Dreampanther
We all face the reaper.
Wolverine in the city (copyright 2006 by Leon Niemandt)
Scene:
Logan is on holiday, cruising through the States on his hog. Stopping to visit some friends, he stays over in the Big City for a couple of days. One night he goes out for drinks with a buddy. Logan's buddy gets thrashed and passed out, Logan gets him a cab and sends him home, and bored out of his mind, he decides to wander the streets, looking for some action. Suddenly he hears a scream, and sees shadows moving in a scruffy-looking alley:
Action:
Chapter One
Wolverine vs Five Thugs
Without hesitating, Logan rushed forward around the corner and saw basically what he had expected to see: A handful of cheap thugs had a woman down on her back, hand-cuffed to a pole, preparing to take away more than just her money. A red haze started filling Wolverine's vision, a snarl escaped his throat; his eyes narrowed and his lips curled back, revealing wicked-looking teeth. At that moment Wolverine looked more like a vicious, rabid animal than a human being.
At the sound of the snarl, the thugs turned around to look, and after a split-second of hesitation and an amazed, comic double-take, they all simultaneously burst into roaring laughter.
"Look, look!" One of the ill-fated thugs gasped. "It's a hairy dwarf, coming to attack us! He's gonna cut off our balls! Flee, everyone, flee! Run for your lives!"
Doubling over with laughter, he failed to hear a menacing 'snikt-snikt' coming from Wolverine's direction. The next moment white-hot agony stabbed through him, as Wolverine's claws tore their way through his gut.
"I believe you mentioned something about your balls being cut off?" An icy voice hissed in the thug's ear.
Opening eyes he had shut against the wrenching pain, his terror-filled vision was caught by the sight of his own balls dangling from one of the razor-sharp claws extruding from Wolverine's wrists.
It was the last thing he ever saw.
The action had happened so fast that the other thugs had not even moved. Belatedly awakening from their frozen horror, the nightmarish scene etched indelibly on their minds, they all swore and reached for their guns at the same time.
Moving so fast his claws made a glittering arc of deadly adamantium in front of him, Wolverine's claws lashed out, tearing through the throat of the thug closest to him before he even had his gun out of its holster. The thug's head slowly rolled back, and then fell off his shoulders. By this time the remaining three thugs had gotten their guns out, however, and the next moment the dark alley of death and dread became filled with the roar of gun blasts tearing through the night.
The three thugs all emptied their clips into Wolverine, and he was slammed back with such force by the repeated shots from the powerful handguns at close proximity that he was lifted off his feet and crashed into the wall behind him. After what seemed like an eternity, silence finally returned to the night, broken only by the sound of piercing sirens starting up in the distance.
In a state of shock, the three thugs peered into the dim corner where Wolverine's body had been blasted.
"Is he dead?" one whispered.
"I don't know," another answered. "But I'm getting the f… out of here right now, before the cops show up!" And he turned around, ready to start doing what he did best – evading responsibility for his actions.
As fast as possible!
"Wait!" the third one said. "What about the woman?" He pointed toward where the woman had been cowering, trying to stay out of sight. She was still hand-cuffed to the pole, and had been unable to make her escape.
"She can identify us – we have to kill her first. Got any bullets left?"
"Nah," both the other said in unison.
Then a voice spoke behind them, a voice straight from Hell.
"No bullets, huh? That's a real pity, because I was just getting warmed up."
Turning around slowly, as if being forced by a giant, mighty, invisible hand, the remaining three thugs turned around to face their doom.
By now beyond fury and well into an icy rage, Wolverine stood there like a diminutive demon straight from the Seventh Ring of the Darkest Hell, smeared with blood and gore, holes torn through so many parts of his clothes that it was barely holding together. He seemed to be vibrating, straining so hard to keep himself from immediately tearing into the three terrified, whimpering men in front of him that the energy and adrenalin were literally making him shake. A low, deep, ominous rumble was continually issuing from his chest, yet he seemed to be quite unaware of it.
Then one of the thugs made a fatal mistake.
He dove for the woman.
Wolverine bounded, like a wolf leaping for the kill. One of the other thugs moved slightly into his way, as if to block, only to fall back with an agonised scream as his right arm was lopped off above the elbow in one swift, smooth movement, with Wolverine barely even breaking his stride.
Jumping onto the thug's back just as he had reached the squirming woman, Wolverine grabbed the thug by the hair and wrenched his head back viciously, then stabbed his claws sideways through the thug's head, from right to the left, so that he ended up with the man's head skewered on his claws. Brutally twisting his claws, Wolverine explosively cut the man's head to pieces like a small, rotten watermelon.
Turning around, he glared evilly at the remaining thug as he slowly got to his feet.
The thug wet his pants, mewled like a small frightened kitten and ran for it.
Wolverine pounced…
…Only to come to an amazed halt as the fleeing thug in front of him was ensnared in gigantic web that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The trapped thug struggled to free himself, panic-stricken, but to no avail, only entangling himself deeper and deeper.
To be continued...