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XGO CHAPTER 15
🕑 Added 2025-04-11 10:35:45 +0000 UTCAs Alex and the X-Men entered Professor Xavier's office, they were met with an unexpected sight—two bald-headed men deep in conversation.
The moment Alex laid eyes on the one-eyed man with an eyepatch, something cold awakened inside him. His muscles tensed, body automatically shifting into combat readiness.
Nick Fury.
A man who had made a career of manipulating people with power. A man whose name appeared repeatedly in the comics Alex had read when he was kid.
Jean Grey stepped forward, her posture stiff, eyes narrowing. "Professor... what is he doing here?"
Xavier's fingers formed a steeple as he regarded them all with those knowing eyes. "Director Fury has come here with an important matter to discuss." His voice remained neutral, but Alex caught the subtle tension in his jaw.
Logan leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, a predator feigning disinterest. "If it's about takin' Alex into custody, you can turn right around and leave." There was no humor in his voice, just the promise of violence.
Alex's lips curved into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "They can try." His voice carried the chill of laboratory steel. "Hard to believe they'd be able to do much, though."
Fury's single eye locked onto Alex. The SHIELD director rose slowly, deliberately—measuring the distance between them, calculating angles. A soldier's assessment. "You seem awfully confident that we can't subdue you, kid."
Alex met his gaze without blinking. Years of being strapped to tables, having his reactions tested, had taught him never to show weakness. "Those who tried didn't have a good ending." The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.
Fury didn't flinch. Didn't even blink. Instead, he calmly said, "You think you're the only one with superpowers? You're just a kid with abilities you barely understand. And do you know what's worse?"
The room grew tense.
"You don't need a school. You need a psychiatrist."
Fury took a calculated step closer. "You're mentally unstable. You act cold, like you don't care, but that's just a mask." His voice cut like a scalpel. "The truth? That makes you a threat, Alex."
Something flashed in Alex's eyes—not anger, but recognition. Words he'd heard before, from men in white coats saying him being mentally unstable who'd cataloged his responses while they tore him apart.
Xavier's voice sliced through the tension, steel beneath velvet. "Director Fury, whatever Alex is dealing with, we will handle it. Outsiders don't need to concern themselves." The emphasis on 'we' carried weight—a declaration of protection.
Fury shrugged, the gesture deceptively casual for a man who never made uncalculated moves. "I might want to detain the kid, but that's not why I'm here."
His expression hardened, the spymaster replacing the provocateur. "Senator Robert Kelly—he was kidnapped by Magneto."
Beast's eyes widened, scholarly composure cracking. "What?"
Fury nodded, all pretense gone. "Magneto used a machine to turn Kelly into a mutant. The senator escaped, using the very abilities forced upon him, and he's with S.H.I.E.L.D. now."
The room fell into stunned silence, the implications settling like ash.
Fury continued, voice clipped. "From him, we learned something dangerous. Magneto's machine can turn normal humans into mutants... but at a cost. It drains his life force."
Jean's breath hitched, her scientific mind racing ahead to the inevitable conclusion. "So... if he keeps using it...?"
"He'll die." Fury confirmed, the words falling like stones.
Logan's claws extended with that distinctive sound—metal sliding against bone, the familiar prelude to bloodshed. "What the hell does that have to do with us?"
Fury's expression darkened, a shadow passing over his features. "Magneto knows that. That's why he kidnapped Rogue."
Alex's hands clenched into fists, knuckles white. His face remained expressionless, but something behind his eyes shifted—like tectonic plates before an earthquake.
Fury continued, unrelenting. "He wants her to take his powers—so she'll die in his place."
Jean gasped. Cyclops's fists clenched, ruby quartz visor hiding his reaction.
Logan growled, the sound primal, dangerous. "That son of a—"
Alex didn't move. Didn't speak. but his heart was reaching.
It was always the same. Power-hungry people doing whatever they wanted. Using others as tools. As resources to be consumed.
The humans kidnapped him for his abilities—cut him open to see what made him tick. Now a mutant was kidnapping his own kind for the same reason.
Different ideologies. Same cruelty.
His mother's voice whispered from memory: "There are good people in this world, Alex. People worth protecting."
He grit his teeth, jaw muscles working beneath pale skin.
"I'm going to bring her back." The words emerged flat, clinical—a statement of fact rather than emotion.
Without another word, Alex turned to leave, movements precise and economical.
Fury's voice cut through the room. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
Alex didn't answer. He just kept walking, each step measured. Cold. Deliberate.
A sudden gunshot echoed through the room, splitting the tension.
A sharp sting in his back.
Alex stopped. Not from pain—pain was an old companion—but from surprise. He reached behind him with mechanical precision, pulling out a tranquilizer dart.
He examined it with clinical detachment, even as his vision blurred at the edges.
"Nick Fury!" Logan snarled, his claws fully unsheathed now, adamantium gleaming under the office lights.
Alex's eyes fixed on the needle, analytical to the end. His mind cataloged the likely compounds: ketamine, perhaps something stronger. Military grade.
His legs gave out. Darkness consumed him not like a blanket, but like water filling a sinking ship—cold, inexorable, complete.
Fury sighed, lowering the gun with the practiced motion of a man who'd made too many hard choices.
"What? You really think he's in any condition for a mission? Kid's unstable. And on top of that... he's a minor."
He holstered the weapon with a sharp click. "You might not care, but the higher-ups sure as hell will. They'd use that as leverage against me, and I'm not dealing with that crap."
As Alex's unconscious form hit the floor with a dull thud, Logan stepped forward, claws still extended, face twisted in a feral snarl.
Fury met his gaze, unflinching. "Calm down, bub. It's just a sedative."
But Logan's growl didn't lessen, rumbling from deep in his chest.
Storm moved to Alex's side, checking his pulse with gentle fingers. "He's stable," she confirmed, but her eyes when they lifted to Fury carried storm clouds.
