Enough(Scott Summers)

0.7(M)

I ran off as quickly as I could after running into the boy, Scott, was it? He was a bit strange, from the ruby goggles to his weird demeanor. It frankly creeped me out a bit.
I shook my head and tried to navigate my way through the winding halls of the mansion. This place is a fucking maze, I said to myself. How does anyone even get to class on time?
I tried to find my way back to the lab, where Kevin was, but it was useless. I had taken so many wrongs turns that I had gotten dizzy.
Somehow, I ended up at the front of the school, near the entrance. Flooding my arms around my middle, I decided to give up and explore a little bit. From out of the windows near the main door, I saw a taxi pull into the driveway and come up near the entrance. The yellow door swung open and a boy stepped out. No, a man. He had short, blonde hair that was nearly styled and he was sporting a leather jacket, kind of like the one that Scott was wearing. He had piercing brown eyes, like chocolate, and a dangerous expression.
The thoughts in my head clicked together. I had been here before, about a year ago, and I had saved this man from dying. This man named Alex Summers.
The front door swung open and a gasp was caught in my throat. Alex walked in and closed the door and he froze when he saw me. My expression instantly turned soft and I dropped my arms to my sides. "Alex?" The corners of my mouth lifted in hope.

His eyes widened in recognition as he said, "Mary? Is that you?" I nodded, blinking away the tears. We rushed to each other and he enveloped me in a hug. "You're still alive." He said with a hearty laugh.
  "So are you." I said, inhaling his smell of cinnamon. When we pulled away, I was smiling more than I had in the past four months. "You cut your hair." I reached out and toyed with a strand of his silky blonde hair.
  Alex batted my hand away with a pout. "Don't mess it up!" I rolled my eyes. "It was getting a little too long for my liking."
I smiled softly. "Well, you look great." He smirked and wrapped a comforting arm around my shoulders. "So what are you doing here?" I inquired while we walked down the hall.
"I could say the same thing to you, little lady."
"Well, I asked you first."
Alex sighed and responded, "Touché. I'm going to see Hank, I asked him to make a cool little gadget for me and I'm here to pick it up." He bit his lip and added, "And I gotta see my brother."
My eyebrows furrowed. "You have a brother? What's his name?"
"His name's Scott. He wears these red glasses all the time." Alex said while looking down at me.
  I facepalmed, smacking myself in the face. "That's your brother? Jeez." I muttered out loud.
  Alex looked confused. "Do you know him?" My tongue rolled around in my mouth as I shook my head. "Anyways, what are you doing here? I mean, I know we only met for three days, but I'm pretty sure you didn't go to this school."
   I shrugged and crossed my arms. "It's a long story. I'll walk with you to see Hank; Kevin's there anyways."
Alex stopped walking and his arm dropped. "Whoa, why's Kevin in the infirmary?" He looked genuinely concerned for our friend.
"Our jet crashed and that's how I ended up here," I continued walking and leaving him no choice but to follow me, "But he's alright, I think."

Once we arrived at the lab/infirmary, Alex immediately smiled when he saw Hank McCoy. "Hank, my boy!" He said.
Hank turned around from his test tubes to see Alex going in for a bear hug. "Alex! It's good to see you." He said in his awkward manner. "I just finished the gadget for you, you're right on time-" he stopped when he saw me behind him.
  Alex started to introduce me. "Oh, Hank, this is Mary." I waved awkwardly before saying to Alex.
  "Yeah, we've already met." I said.
Alex shoved his hands in his pockets, his face flushed. "Oh, right. Sorry."
"Hey Mary." Hank says quietly. "Kevin's vitals aren't looking too good, his body is reacting weird to the epidural we had to give him." He said with a hint of a frown.
I immediately walked over to his cot where he lay in the same spot that he was last time I saw him. He looked pale, paler than usual, and his skin seemed to be greying. "Why is he not getting better?" I asked in above a whisper.
Hank shrugged and Alex looked mournful. "I don't know, it might be his x-gene rejecting the healing." He trailed off and I looked at him. He sounded like he was about to say something more, but decided against it.
   With furrowed eyebrows, I lifted his right side over to look at his back. A gasp materialized from my throat. There was a ring of dry and cracked blood around his lower spinal cord. "How'd he get blood-?" I stopped myself. Then, I remember what Kevin had told me about his mutation once.

"Sometimes, I can regenerate my skin cells and basically heal myself, but I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet."

Gently and shakily, I pressed two fingers to where I should feel his vertebrae through his alabaster skin. I shuddered and my blood ran cold when I felt a cold, abnormal figure under the skin.
"Cut him open." I said, my voice coming out quiet with fear lacing the words.
  Hank looked utterly confused. "What? Why?"
  "Because there's something inside of him!" I bursted out. Alex and Hank both immediately it serious. Hank's jaw dropped and he raced over to get his tools.
   I fully flipped Kevin onto his back and Alex ripped of Kevin's shirt. I pressed my fingers to the spot. It seemed to be almost...disappearing. Hank came over with his tools and snapped on some gloves. "We had to put him under anesthesia!" Hank said. I glanced quickly at the heart rate monitor next to us. The BPM dropped to 110.
  "We don't have time for that." I said back. "Just cut him open!" I demanded.
  "It's my job as a doctor! I can't just open up someone without making sure they won't feel anything!" Hank shouted in panic.
  "He's dying!" I said, pointing to the drilling monitor. More beeping alerted us that his blood pressure was rising. "Hank, please!" I was begging now; I had never begged for anything in my life until now. Only for Kevin.
   I heard Hank mutter under his breath before feeling out where the misshapen object was. He got out his knife and began slicing a small cut. It healed itself and closed immediately. All three of our jaws hit the floor in awe. "How is he doing that?" I whispered.
  Hank rushed over to an array of test tubes before pulling out one with the label "X". "A small dosage of this should slow down his mutation for a little while." He said quickly before injecting some into his left arm.
Suddenly, his BPM plummeted to 85 and his vitals all went down. "Hank, I think his mutation's what's keeping him alive right now!" Alex said in a hostile voice.
Quickly and precisely, Hank cut another small strip and breathed a small sigh of relief when it didn't close up immediately. I quickly picked up a suction tube to get the blood away so Hank could get out whatever was in there.
With a deep breath, Hank dove his fingers into Kevin's skin and felt around. This was dangerous, definitely, but if it saved my best friend, then it's worth it. Hank's eyes widened as he whispered, "I got it." He pulled his hand lit and grabbed a pair of pliers. He extracted a large scrap of metal from inside of his skin, the scrap being about the size of a guinea pig and it's jagged edges dropping with blood. I nearly wanted to vomit or cry at the sight, but Alex started massaging my shoulders before I could pass out. Hank made a face at the scrap of metal before cleaning his open wound and stitching it back up.
The X serum was beginning to wear off as Kevin's skin healed faster and his monitor showed that as well.
The frantic beeping slowed down. The panic in the room quieted to a certain calmness. Hank peeled off his gloves and ran a clammy hand through his hair. I launched myself at the doctor, wrapping my arms around his waist.
Hank stumbled back and Alex laughed as his reaction. "Thank you for saving him." I mumbled into his jacket.
Hank awkwardly hugged me back and said, "Anytime."

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.