Mutant Hunting

[Wild Thing]

Rina got to her feet and examined him. Not a novice at all, and apparently he knew of her hunting exploits. This was a trap. Luckily, she didn't smell any others here to ambush her.

"No, but you'll go down."

Wild Thing was an ambush predator. She could fight hand-to-hand, but it wasn't her specialty. Her claws glowed menacingly in the fading light. She also took on a defensive stance, preferring to wait until he made the first move. Then she'd stab anything in reach and inflict paralyzingly intense pain.

The most unsettling part of the whole ordeal wasn't that he was strong enough to do her real damage, but that someone had noticed what she was doing and had come to find her. So long as it was other mutants to kill that was fine, but she really didn't want human authorities after her. Even now she was planning what she'd do after this fight. She'd have to find new hunting grounds.

[toad]

Toad grinned at her, a weird, stub-toothed grin. "I'm flattered," he told her with mock sweetness. "I never had a girl so desperate f'me t'go down." He bent down at the knees slightly, then leapt up in the air, a good ten feet over her head, and landed far enough out of the way behind her.

He could have easily landed on top of her, crushed her like a spent can of beer, but Toad was a cruel fighter. He didn't just do this for a purpose. Like the cat that caught the mouse, he liked to tease his victims first. He liked to hear them scream.

"But let's try an' take it slow, mmm?"

[Wild Thing]

Rina dropped to a crouch and pointed her claws over her head when he made the big leap, but he wasn't aiming to jump on her, just over. She spun around as he seemed to fly over her and was standing up again and facing him by the time he landed, claws still out. Man could move, that was for sure. She didn't really catch the sex reference as she'd spent most of her life in a cell or in training, but from his sneer she guessed his comment was supposed to be insulting.

Rina was ready for anything, confident her claws would do their job, but she knew she'd probably sustain some injuries trying. She had no chance going after him since he could easily out-distance her, so once again she waited on him to make a move. He was cocky, and that would get him in trouble.

[toad]

Toad started to circle around her, keeping his distance and looking for weak spots. He wasn't stupid enough to get right into it with her when she would survive this nomatter what. That was okay. He liked a challenge.

While he waited for his opening, he started chatting casually. "So tell me, love, why is y'seem t'have somethin' against us mutants? Self loathin' isn' a good look for a pretty little girl like you." It seemed to work well enough for him, though.

[Wild Thing]

"You're a threat to the United States of America," she recited, "The only good mutant is one who is trained to neutralize the mutant threat." That one was pretty much programmed into her. She turned as he circled, giving no opening whatsoever. It seemed for a while, at least, they'd be conversing, unless he created an opening for himself, which was unlikely given her harsh and thorough training.

[toad]

"And is that wha' you are?" he mused curiously. "Trained t'neutralize th'mutant threat?" He laughed at her. "They've even told you y'brain washed an' y'still fight their fight."

He ducked down in a jerky feint, just messing with her at this point.

[Wild Thing]

She glared at him, recognizing the fake duck for what it was and not reacting. A person's micro-expressions* were different when they really intended to do damage and when they didn't. "When's the last time a mutant that wasn't killing or disabling other mutants helped the world?"

(*micro-expressions are minute muscle changes to normal expressions. know how you can just sometimes tell when someone's lying and you don't know why? that's your brain reacting to someone's microexpressions without even realizing it. you can learn to recognise them on purpose though)

[toad]

Toad snorted. "Could say th'same thing abou' humans," he told her. "An' it's sorta hard for a people t'be productive when we gotta fight f'our lives all th'time, isn' it?"

He circled in a bit closer, a grave expression overtaking his face. "You think we deserve pain jus' because we're born differen'? Let me tell you somethin', peach. I was born ugly, but I wasn' born a monster. They're th'ones tha' make us monsters. Where d'you think th'two of us would be if it wasn' for th'humans?"

[Wild Thing]

Rina didn't like what he was saying. She'd been trained too long to kill mutants, view them as objects. "Humans are defenseless. It's natural for mutants to want to assert their dominance as the next stage in evolution, but evolution, like any system, can only run its course so long without grievious errors. There's only so many improvements you can make on a machine before you just start changing it for the sake of changing it, or changing it for the worse," she sounded like an anti-mutant pamplet. "Most mutants can't control their powers and are a danger to themselves or others. The ones that can control themselves are naturally inclined towards replacing humans at the top of the food chain. That's how evolution works. Only if you were to let the system take its course that way, the system would rip itself apart because mutants have too much individual power. The last logical link in the evolutionary chain is homo sapiens. The world has a hard enough time coping with them; imagine a world of mutants, with even more power to pollute and destroy."

(probably going to edit that to streamline it but you get the idea)

[toad]

"How would we know what th'world is like withou' homo sapiens?" Toad challenged. "If they're th'ones makin' us mutants into monsters, maybe mutants will be better once they're gone. With humans out of th'way, mutants can fix all th'pollution and destruction caused by the humans."

He circled in closer still, a little more than arms length away from her. "Imagine all we could accomplish with th'gifts we were given. Imagine everythin' we could create."

[Wild Thing]

"Humans have the power to create and fix. All they do is destroy. Mutants have more power. Power corrupts. Ergo, they'd make an even bigger mess of things. Nobody ever lives up to their potential, or their ideals. They dream big and crash and burn." She stopped sounding like a robot by now; just a bit of emotion had slipped in. The smell was getting worse the closer he got. It was pretty dark now. She had nightvision though, so it wasn't much of a problem.

[toad]

Toad didn't rely on sight much to begin with because of his nearsightedness. He didn't have nightvision, per se, but his big gold eyes reflected a lot of light and made it a bit easier. "Crashin' an' burnin'... sounds like somethin' you should get used to. There's no place f'mutants on their side. They'll do away with you once you've stopped bein' useful."

He dropped suddenly into a crouch, spinning a leg out to trip her up.

[Wild Thing]

Rina jumped up and backward to avoid the kick and kept her fists up like a boxer to protect her face in case he went for another kick. She'd honestly never considered that she might actually get rid of all the mutants in her lifetime, that she'd ever quit being useful. "I'd be no worse off than any other mutant." She'd be dead, but the rest would be too.

[toad]

He was back up on his feet. "But y'have to admit y'fuckin' y'self over along with th'rest of us," he snickered. He advanced on her slowly, hoping to back her into the trees where he'd have a bit more to work with--trees for cover and such.

[Wild Thing]

Rina didn't mind being backed into a corner. She did her best at close quarters, and that way he couldn't do his little hoppy thing and get behind her too fast. She backed up as he expected, but kept herself tense in case she'd have to turn around quickly.

"But I'll leave the world a better place than I found it."