章 31: CHAPTER 30
Draul didn't know what to think about all this.
Meeting the X-Men had a been a wild surprise on its own, finding out however that they came to recruit him was a real punchline.
Logan was being polite, not that he knew what to expect from the fictional-turned-reality character who asked for his doughnut the moment he saw him.
As far as first impressions go that was pretty unique and besides Draul wanted to hear their sales pitch so he followed them.
He had his senses spread out for any unlikely scenario occurring and walked out of the restaurant with Logan and the silent Colossus following behind him.
Draul caught sight of the dude that came in with Logan and couldn't remember who he was. Well, given that most of the characters appearances were only in the comics except for the real obvious ones he was bound to not identify who they were.
So with a box of doughnuts in hand he left the restaurant with three iconic characters from the X-Men comics.
They walked for a while with Colossus and the guy Draul didn't recognize at the front while Logan tallied with him.
"So buddy, you live around here?" Logan asked making conversation as they walked.
"Nah, just a stop." Draul said.
"Where you headed?" At that Draul turned to look at Logan making the century-old man think he stepped over a line.
"New York." The young man still answered so they were still cool on that front.
Now how would he break it to him? Come up fast and soft, hitting the nail directly on the head, or slow and hard, taking the time to explain everything while also giving him the ugly facts.
How about winging it? Those seem to work out just fine.
"What do you know about mutants?" Came the icebreaker question.
They both stopped and looked at each other, gauging the others reactions and expressions to prepare for any negative outburst or panic in Logan's case, while Draul wondered how he would answer. If he was being honest with himself then he would like to see the other characters not so that he would fanboy over them, Gods no, but just one of the things that's been on his mind since his transmigration.
He had no plans of joining Xavier's merry men or sticking with them for long but a little peek never hurt anyone. He was after all on vacation and the only thing currently on his plate was a long-term HYDRA eradication plan.
"Metaphysical evolution of the human specie." Came out the all too smart answer he was steadily hating because of his time spent with Banner, who is mostly likely on the run or over the border at present.
"That's a new one, but you are correct. I'm a teacher at the Xavier Institute, it's a place for unique people to come together, a haven,… for mutants." Logan said as they resumed their walk towards a place where three other people were waiting for them.
Draul could only recognize one of them though or maybe two.
The redhead who looked all too familiar with the Jean Grey he knew and another girl at her side who he suspected to be the Shadowcat – Kitty Pryde. And the last dude who looked all too familiar with the comic version of Thunderbird, John Proudstar, with his Native American looks.
'What the hell? What kind of X-Men/MCU-verse is this? They all look jumbled up!' He thought.
Given that it was currently 2003, which should be around the time of the second X-Men movie: X2 – The Last Stand when Jean temporarily dies only to resurface 2 years later as the Entity of Life and Rebirth, the Phoenix. So why the hell was Thunderbird still here, was what was currently going through his mind as he stared at the OG team of Xavier's.
'Looks like this timeline is more fucked up than I remember.'
Remembering that he'd been starring for a while he turned to Logan who was calmly puffing a smoke he lit when he was staring and asked the man.
"Student of yours… or staff members?" He asked and got a chuckle from the Wolverine and Thunderbird while Jean, Kitty, Colossus and the only guy he didn't know all smiled.
"Hi! My name is Katherine but everyone calls me Kitty." Said the ever energetic cat as she gave an outstretched arm for a shake.
"Draul." He replied as he shook the petite girl's hands and caught Jean furrowing her brows for a second through the peripheral of his vision as he felt something, a light tingle bounce away from his mentals.
'Mind reading huh. Looks like it didn't work, guess those 6 months spent in reconstructing my entire brain works paid off.' He thought feeling slightly relieved. His number one concerns against telepaths having apparently been taken care of.
During those 6 months he spent inside his consciousness he went through different theories on how to increase his brain's mental defenses and natural processing power by removing by some nodes that causes minute lags in processing of information to rewiring of his entire thought process.
Basically he built a matrix around his mind with a bottomless moat around it and artillery firearms stationed around for disrupting any foreign mental probes that passes through without permission. In simpler words, his mind was a fuck zone with a black hole in the middle of it.
He had first been worried if this was enough to block strong telepaths since he theorized that the reason why telepaths could read thoughts was that they could connect their special brainwaves easily to others making it vibrate at the same frequency with their targets thereby getting a reverberation feedback carrying their thoughts.
But since his brain has been programmed to shoot down any attacking probes, with the ones that somehow manages to get through falling inside a bottomless pit, he was good to go in the psychic front.
After a brief exchange of names where Draul finally confirmed the Native as OG Thunderbird and the new guy as Reiner, no idea who he was, he turned to the others and asked the question he wanted to ask.
"Why are you looking for me?"
This time it was Jean who answered, "We are from the Xavier's learning Institute, while we function as a school and safe haven for mutants, we also perform rescue mission for others who are in need of help." She paused to let that sink in first before she continued, "Our Professor picked up your energy signals in the outskirts of Virginia but before we got there you already left so we tracked you down here to Pennsylvania. If it doesn't take much of your time, our Professor would really like to speak to you." She said sincerely.
There weren't many mutants who were designated 'Omega class' and the few that were, all became strong regardless of if they trained their abilities or not. The man before her, as the Professor told them, was one of those and seeing as he was in his prime then his abilities must've grown a lot. And also given how calm he was to hearing them talk about mutants, he must have a good grasp of his abilities.
If only he would agree to meet the Professor, then maybe he would agree to help them rescue other mutants who were still suffering.
"Minus the fact that you've apparently been looking for me, is there any reason that would incline me to go with you," he raised his hands as Jean made to speak and continued, "while what you do is noble and admirable, unfortunately I am rather preoccupied at the moment. I wouldn't say no to a visit in the future but not now."
He meant what he said.
While he would have liked to follow them just for the holiday spirits, he had a goal. He still wanted to find out how much he grew from the latest evolution and while Fury told him to lay low, 2 months of laying low was enough and he wanted to start hunting other HYDRA bases as he moved by. They would serve as the best punching bag.
Jean looked stumped as she didn't want to further push the man away so she looked at the only other person who could likely persuade him, Logan.
Getting her stare, he sighed and spoke to the young man knowing what he was about to say would most likely trigger him off.
"Don't you think you can put the blood feud on hold? It'll only take a day at most and if don't want to listen to what the Prof has to say then you can bolt afterwards. How about that?"
He saw the others flinch slightly when they heard him talk about a blood feud while the man in question didn't even twitch and calmly look at him with a gaze that felt as if he was being read through.
"Would you?" The man asked. A question only he seemed to understand.
"I won't… but I wouldn't turn down a helping hand either." He told the rage-filled youngster.
"We both know this won't be a helping hand but likely a day at the shrink." Draul said as he let out a chuckle.
"When do we leave?" The young man, Draul, said and Logan couldn't help as his lips broke out in a smile.
"We can leave after a while since we have a mission to complete." Jean said. The mission was their priority right now so they could pick him up after they completed it. She wouldn't want him to be uncomfortable when they went for their rescue mission. Most people were.
"You said mission just now. Was it a rescue mission?" She heard Draul ask making her a little confuse why he was asking but she answered.
"Yes." The smile of Draul's face widened as she said that.
"Mind if I tag along?" He asked taking her by complete surprise because he had no business with what they were doing nor an idea why they did it but he suddenly wanted them to take him with them so she was unsure.
"Why would you want to come with us?" She had to ask. It would honestly be nice if he wanted to join their cause by sympathizing with the less fortunate.
"No major reasons. I'm just bored."
Or maybe not.
She was stumped by his answer and was about to turn down his help but Logan beat her to it.
"Sure."
"Logan!"
"It'd be alright and besides I'll keep an eye on him." Logan reasoned but she still wasn't convinced. Bringing a revenge-driven person to a rescue mission without clearance wasn't bound to end well. Logan himself was proof.
"Okay." She relented. She had to if Logan said he would be keeping an eye on him himself.
With that they walked to the where they landed the jet.
Draul let out an impressed whistle as he beheld the sleek black beauty that was the X-Jet as he followed them inside.
At the pilot seat he saw the last two Original members of the X-Men, Ororo Munroe - Storm and their de-facto leader Scott Summers - Cyclops.
They looked at him with interest, possibly due to his Omega-class status with Ororo being the first to introduce herself.
"Hello there, you can call me Storm and this is Scott. Welcome aboard." She said with a smile that complemented her white hair and dark skin.
She was the only one to give him a codename though he didn't put much thought on it.
"Draul. What's up man. Dope glasses." He said to Scott who smiled and said a thanks and fired the engine of the craft.
"I would buckle down if I were you." The silent-since-the-start tin man advised which Draul took and strapped himself to the chair.
"Sooo, what's yours?" Kitty who sat besides him asked and he could practically feel everyone's ear perk up at that except Piotr and Ororo.
Thinking she came up wrong with the question she tried again.
"I can phase through walls. What can you do?" She asked again but this time she was rebuked by Jean.
"Kitty!"
"It's all right, no harm done," he waved off Jean's concerns since it was unneeded and besides it was not like he was going to tell her what his real abilities were. Just a facet of it to satisfy the curios cat.
"Mine is… complicated," she deflated at that while he chuckled, "It is an emission type and deals with energy."
"What kind of energy?" She asked as she paid full attention to Draul was saying.
"From what I know, heat energy, cold energy… and radiations. Nuclear." They spooked at that while he had to keep myself from laughing.
Looking at Kitty as she gave me the cat eyes, he relented and showed her what they likely wanted to see.
He raised his hands and watched as the veins in it started to glow making it look like someone drew a pathway of lines on his hands but different from the healthy yellow sun glow it use to have…
This one shone a bright dangerous red.
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