Chapter 10

Victor led the children through the corridors as Kurt continued popping in and out, taking groups of four at a time. When Kurt popped back in next to Vic this time, he could see that the man was becoming exhausted. "Nightcrawler, save your energy. Lead the children out, I'm going to go back and see what's taking Wolverine so long. I have a feeling he's run into trouble."

Kurt nodded. "Sei vorsichtig, mein Freund. Wir sehen uns im Flugzeug." (Be careful, my friend. See you at the plane.)

Victor rushed through the corridors and saw Logan emerging through the door where they had found the children. He smiled widely at seeing a happy Luke in his brother's arms. "You got your cub! Is he alright?" He gave a hard hug to Logan and a gentle squeeze to Luke's foot, making the tyke giggle.

"I think so, but I'll have Dr. Hank give him a good checking over when we get back to make sure. You won't believe what I found out!"

Before Logan could explain, alarms began blaring as Luke started to scream and cry from the noise. The brothers could hear the distant water rushing, and from the sound, it was getting closer. Their eyes grew wide as they looked at each other before going into a full run.

As they ran, Victor pulled his radio from his pocket. "Storm! What are the alarms about? We can hear water down here!"

"Are the children out?" Storm's voice called back

"Yeah. Nightcrawler took them to the plane. What the hell is going on?" Vic demanded again.

"The tunnels are flooding. This entire facility will be under water within 15 minutes!"

The brothers startled and stopped in their tracks when Kurt appeared in front of them. "Fuck man! Don't do that!" Victor bellowed out as he stopped himself from attacking the sudden appearance.

"Sorry. I heard the alarms and thought you might need help." Kurt looked at him with apologetic eyes.

Logan grabbed the radio. "Storm, where are you? Can you make it out?"

Storm's voice crackled back. "We just got into the main computer room. We still need to copy the files."

"How long will that take?" Logan couldn't hide his concern.

"Beast estimates about 10 minutes."

Victor shook his head. "That's cutting it too close. Abandon the files and get back to the plane, we need to get out of here."

Beast's voice came back to them this time. "We need to get these files, I'm seeing evidence of a cloning process here. We need to know exactly what these people were doing, and how far into their research they've gotten. Captain, if it comes down to it, you can fly the plane out of here and get the children back to their families."

Victor scoffed. "The Blackhawk is very different from a Raptor. I don't think I could get her off the ground, let alone landing without major damage. We need you and Storm to pilot her."

"Then we are at an impasse. We need these files."

Vic nodded. "Me and Ji- Wolverine are on our way."

Logan handed Luke off to Kurt. "Get my boy back to the plane. No matter what, make damn sure he gets back to Marie, make sure all those kids get home safe."

Logan ran a hand over Luke's hair giving him a kiss to the top of his head. "Daddy will see you soon. Be a big, brave boy now."

Kurt disappeared with Luke as Vic and Logan began to make their way to the main computer room. As they headed to the upper levels, Logan had to ask. "So, uh, since when did you learn how to fly a plane?"

Victor snorted a laugh. "Lived a long time, learned lots of things. Besides, I wouldn't be a good weapons and defense researcher if I didn't know how to operate the equipment I'm upgrading, now would I?"

Logan shook his head. "We really need to have a long talk about what you do, bro."

Grinning, Victor clasped him on the shoulder. "Sure, I'll tell you everything that's not classified...later."

~ooOoo~

The pair were stunned when they rounded the corner. Obviously, a hell of a battle happened here. They scanned the men laying on the floor, mostly unconscious, but a few wouldn't be waking up again. "This explains why we didn't run into too much resistance on the lower levels." Victor noted.

Logan nodded. "They must have been ordered here to protect the computer room." He noticed the scorch marks on the walls and gave Victor a questioning look.

"Looks like Storm's handiwork." Vic chuckled. "And judging from the clean cuts of severed limbs and heads...Deadpool wasn't in the mood to play around."

"And the cracks and holes in the plaster?" Logan raised a brow.

"Definitely Beast. The door too." Victor pointed to the door ripped from the hinges and tossed to the side.

"Remind me not to piss these people off." Logan muttered.

Vic chuckled. "I already told you that, but ok. Don't piss these people off."

Just as Logan walked through the door, he found the business end of a katana blade across his throat. "Whoa. It's just us, asshole."

"Sorry...I heard voices and thought more guards were coming." Deadpool returned the sword to its sheath on his back. "Storm and Beast are in the other room getting the files downloaded as fast as they can. Did you find Luke?"

"Yeah, Nightcrawler took him back to the plane, how much longer to get those files?"

Wade shrugged. "Computers aren't my thing, other than surfing the net."

Vic nodded. "Maybe I can help." He pushed past the two men and headed into the other room.

When he saw the look on Hank's face, he knew it was bad news. "What's wrong?"

Hank shook his head. "There's some files here that's encrypted. I can't seem to break the codes, but they must be important to have this much security."

Vic pushed Hank out of the way to take a look. "I've seen this type of encryption before. We need to hurry, sounds like the water is getting closer."

He pulled a device from a pocket and inserted it into a slot on the side of the computer, then began typing. "What's that?" Logan asked.

"Descrambler, it's used to decrypt computer codes. Should only take a few seconds." Vic muttered.

Ororo shot Vic a look. "You've had that in your pocket this entire time? Don't you think it would have been helpful for me and Beast to have used it?"

"Military issue. It's keyed to my command codes, which I can't give to you." He explained as the device unlocked the last of the encryption codes, and the files began downloading.

There were several shots and the computer began to spark as the bullets hit it. Beast quickly pulled out the flash drive to prevent it from being damaged as the rest spun around to see where the shots came from.

Victor's jaw dropped when he saw the man lowering the pistol. "Bill? What the hell are you doing here? What's going on?"

"Major Creed? Why are you dressed in that getup? Whose orders are you under for this operation?"

"It's captain now, and I'm on contract. What is the biochemistry department doing in this facility?"

"You know this guy?" Logan questioned.

"Major William Stryker. He's in charge of the biochemistry R and D." Wade answered.

Stryker looked the red-suited man up and down. "I've seen you in the news. Hanging around murders...Captain? That could put a big, black spot on your shinny record, you know." He turned back to Wade. "Who are you? How do you know me?"

Wade pulled his mask off. "Because I'm the one you didn't kill with your experiments. Just fucked me up a little...didn't ya?"

Stryker smirked. "Wade Wilson. As I live and breathe. Who would have ever guessed it was you under that mask? You think I fucked you up? I cured your cancer, made you stronger, better, invincible. I enhanced your natural mutant abilities and gave you new ones. You should be thanking me for that."

"You didn't cure anything, moron! I still got the cancer and my body fights it everyday to keep me alive!"

"If it wasn't for the major's...excuse me...captain's healing ability, you would have died years ago. I'd call that a cure."

Logan rolled his eyes. "If we're done with this little family reunion, wanna tell us what's going on here? Is this some sort of military operation?"

Stryker looked between him and Victor. "I left the military 3 years ago, this is a private endeavor. I see a slight resemblance between the two of you. Is there a family relation?"

Logan's eyes grew a deep amber, deeper than Vic had ever seen in his lifetime, and dark clouds began to swirl within Logan's eyes. "YOU!" He spat out as his adamantium claws slowly skeeted out.

Victor took a step to the side. "Storm...you and the rest...run." He slowly and quietly muttered to her.

Ororo nodded then motioned to Hank and Wade. Wade shook his head. "I got beef with this one too. I want my pound of flesh."

Wolverine let out a thunderous roar, hard enough to shake the walls...or so it appeared. Wade gulped. "Ok...you can have him. You're the king. Just give him a good kick in the sack for me." He quickly proclaimed as he was being shoved out by Vic and Hank, with Storm hot on their heels.

"You're the one who hurt my cub? Big mistake, bub." Wolverine slowly grinded out.

Stryker's eyes grew wide at seeing the claws. "So...Creed found someone with the genetic marker. If I had known that the baby might have the marker as well...I might have paid more attention to it."

Logan's eyes grew wide. What exactly was he doing to these children? Why is his DNA so important? At the moment, he wasn't in the mood for chit-chat. He let out another growl as he began his advance. Before he could get in a blow, Stryker quickly raised his pistol and a bullet burrowed deep into Logan's skull.

~ooOoo~

The group ran down the corridor as the sound of rushing water was getting louder. Storm pulled the radio from her pocket. "Nightcrawler! We're on the third level and won't make it out in time. We need-"

"My help?" Kurt grinned as he popped in next to them, wrapping his arms around the group before popping out again.

At the plane, Kurt questioned. "Where's Logan?"

"He'll be fine." Vic dismissed the missing man with a wave of the hand. "Let's get this bird fired up and ready to move out when he gets here."

They all clambered in as Storm and Beast took their places up front, just as Wade pointed out the window. "Hey guys! This doesn't look too good."

They could see cracks forming in the dam, water beginning to spray out. "I think I'll go check on our lost sheep." Kurt muttered, disappearing before anyone could stop him.