Chapter 8 - Muzzled
When the alert had gone out from Muir Island, Logan had stayed in Westchester with Kate and Jubilee and the junior squad members that were actually living in Westchester, in case anything came up on the home front while the rest of the team was gone.
Which ended up being a good thing, because around the same time that Scott and his team arrived at Muir Island, the alarms went off to indicate a perimeter breach.
"It's just that kind of a day, apparently," Kate said as she shouldered her quiver, already headed down the hall, while Jubilee directed the students toward the tunnels under the school.
"Never rains but it pours, right?" Gerry replied, though when he tried to calm down a couple kids with some pheromones, he frowned. "Dampener," he said. "I can't use my powers."
"Must be a field," Kate said with a nod. "You still have your bow?"
"Like Dad would let me leave without it," Gerry shot back, reaching for the retractable weapon as Kate tossed him a quiver and the two of them headed for the exits, picking up Elin along the way as the young woman looked ready for a fight.
Logan had already slipped outside and was watching for wherever the attack was bound to come in from, not overly concerned about the kids getting out, since even though they'd managed to get around the outermost perimeter without setting off the alarms, the second line still gave them enough time to get the students out.
He just wasn't prepared for the sheer influx that he was seeing - or the fact that he couldn't count the carriers, since they were cloaked. He didn't even think about it when he hit his comm for the others. "Too many to count." was all that he gave them before he dove into the fight, though that … wasn't what he'd expected either.
"Careful out there - dampening field," Kate replied.
"Yeah, just figured it out, thanks," Logan replied, though the soldiers were already shouting at him in angry Russian and were rattling their weapons, but that had never stopped him before. So, he dove in, no claws in play, to start fighting bare knuckled.
He was dodging their strikes and missed a few rifle rounds, but as he darted between a couple of them, one of the soldiers managed to land a round through one arm - and he popped his claws purely on instinct before he started slashing.
Logan was slicing through them left and right, but just when he seemed to be getting into a stride, they hit him with a taser. And then a second one - and before he could even get his wits about him, someone cracked him in the back of the head, and he was out of the fight.
As the soldiers started to swarm toward the house from all sides, Kate and the junior squad members had made their way out onto the lawn, surprised by how far in the soldiers were already - and with no sign of Logan either.
"Elin, I need you to find that dampening field generator," Kate called out to her. "Don't worry about radioing it in when you find it - just destroy it. Gerry will keep trying to black them out, so we'll know when it works. Just focus on not getting caught."
Elin nodded quickly and darted off before Gerry pulled out an arrow to nock it. "So we're the, what, distraction?"
"More or less," Kate admitted. "Jubilee will totally kick their butts if they get inside, and all of the kids here have at least passed Storm's class. That'll give us a leg up."
Gerry nodded at that, and the two of them simply went straight into a barrage of arrows, though obviously, there were just too many Russians for two Hawkeyes to handle alone.
Inside the school, it was a different story. Jubilee was still urging kids to the tunnels - with help from the twins and Sadie. The youngest kids were obviously the priority. Kari had already taken Kade and Malin, and the older kids were making it a point to look out for the rest.
So it was that much more frustrating when a few of the kids came running back up the tunnel with wide eyes, a group of bamfs with them chattering angrily.
"We can't go that way," Magda Summers panted, still holding onto Malin's hand alongside Kari and her brother. "There's soldiers that way."
Jubilee let out a frustrated noise and blew her hair out of her face. "Alright, new plan - get all the kids to the Danger Room or the War Room. Those're going to be the hardest to get into."
"We'll handle it," Kari promised quickly. "You go kick their butts."
Jubilee nodded and took off at a run down the halls, shaking out her hands for a second before she dove in to start making these stupid soldiers regret their every life decision that led them to that point. It had been a while since she really stretched like this, but as she dove into it, she was largely fueled by a total attitude, especially since these guys were targeting some of the smaller kids.
She had just knocked one of the creeps to the ground when she saw a flash of green hair and turned her attention that way in time to see Michael Summers getting dragged off, though he was trying to drag his feet against the ground to slow himself.
Jubilee spun to go after those guys, but there was a whole wall of them as the soldiers closed ranks and took off with the kid.
She was spitting mad, and that was the way she knew when the dampening field went down, because she could feel the sparks at the edges of her fingertips. With that, she hit the retreating soldiers with a huge plasmoid, blasting several of them off their feet - and she could hear a few other kids who hadn't hidden in the Danger Room fighting back as well.
But by that time, the creeps were already retreating anyway, and had clearly gotten what they'd come for - so now the ones who were left had to assess the damage.
When the attack hit Westchester, everyone had rushed for the tunnels. Kaleb and Sadie had been among the group trying to usher kids through one of the entrances in the med lab, since they had grown up there and knew where everything was.
They had been leading the charge out of the tunnels when they heard the sound of boots on the ground coming their way - and both of the kids turned around to face the others. "Go back!" Kaleb shouted, shooing the kids with both hands as they started to run.
The kids made a rush back toward the school, though with the dampening field still up, it was more a matter of who was naturally fast and had longer legs as the kids really panicked - and the soldiers caught up to their position.
They seemed to be picking their targets, too, actually tossing aside the kids they weren't interested in before one of them grabbed Kaleb's tail and started to pull him back. Kaleb tried to kick the guy, but he just caught Kaleb's foot too.
Sadie darted forward to try and help get Kaleb loose, and even managed to kick the guy holding him between the legs from behind, but she didn't get any further before one of the other soldiers made a rush and pinned her arms to her side as he scooped her up from behind and immediately retreated with her.
Once Kaleb got his feet back underneath him, he rushed toward Sadie, and when another soldier reached out to grab him, he bit the man's hand hard enough to make him bleed from two sharp holes. Immediately, the soldier released him, and Kaleb darted in, wound up to kick another soldier in the stomach, and instead was grabbed around the shoulders by another soldier to drag him off too.
The kids were still close enough that they could see each other as the soldiers carried them off before they wound up on a stealth jet - along with an unconscious Zoe with a pretty big lump on her forehead.
Kaleb looked between the two girls with his heart hammering in his ears before he met Sadie's gaze and saw that her eyes were as wide as they would go. "Okay - this looks bad," he offered to her.
Sadie nodded and tried again to twist to a point that she could take a chunk out of the guy holding her, but when her head got almost close enough, the soldier grabbed a hold of her hair and pulled her head back.
Kaleb let out a growl that because of his age still had a little squeak to it as he tried to get out of the soldier's grip by using his tail to wrap around his arm to get a little leverage, but it only worked for a second to get him some breathing room before he too was pulled back a little tighter by the Russian, who was almost chuckling under his breath at the kids' antics as they got to work restraining the kids in their custody hand and foot and handcuffed to their seats.
"You jerks are just signing your death warrants," Sadie growled out.
"No kidding," Kaleb agreed. "Wolverine, K, Black Widow, and both Hawkeyes coming after you that ticked off? Hope you have life insurance."
"Life insurance doesn't cover willful acts of stupidity," Sadie said.
"True." Kaleb yanked on his tail a bit, though it was tied too.
Sadie glared at the man that was clearly in charge before she switched over to Russian and started carrying on in a low, clear tone, describing exactly what her father was going to do to them when he found them … if he was alone. And when she saw some of the soldiers faltering at that, she smirked and went into vivid detail on what her mother would do if she joined him, with Zoe nodding in agreement the whole time and adding in her own two cents as well, in very colorful Russian that her father would have been upset to know she'd learned.
Finally, the guy in charge had clearly had enough of the kids, and he simply stepped forward to sedate all three of them for the duration of the flight out.
When Natasha got to the mansion, Logan was already prepping without a destination in mind, not a word said, but his jaw was locked tight and he was doing his best to keep from growling. He'd figured he'd just head out and see where he ended up, so he wasn't exactly thinking about the missing kids' comfort when he picked out the fastest jet they had outside of the blackbird.
He wasn't the only one, either. Kate and Gerry both had taken some pretty hard hits and were down in medical, but Jubilee was right there with him totally furious over how the kids had been snatched right in front of her - and Natasha had arrived at the same time the rest of the team did.
"What is going on?" Scott asked, not even off the blackbird yet.
"We got hit by Russians," Jubilee called out. "They took five kids - and they were just headed out."
"When?" Scott asked. "We didn't get a call on this."
Jubilee let out a breath and projected all of it to him so he didn't need to ask all the details. The attack, how they got past security, who was taken, and the fact that they knew how to get into the tunnels.
Scott shook his head lightly before he headed to Logan. "We need to take the blackbird - for the space," he said.
"Fine. Whatever," Logan agreed.
"And we need to know where they are, unless you're planning on searching all of Russia."
"There are not many facilities in Russia that can handle this kind of firepower," Natasha pointed out. "I can count them on one hand."
"Then count them with Jubilee and Charlie and get me a heading," Scott said. He turned back to Logan. "Kurt's still on the jet. Broken ribs. I'm calling Tyler - who else is down?"
"Kate and Gerry got hit pretty bad," Jubilee said. "Elin too, but she's healing."
Scott nodded as he considered it. "Alright. Logan, I need you and Hank to prep the blackbird on medical and refuel. We need to be prepared for the kids."
Logan looked supremely irritated at the suggestion, and with a growl, he turned to stalk toward the lab without a word.
Scott shook his head and then turned to Jubilee. "Who's missing?"
"Zoe, Michael, Kaleb, Sadie, and Nolan," Jubilee listed off on her fingers. "No one else was taken, but we've got plenty of work for Dr. Blue and his tall blonde apprentice."
Scott let out a breath and shook his head when he heard it. "Alright. Ask Kari to direct the bamfs - they'll listen to her faster. We need Tyler - and have them pull in either Billy and Teddy or Kitty and Peter Quill, whoever's available. We need more people to cover things here while the institute's defenses are down."
"They shouldn't be down at all," Noh said as he got out of the jet with K and Cody. "There is absolutely no reason for the breach."
"Reason or not, it happened," Scott pointed out.
"Yes, but it could give insight to what we're facing," Noh said. "I'll look into the security while the ship is refueling."
Scott nodded. "Alright. Once everyone is healed up and refueled, I'm going to need you two-" He tipped his head at Noh and K. "-and Kurt. Logan and Natasha are coming either way."
"I'll keep him semi-calm," K offered.
"That would be nice," Scott said.
"I can help," Chance offered in a raspy voice. He and Hank had just arrived from Muir Island, but he wanted to hit something after the debacle with Sinister has left him feeling so helpless.
"Me too," Elin called out as she joined the little group.
Scott frowned between the two of them. "Chance, you should be in medical - and Elin, we need someone here that can handle things, since I'm taking both of your parents."
"You didn't see them coming out of the cloaked transports," Elin pointed out. "Dad couldn't keep up with the count. I think you need more firepower, and that's not coming from a 'wanna go' angle."
Scott's frown deepened for a moment before he finally shook his head. "On one condition," he said. "Both of you get down to medical and both of you refuel. And Chance, you're not going if you're still limping like that."
Elin nodded to his conditions and offered Chance a shoulder to lean on. "What do you want me to bring you to eat on the way?"
Scott paused, turned her way, and then almost smirked. "Whatever Annie sends you with. I'm sure I'd have heard it anyway." With that, he turned back to the blackbird to get prepped to go back out, sure that the rest of the team would be ready to go.
"Who do I need to stab in the face?" Elin asked, though she didn't look Chance's way as they headed to the lab.
"Today?" Chance asked in a hoarse tone.
"If you need me to stab people on a daily basis, then you've neglected your emailing preferences terribly."
Chance smirked and shook his head. "I just meant… there's a lot of people to stab today," he said.
"Well that's just lazy," she replied dryly.
Chance let out a breath and then shook his head. "Sinister got to Muir Island," he explained softly.
She nodded her head and seemed to steel herself. "Got it."
"Please don't go after her. There have been enough stupid decisions today on my account."
"Hey, if I get a shot, I'm taking it," she replied. "And if it makes you feel better, I owe that creep anyhow." She let out a low growl. "Treats my whole family like a bunch of animals."
"Treats me like a mistake." Chance nodded.
"He had James locked in the same cage that Dad was in when he was like … I don't know. A teenager."
"I didn't know that," Chance said.
"He wasn't really broadcasting it," Elin replied. "Either of them, really."
Chance nodded as they rounded the corner headed for the lab. "Sinister… Cody gave himself up. That's why I'm even alive," he said in a tone that clearly betrayed how mad he was at the whole thing.
"Then that's just another reason to take her out," Elin said with a nod.
"After Russians," Chance said, his voice getting a bit quieter the more they talked.
"Like I said … if I get a shot." She shrugged and then pushed open the door to the lab with her foot. "Uncle Blue … He needs a patch job so we can go shoot Russians."
Hank looked up from where he was filling Tyler in on what had happened and shook his head at Chance. "I should not be surprised," Hank said before he gestured to one of the empty beds for them to wait while Tyler fixed up some of the worse cases like Kurt and the two Hawkeyes first.
But it didn't take long before, between Tyler's healing and Annie grabbing onto the assignment of refueling people who had been healed with both hands, the team found themselves back in the hangar and ready to move, with a location from Charlie after she'd swept each of the locations Natasha had pointed out - and then crashed in the living room with Chloe taking care of her big sister, sleeping off the exhaustion of the emotional workload.
Natasha didn't ask before she climbed into the cockpit, and no one was going to begrudge her that spot when she was as spitting mad as she was, totally silent and focused. Not that anyone else on the team was much for conversation after the night they'd all had.
Logan and K were conversing quietly together, and from across the jet, Elin was watching them carefully, eavesdropping as best she was able from where she was seated closer to Chance and Kurt.
"Okay, this should be interesting," Elin said quietly.
Chance couldn't help but lean forward a bit. "Yeah?"
"Yeah … they're talking about letting me go with them on the forward assault." She turned to look at him with a little frown. "Which … this is going to sound a little dumb, but I've never practiced with them before. Not like that."
He raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "It doesn't sound dumb," he assured her. "Kinda sounds like a big step. You know I got your back, right?"
"Yeah, I know," she said, nodding to herself as she turned back to watch the two of them. "I think it's mostly an intimidation thing, though."
"Yeah, you're pretty scary," he couldn't help but say with a smirk.
She gave him a dry look. "You're hilarious."
He smirked a bit wider her way. "Well, yeah. But I grew up with the scary."
"I am not scary," she said, shaking her head.
"Hey," he said, leaning forward with his eyebrows high on his head. "Own the scary, El. You're about to jump in and scare the pants off of a bunch of Russians - you should at least be confident in your intimidation."
"Just what every girl wants to hear. Thank you. For that. Very helpful."
"What, you think you can't be gorgeous and terrifying at the same time? Have you met anyone in this jet?"
"Yeah, pretty much how it works," she said, shaking her head.
Chance gestured grandly. "So, own it. And if you're really that worried, I'm sure there's someone who likes gorgeous and scary out there. I'm partial to it myself, but I'm also insane, I've been reliably informed."
She snorted outright and crossed her arms as she turned to look at Kurt. "He's still got head trauma, doesn't he?"
"It wasn't head trauma," Kurt said, though he was watching them both with a slightly raised eyebrow and a muted smirk.
"Undiagnosed, then. Tyler is clearly slipping."
"Hey, there was no head trauma," Chance defended.
"Do you want some?" she asked with a teasing smirk.
Chance leaned forward with a grin. "Way to embrace the scary, El," he teased right back. "Serves me right for complimenting you."
"Just try to keep up, okay?" she shot right back. "I don't actually want to see you needing a second Twinkie today."
For just a second, Chance's grin faltered before he shrugged and nodded. "I'll stay out of your way," he said with a small smirk.
"Not what I was saying," she said, turning back around to face him. "I know you're not stupid enough to get too close to us in case something goes wrong. And we need someone excellent to cover our backs. Especially if there's another dampener up."
"Yeah, try not to get in trouble without me," he teased lightly. "Too many rescue missions at once."
She wrinkled her nose up. "So there's a cap? Why didn't someone tell me?"
He just smirked and shook his head. "I think the cap is when the adults start to wear down - and we need Tyler just to send 'em out again," he pointed out before he looked past her toward the window of the jet. "Too bad for them that just means everyone's pissed off and doesn't care about going in easy."
"What's easy like?" Elin asked at a stage whisper.
"You're asking the wrong Summers," he shot back, matching her volume and tone.
When they were nearly where the facility was that Natasha had pinpointed with Charlie, Scott got the attention of the team for a quick run-down. "Widow, you and Wolverine are running point on this. You know the layout - take out their resistance. K, you and Elin are with them - make sure your comms stay on. If this is a trap, I want to know about it before this turns into another rescue operation." He gestured to himself and Chance, Kurt, and Noh. "The rest of us will follow the path you open up for us. Kurt, as soon as you find the kids - get them out. If there's a dampener up, work with Chance and Noh, and I'll cut us a new path if we need it."
"Family affair out front," K muttered to Natasha.
"As if it was going to be any other way," Natasha replied without missing a beat.
Logan put his hand on Elin's shoulder and leaned a little closer. "You gonna be alright with this?"
She nodded and gave him a tight little smile but otherwise seemed to be steeling herself with her hand on the hilt of her sword, ready to draw.
"Chance, keep a close eye on this one," K said, tipping her head toward Elin. "Out of the four of us, she's the only one they don't know. So I would be surprised if they didn't try to mob her."
Chance nodded. "You know I got her back."
"I know," K told him with a little smirk. "But I thought you should be ready for when it happens."
As soon as the hatch was opened, the forward team darted out at a full run, with Logan and Elin headed one way and Natasha and K going the other, though it really was a well spread out four person line. Right off the bat, the soldiers proved K right and seemed to try to focus on Elin, not that it was a big deal right away with her parents on either side of her and Elin working the sword she carried exactly as Logan had taught her since she was small.
Unlike her parents and Natasha, though, Elin wasn't cutting to kill, necessarily. Neutralize, absolutely, but it wasn't her intention to cut them all down permanently.
It was absolutely a numbers game, like Logan had experienced at the institute, but that was just shifting the whole tone of the fight, as their front-liners were pretty much made for those kinds of odds. And when it seemed like they were getting a little too concentrated on Elin, she wasn't surprised to see several of them go down from gunshots or to hear Chance tell her, "Got your back."
The fight was hard, but it was clear that they were making steady headway, and when they got to the point that they were cutting off the flow, Logan shouted out to Scott that it was time.
There wasn't even a moment's hesitation before the other half of the team rushed to catch up to their front-runners, pushing through the very few soldiers that were left behind. "Any sign of them?"
As soon as they caught up properly, Elin slipped from the forward fight and fell back between Scott and Kurt to join them inside. "Dampener isn't on yet," Logan called out as they made their way to the clear break in the flow.
Scott nodded and then tipped his head Kurt's way. "Alright. Let's see what they're up to."
With that, Kurt simply disappeared, and Scott turned to Elin. "Can you track them down? If Kurt gets caught up, we need a backup."
"Yep," she said, nodding her head, clearly a little out of breath. "Just need to get past the concentration of soldiers' scents … too many people is a pretty good way to mess up a trail."
Scott nodded. "Lead the way."
She took just a moment to look at how the halls were laid out before she picked a direction and rushed down, trying to find a familiar scent from one hall to the next until it was clear that she'd found something to follow as her body language shifted from tense and cautious to clearly confident.
They had just turned the corner to what was clearly a lab setup when Kurt reappeared with one of his bamfs. "I've found three of them, but-" He trailed off when he realized that the others had caught up to the scent from the look on Elin's face. He frowned a bit and followed the group as they nosed around the corner to find that the remaining two captives, Nolan and Michael, were tied down in the lab.
Both of them were unconscious, but the scientists running the show had clearly not touched Michael yet, though Scott directed Elin his way just to be sure. "Anything that's not his scent - drugs, implants - I want to know about it."
As Elin went to check on Michael - and undo the restraints around him - Chance had made his way over to where Nolan was and was frowning down at the guy. It looked like he was wearing more or less a muzzle, black and heavy-looking, that stretched over the entire bottom half of his face. There was a green light at the bottom of it, but the way it was designed, Chance was surprised Nolan could breathe with it on.
Chance let out a low whistle and started to undo the restraints. "Yeah… I don't think we've ever seen that before, have we?" he asked Scott, who frowned and shook his head.
"Michael's clean," Elin said after a long moment. "Just … drugged."
Scott nodded. "There's a clear path back from here. You and Chance get these two back - we'll get the other three," he said, gesturing between himself and Kurt with one hand.
Elin and Chance shared a look and headed over to pick up their friends. With both of the boys slung over their shoulders, they headed out - and Kurt and Scott disappeared.
"Kinda glad we got here before they could do this to Michael," Chance told her in an undertone as they headed back to the jet, tipping his head at Nolan.
"No telling what that's all about," she said, glancing over at Nolan. "But I'm glad he's okay too."
"Yeah, he's breathing alright and everything. Which is saying something, since I don't think that thing has any airholes. Must be circulated somehow?" Chance said as he shifted Nolan a bit. "What I want to know is how they picked their targets. Your sister, my cousin, Nolan… "
"We can probably figure out why they wanted my sister," she said, shaking her head. "And I hate to say it, but Nolan would be useful if he wasn't so stupid most of the time."
Chance tried not to grin too much but nodded. "You know, I think my dad says the same thing about Michael - but in more… frustrated uncle terms than what you just did."
"Oh, I'm sure," she agreed. "He's just too much like your uncle."
"So, what, they targeted goofballs who aren't reaching their full potential?"
"Sadie isn't a goofball," she said, shaking her head.
"You haven't seen her encouraging my little sister and Kaleb."
"Oh, I have," she countered. "But she can be crazy focused. I think this … this group has to have connections to the creeps that used Natasha when she was little. If you use that for criteria … they got the right girl."
"Kids who aren't on the team, too," Chance said. "So they want powerful but not able to fight back, maybe? Or … less able, anyway. I know everyone here can hold their own at the basics at the very least."
"Powerful mutants that haven't decided to be X-Men or Avengers."
Chance shook his head as they headed for the jet. "Think it was a coincidence they came at the same time Sinister was being a creep?"
"Not a snowflake's chance in hell."
"Then that might be the easy answer. I mean, the woman knows all about us," Chance pointed out.
"Unless there's a tie that's bigger than we know about. Which … let's be real. Creeper would do that."
Chance pulled a face but nodded. They were within sight of the jet now, and he thought he'd seen Michael's hand twitch a while back. "Sedative wearing off?"
"Maybe," she agreed. "Let's get them inside and secured before they do."
"Yeah, I'd hate to be Nolan and waking up with that thing on anywhere but secure," Chance agreed, though he was shifting a bit. He was actually still kind of tired from all the healing.
"I'm sure there's a tactical excuse in there to use a collar on him," Elin said. "And rope."
"El, I'm trying real hard to be a hero, and you're not making it easy on me right now," Chance said.
"You are being a hero," she pointed out. "You also have a responsibility to not let him trash our ride out. That's all I'm saying." She smirked his way. "If I do it, it might be considered vindictive."
"Yeah, but if I-" Chance paused and then shook his head. "Yeah, remind me to never get on your bad side, huh?" he teased instead.
"If you do that, then clearly, it's proof I'm not nearly as scary as you like to say," she replied as she got Michael settled into a chair near the back. "Honestly, we should probably just collar them both. For now. No favoritism that way."
"That and Michael could crush us both inside the plane if he panics blindly…"
"I told you I had sound reasons," she said. "And you're in the clear anyhow with Nolan."
"What makes you say that?" Chance asked, raising an eyebrow her way as he headed to the back of the jet to get the collars.
"Not like you were holding a grudge," she said. "Or have a reason for a grudge."
He paused and looked her way for a moment before he let out a breath and shook his head. "He upset my best friend," he finally said, rather than admit to anything else that had been going on this whole time.
When she turned, she gave his arm a little squeeze. "Woe be it to anyone to do that."
Chance smirked at that as he got the collar on Nolan. "Hey, I have your back. Always will."
"Well, for now anyhow. Hard to do if we end up in different lines of work."
"What, you planning on leaving the team?"
"Who knows," she said with a shrug.
He kept an eyebrow raised her way for a moment longer before he shook his head. "Yeah, well, I'll have your back when you decide to be a professional horse trainer too," he teased. "Laugh at all the newbie students who think you'll be a pushover."
She gave him a little smile. "You're sweet, you know that?"
"I'm a Hale?" he offered, looking a bit sheepish.
"Not sure if that's where it all came from," she said with her back to him while she started up the pre-flight.
"Everybody's got a theory," Chance said with a small smirk, though he was distracted when Michael started to wake up a bit more. "Hey, Michael. You alright?"
Michael looked wide-eyed as he started to wake up, but it didn't last too terribly long, since it was clear he was on the jet, and his cousin was with him, so he almost just drifted back into unconsciousness before Chance shook him.
"Hey, none of that. I know it's tempting, but it's time to be awake right now," Chance told him.
"What happened?" Michael asked, his words still a bit slurred from the sedative.
"Bunch of Russians wanted to get their butts kicked, so they grabbed you and a few others," Chance told him honestly. "What do you remember?"
"Pretty much that," Michael said with a little frown as his hands came up to run over the collar and the frown deepened. "They swarmed the whole school, and the powers were turned off. I was trying to get down to the Danger Room with the other kids and then - yeah. I don't think my feet touched the ground. No good."
Chance nodded as he moved around to unlock the collar on Michael now that it was clear he wasn't totally freaking out on them. "Did you see anybody else?"
Michael shook his head lightly. "No. They knocked me out on the jet."
"Do you know what the … face … thing is about?" Elin asked as she leaned on the seat in front of Michael, her arms folded on the top of it. She turned and tipped her head toward Nolan.
Michael looked over at Nolan with a frown. "They just said something about… being 'docile'? Sorry, I wasn't really… paying attention."
"That's fine. How is your stomach?" Elin asked. "You can probably use some water and one of Jubilee's chocolate bars."
Michael nodded. "Yes, please."
She pushed off of the seat to go take care of him. "What about you, Chance?"
"I could honestly use some water," Chance admitted. "Throat still hurts even if it's healed. Weird, right?"
"Yeah, that's pretty normal as far as I know. Stuff hurts afterward sometimes for a long time," she said as she pulled out the water. "Worse the damage is, longer the phantom pain lasts." When she came back with the water, she simply handed them both a bottle. "It'll go away if you feed yourself, I think … though it might be a little different with Tyler having healed you up. I don't know."
Chance raised an eyebrow at her as he unscrewed the cap. "You never said it kept hurting," he said. "I mean, I've done healing before with Ty, but that was always sedated. You…" Before he could quite finish the thought, Nolan had started to wake up, and he quickly shifted gears. "Hey, you're in the blackbird; it's fine," he said, because even if he didn't like Nolan, he didn't want to freak him out either.
"If you can relax and not do anything stupid, we can let you up," Elin said. "In this case, 'we' being Chance. I'm not going to be accused of being unreasonable if I happen to knock you out on accident."
"Yes. I'm the reasonable one," Chance said, completely straight-faced.
"Since Michael is recovering, yes," she agreed, taking the seat behind the pilot's chair.
Chance shook his head at her but couldn't stop the smirk before he turned Nolan's way. "I don't know how to get that thing off your face, but do you know if it's, like, explosive or something?" he asked.
"I didn't smell any explosives," Elin called back. "So unless they're like … in his dental work …"
Chance nodded before he carefully stepped around Nolan to let him out of the collar as the dark-haired boy watched him as best he could. "They grabbed five kids from the school," he explained. "Don't know who all you saw, but my dad and Nightcrawler are getting the others. Do you know if they're okay?"
Nolan shook his head, though he looked more than a little wide-eyed at what had been going on as he reached up to touch the device on his face.
"You can breathe okay, right?" Chance asked.
He nodded and tapped on it, looking overly concerned.
"Yeah, I know. I'm sure between all the geniuses we have back home and on the Avengers, they can figure it out," Chance said.
"I can just cut it off and we can see how that goes," Elin drawled out without turning around or looking back.
Chance tried not to smirk but really couldn't stop it. "Pretty sure we need to know what it's for. Besides the obvious."
"Suit yourself," she replied.
Chance just kept smirking as he shook his head to himself and tossed aside the collar, though Elin didn't get to say much else before there was a bamf and then two more as Kurt, Scott, and the rest of the missing kids arrived. Kurt had Sadie curled into him, and Scott was carrying Zoe - though since all three were awake, it looked like Kaleb had just followed his dad.
"Preflight's done," Elin called out as she got up to go back and help.
"Perfect. The others are on the way," Scott said as he set Zoe down - and they didn't have long to wait, either. There was a spectacular explosion, and a moment later, the heavy-hitters headed their way.
"That's Mom," Elin said quietly. "Probably."
"Or the sparkly, angel-faced man," Zoe said quietly as Chance handed her a water bottle.
"Or Dad if he managed to find a fuel stash," Elin said with her head tipped to the side.
"Or Mom if she brought one of Dad's explosive tips," Zoe said with a nod. "Scott told us who was on the team."
"Picture the slow-mo walk," Elin whispered to her as she handed her a bottle of water.
"I've seen it," Zoe said with a small smile.
Kaleb, meanwhile, had climbed up to sit next to Sadie with a look of concern Nolan's way. "That doesn't look… umm. Good."
"Hank'll figure it out," Sadie said with a wave.
"He looks like a futuristic bandit on a bad Western scifi," Kaleb said.
"Kaleb, that is terribly unprofessional," Elin said with a false severity.
Kaleb turned her way with a perfectly innocent look. "Am I a professional now? I'm, like, eleven."
"I thought having an incident like this would at least put you on track," she replied with a shrug.
Kaleb shook his head. "We were drugged for a lot of it," he admitted.
"Do you want chocolate too?"
"Um, always," Kaleb said. "Do you want some too?"
"I think I might just," Elin said with a nod. "Do you have a preference? There's a whole store back there."
"Got any Three Musketeers?" Kaleb asked with a grin.
"Of course," she said with a sigh. "Of course that's what you'd want. Yes, I'm sure we do."
"Hey, I like the nuget," Kaleb defended.
"The name has nothing to do with it," Chance deadpanned.
"Last call before we buckle in, Chance … anything for you or your flying partner?" Elin asked over her shoulder.
"I'm fine with the water, thanks," Chance said, still smirking to himself as Logan, K, Natasha, and Noh showed up - not a one of them clean in the least and all of them wearing blood and plenty of ash.
"We're clear, Slim," Logan called up as he and K took a seat across the aisle from Chance.
Scott nodded and moved to the cockpit to put the blackbird in the air, as the last of the team cleaned up a bit and Zoe went right to her mom to get a solid hug that completely erased the murderous look Natasha had still been wearing until that very moment.