Angela "Angel" Wagner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crawler_kid) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nextgenerationmarvel2012-11-02 09:34 pm
crawler_kid) wrote in nextgenerationmarvel2012-11-02 09:34 pm
Violence Hits Home
Though her schoolwork was sometimes putting more time constraints on her, Angel did rather enjoy her job. Teaching gymnastics to tweens at a local gym was good work, and she was good at it, and it was good experience for when she became a teacher. And, thankfully, very few kids or their parents had had much problem with her being a mutant. Only one parent had pulled their kid.
Granted, it had been after trying to get her removed from her job, but her bosses had backed her up. That had been a rather pleasant surprise, truthfully. True, she did have to answer more than a few questions about how things like her hands or tail worked (and several about how long it took her to dry out after a shower), but that was all right. Those questions were born from curiosity, not hate.
She stepped out onto the street and zipped her jacket a little higher. True, with a coat of fur, she had more protection against the elements than most, but it was still rather chilly. She checked her watch. Aiden should be there in the alleged car in a few minutes.
As she walked down to the corner where Aiden was going to pick her up, she was faintly aware that people were coming up behind her. She clutched her gym bag a little more tightly. One didn't grown up with instructors like Logan and Auntie 'Ro around without developing extraordinarily good survival instincts. Sounded like four... no. Five. Definitely five of them. She spared a very brief glance over her shoulder to confirm her guess and found she was right. All men, probably in their thirties or older. Two of them were carrying baseball bats. Judging by the lack of mitts, they probably weren't on their way to a pick-up ballgame.
She should teleport. Even just down the block or up to a rooftop, let alone anywhere in her maximum range, would do it. But she also didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they'd run her off.
Assuming, of course, that she was the target of their intended violence and not some other innocent. It didn't matter, really. She was mostly a college student, sometimes a gymnastics teacher, but she was always an X-Man. And X-men did not stand by when people were in need.
"Hey, mutie!" one of them called out.
She shouldn't have turned around. She really shouldn't have. But she felt the fur on the back of her neck bristle, and she turned. "Can Ah help you, gents?"
"Yeah," one of them, one of the ones with a baseball bat, sneered. "You can get your freak-ass out of our town and away from good, decent, human kids."
"She looks like she might eat her own young," another one of them said.
"You know," Angel said, "I'd love to stay and chat with you gents, but mah Mama said never to get involved in a battle of wits with an unarmed man."
Okay, that got them angry. One of the ones with the bats took a swing and she sidestepped that, doing a leap that carried her up and over him. She ducked a blow from another one, and hit him hard in the solar plexus, just like Logan had taught her. He doubled up in pain and she flipped over him, landing a kick on the guy who tried to help him.
They were untrained. She'd been trained by the best. They were, while beefy, mostly out of shape bigots. She was a young athlete in the prime of her life. They were looking to get a sick thrill out of beating up a mutant. She was getting a thrill out of showing some bigots she was not someone to be messed with.
One of them was lucky. She was not. The baseball bat impacted with the back of her skull with a sickening thud and stars exploded behind her eyes. She held onto consciousness as another bat cracked her in the chest and she was certain that she felt some of her ribs give way. Dazed, barely standing, closed fist blows to her face broke her nose, staining her fur with gushing blood. The blows rained more frequently, from fists and bats, and she could not concentrate enough to teleport...
Granted, it had been after trying to get her removed from her job, but her bosses had backed her up. That had been a rather pleasant surprise, truthfully. True, she did have to answer more than a few questions about how things like her hands or tail worked (and several about how long it took her to dry out after a shower), but that was all right. Those questions were born from curiosity, not hate.
She stepped out onto the street and zipped her jacket a little higher. True, with a coat of fur, she had more protection against the elements than most, but it was still rather chilly. She checked her watch. Aiden should be there in the alleged car in a few minutes.
As she walked down to the corner where Aiden was going to pick her up, she was faintly aware that people were coming up behind her. She clutched her gym bag a little more tightly. One didn't grown up with instructors like Logan and Auntie 'Ro around without developing extraordinarily good survival instincts. Sounded like four... no. Five. Definitely five of them. She spared a very brief glance over her shoulder to confirm her guess and found she was right. All men, probably in their thirties or older. Two of them were carrying baseball bats. Judging by the lack of mitts, they probably weren't on their way to a pick-up ballgame.
She should teleport. Even just down the block or up to a rooftop, let alone anywhere in her maximum range, would do it. But she also didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing they'd run her off.
Assuming, of course, that she was the target of their intended violence and not some other innocent. It didn't matter, really. She was mostly a college student, sometimes a gymnastics teacher, but she was always an X-Man. And X-men did not stand by when people were in need.
"Hey, mutie!" one of them called out.
She shouldn't have turned around. She really shouldn't have. But she felt the fur on the back of her neck bristle, and she turned. "Can Ah help you, gents?"
"Yeah," one of them, one of the ones with a baseball bat, sneered. "You can get your freak-ass out of our town and away from good, decent, human kids."
"She looks like she might eat her own young," another one of them said.
"You know," Angel said, "I'd love to stay and chat with you gents, but mah Mama said never to get involved in a battle of wits with an unarmed man."
Okay, that got them angry. One of the ones with the bats took a swing and she sidestepped that, doing a leap that carried her up and over him. She ducked a blow from another one, and hit him hard in the solar plexus, just like Logan had taught her. He doubled up in pain and she flipped over him, landing a kick on the guy who tried to help him.
They were untrained. She'd been trained by the best. They were, while beefy, mostly out of shape bigots. She was a young athlete in the prime of her life. They were looking to get a sick thrill out of beating up a mutant. She was getting a thrill out of showing some bigots she was not someone to be messed with.
One of them was lucky. She was not. The baseball bat impacted with the back of her skull with a sickening thud and stars exploded behind her eyes. She held onto consciousness as another bat cracked her in the chest and she was certain that she felt some of her ribs give way. Dazed, barely standing, closed fist blows to her face broke her nose, staining her fur with gushing blood. The blows rained more frequently, from fists and bats, and she could not concentrate enough to teleport...
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He snapped his mouth shut. Maybe he should be the stoic, strong boyfriend at the moment. Though he couldn't hit the post holding one of her hands with both of his. He needed to think this through some more.
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He was joking. Mostly. He was sure fatherly wrath would happen sometime. Just not while Angel was hurting.
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"Ah told you... he ain't... he ain't gonna stab you."
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"Don't get up. On anyone's account. We're all here for you."
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She winced again. "Hurts," she said.
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He glanced around to see if there was some sort of monitor thing or nurse call button. "Should we see what they have in just the regular good stuff for pain?"
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"Finally awake, I see," she said, warmly. "I think you were giving your boyfriend quite the scare."
Angel managed a slow nod. "Ah could... use somethin' for the pain," she said.
"All right," the nurse said. "Let me check to see what the doctor said you can have, and we'll get you something."