This chapter has some more mature stuff in it, probably between a T and M rating. You've been warned.

I do not own X men.

Claire walked through the trees surrounding the mansion, trying to shield herself from any eyes that might happen to look out their window. She called John's name softly into the semi-darkness but got no response. In their conversations he had never mentioned where he went when it got dark. The mansion was huge and the surrounding property even larger. After a while her body began to ache for sleep and she had almost turned back when she heard a voice.

"Hey. Over here." said the male voice.

Claire spun around in the direction of the voice, causing her skirt to swish violently as she looked for John's outline in the shadows. Instead she saw someone she could have gone forever without seeing again.

"Spyke?!" she said incredually.

"Hey there baby, what're you doin' wand'rin' around here so late?" she noticed a large welt on his forehead, probably from her head butting him when she left. He noticed her stare.

"Yeah, you hit me pritty hard the oth'r day. Don' worry though, I forgive you." he smiled big. She nodded.

"What are you doing here Spyke?" she asked.

"I came with Pyro to look for you. He waz all worried an' needed sumone to be lookout when he climbed through your window."

"Oh." she wondered how much he knew about those climbs through her window but decided that John wouldn't talk to Spyke more than he had to. She felt flattered that John would put up with Spyke to find her.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"Back over here." he pointed to the trees behind him. "Come on, I'll take you to him."

Spyke allowed her to go first and followed behind with heavy crunching footsteps.

The trees began to get thicker and less and less moonlight became visible through the treetops. She squinted in all directions for John but had a feeling she had just walked into one of Spkye's ploys.

"Spyke! Where is-" but she wasn't able to finish. Spyke's huge arms grabbed her from behind, forcing a strange smelling cloth over her nose and mouth.

John Allerdyce wandered around the line of trees that wrapped around the X men mansion, gazing at the figure of Claire Richards some hundred feet away. As he did so he slipped his ignitor off and into his pocket, then massaged the raw skin underneath it. She was probably looking for him to give him the other one back and he figured he'd follow her, ducking into trees when she turned in his direction.

He watched her pale skirt glowing in the wind, the breeze blowing it around her knees. He watched her every movements with a small smile: The way her arm bent as she used them to move tree branches, the way her hips rocked back and forth with each footstep, her hair falling over her shoulders.

After a while she began to yawn and he started to take quick steps to meet her before she decided to go back inside.

When he was still fifty feet away he paused, his muscles becoming rigid as the sight of Spkye coming out of the trees caught his eyes.

What was he doing there? How dare he show up here after lying to his face about Claire?

Claire.

That must be it. He watched as Claire began following Spyke deeper into the forest.

What was she doing? What had they said? They were to far away for him to be able to have heard. He followed at a fast pace, wanting to save Claire from having to endure any horrible flirting from the muscle head.

He ran into a tangle of low branches that slowed him down and caused him to lose sight of them for a moment. He stood completely still, listening closely to the silence of the night for some hint as to what direction they were in, his heart beginning to pound. Something he was wrong.

"Spyke! Where is-" Claire's voice cut off suddenly. John jumped over a stump and ran in the direction of Claire's voice. He rounded a large oak tree and burst onto the scene.

Claire was lying on the ground semi conscious with Spyke crouched on top of her, ripping at her clothes with one of his arm grown spikes. For a second it seemed as if John were in two places. One of him was standing in that same spot, staring at the scene, unable to comprehend it. The other picked up a tree limb and ran at Spyke.

The tree limb hit Spyke across his back, knocking him off of Claire and sending him sprawling onto the ground. John swung the limb downward as hard as he could, but Spyke caught it in his hands, yanking it out of John's grasp. Spyke threw the limb to the side and tackled John around the waist. The two of them went rolling in the damp earth, grunting and punching.

John managed to get on top of Spyke and used the advantage to slam Spyke's head into the ground with a few punches.

With one fluid movement Spyke stabbed John in the shoulder with a home grown spike. John yelled in pain and rolled off of him, blood wetting his leather jacket.

As Spyke stood and made his way towards Claire, John went for his ignitor. He reached his hand into his jacket pocket and found it empty. He checked the other one in a panic but found nothing. It must have gotten flung somewhere in the rolling. He used his good arm to push himself up to stand.

Spyke had made his way back to Claire, who was still lying half conscious on the ground. He leaned down and caught ahold of her, using a new spike to tear at her shirt.

John, limped towards them, picking up rocks and throwing them. The first one hit Spoke in the back. Spoke ignored it. John threw another one, ignored again. John took ahold of the spike in his shoulder and gave it a quick pull. It slid out part way and he ground his teeth as he yelled, the pain almost making him collapse. Spoke began moving Claire.

He yanked it again and this time it slid out the rest of the way. He yelled out right, the whole time limping in their direction. Spoke was moving to climb onto Claire. John cocked his arm and thrust the spike into Spyke's back as hard as he could.

Spyke's scream ripped through the cool night air, violent and long.

He whipped around to John. Up until now he had treated John like a gnat, swatting him out of the way, but now he was going to kill John and they both knew it.

John backed up a few steps, trying to keep out of swinging distance from Spoke. But then the horns began growing out of his forearms. Spoke pulled them out and cocked his arms back to throw into John's chest.

John knew that at the speed Spoke could throw them and at the distance they were at, John was a dead man. He didn't bother looking around, he knew he had no weapons, no defense. He was going to die painfully. He didn't want to think about what would happen to Claire.

Then he heard a small clicking sound. If it wasn't for the fact that he heard it hundreds of times every day, he wouldn't have thought anything of it. He gave Spoke an evil grin, confusing him for a moment and halting his throw.

John raised his good arm and a giant cloud of flames hit Spoke, enveloping him in blinding orange. Spoke fell to the ground and John allowed the flame to go out. Spoke didn't move, but John wasn't looking at Spoke. He was looking past him to the near motionless body of Claire. Most of her body hadn't moved from where she had been lain, but her hand was propped upwards and a small flame from the ignitor on her hand flickered in the breeze.

He limped around Spoke and over to her. The ignitor clicked and the flame went out. John knelt down next to her.

"Claire? Claire!" he rolled her head to look at him and her eyes fluttered shut. She was out cold.

Once again John felt like he was two different people. One of them carefully slipped off his jacket, winching with each movement of his shoulder, and put it over her to keep her warm. The other sat staring at her limp body lying on the damp earth.

Her bare legs stuck out at strange angles and her arms were tangled in her hair. Her skirt had been completely shredded and her shirt had been ripped open. There were splotches of blood that stained her clothing and sat on her exposed skin and for a moment John thought she was bleeding. With a closer look it was obvious that it was not and he guessed it was from Spyke's wounds.

The night air was extremely cool now and her ripped clothing wasn't covering her sufficiently. Even with his jacket over her he knew it wasn't enough. He thought about picking her up but any movement of his arm, no matter how slight, caused him so much pain he was afraid he would drop her.

John brushed a piece of hair out of Claire's pale face and thought hard. He couldn't leave her alone, even if he thought she was safe he couldn't bring himself to leave her side. As he stared at her he found his shoulder wound begin to prickle with a warm sensation. The prickling sensation quickly grew to a searing hot, blinding him with pain. He clutched his shoulder desperately.

Where Spyke's spikes poisoned? Was he going to die after all of that?

But just as he thought this the pain subsided, leaving behind only a dull ache. He panted for breath for several seconds, trying to focus his mind again. He wiped his forehead and flinched, expecting a jab of pain from his shoulder. Nothing. He looked at his shoulder curiously. He could see through the hole in his shirt that the open wound that had once been there was now just a pink circle of cauterized flesh.

He looked back at Claire, who hadn't woken yet. Apparently Claire's powers could activate independently.

He noticed that the pain had lessened to an ache and wondered if he could now carry her to the mansion. He slipped a hand underneath her head and knees and lifted her slowly and carefully incase she had any injuries.

Claire didn't stir at all as he made his way slowly to back to the mansion. John could not see his feet or if he was about to trip on something and Claire was a hundred-something pounds of dead weight.

He got to the kitchen door of the mansion and gave if several swift kicks to serve as a knock. He knew that out of all the places in the mansion, the kitchen was the most likely to have anyone in it at this hour.

Mid-kick, Logan pulled the door open, nearly ripping it off of its hinges. When he saw the badly beaten boy and the unconscious girl in his arms he retracted his claws and pulled them inside, locking the door.

"What happened? Who did this?" Logan began to ask gruffly.

"A guy from my camp. He attacked Claire, he's still out there." Logan made for the door but John stopped him.

"No." He exchanged a serious look with Logan, telling him that Spoke was not a problem.

"Lets get you two to the infirmary, Bobby, you go get Storm."

John suddenly saw his ex best friend who must have been there behind the counter the entire time. The two stared at each other for a moment, silently agreeing that now was not the time to fight.

John followed Logan to the infirmary wing, where he had often gone for small injuries from fighting with classmates. They reached the large group of sterile rooms and found Storm already there.

"What happened?" Storm asked urgently as Logan left to go look for Spoke.

"A guy from my camp, he attacked her. He tried to- to rape her." John's voice shook a little as he realized how close Spoke had come to succeeding. He set Claire on one of the white beds and let Storm usher her into the next room.

John relaxed a little, knowing that this place had enough equipment to supply eight small hospitals. Plus he knew that Claire was in good hands with Storm.

After a few minutes Storm came into his room. "She's fine, of course. Her ability made sure of that. But you stopped him before he could do anything more than shake her up. She'll have some emotional stuff to deal with but right now I'm just grateful she is alright."

John nodded, and sighed with relief. He was done speaking for the rest of the night.

"Take off your shirt, let me bandage you up." she ordered. He discarded his torn shirt and let her look him over, cleaning out small wounds and covering him in tan band aids. She hesitated for a moment on his new pink scar and then taped up a gash above his eye with gauze.

"There you go John, now you can either stay here for the day or leave, but I'll not have you walking out of here in broad daylight." she began putting away all of her supplies in their respective drawers.

John gave her back a questioning look.

"I doubt you want anyone to see you around here anyway and I don't want anyone thinking I'm harboring a wanted mutant. I don't know why you are here in the first place," she turned around and faced him again.

"For all I know Claire is some sort of mole and this is Magneto's plots to destroy this institutions but I will let my suspicions go and allow her to stay. You, however, must leave." John began to slip his shirt back on as Storm made her way to Claire's room.

She stopped in the doorway. "I don't know exactly what happened out there John, but it looks like you are that girl's hero." she said over her shoulder. "I don't know how you'll react to this. Being a hero is a lot different than being a villain."

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