Hunting Grounds

Several months after the destruction of the X-Mansion and disbandment of the X-Men, Nightcrawler had been secretly protecting Mutant refugees from both the abusive and mutant hating crew members of transport ships and a gang of cybernetic enhanced Mutants pirates known as the 'Reavers' as the sailed to Genosha. However...shortly after arriving to Genosha, Nightcrawler made the unfortunate discovery that the island wasn't the 'safe haven' that Magneto promised: as he had the Mutants that were loyal to his cause round up and imprisoned the Mutant refugees who didn't want any part of his war against Humans and tried to flee and was captured himself when he teleported all the way back to New York to inform Logan and the other X-Men...only to be knocked unconscious by Mystique, who had disguised herself as Wolverine.

Shortly after he had regained consciousness, Nightcrawler had gasped in complete shock as he found himself locked in a highly advanced cell that somehow nullified his mutant power...and stared in silent surprise: as he finally noticed Magneto's daughter, Wanda, who he had developed feelings for and actually asked out to a date, was standing right outside with a truly remorseful and saddened look on her face.

Kurt asked with a soft glare on his face as he crossed his arms against his chest. "What do you want Wanda?"

Wanda answered softly. "I...I heard from my father that you were brought back to the island. I just wanted to make sure that you...you were alright."

Kurt asked while scoffing sarcastically. "An' how do I look? Locked up in a cage like some wild animal just like the Mutants who are hunted down by the MRDS!"

Wanda countered with a soft glare slowly appearing on her face. "Don't you dare compare my father with Senator Kelly, Nightcrawler."

Kurt countered softly. "An' why shouldn't I, Wanda? What your father is doing is no different than Kelly and the MRDs!"

Wanda countered with softened eyes. "No. My father isn't having these refugees locked up against their will, its just for their protection for when Kelly eventually decides to launch an attack on our island home."

Kurt stated softly as he knew deep down that Wanda didn't harbor the same hatred for humans as her father did. "Wanda, please...I know that deep down inside you know that what your father is doing is wrong. You need to let me out so I can let Logan, Blade and the other X-Men know what's happening."

Wanda stated softly with somber eyes as she knew deep down in her heart that Kurt was right, but couldn't bring herself to betray her father. "...I'm sorry Kurt. I can't."

Sadly however, before she could even walk away...Wanda had let out a loud cry, which deeply surprised Nightcrawler as he stepped forward and called out. "Wanda! Are you alright?!" Unfortunately for Kurt, he was completely unaware of Spiral appearing right behind him until it was too late...as she had swiftly grabbed a hold of his wrists and stated darkly as she leveled the tip of her cutlass directly underneath his chin before teleporting them away, "Hello, Nightcrawler. We've got some unfinished business."

Meanwhile, in Magneto's throne room

As Magneto was deep in thought about his next move, his daughter, Lorna, entered the room. "Father."

Magneto took off his helmet with his power and turned around, speaking like a father. "Lorna. You shouldn't be up this late."

Lorna took her father's hand and asked. "Did something happen to Wanda? I heard she's missing."

"Oh, she'll be fine, dear, I'll make sure of it." Magneto assured her before wanting to know how she'd heard about her sister going missing. "Who told you there was a problem?"

"Pyro." Lorna answered. "Why?"

"Oh, just wondering, that's all." He answered before placing his thumb and index finger on her chin gently. "Now don't let this upset you, all right? Go on back to bed."

"Okay. Goodnight." Lorna said sweetly before going back to her room to bed.

Magneto put his helmet back on and headed to the underground cell chamber, where Pyro and another mutant were waiting at Nightcrawler's cell as he used his power and opened it, seeing that the X-Man was gone before he ordered. "Search every inch of this island, and if Nightcrawler has harmed a single hair on her head, kill him." But as they went to do just that, he pulled Pyro back and said darkly. "You, Pyro, have done quite enough." Before putting him in Nightcrawler's cell and leaving the chamber.

A few hours later

Nightcrawler and Wanda would slowly wake up to find themselves in the center of 'Central Park' and stare greatly shocked/horrified as they heard a rather heartless laugh echo out and raspy voice state through hidden intercom speakers. "Greetings X-Man and daughter of Magneto. I welcome you to my humble abode...which you will soon discover to be a living hell of darkest nightmares."

Nightcrawler asked as he and Wanda slowly picked themselves up. "Who are you, stranger?"

Wanda asked with her hands glowing in a bright red aura. "And what do you want with us?"

The mysterious voice answered darkly. "You may refer to me as Mojo, and you my unwilling guests are here for one sole purpose: to keep me and my audience entertained as you fight for your lives against my gladiators...the Reapers!" But before Kurt or Wanda even object, Mojo stated darkly. "For the first round...it'll be Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch against Reese! Let the carnage...begin!"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, the blue bandana wearing Weaver had smiled evilly as he drew out his handheld laser cannon and fired a yellow-green energy laser towards Nightcrawler...but missed, due to him teleporting and swiftly grabbing Wanda as he just as swiftly turned his attention towards her!

"I tell him I don't need protection, and then you go and protect me. How does that make me look?" Wanda asked with annoyance.

"It's not protecting, it's helping. There's a difference." Kurt countered. And when the Weaver kept shooting, he grabbed Wanda's hand and ran. "We need to keep moving."

"Why?" Wanda asked with confusion.

"Do you really want to fight for Mojo's entertainment?" Kurt answered with his own question.

Meanwhile, in Mojo's lair

The interdimensional alien was put into his leg mover as he laughed evilly. "Hahahahahaha. Hahahahahaha! Run or hide, Nightcrawler. Either way, we will be entertained."

"It would be wise not to underestimate these X-Men, Mojo. They're a dangerous breed." Spiral warned, knowing from experience.

"Of course, they are." Mojo said, unconcerned.

Back with Kurt and Wanda

The 2 mutants kept running until Wanda stopped and prepared to fight back. "That's it, I'm through running." She said while preparing 2 blasts.

But Kurt teleported beside her and said. "No! That's giving him exactly what he wants."

"Mutants being hunted for sport is exactly the sort of thing my father fights against!" Wanda said.

"Yes, in the war between mutants and humans. But this Mojo, I don't know where he fits into that. We have nothing to prove to him" Kurt countered before putting his hand on her shoulder. "Wanda, please, your life is important to me. Don't risk it over this." And as the Reaver with the arm cannon blasted at them again, he teleported them away again. "I'm just going to disarm this guy, I'll be right back." He told Wanda before trying to do just that, only to get electrocuted when he tried and was thrown with a water barrier, forcing him to teleport back to Wanda. "On 2nd thought, running has been working just fine."

And as they resumed running, they avoided the laser blasts and kept running until Wanda hit something that almost made her fall before Kurt caught her. "What is that, a wall?"

Kurt touched the barrier wall before answering. "It's some sort of dome." And looked up. "We're inside a dome."

"Then, can you teleport us out?"

"No. Not without seeing what's outside."

"Maybe I can give us a look." Wanda said before using her power to show them what was outside the dome, revealing to them that they were in a submarine underwater.

"We're…underwater." Kurt said with surprise.

Wanda made the see-through wall disappear and said with sadness. "There's no way out."

Kurt put a hand on her shoulder and said with regret. "Wanda, I'm so sorry. They were after me, not you. You just got swept up into this." Before Spiral and her Reavers appeared, ready to attack.

"Bad news for them." Wanda said as she prepared to fight back.

Shortly after Nightcrawler and Wanda had finally agreed to put their differences aside and work together to get off the Weaver's submarine and after eventually defeating Reese, Macon, Cole, Ricochet and finally Spiral with their powers and fighting skills, the blue skinned Mutant and brunette couldn't help smile softly at each other...as they noticed what a fine team they made and couldn't help but blush, as they also noticed how incredibly close they were to each other.

Meanwhile, with Mojo

After eating a bowl of white worms, he threw it away and grinned evilly as he looked at his 2 new predators. "Those miswired buffoons never stood a chance out there. They were just cannon fodder. Boring! What we have here is the work of my entertainment genius! The gold standard to which all contenders shall be judged. Hunters unlike any I've ever encountered. The greatest predators on Earth! Wolverine…and Blade!"

Meanwhile, at the X-Mansion

Selene and Amelia were going to check on Blade, only to find out that he was missing from his room and his upper clothes and all his weapons were still in the room. After searching different parts of the mansion and sub-levels, Rogue and Domino came into the training room. "Hey, Selene. Amelia, have you seen Logan? He's not in his room."

"What, Logan's missing too?" Amelia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait. What do you mean Logan's missing too?" Dom asked.

"Blade's gone. His upper clothes and his weapons are still here as well, including his blood device." Selene revealed.

"Blade wouldn't go anywhere without that blood device. He needs it to keep his craving from going crazy." Rogue said, knowing that Blade would go out of control if he didn't have the blood device.

"And they wouldn't just leave without their clothes either. And it's not like that'd wanna go on a midnight stroll. Someone had to have taken them. That's the only logical explanation I can think of." Dom thought correctly. "But who on this planet would be insane enough to take Wolverine and Blade inside a house filled with mutants? That's impossible for anyone without at least leaving signs of a struggle."

"Let's go find Emma. Maybe Xavier's mutant tracking device can find them." Amelia suggested.

A bit later, in the Cerebro chamber

Emma had been informed of her 2 leaders' disappearance and quickly used Cerebro to try to find them, but with no success as she took off the helmet. "I'm sorry, but I'm unable to locate them."

"Has that ever happened before?" Selene asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. Wolverine is just a beta level mutant, and Cerebro was built specifically to track down mutants, not vampires, especially not a hybrid. And even if the Professor did, it'd be very tricky to even get a lock on Blade's location." Emma answered with regret.

"Humh. Maybe the old man should have upgraded this tracking device to track Blade when he was here the 1st time." Amelia scoffed.

"Oh, believe me, Amelia, he did. But Blade can block even Cerebro if he wanted to. The Professor did try it 1 time in order to track him, but through very strong mental training, and effort, he blocked Charles." Emma explained.

"Indeed. But keep trying, Emma." Ororo said softly.

"Yeah. You know they're gonna be ticked if we don't rescue him." Iceman said with a nervous look.

"They'll probably be pissed regardless since they were kidnapped in the 1st place." Dom said with an annoyed look as she and Marie held hands.

Back with Wanda and Kurt

As soon as the 2 mutants finally made their way to the bridge, getting the sealed hatch opened by Wanda's powers, both Kurt and Wanda were shocked/horrified to see both Logan and Blade on the ship, and in some sort of mind control device similar to Mojo headgear. "Wolverine? Blade? Is that…you?" Kurt asked, only for Blade and Logan to draw their claws. "Oh, no."

Mojo laughing darkly. "Don't be surprised, Nightcrawler. I teleported the Adamantium clawed mutant and his raccoon/vampire hybrid friend to my ship while they were sleeping and put them in this feral state. Now, my feral creatures, attack!"

And when Wolverine and Blade tried to pounce on the other 2 mutants to impale them with their claws, Kurt teleported himself and Wanda away. "I don't know how anyone could be able to control Wolverine and Blade like that, let alone both of them together."

"They're going to catch us, Kurt, and we won't even know it until it's too late." Wanda said, knowing that with both Wolverine and Blade in those feral states, as well as their abilities to find their prey, they'd be able to easily catch them and kill them before they had a chance to fight back. "But I think I can use my power to free them. I just need them to be distracted long enough to get into their minds."

"I'll do that, Wanda." Kurt said.

The brunette was greatly shocked/horrified, as she knew that Kurt wouldn't be able to keep Wolverine and the Raccoon Daywalker distracted for long. "You seriously want to engage them alone? You can't! Even 1 of them is deadly in their own right, but together with their abilities being almost the same, they're 10 times as lethal. You'll be extremely lucky to survive even a few seconds against them."

"Don't worry, I have a plan. Like any feral animal, those 2 can't tell the difference about who their enemies are. If they were to fight each other, it would give you all the time you need." Kurt said with a smirk. "You just be ready when they begin attacking each other." Before he teleported directly in front of Wolverine, making the feral mutant attack him, only for him to dodge out of the way by flipping behind him before he turned around and tried to slash him with his claws…only to slash Blade instead, forcing Blade to fight back before it was like a private war between animals.

Mojo was extremely amused by this show. "Hahahahahaha! This is absolutely perfect! You cannot script action like this. This Wolverine and Blade are the perfect predators! Oh, they were clearly made to be controlled!" But then, he became annoyed, as he watched the brainwashed clawed mutant and the brainwashed clawed vampire fight each other instead. "Oh, this is absolutely annoying! Are these animals too savage and dumb to know who their enemies are?!"

But then, Mojo stared in horror: as Wanda had used her telepathic powers to sever his hold over them...and quivered in fear, as both slowly regained their senses as their wounds healed almost instantly. "B-Blade?"

"Logan, what the hell?" Blade asked with confusion before he and his co-leader remembered who brought them here and turned them into savage animals, the very thing they'd fought all their lives to not control them.

They both became angry and looked at where Mojo was as they brought out their claws! "YOOOOUUUUUU!" They roared out before jumping up and pouncing down on him, threatening him with their claws as they demanded to be released. "Free us, NOOOOOOWW!"

"Y-y-y-yes, of course. Hahaha." Mojo said with great fear before he pointed to a nearby lever.

Blade had pulled the lever that caused the submarine to surface and once they stepped outside...they stared in silence…before the raccoon Daywalker brought out his claws again, pounded on Mojo and began to shred him as he screamed in terror as he was torn apart until he was dead, ending his terror for good. "Bastard ugly alien blob. You can rot in hell with Frost and all of the others."

Kurt walked up to Blade and said softly, as he'd covered Wanda's eyes to prevent her from seeing what Blade did to Mojo. "You did not have to kill him, Blade. He wasn't a threat to us anymore."

Blade spit out a little bit of blood that got in his mouth and countered. "Despite me being the co-leader of your little team, Nightcrawler, the rule of no killing enemies doesn't apply to me. Need I remind you that I'm just staying with you guys until that future is prevented! So, spare me your morals, because you know they won't work on me! And he got exactly what he deserved! Be thankful myself or Wolverine didn't kill all of them."

A few minutes later

After they'd gotten close enough to Genosha, Magneto had arrived and pointed metal spikes from the sub close to Wolverine, Blade and Nightcrawler. "Where is my daughter?!"

"Easy, Magneto, your daughter's safe." Blade said gently.

And to prove Blade right, Wanda answered while walking up to him. "I'm right here, father."

Magneto landed and hugged his daughter. "Wanda." He said before looking at the other 3.

"Father, I want you to let them go." Wanda said, not wanting them captured.

"I'll release them once they're safely contained in cells."

"They didn't take me, father, they're just bringing me back." Wanda assured her father.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow them to leave this island." Magneto stubbornly said.

"They saved my life! Isn't that worth their freedom?" Wanda pleaded.

After thinking it over for another few seconds, Magneto reluctantly accepted his daughter's plea and dropped the spikes before Wolverine asked his enemy. "So, this is your paradise, huh, Magneto?"

"Paradise has its price, Wolverine." Magneto countered before telling his daughter. "Come, Wanda."

"I'll be right there." Wanda said before turning to Kurt and planted a tender kiss on his cheek as she walked away and followed her father, while her father gave Logan, Blade and Nightcrawler a soft leer, which they instinctively mirrored before they flew back towards Genosha.

As soon as Magneto and Wanda left, Emma and the others had arrived in the X-Jet, where Kitty, Bobby, Storm and Rogue had happily embraced their blue skinned friend and introduced him to Selene, Amelia and Domino. "Domino is…with us now? How did this happen?"

"Let's just say there's a lot to tell you, Nightcrawler. Leave it at that for now." Domino told him as Rogue sat in her lap.

"And I see that you guys look mad, don't you?" Kitty asked Blade and Wolverine.

"What do you think, Kitty? We get kidnapped in our sleep and turned into the very things we've been fighting in ourselves our whole lives. Wouldn't you?" Blade asked with a glare as he and Wolverine sat in the back of the Blackbird.

"Don't worry, Kitty, they'll get over whatever they went through, eventually. Just give them time." Selene said while rubbing Kitty's cheek.

"I'm assuming you 2 are with Blade, currect?" Nightcrawler asked while looking at Selene and Amelia.

"We are, Kurt. Hope you can get used to us until this war is prevented." Amelia answered with a smirk.

Later on

Once they had returned to the X-Mansion, Nightcrawler would finally inform Logan, Blade and the others on what he saw during his brief stay on Genosha...and the entire study would be dead silent: with Logan and the others staring in great shock/horror and anger after hearing that Magneto was locking up several Mutant refugees as prisoners instead on protecting them like he was supposed to.

"So, that's what Magneto was doing all along?" Domino asked. "FUCK! Why'd I ever think he was actually fighting for our kind? How could he just…just…lock away other mutants like those damn M.R.D assholes?!"

Rogue put a hand on her shoulder and gestured her girlfriend to follow her, which she did until they got to her room and locked the door. "I know you're angry, Dom, and you have every right, but this ain't gonna help those other mutants."

"I…I know, Marie. It's…just that…I really believed that Magneto was actually helping our kind." Dom said as tears fell from her eyes. "I…still did, even after I came here to be with you, baby. But with what Nightcrawler told us, I feel like we're not even safe on either side."

Marie sat Dom on their bed and promised her. "I know how you feel, love. I feel that way, too. But I promise you that no matter what happens, you'll always have me."

Domino took Marie's hands and said with a soft smile. "Then I want you to promise me something, Marie: whether or not we prevent this war, I plan to go somewhere exotic and nice, like Hawaii or the Bahamas, or Bali. Or any of those places on earth that's like paradise. I wanna spend years in 1 of those places and not have to worry about any violence or war in this world and just live in peace. And I planned to ask you when the time was right, but now I think there may not be another time. So…if I do go, whether or not we prevent this war, will you… come with me and live the rest of your life with me in whatever peace we can find?"

Marie thought about her girlfriend's offer and had to admit it was very tempting. The idea of her and Dom living on 1 of those beautiful islands on Earth for a few years and being free to do whatever they wanted without any worry or care in the world, sounded perfect. Especially now that she could physically express her feelings without killing anyone because of her power. And if there was anything she wanted more than anything else, it was to live the rest of her life with Domino, with or without the X-Men.

So, with a smile and a passionate kiss, she promised. "Yes, Dom, I'll go with you. And whatever happens from here on out, I'll keep that promise however I can. Whether or not we prevent this war. You just decide the place, and I'll be by your side, for the rest of my life."

Domino smiled and kissed Marie lustfully before saying. "Thank you so much, Marie. I'll never forget this as long as I live. And I'll even make a gift for the both of us to seal our promise."

"I'll look forward to that gift, Dom. But for now, let's seal our promise in a more…physical way." Marie said before helping Dom to undress.

Dom helped Marie undress as well and said sweetly. "Of course, baby." And when they were completely naked, she said sweetly. "And from now on, when we're alone, call me by my real name: Neena." Before kissing her girlfriend lustfully again while they laid down on the bed to have passionate sex.

There you go, my dear friends, Hunting Grounds is complete. The next chapter will be the Badlands episode, which will involve Professor X continued fight in the apocalyptic future and will have a look into future Domino's final memories of Rogue and her time together with 1 true love before her unfortunate and untimely death and how Domino and Eve escaped it with Marie's help. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Rate and review and I'll see you all next time, my dear friends.