Maverick had made it away before the police arrived. He wasn't fool enough to think that the the men after him would be held for long. He knew this went too far up the food chain.
He leaned against the wall of the alley he had taken refuge in and pushed his brown hair out of his eyes. He hadn't told those two everything. He wasn't even sure how much he knew or could remember. He just knew the nightmares and the cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He remembered Wolverine talking about the older one and how she was like family to him; the other one was just a kid. Maverick couldn't see bringing them into this.
He pushed away from the wall, picked up the duffle bag full of his gear that he had been able to grab on his way out and slipped around the corner and into the bar. It was time to confront his past.
-----
Scott sat in the maproom looking at the sites as displayed on the tablemap in front of him. The Professor and Jean were using Cerebro to try and locate Logan. Scott felt that his hands were tied. It was his fault. He had been team leader and Logan had been taken on his watch. Once they found out which of the sites was the correct one, he wanted a plan ready to get in and out.
-----
Remy had been looking for Rogue. No one had seen her for a while, and he had overheard the talk of the funding problem that the Weapon X people were having.
Remy ran upstairs to his room and picked up the phone. "Follow de money, and Gambit know just de thief to do it," he said to himself.
Lurker
**********
"These potential locations make our job a great deal easier."
"We can gain focus by sacrificing distance, right Professor? And the greater the focus the stronger we are."
"Quite correct Jean. You waiting to begin you telepathic training seems to have in no way hindered it."
About five minutes after they began their astral search Jean noticed something. ~I think I found someone.~ she projected. ~Not Logan.~
~The person who is blocking us. Odds would favor him being at the same location as Logan. Mental manipulation is close work. I think he is activating his powers. Jean, strike now!~
-----
Ferro was just about to enter Logan's mind when he suddenly staggered back. The circuity in his implants which granted him increased telepathic power sparked as they tried to compensate.
He fell backwards and didn't move.
-----
Jean pulled off her Cerebro helmet. "We did it! Charles? Are you all right?"
Xavier was moving slowly, pulling off his own helmet. "I.... will be fine Jean. But I'm not sure I can do anything else right now. Ugh...I have a migraine unlike any I've experienced since I first manifested."
Jason Barnett
**********
Logan sat bolt upright as Ferro collapsed behind him.
"Wolverine, what happened?" a voice called from the control room.
"I don't know," Logan said as he jumped out of the chair and went to the aid of his friend. His friend who was just trying to help him regain his memories. "He was really tired after helping me and Sabretooth for so long. He looks like he's unconscious. Maybe he's just exhausted." Logan bent down and picked up Ferro. "I'll take him to his room."
"Very well, but report back here after you're done."
-----
Once Logan returned, they moved into a conference room. The professor leaned over to him, holding out two pictures.
"Wolverine, do you recognize these two men?"
"Yeah, Maverick and Kestrel, my teammates."
"They were abducted, just as you were, and their memories have been altered. We need you to find them and bring them back here. We've tried to bring them back ourselves, but you know how difficult your teammates can be."
"Yeah. Don't worry, they need help. I'll bring them back."
"Maverick is the closest, right now he's in New York City. His last known location was this motel."
"Ok, I'll track him from there."
Khaki
**********
As Logan walked out of the compound, he caught Victor's scent. Curiosity getting the best of him he checked on his former best friend; they had too many differences for that designation to still apply. He found him strapped down.
'Musta snapped, lost control of his animal side. Better get goin', sooner I get back, sooner I can find out what happened. Damn, I got a headache. Never had one last more than a few minutes before. It'll be good to get the old team back together.'
-----
"Hey Karma, you know any martial arts?"
"Several different types, Jubilee. I'm also trained to use a wide variety of weapons. Why?"
"I figured you could come with us if you wanted. I can probably get you a uniform that fits when we finally go on the rescue mission."
-----
"Monsieur Summers is still inside and his motorcycle's missin', so's Logan's jeep. Marie shoulda jus' dropped breadcrumbs. Dis be an incredibly easy trail to follow."
Anonymous Poster
**********
"You can probably wear one of my uniforms. We're about the same size."
Scott came up behind Jubilee and Karma. "Jubes, get your team together. We're going after Logan and we're going to need all the help we can get."
"Finally," Jubes said going off to search for her friends, dragging Karma along.
Her search turned up everyone but Remy and Rogue. Suspicion and a touch of jealousy rose within her before she remembered Rogue's phone call. 'That's right. Rogue's off with Domino looking for Logan. Besides, this is Rogue, your best friend. She'd never go off with Remy behind your back. Remy's probably just out tracking other leads. I'd better call them so they can join the party.'
-----
Domino had slipped into the bar behind Maverick. She and Rogue had agreed that Maverick wasn't being all that forthcoming, but with the police on the way, it wasn't the best idea to hold him at the motel. Instead, they'd let him think he'd lost them, following at a safe distance. When Maverick slipped into the bar, Domino followed, sticking to the shadows along the walls.
Marie remained outside. She'd used her cell phone to call Jubes and check in and then she'd turned it off. She was covering the bar's entrance, watching for Maverick, and she didn't want any sounds to give away her location.
She would have followed Domino in, but at eighteen, she was too young and didn't have her fake I.D. on her. She smiled as she remembered the day Remy and Jubes had showed up with I.D.s for everybody. They'd gotten drop-down drunk and been grounded to their rooms for a month. She'd been miserably sick the next day and had been cured of listening to her inner Logan's craving for beer for quite some time.
-----
Jubes sat in her seat in the X-jet, psyching herself up for the battle to come. She hadn't been able to reach either Rogue or Remy. They must have their cell phones off for some reason. That meant her team was two members weaker. She did have Karma, and she'd take up some of the slack, but she wished her whole team was going in.
"All right, listen up," Scott called from the pilot's seat. "This is a fully operational military base, and we're outnumbered, so this is a snatch and grab mission only. We go in, get Logan, and leave. No personal vendettas."
They'd gone in just as Scott had said, quickly making their way to the secured inner rooms, but there was no Logan to snatch. Only a drug-addled Sabertooth and a lot of scientists and soldiers. In fact, more and more soldiers every second.
-----
Wolverine entered the motel room, after cutting through the police tape and slicing through the door lock. He could pick up Maverick's scent very strongly. He'd been staying here a few days. There were other scents here, men and women, probably the team the Professor sent.
There was one scent that was very out of place. A teenaged girl, probably late teens, had been here. The oddest thing of all was that he knew that scent. He couldn't think where he knew it, but it made him think of white-streaked hair.
He put his hand up to his head. 'Ugh, that headache's gettin' worse. Gonna have to ask the Professor about it when I get back.'
He turned, exiting the motel room and walking down the street, following the scents of Maverick, one of the women from the room, and that strangely familiar teenaged girl.
Khaki
*********
~Scott, Logan's not here,~ Jean sent along their link. ~I can't sense him anywhere, but Sabretooth is in the next room down.~
Scott took in the situation around him. Soldiers were pouring in, covering both doors. At least they hadn't started firing yet. Scientists and computer equipment were up in observation rooms, sealed behind protective glass. His team was surrounded and looking to him for leadership. 'We're outnumbered. We have to leave. But we can't leave without information on Logan. I won't fail him again.'
~Jean, what's Sabretooth's condition?~
~Drugged and unconscious. We can't leave him here, Scott. Not even Sabretooth deserves this kind of treatment.~
In a split-second Scott's decision was made, and he issued his orders. "Attack." He turned his attention to the door they'd entered, releasing a low-level optic blast. He wanted to push the soldiers out of the way, but not kill them. He saw the X-Men around him attack as well.
Jubilee was firing her paffs at the soldiers covering the other door. while Pyro and Iceman were freezing and melting the soldiers' weapons. Some of the soldiers had gotten off shots, but Jean put up a psychic forcefield, shielding the team from any bullets.
Once a doorway was clear, he shouted. "Pyro, Iceman, and Jean, go get Sabretooth and report back to the jet. Jubilee and Shadowcat, get up in that computer room and download any information you can about Logan."
With the room cleared of all of her teammates but Cyclops, Storm could use her powers. The winds picked up and Scott had to grab onto the bolted down surgical table in the middle of the room to keep from flying away as he kept up his attack on the soldiers. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Shadowcat and Jubilee above him. They had phased right through the wall and up into the room. Jubilee was firing her paffs to ward off the scientists while Shadowcat worked on the computer system.
-----
The Professor was up in his private office, watching the security cameras. As he took in the sight of his labs being attacked, his face broke out in an expression of unbridled glee. The attacking mutants were spectacular. The variety of their powers, the way they worked together, he could make two additional Team X's out of this new group.
His fingers, moving across the controls, sealed the doors to the three rooms: the operating theater, Sabretooth's recuperative room, and the operating control room. Pressing a red button, he released the stun gas. After Wolverine's escape 17 years ago, he had insisted that the rooms have adamantium doors and that the air ventillation system be fitted with gas releasing mechanisms. He learned from his mistakes.
-----
As the doors shut and a hissing sound filled the room, Kitty turned from the computer. The scientists nearest the vents fell first. There was gas entering the room. She watched in shock as Jubilee dropped a seconds later, caught in a coughing fit. She instinctively phased, hoping that she would be protected from the gas filling the room. She was, and she watched in horror from the gas-filled control room as the much larger operating theater filled with gas as well.
Cyclops was firing his blasts at the doors, but they weren't moving. She'd never thought there could be anything that wasn't vulnerable to his optic blasts. The soldiers below had already fallen, clutching their throats, and Cyke and Storm fell soon after.
-----
Wolverine came around the corner, still tracking the scents, when he came across the bar. That teenaged girl was standing across the street, trying to hide in the shadows. He could see her perfectly, but hidden and quiet as he was, he didn't think she had noticed him yet. He stood there looking at her. The face wasn't familiar, but the white-streaked hair was another story. How did he know her? Where had he ever been that he would meet a teenaged girl?
'Stop it,' he chastised himself, rubbing at his now pounding head. 'She's not your mission. Your mission is Maverick, and he's in the bar. There's gotta be a back entrance to this place.'
Khaki
**********
The room with Sabretooth had only just begun to fill when Jean noticed. "Iceman, freeze those vents solid. Don't let anything through."
A second later the younger X-Man had completed his mission. Jean turned her attention to the doors, trying to batter them down with her telekinesis. While it was adamantium and wouldn't give, the frame was another story.
"Pyro, melt the frame."
St. John's flamethrower spat out flame and his own powers increased its intensity 'til all Jean had to do was push the door with her mind for it to fall. Mentally lifting Sabretooth they left.
-----
Kitty thrust her hand into the computer. Her phasing power disrupted its circuitry, and it exploded. The vents slammed shut not allowing any new gas in, but no fans activated, leaving it filled with gas. Grabbing her best friend, she phased her down then phased the two senior members out the door.
'Never phased this many people at once before. Have to be careful with them. They can't instantly snap back if they feel like their molecules are getting spaced to far apart.'
Jean, Pyro, and Iceman came running down the hall dragging Creed about the same time Cyclops, Storm, and Jubilee began coughing.
Jason Barnett
**********
Maverick sat in a booth to the back waiting. Only one person had known that he was coming to New York. That was the man who hired him for this job. He took a sip of his beer and thought it through. Everything had checked out. He was supposed rescue a mutant girl that had been abducted. Her family didn't have much money and the police didn't have much interest in a missing mutant which young Miss Clarice Ferguson obviously was. That was why he had picked this bar. It was run as a neutral territory for mercs, many of whom were mutants. It's hard to get a job on Wall Street or even at a fast food restaurant if you have claws and/or are covered in fur. Little Clarice wouldn't raise an eyebrow here even with purple skin, and it would be safe enough for her father to take her home. But 'Daddy' was a plant and due here in just an hour, and the only way he may be able to help Logan and the little girl in the photograph was to find out where Project X or whatever it was called had set up shop.
He watched as the door opened and Domino walked in. Great she saw him. She ordered a beer at the bar and headed over to his booth.
-----
He was aware of being dragged across a cold metal floor the sound of hurried footsteps echoing in his head. He could smell the people he was with and the strong smell of gas. He had been gased? Was that why everything was so confused? He opened his eyes to look at who he was with. Everyone was in leather except him and the two men in white coats. They were scientists. He knew that but he didn't know why. He knew the white haired chick had on way too much perfume. It was making his head hurt worse. She looked at him and her scent changed to one of fright.
"Sabertooth," Storm managed to get out around her coughs motioning to the man groggily tring to sit up.
'Sabertooth? Who's Sabertooth?' He wondered as he felt his head begin to clear more. He knew he should remember but it was like everything was just out of his reach.
Lurker
**********
"Hey there, Maverick," Domino said as she sat down across from him. "Now that we're alone, do you care to change your @#$%& story?"
"You shouldn't have followed me. I don't need company right now."
"That's beside the point. You weren't telling us everything. You know something. Maybe not where Logan is, but this whole situation is not new to you. Also, what was that #$@%* about not seeing anyone from your team in 18 years? You've gotta learn to lie better. You might not've seen Logan in that long, but you've seen someone."
"It's none of your business. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm waiting for someone."
"None of my business?!? Logan was like a father to me when I was younger. He saved my life, took me away to live in a safe place. I owe him everything, and I'm not stopping until I get him back."
-----
Scott got shakily to his feet, leaning against the wall as another coughing fit struck. They were in the hallway, away from the gas, but they were far from safe. Jean, Iceman, Pyro, and Shadowcat seemed unaffected, but he, Storm, Jubilee, and Sabertooth were having trouble just breathing. There were two scientists lying in the hallway with his group. They had been thrown from the room and knocked unconscious by one of his first optic blasts.
"Shadowcat, did you get any information on Logan?" asked Scott.
"Not very much. I was just starting to download data when the gas started. I had to short out the computer to close the vents. They sent him out to look for someone named Maverick, but I couldn't get a location."
"Ok, we've got to get out of here. Pyro, Iceman, take point. Jean, Shadowcat, cover the rear. Let's move out."
~Scott, should we take one of these scientists back for questioning?~ Jean asked, the psychic message increasing the pounding in his head.
~No. Too much of a security risk. The students' safety has to be our first priority.~
-----
Sabretooth was helped to his feet and pulled along with the leather-clad group. He didn't know who they were, but they seemed to know him, so he might as well go with them until he could think more clearly.
He could smell the fear coming off the white haired woman every time she looked at him, and that confused him. It was getting to be so strong it was overpowering her perfume. How did he know this woman that she would be so afraid of him?
Khaki
**********
"You want Logan back, then let me find him." Maverick said, looking across the table at Domino.
Domino leaned back in the seat to make herself more comfortable and took another sip from her beer. One thing about working with Cable was that she had learned how to deal with stubborn men. She wasn't going anywhere. "Talk".
Maverick shook his head and looked at the door and then his watch. He had time, if the man even showed. After the messed up attempt to take him at the hotel, that weasel may not show up.
"I came to New York to do a job." Maverick pulled out the picture of a purple skinned girl about 14 years old. "She dissappeared on her way to school two months ago and the police weren't being too helpful. They labeled her a runaway and filed the case. Her father hired me to find her. I was told that she was being held at a warehouse with other mutants at the docks. I was on my way there to get her and bring her back tonight."
"And?" Domino prompted. She didn't want to leave Rogue outside for too long.
"While word gets around fast, it shouldn't travel that fast. I'm interested as to how you found me."
"Just lucky I guess," was her only response.
"Yeah well, little Clarice's father was the man who hired me. He was the only one who knew I was here. I don't believe in coincidences. I think it was all a set up to get me out in the open. Things went bad on that last mission. Sabretooth lost it and the team fell apart. Then we begain to dissappear one by one."
-----
The soldiers came from seemingly nowhere and everywhere. They had to get out. Sabertooth growled. He didn't like it here, and he didn't like the soldiers. He could feel a need to hurt coming on.
"We have to get the kids out of here," Cyclops said looking around for an exit. "We'll have to go through them. Attack, but no killing."
'No killing?' Sabretooth had figured that he was on the team, maybe, and that they were here to get him and the someone else out. It was the only thing that made any sense. He looked at Cyclops.
"When did I start taking orders from a dick?" he asked. He shook his head, roared and charged, missing the shocked look on Cyclops' face.
-----
The professor watched from his sealed room. On the various monitors he could see the soldiers attacking and the mutants fighting. Sabretooth seemed to be extra careful only to maim and not kill. This was interesting. He looked at another monitor. It was in the room next to him. Blink was sitting there. She could get him out if these mutants got too close. It was always useful to have extra teleporters around.
Lurker
**********
"Cyclops," Tyger Tiger said calmly, "If it comes down to me or them, then they'll die." She had refuesed to let her daughter go on the mission alone and had accompanied them. She held a pistol in each hand, and had finally felt the need to speak up. She'd been there the whole time, just quiet.
"Hey, Bobby, let's bring the ceiling down. The same trick Doctor Grey had us use earlier."
-----
The Professor was just entering Clarice's cell when the floor began to buckle and warp and finally collapse from beneath them.
They fell to the floor below.
Sabretooth didn't recognize the face but he knew the scent. He leapt at the Professor claws extended.
"No!" Jean held him telekinetically, recognizing the man from Logan's memories, realizing he could answer everything. But Creed broke free.
Suddenly his claws retracted, and he brought a fist down along the side of the man's head.
"I have him," Karma assured them all. Sabretooth slung him over his shoulder, and seeing their employer hostage, the guards hung back. Jubilee and Shadowcat helped Clarice to her feet and lead her with them. The girl was so grateful for a chance to escape she didn't question.
-----
Outside
"Silver Fox, the assault team is ready to go in."
-----
The X-mansion
Charles slowly rolled himself to Cerebro once again. While he was sure the X-men could handle themselves he was becoming comcerned for Rogue, Gambit and Logan's friend Nina. He slipped the helmet on and began painstakingly searching for familiar minds.
Jason Barnett
**********
"Stand by," Silver Fox commanded. Something wasn't right. The base was lit up, searchlights spinning around, alarms sounding. It was like they knew they were under attack. "Order all teams to check in. I want to know if anyone's been discovered."
Five minutes later, after check-ins were complete and each team was accounted for, Silver Fox noticed movement at the front doors to the complex. She watched as a team of what appeared to be unarmed mercenaries fled the building. Wait, no, two were armed. There was a young man with a flame thrower and an older woman with an automatic weapon. They all appeared to be wearing similiar black uniforms. All except for the last two people. Those men, she recognized instantly.
Sabretooth and the Professor.
Her blood burned and her finger itched to fire on both of them, but she stopped herself. Even as the group left, soldiers were streaming after them. 'Ah, not unarmed at all. They're mutants.' She thought as she watched the group defend themselves as they retreated.
The tactical situation was terrible for Hydra. If they went in now, they would be entering an unknown situation with a least two enemy forces. The chances for success were exponentially reduced from her initial plan.
"Tell all teams to pull back but one. I want that group of mutants followed." They had the Professor and Sabretooth. They probably knew where the rest of the team was. That was her first priority. She could return and destroy this base later, when they weren't on full alert.
As she returned to her mini-plane, she heard the report. "The mutants have retreated to a black jet. They're taking off. We can't follow them."
"Call the team back," she ordered the pilot, "and head for those coordinates, full cloak. We will follow those mutants ourselves."
-----
Maverick noticed someone entering through the back entrance to the bar. He couldn't see his face, but the man was dressed just as his contact said he would be.
"It's about time," Maverick muttered under his breath as he signaled to the man and turned his attention to Domino.
"You're going to have to get up. My contact's here."
He turned his head, indicating the man approaching them, when he froze. It was a set-up. He knew that now. "I thought you said he was missing?" he asked Domino as he slid out of his seat and prepared to defend himself.
"It's time to go, Maverick. You can make this easy, or you can make it hard."
Domino heard the voice and jumped, turning to look behind her. "Logan."
Khaki
**********
"Get away from him, Logan."
Wolverine turned. And blinked. And blinked again. The white face was stirring something in his memories. "Nina? Has it been that long since I seen ya girl?" She was far more mature than he remembered.
~Hello Logan,~ a voice in his head whispered. Charles was putting everything he had into that minimal effort.
"Who? Get out of my head, pal. I don't even like it when Ferro goes in there. I hate it when a stranger tries."
~I assure you I am a friend.~
"Get Out."
For a moment the voice was silenced and Logan's tension eased. That moment lasted as long as it took Charles to disconnect from his Cerebro helmet and move to Jean's. She had not used her boost function. He pressed the button.
"AIGH!!" Domino and Maverick caught Logan as he fell.
-----
Karma released her hold on Sabretooth once the Professor was out of sight.
"Yer sure not someone I'd work with. You mercs?"
"No, we were looking for a friend," Cyclops answered. "He wasn't there. But we didn't think it was wise to leave you behind."
Anonymous Poster
**********
Storm was upset. They'd failed to find Logan. He was still out there, probably brainwashed, and what she'd seen of the lab had terrified and infuriated her. How dare these humans experiment on mutants like they were animals! Not only that, but now she was trapped in a crowded jet with the head scientist and Sabretooth. A wind gust blew against the plane, disturbing her thoughts and forcing her to clamp down on her emotions.
At least Sabretooth was behaving himself. The chair he was seated in appeared ludicrously small in comparison to his bulk, and he appeared incredibly uncomfortable, but he wasn't striking out, growling, or doing any of a number of things that had scared her to death on their last encounter. If these people had been able to so effectively alter Sabretooth by apparently only clearing his memories, what had they done to Logan? Would he ever be the same again?
"'Ro," Scott called from the front of the plane. "This weather is not helping."
She looked up from her seat to see rain pelting the jet. "Sorry, Scott," she said as she concentrated on stopping the downpour, trying to think more pleasant thoughts.
Just then, Jean screamed out, clutching her head. "Jean?!?" Scott called from the front of the plane. Storm could hear his fear and frustration at not being able to leave the pilot's seat and go to her.
Storm quickly got out of her seat and kneeled in the aisle at her friend's side. "Jean, what's wrong?"
Jean's face held pain and fear. "It's Professor Xavier. Something's wrong. Something's happened."
-----
It had taken quite some time, and sometimes creative flying, but Silver Fox's transport had followed the black jet all the way back to its base. It had been tricky. The jet didn't register on any of their instruments, so they had to keep it in sight at all times. When that rainstorm had appeared out of nowhere, Silver Fox was sure that they would lose sight of the jet, but the unusual storm hadn't lasted more than a few minutes, and they had stayed with their target.
The base was an old, regal building in New York. She watched as the jet sunk into the ground below a basketball court and then turned to her pilot.
"Take a thorough scan of the area and plot this location. We will return in force later."
-----
Rogue had been waiting forever. Well, it seemed like forever. It was probably only 30 minutes, but still, when there's hardly any passersby and nothing to look at, 30 minutes is forever. She had moved to the front door of the bar for warmth. Maybe she could just slip in. Keep the hood of her coat up, her face obscured. It was freezing out here, and it didn't look like Maverick or Domino were coming out anytime soon.
She had just pulled open the door, when she heard Logan's cry and turned to see him fall.
She was at his side, Maverick and Domino pushed out of the way before she even realized she was moving. His face was so pale and his head lolled to one side as she pulled him to her body.
"What happened? Help me. We've got to help him!"
Khaki
**********
Gambit traced the signal of Scott's bike to a rundown area of New York City. Being a good thief, he had made a note of the frequency in case he ever needed to 'borrow' the bike without Scott's knowledge. No one was with it, but he spotted Logan's jeep two blocks to the north and a seedy hotel with a full police escort.
"Dey been here," Remy noted to himself as he begain to look for the route they would have used as an escape.
He walked quickly, and within minutes, found himself across the street from the mercenary hangout, Smokey's. "Marie," he called as she walked through the door. He ran inside. She didn't know what she was getting into at a place like this.
-----
The Blackbird had landed and the unconscious professor was carried to the medical lab by Sabretooth. He was strapped to the examining table and left to regain consciousness so that he could be questioned.
Jean ran ahead to Cerebro to find Prof. Xavier unconscious as well on the floor. He was also taken to the medical lab, where she tried to check for damage to his mind. She knew that he had taken a second dose of the booster in under the 24 hours, and they still didn't know that much about it.
-----
As they waited Storm found herself playing hostess. It was surreal, sitting in the kitchen watching Sabretooth eating a sandwich and drinking one of Logan's beers. The girl, Clarice, sat next to him and ate as well. She seemed shy, but unafraid of her dinner companion. Storm began running sleeping arrangements and other assorted details through her head.
-----
"Please, pass the salt, Mister Sabretooth." she said in a quiet voice to his left. He looked down at the little frail beside him.
"It ain't Mister Sabretooth. My name is Creed, Victor Creed." He replied as he handed her the salt shaker, careful not to cut her hand with his claws. He didn't smell the fear/revoltion from her he associated with meeting new people. It was just a shy, uncertain kind of scent.
"Thank you Mister Creed. My name is Clarice Ferguson but they call me Blink."
-----
Nickie had heard the return of the plane. She had come to the kitchen to see what she could find out. Nick would be expecting a report. She knew that Xavier knew that she was a plant but chose to work with her. She would fix herself a cup of tea, and if they were ready to tell her about the events of tonight, they would. Still, she was surprised to see a known serial killer passing the salt to a purple elf while they shared a meal at the kitchen table.
Lurker
**********
As soon as Logan fell, the patrons of the bar jumped to their feet, drawing a wide variety of weapons out of concealment. Domino and Maverick noticed this and took up defensive positions, but Marie only had eyes for Logan. He was breathing and he had a pulse, but something had happened to him. She hadn't seen what, but not much could take down the Wolverine. Where had he come from anyway?
"Chere, duck." Gambit came, seemingly out of nowhere, pulling her head down as a chair swung past. His bow staff extended, he swept it around at the chair wielder, knocking him down and disarming him.
"Chere, this not be a safe place for you," he said pulling on her arm.
"Help me with Logan," Marie said, rising, her arms slung around Logan's chest, lifting his top half from the floor. Gambit grabbed his legs and they ducked and dodged through the crowd, slipping into the alley from the back entrance.
Logan starting moaning and shifting. "Put him down."
"Chere, we need to get out of here."
Marie was determined. "Something's wrong. Put him down."
-----
Professor Charles Xavier opened his eyes, squinting at the too bright light of the medical bay, to see Jean's relieved face. "How do you feel?"
"Terrible."
"Good. Then you won't try a stunt like that again."
"I found Logan."
"What?"
"His mind has been manipulated. He didn't remember me; he couldn't remember anyone but Nina, and that was only for a brief second. I needed the boosted power of the other headset to break through all the mental blocks."
"No!" a voice shouted from the other bed. The Professor, who had been pretending to be asleep for the past 10 minutes struggled against his restraints. "What have you done? With all the mental blocks gone, he'll have no control. He'll be an insane animal. I've seen what he can do in that state, 17 years ago. I was lucky to survive."
-----
Marie was leaning over Logan's body, trying to calm his increasing shaking and groaning when the Wolverine awoke.
Khaki