Silver Fox glared at the woman who had just shot her as she clutched her shoulder. Of course that wasn't the point. The point was that was the second time in less than five hours that she'd been shot in the same freaking shoulder. "You are going to hurt for that."
"You know," the Asian beauty said with a grin on her face that not even Silver Fox's threats could dim, "people keep saying that to me, and not one of them has ever made it stick. Oh. Catch."
Silver Fox automaticly caught the thrown object only to find herself holding a gas canaster from her own troop's weapons locker. Wide startled eyes locked on the fumes that poured out before jumping up to the still grinning woman.
"I think its well past time that Hydra learned not to mess with Tyger Tiger," she said from behind the gas mask she had snatched as well. "Don't you agree, dear?"
The woman who ran Madripoor's darker side turned back to the computer while keeping an eye on Silver Fox. "Finess is over rated."
Silver Fox faded into oblivion just as the sound of bullets being fired into the mainframe cracked through the room.
Mac
**********
Tyger Tiger grabbed Silver Fox by the collar and dragged her along, back to the holding cells. She had to retrieve the children and get out of here, but her instincts were telling her to take Silver Fox along for the ride. She had some major explaining to do for her attack on the school. If any of those kids had been seriously injured back there, Tyger would kill her herself.
-----
"Chere!" Gambit said, pointing at the vents above his head, as he continued to battle with the two guards on either side of him. There was some kind white gas blowing from them into the room. "Let's rejoin Jubilee and Karma, non?"
"Ok," Blink said, climbing over the bodies of the now defeated guards to grab his hand.
*BLINK*
They reappeared in a room with an irritated Jubilee and Karma. All the guards in their vicinity were lying helpless on the floor.
"So you missed us so much, ya had to come back," a sarchastic Jubilee commented.
"Chere."
"Not now, Cajun," Jubilee muttered, rubbing her head. "I've got a headache."
"Non, chere. Look at the vents." The same white gas was drifting into this room.
"No!" Jubilee yelled jumping up, paffing at the vents, and yelling at her unseen captors. "No more! I am sick of being gassed! I am sick of being kidnapped! You hear me? I'm not putting up with this anymore!"
"Well then, I suggest you put this on and follow me," a masked Tyger Tiger interrupted, holding out gas masks to the group.
-----
It was easy to get out with all the guards in the detention area tear gassed. Their commanders hadn't bothered to issue gas masks, preferring to gas both prisoner and guard alike. They hadn't counted on Tyger Tiger's resourcefulness. Of course, she had somehow managed to find a gas mask for everyone but Silver Fox. With that healing factor, she didn't want to take any chances on Silver Fox's premature recovery from her earlier exposure in the computer core.
It took several hours, to find their way back, but they finally made it to the mansion well past midnight.
None of them had slept in over 40 hours, unless you count the drug-induced unconsciousness earlier that day, and they all showed the strain.
Khaki
**********
Jubilee walked into the house with the others, her head POUNDING.
OOH! Someone was SO gonna pay for this! Her getting most of her nail polish scratched off, her whole body completely exhausted, and most of all, this HORRIBLE HEADACHE.
It hurt so bad. OH GOD!
Jubilee clutched her head as the pounding and pain increased, and heard someone yell out "P'tit!!!!" and grab onto her so she didn't hit the ground as she promptly passed out.
Minkychan
**********
"Get her down to the infirmary now," Jean ordered and Gambit quickly complied. She ordered him to bed immediately after he did.
Wolverine helped Tyger Tiger drag Silver Fox down to the holding cell. Nick Fury followed along eager to get his hands on an important Hydra operative even if she was a woman. Karma started to follow her mother until she was told point blank to get some sleep.
Shadowcat, Iceman, Pyro, and Rogue headed down to the medlab only to be telekinetically thrown out by Doctor Grey.
Sabretooth grabbed Blink in a bearhug much to her parents shock. Professor Xavier asked them to accompany him to his office. Victor stood in the back of the room glaring but saying nothing.
-----
"What I want to know is why Clarice isn't in Canada right now. The doctors there said they'd almost found a cure."
Sabretooth growled.
"Mr. Ferguson," Charles began as though speaking to a small child, "mutation is no more something to be cured of than having brown eyes is. Those men were using Clarice as an emergency door out of a top secret milatary installation. Considering what they have done to other members of the project, once she had become mature enough to fully control her power and fight, they would have stripped of her of her memories and set her up as the teleporter for a group of covert operatives."
Jason Barnett
**********
"I can not believe that. Genetic abnormalities are treated everyday, of course we are going to get the best care for Clarice. Dr. Hines is very respected in the field of genetics. We had his credentials checked," Mrs. Ferguson responded.
"If anyone was trying to harm and use Clarice it's you people. I have yet to hear why your school for freaks and monsters," Mr. Ferguson looked back at Sabretooth, "was attacked by military forces or why our child was brought here with out our permission. I will not leave my daughter as a freak of nature!"
(Sabretooth saw a dark celler. He was cold and the footsteps on the floor above made him very afraid.)
"Daddy please," pleaded Clarice, "The doctors hurt me in Canada. I like it here..."
("Please, Papa, No! Please don't. Mama!" he was pleading only it was a young child's voice.)
"Do you want to be a monster that people stare at every time you leave the house?! This is for your own good. We are taking you home and contacting Dr. Hines." Mr. Ferguson started to get up.
("This is for his own good. He's a... a monster! This is the only way," said Papa to Mama. Then there was the pain.)
There was a roar accompanied by a blur of movement behind Mr Ferguson. Sabretooth scooped up Clarice and then turning to protect her from the impact smashed out the window behind Prof. Xavier's chair and headed into the woods surrounding the school.
-----
~Sabretooth, keep her safe while I talk some sense into her parents~
Sabretooth paused when he heard Xavier in his mind. He had been running through the woods expecting to be chased by the X-Men. He looked down at the girl in his arms. She was sobbing. The front of his shirt was soaked. He didn't smell any blood so it wasn't because of the flying glass. What was he going to do now?
Lurker
**********
"Why does my daddy hate me?" Clarice wailed.
-----
"I'm afraid Professor Hines is deceased. He was crushed by debris during the attack on the school."
"Why was he even here?!"
"His people captured one of my teachers, and we were able to capture him to help find out how to undo the damage done."
"Who gives you that authority? I want my daughter cured."
"Shut the hell up ya damn bigot an' let me tell you what that place was really about. I been tryin' ta find out about it for a year."
"Colonel Fury, what are you doing here?"
"They threw me out down there."
Mr. Ferguson had stood up and offered his hand. "Colonel Fury I grew up on Howling Commando comics."
Nick just stared at his hand. "Shut up an' listen."
Jason Barnett
**********
Seeing that her husband was letting hero-worship get in the way of the best interests of her child, Mrs. Ferguson retorted, "Yes, a hulking behemoth grabbing my daughter and jumping through a window really makes me want to listen to you and trust her in your care."
"You'll listen, and you'll thank everyone here for saving her life, when you hear what I have to say," Nick Fury said in a low voice, pointing at Mrs, Ferguson. "That 'hulking behemoth' you just saw was one of the operatives that Professor Hines created. He kidnaps mutants, erases their memories and turns them into walking weapons. He's taken mutants and experimented on them, not to get rid of their powers, but to increase them. Ask your daughter. I'll bet he was already teaching her to transport more people at greater distances."
-----
"Hey, Logan."
"Hey, Marie."
Rogue pulled a chair up next to Logan's and they both watched the sleeping figure on the bed in the make-shift cell.
"So, that's Silver Fox," Rogue started.
"Yep."
"Why do you suppose she attacked us?"
"That's the first thing I'm gonna ask once she wakes up, followed closely by, 'What actually happened at the cabin?'"
Khaki
**********
Silver Fox opened her eyes slowly, then blinked. Overhead the roof was nothing more than a heavy water proofed tarp and there was a faint breeze.
"About time ya woke up, sugah," Rogue growled. "Logan wants t'talk to ya, but I'd rather just rip yer head off. Snatching Jubes, Gambit, and the new kid wasn't the brightest thing in the world."
"Who the h@ll are you?" Silver Fox rasped out.
"They call me Rogue," the girl with the white streaked hair said as she leaned over the older woman slightly. "Logan will be back down in a few minutes. Probably with Jeanie and Chuck."
Mac
**********
"After everything you've said, I believe that our girl wasn't safe with Professor Hines, but this," Mrs. Ferguson said, sweeping her hand around the damaged and scarred room, "isn't safe either. We can't leave our girl in the middle of a war zone. We'll take her home with us."
"And do what?" Colonel Fury demanded. "Hide her in the basement? Keep her covered up like a Muslim? Keep her away from the world for the rest of her life? That's no life. At least here, she'd be with other kids her own age. Here, she'd be in the majority with other mutants who understand what she's going through."
"And if someone else decides to attack the school? If someone decides that my daughter is a threat? If she's dead, she won't have a meaningful life anyway."
"If I may interrupt here," Professor Xavier began. "Mrs. Ferguson, none of our students were killed or seriously harmed in the attack that just occurred. We have means to protect them here. Your daughter would not be so protected alone with you. How do you propose to keep her safe if someone finds out that your daughter is a mutant and takes it upon themselves to hurt her. I will have Clarice brought back to this discussion. It is her life. I suggest we allow her to decide where she wants to stay."
~Sabretooth, it is all right. Bring Clarice back, please.~
-----
Logan could only find Jeanie, and was leading her back to the makeshift cell when he heard the shouting.
"Logan cannot talk to me if I am gone."
"Get down from there! I'm warning you."
He entered to see that Silver Fox had climbed the cell wall and was pulling on the heavy plastic tarp. Rogue was unlocking the door, to get in a try to stop her.
"Jeanie, stop her!"
Silver Fox froze as she was about to reach freedom, unable to move any of her muscles. She felt a familiar hand grab her ankles, pulling her from the wall.
Logan pulled her down to the ground, pinning her arms and legs under his weight. "Silver Fox, darlin'. Why are you acting this way? Why'd you attack us."
Her face twisted with hate as she looked into those hazel eyes, and she spit on him.
Khaki
**********
Logan wiped the spit away with one hand as he held Silver Fox pinned with the other. Rogue standing behind him and off to one side just growled low in her throat.
"Now that wasn't nice, Fox," Logan said quietly. "All I want is to find out what happened to you."
"Let me go, Logan," Silver Fox snarled, "so I can kill you all."
"That ain't helping," Logan informed her. "Marie, darlin', go get a couple of pairs of cuffs off one of Fury's men."
"But..."
"Go on, I'm not about to let her loose."
Rogue settled on one more dark glare at the woman pinned under *her* Logan before doing as he asked.
Mac
**********
While Logan waited for the cuffs, he asked Jean to start the mind probe. It was kind of an awkward position they were in, but Silver Fox's struggling wouldn't allow for a more civilized procedure.
"Logan, I'm getting a lot of rage from her. It's focused mostly on you, Sabretooth, and Maverick. She blames you for something. Something that happened to her. The rage is too strong to get any further details."
"But I have all my memories back, Jeanie. I don't remember doing anything to her. I just remember trying to save her."
"Liar!" Silver Fox shouted. "You know full well what happened. You were there."
-----
Sabretooth grudgingly brought Clarice back to the mansion. He stayed close, holding her hand, ready to bolt at any sign of danger.
"Clarice, your mother and I have a very important question for you. Would you like to come home with us until we can find you another doctor that will find a cure so you can be a normal girl, or would you like to stay here with these mutants, remain disfigured, and risk being hurt or kidnapped and killed in a battle like you saw today?"
"Mommy, Daddy, I know you don't understand, but the doctors were bad people. They hurt me. I want to stay here with kids like me."
"Fine," Mr. Ferguson said in a clipped, emotionless voice, grabbing his wife's hand and heading for the door. "We have no daughter."
"Harold, no," Mrs. Ferguson protested. "Please she's young. She doesn't know what she's saying."
"No. She's rejected us. If she wants to live like a freak, we'll let her. We just don't have to be around to witness it."
"Please, she's our daughter."
"No, Ellen. I won't hear any more of it. Come now."
Mrs. Ferguson, turned to her daughter. With tears running down her cheeks, she mouthed the words, 'I love you,' and followed her husband out the door.
-----
Groaning, Jubilee put her hand to her head and felt the goose egg sized bump on her forehead.
"Chere? Hank, she's waking up."
Opening her eyes, she saw Remy and that new, extremely blue, doctor. He was fresh out of medical school, but at eighteen, he was Jubilee and Remy's age.
"Remy?"
"Follow my finger," the big cookie monster demanded, watching her eyes track his finger as he moved it up and down, back and forth.
"Good. What day is it?"
"Wednesday."
"Ok, who's President of the United States."
"Hilary Clinton."
"Excellent. There does not appear to be any permanent brain damage. I think we can rule out cerebral hemmorage or subdural hematoma. It's just a mild concussion compounded by sleep depravation and stress. Stay away from exploding buildings, battles, and kidnap situations for a few days and you should be fine."
Khaki
**********
Clarice ran from the room crying and Sabretooth stepped out after her, but instead of following her, he went after her parents.
Charles watched the scene sullenly, not attempting to use his telepathy after the taxing it had taken recently.
"Xavier."
"Yes, Colonel Fury?"
"I want to talk to you about setting up some sort of permanent arrangement between our organizations."
-----
Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson had reached their car and Clarice's father was getting in when the door suddenly slammed on his arm.
"You ain't got a daughter, huh? I think it's more like she ain't got a father," Victor stated wrapping his hand around the man's throat.
"Oh, please no!" his wife cried out.
"Shut up, lady. I'm doin' ya a favor since ya seem ta be too stupid ta divorce this guy."
Jason Barnett
**********
Clarice ran from Professor Xavier's office, her tears nearly blinding her. She tripped over some debris and looked around at the ruined room around her. Her father was right. She wasn't safe here, but she wasn't safe anywhere. She felt like her heart was ripped from her chest. She had to make it right with them before they left. She had to make them understand that at least here she stood a chance. Clarice closed her eyes and 'blinked'.
-----
She was standing in a cabin, a fresh baked cake on the table. She was waiting for someone special. It was his birthday.
There was someone at the door. She let him in. It was Victor Creed. He was a friend.
"Nothing too personal, frail," he leered at her," but I'm gonna make that runt of yours pay, and I'm starting with you sweet thing."
Pain! There was so much pain! She opened her mouth to scream.
"Jean, snap out of it," Logan yelled at her. He was still struggling to hold onto Silver Fox, but she seemed to have just gotten stronger. He reached out with one hand to Jean. She had finally managed to get inside Fox's head. Whatever she was seeing in there had to be intense. He had to snap her out of it.
Logan's hand moving was all that she needed. Silver Fox shifted and brought her knee up. Logan was stretched out to Jean, and she managed to wiggle out from under him. Logan grabbed her leg. Fox swung around with the other one and kicked him in the side of the head. The old memories surfacing were giving her a desperate strength. It managed to stun him. Jean shook her head and tried to telekinetically grab Fox. Fox moved faster. Two quick blows later Jean slumped unconscious on the floor.
She was on the verge of panicking. She had to get away. She scrambled up to the tarp and forced her way through to the outside. She headed towards the trees.
Logan paused to check on Jean and took off after her.
-----
Clarice was stunned by the scene in front of her. Her mother was crying and Mr. Creed had her father on the hood of the SUV, his fist pulled back to strike again.
"Mr. Creed, NO!" She screamed. She was beside him in a moment, her hands coming up to try to hold his arm back.
Sabretooth looked down at the light tug on his arm and the red haze lifted some. "He had no reason to hurt ya like that," he growled.
"No, he didn't," Clarice agreed, "but that doesn't mean that you can just kill him. They do love me. They just don't know what to do with me. They never really have."
"Mom, Daddy, I know that you always wanted the perfect life. Then I came along and nothing would ever be normal, let alone perfect, again. I'm sorry that you can't have your dream, but I am what I am. There is no changing that. No doctor will ever be able to cure me. I have to accept that and so do you. I love you both and always will, but I will never be normal."
Mr. Ferguson looked at his daughter and then at the man holding him. "You want to be like him?! A Monster?! There are doctors..."
Sabretooth's growl cut him off.
Clarice shook her head the tears running freely down her cheeks. She backed up and ran as fast as her legs would take her.
Sabretooth watched her go then turned to look at the mangled man in his grasp. Much as he would like to make the man feel the pain that Clarice was feeling, she needed him more. He dropped Mr. Ferguson to the ground and followed her.
-----
Silver Fox was running trying to get as much distance between her and the school as possible. Figures appeared out of the underbrush. "Commander Fox. We were sent by the Supreme Hydra to bring you back." She wasn't given a choice. The guns leveled in her direction ensured her compliance.
-----
Logan figured that he couldn't be more than a few yards behind her. He was starting to pick up other scents in the area when he heard the engines. A small transport rose straight up into the air and headed away from the school. He had lost her again.
-----
When Sabretooth reached Clarice she was curled in a fetal position under a tree, her body shaking as she cried. He had almost missed her. He wasn't sure what to do so he sat down and pulled her into his lap.
He held onto her like a lifeline as the flashbacks of his own childhood came. The fear, pain, self loathing and loneliness washing over him in waves. There was no way that he would let this pup suffer what he had. Her parents wanted to send her to back to those butchers at the lab or to others just like them. All because they were ashamed and afraid of her, just like his parents. They had locked in him that cellar and beat him for the same reasons. His arms tightened around her and she burrowed closer.
He didn't know what kind of a life he could give her. He wasn't even sure why he cared, but anything would be better than the labs.
"Pup , I promise you that they won't send you to anymore doctors, that you won't be hurt by them anymore, but I need your help. I gotta get you out of here. You think you can manage another 'port?" he softly asked her when he thought that he could speak normally again.
Clarice raised her tear streaked face from Sabretooth's chest to look him in his eyes. To most people, human and mutant alike, his was a face that instilled fear in their hearts. Clarice saw beyond the sharp teeth and the dark eyes that screamed, 'Predator. Stay away.' She saw the man behind those eyes. She knew that she could trust him. Tonight after what had happened with her parents, he was the only one she felt she could. She relaxed and leaned her head into his big clawed hand as his thumb gently brushed away her tears.
"Yes," she replied.
"You remember where those S.H.I.E.L.D. choppers are parked?"
Clarice nodded. They weren't too far away.
"I want you to take me there."
-----
Sabretooth looked at the girl asleep in the seat next to him. She had passed out once they were in the air. She looked peaceful in the moonlight. He wanted to keep that look of peace on her face forever.
When he felt that they were out of radar range, he had turned the helicopter north. Once they got up far enough he could ditch it in the wilderness. It could be there for decades and never be found. He doubted that anyone would think that he would take her to Alkali Lake. He seemed to remember an old cabin up there that he had stayed in. It would need work, but they could lay low there while he trained her to survive and figured out what to do next.
-----
"The task force would be designated as X-Factor. I already have the funding set up. This team would be Goverment sanctioned and in the public eye, showing that not all mutants are insane monsters out to hurt them, but ready to serve and protect just like anyone else." Nick Fury had been laying out his proposal to Professor Xavier. Xavier was the one who could refer him to the right people to fill the ranks of this team.
A knock on the door interrupted any answer Xavier would have given. "Nick sorry to interrupt, but we have a situation. Silver Fox escaped the holding cell. There was a report of an unidenitified transport leaving just south of our position. We have also had a chopper stolen, though that seemed to be unrelated. The thieves were a large blond man with claws aided by a purple elf. It's being tracked on radar now." Dum Dum said.
"Anything else go wrong today?" Fury asked.
"The preliminary report came in on the Hellicarrier." Dum Dum voice had softened sympathically. "It concerns Val."
"Professor Xavier," Nick started.
"I will leave the two of you to talk. I need to take care of matters here at the school. I will give your proposal a great deal of thought, and I thank you for your help today." With that Xavier wheeled out of the room. He had been wondering why Fury had been so consumed by cold rage, but the sudden wave of grief that filled the man at the mention of 'Val' explained everything. It wouldn't be the first time someone shut down their grief to do what was needed. It wasn't pretty when they finally gave in either.
Fury leaned against the desk and lit his cigar. He noticed that his hand was shaking. He'd done good and not thought too much about her or everyone else.
"What did they find out?" he asked, his attention on the cigar in his hand.
"The dive teams have been able to recover some of the bodies for burial. One of them was Valentina's, or so they thought."
Fury's head came up sharply. "What do you mean by that?"
"They did an autopsy. It was an android of some sort. It had an organic body, the DNA matches Val's, but the brain and nevous system were all mechanical. They've surmised that she was taken by Hydra, and her DNA used to create that thing."
Fury slammed his fist onto the desk. "So where is she, Dum Dum?!"
Lurker