"Kurt, what are you doing?" Star demanded as they reappeared, inside a building.
"Let me catch my breath, frauline. Being teleported by another is alvays a little ... unnerving." Star turned and moved toward the door.
"Vhere are you going, leibshen?"
"To find Logan. And Matthew."
"He vill be vaiting for you."
"I know. Please go home."
"Nein." He followed her without another word.
The room opened into a hallway with many doors down it's length. Star opened the first door, and froze with a gasp.
"Vhat is it?" Nightcrawler demanded. She shook her head.
"It's all right. I just wasn't expecting this. This is the lab where I was hatched." Nightcrawler didn't question her choice of words. "He's come here deliberately. He took my memories, and chose the place he thought would frighten me most."
"And is this it?"
"Yes." She closed the door, and move on to the next one. She started to open it, but slowly turned and opened the door across the hall instead. Wolverine lay within, still unconscious.
"Well, Mama, that didn't take you very long." Matthew stood at the back of the room, his arms crossed. The lighting in the room was almost theatrical.
"Let him go, Matthew," Star said as she stepped into the room.
"So, you have chosen? Once more, you choose an innocent to die?"
"Let him go. He has done nothing to you." Nightcrawler silently entered behind Star. He stayed in the shadows, hoping to remain unnoticed, if not undetected.
Wolverine groaned and Matthew turned toward him.
"Nothing, Mama? You may be right. But you see, I don't care." He gestured, closing his hand slowly on nothing.
"Ah!" Wolverine cried out, throwing his head back. Matthew staggered, then looked at Star in surprise.
"Why, Mama. You were always so gentle. I didn't think you had it in you."
"I don't want to hurt you, Matthew. But I will do whatever is necessary."
"Will you really?" He reached toward Wolverine again, but the injured man, having risen to his knees, did not react.
"Very good." Matthew smiled at Star. It was a cold, cruel smile. "But can you shield yourself and still protect him?" He extended one hand toward Star, the other toward Wolverine.
Neither Matthew nor Star moved, yet the room was heavy with energy. Wolverine, battered and bloody, gained his feet. Nightcrawler cautiously made his way closer to his friend, still seeking the shadows. He did not want to distract Star. Nor did he particularly wish to draw Matthew's attention.
"What the flamin' hell is goin' on here?" Wolverine demanded. Matthew looked at him coldly.
"I won't let you hurt him, Matthew," Star said quietly. "I won't let you hurt anyone."
"Not anyone, Mama? Not even him?" He pointed toward a corner of the room behind Star, and a figure appeared. It was the Reaver, long thought dead, that had raped and beaten Star. She gasped then, straightening, said,
"No. Not even him."
"Or them?" The three punks from the mall appeared. "Or maybe them?" This time it was the thugs from the dock. All of them looked confused.
Star remained motionless, but the strain of extending her power to protect her enemies from her son was beginning to tell on her.
Wolverine started toward Star, but stopped when her voice, inside his head, said,
"No, Logan. I must deal with this myself." He took another step forward, but came up against an invisible barrier. He growled low in his throat, frustrated.
"Wolverine."
"Elf! Where did you come from?"
"I came vith Star."
"You brought her here?"
"Nein. She brought me." He looked sideways at Wolverine. "You are hurt."
"Been worse."
"Often?"
Wolverine didn't answer for a moment. Then he said,
"No, not often. Kid KO'd me. Never even saw it comin'."
"He comes from good stock, nein?"
"Wouldn't know, Elf." The two mutants looked out on the room at the motionless combatants.
"Remind you of anythin'?"
"Ya. The "sorcerer's duel" in The Raven."
"That's the one." Wolverine paused, "Think ya can get me in behind him?"
"Ve can try." Nightcrawler grasped Wolverine's bloody arm and concentrated on the area behind Matthew. With a "Bamf!" of imploding air, the two men disappeared, only to reappear a moment later behind Matthew. The young man did not seem to notice them. Wolverine extended his claws and leaped towards him. He was thrown violently back and slammed into the rear wall. He slid down, unconscious once more. Nightcrawler tried to teleport to Matthew's side, hoping to take him by surprise, and take him on a wild teleporting ride. He was dismayed to find that he could not teleport.
"Kurt," he heard. "Please get Logan out of here. I can't protect everyone. It's just too much."
"I vill bring help, leibshen," he said as he turned to Wolverine.
"No! Just get out! Now!" Nightcrawler disappeared with Wolverine.
Star's skin was beginning to glow, the effort of defending Matthew's hostages requiring more energy than a small city consumed in a week. She began to notice a pattern to his attacks. He was powerful, but untrained. Fortunately for her. When he concentrated on the three punks from the mall, she used her newly mastered power of teleportation to remove the Reaver from the "playing field". Matthew was furious. He attacked her directly, and she used the distraction to remove the three punks. He shrieked at her and ran across the room, physically knocking her back. She fell, and he pounced on her, striking her with his fists. She banished the thugs back to their dock. He landed one hard blow to her distended abdomen and she gasped with the pain, her concentration momentarily broken.
She felt a rush of energy from the infant inside her, and Matthew staggered back. He clutched his head and screamed. Star tried to block the infant's unexpected power, tried to protect Matthew, but the child struck at her as well and she collapsed, her body wracked with pain. Matthew fell to the floor beside her, unmoving.
The lab was silent save for the wailing of a newborn babe.