Chapter 2
Over all, it had been a fucking weird 12 hours for X-Force. First, these Mother-fuckers calling themselves the Marauders had decided to mess with Wade’s family (Not that Wade didn’t fully believe his family could kick their asses. X-Force for the win!)
But then that mangy asshole Sabretooth (Yes, Wade remembered that dick from Weapon X. He still didn’t smell any better years later) had pulled out some weird blasty gun thing and Cable, the over-protective, racist bastard (ok, maybe not racist but Wade loved winding the Winter Soldier upgrade up whenever he could) decided to step in front of the blast Sabretooth aimed at Wade and next thing he knew, Wade had a tiny, white haired, metal armed kid, unconscious in his arms.
The Marauders had left after that (and wasn’t that suspicious, the moment Priscilla, who was probably their heaviest hitter, was out for the count, those wannabe supervillains disappeared like their pants were on fire)
Wade had excellent common sense skills (well, sometimes anyway) and that smelled to him like bullshit. X-Force were distracted, one of their own down and the bad guys turn and run? Something wasn’t right here.
Of course, there was the other issue. As much as Wade loved kids (and had been planning to be a dad at some point) he wasn’t sure if he was ready to jump in and take care of a mini-trigger happy soldier while trying to track those cowards down and figure out their game.
Once the team had re-grouped in the back room of Weasels bar, they had tried to figure out what to do. Domino had immediately shot down Wade’s plan to leave Cable in Al’s apartment with a loaded gun while they went after the Marauders and beat them into fixing their resident Time Traveler before they had finally decided to contact the only family member who had any experience with kids.
It only took 3 calls to Colossus (Twice where Wade had prank called him and finally gotten his number blocked and once where Domino had finally given up and called) before they were able to explain the situation and organise for the metal man to meet them at the school to figure out what to do. Domino had then bundled Wade, Russell and a still sleeping Cable into Dopinder’s taxi for the trip to the school where they were met at the door by Colossus.
Colossus, the gentle hearted dummy, had shown them into the kitchen to talk which in hindsight, was probably a bad idea. Way too many sharp objects and fire in there. Wade should have known that Cable, soldier to his core, would fake being asleep until he could get his hands on a weapon. The fact that the little fella didn’t recognise his team was annoying, as was the cheese spreader Wade had to pull out of his thigh when the little shit had thrown it expertly at the Merc (Who the hell sharpened their Cream Cheese Spreader who wasn’t a paranoid bastard like Wade?) when he had tried to talk Cable down.
Although impressed that Cable took after him so much, Wade had admittedly lost his cool when he realised that the kid had managed to get his spreader back and was not going to put it down and let Wade hug him (and god did Wade want to hug him. Surprisingly, Cable made an adorably deadly kid) and had drawn Bea and Arthur (another, in hind sight, not a good idea moment when a kid with telekinesis was pulling weapons out of the air) before the kid was throwing the knife at Patrick Stewart's wheelchair bound twin.
Wade had admitted, his heart had sunk when the weapon had been thrown before something had stopped it in its tracks, the damn knife still dripping with Wade’s own blood.
His heart had risen again when Xavier hadn’t been skewered by a cheese spreader and instead returned to Cables hand. It had then gone through an Olympic level gymnastics routine when the stuffy X-Men leader had approached Cable and introduced himself as Cable’s dad (I mean, what the hell? No way could Cable be related to the least liked member of the X-Men. A badass like Cable with his epic snark side and surprisingly decent sense of humor, even if it was initially hidden behind a weird kid killing plot line, could not be related to that laser eyed asshole, time travel be damned!)
And then Cable had dropped the knife. And Wade had to epically stumble over to Wolverine who had entered the room behind James McAvoy’s older self and pretend to swoon at that revelation that Cable was related to Summers (annoyingly, the bastard had ignored Wade, letting him fall to the ground, forcing Wade to get up and drape himself over the mutant in shock)
“Alright….. What. The. Fuck.” He said.
-----
In the dim lab, a figure sat before a large screen, the computer light doing nothing to colour the figures pale skin, a pointed chin resting on a white hand.
On the screen, footage was on loop of several figures in white fighting against a figure in black and red and another in green with white hair. The white figures were being gunned down, annihilated but the two intruders. Next to the footage, were several holograms showing 3 DNA sequences. One was labelled SUMMERSS. The second GREYJ. The third was unlabelled.
Beside the screen, a metal table stood, with four thick leather straps bolted into the steel where a persons wrists and ankles would rest.
Footsteps drew near, the figure ignoring it until there was a loud metal bang.
Finally, the figure turned to look at the feral mutant standing at the table, the blaster on the metal surface where he had dropped it.
“Well?” The figure asked.
“It’s done. Just as you predicted. He stepped in front of the beam.” The feral replied in a low, gruff voice.
The figure smiles and looked back at the screen, the footage freezing briefly on the image of the white haired figure. Silently, the feral turned and left the room. He had done his task and wasn’t needed anymore.
“Soon Nathan. You will be home with me.” Mr Sinister smiled at the screen, eyes falling on the unlabelled DNA chain. “Then we shall see if you are as perfect as your DNA suggests.”
-----
Scott had dealt with many frightened young mutants in various mental states during his long career as a teacher at Xaviers School. From waking up almost catatonic kids enough to get them to eat and survive, to talking down human time bombs on the point of exploding.
Hell, he could still remember being in the same state on his own arrival in the school many years before after his rescue from the hands of Jack Winters, as a skinny, abused teen too terrified to even open his eyes, let alone trust the man who would later become the closest thing to a father to him.
But there was something different about Nathan.
Apart from being the youngest mutant Scott had ever dealt with (Scott estimated that he was no more than 6 years old, far younger than the normal students of Xaviers, whose mutations all manifested around puberty) the boy was unnerving to look at. Scott could see his own jaw line, inherited from his own father and a trait of the Summers men, in the boy. He could see Jean’s nose in this little boy. The boy’s hair was the same shade as Alex’s (except for the white bangs) The boys eyes were a shade of blue that Scott remembered as his own before his mutation made it impossible to see his eyes. And the boys mutation….Even now, Scott could feel a gentle probing in the back of his head, so like Jeans and yet different.
Scott had felt many different telepaths in his head. From the familiar feeling of Jean through their mental connection or the equally familiar presence of the Professor, to less welcome presence like Emma Frost, Scott was well versed in identifying a presence and protecting himself against hostile forces.
The feeling in his mind was not hostile. In fact, it was very well trained, not pushing or breaking, waiting to be invited inside.
It could only be Nathan, the young boy looking for any hints of danger, his blue eyes scanning Scott’s face for any signs of trouble. Scott opened up his mind, wanting the boy to realise he was safe and trusting that he wouldn’t go where he was not welcome.
Despite the Professors fears, it was clear that Nathan had remarkable control over his mutation, maybe an automatic reflex gained from his adult years or just a natural born control.
Scott felt himself become caught up in the feeling of this boy, of his SON, inside his head. He didn’t notice as Jean lowered herself to sit beside him and reach out her hand towards Nathan. He didn’t notice as the Professor spoke to the X-Force team, trying to reassure them of their teammate’s welfare. He didn’t notice as Logan pushed the red and black manic off, leading to Deadpool hitting the floor with an indigent yelp. He didn’t notice as Nathan took Jeans hand, his left eye flashing as their minds connected, causing Jean to gasp even as the boy’s metal fingers gripped onto the woman’s hand.
Suddenly Scott felt images flash through his mind, images of a distant, future place. In those images, he saw himself and Jean, looking more worn and haggard but it was them. They had a little boy with them. A little boy would could only be Nathan. He saw flashes of them hiding and fighting, of a virus ravaging Nathan’s body, growing metal from flesh.
Startled, Scott realised what this was. This was Nathan’s memories of them. This was this boy showing them that he trusted them.
Scott finally came to himself with the boy in his arms, Nathan’s face pressed against his chest. Jean was at his side, her own arms wrapped around both Scott and Nathan.
“Redd? Slym?” The boy asked, Scott finally hearing his son’s voice for the first time. Scott already knew the boy was addressing them, that to him, this was their names.
“It’s ok Nathan.” Scott found himself whispering into the boy’s hair. “It’s ok.”
------
Sitting back in his wheel chair, Charles Xavier watched as Scott and Jean embraced the boy, feeling warm inside. It was rare that he could see families joyfully re-united and that it was Scott and Jean, his first pupils, the people Charles thought of as his own children, living this, was a heady experience.
Ororo had stepped up, speaking to the X-Force team and explaining to the woman (Domino) and the Teenager (Firefist) that they would do everything they could to protect Nathan while the X-Force team tracked down whoever had done this to their teammate. Piotr already offering his assistance to the team to help them locate whoever it was who had caused this. Logan had his hands full with Deadpool, who seemed to be all over the place, trying to engage Logan in conversation that seemed to switch track multiple times, irritating Logan to no end even as the Red and Black clad mercenary continued on with whatever he was saying.
Finally, Jean let go of her grip on Scott, raising to her feet. After a few moments, Scott followed her example, picking Nathan up as he rose to his feet.
Charles could see that the boy was mentally exhausted from the stress of the situation, almost falling asleep, his head resting on Scott’s chest.
“I’ll go and put him to bed.” Charles heard Scott mutter to Jean as the female telepath reached up and ran her hand along Nathans back.
“Take him to see Hank first.” Jean replied in an equally low voice.
“Of course.” Scott replied.
Jean nodded and gave him a small smile before dropping her hand. Scott turned to the door.
“Wait! You are just going to take my Cable?” A voice asked.
Charles turned to look at Deadpool who was de-tangling himself from Logan’s annoyed grip to run to the door.
“Mr Wilson, you must understand that you cannot keep him safe with your current plan of action. Leave him here with us.” Charles butted in before Scott could tell the mercenary to go to hell. “He will be protected here.”
In his arms, Nathan had woken up a little and wriggled around to look at Deadpool.
“But I’m an X-Man!” Deadpool whined.
“Only a Trainee.” Piotr added, causing Deadpool to turn around and point in warning at him.
Suddenly, Nathan lent out of Scott’s arms, holding his own arms out to Deadpool.
Deadpool turned and looked at Nathan for a moment before pointing to his own chest, somehow expressing a question behind the mask before slowly stepping forward to take Nathan from Scott’s reluctant grip, giving an exaggerated groan as he took the weight of the 6 year old.
“Alright Nate Baby.” The Merc said. “Fuck it’s weird thinking you have another name. But you do make a damn cute kid.” Carefully, he shifted so that one of his arms were free, Nathan’s own arms wrapped around his neck.
“Anyway, you may not remember me right now but I know my bad tempered asshole friend Cable is still in there somewhere. But until you grow into him, I just want to you promise me to give your parents hell. Ok?”
Behind him, Scott cleared his throat, reminding Deadpool that he was still in the room but Deadpool seemed to ignore him.
“I know you can do it. And also…” Using his free hand, Deadpool reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out something silver. “You might need this. A lot of seedy old white guys in these portraits here and I’m not 100 percent convinced that they aren’t going to come alive and come looking for some cute little kid to molest. This will protect you until I can come and castrate any bad guys.”
He handed the silver object to the child who took it, looking confused.
“Is that a Rape Whistle?” Scott asked, shocked.
“Gotta protect them until they can wheeled a gun for themselves. Or call Uncle Deadpool to do it for them, not that I think Cable can’t protect himself but you never know.” Deadpool said cheerfully as he handed the boy back.
Scott took the kid in his arms again and gave the Merc a look before leaving the room. Charles turned to face the Mercenary who was looking almost wistfully after the retreating pair.
“Mr Wilson, I promise that we will protect young Nathan.” Charles replied.
“Can it Jean-Luc Picard.” Deadpool replied. “I have read your comics and seen your movies. I know how these plots go.” The Merc turned away. “And I can guess what is coming next.” He added to himself.