On the far end of the building from the team leader, Wolverine felt Phoenix coming and spun around even before her feet touched the ground again. And though she had seen Wolverine in this state many times in the past, the way his eyes shined in the dark as he snarled at her was enough to force a small gasp from her lips. Without know just how far gone the man inside him was Phoenix didn't move closer, but reached for him with her mind.

"Logan?"

Wolverine blinked glowing eyes at her, his expression softening slowly, his adamantium claws slid back into his hands. He let out a rough sigh, "It's alright."

Phoenix visibly relaxed, as the stocky man turned back to his search. "Cyclops says to look for the bodies..."

"They're not dead!" Wolverine snapped over his shoulder, cutting off the red-heads words as bits of dust shook loose from the sound.

He hadn't gone fully animal but he could feel himself just on the edge, and the only thing that kept him back was the thought of his friends. The rest of the X-Men distanced themselves from their emotions when they worked; Wolverine couldn't. He needed the personal connection, the "human" connection, or he would lose control over the beast inside him.

It could be a very fine line at times, but one Wolverine held onto as tightly as he could. More calmly he said again, "They're not dead Jean, and we're going to find them."

Phoenix nodded, as she moved up beside her friend. "How do I help?"

Wolverine wondered for a moment exactly what the girl was asking, but decided not to worry about it. "Have you tried scanning for them again? Maybe whatever was interfering is gone now."

Phoenix frowned trying to figure out why she hadn't thought of doing another scan. After all it was Gambit's intense fear that warned her about the second explosion. If she scanned for their minds, even if they were unconscious, she might be able to locate them just as she had with Wolverine.

If she couldn't locate them, well that would be something to worry about later. "I'll give it a try."

Wolverine watched, unconsciously holding his breath, as the Phoenix closed her eyes and let her mind do the looking. A telepath search a miles faster than a single person could search a foot. Still it seemed like an eternity past before the girl's eyes flashed open again.

"Over there." Phoenix pointed behind and to the right of Wolverine.

Before Wolverine could take a step he felt himself being lifted by Phoenix and dropped next to a wall that had surprisingly stay mostly intact. As soon as he was free form the girl's power Wolverine started to dig into the rubble. He was once more unaware of the rest of the world, and the sounds of Cyclops and Storm scrambling toward them, as he lifted large pieces of broken building and threw them aside.

Phoenix used her telekinesis to aid Wolverines efforts as she pushed her mind out toward her other friends. She told them both mentally that it was going to be okay, and they just needed to hang on. She told them that the X-Men where here and that they would take care of them.

Though they didn't respond directly, she could feel the spark of their consciousness grow a bit brighter. She knew they were both badly hurt, and in desperate need of medical attention if they were going to live, but they weren't giving up. That knowledge calmed some of her worry, as she remembered something Wolverine said a long time ago.

She pushed the memory out to all of her friends as encouragement, "X-Men don't die so easily."

Wolverine smiled inwardly at the sound of his gruff voice being repeated in his head. Only Jean would think to send a message like that, and yet it helped him center himself as he drug a large metal door to the side. And considering what met his eyes when he did, it was a good thing. Dropping to his knees, he cursed loudly as he visually assessed his friends' condition.

Gambit and Rogue were laying together, their faces close together as if they would kiss at any moment. There was a good amount of blood matting Rogue's hair to the back of her head. Though, while easily life threatening without treatment, the wound seemed to be the only one she had. The Cajun, with his arm around the girl's waist, his large frame covering her, he had apparently used his body to shield her from the worse of the explosion.

Gambit had several visible bruises and cuts, one neatly bisecting his eyebrow, on his extremely pale face. The back of Gambit's expensive suit was torn and scorched in several places, with the material over one shoulder completely burned away leaving the skin blistered and bleeding. The injury that had the mighty Wolverine's stomach turning though, was the thick piece of metal shrapnel protruding from the kid's lower back.

Gambit's blood was oozing from the wound, to collect in a widening pool of blood on the ground below him. Wolverine ripped off his gloves as he carefully reached down to touch the side of the kid's neck. A thready pulse danced under his finger tips as he turned to look at Phoenix. "We need to get them to the med bay now."

Phoenix said nothing, her eyes once more spitting flame, as she raised her arms her powers engulfing her teammates. Lifting them through the broken roof, she carried them in a visage of a screaming fiery bird into the sky. In a matter of seconds all six X-Men were across the street on the roof beside the Blackbird.

If any of the X-Men where fazed by the Phoenix's overt display of power none of them mentioned it. No orders were issued. No one had to be told how urgent the situation was, as each member of the team once again acted out of second nature.

Storm and Phoenix rushed into the jet to make necessary preparations. Wolverine lifted the critically injured Gambit as carefully as he could, while Cyclops, whose uniform would protect him inadvertent skin contact, took Rogue. The rear most seats of the Blackbird where designed to convert in an emergency to medical beds, which were already set to receive their wounded cargo.

As the two men laid their friends down, and started strapping them in Phoenix closed the rear door and called up to Storm, "They're in."

Storm had only been waiting for those two words as her hands flew over the jet's controls and the vertical thrusters roared to life. As the Blackbird lifted into the air, she sent a single back to the mansion advising them of causalities. While every move was performed in a precise, almost calm manner the weather outside the jet continued howl with the white-haired mutant's pain.

Storm had learned early in life that people you cared for would sometimes get hurt, and sometimes they would die. After all she had only been five when her parents were killed. Her years with the X-Men had only enforced her education. The Weather Witch had come to except such things, and to carry on despite them.

Still, the sounds of coming from behind her made her heart pound and her throat tight with the urge to scream. Storm closed her eyes for a moment, a single tear falling down her cheek, as she prayed for her friends' recovery. Then, with the sheer force of her will, she opened her eyes and blocked out the noise, focusing only on piloting the Blackbird home.