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Zero sat down a couple bar stools away from the angel mutant, nodding the barmaid away when she approached him to ask what he wanted to drink. He pretended to be interested in the army-disguised feral girl, noting all her details while keeping an eye on her partner near him. The girl was slender, long legs clad in knee-high combat boots, wearing a camouflage miniskirt and white tank top that shower her delicate, yet cut muscles. She wore dogs tag around her neck, long auburn hair falling thick to her lower back as she gracefully moved her body, exquisitely alluring. The vapid males around her were too excited to note anything, but Zero could tell that she was the ideal image of agility, speed and strength just by the way she moved… still, she wouldn't be able to dodge his bullet if it were meant for her.

He noted that Stryker had taken a seat in a far corner, sending one of the waitresses for the feral girl. It wouldn't be long before she was approached and probably convinced, as the Asian man knew the major to be very persuasive… he always seemed to hold the right cards to make any game sway in his favor.

"Not a smart idea." A voice near him said softly and he turned around rapidly, looking right at the angel mutant, who was still gazing at his feral colleague. They were alone in that part of the small casino, so it was unmistakably him who had spoken.

"And why so?" Zero answered in a low voice.

The angel sighed. "Approaching her when I'm not nearby is dangerous. If you think she'd the one leading us, you should think again… it used to be that way, but not anymore…"

The agent shifted slightly, frowning.

"Who says we want to come near her?"

The angel sent him a long, dark look. "I can sense the likes of you coming from far away. I know what you want, and I would rather warn you than to have her kill your leader." He nodded towards Stryker. "Whatever it is he wants, we are probably not interested."

Zero considered this change of events rapidly, wondering what he should do.

"What if you're the one we talk to first?"

Suddenly, before the angel could answer, a loud bang and screams erupted from the outside and everyone present turned around briskly, silence falling. The feral girl had stopped dancing, hand grabbing her thick mane, eyes strangely empty…

With a roar and explosive bang, someone came flying into the casino through the now-broken front door, sending shards of wood and dust everywhere and drawing a scream from every female lip in the place. It was Creed, who was struggling to get back up after skidding to a stop on the wine-red carpet for several feet. He sent his black coat flying behind his back, all claws out and fangs bared.

Zero stood up swiftly, noting that Stryder was already moving forward and that Wraith had phased next to Victor, joined by Dukes and just as he started to pull out his guns, a rough hand pushed him aside and the angel walked by him steadily, throwing off his trench coat in a sleek movement.

The feral female turned to him, tilting her head slightly. "Gabriel?" Her voice was blank of all emotion, her posture unsure…

"Chelsea, get ready to fight." The angel ordered in a dark voice, opening his huge wings behind his back. It was quite a sight to see, the long, soft appendages being covered in silky, pearly-white feathers that were bristling as if ready for attack. The wings clenched and unclenched, impatient and powerful. He stopped right beside Creed and the mutant girl joined him, jumping off the counter gracefully, walking sensually up to her partner and standing right behind him. She ignored Victor's interested look and John's nod, but not because she was contemptuous… to Zero, it seemed as though she was unaware of her surroundings… it was odd.

The sounds of a fight reached them through the broken door and seconds later, Bradley came running in, panicked, followed by a blade-spinning Wade, who looked just as confused.

"We've got a casualty, sir. A pretty damn dual one…" He stopped right in front of the angel, staring at his wings with some surprise. "Well, you'd make a fine pillow, bird-boy, but we're gonna need more than down feathers to get out of this mess…"

"Wade…" Stryker began, but Gabriel sent him a look over his shoulder.

"You wanted to approach us, now here's you're chance to do it without screwing up. Stand back and let us take care of this; we're familiar with this type of situation."

Stryker paused, then nodded, and everyone took a couple careful steps back. Chelsea looked at them, her gaze pausing on Dukes, who sent her a wink, before emptily turning back to the broken opening of the casino. Several people were entering through it, holding guns and their obvious leader came closer, flanked by two small, identical Asian women wearing black leather clothing. The man was wearing sunglasses and a bearded smirk.

"Iyvan…" The angel growled almost angrily, narrowing his eyes.

"Shoulda known I'd find you here, Gabriel. And your pet is with you… how adorable. Your little government friends will be no problem, either…" The man gestured to the two women, who took a few steps closer simultaneously. "Ying and Yang here have got you all covered for a nice and painful death."

Gabriel shook his head. "These men are not friends of ours, and we don't need them to get rid of you. They'll be… watching, not participating." He turned his head slightly towards the feral girl. "Chelsea, are you ready to fight?"

She nodded briefly, finally focusing on the advancing Asian women.

The angel sighed, not even hearing the threatening man's last comment. "Let it all out then, lovely…"

And he lunged forward just as the Asian twins spun around to launch simultaneous kicks. His wings blocked the blows, but he received two new ones when the females punched him roughly in the ribs. They started to move at incredible speeds, dancing around the angel as he used both wings and arms to block the attacks, getting hit more than once. But no blood fell, no bone cracked… he could take a lot of damage before it started to show, even if it was from other mutants, like these two females.

Meanwhile, Chelsea doubled over with a groan under Team X's watchful stare. They saw her body buck violently and a feral, monstrous roar pierced her lips, where needle-sharp fangs had appeared. She stood back up to her full height, muscles moving like liquid under her tanned flesh, black claws replacing her nails, long and hooked and her eyes becoming that terrifying, slit pupil that stared avidly, ready for combat.

She roared so loudly the walls shook and launched herself into the brawl like a bolt of lightning, catching one of the Asian girls with a kick to the throat and grabbing the other by her tight black bun of hair, sending her crashing into a poker table. Chelsea showed her mouthful of fangs and bellowed at the men with the guns, making them raise their weapons all at once while Gabriel recovered and turned his huge wings to mobile metal.

He shielded Chelsea with one, expecting gunfire, but none came. Instead, the feral exploded from under his wing and slashed one of the Asian girls, who had snuck up on them without the angel noticing anything. He turned his head in time to dodge the second twin, avoiding the small blades she was now holding in her hands in an attempt to cut him. He sent one wings in an arc towards her, colliding it heavily with her body and making her tumble off into a corner of debris.

He spotted Chelsea a few feet away, deftly leaping out of the other Asian girl's blade range, bouncing off a wall or two like a super ball and landing back on her assailant's chest, knocking the air out of her. They went tumbling down, the feral settling right on top of the fighter, ready for the final move.

"Chel, no!" He cried out just as the female raised a clawed hand to finish the twin. She stopped in her motion and looked over at him, confused. "Don't kill her, she'd out cold. They both are." He added, trying to calm the raging beast she had become.

"You said to let it all out, Gabriel…" She whispered, but stood back up all the same, moving away from the girl. The leader of the mob seemed unsure of what to do, but gestured to his goons to pick up the Asian twins. They were best to be off before the mutants decided they wanted to stop them all once and for good.

"It's not over!" The man cried out meekly, remaining ignore by all as he ran out of the building quickly, followed by his crew. Gabriel kept moving towards his love, folding his wings to seem less menacing and extending kind, gentle hands.

"Chelsea, it's ok now. Time to change back. I know it's been a while since you've had to fight; I know it's hard. But you can do it, come on…" He told her softly, trying to stay encouraging. Every member of Team X stood there in a kind of surprised awe, wondering earnestly what was up with the girl and why she was so strange. Even Stryker hadn't been aware of her odd condition, and Stryker was always aware of everything… there was an information he was missing, which meant that what was said about her in her file might not be entirely true; there was more to this feral than bargained.

Speaking of which, Chelsea shifted uncomfortably, a low growl escaping her lips. She showed her fangs to Gabriel, but her eyes remained pleading. "It hurts to change…"

He nodded. "I know, but you've got to do it before you hurt someone. Don't worry, lovely, I'm here for you and you can't hurt me."

Her strange, silvery, slit eyes turned away from the angel and fell, piercing, on Creed as she sniffed the air. "He smells like me."

Gabriel grabbed her upper arms gently. "Change. Now."

Chelsea obliged with a long, pained groan. She threw back her head, eyes closed, and they all saw her fangs and claws recede slowly back into her skin. When she opened her eyes again, they were a normal format and color, like that of any human. What was animal within her had vanished into the dept of her soul and Gabriel pressed her to his chest, turning his head slightly so he could look at the mutants behind him.

"There, you're approached us and have seen what we do. Now, what do you want?"

Stryker took a few steps forward, hiding his victorious grin. "We can discuss that on our way back to the base."

The angel looked down and slowly, nodded.

(0)

"I came for you to ask you to join my team. You've seen them all already, even if you haven't been properly introduced." Stryker named everyone who was in the helicopter with them, so the two new mutants could get acquainted with Team X. Bradley waved and smiled when his name was said, from the pilot's seat, where he was controlling the chopper with his mind.

The angel nodded to each, while the feral girl looked out the window at the scenery flashing by, ignoring everything that was happening. "My name is Gabriel, and this is Chelsea. I guess you already know much about us, if you looked us up and found us. But what I would like to know, is why on earth the two of us would like to join your team."

Stryker smiled knowingly. "I can offer you the freedom you could never find in the human world."

"I am already free." Gabriel shifted his wings slightly, one of them bumping into Chelsea, who turned around with a soft smile, looking at him kindly. He returned her look. "And she can't be free. It's been years since… since… what she is, is a continuous torture for her. The animal inside her has become something uncontrollable, something painful and when it come out, it doesn't want to go back in… you've seen it with your own eyes."

Creed tilted his head, looking at the small female intently. She crossed his gaze and for a moment, a flash of something powerful stirred beneath her chocolate irises, but it was gone before he could be sure. Still, this talk of an animal buried within her… it could end up being a lot of fun if he got to play with her a little… a smirk appeared on his face, but no one seemed to notice.

"Well then, I can only say this:" Stryker's eyes became more serious as he gazed intensely at the angel. "This life the two of you have, I know you've had enough of it. Chelsea if obviously… not herself anymore… and you don't know what could help her. She'd not safe around anyone, even herself… I can offer her the possibility to re-adapt to her powers, perhaps even to heal… I can also give you the possibility to really help those in need, like I know you do when you rob those banks, casinos and mobsters before dumping the money to the poor. There's a lot you can do for yourself, for others and for Chelsea if you decide to join my team."

Gabriel sighed, looking down sadly. Then, after a couple seconds of deliberation, he started to slowly nod. Zero smirked softly at this; indeed, the major always had the right cards in his hand, even if he was playing them blindly.

"I know you're right. She needs to do something about herself… she's a feral by nature; it's a part of who she is! The… events that lead to her… condition, they were not supposed to happen and if they did, it was by my fault. We will join."

At that moment, as if sensing her partner's guilty sadness through her own hazy world, Chelsea grabbed one of his arms lovingly and gently ran her hand over it, soothing.

"My changing hurts you more than it hurts me. I'm sorry, Gabriel. You shouldn't have come after me." She whispered.

He looked stunned. "Chel… I- I couldn't have left you…" But she was already uninterested by everything, looking outside with heavy eyes. The moment of lucidity had passed in a flash.

"What does she mean, come after her?" Stryker immediately asked, very curious.

Gabriel sighed and everyone listened more intently, strangely fascinated by this couple's odd story.

"Seven years ago, she got shot when we tried to rob a place. I flew with her, but I could only get to the desert and had nowhere to go to find her help. She was dying… I could feel her slipping… you see, it is possible for me to sense the world just behind this one, the one that precedes final death. People are always in limbo there before they move on, some of them for seconds, others for months… I knew I could find her if I went there too; I could bring her back! She was then my soul mate, my second half, destined to be mine… she is no more, however (his eyes seemed terribly sad, a self-reproach piercing in his tone)… so to save her then, I cut my arm to start bleeding, and for some reason, decided to have her take in my blood… but all I needed was to weaken myself enough to slip into limbo as well. Either way, when I finally found her, she had been so close to dying that it somehow affected her soul, and she's been strange like this ever since.'

'Before the accident, my presence made her morphing painless… but since that day, it had been unbearable for her every single time, as if she had lost control over her feral side when she was in that other world. And she'll be that way eternally…" He looked crestfallen, but that last comment piqued Wade's sudden interest.

"Wait a minute, when you say eternally, you mean like forever, forever? She took on your immortality?" Everyone looked surprised that Wade thought the angel to be immortal, even if it had been something Stryder suspected, but hadn't shared with the team. "What? I know he's got like super-skin, but I saw those Asian chicks going after him and not even Kitt-… Creed could take on that many blows without bleeding a little…"

Creed sent the mercenary a nasty look while Dukes stifled a small laugh, but Gabriel nodded, pleasantly stunned.

"Indeed, I am immortal. My skin is indestructible, although with enough blows given, it will start to wound… nonetheless, it heals within seconds after and that regeneration also works on my aging. I can control that restoration and that was how I could stop it from saving me when I had to slip into the next world. But I believe that by giving Chelsea my blood, I allowed it to combine with her body and… she hasn't aged a day since then…"

(0)

They arrived at the base quickly enough and dismounted from the helicopter. The whole team made it back into the entrance hall with Stryker leading them proudly, from where he turned to them and smiled.

"Well, I'll leave you all to get to know each other and the base. Bradley, John, if you could give them a tour…" The two mutants nodded. "It's late, so I'll see you tomorrow to discuss your payments for joining the team, Gabriel. I'm very pleased to have you on board."

The angel shook the major's hand gratefully. Yet somehow, he felt a twinge of unease settle in his heart, as if knew he could not fully trust the man… there was something he was hiding.

Then again, they were mercenaries now, employed for darker tasks that did not allow them to question the orders they received. And if he could find a way to make Chelsea normal again, Gabriel would give him all the trust he wanted…

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Hehe, here I stop! BTW, For you who read the previous version, I corrected Stryker's name in this one… I was just so tiered when wrote this that I kinda forgot it wasn't Stryder… lol silly me. Thanks to Niffers who pointed that out.

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