Scott was pacing while Logan leaned on the wall, Kurt sitting on the banister with his tail lazily swinging around, while Jubilee popped another bubble.
"That explosion was like, really loud," she said after a moment of complete silence. "Shouldn't we go see what-"
"Quiet," Logan growled, tensing slightly as his voice dropped. "Finally, they're commin' down the hall, they'll be here in a sec." Immediately all four X Men ducked behind the stairs and soon they heard Ink talking in a low voice.
"Man," he groaned. "I bet Salla and Mattel are already out of the fight."
"Well, good for them," Alora replied, pulling at her gloves nervously. Ink kicked a small table that was in the hall over, grunting in frustration.
"We shouldn't have split up," he growled. "I've told Ken before, that's how we lost Brandy and Ellen, damn them!" All four X Men jerked and Logan almost growled, looking at the stunned faces of Kurt, Jubilee, and Scott and knowing they were sharing the same thoughts. So Ellen was, at least, an ex member of this little gang.
"We won that battle," Alora said, stopping. "The so-called Blades, masters of the underworld were wiped out, we killed them all without Ellen and Brandy."
"That's not the point," Ink replied, kicking the already fallen table again and breaking a leg off. "If we hadn't split up Ellen wouldn't have ran and Brandy would still be alive. The only reason Ken makes us split up is because he wants to weed out the weak, but we don't have enough new gits waiting-" Ink stopped very suddenly and there was a moment of silence.
"Enough gits?" Alora replied in a soft, silky voice. "What does that mean?"
"Nothing," Ink grunted. "Come on, let's go. The stairs are over there-" he started to walk again and reached the banister that unbeknownst to him had had Kurt perched upon it a few moments before. Alora had not kept walking and called out after him.
"Ink! What are you hiding from me?"
"Nothing!" Ink yelled back. "Hurry up!"
"You know, don't you?" Alora screamed, and when Logan looked he saw she was almost purple with anger. "You know why we don't know who we are! You know!"
"So what if I do?!" Ink yelled back. Alora's face froze.
"You-" she spat. "How could you?! Ink! How could you do this to me?! To the others! And Ken, he knows to doesn't he? Doesn't he?!"
"You all are too stupid to know!" Ink yelled. "You have no idea!"
"Not if the ones who can find out never tell us!" Alora screamed back.
"We can talk about this later," Ink snapped, shaking his head. "Come on, we've got a mission."
"No," Alora said coldly. Ink turned to face her, and Logan saw his chance, leaping over the railing before the others could stop him his claws unsheathed and he grabbed Ink, whirling the boy around and putting them up to his throat. Ink didn't even look surprised, hands falling to his sides as he stared coldly at the Canadian.
"Kill me," he said. Logan growled.
"Who are yeh?" he snarled instead.
"Alora," Ink called out. Alora looked at him for a long moment, hatred burning in her eyes.
"What are we Ink? Answer the guy's question, I'd like to know too," she said, not moving as Scott, Kurt, and Jubilee emerged. Ink got a pained look on his face, though Alora couldn't see it.
"We're soldiers," he said. "We guard the Labs. So we're nothing, really, don't you think?" Alora looked away, and Ink directed his gaze back to Logan. "Kill me now or you'll regret it, mutie," he whispered. Logan clenched his jaw and looked at the floor.
"Order, Cyke?" he said. Scott looked as pained as he was, and Ink laughed, looking above Logan's head.
"You stupid oafs, you can't even give someone a clean death when they deserve it!" he said. "I warned you." All of the sudden the X Men found themselves enveloped in a thick green and black fog that was both blinding and un-breathable. Logan suddenly found that he was no longer holding Ink's shirt, the boy had managed to slip away without him noticing.
Another thing Logan noticed quickly was that he couldn't heal from lack of oxygen, and as he started to choke he suddenly wondered what the others had managed. Suddenly he heard a yelp from his left, and turning he walked forward, blindly, trying to find the edge of the cloud when he tripped over something large.
"Logan!" Jubilee gasped for air as he toppled down the stairs into clear air, landing on the floor. His healing factor made any bruising he might have had otherwise nonexistent and he looked around just in time to see Ink's foot connect with his face.
"Arg!" the short man cried, falling backwards. Jubilee looked around and spotted Scott's foot half sticking out of the smoke, Scott himself nearly bent over from lack of oxygen. Doing the only thing she could think of Jubilee twisted around, grabbed the foot, and threw it. With a startled yell Scott flew backwards out of the smoke and into Ink, knocking both of them to the floor.
"Alora!" Ink yelled as Kurt bamfed out of the smoke and grabbed his shoulders when he scrambled to his feet. The girl did nothing as her companion grabbed his knife and swung it at Kurt, who teleported away again. Jubilee looked over at her and for a brief moment their eyes met, and the gaze was held. Then Alora broke off the connection, her eyes narrowing.
"Dodge this you blue creep," she snarled at Kurt, one hand shooting out. A blue blast, like a laser bolt, flew out of her palm and hit Kurt between the shoulder blades, and he crashed to the floor, motionless. Logan and Scott jumped at Ink while Jubilee sent a shower of fireworks at Alora, who threw herself to the floor just in time and replied with a red laser blast, which blew up the railing to the immediate right of Jubilee.
BAM!
"OW!" Logan said, backing up a step before swinging his bladed fist at Ink, the bullet popping out of his chest. Ink dodged and elbowed Scott hard, even as more smoke started to wrap around them, just as a cry cut short sounded and Jubilee fell senseless to the floor.
---
Steph flew past her father and the others unnoticed, keeping to the ceiling, and reaching the garage she watched as Ink and Alora left, murmuring in low voices. They were headed to the group on the stairs, so Steph didn't bother following them, hovering above the door and waiting to hear anything that would signal further battle. Finally voices, and suddenly Ken walked through, not going that way Ink and Alora had traveled, but the other direction. No one else came with him, which left Mattel and Salla in the garage with Steph's group.
Confident that her teammates could handle the two Steph followed Ken, keeping high above him and staying as silent as possible. He seemed to know where he was going, and Steph didn't like it, especially when he found the hidden elevator and went down. As the doors clicked shut Steph landed and looked at them, then thought quickly.
She wouldn't be able to use the elevator, too noisy and slow, she'd loose Ken. Smiling to herself she opened another secret panel and all of a sudden she was looking at narrow, spiral stairs for emergencies. Sliding down them proved faster than the elevator, and she waited to hear it chime and the soft footsteps of Ken disappear before daring to open the door.
----
Xavier, Ororo, Kitty, and Bobby, and Piotr looked calmly at the entire squadron of soldiers that were frozen in front of them.
"I'm never going to get used to that," Bobby shuddered slightly. Kitty walked up to one of the soldiers.
"What are we going to do with them?" she asked. Xavier sighed.
"Bobby, if you would be so kind as to freeze our guests together, we can contact the local authorities and have them take care of that," Xavier said.
"So these are all humans?" Ororo said thoughtfully. "I would have thought there would be more."
"There were more," Xavier said, smiling. "We had some help."
"What?" Bobby and Kitty said turning fast to just catch a glimpse of a white and black stripped tail slip back into the edge of the forest. Piotr smiled.
"She's back," he said.
----
"Oof!" Logan grunted as the wind was knocked out of him, being pushed back a couple of steps from Ink's kick, right into another red blast from Alora's hands. Logan cried out in pain as he was blown backwards into a wall. Alora sighed as he tried to get to his feet, sweat dripping down his face, and calmly the teen shot him.
"Well, you're outnumbered," Ink sneered at Scott, wrestling with him and trying to get the older man's back to Alora so she could get a clear shot. "And as soon as you go down, you and all your little friends are gonna die."
Scott grunted, but was caught by surprise when Ink suddenly yanked him forward and he tripped, scrambling to get up but at the same time waiting for the blast to take him down like the others. Ink seemed shocked as Scott tried to get up again and start pushing back, but Ink held him down and started to beat him.
"Alora!" he yelled. "What are you doing?"
"She's gone shugah," said a voice, "Rogue's here now." Ink looked up, started, just in time to see the foot connecting with his jaw.
"Ah!" he cried, toppling over backwards. Logan groggily grabbed him, and being too dizzy to do anything else, pushed him on his belly and sat on his back, blinking at Rogue and Scott as they got up.
"Huh, good job," he said, shaking his head. "Nearly had us there, huh Scooter?" Scott nodded and smiled at Rogue, who was looking pleased with the compliment.
"Let go of me!" Ink yelled, "Get off!"
"I don't think so bub," Logan growled. "Where's the girl?" Rogue nodded in back of her, and when the men looked they saw Alora lying on the floor, a cut on her cheek bleeding quietly and her hair hiding the rest of her face. Logan and Rogue then went on to check their fallen friends while Scott grabbed Ink and Alora and pulled them closer together so they could be watched closer.
"Hello friends, how do you fare?" called a voice. Looking up the others saw Hank, Remy Sr. Danial, the Professor, Bobby, Ororo, Piotr, and Kitty walking towards them, pulling Salla and Mattel behind them.
"Hey guys, you got them?" Kitty said cheerfully. Then she saw Jubilee and Kurt and the group froze.
"Kurt!" Remy Sr. cried, the first to react he rushed forward, but Rogue shook her head.
"He's not dead," she said. "Neither is Jubes, jus' unconscious, we think the gal over there knocked 'em out cold." Hank knelt down by Kurt and checked him while Ororo checked Jubilee.
"He is breathing, and seems fine," Hank said.
"Same with Jubilee," Ororo reported. Xavier sighed.
"Well, that's a relief-" he began, but Danial interrupted.
"Wait, where's Steph and Remy? And the other guy?" he said. Everyone exchanged looks and stopped, the realization they were missing two teenagers dawning on them.
"We need to find them, what if Steph needs out help?" Ororo said. Logan growled.
"If that guy puts one finger on 'er," he said.
"Remy," Remy's father stopped, trying to think of why his son was missing. "Non, he must've seen Steph go after de other guy n' went after her, he'd want 'er t' have backup."
"They're in the hall near the medlab," Xavier said, his eyes closed. He opened them. "They do need help."