Part 10

Part of me wanted to kill Scott right there on the spot, he had had no right to say any of those things to Marie; just because his own psyche didn't allow him to feel passion the way folks like Marie and I did, was no reason to take out his frustrations on her. But Marie didn't want me to stand up for her then, and I respected that, even though I nearly bit through my own lip trying to stay silent. I refused to believe that anything that he had said was even remotely true, even though Marie would likely argue with me about it later on. If I had ever questioned the sense of us leaving the mansion when we had, that point was laid to rest. I could only imagine the grief Scooter would have put Marie through if we had stayed. I wondered how long this had been festering. I hated not being able to see his eyes behind that mask, but it seemed obvious he wasn't going to bring it up with me, so I stayed all business-like.

On the main floor we came across a sheet of melting ice, and a pile of bodies, obviously Bobby had been there, and done a good job of it too. Scott had stopped; I was not at all concerned about whether or not they were alive. His sad expression answered the question for me anyways, wordlessly. I was sure he'd come up with a way to blame their deaths on me, obviously everyone learned their violent ways from me. You see, I figure, you make your choices about where to take your life, you better be ready to deal with the consequences. I had.

"Any idea how many we are dealing with?"

"Not a clue Logan." He tapped at his earpiece, "What's the situation?"

"Took out everyone we could find on the lower levels, and we're working our way upwards. Angel is on the roof, watching for aerial assaults. We sealed the ground floor exits, so we figure no one else will be able to make their way inside." The voice was Bobby's. "Shadowcat and Colossus are investigating some electronic devices we've been finding, they seem inert, but we aren't taking any chances."

"Where's the guy in the suit?" I still didn't know his name, but I aimed to squeeze it from him before he died.

"Top floor it seems, he got into a different elevator when he saw us coming, we can't seem to access it, and Kitty can't find it on the building grid, she believes it's isolated."

"Stairs secure?"

"As far as we can tell."

I turned to Scott, all business, in my own style of course, "I'm going up there Scott." He sighed, he knew it wasn't worth arguing with me at that point, and maybe he was starting to feel some regret about earlier.

"If you can try to keep him alive Logan?"

I could always try, I supposed. "Do my best Scott." And I left him behind to do whatever he thought would be most important, I had a score to settle.

It took hardly any time to make it up the six flights, not when I was so motivated. I had drawn my claws as soon as I entered the stairwell, I'll give Kitty her due, whatever she had done to the computers had disabled the lasers in the stairwells that Marie had told me about. The burn across her arm had worried me, but I hadn't said anything. We had people in much worse shape. She'd heal, even if it weren't with my help.

I would have been worried if there hadn't been anyone in the hallway as I burst out of the stairs. No worries, at least not for me. The three hadn't expected the bullet that was me to come flying at them. I heard the crack of their automatic weapons, and I felt one hit me in the bicep, it stung like hell, but didn't slow me down. It just made me angrier. I tore across the one man's chest with one of my best roars, if I do say so myself. It felt so good to let myself go finally, and use all my strength, against a target other than a tree. Not that I was longing for battle, hmm, would it be really bad if I said I was? Look, it's my nature, being up North had been calm, and peaceful, and it was what Marie had needed, but I had missed the action truth be told. Not enough to give her up for it, but well, damn it was good to be powerful again! The other two tried to fire off more rounds at me, but the sight of their companion bleeding out on the carpet kinda took their resolve away. It was easy enough to knock the two of them into the walls, and let their bodies drop. When they woke up they'd have great headaches and bruises. Scott would have been proud of me, not that what he thought mattered to me in any significant way.

The wound on my chest had healed up in time for a fourth man to burst out of the room at the end of the hall, completely betraying the position of his boss. I took another bullet or two in my gut. I launched myself at him, letting my claws take off the barrel of the rifle, and my fists take him down as well. I took a moment to let those wounds close, outside the office door. And I read the name on the brass plate there. Mr. Travis Titan, CEO Titan Security; I guess this was where he brought the good customers. I wondered if Xavier had been up here before? For good measure I kicked in the door.

He was in there, by himself, sitting at his desk; large, oak, I figured after six years in the business I was a good judge of wood. The wall of windows behind him was black with the full of the night, and I could see our reflections in them.

"Well Mr. Titan?" I couldn't think of anything else to say that wouldn't sound like a line from a movie.

"Wolverine, I guess you've killed my Banshee then?"

"If that was the name of that screaming telepath you had, then yeah, she's dead."

"She was such a well of untapped power, I had hoped to have more time to refine her."

"Yeah well, shit happens."

He was so calm it made me a bit nervous, calm like a psycho just before the really bad shit goes down.

"Aren't you the least bit curious as to why I did this?"

"Let's see, no, not really, you hate mutants, that doesn't exactly put you in any exclusive club."

"I don't hate mutants."

"Funny way of showing it."

"I simply wanted to manage the issue properly."

"I am not an issue, and neither are my friends. We are a fact of life."

"You could still agree to work for me, together we could catalogue our mutual enemies, and work together to control them."

I wasn't sure I was hearing him right, my stunned expression must have enlightened him.

"Together we could hunt them out, change them or dispatch them, and make this world safe for everyone."

"And you get to decide who's on the 'bad' side of the equation? And one day someone pisses you off and you get to play with their lives? I don't bloody well think so."

"I suppose I shouldn't have expected you to see it my way."

"Look, the way I see it, this can go one of two ways. You call off your dogs, all of them, and walk out of here with me, or you don't and we end up having to kill you all. Your choice."

"Somehow I cannot see being treated fairly by the same group of mutants I tried to capture, control or kill."

"Then you don't know your opponents as well as you think."

"All the same, I guess I'll go with option two." He smiled, that same half psycho smile that usually means they have just gone off the deep end. He hit a button on his computer keyboard; I just should have known that that was going to be bad news.

"What the hell did you just do?"

"I have initiated a small timer, it's wired to a dozen or so explosives in the basement of the building. Sadly it has a five-minute delay, which was supposed to give me enough time to get from my office to the street safely. Still, I don't see how you can get everyone out of here that quickly anyways now that the power is out. I regret that I won't have the opportunity to make up for that mistake Wolverine. And now I'll bid you farewell."

I watched, mostly stunned, as he raised a revolver to his head and shot himself. I had no intention of stopping him you understand, but it all just looked like slow motion as he fell to the ground. Damn it! I smacked the earpiece.

"We have a problem guys, I think I know what those things were that Kitty and Peter found."