At the mansion...
The moment the inhibitor was yanked from their bodies, every telepath who actively searched for them immidiately sensed it. They couldn't feel emotions and they couldn't read thoughts; they were too far away, but the lifesigns were strong as ever, like a candle burning in an impossibly dark room.
Jean shrieked at the sense of them, their heartbeats and souls overwhelmed her telepathic ability. She was wearing cerebra, which magnified telepathic abilities. She threw cerebra off. "Professor!" She shouted, "I've found them!"
---
Massechusetts Academy...
Emma and Sean were demonstrating a particularly deadly flight maneuver to Monet when Emma felt Jubilee's lifesign activate, strong as ever. Emma lifted her arms to make the sign of the 'X', the sign that mean stop. "Wait, Sean!" She shouted, just as he was about to give her a round-house, staged kick to the head.
"What's the matter, Emma?" He asked, confused that she would stop the exercise.
"It's Jubilee!" She shouted, then grew frustrated at his confused expression. "Sean! She's alive! I can feel her!"
Monet's jaw dropped. "You can feel her? How?" She couldn't feel Jubilee at all ... and what was this about her 'being alive' talk? Didn't she say she was convinced Jubilee was alive, having run off on a mission with Wolverine? Was Jubilee in trouble? Why hadn't Emma told her? Just what the hell happened?
Monet hadn't the experience to know yet that telepaths could 'track' their friends mentally, no matter where they went on earth, and keep track of their lifesigns. It didn't help find anyone, but it helped to know who was still alive and who had died.
With the case of Wolverine and Jubilee, their lifesigns were non-existent. Usually that was the first sign that they were dead, but telepaths could feel the death of a close friend easily enough, and none of the telepaths sensed their deaths at all. Just a fading away. It was a fascinating puzzle and a hard search. Such a 'tracker' trick took years and years of honing telepathic skills, and even as talented as Monet was, she wasn't strong enough for that feat. Yet.
Emma pushed past Monet, too excited to stay and explain. She ran out of the Danger Grotto, off to call Xavier, to tell him she sensed her. Wherever Jubilee was, the White Queen reasoned, she had to be in dire need of help.
---
Back At the Mansion...
Betsy dropped the katana she had been polishing in shock, her telepathy flaring to life. Wolverine. His lifesign. It was active. He was alive.
She picked up her katana and put it back on her dresser. She stroked its metal affectionately, a smile twisting on her lips.
As if there would be any question that he was still alive. He couldn't die by a serial killer, for that wasn't the way of warriors. She exited her room, walking slowly, fists clenched.
She opened Xavier's office and opened her mouth to speak. "Request to take the blackbird!"
Jean ran in through the other door, excitement pouring from her. "I've found them!"
The phone rang. Xaver put his hands to his head at the sudden onslaught of noise. Both women quieted instantly. Xavier answered the phone. "Yes, Emma, I know, I felt them, too. Yes, Scott and Beast are already in Moscow. I will. Thank you." He hung up the phone and looked to Jean.
"You felt them, too Professor?"
Xavier nodded. He then looked to Psylocke in question. "You wish to use the Blackbird? Why?"
"Should Scott and the others need more effective transportation than American Airlines, if Wolverine and Jubilee are indeed in danger."
Xavier quirked an eyebrow. He was sure she wanted more than to just provide an escape route - she wanted a piece of the action. "You and Jean may go."
---
The prison...
Jubilee felt very nauseous and her stomach twisted into little knots. She was sure she was going to throw up from the anxiety and anticipation. She shook, her body flooded with adrenaline.
They were thirty feet high in the air, her arms gripped tightly around Wolverine's neck, his claws embedded into the stone chute. The walls were slippery as hell, and the stone was weak, so any moment the wall could crumble away, and they could fall to their deaths.
Even worse than that, Logan had picked up the sound of heavy footsteps, which meant that they weren't alone. A guard was approaching, and soon he would be stepping over the grate. If the guard was lucky, he wouldn't look down and notice the two mutants. If he was unlucky, he would look down, notice the two, and die.
Jubilee swallowed as her ears picked up the approaching footsteps. "Wolvie," She whispered as quietly as she could considering she was so close to his ear, "I know you don't wanna hear this, but I'm gonna upchuck. Right now. Right frickin' now."
"Don't you dare." He whispered through clenched teeth, determined not the lose his balance and grip on the wall. How could she throw up in a time like this? He knew the answer, of course. She was scared. "Concentrate on something else." He said, listening to the footsteps, hoping -praying!- that the guard would turn a corner.
But the guard didn't turn a corner. He kept coming down their lane, oblivious to the escape attempt, oblivious that the grate was unlocked, oblivious that there were two very angry mutants just a few feet away from reaching the grate, and oblivious to how much they hated him.
"Jubilation," He said, wishing he never had to be put in the position to say this, "ya can't be innocent anymore." There, he said it, and immediatly hated himself for it. He loved her innocence. He always had. She was the light to his dark. She was living proof that he wasn't good-for-nothing. If he could raise such a fun-loving, life-respecting girl just by being himself and being the best at what he does, then that meant something profound. There was hope left for him and others like him. There was hope for all humanity. Love still existed and would prevail over Evil. That was why he hated himself at this moment. He was telling Jubilee to do the exact opposite that he respected her for.
"I know ya don't like killin' and I'm proud o' you for making the decision to never take a human life...and maybe once we're outta this stinkhole ya can go on practicin' it..I wouldn't mind...But if we're gonna get outta here alive, you're gonna have to use yer powers like ya mean it." He hated those words, and he hated himself even more for being the one to say it. He never wanted her to lose whatever last shred of innocence she had on account of him.
The man in the quarry was a horrific accident for Jubilee; unintentional. But if they wanted to escape the underground city alive, she had to be aggressive about taking lives. Her paffs would have to be generated with the force and intention to kill. If she left one of those healing guards breathing, they would be caught in no time and they both would meet the executioners axe or rope of whatever other sick thing he used to extinguish lives. Lady Yvanka was only as forgiving as the next human, and an escape attempt would not put her in a very forgiving mood.
"Otherwise we can go back down to the cell and wait for Yvanka to let us go." He had to give her that option. For Jubilee's innocence, he would stay imprisoned as long as needed.
Now she felt like she was going to cry and throw up. She let out a nervous laugh. "If that was a way of you makin' me concentrate on somethin' else, it didn't work."
Fear gripped her heart as the Guard stepped over the grate. She fell silent, frightened and in shock. Logan picked up on the scent of fear and clenched his teeth tighter. His jaw hurt from the constant pressure he put on it. Could he live with himself letting Jubilee become a killer? Could he live with himself knowing that he played a hand in it?
Even though she popped off earlier and swore she would kill Yvanka, Jubilee was just angry, she didn't mean it. She thought she did, but she couldn't have. She always threatened to kill people when she was angered enough. But threats and actions were to entirely different things and they both knew it.
He was going back down. He couldn't let her kill this way. They would have to find another way to get out. He was ready to pull his claw out of the wall and descend.
"No. I'm not staying here anymore." Was Jubilee's only reply, monotone and lacking all emotion. He felt Jubilee reach for the grate with her fingers pointed straight to the guard..
"Wait-" Wolverine said, just as a strong pulse of energy burst through Jubilee's fingertips and struck the guard. The light was intense, heating up the room, making the walls shake with the force. It made a sickening explosion sound, and the guard fell instantly, dead.
Logan swallowed his words and quickly ascended the wall and pushed open the grate. Jubilee squeazed through the grate and looked down the walkways to make sure no one approached. "Crud, Wolvie! Someone's gonna hear that!"
"Damn right they will, so we gotta split!" He dropped the dead guard into their cell. He fell silently and landed in the stagnant water, his body sinking slowly under the weight of his armour.
Wolverine shut the grate and locked it. "If we're lucky, they won't notice we're gone until Quarry time tomorrow. Ya did good, Jubilee. He died instantly. He didn't feel no pain." He grabbed Jubilee's arm and started running, Jubilee's fireworks working as a flashlight, lighting up the darkness of the tunnels around them.
---
In Moscow...
"Scott, have you left Moscow yet?"
"No, but we're boarding in five minutes." Scott put the phone closer to his ear to hear better. The phone lines were old in this area, and it was hard to hear anything.
"Don't get on the plane. Logan and Jubilee are still in Moscow. I'm trying to locate them still. Go back to the sewer tunnels, I have a feeling they'll be there. They may be in need of assistance. We're sending Jean and Psylocke with the Blackbird." The phone went dead. Scott hung up the phone. He turned to Beast.
"Scott? What has transpired?"
"Put on your shorts, we're going swimming." He didn't sound the least bit happy, but he sounded determined, and that meant that the call was probably from Xavier, hopefully with good news.
"Swimming? In weather like this? I'll catch my death!"
"We're going back to the sewers. Xavier thinks they're still down there!"
---
The prison...
Her fireworks were such a blessed sight, and she was happy to have them back. She was also happy to be temporarily free, running once more. She nearly ran into Wolverine as he stopped suddenly, sniffing. He quickly pointed to his left. "Down here!"
She panted as she followed after him. She had to stay close to him. She was working as his eyes - allowing him to see through her powers. "What are you looking for, Wolvie?" He seemed to be following a familiar scent, but whose? Who would he be looking for when they should be escaping?
"Gotta find Rooter. He's the only one who knows the way outta here!" He ran down the corridors, Jubilee's fireworks fizzing and spitting around him, waking up every prisoner in the area. The prisoners shouted, begging to be let out.
"Wolvie, should we let them out?" She asked, glancing at their miserable desperate faces as she ran past.
Logan let out a scowl as he ran. "Most of these people deserve to be down here, Jubilation. Don't go getting soft on convicts."
"Havent they suffered enough, though?"
Wolverine slowed his pace, Rooter's smell growing stronger. He considered her words, thinking. He didn't answer, too distracted by Rooter's cell. With a SNIKT! The lock that kept his cell closed was broken into three different pieces. They fell to the floor with three loud Clanks. Rooter jumped to his feet in surprise.
"What's all this commotion?" Rooter asked, rubbing his eyes at the intensity of Jubilee's fireworks. "Pretty! Your powers! Y-you create light?" He looked to Wolverine and paled. "But they sent you to the torture room! I was certain you had died!" He looked at his broken lock, and shook his head in disbelief. "This is not real."
"No time to chit-chat, Rooter! We're bustin' out and you're helpin'!" Logan pointed at Rooter with his claws. "Or do ya wanna rot here forever?"
Rooter didn't even think twice. "I'm with you!" He exited his cell quickly and took his place beside Jubilee. "I never thought I would live to see the day. Though I should warn you, no one has ever escaped this prison."
"Wolverine isn't just anybody!" Jubilee responded with a wicked grin.
"Neither are you, apparently." Rooter observed.
"Enough small talk, we gotta get outta here!" He turned around to see all of the nearby prisoners staring at him. "Listen up! I'll let you all outta here, but you're all on your own!" The entire cell block cheered.
As he ran down the long stretch of walkway, and slashed at the locks to the inmates' cell doors. Jubilee blasted the ones he missed, the locks shattering as if the keyholes had been filled with TNT. "I thought you said they deserved to be in here, Wolverine!"
"You're right, Jubilee, they've paid for their sins. Besides, they'll help keep the guards occupied, I reckon!" He could hear Jubilee and Rooter behind him, keeping up pace well. "Rooter, which way you figure will take us to the surface, to the sewers of Moscow?"
"You see those pipes above your head?" Rooter panted, not used to the physical activity.
Wolverine looked up, suddenly noticing that there actually were pipes up there. He had always been too preoccupied to notice.
"Just follow the pipes you see above you. That's a water line. The pipes are set up in a natural spring above ground. They use good-old-fashioned gravity to bring drinking water into the tunnels." The pipes were huge, about as wide as the trunk of 200-year-old tree. How could he have not noticed something that big?
"Can we flood the tunnels?" Jubilee asked.
"We could, but we'd drown with the guards and the prisoners if we did that." They continued to run through the dark tunnels, lucky to not have come across any guards yet. Logan heard the distinctive sound of a gun being cocked. He stopped in his tracks, struggling to see. He smelled three guards, not too far off. "Dim your lights, Jubilee!"
Wolverine turned to Rooter, pointing at him. "Did you have any useful powers before they stuck you down here?"
Rooter put his hands up in defense at the sight of the claws being pointed at him for the second time that day. "No. I just made people sick."
Wolverine sheathed two of his claws, leaving the index claw out. "Good enough, we need all the help we can get. Hold still!" With a quick, accurate plunge, he impaled Rooter in the chest.
Rooter didn't even have the time to scream. He fell to his knees, at Wolverine's mercy.
Once Wolverine extracted Rooter's inhibitor, Jubilee stomped on it repeatedly.
Rooter slowly rose from his knees, gasping, hand covering his tiny wound. "You mind warning me before you skewer me with those pigstickers!" He then looked down at his hands, jaw falling slack. "It's back! My power! It's back!" He could feel his ability flow through his body like a current of electricity, ready at his command.
BLAM! A bullet ricocheted off the stone walls, a shot meant for Wolverine, and all three mutants ducked instinctively. Jubilee lit up the dark tunnels with her sparks, revealing three guards. Wolverine leapt for them and landed on one, raking his claws down the man's body.
Rooter pointed to one man, unleashing his power. At first glance, it looked as if Rooter did nothing. There were no special effects with him - until the guard dropped his weapon and groaned, then threw up repeatedly. He fell to the floor, holding his head, the tunnels spinning out of control, making it impossible to stand.
The third guard had jumped for Jubilee, swinging his gun like a club, ready to knock her out. He was ordered not to kill her, lest he be killed himself. Jubilee wouldn't have known of that, so when he swung at her, she paffed him in the cerebral cortex, the intention to kill, just as Wolverine had warned her. He fell on her, heavy, limp, dead. He paffs died away, her arms pinned underneath the large man. The tunnels fell dark.
Wolverine knew it was hopeless to stab the second guard anywhere else but between the eyes - where he couldn't heal fast enough. The damage he had made to the guard had healed over instantly. He managed to jump on the guard's back, and it being pitch black as it was, he made an educated guess at where his target was and drove a claw through his brainstem. The guard fell, Wolverine's aim being true, and the last guard sat clinging to the floor, sick.
In the shadows Wolverine made quick work of him.
---
The sewers
They splashed through the tunnel sewers where they had seen Wolverine's claw marks, past where Jubilee had burned the side of the building. Instead of turning left as they had before, they made a right. The sewers were like a labyrinth, easy to get lost in, its passageways all exactly alike. Wolverine and Jubilee had been effective at leving breadcrumbs - up until this point, where everything stopped.
Scott blasted a chunk out of the wall, marking where they had gone, and continued. The site where they had found the mauled serial killer wasn't far off.
---
The prison's tunnels
"We can follow these pipes two-thirds of the way out. But if you want to get to the sewers, you'll have to turn left at the T section coming up. It's about half a mile off." Rooter panted, his lungs, legs, and powers exhausted.
They had taken care of two more men who didn't fall easily. Rooter and Logan had taken to keeping count - Rooter had two, Logan had three. There weren't nearly as many guards as they had expected there to be - Rooter assumed that the other prisoners were keeping them busy. They had released at least thirty, and who knew how many prisoners managed to release others.
"Great," Jubilee responded to the comment about the distance she would have to run, the sides of her stomach aching as she ran. She was out of shape thanks to her imprisonment, and she didn't hesitate to let everyone know.
Wolverine stopped in his tracks, sniffing. "Hope you two don't mind taking a detour," He then glared. He had identified the owner of the scent. "The good Doctor."
"Doctor? You mean the one who - Oh, Wolvie ..." She didn't even want to remember all of the things that Wolverine had endured under the doctor's curiosity. "What are you going to do to him?"
He crossed his claws, making X's. "Payback!"
---
Half an Ocean Away...
The Blackbird had apparently been out of comission, so Jean and Psylocke ended up having to take 'The Thunder,' a new and relatively small aircraft capeable of breaking the sound barrier, among other things. It had been upgraded with Shi'ar technology, making it the most superior form of transportation next to automic teleportation.
With the superior technology and small size of the ship, the two telepaths were only twenty minutes away from Moscow.
"We're not in range yet, but we should be, soon." Jean said, trying to contact Wolverine and coming up blank.
"Whoever is responsible for their disappearance will have to answer to all of us, if he or she hasn't already." Betsy commented, jaw set. No one messed with one of the Xmen without having to face them all.
---
The prison tunnels
The doctor didn't have a chance. He actually had a scalpel and tried to defend himself with it. He managed one slice across Wolverine's chest, which healed over quickly. The doctor didn't have a healing factor - he wasn't a guard.
Jubilee watched as Wolverine made a strategic stab with his claws, pinning the man between his two claws and the wall, his middle claw still sheathed. The doctor couldn't move. He was stuck. Helpless. At the mercy of his captor. Just as Wolverine had been. He wasn't lost on the irony of it. Neither was Wolverine, and Wolverine was more than able to inflict the same damage that had been inflicted upon him earlier.
Jubilee couldn't let him do that. The doctor was a bastard, but he wasn't a guard. He was worthless and meaningless, and Wolverine didn't need another torture on his conscience. "Don't kill him, Wolvie!"
He pressed his free claw next to the doctor's delicate skin, glaring. "Stay outta this, Jubilation, he didn't torture you." He pressed his claw into the skin ever so slightly, not breaking skin yet, but the threat was loud and clear. "So waddia wanna start with first?" He asked the doctor through narrowed, burning eyes. "Want me to remove your spleen without any morphine and let you watch? Mine grew back thanks to the healin' factor, but you? You don't have one, do you?"
"More reason not to do this, Wolvie! Listen to me! Please! You do this and you'll be just like him!" She was being a hypocrite, she knew that, the way she went on in the cell about all the things she wanted to do to Yvanka. But killing out of neccesity and killing out of vengeance were as different as wine and water. She could forgive herself for killing the guards, but not for killing Yvanka and Indah, and she couldn't forgive herself if she let Wolverine kill this way.
Rooter glanced left and right nervously, on the look out for guards. "We should really be getting on our way," he said, fear evident in his words. He whole body shook with fear. "We'll be found. We'll be surrounded. We have to leave! We can't stay here! We have to keep moving!"
The doctor broke a sweat, eyes wide. He swallowed and stuttered. "D-d-dont-"
"Don't what?" Wolverine roared. "Don't burn your eyes with a fucking chisel! Don't cut open your belly and mess with your intestines! I could try some of that, bub, 'cause I got six scalpels of my own! But I doubt you have any guts to begin with, so what's the bother, eh? Why torture a man unable to defend himself?" He sheathed his claws and threw him across his working table, vials and glasses shattering on impact with the doctor's body. "Ya won't have to worry about me doin' any of that!" He turned to Jubilee and rooter, expression grave and angry. "I may be damned to hell but I ain't gutless!"
The doctor shivered with shock and fear on the stone floor of his work room, watching Wolverine walk away. "Consider yourself lucky!" He said, Rooter and Wolverine taking his leave.
Jubilee glared at the doctor, Wolverine's tortured screams replaying in her head. Wolverine had scared the piss out of the doctor, a puddle of urine having collected under the man. She gave the doctor a low-grade, non-lethal paff and one good kick to the belly. "That's for all the other people you've operated on, you sick little maggot!" She ran after Rooter and Wolverine, her thirst for vengeance temporarily satisfied.
---
Moscow
They landed the Thunder on a stretch of bare ground, not far from where the contents of the sewer poured into a nearby river. Jean agreed to stay with the Thunder, ready to take off if it was needed, and Psylocke left to find Beast and Scott.
Psylocke ran through the tunnels upstream of the sewer, not appreciating the location Wolverine had decided to pull off his disappearing act. "Why couldn't you get lost in the Carribean?" She scolded, trying to keep down the bile that rose in her throat at the smell. She was going to need a bath after this.
She could hear Scott and Beast not far off. "Beast! Cyclops!" She shouted, catching their attention. She caught up with them. "I've come to help. Jean is waiting in the Thunder in case we need to make a hasty retreat."
"Good thinking. We might have to. I heard three explosions coming from this direction," he pointed with his fingers, "it sounds like there is also either rapid fire or Jubilee's fireworks."
They both broke into a run. "We don't know what kind of a foe we're up against yet, so the plan for the time being is to get Wolverine and Jubilee and get out."
---
The tunnels
They had made a fairly successful escape attempt, and things were looking fairly positive, since Rooter, Jubilee, and Wolverine both recognized this area. Apparently, the sewers of Moscow weren't too far off.
Then they turned a corner and slid to a halt, having caught sight of at least ten Guards, guns aimed, blocking their exit.
"There's no way we can fight all of them, Wolverine, no way, no how!" Jubilee shouted in panic. She could paff them all - explode the terrain under them and kill them all - but that would kill her friends in the process, so that was out of the question. So was this it? They get this far, then go back to their cell and get executed for attempting an escape and killing several guards?
Logan sniffed, catching sight of a familiar scent. Was that ...? No, it couldn't be. He had too many run-ins with bad luck for this to be true. Maybe he imagined it? He sniffed again. Aside from the sewers, he picked up three familiar scents - Psylocke, Scott, and Beast. Excitement ran through his body. They were here! It wasn't his imagination! It was a rescue attempt! And by the smell of it, they weren't far off. "'Hope springs eternal,'" he quoted, inciting a quizzical look from Rooter.
"What was that shit you just said, pretty?"
"We aren't gonna fight them."
"What?" Rooter asked, now beginning to regret following Wolverine and Jubilee. At least he had a life in the cell. Up here, with those ten guards - and was that five more he saw in the shadows? - all that was up here was impending doom.
"We're gonna run though 'em."
"Are you fucking crazy? We'll get shot!"
"Yeah, crazy as can be. Hit them with everything you've got, and don't stop running. The sewers are close by, and a few friends to boot! Follow me and keep up!" Wolverine took to his feet from his crouching position and darted for the large sewage pipe he could barely see ahead of him, some fifty feet away. Between him and the exit to freedom were the guards.
---
Moscow
Jean was laying out the emergency kits inside the Thunder, preparing for anything that may happen, when she heard Wolverine's thoughts sift through her head. 'Damn guards are in my way. Get out of the way. Gonna slice ya. Don't get hurt, Jubilee. Keep up, Rooter, we're almost there.'
She sent a thought to him, disclosing the location of the Thunder. We're here, Logan!
Jeanie, I love ya. Get the engines running, we've got a whole fleet after us.
Jean telepathically sent out a warning to Scott for a retreat repeating what Wolverine had said, and Scott telepathically thanked her.
---
The border of the sewers and tunnels
He had let out the animal inside him. The beast had graciously taken over, determined to get to the sewers, and god help whoever was in his way. Wolverine let out a howl, impaling two Guards who had open-fired as he ran past. He was shot in several places but didn't feel it, adrenaline flowing too thickly through his blood. Jubilee let loose a series of explosions that set off little earthquakes, shaking the ground.
Rooter screamed as a bullet seared through his shoulder. Against Wolverine's orders, she stopped and ran back for him. She couldn't leave Rooter to die. She grabbed his hand and yanked him to his feet and began running again, the ground around her coming alive with bullets. She had four guards all to herself ... Wolverine was too far away to help ... If they shot Rooter so effectively, why couldn't they hit her?
They approached her, reloading. "We'll let you live if you come with us willingly, with none of those fireworks!"
"Shyeah, right! You are, like, in no position to be making demands!" She pointed to them and let out a mega-paff and watched as they scattered for cover.
BOOM! The entire cavern shook and rocks from above came falling down, threatening to kill anyone caught underneath them. She could hear more men approach from behind and wailed.
Didn't these guys have anything better to do than hunt her and Wolverine? Why was she so damn important to them? What about all those other prisoners they let lose! Was it because no one ever escaped that they were willing to give their lives to keep it that way?
"You hear that? It sounded like a - WOA!" Scott shouted just as he, Psylocke, and Beast reached where the sewers ended and the outskirts of the underground city began. Wolverine was running at top speed, claws extended, Jubilee's fireworks exploding behind him. They were being chased by what looked like an army.
Wolverine was running like a demon fresh out of hell, straight at him, several men chasing after. "Shoot to kill Cyclops!" He shouted as another bullet embedded itself into his back. "They got healin' factors!" He finally reached the tunnel. Then he looked around him frantically. Jubilee. Rooter. Where were they? Had they fallen behind? He caught sight of Jubilee, several men closing in on her and the collapsed Rooter.
---
Jubilee was surrounded. There were too many guards. She let Rooter fall, and she fell to her knees beside him, having given up. She couldn't kill anymore. She'd had enough. She had killed at least seven when one was too many. There would be no more.
Turned out that she wouldn't need to kill anymore. A familiar red beam shot above her head, making a loud ZACKT! sound. It downed three guards, and she twirled around to see Cyclops standing tall in front of the entrance. The other guards backed off, realizing they were out of their league with the arrival of more mutants.
"We have her covered, Wolverine! Get to the Thunder!"
Psylocke helped Jubilee to her feet. "You have an uncanny ability to place yourself in the most dire of straits, girl!"
Beast flung the injured Rooter over his shoulder and made his way back to the sewers, Cyclops covering their backs. Once Psylocke and Beast had made it back to the sewers, he blasted the roof of the cavern, then as he backed further into the tunnel, the roof of the sewer line, causing several large boulders to collaps and seal off the exit.
Scott knew it wouldn't take long for the giant-sized men to bust through the barracade, but it would buy them time to get out. They all ran for the Thunder as fast as their feet oculd allow. "Just how did you get into this mess?"
"Don't remember the specifics and don't care to!" Wolverine replied.
"Ditto!" Jubilee shouted.
Jean already had the engines blaring. The craft was ready for take-off. The X-men and Rooter flooded into the craft and slammed the door shut.
Wolverine and Jubilee collapsed on the floor of the craft - not because they had fallen, but because they were so happy to see it. Rooter, on the other hand, had been laid out on the floor by Beast, a red blotch on his old prison clothes.
The craft lifted from the air and took off with a thunderous roar, whipping up dead leaves and grass.
"Rooter got shot," Jubilee explained as Beast inspected the wound. "He fell and I went back for him."
Jean glanced back at the Xmen behind her, catching sight of Rooter. She winced. Not at his wound, because she knew that he would be all right, but at his face. Never in her life had she seen someone that ugly. But she sensed in him a kindred spirit.
Beast grabbed the medkit that Jean had laid out earlier and began his work on him. "Well, Mr. Rooter, I surmise that with my superior medical skills, rest and proper nutrition, you shall be on your way to a prompt recovery." He disinfected the wound as best he could, Rooter complaining in pain as he did so.
"I understood about half the shit you just said, but thanks." He mumbled in pain. Then he leaned back and exhaled. "Tell me I'm dreaming, pretty."
"You ain't dreaming. You're a free man." Wolverine said, letting his words seep into the tired man's body. Rooter closed his ugly eyes and let out a small smile, despite the pain he felt. At this moment, right here and now, he never felt better in his life.
"Pretty?" Psylocke and Cyclops both questioned, their words thick with curiosity and humor.
"What!" Wolverine and Jubilee both answered, turning to them indignantly.
Cyclops couldn't help himself. "Are you a pretty man, Logan?" Further away, Jean stifled a cruel chuckle.
"Clam it!" Wolverine mumbled, then looked down at Rooter. "We gotta stop this 'Pretty' bullshit here an' now."
Rooter let out a crooked grin. "I'll never stop callin' ya that, Pretty." He winced as Beast's hands trembled with mirth, causing a painful vibration on his wounded skin.
The entire aircraft busted up laughing, even Jubilee, the traitor! Wolverine growled outwardly, but inwardly he felt glorious.
---
