Disclaimer: I don't own anything X-men

Chapter 2: Who is Sadie Phillips

'What the hell,' thought Logan as shook his head to clear his mind. He never even saw that punch coming. Well, really how could he have, he was too occupied by staring into those strange but beautiful eyes. As he got up he looked around the alley for any sign of the woman, but she had already fled the scene, and after approaching the entrance to the street he could tell she was long gone. Suddenly he felt a high wind at his back.

"Took you guys long enough," he said as he turned into the alley where a small group of people were standing, all wearing black leather outfits similar to his. This was because they were all on a team known as the X-Men.

"Well, if you quit trying to be the lone ranger Wolverine, and taking off ahead of us then we wouldn't get stuck with cleaning up your messes," remarked the man wearing a ruby red vision band over his eyes. Logan, or Wolverine as some call him, looked directly at the man who had just spoken and smirked. Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops, and Wolverine had never quite seen "eye-to-eye".

Ororo could see an argument brewing and that would get them nowhere. So she intervened by stepping between the two, effectively cutting Logan off from retorting with some rude remark.

"What happened? We didn't see any sign of Juggernaut when we got here," she asked. Logan gave one last look of dislike towards Cyclops then shifted his attention to Storm and her question.

"I don't quite know," he exclaimed. "When I got here I found our friend 'Jughead' lurking around on that roof," he said as he pointed straight up to the roof he had plummeted from not long ago. "He and I exchanged a few words and then a few punches, and then…well…this is where things don't match up… he must have punched me hard enough to make me loose consciousness and fall from the roof. When I came out of it I could sense a presence and I thought it was him, but…but it wasn't." He really didn't want to tell them what happened next, but he it had to be said in order for them to understand what happened. "Instead it was a woman, but I didn't know that before I lunged forward with my claws," at this the group gasped but Logan hurriedly continued, "but, well its hard for me to even understand it now…but she seemed to snap back to life not a moment after she appeared to have died, and her eyes…they were almost catlike. She must have been a mutant, but how can even a mutant die and come back to life?" None of them seemed able to respond at first, even for them it sounded pretty unreal.

After a moment of stunned silence Storm spoke up. "Logan you said her eyes were…catlike?" He nodded and she continued, "Well, I guess it could be possible that she has a feline type of mutation. We've all heard the tale of cats with nine lives. What if it was true and she just so happens to have that as part of her powers. If so, then she very well could have died, in a sense, and come back." When she finished every one of them seemed to ponder what this meant. Out there somewhere was a mutant that had nine lives, and with this thought in mind Logan couldn't help but think of Jean, wishing she were still alive.

He was brought out of his depressing thoughts by a comforting hand on his shoulder. Looking over he saw the hand belonged to a girl named Rouge. She just gave him a questioning look as if to ask if he was all right. He gave her a small smile then his thoughts returned to the strange woman, and he turned back to the spot where he had stabbed her. 'Who was she and where had she come from?' he thought to himself as he moved closer for a better look. As he looked around he noticed cracks in the pavement that looked as though they were the result of a high impact. 'Impossible' he thought as he spun around and began scanning his way up the building. After a moment he found an open window that led to the fire escape. He scanned the rest of the building and it was the only open window with close enough proximity to where he had fallen. Going on impulse he headed towards the fire escape.

Just as he was pulling the ladder down to climb up he was reminded of the others presence when Scott spoke up.

"Where are you going now?"

"To check something out. Is that alright with you dad," Logan replied smartly as he continued climbing. He had been to busy investigating the scene moments before to pay attention to the discussion the rest of the group was having about trying to locate Juggernaut, but his excursion up the fire escape had sufficiently diverted their concentration. Soon he was followed up by Rouge, who was in turn followed by her boyfriend, Bobby. This left Storm and Cyclops standing in the alley. Scott was looking like he wanted to do nothing more than strangle Wolverine for taking off again.

"We should probably go up after them. We've got to stick together after all," Storm said with a bit of a sigh as she saw Logan disappear through the window. Scott just grumbled and soon they were making their way up the fire escape, pulling up the rear.

Further up the building Logan had slipped through the open window and was taking a look at his surroundings as he slowly moved forward, the others filing in behind him. They were in what would have been considered a pretty high-end apartment with classic molding and stylish decorating, if it weren't for the fact that the place was a mess. Papers were strewn all over the place, furniture was knocked over, and the door was smashed in.

"Someone's been here looking for something, and I think I know who," Logan said to the others after he saw what was left of the door. 'So this is what Juggernaut was doing here, but what was he looking for?' Logan thought to himself as he looked at some of the papers spread on the table in front of him. The rest of the team had spread out by now and were picking through different remnants of Sadie's belongings. It was a few moments later that Logan came across a framed picture lying upside down on the ground and as he picked it up bits of broken glass fell from it. He turned it over and there she was, the mysterious mutant, standing between an older couple, presumably her parents and she was holding some type of award. He couldn't help but stare at her. She had long, dark hair that framed her fair, heart shaped face, and her smile was full of gleaming white teeth. Her features were delicate, but after having felt how hard she could punch he knew that that was all that delicate about this woman. Then there were those vibrant, penetrating eyes.

"Is that her?" questioned Storm as she stood next to Logan. He just grunted in the positive as he stared at her green eyes, those beautiful green eyes. "She's very pretty," commented Storm as she noticed how intently Logan was looking at the picture. He picked up on the implication and pulled his attention away form the picture in order to look around and see what the others might have found, but he discovered that they must have moved on into another room because it was just him and Storm left in the main room. He glanced to Storm and she nodded to his unasked question, so he headed off towards the bedroom.

"You guys find anything?" he asked as he stepped through the doorway into the bedroom. Rouge looked over at him from the closet, 'girls' he thought, and Bobby was rummaging through some stuff on the desk.

"Well it looks to me like her computers been taken along with any hard discs. Also, I think I found some identification," replied Bobby as he turned back to the desk to grab Sadie's gym card. At the mention of having found an identity for the woman, Logan strode quickly over to Bobby's side to have a look.

"Sadie Phillips, eh?" Logan said as he stared at the card, looking up he said to Bobby, "Good job kid. Rouge come on, it's time we regroup." Then he turned and headed back out to find Storm and Cyclops.

They found the other two X-Men back in the main sitting room where most of the papers where strewn. Scott was staring absentmindedly out the window with a few of the papers in his hand while Storm was crouched down filing through some still on the floor.

"Figured out what all the paperwork is from?" Logan asked.

"I think I have an idea, but I would like to get back to the school and run it by the Professor," answered Storm as she stood up with her own handful of papers. "If all this means what I think it does, then we need to find this woman, and quickly before Magneto does," she stated with a grim look on her face.

Logan was about to question her further when something caught his eye from behind Storm. 'Could it be,' he thought as he strode past her, going straight to a beautiful painting on the wall. It wasn't the painting itself that caught his attention, but rather the fact that one side was out away from the wall. Once he was close enough he could see that he was right in assuming that it swung open to reveal a safe, which, thanks to Juggernaut, was now empty. 'What were you looking for Jughead, and did you find it?' Logan pondered as he stared into the empty safe.

"Logan, come on. We've got to get back and share what we found with the Professor," Storm called, pulling Logan out of his musings. He turned to see that the others were already out on the fire escape and going to the jet. Figuring the Professor would undoubtedly have better luck in surmising what happened, he too exited through the window, but not without taking one last look at a picture of Sadie sitting in a boat and wondering where she disappeared to.