Chapter 2
The wolverine leaned dismissively against the bars of the cage, his left arm arched above his head holding the weight of his heavily muscled body. The chain links biting into his skin, sweat trickling over his bare abs that quivered slightly from exertion then still, he took no notice. He doesn't care about anything, he doesn't care about anyone. He's the wolverine, why should he. His right hand comes to his mouth, a cigar captured between two fingers; he takes a drag inhaling the smoke like air. He waits a moment, then exhales, the smoke billowing up and disappearing like mist.
Until this moment Logan has taken no notice of the crowed surrounding the cage, their boos, hisses and cheers mean nothing. Half of them are out of it the others are drunk, gambling morons. He can smell the alcohol, almost taste it. it lays heavy and thick in the air intoxicating to breath in as it taints the stifling air. The microphone buzzes behind him, it announces an new challenger but Logan takes no notice of this challenger, why should he, it's unimportant he'll be on the floor soon and Logan will be out of here.
The first hit comes, a kick just below mid back, internal organs rupture then heal instantly but Logan still falls to the floor. Another and another to the stomach, then the challenger go's for a punch. Its met mid air by Logan's, he hears the metal on his bones clash together, the knuckles in his opponents hand cracking, the scream o unexpected pain. The wolverine got up, closing in on his prey like the predator he was meant to be, this is as close as he ever comes. Another punch, his own, making unhampered contact with his skull, another crack can be heard but only by wolverine. He strikes again, knee making contact with the groin officially incapacitating his opponent. The bell sounds, it's over but wolverine throws in another kick, he's cold hearted, at least he thinks he is.
He's done for the night now, he turns and walks out of the cage lighting another cigar he heads back to his truck to change. They know he'll be back for a drink and his money then he'll go like always.
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few minutes later...
The bars almost empty now, the main drunks have left the fight over they have better things to do now. The cage ref and his hooker count the money, there disappointed, a trucker asleep on one of the sofa chairs, what he's dreaming about is better left unsaid. A girl afraid, confused and scared sitting at the bar, he can smell something on her, something he's smelt before, something not completely human. He heads that way, she won't provoke trouble. He sat down pulling out change and a cigar which he placed in his mouth.
"A beer"
The bar tender turned away, few moments later a drink clanged onto the table along with his winnings, it wasn't much but it would do for now. He glanced up and met the girl's eyes; he knew they'd followed the transaction between him and the bar tender. He glared at her slightly; he had no time for pick pockets. She looked away down at the bar, glancing at him then looking away again. He was used to that. A news flash registered dimly at the back of his mind, he didn't care for the news if it didn't bother him. The scent of rigid fear filled his senses; he looked at the girl she was staring intently at the T.V. hanging above the bar. Her eyes were wide and she leant slightly forward in her seat.
Logan listened to the reporter closely "...leaders of over 200 nations will discuss issues from the world's economic climate and weapon treaties to the mutant phenomenon..." So that's what they were calling it then, a phenomenon, that's what he was? "...and its impact on our world stage..." was this what the girl was scared about...mutants? He wondered how she would feel if she knew she was sitting a few feet away from one that could kill her without a thought. But he wouldn't do that, he wasn't like that, killing was not something he looked on with good humour though his demeanour would tell you otherwise.
Heavy boots crunched against the ground behind him, two pairs of feet headed for him...great.
"You owe me some money." Even better and ass hole with a grudge. Logan turned to face him, it was the cage fighter from earlier, sore loser much.
"Come on Stuart, let's do this somewhere else."
"No man takes a beating like that without a mark to show for it!"
Logan turned back to the bar, this had happened before, almost too many times. He knew how it would play out and he was pissed already.
"I know what you are." Logan could smell the alcohol mixing with his rancid breath.
"You lost your money, you keep this up you'll lose something else." The threat wasn't fake, the man could tell that but he was too far gone to back out now and he had a weapon, what he wasn't expecting and neither was Logan was that the girl sitting at the bar who had watched the whole thing progress with wide eyes to yell out a warning.
"Look out!" Logan spun on instinct, dodging the knife with ease. He pinned the attacker against a handy wooden pillar. Two adamantium claws protruding from the gaps between his knuckles of his right hand resting either side of the man's throat. A third, centralised, slowly slid through the skin between the middle gap of knuckles aiming straight for the centre of the man's throat resting against the skin there not fully unsheathed. The man daren't move. Logan stared a feral look in his eyes.
The cock of a shot gun directly behind him announced the bar tender. Logan could almost taste the fear pouring off him. He turned his head slightly.
"Get out of my bar freak." The voice shook. Logan really didn't want to get shot right now; he really could be bothered with it. The claws on his left hand unsheathed themselves and before you could blink the gun was in halves spilling gunpowder onto the floor. He looked between the two men and then to the girl at the bar like he'd just realised she was still there. She looked at him eyes wide with fear, shock? He could handle making men like the two he had pinned shit themselves but kids were different. Every wolf had a soft spot. One more deadly look at the two and his claws were sheathed, the wolverine walked out leaving terror in his wake and the girl left alone with the men. She soon followed Logan out.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Logan sat in the cabin of his truck. It'd been a while since he'd needed his claws and he'd forgotten how they stung. He rubbed the feeling back into his hands, f—k this place. He started the engine and somewhere at the back of his mind he hoped the girl would be okay.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
sometime in the early morning
It'd been a few hours since the incident in the bar and Logan had calmed himself somewhat, he was now only slightly pissed so in that case back to his normal mood. He was listening carefully. He'd heard several sounds coming from the trailer but was unable to pinpoint them. A small thump...that was it whatever it was he was getting rid of it. He slowed to a complete stop and got out onto the road. Walking back to his trailer he noticed that the green tarpaulin had moved, it almost resembled someone. He sniffed the air; well he didn't need to worry about the girl anymore. He poked her twice and pulled the tarp away.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm sorry, I needed a ride, thought you might help me." Her accent was southern. Texas. He hated stowaway's they were a waste of time, he didn't want the company or the nuisance.
"Get out."
"Where am I supposed to go?"
"I dunno."
"You don't know or you don't care?"
"Pick one!" Logan turned away, somewhere in his mind he could hear it saying that was harsh, but he didn't care nobody had helped him.
"I saved your life"
"No you didn't" He got in the cabin and drove away. He guessed he owed her something she did stop him getting stabbed. He stopped the truck, reluctant of his feeling nature, and waited for the girl to catch up. She was just a kid anyway and he didn't want her death on his mind. Killing kids even indirectly was wrong.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
It had been a while since he'd chucked her out of the trailer and let her get into the cabin and so far it had proceeded in silence and Logan was happy with that.
"You don't have anything to eat do you?" Logan chucked a chocolate bar into her lap hoping that would keep her quite for a while. It didn't.
"I'm Rouge." He ignored her, it worked on the women who pestered for his attention. It didn't work.
"Were you in the army, doesn't, doesn't that mean you were in the army?" He was being intentionally frosty as he put the dog tags down his shirt. He'd given her a ride and food, he wasn't talking to her.
"Wow." God dammit.
"What!"
"Suddenly my life doesn't look so bad."
"Well if you preferred the road?" That ought to keep her quiet.
"No no." She paused looking back into the home. "It looks great, looks cosy." They both knew she was lying through her teeth, which for that matter were chattering. She was rubbing her hands together the veins popping out in the cold.
"Look, put your hands on the heater." He made to pull her hands there but she flinched away grabbing the gloves and pulling them onto her arms. "I ain't gonna hurt ya kid."
"Its nothing personal, just that when people touch my skin something happens."
"What?"
"I don't know they just get hurt." He found that strange, hard to believe almost, but he didn't pry.
"Fair enough"
It was silent for a moment.
"When they come out dose it hurt?"
"Every time." That ended that conversation. But Logan found he missed the talk because it had been so long before he'd actually talked to anyone in a long time.
"So what kind of a name is Rouge?"
"I dunno, what kind of a name is Wolverine?" Logan found himself actually liking her attitude.
"My names Logan"
"Marie...you know you should wear a seat belt."
"Look I don't need advice on—" Logan was flung forward through the windscreen and before he could register anything was out cold.
Marie on the other hand was just coming round feeling dizzy but none the less alive, she really couldn't say the same for Logan though. He was still and unmoving, the one childish part of her mind that wasn't in shock or panic was laughing sadistically shouting I told you so. It was so ironic that she wanted to laugh had she not been in complete shock she probably would have. She was relieved when she saw movement, Logan was alive, and that was good. Knowing this she tried to move but found the seat belt stuck, she pulled erratically it didn't even budge.
Logan who had gotten up after his fall was stumbling towards his truck. It had been stopped by a tree, a big tree. Shit that was going to leave a mark. He saw movement through the shattered window screen.
"You alright?" She seemed to be in shock, but he needed her to answer him. "Kid, you alright?"
She paused for a moment as she came to her senses again.
"I'm stuck!"
Logan made to go round the tree but something caught his eye. The stump that the tree had left behind. Even he could see the wood was healthy, that was natural, and this was a trap. He sniffed the air scanning the tree line. His head snapped to the right looking straight into a bush when the ambusher leapt out at him tackling him back to the ground. The mutant, he guessed, tossed him into a birch tree that snapped in half sending Logan rolling down a small snow hill. Logan picked himself up but didn't have time to think before he was hit by the birch he snapped and his world went black.
Marie had watch the fight ensue and was desperately trying to escape not only from whoever that man was but the truck was on fire and she could smell gas, she knew that could not be good (see kiddies science class teaches us something, moving on). Behind the man were two others, a flurry of snow blocked Marie's vision, she hadn't even noticed it started snowing, and a flash of bright red light shone through the snow that cleared leaving only the two people. The man was nowhere to be seen.
Both of them came rushing forwards, the man sending, what only could be, lasers from his eyes and the woman offering her hand. Marie hoped they were here to help. She ran with the woman away from the truck but they didn't get far before it exploded and they were thrown to the floor.
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a few hours later and miles away (jets don't ya love em)
Logan had no idea where he was. Nothing smelled familiar. It smelled clinical and metallic, almost like a hospital but not quite and there was a hint of cinnamon, a person was here. He felt a hand on his arm then the prick of a needle. He moved on instinct, the movement was quick, he had the assailant in a strangle hold lock. He looked down a woman, he dropped her without a second thought and ran from the room, he was against hurting women as well. A door slid shut behind him. He felt guilty for a moment as he heard the woman gasp for breath, that was his fault.
He was right about it not being a hospital; he didn't know what it was, a lab, a institute? He didn't like it whatever it was. He ripped the suction cups from his bare chest and threw the needle that was in his arm on the floor where it clattered and rolled away. He walked down the corridor towards a glass wall that held something like suits behind it.
"He's over here"
What was that? Where was it coming from? Logan looked back and forth, searching, sensing for someone out there. He looked back to the wall, there were suits of all sizes, men and women alike, what was this place? He glanced to the right and noticed a door slightly ajar to the others. There were clothes inside, gym clothes. He took a hood and pulled it over himself. Then walked back into the corridor again, back toward the 'medical' room where he guessed the woman still was.
"Where are you going?" Logan flinched away from the door sliding along the wall into an alcove. The whirr of mechanical machinery caught his attention. The wall slid apart.
"In here" Logan entered the elevator searching for someone, anything that could make that voice. There was no one and he was trapped the door were closing.
When they opened again he was somewhere completely different, it looked like a hotel, the walls made of wooden panelling. He glanced quickly from side to side searching the corridor for any movement. There was nothing. He made his way down a corridor to his left.
"Where are you going?"
"This way"
"He's over there"
"This way"
Logan backed away down the corridor hiding at the first opportunity, and alcove of a window. He glanced around for somewhere better, a way out. Across from him were two doors he made towards them.
"Hurry this way" These people were everywhere.
He ran to hide behind a pillar just missing a group of the people, they looked like college students. As soon as they were gone he jumped a able and made for a door not bothering to check what was behind it before shutting himself in. He turned and faced about seven seated students and an old man.
"Good morning Logan." That was the voice that had been chasing him; this could be a trap, a false sense of security. Logan glanced around waiting for someone to jump him no one did. the students got up and left, a girl running back at the last moment to collect a forgotten bag.
"Bye professor"
"Good bye Kitty" The girl ran through the door. Logan did a double take.
"Physics" the 'professor' said "I'm Charles Xavier, would you like some breakfast." What was this man, a physic?
"Where am I?"
"Westchester, New York" That was not possible...was it?
"You were attacked, my people brought you here for medical attention."
"I don't need medical attention!"
"Of course" How would he know?
"Where's the girl?" Logan needed to know if she was alright or if he needed to kill someone.
"Rouge, she's here, she's fine"
"Really" Logan didn't trust this man. The door opened behind him.
"Ah Logan I'd like you to meet Scott Summers." Logan just stared at the hand 'Scott Summers' offered him, trust was nil at this point."He saved your life, along with Ororo Munro who I believe you met earlier." Logan thought back to the woman he'd half strangled the guilt seeping through him.
"They saved you from Magneto."
"What's a Magneto?"
"A very powerful mutant who believes a war is brewing between the rest of the world and humanity," this had to be some kind of joke, this was stupid."I've been following his movements for sometime; the man who attacked you is an associate of his called Sabertooth."
"Sabertooth," What's this an episode of superman? "What do they call you, Wheels?" Time to get out of here.
"This is the stupidest this I've ever heard." He turned to Scott and pinned him. "Cyclopes, right. Wanna get out of my way?"
"It's been 15 years hasn't it, living from day to day, moving from place to place with no knowledge of who or what you are."
"Shut up." Nobody knew that.
"Give me a chance; I may be able to help you find some answers."
"How do you know?"
The voices from earlier played persistently in his head, it was the voice of Charles Xavier but his lips were stilled.
"You're not the only one with gifts."
"What is this place?"
"Anonymity is a mutant's first defence against the world's hostility. To the public we are merely a school for gifted youngsters. Storm and Cyclopes were some of my first students. I protected them, taught them to control their powers and in time teach others to do the same. The students are mostly runaways. Frightened, alone, some with gifts so extreme they become a danger to themselves and those around them. Like your friend Rouge, incapable of physical human contact, probably for the rest of her life yet here she is with others her age, learning and being accepted, not feared."
"What'll happen to her?"
"Well that's up to her. She can rejoin the world and educated young woman or stay on and teach others to become, what the children have pleasantly called 'The X-Men'. The school is merely our public face. The lower levels however are an entirely different matter. Storm is waiting for you outside, she will show you round." Logan turned to leave. " Logan give me 48 hours to find out what Magneto wants with you and I will try with all my power to give you the answers you need and want."Surely that was blackmail.
Logan walked out the door thinking about what Charles had said; at least Rouge would be okay. His brow was furrowed in deep concentration giving him a feral look, well more than normal, and that's how the first met. He looked up at her, his eyes running over the clothes slightly too small but wouldn't be uncomfortable to meet her own eyes. A flicker of fear hit the air, it lasted no more than a second and then it was gone with it was mingled the smell of fresh pine and burning wood. Her eyes were sliver with flecks of gold and they held his stare with defiance till she slipped past him and into Charles's office.
That was most definitely weird, the snap of the door broke him from his thoughts and he looked back at it as he walked away. Something about that woman drew him in, something that left him wanting more. He knew he looked like a fool staring after the door like a lost puppy and he also knew he should stop it now; he was the wolverine who had no feelings.
That's when he realised he was being watched.
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This is one of my longest chapter so I hope you like it. I would really love feedback on this story and I'll love you all. As you know I don't own the X-men yadda yadda yadda. The nexts chapters might take a while cuz I have school and all that jazz so I'm sorry about that.
Thank you to- Aeleita for wishing me luck-and- Of-Light-and-Shadow for being my first reviewer. Loves yous
Charlie