The heavy, eerie silence of the forest was broken as a stick laid on the ground was snapped by a heavy yellow boot. The sun above cast dark shadows that danced with the wind.
"Where the fuck is he?" Growled a deep, frustrated voice.
"Close" Cyclops, a tall man, wearing a tight blue outfit with an intimidating visor said calmly. "Stay calm, we don't want you scaring him off Logan."
Logan, the shorter, gruff man wearing a yellow outfit with a winged helmet only grunted. Xavier had sent them out, searching for a mutant that had been tracked by Cerebro.
Logan hated these missions, he'd much rather be in a fight…or a bar, any would do.
Cyclops scanned the area, his visor tracking over the splintered trees and torn earth. Something big had come through here, fast.
Logan suddenly stopped, twisting his head to the side like a hunting dog.
A faint sound, but quickly approaching.
The rush of air.
The heavy relentless beat of wings.
"Scott-"
Before Logan could finish speaking he was interrupted as something black tore through the tear line with a deafening crack.
Lucan tore towards the two X-men, his hand clamping around Logan's ankle with an iron grip, yanking him off his feet so hard that the air exploded from his lungs.
Logan was ripped through the forest floor at impossible speed, dirt and splintered roots spraying in their wake as the two created a trench dozens of meters long.
Trees blurred past, until one didn't,
Logan was brutally thrown, his body smashing through a tree, the trunk splintering in a thunderous explosion of wood and woodchips.
Cyclops' visor flared bright as a sun, but the black shape was already gone, weaving through the dark surrounding treeline effortlessly, in a blur of feathers and muscle.
Logan groaned, forcing himself to his feet, his healing factor already knitting together torn flesh. "Is that what we're looking for?"
"Yes, focus." Cyclops barked, tracking the silhouette blurring through the trees. "He's circling."
A large shadow cut across the bright sky above.
This time it came from above, Lucan's wings folded tight at the last moment, turning his body into a living spear. The impact shook the forest as he slammed into the space Cyclops had been standing a second earlier, dirt and debris exploding outwards with incredible force.
Scott slid back, his boots grinding into the soil below as he finally let loose. A scarlet beam tearing through the space between the mutants.
Lucan twisted, the beam narrowing avoiding his chest but slamming into a dark wing with a nauseating crack. White hot pain flared down his spine, dragging an aggressive hiss up from his throat, but before he could fall back into the shadows something caught him.
An iron grip locked under his neck, rough and unyielding, pulling him back with the force of a truck.
He hadn't even heard the footsteps.
Logan growled right into his ear. "Gotcha, bub."
Lucan furiously struggled, his fingers tearing deep into the flesh on the man's arm as his wings beat relentlessly against the weight on his back.
Each wing strike hit like a battering ram, sending painful reverberations through Logan's entire body, but the X-Man didn't let go.
With a feral snarl Lucan tried to snap out his wings for a burst of flight, but Logan only pulled himself closer. His iron grip twisting Lucan's extra limbs tightly against his back.
Lucan's wings beat with growing fury and panic, each powerful stroke fighting for freedom. Yet Logan's grip held strong, snuffing out the lift before it could form.
Lucan desperately bit into the arm around his neck, the grip around his neck tightening harshly in response.
"Easy kid" Logan growled, voice rough but controlled. "We're here to help" he started to explain but Lucan only further struggled.
Help?
Bullshit.
"Who are you?" Lucan growled "What do you want?" His amber eyes locked onto the taller man with the visor.
"We're the X-Men, Mutants, like you." Cyclops said, his voice steady and firm. "We wanted to meet you, we're sorry for startling you."
Logan grunted, Scott wouldn't be sorry if he was the one dragged through the damn mud. Lucan's struggle slowed, he'd heard of the X-Men, everyone who had access to the internet did.
And before Lucan could interject, Cyclops spoke again. "We're here, because we wanted you to come with us."
Lucan blinked, his struggles coming to a complete halt.
"Like…for the X-Men?" He asked with wide eyes, was he being recruited to be a superhero? Cyclops gave him a small grin, he looked almost amused.
"If you want to," Cyclops smirked. "But I meant something more like a home, The Xavier School"
Lucan swallowed…a school?
The grip around his neck released, Wolverine falling a few steps back, Lucan blinked, his wings were completely free.
He looked towards Cyclops.
"My wings are free?" he asked, surprise evident in his tone.
"They are." Cyclops agreed.
"I could just…fly away?" Lucan asked.
Cyclops nodded "You could."
Lucan had the sudden feeling that maybe…he didn't want to fly away, not this time.
—-
Lucan rolled his shoulders, wincing at a sharp pain that tore through his wing, right where Cyclops had hit.
"That wing all okay?" Cyclops asked from his pilot seat at the front of the blackbird jet.
Lucan nodded absentmindedly from his seat towards the back of the jet, his eyes bouncing around the expensive aircraft.
He'd never seen anything like it.
But before he could continue his inspection, Logan spoke up in his gruff tone. "You went in for the kill."
Lucan's attention shifted onto the short man, his brows furrowing in confusion. Logan saw, quickly explaining, "Today, you threw me through a tree hard enough to kill a rhino."
Lucan just stared, not responding.
"So, did you think we were someone else, or do you just do that to anyone in the woods?" Logan asked, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Lucan's silence continued, Cyclops glanced back, the X-Man's sudden interest in the question obvious.
"Last night," Lucan sighed, "I was attacked by this military crew, they burst into my place, had guns, night vision, everything."
Logan nodded, it wasn't an uncommon story to hear from mutants, what was uncommon was to hear this story from someone who had clearly escaped.
"I was flying away, then I was hit by this dart, tranquilliser or something." Lucan explained, "Then I woke up today, so you guys were the first thing I heard…so I just…you know?"
Wolverine nodded "Yeah, I do know." He agreed, he wouldn't react very well after something like that either.
A moment of silence passed, before Lucan spoke up.
"So this uh school, what's it like?" Lucan asked, Logan opened his mouth to speak but Cyclops beat him to it.
"Like any other school, just this one's built for mutants."
Lucan nodded, not that he actually knew what regular school was like. He could guess from movies he'd seen before, but he'd never actually been to one.
He looked down at his hands, thin, almost invisible scars crisscrossed across his palms. He was never even let outside, his parents were always too scared their golden goose would fly away.
His back started to twinge uncomfortably.