Scott wanted to slam his head into the steering wheel of his convertible, but Jean kept interrupting his thoughts of pulling off his glasses and murdering everyone in the back seat and the jeep next to them. At least, Lance, Pietro, Toad, and Wanda were riding in their own vehicle. However, that did not stop Kitty, Kurt, and Rogue from arguing with them.
"Guys, will you shut up so I can concentrate!" he growled to non listening ears.
"It's not like we're gonna crash," smarted Rogue. He glared at her in the review mirror, but Jean put a hand on his arm.
"Why are we even doing this?" Lance asked Wanda, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his jeep. Todd was presently hanging out of the moving vehicle shaking his buttocks at the other car. Lance shook his head in frustration. They were on their way to the Presidential Hotel where Magneto had been staying since Apocalypse.
"Just drive," she grumbled back. Pietro was bating Kurt from the back seat. Since Evan had gone off the radar, the speed demon had to pick a new counterpart.
"Hey Rogue...whycha move over to the X-Team when you could be on the A-Team?" Todd was looking for some action, or rather a reaction.
"Hmm...your boss is in prison and your ass smells like warts. Why the hell do ya think Ah'm with them?"
"You can't smell like warts," he protested.
"You can look like tem," grumbled a very sullen Kurt.
"No one asked you, blue boy."
"Well, no one asked ya to talk, did they?" Rogue bit right back. No one talked like that to her brother. The banter continued, and they would have passed the conspicuous sight on the side of the road if it hadn't been for Jean's keen eye.
"Scott, pull over!" Her boyfriend complied without even asking; anything would be better than driving this lot around. They pulled off the road into the grass with Lance soon to follow after cutting off two cars while trying to change lanes. Pietro was lying across the hood of Scott's car before the X-Men had even taken off their seat belts.
Ignoring the approaching Brotherhood, Scott turned to Jean and asked, "What is it?" Jean wordlessly pointed to the field behind them. There, in the middle of the empty space was a smoldering car.
"That could ve anyone's car," offered Kurt, noticing the worried looks that dawned the others' faces.
"I thought we were going back to Magneto's place to look for clues like good little Nancy Drews," mocked Lance as he, Wanda, and Todd finally joined them.
"I'll check the license plate," offered Scott. Kitty grabbed his arm suddenly.
"What if..." she gulped down a shudder. "What if she's in there?" Scott shook her off, but the entire group came to an uneasy silence.
"The plate is XXX-002," recited Jean. All of their vehicles started with XXX followed by the number in the order of which they were purchased. Charles' personal vehicle was XXX-OOO. Only Logan's motorcycle was not in the ordinary. They were not even sure if it was registered.
As Cyclops walked bravely to the car, Lance attempted to put his arm around Kitty, who was shaking slightly. She tensed up immediately, squirming her way over to Rogue who was eyeing him dangerously.
"So, I guess it really is over," he spat bitterly. Jean rolled her eyes, mentally telling Kitty this was not the time for an argument.
"What part of she doesn't wanna see ya anymore do ya not get?" Apparently, Jean warned the wrong person. Rogue was looking for trouble today.
"Who is it? Remy? He's a no good player, Kit. He'll only bring you down."
"Oh, 'cause ya were so much better for her?" Jean sighed. Rogue was not going to let that one go, especially since she and Remy seemed to be heating up. "And it's not Remy. But she sure deserves someone better than you."
"Why is this even any of your business?" Lance reached out for Kitty's hand. "Come on, Kit. I really love you."
"Bull shit," muttered Rogue. Before Kitty or Lance could respond they heard Scott curse out loud.
"Damn it. This is it." Everyone rushed over to get a closer look. Under further examination, they concluded that it was the car Ororo drove, but no one was in it when it was burned.
"Now the question remains, why was it here of all places?"
"This isn't even close to the hotel. If she was taken from the hotel, why is her car here?" asked Jean. "I'll try to contact the professor."
"Wait," said Kitty. "Why are we assuming Ororo was even going to the hotel? I mean, we were going there to find clues...she had no reason to be. We're totally jumping to conclusions." Jean and Scott exchanged a nervous look. However, before either one of them could try to explain the complicated situation that the Professor had briefly informed them of, Wanda spoke up.
"She was on her way to see Magneto. They were supposed to have dinner." The matter-of-fact tone of voice the teenage girl used sounded as if the latter was a normal everyday occurrence.
"What!"
"Why in the world would Storm be going to see him?"
"Wanda, I've told you a million times- Dad does not have a girlfriend!"
"Ve are trying to figure out vas is going on- your stories are not helpsing."
"Actually," said Scott in a louder voice than the commotion around him, "Professor Xavier told us that we needed to look at the possibility Ororo's disappearance has everything to do with Magneto's arrest. The Professor told Jean and I that Ororo was on her way to the Presidential the night she went missing." The startled looks on the faces around him only reflected his own disbelief.
"Regardless of where or why she was going, we need to look at the fact that someone set fire to her car." Jean's calm demeanor helped sooth over the tension.
"Well, it's parked the wrong way," muttered Wanda, thinking carefully.
"What did you say?" Scott paused in his investigation.
"Look how our cars are parked." She motioned over to the road where the red convertible and gray jeep were pulled over. "They face the direction they were going."
"And? This car is facing the same way." The now coal black car was indeed pointing the same direction as their vehicles.
"Which means she never made it to the hotel." Wanda shrugged. "If you were going to ditch and torch a car, would you bother to turn it all the way around?"
"No, but how did they intercept her? She would have to stop."
"Oh my gawd." Rouge's voice was barely a whisper. "There was no gas in the car." Scott looked at her suspiciously. Every word that came out of his mouth was eerily calm and spaced.
"Why wasn't there any gas?" The teenager in question immediately folded her arms and popped her hip.
"Me and Remy went out."
"Out? Where in the world did you-"
"Scott!" chided Jean. "We need to pay attention to the matter at hand. What Rogue is saying is Ororo had to stop for gas. How many gas stations did we pass on the way here?"
"Like four or five."
"Alright. We know where to start."
Logan stormed out of the gas station in an agitated frustration. If Rogue had not have held him back, he may have killed the kid working the cash register. According to the punk with a nose ring, a man had entered the store three days earlier and paid him to shut off the security cameras for ten minutes and go to the "restroom".
Easy hundred bucks for a teenager, apparently. Of course, that made the woman who was pumping gas outside an easy target. And an invisible one. At least now they had a starting point. A three day old starting point, but one nevertheless. It also helps having a natural ability to track anything. Including vehicles.
"He said they parked in the two spots furthest from the door, over there." Rogue had just exited the building and was pointing to her left. "Says they haven't had that many people here since then, so there's a good chance no one parked there." Logan let out an audible grunt and squatted next to the parking space in question.
He swept two fingers through the dark stain on the pavement and brought it up to his nose. "Some kind of SUV. High end probably. Either that or they spend a lot of money on good oil."
"Fits the guy's description. Can you track it?" The Wolverine looked at her like she had lost her mind. He took a couple long strides to get to his bike with Rogue scrambling to get there so she wasn't left behind. Logan was a man on a mission and Rouge was just hanging on for the ride.
The trail led them to an office complex that was still under construction. Parked within the gates were a black SUV and a silver Lexus. Logan assessed the situation quickly, taking in all possible places to hide a human being. There were four framed levels, but none had walls. The structure was eerily quiet as the Wolverine and his companion stepped onto the premises.
"They must be underground," he muttered more to himself than Rogue. When he got no response he whirled around to find her peering into the window of the Lexus. "What the hell you doin', kid?"
"Ah thought this car looked familiar." She glanced up at Logan with a smirk on her face. "It used to be parked in the principal's spot at Bayville High."
"Kelly?"
"Mmmhhh," she nodded. "And this place was somethin' he had designed or whateva for the local businesses. I remember hearin' about it on the news." Logan responded by unsheathing his claws and starting toward the building. "Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the X-Men?" Rouge asked under her breath before taking off after him.
It took them less than two minutes to find a hatch with a stairwell leading down into the earth. Wolverine wasted no time tearing off the top and hopping in. There was a long, stonewalled hallway with approximately seven doors assumingly leading into separate rooms. From the decay and grime on the walls, this tunnel must have been here for years before the office building had been under construction.
Three ringing gunshots and shouting broke the silence. A man came stumbling out of a doorway about halfway down. At the sight of them, he turned in the opposite direction and took off in a dead sprint. Rogue took off after him so Logan tore towards the door the mystery man had come from. However, as he ran through the doorway he heard a fourth gunshot and felt a bullet rip through his chest.
"Logan? Oh, for goddess sake, I'm sorry!" Letting his body reset itself, Logan looked around for the source of the voice. He broke into a smile when he finally located it.
Ororo Monroe was kneeling on the floor bleeding from her face, neck, and arms, and by the looks of it, nursing a broken leg. In her handcuffed hands was a pistol, presumably the one that had shot him. She looked exhausted and pale; her grip was shaking on the weapon. There was a man with a bullet to the chest lying inches from her knees and two more closer to where Logan was presently standing, both appeared to be dead.
"Ororo, you're alive." He rushed toward her careful not to injure her further as he took the gun from her hands and helped her into a more comfortable position.
"Get these off..." Her voice was weak as she tried to hold up her bound wrists. She gave him a small smile before promptly passing out.