Issue #7

" All right ya little twerps all of ya listen up. We got a new student joining us today. So, make sure to give him a good welcome." Logan told the class.

" A new kid? I wonder who it is? Poor guy doesn't know what mess he's got himself into, eh Julian?" Santo asked.

Santo, Brian, and Julian were all forced to take Logan's self-defense classes as punishment, since they were usually the students that acted out the most.

" Dude, does it matter?" Julian asked harshly.

" Damn, man. I was only trying to start a conversation. You've been quiet this whole time. I'm not used to that." Santo replied.

Brain sat down next to santo and rubbed his giant rock shoulder in support.

" Don't worry about Julian, man. He's still sore from his remedial class with Frost." Brian joked. He looked at Julian's aggravated face and snickered.

Julian grew even more aggravated, as his two friends laughed at his unusual, but deserved, punishment.

" Ah, shut up both of ya. Let's just get this stupid class over with. I got things I want to do today." Julian complained.

" Don't be like that, Julian. You could actually learn a thing or two from Logan." Cessily said to the boy.

Julian and the others were confused, as Cessily wasn't being forced to take the class like them, so they didn't know why she was there.

" Why are oyu here, Cess?" Julian asked.

" Well, I wanted something to do, and I figured why not try one of these." Cessily replied.

" Well, you chose a good day to come. We got a new guy apparently." Julian muttered.

The door to the dojo opened and the students, who were interested, all looked towards the entrance.

" There ya are. What took ya so long runt?" Logan asked.

" I stopped to eat." Ian replied.

Julian and the rest of the Hellions were all stumped.

" Heha! Hey everyone!" Ian waved to the other students, who were all shocked to see him up and moving around without his canes.

Ian walked over and joined the rest of the rest of the kids on the mat, while they just gawked at him.

" Whoa! Wait! Cripple?!" Julian shouted.

" Hey, Julian. Ya missed me?" Ian asked. Ian felt a sense of pride in seeing Julian's reaction, laughing at the boy was perhaps the best thing he could think of.

" AHHH! Oh my god, Ian. You're walking!" Cessily shot up to her feet and hugged Ian.

" Yep, sure am." Ian replied.

" How did this happen?" She asked.

" Well..." Ian spoke. He walked over to Julian and patted him on the shoulder. " It was all thanks to Julian actually." Ian stated. " If he hadn't been a right gobdaw, I wouldn't be walking right now." Ian explained.

" You mean, I did this to you?" Julian asked as he removed Ian's hand from his shoulder.

" Yup. When ya knocked me down and broke my legs, my mutation kicked in and fixed me. Isn't that great?!" Ian exclaimed. He was being passive aggressive, letting Julian know every good thing to happen to him was all the result of his shittery.

" All right, that's enough gawking. Fall in runt." Logan ordered. " Now, we're gonna be picking up from where we started yesterday. Try to beat me. So, who wants to try first?" Logan asked.

Ian stood up and marched onto the mat.

" Guess, I'll go first." Ian spoke.

Logan nodded and the two bowed to each other.

What proceeded was another one-sided beat down.

Logan attacked Ian, ruthlessly, beating him into the ground.

The others in the class watched in horror as Logan, continued to pummel Ian over and over again without any sign of stopping.

" Damn, man. I don't think I've ever seen Logan do that. Even to Julian." Brian stated.

" Yeah, this is messed up." Even Julian, known for being the dick that he is, felt a little disturbed watching this display of power.

After a solid four minutes of nothing but pounding on his face and chest, Logan finally stopped and allowed Ian a chance to breathe.

" I'd say that's enough. Alright, runt get up." Logan ordered.

Ian groaned and rolled over to his stomach.

Everyone watched as the boy picked himself up off the floor, feeling bad for the beating Logan gave him.

Ian, limped his way over to the sideline and sat down, bloody, next to Cessily and the Hellions.

" Dude, are you alright?" Brian asked. Even as much of a jerk he could be, he still thought that fight was a little... gratuitous

" Yeah, man. I've been in this class for a bit, but I've never seen Logan do that to anyone." Santo explained.

Ian nodded and wiped the blood from his mouth and nose.

" Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little sore." Ian replied.

" Dude, what did you do to get on Logan's bad side?" Julian asked.

" Nothing that I can think of. But it's alright. I gotta lot of catching up to do, with everyone else. Not gonna get it from just watching." Ian explained.

" Well, maybe you should go have hank check you out. I mean you're hurt pretty badly." Cessily told the boy.

" I'm fine. I'll be alright in a little while. Maybe some bruises. But nothing serious. I just need time to rest." Ian told the girl. " But thank you for the concern. I appreciate it."

Although she didn't agree, Cessily nodded and accepted what Ian wanted and continued watching as Logan proceeded with his next match against one of the New Mutants.

" Hey, who is that guy?" Ian asked. He pointed to the boy Logan was fighting against and was impressed by how well he was doing.

" That's David, one of the New Mutants. He goes by prodigy." Julian explained.

" Prodigy?" Ian asked.

" Yeah, he has some kind of telepathic ability that lets him absorb the skills and knowledge of any person he's near enough. A useless skill really." Julian explained.

" Okay, two questions. One, how is that a useless skill. And two, why do you know that?" Ian asked.

" Well, I need to scout my competition's skills. And the New Mutants are the only other squad other the Cyclops' Corsairs that I need to worry about right now. Of course, I would know those losers' abilities." Julain explained.

" The squads, who are they?" Ian asked.

" Really dude? You don't know?" Julian asked.

" Well, no. I wasn't included in all of that in the first place." Ian told the boy.

" Okay." Julian exclaimed. " I'll explain then. The squads are teams of students comprised of promising future x-men. My team is led by Emma Frost, and we are the Hellions. David over there, is one of the New Mutants. His teacher is Dani Moonstar, one of the first new mutants at the school. His teammates are Josh foley, elixir. Laurie Collins, wallflower. The Beautiful Sofia Mantega, wind dancer. And finally, the blue haired bitch, Noriko Ashida, she goes by surge." Julian explained.

" You know all that? I didn't think you were the kind to study." Ian told the boy.

" What makes you say that?" Julian asked.

" The fact you never study at all, Julian." Brian interrupted.

" I study. Just not this stupid crap they try to teach us that we'll most likely never use." Julian replied.

" Well, you shouldn't say that. Who knows what the future has for us." Ian told the boy.

" Oh yeah? Like what?" Julian asked.

" Well, I did use to work on computers and other things. It's how I made money before coming here. Since ya know, I couldn't walk." Ian explained.

" That makes too much sense." Julian exclaimed.

" Whatever, jerk." Ian spoke. " Anyway, what else do you know about the New Mutants?" Ian asked.

" Well, the basics really. Josh is a healer. He can heal most wounds with a simple touch. Sofia controls the wind. Laurie emits pheromones that she can use to control a person's emotions. And Noriko, conducts electricity. Of course, none of that matches up against my TK field." Julian explained, making sure to toot his own horn louder than any other.

" Wow, that does sound awesome." Ian stated. ' Everyone has such cool abilities. And what about me? All I do is fix myself up. Doesn't make out for a very cool power does it.' Ian thought to himself.

After class was over Ian said goodbye to the Hellions, who surprisingly responded with kind, and then was approached by Logan.

" Hey runt. How ya holding up?" Logan asked.

" Not good, really. Why'd you go so hard? You didn't do that earlier." Ian asked.

" Two reasons. One you're the only one in the class I've seen so far actually make an attempt at learning. Everyone else is just here to skip out on Danger room sessions, or in some cases, because they're being forced to be here." Logan explained.

" That's not true, David was doing pretty good." Ian replied.

" Yeah, but that's all stolen. His power lets him absorb the skills and knowledge of the people around him. But the downside is he doesn't get to keep any of those skills for long." Logan explained. " Which mean he isn't actually learning anything." This made Ian realize at least a little bit what Julian was talking about.

" I see. But what about the second reason?" Ian asked.

" I had to send a message to everyone else, not to take this lightly. And you just happened to be the best scapegoat." Logan explained with a smug ass grin on his face.

" Oh, ye basterd, tha's jus not fair." Ian complained, his accent bleeding through heavily.

" Well, tough shit. Get used to it, cuz I'm gonna do that every single time, unless you get good enough to defend yourself. Don't forget what this is about. Here take this." Logan reached into his robe and pulled out a pamplet for Ian and handed it to him.

" What is this?" Ian asked.

" Your individual training. Use that to give yourself a head start. In there is everything we're gonna be doing when we're together. This way you can at least get the hang of things steadily instead of diving into the deep end." Logan explained.

Ian looked down at the thick book in his hands and nodded.

" Thank ye, Logan. I really appreciate this." Ian told the man.

" Of course, you do now get out of here, before I beat ya again runt." Logan told the boy.

Ian nodded and quickly left the dojo.

Afterwards, Ian walked towards his room, looking through the book along the way and felt his heart pound as he read over the workout assignments Logan gave him.

" One thousand push-ups every week. One thousand sit-ups, Crunches, pull-ups, thirty minutes of planking, thirty minutes of mountain climbers. twenty kilometer run every day. There's so much more in here. What, is he trying ta kill me?" Ian asked himself. " Och, this is gonna be so very painful." Ian spoke. " But I guess it can't be that bad. I can break this up into sections. Start by working on the Push-ups and the sit-ups. Then I can move onto the other things. Push-ups, sit-ups, and Planking. That way I can build my core strength and upper body strength. And then I can finish off with the twenty-kilometer run in the gym. Och, what have I gotten maself into?"