He unbuttoned the coat and held it open, resigned. The wind caught the fabric, pulling it from his sweaty hands. The bright yellow X and circle emblem of the X-Men flashed in and out of view.
Louth took an involuntary step backwards, his face gone pale with fear. Alvarez swore, her hand tightening on her weapon. Eva watched it all with wide eyes, waiting for Christopher’s lead. With quiet pride, he straightened his goggles.
“Are you one of those mutants?” asked Lough.
They locked eyes for a moment. The bottomless fear in Lough’s eyes echoed Christopher’s, but the gulf between them couldn’t have been wider. If only Christopher could bridge it, but he didn’t know how.
“Yes,” he responded simply.
Alvarez spat on the ground as if trying to clear something disgusting from her mouth.
“We’re just trying to find our friends, like we said. We didn’t do anything wrong,” said Eva.
To Christopher’s surprise, Lough seemed to consider this. “How do we know you have nothing to do with what happened here earlier? Those robots?”
Eva shrugged. “From what I heard, the robots were shooting at a mutant, not the other way around. Besides, do you see any robots here right now? I don’t.”
Lough looked from Eva to Christopher and back again. He rubbed at his jaw thoughtfully, his fingers rasping over the stubble.
“You may have a point,” he conceded.
“Are you kidding me?” Alvarez interjected, not moving her gaze from Christopher and Eva. “Mutants killed my big brother. After college, he got a job with the government. We always knew he was destined for big things. He was the quarterback of the football team. Always got straight As. The prom king. So we weren’t surprised when the feds wanted him. His first month, he got assigned to an air security detail. His chopper picked up Magneto after a big battle. It exploded. Only the mutant survived.” She bared her teeth in a bitter smile. “I wonder what happened. That’s some coincidence, isn’t it?”
“Magneto isn’t here, though. These are kids,” said Lough.
“They’re abominations. You’re not letting them go, Lough. Not on my watch,” she declared, pulling her Taser and pointing it at Eva.
Christopher felt sick with fear. Now things would go very badly. Even if they didn’t get tased, the guards would turn them over to the cops for sure. He didn’t want to go to jail again. The idea terrified him. He had to do something, but he didn’t know what.
Before anyone could move a muscle, a tawny shape hurtled out of the sky, landing on Alvarez with a snarl and pinning her to the ground. It was an enormous man, with slabs of muscle on a frame built for quick movement. He twisted to look at the mutants, his face framed by wild, golden hair and thick muttonchops. Impossibly long fangs jutted from his mouth, which curled in a feral grin. He wore a long trench coat, the collar flipped up to hide his face.
It was Sabretooth.
Chapter 11
For a moment, no one moved. The guards stared in shock at the mutant that had just dropped out of the sky. Sabretooth stared at the X-Men symbol still visible inside Christopher’s unbuttoned coat, a satisfied smirk on his face. Eva and Christopher stared at Sabretooth like he was Santa Claus and had just landed his sleigh in front of the museum.
“There you are,” he said. “Been looking for you.”
“Oh. Hi,” Eva replied, overcome with shock.
Before the stunned police officers could react, he grabbed onto Eva with one hand and Christopher with the other. Tensing, he gathered strength in his massive legs and sprang up the tall pillars that ran the length of the museum. Rain and air whooshed past Eva’s face, and she couldn’t decide whether she was exhilarated or terrified by their rapid ascent. He landed easily, as if he carried people onto tall buildings every day, setting them down onto the puddle-strewn stone parapet with a thud.
Eva craned her head to look up at the infamous Sabretooth. He loomed over her, blotting out the dim outline of the sun. His hazel eyes glittered despite the dull afternoon as he took them both in with a dismissive raking glance. He didn’t seem hurt. After all, he hadn’t had much problem leaping on and off buildings. Speaking of which, she glanced over the edge to see if the cops had mounted their pursuit yet and immediately wished she hadn’t. Vertigo gripped her, setting her head to spinning, and she had to grab onto something to keep from toppling over.
That something turned out to be Sabretooth’s arm. It felt quite sturdy. She’d felt weaker tree trunks.
“Don’t like heights, eh?” he said, the corner of his mouth quirking up in amusement. “If you fall over, I’m not going down to fetch you again, missy. It’s been a long day.”
“I won’t fall,” she said. “I was checking to see if the cops were on their way up here yet.”
“We’ve got a couple minutes. They have a lot of stairs to climb, and they’ll want to put on their big boy pants first.” He bared his teeth. It might have been a smile, but she wasn’t entirely sure. “I’m scary.”
“You must be Sabretooth.”
“And you must be the newbies. It’s about time you got here. What did you do, crawl?”
“We ran into a few problems en route. Nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Eva tried to project an adult kind of confidence, but something about Sabretooth made her feel childlike. Maybe because his thigh appeared to have the approximate circumference of her waistline? Regardless of the reason, she didn’t like how it felt. The whole purpose of breaking the rules and haring off on this mission had been to prove that she deserved to take the training wheels off, and she did not like this feeling of instant regression one bit.
“Who’s babysitting you today? I hope it’s Logan. He owes me twenty bucks,” said Sabretooth, prowling restlessly around the museum rooftop.
Christopher finally unfroze. He’d been staring at Sabretooth with his mouth open ever since they’d touched down on the roof, and now he closed his jaw with a click. It looked like someone had finally remembered to un-pause him with some cosmic remote control.
“No,” he said. “Wolverine’s not here. It’s–”
“Who is it then?” Sabretooth interrupted. “Cyclops? He’s got a stick up the butt, but I’ll take it.”
“It’s just the two of us. We’re on a training exercise with the X-Copter. We tried to tell you, but the transmission cut out,” said Eva.
Sabretooth stopped mid-step. Now it looked like he’d been paused too. His head swiveled in slow motion to pin her with his eyes. Then he stalked toward her on quiet catlike feet, stopping inches away.
“You’re pulling my chain,” he said. “That’s brave of you, missy. But I’m not in the mood for it today.”
If this had been one of the hero storybooks that she’d read to pieces as a kid, this would have been the part where she gave a stirring speech. She would make Sabretooth realize the error of his ways, and they’d treat each other with mutual respect or maybe even team up to vanquish the true villain. Although now that she’d met Sabretooth in person, she thought that his likely response to such a speech would be mocking laughter or maybe a quick punch to the throat. So she kept it simple instead. To be honest, the lost opportunity disappointed her a little.
“You said it was urgent, and we couldn’t reach you again, so we came,” she said.
He sighed the deep, heavy sigh of a man who cannot believe how bad his luck has become. Then he ran a hand through his hair, his claws snagging on the tangled strands.
At the far end of the roof sat an emergency exit, illuminated with a red glowing sign. A heavy chain wrapped around the bar, fastening it to a jutting pipe some distance away. As Sabretooth pondered his karma, the door began to shudder as someone tried unsuccessfully to open it from the other side. After a brief pause, a deep, repetitive pounding noise began to reverberate across the roof as they tried to beat the door open instead.
Sabretooth’s lips curled, exposing his teeth. His back hunched, losing its upright, civilized posture as he contemplated the door, waiting for their pursuers to break through. His tawny eyes lit with a feral light from within. Eva didn’t know what to do. If he lost control, she didn’t know how to stop him. She could bubble him, but that would only delay the inevitable.
“Why did you radio us?” she blurted, stalling for time. “Obviously, you’re fine.”
He blinked, looking at her, and some of the wildness fled his eyes. He licked his lips.
“I’m not alone out here,” he admitted. “What do you do?”
“Huh?” she asked.
“Your power. Mutant abilities. Mumbo jumbo. What do you do?” he snapped.
“Oh. Time bubbles.”
“What the heck is a time bubble?”
“It’s a bubble that freezes time inside it?”
She didn’t know why it was a question, but it came out that way. Sabretooth didn’t even seem to notice. He just grunted and turned to Christopher.
“What about you, Dreadlocks? What’s your schtick?” he asked.
“I’m Christopher,” he said. “I heal people.”
Sabretooth froze. “You any good?”
“I guess so,” replied Christopher modestly.
Eva wasn’t going to stand for that. Christopher needed to quit selling himself short, and besides, Sabretooth wanted to write them both off as useless. Downplaying their skills wouldn’t help. He hadn’t shown much interest in her bubbles, but Christopher’s healing had piqued his interest. Maybe Sabretooth’s companion hadn’t accompanied him to pick them up because they’d been badly injured.
“He’s too modest,” she interjected. “Emma Frost stabbed herself in the heart today, and he kept her alive.”
“Emma stabbed herself?” Sabretooth asked with obvious incredulity.
“It was only in the Danger Room. None of it was real. She did it to teach me a lesson,” Christopher explained. “A very bloody lesson.”
After a moment’s consideration, Sabretooth nodded. “I can see it. She’s a little crazy.”
“I won’t argue with you,” said Christopher in even tones.
Sabretooth grinned, visibly relaxing. He clapped Christopher on the back, making him stagger. The door boomed again, and Sabretooth hissed, the loud noise causing him visible pain. The chain rattled, and the pipe shook loosely. One of them would give out before much longer.
“I could use you, kid. We ought to get out of here before those gun-crazy idiots make themselves more annoying than they already are. Honestly, who taught them how to break through a darned door?” Sabretooth said.
As if on cue, the door burst open, the chain whipping loose and flying at them as if possessed. Sabretooth snatched it out of the air as SWAT officers in their black riot gear poured out of the doorway, assault rifles held at the ready. He swung the long length of heavy metal around in a wide arc and whipped it back at them, catching four of them with its lethal weight and knocking them to the ground before they could react.
Eva wasted no time. Sabretooth’s wild aggression gave her confidence despite her fear. She bubbled three of the SWAT officers in front and watched as the men behind them ran into the bubble, smacking their helmets against its surface at full speed and bouncing off it painfully. Sabretooth spared her an admiring glance and a nod that said he’d noticed the move, and she couldn’t help but grin.
Then the telltale RAT-A-TAT-TAT of gunfire pierced the air, and Christopher yelped in fear. Shaking uncontrollably, Eva began to look around wildly for cover when he yanked her behind him, shielding her with his body. Sabretooth roared, an animal sound of pure fury. Then he grabbed her, making her feel a little like a package being passed around from person to person. She would have protested, but then he grabbed Christopher too, and he leaped off the building.
Treetops rushed at them with frightening speed, and although Sabretooth had probably done this a million times before, Eva felt certain that she was about to break both of her legs. Her heart leaped up into her throat, and then strangely, a wild exhilaration filled her. It didn’t drive away the fear, but it rode alongside it, and she whooped aloud in delight and terror. Sabretooth laughed in her ear, and Christopher shouted, “You’re both nuts!”
They landed with a bone-jarring jolt. Sabretooth rolled into the impact, holding each of them tucked under an arm, but regardless of these significant efforts, Eva felt like her body was a giant bell that had just been rung. When he released her, it took her a moment to get her bearings. When she finally did, she realized that the gentle PIFF PIFF PIFF that surrounded her had nothing to do with the rain falling on the concrete. Those were bullets.
It scared her, of course, but by this time her system was so overloaded with adrenaline that it barely registered. She couldn’t get any more frightened, nor more ready to run or fight or flee. She would do whatever she had to do, and then she would cry for about five years.
“Run!” shouted Christopher.
Sabretooth had already begun to move toward the tree line, looking back at them with an expression that spoke volumes, if those volumes contained long irate paragraphs complaining about stupid people who stood around twiddling their thumbs while SWAT teams tried to blow holes in them with semi-automatic weapons. Eva and Christopher scrambled to catch up, and the three of them took temporary refuge in the bushes at the back of the museum. For the moment, they couldn’t see any cops, but they all knew this wouldn’t last for more than a few seconds.
Eva and Christopher both gasped for breath, but Sabretooth remained fresh as a daisy. He looked them over critically. Eva straightened, trying to look like her legs weren’t wobbling, but they’d turned to jelly underneath her. Sweat trickled down her temple. His keen eyes had to have picked up on it, but thankfully he turned away without calling her out.
“Here’s the plan,” he said, drawing a quick map in the dirt at their feet with a claw. “We’re heading for a parking garage. We’ll go around the museum and down this path to the right. Take this fork here. You’ll see the garage on your left. You got it?” They both nodded. “You two stick to the trees and stay safe, no matter what happens. I’ll stay out in the open and draw their fire. You can use those fancy bubbles of yours to freeze anybody who gets too close if you really want.”
“You need me to heal you if you get shot?” asked Christopher eagerly. “I can do that.”
Sabretooth laughed. “Kid, I eat bullets for breakfast.”
Nonplussed, Christopher shook his head. “Well, then, remind me never to eat your cooking, because that sounds disgusting.”
Sabretooth rose from his haunches. “You know, I was wrong about the two of you. I’m glad I didn’t kill you after all.” He sauntered down the path, trusting them to follow.
In his wake, Eva and Christopher exchanged a long, worried glance.
“He was kidding, right?” she asked.
“I honestly have no idea,” he responded.
Chapter 12
Over the past few weeks, the students of the New Xavier School had done a lot of hiking. Although there was really nothing to see but snowy woods and different snowy woods, the fresh air refreshed them after spending hours cooped up underground. As a result, Eva and Christopher had both become better at moving around in the underbrush without sounding like stampeding buffalo. Now, Illyana said they sounded more like stampeding goats. Eva thought that had to be an improvement. After all, goats were less than half the size of buffalo, right? They had to be quieter by default.
The two of them stampeded like goats through the bushes and trees, trying to stay hidden from view as they followed Sabretooth toward the parking garage. The museum grounds swarmed with cops now, many more than before. For some reason, a mutant wh
o leaped onto buildings seemed to have alarmed the police more than the violent robots had, because their presence had tripled. Eva saw mounted officers through the trees, and in the distance she heard helicopters. She worried about how they’d respond to the X-Copter once they saw it, but she didn’t think the cops had enough speed to keep up once they got into the air. All they had to do was heal Sabretooth’s mystery friend, get back to the chopper, and get the heck out of Dodge.
Sabretooth sauntered down the path, whistling and filing his claws on a piece of bark he’d pulled off some tree. It made a rasping sound that set Eva’s teeth on edge. His plan seemed to be to make as much noise as possible to distract the cops from the students’ presence in the undergrowth a few yards away.
It worked. A pair of police officers stepped onto the path before him without a second look into the patch of trees that hid the students from view. The sight of Sabretooth in all his enormous, whistling glory had short-circuited their training and made them reckless. One of them shot the dirt right at his feet and yelled, “Freeze, sucker!”
Sabretooth dropped the bark and tilted his head to look at them. He seemed unfazed by the bullet that had nearly taken off his toes. In fact, he seemed positively delighted by the cops’ aggression, eager to let himself off the chain. Eva couldn’t decide whether this ought to worry or impress her.
“Shoot at me again, and I’ll shove that gun up your butt sideways,” said Sabretooth, grinning.
The cops froze as he grabbed their service revolvers and crushed them, one in each massive fist. Then he gave them each a little nudge on the shoulder. They stumbled, faces pasty with fear.
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