Disclaimer : I own none of the X-Men characters, save for Ilehana Xavier. Blaze belongs to Lamby. Apologies in advance for any insults to your characters, this is A/U after all!!! Rating is for adult themes. Pinched and adapted the first couple of paragraphs from Lamby's "Dark Is The Hour" – go read if you want the true version!! I guess this is a bit more Evo based than movie verse, but hell, I thought it might be fun.
A/N : Once upon a time, ages and ages ago, I had an image of an evil Vixen running round in my head, and an image of Blaze in a cream cardigan and thick-rimmed glasses. I couldn't resist, it had to be done! Ok so things didn't quite play out the way I planned, but here goes! My thanks to Lamby for her permission to post this!
This is set sometime after X2 and the Phoenix Saga.
What Might Have Been, Chapter 1
It was dark. Black and sullen, the sky masked with clouds, the streetlights murky with fog and grime. In the distance the freeway hummed with its constant traffic, alive. But here, in the back streets and alleyways of the industrial quarter of the city, she could almost believe she was alone.
She walked quickly, a young woman in an unfamiliar setting, dressed in sensible shoes, pencil trousers and matching jacket, her steps clicking on the hard asphalt with every step. Uncertain, she took a wrong turn and faced an eight-foot wire mesh fence; this place was like maze……… Panic began to well in her gut, churning her stomach, making her warm and uncomfortable. Forcefully she turned her mind back to the task in hand, she could not panic now.
It was then she heard the first signs of her pursuit. With unexpected agility she turned back down the blocked alley at a run, and launched herself at the mesh. She had it! Her fingers grasped the taunt wire tight, her feet kicked for a purchase, and then she was over. Dropping down the other side almost silently, she landed in a catlike crouch. Looking each way whilst readjusting her glasses, she decided on the left, and made her break.
It was the wrong way. The back street the alley with the fence came off simply snaked round the dominating warehouse, meeting the left hand road further up. She hadn't realised! She was so stupid! Mentally she swore at herself, fear cornering her like a rabbit even before her pursuers spotted her.
"There!" The inevitable shout went up, deep and feral. The sound of running feet combined with a more muffled sound… like dogs? The young woman looked up to see the most obscure bunch of… beings that she'd ever seen. The giant known as Sabretooth, his furry face and fangs terrifying her instantly, a young man with greasy blonde hair, a large silver lighter in his hand and a sly look to him, an older woman with an artificial-yellow fire smouldering in her eyes, a man dressed in a long brown trench coat with a mop of wild brown hair and… the young woman had to look again… a giant white tiger? Her photographic memory acknowledged it all in an instant, and she knew then that she stood no chance of surviving this time…
We're not alone. The warning echoed in the back of her mind, making her glance sharply around. She caught the gaze of the tiger, the predatory glare trapping her, paralysing in its unnaturalness. In that moment the beast seemed to know her every thought, glean every memory, the young woman hung her head in shame. For anyone to know what she was, what she had done… It just didn't bear thinking about. And that gaze wasn't exactly understanding.
"You t'ink, Cherie?" The guy in the trench coat responded sarcastically, having to shout to make himself heard over the sudden, colossal roar of an engine, and seconds later they were all watching as a large black jet soared in to hover overhead.
Well you certainly don't Gambit. The telepathic thought was thrown open to the gathered crowd, their prey included.
"Cut it out you two!" The woman with the yellow eyes snapped. "Sabretooth, get the girl!"
"My pleasure." The feral man growled, though there was a strange hint of a satisfied purr in there too. He stepped up to their quarry, completely ignoring her sudden scream, and hauled her away from the main group. Or at least he tried to.
"Going somewhere?"
"You still own me a scream…" Was Sabretooth's somewhat predictable greeting to Storm, the X-Man who blocked his path. He took in a deep snuff, breathing her scent, and there was something lewd in the way he exhaled at her, enough to make Storm's nose wrinkle in disgust.
"She don't owe you nothin' Bub." Wolverine made his entrance having leapt from the tail ramp of the low flying jet to land in a crouch, his adimantium claws blazing as they reflected the light from those set into the base of the jet. He snarled as he straightened up a little, watched at Sabretooth retreated slightly into the centre of the Brotherhood pack. The group as a whole followed his example, moving back from Wolverine and Storm as the jet pulled away to settle on a rooftop. They had what they came for after all, no sense in getting a pointless fight, despite the temptations of kicking some X-butt.
"Didn't your mothers ever teach you to watch where you're walking?" A sly comment from behind halted the group, but not before Pyro had slipped on a large patch of ice and collapsed in an ungainly heap on the floor. Bobby Drake, a.k.a. Iceman, smiled at his one-time friend and schoolmate. "Slipped up one too many times, didn't we John?"
"You're funny." Pyro snapped, leaping upright, red in the face and very, very angry. "Let's warm things up a little!" His lighter snapped and the fire-controller flung a ball of flames at his ex-friend. It bounced harmlessly off a telekinetic shield produced by Jean Grey. Furious at having missed his intended target, Pyro tried again with a larger, much more powerful fireball that threatened to singe his neighbours before he would release it.
Again, Jean repelled the sphere of flames, making a comment about John never being too hot in a fight, and this time he lost his rag entirely, running at Jean with a battle roar. She tried to stop him with her mind powers, but half-screamed as an image of a Grey Wolf burned into her mind. Since when was there was a telepath amidst the Brotherhood? Pyro ran full pelt into Jean, knocking her backwards, then being thrown sideways himself as Bobby set on him. Mystique, in the guise of a thirty-something year old female jogger, launched herself in Bobby's direction in defence of her team-mate, becoming her usual blue-self as she viciously attacked the Iceman.
On the other side of the group, Wolverine fired himself into the fray, his claws aiming for Sabretooth alone, his intention to free the girl and let Storm lead her away. But in a flurry of snarls and fur, the giant white tiger met Logan's leap head on. Her skull being larger and thicker than Wolverine's, the force of her leap that much greater, meant that Logan was too easily overpowered. He found himself pinned by the great beast, her claws flexing just enough to draw blood. He grunted with the pain, silently hating the way she toyed with him. Couldn't she just kill him and get it over with?
Too easy. She laughed in his head, and though there was blood-lust aplenty in that laugh, there was almost a sardonic flirtation there too. Where's the fun? A telepath? Logan grunted to himself, a telepath and an animorph. Interesting. Who the hell was she anyway? For me to know, Wolverine. And for you to wonder about. Which you will. And with that she launched herself at him again, a cat playing with a mouse for no better reason than it had dared cross her path.
"T'ing's gettin' a little Stormy 'round here, non?" Gambit addressed the world in general, the wind now plucking at his trench coat at Storm's command. He scowled darkly, glaring at her, angry that his trademark cards would be useless given the current weather conditions. "Now, Chere, you know you makin' t'ings difficult for Gambit. Mebbe we try dis little number instead, non?"
Gambit ran at Storm, his hand reaching inside his coat for his secondary weapon. Without altering his step, he flicked his wrist to extend the staff he kept concealed in a pocket, planting one end firmly in the ground and swinging round to plant a firm, double-footed kick into the weather-witch's stomach. Storm groaned and staggered backwards, somehow managing to keep her feet. But with Ororo's surprise came a lack of control and the wind died away. Gambit quickly charged the four Kings and flung the cards in Storm's direction. She cried out as they exploded like firecrackers almost in her face, driving her further from the battle.
Gambit's triumph was short-lived. A scream of air being instantaneously heated accompanied the searing thump to his back. He found himself thrown to the ground, face first into the mud, a most ungainly position for a suave, if none too sophisticated man like himself. He turned his head to his left, spitting out gravel, to see the tiger leap aside from another Cyclops attack. Cries from Pyro, Mystique and a savage snarl from Sabretooth implied that only the tiger had escaped being hit by Scott's solar-powered laser vision.
"Good job we installed the stun setting, eh Jean?" Cyclops grinned as he helped Jean back onto her feet.
Only if it stuns your enemy. The telepathic voice was sardonic, even bored. The roar the massive cat emitted was neither. Fierce and powerful, the sound echoed around the area, bouncing off walls and intensifying with every echo. Cyclops half-screamed as the tiger's claws ripped into his back, sending him sprawling to the ground.
Get back. Jean tried to use her telepathic and telekinetic powers against the tiger, thrusting a hand out toward the beast.
You think you have power enough to rival me? The tiger turned its gaze onto Jean, laughing sarcastically with every word. You give yourself too much credit, Jean Grey, as do the X-Men. You are weak, a child, nothing.
My children, my X-Men, are everything to me. A gentle, calming masculine voice interrupted the argument before it could erupt into another full-scale battle of wills.
The tiger visibly stumbled backward at the telepathic intrusion, shocked to hear a voice she had not heard in years. The defence of the X-Men by the man she had known her entire life tripped her, her tiger form snarling angrily at the intrusion. Wolverine took the advantage and shoved her aside. The great beast hit a nearby wall with a sickening thump and slid to the floor, quietened now. She managed to turn her head a little at a gasp from the girl the Brotherhood had been after, to see her being bundled away by Storm. The Brotherhood mutants were still stunned from Cyclops attack and unable to prevent them escaping. She cursed them all in her mind, glancing back to see the other X-Men running in the opposite direction.
That's right, X-Men, run home to Daddy! The great white tiger stumbled to her feet in time to watch the X-Men retreat, venom at the irony of her comment eroding her thought so that it almost didn't form. For you are the children that mean everything to Him. The tiger spat blood, a human gesture of contempt. Running a large pink tongue about her gums and deciding that at least all her teeth were still intact, the headache she could live with. Without even waiting for her fellow mutants, she turned tail and stalked away.
