Part Two: Breaking down Birkenau



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Team B quickly made their way to the old industrial plant at the far east side of Auschwitz in an old ghost-town of a suburb called Monowitz. The building was old and was covered in rusty, painted metal siding. Black paint covered an old wooden sign driven into the ground with a stake. The paint spelled IG-Farben.



Logan sniffed, "Does anyone else smell old burning rubber?"



"This used to be an old rubber plant, Logan. The SS used to force the death camp prisoners to work here as cheap slaves," Kitty replied, then she fell silent again, watching Jean's face...She was wrinkling her brow like she was sensing something.



Suddenly, they all heard a shout. Someone on the grounds had spotted them. An angry young man in a black uniform ran towards them, his .357 magnum glinting in the air, pointing straight at Kitty. He yelled a command at them in German, and Jean quickly yelled back an answer in his own language.



"He's telling us to get back to work," Jean said.



"Tell him we're not on the payroll," Logan hissed, bearing his claws with an audible sibilance.



The guard's eyes grew wide with terror. He shakily raised his gun to fire, but Logan swiped the barrel of the gun with his claws and sliced through the ammunition chamber and a few bullets fell to the ground. The guard dropped the gun and ran hastily into the industrial plant. Logan made to follow.



"Get ready for a fight," he warned, scurrying up the ramp.



Cyclops put his hand to the side of his visor, ready to open it on the next person to leave the building. Jean prepared herself for a psychological attack. Kitty stood in the middle of the team, ready to grab them and phase them so that they wouldn't be harmed by the onslaught of bullets.

The team tensed as they heard shouts in German from the inside of the building and the menacing sound of the loading of several guns.



* * * * *





Gambit pulled Rogue quickly into the shadows behind the preparation barrack by the "Rampe "in Birkenau. A large van, the windows blacked out with dark paper, came into view. It stopped in front of the barracks and two guards got out of the driver and passenger side of the vehicle, shouldered their rifles, and opened the doors. They barked orders in German as mottled shadows came out of the packed, seatless van. The prisoners filed out at a lethargic pace, trying their legs after riding in the van for several hours. Some of the prisoners looked normal, others were definitely mutants with strange features. All of them were ill-looking, pasty, and wearing wicked looking collars around their necks.



"That must be how they control dem, chere," Gambit whispered, "Those collars are jest like they made muties wear on Genosha, 'cept those bad-boys look like dey hurt."

Indeed, the collars did appear to hurt. Technological wires were somehow inserted into the neck at the base of the skull, and the outside of the three-inch-wide collars were covered in sharp spikes to discourage removal.



Rogue watched with wide green eyes as they pulled prisoners out of the cramped van like clowns in a tiny car. She watched Gambit's face for a reaction as they pulled several children out of the van. She was not disappointed. Gambit's brow creased and his eyes flashed with an inner flame as the children were yelled at by the guards and pulled away from their parents.



"Remy, where will they take 'em?" Rogue asked.



A low, masculine voice from behind Rogue said, "They'll take them to the 'showers' along with the rest of the elderly, most of the women, and the invalids."



Rogue looked over her shoulder at the source of the voice, "The 'showers'? Magnus, you say that like it's a bad thang."



Magneto closed his eyes knowingly, "They'll fill the showers with nerve toxin, and yes, that is a bad thing."



"By the goddess," Storm winced inwardly, and swallowed hard, "what can we do?"



"We're just gonna have to make ourselves known, chere. And den we can get save those chillun."



* * * * *



A charge was being lead as men filed out of the IG-Farben plant. All were holding military-issue weapons, including rifles, Luger pistols, Winchester repeaters, and even a Gatling gun. Despite the heavy weaponry, Wolverine was not about to back down. He lunged toward the first line growling and grunting as he slashed into weapon after weapon, sometimes using his impenetrable claws to block a shot. His team was behind him, now a little worried, in a protective circle formation.

"Well, we've certainly lost our element of surprise," Jean murmured as she concentrated her psychic shield around Kitty and Scott. The shield was an aura of blue energy, a bright light that enveloped the X-men like a womb, even sealing out some of the sounds of the battle. It also kept the team from being able to fight back.

"Jean, I can't fight with this shield!" Cyclops complained, frantically trying to blast at the guards with his eye beam. Kitty grabbed him and phased him half-in-half-out of Jean's glowing shield. Cyclops then opened fire, using a concussive-strength blast. The IG-Farben men started to fall, blasted unconscious or temporarily blinded, and the rest began to fall back as Logan ripped into their weapons.

Logan was growling, snorting like an animal, breaking and slicing through expensive weaponry and sometimes even the unlucky guard. Some of the black-clad Nazis weren't easily stopped, however. Once they lost their gun, they would attack with fists and the butt of their now-ruined firearms. Wolverine was not looking as one man jammed him in the temple with the butt of his rifle. He was knocked out cold, and he fell among a scrambling, shouting pile of soldiers who began to pummel his unmoving form.

Jean dropped her shield and ran into the battle, trying to get to Logan using her still-blooming powers to telekinetically blast the Neo-Nazis back. They fell, only after Jean's psychological suggestion that they were unconscious or gravely injured, although they weren't. As she neared Logan, she saw that Kitty was already there. She was phasing Wolverine to keep him from getting shot as Cyclops attempted to keep the soldiers from beating Logan to death. Holding his head in her hands, Kitty was startled to feel the stickiness of blood in Wolverine's dark hair near a purpling bruise on his temporal vein.

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It's short, I know, but what can I do? Here's some news as to why my fics come out so short and it takes so long: 1) I'm still recovering from 8th grade. 2) I have just rescued a baby bunny, who needs lots of attention, and 3) It takes forever to research Auschwitz.....too many sites in German or foreign languages!

That's all for now, R&R please!