Disclaimer:The X-Men aren't mine. They're Marvel's. The characters Leo Dyson, Benj Dents, Tyler Dyson, and Seth, are all of my own imagination. They are mine.
Author's note: Okay, I lied about trying all day Saturday to get this done, it just didn't happen. But this chapter is part one of a two part 'episode' where Logan will be working a lot with Leo. As I said, Leo has some control issues.
Also I came up with their codenames, Leo's name is just ironic enough that I wanted to leave it, but instead simply made his codename the Spanish word for lion. Benj's codename was harder to come up with and I might change it later (but I'll let you know first). *Speaking of which: While I was doing some editing I decided to drop Leo's codename, then came up with a new one. I'll explain in future author's notes, but it doesn't really matter.
I wrote the fight scenes while fighting off writers block so they aren't the best but I think they're still good.
(If you're re-reading this, I did change where Benj knows Ray from a little bit)
Please enjoy the first part of Taming Lions. Or as I call it: Danger Room Fun.
Wolverine would never admit this to anyone, but he was starting to take a liking to Leo. A lot had happened in the past three weeks since he and his brothers first arrived.
It was the morning of Leo's last day at work at the Zoo.
Typically the students and teachers at the Xavier Institute ate breakfast at erotic times, but the professor had insisted on one big breakfast to welcome their newest students. Then again, he hadn't planned on one of them being absent.
Benj came flying into the room on his borrowed wheelchair, followed closely behind by Kurt. Everyone else had been woken up, to some of their dismay, and assembled around the long table which was covered in the perfect breakfast food: PANCAKES!
Talk was light that morning, and the professor's questions of where Leo was were answered simply. He was at work.
The professor asked to see Logan after breakfast. He knew what he would ask, and he knew he wouldn't answer, not fully anyways.
Benj had just finished his seventh pancake and fourth strip of bacon when his cellphone rang from inside his pocket. Battle of the Heroes rang out through the dining room.
Kurt laughed. "Is that what I think it is?"
Benj looked surprised, it was Vince's ringtone. "Uh, yeah. Battle of the Heroes, John Williams, in Star Wars…" he dug his phone out of his pocket and answered. "Vince?"
Logan's fine hearing picked up the other voice, a scratchy male voice. "Benj! Thank God! You're alive!"
"Heck yeah I'm alive!"
"Well then where are you? Nearly gave me a heart attack when you didn't come back yesterday."
Benj smiled, "I'm still at the Xavier Institute."
"What? Are they keepin' you prisoner or something?" Logan chuckled inwardly at this. This Vince was pretty funny.
"No way, they invited me to stay."
"Alright Benj. Listen I'll be there in ten."
"Wait, you don't-" he looked down at his cell. Vince had hung up. He turned to the professor, "Uh… Professor Xavier, can I have a friend over?"
The professor chuckled, "Well seeing as he's already on his way, of course."
"Great!" The blonde teen replied as he rolled out of the room. His leaving was the cue for the rest of the students that they could follow suit. As the table cleared, Logan followed Professor Xavier into his study.
The professor folded his hands under his chin. "So what is really going on with Leo?"
"Look Chuck, I promised the kid I wouldn't tell you. He's pretty keen on telling you himself." Logan grumbled.
The professor nodded, and looked at Logan, who was leaning up against Xavier's desk. "I understand."
Vince's visit…
A teen with short black hair skateboarded up to the Xavier Mansion's gates. He waved his arms at a camera perched at the top of the gate post. The gates swung wide. Vince kicked up his skateboard and walked in.
He was startled when Benj rolled up to him. "What the hell?" He asked as he and Benj grasped arms.
"Hey you never asked if I was hurt, only if I was dead. Which that question, by the way, was idiotic." Benj joked.
The black-haired teen laughed, a scratchy unnatural sound. "Yeah, I suppose it was." He raised an eyebrow at Benj. "You sure you can't walk? I was hoping to do some skating." Vince finished his statement, kneeling down to be at eye level with Benj.
"Don't think so. But let's see how far I can get." Benj answered. He was always one to push himself, often beyond his limits. Vince helped hoist Benj up. Anyone watching would have thought they were hugging, which made the next thing that occurred all the more hilarious.
Bobby and Ray had been watching from a small distance away. Both were interested in this friend of Benj's, more mere curiosity than any sort of malicious intent. When Bobby saw Vince "hug" Benj, he was confused. This new mutant was gay? He approached them both as Benj stood fully up and leaned heavily on Vince.
"Are you going to introduce us to your boyfriend, here Benj?" Bobby asked with Ray trailing closely behind.
The two skaters looked at each other for a moment. Then they burst out laughing.
Benj was laughing so hard he soon was gasping for breath. He pulled the small silver canister from his pocket and took a deep breath, then resumed laughing. Finally the laughter died down, after leaving Bobby standing there, uncomfortable and looking like a moron.
"We're not gay, Bobby." Benj answered him at last, a smile still plastered on his face. "Vince," he gestured to the human beside him, "this is Bobby and-"
"Ray Crisp." Vince finished, a dangerous and dark edge to his voice.
"Vincent Bohr." Ray stepped forward and glared at Benj, "Now I know where I've seen you from." He pointed at Vince. "You're one of this, this… ah! One of HIS friends!"
Benj's only response was to look confused, as he watched an argument between Vince and Ray, over… a girl? Then he remembered, when he'd first came to Bayville he'd met Vince at a skate park. He'd instantly taken a liking to the black-haired teen and backed him up in a fight a week and a half later. Now when Benj looked at Ray, he remembered the brawl he'd been involved in, it had been over Vince's girlfriend.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault she came to her senses Ray!" Vince shouted, still supporting Benj.
Ray advanced "Only reason she chose you was-!"
"WAS WHAT?" Vince angrily answered back.
Ray grabbed Vince's shirt, causing him to drop Benj to try to loosen the electric mutant's grasp. Benj stumbled back without Vince to support him and fell back into the wheelchair.
"Was because you were human and I was not!" With that he shoved the black haired teen to the ground.
Vince rolled back up and took a fighting stance. He swung his left fist at Ray's head, who ducked underneath and caught the arm. He twisted the arm back behind Vince's back, and he responded in a cry of pain. Vince then aimed a backwards kick at Ray's groin. Ray dodged, but lost his grip on Vince's arm. He took a few steps back, and electric sparks began to dance up and down Berserker's arm.
Benj winced as he remembered the feeling of electricity pumping through his limbs. Both he and Bobby saw the danger before it happened. Bobby jumped in front of Ray and held him back; Benj jerked Vince's arm back and sent a thought to him.
'Stop it.' Benj commanded. Although his physic powers were weak, he couldn't really influence anyone in that way, he sent a small amount of influence behind his words.
Vince froze and looked at Benj, instantly calm.
Ray, on the other hand, was struggling against Bobby's hold. He let loose a string of curses at Vince, who simply shrugged them off.
"Let's go inside." The teen said, spinning Benj's wheelchair around and heading toward the mansion.
The three new mutant's first Danger Room training showed that they were not as sure of their powers as they thought.
"Alright! Check it out!" Leo shouted, jumping around in his brand new X-Men uniform. He struck a pose.
Benj laughed at him. It was five days after Vince's visit, and Benj's side had mostly healed up. He still felt the pain every once in a while, but was perfectly capable now of walking, even running.
Leo's uniform was black like everyone else's with an X inside an oval on his chest, it was sleeveless with the classic yellow X shoulder pads, a thick yellow belt, and his boots were a sort of mesh that would allow his feet to grow into paws without ripping a new pair of boots every time.
Benj's was rather different from his brother's. It was still black, but had full sleeves, a large, forest green 'X' on his chest, and forest green X's on his upper arms. He also discovered from the few sessions he had done with Professor Xavier that his hair dipped into his eyes often. He'd secured a pair of flight goggles to help with that and when he propelled himself through the air.
Ty, although he wasn't in the pair's room, had also been given a uniform. He'd asked the professor if a hood could be attached, and the professor complied. The two brothers were excited to get their first glance of Ty in uniform.
Leo and Benj left their room in a surge of joy. Kurt bounded up to them in his uniform, "Are you guys ready for your first Danger Room session?"
"Oh yeah!" Leo said, striking his heroic pose again.
Nightcrawler laughed, "I hope you guys are ready. My first Danger Room session didn't end too well." He said sighing.
Benj chuckled at his fuzzy friend's dismay. "Will the professor give us our codenames then?" He wondered aloud.
"Probably, but I think we should just call you two: Furball and the Windbag." Kurt teased.
"Hey!" Leo yelled, offended. Kurt sped away with an annoyed "furball" behind him.
Danger Room Controls
Wolverine growled impatiently. Only half the students were present, and they were supposed to have been there five minutes ago.
Then Kurt ported into the center of the control room. He was laughing.
"What is wrong with you elf?" Wolverine growled.
The door to the control room flew open and Leo ran out and tackled Kurt. Benj walked in after him and watched with amusement the scene unfolding.
Leo and Kurt were rolling around, Leo pretending to be mad about the furball comment.
Wolverine, on the other hand, was literally about ready to explode. As the last of the students filed in he burst. He grabbed the two mutants by their necks and held them off the ground.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" He snarled.
Kurt shrank back, but Leo stood his ground, "Sorry, sir. We were just messing around."
Shaking his head, Wolverine started ranting about how the Danger Room was not a playground.
Kitty giggled. "At least he isn't yelling at me this time." She muttered to Rogue.
The professor rolled in. "Wolverine."
He paused mid-sentence and set the two boys down. "Erm, Chuck. Are we ready to start?"
"Almost, only Tyler seems to be missing. We'll do the debriefing once he's here." The professor said, just as Ty walked in.
Tyler stopped in the doorway as every set of eyes turned to him. His uniform was the same basic one the "new recruits" wore, but had an included hood. He offered no apology for arriving late, but just walked in silently.
"Alright, now that we are all here, Wolverine?" Charles said, gesturing to Logan.
"After some thought, we changed our original plan for Danger Room training today. We're going to have some fun today." He paused as the X-Men cheered. "Now, wait. It's not all fun. We're going to play capture-the-flag. With some twists." He said grinning. This was not a good sign, Wolverine found personal injury entertaining and fun.
Charles took over the explanation from here. "We tried to balance the teams out, but with our three new friends, we're bound to have some surprises. Rogue, Scott, you two are captains." There were several complaints from Bobby who felt that he and the other "new recruits" should all be on one team, and he be the leader. "No, Bobby. Not today, the teams are already chosen, Logan?"
"Listen up! On Cyclops' team is Jean, Shadowcat, Berserker, Iceman, Multiple, Colossus, and Tyler, who has been given the codename Spades."
"Alright Ty!" Bobby said, raising his hand for a high-five. Ty stared at it. Bobby had started warming up to the older mutant in the last few days, trying to pry Tyler out of his shell. Finally Ty returned the high-five after several long painful seconds.
"Then on Rogue's team is Nightcrawler, Magma, Tabitha, Sunspot, Cannonball, Leo who has been given the codename León, and Benj who has been given the codename Turbulence." Wolverine finished. "Now, for the rules. The two teams will not be facing off, but instead will be facing the computer." Several of the X-Men groaned. "Stop complaining! The flag will be hidden in the computer's territory. There is no 'jail'. The computer will simply take you out. Now Rogue, heads or tails."
"Wha'?" Rogue asked, slightly confused.
"To decide who goes first, your team or Summers'."
"Oh, heads."
Wolverine pulled a quarter out of his pocket and flipped it. Tails. "Alright, it looks like Summers' team is up first!"
Cyclops' commanding nature took over. "Let's go team!"
Scott's plan was simple. Break through the enemy lines and search for the flag. Only he hadn't counted on the terrain, or the cannons. He ducked back behind a large rock where Ty, now Spades, was hiding. The new mutant had little idea what his powers really were, and was quite sure they were just his appearance.
The Danger Room had generated a rocky landscape and Wolverine had programmed heavy cannons that popped out from under the rocks. None of the X-Men had made it very far past the glowing blue line that marked the start of enemy territory. Jamie had already been knocked out, and Berserker had dragged him back into the X-Men's territory. Shadowcat and Colossus cowered behind a rock horizontal to Cyclops and Spades'.
"This isn't working." Spades muttered. The X-Men were spread thin over the same area as them. Cyclops stood up next to him and fired at the nearest cannon, blasting it to smithereens.
"Agreed, but I think we have an opening. Go! I'll cover you!" Cyclops yelled as he jumped out from behind the rock.
Spades scrambled up and ran farther into enemy territory. His red skin stuck out like a sore thumb against the dark landscape.
A cannon started focusing in on Spades. More X-Men began running up the hill, and Scott turned and noticed the cannon taking aim on Spades.
"SPADES! HEADS UP!" He yelled, but too late. The cannon blasted its high energy beam at Spades. The rocks around him exploded, leaving a smoking crater. Scott ran up to where he saw Spades fall.
In the center of the crater Spades was crouched down with his arms over his head. Smoke rolled off of him, but otherwise he seemed no worse for wear. Slowly he lowered his arms and stared at them.
"Well, that's new." He mumbled, turning to look up at Cyclops.
Cyclops turned to Iceman, who was standing beside him, "Go make sure he's okay." Then he left, and joined the charge forward.
Iceman scrambled down the side of the crater to Spades' side. "Dude. That was awesome, why didn't you say you could do that before?" He tried to help him up, but Spades' skin burned Iceman's hands. "Ouch!"
Suddenly a wave of sickness came over Spades. He bent over and puked. The energy that swelled into his body left him feeling too full and queasy. As he emptied his guts on in the base of the crater, Bobby stood next to him and called for help. Spades reached a hand up and grabbed Iceman's arm.
"Stop. I'm okay, j-just…" he started, and then halted. Another explosion shook the ground. An idea dawned on him. He bolted up and ran out toward the nearest cannon.
"Wait for me!" Iceman called after him. He was never one to be left out of a fight. He watched Spades charge for the cannon, "What are you doing?" He yelled, as he ice bridged after him.
Spades didn't break his charge as he replied, "Distraction! Get the cannon!" With that the cannon took aim and fired. Spades stopped and absorbed the blast. Iceman iced the base of the cannon.
"Colossus!" he yelled.
The metal giant came barreling toward the cannon and knocked it over.
Pretty soon the other X-Men picked up on this strategy and followed suit. The flag was found shortly after the last cannon was destroyed, Kitty tripped over it.
"Good job X-Men." Charles said over the intercom as Scott's team cheered. Spades slunk to the back of the group and covered his head. "Head back up here and Rogue's team will take their turn."
"Alright, here's the plan." Rogue said to her team. "Kurt: ya scout out the othah side, try and see if ya can spot the flag. Tabitha and Amara: ya two will be out in front when we storm the othah side. Benj: ya'll be air support, okay? Everyone else will head out behind and we'll try and find that flag in less time than Scott's team."
Leo raised his hand. "Can I ask something."
Rogue glared at him, "Yea, I guess."
"Well, could I go with Nightcrawler for scouting? I can sense where the cannons are by their energy fields. It'll give him some back up too." Leo asked cautiously. He didn't want to override Rogue's authority, but he felt he could be of more use this way.
Rogue pursed her lips as he thought about the suggestion. It sounded fair enough; she agreed.
"Fine, Kurt, Leo, scout it out will ya?"
Kurt grabbed Leo and ported.
Rogue's team had been given different terrain than Scott's. Now the Danger Room was a forest. As Nightcrawler and Leo were discovering, there were smaller cannons hidden in the trees.
Nightcrawler ported to another section of the enemy territory. Leo closed his eyes for a second, trying to get a feel for the cannons around them. Energy pulsated out of a tree behind them and to their left.
Great. Like this isn't getting old yet. Leo thought to himself.
He spun around and shifted, digging his claws into the tree and tearing it up. Having claws of bronze wasn't so bad.
Two more cannons flared out of a tree and fired at Nightcrawler. His eyes grew wide as he ported out of danger. Leo turned around and slashed the cannons out of the tree.
"Dude this is taking too long." He grumbled, grimacing as he rubbed his paws.
"Da, but we haven't found the flag yet." Nightcrawler answered.
"I'll keep looking; you head back and get started with the others." Leo said grinning his lunatic smile. He couldn't be argued with when he grinned like that.
Kurt shrugged then ported back. Soon Rogue got her team on the move to simply take the whole area. Turbulence launched himself into the air and watched the action from the sky.
The X-Men knocked down trees by blowing them up, melting them with lava, and by crashing into them with their heads. Turbulence swirled up a tornado and knocked down several more trees.
All of a sudden, something caught his eye. The flag.
"GUYS!" He yelled, swooping lower so they could hear him. "I found the flag!"
Rogue rolled out of the way of a cannon blast, then turned her face up. "Then go ahead and grab it!"
"Roger roger." He responded, bending the air around him to propel him to the flag.
Benj forgot that there were cannons below him, until one hit him in the same spot Ray had.
"Ack!" He yelled as he spun out of cotrol toward the ground.
Leo felt and saw the cannon hit Benj from directly below him, and ran toward him. His anger and worry built again beyond his control. Leo instantly lost control of his shift.
"RAWR!" He roared out, forgetting his assignment, team and brother. The trees annoyed him, that's all he knew. So he set out to tear out and destroy every tree insight.
In the control room
Wolverine looked down at the scene below, and noticed trees flying through the air. "Uh, Chuck. I think we have a problem."
Charles looked over to where Wolverine was. The growing destruction was heading back toward where the rest of Rogue's team was spread out.
"Chuck?" Wolverine turned to Charles, wanting permission to go down there and see what was happening. If Leo had lost control again, only Wolverine could stand up to the barrage.
"Go!"
Rogue heard the crashing foliage before she saw Leo bearing down on them. When she saw him, she knew something was horribly wrong. His amber eyes were cold and filled with animal rage.
"Oh, crap." She turned to the rest of her team. They saw Leo too, but hadn't quite realized yet that he wasn't mentally there.
Rogue ran at Leo, removing a glove. At least she could subdue him. She was nearly three inches from his face when he grabbed her wrist and picked her up. Growling he threw her aside. That got everyone's attention. Roberto and Sam backed up and ran toward their territory.
Wolverine burst through the trees and tackled Leo, roaring. "Elf! Get everyone out of here until Leo gets his head straight!"
Nightcrawler teleported out of there, taking some of the other students with him.
Leo tossed Wolverine off of him, flinging him against a nearby tree. Wolverine pulled himself up and brandished his claws, "Snap out of it kid!" Leo took another swing at him, but Wolverine was too small a target. He weaved inside Leo's range and kicked his stomach. Bending over, Leo growled and charged again.
Wolverine slashed at Leo's face. The claws tore through the skin over Leo's right eye. Roaring in anger and pain he wheeled around to face Wolverine.
Before he could do anything, a pale white hand reached around and touched his face. Leo felt the animal mentality being drained out of him, prior to him feeling his own consciousness slip away.
Leo moaned softly as he shifted back to his human form, his eyes rolling up into the back of his head. He collapsed forward, revealing Rogue standing behind him. The combination of both of Leo's mind and primal instincts made her head swim. She could see how he could lose control so easily.
The lion spirit inside Leo was unrestricted, and untamed.
Author's note: No there's no Wolverine/Leo coupling. That'd be creepy. I meant that as a teacher-student/friend sorta respect/like.
Oh, and I'm dropping Leo's codename. In the future (maybe Haven storyline [read on to understand]) he'll be known as either just plain 'Leo' or 'Liontail'.