What If? Episode 907

Hunting Season

As dawn broke in the north woods, Scott headed toward the ridge with a bright smile. It had snowed overnight - and every single branch and twig was coated in a frosty white powder. The birds and squirrels were just starting to wake up and the little lumberjack jays in the trees were a laugh as always. He smiled to himself watching the birds and their little wars before he started walking higher up the ridge- his reasoning being he could shoot down if he saw one below, and Logan was fine with sneaking through the wet, sticky mud. But when they started out, Scott had to look at him strangely when it was clear that Logan didn't have a gun as he headed out into the trees.

But Scott didn't put too much thought into it. He knew already that Logan had his own way of doing things, and odd as it might seem, they seemed to work pretty darn well for him, so he sure wasn't going to argue with him about it.

Since it had snowed the night before, Scott was walking carefully through the woods, and even then as he tried to keep his footfalls silent, the snow squeaked under his boots as he worked his way up the ridge. The birds were cheerfully singing in the trees, and the squirrels were barking to each other as Scott went to find a good spot to sit still like Logan had told him to.

As he stepped into a circle of tall lodgepole pines he got the distinct feeling that he was being followed. He stopped and very slowly looked around himself, noting right away that the birds and squirrels had fallen silent. He frowned, knowing that something must have spooked them since the birds hadn't slowed down their cheery songs earlier as he was walking.

He stayed still, just watching and listening for any flash of fur in the for the longest time, he didn't hear a thing but the beating of his own heart. He silently chastised himself for overthinking things. Again.

It's just deer, he thought to himself. No creepy pale faced weirdoes with glowing red ... things. Just ... deer. He'd finally started to lower his rifle and move forward, still paying strict attention to his surroundings when he heard a couple of quick, heavy footsteps. He turned in time to see a monstrous wall of a man a split second before the rifle was wrenched from his hands and the guy tackled him.

For just a second, Scott was simply scared silly by the attack before somehow it clicked that he'd been learning about this stuff with Logan. He raised his arms in defense for a block that, frustratingly, the blonde just powered through.

"Oh, come on now, pipsqueak," he almost purred out. "That kung-fu crap doesn't mean a thing in the jungle. Not that you got a prayer of makin' it out alive anyhow, do you?" The creep was chuckling low as the young man struggled. "Come on, gimmie your best shot, kid. Might as well."

Scott gritted his teeth as he tried to do just that, at first doing more of what Logan had taught him. Then, when the pressure points only earned him a chuckle and nothing else, he took a blind swing and tried to kick the creep in the gut though it still didn't do anything, not really.

"That might have actually been worthwhile if you'd had your skates on," The stranger hissed.

At that, Scott really started to panic as he realized that not only had this weirdo been watching him, but he couldn't get out of the his grasp. As he leaned in, Scott felt his eyes go wide. "Leave me alone," he ground out, trying to think of something, anything - he'd kill for a headache at this point if it meant he could blast the guy backward, but he couldn't figure that out, either. No matter how hard he glared and concentrated and just halfway prayed it would work.

"Awww," the man said with a patronizing tone. "If only looks could kill."

"I didn't do anything to you," Scott said, just struggling for something, anything to get him out of it.