X-Men: Night of the Living Brain Dead
by
Ben Church bchurch@su.edu
All major characters are the property of Marvel Comics except
Hotshot.
Chapter 5
A week passed. Then another. Finally, Hank pronounced him
fully recuperated. "The only thing left to do," Hank said "is to
decide what to do about your missing eye."
"Well, what are our options?" Will asked, thinking about glass
eyes.
"Hmm. We've had some success in the past with cybernetic
implants."
"You mean a robot eye?"
"Well sort of, but it would be more like an android. Do you
know what the difference is?"
"Yeah, a robot is mechanical and an android is electrical."
"To put it in layman's terms, yes."
Will bristled. "I'm not a layman." he snapped.
Hank looked in surprise. "Sorry Will, I didn't mean to offend
you."
"No I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up at you. I've been cooped
up too long that's all."
"I'm sure you were. Now where were we?"
"The eye."
"Oh yes. We could make a cybernetic eye for you, but it might
be hard for you to adjust to. There is one idea that you might like."
Will looked in the mirror, and studied his face. The
eye-patch made him look like a pirate. His empty socket had been
stuffed with synthetic skin and tissue, and the patch he wore was made
of adamantium so it would protect the still vulnerable hole. Will
smiled. "I like it." he said. As he turned from the mirror, the door
opened and a short hairy man walked in.
"Ah," said Hank, "Logan. As you can see, I've managed to find
a use for some of the adamantium from your skeleton."
Logan's skeleton had once been laced with a rare metal called
Adamantium. It was only recently that the Adamantium had been forcibly
removed by Magneto. Logan didn't like to think about it much. It
was the closest he'd ever come to dying.
"That's great, Hank. How's the kid?" Logan said.
"Actually," Hank said "I was hoping you could take him to the
danger room so we can see just what his powers are."
"Sure. Come on kid," Logan said to Will, "Let's get you a
spare uniform."
Soon Will stood in a large empty room wearing a blue uniform
with a large red X on the front. Logan sat in the control room high
above.
"All right kid," he said over the intercom, "The controls are
set for the easiest difficulty level. You ready?"
"Yeah." said Will. "Give me your best shot."
"All right you asked for it."
The room changed from an empty gym to an ancient passage that
looked like something from an Indiana Jones movie. Behind him was
a thick jungle, in front of him was a long dark hallway.
He picked up a piece of wood from the floor and called upon his
power. The wood erupted in flame giving off enough light to see by.
He walked cautiously forward, peering at the floor for any signs of the
booby traps he was sure would be there. Suddenly, a loud rumbling
reached his ears from behind him. A slab of rock now blocked the way
back.
He was sure he could get out that way if he had to, but he was
content to go forward for now. He was passing through a small
chamber when the first trap was sprung. A huge hammer swinging on
a chain fell from the ceiling and swept the length of the room. On
it's first pass, it caught him in the chest and propelled him into
the wall. He was trapped because the hammer had stuck in the hole
it had made. He pushed against the hammer with all his strength but
it didn't budge. He concentrated on his hands and heated them as he
pushed. The stone hammer slowly began to melt and flow out of the
hole. When he was free again he continued on.
Logan recorded the information in the computer. Will was
able to generate heat from at least his hands, possibly other areas
of his body as well. He also was not hurt by the hammer. This meant
that he was at least partially invulnerable. Logan decided to test
just how far that power went.
Will walked carefully on. He soon found a passage with tiny
holes in the wall. He did not know what would trigger the trap that
was so obviously there, so he decided to run through. Behind him,
he heard darts shoot through the air. He was almost to the end when
a dart skimmed his skin. He winced and clapped his hand to his arm
where the skin had been cut. He reached the end of the hallway and
looked at his arm. It was just a superficial cut, the bleeding had
already stopped.
Logan played back the sequence and zoomed in on the image of
Will's arm as it was hit. The dart had merely scratched him, but it
proved that Will was not completely invulnerable. It seemed
that his invulnerability was limited to blunt objects. Since many
bullets had points on them, it was not surprising that one had hurt
him. Logan began to program in one last test for Will.
Will had begun to tire of this game. Nothing much had been
happening and he wondered how much longer this was going to
continue. Suddenly he heard Logan's voice from somewhere above him.
"All right kid, there's only one way out of here. And that's
across this." A section of the wall fell away and molten lava flowed
out into the passage. There was no way around, but there were vines
with which to make a bridge. But Will decided not to waste his time
with that. He dove in and began to swim across. It was like swimming
through molasses but he was a strong swimmer.
"Holy shit." Logan was astounded. He turned the heat of the
lava up to the maximum intensity, 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Will's
clothes caught fire, but Will himself wasn't the least bit affected.
Will reached the far side and called to Logan.
"Could I get some more clothes?" he asked. "These seem to
have had an accident."
Professor Xavier studied Logan's report. Will's powers of
heat generation, and invulnerability to heat and blunt objects were
impressive. As was Logan's opinion of him. He wondered at the
potential power of these abilities. But for now there were more
immediate concerns to worry about.
"You were unable to find the information that Jean placed in
his mind?" he asked.
"Yes sir." said Betsy. "I looked for it when I was restoring
his memory, but Jean buried it too far in his sub-conscious. I think
she may have put in a fail safe so that it would be safe from the wrong
hands."
"Well we can't keep him here to find it. I'm going to send
him to my Massachusetts Academy. Since you know him the best, I would
like you to accompany him."
"It would be my pleasure Professor."
Logan helped Will load the back of the car. The day before,
Hank and Warren had taken Will shopping for clothes. Will was most
impressed by the image inducers that they used. He'd been given one
that made his patch seem to be cloth instead of metal. Will had wanted
to buy more than just clothes, but he was assured that whatever else he
needed would be provided at the Academy. As well as the suitcases,
Logan tied a steamer trunk to the roof, telling him not to open it
till he unpacked in his new room. Will was overjoyed to finally be
going to the School he had heard so much about. He was even happier
that Betsy was going with him.
On a rise near the Mansion a lone figure watched the
preparations. The Black Queen, having not fed on psychic energies for
a quite while now looked to be in her seventies. She would soon find a
victim, but for now she needed to find out where the boy was going. It
had not been hard to find him. Strong Guy had recognized Sabertooth,
and Sabertooth was an X-Man. But to get so close to the X-Men's home
she could not trust any of her vampires. The commotion below disturbed
her. She did not know where they would take him, and worse yet she did
not know if they had gotten the information out of him or not. She
decided not to worry about finding him again, a boy with a eye patch
would not be hard to spot. When the car left, she spurred her horse
and rode away planning how to capture the boy.
To be continued...
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