Prey Drive Final Chapter

By Cadet Deming

I don't own the rights to X-Men or the Wolverine Origins Movie, Marvel and Fox Studios do, so please don't sue. I work in litigation so you wouldn't want to anyhow. Based on movie continuity. Thanks so much again to the people that left reviews, they're much appreciated. Rated T for adult language, adult situations, and violence. Horror/Comedy. Takes place in the 1970's

Stryker's Prison Cells, Three Mile Island

There were 365 vertical bars in Tabitha Smith's cage. There were also 472 horizontal bars. She knew because she counted them 3,782 times. She had always hated math.

It was worse than being in Juvie. At least there she had a bed, daily shower, library privileges, and access to sunlight. She may have been treated like a criminal, but she was still treated like a person, A person with an end in sight. If the experiments here didn't kill her, boredom would.

Although she never considered herself an extrovert, she did miss having someone to talk to. The cages were starting to fill up here and there with other captured mutants, but none were placed closely to her. She could always tell if there was a new arrival by the screaming.

She hadn't seen Victor since the day he handed her over to Stryker. In a way, that may have been better as she knew how depraved he was capable of being. Perhaps he'd lost interest. Adrenaline junkies weren't known for their attention spans.

Finally, a familiar voice rang near her cage.

"Dude, stop struggling or I'm going to drop you on one of your heads. That is an extra head, isn't it? Because otherwise, man do you have problems," Wade Collins said.

"Wade, is that you?" she called out.

He came into view with a vaguely humanoid form in a body bag draped over his shoulder. From his previous description, she was glad the mutant was covered. Collins looked gaunter than the last time she saw him, like he was healthy on the surface but sick underneath.

"Tamara, right? Victor's bag and tag?"

"Um, no it's Tabitha."

"Close enough. Ooh, an audience! I'll be back in a sec."

She heard the rusty shriek of hinges as a cell door was opened. Then she heard a sickening thump and a squeal. Wade came back to her carrying the empty body bag. It was covered with blood and a green jelly-like substance.

"So, uh how have you been?" she asked.

"Cancer. The 'Big C'. It's not that I didn't see it coming, I mean, both my parents had it. And the doctors are being "cautiously optimistic". That's doctor speak for: 'We know you're gonna die but we'll drag things out for as long as possible so we can milk you for as much money as we can, even your children's money.' I'm not even sure if I have any kids. She said he was mine, but you know how some women will try to pin it on any guy. And all the doctor's co-payments for radiation and medication I can't even pronounce are for guesses, for shots in the dark on what may help me live to be 30, and it doesn't matter how many miles I run or how much weight I can press or how many mutants I can catch or how many times they cut another tumor out before it metastasizes I can't get rid of it. It's not that I'm bitter or anything because…well yeah I'm bitter. I'm licking the salt and sucking the 110 proof Jose Cuervo Tequila lemons bitter. Oh sorry, am I monologuing too much?"

"No it's understandable. Maybe you can at least get access to some good medication. Got any weed?" she asked.

"Got any money?"

"I didn't smuggle any in, sorry,"

"Considering what bodily cavities people have to use to smuggle things in, I probably wouldn't have wanted to touch it if you did. Come on, give me something to work with," he replied.

She figured if he was venting to her, he probably had no one else to vent to. He probably felt as isolated as she was. Tabitha liked Wade. She wondered if things would have turned out differently if he had been the one sent to capture her.

"I'll be your prison bitch," she said mock-brightly.

"I'm low, but I'm not that low. On second thought, how soon till you turn 18?"

"A year and 2 months."

"I'm not Roman Polanski," he said.

"I'll edit your screenplay," she said.

"How did you know I have a screenplay?"

"If you ask 10 people from L.A., how their screenplay is coming along, 9 can answer you. You have a little bit of a Southern California accent."

"I did spend 8 years in Long Beach" he said.

"How did you get recruited to capture your own kind?" she asked.

"I'm not a mutant. I'm a regular guy, but Stryker offered for me to join Team X and undergo experimental enhancement of human reflexes, in exchange for experimental cancer treatments. He has a hard time recruiting mutants. I guess he's better at the stick than the carrot approach."

"Interesting. So…uh…has Victor said anything about me?" she asked.

Wade frowned at her.

"What is up with chicks, man? Even the mutant ones. You blow off the nice guys and always fall for the bad boy types."

"I guess I just have daddy issues," she replied.

"Stryker's your daddy now. Mine too," Wade said.

A Highway Outside of Toronto, Canada

Victor Creed drove his latest captive down the highway. Emma Frost was an even easier capture than his last. She lay sleeping in the passenger side of his new car. It was Japanese.

Emma was beautiful, in a Homecoming Queen kind of a way. While Tabby had been a dirty blonde, Emma's locks were a silvery-platinum blonde. It smelled like overpriced shampoo and restricted country clubs. She reminded him of all the upper-class girls who refused to give him the time of day when he was a mere gamekeeper's son or soldier. The past didn't matter. She was his now.

Stryker had only been partially right about Creed. He found younger women intoxicating, but it was more accurate to say he didn't care about their ages. When he came of age in the last century, people were lucky to live to 27. To him, an alluring female was still alluring, whether she was 17 or 37.

Victor had never been a romantic, in any decade. His near-immortality discouraged him from forming any close attachments. What was love, anyhow? Just exaggerating the difference between one woman and another.

"Where am I?" Emma asked, stirring awake.

Victor smiled. He felt his claws growing against the steering wheel. A sense of déjà vu overtook him.

"On the road," he replied.

"Who are you," she asked.

"Victor, in more ways than one," he said.

"My father has money. My father has money and he will sue your ass off! Do you know who I am. Do you have any idea who I am?!" Emma screamed.

"Of course I know who you are. And all the money in the world isn't going to save you now."

"Don't even think of touching me. Oh my God, what kind of a car is this? Is this vinyl? You're making me sit on a vinyl seat! When Buffy St. Claire at Hodgkins was kidnapped, her ransomers took her in a Cadillac limousine."

"If her name was Buffy St. Claire, she deserved to be kidnapped. And you listen to me, you little white queen…"

He started to reach for her with his outstretched claw, but her body froze. He had read about her mutation, but it hadn't prepared him for her change. Her skin glowed brightly, as it turned to diamond.

What was worse was the smell. She didn't smell like a human. She didn't smell like any animal. There was no blood, no heat, just the cold, lifeless smell of diamond, of rock.

"Hah. See. Nothing touches me. Now I suggest you return me before I really get angry." Emma sneered.

She spent the remainder of the trip bound and gagged in the trunk.

Stryker's Prison Cells, Three Mile Island

Tabitha sat reading a copy of a book on military history. Wade had swiped it for her, along with bringing her a pillow and a blanket. Granted she had to listen to a 40 minute monologue on airplane food and hear way too much detail about the color of his vomit from radiation therapy, but it was worth it.

She tried to befriend the Asian-American Team X member known as "Agent Zero", but had no luck. He threatened: "Let's see how much you talk if I put a bullet in your vocal cords." She didn't speak to him after that.

Tabby heard a girl's voice coming from between the cages: "What do you mean you're not holding me for ransom? That's insulting. You can't keep me here indefinitely! I have a cotillion to attend 2 weeks from now!"

"Shove it, you frigid rich bitch!" Victor growled in response.

Tabitha pondered hiding under her blanket, and pretending to be asleep. She remembered there was no hiding from the Boogeyman. Maybe he would just pass by her.

Victor came into view. He looked the same as she'd remembered. He stared at her with those mysterious grey eyes of his.

"Long time no see," he said.

"And whose fault is that?" she replied.

"I figured you needed time to cool off first."

"Because you care so much about my welfare. New unwilling underage girlfriend? You didn't waste any time," she said.

"Do I detect a note of jealousy," he replied smirking evilly.

"It's bad enough you ruined my life, it makes it worse to just be another notch in your trophy case," she said.

Victor sniffed the air, and a frown crossed his brow.

"I smell Wade," he said.

"Do I detect a note of jealousy?" she replied.

"Look, I get paid for each hunt. I gotta make a living somehow. And I didn't do anything with her. She's not you."

"Yeah, I'm sure she's a nice girl. Not a slut like me."

"That's not what I meant. What I'm saying is, I don't have the urge to tear you apart from limb to limb."

"Wow, that's the sweetest thing anybody's ever said to me," she said sarcastically.

"I'm trying to say I feel something for you. I'm not totally sure what it is yet. But I do feel something, and something is better than nothing. If you can't tell, I'm a fighter not a lover."

"Coming from you that is the sweetest thing you've ever said. So, does this mean Stryker is going to stop cutting me up for shits and giggles and letting me out of the cage?"

"No. No one leaves the Island, but you'll be under my protection. I can pull some strings and get them to start giving you painkillers."

"Why would I trust a scorpion? I'll believe it when I see it. "

"Do you trust this?" he said, pushing a bottle of a highly controlled medication through her feeding slot.

She walked closer to him, but they were still separated by the bars.

"It's a start, but I have a better idea. I'm reading this interesting book. It's about Europe in World War II. I just finished a chapter on the Vichy French. You fought in World War II, didn't you? Do you remember them?"

"Yeah, the 'frogs,' "he said, appearing to be lost in memory.

"Yeah, the frogs…Vichy French were the traitors who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers. Kind of like mutants who hunt down our own kind."

"I don't like where this is going," he said, growling.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. See, I've been a frog all my life. I've been meek and submissive and have let guys push me around. And I'm tired of it. I've decided I want to be one of the scorpions. Team X is understaffed, and sooner or later Stryker is going to need to start recruiting. I want to join, not as a collaborator, but a member. I can just write off the torture and experimentations as an elaborate form of hazing."

"But does that mean you want to be a frog or a…oh who gives a fuck." He replied.

He stared at her, but for the first time she thought she saw pride.

"Not a bad idea. I do have some pull with the boss. But if you want out of the cage, you are gonna have to earn it," he said.

"When can I start?" she asked coyly.

Victor held the key to her cage on one of his extended claws.

"Starting now," he said grinning.

At that moment, Tabitha wasn't sure if she was a scorpion pretending to be a frog, or a frog pretending to be a scorpion.

THE END

Author's Note: Tabitha Smith isn't an original character; she's an X-Men character who had a plotline involving getting too close to Sabertooth in the comics to disastrous effect. I didn't see the original source material, but I thought she would be a good fit for this story. I might do a sequel if enough people want me to.