ISSUE #66

" Oh damnit, I lost sight of them." Ian cursed as he and Laura walked outside of the mansion. They had been following The New Mutants and The Hellions to see what they were up too, but along the way they had lost sight of the group.

" Can you find them?" Ian asked the girl. He knew that Laura had the same strong senses that Logan had, so he figured she might be able to sniff them out if she needed to.

Laura, of course, nodded and took the lead, leading Ian all the way down to the tunnels under the school.

" Oh, jeez, David. What kind of spooky Frankenstein's monster crap are you doing down here?" Ian muttered. " I mean this is creepy on so many levels. Are we getting close, Laura. Cuz if we keep going, we're gonna end up in the old Morlock tunnels.

" We're here." Laura stated.

" Really?" Ian asked.

" If you guys don't stop yelling at me. I'm turning this thing off!" Ian heard David yell.

" Fine by me! This is creepy!" Cessily shouted

" Yup! We're here." Ian laughed.

He and Laura walked into the mouth of tunnel and saw The Hellions and New Mutants in old style X-men outfits, standing under a giant machine.

" What's going on-" Ian started to ask, when the room around them changed. " On? No way!" Ian yelled in shock.

" Are you kidding me?" Julian asked David

" Dude, that robot is pink." Santo joked.

None of them realizing the real threat of the Giant pink robot in front of them.

" It's a sentinel from the future." David explained.

" Yeah, well if this is what the X-men fight, then I wanna be an Avenger." Santo told David.

" This thing's no joke." David stated. " The guy you're playing was killed by this thing." David explained to Santo.

" David, what is this?" Ian asked the boy.

" It's a hologram machine. Much like the danger room only less dangerous." David explained.

Ian felt a wave of relief wash through his body. Just seeing the sentinel was enough to make him panic.

" Okay, we get it. You've got the hots for this machine. Can we change the Channel!" Julian asked the boy.

" I would prefer change as well." Sooraya stated.

" Since you're afraid of robot barbie, maybe you'd like to fight me instead?" Noriko asked Julian.

" Nori, please... Just let it go." Jay asked the girl.

" Let it go?" Ian asked. " Julian has a right to be scared. Nimrod... I mean that things dangerous. Out of all the enemies the X-men have ever faced, this guy ranks up there with the likes of the Phoenix force. He's way more dangerous than sinister or the hellfire club ever were." Ian explained to the group.

" Who?" Julian asked.

" When you get to history class do you guys just like tune out whatever we're going over? " Ian asked sarcastically. " I mean we've covered this guy quite a few times in class."

" Nope, not a clue. But I do know something." Julian replied. He stuck his hand out and shot Noriko in the chest with a burst of telekinetic energy making her yelp in pain.

" Hey!" Josh yelled.

" Oh, come on, really Julian?" Ian asked the boy.

" Oops, this Shaw guy wasn't telekinetic, was he?" Julian joked. When no one laughed he tried to defend himself. " Oh, come on, that was funny!" Julian exclaimed.

" Oh, you are toast Keller!" Noriko yelled.

Jay had tried to get the group to settle down, but after awhile he finally had enough and got up to leave.

" This is pointless, I'm leaving." Jay stated.

" Dude, you can't get up. You're supposed to be dead." Santo told the boy.

Jay ignored Santo and continued walking towards the exit.

" Jay! Come back! We're outnumbered!" Josh yelled to the boy.

" Whatever, they can take my place. That's what you guys want right? More violence." Jay exclaimed. He pointed to Ian and Laura and continued walking away.

Ian watched as the boy left and sighed.

" Sorry about this, Laura. This was supposed to be fun. But I forgot what happens when these two squads get together." Ian told the girl. He then looked down at her and noticed she had blood on her shirt. " Damn, are you okay, Laura?" Ian asked. " You're bleeding."

" Not mine." Laura stated.

Ian looked closer and noticed that it was indeed not her blood, or even blood at all. it was part of the virtual reality machine, David created.

" Oh, okay." Ian spoke.

" Hey! Do you guys wanna play?" Cessily asked the two.

" Do you?" Ian asked Laura. She looked at him and started walking towards the group. " I guess that's a yes." Ian mumbled. Ian walked with Laura right up to join the group.

Laura came to a stop in front of Julian and looked him in the eyes.

" Okay, you can play. But you don't get to be wolverine every time." Julian, still being a smart ass, told Laura.

Laura looked the boy in his eyes and popped her claws right in front of his pelvic area.

" OH!!!!" Ian shouted. " Down girl!" Ian told the girl. He grabbed Laura by the shoulder and walked with her past a still stunned Julian.

" Didn't they clone you a sense of humor?!" Julian asked.

As they walked, Laura looked up to Ian. " Did I do something wrong?" She asked him.

" Don't worry about him, Laura. Let's just try to have some fun alright." Ian told the girl. He knew she had a lot to learn, and he didn't expect her to get it all at once. But still, that was close.

" Alright, guys. Changing Scenarios.... Mission 240.... Inferno." David spoke. The machine changed the room again and Madelyne Pryor, the clone of Jean Grey and ex-wife of Scott summers and mother of their son Cable, appeared with her army of demons.

" Whoa, this is crazy." Ian stated. " And you built this by yourself?" Ian was impressed with David's work. He had only ever seen complicated machines like this in the machine, and they were built by aliens and some of the smartest minds on the planet.

" Hey, watch your back man!" Julian yelled.

Ian turned around just as a demon was gearing up to attack, but Laura lunged at the creature and snapped its neck.

" Uh, thanks Laura." Ian told the girl.

Laura popped her claws and lunged past Ian, right into another one of the demons.

" Ha! The clones sweet on you Sinclair!" Julian joked.

" Aww, that's adorable." Noriko joked.

" Oh, now you two are friends. Okay." Ian replied.

" Friends? With this loser?" Noriko asked. She seemed almost offended at what Ian had said.

" Hey? Who are you calling a loser? In case you haven't noticed Nori, it's four on two." Julian told the girl.

" Shut up, Julian." Josh told the boy.

" Make me." Julian told the boy.

Ian regretted even speaking when he saw how things ended up turning out.

Josh, Taking Julian's bait, walked up to the boy but was quickly snatched up by Santo.

" Hey! Let me go!" Josh shouted.

" Or what? You'll heal me?" Santo asked.

" Put him down!" Noriko shouted at Santo.

" Come on, Santo, let him go." Ian told the boy.

" Why?" Santo asked.

" Because this is supposed to be fun guys." Ian stated.

" Okay, that's it. I'm shutting the machine down." David stated.

" Julian... Can we not do this today?" Cessily asked.

" Yeah, guys come on. We're supposed to be having fun." Ian exclaimed.

The group all started arguing again as David powered down the machine. But before anyone could go any further Jay returned with some less than pleasant news for the new Mutants.

" Hey, guys..." Jay spoke. Getting everyone's attention. " Dani's leaving." Jay told the New Mutants.

" What?" Noriko asked.

It was at that moment that Ian remembered.

" Oh, damn. I forgot." Ian mumbled.

" What, you knew?" Josh asked the boy.

" Yeah, I heard about it a few days ago." Ian told the boy.

" And you just now remembered to bring it up?" Josh asked.

" Excuse me, if I don't give a fuck about you or your feelings Josh." Ian told the boy. He still hadn't forgiven him for what he'd done and out of all the New Mutants, he was the only one he hated.

" Forget about it, Josh. Come on. We need to go see Dani." David spoke.

" Yeah, I need to go to Laura. Will you come with me, or do you want to go back to your own room?" Ian asked the girl.

Laura nodded and stuck close to Ian like she was glued to his side.

" Okay, let's go then." Ian spoke.