THE MISSION PART 3

POV - Theodore Wellspring

“You, Theodore Wellspring?” The man with the unkempt beard asked him. He was still in disbelief; his mouth was sawed shut. There was a part of him that still believed this was too convenient and was all a fever dream.

“Child, are you the one they took? Kidnapped…. I mean.” The lady with the beautiful white hair asked him.

‘Holy shit the X-Men are here to save me!’ The reality finally sunk in when he realized they wouldn’t disappear.

It was an incredible feeling. To know that you don’t have to die or pretend that you're stronger than you really are.

He no longer had to keep up the tough guy act.

“Kid… if you are Theodore Wellspring, then now is the time to speak up.” Wolverine asked again, he had a worried look on his face. He didn’t know the man other than watching some cartoon shows and reading some old comics. But even he knew that Wolverine wasn't the type to show concern.

‘I better hurry up before they mistake me for someone else.’

“Yes…. yes. My name is Theodore Wellspring…. I was taken by these people because they want to get rid of humanity or something. Please help me out of here…. I haven't had anything to eat or drink in days.” He explained frantically. Trying to pack in as much information as possible.

His voice was restored thanks to the sprite, but it still felt like someone was stabbing him in his throat.

He looked around the room and scanned the debris to see if John Allerdyce was crushed underneath. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. He was nowhere to be seen.

“Shit…. kid you sound like an old man.” Wolverine said with dead seriousness.

The only thing he could do was nod slightly. He had to conserve his energy if he got too excited then he might lose consciousness.

“Magneto will pay for this.” He heard Storm say. Which made him happy, it was nice to feel vindicated like that. To make matters better, they didn’t expect him to do any of the fighting.

He could just go home and leave all of this craziness behind.

“Bobby any sign of Pyro?” The man with the dark visor, probably Cyclops, asked the man with ice hands.

“Nope. The coward ran away, probably to alert Magneto. We should send Theodore back to the base before they come back.” Iceman responded promptly, wasting no time.

“I concur.” Their team leader agreed.

Cyclops fiddled with the dial on his visor, adjusting the intensity of his beam. After he was done, he looked directly at him.

‘Oh, shit here it comes!’ He closed his eyes expecting it to hurt.

“There, you’re free now!” Cyclops announced.

He opened his eyes, and it was true. The metal bindings that held him suspended in air had been lasered off.

“Can you get out of that thing?” Cyclops asked. It should have been easy for him to jump out of the contraption now that both of his hands were free. But due to his fatigue he didn’t have the energy to move. He struggled with lifting himself, his muscles though proved to be far too weak. The malnutrition and dehydration got to him.

‘Shit…. I can’t even lift myself up-’ He thought with increasing paranoia.

‘What if they leave me here? What if they saw me as a burden? What if they-’

Right then he felt the feeling of being suspended again but this time his body was moving upwards to the roof.

“Here let me help you.” The red-haired woman had her right hand up. She was using telekinesis.

‘Wait a minute, is that Jean Grey?’

His doubts were confirmed when Cyclops addressed her as Marvel Girl. It was Jean Grey’s alias before she became The Phoenix.

“We need to get him outta here as soon as we can.” Wolverine advised and he couldn’t agree more. He just wanted to go back to his family again, he wanted to see his girlfriend and apologize for being such a douche.

“Yeah…I think that’s the smart thing to do.” Iceman agreed with Wolverine.

Cyclops removed the lock from his waist with the rope attached to it and signaled to Marvel Girl. She used her telepathic abilities to attach the lock around his waist.

“Okay Angel, we’re sending him up. Make sure he’s in safe hands before you come back for us.” Cyclops used his earpiece to radio it in.

After a few seconds, the feeling of elevation came back but this time he thoroughly enjoyed it. As he got higher and higher the happier, he became.

‘Is this really it! Am I really just going to be rescued like that or is this a fake out? Is this all a dream? Am I going to wake up and still be inside that awful room?’

Jean Grey kindly floated him up, so the ropes didn’t hurt too much. He couldn’t believe that he was receiving kindness like this after days of starvation.

He knew he had to say something to them in gratitude before he went away,

Stolen story; please report.

“Thank you for saving me!” He yelled out with all the energy he could muster up.

The X-Men smiled, even Cyclops cracked a thin smile.

If only they knew how much he revered them. Sure, Spiderman was his main guy but X-Men: The Animated Series was his favorite show. If only they knew how much he looked up to each one of them.

On top of all that they saved his life, his second life, the one that he forfeited not a few seconds ago.

He couldn’t help but start tearing up and his vision slowly began blurring.

“Thank you so much!” He gave one more shout but could barely get the words out before coughing.

When he reached the highest point, Angel gently grabbed him and brought him inside the plane.

‘Wait... why’s there a plane?’

His thoughts and vision completely slowed down. No longer armed with the motivation for revenge, he felt his consciousness fade away.

“Let’s get you back home buddy!” He heard the man with wings say.

Suddenly his body felt really tired, and the exhaustion caught up to him. Right before he passed out. Right before his eyes closed and all his worries quelled, the sole feeling he felt was gratitude.

Grateful that there were people he could still count on in this world. People who called themselves Heroes.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

POV - Logan / James ‘Wolverine’ Howlett

It pissed him off. Seeing that young kid look so fucking broken, made his blood boil. Things always made him angry, but this was different.

The boy could barely speak. He had issues with Magneto before but this…… to do this one of their own kind…. Only a human could do something like that.

He clenched his teeth tightly.

‘This is the kind of shit that I expect Striker to pull!’

In fact, the confused look the boy had when he first talked to him eerily reminded him of himself. It was like looking in a mirror. The confusion, fear and even the pain.

The kid’s eyes had no hope in them, like he was resigned to his fate and yet a feral violence behind them. All of it left a bad taste in his mouth.

Despite their enmity and difference in philosophy with regards to humans. He always had an ounce of respect for the mutant named Magneto. That ended today.

Today, Wolverine was going to rip out his guts inside out with his bare teeth.

“You must calm yourself, Logan. We are in enemy territory; we have to remain composed.” Ro said from the side.

She was always the perceptive wise one. It was true that losing your composure here would only make things worse.

“I know Ro but it’s not easy when you see the kid. He had more bones than muscle. This is a new low, even for that smug metallic cunt!”

She didn’t respond so he turned towards her, and he was surprised.

Ororo was pissed! Of course, if you didn’t know her then you would think that she was calm but those who really knew her could tell easily. It was plain as day. She was pissed!

She was always overprotective of her students, so it made sense why she looked so murderous now.

Then he realized,

‘She told me to calm down to remind herself. She didn’t give a fuck about me going crazy.’

Even after all their fights and feuds with Magneto, he understood Magneto. Every mutant who ever had to deal with humanity’s bullshit could, at least on some level.

This, however, was different.

Theodore was a mutant just like them, a kid who couldn’t even legally drink. There would be no rationalizations from anyone this time.

He looked at Ro again, her face might look as cold as granite, but he knew inside her was a raging beast ready to let loose.

All things considered it was a good thing because they needed her fury if they were going to subdue Magnus.

“Alright, head back to home base.” The pretty boy ordered Warren.

The Blackwing removed its cloaking mechanism temporarily as the blasters turned sideways. The plane zoomed out of the horizon, far from prying eyes.

Jeanie let out a huge breath and said, “Whew. I’m glad that we were able to save Theodore! I don’t think I would be able to tell Peter that we failed to save his friend.”

“You can say that again.” Bobby added from the side,

“When did you both start being close with that boy?” Sunglasses said, by the way he said that it almost sounded like he was threatened by Parker’s popularity.

‘Ole Sunglasses has to be the center of attention everywhere he goes.’

“Who? Peter? He’s a smart kid.” Bobby answered.

“And Polite too.” Ro said as she was controlling her anger.

‘Heh looks like the kid’s popular with the team. I wonder how that makes the uptight prick feel?’

To his credit Summers actually looked unbothered by all of the praise.

If he was being honest, glasses made for a competent leader. It made sense he would carry that seriousness while he’s on a mission, instead of being the pansy snowflake he was usually.

He sniffed the air; some familiar scents were heading their way.

“Wolverine?” Summers asks him.

“You guessed it, bub. The Metallic fucker is going to be here any second.”

“Alright guys remember the plan. We don’t make a move until the signal.”

Just as he finished, the opposite wall exploded. Magneto was floating as he made his way near them. He yelled out, “Where is he? Where is the boy?”

‘Damn why does he sound like that! Oh, that’s right the Parker kid did say he did a number on Mag's throat.’

Still, he sounded like a squeaky car now, his anger and contempt for his fellow mutant was now replaced with pity.

Ororo was still seething with bloodlust despite that. When her eyes landed on Magneto, her jaw tightened, and her fury increased tenfold.

‘Guess they didn’t call her Storm for nothing.’

Magneto looked at the entire room in frustration. When he couldn’t find his little test subject after all the searching his anger peaked and spilled over,

“WHERE IS HE? I DEMAND YOU TELL ME!”

Jeanie and Bobby covered their ears, Summers tried to act tough, and Ro was still busy glaring at Magento.

In anger Magneto directed a pillar to where they were. Jeanie anticipated this and redirected it to the side away from them.

“YOU DARE! YOU DARE GET IN MY WAY AGAIN!” The entire building rumbled as Magneto’s temper flared.

“SHUT UP!” Ro yelled back, her eyes becoming pale white as she herself began levitating.

Suddenly it started getting cloudy and the entire room became darker.

“Storm, wait, remember what we discussed.” Summers tried calming her down but to no avail.

“No, Scott. We need to put this pathetic man to rest.”

A person behind Magneto spoke up,

“The others are here! Juggernaut and Toad arrived just at the right moment.” It was Sabretooth, his bitter old enemy. The one who killed his love, Silverfox.

“Fucker.” He spat as their eyes met,

“Heh seems like we keep meeting again and again, Logan.” Sabretooth taunted him.

“Wolverine, do not engage.” Summers yelled at him.

He didn’t say anything back but didn’t like that he had to listen to the brat’s orders either.

SMASH

A gigantic man with a maroon helmet crashed through the wall to their right. He had another person on his right shoulder.

“Well, well, look who it is? The good old X-Men. I was wondering when you would come, tell me, how is my stepbrother?”

“Juggernaut. This could throw a wrench into the plan.” Bobby said with increasing alarm.

The man on juggernaut’s shoulder leapt to the corner of the room.

“Nice to see your ugly mug again.” He goaded Toad, who chose to remain quiet as ever.

The room was getting darker and darker as Ro powered up. Thunder roared through the sky and rain drops started falling.

Yet, the room started getting hotter and brighter.

‘John.” Bobby said in an unfamiliar cold voice.

“Now that I have backup, let's settle this, shall we? Bobby boy.”

Magneto was looking at the sky, maybe he was trying to locate the plane using his magnetic powers.

He looked like he was thinking of a plan and that was not good.

When the need arises Magnus could be really creative.

Thankfully Summers was smarter than he looked, he didn’t wait any longer as he shouted.

“DO IT NOW!”