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oracle0422 — Come Undone: Chapter 2 Coming Together
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#fanfiction #forge #logan #speed #wiccan #wolverine #xgen #xmen #originalcharacter #xgeneration
Published: 2015-04-01 22:20:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 299; Favourites: 0; Downloads: 0
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It had been a week since Landon dropped the news on everyone. Publicly they were still giving him the cold shoulder. To make it easier on them and himself Landon mostly spent his time training with Logan or in the lab with Forge only leaving the institute for work at the flower shop. Today he was busy in the lab with Forge. Forge was busy working on trying to figure out how to take the large space of the danger room and turn it into a compact expandable size. Landon was staring at a computer screen his fingers moving with precision over the keyboard as he was working on programming what he needed for the danger room. The benefits of his dad owning a web developer company was he was rather skilled when it came to programming things on a computer. It was one of the things he often found himself talking to Xavier about. Though he was about the only student at the Institute that showed any favor for this type of stuff. So often he was the only student actually in Forge’s lab. Other students only came to Forge when they needed help with some tech that needed to be upgraded or repaired. Forge rarely closed his lab door but today he had because Karli had kept walking by, peaking in like she wanted to stop and try to talk to Forge but couldn’t bring herself to. Forge had noticed her hovering and chose to close the door to not deal with her. Landon said nothing figuring that this meant Forge was actually done with Karli. Which Landon wasn’t sure how he felt on that. Karli had moved to the Institute ten years ago after completing school at a catholic school in Edinburgh and almost immediately was dating Forge who had twelve years on her. But their relationship had been like a roller-coaster as Karli had one hell of a temper.
While Forge and Landon worked in near silence Rachel was across town at her cousin Jacob’s office ready to fulfill her part of this grand plan. She didn’t like that she was going to tell her cousin a lie, but she didn’t want Jacob to get in any trouble or become a target by helping them. So she took a deep breath as she walked into the office. She smiled softly looking at her cousin who was surrounded by stacks of papers littered over his desk and his head bent over a fresh blueprint with his white pencil in hand as he was working out some design. “Afternoon Jacob.”, Rachel greeted. He didn’t even pause to look up his eyes remaining focused on what he was doing. “Hi Rachel. What brings you to my office?”, Jacob asked half paying attention as he erased a line and redrew it. “Was sent to get the hard copy of the old institute. Forge is working on something and needs them.”, Rachel said finding a way to tell the truth. “Oh…um yeah forgot we kept only hard copies. Here...”, Jacob said reaching into a drawer with his free hand and tossing her a set of keys. “Cabinet on the left top drawer is locked they are in there. Just make sure to bring them back when Forge is done with them.”, Jacob said not thinking twice about trusting his cousin. Rachel caught the keys and moved to get the blueprints. Jacob looked up and noticed the clock. “Crap I need to go. Have an important errand to run before my date with Solangel. Um lock up on your way out? Thanks cousin.”, Jacob said scrambling to grab his jacket and rush out the door. Rachel blinked and watched as her cousin seemed more out of sorts than normal but shrugged getting the blueprints Landon and Forge needed then locked the cabinet and put the keys back where she saw Jacob pull them from before locking his office and leaving. “That was much easier than I thought…”, Rachel said leaving the office as she made her way to the Institute.
Rachel found her way to Forge’s lab, pausing as she was about the turn down the hall seeing Duncan’s oldest daughter Karli near the door. Rachel watched as Karli seemed to oscillate at the door like she was debating knocking. Rachel waited until Karli walked the other direction in a huff muttering something in Gaelic. Rachel sighed in relief and walked to the door and knocked. Landon and Forge both froze inside and looked to the door. “Who is it?”, Forge called not wanting to deal with Karli. “Um it’s Rachel Mister Forge.”, Rachel called from the other side of the door. Forge and Landon’s shoulders both relaxed and Forge pressed the button to open the door. “Come on in.”, Forge greeted. Landon had returned to writing his computer code. Rachel smiled and stepped inside quickly. Forge pressing the button again the door closed behind her. “Did you get what we needed?”, Forge asked. Rachel nodded taking the blueprints out of her messenger bag unrolling them on an empty space of a table. “Jacob didn’t think twice that you’d send me to get blueprints from him. He just asked for them to be returned.”, Rachel explained. Forge pushed away from his workstation with his good leg and rolled over to the table looking at the blueprints and held his right arm over the blueprints scanning them. Landon stopped his programming and rolled over to look at the blueprints. Landon quickly spotted a tunnel that had connected the institute to the bunker and backup danger room. “So we need to know if we can still access this tunnel.”, Landon said. Forge nodded as he hit buttons on his mechanical arm. Rachel leaned on the table watching wondering what Forge was up to, though her eyes kept glancing to Landon.
Landon noticed Rachel kept looking at him and smiled. “Thank you Rachel. I doubt Uncle Jacob would have just trusted any of the others to pickup blueprints. He’d want to know what we were up to.”, Landon said. Rachel nodded staying silent and trying to not look at him, after all she was still mad at him and was supposed to appear that way. Landon sighed and reached over lightly placing a hand over hers. “Unless you aren’t talking to me because you are legit ignoring me you don’t have to treat me like a leper since we aren’t in public.”, Landon said. Forge looked up briefly and noticed Landon’s hand on Rachel’s but returned to what he was doing. Rachel sighed. “I am still mad at you, but I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to interact with you around Mister Forge since you did say only when it was the nine of us were we allowed to not treat you like the jackass you are.”, Rachel explained. Landon laughed. “Still adorable when you cuss. And Forge is an exception. He is fully aware of everything going on and has a mental block longer than we’ve been alive. So I know he can’t compromise the plan.”, Landon explained. Rachel rolled her eyes but turned her hand to hold his giving it a light squeeze. “So other than returning the blueprints to Jacob my part of this is done.”, Rachel said. “Basically other than the whole being mad at me in public. With the blueprints the rest of us can start training together for the program I’m almost done writing.”, Landon explained. Rachel frowned a little and sighed. “You want to be more part of this don’t you?”, Landon asked with a sigh. “Of course. I want to do more to help you all. But I know I can’t be part of the simulator you are programming because that wouldn’t make sense for me to appear in your battle with Miss Maximoff. But I just want to be more help. I can’t help you and Mister Forge with programming this stuff. All this is more Xavier’s field than mine.”, Rachel said with a sigh.
Landon sighed and resisted the urge to pull Rachel to him and hug her. “You’re right. You can’t be part of the battle with Wanda and yeah computer programming is more up mine and Xavier’s alley. However I will not be getting Xavier involved in any of this. But you want to do more, so alright.”, Landon said. Rachel raised an eyebrow. “How?”, Rachel asked. “I’m still doing my training with Sensei Logan, join my training with him.”, Landon stated. Rachel blinked. “You want me to train with you and Uncle James?”, Rachel asked. “Sure. Why not? Gives you a good excuse to hit me and I need to learn to fight multiple opponents in case our spy can’t ensure that Wanda is on her own when she comes to face me or she pulls that duplication spell she did at new years.”, Landon said with a smile. “But what about Uncle James? I mean I’m supposed to make sure it looks like I hate your guts.”, Rachel questioned. “Your Uncle knows what’s going on. So that’s not a big deal.”, Landon said. “Wait Uncle James knows everything?”, Rachel questioned putting emphasis on the ‘everything’. Landon nodded. “Yeah I told him. He’s not an idiot. He was a shadow for fifteen years. He already knew how you and Rose felt about me and vice versa. So it wasn’t exactly a huge leap when I admitted to kissing both of you. I got a hell of training session out of that and spent most of it on the defense. But he still seems to like me. And after all he’s the guy that left me alone with you in the danger room that day.”, Landon explained. Rachel laughed softly. “So Uncle James apparently approved, at least of you and me.”, Rachel commented.
“Of course Logan would approve of you and Landon because it’s not Landon and his baby girl. Logan doesn’t do well with boys and his girls.”, Forge commented as he finished tinkering on his mechanical arm. Rachel and Landon both laughed. “Well Landon still has to make his choice on that, and we all just have to wait till after this fight with Miss Maximoff is over to know his choice.”, Rachel commented glancing to Landon. Landon sighed nodding. “Yeah. Let’s focus on one thing at a time. So you want to start joining either my morning or night sessions with Sensei Logan?”, Landon asked. “Well I train with dad in the mornings so I’ll just join your evening session with Uncle James as long as he doesn’t mind. I want to help as much as I can with this even if I can’t be in the final fight.”, Rachel said. Landon nodded smiling at Rachel. “Alright you two are being too sweet on each other. Let’s focus on what I’ve learned from the blueprints.”, Forge commented. Landon and Rachel both laughed again, Landon taking his hand from Rachel’s turning his attention to Forge as Rachel blushed a little. “Sorry I keep forgetting I’m mad at him. Thank you for that reminder. So were the blueprints helpful?”, Rachel asked giving focus to Forge. Forge rolled his eyes and pressed a button his arm and a hologram appeared over the table.
“Alright so I’ve combined the old blueprint with the current structure. Down here…”, Forge said pointing with his left hand. “Is where the tunnel was that led to the bunker and the old danger room. However in the original attack it got sealed closed and we can’t access it from this side. But bright side your dad found the bunker which means Cora Lee can find it too.”, Forge explained zooming further away from the school. “Over here past the tree line there’s a hatch that leads down to the bunker, it’s metal so your sister should easily be able to open that which will give you access to the bunker and the danger room. And because it’s in the forest over there you should be able to get the twins in easy. Give me your tablet.”, Forge said extending his hand to Landon. Landon listened intently and quickly rolled back to the table getting his tablet and handing it over. Forge connected his arm to the tablet. “Alright so I’ve uploaded this information to your tablet. With your tablet you should be able to reactivate the power in the bunker and the danger room down there. When you are done with the program you can upload that using your tablet to the danger room.”, Forge explained. Landon nodded. “Perfect. Cora Lee will enjoy getting to rip the door off. I should have this program done by tonight so I’ll let the others know we need to meet in the woods to start our training.”, Landon said rolling up the original blueprints. “Guess these can go back to Uncle Jacob.”, Landon commented handing them to Rachel. Rachel nodded and put them back into her messenger bag. “I’ll drop them off before I go home. And guess I’ll see you at training tomorrow night?”, Rachel questioned getting up. Landon nodded. “Yeah I’ll see you in training tomorrow. I’ll let Sensei Logan know tonight you’ll be joining us going forward.”, Landon agreed rolling back to his laptop working on his program. “Bye Landon. Bye Mister Forge.”, Rachel said walking out of the lab closing the door behind her. Landon glanced over watching her walk out.
Forge chuckled shaking his head. “Seriously kid? There really competition in this?”, Forge teased sitting back down to work on the MDR. Landon raised an eyebrow and looked over to Forge. “And what exactly do you mean by that?”, Landon asked. “Granted I haven’t seen you with Rose one on one so I don’t have much to compare with. But you two barely kept your eyes off each other and then that hand holding and undertone of flirting.”, Forge explained. Landon laughed shaking his head. “I don’t know. Haven’t really been around Rose since I told her and she broke my nose.”, Landon commented turning his attention back to his laptop. “Uh huh. Guess you’ll see how that goes when you start training with the team. Though that won’t be one on one. Just promise you aren’t going to be like that with Rachel during the training with Logan. Cause you need to live in order for this plan to work.”, Forge commented as he worked. Landon nodded. “I won’t. Think I’ll be a bit busy trying to not get my ass kicked by her.”, Landon said with a laugh returning to quietly working on his computer program. Forge just sighed and shook his head. He didn’t have a base of comparison to know how post reveal Rose and Landon were around each other, but the fact Landon made an effort to try and comfort to Rachel and how the two were Forge just didn’t see where there was much competition given Landon seemed rather sweet on Rachel and vice versa despite it all.
Landon let Logan know during their session that going forward Rachel would be joining their training. Logan was a bit confused by this and almost said no. But Landon explained he was offering this option so Rachel felt part of this plan more and gave her the chance to get out whatever anger she has at him in a controlled environment. So Logan agreed to letting his niece join their nightly training sessions. After his session with Logan Landon sent a mass message to the team to meet the next day at the woods that bordered the institute property to begin their group training. After his morning training he waited out in the forest for the others, dressed in track pants and an institute t-shirt and his sneakers. He didn’t really think wearing his uniform would really be appropriate and not rouse suspicion with him coming this far out on campus. He tapped a beat against the tree he was leaning against as he waited for the others. He stopped hearing a rustling coming towards him. And from behind some trees out stepped Atif and Lily with Tommy and Billy all dressed like they were heading to the gym. Landon gave a smile. “Glad you got them past the gate. Just gotta wait for the others and we can go into the bunker.”, Landon greeted. “So where are we going?”, Billy asked. “That’s a good question.”, Rose said walking out with Cora Lee and Ashley. Rose glanced to Landon but quickly looked away. Landon sighed. “Hope no one is claustrophobic. Because we are going down. Cora Lee if you’d do the honors.”, Landon explained pulling some over growth away from a sealed metal hatch.
Cora Lee grinned and walked over holding out her hand focusing on the heavy metal hatch and with a flick of her wrist it creaked open the hinge worn from time and the elements. “Alright everyone let’s head inside.”, Landon said opening his bookbag tossing them each a flashlight. “It’s going to be dark till I reach the control panel and can hook my tablet up to get the power back on down there.”, Landon explained putting his bookbag onto his back and turning his flashlight attaching it to his bag so it pointed down as he climbed down into the deep bunker. He reached the bottom and pointed his light up. “I’m at the bottom. Come on down guys. I’ll keep my light on the ladder for you. Cora Lee come down last so you can close the hatch behind you.”, Landon called up the tunnel. “On our way.”, Rose said starting down followed by the others Cora Lee coming down last using her powers to seal the hatch behind them. Rose slipped on a rusted hold and lost her balance starting to fall but Landon caught her. “You alright?”, Landon asked. “I’m fine...”, Rose said before realizing she was in his arms. “Think you could put me down?”, Rose requested. Landon nodded and quickly put her down and aimed the light back up. “Guys be careful one of the rungs has rusted out and Rose lost her balance. I’m going to keep my light on the bad rung so you know it’s coming.”, Landon instructed. “Got it Landon.”, the others called as they carefully finished their decent till all eight of the team was in the bunker and turned their flashlights on looking around.
“So this is where the X-Men that survived the attack had to hold up…”, Lily said looking around with her flashlight. “Yeah…”, Landon said taking his tablet out of his bookbag and powers it up to find the schematics to find the access panel. He wandered away from the group and found the panel and tried to pop it. “Cora Lee, come here please. Metal access panel is sealed tight. Pop it please.”, Landon requested. Cora lee made her way over and pointed to the panel and with a small twitch the panel opened. “There you go big brother.”, Cora Lee said with a grin. “Thanks Cora Lee. You are just loving that this place is all metal.”, Landon said hooking up his tablet to the control panel working on getting the power back up and running. Cora Lee laughed. “Maybe. I mean I can totally see how this place was so easy for dad to find all those years ago.”, Cora Lee commented. Landon slide his finger over his table and suddenly all the lights came on. The bunker was dusty, musty and filled with cobwebs. “Alright so welcome to our base of operations guys. We might need to clean up a little down here, but should work out well for what we need.”, Landon said turning off his flashlight. The others looked around and turned off their flashlights. “Hang on I got this.”, Tommy said as he started running around the space everyone ducking their heads and covering their mouths coughing from all the dust being kicked up. But in a matter of minutes Tommy had stopped running and there was just a pile of dust and cobwebs in a corner of the room.
“All clean.”, Tommy coughed. Lily chuckled shaking her head walking over flicking some cobwebs from his white hair. “Next time give us more warning so we could cover our faces.”, Lily teased before giving him a kiss. Tommy shrugged. “It worked. And this place is big. There’s a couple offices I ran through and like a dozen ‘bedrooms’. Am I the only one that thinks this is the best hide out and a great place for naughty activities?”, Tommy asked. Lily sighed and shook her head. “Now that you mention it…”, Billy agreed with a smirk winking at Atif. Atif rolled his eyes but turning a shade of red. “Slow your hormones. We are here for training not for people to fool around.”, Landon said shaking his head checking the map to find the direction to the danger room. “See you say that because you’re single and basically shot yourself in the foot in regards to not being.”, Billy countered. “Why thank you for that status update and reminder of my love life, Billy. Can we just focus on training so we can defeat your mom?”, Landon requested. Atif elbowed Billy in the side and shook his head. “So where’s this danger room?”, Ashley asked decided to get on topic. “Down this way.”, Landon said leading the way through a corridor past the rooms to a large door. He held up his table and connected it to the keypad and hit a fee keys on the tablet that activated the danger room. Landon stepped inside followed by the others.
Tommy and Billy looked around never having been in a danger room, only having heard stories about it from their Aunt Lorna who’d been an X-Men long ago. “I gotta say I thought it would be bigger, kind of underwhelmed”, Tommy said looking around. “There’s a low blow joke in there, but I’ll resist the urge to say it.”, Landon said with a smirk as he found the control panel and connected his table loading his program into the danger room. “Oooh someone’s a wise ass today.”, Tommy teased. Landon shrugged. “I’m always a wise ass. You just aren’t around me often enough to know that. But you’ll learn.”, Landon said booting up the program. “So I’ll start us out easy since I’ve got zero clue what the Maximoffs have done and since they aren’t really used to this type of setting. We are still going to be fighting Wanda in this run but on a lower difficulty. As we get more sync as a team of eight I’ll up the intensity.”, Landon explained being all business now. The room suddenly shifted causing Tommy to grab Lily’s hand and Billy grabbed Atif’s as they watching the metal walls change and it now looked like they were in a warehouse. The six team leaders held back any laughter at the reaction of the twins. Atif patted Billy’s arm. “It’s just a hologram sweetie.”, Atif explained. “Oh so this isn’t real…”, Tommy said moving to kick a shipping box thinking his foot would go through but instead made contact and he yelped. “What the fuck? I thought this was holograms.”, Tommy cursed. Landon covered his mouth trying to not laugh while Cora Lee and Rose actually did laugh. “They are but they are about as real as you and me. So the program I built using a warehouse layout, because this is the program that will be used in the MDR when Forge is done. The plan is that I’ll lure Wanda into what to her looks like a warehouse. So let’s get started.”, Landon said taking a fighting stance.
As Wanda’s image appeared in the room with them the others followed suit getting into a fighting stance. “Alright so we need to surround her. Fury and Seer you take her on the left, Fury let’s get her off balance and Seer you give support. Speed and Wiccan take her from behind, Speed can help knock her off balance after Fury hits her. Lycan and Sibly take her on the right. Allure you and I well go down the center.”, Landon said giving out the game plan. However he noticed only the Alston twins were listening to him. the others all decided to just rush at the Wanda drone. Ashley followed Landon’s instructions and with her twin went for the left and Ashley sent out a spray of her water. At that same time Billy was giving orders to Tommy. “Merry go round Tommy and I’ll hit her with my hex.”, Billy called out. Billy shot out a hex ball but instead of hitting his target he was off his mark and hit Ashley. The stream of water missed and made the ground slick instead. Tommy started rushing to run circles around the drone of their mother however slipped on the water and wasn’t able to stop in time and knocked Lily, Cora Lee and Rose to the ground slamming all four of them into a crate. Landon sighed and shook his head. “STOP!”, Landon yelled. The Wanda drone disappeared and Landon looked over the mess that was there. “Ashley…”, Atif called rushing to his sister as Billy ran over. “Oh god I’m so sorry.”, Billy apologized. Landon looked to the four that got knocked into a crate who were trying to get up but kept slipping and tripping over each other and the wet floor. “Sorry girls..”, Tommy fumbled as he apologized.
Landon ran his hand over his face in frustration and walked over to the four on the ground and reached into the broken crate. He grabbed Tommy first by the arm and pulled him to his feet away from the water then grabbed Lily helping her up next to Tommy followed by Cora Lee. He last extended his hand to Rose. Rose glared and growled a little at his hand. Landon rolled his hand and just grabbed her arm and pulled her up. Landon looked around as the team was now all on their feet, his expression was on the verge of losing his mind with frustration. “Seriously guys!? What the fuck was that!? I called the play and only the Alston twins decide to fucking listen to me?”, Landon started to yell trying to control his temper. “I can’t get mad at the Maximoff twins, they’ve never trained with us. But seriously? The rest of us have been training together since we were kids. I get that we are all team leaders here but we can’t all be in charge.”, Landon said shaking his head his blue eyes looking angrily at each of them. “My defense I’ve never been a leader I just follow Billy.”, Tommy said. “Alright so with the exception of Tommy we are all used to calling the shots. But what the hell guys?”, Landon demanded looking to his fellow team leaders. “You kind of lost our trust Landon. So following you isn’t as easy as it used to be.”, Rose countered. Landon turned his attention to Rose. “Well let me get this straight here and now. MY ASS IS ON THE FUCKING LINE HERE! I’m the one that she wants, I’m the one that if this goes south dies! So love me, hate me, trust me, don’t trust me I don’t have the luxury of giving a fuck right now. You have two choices. You walk now and let me handle this my damn self like I was going to originally or you leave your issues with me at the door and follow my orders and help me make this plan work. Have I made myself clear? So make your choice now, stay and follow my orders or walk.”, Landon said pointing to the door.
Ashley rubbed her shoulder where she’d been hit. “I’m not going anywhere Landon. I just want you to be safe.”, Ashley said. Atif nodded. “I’m not leaving you now Landon.”, Atif agreed. “I don’t want out either, I’ll try to follow you.”, Billy said with a smile. Tommy shrugged. “I can’t just let you face my mom without some backup.”, Tommy agreed. Lily sighed. “I’m not going anywhere Landon.”, Lily said firmly. Cora Lee looked from Landon to Rose a little torn between her brother who even though she was mad at him she still loved and her best friend who he’d hurt. “I let her get to you once and I’m not going to let her do that again.”, Cora Lee said with a nod. Landon looked to Rose. “You’re call Rose. You going to follow my orders?”, Landon asked. Rose glared for a little but sigh. “Yes, Prime.”, Rose said. Landon sighed he didn’t like yelling at his friends, but this fight was about him not getting killed and if they really wanted to help they needed to follow him. “Alright so let’s try this again. This time listening ears on and follow my orders. Restart!”, Landon ordered and the simulator reset. Landon ran them through multiple plays as he tried to get the eight of them to work in sync over the next three hours. Landon noticed the time and sighed. “End simulation.”, Landon stated at the danger room reverted back to an empty metal room. The others slumped to the ground tired from the long training.
“So that wasn’t too bad. We’ve still got till end of summer to get this down to a science so that when it comes time the simulator can best mimic your moves and have us all work seamlessly.”, Landon said starting to gather up his bookbag and tablet. The others raised an eyebrow at him as he was getting ready to go. “Where are you going?”, Cora Lee asked. “Well I’ve got enough time that I’m going to eat, maybe catch a power nap, take a shower then hit the danger room for my training with Logan and Rachel.”, Landon explained. The others blinked. “Rachel?”, Rose questioned. Landon stood up putting his bookbag on. “Yes Rachel. She can’t train with the team because when it comes to that fight she’s not involved but she wanted to do more than just get the blueprints from Uncle Jacob. So I said she could join my night sessions with your dad. Figure let her help in getting me ready for this fight and gives her a controlled environment to kick my ass. Was I supposed to tell her no, that she can’t help?”, Landon questioned. The others all kind of looked away not wanting to get involved with this. “Well you’ve told me and the others no a few hundred times about helping you.”, Rose countered. “Yeah, but you guys are now helping. We are training to get ready for this. What’s so wrong with Rachel getting to train with me and Logan?”, Landon questioned. “We’ve all trained together, minus the Maximoffs for years. How do you know she could even keep up? I know she’s a fair fighter and all, but you’ve even said my dad’s trainings are more intense than our training.”, Rose asked. Landon shrugged. “She’s been being trained by John for years. Guess I’ll find out tonight.”, Landon said. “Whatever, Landon. Go have fun training with my cousin.”, Rose said agitated putting emphasis on the word ‘training’ as she gathered her things.
Landon groaned and rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You are going to get upset and jealous that I’m training with Rachel and your dad? I repeat with your dad. I just trained with you and the team for three hours.”, Landon argued. “Just whatever. I don’t know. I just you say ‘train with Rachel’ and because I’ve kind of lost trust in you I think you don’t mean train.”, Rose admitted. The others started getting their things and quickly got out of the danger room not wanting to be there for this explosion. “You have to be kidding me. I’m not using the word ‘train’ as a euphemism. I mean train. Your dad will be there so seriously what the hell do you think would happen? Right now my focus is on getting through this summer and being ready to execute this plan. I learned my lesson. So look I get you don’t exactly trust me right now, but I’m working to earn that back. I told you about Rachel joining my night sessions. I just don’t see what the big deal is.”, Landon said shaking his head. “Uh huh. Whatever go train with her have lots of fun.”, Rose said pushing past him. Landon sighed and grabbed her arm. “Rose…please don’t be like this. If it’s such a big deal and I’m somehow being unfair in letting her train with me and Logan. Show up at the danger room at 5am tomorrow.”, Landon said. Rose looked down at his hand on her arm and then back up to him. “Why should I?”, Rose questioned. “You apparently think it’s unfair and are getting jealous that Rachel is training with me. So fine I train at 5am with your dad. Show up and you can join us.”, Landon said letting her arm go. “Maybe I will.”, Rose said leaving it at that and walked away. Landon sighed and was the last to leave and headed up to the institute for some food, nap and shower before he needed to report for his evening session with Logan. He was a bit anxious about Rachel joining them.
Rachel was also a bit anxious about joining the training. She was glad she was being given the chance to help Landon and a little bit of her looked forward to getting to spare against him. But still she’d been told that her Uncle James as a very intense instructor. Sure she’d been training with her dad for many years now and he was very stern and strict in his teaching of her in martial arts and combat but she wasn’t sure how similar her father and Uncle were in their training methods since they were rather different in personalities. She wasn’t going to back out of this so she dressed in her workout clothes which was really just a simple pair of black shorts and a turquoise fitted tank top and her running shoes with her hair pulled back into a high ponytail to be out of the way. Rachel reported to the danger room standing outside the door waiting for either her Uncle or Landon to arrive, having showed up a fully fifteen minutes earlier than she’d been told. Landon came running down the hall from the elevator worried he’d be running late his nap having run a little longer and he’d rushed his shower. His hair was still wet as he skidded to a stop in front of Rachel. “Hey..”, Landon greeted catching his breath. “Guess I’m not late like I thought.”, Landon said. Rachel raised an eyebrow looking at his wet hair and despite herself she smiled a little looking at him in the black under armor tank top that fit him well and showed off his tattoos remembering the night at the rodeo and what he looked like without the shirt on. Landon raised an eyebrow at her smile and smirked. Logan walked down the hall and rolled his eyes as he looked at his niece smiling eyeing Landon and Landon smirking back. “Alright let’s start the training then…”, Logan said walking past the teenagers and into the danger room. Both seemed to snap out of it hearing his voice. “Of course Sensei Logan.”, Landon said following him in. “Right Uncle James. Thank you for letting me be part of training Landon.”, Rachel said following them in.
Logan sighed and turned to look at them. “I didn’t exactly get a choice in this. Landon invited you to join the training. I know John has been training you for some years now. My brother knows combat as well as I do but I’m a tad more…intense than him. I will not be going easy on you because you are my family. We train without powers. Only real except is that I use my claws as my weapon of choice though in some situations I will chose from my other available weapons. For example today’s training I will be utilizing my old diato sword. Landon I assume will continue his development with the dual blade sword. You may chose a weapon that you are comfortable with.”, Logan said turning back to the wall panel and pressing a few keys a wall turned out with a display of various weapons. Logan grabbed his diato sword and then the dual blade sword for Landon. He tossed the dual blade to Landon and stepped aside for Rachel to choose her weapon. Landon caught the sheath of his sword and pulled out his sword dividing it in half so he had a sword in each hand. “Thanks.”, Landon said. Rachel looked over the wall of weapons being offered and approached taking the Kamas off the wall gripping them in her hands getting a feel for the weight. “Dad’s trained me with a set of these before. So I’ll go with the kamas.”, Rachel confirmed.
“Alright so since this training is to get Landon ready to potentially face off against multiple opponents Rachel you will attack his left and I’ll go at his right. Landon you’re job is to hold your own and not get hurt.”, Logan instructed before moving in to strike Landon. Landon was at least quick from the months of training with Logan to counter him. Rachel moved as instructed but seemed to be holding back. Logan moved back and sighed. Landon sighed and looked to Rachel. “Look Rach, it’s great that you don’t want to hurt me. Appreciate that, but right now I need you to not think about that. Focus some anger and put everything into your attacks on me.”, Landon spoke before Logan could. Rachel nodded. “Alright again.”, Logan said. This time Rachel went all in as she and her Uncle attacked Landon. The next two hours were intense combat training no words were spoken just the clang of steel echoed through the danger room as the two Howletts attacked Landon and he fought back. Mentally though both Landon and Logan were impressed with Rachel keeping up with them. It confirmed to Logan that John didn’t take it easy on his niece during her training, which Logan knew meant that John intended to put Rachel to the ultimate test. Logan did wonder when his brother would feel Rachel was ready to take to Romania for that test. Finally the session came to an end. Logan took the weapons from Rachel and Landon putting them away. Rachel a little out of breath but smiling. “That was rather intense Uncle James. You certainly don’t disappoint in living up to the stories I’ve been told from dad and others.”, Rachel commented. Landon nodded. “Man’s the living legend, it’s why he’s the one I needed to train me.”, Landon said. Rachel nodded. “I can tell. I’ve never really seen you in combat, just the few scraps with like Merrick over the years. You are really good Landon.”, Rachel commented. “he’s good but he’s still has lots of work ahead. I’m heading home, I’ll give you a ride Rachel.”, Logan commented. Landon straightened up and gave his proper bow to Logan.
“Before you go Sensei I need to talk to you about our morning sessions. And well my training schedule in general.”, Landon said. Logan raised an eyebrow. “I will not be able to train at all on weekends. As it stands going forward I train for two hours in the morning with you, work four hours at the shop, train three hours with the team, then train another two hours with you at night. I will rarely have much time for sleep and I still need to help Forge with the MDR. And in regards to our morning sessions Rose will be joining us.”, Landon explained. Logan and Rachel both kind of blinked when he mentioned Rose. “I disclosed that Rachel is joining our evening sessions and Rose indicated a bit of annoyance that Rachel is getting to train with us and she isn’t. Apparently training with the whole team isn’t exactly the same. So I said if she wanted she could join our morning session. Give them both an equal opportunity to kick the shit out of me.”, Landon explained. Rachel chuckled a little. Logan just shook his head. “That’s fine. You are just a glutton for punishment son. “, Logan stated. Landon laughed. “You know me well Sensei.”, Landon smiling giving another bow. Logan nodded. “Guess I shall see you and my daughter in the morning. Let’s go Rachel.”, Logan said heading out of the danger room. Rachel looked to Landon then to her Uncle. “I’ll see you at work and otherwise training. Bye Landon.”, Rachel said. Landon nodded. “I’d offer a hug but I think we are both a tad sweaty for that. See you at work and training. Thanks for the help.”, Landon said watching Rachel leave with Logan. Landon closed up the danger room and headed back upstairs grabbing something quick to eat before showering again and crashing on his bed. He knew he’s need all his energy for the next day when he’d have a full round of training. He knew this was going to be long ass week.
The next morning Landon’s alarm went off and he quickly dressed for training and grabbed a nutria-grain bar from the kitchen before he rushed down to the danger room. He went in and realized he was actually earl and the first one there. “Dojo.”, Landon stated and the danger room trained to an authentic Japanese dojo with the weapons wall, solid wood fighting dummies and some other equipment for training including a small obstacle course. Landon glanced to his watch seeing he still had half an hour before training. He shrugged and finished his energy drink placing it in a trash can before starting to run the obstacle course. Rose arrived in her training gear and hear someone in the danger room and cautiously walked in and looked around seeing only Landon. She stayed silent and just watched as he moved through the obstacle course of the dojo ending with grabbing his sword and splitting in half and starting to practice different moves against the wooden dummies. She didn’t want to disturb him he seemed so focus, she’d trained with him for years and had to admit when he got into his zone he was rather incredible to observe. As she watched Landon she didn’t even realize her father had arrived. “He’s not a bad fighter, kiddo.”, Logan whispered. Rose jumped a little and turned her head to look at her dad. “You scared me dad.”, Rose whispered. Logan snorted and tapped her nose. “Learn to use your heightened sense even when your mind is focused elsewhere. It could save your life or someone else’s.”, Logan said walking past her. “Good morning Landon. Early huh?”, Logan greeted.
Rose followed after her dad as the danger room door closed. Landon stopped mid strike hearing Logan. He brought his swords back together and sheathed it giving a bow. “Good morning sensei.”, Landon greeted. As he straightened his eyes fell on Rose. “Good morning Rose.”, Landon added. “Morning. So this is what you two do? Train in this dojo space?”, Rose asked looking around. “In the morning session yes. But we will be changing it up given your presence alters the balance.”, Logan stated walking to the wall of weapons and grabbing his sword. “Landon you know this drill from last night. As we trained with Rachel we will be focused on you being able to defend yourself and strike back against multiple opponents. Rose I would like you to choose a weapon from the wall and when we begin remember you need to be all in or this is pointless.”, Logan instructed pointing to the wall of weapons. “Oh don’t worry dad. I won’t be holding back against Landon.”, Rose stated walking to the wall looking over her options. She smiled and grabbed the shuko attaching them to her hands. “I think I’ll give these a try. When I use powers I’m generally a close quarters combat type.”, Rose said turning to Landon and Logan. “Alright I’ll take his left you attack from the right.”, Logan said moving to strike. Landon moved to counter while Rose moved to try and catching him off guard but Landon was quick to unsheathe his sword and separate the blade and use the second to block Rose’s attack actually getting her. The training continued the level of intensity much more fast paced that regular survival training or even the team training that Rose was used to. She found herself actually having some trouble with keeping up but at least her healing factor allowed her to maintain her stamina.
The session ended and Logan took the weapons back putting them away. “You didn’t do too bad kiddo. About what I expected given Landon was in the same place when he started training with me.”, Logan said. Landon kept a thought to himself now being able to compare Rachel to Rose in training. Rose may have the mutant powers but Rachel had been able to keep up better from her years of training with John. Landon gave a bow to Logan. “Thank you sensei. I will see you tonight for our evening session.”, Landon said standing up. He then turned to Rose. “Thank you for joining us today. I hope you’ll choose to keep showing up. I’ll see you this afternoon for team training.”, Landon said with a smile. Rose nodded a little not sure how to take what her father said. “I’ll see you at team training and I’ll be back tomorrow morning you can count on that.”, Rose said walking out of the room. Logan sighed and shook his head looking to Landon. “You seriously have a death wish kid.”, Logan commented. “Sensei?”, Landon questioned. “That girl is mine and Aurelia’s daughter and you are goating her about fighting?”, Logan stated. Landon smirked. “She may not have been holding back today, but she wasn’t keeping up like Rachel did. If I wanted to piss Rose off I’d have told her that comparison. I didn’t because I’m not an idiot that’s on the level of me giving a verbal comparison to how they kiss.”, Landon said with a laugh. “How about you don’t discuss kissing me daughter or niece around me.”, Logan suggested. “Of course Sensei. I should go shower and head to the shop for work. I’ll see you tonight.”, Landon said rushing to get ready for the rest of his day.
The rest of the week went by in a haze. For the others it wasn’t that bad. Rose trained with Landon and her dad in the morning then the team in the afternoon and otherwise she worked at the medical center and got to hang out with her friends. Rachel trained with her father in the morning then worked at the flower shop during the afternoon and still had time to relax with friends before her training in the evening with Landon and her Uncle. The others had it even easier only training in the afternoon and working their part time jobs and just relaxing. It was easy for all of them to put up their front that they were mad with Landon and avoid being around him, because Landon was rarely seen. He trained in the morning with Logan and Rose, worked at the flower shop, trained with the team in the afternoon, trained with Logan and Rachel in the evening and then helped Forge with getting the MDR ready at night. Landon was living on hardly any sleep finding energy drinks had become his best friend. He’d finished his training Friday night with Logan and Rachel his one thought was how grateful he was that it was going to be Saturday and he didn’t have to train. He headed to the kitchen and made himself a sandwich before heading to the entertainment room and sitting down starting to eat while turning the TV on not even caring what was on. He got almost half way through his sandwich before his eyelids got too heavy from the long week of training. His plate and sandwich slid off him to the floor as he leaned slightly falling asleep on the couch.
