Shput outs:
ishandahalf: Yes, poor Jamie, not so innocent now, eh? Well, he's not the only one who's acting strangely.
GambitGirl2008: Rogue's at the end of this chapter.
Ms.Rogue LeBeau: Well, you'll have to find out why Jamie. He's not the only one.
Disclaimer: Don't own X-men Evolution.
Chapter V: Searching
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"This is not good, this is not good, this is not good." Remy repeated over and over until he thought he was going to go crazy, pacing around over the spot previously located by his chere, aka, Rogue. And to make matters worse, the sound of a motorcycle was getting ever so close to Remy's position. It parked right next to him, revealing an angry X23, as she stepped off and eyed Remy.
"I could not find anything at all," she remarked simply, in an emotionless tone. "Where's Rogue?"
Biting his lip nervously, Remy tried to think up an answer quickly as he looked down at the ground wearily.
X23 turned on her feet toward the other side of the trees and started to shout, "Hey Logan, Rogue's gone miss---?!!"
A hastily thrown hand clamped over the girl's mouth, muffling her words and causing her to react violently. Before he knew exactly what was being done to him, pain exploded in Remy's foot, shoulder, and back, in that order. He suddenly found himself staring up into the dark sky covered by tree limps, groaning in pain softly.
"You should not have startled me," stated X23 nonchalantly with a dismissive wave of her hand, acting as if it was not her fault at all the Remy was on the ground in pain. Silently grateful that her reflexes had not ended up hitting him below the belt, Remy lifted his now aching body off the ground in a slow manner. By now, Logan was coming into the clearing, looking very pissed and staring directly at Remy with a leveling glare.
"Where did she go?!" He demanded with great authority, snatching Remy up by the front of his still slightly soaked T-shirt. Noticing with fear, Remy found his feet slowly lifting on the ground, as the front of his shirt lifted higher and higher over his head. He looked down at Logan with a sheepish grin, as well as a little bit of fear. In the blink of an eye, three adamantium claws pierced right through the his wet shirt and stuck right through the air in front of his face. Remy flinched uneasily, staring into the gleaming blades that were inches from his face.
Remy chuckled uneasily and tried to whisper, "Wolverine, can you please put me down?"
Despite the menacing snarl, Logan did as he was told, roughly dropping Remy onto his feet and drawling his claws back in the process. He didn't even seem to notice the three very large rips in the front of Remy's shirt that reached from his collarbone to his lower abs. Trying to ignore it as well in fear of more hatred from the growling Wolverine, Remy continued with caution.
"All I was doin' was messin' wit dis switch. Then my chere screams, and disappears like dat!" Remy concluded with a vast wave of his, arms showing great emphasis. Logan simply growled and moved by him, giving him a rough shoulder that almost sent him reeling onto his face. If Logan wasn't so important to finding Rogue, Remy decided he would have settled the score with the man right away. Instead, he simply followed, gazing down with a gloomy gaze at his ruined shirt. Remy wasn't one to mind showing skin and muscle, and the rips really were huge and long, but it had been a high costing new shirt. Now it was still wet and ripped up, but he still wore it and just tried to forget about had bad it had been messed up.
Having quietly been searching while the two men had been talking, X23 kneeled down calmly and tapped the ground under her with one finger.
"It's hollow ground," she declared, and after extending her twin adamantium claws on each hand, stabbed into the ground while starting to slice pieces away. It only took a moment before a large hole appeared in the ground, revealing a dark tunnel only yards beneath them.
"Good work," complimented Logan as he gazed into the dark depths with no apparent trepidation at all. Remy trekked around the hole once, and then gave a small smirked while he turned to the other two mutants present.
"What are we watin' for folks?"
X23 gracefully flipped off the ground, down onto the floor beneath the hollow ground, while Logan simply stepped off and dropped down. Giving a laugh, Remy decided to show his own style, as he back flipped into the air and plummeted down toward the underground hall. Neither of the two Weapon X project mutants glanced at Remy, although he was looking for some recognition for his styling acrobatic feat. Scoffing, he followed suit while Logan and X23 started ahead through the dimly lit underground hall.
A few times the two exchanged glances that Remy thought were some sort of secret codes, and started to sniff the air and listen intently. Remy would simply pass them while they stood frozen still and looking very seriously. He resisting any laughs of smart remarks, knowing that either of the two would jump him in an instant for his ignorance. It took five minutes before the reached a small, rusted door that barely clung to the rocky wall around it.
"Step back," order Logan when Remy took a step toward the door and reached his hand out to open it. Without even having time to protest, the much older man shoved him in the chest backwards with one hand. Remy grunted in frustration at the strange antics of the other two mutants, believing that their cautious actions were simply irrational and useless as well as a waste of time.
"There are others on the opposite side of this door." X23 stated silently, while Logan slowly pushed the door open with his should. A total of ten adamantium claws shot out in a cacophony of snikts that startled Remy, but led him to believe he should prepare for an attack himself. As the trio moved into the pitch black and silent room, he drew five cards out of his pocket and charged all of them with a surge of kinetic energy that tingled his fingertips. The light from his cards added a glow to the room, while also revealing visible silhouettes of three females along the walls.
Rahne Sinclair, Amara Aquilla, and Danielle Moonstar stood in a rigid pose with their gazes pinpointed right on the other three mutants in the room. As Logan, X23, and Remy watched instinctively, each of the three girls broke into their own fighting stances, seemingly deciding to use their physical strengths rather than mutant powers. Nobody said anything, as each trio of mutants focused on each other, now with everyone in some kind of fighting pose. Despite the fact that the newly arrived mutants had know idea what was wrong with the three girls, the obvious instinct was to fight. Even if they were fighting people they did not consider threats, negotiating seemed out of the question. With the effects of some kind of trance, Rahne, Amara, and Dani leapt into the battle with the intentions of taking down the opposition.
The first attack was dealt by Remy, as he tossed his cards in a deadly arc, but only managed to cause an explosion well past the three attackers. Rahne leapt at him high in the air, bringing her foot up in a sidekick straight towards his chest. The lycanthrope mutant never met contact, as X23 knocked her to the side with an aerial tackle. She landed on her feet though, and shifted into her wolf form with ease while Amara and Dani rushed X23 in a fury. Having been raised to take care of multiple threats without breaking a sweat, the old project of Hydra flipped high into the air and crashed down into a split with both of her feet make contact with the two opposing girls. Both of them fell onto their backs instantly, while she leveled herself into a back flip onto her feet in a matter of seconds. Her claws had already been withdrawn, as she found they were not going to be needed for the current battle.
Rahne lunged at Remy with a built momentum and speed, slamming into him and tackling him onto his back. She started to scratch her claws along his chest, ripping through his shirt and causing fresh cuts, making Remy flinch in pain despite his resistance. The assault only lasted a few seconds, as Logan locked his arms around Rahne and hurled her across the room where she knocked Amara over. Quickly back up to her feet, the now flaming Amara turned toward Logan and Remy, having altered to her mutation after standing up. The room shuddered slightly due to the Nova Roma princess' powers, while cracks in the floor glowed bright orange with rising lava. Rahne and Dani retreated to opposite sides, leaving only Remy, Logan, and X23 in the center of the room as well as in the main path of the extremely hot liquid pouring into the room. Amara weaved her arms through the air in deep concentration, causing the spurts of lava to shoot at her trio of opponents, causing quite some trouble for them. The three spanned out, trying to avoid the molten bath that kept advancing on them. X23 scurried along the melting the sides of the melting floor, and at Amara despite the girl's fiery appearance. The ground beneath the volcanic mutant had already started to simmer and melt due to the extreme heat.
At the last second though, X23 willed herself into a front tuck while extending her claws simultaneously. The extra acrobatic feat gave her enough momentum to carry her over the other girl; who had already started firing off her own molten projectiles. X23 tore her claws through the ceiling only inches above her, wreaking massive damage through it before gracefully landing a few feet behind Amara. As the Nova Roma native turned around, the rendered ceiling collapsed in a small proportion, toppling onto her and trapping her beneath some debris. The small amount of rubble instantly started to melt and disintegrate against Amara's flaming body, but her mutation faded a moment later, leaving her unconscious and trapped under less debris.
As X23 surveyed her work, a bright blue bolt of some sort of energy shot through the air like an arrow, struck her in the head, and knocked her off her feet. She recovered quickly, pushing herself off the ground and finding the source of the attack; Dani standing across the room with another psionic arrow aimed toward X23. The unsuspecting girl aimed her arrow, only to be knocked to the ground by a kick from Remy. Behind him, Logan finished of Rahne by grabbing her in mid air and launching her against the wall, causing the morphing mutant to instantly shift back to her human form while she dropped to the ground in an unconscious state.
Remy looked around, finding all three girls down for count, and strolled over to Logan and X23 from across the room.
"Anyone got some bandages handy?" He asked a little humorously, although he seriously needed some aid as his wounds had already started to bleed. X23 moved briskly past him while slipping some bandaging into his hand. "What, you carry this around regularly or somthin'?"
"Hurry up, we need to keep moving," she replied without answering his question, while Remy noticed a small smirk forming on Logan's lips.
"You heard the girl," he remarked, moving past Remy as well and starting towards another door. Remy sighed, bandaged his wounds, and followed the other two mutants quickly as they exited the room through another door.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Wake up."
Everything around her seemed so strange, as Rogue groggily turned her recently awakened gaze towards the voice that had spoken to her. Standing close by, Jamie continued to persist on his demands. "Wake up."
Someone lurked in the back of the room, hidden in the shadows, starting to move closer to Rogue. Her gaze shifted towards Jamie, who wore a cold and serious expression, as he frowned at her. Rogue gave him a concerned look as she tried to plead with him, but the other mutant simply gave her the cold shoulder, turning away from her as the person in the shadows stepped forth in front of her.
A man of small stature and a little hunched over, with dark hair and a solemn expression peered into Rogue's eyes as he moved in towards her.
Mastermind.
"It's time for some changes Rogue, so relax and don't resist me so all this can go well. When I'm finished with you, you'll be joining your friends, and I'm sure you'll be very helpful in serving a very powerful mutant."
Only inches away from Rogue's face, Mastermind smirked weakly while she looked towards Jamie for help, and then back at Mastermind. If she wanted to stop whatever plan he had in store for her, she was going to have to act fast, and act now.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A/N: The last part there was to move along the plot a little. Hope the fighting scenes played out well, lemme know what ya think of them. And Mastermind is only an accomplice, not the real villian. Please review, tell me what you think of this chapter!