Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men - *sigh* If I did I would be very rich and live in a big house! Wildstar, Blizzard, Blaze and other mutants who will come into the story at a later date are, however, mine so please don't use them without permission.

Hello everyone! Here, as promised, is the first chapter of Shadows of a Dark Mind, sequel to Death By Healing! As before, I wrote this story several years ago, and is now being updated and uploaded for your enjoyment! It was actually written between X-Men and X-2, and when the second film came out I was amazed at the similarity between my first chapter and the Danger Room scene! Great minds obviously think alike! (Perhaps I should apply for a job as a script writer?!)

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has set up an Author Alert - I hope this new story lives up to your expectations! If so, please leave a review! Your input means alot to me!

Onwards - the adventure awaits ...... !!

oooOOOooo

Shadows of a Dark Mind

1. Black to Black

The thing was huge, at least as high as a five storey building. Jubilee backed off a couple of steps as the robot advanced down the street, its black metal surface gleaming like obsidian, seeming to absorb all the light around it and leaving the X-Men with the impression that they were standing in near darkness. Frightened civilians fled in terror from its heavy tread and one young police officer had a lucky escape as it battered a car out of its path with a giant fist, the vehicle coming to rest with a crash in the very space the fleeing man had just occupied.

Stepping forward resolutely, Cyclops thrust a fist skywards and the team's flyers – Rogue, Storm and Wildstar – took to the air, taking up three point positions around the robot and awaiting their leader's command. Cyclops spread his arms, keeping the ground team back until he had fully assessed the situation, watching for the right moment to unleash their combined attack. His eyes narrowed behind his ruby quartz visor as the robot stalked steadily nearer, one hand sweeping the air before it, as if grasping for the unwary. The other arm ended in a giant buzz-saw blade. Passive for the moment, Cyclops knew it would not remain so once the flyers made their move. The whole assault would have to be perfectly timed and executed. One wrong move could be fatal.

The familiar 'snikt' of Wolverine unsheathing his claws echoed from somewhere behind and slightly to the right of him. Almost immediately after, he heard a flare of energy and saw red light reflecting off the robot's body as it stomped steadily nearer – Gambit charging his energy missiles. The ground team were getting edgy and he couldn't blame them. Once again, he flung out a hand to keep them back, although this was merely a formality. They wouldn't attack without his command.

The robot stopped, its massive head rotating back and forth as it registered the flyers for the first time. It was now so close that Cyclops could hear the whine of its photo-receptors as they zoomed in and out, scanning the area and committing the X-Men's positions to memory. Cyclops tensed, recognising the moment to strike. It was now or never.

"Storm! Lightening bolt! Now!"

Cyclops stepped back as Storm swept overhead, her black cape billowing out behind her, arms outstretched to deliver a lethal lightening blast. Sparks flashed across its surface as systems inside short circuited and the visored mutant spun to face the ground team.

"Blizzard! Pour on the ice! Quick, man!"

"Sure thing, boss!"

Cyclops barely stepped out of the way in time as a wave of blinding cold came from the hands of the young X-Man called Blizzard. Ice immediately began to build up on the robot's legs, climbing steadily higher with each second. With its legs anchored, all forward motion stopped, and its head tilted downwards to ascertain the cause of the problem.

With the delicate circuitry at the back of its neck now exposed, Cyclops turned to call in the remaining two flyers to join their forces to Storm's for the next stage of the attack.

"Cyclops, the robot! It isn't icing up fast enough!"

Jubilee's sudden shout alerted the team leader to the possibility of danger, just as Storm was flying in for another pass, all her attention directed to delivering another lightening blast. He ran forward, activating his personal comm unit and waving his arms to attract her attention.

"Storm, no! Wait!"

But it was too late. Bringing its rotary blade into play, the robot swept it in a wide arc to catch the unwary flyer. Storm, seeing the huge blade heading straight for her, reacted instinctively, generating a strong wind to take her out of harm's way. Unfortunately, her new trajectory took her straight into Rogue's flight path. Rogue swerved, desperately trying not to hit her team-mate, only to crash headlong into Wildstar, who was just coming up alongside. Both flyers plummeted to the ground, stunned, Rogue taking out a baker's shop on the way down and Wildstar landing heavily on the roof of a red sedan before rolling down the hood to the ground. Both were out for the count.

The robot immediately turned and began stomping towards the two downed mutants, while Storm, having recovered from her uncontrolled flight, rained lightening bolts down on its head from above in an effort to divert its attention. It jerked once, but kept moving, the element of surprise having being lost.

"Dammit, Blizzard, what the hell d'ya think yer doin'? Yer gonna get somebody killed!" Wolverine darted forward, brandishing his claws menacingly. "Jubilee, Gambit, cover me!"

He set off at a run towards the robot, but Cyclops stepped in to intercept him. "Stay back, Wolverine. This wasn't part of the plan."

"Neither was two o' my team-mates getting' stomped by that thing." Wolverine thrust one set of claws dangerously close to Cyclops' face. "Now either shaddup an' help or get the hell outta my way!"

Cyclops didn't need to be told twice. When Wolverine was in his current mood it was best to give in gracefully and count the cost later. He nodded, reluctantly. "Okay. Give it your best shot."

"I intend to." Wolverine darted off, as Jubilee and Gambit moved up to give him the cover he had requested. Jubilee's fireworks and Gambit's kinetically charged missiles harassed the robot, deliberately aiming for the delicate sensors in the head, as it swept its blade through the air in an effort to rid itself of Storm, who was still valiantly trying to impede its relentless forward progress. Cyclops spared Rogue and Wildstar a quick glance as he took up position beside Jubilee. Both flyers looked badly stunned, but Rogue, at least, seemed to be coming around. If he and the others could delay the robot enough, they might buy time for the flyers to recover and get out of harm's way.

Cyclops' optic blast staggered the robot just as Wolverine reached it. He ducked under the grasping hand and went straight for a leg, slashing at it with his lethal blades. Sparks and pieces of metal went flying under the feral mutant's onslaught. A sudden crack and an arc of blue sparks gave evidence that something vital had been severed and the leg shuddered as the robot tried to take another step, internal gears whining with the effort.

Its forward momentum temporarily halted, the robot reacted to this new threat by reaching for Wolverine with its massive hand. Wolverine, however, managed to evade its grasp easily by rolling behind the metal construct to continue his assault on the opposing leg there. His claws were having a devastating effect on the robot's limbs and its stance was becoming more unsteady with each passing second.

Out of the corner of his eye, Cyclops caught a flash of movement and he turned to see Rogue climbing unsteadily to her feet. She paused to check on Wildstar and then tossed Cyclops a thumbs up signal to show they were both okay, before taking to higher ground, carrying her still groggy team-mate. Cyclops nodded to himself in satisfaction. Now, if they could just get themselves back on track, this confrontation might not be such a disaster after all.

Before they could really go to work on the increasingly unsteady robot, he needed to get Wolverine out of harm's way. The feisty Canadian hadn't realised that Rogue and Wildstar were now out of danger and was still going at the robot as though his life depended on it. Cyclops tapped his comm, but before he could call Wolverine back, Blizzard, who had kept a low profile since his earlier mistake, suddenly dashed forward, shouldering between Jubilee and Gambit and interrupting their steady stream of firepower to the robot's head. The young X-Man raised his hands, palms outwards and, with a jolt of alarm, Cyclops suddenly realised what he was planning to do. He started forward, the light behind his visor flaring in intensity.

"Blizzard, no! You'll hit Wolverine!"

The warning came too late. Jubilee screamed as Blizzard unleashed his mutant power. A savage burst of intense cold slammed into the lower half of the robot, covering it with a thick layer of ice within seconds.

"Cripes!" Wolverine flung himself out of harm's way with only inches to spare, his uniform already glittering with a layer of frost. He landed heavily, tucked and rolled, moving quickly to keep out of the robot's reach. But the robot seemed to have anticipated such a move and was ready for him. The moment Wolverine came to his feet, the hand swept down and wrapped around his body. Wolverine grunted as the robot lifted him into the air. With his arms pinned to his sides he was caught tight and couldn't bring his claws into play.

With its prey now firmly within its grasp, the robot began to squeeze. Wolverine braced himself against the fingers, trying to push back and prevent the robot from crushing the life out of him but, pinned as he was, his leverage was limited and he knew he couldn't delay the inevitable for longer than a few minutes. Snarling with the effort it took to brace himself against the slowly closing fingers, he hoped his adamantium skeleton could bear the pressure long enough for the others to mount a rescue. The way their luck was going, he seriously doubted it.

On the ground, the others had ceased their assault on the robot, realising they couldn't continue without hitting Wolverine also. Rogue, having deposited Wildstar on a nearby rooftop where she could recover safely, took off and flew nearer to assess the situation. The robot immediately tried to chase her off, swinging its blade menacingly, but she saw enough to recognise that Wolverine was slowly being squeezed to death and didn't have long before he passed out from the strain of holding off the giant fingers.

She dropped quickly to ground level, landing just in front of their team leader and being joined almost immediately by a shaken looking Wildstar. "Cyclops, we have ta do somethin'! Wolvie can't hold out much longer."

Cyclops hesitated, looking around at the other X-Men, who were anxiously awaiting his orders. They had to move quickly before Wolverine was injured but, much as he hated to admit it, he was all out of options. Wolverine was as good as dead. He hoped the feral mutant would understand what he now had to do.

Cursing silently to himself, he came to a decision and raised his head. "Computer, emergency cancellation: Cyclops: Priority One."

The street scene faded from view as the Danger Room cancelled the scenario immediately. Before them, the huge obsidian robot settled into inactivity, the lights behind its baleful red eyes growing dim. For safety reasons, a projection never cancelled when holding, or being stood on, by a team member. A fall from a rapidly disappearing building could be fatal for a none-flyer if a scenario was unexpectedly cancelled, so the room had safeties built in as standard.

Rogue tossed her team leader a disgusted glance before taking off to fly up to her trapped team-mate, now freed from the pressure of the squeezing fingers but still unable to lever himself out of their grasp. Using her formidable strength, she prized the fingers apart, allowing Wolverine to drop to the ground. He landed lightly on his feet like a cat, dusting himself off nonchalantly, as the robot behind him faded back into the programme from whence it came. Rogue landed beside him and he turned to punch her shoulder in manly gratitude.

Cyclops strode forward, trailing the other X-men in his wake. "That was pathetic, people. Absolutely pathetic! If this were a real combat situation, Wolverine would have been out of action by now, robbing us of one of our biggest hitters."

"Beggin' your pardon, fearless leader, but if this were a real combat situation there wouldn't have been an emergency cancellation option. Ah think ya'll is gettin' things outta perspective here, sugah."

"Yeah, Rogue's right," put in Jubilee, pushing forward slightly. "If you'd given the order, we coulda rescued Wolvie easy. Right, Gambit?"

The tall Cajun flipped a card through his fingers. "Right, petite."

Cyclops shook his head. "While I appreciate your confidence, Jubilee, you are forgetting the reason for this lesson. This combat session was designed to test your ability to work as a team and follow orders to the letter. You all failed, so there was no purpose in carrying on any longer. Hence, I cancelled the programme."

"Bull!" Wolverine stepped forward, anger evident in his tone and the set of his shoulders. "I think that ruby visor's cloudin' the way ya see things, pal. The way I remember it, things were goin' just fine until iceboy here botched his job." He jabbed an accusing finger at Blizzard, who raised his hands as if to ward off the verbal blow. "We didn't 'all' fail, Cyclops. One of us did. An' that mistake threw the rest o' us."

"Yes, a mistake, Wolverine. We all make mistakes, even you, from time to time."

Wolverine growled, a sound that usually sent saner men scurrying for cover. To his credit, Cyclops didn't even flinch. "A mistake durin' a combat situation could cost someone their life, Summers. You know that better'n any of us. Blizzard screwed up twice today. If the boy can't hack it, he shouldn't be trainin' with the elite team. He's gonna get somebody hurt."

Cyclops sighed, running a hand distractedly through his dark hair. "Logan, calm down. You're just angry because the robot got the drop on you." He placed his hand on his team-mate's shoulder, but Wolverine shrugged it off with a growl.

"Yer damn right I'm angry. This isn't the first time the boy's botched a trainin' session, but ya'll keep makin' excuses fer him until somebody gets hurt, or worse."

"Logan ……"

"Ah, shaddup, Cyclops, I've had enough o' this. Ya want me, ya know where ta find me."

Wolverine stalked from the Danger Room, pushing roughly past Phoenix and Psylocke and scattering the trainees who were waiting in the corridor for their own training session to start. Phoenix watched him stride angrily into the elevator and then looked back into the Danger Room, her eyes seeking those of her fiancée. "Who rattled his cage?"

Cyclops sighed, wearily. "A small misunderstanding, that's all, Jean. He'll be fine after he's had time to calm down." He turned to face the control booth set high into the Danger Room wall. "I'm sorry things didn't go as planned, Professor. Do you want us to try again?"

"Negative, Cyclops." Professor Xavier's voice issued clearly from unseen speakers and Cyclops could see the school's mentor and guide sitting calmly behind the booth's reinforced plexi-glass window, where he had been monitoring the session. "You are one man down and Wildstar may have been injured in the fall. I suggest you all follow Wolverine's example, impromptu though it may be, and call it a day. We will run this scenario another day, when hot heads have cooled down."

"Okay, Professor."

"If trainin' over for de day, den Gambit, he gonna take himself off to de rec room for a relaxin' game o' pool." The Cajun pocketed his unused playing cards and sidled up to Rogue. "Care to join me, chere? Remy t'ink you owe him a rematch."

Rogue considered this. "Well …… okay. But only if ya promise not ta cheat this time, ya Cajun Swamp Rat!"

"Cheat?" Gambit looked hurt. "Remy LeBeau, he don' have to cheat. You mus' have Remy mistaken for someone else, chere."

The pair left the Danger Room arm in arm, followed closely by Blizzard, whose dark expression left no doubt as to what he was thinking. Cyclops frowned as the young mutant disappeared from view, hoping he didn't feel too badly about what had happened during the training session. Mistakes was unavoidable, but Blizzard seemed to be making more than his fair share of them just lately, which was unfortunate, given Wolverine's penchant for perfection in matters of training. Cyclops would never admit it to Wolverine but, for once, he actually agreed with the feral mutant - Blizzard shouldn't be training with the elite team. He was too young, and still wet behind the ears where his powers were concerned. But the Professor had graduated him to the elite team after only two weeks as a trainee, overlooking the boy's twin sister, Blaze, and their own Iceman who, in Cyclops' opinion, had far greater control over his powers. Cyclops would never question one of the Professor's decisions, but he truly believed their mentor had made a bad call on this one. He just hoped the boy improved soon, before someone got hurt …… or worse.

Cyclops shook his head in confusion. Of all the X-Men, Wolverine surprisingly had always shown the most patience when dealing with the youngsters. Kitty and Jubilee popped immediately to mind. Despite his ornery nature, he'd immediately taken both youngsters into his protection, personally overseeing their training and making them into the X-Men they were today. With Jubilee, that was still an on-going process, but Cyclops could see the same relationship already forming with one of the new trainees. Hisako Ichiki, a likable girl of Asian descent, already seemed to have formed an unlikely friendship with the gruff feral, to the extent that he had taken her into his one on one training regime along with Jubilee. But not Blizzard. If it were just the girls Wolverine was drawn to, Cyclops could understand it, but he hadn't taken to his twin sister either. Or the two girls that had accompanied them. Why? What was so different about these particular trainees?

Shaking his head in bewilderment, Cyclops walked slowly from the Danger Room, totally oblivious to the stares of the trainees who were waiting in the corridor. To them, members of the elite team were like gods, to be looked up to and emulated. Nothing could stand in their way. Yet they had already seen the Wolverine stalk angrily from the room with a face as black as thunder, now followed by Cyclops, who looked as though he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. When Wildstar popped into view, cradling an obviously injured arm, several gulped and looked at each other nervously. It was with some degree of reluctance that they followed Psylocke into the Danger Room, obviously fearing what was about to be thrown at them.

Jubilee fell into step beside Kristi as they walked, noting the way she favoured her left arm. "Hey, are you okay?"

Kristi winced. "Landed a bit heavily, I think, and I've hurt my arm. I'm gonna drop by the med-lab and have Henry look at it."

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, I'll be fine."

"Okay. I'll catch you later."

Kristi nodded, and continued down the corridor as Jubilee stopped at the elevator. Despite her hurt, she smiled to herself, remembering her first time alone in these corridors. They still all looked the same to her but, in the three weeks since graduating to the main team, she could now make it from one room to another without getting lost.

Dr Henry McCoy, affectionately known to his friends as Hank, and to the mutant community as Beast, was gazing at the computer terminal on his desk and chewing thoughtfully on a pencil as she entered the med-lab. His cat-like eyes blinked at her as he removed his glasses with a furry blue paw and polished them on the hem of his lab coat. "Ah! A visitor to my humble abode! To what do I owe the pleasure, my dear?"

Kristi grinned, ruefully. "To a rather large robot and the roof of a car," she explained, indicating her arm. "I rather foolishly took them both on, but I think the robot and the car won."

Dr McCoy settled his glasses back into place and stood, pacing across the med-lab towards her with the fluid grace of a jungle cat. It rather reminded her of Wolverine. "I assume from your description that you have had an encounter with the obsidian robot?"

Kristi nodded. "It was a shambles, Henry," she confirmed, with a shudder for added effect.

"Well, he is rather a rambunctious fellow, I'll agree with you on that one." Henry indicated she should remove her jacket and hop up onto one of the examination couches. "You're not the first one to be injured in that particular scenario and you certainly won't be the last. I remember the time when ……"

Much as Kristi liked hearing tales from the X-Men's past exploits, her arm ached and now was not the time. She waggled her fingers at him in an effort to attract Henry's attention. "Um, doc? The arm?"

"Oh yes! Forgive me, my dear, I was rather forgetting myself. Now, let's have a look at you, shall we?" He held Kristi's arm gently in two massive paws. "You know, you really should be careful how you land, my dear. This is going to leave a nasty bruise …."

NEXT: "You really don't like Blizzard much, do you, Wolvie?" Kristi and Logan discuss Blizzard's short-comings.