A/N: Hi, everyone. I'm sorry that it's been over a month since the last chapter, but I've been really ill, and long story short what energy I had was committed to my recovery. Now I'm back on form, I intend to finish this chapter as best I can.

LeannaFaye: Thanks for reading, I'm glad that you really enjoyed this. While I appreciate the praise, remember the original writers- part of this comes from the scripts which sadly never made it onto the little screen, and they really improved from the previous season in my opinion. At least their work on Avengers: EMH made it through, so there is that.

Menatron: I've already PM'd you, but thanks for your enthusiasm and for sticking around.

New York City, present day

The three scramblers descended towards the fallen Nightcrawler, weapons trained upon his prone form. While there was no sign of their previous target, their pilots reasoned that this new arrival would simply have to make do; after all, it wasn't quite every day that the Mutant Response Division clashed with the X-Men and had anything close to a victory.

"I'm betting ten dollars that Hodge will be laughing his way to the bank over this," the first deadpanned over the communication system. He noticed the two oncoming MRD vans and helicopter, reasoning to himself that their opponent was both outnumbered and outmatched.

"Don't get too cocky yet," replied the second. "We've still got to take him in."

Just before the oncoming MRD vehicles could arrive to back up the scramblers, an armoured van sped down the street and screeched to a sudden halt, shielding Nightcrawler from the oncoming danger as Cyclops rolled down his window and unleashed several optic blasts in the enemy's direction. The first two scramblers slammed back into the building, whereas the third was sent crashing into one of its comrades.

As he did so, Jean Grey leapt from the other side of the van and raised two hands as a translucent force field formed around the van and Kurt, just in time to block oncoming fire from the helicopter, its onboard weaponry roaring loudly. As the first few shots bounced away harmlessly, Shadowcat phased through the side of the van and grabbed Kurt, grunting slightly as she managed to lift him up and start dragging him back into the van.

Undeterred by the obstacle now in his way, the helicopter pilot continued the barrage, and Jean felt herself stumble as the barrier began to fade. At her peak, maintaining a shield like this wouldn't have been much of a problem at all, but she had still been recovering even before Sinister had somehow attacked her through Cerebro, and now two of the officers had recovered enough to climb out of their now-wrecked scramblers and take firing positions around them, now firing pot shots from their rifles.

"Hurry! I can't hold this much longer," Jean yelled.

It was at this point that the firing intensified as the soldiers seemingly recognised the potential opening. Within seconds, the barrier collapsed and she recoiled, grunting in pain as she did so.

Cyclops took this moment to tweak his visor and fire at one of the downed scramblers, rocking it and making one of the officers duck in panic as the other was knocked backwards. Within milliseconds, he had redirected his gaze at the helicopter, now firing at the tail rotor and knocking it off. The helicopter swerved violently and flew out of sight as its pilot desperately fought to land safely.

Scott reasoned to himself that now would be a good point to get back in the van and leave before any reinforcements showed up. He quickly slammed the door as he sat back behind the wheel.

"Jean! Get inside," he yelled, looking over his shoulder and seeing Kitty in the back with Kurt, a look of fear etched upon her face. He heard the other door close hurriedly as Jean leapt back in, and he immediately put his foot on the accelerator, causing the van to protest slightly as they rushed from the scene.

He spared a moment to look at Jean, who had her face buried in her hands.

"What happened? Were you hit?"

Taking a deep breath, Jean trembled slightly and stared out towards the buildings, noticing more helicopters soaring over the city as more scramblers crawled around the streets, the sounds of gunfire and energy weapons now louder.

"No... I'm okay."

In his mind, Scott knew that the questions he'd asked had been somewhat thoughtless, and that Jean probably had much more on her mind than what had just happened. All he could do now was drive home and hope for no further distractions.

He sighed to himself. This evening certainly hadn't been an easy one.

Xavier Mansion, Present Day

The doors of the sublevel lift almost slammed shut, before the person that had just entered heard a voice from across the corridor.

"Wait."

Logan looked up to see Storm slipping inside to join him, a look of concern etched upon her face. He grabbed the doors to let her enter, before withdrawing his arm and letting the lift begin its journey.

"How is Kurt?"

"I'm going to check on him now," Logan replied.

The team's de facto leader had never been one for much emotion, but to Storm his voice sounded slightly downbeat. Looking at his expression, it was clear that he was somehow exhausted, morose and furious all at the same time. It must have been something that only Logan could do, she reasoned to herself.

"Seems every time we tangle with the Mardies now, someone's gettin' hurt," he muttered.

"They're definitely more advanced than they used to be," Storm agreed.

"And now it's gotten too dangerous."

"Oh?" Storm could barely believe she was hearing the words, and her words were laced with an appropriate dose of scorn. "And since when has anything been too dangerous for you?"

At this point, the lift arrived at its destination, both its occupants still arguing with each other.

"Since every mission we spend fending off the MRD, we're NOT looking for Apocalypse," he barked, striding out. She followed him, growing incensed by his seemingly callous attitude.

There was temporary silence as Logan walked into the corridor, with Storm eventually choosing to resume the conversation as she caught up with him.

"Logan, there are still mutants out there who need our help. We can't ignore that."

"All I'm sayin' is that we have to pick our battles, much as I'd prefer not to. We can't do it all."

"I don't believe that is an opinion Charles would share," she declared. Her voice was little higher than a whisper and she sounded relatively calm, but any passerby would have been able to tell that she was appalled.

"Yeah, well, he's not around to ask anymore."

Xavier Mansion, Infirmary, Present Day

The argument finally began to die down as both its participants reached their destination, stopping at the viewing window. Through the glass, they could see the prone form of Nightcrawler delicately propped on top of a bed and hooked up to various machines which monitored his pulse, breathing and other vitals. Next to them stood Beast, his slightly oversized hands sensitively adjusting a screen and staring at it carefully.

Logan rapped on the window with his knuckles, getting Hank's attention. His head turned to face them and he nodded, letting go of the screen and moving towards the infirmary door.

"Consider this, Logan," Storm found herself muttering. "If we give up everything we believe in to save the future, will it really be a future worth saving?"

Logan looked over at her, and for once it was his turn to be lost for words. Before he could debate the issue further in his mind, however, the door finally slid open and Beast emerged.

"How's he doin', Hank?"

"Pretty well," Hank replied. "That's relatively speaking, considering two thousand volts and three different paralysing agents were shot through his system by this."

A furry hand reached over to the table, fumbling for a moment before picking up a small stun-probe and holding it in front of their faces, at which point Logan reached out and took it from him. Now it was his turn to hold it up in front of Storm, as if to ask if his point was made clear, although she didn't take the bait.

"Hank, do you have any idea where they're getting this kind of equipment?"

"Unfortunately, no", he sighed. "Though I have determined that not a sliver of metal was used to make this probe, or anything else in their arsenal for that matter. That includes their vehicles."

"Kincaid and the Mardies must really be holdin' a grudge," Logan commented. "He wants to be good 'n' ready for Magneto when they catch up to him."

He threw the probe back to Hank, who caught it with ease, before he walked back towards the corridor and the lift.

"So it's Magneto that we can blame for the new 'n' improved MRD out there."

Storm watched him leave, now concerned that she would be unable to reach through to Logan and convince him that he needed to reconsider his opinions. For some reason, Charles and Jean had managed to get through to him and at least steered him in the right direction, although she remembered that it hadn't always ended well. Now the former was stuck in some nightmarish future and the latter was still recovering from a telepathic attack.

For the first time in a while, Storm found herself questioning whether Charles had made the right choice to elect Logan as leader.

Okay, I think I'm going to leave it there for now, but it's a step in the right direction. Thanks for reading; if you have any questions, drop a review and I'll get back to you as soon as possible, either with a PM or an answer in the next chapter. Speaking of which, the next chapter will concern Magneto once again, and I'm really looking forward to it; I feel his last appearance in Danger Ratings didn't do him justice.

Until then, I hope everyone has a decent summer, or, if you're one of my few readers in a different part of the hemisphere, a decent winter.