A/N I manage to break through my writers block by listening to Bruce Springsteen, so thank (or blame) him for this. Like I said, I've not really ever done fight scenes, so this is a learning experience for me. Sorry it's taken so long to update, I'm posting the next chapter straight away to make up for my slowness.

And, of course, as I mentioned previously, here will be a surprise. I hope you enjoy...

XxXxX

Mark limped down the street, held up by Quinn. The pain through his body had dissipated little, his legs felt weak whilst his back and chest ached and his head was still spinning. None of this seemed very important considering he had cheated death, and he had realized he was not the only one who had been hurt. Looking across at the girl he was clinging on to for support he noticed a deep gash cutting across her left shoulder. He noticed the wing behind it look painfully damaged; she wouldn't be able to fly for several months at least.

They trudged aimlessly through the well lit streets, flanked by old movie theatres and ill used nightclubs. They encountered only a couple of people, who seemed to ignore them. One drunk man, dressed as Elvis, had told them the direction towards the pyramid hotel they had seen when they arrived. Another man, who greeted them by singing 'Born in the USA' and wearing a pink cat suit, had invited them to a 'Bondage party' from the way they the dressed, which they turned down. Mark didn't know what he had meant but Quinn seemed to seethe at the idea. Quinn was quickly developing a abhorrence to Las Vegas, she thought it was a horrible, bizarre place. Mark had noticed she had been very quiet, and had attempted to avoid his gaze ever since he had found her crying over him. In truth he was deeply touched she cared so much, but also new that he could never let her live it down.

Over the last ten minutes they'd found themselves completely lost, the advice from the drunk man had turned out to be wrong. Mark let Quinn lead them, he was in no state to argue. Tiredness crept over him, his feet were slowly getting heavier, and it was steadily taking more willpower to carry on. The only way he could keep going was to let himself drift into deep thought. This in turn had its consequences, since his thoughts were occupied by his friends.

The last he saw of Caim he was fleeing with Hack and Beast being pursued by a dozen black sedans full of men in black suits with guns. He remembered the expression on the boy's face, one of determination, and fear. When Jake fled with Jubilee, he hadn't looked at him, he was too busy. He never tried to say goodbye, and now he was regretting it, he didn't want the last thing he said to his 'best' friend to be talk of Captain Britain and Geography. He hope all that he could that they, and the others, were safe. But dreadful thoughts of what might have happened to them plagued the back of his mind.

He was too preoccupied to notice that a shadowy figure was following them, it stalked the shadow a few meters behind them before stepping out to narrow the gap. It closed in on them, silently, reaching out with its hand to grabbed mark's shoulder. Movement in the corner of Mark's eye brought him out of his thoughts and he looked around to see a huge hand looming over him. He leapt away, attempting to take a defensive stance but found that his legs gave way and he landed squarely on his rump. Quinn span round prepared for the impending attack, but found rather than a hail of bullets she found that the stranger had stopped momentarily. He stepped into the light, revealing a black uniform similar to theirs. He was heavily built, with messy black hair, thick unshaved stubble and wild sideburns. His uniform bore several tears and holes, suggesting he had been in a brutal fight, but he appeared unhurt.

He wore an unhappy expression that seemed as though it had been etched into his face, matched by his almost unnaturally manly, gruff voice.

"Relax kid's I'm one of the good guys." He said, casually holding up a hand in a defensive gesture. "I saw you guys limping like a couple of stray dogs with no where to go, I didn't want to shout you in case some more of the assholes in suits were following one of us."

Quinn relaxed slightly but didn't lower her defensive stance. She never trusted any stranger, let alone at a time when she was being shot at. Mark cumbersomely got to his feet, grunting painfully before stabilizing himself, trying to stop his weary legs from giving way under him. He greeted his fellow X-Man with a smile, but found only a cold stare directed back at him. Quinn maintained her wariness.

"Sorry, but who are you exactly." She asked, her face betraying her uncertainty.

"The names Logan miss." He replied casually. "Though most X-Men call me Wolverine on missions."

"Logan, that's who Jubilee was talking about." Mark said. "She said you ran off to draw away the shooters."

"You've seen her." Logan said, showing some genuine concern in his voice before returning to his gruff monotone. "Is she OK? We got separated, I tried to fight my way through but I wasn't fast enough."

"The last we saw of her she was escaping from an alley full of guys shooting at us with our team mate, Glue." Quinn answered calmly.

"Damn, why the hell did Xavier send a bunch of kids to find us?" He asked angrily to himself.

"We've handled ourselves well enough." Quinn retorted defensively. Logan snorted and ran his had though is untamed hair, a slight but sinister smile breaking from his lips.

"Yeah, lost in the middle of no where with no way of contacting anyone and completely alone, real' well handled." He said sarcastically.

"And the difference between us and you is?" Quinn asked back, raising her eyebrows to show she was unimpressed. Logan opened his mouth to answer but shut it again without saying anything. He shrugged casually before casually admitting, "You got me there kid, what'd say to finding our way out of here?"

"How, like you said, were lost." Mark asked. Logan smile and reached into his pocket.

"Well, since I now know that the Blackbird is here, there's no need to conserve battery power for this." He said, pulling out a PDA just like Cyclops and Hack used. "This my little friend, is our ticket out of here."

XxXxX

Cyclops dodged a fist aimed straight at his head before kicking in the direction of his attacker, sending the man flying back. He caught a kick of a man behind him and punched the guy in the face before hurling the semi-conscious smuck at another, sending them flying to the ground in a mess of limbs. His finger tapped his visor, releasing a beam of energy hurtling towards a crowed of gunmen, sending them flying. A hand gripped his shoulder, causing him to reflexively to spin round and strike out with is fist, connecting with the man behind him and smashing him against the wall. As the man fell Cyclops saw another stand straight and aim. The veteran X-Man leapt to the ground, just avoiding the hail of bullets before firing back, knocking the gunman off his feet.

He immediately got to his feet and prepared for more attacks, bullets were find near him, missing him by inches. He fired at anyone who moved, but he couldn't stop those behind him, who closed in, firing wildly. A bullet whizzed passed his head, nearly grazing hi ear. He span round again and fired, only to find that his enemy charged him from behind. Something hard smashed his head, throwing him to the ground. He looked up, his head fuzzy, to see himself surrounded by men pointing guns at him. He closed his eye's, bracing for the end that never came. He briefly opened his eyes to see a flash of blue that sent the men flying as if a bomb had gone of in the midst.

A violent, animalistic roar ripped through him as Beast hurled a pair of goons first into one another and then shattering into a wall. Cyclops's vision seemed to blur and was unable to fully comprehend what was going on. He found a hand a dangling over his face and took it, being help to his feet by Hack. She smiles briefly, before turning to the now retreating enemy gunmen, frowning for some reason. He noticed Caim besides her, looking slightly pale and not very alert, with a bandage covering his shoulder. Beast walked back, panting heavily whilst smiling happily. Cyclops's head slowly returned to normal, though it still throbbed from where he had been hit, he guessed, by a gun butt.

"Are you ok Cyclops?" Beast asked.

"Yeah." He replied whilst rubbing his head. "I guess saying you turned up just in time is a bit of an understatement."

"Indeed my friend, it is fortunate that Hack's PDA was able to detect yours." Beast said before chuckling lightly. "I am so glad I was able to persuade Xavier to introduce them into the X-Men, they are becoming infinitely indispensable. Where are the others?"

"They managed to escape." Cyclops said. "Jubilee and Glue fled shortly before the other two, though they went in different directions."

"I'm sure they can handle themselves." Beast said. "The youthful are ingeniously resourceful-"

"I don't understand." Hack said bluntly, cutting off Beast. "They left far to easily, I mean, even with Hank being so charming they outnumbered us ten to one, yet they practically upped sticks as soon as we arrived."

"Perhaps they heard of your remarkable abilities regarding telecommunications and fled, petrified." Beast joked. Cyclops frowned at the feeling of being left out of the joke, along with Caim who up until that point had done nothing to draw attention to himself.

"I'm being serious, it doesn't make sense." She said, pausing briefly before she suddenly realized something. "Unless they found a more important target." She looked at the others with dread, whilst Cyclops instantly resumed his leader persona, returning his expression and tone of voice to neutral.

"Hack, get into their comms, and find out what they found." He ordered. "Beast, scout the area, they might come back at any moment."

They nodded a response and proceeded to carry out his orders. Hack quickly accessed their enemies communication system using a active radio one of them was carrying. she frowned at how professional it was, she could find no reference to who was attacking them or why. She did find what she was looking for though, which sent a pang of panic up her body.

"They've found them." She exclaimed fearfully. "They've found Glue and Jubilee, they're near the Blackbird, they're heading into a trap." The four of them looked at one another in alarm before Cyclops decided to that they shouldn't wait around.

"Alright, everyone, to the Blackbird, double time." He barked. The others obeyed quicly, but Hack paused for only a moment, she found that strange signal again. It to closing in on Jake, it was being beamed via satellite down to a target. What it was for, she couldn't say, but it made her feel uneasy. Deciding not to dwell on it, she broke her link with the radio and followed after the others as they sprinted to the Blackbird.

XxXxX

Jake stopped, whilst panting and leaning against the wall for support. The sign next to him said that he had reached the seventieth floor of the Hotel the Blackbird had landed on. But when he looked up, he saw that they still had at least thirty floors to go. He was seriously regretting the decision to sneak in, rather than go through the front door, as then they could have used the elevator. Jubilee had insisted they enter undetected and so they had entered via a fire escape and had taken the maintenance staircase. It was a long way up, but Jubilee had kept an unrelenting pace which rivaled Lars's at his best, stopping only because Jake had fallen too far behind.

He had considered using his powers, but the consequences should he be caught would be catastrophic. They walked in silence, which gave Jake the chance to think. Self doubt and worry was plaguing his mind, his usual positivity had left him as the gravity of the last few hours sank in. At the time of leaving his friends in the alley he hadn't been thinking, he was too preoccupied with being shot at that all he could do was obey orders. But as things calmed down and the silence set he began to play over what had happened again and again in his mind.

He felt like had abandoned Mark and Quinn to the mercy of the men shooting at them and he hadn't thought about it. He was so racked with guilt that he had stopped paying attention to what he was doing. He misplaced his foot and tripped over the step sending him crashing into the hard concrete stairs. His hands slipped along the rough surface whilst his shins smashing into the corner of a step, causing him make a hissing noise at the pain. He waited a moment, to dazed to move, before the stinging in his legs had become too unbearable to ignore. He rolled over to sit on the step, reaching down he touched his sore shins and winced at the tingling pain that shot through him.

"Are you alright kid." Jubilee asked behind him, her tone was more that of annoyance than concern. Jake was too embarrassed to answer. The one thing he had managed to do all this time was to not look like an idiot. He put his head in his hands, ignoring that they were sore as well. He couldn't handle it, the stress and the guilt was too much. He felt a tear run down his cheek and land on fall onto his lap, then a second and third as he stopped trying to hold it all back. He felt Jubilee brush against him as she sat down next to him, he heard the rustle of her big yellow coat and found an arm wrap around his should, pulling him closer to the woman. He cried quietly, shaking lightly with his head pressed into her shoulder.

"Sshh, it's OK." She said softly, using her free hand to wipe away the tears from his face. "I know it's been hard, I understand."

Jake looked up at her, his eyes red and his cheeks lined with moisture. "I left them, I abandoned them. I didn't try to help and now I don't know whether they're alright."

"Sshh, you did nothing wrong Jake." Jubilee soothed, "You followed orders like you were meant to. Your friends will be fine, Cyclops might act like he has a sword permeantly shoved up his arse but he knows what he's doing, he'd not let anything happen to your friends, I promise."

"But you don't know that, they could be hurt, or worse." Jake said painfully.

"You don't know that either, you've just got to trust in your friends abilities and try not to focus on the bad things." Jubilee replied. "From what I've seen, your friends can handle themselves, am I right?"

Jake paused for a moment, thinking about what she said, then nodded softly. It was true, he thought, if anyone was capable of beating the men that were trying to kill them it was his friends. It would take more than a small army to beat Quinn, Caim was strong, and he Hack and Beast with him, and Mark, well he was the best at everything he did, he was more than capable of taking on a few assholes with guns.

Jubilee smiled at Jake and help him to his feet. He legs were sore but he could walk, he wiped his face with his sleeve and returned Jubilee's smile. They restarted their climb, though at a more forgiving pace.

XxXxX

A/N I'll end it there, it's shorter than I planned but this way I can pour loads of detail into the next bit. The surprise was Logan, but there is an even bigger surprise in the next chapter, that I intended originally to be in this one but it'll do for now.