"Nice to meet you, Elijah. My name is Charles Xavier. I'm the founder and Principal of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, as well as the leader of the X-men" Charles spoke, showing me and Gwen a courteous smile.
Gwen and I returned the favor, although Gwen introduced herself as Spider-woman, deciding to keep her identity secret. We looked towards the man that entered with him, who noticed our gaze and turned to address us, albeit begrudgingly.
"The name's Logan." Those three words were all we got from him. Not the talkative type, got it.
Charles was wearing a classy, grey three piece suit with a white button down, black dress shoes and a red tie. Logan, on the other hand, was wearing a white T-shirt with blue jeans, a black leather jacket and brown combat boots.
Charles was clean shaven and well groomed. He reminded me of Director Fury, in a certain way. If I elaborated on that, Fury may try to have me assasinated. Not that it'd work.
Logan, on the other hand, had a scruffy, tough guy image going on. He had slightly wild and unkempt hair, and mutton chops connected to his sideburns. They were like complete opposites.
What a weird duo.
Once introductions were out of the way, Xavier began to explain the situation to us.
"Shortly after you were knocked unconscious, Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner arrived on the scene, as did we. We engaged with the Juggernaut briefly, and soon subdued him."
"You say that like it was easy" Gwen and I grumbled simultaneously.
"Ahahaha. Of course not. We're simply used to dealing with him after so many encounters. The juggernaut is seemingly invincible agaisnt most forms of harm. He even has defenses against magic, to an extent."
"Wait, magic exists?" Gwen spoke up, her confusion evident. Charles however, continued on.
"However, he is vulnerable to mental attacks. So, while Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark held him down, I simply pressured his mind until he lost consciousness."
"Right. That's totally something we could do." I said, realizing we never stood a chance against the Juggernaut.
"However, now comes the real problem. The Juggernaut was simply a distraction. Magneto's group doesn't aim for simple chaos. The true weight of the situation is incomparably greater."
"Okay… starting to get worried" Gwen said, prompting a grunt from Logan.
"You should be." He spoke. Another 3 word sentence, great.
"While the Juggernaut was causing havoc, Magneto and the rest of his followers attacked a company in New York, called Trask Industries. They killed it's CEO, Bolivar Trask, and kidnapped the company's head researchers. They took with them the blueprints for a project that poses a threat to all of humanity. Project Sentinel."
3 Days later~
My eyes fluttered open as sunlight streamed in through the hospital room's open window. I looked towards the clock on the wall, which read 9:05am. I yawned as I got up out of bed and stretched.
It had been 3 days since I had been admitted into this hospital. Technically, my body was completely healed by the first day due to my healing factor, but apparently my doctors were so concerned about how dire my situation was when I first came in that they refused to let me leave until they were absolutely certain I was alright.
These doctors were under Stark's personal payroll, as his company owned this hospital. Therefore, my identity was pretty safe. After all, these were the same doctors that treated the Avengers.
I turned and saw the chair that was still next to my bed. Gwen had visited me every day while I was recovering, and even brought me a fruit basket. I appreciated her company more than she knows.
I caught myself smiling like an idiot and quickly wiped it off my face. Once I was done stretching, I got started on my morning routine.
I made my way to the hospital courtyard, enjoying the sound of the birds singing in the trees. I got to the edge of the large courtyard and took a deep breath. I then began my 300 lap jog of the courtyard.
Half an hour passed in a flash, and I got back to my room.
I took off my shirt which had naturally gotten sweaty from the jog. I put my hands on the floor and got in a handstand at the foot of my bed, with my body facing the closed door.
I then began my exercise session with hand-stand push-ups.
"Eight hundred and three, Eight hundred and four-"
As I was going about my exercises, I heard the door to my room open.
"Elijah! I heard you're getting released today!" Gwen said, brazenly walking into my room. She then noticed I wasn't in my bed, and looked to the right, noticing my legs in the air. Her eyes then followed my body down towards my abs and chest, where her gaze seemed to linger for a second, before following further down and meeting my eyes.
I watched her turn red as a tomato as she dropped a backpack from her hands and covered her eyes.
"Oh my god! I'm sorry, I should've knocked!" She yelled, her embarrassment palpable.
I chuckled as I hopped back onto my feet and walked towards the cupboard, grabbing a new shirt that Tony had provided me.
"It's fine, Gwen. Is it already time for me to get discharged?"
"...Huh? Oh! Yeah, it's 10am so you're good to go," She said, not meeting my eyes. I looked towards the clock, and she was right. A lot of time had passed while I was exercising.
"Thank god. I need to get home quick. Lucy's probably been missing me." I said, grabbing my stuff and packing the backpack Gwen brought me. Suddenly, I felt the room run cold.
"…Lucy? Elijah, who exactly is Lucy?" I heard from behind me. I felt a cold gaze on the back of my head, and a shiver ran down my spine.
I turned around to see Gwen smiling at me. But there was definitely something weird about that smile. It just felt dark. Oh. It just clicked in my head. Oh god oh fuck.
"My kitten! Lucy is my kitten!" I shouted, fearing for my life. Suddenly, the pressure in the room dropped back to normal, and I looked back to see Gwen's warm and cheery smile once again.
"Oh, how nice. Well, we shouldn't keep her waiting. Let's go."
'That was fucking close' I thought, wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead as I walked down the Hospital's pristine hallway with Gwen in tow.
I checked out of the hospital, headed to an alley and changed into my newly repaired suit (courtesy of Tony), with Gwen entering after I was done and doing the same while I kept an eye out. Once we were both changed, we began to swing towards my apartment.
I enjoyed the feeling of the wind after 3 days in a hospital room with no swinging allowed.
We reached my apartment and entered through the fire escape. I took off my mask as I entered my lounge, and let out a sigh.
"Home sweet home" I said, as Gwen followed me in. I heard meowing as Lucy turned the corner out of my bedroom and waddled over to me. I picked her up and gave her a kiss on her head as Gwen began to speak.
"By the way, I talked to my Dad about the 'internship'. It took a bit of convincing, but he agreed to let me do it. Have to go back home every weekend, but that's not a bad thing."
She walked over and took Lucy from my arms and started petting her too.
"Congrats. I'll take you on that tour of the HQ then."
Ringgg
"Of course." I picked up the phone with a sigh, but my attitude quickly changed.
"Understood. We'll be there in 20 minutes. See you soon." I turned to Gwen, who was looking at me questioningly, with a serious look.
"Get ready to leave. It's time for our mission briefing. We're going after Magneto."
End of Chapter 26~
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Boom. 2 chapters in one day. Bet you weren't expecting that. No pitchforks now, right. Right?
Anyway, if you liked the chapter, please leave a comment or a review, and please consider donating a power stone or two. See ya!