It turned out that Logan could indeed fly a jet

It turned out that Logan could indeed fly a jet. Keeping Storm in her seat with the seatbelt on was a lot more difficult. At the moment, she was concentrating on making pink snow flakes fall from the sky. So far, she could only make them orange.

The others had changed into their rubber suits during the flight and now they were preparing for a rough landing. The objective was west of New Haven and the instructions weren't clear; all they knew was that they had to get in and out. Why, though, that was still a mystery.

"What are we going to do with her?" Hank murmured gesturing towards Storm. "Lock her in?"

"She knows this jet better than anyone. She'd find a way out," Logan replied.

"We can't take her with us." Storm was drawing pretty ice flowers on the windows. It was mid summer.

"Storm… hey, Storm!" Stardust called her name again to get her attention.

"Mmmm… yeah?" a happy drug induced smile turned to her.

"You'll have to stay here."

"But I wanna heeelp," came the whining in a child-like voice.

"Good, 'cause we really need your help," Stardust said seriously. "You need to guard the jet, it's our only way out and you're the best at long distance fight. You have the best chance to keep it in one piece and ready to take off as soon as we get back. Can you do that?"

"Yes, I can do that…" Storm beamed and nodded a bit too fast, enough to get dizzy.

"We won't get more than this from her." She looked up at the men. "Hopefully she'll stay in… we should go while she's still calm…"

Guns were charged and the trio went ahead, leaving Storm behind. They had scanned the area while approaching, but no heat signatures, mutant or not, had been read by the scanners. The construction they were aiming for seemed to be empty and whatever they were supposed to get or do inside they would only find out upon entering, since all attempts to contact the Professor had failed. Something was going on at the mansion and they were on their own.

If they hadn't smelled something fishy already, the unlocked doors at the entrance should have at least raised suspicions. The structure was made of steel and concrete, with long corridors and rooms on both sides. The more they advanced inside, the more one conclusion became clear.

"There's no one here. This place is abandoned." The Beast commented.

"Let's look for the command center; this place is built like a fortress, there has to be one," Logan said. "We could try to contact the Professor from there, if everything is still working."

"There is a room at left center." Stardust remembered the 3D readings from the monitors. "That could be it."

"We should find it then," Logan nodded.

More careful advancement, though on a faster pace, since no one got in their way, and they soon reached the command center. All the computers and monitors were turned off. The base had been closed.

"Why would Charles send his team to an empty place like this?" the Beast wondered out loud.

Click.

"Don't touch anything," Logan warned. He didn't want any warning signal to be triggered by mistake.

Click.

"Maybe it wasn't empty," he reasoned, "and he'd hoped we were gonna make it on time?"

Click.

"There is no dust." Stardust ran her fingers over a desk.

Click.

"A place of this size takes a while to evacuate…" Logan stated.

Click.

"And the Professor always knows," she added.

Click.

"What if the place has been emptied especially for us…" Logan launched another hypothesis.

Click.

"…and it wasn't the Professor calling," she finished his thought.

Click.

They looked at each other, trying to decide if that could be the truth.

Click.

And then Logan whispered, "We are being watched." A small camera was blinking in a corner.

Riiiiing!

"It's a trap. Run!"

The Beast went ahead, followed closely by Logan, while Stardust remained a couple of steps back, not being as fast as they were. Mechanical noises could be heard as metallic doors fell, closing access ways, and they had to change course several times to avoid them and avoid being separated, which eventually happened, anyway.

"Hurry!"

The exit was only meters away when three doors emerged from the ceiling, falling fast. One was at mid distance between The Beast and Logan and the other two, very close to each other, threatened to fall between Logan and Stardust. She thought she would have had time to roll and pass underneath one of them, but she would have never made it through the second one. Both she and Logan watched, helpless, as the doors became one with the floor, sealing off contact between them. She turned and ran back. There had to be another way, there just had to be one.

The Beast stopped, not knowing what to do. He wanted to go find the girl, but a safety door was just starting to close the entrance.

"Go on, get out!" Logan yelled at him. "I'm going after her, see if you can guide me from outside." They couldn't count on Storm yet, they could still hear her giggling and singing in their ear pieces.

The Beast nodded, leaped forward and disappeared into the opening about to close. Logan didn't wait, he went to test the other door's resistance. It was thick and plated with metal. It would have taken him hours to get through it and there was another one on the other side. He didn't have the time nor the patience to do that. The corridor's walls were plated with metal too, but the walls separating the rooms perhaps weren't. He found one with the door still open and walked inside. Uh-huh, concrete, he could deal with concrete.

Claws popped out and he started to tear down the walls, one after the other, moving on a path parallel with the main corridor in search of another open door. For a while, all that could be heard were grunts and sounds of claws hitting concrete. Contact with the jet had been lost the moment the front door had been sealed.