Authors Note: Once again, many thanks for all your reviews, 70 is a big number! I'm quietly hoping that we can break 100 by the end, but I think it might be a long shot. Oh well, I'll be happy whatever I end up with, as long as you keep 'em coming!
Ishandahalf: lol, yep but the crazy planning is over now, no more taunting from me! I've always thought it's a shame Logan and Remy don't get on well, but I guess Logan's just being an over protective father type figure, its his job to hate the boyfriend ;-)
Miya Reino: I agree, I'm not a fan of scogue either. I'm not sure I'd make a great flame buddy though; I'm a motivated writer but a really lazy reviewer. However if I see that Sabrina parody, say no more!
Enchantedlight: I'm glad you're liking the story, I'll update as fast as I can, promise.
Roguewanderer: hey your back! Thanks for the review. I'll try and update as soon as I can, but school plus exams plus job equals not all that much time anymore. Its lovely to hear from you again by the way.
MorriganFearn: you deserve the long response; you give me a lot to respond to! Thanks for the tutorial explanation; I'm not a big player of videos games so I'll blame the fact I didn't know on that, lol. Don't fret, Bobby doesn't turn up much, I just needed an extra person and didn't want to use Evan. His presence is minimal and probably very OOC anyway. Sabertooth and kittens! I can picture it now! All I'm going to say about the booby traps is: Sabertooth could have a maternal side couldn't he? Food for thought...I won't comment much on the 10pm thing either, I'll only dig myself into a hole, as I have no idea why I chose that time, but you have a very good point, a slap on the wrists for me. I think I've seen almost every Audrey Hepburn film, so I must be one awesome possum! That's become my new favourite phrase by the way! Thanks for all your nice comments, they're always appreciated!
Star-of-Chaos: he is, but perhaps he should be non?
Chris: aww thanks a million, I'm glad you love it. Your character appears to be quite popular ;-)
One More Star in the Sky
Chapter Thirteen (In which a way in is harder than you think)
Kitty visibly shuddered as she looked out of her window. She had hated this place the first time they had been sent here, but now she hated it even more. According to Storm, they were somewhere above Pennsylvania, and about to land.
They were about a mile or so away from the base but from this high up, she could still see it as clear as day. It was a sprawling, grey concrete monster, surrounded by rusting barbed wire. Only one level of the base was visible, the rest was buried deep underground, a dirty little secret that the government didn't want anybody to find out about. It seemed to make everything surrounding it look grey and desolate too, it just had a naturally depressing affect on everything it touched.
They landed the Jet in a partially wooded area, to keep it hidden from view, just in case, and began to assemble outside. Wolverine looked angry, but that wasn't unusual. Scott was stoic; holding the team together with an amazingly calm Jean on his arm whilst Bobby had an expression of nervous excitement spread across his face. Kurt was incredibly quiet, he was usually the one bouncing off the walls, but at this time he did no such thing. Storm had remained composed, her powers meant she needed control over her emotions, a flash flood or hurricane was the last thing anybody needed right now...Lastly, Kitty's gaze came to rest on Remy, the unofficial leader of this operation. He was leaning forward on his silver bo staff, trench coat billowing around him as the light chilly breeze caught it. As usual, his emotions were unreadable, he had perfected his poker face a long time ago but Kitty could imagine what he must be going through right now. If they things he had told her were true, him and Rogue had grown very close; he felt something deeper than just friendship towards her.
"Right" Logan started in a hushed voice, breaking the silence. "We spilt up. Gumbo, you and the elf teleport to the south perimeter, find the quickest way in, only teleport again if you have to. Half-pint, phase you and Jean through the east perimeter fence and in through the building, you've both seen the blue prints, you should know where a good place to get in will be by now. I'm gonna take the locks off the main gates and entrances, the rest of us will get in that way, after that, you take the west perimeter, we'll take the north. Don't draw to much attention to yourselves, this place might look abandoned but we don't want the risk of company anyway."
Everyone nodded back at him, knowing better than to argue.
"Storm, some fog" he asked her, looking ever so slightly satisfied as her eyes turned to pure white and a thick mist surrounded the building. "That should deal with any security cameras but Cyclops, Iceman, take 'em out anyway."
"If you find anything, anything at all that could help us, contact the rest of the team with your communicators." Storm cut it. "When the mission is complete, find the quickest way out, and help your team mates to do the same, I don't intend to leave anyone behind. We all meet back at the jet, if you run into any trouble or security features we do not know about, call for assistance. Is that all clear?"
A hushed murmur went round the group, signifying that they understood. "Then go." Storm said finally. In only a couple of seconds, the team had split up.
-o-o-o-o-
Kitty and Jean quickly made their way towards their designated perimeter, making sure to keep to wooded areas and undergrowth, just in case someone was watching. It wasn't long before they reached the sturdy chain link and barbwire fence that was supposed to keep them out.
"Ok Shadowcat, phase us through," Jean told her, grabbing her hand. Kitty did as she was told and walked them both right through all the obstacles. Now they were right up close to the actual building. Kitty froze. She couldn't remember the blueprints. If she phased them through without knowing where she was going, they could well end up in a brick wall or falling down a thirty-foot drop.
"Jean, I, like, don't remember how to get in!" the younger girl panicked, her brown eyes wide.
"Its ok, don't panic," Jean tried to reassure, trying to use telepathy to get the blue prints out of someone else's head. Eventually, she seemed to have come up with something.
"Ah ha!" she exclaimed, quiet but triumphant. She led Kitty round to a nearby section of wall. "Phase us through here."
Kitty took a deep breath and took Jean's hand again, stepping forward, taking them both through the concrete wall. What happened next was a shock. As soon as they phased through, Kitty could feel them falling, Jean had lead them into a staircase. They fell straight to the bottom in an undignified heap.
"Jean!" Kitty hissed, "I thought you knew where we were like, going!"
"I did! This shouldn't be here!"
"Any chance you like, got the plans round the wrong way?"
"Ah."
-o-o-o-o-
Kurt had teleported himself and Remy right to the far side of the military base, past the fences. Now, they began looking over the building for a way in. The place seemed to be sealed up tight, there were no doors on this wall, the windows all had bars on them and the walls were solid concrete.
"Dis gonna be harder dan we t'ought homme," Remy stated.
"No kidding," replied Kurt through gritted teeth.
Remy sadly surveyed the scene again. Here he was, a master thief and he couldn't find a simple way into this building, he had to admit, he felt slightly ashamed. He walked back towards the offending wall to take a much, much closer look when he stumped his toe on something hard.
"Merde" he grumbled under his breath. Suddenly he did a slight double take as a realisation dawned on him. He knelt down to where he had hurt his foot and foraged through the over grown weeds and grass. There it was! Remy looked at it with rapture, a drain cover. This was their ticket in!
Wildly he gestured for his fuzzy friend to come and look at his find. Kurt was less than impressed.
"Vhere going through ze drains!"
"Why not mon ami? Best and mos' discreet way in..."
"Its ze drains!"
"Don' be such a wuss..."
Remy was tempted to charge the metal cover and blow it off, but stealth was what they were going for here. Instead he produced a bizarre looking tool from one of the many pockets in his coat and began to turn dials on it, making the small silver instrument change settings. Eventually he found the one he wanted and unscrewed the drain cover, pocketing the tool before deftly jumping down into the hole.
"C'mon down! De waters lovely!"
Kurt sighed, groaned slightly and resigned himself to his fate, hopping into the drain after the Ragin' Cajun.
There was one large main gate that led into the base. In front of it was a striped traffic barrier that could be electronically moved up or down to let vehicles in and out, next to this was a small hut, which was evidently used as a guard post and held the controls for the barrier. It looked vacant enough now though.
With a quiet growl, Logan sliced through the thick chain and padlock that kept the gates held tightly shut. He had to say he was surprised. The base had looked slightly rundown when they were last here but that was nothing compared to this, the place was a ghost town.
"Right, you two" he told Bobby and Scott. "You take that side, we'll meet you in there, be careful." The two boys nodded. They had never seen Logan this serious about a mission before but Rogue had been like a daughter too him, she was his stripes, they had both been through a lot together. He had every right to be upset.
Cyclops and Iceman ran off round to one side of the building, discreetly icing over any security cameras as they went. Once there they hit the same predicament as Gambit and Nightcrawler (though they didn't know that), there was seemingly no easy entrance into this building from the sides; it was built like a fortress.
Scott mentally cursed and turned his full attention to the building. He could simply blast his way in, but it would be too noticeable, they needed a quieter entrance. Bobby kicked at the wall, doing nothing more than hurting his foot. He wanted action and adventure and instead here he was, standing outside a building in the cold.
"D'ya even have a plan, oh fearless leader?" Bobby said, uncharacteristically sarcastic.
"Not quite," Scott replied mysteriously.
"Not quite as in, not at all?"
"Yes," Scott was forced to admit.
There was silence as both of the stared at the wall some more, trying to find any weakness in the structure.
"Bobby, can you make some steps going up to the roof? We can look for a way in up there..."
Bobby complied and quickly formed a fine flight of ice stairs leading up to the flat roof of the base.
They were in luck. On top of the roof was a small entrance leading down into the base, possibly used for emergencies. It was locked up now though, a heavy padlock not dissimilar to the one on the front gate keeping them from getting in.
Scott decided to screw discretion for the moment and very quickly used a small blast from his eyes to take the lock out. They were in.
-o-o-o-o-
With a quiet growl, Logan sliced through the thick chain and padlock that kept the gates held tightly shut. He had to say he was surprised. The base had looked slightly rundown when they were last here but that was nothing compared to this, the place was a ghost town.
"Right, you two" he told Bobby and Scott. "You take that side, we'll meet you in there, be careful." The two boys nodded and quickly ran off to where they had just been sent.
He watched them go, Storm at his side, before looking up at the building. A mixture of murderous anger tinged with sadness and pain filled his eyes. He couldn't help but think about the last time they had come here all those months ago. They hadn't found Stripes then, what made them think they were going to find her now? He cared about all the kids at the institute, but Rogue was special.
When it became clear to them that it was unlikely she would return, he had left, not wanting to face what was happening, pretending it was all some bad dream. He remembered all the people he had lost in the past, like Mariko1, he still missed her, that would never change and the same thing would happen with Rogue.
Seeing the look pass over her teammates face, Storm put a calming hand on Logan's arm.
"This time we will find her, do not worry."
"That ain't gonna bring her back 'Ro."
"I know, but at least you can say goodbye properly." She comforted.
He nodded grimly and set off towards the doors. They were heavy and made of what seemed to be solid steel, dulled by years of rain and dirt. Again, there were padlocks bolting the doors firmly closed, a vain attempt to prevent an easy entrance.
They were no match for ademantium though, and Wolverine's claws sliced through like a hot knife through butter. Slightly satisfied with this little bit of destruction, Logan lightly kicked at the door, making it sing open, revealing the gloomy inside of the military base. He squinted into the darkness, even with his heightened senses he wouldn't be able to see much in this.
"Any chance of makin' it a little lighter in here Storm?"
"Here." Storm handed him a tiny maglight, turning the end to increase the beam.
With the light leading the way, they both set off down the gloomy corridor.
1.Mariko was Wolverines wife (or almost his wife, I'm slightly sketchy on the details of what happened there) for those who you who aren't familiar
I have no idea why I decided to use Pennsylvania to house Trasks base. I know in the cartoon, it was Nevada or something but I decided to create a new, secret base as opposed to Area 51. Pennsylvania was just the first place that popped into my head. I mean nothing by it. I'm not even entirely sure where in America it is (yes, that's shameful I know, but I don't take geography anymore so I have an excuse...sorta...)
Also! Quickedit won't let me use my usual story separators things! very unfair! I hope the substitutes work allright, fingers crossed! Annnyyywaaay... I hope you liked this chapter and even if you didn't, please write me a review anyway. Even if it's only a very short one, I still always love hearing from you all, its nice to know people are still reading!