Chapter 10: Interlude

Kitty Pryde

Kitty Pryde woke up screaming. Again.

She was in her room. It was pitch-black for a bit while she sat there, panting. She grabbed at herself, shivering a bit. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she sat there, breathing carefully. The door to her room opened and her breath hitched.

Logan stood there. He eyed her for a moment. Then he stood aside, waving.

She quickly got out of bed, following him.

Outside, Kitty took a deep breath of air. Logan and her sat on the roof, looking out at the mansion's grounds. Logan had a beer in his hand, while she played with a soda in hers. It was warm despite the time of night. She took another breath.

“So… the battle?”

“Yeah,” Kitty sighed. “I keep dreaming about it. Those guys b-bleeding on the snow. And all those monsters.”

“Mephits,” Logan said. “Looked them up after Dial sent me the login for the Avengers servers. Weaker elementals.”

“They were like, so freaky! And they tried to kill me!” Kitty swallowed. “I felt bullets go through me!”

“Had that happen a time or two.” Logan took another sip of his drink.

“I had blood in my hair!” Kitty brushed at her ponytail, shuddering. “It was so sticky! I just… That was scary!”

For a moment, she felt embarrassed. ‘Scary’. She’d seen people die. Soldiers had tried to kill her. Monsters had reached through her. And it was just ‘scary’? She couldn’t stop dreaming about it. It was easier at school. She could pretend things were still normal there, with Kurt and Jean. Even Rogue was sometimes talking to them now.

But then she fell asleep. And she dreamed about it again.

“Does it ever stop?” Kitty sighed. Her soda was still in her hand, ignored.

Logan shook his head. “I wouldn’t know. Hasn’t stopped for me.”

“...Like… How do you deal?”

“Therapy.”

Kitty glanced at him, surprised. Logan smirked. “What? The Professor knows what he’s doing.”

He finished his beer and placed it down. “I’ve been fighting a long time, half-pint. These kinds of things… They can stick to ya if you let them. It’s like poison. You need to take antidotes.”

Logan laid back against the roof. “Hang out with your friends. Talk to them. Talk to the Professor. Remind yourself about what’s good in life.”

“Don’t you spend a lot of time alone?” She asked.

He chuckled. “I spend a lot of time in the woods. I walk out there, in nature. Hunt. Join wolf packs sometimes. It helps. I ain’t one of those idiots that thinks nature is some one hundred percent peaceful thing. But it’s simple. Beautiful.”

Kitty looked at him. His eyes closed for a moment. He seemed more… peaceful, then she was used to. He huffed out a breath.

“...Can we stay out here a little longer?”

“Long as you need, half-pint.”

Kitty smiled and looked up at the stars again.

Conan The Barbarian

Conan gazed out at the lands before him. Jungle as far as the eye could see. Warm, scented of sweet rot. On the cliff he stood on, he could see the whole of it. He closed his eyes and breathed in. He heard the stones behind him shift. Barely. Enough to tell him who was behind him.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Conan turned to look at the two men who joined him.

Ka-Zar. Like Conan, he was a large and built man, wearing a loincloth, though his long hair was a sandy blonde rather than Conan’s black locks. His massive cat followed in his shadow.

The other man, Kraven, wore a vest made from the skin of a lion. He was muscular as well, but his own hair was more tightly cut, a trimmed beard about his face.

Both men took a spot on either side of Conan. He looked behind them again.

There, the beauty of the jungle was marred by this world's modern technology. Large buildings, construction, the ‘planes’ of the modern age. Men carrying those ‘guns’ stood around guarding the mages and intelligent folk of this era.

Along with them, were the species of this land. Folk made of stone. Men and women with wings. Saurian and reptilian folks. They joined the modern folk, aiding them in construction, discussing a variety of things.

Not quite a village or city. But Conan could see the bones of one being formed.

He turned back to the jungle and nodded to himself.

That man, Dial, had suggested he join this endeavor. After Conan discovered how far from home he was, Dial had recommended the Savage Land.

Conan thought back to that moment.

“It’s a place similar to your home, but BRIDGE will be there too. You can learn about the modern world while still living somewhere like your own world. Plus, they could use some good sword hands.”

Conan and Dial stood inside a room within the building they called the ‘Avengers Tower’, looking upon a strange object that displayed images of the ‘Savage Land’. It reminded Conan of some of the sorcerous magics he’d seen that displayed places, people, and impossible objects.

Of course, speaking of sorcerers.

“To say it is similar is a misnomer,” Agatha Harkness walked around into Conan’s view, her eyes on the screen as well. “At best, it is only a superficial similarity.”

“Why is the witch here?” Conan growled. Agatha smirked at him.

“Because she’s literally the only person we know who lived in your day and age,” Dial said. “That's why you can speak English now too.”

“I would have learned quickly,” Conan said with complete confidence. It was true. He had always been good with languages. Given time, he would master this era’s languages as well. Even though ‘English’ was one of the most inefficient ones he’d ever attempted to understand. Why did so many words sound different from how they were spelled?

As the barbarian pondered that, Dial continued.

“You don’t have to stay there. But I figured it was perfect for you. Place with plenty to hunt and/or fight, a BRIDGE unit in place to teach you anything you like, and people who won’t freak out at the sight of a man carrying a sword.”

Conan pointedly looked at Dial’s left side, where a longsword of modern design hung. Dial grinned back and Conan scoffed. He looked back at the map longer. FInally he said what he had been thinking for some time.

“Will there be women?”

Dial blinked. Agatha laughed, an old woman's bitter laugh.

“I mean, yes? I guess?”

“If there are not, I will come back,” Conan said at last. “I like women.”

When Dial looked as though he had no clue how to respond to that and Agatha chuckled, Conan decided to ignore them. He was a barbarian. He had no care for the strangeness of warlocks and witches.

“So then. When do I leave?”

Back in the present, Conan focused once more on the moment. This world had changed. But in many, it was still the same savage desperate land it once had been. And Conan could see more proof of that in the distance.

“Seems the convoy is going to be ambushed again,” Ka-Zar said, kneeling down to look into the jungle. A line of wagons and modern vehicles were driving along a trail through the jungle. In front of it, they could see Saurian forces gathering, unseen by the drivers and guards of the convoy. “Haven’t they learned from the last time?”

“They are a different set of bandits,” Conan said. “More well trained. Equipped. They will be a tougher fight than the last ones.”

“How wonderful,” Kraven said, the man pulling out a hunting knife and briefly testing the edge. “There is no joy in a hunt that is too easy.”

“A man should always reach for greater heights,” Conan agreed.

Ka-Zar scoffed. Ironically, the man who had spent the least amount of time among ‘civilization’ was the most civilized of the three.

Conan glanced at Zabu, the saber-toothed tiger looking down at the incoming attack with a calm demeanor. Make that four.

“Should we move now?” Kraven asked.

“Wait until they are about to strike,” Conan said. “No bandit is ready to be ambushed just when they launch one.”

“Experience talking?”

“I have been a bandit a time or two,” Conan said without repentance.

Ka-Zar shook his head, but smiled anyway. “Okay… let’s go be good guys.”

The four leapt down into the jungle, ready to unleash hell. Moments later, screams echoed out into the air, and the Savage Land proved its reputation once more.