CHAPTER NINETEEN:

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

AN: I am so addicted to reviews that it's not even funny. (pauses to honk loudly into a tissue) and just as a random fact; I have a cold. My nose is stopped up. And I'm writing like the dickens.

PS: Also, I'm pretty sure that Stryker died in one of the X-men movies after he was chained to that wall and the dam broke, but in my story, he survived…..somehow…I'm still working out those details.

PPS: What the beep is a "concierge" (flips through dictionary kept on hand)

Also, to gambett123 Thank you for your review!

PARIS, FRANCE

La Etoile Hotel

Penthouse Suite

Steve Aswell let out a deep breath as he stood in the penthouse suite at the top of the La Etoile Hotel in Paris, thinking methodically, rapidly. He had just hung up the phone on a man named Charles Xavier who apparently ran a school for a Gifted Children. A man who knew of his "petite chaton", his "little cat" and apparently she had gotten herself into quite a bit of trouble.

The thirty-year-old pushed a long-fingered hand through his short, blonde hair, a million and one thoughts running through his mind, a million and one things to do.

He picked up the phone again and dialed the front desk. "*Voluez-vous bien enboyer chercher mes bagages? Oui, je pars a dix heures.. Veuillez preparer ma note.*"

[Will you send for my bags? Yes, I am leaving at ten'o'clock. Please make out my bill.]

He added an order for a bottle of their best wine, then moved to the Brazilian rosewood dresser to start removing his clothes.

Victor Creed…..Yes, he knew who Sabretooth was. What he was capable of. Steve Aswell knew a lot of things that most people didn't, after all he had links with S.H.I.E.L.D as well as S.W.O.R.D and a few other organizations that only a select few were aware of. Still, the blonde headed man opened his slim silver laptop to refresh his memory.

Reading again over the profile of Victor Creed/Sabretooth, Steve gave out his own little growl of displeasure. "The Hellfire Club, the Fourteen-hundred club, Department K, The Marauders, the X-Factor, Hydra, A.I.M, the Brotherhood…..you've certainly traveled places, haven't you mon-ami, or should I say 'Der Schlachter'"

The man….if you could even call him a man, in Steves eyes… was a hired assassin, a former henchman of Magneto, and hardly someone he would pick for his "kitten", and he still wasn't certain whether or not she was there out of her own free will. Certainly, this Xavier fellow was trying to help (he was known for it) but he wasn't sure if it was in the right way.

He typed in some more searches into S.H.I.E.L.D's database as he recalled his conversation with the Professor Xavier.

-flashback-

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Steve Aswell?"

"Yes, who's this?"

"My name is Professor Xavier, I run the New York School for Gifted Children. I have a young lady here who I believe could use your assistance. She asked me to call you. I believe you know her. Her name is Miss. Cassie Andrews."

"What's going on?"

"Well, Miss. Andrews was hiking in the woods when she happened to come upon an….old acquaintance of mine... I'm not sure whether or not you've heard of him. His name is Victor Creed."

Steve felt an ice-cold bar of fear shove itself down his throat, his slim hand tightening into a fist. "Is she hurt!?" he demanded. By heavens if there was one inch on her head harmed, he was going to have a new Sabretooth rug made for his private mansion in Germany…..because she COULDN'T be dead.

"Oh no, no, no, she's quite alright. She's here at my mansion at the moment. Perhaps you've heard of it; Xaviers School for Gifted Children in New York?"

Oh yeah, he'd heard of it.

The icy bar in his throat thawed a little. "What's happened?" he demanded again. "Tell me everything."

"Well, Mr. Aswell, I'm not sure how you feel about mutants—"

Here Steve cut him off immediately. "I have no adverse feelings towards mutants, if that's what you're worried about. Continue." Although he had a thought that he would be having adverse feelings towards one particular mutant pretty soon…..and a lot of them.

There was a weighty pause, then; "Very well, then, do you know of feral mutants?"

"Yes." He answered curtly, and he did; super speed, super strength, super healing, lightning fast reflexes, animalistic traits; basically, an ultimate predator on steroids.

"Well, Victor Creed is a feral mutant—"

"Yes, I know."

"—who believes that Miss. Andrews is his mate, and he has acted accordingly."

Steve immediately let out a fluent stream of French curses, his hands fisting so tight his nails broke the skin and he felt blood dripping down one palm.

"She is not harmed, sexually or otherwise, but she is frightened and asked for you."

"I'll be there in a few hours or this afternoon." Even if he had to hijack a private jet.

"Mr. Aswell, please know that there is nothing in Victor Creed that wants to hurt this young woman; his main urges are to protect her."

Yeah, well, the road to hell was paved with good intentions.

"That's not good enough." He stated firmly into the phone with a voice that would have a whole crowd of men stand up and salute in half a mili-second. Then he had he hung up the phone…..

-end flashback-

…..and had immediately began making plans to leave Paris, France and make his way to New York where the woman he considered a younger-sister was currently with a man who had been known as 'Der Schlachter' which was German for 'The Butcher'

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AN: Dun dun DUUUUUN! And I introduce a new character in an attempt to give my fragmented protective story a plot! Steve Aswell is my own creation and his last name is pronounced as it's spelled "As…Well….." Also, I left my normal dictionary elsewhere…..ooops…..so I used an internet dictionary…..mwa ha ha ha ha ha.

VOCABULARY:

ADVERSE:

1. unfavorable or antagonistic in purpose or effect: adverse criticism.

2. opposing one's interests or desire: adverse circumstances.

3. being or acting in a contrary direction; opposed or opposing: adverse winds.

4. opposite; confronting: the adverse page.

CITATIONS:

"Sabretooth." /universe/Sabretooth.

adverse. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved May 23, 2013, from website: browse/adverse