Chapter 7

(Scott)

We received the news that Storm was expecting with mixed feelings. We were all obviously elated, but it was tempered with a touch of sadness because she couldn't be with us. Naturally, this news started a round of speculations on Hank's part, since the happy parents were both mutants and he was eager to follow her pregnancy and the development of the child once it was born. If there's one lesson we all learned from Logan, Angela and Evie, it's that mutations are not necessarily going to follow the normal course of genetic inheritance. But it still made us wonder what it would be like to have a student running around here with super strength that could control the weather.

Speaking of students, the first batch of new ones started showing up about a week ago, including six of the non-mutant kids. The youngest of them is fourteen and she said she wanted to come to Xavier's because she wants to be the first woman president elected on a pro-mutant platform. She said it with such gravity that it's very easy to believe that she'll make it happen. The oldest one we're expecting is seventeen, but he'll be arriving just after the term starts. Seems he's off in Africa somewhere doing some kind of research camp with elephants, the equivalent of summer camp for the super-rich. I don't get it myself, since I was an orphan before Charles found me and brought me here. Only Jean and Hank still had parents when I arrived, but it does please me to no end that all of that has changed for so many of our kids.

But the kids we were waiting for with eager anticipation were Jacob and Lauren Gibson, the children we had rescued from the Colorado avalanche the previous winter along with their parents. In fact, they had been the first to apply to the school, the first non-mutant children we'd accepted when the applications came pouring in from all over the country. It was a new experience for all of us at Xavier's, since most of our students had previously been runaways or orphans with a very few who had been sent by their parents, believing this to be nothing more than a prep school. But since the DC Metro incident, we'd been more and more in the public eye until finally, the idea of anonymity was a thing of the past. We still had a few members on the team who wanted to remain as anonymous as possible, but it was much less of a concern than it had been in the past. The Mutant Registration Act finally found itself relegated to a few sentences in a history text where it belonged, while Congress once again debated adding mutants to the Civil Rights Act. However, unlike other times that the issue had come up, both Hank and Charles had been asked to testify before a subcommittee, to present their own findings that mutant births were still steadily rising. And in the midst of all this, the kids arrived in a steady stream.

Of course, the biggest concern on my mind is Angela and Logan. They had said they were going to do what they could to keep Weapon X from making another try for the school and I don't doubt that they kept their word. But anyone who does what Weapon X does to mutants can't really be expected to keep their word, so it's something that weighs heavily on my mind. The previous worst-case scenario is now the best one I can think of, because at least Logan and Angela are known quantities and they did their best to teach all of us how to defeat them. But if they decided to come back and they sent someone else, someone new, anything was possible. I can only pray that it won't happen and do the best I can to protect the kids if it does.

Still, I'll sleep much better at night once they're back here where they belong. And if anyone tells Logan that I said he belongs here, I'll kill them myself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Sam)

I'm going to be a father. Well technically, I already AM a father, since Ororo is pregnant and there's no doubt that it's mine. Finally, some genuine good news in the midst of all this tragedy.

Fortuntely, there's a spare room here that'll work just fine as a nursery for the baby. Evie has taken it upon herself to oversee the decorating of the baby's room, since - as she put it - she was a baby much more recently than any of us. I think she's just trying to do something to keep herself busy so she doesn't spend all of her free time worrying about her parents. There's only so much time she can spend doing schoolwork or sculpting, so decorating the baby's room is one more thing she can do to occupy her time.

We did what we could for her for her birthday, but there was a pall over the occasion since it should have been spent with the people who love her best. But until we know what's going on with them, we don't feel that it's safe to go back to the school. We probably won't go back until Angela and Logan are already there, whenever that may be. I hope it won't be years, because every day that goes by is one more day too many. I understand why they did what they did, God only knows. I simply can't imagine what I would do if I was faced with the same choice. I don't know if I could kiss my child goodbye and leave her behind. Then again, I don't have psychotic black ops people looking for my child, so I won't have to make that choice. At least, I hope I never have to make that choice.

At least the government seems to be on our side for a change. Congress seems to be poised to add mutation to the Civil Liberties Act along with race, religion, sexual orientation and age. After all this time, people have finally figured out that we aren't all a bunch of megalomaniacs like Magneto. As with any other group of people, we have extremists on both ends of the spectrum, but most of us fall somewhere in between. Perhaps there will come a day when every public school will boast its own team of teachers who specialize in teaching young mutants about their gifts. Perhaps those same teachers will come from Xavier's. I only hope that it happens before my own child reaches school age. Not that I don't want him or her to attend Xavier's, far from it. But mutant children are born every day and it would be nice to know that all of them will have the opportunity to learn amongst those they grew up with prior to the onset of their mutation. I know that my life would have been more comfortable had that happened.

And did I mention that I'm going to be a father? I can hardly wait!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Diary,

Fifteen weeks, six days, three hours and forty-one minutes since mom and dad sent me away.

I turned ten and everyone had a little party for me, but I told them it wasn't the real party, just a practice one until mom and dad can be here with me for it. I'm starting to get this feeling that they're not gonna be gone as long as I thought before. It's not anything that I saw or dreamed, just a feeling that we'll be together again before the end of next summer. I haven't said anything to anyone, just in case I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. Aunt Marie and Uncle Atlas would probably just tell me it was wishful thinking. Uncle Remy would probably understand, but I'm still gonna keep it to myself for at least a little longer. At least until I get good enough with my powers to try and see if I'm right.

I'm in charge of decorating the baby's room for Aunt 'Roro. I'm not gonna peek and see if I can see if it's a boy or a girl, so I'm gonna decorate the whole thing in crayon colors. My room was crayon colors until I was like five, then it was decorated like Cinderella, with pictures painted on the walls and Uncle Atlas even made me a pair of glass slippers. I forgot to bring those with me, but I'm sure that they're ok. I'll bet Wendy's taking care of them for me, since they were my most favorite part of my whole room, next to the part where it was right next to mom and dad.

Diary, I miss them so much! I had another bad dream about them, but I did the stuff that Uncle Charles told me to try and I woke up before it got too scary. They were somewhere with big trees and mountains and that girl with the red hair was with them along with another little girl. The second little girl is REALLY little, younger than me even, but she looks so much like dad. I thought for a little bit that she was another daughter, my sister, but the girl with the red hair isn't that much older than she was in the old dream when the bad men came to try and kidnap me, so I don't think she is my sister. At least, she's not mom's daughter, but how would dad ever have another daughter without mom? I mean, I know how babies are made and all that stuff, but I don't think dad would ever make a baby with anyone else. For one thing, mom would kill him. For another thing, he loves mom so much it's kinda embarassing, with all the kissing and stuff they do in front of everyone. But she really does look an awful lot like dad.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll see more when there's more to see. And as soon as I know, so will everyone else. I have to go for now, Aunt Marie's taking me to get paint for the baby's room. I'm thinking yellow.

Love, Evie Marie Logan

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Logan)

After three months of threats, beatings, everything except begging, we finally got Shatter and Sylph to work as a team. I don't know that they'll ever be friends, but at least they figured out that working together was going to be a lot easier than dealing with me and Angela for any longer than they had to. That's the good news. The bad news was that with the completion of their initial training, it put us back on the list to send out in the field.

We were tired of taking things in the urban jungle, so we waded through what seemed like thousands of files until we found one that would take us into a jungle of the natural variety. In fact, we went out of our way to find one that would require them to drop us off several days away from the intended target, with the extraction point no easier to get to. It wasn't easy, but we found one that suited our wants perfectly.

So, it was a week after Shatter and Sylph were sent on for the rest of their training that we were dropped at the edge of the rainforest somewhere in Central America. We still had to have a cover, so we were both armed with fancy cameras and tons of film, posing as photographers for a nature magazine. However, one of the bags that I was carrying wasn't filled with provisions or camping gear, but plastic explosives, some new variety that was a lot more stable than older versions. It would take us four days to hike to our target, but once there we got to blow it up. It's a man thing, I know, but blowing shit up is just plain fun.

So, for the second time in six months, Angela and I tandem jumped from an airplane in the middle of nowhere, since there was a snowball's chance in hell of her jumping out on her own. Our gear - such as it was - would be dropped just behind us, which meant we had to be well out of the way to make sure it didn't drop ON us. But we hit the ground and I rolled us out of the way, leaving plenty of clearance for the bundle containing our tent, backpacks and some basic provisions. Everything else, we'd have to find on our own. The best part about this kind of op was the complete lack of outside contact. It was up to us to make it to the extraction point at the right time, otherwise we'd be left behind until we could make it to the secondary point three days later. If we missed that, we'd have to make our way to civilization, then call a specific phone number to request extraction. Tempting as it was, we had too much left to do to just disappear like that so soon.

It always takes my wife a few minutes to pull herself together after a jump, so I left her to it while I took care of splitting up our gear. She's stronger than she looks, thanks to lugging around about a hundred pounds of metal on her bones, but I'm still a lot stronger than she is so it would fall to me to take the heaviest part of the load. She'd get her own backpack and the tent; I would carry everything else. By the time I got that done, Angela had recovered enough to take up her own packs and we were on our way.

We didn't carry a map, we'd simply memorized the route we intended to take to our target, which was the main base of operations for one of three warring guerilla factions. Why was it so all-fired important to destroy this place? They'd apparently gotten their hands on some experimental weaponry that had come out of a division of Weapon X and that was unacceptable to everyone in the command structure. The file didn't go into detail about what these weapons were, but there was always a chance that they were other mutants. So yeah, we'd blow the place up, but not before we got a look around to see if the weapons were living or just the regular kind.

The area we'd chosen as our drop site and main path to the base was unoccupied by any of the warring factions, with the bulk of the fighting to our south a bit. Of course, the possibility that there could be small scouting parties in that area was there, but small scouting parties were the least of our worries. Just like any other rainforest, it rains just about every day, but it still had its own "rainy season" where it would rain non-stop for days on end for a few weeks before tapering off and we were catching the tail end of the rainy season for the area. So, although it wasn't raining when we dropped in, we knew it would start up sooner or later and probably not stop for at least a few days. We hoped to be able to reach our target before that happened and be on the way out by the time it started to let the weather help to cover our escape.

Angela made sure to snap plenty of pictures that first day, so that if someone were to take it into their heads to follow us, we would appear to be nothing more than what we said we were. We had all the proper identification, including false identities in the names of Jeremy and Kathryn Bartlett. A dummy phone number for the magazine had been set up, so if a call were to be placed asking about us, it could be intercepted and answered by someone back at base and they would lie their asses off to confirm our employment with the magazine. But we managed to travel the first two days without incident, hiking for as long as the daylight held before setting up camp, washing up if there was a water source nearby and making love until we both fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

On the third day, we came across our first signs of the guerillas. In a warm, damp environment like this one, a body can decompose much faster than in a drier climate (where they more or less mummify), so it was hard to tell by sight or scent exactly how long they'd been there, but by our estimate it was at least a couple of months. If either one of us had any knowledge of insect activity beyond what we'd seen on television, we probably could have come up with a more accurate idea, but what we had was good enough. From what we could tell, there were five bodies, the remains pretty well scattered, but they hadn't been blown up. An explosion would have affected the local foliage and the ground as well, but there weren't any signs of new growth. Scavengers had probably caused some of the scattering, but it was obvious that most of the work had been done prior to their deaths. So, our fear was confirmed and the "experimental weapons" were probably mutants.

When we finished our survey of the area, we stopped for a bit of a conference. "Logan, this changes everything," Angela said, biting her lip.

"Yeah, it sure does," I replied. "We're gonna have to get in there an' spring whoever did this before we blow the place."

"Agreed, but we can't let them fall back into Weapon X hands." She shook her head as she bent to inspect the decaying remains of a leg. "Do you think there's any way to get them to Xavier's?"

"I don't see how, darlin', not without raisin' suspiscion."

"You don't suggest we kill them ourselves, do you?"

"What? No! Just gimme a minute to think, all right?" She backed off and left me to it. On the one hand, killing them would be a mercy, especially if they'd been nabbed in the pre-bonding stage. On the other, they could be very young and only doing what they did because of fear for their own lives. If they were children, it would pose a bigger problem for us because there was no way either one of us would be able to just kill them, but we also couldn't leave them to find their way to a phone, armed only with their natural defenses and a scrap of paper with Xavier's phone number scribbled on it. I couldn't see any other choice in the matter, really. "Tiger, I think we'll have to take 'em with us, whoever they are, an' make like we couldn't get to either extraction point in time."

"So, it's a 'Plan C' scenario then?" She stood up and brushed herself off. "What if they scan us?"

"Then they'll know we lied an' stick us in sensory dep or somethin'. But I don't think they will. We got their trust back, as much as they trust any o' us."

She nodded and shouldered her pack. "Okay then, let's get this show on the road."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Over the next twenty-four hours, we came across more bodies even more badly decomposed than the first batch we found. If I didn't know better, I would've said it was the work of Sabretooth. But that asshole still hadn't been spotted since Liberty Island and from what I could remember of him from the first Weapon X days, he wasn't known for being either low-key or subtle in any way. There's no way he'd have stayed off the grid for this long, so I was pretty confident that he'd actually managed to die that night all those years ago.

We made our camp about three and a half miles north of our target in a clearing that boasted a stream as well as plenty of edible plants, getting the tent set up just before the nightly rainstorm. Our plan was to wait until the rain stopped for the night or midnight, whichever came first, before striking out for the base. The intel we had on the place showed that it wasn't very big; just a collection of small huts with a larger structure in the center where they housed what passed for command staff and the "experimental weapons". We were prepared for the worst; that the mutants they had there would be fucking psychos like Sabretooth and the best thing for everyone would be to take them out, no matter how young they were. Naturally, we were hoping that it would be much simpler, that they were under some form of control. In a case like this, telepathic would be better, simply because Xavier would be able to reverse it given enough time. If it was physical, like the chip that had been in my head at one time, it would be a bit more difficult – not to mention painful – to get rid of that. Best case, it would be simple coercion, like they'd done to Angela with Emma so long ago. And if that did happen to be the case, we'd have to take extra care not to kill the people they were using against the subjects. It would take longer, but it would be worth it.

With several hours to kill before midnight, Angela and I decided to pass the time in our favorite way. As soon as the tent was put up and our gear stashed in the corner, Angela pounced on me and all other thoughts were pushed from our minds for the duration. We dozed off afterwards, her head pillowed on my shoulder and didn't wake again until the alarm on my watch started beeping. We both woke immediately.

"Damn it, I was having the best dream too," Angela complained as she looked for her clothes. "We were on a beach, watching the sunset, and Evie was still alive and splashing in the waves." I watched as she pulled on her clothing, taking my time getting dressed. "It was weird though, 'cause it felt so real. I mean, I could smell her, you know?"

"Yeah, I do," I whispered, swallowing a lump in my throat. "I have dreams 'bout her all the time too." I looked down and closed my eyes, my shirt clenched tightly in my fist. I heard Angela move, then her arms slid around my waist and we just held each other for a long moment, sharing our pain. It took all of my willpower to pull myself back from the wave of black despair that had washed over me, but I managed it and let her go. "C'mon darlin', we got work to do."

She nodded and I kissed her, then we finished getting dressed and secured our campsite. I shouldered the pack containing the explosives and we set out for the base. Angela immediately scurried up the nearest tree, taking the high road as she preferred. In the mottled grays of her camouflage, she blended perfectly with the leaves and shadows up there. If I hadn't seen where she'd gone up for myself, I would have been hard pressed to pick her out with my eyes alone. But I didn't need to see her to know where she was. Even in the rain that still steadily fell, I could track her scent no matter where she went. I set off through the underbrush, letting my instincts take control. With very little effort on my part, I slipped through the tangled greenery, leaving few traces that a person had passed through. We moved as swiftly as the forest would allow; the only sounds we made could be passed off as native animals. It wasn't an easy trip, but we made decent time and found ourselves within sentry distance in just over an hour.

I paused just outside their range of hearing and tapped my com. "Hellcat, what's your twenty?"

"About fifteen yards ahead and to the south of you," she replied quietly.

"Whattaya see?"

"I've got sentries to either side of me, about fifteen feet apart. They have some kind of perimeter fence, but I can't hear a generator so I don't think it's powered."

"Any sign o' the weapons?"

"Negative Wolverine. There's some light in a couple of the outbuildings, but no movement within the compound."

"Copy that. Hold position an' wait for me."

"Roger Wolverine. Hellcat out." The com went silent and I moved quietly through the thinning brush, my senses taking in and processing thousands of bits of information every second. Insects and small frogs sang in the trees, each giving off their own peculiar scents. Night-blooming flowers perfumed the air, adding a layer of their own. Countless other sounds and scents recognized and discarded as irrelevant to the objective. But the sounds themselves told me more than the files ever could, based on how normal they were. The local wildlife was comfortable with the people around here, which meant they'd been here a good long time. They accepted the compound as part of the natural scenery, no longer threatened or confused by the sounds and smells coming from it. In the jungle like this, it's possible to use the sounds – or lack of sounds – of the local wildlife as a kind of alarm system. We had no such luck here.

I finally picked out Angela's scent among the rest, faint due to her being in the trees, and set out in her direction. I moved swiftly but silently through the forest, her scent growing stronger until I heard a low sound above me. I glanced into the tree and there she was, crouched on a branch and staring at something I still couldn't see from the ground. She motioned for me to join her, so I secured the pack on my back and climbed up next to her. She was still, yet tensed; if she had a tail, she would have been switching it back and forth. Something had her agitated that I hadn't seen yet. "Status?" I whispered.

"Two men left the central building just before you got here," she whispered back. "They had a little kid with them, handcuffed. He could barely walk."

I swore under my breath. "Where'd they take him?"

"One of the smaller buildings, third one on the left. I don't hear anything though, so I'm not sure what they're doing with him."

I turned my attention to the compound, scanning every inch of ground for some sign of activity. Was this kid one of the "weapons"? Or was he leverage for the continued cooperation of the "weapons"? Only one way to find out. "Ok, let's take care o' the sentries first. Quick an' quiet, no sense in alertin' anyone til we're already in there."

"Agreed." She turned her attention to me. "How are we gonna do this?"

"Well, knowin' they've got kids in there means we can't just blow the place an' go. You take the small buildings, check 'em for more kids, kill anyone that looks like a guard. If ya come across one that speaks English, make 'em tell ya what the kids are for before ya kill 'em."

"What about you?"

"I still haveta blow this place, but I'll get anyone out that deserves to be saved first. Meet me on the other side o' the compound when you're done. If I ain't there in ten minutes, take the kids an' go back to camp without me."

"Wolverine…" she said sharply.

I cut her off. "Don't argue with me! I don't know what I'll find in there an' it'll be up to you to keep the kids safe!"

"I don't like this one bit," she complained. "We shouldn't split up."

"Darlin', we ain't got a choice. There ain't enough time for both o' us to set the charges, get the 'weapons' out an' save the kids together."

She looked down and bit her lip. "I know. But I had to make my displeasure known all the same."

"Fine, it's noted." I scanned the compound again and turned back to her. "Now, if I ain't back at camp in four hours, go on without me. I'll find you, no matter what." She opened her mouth to protest again, but I placed a finger over her lips. "No arguin'. I don't think it'll be a problem, but I need to know you'll be safe." She glared at me, but nodded. "Good. I'm goin' low road. Sentries first, on my mark." She nodded again and I shinnied down the tree back to the ground. I took the pack off and stashed it under a huge fern, not wanting to chance a stray bullet blowing it to hell and me along with it. I slipped through the trees, a moving shadow among the rest until I scented the sentry. I tapped my com. "Hellcat, you in position?"

"Affirmative." Her tone was clipped; she was pissed at me and I would pay for it later.

"On my mark." I stalked closer to the man, his bald head shining in the moonlight, the scent of cigarette smoke drifting on the breeze. "Now!" I leapt from my cover, springing my claws with a snarl and the sentry whipped around to face me, but he never had a chance to raise his weapon. I thrust my claws into his throat and he went down, dead before he hit the ground. I slipped back into the trees and continued around the perimeter, only breaking cover long enough to kill the sentries. Ten minutes later, I met up with Angela on the other side of the compound. "Status?" I whispered.

"All clear," she said shortly.

I looked down at her, only to find that she was pointedly not looking at me. "Hellcat…Angela."

Her head snapped up and she glared at me. "Code names only, Wolverine, you know that."

"Look, I ain't goin' in there unless I know you're gonna follow orders an' do what I told ya to do."

"What do you want me to say? That I'm okay with my husband going into gods only know what while I retreat? Well, I'm really not okay with that and nothing you say is going to change it."

"Hellcat, someone has to protect the kids. Why the hell are we doin' all o' this if it ain't for the kids?"

Her glare hardened. "That's not fair. Hell, we don't even know if Xavier has any kids at the mansion right now."

"But he might. An' we're 'bout to send him another batch o' people once we get outta here. But we ain't gonna save anyone if we stand here all night fightin' 'bout it."

Her posture relaxed a bit and she looked down. "You're right, I know you're right." She looked back into my eyes and I could see a touch of fear on her face. "But my place is at your side, damn it! I promised, remember?"

"Yeah, I do." I took her hand and stroked my thumb over her wedding ring. "An' you will be, even if you ain't right there. We'll be all right, trust me." She pressed her lips together, but nodded. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her soundly, then turned her around and swatted her playfully on the backside. "Now go, start on lookin' for the kids."

"Yes sir, Wolverine sir," she replied, then scuttled up a tree and disappeared into the night. I took a deep breath and circled back to where I'd left the explosives, hoping that the now-dead sentries hadn't been missed yet. Fortunately, it seemd that their absence had yet to be noticed and I was clear to enter the base.

I slid out a single claw and slowly cut a slit in the fence, wincing at the slight sound it made. A sound on the other side of the compound made me pause, but when no one came running my way I finished cutting and slipped through. I dashed quietly into the shadows formed by one of the small outbuildings and chanced a glance inside. What I saw turned my stomach and I knew I had to get this job done and quickly. There were kids in there, about a dozen of them, collared and chained to the floor. Their clothing was in tatters and they were curled up on thin pallets over the hard concrete. No matter how cloyingly warm it is outside, a concrete floor will leech the heat out of a body in minutes. There were no guards posted outside the building, but there wouldn't need to be. With them chained up like that, there was no way they'd be able to escape. I clenched my teeth on a snarl and tapped my com. "Wolverine to Hellcat, are you in position?"

"Almost. What's wrong?"

"Nothin' yet, but we gotta get this done an' soon."

"What's your twenty?"

"Just behind the shack near where we got the first sentries. It's full o' kids an' I'm bettin' the rest of 'em are too."

"Fuck me running," she spat. "How many?"

"I saw 'bout a dozen of 'em. There could be more that I couldn't see from the window."

"Wolverine, if there's that many in each of these huts, there's no way I can wrangle all of them."

"I know. Just take out anyone who's on patrol an' get anyone who escapes the main building unless it's one o' the 'weapons'."

"How will I know the difference?"

"Use your instincts."

She sighed heavily. "Copy that, Hellcat out."

I scanned the area around me, but still saw no sign of patrols. This struck me as a bit odd; after all, there were two other guerilla factions out there that these were actively fighting with, yet they didn't seem concerned that one of them would find this place. It was well hidden, yet not so well that we'd had any trouble getting satellite pictures of the compound. Then it occurred to me that maybe this wasn't their main base, but something akin to a weapons depot, close enough to the main base to be effective, but far enough away that no one thought to look for it. It didn't matter to me; my goal was simply to spring the people they had captive and blow the rest of them to hell.

I stalked around the outer perimeter, sticking close to the outbuildings to use the shadows as cover, but it wasn't necessary. I still never encountered another living person, but Angela had seen at least two and there had to be more. I hoped they were all in the main building; it would make my part of the job that much easier. Ideally, I could set the charges and get to the "weapons" to free them, then just blow everyone else up along with the structure itself. I decided that was the best plan of action as I approached the large building in the center.

I scurried to the back entrance in a crouch, my senses alert for any indication of surveillance, but I didn't hear or smell anything. The door itself was simply deadbolted, but there were several of those. I slid out a single claw and slipped the tip into the tiny crack between the door and the frame, working it in until I could slice through the locks. They gave with no resistance, being made of simple steel and no challenge for the adamantium. The door opened easily and I stepped inside. The corridor was dimly lit, the overhead lights giving a sickly yellowish cast to everything. I paused and scented the air, trying to figure out the best way to go. I had just started moving towards the end of the hall when the sound of booted feet froze me in my tracks. I looked around quickly for a place to hide, seeing only one other door I could go through. Luckily, it wasn't locked and I slipped into the room, closing the door softly behind me and engaging the lock. I pressed my ear to the door so I could hear what, if anything, these people had to say.

"And you are certain he detected intruders?" the first one said in rapid Spanish.

"Si," came the reply, "but he is saying he can not pinpoint their location, only that he felt strangers enter the compound."

"Damn it. We must try harder to find a telepath. That damn empath is all but useless."

"Should we deploy guards to search for them?"

"Si, two squads. Have one cover the children and the other do a sweep for these intruders." I listened as one set of feet retreated, but I could still hear the breathing of the other. As he approached the room I was in, his scent grew clearer, a mixture of sweat, gunpowder and cigarette smoke. He stopped just outside the door and tried the knob, then I heard the sound of keys being pulled out of a pocket. I moved to one side, pressing myself against the wall. Whoever this guy was, he wouldn't live long enough to raise an alarm. He turned the key in the lock and the door swung wide, letting in the dim light from the hallway. As he took his first step across the threshold, I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him up against the wall. His eyes went wide and the unmistakable stench of urine filled the small space when I popped my claws an eyeblink before shoving them into his chest. He gave one last rattling breath before going limp and I lowered the body to the floor.

I searched his pockets and came up with an identification card with a magnetic strip on the back. According to the name on the front, he was a captain, which I hoped gave him enough clearance to get anywhere in the building. I also took the keys out of the door and pocketed them as well. I dragged the corpse behind the small desk and let it flop back down. "You're just lucky ya didn't piss on my shoes, asshole," I growled down at him before leaving the office, locking the door behind me.

Once in the hallway, I tapped my com again. "Wolverine to Hellcat. Sitrep?"

"Cleared out one hut full of kids and sent them out to hide in the jungle. One of them was older than the others, so she's got them well in hand." She paused for a moment as though collecting herself. "Wolverine, they're all mutants, every one of them."

"What?" I was stunned by this revelation. Had we been wrong the whole time and the "weapons" were stored in those huts? "Say again Hellcat."

"All the kids are mutants, some of them pretty young to have powers already but they do. The older girl, she said her mother and father are mutants too and they're in there with you somewhere."

I swallowed a growl that was rising in my chest. "Were they usin' the kids too?"

"Negative. Apparently, these guys thought they were too young to fight unless it was absolutely necessary. I get the impression they were just waiting for them to get old enough to send out. And there's something else."

Oh, this just got better and better. "Do I even wanna know?"

"Not all of them are native to the region. Most of these kids are American."

"Hellcat, do they have the healing factor?" She didn't say anything for a long time and a chill ran down my spine. "Answer me! Do they have the healing factor?"

"Yes, they do." I cursed under my breath and rubbed my eyes. "All of them. I'm sorry Wolverine."

"Don't worry 'bout me. Get 'em outta here. Wolverine out." Our worst fear was confirmed. Weapon X wanted these people back because they were ready for bonding. And not being content to wait for their kids to manifest their powers naturally, they sped up the process, probably through a combination of physical and telepathic torture, so they could assimilate the healing factor sooner. Because that was the one thing they'd been unable to predict, in all the years of research and development. Giving the artificial healing factor to someone without an active X gene actually had the opposite effect and killed the host. No one knew why, but it was wholly dependant on the X gene for successful assimilation. That was one of the bits of information we'd gotten during our rampage over the past decade, something we'd only told to a select few people. It didn't make it any better in my eyes, because that meant that some poor bastards had been injected with this thing that keeps me alive and it killed them. I don't know how many they'd done it to before they figured out the X gene connection, but it didn't matter. The fact that they'd done it more than once was enough to make my blood boil.

I slipped the pack off my back and took out one of the tiny charges. It was about the size of a business card, but it packed a punch equal to half a pound of regular plastic explosives and was a lot more stable. I stuck it to the ceiling near the office, next to one of the dim lights and engaged the detonator. The tiny yellow light was almost invisible next to the light bulb, so I zipped up the pack and moved cautiously to the end of the hall. I scented the air, but didn't detect anyone in the vicinity, so I took out another charge and set it in the same way.

I continued my progress until I reached a dead end, then started back, but this time I checked out the doors on either side of the hallway. This was obviously a low-clearance area, open to everyone, and I set charges in every other room. Once I made it back to where I'd started, I checked in with Angela again. She reported that she'd met some resistance, but they hadn't lasted long and was in the process of freeing the last of the kids. All told, there were about thirty of them, which would make getting out of this tricky at best. I signed off with her and continued on my way.

At the other end of the hall, it branched off again to the left and right. I scented the air and finally caught my first whiff of people nearby. I followed the scent to the right and came across a door with a card reader next to it. I took out the card I'd taken from the captain and slid it through the reader, which turned green and let me in. The halls here were in slightly better repair with better lighting, which was both a blessing and a curse. Part of me hoped I wouldn't run into anyone, but the rest of me was really spoiling for a fight. As I approached the end of the hall, one of my wishes was granted.

I heard the sound of shouting, followed by the unmistakable sound of a taser and the screams of the one it was used on. I stashed my pack in a recessed alcove and raced to the end of the hall. The noises were coming from the room beyond and I could make out the sounds of their jeering taunts and the painful whimpers of their victim. I lowered my shoulder as I crashed into the door, slamming it into the wall beside it. Five heads whipped around at the noise, four of which belonged to soldiers in the same green jumpsuit the captain had been wearing. The fifth person was on the ground, curled into a ball, his face a mass of bruises that were clearing up at an alarming rate. I immediately dropped into a defensive crouch, a low growl rumbling in my chest.

"What the fuck do you want, gringo?" One of the soldier/torturers snapped in Spanish, pulling a nightstick out of a loop on his belt.

"To see your brains splattered on the wall, asshole," I snarled in the same language, popping my claws. "Let's dance."

To their credit, they only stayed intimidated by my claws for about half a second before the four of them swarmed towards me. I met them halfway, slashing the one that had spoken from chin to navel, though not fatally. Another one brought his club down on the back of my skull, where it snapped in half and only made me angrier. I spun into a roundhouse kick that whipped his head around hard enough to break his neck and he went down, unmoving. Another one jammed his taser into my kidney and electricity coursed through my skeleton. It hurt like fucking hell, but it wasn't near lethal and I used it to my advantage, jamming my claws into the fourth soldier's leg. He started jittering from the electricity now coursing through both our bodies and his buddy pulled the taser away. I ripped my claws to the side and the guy fell over hard, his leg all but severed as arterial spray bathed me and the remaining soldiers in crimson.

I turned to remaining two, who still hadn't figured out that a strategic retreat was in their best interests. The first one came at me swinging, landing a perfect punch on the point of my chin. His fingers broke with a sound like snapping twigs and he screamed, cradling his hand to his chest. I spun to meet the last one just as he thrust forward with his club, hitting me right in the solar plexus and my breath went out me in a rush. Before I had a chance to recover, he jammed his taser into my neck. It still wasn't nearly lethal, but the pain on top of being completely winded brought me to my knees. Before I could bring my claws to bear, the guy they'd been torturing came off the floor with a roar of his own and grabbed the soldier on either side of his head. With a snarl, he broke the man's neck and let the body fall to the ground.

I remained hunched over for a bit while I got my breath back. Healing factor or no, it still takes a moment for it to return when someone's lucky enough to hit me in the areas unprotected by adamantium. But I still recover faster than a normal human would, which was a good thing because one soldier remained and from the sound of it, he'd recovered enough to go to town on the guy who'd just become my unwitting ally. I leapt to my feet and charged him, hitting him low and slamming him into the wall. He tried to get his taser up with his good hand to jolt me again, but I sliced the hand off at the wrist, then retracted my claws and grabbed him by the face. With a single powerful thrust, I slammed his head into the concrete behind him, shattering the skull and spilling blood and brain matter. I let him drop and kicked the corpse for good measure. "Told ya, asshole."

I wiped the blood from my face with my forearm, then turned to the mutant in the room with me. He was again curled up on the floor, but the new bruises on his face were already clearing up. I started towards him and he looked up with fear in his eyes. "P-please, don't k-kill me!" He stammered in English.

I crouched down in front of him. "I ain't gonna kill ya, bub," I replied and grabbed his arm, hauling him to his feet. "What's your name?"

"Jake. I, uh, don't remember my last name." He looked down as though ashamed.

I snorted bitterly. "Yeah, they like to do that." As soon as I was sure he was steady on his feet, I turned back to the corpses and started going through their pockets. "No code name yet?"

"Pardon?" He asked, a bit confused, then seemed to get it. "Oh, um, no not yet. They said I wouldn't get one unless I survived the rest of the procedure."

I nodded silently, pocketing more identification cards and rings of keys on the off chance these guys had better clearance than the captain had. "Yeah well, they ain't gonna get that far on ya." I stood up and looked him over, but he seemed to have healed nicely. "So besides the forced healin' factor, what else do ya do?"

"Mostly, I'm an empath, but I'm a bit stronger than most people."

Ah, so that's why he was getting the L.A. cop treatment from those guys. He must be the one that couldn't tell them more than the fact there were intruders on base. I walked over to him with a keycard and a set of keys. "Jake, listen to me. I want ya to go to wherever they're keepin' the rest o' ya an' get 'em outta here. There's a hole in the fence near the northern edge o' the compound. Go about a klick into the jungle an' wait for me."

"I can't leave, they have my children!" He wailed desperately. "That's the only reason we cooperated with them!"

"No worries bub. My partner's outside right now gettin' 'em outta here. You just tell her Wolverine sent ya, she'll know you're friendly by that alone."

"And then what? You work for the people who did this to me, you have the same tags I had!" He took on a fighting stance. "I won't let you take us back there!"

"Look, I ain't got time to argue with ya, all right? We got no intention of takin' ya back to 'em. But we are gonna need you to all play dead so we have a reason why we didn't bring ya in."

"Play dead?"

"Yeah. See, we were told there were stolen weapons here. Wasn't til we got close enough to find bodies tore apart that we knew for certain the weapons were people." I went to the door and glanced down the hall, but apparently the little skirmish had gone unnoticed. "We got our own reasons for doin' what we do, but we ain't gonna let ya go back to that. Now go, get the others outta here. I have to blow this place."

He didn't argue anymore; he simply dashed out the door and around the corner. I went and retrieved my pack, setting charges along the hallway. A few minutes later I met back up with Jake, followed by about a dozen other people. They were all mutants, some with very obvious physical mutations. One guy looked like a shorter Sabretooth but with black hair and he smelled a lot better. All of them were a bit bloody, but none of it seemed to be their own. I hoped that meant they'd taken care of most of the rest of the opposition, which would make the rest of my job go by faster. Jake handed me the keycard without a word and the lot of them left without another word. I went down the hall he'd come from, still setting charges as I went along. I eventually came to another dead end hall, but this one had an elevator in the wall. I stepped on and used the keycard in the slot next to the door, the only feature in the tiny box. It immediately descended one level and doors slid open.

I was met with a scene best described as pure carnage. Being freed from their captors and assured their children were safe, they took out their rage on the men who had used them so badly. I didn't blame them one bit; I was also counting the days until I could do the same thing. I stepped over bodies, unable to avoid the large pools of blood that filled the hallway and made my way deeper into the complex. I eventually came across the cells the mutants had been kept in and swore softly. They were about the size of a kennel that might be found at an animal shelter and not nearly as clean. More bodies lined the hall here, but I again ignored them and continued my work.

Once I was finished, I stalked down the remaining hallway. There was a single door at the end of it, but none of the keycards I had would open it. I didn't want to take the time to go through the pockets of all the dead men, so I popped my claws and ripped the thing off its hinges. As I tossed it aside, gunfire erupted and bullets peppered my torso. I dove to the floor, flinging the pack back into the hallway as I did so, then rolled and sprang to my feet. I was in a large room, roughly circular in shape and about twenty-five feet across. To the left was a huge bank of closed-circuit monitors, each showing a different part of the interior of the building. None of them showed a view of the outside, which I thought was extremely stupid. Had they known we were out there, they could have slowed our mission down by about fifteen minutes.

Placed sporadically through the room were desks with computers on them, now dark. Five of them had been overturned, the electronics shattered beyond repair and it was from behind this sketchy cover that the shots had come. I let my claws spring forth again and rushed the nearest soldier as he came out from his cover to shoot at me again. I leapt over the desk and buried both sets of claws into his chest with a roar of rage and the rest stood up and opened fire. The stink of overheating metal and gunpowder filled the room, the flare from the muzzles of their automatic weapons momentarily blinding me. But it didn't matter, I already knew where they all were and I dove for the next victim. He brought the butt of his rifle around and whipped me across the face as I lashed out with my claws, severing both of his hands. They fell to the floor with the rifle still clutched in them as the soldier screamed in horror. I plunged my claws through his face and he fell next to his gun.

Footsteps approached me from either side, so I spun to my left and kicked out, shattering the kneecap of the closest soldier. He cried out as he fell, but still tried to bring his rifle up to shoot me point blank. I shredded it with my claws, but before I could finish him off someone hit me in the kidneys with their own rifle, hard enough to bring tears of pain to my eyes. I kicked backwards and heard a sickening crack and a howl of pain. I slashed my claws down to finish off the first guy before turning to the face the one that hit me. He was screaming and clutching his thigh, a bit of gleaming white bone visible through a tear in his pants. I stomped on his leg mercilessly and he turned visibly green. Before he could vomit, I brought my claws down and through his throat, severing arteries, his windpipe and his spinal cord, killing him instantly. I turned quickly to the rest of the room, knowing these couldn't be the only ones in there. I stalked to the next desk and found a man with a neat bullet hole just over his right eye. He'd either been caught in the crossfire or by a ricochet off one of my bones. Either way, he was dead and needed no further consideration. I turned to the last desk and walked casually towards it. There was the last soldier, a kid no more than twenty or so, clutching his rifle in one hand and his crucifix necklace in the other. He was praying under his breath in rapid Spanish and apparently hadn't heard my approach. I nudged him with my toe and with a gasp, he pushed himself away from me.

"Please don't kill me, God, please don't kill me!" He babbled in his native tongue. I retracted the claws on my right hand and hauled him up by the front of his shirt. "Please don't kill me, devil, please!"

I positioned my left claws right in front of his eyes. "Did they all get out?" He shook his head and continued to plead with me, so I gave him a rough shake. "Did all the mutants get out?" I shouted.

"Si, si," he stammered, "all of them escaped!"

"How did you get 'em in the first place?"

"W-we heard th-there was a l-laboratory in Costa Rica. W-we paid a group th-there to steal them!"

"What about the kids? Where did they come from?"

"They were there too! P-please don't kill me!"

"How'd they get 'em outta the lab?"

"I-I don't know! I heard there were bribes, but I don't know to who!"

"Where's the rest o' your army?"

"Four kilometers east of here is the main camp. We were only protecting the weap…mutants."

I released him and he fell to the floor in a heap. He scuttled backwards until he hit the wall and stayed there, sobbing and praying. I retracted my claws, retrieved my pack and set the rest of the charges, then turned to the wreck in the corner. He started gibbering again in rapid Spanish, too fast for me to make out a word. I hauled him back to his feet and he again pleaded with me to spare him.

"I ain't gonna kill ya, bub," I growled and he looked at me in surprise. I just smiled. "I'm gonna let the explosion do that for me." A look of horror crossed his face and I gave him a brutal head butt. His eyes rolled back in his head and I let him drop. I retrieved his weapon, along with those of the others I'd killed in here, and made my way back to the surface.

Once outside, I noticed the small knots of fallen bodies here and there and smiled to myself. My wife can be wonderfully vicious when she wants to be and since there were children involved here, I'm sure she was extremely vicious indeed. I went into each of the outbuildings and set a charge in each of them, then left the pack, keycards and key rings in the last one before shouldering the scavenged rifles and leaving the compound. I paused and scented the air, having no trouble at all picking up Angela's scent amongst everything else. My body ached where the bullet holes were still healing and a low ache in my back told me I'd probably piss blood the next time I went, but I was otherwise all right. I turned in the direction of my woman's scent and followed it for a little while before determining that she had followed orders and gone back to our tiny campsite. I strode through the forest, stealth no longer an issue, and once I was about half a klick away I pulled a small detonator out of my pocket along with a cigar. I lit my stogie and inhaled deeply, then thumbed the detonator. A huge fireball bathed the night in scarlet and orange and I smiled. I like blowing things up, it's almost as fun as sex or fighting. Almost.

I strolled through the forest casually, as though I hadn't just torn through a dozen guerillas and blown up their base. It took me far less time to get back to camp than it had to get to the base and Angela was sitting next to a small fire she'd started. She leapt to her feet, claws out, as I approached, but slid them away and ran into my arms when she saw it was me. I held her for a long moment, simply enjoying the way she felt in my arms. After a moment, I kissed the top of her head and she stepped away. "Gods Wolverine, you look like holy hell," she said, taking in the blood that covered me from head to toe.

"Yeah, an' I feel like it too," I replied. I went to our tent and grabbed soap and a towel. "I gotta wash this blood off o' me, it's makin' me itch."

"What, in front of the kids?"

I looked around and saw that the other adults had sorted out the children and they were all in little huddles throughout the clearing. The smaller kids were already asleep, but some of the older ones were talking to their parents in low voices. I stopped at the edge of the stream and sighed. "I'll leave my boxers on, all right?" I took a good long look at where she stood, scowling at me, and she appeared to be perfectly immaculate. "You gonna tell me you didn't have a bath soon as you got back?"

"Well, yeah. But I left my tank top on too."

"Well I ain't gonna do that. Be glad I'm leavin' the boxers on."

She shook her head, but left me to my bath. The stream wasn't deep or wide, but it wasn't ice cold either which was nice. I cleaned myself up as well as I could and wrapped the towel around my waist before going back to the tent. Once inside, I pulled on clean clothes and stashed the bloody ones in a bag that we would burn before we left. I went back outside and joined Angela back near the fire. "Logan," she whispered, "we can't walk through miles of jungle with this many people."

"An' we can't leave 'em here either," I replied as I looked around. "An' I don't know 'bout you, but I ain't givin' 'em back to Weapon X."

"What are we gonna do with them?"

I shook my head and poked at the fire; I had no more idea than she did. We sat there for a few seconds before I heard footsteps approaching. We looked up and one of the women they'd had captive was standing over us, a bag in her hand. "May I sit down?" She asked tentatively.

"Sure," Angela said and made room for her on the log. The woman sat down with as much space between her and Angela as she could get without falling to the ground. "What's your name?"

"Jessica," she replied, looking at her hands. "I don't know my last name anymore. They made me forget it somehow."

We both nodded; we knew what that was like. "So Jessica, what do you need?" I asked.

"I couldn't help but overhear you talking a minute ago," she started and we looked at her in surprise. She gave a tiny smile of apology. "Sorry, I couldn't help it. Extra sharp hearing is…was my only mutation." We nodded in understanding, since she'd been given the healing factor along with the rest of them. "Anyway, I took this off one of the guards after he was dead, will it help?" She pulled a large yellow phone out of the bag.

Angela reached out and took it from her and smiled. It was a satellite phone, much better than a cellular phone out here in the middle of nowhere. "Yes Jessica, it will, very much. Thank you."

"What's going to happen to us?"

I looked at Angela and nodded. "Well, we're going to call a friend of ours, who will call another friend of ours and he'll send someone to pick you up."

She looked up sharply. "Pick us up? You're sending us back there?"

"No! We're not." Angela placed a gentle hand on her arm. "We have another friend who only wants to help mutants. We stayed with him for a while, but then something happened and we decided we had to come back to Weapon X to take care of something."

"What?"

I shook my head. "Sorry darlin', the less ya know, the safer you'll be. Just believe us when we say you ain't comin' back with us."

She nodded, but still seemed dubious, so Angela took over the conversation again. "Listen, I know you don't have any reason to trust us. Gods know I wouldn't in your position, but what happened to you already is just the beginning. They'll do more to you than you can imagine, your children too if they get the chance. But we won't let that happen. We can't let there be any more like us than there already are. Just meet with our friends when they come to get you and if you don't trust them, they'll take you anywhere you want to go. But it might be best if you just listen to what they have to say first, all right?"

"Oh, it's not that I don't trust you. I know who you both are." We looked at her, surprised again and she smiled. "I saw you on television once, a while back. The avalanche in Colorado?" We nodded, dumbfounded. "You did a pretty good job of keeping away from the cameras, but there was one shot of you two outside a Red Cross tent. It wasn't very long, but I'd recognize that hair anywhere." Angela stifled a giggle and I scowled at her. "What I don't understand is why you're here and the others aren't."

Angela bit her lip and looked down and I took a deep breath against the pain in my heart every time I thought of Evie. "We ain't with the X-Men anymore, Jessica. See, these Weapon X people, they're responsible for our daughter dyin'. We left the X-Men an' went back to Weapon X cuz we're hopin' to make 'em pay for that someday."

"So you're like undercover?"

"Somethin' like that." It wasn't the whole story and I doubted that she'd say anything to anyone else, but she didn't need to know any more. "The friends we're sendin' to get ya are the X-Men, so you should be able to trust 'em just fine."

She nodded and stood up. "That's good enough for me. Should I tell the others?" I shook my head and she nodded again. "All right. But for what it's worth, I hope you can kill those monsters someday. I wasn't always like this, I always thought that people could be reasoned with. But the day they took me and my children, tortured us…not anymore. Kill them and think of me." She walked back to her family and sat down, gathering a little girl into her lap.

I looked at my wife. "You all right?"

"Yeah," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm gonna go call Bennington, have him call the Professor." I nodded and watched as she disappeared into the darkness. I looked over at the families scattered around the clearing and my heart clenched in my chest again. Maybe we hadn't been able to save our own child, but we saved theirs and it was enough. It had to be, otherwise I didn't know if I could go on.


AN: Seven chapters down and we're about a third of the way through this story...:) Special thanks to my beta team - Zac, Turiel Tincdaniel and DBK(tm)...no more extra thanks for DBK though, since he hasn't actually begged for more in a while...Super Special thanks to my readers, who have stuck by me and this story for literally hundreds of thousands of words (over 400,000 to this series alone!)...And Super Swanky Special thanks to my reviewers, who were Andromeda Jones and theNightEnchantress...:) Miss Jones: I'm not telling if it's a boy or a girl! You'll find out later, with everyone else! And technically, the story IS complete...i'm just evil and make everyone wait...:)

I'm still hoping to hear from new people! If anyone would like a new chapter earlier than usual, just click the "go" button, say hello or something and i'll post a new chapter as soon as i receive it!