Notes from CC: LOVE the Bamf-o-mercial. That's exactly how it would go down. Yes. And Scruffy - you gotta admit, the last thing Scott needs in a woman is for her to be a telepath. Traditionally, it doesn't work out for him too well. For many reasons, but Emma was by far the worst possible thing that Marvel has done to him (you know. Outside of making him a team leader that preaches control who physically cannot control his own abilities - and a score of other issues. *ahem* I digress.)

Notes from robbie: Yes, Kate getting all riled up for Kurt is also my favorite thing, Scruffy ;) It's half the reason I love this ship. Also YES GOOD. Annie is the best and we love her and we are so glad that you love her too. I'm with CC - Emma was horrible for Scott. (As was the decision to give the guy with control issues the responsibility of running a team/school to teach control? Seriously, we're both side-eyeing Charlie for that one.) And griezz, I'm giggling so much at your bamf infomercial oh my GOSH.

Anyway, here is the next chapter, whose title still makes me giggle, fyi. :D


The Little Wiccan That Could


Christmas on Noh's ship came and went with a few holiday songs and some mistletoe that Jubilee and Kate were basically using as weapons by the end of the day to grab their respective boys and kiss them. Logan was sure to keep watch on the observation deck while the party went on — and again on Kate's birthday about a week later as Jubilee insisted that they still had to have a dance party just the four of them — though the girls ended up more or less spending Kate's entire birthday bouncing on Jubilee's bed with hairbrush microphones just because they could.

But besides the few moments of distraction like that — the days of the trip were more or less the same, with someone on observation and someone watching the Skrull frequency as the rest of them took turns piloting or sleeping.

They were still three days out from their destination when they ran into trouble. Noh was on the observation deck when he spotted the approaching signal and swore very loudly in his native language and a few others as he ran to where Kate was piloting and breathlessly told her to get out of the way so that he could steer as the first shot went over their bow, missing them by inches.

Kate looked surprised as Noh was already sliding into the pilot's chair and pulling down holographic displays as another shot came apparently from the space in front of them, though there was no sign of the craft ahead of them.

"Shi'ar stealth tech," Noh growled out like it was a curse as he pulled down a few more displays, apparently using them as a guide to where the craft was instead of trusting his eyes as he jerked on the stick and twisted hard, narrowly avoiding another shot. "Hang on."

Almost to be helpful, part of the ship formed a little handle near Kate's head so she could do just that and hang on as Noh made another sharp turn, nearly flinging the ship around 180 degrees past the Shi'ar craft so he could return fire for just a moment before he had to tuck into a tight spin to avoid another shot from the Shi'ar.

"Hawkeye, get these guys in your sights and return fire; I'll keep them off of us," he muttered out as he gestured to the weapons controls, and he tipped the ship so she could have a better shot for just a moment before he quickly pulled up on the stick as soon as she had fired to avoid the retaliatory shot.

As he righted the ship to give Kate her next shot, though, the Shi'ar were finally able to land a good hit, and the entire craft rocked with the impact as Noh had to turn his attention just to keeping them from losing trajectory as he switched to evasive maneuvers, swearing in Kree under his breath the entire time.

Kate managed to get off another shot before the Shi'ar's retaliatory blast crippled their weapons systems and had Noh swearing in English as well as he just tried to keep them out of the Shi'ar's reach — but when another hit took out a good portion of their engines, there wasn't much he could do except to just keep cursing the Shi'ar for whatever he could think to curse them for.

By that time, the rest of their companions had finally made their way to where Kate was almost quietly watching Noh lose his cool. When her little photographer imp made to raise the camera phone, she just reached up and took it from him quickly.

Logan looked over at Kate and the expression on her face before Kurt gently asked what was going on and headed over to stand by Kate.

"Shi'ar," she said simply, tipping her head at Noh. "They took out our engines."

"Does he need … something?" Kurt asked quietly.

"Only my guns and a clear space to work," Noh said with a deep glare as he got up from the pilot's seat. "They're not getting my ship."

"How many are there?" Logan asked. "We know how to cripple them."

"Judging by the size of the ship, I'd say quite a few," Noh said. The bands on his wrists morphed into the guns that he carried as he looked at the others.

"If you're going to get yourself killed, I'm never going to forgive you," Jubilee said with her arms crossed when she saw the look on his face. "But if the plan is to wreck their day, we're going with you."

At that, Noh actually cracked a bit of a smirk. "The plan is always to wreck their day, Jubilee."

"That better not include some stupid clause like 'unless I'm captured' because that is stupid and no one can pull a Houdini like the X-Men." She made a point to gesture toward Kurt and Logan in particular, and as she did so sparks flew from her fingertips — a clear sign that she was getting ticked off. "One can cut through anything, I can blow up anything, and Kurt can zap us away in case of nothing else working."

"And you and I can shoot through aliens like nobody's business," Kate agreed, motioning between herself and Noh. "So let's show them who's boss."

"Yes, let's," Noh agreed, though his expression hadn't softened the slightest bit.

"We even know our way around their city," Jubilee said. "And I know about the secret tunnels under it."

"Jubilee, I do not intend to allow them to take me — or us — that far. Or at all," Noh said with a sharp look her way.

"I'm just saying, if it were to get that far — which you seem to think is the worst possible thing in the universe — I still know how to get out of it." Jubilee sighed and took a step forward to rest her hand on his arm. "And clearly, I know these things because it's already been done — and I'm still here."

He paused in his glaring for a moment to give her a kiss on the cheek and to say simply, "You are not Kree," before he turned to the others. "I cannot ask you to risk capture for my ship."

"Doing it anyhow," Logan replied. "But not for the ship. For Jubes. I like her a lot better when she's happy."

Noh turned Logan's way with a raised-eyebrow look for a long moment before he simply nodded. "When they board us, it will likely be this way," he said, indicating a further corridor. "The defenses are weakest there."

"Then grab your weapons if you need 'em," Logan said Kate's way before he and Jubilee shared a look and a nod in their own tried and true non-verbal agreements.

The whole of the group looked ready to go, and even one of the bamfs was sitting on Noh's shoulder and giving him a comforting sort of pat on the head before the little guy turned toward the aft corridor and bared his teeth when they heard the telltale thunk of the Shi'ar ship latching on.

Jubilee lowered her shades as she stood at Logan's shoulder, and when Kate looked their way, she saw the bruised purple marks on the backs of Logan's hands where the claws were just waiting to cut through.

Kurt had his swords drawn, and the bamfs around him were all growling low, their tails switching back and forth sharply, ready to do whatever they could think of to help in the battle. Kate already had an arrow on the string, ready to draw back the instant something happened. They were all set to go, and just before the breach happened, Jubilee looked up toward Noh. "We have a rule," she told him before tipping her head to Kate.

"And the rule is — don't die," Kate finished for her, which got the tiniest of smirks from Noh.

"A simple enough rule to follow," he said.

"It's the only one that counts," Kurt agreed. "And we do try very hard not to break it."

Noh nodded his agreement, though the moment the Shi'ar broke through his ship and the little group were able to get in their first shots, Jubilee had to wonder if he'd really been listening as he dove right in with such ferocity that he didn't seem to care where he was fighting as long as he was making life miserable for the Shi'ar.

Kate recognized what he was doing as a white run — which meant he was completely ignoring any pain, or really any stimulus at all, in favor of just focusing his every thought on the fight. It was how he had taken down her entire team and the Runaways the first time they met — and it was effective, if incredibly dangerous, since he could not feel it when he was hit. The white run allowed him to move through entire groups in a matter of seconds, and the Shi'ar were clearly caught off guard by it — but that only meant the Shi'ar hit back hard once they had regrouped a bit.

When Logan and Jubilee saw how Noh was taking damage, they moved into a different stance, where Logan tried to push ahead to clear the path or take the brunt of it and sever some Shi'ar limbs before Noh could fall on his own sword as Jubilee went to blowing up anyone that seemed to be targeting him in particular, hoping that he hadn't done himself too much damage already and crossing her fingers that Logan could hold out long enough to get the job done.

Kurt and Kate, however, were magnificent and graceful by comparison. Kurt fought with both swords drawn and used his tail as a weapon as he cut through weapons and Shi'ar alike while Kate shot one invader after another. When the Shi'ar got too close to Kate, Kurt would simply teleport her up to what looked like a safer vantage point — with clear alleys to shoot — before he would reappear below, generally behind them to start in as the best swashbuckler that the universe had seen since his father.

The arrangement couldn't last forever, though. Eventually, Noh's white run all but evaporated when he took a solid hit to the chest. When that stopped him cold, one of the Shi'ar rushed in to restrain him before Logan could get there, all the while muttering curses about the Kree.

Logan growled out in frustration and tried to help Noh break loose. In a mad rush, he cut his way through two Shi'ar before a third turned his way unexpectedly and simply shot him in the head, which dropped him instantly.

When Jubilee saw what had happened, she flat out lost her temper as she just started to try and light up any Shi'ar that got too close to Wolverine's still form - or who tried to rough up Noh as he was restrained. But that didn't last long, either, as she was upset enough and distracted enough that a Shi'ar grabbed her and lifted her up, kicking, screaming, and crying.

Kurt quickly took in the situation before him and with a frustrated growl that seemed to reverberate among all the bamfs, the tiny blue imps began teleporting around the ship at incredibly rapid speeds, fueled by their rage as they tore into the Shi'ar guards around them.

Kurt was removing limbs as he teleported, a trick that he would tell Kate later was incredibly hard to do, and that he wasn't entirely sure how he did it, only that he had to be completely furious to pull it off. Unfortunately, he couldn't rage fully and keep close tabs on Kate, and with their comrades down and out anyhow, it wasn't too long before Kate found herself completely surrounded.

The Shi'ar guards yanked her bow from her hands and pulled the quiver away from her, and although she fought well hand to hand — the armor they wore certainly didn't help her very much. When she was finally subdued — and very angry — one of the Shi'ar called out to Kurt to get his attention.

"Call off your pets and surrender," the Shi'ar commander ordered Kurt as the other Shi'ar soldiers made his point for him by taking his three friends in tighter holds. When Kurt paused and looked toward the commander, the Shi'ar fighter bared his teeth and made a motion for his fellow soldiers to make their points more succinctly, with a couple soldiers roughing up Noh, another trying to clap a hand over Jubilee's mouth and nose, and one Shi'ar holding Kate drawing a long blade to hold just below her chin.

"Call off your pets and surrender," the Shi'ar commander repeated, "or we will kill your allies one by one."

Kurt looked at his captured friends with wide eyes as the rage he had been building seemed to only burn hotter on seeing their state before he finally teleported a few feet in front of the commander with a glare that could kill on its own, grudgingly surrendering so that he didn't have to watch another of their group fall — though he lost much of his steam being so close to where Wolverine still was completely motionless. Kurt stared at Logan as they restrained him, practically holding his own breath as he hoped for Logan to just ... take a breath. Just one.

The bamfs all looked upset as well, little growls still echoing the corridors of the ship as a couple of them sat on Logan's chest and stared at him intently while a few others were hovering in the air close by Kurt practically waiting for a reason to fight again. Every one of them looked either concerned or downright angry.

"We're not interested in your little pets," said the Shi'ar commander as he roughly pulled Kurt forward once he was restrained. "Tell them to stand down and stay put — and maybe we'll leave the life support systems operational on this pitiful Kree scrap heap long enough for some scavengers to find them."

Kurt looked to the bamfs and gave them a single nod, and none of them looked happy as they teleported away from him and instead gathered around Logan, little arms folded and tails switching behind them as they clearly disagreed with being left behind.

The Shi'ar commander looked smug as he looked over his catch and informed them, "You're under arrest for violating Shi'ar territory, for harboring fugitives, and for resisting arrest," as the lot of them were dragged from the ship and into Shi'ar custody.

On seeing that they were leaving Logan behind, Jubilee started to fight again, her teeth clenched together as she tried to wrestle from her guard's grip and threw her head back to crack him in the mouth, stomping at his feet and using even her cuffed hands as weapons as she tried to beat them back, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "I just got him back!" she cried out as two new guards managed to wrestle her down. "Let me go, you losers!"

The hits that Noh had taken during his white run were finally starting to show as he had a hard time even trying to edge out his guard to get a better view of Jubilee and make sure she was alright, but he didn't sound like he was as worn as he was when he was practically spitting, shouting, "Do not touch her!" Which only had the Shi'ar holding him laughing as they just roughly pulled him back and held him down tighter.

"Calm yourselves," Kurt said almost sharply. "There's nothing we can do right now, there's no sense in making this worse." He still had his jaw locked and he was talking through his teeth as he said it, and only the very tip of his tail was switching as they were manhandled away from Noh's ship, but he couldn't help but steal one more glance back at his friend and the bamfs surrounding him.


The first thing that Logan felt when he started to wake up was the tiny, fuzzy hand on his cheek that was insistently pressing on him as its owner muttered 'bamf' over and over. When he opened his eyes, there were three sets of yellow eyes blinking back at him as the chattering began, but it took him a good few minutes to understand what they were saying.

He got to his feet and let the bamfs lead him around, though it was pretty clear that outside of the bamfs, he was the only one on the crippled ship. "I don't suppose you know where they all went do you?" Logan asked toward one of the bamfs, though he wasn't surprised in the least when the little guy just shook his head.

He looked around cautiously, not one to put it past the Shi'ar to have set up some booby traps in case anyone was still alive on the vessel. When he got to the bridge, he let out a sigh. Weapons were down too. Nothing was going to work, and he was stranded. He made his way over to the comms and took a moment to figure out how exactly to even call for help, and once he got that far — he was all the more surprised when the one to pick up the other end of the comm was Scott.

"Where are you?" Scott asked, sounding both concerned and annoyed — which was the norm when Logan had to call him for help.

"Why, you busy?" Logan shot back.

"As it happens, yeah I was," Scott said.

"It's fine — just pass the message on," Logan replied with a little wave. "Storm can handle it. I'm not sure exactly where I am anyhow, and I'm not going anywhere."

"Keep a line open. I'm sure the mansion can pick up your signal better than I can," Scott advised. "We can get coordinates from there."

"Will do," Logan replied. He paused before he just let out a breath and tried to give Scott a little more background to the situation so he'd be prepared when he got there. "We got hit by Shi'ar. They're all captive — I think."

There was a long pause on the other end before Scott sighed. "Alright. We'll find the others once we lock in on your position."

"Thanks, Slim," Logan replied. "Blackbird's still in your backyard, more or less."

"Then I guess you'd better expect to see it out your window soon."

"We're a few systems over, not sure on her range, to be honest," Logan told him.

"I'll figure it out," Scott said.

"I know you will."


The outpost where the Shi'ar ship landed was, as Noh pointed out in increasingly frustrated tones under his breath, in Kree territory. The large asteroid was a veritable gold mine of fuel sources - and that seemed to be what the Shi'ar were doing there, if the infrastructure was anything to go by, with mining equipment and storage facilities scattered across the area where they had touched down.

One of the Shi'ar was even sure to point out, gleefully, that they could see a Kree mining outpost from one part of the landing platform. "The half-wits have no idea we're even here," the guard said, practically cackling at the situation as he warned Noh not to get any bright ideas about trying to make a break for Kree territory.

All four of them were manhandled through the outpost until they reached a large holding cell, which already held a few Kree prisoners who had apparently gotten too close to the mining operations and were captured — as well as a couple Shi'ar slaves.

After they were searched one last time and their comms and badges were taken from them, they were unceremoniously shoved inside and left there, and as soon as they were relatively alone, the little group tried to take better stock of each other.

Jubilee had immediately made her way to Noh and was steadfastly trying to not look him in the face as she fussed over his injuries and just in general tried to pretend like she hadn't just completely lost her composure, though the way her hands were shaking was a total giveaway even if he couldn't see her face.

"Jubilee," he said quietly as he grabbed one of her hands in his and tried to catch her eye.

"I just want to make sure you're okay," she said very quietly.

"I will heal soon enough," he said dismissively, this time taking her chin in his hand to tilt her face so he could see her. "You are upset," he said in a tone that sounded just as upset to match.

She finally glanced up at him with tears in her eyes as she tried to shrug it off. "I'll be fine."

"Of course you will be," Noh said, nodding firmly. "I shall make sure of it." With that, he wrapped her up in both arms, doing his very best not to wince as he did so as he just pulled her as tightly as he was able. As soon as he did, she wrapped both arms around his neck and just melted into him, letting herself go entirely.

"Can't you control one hysterical Terran?" asked one of the Kree in the cell with them with obvious disdain as he watched Jubilee fall apart.

"I shall deal with my Terran friends as I see fit — and I'll thank you to keep your nose out of our business," Noh replied shortly as he just responded by holding Jubes all the more tenderly and stroking her hair.

After a few minutes, Jubilee drew in a deep breath and seemed to settle out a bit, though she hadn't let him go. When she finally picked her head up off his shoulder, she wiped the tears from her cheeks and turned to look at the Kree who had been rude before she just sniffed and flung a plasmoid right at his face that erupted in a shower of sparks and bright light. "Jerk."

Noh looked rather proud of her as Kate snorted at the display. "So ... is there a plan here?" she asked Kurt almost tentatively as she scooted a bit closer to him.

Kurt looked thoughtful for a moment before he simply sighed. "For the moment, we don't have a means to call for help or to let our friends know where we are," he admitted, but when Kate looked a bit wide-eyed at his answer, he sighed again. "We'll think of something, I'm sure."


Scott had only just climbed into the blackbird and started to run the coordinates from Logan's message to see if he could pinpoint where Noh's ship was when he was surprised to hear his cell phone ringing.

He didn't recognize the number, and so, half-distracted, he just answered it with a quick, "This is Cyclops."

"Yes, hello, sorry to bother you?" came the response from a voice that sounded young and was talking very, very fast. "This is Wiccan. You know — Kate's friend?"

It took Scott a moment to place the name, but when he did, he just sighed. "Wiccan, I'm sorry, but I don't have time right now to—"

"No, this'll be quick. I just…" Billy's voice on the other side paused, and Scott realized now that he sounded downright worried. "Kate hasn't updated her page in ages, and no one is picking up their phones or responding to my messages or anything, and I tried calling Wolverine and Kurt and the other Hawkeye and I'm just really hoping maybe she's out on an X-Men mission, so I thought I'd try you?" The young man said all this in a rush of words so quickly that Scott had to pause what he was doing so he could listen more closely.

Scott let out a sigh when Billy paused for breath. "Wiccan, you were right to be concerned when your friend dropped out of contact," he admitted, partly to calm down the young man and partly because clearly Billy was still young enough that he needed the confirmation. "I've just been in contact with Wolverine, and there's been an attack — but I promise you, I'm headed there now myself to go help your friend and the others."

"An attack? What happened? Where are you going? Maybe we can meet you there and help," Billy offered quickly, sounding alarmed.

Scott shook his head the slightest bit. "I'm not sure that I can take a few untested recruits along for a mission like this," Scott said sincerely, though he was sensible enough to make sure he kept a bit of disappointment in his voice as he did so.

"Um, no offense? But this is my best friend? So ... I can find her without you if I have to." Billy said, and Scott had to sigh, recognizing the determination in his voice.

"Alright, here's the deal," Scott said, deciding to level with him. "Noh's ship is crippled, and I'm not sure where everyone else is, but I know where Wolverine is. It's going to take me about twenty minutes or so to make the alterations to the blackbird to get the job done. If you can be here by the time I'm ready to go, fine. I could probably use the extra hands. But I'm not waiting for you."

"Great. See you in fifteen," Billy replied before he hung up, and Scott was left shaking his head with a little smirk at the confidence in the young man's tone.

It had been actually seventeen minutes when a very bright light suddenly appeared in the middle of the blackbird and formed itself into a large, five-pointed star before the whole thing shattered and a group of four young heroes stepped through. Billy and Teddy had apparently called up America Chavez to get them there fast, and Tommy Shepherd was already ready to go as he zipped right up to Scott and said, "Sorry we're late. My fault. I had to stop for food. So, let's go to space, right? What's stopping us?"

"Just finishing up the alterations," Scott said with a little smirk as he looked up from his work. "You know how to get to the lab? We're taking Henry in case someone needs medical attention."

"Oh, yeah, I learned how to get there when we were there for Kate's prank thingy," Tommy agreed. "Back in a flash." The only thing that slowed him on the way out was opening the door to the blackbird so he could zip over.

"While we wait for Henry, why don't you guys go put on a uniform? Locker rooms just down the hall have spares, and they hold up pretty well against Shi'ar weaponry," Scott suggested.

Billy and Teddy both looked over the moon at the suggestion as they all but raced each other down to the locker room, and America paused to cock her hip and smirk at Scott. "You just made their late Christmas," she informed him.

"They're nice guys," Scott replied with a shrug.

"Yeah, they are. But I just bought this hoodie," America said, tugging at the red hood that covered part of her hair. "But the offer was noted and appreciated, chico."

"I think I can spot a red hood, so that's perfect," Scott replied. "For the most part, it's just to help me keep tabs on where our guys are."

America just smirked at him and nodded as, a few moments later, Tommy reappeared literally carrying a surprised Henry bridal style. "One Beast, as ordered," Tommy said with a huge grin. "I hope you tip generously. Rush delivery and all that."

"Sorry, Hank," Scott supplied with a crooked grin as he closed up a panel on the blackbird. "Alterations are done, so she's sound for intergalactic travel. If you're okay on supplies, then we're ready when you are."

"I take it that you're temporarily recruiting Wanda's boys?" Henry asked as he straightened his glasses a bit once Tommy had set him down.

"For now," Scott replied with an unmistakable smirk. "They want to help, and I'm not going to say no."

"Not that he could if he tried," America said, smirking wide behind Scott.

"That tends to help in the decision-making process," Scott replied over his shoulder.

"So, do we know where we're going?" asked Teddy as he stepped back out of the locker rooms, now wearing a uniform and positively grinning ear to ear.

"Roughly," Scott replied. "I know where Wolverine was at our last contact - he's supposed to be keeping the line open so we can pinpoint him when we get closer. But it might take some time to get there."

"Anything we can do in the meantime to help?" Teddy asked politely.

Scott just shrugged. "I guess if you want, you can get a little time learning to fly."

Teddy's smile just widened. "Really? That would be great!"

"Well, she's faster than most," Scott said. "But even so, I figure we've got about a week just to get to Wolverine. I can't fly the whole way alone. Unless you have another way?"

The boys looked to America, who just let out a sigh and shook her head. "Not if I don't have an exact location — and even then, my kind of shortcut isn't exact. I could spit us back out in empty space." She made a face. "Not good."

"I could try speeding us up," Billy offered as he too joined the group in his new uniform. "Maybe shave a few days off the travel time."

"That would be great," Scott said with a smile his way.

"Yes, the sooner the better," Henry agreed. "Shi'ar have been taking prisoners as slaves. I'd rather not leave them with that regime for long."

"No, definitely not," Tommy agreed quickly, wide-eyed and shaking his head hard. "Faster's better; that's what I always say."


Logan felt as if he'd paced a path on Noh's bridge in the days since he'd contacted Scott.

He'd kept the line open, but he'd also made sure to try and figure out how to use the damn systems to scan for where the kids had gotten off to. When he found what he was pretty sure was Noh, he'd just watched the spot on the map while Noh's crippled ship drifted away from it.

The bamfs had taken to pacing with him, or just sitting on whatever surface they could fit on, tapping their fingers and letting their tails twitch behind them in irritation at being cooped up for so long and so far away from anything fun.

So by the time the perimeter alarms went off, all of them were growling and looking for a fight. He figured it was just a matter of time before pirates or scavengers or someone came poking around, and he had already decided that whoever it was that had decided to come after that ship had limited time to breathe before he absconded with their ship — whatever the hell it was.

Noh's communications system made a sort of chirping noise as a hail came through. "Wolverine, are you alright in there?" Scott's voice asked over the comm.

Three different bamfs rushed over to hit the right button, fighting among themselves to be the one to press it before Logan stepped forward to answer. "Yeah, I'm pissed off, but I'm alright."

"That's good to hear." Scott gave him a little nod before he added, "We're coming aboard."

"Yeah, do whatever you gotta do," Logan said with a little sigh. At least with Scooter there, it meant there was going to be some forward motion.

A few moments later, Logan was surprised to see that it wasn't just Scott but Hank and what looked like the entirety of Kate's old team — all of the boys wearing X-Men uniforms — that came over to board. The group of them looked around at the damage that had been done — the ship was still healing and there were a few scorch marks everywhere, not to mention the larger sections that hadn't come back online yet.

"Looks like we missed the fight," America muttered.

"Damn Imperial Shi'ar," Logan growled out, irritated just at the name by this point. "Noh nearly missed 'em entirely. We're lucky this was all that happened."

"You were boarded by Imperial Shi'ar, and they left you behind?" Scott asked, brow furrowed. "How did that happen, anyway?"

"As I understand it, I wasn't exactly breathing at the time," Logan replied. "Got shot in the head. Pretty sure they thought I was dead."

Scott frowned deeply at his answer. "How did that happen?" he muttered in a low tone.

"Trying to protect the kids," Logan half snarled in response. "How else was it gonna happen?"

"And the bamfs?" Scott asked.

"I really don't know about that part. They said Kurt told them to stay, but …"

"Why would he do that?" Tommy asked as he peered down at a bamf who bared its teeth at him.

Logan growled low at the bamf before he corrected him. "Stop that; it's not his fault you're stuck here."

The bamf — and a few others — growled back at him and crossed their arms, irritation obvious in the tone of the string of 'bamfs' they let out as argument.

"I already told you that you can kill the guys that marooned us," Logan said to the bamfs before he turned his attention back to Scott. "They're in a mood."

"They're not the only ones," Scott said with a smirk before he looked around the ship for a moment. "The observation deck is this way, right? I wonder if Noh's ship picked up a trail for the others."

"It took some time, but I think I found Noh, anyhow," Logan told him as he showed him the maps and the ping that indicated Noh.

"It's a place to start, at any rate. Hopefully they haven't been separated," Scott said with a nod.

"How's the blackbird holding up?" Logan asked. "Had to be hauling to get here that quick."

"We had a bit of help," Scott said, tipping his head at Billy, who raised a tired hand in greeting. The kid looked like he hadn't slept a wink the entire way out and looked, quite simply, drained.

"You alright, kid?" Logan asked, eyeing him a little warily. "Looks like you need a break."

Billy looked between Scott and Logan and straightened up a bit. "I'm good. I just ... it takes a lot out of me, playing the little engine that could."

"You need a break," Scott agreed. "What can we do to fix this ship and give the blackbird — and Wiccan — a break?"

"We spent months in this ship," America offered. "Our team knows how to talk to it. If you give us a little while, we can help it heal."

The two X-Men shared a look and just made way for the kids to do their thing. Whatever that was.

"They talk about the ship like it's alive," Scott said after the kids had gone. "Or ... sentient."

"It found Noh on its own," Logan said with a little shrug. "With all the weird crap we've seen in the past? Wouldn't surprise me one bit."

Scott nodded thoughtful before he looked Hank's way. "In the meantime, we can show you where the medical facilities are," he told Hank. "Allow you to set up shop on the ship, if there's anything you need to bring over from the blackbird."

Hank just nodded at that. "Lead the way."