A/N: I wrote this one when I was in a down mood so it's pretty dark and not much else. I used an OC since the part didn't really seem to fit any existing characters, don't waste your time flaming me about the lame OC, I'm aware. I desided to break it into chapters, but the story is already 80 percent written so I should have the whole thing up within a few days.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or ideas involved in X-Men Evolution. I did create the character of Julia, but I'm not planning to use her in the future, so feel free to use her in your own stories as you see fit (poor girl even her own author is throwing her out to market).
Desecration
Jean pulled the X-Van up in front of a seedy looking bar, wondering for the hundredth time, what she was doing searching the ugly side of New York City for a girl who could be anywhere. It was two o'clock in the morning; she was tired and ready to give up. "I know the X-Men exist to help out other mutants, but I can't believe the professor sent us on a wild goose chase, I mean new mutants are popping up on Cerebro everyday and we're not even currently recruiting. This girl must be in a whole lot of trouble, I hope we find her soon." she thought to her self. She looked back at the door to the bar thinking "How long does it take..." but she didn't finish her thought since at that moment Wolverine and Cyclops exited and headed for the van.
"Nothing?" she guessed from the looks on their faces.
"Zip." Wolverine confirmed, "She definitely wasn't in there and no one has seen anything suspicious, not that they would tell us if they had."
"Alright, we'll just continue our sweeping vector." said Cyclops taking command, "Jean you stay in the van and cover the next five by five block area scanning with your mind. Wolverine you and I will go on foot looking for hiding places, remember she may be unconscious."
"Right." Logan growled, clearly not enjoying taking orders from a kid.
"Ok, the sooner we find her the sooner we can go home" said Jean as she headed off in the van. Cyclops started down the street across from the bar. Wolverine, using his extra sensitive sense of smell, sniffed the air and decided to investigate the alley that went next to and behind the bar, even though that wasn't in their current search area. Something didn't smell right. Cyclops gave him a look, but didn't dare say anything, then continued on his original path.
Wolverine walked around the back of the bar trying to follow the scent, but the smell of smoke, beer, and puke from the bar threw him off track. He continued down the alley which took a sharp turn north, as he rounded the corner he saw a figure in the shadows at the side of the alley, only a few feet in front of him. Startled, he took a fighting pose and sniffed again. This time the smell of blood was unmistakable. Wolverine relaxed, whoever this person was they were too injured to cause him any trouble; even so he took a few steps back so that the figure, which was slowly approaching, would have to come into the light before it got close to him.
This done, he had time to study this mysterious person. The first thing Wolverine had noticed was the limp, the figure was putting almost no weight at all on its right leg, so to move forward it (he had not determined if it was male or female) was hopping unsteadily on the other leg with the right hand leaning on the wall for support. The whole figure was leaning sideways and hunched forward in a wobbly fashion, its head was down in an unnatural position as if it were too heavy to hold up, also indicating that this person's sole focus at the time was simply to hop forward, it hadn't even looked up or noticed Wolverine the whole time he'd been standing there. The figure's left arm hung limp.
Wolverine was about to step forward to grab whoever this was, since it looked like it might not take another step and he was tired of waiting, when the figure suddenly looked up at him and lurched forward into the light. He gasped, despite himself. It was a girl, a fairly young girl. She was of average build with long light brown hair pulled back into a pony tail. She was wearing khaki pants and a black polo shirt with some kind of logo embroidered in the upper left corner. This must be some kind of work uniform he thought. And it was, accordingly she had a badge pinned directly under the logo that read cheerily: Hello, My name is: Julia! followed by a smiley face. But more noticeable than any of this was that she was covered in blood; there was blood matted in her hair and streaked down her face. It appeared that the majority of the blood was caked on her lifeless left arm and had dripped from where it hung at her side all down the length of her khaki pants.
"Julia" he read out loud. Then he thought to himself: so this is the girl we've been looking for.