Chapter 16: Cyclops' Suspicion, Illyana's Action

Training Events. They could be anything from competitions in agility, raw power, quick thinking, strategy or a chaotic culmination of everything in a single all out combative scenario. Bronte was lucky enough to find himself at the focus of the latter of these options. It was no longer just Hank, his half-siblings and Illyana who watched him intently. After Hank and Cyclops' intense discussion, the whole of the X-Men had took to the sidelines to watch him with interest..... no. Interest was the wrong word. More like worry-- or discomfort.

That did nothing for his nerves as he warmed up on the far side of the gym with his team of Mutants.

"That bastard's up to something..." Daken growled as he paced behind them. Every time he passed one of the other students they flinched in discomfort.

"Who?" Bronte asked as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Warm-ups were useless considering the fact he'd just played a game of basketball and dunked on a seven foot tall man covered in organic metal.

"Cyclops." Daken snarled.

Bronte was left to consider his siblings bad blood with the X-Men once again. Across the gym- on the sidelines, Cyclops stood ahead of the other X-Men, standing beside Charles Xavier. He couldn't see where the man was looking due to the visor shielding his eyes, but Bronte still felt the heat of his gaze. The same way he felt slightly unnerved around the telepath.

"Just like fucking Charles-- always with some ulterior motive..... always feeling entitled to everything... always working an angle from the shadows. I don't know what Hank told him but it was a mistake." Daken said.

"He was trying to get me pulled from the exercise. Whatever he whispered to him ruined all that though...." Bronte explained on Hank's behalf.

"Yea no kidding, ragdoll." Daken replied before he came to a stop beside him.

Bronte ignored the pang of irritation that rippled through his spine in response to the word that gave way to their first brawling session. Oh the memories...

"Fuck it. Whatever the reason, it's out of our hands since Laura doesn't feel like talking with her claws. This is good for you anyway, to hell with what Hank says. You need fight experience. Just get in there and don't get your ass kicked."

Bronte nodded in understanding as Cyclops began speaking.

"Alright everyone, listen up! This is a regular all-out team based combative Training-Event. Nothing out of the norm. Put your training to use, work with your team and use your mind. Don't enter this event without a plan, you will lose if you do. Not just here, but out there."

When Cyclops finished speaking, he dug a remote out of his pocket and clicked a button. Immediately, sections of the Gym began to transform as tubing and long platforms extended from the walls and erupted from the floor. Bronte could hear the cogs beneath the ground twisting and grinding as more of the landscape morphed in front of his eyes until he stood at the entrance of a sort of intricately designed obstacle course with multiple levels and terrains. Some left as thick platforms above ground while other areas were snaking pathways and ramps meant for the more agile.

Bronte's stomach sunk just a bit more than before. He was only pulled away from the thought of his own nerves when he found the rest of his team looking at him. One of which looked in over his head-- just like Bronte.

Cyclops' words found a way back into his mind.

"Don't enter this event without a plan. If you, you'll lose. In here and out there."

Out there.... where Romulus and the Lupines stalked the shadows.

Bronte shook off his nerves and approached his new teammate.

"What's up." Bronte said with a nod as he approached the first student. He was around Bronte's height-- only much thinner. His skin was pale and made his brown hair pop in it's faded style.

"Hey-- you're the new guy, right?"

"Yea, Bronte." Bronte replied as he held out a hand to shake.

The student viewed his hand, looking from him to Daken, Raze and Gabbie who loomed in the distance behind him. He suddenly wished Gambit hadn't agreed with his eager request to get into the training event.

"Oh-- nah, it's not like that. I have control over them." Bronte explained.

"Right.... hehe.... I've just seen you guys fighting over here. It can get pretty messy."

"I'm already knowing." Bronte said with a sympathetic chuckle as they shook hands. Bronte couldn't help but notice how cold his hands were.

"Oh, by the way, names Robert. But please call me, Bobby."

"Nice to meet you, Bobby."

As they began talking, a pair of inhumanely long arms stretched across their shoulders as Raze approached with Gabbie seated on his shoulders.

"Are you boys making a plan without ussss???"

***

"He's nothing like him... hell, he's sociable. If Logan he could, he would've lived in forests his entire life." Cyclops spoke to Hank as they watched Bronte converse with his team.

"Yes-- naturally, they share little similarities. They have two entirely different upbringings. But, he has his moments." Hank replied.

"So I've seen." Cyclops replied.

Hank looked down at him, "Is that so?"

"You think I don't watch all the children of the Wolverine?"

Hank didn't speak a reply. Neither did Laura.

Cyclops stiffened as he watched the student. Since the week he arrived he'd transformed. Grown into a finely attuned athlete and low-class brawler with very impressive combative potential. Not only was he fast, but he was patient when he wasn't in a blacked-out rage. He looked for patterns-- in his teammates and in his enemies. Despite Wolverine's pension for rage and ferocity, Cyclopes learned pretty quickly that he did the same. Someone who'd been fighting as long as Wolverine had to be intelligent in battle. But Bronte was young-- showing signs of the same...

And that wasn't even the main issue. What Hank had whispered to him only minutes before was. And after hearing it, Cyclops couldn't look away from Bronte and that streak of pure white that ran through his curly hair.

What it meant.....

The training event had started, and the students took off.

"Watching was all I planned to do until you said who else he was the son of." Cyclops whispered.

Laura popped her claws. Hank raised his hand to her again, "Listen-- I understand what it me--"

"Do you?!...." Cyclops quieted after he'd gained the eyes of the other onlookers, "Do you really? Im here for the benefit of Mutant kind-- so are you Hank. This is what the X-Men are. We're barely in with the Humans.... Barely! We're still two different worlds. Modern man and Mutant. Now what do you think will happen to Bronte in the future-- when he learns that what runs through his veins is neither Modern man nor full Mutant? Hm? What do you think will happen when he considers claiming what he believes is his birthright in that new world full of resources and technology that could level the U.S in days. He is a bad omen, Hank. He can ruin everything Charles has worked so hard to build. That's not even considering who chases him because of his father."

Hank looked away from him, watching Bronte leap and bound through the obstacle course. His movements still unsure and lined with partial awkwardness. "Even so, it's as you said. He is a Mutant and a student of the Xavier Institute. We have to teach him what we can-- show him a kindness the outside world will not. I don't think it's in his nature to be as you say. Bronte is reasonable-- a calm and intelligent young man with simple motives. Survival."

"Survival can make even the tamest wild." Cyclops retorted.

Nobody spoke afterward as the students began cheering and hooting after the students in combat.

Hank held Bronte's labs in his massive hands as he watched.

The awkwardness had left Bronte's movements in the wake of combat and been replaced by adrenaline. He was bleeding from the nose and a burn on his arm was in the midst of healing as he ducked and dodged Sam's cannonball esque attacks.

The two tangoed for a while unable to gain the upperhand until Bronte charged Sam in the midst of a highspeed attack. Naturally, Bronte was overcome. The spectators surrounding Hank cringed at the sound of his ribs breaking upon connecting with Sam's head. But he didn't let go and fall off the course. Instead, he held on and flipped Sam, leaving him to crash the student into the far wall.

As soon as Sam's energy-powered defensive shield fell, Bronte back handed him and knocked him unconscious before jumping back onto the course. His uniform was almost completely burned away around the torso where visible burns slowly healed. His eyes flickered and Hank noticed he could feel wind inside the Gymnasium.

His heart skipped a beat.

***

The event waged on. After Sam was knocked out of the course, Gabbie followed. Leaving Raze, Bobby and Bronte against Rahne, Illyana and Danniele.

For a while, Raze and Bronte led a frontal assault while Bobby shot icey shards from a vantage point at a distance. It was their plan. Illyana ruined the entirety of that plan by focusing Bronte and separating him from his team. Daken watched on with visible disgust.

It only went downhill from there. Bronte continued to fight without his claws-- Illyana continued to cut him open only for the wounds to heal. All it did was anger him. And it was that very reason that caused the gym to shake as a storm raged outside.

Another slice rang out through the silence.

"AHH!" Bronte yelled out as his arm leaked red.

"Ok, this is over." Laura said.

"Wait--"

Hank growled and silenced him as he stood between Laura and the leading X-Man, only to turn and realize why everyone else had gone quieter.

Bronte's hair shifted in and out of glowing white as it flowed like he was under water. The winds in the room were nearly deafening when combined with the lightning strikes outside. He stood across from Illyana and raised a hand, popping his claws in a flash. Lightning danced along the boney metal surface.

"Scott..... I'll put hands on everyone in here if you don't stop this." Laura said in a chilling tone.

"Charles. End this." Cyclops suddenly said, gaining the proof he desired anyway.

Charles moved forward to do just that when Illyana suddenly shot a ball of bright blue energy from her left hand. Bronte dodged it and let it hit the ground behind him. Unaware of how it stayed on the floor, expanding and glowing brighter.

"Illyana, no!" Collosus yelled from the sidelines as she tackled Bronte and they both fell into the disc of energy on the floor, disappearing from the area entirely. In their wake, the portal disappeared.

"HEY! Where did the blondie take my brother!?!" Raze yelled from the top of the obstacle course with his arms stretched and wrapped around two Mutants throats.

Cyclops sighed and walked onto the course, "The events over."

The students still in the game cursed at the abrupt end while others rushed away from the horrifying feral siblings.

Slowly, the rest of the X-Men joined Cyclops as he stood in the gym with the metal course shifting back into the walls and floors around him. Rahne-- Illyana's closest friend, appeared beside Cyclops.

"Ah should've seen it coming. She took him there..... didn't she?" Rahne asked.

Hank held back Laura in the distance as he she cursed at the leading X-Man.

"I don't know why but yes. She took Bronte to the Limbo Dimension...."