Fractured Crusade
Skchuu
Alright, hey. Kchuu here. I know it's been a while. That's not to say Sketchy and I haven't been writing, oh, we have. We had the sequel to Oversensetive finished-but-unbeta'd for like, half a year now. And you wouldn't believe how much we've written. Kodd, Lietro, AU Fics, a bunch of stuff. But because of school, etc, we changed our format to be much more freeform. And since there's no hope of us ever getting motivated to edit and fill in the blanks for all those stories… (especially the ones where we just talked through scenes we didn't want to write) We decided to just start a new project for you. It's an AU, combining elements of all of our stories. It's a bit different from anything you've heard from us so far… but we think you'll like it. We hope. Haha. Anyway… enjoy our Fractured Crusade!
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After the presence of mutants became known to the world, the citizens of the planet were split into two distinct groups: The Hunters, and the Hunted. Mutants were forced to band together and defend themselves... Or to go into hiding. Rogue militia groups affiliated with the Purifiers and the Church of Humanity ran rampant, murdering mutants and those who hid them with wanton brutality.
The Xavier Institute had become a sort-of safe haven, their walls and defenses keeping out even the most determined of militia-men. However, the two-pronged war against both Magneto's forces and the intolerant humans proved to be a far greater struggle than the young X-Men had reckoned for.
Professor Xavier forbid them from using lethal tactics, and the daily assault led to many tragic casualties. But one day, in a particularly well-planned raid... A traitorous mutant, a young, flighty girl promised a safe refuge with the humans for her work, stabbed the good professor to death. The humans repaid her for her work with a bullet to the back of her skull.
After the death of Charles Xavier, all hell broke loose. The forces of Magneto, Xavier's young students, and various bands of mutants and sympathizers banded together against the vicious humans.
The war had officially begun.
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"This freaking blows, man." A tall, broad-shouldered young man in a tank-top and baggy cargo pants leaned against a tree. His inky, blue-black hair was tied in a tiny ponytail, some pieces still falling free beside his face. He was armed to the teeth, with belts and pouches carrying all manner of explosives, guns, and three long, wicked knives stashed in their easily accessible holsters.
His uniform was very much like the one the members of the human militia wore, but no one could ever mistake this young man for human.
His whole body was covered, head to toe, with a coat of short, blue fur. His ears ended in long points, he had fierce, yellow eyes, and his long devil-tail swished behind his legs in irritation.
"I can't believe I have to babysit you. For leaking files to the humans, you should be put in jail! Or better yet, shot. Don't vorry, novhere deadly, but I think a couple bullets in your kneecaps vould take you out, eh, Toad?" He shuffled through the grass, his feet moving strangely in the standard issue combat boots to stand behind the younger mutant.
"You sure you're even fixing this electrical box the right vay? You're not turning it into some sort of spy-message-sending thing, right?" His voice was half-joking, but it had the ever-present undertone that all the old X-Men carried in their hearts: a constant, and deep sadness.
The other man scowled, but didn't look away from his work.
He was shorter than the other mutant, and looked almost human in comparison. He had short brown hair, pale skin, and slightly larger than normal hands. From a distance, he certainly seemed human. But there were several small details that, with a trained eye, could show his mutanthood.
His hands had webbing between the fingers, and his legs seemed unusually muscled compared to the rest of his spindly body, which showed even through the tank top and army pants he wore. That, paired with how the goggles covering his eyes were just a little too wide set, made him have the appearance of a frog.
The man was busying himself by switching around wires in the electrical box, re-wiring it to the best of his abilities, which was quite a lot.
"Oh for the love of- Yes, I'm 'fixing it the right way'. And trust me, I'd rather take those bullets to my knees than have –you- follow me around twenty-four seven."
The frog-like mutant, known unsurprisingly as Toad, crossed two wires, making a spark leap between them, then slammed the door to the box shut.
"Done. Are yah happy now?"
"Yeah, vhateveh. You've still got vone more box to fix in this quadrant, and then back to your quarters." The blue man scowled down at his charge, and moved to grab him roughly around the shoulders.
"Vith my luck, even if you did get shot in the knees-" The pair disappeared in an explosion of purple-red smoke. They appeared about two miles away, at the site of a different electrical box.
"-I'd still have to tote you around anyvay... I vish somevone more pleasant could learn how to do this freaking electric-voodoo-crap." He rolled his eyes, and crouched beside the cap of this new box, straining, and then lifting the cover off.
On the inside, it looked as if rodents, or other small creatures had gnawed some of the wires through almost entirely. The carcass of a small mouse twitched as an electrical current still passed through it.
"Eeeugh. Ve finally found something that smells vorse than you..." Kurt wrinkled his sensitive nose and took several steps back, shoving his hands into his pocket, looking for smokes. Something about this muggy night made him uneasy.
Toad lifted his goggles and rubbed at his eyes.
Even with the extra eye protection he wore, looking at sparks of electricity in pitch dark took a toll on his eyes, and they were starting to hurt.
He gave a frustrated sigh, and put his goggles back on.
He took one look at the dead mouse and made a face of disgust.
He picked it up and tossed it to the side, ignoring the small spark of electricity that had stung his fingertips when he'd touched the rodent.
"Would you just shut your trap, yah ratty plush-toy? I wanna get back to bed as much as you do, and insultin' me doesn't help things go faster."
He started to re-attach the wires together, fixing the damage that the small animals had caused.
He kept at his work, loathing every second that he helped the so called 'mutant cause'.
Suddenly, he stopped fiddling with the wires, and his eyes moved to the woods several yards in front of them.
His eyes were sensitive to movement. Especially in the dark, and he'd just seen something move.
Something human-shaped.
"..Furball, I think we have company."
"I heard it." Kurt hissed, yellow eyes narrowing. His long ears seemed to twitch, listening intently for any sound of motion from the woods before him.
His two hands already held his long knives, and the hilt of a third blade was clutched tightly in his tail. In battle these tools paired with the blue mutant's uncanny teleportation ability made him a deadly force.
The shape in the woods moved again, coming towards them.
Kurt tensed, then brought back his arm, ready to chuck the knife at the figure with any sign of advancement-
Toad lifted his goggles off of his eyes, and squinted at the figure, trying to see if it was friend or foe.
The man's eyes widened with surprise, and he let out a chuckle.
"Heh, put away the knives, Nightcreeper. It's another mutant."
Pulling his goggles back down over his eyes, the scrawny man went back to work.
As he started to cross two un-joined wires, he called out to the figure who was approaching them.
"Yo, Josh's friend, right? Whatcha doin' out so late? It's past curfew for all you non-traitors slash people who stand back and creepily watch traitors."
A girl stepped out into the clearing, an incredibly annoyed expression on her face. She tucked some of her long, parted-in-the-middle brown hair behind one ear, grey eyes glinting when the moonlight hit them.
"My name is Helen. And Josh... Elixir... just needed some more plants and crap for a medicine. I was just trying to find some of the stuff he needed. He's practically passed out from all the injured people he's had to save today..." She shifted her basket to her other arm, various plants and roots sticking out of the top.
"Vell, you still shouldn't be out after curfew. Do you vant me to take you back to the New Mutant encampment, Helen?" Nightcrawler's face was stern. He had put the knives away immediately when he saw she wasn't a threat, but he was still wary of any mutant out past dark.
Behind his goggles, Toad's eyes lit up with a sudden hope.
"Yeah, girly. Quicker you get back, the quicker Jo-… 'Elixir' doesn't hafta worry 'bout getting' 'em, and can rest like an overworked, under appreciated guy should! Go on, have the blue wonder over there drop yah off. Then maybe I can finish this thing in peace!"
He tried to sound innocent, but inside, he was going crazy with anticipation. If she said yes, if that stupid blue furball took her back, he'd be unsupervised for a few seconds.
The moment he was left alone, he'd make a break for it. Run to the border, and pray he could find a way to make it past the barriers that were there, and that he wouldn't be caught before he got there.
Helen stuck out her tongue at the two men.
"No thanks, creepers. I can walk back there by myself. At least when I was on the run, we didn't have dumb curfews..." She looked at Kurt, narrowing her grey eyes. "Or over-paranoid security guards." She skulked away, through the woods, back towards camp.
"I mean, what is this, a safe haven or a freakin' concentration camp..." She grumbled this almost inaudibly as she walked away, staring angrily at the ground as her hands began to shake and vibrate uncontrollably with pent-up rage and power.
Kurt watched her go, arms crossed across his chest.
"How ungrateful. Though it's probably good that she didn't vant a lift..." He looked at the man fixing the wires on the ground next to him. "Knowing you, you'd probably make a break for it as soon as I left you alone."
After a moment, he crouched beside the brown-haired man, watching Toad work with a measure of curiosity.
"Vhy do you hate it here so much, anyvay, Todd...?"
The younger man tensed up, and he had to force his hands to not shake with the hateful emotions that were coursing through him.
"…My name isn't Todd anymore. It's Mortimer. Get it right you fucking creeper."
Mortimer turned his attention back to his work, trying to finish as quickly as he could.
He didn't want to be here, especially not with this guy.
Kurt knew way too much about him. All those former X-men did…
Kurt stepped back, standing, his hands coming up in a sign of surrender.
"Yeesh, frog-boy, sorry. I just get used to calling you vone thing, and then you go and change your whole name... Doesn't make sense, man." His tail lashed in annoyance, and he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He lit up, looking down at the man's work again.
"You about fucking done yet? I vould like to get in bed before dawn, you know... Mortimer Toynbee." He accented the names in his German lilt, saying the boy's alias with slow, annoying precision.
Mortimer was silent for a while, simply working with the wires in the electrical panel.
He hated this man, how he mocked him constantly…He'd been doing it since they were kids…
He grabbed the last two disconnected wires, and tugged them towards each other.
"Just give me half a second, you'll get to your precious flea-bitten mattress soon eno-FFFUCK!"
Mort waved one of his hands in the air, hissing at the painful sting that a jolt of electricity from the wires had given him.
He scowled and grabbed the wire again, quickly forcing the two split halves together and backing off.
He stood and wiped his hands off on his pants, his expression full of frustration and hate.
"There. Now get us the fuck outta here."
Kurt rolled his eyes, and grabbed Mort from behind. He wrapped his arms around the younger mutant's thin torso, under his arms. He lifted the smaller guy slightly off the ground-it was easier to not take grass and things with them when he knew specifically where the Toad's matter ended and air began.
"Fine, ve'll leave already. No need to get pissy."
In a moment, they were in their tent. Kurt immediately dropped Mortimer over by his cot, then shuffled over to his mattress on the floor. He pulled off his shirt, and kicked his boots to the side at the same time. He undid several belts, stripping down almost instantly. He was exhausted... and he knew wake-up call was in less than three hours. …Stupid Toad making us late...
Mort sat down on his makeshift bed, feeling both extremely tired, and extremely annoyed.
He was a traitor. Any normal person would assume that meant he had less work to do, but no, he'd been given more to do than ever! Plus, now he had to have a babysitter watching him at all times…
He gave a weary sigh, and dragged his goggles off of his head, tossing them just below his cot so he could find them later, but not have them in the way.
He laid down, not even taking off any of his clothes, and turned so his back was to his roommate.
He hated this. He was treated like dirt, expected to do a ton of work, and now he even had his old rival and still enemy following him around twenty-four seven.
The man gave another sigh, and curled slightly into himself as he began to drift off.
…Yeah, takin' two bullets to the knees would be better than this…