82 – A Concerned Telepath
High atop a mountain sat a monastery hidden by a fierce blizzard. It was built many years ago yet has beco ho to the last masters of the Voice, the Thu'um. The masters were none other than the Greybeards, all Nords who spent their lives studying and learning the Voice, mastering it. Most of the Greybeards could no longer utter or whisper a word without making the air rubble and the very ground shake.
Wandering blindly through the blizzard and attempting to climb the ten thousand steps, the na of the passageway up the mountain said to have ten thousand steps that led all the way to High Hrothgan, a man wearing a thick cloak and fur over steel armor. They were ard with a Skyforged steel and a steel shield.
A distant roar echoed across the mountain from behind as they stumbled through the blizzard.
Turning around, the man was t with nothing, but when he returned to resu his journey, he was t with a wide-open maw that swallowed him whole.
...
Launching himself up from his bed with a gasp, his claws ready, the clearly panicked man scanned his surroundings.
"Logan, are you alright?" A voice spoke into the man's mind.
Taking deep breaths, Logan retracted his claws and fell back onto his bed. He sat up and showed he was clearly exhausted.
Rising from the bed, Logan walked over to a minifridge and opened it, revealing quite a few bottles and flasks filled with alcohol, specifically, alcohol of a specific brand, found in only one place.
That brand? Sirrea Madre Martini.
Taking one of the chilled flasks, Logan took a sip and sighed. Over the course of Logan's long life, he has drunk much, ranging from moonshine to cheap, expensive, or exotic liquor, but none of them co close to the buzz Sierra Madre Marines have given him. Not only did the liquor actually give him a buzz, but he had never felt more alive after taking a swig of the liquor. According to the alien that ran the store, the liquor had many health benefits, which Logan greatly appreciated, even if his mutation made it quite hard to kill him, not including the adamantium that coated his bones, making him even harder to kill.
It made him feel healthier and more energetic. Charles and Hank were starting to get worried about Logan's...drinking. Worried enough that Beast had breached Logan's privacy and taken one of the 'bottles' for close examination. While Hank tried to figure out what exactly the alcohol was, Charles watched Logan as he got dressed and then headed to class, where he taught U.S. History, which, due to his age, made him one of the most suited for teaching the subject.
Charles has been deep-diving through Logan's recent mories, sothing he has hardly done in years. What he was t with was of great concern. Logan's mind was now older than his body; he had months of mories added to his mind. Charles's first thought was that these were implanted mories, sothing any experienced and powerful telepath would be capable of. Still, examining the mories, Charles found no signs of tampering or implantation. These mories ford naturally. Charle's next hypothesis was that Logan was placed in an illusion or hypnosis state.
The more Charles examined Logan's mories, the more concerned Charles got. It all started a few weeks ago, with Logan taking a trip out to Hell's Kitchen, of all places, and finding a store in an area that seed to be abandoned by the gangs that called Hell's Kitchen ho. In that store were multiple notorious figures that caused Charles to pale. Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, and even more notorious Villains, yet Logan showed no fear and approached the creature that ran the store.
Charles continued watching Logan's mories, seeing him continue to return to the store every day to purchase the sa alcohol he'd beco addicted to. Then it got worse, and now Logan is constantly drinking the stuff, and even from his office, Charles could feel the confusion of Hank as he tried to figure out what the alcohol Logan was drinking actually was. So far, Hank was left confused, as the drink seed to be a concoction of an unknown substance and...random junk food. Cake, donuts, Potato Crips, and more. It was a concoction that made no sense, but after discreetly getting a blood sample, Hank was surprised to find...Logan really was healthier, at least healthier than usual.
Comparing a sample of Logan's blood from before and after, Hank finally saw what was wrong.
"Charles?" Hank thought aloud, getting the Professor's attention.
"Yes, Hank?" Charles answered from his office.
"You need to co see this," Hank told Charles.
Making his way out of his office, Charles, in his chair, strolled down the hall to a hidden elevator and selected the basent levels of the mansion, soon exiting the elevator and rolling to Hank's lab.
"You called?" Charles asked.
"Charles, co, look at this," Hank spoke, motioning to the microscope on the table.
Moving over to it, Charles peaked through it and asked, "What am I looking at?"
"That is the blood sample from Logan this morning; now this...is from a few months ago. Notice a difference?" Hank asked as Charles looked over the older sample.
"It...is Logan dying?" Charles asked, concerned as he noticed the decaying cells.
"It's tal poisoning, at this rate...he'll have two or three decades at the most before his healing is unable to keep up," Hank spoke sombrely.
"How did we not notice this before?" Charles asked.
"It was his healing factor. I think that drink, whatever it is, boosts his healing factor for a few hours, allowing his healing factor to heal all of the damage the tal was doing to his body. Slowly but surely, Logan's health is returning to its pri...however, I don't know how long it'll last before his body is unable to keep up even with that drink," Hank explained.
"What should we do?" Charles asked.
"Logan has multiple options. We could either try to remove the adamantium from his bones, stopping the tal poisoning entirely, but risk his life entirely due to just how dangerous the operation would be and how ingrained the tal is to his bones. Another option...is to allow him to continue drinking that concoction until his body, with the aid of concoction, is no longer able to keep up again," Hank started to explain, only to be interrupted by Charles, who asked, "Couldnt we make a more potent version of the drink if its effects start weakening?"
"Until I find out what the other mysterious substance that makes up the drink is, that will not be a possible option," Hank explained.
"What about another mutant? One with a gift for healing?" Charles asked.
Hank shook his head, "It could work, but it also might not."
"Charles, should we tell him about this...?" Hank hesitantly asked.
Charles shook his head, eyes looking away from Hank. "No. If we tell him, he may start drinking that stuff even more, and we have no idea what it is or about the place he has been getting those things from. No...it's best we keep it on a need-to-know basis."
While not saying anything, Charles knew that Hank disagreed with him but refused to voice his opinion. Hank believed that Charles knew what he was doing, so he'd refrain from saying anything for now.
"For now, Hank, I want you to try and figure out what that mysterious substance is. In the anti, I will investigate the store Logan has been visiting," Charles spoke before looking Hank in the eyes, "I an it. Need-to-know basis only: if Logan finds out, he could start over drinking, which will affect his behavior in class. Understood?"
Getting a nod from Hank, Charles soon left the lab, returning to his office.
Hank leaned into the table and sighed.
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