CHAPTER 33

I can smell it. The smell of power stones is good for the morning.

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[Ororo Munroe – Storm POV]

She didn't know what to think about the new mutant the Professor told them to bring in.

Reckless. Dispassionate. Foolhardy. Cold. Kind. Those were her opinions of him.

It started off as a normal day in the Mansion with the ever energetic kids running around and making sure things aren't quiet. It was something she'd grown to love ever since moving here.

The chatter, the smiles, the carefreeness – everything here was a treasure trove she'd fight to protect even until her dying breath. Today was suppose to be like the others – with her teaching the students in their haven – away from the oppression and unfairness of the outside world.

She was getting ready for class when Logan called her and told her of the impromptu mission the Professor gave them.

An illegal mutant research facility out the coast of Michigan, where innocent mutant children were being held and experimented on.

The moment she got that information, rage filled her as she immediately dropped what she was doing and went to suit up for her date with a bunch of cretins that didn't deserve the slightest ounce of mercy she could muster.

After her change of attire, she went to the hangar where she found her teammates already waiting for her.

"Kitty what are you doing here?" She didn't like this.

"C'mon Ms. Munroe." Her student begged. "I can help."

She frowned at that.

While it was true, it still didn't change the fact that her student wasn't ready yet but seeing as how her fellow teachers allowed her to stay until she came already spoke of their stance.

"Logan are you also on board with this?" What were they thinking allowing a young girl into a possible gun fight or worst… mutant fight.

"Not really," at least he was on her side.

"So-"

"But she also has the highest chance of coming out unscathed." And the person she was relying on wasn't seeing reason.

"You know that's not the point." She argued.

"Calm down Ororo. You know this is what we trained them for." Scott, her team leader, tried to placate her but what he said only helped to incense her the more.

"No it isn't! We teach them how to control their powers, to not be influenced by it. We AREN'T teaching them to be soldiers." Was her fierce reply.

To his credit, Scott raised up his hands in surrender as the atmosphere started charging up leaving Logan to diffuse the situation.

"We get you 'Ro. Boy-Scott here doesn't, but we get you. But you have to face it, some of them will want to do what we do, and you can't force them otherwise." Was what Logan reasoned her with.

"Logan is right Ororo. How we live is bound to rub off on the younger ones. We are as much as their teachers as we are role models." John said, and he was right.

She took a deep breath to calm herself and apologized for her outburst. Though she wasn't happy, Kitty was old enough to make her choices and face the consequences of it.

The ride was quiet, which was a surprise in itself since Kitty was on board. She remained quiet, almost mimicking Colossus and Reiner, in a corner.

Halfway through the flight was when the Professors call came in.

"How close are you to the base?" came the voice of the psychic Principal.

"About an hour out." Scott replied.

"I just picked up a mutant signal in Virginia… an Omega. If it wouldn't burden you much, I'd like if you all made a detour to see what you can find out about him." She frowned at what the Professor said. He wanted them to pick up an Omega class mutant before going on their mission.

"What about the mission Professor?" She asked.

"The mission is still most imperative Ms. Munroe, but this particular mutant has been slipping past my senses for a while now. I don't know if I would be able to track them down if this window closes." The Professor said

"Logan, would you be able to track him if I were to drop you at where the Professor picked him up?" Scott asked.

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Logan gruffed out. "You sure about this Chuck?" He directed at the Professor.

The Professor remained silent at that.

"Okay how about we drop Logan and Reiner to track this new guy while the rest of us continue with the mission?" Scott proposed, a proposal she was most acceptable of.

The others also agreed, so they took a detour as the Professor gave them the coordinates of the new mutant but when they traced it, it was in the middle of nowhere.

A cave by a pond with a burnt truck in front of it.

"You guys pick up anything yet?." Jean asked Logan and John, the two trackers of their group.

"No. It looks like…" John started but stopped as Logan finished for him, "… there's something masking his scent."

"So a dead end?" Jean asked.

"Not likely. There are faint traces of someone being here not too long ago but the smoke and whatever it is that's in the air is preventing me from picking up a precise scent." Logan explained.

"The trail disappeared at the main road, so he most likely took a ride to the nearest town, or state." John said after he came back from scouting the area around the scene.

"In other words a dead end." Jean repeated.

"At least we tried." Scott said from the back.

"Let's just get out of here."

They left the dead scene and boarded the X-Jet, after correcting their course they resumed their flight to Michigan.

There weren't even ten minutes in when the Professor called again and the time the trace was in a little town in Pennsylvania. By this point Storm was growing restless.

They came on a mission to free mutants at an experimental facility off the American coast but now they were on a wild goose chase. But even if she didn't agree with the current movement, she was still reasonable.

Who knows, maybe the mutant needed their help. Or maybe he was scared of his ability explaining the burnt truck at the scene they just left. Whatever the reason, she knew they had to get to him before Magneto did.

It was only the knowledge that the mutants at the facility would still be saved at the end of the day that consoled her so she decided that it was better if they all searched for this mutant rather than split up at this junction.

The others agreed so when they touched down in Pennsylvania, Logan together with Colossus and Reiner went one way while John, Kitty and Jean tried to track him with John at the lead. She and Scott stayed back at the jet to act as central command.

As if luck was on their side, Jean called back as said she picked up on something near where Logan and the others were headed so they informed them and a few minutes later Logan confirmed that he found the scent.

She was first worried since it was Logan going in but she squashed that thought. While Logan could be a brute most of time, it was no doubt that he was the teacher that everyone at the school loved the most. But while he had a soft spot for kids, he could pretty much be a dick to everyone else, Scott was the evidence to that.

Jean and her group came back together with Logan and his came back to the jet after a few minutes from Logan's confirmation with a man holding a box of doughnuts.

Eh?

She recovered herself easily and introduced herself and Scott to the new stranger and got his name.

Draul.

With that finally out of the way, they set ahead on their mission as they made small talks until she heard Jean calling out Kitty's name.

Listening in on their conversation, she heard them talking about his abilities which he said was heat, cold and radioactive energy emission.

"Do you control the emissions or are they linear?" She asked.

From what she knew, emission type mutation were harder to control and sometimes affects the mutant.

Scott was a prime example of an emission type and his were purely linear.

She was still thinking on the subject when the alarms from the jet started blaring with warnings.

"Hey, what the hell is he doing?!" Scott said in a panic and as she turned to look at their new passenger she understood why he was panicking.

On his fingertips was a ball of blazing red energy.

Unlike Scott's however, this one almost seemed to have… more substance. As if it was filled with something.

It also wasn't helping with the dazed look on his face as the alarms became louder. She was just a second away from shooting him out of the jet with a bolt of lightning or air propulsion when he came to himself as the ball fizzled out into nothingness.

That was too close for comfort. He needed help. Luckily he wasn't above seeking it since he came with them.

Turns out he knew about the school but he couldn't visit, not he won't, because he was distracted. She sensed a story there but she didn't pry. Everyone on this jet had one and it wasn't a good one.

If that was all that happened then maybe her opinions on him wouldn't have been steep.

When they landed a few hundred meters away from their target base, Scott called Draul out apparently because the other somehow knew what was in there and who was behind it.

Draul did explain, but somehow she got the feeling he was leaving out a part of it.

Not pointing that out for the sake of the present mission they approached the base slowly.

Since this was a mutant detention facility they couldn't go in just fighting their way through because at the end of the day, the mission was still rescue. The hostages still took precedence.

Apparently no one bothered to tell the new inclusion since he didn't seem to care and just walked forward even when the enemy caught sight of him and aimed to take fire.

Ororo watched as she he created the same ball of energy like the one on the ship on top of his finger and immediately the ball took form, it shot at incredible speeds covering 100 meters in a second as it impacted and swallowed the armed guards in its explosion.

"You're welcome." He said as he walked to the front door.

With no other choice left, they followed him as he ripped off the doors with red blazing arms.

Apart from his radioactive emissions, it seems like he also had superhuman strength. An augmentation, maybe, given how his hands shone in red.

"Heads up, we got seven mutants incoming." He said.

"And you know that how?" Scott asked Draul to which the only reply he got was a nonchalant 'Just do'.

Ororo looked towards John for confirmation and saw as he closed his eyes for concentration before he opened them and nodded.

Superhuman senses.

"Kitty, find the kids and try as much as possible to avoid confrontations." Jean told Kitty as the girl nodded and ran through a wall.

Boom!

The loud crashing sound brought them all back as they saw six enemy mutant facing off against them.

One thing Ororo hated about her ability was that it was severely restricted indoors so she went with what she could afford.

Controlling the air pressure around her opponent and forming an air vacuum with it, she proceeded to spin it anti-clockwise and asphyxiate her opponent while Jean levitated a metal block and hit him on the head as he tried to get closer to Ororo.

Seeing as the others were still fighting, she along with Scott and Jean went forward before they separated as Kitty said the hostages were kept at two different places in the facility.

She and Scott went for the other hostage location while Jean went to regroup with Kitty to help the hostages evacuate easier.

It was during this time that the were attacked by a large team of enemy guards as soon as Colossus joined up with them. The plan was to have Colossus attack head on since bullets wouldn't do anything to him while she and Scott would use that as a shield to advance.

Before they could however proceed with the plan, a walking Draul was what they saw going towards the enemy as he ignored them and formed this time, yellow arrows, which he sent as he decimated the enemies before them.

"I seem to recall this as a rescue mission. The luxury of time doesn't favor us but the enemy." He said as he paused at an interjection before continuing his way.

After he left they all stood and saw the burning bodies of their enemies scattered across the room. "Let's go." Was all Piotr said before they continued their march to the other side of the path that Draul took.