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***
Sitting across from the boy, I watched the teenager's rather unpleasant transformation. His arms were bending and returning to their normal human position. Feathers were just falling off of them and it was all accompanied by a horrifying crunching of bones. I couldn't imagine how he would have screamed if I hadn't knocked him out. The next thing I knew, after his hands returned to normal, his fingers began to disintegrate and meat began to build up to make palms. All this "beautiful" action, rather reminiscent of a horror film continued for two hours. After that his face began to return to normal. The beak along with the eyes began to retract into the skull, after which you could see the rapid growth of teeth. His body stopped cracking and crunching completely only after four hours of complete suffering for his body.
After all these changes he resembled a victim of Auschwitz. I realised, of course, that the body might need an extra supply of substances to rebuild itself, but for it to be so bad... I was really screwed. If the kid had weighed even 5-10kg less he might not have survived his transformation and I didn't know how I would be able to explain the death of one of his students to the professor.
Realising that when he woke up he would definitely need to eat, I went to the kitchen to borrow a couple of kilos of food from the students for my new employee. As I approached the kitchen, I caught a rather interesting scene. There was a small queue of students at the tap with the look of rather professional actors from the walking dead, and at the table sat Jean with her head down on a tree and no signs of life.
I squeezed between the zombies and got some food, and as I was about to go back I decided to take pity on the girl, and digging into the compartments of my rucksack I pulled out a small vial of Hank's best hangover remedy.
-What is it? - The corpse with the red hair looked at the vial with a dead stare. Yeah, turns out it doesn't take much to bring down a phoenix avatar. Why did those x-men in the comics go to all that trouble? Just a couple of bottles of booze and the cosmic entity will be begging you to finish it off.
-Super hangover cure, Hank used to make. - I added quieter at the end, but apparently one of the zombies had a hearing-enhancing mutation, because after I said that, he glared at Grey's hand with a serious look that was uncharacteristically serious. And after Jean's medication and her revitalised look, he burst into flames and, with the speed of a normal man, left the queue for the tap to look for McCoy. It was obvious from the look in his eyes that he'd get him from the grave. And since he was third in line for the water, the rest of the zombies realised that it was for a reason and followed him in search of the blue animal.
After I looked at the crowd and grinned, I went to Barnell's room to wait for him to come to his senses. Half an hour later, the boy regained consciousness. At first he was disoriented and didn't know what was going on, but then his awareness started to return to him. When he looked round the room and found me, he immediately tried to get up and almost fell down. At the last moment I managed to jump up and pick the boy up. Gently putting him in the chair, I handed Bohuskeye a mirror, of course he had already noticed the drastic changes in his appearance. His angle of view was greatly reduced, and there was no leather beak in front of his eyes, blocking part of the view downwards, and he froze for a moment with his outstretched hand without taking the mirror in it. He just stared at his hand and the five normal fingers on it. He took the mirror and held it up to his face, and then he just stared at it, not paying any attention to anything, it seemed that if a fire were to start now, he would have continued to sit in the same chair, staring at it while tears streamed down his face.
-Thank you...I don't even know how to repay you for that. - Swallowing hard, Barnell shifted his gaze to me.
-Just keep up the good work and we'll call it even. - Smiling at the boy, Ryan said.
-Of course... boss. - Bohuskey said with a look of determination.
-You've certainly regained your former appearance, but your body has taken quite a toll. There's a lot of food waiting for you over there, and even anorexics would tell you that you're skinny now. Well, I'm gonna go check on a few more people. - Pierce went to Trevor's room.
When I got to the guy's room, I found the "common zombie" species so often seen around the institute today, lying face down in front of the computer. Sighing, I began rummaging through my backpack again for Hank's remedy. Of course, if I offered Trevor the remedy now, he'd sign a contract with me even for his soul, but I'd still prefer a more honest partnership with such a useful mutant.
Pouring the life-giving drink into the corpse's mouth, I began to observe the magical picture of the guy's resurrection.
-I don't know who you are, but I love you! - Holding his head and trying to concentrate, Trevor said.
-And Jean just thanked me, and it turns out I should have just waited. - Pierce said cheerfully.
-Rain? Mate, no... Mate, whatever you need, I'll do it. - Trevor said, regaining his composure.
-"I've been meaning to make you an offer. How much do you get for your X-suit enhancements? - Pierce asked.
-I do it for free, after all, they risk themselves for the future of all mutants. - Replied the boy.
-Noble. But I want to offer you a permanent and most importantly very profitable way to earn money. I could really use equipment that can withstand a bullet shot. I didn't tell you last time, but I own a company that's involved in some very cutting-edge research and when it goes on the market, a lot of crooks are going to want to get in and pocket the results of a lot of people's research and work. And during these attempts, innocent security guards can get hurt. That's why I could really use your strength. I am ready to pay you 200$ for each main part of the uniform and 50$ for improvement of additional small things. - Said Pierce handing the guy the contract and watching him start to calculate the profit in his mind.
-Ah... and how many people do you have that need enhanced gear? - Swallowing, Trevor asked.
-Hundred and twenty people and they'll need at least two sets, and ideally three per person. - Pierce smiled with the smile of a tempter who'd fooled more than one Adam and Eve.
-I agree! - The boy almost shouted, signing the contract.
-Great. I'm going to discuss ways of supplying the Professor with uniforms, but probably don't expect them sooner than a week from now. - Said Raine leaving the room of the second luckiest man in the world who had already started to think about what to spend his not yet appeared wealth on.
To my surprise, the conversation with Xavier was much easier than I had originally expected. He didn't make any excessive demands or send a checker to me in the role of one of the x-men team members. It was pretty logical and simple, he agreed to send a test batch of guys who would then come back and tell the prospects to others. I didn't mind, and to be honest I was counting on such a scenario. So I got three mutants to work for a trial period, Barnell Bohuskey, who shocked everyone with his new/old appearance, Dean Trayvon, who is able to release small spikes from his fingers, which, when puncturing the skin of the opponent, inject a paralyser capable of immobilising the enemy for 25-30 hours, and Erika Crane, who is able to almost instantly grow her hair and fingernails to an extremely frightening length. All in all, I was thrown together some pretty useless and not particularly combat-oriented students.
After saying goodbye to my friends and packing up this evening, the three students were ready to leave. So after throwing their things into the jeep I had called, we set off to their future place of residence. For the first batch of students who decided to take a chance, I bought a separate house with 20 flats. Given the fairly good salaries, I could have left the selection of housing on their own, but given that the feedback left by this and a couple of the next batch will depend on the influx of mutants in the future, I decided not to save money.
Two days later.
-Are you ready? - Asked Pierce in the middle of a large room with training equipment and a plasma screen with a couch at the end of the room.
-Yes, especially since you said that if anything happens, you can stop me. - Bohuskeye said, then exhaled and surrendered to the power of the growing call from within. After that, his body began to twist and he let out a painful scream. His face took on animal features, but his mouth began to curve up and return to the beak shape so disgusting to the boy, and his back got some sort of hump. Continuing to curl up on the floor after a while, the guy was able to rise to his feet and with a shriek reminiscent of a very bass-enhanced hawk his hump on his back tore, revealing two new limbs resembling his old hands, but several times larger and covered with longer feathers of black colour in the tone of the guy's beak.
The creature gave Raina an unfriendly look when it finished shouting, and a second later, it flapped its new limbs into the air and launched itself at Pierce with all its might.
-Lost control? Unexpectedly. - Rain said calmly, as if everything that was happening in front of him didn't concern him.
When Barnell and Pierce's clawed paws were only moments away from touching, Rain stepped aside and transformed his right hand to grab the new lycan by the neck in half a second, knocking him to the floor. Bohuskai tried to break free, but the force Pierce was exerting on him was many times greater than the abilities of the newly converted newcomer.
-I will teach you to respect your alpha chick. - With icy calmness and red eyes Raine said, sending a terrifying sense of fear in Barnell's direction. Immediately after his eyes met Pierce's, Bohuskeye's body trembled and the shroud of madness fell from his eyes.
-Have you come to your senses? - Continuing to hold the Lycan by the throat asked Pierce.
-Yes. - Shaking, and not yet recovered from the primal horror of the instincts of the body said Barnell.
-Good. Now you will have to get used to this form and your new powers, and tomorrow we will learn to take this form at will.
***
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