This is my first proper story fanfic.
I hope you enjoy it. Sorry it is a bit long, but I couldn't resist surviving through the series. This consists of four people (though it focuses on one in particular) as they survive the war. This stays fairly true to the plot of Wolverine and the X-men and even goes beyond that.

Disclaimer: I do not own Wolverine and the X-men - though sometimes I think it's better if someone else did!

Guardians

Her footsteps pounded against the metal; the echo ringing in her ears. Heavier footsteps reverberated along the walkway. If she listened closely she could just make out his partner fall into stride along side him. If those two caught her together… she would not like to think about the outcome; "Don't think about that!" she thought, "just run!"

Ahead of her: another corridor, more doors, more places to get caught. She skidded to a halt. Where now? She'd tried most doors. All except one; the door second on the right. This led down to the floor below, she was sure of it. She tried the handle. She'd never been down there because it was always…

'Locked!' she exclaimed stepping back and staring. Always. She'd not been the other side; she didn't have the key. How could they trust her with that? How could they trust someone like her, desperate to get away? She was about to give in. She was about to try somewhere else, resign herself for the fact that she would be caught again. When something miraculous happened; the door was opened!

*

She'd not wanted to go there. But she wasn't left much choice. She had lived in a small mountainous village in Canada, with her foster mother and father and their two twin daughters. She didn't know where her parents were. She just remembered waking up and there were two blonde eight year olds staring down at her. She only knew one thing. She was a mutant.

She hadn't told them that. She didn't know how they would respond. She just kept quiet. She had intended to stay quiet, stay with them, but then there came the accident.

Her "foster" parents had suggested they went walking. She grumpily agreed. They were walking when the rockslide struck. At first it was a few small pebbles, and then the whole of the mountainside above them collapsed upon itself and rushed towards them. The girls screamed. The parents yelled. An earthen barrier rose from the ground and shielded them from the rockslide. When the avalanche had ended, the barrier disappeared into the cliff it had come from. Throughout all this, she had not said a word.

Back home, once the girls were in bed, the parents questioned her about the shield that had saved them. She admitted to everything. They were silent for a while before telling her to pack her stuff. Taking into account the fact she had saved them they would give her two hours before calling the police. She was among a family who disliked mutants, now they simply feared her. She didn't object; she just packed and left.

That was how she found herself, two hours later, in the back of a van travelling south. The lads who had picked up this strange hitchhiker thought themselves very lucky. They were already in trouble with their boss for losing a serving boy. Then they found this girl, on the side of the road and nowhere to go. They offered to take her to the city, to place they knew, where she could get a bed and food in return for a simple chore. They did not tell her how long she would have to stay there.

So they took her to the den of thieves. There she was forced into working for them; cooking, cleaning, snooping round banks, checking for the police or MRD, doing the dirty work the thieves didn't want to do. She'd never killed, not yet. But she had seen people die: innocent people who were just wrong place, wrong time; bank managers, policemen, a couple of prison guards tortured first for information on the boss' second who had got himself caught. She hated it there. She hated them.

It has nearly been one year.

She has made eighteen different attempts to escape. Only now had she got this far.

*

As soon as the door opened, she shot through it like a cork. That surprised the person on the other side. She smiled slightly at them then set off down the stairs. Half way down, she realised the person who had so kindly opened the door for her was not a thief. He had been a mutant. If he went the other side of the door he would run into the two toughest fighters out of her division. He will almost certainly lose. Her feeling of justice won over that of fear. She turned and ran back.

Too late. He had already gone through. She sighed, opened the door slightly and peered through. She heard a grunt of pain as the stranger was thrown into the wall next to her. Her eyes flicked from him to "Strongman" – the leader's favourite thief (whose name suited him better than his reputation) – whose shadow was thrown suddenly across the door. She squealed and stepped back. The door was pushed off its hinges and came to rest at her feet. Slowly, she backed into the banister. Strongman chuckled menacingly. Behind him, Screecher, Strongman's partner – a mousey lad with spiky brown hair and small, dark eyes; he had a nasty reputation of being one of the best torturers who could get information without touching the victim – chuckled.

'Got you now, Runaway. Perhaps this time they'll let me introduce you to some of my appliances. This creature certainly would knock us back into Boss' good books, hey Strong?'

Strongman laughed again and put one foot on the broken door. Big mistake.

She hadn't used her ability whilst she had been caught, except to get out of visits to Screecher's lair. She wasn't planning of ever having to go there at all. So close to escaping, she wasn't going to let these two stop her. She raised her right hand.

The door tilted suddenly away from her. Strongman, who wasn't expecting it, yelped and slipped backwards. He landed on top of Screecher. Screecher began to yell and beat his thin fists against Strongman's bulk. She took her chance.

She dived through the door and tugged at the boy, who was still wincing after his sudden collision with the wall. Ignoring his complaints, she pulled him upright and set off down the stairs, dragging him after her. Then, he vanished.

She looked back. Her hand was clasped on empty air. He'd just gone. She turned to face the way she was going. She ran pelt into him. She cried out in surprise and struggled back just as the door flew towards her. She turned to see it. Then it vanished.

She looked around. The door hadn't gone, she had. She had moved. The boy was looking at her; she could feel his gaze. She turned to face him. She was shocked at what she saw.

The boy was blue. He had a mop of dark hair falling over his blue skinned face, his yellow eyes gleaming in the gloom of the stairwell. He was dressed in a tight suit of some kind. His face was concerned.

'Are you alright?' his voice had a slight German accent – she thought it was German anyway. She glanced at him.

'Have we moved?'

The boy laughed softly. She blushed. To him it probably seemed a stupid question. But she'd never teleported before.

'Ya, we've moved. But don't get idea's that I can teleport you to freedom. I can only teleport if I can see the destination.' She blushed again.

'How do you… what do you mean…'

'You're running away. That's what they said,' he nodded up at the floor above. She listened. She could hear Screecher yelling at Strongman for throwing the door and letting them get away. She smiled slightly. He caught the smile, 'Why?'

'If you lived here, you'd understand.' She looked at him then looked away. Why was she finding it so difficult to keep eye contact?

The boy shrugged his shoulders. 'Probably.' He was still gazing at her. From above they heard Strongman roar.

'Come on,' she pushed past him and gripped his arm, trying to tug him towards the second flight of stairs, 'let's go…'

'I can't,' he slowly detached his arm from her vice like grip and headed towards the stairs heading up, 'I have a job to do. I have to… get something.'

'What?' she wasn't hearing this, she cannot be hearing this. 'You broke into here only to steal something! Must be very important!'

'It is,' he turned and looked back at her, 'I have only half an hour left until they call the police… they don't want the thieves getting away.'

'Who? Who'll call the cops?'

'The people I'm with,' he was trying not to answer her.

'Who are you with?'

'The X-men…' his reply was barely more than a whisper. Now she was beginning to understand. Why else would a mutant appear here?

She heard Strongman begin to descend the stairs, his heavy boots clunking on each step. The mutant boy looked up.

'At least he has two flights of stairs to go…'

'What are you here for?'

He glanced at her then away. He shrugged. 'Would you know it if I described it?'

There was a sudden clunk as Strongman hit the floor above them. The boy gazed upwards again nervously. Then…

'Quickly… over here.' He disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear behind her. He held open a door to what looked like a storage area. She hurried through and he shut the door behind them. She heard the lock click. The mutant sighed and turned to her.

'Listen carefully. I might need your help. I am known as Nightcrawler. You can call me Kurt. This is my first mission alone for the X-men and I cannot fail it. I am looking for the information from a simple data bank. It has very little of value on there except two things. One is information about some government minister's mutant problems. Information is on there, about many mutants. That information can be sold on or ransomed: both situations will be rewarded with a large some of money. The second bit of data is plans for a simple device to track mutants. This could be devastating if fallen into the wrong hands because where the X-men are based, many mutants reside for their own, or their families, safety. I need to get this information! You can help me, ya?'

She blinked. She didn't know what to say. Then she took a deep breath and replied, 'I may…'

'You've got to be kidding me!' Kurt snapped angrily, 'I…'

'I understand you need the information. But I was never allowed very far on my own. I tried to escape about nine times in the first four months of me being here. They've not trusted me very much since. I'm sorry.' She could see the disappointment in his eyes. She plucked up her courage and tried again. 'I'm called Lizzie. Though here, I'm known as Runaway. This is my… nineteenth attempt. Though I do know… something…' she watched the light rekindle in Kurt's eyes. She continued, 'I heard a mutant call Visfirmus came to the boss with a memory stick. Said he picked it up off some thieves he met. He demonstrated his "super" strength by wiping out an entire group of thieves. As a reward, the boss let him stay.' Kurt took a sharp intake of breath.

'I heard a rumour of this Visfirmus but I thought he had left…'

Lizzie laughed. 'Oh no… he's here… and they say that the boss wears the memory stick round his neck so he cannot loose it. He hasn't sold it on yet; he'd waiting for the price to rise to an amount he would be interested in. Visfirmus has really settled in here… and brought family with him,' she added wistfully. Kurt tilted his head to one side. She sighed, 'Strongman, the guy back there… the one who through you against the wall. He's Visfirmus' cousin,' she snorted then paused. 'Is it just me, or is too quiet for someone like him…'

She didn't finish the sentence.

A giant hand punched the door open. Lizzie gasped, Kurt leapt towards her. He threw an arm around her waist and they both vanished. They reappeared at the far end of the storage area. Ducking down behind some large crates, they caught their breath.

'Search thoroughly but carefully. If there really is a mutant it might be dangerous. Any idea what it may want, Strongman?' a voice cut through the silence, a strong voice, a voice that knew any command would be done no complaint. Lizzie took a sharp intake of breath.

'That's Leader,' she whispered to Kurt peering round one of the crates, 'he's one of the second in command. Had to bust him out of prison nearly a month back. Strongman's his favourite…' she finished bitterly, 'no wonder he came running if it was Strongman who sent the message.' She glanced sideways at Kurt and was surprised to find him peering over the top of the crate, barely holding on. What she also hadn't noticed about him was that he had a tail. Kurt dropped and landed beside her. He rubbed face wearily. She hadn't noticed he had three fingers til now. She stared at them then caught his gaze and flushed. He smiled, though she didn't see that.

'They've spread out and are really combing the area quickly; they'll soon find us,' he drew her closer and whispered in her ear, 'when we get out, do we go up or down the stairs?'

'Up to the boss, down to the exit.' Lizzie pulled away from him and turned to face him, 'if you remember, I'm running away.'

'Ah, yes…' he glanced round the crate, 'drat, their coming closer; listen if you help me get this memory stick, I promise I'll get you out of here. I assume you have all you want.' He gestured at a brown knapsack slung around Lizzie's shoulders. She nodded. 'Good. So we're agreed?' Another nod. 'Well then, up the stairs we go.' He held out his arm, she took it and they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Kurt slightly misjudged the distance they had to go. They reappeared right behind Strongman. Lizzie whipped round the moment they arrived. She saw a fist come swinging towards her, heard Kurt cry out then they were gone again.

They appeared the landing above. Lizzie ran the banister and looked down. She heard Strongman roar, Leader shouting at the thieves still looking then heard Kurt cry out 'Lizzie above you!'

Lizzie staggered back as Screecher landed where she had been. He cackled derisively and started to search his pockets. 'Forgotten about me? Everyone else had. Well now, Screecher's going to catch Runaway and Mutant!' He guffawed again, pulled out a black plastic object and pressed a small, round, black button. A horrendous noise split the air. It reverberated around the enclosed stairwell, which magnified and replayed the ear-splitting drone. Lizzie clamped her hands over her ears. It was so painful. This must be one way Screecher tortured his victims. Behind her Kurt moaned in agony.

'Stop it!' Lizzie pleaded, as she watched Kurt slump to his knees, his hands clasped over his pointed ears. Screecher laughed. He couldn't hear her. He must have earplugs in. Lizzie straightened up. Screecher stared at her, his face split into an evil grim. The grim flickered. Why wasn't she in pain?

Lizzie focused, focused on stopping the air from letting the noise carry. She felt the air listen, the air started to stop buzzing. Behind her, Kurt looked up.

Then she moved. She brought her hands round and sent the air flying towards Screecher. Screecher saw her move, failed to see the air ripple; he was thrown back and hit the wall opposite with a thud. He dropped on top of Strongman who was ascending the stairs. There was a small crunch as Strongman stepped on the Noisemaker. The sound started to stop; only echoes to remind them of the deafening racket there just had been.

She heard Kurt rise. He hurried over to her as she gazed, mesmerized, at where Screecher had hit the wall. 'Come on,' he said, his voice sounding like a whisper now the clamour had ended. He took her hand and started to drag her towards the next flight up. Her trance broke, Lizzie started to run; Kurt just ahead of her.

They came to the broken down door. Kurt made to go through it, but Lizzie simply pointed up. They needed to go up further still if they were to find the Boss. Up another floor, up again to the second from the top floor, through the door, along a corridor and then they walked what appeared to be a large gym area. Thieves looked at them. They looked back, looked at one another, then turned and ran… straight into Strongman and Leader.

'Hello,' Leader said. His voice sounded like sandpaper, but with authority, 'Got you at last. Bind them!' he snapped at a couple of men near him. He turned on his heel to indicate that he was going then paused. 'Oh, and blindfold the mutant.'