Wolverine had made it to the main room of the castle. The drones on the wall had been destroyed. There wasn't anything else watching and the place didn't smell of explosives or anything. He decided he should look around, see if he could find anything.
There were tons of scientific equipment and computer consuls around the place, but they'd all been ripped out or demolished. Beaker shards and smashed test tubes littered the floor. He was about to call in and tell the Professor that there was nothing there when he heard something. Breathing. And it was coming from the back of the room.
Wolverine leapt behind one of the smashed consuls and concentrated on the sound. It wasn't fast, like before an attack or from fear. It was deep and even, very relaxed. He crept behind a wall of empty shelves, heading in the direction of the sound. As he got closer, he saw a table with what looked like a body covered in sheets on top. That was where the breathing was coming from, he was sure of it.
Despite his close proximity to the person, the breathing hadn't changed. It wasn't quickened by fear or even awareness of another person in the vicinity. Then it hit him. The person was asleep. Well, he might as well see who he was dealing with. He lowered into a crouch, snuck up on the table, and whipped the sheet off.
Underneath was the strangest girl he'd ever seen, and living where he did, that was saying something. She was covered entirely in white plate armor, except where the sections met. Blue fur peeped out between the sections. She was hooked up to an IV, probably a sedative to keep her under. But he didn't have time to think about that. There was beeping coming from somewhere. And where there was beeping, there was usually danger.
He ripped the IV out of the girl's arm, threw her over his shoulder and leapt for the exit. The explosion raced his down the hall and out the main doorway. He barely made it out in time. He lifted the girl off of his shoulder and cradled her for a moment. She didn't seem to be stirring. He wondered if she might be dead. But he'd worry about that later. Right now he had to get on the Blackbird and report to Charles. He wondered how his friend would respond to news of the girl.
He converted one of the seats in the back so that he could lay her down and still strap her in to keep her from rolling off and hurting herself. Then he went up to the front and closed the panel behind him. He dialed up Charles on the speaker.
As usual, he was full of questions. "Well, what did you find?"
"Something that looked like a lab, but it had been completely torn apart. That damage was pretty recent, though. They left so fast they left one of their lab rats behind."
That sure got his attention. "What do you mean?"
"A girl. She's still unconscious, but she looks like one of us. She's not normal, that's for sure."
"Well, bring her in and we'll see if she remembers anything. Oh, and Logan?"
"Yeah?"
"Try not to scare her too much."