Logan swiped his claws, causing the blood still caking the surface to splatter in two separate lines of three, forming a macabre image that made the bank employees shiver where they stood.
He turned towards Tavor, who was only just now rising back to his feet, his feral snarl turning into something warmer but not quite comforting given his gruff demeanor. "Hey kid, you okay? What the hell were you thinking anyway?"
Tavor scratched the back of his head and smiled. "Sorry, Mr. Logan, I don't know why; I just felt the urge to fight, ya know hehehehe!"
Logan let out an exasperated sigh before walking up to Tavor and giving him a chop to his head.
"OUCH... Mr. Logan... that hurt." Tavor cried out as he felt the adamantium bones collide with his thick Saiyan skull.
"Shut it brat..." Logan grabbed Tavor by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground before walking out of the bank, the sight causing those watching outside to pause in shock that anyone was able to subdue the same child who dealt with most of the robbers.
Logan and Tavor soon disappeared into the crowd and out the other side of the mall, where Colossus and Kitty were ushering in the younger kids inside their respective SUVs.
Colossus let out a deep sigh as soon as he caught sight of Logan carrying Tavor, while Kitty couldn't help but let out a giggle upon seeing Tavor's expression of discontent.
"Aww, look at that pout, those cheeks, I just want to poke them!" Kitty flushed as he neared, but she sensed Colossus giving her a glare, which caused her to let out a cough before turning around and stepping into the SUV that they rode in.
Colossus laughed after seeing Kitty's reaction, and his laugh only intensified upon seeing Tavor struggle against Logan's iron grip. "HAHAHAHAHA, Little Tavor, where did you go after disappearing? Nothing bad, I hope."
Tavor let out a soft laugh while avoiding Logan's piercing gaze before Logan threw Tavor inside the still-open SUV door.
"Let's get out of here before the police arrive. There was a robbery on the other side of the mall, and the brat and I got involved!" Wolverine walked past Colossus, who was shocked upon hearing what had happened, his face turning a shade of blue as he imagined just what had happened during the robbery.
Colossus climbed into the SUV, setting Tavor in the middle between himself and Kitty before fastening his seatbelt. Logan hit the gas as soon as he heard the doors shut and the seatbelts click, the SUVs forming a small convoy that soon disappeared into the traffic of New York.
It did not take long for the high-pitched sound of police sirens to approach the mall, the tires screeching to a halt near the entrance, and groups of policemen equipped with rifles, shotguns, and pistols rushed towards the entrance.
The piercing wail of ambulances and fire trucks echoed as they rolled in together, parking side by side to create a rough steel barricade against the inevitable swarm of media that was soon to come.
Everything from national news stations to tabloid journalists arrived in droves, and leading the tabloid journalists was a green-eyed woman with a bob cut.
She wore a tight-fitting blue button-down shirt and a black vest that matched her black business skirt.
She gripped an audio recording device with a fierce intensity, as though her very survival hinged upon it, the metal cool and solid against her trembling fingers.
With unwavering resolve and a sense of urgency pulsing through her veins, she stepped forward toward one of the emergency service members stationed outside, her every movement driven by the importance of the message she carried within that small but vital device.
"Sir… Sir… I'm Betty Brant from the Daily Bugle. Could you share any information on what has transpired here, anything at all?" A rugged fireman, his thick, bushy mustache framing a face weathered by countless emergencies and his physique seemingly hewn from solid granite, hesitated as Betty approached.
She held her recording device at the ready, her warm, radiant smile capable of brightening even the most somber of moments.
"M... Ma'am, all I know currently is that there was a robbery; we will know more once the police exit with the..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the mall doors burst open with a resounding bang, and several officers hurried toward the paramedics, murmuring something inaudible.
The paramedics visibly paled before swiftly moving to the rear of their ambulances, retrieving gurneys and unrolling black body bags.
Seeing this, Betty Brant's news senses went into overdrive.
She passed the firefighter and approached one of the police officers who had stepped back outside; the man was in the middle of setting up yellow police line tape when he noticed Betty's beautiful figure approach.
"Officer... can you tell me anything about what happened inside the mall?" She continued questioning the officer until he relented and gave her the information she wanted.
A few hours later, Betty returned to the Daily Bugle building on Second Avenue, delivering the audio recording to their Editor-in-Chief, J. Jonah Jameson, who was in the middle of looking out at the city below from his window, cigar smoke wafting into a pungent cloud around him.
Jonah turned around and saw Betty placing her recording device on his desk and smiled.
"What do you have for me, Betty?"
Before long, a new headline appeared: "Deadly Mutant Incident at Queens Mall! Two confirmed dead"
The headline spread through New York with the speed and intensity of a wildfire, reaching the public before television news stations could prepare a segment. In its wake, hundreds of thousands of readers were left infuriated and gripped by fear that a Mutant attack could occur at any moment, endangering countless lives.
In a secret base in the heart of New York, a man wearing a metallic magenta helmet reminiscent of an Italian barbute lounged in a leather armchair, sipping a glass of ruby red wine.
A nude woman with blue skin, reptilian-like scales along the sides of her face, and medium-length hair as red as fresh blood approached him, holding a piece of paper in her hand.
She handed the helmeted man the paper and waited with a dark expression on her face.
The helmeted man opened the paper and glanced at the headline along with the somewhat blurry image of a well-known adversary of his.
"Oh Logan, my metal friend, what have you been up to?" As he scanned the image, he noticed an extremely young child at the fringes and squinted his blue eyes.
"Were you protecting this kid? Is he a mutant? I'm curious about what kind of ability he might have."
"Mystique, dear, our old friend Charles will be leaving the mansion to attend a UN summit in a few days. How would you like to infiltrate your former home?"
Mystique's stone-cold face morphed into a grin. "It would be my greatest pleasure, Eric!"
Eric grinned. "Discover what you can about the child, but while you are there..." he paused for a moment as he reached to the side of the armchair for a metal briefcase, which floated into his grasp at the gesture and opened the briefcase.
"These are surveillance devices. I want you to plant them around the school, especially in Charles' office, the cafeteria, and, most importantly, inside the Danger Room and the Cerebro device. The rest you can place wherever you think best." Eric lifted a finger, and the briefcase drifted smoothly into Mystique's hands.
Her skin began to shift, and before Magneto's very eyes, she took on the appearance of Jean Grey, one of Xavier's most trusted students and teachers, before turning on her heel to leave.
Eric took a sip from his wine glass and cocked a half-smile. "Let's see what Charles is up to."
Days later, Charles left the school with Scott and Wolverine, along with a visiting mutant with deep-blue, bestial features who took a seat directly next to Charles in the backseat.
Scott placed Xavier's wheelchair into the trunk, and after taking a brief cursory glance back at the school, he hopped into the driver's seat next to Logan, who sat in the passenger seat with his arms crossed and his eyes closed as if he was taking a nap.
The four took off, leaving the school in the hands of Jean Grey and Ororo Munroe, who would look after the kids and handle the teaching duties while the others were away.
Night soon descended over the Xavier School, and Tavor woke from a heavy sleep, once more feeling hungry, his Saiyan appetite and metabolism left unfulfilled by the dinner he had earlier.
GRUUUUUUGGGGHHH...
His stomach growled like a feral beast as he strolled down the hall toward the kitchen. Tavor pushed open the glass door and stepped into the cafeteria, lazily scratching his lower back as he made his way toward the delicious snacks set aside just for him.
He opened a fridge door and grabbed what appeared to be a leg of chicken, placing it in his mouth before grabbing a plate of lasagna.
When Tavor closed the door, he nearly jumped out of his skin, seeing Jean standing on the other side of the door.
"Momma Jean, you scared me, hehehehe, sorry, I was just really hungry!" Tavor rubbed the back of his spiky hair as Jean glared down at him; however, her face morphed into a soft smile.
"Eat in your room and go back to bed. I will tuck you in shortly!"
Tavor nodded before taking a large bite of the chicken leg, leaving it hanging from his mouth as he walked towards the door leading back into the hall, but as he reached for the handle, he paused mere inches away from opening it.
SNIFF...
SNIFF...
Tavor turned his head back towards Jean, his normal happy expression giving way to a serious one as he glared at Jean, the woman who had raised him for the past half year.
Her normal, strawberry shampoo scent seemed to have changed to lavender, and even her movements and expressions had changed; where once she walked with mature grace, she now walked with an almost seductive sway.
"Who are you?"
Jean turned around after hearing his question, and their eyes met.
Where his Momma Jean had a soft and warm stare, this Jean's stare seemed eerily calm and bore an almost predatory coldness within that made it seem like she did not really know who he was.
Tavor placed his plate on one of the cafeteria tables and bit off the rest of the chicken leg still in his mouth before tossing the bone onto the same table.
"What do you mean, I'm Momma Jean..."
Tavor took a step forward before pausing again. "What's my name?" He asked, his hands already forming into fists.
Jean began to stammer as she had no idea what his name was, and before she could come up with a somewhat believable segue to divert his suspicion, Tavor launched forward with his fist already cocked back to throw a vicious straight punch towards Jean's nose.
However, before the punch could land, Jean leaned back, narrowly avoiding the punch that then struck the fridge.
POW...
The punch formed a fist-shaped dent in its side before sliding back a few inches
Tavor looked back and saw Jean rise back up to her full height with an elasticity that most humans could not have.
Jean's face went from a calm smile to a derisive grin before her fair skin morphed into blue.
"WHO ARE YOU?"
Tavor kicked a table on his right, sending it shooting towards the blue-skinned woman with speed that almost caught her off-guard.
Thanks to her wealth of combat experience, Mystique narrowly avoided being hit by the flat side of the table, crouching beneath it before springing toward Tavor with a cat-like agility that left the young Saiyan momentarily stunned.
Mystique swung a leg towards Tavor, aiming for his head and a quick knockout, as she had yet to completely finish her mission.
But to her shock, Tavor reached up and grasped Mystique by her ankle as it was mere inches from his neck and swung her upwards, causing Mystique to spin backwards.
She turned her body in the air and landed with an inhuman grace, and her eyes shot up, yellow eyes meeting black eyes as the tension sparked between them.