Notes:

Disclaimer: This is not mine. See first chapters for details.

Rating: PG13+

Other: This story is AU. Readers Replies at the bottom.

Chapter 7: The meeting.

            Logan gave an ungentlemanly grunt as he was nudged into wakefulness. He uttered a few choice fraises and rolled over, allowing his rheumy eyes to open a crack.

            Before him stood a blue demon.

            Wolverine sprang up, claws springing out of his clenched fists, ready to face his opponent.

            The demon took a step back, golden eyes wide, 'Logan!' he cried in strongly accented tones, 'Logan, it's me! Kurt!'

            Logan blinked, reality slipping into focus, memory slotting into place one again. He groaned, stretching the aching muscles in his back, he'd spent the night on the floor of Kurt's tiny room.

            This was the resting place he had taken the weary warrior after the conflict in the canteen, and it in fact contained two bunks. However this second bunk was the bed of Kurt's roommate, who happened to be the absent Todd. One glance at those stained sheets had persuaded Logan that the floor was far, far softer than it looked. 

            'Sorry kid,' he grunted, 'I'm ain't good at mornings.'

            'I guessed,' replied Kurt dryly, 'it's a good thing I didn't give you the wakeup call I give Todd when he oversleeps.'

            'And what's that?'

            'An ice cold bucket of water over the head.'

            'Don't even think about it,' said Logan, 'my sense of humor isn't very good at this time of day.'

            This was strictly true, for whatever cruelties Logan's previous 'handlers' had visited on him, early mornings were not one of them. Most fights took place after dark, so there was rarely any need to awaken him before mid-day.

            'It's not just for comedy value,' replied Kurt, now rummaging in his ever-present back-pack, 'that bucket of water is the only form of cleansing he ever gets, I swear. And you should be glad I let you sleep in so late, it is 8:30 already, we have that meeting, remember? It wouldn't do any good to keep either Magneto or Psy waiting. I was up hours ago, picked up breakfast, and I mended your uniform, see?'

            He picked up and displayed Logan's new, black uniform, now sporting several barely noticeable stitches.

            'Thanks,' Logan said, taking and donning the newly fixed garb.

            When he was dressed Kurt threw him what looked like several strips of cardboard. Closer inspection revealed them to be strips of food rations, hardly high cuisine, but Logan consumed them without complaint.

            When he'd eaten Kurt passed him a flask of water, which he also downed.

            'Now you've quite finished,' said Kurt, 'we'd best get going.'

            Logan nodded, and forced himself to his feet once more, he started to stride to the door when he felt Kurt's tri-digit hand on his arm.

            'Walking? At 8:58? I think not, mein Freund!'

            Seeing what was coming, Logan groaned deeply. His last thoughts before nausea and spatial disorientation over came him were a brief thanks to God that had only eaten a small breakfast.

            When his senses had realigned and the foul smelling sulfur smoke had cleared, Logan saw that he was once again in the meeting room where he had met with Psy and Magneto the day before. Now however, it was somewhat more crowded.

            Half, if not all, of the MLF seemed to be there, mutants of all varieties crammed in, chattering, laughing, whispering.

            'There you are!' called out a voice, Logan saw that it was the blue skinned girl he had met yesterday, Rogue, he thought she was called.

            'I'll never understand how a teleporter like yerself can always manage to be late for everything!' she said in her think, southern drawl.

            'It's a talent,' laughed Kurt, 'call it an extra mutant ability, and I'm not late, it's still only 8:59.'

            'Yeah well, you'd better get your fuzzy hide up front, that's where they want you, and Wolverine.'

            'Danke,' said Kurt, and he began to swim though the crowed of Homo-Superior, Logan following on his tail. The wild man could not help but notice that people seemed to move away, create a path for them, as they pushed their way though. He got the impression that, for him at least, it was a mark of respect, for Kurt though… For Kurt it was more of a subconscious dislike of contact, as if they were worried they'd be tainted by his touch.

            Before he could ponder this further, he found himself pushed into a hard, steel chair by Kurt. They were right at the front, facing the long, steel table where Psy and Magneto sat.

            Even as they watched Magneto arose and moved towards them.

            'Wolverine,' he murmured, bending over a little, 'you may sit in Tempest's chair if you wish, both I and Psy would consider it an honor.'

            'Thanks,' grunted Logan, also keeping his voice low, 'but I'm happy where I am, for now anyway.'

            A touch of regret flew across Magneto's face, but he nodded, and moved back to his seat. Logan could tell, by the looks he gave Psy, that they were discussing something telepathically, probably about him.

            Telepathy, is there anything better for paranoia?

            A few moments later there was the "bang! Bang!" of a gravel on the steel table. Logan noticed, with some shock, that the gravel appeared to be moving on its own, he didn't remember Psy as a telekinetic.

            Kurt caught his shocked expression, 'it's Magneto,' he whispered hastily, 'power over the magnetic forces of the earth, he's the one moving it.'

            Logan nodded, mentally slapping himself for not figuring it out.

            'Order! order!' called out the man in question, and suddenly the room full of noisy mutants was replaced by a room full of extremely quiet ones.

            'Ladies and gentlemen,' Magneto began, 'we have gathered you all here for an important announcement. A vital gathering. What comes out of this meeting may change the course of fate for mutants everywhere. All mutants everywhere.'  

            If possible the room went even quieter; Logan could hardly hear the sound of breathing. If Magneto didn't have their attention before, he surely had it now.

            'But before we get to the bone of the matter,' he continued, 'we must look towards its source.'

            He stepped back, resumed his seat, whilst at the same time Psy stood up, taking up the speech. His style was much more subtle than Magneto, he did not forcefully grab the attention of his listeners, here merely took it, expected it, and got the same result.

            'The story begins many years ago,' he said in his smooth, gentle voice, 'only a few years after the… discovery of mutants. During those days the head of mutant operations was one William Stryker.'

            He pressed a button on the steel table and, on one of the computer screens behind him, there came up the image of a portly, bearded man.

            'Stryker,' continued Xavier, 'met his doom a few months ago, at the hands of Tempest, but since his death others, such as Graydon Creed,' another image, this one of a younger, dark haired, handsome man, replaced that of Stryker, 'have taken his place.'

            'However, in the days I speak of, William Stryker began a government initiative aimed at the total extermination of mutants, a final solution. To do this he, with the forced aid of Forge and, I am ashamed to admit, some of my own early work, attempted to build a killing machine, a telepathic enhancer which they named Cerebro.'

            Again a button was pressed, and this time an image of a computer, of gigantic proportions, filled the screen. At its center there was a chair and a strange helmet, linked via a tube to the rest of the machine.

            'To use this monstrosity a powerful telepath was needed, and that is where I came in. They wished to break me, then place me in Cerebro, which would magnify my powers further, allowing me to contact and detect every mutant on the planet, then shut their minds down.'

            Psy fell silent at that, allowing his words to sink in.

            'But with my escape,' he continued after a moment, 'this plan seemed ruined, no one but a telepath of my might could effectively use the machine and Cerebro was put into storage. For a while we thought the threat was over, or over whilst I remained with the MLF and my will was my own. Then, just over half a year ago, news reached us otherwise. For this I call up Kurt Wagner, our herald of doom, if he will forgive the phrase.'

            Logan turned in surprise to Kurt, who had sucked in a breath of air, nervous tension obvious on his azure face.

            'Here we go,' he muttered to himself, before rising to his feet at moving to the front of the table where both Psy and Magneto once again sat.

            'As some of you may know,' he began, his fluty voice trembling a little, his tail twisting nervously at his side, 'I was eHerHrescued from the Los Angelis breeding camps, a few months ago, where I had spent a years tenure.'

            Now it was Logan's turn to suck in cold air, as he felt the blood drain from his face in shock. The boy had been in the breeding camps! Few, very, very few escaped those hell holes with their body or mind intact. Logan wouldn't have wished that on his worse enemy… well, probably not, at least. The thought that Kurt, the happy, humane, up beat, life loving Kurt had spent any time at all there… it was almost unthinkable.

            'During that time,' continued the elf, 'I learned about a few of the projects occurring there. Amongst them was the Mind-Link initiative.'

            He turned to Psy and Magneto, the former of which nodded and pressed the button once again, allowing yet another image to appear on the screen behind them, this one of two teenagers, one male, one female, both naked. The boy had short, brown hair and his eyes were a strange, crimson color, the woman, as beautiful a girl as Logan had ever seen, had hair as red as the boy's eyes, and eyes the shade of emeralds.

            'These,' said Kurt, gesturing to the screen, 'are subjects Summers and Grey. Top geneticists at the Los Angelis Breeding Center researched, and then combined their genes. Breeding them to create… this!'

            On the screen now was the twisting image of a gene, it meant nothing to Logan, and little else to most of the others in that room.

            'We have no pictures of the child, who was born many months ago, but he is known as X-man. He is a mutant, and if the genetic projections and research is correct, then he is a telepath of ability which equals, if not surpasses, that of Psy. Even now he is growing in a maturation tank, and if our own forecasts are correct, then he shall be active and ready for use within the next few weeks, if not days. When that happens, they'll put him in Cerebro, and use him to locate and shut down the mind of every mutant on and around earth.'

            At these words the room broke out of the breathy silence and into a hubbub of whispers and muttered ramblings.

            The gravel banged on the table again, stopping the hubbub, and bringing everyone's attention back to the main table.

            'I know,' said Magneto, 'that this news must come as a shock to you all, that is why we did not declare it sooner, we knew the worry and chaos it might bring, but do not fear, for we have not been idle. We have a plan to thwart this attack, and mayhap turn these circumstances to our advantage.'

            'Over the last few months,' started Psy, 'we have been secretly creating another Teleport Pad, one which will take us into the heart of New York, right next to the Breeding Center. We have also handpicked a group of mutants who will accompany Magneto and myself in this mission. They are as follows: Evan Daniels, codename; Spyke, Kurt Wagner, codename; Nightcrawler, Pietro and Wanda Lehnerr, codenames; Yin and Yang. Finally, we would also ask that Logan, codename; Wolverine, would accompany us on this mission, his help would be invaluable.'

            Psy looked towards the sitting Logan, who nodded grimly. It seemed a reasonable enough request. These people had freed him, after all, and this was a mission where the entire fate of homo-superior resided. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to payback those humans for all the pain they had caused him, Logan was always up for a scrap.

            Both Magneto and Psy seemed pleased with his decision, 'this mission,' said the former, 'shall take place tonight, we need to act fast, the time for waiting is over. Those taking part are asked to meet with us at the main Teleport Pad at 11:30pm, where they shall receive their final briefing before we go down. In the mean time I ask that you support these individuals fully, giving them whatever they want. They will need all your aid in the coming hours. Thank you. Meeting concluded!'

            This was obviously the call to leave, and slowly the mutant crowd began to shuffle out, talking amongst themselves eagerly. Logan ensured that he and Kurt were some of the first out, he was not eager to be alone with either Psy or Magneto. He didn't totally trust either of them, and Xavier just gave him the willies.

            When they were in the corridor, he turned to Kurt, 'let's get back to your quarters,' he snapped, 'we need to talk.'

Readers Replies:

Yay! Loads of replies! I LOVE you ALL! :hugs everyone: now, more specific replies, or just thanks, depending on what you said in your review.

Mocla: Yeah, Evan did need whopping. So glad you liked the speech.

Me: Sorry about the Rogue Rouge, problem, I'm trying to fix it. :blush: And they'll be a bit more of Evan before I'm threw, promise you.

Scribbler: SORRY! I didn't mean to miss you out! I was a purely innocent mistake on my part, I promise. By the way, what *is* your favorite chapter? Just wondering.

Rain: As I've said before, Remy won't be in this. I'm very, very sorry, but he won't. On the other hand almost every other mutant (baring the Acolytes and a few New Mutants,) will come in at some point, or at least be mentioned.

Telle: Oooh, I have another limpet reviewer. I do so love you guys!

Joey: More Pie-pie and Wa-wa to come. Promise.

Kiki5: Well, yes, being killed does tend to screw things up for people (: Why is Rogue blue? You'll see… you'll see… and you should have more faith in yourself, BTW. Any how, thanks for all review, as always, I'm sorry the cabbage disturbed you so much. Jeeze, think what you'd have been like if it had been a… carrot!

Gyuumajo: Nice to see you're still there. And I'm very chuffed that my fight scenes work, I'm never too sure about them… Ooh, I'm so glad this chapter worked out!

Rogue Pryde: Yep, Rogues in it, though she doesn't take a center role compared to, say, Kurt and Wolvie. If you like Rogue then check out A Family Affaire, most of that is told from her perspective… but yeah, that's enough advertising for now…

I hope you liked this chapter too, I know nothing much happened in it, this was just plotting stuff, but stick with it, the next chapter will be a little more interesting, I hope.

Speaking of which:

NEXT TIME: Why is Rouge looking (and feeling) blue? More about AU Kurt's past! Where is Mystique? And more amazing revelations! But no cabbage ):