Smoke Rises

So sorry for the VERY long gap between chapters, been quite busy lately. Anyways, on with the action...

Chapter 7

Kurt had been trained for this, all of the X-men had. If one of them ever fell under some sort of outside control, the others were well prepared to stop them if necessary.

Their sessions were aimed at disabling only and were often performed in teams to try and keep fights short and less likely to end in severe injuries to either party. That is, unless you were training with Wolverine.

He had a habit of putting everyone into one-on-one sessions against each other, his reasoning being, "Even though you're part of a team, no matter how hard you try ya won't be with that team 24/7. Better to up yer game now than get killed later…"

Well, if there was ever a time to up his game, it was now.

Already injured, bleeding and exhausted from nine other robots, it was all Kurt could do to keep out of claw reach. Hoping to get some chance to rest, he led the Wolverbot to one end of the long room then ported all the way to the opposite side. Though porting used up a good amount of vital energy, it would be around a minute before the clawed robot could get back to his position, so, Kurt decided any time to think and breath was worth the risk.

As he listened to its heavy footsteps grow closer, he flashed back to a particularly bad Danger Room Session against Logan. Fights like this had been routine training for both of them as they often sparred for fun outside of the Danger Room, but these never got serious. This DRS had been completely different, Logan had amped up the challenge level to full strength, putting Kurt against an all-out, feral raged, Wolverine doppelganger. Kurt had beaten the double, but how he couldn't quite remember?

The bot cut his thoughts off suddenly, coming up low behind him, flinging its body with the same iconic jab of his former teammate. A quick turn, block with a sword, grab with the tail and the bot was grounded. He ported again, just fast enough to miss getting his foot amputated.

He was glad that the bot wasn't a complete duplicate. It was slightly slower than the real deal, though not by much, and its claws were clearly not made of the same indestructible adamantium as his swords could block its strikes easily. Its "skin", on the other hand, seemed to have more than just gears and wires under the black cloth. Kurt's strikes and parries merely cut through the fabric and glanced off its surface, having no effect on the understructure. He was wasting his time with the swords and the bot was catching up with him. He had to end this fast before he got shish-kabobed.

Then, the solution hit him.

After another quick dodge, Kurt jammed his swords into the floor, let the bot rush at him, ported onto its back, grabbed both its arms then ported again, removing them at the shoulders. The armless robot was thrown off balance and fell hard to the ground, but before it could manage to roll up to its knees, Kurt flipped forward and launched its own claws through its head. The second it landed, the realization of what he just did finally hit him and he froze as he was thrust back into the Danger Room.

Back then, his answer for stopping a raged Wolverine had been spur-of-the-moment. The only real thoughts he had was that the simulation wasn't real and that, even if it was, Logan had an extremely good healing factor so he would be okay in the end anyway. Clearly, that wasn't the case. Logan's reaction had proved it.

His face had been a mix of surprise, approval and a twinge of anger. Kurt had been confused; surely he had done a good job, he won didn't he? And, though his manner of success had been far out of his normal comfort range, he expected some kind positive response from Logan for his spontaneity.

"What…did I do?" he had asked, triumphant smile fading quickly.

Logan only raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Congratulations Kurt, I think you just killed me…"

Suddenly terrified of the duplication at his feet, he backed away from it in shock, then quickly stopped himself and erased any form of emotion that had managed to come to his face.

This was the reaction they wanted. If he freaked out and made a scene about the way he had disposed of this robot they would be gaining valuable information about his teammates and that, he would not allow. This had just been another robot, another piece of metal they had thrown at him and he would treat it as such.

He straightened up and waited like he always did at the end of their sessions. The Room took a few minutes before it reverted back to its initial size, possibly waiting to see if time would elicit some kind of emotional response from him.

"Congratulations Mr. Wagner, you have received a B- for today's training," he wasn't sure, but the voice sounded slightly disappointed.

He expected a lower "grade" today. If one didn't give them what they wanted, one didn't get the points.

He walked up to his bed, hopped onto it and pulled his knees up to his chin, "Enjoyed the change of scenery today," he said with an intentional lightness his tone, "I cannot wait to see what you will come up with this afternoon."

"There will be only one training session today, we will commence tomorrow morning. Enjoy your afternoon off Mr. Wagner."

His eyes narrowed sharply, "Looking forward to it."

Once he was "alone", he sent off to tend to his wounds. His badly split lip and the many bruises that had swollen up under his fur were annoying but ignored. On-the-other-hand, the large cut on his back was suddenly screaming for his attention. It stung like knives and felt like it still bled in some areas although it had mostly turned into a huge crusty mass that covered a good portion of his back.

Though difficult at first with all the dried blood holding it to his fur, he managed to meander his ruined shirt off with his good arm, rip it into a long, wide strip and wrap it around his chest and shoulder, tying it with the aid of his tail. It would have to do as a tourniquet for now since he had no other means of medical help.

The cloth fit tight and held well for what it was, so, overall, his doctorial skills on himself were not bad at all. It still would have been nice to have had a second pair of eyes to look at it, however. An injury on the back wasn't something someone could patch up very well on their own, even one as flexible as he.

Maybe that was why The Room had decided to only have a single session, to give him a little while to heal. He shook that thought away quickly. No, they weren't that generous. They were back in whatever little room they were in, coming up with some sort of scenario to throw at him tomorrow, trying to figure out how best to get something that could be used against the others. As he had already decided, it would all be for naught.

Though it had been completely unintentional, he was glad he hadn't held back earlier. He showed them that having a personal attachment to a mechanical double wouldn't change his reactions. He showed that he wasn't going to be their confidential guidebook to get information to use against the others. Just because he had been closer to the pacifist side of the fence throughout his time with the X-men did not mean he was going to let himself be beaten into compliance for them. If they wanted to send him into giant emotional flurries for taking out robot versions of his friends, let them try. Robots were robots and it took much more than that to break him.

Hope to get the next chapter up a little sooner than this one so keep a look out ;)

Things be gettin' interesting...