Chapter 3: Pinocchio

             Rogue made her way to the abandoned toy factory on Greer Street by her ability of flight, realising the sky was the only place on earth she couldn't go that she could be traced by Logan's heightened senses.  She arrived at the abandoned toy factory ten minutes after having immobilised Logan, she landed lightly on the inside of the gates, and headed towards the building cautiously.

             The building was constructed of old brick and dark cement, it looked as if it had stood there for a hundred years, there were broken windows, half boarded up, and a door with a broken padlock hung half open.  She felt nervousness catch in the back of her throat.

             She reminded herself not to panic, she might be alone, but she wasn't vulnerable as she might have been before gaining Miss Marvel's powers.  Feeling slightly more confidence, she approached the door.  She pulled upon the large iron door and it slowly swung open, creaking loudly in a foreboding way, as if it were warning her to leave.  She continued, and stepped through, leaving the door wide open.

             There were no lights on in the building, but through a broken window laced with wire mesh, she could see light spilling in from outside, probably from street lights, it cast a strange orange glow across the back of the room, in the shape of a malformed square, she headed towards it.

             Pinocchio, I'm looking for Pinocchio, she thought timidly, she held her breath, her heart beating fast, her pulse racing.  She took off both of her gloves off and shoved them in the pocket of her skirt, and she steadily continued forward.

             Be prepared, anything could happen, she told herself wisely, she glanced around her, in the darkness she could make out scattered toys, a child's baby doll laying on the floor, it's head bashed in, its remaining one eye looked up at her reminding her of the dead stare that corpses always seemed to have in horror movies.  She felt chills find their way up her spine, she shivered.

             Ignore it, ignore it

             "Who're you?" there came a voice, it was nervous, shady, and she could not detect its whereabouts, all she could tell was he had a distinctive British accent.

             Rogue spun around, looking all around her anxiously, wondering where the voice had come from, her heart felt as if it had suddenly stopped, she found it hard to breathe.  "Where are you?" she stammered.

             "Tell me who you are!" the voice demanded of her, it was definitely a man's voice, it sounded seedy, and scared, not what she'd expected at all.

             "I'm looking for Pinocchio…" Rogue trailed off.

             "I asked YOUR name, not mines!" the voice – now confirmed as Pinocchio – yelled at her.

             "Rogue, my name is Rogue…" Rogue looked all around her, "I came here for…"

             "Drugs," Pinocchio responded, still hiding, Rogue wished he'd come out.

             "Can you at least come out where I can see you?" Rogue demanded impatiently.

             "Show me your hands, I want to make sure you're not holding any weapons…" Pinocchio responded.

             Rogue held her hands up, cautiously turning around, when she turned back, the man was in front of her, he could not have been any older than thirty, he looked drawn and pale, with messy black hair, dull brown eyes and a very prominent, long nose.  Now she understood why they called him Pinocchio. 

             "What did you come for…coke?" Pinocchio was donning a brown trenchcoat, he shifted from foot to foot anxiously, his eyes darting left and right, and then looking at her suspiciously.

             "I…heard rumours about a pill…" Rogue looked at him, "a pill that…when you give it to a—"

             Pinocchio put his hand up to hush her, she stepped back, slightly jarred that he would perhaps try to touch her, the last thing she needed was a junkie's thoughts in her own head.  That could be dangerous.   "Ssh!  My regulars won't be so happy if they find out I deal to people like you as well…"

Rogue frowned, how dare he make such a comment, hadn't the guys in the nightclub mentioned that Pinocchio was a mutant himself? 

"You have money?" he demanded.

             "Some…" Rogue went through her pocket, she had less than thirty dollars upon her person.

             He looked at her, and gave her a nasty look as if she were wasting his time, "it's going to cost you more than that, darlin'," he responded.

             "This is all I have…"

             "Too bad," Pinocchio stated firmly, he was about to turn.

             Rogue drew her breath, "How much?"

             "Five hundred," Pinocchio replied.

             Rogue gaped, "dollars!?"

             "No, pesetas, what do YOU think," he glanced over his shoulder at her.

             Rogue folded her arms, "Why is the cost so high?" she demanded.

             "They're high in demand, darlin', it's not cheap to fly all the way to Scotland from here just to get the supplies I need to make them," he turned towards her.

             Rogue suddenly felt a jolt rush through her, Scotland?  "Muir Island?" she queried.

             "I never disclose the place of my Supply," he replied, but he already had, Scotland had been mentioned, and the only place Rogue knew would have such supplies of drugs and chemicals for such a remedy for mutant powers would be Muir Island.

             "What does it matter to you?" he gave a nonchalant shrug.

             Rogue lost her temper, she pushed him up against the wall, grabbing a hold of his collar, she frowned, "You bastard!  It was you stealing from Muir Island that night!" she clenched her teeth.  "You got me and my friend framed!"

             Pinocchio's eyes widened in surprise, but he tried to remain calm, "Its not my fault if you got yourself into my mess," he tried to push her away from him, but was having a hard time trying.

             Rogue slammed his back hard into the wall, she hoped it hurt intensely.  "Hand the pills over!"

             "Or what?" He raised an eyebrow.

             Rogue looked at him, "Or I'll be going STRAIGHT to the police," she warned.

             "Yeah?" He smirked, "Tell them I said hi."

             Rogue slammed his back against the wall again, "or worse…I'll take you to Professor Xavier…"

             "X…X…Xavier…" Pinocchio's eyes suddenly became very wide, he obviously knew the name.

             "Oh, so you know who he is then?" Rogue demanded.

             "Yes!  Don't take me to him, please!" Pinocchio looked petrified.

             "Why are you so—" she was about to ask why he was so scared, but he reached into his jacket and pulled out tiny plastic bags full of pills, finally he came across a tiny bag of pills – they were blue, and stood out against the others which were now scattered over the floor.

             "Take them all, just don't take me to him, please!" Pinocchio begged.

             Rogue grabbed the bag of blue pills from his hand, and looked at them, "are you sure these are the right pills?" She demanded.

             "Yes, just please let me go!" Pinocchio pleaded.

             Rogue let his collar go, "get out of here" she pushed him so that he fell sideways.  He pulled himself to his feet and scampered off, and disappeared into the darkness.  Rogue picked up the other bags of pills he'd dropped, she decided she'd find some way of disposing them, it was better leaving them there for some one else to find.

             She slipped all the bags of pills into her pocket, and she left the place silently, she had what she wanted, now she had to experiment before Logan could possibly find her.