Disclaimer: Back there somewhere...anything X-Men isn't mine (much as I wish Wolverine could be mine, darn it!)...anything not X-Men IS mine, so keep your grubby mitts off 'em:)

Chapter 19

(Angela)

I have to give credit where credit is due. Cyclops might not like Logan very much and he was certainly pissed at me, but even he had to admit that an evil Logan wasn't something he wanted coming after us. He might not have personally approved of what I was planning to do (go in to the base and kill a bunch of people), but it was better than the alternative (Logan let loose on an unsuspecting world to kill a bunch of people). Since he wasn't coming with us, he volunteered to stay by the radio in case we needed anything. But he also insisted we needed more muscle on the team and would not agree to anything unless Colossus went with us. Fine, I could handle that. At least he's bulletproof in the literal sense and could probably bench press the jet when he's in his metal form.

Buzz was going to be in the control room with Cyclops, maintaining contact with the base mainframe and feeding us whatever pertinent information he could. He also had some of his hacker pals on standby to crash the system if we needed it to cause confusion. That's the one bad thing about relying on computers for everything. If they went to shit, you were fucked, simple as that. I could hardly wait to see what Buzz could do for the Danger Room.

I was too keyed up to be freaked out about the flying. If I have to do it again, I'm going to make sure Storm is flying the jet. Thanks to her ability, she made sure there was no turbulence or anything approaching bad weather the whole trip. Still, I didn't like looking out the front and seeing all that nothing, so I sat in the very back, as far away from that window as I could get and still be in the airplane. The others sensed that I was not in the mood for company and wisely stayed away. This was perfect, as it gave me time to strip away everything that was "Angela" and bring "Hellcat" back out in full force. It wasn't that difficult to accomplish, since I still had my rage from a few hours ago to pull from. I closed my eyes and focused on that rage, focused on my mission objective and I was once again a passenger in my own body. When I opened my eyes again, I saw everything through that red haze that took over my vision when the bloodlust was in control. I backed it off enough to remind myself who my teammates were.

When we were within fifteen minutes of landing, I called Rogue to the back. I told her to take what she needed to have my abilities for about an hour. She'd been learning some control over her ability, so she was able to gauge how long to hold on to accomplish what she needed. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes right before she touched me. She didn't hold on for very long, less than a minute I'm sure, but it was probably the most intense experience I'd had since the last time I died in the tank at Alkali Lake. When she let go, I slumped in my seat and gave her a weak smile. She didn't get my claws (bummer), but she did sense that she felt stronger and had an almost uncontrollable urge to hit things. Good enough.

After what felt like an eternity, we came on final approach to the island, which didn't have any name that Buzz had been able to find. He did confirm that Logan was there, they had him under restraint (never good) and they were currently prepping him for a procedure. He was unable to tell me what the procedure was, but I didn't need a genius like Buzz to tell me that it couldn't be good. Storm set the jet down like a butterfly landing on a rose; it was that soft. Less than a minute later, we were on land.

Colossus immediately went metal and Kitty was phased. Rogue was enjoying the world with her new eyes and ears, although she was still pretty desperate to hit things. We gathered under a fir tree so big the branches swept the ground for our final plans.

"Ok, here's the situation." I began. "I'm not Cyclops. I'm not going to tell you to just knock people out. If you have to break something, break it. If they have a weapon, immediately assume the worst and take them out by any means necessary, understood?"

"What if Logan is already too far gone for us to help?" Storm asked. I looked at her intently. "We don't know what they've already done to him."

"You leave him to me. I know him better than anybody, I can disable him." I think, I added to myself.

"I don't know how comfortable I am with that." She stated plainly.

"Then stay here, I don't care. I'm going in and if anyone here can't handle the mayhem, stay here. But if I give you an order, you follow it without hesitation. Hesitation gets people killed and no one gets left behind. Not on my watch."

"You say that a lot." Bedlam said. "Why?"

"It's not important. Let's move."

In truth, I didn't want to tell him. It was an agreement that Logan and I had made a long time ago. If one of us were disabled, the other would stay and make sure we both got out. I think it's because we had that primal attraction, but never really acted on it. It was our way of telling the other that we cared, without having to say it.

We moved as quietly as we could through the trees, Kitty scouting ahead and reporting to us via our earpieces. We were within a quarter mile of the base perimeter before encountering our first hint of security in the form of a laser motion sensor. Bedlam made quick work of that and we continued. A little while later, we came upon an actual live sentry. These people were either stoned or stupid, but he didn't seem to be expecting me, or else he wasn't expecting me in his area. Either way, his neck made a very satisfying crack when it snapped.

We finally came to the perimeter fence and you could hear the electricity humming through it from ten feet away. Bedlam once again made quick work of that, allowing us to get close enough for Colossus to just rip a huge chunk of it out and toss it away. Damn, if that boy was five years older and Logan never existed, I swear I'd take him for a ride.

We were approaching the base at the back where security is typically lighter. It's obvious the military believes all the war movies that get released, because they always expect the assault to come from the front. Idiots. I'm surprised they ever had anyone smart enough to come up with a way to train a monkey how not to fling poop, much less a pair of super killers like Logan and me. The back entrance only had four soldiers guarding it, but I wanted them out of the way. None of us had a ranged power except Storm.

"Storm, can you take those guys out?" I whispered.

"Sure, just give me a moment." She replied, her eyes going all over white as she called upon her power to control the weather. The wind immediately picked up. The soldiers didn't think anything of it, why would they? This was Hudson Bay and the weather usually sucked. It wasn't until a forked bolt of lightning hit two of them that they realized something was amiss. The remaining two immediately jumped back and started looking around.

"Colossus, your move." I whispered. "When they start shooting, we'll move in." I said to the rest. He immediately strode forward and the soldiers ordered him to stop, which he obviously didn't do. After ordering him again to no avail, they opened fire. As soon as I heard the first gunshot, I started running with Rogue hot on my heels,the rest following behind us.

The guards looked like every other base guard I'd ever seen, from the regulation haircut to the spit shined boots. I swear, they only really have one guy and they keep cloning him. Knowing the people I know, it could be true. I slid my claws out and engaged the guard on the left. I swiped at his face with my left, which he dodged but that was my intention. My right hand came up and I grabbed him by the balls, lifting him off his feet. Grabbing him by the throat, I picked him up and tossed him about eight feet. He landed hard, but not hard enough to hurt him. I closed the distance and pounced on him before he had a chance to get up, slashing his face and throat with my claws. It'll definitely have to be a closed casket for him. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Rogue kick her guy in the knee, bringing him down and then kick him in the face. As soon as he was down, she kept kicking him in the face and ribs until he stopped moving. I did notice he was still breathing, but at least he wouldn't be a bother to us.

"Shadowcat, forward recon." I whispered into my earpiece.

"Roger." Kitty replied and phased through the door. "Ok, there's a hall here, about ten feet long and I can hear voices at the end."

"Roger that. Hold position." I looked at the door and saw that it needed one of those key cards. "Bedlam, can you fry the door so it'll still open?"

"Sure can." He said and came forward. A moment later, a few sparks flew out of the lock and the door slid back a few inches. We entered cautiously and rejoined Kitty. I filtered through the voices I could hear for more information.

"…can't believe we got him back…"

"So, is it true he's a fucking killing machi…"

"Should be about ready to get him in the tank…"

"…lab four, in the lower level. It's the only place that can contain him…" Excellent.

"Shadowcat, we need a way downstairs." I whispered.

"I'll see what I can do." She walked down the corridor, peeking around the corner before moving on. I'm sure she was walking through walls as much as anything, but she came back a few moments later. "Found some stairs, there's about twenty people between us and them."

"No problem, let's roll."

I had Kitty take point this time. She's kind of little and doesn't even look threatening in an X-suit, so I was hoping to use that to throw off the opposition. We followed behind her but hung back as she rounded the corner.

"Hey little girl, you get lost?" I heard some smarmy bastard say.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to be downstairs in lab four."

I heard a gun cock. "Oh yeah, and why's that?"

I rushed around the corner. "Because you have something of mine and I want him back." I said as I launched myself at him. There were about ten people in this room, most of them armed. Colossus came around the corner and immediately went to the guys with the automatic weapons. Kitty simply walked through a guy and he fell twitching to the floor. Bedlam was doing much the same thing via touch to the guys he was engaging. Rogue beat them down. Not me. I was on that guy before he had time to put the slightest pressure on the trigger. I raked my claws down his scalp and used my feet to tear at his abdomen. As soon as I felt blood, I leapt over him and he turned to face me, again raising his gun. I lashed out with my right and raked my claws over his eyes. He fell to the ground screaming, out for the duration. I tore through at least three more in the same fashion and only stopped when I realized all the enemies were down or dead.

We then followed Kitty down another hallway, which let out into an antechamber. I didn't even try to be stealthy at this point, I'm sure the base had a silent alarm going and the troops would be here any second, so there was no time to waste. I ran full tilt into the room, assessing it quickly for the person most likely to be important. There was a blond woman in a lab coat with her back to me, so I launched myself at her, grabbing her around the neck and throwing her to the ground. It was Anissa.

"You fucking whore!" I screamed, jamming a knee into her gut. "I'm gonna kill you twice!"

"You and what army?" She asked, too smug for her own good.

"THAT army." I said and pointed, just as Colossus came in, grabbed a guy and threw him down the hallway. Her eyes widened. "You thought I'd only come with one or two people? You forget, this is what I do and I know what you fucks are capable of." I backhanded her, cracking her lip, then grabbed her by the throat and hauled her to her feet. "I'm gonna so love to hear you scream."

She at least had the intelligence to finally be scared as she looked around and saw that I'd come with a full team. She backed up a step but I reached out and grabbed her right arm, twisting it until I heard something crack. She let out a whimper, but that wasn't good enough for me. I released her arm and started slashing with my claws, opening huge gashes all over her torso. I don't know what this bitch was made of, but she still didn't scream. Finally, I slashed out with both hands on her face, ripping out one of her eyes. At last there was screaming and it was music to my ears. She fell to her knees and tried to scuttle away, but I kicked her in the face and she went down.

I grabbed her by her shirtfront and pulled her face close to mine. "If I had more time, I'd eviscerate you and play with your guts." I hissed. "This is too good for you, but I don't have time for more." She whimpered again, her remaining eye pleading with me, but I had no pity for this bitch. I slashed my claws across her throat and dropped her on the floor, spitting on her soon-to-be corpse. I turned around and saw that the rest of the people in this room were incapacitated in one way or another, but I could hear boots running our way. "Storm, Colossus, Bedlam, you stay here and guard the rear. Rogue, Kitty, with me." I turned and ran down the steps.

Whoever was in charge here obviously didn't think we'd make it this far. Then again, I'm sure they didn't expect me to have this much backup. I had a few bruises and a pretty nasty cut on my scalp that I didn't remember getting, but otherwise I was all right. Kitty was completely unscathed, but that was why I wanted her here. Rogue had a black eye and a split lip, but seemed to be in good shape otherwise. We came to the bottom of the steps and paused to listen for where we needed to go.

"…should have him there now…"

"I don't want to miss this, I hear they're going to…"

"…and just follow me for the REAL show."

We turned to the right, following those voices. I wasn't sure where lab four was, but I was sure that these people would lead us right to it. We met with no opposition on the way, which was a pity. My bloodlust was high and I still had people to kill. I could hear the sounds of battle behind me, coming from upstairs and I spared a quick thought of luck in their direction. We finally came to an area that looked more like a hospital, so we started scanning the doors for our destination. As luck would have it, someone came out of the very place we were looking for. He was too busy scribbling on a notepad and didn't notice us until it was too late. By the time he looked up, Rogue was there with a beautiful right cross, followed by a kick to his head as he fell. This was a girl after my own heart. Too bad I'm straight. We dragged him to the side and burst into the lab.

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AN: Sorry for the relative shortness of this chapter, but it's the second to last one, so I hope you'll all forgive me...:) Special thanks to the beta readers, Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel for their constant support and assistance...this story wouldn't be half as good without their input! Extra Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, it's you guys that make me believe this story isn't complete poo...and, as always, Super Swanky thanks to the readers (even if you don't review...but you should!)...it's because of you that there's a sequel:)