Bayville
(A while before)
"Well." Lucifer said slowly, vaguely aware that he shouldn't comment on how lousy the location was. "It is a powerful landscape. I suppose it is even inspiring." He thought about that for a moment and decided that, yes, it was very inspiring. "I am inspired. I have decided I like this Bavil."
"It isn't funny." Bobby whispered with a hint of something dark creeping into his voice.
"My people do not acknowledge humor." Lucifer intoned, vaguely miffed. "I am attempting to alleviate the tension. I have no idea what's gotten into you, but it is disturbing."
"Not as disturbing as finding a mountain where your home should be."
"I wouldn't know. My kind does not settle in droves." Lucifer's voice was icy enough to catch even Bobby's attention. "Now is not the time for nonsense. Set your emotions aside for now and consider what happened to the people within your city. Did they have time to escape?" Everyone's attention was on Lucifer now. "It is highly unlikely. Besides that, Valzinameku is still wandering around. How many other places has he deformed like this? We have no idea and we won't until you can detach yourself from this shock and get on to more important things. For instance, food, shelter and clothing more appropriate to the climate."
Logan growled softly. "He's got a point. Besides, I smell something familiar... and blood, too." Logan stalked forward, testing the air cautiously, not yet able to discern what he smelled. Behind him, Lucifer was coaxing the others away from hysteria.
"If there are people who survived, where would they go?" Lucifer asked. "Are there any large predators out here that may endanger us? Where do you suppose that came from? It looks recent." Logan had tuned Lucifer out, but the Vulgate's last question stirred something in the back of his mind. Logan turned around to see the Vulgate staring at a point just beyond where Logan was standing. The mutant turned back and instantly focused on the thing that had attracted Lucifer's attention- an arrow scratched in the trunk of a tree. Logan's mind churned as he tried to remember what the scent accompanying the blood could possibly be. Then, suddenly, it occurred to him. "Victor Creed." Logan whispered.
Kitty, who had wandered off to the side whimpered. "Oh my God, oh my God, tell me that's not what it looks like."
Logan whirled around, fully expecting to see a dead body. Instead it was a purple-ish black lump lying in the grass. It looked like a half deflated water balloon.
"What's it look like?" Lance asked as he picked it up. "A balloon?" He tossed from one hand to the other a few times for good measure and then hurled it against a tree. It exploded, as expected, but instead of with a clear rain of water, with a splash of pink chunks and more dark purple.
There was an extremely strained silence as Lance looked from the tree to his hand and back again.
"Gnnk. Shhh." Ororo choked out.
"Oh dear." Lucifer whispered. "That didn't help at all."
Jean grabbed onto the nearest person and clung like a bad rep. Pietro, who was the unfortunate soul, didn't even notice that his arm was about to fall off from lack of blood. He wasn't noticing anything except that vital organs lying around the place didn't even disturb him anymore.
"Oh sick, man. That was so gross. You just picked it up and hauled it at the tree. What if you get something... you know..." Bobby inched closer to one of the many pale globs of sundered flesh with a morbidly curious look on his face. Logan grabbed him by the back of the neck and steered him away. Remy was steadfastly ignoring the whole thing. Kitty and Wanda were huddled together casting glances from the ground to Lance to the tree and back.
Ororo delicately pried Jean-Paul off of her and took a few shuddering breaths. "Perhaps we should go now." She said as she took the frozen Lorna by the arm and steered her away.
"Good idea." Logan muttered as he collected Bobby and Alex and shoved them in her direction.
"We should look around." Lucifer said softly as the last of the children left with Remy, Mystique and Ororo.
"Just what I was thinking." Logan said. After a moment's thought, Lucifer fanned his wings out. The feathers became metal and his fingertips hardened. Logan nodded and prepared for a confrontation as well. They carefully searched the area, but, except for finding a scattering of more organs, they found nothing.
The two of them were on their way back to where Ororo was waiting with the other mutants when Logan stiffened. "We're being watched." He muttered, pretending to not notice the pair of eyes that bore into his back.
"Not by anything that could cause us significant harm." Lucifer returned in a cautious whisper.
Logan's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by 'significant harm'?"
"If they were to fall on us, I suppose it would hurt, but they seem to be content to rot where they are."
"Who?" Logan glanced around.
"Them." Lucifer pointed up to a wild looking tree some distance away from them. It was on the outskirts of what looked like an impenetrable forest.
"I don't see." Logan said while he strained his eyes. Lucifer walked up beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned in close to measure along Logan's line of sight.
"There." He pointed again and this time, Logan saw it far in the distance, past the tree, deeper in the forest.
A head.
Logan growled and started towards the forest, but Lucifer pulled him back. "Are you insane?" He demanded, but Logan wasn't hearing it. "Look again, and pay attention to detail. We should not go near that forest."
Lucifer was stronger than he looked. Since Logan made no headway against him and probably wouldn't unless he felt like losing an arm, he looked closer.
It wasn't just a head, it was half of a human body that was lodged up in the tree. Someone had stuffed it in a hole in the tree and literally left the body to rot. "I thought you Vulgates don't mess around with humor." Logan muttered.
Lucifer released his hold on Logan. "My funny bone broke and I have to wear a sarcasm splint. Watch carefully now or you'll miss it."
Logan focused on the body and saw the hole in the tree open a little more. A trio of branches wrapped around the body and pushed it further in the hole before they unwound and the hole closed down on it. "Talk about carnivorous plants..." Logan's eye twitched.
Lucifer, of course, didn't get it. "I don't know much about them actually. Hmmm, where is this Carnivorous?"
Logan looked at Lucifer and tried to gauge if the Vulgate's splint was in overdrive or if he was being serious.
"He made those." Logan opted to ignore Lucifer's comment.
"Yes. He did." Lucifer nodded, knowing exactly who Logan was talking about. "However, that does not explain how those... what did you call them? Balloons?"
"Oh no... those were not balloons." Logan shook his head viciously. "Those were hearts and things."
"Really?" Lucifer's interest piqued.
Logan frowned. "Yeah, and don't look so excited about it."
Lucifer crouched down to take a closer look at one of the purple masses on the ground. "I've never seen a human heart before."
"Most folks think that's a good thing." Logan kicked the organ, which was actually a lung. "Well it's obvious that whoever did this is gone."
"Of course. They headed in that direction." Lucifer pointed away from the forest.
Logan stared in the distance and then at Lucifer. "What?"
Lucifer shrugged and examined another organ. "The arrow was pointing that way as well."
Logan's eye twitch was back. "What? How do you know?"
"It was clearly-"
"Not the arrow." Logan growled.
Lucifer's claws retracted and his wings folded with a whisper. "Oh. I just assumed since the footprints-"
"Where?"
Lucifer clucked his tongue and shook his head disapprovingly. "Do you mind? I'm trying to complete a sentence."
"None of your bull, where?" Logan's adamantium claws slid in and out of his hands and he struggled to contain his frustration.
Lucifer, in an increasingly typical move, ignored Logan's overtly threatening attitude. "The problem with humans is that they get too emotional over things that emotion can only worsen," he said to himself.
For Logan, it was the last straw. "SHUT UP! WHERE! TELL ME NOW!"
Finally, Lucifer responded. "I will not tell you anything until you calm down." Logan did not take the comment well, but Lucifer stood- impassive and unconcerned- before Logan's fury. The mutant was so tense that he was actually trembling and his face was twisted into a menacing scowl. Lucifer sighed. "Between the two of us, we are doomed. Nine children, half are too frightened to do anything but panic, except for the fact that they are too tired to properly panic and they end up just standing there... Five adults to watch over them. The only one besides me who has a level head is just as tired and frightened as the children. Two of your party are former criminals who teamed up with you out of necessity... Logan, you and I are the only sources of sanity these people have now. I need not explain to you what this will do to the children. The least we can do is boost their confidence by being the rock they brace themselves on." Lucifer noted that Logan had stopped trembling. "Logan. It is a lot of responsibility. I do not have what it takes to connect with them. I need you as a medium. You have to find a balance. What good are you to me if you run off and throw a tantrum every time I refuse to tell you something that you think you need to know?" Lucifer's voice became soothing. "Trust me, if it's important, I shall know and if I know it will be hard for you, I shall work you up to a point where you can handle it."
"Is this one of those times?" Logan asked tiredly.
Lucifer sighed. "Yes. We should circle around the city for now and try to find a place to recover. I will go by air and find a building. You find a way to get everyone into the city. I will make sure the city is cleared."
Logan grunted and turned away.
"By the way," Lucifer spread his wings. "Stay away from any people you see wandering around here." Logan whirled around to see Lucifer already in the air. "Nothing is certain but what we bring with us."
Logan stood staring at the sky for a long time after Lucifer left, wondering what such a warning could possibly mean. Were there people still alive and moving around, or had Valzinameku set up a trap for any survivors? Logan looked back at the man-eating tree, which was in the middle of stuffing more of its victim into its trunk. At the rate the tree was eating, the body would be gone in a few hours.
All the way back to the rest of the X-Men, Logan worried. He found the rext of the mutants huddled together at the top of a slight rise. Logan stood with them silently for a moment, taking in the ring of mountains that surrounded what was once Bayville.
"Hey, Logan? Where's Lucifer?" Pietro asked in a solemn tone.
Logan fixed his attention on Quicksilver and saw the hopeful light shining behind his eyes. "He's," Logan's voice cracked as he realized what Pietro wanted to hear. "He's gone to find the others. And a place to stay." Logan thought his words sounded flat and fake, but Pietro gave a weary grin.
"Others? Todd? Todd's here?" Bobby butted in.
Logan looked at the ground. "We think so. Lucifer said to stay away from anyone you see wandering around here, though. Don't know what's goin' on so we might as well not fall into a trap."
"Alright!" Bobby was carrying the news to everyone else. "Lucifer's gone to find Todd! Maybe he knows what's going on."
"Oh yeah," Lorna taunted, face drawn and eyes weary. "If that's such good news, why isn't Logan happy too?"
"Lorna." Wanda reprimanded her, but the moment was lost.
Silence descended again. "L-Logan?" Jean asked timidly.
"We need to split into groups." He said after a moment. "We're looking for a way into the city. You guys are mutants too, right?" He asked Lorna and Alex.
Lorna sniffed. "Yep. My power is magnetism. Like Magneto. Alex can absorb sunlight and convert it to plasma blasts."
"Okay. Storm and Alex will be our beacons. No matter what, they have to stay in one piece. If anything goes wrong, they'll be our guide to you. That makes you two the dead weights. Don't waste your energy in a fight unless you absolutely have to. You just keep sending up signals." Everyone nodded their understanding. "Alright," Logan looked over the mutants. "Bobby, Lance, Raven, Wanda, Jean and the guy with the shades- you go with Ororo."
The teen snorted. "The name's Northstar, or if that's too hard for you, Jean-Paul."
Logan ignored the comment. "Make sure you don't lose those shades, Slim. I don't wanna confuse you with Pietro. The rest of you are with me. Once you find a way in, back away from it. Send a signal and we'll come as fast as we can."
"Likewise." Bobby said with a grin. "C'mon troops, you heard the man. March!" Logan smiled at Bobby's antics as the two groups parted ways. The moment etched itself into his mind: Bobby was prancing around the others until Mystique hit him over the head and threatened to skin him. Lance muttered that she didn't have anything to skin him with and Wanda suggesting Mystique form a crude knife from his bone fragments. Ororo and Jean turned once to wave goodbye and some of the kids waved back. Then it was over and Alex's group headed in the other direction seeking consolation in the fact that they still had Logan with them.
Some consolation that was, since Logan was just as confused and desperate as they were.