章 2: Instincts Gone Wild and Being Taken In
POV - Ororo Munroe
Just as I was about to greet the child, I felt a rough hand push me to the side and before I could look toward Logan to wonder why he did what he did a sound I was all too familiar with entered my ears.
*SNIKT!*
"Calm down, kid, we ain't here to hurt you!" Logan growled through gritted teeth as the claws on his left hand came out and blocked a flying knee kick from the child I had wanted to greet. All Logan got in reply, however, was a feral growl as the boy pushed back off the metal claws, flinging himself backward in a stunt of acrobatic grace before he landed and crouched down on all fours, like some kind of animal.
"Grrr!" a low, guttural growl came from the boy's throat and I saw Logan's body tense up as he released the claws on his other hand.
Frowning at the action, I whispered harshly at Logan, "What are you going to do with those, Logan?! He's only a child!" I was appalled Logan would even think of using his claws against a child, no matter how aggressive that child got.
Grunting at me, Logan quickly replied, "This kid's like me," he clarified further when he saw my confusion, "That attack he did earlier broke his knee when he collided with the blunt side of my claws. But look at him, he's completely unaffected by it. It's kind of like he's--"
"--Healed..." I finished as I looked at the olive-skinned child currently growling up a storm at us.
"Exactly. The kid's a survivor. How else would he still be alive in the Amazon?" he questioned before turning back to the boy, "Either way, he can handle a few cuts," but before he could charge at the boy, the boy picked up a rock before pelting it in Jean's direction who'd come off the ship in a confused state, wondering what was happening.
Jean hurriedly lifted her hands and used her telekinesis to stop the rock thrown at her with blistering speed. But unluckily, this gave the boy the time to charge at Logan without Jean being able to stop him with her powers.
Which made me wonder, how did the boy know to do what he just did? How did he know to take Jean out of the situation before he charged at us?
Oblivious to my thoughts, the boy lunged at Logan, his hands imitating claws and looked ready to rip out Logan's throat. Though this was a sentiment Logan was all too familiar seeing in his enemies, so he calmly sent a slash of his claws at the boy, hoping to make him back off a bit. But the boy just took the slash, letting the claws dig deep into his side.
But as if he didn't feel pain, the boy just carried on and sent a blurry kick at Logan's throat. Unprepared for the assault, Logan could only brace himself for the hit and when it did hit, I heard a squelch of Logan's throat getting crushed, followed by the sound of bone breaking. I knew it wasn't Logan's bones, so it had to be the child's...but how does he deal with such pain? What made him like this? A child his age should be in tears at falling over and scratching their knee but this boy can nonchalantly put up with injuries that would make full-grown men cry...
Truly, what made this boy like this?
The boy, seemingly not one to leave a chance unused, sent two fingers toward Logan's eyes, hoping to blind him but now he was aware of the boy's reckless fighting style, Logan react by moving his head to the side before using the claws already stuck in the boy's side as leverage and slamming the child into the ground.
Using his heavy body, a result of his Adamantium-covered bones, Logan pinned the boy to the ground before looking up toward Jean and barking out an order, "Jean, hurry up and come and calm this brat down, will ya?!"
As if someone had lit a fire underneath her, Jean jumped up in shock, giving out a yelp, before rushing over to Logan who was steadying the boy's head and body as he tried to stop him from thrashing about. Though I could tell he was struggling slightly--How physically strong is this boy?
My thoughts aside, I watched as Jean kneeled and placed her hands on the boy's temples before closing her own eyes.
Seeing her do this made the boy redouble his efforts, kicking and thrashing about, growling with his teeth bared. He reminded me of Logan. If it weren't for the grey hair, yellow eyes, and light brown skin, I'd have been sure that we had another Clone on our hands.
After a few minutes, Jean's brows furrowed before she looked back up at me and Logan.
"I-I can't affect his mind! He's entered some sort of Hyperactive, Instinct Mode and his mind is entirely wired toward survival at the minute--He's practically like an animal! All his mind is screaming is 'Danger' over and over again...and his Healing Factor resets his mind to an unaltered state whenever I try to change anything," she trailed off, probably feeling guilty about her lack of addition to the team right now.
Putting a hand on her shoulder, I saw Logan look up and scowl at what she said before huffing out a reply.
"He ain't an animal, Jean. He's just having trouble controlling his instincts and it's made him a bit feral. Seeing Storm and me must have set off his survival instincts and that's why he attacked us--We practically backed him into a corner and he retaliated. Nothing else to it..." he spoke with a reminiscent tone and we all realized that he did indeed understand what the boy was going through, while Jean looked away with a bit of shame on her face that she'd practically called an innocent young boy an animal and implied Logan was also an animal.
"Rogue, get over here and drain him, will ya?" Logan asked with what was the closest thing to politeness that you'd get from the gruff man.
Nodding, Rogue walked over to us along with Hank who looked sympathetically at the boy being pinned down. When in front of the boy, Rogue took one of her gloves off before leaning down to touch the boy's head.
As he saw Rogue going to touch him, the boy's flailing got even more intense and he roared out with indignation while trying to maneuver himself into a position where he could bite Rogue's hand.
But Logan kept a tight hold on him and Rogue's hand finally touched the boy's head, making him jolt before his flailing and thrashing slowly died down until he went unconscious and went limp.
Getting up, Logan hefted the boy onto his shoulder as Rogue put her glove back on. While doing so she closed her eyes before massaging her temple, "Mother of...How did that kid deal with this?" she asked, completely befuddled, "It's like every sense of mine has been dialed to eleven! Jesus!" she stumbled slightly and if it weren't for Jean catching her, she'd have fallen.
Meanwhile, Logan was chuckling to himself seeing this before he made his opinion vocal, "Now can you see why the kid acted the way he did? His senses must have been driving him wild just like his instincts must have been...Well, at least he's getting some rest now," Logan said before looking over at Hank, "Can you get the sedatives from the medical bay, the strong ones, Hank? If this kid's anything like me, he'll be up and at 'em within the next few minutes..." he and Hank walked off to the Blackbird while Rogue and Jean were still by me.
Jean seemed gloomy and down in the dumps, so I gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "Don't worry about it, Jean. It was just a bad match-up is all," I gave her a smile which she weakly returned before the three of us walked after the others.
. . .
POV Change - MC
Opening my eyes, I instantly realized that my instincts had calmed down and also that I wasn't in the Jungle anymore. When I remembered what I did, I winced before sighing. Attacking the X-Men wasn't the best impression to give to the world.
I don't overly care about people's opinions of me, but I need to have a positive reputation, purely so my plans can come to fruition. My first plan was to join someone who could fund me and my projects...Let's just hope I haven't burnt the bridges with the X-Men just yet...
Looking around I saw that I was now in some kind of lab or medical bay. Though I was leaning more toward the former because of the restraints currently holding me down to the bed I was on.
"Ah, you're finally awake, young one," a deep, yet scholarly voice attracted my attention to the far end of the room where there was a tall-ish blue man. Or it would be better to describe him as a blue-furred man. I instantly knew who he was, just like any Marvel fan would know who he was when they reviewed the facts. Blue-furred man, scholarly, and seemingly in league with the X-Men:
It was obviously, Henry "Hank" McCoy otherwise known as Beast. Though I'm pretty sure he doesn't really like that name.
"Hello," I greeted, surprising the blue man who came up to me with a book in his hand. I felt danger from him but I could keep it under control because we weren't in a jungle.
Honestly, it seems that my environment may affect my instincts. What a shock.
Lifting the book up for me to see that it had something to do with words and pictures representing said words--probably a book for kids to learn how to speak and identify objects with the corresponding words--Hank wryly smiled at me, "I was going to try and teach you English, but it seems you already know how to speak...Then do you mind explaining to me how you ended up in that Jungle?"
Without missing a beat I just shrugged, "I don't know. I was just in that Jungle. I don't remember anything else," I played the confused and lost role perfectly and Hank frowned before going into deep thought.
"And your ability to speak English? How did you learn how to do that?"
Again, I shrugged while keeping an indifferent face, "I don't know. I just can."
"Interesting..." he said before sitting down next to me, "Do you know what you are?" he asked with a curious tone, seemingly wondering how much I 'just' knew.
Making it obvious, I sniffed the air while looking at him before pointing back and forth between the two of us, "I'm the same as you. The same as that other man, and those women. We're the same," as I said this, I realized that I actually could sense the similarity between the two of us, and not just because of our bestial sides.
It was more like a unique scent that I also gave off--Could I smell the X-Gene? Bloody hell...if I can do that, well, that's pretty cool.
His blue, cat-like eyes widened in surprise when he heard what I said, before he let out an uneasy laugh, "Why wouldn't he be able to smell the X-Gene on people..." he muttered under his breath, but my hearing picked it up anyway. Unaware of this fact, he carried on, "That's correct. You're a Mutant, otherwise known as Homo Superior. An evolved member of Humanity. Do you understand what that means?" he asked with a serious look.
Nodding, I gave a concise reply, "Yes. It means I'm different. From normal Humans, that is."
"Fascinating. How do you know these things if you don't remember anything? A sort of amnesia?" Hank spoke partly to me and partly to himself, so I just let him think to himself. I'd play the role of an amnesiac and make the foundations for the future right here. Oblivious to my thoughts, Hank carried on, "Nevermind any of that, though. We need to do some medical tests. Is that okay?" he asked and I nodded in assent to the medical procedures.
Why was I about to let him look at my DNA? Because what difference does it make? He can't clone me, and he won't see anything too weird because Catachan and Krieg are still Humans. Militant, born and bred warriors, but still Humans. Plus, my gene-seeds hadn't been activated yet, so any results he gets from the medical will sooner or later be inaccurate.
Be baffled by my genius~
Hank, seeing me agree, started multiple different medical examinations on my body, from blood tests to blood pressure tests, to CT Scans and X-Rays, he was doing every test he could possibly do with each result making him even more eager to do another test.
Honestly, I was also curious about the results because I wanted to see the limits of what I was capable of. Right now, anyway.
But it seems that we will have to wait.
"Well, I've learnt everything I could learn about you in a short time--Now, I can't be referring to you as 'boy' or 'young one' forever, can I?" he chuckled to himself before putting a finger to his cheek, "Do you wish for a name? Unless you already have one, that is," he asked and in reply, I pointed to a book on the other side of the room on a desk, presumably Hank's desk.
"Alexander," I said with an apathetic voice. The book was about Alexander the Great and I wondered: What better name than Alexander? It's also the same name as one of my favorite villains, Alexander 'Lex' Luthor. Purely coincidental.
Looking in the direction I was pointing in, he saw the book I was pointing at and let out a jovial chuckle, "Hmm, well it's certainly a good name. Alexander it is, then. A pleasure to meet you," he smiled while nodding at me, showing his sharp canines off.
Smiling back, I nodded before looking at my restraints and rattling them a little before looking back, "Now that you know I'm not a wild child, can you take these restraints off of me, please?" I asked politely, to which Hank froze before quickly coming to undo the restraints.
"Ah! I completely forgot, please do forgive my rudeness, Alexander," he quickly undid the restraints before flicking out a phone and speaking into it, "Logan, can you come and guide our guest to a room?"
A grunt on the other side was the only reply but that seemed to be the usual reply because Hank simply put the phone away before sitting down on a chair near me, reading a book about Genetics.
I just looked at the cover, feeling the urge to test my Genius-level IQ and learning ability.
Hank noticed my staring and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Do you want to read a book?" his voice was filled with apparent surprise. Surprise at my ability to read or knowledge of reading in general, most likely.
Nodding, Hank chuckled before getting up and throwing me a book on basic Genetics. I caught the book before looking at Hank again, "May I have books on overall basic Biology and basic Chemistry as well, please? Maybe even a book on Biochemistry?"
Hank looked surprised but none the less, got me three more books before passing them to me.
Putting three of the books down, I opened the Biology one before quickly reading through the book.
I already had knowledge of basic Biology, but I wanted to make sure I knew absolutely everything and that I wasn't missing a single thing. I would need this knowledge. For my plans.
Plans such as Biologically Enhancing myself. In this world, there are so many opportunities. Oz Serum, the spider that bit Peter Parker, Gamma Enhancement, the myriad of Super Soldier serums like the one that turned Steve Rodgers into Captain America or the one from The Incredible Hulk that gave Emil Blonsky powers.
Though I'd have to see what Universe I'm in, most of them have a version of one of those enhancements so I should be okay. What I really needed was the ability to make those serums compatible with me and my gene-seed. But that's gonna require some serious knowledge. Honestly, I'm not even sure I can do it without killing myself or mutating into a monster but...well, you gotta take risks, right?
Putting such thoughts to the back of my head, I continued absorbing the information from the book I was reading.
After a few more minutes of this speed-reading, the door to the infirmary opened and Logan walked in with Storm.
I got up, still holding the books before I turned to Hank.
"I'll be taking these books with me, I hope you don't mind," I said before walking toward Logan and Storm, the former going tense and getting on guard and ready for an outburst. What he wasn't expecting, however, was for me to apologize.
"I would like to apologize for my uncouth behavior when we first met. My instincts were very taut for some reason and seeing such powerful people made me snap and revert to a more feral mindset," I said with an apologetic look on my face, bowing my head slightly, but still keeping eye contact with the two Mutants.
The two of them looked at me, stunned. But Storm recovered quite quickly and put a hand on my head and ruffled my hair. It was a nice sensation.
"It's okay, little one. I understand that you were quite confused, no? As long as you realize your mistake, all is forgiven," she smiled at me, her full lips stretching to their max. She truly is a beauty. Though from the scent of Logan on her, I guess she's off-limits, huh? Oh well. Oblivious to my thoughts, Storm introduced herself, "Anyway, my name is Ororo Munroe and my alias is Storm. You may call me Ororo if you wish!" she said, seeming oddly excited about something.
But I ignored that and returned her greeting.
"My name is Alexander. You may refer to me however you wish," I said before looking to Logan and flashing a savage smile, "And what's your name, old man?" as I said this, both Storm, or rather Ororo, and Hank were surprised by this switch in outward personality. I'd gone from polite to rude within seconds.
But it was as simple as this; People like Logan don't need you to be polite to them, they respond much better to provocativeness and verbal challenges.
Smirking, which bordered on scowling from my viewpoint, Logan looked down at me before scoffing, "The name's Logan, kid," he held up a hand and his claws came out again, "And call me old man again and I'll let you get intimate with my claws again," he chuckled darkly but I only sneered in reply.
"A grown man threatening a 10-year-old child? Have you no shame? Maybe you want me to crush your throat again, old man?" I put emphasis on the 'old man' part and sneered even harder when I saw Logan grit his teeth. But before he could reply, a wack to the backs of both our heads interrupted our little verbal sparring.
"Stop it, the both of you!" Ororo snapped, "There will be no fighting between the two of you unless it's under the premise of training!" Logan visibly withered at Ororo's stern words and grumbled an 'Okay' while I just smirked at the man before giving a nod of assent. "Good. Now, Lex, let's get you to your room, okay? And then we can introduce you to the others!" again, she seemed excited about something but I ignored it and nodded.
Things go easier when you just agree to things. At least that's my personal experience.
At this, we were on our way. But on my way out I heard Hank speak out after me, "Once you're finished with those books, you may come back and speak to me about any questions you have, Alexander!"
Turning back, I smiled and nodded before continuing to walk after the couple. Or at least I thought they were a couple. They were covered in each other's scents after all.
Heh, oh well.
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