Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
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Working through the red the only way he could, Victor punched another wall and felt his bones splinter and shatter with his full enraged strength behind it. With clenched teeth to find a moments satisfaction from it, he caught a trash can loosely in hand and hurled it at a wall watching it bounce twice before rolling down the alley. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time for this kind of lapse, growling at his reflection and shattering the window from which it was cast.
Out on the street ahead he could see the every day Dick and Jane American looking at him in shock and disapproval, grinning at them and holding their gaze in his feral eyes as he pulled his fly down and took a leak right there against the wall. There was no way Jimmy wouldn't be able to follow him now if he got enough of his marbles together for a fight, but that was a slim hope with the mess he'd left back down the alley.
"What the fuck are you looking at?" Victor asked of one who took one step down the alley looking like he had a few words to say.
Growling in frustration at the man standing their immobile, he zipped up and walked past to wipe his hands on a jacket that looked to be worth a few bills at the least towards a good bottle of something to sit and sip. Joining the pedestrian traffic of good old New York City, he had watched it grow at a distance long before Lady Liberty ever called for the tired, poor and huddled masses.
He had two options left to him, either find another job or hit the road and find the closest hot spot and get his hands dirty. The one thing was that there was always some dictator or war criminal out there making a mess of the world, so he never had to look that far. It was the one thing that kept him that step ahead of the beast gnawing straight through his gut, a sense to look for someone even worse than himself and introduce them to everything wrong he'd ever done in his life nice and slow.
"Goody, goody, two shoe..." Victor sang thinking of a great movie he'd seen once.
Good and bad meant fuck all when you were the one with the gun, and he loved staring down that barrel knowing someone was about to shit their drawers when he got up bloody and with a mouth full of buck shot looking for more. The pain made it all the better, paying it back two fold for every slug or bullet he had to dig out of his hide just to let the son of a bitch know who the big dog was.
Breathing in the scent of everyone that made way for him walking down the crowded street, he was running out of time and his options were getting right slim looking to every set of eyes that had the courage to meet his gaze. Ducking into the first bar he saw and bulling his way up slamming a fistful of dollars down and calling for a bottle of bourbon, he didn't even bother with the shot glass set beside it and started to chug it on down until he could finally taste it.
"You want your change?" The bartender asked.
"What the fuck do you think?" Victor asked wiping his mouth and staring down the man to see him fold what became his tip and stuff it into a pocket.
Looking around him to see people making room for him, he remembered back to a day when there would have been some Made Men to at least provide some sport. The best he could hope for these days were some Russians even if he had enough of them back in the eighties when they finally tucked their tail between their legs.
"Wonder how the War on Drugs is goin' these days." Victor mumbled, pounding back his bottle to catch the first scent of interest from the ladies looking for a walk on the wild side.
Seeing the door open from the street blowing in all that stink of garbage and exhaust, he found himself taking another quick sniff finding something he could use just then. A mix of anger, rage and irritation laced with concern and worry had him turning to see his distraction from the other night scanning around sharply and halfway to slamming the door again when their eyes met.
"You!"
Grinning and holding his ground, he watched her plow her way through to stop just long enough to tell off a few folks that were suddenly wearing their drinks in her passing. Finishing his bourbon and calling for a round, by the time she was even staring up past his navel the heads on the beers were already dying behind him.
"Who the fuck are you!?" Jubilee growled with a finger thrust right against his chest.
Had it been anyone else he might well have snapped it in half, but he knew just the kind of fun she could be and that was the kind of option he hadn't even thought of for feeding his beast. Grinning down to her and turning his back, he pushed one of the two beers to the empty stool beside him and went about enjoying his own.
"Don't you dare turn your back to me, the moment Logan smelt you on me he was going ape shit. Who the fuck are you to him?" Jubilee yelled without a care to the business professionals on their lunch break giving her the stink eye.
Grinning thinking how it had all played out just as he had expected, he had a swig of his beer and wondered just what his little Geisha Girl was really good for with all the bluster she was spewing. She was good in a fight and another place he knew, but right now he was wondering if she wasn't writing checks her ass couldn't cash and he'd have to give her a bit of credit on the house to earn himself some interest.
"Ya wouldn't believe me if I fuckin' told ya babe." Victor answered.
He remembered just the stink of piss and vinegar with her hackles right high the night before at that dandy calling her a babe, the hairs at the back of most folks neck doing a fine job no matter how far removed they thought they were from prowling around in the jungles. He got it in spades right along with the stench of ozone before a lightning strike or a powder keg about to blow. Glancing at her through the mirror lined with liquor bottles, he saw the first hint of something gnawing at her looking for its release.
Climbing onto the empty stool and pounding back her drink, he pushed the last of his across and waved for another round. She drank it looking to drown whatever was eating away at her insides, something that only ever brought him a moments relief most times unless he got down to some real drinking. Yet as she clutched her face in hand and growled if only to let out what she couldn't find the words to voice, he thought again to his brother suffering in some filthy ally mad as a dog with grief he'd forgotten just how to handle.
"Head south on down the block, yer first left and down a ways. Long as that pansy hasn't gotten up from his ass kicking ya should find him there." Victor said oddly quiet as he stared into his beer.
He didn't bother looking at her though she was staring at him in a mix of relief, anger and shock. Sipping his drink and hoping to hell there was some bit of business close, as much as he longed to relive the other night straight up with whatever fight she'd put up he felt in the long run he'd get a better return on her running off to haul Jimmy's ass out of the gutter.
"This isn't over..." Jubilee hissed, pounding back her drink to slip off the stool and stalk off.
"Fun's just starting." Victor admitted.
If she heard him she showed no sign of it, vanishing past the door with her lingering aroma hanging their like a fragrant flower. Digging out his phone and hitting the speed dial, maybe the day they made a phone just the right size for his thumbs more used to squeezing the eyes right out of someone's sockets he would figure out this newfangled telegraph they called texting.
"Always a pleasure to hear from you Victor."
"Just tell me ya got some work ya need doin'."
"I can always find work for a man with such a unique skill set as yourself Mister Creed, I'll be in touch within the hour."
"Then ya better pick up my tab while yer at it."
"Of course, have a drink on me, or several. Until then."
An hour, just enough time to nurse a buzz if he switched to the hard stuff. Ordering up a bottle and heading off to a booth that was all his with just a bit of menacing, he kicked his feet up and got right on down to business holding the leash until he could finally let it off its chain.
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Having expected the call ever since she had seen him race off, she jolted at the ringtone for Jubilee alone and hoped her friend had him cowed and ready to come home. Looking to the kids she was sitting with in the den, she smiled and excused herself from the movie they were watching. It wouldn't fool them, she wasn't that much older to think so, but at least she could hide whatever she might betray as she hit the answer just before her voicemail picked up.
"Jubes?" Marie asked.
"Roguey?" Jubilee whispered.
"Is...everything okay?" Marie asked warily, taking a deep breath to try and keep herself calm.
The long pause was nerve racking but finally she heard a whimper on the other line that wasn't like her friend, at least not the front she put up most of the time. This was the girl she remembered consoling one night with Kitty after the school had been attacked, the one that was surprisingly tiny when she hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face against her legs.
"I found Logan..." Jubilee whispered.
Feeling an icy hand clutch at her heart Marie feared the worst, having to be brave already hearing the volume of the movie getting turned right on down so the kids could feign still watching it even if they were just eavesdropping.
"Can you come get us Roguey?" Jubilee asked with a hiccup.
"I'll be there as the crow flies." Marie promised, code for taking the Blackbird out.
Awful as it was to hang up, she had to go and get a few of the older kids to watch the rest while she was gone. Same time she'd need a co-pilot to open the bomb bay doors and send on down the ladder for the pickup. Picking out Sam from the bunch as the only Junior she trusted, she was glad he was full of polite Ma'ams and Miss's as she dragged him off to the elevator and hit the lowest of the sub basements that was the hangar.
"Where we goin' Miss Marie?" Sam asked.
"To bring our friends home, and call me Rogue. Suit up."
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