X-men: Mutant Awakening (Ch. 7)

Author's Note: Continual thanks to Kindar for his beta-reading help! :)

Chapter 7

Tad stood outside the large round metal doors leading to the Danger Room. Ororo smiled briefly, and pushed a button on the right side of the doors. They swooshed open.

Ororo walked inside first. "Here it is." She gestured expansively.

Tad followed behind her and the doors shut behind him. He stopped abruptly, his mouth open in shock. He saw a gigantic square room with a metal floor, wires, and what appeared to be metallic paneling adorning the walls. His voice was barely heard as he uttered, "Oh my god." He suddenly felt like he was in someplace out of a science fiction movie. .
She still had her hands outstretched to encompass the room, as she spoke again. "This is the Danger Room. It has holographic projectors that can create many different types of environmental conditions primarily for physical training, combat, testing reflexes or even powers. We also use it occasionally for recreational purposes."

Ororo smiled then turned around, pointing at a set of paneled windows in the wall. "The professor will be testing you up there with equipment that'll record your vital signs, and the strength of your mutant abilities."

Tad's gaze traveled to the windows, seeing the Professor, then looked at Ororo. He was impressed with the place, but the reminder of his abilities made him slightly uncomfortable. "Okay."

The professor's voice resounded throughout the room after a short crackle. "Hello, Tad. Ready for your testing?" 

Tad took a deep breath, feeling nervousness surge within him, then put up a brave front. "I... I guess so." He wasn't quite sure if he would perform up to their expectations, but he didn't really have anything to lose except maybe a couple hours.

Professor Xavier smiled. "Good. Now, don't worry -- every wall includes a psionic dampener that extends several inches away which will hopefully help prevent any unintentional teleports outside the simulation room. You will materialize right before the limit of the dampening field."

Tad wasn't sure what to say, and supposed that was to help him feel more comfortable. He was curious on how the dampening field worked exactly. 

"Um, I see. Er, how does that work? I mean, what if I accidentally teleport somewhere else?"

Xavier spoke immediately with reassurance. "There should be no chance of that happening. Mutants who have a psionic gift, like telepathy or teleportation, share a similar brain-wave frequency that it's possible to tune the field to that, and block it. It's a relatively new addition."

Tad nodded. "Um, okay. When do I start?"

The professor spoke again. His tone held an odd cadence to it, but it went unnoticed by Tad.

"Patience. I'm inputting the last of the scenario information. The simulation should be ready any moment. Okay. Tad, everything's set."

The surroundings changed abruptly, as a forest clearing materialized around them, with trees as far as one could see in all directions.

Tad gasped in shock, and froze. "What the?" His head whipped around the place, trying to get his bearings and not finding anything recognizable. "Where the hell are we?"

Ororo stood there calmly. "We're still in the Danger Room. These are all holograms."

Tad walked to a tree and touched it with amazement. The tree felt so real. He glanced at the dark-skinned woman and marveled. "But I can feel the bark!"

Ororo chuckled, then sobered. "Yes, I know. I have to warn you that there may be danger here. The holograms cannot do serious damage, but can still hurt. We probably should get moving."

Tad started walking when Ororo started to pull on his arm in a random direction. "Uh, why?"

She was slightly exasperated. "Do you want to stand in one spot and have them all come at you? Remember, this is to test how much you can do."

"Uh, right. Makes sense." Tad was slightly breathless after several minutes of walking over tree roots and keeping up a fast pace. He could hear noises that he attributed to forest life, and some of them didn't sound too friendly.

Ororo and Tad were sweating after trudging in the forest for a seemingly interminable time. There was no way to really tell the time, and Tad didn't have a watch on him.  

Tad found it mind-boggling that one could sweat from being in a hologram, but apparently they went to such lengths to ensure complete immersion, including tactile sensations. So engrossed in the experience, he wasn't listening to anything around him. 

Ororo heard a twig snap behind them, and immediately glanced backwards to see a black streak hurtling itself at them. She abruptly tackled Tad, throwing him out of the way against a tree. She tumbled away from him to hopefully give the panther a moment's indecision. 

Tad yelped in sudden surprise and slight pain as he smacked against the trunk. Tad climbed to his feet gingerly, then saw the danger and froze. A large black panther had turned around and was staring intently at the two of them, then it's eyes focused on Tad. It snarled once, chilling his blood with fear.
It leaped at him with gleaming outstretched claws before Ororo could move. The only thing she could do was shout. "Teleport!"

Tad suddenly hid his face behind his arms and frantically focused on escape. The clearing they'd initially been in flashed in his mind, then weightlessness and a wrenching overtook him.

Ororo stared in fascination as Tad became bright white, then vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving only a small white cloud of smoke. She was relieved he'd managed to teleport, but that elation was short-lived as the panther landed on it's feet, and turned around to gaze at her with baleful eyes. She knew she couldn't defend against it with her bare hands.

* * *

Tad lowered his arms, and opened his eyes. To his amazement he actually was standing in the clearing from which they'd started this simulation. Quickly checking himself, he was relieved he hadn't teleported into anything holographic. Even operating on instinct, it seemed like he only needed a vague picture in his head and he was there. Despite the strangeness of having mutant powers, it felt heady realizing that he had actually transported himself. Tad wasn't sure exactly what his limits were yet, but for the first time, he could see himself liking this. His thoughts returned to Ororo, wondering if she was alright, when a feminine scream echoed in the distance. Oh no! I left her back there!

In a panic he knit his eyebrows together in concentration, imagining himself at Ororo's side; he again felt the same sensation as before yank him away, then stabilize. Tad materialized by Ororo, and took in the sight of the panther snarling and trying to bite her but with no success. He saw that she was slowly losing the fight, and darted his glance around for some sort of weapon to distract the panther.
Luck was with Tad as he noticed a large branch behind him, then he grabbed it. Holding it in both hands behind his head, he swung it in an downward arc onto the big cat's head as hard as he could.

With a sickening crunch, he connected with the skull, and saw it dissolve away into mist.

Ororo was panting, and looked relieved. "Oh thank you."

Tad nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed. He wasn't used to getting gratitude. "Er, no problem..." He held his hand out to her.

She took it gratefully, hiding a wince pain in her shoulder and getting to her feet slowly.

He was startled to see red seeping through her shirt near her shoulder. "Oh shit, you're bleeding!"

Ororo glanced down at her arm and blinked. The pain was starting to sink in, and she frowned. "Oh. I thought I was just bruised..." She gently pulled her outer shirt off, leaving her with a tank top, which was stained with blood on one strap. The dusky-skinned woman gritted her teeth as she inspected her wound. She absent-mindedly thanked the goddess that she couldn't get infected injuries. Ororo had a relatively deep scratch, but nothing that couldn't be remedied by a couple stitches and a bandage.
Tad felt a ghost of pain echo through him as he saw the wound. He flashed back to his own rapid recovery -- if he could heal faster... couldn't he try to help her? He didn't have the faintest clue how to go about it though. He let his instinct guide his hand and in amazement, he realized he could feel her pain more clearly when his hand drew closer to the wound.

Ororo noticed Tad's fingers moving toward her shoulder and let him; The professor had said to try to let Tad heal any injuries without any prompting. The odd thing was that Tad seemed to be slightly entranced, and she didn't want to do anything to break his concentration.

Tad was oblivious to everything except the pain that echoed into his shoulder. His fingers made light contact with the scratch, and his eyes unfocused seeing a stripe of sullen red in his mind. Instinct further guided him to imagine green glowing energy overlaid the injury, then he felt his energy bleeding through his arm into his hand and into the scratch. It took several moments before he broke contact and felt dizzy. Tad took a step backwards and shook his head trying to clear it.

Ororo had watched him with growing respect -- her pain had receded to nonexistent as Tad performed his healing. She glanced at her shoulder and gasped -- her wound was closed, and had a thin red line of coagulated blood in place of her scratch. She tentatively touched it and blinked again. It had none of the typical soreness from slow healing, but it was still healing -- it itched slightly. He has enough to knit wounds, but not fully heal, it seems...

Tad cradled his head with his hand and exhaled sharply. The dizziness had taken him several seconds to push away. He opened his eyes and looked at Ororo, then gasped in wonder. "Did I really do that?"

Ororo grinned widely. "Yes, you did. Thank you."

Tad blushed. "You're welcome."

The white-haired woman nodded. "Okay. Let's keep moving on. Let me know if you're exhausted, and we'll stop the exercise."

Tad chuckled, not feeling in the least tired yet. "Lead on."

* * *

Several attempted attacks by forest animals enabled Tad to start learning how to control his teleporting better. At one point, he'd grabbed Ororo without thinking and teleported with her thirty feet past the grizzly bear. They stayed where they were waiting for the bear to come lumbering after them, but it never did.

Unfortunately their arrival awoke an animal resembling a cross of a bear and a dog. Ororo saw it and blanched. No one broached their territory without due reason.

Ororo yanked at Tad backwards, and whispered. "Oh no, get us out of here. That's a wolverine!"

Tad frowned, backpedaling slightly slower than Ororo. "Uh, so?"

Ororo impatiently pulled him further away trying not to enrage the wolverine. "Highly territorial... we just landed in it's yard."

Tad blinked as the wolverine snapped it's jaws and started aggressively trotting toward them. Without thinking, he jumped both of them back to the clearing.

Ororo sagged with relief, letting go of Tad. She was thankful she managed to resist using her powers when they had stumbled into the wolverine nest. "Thank the goddess. It would have done serious harm if it'd grabbed either of us in it's jaws. He was guarding his young."

Tad frowned. "But these are just holograms... ?"

Ororo nodded. "It doesn't make their behavior any less valid. You can still get injured."

Tad shrugged. "It's so easy to get caught up in the realism here. I wasn't really thinking about it half the time."

Ororo smiled. "Perfectly understandable. Sometimes I do forget as well."

Tad sat down feeling drained. He looked up at her as a thought occurred to him. "Hey... don't you have powers of your own? You could have taken care of some of them."

She sat down alongside him and looked at him with a serious expression. "I was instructed not to use my powers for the duration of this exercise, plus it gives the equipment a chance to monitor your gifts without mine interfering with the readings."

Tad wearily rubbed his face with his hand. "I suppose that makes sense."

Ororo laid her hand on his arm. "Perhaps we should stop."

Tad closed his eyes, and nodded. "Yeah."

Ororo sat there with him for a few minutes in silence, then she spoke. "How do you feel about being a mutant now?"

Tad glanced at her, and frowned. "... I don't know. It's really different. I'd have to think about it some more."

Ororo nodded. "You're welcome here as long as you need."

Tad didn't speak for several seconds. He nodded once in acceptance.

Ororo grinned. "I know a perfect spot out back for that, if you want to be outside for awhile. I'll even bring some food. We could invite Brenda along, too."

Tad smiled back. It was hard not to smile -- her smile was warm and infectious. You couldn't help but smile in return. "Great. Sounds good. Where to?"

Ororo stood up, and helped Tad to his feet. "The kitchen first. We forage for supplies." She paused for a moment, calling out "End Simulation."

Tad was fascinated to see everything dissolve into nothingness.

It took them fifteen minutes to find Brenda, get to the kitchen, gather up food, and make their way out to a spot behind a tall oak tree at the back of the garden.

* * *

The professor glanced at the readings and smiled. So far, he was extremely pleased, and surprised at some of the scans. He also wanted to study some of the data further in-depth to make sure he was interpreting them correctly. Ten minutes later, Charles Xavier walked out of the control room heading up to his study to peruse the results from Tad's exercise from his computer.

He passed by the burly Canadian and frowned as Logan practically ignored him, with hurried steps toward the Danger Room. Logan seemed unusually on edge today, and Charles didn't want to pry, although he was tempted. No, it was Logan's business, and no one else's, as long as it didn't interfere with his X-men teams, or disrupted the academy in any way.

* * *

Logan was frustrated. He sat on a bench trying to relax in the garden, but his thoughts kept returning to this morning in the kitchen. True, he had brushed by Tad by accident, but it had felt nice. And it shouldn't have. Not to him, anyways. His impulse immediately after that had been to press up against him and inhale his scent deeply, but he had forced himself to resist it.

Grayish white smoke wafted into the air as he held the cigar in his fingers. He took another draw from his stogie and paused for a moment. Doing this wasn't relaxing him enough -- perhaps another workout would help settle his nerves. He grimaced in momentary pain as he extinguished his cigar out in his palm and watched the wound heal rapidly.

Stashing his cigar away in his pocket, Logan went to his room to change into his uniform then was on his way about ten minutes later. As he walked down the hallway on the underground level, he barely noticed the professor walking by, and wasn't in the mood to talk. Once the metal doors swooshed open, he stepped inside and stumbled in surprise.

A growl grew deep inside Logan's throat as Tad's smell began to swamp his brain. With a guttural grunt, he collapsed to his hands and knees trying to filter his scent out, but it was too strong and too irresistible.

He gritted his teeth, struggling to ignore Tad's lingering scent to no avail. Logan shut his eyes angrily, and pounded the floor several times to try to snap himself out of it. He growled softly under his breath, "Fuck it.", and inhaled deeply feeling his body shudder in pleasure. Opening his eyes, they gleamed with hunger as he snarled under his breath. "Mine."

Moments later, he blinked. He was back in the garden again, realizing he was staring at Tad, Brenda, and Ororo from a distance. Logan frowned in confusion. Wasn't he just in the Danger Room? Why was he here?

(TBC)

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