Lex and Nick | More fun in the Woods.

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

Lex runs into a mysterious set of tracks after his encounter with the Twins. He follows them and runs into Nick hiding in the woods.



Lex was pissed, not only had his earlier hunt been interrupted, but they'd also made enough noise as they left to guarantee he'd find nothing the rest of the day. Even so, he decided to keep looking. If only to stay away from the mansion for a little longer. He wandered for a half hour before stumbling onto strange tracks on the ground. They appeared to be wolf tracks, but there was something not quite right about them. They were too big.

He decided to follow them, and see if this was some apparition that people forgot to mention or if it might be an enormous wolf. He noticed movement off to his right, and when he looked he thought he saw a man loping through the trees. It seemed strange to him, that someone could have made it this close to him without him noticing. With the exception of the speedy twins... who damn near ran him over. He looked down and realized the tracks had changed. They were no longer wolf-like, but rather distinctly human. Lex saw a clearing ahead and could swear he heard someone pacing through the undergrowth near it.

Nicholas Gleason let himself fall back onto the grass of the clearing, his arms stretching out to his sides and a smile turning up the corners of his mouth. He enjoyed ever piece of the earth of plants that stuck up through the holes of his shirt, a new addition after his transformation, caressing his skin and reminding him that he was in nature again, and not coped up in the mansion. Although he had been doing his best to integrate into the mansion, there still was nothing better than just being in the middle of the wilderness for him.

As lex approached the clearing he could see a boy with torn clothing lying in the grass. His military instincts kicked in and he ran forward, forgetting the knife was still in his hands, to make sure he was alright. As he approached he noticed that there was no blood, but he couldn't quite understand where the tears had come from. He called out, "Kid, you alright?" and kept running towards him.

"What the..." The boy instantly spit out as he quickly rolled back onto all fours. The sound of footsteps were way too loud to be that of one of the other ferals, the only other people he would expect to see in the woods at this time. He began to feel vibrations down his spine, the typical reaction to this type of situation, but he forced himself to stop as he saw the man running into the clearing. "Uh... I'm fine..." He slowly forced himself up, cocking a curious eyebrow at the stranger.

Lex pulled up short as the kid rolled onto his feet. "Oh, I was following some very strange tracks this way, and I saw you lying with your clothes all shredded. I thought you'd been mauled." He shrugged, and raised his hands. Only then did he realize he still had his knife out.

Sliding it back into it's sheath, he extended his hand. "I'm Lex, I take it you're one of the residents at the mansion?"

Nick walked forward, hesitantly extending his hand. He still was very hesitant, and could feel the hairs on his neck standing up as he quickly pumped the other man's hand a few times. "Yeah, Nicholas Gleason. New guy at the mansion, and also the owner of those weird tracks most likely." He took a few steps back, mindful of his breathing as he didn't want to cause another incident. "Well, I guess I was the new guy at least."

"Nice to meet you, Nick." Lex took Nick's hand and shook it firmly. "So, what brings you out here, training?" He forced a smile, though this was the second time his hunt had been interrupted by other residents. He was beginning to think he would never be able to bag himself a buck out there.

"No, no, nothing like that..." Nick shook his head as he slowly began to wheel around, looking over the foliage in front of him. "I come out here because it's the only place that I can feel like myself now a days." He let himself become immersed in the nature around him again for several seconds before he quickly realized how awkward he must be looking towards the man next to him. He quickly spit out the next line, it coming out a little too fast, and a little too forced. "So what brings you out here? Are you another feral?"

"Um.." Lex started, he had no idea what a 'feral' was, but he assumed it had to do with animals. "I don't think so... though one could make the argument, based on the amount of time I've spent in the jungle, versus the city. I was hunting deer, actually, before I was almost run over by Jeanne-Marie and her brother. Shortly after that I picked up a set of tracks, apparently yours, and followed them to see what I'd find out." He looked at the kid and realized he was probably interrupting something, so he decided he'd try to let the kid know he felt the same way. "It's really the only place, besides the garage, where I feel comfortable. I mean the residents are nice, but I've seen and met more people than I can shake a stick at."

"I know exactly what you mean." Nick couldn't help but let out a laugh, remembering his first few days at the mansion. "The woods seem more and more crowded these days. If I were you I'd make sure before I shoot that you're aiming at an animal instead of a mutant." Nick wasn't too concerned for himself, but the thought of a purple cat being pulled back to the mansion caused a shiver down his entire body. Why couldn't he get Catseye out of his head? Time for a Gleason trademarked change of topics. "Have they showed you the Danger Room yet? I'm sure that'd be awesome for hunting!"

"No, but Forge told me about it when he explained the X-Men. It seems pretty awesome. As for the hunting, I only hunt what I intend on using, so I think I'll stick to hunting deer. Besides, I never use guns and most of the time I'll try to get them with only these." Lex flicked out his survival knives and smiled. "The trick is to outmaneuver them, sneak up and take 'em by surprise."

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of guns either." He held up his hands with a slight smirk growing over his face. "They might not look intimidating now, but they're my best friends out there." He paused for a second as heard about the conversation with Forge. Nick raised his eyebrow as he turned towards the newest addition to the mansion once again. "So, do you have one of the tech-based mutations?"

"Sorta, it's very helpful with interfacing with technology, but it's not restricted to it. I could, for example, send a pulse to stun a deer, but that'd be just as unsporting as using a gun." He walked a little ways and perked up his ears. He thought he heard a rustling in the bushes. "So, what is your mutation? Are you a feral?"

"The best way I can explain myself is by comparing myself to a werewolf." Nick let his eyes fall to the ground. "Except my transformation is caused by emotions rather than a full moon." A smile grew over his face for a second. "Don't let the terminology bother you. It took me a while to get used to it, but I'm sure that if you apply for the X-Men you'll get a crash course in that soon."

"Gotcha. Well, as a werewolf do you hunt?" He asked in all seriousness. "Cause if you do, I think we should go hunting together. It'd be great times." He moved slowly away from Nicholas, there was definitely something rumbling in the bushes. He turned back, "Do you hear that?"

Nick crouched down upon hearing the noise, a low growl rumbling through his stomach as he does so. "Yeah, I hear it." His initial instinct was to begin his transformation, but he wasn't sure about controlling his emotions in front of the new person. Instead he simply nodded his head to the side, letting Lex take the lead.

Lex disappeared into the bush for a moment, and then came flying back out. "Son of a bitch. I am going to Kill Jean-Paul." He landed on the ground several feet in front of Nick. A deer came flying through the bush right after and sprinted past them. Lex tried to reach out and touch the beast, but found his shoulder hurt too much.

Nick quickly fell down onto all fours. He felt his body beginning to shake, ready to transform. But just before his fur began to sprout out all over his body, he stopped as he looked behind him and saw Lex, obviously not in his best shape. Gleason quickly stopped his transformation, and with one last look at the hind quarters of the deer, let it scamper down the path in front of him. The boy slowly walked back over to Lex. "Are you ok?"

Lex clawed up to a sitting position. "Yeah, I think so. You were going to transform, weren't you? I would of loved to see you take down that deer. Oh well, such is life." He tried to stand and realized his shoulder was dislocated. He groaned in agony and then backed up to a tree. "I need to ask you for a favor... do you think you can help me pop this back into place?"

"I'll save the transformation for another day. I just want to make sure I know your scent before things get crazy." He looked down at his hands for a second. "Are you sure that you want me to help you out? I'm not exactly the strongest guy at the mansion, and know about as much about medicine as most of the people in the woods know about stealth apparently."

"Trust. Me. You'll be fine. I just need you to stabilize my arm as I slam it into this tree." Lex proceeded to do so, giving out a fairly animalistic howl. He let himself slide down the tree after that. "Why don't you sit down and we can swap stories, unless you want to be alone. In which case I think I'll just wait here, till I feel like moving again."

"I... uh... actually have a meeting back at the mansion." More like he avoided his own history like the plague, but Lex didn't know that yet. "But it really was nice to meet you. Hopefully we'll be able to get some hunting down soon." Nick flashed a quick smile at his companion.

Lex could tell the kid was bullshitting him. He put his hand gently on Nick's ankle. "I think you're gonna need to learn to lie better if you want to avoid talking to people." He had a twinkle in his eyes as he spoke, hopefully the kid wouldn't decide to force the issue. "Come and sit."

Nick wrapped his hand around the tree, letting himself slide down, ready for what was sure to be an awkward morning.