In the wild, W'Kabi and his fellow Border Tribesman continue their hunt. And it is a VERY passionate hunt...
Vision, Trip, Thing, Spyke, Scorcher, Rage, Mysterio, Luke Cage, Legion, Lash, Gilgamesh, Deathlok, Carrion, Blade, Black Talon, Bison, Bi-Beast, Bedlam, and Anarchist have all come to join W'Kabi on his hunt. Rumor has it that W'Kabi, these days, has more hunting buddies than he does wives. (An illusion which his wives resent, of course...)
Aback tacked rhinos, many of them ride. With a full roster, the score of black/Jewish men set out, and commence the hunt. With luck, Kraven the Hunter won't come out here just to crash the hunt with his silly, and sometimes dangerous, white supremacist stunts. But then, he'd have to be crazy to think that he can get away with them here. These lands are NO friend to white supremacy...
At some point, Mysterio and Blade peel off from the crowd. They run downhill, and surround themselves with a wooded savanna.
With his mutant powers, Legion opens a mental link with the hunt, so he can keep tabs on all of his co-hunters. With luck, Shadow King won't slither in, and break any of the connections...or use them to divide everyone against each other... Alas, Legion is like any human, in that as omniscient as his power makes him, he can't focus on everything at the same time...
In the shadows, a white gemsbok grazes. Outside of Wakanda, there are many more of him. (Gemsboks, not white ones; most of them have brown bodies.) If he's being hunted, he shows no sign...
As he grazes, a strange creature wanders by. She looks like a unicorn...only with two horns, in lieu of one...
The bicorn stops, and looks at the gemsbok. He stops too, and stares.
For a long time, the staring contest ensues. The gemsbok, at least, doesn't dare move... He's just as scared as he is white. He should be. This bicorn is a literal widow-maker...
Alas, and thankfully at the same time, the bicorn doesn't sense a very long mating history, in this specimen. That makes sense; he's white. And in Africa, it doesn't pay much to be white. Even worse, the local women seem to think so, too...
So, the bicorn wanders on. Alas, if the gemsbok had any sense of service, he'd seize the opportunity, and run that bicorn through before she can widow anyone else...
The gemsbok returns to grazing. He's very thankful that he dodged that bullet.
Moments later, a real bullet becomes the death of him...in the form of one of Blade's chakrams. Like a ring-shaped discus, the chakram decapitates the gemsbok, and flies right back into Blade's hands.
Before that, though, Mysterio uses his illusion-casting nanites to dupe Blade into thinking it's still in midair, as he cleans it, with his purple cape, for real. THEN he lets Blade have it back...by throwing it back into the air, and recalling the illusion.
"Thanks," Eric says, holstering the blade. "I owe you."
"Don't worry about it," Quentin assures him. "It's a free hunt, after all."
"Free... But not always fair to the animals."
Quentin scoffs. "You're a man. Why would you even think about that?"
"For someone who understands so much about the moon, you sure don't have much regard for the concept of the endangered species."
Quentin scoffs again. "The gemsbok's not endangered. There are whole herds of them everywhere else in Africa. Look it up. Or better yet, go to a zoo every once in a while."
Eric sighs. "My zoo days ended when I killed my first vampire bat. And that's just the easiest way I can tell that story without having to explain too many details to someone who doesn't understand how many shapes a vampire can take...before attacking a victim."
With another blade, Blade slices the gemsbok from its throat to its groin. Mysterio deludes himself, with his tech, as he puts himself through the macabre process of helping Blade field-dress his trophy.
He levitates the digestive and urinary systems as far away as he can...and sets them down under a tree. They'll stay there for a while...for as long as it takes for them to rot.
From the shadows, the bicorn emerges. She finds the gemsbok's entrails. She smells the urethra within them. She knows that urine. In fact, that urine passed her inspections, not too long ago... Which means there's at least one hunter in this wood that hasn't...
And the hunter was clearly a human. No animal on Earth, besides a human, could've transported a digestive and urinary system this far from the carcass, and not left some kind of gore trail...or not have eaten part of it before abandoning the rest...if that's even a smart thing to do in Africa.
While bagging up the gemsbok's goodies, Eric and Quentin bond more. They share pictures of the new families they've started, since retiring their respective Ronin costumes. Blade's married a Jew, and Mysterio's married a black woman. All partners concerned are very much in love.
They swap photos of their respective spouses. And they are both very beautiful spouses... They even take a moment to compare wedding rings. Blade's is silver, and sports an amethyst that, when he needs for it to, generates a powerful UV ray that incinerates most vampires on-sight. Mysterio's is also silver, and bears a moonstone.
"Some witch from London took on Moonstone somewhere near here, a while back," Eric admits, smiling. "Are you sure you didn't rip that off her person, after Ms. London bested her?"
Quentin smiles, appreciating the humor. "First of all, her name was Ms. Thomas, not Ms. London. Second of all, if this was one of Sofen's, I wouldn't wear it as a wedding ring. As you might expect, my wife wouldn't be too amused if she thought I got my wedding ring from another woman."
Eric scoffs. "Sofen's not your type. You know that. If she doesn't, then she's more of a bimbo than you need."
"And why's that? Because her power comes from a Kree stone, and mine comes from cheap nanites? For your information, my wife is currently rehearsing to play Apollo in a Greek tragedy at the local theater."
Eric scoffs again. "Are you sure she's not rehearsing to become a Leona Lewis impersonator?"
Quentin arches his brows. "Well, she wasn't... But now that you mention it, I just might run that by her, to see what she thinks. With luck, she won't think I love Leona Lewis more than her."
"She shouldn't condemn you too much. Leona Lewis is a hard girl to not love."
Soon, both men are just about ready to leave. They pack what they've killed, and head back out. They haven't noticed that it's been a while since Legion's checked on them...
As they make off, they hear a twig snap. They both need their powers/abilities to hear it...but they both do hear it. That didn't sound very big. And yet...it's not moving very predictably, if it's just a gazelle...
Or rather, it's moving TOO predictably, and gazelles are usually more mercurial... Aside from the fact that they always run when there's danger, that is...
This specimen isn't running from Quentin or Eric. And she's no gazelle. She looks like a unicorn...only with two horns. She's creeping right towards them...in a situation where most wild animals would AVOID humans, rather than approach them at any speed...
There's a chance that this specimen is too young to know she's supposed to fear humans... But neither Quentin nor Eric think so.
Even so, both men are VERY wary now. Blade deviously un-sheaths some of his blades. Mysterio deploys his nanites, and starts trying to delude the bicorn...
It's over in a moment. The bicorn shapeshifts into some UV light-generating monster with fangs. From her mouth, she sprouts two long bloodsucking tubes, that gouge themselves into the two men, and drain them dry of their blood.
All around, Mysterio's nanites fall like flies. This is a lot like the Fourth Plague in Ancient Egypt...when Yahweh called it off.
When she's done, she coughs up a brace of skulls. Somehow, both are made of a silver Sterling alloy; Blade's is half-vibranium, and Mysterio's is half-silver...
With a mouth dripping with blood, the bicorn wanders away. Once again, she's widowed some beautiful women. At some point, she'll pick up W'Kabi's trail...and she'll want him too, once she finds out about his harem...
Back in the Hebrides, the Crouches should know she's missing, by now. If they don't, then they're even darker witches/gay wizards/hopeless bachelor wizards than Bartemius Crouch, Jr. once was...
Far away, in the Wakandan night, a horn blares, signaling the end of today's hunt. Twenty men began it; alas, only eighteen will report back.
The bicorn only smacks her still-bloody lips, while stalking about. Alex Wilder didn't keep her full for nearly as long as the two ex-Ronins soon will...