Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, 'the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in a moment of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of a challange.'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'She's stable for right now Logan.'

Logan stared through the glass window, listening intently for the heart monitor and her breathing. Finding for once thanking his extroadinary senses.

Storm looked up at Logan, 'Logan?'

Silence.

Logan turned, staring at Storm intently, 'I can't even heal her. Her mutation didn't work when I touched her.' Rubbing his face he sighed in frustration, looking at Storm, he wondered, 'have you guys found anything?'

'Possibly, Kitty was able to break the IP address on the website Rogue found earlier. Tracing it, she found a building in Eastern Europe. That might contain the computer he used. We're going now. We won't be back for another day or two.'

'Do you think she'll wake up?'

Storm stared at Rogue, watching the air pump manually inflate her lungs. 'Emma says she couldn't even enter her mind. We have no idea what happened when Carol touched her…she's strong, though. She can do it.'

Logan nodded while still staring at Rogue. Hesitating Storm continued, 'Hank says there was an explosion at a facility downtown London. Mutant activities were high around the area, and he wants you to come with him to check it out.'

Logan sighed, 'yeah alright, better then sitting around here doing nothing.' With that he walked into the room and sat in the chair next to Rogue's bed.

Storm sighed as she stared at them.

Moira walked up next to her, 'Will you wait?'

Storm paused, '…No, We're still going. Tell them to zip up.'

Moira nodded and walked away.

Emma, Storm and Kitty stared up at the tall building. About for or five stories high, it towered over them ominously. She three silently looked at each other for a moment before walking up the front steps.

'This is the last known address of Dr. Essex' Kitty said as she read the file again. Glancing up at the building, she sighed, 'I hate dark and creepy buildings.'

Storm looked at her quizzically, 'since when did you go into one?'

Kitty realized her slip, 'oh…er…withroguewhenshewaslookingfortthejournals.' Kitty mumbled, suddenly finding the files in her hand fascinating.

Storm looked at her, 'we're going to have a talk about this later.'

Storm nodded to Emma, who did a mental scan of the area.

'I don't sense anybody there, but I sense power signatures. Somebody was here, fairly recently.'

Storm accepted it, 'That's good actually, means this was used fairly recently, and we might be able to get something. Kitty, would you like to go ahead of us.'

Kitty huffed, 'yeah I'm going.' she glanced back at Storm and Emma, blowing Emma a raspberry before phasing through the door.

Storm chuckled as Emma's mouth curled in annoyance.

'All clear!' Kitty's voice rang out.

Together, Emma and Storm entered the old and decrepit building. Storm looked around, realizing it was used fairly recently. Only a thin layer of grime line the floor, and the general area looked as sterile as a good hospital. A front reception desk stood against the side wall, which Storm looked over to see if there was anything.

Walking around the desk, she turned on one of the lamps as she looked over the scattered papers. Underneath the papers, a sign-in book lay there. Storm took it out and started riffling through it. Signatures of various unknown people filled page after page-

Storm flipped back one page, and then forward. She frowned in confusion. One of the pages was missing. An entire day worth of signatures was completely gone.

Storm ran back a few months, wondering who was there. Her finger running down the column names, until she came across an familiar one. REMY LEBEAU.

Checking the date, it was a year and some months ago. 'What were you doing here?' Storm wondered out loud. Storm scanned the rest of the names, finding familiar names. Closing it, she looked around one last time before moving through the glass doors and into the rest of the main floor.

Doors lined the hallways, and peeking into each one, Storm raised an eyebrow. Lab equipment littered each room. Fairly sterile place, the devices weren't of usual hospital standard. One particular device sent shivers up Storm's spine as she realized it went through a person's eye.

Meeting up with Emma, 'anything?'

'Nothing.'

Kitty phased through a wall right next to them, brushing off dust and dirt, 'you're not going to believe what's around here. It's like an insane asylum from a horror move. And there's some really creepy pictures down the hall.'

As the three went deeper into the building, All three grew more and more shocked at the stuff lying about. Torture devices, chairs with head, hands, and feet straps, locked cells, and several computers about.

However, Kitty couldn't get most of them to work since they were all damaged

Storm observed the area, 'clearly things were taken from here, must have been in haste.'

Emma scanned the area, 'I wonder why?'

Slowly they made their way through the entire main floor before going up a set of stairs at the end of the hall. Oddly a set of doors were locked, barring them from the second floor.

Kitty walked past them, 'move aside' and phased through again, 'EWWWWWWWWW!'

Storm banged the door in a panic, 'KITTY? KITTY?'

Silence.

Storm backed up, 'step back' she took one glance at Emma before turning her eyes white. Raising the winds, she gathered them into a mini hurricane. And with a flick of her wrist, sent it into the doors.

BOOM!

The doors flew against the walls, before breaking off their hinges. Emma whistled, 'impressive, a liitle heavy handed I think.'

Storm ignored her as she pushed the door open, searching for Kitty. Kitty stood like a statue, looking slightly green in the face.

Emma gasped in shock as she too saw what Kitty was looking at.

All around them were giant tubes with various specimens floating in an unknown yellowish-greenish liquid. Rows upon rows of different specimens lined the walls. Doors interspersed the hallway.

Storm took a step closer, staring into the eyes of one particular specimen. The head was clearly human, but the spine was twisted around, with remnants of wings growing out of its' lower back. The thing's eyes stared blankly out, and Storm had the feeling its' eyes were following her.

'What kind of sick freak was this guy' Kitty cried out, refusing to move from where she stood.

Storm glanced at Emma, who started scanning. 'I don't detect any brain activity from these guys.'

Hesitating, Storm straightened her back, 'alright let's keep going.'

Kitty refused to move. 'Don't worry Kitty, we can handle it from here.' Kitty lifted her chin and took one step then another. 'one of these days your going to beg for my help, Emma'.

Half hour later

'Guys, I found a working computer.'

Storm and Emma stepped into another room several doors down, finding Kitty at the computer and typing rapidly. The room itself was apparently an office, and books lined the walls from floor to ceiling.

Emma grabbed books after books, flipping through them before tossing them to the floor.

'Genetics, human genomes, mutant genomes, god and genes, evolution, this guy was obsessed with this stuff.' Emma muttered as she read the titles out loud. She paused as she opened one book, only to find a square carved out of it. 'Apparently the good doctor had hidden depths' she said as she showed Storm and Kitty.

One by one she flipped through the books. Finding several more books with squares carved out of it. Looking at the size of the whole, Emma wondered what exactly would fit the book.

Kitty was occupied with the computer, typing in various things. She paused. Suddenly the screen went black before green letters started scrolling down the screen.

'Whoa, I didn't do that' Kitty said in astonishment as she tried different combinations to get something other then the scrolling numbers.

Storm leaned over Kitty, looking at the letters, 'those are repeating.'

Kitty looked closer, 'no their not, but only four, five letters keep showing up.'

Emma leaned over Kitty's other shoulder, a low chuckle in her throat, 'that's because it's a DNA sequence. Didn't Jean teach you guys anything?' She looked at the two before turning around again to sift through the office.

Kitty, realizing how childish, stuck out her tongue at Emma before continuing to type. Suddenly charts and diagrams appeared as well.

'What the hell?'

'Kitty, can you send this to Hank' Storm tried to make sense of some of it, but the pages came to fast.

Kitty typed faster, 'I don't know, I don't have a signal of any sort here…although here…' taking out Rogue's IPOD, she blushed when Storm and Emma stared at her. 'I found it in her jacket. I was going to give it to her.'

'I was' she defended herself when Emma raised an eyebrow.

After uploading the information that she could, she unhooked it and stashed it.

'Let's get the hell out of here.'

Storm suddenly paused. 'Wait, something doesn't feel right.'

The other two scanned the area around them, wondering what would have Storm spooked.

'I feel the wind changing, and not in a natural way.' She said by way of an explanation.

The walls around them started shaking, books falling from the shelves. Emma threw out a force field, deflecting most of the objects.

'Are you kidding me?' Kitty claimed as she phased, allowing some of the books to fall through her.

Suddenly the shaking stopped.

Storm ran to the window, looking down. 'It's Magento's men.' She said.

Pyro lifted his head, tipping his head at the two of them, before Juggernaut sent the building tumbling to the ground.

He walked through the streets, slightly whistling. The book in his hand, 'Genetics: How Mutants are the next step in evolution'. The title read.

He tipped his head at several people along the street, Person after person passed him by, a Blonde woman in a beautiful red dress, a young punk with earphones passing him by, and an old man with a satchel.

Pausing, he turned around, he smiled. 'Hello Mystique.'

The old man smiled, showing yellow teeth, as his eyes flashed yellow. Taking his arm, she directed him into a little coffee place, where they could sit in the corner.

After they sat down, 'where is it?' the doctor asked.

Mystique placed the satchel on the table and opened it. 'It wasn't that easy. They kept vigilant watch over him day and night. Almost broke my heart.'

She held up a red vial. 'The blood sample you needed.'

The doctor smiled as he looked at it, 'finally. The Summer's blood.'

He opened the book and tucked it into the square cut, shutting it close with satisfaction. 'How is Rogue doing by the way?'

Mystique shrugged, 'She's still alive, and hopefully we can save her.'

The doctor nodded, 'Extraordinary mutant, never met someone with quite her potential. I would love to work on her.' He said, somewhat probing.

'I got you what you need, you're not to touch her, understand', she said firmly as she held out her hand. 'Do you have it?'

The doctor took out another vial, 'right here, Carol Danvers' mutant gene. Exactly as you asked, one shot should be enough.'

Mystique stared at the vial before looking up at the doctor, 'how exactly does this work?'

He smiled, 'let's call it advanced gene therapy shall we. Call me if there are problems.'

With that, He walked out of the restaurant, disappearing into the crowd.

Mystique stood up, tucking the vial into her satchel. As she walked out the door, she morphed into Moira. She lifted her head and smiled as she called for a taxi.

Kitty started coughing, 'never…' gasp, '…ever walking into another creepy building again' She phased through the ground and held herself up against a pole.

Emma stood not a few feet away, looking at her nails. 'You could have helped you know' Kitty snarled, slightly miffed that Emma simply stood there.

'You got out didn't you. Besides I couldn't put myself in danger, I'm the only telepath around.'

Kitty almost gave her the finger, before one of the pieces of concrete moved aside, and a hand popped out. Kitty climbed up the rubble and grabbed the hand. Phasing Storm and pulling her through the concrete and onto the grass.

'You okay Storm?' Kitty asked as she saw Storm bend over, coughing.

'Yeah, I was able to hold it up for a time, but it started collapsing.' Storm continued to cough, while Kitty stood over her.

Emma stepped up to them, 'let's go' her eyes focused on something in the distance.

'Can you give her a moment' Kitty snapped.

'I would, but they probably won't.' Emma pointed to a group in the distance walking down the street. Each lamp cast a glow on them for about two seconds, enough to recognize who they were.

Kitty shut her mouth, and grabbed Storm's hand to help her up.

'Let's get to the jet.'

The three snuck away, approaching the small area in which the jet was hidden.

Storm suddenly stopped short, putting her hands out to stop the other two.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hank flipped through another set of web pages.

Thump

Hank looked over his glasses at the bottle on the table, 'oh my! Who brought in the goods.'

Logan settled himself in the opposite chair, twisting the cap off his beer before taking a deep swig. 'Thought you might want a break.'

Hank took another look at the beer, tentatively picking it up. Logan stared at him for a moment, 'what, beer ain't your poison?'

Hank stared at the beer bottle still before shaking his head uncertainly, 'n-no I'm not a beer person if you will, wine is my area of expertise.' Taking a sip, he gasped and coughed, 'vile drink' he said firmly as he set it on the table, refusing to touch it.

Logan started chuckling before taking another swig. 'Sorry bub, wine is too weak for me. Tastes terrible'

Hank muttered, 'indeed' as he gave the beer a dubious look.

Logan nodded at the computer, 'find anything?'

Hank turned away from the bottle and looked at the screen, 'hmm, er…no. We should hear back from Storm sometime soon.'

Logan shrugged, 'what about the lab in London?'

Hank looked up from his computers, 'I thought we would go after Moira comes back. I don't want to leave Scott or Rogue on their own.'

'Where is the good doctor?'

Hank shrugged, 'I think she had to pick up supplies.'

Logan nodded at that, his eyes drifting to the monitors behind Hank's computers. 'Playing the peeping tom I see.'

Hank huffed, 'I am not, I'm keeping an eye on the monitors just in case anything happens.'

Logan would have made some snarky remark, until he paused at one monitor. 'Damn, we have a visitor.'

Hank startled chuckling, 'well if it isn't our crafty thief'

But Logan was already out the door, Hank called after him, 'Don't get blood on the walls. They're a nuisance to clean.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'No way!' Kitty looked at the crumpled jet. It looked like Magento's work.

'Damn' Storm muttered as she looked around. Nothing about the jet was recognizable. Emma walked up to it, and then around it. 'Quite the artist' she said as she observed it.

Storm walked to the door trying to open it, but it was sufficiently melded to the frame. 'Kitty?'

'Yeah yeah' Kitty phased through, trying to see how much damage was done. 'Nothing, this thing is just pieces of scrap.'

Kitty phased through. Storm sighed, 'we have a computer on board, see if you can upload the information to Hank, its going to take awhile before we can get back.' She nodded to Kitty's IPOD.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gambit carried the woman into one of the other room, and laid her down gently. 'They'll take care of you chere'

He pulled the blanket over her.

Sneaking out of the room, he treaded lightly down the hall, peeping into each room, until he found the one he was looking for.

ROGUE was signed on a chart next to the door.

Storm, Kitty and Emma sighed staring at the wreck that was their only form of transportation.

'We're screwed aren't we?'

'Positive attitude Kitty' Emma reprimanded her.

'WE'RE SCREWED!' Kitty said happily.

'Wake up' low and melodious.

'Wake up love'

He opened his eyes slowly.

She smiled softly, her eyes twinkling, 'yeah, how about that. I'd hate for you to miss this. You've been pretty popular recently.'

Suddenly she morphed into an ugly gray man, with razor sharp teeth, and deformed lips.

Scott woke up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just my personal opinion, but I rock! I got this chapter out less then a week later. I think I owe you guys majorly for sticking to the story even though it takes me forever to post. So think of it as a bonus!

I felt bad having so much dialogue, and so the last chapter was...off. I had them talking for ages, but I thought you guys would be so bored with them, so I cut it down and had Rogue simply die. Again, in a cool fashion though. I thought about Carol answering some questions in her mind, but really I think I have nicer way of showing that.

I think there will be one more scene on the island, and finally these people get to go to the one place I have been dying to right about. Which means, this should all end in three or four more chapters. Which also means, if you don't think a question is going be answered, then send me a review with it in it. Because I have so many things I wrote, that I can't remember it all. So really I'm focusing on three things.

Where is apocalypse and what is he?

Why is Scott Summers important.?

And what do the journals, when they are all put together, do?

Again, all other questions must be written, else there is a good chance I'll forget.

And as always, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW.