"ROWRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" the tiger roared again, turning and standing in front of Danial, who backed up on hands and knees, staring at it in horror.
"It's Ellen," one of the guards holding Remy spat, reaching for his gun. The tiger saw this, its large yellow eyes glinting as it snarled. The guard released Remy and his partner did the same, and immediately Gambler jumped away, though he also avoided the tiger as well. The guards holding Steph were paralyzed as they watched as the tiger leap on their co-guards, who drew their guns and attempted to shoot the beast before it killed them, its front paws and mouth stained with blood.
"Wait," one of the remaining two guards said, throwing Steph away towards the large cat and backing up, hands in the air. "Wait, please don't-" he turned and screamed as the tiger bowled over his partner, leaping on his back and pushing him down face first into the floor. A sickening crunch told Remy that the man was dead of a broken neck.
"Remy," Steph breathed, tripping backwards into his arms and staring at the tiger, her eyes wide. Remy looked at the other end of the room, where Danial was looking ready to wet himself, then at his Bo staff, which lay about twenty feet back. If he could get to it before the tiger decided to pick off the next victim, maybe he could fend it off... with a stick? That was stupid, they were at this cat's mercy right now, and its eyes were unforgiving.
"Stay close t' me petite," Remy whispered, starting to edge backwards. To his surprise the cat's ear twitched and it sat down, still gazing at him and then at the weapon he so badly wanted to reach. But then something even more amazing happened, the tiger started to change. Its massive paws slowly became long, pale limbs and feet and fingers, and the body shrank into that of a young woman's as the head became human, a face with large purple eyes, a thin-lipped mouth, and high cheekbones and one ear pierced five times. The fur disappeared and clothes replaced it, a black skirt and white top, both with lace, and black knee-high high-heel boots, and a load of silver hoop bracelets on one arm as the newly transformed girl, looking about nineteen tops, and she looked at them as if merely interested, sitting with her hands draped over her knees.
"You wanna go pick up your stick, do it," she said, her voice light and unconcerned. Danial gasped and ran over to Steph as Remy moved backwards, still staring at the teen as he grabbed it and moved back in front of his friends.
"Who are you?" he demanded. The girl's eyes narrowed.
"I should be asking you that, you are on my territory after all," she said crossly. Then she sighed and looked down as a lock of ink black and pure white hair fell over her face. She brushed it away and stood. "My name is Ellen, Ellen McCoy."
"McCoy?!" Steph yelped, jumping backwards. Ellen nodded.
"But as far as I know, not related to him," she said, nodding at Hank's cell.
"Dr. McCoy-" Danial said, about to rush over to Hank when Ellen's cry stopped him.
"Don't!" she said, taking out a long dagger from behind her and springing up, moving forward and stopping as Danial turned to face her and Remy raised his staff, growling. "No," Ellen said, putting up her hands. "I'm not going to kill you, just want to take those collars off. If you get too close they'll trip an alarm that will have every soldier in the Labs come down on us, including the mutants, and they are not fun to deal with, trust me!"
"You ken get dese off?" Remy said suspiciously as Ellen nodded.
"Look, if I wanted to kill you I wouldn't bother letting the tiger go," she replied, moving quickly up and sticking the tip of her dagger into the side of Remy's collar, sighing as the collar fell off, clanging on the floor and stepping backwards. "See? Come over here you," she said, grabbing Steph's arm and pulling her over. Soon Ellen had all three collars lying on the floor and she stood back, looking at them and nodding in satisfaction.
"Hank," Steph said, voice catching as she ran over to her friend's cell, leaning on the thick glass and then banging on it. "There's no door-"
"Stan' back petite," Remy said, taking out a card and charging it with kinetic energy.
"No!" Ellen said, grapping his arm. Remy gasped in surprise and then threw it away from the glass, making it explode in midair and knocking them over with its force. Ellen looked up and growled as she stood again, helping Remy and Danial up. "That'll bring down the entire ceiling on us, go look inside his cell."
"Why?" Danial asked, following Remy as they peered through the glass next to Steph, almost immediately noticing the red lines that crisscrossed the floor about a foot away from the glass.
"See those alarms, you have to be closer when you break through, and you have to be careful when you do. You're a telepath, right? Can you stop the glass from hitting the lines?" Danial nodded, not turning as he looked at the lines.
"I think so, why?" A second later the giant tiger crashed through the window with a huge cracking sound. The glass spilled down the floor but throwing out his hands in surprise Danial managed to stop most of the shards, by pure luck none of the missed pieces hit the alarms. The tiger backed away, then easily cleared the six feet of lines with running leap, skidding to a halt as a human in front of Hank.
"Stay there," Ellen snapped as Remy started to go forward. Taking out her knife again Ellen reached up and inserted it into the cuff locks and with a click they opened. Hank fell heavily, caught by Ellen, who gasped. "Heavy guy, can you lot take him?" she said, looking at them.
"Accourse," Steph said, making a face. "He's our friend!"
"Alright then," Ellen said. "As soon as the alarm goes off grab him and get outta here, because the mutants will send Salla and Hype out to check up on the reason their alarms are going off, and they're a duo to be reckoned with, even for me." Remy arched an eyebrow at her last comment but nodded and Ellen grabbed Hank's limp form, grunting she managed to pick it up and she stumbled forward, throwing Hank forward into the arms of Remy and Steph while Danial helped with his telekinetic powers.
As soon as Hank's foot brushed against the red alarms a huge siren went off, dwarfing even the roar Ellen had let out earlier. Remy and Steph took off as fast as they could, Danial behind them as they struggled forward. They had made it about halfway down the entrance hall when the savage girl and Hype, as Ellen predicted, stepped out in front of them from side doors.
"Hey, lookit this," Salla said casually, leaning against a wall as Remy and Steph halted and Danial remained straining to keep Hank up. "A bunch of nerds who want their playmate back."
"Move," Remy snarled. Hype snorted.
"You think that's gonna make us leave you to get out?" She said.
-Careful, she's full of electric bull and can zap you from over there as soon as knock you out with that metal hand of hers,- Ellen's voice said in their heads. Remy didn't let the shock show on his face when he heard Danial's voice next.
-No, she isn't a telepath, I'm reading her thoughts, and they haven't seen her, she's blocked by Hank- he said.
-K, Dan, now you be quiet till dis is taken care of, got it?- Remy said.
-I know, whatever I can do, oh, and she says delay them for a minute,- Danial replied.
"What would you do if one of your team members was taken captive?" Steph asked almost immediately. Salla smiled evilly.
"We'd retreat and look for a new member," she said nastily. "Anyone who lets themselves get caught isn't worth the bother of keeping around anyway."
"You'd just leave them to face torture or death or testing?" Danial said, eyes narrowing.
"We don't know enough about this place to be a threat," Hype said, shrugging. Remy had opened his mouth to speak when suddenly Ellen flew over his head, landing on Hype and crushing her while throwing her head back, her long dagger flying through the air and sliding across the floor, stopping at Steph's feet. The black girl quickly bent over and grabbed it as Salla snarled in surprise.
"You!" she said as Hype lay still and Ellen glared at her, backing off of the crushed body. "I shoulda killed ya a long time ago ya damn cat!" Salla shrieked, flying forward and slamming into Ellen, her claws and fangs drawing blood almost immediately. In response Ellen roared and swung out her fists, half catching Salla and sending her flying off.
"Go! She says go!" Danial yelled, but Remy paused.
-Take a leaf outta their book and run,- Ellen's voice said in their heads as she and Salla flew at eachother again. -My fight, you're escape, go or they'll find out you're here and lock the place down, which would be the death of us all!-
"Go!" Remy yelled, pulling Hank forward as quickly as he could, Steph helping him. As they came closer to Salla the teen tried to jump on them, having sent Ellen flying backwards into a wall, but the tiger was up in a flash, snarling and then letting out another roar.
Then, just as they had reached the door to the under ground lab... BAM!
"Damn!" Remy yelled as a bullet narrowly missed his ear and more followed. Ellen snarled and turned, blood staining her white fur and eyes wide as she glared at Salla and the guards who had just shown up. The brief hesitation gave Steph and Remy time to shove through the door and pull Hank along with them, but Danial fell backwards as more shots rang out.
"ROOOOOOOOWR!" Ellen roared as a large hole appeared in her front left leg, blood pouring freely out of it. Salla had thrown herself to the floor as more bullets flew, hitting Ellen a few more times as the cat turned and fled, grabbing Danial's shirt in her teeth as she flew past and collapsed outside the door, which Steph slammed just as they heard Salla's enraged "NO!" from inside.
"The door!" Steph said as a huge thud hit it from the other side. Ellen struggled to her feet and raised a claw, gently tapping a button on the panel. Immediately large steel panels appeared out of the ceiling and floor and walls, encasing the door four times.
"She says outside!" Danial said, his face pale white. Steph and Remy hoisted Hank up and hurried forward, lead by Danial. Right before they reached the front door of the house it banged open and Logan appeared, red in the face and looking furious.
"Ah!" Steph cried out in surprise. Logan also grunted and without a word caught Hank as he fell, the two teens tripping.
"Hey-" Logan began.
"No time," Danial gasped. "They'll open the doors-" Logan nodded and Kurt, Scott, and Remy Sr. appeared, seeing Logan picking up Hank Scott went to help him and they carried Hank out. Steph and Danial followed, gratefully seeing the Blackbird parked right outside, Milana, Jean, and Ororo waiting and coming down and helping them up the ramp.
"Remy, hurry," Remy Sr. said as his son hesitated, looking over his shoulder.
"Wait," he said.
"Vot is it?" Kurt asked.
"Ellen, she's ain't here," Remy said, running back into the house with his father and grandfather right behind.
"Voah!" Kurt cried out in surprise as he saw the massive cat, who lay crumpled on the floor in a pool of blood. Remy bent down and picked up Ellen's massive head, her eyes closed.
"Ellen, wake up, talk t' me!" he said.
"Is dis your friend?" Remy Sr. asked.
"Yeah!" Remy mumbled. Immediately Kurt bent down and grabbed Ellen's middle, vanishing in a puff of blue smoke and taking Ellen with him. Remy backed up, startled as his father grabbed him and pulled him up as another boom sounded on the metal doors.
"Come on, Kurt took de cat t' de jet," he said. Remy nodded and got up, running after his father just as the steel plates started to creep open. Running up the ramp of the jet as it closed Remy found Kurt bent over Ellen in the middle of the isle, Jean checking on Hank as Ororo piloted, giving Milana, Logan, and Scott the time to check on their children.
"Remy!" Milana cried, jumping over a seat and grabbing Remy into a tight embrace. "The professor found you with Cerebro, said you just leapt out at him, brighter than the other lights or something, I was so worried you were going to be killed!" Remy hugged his mother back.
"Nah, jus' got into a bit a trouble," he said. "Ellen helped us out... is she-?"
"Still breathing, though also bleeding," Kurt said, nodding at him.
"Hank's unconscious, but I can't see too many serious injuries," Jean said. Then the adults all stopped and looked at Ellen.
"She's a tiger," Logan observed.
"Of sorts," Steph said, her voice muffled as Logan was still holding her protectively to his chest. All that was visible was her bright orange hair until Logan let go and looked at her.
"What do ya mean, o' sorts?" he demanded.
"She's a human, a mutant," Danial replied. "She has the ability to turn into that tiger."
"She saved you?" Logan said, looking at his daughter, who nodded. "Well, that's all I need ta know, jus don't let 'er die Jean." Jean walked over to her and took off her coat, putting it over a few of the numerous bullet wounds.
"I'll do my best," Jean said, hugging her son as he also bent down over the cat. "Oh Dan, I was really worried."