Laughter was filling the air of Xavier's, the Institute of the Gifted. The source of that laughter was coming from Kitty Pryde, AKA Shadowcat. The laughter was followed by the annoyed grunts and growling coming from Kurt, AKA Nightcrawler. I had set them up with a simple outdoor exercise, the rules were simple, once you have the ball, make sure the other person doesn't get it. Simple, harmless, and I didn't like it. I would have rather put them in the danger room, level six for a few hours, but no, Charles insisted on me taking advantage of the nice weather outside and told me to let them have some fun. So instead of hearing the normal shrieks and yells of terror, I have to hear girl laughter and elf grunts.
Despite the annoying sounds, I was actually enjoying the show. Kitty was doing a good job evading the elf, despite his teleporting abilities, showing some good potential. "That's it half pint, keep the ball away from the elf." I tell her as she runs towards the woods.
As she runs through some trees using her phasing powers I tell her "You gotta concentrate." Course right then she doesn't look where she is going and smacks right into a tree branch, causing her to lose the ball, allowing the elf to recover Kitty's fumble, "Ha! Its mine now kitty!" he taunts as he teleports away.
"Hey, give me that!!!" she yells back as she chases him.
"Cripes, whatever happened to strategy?" suddenly I see that the elf is about to port on a weak limb. "Watch where you're porting!" I growl.
Too late, the limb snaps beneath the elf's weight and he falls. Suddenly kitty pulls off a move that manages to surprise even me. She jumps off a log and snatches the ball from the elf. "Atta' girl half pint" I'm thinking, until she yanks the elf's tail, laughs at him than runs off.
I let out a breath of frustration and mumble to Charles; "What kinda move is that?"
"Doesn't she know the elf coulda used his tail like a whip and threw her against a tree or something?"
"Innovation." He said in a matter of fact tone of voice. "I got patience. It's what they're here to learn."
Suddenly he lets out a grunt in pain; I realize immediately that he is talking to someone telepathically. After a moment he turns to me and says; "Jeans' been kidnapped!"
Right there instincts take over, I see the two have finished their exercise and I growl at them, "You, Elf, get Cyclops!!! I gotta ride."
I run towards the mansion, up the stairs and kick open the door to my room. I throw the closet door back and pull out one of my uniforms and pull it on as I run towards the garage. I pull the cowl over my head and grab my helmet as I chose between my two bikes. I decide to go with the blue street bike, figuring I need speed. I jump on it and kick start it, taking off, leaving a trail of burned rubber on the driveway. I am going fast on the road, not paying attention to anything but the one thought on my mind. "I am going to kill anyone who dare touches her!!!"
I glance at my watch, "3:43, she hasn't been out of school too long. I'll make a stop there."
A few minutes later a come to a screeching halt on front of the school, I snap my helmet's visor up and sniff the air. Catching Jean's scent easily, and…… another scent, one I smelt before, but cant remember. I slam the visor down and take off again, leaving another trail of burnt rubber.
I travel some more, the scent is getting weaker. "Shit!!!" I yell in my head. I stop my bike abruptly, causing a few cars behind me to have to slam on their brakes, resulting in horns honking and cursing. I flip the visor up and sniff more. Still nothing. I grip the handlebars on my bike tightly in frustration, I am about to tear them off when I notice a small light blipping on my communicator. I look closer at it and think for a second. "The only thing that could set off that light is………one of our distress communicators? Jean!!!" I kick start the bike again and follow the coordinates on my watch.
About ten minutes later I arrive to where the source of the distress call was coming from. I stop the bike and pull of my helmet sniffing the air. "She's here!!!" I use turn on the communicator on my watch and open a link to Charles. "I found her." I growl into the mic. "She's at the old iron works at the south end, going in."
"Logan." Calls Charles voice from the other end. "Wait for backup!!!"
I growl and turn off the communicator before he can get another word in. "I don't need backup, cue ball."
I walk towards the entrance of the mill, and suddenly I pick up another scent. "Cheap makeup." I growl and pop my claws as I turn around, sure enough, the girl member of the brotherhood, Rouge, is standing there, looking …terrified? "She must not be in on this, but why is she here?"
"What are you doing here?" I growl looking into here eyes.
Very slowly she extends her hand and reveals the communicator that led me here. Then I remembered that Jean gave her one when we first tried to help her, in case she wanted to talk. "Where is she?" I ask.
She slowly, uncertainly points to a warehouse.
A small smile forms on my lips but quickly disappears, remembering why I am here. "Stay here." I growl as I turn away and run towards the door.
I reach the door, and without pausing, slash open the door and jump through, snarling like a beast. I look around and see the guy from the rodeo Jean and I attended a few nights ago. "Christ, he's huge!!!"
Instincts taking over, I jump at the guy, and punch him on the head, with any luck, that will be all it takes, don't want to have to really hurt him, yet. To my surprise, my adamantium-laced fist has no affect on him and he throws me across the room. I kick the ground, bringing myself up, and growl loudly at him, charging at him again. But he surprises me with how fast he can move for someone so big, and dodges my attack. As I tumble and bring myself back up I see him picking up a generator, getting ready to throw it at me. I pop my claws as he drops it at me and jump. In the air I kick off the generator in mid air, allowing me to jump higher, and I perch on one of the beams for a second. The fatso sees that I wasn't squashed by the generator and looks around, than up. He sees me for only a split second as I jump down on him, claws extended. I knew I had to go for the kill. Again he surprises me and grabs my arms in mid air, preventing me from running my claws through him. I try to force myself out of his grip, but I can't. Right than he jumps in the air and prepares to land on his stomach, squashing me. "SHIT!!!" I yell mentally right before he ground hits my back. It all came at once. The rock hard surface below me, and the 2,000 pounds above me, squishing all the life out of me, sure my skeleton wouldn't break, but I couldn't fucking breathe!!! "Can't…….breath…." The words barely escape my mouth.
"She's my friend!!! You can't take her!!!" yells the sumo on top of me. I am trying to pop my claws into the guys gut as a last ditch effort. Suddenly I hear the blast of the one thing that could turn the tide to all this, Scott's optic blasts.
"We're just giving her a way out, through you if necessary!!!" the kid yells as he fires another blast.
I hear the blast hit the thug, but than I feel him picking me up, it came clear to what he was going to do. "Kid……. Look… out." I harshly whisper, praying to god he could hear me. No suck luck, the punk throws me at him and I feel our bodies hit, hurting him more than me. Than we hit another thing, my bike.
I start to black out, when the smell of cheap makeup come to my nostrils. I manage to open my eyes with a lot of effort and I see Rouge. She looks at us on the ground, than looks toward the warehouse. Hesitantly, she takes off her glove and touched the unconscious Cyclops on the forehead. Suddenly her eyes glow red and she whispers to me; "Ah'll take care of this." After hearing that, I black out.
I wake back up and I see Jean, Elf, and Rouge standing around Cyclops, trying to wake him up, Kitty had my head rested in her lap, she was slapping my cheek trying to bring sense to me. I catch her arm in mid slap and mumble that I was ok. I stand up, feeling sore and look down at Rouge. A lot of things I wanted to say and ask her, but I knew it wasn't the time. Soon Scott wakes up, and Rouge hands him his visor. "There you go, ah only took a short term dose of your powah. You should be back ta normal soon." She says softly.
Scott sits up and groans, than says; "You are like an angel, Kate."
"Aint that the truth, bub." I say to myself.
"Mah name's not Kate, and ah am not angel." She mummers, head looking down.
"But you helped us, why?" asked Jean.
"Ah don't know, ah just don't know!!!" she exclaims as she starts to run off.
"Hey, wait!" Jean yells as she starts to go after her.
I grab her arm gently and tell her; "Easy Red, let her go."
"But she…" she starts.
"She aint ready. Trust me on this."
Jean turns around and watches Rouge run off.
"Ok, so maybe she's part of the dark, icky side, but I figure we like totally owe her now." Comments Kitty.
"Ya, ya we do. Big time" Answers Scott.
I just looked off into the direction in which she ran and silently agreed.