Thank you for reviewing, guys, it's awesome to have your comments and see what you think!
I hope you like this chapter as I dedicate it to the first real snow here in Quebec! W00t soon, I will be building giant igloos.
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Creed followed Zero's scent through the maze that was the underground of the base's complex. In the many room he crossed, he knew there were important (and possibly illegal) experiments being conducted, because most of the other rooms served as holding cells for prisoners on which tests were being made… the feral could smell blood, fear and anger coming from most closed doors…
But the Asian man's trail was the freshest one, as he had probably walked the same path only minutes ago, knowing that Creed would locate him no matter where he went. The feral reached a closed room, where the scent ended and walked right into it without knocking.
Zero was standing against an old table, hand on the gun at his hip and eyes grave.
"Nice going, Creed, now the angel's going to overprotect her and we won't be able to work her back to a normal state." The agent snapped as soon as Victor shut the door behind himself. The feral answered with an alarming growl that showed his pointed fangs quite clearly.
"At least I tried something."
"At least I'm planning my moves, unlike you. We're not going to succeed if you just go fighting your way into everything like this without a plan. Control yourself." Zero hissed, eyes narrowing. Creed was controlling himself… it was taking him every ounce of his will to not simply decapitate the Asian man on the spot and leave his body to rot in the underground of the base.
"Let me remind you," His eyes were flashing bright with suppressed fury. "I wasn't the one to run after a fight with her. She came to me. I did what I was supposed to do."
The two glared at each other for a long, heavy moment of silence. At long last, Zero blinked and looked away, sighing.
"Either way, the angel won't let her throw herself into a fight again. We'll have to find another way of awakening whatever is hiding in her."
Creed smirked. "I'll have to find another way. Why don't you just focus on what you were assigned to do?" Without another word, he opened the door behind him, stepped out and slammed it shut so hard that Zero flinched.
The Asian man ran a hand through his hair, scowling. This wasn't going to be easy.
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Gabriel set Chelsea down on the bed in their room, covering her with a beige bed sheet and followed Chris and Wraith to the playroom with his shoulders and wings hunched down sadly. Both mutants noticed his depressed mood and tried to cheer him up.
"C'mon, she'll be alright." Chris said in an encouraging voice, settling down into the sofa that faced the TV, inviting the two others to join him as he turned the machine on with his mind. Wade and Dukes were nowhere to be seen, so it was to be assumed they were either sleeping or in the FR. Either way, the playroom was now a lot calmer without the two of them screaming at the television like they so usually did.
"I don't know…" Gabriel sighed, turning a vague attention to the commercial now playing on the big screen.
John punched the angel's arm in a friendly gesture. "Oh, try not to think about it, Gabriel. Maybe this was actually good for her… maybe it's better that… the feral inside of her tries to break free. It could set her right again…"
The angel shook his head. "No. I believe that the feral inside her is not actually the same thing as what Victor Creed is. She is human to start with, not an animal. It was always painful for to become that… thing… at least, until I showed up. It became easy after that, because the creature was no longer trying to win over her; it wasn't trying to consume who she was. But her death… it unbalanced everything. The beast became too powerful and I believe it actually ravaged a part of her mind before she was able to regain control over it. If it takes over, I fear it will do so for ever and I will loose the Chelsea I know…"
There was a long moment of silence, during which all three men gazed at the television absently.
Chris cleared his throat. "But… we saw her… twice already, turning into the animal. She used that power to fight and she was able to return to herself again."
"Indeed. However, if you had been pulled out of the world between the worlds against all odds like she has been, perhaps your power would have turned on you too." Gabriel said softly, a guilty look flashing across his face as he remembered that it was his fault the girl was like this. "However, that theory is unreasonable. You are not at war with your power, Chris. With Chelsea, it was always as though two being were fighting for control. She can still morph, yes, but only when it is absolutely necessary and even then, I fear she will get eaten away by the feral side of her."
John gazed absently at the angel, debating if he should share the comment that was on his mind. He decided against it.
Gabriel did not need to be chided at the moment for maintaining a life of thievery after the girl had become so unbalanced, continuously exposing her to a danger and the necessity of becoming a feral in order to protect her life.
However, the angel looked over at him with eyes that showed he was suspecting that trail of thought.
"The last coherent thing she told me that sounded remotely like the Chelsea I knew and loved, after she returned from the dead, was that she wished to continue 'stealing from the rich and giving to the poor'. I knew no other life with her, so I did as she asked me to do. I knew all along however that I would keep fighting so the beast inside of her never breaks free." He assured. The two others nodded and turned their attention to the television, their minds still on the poor girl.
Creed smirked from the doorway in which he stood like a shadow, unseen and unheard by any of the three men in the room.
We'll just see about that.
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Chelsea was sleeping in the queen-sized bed, chest rising slowly with each deep breath she took, eyelids trembling furiously from the dreams that were invading her mind. Creed gazed at her silently; standing with his shoulder pressed against the open doorframe, arms crossed over his broad chest and steel eyes following her every twitch. From where he was, he could easily hear anyone coming down the long corridor of the dorm section, all the while observing his prey. If the angel left the playroom to check on her, he'd be gone and unseen in a flash.
She shifted with a growl under the bed sheet, eyes splitting open quite suddenly to focus on the feral man as if she knew all along that he was there. He smirked at her, unmoving, showing off his pointed fangs.
Slowly, the female sat up and stared at him with curious, chocolate irises.
Creed let a long, low growl build in his chest, neither menacing nor inviting and it seeped through his lips to meet the growl the girl was returning at him instinctively. He could see the animal inside of her shifting behind her eyes as her smell changed slightly into that of wilderness. She tilted her head strangely with an expression that told him he had her full inquisitive attention.
"You intrigue me. I will figure out how you work, little girl." He whispered softly, flashing her another dangerous grin, her enthralling feral smell still obliterating everything else in his mind.
With that, he was gone, moving soundlessly to his room with a single thought in his head:
Zero was wrong. He didn't need a plan.
He would pull this off because the girl herself functioned without a plan.
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"I'm not sure about this." Gabriel said uncomfortably, pushing sand around with the tip of his boots as he shifted on the floor of the Fight Room, looking up at the crowd of people gazing at him from the observation room. The whole of Team X was there, along with an oblivious Chelsea that was vaguely staring at him, not fully sure what was going on.
"Don't worry about it, we'll go easy on you. Besides, Stryker wants a full report of what you can do while fighting, and we can't really deny him that." Chris informed him through the intercom.
"Yes. I understand…" The angel sighed as he extended his wings fully behind his bare back. It had been a while since he'd actually fought and he was feeling awkward.
Chris nodded up above. "Ok, so this is how the holographic images work: we'll start with five and if you manage to hit them, they will vanish and give you a point. However, if one of them hits you, it counts as a point towards them. We'll add more and more at a time as we go and after three minutes, we stop and count the points. Got it?"
Gabriel showed him he got the point and prepared himself mentally.
"Ok then. Three, two, one… Go!"
Five images of winged fighters carrying swords appeared all around him. They wore helmets and identical armors, making it impossible to tell one apart from the other, but their feathery appendages informed the angel immediately that they would be following him in flight.
He flapped his powerful wings only twice and was already shooting away from the ground like a bullet, the fighters close on his tail. However, Gabriel was seven hundred years old and even though he was a little rusty on the battle aspect, he was very agile with the wings that followed him eternally through life.
The angel swirled and dodged through the air a lot faster than the images could go, quickly managing to position himself behind them and lash out both feet and wings, eliminating all five fighters within a few seconds. Kind of proud of himself, he turned around in midair with a grin, immediately spotting the new holographs. They were seven, only a few yards away from him in midair.
He charged at them, wings beating the air soundlessly yet powerfully, determined to repeat his previous technique and circle them to attack from behind. This time, however, the images split up and surrounded him smartly, thwarting his attempt at an assault. Surprised, the angel tried to dodge seven simultaneous attacks, all at different angles and got painlessly hit by at least three of the fighters before being able to get out of their trap.
He was nonetheless impressed, seeing that the machine creating the illusion had understood his tactic and had changed its own plans to place a couple hits on him. He was grinning wider than ever, actually enjoying this challenge. It was a lot like high-speed, airborne chess.
And Gabriel was good a chess.
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Chelsea was looking at her angel worriedly, hands pressed against the observation room's glass window. As soon as the fight had started, she had become aware of it.
"Gabriel!" She cried out as the images slashed at him, landing a few hits. The girl seemed unable to understand that the man was in no danger, so John set a reassuring arm around her shoulders as he spoke to her softly.
"He's ok. Your angel is invincible either way, isn't he?" He said kindly, hoping it would calm her. Behind them all, Zero was listening very intently to the quiet conversation.
She looked upset, following his moves with terror in her eyes. "Not if he's getting so many hits at a time! His skin will give in! They are going to kill him if he can't rest and regenerate!" Her distress was almost out of control and it was the only thing that prevented the rest of the group from noticing the sharp intake of air Zero took as he heard the information. Everyone was focused on her, even Creed.
John was at a loss, not knowing what to say, so Dukes stepped up behind her and grabbed her around the wait with two strong hands, forcing her to look away from the battle and face him. He grinned and patted her head pleasantly, noting that she was calming down and loosing focus with the world again.
"Little lady, you worry too much." He chuckled, pulling her to the back of the room so the others could watch the fight undisturbed.
Creed followed her with a predator's gaze as Zero smirked slightly. At least they knew that repeated blows could harm the angel being… he had previously told them that he could heal himself, but not that continuous blows would eventually remain on his skin if he didn't rest.
So theoretically, he wouldn't be able to heal fast enough if a rain of bullets and claws endlessly maimed him… perhaps they'd even get his body weak enough to inject him with sedatives that would allow them to restrain him… They would need at lot of ammo and a very determined Creed, but they knew now that Gabriel could be hurt and probably be immobilized.
They just needed the right moment to strike and an autonomous Chelsea that wouldn't need the angel anymore.
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Sorry, this is where I stop for now. I hope you liked it and I'll try to update sooner even though I'll be working two jobs for the next couple of weeks.
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