Disclaimer!
I don't own Marvel or the X-men or any of their associated media. I claim no money from this fanfiction and all the names and people in this story are completely fictional.
X
Issue #3: Companions
16th of April/2024
Salem, New York/Xavier's school for gifted youngsters
Three days have passed since the Danger Room incident and by firmly putting his foot down and slamming the door in his face. Abraham had managed to avoid going back into the Danger Room with Julian in the early mornings because in truth, Abraham was trying to figure out how he could possibly find out more information about the Danger Room without raising any suspicion or being forced to answer some awkward questions.
He had also been sitting on his saved stat points and his perk point for later use when he decided what he wanted to do and during that time he was hit with an unexpected message from his game-based powers alerting him to a game update and this morning when he woke up in bed, he saw a new alert come in.
[Your 'Player' system has been fully updated with several bug fixes, patches and quality of life updates. Your [Traits] has now been classified as a Job in your statistics screen.]
Abraham dismissed the message before he cleaned himself up and got dressed for the day. Soon enough though, after the first morning class ended, Abraham made his way through the halls in order to speak with one instructor who he thought he could ask, or at the very least would be honest with him about the risks involved with the Danger Room.
"Abraham. This is a surprise. You don't normally attend my classes." Xorn said while sitting behind his desk in his classroom after his students had left.
"Sorry to suddenly drop in like this but I wanted to ask you something."
"Go ahead. I'll answer as best I can."
"Well, I was wondering if there has been any history of injuries or glitched simulations or anything inside of the Danger Room?" Abraham asked bluntly while Xorn leaned back in his seat with a sigh.
"Well, there have been some injuries in the past and a handful of simulations have gotten out of hand due to user error. But the only truly horrible thing that happened in the Danger Room would be the pseudo-death of Quintavius Quire." Xorn explained which confused Abraham.
"Pseudo-death?"
"It's not my place to explain the situation and what happened. But suffice it to say that Quintavius was lured into the Danger Room and was defeated there. However, when he entered, he was placed into a Danger Room simulation that nobody activated or even knew about until Quin was restrained and taken to Hank's lab to help him recover. Sadly, Quin's body and mind underwent a secondary mutation, and he is now…I guess goop is the right word. He is a goop-like substance in a special containment tube until Hank and Xavier can figure out a way to cure him." Xorn explained, and even though his face was covered, Abraham could hear the pain in the teacher's words.
"I see…Thank you for telling me."
"Don't thank me. After that incident followed up by other less intense mishaps with the Danger Room, I don't trust the damned thing no matter what Hank says about it. He can try to fix it all he wants, but something about that room makes me uneasy and I refuse to take anyone into that damned place. But I'm guessing that's why you're asking questions. You saw something strange." Xorn replied and Abraham nodded his head in agreement.
"Yeah, and I can't stop thinking about it."
"What did you see?" Xorn asked before Abraham explained what had happened to him a few days ago with the Danger Room. "Well, a female robot with crimson eyes certainly isn't a normal thing even for a training simulation."
"At least you believe me instead of just dismissing my words." Abraham replied with a bit of sourness towards his team and instructor.
"Don't be too hard on Emma. She's a pain but she does mean well and wouldn't dismiss you if she thought you were in genuine danger. She's just a stubborn woman and with my constant refusals along with a few other X-men. She doesn't exactly take criticism about the Danger Room well."
"Why? She didn't build the thing…Did she?" Abraham asked while Xorn chuckled.
"No, but she more than helped pay for the equipment and technology that allows the room to function. So, it is basically hers in all but name." Xorn said while Abraham scratched his head a bit.
"I see. Well, thanks for telling me all of this." Abraham said before he suddenly got a random headache before hearing Emma speak to him telepathically.
"Abraham, would you kindly come to my office and bring Kuan-Yin with you?" Emma asked telepathically or rather demanded based on her tone of voice.
"I'm guessing that Emma wants a word with you?" Xorn or rather Kuan-Yin asked as Abraham now knew the instructor's first name instead of his family one.
"And she wants me to bring you too." Abraham said before Kuan-Yin groaned and stood up from his seat.
"Well, let's not keep her waiting." Kuan-Yin said before the two of them made their way over to Emma's office where they found her sitting behind her desk with an annoyed look on her face.
"Kuan-Yin, would you like to tell me why you are speaking about the unfortunate events around Quin's…Condition to a student who respectfully has no right to learn about such a thing?" Emma asked bluntly and with sharp eyes aimed at Kuan-Yin who simply cracked his neck a bit.
"I wasn't aware that speaking about potential dangers was prohibited. Last time I checked; teachers are supposed to teach and instruct students as well as educate them about the upsides and downsides of life here." Kuan-Yin replied causally before Emma looked over at Abraham.
"Is there anything you'd like to say?"
"Well, if you're not going to take me seriously then I decided to speak to someone who will, and it turns out that the Danger Room has a history of mistakes and errors." Abraham said back bluntly and with a flat expression on his face causing the blonde to pinch the bridge of her nose before letting out a short breath.
"After your incident in the Danger Room, I and other staff members investigated any errors in the system or malfunctions and found nothing, yet you believe what you saw truly happened even though all evidence points in the opposite direction, so I decided to leave it be, but if you're going to start sowing discourse and suspicion. It might be best if you were temporarily taken off the Hellion team until this matter is truly settled." Emma said in a serious tone while Abraham crossed his arms.
"Your team didn't exactly give the warmest welcome and I could live a long life without dealing with Julian twenty-four seven, but you can't say that this isn't an unfair response to me asking a few questions." Abraham replied.
"But you're not stopping at asking questions, are you?" Emma asked sharply and Abraham saw no point in lying to a psychic.
"I don't plan on hotwiring the Danger Room or anything, but I'd at least like to ask for the CPU or whatever is deep cleaned of any viruses." Abraham said back while Emma eased up her glare.
"I suppose that comprise isn't impossible and if it will help put matters to bed, I will have Hank and Forge both come in to reboot the entire system. However, that will take more than just a day of tinkering and in the meantime, I'd appreciate it if you put your energy into preparing for the school field day competition." Emma replied and Abraham did give her words some thought since the field day event was coming soon and all X-men training squads were going to be participating.
"Am I still off the team?" Abraham asked bluntly.
"You're on probation and that can change to expulsion from the squad if I deem it necessary, but despite how…Harsh I seem. I'd rather you remain on the squad and learn to get along with others. Not just your squad mates but with other students as well. Your social circle is small enough to be counted on a single hand and I believe that if you put yourself out there more, you'd find yourself surrounded with friends and loved ones." Emma explained.
Abraham didn't know if she was using her powers on him or if his anger had subsided and given way to reason because her words not only made sense to him, but he also accepted that it wouldn't do well to go on a one-man crusade against a literal room even if he had a quest to complete.
"She is harsh, but she truly cares for you Abraham. So, at least give her suggestion to ease up a bit of consideration." Kuan-Yin said, and Abraham uncrossed his arms and let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding in.
"I'll admit that I could have spoken to you before going behind your back to speak to another teacher, but I didn't exactly feel safe confiding in you after being dismissed so easily. But you're not wrong about my social skills…So, I'll focus on other things for now. But I'd still like to be updated when the Danger Room system is completed."
"That's fair Abraham. Now, go. Kuan-Yin and I have some words to exchange." Emma said before Abraham left the room and started wandering the halls before a new screen appeared before him.
[The quest [Danger Room Danger] has been temporarily barred from completion for the time being.]
[Quest Alert!
Name: Friends and Allies
You're a bit of a loner in a place where you can make several and possibly lifelong friends. So, start socializing.
Objective: Reach the proper [Friendly] level of reputation with four people, 1-4!
Rewards: 300 XP with an additional 100 XP per friend gained.
Failure: 10 XP!
Will you accept this quest? Y/N?]
Abraham mentally accepted the quest with a sigh and realized that Alani must have counted as the first friend, which meant that he needed to become friends with three other people to complete the quest as well as gain some new allies.
Abraham wouldn't do this just for his quest but because he could admit that he could use more friends to talk with and right now his teammates weren't exactly a good starting point since they were tighter with Julian and given Abraham's verbal dislike of the guy. It was a safe bet that the team wouldn't put in any effort to be friends with him.
1
Evening
Abraham let out a quiet yawn while he sat alone in the school's library while reading a book on physical fitness. Apparently, it was a skill book, but since Abraham didn't want to destroy the book in order to learn the ability, he got alerted that he could simply read the book the old-fashioned way and still gain the skill it contained and luckily enough, the game system was right.
[Perk
Name: Olympian Athlete
Rank: 1
This perk is something all athletes and warriors learn through physical training and combat on the battlefield as it helps them stay fit and ready for battle.
Physical activities now have a 10% XP increase gain and physical stat increases can increase 10% faster than normal.
Warning! This perk cannot be upgraded with Perk Points. It can be upgraded by reading similar skill books at the appropriate levels.
Next upgrade level: 11!]
Abraham closed the book and let out a sigh as the book was rather educational and it helped solidify the fact that despite how broken his true power was. It still required the user to put in the proper effort and skill for it to truly blossom.
"Now I have to study advanced science." Abraham whispered to himself before reaching for the second book he had on the table that he started to read and before he even made it to page ten, he noticed another student studying alone.
A fair skinned guy with a bald head and was on the skinny side, but Abraham didn't judge the guy or anything and instead got up with his books and walked over to him.
"Mind if I join you since were studying for the same science test?" Abraham asked and the guy looked up at him.
"Oh, sure. No problem." The guy said casually before Abraham took his seat and noticed the information floating above his head.
Gerard Cooper, Level: 9
Pinpoint/Member of the Advocates Squad
"Names, Abraham. What about you?"
"I'm Gerard and it's nice to meet you." Gerard said and soon enough the two of them really hit it off while studying the science books until the library officially closed for the day and they along with a handful of other students had to leave.
"The field day competition is intense huh?" Abraham asked while he and Gerard walked the halls.
"No kidding. The Hellion Squad is favored to win since they won last year's field day by scoring the most points compared to all the other squads." Gerard explained with slight nervousness.
"Was it really that bad?"
"Julian isn't a nice winner…Or guy generally. And he made it a point to brag about the win for at least two months before Ms. Frost and Mr. Logan firmly put him in his place. But the other Hellion members aren't too bad." Gerard replied while Abraham gave the words some thought and considered that he was writing off the other Hellions a bit too quickly.
"Thanks for telling me. I'll hit you up tomorrow after the test so we can see how well our studying paid off." Abraham said before waving goodbye to his friend while he headed off to his own dorm room.
[You have gained increased REP with Gerard Cooper and reached the 'Friendly' level. Gerard can now be considered an alley if you wish for his help.]
[Quest Update
Name: Friends and Allies
Objective: Reach the proper [Friendly] level of reputation with four people, 2-4!]
Abraham simply dismissed the game screen before going to sleep for the night.
17th of April/2024
Salem, New York/Xavier's school for gifted youngsters
"How did things turn out like this? How did I fail?" Abraham asked in complete despair and sorrow and one would think that he was attacked at school by mutant haters or that he failed to protect his friends from a random alien attack or apocalyptic event but that couldn't be further from the truth.
The truth was in front of his face on the paper he had received after taking Professor McCoy's science test. One the paper he received a C plus. A passing grade but just barely while Gerard had gotten an A plus in comparison.
"If you didn't understand the material, you could have asked for help." Gerard said with a cheeky grin while sitting next to Abraham who rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." Abraham replied while making a mental note to seriously improve his studying regimen so that he could rub his superior grades in his friends face for acting so smug.
The class bell sounded and Professor McCoy as he liked to be called had told everyone to not only remember to do the homework but to carefully study the material and ask each other for help since Abraham wasn't the only one struggling with the advanced science material.
"Seriously, how the hell am I supposed to memorize and solve elite college level materials in less than a day?" Abraham asked while he and Gerard walked towards the next class.
"You knew the test was coming up for a few days now. So, studying last minute was on you dude. Anyway, what class do you have next?"
"I'm headed to an early gym class today. What about you?"
"I've got home economics. So, I'll catch you later." Gerard said before the two went their separate ways and after changing into his gym clothes, Abraham endured a rough day of physical fitness exercises from Logan.
Thankfully, Logan was man enough to admit that he was running the class a bit too hard when one student threw up, so for the last twenty minutes after getting the kid to the nurse, he let the other students take a much-needed break and have time to talk and stretch and what not.
"Today's class was hell." Abraham groaned as he stretched his body in various ways.
"I agree. Until today I didn't know my wings could suffer muscle spasms." A pink haired girl said next to Abraham while trying to stretch in ways that don't move her wings around too much due to the pain, she felt in them after the extended flying laps she had to do like most other students capable of flight.
The class ran laps for each student. Runners and flyers each had to do way too many laps today and it showed with everyone student.
"Whoa. Your wings are beautiful." Abraham blurted out after getting a good look at the girl's rainbow-colored butterfly wings on her back. When she giggled, he blushed and looked away. "Sorry."
"You don't have to apologize. It was sweet. My name is Megan Gwynn, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Megan said with a smile that warmed Abraham's heart and caused him to smile in return.
"I'm Abraham Van Helsing." Abraham said a bit nervously while looking at Megan and noticing her pointed ears and how…Pixie like she was.
It reminds him of pixies from dungeon and dragons…
Shut up. Dungeons and Dragons is fun.
"Van Helsing? From Bram Stoker?"
"No relation as far as I can tell. Although, I never did a deep dive in my family history but who knows. Besides even if I'm related to that guy, vampires aren't real, so it doesn't really matter." Abraham replied with a chuckle of his own.
"Fair enough I suppose. Also, I saw you talking with Alani at the last movie gathering. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner."
"It's fine. I'm still learning my way around the social aspects of school life." Abraham replied, and for the last bit of gym he ended up making yet another friend and now was one friend away from completing the quest.
"Brat. Hold on for a second." Logan said after walking up to Abraham after he exited the locker room after changing back to his normal clothes.
Other teens didn't bother to stick around and that meant that Abraham was alone with Mr. Logan.
"What's up?" Abraham asked bluntly.
"Word is that you and Julian aren't doing the whole teamwork thing that Chuck asked you to do." Logan said with his own form of bluntness, causing Abraham to groan.
"I tried but the dudes a, grade a heel."
"Anyone with eyes can see that but you need to figure out a way to work with him. On a team you won't get along with everyone and if something happened, you can't afford to start fighting with your teammates when your life could be in their hands. Besides, you're no spring chicken yourself." Logan said back with his arms crossed which made Abraham look down at his feet in slight frustration.
"Julian wakes up early every morning to train and that's something I respect, but his method of training is scorched earth in the Danger Room and right now I don't want any parts of that place. I'll try to figure out something that he and I can work on together, but he has to put in his own form of effort too." Abraham said back while Logan chuckled.
"I'm not the one you need to be saying that to, brat. Go find and figure something out with Julian. Emma gave you time to figure something out but I'm not the patient type, and I won't have two brats fighting amongst themselves on a rookie team if I have anything to say about it." Logan said before he walked off and left Abraham with a lot to think about.
2
"You want to what?" Julian asked with equal parts annoyance and confusion when Abraham walked up to the Hellion lunch table and voiced a question to the team.
"I'm asking if you guys would be willing to train outside of the Danger Room. Were a team and all that but I'm not feeling a whole lot of trust. Also, I know I'm not trusting you guys much either, but I want to change that." Abraham said as the Hellions team looked at each other for a bit.
"I'm down. Training in the Danger Room is great and all, but it's crazy tedious. I need some variety." Santo said while eating a slice of pizza.
Abraham didn't mention how weird it looked for a guy made of rock to eat food. Granted it wasn't weird in a bad way, but it was something you'd expect to see in a cartoon or something.
"It's not like training outside the Danger Room will help me out. No matter where I train, I'm a danger to everyone." Kevin said sadly.
"I'm not doing some basic training drills with you. If you want to train, then join us in the Danger Room." Julian said with a glare.
"I don't agree with how he said it but I'm with Julian. You want us to trust you, but you don't trust us and now you want to finally work on trust despite skipping normal training drills? It's not exactly fair." Cessily explained and Abraham couldn't exactly argue with her words.
He hasn't been the best teammate honestly.
"Sorry dude but it looks like were sticking with the Danger Room for a while." Brian said with a causal shrug of his shoulders. "Why do you hate the place so much anyway? It's not like were making jokes about your first team training program."
"Speak for yourself. I can come up with at least twenty jokes about him right now." Julian replied, making Abraham hold his tongue before he turned to leave.
"Fine, be that way. I'll just train on my own. Mr. Logan and Professor Xavier might be pissed but if you're expecting me to bend over and do whatever you want all the time, than I might as well get kicked off this team." Abraham replied before he walked off with a look of anger on his face.
He knew that he might get in trouble for that but at least he tried to make a peace offering with Julian and instead it bit him right in the ass.
The others weren't bad guys, but Abraham couldn't understand how they could deal with a jerk like Julian all the time or how they could possibly work so well together as a team.
Now after storming off, Abraham found a place in the back of the school where he started doing simple workout routines as he kept his word and started training himself physically with exercise drills and practicing the Tai Chi forms that Mr. Xorn had been teaching him in the self-defense class.
"Training on your own huh?" A voice said from behind Abraham, making him drop his stance before turning around and seeing an unfamiliar face.
Dallas Gibson, Level: 14
Specter/Corsairs Squad Member
"Sorry. If I'm in your way I can leave." Abraham said after letting out a huff of air when he was starting to work up a sweat and release some of his anger through training.
"You're not in the way and I wasn't trying to mess with you. Believe me, I know that sometimes you get to let out some anger by punching stuff, even if it is just the air. The name's Dallas."
"Abraham." Abraham replied before speaking again. "How did you know I was working off some anger?"
"The face you were making, and the grunts were a dead giveaway. Besides, if I was on the Hellion team I'd be pissed too." Dallas replied making Abraham raise an eyebrow.
"How'd you know that."
"Don't you have squad training? The squads talk about each other all the time as if it's a motivation tactic." Dallas said with a deadpan expression while Abraham couldn't help but look away.
"I might have skipped a training session or two. Whose squad are you on anyway?"
"I'm on the Corsairs squad led by Cyclops." Dallas replied causally before walking up to Abraham and extended a hand outwards that Abraham took and shook.
"You mean Scott? How is he leading a squad? Don't you have to be an active X-men or a teacher to do that?"
"Scott is nineteen and even though he doesn't teach, he is one of the people in charge of school security. Besides, he is an active X-men, and the training doesn't get in the way of his college level studies, so its fine."
"How do you know all that?"
"Again, we're on a squad. Don't you talk to your squad members at all?" Dallas asked with confusion before Abraham looked away again. "You're hopeless."
"I'm…Trying to improve."
"Anyway, I saw you training out here and was wondering if you wanted a training partner. Having a partner to train or exercise with helps a ton. Or at least that's what Callie always says during training." Dallas said with a shrug and honestly, Abraham didn't see a reason to refuse.
So, for a long while the two boys exercised together as well as sparred with their limited martial arts skills which helped Abraham improve his abilities a lot easier.
[Due to your diligent training, you have gained 2 STR! Due to your diligent training, you have gained 2 CON! Due to your diligent training, you have gained 2 DEX!]
"I'm learning that out of all the x-men trainees. I might have the least number of muscles and stamina." Abraham said while his muscles felt like they were on fire from the sparring he did with Dallas who is apparently a very advanced student in martial arts.
"It just takes time. So, want to spar again tomorrow?" Dallas asked, making Abraham smile before taking the hand that Dallas offered to get up from his seated position on the ground.
"Sure thing." Abraham replied before he saw a game alert appear.
[Quest Alert!
Name: Friends and Allies
You're a bit of a loner in a place where you can make several and possibly lifelong friends. So, start socializing.
Objective: Reach the proper [Friendly] level of reputation with four people, 4-4!
Rewards: 300 XP with an additional 100 XP per friend gained. You have gained a total of 700 XP!]
[You have leveled up! Level: 4-5! You have gained 5 Stat Points and 1 Perk Point for a total of 10 SP and 2 PP!]
Abraham simply smiled before making his way back into the school and started trying to formulate a plan on how to hang out with all his new friends at once like a normal teen instead of one with the powers of a videogame hero.
END!
Narrator: So, Abraham has started to reach out with other students and slowly gained some new friends and possible companions for future quests and missions. Who knows how the future will unfold for him and his friends as well as how will the field day event play out? What will happen with the Danger Room? And will Abraham be able to work together with his squad when the time is right?
Stay tuned for all the answers and more in the next addition of the Legacy and Psychic Powers comics.
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