Chapter 4 -
It was awkward. So awkward. Rogue shifted in her seat where she sat on the extended part of the couch in the Drake's living room. Bobby sat next to her, with his mother on the elongated part of the 'L' couch and Ronny next her. His father sat across from Rogue on a chair. Logan was standing in the doorway behind her and John was leaning on the table against the wall behind her. The only sound that permeated the silence was the constant flick-click of John's lighter.
Bobby's parents were still trying to wrap their heads around his confession to being a mutant. They had been under the impression that he was normal and at a normal prep school. Never in their wildest dreams did they think they're son would be a mutant.
"So, um," his mother began, "When did you first know that you were a…" she seemed to have a hard time saying the word. "A, um…-"
"A mutant?" John interrupted. Bobby's mother looked over at him, "Would you cut that out?" she asked, annoyed at his constant flicking of his Zippo.
John did it once more, emphasizing heavily on the motion. Bobby's father finally spoke up, "It's not that, it's just…we thought that Bobby was going to a school for the gifted." Rogue shook her head, "Bobby is gifted."
He nodded his head, "We know that, but-""We still love you, Bobby," his mother interrupted her husband. "It's just…this mutant problem is a little…"
And then Logan spoke for the first time, "What mutant problem?" Bobby's mother inhaled a breath, looking over at the gruff man. "Complicated," she finished her sentence.
And another awkward silence floated in.
"What exactly are you professor of, Mister, uh, Logan?" the father asked. "Art," Logan replied sarcastically. Rogue hid a smile at his attitude. Instead she began speaking, "But you should see what Bobby can do," she suggested. His mother was lifting a cup of tea to her mouth to drink, and Bobby leaned forward, his index finger outstretched. Lightly he touched the side of the cup and suddenly the sound of hardened crystals could be heard. His mother, shocked, dropped the cup and saucer back on the coffee table. The frozen tea came out as one solid onto the saucer and the cat jumped up and started licking it.
"I can do a lot more than that," Bobby bragged. John chuckled at the parent's stunned faces, and suddenly Ronny rose up from the couch and left the room. The Drake family called after him, and Rogue could see the sadness in Bobby's eyes. Not to mention the fact that she had his memories now, she could see the history of sibling rivalry. Bobby felt guilty for his brother's feeling of inadequacy.
Bobby's mother lowered her head, "Oh this is all my fault."
"Actually studies show that the mutant gene comes from the father," John started as he pointed at Bobby's dad, "So technically it's his fault."
Rogue rolled her eyes. 'Way to help, John.'
A beeping sound cut her thoughts off, and she and the rest of the group looked around the room. It sounded like a phone. Rogue's senses pointed her to Logan, so she looked up at him. He returned her gaze and then seemed to realize that it was him making the noise.
"Oh, God. It's for me," he said as he began walking towards the sliding door to the backyard.
As she watched him go, she could hear Bobby's mother begin to ask if he'd ever tried to not be a mutant. Her eyes hurt from the effort of trying not to roll her eyes once more.
Logan had answered the phone device that had come from the car earlier. It had been Jean and Storm and he had finally been able to apprise them of what had happened at the mansion. They were now en route to Bobby's house, but as he looked in the reflection of the sliding door he hoped they hurried.
The military had found them. He went into the room and closed the door.
Rogue jerked her head up when Logan rushed back into the room, "We have to go now."
"Why?" she asked, already getting up. "Now!" he growled, and she knew it was bad. She followed him without any other protest. She heard the boys follow suit. They went up to the front door, and Logan opened it, going out first.
The entire front of the house had police cars all along the lawn. They had the small group surrounded, and all of them had their guns out, ready to shoot. Unexpectedly, a cop came up next to them from the right. Rogue couldn't see him too well, she had to look around John and Bobby who were right next to her.
"Drop the knives and put your hands in the air!" the cop yelled. It was then that she realized that Logan had unleashed his claws. She felt dread curl in her stomach. Logan turned from the male cop and looked to the left, and that was when Rogue noticed the female cop next to her, gun drawn as well.
"What's going on here?" Logan asked. Bobby answered, almost to himself, "Ronny…"
Ronny had called the authorities on them.
The male cop repeated his command for Logan to drop his 'knives'. Suddenly a loud crash broke through the air, and they all jumped and turned back to look in the house. More cops had broken their way in and were herding the Drake family to the wall.
Things were spiraling way out of control.
Logan tried to calm things down, "This is all just a misunderstanding." But the cop wouldn't listen, repeating once again his command. Logan turned and looked at him, his expression hard, "I can't."
Then he began to lift his hand up at the guy, trying to reason with him. Slowly he lifted it up perpendicular with his body, "Look," he said, and then retracted his claws.
That was a mistake. The noise startled the cop and a bullet shot out and imbedded itself in Logan's skull. The scream tore out of her throat before she realized it. She watched with horror as Logan's body crumpled to the ground. She heard the cop then turn on her, John, and Bobby to get on the ground, but it was as though she were underwater. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the small trickle of blood that came from the wound. She began to lower her body without thinking, her body behind Logan's head. She kept praying over and over that he was okay. He had to be. He should heal from this. She hoped he would heal from this. He wasn't moving though, and that started a panic in her brain.
She was detached from what was happening around her, but could hear John start to talk. He hadn't gotten to the ground like she and Bobby had, and all of a sudden he was throwing a fireball at the male cop. She snapped out of it, and watched as the fireball swerved back and hit the female, taking her out. He went crazy, sending fireballs at all the cops- inside the house, on the lawn. He blew up the two cars in the front and then sent one hurdling into an incoming cop car. When he set an insistent fire trail at the car, at the people inside, Rogue knew she had to take action to stop him. He wasn't going to otherwise.
She quickly set to getting her glove off her right hand. When her hand was finally free she twisted to wrap her hand around John's ankle, clenching it to hurry her mutation up. The predicted rush of memories and thoughts came to her and she tried to ignore it, tried to focus on the power that he was bestowing upon her unwillingly. Simultaneously she used John's power to lessen the flames and Bobby's to send ice over it to hurry the process along. She felt John topple over into a kneel, and she knew that she should probably let go but she had to finish.
Then she heard the bullet hit the floor, and sensed Logan coming to. Before she could do anything though, her attention was stolen by the X-Jet lowering from the sky. She finally let go of John, and she saw the boys stand up out of her peripheral vision. She followed their lead, her eyes riveted to the aircraft that was landing. Logan stood up in front of her and she couldn't help but stare at him in awe.
He was okay.
He cracked his neck and then turned to look at Bobby and John. Bobby began to walk forward then, after a moment of nobody moving. They all were spurred into action and headed to where the jet was opening for them to get on.
Kitty had been pacing the room for the past hour. She had been trying to figure a way out. The electric current running through the bars side wouldn't even let her through. She had tried walking out a while ago, but apparently it was made to withstand her powers. She went flying back, her body aching for the longest time.
She didn't know what to do. She knew they could wait for help, but who knows if they'll find them, get to them on time. Kitty hated waiting, it made her feel like she wasn't doing anything. She looked around at the children in the small cell. All of them were huddled underneath blankets, trying to retain warmth in the dank cold place. She had been sharing one with Jubilee, but had let her friend have it while she paced. All of the kids looked scared, and she hated that she couldn't do a thing about it.
She hung her head and slowly walked back over to where Jubes was sitting in the corner. She crawled underneath the blanket and snuggled up to her friend. The silence went on for a few more moments before she whispered, "Do you think they made it out? Rogue and Bobby and…John?"
Jubilee looked at Kitty, who pulled her legs close to her and burrowed into herself. She bit her lip and answered as honestly as she could, "I hope so."
Kitty was silent. "Me too…me too."
The silence continued.
Getting on the jet, Rogue saw Storm at the helm with Jean in the passenger seat. But there was also someone else, a stranger.
He was blue.
"Guten tag," he greeted them shyly but politely. John got into the seat in front of the blue man, while Logan got into the one behind Storm, Rogue behind him, and then Bobby behind her. Logan ignored the man, asking the two women in the front, "Who the hell is this?"
The man answered for himself, "My name is Kurt Wagner," he put on a bravado voice, "but in the Munich Circus I was known as 'The Incredible Nightcrawler'!" Logan interrupted him though, "Ah save it. Storm?"
"We're out of here," she confirmed. The jet started to lift, but Rogue was watching Kurt's face. He looked hurt at Logan's dismissal, and she felt sorry for him. But he reminded her too much of another blue-skinned mutant, so she didn't say anything, choosing to stay silent. As the jet was still rising, it jerked a little bit, causing Logan to let out a small "Whoa…" But it didn't do it again, so everyone relaxed.
For awhile the flight was okay, it was steady. Everyone was calm in their seats and Logan even got up to go talk with Storm and Jean. Rogue could only hear them murmuring, but could definitely hear the loud voice over the speaker.
"Unidentified aircraft: you are ordered to descend to 20,000 ft. Return with our escorts to Hanscom air force space. You have ten seconds to comply."
The voice was grainy but stern, and Rogue could tell she meant business."Wow someone's angry," Storm muttered under her breath. Logan looked over his shoulder at John, "Yea, I wonder why," he said pointedly. John just raised his eyebrows at the not-so-subtle accusation.
The voice came in again: "We are coming up beside you to escort you to Hanscom air force space." They all looked to the sides to see two government jets pull up next to them. "Lower your altitude now," the voice continued. "Repeat: Lower your altitude to 20,000 feet. This is your last warning." With that, the jets moved away.
"They're falling back," Jean confirmed. It was quiet for a moment, and then-Loud noises interrupted the small bit of peace, loud beeping from the X-Jet's consoles. Everyone tensed up, "They're locking on us!" Storm worried. "What?" Logan panicked, but Storm overrode him, "They're going to fire, hang on!"
Logan turned to go to his seat, but Storm had chosen that time to put the turbo on and he flew into the side of the jet before falling into his seat. Everyone was putting their seatbelts on, but Rogue couldn't seem to get hers working. Her gloves wouldn't catch and the jet was moving too much for her to get a good grip and there were just too many pieces involved.
Suddenly they moved in a loop, and once they righted themselves John spoke up, his voice weary, "Please don't do that again."
Logan agreed vocally. Then he said, "Don't we have any weapons?" And that's when everything started getting darker. Especially the skies.
Storm was working her magic. Clouds came in from overhead and tunnels shot out, creating numerous funnels to both hit and distract the people following them. They pierced the air like columns and the jets, all of them, swerved to miss them. Rogue did the best she could to just hold on, gripping the seat belt straps instead of trying to actually clicking it on. She sat as still in her seat as she could, a small prayer repeating itself in her brain.
And then it all straightened out. The skies opened up again, and the jet righted itself.
Jean turned around, "Everyone okay back there?" she checked. Everyone answered yes, except for Logan who deadpanned a "No."
Then the beeping started up again, quicker than ever, everyone tensed again. On the console it showed two shapes coming at them. They all seemed to brace themselves, awaiting the blast, hoping it wouldn't be too bad. Unexpectedly one of them seemed to short-circuit and explode on itself. Rogue could feel the power coming from Jean, a much stronger force than she ever felt from the telekinetic. For a second she allowed herself to wonder if maybe the redhead had more power than she let on, but that thought was pushed out when Storm reminded them that there was still one more. She tightened her hold on the strap. Storm called out to her best friend, asking silently if she could get it.
Dread filled everyone when her soft exhale of disbelief and an "Oh, God," hit their ears. At that moment the entire back of the jet exploded and the aircraft started to plummet. The air began sucking objects out, and Rogue felt herself being lifted out of her seat. She tried to hold on to the back of the chair, a scream ripping out of her throat. She saw Logan turn around and see her, his eyes filled with terror. Right when he began to reach his arms out for her, to pull her back to safety, the winds tore her away and out of the jet. His shouts followed her and she found herself midair and falling. Her voice seemed to leave her and she couldn't utter a sound. She kept dropping, not knowing what to do, her brain refusing to work. Static overtook her senses.
'I'm going to die.'
Logan felt himself go cold all over, "NO!" She was gone, she was gone, Marie was gone.
The wolverine inside him wailed and screeched and curled in on itself. He didn't even notice the cloud of blue smoke that appeared next to him when suddenly a giant form dove down the aisle towards the front. He did a double take as he faced forward. The blue man-Nightcrawler, he said his name was, was laying on his back and clutched in his arms…was Marie.
A huge weight seemed to drop from him, before he realized that they were still nose-diving straight at the ground at top speed.
They were going to die anyway.
He wanted to reach down and get her, hold her, he supposed, one last time. But the seatbelt was cutting into him. For a moment he wanted to laugh at the irony. When they first met he got thrown out of a vehicle because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and now…her. He saw her turn her head slightly towards him and he smiled ruefully at her.
They were still dropping significantly when the sounds of metal fusing together caught their attention. Logan turned around to see the back of the jet repairing itself and a curl of unease nestled around his spine. He knew only one person that could do that. Only one man.
Storm had to ask though, "Jean?" she had a little hope in her voice, but it was dashed by Jean's reply, "It's not me!"
The jet came to an abrupt stop, and everyone hung from their seat belts facing the ground. Rogue slowly, and reluctantly, began sitting up, pulling away from the man that saved her to look out the front window.
There, standing with his hand outstretched and his blue-skinned companion by his side, stood Erik Lehnsherr.
Magneto.
Rogue could feel the situation get worse instantly.
So it's been a bit longer than I said. But at least I got this one up :) I know that it seems like a word-by-word, but that's kind of what it is for now. The only difference are a few key parts, it's when I get farther into this one and into the third and onward that things start to branch out, so please, bear with me :)
I'll begin working on the next one. At the moment, I also have two other fics I'm working on, both Once Upon A Time: a Golden Swan and a Mad Beauty fic, so I'll probably update those first. The Golden Swan one is probably the one that's closer to being updated xD
(btw, if I got the German greeting wrong, please let me know. I'm pretty sure that's how you write it, but I'm not too sure.)
Hope you enjoyed this one, please let me know :)