The Wanderer – A X-Men Crossover Fan-Fiction

[2009 – June]

As expected, Pietro had no problem whatsoever finishing the challenge with a full score, as he had just demolished the dozen attacking robots that had appeared from the walls and the floor in the blink of an eye.

Every round there was a random – but limited – amount of attackers, so that was an advantage. But even with ten times as many, he wouldn't have had a problem.

Yukio had done worse, even though she had used her weapon of choice – a chain whip – for this round, having finished with 86 points which meant her target had been hit 14 times.

She had managed to take down the attackers, but her lightning bolts lost their power the further they had to travel through the air. So while she could defend one place using her whip, she had no choice but to send weak pulses of electricity in the other directions, which more often than not failed to cause any damage.

Still, all in all, considering her abilities, I knew that she was probably one of the strongest of the younger generation, as she had great control over her mutant ability while also being proficient in armed and unarmed combat.

“Let's just get this over with.”, Ellie said, as she took up her position.

What followed was her basically giving up on defense and trying to finish off the attackers as fast as possible to win by points and not by performance. A smart move on her part as she could only effectively defend from one side, so she would lose points either way.

It had worked out with moderate success, as she wasn't far behind Yukio with 79 points. Though as her superhero name suggested, she was still the one you called upon when you needed something decimated.

“ … 3. 2. 1. START.”, the robotic voice announced, as I focused my thoughts on the situation before me.

I had already formed a barrier around myself and the small puppet-like drone, form of which reminded me of a child, which was probably the goal.

Fifteen attackers appeared, which looked similar to the Sentinels I remembered from the movies. They appeared all over the room and started to fire at us at once.

With so many different targets and being under attack, I couldn't just summon another shield for attacking purposes as I was worried that I might not be able to sustain both at once. At this point, it wasn't just a question of concentration but also mental strength.

I recovered from my earlier exhaustion, but not fully. So I decided to play it safe and only focus on protection as these robots wouldn't be able to break through the shield.

Even as they approached and used physical means of attack the shield held strong and a few short minutes later I finished with a full score.

At this point I had a slight headache, the use of my shields obviously leaving behind traces of fatigue, but I knew with that time, such a short use wouldn't cause me any discomfort. Still, I was glad that I now knew roughly what I was capable of.

“And there goes my title.”, Pietro remarked with a sigh.

"Well, it was a tie. So technically you are still undefeated.", I responded with a smile before I continued, "And thanks for showing me around all morning guys, I appreciate it."

“Well, we are all on school holidays, so it isn't as if we had something planned already. Now let's go and get something to eat. I am starving.”, Pietro voiced out.

"Sure.", Ellie also agreed as Yukio also nodded in agreement.

“Sounds like a good idea, but let me go take a short shower first.”, I said, feeling hungry myself, “Twenty minutes in front of the gym?”

Another round of nods later, I headed into the locker room with Pietro, who had taken off his clothes at top speed and stepped into the shower before I had even reached my own locker.

Still, he couldn't shower in Superspeed, because he might be fast but the water wasn't.

…

I looked around the dining room but couldn't see Laura, as the others and I entered the room and got ourselves some food, before sitting down together.

"Looks like someone is already having withdrawal symptomes because he can't find his girlfriend.", Pietro quipped as he noticed me looking around the room.

"Want to find out how that pillar felt when I tried to crush it?", I retorted as a small blackish sphere moved around my hand.

“Ok, ok. No more jokes about our love-sick newbie.”, Pietro 'gave in' with a punchable smirk on his face.

"Laura is probably out with Wolverine. She normally doesn't miss a meal as long as she is in the mansion.", Yukio interrupted our little squabble.

I wasn't surprised that Laura wouldn't normally miss a meal. If my knowledge about her was correct then her childhood had basically been hellish. Not being able to eat a full meal and being starved, sounded exactly like something her handlers would do in an attempt to exert control over her or punish her.

Sighing to myself, I didn't speak much afterward while I ate my lunch.

After I was done, I said goodbye to the others and went back to my room. But not before Yukio managed to squeeze a promise out of me that we would all watch a movie in my room tonight as a small welcome party.

Originally she wanted to invite some other students, but I shot that idea down faster than she brought it up until I finally agreed to a movie night with only the four of us. And as neither Ellie nor I cared very much about what movie we watched, Pietro somehow managed to convince Yukio to let him choose the movies.

Back in my room I seriously considered taking a nap, still feeling slightly exhausted from the earlier use of my power and pushing myself to the limit.

I didn't do so though, as I had a lot of stuff to do.

Not willing to try my luck with the Sling Ring when I wasn't in my peak state, I sat down at the small dining table near the window and set up my laptop.

Starting up the device, I spent the next few hours looking through the internet and wrote up a training plan with the information I collected. I didn't plan to just train without a direction in the gym but to aim for a balanced workout that benefitted all my muscle groups.

I also called my landlady and told her about my move, and that I would get my stuff over the next few days or weeks. According to the lease, I had a three-month deadline to clear out the apartment after either party terminated the contract.

Thankfully my landlady seemed to like me, so I didn't have to take care of the furniture, as I could just leave it in the apartment and let the new tenants take care of that.

To be honest, I just wanted to avoid paying unnecessary rent as New York wasn't a cheap place to live in.

Tomorrow I would try and figure out how to use the Sling Ring, which if my memory served me right wasn't such a hard thing to do. And afterwards, the first thing I planned to do was get all my clothes from the apartment, so I wouldn't have to go shopping and buy new ones.

Because while I did like new clothes, I hated buying them. The people, the noise, and having to strip and get dressed over and over again. None of that was fun in my opinion.