* * * * Disclaimer in Part one * * * * *
Previous parts can be found at FanFiction.Net under 'PearlyJammer'
Thanks for sticking with me through this story. I'll try to finish up the final four chapters this month.
**********
In Hagletonia……
Rogue and Hermione have been kidnapped by the evil haglets and placed in a holding cell in the bottom of an abandoned prison. Each girl is lying on a bunk without a mattress with a leg apiece chained too the wall. The room is dark, and slivers of moonlight from the tiny window on the other side of the room near the area that a guard's desk used to stand. A door creaks open and two figures glide into the room.
"Aw look Civ, what lovely little jailbirds we've got ourselves."
"For being so clever they sure were easy to catch."
"You do realize we can hear you don't you?" A grumpy Hermione said from her uncomfortable position.
"She speaks! Be still my beating heart, thingy" Bindie exclaimed with mock surprise.
"God, at least last time I was kidnapped it was by someone who had a brain," Rogue said.
"Well little girlie, you and your friend here were rather stupid, so now you've gotta pay the price, and thank your own childish behavior." Civ said, cheerfully.
"You know, for a bad guy you're really cheerful" Hermione said, "it's disconcerting, you should be evil or twisted or something."
"Well, hey you gave us a reason to be smiling, or almost smiling. We have the two missing pieces to our puzzle. So yeah, we're happy, and there's nothing you can do about it!" Bindie went on.
"Now we're gonna leave some food here for you, in case you get hungry." Civ said, as she set down a bowl of what appeared to be cold oatmeal outside of the locked cell.
"There you go, you'll have to work for it" Bindie laughed as she and Civ left the basement.
"I knew there had to be a catch somewhere," Rogue groaned.
"It's probably poisoned or has some sort of sleeping potion in it" Hermoine voiced.
"We've gotta get out of this stupid place. I don't like the sound of their little plan at all." Rogue said as she kicked her chained leg wildly.
Hermione joined in and for several minutes all that could be heard was metal clanging on stone, to no avail though. They were trapped, firmly and without hope of escape. "It's no use. This bloody thing is stuck!" she muttered frustrated. "The damn thing is so loose around my foot, but it's impossible to get it off. We need some lubricant of some sort."
The two girls looked slowly at the oatmeal.
***********
Meanwhile in Westchester…
Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall came through the chimney in Severus Snape's quarters and the two wizards joined Harry Potter and Ron Weasley in a march to Charles Xavier's office. They walked in just at the start of a blazing row between Snape and Logan.
"It's your goddamn fault that they're gone." Logan growled at the English Wizard.
"Hardly. You're the stupid git that slacked off on his security duties" Snape sneered at the burly man.
"You were brought here to fuckin' protect her, and you didn't. I should kill you just for that." Loan lunged at the man. Snape pulled his wand out.
"You're pathetic, you can't even fight like a man." Loan spat.
"Alright fine, you want a fight, then come here!" Snape dropped his wand and yelled, breaking his cool façade.
Wizard and Mutant rushed at each other before being frozen in mid motion by Xavier.
** I suggest you two calm down. We have two women to find, we don't need you at each other's throats.**
Charles released the men and they glared at each other but did not attempt to rush forward again. "We need to move quickly. Scott, Jean, Logan, Storm and Severus will go by Blackbird to a location Kitty found. It's about 30 miles north of here, an abandoned prison I believe. Kitty will have contact with Ororo and give here the coordinates." he said to Scott and Jean.
Production of the cereal has begun already. We don't yet know how many people were affected. We suspect most of the haglets are at the General Mills post, and the most powerful are probably with the girls." Charles finished.
"Gentlemen" Dumbledore began, addressing Snape and Logan, "cooperation is of the utmost importance. Your combined skills are needed in this quest. There is no time for bickering."
The X-men and Snape left the room and sped towards the hanger. Scott and Logan went into the men's changing room. Scott tossed Snape a uniform. "I am most certainly NOT wearing that. I'm not an X-Men, I'm not wearing a dead cow."
"Then get something on that's not going to be billowing around all over the damn place."
Snape sighed and conjured himself a tight black top and black pleathery looking pants. "Happy now?" he growled before stalking out of the room without getting an answer.
"I hate that guy. He's such a goddamn dick" Logan spat.
"I thought that was my title" Scott grinned.
"Very funny Scooter." Logan called after him. "I liked that guy better without a sense of humor." he mumbled to himself before joining the others.
The four X-Men and one wizard boarded the Blackbird and took off on their mission. Kitty's coordinates told them they'd be flying for only a couple of minutes before landing in a field. According to her they would be about 300 yards away from the prison and nobody would hear them landing. Almost as soon as the instructions were given, the crew found themselves preparing for landing. "Logan and Snape, you're together. You can rip each other's heads off later, just find the girls first. Storm, try to find a weak point in the building we can enter. Jean and I will go inside on your signal." Scott commanded his team as the plane touched down.
"Here goes nothing" Logan muttered as exited the aircraft. "England, let's go, ya jackass."
"Grow up you imbecile" was the reply as the two fell into silence and took off towards the building.
************
Back inside the prison cell…….
Rogue and Hermoine worked franticly to free themselves from the manacles chaining them to the wall. Rogue's eventually cracked.
"Hermione, lean down here and pull. I think we can get mine free if we both pull on it."
Hermoine obeyed and turned herself onto her stomach to help Rogue pull on the manacle. 15 minutes of pulling and it finally cracked.
"About bloody time!" Hermoine cried in relief.
The newly freed Rogue strode quickly across the cell to get to the oatmeal. She scooped up a handful of it and brought it too Hermione who removed her shoe and sock and rubbed it on her foot.
The oatmeal certainly made it slippery, but not quite slippery enough to slide through the manacle. "Rogue, you're going to have to pull as hard as you possibly can."
"It might break your foot though." she said judging from the angle that the girl's foot had to slip through.
"Well a broken foot's better than being dead!" Hermione snapped.
Rogue took hold of the chain and pulled as hard as she could. Slowly but surely Hermione's foot moved through the hole. "Pull harder!" Hermione cried as she tried to pry her foot free. There was so much pressure on her foot that the top layer of skin was scraped off, but the foot was eventually freed. She quickly stuffed her foot back into the sock and shoe and got off the bed. To Rogue's surprise, she started hitting the bars of the cell, seemingly testing them.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I did a study on this once. Comparing the security measures in Azkaban to muggle prisons in North America. One of the legends is that there is a weaker bar in every prison, we just need to find it." Hermione explained.
"If you say so" Rogue said and too began tapping bars. "This one sounds hollow" she said after about 10 minutes of tapping.
The bar Rogue was pointing too was right in the back of the cell, nearest too the wall. "Let's wrap the chain around it and pull." she said.
The bar creaked and moaned and seemed to give a little bit. "Let's try kicking it. Something's got to get the damn thing to move." Kick after kick after kick seemed to bend the bar slightly. Eventually it gave and the girls were able to bend it as far away from the wall as possible.
"Brilliant Rogue!" Hermione gasped.
"Let's get out of here." Rogue said as she tried to slide through the small hole.
"Oatmeal" the girls said together. Hermione ran to get the bowl. "We can't spill any of it. We can't leave any trace. We don't want them to know how we got out of here!" she said. "We need to take out clothes off and put the oatmeal on our skin, then we can slide through the bars." Hermione said as she started unbuttoning her top.
Five minutes later the girls were free from the cell and onto their next challenge, the window.
********
Back at the mansion……..
Harry, Ron, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Charles are in the conference room.
"Excuse me, but how long are we just going to sit here?" Ron asked impatiently.
"Ron's right, we've got to go after them. We can't leave Hermione and Rogue out there by themselves. We know what the damn haglets want!" Harry shouted angrily.
"Calm down boys. We want to get those young ladies back as much as you do, but rashness won't help them." Dumbledore broke in.
"Please sir, we've faced stuff like this before, you can't ask us to stand by while those evil things have Hermione." Ron pleaded.
"Albus, perhaps we should just let them go. We did send them out here on a dangerous mission, and we know they've been through worse." Minerva spoke up in an unexpected move for her. "Besides, you know they're just going to break the rules and go over there anyway." she continued, hiding her grin.
"Perhaps Minerva is right Albus. These two do seem unable to save themselves from an adventure." Charles continued.
"Outvoted two to one, I suppose you know what that means. Be safe boys." he said as the two took rushed from the room.
"Now all we need are some brooms." Harry said.
"The kitchen." Ron said taking off for the room.
Ron tossed Harry a mop while he grabbed a broom. Taking their wands out, they transfigured the cleaning supplies into two brand new Firebolts. They walked out the front door, mounted their brooms and took off into the night sky.
TBC…….