Powers 1/2

Harry was rudely awoken by the rays of the midday sun shining in through the window and the incredible soreness that wracked his entire body.

He just laid there, with his eyes open as he stared above into the unfamiliar ceiling. Moving his head elicited a bunch of groans from him as the muscles didn't want to function. The room was unfamiliar and alien, this wasn't his room.

'It is now.' His mind reminded him as he saw the suitcase laid down next to the bed.

Harry sighed as he gave up on trying to survey the room anymore, since his muscles protested every single move he made.

For the next twenty or so minutes, the room was filled with quiet groans as Harry stretched himself to get into an acceptable condition to move around.

Considering that he had slept with clothes on, they weren't as wrinkled as he thought they would be. Maybe he had been too sore to move even a single muscle while sleeping. Well, at least there was something positive happening. Even if it was such a small thing.

After making sure that his legs wouldn't give out as he stood, Harry looked around his room and glanced at the suitcase lying on the floor. He walked towards it and stared at it for a while.

He released a tired sigh and kicked it under his bed before gingerly making his way towards the door. Opening it revealed that while the mansion wasn't as quiet as it had been when he had arrived, there wasn't that many people around.

As he continued to slowly walk through the hallway towards the stairs, he got some curious looks from the others but nothing more.

Moving down the stairs and looking around revealed that the same door he had seen the professor go in last night was open and there were two people talking inside.

One was the professor and the other was the beast of a man he remembered from yesterday.

'Come in. We have some things we'd like to discuss with you.' A familiar voice invaded his thoughts. Harry had already experienced the professor's ability at telepathy yesterday, so it wasn't a huge shock to hear another voice in his head, but it was still surprising.

It took him a while to push his thoughts through the suddenness of the voice, process the contents and recognize that the professor wanted to talk to him.

The professor had a smile on his face as he walked in through the doors, so too did the doctor. Harry made his way and sat on one of the chairs next to Hank.

"Judging by the time, you must have been quite exhausted to sleep in this late." The professor said to him as Harry looked around the study.

The study was filled with bookcases and a table with something on top of it that looked like a chess table. There was also a window on the right side of the study, through which he could see people outside playing soccer.

"Uh, I guess so?" Harry responded as the professor successfully gained his attention. "Though I am still exhausted, and everything aches."

"That is within expectations. You exerted yourself quite a lot yesterday, after all." The doctor spoke to him.

Harry lowered his gaze and looked at the beautiful wooden desk, instead of either of the two men. "What actually happened? I don't exactly remember everything."

"What do you remember?" The professor asked curiously as Hank leaned in closer.

Harry raised his gaze to look at the professor as he tried to recall.

"I remember waking up to the flames, then a searing pain and then nothing for a while. It hurts to try and recall. I only get bits and pieces of imagery bathed in orange and red."

"What else?" The doctor had taken out a notepad and was jotting everything he said down.

"I remember a sudden lance of despair and helplessness striking through me and doing something, but I can't remember what I did." Harry scrunched his eyes shut as he tried to recall that piece of information.

"It's fine. Maybe the memories will come back in time." The professor reassured Harry.

"Harry, if you agree, I'd like to run a few tests to make sure nothing is wrong." The doctor put down the notepad and adjusted his glasses.

Harry glanced at the doctor before looking down at his hands. "Sure, anything that can help me figure out how to stop this."

"Harry. You don't have to worry about losing control of it again. I've made some adjustments to help you control it." The professor smiled at him as Harry turned his gaze from his hands to him.

The doctor stood up, tucked the notepad into a pocket inside his pants and walked towards the door before turning around and addressing him. "The laboratory is downstairs, if you'd like to follow me."

Harry sat still for a moment or two, staring at the professor smiling in front of him, wondering what he meant by adjustments. Registering the words of the doctor, he nodded and stood up.

"I'll join you in a moment." The professor said as Harry joined the doctor at the doorway. The man nodded back towards the professor and gestured Harry to follow him as he started to walk.

The doctor led him down a new hallway and then stopped in front a wall. He pressed something on the wall, and it slid open, revealing something that resembled an elevator. He stepped in and Harry followed.

"The mansion has all kinds of secrets." The doctor smiled at Harry and the curious looks he sent around everywhere.

Harry glanced at the doctor. He had successfully piqued his curiosity. After but a few seconds, the doors opened up once more, revealing another hallway. Except this hallway seemed to be made of blue tiles with white lights lighting up the whole thing. He noticed that there was a circular, vault like door with an x in the middle at the end of the hallway.

The doctor had already made his way in front of another door that slid open in the same the elevator had. He glanced back towards Harry and motioned for him to follow, before heading inside himself.

Harry took his time walking towards what he assumed was the laboratory, taking in all the futuristic feel of the place and marveling at it all.

Stepping in through the door revealed a room that looked like it belonged in the future. The whole room looked like a fully decked medical laboratory from some sci-fi film. There were all sorts of machines littered in seemingly random places around the laboratory. Some were interconnected and some were situated away from others.

There were also quite a few medical beds that seemed to also have wires running out of them, connecting them to some of the machines around the room.

In the time it had taken for Harry to arrive and gawk at all the different machinery around the room, the doctor had already removed the jacket he had been wearing earlier, replacing it with the signature white lab coat doctors used.

"You can sit here while I set up the necessary instruments." The doctor pointed towards one of the beds next to one of the machines he was standing in front of.

Moving to sit down on the bed the doctor had pointed out, he noticed that the machine the man was standing in front of had multiple screens that all displayed different information.

Even though he wasn't exactly a genius, Harry would like to attribute himself as somewhat smart. He had never struggled academically and had generally received above average grades at school. Yet he still couldn't make heads or tails on the information displayed on the monitors.

After a moment or two had passed in silence, with the doctor walking and grabbing different tools and gathering them on the table next to the machine with the screens, Harry asked a question.

"Doc, what will these tests include within them?"

The doctor took one of the instruments he had laid on the table before turning to look at Harry. "You can just call me Hank."

As the doctor moved closer, Harry could see the instrument in his hand was a needle that was attached to some type of tube-like thing that he had never seen before.

"The tests will help us both understand what your mutation actually does and how it functions." Hank took hold of his left hand and spent a few moments stabilizing and adjusting something on it, before placing the instrument to his fingertip and inserting the needle in. "It's basically just a slightly more complicated routine check-up."

Harry felt a small prick of pain as the needle was inserted and he cautiously looked away from the process, before curiosity won over his caution and he looked into it.

The doctor smiled at him as whatever the device was drained some blood out of him, filling the tube-like thing attached to its end. For some reason, Harry was able to look directly at the process without getting nauseous like he usually did. It was also taking longer than he remembered it usually did.

"What this is doing is a little different from collecting a regular blood sample." The doc made some idle conversation as the process was beginning to go on for a while.

Harry nodded and continued to look at the tube that was slowly filling up with what looked to be his blood, but based on the doctor's words, was something slightly different or at least had something more in it rather than just his blood.

Looking more closely at it, revealed that the blood was slightly darker than what he remembered it being. After a few more moments, Hank removed the needle from his fingertip and put it away before turning around to get a bandage for the small bleeding wound.

Harry turned his gaze towards the finger as the doctor turned around with the bandage in tow. Harry was surprised as he looked at his finger, the expected tiny bits of blood were nonexistent as was the little red dot that usually accompanied the insertion of a needle.

"I guess we know one other power your mutation grants you." The doc smiled at him as he put the bandage away.

"What's that?"

"Regeneration, and not a weak one either." The doc turned away and picked up the instrument that held Harry's blood. "That explains why you came out of yesterday with no visible wounds."

Harry continued to look at his finger and even brought another finger to probe the location where the needle had pierced his skin. He had always healed from wounds faster than other people did, but it was never this ridiculous. The most memorable being that he had recovered from a broken bone two weeks before the estimated recovery period would have ended.

"Is it a rare power?" He asked as the doctor dislodged the tube from the instrument and placed it into another machine next to the one with the monitors.

"Yes, I only know one other person with it. You've already met him."

"The hairy man?" Harry asked while frowning.

"If you're referring to Logan instead of me, you're correct." The doctor glanced at him from the side.

Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion before remembering that the doctor in front of him literally was a hairy man yesterday. "I meant Logan."

Hank released a laugh. "I thought so. Not many people have referred to me as the hairy man for quite some time."

He nodded to himself as the doc turned back to looking at the monitors. It was no wonder, Dr. Hank McCoy was an accomplished scientist and was regarded quite well in the academic scene. Harry had even written a few essays for school concerning subjects that had been researched by him.

Even if one did recognize the intelligence of the man in front of him, underestimating him because of said intelligence was bound to cause more than just humiliation. The name he had heard the others referring to the doctor as did him justice. The beast would absolutely obliterate anyone who was foolish enough to try a fight with him.

Harry was roused from his ruminations by the door to the lab opening and the professor wheeling himself in. "Hello, again." The professor nodded at him with a smile on his face that turned slightly more serious as he turned to address the doctor. "Hank, what have you found?"

"Charles, come look at this and tell me if I'm seeing things."