The Family Creed.
Chapter 8: X-Man.
The rage stabs my heart so hard I can almost taste the blood in it. My fear dies in a flaming instant with my body moving before my mind could even catch up. He's the product of every waking nightmare I've ever had. His arms spark as my claws rake off them. Shaking off the desk being thrown at me, I weave in and out, cutting at him as far as I can, he keeps it close, knowing that momentum was key in my cutting. I kick him backward, twisting and going for a reaching slash, just for it to scrape off his arm.
"Fft!" his metal fist jabs out, nailing me in the stomach but I keep pushing. My claws digging so deep in his damn face that I rip out his cheek, blood flooding down and a meaty snap-tear rips through my arm. Rotator Cuff's torn and shoulder's popped outta socket.
"Nnnnggggruuuugh..." my arm hangs limp, I try to grab it but Cyber nails me in the side, his torn face grinning down at me as blood floods out and torn sinew wiggles in the motion of his breathing.
My ribs turn to crackling shards, and I fall backward, he crushes my leg in his hand, the pain driving me mad, my healing factor trying to repair the muscle and bone the best it can.
He slings me through the office windows, the arena lights burning into me and my back impacting the arena floor, covered in broken powdered glass and wheezing out bloody breath, all I can feel is pain. He dismantled me in seconds. I hear the crunch and the impact of his boots banging down on the arena's cold linoleum floor. He's heavy, the Adamantium he's coated his arms in isn't exactly lightweight.
As long as he's distracted. As long as Lorna and Raihan can get everyone out. I need to keep up this fight. Where's Deadpool? I swear if he ditched us-
Cyber looms over me, "I know who you are, Victor..." he kneels and listens to my rattling breath. My mind spinning with the pain and the fact that at least one fucking speck of my trauma is within reach to kill.
"What? No biting sanctimony? No, 'I will stop you?' Nothing?" he snarls.
"Hrrrhhhk..." I force out, trying to build up enough strength to swipe at him. But he tuts softly.
"What a crying shame..." He raises his fist but before he can pulp me, gunfire tides out of a pair of guns. Fully automatic and rattling out from among the panicked stands of people.
"BANGBANGBANG!" Deadpool screeches, "YOU AIN'T TAKIN' HIM!" he rages right for Cyber, and he's got a grin on his face. He knew him too. He knew all of us aside from Raihan and his mom.
"William! How've you been?"
"Fuck off an' gimme my Dad back!" he snaps, "I'm gonna rip you to shreds 'til you give him back!" his guns run outta ammo and he dodges a swipe, sliding towards me and one of his blades slides out towards my hand.
"Take it, Loup!" he snaps, "BECOME THE SAMURAI!"
I stare up at the lights. After all this time and all this progress... I'm still a beast. Still an animal. Even if I loved Jean and my friends. Even if I could put so much distance between me and my past. I could kill some of it. But I'd never forget who died. Never forget what they did and who they were. No matter how much I raged and tore my way through life there'd be no one to reach me and tell me I was heard and loved.
But something... no, someone appears over me. Her shadow falling over the lights and her eyes filled with worried tears. My mother's hair gently tickles my face. She touches my hurt, broken body.
It's warm. Not cold.
"My boy... my son..." she sobs, "What have you done to yourself?"
"I miss... I miss you, Mama..." I admit, closing my eyes and basking in her warmth a little longer, the battle falling away everything fades into nothing but then my mother pushes me up.
"Victor... you're not done yet." she stops crying, "You think I'd cry because my son's a monster? You're more than what your father sees you as." she supports me and I open my eyes.
She's still got her arms around me, pulling me up. my leg healing and arm not too far behind. I stand, woozy, still seeing her. Deep down I feel Jean's support, did she send my mother?
Or did she just give me what I wanted to hear? I don't see her now, but my hand reaches for the katana. Grabbing its hilt and taking it up. Sword in hand, I turn to face Cyber and Deadpool.
My body remembers how Logan held it, how he moved. One slash and it'd get Cyber off Deadpool.
Deadpool's got half his head missing, but he's still fighting, "Gurrrmurhlboo..." he snarls, "Gurrrrhhh." he vanishes and Cyber rages towards me, with my body being faster and circling him, raking my sword up his back.
Blood rains down on the floor, a snarling growl groans through Cyber's teeth, my rage boils under the skin,
He whirls, "You think your sword will deliver you, Victor?!"
I want him to shut up, so I cut through his front, his arms are the tougher material. Stabbing him clean through the chest, I see his face go from confident to a shocked expression.
"Huuuuh... uuugh..." he gasps.
"It ain't the sword, Silas." gripping the hilt I tear it right out of him. My chest pounds as I lope towards him. He didn't make me who I am. I made myself, somehow I found what I wanted and now I'm gonna fucking fight like hell to get it.
He rallies himself and yells, "YOU CONTEMPTABLE BRA-" I dash forward and pounce on him, grabbing his arms and pulling as hard as I could, hearing the snap and crackle of bone.
"You don't get the first thing about me." I snarl, "You don't control me."
He grins, "Boy... you're nothing..."
"Nah, you're fucking *wrong*." I snarl, tearing off his arms with my healing ones, not even caring about his screams. Casually tossing his arms aside, I crack my neck and raise my hands towards his face.
"I'm an X-Man... an' if anyone wants to fuck with 'em, I'm gonna kill them." I state, driving my fingers into his eyes and pressing further into his brain. Bastards like him deserve that death penalty.
I step away, seeing Deadpool holding a red and black clothed left arm instead of the right, he's grinning up at me.
"Y'know, red's your color Loupie." he says.
"How're things lookin' for Polaris an' Darkholme?" I snarl.
"Well... I'd say they're doing great. Because they are!" he exclaims, "Already Genosha's taking everyone in, and... well, we were down here."
I look around, "What about the guards?"
"Killed 'em."
"Damn." Looking back down at Silas, I spit on his corpsegrinning up at me almost like he was fucking proud, "Fuckin' ass." I clean the sword off with my sleeve and pass it back towards Deadpool. He holds up his right hand and gives me the sheath to it.
"You keep it. It's special." he states, "Carbonanium." I sheath it and hoist it onto my back.
"Anti-Healing factor metal, eh?" I ask.
He winks, "Something tells me you're gonna need it, buddy." A whole bunch of people leap out and ambush us. They're organized, wearing armbands with almost mock Native American Eagles marked with FOH on the wings, body, and last wing.
The guns cock, and I don't think I ever seen guns like these. The bullets rain into me and Deadpool. They rip us to shreds and there's a snap of fingers. Stepping into the hall, sharp amber eyes with almost shaggy red hair smoothed down with a reekin' pomade.
He's tall, wearing a pair of rectangular glasses. His laugh is mocking, almost like he's dominating the entire room after the death of Cyber, he kneels and pats my head.
"Nice to meet you, brother." his greeting continues, "I'm Graydon Creed, and thanks for clearing this stepping stone for me." My eyes stare up at him. He's wearing a red suit and black tie.
His voice is smooth, burning like fire. Growling like Dad's voice without any of the accent. Full of some kind of fake-humbleness. An 'aw shucksing' tone that would sooner stab you in the back.
He swaggers away, my body rises and I glare after him.
"Hey!" I snap, "What's your game?"
He turns with a smile, "You'll see." Vague fuckers really know how to piss me off in the worst ways.
Deadpool looks at everyone almost silently as the bullets tink onto the concrete. The battle flowing away from all of us and exhaustion taking over. Those bullets almost shredded us down to the bone.
Getting back to the mansion, I can't help but think about Graydon. The idea that I had a brother burns in my head and sits there like a weight. The car ride back is silent, Deadpool holding his dad's left arm, Polaris leaning over the wheel like she's seen some shit.
Raihan was nowhere to be found, neither was his mom. Whoever she was. But the thing is, there's something fishy about all of this. My dad shows up three times in a month, I get to the school, and now my big half brother shows up. Jean brushes into my mind, taking a look but not for long. I need my own space. The Beast doesn't let her go too far in. She backs out, and I get home, getting out with Deadpool and into the mansion.
Logan and Charles are waiting for us, looking at each other with concern more often than not. I keep walking, dulled and tired. I don't care about what they might say about me killin' Cyber. As far as they know I did them a favor. The showerhead runs water down my body, the blood clearing off and making the water a dingy brown. I close my eyes and reach back out to Jean.
She appears, answering quickly enough, "Are you okay?" she asks, "You had the Beast push me out earlier."
"Jean... I have a brother." I state, "A big brother, an' he's a dick."
She nods, "I figured as much. Never thought it'd be Reverend Creed."
"Of fucking course he'd be a preacher man..." I get out of the shower, drying off and getting dressed again. I fall back on my bed and there's a warmth in my head. Jean's kinda flustered.
"Oop! Sorry, Jeanie."
"No, no. It's just... you clean up really well." she's trying to keep it together but I smile and lean on my hand.
"Welp. Seems like I got you tongue-tied."
She goes silent and I almost wanna sneak over and kiss her goodnight. She giggles and breaks into a happy enough laugh. Is it 'cause I was too cheesy? Her hands go over her face and I hear the kicking of her feet.
Got 'er. As I drift off into sleep, I still feel her poking in. Guess she's lookin' for the good Reverend. But just as I'm going into REM, there's a huge blast of psychic energy from the professor.
'Forgive me for waking you all, but to me, my X-Men!' we all run out of bed, stumbling over each other, Remy going down with a...
"Sacre dammit!"
Piotr picks him up and Scott doesn't even sleep in pajamas, the guy wears his suit to bed, which isn't too comfy but we all run side by side. The girls are already there but here we are still putting on our costumes.
Charles sits, looking pleased as we muster, lined up together as Logan stands with his arms crossed with Hank at the console. Jean looks at me almost like she's worried about something but she shouldn't be.
"Any reason why you called us, Professor?" Scott asks, standing straight. He's always so serious and it bugs me sometimes.
"Why yes, it's of great importance." he dramatically pauses, "I got it."
The girls all gasp, Rogue scoffs and crosses her arms and Ororo doesn't look too happy. Piotr and Remy look at me and I look at the professor in confusion. Remy grins like he won the lottery and Kurt practically vibrates on the spot before jumping into a backflip. Scott and I both scowl, I don't like it 'cause then we'd have to be under even more eyes. Sure, I'm convinced that Charles is well intentioned but at the same time the road to Hell is paved with them.
"WUNDERBAR!" Kurt yells, "Can I be interviewed? Please please please?!" he bounces on his feet and practically almost jumps outta his skin about it. Charles grins and chuckles.
"We've called all of you here to determine that." he states, "It's tomorrow, so we'll need to have quite a few of you to be interviewed."
Logan steps up, "I'm thinkin' Victor should talk. He's a recent recruit, whaddya think, bub?"
"I think it's a bunch of bullshit." I blurt, "I mean think about it, here y'all are operatin' since the what? Sixties? Seventies? Why start now?"
"There's been a rise in mutant sympathizers since the introduction of social media influencers such as Dazzler and mutant vigilantes like Madame Medusa." Dr. McCoy says, "Of course we'll be interviewed, but also having some of you be interviewed would also help people see that you're just normal teenagers."
I cross my arms, "Fine, I'll do one."
Charles blinks, "Are you sure? Didn't you just-"
"I changed my mind, and 'sides..."
"I mean wouldn't it help?" I ask, "You need all the interviewees you can get." the others look happy enough that I just threw myself at it. In the end, Scott pipes up.
"I'll do one too." he smiles, "It'd make sense for the leader to speak on what we do."
"Field leader dere, Scott." Remy interjects, before Ororo and Jean pipe up.
"I'll do one." Ororo says, and Jean nods.
"Someone has to make sure Victor doesn't go off script." she looks at me with a sly smile, and I grin back.
"What? I'll behave!" I snap, "Don't you guys trust me?" They all look at each other, even Jean looks like she doubts me.
"I mean yeah, I don't trust myself but still! I'd probably be a killer success story, right?" I grin, "Son of insane mutant terrorist becomes an X-Man to spite his father?"
"Or bite us in the ass." Scott says, "You may be the model of rehabilitation now, but what about later?"
"Just have faith in me, Scott. I saved yer asses back in the Hotel, if I ever end up anywhere near my Dad's level of shitty the means t'kill me is on my waist."
Nervous. God, I've never been more nervous in my life. The idea that this'll be on local TV, maybe even national since this is about mutants. Might be even more than that. Well, here I am wearing my newer clothes with the same bomber jacket and plain t-shirt. I'm sitting in a comfortable chair right across from a newswoman from one of the major news networks here. Of course I dunno which one but I'm guessing one that likes mutants.
She's a pretty woman, long dark brown hair and dark eyes. She seemed to know Doc McCoy so I guess she was a friend from years ago. At this point she begins rolling.
"I'm here with one of the students here at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Mr. Victor Creed Jr." she smiles at the camera as it swivels over to me, "Hopefully he'll be very forthcoming."
"I plan to, Miss." I nod and grin, my fangs grown and claws gently curving out of my fingertips.
"So, Mr. Creed. What brought you to the school?" Mrs. Tilby asks.
"Well, I was found up in the Canadian Wilderness, you know living off the land and trying not to get killed by my dad." I let out a laugh, "But then here comes Wolverine speeding in on his motorbike, claws out an' looking to rumble."
She leans forward, interested, "So you watched them fight?"
"No, I got a few licks in myself, you wanna see the scar?" I grin with her waving her hand not to, "Eh, suit yourself. But... I don't really regret coming here. I have friends and a girlfriend."
"Just who are you outside of this?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm a work in progress, I got all the time in the world and people willing to see me succeed." I smile, "People who believe in me, and I wanna become a person they can be proud of."
I look right into the camera, "Being an X-Man is just part of that. I'm learning who I am every single day. It's a long road but I'm happy to be on it." Despite all the trauma and doubt, despite everything ripping into me, and savaging my heart. I still soldier on.
Just keep going, keep marching.
Eventually, you'll find your way, Victor.