Chapter 29-Heat Check
Weeks blurred, measured in bruises and the rubber stink of burned matting. Breakfasts were quiet. Dinners were quieter. The Danger Room adjusted, learned them the way predators learn prey.
-Scenario Delta-Four: retractable floors, hidden pits, hydraulic walls that tried to herd thern into kill-boxes, Storm threaded them through crosswinds as if she were drawing a map with air. Banshee found harmonics in the ducting and collapsed a whole catwalk with a single, tuned shout. "Singin' to steel," he said, pleased. "It listens, if you're kind."
-Scenario Epsilon-Two: holographic jungle, damp heat and insect buzz piped through speakers. Sunfire fought like a scalpel. Cyclops' orders cut narrower, harder.
Nightcrawler vanished into foliage and reappeared with a drone's core in his hand. "Peek-a-boo," he told it gravely before tossing
It away.
-Scenario Zeta-Seven: Sentinel arms from the ceiling, blind-firing lasers in irregular rhythm. Colossus took a full bore along his ribcage and only grunted. "Is good," he said, smiling. "Reminds me i am awake."
Thunderbird hated the pacing drills. He hated waiting. He hated being told to hold.
And Cyclops-Cyclops wore a mask under his mask. There is a right way to do this, his whole body said, every clipped order a prayer to the god of control.
Logan watched it all, the threads tightening. 'Gonna snap, he thought more than once. 'Question is-who snaps first?
It happened on a Tuesday that tasted like Monday.
*Scenario Omega-One," Cyclops said. The room dimmed. Red lights bled along the seams. A dozen laser turrets unfolded like. lilies, petals of polished steel, and began to
track.
"Shields and angles," Scott warned. "No hero charges."
Thunderbird exploded off the line anyway.
"John-" Scott started, but the warning cut off as a lattice of ruby beams stitched the floor.
Logan saw it in syrup-time: the fraction John misread; the half-inch his heel landed wrong; the beam that would miss-and the one that wouldn't. He lunged, caught Proudstar at the belt, yanked-
The grazing shot kissed John's thigh. Fabric charred, flesh sizzled, the room filled with burnt hair and pride. Thunderbird rode Logan's pull into a tumble, rolled hard, and came up with murder in his eyes.
"Stand downl" Cyclops barked. "Reset positions!"
"You nearly took my leg off!" Thunderbird roared, stalking forward. "All because you want to play drill sergeant!"
Cyclops met him chest to chest, visor brightening a dangerous shade. "You broke formation. You ignored a direct order. I can't teach you if you won't listen."
"You can't lead if you don't trust the men you're leading," John shot back. "Where I'm from, we fight. We don't tiptoe behind a red visor and a rulebook."
Banshee slid between them just enough to be
present without being a shield. "Lads," he said quietly, Irish music smoothed soft. "Let's not do the stupid thing in the room built to kill us."
"Get out of my way, Cassidy," John growled.
"Wish I could," Sean said, gentle as rain. "But I like all our limbs attached."
Sunfire's hands were already lit, not in threat-habit. Storm's gaze cut to Logan. Kurt hovered at her shoulder, tail stiff.
Logan stepped once, a weight shifting, nothing more. "Kid," he said to John without heat. "You bleed more if you keep talking"
"I'm not your kid," Thunderbird snapped.
"Good," Logan sald, flat. "Means I don't gotta coddle you." "Enough."
The word didn't hit ears so much as happen in the base of their skulls. Cold rang like a bell.
Muscles loosened against will; jaws unclenched; the room itself seemed to inhale.
Professor X sat just outside the threshold in
his chair, hands steepled, eyes like winter sky. *This room obeys my voice," he said, calm and terrible. "And so will you."
Thunderbird's breath came rough. He didn't
look away, but the line of his shoulders changed-just enough.
Cyclops didn't move at all. The light behind his visor dimmed a fraction. You cut me in front
of them, he thought, not to Xavier but to himself, and the thought tasted like iron. 'But I
let it stand.
Xavier's tone softened. "We train to survive.
We survive to serve. Scott pushes you because this world will push harder. John, your courage is never in question. Temper it with discipline and you will be unstoppable." His gaze flicked to Scott. "And a leader
respects the fires he is trying to harness. Bend -do not always break."
The telepathic pressure eased, like a hand lifting from the back of a neck.
"Session over," Cyclops said, voice steady, jaw tight. "Medical bay if you need it. Back here at 0600."
Thunderbird turned away first, limping once, refusing to limp again. Storm stepped toward him. "Let me-"
"I'm fine," John muttered. She remained beside him anyway, a quiet weather front.
Sunfire powered down with a hiss and walked out without a word. Nightcrawler fell in behind him, tail curling thoughtfully. Banshee clapped Piotr's steel arm and winced. "Ow. Right.
Maybe not that one."
Colossus smiled, the expression small and sorry. "Apologies."
Logan lingered at the threshold, looked back at the chamber as the walls re-folded
themselves into blankness. He could hear the machine's heartbeat, the little clicks as heat bled off, the sigh of vents.
'Cage bit, he thought, and the corner of his mouth twitched. 'Didn't draw blood but it left a mark.'
He slid his hands into his pockets and followed the others out, the Danger Room doors whispering shut behind him like a secret kept for now.