CH2
He had noticed that while he remained in the tree, there did appear to be several mutants going into the church; much to his surprise. Could normals and mutants co-exist without hatred? Really live together peacefully? Share this world side by side? 'Not very damn likely!' he snorted to himself. Cynicism was the felinoid's religion now; good old fashioned cynicism. No one was ever going to convince him that 'Love thy neighbor' crap was ever going to stick. The world operated more on the lines 'Screw thy neighbor'. It was a harsh reality but it was one he understood quite well. The service was about to begin. Sabretooth decided it was time for him to go inside. Effortlessly, he jumped from the branch where he had perched. A boy about ten or so, saw this and exclaimed, "WOW! Mom, did you see that?"
"See what dear?" By this time Sabretooth was close enough to the boy to talk himself. The child could only stare at the huge man with his eyes and mouth wide open.
"What's a matter, kid? Ain't ya never seen some body come down from a tree b'fore?" The boy shook his head in amazement. "Well now ya have, so close yer mouth and stop starin'! It's rude!" Saber then gave the mother a hateful glare. "Ya'd think people would teach their kids some manners." and stomped off with his usual attitude from hell.
The usher at the door attempted to greet the giant mutant with a handshake but quickly learned that even coming too close to giant was a bad idea. Sabretooth pushed the usher backwards hard enough to knock the wind right out of him as a hit the wall. Needless to say, Sabretooth found his own seat in the very back pew. He did so by picking the spot he like best, and growled at the old black man who was already sitting there. The man nervously smiled and quickly moved to a new pew his seat. The cat-man sat down without giving the man so much as a thank you. The service then began with everyone, except Sabretooth, standing for the opening prayer. He sat there, arms folded over his chest; his long muscular legs were stretched out in front of him as he looked straight ahead, scowling. Most everyone by this time had the common sense to move away from the intimidating mutant; that is until as the music began from nowhere a tiny child's face just literally "popped" up from the seat directly in front of him. Sabretooth sat there almost stunned as he found himself confronting a pair of five year old eyes on the face of a little girl that stood up on the pew directly in front of him. She shyly smiled at him as she bounced to the beat of the music, twirling her long white wavy hair around her finger. Obviously a mutant herself, she had pale grayish colored skin and large almond shaped eyes with long lovely lashes. The one thing Sabretooth couldn't help but notice was just how HUGE her eyes actually were! They reminded him of the kind of eyes artists draw space-aliens with. She was odd looking no doubt about that; yet sort of cute even by Sabretooth's standards. He knew only too well what it was like to be physically different from those around you and for a brief moment Sabretooth felt the ice in his blood begin to melt. Then just as he was about to smile back at the strange little sprite, he reminded himself this wasn't how a black hearted bad-ass is supposed to feel. He stuffed his emotions down into the pit of his stomach keeping his arms folded and body stiff as he spoke to the child in a low ferocious voice, "I use kids like you fer chew toys. Now get outta my face!"
Sabretooth then began to wonder if the child didn't speak English, or maybe she was deaf, or she was just plain stupid, because she kept on smiling at him, and now she was even reaching out for him. Normally, he would have simply lunged at the child to scare her away, but this time it just didn't feel right. He could only imagine what it was like to go through life looking like a corpse from Mars. To be frank, Victor even felt a little sorry for her.
'Poor kid.' He thought. 'She's so lonely she's gotta come over here and try to make friends with me.' Contrary to popular mutant folklore, Sabretooth may be a ruthless killer, but he wasn't entirely heartless. 'So whadda ya gonna do?' he mocked to himself. 'Let the brat sit on yer lap? God 'Tooth, ya losin' yer edge!' Victor tried growling once more hoping that would be enough to chase her away but it was as if she didn't know what the meaning of fear was. Sabretooth sighed and gave up. "So where's yer parents, kid?" With that, she stopped reaching for him, and turned to the front of the sanctuary and pointing her finger. The fact that she wasn't talking didn't phase him; he was used to people being speechless when he was around.