Re-Evolution: Episode 2: In the Blood

Scott led the three students back down to the first floor and down a sloping hallway toward a round metal door with a cross marking etched into it.

"Yo, that's fancy," Todd observed, raising his eyebrows as they approached. 

He was at the back of the group at this point, as Greg stayed cautiously near his sister. Morgan walked moving a little slower and more cautiously now that she nearly passed out. Still, she was feeling a little better, and was confident that she could make it to the end of the tour. She followed Scott as they made their way through the hall, before she asked. 

"So is that the vehicle bay?" 

"That's right,” Scott nodded. “The facility may look fairly old from the outside, but we're state of the art...from the doors to the lab."

"It's impressive," Greg said, hovering near his Morgan-- probably in case he needed to catch her. It was obvious he wasn't going to let Todd be the one to do that again. "Kinda sci-fi."

As they approached the door, it hissed open and rolled aside into the wall.

"I mean kinda more than kinda, yo," Todd shrugged, watching as the door vanished, allowing them entry.

"Just wait till you see the jet." Scott brushed his hand through the short locks of his hair with a wide smile. "She's our pride and joy."

"A jet?" Morgan said incredulously 

Scott glanced over at her with a nod , and walked into the room while waving for them to follow. As Morgan stepped into the room, it became clear just how sprawling this part of the complex was. It was a large, open room of grey steel and metal floors with a number of designated parking areas inside. Alongside each parking spot was a diagnostic computer, and in the back corner Morgan could see a workshop that held the various tools needed for car repair.

There were a lot of cars. From a bright red convertible sports car to something that looked like an armored APC with 8 wheels and a reinforced windshield--they had cars of every shape and size-- and far to one side there was a large door in the back marked "X-Jet".

"Damn, yo, is that an armored car?" Todd demanded, looking around stunned. 

"This shit is downright paramilitary." Morgan murmured as she stared at the APC. Right across from it was what looked like a four person jeep with reinforced tires. Some feet were sticking out from under it. 

Greg's smile broadened and he glanced at Scott. 

"Oh wow. You weren't kidding. This is a hell of a set up."

"Isn't it?" Scott said proudly "we've been building up the fleet for a while now...adding to it with innovations as time goes on." 

He pointed to Todd "Right on the money, kiddo. Armored car. We've also got one that's designed to drive through magma, if need be , with heat resistant plating."

Todd whistled at the description. "Yo that's some schoolbus ya got, Scottie."

Greg finally left Morgan's side-- with a glance to make sure she was okay-- and wandered around the bay a little bit, looking at the cars. "It's a hell of a collection is what it is."

He nearly tripped over the feet that were sticking out. "Oh! Sorry, uh...."

The pair of feet resolved itself to be none other than Bobby Drake, as he pushed himself out from under the car. He was wearing a white tank top, stained here and there with grease, and had a wrench in his hand as he looked up with a surprised gasp 

"Well *hot damn*" he grinned "Greggy!"

"Bobby! You're here too, huh? Should have figured," he chuckled slightly, tearing his eyes away from Bobby's chest. 

A few paces away, Scott was still talking to, or more accurately at, Todd and Morgan. He hadn’t noticed that Greg had nearly landed on top of Bobby.

"You'd be surprised how often that sort of thing comes in handy." Scott said "I can show you around if you'd like. Why don't you come see Scarlet with me?"

"...the...convertible?" Morgan asked. 

"Scarlet?" Todd asked. "Oh right ya named your car."

"That's right." Scott said, walking to the convertible and placing his hand on the hood with a proud smile "I've been working on her since high school. She's got..." he began launching into a long explanation of the various upgrades he gave to Scarlet, as Morgan looked on with an increasingly bored expression. 

Greg was having a more engaging conversation, meanwhile.

Bobby had grinned broadly, wiping some grease off his face with a rag as he sat up, and answered Greg’s question.

"Yep, Been here a year or so now. I'm glad Ororo convinced you to come on by though! I knew she'd be interested in talkin' to you."

"Guess you were right.That means you must have seen me uh.... yeah.  Well hey, its nice to see you." 

"Yeah, I saw you smokin' in the hall." Bobby grinned. "or something like that." He offered his hand to Greg with a wink "help a guy up?"

‘I really need to get better at this whole stealth thing…’ Greg bemoaned internally.He leaned down and grabbed Bobby's hand, helping pull him up. 

"No prob. Sorry for interrupting your car time." 

"Hey don't worry about it. I got time for you, man. I'm real glad to see you he.." As Greg helped him to his feet, he suddenly winced, and his free hand went to his stomach as he made a sharp sound of pain. "Fuck." 

Greg looked at where Bobby was holding himself. Blood was starting to stain his tanktop 

"Dammit. shouldn't have twisted like that,"  Bobby muttered to himself as he pressed tight on the wound.

"Hey, are you okay, man?" His eyes widened at the red tinged his tank top. This close, Greg could smell it, and he felt a sudden wave of vertigo.

Bobby nodded, hissing through his teeth as he stemmed it with the cloth of the tank top. 

"There's a first aid kit on the wall. You uh, wanna grab that for me?" he murmured. "It's not...it's not as bad as it looks. Just tore a stitch a little open. Heh."

Greg swallowed, and mastered the dizzy spell. "Yeah, I got it," he said, going for it.”

Across the garage, Todd was fighting the urge to lean on Scott's car as he droned on about it.

"And that's why I installed the new exhaust system. Ever since then the acceleration's been great," Scott explained. At length..

Morgan’s dull haze through the droning car lecture was broken as she smelled the sudden coppery scent of blood from across the room. Her head spun as she took a dizzy step away from the car and tried to fight it down. 

"R-real cool man. Real cool" she said in a wobbly voice.

Todd, who had been fussing with the burnt ends of his hair instead of listening to Scott, noticed Morgan wobble immediately and put a hand on her back. 

"Yo, uh, you wanna like, take a seat?"

She nodded slowly. 

"Yeah uh, that might be for the best." She eased gently down and sat on the hood of Scott's car. 

"I just waxed that..."  Scott winced. But his teacher's instincts and compassion won out over his love for his car, and he stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Feeling dizzy again, Miss Connelly?" 

"Yeah , I am," she murmured. "Probably still 'anemic' or whatever."

Todd, lingering near Scott mumbled, "you know you supposed to like it when a pretty girl sits on ya car, right, yo?"

"She's a prospective student...and it was a fresh wax." Scott said, running his hand through his hair "...but you have a point. Regardless, rest a moment, Miss Connelly. Take deep breaths."

Morgan took a few deep breaths, nodding as she glanced over in the direction of the smell of blood, and saw Bobby. 

"...I think that kid's hurt.."

Bobby was clutching his stomach, grimacing quietly to himself as Greg came back with the first aid kit. He glanced up and gave him a thankful grin.

Todd too, turned to look.

 "Oh yeah, shit I think he's bleedin' yo. How the hell that happen?"

Morgan swallowed "He's bleeding a lot."

"Well.." Scott said "It's like this..."  As he began explaining , Greg managed to get the kit opened much to Bobby's relief. 

Greg had returned with the first aid kit, hastily opening it.

Bobby took out some gauze and began stemming the flow of blood. 

"Sorry about that , man. I was downed at practice in the Danger Room and I got...you know, nicked pretty bad. It was healing up alright, but I wasn't supposed to make any sudden moves."

"Danger room, huh?" Greg asked, helping him with the gauze as he struggled with the smell of the blood.. "Is that like, a training room?"

"Yeah, we got a AR/physical hybrid training area to run through different scenarios and stuff to help us ...like...train and learn to use our powers in a fairly safe way. Just, you know, I wasn't careful and I made a dumb move and bam,next thing I know I'm knocked across the room with a little wound on my side.'

"That;s intense, man," he said, fighting down a little more dizziness as he helped with the wound. ‘I guess that's where the scars came from’, he thought to himself.

Bobby pulled up his shirt, and sure enough, there was a long cut from his side, curling towards his stomach, near his abdominal muscles.

He began wrapping bandages over himself to hold the gauze in place "yeah it's pretty intense, but worth it. I'm just glad I had my ice on, you know? Blocked a lotta the impact."

From across the carport they heard Morgan shout.

 "WHAT?"

Todd blinked at Scott, and kind of squinted at him. 

"So uh, you're tellin me you have a room. That's just... full of *danger* Like… intentionally?"

Scott held his hands up. 

"it's the nickname for the room, kid. It's not full of danger," He paused. "It's perfectly safe. But nobody wants to train in the Safety Room." 

"I mean, it's perfectly safe, sure sure sure, but Bobby over there's got a fucking gash in his side." Morgan huffed. "Doesn't seem that safe to me."

"Yeah, an' Dazzler didn't want us to call it the Murder Mansion," Todd snorted. "Not sure about *that*, yo."

Morgan laughed weakly. 

"I'm just..you know...why do you guys even need something like that?"

The teacher rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Because we need to learn how to control our abilities...and not just that, we need to know how to defend ourselves. This world isn't kind to mutants like us, you two must know that as much as anyone."

"..." Morgan looked away with a slight nod.

"I thought so." Scott continued. "...It may seem excessive, but it's true. From people persecuting us to other mutants with unpredictable power or malevolent intent...it's important that we learn to deal with that sort of thing. And the Danger Room does just that. It helps push us to do our best and learn how to survive in a world that often feels to be against us. At least until peace can be achieved."

"Guess that explains why everybody who goes here has killer abs, yo," Todd observed with a shrug..

Morgan grimaced from atop the car. 

"...I see the point for it I guess, but damn."

Todd nodded. "yeah, uh, didn't expect that shit, yo," he chuckled. "Though that AR thing sounds cool as hell."

"Sure does." Morgan agreed, still looking pretty dubious about the whole thing. "Wild." 

From across the garage, Greg called to them. 

"Hey, Scott, do we get to see the Danger Room?"

"Sure thing!" Scott called back. "It's part of the tour. We'll take you there after your sister's dizzy spell passes." 

Bobby flashed a thumbs up to Greg. 

"Enjoy. Maybe you'll get a demonstration." He lowered his shirt over his killer abs and punched Greg on the shoulder. "Maybe we can train up in there sometime dude."

"I'd love that," Greg nodded to Bobby. "You all good for now?"

"I'm all good, man. I hope you enjoy the tour and join up. I'd *love* to hang with you more.

Greg returned the a thumbs up.

"Hey, its a plan." He lowered his voice a little. "Between you and me, I'm pretty sold."

"Oh man," Bobby whispered back, tossing a bottle of painkillers in his hand. "Yeah? that's awesome! We'd love to have you and your sis around."

"I donno if she's as convinced as I am, but I'm sure she'll come around," he said. "But yeah, this place seems awesome. Even if you might pick up a few scrapes here and there."

"Eh, it's worth it." Bobby leaned on the jeep behind him. "A few scrapes vs having a place to be...people who understand...and the training we need to like, not be a danger to ourselves and others?  Scales tip towards the Xavier School for me, at least."

"That's definitely the way I'm seeing it," Greg agreed. "Plus, everyone here seems pretty cool."

"Gotta agree with you there." Bobby said. He winced a little reaching for a waterbottle he'd left on the car. "The teachers are real great. and all us students are pretty solid friends. Mostly. there's one guy but I dunno if he's coming back."

"Yeah?" he cocked his head. "I might have heard something about that."

"Yeah. Dorian. We were pretty close uh..friends.." Bobby murmured. "...but we had a fight and we haven't seen him all summer."

"That really sucks," Greg said consolingly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe he'll come back I guess? But uh, yeah, you can pretty much count on me being here."

"Nice." Bobby's frown turned into a smile, as he gulped down some pills. "Now uh, maybe you should hurry on, your sister's started to look kinda frustrated."

Indeed, Morgan was quiet, her arms crossed as she looked down at the floor.

Greg made a face. 

"Damn I thought we were waiting on *her*. Alright. See ya later!" Greg jogged over to the others. "Ready to go?"

Morgan looked up at him. To her credit, he knew Morgan's moods. What Bobby read as frustrated was something else. Morgan was deep in thought and on the edge of moody. Something was probably bothering her. Still, she nodded. 

"Yeah. My dizzy spell's pretty much stopped. Let's go." She slipped gently off the car to her feet.

Scott took a moment to quietly try buffing the spot out with a nearby rag. 

"I'll meet you guys out there, alright?"

000

A few minutes later, there was another pair of footsteps in the vehicle bay. Logan quietly sniffed the air.

"You pop a stitch again, Bobby?" he growled.

Bobby looked up from where he was pinning the rest of his bandages and nodded.

"Yeah. Sure did sir. Smelt it a mile away , didn't you?"

"Blood's almost always the top note," he agreed. "Take better care of yourself kid. -- who else was in here just now?"

"You know I try, Mr. Logan. "I just got careless. Twisted wrong when a friend helped me up." He stuck his hands in his pockets "...But uh, it was Scott and the tour group. Morgan and Greg and Toadie."

"Uhuh. And you didn't see anyone else?" he sniffed again, pacing around the garage.

Bobby looked around, frowning. 

"I mean, I was under a car most of it, so no? Is..uh...there someone else taking the tour today, sir?"

"Not officially," he growled. "That's why I'm sniffing 'em out."

Bobby's eyes widened. 

"You...you think someone's gone and snuck into the mansion? What...like ...a break in or some kinda spy kids bullshit?"

Logan grunted and paused. 

"Pretty much, yeah. But the movie’s gonna go up to an R rating when I find 'em."

"Uhhhhhh." Bobby rubbed the back of his neck. "Well shit. i'll get the mop and bucket." 

From the shadows of the arching rooftop, a figure took the last of several snapshots of the vehicle bay. They paused, briefly upon hearing the exchange--before they started sneaking back towards the vent system.