Notes: Welp. We've had a nice run of fluffy chapters. And clearly, that cannot be allowed to stand…


Chapter 9: "Danger in the Danger Room"


When Kamala knocked on the door to the mansion, she was surprised when it was Kate who answered the door instead of just waiting in the office like she usually did — though from the look on Kate's face, it was just too good to wait.

"Come in!" Kate beamed, grabbing Kamala by the hand as she pulled her inside.

"What, no Gambit this time? No 'Miss Kate's excited' and all that?" Kamala asked with a grin.

"Yeah, he likes to greet you when you come by because you're always five hundred kinds of nervous," Kate admitted. "Figures he's helping."

Kamala laughed and rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, well, that's kinda true." She shut the door behind her and looked up at Kate, who was practically dancing in place. "So, what's the big news?"

Kate grabbed both of her hands and beamed. "I've worked it out with a few movie executive contacts of mine, and they want to make your book into a movie. I'm talking summer blockbuster, Kamala!"

The younger woman stared at her openly.

Kate waited a bit for the news to sink in before she wrapped Kamala up in a hug. "So. We just want to make sure the contract's good — I know you'll want to make sure they stay true to your vision, that kind of thing… Let's chat. I brought ice cream."

Kamala sat in the chair that Kate offered her for a long time as Kate poured some chocolate over the ice cream sundaes. She had finally more or less broken out of her near trance by the time there was a knock at the door — and Kate had to stifle her laugh as she went to go see who it was.

"Oh, hey, Kurt," she said with a huge grin. "Come to celebrate?" But her bright smile faded a bit when she saw the look on his face.

"Daken called ahead," Kurt explained, looking past her to Kamala with a small frown. "I'm sorry you stopped by the mansion when there's trouble, but we really need to get both of you to the War Room."

Kamala peered up at Kurt with a look of surprise. "Well, what's going on? Maybe I can help! I'm an Avenger, you know."

"I know, and I appreciate the offer, but this is coming from Scott — everyone to safety that isn't part of the effort to stop our intruder. And Scott has picked his team. I am sorry, but please, come with me," Kurt said, looking genuinely disappointed.

Kate pushed out her bottom lip in an obvious pout. "That's stupid," she said, as both girls had their arms crossed over their chests, though Kamala relented first.

"I mean — we can… do the movie thing while we wait?" she offered, and Kate reluctantly grinned her way.

"Yeah, I guess… if Scott wants to be stupid…" She let out a breath and then shook her head and ran over to kiss Kurt on the cheek. "Don't know why you're not on the team."

"Oh, you'll see why soon enough," Kurt promised. "It's a very good reason."

When the three of them got down to the War room, it was quickly evident what he meant, as for the first time ever, Kate watched as Logan positively had to manhandle K to get her into the room.

"You can't go," he said with a growl and she squared right up with him.

"Like hell I can't — he's after me, so let me give him a little more than he's asking for," K shot back at him.

Logan looked flat out angry with her as he called out to Kurt. "You got this?" he half barked.

Kurt nodded and for good measure teleported right next to the two of them as a couple of bamfs hovered close to K, though they seemed a bit reluctant to actually touch her in the mood she was in.

Logan let out a little breath in a huff and gave K a very quick kiss. "Just try not to cause trouble? This will be over soon. I've got Noh and Scott helping." She glared at him as he left and then turned to Kurt.

"Accessory," she said his way.

"A willing accomplice, really," he said with an easy shrug, though he at least had the sense to look like he wasn't too happy about the whole situation.

But the second that Kate and Kamala were through the door, K slipped by them when Kurt's attention turned momentarily to the others gathered inside, and she flat ran for it. Kurt let out a sigh as soon as he saw that K had gone — and teleported over to grab her by the arm and 'port back into the room. "Sorry," he said, though he didn't sound sincere as he smirked at her a bit, some of the impish personality coming out.

"I don't care what Kate says: you are evil," K accused Kurt as he pushed her into an open chair, knowing full well that the 'port would have her dizzy.

"It has to come out on occasion," he said simply.


Meanwhile, Scott, Logan and Noh were outside the mansion as the first of Noh's perimeter alarms went off, cluing them in to Sabretooth's position.

"He'll have been slowed down by that one. The magnetic field will at least keep him from getting closer for the few minutes it takes one of us to get there," Noh explained. He smirked the slightest bit. "I added that feature recently."

"One of us, huh?" Logan asked. "Wonder who the quick one is."

Noh shrugged openly. "If you'd like to get there first, we can race," he said with a little smirk, not quite as tense as the other two when he was too caught up in how pleased he was with his security improvements — which he had been making more and more of ever since Warbird left in disgust since he married Jubilee.

"I'm not dumb enough to take that bet. Go on; we'll catch up," Logan said with a wave.

Noh grinned and nodded before he took off toward where Sabretooth had tripped the alarm, though when he arrived, he skidded to a stop and looked around with a small glare. "He's… not here."

The other two glanced at each other for a moment, and Scott frowned. "Alright. Spread out. He's got to be here somewhere," he said, already moving to start the search anew, though considering the look on Logan's face, he needn't have bothered saying anything out loud, as he was already in motion as well.

What they didn't know was that Creed had set up a few little traps around the perimeter for the first line of defense to come across. They were triggered to go off on their own to draw their attention further and further away from the mansion — as he crept closer. The initial alarm that had gone off was enough to draw their attention where he wanted it while he slipped inside. The other traps, he thought, should keep them looking in the wrong places. He had a score to settle after all.

He watched from the little patch of bushes near the pool as the three men headed off to search for him — upwind of him, of course.

Scott was the first to find a trap. He barely heard the slight click of the mechanism under his foot before the explosion went off, but it was still barely enough time to throw himself to the ground and miss the worst of the damage.

His ears were still ringing, and there was a sizeable gash torn open on the back of his leg. He twisted himself around to try and stop the bleeding as he went to the comms. "He's got traps set out," Scott said through gritted teeth. "Nasty ones too."

"Are you alright?" Noh asked over the comms.

"Just ... find him and stop him. This is probably just a distraction," Scott said, getting more irritated with every word as he could feel blood trickling down the back of his neck; he must have been hit in the head as well. "He's smarter than he likes to let on."

"He would have to be, to get past my systems," Noh replied as he started to race around in a high-speed search pattern to try to find either another trap to disable it — or Victor.

Logan was running the other direction searching for a scent — any sign that would tip him off to what was going on. But when he found it, he had to frown. The trail was too close to the mansion. "Noh, get Scott out of the woods," Logan said. "I think he's ahead of us. I'm gonna see if I can catch up to him."


Inside the house, everything on the main floor was still, and Victor was irritated. The problem of course was that since they all lived there, the chances of following the right scent trail to his prey was slim. So, he took just a moment to try and remember what he could of the place before he headed for the stairs that led to the sub levels. If it was him, he'd have them tucked away safe and sound somewhere hidden. Which meant it likely wouldn't have a 'normal' scent pattern on it — and he could look for the fresh trail.

He opened the doors at the bottom of the stairs cautiously and listened hard for any movement or talking. He had to smile to himself when he heard several discussions on going down the hall. He tipped his head to the side to better listen to them. He could clearly hear at least five voices. Most of them female, and one of them laced with a thick German accent that had him stifling a growl.

If he thought for one second that Nightcrawler would be anywhere but with her, he would have gone the other way. But there was no way the Runt was stupid enough to leave him out of the fight and not have him babysitting her. He glanced down the hall, and his lip curled back to expose one long canine when he saw the little blue demons stationed around the hallway. Of course. An early alert system. Nothing to do about it then but to charge — and tear the little demons apart if they got too close.

He narrowed his eyes and decided that maybe he could at least rely on fear being on his side, so he let out a bellowing roar and rushed forward.

A couple of the little demons teleported out of his way with little squeaks, though a few of them pulled out little swords and returned his roar with little growls, teleporting out of his way only to reappear in his path, one of them getting close enough to growl in his face.

With an irritated snarl, Creed's hand flashed up and simply batted the little guy away, though the claws sunk in deeply as he made his swipe, and the little bamf went crashing down as his friends made concerned noises and one of them teleported the injured little demon away — and back into the War Room, so that Kate could patch him up. After all, she was never short on bandages, and she was pretty good at quick patch jobs between Clint and then joining the X-Men.

Kurt ported out to meet Creed with swords drawn, and the hallway all but filled with purple-blue smoke as Kurt teleported around him, blades flashing in the dimming light, though with another little bamf, another player joined with a bamf on his shoulder. Gambit's charged cards added to the eerie effect as their vibrant pink glow cut through the smoke, only to explode as they impacted the tall creep.

"I know she's here," Creed snarled Kurt's way. "Get outta my way, and maybe I won't gut you."

"You're not getting through here," Kurt replied, baring his teeth as he spun one sword in his hand. "Turn around now and I won't run you through."

Creed just laughed and took a swipe, though he came up with nothing but smoke.


Inside the War Room, K was trying her best to get over to where the fight was without hurting anyone on their side, though little Kamala had gone all rubbery and more or less wrapped herself around K, anchored into the wall. "Sorry, sorry," she was saying as she wrapped herself tighter.

"If you were sorry, you'd let me go!" K said as she kept struggling against her. "I can help him!"

"I bet you can," Kamala said. "But Nightcrawler said to stay put, and he said you especially, so we should stay put."

"Don't you know you're supposed to respect your elders? I've got him beat by a country mile," K said.

"Okay, yeah? But also, we're supposed to stay put so we don't die a terrible, terrible death," Kamala replied. "So… sorry."

K let out a huff and relaxed her muscles a bit until she was sure she was in the right place to start tickling Kamala. "I'm not going to die a terrible death," K argued. "I'm going to hand one out."

Kamala let out a squeal and started to try and squirm out of K's reach. "No! No cheating. Sto-o-o-p!" she breathed out between peals of laughter as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes at the laughing fit.

As soon as K was reasonably sure Kamala had loosened up her grip enough, she slipped out of her grasp and made a quick dash out the door, diving into the thick smoke, looking for where the guys had gone. She held still for a moment to listen for them when Kurt appeared inches from her face. "I told you to stay behind," he said angrily.

"And I told you that you can use my help," K replied quietly before she pulled up both sleeves to show him the shocking bracelets that she'd had Tony make. "Two. Not one. Two. Let me help you stop him."

Kamala came running up to where K was, wiping tears from her eyes and holding her sides. "Sorry, sorry! I tried to stop her," she half-panted as Kurt was still glaring.

"I'll give you one," K offered, gesturing to the bracelet-like device. "I just want him the hell out of here. And this will drop him. C'mon."

Kurt crossed his arms and frowned at her for a good long moment before he simply grabbed her shoulder and teleported into the Danger Room, calling out his code to lock the place down before he disappeared again — taking one of her zappers with a "danke" that had her even more furious than before.

When Kurt reappeared in the fight, it looked like Kamala had decided to try to help, seeing as Creed was getting closer to the War Room anyway and she could see the fight between Creed and just Remy in the time that Kurt was gone with K — especially because Remy had just taken a particularly hard hit that sent him sprawling into the wall. Kurt just barely avoiding teleporting into the path of one very enormous fist in the hallway as the little Miss Marvel tried to nail Creed.

The little bamfs had returned as well once Kate had patched up their friend, and they were all growls and glares as they seemed to be more or less teleporting around just to fill the hallway with smoke and a brimstone smell to confuse Sabretooth's senses, a strategy Kate seemed to be encouraging as she ran into the hallway and helped Remy to his feet.

Kurt called for the others to stand back as he abandoned the swords and went in trying to teleport limbs off of Creed — he was certainly furious enough for it to work for how close he was to his friends — causing Creed to go on the defensive for once, desperately trying to avoid Kurt and only just managing it. That is — until he turned with a punch where he was sure Kurt was going to appear and made hard contact with him, knocking Kurt down the hall and into the wall.

With a snarl, Creed turned toward where Remy was and slashed through the thick smoke — the glow of his cards had given away his position for just long enough for Victor to make solid contact and tear open his chest before he slipped down the hall.

Kate had rushed after Kurt as soon as Creed knocked him backward, and she quickly checked him over and roused him as best she could as Kamala looked over Remy and appeared rather panicked until Kate asked a couple of the bamfs to get him down to Hank — and fast.

"Where did you take K?" Kate asked quickly when she finally got Kurt awake, and Kurt had to take a second to shake his head and clear it.

"Don't worry — he doesn't know where she is," he said thickly as he grabbed up both of his swords and climbed to his feet. "We'll just have to make sure he doesn't tear the mansion apart in the meantime trying to find her."

The three of them were headed down the halls after Sabretooth when they very nearly ran into the other three from outside — with Noh carrying an incredibly annoyed but badly injured Scott bridal-style in the direction of Hank's medical wing as Logan seemed to be trying to find Creed's scent — which was rather difficult with all the smoke and brimstone.

"Oh my gosh; is he okay?" Kamala asked with wide eyes as she pointed Scott's way, and Scott just looked very, very unamused at the situation.

"I'm fine," he insisted at the same time Noh said, "Blood loss, a nasty head injury, and severe trauma to one leg."

"Shrapnel from a bomb," Logan clarified as he came up behind them. "Where is everyone?"

"Gambit's down in medical, and Kurt hid K when she tried to come out and fight," Kamala reported quickly.

Logan stared at her for just a second and tipped his head. "Show me where they are."

Kamala glanced toward Kurt. "Um. He knows? But Sabretooth sort of shoved him around and we lost track of him after he got Gambit. So…" She gestured toward the halls. "Manhunt in progress. Difficulty level: high."

Logan shook his head. "Not that high," he told her. "He stinks. Easy enough to follow, even with the brimstone."

"I took her down to the Danger Room," Kurt said low.

"Which is pretty much soundproof if he managed to find a way inside," Logan said just as low before Kurt simply took his arm and teleported the two of them away, leaving the others behind in an instant.

"Kamala, can you help Scott down to medical?" Kate asked. "I think I'm going to borrow Marvel Boy."

When Scott looked dubious, Kamala grew about a foot and stretched out her hands to a large size before she nodded. "Yeah, I can do that," she said as she offered her help to Noh, who gently dumped the leader of the X-Men into her hands and made sure they were both secure.

Kamala grinned widely at Scott and tried to make that grin as reassuring as possible. "Don't worry. I'm an Avenger."

Scott still had his lips pressed together in a thin line, clearly annoyed still, but she hadn't dropped him yet, and she looked so excited to be able to help that he had to let out a breath and nod. "You know how to get to Hank's?"

"Yep!" Kamala said, unable to hide her grin before she grew her legs another foot or so — so she could get there faster with longer strides.

Noh glanced at Kate and let out a little laugh at the younger hero's clear excitement before he grabbed Kate up in the same bridal sweep he'd had Scott in earlier to run her down to where the others were.

As soon as they arrived, it was clear what was going on even before they got into the Danger Room doors, which had been all but torn open to make room for Creed to get in. They could hear Logan and Creed roaring at each other just a moment before they heard a familiar bamf, and Kurt appeared in the hallway with K — who did not look good. She was bleeding badly, and her clothes were torn in slash marks, and she was unconscious.

"Kate, I need you to look after her. Try to stop the bleeding," Kurt said, sounding a bit out of breath, only waiting long enough to see Kate nod before he teleported himself and Noh back into the room, leaving Kate to more or less stand guard by the bloody and bruised K, putting pressure where she could and swearing under her breath at the idiot guys the next room over.

The sounds echoing out into the hall were brutal. Snarls, so so many snarls amid the echoing bamfs and shouts. Metal on metal screeched as Logan clearly slashed into the walls of the Danger Room, while Creed suddenly quit goading him.

After that, it was clear to Kate that Kurt was simply teleporting Creed back to Logan to keep him from escaping into the hall where the two women were, because she could hear the seven-foot halitosis machine snarling at Kurt to let him go. Curses in German joined the shouts and roars until there was a heavy arcing sound accompanied by a loud, final-sounding thump, and shortly after that — both Kurt and Noh quietly and rapidly trying to calm Logan down.

Kate finally peeked her head over the remains of the Danger Room door to see that Noh had pinned Logan by the arms to keep him from stabbing anyone as Kurt was muttering to try and keep him calm, while Creed was still smoking on the floor. It was quite the process, and Kate didn't want to interrupt it, because she knew from experience that it could get bad, but she didn't want them to get too distracted that they forgot about the Big Problem on the floor.

"So ... we should cuff him before he gets back up," Kate said at last.

"Get Henry," Kurt said. "He can handle restraining him."

"Got it." Kate glanced once more at Creed before she took off for the medical wing, where Henry and Tyler certainly had their hands full with Remy, Scott, and the injured bamf, though the bamfs were giving Tyler little kisses after he'd fixed up their friend. "Hank, we could use your help. Creed's in the Danger Room, and he's down, but we'd like him to stay that way," she called out.

"Say no more, Miss Bishop," Hank said, pushing back from his work to grab a very large and imposing looking set of restraints from a cabinet behind his desk. "These did the job last time. I'm sure it will work again." With that, he took off at a run, and when he got to the Danger Room well ahead of Kate, he very quickly got Creed both muzzled and cuffed before he hauled the monster out of the room. "Please have Kurt get her down to the medical bay," he said, tipping his head K's way as he dragged Creed out of the room. "We happen to have a cell with Mr. Creed's name on it."

Kate nodded and relayed the request to Kurt, who wasted no time in making sure that K was all settled in at the medical bay. Kate stayed behind to wait for Logan to calm down to let him know where K was and where Creed was as well after Noh finally released his arms.

"Hank's got him in a cell — pretty sure Scott doesn't want SHIELD taking him again," Kate said.

"Yeah, I'd say they blew it pretty thoroughly," Logan growled out as he headed for the med bay.

"So … are we keeping him here?" Kate raised both eyebrows high as she followed after him.

"For now," Logan said, though he didn't look happy about it. "We have a couple cells that will hold him. Only way he ever got out of them before was when some idiot let him out."

"Do you have a plan for the long term?" Noh asked curiously. "I doubt it would be good for the mental well-being of our friends to keep him here."

"You mean if Scott has an issue with me taking his head off? No. Not that I'm aware of," Logan answered, though he deflated a bit when he got to K. Tyler had been doing his best to stop the bleeding, but he still looked openly worried — especially since her wounds weren't closing up as fast as he was used to seeing, either from her own healing or from people he'd worked on healing himself.

"I guess I don't understand how healing abilities work," Ty said as he put pressure on a nasty looking wound. "I thought they took care of the worst stuff first." He looked distressed, but Logan just nodded.

"They do, but that probably isn't the worst of it," Logan told him seriously as he came over to help. He glanced up at Scott and narrowed his eyes. "I can keep this together — you better finish up with Slim. Before he passes out from blood loss. That head wound looks nasty."

Even as Scott tried to protest that he was fine, Tyler had gotten behind him and made a face at the severity of the injury. "Actually, he's right," Tyler told him. "It's a lot nastier than it looks."

"That is often the case with Terran head injuries," Noh said mildly as he sat down on the other side of K with a look of concern over how badly she was injured.

"I can fix it," Tyler said as he tried to part the hair at the back of Scott's head to see if there was any shrapnel in it. "But you need to hold still. You want to lay down for this?"

"No, I'm fine," Scott argued, sitting up a bit straighter to try and prove his point.

"Okay, I just thought you might want to try and relax a little for this." Ty shook his head and concentrated hard. "I tried to help K ... but I think her healing was fighting me."

"Well, we're still not sure how your abilities work with healers," Kate said as she popped up into a seat beside the recently-healed bamf to cuddle him into her lap. "I mean, have you ever tried to heal one before?"

"No," Tyler said, half-distracted with the task at hand of fixing Scott's head. "But it was like ... fighting a current."

"Interesting," Noh said, his head cocked to one side, though the little group fell quiet as they decided to let Tyler do his thing, while Logan helped with K — though both Kurt and Kate were occupied with handing him fresh material to try and staunch the bleeding.

"Must have bashed the hell out of her," Logan muttered mostly to himself as Henry came back through the doors, looking out of breath as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Yes, well," Hank said as he cleared his throat. "Let's not do more than what's needed. Though it would be good to know what all has happened, why don't we simply start a good IV to help with the fluids?" He washed his hands thoroughly before he gathered up the supplies and took up a spot across from Logan to get to work. He'd just finished up when he looked over his glasses at Tyler — who was still working.

"Is there a problem?" Hank asked, frowning slightly.

"No, no — I'm … just about done," Tyler said quietly. "Just finishing up, really." A few moments later, he finally took his hands off of Scott's head. "I didn't want to leave a scar. Sorry it took so long."

"That's alright," Scott assured him, though when he tried to stand to leave, he looked unsteady on his feet.

"Perhaps you need an IV as well," Hank suggested. "Not all of us can lose half our volume and not encounter issues. You're bound to be at least dizzy after your injuries."

Scott sat back down with a bit of a sigh but nodded his agreement as Hank headed over to get a second IV kit.

"You know," Noh said thoughtfully, breaking into the silence as Hank worked, "where I am from, such crimes as Sabretooth's would be rewarded with either execution or banishment."

"I vote the first," Logan said dryly.

"You know that's not happening," Scott said with a raised-eyebrow look Logan's way.

"And that was not what I was suggesting," Noh said, holding up one hand. "But I think... perhaps we can banish him from this planet. I would be more than happy to build a module to send him into orbit."

"Orbit of what planet?" Logan asked with a smirk.

"Any planet you choose," Noh said with a smirk to match. "Preferably an uninhabited one."

"That would be nice," Logan agreed.

Scott seemed to think it over as Hank cleaned up his arm, weighing out all the damage Creed had done over the years — not only to Logan, but to so many people. "What do you think, Tyler?"

"I don't really know," Tyler said as he picked up the discarded gauze, bandages and papers around him, his gaze on his work. "Not like I have any connection to him? Or want one. But if half of the stories about him that make the news are true? He shouldn't be wandering free."

"The news only reports what they can't blow off as something else," Logan told him. "Most of the time, it isn't even a blip on their radar."

Scott thought it over a moment longer. "Alright. What do you need, Noh?"

"I will need to borrow a few things from Forge. But that should be plenty," Noh said.

"How long?" Logan asked. "And if he escapes, does anyone have any issue with me handling it my way?"

"It should only take me about… oh, a week or two if I put aside my other projects for this one," Noh said thoughtfully. "As for escape possibilities, I can put in an early warning system if the capsule is breached, and we can come to that later."

"I meant if he escapes while we're waiting for the capsule," Logan said with a little smirk. "I just wanna know if there's a chance he might lose something dear to him in the process."

"Maybe you should take K out of here until it's ready to launch," Scott suggested.

"Any excuse for a romantic getaway for a while, huh?" Kate teased.

"Right, because my concern is their romantic entanglements," Scott deadpanned.

"You are such a romantic, boss man. Don't think I don't know about you helping Annie try and find Daisy a job. For reasons." Kate batted her eyelashes Scott's way innocently.

Scott gave her a dry, dry look for a moment before he said, simply, "She asked me for help. I try to make her happy."

"Uh huh." Kate grinned at him before she went back to spoiling the little bamf in her lap.

"We're not going anywhere for now," Logan said flatly. "But I am sticking with her tomorrow. Cancel my classes if you gotta."

"I'll let Annie know," Scott said.