Off to Never-Never Land

[Havok]

There was a battle. It had turned ugly. They always do.

Alex had fought for his life, fought for the lives of the men and women under his command, fought for the natives of the Savage Land who were trying their hardest to repel the demons that had invaded their sacred grounds. But when the Ultrons turned...there wasn't anything that fighting could do.

He had told them, when he could. Never make something you can't unmake. It was the most fundamental rule of military technology. Never build a shield that your own guns can't break. Never build a gun that's so powerful it can't be beaten. Unstoppable super-weapons are a great idea in science fiction, but in the real world you find out just what the word "unstoppable" means when the weapon falls into the wrong hands.

He had tried his best to get his men out, when the machines rose against their makers, but even with his tremendous firepower he couldn't make a dent in their adamantium casings, couldn't even melt their inner workings, the vibranium absorbing the heat from his plasma blasts as soon as it touched them. Nothing kinetic could beat them.

They all suffered for it.

Most of all, the rebels suffered for the insufferable blue ACUs that they were wearing. Blue for freedom! Blue for defense! Blue to make us stand out while we're in a freaking jungle.

But it was a little late for that, he thought, as he stared down a machine that was coming towards him in spite of the power he was throwing at it. He needed to keep its attention on him. Give his men a little more time.

But there wasn't any more time. At that moment, time snapped, and Alex found himself hurtling through it. Hurtling through space. He saw many things through his infinitesimally short journey. A world of half-dead things where he was one of them. A world of futuristic technology underneath a titanic despot, with him as the left-hand man. A world where he fought a brother he didn't know he had, to stop him from destroying the universe. So many worlds. But through it all, one constant: Him. And Scott.

Eventually, or maybe inevitably, he found himself stopping. He knew nothing of this world. All that he saw around him was old. Even the sun was old. He could feel it. The bare, parched earth beneath his boots looked scorched. In fact, everything within viewing distance looked scorched. That may have been from him.

He didn't know where he was, or even when he was. He didn't know if there were any other forms of life in this world. He was surprised to see that he was himself, though. Unlike in those other places, he was still wearing the blue ACUs. Well, he thought, at least if there are people they should see me from about five miles away. With this thought comforting him somewhat, he began thinking rationally, years of military training kicking in. He would need shelter first, then water, then food. He looked around him to see if he could find a landmark, something that would tell him if there was civilization somewhere.

And so Alex Summers started walking.

[Rahne]

There had been a Goddess, she remembered that. A Goddess who flew and controlled the rains. She had been beautiful, and smelt like lightning and storms. There had been destruction, and humans and mutants in the lands of the Goddess. Wrecking it, breaking the trees and scarring the land.

Then there had been pain. A moment to close her eyes as one of the Ultrons aimed and fired, and then pain. And nothing. There had been blankness, a void. And then again, she woke to pain, bones shrieking in agony and muscles on fire as she howled into a terrible, merciless abyss.

Paws hit dirt, scrabbling and splay-legged as Rahne howled, fighting for things to start making sense. She smelled...dust, dirt. Emptiness. Loneliness. Her nose and ears brought her information and she shuddered, muscles twitching with the aftereffects of the abyss that had spat her out here. Fur standing on end, still feeling twinges of pain through her joints and her bones.

Footsteps. A male musky scent cut with ozone. Rahne's ears perked up, and she started towards the scent. It was something other than dust, promising company and an end to solitude. She hadn't always run to be by herself...she remembered...remembered...voices singing with her, calling her name.

Her name?

What had that been? Did she need a name?

Stalking Alex, she flitted through the abandoned buildings like a ghost, leaving pawprints behind but nary a sound. Deciding to take a risk, she came out between two of the buildings and stood there for a moment, letting him see her. A rangy red wolf with amber-green eyes, teetering between adolescence and adulthood. Calm and easy, but ready to run if he showed any signs of hostility. Which he might. That was a chance she just had to take, if she wasn't going to be alone.

[Havok]

Alex had found a town, and was commencing the search for shelter. He didn't need anything overly large, and suspected that many of the larger buildings weren't structurally stable enough for him to go poking around in anyway. He was looking for something low to the ground, stonework if he could find it, something easily defensible, but potentially stocked with resources. A school or a hospital would do fine. A prison might be even better, if it had a more fully stocked library. Knowledge was the greatest power he could have out here, and first and foremost would be finding out where "here" is.

But he couldn't learn if he was killed by a dust storm, and so he wasn't exactly making these his only choices. He had rolled up the sleeves of his ACU up to his elbow, but this was the only concession to comfort he had been required to perform. His boots were actually holding up rather well despite being made primarily for jungle.

Suddenly, he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to look, and saw the first living creature he'd spotted. It looked like a wolf, but he'd never seen a red wolf before. Regardless, it was a potential hostile threat that required neutralization. At first, he considered just dusting it, like a good soldier, but then he realized that he may not see another living creature again, and it may be looking for someone, too. It did seem to be looking at him.

So he crouched down onto his haunches, his hands low to the ground, as non-threatening as he possibly could be. He had heard somewhere that you were supposed to approach a new dog from beneath his field of vision rather than trying to pet him on the head. But he didn't know if those rules applied here.

So he just waited, one hand slightly beckoning, but with a relaxed posture. He didn't want to scare it. And if it bolted, he would just have to figure out a way to follow.

[Rahne]

It took a lot of courage to stand in plain sight, still and waiting for a response from the man. After all, he could attack. There were so many powers mutants had, this could be the last risk she took in her life. When he crouched and held a hand out, posture relaxed and mostly non-threatening, she edged forward. Almost dancing on her paws, as anxiety warred with the need to connect with something. Someone.

Her ears stuck out flat on either side of her head, brow furrowed and tail down. Her ruff was raised, tongue showing between her bared front fangs as she eyed Havok off and considered his offer of a hand. Body language showing confusion and anxiety, something close to submission and mostly non-threatening. However, Rahne was still a social animal and the confusing, bewildering expanse of dust without any other scent made her mind up for her.

With slow careful steps, she approached him and put her head under his hand. Shuddered and sighed, before closing her eyes. Even if he attacked now, at least it wasn't like she died alone in this empty vastness of dust and emptiness. All of it so abandoned by life.

[Havok]

Alex didn't know much about dogs; at least, not from any personal experience. But even he got the sense of loneliness in this creature when it put its head in his hand.

He also got the sense, as it came closer, that this wasn't a dog. It was too big. Too primal looking, like something out of a deep forest instead of the suburbs. He'd seen enough wild versions of common animals to be able to tell the difference. His first guess had been right. Despite the rust-colored fur (he wasn't sure if you could call it "red" on an animal, even though that's what color it looked like to him), this was very much a wolf.

And somehow, he felt odd patting it on the head. He let it smell his hand, like he'd seen others do, and then stood up.

"Well," he said, the first words he'd said out loud since he came here. "At least I can talk to myself without looking crazy." Then, not knowing what else to do, he began walking, turning and stopping after a few steps to make sure that the wolf was following.

[Logan]

Not far off, in the modest shade of the thick trunk of an Elm tree, stood the silhouette of a man. Casually leaning up against the sturdy trunk, he had his leather outlaw hat tipped forward, beady eyes looking out beneath the wide brim beneath bushy brows. He watched the man and the wolf, but didn't make a sound. It was pretty clear these two didn't know who the hell they were.

Ironically, Logan did know who he was...at least as much as he ever did.

He remembered Xavier's school. He remembered the House of M, and countless other pieces of different puzzles that somehow had to all fit together to make one hell of a messy picture. Chewing on the tip of a half-smoked cigar, he watched as Alex Summers tried to befriend a wolf, deciding then and there that Alex was probably at least as much of a pain in the ass as his brother Scott.

Leaning off to the side he spit.

"At least I can talk to myself without looking crazy."

"From where I'm standin'," Logan spoke up, "you look like you already checked out...Alex."

He struck a match against the seam of his jeans and brought it up to his cigar, turning it as he stoked it to life and tossing the ruined matchstick aside about the same time he kicked off the tree with one cowboy boot. Puffing on the cigar with squinted eyes, he confidently strode over and looked at the pair.

"C'mon Rahne," he said, and then looked at Alex. "Looks like we all got somethin' to talk about."

[Rahne]

Rahne's head whipped around as Logan spoke, lips curling up in an ugly snarl as her surprise turned into anger at herself. The man knew to stand upwind, to keep himself hidden from her senses. How did he know that? The hoarse deep grumble that filled her chest and throat was as much from irritation with herself as a warning to him to keep his distance.

Still, his voice... It was familar. Somehow. Both comforting and disquieting at the same time. Like she should be angry at him but couldn't remember why. But at the same time, she wanted to trust him. Wanted to act the puppy and gambol, tail wagging and let him make the decisions. Like she'd felt she'd done before, followed his lead where he'd given her a chance to follow and find...something important. Someone?

The growl died away into a low whine of distress as he used a name to call her, wavering back into the bewildered stance she'd had before the hostile defensiveness that his call to them had first engendered. This was all making her head hurt. Maybe a proper sniff would let her recall more?

Since he'd strode over to them, Rahne didn't have far to go as her nose started at his boots and then worked its way upwards along the line of his legs. Whining, she sat back on her haunches and pawed at her head, shaking her muzzle back and forth, like she could get the confusion buzzing through her skull out through her ears. If only! His scent raised more questions than it answered, and she felt like there was something she should be doing. Like his naming required a reaction from her, only she couldn't remember what it was.

[Havok]

Alex turned to the source of the voice. He hadn't known that he was there, and from a single glance Alex knew that had this man wanted it, Alex would be dead. He comported himself in a way that Alex did, except he did it effortlessly. And there was something equally primal about him as there was in the wolf.

When he addressed the wolf by name, Alex became confused even more by the situation. The wolf's reaction was like nothing he had ever seen. He looked the man before him in the eye.

"Okay, I'll bite. What do we have to talk about?" As far as he knew, this man was from around here, or at least had been around a lot longer than he himself had been, and this was his wolf. Since he hadn't killed Alex like he probably could have, Alex assumed that there was something else to this meeting.

Meanwhile, Alex was planning on how to make a single decisive strike if it came to that. It would be the only way he could come out of a potential hostile confrontation here alive.

[Logan]

There was a part of Logan that wondered if maybe he could somehow knock the sense back into the Summers boy. It was tempting either way, and he knew it would be worth the risk as far as he was concerned. But he resisted the urge to try.

"Somewhere in that thick head of yours you know the answer, bub."

Glancing down at Rahne Sinclair in wolf form, he chomped on his cigar and spoke around it gruffly. "Or do ya make it a habit of goin' up to wild wolves that could tear yer arm off at the elbow and tryin' to make friendsies?"

Logan on the other hand, was not particularly threatened. He squatted down to eye level with Rahne, blowing a stream of smoke out of the corner of his mouth to avoid upsetting her senses. "Her name is Rahne Sinclair. Smart woman with one helluva temper." Glancing up at Alex, he frowned. "Problem is, she don't know who she is...and that makes her even more dangerous than usual."

He got back up and squared off with Alex.

"What do you remember?"

[Havok]

Alex cocked an eyebrow at the man's sarcastic tone. He had never seen a wolf in the flesh until today; how the Hell was he supposed to know that what he was looking at was one? Instead, he smirked and answered, "Ancient humans did that, and we got the domestic dog because of it. Can't be too dangerous." He knew full well that the domestic dog was created by breeding submissive traits through successive generations of wild wolves.

But the smarmy answer still made him feel a bit better. This man was confusing him. Telling him that the wolf was a girl, asking him what he remembered.

Too much. I remember being a Prelate. I remember being an Acolyte. I remember being an X-man. I remember leading a group of mutants for the government. Nothing consistent. Nothing but glimpses into my lives. I don't remember ever going to the bathroom. I don't remember ever sleeping. Like my life was laid out into panels and all I got were still-frames.

"Lots. But that doesn't answer my question. Just introduces more."

[Rahne]

Rahne grumbled at Logan as he got down in a crouch to look her in the eye, fighting the urge to bare her throat. He blew the cigar smoke away from her, but she still had to wonder how he could smell anything with that right under her nose. And it made her even madder that she'd missed his scent before. It was the nasal equivalent of a five ring circus with fireworks and electric signs and fire alarms blaring. How on earth had she missed it?

Right as Rahne...

It was difficult to think through the haze of the wolf. Everything was now, immediate. Long term planning went out the window. Reaction, instinct and movement. There was enough human in her still to want the company of other sentients, of people who thought. Even if it smelt like the two males were going to have a fight - all dominance issues and snap-snarling.

Rahne sneezed dismissively, not wanting to get involved in their circling and nipping. They were doing it with words and not teeth, but it was the same thing.

[Logan]

Logan just squinted his eyes as Alex likened himself to ancient humans, on a noble quest to tame a wolf for a pet. He puffed on his cigar in consideration and then blew a thin stream of smoke right into Alex's face. "Ancient humans also lived about twenty years," he said. "How old are you again?"

He looked down when Rahne sneezed. "This one couldn't be tamed in your life," he said with a hint of a smirk as he looked down at her. What he remembered of Rahne was that she was feisty and stubborn, and had the double whammy of the temper of a redhead and of a Scotswoman.

Putting a hand up as Alex answered, he motioned him to shush. Logan tipped his head slightly, hearing sounds that only Rahne would be able to hear. Voices, very far off.

He sniffed the air.

Then he looked back at Alex. "First thing we do is nail down the basics. Rahne and I here can track down some grub, you can microwave it." He glanced over his shoulder. "Saw some water over there, but not sure that's somethin' we wanna be drinkin'." Then he looked between them. "And somethin' tells me we don't wanna be out here in the open when the sun goes down."

[Havok]

Forty years. They lived forty years. Otherwise human children would have been left to fend for themselves when they were seven or younger. Lord of the Flies this isn't.

He would have said it out loud, but he guessed (correctly) that nothing he could say would make this man any less belligerent. It seemed to be a default state for him.

He also didn't say [/i]What do you think I was trying to tame the wolf for?[/i] when he mentioned that Rahne could sniff out food. He just stayed quiet. This man obviously thought that he was better suited to be in charge. Alex wasn't going to question it. It was the primary difference between him and Scott. Scott would have argued with him all day long about what they should do and tried to establish himself as top dog. Alex would have just stayed quiet and fixed the problems as they occurred. In the end, he felt that a lot more got accomplished his way.

That and he was all too familiar with higher-ups dismissing him out of hand. It was kind of a sore spot, but recently he had learned all too well just how good he was and how sound his decisions were, so he didn't let it bother him anymore. If he had been killed by the wolf, he wouldn't have had to worry about food. If he had killed the wolf, he wouldn't have had to worry about food. If he had befriended the wolf, he wouldn't have had to worry about food. If the wolf had been scared off, he wouldn't have had to worry about food, since he could have just hunted it down and killed it.

Four wins out of four were really good odds. Though, now that he knew the wolf was a shapeshifted girl, that plan seemed very callous. But he was operating under known parameters, he could be excused for that.

"If we had something to collect the water in, I could boil out the impurities, too. And food can wait until we find shelter. None of us are going to starve anytime soon." He didn't put too much emphasis on the suggestion, implying that it was up to him. It wasn't up to him. Alex would go find shelter while they hunted regardless of the choice.

[Rahne]

Rahne tilted her head, pricking her ears up as voices drifted on the wind. Faint and far off, but there. Sounds of life. It was promising. Either they were food, or friends. Either would be welcome. Loping forward, she eyed Alex on her way past before going to Logan. The Wolverine smelled more familiar, more of her kind than the energy producing Havok.

Food. Water. Words she could understand, and they produced a craving her throat and her belly.

Slipping past both men, she raised her nose to the wind and inhaled deeply. There was some moisture in the air drifting on the wind, but it smelled...wrong. Tainted. Ahhhh...there. She turned with focus in her stance, and took a few steps to the west before throwing a look over her shoulder. Continued on a few more steps before giving them another 'hurry up!' stare. She was hungry, if they were not.

The wolf survived. It was what she was made for. The girl lay buried for the moment, under layers of instinct and trauma. She'd taken the wolf on voluntarily, but now it was hard to find the way out, even if she'd wanted to. For the moment, the wolf was a safer persona for Rahne and it was likely to stay that way.

[Logan]

Logan didn't bother sticking around to see how Alex was going to fare. This desolate wasteland had it's own dangers, someplace to lay their head at night was only one of the lesser concerns as far as he was concerned. And as far as Alex was concerned...he couldn't care less what that guy was concerned about.

Taking out the stump of a cigar he thought about chucking it. But the fact that he only had two left, and probably wouldn't run into any tobacco shops any time soon crossed his mind. He looked down at Rahne with a raised brow. Then he extinguished the cigar into the palm of his hand, the hot embers searing his flesh until it was ground out, and he dropped it into the front pocket of his flannel shirt with the others.

Brushing off his already healed hand, he looked down at Rahne.

"S'gonna be straggly rabbit and gopher for awhile," he said sadly. He sniffed the air. "But we better get huntin' while Summers finds out if there's any room at the inn." With another sniff, he picked up on something. His ears could hear the tiny beating of a heart.

Logan tipped his hat down low and with amazing stealth set off to track his prey.