Re-Evolution: Episode 2: In the Blood

A while after Piotr's footsteps faded from the hall, and the group entered the danger room, the lone figure clad in a grey-camo sneaking suit dropped from the ventilation system on the wall. 

With a flick of their wrist, another knife sunk into the camera that was keeping an eye on the hallway and sent another shock through it's system that would fry its mechanics, as well as any cameras connected to the same cable network. On nimble feet they ran down the hall, pulling a small device from their pack and setting it on a circular door at the far end that was locked via a retinal scanner. 

Stepping back and covering their eyes with their arm, they activated it. A small pop sounded through the air as the chemicals within combined and began to superheat, melting through the lock's mechanism in the center of the door, forcing it open. 

They glanced over their shoulder--it was all clear so far.

The figure-- hand on their hip holster-- slipped their way into the mansion's mainframe and looked around.

The room they stepped into was small; perhaps large enough to hold around a half dozen people if they didn't mind packing in like sardines.  One wall was taken up by a large monitor and the control bank beneath it; a rolling chair sitting in front of it. The room seemed to be made of the same white hexagons as the danger room.

"Hm." The figure’s voice was muffled through the gasmask. "...This shouldn't prove difficult."

They slipped into the chair and unwound a small wire from a boxy part of their glove before they plugged it into the console. Hitting enter they started to crack into the system.

The monitor scrolled through various files as the little machine began to access the data. Images of students at the school came up, and then other, unfamiliar mutants with details about their locations and abilities. One was a kid with short black hair with bangs, wearing a yellow hoodie and making a face at the camera.

With a little click, they began downloading the information into the storage unit in their suit. First the profiles of unfamiliar mutants...Once those were finished it was on to schematics. 

"This will come in handy. Mission 1 accomplished. Now for Cerebro."

The device was having trouble coming up with the right files. Encrypted? It came up with the schematic for the danger room.

"Looks like you can control it from here, too. Useful."

They began downloading the schematics for the danger room. 

"...I may need to grab the whole harddrive if I can't crack that encryption...Let the lab take care of it."

--There was the sudden sound of tearing metal. They froze, and looked over their shoulder.

There was a long gash in the door, and another one joined it, tearing it open as if with metal claws. A pissed off man grimaced from the now-open doorway.

"Tch. ..Troublesome."

"End of the line, bub,” Wolverine warned.

"I was worried I would have to deal with you," the figure in the mask murmured, pressing a button to retract the wire back into their glove. "You're quite the bloodhound."

"You were right to be worried," he growled, leaping at her, claws out.

They were still for only a moment--enough for the man to be mid-leap before they suddenly leapt to the side and pulled a long knife from a sheath behind their holster, letting him sail into the computer bank. There was a glow from behind the lenses of their mask. 

"The safest course of action is to let me leave. I do not wish to kill you."

Logan thumped against the chair, which slammed itself against the computer bank. He righted himself, ready to attack. 

"You ain't leavin', bub. Not til Professor X's had a few words." 

He leapt off the chair toward them.

The figure pulled a pistol from their holster, holding the knife right under it as they backed towards the door. 

"I'm not in a talking mood." 

They fired--one of the shots hitting Logan--but the other hit one of the wires connecting a monitor to the wall, blasting through it and sending it falling down towards the man. Explosive tipped rounds.They dodged to the side, and kicked the chair into his leg at nearly the same moment that the monitor dropped.

The bullet that slammed into Logan's shoulder and burst, spattering the room with blood as part of his arm was torn from its socket. Logan howled, more with fury than from the pain, and he leapt like a wildman, landing behind the infiltrator, and whirling around. The half-torn arm was already starting to heal, flesh and sinew crawling together over adamantium coated bones.

The infiltrator looked at him with a nod of respect as they backed towards the monitor. 

"Hardly a blink after a wound like that. And you still keep coming for me. I salute you, soldier,” they said in a muffled and digitized voice. Saluting with one hand...they reached back to type quickly on the keyboard behind them. "But I'm afraid I can't come home empty handed."

With a hit of the enter key, the system announced: 

"Activating Danger Room Simulation: Logan's Run."

The figure slammed their knife down into the console, stabbing through several wires which began to short out, rendering the system useless.

"Up to you, Wolverine. Let me go, or let those people die." They aimed the gun at him. "You don't have a lot of time to decide."

"Damn it!" Wolverine growled. He rushed toward them. "You just made the wrong move!" 

Moving more swiftly than the figure could account for, Logan shredded the gun like a plastic party favor, and he brought his claws up, severing the hose on the gasmask, and cutting partially into the mask itself.

There was a sharp hiss of depressurizing air, and a feminine shout as blood coated wolverine's claw. 

"Gah!!!" 

The infiltrator staggered back--but instead of falling they used the console as a springboard to launch back at him and stab the jagged remains of their own gun into his chest, before dropping and sliding through his legs. With a sharp hiss of breath, the infiltrator sprinted into the hallway, towards the vents once more, dropping a series of small remote detonation mines behind her that exploded, and filled the area with a blinding light and smoke.

Wolverine growled-- a sound more animal than man-- and raced out of the room.

000

"Still hard to believe it's this small from what we were seeing in the observation deck,'' Greg said, shaking his head as Scott finished his explanation.

"It's all part of the system. It reshapes itself as the program runs, giving the illusion of more space and depth than there really is." Scott continued, gesturing to the nubs on the wall. 

Even Morgan had to admit--it was really cool. 

Scott was about to continue, opening his mouth--when suddenly the door slammed shut behind them. 

A siren ran, and a voice echoed through the Danger Room.

"Initiating program: Logan's Run."

The teacher froze; his lips forming a sharp frown as he looked up at the command center--just as it started to disappear from view under the AR holograms. It was empty. All around them the world turned into some sort of complex of metal walls and whirring traps.

Morgan paled as she saw buzzsaws deploy from the walls, and a giant spinning, bladed object rise between her brother and herself. 

"What's Logan's Run??" Greg heard her ask, before he lost sight of her.

Greg looked to Scott to answer, drawing a breath of surprise, before the group was parted by more rising walls-- and the bladed saw whirred straight towards Scott and Greg.

Scott hissed, and looked straight at the bladed saw before whipping off his sunglasses. There was a flash of red as a massive, pulsing energy beam shot from his eyes, and blasted the saw into pieces 

"It's Logan's personal training program!" He tipped his glasses back down to stop the beams "it's very dangerous. Meant to test his reflexes and healing factor--which we don't have. Someone has to shut this down NOW Get behind me and stay close."

"Shit! What about my sister?" He demanded, getting behind Scott quickly, as black mist started to billow off him.

Scott glanced over at the wall separating them. 

"...we'll have to find our way over there." he said flatly. "Until then she has to hold her own. At least until then...or until the program stops."

There was a click, and several men in combat gear appeared, coming into view in one of the narrow halls as a grid of lasers clicked on around them. The men aimed rifles wordlessly at Scott and Greg, preparing to fire.

"Then let's stop it!" Greg growled.

The darkness around him was like the opposite of a candle, and he threw a ball of it at the soldiers. It burst like a firebolt as it hit-- but a large metal pincer was descending toward them as well. 

The soldiers were consumed by the dark fire, and as they were, Scott whipped his head up and ripped off his glasses to blast another bright red beam. it hit the pincer with massive concussive force, tearing it from it's arm, and leaving the metal smoldering and shattered. 

"I'm trying to call Jean, or the Professor. I hope they hear us in time."

"They'd better!" Greg yelled, the black smoke coming off him in waves as he fought down panic. He threw a bolt of shadow against the wall, hoping to destroy it and get to Morgan, but it was of no avail. 

There was a rumbling sound, and a spiked ball started rolling toward them.

"I've always hated Logan's training program." Scott muttered as he flipped his glasses up and tried to blast the ball enough to slow it down. "Can those bolts of yours destroy that thing?"

"I'm about to find out!" he yelled, hurling a pair of them at the thing. They didn't destroy it-- but they did throw off its momentum, sending it spinning and pinging off the wall. Meanwhile, beneath the rolling smoke of shadow, Greg's form was shifting and changing, as he became larger, and his skin darker and shinier.

“Looks like you've got more up your sleeve than just flinging shadows. Good. We're going to need it." Scott spun, as a pinging sound alerted him to the sudden barrage of electrified whips that shot out from the walls, whizzing towards the pair of them. He blasted down, holding his glasses up, severing one side of them--but the other was still headed straight for them.

Greg hurled another shadowbolt at the whip, but didn't do enough damage to stop it, and it collided with his chest. He yelled as electricity slammed through his body, throwing him backwards. It hurt like hell, and Greg felt his whole body convulse all at once, and something happened to his body.

With a sound like a parachute opening, a pair of shimmering midnight colored featherless wings burst from his back, as his body took on the same black shimmer and more that doubled in size and muscle, black horns bursting from his head amid lengthened hair. A thick, ropey black tail with a spade-point the size of an actual shovel whipped from behind him, and his legs snapped and reshaped into a digitigrade posture, ending in fierce black claws that matched the ones that had replaced his hands. His eyes burned bright white and his mouth was full of fangs.

Acting purely on instinct the great black gargoyle that had replaced Greg grabbed the still electrified whip, bellowing a shout, and he yanked it from the wall, slamming it against a pair of oncoming blades.

The blade flung backwards, and Scott was briefly taken aback by the boy's transformation--but it was only for a moment. It was then that a pair of great spinning grinders flew out of the walls, and began to close in on them. Scott turned, blasting one with his eyebeams 

"Keep it up, Greg. You're doing great. Don't stop until the program does!"

Greg briefly looked at his clawed hands, white eyes wide with surprise, but then he got moving. 

"Yeah!" he growled, too busy with staying alive to do more than react. He hurled a shadowbolt at the mechanism of the spinning girder to destroy it, and then grabbed the still whirling girder as it went erratic.