"Are you excited to begin training with your powers, Jean?" Charles wondered as he and the young woman at his side made their way to the lower floor of the Danger Room by the elevator built into the control room. "It will be different to how we progressed with your powers before, but it should be even more effective."
"Will you be teaching me, Professor?" Jean asked in response, the door opening to reveal the chaos inside.
Bobby was progressing through the traps entirely encased in ice as he produced an ever-expanding track of the same substance to allow him to move with even greater speed. Hank kept pace, moving upon all fours much like an animal as he weaved through the traps with a grace and agility that had not been present at the beginning of his training. All the while Warren backpedalled urgently with a panicked look in his eyes as Wolverine pursued him doggedly.
Meanwhile, Scott watched on not far ahead, a stopwatch in one hand as his gaze tracked Hank and Bobby's progress through the array of traps the Danger Room activated to stop them. "I will not, my dear," Charles answered, indicating to Scott whose frown was becoming more pronounced, brow furrowing as his gaze flickered to the time on the watch. "Scott will be taking you through your training."
They were closing in, both well within range of his hearing and yet, their voices did not lower as the sound of the chaos around them mostly drowned out their words. "Is he not too young?" She questioned, aware that Scott was the same age as herself and therefore, surely not the right person to be in charge of her training.
"Age in this instance, is just a number," Charles said. "Scott is wise beyond his years, even more so skilled and I trust that he will be more than capable of taking over your training and see you produce excellent results. After all, he has done the same for Warren, Hank and Bobby. Is that not right, Scott?"
Jean looked at him, Scott still having his back to them both and she wondered if he had not heard them. It became clear though that his focus was not upon them as he pressed the stopwatch, stopping the timer and his frown deepened. As this happened, both Hank and Bobby came to a stop not far ahead of them all, both panting heavily as they braced their hands against their knees. While around them the various frozen traps and others disappeared as the cacophony of sound slowly dwindled away.
The only one left was the sound of Logan urging Warren to fight back and the young man's panicked exclamations as the metal claws came close to cutting into him.
"I suppose, Professor," Scott answered with a shrug, turning to them at that moment. "But it all depends on whether Jean is willing to work hard or not. If she does not wish to push herself, then she will make little to no progress. I can only help her as much as she is willing to help herself after all."
Jean frowned at his words, not liking how he was looking right at her as he spoke to Charles. He was simultaneously acknowledging her existence while speaking as if she was not standing right in front of him. His words also niggled at her pride, if there was one thing Jean wasn't, it was lazy. She worked hard in her studies and had made a point of devoting a great deal of her time to trying to control her powers, afraid of what they might do if she didn't. It was only because she had felt like she was reaching a bottleneck that Jean had come here, accepting the offer that Charles had offered her and her family many years ago.
"Then I can assure you, Jean will be more than up to the task." Charles pretended like he didn't notice any of this, just keeping an amicable smile on his face as he wheeled towards Scott. "Perhaps, we should discuss how you might train Jean so that she might be able to offer her own input. She does, after all, no more about her powers than either of us.
"Sure," Scott said. "Can I ask before we begin, what progress you've made?"
"Why?"
"The progress you've made on your own will change how we start your training," Scott replied instantly, though took note of her displeased disposition.
Jean flicked her hair. "I can lift a car with my powers." She stated, taking pride in that fact though she did keep the fact that it was an extreme drain on her a secret. Something about the way Scott was treating her irked something within and she didn't like it one bit. He was coming across as an arrogant ass and she didn't like that one bit.
But despite her hopes, Scott didn't so much as blink an eye, in fact, he looked as disinterested and unimpressed as he had from the moment she entered. He had been upset with Hank and Bobby's performance and her boasting of being able to lift a car did nothing to change that either.
"Okay." He just simply nodded his head and moved on. "In that case, what we'll have you do is start moving furniture like sofas and beds, more than one at a time. You'll start by simply holding them in the air, three of each all at once will be your aim, but we'll build up to that number slowly. Then once you can do that, we'll start having them circulate your body at different and ever-changing angles. This should work on building up your control and your power. At the same time..."
"Wait!" Jean interrupted suddenly, looking a little bewildered by Scott's response.
"...Yes?" Scott asked after a moment of Jean just staring at him a little wide-eyed and slack-jawed. "Is there a problem with my plans for your training?"
"Yes, I mean no." Jean shook her head, unable to deny the simplistic genius in the plan Scott had developed for her training.
"Then what is the problem?" Scott wondered.
"I-I..." Jean couldn't admit why she was flustered, that was even more embarrassing. "Nothing."
"Anyway, as I was saying, you will be focusing on improving your control and power through those means. You will also be working upon the speed and precision in which you can use them." Scott continued, acting like nothing had happened though well aware of what was going on, he wasn't blind or stupid after all. "You'll be doing this by trying to stop a variety of projectiles ranging from rubber bullets to paintballs."
"Do they do this?" Jean asked, looking to where the three boys were recovering and also looking their way, Logan a little further away also staring at them.
"No." Scott shook his head, turning his head with a frown. "Hank, it's your turn to spar with Logan. Bobby run the target system and beat your previous score. Warren it's time for memorisation practice." The boys all groaned, Bobby even collapsing back onto the floor though they moved slowly as they followed his instructions.
"What are they doing then that I won't?"
"Their powers are different, therefore their roles in the X-Men are different," Scott answered. "Hank is a frontline fighter, his training emphasises many sparring sessions with Wolverine and training his awareness by running the obstacle courses. Warren is our scout, his training emphasises the obstacle course and memorising as much information as he can so that he can relay it to us, while also sparring with Wolverine. Bobby meanwhile is our powerhouse, his training also focuses on the obstacle course and sparring with Wolverine. But he also focuses time on expanding the limits of his powers while working on fine-tuning his control in a variety of ways."
Jean went silent after that, turning to look at the way the boys began to train, the Danger Room once more filled with sound.
Her gaze then turned to Hank who was sparring against Logan, watching as the two went back and forth as they exchanged blows. Each strike Hank threw seemed to knock Wolverine back with impressive strength that didn't faze the older fighter in the slightest. Yet unlike in his fight against Warren, Wolverine did not press his attack, allowing Hank to come at him. This was for no other reason than to see what improvements Hank had made before eventually ending the fight.
Then there was Bobby who was still encased entirely in ice, spears of ice forming slowly and shooting off at speed toward flashing targets that appeared around him. They did not move all that quickly, no faster than the speed of a ball thrown by an average man and as a result, sometimes hit the area of the target after it had disappeared. Others missed by a wide margin and some managed to land with some measure of accuracy though it varied wildly.
Finally was Warren who was standing before a large screen with a wide stand before him covered in flashing symbols. The screen displayed symbols in a long and quick sequence before ending, Warren then tried and failed to repeat the sequence causing him to curse loudly and repeat it all over again.
All three were working hard, which was clear for her to see and despite their complaints, they all seemed to fall in line and do as they were being told. "Training like them is pointless because your powers are entirely different to theirs." Scott continued, Jean turning back to him. "Besides, they are ahead of you, right now it's our job to make sure that you catch up to them as quickly as we can so we don't have a weak link."
It was harsh, but Scott was not about to hold back his punches and feed her fallacies.
Jean in Cyclops' memories had been a damsel in distress for much of her earlier years in the X-Men, then later became a serious threat to them as others took advantage of her vulnerable mental state. Scott was not going to let that happen again, even if it meant appearing cold and callous towards her. He would much rather she and many of the X-Men despise him but be alive and survive what was to come than love him and perish.
That was the burden he would bare.
-X-
It was late at night when he received the call.
Not through the phone filled with the contacts of the people around him daily. Instead, it was from the secondary phone he had hidden away from everyone, the one with few contacts but possessing those that he wished to be kept secret. Naturally, when such a phone rang, Scott would answer it immediately as there were only a few reasons why such a call would come through.
Either something had gone wrong and required immediate action.
Or vital information needed to be shared.
"Callisto," Scott answered as he picked up the phone. "What's wrong?"
"Besides the whole clusterfuck happening in New York, a lot." Callisto irritably replied, Scott already able to see the frown on her face. "Oscorp has been upping their production of superpowered villains. Their new police force, the Vulturers are becoming more dangerous by the day and they seem to be looking into the sewers."
Her worries and frustrations made sense when hearing all of that.
But Scott was far from concerned by those problems.
The sewers and underground tunnels of New York were too vast for the Morlocks to be in immediate danger. They understood the underground better than anyone and would be able to evade capture for many more months. After all, as Callisto had pointed out, Oscorp was pumping out more superpowered villains every day, staging their releases as 'accidents' and covering up others by claiming them to be acts committed by Mutants.
Oscorp had put all their eggs in one basket with the Green Goblin and were no doubt sparing no expense in developing him as the face of their company and Anti-Mutant program. The creation of supervillains only helped further that propaganda tool while displaying the powers of said villains to attract more government attention that would no doubt know the truth.
The Morlocks on the grand scale of things were not nearly the top priority of Oscorp.
Nor was Spider-Man.
The former were unknown variables, the latter was a small nuisance that got in the way.
No, the more immediate problems would be the likes of villains like the Vulture and former Oscorp employee Adrian Toomes. As well as other former employees and more recent villains, Otto Octavius, aka Doctor Octopus and Curtis Connors, aka Lizard. Those three knew the secrets of Oscorp and were aware of what was really going on behind the scenes, considering that they would be higher on Oscorp's agenda than anyone else's.
"Is that all?" Scott wondered, displaying his lack of worry clearly. "You have little to worry about for the time being. I would instead focus on other things."
"Like what?" Callisto asked bitingly.
"Using Oscorp's recent production of supervillains to increase the Morlock's power," Scott responded. "They are used as nothing more than propaganda tools. Experimented on by their scientists, then unleashed upon the world with new powers they don't understand or can't control, only to be beaten up by Oscorp's golden child, the Green Goblin. That will breed resentment so why not offer them a home and allies to help defend themselves against Oscorp? In doing so, defending yourself and the Morlocks in the process."
"Because if I do that, then the Morlocks won't simply be able to hide away in the sewers forever." Callisto pointed out. "Oscorp's searches of the sewers and underground tunnels will become more thorough until we have no choice but to fight back."
"No, but that was never going to be the case forever." Scott rebuffed. "Eventually you were going to be found and you would have to fight back. Why not arm yourself with some of Oscorp's strongest projects before that happens?"
Despite saying that though, Scott knew Callisto wouldn't do this and that was why the Morlocks were destined to fail. They were led by someone too afraid to fight back and would much rather keep hiding away from the world while ignoring the inevitable fate that awaited them. Callisto was failing to prepare for the fight to come and in doing so, would lead the Morlocks to their destruction.
No matter what he said, she wouldn't do anything.
But at least this way, he had offered a way out.
It was just a matter of whether she took it or not.
"It's precisely because that is happening that I'm worried." That made Scott blink having not expected that in the slightest. "Doctor Octopus and Sandman, they've been hanging around Peter a lot more often, Doctor Octopus anyway. Peter even showed them our hideout and Sandman's been staying here and while I don't know where the Doctor spends most of his time, he comes here often as well."
"Peter took them there?" Scott questioned receiving a disapproving hum of agreement, Callisto was not happy about that fact in the slightest. "What is their relationship?"
"The Doctor seems to be taking Peter under his wing, talking about science and technology all the time. Makes me think they're mentor and mentee half the time."
"I see." Scott nodded his head, deep in thought before his gaze firmed. "Then why not embrace this further."
Doctor Octopus from what he knew of Cyclops' memories was someone not to be underestimated, perhaps more so than Norman Osborn. He was a villain that had become more dangerous than he had the right to be with his genius-level intellect which led to him being sought after by many organisations and villains. Much like many of Peter's villains, it was a godsend that they had been contained to Queens, caught up in their need for revenge against the Spider-Man to go out into the world early on.
If they had, they could have completely changed the landscape with their power and intellect.
But if Peter and Doctor Octopus could become allies and work against Norman Osborn, then perhaps he could get rid of two problems early on. In fact, he might be able to gain a very valuable ally in Otto Octavius that could prove instrumental in expanding their capabilities further.
"What?" Naturally, Callisto was against this idea.
"Think about it," Scott was undeterred by this though. "You are also Peter's mentor and he has formed close bonds with many of the Morlocks according to yourself. Naturally, if the Doctor is a mentor to Peter and sees him as his student, then shouldn't the doctor want to help him out? If Peter is in danger, wouldn't Doctor Octopus come to help him? If the Morlocks are in danger, Peter will come and not far behind, will be the Doctor. So, why not nurture this bond and perhaps try and forge a bond with the Doctor yourself, same with Sandman."
The way Scott was seeing things unfold in New York while not originally going to plan, was beginning to take shape.
Right now though, a few more pieces needed to fall into place just right to complete the picture.
Once that was done, Oscorp and Osborn would be finished before they even had a chance to rise to power.