Disclaimer: Logan doesn't belong to me, which is a source of great frustration let me tell you...none of the other X-Men are mine either...Fox and Marvel own all of them...I'm just borrowing them for my own twisted pleasure...:) Angela, Buzz and a handful of other characters DO belong to me and they tend to get irate if other people touch them...so hands off...you don't want to piss Angela off...really...:)
AN: I'm going to let you all in on a little secret...:) The reason the sequel here was posted so fast is because it's technically done...however, just like with "Torn Asunder", I'm re-reading the whole thing and rewriting some of it as I go...so you still have to wait for the updates just like everyone else...:) So thanks for your patience and understanding...:)
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Chapter 2.
(Logan)
Morning came way too soon as far as I was concerned. The incessant beeping of the alarm was stabbing through my skull and I had to grit my teeth to resist the temptation to pop my claws and finish the damn thing off once and for all. I settled for the snooze alarm and rolled back over, sliding my arm around the woman beside me. She snuggled back into me, her hand sliding into mine. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I was enjoying the feeling of her in my arms, so warm, so beautiful and all mine. That thought still took me by surprise at times like this. I'd spent so much time alone that I still wasn't used to having anyone around to share things with. Yet here was this amazing woman who could have had any man just by looking at him and she gave her heart to me. It took my breath away to think about how lucky I was and I could only hope to be worthy of the treasure she'd entrusted to me.
The clock started in again with it's annoying screech and I groaned. Angela stirred at the sound. "Lover, if you don't turn that damn thing off, I'm going to kill it." She mumbled sleepily. I chuckled and hit the snooze again. "Mmm, that's better." She said, turning over and snuggling into my chest. My arms went around her instinctively, wanting to protect her even though she really didn't need it.
"We can't stay in bed all day, darlin'." I said. She answered me with a groan. "C'mon. We have a class in less than an hour."
"But I'm so comfy." She complained.
"So am I, but one of us has to be the responsible one and it looks like it's me today."
"Oh gods, we're doomed."
I growled with feigned menace and flipped her onto her back. I lowered my head and kissed her, which was a big mistake. She responded, wrapping her arms and legs around me and pulling me close. I growled again, no menace this time, but I managed to get myself under control and pulled away. "Don't start that now, we don't have time."
She pouted at me and it was unbearably cute. "You're no fun."
"Yes I am. But I promise to make it up to you later."
"You better." She replied, still pouting. I got up and made my way to the bathroom. I don't normally shower before teaching the defense classes, since I just end up all sweaty anyway. But unless I wanted a bunch of fourteen year olds taking the obvious cheap shot, I had to douse myself in some cold water first. By the time I was done, she was up and dressed in her normal black cargo pants and a tank top, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was gorgeous.
"I swear darlin', you could make a potato sack look good." I observed as I pulled on my own clothing.
"You, my dear, have a biased opinion." She replied, pulling on a pair of boots.
I snorted. "Not even close. Half the older kids are half in love with you, you know."
"Sucks to be them."
I shook my head and we headed to the kitchen to grab a quick bite before going to the Danger Room. We had our twelve to fourteen year olds this morning and they tended to be almost unnaturally hyper. I suspected they'd been getting into the coffee before our class and I vowed to get even with Chuck for ever scheduling us to teach a class this early. It was unholy.
We got on the elevator while still munching on our snacks, which was a bacon sandwich for me, but Angela was eating a bagel with cream cheese and jam, a combination that she insists tastes good but just looks nasty to me. Which is saying something, considering some of the places I've eaten in the past. The elevator door opened and we entered the polished steel corridor of the lower level. We made a quick stop into the security room to check the nightly logs, but there was nothing of interest. As we left, we ran into Buzz.
"Hey guys. 'Sup?" He greeted.
"Nada." Angela replied, licking jam off her fingers as she finished her bagel. "Got a class in a few minutes."
"Gotcha. Have any free time later?"
"Couple hours this afternoon, why?"
"I programmed a new scenario last night, wanted to test it out."
"Cool. We'll be there."
He walked off and we went down the Danger Room. For all his brilliance, Buzz was a man of few words. If he couldn't convey what he wanted in a few sentences, he figured it wasn't worth saying. I liked him, he reminded me of me.
We got to the Danger Room and stepped back as the doors opened. The kids were already bouncing off the walls and the din they were creating sounded more like forty kids than the fourteen we actually had. I gritted my teeth in annoyance. "All right!" I yelled. "You have so much energy to burn, I want ten laps right now. Go!"
They didn't need to be told twice, even though they groaned. I knew they hated the laps, but it was part of their training and conditioning. Besides, I had to teach them at the time of day I would have much preferred to be doing my own morning run with Angela, so it was fitting as far as I was concerned. We watched as the kids circled the room, noting who was giving their all and who was hanging back. The stragglers would be the first ones up, a fact that should have been obvious to them by now, but there's always one or two in every class who feel like they can slack off and get away with doing less. I'm pretty sure they still had trouble believing that everything they did in here might save their lives someday. It was my job to make sure they left this school with that disbelief thoroughly eradicated.
Once the laps were finished and they caught their breath, Angela ran them through a tai chi kata before pairing them off to review what they'd learned in their last class. The stragglers were paired with the ones who'd been at the top of the class since the beginning, a little extra reinforcement that slacking wasn't tolerated in this classroom. When we were satisfied that they remembered the last lesson, we called up our slackers to begin the lesson for the day.
One of our slackers was Julian Keller, who was a very powerful telekinetic. Unlike Jean, he didn't have any telepathy, but he could generate an impressive force barrier and even fly to some extent. He'd also had some previous martial arts training and I'm pretty sure that was part of the problem. Every kid with year of karate from the local YMCA that came in here usually thought they knew enough to get by and he was no exception. Angela planned to squash that notion in the only way she knew how, kicking his ass.
The lesson for the day was improvisation. They'd all learned enough to get by pretty good, but they were falling into patterns of "punch here, block there" and they needed to be able to mix it up a bit. Angela squared off with him and told him to attack. He hesitated for a bare second, which was all she needed for an opening. She lunged forward and threw a rapid series of punches and kicks, forcing him into a pure defense mode. I knew she was attacking at way under full strength, but it probably didn't look like it to the kids and definitely not to Julian. I, on the other hand, could see dozens of openings she was giving him, but he failed to see them. She finally landed him flat on his back with a beautiful sweep to his legs and pounced on him, her knee in his chest and her hand at his throat.
"Julian, you're dead. Why?" She asked, her expression calm.
"You told me to attack but then you attacked me before…"
"NO!" She cut him off forcefully. "You're dead because you hesitated. Why did you do that?"
"Well, I was deciding what to do…"
"WRONG AGAIN!" She pushed herself to a standing position and gave him a hand up. "If I was a real enemy, you wouldn't have time to 'decide what to do'. You just have to do it. You've been in this class for how many weeks now? Attacking your enemy should be second nature by now."
"But Miss Rex…"
"I don't want excuses, I want results." She squared off with him again. "Now, attack me."
To his credit, he did. We didn't wear padding in these classes, since we'll heal from just about anything. The kids wore some protective gear, just enough that we wouldn't hurt them, but not so much that they lost mobility. He came at her with a well-placed series of punches, but she blocked every one. He stepped back a bit, circling her in a half-crouch before going back in with more punches and some kicks. He landed nothing. His frustration grew and his attacks were getting messier until she took advantage of a wildly thrown roundhouse kick and threw him on his back again. She was again on his chest, hand at his throat.
"You're dead again. Why?"
"You know, this isn't fair. You're a trained assassin! How can I beat that? I'm just a kid."
She stood up and helped him up again. "You can, believe me. But your problem is that you're not improvising. You're throwing every punch, every kick, in the order we've taught them to you. You're being lazy and I won't have it anymore. Five laps, right now. GO!"
He sighed, but took off at a jog. She shook her head and turned back to the class, calling up our other "problem child". Josh Foley had come to us through the underground and with one of the most useful powers we'd come across. His ability was manipulating biological material to heal himself, but unlike my healing factor, he could also heal others. The staff had speculated that he could probably also use it to hurt people, but none of us were willing to explore that possibility just yet. We also didn't know what the upper limit was to his power, if he could reattach limbs or anything like that, but at least the infirmary wasn't flooded with all the cuts and scrapes the kids seemed to collect on a daily basis. They just went to him.
Josh's problem stemmed from a desire to not hurt people. As a healer, it made perfect sense. As a mutant who might come across someone who wanted to hurt him, it was suicidal. I'd heard him grumbling about not wanting to be an X-Man anyway, so why did he need to learn all this fighting, but nothing Angela or I could say to him made him understand. He reluctantly stood up and squared off with her and she immediately attacked.
He didn't do too badly at defending himself, but he also never tried to hit her, not once. As with Julian, she eventually had him flat on his back. "Josh, what have we told you?" She asked him, scowling.
"I know, Miss Rex! But I don't see why I'll need all this! I want to help people!" He complained as she stood and helped him up.
"And that's an admirable thing. But you're here to learn how to protect yourself and others. Wouldn't it be better to keep people from getting hurt in the first place, rather than patching them up after they've been shot or stabbed? Or worse?"
"Well, yeah. But I just don't like it!"
"No one's saying you have to enjoy beating people up. It's what we call a necessary evil. You do it when there's no other choice, because the person in front of you won't hesitate to do the same to you. Five laps, now."
He hung his head and went off to join Julian. We paired off the rest of the kids and watched as they sparred, giving suggestions to those who tended to fall back into patterns and complimenting the ones who improvised with no problems. Half an hour later, we had them go through their cool down routine and sent them on their way.
When the last one had left, Angela slid down the wall and sat with her head on her knees. I joined her. "Tough class." She said, not looking up.
"Ah, they'll get it sooner or later darlin'." I replied. "They have good teachers."
"Yeah, I suppose." She took her hair out of the ponytail and shook it. It had grown out some and it reached just past her shoulders. She'd also colored it back to her natural chocolate brown and she sported bright pink streaks in it (this week, at least). "I keep thinking about what Julian said. They are just kids, Logan. Maybe we're being too hard on them."
"No such thing. With the way the anti-mutant groups are stirrin' shit up out there, we can't be too hard on them."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She ran her fingers through her hair and stood up. "I'm for a shower. And I believe this qualifies as 'later', lover." She winked seductively and started to slink towards the door.
She didn't have to ask me twice.
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The rest of the day went relatively smooth, with only one mishap during a training session with the Beta team. It was nothing major, really. Bobby had just iced a patch of "ground" and Jubilee slipped on it, twisting her ankle pretty hard. We sent her to the infirmary, but she'd probably just go find Josh eventually to fix it up for her. We almost didn't need Dr. Endicott to come out anymore.
Darlene Endicott was an old friend of Chuck's from college. She wasn't a mutant, but she was fierce in her belief that when the Constitution was written, they meant it when they said "All men are created equal". She was very outspoken when it came to mutant rights and could debate anyone under the table. I liked her. I was on my way to see her, answering a note I found taped to the bedroom door when Angela and I finished with our shower.
"Now, stay off that ankle for at least a week, you hear me?" She was saying to Jubilee when I walked in. "And don't go to Josh! You might find yourself in a place where he isn't and then where will you be?"
"Yes, Doctor." Jubilee replied, though I doubted she'd listen. "Can I go now?"
"Yes, and use the crutches!" I moved aside to let her pass and the doctor smiled when she saw me. "Logan! I might have some good news for you."
"Does it have anythin' to do with you shovin' things up my nose again? Cuz that wasn't good in my book." I replied.
She chuckled. "Well, unfortunately yes, it does." I scowled at her. "I have a colleague who's a neurosurgeon. He's working in Africa right now, but he'll be back in about a month and wants to look at you."
"Why do I get the feelin' that he's gonna do more than shove somethin' up my nose?"
"He's done some work with cranial implants to help blindness, Tourette's and other neurological disorders. He wants to have a look and see if he can remove your implant without doing too much damage."
"I already told you, doc. I can heal anythin'. I've been shot in the head and I'm still here."
"I understand that. But as a doctor, it goes against my nature to just yank that thing out and let your nature fix it over time. If I can make it cleaner, then that's what I'll do."
"Fine, doc. I've waited this long, what's another month?"
"Hey, just be glad it isn't a digestive implant. We'd have to go in through your rectum." She deadpanned.
"You wouldn't." I said evenly.
She smirked and I knew she was joking. I still scowled at her as I left the infirmary, though I could hear her laughing at her own joke when I was halfway down the hall. Women.
I had just boarded the elevator when I heard Chuck's voice in my head. 'Logan, can you and Angela please come to my office?'
'Sure Chuck. Be right there.' There went my plans to go have a smoke. I turned towards his office instead of the patio when the elevator reached the ground floor. I didn't get a chance to knock when his voice called out in greeting. I pushed the door open and entered.
Angela was already there, wearing a variation of her earlier outfit, this time green pants and a white tank. She was still gorgeous. I sat next to her on the sofa. "Whattaya need, Chuck?" I asked.
"I've been tracking a mutant through Quebec for the past week. I want you and Angela to try and find him."
"Why us?" Angela asked. "We have classes to teach, training for both X teams and gods only know what else."
"I understand you don't want to shirk your responsibilities, but Piotr can take over the defense classes for the older children and Bobby has offered to teach the younger ones. As for why I want to send you two." He took a deep breath and steepled his hands in front of him. "The mutant seems to be heading straight here."
"Is he from the underground?" I asked, confused.
"I don't believe so. By backtracking his most likely starting point, it seems to be very close to the base you were taken to a few weeks ago."
"You think he's an escapee." I stated.
"I'm not clear on that part. Angela did a fairly good job of eliminating those who were in charge there. However, we cannot be certain that this mutant wasn't sent to track you down. There is something else as well."
"And what might that be?"
"From what I've been able to see, he seems to be another feral mutant, like yourselves. I see no alternative but send the two of you to intercept him. If he's not a threat, I know you'll bring him back here as quickly as possible. If he does pose a threat…" He trailed off, but we knew where he was going with that.
"Then you know that we're probably the only ones who can handle it." Angela finished. She looked at me and I knew what she was thinking. Stryker must have had more like us. The real question now was, how many more? She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "All right, we'll go. When do you want us to leave?"
"First thing in the morning. And I think it would be best if you didn't go by jet. I'll arrange a suitable vehicle and supplies for you. Much of the area he's confined himself to is remote at best, so you'll probably have to rough it. He's been avoiding more populated areas on purpose."
"Joy, just what I always wanted. Camping in the cold." Angela grumbled.
"Hey, Quebec isn't all arctic, you know." I countered. "Some of it's like it is around here."
"Yeah, but do you think we'll be lucky enough to find him where it's not already winter? It's almost October, you know."
"Not that close, darlin'. You've gotten soft, livin' in the city all this time." I teased. "I seem to remember a mission we did in Romania, about a month before we escaped. It was a lot colder there if I recall."
She shivered. "Don't remind me." She stood up and I followed suit. "Well Professor, looks like we have some packing to do. We'll be ready in the morning."
"Thank you both. Try to bring him back, please. I don't want either one of you getting hurt."
We both snorted at that and left the office. We walked down the hallway a bit before she turned to me. "Logan, you're thinking this mutant…he's like us, isn't he? One of Stryker's 'pets'?" I clenched my jaw and nodded. She sighed. "I don't fucking believe this. He's dead, you left him there at Alkali Lake to die. Why is he still haunting us?"
"I don't know, darlin'. I wish I did, but I don't." I turned and made my way through the lounge to the patio, Angela right behind me. I took out a cigar and lit it, taking a couple long puffs before sitting down on a bench. "I swore, a long time ago, I was gonna find every one of the bastards that did this to me…to us." I said, looking over the grounds. "I thought that when Stryker died, that would be the end it. Cut off the head and the snake dies, you know?"
"Yeah, I do." She replied, lighting a cigarette. "But this isn't a snake, is it? It's a hydra. Cut off a head and before you can get to the rest, it grows back." She sighed and took a drag off her smoke. "How deep do you think it goes, really?"
"I don't know, but I have a bad feelin' that it's worse than we ever thought." I flicked the ash from my cigar and watched it blow away in the breeze. "I'm afraid it might go all the way to the top."
"And that's a place even we don't dare to go."
"Yeah." We sat there for a long time, not looking at each other, not speaking. What could we say? That the leaders of our countries had known what was going on the whole time and turned a blind eye? Or worse, that those people had always operated so far under the radar that no one with the power stop them had known there was something to stop? Either way, I knew neither one of us would rest well that night.
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AN Part 2: I wanted to take the opportunity to thank reeltreble1031, MissLoverGirl and Dee (MidLifeCrisis) for being the first to review...I'd also like to send a thank you and a hug to Turiel Tincdaniel for her pseudo-review and for being the best beta reader EVER...as always, thanks to DBK(tm) for his continuing support, which really translates to being a loveable pain in the ass, but also for being my resident X-Expert and helping me with keeping things at least close to how they should be...lastly, I want to thank the readers for giving my stories a chance...now for the roughly 90 percentof you who didn't review after reading, remember this...it only takes a few seconds to click the "submit review" button and type something, ANYTHING, to let me know what you think...:)
So, review already! Remember, good reviews get at least 10 minutes of happy dancing...flames will be met with bad campfire songs and lame ghost stories...:)