Thanks to PrincessAnime8 and my two anonymous reviewers, anon and Emily! I'm glad you both are enjoying the story so far! I honestly didn't expect to see 2 reviews right after posting it… O.O Imagine my surprise when I looked only a few hours after posting it, and I saw a review, and another the next morning!
Emily- Sorry if Kuga's speech is a bit hard to read, but just wanted to let you know that's actually how I speak, it's just not as noticeable when you live in Missouri. XD And I'm glad you thought the pace was well set. I find I often have problems with that. Descriptions are easiest for me, since I'm a very detail-oriented person. XD
Before we get to the chapter, I have a question. Are all feral mutants secretive? Reason I ask is 'cause Kuga isn't tellin' me anything, nor has she given me any reason as to why she's done some stuff. Like why'd she bring her yearbook? O.o (She's barely told me anything. Part of that is one of my other muses keeps taunting her, and…well… You know what happens when Creed taunts Logan, right? Right.)
Alright, I'm done rambling! I now proudly present the next chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 3- Drive Away
It had been 6 months. 6 months since her own parents called the government on her. 6 months since she left Missouri. 6 months since she'd last talked to her brother and her friends.
Kuga stayed in the trees when she could, and hurried across plains and farmland when she came across them, avoided anyone who came close to her in the forests, and ran when anyone saw her. As the weather got colder, she stole jackets from farmhouses when she could, then coats when it snowed. And she never set foot into a town.
She was running north, her inner compass told her as much. But she didn't change course; her instincts told her north was safe. Her instincts were also what kept her running. Always running. Never stopping for more than a few hours.
Finally, the urge to run faded, and she stopped, then set up a territory in the forest she found herself in. Found a cave hidden by brush, near a stream. She found some moss around her territory, and used it as bedding, along with old scrapped clothes and some animal furs.
Every day, Kuga would patrol her territory's perimeter, checking for intruders. Other predators soon learned to stay away, as she fought them out of her territory. She avoided the humans, letting them stay in her territory out of wariness; she didn't know if they'd be able to hurt her, and she didn't really want to find out, either.
And not once in those 6 months did Kuga notice how far she had slipped into her feral persona.
~Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters~
Professor Charles Xavier had called an early-morning meeting in the War Room, including only the active X-Men. Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, was the last to arrive, and when he did, he leaned against the wall near the door.
Xavier smiled at the mutants surrounding him; Scott, Hank, Jean, Ororo, Kurt, Bobby, Warren, Kitty, Jubilee, Peter, and Logan.
"Thank you for coming," the professor said in greeting.
"What's going on, Professor?" Jean asked.
"I have a mission for you."
Jubilee grinned. "Does it involve kicking bad guy a- er…butt?" the teen asked, catching herself after a glance at Logan, who had thrown her a sharp look.
"No, it doesn't," Charles replied, chuckling.
"Aww…" Charles, Scott, Hank, Jean, Ororo and Peter smiled as Bobby, Kitty, and Jubilee pouted.
"For a few months, Cerebro has been picking up a young mutant's signature. I could only gather enough to tell this mutant is a feral, but it appears their feral side has taken over. I have been unable to get a lock on them."
Everyone glanced at Logan when Charles said 'feral,' but no one said anything.
"Do you know the area this feral is in?" Logan asked unexpectedly. His dark eyes bore into the wheel-chair-bound man, who just gazed calmly back.
"I have narrowed it down to southern Canada. I believe the mutant is in or near the Canadian Rockies," Xavier replied. Logan narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything more.
"Logan, I wish for you to lead a team after this mutant."
The gathered X-Men gaped at the telepath, shocked. Scott was the first one to break the stunned silence.
"Professor, you can't be serious!" he cried.
"I am perfectly serious, Scott."
"You can't send him as leader of this mission!"
"You doubtin' my ability ta lead, One-eye?" Logan growled. Scott glared at the feral.
"No. I'm doubting your ability to keep your head on straight," he retorted, before turning back to Charles. "Sir, you know how Logan gets when he gets near another feral," he said desperately.
"No, we know how he gets when he's near Victor Creed," was the calm reply. "Logan is the best tracker we have, and he knows the Rockies."
"But-"
"I'll do it. But I wanna pick my team," Logan cut in. Xavier nodded complacently.
"You may want to take sedatives with you," the professor warned.
"Right." The feral looked over the group before he made a decision. "...Beast, Colossus, 'Crawler, and Storm." Charles nodded and rolled out of the War Room, with most of the team following. Logan's chosen team and Scott stayed.
Scott looked furious. "You're taking most of our fire-power," he growled.
Logan raised an eyebrow. "Kid, there's a potentially dangerous feral mutant in the mountains 'a Canada. Ferals're strong. I'm gonna need all the fire-power I can get." Then he smirked slightly. "'Sides, I should think ya can defend the mansion with the team ya have."
The other man looked like he wanted to argue more, but instead he stormed out of the room. Logan snorted, turning to his chosen team.
"Fur-ball, get the tranks," Logan ordered. "'Ro, yer pilot. Rest 'a ya, we need ta get a sturdy cell on the 'Bird. If this mutant is controlled by his feral side, he ain't gonna take well ta bein' 'napped from his territory, and he's gonna fight. Then pack for cold weather hikin'."
"Alright," the group resounded. Ororo went to prepare the Blackbird, Hank got the tranquilizers, and the rest went to find a suitable (transportable) cell.
By noon, Logan and his team were ready to head out. Charles told Logan he would stay in contact using Cerebro, and also try to pinpoint the feral's signature.
~Wilds of Canada~
Kuga growled as the wind blew into her den, bringing with it a scent she'd not come across before, waking her up when she had just bedded down. It smelt like blood, but earthier, and fire, and a raw stench of human-fire-start. Her first thought was 'human-fire-stick,' but she quickly discarded it. Sure, the scents were similar, but this new scent was more like sky, rather than quick-hurt-ears-fire.
Curious, the queen of the territory eased out of her den and into the trees. She stealthily jumped from branch to branch, searching out the blood-earth-fire-sky smell.
'Curiosity killed the cougar,' a small, familiar voice whispered in the back of Kuga's head. She stopped, surprised.
'Voice-in-head not heard for moons,' she thought, confused. If she hadn't heard the voice for moons, why would it suddenly pop up now?
Just when she was getting ready to head back to her den, a loud roar sounded from the sky, and the blood-earth-fire-sky smell became overbearingly strong. Kuga, startled, nearly fell out of the tree, but managed to find her balance just in time. She crawled closer to the trunk of the bee-stinger-tree, looking at the clouds.
She growled as a large blood-earth-bird appeared out of nowhere, dropping down below the trees.
The forest was unusually silent as Kuga leapt from one tree to another, getting closer and closer to the edge of her territory. She stopped and sniffed the air, and a growl worked its way out. A squirrel that had taken refuge in a hole in the trunk scrambled out and ran off, terrified.
Kuga ignored the easy prey as rage built up. Someone had invaded her territory. Her territory. Another predator. Male. He should know the rule about territories.
More scents stopped her from challenging the other. Another growl forced its way out of her chest. A predator had brought his pack into her territory. She raced through the trees, rage giving her speed. Kuga stayed downwind, making sure she could figure out where the pack was, but they wouldn't know where she was.
When she arrived at the outskirts of the clearing that the intruder-pack was, Kuga quickly figured out the pack order. Pack order depended on how healthy the pack member was, and their strength. She picked her target and attacked, claws extended.
Her target, a female human with snow-white head-fur, was pushed out of Kuga's path by a large shiny-blood-earth man. Kuga and the shiny-blood-earth man went down in a tumble of limbs and rolled. Kuga threw the shiny-blood-earth man off her mid-roll, and came up on her feet, crouched, fangs bared, claws fully-extended.
Snow-fur-lady was standing near short-blood-earth-scented-man. Large-blue-fur-man took a few steps toward Kuga. She snarled dangerously and lashed out, causing large-blue-fur-man backed up quickly. Shiny-blood-earth-man was being helped up by blue-spike-tailed-man.
Kuga looked around. Rock-bird was watching the group silently, its beak open. The intruder-pack was surrounding her in a half circle. The only way to escape was to take one of the intruder-pack down, or leave her territory. If she left, then the intruder-pack would own it. If she took one down, the intruder-pack would hunt her.
"Hank, get the sedatives," snow-fur-lady called out. Kuga watched as large-blue-fur-man nodded and ran into the blood-earth-bird's open beak, letting it eat him.
'Idiot.'
She was more than surprised when large-blue-fur-man came back out of the blood-earth-bird unharmed. She was scared now. So she did the only thing one would do in her situation.
Kuga ran at blue-spike-tail-man and jumped over him, landing on all fours. She used that to propel herself across the snowy ground, through trees, and up a large cliff.
Kuga could hear someone following her. A quick look back revealed it to be short-blood-earth-scented-man. He was keeping pace with her? How?
Her confusion turned to anger. She turned around mid-bound so she was facing short-angry-blood-earth-man, who stopped with a slide much like the one she did when she landed.
"Easy, girl," short -blood-earth-scented-man said. His gruff, deep voice was soft, the voice one used to speak to a spooked animal. Kuga just snarled.
"I don't wanna hurt ya, kid," he warned softly. Kuga snarled louder before attacking. Shiny-blood-earth-claws ripped out of the man's paws. The younger feral froze, shocked. Short-blood-earth-scented-man used that moment of frozen shock to knock her over the head hard enough to send her into unconsciousness.
Yeah, short chapter. Sorry! But, I didn't wanna draw it out any more than I already did... Here's a translation of Kuga's way of looking at things:
human-fire-stick= gun
quick-hurt-ears-fire= explosion/gunshot
human-fire-start= gas/gunpowder
voice-in-head= human-self/conscience
moons= months (cycles of the moon)
blood-earth= metal
blood-earth-bird= planes/jets (in this case, the Blackbird)
If you need help figuring out who is who in that last bit, just PM me, or review, and I'll clarify for ya's.
Going back to Kuga fighting with one of my other muses... I have 3 (but sooo many more that influence my personality. They're why my mood can change on a dime!). Kuga is my muse for X-Men (I guess...), and Kailyn and Sylvia are my muses for Final Fantasy 8. Well... Sylv likes taunting people (which I find strange. I mean, in my FF8 fanfic, she hates bullies...).
Well...Sylv isn't about to taunt Kai (since they're twins an' all...) so she teases and taunts Kuga. You know how things turn out when Victor starts taunting Logan... That's pretty much what happens. Damn, I wish I could shove them into their own separate rooms so they never look at each other again! DX
In other news: SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! WHOOT! And I may have a job. Did my interview today (5/23/12). I'll find out sometime next week if I have a job... Pray for me!