Dark Beginnings - X-Men: Apocalypse

Chapter 2:

West Germany

The fact that she hadn't heard from Raven in a while was a good thing - it meant that there were no mutants in danger in need of their assistance. But that also meant, on the other hand, that she barely got to see her old friend. Raven was like a stranger to them now and had been for many years, ever since Cuba.

"So where exactly are we going?" Nina asked as they made their way down a dark street, narrowing into an ever darker alleyway.

Raven led the way, striding forward with confidence. "Cage fight. Mutant are brought in to fight, usually to the death."

Nina bit back a curse. "Then it's a good thing we're intervening."

"Like I said, they need our help."

This was one of many rescue missions they had worked on together over the last year, Raven having done many more before that before Nina had requested joining the cause. She missed Raven, missed her old friend, an original X-Man like her, and this way they were doing good work, helping those like themselves who were in need.

Nina was almost nervous to ask. "Anything from Erik?"

"No, nothing. Not for years. It's strange."

Nina nodded. It was strange - it was unlike Erik to be so quiet and inactive. She hoped everything was okay with him. They may have gone different ways, their own separate ways, but he was still her friend as far as she was concerned. They had even been lovers briefly, but that was a whole other story. And if he hadn't contacted her or Raven - especially Raven - then he wouldn't contact any of them.

Raven stopped walking and nodded to the building ahead of them, a large warehouse. Nina could hear all the noise even from outside. "I'll distract the guards, you infiltrate the cage."

"The cage where mutants are brought in to fight one another to the death?"

"Says the one with reality powers who can literally just poof  herself out of there if need be."

"Fine, I'll watch for you. Apparently you won't have any trouble seeing me."

The warehouse was packed full of rowdy people, all here to see mutants suffer. Guards were carrying a fallen mutant out of the cage, while the victorious guy - a guy with wings - cheered, clearly loving all the attention from the crowd. 

She pushed her way through the walls of people and went over to the charismatic and flamboyantly dressed announcer. She cleared her throat and addressed him in German. "Excuse me, Sir, but are you in charge here?"

"You could say that, sweet thing," he responded. 

She internally cringed. "Oh, good. Is it you I come to if I would like to put a fighter's name on the list?" 

"Yes, you certainly can! Who is this fighter?"

"Me."

"You?" He repeated, eyeing her, looking her up and down.

Another cringe. "I promise you I put up a good fight."

"This I would like to see. Oh! You are just in luck, it appears that the next fight is just beginning."

"Wunderbar..."

"And what is your name, sweet thing?"

"Night Witch."

"Well Night Witch - I'll put you on the list."

"Thank you."

A blue-skinned mutant with a tail had been dropped into the cage - the poor guy looked so scared.

The crowd howled and laughed at him as he tried to escape the winged guy's attempts at a fight - the whole thing made her sick. He kept poofing in and out of view, so he must have had some kind of teleportation ability. 

Looked like she was up now.

She teleported herself into the centre - right in the centre of the cage, startling both fighters.

"What the hell are you doing?" cried wing-guy.  "You're not allowed to be in here."

"I don't care."

"I'm fighting him."

"Well now you're fighting me." She held him back with an energy forcefield while she spoke to the other guy.  "What's your name?" she shouted over the chaos.

"Uh, Kurt!" he stuttered back.

"Kurt, I'm Nina. I'm here to help - I'm going to get you out of here."

"Thank you!" He spoke with a strong German accent.

But the angel-wing guy was clearly not finished fighting, not yet. "Fight back!"

"I'm here to help you!"

Chaos immediately broke out - thank you Raven. Gunshots were fired and people screamed and fled the building, pouring out into the street.

Nina blasted open the cage, throwing up a field of energy to block them as they fled the building. The guy with the wings disappeared. 

"Hey!" A man caught up to them, one of the guards. Kurt gasped and Nina was ready to blast him until his voice changed. "Come on, let's go!" Raven changed back to herself. 

"You're her," cried Kurt. Then he turned to Nina.  "And you're her! The mutant heroes!"

"I'm not a hero, I'm just a fighter," Raven told him.

"Uh, excuse me - but where exactly are we going?" Kurt asked as they cut down an alley.

"A safe place, a home," Nina responded. "The School for the Gifted."

---------------------------------------

It happened so fast.

It happened so fast, so suddenly.  It was just an instant, and yet an instant that held so much. 

The ground suddenly shook beneath them - in fact, the whole area surrounding them shook suddenly, like a brief quake, that was over just as quickly as it had happened. 

"Whoa! Did you feel that too?!" cried Kurt. 

It was like a sudden jolt of electricity - a jolt of something. It happened so fast she couldn't explain. 

Whatever it was, it shot through her, filling her mind. She fell to the ground, crashing to  her knees, crying out and holding her head as her mind was filled with images, with visions, like one of her vison-dreams, only this time happening when she wasn't asleep, but fully awake.

And then it was gone. 

"Nina?" 

"I-I'm okay, I'm okay..." But her voice was shaky. 

"What was that?" Raven asked. 

Nina didn't know if Raven  was talking about the sudden quake or Nina's scream, or both.  She answered truthfully: "I don't know. I don't know..."

(Well we know what that means - Apocalypse has awoken! He has returned! 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))