Having switched off, I was expecting to wake up in a lot of pain, or at least a feeling of discomfort. But there was none of that. No wounds could be felt on my body. When I opened my eyes, I saw a forest surrounding me. I didn't realise how I'd got here, because I'd given the coordinates for another place. I felt fine. As I examined my appearance, I realised that these were not the clothes I had gone to work in. I was now wearing military type trousers and a single t-shirt with unreadable writing on it. Trying to check my stats, I couldn't get a response from the system. This made me very wary. Logically, no one should know about the system, and the ability to lock it down shouldn't exist at all. No, sure, someone like a living tribunal might have the power to fight the system, but I almost got my skates kicked off when fighting genetically-modified soldiers, and how could I get his attention? Or the attention of someone else so high up in the scheme of this universe? It's unclear.
Thinking about it, I couldn't come to the crux of the problem. However, I flashed a rather important thought: if the system doesn't work, what about the abilities? The acceleration worked properly, but I couldn't take even an intermediate form. This news was not very happy for me, because without it I was at best at the level of Captain America. I was distracted from my musings by an eerie roar that came from the east. Hoping that I was still on Earth, I walked in the opposite direction, not wanting to meet the owner of such vocal cords.
As I walked through this forest, I noticed a strange thing: I had not heard a single sound made by birds or animals during my entire stay here. It was as if the whole forest had died out. And I might even have thought I was alone if that roar hadn't come again. Only it didn't seem to be getting farther away, as if its owner were following me.
After a couple of hours of walking, I still hadn't come out of the forest or met a living soul, but that growl was getting closer by the hour. At first I thought I'd been thrown into the domain of the forest's top predator, which would explain the lack of other animals, but he couldn't have taken over such a large territory, could he? And how does he feed if there is no life for several kilometres?
I was pulled away from these thoughts by a growl that was even closer than before. Instead of a couple of hours, as I first thought, my meeting seemed to take place within 20-30 minutes. And as luck would have it, the sun was starting to set over the horizon, and soon without my beastly abilities I would lose a decent chunk of my effectiveness.
Deciding that since the battle couldn't be avoided anyway, I began preparations. Taking off the smelliest parts of my clothes, I was left in my trousers and bare torso. Thankfully, there was mud nearby, and I soaked my top and trousers, knocking the smell off. I piled my stuff in a pile and, taking a stick, hung my knickers on it as a flag to maximise the effectiveness of the bait. Climbing a nearby tree and armed with a reasonably sharp rock, I felt probably as my ancestors did a couple of thousand years ago. Though, if there was a community of non-humans already back then, then I guess that meant I felt even worse than some savages.
As I waited for it to appear, I saw a giant shadow a couple of dozen metres away from my decoy. By "giant" I mean he was about two or three stories high. As it got closer, I was finally able to see it. It was a giant black wolf. His eyes were burning red and causing terror inside, even though he wasn't even looking in my direction. I looked at him, then at my rock, then at him and the rock again, and so on several times. Realising the hopelessness of my idea, I didn't know what to do, as the beast had already approached my bait, which consisted of a T-shirt, a pair of socks and pants hung in the form of a flag. The beast began to sniff and survey his surroundings, and his gaze spoke of considerable intelligence. Realising that he would soon spot me, I decided to act with all the determination I had at that moment. Sighing, I jumped onto the beast, hoping he wouldn't look up.
***Second after using a ticket at a school for the alternatively gifted***.
In the blue light, on the underground floor, the body of a person appeared on the clean, gleaming metal floor. The condition of this person was critical. A pool of blood immediately spread around the unfortunate man, and the only thing that saved him from fatal blood loss was the fact that he was lying on his stomach.
Around the corner, a door opened and two people came out of it, discussing something.
«'So I hope you can get used to Cerebro and fill in for me sometimes,' said the man in the wheelchair.
«But Professor, all these voices... They just can't be curbed, there are so many of them! - answered the girl with fiery red hair. You could see the fear in her eyes when discussing this topic.
As they rounded the corner, they swallowed the words they were about to say, as the very body in a pool of blood appeared in their path.
The red-haired girl immediately snapped out of her seat and as she approached the body, she tried to read the memories to see what had happened to this young man. Her face reflected shock when she couldn't get into his mind.
«Gene, gently lift him up with your telekinesis. I've already called Hank," the man said, a look of shock on his face as he faced the overwhelming mental shield in the boy's mind. A defence of such strength he had not encountered even in other telepaths, and this kid was unconscious now, and his defences must have been severely weakened.
Lifting the body up, both telepaths were shocked again, only already at the injuries they saw. There was a clear fist mark in the boy's chest, and they couldn't understand how it was a miracle that the ribs hadn't pierced his heart.
A minute later, a man, who looked no more than 25-27 years old, appeared in the room for medical help. He was horrified to see the young man's condition.
«How is he still alive? - The man asked as if to himself.
At that moment, if Raine had been conscious, he could not have answered that question himself. A few seconds after the doctor appeared, the system alerted the unconscious Rain:
automatic track selection setup complete.
At that moment, Vo Williams (ft. Sam Tinnesz & Ruslan) - Only Survivor played in the room
«Ummmm... Professor, where is this music coming from? - Jin asked puzzled.
«He's probably a strong telepath, otherwise it's not clear why he has such resistance to mental penetration," Charles Xavier replied after thinking for a moment.
«Can you switch it off? It's interfering with the operation," Hank asked sullenly, putting on his gloves.
«Neither Gene nor I were able to break through his mental defences," the professor informed his close friend with a frown.
«You couldn't get inside his head! - Hank looked at Charles dumbfounded. And receiving a meaningful nod, he turned to the girl present in the room. - Jean, come here. You're going to help me. - McCoy began to remove the bullets from the guy's body.
***Dark Forest***
«Why exactly did he have to look up then? - I thought, preparing for a life-or-death fight. As I was falling, the bastard heard me and opened his mouth, hoping I would fall in like a grape. So I made a hard decision and sacrificed my weapon, sending it inside the throat of the enemy. Because of that, he slammed his mouth shut sharply, and I was able to push back from his muzzle, having previously hit his nostril with all my might.
And so, while this multi-metre long thing was coughing up pebbles like a 100% cat, I ran up and threw a few punches at his weak points: his stomach and his throat. You'll say "Genius!" and I'll agree, because with that I helped the stone leave its body.
Not fully dodging a paw full of gratitude, I lost some meat by a couple of kilos from my left side. Now I couldn't hide in the forest, and the funny thing was that my abilities were working against me, because if I turned off the acceleration, I'd lose my head, and while it was working, I was losing blood too fast. When I realised my condition, the beast even stopped trying to kill me and didn't give me a chance to get away from him. How am I supposed to get out of this mess?
***Operation Room***
«Gene, clamp that artery while I stitch up the side," said a man who could have been mistaken for a butcher or a maniac because of the amount of blood on his hands and clothes.
«Okay," the girl replied, but the sight of blood and torn body parts was too horrible for the young woman. She began to feel dizzy and let go of the clamp. The wound abruptly began to fill with blood.
«Jin!!! I told you to hold the clamp! - The man shouted, and his face began to turn blue. But he was able to suppress his anger in time.
At that moment, the tune in the room changed. The new song was familiar to those present, but that didn't make them happy, because AC/DC's Highway to Hell was playing.
«That's bad, isn't it? - Jean asked, looking at Hank.
***Dark Forest***
I never thought I'd die because of some simple wolf. Yeah, naturally he's a giant, but in Marvel's world, to die by a wolf! It's even, I don't know, kind of wrong in a way. And here I am, without a weighty body part on my right side, looking probably like a biscuit after a bite right now. I see the wolfman walk slowly and arrogantly towards me, throwing a look of contempt at me, and I hear the last phrase.
«Beggar," the wolf utters, and his fangs separate my head from my body.
***
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