Storm looked. Four jeeps together, breaking the treeline at once. She attacked. So did Scott. Damn it, the treeline was close to the school over there, and Scott was having to stick half his chest out of the window to get a shot.

"Pull Scott back". She thought, as loudly as she knew how. It seemed to work.

"Cyclops!" She felt The Professor's warning echoing through her. "Get back. Move if you haven't got a shot from there."

Storm saw Scott pull back. She was holding on her own now, and would be for a minute, until Scott got to a better vantage point. She drew lightening down as fast as she could, men convulsed and collapsed when she hit them, but there were a lot down there now. She could not hit them as fast as they were coming. She heard the door bang open. Logan and Peter were involved now. She was dimly aware of a low growl and pain in the back of someone's hands.

,

Logan held out a hand to Kurt, who pulled him through space to the top of the elevator. It was nearly pitch black in here, the shaft above the box. Logan felt for the fastening of the hatch. He wouldn't open it yet. Not until they were moving.

"Good luck." Kurt breathed, then disappeared again.

Logan waited.

,

Kitty staggered slightly as she landed. She was back on the ground floor, Kurt let go of her.

"Be brave now." He whispered. "You know where to find me."

Kitty nodded. Kurt disappeared again. She stood still a moment, listening hard. She could hear men moving around, shouting to each other. She trod towards the sound.

Five of them, just emerging from Ms Munroe's classroom. Kitty let out a short, high scream, turned, and ran.

"There! She's one! Tranqs! Quick!"

Tranqs. They weren't going to kill her. She could do this. She'd be okay. And they were chasing her. She wasn't in her X-men uniform. She was in a camisole top and a knee length skirt, hair down. She looked about fifteen and she knew it. She gasped with fright as she ran. She turned a corner. Five more armed men. They turned at the sound of her. She didn't slow down. They were spreading their arms to catch her, shouting at each other in… it sounded like Spanish, maybe. They looked Mexican. They had guns. If they shot her –

No. She had to run. They had to chase her. She ran straight through them. The one nearest on her right had a spider tattooed in black under his left eye. She shrank away from his hands, even though she knew he couldn't touch her. They shouted in anger and surprise and came after her. They were grown men. Surely they'd be faster than her. She heard shots behind her. She started to 'flash'; be solid only when she touched the floor. She saw two darts pass straight through her. Something stung at her right thigh. Oh no. She was nearly there. She turned sharply right and ran through the door in to the lift. Kurt was waiting for her. She collided with him and he took her down below.

"Fast as a shadow, little cat." He said, smiling. Kitty looked around, panting. Peter smiled at the sight of her. Kitty didn't smile back. They were about to die. All of those men she'd just run past, they were all about to die. They'd chase her in to the lift, where Logan would kill them. Kitty swallowed hard. She felt almost light-headed all of a sudden.

She looked down at her skirt. A dart was tangled in the fabric. There was a scratch on the skin beneath. She looked back up at Kurt. "To Doctor Grey." He said. "Come."

,

Logan heard voices from below. Kitty's trick had worked then. They were getting in to the elevator. This was going to be… not fun, not quite fun, but easy. Logan didn't enjoy killing for killing's sake, but he got a kick out of defending people or things he cared about, even if he had pink, sparkly claws. This place counted now. He was more than willing to kill to protect these kids, to protect what Xavier was trying to do here. He felt the elevator start to move. Time to go.

He pulled the hatch up and jumped down, pushing his claws out as he went. Five of them. He spiked the first two on landing, both through the top of the shoulder, down in to the chest. He grunted with effort as he pulled his claws free. The two he'd hit collapsed, gasping. Guns. Shouting. The other three were trying to shoot him. Too close for guns in here. His type of ground. He closed the gap. They were too slow for him.

He stabbed one – that felt like Kevlar - and threw him in to the other two. They staggered back against the wall. Easy. They were next to each other. He took them high in the chests, shouting as loud as they did. Blood surged over his knuckles and down his forearms. Their eyes went still.

Logan pulled his claws back and shook some of the blood off his hands, panting. It was over, this round at least. The lift doors opened. Peter was standing there, metaled up, ready. He looked more than a bit shocked. Logan looked down at himself. He was covered in blood.

"It works." He said. "Help me get them out of the lift."

,

Jean had felt Kurt decide to come to her. She already knew what was wrong, or what might be wrong, with Kitty. She pushed her telepathy down so she could focus.

"Show me the dart." Kitty held it out to her in the flat of her palm. It was small, very small, with a red plume on the end of it. Jean picked it up by telepathy and held it up to the light. It looked full. "And where it hit you?"

Kitty hitched her skirt an inch. Jean crouched. "May I?" Kitty nodded. Jean pulled at the marked skin with her thumbs. It didn't really part. The scratch was very shallow. "I don't think it injected." Jean said, straightening up. "I think you're okay. Go change." She felt a spike of distress through the network. Scott. Where was Scott?

"I think they're coming up the stairs for me." He was backed in to a corner in one of the girls' dorm rooms. At least one window had been shot out. "I don't want to fight this on my own in this sort of space. Can Kurt come and get me please?"

Kurt vanished.

Jean reached for Scott's mind. He'd taken cover. He could hear the armed men moving on the other side of the wall. She could feel his fear. At that sort of range he wouldn't be able to defend himself. He'd be shot. She heard Kurt land on the other side of the room.

,

Logan dived back down in to the elevator. Five men in the lift, same as before. And they all had assault rifles trained on the door. Poor idiots.

,

Kurt landed on the ground in a corridor below ground. Scott fell almost on top of him. White hot pain had cut a channel in Kurt's leg. He cried out and reached for it.

"You okay?" Scott said, getting up.

"My leg." Kurt said, breath shaking, pressing a hand to the wound. There was so much blood.

"Come on." Scott pulled him up. "Let's get you to Jean." Scott almost carried him though the nearest door. Every movement sent fresh pain ripping from the wound. "Jean!" He called. Doctor Grey jumped up. She didn't need to ask what had happened.

"Get him up." She said, indicating the nearest bed. She took his other arm and they helped him up. He gasped with pain.

"Der Herr behüte dich vor allem Übel, er behüte deine Seele." He breathed.

"Kurt, I'm going to need to take your pants down." Doctor Grey said. He nodded once. He disliked the idea of being undressed by a woman who wasn't family, but she was a doctor and he needed her attention. "I'll deal with the pain in a moment, I just need to see what I'm up against. Scott, you can go." Kurt nodded. He looked away. Even her moving his clothing away from the wound hurt. When she touched it, he cried out.

"I'm sorry, Kurt. I'm so sorry, I just need a second, then I'll deal with the pain."

Kurt set his jaw "Der Herr behüte mich vor allem Übel," The pain spiked again. She was investigating the wound with her fingers. "Er behüte meine Seele."

"It only clipped you. There's nothing to dig out. I'm just going to numb it and dress it. We need you back on your feet."

And he could see why. Through the network, he could hear the thoughts of the others.

"I'm cut off." Miss Munroe was thinking. "I think I'm safe, they don't know I'm here, and I could probably take ten of them on my own up here, but I can't get off this roof."

"Going to sting." Doctor Grey said. She dropped cool liquid on to the wound, which stung enough to make him hiss and sit up, but then the wound went numb.

"How did you..?"

"Lay still. I won't be a minute."

,

Logan dropped in to the lift for the third time. Eight men, with a different strategy. He took the two directly beneath him as he had before, the rest were spread out. He threw the bodies outwards, then ran at the men he hadn't thrown bodies at. They held guns up to parry him, he could cut right through guns, and right through Kevlar. Four down.

Movement behind him. He kicked out . One man fell back, but there was a second. The second drove a knife between his ribs. Logan roared in pain and tore in to the man. Blood was pouring down his back. He had to get the knife out. There were still three of them.

A shotgun slug hit him square in the chest, but didn't go deep. It must have met bone. He lurched forwards, every movement seemed to pull the knife deeper in to his back – he had to get it out - and stabbed up through the shotgun man's belly. He gasped and fell. A knife – another one – came down on the underside of his wrist. Blood – his blood – spurted out. Logan gasped and stabbed his attacker in the chest. Knife in his back. He couldn't breathe right. Blood was pulsing out of his wrist. Crap. Now he was in trouble. His right hand wasn't working. Knife in his back. The last man levelled a gun at him.