Archangel - Warren Worthington

Chapter 3

Cassidy's P.O.V.

"Jean, Peter, where are you guys?" I whispered into my headset as I frantically looked around the arena.

When I got no reply from either of them I turned my eyes back to the arena. The one with angel wings had now flown into the air while another mutant was being shoved into the cage. I pushed my way towards the front of the crowd and immediately recognized the second mutant as our target: Kurt Wagner. He had blue skin, extremely light brown eyes, and shaggy black hair. Easily recognizable compared to everyone else.

The angel mutant lunged at him, but Kurt teleported to the ceiling. Well...attempted to. He accidentally hit the cage wall and it electrocuted him. Kurt cried out in pain, and I immediately felt bad for both of them. Cage fighting is cruel enough as it is, but adding an electric fence is even more brutal.

The angel mutant kept trying to attack, but Kurt got his bearings soon enough and landed on a support beam near the ceiling.

"Fight, or they'll kill us both" The angel yelled, gesturing to the men with guns standing all around the cage.

The crowd started chanting: "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" in unison.

I saw Kurt's face contort in anger. He snarled, then teleported off the support beam and wrapped his tail around the other mutant's neck, choking him. Kurt flung the angel against the electric fence and dragged him down causing sparks to fly in all directions.

I quickly covered my face with my hands to shield my eyes from the sparks. When I removed my hands and could see what was happening again, my eyes widened at the sight of one of the angel mutant's wings burned from the electric cage. I just stared in horror as the crowd continued to cheer and chant at the mutants.

The other mutant glared at Kurt as he started sauntering towards him.

"I'm sorry, I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry" Kurt stuttered as he began backing up.

Just as Kurt was about to hit the back of the cage, the arena was plunged into darkness. I knew that this was Jubilee and Scott's doing. We needed a distraction and this was certainly it. Everyone screamed when sparks started flying from the cage in every direction. Everything was a blur as the crowd began to run out of the arena in and back towards the alleyway.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw the angel mutant struggling to fly towards the top of the cage. Once he was at the top he ripped open the cage door and flew out towards the crowd. At that point, I didn't know what to do. Do I make sure Kurt gets to the jet safely? Do I follow the angel mutant? Or do I try and find any of the X-men?

Before I could decide, I heard gunshots which caused me to whip my head in the direction the sounds came from. One of the armed men was shooting at the angel mutant. It was hard to tell for sure because of the darkness and flashing lights, but it looked like the mutant had gotten shot in his wings a few times. The angel was having more serious trouble flying due to the damage his wings had received, but luckily he made it out of an open window without being hurt any more.

I saw Jean take Kurt by the shoulder and whisper something in his ear. He teleported them out of the now burning arena.

I decided that my best bet would be to go after the other mutant just to make sure he was OK. His wings were severely damaged and he needed help after the chaos he had just been through. I figured I could probably catch up to him if I left now, so I quickly headed for the exit. Besides, I had no chance of finding the X-men at this point.

I pushed through the crowd and made it out to the alleyway where I could finally see clearly. I saw the mutant flying into an abandoned warehouse a few blocks away. I ran after him, not taking any time to second guess my decision. After a somewhat long walk, I finally arrived at the doors of the warehouse. Even with his injured wings, he was still much faster than me. Slow walking is part of being a human, I guess. It was only then that I started second-guessing my decision of separating from Jean and Peter. This mutant seemed completely unpredictable and could be dangerous. After all, I had no idea how long he had been doing cage-fights. But he was hurt and was probably going to die if I didn't help him.