X-Men Story My Version
Chapter Four: Canadian Rumble
NORTHERN ALBERTA, CANADA
The borders of Canadian civilization lies a large bar and wilderness. A big rig stops near the bar. The driver gets out, then lets Marie out. Marie now goes by the name Rogue. She had left home following the situation that took place between her and David. She tried to stick it out but the looks the kids gave her at school and the way everyone spoke about her didn't help much nor did it make her feel better. She felt like an outsider and decided to leave. She took her bags and left home. She had a little money but she has since spent it. She had chosen the name Rogue because she had left her home and was on her own. She figured the name fit perfectly.
"This is it." The driver said to her holding the door open for her.
"Where are we? I thought you said you'd take me as far as Lotham City." Rogue asked.
"This is Lotham City." The driver told her. Rogue looks around and climbs out of his big rig.
Driver turns his back on Rogue and leaves.
Rogue sees a bar makes her way in. She needed a drink of water and just to get out of the cold for a bit. At the center of the bar, and the center of everyone's attention, there's a fighting cage. Inside, there is an announcer, and a fighter known as Wolverine. His back is turned and to the announcer. He's smoking a cigar. He leans against the cage. He appears to have taken a pretty bad beating already, but he blows thick cigar smoke through the bars. The crowd is booing him, and the announcer works them up.
"Ladies and gentlemen, in all my years I have never seen anything like this. Are you going to let this man walk away with your money?" The announcer asks the getting the already obnoxious crowd amped up. "I said are you going to let this man take your money?!" He asked again and got a loud round of boos.
Many people shout at that. One tough-looking man, Stu, rises up and enters the cage. This is clearly not Stu's first fight, and he clearly expects to win.
As Stu gets ready, the announcer leans in and whispers to him.
"Whatever you do, don't hit him in the balls." Announcer says to him.
"You said anything goes." Stu said not really paying attention. He actually thinks he can take the Wolverine.
"Yeah, but... he'll take it personal." Announcer warns him.
Stu snorts not at all impressed. He walks up behind the Wolverine's back and hits him. A second and third blow drop the Wolverine, and Stu kicks him while he's down.
The Wolverine gets up in time to see Stu's next punch coming. His knuckles collide with Stu's. There's a metallic clang. Stu's fist is in agony. The Wolverine follows up with a punch of his own, then a head-butt. More sounds like metal on bone. Stu goes down and stays there. Crowd boos viciously.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the winner for tonight and still king of the cage... the Wolverine." The announcer said as the crowd continued to boo.
Rogue watches, fascinated by the fighter known only as the Wolverine.
A little time has passed since the entertaining fight. The Wolverine put on one hell of a fight for the crowd despite their booing. It was encouraging to him in a weird way. It met that he'd be walking away with their money. He must've made about six hundred Canadian dollars easy. Rogue sits by the bar and the bartender. Business is quiet. In the background, the TV is playing.
"Once the welcoming point to thousands of immigrants, Ellis Island is opening its doors once again, this time for..." TV person says. TV goes on about the world's largest-ever summit, including leaders from over 200 nations. Rogue looks hard at a jar labeled, "TIPPING IS NOT JUST A CITY IN CHINA." The bartender notices.
"You gonna try something new tonight, honey? Or are you sticking with water?" The Bartender asks. Bartender moves the jar out of her reach.
The Wolverine enters and sits at the bar.
"I'll have a beer." He says before sitting down. The bartender quickly brings him the beer.
"That was some fight." The bartender said to him. The Wolverine looked up at him frowning. "What's your name son?" He asked. The Wolverine cocked up his eyebrow. Did this bartender just call him son? The bartender waited for answer. Rogue was watching as well but the wolverine paid her no mind.
"It's Logan." He finally spoke. The bartender smiled at then laughed.
"Wolverine is better." The bartender commented. Logan shook his head then takes a swig of his beer.
He nurses his beer. Rogue stares at him. When he looks at her, she quickly looks away. Stu and a buddy of his, Rich, come up behind Logan. Logan does not make eye contact. He knew Stu was coming up behind him because he could smell him. Rich tries to pull Stu away.
"You owe me some money." Stu said to Logan.
"C'mon, Stu, let's not do this." Rich said to him the smarter of the two friends.
"No man takes a beating like that without a mark to show for it." Stu said to him. He was right though. Not many men or women for that matter took a beating and walked away without a scratch on them.
"C'mon, buddy, this ain't gonna work." Rich pleads to him. The last thing he wanted was for his friend to get hurt or worse. Stu had been in plenty of fights and sometimes came out on the losing end of the fights. Rich meanwhile would have to save his sorry ass.
"I know what you are." Stu said whispering. Logan frowned.
"You lost your money; you keep this up, you'll lose somethin' else." Logan warned. He hoped Stu would listen.
"C'mon, man." Rich again pleads trying to get him out of the bar but Stu the idiot that he is won't take the hint. For a moment, it looks like Stu has let Rich and Logan persuade him to let it go. He walks away... then walks back with a switchblade in hand.
"Look out!" Rogue screams warning Logan of the impending danger.
Faster than it can be told, Logan slams Stu up against the wall. Two metal claws have emerged from Logan's knuckles on either side of Stu's neck. A third begins to extend between the first two, and stops just short of slashing Stu's Adam's apple. Stu wisely keeps still.
A gun presses against Logan's temple. The bartender has trained a shotgun on Logan's head.
"Get out of my bar, freak!" The bartender said to him using the f-word. Logan hated that word but yes he is a mutant. Stu was right. It's the reason he was able to take such a beating and walk away unscaved.
"I thought you wanted to know my name bub?" Logan asked him.
"Right now I want you to get the fuck out of my bar LOGAN." He said his with distain in his voice. Now that he knew what Logan was, he didn't want him anywhere near his place of business.
Logan looks at him for an instant, then, in one quick motion, extends three claws from his other hand and uses them to cut through the metal of the gun like a hot knife through butter. Rogue watched the scene scared out of her wits. Logan looks from Stu to the bartender for a moment, growls, then retracts his claws and quietly walks out. Rogue follows.
Logan goes to his truck. The truck is hitched to a trailer that carries a load of firewood under a tarp. Logan checks the tarp, then gets in. He didn't see Rogue climb in the back. She needed a ride and fast. He thought back to the girl who was in the bar. Her cent smelled of pineapple. He first smelled her when she entered the bar a few hours ago. It's a strong sweet smell. She looked innocent, pure. She couldn't have been no older than seventeen. What was a girl that age doing in a rat shit of bar like the one he was at? Why did it matter to him anyway? For Logan, he was all about himself. He could care less what happened to young girl.
While driving, Logan frowned hard. He hated being called the f-word. Yeah he was a mutant and cursed the day he was born. Logan hasn't been driving long before he notices the trailer doesn't sound like it should. Logan stops the truck, gets out, and pokes the tarp. It feels soft. He tears off the tarp to reveal Rogue huddled underneath.
"What the hell are you doin'?" Logan asked her rudely.
"I'm sorry. I needed a ride. I thought you might help me." Rogue told him innocently.
"Get out of there." Logan told her.
Rogue shuffles out.
"Where'm I s'posed to go?" Rogue asked him.
"I don't know." Logan said to her.
"You don't know, or you don't care?" Rogue asked him. She knew he didn't
"Pick one." Logan asked angrily.
Logan begins to get back in the truck.
"I saved your life." She said to him.
"No, you didn't." Logan told her.
Logan gets back in, and begins to drive off. He gets about twenty feet before his conscience catches up with him. He knew she wouldn't last too long on her own out in the cold. He sighs deeply to himself wondering if this was a good idea. He stops and Rogue runs toward the truck.
"You don't have anything to eat, do you?" Rogue asks as Logan continues driving.
Logan pulls some small nabs out of the glove compartment. Rogue devours them.
"I'm Rogue." She said to him while eating some more of the snabs. Logan doesn't say anything but continues to drive. She gets a closer look at Logan. A single, silver dog tag hangs from his neck from a battered chain. "Were you in the army? Doesn't that mean you were in the army?" She asks Logan who doesn't answering. Mainly because he can't remember. Logan can't remember anything from the last fifteen years of his past. Logan glares at her and pulls the tag inside his shirt. Rogue has a look at the back of the truck. It's extremely spare sleeping quarters and not much else. "Wow." She said out loud.
"What?" Logan finally asked.
"Suddenly my life doesn't look that bad." Rogue said to him.
"Hey, if you prefer the road…" Logan told her about to stop the car.
"No, no." Rogue said hurriedly. She pauses a moment. "It looks great. It looks cozy."
Logan sees that Rogue is rubbing her hands together to keep warm. He turns on the heater and snatches Rogue's hand, almost touching her bare skin.
"Put your hands over the heater." He tells her. Rogue squirms. Logan lets her go. "Look, I'm not gonna hurt you." He thought she might be afraid of him because of what she saw back in the bar.
"It's nothing personal. It's just... when people touch my skin... something happens." Rogue told him. She realized he was a mutant just like her. That's probably what drew her to him and vice versa.
"What?" Logan asked her.
"I don't know. They just get hurt." Rogue told him.
"Fair enough." Logan told her.
Rogue looks at Logan's knuckles.
"When they come out... does it hurt?" Rogue asked him her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Every time. ...What kind of a name is Rogue?" Logan said to her.
"I don't know. What kind of a name is Wolverine?" Rogue retorts back.
"My name's Logan." Logan told her.
"Right. You told the bartender that back at the bar. Marie." Rogue told him. "Rogue is a name I came up with. It sort of fit."
"Really now?" Logan asked. Rogue nods. He seemed a little a bit uninterested.
"You know, you should wear a seatbelt." Rogue told him.
"Look, I don't need any advice…" Logan said before a tree falls directly into the road, smashing into Logan's truck and throwing him through the windshield. Logan lands face down, some distance away. Marie gets over her shock, then struggles, realizing she's stuck. Something ignites in the back of the truck, not far from the gas tanks. Logan gets up and begins walking back to the truck. There's a gash on his face... but as we watch, it heals before our very eyes. For a moment, Marie forgets the danger as she watches this, fascinated once again.
"Are you all right?" Logan asked her.
"I'm stuck!" Rogue yelled to him. Logan moves around the tree. He's about to step over it to the passenger door and get her out, when...He stops. He sniffs the air.
He extends one hand's claws, staring into the wilderness...
...And out of the wilderness charges Sabretooth, a mutant almost more animal than man. He tackles Logan. He is picks up the limp tree trunk. Logan staggers to his feet.
"Oh shit!" Logan said before Sabretooth hits Logan's furry hinder with a tree trunk.
Wolverine's limp body crashes down on top of his truck's hood. Rogue screams. Wolverine's claws retract; he's unconscious. The flames continue to grow. Rogue still can't get up.
Sabretooth is about to move in on them both when he notices the wind and snow pick up. As Sabretooth notices two individuals behind him, the wind and snow begin to concentrate, aiming themselves at him like a weapon. They begin to push him back.
A closer look tells us it is a man and a woman. They are wearing strange uniforms of form-fitting material. The man wears a reflective visor that hides his eyes. The woman's face is bare, revealing dark skin, eyes with no pupils and unusual white hair. A closer look and it's clear that the woman's eyes are ice white. The man touches a knob on his visor. A brilliant red laser beam blasts forth. Sabretooth leaps away from it and escapes.
The man opens the passenger door, and uses his laser again, this time at a lower setting, to free Rogue from the seat. The man and woman remove Rogue and Logan from the truck as it finally explodes.
On Magneto Island, Sabertooth storms through corridors. As he walks, he passes Toad. Toad is a simple thug with complex fighting and leaping abilities. He has some vision problems, and is currently wearing large goggles to compensate as he performs simple welding jobs.
"Weren't you supposed to bring someone back with you?" Toad asked him. Sabretooth roars like a real tiger then stomps off. Toad goes back to what he was doing. Sabretooth enters an office and we follow him.
He heads to Magneto's office. The desk is bare except for an executive pendulum thingy. Six steel balls bang onto one another from string supports in formation depending on how many are let to fly from either end. One ball strikes one and one ball swings out from the other. Slight difference. There are no strings supporting the balls, thus defying gravity.
Magneto stands behind the desk. He can tell from Sabretooth's expression, and the absence of any hostages, that things did not go as planned.
"What happened?" Magneto asked angrily.
"They knew." Sabretooth answers.
"Charles." Magneto said growling. Frustrated, Magneto magnetically pulls the dog tag from Sabretooth and inspects it. Nothing odd about the tag at a glance, military dog tag. Includes a faded serial number and a name: WOLVERINE. As Magneto turns Logan's dog tag between his fingers, he can't help but notice the faded purple serial numbers tattooed in his arm. He then drops the dog tag on the desk. "I have made the first move. That is all they know. Come. The U. N. summit will begin shortly. Time for our little test." He said to him then heads for the door. Sabretooth begins to follow, then goes back and palms the dog tag. As Magneto moves out of range, the balls fall out of the air and clatter onto the table and floor.