It was 11:15 when Rogue left the mall; she had been out to pick up a new bathing suit for the beach trip she and her friends were planning. Bobby, of course, would be there, and she wanted to look nice. She had actually bought four new suits; it was a two for one sale.

Well, being at the mall Rogue couldn't resist buying a bit more than she need and ended up leaving with four bags full of two-pieces, tank tops, short shorts, skirts, and six pairs of sandals. After all, she would be out in the sun a lot.

They would be gone for two weeks thanks to Storm letting them take a vacation from the X-Men world.

Bobby, Rogue, Jubilee, Pyro, and Pyslocke were planning on going from the busy city to the coast side then heading over to the Disney World theme park and resort. Hey, they might be teenagers but they were entitled to some fun.

She thought about all this as she walked to her car at the far end of the drive, but had a strange feeling, was she being followed?

Rogue ignored it; it was her mind, playing tricks on her, making an illusion of sounds and senses. She started walking quicker, but she could hear footsteps following her, they became louder and clearer.

Rogue sped up, walking faster and faster till she was running as fast as she could through dark streets.

However, she was not fast enough, someone grabbed her and in a second, she was being slammed against the side of a car. She only had a second to see his face but the man holding her looked to be about twenty.

"Hey, your Iceman's girl right?" he turned her over so she faced him and fear rose within her. Rogue nodded.

"Who-who are you?" Rogue stuttered.

"Me? I am Jamie Madrox; they call me Multiple Man, part of the Brotherhood. But I have orders from someone to do this."

"I wonder if they'll ever find your body. Poor Iceman, I can't imagine what he'll go through when he finds out his angel is dead."

He grabbed her arm and then pulled a small needle out of his pocket.

"Now, this is going to put a stop to your powers for a full 48 hours, and when that time is up, the poison will have set in.

Rogue concentrated as hard as she could; her powers would have to save her now. However, they were not working. She thought and thought hard but nothing was happening, what was it, what was wrong?

Suddenly he punched her, hard in the stomach. She doubled over out of breath. He grabbed her face and punched her several times until blood dripped between his fingertips. Tears fell down her face as her held against a wall and attempted to take of her jeans but at this point Rogue began to fight back.

She turned around and slapped him with all of her strength. Her powers were not working but she would still fight. Only hitting him did not work well. He pushed against the wall and proceeded to punch everything he could reach.

He dropped her and kicked her hard, repeatedly. Then, finally, he stopped. She was on the ground, breathing hard and scared to death.

She had never been this scared before. Not even in fights. Was she about to die?"

Nevertheless, she no more time for such thoughts after Madrox injected the needle and side effects, or was it poison? Whatever it was started to affect her.

Her whole body started to shake, she felt cold and numb. Rogue collapsed.

Why did I take this job again, I am not her errand boy! Thought Logan as he walked down busy city sidewalks. It was just getting to be the time of night when it got crowded, and he had the worst of it since he was right up near the mall. Logan Storm Colossus Jean and a few other teachers had decided to spend the night watching horror movies and Logan had been sent out by a smirking Storm to get movie refreshments. Just his luck.

It was loud, busy, and chaotic as it always was this time in California and it drove Logan crazy. He was not in the mood for the noise and city hustle bustle but really did not have choice.

When Strom said do this she meant do this. Wolverine turned up a street and, wait, was that, he hoped not but it was. He saw Rogue's car. That was it all right. An 02 Nissan Fairladay 350Z, there was simply no denying it.

She should have been back hours ago, why was her car still in the parking lot of the mall. That girl was going to get such a telling off when he found her. Detention, this was a sure fire detention.

But Rogue wasn't in the car and the mall was closing so she wasn't inside either. Where was she, was she alright, had something happened?

Wolverine took something that resembled a cell phone out his pocket. Everyone at the mansion had one of these, they were special cell phone's that listed every mutant at Xavier's school be it teacher, student or any other mutant in the program.

He found Rogue's name and located her. She was only a block from here but was not answering her phone.

Logan continued to follow Rogue's signal and was led into an alley, where it was dark, where it was creepy, and where he found Rogue's body, laying lifeless on the ground.

He shook her slightly.

"Wake up Rogue, be alive, be alive, be alive, because you can't be dead, we will have problems if you are dead."

Logan told himself he was so worried because Bobby might do something stupid if he found out she was hurt, but the real reason was, well, Rogue was like a daughter to him, they were close and he was protective of her.

When Rogue did not awaken Logan called Storm, she always had a plan.

The phone rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. "PICK UP ALREADY!"

"Hello-whoa, Logan? Why are you yelling at me, where are you, you have been gone for hours and it shouldn't take hours to go to Wal-Mart."

"Listen, I was heading up near the mall and I found Rogue. I think she's hurt, bad, because she's not waking up."

"DON"T CALL ME CALL 911!"

"Don't yell at me!"

"Look, this conversation is not going to help Rogue. Call 911, the others and I will meet you at the hospital. Okay?"

"Yeah, bye."