Chapter 2
~Logan~
Wolverine, or Logan, as many called him, was touching up his bike, which had ceased to work after his honeymoon with Storm. The new Mrs. Ororo Logan didn't approve, telling him jokingly that already he was tired of being married to her. Logan thought that she was secretly, or not so secretly, pleased that the bike had stopped working, though she would never admit it.
'Logan, we have the location of two mutants, and I sent Bobby, Kitty, and Kurt to pick them up.' Emma informed him in his head.
'So?' Logan responded.
'I have reason to believe that Magneto and Sabretooth are on their way there,' Emma informed him, 'There are high chances that they could be injured during a fight between us and the Brotherhood, could you please tell Hank to get the Medical Lab ready, just in ca-' Emma paused.
'What?' Logan asked, confused.
'One of them just disappeared from Lakestown Michigan to a half mile away from the mansion and she is definitely not moving. Could you go and bring her back to the Institute? She could be hurt.'
'Sure fine. Hope she isn't a teleporter, though,' Logan thought back with a sigh. He put his key in the ignition and gave it a half-hearted twist. To his great surprise, it started up, no problem. He growled and promised himself that he would deal with Emma messing with his bike later. He sure hoped the kid was worth it.
~Alika~
Ally was stuck in a tree. She knew her sister hadn't meant to teleport her to the top of a tree,in the middle of the forest, on a thin branch 70 feet off the also knew that her sister could not possibly know that there was a cougar sharing her tree on the branch just below her. But, hey, that didn't stop her from being frustrated with Beta's aim. Ally took a calming breath and looked for a way down that didn't include confronting a young mountain lion. There were none.
"Maledicent illum Deum," she curse in Latin./God damn it/
The lion beneath her stirred at the noise. Holding in a breath, she listened to see if she could hear how close to the road she was. She had thought she had heard a motorcycle earlier, but now all she could hear was the breathing of the groggy mountain lion below, and the soft, almost silent crunch of something coming towards the tree, then a rustle. She looked down at the cougar, who was now climbing up the branch, looking at her curiously.
'Who are you?' It asked her in her head.
'Not a threat. Could you let me slip passed you?' Ally asked him back, using her mind.
'I'm not letting a young cub like you go wandering in the forest at night by herself. You could get hurt. I'll sit by you till morning, then I'll take you to the edge of the forest,' the lion growled to her. Animals weren't actually that dumb, most were actually smarter than people. They were definitely smart enough to not let a kid be in a forest by herself. Just her luck on that fact.
'But-' Ally protested. The lion just gave her a look that said 'don't argue with me, cub' and gave a reinforcing growl to make sure she got the message. She swore in latin again. Stupid lions. She had a stronger bond with cougars than other animals. Maybe it was because Cougy was her favorite...
She heard a chuckle, and looked down to see a man staring up at her. "I really don't see how this is funny. Really, I actually find it a little concerning that you would," she called down. She was more surprised that the man was here in the forest, or that he had heard her when she was high above him.
The man looked surprised that she had heard him, but all he said was, "How did you get stuck so high up?"
"Um, my sister has the power to teleport and stuff, and she lives with an anti-mutant family that adopted her before she got her powers, and now they abuse her. She called me down to her house to comfort her because she was scared someone would come for her in the night and hurt her, so I told her that I would leave Wolvie and Cougy with her to put her mind at ease. She tried to teleport me back to my bike, but she's only seven, so her aim isn't very good yet, and I ended up in this tree," Ally rambled. She wished she hadn't, too. The man didn't need to know and would be more likely to help her if she hadn't mentioned mutants.
The man below her still looked confused, but didn't say anything. Ally got an idea. "Hey, could you hit this cougar with a rock or something, just to distract it enough for it to climb down the tree." The man shrugged and did as she asked. The rock that the man threw hit the lion square in the shoulder. It growled and picked its way down the tree, Ally following close behind it. It positioned itself protectively in front of her.
The man that had helped her took an equally protective step towards her, as though he expected the mountain lion to attack himself or Ally. Fat chance of that happening. Animals only attacked when threatened or, in Ally's case, trying to make a point. The lion and the man were having a staredown, and neither looked to be backing down anytime soon.
"It's okay, he's not going to hurt me," Ally told the both of them. They both stopped their staring contest to give her an incredulous look.
'Are you sure?' the cougar asked her. He didn't sound like he believed her. Oh well. Not her fault. Well, it actually WAS her fault, but who was keeping track.
"Yes," Ally told it aloud. The man who had helped her looked at her cooly, as though he met strange girls in the woods who could talk to animals on a daily basis. Who knew? Maybe he did...
'But he hit me in the shoulder with a rock. It hurt!' Came the mental reply. Oops. Maybe she should have tried talking to it some more. Less chance of the lion holding a grudged. Cats held grudges like no other.
"No, that was my idea." She winced as the lion turned to face her fully, growly in anger at her having ordered a rock thrown at it.
'WHAT?!' The lion roared in her head. Oh no. He sounded mildly upset. Which meant that he was actually very very angry.
"Don't be mad at me, I needed to get out of that tree, but you wouldn't budge, so I asked him to hit you with a rock. Bye now, I think I'll be okay with him." The lion huffed, but turned around and went to find another tree to rest in, or at least that's what Ally hoped. He must have realized that he wasn't going to win the argument against her. Most didn't, if they weren't Wolvie or Cougy.
"You can talk to animals?" the man asked. He didn't sound surprised. It didn't even sound like it was a question. More like a statement. She was becoming more convinced that he hung out with mutants on a daily basis. Heck, he might even BE one.
"Just a few. It doesn't really m-" she paused mid-sentence. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know a girl that can walk through walls, a fuzzy blue teleporter that smells like sulfur when he teleports, and a guy that can turn stuff to ice, do you?" Wow, if he didn't, that was going to sound REALLY random.
"Yeah, how do you know about them, bub?" The man asked suspiciously. Oh good, he could be surprised by stuff!
"Wolvie and Cougy were wondering what to do with them, because they are fighting a guy with a weird helmet, and another guy that-" Ally pauses again, then smiles mischieviously at the man who had helped her. There was a tugging in her gut, telling her that her sister was about to teleport her. Ally focussed on being able to teleport everything on her person, as well as anything touching her person. Well, anyONE. She didn't want to bring dirt to her sister. It wasn't fun and had almost gotten her sister in trouble the last and first time it happened. "Say, would you mind if we took a little trip to Lakestown Michigan?" Before the man could answer, she grabbed his arm, and then they were gone, leaving only the scent of vanilla behind. She giggled as the man that had helped her gave out a surprised yelp as they were teleported away.
