-4-

The guard was stupid. Either that or he was extremely brave. The latter option did not, in anyway, diminish or mitigate his stupidity. It did, however, earn a measure of respect from Colossus. It would not change the outcome, but the soldier's adherence to his duty struck a cord within the Russian's steel-cold chest. The man's foolishness resided in his belief that he could withstand a man that stood nearly a foot taller than him and was encased in impenetrable armor. Thus, Colossus found himself regretting the sound of his fist connecting with and crushing the noble warrior's chest. However, the guard had been brave enough to place himself between the towering mutant and the scientists and that deserved approbation. "You have fought well, soldier, there is no disgrace in your failure to protect these people here." Colossus cradled the gasping warrior and gently laid him down to the steel mesh of the floor. He rose from his kneeling position and regarded the three engineers coldly. "Please, open the door—I would not wish to hurt anyone more."

"Else." Sabretooth grinned at the confused look from his comrade. "It's "anyone else". Don't care much myself either way, but if yer gonna threaten yer prey ya gotta make sure they understand ya." He sauntered forward, and threw a companionable arm around the perdurable mutant's shoulders. "Me, I'd just as soon eat… you… and you," he pointed towards one of the men and the female scientist, "and then let the guy left over open the door, but… Sure, why not, let's play by the Russkie's rules. What d'ya say? Do I get to eat or you gonna make nice-nice and open the door?"

One of the men, Quentin Owens according to his badge, blinked behind coke bottle black rimmed glasses. He was a small, thin man with a thoroughly unhealthy fascination with tweed and bow ties that no doubt doomed him to fondling Petri dishes and staring longingly at microbes and slides as a substitute for a failure to integrate into society. He mopped his bald pate with a handkerchief and gripped the woman's hand tightly. She smiled at him reassuringly and rubbed her thumb affectionately over the back of his hand, an action that did not go unnoticed by the feral mutant standing beside Colossus. "Him? Really? You can do so much better than that."

Rebecca Stamos cocked an eyebrow and grinned as she stared into the depths of the psychopath's predatory orbs. "He's got a disproportionately sized phallus and incredible coital and pre-coital skills. And he makes me laugh."

"What?"

Colossus sighed, and thanked God that he could not blush in his armored state. "She means he has a long penis and he is good in bed. Now, please remove yourself from my shoulders so that I can burst down the doors."

Dr. Stamos grinned as Colossus raised a fist to the door. However, he stopped as the third scientist, Dr. Morrisson, a man even smaller than Dr. Owens whose face seemed dominated by a large nose and a ridiculous handle-bar mustache whispered to Dr. Owens in outrage. "But that'll ruin years of research! It will take us months to recreate everything."

"Hush up you fool!" Owens hissed at the man and quickly clamped his hand over the smaller scientist's mouth.

"What did he mean by that?" Sabretooth snorted in Owens' face. A small spray of saliva doused the quaking engineer and speckled the smooth pate of his head.

"Nothing," Owens stuttered and locked his knees in place, "you know how we scientists are, our life is our work. If you take it, we'll need to rebuild the thing from scratch. Assuming you let us live to rebuild the device." He clearly enjoyed the terrified whimper that comment evoked from his smaller colleague.

Sabretooth snorted again and turned back to Colossus with a shrug. "Your show, Russkie."

Colossus' eyes narrowed as he examined the door and the three doctors. There was something he was missing, something that the doctors had said and stared at him boldly, though his eyes did not see. Something in the near triumphant glint in Dr. Stamos' eyes and the resigned glance Dr. Owens cast towards her. A machine, even one as complicated as this chip, could be replaced. They had the plans, and the schematics. They could easily recreate their work. Unless... He replayed Morrisson's words in his mind, losing himself in the frantic man's plea to protect his research, to not ruin his research, and prevent him having to recreate everything. He grinned, having caught the ruse, and wagged a finger at the balding doctor. "Clever, Owens. Very clever. This door is trap, da? Unless the code is entered, everything is destroyed. No?" He grinned as Owens nodded in defeat. "Please to be opening door."

Stamos sneered. "And if we don't?"

Colossus sighed, this one, also, was brave. However, unlike the soldier, she had things to lose, and she was not trained to live and die for her work, despite what Dr. Owens may have said. Wordlessly, he reached out and grabbed the balding doctor by the head, dragging him bodily towards him and turning his head so that the two lovers stared each other in the eyes. As a human, Colossus was stronger than nearly any human alive, his mutation coupled with a life of hard farm work and a true love for physical exertion guaranteed an impressive might that could dwarf even the most dedicated Olympian. In armored form, he was capable of pulverizing rocks into dust. Before she grew ill, his sister had once joked that he could turn wood into diamonds. To him, he was simply flexing his fingers a fraction as he slowly tightened his grip on the man's head. The scream the doctor gave, and the way his arms thrashed spoke volumes as to the true pressure his skull was enduring. Stamos shuddered and tried to look away. "Look at him." Her eyes remained riveted to the floor, but widened at a tortured scream from her lover. "Look at him. His arms is merely dislocated. If you do not look, it will come off. Now, look at him." With a seemingly herculean effort, Stamos ripped her eyes from the floor and fixed them into those of her lover. "Open door."

"No." A single tear fell down her cheeks. She clearly loved this man. Colossus felt a small pang for the pain he was causing her. Neither of them deserved this anguish and horror. They should have many long years of peace with plenty of children and grandchildren. H hoped that neither of them was stupid enough to throw away the chances he was giving them.

"If you do not open door, I will kill him. And then I will kill other one. Then, I will let Sabretooth violate their bodies in such way as to give you nightmares for rest of your life while you recuperate from suffering every bone in your body being shattered between my fingers until you do open door."

"On second thought, dame, don't open the door. That sounds like fun. He'll do it too; you should see what the Russkie did to the guards in the upper levels." Sabretooth laughed and licked a claw he had stuck into the guard's side.

Stamos looked at the feral mutant playing with the soldier's now-exposed entrails, and gazed into the eyes of her suffering lover and nodded. She walked over to the console, punched a few numbers and the door slid open. "There, it's done."

Sabretooth grinned and leaped into the room, spraying the woman with blood from his fangs and claws. He boldly strode into the room and then paused as he sniffed the air and whirled, froth dripping from his lips in long strings as he bounded for the hallway and passed the startled doctors. "Wolverine!" he snarled in fury and jumped high into the air, landing on the small Canadian mutant lurking in the shadows.