A Man After Her Own Heart – Chapter Four

Disclaimer:  I own nothing but Val, Annie and the story idea.

A/N:  Still Rated R for language.  If you don't like it R-rated language, don't read this.

~~

Val pointed the old Ford toward the highway and they rolled along the desolate county roads quickly, wanting to make as much headway as possible with the little remaining daylight.

Annie was busy playing with the radio and chattering about how long the trip would take when Val spotted something on the horizon.  It looked like a roadblock and she slowed down a little remembering Logan's warning about Magneto.

As they got closer, Val could see that it looked like to be minor road construction and she slowed to a stop for the man holding the portable stop sign.  Shifting in her seat, Annie said absently, "This isn't right."  Then, staring hard at the stop sign holder she repeated, "Something isn't right."

Val looked at her sister and replied.  "Don't get out of the car.  Hold this," she handed Annie the communicator from Logan, "and if anything happens turn it on and hide it on yourself somewhere."

"Where?" asked Annie blankly.

"Anywhere," replied Val gruffly.  "Stuff it down your pants if you have to."

"My sister, the debutante," deadpanned Annie.

"This is serious," warned Val noting a big blonde guy in the distance.  He looked distressingly like the guy she'd fought in the cell of Magneto's underground base.  "I'm just gonna go see what the problem is."

"Be careful," said Annie with uncharacteristic solemnity.

"I will," Val assured her.  "Lock the doors."

"Okay."

Val got out of the car and started toward the sign holder, who quickly morphed into the blue bitch with orange hair!  Val couldn't believe it!

Mystique narrowed her eyes and said, "Hello, again," before using the flat side of the sign to hit Val's head as hard as she could.  Val was prepared, though and while the blow stung, it barely caused her to flinch.  In fact, Val caught the sign and pulled it free from Mystique's grip, spun it around and stabbed it into the bitch's gut with all her might.  Mystique landed, sprawled, fifty feet away. 

Annie gaped with an open mouth at her sister.  This wasn't the Lizzie she'd known as a child.  She was holding her own against these people.  

Sabertooth was quickly approaching, though.  He growled at Val and she felt herself break out in a cold sweat.  Her adrenaline was pumping and her heart rate had spiked.  She'd never been trained to fight and her moves were sloppy and ill orchestrated.  In a fight where she didn't surprise him from behind, she was worried at how she would fare.

"You want some more?" she taunted him, hoping to at least make him think she knew what she was doing.  "Didn't get enough in Canada?" she asked as she moved away from the car.  She wanted to keep him as far from Annie as possible.

"You caught me by surprise before," snarled Sabertooth.

"Should I send you an engraved invitation next time?" jeered Val. 

"Won't be a next time," he promised with his lip curled.

"Fuckin' A," she answered, getting into the trash talk as they circled each other.

In the car, Annie decided that she wasn't going to take any chances.  Mystique was heading back toward them with a hard stare directed at herself and Lizzie was currently getting ready to fight a guy who was literally three times her size. 

Picking up the black communicator, Annie turned it on and then hid it in her jacket pocket.  Her body tensed as she concentrated on the trying to help Val.  With her mind she began to pick up objects and hurl them at Sabertooth.

Distracted, he tried to shield his head from the flying rocks and road equipment.

Good job, thought Val.  Kick his ass!

Thanks, returned Annie, in Val's head.  Now watch your back!  The blue lady is getting closer.

Val snapped her head around in time to see Mystique launch herself at her in full battle mode.  Never having been trained as a fighter, Val simply stepped out of the way and let Mystique glide through the frigid air feet first and then land a few feet away. 

Annie continued her psychic assault on Sabertooth as Val and Mystique now circled each other.

"What do you want?" demanded Val.

"First," replied Mystique calmly, "I'm to kill you.  And then, I'm going to take your baby sister to Magneto as a gift.  I think he'll like that, don't you?"  Mystique lifted her arms at the display of Annie's power.

"Over my dead body," Val found herself saying for the second time in less than an hour.

"Were you not listening to the plan?" asked Mystique with a smile as she prepared for another attack.

~~

Logan slumped in his seat on the Blackbird, trying to decide if there might have been a better way to handle the conversation between he and Val.  But she rejected him, he reminded himself.  She was nothing.  He didn't want to think about her anymore.  In fact, he was done thinking about her right…now.  At that moment, of course, the black communicator went off.  The fates really hated him. 

They were just getting ready to take off.  "Storm," Logan called from one of the seats in the back. 

Storm turned to him and he showed her the communicator beeping wildly.  "Not good," she said grimly.  Taking it from him, she fit it into the console and picked up the girls' position were in a seconds.  "About a mile away," she murmured. 

"We can be there in two minutes," said Scott, preparing for lift off.

Logan clenched his fists together and hoped Val and Annie would be okay until they arrived.

~~

Annie was running out of objects to hurl at Sabertooth and, she hated to admit it, but she was getting tired.  Her powers were not that advanced and she hadn't had many opportunities to practice with them.  Sabertooth seemed to sense her weakness and he stalked her, still in the car, as he waited for her to lose her strength.

Meanwhile, not far away, Val scuffled with Mystique.  Val was trying to maintain her stance, but Mystique had picked up right away what her power was and rather than attack in a traditional way, she was trying to throw Val off balance.  Sweeping her legs under Val's, Mystique succeeded in felling her opponent.  Immediately, she slammed her knees onto Val's chest and used her advantage to squeeze Val's windpipe in her blue fingers. 

Choking for air, Val flailed her arms under Mystique's body, but the other woman only squeezed harder.  The last thing Val saw before she lost consciousness was Mystique's satisfied smile.

~~

Storm landed the Blackbird near the now-abandoned Ford and the three X-Men hurried off.  Logan was the first to reach the old car and he let his hypersensitive nose direct them to what looked to be an old barn on the other side of the road, halfway into a snowy field.

"They're in the barn," he said as he sprinted toward the building with Storm and Scott close on his heals.  As he ran, the frigid air stung his lungs, but he didn't care.  He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to forgive himself if anything happened to Val or Annie.