DEBRIS
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Jack took out his keys, after they threw him out of the windowless transporter, back onto the street in front of his house.
Just a few hours ago, they had considered him being one of them, but it had changed rapidly. Everything had changed rapidly. They had taken him in, this time it was him who they had sat into that cell, for interrogation, accusing him to having helped the Wolverine escape.
After the vehicle had driven off and he had turned around, the keys almost slipped out of his hand. He wouldn't need them anymore, anyway.
The front door to his house stood open. Somebody had completely destroyed it, like the windows on the lower floor.
A lump in his throat, he stepped closer, walking up his own driveway. It looked like a grenade had exploded on the porch, another one just inside the hallway. As he stepped over the debris of what had been his home, he felt like he had lost everything.
He had only been a hundred yards away from the house, still carrying little Teri, when he had heard the grenades go off. The little girl hadn't understood why he started to run, and she had understood even less why a bunch of men had surrounded them, pointing their guns at them, shouting at them.
He had tried to shield her from everything. And even though the situation had been so bad, he had only been glad that the army had found him first - and not that mutant monster.
He closed the remains of what had once been his front door. The area around the lock and handle was missing anyway.
Everything on the lower floor was destroyed.
Sure that the house was empty, he went into the living room and didn't even care to search the house first.
Logan had disappeared long ago. He wouldn't be back - that guy deserved a lot of attributes, but he for sure wasn't stupid.
Jack sat down at the couch. The glass table in front of him was shattered, too. A full platoon of men had stormed in here, shooting around, reaching nothing.
They had taken the dead bodies with them, but he still saw their blood on the rug. Three parallel lines, must be the marks of the claws. They had dug into the wooden walls, even left scratches at the stone walls, with splash patterns in red between them.
He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands.
He should have never said yes to help them interrogate Logan. As they had asked him, it had felt like an easy job, one without any possible implications.
But now his whole life was suddenly turned upside down.
Kim had had to pick to up little Teri at the military base.
He'd seen her for a few moments only. Had caught a slap in his face from her. He had deserved it. Bringing Teri into such a danger was inexcusable.
He sat in the dark and wondered how he could rebuild this all. Kim's trust. The house. It would be a hard piece of work.
And finally he stood up and started to pick up the pieces.
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"Storm is raging.", Rogue told him.
"About what?" Logan downed the third whiskey since he had arrived here. It was his secret meeting place. And Marie was the only personal connection which he still had to the Xavier institute. He wanted to see nobody else.
That the professor was sneaking around in his head was already outside his comfort zone.
"About how they treated you there. She's a warrior, Logan, just like you. Taking every chance she can get, to fight."
He mused about what she had said, and finally, he came to a conclusion. "That has to wait."
"What has to wait?"
"Revenge on that army base." He took the bottle and refilled his glass, "First I have a bone to pick with someone."
Rogue sighed as she leant back. "I see" She could imagine. "The one you told me about?"
Yeah. The fourth and fifth shot went down but they hardly showed an effect. Sometimes, he drank to drown out the pain from a few new wounds from those everlasting fights he got in to. But all wounds from his last encounter had healed, hours ago. A bunch of bullets in his torso, two or three in the arms, another one his left thigh.
He didn't even know how many men he had killed this time. But it had been them to attack.
Bauer had left the house. He knew it all the way long that they were under surveillance.
And ten minutes later, they had attacked.
"I'm sure he sold me out.", he murmured, looking at Rogue, "He left the house like an abject coward, ten minutes later they already attacked."
Rogue understood how he felt like. Whenever Logan had decided to kill somebody, nobody could stop him. Not even she, although she probably knew him best. "Won't take you long, will it?", she asked, "What do we do then?"
For the first time in weeks, Logan found himself thinking about the future again. Making plans was something that he wasn't used to. Maybe that was why he always fell back to his standard plan: "We could make a trip to Canada."
A little laughter escaped Rogue's lips. Okay, she laughed.
She'd heard him say this answer for so many times. She had come with him on his trips to 'Canada' for so many times - they hadn't even made it there, half the times, getting caught up somewhere for some reason, in the middle of the way.
But she had loved each one of these trips.
Logan shoved a fifty on the table and took the bottle with him as they left the bar.
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Picking up the pieces of what was left of his life was something that he was - sadly - used to.
He had taken off his jacket and shirt, lighted up a few candles because the electricity also didn't work any more, and picked up one piece after the other, bringing them out onto the front porch, stuffing them into large plastic bags and tons.
He was halfway through, with the bloody things and the shattered furniture.
Scrubbing the blood away from the floor and the walls, repainting the walls and covering up the bullet holes and claw marks would take another few days.
But he was determined to do this as quick as possible. He had to, if he wanted to regain Kim's trust that he didn't only live a life full of violence and immediate danger. How she he prove to her that being with him was no danger? Saying this, standing in a living room thats walls were covered by blood patterns.
He had just finished stuffing another garbage bag, as he heard a noise in the back of the house.
Just to be sure, he took his gun with him, as he went back into the dark house, hiding behind a halfway broken down cupboard. Burglars, maybe. People must have seen the unlocked house.
His gun drawn, Jack crouched down. He could hardly see anything in the dark.
Somebody had entered through the rear door.
He heard the ones footsteps, as he strode over the pieces of broken glass which still lay at the floor.
Logan sniffed into the darkness. He could smell that guy.
But he smelt no fear. Good. So he wasn't expecting him - at least he thought.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!", Jack roared and jumped up, his weapon drawn, as his enemy got into sight.
Logan jumped, seeing the gun pointed at him.
Jack jumped, realizing who it was. That gun was useless.
Still, he kept it drawn, like a shield - a useless one.
"You could be halfway down to Mexico already. Why are you still around?", he asked.
"I'm not leaving the country. I'm not a goddamn coward like you.", Logan growled, and unsheated his claws. He heard Jack's heartbeat speed up. "Put that toy gun down. What do you wanna do with it anyway?", he laughed sarcastically, coming a few steps closer. Now he could smell his enemy's fear, slowly rising.
Jack unwillingly yielded back. He had got 18 shots. To stop somebody who couldn't be stopped at all. Not even a full platoon of men had managed to.
Running was senseless.
He aimed, as well as this was possible, in the darkness. No more talking. If he wanted to survive this, he needed to pull the trigger before the Wolverine attacked.
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Rogue heard the shot. She glanced at the house but decided to wait in the car. Pliers, again, she just thought. She'd seen Logan get shot at for so many times that it didn't bother her any more.
The first few times, she had almost cried when she'd seen him stumble out of a bar (where he was most likely to get into a fight) with a bullet or two in his body.
She could still imagine his pain which he felt now, but he had downed the rest of the bottle before he had gone into Bauer's house. He had expected to get into a firefight there.
She looked at her wristwatch. Three minutes had passed since the shot. Time to get nervous. Some of the neighbors had called the police for sure. If they wanted to get out of here without another fight, they had to be quick.
After another minute, she decided to get out and get Logan. Sometimes, the animal inside him took over, after a kill. He'd stand there, examining the dead body like it was his prey.
Cautiously, she pushed the back door of the house open, silently asking "Logan?"
When she found him, she shrieked.
The hunter stood there, looking down on his prey - but it was Logan, who lay on the ground!
It was too late to run. The man with the gun had seen her.
Jack eyed the girl at the back door. She looked like eighteen, twenty at most. A child, compared to her companion. Another mutant, for sure, he thought, wondering what her mutation might be. She didn't run away. Instead, she slowly crept closer.
It had been helpful to know Logan's file. Knowing about the enemy's mutation was the key to winning the fight against them.
Jack turned away from Logan, making sure that he was still out, and aimed his gun at the girl. "So, what's your speciality?", he coldly asked her.
"I... I'm not a figher" she stammered, showing him the empty palms of her gloved hands. "See?"
"I asked you what your mutation was."
Not letting the enemy know about one's mutation was the key to winning, Rogue knew. "I'm a telepath", she stammered, lying, trying to look like an innocent child. Wasn't that hard.
Jack was still sceptic. But he let her come closer. He aimed his gun back at Logan who he still considered the bigger danger. "So, how long does it take your friend to recover from a head shot?"
"You didn't get a bullet into his head. His skull-"
"-Adamantium, I read the file.", Jack looked at the bloody mess in front of their feet, "But his eyes aren't." The blood was already vanishing from Logan's face. He could practically see him recover. It wouldn't stop him for long. He could repeat this for an indefinite number of times.
The girl came closer. She didn't look like a danger to him - just a little girl who worriedly crouched down beneath that monster and softly took his head into her hands, lifting one of his eyelids.
Unobtrusively, she took off one of her gloves, like if she were to stroke over Logan's cheek.
"Get away from him.", Jack ordered, "Get up." He saw the Wolverine stir. The unsheated claws shone in the dim light.
Once more, he took an aim at Logan's left eye, to keep him down with a headshot for another few minutes.
He saw the girl, rising obediently, her hands now both bare - and he didn't realize that the bigger danger was not the unconscious carnivore, but the innocent girl who stood, no more than three feet away from him. Silently, she sized up his naked upper body.
Right as Logan stirred again, short before waking up, Jack leant over, to shoot at him once more.
Rogue jumped forward, pressing both her hands firmly onto his skin.
She felt the pull immediately - sucking up his energy, his feelings, thoughts and the memories.
She had never experienced such pain before.
Screaming, she pushed him away, trying to get away from his bare skin again.
Logan jumped to his feet. He had just recovered from - ? he was clueless how he had gotten into such a situation. His senses led his attention to his companion, sitting at the floor, crying. "Marie!", he worriedly knelt down to her, careful, not to hurt her inadvertently with the claws.
Bauer lay in front of her.
"What did he do to you?", Logan hissed. He's gotta pay anyway, he thought, but I can make it a little more painful.
"Nothing", Rogue stammered, between her sobs, watching Logan's claws near Bauer's throat. "Logan, stop"
He turned back to her. "Why?"
She couldn't put it into words. The thoughts and memories of that man overwhelmed her. "He didn't sell you out." She felt like it was her, running away from this house, a little child in her hands, trying to get away from the Wolverine.
"We have to think this through.", she added, trying to tap into Bauer's memories of the subsequent interrogation, "He knows a lot about that military base. Might help."
Logan had a hard time to calm down enough not to slit this man's throat right here and now.
Again, his Marie implored him not to do this.
He trusted her.
In such situations, she always knew better. She wasn't blinded by the thirst for blood which was in his nature.
He sheathed his claws again and then tore the lifeless body with him, on the run from the already approaching police sirens.
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Took me long to update, sorry.
I'll be faster from now on!