Chapter 3: Meet the Wolverine
Alberta, Canada. Covered in snow and it is around 8:00 at night. Zachery is wearing a heavy coat, a hood over his head and good gloves to keep himself warm. He carries his passport and wallet and a lot of money with him as wel duffel bag and suitcase, mostly with clothes, a toothbrush and deodorant.
Since going on the run, he has been very quiet and hasn't spoken much since the incident and finding out about his recent diagnosis. Zachery continues traveling on foot and tries to be careful not to speak with anyone, fearing he'll be recognized, given his picture was shown on tv. His voice has become raspy from being disused and was afraid to talk to anyone ever since. He remains afraid of what happened. Despite his aunt telling him that it wasn't his fault for what happened to his uncle Eddie, he still feels responsible and unsafe around others. He hopes to find shelter just for the night. When he looks around, he sees a huge bar and walks inside.
Much to his relief, it's warm and cozy inside and appears to be some people sleeping on couches or beds for rent. Before he could find someplace to eat and crash, he heard yelling. And it's coming from downstairs.
Zachery walks down the steps to see what's that loud noise. The door is cracked open, so he pushes it all the way open. Within the room, a bunch of people are chanting "fight, fight fight!". Majority of these people are drinking beer while gathering around a huge cage.
Within the cage, two people are fighting. One man, wearing a white tank top, dark blue jeans was beating up his opponent. The opponent tries to fight, only to met with a twisted arm, and bones crack followed by a strong punch to the nose, breaking it completely, a kick to the chest and thrown into the fence. The opponent spits out blood as he struggles to get up. The bells rang, meaning the match was over.
"And that is the 9th match in a row! Mr. Robert Moore goes down for the count! The winner is by far undefeated and is making a lot of earnings tonight! Who's next?! Who's next to stand up to the undefeated champion?! Any takers?!" The MC spoke into the mic.
Zachery watches from a distance with some interest in seeing what this is all about. He wonders who is the man in the cage still standing. He continues drinking whiskey while in the cage. But yet, he doesn't seem drunk. And Zachery spots five other glasses on the ground next to the man in the cage. He has facial hair all around his chin and covers up his side burns and has hair similar to some wild animal. And he wears dog tags around his neck.
The audience boos at the man in the cage as he drinks. Another man steps up to the MC and grabs the mic.
"I'll take on this jackass myself! I came out here to prove something. And I know what I'm gonna prove. This man doesn't seem like a normal human being! I don't care how I win! I only care about making this guy walk home empty-handed! That is if he even has a home!" The buff man announced as the audience cheered for him.
"And here it is, folks! Our final match! It is the current champion vs the challenger: Mr. Chris Jackson!" The MC announced as the challenger steps in.
The bell rings and Chris Jackson gets into a fighting position and throws a sucker punch at the man while his back is turned. He lands a strike in the back followed by the face and a kick to the chest. Despite his huge muscles, he tries to grab the man by the neck and throw him down, but he can't seem to lift him at all. The man seizes an opportunity to knee him in the back close to his lower spine, and Jackson stumbles forward. They both throw a punch at each other. Their fists collided… and Chris' hand suddenly felt his hand break.
Chris Jackson screams in pain now that his hand is broken. The man in the cage throws two strong punches to the face, causing the opponent to spit up some blood before uppercutting him in the chin and throwing another punch on his left shoulder, dislocating it in the process. The man in the cage snarls at his opponent as the latter tries to charge him in hopes of grabbing his throat, only for the mysterious man to grab his arms and headbutts him in the mouth, causing a couple of teeth to fly out and sending Chris Jackson down, with blood partly covering his mouth. The bell rang once more, signaling the end of the match.
"Ladies and gentleman! Tonight's $1000 goes to the undefeated king of the cage! This man…. Is known as the Wolverine!" The MC announced.
The audience boos at the Wolverine as they threw their drinks at him. The Wolverine, however, doesn't seem to care what they think of him as he continues having yet another whiskey. The only one silent throughout the whole thing is Zachery. He watches in disbelief that a man just simply broke that muscular challenger's hand and easily dislocated his shoulder and knocked some teeth out with no trouble.
A couple of hours later, the entire room downstairs is just about empty with some broken glass swept up and the floor being cleaned up of any blood. Most of the drinking bar is next to empty except for the bartender, a few truckers sleeping. Zachery is sitting at the bartop eating a steak and a Wild Cherry Pepsi. He tries to spent as little money as possible so he wouldn't run out. And he figured that getting a job would do no good, knowing he is wanted.
As he is nearly done, the Wolverine comes in, wearing a brown leather jacket, smoking a cigar. And he ends up sitting near Zachery himself.
"The usual?" The bartender asked the Wolverine.
"A beer. Ultra Michelob. Bottle." Wolverine said. The bartender hands him a beer within a second and Wolverine takes a sip.
Zachery quietly and slightly turns his head and recognizes him as the same man from the cage who just won undefeated. The Wolverine turns his eyes towards the young kid before turning away minding his own business. But unknown to the man from the cage, the young kid looks back and forth until the news catches his attention.
"The final preparations for the United States Summit is beginning to approach as almost every leader in the world will be gathering to solve the crisis regarding the current economy, environment and population. Many of these leaders claim that the rising mutant population is to be responsible for this. However, it is undecided whether this is unintentional or not. The vice president of the United States, the speaker, and secretaries are set to make an appearance on the growing mutant crisis, which will be the main subject." The news reporter said.
Having heard enough, Zachery finishes his drink and food and leaves the bartender a tip. But as soon as he turns around, he gasps and sees two men behind him. They appear to be the same two men that got beaten up by the Wolverine really badly.
"Hey. How much money you got on you?" Chris asked him.
Zachery tries to ignore him and leave, only to be pushed back onto the chair.
"Where do you think you're going? I just asked you a question." Chris stared at him.
"L-let me go." Zachery quietly said without looking them in the eyes.
"Chris, come on. Leave the kid alone. Forget the money, man." Robert tries to talk his friend out of it.
"Hey. Until I find that son of a bitch, who's gonna help pay for the surgery. I saw this guy carrying tons of money. You wanna stick to having a broken nose like that one alien from Star Wars?" Chris brushes him off before turning back to Zachery. "Give me the money and I'll leave you alone."
Zachery sees the man slowly gesturing to a knife. He looks at Chris and slowly starts to hyperventilate.
"Hey, bub." Wolverine said, getting his attention. "You're gonna take your anger out on a lil kid? How old are you?"
"Well I'll be damned. Just the man I was looking for." Chris smiled. "You owe me money. For me and my buddy."
"You fought and you lost. Get over it. You want money, go frag yourself." Wolverine brushes them off.
"We both fought you and landed hits on you and yet no cuts and bruises. No man can take that many punches so easily. And look at what you did to my hand." Chris holds up his broken hand all wrapped up.
"And this is me that doesn't give a shit. You brought that on yourself, bub." Wolverine smokes in his face.
"I think my point is I know who you are. Your hand felt like metal. Literally." Chris whispered. "Shall we find out more?"
"Chris, come on. It's not worth it." Robert tries to protest, but is once more ignored.
Chris brings out a big knife from his pocket and is ready to stab Wolverine in the face.
"Watch out!" Zachery suddenly yelled.
Within a second, Wolverine grabs his knife hand, slams it on the bartop and forces his face on the bartop and suddenly, three metal claws come out of his fist and they draw close to the back of Chris' head. Robert immediately stumbles backwards and trips. Wolverine sniffs and looks up and sees the bartender holding up a shotgun. He smirks and three more claws come out of his other fist and slices through the shotgun, cutting it in half like it was made of plastic. Gunpowder falls to the floor as everyone in the room witnesses what happened.
Wolverine retracts his claws before walking out of the bar with his cigar and half empty beer bottle. Everyone remains shocked by a mutant with metal claws in the room and nearly killed a guy while defending himself. Robert gets back up and helps his friend off the table.
"See? I told you he wasn't worth it. See what happens you try to pick on someone not your own size?" Robert chastises him.
"He got lucky. If he weren't a mutant, we'd kick his ass and we didn't need to deal with a young punk like him." Chris points to Zachery… only for the seat to be empty and no duffle bag or suitcase anywhere. "Wait. Where did he go?"
Wolverine hops in his Dodge Truck after finishing his beer. Despite drinking, he doesn't seem drunk. And from his point of view, his vision isn't blurry. Before he could put it into gear, he sniffs something. He gets out of his truck and looks in the truck bed and sees the same kid he saved. It was Zachery.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Wolverine looks at him.
"S-sorry. I-I-I just needed a ride. Temporary ride. My business is my own. Nothing else." Zachery pleads.
"Sorry, kid. But I'm not the kind of guy who gives rides. Now get out." Wolverine gestures with his thumb. He grabs Zach's bags and throws them onto the ground.
"W-where am I supposed to go? I d-don't have a phone nor a m-map." Zachery said out of pure shyness.
"Find one. Just not from me. I got places to be." Wolverine said.
"This is the thanks I get for saving your life?" Zachery asked.
"Save me? I don't remember that." Wolverine lies.
"C-can you at least tell me where the next closest city is? P-p-please?" Zachery once more pleads.
Wolverine hops into his truck and tries to ignore him. After taking another smoke, he looks into the mirror with Zachery nearly filling it. He puts his truck in drive, but it hasn't nudged. The man with the claws sighs in defeat as he gestures for the kid to get into the truck.
Zachery hops in without hesitation after placing his bags in the back and sits in the passenger seat next to Wolverine.
"I'll take ya to Cochrane. After that, you're on your own. You get me, kid?" Wolverine looks at him and he silently nods without turning his head"Good."
Wolverine finally puts his foot on the gas and he drives off. While he is driving, Zachery reaches for his coat pocket and pulls out from pretzels in a small bag. Doesn't seem to be much left.
"You can have some beef jerky in the glovebox." Wolverine offered.
"T-thanks." Zachery said in a quiet voice. He grabs some of the jerky and puts them in his bag for later. "Z-Zachery. My …..name is Zachery. Or Zach." He introduces himself as he rubs his hands together to get warm.
Wolverine turns on the AC and the heat turns on. He tries to grab Zach's hands and put them on the heater, but he quickly pulls away.
"Relax. I won't hurt you, kid." Wolverine tries to reassure the young autistic mutant.
"N-no, it's nothing against you, I-I swear. I-it's just that….. when I touch someone, bad things happen. I-I don't k-know what th-this is. It's me who doesn't want to… hurt anyone." Zachery does his best to explain. He still looks straight while talking to him.
"Hmm. I never heard of anything like that. But you're Zach, right? How long has this been happening?" Wolverine asked.
"Uhh, t-two weeks r-roughly." Zach said. Wolverine can easily tell that Zach doesn't talk as much as he used to. And he tends to stutter almost every time.
"Are you always like this?" Wolverine looks at him.
"It's just that…. I'm autistic. At a late age." Zachery tells him.
"What the hell is autistic?" Wolverine asked.
"Well, what kind of name is Wolverine? Do you go by any other name" Zachery asked
"…Logan." He answered.
Zach nods before looking at his hands. "D-does it hurt? W-when they c-come out?"
"Every time. But I guess this is why I'm called Wolverine." Wolverine replied.
"G-guess? W-what do y-you …mean?" Zachery tilts his head.
"Kid, no offense, but this is my thing and my thing alo–" CRASH!
Mid-sentence, a tree suddenly falls right in front of the truck and Wolverine's seat belt breaks off and he goes flying through the windshield, shattering it almost completely. Luckily, the truck, now ruined, is next to a gas station.
Wolverine lays in the snow motionless as Zachery regains consciousness and finds himself stuck. He tries to break free, but the seat belt would not budge. But before he could think further, he sees Wolverine getting up from the snow. He stumbles and has a bit of a hard time walking as he stumbles forward a few times. Zachery couldn't believe his own eyes when he somehow survived being thrown through a windshield.
But the young one's eyes widen when Wolverine cracks his neck like he just woke up from a long nap and several wounds on his face, big cuts, unlike anything anyone has seen. But within seconds, his big cuts started stitching themselves back together and then, they were gone. Like they were never there to begin with.
"Kid. Kid, you alright? Hey, kid!" Wolverine snaps his fingers to get his attention after standing there in shock. "You okay, there?"
"I-I'm stuck! H-help!" Zach shouts as he tries to budge again.
Wolverine starts walking towards the passenger side to help the kid out. But then he stops and takes a sniff. He grits his teeth in anger as he unsheathes his claws. Sabretooth suddenly jumps out and grabs Wolverine's throat and slams his head into the ground.
"Y-you again!" Wolverine glares at him.
"Miss me? Good. You owe me answers." Sabretooth smiles as he throws him into a weaker tree.
Wolverine quickly gets back up and growls. The two animal-like mutants charge at each other. They jump to attack as Wolverine stabs Sabretooth in the chest with his claws and slams him into the ground. Sabretooth easily kicks him off and roars. He grabs the Wolverine and slashes across his face a few times before throwing him near the tree that caused the truck to crash. Wolverine gets back up and jumps off the big tree, roars as he plunges his claws forward to stab Sabretooth in his shoulders and slashes across his shoulders a few times before Wolverine is stabbed in the stomach by him and cut across the right thigh. Sabretooth throws Wolverine into the ground two times before stabbing him near his heart, causing him to scream in pain.
While the two are fighting, Zachery has been using a sharp piece of glass to cut his way out of the seat belt and manages to set himself free. As soon as he breaks out, he opens the passenger door and sees the two fighting. He once more tries not to hyperventilate, thinking of what he could do to help.
"Do you remember now? No? How about this?" Sabretooth gleefully smiles before throwing Wolverine once more into another tree.
Despite getting beaten up, Wolverine is not one who will not go down without a fight. He sees Emma Frost, Destiny and Rogue. He was ready to launch at them. Until… he hears someone in his head.
"It was only a matter of time before the brotherhood of mutants found you, Wolverine. Or Logan. Whichever you call yourself. Now that you're here, we have what we truly want. Twice the prize." Emma Frost said as she and Destiny approached Wolverine. He covers his head as he screams in pain as he suddenly has a severe headache, as many brief memories play in his head and had no chance of figuring them out. Wolverine slowly passes out and his claws retract.
"Remember. He said we need them alive." Destiny reminds the two.
Then the three look at the young mutant watching the whole fight. Zach intends to turn tail and run for his life. But when he tries to do so, Rogue appears right in front of him and he nearly slips and falls onto the snow as she took her gloves off..
"P-please. Don't kill me." Zach begged.
"I'm sorry, sugah." Rogue said with a big look of regret on her face as she cups his face
Zach gasps as if suddenly, he couldn't breath nor talk. His veins started appearing on his face. Rogue continues to drain him, but to knock him unconscious. But as she is doing so, she closes her eyes and starts… tearing up? How could this be? What could possibly cause her to cry like this? She starts to feel his memories and powers. But what exactly?
Before Rogue could question this, she lets go of Zach's face and begins looking around. Suddenly, a storm picks up as the snow starts blowing in a different direction. Rogue sees a red laser coming her way and flies out of the way to avoid it. Sabretooth growls and smells the enemy nearby. It's the X-Men.
Storm summons strong wind and throws Destiny through the truck and through some trees. Storm then summons lightning and fires at the truck, but Destiny escapes before it explodes. Cyclops then approaches Destiny. Destiny brings out two battle knives and the two fight. Cyclops was able to dodge her knife swings, knock one of out of her hands, knee her in the stomach, throw her and uses his optic beam, sending her far backwards and allowing Storm to create more snow and pushes them farther back.
Jean Grey was the next to come down and tries to read Emma's mind, but the latter uses the diamond form to shield herself, causing Jean to gesture to her head in pain. Emma attempts to attack, only for Jean to use her telekinesis to throw her back to where Destiny is. Then Colossus was going toe to toe against Sabretooth tries to claw the steel man, but doesn't even leave a scratch on him. Colossus brings some strong punches to the head, chest and stomach before throwing him into the ground. Sabretooth into the ground. Then Colossus drops a strong elbow strike to the back, causing plenty of pain before grabbing, throwing and sending Sabretooth back as well.
"C'mon. We can take em. It's four on four." Rogue tries to convince them as the X-Men are now guarding Wolverine and the boy.
Destiny has another vision. She stands in place for a few moments before returning to reality. "We can't win this fight no matter what. Fall back."
"Fall back? But we got 'em on the ropes." Rogue protests.
"You heard her. Besides, you got us some intel. You'll get your chance to fight the enemy." Emma orders her.
Rogue flies off with the other two ladies following them. Sabretooth growls and stares at Wolverine's body before he too runs away. Rogue flies away as she look down at Zach with a sorrow look on her face, feeling sorry.
Once they were gone, the X-Men go to check on the two mutants they have recovered. Zach's vision is blurry. The last thing he sees are the X-Men standing over him, making sure he's alright before he passes out as well.
Note: A nice callback to X-Men 1 back in 2000. I thought this setup was appropriate since Wolverine is Canadian as far as I remember. And this time, most of the Brotherhood and X-Men were involved in this short fight. But do not worry, there will be more fights coming your way soon enough. And you can tell Zach's speech pattern has changed for the worse due to the incident and not talking to anyone. And he's been stuttering, which is normal for mutants and people with autism like him. Next chapter is one of my favorites.