Eques
Summary: After the ordeal with Apocalypse, an old friend of Logan and Xavier makes his return from a long mission. He takes his place as an instructor once again, training his former students as well as the new students. Of course he carries just as much baggage as everyone else at the Institute, if not more.
A/N: Well it's been a couple years since I posted anything. I apologize for that. Life got a bit too busy for me and I found myself with little or no time to write. Nor had I had any inspiration to write when I did have the time. You can say that I'm a bit burnt out due to the past three years, and I'll even admit that it put me in a depressed mood of sorts. So I figured that I needed a way to at least get out of this funk. So I'm gonna try to get back into writing fanfics again.
Anyway, I decded to start this new fanfic instead of focusing on my other two fanfics that I've been writing. I feel like this will help motivate me into updating Chaos and Threads of Fate. Now I'm sure I've rambled long enough. Enjoy this chapter and tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men Evolution or it's characters, save for my OC.
Prolouge: Voyage
Cold and rain. Such a typical spring evening in Germany. Splashes could be heard from the gentleman's footsteps as he made his way down the muddy road, the black rain jacket protecting himself from the heavy downpour. Ironically concealing his identity as well. Not that he was intending to conceal his identity, after all he was on a long trip and catching a damn cold was the last thing on his mind.
He continued tredding through the mud as he finally got to his destination. A decent size building. A bar in fact. Nothing too fancy. The gentleman walked up to the entrance, taking care to stomp some of the mud off his heavy duty boots before heading inside. The inside looked as the same as outside. A bit run-down, but the lights gave a warm atmosphere.
The gentleman removed his hood with his free hand, shaking some of the rain off as he let out a huff before heading towards the bar keep. The bar keep just looked up, seeing the tall man that just revealed himself. A bit of a tan complextion, short black hair that had a bit of a grey tuff around his bangs. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties, if not early-thirties. But that wasn't unusual. What was unusual however was the red eyes that the man had. After glancing at the man, the barkeep just went back to cleaning some glasses.
" Well, well, well. What a pleasent surprise. I wasn't expecting you to stop by for another year or two." The barkeep spoke in German.
The man let out a chuckle as he set his bag down on a stool. " Turns out I finished my business sooner than I thought." He replied, also in German, as he started to strip off his rain coat and setting it on top of the bag.
The barkeep gave a slight smirk. " Well eight years is still a long time for you to show your face here." He started as the man took a seat. "Usual I'm assuming?" He asked.
" Of course. You know me too well." The man said.
The barkeep soon took a couple of glasses, filling them up with whiskey before giving one glass to the man as he kept the other. The barkeep took his glass, lifting it up. " Zum Wohl!" The barkeep said.
"Zum Wohl!" The man replied as he lift his own glass before they both down their glass and setting them on the bar table. The man glanced back at the barkeep "So I'm assuming business is still good?" He asked.
The barkeep nodded. " They're not many bars around this area. So business has been very good. Hell I've been even putting my own son to work these days. He seems eager to take over the busness one day, as soon as I retire." He replied.
" Sounds like you got all the help you got." The man said.
" Yeah. So don't be surprised when you see him more than me down the line." The Barkeep said.
" Hey now. There's no need for such nonsense. It's very hard to make good drinks these days. You're the only few people I can trust to pour straight whiskey without screwing it up. That, my friend, are some pretty big shoes to fill." The man said in a light sarcastic tone.
They both paused for a moment before letting out a brief laugh. "Hehe still a wise ass as ever." The Barkeep said.
"My life would be boring otherwise." The man replied. They both had another round of chuckles before the sounds coming from the television got the man's attention.
" And here you see the aftermath of what has been called 'The Apocalyse Incident'. As you can see, members of the X-Men and Magneto's followers, as well as other unidetified personal, managed to stop the collosal mutant. Thus stopping the stange phenomenon that went on around the world. Although the extent of the damage from Apocalypse is unknown, one thing we know for sure is that it would have been far worse if it were for these indivisuals."
The man remained silent as the news went on. Seeing the X-Men on the screen seemed to spark something within the man. The Barkeep seem to noticed and spoke up. " Hey you alright there?"
That seemed to snap the man out of his thoughts as he looked over at the Barkeep. " Yeah. Everything's fine." He answered. Another moment of silence went by. " Hey, better make the next one on the road for me, will ya. Turns out I got something to take care of" The man said.
" Already? Well alright." The barkeep said as he poured the man another glass. " So where are you heading off this time? If you don't mind me asking."
The man took the glass in his hand, letting out a brief sigh. " I think it's about time for me to head home." He answered before chugging the drink down. " So how much do I owe ya?" He asked as he set the glass down. He then reached for his wallet in his back pocket.
" Bah! Don't worry about it. Sounds like you got a long road ahead of you. Drinks are on the house. Just try to visit again before I retire, will ya?" The Barkeep said.
The man stared at the Barkeep before chuckling. " Alright then. At least let me leave you a tip." He replied.
It's been a couple week since then, the red-eyed traveler was now on a cargo ship sailing to America. The man was relaxing out on the docks as he had his arms leaning on the railing, the calm expression on his face revealing that he was enjoying the view of the sea. He let his mind wander about the news that he watched back at that bar in Germany. Plenty of thoughts went through his head, but those thoughts interupted when one of the sailors approached the man.
" The skies should be clear the rest of the way. Should be smooth sailing from here on out." The sailor said.
The traveler just looked over at the sailor. " Well that's good news. The past few days were quite rough." He mentioned. " I assume that it'll still be a few hours though, right?" He added.
The sailor nodded. " Yeah, the weather didn't seem to cooperate so I apologise for the delay."
The traveler shrugged. " Don't worry about it. Nothing can be done when it comes to Mother Nature." He replied.
The sailor paused for a moment before continuing the coverstation. " You know, you're not really what my grandfather made you out to be." He mentioned.
This caused the Traveler to chuckle. " Really now? Well I shouldn't be surprised. We weren't exactly on the friendliest terms back then." He replied. After a paused, he spoke again. " But that was in the past. How is he anyway?"
The sailor paused before letting out a sigh, lightly scartching the back on his head. " Sorry to say, but he past away a year ago... From cancer." He answered.
" Cancer?... Damn... Sorry to hear that. Differences aside, he was a great man... And quite a sailor himself." The Traveler said.
" Thanks... Anyway we're almost at the port. Should be there in a couple hours." The Sailor said.
The Traveler simply nodded before the Sailor left and returned to his original leaning postition, his attention back at the sea. Once again he was lost in his thoughts, including the news of the Sailor's grandfather. His expression faltered a bit at that thought and let out a sigh. " I really shouldn't be surprised." He muttered.
He paused for a moment before glancing at the skies above. " Don't know if my words can reach you, or if you even care. Just know that I what I told your grandson was true. You were a great sailor, and a even greater man for standing up to me the way you did back then. I'm just sorry that you saw that side of me... Just like mostly everyone else in my past."
Another moment passed before he stood straight up, tapping the railing a couple times. "Next drink is for you." He said, making his way below deck. He had a few more hours until he reach land. He figured he might as well rest up.
After finally making it to land, he continued on towards his desination. Night finally fell by the time he got there. Yes the Xavier insitute. He stood just outside the fence, his bag over his shoulder.'I wonder what kind of welcome I'll get from him.' He thought, his face holding an amused expression.
"I guess we'll just find out." He said as he tossed his bag over the fence. He then hunched over as his body began to shift into an abnormally large black wolf, about the size of a shire horse. He then made use of his muscles as he simply jumped over the fence, letting out growl as he landed.
Again he paused as something caught his senses. Someone was around, however it wasn't him. A student perhaps? Considering this place, it was most likely. He then came up with an idea. No doubt that it'll draw him out. 'This will be fun...' He thought before he ran into the woods in his wolf form.
Kurt Wagner was simply out roaming around the woods. Usually he would used his holographic desguise, but there was no use for it considering he was at the insitute. What he was doing out around this time, no one knew. He was however heading back inside. Well that was until he heard a twig snapped.
He immediately spun around towards the source of the sound. "Hello? Anyone there?" He gave the cliche response. He soon heard low growl. Was that some kind of animal? " Show yourself?" He said, in an irritated tone.
He soon regretted those words as a black worlf slowly come out from the shadows. However something was different from this one that made Kurt reveal a shocked expression. "A wolf?" He muttered. 'No way that's a wolf! It's a size of a horse! And it's eyes... I doubt wolves have red eyes! Mutant wolf?!' He thought.
The large wolf lowed a bit, letting anouther growl. However it had a rhythem of a chuckle of sorts. Can wolves even do that? "N-nice wolfy...?" Kurt managed to say. however he knew this didn't look good. The beast looked like he was about to lunge at him.
And lunge the wolf did. Luckily Kurt was quick with this reflexes and teleported out of the way, appearing from where the wolf originally was. The wolf simply turned to face Kurt once again. " That was close. Okay, sorry for calling you wolfy. It was better than pupp... EEK!" Kurt started before the wolf lunged again. Of course Kurt had no choice but to teleport once again, appearing at another place.
"Okay I don't know what's going on but you're starting to get on my nerves!" Kurt said as he turned to face the wolf again, only to pause to see the wolf no longer there. Like there was no trace of the beast anywhere.
"Tell me that wolf was just my imagination..." He muttered. He was still causious and held his guard up in case it wasn't. However he didn't expect what would happen next.
" Sorry kid... I wasn't." A voice said behind him.
That unfamiliar voice startled him as he turned around, letting out a yelp. He didn't expect to see someone standing there. Some guy in his mid-thirties, black hair with some grey on his bangs, tan skin color... and red eyes? "What the... Who are you?"
The Stranger just stood there with his amused smirk. " That... I'll tell you later. After an ass kicking of course." He said.
This obviously annoyed Kurt, which was clearly shown on his face. " Well you can try!" He said, even the tone of his voice showed that he was annoyed.
The Stranger continued having the smirk on his face. " Well then... Show me what you got kid." He taunted, even went as far as waving him over.
Kurt obviously didn't take his taunting well as he leaped at the Stranger, which he simply leaned back as he took a step to dodge Kurt. The Stranger then took one of his foot and kicked Kurt right in the rear. Kurt couldn't help but tumbled towards the ground, letting out a grunt before managing to sit up and wincing.
Kurt soon managed to snap out of it when he heard the Stranger approach, focusing his attention back at the guy. Of course the Stranger had that smirk on his face. " Of course I didn't mean to be literal when I mentioned an ass kicking." He taunted again.
At this point, Kurt didn't care about holding back. He started using his power and teleported from the Stranger's view. The Stranger inhaled deeply before letting out a huff as Kurt appeared right above him, letting the gavity do it's job as he fell towards the Stanger. He figured his weight would do the job and at least knock him down.
But Kurt's hope was quickly extingushed as the Stanger looked up at him, that same smirk on his face, before sending a punch right into Kurt's abdomen. Kurt felt the wind knock out of him as he landed hard onto the ground, letting out a few coughs.
The Stranger just appoached him, looking down at Kurt's defeated form. He simply let out a chuckle. "Game over kid." He said.
Before he had the chance to do anything else, he heard a sound behind him before feeling a set of cool blades pressed behind his neck. " I don't think so Bub." A gruff voice said behind the Stanger.
A/N: Alright so here's the prologue of this story. Hope everyone enjoyed reading this. I'm hoping that this will get me back into writing. Of course I got so many ideas that are stuck in my head. Pluss I still need to update Threads of Fate and Chaos. Anyway I'm rambling again.
Leave a review and let me know what you think.
Till next time \m/