The Game Cafe in Marvel and DC

87 – Don’t be suspicious, don’t don’t be suspicious

With Hank unconscious and the Professor in a Coma, Logan had to decide. At the moment, the Professor was lying in a bed in Hank’s lab, just in the corner; Hank, while a scientist, was also the school’s doctor, so Logan knew he had to make a decision fast before someone came down looking for Hank.

Silently cursing, he rolled Hank to the corner of the room where it would be hard to see him and taped him and his chair onto the wall. This added an extra layer of protection against Hank while also making it hard for anyone to find him, as his voice would be muffled, and he would be out of sight.

From there, he turned off the room's lights before moving over to the Professor, pushing him out of the room, and closing the door behind him. Looking down both sides of the hallway, he rushed to the helipad, where the Blacbird would be. With it and his experience in flying with Hank to their missions with his fellow X-men, Logan knew he'd be able to escape so long as he managed to get to the ship with Charles.

That's when the worst-case scenario came to being, as both Storm and Cyclops came walking through down the hall, right before Logan as he pushed Charles's bed.

The two X-men looked at Charles and Logan in confusion.

"Logan? What are you doing with the professor?" Ororo asked, looking between the two men with confusion.

"Hank asked me to move him to his room," Logan lied with a straight face. His body was tense and ready to fight immediately, but even he knew he'd lose to his two friends before him.

Orroro, aka Storm, was a mutant able to control the weather; with her will alone, she could darken the skies above, bring forth terrifyingly destructive lightning bolts, and even enhance herself with these lightning bolts while she flew in the air.

On the other hand, Scott had to wear a special helmet to control his power, or he would burn everything in his path to ash because of how powerful and hot his lasers were. These two were heavy hitters, and if they both attacked Logan, he knew that he would very well lose if luck were not on his side, so his only hope was that Charles's manipulations wouldn't work if they thought he was still under Charles's control.

"I thought Hank wanted to keep him in his lab? To prevent a panic?" Scott interjected, confused.

"He feels it would be better if Charles had a familiar environment to rest and recover, and with everyone in the class, he felt that this was a good time to sneak Charles to his room." Logan tried to persuade the two, and luckily for him, it worked.

 "Alright, just let us know if you need any help," Orroro smiled, walking past Logan and the professor with Scott.

Knowing they were heading for the lab or the Danger Room, Logan began to rush toward the Hangar, where he boarded the Blackbird with Charles in toe. Tying Charles down, Logan closed the hatch and climbed to the pilot's seat, where he rapidly flipped switches, pushed buttons, and switched levers, causing numerous across the ship's console to light up and flicker on with myriad colors. 

As the engines came to life, he signaled for the roof to open, revealing the empty basketball court that acted as the hidden entrance into the hangar, and he activated the hangar's elevator, bringing the Blackbird up.

Knowing that he was running out of time before Orroro and Scott found Hank, Logan cursed and wished the elevator was faster.

When it finally reached the top, and the Blackbird began to move, he heard a distance rumbling from outside the ship and saw that the clouds above began to darken. Knowing he didn't have long, he began to take off, and once he was in the air, a series of lightning bolts struck the plane. 

"Damn it," Logan cursed, pulling up and trying to pierce through the clouds. He knew he had to get up past the clouds before Scott could force the plane to land, and luckily for him, just as the Blackbird pierced into the storm cloud created by Orroro, the Blackbird's sensors began to flash, alerting him of Scott's attack.

Weaving as he flew into the cloud,  he just barely managed to dodge the beam of energy that pierced the clouds right where the plane had previously been. Once he was hidden by the clouds, his altitude skyrocketed as he flew as high as he could to stop Storm from reaching him and the plane before he took off in a different direction than where he intended to throw off Storm and the others. He needed as much time as he could with Zerref, which meant he needed to set his friends on a wild goose chase before they could find him; he'd also need to ditch the plane, as no doubt, the plane had a tracker somewhere being monitored by Hank. He needed to find somewhere to set the plane down, get a car, and change clothes.

Making a plan, he changed direction, heading north to northwest, which was close but still away from his main destination, where he'd ditch the plane and get some wheels before heading towards Hell's Kitchen; he just had to hope that Charles would remain unconscious.

...

Watching as his students were overrun by NCR Soldiers and Heavy Troops, Joshua mentally noted each student's strengths and weaknesses. 

The red-haired woman was flexible and strong but relied too much on small-caliber weapons and close-quarters combat. The thug, on the other hand, was reckless and lacked skill in anything other than pistols, which was a weakness as most pistols would be unable to stop or dispatch the greater threats of the wasteland. He needed a lot more training, but still not as near as much as the two other students of his. 

When the simulation finally ended, the group fell to the ground of the simulator, completely exhausted, with only the red-haired woman showing a bit more endurance than the others. They would all need extensive survival training, physical conditioning, practical lessons, and training in various fields. Tactics, leadership, logistics, everything to make them Generals for the future battles to come. It would also mean that Joshua would need to push them to their limits and break them until they became better. Better than him.

Joshua needed to grasp this world. He needed to know everything: its population, its civil and military infrastructure, and more. Zerref already informed Joshua of this civilization's weaknesses but little of its strengths; it was a world much like the Pre-War World before the Great War, but he didn't know exactly what this world had over his own.

Letting his students leave and informing them to return tomorrow, Joshua walked over to the desk where his 'personal' Computer was and opened the thing called 'Internet.' An action Joshua would come to both regret and be thankful for. He has seen the worst of humanity personally, but the fact that the corruption was just as bad in some places across this...large network was worrying. He also saw things he couldn't explain. A strange woman in strange metal armor stronger, faster, and more durable than any man could possibly be, he saw a 'Man of Steel,' an alien like those in the comics, only this one looked human yet was anything but, as they could fly, crush cars with their bare fists, and even use lasers more powerful than anything Joshua has ever seen.

The more Joshua saw, the more concerned he grew. What sort of threats would come to be to threaten these...monsters in human flesh? Nothing in the Legion or any other group across the Wasteland could probably stop even one of these beings short of a Fat Man or Pre-War nuke. Perhaps Zerref would know; that way, Joshua could train the students in what they needed and make them the best they could be for whatever would come.