Disclamer:

I, the author, do hereby verify that all the listed characters and listed attributes are the proprety of Marvel 'TM'and Warner Brothers 'TM'. Kurt Wagner: Rouge, Profeser X, Logan/Wolverine, Beast/ Hank McCoy, Toad, Magneto,or any other attributes of Marvel'TM' and Warner Brothers 'TM'. All places named and refered to herein are not in my possetion to duplicate. I give no one permission to use any of the above regestered and copywriten forementioned.

I do however own Jason and all imcompased in his part of the story. Monty and all incompased in his part, in the story. All other caracters and ocurances, no matter how nominal, are expressly mine. Copy of them and all reguarding them below is prohibited.

All attempts to understand the twisted motive in the below are furitless. All persons attempting to discover an underlying moral will be shot.

Any person attempting to understand, discover, or otherwise fallow the plot are despicable and will die the death of a thousand screams.

Please be advised my story will contain clifthangers.

With the help of G-d, I am pleased to present the first instalment of my story.

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy it.

Escape to New York

Two teenagers sat on the curb of an old street in downtown Baltimore. One taped a stick in the gravel and dirt while the other seemed to be thinking silently. What, no one could tell; a hood covered all expressional points of their face. The drummer moved and nodded silently to an imaginary song. Perhaps he wished for a bath or a shave, as the short beard portrayed, or maybe a bite to eat. He stood, informed his cohort of his intent and reaching for a long stick, began walking down an intersecting street. Old cans of soda lined the granulated walkway along with various other ex-food containers...to think once cars had driven on this road before it was sealed off. Meanwhile his counterpart sat on the street side waiting, hoping.

Later he returned holding a basket of food and batteries, he sat the basket by his friend removing the batteries for himself. As the other began to eat, the forager inserted new power to a personal radio and a flashlight. He took more food from a pocket in his jacket and also ate. He wondered and then asked,

'Aren't you going to ask me where this batch is from?' Munching was the reply.

'Hm,' he urged. A muffled mouthful answer followed.

'I'm starving, oh, just to hungry to care this time.' A pause, swallow, another cheek full and another.

'Besides I trust you didn't kill anyone for it or you'd be out of breath, I've seen you before like that.'

The darkly clad man couldn't help but smile at the sight of his friend with two bulging

cheeks. While the diner continued through more food, the man listened to his radio. The music put him at ease from his hard life, no contact from the outside in a wile, he dozed for a minute or two or more.

When he woke he fond his buddy had been using the radio while he slept.

He wanted to merely turnover and go back to sleep, but this was important.

'Hey, turn it off lets check up on you.'

The other complied, as he stood then knelt down in front of them. Drawing back a half of the black cloak covering his comrade he reached for his flashlight. The second reveled a short shirt that was now even more significantly shortened by a large swelling of the wearer's gut. The test was a flashlight being placed on the naval that lit up the entire belly. A bright green glow went deep into the victim stopping at the small shirt that covered the chest and the cut shorts below the expansion. Seeing this the victim put her face in her hands and moaned.

'Oh no, not again, so soon'

The man was silent what could he say to cheer her up.

' Lets go, the sooner we get there the sooner we can be done with those monsters!'

He stood her slowly and helped her to cover the bulge; they walked together as he helped her on.

'Once we arrive at the hive you'll be ok, we caught it sooner than last time.'

The girl cursed her fungal foe, 'I hate them their control on all of us, these growth and incubation things, Dogs! Why did they wake up in the first place? Didn't Xavier and his team say they would kill them all anyway? Don't the x-men care?' After the break out no one was safe unless the sites were quarantined, so this place and many others got locked up until a vaccination could be found.

'Hey, don't take it out on them.' he said calmingly, 'they tried at least. What's wrong is they didn't get a fighting chance."

'Oh, I guess I overreacted.' She had, but it wasn't unexplained, there were plenty of reasons to be on a short rope with the world. 'The government just left us their to die or who knows what! Doesn't that strike you as a little uncaring? She continued ranting.

Pushing on the holster under his cloak to make sure it was secure he didn't know why else to think.

'Maybe they are selfish and don't worry about the minority people of us stuck here. But we live in a bad neighborhood, I can't blame them completely.' The sun was setting stretching shadows on hope ever again as it had done every day since the infestation. Barrels, dumpsters and corners of dilapidated buildings that were exposed to the streets, began to brighten with fires to warm their occupants. The road was still wide and not traveled; people didn't go out when they didn't have to around here. The few people that lived here lingered in alleys and side streets. At the horizon 500 yards down a dot appeared, a figure traversed the path on towards them. When it drew near he called.

"Hey bro where ya been?"

"Oh Monty," the young man confirmed "I'm good " he called back.

Now approached a black man in old looking jeans wearing a cloak similar to his. His worn running shoes and torn pants exhibited a long time of moving faster than other people. Now knowing he was in good company, Monty zoomed up to meet them.

"Jace, I almost got killed yesterday!"

'Really now, don't you do that almost every day anyway.'

'Not if I can help it. Things are bad man, worse than before when you came here.' Monty kicked a piece of broken pavement.

'But that's still nothing new. I thought you had some news for a outsider like me?'

' I hear on the street in the lower west side people got attacked after infection and died, they say the ick inside 'um did it. That was all the survivors would say before they all committed suicide.

'Bad stuff man, real bad.'

'Scary,' murmured Jason trying not to let Rouge hear.

'He rolled his eyes towards her to tell Monty to lay off so as not o upset her. The girl shivered and seemed upset already. She was certainly nervous and Monty's news frightened her even more. Having an alien fungus that could eventually become intelligent in your stomach was bad enough. But the idea it was killing people was just nerve racking. It had been a lot harder during the first infestation, she was so scared she cried for weeks, until Jason found out it could be removed. Removed by the concentration of intelligent fungus at the center of town. They had clogged the basement of a skyscraper with their green yellow growth before anyone knew what it was. Confused repair workers of the Green lake office building called exterminators who thought they killed it but on a revisit for its supposed survival they were all killed. Investigators, police and those responding to screams all were ingested. Finally a news reporter's cameraman caught the gruesome footage on tape when he himself was eaten with the anchor. It scared the whole city. The other problem was the government sealed off the city with fences and walls the whole metropolitan area was under quarantine.

'Heard of some 'or breakouts last week', Monty continued 'all got shot up by guardsmen though'

'Bodies burned no doubt' Jason was sure of that. After all no scene in terrifying the general public and not deterring another escape attempt at the same time.

'Well anyway' Monty went on ' I almost got killed hanging with my peeps'

'You mean,' Jason smiled, he loved to tease his friend about his shady lifestyle, 'they tried to kill you, or something else?'

'No, no I get the joke but this is serious,' the black teen was assuredly upset by what he had seen.' something chased me last night, it was man sized and fast', he really looked scared, when he recalled the incident his eyes glassed over.

'Are you sure it wasn't a person ' attacks at night were not as common as right after the local government broke down but still they happened.

'Naw man my friends saw it too, like a human turned animal, on all fours even.'

Rouge trembled a little, 'what did it look like? She said.

' Couldn't tell, eyes glowed, it was like a blur. A thrown torch disturbed it. Scattered all us like sheep, nobody wanted to get eaten or have our mind sucked through our ears, we ran. When we came back the next day it was gone, scratched up the guy who woke it. Wore clothes like a man though. Weird man, real weird.'

'What color was it Monty?' Rouge was asking for detail again. ; Guess she wants to identify it in case it's around. That's a smart thing to do leave it up to Rouge to have a good simple idea.; Rouge had been an x-man before but left when the mansion was sized by the government.

; I wonder what would have happened if I had gone over there too.; Jason had known Magneto but never wanted to join any group that mainly consisted of trash like Toad.

Monty continued, 'I think it was blue... either blue or green. I don't exactly remember everything from that night.' Jason was going to stay and catch up on all the news, but Rouge seemed ready to leave so he bid his friend farewell and started downtown.

The streets were now occupied, as people stood around fires and small groups walked in the giant pedestrian zone called Baltimore Maryland. Everyone slept in the streets like the homeless, because everyone was homeless. Houses had been vacated because power was out, as well as water, gas and food. Sickness had overtaken all who were in buildings months ago, now it was even dangerous to go in. A possibly hostile group passed the two, heading the other way. Or at least that's how Jason viewed it; anything was hostile until proven otherwise. He had hated to take such a negative stance, but in a changed world, attitudes changed as well.

'We should stop soon before we get into the bad parts of town,' he suggested, 'hate to be down there past midnight.' A breeze of the chilling fall night air seemed to help along the notion.

'Yea your right,' Rouge agreed, 'Nothin' to gain by gettin' mugged.'

The streets were either dirty or occupied. So the choice was having to put up with fights or snoring, snoring being the hardest to deal with. They found a suitable ally, pushed a dumpster another 100 feet away, to avoid smell and cleared some room to sleep. Would be a could winter as the radio news said, fall was also supposed to be wet and Rouge worried about where the two would go. It wasn't like they had a different place to go to, besides the wall. The wall was a dangerous place. If you got close enough to a guardsman, they were aloud to shoot.

'Could we clear out a top floor of a house or hotel... for the winter I mean.' There was a certain glimmer of hope in her voice, as if she ignored everything going in such a bad way for this city and many others. Rouge's simplicity to face the facts and not challenge them, it would be helpful in the future.

'I'm not sure what will happen in the winter.' Jason admitted, he hadn't planed so far ahead and spent more time looking for food that day.

'Well, what do ya think?' She was pressing him for an answer. 'It'll come rather you're ready or not.'

Reaching up and pulling back his mid length hair Jason sighed.

'Um, how about in a week or so, aye?'

Rouge let a slight grin escape her lips; she knew he understood her point. 'All right.'

The small fire they lit burned trash and an old newspaper. Finding things to burn was a problem this late in the year since the dead infested most houses.

'Dinner?' Jason asked

'Sure!' The very idea mad her stomach rumble and that sent them both laughing.

'Ya think we'll be cookin'?' Rouge was the resident chief because Jason burnt even eggs.

'Probably not,' was the answer, 'maybe though.'

Rouge came back with pizza boxes from an old store and some chairs.

; If I could only find lighter fluid; She thought.; It would help a lot, make fires real easy.;

A few minutes later after rummaging and sifting Jason found something.

' Remember alpha bit soup.' he called chuckling as he walked back towards her. The laughter was short-lived as a man with a long bat approached. His shirt brown and soiled his leather windbreaker worn. Face groggy and eyes mysterious but demand simple.

'Had it over chum, before I hiort ya.'

The firelights reflection on aluminum was menacing. Jason dashed down the ally with his assailant not far behind, Rouge stood and he moved her glove. The man ran in feet pounding the gravel. He swung a wind up knock your head off swing, but the wind up gave just enough time for Jason to notice and duck. Rouge ran up with her exposed hand and grabbed the man's arm. The attacker let the bat fall to the ground and dropped down on his knees. Then Rouge noticed something, he was still awake and snapping out of it.

;I Don't have his memories either;. Now he turned to her and the look he cast had primary target writen all over it. He grabbed her neck and slammed her against the wall; she struggled to get away but to no avail. Meanwhile he grabbed Jason and tossed him into the opposite wall. She could feel the man's grip tighten on her and knew that if she didn't get free, there were only seconds left until she passed out. Desperately, she pulled at the large hand griping her. Now, even stranger, the unclad hand did not affect the man in the least, as he strengthened his hold.

'You should have been a wrestler.' Rouge let out.

'I was, but not like you'll remember or nothing.'

As her vision blurred and the world began to spin, a voice challenged back.

'Correction, you're the one who won't remember!' She didn't notice, as the man jerked his head for a look at the angle of death, but instead blacked out.

Jason drew his pistol and brought the barrel level to the man's chest. He saw the man's eyes go wide as his finger brought the trigger back. Hammer swung and man fell, Rouge collapsed and let out a breath. Jason drug the body of the fallen to a building where he deposited it, he would have liked to burry it but six inches was how far down you could go without a jackhammer. He would have liked to help the man also, but a gunshot was something he could not fix. When he returned Rouge was coming around and the streets were excited, the secluded ally was a nicer place to be. Luckily no one noticed the mugging until the gunshot and since that finished the fight no one had a chance to see the gunman.

Rouge was up,' no body saw you?'

'Don't think so.' He poured the soup into a saucer and set it next to the fire.

'Remember it came from the east past us,' he looked up,

'How do you feel?'

'A little knocked up, but not bad. Do you think it's safe to spend the night here?' Before he answered, 'we could move a few streets down.'

Jason considered her idea; this wasn't the safest place to be.; It's not like the people around would come to our aid; he thought,; after all no one came before.; Although he was against it, he agreed, 'I guess we could, besides I'm a little spooked after that guy jumping us.'

'Yeah what was the deal with that?'

Rouge had not heard what the man said to him when they first met.

'Oh, he wanted our food.' he con firmed in a low tone. The pause that followed let the idea people were starving set in. It was a sensitive subject for him and he did not fell like talking about it. There were some facts he never wanted to face mass starvation was one of them. The idea was generally unpleasant and gave him the shivers,; we will get to a winter place before the starvation catches up with us. If only we could get out of the city;

Taping of a spoon on plate snapped Jason out of his thinking. Rouge was eating already he was sitting down and did not remember not standing.

'I'm ready to leave when ever you are.' She said and leaned back against the ally wall patting her stomach. She closed her heavy eyes and dozed off.

Jason stoked the fire sending sparks up in the hot air. He listened as the small blaze crackled; his coat produced his knife that gleamed in the red-orange light. He began to sharpen it producing a light scraping noise that made a rhythm in the chill night air. Lights flickered and a short scream let out, a few people speed up their walking pace to investigate or maybe run in the other direction.

; This could be a good time to move,; he thought. Another loud noise prompted him to go over to his companion.

'Hey, hey,' Jason shock her a few times, 'things look like they are developing badly here. Maybe we should move now.'

She stretched, 'ok.' They gathered all the things and putting out the fire left towards another campsite. Many people, walking, running or stumbling through the darkness, suddenly occupied the streets. Rouge was knocked over by a man clambering around. She let out a small yell, which brought Jason spinning around reaching towards her. He grabbed her arm,

'Alright?'

'Uh, yea.'

'O.k. hold on, don't let go.'

He placed her arm on his long coat, its leather was easy to grip although is hard. The night was almost pitch black. A large cloud covered the stars and moon above them. From what she could tell they're going against the seemly continuous flow of more and more terrified people. The further they went the thicker the crowd. This huge mass of people did not sway Jason in the least, he was determined to get through and was not thinking of what everyone was running from. Rouge fought back the impulse to turn around and flee too. 'A crowd could affect your choices easily,' Jason had told her before, 'that is why you have to have nerves of iron to go against them.'

Suddenly the sea of panicking denizens stopped, the road was empty as if the sand of rushing locals had poured from this side of the giant hourglass. A few stragglers went by mostly wounded and elderly. Jason stopped a man on a crutch.

'What happened here? Why are all those people running!'

The man kept hobbling away, 'don't ask me mister, I'm just running first and asking questions later.' He went off to join the rest of the group.

'Young man, I say, young man.' Jason turned to find an elderly man holding his hands to a burning barrel.

His patched clothes and white beard alluded that he had lived on the streets before the fungus came. 'People are scared of the monster.'

'What monster?' He wondered if it was the one Monty saw.

'Eh, a local scourge in recent weeks, some sort of humanoid beast.' The old mans eyes peered into the vast blackness of night. He suddenly whipped towards Jason.

'It is here.' Jason looked around, whatever the old man saw he could not. Although he did visualizeRouge strolling cautiously down a dark ally, by instant his hand shot out to call her back.

'No!' The old man whispered softly but harshly, 'he is here, you'll disturb him.'

Jason was really bothered by this man's almost religious respect of a so-called monster. For this instance he might play off of that weird respect.

'But she could also disturb it.'

'That will be her fate son; maybe it won't care or go away. But I have seen this thing many times before and know if you leave it lone it goes away.' That wasn't comforting for Jason to hear because Rouge wasn't certainly leaving it aloe if she even knew where it was.

'What happens when you don't?' He was responding in a whisper now, the air between each persons speaking was thick and tense.

'What happens all depends, if she aggravates it or not. I've seen it capture people and run off with them. Let's hope she realizes it's truly dangerous.'

Jason wanted to rush foreword and defend her; a 45 could drop anything. The idea of getting her killed by the monster was all that could possibly hold him back.