Note: Thanks for the reviews! Sorry this took so long ta get out. I was trying to wait awhile and see if my new computer would get working again and let me online, but it hasn't. Grr...Anyways, just wanted ta let ya know that chapter 9 might take awhile ta get here because of computer troubles, but it will come. Please review, and thanks to those that've stuck around!!
Fear: Chapter 8-Get Even or Die Trying
Unwilling to sit back and do nothing while the three remaining killers were out there hunting them down, Logan faltered as he got to his feet and Storm tried to hold him back.
"Logan, what are you doing?" she asked him as he swatted her hand away with a growl.
Kurt and Jean both looked on in concern, also getting to their feet.
Swaying a moment before grabbing onto the stair railing to balance himself, Logan muttered weakly, "They're...still out there." his brows knit together in determination, the dried blood on his face making his hardened features look even more menacing. "We gotta...do somethin'."
Storm glanced off to the side, calculating some options. Without their powers, the mutants had to rely solely on their hand to hand combat abilities and resourcefulness. Although she knew they were all trained, Ororo wasn't willing to put the children's lives in danger after they'd already experienced deaths among them.
"He's right." Kurt piped in, wrapping his tail around his right leg.
Jean nodded quietly, clenching her fists by her sides. "We have to run them out of the mansion."
"Or kill 'em." Logan muttered darkly, his bloodless left arm hanging loosely by his side and feeling like it was weighed down with solid adamantium.
Ororo's gaze shifted to Logan, and she knew he was trying to mask his pain. "Only if it comes down to that..." she said quietly. "But you've got to stay here, out of sight."
"No." Logan growled seethingly, unconsciously exposing his claws. He howled softly in pain, suddenly lurching forward and eyes rolling upward as blackness swarmed at the sides of his vision.
Storm gasped, stepping forward and allowing him to lean on her to brace his fall as Kurt and Jean both leapt in to help. They gently lowered him to the floor and Ororo lifted his hands, tearing off the bottom of her skirt and wrapping the cloth tightly around them to stop the bleeding as his claws retracted slowly. "Logan," she called, rubbing her hand on his arm to wake him.
"What happened?!" Kurt exclaimed, kneeling down to the floor and staring at him.
Jean's concerned gaze drifted to Logan as well, and she gaped at the sight of his sallow complexion. Was he really dying?
"He's lost too much blood." Ororo explained to the teenagers. Remembering the web around the mansion disabling their mutant abilities, Storm's mind began to drift. "There's got to be some kind of device that powers the dome outside the mansion...so if we find that and destroy it somehow-"
"--we can get our powers back!" Jean finished with a hopeful smile. She then frowned, touching Logan's hand lightly and looking back to Storm with saddened eyes. "Storm, he feels cold."
Brows furrowed, Ororo took in a deep breath, then began chewing her lower lip nervously. "He's gone into shock." she looked to Kurt, waving a hand at him in gesture, "Give me your shirt."
"What?" he raised an eyebrow, then at Storm's serious gaze he pulled off his t-shirt and handed it to her.
She took the shirt and covered it over Logan's bare chest, sighing when it didn't cover him enough. "We need to keep him warm." she said firmly, looking to Jean who nodded. Ororo knew enough about giving first-aid, but Jean had been studying under the Professor and Hank to learn more about medical care.
"Uh..when someone's in shock, you're supposed to elevate their feet." Jean said quietly, remembering her studies. She and Storm both lifted Logan's legs, resting his feet over a few steps.
Kurt just stood back, not knowing any way to be of use at the moment. He cleared his throat, getting Ororo's attention.
She nodded, knowing that they needed to get going. "Kurt, you stay here with Logan, Jean come with me."
Nightcrawler started following after Storm up the stairs when he realized what she'd said. "What?!" he asked suddenly, confused.
Jean gave Storm the same questioning look.
"Kurt, if you stay with Logan you'll be able to blend in the shadows easily if anyone comes. It would be easier to attack if they don't know you're there." she nodded to the blue-furred boy. "Let's get going Jean." she said, turning to the redhead.
Jean stood tentatively, bare feet padding up the stairs slowly after Ororo. She glanced back at Kurt who stared after her with pleading eyes, knowing he had no medical knowledge whatsoever. "Just check his pulse every so often, and make sure he doesn't get too warm or too cold." she told him, gesturing toward Logan.
Kurt nodded hesitantly and waved slowly as the other two ascended up the stairs.
Limping down dark corridors, Spider managed to move along, keeping her focus on one thing: tracking down the clawed mutant...and killing him. She trudged along, making her way towards the stairwell where she'd spotted a smeared blood trail and some droplets on the floor. Grinning wickedly, light green eyes flashing with pure hatred, Spider had tunnel vision as she walked zombie-like toward her objective.
Sitting on the step where Logan's feet were, Kurt chewed his lower lip nervously, rocking back and forth with his arms wrapped around his upper body, tail twitching steadily behind him. He shivered suddenly, though it wasn't from being cold. He had the sudden feeling there'd be trouble soon.
"Rrnnh.." Logan groaned, being wakened by the burning pain from his shoulder, though not opening his eyes.
Kurt hopped from the step gracefully, landing beside him with a brow raised in concern. He cocked his head to the side, then reached a three-fingered hand towards Logan's neck to check his pulse. 'Checking his pulse isn't going to do much if I don't know what I'm supposed to be checking for...' he thought to himself, then reached his other hand toward his own neck to see what a normal pulse would be like. Finding the difference between Logan's pulse and his own, Kurt decided the injured mutant's was much slower, though he didn't know what he was supposed to do about that.
Looking up suddenly, Kurt listened carefully and distinctly heard footsteps coming toward the door to the stairs. Eyes widened nervously, Kurt crouched down beside Logan's head as he groaned, and whispered, "Ssh..just stay quiet okay? Someone's coming." not expecting the man to answer, Nightcrawler leapt into the shadows along the side of the stairs, perched on the railing before the steps went down to the next level, leaving him perfectly hidden.
Flinging the door open and grinning insanely with revenge glinting in her eyes, Spider stared down at Logan's vulnerable form, a small amount of blood beginning to pool around his left shoulder that apparently had began bleeding through the quickly made bandages. Her pale face twisting into a grimace as she limped forward and closed the door, Spider pulled out one of her sais, raising it above Logan, poised to strike.
Unable to keep hidden and do nothing while Logan was slaughtered, Nightcrawler leapt out from hiding and grabbed the edge of the platform above from the next flight of stairs. He held tight, swinging his feet toward the attacker and wrapping his prehensile tail tightly around her neck.
"Gaaak!!" Spider choked out in surprise, her vengeance filled eyes bulging in shock as she began struggling, grasping to pull away the extra appendage that was coiled tightly around her neck.
Kurt was slowly loosing his grip on the platform, unable to know how much longer he could keep up this strangle-hold.
Opening his eyes in time to look up and see Spider being choked by Nightcrawler's tail, about to stab at the extra limb with her sai, Logan weakly swung his right arm around, knuckles just barely touching Spider's right ankle before he unsheathed his claws.
"Aaaaaaagh!!!" Spider managed to yell in agony, despite Nightcrawler's tail around her neck. She dropped her blade and began to fall.
"Fuh..Finish..'er off." Logan muttered softly, wincing as his claws retracted painfully back into his forearm, the three gashes on his knuckles bleeding profusely once again.
Though he knew it wasn't exactly right, Kurt felt he had no other choice but to kill this woman. She was a killer, she was trying to kill them...it was self defense. Knowing that his hold was about to slip from the platform, Nightcrawler reached out with his legs, two-toed feet gripping onto Spider's shoulders as his tail tightened round her neck. He jerked his tail to the side sharply, cringing at the sickening 'snap' that sounded as he broke her neck. Kurt quickly released his hold, dropping to the floor nimbly and watching sadly as Spider slumped to the ground, no life left in her at all.
Kurt straightened himself a moment, carefully stepping over the body to move beside Logan. He crouched down, easily balancing on the balls of his feet. His eyes moved to the growing pool of blood around Logan's shoulder, and he tried to forget the awful act he'd just commited. "L-Logan?" Kurt stammered slowly.
"Kurt? Is that you?" a hopeful, southern accented voice sounded from one flight of stairs above them.
Looking up sharply and standing, Kurt's wide yellow eyes softened as he watched Rogue descend from the above level. "Rogue, what are you doing here?"
"I couldn't sit around an' do nothin'." she admitted with a sheepish smile, absently raising a hand to the tear in her pajama top where she'd been cut. The wound was shallow though, and had long since stopped bleeding. Rogue's eyes drifted to the obviously dead woman on the floor, her neck twisted at a sickly angle. She then turned to Logan, fully stepping down the stairs and standing beside Kurt. "Is...Is he-?"
"He's alive...but barely." Kurt told her grimly, kneeling beside Logan once more and looking to him sadly. "He helped me with...her," he gestured toward the dead woman, then turned back to look down at Logan again, "but he isn't responding anymore.."
Rogue frowned, kneeling down as well. She raised a bare hand to Logan's forehead, just above the bloody smear where a cut was. Pulling her hand away, Rogue moved her hand to his chest that was covered with Kurt's shirt and wrapped in gauze. She pressed down firmly on a spot of his chest that wasn't bandaged, then put another hand on his right shoulder and gently began rocking him. "C'mon Logan...you gotta wake up.....Wake up!"