Why hello there, I have been out of the entire comic book? tigra fandom for a little too long... And a product of all that time away is this weird litlle piece of work... A little context because if I don't you all are going to be so terribly confused. Ahem. This takes place in an alternate timeline of KJAX's "X Force feral" and "X Force Hunting Season" which was a continuation from my original story "Tigra of X men". It is also tied to Canucklehead Cowgirl's 906 universe especially "Surprise for a feral" . If you don't want your mind to hurt as you read this please go check out the fanfics I've mentioned before. Do it... You won't be disappointed. Ok so please enjoy and thank you KJAX (for getting me back into the game and for letting me borrow Apex), Canucklehead Cowgirl (for all the help and support) and jorholic73 (haven't forgotten about you buddy. ;) ahem... Enjoy.
Greer woke to the familiar but ever so annoying bell that rang every morning… She growled softly before running a bitter hand through her shorn head… Feeling the scars and burns that had not quite healed yet… She sighed, maybe it was the stress or maybe it was her inhibitor collar, but it had done quite the number on her healing factor…The tigress sighed, tugging at what was left of her previous waist long wished hair grew faster … Might have covered those ugly ass things a little better… Glaring at the sentinel which stood outside the window, watching their every move…The tigress's eyes narrowed, she knew they weren't alive… But she knew… they were calculating potential scenarios, scanning opportunities, just waiting for an oppurtunity to pick one of them off. Greer bared her teeth… She wasn't going to let them do that… Not again…
"Just wait you bastards…" Greer whispered before getting off her bed which creaked in protest from the sudden shift of weight, dust falling rapidly from the deteriorating wooden frames..
"Just wait…"
The morning routine was mundane as usual, Greer and the other prisoners were led to a room, no bigger than 8.6 by , clearly not big enough for the thirty people changing there. Greer like everyone else kept her eyes down, as they pulled off their dirty prison garbs and pulled on cleaner ones. Two, three years ago… Greer wasn't sure… Time never seemed to pass properly in this god awful place… She would have been insecure, self conscious about stripping down and showing all that fur, the tail… Her attributes… She was on her first day… So much so that another woman had to tear her clothes off her just as a sentinel guard was about to enter and punish them all for disorderly conduct. Now it didn't matter… All anyone cared about was getting through their work schedules, getting to their next meal… Just getting through the day… The tigress stiffened when she heard someone gasp, and she turned, her eyes narrowed…. New girl… Seventeen, sixteen maybe just gaping at her… Those eyes just terrified… Greer just stared back… Despite not being as quote on quote "Self conscious"… She was still self aware… She knew what every other women was thinking as they changed with her… At least they weren't "her", at least they weren't "physically mutated"… Greer felt her ears flattened… It was a different kind of fear now… It no longer was fear of being "different" or "feared" and all that crap… It was dealing with being truly at the bottom of even the lowest of social ladders… And to say Greer was "dealing with it" was a severe understatement…
It was hard to fake weakness… Weird complaint she knew… But it was her only leverage here… That the inhibator collar actually had no real effect on her except making her neck hurt like hell with how tight it was… Along with her back from carrying all them cement blocks… How people did it without her powers she didn't know… If she had been really careful, she was certain she could have escaped… Break the bars of her quarters, scale the wall and she would be free…One major drawback… For first time that day, Greer's eyes drifted upwards from the gravel and around the prison… The "courtyard" they called it… This was where mutants from all parts of the camp passed by each other at least once during the day… This was her favourite and most loathed part of the day… She looked around carefully before her ears perked up. Carefully, she released a low purr… Soft enough for no one around her to hear but loud enough for him… He looked up, her eyes starring back at her… Greer felt a smile tug at the corners of her face but unlike their eyes, the similarity ended there… William refused to smile back as he was led away with the other children and Greer lowered her head… She really couldn't blame him for acting the way he did… She had after all… Stopped being his mother for at least two years…
Boliver Trask tried to keep on pace as he was escorted down a series of hallways.
" I don't understand, you've pulled me down from washington to this shit hole just to show me something." His escort just grinned.
"Oh believe me Dr. Trask, Mr. Stryker is very sorry to have troubled you but he says this is something only you can help improve on."
Trask scoffed.
"You're a liar. Stryker's too damn pig headed to ever say something like that. Ego like the great wall of China." he grumbled as he was led through another set of double doors.
"So I may have reworded what he said. Doesn't take away the intent."
Trask raised an eyebrow.
"So you're implying that Stryker has finally come around to admire my genius?" and the escort just rolled her eyes.
"No, but he has certianly started to see the value of having you as a partner and consultant in his arsenal of a workforce. Frankly Dr. Trask, you should be honoured." and for the first time Trask took a proper look at his escort. She was young, clearly just out of oxford or harvard or whatever ivy league school Stryker hand picked her out of. Clearly she was in over her head working for someone like Stryker.
"What are you doing here?" he asked abruptly, causing her to pause and look an him questioningly from behind her spectacles.
"Excuse me?"
"I said what are you doing here?"
"What are we all doing here?" she snarked back and Trask narrowed his eyes.
"Well I made it very clear I never wanted to be here-"
"Then that's where we differ Dr. Trask." and she stopped before pressing a button on a nearby control pad, pulling out a cyrogenic tank containing the figure of a fearsome apex predator. Trask gasped. He recognized the figure in the tank…The fabled Weapon 22…
"I have personal business to settle here…" the woman sneered as she glared at the sleeping form of Apex.
Greer took a careful look around before subtely leaving her station. She calmly walked past the rows of sentinals, if she looked convincing enough none of them would stop her out of suspicion. None did and Greer held in her breath of relief before picking up pace and running towards Will's quarters… The "kindergarden" they called it. As she rounded the corner, she checked her bag of supplies. It wasn't much, but it was all she could scavange for now. Will was going to love this. Quietly, she made her way to the door.
"Will? Will?" she whispered.
"GET OVER HERE!" and Greer ducked behind the wall, terrified that she had been caught but it wasn't her that had pissed one of the guards of but
"William!" and Greer could only watch as her son came bolting out of the building with a very angry guard right behind him. She nearly gave away her hiding spot away as she instinctively tried to go to her son's rescue but decided against it.
"Maybe nothing's going to happen… Maybe he'll just get told off…" Greer told herself as she tried to ease herself into a more relaxed position, easing the swaying of her tail before it knocked something over and she gave herself away… Greer bit her lip as her son was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and lifted so he could be face to face and that's when Greer noticed the guard's face… Three red lines running across his face…
"Oh no…" Greer could practically feel the dread creep into her system. Guards were mostly other mutants, luckier mutants and with their position of power went mostly unsupervised. Their attitudes toward the prisoners ranged from indifferent to completely unreasonable and Will seemed to have picked the wrong guard to mess with… The tigress watched with bated breath as the guard raised his arm and flinched as she heard the "smack" resonate around her as if to mock her for not doing anything.
"It'll be over, he'll put him down now…" she tried to convince herself but dug a clawed hand into a wall as another smack resonated around her.
"This isn't over brat, I'm going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget…" and Greer's eyes widened as she saw the guard reach for the iron brand behind his belt.
"No!" and the next thing she knew, she had one hand on Will, pushing him behind her and the other hand out towards the guard.
"Please… Please don't brand him…" and Greer didn't even care if she appeared pathetic at this point…
"Please!" she begged harder and to prove a point, got to her knees as the guard made a move to try and get around her.
There was a pause between the three and the guard sneered.
"Fucking ferals, always there for each other." and Greer pushed Will a little more behind her.
"Look, I've got extra supplies, you can take them, all of it! Just don't brand him." and quickly Greer removed her bag and presented it to the guard. He seemed to complentate the action, and without taking his eyes off the two tigers, opened the bag… He rifled through it… Counting the admirable food tins and medical supplies Greer had managed to steal… And after a little complentation, picked it up.
"Still doesn't make up for these though…" and Greer's eyes flickered from the red scars to the the man's hand noticed how it never left his belt. "Someone still needs to pay…"
Greer bit her lip. A brand was the ultimate form of disgrace, less food, more work, more reason for punishment… She probably was going to have a harder time scavanging food for Will now… She growled low in her throat… God dammit. She had no choice…
"Brand me…" she said softly and the guard seemed to grin slightly.
"You?"
"Yes… Say I did it… Said you caught me stealing and I attacked you…" and Greer held in the urge to bare her teeth as the guard's grin turned into a toothed smile.
"If that's what you want…" and Greer didn't resist as he grabbed her by the chin, she tried to focus on other things, the smell of leather of his gloves, the amout of stones on the ground, the sound of Will's heartbeat before her scream echoed around her own ears as she felt the iron on her right eye…
No one had asked. Thank god… Greer ran a morunful finger over her new attribute… The letter M was now forever branded over her right eye… As if she didn't look stupid enough before… The tigress growled low in her throat… It hurt to even blink at the moment. The women in her quarters were uncharacteristically unquestioning… Some were even nice… One of the women… Annie… Even helped hold some cold water against the wound when Greer was returned and was thrown back onto her bed… No words were exchanged, just a smile, though Greer couldn't help but wonder… Why wasn't her healing factor doing anything? She had regrown flesh, organs… Even a tail once… How was it impossible for her body now to heal even some of the tiniest scars she had aquired from her time here…
"Something's not right here…" and Greer clutched the edge of her blanket a little tighter… What was happening to her? She wasn't allowed much thought into the subject unfortunately before an ear deafning "BOOM!" knocked her off the bed causing her and the rest of her roomates to stare at each other questioningly before scrambling out of the way when an enormous sentinal head or… What was left of it came crashing through the hole of what was once their roof… Greer gasped and for the first time in a long time felt like bursting out into tears… She'd never thought she'd see that tiny brunette again…
"Heya Tigger…"
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