Chapter 11: "More Intrusive Methods"

When Logan had gotten back to the mansion after Gerry's birthday party, he of course,made a beeline for the room he shared with K. He knew she'd be there — nowhere else was quite comfortable anymore, and she didn't like being around people for the most part. There were a few exceptions of course, and when he stepped in the room, he had to smile at the sleepy look she gave him before she pulled the blanket back for him to join her.

He wasted no time kicking off his shoes and climbing in behind her to curl up and give her a quick kiss before she asked how the party went. He shook his head and reached up to cover her mouth. "Go to sleep." She made a point to bite his hand before she snuggled up tighter and pulled the blanket up so the two of them could drift off.

They hadn't been asleep for long, though, when there was a knock at the door and a very unamused-looking Kurt let himself in. "We need to go to Australia," he told Logan as soon as he saw that he was awake.

"No we don't," Logan mumbled. "There is nothing in Australia. I checked. Twice."

"I'm afraid there is. Your… former replacement… Laura just called to radio for help," Kurt said, obviously choosing his words carefully, as he wasn't quite sure what to call Laura — especially since she had taken up Logan's name when he was dead.

"Then she's a shoddy replacement," Logan muttered before he pulled K a bit closer.

"She and the other, older version of you ran into Weapon X in Australia, Logan," Kurt told him outright. "And they don't seem to be faring well. At all."

He let out a long almost groaning sigh as K patted his arm consolingly. "Damnit. Who do you have to go with?"

"For as bad as it seemed, I thought we might need a little help," Kurt said. "Everyone on the team seems willing to come — but since this is Weapon X…"

"Anyone who wants to go can go," Logan replied as he started to sit up, still cursing under his breath about how he'd told her to be careful.

K sat up with him and gave him a quick kiss before he got up. "Don't get captured or killed, please." She looked over to Kurt. "Either one of you."

"We do try not to do things like that," Kurt promised her with a little smile. "And with most of the team coming along, I think we should be successful," he added with even more of a smirk.

"We'll make sure Scott stays close," Logan amended. "You girls need entertainment after all."

"I'd rather we had better entertainment, but … try to have fun," K said with a little wave before she moved over to snuggle into Logan's pillow in full view of both men — just to emphasize that she would have preferred her snuggles.

"We'll be sure to pine for our wives while we're suffering in the Australian heat," Kurt assured her with a serious tone that didn't match his grin at her antics and the look on Logan's face as he put an arm around his friend's shoulders. "I'm sure Kate will be here soon. She didn't seem pleased to be left alone either," he added.

"She knows where to find me," K agreed.

In fact, it was about five minutes between when the boys headed downstairs to gather the rest of the team to go to Australia and when Kate showed up in her pajamas and with a distinct frown on her face — she'd clearly been woken up by Kurt leaving. She didn't say anything to K except to simply crawl into the space Logan had once been occupying and pull the covers up over her shoulders. "Stupid boys," she muttered out, still half-asleep and grumpy. "Stupid everything. Leaving in the middle of the night, and us just… left behind like leftovers."

"You kinda get used to it," K muttered, her tone slightly down as she said it.

"Stupid," Kate said again, though she had definitely picked up on the down tone, because she was now snuggling into K's side and not just the blanket.

"At least I have a snuggle buddy now," K said quietly. "That's something."

"You should know I'm the one taking advantage here, not you. Seeing as this is your room and your bed," Kate teased as she snuggled in deeper. "But I am not sleeping alone. It's January, and it's cold."

"It's not so much the cold really," K disagreed. "I don't like being around people — most people, anyhow. So snuggles are good just for contact. It makes the being left behind a little less ... miserable."

"Well, there ya go. Turn it around on me so now I'm helping you. Sneaky feral," Kate teased, though she was already half asleep by then, her breathing evening out. "Maybe I'll just keep you and kick out my usual heater for abandoning me," she added around a yawn.

"Oh, no — when the guys get back, you're out on your ass," K muttered before she took a deep breath and settled in.

"Some things never change," Kate said with a little laugh that only lasted for one breath before she was simply asleep.

K smirked to herself, her eyes closed, though she frowned a bit. Usually this was where she'd get a bit dizzy still … but that part rushed by so quickly she hardly noticed it.

Scott had to try to restrain the smile that snuck up on him when Logan asked him to keep watch over K and Kate. He had plans to do it anyhow, since he didn't want the ladies and the twins to be home alone, especially considering who the team was about to go fight, but … it was still nice for him to ask.

Scott headed upstairs and gave Annie a little smile as she poked her head out of their room, anxious about any rescue that would take up the bulk of the team. But he gave her a warm smile and quietly promised he'd be there in just a moment. He just had to peek in at the girls and see how that was going.

He had no reason, however, not to grin outright when he saw K and Kate passed out on Logan's bed. Those two had only gotten closer since Kate found out her news, and it actually wasn't a rare sight at this point to see Kate headed in with a bowl of popcorn and a need for "girl time," as she often declared.

He wasn't too concerned anyway. Outside of the fact that it was Weapon X causing trouble, there was no reason to think this should be a hard mission. So, he very gently closed the door as he backed out of the room and went down to read the twins another bedtime story before he turned in himself.

He was part of the way through Are You My Mother? when the proximity alarm flashed at him — the first of Noh's early warning systems that went right to his comm. He shared a glance with Annie before she very carefully slid in to finish the story, despite Chance protesting "want dad" and Charlie complaining very loudly "no go!" as Scott headed out to go check it out.

He was doing his best to preserve the sanctity of bedtime, and to do the usual storytime routine himself as often as possible, since being an X-Man didn't exactly always mean a steady schedule, so he wanted to give the twins as much stability and attention as he could. But the truth of the matter was that sometimes, he had to drop everything to go — and the twins hated it. Scott hated it too.

"I'll be right back," he promised the three of them before he grabbed his comm and his visor — just in case — and headed out the door to check out the disturbance.

And as soon as Scott exited the house, four tall, massive men entered silently in his wake and quickly moved through the mansion. They knew exactly where they were going, and they wasted no time getting there — to the bedroom at the end of the hall, and the one next to it, and Scott's room on the far end of the teachers quarters. The big men each had a canister with a pull ring on it, and at the same moment, they all pulled the rings and tossed them into the bedrooms before they very quietly pulled the doors shut and held them that way.

When the door clicked closed, K opened her eyes in a bit of a foggy haze, still exhausted. But the billowing smoke filling the room had her awake in an instant. "Kate!" she half shouted. "We gotta get outta here now!" She held her breath and covered her mouth and nose with one hand and started to push on the door — but it wouldn't budge, and the door handle wouldn't move. She glanced toward Kate, who was hurriedly disentangling herself from the sheets with wide eyes, and popped her claws to cut her way out. But even with that, she couldn't get the stupid thing to move. She started just cutting into the door itself to make an exit — but when she got the wood to fall away, she had to take a step back as a Marauder pushed the remains of the door open, and she all but tripped on her own feet trying to get away from him.

He pushed forward and got a hold of her hands just to pull them away from her face as he held her down in the smoke, and within a few short moments, she was out.

At the same time, Kate had startled awake when K shouted for her, and in the haze of confusion and smoke, she'd run to the wall to grab Logan's sword and just try to do what she could to help, fully intending to lever open the door — before K got the wood to fall open and the Marauder who stepped through went right for K.

Kate was fairly dizzy herself from the smoke already, her night shirt pulled up over her nose and mouth. She sorely missed her scarf as she charged after the Marauder, sword held out as she managed a long, fairly damaging-looking cut along his arm to get him to release K — though considering K was already unconscious, that wasn't too helpful, and she simply slumped on the floor. But Kate's grip on the sword was rather tenuous with how dizzy she already was, and in one quick backhanded movement, the Marauder had knocked the sword from her hands and made a rush for her, pinning her arms to her sides to keep her still until she, too, had enough of the gas to go limp.

Scott, in the meantime, had been out on the grounds checking out the proximity alert, completely unaware of what was going on at the mansion as he frowned at what seemed to be a faulty piece of equipment. As far as he could tell, the thing had more or less shorted out, but with Noh's designs, that shouldn't have been possible.

He sighed, still unable to find any sign of why the equipment had malfunctioned, and decided he would just have to ask the Kree warrior to look over the equipment when he got back from Australia with the others. With nothing else that he could do there, he headed back, glad that he really was going to be able to keep his promise to the twins to come back quickly — and maybe even finish the bedtime routines. Chance's favorite thing to do was to 'help' his dad brush his teeth while Annie brushed his, and if Scott hurried, he'd be there in time for that tradition.

He got to the mansion at a light jog and had just shouldered into the front door with his hands in his pockets, already looking forward to getting back to his little family and spending some time in peace and quiet with Annie — when he saw the tall, pale Mr. Sinister simply standing in the entryway, unconcerned, looking like he'd strolled in without a problem. He had Charlie nestled in the crook of one arm, though she was glaring at him and pounding on him with little fists and trying to get loose, little whimpers echoing in the entryway. She seemed tired and sluggish, like she was fighting to stay awake, which immediately had Scott jumping to both concern and outright fury.

"Put her down," Scott said through gritted teeth when Charlie spotted him and redoubled her efforts to hit Sinister and try to get to her dad. "Now."

"I think you'll find you're in no position to demand anything, my boy," Sinister said almost lazily before he looked somewhere beyond Scott, and Scott had to turn to see one of the Marauders approaching the entryway with an unconscious Annie and Chance carried over two massive shoulders.

"You see," Sinister mused aloud, clear amusement in his voice. "I don't need the rest of your little… family, especially not the boy." As he spoke, the Marauder let Annie fall to the floor in a heap and seemed to be regarding little Chance with distaste. The sleeping baby was blissfully unaware of the danger and had even snuggled in a bit, not realizing that the man he was snuggling had a hand on his chest not to snuggle him but to illustrate that he could crush the child in an instant.

Scott was glaring hard, his eyes a full on red and the blast barely checked as he struggled to come up with a way out that would keep his entire family safe, though that was hard when Sinister was holding his daughter. He couldn't blast him without risking Charlie — and if he made a move otherwise, the Marauder with the rest of his family… He couldn't get Chance and Charlie and Annie out of danger fast enough. And he knew it.

"Come along quietly, and no harm will come to them," Sinister said with a tone of unyielding authority. "All of them." With that, he tipped his head to the Marauders making their way down the stairs that were holding K and Kate as well. Both women, though unconscious, were tied — though it was clear Sinister had learned from previous dealings with K, since he had something that would keep her from biting anyone too, a sort of muzzle that stretched over the bottom half of her face.

For a long time, there was simply nothing Scott could think to do except to fix Sinister with a look of pure loathing and rage. The feeling went through his whole body — jaw locked, hands clenched, eyes narrowed. He simply couldn't trust himself to speak.

"I haven't got all day," Sinister said in a bored tone. "The distraction in Australia won't take up that much time. By the time your … team … left, I'd already had my team procure my samples there."

At that, Scott, too livid for words, had to actually close his eyes to keep from blasting Sinister — a risk he couldn't take with Charlie there. "Put my daughter down," he spit out at last.

"As soon as you put your collar on," Essex replied. "You can even carry her out yourself," he added in a tone that suggested this was a magnanimous offer.

"She's not coming," Scott insisted through his teeth, taking a deep breath as he forced the control so he could open his eyes again to glare at Sinister. "I'll go — but she stays."

Sinister simply laughed to himself. "If you think we can't subdue you — that I can't subdue you … Scott." He shook his head slowly, as if he was dealing with a willful child. "You have no fotting to make any demands. I'm trying to give you a choice. You can carry her, or I will. But both of you are coming with me, or I'll start by killing her worthless twin."

The villain didn't even look over at Chance, who was still blissfully asleep, curled up into the Marauder's with one little hand clutching onto the Marauder's shirt.

"Don't you touch him," Scott all but hissed out, nearly trembling with rage. He had his hands clenched in fists so tight he had drawn blood, the evidence of which showed when he finally reached out a hand. "Let me... I'll carry her," he said in what was barely a whisper, his voice shaking with both rage and defeat.

But instead of Charlie, one of the Marauders slapped down a cold, metal collar in his hand.

For a moment, Scott seemed to clench his jaw a bit harder before he let out a breath and snapped the collar on, looking almost pained to do so. When he looked up and met Sinister's gaze, the villain gave him a satisfied smile as he crossed the gap to hand Charlie over — as promised.

The little girl was still sleepy and slightly terrified, and it was just about all Scott could do to tuck her into his chest and try very hard to relax enough to properly console her - though that was hard to do with Annie and Chance on the floor of the entryway and Kate and K being carried out behind him. He couldn't tell her it would all be okay, but—

"I got you," he promised Charlie, very quietly, as she snuggled into his shirt..

The fight in Australia had been a lot less exciting than Laura had made it sound, and by the time the team had cleaned out the last of the Weapon X soldiers, Logan was clearly pissed off — though coated in a bit of blood.

Laura looked upset too, though not for the same reasons — mostly for the fact that she'd called the team down too late, and the real action had mostly passed by the time they arrived. "If I had called an hour earlier, you would have had a rescue, not clean up duty," she muttered.

"Stop," Logan grumbled. "You could have handled it on your own."

She glared down at the ground for a second. "Thanks for coming anyway," she said in a tone that had no gratitude in it at all.

"Are you still mad?" Logan asked with a frown as he turned to face the sulking girl a bit better.

She crossed her arms for a second and gave him a small glare. "Little bit, yeah. Who fails to invite their own kid to a wedding?"

"Wasn't my job," Logan said with a noncommittal shrug. "We were trying to just elope, and the way I heard it, you had your own things going on."

She just shrugged back at him. "Yeah, well, whatever. Thanks for flying out for clean-up," she said half-sullenly, her arms crossed as she made her way back to where the older Logan was still unconscious and healing after the Weapon X team had more or less torn him apart, her expression softening the slightest bit on seeing the man who had done what Logan had offered and she had refused to accept until after he'd 'died' — adopt her as his own, more or less — in such a state.

"Not sure what you want me to say here," Logan rumbled as he came to a stop in front of her. "I figured you got your own life and want to live it."

She let out a small noise of disbelief before she shrugged up to her ears. "Well, I will try not to bother you then."

"If you want to come by, come by. Didn't seem like you much liked K last time you were by anyway," Logan pointed out. "Didn't think you were the jealous type," he teased her, smirking the slightest.

"She… was not what I was expecting," Laura admitted at last, though it was clear that wasn't everything she had to say on the matter.

Logan took a seat across from her, cross-legged on the ground. "Yeah? What were you expecting?"

"Not her," Laura said, hedging slightly. "She is not like the others. Which, I guess, is the point."

"Let's not get started throwin' stones here," Logan said gruffly. "Cyclops and Angel?"

"Hey." She almost smirked at him.

"I know you thought I was dead, but still. No reason to desecrate my memory."

"To be fair — they are much nicer younger," she pointed out, now in a full on smirk.

"You … are just wrong."

"I have met with the older Angel recently? I am very right," she countered.

"The older Angel has been through Apocalypse and a load of other garbage. I knew him the first time around when he was young. Not … as young as the one you're trying to suck the feathers off of ... but he's always been an ass."

At that, she broke into an honest grin that smacked of trouble. "To you maybe."

"Well I suppose if he wanted to crawl into my pants before, there would have been a whole different kind of argument," he chuckled.

"Must just be you are not his type," she teased.

"Or he's jealous that I can grow a decent beard," Logan countered. "Wonder what he'll do when you do too?"

"I will not," she said, shaking her head hard.

But he responded by raising an eyebrow at her and tipping his head to the side a bit. "Never know. They've been saying you're a clone ... if that's true …"

"If that were true, I think I would have different parts," she pointed out with a small smirk, gesturing down at herself.

"That's what I've been sayin'," Logan agreed. "And blue eyes."

"Some people just do not understand genetics," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "I have seen actual clones. There is a difference between them and other…" She paused and let the disdain cross her expression. "...experimental creations."

He gave her a little smirk and nodded his head. "Come by if you want. I'll give a call if I'm around here again. Daken's been popping in pretty regularly."

She looked honestly surprised at that before she recovered herself and nodded. "Next time I'm in the States," she said.

"Oh, and quit calling yourself Wolverine if you're gonna keep sucking feathers off of Worthington. It's not dignified."

"What are you going to do if I do not stop?" she asked with a teasing grin. "Come down here?"

"Doesn't matter, really," he countered. "They know where I am. Probably why they sent the junior team after you two."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I think I would like to find my own path," she said finally. "I tried to do things as I thought you would, and I do not think that …." She paused, her expression contorted into something like confusion. "I was not wrong in attempting to do what I did. But it is not me."

"That's what I was trying to tell you before," Logan replied, before he pulled her into a one armed hug that ended with her giving him an honest, tight one that lasted a good long while. "Try not to let the old man over there break anything, candy striper."

"Which old man?" she shot back with a grin.

"I've got my candy striper at home," he replied as he ruffled her hair.

She just laughed at that and waved him off as she went to go check on the older Logan, though it had only been a moment's peace for Logan before Noh was there to grab his attention with a small frown.

"An alert was tripped at the mansion," he explained in a low tone. "Nothing too serious — it was just a perimeter sensor… but usually Scott and I check in with each other once we've checked it out, and it's been some time."

"He's not answering your call?" Logan asked, looking concerned.

Noh shook his head. "No one at home is answering — though with it being so late, and the alarm being such a minor one… I am trying to exercise a bit of optimism and hope he is simply with his family." He pushed a hand through his hair. "But still, I am worried — especially given who we were sent here to fight."

"No, if there was an alarm, Scott would have answered," Logan said before he let out a shrill whistle to catch the attention of the rest of their crew. "Time to go!"

There were very few arguments there, since it had already been late when they left home, and it was clear the team was ready to go back and get to bed. So, it took very little time to load everyone up in the jet and take off for home.

But it was clear watching Logan that taking the jet just wasn't going to hack it, and he slipped over to where Kurt was with his fists clenched. "Hey Elf, we need a quicker route; my knuckles are itching," Logan said with a little growl.

Kurt nodded his agreement, his own tail twitching behind him at the idea of problems back home. "And if there's trouble…" he said, trailing off before he clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder, and the two reappeared an instant later, the bamfs in tow, in the middle of the upstairs hallway.

They split up — Kurt down one way and Logan down the other. Kurt rushed down the hallway of the teachers' quarters, while the bamfs teleported down to places like the Danger Room and the War Room — places that the girls might hide if something truly disastrous was upon them. Kurt wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not that he didn't see anything in his quick search of the first several rooms, though when he turned back to see how Logan was faring, he knew that Logan had spotted trouble by the way he was standing. Perfectly still. Staring toward the door to his room. Kurt could see now that he stepped a bit closer that the door was more or less destroyed, and knowing that Kate had been there too… Kurt felt his mouth go dry.

"Find Scott!" Logan called out before he stepped into the room.

Kurt didn't hesitate to simply start teleporting around the mansion in search of Scott wherever the bamfs hadn't already looked — though he had to admit to falling into serious concern when he first checked Scott and Annie's room and found that not only was Scott not there but neither was Annie or either of the twins. He checked several places before he ended up in the entryway to find only half of the Summers family still laid out on the floor there.

Alarmed, Kurt rushed to rouse Annie, pulling Chance into his arms as well so the little boy wasn't simply sleeping on the floor. "Are you okay, little one?" he whispered out, but Chance simply sleepily smiled up at him and patted Kurt's cheek with one pudgy hand before he started to drift back to sleep. He let out a breath, relieved that at least someone was alright, but when Annie finally stirred awake, it was obvious there simply wasn't much she could give Kurt.

"What happened?" he asked anxiously as soon as she looked halfway awake.

"I don't know," she admitted, leaning against him to steady herself; she seemed to still be blinking back sleep. "I was reading to the twins, and there was some smoke… I tried to get out, but the door was blocked…" She held her head with one hand for a moment before her gaze found Chance, and she looked relieved for only a moment before she realized she couldn't see Scott or Charlie. "Where is everyone else? Where's Charlie?"

"I don't know," Kurt admitted. "But we're working on that right now," he added quickly when she looked distressed at that.

"Scott was outside when it happened," she told him, starting to get a little more of her strength back as she sat up and held her arms out to take Chance. "Please — see if you can find him, and find Charlie." She said that last part urgently, her gaze still sweeping the entryway as if she expected to see her little girl simply appear out of nowhere at any moment. It was obvious she was panicking, her eyes wide and already welling up with tears as she clutched onto the still sleepy little boy in her arms like he was her lifeline.

Kurt nodded. "I will do what I can," he promised, one hand on the small of her back to support her as he watched her, keenly aware of the panic and frustration she was feeling since his own family was missing. "The bamfs are searching the entire mansion. If she or any of the others are still home, we will know shortly. In the meantime, can you remember anything else?"

But Annie just shook her head and started to very quietly cry — and Kurt couldn't go anywhere for some time after that as she simply leaned against his arm and let it out, obviously terrified and devastated.

A short time later, Logan passed the three of them, not looking at anything as he headed down to the surveillance room with a low, rumbling growl cutting the air around him.

Kurt looked up on seeing his best friend and finally extricated himself from Annie's grip. "Logan, was ist los?"

But Logan shook his head and stepped into the room that held all of the security measures for the house and started going through the surveillance. Kurt came to stand next to him, peeking over his shoulder as Logan brought up one camera and then another until he swore roughly under his breath and seemed to be shaking in rage.

It was all there for them to watch. Scott going to investigate the alarm, the Marauders using his absence to sneak inside and gas the remaining residents…. The hall camera upstairs caught snippets of the fight the girls had to keep away from the Marauders, but that was a quickly sealed mystery when they watched as the monstrous men carried their wives out of the room — unconscious and limp — which had Kurt growling low as well.

Annie had pulled herself together to follow the sounds of the angry growls just in time to watch the show as Sinister pulled his little hat trick on Scott. By the time it was over, Annie was horrified, Kurt was murderous — and Logan was very clearly doing everything he could to keep from starting to destroy everything in sight. He pushed back from the screen and took off at a run to where Sinister and his men had disappeared, knowing full well that any scent trail he found would either vanish into thin air or disappear at the road, but still — he had to try something.

"Take Chance back to your room," Kurt advised through gritted teeth as he turned toward Annie. "When Logan gets back, he won't be happy if he hasn't found something to work with, and I don't want to alarm the little one." He barely had the words out before he'd teleported back to Logan's room to see the damage for himself, then to the computer room for some quick information — and then out to the edges of the road to try and see if he could find anything as well, fruitless though the search might be.

When he got there, Logan was nearly frantic in his search, wide-eyed and obviously out of leads already. He stood there, three hundred yards from the gate, just staring down the road, first one way and then the other, as if he was trying to will a sign out of thin air.

"There is nothing?" Kurt asked, mostly to try and draw Logan's attention to something solid but partly because he couldn't hide his own disappointment either. When Logan continued to stare ahead, Kurt put a hand on his arm. "We'll find them," he promised fiercely. "Perhaps the others can find some trace of them at the mansion when they arrive. And we can work with what little we have. Scott and Jubilee have been cataloguing Marauder sightings to search for patterns." It was the only thing he could think of that they could do outside of calling for help from everyone they knew — which they would definitely be doing regardless if they couldn't find their wives and Scott and Charlie by the night's end.

"There was no vehicle," Logan said quietly, finally breaking his silence, though the growl didn't quite stop.

At that, Kurt's expression turned a bit hard. "He must have teleported, then," he said simply, though his tone made it clear that he was more than a little upset at the gift Sinister had stolen from him being used against their family and friends.

"Let's start on that list," Logan said with a glare, and Kurt didn't hesitate before he produced the list — which he had already printed — and teleported them to the first location.