History Before The X-Men
by TimeAndLife21
Azazel left Thomas with Xavier as they had decided to go to Cerebro to find Hanna and Rogue. He wandered around the mansion rubbing his head. He wondered briefly if Renegade could just whistle and he would be there...except that she could never get the pitch right like Thomas. He sighed as he kept wandering. Not stopping for a moment. He clasped his clawed hands together and placed them at his forehead. A habit he had picked up when he was just a child when he was frustrated. Normally, he would be brooding in a dark place somewhere, but with him being high-strung right now... he had to move.
Azazel knew Renegade. He remembered when he was in Russia, he was on the run getting way from the Russian Version of SWAT, Spetsnaz. He basically deserted the Russian Military as they had wanted him, along with the rest of the team, to kill a family that was attempting to gain political power to turn Russia into a better country. He had managed to get the family to safety, but at a price. His hid away in St. Petersburg and stayed in his 'human' form to escape. He did minor mercenary work with the local Assassins in that area to earn money. But he couldn't stay in a regular hotel or apartment at the time, so he stayed in the abandoned Winter Palace for a few years. The Military never found him...at least until Renegade and Spade came to Russia trying to find him.
Of course, when they were hunting him down to find him, Spetsnaz, somehow managed to be involved. It was actually funny to him really. Two woman entered the Winter Palace looking for him and he manage to catch them off guard when he had appeared in front of them unexpectedly. After that little scare was over they offered him a life without running. A new life in America. At first, he was stubborn and angry that they even offered. He had always been on his own since he was taken from the gypsy camp at the young age of 15. He refused and disappeared from sight. It wasn't even four days later that Spetnaz managed to find him.
When Renegade and Spade showed up to help him out, he caved in. And he was pretty amazed by how the two woman managed to hold their own against the Spetsnaz.
After helping him to knock most of them out, several were down and wounded, Renegade had turned to him, and said, "Look, I'm pretty sure you don't want to be on a hit list any longer. Come with us and we can offer you the freedom you never had."
Those words echoed in his mind. After being under the thumb of the Russian politics, the Spetsnaz, the local mercenary group... he had wanted freedom. And The Elite gave him that freedom.
He would forever be thankful for Renegade to give him a chance at life again. Now here he was. 13 years of being stuck in a giant container of black water made him miss out a bit on life, but at least he was still alive. And He has a son whom he is teaching. That was a plus for him at least. After reminiscing on the past, he suddenly felt the hackles on his neck raise. He paused and he went into an almost tacking stance. He growled lowly. His tail whipped back and forth threateningly. He teleported himself to the lobby of the Mansion just as the door was opening. He straightened his spine and stood tall. If someone was going to enter the mansion without permission, they would in for a nasty surprise. His face went stone cold and his eyes glowed an unearthly blue. The doors opened wide as five figures stepped inside.
"Well, Well, intruders. I've give you one chance to leave this place now, and I won't send you to the far reaches of the earth." The red skinned Russian said with a heavy accent, baring his teeth just a little.
"Now, now, Azazel, is that anyway to greet old friends?" He heard a familiar voice.
"We do come for a reason, Azazel." That voice he recognized. It was Mystique.
He recognized 'Magneto' as the first person to speak as he walked in. He saw Mystique shifted from her 'human' form to her blue skinned form. He could already feel his heart pound a little, but he focused on the situation on hand. There were three other people there. A spiky blond haired boy with what looked like a flamethrower on his back, a rather larger boy the size of at least 4 people and a sickly looking boy with a toad like look to him. Azazel's glowing eyes went to Erik.
"Who are you to say, 'Friend', Erik Lensherr?" Azazel sneered.
Erik lifted his hands in a placating gesture.
"We come for a truce, if you will." He said tiredly.
Azazel's ears peaked as he slightly relaxed a little. He walked closer to the group.
"Oh? And why should I believe this...truce?" He asked suspiciously.
"We have a common goal. from what I have heard, you have lost two of your X-men." He spoke calmly.
"Da. This is true. What have they have to do with anything?" Azazel asked as he narrowed his eyes.
Erik's eye took on a shadowed appearance.
"My son and daughter were taken from the very people that have taken Hanna and Rogue." Erik spoke Hanna's name as if he was friendly with her.
Azazel suddenly placed the puzzle together. If Erik's children were kidnapped by the same people that took Renegade and Rogue...
Azazel sighed reluctantly, but was still on edge.
"Very well, come to the living room. Xavier and Blaze are currently tasking themselves to find Renegade and Rogue. But one toe out of line..." He growled lowly.
"Then it is agreed." Erik spoke sealing the deal.
Azazel rubbed his eyes, hoping that he made the right decision.
Renegade was tense. After seeing a particularly short vision of her kicking and screaming as she was being dragged away to the arena did not settle with her. Rogue was worried about her as she paced back and forth, and her cellmate was looking at her with interest.
"Renegade. Are you okay?" She heard her daughter asked on the other side of the fence.
Her reptilian cellmate chuckled.
"Okay? She don't look okay." His rasping growl spoke.
"She just signed a death warrant." He chuckled.
"WHAT?" Rogue couldn't stop her shout.
"What he means, Rogue, is that I'll be the first fighter. Joy. A couple months back into this world and it gets shot to hell." Renegade sneered.
"Tha' means...you'll be killed." Rogue said as the thought sunk in.
Rogue was worried. When the mutant haters came in this morning, they wanted Renegade to be the first fighter of of the night.
"You can't do this!" Rogue said panicking a little.
"Rogue, I'll be fine. It's not the first time I've done something like this." Renegade said calming Rogue down.
Rogue could only look though the holed fence at Renegade with worry. At this point, she wished that she could access her powers.
"Oh? Really now? Any other name you went by, sweetheart?" The reptilian mutant growled at Renegade.
Renegade looked at her cell mate. "I've always went by Renegade." She lied smoothly.
Carol, over hearing the conversation, spoke up.
"Renegade...I have heard that name before...but where?" She said as she moved painfully.
"Carol! Don't move too much." Rogue said as she kneeled by Carol.
After meeting the blond haired woman, Rogue felt like she should help her in this state. After moving Carol to a sitting position against the rickety wall of the cell, Carol was shaking. "Renegade moved to the same end of the cell on the other side.
"How long has it been since you've had that collar on?" Renegade asked.
Carol turned her head to the slit between the wall and the fence that separated the mutants.
"A year...maybe a year and a half." Carol said as her eyes locked with Renegade's multicolored blue-gold eyes.
"Damn. If it is what I think it is..." Renegade said worriedly.
"What is it?" Rogue asked.
"That collar...if you have had it on that long, no wonder you look like hell. If that collar stays on any longer..." Renegade stopped there.
"Renegade...what are we going to do?" Rogue asked worriedly.
A silence permeated throughout the two cells. "I'll fight. And get us out of here." Renegade said determined.
Her reptilian cellmate laughed.
"You? A lil' thing like you getting us out? What could you do?" He said bitterly.
"A lot more then you." Renegade muttered.
The cell that Renegade and the retile mutant was in was rattled.
"Hey! You, girl!" one of the redneck humans shouted as he torched the cattle prod onto the door of the cell.
Renegade grimaced as she stood up and walked over.
"What do you want?" She glared.
The door swung open and she was grabbed by the front of her shirt and thrown out of the cell as it was banged closed.
"Renegade!" Rogue cried out.
Renegade felt her shirt being grabbed and she was forced onto her feet.
"Come on! It's time for you to get to the arena. You wouldn't last a second in there." Another human grinned at her.
She was being pushed and prodded (electricity running through her veins was not a fun feeling), and she couldn't run off without Rogue and the other mutants.
It wasn't helping that she kept having brief flashes of visions flashing in front of her eyes, making her trip and fall. Next thing she knew she was thrown onto a dirt ground and something close with a rather large clang! behind her. She heard cheering, jeers, and loud noises, as she stumbled to stand up. As she did so, she felt the blood drained from her face. This she did not predict. She was in some sort of large roman like gladiator arena. And there were a lot of humans where where screaming at her.
"Freaks!"
"She won't last!"
"C'mon! Start the fight already!" "125 on 'Freddy'!"
Across from her was a man. He looked around his late thirties and had a bald shaved head, he wore ripped jeans and a dirtied tank top, he also had tattoos all over his body. He smiled at her, although it was not a nice smile.
"Well, so you are one of the new arrivals, huh? Shame that you won't survive the orientation." He spoke with a tenor voice.
"This guy is the one I'm fighting?" She though to herself.
Then she noticed that his fingers were turning into long pieces of sharpened metal.
"Damn." She muttered as she got into a fighting stance.
She heard a voice echo through the arena.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Freakshow!" An announcer's voice rang through.
"So...you ready to die today?" The man said as he grinned wickedly.
Renegade noticed that a green light on his collar meant that the gloves were off. She wasn't going to die. Not today. And Not when her daughter was still back in that cell. She grinned wickedly back and in a slight gesture of lifting her arms outward, shadows stretched outward from her own and became solid behind her, becoming a silhouette of dark wings surrounding here protectively. Knife-hands on the other hand somehow paled a little bit. He wasn't expecting a woman who could hold her own.
"I'm afraid one of us won't be going out of here alive." She said stone cold.
She was going to survive this fight...one way or the other.
TAL21: Sorry for not posting earlier for NaNoWriMo. I'm afraid…I'm afraid that i will have to quit it this month. This doesn't mean i will stop writing and posting, but i will keep writing the story and post chapters when i can. Depending on the free time that i have. Things went out of sync this last week and i found out my mother had rheumatoid arthritis. This breaks my heart as it is painful to see my mother wincing and sometime crying in pain when she can't do the stuff she usually does. So i do most of the work for her until she gets the right medication for it.
Plus my schedule is messed up and i won't be working hard on my stories due to the work i'm getting in my life right now. But Like i said, I will keep writing and posting. It just won't be every other day like i promised. But we are getting some excitement going on though! Renegade is int he arena and Azazel just let Magneto's Brotherhood in the Mansion. Things are heating up and action is abound! Sadly, there are no reviews that i have no shout outs to reply to other than to the two who have replied, I hope they have enjoyed the story so far! I'll see you guys next chapter when i can! REMEMBER TO LEAVE DETAILED REVIEWS/OPINIONS/CRITICISMS! They help out with my creativity to keep on writing and make you guys happy!
Question Time: Today is Veteran's Day. What do you guys do when you pay your respects to the Veterans in you community?
KEEP ON READING AND WRITING! :D