X-Men Fan Fiction ❯ Return Of An Old Friend ❯ Another Brick In The Wall ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution, the characters and settings thereof, or anything else except my own character of Tommy “Turbo” Magnus.

 

Note: Don't worry, I know the ages and characters present are out of whack, that's because this is an AU, so just sit back, relax, and leave the logic at the door. If you start to get confused, go read “What If Avalanche Joined The X-Men?”, also by me, since this actually takes place after that story. I'm not sure how far I'll actually GO with this, so if you like it, PLEASE review.

 

-One dash- designates telepathy, --two dashes-- are a… well, that would possibly spoil future stories.

 

----

 

Geokinetic Lance Alvers, the earth-shaking Avalanche, Katherine “Kitty” Pryde - the Shadowcat, telepath Jean Grey, Kurt Wagner - Nightcrawler - who proves that appearances are deceiving, Evan Daniels, the bone-throwing Spyke, the mysterious and dangerous Rogue, and Tommy Magnus - the fast thinking, fast acting Turbo. Brought together by Professor Charles Xavier at his Institute for the Gifted, they are the X-Men Evolution.

 

----

 

“Return of an Old Friend”

Part Two: Another Brick In The Wall

By J.T. Magnus, “Turbo”

 

----

 

Tommy Magnus twisted with a growl and slammed his hand down on his digital alarm clock, he hated waking up before he was ready. With his other hand, he searched the table beside his bed for his glasses; while his mutant ability granted him some mental acuity at times, he lacked certain visual acuity and needed them to see well. For the past few days, Tommy, had been settling back into the Xavier Institute for the Gifted. Settling back in because there had been a time years before when he had attended the school before leaving, and now he had returned with no explanation, to the curiosity of those who had known him before.

“Several months and it's still intact,” he muttered, “A new alarm clock survival record…”

 

-Tommy, if you would please come to my study?- Professor Xavier's voice echoed in his head.

 

`On my way,' he thought back, then added to himself, “Why can't he just use an intercom system like everyone else?”

 

---

 

A few minutes later, Tommy stood in Xavier's study wearing fatigue pants and boots, a green t-shirt and a pair of fingerless gloves not unlike Lance's.

 

“What?”

 

“Logan is extremely busy this afternoon and we'd like you to go pick up some of the other students since Lance's jeep cannot fit all of them. Since your transfer paperwork is almost complete, this will also give you the opportunity to learn the way from here to the high school.”

 

“But, Professor!” Tommy sighed, knowing it was no use arguing with Xavier… The resemblance to Zordon from Power Rangers didn't stop at the bald head, after all, “All right, I'll do it…”

 

Moments later, as he passed Logan in the hall, Tommy whispered, “You'll pay for this.”

 

“I'll have the two pints of blood and pound of flesh ready, Sugar-rush.”

 

Without even looking back, Tommy retorted, “Three pints and two pounds, Maple-Leaf, prices have gone up.”

 

---

 

Tommy's 2003 Toyota managed to make it across town from the Institute to the high school with time to spare, leaving the driver to lean back and start reading a book while he waited on his fellow Institute students. After a time, he was pulled from the world of 1880's London by a commotion outside the Toyota, looking up, he saw Scott and four others that he could only figure to be the `Brotherhood' standing to block the Institute students from the parking lot. Tommy was also Turbo, by name, by attitude and by mutation, so it didn't take him long to figure out what to do.

 

It took him less time, at `Turbo-Speed', to be out of the car and standing among the X-Men with his back to the Brotherhood…

 

After knocking off Scott's glasses.

 

“What the!?” The Brotherhood leader exclaimed, closing his eyes tightly to prevent his optic beams from firing.

 

Tommy smirked, “Uncontrollable red beams from your eyes? …There's a Visine for that.”

 

Adjusting the leather jacket he was wearing as he turned around, Tommy's smirk grew, “Long time, no… well, actually you can't see me now, Scooter.”

 

“Magnus! What are you doing here?”

 

Tommy scoffed, “If your brain wasn't still in the original box you might be able to figure it out. I'll explain it to you, Summers, and I'll use short words: I'm. Back. At. Xavier's.”

 

In his usual high-speed, Pietro ran up and poked Tommy in the chest, “I don't know who you are, but no one makes fools out of the Brotherhood and gets away with it.”

 

“Other than yourselves, you mean?” Tommy said simply

 

“Right,” Pietro answered, “No one other than our-Hey!”

 

Evan was barely keeping his laughter under control, he had seen how crazy Tommy could act over the last couple days, but this was too much, “Mouth, fast. Feet, fast. Brain? Not even.”

 

“You're gonna pay for that!” Pietro snapped, swinging a fist at super-speed towards Tommy, “Wha-!”

 

“Little tip,” Tommy said, bending Pietro's arm back toward him by the grip on his wrist, “They don't call me `Turbo' for no reason: I move fast. Unlike you, I also think fast.”

 

With a push towards the Brotherhood, Tommy released his grip on Pietro, causing the silver-haired teen to stumble backwards. Luckily for Scott, while Pietro had been facing off against Tommy, Wanda had found his glasses and returned them to her boyfriend, because they had been laying right where Pietro landed.

 

“I see the Professor's given up on teaching about fighting fair,” Scott said, “Since there's five of us and seven of you.”

 

“Move out of the way and it won't be a problem, Summers,” Lance warned.

 

“We all know you'd never use your powers in public,” Wanda retorted, “It might upset old Baldy.”

 

Tommy slipped a hand in his pocket, “You know, you're right.”

 

`Jean, tell the others to be ready to move.'

 

-Why? Tommy, what are you about to do?-

 

`Watch and see.'

 

At the sudden blast of a horn, the members of the Brotherhood turned to look, giving the Institute students a chance to rush past them, or in Kurt's case, teleport past them. Lance jumped into his jeep, followed by Kitty, Rogue and Evan, while Tommy, Jean and Kurt got into Tommy's car. Before the Brotherhood could recover from the sudden shock, the two vehicles were out of the parking lot and gone.

 

“Man, zat vas so cool!”

 

Tommy laughed, “I knew it was a good idea to have that remote installed! Pricey, but good!”

 

“You always have to be a show-off,” Jean laughed.

 

“Hey, you're average on the scale, Scooter was uptight, one of us had to be the crazy one,” Tommy retorted…

 

It was good to be home.

 

---

 

After they were home, Turbo, Nightcrawler and Spyke were told to report to the Danger Room.

 

“The objective of this session is simple,” Logan said smirking, something that had the three members of the X-Men nervous since the man also known as Wolverine only smirked like that when he was about to make someone miserable, “All you have to do is get to the other end of the course and ring the bell without using your powers.”

 

“Go!”

 

The three mutants took off, Turbo on two feet, Nightcrawler on all four and Spyke on four wheels.

 

“Oh, and watch out for surprises.”

 

Spyke nearly fell off his board, “What did he mean by that?”

 

Just before Spyke reached it, part of the floor exploded, causing the skater to almost fall again before he recovered.

 

“Does that answer your question, Bones?” Turbo asked, annoyed.

 

“I don't do explosions, I'm a city boy!”

 

“Just think of them as really powerful firecrackers someone's throwing at you!” Turbo responded, trying not to groan at Spyke's stupidity.

 

“Race you to der next obstacle,” Nightcrawler challenged, bounding ahead, dodging the explosions with acrobatic ease.

 

“You're on,” Turbo accepted, running as fast as he could without using his powers.

 

“Hey, guys, wait up!” Spyke shouted kicking off after them, treating the course like a half-pipe.

 

As they reached the rope before a pit, flames shot out of the pit, blocking their way. Kurt didn't break stride as he leapt to the top of the frame holding the rope and flipped across the fire, Turbo followed suit in a much simpler manner, leaping through the fire and rolling to extinguish any flames on his uniform. Spyke wasn't about to do something that crazy, so he looked around for a different way.

 

“Alright, now that's calling my name!” He said, skating into a pipe.

 

While he was doing that, Nightcrawler and Turbo had made their way past the next obstacle, a series of electrified wires over water; Turbo by swimming under them, Nightcrawler by leaping over them.

 

“Show off,” Turbo muttered.

 

“Do you have any idea vat I smell like wet?” Nightcrawler countered, laughing until a low-powered laser blast caught him from behind, “Vat the?”

 

“Oh, great,” Turbo groaned, “Another Danger Room session brought to us by `Let's add lasers to everything' Logan…”

 

“Ja, he does enjoy doing zat…” Nightcrawler agreed, staring at the laser turrets between them and the bell.

 

“I'd almost suggest locking him in here for revenge, but he'd probably enjoy it…”

 

“Ja… OUCH!”

 

“AH!”

 

“Get moving!” Logan said as the lasers fired again.

 

“If you insist, Canucklehead,” Turbo said, reaching into a pocket and then throwing a pair of Japanese throwing stars at the laser turrets, jamming the lasers and blowing them up.

 

“Vhere did you learn to do zat?”

 

“Picked it up by watching TV, where else?” Turbo answered.

 

“I should have known,” Nightcrawler said, bounding off.

 

Even without his powers, Turbo seemed to watch in slow motion as Nightcrawler reached the bell at the same time as Spyke shot out of a pipe and hit it, knocking it into Nightcrawler causing the blue teleporter to lose consciousness. After that, it took several minutes for Tommy, Logan and Evan to wake Kurt up.

 

"You okay?"

"Oh, mein head," Kurt groaned, "Vat happened?"

"Bones got you a good one with the bell," Tommy explained, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at Evan.

"Man, zat vas der weirdest dream..."

"Va-I mean, what?"

"Tommy, you, Lance and Evan were the Three Musketeers, protecting Queen Jean from the plans of Cardinal Pietro, while I tried to join the Musketeers. Scott ran around trying to catch us before we could save the Queen after we stopped Evan's ex-wife Rogue from going to England. Jean's king was someone I've never seen before, there was this fraulein from one of my classes that kept hitting on me, and strangest of all was the Toad kept popping up all the time talking about his schwester's honor..."

Tommy chuckled, "You do realize that we're never gonna let you live this down, right?"

 

“Ja, unfortunately, I do…”

 

---

 

Tommy shook his head, `When was the last time you ever saw a couple that in love?'

 

--Saw? My parents. Felt? All the time.--

 

`Yeah, I know…' He replied before speaking up, “You do realize there's other people in the room, right?”

 

Lance, with Kitty sitting on his lap, looked over at Tommy, “You can leave, you know.”

 

“And have Logan after me for leaving you two alone? Forget it, I'm not exactly in the mood for another Danger Room session.”

 

“For someone who's here alone,” Kitty remarked, “You sure look happy.”

“That,” Tommy said, “Is my secret.”

 

--OUR secret.--

 

`Our secret,' he agreed.

 

“Maybe he and Jean are closer than they let on,” Lance teased, causing Tommy to just smirk in response.

 

“Or Rogue finally can touch and you two had fun with it?” The smirk became a full-blown smug look.

 

“Lance, you've got rocks in your head,” Tommy retorted, stretching his arms before putting his hands behind his head and chuckled, ignoring any further comments from the earth-mover who was being driven nuts by it.

 

--This is almost too enjoyable.--

 

`If only it wasn't so easy to mess with Lance's mind.'

 

--He has a mind?--

 

`Actually, I think it's a piece of Kitty's.'

 

Tommy smiled as he heard the laughter in his mind before joining in himself.

 

“What's he laughing about?” Kitty wondered.

 

“Who knows?” Lance shrugged.

 

The teen on the other side of the room laughed even harder, “If you have to ask, you'll probably never know.”

 

Outside the door, Rogue looked on in confusion, “What IS going on in here?”

 

“Lance is petting his Kitty and they're both wondering why I'm in such a good mood, Milady DeWinter,” Tommy answered, taking a drink of diet cola.

 

“Ah'm gonna hurt Kurt…” Rogue groaned.

 

“Not yet, Aramis over there,” Tommy pointed at Lance, smug look firmly in place, “and I still have to school him in `the manly art of wenching'. As soon as he's finished giving Kitty her `Theology lesson', anyway.”

 

At the confused looks of the others, Tommy shook his head and looked upward, “'God, I'm amongst the heathen.'”

 

--You really aren't going to let Kurt live that down, are you?--

 

`What? And pass up all the opportunities it presents?'

 

As the students exchanged smart remarks and retorts in the main living room, in Professor Xavier's study, a much more serious conversation was taking place…

 

“I'm worried, Logan.”

 

“The kid's good, Chuck, I'll give him that, but he's not a pre-cog.”

 

“I know, but at the same time he is also often right… What he said about his return…”

 

“Don't tell me you believe that whole `the time of fire for mutants is coming' line he said.”

 

Xavier wheeled around to look out the window at the night sky full of stars, “That's what bothers me, Logan, I do believe him. At times, Tommy is capable of noticing things that elude the rest of us due to his power, and…”

 

“What?”

 

“I have also felt something, a growing darkness. Something… blocks my telepathic powers from knowing exactly what it is, but there is something out there… I want you to begin looking through Cerebro's files, identifying possible new recruits, Logan, we should be prepared… For whatever comes.”