A.N. Hey guys! It's me again! Thank you so much for the hits and reviews! Can you beleive it - over 20,000 hits! Makes me so happy! Enjoy the next one! R&R, RR!

Disclaimer: Not my characters, just entertainment!

* Advanced warning for unpleasantness... it is written... *

Chapter 43

"No!" Ryan became agitated as they wheeled past him. He didn't know what he could do but he had to try something; so he tried to stretch out with his powers.

Fzz-BOOM-Boom-boom-boom!!!! BOOM-Boom-boom!!! BOOM!! Boom!!... Ba-BOOM!!!!

The unlit lights in the room were suddenly full of electricity and blasted sparks and glass from their holders in the room. No one had to tell him, he just knew, but the same thing happened in every room in the building and in every room in the nearby buildings sending everyone into the dark ages...

The breeze into his face suddenly cut out. Shrieks echoed around the darkness in the ducts. The panic almost burst his ear drums. He neared a vent and saw no light coming through. He hadn't witnessed a power outage since Leech discovered his abilities. Remembering the effect that that had on his powers he hoped the little kid wasn't nearby; for both their sakes.

Snikt! Snikt!

He saw no need for stealth anymore since the generators didn't kick in immediately. He slashed through the part of the duct before him and dropped down through the panelled ceiling, landing heavily on the dark floor below.

He sniffed the air, knowing full well what direction Laura had gone; and given Saunders memories of the facility he knew that she had gone straight for Spears. Logan wasn't a fan of that idea. Laura could handle herself in any situation, but given the rage pent up within her, he didn't want her doing something she'd no doubt regret later. But Spears had a lot to answer for, so he had a hard time feeling any sympathy for him.

He had only a second to make up his mind as more screams emanated from way down the corridor.

"Angel!"

His heightened senses picked up the name of a friend, causing him to run towards the cacophony of screams, slicing his way through any trouble he found along his way...

oOo

"Argh!" Ryan screamed as pain ripped through him from the explosion of power he felt coming out of him.

"Ryan!" Jan shouted out his name but he couldn't hear as all hell broke loose around him. Pulsating sparks lit up the cells like strobe lighting. The images before them all flickered showing the motions of the thugs dragging Warren out through the door way to the waiting Doctor.

The chaos had woken the sleeping giant from his slumber in the cell across from Ryan.

"Whuts happenin'?" Fred asked the general vicinity, albeit a bit groggily. The toad jumped to latch himself on to the bars on the front of his cell.

"Yo, Fred! My pal! My buddy! Ged us outta here!!!" Toad shrieked before calling out to the guys dragging Angel out the door. "Hey! You forgot to open our cells!" One of the men at the door way pushed the exit door shut and turned around to walk straight up to Toad's cell. He pulled out a taser gun and held it up to the bars on Toad's cell. He pressed the button to deliver a few thousand volts to the creature by conduction through the bars but instead another pulse of power came from the electrified mutant in the other cell. The gun blew up in his hand sending him flying back into the bars of the opposite cell.

"Gargh!" The Blob roared as he pushed off the ground and used his own momentum to knock over the wall of bars in front of him, making a sizeable dent in Ryan's cage in the process.

"Free me! Free me!" Toad shouted to the blob as the lights flickered and sparked around them. The Blob regained his balance and reached over to Toad's cell. He grabbed and few of the bars in one hand and wrenched the bars askew, leaving a sufficient gap to for the Toad. The Toad crawled out and jump straight for the door. He aimed to hit it hard with his heels, which he did, but this only served to dent him and not the door. He bounced off and sprung straight in to the stomach of the Blob.

"Quit foolin' around, Toad." Freddie told him as he wrenched aside the bars of the other cells to release fellow prisoners; they numbered twenty in total. Zara ran to hug Janette immediately but Jan shrugged out of her hug to go to Ryan, whose powers were still sparking out of control in the cell next to hers.

"Jan, no!" Zara pulled her back by her arm, away from the cell with bolts of electricity shooting out from it. Jan turned to face her.

"He needs help!" She pulled her arm out of her grip just as a loud sound of tearing metal came from the door. They all looked to see two pairs of claws in triplicate suddenly shoot through the door to fashion a new exit for them. The metal was kicked in, and the Wolverine stepped through.

"Everybody out!" He shouted into the cells seeing that most of the work had already been taken care of. People started to file out immediately, stepping over large camouflaged bodies outside the door in the process.

"Zara, go!" Jan shouted and pushed her friend towards the man with the claws. Jan turned to step over the ex-marine on the floor when he suddenly grabbed her leg and pointed and gun straight up into her stomach.

BANG!

"Jan!" Zara screamed as the gun went off...

oOo

The feel of warm metal blades pressed into his throat made him flinch but he fought the instinct to move lest he cut himself. His eyes shot open and he couldn't see his attacker standing behind him as his eyes danced side to side. Without saying a word, the tip of his shoe edged ever so close to the panic button under his desk. The claws pressed in harder against his raw and scratched skin and their owner whispered to him for the first time.

"No one's that lucky, Bub..."

The claws pressed deeper; he thought his neck would be slashed for sure, but his attacker pulled him backwards dragging him away from the panic button. His fingers slowly un-entwined behind his head but his arms were static, paralysed with fear. Suddenly, the chair was spun about with a grunt and growl. He barely had time to register the mutant before he felt two blades slowly scratching either side of his face as they extended from her left fist below his chin.

Sniiiikkk-ktT!!!

He closed his eyes tight until they had stopped extending, and then opened them to take in the appearance of his attacker. She was a petite young girl with dark hair and tanned skin, but his gaze was fixed on her eyes which were disturbingly beautiful but held a raw fury that he had never witnessed before in his life. She didn't care about repercussions and, in spite of the claws framing his face; it was that look which frightened him the most.

"W-who are you?" He stammered as she leaned closer to him still staring him in the eye getting ever so close to him. She was merely an inch from his face, and then sniffed twice. His eyes were wide in surprise and fear but were contradicted by a frown on his face. His arms were above his head and he decided that that's where they'd remain as long as her claws were as close to his jugular. He gulped under her stare. That's when his eyes flicked downwards for a split second, just a moment, but it was long enough to Laura to catch it.

As fast as lightning, she quickly slashed her other clawed hand across his chest. He heard his fabric rip and was convinced that his insides would be on his outsides when he looked down, so he didn't look down, he just squeezed his eyes shut.

Un-snikt! Cla-clink!

The tiny sound of clinking glass and metal made his eyes shoot open. He looked at her and she was looking at her right hand in front of his chest.

Instead of seeing an injury to his torso, he saw the six syringe-like vials, which he had been keeping in his jacket pocket, splayed out in her hand before him. His arms automatically descended to reach for his last line of defence against the freak but she didn't even move her eyes from her find; instead, she twisted her wrist under his chin a degree, just enough to give him a long cut on the left side of his face. The cut extended from the corner of his right eye, over his cheek bone, lining up to the corner of mouth and chin. He hissed at the pain but his hands froze in mid-air, hovering.

"Where are your remaining hit men from the attack in Rochester?" She asked him almost casually, still studying her hand and reading the tiny writing on the side of each of the injectables. He looked at her, feeling his hot blood trickle along the line of the blade against his face and take a turn to disappear under his chin and down his neck, staining his designer shirt at the collar bone. His eyes widened at the realisation that she was the mutant that had evaded his men in Rochester; but the second after his realisation hit, he put on his business face to use whatever information he had to his advantage in this terrifying situation. Laura looked at him when he didn't answer.

"If I tell you, what will happen to me?" He asked as calmly as possible. Laura grinned for a second, considering the endless possibilities from her extensive knowledge that she had accumulated throughout her unique life; and then, she kicked up her right leg and slammed it down right between his legs causing him to jerk back so that her boot landed harshly on the edge of his chair and not on an area he considered to be far more precious. His eyes widened in shock but he struggled to look down against the fist that was steady all-the-while under his chin. His breaths had shortened considerably.

She leaned down to him, left fist under his chin and syringes in her right hand, balancing on her left foot while her right leg was bent and pushing on the edge of his chair dangerously close to him and his. She angled her right foot as she leaned, pointing her right toes upward to the ceiling. She leaned even closer and released his chin. She whispered in to his left ear as his head bobbed forward on instinct.

"I can show you what will happen to you if you don't tell me..." She smiled sadistically at him, waiting for his reaction as she-

Snikt!

He jumped back violently in his chair as he witnessed the razor sharp claw extend suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, from her right foot. She angled it perfectly, the blade only millimetres away from his... clothing.

She almost laughed at his panic until a couple of things on the desk behind him caught her eye.

"Richards is in the building! I don't know where, but he's here somewhere!" He shouted out fairly lively all of a sudden. But Laura wasn't listening; she was scanning through the document, quickly learning the effects of the poison, including some interesting facts about some unexpected side effects in some of the test subjects. Doing some quick mathematics in her head, she kicked his chair away from her to the side. The chair hit the desk and he fell unceremoniously to the floor.

"LDX..." She mused as she stared at the open report on his table top. "Lethal Dose for the X-gene..." She fiddled with the syringes, rolled them over each other one by one in her hand, like meditative boading balls. "'Each pen contains enough of the active ingredient to take out any mutant'. Well, any mutant without a healing factor..." She mused. She looked at Spears briefly. "It hurts like nothing you can imagine, but I don't see that included in the report." She turned her attention back to the document. "'It works best when it is injected'. An interesting weapon – worth it's weight in Adamantium. I can see why it's so valuable." She thought out loud.

"What?" He rolled out sarcastically, "Did you want to buy shares?" She smiled at the comeback.

"You should be more careful, Guy; it says here that four of these are enough to kill a human." She took the cover off one of the doses. No needle attached. She frowned and looked back at the report on the table as he clambered back into the corner quickly placing the needles, from his other pocket, under the book case lining the wall behind him.

"Pity..." She told him, disappointed that there were no needles supplied; it was going to force her to find some other way of being poetic about it.

He was starting to believe that she was all bark and no bite when suddenly she launched herself forward to grab the back of his head with her left hand, pulling him back by the short hair on his head. She crouched over him, her right knee beside his left hip, her left foot beside his right side. He started to panic not knowing what she was going to do with him. She held up one of the pointless syringes before him.

"But, y-you... have no... needles!" He choked out; she had bent his head far enough back that his trachea was put under compression from his neck.

"You need to read the reports Dr. Essex generates more thoroughly; try not just looking at bottom line." She dropped his head to have both hands free. His head hit the floor hard as she pulled the plunger out of the syringe and grabbed his head roughly again, forcing his head back so far that he could almost see where he had stashed the syringe needles, only this was from an upside-down perspective. Suddenly, the power in the building went and they were plunged into near darkness. Unfortunately for him this did not deter her; it simply served to enhance the fear he was experiencing on a whole other level.

"You skipped over the part about various methods of delivery..." She continued on without pausing. He didn't know what she was doing until she was pouring the poison into his nose. He couldn't catch his breath to blow the liquid out; it just burned the lining of his nasal area and brain, working its way quickly into his bloodstream. Any excess dripped back his throat and was quickly swallowed on instinct.

He couldn't form a coherent thought as she dropped his head to the ground again. He heard another faint 'pop' and she roughly grabbed his head again. He closed his eyes and made a grunt in protest.

"Don't pass out yet, bub," She growled, "There's still four more to go-" Her sentence was punctuated by more of the liquid cascading back through his nose...

oOo

Jan jerked at the sound of the gun, and thought it was almost funny that she felt no pain. The Toad slimed the soldier-boy in the face, taking him out by asphyxiation. He then looked at Jan and stared at her perfectly unharmed stomach.

"Hey, Cool! You're invulnerable! Guess you don't need my help!" The Toad shouted before skipping out the door past Wolverine, leaving Jan to stare at her stomach.

"But, I'm not a mutant..." She said to herself quietly before another bolt from Ryan snapped her from her revelation. "Ryan!" She climbed through the bent bars into his cell. He was in the corner shooting bolts left, right and centre. He looked up at her, his eyes electrified and his face pained. It didn't take him long to realise who she was, even though it was the first time he saw her.

"Stay back, Jan! I can't control it!" She walked forwards to him, the bolts bouncing off her with a tickle, but not hurting her. He watched her approach; he was confused but protested to her movements anyway. "No! I can't-"

"It's okay!" She held up her hands to show she was uninjured. She knelt down in front of him and cupped his cheek in her hand to try and sedate him. His white eyes danced as he took her in. Deciding that she was okay, he tried to vocalise what was happening.

"I don't know if I can stop it!" He shouted loudly above the noise and crackling around them. "It's not just the sparks; I can feel all the software and programs and digital info being sent and transmitted all around us!" He grabbed both her shoulders to get some hold on the real world as his mind became full of the virtual one. "Oh, God! The rest of this building is a hospital; a real hospita-"

"Shh, It's gonna be okay; all you have to do is get up!" She told him solidly. The sparks faded a little as he looked in to her eyes. He nodded.

She manoeuvred them and put an arm around his waist to help him up. He was able to walk to the bars and they both climbed through just as the Blob crushed through their exit, making it a little larger. Ryan was walking mostly on his own now, but Jan didn't feel like letting go anytime soon as they made their way out past the Wolverine...

oOo

Angel grunted against his restraints as Richards strapped in the winged freak into the back of the van.

"What do you want with me?!" Angel shouted at the massive ex-soldier in front of him. "Are you on Spears' payroll or my father's?" He growled out. Richards just smiled, wondering if the fact that he was a Worthington was supposed to shock him.

"Neither," He supplied, "I work for the highest bidder; and at the moment, that's Dr. Essex." He told him as he stepped out the back of the van and slammed the doors closed. He walked up to the driver's side and opened the door to step in. He was greeted by Dr. Essex who was already happily situated in the seat and her box of samples on the passenger side floor. He looked at her for a second before she spoke.

"Is our guest secure?" She asked in her accented English. Richards nodded.

"Affirmative." He looked at her, with a slight frown of confusion on his face.

"Good." She said cooly.

BANG!

He didn't even see the gun in her lap before it went off. He clutched the entry wound on his chest and collapsed back on the ground. It only took him a few seconds to bleed out on the cool ground.

Essex reached out to pull the driver door closed and started the engine of the manual-drive van. Putting it in gear, she pulled out calmly from the back alley and onto the main street, disappearing into the darkness...

End of Chapter 43

A.N.

...

... Yikes...

... Things are getting dark, are they not?

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~Rí