Chapter 12

Review Replies:

Wolfy-poo: yes. work sucks. But don't worry, you'll be rejoining the good side again. nods

Soul Mama: Well, i hope you have a good summer despite work.

Psylocke: Thanks. I hope this chapter's exciting as well...hopehopehope...

Quote: The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else he can blame it on. -- Robert Bloch

XXXXXXXXXXXXX Wednesday Everyone still hates me. I not only go through morning classes unnoticed, I'm flat out ignored. We don't do any group kind of thing during team time either, we just run alot. I didn't eat lunch. I am hungry, but I just dont' want to be around that many people.

So here I am, walking around the school building and avoiding the trees. I have dreams of the woods now. The trees close in, nothing makes sense, the snow tries to reach up and lock on my feet and hands until they ache. And Creed. He's always in the dreams and I'm always running from him and fighting the possessed woods.. Sometimes Blackstone's groons are in it, zapping me. Yea, I know it's wierd.

Because I'm an idiot, I walk and ponder my stupid dreams until I'm hit from behind with enough force to bring me to my knees. Turning, I glare daggers up into the smug face of Viper. How the Hell did he find me? Must have enhanced senses...Pffftt, everyone but me.

"You think you're something great, huh?" he demands as I rise to my feet and face him. Of course, he'd flanked by his cronies. Great.

"No, I think I'm a pathetic loser with no friends. Now, if ya don't mind, I'm trying to reflect on my pointless life." (bonus points for anyone who picked up on my depression!!) I turn my back on them and get half a step away before my arm is siezed and I'm spun around.

Yea. Now I'm pissed. "Don't," I wrench my arm from Viper's grasp and continue trhough bared fangs, "Touch. Me."

I'm laughed at. They actually laugh at me. Then their stupid leader really ticks me off and asks, "Or what? You'll call your slave holder pal and sell us all?" he sneers at me.

I could justify myself. I could explain that I, myself, was the slae. I could say that they used high voltage cattle prods on me like an animal to make me lose it. I could tell them that it really wasn't me the whole time. I could explain. Instead, I stand there looking at them.

Viper glowers at me, then spits on me. It almost gets to my face, but I instinctively react to block it with my arm. It ubrns too. Must be the venom. But his words hold more poison than his spittle, "Traitor," he hisses.

I snap. I mean, everything is just this blackness and all I really focus on is causing damage. I'm not hitting or punching like Wolverine is teaching us or throwing and pinning like Judo taught me. Instead, I follow Sabertooth's path and try to rip out his throat and slash my way through anoyone that tries to stop me.

He's fighting back too, I know. Slithering, slinking. He even sinks his serpant fangs into me twice. The bite on my left forarm feels like its on fire. We wrestle and roll around, then he kicks me in the gut, sending me four feet away. Crouching, we both glare across the distance. I close the gap by lunging and try to sink my claws into as much flesh as possible, but he's slippery.

I'm plucked off of him after a couple minutes. I don't know how long we'd been fighting. One of Wolverine's arms manages to hold both of mine. Squirming, I deploy the trick I'd used on Creed. I reach my claws up and shread through his binding flesh. Before I realize what he's doing, he uses his other arm to stop my claws and pin my for arms to my chest. With one arm holding tight to my chest, the other snakes around my waist. I'm sandwiched between his barrel of a chest and his metal boned arms.

"That's enough," he calmly starts backing away, dragging me with him. "Settle down now. It's over." He keeps reassuring me quietly.

But I don't want it to be over. I growl and hiss and try to writher my way from his grasp, which just doesn't seem to work. By trapping me, he makes me even angrier and I try harder to hurt him, kicking back at his legs and finding a few soft patches of flesh to embed my claws into.Wolverine simply tightens his hold of me and says something over my head about cooling me off to Cyclops, who's talking to Viper.

I struggle harder still. I don't WANT to cool off. I want to rip things to shreds. I want to stay mad, and I have no idea why, but I like the feeling and I'm not ready to let it go. The anger...the rage, it feels better, because it's the only thing that I can feel. There's no more hurt or confusion or loneliness or betrayal. There's just me, my claws, my teeth, my anger. He says something to me, but I snarl at Wolverine's words of comfort.

Then we start moving, walking towards those stupid woods. I resist, without effect, as my human straight jacket continues to force me to move with him. I drop my weight and then abruptly jerk to my left, off balancing him maybe a tiny bit. But I'm not fast enough to take advantage of it. I twist and jerk and throw my weight every which way, but I can't off balance him again to my dismay. I'm still fighting mad when we come upon a small clearing in the trees. I try once more to lunge out of his hold and am rewarded by him letting me drop. I slam into the ground. Turning with a snarl, I face Wolverine, who just stares down at me, unmovingly. He stands there while I pick myself up and then launch myself at him, claws first. Unexpectedly, he seizes a wrist and flings me back tot he ground, using my momentum to propell me. "Don't," is all he says.

Of course, I do by lunging again. He steps aside a split second before I reach him. While passing, he chops me in the middle of my back, right between my shoulder blades and I end up on my hands and knees, not quite able to get up right away.

"Ya wanna fight me kid?"

Still on my hands and knees, I stare at his scuffed boots as he continues, "Didn't think so. Yer gonna stay here and cool off until I come get ya. That understood?"

I glare up at him murderously, my sharp teeth clenched in rage.

"Good. Leave before I let you? I'll bring ya back." Turning on his heel, he stalked back into the forest.

I growl in his direction, catch my breath, and stalk out of his stupid clearing. I almost make it to the edge of the stupid forest when my stupid teacher grabs my stupid arm again.

"I told ya ta stay," he says while dragging me back.

Digging my heels into the forest's soft carpet, I slow his progress just enough. He turns toward me and I knee him in the groin. The ussual 'wumf' noise exscapes his mouth and he doubles over. I make my break but don't get more than a few feet before I'm siezed again and roughly draggd back to the starting point.

Wolverine shoves me to the ground and growls, "DONT make me bring you back AGAIN."

Turning his back on me, he heads into the woods again. I'm still raging and locate a stick next to me. I hurl it at his head. My aim sucks and he doesn't even bother to turn around.

After maybe fifteen minutes of storming around the clearing, I kick a tree and hurt my foot. With an ungraceful flop, I sit down and take off my shoe and rub the throbbing big toe. Glaring at the world, I reflect on my life and decide that it sucks. Maybe I can go back home. I just can't let the town know that a cop killer mutant was around. My nose wrinkles. Yea, I know I was only mad because anger's easier than fewar, or depression, and I was kinda feeling both. "Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear," I mutter the quote to nothing in particular.

"Makes sense." Wolverine replies from behind me.

I jump a foot and whirl around to snap,"Don't do that."

Mildly, he replies, "Start payin' better attention ta yer surroundings."

This time, I turn my back on him. My scowl gets wasted on a ladybug.

"Ya wanna talk, kid?"

"No."

"Ya need more time ta cool off?" His voice is still mild.

"No."

"Then can the attitude."

I don't say anything and, instead, take a look at my left arm where Viper had given me a nasty bite. It's swollen, red and warm to the touch. Sharp pains make me wince as I press directly on the puncture wounds. Masochist

"His bite's poisonous," he watches me then adds, "But that's aout as bad as it'll get. Might wanna get a cold pack for it."

Mentally, I take stock of my injuries for the first time. My abdomen feels like it should after it's been kicked, my right shoulder has a puncture wound and a shallow, swollen gash from Viper's fangs. My arms are bruised from blockeing blows, the spot between my shoulder blades is sore and I have a fat lip. And my big toe. Stupid tree. Not too bad, really. "So how's he?" I ask quietly, hoping also for the first time that I didn't hurt him too badly.

"Yer lucky his skin's tougher than what yer pobably used to. He needs stitches. Might scar, but probably not."

I grunt back. He'll be fine, so I won't waste my worry on him. Got plenty of me to worry about.

"Get back before dark, and don't make me come after ya."

Because I'm still in a surley mood, I stay out there till it IS dark. I like to do things to spite people. Petty, yes, I know.

I'm just sitting iwth my knees pulled to my chest and my arms crossed over them, resting my head and thinking how horrible everything is.

A twig snaps infront of me. I glare up, expecting Wolverine. My feline eyes bug out at what they see.

"Hello, kitty cat," Creed sneers down at me.

The normal things happen: muscles tense, heart beat quickens, breath catches in my throat, eyes stay buggy and my mouth opens slightly. All at once, my depression kicks fear's butt and I slump back to normal, saying in a bored voice, "Creed, can't you attack some other time?" I think I confuse him. His sneer's gone, anyway. With a deep sigh, I rise to my feet and ask, "So are you gonna kill me?"

"No. Yer comin' back."

I shake my head, "This aint my favorite place either, but it beats the heck outta Magneto's."

He thinks about it for a minute. "You were gonna let me kill ya, but not take ya back ta Liensherrs?"

"Right."

"Damn. Too bad killin' ya wasn't an option," he reaches his clawed hand for me.

Wow. Fear suddenly became violent or something because it just completely vanquished my depression. I barely avoid getting caught, then duck around the psycho. I always had agility over Creed's strength. I plunge into those trees without a second thought. Keep in mind, I have night vision, so the darkness isn't really an obstacle for me. Of course, Sabertooth's only a frog's hair behind me. His claws reach out and snatch enough of my shirt to allow him to gain that small distance and he very painfully tackles me to the ground. The wind gets knocked out of me, but one thing comes to mind and as soon as I manage a lungful, I hollar as loud as I can manage, "WOLVERINE!"

I'm slapped hard enough that I see stars, that SOB. He's muttering curses ontop of me while trying to wrestle my wrists together into handcuffs. I'm making it so difficult (cuz I'm a slipperly lil' bugger) that Wolverine pops out of nowhere and slams his own claws knuckle-deep into Creed's side. I wonder if I'll go deaf fromt he volume of his scream. Maybe a roar would better describe it...

A bunch of other X-Men show up, but some of them are batteling flying mutants. My mind panics. They're going after Cerebro. Which meant that Jason was outt here somewhere. I try getting some adults attention, but they're working so efficiently as a team that they're everywhere at once. A couple people are ganged up on Creed, so I go to the only X-Man that can sense me. I must have smelled scared cuz he looked right at me and barked, "Get to the School!"

"Cerebro!" I yell over an explosion.

"Get the hell outta here!"

My mind is kind of jumbled so instead, I grab his arm and try to drag him with me, "No, they're--"

I'm slammed to the ground as a lightning bolt fizzes over my head. I can't breathe, Wolverine's practically crushing me.

"What the Fck Storm?" he yells up into the sky.

"That's Tap!" I manage to say, being rewarded with him getting halfway off of me so I can continue, "She's spose to tap into storms power. And Succubus is spose to get rid of Jean's telepathy. Taps over there," I point, "take her out and get Storm back."

Tap, the blonde-manicured-annoyance of my time with Magneto, was just standing there untouched. Mainly because she was also using Jean's powers to make everyone not notice her. My trick, so I could see through it. Once I pointed it out, Wolverine shouted to Gambit where to throw a card and Storm regains control of her elements.

Wolverine turns back to me suspiciously but I don't let him accuse me of anything yet. "They're after Cerebro."

"Fck." He flattens himself over me again to shield me from flying debris of another exploding card. "What's going on?" He demands, more than asks.

"Rocky's supose to get inthere and Electris hacks into Cerebro. Succubus keeps the telepaths from picking up Rocky."

Wolverine dras me up by my arm, the bitten one, I might as well add,a nd starts pulling me, bent over, towards the school. "Who's Rocky?"

"Turns into a rock," I explain loudly over the commotion, "He has no scent, that's why he gets sent in."

"How do ya know this?" He pulls me under him and ducks as a large branch flies over us. Undeterred, we continue.

"I was suppose to be his partner. We were safeguards for eachother. I could get past teleaths and he could get past noses. If Creed failed, eh could keep going and you'd catch me. If Succubus failed, I'd keep going."

We came to a stop and he looked me straight in the eye, "If this is a trap, yer dead."

I stared back at him. "It aint ta my knowledge."

For once, he takes my word for it and we head back in the direction of the school. Something catches my eye in the dark. He wasn't there a minute ago, I could have sworn. I snap at Wolverine, "Watch it." a second too late and Jason's stone fist crashes into Wolverine's skull. The blow would have brained any normal person. With the adimantium, it only knocked him out. Hopefully. That's all I needed was a brain damaged Wolverine who hated me...

Rocky turned toward my shocked face and rushed, "Let's go! I've got Electris in my head and it's driving me nuts!"

"What the HELL are you doing?!" I growl at him.

"I know we're a day early, but it was better opportunity with you out alone and all."

I stare at him, then squeak, "You were WATCHING ME?!"

Jason stares back. "Oh. Oh, crap. They must've brainwashed you. Eric said they might. I didn't think they could. Aw, crap." He touches his head piece and mutters into it, "Cougar's damaged." Listening for a minute, his mouth twitchs into a second frown, "Got it." He turns back to me, standing there dumbly. "You're with us Cougar, WE"RE your team. Enigma's coming to get you and bring you to Magneto--"

"You idiot!" I burst, "I left to get AWAY from that lunatic."

Jason shook his head, "You only think that--"

"I KNOW that. I'm not with you guys. I never was. Get the hell outta here!" I shoved him backwards toward the general direction of the boundry gate, "Go! Before Wolverine kills you." I could see an Asian girl, Enigma, coming through the trees and pushed Rocky again, pretty ineffectively.

"No, they screwed with you're head--" he says firmly, grabbing my wrist.

"NO they DIDN'T. I ChOSE this." I try to pull away and fail. What's with people grabbing me all the time? "Let Go."

Wolverine had apparently healed over this time because he growls from behind me, "Ya heard her, kid."

Jason's face hardens (no pun intended) and he releases me to lunge Creed-like at the other.

"Wait, knock it off!" I'm confused. I don't want Jason to get hurt, but I don't want him to get to Cerebro, cuz that'd probably be one of those bad things.

Enigma approaches me. "Come on," she urges, placing a firm hand on my shoulder. I knock it away and take a step toward the grappling figures. The woman sighs behind me and places her hand on my face.

Now I'm REALLY confused...I don't know who I am, or who the nice lady is...I don't like those loud guys fighting...and it's dark outside and a bunch of people are somewhere making noise and explosions.

"Come on," the nice lady says in a soothing voice, "You're safe with me."

Everything is confusing but her. Only she makes sense so I start to follow her. Something's wrong though, but I don't know what. But I don't really know anything. I turn towards the fighting men again and frown.

"Come on," she encourages me again.

"Something's wrong..." That's all I know. Something's wrong. And that the lady's touching me. I don't like to be touched, so I shove her hand off.

Everything snaps back into place. Enigma confuses people with her touch. Clever girl. UBt I don't like people screwing with me, so I slam my fist into her face before she gets to touch me again. She stays down.

Looking over to my immediate problem, I watch Wolverine impale Rocky without effect. When he's stone, he's all stone, practically invinsible. But the claws were slashing pretty fiercely and I know that Jason can't take constant abuse without it eventually forcing him back into flesh form. So I rush over there like an idiot. "Don't--" I grab one of Wolverine's slashing arms but he reflexivly swings it back, knocking me to the ground with a split lip. This suprised both of us, because the guys break apart long enough for him to whirl around to look at me. Unfortunately, it gives Jason a chance to kick the other in the turned back, sending him flying.

Wolverine turns over painfully and Jason rushes him. But I'm faster. Barely managing to slide between the two, I shield Logan's body with my own, practically lying ontop of him. "Jason, STOP!" His fist comes inches from my face, where Logan's just was and I shriek again," JASON!" I hate screaming, but it did the trick. The massive stone fist slams intothe ground, a hare's breath from my left temple. I am sandwitched between a rock and a metal skeleton, unable to breathe.

This close, I can see that he'd been in Rock form too long with too many blows. He's rapidly turning back to flesh. I hear a snikt noise from underneath me and let out a hiss as one of the adimantium claws slices my own side before sinking into Jason's stomach. His eyes go wide and my own stomach does a flip flop as I realize that he felt that very much.

The claws retract and Wolverine shoves us both off of him, then stumbles up to his feet on a nearly broken back. I huddle over Jason and pull back his shirt which had formerly been rock, along with the revealed flesh that was now slashed and producing blood.

"Crap." I start to panic. Jason tries to sit up to see but I know enough that I push him back to stop him, "Don't look." With my hands fluttering over the wound, unsure if I should apply pressure or not, I repeat my first assessment, "Crap, crap crap..." He makes a few pained noises and closes his eyes tightly, clenching his jaw. I hear Wolverine calling Beast over.

My friend is suddenloy snatched away from me. I get up to follow, but Wolverine puts a hand on my shoulder and says something, probably trying to be comforting. I lash out at him with my claws abruptly ripping through ihs uniform and chest. "You Moron! You...You..." words don't work, so I snarl at him and keep trying to rip up his flesh.

He just grits his teeth and catches my wrists, "Listen to me!" I glare up and he continues with a shake of emphasis, "He'll be o.k. Settle down."

Continueing to glower, I pull away and turn my back to him. After walking a few yards, I abruptly sit down indian style and hunch over to rest my elbosn on my knees. I bury my face in my hands. They have blood on them, but I don't know whose. Don't really care either, I guess.

Wolverine comes and kneels stiffly next to me and, placing a hand on my shoulder gently this time asks, "Ya gonna be ok?"

I jerk away, "Don't touch me." I feel like I'm gonna cry, but I'm kind of in shock, so I say instead, "This day really sucks."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Enough action? Hopefully. And long enough? It took me forever to type it out. So, i hope you enjoyed it and I'll start on the next one. Thanks!