X-Men Evolution: Rogue Evolution

The Perfect Tree - Non-Canon Christmas Chapter

"You placed a bomb in the tree?!" Anna clutched the scarf around her neck with one hand and stepped a foot back in the opposite direction of the group's selected tree.

"It's not a 'bomb,'" Logan Air quoted, "It's a directed explosive. It's faster than taking a half hour to cut the thing down."

"A 'directed explosive,'" Kitty Air quoted with even greater exaggeration than Logan had, "sounds a lot like a frigin bomb!"

"Evan... Earth to Evan!" Anna's leather gloves audibly tightened as her hands curled into fists at her sides. "You just going to keep standing there scratching your chin or are you going to get that thumb out of your ass and help stop this?"

Evan stood a little closer than he probably should to the targeted tree. He got on one knee and looked over Logan's shoulder as the older man adjusted some mysterious black and red wires. "I think I want to see how this plays out."

"That's the spirit," Logan grunted as he pushed himself up off the ground. "Alright, all of you behind that big rock over there."

"Wait." Kitty touched her bottom lip with the frost-tipped of her glove. "You're not actually going to demolish this tree, are you?"

"I already told you! It's not a bomb, it's a -"

"Directed explosive," Anna rolled her eyes, "yeah, we heard. And your answer to protect everyone from the blast is to get behind a big rock?"

"Probably your best bet." Logan checks his watch," Especially since this thing has about five more seconds till it goes off."

"Five?" Was all Kitty could get out before Anna tackled her and pulled her behind the bolder. By the time they got there, Evan had already arrived and was looking over the top with a pair of binoculars.

"Heh," Logan turned to face his creation and produced a detonator from his palm. "Never gets old screwing with the kids." He takes a single step back while wearing a wide grin. "Fire in the hole!" He shouts and taps the button on the detonator. "Shouldn't be more than a flash in a -"

The large man is suddenly thrown back by the blast wave of the explosion, tumbles, and finally comes to a stop as his back slams into a tree several meters away. The flash of the blast lights up the sunless sky followed by a small mushroom cloud. A flock of geese fluttered away in shock and their squawking cries could be heard miles away.

I took at least a full minute before Anna was confident enough that the fallout of the explosion had passed before poking her head up over the top of the bolder. "God..."

Kitty soon joined her side and peered over the large rock. "... dang..."

A cone had been cut in the soft snow-covered earth in their direction. Instead of fluffy white, the ground was now blackened and covered in charred branches. On the exact opposite side of the cone of destruction was their tree which appeared to be utterly untouched.

"Whelp..." Anna scratched the tip of her numbing nose. "I don't think that did what it was supposed to."

"The explosive must have been faced the wrong way." Evan removed his binoculars and looked at Anna. His face was covered in soot aside from little rings around his eyes where the binoculars had been.

"You think?" Kitty looked around. "Is... Logan still alive?"

"Fine," the group's mentor, teacher, and man they were supposed to look up to walked out of the forest with singed hair. His coat had been blown off his body and his shirt was in tatters. "Just... fine." He said in a way that sounded like a man who should be using crutches and was refusing to. He used the heel of his hand to help crack his neck one way and then the other. Each subsequent crack sounded like the twist of an empty water bottle.