IN THE BLOOD

Scott Summers smelled the booze before he even made it halfway to the door of the gym. The vapors invaded his nostrils, and he wrinkled his nose at it.

Loud music echoed along with his footsteps in the otherwise quiet halls. Some kind of metal band wailed and screeched and then was accompanied by a long and guttural scream.

Scott shook his head and increased his pace. He reached the door and swung it open hard, letting the knob hit the wall with force.

Logan had smelled him coming before the little prick had even rounded the corner. He pressed the four hundred-pound weight several times more before setting it back to rest. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his forehead and took a long pull from the bottle of whiskey closest to the bench.

It was his fourth one in under an hour, and he barely had even a buzz.

Still, he thought, if the first ones don’t succeed, try, try again.

The liquid flowed down his throat and he felt that wonderful burn go all the way down into his stomach.

“Ahem.”

Logan didn’t even turn to look at the little punk who was supposed to be some kind of leader.

“No wine coolers here, bub; I suggest you take your little candy ass on out.” He spoke while picking up a pair of fifty-pound dumbbells. He flexed the large muscles in his arms and began his first set.

Scott walked forward and turned off the noise coming from the stereo.


“Where the hell were you? You missed the session today.”

Logan smiled. “Fuck your session, One Eye.”

A dangerous glint shone from beneath the ruby quartz glasses. “You have training to see to…”

Logan dropped the weights to the floor with a loud crash. “Training? From who, you?”

“You’re a member of this team, Wolverine, and I don’t give a shit if you think that you are better than all the rest of us. The professor says you stay, then you stay, but don’t think that you don’t have the duties that the rest of us do.”

Logan took a slow step forward. “Boy, far as I know, I have been slitting throats for a long time and making one fine fucking living at it; this little dog and pony Boy Scout shit you try to shove down the rest of these fucks’ throats don’t hold any bearing for me.”

Scott smirked at him. “I’ll bet you did, Magneto has a lot of people he wanted taken out; I’ll bet you enjoyed every one of them.”

Logan picked up his whiskey and sauntered over to him. “God damn right I did, and since the Prof is off that list, you might just take his spot.”

Scott could hear the threat of truth in that statement, but backing down from this animal was something that didn’t even cross his mind.

“Just remember, Wolverine, I run this outfit. This isn’t Weapon X, or some black ops syndicate. We’re here to make the world safer, and unless you want your hairy ass laid out on an autopsy bed with Hank seeing what makes that sick mind of yours tick, I would suggest you remember that.”

Scott held his gaze firm with the cold blue eyes of a certifiable killer.

Logan smiled at him and shouldered past to the door.

“Danger Room session tomorrow at noon, Wolverine.” Scott called out to him, “Show us what you got.”

Logan stopped and turned slightly. “Yea, and then maybe I’ll show that little red-haired bitch what I really got.”

The smirk on Scott Summers face fell like wax from a melting candle.

Logan flashed him his teeth in amusement and was gone, leaving a barely contained Scott fuming.

The next morning went as it always did. The stampede of feet and the unmistakable chatter of teenagers filled the large kitchen area. The smell of cooking bacon and pancakes made for a wonderful aroma. The cereal and milk were bounced around and fought over just before Kitty Pryde phased through the bottom of the table and snatched both away, leaving a tidal wave of curses in her wake.

The young girl plopped down in her seat with her stolen prize. “There’s no way I’m missing my Cocoa Puffs today.”

Bobby quickly reached into the box and took a large handful into his mouth before Kitty could stop him.

“Eww, Bobby, that’s gross; God knows where you hands have been.” She pulled the box out of his reach.

Angel snickered across the table. “I am pretty sure I know, and trust me Kit, you don’t want to.”

“TMI, guys, TMI.” She poured her cereal and desperately tried to not to think of what Bobby “Iceman” Drake does in his alone time.

Hank and Ororo sat close together snuggling in the chill of the morning. He teased her with a piece of fruit, pulling it back away from her just as she was about to take a bite and laughing when she slapped him on the arm.

Emma Frost rolled her eyes at the two lovebirds and let out a disgusted sigh. “Could you two please either eat the fruit, or just go ahead and use it for foreplay, already.”

“Don’t be jealous, Emma,” Alex said from his spot at the table, with Lorna Dane sitting close to his side. “When’s the last time you got teased with fruit?”

Emma glared at him with sharp and cool eyes. “I do the teasing, baby Summers, and I don’t need fruit to do it with.”

Warren, and Kurt held their laughter in at Alex’s blushing.

“Slut,” Cecilia Reyes whispered to herself, while still casting short glances in Hank’s direction.


”Speaking of fruit, I had this….” Bobby started but cut off when he saw Logan enter the kitchen.

The air of tension was so thick that only the blades housed in his forearms could cut it. Logan stopped at the door and surveyed his surroundings. The few brave enough to look in his direction quickly bowed their heads when his eyes met theirs.

He took a slow, deep breath and found that delicious scent he had smelled so many times.

He didn’t know when he got so used to it, but the smell of fear had grown on him.

Logan walked over to one of the coffee pots where one of the younger students was standing.

The boy was no more than sixteen at most, and as thin as a dying tree branch. Logan walked up to him and waited for him to move out of his way.

“Fuck off,” he whispered silently, and the kid’s legs finally obeyed his mind’s screaming commands to move.

Logan poured a large amount of the brew into a silver thermos he had and left without a further word or glance to anyone.

“Jesus.” Bobby let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. “Fucking Charles Manson or what, huh?”

Angel shook his head. “I don’t know, I think Manson would have the shits scared out of him by that guy.”

“I bet he fucks like a pile driver,” Emma said calmly.

Hank shook his head. “Is it always about sex with you?”

She shrugged. “Is there anything else worth mentioning?”

Hank shook his head again and noticed Ororo was fidgeting. “What’s the matter?”

“I really don’t like that guy, Hank,” she said. “We might as well broadcast to the world that the foremost representatives of mutant kind have a psychopathic madman as one of the reps.”

“Don’t worry hon.” He reached over and put a hand under her chin. “I’ll give him the Beast bitch slap if he gets out of line.”

She laughed and slapped his arm again, and the morning went on as it always did.

Logan walked down the hall to the garage, swallowing the scalding coffee in large gulps.

This is such bullshit, he thought.

Fucking hanging around a bunch of kids with delusions of turning the shit hole that was the world into a shit hole where everyone held hands and sung “We are the World.”

Xavier.

That manipulative son of a bitch.

“Stay with us Logan, help us make the difference, and I promise to use every resource in my power to find what you are looking for.”

That’s what he had said almost a year ago.

“If we do not try and change the world for the better Logan, then no one will, the indifference of good men is a far greater danger than any other.”

When the fuck did I ever say I was a good man?

Magneto was a piece of shit, that much was true, and all of those brown-nosing suck-ups he called the Brotherhood were just run-off from a cesspool, as far as he was concerned. But at least with that group, he was allowed to act as an independent and not put up with pricks like this Scott Summers guy.

He had been almost a fraction of a second from giving Xavier a Comanche special; to this day, he still didn’t know what stayed his hand.

Despite it all, maybe even if he didn’t believe in this entire world in harmony crap and every man is equal,

Maybe he respected Xavier a lot to even try for it.

“I can help you, Logan, but you must let me . Your past is still yours, no matter what part of it you don’t remember, but perhaps I can help you reclaim what was taken from you.”

Fucking guy would have been a hell of a car salesman.

He opened the garage door and standing right in front of him was something that made the beast in him roar.

Wearing a light green sports top and similarly colored running shorts stood Jean Grey in all of her “come and fuck me” glory.

She was standing facing away from him, doing stretches and Logan took in the sights without a hint of modesty.

She bent over and stretched forward, and a small growl escaped his throat.

She jumped and turned around. “Oh, umm, hi.”

He smirked at her and made his way over to his Harley softtail.

She was nervous, like a fawn that smells trouble.

If she only knew.

“I, uh, didn’t hear you come in.”

He took a long sip from the thermos. “I get that a lot.”

She smiled weakly. “You gave me a bit of a scare.”

“That too.”

She was putting on a mask in front of him, hiding the fluttering deep down in her belly. “How has your morning been?”

He shrugged. “Same shit, different day, until I saw you in those running shorts, that is.”

Her face turned almost as red as her hair.

Logan was loving every second of this; he was sure he could have had her on her back and screaming for more in five minutes if Scott hadn’t walked in.

He was wearing navy blue running pants and shirt with a different set of shades over his eyes, ones that tied behind head so they did not fall off by accident.

He smiled at Jean and Logan could see the sparks fly between the two; they looked like a couple off of some sitcom.

It almost made him want to puke.

“Hey, Jean” he said with a smile but then narrowed his sight over to Logan. “Wolverine,” he spoke curtly.

“Asshole,” he responded and raised his thermos in greeting.

Scott ignored the remark. “Are you ready to go?”

Jean nodded. “Yea sure, I guess I’ll see you later Logan. Got to keep in shape, you know.”

Logan smiled. “Lookin’ forward to it, Red.”

Logan cranked his cycle and hit the garage door control lying on the workbench next to him.

“Remember, Wolverine, Danger room at noon,” Scott shouted over the roar of the engine.

Logan revved the gas in the middle of what Scott was saying. “What?”

“I said, don’t forget to be back for the noon Danger room session.” He shouted louder, but it was drowned out by the motorcycle’s roar.

Logan hit the throttle and thundered past him, narrowly missing his feet. He stopped at the garage door and turned his head back to look at his “leader.”

“Don’t forget your sports bra, Slim, don’t want them pretty little tits of yours to go all saggy, now do we?”


And with that he rocketed off down the drive of the Xavier school.

“What a dick,” Scott said and didn’t notice Jean giggling slightly at his side.

After a few hours of tearing up the roadways and catching more than a few bugs in his teeth, Logan figured it was time to head back.

Didn’t want to make teacher mad, now did we?

He parked his bike and saw the time on the clock hanging on the far wall.

11:47.

He was pondering just saying to hell with it and One Eye could go fuck himself for all he cared, but if for no other reason, curiosity changed his mind.

The Danger room was one hell of a toy, that was for sure. Might be a nice change from just his regular workout session.

He went to the locker room and put on that damned leather monkey suit they called a uniform, damn thing was tight as hell in the crotch, and lazily made his way to the X-Men’s main training facility.

He input the code given to him by Xavier to enter and stepped into the large metallic room.

The entire group was standing in the center, all in their uniforms and all seemingly waiting on him.

Sauntering in, Logan stood away from the group with his arms folded across his broad chest.

Cyclops gazed down at the watch on his wrist. “You’re ten minutes late.”

Logan shrugged. “I’m here, ain’t I?”

Cyclops sighed but had to admit that this was better than nothing. “Okay, first thing today is sparring; no powers. I want to see what each of you have learned in the Jing Qwan Do.”


”Jean, you and Emma.”

Emma rolled her eyes and stepped forward along with Jean.

Logan eyed them both and had a hell of a fantasy playing out in his head.

“Beast, you and Colossus.”

The big Russian stepped forward along with the equally wide Hank.

“Iceman and Angel; Nightcrawler, you and Havok; Polaris and Shadowcat; Cecilia and Rogue; Storm and Wolverine.”

Logan snorted and breathed out a laugh.

“Problem, Wolverine?” Scott asked.

“You just gonna stand on the side, is that it?”

“This is to see how everyone else has advanced in their self defense, a teacher should watch his students,” he answered.

Logan unfolded his arms. “Wax on, Wax off, huh, One Eye?”

Scott said nothing further to him. “Ok, people, get to it.”

Each pair went off to their own part of the gym and proceeded in their exercise.

Storm stretched out her arms and legs and prepared herself.

Logan looked her up and down and realized that she was a hot thing herself. That shoulder-length white hair and that dark skin was a hell of a sexy contrast. She had full pouting lips, and a body that was well shaped in all the right places. That little fantasy of himself Emma and Jean just got a new member.

Logan popped his neck and placed his feet for a good vertical stance and waited.

Ororo was looking her opponent up and down. She had never seen a man of his height with such muscle mass. The black leather really left little to the imagination, and much as she disliked this guy, she was ashamed to admit that she was taking in all she saw.

Logan noticed it and he laughed on the inside.

She took her stance and waited as he did.

For a good minute, they just stood there waiting for the other to make the first move.

“C’mon, people, nothing gets done like this,” Scott shouted over to them.

Logan sighed and looked at her. “C’mon, Beautiful, gonna die of old age here, and that might take me a long time.”

Storm moved forward and launched a kick aimed for the temple on the side of his head.

She was much quicker than he expected, but as one swats a mosquito, he still slapped the boot away with little effort.

Again she launched a kick to his midsection. He caught it and flipped her over to the ground.

He stood over her smiling and saw the fire build in those strange blue eyes of hers, and for a moment they went white and her body crackled with power.

Logan raised a finger and wagged it in her face. “No, no Darlin, don’t want to hurt me now with those bad ass powers of yours now, do ya?”

She smiled at him. “Who said I need powers for that?”

She swung her right leg out which he caught, but then her left leg shot up right into his crotch.

Logan felt the pain billow in his groin and he grabbed her by the ankle, hurling her over his shoulder.

He was grunting with pain. “Fucking bitch.”

“Don’t ever underestimate me again, Wolverine,” She grinned as she stood back up and got back into a fighting stance.

Despite the pain he mirrored the smile. He liked this. “C’mon, baby girl.” He motioned her forward with his hands. “Hurt me some more.”

She came again this time with her hands driving palm first aimed at his face and throat. Logan ducked underneath and drove a forearm into her stomach.

Before she could even breathe out the wind that had been knocked from her, a massive arm went underneath her left arm and then around the back of her neck, another arm came around front and under her chin and latched onto the arm behind her head.

And she started to choke.

“Lesson 101, girly,” he whispered in her ear as he tightened the hold.

“This little move right here is called the Kata-Ha Jime. Hurts, don’t it?”

The only response was her struggling and a few winded gasps.

“I have no clue where I even learned this shit, but one thing I do know, honey, yer not even fucking close to my caliber.” He eased the hold out of the choke and just held her firm. He smelled her along her neck and it was blissful.

Strange, though.

There was not a whiff of fear coming from her.

That surprised Logan and excited him all the same.

“ya do have some potential, though, I’ll say that.”

She turned her head to look him in the eye as best she could. “That means a lot coming from the world’s most notorious killer.”

He laughed and flashed his teeth. “If ya ever want to really learn this shit, forget about tight ass Summers over there. I can teach ya something real.”

He smelled at her neck again. “There are a lot of things I could teach you.”

Shivers ran down her body at his voice, from both shock and, dammit all, if it wasn’t excitement.

“HEY!”

Hank’s voice broke her out of the freefall of emotions she was caught up in.

“That’s enough; let her go,” Beast yelled, walking over to them.

Logan reluctantly turned away from her and gazed at Beast.

He decided to get back to basics.

“Oh, this is yours, isn’t it, monkey boy?” Logan brought Ororo to face her boyfriend. “Hell of a sweet little thing you got here.”

“Let her go right NOW.”

“Careful, blue boy,“ Logan replied, running a hand down Ororo’s cheek. “Any redder and you’ll turn purple.”

“What the hell is going on over here.”? Cyclops came over to stand by Hank. “Wolverine, exercise over; let her go now.”

Logan was having a ball, and Ororo was not even squirming anymore. She seemed to fall into his arms like rain on grass.

Logan laughed and said to hell with it.

He turned her around and kissed her hard on the lips.

He pulled back and saw the bewilderment in her eyes.

Right before her right fist came and split his lip down the side.

“Son of a bitch,” she hissed and walked over to an outraged Hank.

“You’re dead.” Hank ran at Logan.

Snikt…

Three flashes of brilliant metal shimmered in front of Hank’s eyes.

Logan smiled even as his busted lip closed. He ran his tongue out and licked up the trickle of blood running down his chin and held Beast at a distance with the length of his claws.

“Your woman has already given me a taste for blood, Ape boy; don’t make me find a main course.”

Beast was holding his breath as he felt the blades press a bit into his throat.

“Drop it, Wolverine.” Scott had his hand to his visor, ready to blast Logan through the nearest wall if need be.

Logan flashed his teeth at him.

The entire team had come over to see the disturbance and all were fixing him with harsh eyes.

He smirked at them and leaned forward so Beast could hear. “Fuck with me ever again, bub, and I’ll personally skin and tan your big blue ass.”

He dropped his arms and retracted his claws.

Scott lowered his hand from his visor. “Don’t ever pull a stunt like that again, or you will answer to me, got it?”

Logan rubbed the already closing openings on his hands. “Ohhh, I can’t tell ya how much I look forward to that, Scooter.”

Logan spared one more look at Ororo and made a kissing gesture at her before walking out the Danger Room door.

Beast looked at Ororo. “Are you ok?”

Ororo rubbed her throbbing hand and nodded her head.

“C’mon, lets get a look at that.” They both walked out and headed to the infirmary.

Scott and Jean both left, Jean was quiet, She had heard all the stories about Wolverine, about how wild and unpredictable he was, but she was steadfast on giving him the benefit of the doubt.

The stories though, every bloodstained one of them, began echoing in her mind once again.

The others still stood talking in the Danger Room center.

“I am definitely getting the next sparring session with him,” Emma said with an evil, seductive smile playing on her lips.


“For God’s sake, go sit on a spin cycle, you nympho. He almost cut Hank’s throat with those things,” Cecilia shouted.

Emma only gave her the middle finger and walked out.

Havok and Polaris put an arm around each other. “Later, guys; too much drama for us. Gonna kick back with a flick.”

“Same,” Kurt replied, and in a cloud of smoke he, too, was gone.

Peter, Cecilia, Bobby, Warren and Kitty stood there in a long moment of silence.

“So,” Bobby said. “Who’s hungry?”

There was pain
There were screams

People laying in pieces all about his feet

His hands

Oh God, his Hands!!

They were slick and coated with dark blood

He could feel the entrails hanging from his arms and up his shoulders

The girl

She had called him here

She had called him to this

She laughed as he screamed into the starless sky

The world was going so cold

And colder it grew when she touched him

Her red hair went down his shoulders and scratched at his already bleeding flesh

She moved close down his back and whispered into his ear

“More, my love; I want to taste more.”

And then all the pain of Hell fell upon him

Logan shot up from his bed, sweating and coughing up saliva and blood.

He had nearly bitten his tongue in half from that one.

His healing abilities were already going to work to repair the damage.

Ripping open the nightstand by the bed, Logan dug inside and pulled out a large bottle of whiskey and a bottle of pills.

He raised the bottle to his mouth and downed almost half the bottle along with a large gulp of whiskey.

A normal person would have been dead with such ingestion.

But Dammit if Logan was not a normal person.

It wouldn’t even upset his stomach.

He also knew it would bring him nothing more than a moment’s comfort before the powers of his body and metabolism burned it all away.

Fucking Mutant healing shit.

Doesn’t do a fucking thing for the pain.

Or the dreams.

Or the anger.

He always tried to remember the dreams, even though he doubted he really wanted to know what they were about.

All he could ever remember was the pain and the blood.

And that damn voice that he both loved and hated.

Who was she?

That girl with the hair the color of fire.

The one that whispered those dark secrets in his ear.

The one that urged him to kill.

Kill.

Kill.

KILL.


Logan hurled the bottle of whiskey against the far wall, shattering it and spraying liquor over the whole of the room.

He slumped down beside his bed slowly and placed his head in his Hell be damned hands.

And he wept.





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