Few things broke the silence of a New England forest in the middle of the night, the occasional rustling of leaves, maybe an eagle as it swooped
down on its prey and the unusually late night grazing of a female deer. She was standing just outside a large group of trees shielded by long grass
from prospective predators, though most had retired for the night by this time. She had learnt that this time of night was exceptionally quiet and
thus easier to feed during. A crack from within the trees behind her startled her and she swept her head up in the direction it came from, waiting
a minute without any further noise she returned to her grazing. A light scent drifted through the air downwind from her right, she didn't recognise
the scent so spent some time breathing it in and trying to work out where it came from. Once again she returned to her grazing. Suddenly the rustle
of leaves as something took off from the ground and leaped towards her from the trees, her head snapped round to see a man flying through the
air with his arms stretched out at his sides, aiming himself at her. She turned to sprint away but she found herself being caught in his arms and
lowered gently to the floor, she struggled but found her assailant to be stronger than she had imagined. One of his hands released her and started
to gently stroke her head. "There, there girl, I ain't gonna' hurt you." His gruff voice pierced the silence and her. After a few minutes she calmed
under his gentle hand, all the time he spoke gently to her and against all her natural instincts she found something soothing in this, he was not going
to harm her and the struggling stopped. The man released his grip on her and rather than run away, she stood up peered at him and then settled
down on the grass a foot away from him. "I'm sorry I scared you like that, had to see if I can still do it, been a long while since I tried hunting one
of you. Always were difficult sons of bitches." There was a tone of respect in his voice. Flipping his right hand over he checked his watch, the old
fashioned hand watch displayed the time as 3:04am. "Hmm time for me to make a move girl, maybe I'll bump into you tomorrow night." He stroked
her head once more as he stood up. Stretching himself as he stood Logan felt his back muscles grind slightly and one or two of the vertebre popped.
Really should be more careful with that landing he thought to himself. Clad in only light black trousers and black army boots, with varying
length black hair and an unshaven appearance, Logan gave the impression of a bum of sorts this however was far from the truth. Logan was in fact
one of the deadliest creatures on the planet, the best he is at what he does. His adamantium laced bones, heightened sense and healing factor meant
that he could achieve feats that most humans could never dream of and in his time had experienced more pain and suffering because of it. He felt
a twinge in his left calf as he set off towards the mansion, funny with his healing factor he still felt pain from an ill fated battle with magneto.
During a fight some years ago with Magneto, the master of magnetism had ripped Logans adamantium skeleton out of his body, peeled it from
his bones and then dragged it out of the pores in his skin, no pain before or after had ever compared to it, not even when the adamantium was
put on in the first place. Shortly after due to other events Logan turned feral, giving into the inner beast that he fought to keep down. He made a
recovery in time but his healing factor had been enhanced, reacting even quicker than before. Xavier had written in the Xavier Protocols – His
instructions on how to disable each member of the X-men should they turn rogue and pose a threat - that the only way to kill Logan would be
to decapitate him and move his head far enough away that the nerves and tissue couldn't regrow. So much had happened in recent years and it
was beginning to drain on Logan, so he began nightly vigils away from the mansion to try and lose some of the baggage.
After walking for a quarter of an hour he reached the perimeter of the Mansion, one of the lights in the west wing was on. Rogues not sleeping
again he thought, he grunted to himself and walked to the kitchen door, that light was on too. He opened the door silently and walked in without
making a sound, years of training had given him this advantageous ability. A familiar scent passed by him, one he hadn't smelt for a long time, Cable.
He sniffed the air determining where it was coming from, seemed to be the upper floor. Why's Cable turned up this late in the night. He made
his way upstairs slowly, pinpointing the scent, coming from the Professors room. Funny. He thought, he hadn't seen his light on. He carried on up
the stairs and crouched as he reached the landing, to his left at the end of the long corridor was Xavier's room, in front of him was another hallway
with Scott and Jeans room amongst others. The scent was definitely coming from Xavier's room. Why hadn't Jean woken up when he entered
the mansion? He is her son and a telepath. He crept towards the door and noted that light wasn't coming from underneath it, which meant Cable
was in there in the dark. Something didn't fit right, Logan open the door as gently as possible, he had learnt the hard way about barging into Xavier's
room and the headache hadn't gone away for weeks. As he entered he saw Xavier asleep in bed only visible due to the moon shining in through
the window and standing in front of the window was the tall solid shape of Cable holding a scimitar over Xavier's head...
