Traveling: Fury and Charles honestly could have met at any point over the last few decades tbh.
TW: Thank you. Yep.
Xavier School for the Gifted
Morning
A plane set down on the front lawn before the ramp lowered. Clint, Oliver and Dragon walked out onto the lawn, looking at the school oddly.
"You sure this is the place?" Dragon inquired as he looked at the doubtfully.
"It's the address Fury gave us," Clint said, thinking of their last meeting with Fury.
The Triskelion
Last night
"So, let me get this straight, there's this school for mutants?" Clint asked in disbelief as he, Oliver and Dragon looked at Fury like he was playing some kind of joke on them.
"Have you ever known me to lie about something like this?" Fury asked and the three agents silently acknowledged his point. "It's run by Charles Xavier, he's a telepath, able to read minds and communicate with people with only his mind."
"Sounds like a useful ability," Oliver noted and Fury nodded.
"It is. Someone without Charles's character might use it for their own purposes. Instead, he's dedicated his life to helping others like him. I met Charles a decade or so back while investigating a 084. I help keep his school away from prying eyes and in return, he helps me with any Intel I may need for high class missions. An hour ago, he contacted me with his powers and I haven't heard from him since," Fury said and they could see how Fury was unnerved by this.
"What did he say?" Oliver inquired and Fury looked him in the eye.
"Nick, they're coming for my school. Protect them. Please," Fury said and there was a moment of silence. "With Cap and Romanoff still several hours out, I need my best available agents on this. Head to the School, see what you can find. And I don't think I need to say that this is a Level 10 Clearance secret."
"Looks like a nice place," Oliver noted, reminded of the Queen Mansion, noticing several similarities to his childhood home.
"So did someone else, which is why someone went after it," Clint said dryly.
"So what's the plan Barton?" Dragon inquired.
"We walk in, see what we find," Clint said with the air of someone discussing the weather.
"Like we normally do," Oliver said sarcastically.
"Yep," Clint said brightly as he moved towards the front door.
Oliver and Dragon exchanged an exasperated look before following after their leader. Clint pushed on the door, frowning when he found it unlocked.
"Well, isn't this spooky," Clint muttered.
The three agents entered the mansion, pausing as they saw several dead bodies of men dressed in tactical gear. Silently, they walked over, Clint kneeling down to examine the bodies. Frowning, Clint saw three clean, gapping wounds on the chest of one.
"Oliver," Clint said, gesturing for his student to join him on the ground. "What do you think could have caused a wound like this?"
"Some kind of blade," Oliver said with a frown as he looked at the body. "But the way the wounds are so close together…"
"Like it was three pronged bladed," Clint said with a nod.
"There's no such weapon that exists," Dragon said immediately.
"Yeah there is, one of a kind. We just met the man who uses it," Clint said and they understood.
"Logan," Oliver realized and Clint nodded.
"Yeah, he was definitely here. Maybe he knows something about what happened," Clint said, pulling out his phone and dialing the number.
Boston, Drake residence
Same time
Logan put down the device he had found in Scott's car, finding it useless when his jacket pocket started buzzing. Reaching inside, he found the burner phone ringing. Answering it, Logan warily put it to his ear.
"Barton?" Logan asked warily.
"Hey Logan. Funny story, our boss sent us to check out a school that had apparently been invaded. I've got a few dead guys here who look like some kind of blade killed him. You know anything about that?" Clint inquired and Logan realized where they were.
"You're at the Mansion," Logan said.
"Yeah, apparently our boss is a pal of Xavier's, last night he reached out for help but our boss can't get a hold of him. Feel like filling me in?" Clint inquired and Logan snorted.
"Sorry, not much I can do there. Last night, these people came for the students. Some of them got away but some were captured. Stryker, he was the one behind this raid," Logan said, surprising Clint.
"Did he say what he wanted?"
"No. But Barton, he knew me. And I think I knew him," Logan said in frustration and Clint was silent for a long moment.
"Where are you?"
"Some house in Boston; belongs to the parents of one of the student's, Bobby Drake. He's with me and a few others," Logan said.
"Okay, we'll be there as soon as we can. Try and keep your head down until then, we have no idea how deep Stryker's reach goes," Clint said before hanging up.
"You're telling me," Logan grumbled before pocketing the phone.
Xavier school for the gifted
Same time
"Okay, we need to head back to the jet, find this Bobby Drake's house. Flight to Boston is usually an hour, our jet should get there in half that time," Clint as he began leading Oliver and Dragon towards the front door.
"And our company?" Dragon asked.
"I'll access our database, find Drake's house. You two take care of it," Clint said as he walked out the front door.
For a moment, it was silent. Then, Oliver whirled around, pulling a flechette out from under his sleeve and throwing it up the stairwell. It struck the hands of another man in tactical gear, disarming him of his rifle. Before he could do anything, Dragon had pulled out a gun and fired two shots, getting him in the shoulder and leg. The man went down with a pained cry, clutching his wounded leg as Oliver and Dragon walked up the steps. Upon reaching him, Dragon slammed his foot down onto the man's wounded soldier and he cried out in pain.
"Here's how this is going to work. You tell us what we want to know, you won't suffer. Don't, and my friend here can torture you for hours before you die. Now, what does Stryker want?" Dragon demanded.
"He took something from Cerebro, I don't know what, wasn't my job," the soldier groaned.
"What's Cerebro?" Oliver asked.
"Some machine, Xavier uses it to locate mutants," the soldier groaned and Oliver and Dragon exchanged a look.
"Why does Stryker want it?" Dragon inquired.
"I don't know. It was need to know," the soldier said pained and Dragon shrugged.
"Thanks for the Intel," Dragon said before, to Oliver's shock, he aimed his gun at the soldier's head and fired.
"What the Hell did you just do?" Oliver asked horrified.
"He was part of Stryker's men. He didn't know anything useful, so leaving him alive served no purpose other than to alert Stryker to our presence. It was a risk I wasn't willing to take. If after three years you don't get that you can't take those kinds of risks, you never will," Dragon scoffed before walking passed Oliver.
Oliver looked down at the lifeless body of the soldier before turning and walking after Dragon. There would be time to have a conversation about that later. Right now, they needed to get to Boston.
Drake Residence
Early afternoon
Logan was about to reenter the house after talking with Jean and Storm when he paused, seeing the image of police officers reflected in the glass door. Quickly entering the house, he headed towards the kids, who were still talking to Bobby's family.
"We have to go, now," Logan said briskly and they looked towards him.
"Why?" Rogue asked confused.
"Now!" Logan snapped in a tone that left no room for arguing as they got up, heading towards the door.
"Logan, what's wrong?" Rogue asked as they reached it.
Without answering, Logan summoned his claws before the four mutants walked out the front door. The saw a few police cars parked a few feet away when-
"Drop the knives and put your hands in the air!" two police officers were on the porch, each aiming a gun at Logan's head.
"What's going on here?" Logan demanded.
"Ronnie," Bobby said, realizing his brother had sold them out.
They then heard the sound of glass shattering and Mrs. Drake screaming as police entered the home through the back door before forcing Bobby's parents against the wall.
"This is just a misunderstanding," Logan began, hoping he could try and talk his way out of this.
He couldn't risk getting into a shootout with the kids here.
"Put the knives down!" the officer who had first spoken repeated.
"I can't," Logan said, looking at him like he was stupid.
Couldn't he see they were coming out of Logan's hands?
"See?" Logan said, slowly gesturing with one hand so the officer could see.
Apparently it wasn't slow enough, because the officer fired. Rogue cried out in horror as Logan went down to the ground, a bullet in his head. The other officers pulled out guns, taking aim as the officer who fired looked down at Logan, as if not believing what he'd done before taking aim at the kids.
"All right, the rest of you on the ground, now," he ordered.
Bobby and Rogue immediately complied while John looked at him fearfully.
"Look kid, I said on the ground."
"We don't want to hurt you, kid," the other officer tried reasoning with John as Bobby and Rogue looked up at him uncertainly.
John looked down at Logan once more before a glint entered his eyes. It gave Bobby and Rogue an unsettled feeling, recognizing it as the look he'd get before doing something stupid.
"You know all those dangerous mutants you see on the news?" John asked, opening his zippo. "I'm the worst one."
Turning it on, John amplified the small flame into an inferno, which he threw at the officer who had shot Logan. It stuck him, throwing him off the porch with an agonized scream before John threw the next inferno at the female officer.
Rogue and Bobby watched, horrified as John then threw one at the officers in the house before throwing a burst of flames at the police cruisers, blowing them up. Another police car rolled up, sirens blaring as John continued to wreak havoc. Seeing John throw more flames at the police, Rogue knew what she had to do.
Taking off her glove, Rogue placed her bare hand on John's leg, pushing his pants leg up so she could touch his skin. John gasped as she began draining his life force while Rogue, now with his power, used it to put out all the flames.
At the same time, the bullet in Logan's head pop out, his eyes snapping open as the wound healed.
Hearing the roars of engines, everyone looked up to see the X-Jet touch down. They all got to their feet, Logan cracking his neck before looking back at John, knowing he had something to do with this. John had the sense to look sheepish as they moved towards the X-Jet.
Logan paused briefly, eying an officer aiming a gun at them, silently daring him to fire. When he didn't, they moved on. Bobby looked back at his former home, at his family once more before following after the others.
They entered the jet, all of them pausing as they saw the blue furred creature sitting on the chairs as he smiled politely at them.
"Who the Hell is this?" Logan asked as he buckled himself up.
"Kurt Wagner. But in the mutant circus, I was known as 'The Incredible Nightcrawler," Kurt said proudly.
"Save it. Storm?" Logan asked.
"We're out of here," Ororo said as they took off.
Jet
Nog long after
"Well, this is bad," Oliver said, going through cannels on the jet's radio system. "Police channels are going crazy about some incident at William Drake's house. Something about a mutant attack with fire and a jet taking off."
"Great, just what we need," Clint said dryly before his phone rang. "Three guesses who that is."
"Hey. I'm taking off towards…well I don't know exactly where," Logan said as Clint answered.
"You sure know how to whip the cops into a frenzy," Clint said sarcastically.
"Wasn't my idea," Logan said gruffly and they could practically see him glare at whoever's idea it was. "Jean, where we going?...okay, we're heading back to the mansion."
"Bad idea. According to the chatter, they have the Air Force waiting to intercept them there," Oliver told Clint, who nodded.
"You hear that?" Clint asked.
"Loud and clear. But not a whole lot of other places we can go," Logan pointed out.
"There might be one," Dragon from the back seat and Clint and Oliver looked over their shoulder at him. "There's an old SHIELD base halfway between Boston and the Mansion. Been abandoned for years, no one would ever think to find them there."
"You sure about this?" Clint asked and Dragon nodded. "Tell me the address."
Not many changes to X-2 so far, but now we'll get the SHIELD Team and the remaining X-Men to meet up.
