Chapter 1
It’s been six months since the Apocalypse incident, five months since Charles opened the school back up, three months since Peter got his cast off, and still, Erik is here. No one really knows why he hasn’t left yet, although no one is really complaining either. Charles is loving having his old friend around, and the students got over their initial wariness around the former terrorist once the rumors started flying around about him and the professor. Raven seems happy to see Erik and Charles content, while Hank seems to be the only one bothered by the presence of the metallokinetic Nazi-hunter.
The one no one can really get a read on is Peter. He doesn’t seem to have anything against Erik, and yet any time Erik enters the room the speedster tenses up and stops talking, something everyone knows is extremely out of character for the boy whose mind and mouth move faster than a mile a minute.
Only Raven is aware of Peter’s secret, and Peter has sworn her to secrecy. “Raven, his family was just murdered, now is not the time to spring this huge secret on him. Oh yeah, hi Erik, guess what I’m your long-lost son who you didn’t know about and therefore accidentally abandoned only to run into him years later when he broke you out of the Pentagon! And I know you’re devastated over the loss of your wife and daughter but pay attention to me instead, a grown man who didn’t graduate high school and lived in his mom’s basement until he broke his leg failing to take down a crazy murderous mutant and moved into some rich dude’s mansion instead to still continue to be a total deadbeat loser! He doesn’t want me Raven, I’d just be a disappointment.”
Raven hates the way Peter is feeling, but the more she tries to convince him that Erik would not be disappointed and that Peter is not a loser but a hero, the harder the fights it and the more frustrated he gets, until eventually he speeds out of the conversation. Well, if she can’t convince him to tell Erik, she can at least force them to spend more time together.
Raven had been tasked with training the new X-men team, and it was proving to be quite a challenge. Scott had been appointed the unofficial leader of the group, and it was taking a toll on his confidence. Suddenly, he couldn’t make a decision to save his life, or the life of his team. However, today, Raven was not concerned about the team dynamic, she had a new focus. She had asked Erik and Hank to come to the Danger Room for help training the children.
“Alright everyone, listen up. We’re gonna see how you fare against older, highly experienced opponents: Hank, Erik, and I. I want to see three specific matchups. Jean and Scott against me, Kurt and Ororo against Hank, and Peter against Erik.”
Peter’s head snapped up, eyes wide, and then he glared daggers at Raven. She paid him no attention, although Erik also seemed to notice the look, narrowing his eyes questioningly. Peter opened his mouth to speak, but with a pointed look from Raven he shut his mouth. The speedster glanced towards Erik, met his eyes, and quickly looked down at his feet, shuffling them nervously, his body clearly ready to run.
“Alright, Scott and Jean, we’re up first. You guys ready?”
Scott and Jean shared a nervous look, and then Jean smiled reassuringly. Scott relaxed a bit, and then nodded. “We’re ready.”
Scott and Jean fought well, but Raven stayed in between them and at close range, preventing Scott from using his power for fear of hitting Jean, and her agility kept her safe from anything Jean tried to throw at her. Eventually, she pinned Scott with one leg and Jean with her arms, claiming victory.
Kurt and Ororo stayed in it much longer, Kurt using his powers to keep Hank on his toes, and Ororo using her long-range lightning attacks to target him without getting too close. However, Kurt forgot to watch his tail when in close range to Hank, and without their distance advantage, the veteran X-men was able to take down the two new recruits with relative ease.
And then it was time for Peter versus Erik.
Peter and Erik stood on opposite ends of the room staring at each other, the speedsters foot tapping anxiously, prepped to run. Erik’s face was impossible to read, although Raven thought he looked closed off in thought. The rest of the team was in the observation room, everyone a little on edge, but not sure why. Jean could feel the unease swirling around her and glanced around at the faces of the rest of the team. They were all looking at the speedster with vague concern and confusion, and that’s when she realized the usually extremely talkative man had said nothing in the past two hours of training, even when there were plenty of opportunities to make fun of Scott and Hank. Something was off. Everyone had noticed that Peter was always a little nervous around Erik, but Peter always seemed skittish anyways, so most people wrote it off as a side effect of his mutation.
But now Jean was sure something was up. She looked at Raven, who’s eyes were less nervous and more mischievous. “Ready?” The shapeshifter asked.
Erik nodded, and Peter gave a thumbs up, legs still shifting, becoming too quick for eyes to follow.
“3… 2… 1… fight.”
Erik had always been impressed with the speedster, ever since he watched him take out a dozen men in pentagon kitchen almost a decade ago. The boy was very confident in his powers and knew exactly how to use them to his advantage. Erik often wondered what it was like for him to move so fast and how it affected his body otherwise, but he’d never gotten around to asking. He knew he made the kid nervous, and Peter made him nervous too. Every time he looked at him, he felt a crushing guilt knowing that he simply watched as Apocalypse broke his leg, taking his power and leaving him defenseless. Erik figured that’s why the boy was scared of him: he blamed Erik for not helping to save him, and the sight of the metallokinetic man reminded Peter of that day. He wasn’t sure how he was gonna muster up the will to fight the kid, he really didn’t want to see him hurt again. In fact he had a really strong urge to protect Peter with everything he had.
Erik nodded and looked up at Peter as Raven counted down, and watched his legs twitch with anticipation, until he could no longer follow their speed. He felt the metal around the room, and his fingers twitched as he readied himself.
“Fight.”
Erik watched as Peter disappeared, and instinctively brought up a wall of metal to his left, the direction he somehow sensed the speedster was coming from, based on the breeze. He felt a gust of wind pass behind and above him, and then suddenly he was on his back, pain emanating from the left side of his chin. He picked himself up and looked around but couldn’t find Peter anywhere. I guess I should be more concerned about protecting myself than hurting him.
As soon as Raven gave the command, Peter let lose all his pent-up energy, shooting across the room quicker than he meant to. He dodged a wall of metal that appeared in his path, instead running up the wall and behind Erik. He came around to the front and gave the man a firm but slow punch to the face, watching as he shot back into the wall and on the ground, then zipping away again before he could get caught. As he ran, Erik got back up and began to float into the air, surrounding himself with a cyclone of sharp metal pieces. As Peter slowed and adjusted back into normal time, the projectiles began to shoot out in his direction. He sped around dodging them and throwing Erik childish faces each time he slowed down enough to be seen. His anxiety surrounding the man had been quickly forgotten as he was able to unleash his speed and run out the twitchiness that occupied his body when his dad was around. As Peter ran and dodged, he found he was actually having a great time, like some perverted game of father-son catch where they were kind of trying to kill each other. As his mind began to outrun his legs, Peter faltered, and felt as part of the floor grasped his left foot, snaking around it and securing his leg up to his calf.
The speedster froze in place and watched as Erik floated down towards him, bringing more metal. Peter tried and failed to dislodge his leg, and his breathing began to speed up as his chest tightened, and his lungs couldn’t fill as much as he wanted them to. Erik was saying something, and the metal was lowering to the ground, but Peter couldn’t hear on account of the blood rushing through his ears and his heartbeat thundering in his brain. He closed his eyes hard, but when he opened them, he was in Cairo again, trapped in place, powerless and alone.
Suddenly, he felt the metal melt off of his leg, and on instinct he ran, out of the Danger Room, out of the mansion, and into the trees. He sat down by the lake and fell back looking up into the sky. His fingers tingled from the lack of oxygen and rush of adrenaline, and his legs felt like jelly from trying to escape the metal. He focused on slowing his breath and taking bigger and deeper breaths. Slowly his head stopped spinning, and his legs fell back under his control. He blinked a few times, and the clouds came into view, blocking out the sun and shading his eyes from the harsh light. He wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that, but he was there long enough to watch the stars appear in the sky.