Ezekiel and Mordo ported back to Xavier's school to find that Inoichi was done with Mikhail. The two men were seated next to each other at a metal table as they quietly conversed. Mikhail looked a lot better and was actually in his human form now. But there was still a hint of deep sadness in the man's eyes, which was tinged with anger and determination as he looked up at Ezekiel who just returned.

Ezekiel glanced over at Inoichi as he said, "Thanks for your help, you can head back now."

Inoichi reached over and placed his hand on Mikhail's shoulder as he said, "I’d like to stay with my new friend here for a while more.”

Ezekiel smiled as he said, “That’s fine, we might need an extra hand anyways.”

As Ezekiel pulled out a chair and dropped down into the seat, Mordo moved over next to the back wall. Ezekiel then set his tablet on the table and looked over at Mikhail as he asked, “Tell me about your unfinished business.”

Mikhail glanced down at his hands resting in his lap for a moment before he looked up at Ezekiel as he said, “I want to find out who caused my team to die.”

Ezekiel glanced at his tablet for a few moments as he asked, “What will you do when you find them?”

“Kill them slowly.”

Ezekiel looked back up at Mikhail as he asked, “What about the people who actually killed your team?”

“I just want the person who leaked our info and made us fall into that trap. I won’t blame the others for following their orders, that would just make me a hypocrite.”

Ezekiel nodded his head before he picked up his tablet as he started to type on it, the monitor on the wall powered on and some files were displayed. He glanced at Mikhail as he said, “I figured you would ask for vengeance, so I was proactive about it. Do these look familiar?”

Mikhail slowly nodded his head as he was reading over the info on the screen. As he was reading he became agitated. As he continued reading, he leaned forward as his hands were placed on the table. His hands unconsciously clenched and deformed the table they were resting on. As his eyes took on a hard edge as he looked back at Ezekiel as he asked, “Is this all true?”

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “Yes, but it only gets worse from here.”

“Show me.”

Ezekiel tapped on his tablet and some more documents appeared on the screen. It took a few more minutes before Mikhail said, “Next.”

This continued for about half an hour until the last document appeared. As Mikhail was reading it his body started to grow and morph the more he read the faster his body transformed until Inoichi was forced to move away. Ezekiel picked up his tablet and backed away towards Mordo as he typed on it for a moment.

Mikhail didn’t stop at his hybrid form though and as he grew the metal chair underneath him deformed and collapsed under his weight as his pants ripped apart. But he kept growing after that and even sitting with his butt on the ground Mikhail was forced to hunch over as his head and neck easily touched the ceiling that was ten feet tall.

Mikhail’s bear form was massive when he finished his transformation, which made Mordo say, “I thought you were joking…”

Before Ezekiel could reply Mikhail let out a massive roar which actually shook the entire room as he smashed the table in front of him. Luckily it was completely made out of metal, so it mostly just deformed and collapsed into the floor. Mikhail looked down at Ezekiel as his inhuman voice growled out, “Take me to that bastard!”

“I will, but I need you to calm down first.”

Mikhail slammed his massive paws down into the already ruined table and floor as his body leaned forward closer to Ezekiel. His eyes were filled with anger as he growled out, "You would deny me my vengeance?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As Ezekiel shook his head he said, "No, I will gladly help you with it. I just need you to calm yourself down first."

Mikhail glared down at Ezekiel, but Ezekiel just pointed towards the table and floor below it which were completely ruined now as he said, "I need you to control your anger, then I will help you take your vengeance."

Before Mikhail moved again, Inoichi moved in front of the bear and touched one of his paws as he said, "Take a deep breath my friend, we are all here to help you."

Mikhail glanced down at Inoichi as his eyes lost their hard edge. The massive bear let out a sigh as he started to shrink down. It took a minute but he finally returned to normal sitting on the floor naked. Inoichi walked over to Mikhail and placed a hand on his shoulder as he said, “Thank you, friend.”

A moment later the door opened and Magneto walked in with some clothes in his hands followed by Xavier and Logan who was pushing his wheelchair. They all took in the state of the room for a few moments before Magneto handed the clothes over to Ezekiel as he said, “I was wondering why you asked for me to join you and bring some clothes.”

Ezekiel tossed the clothes over to Mikhail as he said, “Put those on while Magneto fixes the room.”

Mikhail quietly stood up and dressed as Magneto reformed the floor, table and chairs that were crushed. As Magneto worked, Xavier and Logan moved next to Ezekiel before Xavier asked, “What happened?”

Ezekiel handed his tablet over to Xavier as he said, “The short version is, his team was led into an ambush and killed because of his base commander. Those are all the files I found about it.”

Ezekiel moved back to the table and sat down on the other side of the table from Mikhail and Inoichi. While Magneto moved next to Xavier and they read over the files on Ezekiel’s tablet along with Logan. Inoichi had his arm on Mikhail’s shoulder as they talked quietly for a few minutes before Mikhail finally looked up as he said, “Sorry for losing control… So now what?”

Ezekiel smiled as he said, “It’s fine, I honestly thought we might have to subdue you. I’m glad it didn’t come to that, it shows that you are already healing.”

Ezekiel's smile changed and became more wicked looking as he said, “Now we’ll help you with your revenge. I think we will grab your former commander so you can have a nice personal talk with the man.”

Xavier glanced up from the tablet as he said, “Killing the man isn’t the best way to handle this. This information should be turned over to the proper authorities and they should handle this matter.”

Ezekiel looked back over his shoulder to speak as Magneto said, “I don’t think Ezekiel was asking for your opinion Charles.”

“But more bloodshed isn’t going to help.”

Magneto placed his hand on Xavier’s shoulder as he said, “Not everyone thinks the same as you, my old friend. I think Mikhail is a lot more like me and Logan when it comes to dealing with something like this.”

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “I think the same way as Magneto, which is why I made the offer in the first place.”

Xavier let out a sigh and handed the tablet to Magneto as he said, “I don’t agree, but I can’t stop you. I’ll be bringing this up at our next meeting though.”

Xavier glanced up at Logan as he said, “Take me to my office please.”

As they started to move towards the door, Xavier glanced at Ezekiel as he said, “I can’t stop you, but take your revenge business elsewhere, I don’t want you killing someone at my school.”

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “I never planned on it.”

After Xavier left Ezekiel looked back at Mikhail and said, “I can give you two choices. The first is I let you kill the man outright. The second one you will still kill him, but we do it my way.”

Before Mikhail could respond, Inoichi spoke up and said, “I know you wish to kill the man outright. But trust me. You should choose the second option.”

Mikhail glanced at Inoichi for a few moments before he looked back at Ezekiel and said, “Alright, we’ll do it your way.”

Ezekiel had a cheshire cat-like smile as he said, “Great, now this will take a couple days of prep work, but I think you’ll like it.”

vvvvv

It had been a few days since the nightmares started and it had taken over his life completely. He kept waking up screaming in terror, covered in sweat. The worst part is he would randomly fall asleep even if he wasn’t tired. After it happened a couple times in his office at the base he decided to just stay home for a few days. But that just made it worse, he would wake up screaming then fall back asleep within a few minutes.

He couldn’t even remember the dream completely, just the forest. The endless forest was the only thing he remembered clearly, the rest of the dream was a blurry mess he could never remember. Something at the back of his mind kept telling him there was something very important from the dream he was forgetting, but it was always just out of reach.

He was laying in his bed having just woken up a few minutes ago, when he felt himself falling back asleep again. How many times was this now? He had stopped counting after the hundredth time…