Hank pressed his ear against the steel door for a long time, listening with a look of utmost concentration. "It sounds like no one is active inside, at least no one in this section of the facility." He gestured to Logan, and said, "You're all clear."
A moment later, the two of them were walking cautiously through the hole Logan had cut cleanly into the metal. He smiled grimly as he sheathed his claws and looked up and down the dark hallway in which they stood. "Okay Hank, you're the boss. What's the plan?"
Hank looked around as well, and then motioned to the left. "Follow me. I want to find the core of technology. There must be something of use in this place..." They walked along, squinting into the darkness. A few lights flickered from a doorway up ahead, but neither of them sensed or heard any motion or activity. As they approached, Logan caught the faint outline of Hank's smile. "Ahh, the smell of hot wires and the hum of cooling fans - I feel confident we are about to find a treasure cove of hard drives and databases."
Logan sniffed the air. "Whatever, bub," he grumbled. "Just smells like air to me."
But Hank was right. Though there was no sign of recent occupation, the room was lined with rows of sleek system units, blinking modems, and hibernating monitors. A huge panel was elevated in the center of the room and Logan could make no sense whatsoever of the different keys, switches, and scrolling display screens. Hank seemed pleased, however, and that was all that mattered.
"This should only take a few minutes and then we can leave. I may have to break a few passwords and keycodes first, so please try not to wander too far." Logan gave a short grunt in reply. He sure wasn't going to take orders from a blue furball.
A narrow, arched hallway led from the other end of the room. Logan noticed that the floor was slightly sloped, and he could not resist the temptation to edge his way down into its winding depths. "Just to see where it leads," he thought to himself. Presently, he came to a split in directions - to his left there was a staircase leading upwards, and straight ahead there were metal steps leading down into a slightly wider corridor. It was lit only by circular blue lights spaced out on the walls, and again, Logan's curiousity was sparked. He wanted to find something worth his time, something that might mean something or answer questions. All these empty halls and deserted rooms were boring and almost ominous...
As he entered the corridor, Logan noticed that the blue lights he had seen before were not in fact lights, but windows. Each one faced into a tiny room lit with flourescent bulbs and in the center of each one, there sat a large glass chamber. And inside each chamber, there stood a mutant, eyes closed and body suspended by thick cords. Various tubes ran from each chamber, pumping different fluids in and out of the veins of the unconscious individuals. Logan walked slowly, staring at the faces of these prisoners - many he had seen before in the news, in the Professor's files, and some even in passing. His pace quickened - maybe Karma was in one of these containment cells. They had not heard from her since Trask Laboratory but Professor X was still sure that she was alive somewhere. Maybe he would find her here.
Suddenly he caught a movement in the corner of his eye. A figure disappeared swiftly around a corner at the far end of the corridor. The shadow was small and feminine - Logan chased after it. He could hear the sound of running feet echoing ahead. At the corner, the hallway split once more but again he glimpsed the shadow before it disappeared out of sight.
The next bend in the hallway led into a large room filled with platforms and railings and industrial equiptment. It was also a dead end. "Who's there?" He said aloud, taking a few cautious steps.
"Logan?"
That voice. All too familiar. But - it was impossible.
"...Kitty?"
Her delicate figure appeared from behind a towering stack of crates and came towards him. "Logan, thank goodness it's you!"
He stood frozen to the spot. This was quite a confusing situation - shouldn't she currently be thousands of miles away, sleeping in her bed at the institute? He frowned. "Kid, what are you doing here?"
"Don't be silly, I came on the mission."
But she didn't, did she? The Professor sure hadn't mentioned anything, and as far as he'd been able to tell, the only ones besides him on the X-Jet had been Hank and Ororo. He couldn't see how she would have been able to get her before him, and without being noticed. Sure, she could walk through walls, but...maybe she had stowed away in the back of the Jet? He couldn't make sense of it, but he had something else on his mind anyway.
"Why were you running from me?"
She flashed a quick smile. "I thought you were someone else. But come with me, I have to show you something I found." She gestured back towards the hallway and started into a jog.
As she ran past, however, Logan's arm suddenly struck out and collided with her face and she fell to the floor before him, her head smacking against the concrete floor with a loud crack. He stood there in shock - he hadn't done that! It was as if his arm had become possessed...he stared in horror at his arm, which was now sheathed completely in a silver-blue metal. "What the hell is this?" He shouted as he looked down at Kitty laying motionless at his feet.
And then again, Logan's body seemed possessed by an outside force. He kneeled down and picked her up - noticing both arms were coated with the bluish metal and he felt that he had become much taller than he had been just moments ago. It took no effort to lift her and he turned with her slumped limply against his shoulder.
The room had changed. It came as yet another shock to see the equiptment had disappeared, the lighting was different, the layout was altered. And somehow, this place seemed eerily familiar. "NO!" He shouted in panicked realization as his feet began to carry him towards the door of what appeared to be a storage room - Logan tried to fight his physical self but it was in vain, his mind seemed to be all that was left of his being. This wasn't him. This was...
"MESMERO! Get the hell out of my head! Stop this! Stop this now!"
A hollow chuckle reverberated around the the storage room as he shut and barred the door behind him. "Perhaps if you had not entered my base uninvited," a sinister voice replied, "I would not be entering your mind uninvited." Logan tossed Kitty roughly onto a table in the corner and took in the contours of her body, allowing his hand to trail crudely over her breasts and then down her stomach and between her thighs before reaching down to caress his own bulge. Mesmero's voice spoke softly in his head, "Besides, isn't she the girl you want? You should be thanking me for this."
He watched her eyes flutter and open blearily. As she tried to sit up, he watched himself pin her back down by the neck. "You were always such a tease, Miss Pryde." The words which came from his lips were not his own. She struggled as he tried to pull her close and his hand struck her against the face again, violent lust surged in his veins and he felt his pulse quicken. "Where do you think you're going? I'm going to have to teach you a lesson."
He clasped her wrists tightly and she lay there frozen, tears welling in her eyes from pain and fright. "You won't try to get away this time, will you?" It was evident that she had, for the moment at least, lost her ability to phase through solid obstacles and he was apparently encouraged by this fact because his metal coating began to melt back into flesh, though the hands which now groped her squirming body were still not his own. As they slipped beneath her shirt, he tried again to break the illusion and pleaded, "I don't want THIS!" There was only more hollow laughter in response.
Logan shut his eyes tightly, trying to force the scene from his vision. But everything continued to unfold before him as if they were open. He could see her, feel her, hear her... "This isn't real," he told himself. This wasn't him. This wasn't her. This was something that had happened, something he couldn't change, something he could not control. He was not the person who had stripped her naked here on the table, he was not the brute who was about to ravage her fragile body in the worst way.
He unzipped his pants and positioned himself. "No one's going to hear you scream."
"NOOO!" Logan couldn't take it. He twisted his body violently and howled in agonizing despair. The vision ceased and he suddenly became aware of the cold floor against his side. Someone was shaking him. "Logan! Logan..." It was Hank. He was kneeling over him, his deep blue eyes full of worry. A choked sob escaped Logan's throat and he noticed with slight embarassment that his face was streaked with tears.
"I got the data I came for, Logan. You didn't answer my calls on the earpiece, so I came looking for you...are you okay to stand up? We need to hurry, I'm certain they'll have heard - well, they'll know our location soon enough."
Logan pushed Hank's hand away and helped himself up. "I'm fine," he grunted, avoiding eye contact. "Let's get the hell out of here."
The two of them ran as quietly as they could back through the hallway. When they entered the corridor of cell windows, Logan stopped. "Hank, I didn't check each one of these cells - I thought Karma might be in one." Just then an alarm began to sound through the facility. Hank glanced around hastily. "I don't think she's here - we can't afford to linger!" They ran now full speed through the corridor, up the steps and into the narrow, ramped tunnel. The sound of footsteps now came behind them from the depths of the lower levels. Luckily, Hank and Logan were already passing through the data center and then out into the dry desert night. Hank had called ahead on the walkie-talkie and Storm had the Jet hovering at the breached entrance, its access ramp lowered.
Seconds later, the Jet lifted into the sky and sped away swiftly into the darkness. Hank and Logan took their seats behind Storm and Fury, and as they buckled in, Hank peered at Logan with concern laced with curiousity. "What happened back there, my friend?"
Logan looked out the window and willed his hands to stop shaking. "I don't want to talk about it."