Title: Familiar Traits
Category: X-Men: Apocalypse with First Class references
Characters: Beast and Nightcrawler
Rating: K+ for some violence
Summary: While training in hand to hand combat with Nightcrawler, Beast realizes that the young mutant's abilities are quite similar to those of a previous nemesis.
Disclaimer/Author's Note: I do not own any of these characters, they're all property of Marvel comics. It's been a while since I wrote any X-Men fan fiction, after seeing Apocalypse, I decided to give it a shot. Since there are already a few stories that describe Mystique's relationship with Nighcrawler, I decided to write one where Beast suspects something familiar about Nightcrawler since Beast fought Azazel in First Class. This will contain spoilers for Apocalypse, the story is from Beast's perspective and Azazel will be referred to as 'the assassin', just to keep in mind. Also, I'm not going to bother typing Kurt's accent, since I'm just going to describe it.
"I'm blue," Kurt Wagner had said when he introduced himself to Hank McCoy, right after Raven and Hank explained why they hid their own true blue forms. There was something oddly familiar about the young blue mutant, but Hank didn't consider it at the time due to more pressing matters.
It was while they were fighting Apocalypse Hank saw Kurt Wagner display familiar traits with both abilities and physical mutation. Kurt, also called Nightcrawler, used his long tail as a weapon against his opponents and he teleported with a burst of smoke that smelled of sulfur. Hank had seen those traits before, years ago in Cuba when he fought the red teleporting assassin.
As he stood with Kurt Wagner in the Danger Room, Hank felt that he was going to relive that fight in Cuba once he and Kurt began to spar for close combat training. Kurt had asked for the extra training after he explained that he would like to know how to defend himself if he was in a situation like the fighting pit again. Hank had decided to help the young mutant, since he was available and had his own experience fighting with physical contact.
"We train to fight?" the youth asked in his thick accent. Kurt swished that all-too-familiar looking tail of his with anticipation. Hank suppressed a shudder at the memory of the arrow-head tipped tail that nearly took out his eye.
"Yes," Hank replied, "we have the Danger Room to ourselves for the hour, we should get the basics down and plenty of practice." The older mutant reflected to his own training, that he had to let the Beast out to play if he was to win. Since he was already blue and furry, his Beast side was out to challenge the young mutant.
"Basics?" Kurt asked, sounding nervous.
"We are fist going to test your own strengths and weaknesses while learning your opponent's. You can teleport, try teleporting us near the ceiling, letting go of me and teleport away." Hank was probably tempting fate, but he was going to test Kurt's abilities. The metal ceiling in the Danger Room was high, enough for someone to be injured by falling from the height, but nowhere near the height that the red assassin teleported to during the fight in Cuba.
"Let you go?" Kurt's yellow eyes were wide. "But you'll fall and get hurt."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
"Okay." Grabbing Hank by the shoulders, Kurt teleported the two of them up to the ceiling. For a moment their heads were just a hair from the metal surface, then they began to fall. Before Kurt could let go, Hank had grabbed him around the waist and pulled him close.
"If I fall, you fall too." Hank squeezed the youth in a tight grip as they plunged to the floor. Kurt gasped in surprise before teleporting both of them safely to the floor in a puff of blue smoke. They landed with a thump on the metal flooring.
"How did you know to do that?" Kurt asked, straightening himself up.
"I had-" Hank cut off his own answer as he jumped to his feet. "I had fought against someone like you before," was what he was about to answer but kept it to himself. If Kurt asked about another mutant like himself, Hank would not know how to answer such questions when his own suspicions were not confirmed.
"I figured that you would've had to teleport us both or risk falling if I was able to grab onto you," answered Hank. "If you can't break off an opponent's grasp on you, teleporting might not help you." He remembered how he had prevented both Alex Summers and himself from meeting the same fate as those men at the CIA just by keeping the assassin from escaping. The assassin had to resort to using his blades and tail for most of the fight, which Hank won just by that fortunate intervention from Raven.
"I understand," the younger mutant said, "I would have to resort to other ways to fight if I can't teleport away."
"You're catching on. Shall we continue this lesson?" Hank crouched into his battle stance, preparing to challenge the young mutant.
"Ja," Kurt answered in German, using a smirk reminiscent of the assassin's expression right before attempting to drive his tail tip right through Hank's eye.
As they grappled, leapt and threw each other around the danger room, Kurt using his own acrobatic training and Hank using the ape-like movements of the Beast. Hank observed the young mutant in action. Kurt Wagner certainly had the same tail, pointed ears, and dark hair as the assassin that Hank fought in Cuba. However, the assassin had five digits on his hands, red skin and icy blue eyes. Kurt's hands had three digits, his skin was blue, and his eyes were piercing yellow, just as Hank's own eyes were now, just like Raven's eyes.
The lesson ended when Hank had pinned Kurt to the floor when the young mutant attempted to pounce Hank from behind. The two blue mutants stood up straightened out their black uniforms, both slightly tired out from the lesson.
"I want to thank you for this," said Kurt, "I appreciate your help."
"It's not a problem," said Hank, "and you did alright, with more practice you'll be better."
As they left the Danger Room to resume their daily schedules, Hank took another glance at Kurt. The youth did have traits curiously matching the red assassin's, yet Hank found that Kurt's skin and eye colours matching to Raven's more curious. Both Raven and that assassin did side with Erik after the events in Cuba, Hank remembered seeing them teleport away in red smoke.
"I should get to my class," said Kurt, "I can't be late. Thank you again. Perhaps we can practice another time?"
"Sure," answered Hank, "I can make the time."
"Could it be?" Hank asked himself as he watched Kurt depart in a puff of blue smoke in the hallway. "Is Kurt Wagner related to that assassin? Related to Raven? Is that really why she rescued him from that underground fighting pit? Was she looking for him within the last few years?"
Hank considered asking Raven about Kurt, but the questions that were building in the Beast's mind would have to wait for another time.
End Note: There you have it, a short story where Beast observes some similarities between Nightcrawler and Azazel. I made a lot of references to that Beast vs. Azazel scene from First Class, I admit. I'm surprised that there aren't many fan fiction stories that explore characters who have encountered Azazel picking up on the similarities in Nightcrawler. By the way, I'm still mad about Azazel being killed off, which is why I never wrote any fan fiction for Days of Future Past. I might consider writing more stories, depending on my mood and the inspiration.