Taming a Beast

We finally made it home and went to sleep, all of us physically exhausted. I woke up the next morning with a smile on my face because Xavier had finally given me the okay to return to my classroom. I got there early and cleaned and set up everything just the way I liked it before the morning bell rang and the first tired group of kids shuffled in. The day proceeded as normal, just like before I had left, until the afternoon. I was in the middle of a lesson about how killing could almost always be substituted for something else when suddenly, I heard the warning tritone echo over the PA system.

My heart dropped as I looked at Shadowcat and nodded my head. She ran out the door and I said to the class, “Behave, all of you, I need to go make a quick run. I will know if any one of you uses your powers or leaves the room, so don’t even try it.”

I turned on my heel and began sprinting down the hallway. I made it to the hangar, and saw alarms were going off all over the place. My eyes shot to the corner and I saw that Magneto’s cage was empty. I covered my face and Hank patted me on the back. “We were sabotaged. The power shut off and I couldn’t see anything, and when the lights turned back on, he was gone. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Hank,” I said to him.

“Get straight onto the plane,” Xavier said urgently. “It’s important we don’t let him get too far. He still doesn’t have his helmet and they haven’t met up with the reinforcements yet. You can still take him down. Mystique and Pyro are his only guards.”

I nodded and ran onto the plane, where Storm was already flipping on everything and preparing for takeoff. I sat in my seat and breathed in and out through my nose, trying to calm my frazzled nerves. Scotty, Jean, Rogue, and Bobby joined me on my plane, while Logan, Hank, Gambit, Colossus, and Shadowcat took the other plane. It was a short flight before we were landing and Storm said, “Looks like we’ve got to fight.”

“I picked the wrong day to wear a loose tank top,” I growled, making Rogue laugh. We ran out of the plane and slowly entered the building where Xavier had told us to go. Almost immediately upon entering, were immersed in heavy fire from Pyro. They had been expecting us.

We began fighting with other meaningless mutants, making our way blindly towards where Pyro was. He was our only major threat at this point, so to take him out would be key. I walked with Bobby, who froze fire that came too close to me for his liking. The plan was for me to shift once we reached Pyro so both Bobby and I could take him, so I was saving my energy for that moment.

Meanwhile, the rest of the X-Men were fighting like the professionals they were all around me. I saw Rogue kiss an unsuspecting mutant, sending him to the ground in a suffocated pain. Jean was standing her ground, throwing whatever she could grab in the room towards those who were stupid enough to challenge her or Scotty, who was cornering mutants and slicing through them with his laser vision.

So it was while I was watching Scotty that a flame shot forward and attacked his arm.

“Ah, shit!” Scotty roared. I quickly shifted and pulled down the sprinklers from the ceiling, setting them off as Jean focused on Scotty’s arm. He passed out from the pain the burn brought him while Jean quenched the flames. In all of the craziness, Mystique and Pyro escaped with Magneto. We all tried to catch our breath as Jean shut off the sprinklers. Hank picked up Scotty gently and took him out, Jean following closely behind as the rest of us began to clean up.

“Great. Thanks to you and your soft heart, Magneto’s gone and probably more strongly protected than before,” Logan said, kicking a metal cabinet as it echoed around the room.

“Excuse me?” I asked him, surprised to hear his angry tone.

“You heard me,” Logan practically growled.

I rose my eyebrows to challenge him. “I’m sorry, Logan, that I didn’t know they’d do a power outage.”

“We should’ve just killed him when we had the chance. Now Scotty’s hurt because of you!” Logan yelled at me. Rogue’s eyebrows shot up as she covered her mouth and it went deadly silent in the room. His angry expression didn’t waver, and his claws were still extended.

“I said I was sorry,” I said through clenched teeth.

“It’s not her fault, Wolverine. Lay off,” Gambit said, protecting me like always. Wolverine whipped around, sliding his claws back in but gripping Gambit’s shirt. Gambit growled and slid a charged card out.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Logan growled.

Rogue ran over and slid off her gloves, yelling desperately as she waved her hands in the air, “Both of you calm down, or I will use these!”

Logan let go of Gambit unwillingly, and Gambit slid the card back up his sleeve. The air in the room was tense, and the young X-Men were watching with wide eyes and mouths. The fear in their eyes at watching us fight amongst ourselves was worse than when they went one-to-one with pros like Pyro and Mystique, and that broke my heart. Suddenly, I heard the urge to just run to my room, curl up in bed, and cry.

I started walking towards the door when Logan asked, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“To my room,” I said, nearly growling the words. Logan grabbed my arm and turned me around, and I scowled up at him. He mirrored my expression. “Let go of me.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said in a menacing tone that I didn’t like at all. Rogue and Gambit got close again, ready to pounce on Logan in case he tried anything. But I could handle myself, I thought, as I squared my shoulders and clenched my jaw and fists.

“Fuck you, Logan,” I said to him, meaning every word of it. I had never, in my whole life, said the words to someone who had always meant something to me as much as Logan did. My heart broke when I saw the anger in his eyes, felt the frustration in his grip. Even though I stood by my decision to just keep Magneto as a prisoner, he could not blame all that had happened on me. Plus, when had he even cared about Scotty’s well being anyway?! I suppose it was just a feeling you got whenever one of your co-workers got hurt, but still.

The simple words surprised him enough that he let his grip on my arm go slack so I could pull out, turn, and run to the plane before it took off with Scotty and Jean as passengers. Gambit and Rogue were right behind me, ready to be my consoling party that I had never needed before.

But there was a first time for everything, I suppose.