28 Faceless Poet
{Shhhhhh.....}, the reptile cut off his exclamation of surprise with a low growl. {You were loud enough so far. Die quietly.}
Logan's eyes almost popped out of his metallic head; his sense of danger spiked through the roof; instinctively crouching into an aggressive stance, ready to pounce but stopping when he reminded himself that the creature had saved Bobby - intentionally or unintentionally.
"Who-Mmmmph!"
A scaled hand clamped over Shaw's mouth, muffling his useless struggle.
{I said QUIET!}, Peter hissed, slowly watching Shaw's muscles convulse in pain. He sensed Logan circle around him, moving to stand before Bobby and Kitty who were slowly getting over their shock at Shaw, one of the most powerful mutants they knew, getting one-shot by a random draconic creature.
Normally, Gila monster venom was harmless to humans, quite painful, but harmless - and to mutants like Shaw, who had a small healing factor, it was nothing more than a mosquito bite.
But this wasn't just Gila Monster venom.
It was a highly evolved concoction that Peter himself could control, and one that was specifically designed for pieces of shit like the one before him.
BAM!
A kinetic punch slammed into his armour, but its intricately designed structure dissipated the energy into a much greater surface area, achieving nothing.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
The punches continued to weaken until it was worse than an ordinary human. He had expended all the kinetic energy he possessed.
Shaw was doomed, and he knew it.
"MmmmmMMphh!!"
His pupils trembled with a mixture of pain and fear as the large, blood-red reptilian irises seemed to stare into his very soul. To make it worse, he sensed no hate in them - those inhuman eyes.
Just...apathy. As though his death was meant to be. As though he was meant to fall to the perfect predator.
To Peter.
"Mmmmmph....mmmph...mm.....mmm....."
Shaw's frantic flailing slowly began to slow, before ceasing entirely, his eyes losing the crazed intelligence it once possessed. With a sad sigh, the little Kinetic energy dissipated into the air, signalling the passing of a once proud mutant. One of the most prominent members of the Hellfire Club, an Alpha-level mutant, was dead.
***
"Mutant supremacy in this era is a bad idea. It's bad for business.", Emma firmly shook her head, lounging on a lavish chair in a more lavish room, a small glass of wine resting on a small table beside her.
She was facing a hologram, whose face was blurred, comfortably hovering over a similar chair.
[ I beg to differ. We are clearly the next evolution from the inferior Homo Sapiens. Ask any biologist and they will inform you without a shadow of a doubt that we, the Homo Superior, are the next evolution of the 'Human' species. We age slower, we have powers that bend reality itself! Is that not proof enough? ]
"I am not denying the fact that we are superior, which I believe I've made clear numerous times. My point is that it's bad for business, which is the foundation of the Hellfire club if you've forgotten."
[ Hah! Don't kid yourself ], the hologram snorted. [ The foundation of the Hellfire Club is superiority. That was the very reason it was founded. ]
"I speak about the present. The past, important as it is, must not dictate our decisions now."
[ The past....is far more important than you could possibly fathom. ], the hologram growled, as though Emma's retort had pried out a painful memory.
"Tha-
CRACK!
Emma froze mid-sentence as she heard something she'd always dreaded.
"..shaw?..", she whispered in a soft voice, unable to find the link to Shaw's mental barrier in her mind. Other than the one that she herself had, it was the strongest one that she'd created, which would take even Xavier, the strongest telepath ever, a few to break through.
[Wha-
CLICK!
Emma psionically cut off the connection and slowly stood up, the objects in the room, trembling at the mental pulses she was unintentionally giving off.
"Shaw?"
The items began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Shaw? SHAW?!"
The objects began to crack, the glass chandeliers and the intricately designed cups - all crumbling into pieces.
"SHAW!!!"
BOOM!
The room blasted apart, ripped apart brick by brick.
***
"Is he dead?", Logan whispered, staring at Shaw's body held up by the draconic creature and backing away with Bobby and Kitty behind him who were ready to jump into action at any moment, looking scandalised at the fact that someone had resorted to killing.
Peter's sinuous tail twisted over to the brown pouch, picking up a syringe via his adhesive touch and promptly depositing it in his claws.
SHINK!
He plunged the syringe into Shaw's neck, its needle piercing his flesh as though it was nothing but butter, and much to his surprise it filled up instantly, the transparent cylinder turning crimson.
"Why the syringe? I don't know if you noticed, but you have claws...", Logan frowned while Bobby and Kitty looked traumatised after watching the scene.
Peter merely ignored him, attaching the filled syringe to his armour with his adhesive touch and turning to the end of the runway two hundred or so meters away where he could sense around ninety human brains.
"You speak, bub? We appreciate the help, but we need to know who you are", Logan spoke slowly, his muscles still tensed.
{All you need to know is that I have no quarrel with you}, Peter growled, the bass in his voice rumbling in the X-men's chest. {That, and I want Killian}
"Why?", Logan's eyes glancing at Shaw's limp body hanging from Peter's clawed hands. "Shaw wanted him too? What's all this about?"
BAMF!
A wave of Brimstone assaulted Peter's enhanced senses as a demonic-looking mutant appeared from a momentary tear in reality that glowed a bright red. Blue-coloured fur covered his body and a pointed tail extended out from behind his back.
"Bobby, you alright?", he grabbed the wide-eyed kid's arm. "I-I'm sorry I didn't save you fast enough. Shaw was too fast a-and I was still recover-
"It's fine, Kurt", Bobby waved Kurt off, his icy blue eyes still fixed on Peter who was intently looking at the new mutant with his reptilian eyes. "That...person, saved me by killing Shaw. I still don't know how I fell about that."
Peter almost wanted to snort at the sentence before he reminded himself that this was probably one of Bobby's first missions. Killing was almost akin to heresy for him, compared to Logan to whom it was but another tuesday.
'Was he the garbled mind that I detected?', he mentally frowned at Kurt.
Even now, Kurt's mind was hard to detect, as though it wasn't entirely human - which was true, as he was a mutant. But that wasn't the only thing affecting Peter's ability - it was also because he was one of Azazels. To make it worse, he couldn't detect Logan, Kitty, Bobby and the other mutants due to what he deduced to be a mental barrier, which made him reconsider the potential of the ability.
Logan's barrier seemed to be especially difficult to pierce, given his willpower and age, but it was the fact that Kurt's brain didn't require a barrier to be hard to break through that made him worried. How many other non-humans would he be required to fight?
"Y-yeah...", Kurt nodded, turning to Logan before glancing at Peter with a hint of fear in his eyes. "We have to leave. Olivia and Harald will be here any moment."
"Shaw's lackeys? But we still have a terrorist to beat.", Logan frowned and looked at the plane in the distance, whose emergency exit seemed to be glowing molten hot. " Get the kids back to safety, I'll deal with him"
"No, we want to fight!", Bobby interjected, his fists covered in ice crystals - his pleading, blue eyes staring directly into Logans. "Please! You told me I would be perfect for this mission!"
"Speak for yourself...", Kitty mumbled holding her head, refusing to look up, evidently dizzy. "I want to go back..."
{Enough}, Peter rasped and all their heads snapped to him, his silhouette in the strong lighting exuding strength. {You may leave. That 'terrorist' is mine.}
"Is it because of the Extremis?", Wagner asked tentatively, but Peter merely looked to the side, listening intently for any sounds from outside the airport.
{I shall not dally around any longer}, he said turning around to the plane whose exit had completely melted, spilling down to the runway, and melting the cleanly laid road. {I hope we never meet again}
BAM!
The ground cracked as Peter activated his speed burst, dropping Shaw's body, grabbing the syringes and dashing towards the plane with incredible speed, using two jumps to instantly close the distance.
"What Extremis? We need to kno-
"We'll talk later!", Kurt interpreted Bobby, grabbing both his and Kitty's arms. "We need to go. Now! We don't want to be caught with our pants down, do we?"
"Yeah, yeah...", Logan grumbled, sheathing his claws, grabbing Shaw's body that was now a sickly green before holding onto Kurt's arm.
"Well, isn't this a story to tell...", he whispered looking at the reddish reptilian blur smash into a man who attempted to step out of the melted hole.
BAMF!
***
A blast of cold night breeze met Killian's steaming face as his hands managed to make a large enough hole in the emergency exit. The air that stank of melted metal, plastic anf flesh was blown away by the wind.
His glowing orange body starkly contrasted in the relative darkness as he looked down onto the runway, his enhanced eyes clearly seeing the melted tar.
"Property damage is a shame; but there's no need for me to bear the blame", Killian chuckled to himself like a little kid and lightly jumped off the exit, bracing himself for the fall.
BOOM!
CRACK!
Just then, an immense force slammed into his side filled with such incredible power that it made his sturdy body snap like a twig.
"Aaaargh!", he yelled in pain as the unknown object slammed him into the runway, his body digging into the tar.
"Urk!", he gurgled as the entirety of his body seemed to light up in an attempt to heal the devastation. He slowly opened his eyes to be met with two glowing, inhuman irises filled with disgust and anger.
{You like disfiguring people, do you?}, a terrifying growl emanated from the large figure, its rage easily discernable.
"Hahah...urgh...hehhaha...", Killian's slowly healing body trembled in uncontrollable laughter. "I lo-
BOOM!
The figure slammed him into the tar once more, cutting off his retort.
{I do not wish to hear you speak, you rat.}, the figure spat once more, before a large clawed hand obscured his fading vision.
{Just give me your face.}
***
