Under the Moon's Gaze (Alex Summers X-Men First Class Fanfiction)

Chapter Fifteen: The Beast

Chapter Fifteen

The car ride to the airbase was long and awkwardly quiet; no one felt like talking, the realization of what was going to happen in a couple of hours hitting us. A couple hours of complete silence later we were finally at the airbase. We all stepped out of the car and began walking into one of the hangars, right in the middle stood the same model jet that was in the government facility we were originally staying at, only this time it was real.

I stood with Erik on my left and Alex to my right, staring at the jet in awe.

“Where’s Hank?” Raven asked, breaking my gaze over to her everyone else doing the same.

“I’m here” I heard Hank answer.

I turned and saw him making his way over to us from the opposite side of the hangar but I couldn’t quite see him clearly. Slowly he came into view; I stared at him wide eyed. Hank was blue! And covered in fur. How did this happen?

“Hank” Charles said.

“It didn’t attack the cells, it enhanced them.” Hank said directing his gaze at Raven.

I wasn’t sure what he was talking about but listened intently anyways.

“It didn’t work” he finished, looking down rather depressed.

“Yes it did Hank” Raven told him “Don’t you see, this is who you were meant to be. This is you… No more hiding” she reached up to cup his check affectionately, Hank leaning into her touch.

“Never looked better man.” Erik cut off their moment, clapping his arm.

Hank suddenly grabbed hold of Erik’s neck and began chocking him. Erik started gasping and Hank just growled at him.

“Hank!” I yelled, “Let him go Hank!”

He wouldn’t listen and held his hold on his neck.

“Don’t mock me” Hank hissed.

Erik’s face was now red from the lack of oxygen and I felt my hands begin to charge up, ready to take action if Hank didn’t let go.

“Hank put him down immediately. Hank, Hank!” Charles yelled, looking as worried as me.

Finally he let go and Erik fell limply to the ground, me falling down after him.

“I wasn’t” Erik said between gasps.

I held onto Erik’s arm, helping him back up.

“Even I got to admit you look pretty badass” I heard Alex say, lightening up the mood a bit. “I think I got a new name for you… Beast” I looked over my shoulder and smiled at Alex, finally being nice to Hank. Although I’m pretty sure it was half because he was afraid of ending up like Erik. I chuckled a bit at my thought causing Alex to give me a weird look, I responded with a wink and went back to helping Erik.

“You sure you can fly this thing?” Sean asked motioning with his head to the jet.

“Of course I can, I designed it” Hank answered looking rather proud of himself.

We all lined up to go into the jet and took out seats, Hank made his way up front to the control panels along with Moira to get the jet prepped.

I sat down next to Alex and gripped the armrest tightly.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked concerned.

“Well I’ve never flown before but last time I checked humans belong on the ground and not up in the air.”

“Well we aren’t exactly humans” he retorted. I sent him a glare and he just laughed. “Don’t worry we’ll be fine, or don’t you trust Hank.” He questioned as he grabbed hold of my hand closest to him, giving me a reassuring squeeze.

Just as he said that the jet began to take off and I squeezed his hand even harder. I heard him groan a bit and turned and mouthed sorry, loosening my grip a bit.

I had relaxed a bit over the flight and next thing I knew we were flying near the shores of Cuba. Looking out we could see the ships from both sides at a standoff. One of the Soviet’s ships making its way closer to the shore.

“Looks pretty messy out there” Hank commented.

Everyone shifted uncomfortable in their seats and I saw Charles put two fingers up to his temple, closing his eyes.

After a few seconds he opened them again. “The crew of the Aral Sea are all dead, Shaw’s been there” he informed us.

“He’s still here, somewhere” Erik said.

“He’s set the ship on course to the embargo line” Charles told us.

“If that ship crosses the line our boys are going to blow it up, and the war begins” Moira chimed in.

That isn't good. I thought to myself.

“Unless they’re not our boys” everyone started at Charles confused.

The ship was getting closer and closer to the embargo line and I started to get more nervous. Charles put his fingers up to his temple again, closing his eyes in concentration. I redirected me focus back to the Soviet’s ship and right at the last moment another Soviet ship released a missile towards the Aral Sea.

The only problem was that our jet was in the same path as the missile’s coarse. Alarms started beeping as the missile flew dangerously close to us. Hank quickly turned the jet to avoid getting hit.

“Hold on! Hold on!” Charles yelled.

The jet turned sharply and everyone, including myself, began to yell as we grabbed on to whatever was around to keep ourselves from falling out our seats. I tightly gripped the headrest of my seat and felt Alex’s arm cross over my chest as if holding me in place. And that’s why I said humans, er mutants, belonged on the ground. Except if your mutation is flying of course.

The missile passed us and hit its target, the Russian ship. Hank evened out the jet and we all settled down, I grabbed hold of Alex’s hand that still rested across my chest and let out a sigh of relief.

“A little warning next time professor” Hank sarcastically told Charles.

“Sorry about that. Are you alright” Charles then asked all of us.

“Yeah” Sean said sounding out of breath, his eyes blaring out of their socket showing how worried he had been like the rest of us.

“That was inspired Charles” Moira complimented him, not seeming phased by what had just happened at all.

“Thank you very much but I still can’t locate Shaw.”

“He’s down there, we need to find him now” Erik said.

“Hank” Charles called.

“Is there anything unusual on the radar or scanners?” Hank then asked Moira.

“No, there’s nothing” she answered.

“Now what?” I asked. Charles looked down frustrated.

“Well then they must be underwater, and obviously we don’t have sonar” Hank said.

Now it was Erik’s turn to look frustrated.

“Yes we do” Sean announced.

I looked up and smiled at Sean. Yes, now we’re talking.