I woke up sweating and confused. Not the most pleasant awakening but it was pretty common for me. I didn't remember what I'd been dreaming about this time but I could feel fear and hatred. Nearly anything then. I grabbed my duffel bag and began walking away. As I was walking I noticed a much subtler sound. Almost like... something moving through the air. Quickly. And then I saw it. They disabled the cloaking as it landed. The Blackbird.I began running away from the school. And then I felt someone probing my mind. Fucking telepath. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. I screamed mentally. I put all my hatred into the thought. The telepath was forced out of my mind. But now they know where I am. Shit. I turned to the right and entered the city streets.

Gotta get somewhere high. I can survive any fall. Some of them can't. -whamf- A blue-furred demon was sitting on top of a building ahead of me. Son of a bitch. They really want me dead. I could hear him telling them my location through his headset. Nowhere to run. The teleporter is faster. And they have a telepath. So I can't hide. That leaves fight. I mentally plotted my route to the Friends of Humanity headquarters in this town and ran as fast as I could. I could see Kurt teleporting in front of me. I looked behind me and saw Laura running about two blocks back. Bobby was closer and closing quickly on his ice ramp. I turned to the building next to me and cut through the door. I ran to the stairwell and began climbing. I could hear them pounding up the stairs behind me. I pulled my katana out of the duffel bag and strapped it onto my back. I dropped the bag on the stairs. I burst through the door at the top of the stairs panting. Only to see Kurt waiting for me. "Stop Matt. You're outnumbered. Ve're faster. Ve have a telepath. You can't vin." He didn't seem to take me running away from him as a hint that I wasn't listening. Then again, he didn't need to run. -whamf- and he was ahead of me. He continued teleporting ahead of me and trying to persuade me to stop. I stopped at the edge of the building and looked behind me. Bobby and Laura were closing fast. I took a few steps back, ran and jumped. For one heart-stopping moment I was in free fall. Then I landed and rolled, years of training taking over. I continued running. Bobby just made a ramp of ice over the gap and him and Laura ran over it. There. Good. I can't run much longer. The Friends of Humanity headquarters was just down the street. And even better, according to the sign on the building, they were holding an assembly tonight. Something finally went right. I heard a whistling noise and jumped tothe left. A huge ball of ice flew past me. Not lethal. Probably wouldn't even delay me more than a few seconds. But a few seconds were all they needed to catch me. I can't hold this pace. They're rested. I'm tired and the only full meal I had all week was the one I ate today. If I don't get there very soon I'm done. I got to the end of the building and looked. There was no building close enough for me to jump to. I hesitated for only a second before jumping off. Adamantium skeleton and healing factor. Four story fall. Shouldn't knock me unconscious. I seemed to take forever to reach the ground. CRACK I landed on my left side. Can't move my left leg. Feels dislocated. Most of the skin on my chest is gone. My skull impacting the pavement likely resulted in a concussion. No bones broken though. I staggered to my feet and began limping towards the building. Years of HYDRA training had made me able to function through incredible pain. After a few steps my leg regenerated enough for me to run on it. My ribs still hurt like crazy though. I looked behind me. They were only twenty feet away. They had made another ice-ramp down the side of the building. Even better, Logan, Kitty, and Storm were right behind them. But it didn't matter. I burst into the FoH building and sprinted for the door to the auditorium. I kicked it down and the current speaker stopped mid-sentence. I put on my best expression of mindless fear and screamed, "THE MUTANTS ARE FOLLOWING ME! THEY WANT ME DEAD! PLEASE, GOD HELP ME!" All the while running towards the speaker. When the X-Men burst into the room people stood up and began cracking their knuckles. They apparently decided a sixteen year old boy who looked terrified out of his mind couldn't possibly be deceiving them. Humans. Pathetic fools. But they have their uses. As what seemed to be the entire auditorium rushed the mutants I smiled and ran to the back room. I cut through the door and began sprinting away.

This kid is smart. He, a mutant, ran into the anti-mutant building, convinced them he was being attacked, and got the entire auditorium to fight for him. We're gonna need a bigger team. And suddenly I didn't have time to think as a huge guy with a knife swiped at me. "Jean, get after him!" I fought down the urge to unsheathe my claws and begin cutting and punched a guy in the face.

I ran into the parking lot of an apartment complex and hopped into a blue minivan. I used my claws to hotwire the car and was about to drive off when a voice said "Wait." I stopped and looked outside thecar to see Jean waiting. I snarled and extended my claws and she held up both her hands. "I just want totalk." She's not lying? "Get in then. I'm not waiting for your friends to find me." She got into the backseat and didn't say anything as I gunned it and began driving away at a good 70mph. "So what do we have to talk about?" I snarled as I took a particularly sharp turn and nearly flipped the car. "About your options. What about my options?" I hissed. She didn't look particularly afraid. "At this point you're a wanted criminal. You can either come back with us or wait until SHIELD finds you." I began laughing. "I'm not sure how to respond to such a statement except with laughter. I slaughtered HYDRA and I'll slaughter SHIELD. Their funeral if they come after me." She leaned forward looking serious. "And that's the problem. You kill SHIELD and the X-Men stop trying to capture you and start trying to kill you. And you can't fight all of us." I smirked at this particular piece of information. "I can't fight all of you. I can kill most of you by the time you get me though." She shook her head. "More senseless death? And what would that solve? We're offering you a way out." I may as well know all my options even if I never plan on acting on them. "What happens to me if I go with you?" She sighed. "I'm not sure. The professor believes you can be redeemed. But the others disagree. I don't know." So basically, I go with them hoping for forgiveness and they hand me over to SHIELD anyway. No way in hell. "I'll think about it. Now get out of my car." I stopped and she left. I drove off. She didn't even attack me. Why? I don't understand. But I kept driving.

Back at the Xavier Institute...

"But Logan, if you had let me fight him I vould have caught him." Kurt had been pestering me nonstop about my orders that under no circumstances would he engage the target. "Elf, he woulda cut you up like a turkey. He's a match for me or Laura. You don't stand a chance." That shut him up. Thank God. Bobby and Laura had told me of how they'd almost caught him but he jumped. Crazy kid. And I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry when I remember how he led us straight into the FoH. About the FoH... Where was Jean? "Jean, where were you when we were fighting off the FoH?" She stopped her discussion with Scott and turned to me. Everyone stopped talking, wanting to know the answer. "I was talking to Matthew." Wasn't expecting that. And judging by everyone's expressions neither were they. "You better have a good reason for this Jean." She appeared to be thinking and then began her explanation. "When we first touched down, I searched for him mentally. When I found him he pushed me out. How the hell did he do that? He kind of... screamed at me mentally. It was enough to distract me and break the connection." That was troubling. Our best weapon against him up until know was telepathy. "So when I saw him running out of the FoH building I knew I couldn't shut him down with telepathy. Telekinetically, I could probably hold him for thirty seconds to a minute. Not nearly enough time for any of you to arrive. And if he broke out of my hold and I didn't have backup he would kill me. So, I decided to talk to him." Pretty good reason. "So what did you tell him? I told him that his options at this point were either to surrender to us or to SHIELD. If he didn't eventually one of us would capture or kill him. When I said that he laughed. He told me that he had destroyed HYDRA and he would destroy SHIELD if they came for him." Scary thing is he probably can. "Go on." I urged her. "He asked what would happen if he surrendered to us. I told him I didn't know. He didn't seemed surprised at that and told me to get out of his car. Then I came back to you guys." At least he isn't trying to kill us. He just tried to run. "It's good to know he isn't trying to kill us, but this doesn't change anything. He's still rogue and we still need to capture him. This time he got lucky. Next time he won't. He does not need to be lucky next time," Laura stated. "We have already lost the element of surprise. He will make preparations for our return." The other team members looked troubled by this. And that's a scary thought. "Squirt's right. He didn't want to fight us this time but next time he will. He knows he got lucky. He also knows we ain't gonna stop." Laura glowered at me for the nickname but everyone else looked serious. "We'll let you know when Chuck finds him again. "Till then, dismissed."

I had kept driving until the car was low on gas. Then I left it. There is no purpose in traveling by car. They are still faster than me in the Blackbird. I walked towards the town down the road. Primary objective: obtain firearms. When they came back for me I needed a way to take out their ranged attackers. Preferably without killing. Failing that, killing is an acceptable alternative. Secondary objective: find location suitable for ambush. I was done running. But this could wait until I got some sleep. I must be performing at maximum capacity when they arrive. I broke into an empty house and laid on someone's bed. Due to the exhaustion, I fell asleep almost immediately.

A/N: X-29s skeleton is covered in adamantium. His joints are not. So his limbs can be dislocated and removed if cut at the joint. Oh and you notice how he thinks changes based on how much action is going on? Yeah, that's not my bad writing. There's a reason for that and it will be explained at some point in the story.