, we have to get them out of here or Shaw will just keep torturing them until they do what he wants!" Putting his foot down Erik could see there would be no getting around this. "Fine, but if trouble rears its head we run. I'll throw you over my shoulder and carry you even with broken ribs if I must."
As per design, the elevator had gone to the top before allowing itself to go to the bottom. When they finally reached their destination they were rushed by three people, two women and a man in scrubs who promptly hit a higher level of the elevator and took it back up without Erik or Charles. "Well...I guess they weren't being paid that well to stick around.." Charles muttered but started guiding them slowly down the hall until they reached a room that seemed to be quarantined like a hospital.
With Erik's gift the room was easy enough to break into without a key, entering they heard a normal noise of heart rate monitors softly beeping, several of them. Four to be exact, four beds and four patients lying seemingly comatose in their beds and hospital gowns. As they approached Charles took one of the clipboards hanging off the end of a bed and read out loud, "James 'Logan' Howlett. Cluster Date: November 6th, 1890. Gifts: Bone Claws, Rapid Healing, Long Longevity." which seemed true enough since the burly man who slept, apparently almost eighty years old, appeared maybe thirty at the most. "Remaining Cluster: Unknown."
Silently he read through the other's paper.
Sean Cassidy
Cluster Date: May 19th, 1955
Gifts: Sonic Wave Vocal Chords
Remaining Cluster: Apprehended
Alex Summers
Cluster Date: May 19th, 1955
Gifts: Cosmic Energy Blasts
Remaining Cluster: Apprehended
Armando Muñoz
Cluster Date: May 19th, 1955
Gifts: Adaption
Remaining Cluster: Apprehended
All three younger men appeared to be in their older teens, probably right around where Erik and Charles were or a bit younger. "These boys are all from the same Cluster..." he muttered mostly to himself but seemed to be bouncing his thoughts off of Erik's listening ears. "That girl with the wings, Angel I think her name was...she was part of their Cluster. She betrayed them."
"How could you possibly know that Charles?" came an unbelieving tone from the other side of the room as Erik tried to figure out just how to get these four men into the elevator with his broken ribs and limited room.
"I can feel it in their minds, they're all dreaming about the last thing they remember. Which is her betraying their Cluster to join Shaw in his escapades and letting them get captured for it when they refused to also join." the older of the two was quiet then with no response, he seemed to have a mixture of pity and sympathy for the young ones.
"And this poor man, I can't even describe what's going on in his mind...love, closeness, and then...torture, being chased, blood, violence..d-death-" it was then that his companion snapped, "Stop looking into his mind then! You've been hurt enough, you don't need to feel another person's pain right now." It came out harsh but Charles took it, feeling only the care and worry emanating off of his friend's person.
"It's going to be awkward but if you can move those three onto this beasts bed, I can lift it by the metal and get them into the elevator." Erik suggested, it seemed like the best plan at the time. Maneuvering all of the beds up flights of stairs while they were both injured was not a good idea, and there would be room for at least one gurney in the elevator with them.
With difficulty Charles did just that, lifting the teens into the bed and making a mountain of the unconscious bodies after removing their IV's carefully and unhooking them from all of the machines. The elevator ride felt cramped but neither of the men complained but were happy to rush out as soon as the doors opened to the top floor. Making quick work they went outside to find Erik already pulling his rented car down the street to meet them. "Wow that's...that's amazing Erik." Charles couldn't help but to compliment.
Loading the three younger into the back seats and the older man carefully into the hatch-back trunk area Charles rushed into the passenger side, slammed the door and locked the door as he stared out at the building he'd been kidnapped to. His body finally regaining the stiffness from earlier, his mind catching up with all that had happened in the last hour of his life.
They began to move quickly down the street and towards the nearest city when Charles felt a warm hand reaching to touch over his, and squeeze it in a very sweet gesture even when Erik's eyes never left the road. Turning to face his friend a sad and shaky smile came over his lips, "Th-Thank you...for coming to save me. I'll have to make sure to thank Raven and Hank immensely as well. I really hoped you would come for me but I didn't know for sure since they were dealing with things and the last time I saw you we had a fight and-" with his shoulders beginning to shake Charles silenced himself and wiped his arm over his eyes to remove the small bits of moisture.
"Don't be sorry. There was no doubt we were coming to rescue you. Especially after I found out it was Sebastian Shaw that had you..he...he ran part of the concentration camps in Germany for a while when I was little. He-!" Turning his hand to hold Erik's more properly Charles squeezed back softly. Warm hand in warm hand he shook his head, "You don't have to tell me right now."
"Right, right...we have all the time in the world now to talk don't we?" Erik's tone became lighter at the thought. "I'll take you back to my hotel room to rest, and when you're ready I'll take you home."
"No." came the immediate response. "I want us to go to America to see Hank and Raven, in person. Please?"
"...Of course. As you know I don't have a 9-5 job so it's no problem, though I'm a bit low on funds right now." he muttered and chewed the inside of his cheek unconsciously. "I can pay. My mother gives me quite the monthly allowance and I rarely spend much of it, I just need to contact my school and tell them...well something, since I've been missing for days now."
Getting all of the bodies into the hotel was much the same as getting them out of the bunker, Charles used his ability on the front desk workers so that they couldn't see the bodies floating up the stairs in a gurney. After getting the three young men settled in a single bed, leaving the Logan character in the gurney to rest, Charles moved close to Erik and lifted the ends of his shirt. "Your ribs, should we go to the hospital for them?"
"We should both probably go to the hospital to get checked out tomorrow, but I feel ok right now despite the pain. I don't think Shaw wanted to kill me, just cause me as much pain as possible." with a nod of agreement Charles didn't move away. "Can we share the bed? I don't want to be alone right now."
Blinking several times Erik couldn't say no to such a request, "I think I need to apologize, for the last time we spoke. I lashed out at you when I shouldn't have. Sometimes my temper gets the better of me, I was planning to come tell you that before all of this. That's why I showed up when I did back in that car when Shaw..." unable to finish his sentence with a grimace growing on his face Erik scoffed. "When that bastard hurt you."
"Apology accepted. I'm happy, I don't think I could stand it if Raven or Hank hated me...especially you though." the slightest bit of color flooded Charles' cheeks, he pulled off the shirt he had been forced to wear but left the sweatpants on and moved to take one side of the bed. He watched Erik not move to do the same for the moment. "I could never hate you, you're way too...um, chipper? Charismatic? Whatever!"
Only taking the side of the bed after Charles patted it gesturing for it to be taken, they laid there next to each other a bit awkwardly as Erik pulled the covers up and over them. "Charles, you're speaking English right now aren't you? I'm speaking German."
"Wha-seriously!?" an interested spark entered the man's eyes, "So the translation works in person as well as mentally! That's amazing, whatever this Cluster stuff is, is seriously amazing.
Watching his companion with content Erik nodded, not a smile but a relaxed look nonetheless. "Lights on, or off?"
"Mn...off, I had to sleep with lights on in my room when they had me strapped down." Charles requested and reached to click off the lamp. "You won't get scared or have nightmares, will you?" Erik's voice was full of concern.
"I don't think so, if I do then at least you're here." taking the initiative the younger man scooted over in bed so that their shoulders were lightly touching, "Good night Erik."
"Goodnight, Charles. Sweet dreams."
~.~.~.~.~
Erik startled awake the next morning to the gurney being thrown into the wall and a few cries of fear, shooting up in bed he asked, "What the HELL is going on!?"
The man, Logan, had awoken and yet had little recognition behind his eyes. Dull like a doll, his bone-claws extended from his knuckles and having slashed through a few menial objects. The three younger boys were awake as well but cowering on their bed together, Charles on the other hand stood in front of Logan with his hands up.
"Hey it's ok, you're safe now!" he tried and stepped back when the claws made a swipe at him.
"Charles get away from him he's fucking insane!" Erik demanded and stood up, reaching to grab his gun and aim it at the animalistic man.
"No wait! It's not his fault, he's like me...he's been tortured but for a much longer time. I just need...here-" he held out a hand towards Logan's head, "Let me help, please? I won't hurt you and if I do then you can kill me."
Sputtering out with wide eyes Erik snapped, "You idiot don't try anything, he will kill you!" He only refrained from shooting since Charles was so close to the man, worried that if he did then Logan would lash out and hurt Charles instead of Erik for wounding him.
The beast pressed the tips of his claws to Charles' chest, but didn't move them further as if threatening the smaller man. "It's ok." came the soothing voice and Charles touched his hand to the side of the older man's face. Closing his eyes it took only a moment or two but the claws began to retract, and then so did Charles' hand. "Better?"
"Better.." came a deep and gruff voice, Logan moved to sit back on one of the chairs in the room. "My head, how did you do that?"
"Your mind was all jumbled like a puzzle, I just put most of the pieces back where they belonged." smiling with triumph Charles put his hands on his hips and turned to grin at Erik for approval. Lowering his gun Erik only gave a nod and then looked at the teens, "I don't want any of you three trying that shit or I will shoot."
"Don't worry about them Erik, I've already spoken to them. This is Sean, Alex and Armand-er sorry, Dwarin you prefer right? And of course this is Logan, everybody this is my friend Erik I mentioned." they all nodded, Dwarin the first to speak up. "Thanks guys for getting us out of there. I think we'd really like to go home now, right guys?"
"Yeah." the other two answered in chorus, still stiff and recovering from the psychological damage they'd been endured.
"That won't be a problem, I can get you all plane tickets and passports, whatever you need to get home." Charles offered immediately. "Maybe we could exchange numbers or addresses though, I'd really like to stay in contact with you all." the younger boys seemed more than happy to comply, each of them writing their information down, Sean even gave Charles a happy and thankful pat on the shoulder.
"You're a life saver man." Alex spoke up then as he held the card with Charles' information on it. "We'll make sure to keep in touch, we all live pretty near each other so we can travel in a group to get home. I've got a little brother to go see."
"And you, Mr. Howlett, where can I send you to call home?" Charles' happiness wavered when he heard the man respond, "I don't have one. Nowhere to go, my Cluster is all dead." he had a broken and angry look remaining in his eyes despite his mind being fixed up. "I'll be fine on my own bub, don't worry about me. First thing I'm going to do is get to a bar, drink a ton and then find some really good cigars."
"Nonsense." Charles argued, "You can come with us then." he gestured to himself, "No one should be alone, especially after something like this. You're more experienced so maybe you have some tips for me and my Cluster even."
"And what makes you think I would want any of that? Who says I don't like being alone?" the man practically growled and showed some of his teeth like an animal still, again unwavered the young brunette only smiled wider and tapped two fingers to his temple. "Because I can feel that you don't want to be alone. Even if you argue, you're going to follow us either way and you've already made up your mind about it."
Getting down to business Charles acquired through telephone tickets for everyone to go to their destinations, and then he pulled out his wallet and gave each of the young men and Logan a hundred dollar bill to go get new clothes and eat, drink, do whatever they wished before their flights. Erik could see the want on Charles' face for them to stay so he could ask them questions, get to know them, but he let them go and wander the streets with trust in his eyes.
With plenty of time before their own flights, Erik let Charles drag him to the hospital and get checked over. Both seemed to be the same, exhausted, probably a bit dehydrated, hurt but nothing that wouldn't heal. Lucky for Charles' gift he could pay the doctors and change their thoughts on what they had just seen so they wouldn't become suspicious.
Sitting in the rental car later they both ate their fill of bad and greasy fast food that was oh so satisfying. With a mouthful Charles wiped his lips with the sleeve of his newly bought shirt. "Erik, what would you say if I told you I've started thinking of opening my own school for people like us? Somewhere we can all get together, learn from one another?"
Caught off guard Erik lowered the burger in his hands away from his mouth, "I'd say...it's a nice idea but you are only nineteen Charles. I know you have the soul of an old man but come on." his tone was teasing and light, they both laughed a bit stiffly but there was warmth to it above all else. "True, just a thought."