CHLORIS

13. CRASH

The training program finally completed. The first X-Men had made a stunning progress, enough to take down Shaw, according to Charles Xavier. This morning, they were prepared to head to Cuba, where Shaw is also headed to run his evil plan.

However, they found Hank's lab was a mess. His equipments were shattered on the ground and every furniture in the room was flipped upside down. A clear hint to Raven that Hank's serum didn't worked quiet well.

In the middle of broken equipment pieces and other mess, Hank left a large crate with a set of costume he made for the team. He also left a note telling the team to wear the costumes and meet him at the airbase. "Hm, costume party," Colleen cracked. Erik couldn't hold his tiny laughter.

"Right," Charles reacted to Colleen's joke. "Let's suit up, guys," he instructed. He tossed Colleen her costume which is a tight yellow suit with some blue accent and an X symbol on the belt. All of the costumes were made similar but functioned differently for each of the member's mutation.

Soon enough, the team arrived at the airbase but still, Hank's presence was nowhere to be found. That is until a large tall figure appeared, approaching from within the darkness. The outline of the figure was unclear, almost as if he has fur instead of skin.

"Hank?" Charles was confused, just like everyone else, but he was right. It was Hank, only covered in blue fur, walking on his giant limbs with a primate-like posture.

"It didn't attack the cells — it enhanced them," he explained. Colleen was struck that Hank failed to find the cure but found the enhancer instead. "It didn't work," he said, but he found the formula Colleen has been working hard to find all this time.

Raven proceeded to remind him that this is who he was meant to be. "This is you — no more hiding," he looked at Hank and then at Colleen. Her glowing yellow eyes were thanking Colleen for the support last night. It gave her the courage to appear as her true form today.

"I have to admit, you look bad-ass," Havok approved Hank's new look, checking him out from head to toe, "I figure I got a new name for you; Beast." Hank returned with a small growl.

Without further talks, the team got on the X-Jet that Hank designed and flew to the blockage that was instituted by President Kennedy to stop the fleets from engaging. Everyone in the team were safely strapped into their seats as Hank and Moira coursed the jet. When they arrived, the Russians and Americans have already set their ships in position, opposing each other. Each with their weapons ready to fire.

Charles placed his fingers on the side of his forehead — a gesture he does when his mind is travelling into someone else's. He returned and reported that the crew of the cargo ship carrying the Soviet weapons are all dead and Shaw has been there.

Erik strongly denied that Shaw has left the scene, leading Charles to try something else. He used his powers to make a Russian officer on one of the escort ships fire a missile and destroy the Russian missile ship before it crosses the embargo line. However, Charles still couldn't find a location on Shaw, suggesting he must be underwater.

Banshee jumped into the ocean as a sonar that could locate Shaw and he finally got Shaw's coordinates. Erik lifted Shaw's submarine from the water using Charles's telepathic help until a wind-controlling mutant attacked from the submarine, which forced the submarine and the jet to crash to the shore of an isolate island.