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Vicious Madam Mari Captain
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 Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2023 4:29 am
 Year 2022▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅It was good to get away from the mansion. As much as Shandra loved the school, there were just a lot of people. Even with as big as the place was (it wasn't called a mansion for no reason) it was hard to just find some peace and quiet for long periods of time. Everyone was always in each other's business. Which was why she'd decided to take a few days away from the place to do something she hadn't gotten to do in a long time - go camping. Of course, she wasn't by herself considering the fact that she wasn't the only one feeling cooped up. Aron had volunteered himself to go with her when the Professor sort of raised his eye at her request to go off in the mountains.
At the mention of traveling out to the mountains Aron was more than happy to join Shandra on her little expedition. It would be a nice change of fresh air and would most certainly be less crowded than the mansion. It was probably the result of his abilities, turning into a bear tended to make one want to be outside more, so the chance to see mountains and trees again, not that there weren’t trees at the mansion but mountains were sorely lacking. The car ride to the campsite had been a little longer than Aron liked but it would be well worth it. When the car was parked Aron was quick to get out of the car and was grinning ear to ear at the smell of the fresh air and the sounds of nature around them.
”How’s your fishing skills?” Shandra asked mischievously.
Of course, neither of them had brought fishing poles. That wasn’t the type of fishing that she’d meant. But it might take Aron a moment to figure that out as she started walking off with her pack still on her back.
Aron was distracted by the scenery, completely oblivious to Shandra grabbing her pack and only snapped out of it when she spoke. His attention turned to his friend and he smiled as he slipped on his pack and followed after her before responding after a moment, “I don’t know but it shouldn’t be that hard, should it?” Aron really didn’t think it could be that complicated.
Shandra smiled, though he probably wouldn’t be able to see that as she was walking away from him. ”Depends on if you like getting wet or not.“
She wondered how long it would take for him to realize that they would eventually be going far enough away from the designated camping site that he could be a bear no problem. After all, these woods probably had their fair share eating everything in sight as they got ready to hibernate for the winter. Though that would make communicating a little trickier. But there were other ways to get their points across.
Aron just grinned at Shandra’s remark and said, “I have no problem with getting wet.” He was totally fine with going for a swim for some fish, whether he’d be successful was an entirely different story. They’d probably been walking a good five minutes before Aron clued into the fact that they were well away from the other campsites, which meant he could have some fun.
Aron shrugged off his backpack to avoid breaking the straps and changed into a kodiak bear before picking the backpack up in his mouth and barreling past Shandra, in the direction that he could hear rushing water. It didn’t sound too far off from where they were.
Oh good; he figured it out. Shandra moved quickly behind him. Or as quickly as she could without her pack slapping her in the lower back. He got pretty far ahead of her but that didn’t bother her at all. That gave her enough time to sit down her pack and change into something better for the water. Of course, she used her powers to hide herself away. She wasn’t Aron after all - she wasn’t in favored of nudism. Or ruining her clothes for something senseless. Aron left his clothes wherever he pleased. Which worked for him.
Shandra strapped her pack back on and continued on to the sound of rushing water. When she got there she found that Aron was already in the water, his pack left on the shore. The water was crystal clear and the water was absolutely refreshing. By now Aron was already soaked from head to toe, acting very much like a kid on Christmas as he barreled through the water. It wasn’t too far upstream that Aron spotted some movement, salmon.
Aron only took a moment to glance to make sure that Shandra had made it to the shore and knew where he was before he barreled upstream and started his attempt at fishing. Which was definitely harder than he thought it would be. He started by trying to catch the fish with his mouth but he just kept getting a mouth and nose full of water, which was less than pleasant but that didn’t dissuade the rookie fisher.
This time Shandra did laugh. Quietly, but it was still a laugh. She sat her pack down as Aron continued to try to catch fish. As he worked on that she set up a fire pit, including getting out the collapsible bucket she packed full of water. Once the fire was going strong, Shandra finally joined Aron in the water.
She shivered heavily as pins and needles raced through her body. It was cold. She hated the cold. But they were going to need dinner at some point. Besides she wanted to show Aron something he probably hadn’t seen her do at the mansion before.
Once her body was mostly submerged, using a rock as a tethering so she didn’t get pushed by the current, and she was mostly use to the temperature she kept still. A salmon got within arms reach as it tried to swim past her so that it could create more baby salmons. She closed her eyes and pushed with her powers. Water splashed back to the shore as the Salmon was helplessly tossed with it. Thankfully it was on the opposite shore from the fire or she would have put out all her hard work.
One down but with how much she had just disturbed the water, it was highly unlikely that any fish would swim near her before she turned blue. Shandra grabbed at the rope and pulled herself back to the rock with numb limbs. Easier said than done. Once she was there she eyed the fish on the opposite show with a look of contemplation. Now just to figure out a way to get it back.
Aron paused a moment to catch his breath, just in time to see Shandra shoot a fish out of the water and onto the shore. He couldn’t help but let out a small huff, determined to get a fish as well. He climbed up onto the top of a rapid where fish were jumping and got himself ready. Aron of course missed the first few, or dozen, he lost track. All that he knew, was when he finally managed to catch one in his mouth, he was relieved. Aron plopped back onto his butt and looked to Shandra and after he had a moment to catch his breath, he climbed onto the shore and shook off the excess water before making his way over to Shandra and dropping the fish on the ground next to the fire.
Shandra looked at him with a pleasant and calm smile. The fish, which she had retrieved a few minutes ago, was something that she had started to work on cleaning out. Including the eyes...she liked camping but eating organs still didn’t sit with her stomach. She sat her knife down as Aron plopped his catch by her as well.
”So one and a half for you right? “ As she asked, she pulled the towel back over her shoulder to continue letting her hair dry out.
Aron offered a small grunt of confirmation to Shandra’s question before he laid down, turning his attention briefly to the water before looking back at Shandra who seemed cold. He had the luxury of having a thick coat of fur to keep him warm, so he was completely unphased by the ice cold water. Had he still been dry, he would have just dog piled her to warm her up but he didn’t suspect his wet fur would help. Aron didn’t wait for Shandra to grab the fish that he’d caught, no he instead started to eat it raw, not really paying attention to what parts he was eating, not overly concerned. (yours)
Shandra’s nose wrinkled up as she watched him rip into the full salmon. That was a little too raw for her liking.
”You’re going to make yourself sick.“
Or not. He was a bear at the moment after all. That was just her first thought on eating this fish like he was, without regard to the bile and waste still in its system.
Aron had already taken a few hefty bites out of the fish before Shandra’s expressed disgust actually registered with him. He looked at Shandra as he licked his lips, offering a grunt before he resumed eating, clearly not bothered by whatever was bothering Shandra. He shifted to sit on his butt and practically inhaled what was left of the fish, his attention turning to the fish that Shandra had properly cleaned.
She stilled her hand as she realized where his attention was. Just incase he got any ideas before she got this one done, she moved it closer. It would be harder to grab with paw and snout that way.
”This one is getting cooked,” She told him calmly as the fire continued to burn towards her side.
Aron would be lying if he said that he wasn’t disappointed that Shandra insisted that the fish she had caught was going to be cooked. After all, it meant that it was going to take a lot longer. He grumbled at the red head and looked to the water, considering just going to catch another fish. Aron decided to after a moment and lumbered back up the stream to see if he could have any luck catching another fish. He kept an eye on Shandra as he did so and sat on the same rapid that he had earlier, and snapped at any fish that jumped up.
She set the fish to cook on multiple skewers around the fire like a friend from years ago taught her a long time ago. As the fish cooked, she got to work on picking up after herself. As much as she would like to camp near the river, she didn’t want to take the chance of real bears coming to get easy food. Although she had a feeling Aron might get a kick out of that - possibly taking on a real bear.
After she was cleaned up she sat down to watch Aron teach himself to fish. It was actually kind of calming. Like watching the discovery channel.
Aron was somewhat aware of Shandra watching him try to fish but he didn’t particularly care, he was more focused on catching another fish because he was starving. He was sitting away there for a while before he managed to catch another one. That one should be enough to satisfy his hunger with the other fish that Shandra was cooking.
Aron wandered back over to where shandra was sitting, being sure to sit on the side of the breeze to shelter her from it as he started to eat the fish, his gaze drifting from Shandra watching the scenery every so often.
”Imagine if one class was survival training. You might actually like school,” the redhead commented as she checked on the fish.
Aron looked to Shandra as she commented on the fact he might like school if there was survival training. School really had never been one of Aron’s strong suits, he was more of a physical being but his heart was always in the right place. He finished the fish that he was eating before he got up and walked over to his bag, shifting back into his human form and pulling out a pair of pants and a sweater and quickly slipped them on before walking back over to Shandra, taking a seat next to her.
It wasn’t the first time that Aron, or other male teammates actually, had been naked in front of her because of special circumstances and it probably wouldn’t be the last time. Especially in Aron’s case. Shandra simply ignored it and started to pick at the first skewer of fish meat.
”Now you can have some,” the redhead said as she motioned towards the fire with spits of meat around it.
Aron looked to the skewers of fish that were circled around the fire in contemplation, he had just eaten two fish and Shandra had yet to have any. So, he only took one skewer to start with, taking a moment to blow on it to cool it down before asking, “What made you want to come out camping?”
”Restless energy,” Shandra answered between bites. ”Plus I wanted to make sure I didn’t get too rusty. What about you? Why did you volunteer to come?”
She was pretty sure she knew the answer but fair was fair. That and she wanted to give him the chance to talk if he wanted.
Aron looked to Shandra, not really expecting anything different for an answer. They both enjoyed being at the school but it was nice to get away from it every so often and just clear your head. Plus, for Aron it gave him the chance to really just let his mutant ability rip because the mansion didn’t have the space for him to walk around as a kodiak bear unless he was outside, which he was outside at the mansion whenever he had the opportunity.
He continued to pick away at his skewer as he considered the question for himself and after a moment or two responded, “Same as you, not as much freedom to use my abilities at the mansion and it’s a nice change of scenery.” Aron through and through was a person that enjoyed the outdoors more than the indoors and it was something that Shandra was very much aware of.
”You like using your powers so much and yet the Pandas are still endangered,“ Shandra said with a calm tone, though there was a slight upwards twitching at the corner of her lips.
Aron really didn’t know what to say in response to Shandra’s remark but it was clear that he was embarrassed, as his face went a deep red. He was really just at a loss for words as he sat now very quietly, focusing on finishing of the skewer and avoiding making eye contact with Shandra.
Seeing him flush only increased the small smile that threatened to split her face. It was quite amusing to see him get embarrassed seeing as he rarely was. She just knew better than to make reference to the state of Pandas or other endangered bear species when around others. The young mutant might enjoy teasing him but she didn’t actually care for making anyone feel ashamed or too embarrassed; which tended to happen when surrounded by a group rather than one to one.
Quietly she picked at her food, being careful of the tiny bones, as she finished drying off. She only ate about half the fish before making sure that Aron understood that the last skewer was for him. It wasn’t like they’d gotten a chinook salmon (those things were upwards of sixty pounds) so while there was a lot she hadn’t needed to put out a hundred different pieces.
Aron was glad that Shandra didn’t pick at it more, not that he expected her to because she generally took a dig once while they were alone and then left it for a good while. Aron looked to the last skewer that Shandra informed him was his and quickly asked, “You sure you don’t want it? I’ve already had two and a bit fish.”
"Last I checked, you need more food than I do," Shandra put it nicely.
Aron was probably close to twice her weight - but in the good, healthy way. That didn't mean that she was a twig by any means. It was just that he was twice the size of most guys and stood nine inches above her. Plus without having to ask she figured that his mutation ate up plenty of calories at some point during his transformation.
Aron looked to Shandra as she declined the food and while he wasn’t so sure that she wasn’t still hungry, he knew that it was probably something that he couldn’t get her to budge from. So, he took the last skewer and started nibbling on the bits of fish before asking, “So, where did you want to set the tent up?”
"We can't put it here," Shandra advised him. "The river is fun but it is salmon season. It's amazing that you were the only bear out there even this close to camp."
Aron offered a small nod of acknowledgment to her statement, while he really didn’t have a problem with other bears, he could understand how it would be problematic. So, Aron got to his feet as he finished the skewer and grabbed his bag as well as Shandra’s and said, “Lead the way.” He’d leave putting the fire out to Shandra and he’d carry their bags. Perks of being 6’4 and being more athletically inclined, the bags weighed next to nothing for him.
As he walked off with the bags, Shandra pushed her power beside him in what might have been a playful way. She didn't hit him but the force would pass by him and he'd have been able to feel the air moving past him like a great torrent. It was as soft as she could make it, and as small. The trees in the distance took the brunt of it before it dissipated over time. She was used to taking care of her own stuff. But she knew better than to try to fight him on that. Instead, once she sent that push, she put out the fire with the water that she had gathered earlier.
Once the smoke had clearly reached the top of the trees and she couldn't find any glowing embers left, Shandra tossed the fish guts she'd cleaned out into the river. Better that then needlessly bring predators only a few minutes away from the campsite. After that she followed after Aron. She caught up pretty quickly since this time she could run and not have to worry about the pack backing into her.
Aron felt the small gust of wind and just smirked and shook his head, well aware that it was Shandra’s doing . He glanced over his shoulder at her briefly and continued walking, looking for a nice spot that was away from the beaten path that they could set up camp. While Shandra was going to be sleeping in the tent, Aron was more than happy to sleep outside, preferably somewhere he could see the starry sky above him. The one sight that he missed from Iceland was the aurora borealis, something that he hadn’t seen in what felt like forever.
It wasn’t long before Shandra had caught up to him and a smile crept to his lips as he spotted the perfect spot, it was a flat piece of ground to sleep on and the sky was visible through the treetops, so Aron set the bags down and looked at Shandra as he asked, “Here good?”
"Perfect," she responded with a small smile.
Aron gave a small nod to her agreement that it was perfect and after a moment he pulled the tent out of the bag and started putting it together so that Shandra would have somewhere to sleep. He paused briefly and turned to look at Shandra and asked, “Do you want the rain cover on the tent?”
She contemplated the question for a moment but nodded even as she was doing it. Shandra doubted that it would rain that night but at the same time...well, she’d rather have it up just incase it did. It was already cold; she didn’t want to get colder.
”Are you use to others being useless outside or something?” The redhead asked in curiosity as she moved over to help him put up the tent.
Aron looked to Shandra as she gave a nod in agreement to putting the rain cover on. What he had not been expecting was her asking if he was used to others being useless outside. He really didn’t think that she was useless outside, he just figured it made sense to start setting up the tent. After a moment, he paused what he was doing and looked to her and said, “No, just figured I’d start setting it up. Didn’t mean anything by it.” He then resumed setting up the tent with Shandra’s help and smiled as it was finished, which didn’t take long.
At which point Shandra started gathering firewood for the night. This time she made it so that there was only about one log burning at a time. The others would fall into place one at a time as the one underneath burned. That way she knew it would go all night. And it was the best way to keep off predators that weren’t named Aron; fire tended to be a very good nature deterrent. Setting that up didn’t take long either since there was more than enough wood to be found as they were far enough away from camp grounds. Vaguely, Shandra wondered if it was against the law to actually burn a fire this far out but she brushed it off. If they were caught it would be more than easy to get away.
”How long do you think it’ll be before the new students get to try the danger room?” Shandra made idle conversation as she pulled out the canteens of water, sitting somewhere between the tent and the fire.
The new school season had started not that long ago. Just a little over five weeks. So they had plenty of fresh faces added to the Academy; most of whom, Shandra noted, had a vaguely arrogant disposition. She loved watching those kind of kids get their a** handed to them when they faced real danger.
Aron sat himself down across the fire from Shandra and considered her question. He had interacted with the new students a fair bit so he had a somewhat decent idea of their capabilities. Aron pursed his lips for a moment before answering, “I think some of them could be able to try it in a couple of weeks but most of them will probably be another month or two.” The danger room was a big stepping stone, so Aron was glad that Charles was always cautious in introducing students to it.
“Do you think he’d notice if I snuck some students in and put it to Wolverine level?”
Even though she was joking, she asked it with such a straight expression that some people may have thought she was serious. Though perhaps if she could get away with it and be assured that no one would die, she very well might have. Quickly though, her face was overtaken with the mischievous smile that spoke leap and bounds of amusement.
Aron knew Shandra well enough to know that she was joking about putting students into the danger room on Wolverine level but he shook his head and said, “I think he’d probably notice. I mean assuming no one got hurt I’m sure the students would blab and he is a telepath, so..” He just let out a small chuckle as Shandra offered her mischievous smile. Aron just smiled back and looked up to the clear sky above them, feeling relaxed and at home in the forest more than he ever did in any building since his powers had surfaced.
”Telepaths,” Shandra spoke out with a hint of disdain.
If there were two things she didn’t care for in her everyday life it was telepaths and cold weather. Unfortunately, both were in excess where she currently lived. It was just that the benefits of living with the X-men outweighed the cons. Most days.
”Hopefully he notices that you’ll be in a better mood so there can be mandatory camping trips to teach everyone survival skills,” the redhead mused. ”Then again, the peace would be ruined by kids whining about being unplugged huh?”
Aron could understand Shandra’s distaste for telepaths, it was a violation of privacy when someone entered your head and Shandra was a very private person. Something that Aron had learned over the years that it had taken him to become close friends with the fiery red head. He offered a small smile and chuckle to her remark about the possibility of mandatory camp trips but then the silence would be ruined by the kids.
He really wouldn’t mind it if it was a handful of students that had powers relevant to being in the outdoors like him. Aron knew what it was like to feel cagey when you were cooped up inside for too long when you had powers like his. After a moment of contemplation, he looked to Shandra, and spoke, “I don’t think it’d be too bad. So long as the training actually pertained to their powers. Then they have a purpose at least for being out here.”
“That’d rule out Lorna when she gets back,” Shandra said as she tried to imagine the green haired teen doing anything like camping. “And a few others that shall remain nameless.”
Aron gave a small nod as Shandra mentioned Lorna, the girl was definitely not a fan of the outdoors and liked to have something close that was metal that she could use to protect herself. He’d seen her cut herself off from the other students and seldom interacted with them, but Shandra had taken an interest in the green haired teen.
Aron looked to Shandra and decided that now was as good of a time as any to voice his curiosity, after all, it wasn’t often that Shandra took an interest in a specific student, “So, what’s special about Lorna? I mean you never take a special interest in any one student. But you took the time to earn her trust and get closer to her.”
“...she’s tough,” Shandra said after much hesitation. “Not like physically. But when it’s time to train, she reacts quickly and...thinks outside the box. Her range is improving pretty quickly but even with that she focuses on finesse...a lot of students just showboat and try to push the force. But last I saw Lorna she was practicing with steel toed boots….She’s getting creative and has embraced being a mutant faster than I ever did.”
It had taken her nearly killing her mom to come out to her parents about being a mutant. And that same night she had run away instead of being taken by the police. Helping her escape and trying to cover for her had been the nicest, and last, thing her father had ever done for her. But even with that she’d kept to herself and hadn’t even admitted that she was a mutant aloud to anyone until she got to Xavier’s. Though she hadn’t denied it or hid it from the one friend she made while traveling. Nor had she ever shied from using her powers to help her service. It was just the talking to others about it that had been the issue. An issue which Lorna didn’t seem to have.
Aron gave a small nod as Shandra gave her reasons to why she had taken a liking to Lorna, while it was a good reason he was sure that part of it was that she saw herself in Lorna. In bits and pieces here and there, the two of them were a lot alike, keeping most people at a distance. He wouldn’t pry or bug Shandra about it, no he would leave it. While he wasn’t the smartest when it came to his school education, he was definitely someone that was people smart.
After a long moment of silence Aron got to his feet and said, “We should probably get some sleep.” This time Aron didn’t rush to change into his bear form, instead he walked around to the back of the tent and stripped before shifting, deciding he should probably save some of his clothes. He then settled himself on a comfy looking patch of moss and curled up to get some rest.
”You need to work on your stamina if you can’t keeping going all night,” Shandra teased when he went to go change; never contemplating how others might take that.
Once she’d spoken, Shandra moved into the tent. It was already a lot warmer in there somehow. She got undressed and redressed inside, leaving the fire going for warmth and protection. After that she just attempted to rest. It took awhile but eventually she fell asleep.
Aron slept clear through the night, not taking long to fall asleep at all as he watched the flames dance back and forth. He stirred only once to the sounds of wolves howling off in the distance but once he was sure that they weren’t going to come anywhere near their tent, he drifted back off to sleep.
As per usual Aron was up with the sun, deciding to let Shandra sleep in, so he headed for the creek on his own to catch them some breakfast. He had to admit the water was a little bit crisp first thing in the morning but luckily he had thick fur to keep himself warm. Aron took a moment upon arriving to make sure that there were no other bears before he started to work on catching breakfast, not really sure if Shandra would be up to eating more fish or if she’d packed something else entirely for breakfast.
Shandra stirred slowly from the tent after Aron had left the camp. Yawning and stretching, she made sure to stoke the fire. Once it was burning and crackling nicely, she got to work on preparing breakfast. She’d packed away a small cooler in her pack with meats for breakfast. Given that Hank had been the one to build it, it was safe to say that the little thing was very efficient. The bacon that she’d brought stayed cold and unspoiled. And as it cooked in the caste iron pan, she got to work on her morning exercise. Normally she’d do a lot of running but she couldn’t leave the camp unattended. Besides she’d get plenty of cardio later. So with that in mind, as her stomach gurgled from the intoxicating smell of bacon cooking, she focused on stationary exercises. She paused long enough to flip the pieces when it was time.
The redhead even snacked on a piece as she prepared the hashbrowns. If Aron didn’t come back for breakfast, she silently promised that she wasn’t going to save him any. But even she knew that was a lie.
Aron was proudly carrying back three fish towards their camp when the smell of bacon and hashbrowns reached his nose. He soon came into the clearing though and dropped the fish down next to the fire, letting out a small growl as if complaining that she’d gone ahead and made bacon. Aron looked down to the fish and then to Shandra, not wanting to let the fish go to waste, after all he’d killed them. So, Aron begrudgingly laid down next to the fire and started eating one of the fish.
Shandra smiled slightly as she saw Aron’s grumpy bear look. He should have known by now that she’d cook actual food; that was something that just went with the territory when it came to her. Yesterday’s fishing venture had just been for fun. And to make sure that she could still do it, personally. Plus she figured it’d be a novel experience for him.
After a while she find a large enough rock with a flat surface nearby to set his bacon and hash browns on. She’d eaten off a paper plate but those weren’t designed for bear snouts by any means. The rock was the better option. Shandra stuck her plate into a ziplock bag and backed it away. Once breakfast was over, she cleaned and packed up their small camp, strapping her pack onto her back again.
”Need help with yours?” She asked.
Aron looked at Shandra after they’d both finished eating, taking his time a bit more than Shandra, since it wasn’t often that he was able to have fish fresh out of the stream. He looked at Shandra as she asked him if needed help with his pack, to which he shook his head and wandered over to it, pulling it behind a tree to change into his human form and strapping on his backpack. He reemerged and looked to Shandra, letting her take the lead.
Shandra moved towards the near mountain. The camping site that she had chosen for this trip was near the base of a mountain. And she figured that it would be good exercise for Aron given that walking on thinner paths in bear form might still prove to be a challenge to him. Not to mention if they had to climb up a short ledge or two. She hoped they did; it would do him some good to put this form to the test so he had a better idea about the limitations. There was a lot they could train in the danger room but it seemed that trail blazing or mountain climbing had never been a priority. It just seemed like fun for her - she'd done a lot outdoors before coming to the mansion but she hadn't exactly climbed up a mountain before. Unfortunately it seemed that he'd made the choice to climb as a human. Oh well, it would still be great exercise.
Once they'd started the climb, Shandra revealed one of the things she had planned, "Somewhere around midway up the mountain there's an area with a cabin. It'd probably be a good idea to make it there before nightfall."
The trick was just going to be finding it without the use of GPS...or even a map. She supposed they could try to find a car sized trail that the person she'd booked the place from had to use at some point. But the honest truth was that she only knew that they were on the right side of the mountain and that it was about half way up said climb. The rest was going to be an adventure. Although telling him that it was a simple cabin might have been underselling it based on the pictures that she'd seen and the price that she ended up paying. The trip out so far had definitely been worth it.
Aron followed closely behind Shandra as she lead the way towards the mountain. When he had volunteered to go camping with her, he really hadn’t asked what she had planned but was more so happy to just have the excuse to explore the outdoors. The initial climbing up the mountain was a nice gradual slope, nothing too hard but Aron could see it was quickly becoming steeper.
Aron was always one to enjoy a challenge and looked towards the very steep and rocky escarpment and smirked. He stopped behind Shandra, letting her keep going whatever path she took and dropped his backpack on the ground long enough to quickly strip, throw his clothes in his bag, which he bound to himself with a strap he’d built into it and shifted into a bear. The rocks would destroy his hands as a human, mostly because he didn’t have chalk to help him grip but it would be fine for him as a bear. So, he barreled towards the rocky cliff and then leaped up it, managing to find a spot to grip about a quarter of the way up and proceeded to slowly progress up the cliffside.
Shandra smiled and almost laughed at how eager Aron seemed. She just watched him literally throw himself into the endeavor. He seemed rather enthusiastic about mountain climbing. Which was not what she would have expected; not completely. She took him more for a skiing type of mountaineer. Or something cold. Maybe cliff jumping. But it was exceedingly diverting watching a bear climb up a mountain. For starters...a bear was climbing vertically up a mountain. She’d never seen that before. If it wasn’t for the fact that her pack weighed about half (if not more) of her body weight and would through her off balance she might have joined him. After all, and handhold that could support a bear’s weight must have been sturdy indeed. Instead, she chose the steep inclined path. It had been a long time since she’d been hiking but thankfully she kept all the muscles in good shape. It was hard to be an out of shape X-Men after all.
”Ma’am! Ma’am! Watch out!” Someone called out as they came down the path, a horrified hand pointed to the climbing bear (Aron) near by.
”Thank you,” Shandra said quietly.
”Come on...if we walk slowly away, I don’t think it’ll see us. Man, I’ve never seen a bear that big,” the fellow hiker said as he almost ushered Shandra away.
Shandra side stepped him and spun quietly. There wasn’t much room on the trail but it was still enough to move around. Barely.
”You can’t go that way,” he said forcibly. ”The bear is going that way! We need to tell Parks and Rec that it’s here so they can tranq it and get it away.”
”No,” Shandra said quickly. ”...he’s a trained bear. Uh, my trained bear.”
Keeping secrets and telling lies were two different things. One she was good at and the other she needed much more practice with. It didn’t take a genius to figure out which one was which.
Aron was completely oblivious to what was going on beneath him, completely focused on climbing the cliff, which was turning out to be far more exhausting than he’d expected it to be. Guess that was what happened when you were trying to lug two tonnes of body weight up a cliff. He was thankful when he reached the top, only then turning around to look down for Shandra, spotting her with a stranger, which he watched closely, not trusting the man around Shandra.
”Bears can’t be trained,” the man argued back.
He reached out for her arm. No doubt moved by concern for what he saw as a pretty (but foolish) you woman. Shandra side stepped out of his reach and deflected his arm away from her.
”Yes they can.”
That at least was the truth. Though she did realize that normal bears would never be able to be “trained” to the same level as Aron. But they could still get along with humans that had trained them. Usually.
”Ma’am I think your overestimating how tame he is. Even trained bears can be dangerous. Besides unless you work with a zoo I bet it’s illegal to have him.”
...probably. Shandra contemplates her options. Instead of indulging the arguments that they guy wanted to make she simply disappeared from his senses all together. She slipped between the dimensions, only barely with a foot still tethered to the one she was born in, figuratively speaking. And as she heard the man swearing about “******** mutants”. Shandra had already started to climb again. She didn’t appear back into reality until she was well away from the undoubtedly angry man, completely out of his sight in a natural way this time.
After that excursion it only took maybe ten minutes of a vigorous pace until she reached Aron.
Aron turned his head to look at Shandra as she finally caught up to him, he’d taken the time to sit down after moving away from the ledge so that the man could no longer see him. He rose to his feet when she came over and sniffed at her briefly before rubbing his head against her briefly, nearly strong enough to knock her back on her butt. As his head practically collided with her body, Shandra used her two hands to hold onto his head in order to balance out the force. It was probably as close to hugging as she really ever got. At least in a public area. But she knew him - this was his way of checking on her to make sure she’d gotten up alright.
Aron then looked up the mountain, they still had a long ways to go, so now that he’d had his chance to catch his breath, he continued up the mountain via the same steep path Shandra would be taking. Which was a fact that the redhead noticed. She looked at him almost curiously as he shuffled beside her. Though she didn’t say anything she figured that something must have gotten under his skin. Then again she had been the one to book the cabin in the woods so that could have played a part too. She wasn’t a telepath.
Shandra stopped and pulled out a map that she’d printed up of the area with the rough place that the cabin should be. She looked around to see if there were any land marks. It took a moment to orientate herself with where the river and the campsite were on her 9x11 map. Once she did, she figured that the steep, narrow truck road should be nearby. They just had to find it and follow it as it spit off to various cabins.
Aron looked to Shandra as she pulled the map out, resting his head on her shoulder to look at the map with her. He looked over the map for a moment or two before he got an idea. Aron moved his head beside Shandra and in a quick movement he grabbed the map between his teeth and pulled it out of Shandra’s grip and then took off up the hill. He paused occasionally when he was far ahead of the red head before he would keep motoring up the steep hill.
She’d been tempted to throw him off the mountain when he snatched the map from her hands and trotted off. But she reminded herself that would probably be murder. And murdering friends was bad. So she avoided giving into that particular urge. Instead she followed after him easily enough. Now that she wasn’t having to follow him up the face of a cliff she had an easy time keeping up.
Eventually the two of them found the skinny road and followed it to the right cut off area. The cabin that she’d rented barely had the right to be called a cabin at all. It was more like a delux lodge for two. There was a fully functional, modern kitchen. A gloriously sized bathroom that fit a large soaking tub. And the loft bedroom overlooked the cozy fire warmed main area. Or it would be a fire warmed area once Shandra or Aren lit one. At the time they walked in the easiest thing to notice was the fact that the far wall was barely that - it was mostly constructed out of large, divided glass panels that let them overlook the beauty of the mountain and park with ease.
Another thing they would find rather quickly was the wine, fruits, and cheese basket that was left in the sleek kitchen. It had just been easier to accept the package when she reserved the place. People asked far fewer questions when they thought that vacation were done as a romantic getaway. Which would help to explain the plethora of candles that would be stationed in the bathroom. Not that either of them would use them for what any of that had been intended for. If anything they would just be used to give some extra warmth to the area, at least as far as Shandra was concerned.
Aron looked around curiously as they made it to the cabin, it seemed nice enough, not that he was overly concerned with it. It would more so be for Shandra’s benefit. Aron didn’t bother wandering in too far though, he dropped his bag on the floor against a wall and laid down on the floor next to where the fire was likely to be. He set the map down on the floor and turned his attention to the basket of fruits, wine and cheese. Although his attention was certainly more focused on the cheese and fruits, making a note to inhale the contents of the basket later that evening.
Shandra, however, made her way around the cabin to take in everything as she hate a handful of chocolate dipped strawberries. It wasn’t merely for an aesthetic reason, though that was nice too, as she wanted to make sure she knew where everything was just Incase. Casing a place for its exists and entrances as well as any other peculiarities still came fairly natural to her. It was something she couldn’t shake despite being with the X-men for a while. It also let her see everything in the bathroom before Aron. Which led her to throwing out a box of amenities out with a soured look on her face before Aron realized they were there and (possibly) got a laugh out of it. The fruit was appreciated but that had not been; still, it was just easier than explaining the truth.
When she actually came out of the bathroom she had changed into a modest swimsuit and had put a thick robe on over it.
”Downside to all that fur is that you can’t enjoy the jacuzzi,” Shandra teased as she headed out the side door by the kitchen.
The large hot tub would have been turned on by the caretaker already and would be good to go. All Shandra had to do was open it up, hang her robe up, and climb in. Which she did with glee. The jets felt nice. As did floating in the warm water. She could probably have fallen asleep like that.
Aron looked over to Shandra as she came out of the bathroom in a robe and attempted to tease that he couldn’t enjoy the jacuzzi because of his fur. He just watched her go outside to the jacuzzi and after a long moment he rose to his feet but instead of following her, went straight for the basket of goodies. Aron moved it down to the floor and started eating the bundle of grapes first and then moved onto the cheese. He made sure to leave the wine for Shandra and one of the cheeses for her as well. Aron then proceeded to wander outside and sat on a patch of grass, rolling onto his back and just staring up at the sky.
The rest of the night went by rather smoothly. Except for when the fire went out. With the way the fireplace had been built it was impossible to setup the self sustaining format so that one log rolled down each time it was needed. Which left Shandra exceedingly cold in the loft bedroom seeing as she’d moved the majority of the covers away when it had been warm enough to do so. She woke up to go stoke the fire but ended up too sleepy to do much more than that. And in a very rare moment of weakness induced by sleep and the desire to just be warm, she forwent traveling all the way back up to her bed. Instead she just curled into Aron’s large, fury form with a couch pillow under her head and fell back to sleep. As far as her sleepy mind was concerned he had more than enough fur to share.
Aron was more than comfortable as the night crept on, unbothered by the cold air seeping its way into the cabin. He was sleeping clear through the night until Shandra came down to stoke the fire. His sleep heavy eyes opened and looked to the red head as she moved from the now stronger flames and settled on the floor next to him. Aron lifted his head and watched as she curled into him and made herself comfortable, clearly drifting off to sleep in no time. Aron watched her for a moment before curling his body around her the best that he could and resting his head back on the floor to drift back to sleep. After that, Aron slept clear through the night, occasionally waking up when Shandra shifted in her sleep but he didn’t mind. Instead he just would close his eyes and drift back to sleep. When morning rolled around though he stayed where he was, waiting for Shandra to wake up so that he didn’t disrupt her.
For the redhead, waking up was an interesting affair. She couldn’t actually remember just where she was as the sensory information came back to her in stages. She was warm, that was good, but there was a lot more. Like the feel of her skin being tickled by something soft. And then there was the fact that the flood was hard. There was a musky smell all around her that coupled with the scent of the fire. And while there was a lot of light streaming in, the window was blocked from her view as her back had been turned to it. Not to mention there was something large and breathing behind her blocking even more light. Once that registered it wasn’t long before she was awake and an embarrassed mess of a woman. Her face almost matched her hair at one point which was a feat upon itself.
Without saying anything to Aron, Shandra just got up and headed into the bathroom. But not before stopping at her bag to get a fresh change of clothes. She was going to hide in either the shower or a bubble bath for a while until the embarrassment died down. She hadn’t decided which.
Aron felt Shandra start to stir and rise for the morning, although it took a long moment for the red head to really become aware of what was happening. He watched as she got up in a hurry and made a straight line for the bathroom after grabbing her change of clothes. Aron just laid there for a moment and after a long moment of consideration, he got to his feet and wandered outside, heading for the stream to relax and maybe catch a fish or just go for a swim. He was fine with either really.
It took her a long time to get her composure back before she exited the bathroom. Thankfully Aron was still gone at that point. Shandra busied herself with making breakfast. There were eggs and pancakes on the menu for that morning. As well as some oranges and the like. Shandra sat Aron’s portions on the stove underneath a warmer before she decided to head out for a hike. After her lapse of judgement last night where she had buried herself into her shifted friend without asking, she felt too guilty and embarrassed to wait around to see his reaction. The cold has always been her enemy but damn she hadn’t thought she’d run into that kind of a problem before. Instead of facing it head on she decided to retreat for an exuberantly long walk. So that’s where Shandra could be found (or not found really) all day. She barely made it back to the cabin before 4pm.
While Shandra had been out on her hike, Aron kept himself busy with swimming and gorging himself on fish. The highlight of his day had been an encounter with another bear, knowing enough to keep his distance but it seemed when at the fishing stream there was an unspoken rule of not instigating any aggression towards one another. So Aron had just sat peacefully in the water, watching from a distance until he was ready to head back to the cabin. Of course, after shaking a large portion of the water out of his fur.
Aron beat Shandra back to the cabin and just lounged outside, waiting for her to come back. As he still very much felt the effect of all the fish that he’d eaten. When Shandra came back finally he waited until she was closer and then pulled her in for a bear hug, trapping her in his grip.
She hadn’t thought too much about it when she found Aron waiting for her. He liked to physically check on people’s welfare as often as he could. Or at least that was her experience with him. It was just that when she stilled he hadn’t simple poked around with that cold nose of his. He’d pulled her in for a hug. Shandra squirmed a little as she was buried against fur and muscle. She wasn’t used to being hugged; not from humanoids or bear shaped people.
Aron could feel Shandra squirming in his grip and after a few more long moments, he let her out of his grip. He swatted gently at her with one of his massive paws as he moved to stand on his hind haunches. Aron offered the best bear grin that he could to Shandra before attempting to boop the red head on top of her head with his paw.
With a persnickety expression on her face, Shandra dodged out of the way of his paw. Instead she used his arm like a pole and swung her weight off of it. Her body arched in a curve as she turned her direction with her arm around his neck. And within about two seconds she was behind him instead, quietly laughing.
Aron watched as Shandra simply dodged his massive paw and instead used that arm to swing around behind him. He turned around to look at her as she seemed to be quite enjoying the fact that she’d escaped him. Aron just did his best impression of an eye roll that he could muster and was about to take another swat at the red head when a smell in the air caught his attention. He dropped onto all fours and turned to face the direction of the smell, slowly moving towards it.
Shandra was bumped back when he dropped to all fours simply because that's how the bear body of his worked. But she didn't really make a sound as she regained her balance. Instead she silently followed after him; it wasn't often that Aron got that distracted. So it had to be something good, or bad...depending on the perspective.
Aron really wasn’t paying attention to Shandra at the moment as he followed his nose, he suddenly stopped as he came into a clearing and spotted another bear. He stopped right in his tracks and watched the other bear for a long moment until it seemed that the other bear had spotted him. Aron watched the shift in body language from the other bear as it took on a more aggressive posture, standing up on its hind legs. So, instinctively Aron did the same, making sure to keep in front of Shandra.
"Aron...it's not time for a pissing contest," Shandra said with a quiet tone. "Let's just go. It's probably hungry and getting ready for the winter."
Aron dropped back down to all fours when Shandra suggested that they should just go and that it wasn’t time for a pissing contest. He turned slowly to walk with Shandra away from the other bear, who seemed mighty happy with itself that it had won the standoff. Once Aron was sure that the bear wasn’t following them, he gave Shandra a rough nudge with his head to try and knock her over before barreling back towards the cabin.
This time she wasn't ready for his actions. She was thrown off balance but tried to lessen the impact since that was the smartest choice. The redhead got back up and ran after Aron, wondering just when she should get payback. It wasn't a question of if for her, just when. Maybe next time they visited the river or something. Then again he was a pretty hard guy to phase. Once she was back at the cabin she took a moment to catch her breath as she looked to see where Aron had gotten off to.
Aron had gotten back to the cabin a moment or two before Shandra and was tucked behind the corner of the cabin and waited until he heard her panting. Aron took a moment and then leaped out from behind the cabin at Shandra and landed a few paces away from her.
Shandra held in her surprise as best as she could; but it wasn't good enough. Her powers pushed out and most likely smacked straight into him with quite the amount of force. She'd just done enough not to turn him into bear jelly against cracking walls. Once she realized what happened she moved over to him. Her eyes were wide and breath quickened as she tried to make sure that he was alright.
Aron had been expecting some form of retaliation from Shandra when he had jumped out to scare her and it didn’t seem as though she was going to disappoint. He was knocked back into the wall which knocked the air from his lungs and stunned him for a moment. Aron knew that his back was going to hurt for the day and would probably end up with a nasty bruise but the last thing that he wanted to do was to make Shandra feel guilty. So, Aron quickly shook off the impact and looked to Shandra, pushing his head into her, so that she knew he was alright.
Mentally she apologized about a million times but nothing fell out of her mouth. Mostly from a combination of shock, habit, and a twinge of stubborn pride that refused to admit culpability. Instead she offered a suggestion.
“Maybe it’s your turn to get into the hot tub. Relax you know.”
The hot tub, unfortunately, was not big enough for a bear. Even if it was she’d stop him - uncleared wet fur smelled horrible.
Aron looked at Shandra as she wasn’t able to bring herself to apologize for sending him flying into the wall, but he didn’t blame her. It had only been a reflex to him popping out of nowhere. So, he just offered a small nod before leading the way into the cabin. Aron dragged his backpack to the bathroom and shifted back into his human form. Which was probably a good choice because he’d been a bear for the past day and a half essentially.
Aron took a moment to look at his back in the mirror and it luckily hadn’t started bruising yet, so Shandra wouldn’t be the wiser. Once he was in his swimming trunks, he exited the bathroom and headed for the hot tub and was slow to ease himself into the boiling hot water.
 __________  __________  In Collab with Shimmering_Apocalypse
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2023 1:19 am
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Later that night, Shandra shifted uneasily as she heard what sounded like a vehicle. Nothing like a muscle car. Nor one of the small city cars. Based on the sound, if she wasn’t going crazy, and the terrain it had to be an off-roader. She got up from her spot as she cuddled under a fury blanket with a homemade hot chocolate in her hands. The redhead walked over towards the front of the cabin before peering out of the window. The class was almost frosted to the touch as the sun had been down for a while. But even with that she could still see outside, distorted as the view was.
What she could see wasn’t encouraging. At the edge of the light there were a few men (and one woman) that didn’t seem like they were coming for a friendly cup of coco.
Aron had spent most of the afternoon in his human form, just for a change of space but took care to wear a shirt (not suspicious at all, that) to avoid Shandra seeing the welts that had started to form on his back. After dinner though, to save them fighting over blankets, he had taken on the form on a black bear for a change of pace and curled up in his spot by the fire.
Aron had been fast asleep until the sound of an engine caught his attention. His gaze drifted to Shandra who was peering out the window and instinctively rose to his feet, walking briskly over to her and looked out the window but what he saw didn’t lessen the tension in his body. There were men and a single woman with guns outside of their cabin, which earned a low growl from Aron as he pressed his head into Shandra’s side.
”Be a good tamed bear and stay inside.”
Once she said that she opened the door to see the wealthy, extremely reclusive, landowners in the area. She supposed what she was seeing was the majority of them at least. Considering that they’d actually rented the “cabin” in the park these would be the landowners that surrounded the park. Not actually lived in the reserve itself.
Aron looked to Shandra as she told him to stay inside, as much as he wanted to be out there helping her deal with these people. He knew with them likely looking to hunt, it wouldn’t be the wisest of ideas for him to do that. So, Aron watched her exit the cabin and watched through the window, trying to keep his head down enough to go unnoticed. Shandra closed the door behind her when she was confident that Aron wasn't about to bust it down after her. The last thing that they needed on top of the cracked wall from earlier was any more structural damage to the door and surrounding wall.
"Yes?" Shandra asked in a fairly nice tone, though cautiously keeping an eye on everyone by keeping them in front of her.
"We heard that you claimed you tamed a bear," one of the men called out with his fingers moving over the shotgun. It was at his side but she was under no illusion - if he wanted to it would be pointed at her and shooting off rather quickly.
"He's tamed but I didn't do it," the redhead mutant responded.
The woman from behind most of the men spoke up, "That's bullshit. We heard that you were a mutant freak. I bet you're controlling that bear, aren't you?"
"I can't do that," Shandra tried to say calmly.
"So you are a mutant then," the woman returned with a sound of disgust.
Shandra stayed quiet. She hated welcome parties for this particular reason. Just because mutants had been in the public's eyes since the time of the cold war, which meant that they weren't anything new, didn't mean that they'd really been accepted as a normal fact of life. Everyone always seemed shocked and surprised when they found out that their "neighbor" was one. Like it was something that they should all have stamped onto their forehead for the world to see. And despite all the hard work that Charles Xavier has done over the years there was still a large population of people around the world that hated and feared mutants. Maybe if it hadn't been for Magneto being the on again, off again villain throughout the recent history, the Professor would have made greater headway. It was like every step they took, they had to take one back.
"That bear a freak like you?" The man that Shandra vaguely recognized from the trail earlier spoke up.
Huh, seemed like the person with the shotgun had started to raise it. Like they were getting ready to be 'defensive' in case she took offense. Probably wanted to claim that the shot he was planning to take was in self defense. Probably thought he'd have an easy target...two mutants out...alone...where they could have a 'hunting' accident.
"I bet it's just a normal bear," one of the men said before making a crude gesture that was easy to understand even in the dim lighting.
'...gross,' despite her thought on the matter of his unspoken accusation, Shandra kept quiet. If they were going to instigate violence she'd finish it but until then she'd try to play nicely.
"That's sick," the first guy called out but sneered. "Guess it's more natural than being a mutant though. You come up here so when you pop out mutant-hybrids no one sees it happen?"
Shandra clenched her jaw as she reminded herself that they hadn't shot yet. These were just stupid people from a stupid small town. They wanted an excuse to shoot her and get away with it. Didn't stop her from wanting to bash them against the trees (or their heavy off road cars) until they cracked. Literally cracked.
”Get back in your cars and leave me and my friend alone.”
”No. You go. We don’t want your kind around here. Leave the bear to us. It deserves to be put out of its misery after keeping a filthy mutant like you company,” One of the guys with what looked like a professional hunting rifle actually jerked the mussel as though he was pointing at the door.
Shandra jumped at the motion, thinking that he had been about to fire at their vacation lodgings. If they had there was a very good chance that they would have hit Aren. He was literally the broad side of a bear right now. As she jumped, she guided her concussive powers to slam into the man. His head cracked against the Jeep and his gun fell from his hand as he lost consciousness. Judging by the sounds of guns being cocked and angry cries of outrage...this were about to get messy.
Aron watched uneasily from the inside of their little cabin, a low growl escaping his lips at the tone that the humans were taking with Shandra. Aron was a very gentle soul that always tried to avoid violence but the second that you went after one of his friends you were as good as dead.
Aron didn’t move just yet but the second he saw one of the men slam into one of the jeeps, he shifted into a massive polar bear and burst through the door. No one, ever hurt Shandra. Not when he was around. His bursting out of the cabin earned a few shots in his direction, most of which missed but one found its way into his shoulder and the other grazed his ear.
Aron wasn’t phased though as he barreled towards the humans, knocking the closest one back onto his a** before ripping the gun away from the man and moving onto the next closest person with a gun.
"What the ********> One of the men called right before he was knocked back by the big bear. He watched as the bear knew to pull the gun away from his friend instead of just trying to bat it away. "Call off your mutant beast!"
Shandra moved around, collecting the guns without actually touching them herself. She used the edge of her long, loose shirt to grab them. She avoided what looked to be a poorly executed haymaker before sweeping that person's legs out from under them. The next person she had to physical disarm so oops, yeah, she had to touch that one. Oh well so much for the best laid plans being perfect. The words of the man finally registered in her head as she buckled the knees of someone with a push about the strength of a kick, sending to the ground relatively unharmed.
"He's not mine; you pissed him off…you deal with him."
Aron didn’t even pay attention to the interaction between Shandra and the men. He didn’t make the effort to maim the men, only scare the daylights out of them. And perhaps make it so that they left them alone. Although Aron wouldn’t deny that he roughed up a few of them a bit.
Aron only stopped his attack when the men started scrambling to their jeep, answering their cowardice by standing on his hind haunches and letting out a loud roar in their direction before dropping down to all fours once more.
Shandra didn’t relax until she could no longer hear the engines of the cars. Or at least, nothing beyond the echo it left because the mountain was relatively quiet. She turned to look at Aron with a slightly bemused expression, lips tilting up despite her efforts.
”What happened to staying inside?” Not that she expected him to answer, exactly, seeing as he was still a bear.
Aron looked to Shandra when he could no longer hear the roar of the engines or the shouting of the people that had come to cause them some trouble. He walked over to Shandra, ignoring her obviously rhetorical question of what happened to their plan of him staying inside. Aron just nudged her with his head gently before heading back into the cabin, ignoring the red stain of blood that was beginning to cover his shoulder.
Shandra watched him walk off with a bit of a sigh. There was going to be a lot of grumbling when she had to patch up that wound. And it was going to mark their trip getting cut short considering that she wouldn’t want it to get infected. Vaguely, as she walked back in and mentally prepped for the task ahead, she wondered how he had enough blood in his body for his human form...and then suddenly had enough blood for whatever other form he had. She pushed aside the thoughts on the mechanics of his mutation as she walked into the house. She cast an almost accusing look to the door that had failed to hold him before looking back to see where Aron was.
”Okay, now shift back and sit still,” Shandra instructed, grabbing a throw blanket from the couch so that she could throw it to him when he went back into his human form. Even for her strange sensibilities, working up close on someone when they were naked didn’t seem right.
Aron had seated himself down by the fire, his mind already well aware that Shandra was going to start poking and prodding at the bullet wound. He looked at the red head who already had a blanket in hand to toss to him once he had changed back into his human form. Aron started offering grumbles of refusal to the red head as he instead of switching to his human form, moved to lay down instead.
Instead of giving him a verbal answer, Shandra stared at him for a moment. ’Stubborn beast.’ As the thought fluttered through her mind she walked to the bathroom and grabbed something he may recognize from his own pack. The razor buzzed to life as she walked back out of the bathroom. She held them both the blanket and razor up and slightly away from her body as visual, nonverbal options for Aron to pick from.
Aron looked at Shandra as she emerged from the bathroom and held out his razor and the blanket. He lowered his head and offered a low growl and grumble as he sat up. Aron would in that moment very much resemble a teenager debating whether they should push their luck or roll over and accept the inevitable.
Aron took an irritated swat at one of the nearby chairs, sending it flying into one of the walls before offering a few more groans and growls before shifting into his human form.Which was probably the smart choice. Shandra didn’t have much practice using an electric razor. Nor did she have any practice shaving animals. So when he started shifting back into his birth form, Shandra closed her eyes momentarily and tossed the blanket at him. She waited until she heard the signs that he was done (probably some grumbling) before moving back into the bathroom to get the first aid kit. Their version was far more extensive than the general ones that people bought but everything was so neatly organized and stacked that it was practically compact.
Shandra walked back towards Aron. She grabbed the poor abused chair on her way so that she could sit on it when she finally got to him.
”You know the drill,” Shandra said mildly; after all of the training they’d done, and the abuse that they’d both taken from it (Aron more than her as far as open wounds were concerned), he better know how to sit through someone patching him up. At some point she’d almost made a joke about him liking their resident doctor (Jean Gray) so much that Logan or Scott might have gotten jealous.
Aron looked at Shandra as she sat down when she reached him, stating that he knew the drill. She was right, he had, had his fair share of injuries that needed tending to from training and the odd mission here and there. Tended to be unavoidable when you weren’t able to hide behind your powers but they instead put you in those situations.
He grabbed a nearby chair and sat down and rested his arm upon the armrest it had and looked to Shandra, waiting for her to get it over with.
Shandra poked at the wound with her eyes first, trying to see if she could find where the bullet had come out. It had to be somewhere, it looked like a high enough caliber. But she couldn’t find the exit hole no matter how hard to tried.
”You are not going to like this,” Shandra said softly.
She got up from her spot to go get a couple towels. She wet one of them, ringing it out, so that Aron could hold onto it. She had a feeling that without aesthetics what she was about to do was going to hurt like a b***h. And instead of hurting his hands on top of that she wanted to give him something that he could grip as hard as he wanted. The water was just to make sure he didn’t give himself any type of friction burn. She handed him the wet towel when she got back and had the other towels ready on standby to clean up blood if something happened. In the back of her mind she tried to remember what number it was they’d have to call incase this went horribly wrong. She repeated it over and over in her mind, praying that nothing went wrong. But if it did she prayed that they had service on the mountain. Did she even bring a cell phone? Did he? She vaguely remembered packing a satellite phone at some point but she had a hard time remembering if that was true as she sat down in front of him.
”Bite the towel if you need, don’t scream,” Shandra advised as she looked for the thin metal tweezers.
Aron looked at Shandra as she informed him that he wasn’t going to like this. That much he was already aware of, it was why he had originally refused to change back into his human form. Her initial poking of the wound had earned a low growl and clenching of his jaw but he didn’t lash out at the woman because he knew she was just trying to help.
Aron took the wet towel that Shandra offered him and gripped it tightly in his hands as she turned to look for the metal tweezers to start pulling the bullet out. He watched her closely as she finally found them and moved to start pulling the bullet out, which Aron tensed for. He focused his attention on a patch of floor in front of him and clenched his jaw as he felt her start to dig around in the bullet wound.
Aron was able to tolerate the poking and prodding from the red head for a minute or two before he had to bite onto the towel, trying his darnest not to move so that she could get the stupid bullet out already.
For her part, she tried. She really did. Those in the mansion made wound care look extremely easy. And while she was trained in first aid (...somewhat), Shandra was nowhere near the level of a professional. A nurse should be doing what she was doing, if not a doctor. The only issue with that was they were at least a two hour hike from the doctors. In which time Aron could possibly bleed out or have the bullet lodge itself somewhere more dangerous. There was also the fact that even if they got to the doctors...how would they explain the wound?
"You should be glad your muscle fibers are thick in either form," Shandra gave something close to a compliment as she finally found the bullet. She put the tweezers over it as best she could and was ready to slowly pull it out. "Or this bullet could have gotten to your vital organs."
Aron couldn’t help but grimace as Shandra dug around in his arm to try and get a grip on the bullet. He clenched his jaw tighter for a moment, he had a thing or two he’d say to the red head but at the moment his mouth was full with a towel that was keeping his groans and although he’d deny it if anyone ever said that he did, his whimpers of discomfort.
Aron did give Shandra a look though that said ‘Just pull the damn thing out already’. He was well aware that his muscles probably saved his life on multiple occasions, hence why he was always spending so much time training and working out.
"But," she leaned in, eyeing the wound to make sure that she actually had the metal and it wasn't like a bone fragment or worse yet a vein, "it would have been better if you'd let me handle it and stayed in the house. Riled up mobs are less likely to shoot a woman, even a mutant one, than a bear. Unless they're part of an extreme mutant hate group. These were just normal country hicks that have issues."
Yep, definitely the bullet. She saw silver. Hopefully silver body parts weren't part of Aron's mutation. She finally pulled the bullet free with a bit of dexterity and tugging. Based on the fact that she didn't get squirted in the face with his blood the moment that she did it, Shandra would have to say that they got lucky. For now. But there was no way she was letting him walk back down a mountain until they were sure he was fine.
Aron’s knuckles were turning white as he clenched his fists in response to Shandra tugged at the bullet and was relieved when she finally pulled the damn thing out. To which Aron spit out the towel and finally spoke, “You knew I wouldn’t stay in the cabin. Not when there’s guns involved. I may be a bigger target but I’m a lot more sturdy.” He looked at the bullet wound and after a moment said, “We should head out though before they come back with their buddies.”
"You," she said pointedly, "are staying put until I think it's safe for you to move. Even if I have to sit on you."
She would too. Though she easily got bored and restless herself she'd done something similar before. Granted, Aron could probably lift her weight but she was hoping that the bullet wound near his side would sap some of his physical strength.
"And if that doesn't work, I will tie you to the bed," she threatened without her voice sounding like a threat; she had the ropes at the ready with her pack if need be.
Aron couldn’t help but smirk at Shandra’s idle threats of sitting on him or tying him to the bed if he didn’t agree to stay put. To which Aron stood up and said, “How are you going to do either of those? We both know I’m stronger than you. Come on.”
To which she promptly moved behind him and put pressure to the back of his knees with her foot - also known as kicking. The human body was made to buckle when that happened to avoid damaging it further. Just because he was bigger and physically stronger than she was didn't mean that she couldn't be faster and a smarter fighter. The only issue was that she didn't actually want to hurt him. Which...considering everything...was rather limiting.
"Aron...there is a lot I can do that I don't most of the time," Shandra said quietly as she leaned back in so she didn't have to talk about a whisper. "You are stronger, yes. You can take more damage, yes...you've got better environmental resistance, definitely. But just remember that if I wanted to, I can sneak up on you whenever I want, then do whatever I want...and there isn't a damned thing you can do about it. So please, help yourself. Don't hurt yourself anymore and just let me help. Or I will not let you sleep in peace until I feel satisfied. Do you understand?"
Aron clenched his jaw as Shandra made his knees buckle and thus fall to his knees. He looked at her as she started explaining that she’d always have the upper hand essentially and that she wouldn’t let him sleep in peace until she was satisfied. Aron got back up to his feet and looked at Shandra and said, “I’m not hurting myself. I’m just walking.” After that Aron moved to grab his bag and start rummaging through it for some proper clothes to put on for the trek down the hill.
"Do you know how many muscles are in the human body? Do you know how many you use when you're just walking?" Shandra asked with a frown as she watched him, looking to make sure that he didn't make it worse. "I can see the wound being stretched and contorted as you walk. And you didn't even let me bandage it up…"
At the end there she had the urge to call him a name other than his own. Damn, how long had it been since she'd done something so childish? He was driving her too it though with his obvious disregard for his own welfare.
Aron finally managed to find a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and wasted no time putting the pants on. He looked at Shandra as she was continuing to chastise him about him stretching the muscle as he walked, considering it for a moment before saying, “Fine you can bandage it up but after we’re heading down the mountain.”
Shandra shook her head. Vaguely she wondered if there was sedatives somewhere. She'd need a lot of them to get him compliant. Although her idea of literally tying him to the bed might work. Hopefully she's wasn't too rusty at making knots with the rope that she had brought along with her just in case.
"It's night time during a very active season. There are predators that will be attracted to the smell of your blood. Not to mention trigger happy hunters. We will stay here," Shandra told him firmly. The only problem was if those angry homeowner association wanna-bes came back. "Quiet now or I'll make you take the bed tonight."
Now that one was an idle threat. Short of actually activating her first threat of tying him down she very much doubted that she'd be able to get him to take the bed. What was it with men with A names refusing beds? Or was she just lucky to find all of those who were adverced to beds? Stubborn men.
Aron looked at Shandra as she pointed out that there were predators that would be attracted to the smell of his blood. Did she forget that he could turn into a bear? He was essentially the biggest thing in the forest. She did have a point with the hunters but he instinctively shot back, “And if the trigger happy welcoming committee comes back with their friends? I think our odds are better heading down the mountain.” Aron returned to his seat so that Shandra could finish patching up his wound before they headed out.
"Where they know the area better than we do. Where there is really nothing to hide behind. And where there are still predators out there that would love to eat you," Shandra reminded him. "Here we can take a defensible position if something happens. Out there if they attack…we will be blamed. If they attack here again it would be easier to convince people that we were acting in our own defense and using restraint."
Even as she talked Shandra got to work on getting out the bandages and tape. This was something she was more familiar with compared to pulling bullets out of people. So she was able to pour the coagulating powder onto the wound which would help seal it and keep it sealed before fixing packing plenty of bandages on the wounds and wrapping it. She moved around him as she worked before he had a chance to do it himself and taped it off with multiple pieces. She wouldn't put it passed him to pick at the tape.
Aron looked at Shandra as she continued on about how they had the advantage here. He knew that she was right but he wasn’t about to admit it. Aron watched as she bandaged and taped him up.
Great. This meant that he couldn’t change into a bear without ripping the bandages, which meant he was going to freeze his a** off. Aron stood up the second that Shandra was done and pulled on his t-shirt and then started digging for a sweater to wear over top. Not something that he did often, as he usually just resorted to changing into a bear. Aron eventually found one, which wasn’t as thick as he’d have liked and slipped it on, moving to lay down by the fire with his back to Shandra.
She paid him no mind as he sat over by the fire and pouted. Instead she washed her hands free of the blood she had on them, made sure that she changed shirts because it got on the sleeves she had on, and got started on dinner. They were definitely having steak at that point along with as much spinach with vinaigrette salad that she could get him to eat. Preparing and frying up the potatoes to be fried garlic potatoes was probably the most annoying part of the whole process but she made due. Once it was all done she simply took the largest serving and put it down on the smaller table. He could either eat the red meat dinner or sit over by the fire and continue to sulk.
Aron could smell the food that Shandra was cooking and he couldn’t deny that he was hungry but the stubborn bear didn’t budge from his spot, laying on the ground by the fire and watching the flames dance. He decided to close his eyes and try to get some sleep, since they were apparently going nowhere for the time being.
Shandra cut and ate the tender steak in silence. She looked up every once in a while to make sure that he wasn't wondering off, being the stubborn bear that he was. For the most part it seemed like he was actually playing nice. Once her dinner was done she put the dishes in the sink - they could get to those later. She got an extra blanket from the bedroom, and with use of her powers, snuck over to Aron's sleeping form. The blanket only appeared to his senses once she'd let go of it. And by that point it was too late to refuse. The action was one of kindness, sure, but it was also a reminder of her earlier promise - she could do a lot without him being able to stop her, she was just generally too nice to do that.
Aron luckily didn’t take too long to fall asleep, probably because the fire was still going strong. Throughout the night Aron woke up whenever the flames got low. Aron was surprised to find a blanket draped over him. He’d take a moment to stoke the fire before he would doze back off to sleep. Needless to say, he wasn’t feeling very well rested when morning rolled around. Once morning had come though, he was up and out of his makeshift bed on the floor and was packing for the trip down the mountain.
"...Aron," Shandra called out in a drawn out tone.
Aron looked over as he heard Shandra drawl out his name and ignored it as he finished stashing everything that he’d brought with him to take home. She moved over to him still dressed in what she'd gone to bed in. The fabric pretty much just hung from her body with the pants held on by a tied cord at the waist. It definitely wasn't the kind of clothing that people, even someone as escentric as her, went outside in.
"We're not going back until your wound is healed up enough to run without it splitting open again," Shandra told him in a dull tone.
Aron looked at Shandra as she muttered that they weren’t heading down the hill until he was able to run. He shook his head and said, “I’m fine, don’t worry about me. We can go down once you’re dressed and packed.”
”Fine, I’ll get dressed,” Shandra said with a blank stare before continuing with, ”in three days.”
Aron looked at Shandra pointedly and said, “Fine, stay here. I’ll go ahead without you.”
“You can try. You can also try not to fall off the mountain when I push you.”
Aron considered what she said but shrugged it off and slipped on his pack, looking at her and saying, “See you at the bottom then.” He didn’t wait much longer than it took to say that before he headed out the door.
Taking a cue from him, Shandra used her mutation to nudge (read push) him to the ground. Although she didn’t take a step from where she was. The poor wall from the last time she’d shoved him into it groaned with even the slightest provocation. And considering the fact that his back was still black and blue from that first time she doubted it felt good. Even with the pack as the buffer. In fact, if she calculated it right (which was why she was standing still), it would have been enough to push him right into the dirt and mud not more than ten steps from the front door.
Aron had not been expecting Shandra to do what she did, pushing him into the mud, no more than ten steps from the front door of the cabin. He clenched his jaw in response to the pressure being placed upon his back. Aron let out a low groan and after a moment managed to get to his feet, making his way back to the door of the cabin, opening it to give Shandra a look that said ‘really?’.
"Don't look at me like that. I warned you. And when have I ever lied to you?" Shandra asked in a pointed tone.
Others, yes, probably. She lied often actually if you counted obmission. That she did almost every single day. It was just that she didn't count her type of omission as lying. And so by that logic she never lied to her friends. It was everyone else around that she didn't feel bad lying to; she didn't like to do it because keeping up with the lies was a pain but she never really felt bad about it.
Aron threw his pack to the ground and glared briefly at Shandra before sitting down at the kitchen table with his back to her. He wasn’t doing anything in particular, just trying to give the red head the cold shoulder.
”Stubborn,” Shandra said quietly as she closed the door with a sigh.
For some reason she kept making stubborn friends. It was probably just the quality that made it possible to be her friend to begin with. The annoying part was the fact that they were always stubborn when it came to their own health.
”You should change out of those clothes. They’re dirty,” the redhead said as she moved towards where the bathroom was.
It wouldn’t do him any good to hop in the shower. The hot water would probably only weaken the clotting his body had done hard work to form. What she could do was get a bucket of warm soapy water so that he could wipe down the grime that got where his clothes weren’t. Though considering the way that he was turned and the look on his face, Shandra doubted that he’d actually take her help. She could only hope.
Aron heard what Shandra said about him changing his clothes, but he made no move to look at her. He knew that she was right, after all his front of his shirt and pants were covered in mud along with his forearms. Aron just ignored her remark and turned his attention to the wall that Shandra had knocked him against, wondering just how much more of a beating it could take before it caved.
After making sure that the water was warm and soapy enough, Shandra collected the other supplies. Such as the first aid kit. More than likely knocking him to the ground did more damage than Aron wanted to admit to. She carried out everything she needed and sat it down in front of Aron. When he didn’t seem to make a move to even try to use any of it, she opened up the first aid kit right in front of him and pulled out the scissors.
And before he realized what she was doing, she start cutting his shirt right up the middle. ”Your pants are next. So unless you want to help, I wouldn’t move if I were you.”
Aron looked at Shandra briefly when she came out with a bucket of soapy water and a first aid kit. Well aware that she was implying for him to use it. What he didn’t count on was for her to start cutting his shirt. When Shandra mentioned his pants, Aron was up like a shot and backing up and for the first time in his life probably cursed, “What the hell are you doing?”
”Helping your stubborn a**. Or did you want the wound infected?”
Aron’s gaze narrowed as he looked at shandra, making sure to keep out of arm's reach as he quickly retorted, “I’m not going to get the wound infected. It’s fine.”
”It’s not fine Aron. You got yourself shot because of idiots on the mountain. And you’re not helping yourself. You’re being stubborn,” Shandra said as she clenched her jaw tightly, putting the scissors down next to the first aid kid. ”Could you just trust me when I tell you that bullet wounds do a lot more than you think they do? It’s not like getting scrapped up and banged up in the danger room or on a mission where we just go to the med bay after. There’s no Beast or Jean to fix you up after you make it worse. We’re on a mountain. And now we’re in unfriendly territory. And there’s a lot of things I can do but carrying your heavy a** for the whole trip down is not one of them. Bunting you off the side of the mountain, sure, but not carrying you when you get too weak because the wound continued to bleed out or got infected.”
Aron looked at Shandra as she snapped back that it wasn’t fine and that he was being stubborn, reiterating that they didn’t have Jean or Beast to fix him up after he made it worse. He looked away as he considered his options. He’d been butt naked in front of Shandra numerous times when he was changing into a bear or changing back but this was different, he’d be in nothing but his boxers for who knew how long. Aron knew that she had a good point, so he begrudgingly stripped off his pants and sat down so she could do whatever it seemed that she was driven and insistent on doing.
Without paying any mind to the fact that others might have considered this an awkward situation, Shandra used the soapy water and rags to clean him up. She went to get multiple rags and refilled the bucket once she ran out. But she didn’t say a word as she washed the muck off of him while paying special attention not to make the wound any worse than it already was. When there really was only the wounded area left, Shandra started to clean up. She pulled out some gauze and the bottle of rubbing alcohol. She looked at him apologetically.
”Now this is going to hurt,” she warned him as she started to wet the wad of gauze she had.
Before he had time to squirm away, she started to clean off the outer edges around the wound. Once that was sanitized she got new gauze, wet it with the alcohol, and gently dabbed at his wound. It was already going to sting like a b***h, she didn’t want to make it worse by rubbing at it. As soon as she could she patched the wound back up and sat back, collecting all the dirty and bloody gauze.
When Shandra warned him that it was going to hurt, Aron was ready to move away. For someone that was constantly faced with pain and injuries, he was quite terrible when it came to tolerating people poking and prodding at him with something that was intended to help that would hurt initially.
Shandra had been a step ahead of him though and started to clean around the wound, cutting off his route of escape. He was fine for the first bit but the second she touched the wound with the gauze and rubbing alcohol, his jaw became clenched and he struggled to hold back a slew of curse words, aimed at the red head. A few curses made it past his lips, his nails digging into the wood of the chair that he was sitting in. As soon as she was finally done with poking and prodding him, he got up and grabbed some clean pants to put on and moved to sit by the fire.
Shandra dumped out the water in the large bath tub with a deep exhale. It was easy to see that Aron wasn’t happy. Eventually he’d see that she was only trying to keep him alive and well. Eventually. But his wounded pride and sense of honor was getting in the way of that. Stubborn beast of a man that he was probably thought it was his job to protect her or something silly like that. She tried to get into his head she didn’t need to be protected or at the very least they should protect each other but...times of stress tended to make people revert back to what they knew. And for him that was to be the protective older brother she never had.
Once everything was methodically cleaned up, Shandra grabbed a throw blanket from the bed. She doubted that there would be any chance of him using it to rest for the night. Especially considering that he claimed a spot by the fireplace already. So instead of arguing with him even more she just brought out the blanket and a few pillows. She put the blanket over his shoulder and left a couple pillows for him. Her next trip she brought out the rest of the pillows and the blanket, fully intent on picking a spot near by and making her own nest. Just incase he tried to do something foolish overnight. Like take on the pissed off humans by himself if or when they came back.
Aron was lost in his thoughts, staring into the flickering flames, only just registering the weight of the blanket being placed upon his shoulders. His gaze drifting to Shandra briefly before making himself comfortable with the pillows that she’d brought him. The floor was much less comfortable in his human form but he’d have to suck it up for the night. After all, changing back into a bear would result in ripped bandages and more poking and prodding from Shandra, which he could do without.
It took Aron longer than he liked to drift off to sleep than he would have liked but there wasn’t much that he could do about it. As the pain that would rise in his back and the injury to his shoulder when he found himself in a position that put weight onto it. Which was likely going to result in a grumpy Aron in the morning. His food and sleep were the two things that anyone that knew Aron, knew not to mess with or he was a real bear in the morning.
__________ __________ In Collab with Shimmering_Apocalypse
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Vicious Madam Mari Captain
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Vicious Madam Mari Captain
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2023 1:20 am
Year 2022▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅
At about two in the morning, Shandra bolted up with a racing heart. Flood lights had filled the area. They streamed in through the windows in blinding arrays. And as the room was lit up to the extreme from all sides, windows shattering gave her another reason to jump. Small metallic canisters releasing white gas started to spin around the room. Shandra grabbed at the one that landed near her and chucked it back out as she tried to use a pillow to cover her mouth and nose. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best filter and her eyes were already clouding up from tears from the gas.
Aron had been trying to get some sleep but it seemed as though the rednecks from the day before had other ideas. Aron woke to the sound of the engines of their vehicles, slowly getting up and looking to Shandra. He got to his hands and knees in time for the cannisters to come flying in through the windows, which caused Aron to start coughing and sputtering as the gas filled his lungs and made his eyes water. Aron struggled to his feet and held his shirt over his mouth, grabbing one of the chairs he snapped a leg off of it and waited by the door for one of the idiots to come into the hut. The b*****d was going to get a chair leg to the face.
Shandra practically jumped over the end table as she moved around the room, dropping the pillow in favor of one of the small toss blankets on the couch. It was far easier to carry around and was easier to hold to her face as she got near Aron. She didn’t try to stop him from hitting the first person who tried onto move in. Nor did she feel bad that Aron didn’t treat them very gently. It was their fault for attacking first. What she did end up doing was grabbing Aron’s arm when there was an opening and tried to pull him out of the door with her.
Aron was vaguely aware of Shandra gripping his arm, his eyes burning from the fumes. He let her pull him along and out the door, unsure if she was doing so to give them the chance to fight these humans that couldn’t leave them to their own devices or if she was intending on sneaking away while the humans were intent on getting in the cabin.
They moved through the night with some resistance. Shandra let Aron use the leg he’d ripped off as needed as she continued to make sure that they weren’t pelted by guns. She didn’t wait for the people to shoot - in fact she was pretty sure most of the men would have at least one broken bone or another. She used her powers to slam into them with about as much restraint as she could given the fact that she had a hard time seeing. And the fact that they had pretty much pissed her off didn’t help her hold all the way back either. Still the fact that they were alive should have spoken volumes for how nice she was being; a sentiment she was sure would still get a disapproving frown from the Professor.
Once she got to the destination she’d been planning, Shandra finally let go of Aron’s arm. She used a concussive blast to ram into the guy being the door of the truck. The door swung into him with such force that this guy might very well have both knees broken as well as some ribs. She opened the door back open so that the guy could fall painfully to the ground. Without saying much in the way of a detailed plan, Shandra got into the truck and closed the concave door as best she could. She didn’t even bother with a seatbelt but she did wait long enough for Aron to get with the plan.
Aron was just sort of following Shandra’s lead since it appeared as though the red head had a plan and with his injuries he didn’t have much of a choice. He heard each bone snap each time that Shandra hit the men with her concussive blasts but he pushed himself forward. Aron knew that the professor was going to strong disapprove of this whole adventure but it was a bit too late to worry about that now, no they had to get out of there before situations got worse.
So when Shandra apparently decided their best option was to highjack one of the trucks that these bone heads had brought. Aron didn’t argue with this, instead he climbed in the passenger’s side quickly and slammed the door shut, gripping the arm rest tightly as Shandra sped off.
It wasn’t until they were half a mile away from the hatred and gas, Shandra finally buckled up and let out a deep breath. Hers eyes were still blurry but the tears had cleared most of the smoke from them as was their purpose.
”So much for a peaceful camping trip,” Shandra lamented shortly, letting out a deep breath. ”Those were most likely people from town, so going to the nearest hospital is out. Will you be okay for another hour or did those bastards make you rip your wounds back open?”
Aron could still feel his eyes burning when Shandra finally stopped, having somehow managed to buckle his own seatbelt while she’d been rushing down the slopes. He looked in her direction as she asked him if he would be okay for another hour or whether he had ripped open his wound again. Aron was most certain he’d ripped his wounds back open but he put Shandra’s safety over his own and he knew if they went to the hospital that it wouldn’t be long before those people were on them so he quickly responded, “I’ll be fine. Just drive.”
Aron rested his head back as he let out a small sigh, trying not to put any pressure on his injuries or make them worse than they already were. Trying not to crash them into anything as she sped way too fast for the roads, Shandra draped the throw blanket she’d grabbed with her over him. Given how much blood he’d lost she had no doubt he’d get colder faster than he was used to. Then again the temperatures he was used to made the current weather look like a sweltering hell.
It took a while longer but they’d finally gotten to another town that was large enough to have a proper emergency room. Hastily she pulled into a parking spot and made sure to grab the keys, pocketing them. This was going to be an interesting experience to say the least. Thankfully it wasn’t the first time she’d had to go to a hospital with no id. It was just that for her it was a lot easier - being a woman helped for one and having little morals about stealing and sneaking around was another big factor. Though Aron wasn’t the most high strung as far as morals went so that was a blessing.
Despite Aron’s assurance to Shandra that he would be fine and that she should drive, by the time the finally arrived at the hospital he was feeling a bit light headed from the loss of blood from his reopened wound. When the vehicle lurked to a stop, Aron slowly pushed open the car door on his side. He’d be fine, he was just out of sorts at the moment as he moved towards the entrance of the hospital, the back of the shoulder he’d been shot in stained red once more. The world lurked this way and then as the clumsy giant of a man reached the hospital doors, his body teetering ever so slightly as he gripped at the door frame for support.
Shandra moved in closer when she saw that he was loosing his balance. At the door when it looked like he was actually going to fall she wedged herself under his shoulder that wasn’t as injured to help take some of the weight. She was considered tall for a female at 5’8” but he was still much taller so it worked out rather well.
”Now's the time to play up the wounds. The more urgent they see it as, the less we get stopped,” Shandra advised in a hushed voice.
Aron didn’t dispute Shandra trying to assist him into the hospital. Hell, he knew that he likely would have collapsed if she hadn’t stepped in to help him. His attention drifted to the firey red head as she told him that he should play up the wounds to get stopped less. Well, that wasn’t going to be a problem, with his light headedness.
Aron took a few steps forward, leaning more heavily on Shandra at this point, his gaze drifted between the nurses and staff behind the counter. If they needed it to be more urgent he could manage that, leaning ever so slightly away from Shandra which sent him toppling to the ground, despite Shandra helping him.
That sent some of the staff out to help him as the ER whipped itself up into a small frenzy. It wasn't every day that someone came in with a gunshot wound, much less multiple ones. They tried to stop Shandra from following after. Which meant that she pretended to play along for about thirty seconds before she slipped out of a detectable state and followed along with them. With how much practice she had in the rather disorientating state it was easy to keep up with them as they moved Aron to the surgery area for preparation.
Aron watched as the nurses rushed towards him as he collapsed and they worked together to get him up onto a hospital bed to get him into surgery. He saw them push Shandra back and while they assumed she accepted it, he knew better, even in his current state of being. Aron offered small mumbles in response to the questions of the nurses but nothing very coherent for them to interpret. His gaze followed them as they rushed about getting everything setup for surgery before they placed a gas mask over his mouth and just like that he was out cold.
Shandra hung back in the corner as they gassed Aron to put him under. The bullets had already been taken out which seemed to confuse and alarm some of the different staff. But they were able to check all of the wounds faster than she could because at the very least they knew what they were looking for. The surgeon was getting ready to close up the wounds but that took them longer than she would have thought. By the time that they were done even Shandra was feeling light headed from slipping between the realms of detection. She clenched her hands, the feeling numbed compared to normal, as she tried to keep a hold of her concentration. Once the bullets were out the anesthesiologist checked over Aron's vitals once more on the way to recovery. Shandra watched with a little anxiety as she hoped that everything turned out normal. Considering the fact that it took a whole lot more knockout juice to put out a bear than a human it had been a wonder that he'd stayed under so far. Then again he was still in his human form so that was probably why.
Aron could feel himself fading in and out of consciousness while the doctor dug away at the bullet wounds to make sure that everything was out. He didn’t move though, only offering brief moments of tension in his body when a nerve was hit but beyond that there was no reaction. However, as soon as they took off the mask it was only a matter of a couple of minutes before he was awake. Although groggy, it still caught the doctors by surprise as they hadn’t even wheeled him out of the room yet into a room to properly recover. Not that he was intending to stay in that room, only long enough to get his feet under him and then he’d be on his way with Shandra to get back to the x-mansion.
Shandra bit her lip as they got to the car, ”Do you want to go straight back to the mansion or did you want to stop anywhere first?”
Demanding that he strip so she could clean his wound was easy. The silence as he’d been under had not. Guilt had been a driving factor for the redhead for a while now. At least since he’d taken a bullet in the shoulder for her, if not longer. The trip had meant to be relaxing and fun. A break from the hustle and bustle of life at the mansion. When the Professor had expressed concerns about Shandra going off on her own while tensions were so high, Aron had volunteered to go too. So she had endeavored to try and make the trip enjoyable for him too. That was an epic fail as it ended with him in emergency care.
Aron looked to Shandra as she asked him if there was anywhere that he wanted to stop before heading back. He considered it for a moment, still feeling a little out of sorts from the anesthesia. There was one place that he wanted to go, but after what they’d been through and the amount of attention they’d drawn, it was definitely a no go. He couldn’t put her at risk.
Shandra nodded slowly as she looked towards him. Her eyes flicked towards his bandage, what she could see of it. She fretted for a moment more before taking a deep breath and nodding. The redhead opened the driver side and got in. Even if she was in the mood for his very direct form of driving, Aron wasn’t healed enough to drive. Not after she’d pulled a bullet out one night and a doctor went digging through the same area shortly after.
Aron plopped himself into the passenger seat, buckling himself in and finally answering, “No, we can just head back. I’ve had enough adventure for a weekend.” They’d have to try and hide what had happened from Charles, but with him being a telepath, that was a good old crap shoot of a chance.
She asked as she looked over to where he would be. ”If you rip yourself open being stubborn, I’ll let Wolverine know that you need more survival lessons.”
Aron cast a glance over to Shandra as she threatened him with more survival lessons with Wolverine. His survival classes definitely weren’t the most enjoyable but they were still better than learning history or math. Still, Aron leaned back in his seat and said, ”I’ll worry about my stitches, you worry about keeping us on the road.” The exhaustion of their interrupted night of sleep and rushing to the hospital and the strain of the surgery hitting him as he settled into the seat and let his eyes drift shut.
Compared to the last day, the drive back to the mansion was uneventful. There weren’t many cars on the roads. There weren’t any great accidents. What was unnerving was the relatively high number of police and highway patrol out and about. Shandra definitely stopped more than she needed to on the way back just to ensure they weren’t being followed by law enforcement more than once. It was well past nightfall by the time they pulled into the garage.
Shandra leaned against the top of the car, arms crossing over one another, as she looked at Aron. Words stuck in her throat for a moment as she rested her head on her arms, taking a deep breath. The hesitation didn't last too long. She was able to catch his attention before he walked away.
"Aron…I…" Shandra paused, worrying about her bottom lip again. "Just take care of yourself okay? I don't like watching my friends bleed."
Aron slept on and off for the duration of the ride back to the mansion and needless to say was relieved when they pulled in the garage, quick to get out. His gaze drifted over to Shandra as she spoke, offering a reassuring smile, ”I’ll be fine, definitely had worse shots than this one.” Aron wasn’t particularly concerned about the injury, it had its stitches, the worst of it was that he couldn’t shift at the very least until the stitches came out. He looked over to her and spoke once more, “How much do you want to bet Charles already knows we’re back?”
Shandra groaned and rolled her head to hide her face in her arms. ”Whatever I’d bet, I’d lose. And this week has been more loss than gain. Pear shaped…it went pear shaped so quickly.”
Aron offered a chuckle at Shandra’s response and lead the way out of the garage and asked, ”How about we make some pancakes? I’m starving.” It was at that moment Aron’s stomach let out a loud erroneous growl, to which he offered a meek and cheeky grin. In all honesty, there was never a time that Aron wasn’t hungry.
The redhead followed quietly behind him through the halls. There were little sounds to indicate that not every student was asleep. The hum of the tv in the not too far distance being one of them. Shandra had a feeling that it was from the mutant boy who slept even less than she did. And that was saying something. The melodic hum of undistinguishable dialogue gave her something to focus on instead of only listening for the sound of the Professor’s chair as they walked to the kitchen.
Once they’d gotten there, Shadra fell into something like a routine. Despite Aron’s earlier proclamation of a pancake craving, Shandra started on pan fried meats and eggs to accompany them. Aron would need not only the carbs but the proteins to help his body deal with the bullet wound. One he wouldn’t have gotten if it wasn’t for her.
Aron kept a sharp ear out for anyone approaching the kitchen and while Shandra got to making the eggs and pan fried meats he worked on the pancakes. They were always one of his favourites growing up and his mom taught him how to make them from scratch with the old family recipe. So that they were light, fluffy, sweet and oh so delicious. It wasn’t long that they were into frying up their midnight snack that Aron heard the familiar whirring of Professor X’s wheelchair, so he looked over to Shandra and said, “He’s coming.”
Shandra stilled at her station. She quickly sat the spatula down and looked over towards the hallway that Xavier would appear at any moment. She could practically feel his high morals breathing down her neck from his telepathic perch on high. It was not a sensation she liked. With wide eyes she looked towards Aron and offered him her hand.
”Run and hide?”
Offering to slip someone between the dimensions with her was not something she did very often. She could count on one hand the amount of people she had liked and trusted enough. Mainly because it left her vulnerable if they wanted to attack her. She couldn’t use her concussive blasts when she was hiding. Then there was also the fact that continual skin to skin contact was needed. Not something she was usually keen on either. But it did mean that they could both escape Xavier’s judgment for a little while. So she left the call up to Aron.
Aron looked to the hand that Shandra offered and then in the direction that Xavier was coming from. He was going to catch up with them eventually but they could dodge him a little longer. So, Aron took Shandra’s hand so that she could whisk them between dimensions and hide from the man a little longer. Aron had pretty thick skin when it came to Xavier’s criticisms, his shortcomings being his academia. Charles had never been able to get Aron to take up schooling once he’d come to the x-mansion, so what schooling he had was up until he left his home. Which he was fine with, he had real world survival skills. Maybe not smarts but he could survive in the wilderness if he really had to. Become a real Tarzan.
There was an upwards feeling rush that came with slipping between dimensions. Almost like melding into one of her concussive blasts rather than being hit with it. It was a surge of energy as their bodies changed state yet still had enough to tether them to their birth dimension. The feeling was not unlike being giddy. With years of practice dealing with the manic rush, Shandra was able to keep her cool. At least long enough to turn off the stove dials with one hand for safety. Then to pull Aron out through the dining room. At which point she just smiled at him and increased the speed.
No one could hear or see them anyways.
It wasn’t until they got down to the sub floors that Shandra remembered he had stitches. From a bullet wound. That he’d gotten because of her. When the realization about his physical plight re-set in, she felt like an a**.
”Oh, s**t, I’m sorry.”
Though given that they were wading through inter-space (as she thought about it), Aron might have been feeling too energized to actually feel the pain. The couple of people she had pulled in with her all reacted in varying different degrees.
As they stepped into the inter-space, Aron felt a fire light under his skin. He could feel the bear scratching at the surface, threatening to take control as they darted away from the kitchen. Aron pushed it down, making it downstairs before she remembered that he had a bullet wound, for which she was apologizing for. Around was about to reply when he felt the bear raking its claws into him for control. Reflexively, as Aron could feel his canines growing, fur bristling through his skin, he released Shandra’s hand, dropping back to the visible world. It took him a few moments to regain his bearings, shaking off the transformation with a few shrugs of his shoulders and shakes of his head.
Shandra felt him pulling away from her both physically and meta-physically. The connection to him, the strange sort of connection as she carried him between the dimensions, disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. The redhead looked back at him with a worried look dominating her face. Though he wouldn’t have been able to see that of course. She fretted about the wound having caused him too much pain, stressed that it had opened back up. Instead she caught him on the verge of transforming. Her brows furrowed as she tried to visually make sure he was alright - that he wasn’t actively bleeding. Finding signs of pain would have been harder. From what she could tell by his expression, Aron was in conflict.
She let out a deep breath. Her skin felt tingly, overstimulated from the rush of the in-between space rushing through her, as she slipped back into the physical world.
“What happened? Are you okay?”
Aron looked to Shandra as she reappeared, taking a moment longer to gain his bearings and make sure that he was the one in control before responding, ”Sorry, I don’t know what it was but it was everything I could do to hold the bear back. But I’m good now.” Aron hadn’t felt a pull like that in a very long time, when he’d stayed in his bear shape for far too long. He couldn’t have stayed in the interdimensional space, for fear of losing control. At least they’d gotten away from the Professor for now, although now their breakfast was going to get cold.
The redhead looked at her fair friend with quiet concern. It was the first time that she knew of someone losing control when she’d slipped them between the dimensional sheets. The handful of people she’d done the same with had experienced some form of mania - nerves shot, euphoria, and the like. But never losing control of their own power. So that was a new one on her. She’d have to be careful with that.
To ease his mind however, she blithely joked, “Maybe he just wanted to come out and say hi?”
It was Aron that had described his bear transformation as semi-separate yet still very connected to himself. She didn’t know how that worked but she didn’t doubt him. His mutation was of a different nature than hers so he’d know best.
As they settled, Shandra quietly looked around the hallway they’d stopped in. On one side of them was the war room; a big fancy meeting room where everyone found out the details of what they were heading into. On the other side was the ingenious information room.
Shandra carefully grabbed his hand and pulled him into that room with a bit of a smile. They could hide out for a short time in the room. And it was bound to be more interesting than the War Room. She’d heard that it had started as a system of three to four tvs upstairs but it had moved and grown into something so much more. Beast, and others over the years, had set up a massive media room that collected and recorded any mention of mutants through every news or legal outlet in the world. Now it was, of course, under the mansion and well insulated. Not as blocked as Cerebro, where Xavier’s mind couldn’t penetrate from the outside, but more than normal places. He’d have to expend a modicum of effort to find them compared to having passively sensed them in the kitchen.
Aron looked at Shandra as they were now in the information room. It wasn’t somewhere that Aron frequented, he preferred to stay above ground where he could look out the window and see the sky. Down here there were no signs of the sun or sky. He looked over at Shandra, as he considered what they could do now that they were on the lamb from Professor X. He looked to Shandra and asked, “So, what’s the plan now? If we go wandering the school again or back to the kitchen he’s bound to find us. Maybe we should just get it over with?”
”Did you want the younger students to hear about the shoot out and try to emulate it?” Shandra asked as she tilted her head slightly, releasing his hand. ”You know some of them will try.”
Aron considered Shandra’s question for a moment and said, ”We could just not tell the professor about the shoot out? No one has to find out.”
”What would you like to bet he already knows?” The redhead smiled blithely. It was Charles Xavier after all.
Though it was sometimes amusing how hopeful Aron was. If he believed that Xavier didn’t already know what happened, he was either ignoring the facts or completely ignorant of them. It was also interesting that he didn’t believe everyone in the mansion would know by morning that they’d come back in the dead of night. There was nothing like a pack of cooped up teenagers to spread gossip.
Aron sat down on one of the many chairs in the room and looked at Shandra. He considered her question, he really wasn’t a betting man and Shandra knew Charles. He took a moment before responding, ”Mmmmmmm. I’d rather not bet. But Charles wouldn’t tell anyone and you and I aren’t going to tell anyone. So, how would everyone else know?”
”...Aron…this is a place full of teenagers who have nothing better to do than talk,” Shandra informed him. ”Some of whom don’t even sleep.”
”And? What does sleep have to do with talking?” Aron had never been the talking and gossiping type like most teenagers when he’d come to the X-mansion, and as a result he didn’t truly grasp how fast word traveled. He was still stuck on how the teens would figure out about it in the first place. Sure, they came back in the middle of the night but how would that point to a shootout?
Shandra let out a deep breath. She sat down on a chair across the way from him, turning the back of the seat to the built in desk. She stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he was really not putting the dots together. She’d known Aron for a bit - well enough to be comfortable going on a trip with him. He was innocent, naive, and nice…and not as observant as most people she was used to. So yes, it was very possible he hadn’t put the pieces together.
”Some of the students would have noticed us coming back in the middle of the night. They would tell a friend, who would probably tell another. They will talk about why we’re back in the middle of the night. They’ll come to the conclusion that something bad happened. If we talk with the Professor upstairs, one of them will definitely hear about the shooting. And that will spread too.”
”Oh… well the professor is going to find us sooner or later and they’ll find out sooner or later by your logic. So…. it’s inevitable then.” Aron considered it, how would they attempt to emulate it? Danger room maybe? They seldom got to go into town and all the camping trips were supervised and they surely wouldn’t be taking them to that park anytime soon after their recent encounter.
”You’re right, Aron, I will find out sooner or later,” Charles Xavier’s voice sounded in their heads well in advance of his appearance; the sound of the chair was nearly silent in the hall with the door closed.
Aron nearly leapt out of his skin as Xavier’s voice chymed in his head. God he hated when he did that, it made his hair stand up on end. His gaze went to Charles as he wheeled in and quickly retorted, “They started it and wouldn’t leave us be. Shandra tried to de-escalate it. I couldn’t let them hurt her.” Anyone that knew Aron even for a couple of hours knew that he was fiercely protective of his friends and wouldn’t stand for anyone threatening them.
”No one was asking you to,” Xavier said with a sigh still somehow clearly in his mental voice. The door opened up shortly after he spoke. His chair gleamed in the unnaturally bright light and metallic surroundings as it pulled to a stop just inside the room. He looked between the two of them before he continued to speak. ”But I believe she was in a better position to avoid bloodshed. After all, who, outside of these walls, reacts well to a bear as fearsome as you can appear?”
Well, sure no one was asking him to but he wasn’t going to let some trigger happy humans have a chance of shooting Shandra. Aron crossed his arms against his chest, his jaw clenching as his muscles in his shoulder protested against the movement. He looked between Shandra and the professor and said, ”No one was killed and I was the only one that got shot and I’ll be fine. And those trigger happy morons were just looking for an excuse to shoot her, whether I jumped in or not they’d have shot at her.” Aron didn’t like having the blame put on him when he did what he could to protect others, which was what they were supposed to do.
”Death or not, it did create an incident. Though I am thankful that you two made it out relatively fine,” the Professor did look towards the bandage wound. ”And that you two were not recognized as X-men. We need as much good will right now as we can get.”
Shandra’s expression hardened rather quickly, eyes stilling on the older man. ”Why?”
Not that they didn’t always need good will. It was just the way he said it that made her suspicious. Charles let out a sigh and shook his head slowly, one of his hands gripping his arm rest.
”For the couple of year, the United States government has discovered that there is a drug that’s effective at suppressing the expression X-gene, once it’s taken in sufficient doses,” he admitted. ”Last year they started test runs; ones that many in the government have felt have been successful. Recently it has become a discussion of releasing it into the whole country's water supply. I have been trying to contact some old contacts to put a stop to that. But if we have X-men going rogue…I fear that may not be enough.”
”But we weren’t going rogue. We were just having a camping trip and they started a fight with us.” Aron rose from his chair in frustration, this blame always being on the mutants was getting old. All that they’d wanted to do was camp and it had been a nice break from the mansion until their run in. His gaze moved to Shandra. Was she going to pipe in or just let him take the heat for it?
”We hardly went rogue. Like he said; they started it. Besides, one small fight wouldn’t make the difference,” Shandra spoke slowly as she looked at him. ”Stop them from doing it.”
He didn’t do them the injustice to say that he couldn’t. Xavier stayed quiet for a moment at that and backed up. ”If I force the issue now, it will just spark someone to come along and create a more inhumane program. One that I may not hear of in time.”
”Sure, they get the free pass and get to force their agenda on us, all because we’re different and they fear what they don’t understand.” Aron had had enough of this slap on the wrist lecture from Professor X. They’d done nothing wrong, it was those damned red necks that had instigated it. So, Aron squeezed past Professor X and headed up and outside, heading for his favourite spot, under a tree by the pond in the back yard. Half a mind to say to hell with his injury and just turn into one of his many bear forms.
Shandra stayed quiet as Aron left. She waited till he was well out of earshot; even the earshot of any of his bear forms, just in case. With how angry she was, though her face hid it well, she didn’t want Aron to hear the following conversation. Her gaze never wavered from Xavier as she waited and he stayed long enough for that to happen.
”Do you plan to do anything about it? Really do something about it.”
”I will be speaking to my contacts in the morning.”
”Talking only goes so far,” Shandra said in a tight, flat voice. Her thoughts, however, were of a different variety. ”This is genocide. Gentle genocide but it’s still wrong.”
”Miss Tarvan…”
His voice was warning her against the thoughts that ran through her head. If he had thought a small fight with some mountain men was the worst that could happen, what she’d thought to do would have shocked him silly. Before he had a chance to stop her, she slipped between the dimensions. She had bags to pack, secrets to snatch, and miserable misters to murder if it came to the worst.
__________ __________ In Collab with Shimmering_Apocalypse
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Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2023 1:28 am
 February 13th, 2038
In Collab with The Bunit
══════════════════════════════════════════ Anxiety ate at Shandra from the inside. It chewed at her guts, clenched her heart, and stilled her tongue. Not that she was normally a talkative person, mind you, but there was an eerie silence as her mind screamed at her for hours. What if taking them up to the mansion only made matters worse? There were things there that, if it fell into the wrong hands, could make their life more hell than it had already been. Despite the fact that she’d fallen out of the timeline for fifteen years, the technology and resources left behind by the X-men could still be devastating. Cerebro…the jet…everything underground basically.
But did they have a choice anymore?
The world was trying to break them. They were being hunted down and captured. The Mutant Underground of Atlanta had taken more than a couple hits. They’d stumbled down to the ground. What if organizations like theirs, the ones that helped mutants whenever they could, were knocked down and couldn’t get back up? What kind of world would be left in the wake if they didn’t get access to the resources the Mansion contained?
And for the first hour or so Ian offered little in the way of conversation, instead ruminating on just what he should say, if anything at all. Casting a chocolate-hued glance in her direction, he decided to chance it against his better judgment. Shandra almost flinched at the sound of Ian’s voice as he broke the silence.
“I’m surprised you didn’t ride with blondie.” Nearly two hours of silence, and that was all he could muster. Smooth. “Heh. Sorry.” He uttered, gritting his teeth as Aron weaved through the traffic in a way that left his stomach lurching.
”Why? He is blond,” Shandra said in a rather slow voice, an ironic smile tugging at one of the corners of her lips.
There was a vague sort of amusement as she responded about Aron actually being blond. Apparently her diverting comment brought him amusement too. Or at least more than he had a moment ago. How many times had someone come up with a nickname based on her own hair? She had at least 3 nicknames all referencing back to it from 3 different people. Granted she had the feeling that the apology wasn’t just about calling Aron blondie. It was probably about the personal observation that she wasn’t riding with said bear of a man. It was just that Shandra much preferred to talk about hair colors and nicknaming people for them over the other thing.
“And all that comes with that stereotype, it seems.”
”Oh yes because stereotypes are always so true. Blonds are idiots, redheads are feisty, and brunettes are boring,” Shandra spoke slowly in a dry, facetious tone.
It was amusing to think of all the different stereotypes she had heard in her life. Hair colors were the least of it. Skin type, location of residence, sex, body type, eye color…Mutant…there were all kinds of stereotypes. Some more damning than others. After her comment the cabin went silent once more, except for the drumming of his fingers on the steering wheel.
As silence fell back into place, Shandra brushed over the spots that had been left from Aron’s teeth. They had healed by this point. Or rather had been healed. But she still felt them somehow. Like a ghostly reminder.
The ancient civilization nerd had come to the conclusion that he well and truly hated the bear shifter. Though he had driven his own car, keeping pace with the a*****e was proving to be a task - one he would swear he made more of a challenge when he learned of Ian’s distaste for vehicles. “I am not sure what sort of trouble is going on in that paradise… and frankly, my opinions of him won’t be swayed either way.” He ended the last declaration on a cheerful note as the image of throttling the human teddy bear played in on repeat in his conscience.
To that she made a non-committal noise. It was common knowledge that Ian and Aron weren’t exactly the best of friends. They were barely even allies if she was being honest. So the fact that whatever she said wouldn’t have an affect on his opinion of the larger man was quite possible. Then again if she did tell him what had happened, Shandra had the sense that Ian’s opinion of Aron might fall even farther. If that was possible.
Not that she would say anything but still. Shandra didn’t comment one way or another on the topic of troubles in paradise though she had made a sound to confirm that she’d heard his statement. She wasn’t exactly the kind of person to talk about herself even under good circumstances. She wasn’t about to pour her heart when her mind was still fussing with what was to come.
“I will say, he will be lucky if anyone hears anything other than pig squeals for the next three days when we get out of this car.” His hands tightened on the wheel as he forced his stomach to settle. Already he felt green around the gils, but he would not, under any circumstance, allow the nincompoop to win.
“Unless… you chose my care out of deference to my obviously superior driving.” A joke. Pithy, but at least not openly hostile. Hey look Montgomery… you CAN do this people thing.
”That’s not untrue,” Shandra admitted as she looked over towards him with a wry expression. ”Maybe squeaky breaks would be better? Over the sound of a pig at least.”
Once she voiced her opinion, Shandra tilted her head to rest on the glass once more. The way that Aron was weaving through traffic wasn’t helping the electrified nerves and doubts inside of her. Not that he was driving the car she was currently in; that was Ian. It was that in order to keep up with Aron, Ian was being forced to drive erratically as well. She was just doing her best not to make matters worse. Thankfully she’d gotten back a slightly better reign over her powers in the last coming months. And the use of her body. God being that locked up had nearly killed her.
At least he wouldn’t be flipping cars any time soon. Shifting in his seat, a twinge of discomfort overrode his countenance as his pants brushed some of the still-healing road rash. “All kidding aside… I have to ask… is it always this… bats in the belfry sort of happening?” No doubt she would understand to what he was referring… the sentinel services, the fiery explosions, people falling out of the sky…
“I feel as though my short time being acquainted with your group has had more action packed into it than a Bruce Willis movie.” Swallowing air, he hoped to quell the bile lobbying for a revolt in his stomach. “And I’ve been severely miscast for the role.” Between being more of a bookish nerd than a stunt double… he definitely never would have guessed that he’d jump out of a moving vehicle to steal another.
Ian was perhaps a little harder on himself than even she was. Which was surprising. She was used to being around guys who were more confident in their abilities, in themselves, than they should have been. Ian didn’t come off as insecure to her but perhaps he was more worried than she’d have thought.
”I don’t think so,” she mused in response, looking at him from the corner of her eye. ”I mean, it’s always been crazy in one way or another. It just feels harder, I think, because of the different circumstances. But I think you’ve been handling it just as well as anyone else I’ve met. Better than some.”
And lean. Shandra moved with the car to lower the inertia her body wanted to experience in a negative way when Ian had to keep playing follow-the-leader. It really did feel like Aron was either trying to lose Ian in the fray or he was just really excited to get back up to New York.
“I’m not going to say I’ve not been disturbed by it all and that there isn’t a chip on my shoulder that didn’t exist before. But honestly, I felt like I was doing you all a disservice by not trying to help where I could. That’s why I built the panic room without needing to be asked to keep it secret. And why I jumped out of a moving vehicle when we went to rescue Greenie. And why I met with Freya far from the MU when she emailed me about the mansion.”
”You weren’t wrong for any of those,” the redhead mused quietly, letting out a deep breath. ”A lot of people forget that half of staying safe is staying cautious. Not everyone needs to run headfirst into battle. The world still needs people to…well build a world, nurture it, help it grow. There are different ways of keeping people safe and you’ve managed to do okay so far.”
Roadrash aside. But if he didn’t want to directly talk about it, Shandra wasn’t going to rub that in his face. She didn’t want to talk about the healed over pricks she’d gotten from Aron; she wasn’t about to force him to talk about the torn and burned skin he’d endured.
”Just next time, don’t spend four days discussing poetry without checking in,” her lips turned into a teasing smile as did the uptick in her tone. ”It’s hard to take down a pack, easier to take out the lone wolf. You’re a part of all of this now and you know more than you might think you do.”
“Freya… it turns out… knew all of you. That whole thing has me more confused than a martian trying to read cuneiform….”
They hadn’t had this talk; thus far, both of them had avoided it. But now seemed as good a time as any. And speaking of Freya, he couldn’t help but add that it had turned out okay – even if the whole situation with the fifteen year disappearance left him utterly confused. Voicing his ignorance on the topic, he laughed when she gave a nonanswer.
“You’re not alone in that.”
She couldn’t quite tell if that was a genuine laugh or something born of irony. They may have had more than four months to get to know one another but it still wasn’t long enough to get to know him. Not in this situation at least.
“My caution with not bringing her back still feels prudent. Before I got the contract to fix Graymalkin… the only people who knew about my…Genetics… were my parents. The email sent me into my own spiral of panic. Freya and I worked for the same firm, but we didn’t cross paths. After being blackmailed… I didn’t want to involve you guys and risk exposing everyone.”
There was a guy with a baby at the base. Caution needed to be their middle name. Even as a rookie in the outlaw department, he could see that. Then again, his was born of not being barred from his program; it was only after he saw how the others lived that concerns for them even registered. He wasn’t blind to that privilege either.
Another nonjudgmental noise fell from her lips. She tried to decide what the best thing was to say beyond that. She knew, intrinsically, that she didn’t want to unfold her life story before him like a story board. If he wasn’t already worried over what had happened, he’d be running for the hills by the time she got partially through her story. Though maybe not as law abiding as Aren, Ian seemed like he at least attempted to stay on the right side of the law. For Shandra, the law was a little more (well a lot more) like a bunch of suggestions. And her life, along with those who knew about her mutant gifts and why, strongly reflected that.
Besides, he already had more clues about her past than most; more than she usually let strangers in on. She wasn’t exactly one for connecting the dots for others. Not when it came to her own life.
”You would have…will be treated as an enemy of the state just by association,” the redhead amended herself as she spoke.
It wasn’t that she was trying to threaten him. It was more that she wanted to remind him of the serious situation. With the government on the warpath, any association to the Mutant Underground, or hell even just mutants, ended up with people being treated like terrorists. She hadn’t been back in the world for very long but Shandra had to say that she much preferred the atmosphere fifteen to twenty years ago compared to what it had become. Without the X-men there to actively help out mutant situations gone bad, everything seemed to have spiraled out of control. Even if they had been treated with contempt and disdain before, they weren’t being hunted as the scum of the earth.
“Don’t think I’ve told you… but I don’t regret anything so far. Maybe the methods in which I acted….But not what I’ve done.”
Shandra let out a quiet sound of contemplation as she looked a little bit away from him. It was hard ”Good. Regret kills the soul. So try not to stress out too much. You’re going to need that to keep getting through this.”
“What I do regret, is agreeing to follow your a*****e friend instead of leading the charge.”
Another sound of contemplation. Shandra tilted her head before turning back to look straight on. Aron really was doing his best to make it a sort of game. Normally she didn’t mind playing Chase the Leader, Keep Up, or whatever version someone wanted to call it. But in a car it was far less amusing. The motion was less enjoyable. And the thought of trying not to push at or smash other cars off the road accidentally was a stress that never quite left as they talked. She wasn’t the best at being in confined spaces with big things coming at her. Normally that meant it was time to go on the offense. Going on the offense while driving wasn’t a good thing to do to stay under the radar. Not to mention going on the offense meant possibly killing other innocent people whose only crime was pollution.
”If you want to pull over, you can,” Shandra reminded him calmly. She moved her head off of the glass and looked at him completely. ”Letting him flounder at the mansion by himself while we get a hotel room might be a new form of justice.”
Not that Aron was alone. But she had a feeling that not turning up behind him for a day or more would throw him off his game. And that might be amusing. She wondered if he’d try to retrace his steps, zig zaggy as they were and all. Some part of her wondered if Ian would start whistling like a boiling kettle if he got angry enough.
A punchy expression crossed his features and he let out a genuine laugh. “If I thought that his primitive brain would understand the delay as a punishment instead of a surrender to his dominance…” Chocolate-hued orbs rolled upwards, calling more to the dramatics of it all than his actual feelings. “I’d be tempted…” As it were, if he let Aron have this one, he’d never hear the end of it. “But he’s an absolute bear to deal with already, and I’d hate myself for giving him more ammunition.”
”Aron’s normally not...” Shandra expressed, trailing off for lack of a good term to fill in the blank.
She kept quiet about the fact that had been the truth in the past at least. Recently though his stubbornness had been a little different. Not for the first time since the incident, Shandra couldn’t help but wonder why. He’d gotten back before her, true, but she hadn’t expected him to be different. It wasn’t just the fact that he was fighting with someone who’d come in to help them. Even Shandra wasn’t completely ready to surrender all their secrets. But she was trying to keep an open mind - trying so very hard to do that. And it wasn’t even the fact that he’d run away after a fight when he’d been wounded - feral mindsets tended to be a thing with shifters. She knew he went a bit more bear-like when he was bear-like. She could have even gotten over the n** he’d given her if it hadn’t been for what it’d been over. A stranger (Mik); he’d bitten her over a stranger.
Ian swallowed air to keep the bile from coming up. Zofran pills were his friend and had at least gotten him this far. “You know… the x-gene should be an example of Darwinism, the perpetual growth of our species to adapt, to survive…” He trailed off, trying to figure out how to diplomatically phrase his musings. How had someone as remedial in logic as Aron hit the gene lottery? “Before meeting him, I had thought of the mutations would perpetuate the way man has gone the last millenia - driven by the need for understanding, improving… Given that we’re in the Age of Intellect, it seems… odd that mutations can still favor brawn.”
Shrugging, he cheesed for her benefit. “After centuries of not needing brute strength because brains can build the tools to do the job for you… apparently evolution still likes a few to have it just in case? I guess it takes all types to perpetuate a species.”
”Brains can only rule over brawn in times of peace,” Shandra added after a moment of silence as she shifted in her seat. Heavens she hated sitting in one place for long. Confined spaces and she did not get along. ”Right now we are being treated like we’re at war…our existence is all but illegal. So we need a different system. We need people who think things through, yeah, but we also need strength to survive this. His strength is just different from yours…. His strength is in his brawn. Unfortunately that’s the only side you know.”
She gave it a moment to sink in before she quietly joked, "Besides, the species would have died out long ago if it hinged on thinkers procreating."
“Touche” Ian stated, matching her smirk with one of his own. He wanted no part in having children. Snotty, walking petrie dishes that they were. “Though, that its the only side I’ve learned of him is his choice.” After all… he had played nice at first. The babysitting remark and making certain that the sound manipulator did not get the meaning twisted; Aron had not wanted him with the Mutant Underground to begin with.
”I…don’t know why. Normally he gets along with everyone. He’s a big teddy bear,” Shandra said with a touch of irony.
Then again he’d reappeared before she had. He’d had much more time to change than she’d realized. There was a good chance that something had happened to change him from the protective brother-type she’d known into the more aggressive Aron he’d become. Still, from what she’d been able to tell, he was far more aggressive toward Ian than anyone. And vice versa. She just didn’t know why that was.
“Damn it, I would swear he’s doing this just to see if I’ll puke on you.” Rattled, he reached for an energy drink in the backseat of his car. “At least this time I got to sleep before making the drive up.”
“As for the why, you got me. I’m not an overly people person.” The sound manipulator admitted. “But up until that point, I had been playing nice.” Not that he wasn’t usually polite, but he had miraculously kept himself from blurting out the worst of his intrusive thoughts while sleep deprived. Honestly, he deserved some sort of medal for that. Aron had literally fallen out of a building. “Not that it matters. Not everyone has to like you. The world will still keep spinning.”
Perhaps she knew that better than he… given her status as a known mutant.
The redhead nodded slowly in agreement before turning her eyes back to the road. After a while even Aron’s driving became something manageable. It helped that the farther they got away from major cities, the less lanes he had to choose from. So even though they took the primarily mountainous range road it had the effect of calming the journey down.
”I know that you were called in to repair the mansion,” Shandra brought up after a while. ”But what do you know about the place? The history of it…the original construction…?”
Ian pondered that, trying to remember the details he’d been given. “Well, I now know that it was a school… and also served as a headquarters of sorts. Charles Xavier’s name is on the deed, and that it’s been in the Xavier family for a long time. As to how many times it’s been reconstructed, I don’t know.” He admitted honestly. “Is there something more I should know?”
"It depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go," the playful tilt was still there from earlier as she didn't want to make it seem too serious. "Blue or red?"
An eyebrow quirked upward as he chanced a look over at her, pulling his gaze briefly from the road. “Are you seriously referencing The Matrix right now?” Didn’t she know how old that movie was? A single snicker escaped him as he peeled his eyes from her and back onto their route. “I gotta say… you surprise me. I didn’t take you for one to sit down and enjoy old movies.”
Shandra shrugged and shifted slightly in her seat once more. She’d been almost two years old when that movie had come out, not that Ian would know that. It had been pop culture throughout her childhood. Especially as they kept making sequels. Him bringing up that it was a classic (old) movie only highlighted the fact that she’d grown up in a different era than him.
”A girl has to do something with all her spare time. But I guess that’s the blue pill for you.”
“Nah, I am too inquisitive in nature to stay in one lane. Red pill all the way, even if the truth ends up being unsettling.” He wasn’t a history freak for nothing.
”Everyone was told that we were going up for some resources. Some were told that we were going to set up a new base. Both…are true. The mansion could be a perfect base. And it has all the resources we’ll need to help. The problem….” admitting this felt wrong. Shandra fought the urge to trail off. Or to be vague. Both felt more natural than the honest truth. ”The problem is that people getting a hold of the stuff we…the X-men…left behind…could be dangerous.”
Bobbing his head along with her start, Ian’s eyes stayed fixed on the road, but his posture shifted as he heard her hesitation. A wry grin that took off a couple of years from his face broke his expression, and one eyebrow cocked upward. “Like, more dangerous than mutants stopping bullets, wrecking cars, breaking the laws of physics as they are known to man?” He had not walked this life long and barely considered himself a member of the group… but, he could understand the wary. Mutants, if angered… could be very, very scary.
”Do you remember an event…it’d be around seventeen years ago I suppose? The world got a massive migraine. It would have felt like you were dying. That was because of one man and one machine in the Mansion. One.”
Tilting his chin upwards, he squinted one eye as he tried to remember. Cogs in his mind turned as he went through files in his brain…. “Vaguely familiar.” He didn’t watch the news seventeen years ago…. But it sounded like something he had experienced… “Is that mutant still down there or something? And are there multiple machines to wreak havoc with?”
"Different kinds. Different uses," Shandra admitted. "But if Xavier was back a lot of us would know. He's…good at bringing people together."
It may have seemed foolish after everything he'd done for them but she still couldn't help the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She'd only met him back in November when Moira had contacted his company he was contracted with to redesign and fix the damage she'd done. He'd done so spectacularly, even hiding a panic room into the second floor. And a lot of other things - helping them rescue Lorna for another. It was just that a decade of distrust and always looking over her shoulder hadn't exactly prepared Shandra to trust people with a bunch of secrets.
At the same time he was an Ally…he was trying to prove himself to be trustworthy. He was a decent guy despite his conflict with Aron. And she wasn't in the game of letting allies or friends go into situations blind either. So along with the greater war of bringing people back to the place where all of these tools that could be used against them were, Shandra felt the conflict over trusting him and keeping all the secrets undisclosed.
"All of the dangerous things…they're all protected,but…"
Stryker had used Magneto's knowledge to infiltrate the campus before. Which led to the event where Xavier had nearly killed everyone. It was just that after the event, the campus and house had been given security upgrades. There were automated defenses set up around the grounds. And security locks on the pathways down. Not to mention each room had multiple layers of authentication. Someone like Mystique still might be able to get through them if she was clever but it was enough to stump every other attempt to get in without destruction.
"They need to remain a secret, outside of the people already in the know. For everyone's good. Okay?"
Letting out a low whistle, he tapped at the wheel of his mini cooper, somewhat surprised with the flood of honesty. “I mean… your secrets are safe here. Who am I going to tell?” It wasn’t as though he had a whole lot of contact with anyone who would be interested in any of it. The Mutant Underground were the only mutants he truly knew. And he wasn’t about to sell them out to anyone else.
“All of the stuff is protected… I’m guessing by the same sort of systems I helped set up… just in different parts of the property?” Curiosity colored his tone, but not in a way that sounded as though he’d seek them out. “Not that I really need to know if you aren’t comfortable telling me. Unless you know, I’m about to play minesweeper in the yard and blow myself up. I’d rather avoid that kind of thing.”
"Tranqs, adhesive strong enough to rip the skin, gasses, stun nets…things like that around the grounds. But don't worry too much — I won't let you get hurt," Shandra assured him with a wavering smile, underlying a devious glint. "On purpose."
“I mean… you did let Aron fall straight out of a building and into some bushes.” He shot back with a mischievous grin. “That was the wake up call I hadn’t expected.” He had been half asleep, a walking zombie and hadn’t even trusted he’d seen that correctly.
They passed by yet another sign with a subtle hate message. Do you know? Find peace. Get tested. It was a quick flash in people’s mind but the rhetoric wasn’t lost on her as they continued the long drive. Well as Ian continued the long drive. She was just there for the ride and to be a large bundle of worry.
”Totally different situation,” she defended herself with no real passion behind it. Shandra leaned more to the side as she stretched out her arm to drum near an air vent. ”Besides, I’d have needed to be under him or I’d have only hurt him more than the fall.”
A quizzical expression took over his countenance then, but he didn’t bother to look over. “Uh huh.” He quipped back, his tone obviously threaded with disbelief that it was a different situation. “Mines in the yard… taking out walls… I just figured he was trying to learn how to fly and forgot how to miss the ground, to be honest.”
"He's not the bear version of dumbo," Shandra remarked dryly as she let her hand fall to her knee. "But I suppose flying bears make as much sense as people turning into them."
His shoulders lifted with his shrug. “I don’t make the rules in physics… or what science an x-gene can break…” He reasoned, bobbing his head along with her logic. “And some mutants in history have had a very odd combination of things…” Meanwhile, he could do parlor tricks. Parlor tricks that would make Aron squeal like a pig. Soon.
She couldn’t argue that. The things they could do sometimes violated the laws of nature as they’d been taught. Like the law of conservation in the case of Aron. He could change into any species of bear. Sure it took a bunch of calories but that was still a lot of mass gained or lost. And there wasn’t like the density of his form compensated for the differentiating mass. It just appeared and disappeared like magic.
Small town after small town passed as they moved through the Appalachian mountains. The path was slightly slower than the other ones but it had less toll stops. Which theoretically meant less surveillance and chances of being stopped. Even if they were apprehended, the mountains offered more chances of escape. Sentinel Services would have a harder time keeping up with them through the forest. Even if, or especially because, it was winter time.
Shortly after the sun fell, Aron pulled off at a truck stop. Shandra took note of the lights standing high up above to clock them for cameras. There were plenty of them. Shandra pulled up the thin hood of the shirt she was wearing to make identification more difficult. She doubted enforcement was looking through the footage with any regularity but if they were she was in no mind to make it easy.
”We’ll start again in the morning.”
It was the safer choice that Aron had made to pull off for the night. That’s what she assumed he had planned at least, knowing him. That would give Ian and himself time to rest their eyes and nerves. It also meant not needing to pull up to the mansion when the sun was still sleeping.
Too bad there were so many cameras around. Aron would have enjoyed sleeping in his bear form in the weather as it was. Though it was remarkably warm for a February night; all the better. She hated the cold.
”Any food allergies I should know about?”
Before she’d met Peta, she’d spent months putting together gas station meals when she was a young teenager. She’d learned a more than a bit from him and the others on his reservation while there. But after she’s left to protect them she’d spent a while fending for herself once more. The difference was that she planned to pay for the thrown together meals this time. And that was only because the cameras around them may have picked up on the car door opening and closing with no one getting in or out. Not to mention the stop’s store door. She doubted there would be a person she could slip in after to avoid detection.
Allowing his forehead to collide with the wheel, the sound manipulator closed his eyes as a sigh of relief passed over his lips. As soon as they were parked and the engine to the mini purred to a stop, he slid out of the car, none too ceremoniously. His joints creaked, and he stretched, elongating his limbs.
At least for now, he didn’t look as though he might throw up. “This is far better than the last time I made this drive - even if someone is bound and determined to make me miserable with his shitty driving.”
Shandra intended to make something of a snack run, and he shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. “Nothing I’m aware of… but honestly, I’ll probably just go in and make a cup of Joe.” No need for her to play babysitter on his account.
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Vicious Madam Mari Captain
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Vicious Madam Mari Captain
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:27 pm
 Year 2020▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅
His entire world had been turned upside down in a matter of days. His mutant powers had surfaced when he was trying to defend Sylvie from her douche of a boyfriend, whom he'd nearly killed as a result, having lost control of the beast that now resided in him. It forced his family to relocate from their home to their mom's birth country, America and even that hadn't gone to plan. Aron had been forced to flee from the government and distance himself from his family to protect them and himself. He'd taken shelter in a forest out in the middle of nowhere, well away from people so that he couldn't hurt anyone else and he couldn't be found. Or so he thought.
He hadn't been on his own for a week, using the survival skills that his parents had taught him to live off the land and survive on his own, before he was found. Aron was sitting on a log by a fire he'd made, his arms hugging his legs close as he watched the red headed woman emerge from the brush which quickly had him to his feet, ready to run as he asked, "Who are you? What do you want?" Aron has started trying to use his powers more to try and make sure he could keep control of the beast, and he was ready to take up the form and run if he needed to. He wasn't going to prison.
Shandra stepped from around some of the scattered bushes and other shrubbery towards her current mission's claimed space. It was easy to see the makings of a rudimentary camp; though it was only rudimentary in the fact that it lacked modern supplies. Overall it was well set up. For someone who'd supposedly run away from home recently, the blond seventeen year old before her did well.
"Well to start with, maybe talk," Shandra said as she kept her hands somewhere he'd easily be able to see in the dappled light. Light skin was nice that way.
Aron watched the stranger closely, as she kept her hands where he could see them and informed him that she wanted to talk first. He looked to their surroundings for anyone else, taking a deep breath to see if he could smell anyone else. Who knew, maybe she was just the distraction, regardless he responded, "No one just wants to talk. Who are you?"
"I did say I wanted to talk to start with," she reminded him with a wry smile. She took a couple steps closer, slowly. Animal-base mutants were always so touchy about their territory. Not that she could really blame them. It was never nice to have a stranger invade your personal space. "Eventually I'd like to get you into a nice comfy bed. And a shower. Then maybe dinner. But I figured we'd talk first."
Aron tensed further as she took a couple steps towards him, and he took a step back. His heart was racing a mile a minute and he could feel the beast scratching at the surface to push through, he watched her closely,
"I'm not going anywhere with anyone. I'm not going to prison." Aron didn't know who she was or what her end game was but no one just offered you a bed and dinner. It had to be a ploy or trap of some sort.
"Oh, Xavier's is the farthest thing from a prison," Shandra's face drew into a soft, amused smile as she waited just on the outside ring of his camp. "Or juvie, or jail, or detention center, or whatever other evil thing you have on your mind. It's more one of those luxury private schools you see but few could ever afford."
Xavier's? What on earth was Xavier's? Moments later the woman elaborated a bit on what it was. Aron glanced around the outer edges of his camp to be sure no one was trying to get a jump on him from the shadows before he spoke, "Why would some random person from an expensive private school waste their time finding me?" He didn't trust it, it didn't make any sense and how would they have found out about him?
"Because you're a mutant," Shandra said bluntly. "And you need help."
How did they know he was a mutant? Had the government put it all over the news that he'd escaped? Surely he wasn't that much of a threat. "How'd you figure that out?" His stranger danger was starting to go off, if she gave the wrong answer he was going to be off like a shot.
"Xavier is a bit of a peeping tom," Shandra joked as the smile pulled her lips wider. "He has a whole system to find other mutants. He's been doing it since the cold war and bringing us back to the school like stray cats."
What? Some old guy was tracking and finding mutants and bringing them back to this school? That had to be some made up mess. Nope, he wasn't falling for it. Aron turned and disappeared through the trees, a thick brown coat of fur taking over his body as he shifted into a Kodiak bear and started booking it away from the strange woman. He'd have to find somewhere new to hide that was for sure. Aron ran until he was sure that he'd lost her, taking a seat next to a river as he caught his breath.
As he started to dart, Shandra's smile turned into a frown. Her face tensed up in mild ire as she watched him. Going after him right now would be pointless. He'd already made up his mind to run. Chasing him would only instill the idea that they were there to capture and hurt him. That much she knew from personal experience. Instead she looked around the homemade campsite to take in things he'd done. They'd show his preference.
"...shoulda sent Peta," Shandra muttered in irritation; not at the kid who was still in flight mode. She was just annoyed that Xavier had decided it was her turn to be the welcome wagon. She was bad at hospitality — hadn't he figured that out already?
The redhead sat down and fixed a couple things around the camp so that they were more secure. Either he'd come back or he wouldn't. If the former that would save her trouble. If the later, she'd track him down in the morning. Over and over if she had to. She wasn't about to go back and let Felix be right - even though he was.
Aron didn't return to his campsite that night, he'd left his only bag of belongings there which had a few changes of clothes but more importantly his only picture of him and his sister Sylvie. He wanted to go back and get it but he couldn't risk it. So he took shelter in a hollow created by a fallen tree and curled up as it started to rain. Aron watched the rain fall silently as he curled up tighter on himself, wishing his ability had never come to him and that he could be back home with his family.
The next morning, Shandra might have cheated a little. She'd spent a little bit of time fishing and preparing the fire so that it was at just the right level. She made sure to clean the fish she caught as well as one could and impaled them on freshly debarked spears. Given that she didn't know which direction he'd have traveled in after he'd left her sight, however, she couldn't exactly fan the smell of the cooking fish his way. Though considering that they were in a large nature park during the off season, Shandra was pretty sure he'd smell the food cooking. Plus she doubted that he'd leave his stuff behind - everything in there had been important enough to run away with at least once already.
Aron didn't sleep much that night but he resolved to try and sneak back to the camp and grab his bag. As he approached the camp, the smell of cooking fish quickly reached his nose. He cautiously approached the camp, his brown eyes stopping on the woman from the day before, glancing to his bag that wasn't where he'd left it. Has she gone through his belongings? Aron rose up on his hind haunches and let out a low rumbling growl at the woman before he dropped back down to all fours, moving carefully towards his bag.
"Rawr to you too," the redhead said as she made sure that the fish weren't burning on one side. "Should I translate that stomp to good morning?"
Aron's gaze narrowed on the woman who was clearly unphased by his attempt at intimidation. She had to be completely nuts. He could safely assume she wasn't government, maybe. She hadn't tried to use force yet. Aron picked up his bag in his mouth and carried it behind a tree, where he shifted back. Hiding behind the tree in naught but his skin he quickly dug out a hoodie and a pair of jeans and threw them on before he reappeared from behind the tree, still on edge as he spoke, "So you're not government.. but how am I supposed to trust you? Who knows where you could actually take me."
”True enough. I could take you to a dungeon, the circus, or even a zoo. But I wasn’t lying. The goal was to talk to you and convince you to come back with me to the school.”
"And if I refuse? What happens then?" Aron has to consider it, if it was actually true, what she was saying then it couldn't be worse than living alone in the woods but if she was lying it could be far worse.
”Then you go down a really hard path by yourself, if you’re lucky. And if you’re not lucky, you’ll wish you’d have come with me. The world can be cruel.”
"And I'm just supposed to trust that you're being truthful? I still don't even know your name."
”You never introduced yourself either,” Shandra pointed out as she plucked one of the speared, cooked fish from its spot. She held it out and waited to see if he’d grab it. ”But I mean a name isn’t going to make you trust me any more or less. And you just said you don’t know if I’m being truthful yet.”
"I'm not the one tracking someone down in the middle of the woods either." He was quick to retort to the fact that he hadn't given his name to her either. Aron looked to the extended fish but didn't move to grab it as he spoke, "If this peeping Tom already knows where I am then he has to know who I am and I don't imagine he'd send you here without knowing what you're getting into."
Shandra blew at some wayward hair as she brushed her braid over her shoulder with her free hand. ”You'd be surprised. I’m normally not the one that talks to people. I think this is his way of being amused at my expense.”
Well if he wasn’t going to eat the fish, she was. Shandra pinched the fish with her fingers, rendering a chunk free and ate it.
Aron hesitantly took a seat across the fire from Shandra, taking a moment to go through his bag and make sure nothing had been taken out of it. To his relief it looked undisturbed and his picture of him and his sister was still there. It was starting to feel like he didn't have much of a choice, either go with this woman or live his life as a hermit in these woods cut off from the world.
Aron sat silent for a few long minutes, his gaze drifting between the fire and the woman across from him. At either rate he was probably never going to see his family again and being surrounded by people like him didn't sound terrible. If she did try anything he could always turn into a polar bear and maul her and anyone else that came at him. After these long minutes of consideration he finally spoke, "Fine. I'll go with you." Aron rose to his feet and slung his backpack over a shoulder and said, "Aron. My name is Aron by the way. If the peeping Tom didn't actually tell you."
Shandra smiled and nodded to acknowledge that she heard him. She picked off another piece of fish and chewed it before reaching out for the other spear with the fish on it. She tried again to hand him the food before getting to work on properly putting out the fire. Just because she was happy that he had accepted going back with her didn't mean that she wanted to burn down the forest. Especially as she was taking their impromptu Smokey the Bear back with her.
"So," another pinch of the fish, "who taught you to live out here like this?"
Aron watched as Shandra grabbed the other spear with fish and offered it to him. He hesitated for a few moments before taking it this time. Aron started to pick at it as Shandra she started to put out the fire and asked him, who taught him to live like this. After he finish his mouthful of fish he spoke, “My parents. They taught me and my sister how to survive out in nature, just to be safe. Never thought we’d actually need it but turns out I did at least.” Aron deeply missed his sister, they’d never been apart for more than a day and now they were going on a week of being separated. To distract himself from these dreary thoughts he asked, “So, what is this school like? Other than being fancy and high class.”
"Most of the class are the normal kinds you'd expect. Math, English…all of that. But there are other things there. Things…and trainings that are meant to help. That way you never have to do a runner again."
Ugh, Aron hated Math and English. School had never been his forte but learning to better use his powers was appealing. "Is the math and English mandatory?" If his parents were there they'd make him take the classes but being a mutant on the run, he didn't see their necessity. After all it was only his grade 12 he was missing.
"Depends how much you finished before you ran," the redhead admitted before she finished off the rest of her fish. "Don't worry too much about the academics. They'll work on getting everything transferred over for you. And the smaller class sizes are nice."
Right, he was going to have to meet new people and be the new kid. Aron had never had to deal with being the new kid, he'd never had to move until recently, so the idea of knowing no one and not having his sister to lean on gave him some anxiety. Aron finished the rest of his fish and looked to Shandra, "Should we get going?" He was still keeping a close eye on her and despite his anxiety of being the new kid, he missed being around people.
Though she got up and finished helping to tear down the camp, Shandra teased him, "In a hurry to get there after all?"
Aron rubbed the back of his head as she teased him and responded, "I don't know but you're the first person I've talked to in a week that hasn't tried to lock me up. Not sure how I'll fit in though." He had a thick accent, was tall and lanky, was a bit of a social outcast and really didn't understand American pop culture.
"Trust me, if the mansion can handle people like Wolverine, you'll be fine."
"Who's Wolverine?"
"Oh you're going to find out," she couldn't wait for the two of them to meet. Wolverine, Logan, was a very polarizing individual; she'd love to see what he'd make of the stringbean in front of her both figuratively and literally.
Well that certainly wasn't ominous at all. He wasn't familiar with much that went on in America, he'd very much been in his own world in Iceland. "So, which way are we taking out of here?"
She motioned with her head before leading the way out of the forest. It was a bit of a walk so she stopped every once in a while to make sure that Aron could keep up. He was probably running low on calories if he'd been traveling by himself for at least a week. Especially as he'd hinted at having to run away from multiple people trying to lock him up in that time. Plus, from what she knew of animal mutations, the transformations probably took a toll on him too. It was why she was silently insistent on him eating at least one of the cooked fish - he looked like he needed to eat at least a hundred sandwiches.
Aron followed behind Shandra towards what he assumed would be her car, once they made it out of the forest. He kept a sharp ear on his surroundings and chimed in, "You still haven't told me your name."
"So ask who the redhead is when you get to the Academy," Shandra answered back to him with a cheshire grin.
He'd soon find that was like finding a needle in a haystack. There were so many redheads running around that school that it was practically a prerequisite. At least for the female population.
She wasn't going to make finding her name out easily, clearly by that response. He let out a long drawn out sigh as he trailed behind her. He did love the outdoors but he couldn't deny he missed being around people.
__________ __________ In Collab with Shimmering_Apocalypse
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 9:16 pm
 January 2028 __________ MU HQ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Selene had sent Rhys to infiltrate the underground and report to her the inner workings. Plus she wanted him to try and start pulling the younger mutants to joining the Hellfire club when the opportunity arose. One of his biggest focuses had to be the Strucker siblings, Lauren and Andy. It was easy enough to blend in at the mutant underground since they had so much going on all the time and the place was sheer chaos. Rhys was currently sitting amongst the new rescues, a few scrapes and bruises but nothing major, just needed patched up and as luck would have it, Lauren was helping her mom tend to those that were injured. He kept quiet for the most part, offering a small smile when Lauren's eyes met his.
Lauren offered a half-hearted smile as she met the eyes of one of their current rescues. It wasn't wasn't one of the missions that she'd gone on. Three months wasn't a lot of time; at least not for her. She was still trying to avoid situations where she might knowingly have to use her powers - at least in a way that could hurt anyone.
"It gets better," the teenager said in as comforting of a voice as she could manage.
That's what she'd heard a couple times already. She was just having a hard time believing it. Hopefully though, whatever this boy had been through wasn't that bad. He'd been scraped and bruised up but there were so many ways he could have gotten that.
"If you're waiting for my mom, I might be able to help," she offered as the energy to put on a brave smile faded.
Rhys offered a smile to Lauren as she offered to try and help him since her mom was busy. He gave a small nod and said,
"Sure, it's nothing too serious. Just some cuts and bruises." Rhys extended one of his hands and said, "My names Rhys."
"Nice to meet you, Rhys. I'm Lauren," the blond introduced herself. She started to turn around but then stopped and looked back to inform him, "I'll be right back. I just need to grab some things."
"It's nice to meet you too." He gave a small nod as she said that she'd be back in a second and just needed to grab some things. While she was away, he looked between the other rescues, watching for any giveaways of tension in the prior members.
Lauren returned with a small box full of mix matched supplies. She pulled her hair back so that it wouldn't get in her way as she sat down beside him, balancing the small box of things on her knee. The stand-in-nurse pulled out a disinfectant and some gauze pads. She looked back up to the cute boy in front of her and smiled slightly, going to more reassuring than she felt reassured.
"This might sting a little."
Rhys watched as Lauren returned and held out his banged up arm once she was ready with her supplies. "Hit me with it." He offered a reassuring smile as he mentally prepared for the sting of her cleaning his cuts and scrapes.
Lauren started with the less painful areas. The ones she'd seen her mom clean up a million times. That way he could get acclimated to the pain if such a thing existed. Then she moved on to the more sensitive spots. All the while she paid attention to switching out the cleaning supplies when they were too soiled. She even made sure to put them in a separate bag- it might not be one of those biohazard bags that hospitals used but it was better than just throwing it wherever she pleased.
When she was finished, Lauren sat back and tied back up the little first aid box. "There you go. All done."
Occasionally Rhys would offer a wince when she touched a more sensitive spot in his injuries and let out a sigh of relief when she was done. Not that the pain had been unbearable but at least the discomfort was over. "Thanks Lauren, I appreciate it. Sorry if this seems forward, but how'd you end up in a place like this? Are you a mutant or someone in your family?"
"My brother and I are," it still felt weird to admit that after years of keeping it hidden. "We ended up getting into trouble at a dance…and Sentinel Services showed up at the house before either of us could catch a breath."
"I'm sorry that sucks, guess I'm lucky no one was around when my powers made their appearance." Rhys looked over to the potted plant and extended a hand, slowly a new plant grew from the soil, the shoot growing until it reached him, a yellow tulip forming on the end, pulling part of the flower away from the shoot and holding it out to Lauren, "A thanks for the patch up job."
Lauren carefully took the flower from his hand. She turned it over a few times before looking back up at him. Even though she'd seen some pretty awesome things happen since she joined the Mutant Underground, watching the flower grow before her eyes was fascinating.
"That's a really nice power."
"Yeah, it's not too bad. What's your power?" Rhys as he dropped his hand that had been extended to rest on his lap.
"I push things together," Lauren told him with reservation as she held onto the flower.
Rhys could feel Lauren closing up a bit with that question, so he decided to change the topic and asked, "Did you want to go outside and get some fresh air? It's pretty crowded in here." That was an understatement, it was like a sardine can in this place.
"We can't," Lauren told him in a quiet urgency. "With the way Sentinel Services has been, we can't go outside just in case they see us from satellites or something."
Well, that was annoying. You could barely hear yourself think with how crowded it was in here. "Know anywhere else that might be less crowded than this room?" There had to be somewhere that wasn't quite so full.
She nodded and verbally confirmed that she had an idea before standing up. She left the first aid box on her seat. That way she could tuck the flower into her hair as securely as possible. After that she picked the supply box back up. Lauren started off in the direction that only a few people visited throughout the days but not before putting the supplies back with the small station her mother had set up. After that, she led Rhys towards their inside garden. The plants were in thick, white pipes with holes cut out for them to grow through. The soil in each was dark and rich and the lights were currently off as real sunlight came in through the window. There were a couple tables here and there with various small gardening supplies scattered about.
"I know…cheesy, but it's usually pretty quiet in here," Lauren admitted as she stood inside of the room.
"No, it's not cheesy. It's nice. I always enjoyed being around plants more so than people. It's a lot easier to read a plant than it is people." He offered a meek smile at the admittance. It was true, he sometimes struggled with reading people but he could always tell what a plant needed. He looked over the plants in the green house. Rhys brushed a hand over some of the plants and watched as some of them rapidly grew a bit more than they had been moments ago.
"What do you guys do for fun when you can't go outside?"
"That's the million dollar question. Finding things to do inside is a whole adventure on its own."
"Fair enough. How about this. What's your favourite fruit? Despite the garden I imagine fruits aren't the easiest thing to grow with this setup." If they'd have been allowed to go outside then it would have been a lot easier but he could probably make do in here with their rudimentary setup.
”Hey, don’t knock the strawberry patch we have going on. It’s been the line between someone losing a limb,” Lauren joked with a sassy, lip prominent expression.
She walked over towards the indoor strawberry patch. They’d been picked clean well before the turn of the new year. Even with the lamps they turned on periodically, and the relative warmth the bank kept, there was no way the small strawberry section would produce more fruit for a while. Lauren watered the multiple plots after brushing her fingers through the soil and finding it dry. She turned back to look at Rhys with the sass completely dropped.
“Plums, they’re my favorite.”
”Oh, I’m not knocking it. It just looks like it won’t be putting out any actual berries any time soon.” Rhys offered a friendly smile as he watched Lauren as she watered multiple plots and gave a small nod when she said that plums were her favourite. Not the easiest fruit to grow but manageable.
Rhys opened the door to outside but didn’t step outside, only crouching down to the ground and focusing on his powers. There wasn’t enough soil inside to grow a tree so he had to get creative. Rhys dug his fingers into the grass and dirt and watched as slowly a sapling started to grow, over the span of about five minutes it grew into a decently sized plum tree. It would still have some growing to do but he got it to the point it could start producing plums and it gave him protection from potential satellites above. So, he stepped out the door long enough to pluck a handful from the tree before returning inside and offering them to Lauren, “There you go. Plums as requested.”
”Well aren’t you just a regular Prince Charming,” she complimented with a soft, more genuine smile than before. She took the fruit that was offered and looked between the bounty and the teenager that made it possible. ”We should probably share some. It’ll probably buy you a lot of good will. Maybe even enough to get you a blanket and pillow for tonight. It’s been the land of microwave meals since I got here.”
”It’s fine, I’m sure there’s probably someone else that needs the blanket and pillow more than me. Rather not have all the extra attention anyways or everyone will be asking for their favourite fruits and veggies. I don’t mind helping out but I’m only able to grow so much.” Rhys offered a meek smile and crouched down in front of the strawberry patch and had it grow a couple, carefully plucking them off for himself. Food was never something that Rhys had to worry about and surely the Mutant Underground would lean on his ability like a crutch to feed all those coming and going.
”That's a shame,” Lauren admitted without any oomph behind it. She balanced the fruit, using her shirt to help, so that she could bite into a piece right there. Though they were in the dead of winter, it somehow tasted sun warmed. ”This is right up there with the overcooked pork byproduct for best meal.”
She was teasing of course, though the tone came out as sincere. The plum was far better than the microwave rib meals her mom had once deemed as the best, worst meal they’d ever had. Lauren was careful with her bites as she smacked on the plum regardless. Somehow she didn’t think gobbling it down and leaving sticky trails of juice would be her best look.
”But if you were looking to stay under the radar, that’ll be hard here. Everyone knows everyone else’s business pretty quick.”
Especially when they were as cute and as helpful as he was.
Rhys watched as she sunk her teeth into the first plum and gave a small nod as she commented on it being hard to stay under the radar when everyone knew everyone’s business. Everyone here had connections to someone else, he was an outsider, so hopefully that would help keep him a little more under the radar for longer. He didn’t need it to last forever, just long enough for Esme to sink her claws into Lorna and convince her that the Hellfire Club was the only way for mutants to come out on top.
For a change of topic though he grabbed a basket for the plums, “Here how about we use the basket so you don’t ruin your shirt?” He held the basket out for her to set all the plums she already had in the basket and then set to grabbing more from the tree so that they could share them with everyone inside.
Lauren slowly unloaded into the basket, careful not to drop them. It would be a shame if the proof of his work was bruised. ”Yep. Total Prince Charming.”
How long had it been since she worried about something as mundane as her clothes? Worry about badly placed holes, sure, but she hadn’t had the luxury of worry about a stain since her last high school dance. Halloween. It had already been over two months since her life had been turned upside down. Again. It felt odd to consider something so mundane like back then….
”Thanks.”
“Prince charming hardly, I just don’t like people going hungry.” Rhys didn’t have a particular investment in people overall, but the more that were well looked after in the Mutant Underground, the more there were to potentially swing to the Hellfire Club’s side. Rhys added his strawberries he’d picked into the basket and started filling it with more plums. “So, how long have you guys been here? I imagine most people aren’t here long before they’re sent across the border to Mexico.” Gently probe for information and when she wasn’t less forthcoming, he’d know that he’d stepped about as far as he could.
If she seemed resistant he could always divulge some of his story, the parts before he joined Selene of course but it could offer her some comfort.
”I'm not sure. I think a lot of people have gotten stuck here because….”
Lauren paused after a wave of guilt stilled her tongue. Sentinel Services had made it near impossible to move mutants across borders after the horror she and her brother had inflicted in downtown Atlanta. She’d been able to gather that much from the chitchat of the adults, those that had been at this game the longest. Most of the time they were polite enough not to mention it but she could understand what they were talking around even when that happened. She wasn’t ready to tell Rhys that all the pain everyone was going through was her fault. Not yet.
”Getting anyone in or out of the states has gotten harder you know?”
He’d struck a sensitive spot it appeared, as Lauren went quiet and withdrew, the smile she’d had on her face moments ago gone. Rhys offered a meek smile as he rested a hand on her shoulder as he said, ”Don’t worry everything will sort itself out. Sorry if I asked the wrong question. My bad.” He looked to the full basket and said, “How about we go give everyone a pick me up with these plums and strawberries? I’m sure everyone could use it.” Of course he’d heard about the whole strucker sibling destruction and he figured it was why she’d withdrawn at his question, hopefully they could bounce back and uplift the mood quickly with these plums.
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In Collab with Shimmering_Apocalypse
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Vicious Madam Mari Captain
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