Back to Gatefold#6 by A. Crute
January 2018 |
"Beast fights alone!"
Xavier’s Academy…
Stevie Hunter stood on the doorstep of the Xavier Academy. She was furious, she had just rang the doorbell and was waiting for an answer. She remembered the first time she had come to this door several weeks earlier and the raw emotions she had been feeling then.
Then…
“Look at me…I’m literally shaking,” she shook her head and tried to tighten her hand into a fist and stop it shaking. She hadn’t felt this nervous in a while, it was like her first solo performance and she was waiting in the wings.
“You’ll be fine, I’m sure,” Hank nodded as he brought the car to a stop and threw a weak smile to Stevie. He could hardly blame his friend for being nervous, he remembered the churning feeling in his stomach the second he realised she knew his secret.
Stevie had witnessed the battle between the X-Men and Juggernaut in The Salem Centre and had seemed to quickly put two and two together to decode the real faces behind the masks.
The X-Men had to scarper quickly after the fight and Hank had spent most of the night talking to The Professor. They had come to this agreement, Stevie was coming to the mansion today.
“Sure and the worst thing that happens is I screw it up and he wipes my mind so I wont remember,” she tried to force a laugh but it came out in a kind of whimper.
“He won’t wipe your memory,” said Hank with a shake of his head. He quickly added “I hope” mentally. He laid a hand on her shoulder for support and then alighted the car. Stevie followed.
He opened the door without ceremony. Stevie cursed him silently, she thought she’d have a few more seconds while he opened the door to push any unwanted thoughts to the back of her mind. She was about to meet two damn telepaths, people who could literally read her every thought and it was slightly freaky.
She was however greeted with a more familiar face as she walked into the mansion. Bobby Drake stood and gave a gentle wave. “I’m here for moral support,” he gave a brief thumbs up.
Stevie gave him her best smile and then panned her eyes down to the little red headed girl in a green dress who was standing next to him. “Hi, sweetie you must be Rahne?” She leaned over as she spoke to the girl.
Rahne looked from her to Hank and then to Bobby. “Yuir suir she knows? If she dinnae and I get in trouble I’m gonna bite you Robby.” Bobby held up his hands to defend himself and nodded energetically, he’d been given a puppy nip by Rahne when she got a little excited during walkies and he didn’t want any more.
Rahne quickly transformed and sniffed at Stevie energetically. It took a few seconds and her tail began to wag. She began to shift back. “I like her,” she told Hank and Bobby with a pleased as punch smile.
Stevie was a little taken aback she had not been expecting that.
“Ah Miss Hunter,” the voice was calm and smooth. Stevie turned to face The Professor as he wheeled out from the kitchen. She had practiced this in her mind all last night, today and on the way over. She would be gracious, put her point across and swear never to breathe a word about what was going on here.
“You even think about wiping my mind and I’m going smack you so hard…” she growled Hank’s hands flew out and pressed against her. She looked from The Professor back to Hank. “Sorry…I kind of lost control.”
Professor Xavier smiled. “I understand it could be a worrying thought,” he held up his hands to show no hard feelings and then motioned into the kitchen. “If you’d like to join us in the kitchen we’ll get under way.”
He moved through first and then Stevie followed closely behind. “Smooth going Stevie, really smooth. Why don’t you just tell him you’ve gotten it all written down in a secret location should anything happen to you.”
“Miss Hunter I can assure you that the sheet of paper with three sentences on in box 52 of the Westchester savings and loan, number 2373 is of no concern to me,” he turned to smile at her. He had been meaning it as a little joke. It seemed however Stevie was not prepared for such telepathic jokes as a wave of panic washed over him.
He offered a weak smile. “I would like to introduce you to the others,” he motioned.
The three teenagers and a red headed woman was standing or sitting in various places around the room. Warren was the one whose eyes she was drawn to, he had massive wings which were spread out across half of the kitchen wall he was standing against.
She pictured him naked for a second which made Jean nearly splirt the cup of tea she was drinking through her nose. Stevie looked from Jean to the Professor and blushed heavily.
“You’ll get better at shielding your thoughts,” offered Jean with a smile. She accepted the apology that Stevie thought over and over again knowing that the blonde guy was her boyfriend.
The non-telepaths exchanged a glance thinking they had missed something. Stevie moved her eyes from Warren to the brown haired teen who was wearing red sunglasses. She thought he was very attractive. She couldn’t help but picture him naked for a second. The idea was still in her mind from seconds before. “STOP!” she screamed at herself and then closed her eyes. The images of everyone in the room naked swam into her head.
Jean couldn’t help but laugh aloud now. “Miss Hunter, I wanted you to come here today so I could speak to you about what happened yesterday.”
“and wipe my mind!”
“Nothing so extreme at all I hope,” he shook his head. “Hank and Bobby think very highly of you. Bobby has went to great lengths this morning listing the qualities that mean we shouldn’t make you forget who we are.”
Stevie wondered fleetingly whether that had done more to hurt her case than help it. Jean laughed again, she pushed her tea away. If she did that anymore she was going to end up drowning.
“I fully understand Mr Xavier why you would be very nervous about this kind of thing but I promise you I really really promise.”
The Professor nodded as Stevie trailed off. “I can really sense that, Stevie I have no doubt of your trustworthiness. I wanted you to come here today to discuss it from another perspective…I’m not sure if you understand what you’re getting yourself into.”
Stevie nodded as he mind shifted and she suddenly saw it all from another perspective.
“I do not wish to frighten you but there is pressure everyday. If you chose to know us then you will be open to threats and possibly much worse from the likes of Magneto and any other mutants who wish to strike at us for what were doing.”
“Mutant haters are around every corner and if it comes out who we are…they could go for you,” Bobby added with a serious nod. It was half the reason he had agreed to leave his family and move out here. He had to protect them any way he could.
“What were doing is illegal,” Warren added. “If were ever caught, they could come after you as an accomplice.”
“If they decide were terrorists they can come at you with a lot worse,” Jean added with a serious face.
Stevie understood fully now. She had never thought of every threat they could face. The pressure which was on them…and her if she chose it to keep the secrets. They weren’t talking about paparazzi and media attention. They were talking about prison or worse.
She was silent for a minute or two and the team respected her time to think and stood quietly trying not to glance at her too much. “I respect you all so much,” she nodded “I just want to say that straight off…given that I don’t want to think of the type of person I would be if I betrayed everything I have ever believed in like equality and turned my back on something I truly believe in just to save my own neck when you all risk yours. I’m willing to risk whatever is coming.”
Smiles slowly blossomed over the faces of all the mutants in the room. Hank’s was the widest.
“You know what really sucks?” said Bobby, ready to ruin the moment completely. “If Zelda had figured out who I was I’d so be in right about now! Who can resist a superhero!”
Now…
The door to the mansion swung open and Jean greeted Stevie with a big smile. The two had been getting along well in the past few weeks. They had even been shopping together and to see a movie (Rear Window) playing down at the cheap cinema in town.
“You’re here then?” Stevie asked.
“Pardon? Eh yeah,” Jean scrutinized Stevie with her eyes. It was only a few weeks ago that every thought in Stevie’s head would have been pouring out to Jean by now but she had become frighteningly adept at blocking her surface thoughts. She did much better than Bobby, Scott or Warren at it.
“Then Henry is a dead man,” she grumbled. “He was supposed to meet me an hour ago and he’s not answering his cell. I thought maybe you had all rushed off on some mission but if you’re here.”
Jean was silent for a second. She was having a telepathic conversation with Professor X. “You had best come in,” she indicated “Hank left two hours ago to meet you…” she went silent again…. “The Professor can’t sense him anywhere.” Her voice and face showed concern.
Somewhere else…
Hank stirred. His head felt like it had been slammed with a tonne of bricks. He tried to remember what he had been doing before he lost consciousness but all he was getting was a foggy blank.
He pushed himself up to all fours and opened his eyes. He blinked hard several times to make sure they weren’t lying to him. He took in a deep lungful of air, warm and wet air.
He was in the middle of some kind of jungle. “I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore…or America at all for that matter, southern hemisphere by the look and feel of it….who the heck are you talking to McCoy?”
One thing he knew for certain was he was as hot as hell. He went to take off his jacket only to find it not there in the first place. He was instead in his full X-men uniform. His hands moved quickly and he found that he did not in fact have his communicator.
“Professor are you there? Can you hear me?” Hank waited for a few seconds but found no reply. He began to move cautiously.
Someone had knocked him out somehow, someone who either knew of his X-Man nature or found out after a quick sweep of his car. They had then managed to move him to some south American jungle. He could be walking right into a trap but by sitting still he could be a sitting duck.
He moved on all fours through the undergrowth. He worried for a second about putting his bare hands or feet onto of some sort of poisonous creature or other but he kept moving.
His mind was still a bit foggy but his brain was beginning to work again. “The sun is up so it’s night time back home. They must have noticed I’m gone…unless they were taken too.”
He shook his head. He didn’t have enough information to go on to make any sort of hypothesis. All he knew was someone had brought him here for some reason and since he was fully dressed he could bet it wasn’t just to get him out of the way.
He almost without thought or effort stretched his hands up into the air and swung up onto the trunk of a tree and began to climb. He was well versed in many different sciences and subject. He thought maybe he could spot something from up there that he could use to place himself. The tree was solid and gave plenty of hand holds so he found himself amongst the branches in less than a minute. These were thick tropical branches so he had to keep going. The greenery in the lower canopy meant he wouldn’t see anything more than a few feet in front of his face.
Once he got to the top he stretched out and began to look around him. There was jungle for as far as he could see nearly. In the distance there were a series of mountains. A quick turn showed that the mountain ridge seemed to encircle the entire jungle. He was sure it wouldn’t, it was all just a trick of perspective. The one thing which did warrant his attention was the smoking volcano way off in the distance.
“Well this was certainly useless,” he admitted to himself and began to climb back down. He swung from one branch to another and he had to admit to himself were it not for the current situation he would quite enjoy this. There was something about being out in the wilderness with the dirt beneath his knuckles or his toes wrapping a branch that somehow felt very natural.
He imagined it was much like Warren felt when he took to the air. There was something about Beast which just made him feel right in the wilderness. He dropped down to all fours and stayed as low and hidden by bush as he could. He didn’t want to be spotted by whoever or whatever had brought him here. He was half expecting Magneto and The Brotherhood to jump out from a bush behind him at any point.
He sniffed gently. His senses were much sharper than the normal person. His eyesight and hearing wasn’t as good as Warren’s and his sense of smell and hearing weren’t as good as Rahne’s but they weren’t too shabby. Still all he was getting was a shambles, a jumble of scents that weren’t too familiar all mixed in together.
He shifted forward a little. “This I recognise,” he said as he twisted a leaf. It was a type of fern he had once read a fascinating article on. It only grew in one or two places in South America. He turned his head slightly and then turned it fully. He moved fully forgetting his stealth and moved towards a different plant. “You I recognise but don’t think I should,” he pulled on the gigantic red flower gently pulling it clear of the stork.
He recognised it from a picture he had once seen. His almost eidetic memory came in handy at times. It was a plant which had long been thought extinct, yet here it was. It was possible he’d just got it confused however with another plant. He was no botanist at all and his memory was just nearly eidetic.
Hank dropped the flower and pushed through some of the shrubbery into a bit of a clearing. His eyes froze open, he daren’t move them for a second. What he was looking at most certainly didn’t belong.
The lizard was about seven feet tall and stood on it’s hind legs. It bobbed slightly like a bird. It’s head twisting this way and that gently. It was much like the ones from Jurassic Park, though he wasn’t sure of the species of raptor exactly. He was no expert.
“Fascinating, it’s a veritable Lost World in the middle of some South American jungle,” there was a rustle in the bushes either side of him. He hurled himself into the air without a thought.
He somersaulted in the air making sure to keep his eyes fixed on the undergrowth. Three more of the creatures like the one he had been looking at had darted in from various directions. They had pulled a picture perfect flanking movement while the first one distracted him.
His weight came down with one foot on the heads of two of the dinosaurs. His hand gripped tightly the jaws of the third. He quickly span his body so his legs landed on the heads of the opposite dinosaurs on which they started. He rolled backward keeping a tight grip on the dinosaur with his hands. He jammed his foot into it’s stomach and threw it towards the original.
The two with who he’d been playing footsie snapped at him angrily and he rolled, span and finally leapt out of their way. He bounced off the side of a tree and landed on all fours and burst instantly into a four limbed gallop.
He was well aware after a split second that the four raptors were giving chase. Their two legged ostrich like gate was making certain they had no problem keeping up with him.
Rocks and trees gave him the advantage whenever one was close enough. He managed to bound off it and rapidly change direction or give himself a momentary advantage of covering more distance but all the time they were just behind him.
He thought of taking to the trees fully like his rat like ancestors no doubt did when bothered by dinosaurs but he wasn’t sure of the climbing ability of Raptors. He stood the best chance like this.
A vine managed to give him a momentary glimmer of hope. He leapt, grabbed the tick liana and pushed against the tree with all of his might. He managed to swing round in a giant circle. The Raptors skidded to a halt and changed direction with a mad chirping.
He gritted his teeth and barrelled towards them. His feet landed against the sides of the two closest to him and fired them at the two who were at the back. Their bodies collided with a shriek. He was running as fast as he could before he even saw what they were doing.
They were chasing.
He barrelled through the undergrowth swearing to God he was going to need a miracle.
BANG! BANG!
Two shots of what looked like ball bearings sailed passed him and hit the two lead Raptors. Those following skidded to a halt and let out a hiss before vanishing back into the undergrowth. “Thank…”
Hank was silent as he turned to face his saviours.
They were a group of 5 men. The one who was holding what looked like a small cannon was a rotund gentleman even by Beast’s standards. His feet were stood far apart and he grinned manically from behind his long ginger beard. He was dressed in the classic ‘big game hunter’ costume.
Another man was dressed the same. He was shorter and more muscular in build. He had thick black sideburns and a ponytail. He looked a lot less pleased than the red head.
Standing a little away from them with a gleaming knife in hand was a tall man. He was built extremely well and decorated in animal pelts. Beast recognised him instantly from some old TV shows which had been banned for their cruelty. He was Kraven ‘The Hunter’.
The next figure was squatted down. His frame was wiry and he was snarling gently, sniffing the air as he went. He was covered in a golden fur and if Beast wasn’t mistaken would probably win an award for the one most likely to be a mutant.
The final figure met Beast with a gleam in his eye and a cruel smile. “I told you you’d be seeing me again, bub” laughed Wolverine as he popped his claws with a ‘SNIKT’.
“Beast what an unfortunate dilemma you give us,” smiled the fat red head. “I was just explaining the rules to these gentlemen.”
“Rules?” Beast asked with a raised eyebrow.
“All good hunts need rules,” smiled Harry Leland. He kept his cannon directly on Beast.
“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t some big coincidence and you’re hunting dinosaurs,” he shook his head. Wolverine and Tubby matched his head shake. “Isn’t the deadliest prey a little cliché?”
“Not when it’s you my fellow mutant friend…I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I saw the fight you had with Magneto at Cape Citadel,” Leland smiled. Beast had a cold shiver down his spine, the smile was somewhat perverted and scared him. “Thanks to Shaw here I managed to arrange all of this.”
“So I’m supposed to run off into the jungle and you five chase me. The first to kill me wins?”
“It’s about the tops and tails of it. You would have had a more sporting chance had you not run directly into our staging area,” Leland seemed almost upset about that little fact. Almost being the operative world, he also seemed absolutely ecstatic in some ways.
“I was drugged and dropped in the middle of a jungle being chased by dinosaurs, I didn’t really have a choice,” said Beast almost defensively.
Leland nodded. “What say we give him 10 minutes head start?”
The three men he looked at were Kraven, the feral looking man and Wolverine. “I think I should just rip his throat out now,” growled the feral.
“I think if you did that, you’re tribe would find us less than giving with those funds you requested Puma.”
Puma growled.
“I’d suggest you run X-Man,” smiled Wolverine. “Run and don’t hide. Me, Puma and Kraven can sniff you out wherever you are but you may just have an edge on us with agility.”
“We will see,” hissed Kraven in a thick Russian accent. He eyed Wolverine and then Beast.
Beast was about to try and argue his point, talk his way out of it or offer an alternate solution when Leland clicked his stopwatch on. Beast swore aloud and took off into the jungle.
“Leland you idiot you told him my name!” growled Shaw. He pressed his face close into Leland’s. The red head smiled briefly.
“I wouldn’t worry Shaw, we’ve got the four best hunters in the world here…Wolverine it seems even has a personal history, as you know from our previous hiring of the man this generally only leads to one thing…and a fine sport it will be too.”
“What if he does get away? I have known Charles many years and he does not make many mistakes…I expect he has the best working for him,” Shaw defended his outrage.
“Mistakes like allowing you, Darkholme and Magneto into his inner circle? Look how well that worked.” Shaw’s heart skipped a beat for a second he thought Leland was going to mention Wolverine. The animalistic psychopath had no idea that Shaw knew him from before he lost his memories.
“Still, if…and it is a possibility. You read the dossier on him, you know of his skill and his prodigious intelligence and he speaks to Xavier or even if Xavier gets a psychic reading of him you could bring the damned Phoenix down on all our heads.”
“You’re assuming that Xavier has the Phoenix…that he or she even exists! Secondly you know fine well that the Savage Land is telepath proof.”
“You don’t know Xavier, if any telepath can pound his thoughts through all of the Vibranium and Adamantium in these mountains it’ll be him”
“Were you such a bore when you were his lap dog Shaw?” Leland laughed. “I know you didn’t want to come on the hunt but you’re here now, enjoy it” he laughed. “You may even get a chance to kill the boy who took your place as Xavier’s star pupil.”
Shaw grumbled and turned away from Leland. Wolverine was staring at him. “You know Xavier?” he sniffed gently “you smell familiar…were going to have words after this hunt.”
Shaw scowled at Leland.
The Xavier Mansion…
“What do you mean you can’t find him!” yelled Bobby. He waved his hands around in the air narrowly missing the other X-Men outside the entrance to the Cerebro room. Moira and Rahne were absent, Rahne had gotten quite upset that Hank might have been missing and so Moira had taken her away to calm her down and let the others concentrate.
“Bobby, calm down,” Scott offered. His voice slipping into the stern and inarguable ‘Cyclops’ mode.
“No!” Bobby reeled around to face the older teen.
“It’s not helping anyone and shouting at The Professor isn’t going to help!” Scott barked back.
“You don’t know that! Have you tried it? It might!” Bobby tried to defend himself. Warren laid a calming hand on Bobby’s shoulder.
“Robert I understand your tense, we all are…I have performed 5 scans to the maximum capacity of Cerebro, even augmenting it with two telepaths,” Jean nodded in agreement. “Hank is nowhere to be found. I have contacted Fred Duncan and he’s going to use the power he has to try and find something.”
“Like what?”
“If Hank was picked up on a security camera it might have his last location where we can look for clues…it’s not the only option either,” Jean offered. She was trying to console Bobby, it was clear he was very upset.
“Yes, where as we can’t find Henry someone out there knows where he is. We can scan for certain ideas or thoughts but it takes a lot of effort and skill. We need our full concentration,” Xavier hoped the hint would be enough, the thoughts and emotion that Bobby was throwing out from just outside Cerebro was distracting. “I was hoping you could go and check on Rahne for me, if anyone has a chance of comforting her it’ll be you.”
Bobby wrinkled his nose. He knew this was just a tactic to get rid of him, yet he knew Rahne would be pleased to see him and she would believe him if he told her not to worry. “If you find anything I want to know,” he offered up as one final attempt to exert his importance in this situation and turned to walk away.
The Savage Land…
Hank crept forward at a snails pace. Three Stegosaurus had managed to sneak up on him or rather he had run directly into them. This wouldn’t have been a problem but one of the three was just a baby and he didn’t want to think what would happen if the two massive creatures thought he was threatening their young. It seemed thankfully that they didn’t have too acute a sense of smell to sniff him out.
They were grazing peacefully.
He watched them for a few seconds, he wished he had time to be amazed by them or to think of their beauty but he had more on his mind currently. He was sniffing the air whenever he could to see if he could pick up a scent but the entire place was still a jumble and he’d not really managed to capture the scent of any of his hunters. He just hoped the same was true of him.
His hopes were dashed a second later as the bushes closest to him parted and the brown furred man known as Puma pounced towards him. He caught Hank full in the chest and the two rolled into the clearing.
Beast saw the flash of a blade and thrust out his feet to get some distance between him and the hunter. They both flipped to their feet from where they landed and faced one another. “Why are you doing this?” Beast spat, he made sure to keep his eyes on the knife. This man was quick and he was sure he could wield the knife like a pro.
“I have my reasons, it may not sound noble but it comes down to money,” he threw the knife across his grip. “If it makes you feel better your death will help many people because of the prize I will collect.”
“Thanks, it is a big comfort.” Beast deadpanned and then leapt into the air. Puma hit the deck a second later as the massive muscular tail lined with spikes like swords whipped through the air towards them.
Beast felt the air whip past beneath him and wondered exactly what brand of car it would feel like to be hit by that thing. He landed on his hands and sprung towards Puma to try and help. The dinosaur was turning and rearing up, the only thing worse than being hit by the tail he was sure would be being trampled by the foot of a creature with three times the mass of an elephant.
The furry creature instead met him with a rising claw which slashed across the front of beast’s uniform slashing it open. The furry man swung his body and delivered a high powered kick from his well toned legs to Beast’s side.
Beast countered with one of his own. His kick was square to the chest and sent Puma flying backwards into the undergrowth. He bounced out of sight. Hank came down on all fours and dove to the left as an angry Stegosaurs slammed into the ground roaring. “Easy girl,” Beast called with little effect as he dodged the swinging tail of the dinosaur.
The other adult Stegosaurus who had been leading it’s pup to safety let out a scream of pain. The one which was currently trying to trample Beast turned with a roar and made her way towards it just as it fell sideways.
Beast glared at the figure who was crouched atop the fallen carcass. Wolverine fixed his eyes on Beast and smiled, the poor dinosaur’s blood still dripping from the metal claws on the mutant’s hands.
He burst into a gallop in the opposite direction. He bounded from tree to tree and rock to rock dodging low branches, high routes and fallen trees where possible. He could still hear the thrashing of the Stegosaurus somewhere behind him so he assumed something was keeping it busy. He hoped it was Wolverine.
Kraven, Puma and the other two hunters were unknown quantities certainly but Wolverine was a known quantity and it was not one Beast wanted to face again, especially in single combat. The mad feral mutant had taken on his entire team without so much as a scratch so who knew what he could do against just Henry.
He had been galloping through the jungle for about 5 minutes when he began to slow. He listened to the jungle sounds around him, he listened for the fight he left behind or for the telltale signs of something running through the undergrowth but he couldn’t hear a thing.
There was a sudden tug on his foot. He prepared to leap out of the way but the net swept up through the fallen leaves and dead twigs of the jungle floor before he could move and he found himself hoisted into the air. He swore loudly at himself.
“Cursing yourself for being caught like a common animal,” Kraven smiled from the tree branch which was on level with Beast. He was dripping in water, thick patches of his clothing were covered in mud…or some other brown jungle substance which Beast did no want to think about.
“Something like that…I’m going to regret this as much as last time but is there any particular reason you’re hunting me?”
“Many reasons. The thrill of the hunt. To prove myself the worlds greatest hunter. The money. Most of all for practice, practice for when I finally get my chance to go up against Spider-Man again.”
Beast nodded in the net. “Excellent, just what I wanted to hear…if anyone gets to kill me I vote for Puma.”
“You do not get a choice,” Kraven grinned as he leapt to the net.
“I think you’ll find I do,” the bottom of the net suddenly gave way and Beast swung free. His hand remained linked in the netting and he swung himself towards the tree ramming Kraven’s body hard into the branch he had just leapt off.
Kraven lost his grip and tumbled to the floor. He tried to land on his feet but stumbled down. He recovered remarkably quickly.
Beast bounded backwards so that there was room between them. “Amazing what you find on the jungle floor isn’t it?” he waved the dropped knife of Puma which he had seized with his hand as he fled from Wolverine.
“All creatures have their defences,” he pulled on the necklace around his neck made of the teeth of animals. “It saved none of them and it will not save you,” he growled.
His growl was drowned out by a roar. His head turned and he prepped his knife to deal with whatever came through the thick jungle. The Humvee exploded through it bouncing as it touched down on the ground again.
The fat red head immediately turned the rifle on the back of the truck to face Beast. Shaw barely raised his gun, he most certainly didn’t seem to be into the hunt.
“Leland you fat swine,” growled Kraven “He was mine!”
“Was being the operative world Kraven my man,” Leland opened fire.
Beast leapt from side to side. He made sure not to stay in one place for more than a split second, he landed on one limb and then randomly shifted to another. His body was in constant high speed motion yet he knew if something didn’t happen soon he’d be fresh out of luck.
It luckily happened the next second as Kraven leapt onto the back of the truck. The two men in the back shifted to look at him. Beast hurled the knife, it sliced through the shoulder of Leland making him let out a loud scream.
He turned only to find Beast directly in his face. He floated over the top of Leland and with a mighty kick to his back sent him careering off the back of the vehicle. A swift blow of the arm sent Kraven over the edge. He turned to face Shaw the mounted rifle in his hands pointing at the man.
“Pull the trigger and all that’ll happen is the bullets will bounce right back at you…hurts like a bitch though,” The black haired man, held up both hands and hopped from the back of the truck. Beast launched forward swinging over the corner of the van and into the driving seat. His feet handled the man who was sitting there launching him to the other side of the cab. His head thumped against the other window hard and Beast hammered his foot onto the accelerator.
Leland swore loudly and threw his hat on the floor. He would radio for a new grunt to bring the back up transport but in the mean time he was losing valuable time.
Kraven laughed and launched into the chase along the stream of devastation which Hank had left behind him in the trail of the Humvee. He would be easy enough to track.
Meanwhile….
Dominic Dimetrios sat in his room glaring at the newspaper clippings on his wall. The wall opposite his bed was covered in them. They were of all shapes and sizes taken from newspapers across the country, there were even some he’d managed to find from across the world.
Their subject? Mutants. He had separated them into different sectors. The wall opposite him, the one which he was currently looking at were the ones who decried the mutants. Who insulted Magneto and called him a terrorist.
The wall to his right had all of the ones which had identified mutants as something good, who espoused peace. It was considerably less covered than the wall he was looking at.
They would all see. He thought to himself for only the millionth time. Those who hated him, disliked him and those who thought they were better than him. They would all see when he was sitting on his homo-superior throne and all those jerks were licking his boots clean.
Magneto would come for him, like he had promised all of the mutants. He would come and save them from the stupid humans who surrounded them. Who kept them down like the government, the police and their parents.
He had thought they’d be here by now if he was honest. He knew what he had to do though, he knew exactly what he had to do. He had to prove himself worthy, he had to show Magneto exactly what he could do.
He tightened his hand into a fist and let the room quake. A crack raced up the wall opposite his bed and he smiled. He had more than enough power, soon it would be the time.
The young mutant climbed from his bed and looked out of the window of his room. The car alarms up and down the street were blaring but that’s not what he looked at. He looked out of the window into the distance, onto the proving ground.
He looked at New York City.
The X-Jet…
“He’s where?” asked Scott again just to make sure he understood.
“In a bar, Helle’s Belles,” informed Jean.
The teens who filled the X-Jet were in full uniform. The Professor was flying. Jean was doing her best to keep Scott calm. The good news was he no longer needed to go to an entirely secret world inside their heads when in flights now. The constant calming voice in the back of his head from Jean seemed to be enough.
“So he helped kidnap Hank and then went to sit in a bar?” Bobby asked from his position. There was something about that which made him even angrier.
“I don’t know,” admitted The Professor. “I think he’s had some form of telepathic blocking either trained or implanted into his mind. All I got was an image, a fleeting thought of an unconscious Henry. When we get closer or if we indeed intercept him I may be able to get something more.”
“If not,” Iceman iced his hand up “I most certainly can.”
The Savage Land…
Kraven came to a halt. He sniffed the smoke in the air. It was possible it was a fire from one of the Neanderthal tribes in the area but the high content of metal and the petrol tinge led him to believe otherwise.
He cleared some bushes from his view and stared down over the massive drop on the other side. The Hellfire Guard who had been driving the vehicle originally was unconscious on the ground. It was a sure sign that their prey had managed to get away.
A noise behind him made him turn and brandish his blade. Puma bounded through and sniffed the air. His eyes locked on Kraven. They stood in silence getting a measure of one another. They could both imagine a good hunt or a simple fight against one another. They both obviously believed that they would win out.
They turned to face a third figure who moved through the undergrowth. He had been silent to the untrained ear but the two of them had known he was coming for about a minute. This was about 15 seconds after Wolverine had decided to let them know he was there.
“Have I interrupted something?” Wolverine asked with a wry smile. “Do you two ladies want to be alone?”
“You have no honour child of the moon,” growled Puma.
“Yeah and you’ll have no head if you shoot your mouth off again pup,” Wolverine offered with a wave of his claws.
“Arrrrghhh!” The cry came from somewhere east of them. The three didn’t share a glance and moved as one through the undergrowth.
They ran at full pelt for a few minutes and then came across their prey.
Beast was crouched atop a small rut of land as a track ran below him. He had come to a halt because of the large heard of Triceratops who were making their way along the track.
He turned to view the three as they burst through the foliage. He wasted no time in launching forward. He slapped the first triceratops he landed on hard. It let out a bellow and rammed into the next one.
He had successfully began a stampede. He bounded to the next creature. He was hoping the pushing and shoving would slow his pursuers, he had no such luck.
The three launched onto the backs of different dinosaurs without so much as a thought and bounced after him.
Puma was the quickest and most agile as he raced forward on all fours jumping from creature to creature. It wasn’t long until he was close enough to make a lunge at Beast.
Beast shifted his weight and swung himself onto the head of the dinosaur. It thrashed it from side to side so he had to fight to keep hold. Puma lunged at him again from the same creature. Beast leapt over his head and allowed the horned beast to swat him with it’s horns.
Beast went to leap to the next dinosaur but Kraven and wolverine had shifted to come after him meaning he was facing the two of them. They both leapt at him again. His foot found Kraven first and kicked him to the side, he allowed the momentum to carry him over Wolverine’s back.
The hunter straggled to capture a grip which he managed to do. Beast’s arms circled Wolverine and released him, spinning him sideways before he managed to dig his claws in.
Beast began to bound away from them again. Wolverine was the first one able to follow and had the least distance to cover.
Beats successfully managed to get to the other side first. Wolverine was less than half a minute behind him and the others not far behind Wolverine. The chase was far from over.
New York…
Bobby, Jean and The Professor sat in their rented car outside the bar in which the man was sitting.
Scott and Warren had been sent in a few minutes ago. The Professor was shielding him with a telepathic image which added a few years to their age. The remaining X-Men sat waiting patiently.
The door opened after a few more minutes and out walked Scott and Warren between them was the man they had been sent to find. He had both of their hands pressed gently into his back and their other on his shoulders.
They steered him across the street and into the car which Jean opened Telekinetically.
“Hey guys…I don’t want any trouble,” Bobby looked at the two older teens who had gotten into the car with him.
“We told him we had a cheap laptop to sell, turns out its just what his kid’s been looking for,” Warren rolled his eyes.
“You should have thought about the trouble before you kidnapped our friend,” Bobby iced his hand up in an instant and moved it close to the man’s face.
“Iceman,” The Professor snapped. Bobby faltered for a second. “We do not torture people,” he warned “we have more effective methods.”
The Professor turned and made eye contact with the man. His eyes crossed slightly and his lip began to twitch. “Thank you.” The Professor nodded. Jean opened the door with her mind again and gave him a little shove out of the door.
They would not generally be so rough but this was not a usual situation. “So?” Bobby asked before they had went 10 yards.
“He has been shipped to somewhere called The Savage Land,” The Professor nodded. “We have bigger problems on the horizon too, the employers of that gentlemen for example but at the moment Henry is our biggest concern. We have to get back to the jet.”
Savage Land…
The four had been running through the jungle for minutes now. The heat was getting to all of them but none of them could afford to stop. Beast being the one who was being hunted was obviously in the front.
He cleared the thick bush again and found another of the empty clearings. This one was not so empty however, there was a large vertical cliff which reached up. This was the point where the jungle met one of the circling cliffs that he’d seen from his higher vantage point.
He launched himself up, found a good grip with his superb hands and feet and began to climb. Puma was next and leapt onto the rock face without a second thought, he too seemed adept at climbing. Wolverine let out a roar of aggression as he leapt at the wall and thrust his claws into the stone. Kraven was final, he gripped the wall and began to climb.
Puma was hauling himself up the cliff face with little difficulty. He was the lightest and quickest and quickly gained on Beast so that his swiping hand brushed against the foot of Beast.
“Bad kitty!” growled Beast with a sweep of the foot. Puma leapt upwards, Beast leapt sideways letting Puma take his place.
Beast leapt back right again. He looped his hands around Puma and planted one foot on either side before bending at the waist and ‘suplexing’ Puma backwards. The cat man hissed as he span in the air and scrabbled to get a grip.
Beast had kept a firm hold with his feet and began to climb again.
Kraven was the next to get close to him. He raced up perpendicular to Beast as quickly as he could and then set himself on a collision course. He got close and Beast tried to leap onto him much like he had Puma but Kraven flipped himself so that he was facing outwards from the rock face and planted his foot firmly against Beast and kicked him clear.
Beats span in the air and much like Puma scrabbled to get a hold of the rock. He managed and glared up at Kraven who had let himself free and dropped to meet Beast. He slammed his fist against Beast’s face as he gripped the rock right next to him.
Hank threw out his feet to try and sweep Kraven’s legs away. He was aware that Puma had just raced passed the two of them. He shifted so that he was facing down the cliff and launched himself at the two.
He landed on Kraven’s back and the hunter let out a grunt of anger before lashing out at Puma. Beast slammed Kraven’s head against the rock and then leapt up the cliff face. He needed to put more distance between him and his hunters.
His eyes cast down the cliff, not as far as he hoped as the slowest climber due to his weight was calmly coming after him. Wolverine’s eyes were fixed on Beast and he continued to climb.
Puma and Kraven in the meantime had managed to extricate themselves from one another and continued to climb. They moved with much speed and agility, their eyes flicking from one another to Beast as they bounded up.
Kraven was the first to get close to their prey again. He grabbed at Beast’s foot and with a powerful yank pulled him free. Hank tumbled down. He used his hands and feet to best guide him until he managed to get a firm grip again. Puma turned to face him again while Kraven continued to climb.
It seemed that the hunter had come to the conclusion that Beast was going to make it to the top of the climb. Beast had also made the same conclusion, he darted sideways and Puma moved to meet him.
The two faced each other on the vertical climb. Puma growled and launched forward. Beast didn’t move, he stayed completed still until the very last second. He span on the cliff face and slammed his heel into Puma sending the feline tumbling down towards Wolverine.
Wolverine seemed to see the attack coming. He stretched out his arm and with barely a flick of the wrist his claws tore clear through the centre of the man. He let out a howl and held his stomach as he began to fall. Wolverine sniggered and kept climbing.
Beast followed suit. He would get to the top and then have to deal with Kraven.
It only took him a minute or two without the constant interruptions. He bounded the last few meters to ensure his feet touched the edge first which would let him spring out of Kraven’s way.
He sprang forward only to find himself arching over Kraven’s head. Kraven was lying flat on his back roaring with effort as he wrestled what seemed to be a Sabertooth Tiger. Beast skidded to a halt for a moment and made a movement towards the two.
His eyes suddenly flicked to the jungle. Three more shapes shifted, they were low to the ground and trying to make as little noise as possible. They were the true predators in this jungle. He did not want to get on their menu too. He felt bad about it but bounded into the undergrowth once more.
He ran through the jungle for about twenty minutes very carefully keeping his ears open. Wolverine and possibly Kraven were still probably on his trail and he had to worry about the other two.
He after a few minutes cleared the line of jungle just like he hoped he would. He however found something he most certainly wasn’t hoping for. Leland and Shaw along with several grunts were standing in the clearing talking as something was being done to their vehicle.
“Well something tells me this isn’t a coincidence,” Leland said as he grabbed his rifle and pointed it at Beast.
“You got that right bub,” growled Wolverine. He stepped through the jungle on the other side of the clearing. “He went in a huge circle on purpose, I figured it out just before the Triceratops so I started heading back. When I ran into him I decided to circle round and get the jump. I wasn’t expecting to find you two waiting here.”
“Well it always pays to think…”
“His Hummer broke down,” grinned Shaw as he cut Leland off. “It seems my young friend that Leland did underestimate you. A cunning plan to lead us away and then come back.”
“I thought so,” Beast nodded “I assumed your transport was near.” He flicked his sleeve and a small electronic screen came out. “The GPS system you left in the Hummer filled in the rest.”
“Well bad luck,” Leland grinned as he raised the rifle. Wolverine raced passed him and whipped his hand down across the barrel slashing it into four pieces.
“He’s mine,” laughed the maniac as he moved towards Beast.
Beast moved slowly. He was watching Wolverine closely, hoping he could discern some movement which would give him the advantage over his opponent who had proven to be most deadly when they had previously met.
Wolverine rushed him, Beast let him. He dropped back and kicked the heavy Wolverine into the air. The mutant twisted in the air and pointed his claws down. Beast launched himself away from the claws and leapt over the mutant.
He barrelled across the clearing, Wolverine was up quickly and gave chase. Beast leapt first at Leland and then changing quickly dove towards Shaw. He curled into a ball in the air and collided with the chest of Shaw feet first.
He fixed his eyes on Shaw for a second with a smile. Shaw’s powers automatically kicked in and fired Beast away with double the momentum that he had been hit with. Beast span in the air. His foot colliding with Wolverine’s skull.
The Adamantium laced mutant was bent over backwards before his legs finally gave and Beast drove his head into the branch and rock covered floor. He remained still for a second and then leapt away.
Leland and Shaw looked on in awe. They had just seen The Wolverine floored, it was not something they had imagined happening. “I understand that his bones are unbreakable and he heals quickly but the liquidising that superhard surface will give his brain should keep him down for a little while.”
He faced the two men and their goons, he narrowed his eyes at them as they prepared to scramble for their weapons. “Bye!” he yelled and launched into the jungle.
“Get the guns! The hunt is still on!” Leland bellowed.
“He’s not running you idiot!” screamed Shaw. “He was never running! He’s going for the jet!”
A look of concern dawned on Leland’s face. “Don’t worry, he wont just be able to take off in the jet it’s not…” the jet fired up and then slowly emerged from behind the trees thanks to its VTOL system.
“Again Leland, what part of he is a genius did you not understand!” roared Shaw.
In the cockpit Beast gave a little salute as he kicked in the engines and roared away across the top of the jungle.
Canada…
The X-Jet was flying over the Canadian wilderness on it’s way North. They didn’t have an exact location of the Savage Land because it was not something the Hellfire grunt knew but they knew it’s rough location. They were determined that they would find it no matter what.
The Professor was still in control of the flight which was why it was Jean who suddenly rocked back. “Hank! I’ve made contact!” she yelled.
On the Professor’s orders Scott took over the controls…it felt good, it felt right. He then began to speak to Hank telepathically.
“Scott we should come to an airstrip shortly, it’s abandoned and safe to touch down on. Hank will meet us there shortly.” Xavier smiled and then turned to Bobby. “He has quite a tale to tell.”
The End…
Next time… Iceman, Spider-Man, HuMAN Torch and Rick Jones…Man. Can the four most under appreciated Superheroes in the history of the world really save the entire world? And wait isn’t Rick just a side-kick?
Xavier’s Academy…
Stevie Hunter stood on the doorstep of the Xavier Academy. She was furious, she had just rang the doorbell and was waiting for an answer. She remembered the first time she had come to this door several weeks earlier and the raw emotions she had been feeling then.
Then…
“Look at me…I’m literally shaking,” she shook her head and tried to tighten her hand into a fist and stop it shaking. She hadn’t felt this nervous in a while, it was like her first solo performance and she was waiting in the wings.
“You’ll be fine, I’m sure,” Hank nodded as he brought the car to a stop and threw a weak smile to Stevie. He could hardly blame his friend for being nervous, he remembered the churning feeling in his stomach the second he realised she knew his secret.
Stevie had witnessed the battle between the X-Men and Juggernaut in The Salem Centre and had seemed to quickly put two and two together to decode the real faces behind the masks.
The X-Men had to scarper quickly after the fight and Hank had spent most of the night talking to The Professor. They had come to this agreement, Stevie was coming to the mansion today.
“Sure and the worst thing that happens is I screw it up and he wipes my mind so I wont remember,” she tried to force a laugh but it came out in a kind of whimper.
“He won’t wipe your memory,” said Hank with a shake of his head. He quickly added “I hope” mentally. He laid a hand on her shoulder for support and then alighted the car. Stevie followed.
He opened the door without ceremony. Stevie cursed him silently, she thought she’d have a few more seconds while he opened the door to push any unwanted thoughts to the back of her mind. She was about to meet two damn telepaths, people who could literally read her every thought and it was slightly freaky.
She was however greeted with a more familiar face as she walked into the mansion. Bobby Drake stood and gave a gentle wave. “I’m here for moral support,” he gave a brief thumbs up.
Stevie gave him her best smile and then panned her eyes down to the little red headed girl in a green dress who was standing next to him. “Hi, sweetie you must be Rahne?” She leaned over as she spoke to the girl.
Rahne looked from her to Hank and then to Bobby. “Yuir suir she knows? If she dinnae and I get in trouble I’m gonna bite you Robby.” Bobby held up his hands to defend himself and nodded energetically, he’d been given a puppy nip by Rahne when she got a little excited during walkies and he didn’t want any more.
Rahne quickly transformed and sniffed at Stevie energetically. It took a few seconds and her tail began to wag. She began to shift back. “I like her,” she told Hank and Bobby with a pleased as punch smile.
Stevie was a little taken aback she had not been expecting that.
“Ah Miss Hunter,” the voice was calm and smooth. Stevie turned to face The Professor as he wheeled out from the kitchen. She had practiced this in her mind all last night, today and on the way over. She would be gracious, put her point across and swear never to breathe a word about what was going on here.
“You even think about wiping my mind and I’m going smack you so hard…” she growled Hank’s hands flew out and pressed against her. She looked from The Professor back to Hank. “Sorry…I kind of lost control.”
Professor Xavier smiled. “I understand it could be a worrying thought,” he held up his hands to show no hard feelings and then motioned into the kitchen. “If you’d like to join us in the kitchen we’ll get under way.”
He moved through first and then Stevie followed closely behind. “Smooth going Stevie, really smooth. Why don’t you just tell him you’ve gotten it all written down in a secret location should anything happen to you.”
“Miss Hunter I can assure you that the sheet of paper with three sentences on in box 52 of the Westchester savings and loan, number 2373 is of no concern to me,” he turned to smile at her. He had been meaning it as a little joke. It seemed however Stevie was not prepared for such telepathic jokes as a wave of panic washed over him.
He offered a weak smile. “I would like to introduce you to the others,” he motioned.
The three teenagers and a red headed woman was standing or sitting in various places around the room. Warren was the one whose eyes she was drawn to, he had massive wings which were spread out across half of the kitchen wall he was standing against.
She pictured him naked for a second which made Jean nearly splirt the cup of tea she was drinking through her nose. Stevie looked from Jean to the Professor and blushed heavily.
“You’ll get better at shielding your thoughts,” offered Jean with a smile. She accepted the apology that Stevie thought over and over again knowing that the blonde guy was her boyfriend.
The non-telepaths exchanged a glance thinking they had missed something. Stevie moved her eyes from Warren to the brown haired teen who was wearing red sunglasses. She thought he was very attractive. She couldn’t help but picture him naked for a second. The idea was still in her mind from seconds before. “STOP!” she screamed at herself and then closed her eyes. The images of everyone in the room naked swam into her head.
Jean couldn’t help but laugh aloud now. “Miss Hunter, I wanted you to come here today so I could speak to you about what happened yesterday.”
“and wipe my mind!”
“Nothing so extreme at all I hope,” he shook his head. “Hank and Bobby think very highly of you. Bobby has went to great lengths this morning listing the qualities that mean we shouldn’t make you forget who we are.”
Stevie wondered fleetingly whether that had done more to hurt her case than help it. Jean laughed again, she pushed her tea away. If she did that anymore she was going to end up drowning.
“I fully understand Mr Xavier why you would be very nervous about this kind of thing but I promise you I really really promise.”
The Professor nodded as Stevie trailed off. “I can really sense that, Stevie I have no doubt of your trustworthiness. I wanted you to come here today to discuss it from another perspective…I’m not sure if you understand what you’re getting yourself into.”
Stevie nodded as he mind shifted and she suddenly saw it all from another perspective.
“I do not wish to frighten you but there is pressure everyday. If you chose to know us then you will be open to threats and possibly much worse from the likes of Magneto and any other mutants who wish to strike at us for what were doing.”
“Mutant haters are around every corner and if it comes out who we are…they could go for you,” Bobby added with a serious nod. It was half the reason he had agreed to leave his family and move out here. He had to protect them any way he could.
“What were doing is illegal,” Warren added. “If were ever caught, they could come after you as an accomplice.”
“If they decide were terrorists they can come at you with a lot worse,” Jean added with a serious face.
Stevie understood fully now. She had never thought of every threat they could face. The pressure which was on them…and her if she chose it to keep the secrets. They weren’t talking about paparazzi and media attention. They were talking about prison or worse.
She was silent for a minute or two and the team respected her time to think and stood quietly trying not to glance at her too much. “I respect you all so much,” she nodded “I just want to say that straight off…given that I don’t want to think of the type of person I would be if I betrayed everything I have ever believed in like equality and turned my back on something I truly believe in just to save my own neck when you all risk yours. I’m willing to risk whatever is coming.”
Smiles slowly blossomed over the faces of all the mutants in the room. Hank’s was the widest.
“You know what really sucks?” said Bobby, ready to ruin the moment completely. “If Zelda had figured out who I was I’d so be in right about now! Who can resist a superhero!”
Now…
The door to the mansion swung open and Jean greeted Stevie with a big smile. The two had been getting along well in the past few weeks. They had even been shopping together and to see a movie (Rear Window) playing down at the cheap cinema in town.
“You’re here then?” Stevie asked.
“Pardon? Eh yeah,” Jean scrutinized Stevie with her eyes. It was only a few weeks ago that every thought in Stevie’s head would have been pouring out to Jean by now but she had become frighteningly adept at blocking her surface thoughts. She did much better than Bobby, Scott or Warren at it.
“Then Henry is a dead man,” she grumbled. “He was supposed to meet me an hour ago and he’s not answering his cell. I thought maybe you had all rushed off on some mission but if you’re here.”
Jean was silent for a second. She was having a telepathic conversation with Professor X. “You had best come in,” she indicated “Hank left two hours ago to meet you…” she went silent again…. “The Professor can’t sense him anywhere.” Her voice and face showed concern.
Somewhere else…
Hank stirred. His head felt like it had been slammed with a tonne of bricks. He tried to remember what he had been doing before he lost consciousness but all he was getting was a foggy blank.
He pushed himself up to all fours and opened his eyes. He blinked hard several times to make sure they weren’t lying to him. He took in a deep lungful of air, warm and wet air.
He was in the middle of some kind of jungle. “I don’t think I’m in Kansas anymore…or America at all for that matter, southern hemisphere by the look and feel of it….who the heck are you talking to McCoy?”
One thing he knew for certain was he was as hot as hell. He went to take off his jacket only to find it not there in the first place. He was instead in his full X-men uniform. His hands moved quickly and he found that he did not in fact have his communicator.
“Professor are you there? Can you hear me?” Hank waited for a few seconds but found no reply. He began to move cautiously.
Someone had knocked him out somehow, someone who either knew of his X-Man nature or found out after a quick sweep of his car. They had then managed to move him to some south American jungle. He could be walking right into a trap but by sitting still he could be a sitting duck.
He moved on all fours through the undergrowth. He worried for a second about putting his bare hands or feet onto of some sort of poisonous creature or other but he kept moving.
His mind was still a bit foggy but his brain was beginning to work again. “The sun is up so it’s night time back home. They must have noticed I’m gone…unless they were taken too.”
He shook his head. He didn’t have enough information to go on to make any sort of hypothesis. All he knew was someone had brought him here for some reason and since he was fully dressed he could bet it wasn’t just to get him out of the way.
He almost without thought or effort stretched his hands up into the air and swung up onto the trunk of a tree and began to climb. He was well versed in many different sciences and subject. He thought maybe he could spot something from up there that he could use to place himself. The tree was solid and gave plenty of hand holds so he found himself amongst the branches in less than a minute. These were thick tropical branches so he had to keep going. The greenery in the lower canopy meant he wouldn’t see anything more than a few feet in front of his face.
Once he got to the top he stretched out and began to look around him. There was jungle for as far as he could see nearly. In the distance there were a series of mountains. A quick turn showed that the mountain ridge seemed to encircle the entire jungle. He was sure it wouldn’t, it was all just a trick of perspective. The one thing which did warrant his attention was the smoking volcano way off in the distance.
“Well this was certainly useless,” he admitted to himself and began to climb back down. He swung from one branch to another and he had to admit to himself were it not for the current situation he would quite enjoy this. There was something about being out in the wilderness with the dirt beneath his knuckles or his toes wrapping a branch that somehow felt very natural.
He imagined it was much like Warren felt when he took to the air. There was something about Beast which just made him feel right in the wilderness. He dropped down to all fours and stayed as low and hidden by bush as he could. He didn’t want to be spotted by whoever or whatever had brought him here. He was half expecting Magneto and The Brotherhood to jump out from a bush behind him at any point.
He sniffed gently. His senses were much sharper than the normal person. His eyesight and hearing wasn’t as good as Warren’s and his sense of smell and hearing weren’t as good as Rahne’s but they weren’t too shabby. Still all he was getting was a shambles, a jumble of scents that weren’t too familiar all mixed in together.
He shifted forward a little. “This I recognise,” he said as he twisted a leaf. It was a type of fern he had once read a fascinating article on. It only grew in one or two places in South America. He turned his head slightly and then turned it fully. He moved fully forgetting his stealth and moved towards a different plant. “You I recognise but don’t think I should,” he pulled on the gigantic red flower gently pulling it clear of the stork.
He recognised it from a picture he had once seen. His almost eidetic memory came in handy at times. It was a plant which had long been thought extinct, yet here it was. It was possible he’d just got it confused however with another plant. He was no botanist at all and his memory was just nearly eidetic.
Hank dropped the flower and pushed through some of the shrubbery into a bit of a clearing. His eyes froze open, he daren’t move them for a second. What he was looking at most certainly didn’t belong.
The lizard was about seven feet tall and stood on it’s hind legs. It bobbed slightly like a bird. It’s head twisting this way and that gently. It was much like the ones from Jurassic Park, though he wasn’t sure of the species of raptor exactly. He was no expert.
“Fascinating, it’s a veritable Lost World in the middle of some South American jungle,” there was a rustle in the bushes either side of him. He hurled himself into the air without a thought.
He somersaulted in the air making sure to keep his eyes fixed on the undergrowth. Three more of the creatures like the one he had been looking at had darted in from various directions. They had pulled a picture perfect flanking movement while the first one distracted him.
His weight came down with one foot on the heads of two of the dinosaurs. His hand gripped tightly the jaws of the third. He quickly span his body so his legs landed on the heads of the opposite dinosaurs on which they started. He rolled backward keeping a tight grip on the dinosaur with his hands. He jammed his foot into it’s stomach and threw it towards the original.
The two with who he’d been playing footsie snapped at him angrily and he rolled, span and finally leapt out of their way. He bounced off the side of a tree and landed on all fours and burst instantly into a four limbed gallop.
He was well aware after a split second that the four raptors were giving chase. Their two legged ostrich like gate was making certain they had no problem keeping up with him.
Rocks and trees gave him the advantage whenever one was close enough. He managed to bound off it and rapidly change direction or give himself a momentary advantage of covering more distance but all the time they were just behind him.
He thought of taking to the trees fully like his rat like ancestors no doubt did when bothered by dinosaurs but he wasn’t sure of the climbing ability of Raptors. He stood the best chance like this.
A vine managed to give him a momentary glimmer of hope. He leapt, grabbed the tick liana and pushed against the tree with all of his might. He managed to swing round in a giant circle. The Raptors skidded to a halt and changed direction with a mad chirping.
He gritted his teeth and barrelled towards them. His feet landed against the sides of the two closest to him and fired them at the two who were at the back. Their bodies collided with a shriek. He was running as fast as he could before he even saw what they were doing.
They were chasing.
He barrelled through the undergrowth swearing to God he was going to need a miracle.
BANG! BANG!
Two shots of what looked like ball bearings sailed passed him and hit the two lead Raptors. Those following skidded to a halt and let out a hiss before vanishing back into the undergrowth. “Thank…”
Hank was silent as he turned to face his saviours.
They were a group of 5 men. The one who was holding what looked like a small cannon was a rotund gentleman even by Beast’s standards. His feet were stood far apart and he grinned manically from behind his long ginger beard. He was dressed in the classic ‘big game hunter’ costume.
Another man was dressed the same. He was shorter and more muscular in build. He had thick black sideburns and a ponytail. He looked a lot less pleased than the red head.
Standing a little away from them with a gleaming knife in hand was a tall man. He was built extremely well and decorated in animal pelts. Beast recognised him instantly from some old TV shows which had been banned for their cruelty. He was Kraven ‘The Hunter’.
The next figure was squatted down. His frame was wiry and he was snarling gently, sniffing the air as he went. He was covered in a golden fur and if Beast wasn’t mistaken would probably win an award for the one most likely to be a mutant.
The final figure met Beast with a gleam in his eye and a cruel smile. “I told you you’d be seeing me again, bub” laughed Wolverine as he popped his claws with a ‘SNIKT’.
“Beast what an unfortunate dilemma you give us,” smiled the fat red head. “I was just explaining the rules to these gentlemen.”
“Rules?” Beast asked with a raised eyebrow.
“All good hunts need rules,” smiled Harry Leland. He kept his cannon directly on Beast.
“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t some big coincidence and you’re hunting dinosaurs,” he shook his head. Wolverine and Tubby matched his head shake. “Isn’t the deadliest prey a little cliché?”
“Not when it’s you my fellow mutant friend…I’ve been dreaming about this moment since I saw the fight you had with Magneto at Cape Citadel,” Leland smiled. Beast had a cold shiver down his spine, the smile was somewhat perverted and scared him. “Thanks to Shaw here I managed to arrange all of this.”
“So I’m supposed to run off into the jungle and you five chase me. The first to kill me wins?”
“It’s about the tops and tails of it. You would have had a more sporting chance had you not run directly into our staging area,” Leland seemed almost upset about that little fact. Almost being the operative world, he also seemed absolutely ecstatic in some ways.
“I was drugged and dropped in the middle of a jungle being chased by dinosaurs, I didn’t really have a choice,” said Beast almost defensively.
Leland nodded. “What say we give him 10 minutes head start?”
The three men he looked at were Kraven, the feral looking man and Wolverine. “I think I should just rip his throat out now,” growled the feral.
“I think if you did that, you’re tribe would find us less than giving with those funds you requested Puma.”
Puma growled.
“I’d suggest you run X-Man,” smiled Wolverine. “Run and don’t hide. Me, Puma and Kraven can sniff you out wherever you are but you may just have an edge on us with agility.”
“We will see,” hissed Kraven in a thick Russian accent. He eyed Wolverine and then Beast.
Beast was about to try and argue his point, talk his way out of it or offer an alternate solution when Leland clicked his stopwatch on. Beast swore aloud and took off into the jungle.
“Leland you idiot you told him my name!” growled Shaw. He pressed his face close into Leland’s. The red head smiled briefly.
“I wouldn’t worry Shaw, we’ve got the four best hunters in the world here…Wolverine it seems even has a personal history, as you know from our previous hiring of the man this generally only leads to one thing…and a fine sport it will be too.”
“What if he does get away? I have known Charles many years and he does not make many mistakes…I expect he has the best working for him,” Shaw defended his outrage.
“Mistakes like allowing you, Darkholme and Magneto into his inner circle? Look how well that worked.” Shaw’s heart skipped a beat for a second he thought Leland was going to mention Wolverine. The animalistic psychopath had no idea that Shaw knew him from before he lost his memories.
“Still, if…and it is a possibility. You read the dossier on him, you know of his skill and his prodigious intelligence and he speaks to Xavier or even if Xavier gets a psychic reading of him you could bring the damned Phoenix down on all our heads.”
“You’re assuming that Xavier has the Phoenix…that he or she even exists! Secondly you know fine well that the Savage Land is telepath proof.”
“You don’t know Xavier, if any telepath can pound his thoughts through all of the Vibranium and Adamantium in these mountains it’ll be him”
“Were you such a bore when you were his lap dog Shaw?” Leland laughed. “I know you didn’t want to come on the hunt but you’re here now, enjoy it” he laughed. “You may even get a chance to kill the boy who took your place as Xavier’s star pupil.”
Shaw grumbled and turned away from Leland. Wolverine was staring at him. “You know Xavier?” he sniffed gently “you smell familiar…were going to have words after this hunt.”
Shaw scowled at Leland.
The Xavier Mansion…
“What do you mean you can’t find him!” yelled Bobby. He waved his hands around in the air narrowly missing the other X-Men outside the entrance to the Cerebro room. Moira and Rahne were absent, Rahne had gotten quite upset that Hank might have been missing and so Moira had taken her away to calm her down and let the others concentrate.
“Bobby, calm down,” Scott offered. His voice slipping into the stern and inarguable ‘Cyclops’ mode.
“No!” Bobby reeled around to face the older teen.
“It’s not helping anyone and shouting at The Professor isn’t going to help!” Scott barked back.
“You don’t know that! Have you tried it? It might!” Bobby tried to defend himself. Warren laid a calming hand on Bobby’s shoulder.
“Robert I understand your tense, we all are…I have performed 5 scans to the maximum capacity of Cerebro, even augmenting it with two telepaths,” Jean nodded in agreement. “Hank is nowhere to be found. I have contacted Fred Duncan and he’s going to use the power he has to try and find something.”
“Like what?”
“If Hank was picked up on a security camera it might have his last location where we can look for clues…it’s not the only option either,” Jean offered. She was trying to console Bobby, it was clear he was very upset.
“Yes, where as we can’t find Henry someone out there knows where he is. We can scan for certain ideas or thoughts but it takes a lot of effort and skill. We need our full concentration,” Xavier hoped the hint would be enough, the thoughts and emotion that Bobby was throwing out from just outside Cerebro was distracting. “I was hoping you could go and check on Rahne for me, if anyone has a chance of comforting her it’ll be you.”
Bobby wrinkled his nose. He knew this was just a tactic to get rid of him, yet he knew Rahne would be pleased to see him and she would believe him if he told her not to worry. “If you find anything I want to know,” he offered up as one final attempt to exert his importance in this situation and turned to walk away.
The Savage Land…
Hank crept forward at a snails pace. Three Stegosaurus had managed to sneak up on him or rather he had run directly into them. This wouldn’t have been a problem but one of the three was just a baby and he didn’t want to think what would happen if the two massive creatures thought he was threatening their young. It seemed thankfully that they didn’t have too acute a sense of smell to sniff him out.
They were grazing peacefully.
He watched them for a few seconds, he wished he had time to be amazed by them or to think of their beauty but he had more on his mind currently. He was sniffing the air whenever he could to see if he could pick up a scent but the entire place was still a jumble and he’d not really managed to capture the scent of any of his hunters. He just hoped the same was true of him.
His hopes were dashed a second later as the bushes closest to him parted and the brown furred man known as Puma pounced towards him. He caught Hank full in the chest and the two rolled into the clearing.
Beast saw the flash of a blade and thrust out his feet to get some distance between him and the hunter. They both flipped to their feet from where they landed and faced one another. “Why are you doing this?” Beast spat, he made sure to keep his eyes on the knife. This man was quick and he was sure he could wield the knife like a pro.
“I have my reasons, it may not sound noble but it comes down to money,” he threw the knife across his grip. “If it makes you feel better your death will help many people because of the prize I will collect.”
“Thanks, it is a big comfort.” Beast deadpanned and then leapt into the air. Puma hit the deck a second later as the massive muscular tail lined with spikes like swords whipped through the air towards them.
Beast felt the air whip past beneath him and wondered exactly what brand of car it would feel like to be hit by that thing. He landed on his hands and sprung towards Puma to try and help. The dinosaur was turning and rearing up, the only thing worse than being hit by the tail he was sure would be being trampled by the foot of a creature with three times the mass of an elephant.
The furry creature instead met him with a rising claw which slashed across the front of beast’s uniform slashing it open. The furry man swung his body and delivered a high powered kick from his well toned legs to Beast’s side.
Beast countered with one of his own. His kick was square to the chest and sent Puma flying backwards into the undergrowth. He bounced out of sight. Hank came down on all fours and dove to the left as an angry Stegosaurs slammed into the ground roaring. “Easy girl,” Beast called with little effect as he dodged the swinging tail of the dinosaur.
The other adult Stegosaurus who had been leading it’s pup to safety let out a scream of pain. The one which was currently trying to trample Beast turned with a roar and made her way towards it just as it fell sideways.
Beast glared at the figure who was crouched atop the fallen carcass. Wolverine fixed his eyes on Beast and smiled, the poor dinosaur’s blood still dripping from the metal claws on the mutant’s hands.
He burst into a gallop in the opposite direction. He bounded from tree to tree and rock to rock dodging low branches, high routes and fallen trees where possible. He could still hear the thrashing of the Stegosaurus somewhere behind him so he assumed something was keeping it busy. He hoped it was Wolverine.
Kraven, Puma and the other two hunters were unknown quantities certainly but Wolverine was a known quantity and it was not one Beast wanted to face again, especially in single combat. The mad feral mutant had taken on his entire team without so much as a scratch so who knew what he could do against just Henry.
He had been galloping through the jungle for about 5 minutes when he began to slow. He listened to the jungle sounds around him, he listened for the fight he left behind or for the telltale signs of something running through the undergrowth but he couldn’t hear a thing.
There was a sudden tug on his foot. He prepared to leap out of the way but the net swept up through the fallen leaves and dead twigs of the jungle floor before he could move and he found himself hoisted into the air. He swore loudly at himself.
“Cursing yourself for being caught like a common animal,” Kraven smiled from the tree branch which was on level with Beast. He was dripping in water, thick patches of his clothing were covered in mud…or some other brown jungle substance which Beast did no want to think about.
“Something like that…I’m going to regret this as much as last time but is there any particular reason you’re hunting me?”
“Many reasons. The thrill of the hunt. To prove myself the worlds greatest hunter. The money. Most of all for practice, practice for when I finally get my chance to go up against Spider-Man again.”
Beast nodded in the net. “Excellent, just what I wanted to hear…if anyone gets to kill me I vote for Puma.”
“You do not get a choice,” Kraven grinned as he leapt to the net.
“I think you’ll find I do,” the bottom of the net suddenly gave way and Beast swung free. His hand remained linked in the netting and he swung himself towards the tree ramming Kraven’s body hard into the branch he had just leapt off.
Kraven lost his grip and tumbled to the floor. He tried to land on his feet but stumbled down. He recovered remarkably quickly.
Beast bounded backwards so that there was room between them. “Amazing what you find on the jungle floor isn’t it?” he waved the dropped knife of Puma which he had seized with his hand as he fled from Wolverine.
“All creatures have their defences,” he pulled on the necklace around his neck made of the teeth of animals. “It saved none of them and it will not save you,” he growled.
His growl was drowned out by a roar. His head turned and he prepped his knife to deal with whatever came through the thick jungle. The Humvee exploded through it bouncing as it touched down on the ground again.
The fat red head immediately turned the rifle on the back of the truck to face Beast. Shaw barely raised his gun, he most certainly didn’t seem to be into the hunt.
“Leland you fat swine,” growled Kraven “He was mine!”
“Was being the operative world Kraven my man,” Leland opened fire.
Beast leapt from side to side. He made sure not to stay in one place for more than a split second, he landed on one limb and then randomly shifted to another. His body was in constant high speed motion yet he knew if something didn’t happen soon he’d be fresh out of luck.
It luckily happened the next second as Kraven leapt onto the back of the truck. The two men in the back shifted to look at him. Beast hurled the knife, it sliced through the shoulder of Leland making him let out a loud scream.
He turned only to find Beast directly in his face. He floated over the top of Leland and with a mighty kick to his back sent him careering off the back of the vehicle. A swift blow of the arm sent Kraven over the edge. He turned to face Shaw the mounted rifle in his hands pointing at the man.
“Pull the trigger and all that’ll happen is the bullets will bounce right back at you…hurts like a bitch though,” The black haired man, held up both hands and hopped from the back of the truck. Beast launched forward swinging over the corner of the van and into the driving seat. His feet handled the man who was sitting there launching him to the other side of the cab. His head thumped against the other window hard and Beast hammered his foot onto the accelerator.
Leland swore loudly and threw his hat on the floor. He would radio for a new grunt to bring the back up transport but in the mean time he was losing valuable time.
Kraven laughed and launched into the chase along the stream of devastation which Hank had left behind him in the trail of the Humvee. He would be easy enough to track.
Meanwhile….
Dominic Dimetrios sat in his room glaring at the newspaper clippings on his wall. The wall opposite his bed was covered in them. They were of all shapes and sizes taken from newspapers across the country, there were even some he’d managed to find from across the world.
Their subject? Mutants. He had separated them into different sectors. The wall opposite him, the one which he was currently looking at were the ones who decried the mutants. Who insulted Magneto and called him a terrorist.
The wall to his right had all of the ones which had identified mutants as something good, who espoused peace. It was considerably less covered than the wall he was looking at.
They would all see. He thought to himself for only the millionth time. Those who hated him, disliked him and those who thought they were better than him. They would all see when he was sitting on his homo-superior throne and all those jerks were licking his boots clean.
Magneto would come for him, like he had promised all of the mutants. He would come and save them from the stupid humans who surrounded them. Who kept them down like the government, the police and their parents.
He had thought they’d be here by now if he was honest. He knew what he had to do though, he knew exactly what he had to do. He had to prove himself worthy, he had to show Magneto exactly what he could do.
He tightened his hand into a fist and let the room quake. A crack raced up the wall opposite his bed and he smiled. He had more than enough power, soon it would be the time.
The young mutant climbed from his bed and looked out of the window of his room. The car alarms up and down the street were blaring but that’s not what he looked at. He looked out of the window into the distance, onto the proving ground.
He looked at New York City.
The X-Jet…
“He’s where?” asked Scott again just to make sure he understood.
“In a bar, Helle’s Belles,” informed Jean.
The teens who filled the X-Jet were in full uniform. The Professor was flying. Jean was doing her best to keep Scott calm. The good news was he no longer needed to go to an entirely secret world inside their heads when in flights now. The constant calming voice in the back of his head from Jean seemed to be enough.
“So he helped kidnap Hank and then went to sit in a bar?” Bobby asked from his position. There was something about that which made him even angrier.
“I don’t know,” admitted The Professor. “I think he’s had some form of telepathic blocking either trained or implanted into his mind. All I got was an image, a fleeting thought of an unconscious Henry. When we get closer or if we indeed intercept him I may be able to get something more.”
“If not,” Iceman iced his hand up “I most certainly can.”
The Savage Land…
Kraven came to a halt. He sniffed the smoke in the air. It was possible it was a fire from one of the Neanderthal tribes in the area but the high content of metal and the petrol tinge led him to believe otherwise.
He cleared some bushes from his view and stared down over the massive drop on the other side. The Hellfire Guard who had been driving the vehicle originally was unconscious on the ground. It was a sure sign that their prey had managed to get away.
A noise behind him made him turn and brandish his blade. Puma bounded through and sniffed the air. His eyes locked on Kraven. They stood in silence getting a measure of one another. They could both imagine a good hunt or a simple fight against one another. They both obviously believed that they would win out.
They turned to face a third figure who moved through the undergrowth. He had been silent to the untrained ear but the two of them had known he was coming for about a minute. This was about 15 seconds after Wolverine had decided to let them know he was there.
“Have I interrupted something?” Wolverine asked with a wry smile. “Do you two ladies want to be alone?”
“You have no honour child of the moon,” growled Puma.
“Yeah and you’ll have no head if you shoot your mouth off again pup,” Wolverine offered with a wave of his claws.
“Arrrrghhh!” The cry came from somewhere east of them. The three didn’t share a glance and moved as one through the undergrowth.
They ran at full pelt for a few minutes and then came across their prey.
Beast was crouched atop a small rut of land as a track ran below him. He had come to a halt because of the large heard of Triceratops who were making their way along the track.
He turned to view the three as they burst through the foliage. He wasted no time in launching forward. He slapped the first triceratops he landed on hard. It let out a bellow and rammed into the next one.
He had successfully began a stampede. He bounded to the next creature. He was hoping the pushing and shoving would slow his pursuers, he had no such luck.
The three launched onto the backs of different dinosaurs without so much as a thought and bounced after him.
Puma was the quickest and most agile as he raced forward on all fours jumping from creature to creature. It wasn’t long until he was close enough to make a lunge at Beast.
Beast shifted his weight and swung himself onto the head of the dinosaur. It thrashed it from side to side so he had to fight to keep hold. Puma lunged at him again from the same creature. Beast leapt over his head and allowed the horned beast to swat him with it’s horns.
Beast went to leap to the next dinosaur but Kraven and wolverine had shifted to come after him meaning he was facing the two of them. They both leapt at him again. His foot found Kraven first and kicked him to the side, he allowed the momentum to carry him over Wolverine’s back.
The hunter straggled to capture a grip which he managed to do. Beast’s arms circled Wolverine and released him, spinning him sideways before he managed to dig his claws in.
Beast began to bound away from them again. Wolverine was the first one able to follow and had the least distance to cover.
Beats successfully managed to get to the other side first. Wolverine was less than half a minute behind him and the others not far behind Wolverine. The chase was far from over.
New York…
Bobby, Jean and The Professor sat in their rented car outside the bar in which the man was sitting.
Scott and Warren had been sent in a few minutes ago. The Professor was shielding him with a telepathic image which added a few years to their age. The remaining X-Men sat waiting patiently.
The door opened after a few more minutes and out walked Scott and Warren between them was the man they had been sent to find. He had both of their hands pressed gently into his back and their other on his shoulders.
They steered him across the street and into the car which Jean opened Telekinetically.
“Hey guys…I don’t want any trouble,” Bobby looked at the two older teens who had gotten into the car with him.
“We told him we had a cheap laptop to sell, turns out its just what his kid’s been looking for,” Warren rolled his eyes.
“You should have thought about the trouble before you kidnapped our friend,” Bobby iced his hand up in an instant and moved it close to the man’s face.
“Iceman,” The Professor snapped. Bobby faltered for a second. “We do not torture people,” he warned “we have more effective methods.”
The Professor turned and made eye contact with the man. His eyes crossed slightly and his lip began to twitch. “Thank you.” The Professor nodded. Jean opened the door with her mind again and gave him a little shove out of the door.
They would not generally be so rough but this was not a usual situation. “So?” Bobby asked before they had went 10 yards.
“He has been shipped to somewhere called The Savage Land,” The Professor nodded. “We have bigger problems on the horizon too, the employers of that gentlemen for example but at the moment Henry is our biggest concern. We have to get back to the jet.”
Savage Land…
The four had been running through the jungle for minutes now. The heat was getting to all of them but none of them could afford to stop. Beast being the one who was being hunted was obviously in the front.
He cleared the thick bush again and found another of the empty clearings. This one was not so empty however, there was a large vertical cliff which reached up. This was the point where the jungle met one of the circling cliffs that he’d seen from his higher vantage point.
He launched himself up, found a good grip with his superb hands and feet and began to climb. Puma was next and leapt onto the rock face without a second thought, he too seemed adept at climbing. Wolverine let out a roar of aggression as he leapt at the wall and thrust his claws into the stone. Kraven was final, he gripped the wall and began to climb.
Puma was hauling himself up the cliff face with little difficulty. He was the lightest and quickest and quickly gained on Beast so that his swiping hand brushed against the foot of Beast.
“Bad kitty!” growled Beast with a sweep of the foot. Puma leapt upwards, Beast leapt sideways letting Puma take his place.
Beast leapt back right again. He looped his hands around Puma and planted one foot on either side before bending at the waist and ‘suplexing’ Puma backwards. The cat man hissed as he span in the air and scrabbled to get a grip.
Beast had kept a firm hold with his feet and began to climb again.
Kraven was the next to get close to him. He raced up perpendicular to Beast as quickly as he could and then set himself on a collision course. He got close and Beast tried to leap onto him much like he had Puma but Kraven flipped himself so that he was facing outwards from the rock face and planted his foot firmly against Beast and kicked him clear.
Beats span in the air and much like Puma scrabbled to get a hold of the rock. He managed and glared up at Kraven who had let himself free and dropped to meet Beast. He slammed his fist against Beast’s face as he gripped the rock right next to him.
Hank threw out his feet to try and sweep Kraven’s legs away. He was aware that Puma had just raced passed the two of them. He shifted so that he was facing down the cliff and launched himself at the two.
He landed on Kraven’s back and the hunter let out a grunt of anger before lashing out at Puma. Beast slammed Kraven’s head against the rock and then leapt up the cliff face. He needed to put more distance between him and his hunters.
His eyes cast down the cliff, not as far as he hoped as the slowest climber due to his weight was calmly coming after him. Wolverine’s eyes were fixed on Beast and he continued to climb.
Puma and Kraven in the meantime had managed to extricate themselves from one another and continued to climb. They moved with much speed and agility, their eyes flicking from one another to Beast as they bounded up.
Kraven was the first to get close to their prey again. He grabbed at Beast’s foot and with a powerful yank pulled him free. Hank tumbled down. He used his hands and feet to best guide him until he managed to get a firm grip again. Puma turned to face him again while Kraven continued to climb.
It seemed that the hunter had come to the conclusion that Beast was going to make it to the top of the climb. Beast had also made the same conclusion, he darted sideways and Puma moved to meet him.
The two faced each other on the vertical climb. Puma growled and launched forward. Beast didn’t move, he stayed completed still until the very last second. He span on the cliff face and slammed his heel into Puma sending the feline tumbling down towards Wolverine.
Wolverine seemed to see the attack coming. He stretched out his arm and with barely a flick of the wrist his claws tore clear through the centre of the man. He let out a howl and held his stomach as he began to fall. Wolverine sniggered and kept climbing.
Beast followed suit. He would get to the top and then have to deal with Kraven.
It only took him a minute or two without the constant interruptions. He bounded the last few meters to ensure his feet touched the edge first which would let him spring out of Kraven’s way.
He sprang forward only to find himself arching over Kraven’s head. Kraven was lying flat on his back roaring with effort as he wrestled what seemed to be a Sabertooth Tiger. Beast skidded to a halt for a moment and made a movement towards the two.
His eyes suddenly flicked to the jungle. Three more shapes shifted, they were low to the ground and trying to make as little noise as possible. They were the true predators in this jungle. He did not want to get on their menu too. He felt bad about it but bounded into the undergrowth once more.
He ran through the jungle for about twenty minutes very carefully keeping his ears open. Wolverine and possibly Kraven were still probably on his trail and he had to worry about the other two.
He after a few minutes cleared the line of jungle just like he hoped he would. He however found something he most certainly wasn’t hoping for. Leland and Shaw along with several grunts were standing in the clearing talking as something was being done to their vehicle.
“Well something tells me this isn’t a coincidence,” Leland said as he grabbed his rifle and pointed it at Beast.
“You got that right bub,” growled Wolverine. He stepped through the jungle on the other side of the clearing. “He went in a huge circle on purpose, I figured it out just before the Triceratops so I started heading back. When I ran into him I decided to circle round and get the jump. I wasn’t expecting to find you two waiting here.”
“Well it always pays to think…”
“His Hummer broke down,” grinned Shaw as he cut Leland off. “It seems my young friend that Leland did underestimate you. A cunning plan to lead us away and then come back.”
“I thought so,” Beast nodded “I assumed your transport was near.” He flicked his sleeve and a small electronic screen came out. “The GPS system you left in the Hummer filled in the rest.”
“Well bad luck,” Leland grinned as he raised the rifle. Wolverine raced passed him and whipped his hand down across the barrel slashing it into four pieces.
“He’s mine,” laughed the maniac as he moved towards Beast.
Beast moved slowly. He was watching Wolverine closely, hoping he could discern some movement which would give him the advantage over his opponent who had proven to be most deadly when they had previously met.
Wolverine rushed him, Beast let him. He dropped back and kicked the heavy Wolverine into the air. The mutant twisted in the air and pointed his claws down. Beast launched himself away from the claws and leapt over the mutant.
He barrelled across the clearing, Wolverine was up quickly and gave chase. Beast leapt first at Leland and then changing quickly dove towards Shaw. He curled into a ball in the air and collided with the chest of Shaw feet first.
He fixed his eyes on Shaw for a second with a smile. Shaw’s powers automatically kicked in and fired Beast away with double the momentum that he had been hit with. Beast span in the air. His foot colliding with Wolverine’s skull.
The Adamantium laced mutant was bent over backwards before his legs finally gave and Beast drove his head into the branch and rock covered floor. He remained still for a second and then leapt away.
Leland and Shaw looked on in awe. They had just seen The Wolverine floored, it was not something they had imagined happening. “I understand that his bones are unbreakable and he heals quickly but the liquidising that superhard surface will give his brain should keep him down for a little while.”
He faced the two men and their goons, he narrowed his eyes at them as they prepared to scramble for their weapons. “Bye!” he yelled and launched into the jungle.
“Get the guns! The hunt is still on!” Leland bellowed.
“He’s not running you idiot!” screamed Shaw. “He was never running! He’s going for the jet!”
A look of concern dawned on Leland’s face. “Don’t worry, he wont just be able to take off in the jet it’s not…” the jet fired up and then slowly emerged from behind the trees thanks to its VTOL system.
“Again Leland, what part of he is a genius did you not understand!” roared Shaw.
In the cockpit Beast gave a little salute as he kicked in the engines and roared away across the top of the jungle.
Canada…
The X-Jet was flying over the Canadian wilderness on it’s way North. They didn’t have an exact location of the Savage Land because it was not something the Hellfire grunt knew but they knew it’s rough location. They were determined that they would find it no matter what.
The Professor was still in control of the flight which was why it was Jean who suddenly rocked back. “Hank! I’ve made contact!” she yelled.
On the Professor’s orders Scott took over the controls…it felt good, it felt right. He then began to speak to Hank telepathically.
“Scott we should come to an airstrip shortly, it’s abandoned and safe to touch down on. Hank will meet us there shortly.” Xavier smiled and then turned to Bobby. “He has quite a tale to tell.”
The End…
Next time… Iceman, Spider-Man, HuMAN Torch and Rick Jones…Man. Can the four most under appreciated Superheroes in the history of the world really save the entire world? And wait isn’t Rick just a side-kick?