Author's note: Thank you to partygirl98 and anonymouscsifan for the reviews! Partygirl- you think that cliffhanger was bad? Read on! Haha. And anonymous... this is going to be a long, long story, and I definitely have plans for Quicksilver, eventually. As for our two love-birds-to-be, that's why Alex was so mad at Hank for letting Vixen go! Again, just you wait :-)

Thank you to everyone who takes a look at this story!

Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men.

Two Birds, One Trap

Vixen glances at me questioningly.

I nod.

Without a word we both turn on our heels and head in the opposite direction. Not because we want to, but because it's the only way we can go.

We walk quickly, with purpose. Vixen pulls out a pair of knives as we move, but this time I don't feel threatened. Until we figure out what's going on, we will operate under a truce.

After a few minutes we reach a T-junction, where we halt.

Vixen holds up a hand when I open my mouth to ask which way she thinks we should go.

"You hear that?" she murmurs.

After listening intently for a moment my sensitive feral hearing registers a ticking sound.

A ticking sound?

It's almost like a-

I launch myself at Vixen right before the hallway to our left explodes, sending debris flying in all directions. I do my best to cover her body with mine, shielding her from the potential shrapnel as we go skidding down the linoleum hallway.

She's completely white-faced when we slide to a halt, the freckles on her nose and cheeks standing out in stark relief and her breathing coming in abrupt gasps. I can't tell what surprised her more- the explosion, or my chivalrous reaction to it.

"Are you ok?" I blurt out, my own breathing unsteady from adrenaline.

I was almost just blown to bits, and now my face is mere inches away from that of a pretty girl's. Can you blame me for being a bit shaky?

"There's a three hundred pound fur ball on me, but otherwise I'm grand," Vixen replies sardonically, though her eyes are still rather wild.

Hey. I resemble that remark.

"I only weigh two twenty-five," I retort reflexively.

It's pitiful, I know, but I get a lot of ribbing for my weight- the fur makes me look heavier than I really am. It's enough to give me a complex about it.

Vixen gives a little huff of reluctant laughter and gestures for me to get off of her, which I do readily enough. She ignores the hand I offer to help her regain her feet.

"Thanks, for that," she begrudgingly says, once we're both standing.

"You're welcome," I reply, typically awkward.

She looks around uncertainly. "Now what?"

I consider the circumstances for a moment. "I'm starting to get the sinking suspicion that we're being herded."

"I'm starting to feel the same way," Vixen agrees, putting her knives away. "Might be time to try to run for it."

I concur, because there isn't really another option right now.

Together we begin to run, trying to use our speed to outrun the explosions. But we can't.

One goes off right behind us, followed by one directly in front of us. It boxes us in and forces us to go through a large laboratory room out into another hallway, where another explosion shepherds us to the left.

"How are they even tracking us?" Vixen growls. "Do you think it's pressure triggers in the floor, or-?"

"This lab is owned by Major William Stryker," I reply. "He was helping Bolivar Trask with his Sentinel program, which had the ability to identify mutant DNA. Perhaps he's using it now to keep tabs on us."

Of course that hypothesis only leads to more questions. Why the two of us? Were we in the wrong place at the wrong time, or is there something else at work here? A program designed to identify feral DNA, perhaps?

Vixen's silent, thinking about my explanation for a moment. Finally, she mutters, "some things never change."

I'm about to ask her what that means when the floor gives way below us, falling away in one solid piece like a plug being pulled out of a bathtub drain.

Vixen snarls in surprise and grabs onto the edge of the gaping hole, but I'm too far from the edge to reach.

I'm falling, falling-

And then she catches a hold of my wrist with her free hand, leaving me dangling over an abyss. It's too dark for me to see how far I am from the ground below, or what's waiting for us there.

"Only two twenty-five? You're such a liar," she says through clenched teeth, straining to keep us both from falling. Her claws are digging into my flesh.

If the situation was different I might have laughed, but right now I can feel the bones in her wrist popping out of place and know those in her shoulder are sure to follow.

"What do you see down there?" she asks, her voice pained.

I look. "I can't see anything," I tell her. "Here, try to swing me over so I can grab onto the edge."

"Easier said than done," Vixen mutters, but she tries.

She can't do it, though. She's much stronger than a human female of her size, but she lacks the pure strength needed to generate the momentum to get me to the edge.

And I can't help her, for fear of my efforts completely wrecking her shoulder. If we're facing Stryker she's going to need full function of her arm.

But Vixen doesn't give up- I have to admire her tenacity. She's still trying when we hear the approach of footsteps.

Our eyes lock momentarily when she glances down at me. She looks almost... frightened.

It makes me wonder if she knows even more seedy information about Stryker than I do.

"Well, well- what do we have here?" a male voice says.

And Stryker's smarmy face appears over the edge of this pit that we're stuck in. Both of us snarl up at him automatically.

"Two for the price of one. I like it when I get two birds in one trap," Stryker continues, smirking.

It clicks into place then. This whole lab facility set-up, all of those test subjects- it was all just bait, to lure in more mutants for Stryker to snatch up. After all, why go looking when you can make your prey come to you?

"And a female feral, too. I've never seen one of you before."

The way Stryker says it hints at a dark intent. I bare my fangs and growl at him in warning.

He chuckles. "Testy about your girl, are you?" he asks, looking amused. "Well, not to worry. I'm not so heartless as to separate a mated pair. Studying the pair of you should be quite... educational."

"Go to hell," Vixen hisses.

But Stryker just laughs and bends over to inject a needle into her hand, ignoring her snarls. She's helpless to do anything to stop it without dropping me.

Her grip on my hand almost immediately loosens. I feel her slip on the edge of the pit.

Damnation.

"Vixen, fight it-"

But she can't.

Her hold releases, and we're falling down, down-

I pull her in against my chest and turn my body so I take the brunt of impact when we reach the bottom with a sickening thud. Whatever we land on has a slight recoil that makes me suspect that we're on a truck bed of some kind.

I hope I just killed the suspension, I think bitterly.

The impact knocks the air from my lungs, but otherwise I'm unscathed. I sit up, cradling Vixen as I peer around. We appear to be in an underground garage of some kind, from what I can tell. There's absolutely no light though, so even with my night vision I can't see much.

I'm just standing up to see what I can find down here when I hear the whooshing sound of a dart gun and feel the prick of a hypodermic needle on my neck.

The injection quickly steals my senses, but I vaguely hear the truck I'm on start.

And then all I know is darkness.