Making, what he hoped was, an educated guess, Cyclops aimed at Cara and then, quickly, off to the left of her original direction.
She fell to the ground with a heavy thump.
"Cara! What did you do to my sister?" Ashlyn demanded, running toward the gate. Her claws popped free, but she wasn't sure which she wanted to do more: scale the pillar and gut Scott or climb over the wrought iron and help her sister. Her sister won out. Ashlyn leapt for the gate.
Logan caught her by her scruff. "No need to be getting' all wild on us, kid."
"I thought you were gonna help me," she growled.
"I am. They're on automatic," he said nodding his head to the inwardly swinging gates.
Ashlyn tore herself from Logan's grasp and ran to her sister. She dropped to her knees beside her, hissing at Bobby. "What'd you do to her?"
"Do to her?! You should be asking what she did to me."
"Relax, Bobby," Cyclops said, coming down off the brick pillar. "She all right?"
Cara jumped up, lunging for him--
--straight into Ashlyn's arms. "Weren't you the one that told me that fightin' the X-Men was the stupidest thing I coulda ever done?"
"He shot me!" she growled.
Logan laughed. Which only made Cara spitting mad.
"Cara…Cara…" Ashlyn murmured, shooting a dirty look in Logan's direction. She rubbed her face against her sister's, renewing their familial bond. "What's some singed fur between sisters."
One last hiss at the X-Men around them and then Cara was rubbing back. "I thought…" her voice hitched. "I thought you were dead." They embraced tightly.
Bobby blushed. "Jeez. I'm gonna go now. If you need me, I'll, uh…" He pointed in the general direction of the mansion. Shaking his head, he walked away.
"You two comfortable down there?"
Cara hissed at Scott over her sister's shoulder.
"C'mon, maybe we should get up," Ashlyn conceded.
Cara retracted her claws.
"Your hands are blue!"
She looked down at her stubby-fingered hands, which were now just hands, not furred things. "It's nothing." As she watched the holographic overlay stuttered and went out again. Cara looked up at her sister. "I'm fine. Help me up."
Ashlyn helped her sister stand, looping her under around Cara's waist. Flashing teeth quickly at Scott, she helped her across the grounds.
"Nice work there, Slim," Wolverine said when Cyclops jumped down from his perch.
The X-leader ignored him.
"Does it…?" Ashlyn asked.
"You have no idea," Cara answered, clutching her side. "I can't believe…"
"Well they didn't want to hurt me."
"Don't think he was trying to hurt me either," Cara muttered.
Ashlyn chuckled darkly. Cara sighed at the familiar sound. It was something she herself would have done. She bent her head to her sisters. "Missed you."
Ashlyn rubbed her cheek against Cara's in silent agreement.
Far above them, Storm watched the motley group from the roof. She had been with Cyclops when Bobby's call for help had come through the comm. He had declined her assistance, and seemed to have things well under control now. She turned toward the stairs, heading down to meet them.
Remy also watched as they trooped across the grounds from a window on the third floor landing. Despite himself the jeune fille had intrigued the thief – attracting and repulsing him. He too headed for the stairs, but for a more unobtrusive look.
"This way, darlin'," Wolverine said, leading them to the elevators that would take them below to Hank's lab. "I could carry ya down if ya like."
Snarling, Cara said, "I can do just fine on my own little man."
Smiling a little ferally himself, he answered, "Thought ya'd say somethin' like that." He swooped down unexpectedly and came up carrying the young mutant.
"Put me down!"
Students' heads were popping out of doorways all along the ground floor.
"No."
"Yes! Now!" The first three inches of her claws popped free.
Snikt! "I don't think so, little girl."
Cara eyed the three nine-inch adamantium blades a breath away from her face with respect. "I yield."
Ashlyn snickered.
"Ya got a problem, kid?"
"Ain't too many people that can make Cara yield. Oh, I'm fine."
Cara bared her teeth to her sister.
"Enough, the two of you," Scott said, speaking for the first time since coming indoors. "Let's just get you down to the infirmary."
"And I thought I told you to stop with the mimickin'," Wolverine warned Ashlyn.
She shrugged. "You're in here. Ya ain't never gonna be out."
The elevator doors opened.
Cara gave Wolverine an appraising look. "So you're the one." They got into the elevator and turned around. "Hmm."
"The one what?" He swung around to look at Ashlyn who gave him an I haven't the foggiest look.
"That Ash took after. She sounded funny last we spoke."
"Took after?" from Scott.
"And how exactly does that happen?" from Logan.
Cara shrugged. "Gotta ask Ashlyn. Never really understood it myself."
"Someone explain to me just what's going on here!"
"My mutant ability," Ashlyn said. "I modify my behavior to compliment whomever I'm in close contact with. Or I did until the Professor shut me down."
A light dawned in his eyes. Or they all imagined it did. "So our fight…"
She nodded.
"And speaking French?"
"Well I already know French, but yeah. Though I've never had it happen so fast. Ever."
"I believe I shall join you."
Ashlyn turned from Cyclops to the dark-skinned white-haired beauty that joined them. Some of the tension eased out of Scott's back now that he had an ally. "You heading down, Ro?"
"I am now," she said in her stately manner. The long-suffering elevator doors closed behind her.
Ashlyn was instantly intrigued by the tall woman. She radiated calm like an emotional space heater, giving everyone a chance to breath again.
Still facing the little group, Ororo introduced herself: "But I am also called Storm."
"Why's that?" Ashlyn asked.
"Ms. Munroe's mutant ability is to control the weather," Scott answered for his friend.
That earned an appreciative smile from Cara, still in Logan's arms.
"Stop squirmin', kid," he complained.
"I am not squirming," Cara protested, wriggling in annoyance.
"Yes ya are," he grumped.
Lips turned down in an elegant frown, Storm asked, "Why are you teasing the girl, Logan."
They all turned to him expectantly.
"Can't a guy have a little fun?"
Mad enough to spit, Cara twisted ever more furiously in his arms. Logan only let out a belly laugh. As the elevator doors opened it echoed down the cavernous halls of the X-Men's headquarters.
"Thought you were the one that told yer sister that fightin' the X-Men was the stupidest thing she ever did," he said as they walked down the hall. Ashlyn had abandoned them to talk to Storm, Cyclops on the girl's other side.
"That was before I knew you liked to play games with people," she snarled.
"Just havin' a little fun, darlin'."
"Well have it on someone else's time."
His answering laugh bounced off the walls. Ashlyn glanced back momentarily then turned back to her conversation.
"Yer sister said ya weren't nothin' like her."
"She's right," Cara gritted out.
"An' the two of ya still manage to get on."
Jutting her chin toward her sister, Cara said, "Ashlyn manages. She makes it possible."
"By changin'."
"Yeah."
"What if she don't feel like it."
That stopped Cara for a moment.
"Or what if you don't want her to. What if ya wanna have a knock-down, drag-out fight with yer sister?"
Mouth opening and closing like a fish, Cara gaped up at Wolverine as if she'd never seen him before.
"An' here we are. Got another one for ya, Hank."
The blue-furred Beast approached the pair. "My, the resemblance is striking."
Cara turned toward him. "We're triplets," she said distantly.
"Hmm…" Beast pulled out a pen-light and flashed it in her eyes. "Bring her here Logan. Do you feel sleepy…"
"Name's Cara," Wolverine supplied.
"I can talk for myself, thank you," she said smartly, snapping out of her daze.
Ashlyn set a confident hand on Logan's shoulder stopping him from tossing her sister onto the white-sheet covered bed. "She's always worse after a fight."
He stared at her for a long minute then: "Ya even smell a little different."
"Yeah, she does," Cara grumped. "It'll be worse when she gets her power back. Now do you mind setting me down?"
Wolverine dropped his package on the bed. She winced, but didn't complain.
"If you don't mind," Hank said, shooing them away from his new patient.
Glancing at her sister over her shoulder, Ashlyn said, "It's gotten worse since we ran away. Before He would have punished her."
Scott who had come to join them asked who "He" was.
"Our Master."
"Y'know," Logan said, "this Master of yours sounds like some kinda fella." He released the first claw on his right hand, and examined it. An idle threat.
"Who is this 'Master?'" Scott demanded, feeling increasingly out of the loop.
The calm Ashlyn had borrowed from Storm was quickly fading in the face of Logan's casual violence. That, without her mutant power, it had been a forced emulation certainly wasn't helping. And she didn't know why, but being around Scott really wasn't helping. She quickly came to realize that all the mediation skills she had honed with her sister and brother paled in the face of whatever conflict these two men shared. Until she could better control the near instinctive reaction they each caused in her regarding the other, she was going to have to avoid being with both of them. And the sooner she started the better.
"I explained it to Professor Xavier, so if you wanna ask him…"
"I just might do that," Scott said. "I'm sure the Professor would like to talk to you as well."
Ashlyn looked longingly at her sister. Cara's attention was focused entirely on being a willing patient.
"Yer flickerin', kid."
"Huh?" Ashlyn turned to Logan who looked at her left wrist pointedly.
She looked down and watched as her hand shifted from golden-skinned to golden-furred, and back again. "Oh…" She deactivated the image inducer but didn't take it off. "I…I guess I may as well go with you Mr…" she trailed off, unsure how to address Scott. They had been in three fights in under twelve hours.
" 'Scott' will be just fine. Or Mr. Summers if you prefer."
With one last long glance toward her sister, Ashlyn turned to follow Scott. "I'll figure something out, I'm sure."
"Are you coming with us, 'Ro?"
The white-haired goddess nodded. "Let us see what Professor Xavier has to say."
"Not that anyone cares…," Logan said, pulling out a cigar.
Ororo frowned.
"…but I think I'll stay here with th' kid."
"Please say that you have no intention of lighting that offensive article in the medical lab."
"Now would I do that, Goddess?"
Ororo frowned as the elevator doors closed on Logan's smiling face. "Surely he would not…"
Neither Scott nor Ashlyn thought it wise to comment.