The second chapter of this week!
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Waking up in a bed other than the one you have slept in for years is always a strange experience. Waking up in bed with someone that wasn't there when you went to sleep the night before should have been even weirder.
And yet, when I woke up with my arms around a softly snoring Laura, her familiar presence in my arms, which I have come to appreciate for the last three days, made the change of beds a lot more comfortable.
What is weird is that I knew for a fact that Laura shouldn't be here. She had her own room with a roommate and everything a few doors over.
How did she even get in here?
I locked my door before going to sleep and I should be the only one with a key to the room. No doubt the staff had a spare key somewhere, but I doubt they were kind enough to give it to Laura.
It was then that my half-asleep brain woke up enough for me to remember that Laura used to be an assassin.
I groaned at my stupidity.
Getting in places that she had no business being was half of her job description. My flimsy bedroom lock probably didn't even slow her down for a second.
I glanced at the empty bed on the other side of the room. At least I had no roommate that could complain about me sneaking in a girl.
There was an uneven amount of boys, and everyone else was already paired up, which meant that I got to be the lucky bastard that didn't have to deal with a snoring roommate.
I looked back down at Laura, except for one that isn't supposed to be here that is. Laura shifted slightly, starting to wake up from her slumber.
After arriving yesterday and agreeing to join Xavier's school, we still had a lot of things that needed to get done before we could officially join, like transferring me from my previous school(which Xavier's connections made especially easy), taking pictures of Laura for her id, and much more.
When we were finally done for the day, we were exhausted and had only enough time to eat dinner before turning in for the night.
Opening her eyes, Laura peered up at me. We stayed like that for a moment, looking in each other's eyes in silence.
"Morning," Laura whispered in a sleepy voice, breaking the silence.
"Morning," I replied, "why are you in my bed?"
Laura stayed silent for a second, a little pink appearing on her cheeks, "you are warm," she admitted.
Unable to stop myself, I felt my mouth form in a smug grin when I heard her admit that she missed sleeping with me even if it wasn't said using those precise words, "you couldn't sleep without me, huh."
Feeling my ego growing out of control, Laura was fast to take me down a notch, "and my roommate talks too much."
If I remember right, Laura's roommate was Jubilation Lee, also known as Jubilee. The spunky, over-the-top 90s girl wasn't really a good fit for Laura, who had just escaped the Facility and wasn't really in a good place in her life right now.
Hell, the only reason we fit together so well was because I saved her life and was kind to her when she had no one. She had latched onto me claws first and didn't appear ready to let go anytime soon.
The alarm on my phone started blaring before anything else could be said between us, indicating that it was 6 am.
Even though we were spared from classes until tomorrow morning, I wanted to sit down and deal with the whole Ghost Zone as a Mindscape thing that I had going on before breakfast started.
I tried everything I could think of to enter my Mindscape before today. Hell, I even tried possessing my own mind, however, the fuck that would work. But nothing worked.
Which left meditation, the fix-it-all of stories.
To help with that, I had scurried the internet for anything I could find on meditation and memorized it for today.
How hard can it be?
Reaching for my phone, I turned off the alarm before reluctantly releasing Laura from my arms and leveraging myself in a sitting position with my legs crossed.
"What are you doing," Laura asked, confused. A slight frown appearing on her face from losing my warmth.
"I learned something about my powers when Xavier went into my mind. I'm meditating to see If I can recreate whatever it was by myself."
Laura growled softly at the reminder of the little spat they had with the X-Men in the living room. She still didn't understand why Damien wanted to go to the school of the man that had attacked him.
While she was curious to know what the man she was made from was like. She would be lying if she said she didn't blame and resent Weapon X for everything that had been done to her.
Zander's hate for Weapon X was no big secret to the people working at the Facility. Her being the clone of Weapon X meant that in Zander's twisted mind, every time he tortured her, he was hurting the man that killed his father.
And he tortured her a lot.
Laura shook her head to clear her thoughts when she felt the familiar warmth of rage that had accompanied her since she was a little girl try to surface again.
Closing her eyes, she pushed it deep down in her gut for the time when she needed it, just like her sensei had taught her years ago.
Instead, she focused on Damien's words, "you know how to meditate?"
"I read about it on the internet," he replied as he closed his eyes, "cross your legs, empty your mind, and become zen. How difficult can it be?"
Laura snorted. It took her days to learn how to empty her mind on command. And let's just say that unlike Damien, she was motivated to learn it as soon as humanly possible.
So she wasn't all that surprised when he threw himself on his back and started screaming about how it was impossible to clear your mind after an hour.
What did surprise her however was how long he lasted. He had lasted longer than she thought he would. It was clear that he wasn't a quitter.
Laura looked up from where she was working on my laptop, hesitated for a second before opening her mouth anyway, "do you want me to help you?"
"You know how to meditate?" I asked her before answering my own question under my breath, "of course she knows how to meditate."
"I have had enough of meditation for one day," I answered her, "but I would love your help tomorrow," I had already accepted that her sneaking in my bed in the middle of the night wouldn't be an isolated incident.
Laura nodded before returning to working on the laptop.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going through the files we took from the Hand," She replied, not looking away from the laptop screen.
"Anything useful," I asked curiously.
After killing Madame Gao, Laura had told me a bit of her story. She didn't go into too many details but did tell me that she's searching for Zander Rice and Kimura, two people she very much wanted dead.
Which came as a surprise to me, because in the comics, she had killed Zander Rice before blowing up the Facility. In this Universe when Laura attacked Zander Rice, he was together with Kimura and Laura ended up needing to flee for her life.
Having worked for the Hand before, Laura knew of the Hand's connection to the Facility. She knew that Zander wouldn't just let all his life work go to waste and try to start a new Facility somewhere else, so she hoped that the Hand would know where.
"Madame Gao and Zander were in contact with each other," Laura frowned as she read on, "He was trying to convince her to finance what he calls an opportunity of a lifetime."
Three guesses what that opportunity was.
"There are a few hints to places they could be," Laura continued, "but it is going to take a while to search them all."
I thought about it for a moment before getting an idea, "I may have a way to help us search, but it is going to take at least a week before I know if it's going to work."
"Meanwhile, try to narrow down the places they could be as much as you can."
Laura nodded and was ready to do just that when I reached over and closed the laptop.
"It is almost time for breakfast. You should go back to your room before your roommate wakes up to find your bed empty," I explained as she looked back at me, "if she hasn't already."
Laura glowered cutely at me. Noticing that her glower wasn't working on me, she sulked and left.
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I followed the path Storm showed me last night when she led me to my room after dinner in reverse and arrived at the cafeteria after only getting turned around two times.
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This place should have signs to show where everything is or at least a map in every hallway with a you-are-here flag.
Looking around the cafeteria, I counted about 25-30 students in total. Not a lot for a school as big as this one, but still more than I was expecting this early in the events that will no doubt occur.
At one end of the room was a glass-covered buffet table with a dazzling array of breakfast food to choose from. Walking over, I grabbed a plate for myself and began scooping on a big pile of food(with a healthy helping of bacon, of course).
According to Storm, both Laura and I will need all the calories we can burn for later today.
While trying to decide where to sit, I noticed Jean waving at me from what I can only assume is the cool table. 1, because it had all the main characters sitting at it, and 2, because almost all the hot girls were sitting there.
Don't mind if I do.
"Good Morning," I greeted Jean as I reached the table.
"Good morning," Jean greeted me back as she scooted up a little to make room for me to sit before turning to her friends, "everyone, this is Damien. He arrived last night and may be joining us in training."
Ah, so this is the table for X-Men in training.
Makes sense.
I have no idea where Jean got the notion that I will be joining them for training from, though. I don't have any plans of joining the X-Men any time soon.
"Damien, these are..." Jean looked at the group of almost 10 people she had to introduce, "Uhm...I'm sure you will get to know everyone over time."
"Morning," I greeted.
I received a few yo's and hi's back from the more lively people in the group and nods and grunts from the rest.
"So what is your power?" the girl I am pretty sure is Rogue asked bluntly. She looked just like in evolution, pretty face, short auburn hair with white streaks in the front, and green eyes.
Why does everyone suddenly have green eyes? This is the third girl I met with green eyes, Laura, Jean, and now Rogue.
"Have some subtlety, Rogue," the girl with a ponytail sitting next to Rogue scolded her, "you can't like...just ambush him like that."
Kitty may be trying to hide it as she scolded Rogue, but I didn't miss how she perked up at the question or how the rest of the group did too, for that matter.
"What? It isn't like it will stay secret for long," Rogue replied surly.
"My power is complicated," I answered nonchalantly between bites of food. I had no plans of telling anyone precisely what my powers were. No one except me needed to know that I had the powers of a half-ghost from a children's cartoon or that I myself was a half-ghost.
Seeing that I wasn't going to elaborate on my answer, the group returned to their meals and their own conversations.
Feeling someone staring at me, I looked up to find Laura at the buffet scooping food on her plate and glaring at me the whole time. Standing next to her and talking her ears off was a girl that could have jumped straight out the pages of a 90s magazine.
Jubilee was an Asian girl with short black hair. She had pink visor sunglasses perched on top of her head and was wearing a bright pink top and jeans shorts with a yellow jacket covering it all.
"Hey guys," Jubilee greeted the group as she practically dragged Laura to the table, "this is my new roomie."
Laura glared at her in response.
"She is a little moody right now, but I'm sure she will come around,' Jubilee stated, ignoring Laura's glare.
"I don't like it here," Laura told me as she sat next to me, "we should leave and go back home."
I grinned at that, both because this would have been Laura's home in the future if I hadn't interfered and because she considered my apartment home.
"Give it some time," I told her.
It wasn't like we were going to be here all that long, it was just a convenient place to hide-out, get stronger, and make some connections with some of the more likable X-men for in the future.
"So how does this whole going to normal school work?" I asked Jean, taking her attention away from the conversation about math she was having with the guy sitting across from her. Who going by the ruby glasses, I am going to guess, is Scott.
Much to his chagrin.
"Well, everyone who has a certain level of control over their powers gets enrolled at the nearby high school, Bayville High..." Jean went on to explain.
To break down her overly long explanation. If you can control your powers enough, you go to Bayville High to learn to blend in with normal humans.
Xavier even went so far as to have a watch created that can project a hologram over a person for those Mutants unlucky enough to have their mutations change their physical appearance.
While this is technically a school and registered as one, the teachers here mostly teach the students how to control their powers. But that doesn't mean that there weren't teachers for normal school subjects like English and math.
With money being no issue, Xavier has hired teachers for every imaginable subject to teach those that weren't ready to go to Bayville High yet or those that needed extra tutoring. And it wasn't just normal subjects either there were a ton of extracurricular activities you can do without setting a foot off the school grounds. There was a swimming pool, multiple sports courts, and even a computer and engineering lab.
If Xavier wasn't so obsessed with forcing everyone to coexist peacefully despite the reality of the world and thinking that he knew better than everyone else, this would have been the best place to be for a Mutant, even with the weekly attacks.
"Are you two ready?" Storm's sultry voice asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. She had sneaked up when Jean was answering my question.
I looked over at Laura, who nodded that she was done, "lead the way."
"We should be going too if we don't want to be late," Jean said standing up.
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Following behind Storm, I did my best not to stare, but she was making it really difficult. Her ass was swaying hypnotically with every step she took, that she was wearing skin-tight jeans also wasn't helping.
"Where are we going," I asked her, trying to distract myself from the view.
"All our students get a check-up from the school's doctor to make sure that their Mutations don't have a detrimental effect on their health," Storm answered, "I'm taking you there now."
Arriving at our destination, Storm opened the door and went inside. Waiting inside were three people, the first two Xavier and Wolverine we had already met, the third, however, I had never seen outside the pages of a comic book.
Henry McCoy, aka Beast, did his namesake justice. He stood almost 6 feet tall and was covered entirely in blue fur. He had pointed ears, catlike vertical pupils, and sharp claws. Not to mention teeth that looked especially made to render flesh of bone.
"Ah, the new students," Beast said in a sophisticated voice that didn't match his outside appearance at all as he noticed us, "nice to meet you, my name is Henry McCoy, but you can call me Hank when outside of class."
"Nice to meet you, Hank. I'm Damien Shade," I introduced myself.
"Laura Kinney."
"Has Ororo explained the purpose of these tests?" Hank asked, moving right to the point after everyone was done with their greetings.
"Yes," we both answered.
"Okay then, let's get right to it then," Hank said professionally, "who wants to go first."
Laura took a step forward, looking like she just wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. It was only then that I realized that these sorts of tests could bring up bad memories for Laura.
Great, now I feel like a dick for not realizing that sooner.
Luckily none of Hank's tests were invasive. He simply took a blood sample and had Laura stand on some sort of platform to scan her body.
"What are your powers," Hank asked as he looked over Laura's scans.
"I can heal," Laura answered before unsheathing the claws on her hands, "and I have these."
Hank looked Laura's adamantium coated claws over in surprise before turning to glance at Logan.
Logan, Xavier, and Ororo had, of course, already seen Laura's claws but seeing them for the second time up close and learning that she could also heal like Logan made it all the more obvious that she was connected to Logan in some way.
Hank took a device off his desk and started scanning Laura's claws, "adamantium?"
"Yes."
"Okay, just like with Logan-" Hank began.
"Are you my kid?" Logan asked bluntly, just throwing it out there with absolutely no care. Ororo and Xavier sighed in exasperation, leave it to Logan to ask someone if they were his kid just like that.
"No," Laura replied calmly, "I'm the clone of Weapon X."
Logan growls in anger at the mention of Weapon X. He thought he killed all those assholes from the Weapon X project, but it seems like there are still some scurrying around like rats, "you and I are going to have a long talk when we are done."
"As I was saying, like with Logan, you are constantly being poisoned by the adamantium in your body, which slows your healing factor down," Hank remarked, reading his charts, "But because only your claws are coated with it instead, of your whole skeleton, it is hardly noticeable."
Laura simply nodded. This was nothing that she didn't already know.
Next, it was my turn. I changed places with Laura and went to stand on the platform to get scanned.
"Powers?" Hank asked after he took a blood sample.
Xavier, Ororo, and Wolverine perked up at that. They had only seen Damien transform and become intangible as of yet and were curious of what else he could do.
"I can change forms, and when I'm in that form, I can manipulate an energy unique to me." I kept it vague on purpose.
"Okay, change forms," Hank directed after he was done scanning Damien's human form.
Reaching for my core, something that has become almost as instinctive as breathing after days of constant training in my free time, I let my ecto-energy flow over me and transform me into my ghost form.
The now-familiar blue-white transformation circles passed over my body in opposite directions, transforming my black hair white and my blue eyes green.
Hank frowned as he studied the new scans on his computer screen, "this doesn't make any sense."
"What doesn't," Xavier asked from the side.
"He should be dead," Hank was completely absorbed in his work, "like Scott, Damien's Mutation seems to let him connect with another dimension."
Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, was permanently connected with a dimension filled with concussive force. And when he takes off his glasses, the concussive force gets released from his eyes in the form of a beam.
"Why would that kill him," asked a puzzled Ororo, "Scott is alive, isn't he?"
"Yes, but unlike Scott, whose connections are in his eyes and are pointed outwards, Damien's is in his body behind his heart and should have flooded his system with a deadly dose of energy the moment his X-gene activated. Killing him immediately."
My eyes widened at that. So the original Damien was a Mutant with the ability to make a connection with the Ghost Zone and probably died when his X-gene activated, flooding his body with ecto-energy. And maybe I ended up being pulled through the portal into the Marvel Universe and took over Damien's body.
Does that mean that I went to the Ghost Zone after dying in my original world?
Could be, I guess. I don't remember anything after my death. I just suddenly woke up as Damien with ghost powers. It would make sense that I would still have my powers after fusing with Damien's body if I used to be a ghost in the Ghost Zone.
Damien's connection to the Ghost Zone would also explain why my mind looked like the Ghost Zone. And why my ecto-energy reserves replenished so fast, I had a portal to an almost infinite well of ecto-energy called the Ghost Zone in my body.
"But that clearly didn't happen," Logan scoffed, "the kid is still alive."
"I know, fascinating isn't it!" Hank grinned happily like a kid with a new toy.
"Maybe it is this form of yours that has saved your life," Hank said as he continued studying the scans on his computer screen, "in this form, you are entirely made out of some sort of highly malleable matter. You have no bones or organs. You are nothing more than a blob with the outer appearance of a human."
Hank distractedly reached over to take a sample as he kept talking. I slapped his hand away before he could do so.
"Oh, I apologize," Hank said as he noticed what he was doing, "I want to take a sample to do some more tests to figure out how you are still alive," he explained himself.
"No," I answered forcefully.
"but-" He started to say.
"No," I said with finality.
Right now, I know of only three things that can hurt me permanently, supernatural beings, Ki, and Magic. I'm not about to add a fourth thing to that list by giving Hank a sample of ectoplasm so that it can get stolen.
Before you know it, I will have a Mutant hunter with anti-ghost tech on my ass.
"Uhm...okay," said a confused Hank, "I guess we are done then. There isn't much I can tell you about the danger of your ability without doing more tests, but it's a good sign that it hasn't killed you already," Hank finished lamely.
Logan snorted at that, "you hear that kid as long as you aren't dead, everything is alright."
"So what now?" I asked Xavier after transforming back and getting off the scanning platform.
But it was Logan who answered.
"Now, we are going to see what you two are capable of in a fight," Logan grinned savagely.
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These chapters I'm currently writing at the X-Mansion are meant as world-building, to tell the reader more about Damien's power, and a little training's arc.
As you have seen with this chapter, Laura and Damien will be leaving the mansion in 2 or 3 chapters to look for Zander Rice and Kimura, and there will be a little arc around that. After that, they will start doing their own thing.
Anyway, let me know what you guys think and what direction you would like to see this story go in. Unlike my DC Warlock story, I only have two big arcs for this one planned.
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My pay-pal is: www- pay-pal-me/HeavensMonarch