Disclaimer: Arcane is mine! Grrr….But X-men is not.
Abigail Marie: Cool! Thanks a bunch.
hnh: Don't you just hate it when plots thicken?
Dragonet: Tsk, tsk.
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"This is indeed a sad day." Mr. Jackson stood in the living room of his home. It was large, perfect, and looked as if no one had ever used it. No kids ran through it. No family reunions were held there. It was as empty as the rest of the house.
"I'm sorry we couldn't do more." Jean looked sad. After all, with all of her psychic ability, she could not detect the bomb.
But as sad as she was, she could not help but think that Mr. Jackson knew more than what was being said.
"I can trust you all to guard me tonight, yes?" Mr. Jackson fixed them all with a hard glare.
"We'll do what we can bub. But just remember you hired us." Logan growled.
"Indeed." Mr. Jackson turned to go to his bedroom. "I am going to sleep."
The mutants swiftly divided up the shifts and set about to patrol the house.
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It was too dangerous to make a move tonight. The bodyguards were getting restless. They knew there was something more to this, and it made them nervous.
Arcane leaned against the brick wall. He was standing in a blind spot, away from prying eyes. The shadows effectively covered him, and with his mutant power, if anyone did happen to pick him out, they would just think it was a figment of their imagination.
It was time to go. The mutants were making their rounds and the big burly one could probably smell him. A bizarre mutation, that.
He disappeared back into the shadows.
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Logan twitched agitatedly. It didn't smell right.
It was several days after the incident at the airport and the mysterious killer had made no appearance. There were plenty of chances, yet he didn't take them. Was he afraid? Was he too cowardly to face the Wolverine?
That last thought was accented by a snarl as Logan stomped out of the living room. He shoved past Bobby, who was showing off to Amara. They both shot looks at him but he didn't care.
He stepped out of the house, away from everybody. He sniffed the wind, smelling nothing out of the ordinary.
"Truly a claim to fame."
Snarling, Logan whirled around to see…
No one. Nobody was there.
"Try looking up. Or is the nose the only thing you have to you?"
Logan's head snapped up. There, sitting on the edge of the roof, sat the murderer himself. He could not see the face of the man, because the wide brimmed hat obscured most of it from sight. However, under the hat he could see whisps of copperish hair. The way he moved identified him as a younger man.
"What are you doing here?" Logan's claws came out.
"You do have more to your name. Do you really have to ask that question?"
"You ain't going any farther, bub."
"So you say. I killed Carnel from a farther distance than this."
"And you used a bomb to take out those other pencil-pushers."
"Sorry. I only use bombs for material purposes."
"What?!"
"That little fiasco at the airport wasn't my doing."
Logan glared at him. "Why should I believe you?"
The man on the roof smiled slightly. "You shouldn't. But doesn't it bother you that you know almost nothing about your employer?"
"I know your trying to kill him."
"You do know that."
"Who the hell are you?" Logan crouched down. He was going to leap up onto the roof to wipe the smirk off that insolent rat's face.
"Anyone who knows me calls me Arcane. And you are Wolverine. Your friends are Beast, Cyclops, Magma, Iceman, and Jean Gray. You work for the Xavier Institute."
Logan leapt for him. Arcane saw it coming and ducked under his assault.
"How do you know about us?!"
Arcane ducked another one of the Canadian's leaps. "Usually I try to do a little homework on my adversaries."
Logan managed to recover from his leap and turned to tackle him. Arcane pulled his gun out and fired a shot near Logan's head, momentarily deafening him.
As Logan tried to shake the ringing from his ears he saw Arcane moving fast to get away. He gave swift pursuit.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm not a fan of chopped meat. Especially not my own."
Arcane took the wall with the skill of a gymnast and disappeared over the side. Logan followed.
He was gone. The scent lingered, but it was tangled everywhere, there was no way for him to determine where his quarry went.
Growling angrily, he set off to go around the complex, to try to find the elusive Arcane.
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Oww…
He may have climbed like a gymnast, but he fell like a stone. Then he tripped and fell into a ditch.
Again, his gift was on his side. Or it wasn't, because when the Canadian vaulted the wall, he landed right on Arcane's back. But because of the wonderful nature of his mutantdom, Wolverine did not look under his feet. He breathed a sigh of relief when Wolverine ran off. Judgeing by all that he had heard about that one, he didn't want to get caught by him. Rumor had it tangling with him ended careers.
He might not have been afraid of tangling with the Wolverine, but he wasn't stupid, either.
Arcane got up and limped off. The ditch had been slightly muddy, so the front part of his shirt was covered. And being the only article of clothing he wore that was not black, it was destined to be covered in something.
But the mission was indeed a success. He had sown the seeds of discontent. Or just fell into a ditch for no reason.
One of the girls, Magma, suddenly popped out from behind a tree. Arcane froze instantly. Of course, it really wouldn't help much. He was a guy over six feet tall wandering around in blazing hot weather with a black trench coat and fedora* with mud splattered down his front.
Yeah, he wasn't noticeable.
But as it turned out, either his mutation was working overtime or the girl wasn't the noticing kind, because she looked right at him, and then walked off, shrugging.
Either that or she was used to seeing that sort of thing.
Arcane hurried away as fast as his legs and aching back would take him.
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"My god, they've killed my baby!"
"What can we do?"
"You can't do anything."
"But you can."
"Yes."
"You take revenge on those monsters!"
"We will pay you anything you want."
"Of course. It will be dealt with."
"How much do you want?"
"How much would you say it's worth to ask someone to kill the people who killed your daughter?"
"Alright. I understand. Thank you for doing this for us."
"Save your thanks until after the job is done."
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Alright! I'm thinking this bad boy will wrap up in a couple of chapters!
Then my good Arcane shall wander into the pages of Twisted Alliances!
*- A fedora is a wide brimmed hat.
Woohooo!
For recognition please review!