The Hunter

By: Kismet Noelani

Disclaimer:  I own them.  Yep, that's it.  They're mine.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit.  Fine!  I don't really own them!  Happy?  I DO own Cyrene Hunter and other assorted characters.  Oh!  The plot is also mine.

Author's Notes: Okay.  I'm sorry it has been so long since I have written.  I wrote this chapter on the same day as chapter three, it's just taking a little longer to get up. Sorry it's so short.  So anyway, here comes a little plot!  Yeah!  Its getting there, I swear it!  PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!  Special thanks to Neva, who reviewed chapter three!  You rock!

All personal thoughts are in italics.

All telepathic thoughts are *italics*

Chapter Four

            Cyrene stepped off the airplane into the Phoenix airport.  She claimed her bags, dodged a few small children, and stepped outside into the 110-degree heat of downtown Phoenix.  She walked to the car she had rented, put her suitcases in the trunk and slid into the driver's seat.  She rolled down the windows and pulled out onto the road.  It was about a 45-minute drive out to her house in Scottsdale.  She drove in silence, once again wondering if what she'd done was right, as she did every time she had to leave.  Why just leave?  She'd asked herself the same question a thousand times over and came up with the same answer every time.  It was better for everyone involved if she just disappeared.  She ended up causing more pain by sticking around than she did by leaving or faking her death.  So, why?  Why did it always end up hurting her so badly?

            She sighed and pulled up to her house.  Well, mansion really.  It was a huge, beautiful house set far back off the road.  In fact, it reminded her of the way Xavier's mansion was set back with a similar gate and everything.  She pulled back around to the garage, which already held five cars and her motorcycle, and parked her new car in an available spot.  She popped the trunk and grabbed her two suitcases and dragged her things into the house. 

            Inside and out, the mansion was done in Japanese style architecture and decorated in the same style. She had purchased the land about five years earlier under the name Cyrene Montero and had the mansion built and decorated soon after.  She loved everything about the place.  It was quietly elegant and spoke more about her personality then any other thing she had ever owned.  It wasn't quite as elegant as it normally was, however, because it was currently filled with boxes.

            Cyrene had shipped everything from her apartment and office in New York to Scottsdale about a week earlier and her neighbors had brought everything in for her.  Her closest neighbor was an elderly man named Diego Sanchez and his grandson Carlos; they lived over five miles away, thankfully.  This place had the peace and quiet she had been craving lately.  She surveyed her home and looked out the window.  She had a fabulous view and could see the stables.  They were currently empty, but as soon as she got moved in and settled, that would change.  She planned to have horses, although she hadn't owned horses since the early 1900's.  Cyrene smiled.  She hadn't felt this at ease with her life for years.  Fifteen years to be exact.

            Cyrene turned back to the room and began her unpacking.  She pulled her thoughts from her past to her present.  Don't think about the past, she told herself sternly.  It doesn't help anything!  She ruthlessly buried the memory, as she had done with so many others.  She unpacked quickly and began setting up things to her liking.  Getting the place livable was going to take a bit of work.

*****

The cool silence of the air was broken by the cracking of a stick being broken in two by a man's boot.  He looked out over the run down, dilapidated, abandoned buildings.  He sniffed the air, the eiree silence starting to get to him.  There were no birds here, no animals, no scents save cedar, and a thick metallic scent of metal, fear, and old blood.  He slowly walked forward; waiting for a trap that would never come.  There was no one left in this place. 

            Logan calmed slightly as he came nearer the old entrance to the complex at Alkali Lake.  Fifteen years in the Canadian Rockies with out any upkeep had left the complex in shambles.  Logan walked into the open door and began wandering the rooms.  Down every hallway, in every room, the scents may have been long gone, but the rust colored stains of blood on the walls, the bones, of those long dead, and the feeling of absolute terror stayed.  He stopped and reached out to brush his hands over the claw marks in the walls.  They looked familiar. 

            He turned and began walking down a new corridor.  This one had no bloodstains.  Next to each door was a small metal plate with a number and a title.  The Flame, The Linx, The Raven, The Vanisher, The Illusionist, The Wolverine.  He stopped and stared at the last door, his door for a long moment. 

Mustering all the courage he had, Logan, The Wolverine, opened the door and stepped in the cage that had held him all those years ago.

*****

Jubilation Lee, a.k.a. Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, a.k.a. Shadow Kat, and Marie, a.k.a. Rogue, lay on lounge chairs near the pool.  The August sun beat down on the three girls. 

"How long have been out here Kitty?" Jubilee asked, her eyes closed.

Kitty opened her eyes and searched for her watch.  "Half hour," she answered, lying back on her towel.

"Flip," Jubilee said and all three girls flipped over onto their stomachs.  They lay there for a few minutes before Rogue spoke.

"Hey, what do you guys think of that new teacher?"

"Mr. Mondavi?" Kitty asked.

"Yup."

"I think he's sooooo hot.  And he's got a British accent," Jubilee interjected. 

"He's from South Africa," Kitty said, she took on her lecturing tone, "he's teaching three art classes.  Plus, he might teach a cooking class."

"A talented man," Rogue commented.  The three friends were silent for a moment. 

"He and Miss Monroe seemed to have really hit it off," Jubilee ventured eventually. 

"Yeah," Kitty sat up suddenly.  "I have never seen her laugh so much!  If I didn't know better, I'd think she was flirting with him!"

"She's allowed to flirt yah know," Rogue sat up as well and raised her eyebrows.

"I know it's just..." 

At that moment Bobby, John, and the two new guys Remy, and Kurt, ran around the corner with squirt guns and water balloons. 

"Bobby!  If you even think about it I'm going to...AH!" Rogue bit off the end of her threat with a shriek as the boys attacked the girls and ran.

The now drenched trio exchanged glances and took off after their attackers.