A Tale of Mischief and Mutants

Life uh... Found a Way

—-Sam—-

The last of the X-men make their way down the cliff. We look in awe at the jungle around us. It's really hot here I loose the winter gear leaving it on a rock near the cliff maybe I can come back to it when we leave. As we begin to make our way into the jungle I glance at Loki and remember him telling me about Thanos using heat to torture him. I don't want him getting heat stroke or anything.

"Is this going to be ok?"

He nods slightly trying not to draw any attention to himself at my question. He's super uncomfortable talking about anything to do with his biological form. I wouldn't usually ask anything about it because of this but I just wanted to make sure he was okay. Scott starts talking to the team.

"Alright we need to start searching for clues I want us to fan out and-"

He's interrupted by loud thuds that shake the ground beneath our feet and a roar that sounds like it was ripped straight out of Jurassic Park. Laura looks at the tree line behind me.

"What the fuck?!"

We all begin to turn around to see what it is. Scott stops us.

"Nobody... move..."

He sounds deadly serious he's using a hushed voice.

"That's not actually going to help us my friends according to paleontologist that method only works in the movies."

My eyes widen at what Hank is implying is standing behind me. I risk it and turn to look. I can't even see its head from where I stand. It's a fucking T-rex and it's close, too close. I remember Mjölnir sitting in the Blackbird and hold out my hand.  A couple seconds pass and I feel like I could be eaten any second then thankfully Mjölnir arrives at my hand.

Everyone is in a defensive position ready to fight the thing. I call down a lightning blast trying to scare it away. I don't exactly want to be the person to kill what could possibly be the last remaining dinosaur in the world. It works the creature turns and runs in the opposite direction. I take a breath of relief as I hear Logan mumble to himself.

"Spoil all the fun."

I laugh slightly still shaking off the adrenaline produced by the situation Logan probably would find fighting a T-Rex fun if he had his powers. I'm not about to let him take those kinds of risks right now though. Loki looks around at the group in bewilderment.

"Forgive me if I'm simply unfamiliar with Midgard's beasts but is that creature not very much extinct?"

Hank looks at Loki excitedly.

"It's supposed to be."

"What the fuck is this place?!"

Laura yells to no one in particular.

"So with creatures like that around how do we know the professor is still alive?"

Kurt asks the group looking unsure of our mission now. Laura responds.

"We don't but we search anyway, Now what were you saying Scott?"

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We search as a group now knowing what kind of wildlife stalks this jungle. The jungle is full of dinosaurs from different periods in time, Jurassic, Triassic, Cretaceous, and there are even some animals from the Ice Age here too. This place is scary and wonderful.

As we're searching I can't shake the feeling that we're being watched. We had seen no signs of humans and we had been specifically looking for just that so I shake it off. I guess I'm just weirded out because I almost got eaten by a T-rex today.

We search until we see the sun starting to go down. Scott has us set up a camp for the night. We pick some fruit I test it before anyone can object and feel fine after a couple hours so we eat that then make a fire. We decide on sleeping arrangements, We don't want to be ambushed by any potential predators so we set up a watch rotation.

I shutter thinking about the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park and their real life equivalent Deinonychus. I can't help but get the idea that, those creatures could be the very thing I felt watching us earlier. I'm being paranoid but with the darkness closing in so thickly around us I can't help but have a primal fear of what could be lurking in it.

Loki who can see a bit better in the dark (another advantage of being a Frost Giant) sees me staring out into the darkness, I know my face must be covered in worry. He cups my face in his hand. Then whispers in case the others are asleep.

"It's alright mortal I'm here."

I give him a small smile that only he could see in this pitch darkness. He pulls me closer to him and lies down with me. I'd be worried about what everyone else (particularly Scott) would think of our sleeping arrangement if I weren't more afraid of what could be lurking just out of vision in the darkness. He gives me a kiss on the cheek and my tension eases a little.

'You know what?' 'Screw it.' I don't really care what Scott has to say about our sleeping habits if he or anyone else here has a problem with it they can keep it to themselves. I lean into Loki a bit more and he wraps his arms around me protectively. I fall asleep feeling safe despite the insane situation we're in.