Author's Note: Welcome to my first, posted short story. It was a one shot but then it got two chapters. Oh, well. Anyway, this is dedicated to the masters of three sword style, who I though should meet. And, since Kurt should never be without his best friend, Logan is along for the ride. Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the idea.
Chapter 1- On A Beach Somewhere
A glorious sun shone on a beautiful tropical beach. Crystal blue, salty waves broke gently over white sand occasionally leaving tiny shells mixed in with a line of foam that marked the high tide. A tiny crab skittered across the sand, eyes watching the seabirds that played in the surf and gentle winds. Out in the deeper water, a silver fish leaped from the water. A lizard darted across the dry sand, away from the water where the sand started to be over taken by vegetation. A soft breeze rustled the tall beach grass that covered the higher dunes, hiding the rest of the island from the beautiful spot.
This beautiful picturesque scene was suddenly disturbed by a short man in a blue and yellow stripped uniform. The man snarled under his breath as his adamantium claws shot out with a distinctive "snickt". He swung angrily at the tall grass, slicing through several handfuls.
"Beruhige dich, mein Freund," said another voice, the owner hidden by the grass.
"I'm not going to calm down, elf," the short man snarled, swiping at the grass again in an attempt to calm down. "Not until I know where we are and how to get back."
A tall blue man in a red and black uniform with three swords sheathed at his waist stepped out of the grass and onto the beach. "There is no helping it, Wolverine," he said, idly running his long prehensile tail through the grass that his friend had not yet cut down. "Ve must wait for someone to find us and bring us back." He closed his eyes in bliss as a salt laden breeze ruffled the short blue fur that covered his face and body. He grinned, showing his sharp canines. "Ve might as well enjoy the rest, ja?"
Wolverine growled and plopped down on a clear spot of sand. "Clearly we need to focus harder on teaching control," he griped. He brought his knees up and crossed his arms over them. "It is beautiful," the feral admitted after a moment.
"Ja," Nightcrawler agreed, moving to sit beside his friend.
They sat there, enjoying the view and the company for the moment. It was serene and the only thing the best friends were missing was a drink. Logan growled about the lack occasionally, making Kurt laugh.
Again the peace was interrupted by a loud noise from down the beach. The men exchanged a look before bolting up right and racing across the sand to find out what was going on. The sound of metal ringing against a hard surface was repeated again and again. As they got closer they could hear the occasional muffled curse, usually followed by another ringing tone.
As the two mutants rounded a bend in the beach, they both slid to a surprised stop as they took in the scene before them. A fight between a man and a gigantic crab raged across the beach, this section more gravel than sand, giving both combatants better foot holds. The crab was six feet tall and forty feet wide, which is as long as a bus. Its giant blue pincers were the size of small cars and they moved with surprising speed as the crustacean swung at its opponent. The man was odd as well. He was bare to the waist, revealing an impressively muscled torso, marred only by a horrific scar clear across his chest. He wore a black bandana around one bicep, a green haramaki or belly band, black trousers and boots. He also had three sayas, or sheaths belted to his waist. The swords were all in action, two in his hands and the third clenched between his teeth. He dodged the crab's attacks with ease but his own attacks seemed to barely scratch the crab's rock hard shell.
"Shitty sea spider, waking me up from a perfectly good nap," the man snarled around the hilt in his mouth. "I'll teach you to wake me up!" He swung his black blade, defecting one claw so it crashed into the ground with a spray of gravel. "Oi!" the strange man shouted, dismayed when he looked behind him at a pile of fruit on a green coat. "If you bruise those, the cook will skin me. You'll pay for that!" He threw himself at the behemoth, the fury of his attacks actually driving it back.
"Um, maybe we should help him?" Kurt asked, uncertainly. "Though he does seem to have the situation under control."
Logan grinned and popped his claws. "I don't know, looks like fun!" He laughed as he flung himself into the fray.
Kurt sighed and mumbled to himself in German. He drew one of his own swords and teleported himself above the crab. As he fell from the smoke of his transport, he sung his blades at the creature's eyestalks. He managed to damage it before it retracted its eyes and swung a claw over its back to dislodge the new theat. Kurt disappeared in a puff of smoke before it could make contact. Meanwhile Wolverine attacked the joints of its legs. He managed to cut through one before it retreated into the surf, too deep for Wolverine to follow.
Satisfied that their foe no longer presented a threat for the moment, the X-men approached the swordsman, who eyed them suspiciously. He certainly looked intimidating with a long scar sealing one eye shut and bright green hair. The sour expression around the hilt that was still in his mouth added to the impression. "Hallo!" Kurt greeted him pleasantly. "Hope you don't mind us giving you a hand." The man took his katana out of his mouth. "No problem," he said with a huge yawn. "I'm still waking up from the nap that bastard interrupted. Name's Zoro." "I'm Kurt and this is Logan," the blue mutant replied. "Nice to meet you." "Yeah, pleasure," Logan agreed, though his attention was on the giant crab that was watching them from just out of reach. "I don't think your friend's ready to give up, bub." Zoro nodded. "Yeah, he'll be back as soon as he gets the nerve. Pain in the ass." The crustacean scuttled back and forth, clacking its claws threateningly. It seemed to know they were talking about it, but wasn't ready to attack yet. Zoro waved a sword at it. "Stop hiding out there, shitty shellfish! Come fight like a man!" "It's not a man," Kurt pointed out helpfully. Zoro just rolled his eye. "I'm Roronoa Zoro," the swordsman introduced himself finally. "Member of the Straw Hat Pirates." Logan laughed and bumped his blue friend. "Sounds like your kind of people, Kurt." Kurt bumped back but didn't argue. "You don't look like any pirates I've ever seen," he said instead. "Though, we're not sure where we are so…" he trailed off thoughtfully. Zoro shrugged. "We're not a normal pirate crew," was all he said. "Like you're one to talk, elf," Logan said, still grinning. Nightcrawler smacked the back of Logan's head with his tail. Then he turned to Zoro. "You don't seem surprised by our appearance," he said suspiciously. Again, Zoro shrugged. "This is the Grand Line," he said dismissively. "Besides, compared to just my crew, your strangeness barely registers." "How so?" Kurt inquired. Beside him, Logan crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. Zoro huffed in amusement. He sheathed his swords and started counting off on his fingers. "My captain is a rubber man, our cook is a swirly eyebrowed love sick bastard, our doctor is a reindeer human who transforms into a gorilla or a tanuki, our shipwright is a cyborg pervert, and our musician is a living skeleton. The rest of us aren't normal either, but in comparison we don't seem so scary." Kurt thought that Zoro was plenty scary, but he didn't mention it. "We're mutants," Logan threw out nonchalantly, just to see if it got a reaction. Though if this man was telling the truth, it would take a lot to bother him. Zoro looked at them blankly. "What's that?" "It means we have powers from the x-gene," Kurt explained. His tail waved back and forth behind him, betraying his agitation. "Like a devil fruit power?" the swordsman asked curiously. "I told you, this is the Grand Line. We see weirder things every day." "My father is a demon," Kurt pressed. "So?" Zoro scoffed. "We fought a lightning god. Though is hind sight, he was just a man with haki and a logia devil fruit." Logan laughed and held out a hand. "Nice to meet cha, bub." Zoro shook the hand gravely then shook Kurt's hand, without blinking at the three fingers. It was nice for the mutants to meet someone who really didn't care what they were. It was refreshing. Zoro nodded at Kurt's swords. "Do you use all three of those?" he asked, changing the subject. Kurt blinked in surprise. "Ja," he said, drawing one with his tail. "I call it the triple wield. I don't usually carry all three, but ve were in the middle of training when ve showed up here." "I use three sword style," Zoro said appreciatively. "Maybe after we deal with the walking crab cake, we could demonstrate our styles." "Fine, but how are we going to drive that thing back ashore?" Logan asked. "We attack from here," Zoro said drawing his katana. "I'm awake enough now." The two x-men exchanged a look, but they backed up to give the pirate room. Zoro got into position, pulled back for a full swing and shouted "36 pound cannon!" before sending a shot of cutting energy that split the water in front of him before hitting the crab like, well, like a cannon. The crab was rocked back, and the claw that it used to block the attack cracked. Zoro grinned. "Looks like crab for dinner. Maybe that will get the shitty cook off my back," he mumbled to himself. The crab scuttled around and charged at the three men sideways. Kurt bamfed out of range, looking for an opening. Zoro jumped back out of reach of the huge pinchers, his eyes blazing and his teeth showing in a feral grin around the white hilt of his katana. Wolverine stood his ground, sinking the claws on his right hand into the massive crab legs as they threatened to overrun him. He used his leverage to sink his left claws a little higher and started to climb up the legs until he could launch himself on the crab's back. Then he started slicing away at the thick shell. Zoro returned to pick up the attack, dodging the creature's claws to try and hack at its mandibles and eyes. His attacks had a lot more bite now, cracking the crab's hard shell with every hit. This wasn't enough for the green haired swordsman and he cursed his inability to slice right through the thick shell. Kurt focused on distracting the behemoth by attacking its joints and eyes, teleporting from one spot to the next. The blue furred German also kept a weather eye on his teammates so he could teleport them out of danger if they needed it. When Logan was knocked off the crab's back by a sudden movement, Nightcrawler caught him and teleported them both to the beach. Wolverine thanked his friend before running back into the fray, this time focusing on cutting up from the belly. His shorter stature had him at just the right height to get beneath and do considerable damage to the crab's softer, but still very hard, underside. Zoro was knocked off his feet by an unexpected swing of a claw that clipped his head, stunning him. Nightcrawler instantly teleported him away to safety. The swordsman growled under his breath as he tried to get to his feet. "Vorsichtig, mein freund," Kurt warned. "My unusual method of transport can be quite disorienting the first time." Zoro waved him off, though he went to one knee when he tried to rise. He shook his head to clear it. "Don't worry about it," he reassured the X-man. "It's better than Luffy's Gum Gum Rocket." He watched Logan fight to stay beneath the crab that scuttled from side to side trying to get at the little man hacking at its underside. "Can you get me on top of that thing? One good slice where your friend was cutting before should take it down." "Ja," Nightcrawler agreed and grabbed Zoro's arm to follow the plan. The second jump was less disorienting and Zoro quickly stabbed down with his black sword, sinking the dark blade deep into the shell, giving him a hold on the creature's slippery back. "Get your friend out from under this thing. I'm going to finish this." Kurt didn't stay around to argue. He teleported to grab Logan and jumped them both out of the way. Once Zoro saw they were clear he jerked the sword out of the shell and got into a stance that allowed him to slice downward, the same move he once used to behead a dragon. With a shout he sliced down, cutting a hole clear though the crab, piercing its heart. The massive shellfish started to sway before its legs gave out and it crashed down in a spray of sand and seawater. Zoro rode it out to stand triumphant on his foe's back in a dramatic stance as the sand settled. He sheathed his katana with a series of clicks and turned to his new friends with a grin. "Who's hungry?" the young man asked. He jumped to the ground and swaggered up to the mutants. "I bet that thing could feed even my crew with left overs. Want to stick around? Luffy'd love to meet you." The friends shared a look and turned to the pirate with identical grins, ready to accept. It wasn't like they had anything better to do until someone came to pick them up. They were kind of curious about a pirate crew that made Nightcrawler and Wolverine look normal. But before they could answer they felt a familiar tingling, the same feeling from when they first appeared in this strange world. "Sorry, bub," Logan said. "Seems like we'll have to be on our way. Thanks for a good fight though." "Ja," Kurt agreed, speaking fast because the tingle was getting stronger. "Hopefully ve will meet again, till then auf wiedersehen!" He grabbed a hold of his friend's shoulder just as they were pulled back through the interdimensional portal that had spit them out on that beach. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx It was a little disorienting to be back in the Danger Room after the sun and sand of the Grand Line. The two X-men woke up in a heap on the floor while a young mutant freaked out beside them. Cyclops stood nearby; arms crossed severely, though the corner of his mouth kept twitching as he tried to suppress a smile. Storm was trying to get the poor boy to calm down. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," Billy Kaplan, aka Wiccan, babbled. He reached out to brush the sand out of Logan's hair, still jabbering apologies. Logan pushed the boy off and got to his feet. "What happened?" he asked suspiciously. Kurt stayed on the floor, still a little dizzy. "Um, my spell backfired. It was supposed to move you out of the way and instead it sent you away. We think you were in another dimension, but I got you back. It took a couple tries and now I'm like really tired but I got you back and I promise that will never happen again, so please, please don't hate me?" the boy rambled. Once Logan got through the run on sentence enough to understand, he shook his head and reached over to pat Billy on the head. The boy flinched but since Wolverine didn't bring out the claws he figured he was safe. "Don't worry about it, bub," Logan said gruffly. "Just work on your control some more. We had fun while you were working it out." "What kind of fun?" Scott Summers demanded. "Did you pick a fight while in another world?" "What's it matter, slim?" Logan challenged. He started to move to the door, more than ready to get the sand out of his costume. "We're back and in one piece. End of story." Scott opened his mouth to argue, which would have probably ended in a fight. Kurt spoke up before that could happen. "Ve helped a local man fight a giant crab, is all. It was a beautiful place. Very tropical." "A giant crab?" Storm asked with a gentle smile. "Enorm!" Kurt declared dramatically, finally getting to his feet. "Ve had quite a time subduing it, until our new friend decided to take a direct approach." Storm linked arms with Kurt and Billy, leading them out of the danger room and leaving Scott to trail behind them. "You must tell me more. Who was this stranger and what was he like?" Kurt considered how to describe Zoro. "He was a most unorthodox pirate I've ever met, and he too carried three swords," he began. It was good to be back at the school with his friends, but something told Kurt that he'd never forget the green haired swordsman, Roronoa Zoro. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx