"Oh, god!" Jean turned away from the sight advancing up the corridor, and shuddered on Peter's shoulder. Peter gawked, speechless.
The little girl that had been taken from the cell across the corridor no more than an hour earlier was being returned on her back, in far worse condition. Still in a chained collar and manacles, the guard dragged her along the floor by the chains on her hands and neck, while her head hung slackly backwards and her hair splayed upside down, some areas on her forehead matted and sticky with darkened blood. Her oversized shirt was positively shredded, and yellowing guaze could be seen loosely swathed around her right shoulder and across her mid-section.
"Stand aside," the guard said firmly to the teenager in the opposite cell. "No powers. No movement." The girl stepped to the wall, obeying.
The guard de-shielded the cell and dragged the lifeless child in. He dumped her unceremoniously near the cot on the far wall, and unhooked the chains and collar. He stood, coughed, spat on the floor at the teenager's feet, and left purposefully, reinforcing the shield on his way.
"Tell me that I can move," the teenager said to Peter.
"You can move," Peter responded helplessly.
"Thanks," the girl said, stepping away from the cell wall. "That's the thing about these dumb obedience serums, sometimes the guards forget to revoke their orders when they leave and then you have to ask…heh, or order someone else to---what?"
Jean had a pinched, incredulous look on her face.
"We're such idiots…" she breathed.
The remaining masked figures were easily stunned with two precise shots from Cyclops. The bodyguards had guns, but Cyclops was fast, and Wolverine was faster. One bodyguard lost a hand to Wolverine's adamantium temper, but a stunning optic blast had silenced him before his wails could be heard through the pit door.
Cyclops opened his mouth to berate Wolverine's suddenly all-too-merciless tactics, but at that moment Teake stepped back in from the noise of the pit spectators, who had begun to dissipate.
"What in the bloody hell--" Teake gaped at the dim room awash in sprawling bodies before him. "Hey!" he spotted Wolverine, who was beginning to advance dangerously, the snarl on his face completely devoid of empathy. "You---you---!"
"Judgment day, pal," Wolverine growled.
"No--!" Scott began to cry out, but the moment Wolverine leapt at Teake, Jean's voice came crashing clearly into Scott's mind like a out-of-control driver.
Scott! Her voice was urgent, agitated. We need to get out of here NOW.
It was another fifteen minutes before Scott and Logan, navigated by Jean's mental direction, found their way to the cell corridor where they were imprisoned. Scott scanned the green, glowing force shield behind which Peter and Jean were standing.
"You've got to get us out of here!" Jean was screaming hysterically. "These people are madmen! Absolute barbarians! The guards--"
"Stand back," Scott interrupted uncertainly, touching his finger to his optic visor and aiming for the ceiling, the apparent source of the shield wall. In the cell, Jean and Peter immediately obeyed, but at that moment a blast sounded nearby and sparks sizzled out of the wall, where Wolverine had driven his claws directly into the shield controls. The force field instantly evaporated, and Wolverine quickly retracted his claws. A small wisp of smoke curled up from his hair, which seemed to stand more on end than usual.
Scott turned and stared at Wolverine. "Happy Fourth of July," Logan muttered.
"Jesus, Jean…what happened to your cheek?" Scott asked, but Jean didn't seem to even hear him.
"Oh god Scott, we've got to get them out!" she cried, rushing from her cell and gesturing wildly at the cell on the opposite side. "You wouldn't believe what they've done to that kid, we've got to get them out of here, before they--!"
"Oh, jeez," Scott responded faintly as he glanced into the cell at the immobile child on the floor. "Who're you?" he asked the teenager.
"Anne," she replied, "I swear to God I never meant to do any of the shit I done, it was all the obedience serum--!"
"The what?" Wolverine paused, staring at the girl on the floor. "Hey, wait a minute, that's the preschooler that crackhead Teake unleashed on me! She nearly killed me!"
"You what!" Jean shouted.
"Keep your claws in this time, Wolverine." Scott took a step back and shot an optic blast at the controls on the wall next to the cell. The shield vanished and the teenager stepped out halfway. "Teake is gonna blow his top, we have to get outta here…"
"Teake doesn't have no more top to blow, kid," Wolverine said vaguely, still staring at the figure on the cell floor. "But I agree with the second idea."
Peter was already striding forward into the cell, where he knelt over the girl and scooped her up. The child's head rolled limply backward and her right arm flopped lifelessly in the air.
Peter turned abruptly and declared, "Let's go."
