So...sorry for the semi-long break just as things were getting interesting, but I had to do finals, and then there was Christmas, and then I had to get ready for a trip to visit relatives 800 miles away. When I got to my grandfather's house I discovered they didn't have internet, so what better time to almost finish this long-winded story?
The door was unlocked. It wasn't originally, but Jubilee, on Laura's directions, blew the keypad while Bobby froze the frame of the door until it cracked enough that a simple slight shove was all it took for the door to swing open inwards.
There were emergency lights on, which made the large storage room shadowy and ominous and much bigger than it actually was. Here and there were large stacks of wooden crates, such as those in any New England warehouse regardless of its usefulness, and the only windows in the room were very high up near the ceiling and were too small to be of any use as far as lighting went anyway.
And then there were three solid doors barely within eyeshot on the far, far wall. None of the smaller doors scattered along the walls to the right or left were steel, and they were labeled. So logically, the path- or paths, possibly- to Logan and whomever else Sabertooth had kidnapped was through those unmarked doors.
"There's no one else in here," Jean stated.
"I think we need to divide into groups." Laura said softly. "I want at least one offensive power and one defensive on each team."
"What's she talking about?" Jamie whispered to Sam.
"People whose powers only affect themselves, like in protection, are defensive. You're one. Um, Kitty is, so is Jubilee. And then there's the offensive-."
"-Like Laura and Jean who can beat the crap out of people with their powers. And make walkie talkies explode."
"…Sure." Sam glanced up at Laura and Jean to see if they'd heard that. They were discussing divisions of mutants instead.
Kitty and Rahne snuck as well as they could down a cold tiled hall in jeans and in Kitty's case, barefoot with her heeled flip flops in one hand.
"This sucks," she muttered under her breath.
"At least we weren't left behind again," Rahne muttered in her Scottish brogue. "Look, you can phase through things, why can't we do that? It'd be faster."
Kitty stopped and blinked. "Why didn't I think- come on." She grabbed Rahne's arm and yanked, throwing the girl off balance as she dashed through the thick gray wall at the end of the corridor. This wall led through another grey hall, which in turn was parallel with another shabbier gray hall.
A loud, piercing siren went off mid-phase, and Kitty almost solidified right there.
She fell out of the fourth or fifth wall in, Rahne crying out behind her, into a hall that actually had doors along the opposite side of it. Some guards cried out too, similar to those guards from outside as far as weaponry and militia getup.
Their guns looked a lot more intimidating from three feet away than they did from thirty yards, and both mutants were acutely aware that Jean wasn't around to randomly combust them. So at the same exact instant for both girls, a new plan was formed.
"Run!" they both screamed, and ran right into what turned out to be a reinforced cell. One of the guards slammed the thick door shut behind them, locking them in. They heard a small click, as though a light switch had been flicked on, but instead of a light, a high-frequency hum filled the room and the teens felt…not ill, not quite lightheaded…but lightheaded was the best way to describe it. Kitty tried to phase, but smacked in the wall and fell on her butt.
"Uh oh," she said slowly.
Rahne glanced up from where she had slid to the floor against a concrete wall.
"What?" she asked glumly, rubbing her head where she'd slammed it.
Kitty threw up her hands in frustration. "I left my shoes in the hall."
"And that's all you can think about right now? We don't have powers. You just body slammed a concrete wall and lost. I don't like cages. This sucks."
"Hey, be quiet for a second." Kitty looked zoned out.
"Excuse me-."
"Shut up, I think I hear something. It's over…over there, by your hand." Rahne impulsively twitched her hand away and they crowded together on their stomachs in front of a tiny slit of a crack in the wall near the bottom.
"Now listen," Kitty whispered.
They did, and heard after a few seconds a faint breathy sound.
"It's probably just the air conditioning or something, if cells have cracks that show what shape the air conditioning is in…." Rahne trailed off again, and listened to what was unmistakably ragged breathing in another room? Cell? They couldn't tell that, but every so often there was a grunt and the sound of a body hitting a wall with a lot of force unsuccessfully. It cursed.
"Logan?!" Kitty screamed hopefully into the crack. The breathing paused, and then emitted a low sigh.
"What are you doing here, half-pint?"
"Oy, I'm here too! Rahne!" Rahne waved even though Logan couldn't see it.
"Talk about dumb luck," he commented furiously. "How are you two alive? Obviously Sabertooth doesn't know you're here yet-."
"Oh, no. At least, we don't think he does." Kitty looked at Rahne, who shrugged helplessly at the absence of her wolfish powers. "Um. We didn't come alone."
"Yeah, we're dumb, but we're not stupid."
"Coulda fooled me," Logan grumbled. "So who's runnin' the show? Laura probably threw a fit when you all tagged along, and if Scott were here…well, no one would be. You'd all still be plannin' in the War Room."
Rahne was feeling along the crack to see how wide it was. "Jean's sort of second-in-command under Laura. She's going psycho again."
"Which one, Laura or Jean?"
Kitty and Rahne paused and looked at each other. "Both, really. Jean made a walkie talkie explode in midair. It was cool. And then she giggled." Rahne said.
"Laura, Jean, you two…who else is here?" Logan almost sounded pained, and Kitty could almost visualize him running one of his large hands through his hair in frustration.
"Bobby, Sam, Jamie, and Jubilee."
"Perfect. Out of a whole mansion of X-Men, you picked the least experienced to fight Sabertooth?"
Kitty smiled desperately, but only Rahne could see it. "And save whoever else is trapped here."
"Well, it looks like you're failing. There's no way out of these cells, I've been trying for awhile. So we're just gonna have to hope the rest of your little rescue mission doesn't flop."
They heard him sit down by the wall with the crack, and Kitty and Rahne leaned against their side of the wall, thoroughly discouraged.
"We're only inexperienced because we never get to do anything." Rahne mumbled, her head resting on her folded up legs. "Did you expect anything else?"
Kitty didn't say anything, only hoped with every ounce of spirit in her that Jean and Bobby's groups were faring better.