X-Men: Night of the Living Brain Dead
                               by
                           Ben Church bchurch@su.edu
                                   
         All major characters are the property of Marvel Comics except 
Hotshot.
    
                            Chapter 5
	A week passed.  Then another.  Finally, Hank pronounced him 
fully recuperated.  "The only thing left to do," Hank said "is to 
decide what to do about your missing eye."
         "Well, what are our options?" Will asked, thinking about glass 
eyes.
         "Hmm.  We've had some success in the past with cybernetic 
implants."
         "You mean a robot eye?"
         "Well sort of, but it would be more like an android.  Do you 
know what the difference is?"
         "Yeah, a robot is mechanical and an android is electrical."
         "To put it in layman's terms, yes."
         Will bristled.  "I'm not a layman." he snapped.
         Hank looked in surprise.  "Sorry Will, I didn't mean to offend 
you."
         "No I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blow up at you.  I've been cooped 
up too long that's all."
         "I'm sure you were.  Now where were we?"
         "The eye."
         "Oh yes.  We could make a cybernetic eye for you, but it might 
be hard for you to adjust to.  There is one idea that you might like."
    
         Will looked in the mirror, and studied his face.  The 
eye-patch made him look like a pirate.  His empty socket had been 
stuffed with synthetic skin and tissue, and the patch he wore was made 
of adamantium so it would protect the still vulnerable hole.  Will 
smiled.  "I like it." he said.  As he turned from the mirror, the door 
opened and a short hairy man walked in.
         "Ah," said Hank, "Logan.  As you can see, I've managed to find 
a use for some of the adamantium from your skeleton."
         Logan's skeleton had once been laced with a rare metal called 
Adamantium.  It was only recently that the Adamantium had been forcibly 
removed by Magneto.  Logan didn't like to think about it much.  It
was the closest he'd ever come to dying.
         "That's great, Hank.  How's the kid?"  Logan said.
         "Actually," Hank said "I was hoping you could take him to the 
danger room so we can see just what his powers are."
         "Sure.  Come on kid," Logan said to Will, "Let's get you a 
spare uniform."
    
         Soon Will stood in a large empty room wearing a blue uniform  
with a large red X on the front.  Logan sat in the control room high 
above.
         "All right kid," he said over the intercom, "The controls are 
set for the easiest difficulty level.  You ready?"
         "Yeah." said Will.  "Give me your best shot."
         "All right you asked for it."
         The room changed from an empty gym to an ancient passage that 
looked like something from an Indiana Jones movie.  Behind him was 
a thick jungle, in front of him was a long dark hallway.  
	He picked up a piece of wood from the floor and called upon his 
power.  The wood erupted in flame giving off enough light to see by.  
He walked cautiously forward, peering at the floor for any signs of the 
booby traps he was sure would be there.  Suddenly, a loud rumbling 
reached his ears from behind him.  A slab of rock now blocked the way 
back.  
	He was sure he could get out that way if he had to, but he was 
content to go forward for now.  He was passing through a small 
chamber when the first trap was sprung.  A huge hammer swinging on 
a chain fell from the ceiling and swept the length of the room.  On 
it's first pass, it caught him in the chest and propelled him into 
the wall.  He was trapped because the hammer had stuck in the hole 
it had made.  He pushed against the hammer with all his strength but 
it didn't budge.  He concentrated on his hands and heated them as he 
pushed. The stone hammer slowly began to melt and flow out of the 
hole.  When he was free again he continued on.
    
         Logan recorded the information in the computer.  Will was 
able to generate heat from at least his hands, possibly other areas 
of his body as well.  He also was not hurt by the hammer.  This meant 
that he was at least partially invulnerable.  Logan decided to test 
just how far that power went.
    
         Will walked carefully on.  He soon found a passage with tiny 
holes in the wall.  He did not know what would trigger the trap that 
was so obviously there, so he decided to run through.  Behind him, 
he heard darts shoot through the air.  He was almost to the end when 
a dart skimmed his skin.  He winced and clapped his hand to his arm 
where the skin had been cut.  He reached the end of the hallway and 
looked at his arm.  It was just a superficial cut, the bleeding had 
already stopped.
    
         Logan played back the sequence and zoomed in on the image of 
Will's arm as it was hit.  The dart had merely scratched him, but it 
proved that Will was not completely invulnerable.  It seemed 
that his invulnerability was limited to blunt objects.  Since many 
bullets had points on them, it was not surprising that one had hurt 
him.  Logan began to program in one last test for Will.
    
         Will had begun to tire of this game.  Nothing much had been 
happening and he wondered how much longer this was going to 
continue.  Suddenly he heard Logan's voice from somewhere above him.
         "All right kid, there's only one way out of here.  And that's 
across this."  A section of the wall fell away and molten lava flowed 
out into the passage.  There was no way around, but there were vines 
with which to make a bridge.  But Will decided not to waste his time 
with that.  He dove in and began to swim across.  It was like swimming 
through molasses but he was a strong swimmer.
    
         "Holy shit." Logan was astounded.  He turned the heat of the 
lava up to the maximum intensity, 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.  Will's 
clothes caught fire, but Will himself wasn't the least bit affected.
    
         Will reached the far side and called to Logan.
         "Could I get some more clothes?" he asked.  "These seem to 
have had an accident."
    
         Professor Xavier studied Logan's report.  Will's powers of 
heat generation, and invulnerability to heat and blunt objects were 
impressive.  As was Logan's opinion of him.  He wondered at the 
potential power of these abilities.  But for now there were more 
immediate concerns to worry about.
         "You were unable to find the information that Jean placed in 
his mind?" he asked.
         "Yes sir." said Betsy.  "I looked for it when I was restoring 
his memory, but Jean buried it too far in his sub-conscious.  I think 
she may have put in a fail safe so that it would be safe from the wrong 
hands."
         "Well we can't keep him here to find it.  I'm going to send 
him to my Massachusetts Academy.  Since you know him the best, I would 
like you to accompany him."
         "It would be my pleasure Professor."
    
         Logan helped Will load the back of the car.  The day before, 
Hank and Warren had taken Will shopping for clothes.  Will was most 
impressed by the image inducers that they used.  He'd been given one 
that made his patch seem to be cloth instead of metal.  Will had wanted 
to buy more than just clothes, but he was assured that whatever else he 
needed would be provided at the Academy.  As well as the suitcases, 
Logan tied a steamer trunk to the roof, telling him not to open it 
till he unpacked in his new room.  Will was overjoyed to finally be 
going to the School he had heard so much about.  He was even happier 
that Betsy was going with him.
    
         On a rise near the Mansion a lone figure watched the 
preparations.  The Black Queen, having not fed on psychic energies for 
a quite while now looked to be in her seventies.  She would soon find a 
victim, but for now she needed to find out where the boy was going.  It 
had not been hard to find him.  Strong Guy had recognized Sabertooth, 
and Sabertooth was an X-Man.  But to get so close to the X-Men's home 
she could not trust any of her vampires.  The commotion below disturbed 
her.  She did not know where they would take him, and worse yet she did 
not know if they had gotten the information out of him or not.  She 
decided not to worry about finding him again, a boy with a eye patch 
would not be hard to spot.  When the car left, she spurred her horse 
and rode away planning how to capture the boy.


To be continued...