Chapter 7
At the Institute...
Ororo had just finished the horrible task of informing her sister and brother-in-law what had transpired with Evan...and that all they could do now was sit and wait and hope he saw sense. It was not a conversation that left her in a very good place with her sister but Ororo couldn't force Evan to come back no matter how much it hurt Vivian and Carl.
Ororo had retreated to her greenhouse, her sanctuary when the weight of the world seemed too much.
She hears the door squeak as it opens and knows someone has joined her.
"Ro?"
"Hello Logan," she greets him, her voice devoid of the emotions she is trying not to let overwhelm her.
"You alright, darlin?"
"Not particularly," she confesses the truth.
"Just name the person I have to gut," Logan offers.
Ororo shakes her head and a tiny smile comes to her lips. This may not seem it but this is Logan's method of comforting. Lots of people think Logan isn't very good at that...and for them maybe he isn't but somehow for her he usually manages. "Well Evan for starters," she jokes.
"Consider it done."
Ororo turns to face him and arches an eyebrow.
"Or not," Logan corrects himself. "You're blamin yourself ain't ya," he can tell.
"Well I am Evan's guardian while he's here Logan. It's my job to ensure he's kept safe so yes. I failed him."
Logan snorts derisively. "Rubbish. If anything you're too good for that kid. If he turns his back on ya it's in spite of everything you have done. You're the best role model that kid, any kid, could have."
"Then why didn't he come back with me?" she asks in a tearful whisper.
Logan steps up to the side of her and wraps an arm around her shoulders, his hand rubbing her supportively. "The kid's messed up in his head. His body is going through changes, forced changes...believe me that's a hard thing," he says from painful personal experience. "You end up just being angry at everyone, even those who aren't to blame, because you've become something you hate."
"That's how you felt?" Ororo asks, sensing he is talking from his own personal experience.
Logan shrugs. "For awhile, yeah. You lash out randomly until you find a new focus. Difference here though is Evan has you. Me...I was on my own."
Ororo reaches up to where his hand is on her shoulder and tangles her fingers around his. "You're not alone any more," she promises.
Logan sighs. Part of him is still waiting for the shoe to drop and for Storm to see him as he is and dump him. "You know I'm not sure I'm the best advice considering what happened with Rogue," he cautions.
"None of which was your fault," Ororo won't let him blame himself. "Even before we realised your connection you were great with her...in your own way. You shouldn't underestimate yourself Logan. Your ways may be different but that doesn't make them any less valid. What Rogue is, the strength she has inside, I think a lot of comes from you."
"Well in the role model area I'm not exactly one for restraint or patience...so I guess you're right," Logan says in a surly tone.
"Perhaps," Ororo accepts that is true with the trace of a faint smile. "But you do have a nobility all should aspire to."
"I've done a lot of unnoble things, Ro."
"Who hasn't?" she asks back. "I think even Clark has."
Logan arches a curious eyebrow.
"Something he said to me. He wasn't big on details."
"Ah. We share that in common," he remarks about the way neither he or Clark tend to get into details on the past too much.
"Yes. Suppose you do," Ororo accepts. "Tell me Logan, from experience, what will Evan do?"
Logan rubs his chin. He doesn't want to give her false hope but he doesn't want to shatter her hopes either. "He needs to calm down. That was always my problem. Never calmed down enough to think. Took 10 years at least before I did. Porcupine, at least, doesn't suffer my temper problem so he'll calm down, he'll think and remember where his family is. Wish Stripes would do that."
"She will," Ororo assures him. She believes Rogue will see sense one day and return. Until then all she can do is to try and keep Logan's belief in that firm.
"Well in that case Evan will," Logan decides to use her certainty about Rogue and turns it around in relation to Evan.
"I like to believe that." Ororo moves over and sits in her chair at the small table she keeps in here. Martha and her often have their chats and teas around this table.
Logan sits down opposite her.
"So do you know what we're doing about this Pow-R8?" Ororo wonders what the discussion on that has gotten to while she was talking to Vivian and Carl.
"Last I heard Chuck was speaking to that cop friend of Space Boy about making sure it's banned and then he'll go see that Spears guy personally in the morning."
Ororo nods. "We need to make sure we get the truth out and not have it spun or brushed under the carpet. Otherwise someone else might inadvertently create something harmful."
"I think Space Boy is on that, trying to make up for what he did," Logan overheard.
"He's writing an article?" Ororo guesses since Clark did seem very focussed on that journalism bit of his. He was good at it too. It was only sad that, thanks to Principal Kelly, he didn't have a proper outlet for it beyond his blog on the Institute website.
"I think so."
Ororo sighs. "Viv's angry at me," she tells Logan, sadness in her tone at being estranged with her sister.
"Well that's understandable I suppose. Porcupine is her kid. Parents do kinda go overboard in protecting them. The good ones anyhow. I'm sure once she has calmed down you two will be alright."
"You think so?"
"Sure. No-one can stay mad at you Ro. Especially not when you have done everything you could. I'm sure your sister will realise that."
Ororo gazes at Logan for a few moments. She has a question she's been wanting to ask him for awhile and this seems like as good as time. "Logan...you know the way you protect the children?"
"Yeah?"
"Where do you think that comes from?"
Logan shrugs. "Probably a pack instinct at its most basic level. I do have an animal side to my nature."
"I'm aware," Ororo says, her cheeks flushing with heat at every memory of Logan's animal side.
Logan smirks, knowing where her mind is going. He doesn't like to boast...ok yes he does but not right now. "The rest you know," he says about how he wants to make sure these children never endure what he has which is the other reason he so's protective of the children.
"It is just...you've been alive a long time..." Ororo delicately tries to raise something.
Logan gets it. Gets why she started this conversation. "So have I had any children before?"
"If I'm prying..."
"No. You're not," Logan accepts that she was bound to ask this eventually now they were in a serious relationship. "Truth is Ro I might have been a father. I just can't remember. Sometimes I think about what if my memory came back and I did have some family left what would I do? How would I explain myself to them if I sought them out? Course chances are I don't have any close family left. Probably long in the ground. Course there's Weapon X. God knows how many others Stryker created using me, like he did Domino and Rogue. I worry he succeeded."
"Succeeded?" Ororo queries, sensing there is something behind why he added that line.
"In creating a weapon," Logan clarifies because Rogue, Domino...they're people, not weapons. A weapon is an entirely different prospect. "If he did...I'm one of the most dangerous men alive, darlin. Any weapon made after me, in my image...that would be hell to stop," he makes the point.
"Didn't Stryker create Deadpool?" Ororo remembers Domino saying about the clearly insane mercenary that he was a product of Weapon X.
"I think that proves my point."
Ororo had to give Logan that.
Bayville Sewers...
Evan sat in the Morlock home looking around at all these mutants who had chosen to hide down here. Looking at them, some of them children, then remembering what he himself was beginning to look like, the choice was simple, right?
Stay here.
But it wasn't.
"May I sit?"
Evan looks up and see an elderly man. What was his name again? "Uh, sure," Evan replies.
Healer sits down beside the young man. "Good to rest my weary legs. Not as young as I use to be."
"Me neither," Evan mutters disgruntled.
"Really? Look pretty young to me," Healer remarks lightly.
"Looks can be deceptive."
"How true...and most insightful," Healer praises him. "So tell me do you have any other insights from what you see here? Not often we get a fresh one."
Evan's eyes narrow and he looks at the man wondering what the game is. "What do you want me to say? I see mutants, living."
"Good. Anything else?"
"Yeah. They're a lot like me," Evan says bitterly, feeling at the bony spikes on his face.
"Are they?" Healer questions.
"What does that mean?"
"The mutants you see are what they were meant to be. That's not true for you is it? The drink changed you."
"Yeah, so?"
"Well can the drink be removed from your body? Can it be reversed?"
"I...I don't know."
"Could your friends up there help?"
"I...probably...maybe."
"So you've got a group of friends and family up there who care for you and might be able to help you or you can live here with a group of strangers who will take care of you, no matter what but lack the means to help. Now I may be a dumb old man but it would seem pretty stupid to me to just walk out on a family that loves you and can increase the odds of you getting better significantly."
"It's not that simple," Evan debates.
"Is it not?" Healer asks, trying to make the young mutant really consider what it is he is doing.
"I get what you're saying. My aunt and Superman were saying the same thing but I can't just ignore or forget what I've seen down here."
"Wasn't asking you too."
"You guys need help too."
"Can't dispute that."
"Then what are you on about?" Evan asks in growing frustration. "I only have 2 choices. Stay here or go back.
"That's the problem with the young. Always so sure things are black and white. I ask you this. Are you sure there are only 2 options?"
Evan looks at the man puzzled.
"We got into this mess because of our refusal to interact with anyone else. Too prideful to ask for help. Now many of us have that too ingrained within us to change but then again change has always tended to be the purvey of the young. They tend to have the vision to see the 3rd option, to be the bridge over that previously uncrossed river."
Evan's eyes widen as he sees what the man is getting at. His mind starts seeing a choice of what he can do. He rises to his feet. "Thanks," he says.
"For what? I'm just a rambling old man."
Evan smiles wryly. He gets it. "Right. Well anyway nice to talk to you but I have to go see Callisto."
Healer nods. "Ah to be young again and have such energy."
Evan turns and his eyes seek Callisto out. He walks over to her. "I've made a decision..and I have a proposal," he says to her.
Callisto looks at him and awaits it, her curiosity tickled enough to listen.
Evan continues, "You might not like it but I want you to listen because I think this will bring about some positive...change."
At the Institute...
It was early in the morning when Storm, Vivian and Carl were summoned down to the Professor's office and there they find...
"Evan!" Vivian cries in relief at seeing her son. She rushes over and hugs him.
"Take it easy, mom," Evan requests. "I...don't want you to get hurt," he advises as his bone growth continues. He has spikes everywhere...though that is changing. They seem to be spreading out over his skin.
Carl joins his wife in hugging his son carefully.
"Are you alright, Evan?" Ororo asks, deeply relieved and joyous that he came back.
Evan gives his aunt a look. "Depends on what you mean. My powers are still going haywire. I can't retract my spikes."
"We'll get you down to the infirmary, immediately," Charles advises.
"Yeah. I'll agree to that but I have something to say first."
Everyone pauses and looks at him.
Evan takes a few deep breaths. When he told Callisto what he is about to say she wasn't pleased but he insisted and she relented...eventually...with conditions. He then told her he needed to come back here and say this to his parents, to their faces so here he is...and it's harder than he thought to say this. "I won't be staying. Not permanently."
"What do you mean?" Ororo asks.
"I've decided to become the Morlocks' protector. That doesn't mean you won't see me. I'll visit but I'm not going to live here any longer. I'm going to live with them."
Evan's parents look completely shocked at hearing this.
"Evan don't make any rash decisions," Charles advises, him being the one who finds his voice first.
"I'm not," Evan insists, a determined look in his eye. "But it was something Callisto said about Superman not being around all the time to protect them. She's right and it's not just him. The X-Men can't either. You can't deny that Professor."
"No," Charles has to concede. "I can't."
"They need someone and maybe that person can be me...and maybe I can become a bridge between us, Professor. They live down there and try to avoid any contact and look where it got them with Pow-R8. I'll keep in touch, come visit periodically. Believe me it's not like you'll never see me again. I've thought about this. I can be an example to them that while they can live down there it doesn't mean you have to cut yourself off. You don't. Maybe in time we can come up with a way to maintain a proper constant relationship between the X-Men and the Morlocks."
Charles strokes his chin as he ponders this. Evan was sounding very mature here. The fact he came back to tell them all this shows a maturity he hadn't seen in Evan before. Charles could easily have seen a time when Evan would have just walked away without a word. "We'll discuss this Evan. I promise but first infirmary. We need to run tests and see if we can reverse the effects of the Pow-R8."
"Sure, Professor," Evan agrees. He knows his parents and his aunt might try to dissuade him of this choice but he's certain this is what he has to do because after seeing the Morlocks he can't turn his back on them.
Pow-R8 Factory...
Later that morning the Professor had had to leave Hank to take care of Evan alone as he had to meet with Guy Spears. The Professor rolls beside the man as they take in the damage of the factory and Charles explains all they have learned about the effects of Pow-R8 and how they got to where they are and why the factory was attacked in the first place.
"You have to believe me, Professor Xavier, I didn't know Pow-R8 was dangerous to mutants," Spears insists...truthfully.
"I believe you," Charles says, sensing no deception from the man.
"If they had just told me," Spears says, implying he would have stopped production immediately. "Why didn't they say anything?"
"These people...they've learned not to trust anyone," Charles explains...though if Evan does go ahead with his idea maybe that could change in time. He continues with Spears, "They've seen the dark side of human nature too many times. They've come to depend on only themselves."
Though was that completely true? Now the truth was out Clark had been a little more forthcoming about his interactions with the Morlocks over the last several hours, about how he visits and leaves food and clothing and other things they need. How, over time, they have become more comfortable with having him around for short stays. Maybe Evan's proposal was merely another step following the ones Clark has started. Something to ponder later.
"Well I promise you, Professor, Pow-R8 is off the market," Spears vows, his words possibly spoken for the benefit of the police in the area, especially the Special Crimes Unit with Detective Sawyer leading the investigation.
"Thank you very much," Charles says. He glances over at Detective Sawyer and gives her a nod which she returns. It was promising and beneficial to have a trusted ally in the police. Helped immensely with situations like this. It was likely that the police wouldn't try and hunt the Morlocks down for their actions which were understandable considering they thought they were being poisoned. Charles would try and make sure it was resolved at this juncture. If necessary he would sic his lawyers on it.
With nothing more to be said or be done here the Professor heads back outside to his car which was modified with easy access for him. He gets inside and buckles up. "Logan. Lets go home," he requests of the person he believes is driving.
"Logan said I could drive."
Charles jumps in surprise at seeing not Logan but Kitty in the driver's seat, a chauffeur's cap on her head. Charles' phone goes off with a message from Logan.
Now we're even.
Logan did promise payback for the Professor tricking him into giving Kitty a driving lesson.
Kitty revs the engine. "Hold on," she says. "We'll be there in a jiffy!"
The car screeches away far too fast with a petrified looking Charles Xavier in the rear.
At the Institute...
Beast rubs his eyes behind his small round glasses as he reviews Spyke's tests. It wasn't hard to see what was happening. You just had to look at Storm's nephew. His body was producing bony growths that wouldn't stop.
The hard part was nailing down exactly what the bio-chemical reactions inside Evan's body were and then stopping them.
That was made more difficult by the fact Hank didn't know exactly what it was Pow-R8 did to the body. He had never seen anything like this before. None of them had seen this coming. A sports drink that was poison...to humans as well. Hank had read that from Clark's notes. It just takes longer in them than it does in mutants.
Why did the chemicals in the drink cause such a severe reaction on the x-gene...and a less severe but nonetheless potentially just as fatal reaction on the kryptonite altered gene?
It had to be bonding at the molecular level considering how small a scale we're talking about here.
Toxic eliminators. That's what they had narrowed it down to. They were Spears' gimmick to hook people in. Additives that cleansed the body of toxins.
Those must see the x-gene and the meteor altered gene as...well toxic and try and eliminate them.
Ok so he's going round in circles here.
"How is it going Hank?" Ororo asks as she enters the lab, asking in behalf of the rest of the family.
"Slowly," he has to sadly admit. "Essentially Evan's powers are working exactly as they should except the stop-signal he must utilise normally to halt the bone growth won't activate."
"Can you simulate this stop-signal?"
Hank shakes his head to the negative. "It's too complex. It's a chemical signal unique to Evan's physiology. An evolution allowing his powers to function with compete control. Otherwise the bones he creates would continue to grow until they became permanently attached to his skeleton."
"Are these growths permanent?" Ororo asks with growing concern about what state Evan will be left in.
"They could be. I just don't know Ororo. I'm sorry."
"The growths...seem to be spreading like plates over his skin," Ororo reports on what is happening to Evan as the day progresses.
"I know. He seems to be producing a form of exoskeleton, like a bone armour. It will stop as soon as the Pow-R8 flushes out of his system...I think."
"And how much of him will be covered by bony plates by the time that happens?"
Hank's silence says it all.
"You're sure it'll stop?" Ororo asks quietly.
"New growth will stop but I fear by that point they'll be set in to his skeleton."
"And he won't be able to retract them," Ororo can surmise. So he'll be stuck with this bone armour covering him, she can just about imagine it.
"Evan's power may look simple on the surface Ororo but in reality there are many complex chemical processes that take place to allow them to function. Think about it. He produces spikes through his skin and he never feels pain. The skin heals over instantly. His body has developed the ability to block his pain receptors when his powers are in use and accelerated healing. He has a vast reservoir of undifferentiated cells that, when called upon. make his bones and new muscle and skin tissues. It's actually amazing. He does naturally what is the holy grail of medical science. Undifferentiated cells that can be grown into anything, new organs, new skin, new bone."
Ororo had never thought of it that way before.
"So much advancement yet there there is still so much about how the body, human or mutant, works that we don't know," Hank remarks, sort of in wonder at the fact.
"I know you're doing your best, Hank," Ororo says.
"Ororo, just to be frank, this could take months...years even to completely reverse," he warns her not to have too high a hope he can stop this in the short term.
"I'll...have to let them know," she says, dread in the pit of her stomach at having to tell Evan and his parents, her family, that sort of news.
While it is bad news the truth is Evan had sort of prepared himself for it, that it seems unlikely this can be stopped. He had a slim hope the opposite was true but he hadn't rested his lot on it.
"We won't stop trying, Evan," the Professor assures him as he, Storm and the Daniels family have this meeting in his study. They won't stop looking for the way to reverse this.
"I know you won't, Professor," Evan accepts. "But unless you need more blood out of me I just want to pack my things and head to the Morlocks," he decides.
"Evan. Don't be so hasty," Carl asks of his son. They were still hoping to dissuade him out of this.
"You...still need help, Evan," Vivian argues.
"Mom. You heard the Professor. For now they can't do anything...and I promised Callisto I would return," he argues back.
Ororo looks to Charles, pleading with her expression for some sort of excuse not to let Evan leave.
Charles is going to have to disappoint. "If you wish to leave Evan I can't stop you. I won't...but you would have to come back regularly so we can monitor your condition and if you feel anything is wrong at all with yourself you call."
Evan doesn't see a problem with any of that. It's basically what he thought. "I know none of this is what any of us wanted but like you said Auntie O, we change. I can't be what I was going to be...at least not for awhile," he tags on, keeping a slim grip on a positive outlook. "I have to be something else...and for now that means staying with the Morlocks. I would like your blessing but I'll do it without if need be." Evan heads for the door. "I'll leave you to think on that. I promise I'll see you before I leave."
And with that Evan exits the door and heads for his room...for what is probably the last time with him as a member of the X-Men and a student of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters.
Author's Note: I don't know if I ever agreed with the way Evan left the show. It felt too much like the writers thought him a superfluous character and decided to force in a way to write him out. I mean he walks off because of his looks...uh, hello isn't one of his best friends Nightcrawler who looks like a blue demon? So anyway I thought and thought about how close I would follow the episode and decided to come up with a fudge, a half-way house where he still goes to live with the Morlocks but doesn't completely cut himself off from the X-Men. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; X-treme Measures part 8, the final wrap-up.