The Predator and the Prey (Marvel Comics)

Rogue of the X-Tribe ran through the jungle.

She ran with the easy grace of one used to the giant trees, vines and small streams of the jungle. She vaulted a fallen log without pause and leapt from one flat-topped rock to another as she followed a shallow stream for a dozen paces before grabbing a trailing vine to swing up to the bank. She landed on her knees but like a sprinter shot off again.

To a hunter such as she the jungle was eerily quiet.

Rogue's smooth strong limbs were tanned with the warmth of the Savage Land's sun. A few scraps of ragged green and yellow cloth formed a crude two-piece bikini. On the frayed and holed yellow fabric that held her breasts was set an X in silver and black, the marking of her people. Her thick mane of auburn hair held a wide streak of white down its center. Almost waist-long it marked her as a successful warrior and raider even more clearly than the sharp flint-tipped spear she carried.

Ahead a flock of small pterodactyls rose into the sky spooked. Rogue was not close enough to be a threat.

Rogue ducked beneath two rotten trees that had fallen against one another. They marked the edge of a small glade bright with the violet and blue of wild flowers. Even now the colors amused her with their hints of meaning as she ran across them. As she reached the trees at the other end she spared a glance back the way she had come.

The two fallen trees exploded, splinters spraying the length of the clearing, as an enormous scaled head smashed through them like they were twigs. The enormous lizard bellowed as it plowed through the cloud of wooden debris it had created. Its mouth was big enough to swallow the running woman whole. The sight of those teeth gave Rogue fresh energy as she plunged into the jungle once more. She could feel the earth shake with the tyrant lizard's weight as she ran.

The trex was a long way into the forest. A young male it must have been driven from its pride in the lowland plains when it became a threat to the dominant bull trex. Now it hunted in the jungle and Rogue was its prey.

Rogue's spear tangled briefly in hanging vines, losing her a few precious paces. She felt as if she had been running for hours. Her heart hammered in her chest and her breathing was becoming labored. This chase would end soon.

Even as the thought entered her mind she ran into bright sunshine again. This clearing was bigger than the last, but with fewer flowers. Instead sparse grass grew amid slabs of bare grey rock. Ahead, in the direction she ran, was a ravine much too broad to jump and from deep beneath its lip she could hear the roar of white water. A little to her right a tree stood tall and alone against the cliff edge. She headed for it. There was nowhere else to run.

Behind her, even closer than she had feared, came a thunderous bellow of triumph that almost shook her to the ground as she ran. The trex knew there was nowhere left to run.

* * *

~Bigger than expected.~

Psylocke leapt from the high tree branch and the concealment of the leaves. She landed on the back of the charging trex. The trex was huge, at least seven times longer than a woman. Without pause Psylocke ran up its swaying back. Focused on its prey and unafraid of a single small mammal the trex paid her no heed. Just behind the bony ridges that protected its eyes she paused, standing for a moment atop a head racing parallel to the ground.

The cliff was rapidly approaching. The trex was almost upon Rogue.

Psylocke centered herself and jumped upwards. As she came down she spread her legs horizontally to the sides like a gymnast, her hands thrust down to lead her descent. She landed straddling the great beast's scaly head. But before that the focused totality of her telepathic powers manifested as blades of psychic that lanced into the lizard's thick skull.

~One side!~

The trex stumbled as pain speared into its simple brain. Its enormous head slid through thin grass as it fought to stand again. Rogue leapt aside as a mouth lined with teeth as long as her forearm almost struck her. She was struck instead by pebbles and roots thrown up as the trex's jaw plowed through the thin soil. Psylocke's telepathic order had saved her.

As Rogue stumbled to her feet, the trex managed the same less elegantly.

Propelled by the unstoppable momentum of its charge the mighty trex was still heading toward the cliff edge, slowing as fast as it could, it reared back and bellowed. Shaking its head in confused pain, it sent Psylocke swinging wildly back and forth. Her legs' grip on its head were already uncertain, one foot and then the other came loose leaving her held in place only by the telekinetic connections to her psy-blades.

~Bigger than expected,~ Psylocke repeated more urgently. ~Its skull is too thick, my blades not deep enough.~

She could feel the shock of the trex's pain diminishing as it came to a halt a half-dozen human paces short of the edge of the cliff. Too soon! It was beginning to think enough to realize that prey was dangling close to its maw, if only it could shake that prey loose. Suddenly, unpredictable despite Psylocke's mental powers, it slammed the side of its own head into the ground.

Now Psylocke cried out in pain of her own. The blow would have broken her foot if her reflexes had been even a moment slower. As it was the shock had broken her concentration enough that her left hand dangled as free as her feet. She was suspended beyond the cliff edge for a moment before the trex stood erect again. Only the psy-blade extending from her right hand anchored her to the dubious safety of the trex's head.

Psylocke could sense Rogue running towards her, but the trex sensed it too. It turned with speed almost unnatural for a beast so huge and lowered its mouth to snap at the woman racing to Psylocke's aid.

Psylocke glimpsed Rogue tugging a green glove free as the purple-haired woman's left hand punched into the trex's eye. Its thick eyelid shielded it from the worst of the blow but it was enough distraction to save Rogue, and perhaps to doom the beast. Rogue's brief touch was enough to take a part of the beast's spirit and its strength into her.

Psylocke felt Rogue's fist connect with the trex's sternum with all the of a boulder crashing down a steep slope. It spun the trex around a little and sent it sprawling backward. Back towards the cliff and the white water below.

The trex teetered for one, then two and finally a third enormous pace along the edge of the cliff. Then with a roar of terror it toppled and fell into the gorge below. Psylocke ran down the length of the trex's back even as it fell. The end of its tail whipped through the thin grass at the cliff's edge and then parted company with the ground too. As the distance grew to two full paces of empty air Psylocke made the leap.

She landed with one foot and the other knee on the rocky edge of the cliff. The beautiful purple-haired woman turned her head to look over her shoulder.

Psylocke watched as the trex's terrified roar was silenced as it hit bottom. It was replaced by a sickening sound as tons of flesh and bone struck the sharp stalagmites through which flooded a torrent of foaming water. Water which turned red as the trex's life drained away, the sound of the rapids all Psylocke could hear over her own rapid breathing.

* * *

Advancing to the cliff, Rogue threw back her head and roared. Her heart still raced with the adrenaline of first the chase and then the kill.

TRIUMPH!

As the echoes from the ravine roared back Rogue beat her chest, setting her breasts bouncing and jiggling.

Psylocke approached with an admiring smile and her customary stealth. It was enough to take Rogue by surprise as the Asian-bodied woman placed a hand lightly on her shoulder. Rogue turned sharply and took an incautious step back. Pebbles from the cliff edge bounced down from her heel and fell into the noisy torrent below.

FIGHT? FLIGHT?

Psylocke's telepathy had warned her what to expect, but still a part of her was shocked by the expression on Rogue's face. Rogue's eyes were empty of intelligence and her nostrils flared as she breathed. Those green eyes instead held a dull predatory cunning as they appraised her.

The spirit and power of the slain trex were still riding Rogue.

FIGHT!

There was a moment of confusion as Rogue recognized prey and bared her teeth. No, this was not prey it was the same kind as her. And it was a female. Rogue sniffed the air and scanned the clearing. There was no sign of a bull. This female was alone. Somehow it had become separated from its pack. Rogue was young and strong, the kill below proved her strength. The female was young and strong too.

FUCK!

Rogue growled. She would mount this female and mate with it. But as Rogue went to move forward suddenly she whimpered. Strange thoughts, complex thoughts filled her simple mind with confusion.

"Ah can't hold'im long," Rogue out. "Better run, sugah."

"Run? Why would I run? I'm still bloody hunting."

Psylocke lifted a hand and a pink psyblade flared briefly into life between them. That struggling fading part of Rogue's mind that was still human understood Psylocke could send her to unconsciousness whenever she chose.

~Don't you want to catch your prey, luv?~

Psylocke pulled the tattered purple fabric of her bikini down to reveal full breasts almost too big for her athletic Asian body. Her meaning was clear as she offered herself to Rogue. But that she had asked her question by telepathy had another subtler meaning - she would know what Rogue really chose.

Fuck? FUCK!

Later Rogue would compare the experience to swimming in a normally placid river made furious by a Fire Mountain's melt. To swim against the river was exhausting and ultimately futile. To try and merely float meant entirely surrendering control. But to swim with the flood meant exhilarating excitement and some choice of destination so long as it was downstream.

Psylocke's smile did not waver as her bestial, beautiful, lover lunged for her throat. The ferocity of Rogue's kiss would leave a mark. Psylocke did not care, she welcomed it in fact. Besides she had more urgent matters. Psylocke had to strip herself of her few precious scraps of purple cloth before Rogue tore them from her body.

* * *

The trex spirit left Rogue after their first orgasm.

Psylocke's palms had been pressed against the bark of the tree, as she thrust a leg out behind her. Rogue's body had rubbed itself against the female's leg, cunt and clit grinding against hard muscled thighs. Arms that felt strangely long had held like claws to the soft inviting lumps on the female's front, while Rogue's mouth nipped and sucked at the scaleless flesh of the female's neck and shoulders. Eventually friction and desire had worked their magic and with a triumphant roar Rogue came.

"Sorry sugah, not mah most elegant love-muhuh—"

Pyslocke had spun round and her lips to Rogue's in a kiss every bit as savage as any animals. The telepathic sending that accompanied it wasn't words or images but something altogether more primal. Rogue responded at once, her tongue twisting along Psylocke's, every bit as ferocious and feral.

Psylocke's back was to the tree and Rogue pushed her hard against the rough bark. Psylocke responded by opening her legs wide and Rogue's fingers were inside her in an instant. Psylocke was ready; they'd had all the foreplay they needed or wanted. There was no gentleness only mutual feral need as drilling twisting fingers met eager bucking hips. Finally Psylocke broke the brutal kiss to cry out as her pussy clenched around Rogue's fingers. Rogue gave her two more smaller quick orgasms before Psylocke's legs gave out and she slid down the tree.

After that the savage lusts that had driven them departed as mysteriously as the trex's spirit. Their love-making became slow and gentle, accompanied by words instead of roars and laughter instead of growls.

* * *

"Spirit of the Tyrant Beast, we killed you in the hunt and now you roam the Hunting Grounds in the Heavens. Forgive us and feed us with your flesh. Spirit of the Tyrant Beast, we gave you pleasure as you died. Do not curse those who hunted you or our tribe. "

Psylocke spoke the short prayer to the body impaled on the rock's below. Her own body was covered in scratches and bites and hickeys and a few small bruises. The body below had caused none of them. Rogue had made to apologize but Psylocke had pushed a finger to Rogue's lips. It still smelt of her juices.

"I bear the scars of the hunt with pride. I caught my prey."

The two naked women held hands, each holding a spear in the other, as they gazed down at the dead trex. They had picked their spot well. No scavenger bigger than a gull would be able to reach the meat pinned to the rocks. But the hunters of the tribe would be able to set ropes and climb down to carve it with only a little risk. The tribe would eat well for half-a-moon at least, though trex meat was not prized for its flavor but for the strength it gave. And the glory imparted to those who succeeded in obtaining it.

"Ah'd sure like ta hunt you again, sugah."