Will & Chase

“You’re leaving?”

Will reached behind the counter of the run-down bowling ball center, swiping at her last pay check left here by her coworker, Angela. Turning to grab the last of her belongings, she looked to the small girl, no older than ten at most, and shrugged.

“I’ve got to, kid.” Ruffling her blonde hair, she headed toward the door, only to be stopped halfway by a frantic child. She huffed and laced her arms over her chest, refusing to let Will go any further.

“But you can’t just—” she cried, “just leave! What about my birthday party? You said you’d be there! You said, Willy!”

Willy. There was only one person who had ever been permitted to call her Willy. And that was little Daisy. The daughter of the woman who owned the bowling alley. And also the very one that stood before her, with blonde curls bouncing with every nudge of her head and tears that rolled down her bright blue eyes, stroking her rosy cheeks. Daisy sniffled, just barely audible over the blaring ’70’s music that her mother was so weirdly fond of.

“Look, I don’t have a choice, understand? I can’t stay here,” Will grunted, doing her best to stay calm. She needed to get on the road. It wasn’t long before her tenant would notice she wasn’t there.

“But—” Daisy argued.

“I’ll be back,” Will blurted, hearing the phone ring at the desk. Surely it couldn’t be her tenant, but on the other hand, perhaps it could be. He did know her work number. He’d call every now and again when others would complain of smelling weed or, in this case, when she didn’t pay rent on time.

“When?” Daisy asked.

“Uh,” Will glanced hurriedly at the phone, which Georgia now held and locked eyes with Will. “Soon, okay? Soon. I promise.”

The moment Georgia’s lips began forming that of Will’s name, she bolted. Daisy objected, but Will had to leave. She had no other choice. She knew she wouldn’t return, but the kid would soon learn that people would not always follow through with the promises they made. She had to leave. She simply had to.

Even if this had once been her home, too.

In situations like this – there was no time to think. Only do. Will was in no shape to fight off any more enemies, as every part of her being ached with such unbearable pain, leaving her inert. Her eyes were trained on the ground, caught in a daze that she couldn’t elude. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought she may faint again, as the sounds around her gradually molded into nothing but a ringing that filled her ears.

Then, there was movement. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to cause Will to blink. Her eyes watered, but only slightly, as a tinge of pain came with every bat of her eyelash. She swallowed, though her throat threatened to close, and in seconds, she found that she was on her feet by the help of Chase, the excruciating pain gone numb. She hobbled forward alongside him, not entirely sure where they were or how they’d gotten there.

It was quiet here, and not at all like it had been at home. Four walls closed them in, but in such a way that it was comforting. There weren’t guns being pointed at them, or high-pitched screams, and Will did not feel that her life was at much of a risk. If anything, she supposed she felt… safe. Here. In what was called the X-mansion. She looked to Chase, slowly detaching herself from him.

“I’m good,” she told him, her voice cracking.

Chase nodded, releasing his hold on her and looking around. He was a bit disoriented, now suddenly at the X-mansion when only moments ago they were all at the ranch. How far had they traveled in mere seconds? Thousands of miles?

"Incredible..." he murmured, shivering slightly. He was still on edge, pumped up from adrenaline and shaking slightly. For a minute he thought he might pass out right then and there, but he didn't, instead pushing himself to move forward and walk away from their entrypoint. It was what his leaders wanted, anyway. Chase motioned for Will to follow.

As the two wandered down the nearest corridoor, the young man sighed, putting a hand to his head. "All of this is a bit much..." he stated, leaning up against a wall. Will snorted, taking a seat on the opposite wall.

"No kidding," she muttered, leaning her head back. She didn't say anything after that, and for the sake of avoiding awkward silence or possibly falling asleep right then and there, Chase spoke up again.

"I can't believe Noel's dead..." he frowned, eyes stinging.

Will sighed, clearly hoping for some silence, but responded anyway. "I mean, I didn't really know him..." the older girl swallowed uncomfortably and looked around, trying to find something else to talk about. "This place is... huge..." she finished lamely.

Chase coughed out a laugh, nodding at the ridiclousness of it all. "Yeah," he replied, smiling a bit, "I might just sleep out here. Forget trying to find the bedrooms."

At that, Will laughed - albeit sharply - and proceeded to stand, putting most of her weight on the wall. "Well, you can sleep on the floor if you like, but I have standards."

Chase groaned, but stood. "Fine, fine, but if we find a couch before a bed, I'm taking it." He stretched a bit, as if in emphasis, and took the lead; a silent Will followed, rolling her eyes. She might just fight him for a couch.

Fortunately for the both of them, they soon stumbled upon a game room with several couches, a television, a pool table, and various board games. Chase sighed in relief, walking over to claim the largest couch when Will shoved past him. "Nope. Mine." she stated, falling uncerimoniously onto the cushions.

Chase scowled, "But I'm taller." he complained. Will simply folded her hands behind her head, stretching out so that all 5 foot 7 inches of her filled the sofa. "I'm older," she countered, closing her eyes, "Now stop being a pussy and go to sleep."

Chase grumbled to himself but didn't argue any further, lying down on the loveseat. His legs dangled off the end. "You suck," he yawned, drifting off.

Will smirked, on the edge of sleep. "Nah, I lick."

A few minutes after having something to eat and drink, as well as talking to Helena as he did those things, Jack found himself being incredibly tired and worn out. It was to be expected given the day that all the mutants had today. From the mental fatigue of losing Noel to the just overall stress and physical exhaustion. It was just too much, especially for Jack. So, he was looking forward to a good night’s rest.

As he found himself in the areas where the male dorms were, Jack just picked one. He really didn’t care at this point which room he slept in. So, just picking the nearest one that he found, he picked the one on the left. He saw what he expected to see. There was a closet, a nightstand, some little decorative items and a bed. Nothing really too special about the room. Jack really didn’t care because all he was interested in was the bed. So, slipping off his slippers and taking off his shirt, Jack climbed into the bed and within five or so minutes, he was fast asleep.

About three hours in, Jack was still asleep, but he was tossing and turning, his legs kicking around. If anyone around this time were to walk by his room, they would hear the repeated phrase 'I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.' They would hear it get louder and more guilt-filled.



Jack popped up, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. He ran his head across his face, shaking his head in the process. “Not that dream again. Dammit!”

It would be inaccurate to suggest that events were a blur to Alex. That would imply they sped by, too fast for his mind to process. But as crushingly slow and painful as anything was at that time, they may well have been a blur for all they affected him. While in reality he showed just as much pace as the others, fleeing eventually to the manor, to Alex it had felt like he was barely stumbling, crushed beneath the weight of events. His family was dead, and now so was Noel. He wasn't insane, he was aware the blood was not on his heads, but he could not shake the crushing truth that without his presence, both would probably still be breathing now. He didn't need, or want, to confer much with the others, although he shared their surprise at the location and condition of where they had escaped to, that soon wore off and rather than peel off in small groups, he simply wandered. He made a conscious effort to avoid Helena. While she would usually be his go-to friend in times of such emotional upheaval, right now he was too raw, too far gone. All he'd end up doing is sucking her into the foul cracks of his mind. The curse of telepathic empathy.

Alone and distraught, he still managed to marvel at the building he now found himself in. It was an old place, at least as far as the New World was concerned, you could fell the age even through the meticulous care. It reminded him a lot of the various country homes and estates still standing back on Blighty. The wood creaked with the eons, no amount of dusting could stop that, even if you had wanted to. Careful to ensure his own isolation, he avoided looking for rooms that he knew the others would be searching for. Libraries, rec lounges, accommodation. He headed deeper into the mansion, through offices and corridors, down a flight of stairs, into the Earth below, before coming across something that just didn't fit. The door was metal, shined to near perfection, heavy duty, like a bomb shelter. He stared at it for a few minutes, deciding if further exploration was really what he needed right now, then, eventually, his fingers touched down on the cold surface. A moment later, a familiar voice sounded behind him.

"Careful where you tread Alex, there's a whole lot of history and horror where you now tread." X had, unsurprisingly, remained completely unnoticed by the adolescent, her presence only revealed by her voice he had no idea how long she had tailed him. When he had left the group to range out on his own, she had been speaking to Rob. He didn't know if she'd cut that short or already finished. But she was here now, and even at the best of times Alex found her company uneasy, if not hostile.

"Is this the?"

"Danger Room? Yes. Although, I doubt it's been running as it once did for a long time now. Not for so long." Her voice nearly trailed off at the end, the emotional toll she was evidently bearing enough to break through even her demeanor, if only slightly. But it wasn't just that, Alex couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he had an idea.

Awe.

X approached the door, pressing a console Alex didn't know was there, hidden within the wall itself, before the bulkhead slid open, exposing a vast room of shining metal, circular, he noticed the glass floor of the observation room above. He followed X inside, turning on the spot as he looked around the chamber as his teacher spoke.

"Once this place was a miracle of mental and physical manipulation. The X-men could create any scenario,any challenge, to train against and overcome, or simply to improve. I do not know whether it can still run, if it will ever run like it did."

"It still didn't help them in the end." It came across as more bitter than Alex would have liked, it had been meant as a sad remark at the suffocating presence of the fate of the X-men, but instead the anger and personal tragedy of the day seeped in, turned it into a remark that he immediately regretted. More so when X turned and levelled her gaze at him, orbs that he knew had looked into the soul of a man moments before silencing him forever. Alex had to remind himself that he to shared that trait.

"Do you know what a healing factor is Alex?" It seemed a dumb question, simple enough that it took Alex a few moments before he was sure she actually wanted a response.

"It means..you heal, injuries, in some cases even fatal ones, healed, not painless though."

"Do you know what they used to say about it?"

"Eh..."

"They used to say Wolverine was the man who could not die, that I was his daughter. The only one to share his curse of immortality. You know why they no longer say this?"

"Well...Apocalypse."

"Right, except that Wolverine spent many years in his long, long, life looking for death. Actively seeking it. When I knew him he was past such dark stages, but he hardly shied away from pain, or anything that might give him his final release. I'd seen him come back from blows that left him unrecognizable as a human being, let alone Logan. Do I think the world is a kind enough place to think he is now resting in peace? No, I think he feels it, his atoms blown to shreds, rebuilding so slowly that he may never walk this Earth again. Logan and I never had the assured finality of death, I doubt he's found it now."

Alex didn't realize why she was telling this story, and why to him, but he still found himself reeling at the prospect. While the media had never been kind to the X-men, in an older generation of those he had spoken to, he was well aware of how the world had perceived Wolverine. A mutant who could not be killed, perhaps there were those out there comforted by the idea Wolverine was no more, but to hear X describe it as she did, made Alex, usually one fairly pensive about what could be found beyond the void, thankful for the certainty of a mortal death.

"You're wondering why I'm telling to this. Wolverine was my father, genetically yes, and later in spirit. I know Noel is plaguing you, but nothing tops the suffering of our family, this coming from someone who barely had one. The point is, many of us have family who have suffered, even those of us who, unlike the pair of us, didn't have family so fortunate as to remain loving. Grieve, rage, as you should, as you have every right, but do not let it make you drop your guard, because that is exactly what they are waiting for." There was no pity in her expression, no true sense of empathy, beyond the words themselves, it was a warning first and "foremost and one that almost sent Alex reeling with its pragmatism. She was using the events of the day, dire as they were, to teach a lesson. The thought almost brought him to scream his rage at her, but before then. it dawned on him, as it had before with X. She was the perfect teacher to have in this world, a world of hate in so many ways. X was trying to keep them alive, and she wasn't afraid to hurt and offend them to do so.

"I understand, I won't let them have me as well, if only for those lost."

"Good...now, I understand you've been taught Krav Maga? Lets see if we can't expand on that."

The New Mexico desert was stretched before Ethan's eyes, with no end to it in sight. So there it was, atop the mountain, where the boy sat, drinking from his water bottle. He had been traveling for at least three hours now, he was exhausted. "How long until I make it to this place?" he said to himself. He sat there contemplating the landscape layed out in front of him, wondering if this place where apparently mutants were being trained was actually real or if it was just a set up. "Well, I'm not going to find out by just sitting here." he said while he put his water bottle in his backpack and stood up, ready to continue making his way towards Xavier's place, which was where mutants were training.

As Ethan stood up, he felt the wind, it was blowing rather strongly today. "Nothing like a good breeze during a hot day in the desert." he said while he put his backpack back on. He put his hands facing downwards and suddenly, fire began to shoot out of them at high speeds propelling him upwards. He proceeded to steady himself while on the air and repositioned his hands and feet so they would be facing backwards and fire began to shoot out of both his hands and his feet, making him rocket forward at very high speeds. As he was rocketing forward, he looked down, scanning the ground below him, seeing if he could find anything that resembles a mansion.

During his trip, while he was looking for the mansion, he came across what looked like a town below him. "Maybe I could stop here and have a snack, I'm starving." he said to himself as he began his descent, he made sure he landed away from the town so that no one would see that he was a mutant. As he approached the town he began to see that this town was a ghost town for the most part, the people were nowhere to be seen and the homes looked like a tornado ripped through them. As Ethan kept creeping through the town, as if some sort of ghost was going to hear him if he didn't, he made it to the middle of the town where he saw a group of people. "Um, hello?" he asked, almost scared to be raising his voice. When the men turned around, he saw they had guns and lots of them, he also turned and saw black SUV's (presumably theirs) parked next to one of the homes. The men suddenly raised their guns and aimed at Ethan, who did what his instincts told him to and aimed his hands toward the ground as the flames began to shoot out, propelling him upwards, and then, yet again, he aimed his hands backwards and he was rocketing through the air as he felt his leg was in pain, when he looked down he saw that one bullet had hit him in his right leg. "So much for my fucking snack." he growled as he kept flying, faster and faster to avoid being followed by those men.

After five minutes or so, he had lost way too much blood to keep going, as he began to lose strength, he began to fall down, during this fall, Ethan fought to stabilize himself and prevent his untimely demise, while he did manage to prevent his death, he still didn't have enough strength in him for a proper landing and ended up crash-landing into the sand. "Shit, now what am I going to do?" he asked himself, looking around to see if there was a way to survive through this ordeal. "I guess I'm walking then." he said as he slowly got up and began walking in the direction where the mansion was supposed to be. As he was walking, he began to feel weaker and weaker, until he was too weak to continue. He attempted to move forward but couldn't. "Fuck, I guess this is how it ends." he said as he couldn't move from the weakness that came with losing a lot of blood.

As he laid there, in the middle of the desert, he resigned and closed his eyes, waiting for his inevitable fate, a minute or so later, he fell asleep, but to Ethan's surprise, he woke up and all he could see was a very bright light and heard people talking. "What... what is going on here, where am I?" he asked as he struggled to move. "You are awake and well, it would seem that this operation was a success after all!" said one of the men, with a sort of surprised tone. "How are you feeling? We found you lying out-cold out there in the desert, you seemed to have lost a lot of blood." said a woman with a preoccupied tone. Ethan was beginning to regain movement in his body, his leg still hurt a lot but it felt better than it did when he was shot. "Yeah I'm fine, where am I?" Ethan asked, still struggling to sit up, but he eventually did. "That's good to hear, we were out for our morning walk and found you lying there, we went to check on you and when we saw you were fine, we brought you hear so my husband could heal you." said the lady in a kind tone as she walked over to a table and grabbed a plate with a sandwich on it. "Here, you should eat something." she said as she offered Ethan the plate.

"Thank you miss." Ethan said as he grabbed the plate and quickly began to eat the sandwich the lady had offered him. When Ethan was done eating his sandwich he turned to the man and the woman. "I honestly can't thank you enough for what you did, but I need to be going." he said as he stood up rather shakily mostly due to the pain. "You're leaving so soon? You should stay for a while and rest more, it will help you." said the man looking rather worried. "I understand your concern, but I have to meet some people and they're very close to here, I can rest there." he lied, in actuality he had no idea how much farther he had to go to make it to the mansion, but he needed to get moving so he didn't have time for this. "Well, take care out there young man, and stay out of trouble." said the man and woman in unison while she picked up Ethan's backpack and gave it to him. "Thanks, will do!" Ethan said as he put his backpack on and attempted to waddle his way out as it was still hard for him to walk properly. "You sure you don't need help there?" said the man "I could give you a ride if you want." he added with a concerned look on his face. "No, I'm fine, I can make it there on my own, thanks for the offer though, and good bye!" shouted Ethan, but as he walked out of the man's home, he regretted what he had said. "If only I would've let me take a drive with him to the place I was told about." he said to himself, rather angrily as the pain was killing him with every step he took. How Ethan wished he could just use his fire to fly away, but he'd risk getting seen and chased by people who don't exactly like mutants. When Ethan made sure he was far enough from the town that he could start propelling himself upwards with his fire, he did and soon, he was again on his way to the location he was given, though, on his way there, he started to feel strange until he began to feel reality warping. "What's happening here?" he said as he tried to go faster but to no avail, he was all of a sudden, in some mansion he did not recognize. "Where am I? Is this the mansion I was looking for?"