Crossing Paths

Readjusting his grip upon the bags, Esau picked them up and dumped them into the trunk of the car, shutting it once he was done. Moving around, he then opened the passenger side door, got inside and closed it behind him.

"That everything?" Esau asked, Avalanche nodding his head. "Thank God for that. Can't believe we have to do fucking chores like this."

"Tell me about it." Avalance agreed, twisting his car keys and starting the engine. "I'm just glad someone actually agreed to go on with me for a change. Usually Blob, Toad and Quicksilver come up with some stupid excuse or disappear the moment it's their turn to go out shopping. If it wasn't for me, those idiots would just order in constantly." This considering the limited amount of money they were given by Mystique, would run out long before the week ended, especially with people like Blob around.

"Wait, you saying we have turns?" Esau asked.

Avalance nodded his head, pulling out of the car park for Walmart. "Yeah, it's actually Blob and Toad's turn today, didn't you know?" Though by the deep scowl coming across Esau's face, Avalance could quite easily tell that he had in fact not known that was the case.

From the few weeks Esau had spent with them, Avalance knew this would end well, for neither Toad nor Blob. Esau was one to hold a grudge, he was also one to love a good fight, more so than anyone they had met before. It just so happened that Esau was also blessed with a unique power that allowed him to seemingly adapt on the fly.

His strength grow in proportion to how durable his opponent was, allowing him to eventually bypass Blob's own natural durability. His reaction times also grew, allowing him to track Quicklsilver's movements and if moving at the right time, avoid his punches.

For Blob and Toad, developing a healthy amount of fear for Esau was natural and it amused him that their laziness had brought them what would be a few weeks of pain. Not that Avalance was complaining, it just meant that he didn't have to be Esau's opponent. At this point, fighting Esau without his powers was a recipe for disaster as he did in fact, retain a portion of the strength and reaction times he gained from fighting both Blob and Quicksilver.

Not the full amount, thankfully.

But still enough to make Avalanche wary of just how strong Esau could become. If the need arises and Esau needed more strength, his mutant power would activate and he would get it, little by little as the fight progressed. So long as he could survive long enough, in theory, Esau could beat anyone, no matter how strong or fast they were.

There was a reason Quicksilver always called an end to their fights just as things were starting to get interesting. The only reasons he kept agreeing were twofold, one, Mystique ordered it and two, his pride wouldn't allow the idea of there being two people that he couldn't knock out.

One being Blob and now Esau.

"No, they didn't." Avalance stifled the smile, thanking the two for being the punching bags for Esau over the new few weeks.

Turning out of the window with a scowl, Esau clenched his fists, looking forward to getting back and seeing the looks on Blob's and Toad's faces. He'd make them regret tricking him like this and he would make sure it wouldn't happen a second time. By the time he was done, they'd be begging for forgiveness.

As they rolled up to a red light, Esau noticed something across the road that made him perk up. "Hey, Avalanche, isn't that Wolverine?" As Avalanche looked over, following Esau's finger to see the person he was pointing at.

A small buff man leads two young teens, one a tall, lean young man wearing red sunglasses covering his eyes. The other being a smaller, skinnier young man with bluish dark hair that seemed to be saying something funny as he laughed, though only he seemed to find the joke funny, the other two remained silent.

"Yep, and that's Scott and Kurt along with him," Avalanche said, frowning as he looked at Scott. He didn't like the leader of the X-Men one bit, the guy was a stuck-up prick and just rubbed Avalanche the wrong way whenever they crossed paths. Kurt on the other hand, Avalance had no problems with, the guy was actually funny at times, someone that he wouldn't mind hanging out with if it wasn't for them being on opposite sides.

"Pull over."

Avalanche blinked in surprise, only to jerk into action when a car behind them blared its horn, the lights have turned green. "What, why?"

"Because I want to say hi?" Esau snarked, looking at him in frustration. "Why do you think?"

"You're seriously going to fight them, just you?"

"You're here, aren't you?" Esau questioned.

Avalance shook his head, pulling up to the curve. "You're fucking insane you know that. We've strickly been told by Mystique not to cause any more problems and you want to do the exact opposite of that? Not to mention that's fucking Wolverine?!" Esau though had already undone his seatbelt, getting out of the car. "Esau, it's fucking Wolverine!"

The door slamming in response was all Avalanche needed to know that his words had fallen on deaf ears.

Sitting there for a few moments, Avalanche remained deep in thought before hitting the steering wheel in frustration. "God fucking damnit!" Jumping out of the car, Avalanche locked it behind him before rushing to catch up to Esau. 'Mystique's going to fucking kill us both for this shit.'

Reaching out, Avalanche grasped hold of Esau's shoulder, pulling him to a stop. "Just tell me you have a plan that doesn't involve walking up to them in the middle of the street and starting a fight?"

The silence did not inspire confidence.

"Seriously, you planned to just walk up to them in the middle of the day, on a main road and start a fight?" Esau again said nothing, but the look on his face said everything. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Did it cross your mind that not only would you start a fight but as soon as you did, we'd end up arrested? No, just me."

"We? I thought you thought this entire thing was stupid."

"I still do!" Avalanche exclaimed. "This whole idea is fucking nuts. But clearly, you're not going to listen to a word I say and so, against my better judgement I'm here to make sure you don't get yourself killed." As much as Mystique would crucify them both for this, if Avalanche didn't back Esau up then he'd face even more punishment.

That was not something he was a fan of.

"Look, if we're going to do this, can we at least be a little smarter about this."

"By all means, so long as I get to fight Wolverine I'm fine with that."

"What's your obsession with...you know what? I'm not even going to ask." Avalanche shook his head. "Look, if Wolverine's anything like Mystique, then someone like him is going to be able to tell right away that he's being followed. So we'll do just that, he'll confront us after that."

Esau nodded his head. "Follow him? Yeah, sounds easy enough."

-X- Line Break -X-

"I hate you," Esau muttered, checking his phone for the tenth time in a single minute.

"Yeah, well I hate you too." Avalanche retorted.

"They've been in there for hours."

"Half an hour." He corrected, but Esau ignored him.

"What are they even shopping for in there anyway?"

"Stuff for the summer school that we'll be going on in a week, not you though," Avalanche answered, chuckling to himself as he watched a comedian on Youtube.

"Summer school?"

Avalanche nodded his head. "Yep, so it will be just you and Mystique for a while." As soon as he said it, Avalance looked up with a smirk. "You'll like that though wouldn't you, you horny bastard?"

"And you wouldn't?" Esau shot back. "Just because I'm not ashamed to show that I'm attracted to her doesn't mean I'm the only one that's fantasised about her."

"Touche." The two went silent after that. "Shal we just call it here, pretty sure that shopping doesn't take this long, Toad managed to get it done in fifteen minutes, Toad of all people. It's more than likely that Kurt teleported them out of there."

"So you're saying we waited here for half an hour for nothing. Did you plan for this?" Avalance shook his head.

"Nah, I honestly forgot about Kurt's ability, just dawned on me that the reason they're taking this long is that they're not actually in there anymore." Avalanche wasn't stupid enough to admit that he had hoped this would happen because it was highly likely that Esau was going to kick his ass either way because of this. "Let's just head back to the car before I get a parking ticket."

As Avalanche began to walk away, Esau remained behind, looking into the shop before getting up. He headed inside the shop, taking a quick cursory glance around before groaning in frustration. 'God damnit, cowards.'

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Esau turned away and made his way out of the shop and to the car, only to find Avalanche crouched down at the side, testing one of the tires. "What's the problem?"

"Flat tire." Crouching down beside him, Esau took a look. It was obvious just from a glance that the cause of this flat tire was not natural, the big hole in it looking to have been caused by something kind of knife was an obvious indicator of this. "Pretty sure this was a warning from the X-Men."

"Well fuck their warning," Esau said. "This time we did it your way, next time we do it my way."

'My God, we're all going to die.'