All mistakes are my own and I'm sorry for them


"Get down, Rogue!"

I dropped to the floor as something whizzed over my head, exploding in a shower of golden sparks. Jubilee sprinted past, her hands lit up with paffs as the robot charged forwards. She hollered and threw a plasmoid at it. As it slammed into the bot's chest with a resounding boom, there was a war cry and something else flew over me, colliding with the same force into the android as the paff had done. A large gash appeared on its chest, revealing wires and cogs, and it staggered, the lights in its eyes flickering before it fell to the floor with a deafening crash. Stood on top of it was Logan, looking rather pleased with himself.

I stood and brushed dust from my leathers, glancing round to see Peter returning to his normal form, his skin rippling from silver metal to tanned skin. Logan and he seemed to have really taken onboard the whole 'throwing-a-heavy-and-armed-projectile-at-an-attac king-object' thing. Ororo was not impressed though, her arms folded and lips pursed to a very thin line.

"Good throw, Colossus," grunted Logan, retracting his claws and jumping from the robot's back.

"I thought I told you, Logan, you must work as a team," snapped Ororo, unfolding her arms. "You're not setting a good example for the Junior Team."

He cricked his neck. "Am workin' as a team, 'Ro. Just not how you see it."

I thought her lips couldn't go any thinner but they did and she turned swiftly on her heel, marching towards a burnt-out car which Kitty was ducked behind. Bobby was a few meters away, peering round the corner of a crumbling building; Jubilee was stood by the crumpled automaton; Kurt was crouched on the roof of an overturned truck, his tail flicking slowly from side to side; Hank was putting on his glasses beside a gently spouting fire hydrant; Warren was swooping over the wreckage, his wings stirring up clouds of smoke and dust which tickled my nose. At least the all the chaos was in the Danger Room so there was no worry of the government having a fit at the mess we'd created whilst trying to stop a rampaging android.

Ororo sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Right, I'd like to run through the simulation again but this time we stay in formation." She threw Logan a steely look. "No heroic actions."

He shrugged, glanced at me with a wicked gleam in his eye and jogged over to the control panel by the door of the Danger Room. In that moment, everything slowed; Logan whirled, his face wild; Jubilee screamed, a finger pointed at me; Kurt vanished, sulfur reaching my nose. Suddenly, I was in the air, a gigantic hand wrapped round my waist, much bigger than the fallen android, and the sound of mechanics whirring was the only sound I could hear. I writhed in the robot's grip, pounding my hands furiously at the iron-like grip holding me, and tried not to think of the height it was lifting me up to. Ever since Liberty Island, my relationship with heights had soured. My heart was galloping a giddy beat in my chest and adrenaline poured through my veins, everything in sharp focus.

People rushed about like ants some twenty feet below. Kurt appeared at the android's feet where I had been several seconds before but he was forced to bamf back to his perch on the truck as the bot took a step forward. Jubilee was throwing plasmoids at the legs of the automaton to cripple it until she realised I was a long way up and when the bot fell, it would be a long way down.

"Get in formation!" bellowed Ororo, her eyes swirling white as lightning crackled at her fingertips.

Then, as quickly as it had started, everything vanished, and I mean, literally. The burnt out car and overturned truck faded, along with the spouting water hydrant and the crumbling buildings. And the robot guttered briefly before disappearing. Which left me hovering in the air for a split second until gravity graciously took over and sent me plummeting to the ground.

At that point, I was very grateful of Logan's hours dedicated to training me to land from heights without causing too much damage to myself. Feet hit the ground first, knees bent to absorb the impact, shoulder dropped to ground to continue absorbing the impact and a roll to slow down.

I remained lying face down on the ground and heard the sound of the Danger Room door opening, feet passing over the threshold. Lifting my head, I saw the boy we'd rescued from the Alcatraz labs, his eyes wide as he took us all in.

"What is it, Jimmy?" asked Ororo smoothly, the first to come to her senses.

Jimmy pointed into the corridor and uttered three broken words. "War Room. Noisy."

The stillness that had filled the room as the stimulation faded away dissipated, the Senior and Junior Teams rushing to the doorway, brushing dust from their uniforms and rubbing hidden bruises as they entered the corridor. Only Logan stayed, Jimmy casting him a wary glance before ambling out of sight.

"Nice language, kid," Logan said with a grin, holding a hand out to me.

"What- Oh…" My language could've put a drunken sailor to shame as I had fallen. "Thanks," I said, grasping his hand and letting him pull me to my feet.

"You okay?" His eyes raked over me, assessing for injuries.

I nodded and allowed my Southern accent to come forth. "Ah'm fahn, sugah."

He smiled half-heartedly, rubbing the top of my head like I was no more than six years old when in reality, I'd just turned twenty. But it wasn't his fault. The last year or so had been hard on him and I guess he just needed someone to be there for him. I was quite happy to be that person but it did mean watching rather a lot of hockey.

I followed him out of the room, wincing as my shoulder protested painfully at closing the door behind us. The corridor beyond was characteristic of the basement levels; white tiled floor, metal wall and strip lighting. Walking behind Logan gave me a chance to admire him without him noticing and in those leather pants, his ass-

I scolded myself mentally. I was twenty. His age was unknown. I had brown hair with white streaks. He liked redheads and blondes. I had untouchable skin. He liked to be touchy-feely. And I'd sworn myself from him. It was just wrong. But, I thought to myself, it didn't stop me from admiring him.

"Will the pair of you hurry up, please?" called Ororo's voice from the War Room. She sounded fed up and I couldn't blame her. She was the head of the mansion now, running it with a lack of suitable staff and an abundance of students with powers.

The War Room was a circular room next to the Danger Room, decorated in similar fashion to the corridors with its metal walls and tiled floors. Large screens covered all the walls, some of them relaying live TV footage from various news stations and others computers, some busy and others blank. In the middle of the room was a large circular desk surrounded by high-backed chairs, a hologram projector placed in the centre of it. All the chairs were filled, though Warren was standing since there weren't any backless ones and Ororo stood, clutching a touch screen tablet. Out of respect for the Professor, we'd left his space empty.

"…appears to have picked up a popular feed on certain media sites," Ororo said as Logan leant against the door frame with his arms folded. I hovered uncertainly between the table and him. "It doesn't seem like something the systems Kitty has set up would flag until halfway through the feed where the computer has noted the words 'mutant', 'kids' and 'experimentation' in the same sentence." She made a flicking motion on the tablet's screen with her finger and a webpage suddenly appeared on the hologram, the three words she'd said highlighted bright red. "The website is well-known for its hatred of mutants but it usually does nothing more than threaten them. However" – she made another flicking motion and more things scrolled across the hologram – "it appears someone has set up a feed which recounts sensitive details of several open cases of mutant GBH and murders and of a group seeming to collect young children and take them to an island for…experimentation." She spat the last word out.

The atmosphere in the room shifted from alert and calm to tense and apprehensive. It was so thick Logan could've cut it with one of his claws. Hank removed a tablet from the desk, stood and began muttering under his breath as he paced. Warren's wings widened as though he were preparing to take off and Peter clenched and unclenched his fist like he was slowly strangling someone to death.

"Vere does zee feed show zat the children are being taken?" asked Kurt, his tail visible waving from side to side.

Ororo frowned, peering at the tablet's screen with such intensity I half expected lightning to shoot from her eyes. "Somewhere on the west coast," she replied slowly. "At least, the person here is describing what I can only guess is the Golden GateBridge in San Francisco."

"Alcatraz?" Jubilee blurted out as I opened my mouth to do so. The whole island was flattened by Jean when the Phoenix broke through. Logan's shoulders tighten fractionally out the corner of my eye.

Hank shook his head, halting his anxious pacing. "No, Jubilation," he said. "There is another island approximately ten kilometers beyond the bridge which the feed could be referring to."

"I didn't know there was another island, Beastie."

"It is privately owned and the owners have it kept off the maps except for those which are supplied to Coastguard and to those who sail round there," he explained, adjusting his glasses. "I cannot find who owns it, though."

Kitty pulled a tablet from the desk as well and started tapping madly away at it. Bobby stood and looked at the screen, his head resting on her shoulder and bare cheek pressed to hers. Jealously swirled in the pit of my stomach like ice in a whirlpool at the casualness of his touch yet I knew it was all innocent. He'd had to be so careful round me that being round Kitty must feel like a drug, able to touch skin-to-skin without the fear of having his life sucked from him.

"I can't find anything on the owners, either," said Kitty.

"So…are we going on a mission?" asked Jubilee. With her massive grin, she looked five years old and someone had mentioned Christmas.

Ororo sighed, continuing to look at the tablet like it would reveal the world's secrets to her if she stared at it for long enough. "Yes. There's no sign of anything too dangerous so Logan, Warren and I will go with the Junior Team and we'll see what we can find."


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