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Logan
It went to hell real fast and I barely made it back onstage. They were flamin' everywhere! How the hell had we missed so many? That idiot Guthrie blasted after the first Purifier that went for Cheney and slammed off through the side of the building. Sounds of a firefight told me he had a nasty surprise outside waiting for him. Fuck! Where was Rogue? My stomach bottomed out and I hoped she was all right, that she hadn't gotten overconfident and gotten nailed. Girl still acted like she was an invulnerable tank, but I would never forgive myself if something happened to her on my watch.
The screaming crowd tore and pushed towards the exits like the panicked animals they were, and I couldn't help them. I finally had Cheney under my arm, but she was loopy, dead weight. She had got hit real good with one of the tear gas canisters they lobbed onstage and she couldn't see, couldn't focus enough to use her powers or I'm sure she would have been bound for the Crab Nebula or somewhere the fuck away from here by now. Gas was totally fucking with my senses, blunting my ability to smell and track our assailants.
I was headed for the nearest exit when a few Purifiers rushed the stage. I popped my claws and stayed defensive; one of them took aim and fired and pain lashed down my side like a whip. Cheney screamed, and I smelled the burning of my own flesh over the smell of the teargas. The blaster had pierced my jacket and roasted my skin. Fuck! I had to get her outta there, but all I was doing right then was shielding her. There were five of them coming up the sides of the stage, crawling towards us like spiders. I needed to gut some Purifiers fast or we were gonna get fried. Two more took aim at me and I covered Lila's body best I could. I tensed and a blaster bolt seared across my back, but only one. The other beam fired off wildly over my head as I turned to face them. Rogue had come out of nowhere, bone claws she got from me ripping into the second shooter, sending his shot wide.
The others came at us, and I shoved a groggy Cheney behind a stack of speakers. I took out two of them in one jump, claws out, slicing easily into surprised rib cages. I tangled with another and he actually held his own for about two seconds before I finished him. Rogue howled from behind me, and I caught wind of her blood and the stink of charred flesh. I chanced a look at her and she was on her knees, holding her side. Her borrowed claws were gone and blood ran down her hands and pooled on the floor underneath her. Fuck! The healing factor she took from me was all gone, Guthrie's power, too, from the looks of it, and one of those assholes had leveled his gun at her. I roared and jumped at him, and he switched targets, laying into me instead. I took him apart, but not before his blaster burned the flesh off of my hand. The adamantium bones beneath my skin flashed beneath the dripping gore of my melted muscles. A blazing white hot pain fueled rage rippled from the bottom of my guts.
Cheney screamed, and I turned, barely human enough in that moment to recognize she needed my help. A Purifier had her by the neck and injected her with something before I could make myself focus enough to move. Rogue was headed towards them, dragging herself halfway across the stage in a trail of her own blood, and the smell, the thick salty heat layered over her lavender body wash, pulled me back to myself. The Purifier fired at her, clipping her leg. She roared in pain, but she kept going, and I was right behind her. Cheney was on her knees, screaming her guts out. She started to glow, energy snakin' out of her body in ropy tendrils. I gutted the Purifier bastard responsible and Rogue made a wild grab for Lila. Behind us, more of our attackers rushed the stage. I threw myself into them, letting the animal in me take control, tearing into flesh and bone.
"Logan!" Rogue's voice was still strong but she smelled panicked, something I rarely caught on her. My eyes whipped back to her and Lila. Both women were on the floor and Rogue had gotten ahold of Cheney's wrists, trying to hold her up. Lila was in the middle of what looked like a seizure, and the girl was blazing with a fiery glow that was popping and sizzling from her skin. Cheney had managed to form one of her portals behind them, but one look at Lila's face told me that she had no control over what was happening to her or that portal. The lights were on, but nobody was home, you know what I mean? I tried to step towards them, but the portal grew, spinning energy out in every direction as it did, threatening to swallow the whole damned arena. I knelt down and shielded my eyes from the blinding light.
Rogue caught my stare and I knew what she was gonna try to do, absorb the girl's power with her own, take control of the portal herself. I shook my head fiercely and moved to stop her, but Cheney's power flared again and weighed down on me like a physical force, pushing me back a staggering step. Rogue did it anyway, goddamned stubborn ass, and Cheney flopped to the floor, unconscious. Rogue's eyes widened in pain, and that same glow bubbled up her skin from her knees to her hair. The portal didn't disappear, it only grew larger with Rogue as the fuel. She must have thought she could stop it, but was totally overwhelmed, doubling over in her own violent seizure.
Sam
The stage was a mess; there were Purifiers swarming everywhere. Where had they all come from? We had searched pretty damn thoroughly, but most of the assholes that shot at me were dressed as civilians. Did they buy up all the tickets or what? My stomach lurched as I caught sight of my friends.
Lila was on her knees. One of her portals had formed behind her, spilling angry light across the stage. It looked…wrong. I had seen Lila use her powers more times than I could count, but this portal sparked and pulsed, fizzling with a sick radiance. Rogue was in front of her and held onto her arms, trying to keep her upright. I realized what looked so strange. Lila flared and pulsated with raggedy energy, her powers burning bright just like mine, but it looked like she was in a trance, like her powers were out of her control. Rogue moved her grip to my girl's wrists and suddenly Lila dropped to the floor, Rogue screaming in the next instant and lighting up like a Christmas tree. I caught sight of Wolverine slicing through an army of Purifiers, staggering towards the stage, his arm a mangled bloody mess with claws.
I grabbed him and fastball special-ed him at Rogue. He screamed something at me, but I couldn't hear him over the roar of blood in my ears. I dove for Lila and tried to pick her up; she was limp and cold in my arms. My skin and insides still burned in pain, but I had at least managed to tone down my blasting enough to grab ahold of her. I didn't know what the hell that injection had done to me and my powers. I still couldn't completely shut them off; no time now to think of what that meant. I staggered, pushing Lila off the stage, and shielded her body with mine. I looked over my shoulder at Logan. It looked like he had hauled Rogue up on her haunches, but the light that poured out from her was so bright I could hardly see them, swallowing the two of them in its vibrating luminosity. The portal Lila had started grew with Rogue sustaining it, just like my girl had passed her the Olympic torch.
I heard it before I felt it, an implosion that flash blinded me, sucking all the air and light and noise from the room. The accompanying shockwave leveled everything in its wake, even with my power it pushed down on my back like somebody had cracked me with a two by four. I prayed, doing my best to cover Lila's unconscious body. The portal's energy rolled over us and everything else in its path.
When it was over, I took a shaky look in front of me, seeing enough of our surroundings to recognize we were still in the theatre. I turned frantically to where Rogue and Wolverine had been, knowing what I would find, but pleading to the man upstairs that I was wrong. I bit back a sick sob. My friends were gone, sucked ass backwards by that monster portal into the darkness of the galaxy, anywhere in the universe that Lila's power could take them. I shuddered and fumbled for my phone, hitting the Avengers' emergency number before finally giving in to the pain. Unconsciousness closed over me.
Logan
I woke slowly, lying on my backside, every inch of me sore and stiff. The sun blazed into me, and it took me a second or two longer than it should have to comprehend that I had been inside last thing I remembered. How the hell was the sun baking me? I rolled onto my side, body screaming as it knit itself back together. Grass crunched beneath my shifting body, the blades poking me blackened and burned. Nothing smelled right, except…Rogue. She was a couple feet from me, unconscious, her limbs splayed at unnatural angles. I growled at the smell of her blood soaked into the ground around her. I crawled towards her body. A breeze rushed over us as I raised a still healing hand, its skin the texture of ground beef, to check her pulse. What the fuck? I stopped and sniffed, finally taking a look around. Must be getting slow in my old age. My stomach twisted into a giant knot, the reality of our situation thumping cold in my belly. We weren't on Earth anymore, courtesy of Lila Cheney and whatever those Purifier bastards had done to her.
Rogue's pulse was thready. She had lost a lot of blood, but it had clotted and she was breathing. A quick injury check revealed nasty blaster wounds in her side and on one leg, and six ragged puncture wounds on the backs of her hands from the last time she popped my claws. Her exposed skin felt funny, paper thin over liquid, like she was one giant blistered sunburn. I remembered Lila flaring brighter than the sun. Had Cheney's fucked up powers burned her?
I looked around again and almost wished I hadn't. It felt like I was tripping on acid. The colors, sounds, smells all were similar to what I knew but twisted just a little bit, someone had tweaked the levels on my brain like a television screen. I was on the verge of a berserker rage or anxiety attack or whatever the hell you wanted to call it. I was freaking the fuck out. I pressed my hands to the sides of my head and screwed my eyes shut. All these flamin' alien smells were overloading my senses, I couldn't sort anything out but me, Rogue, and her blood. I took a deep breath, held it. Let it out. Did it again. And again. I opened my eyes slowly.
We had been deposited in the middle of a field best I could tell, no buildings or rocks, nothing nearby that would pass for trees. I stood shakily and turned in a slow circle, shielding my eyes from the hot sun. Rolling hills of…well, grass would be the best way of describing what met my eyes. I'm sure Hank would have been making up a bunch of dumbass words using Latin roots or something to describe my current surroundings, but I didn't care that much. It sort of looked like grass, only growing like crinkly cut French fries, so to me, it was grass.
The portal that had dumped us on whatever rock this was had burned a huge ring in the plain beneath our feet. The sky above us was clear. Not exactly the shade of blue of the sky back home, but teal, with the edges of the horizon melting into purple. One sun, a little bigger, a little redder. I inhaled deeply. Smelled okay, a little mustier than Earth, like someone had just plowed up a field of vinegar soaked mothballs. I moved my limbs experimentally, hopped, the gravity felt about right. We were fucking lucky Cheney's powers had put us on a planet with a breathable atmosphere. Straining my eyes I could barely see what looked like a few jagged trees on the far horizon. They looked to be our best bet so far for food, water, maybe shelter. Food, water, shelter. Food, water, shelter. I repeated it like a mantra, using the rhythm in an attempt to calm my strangled nerves.
We couldn't stay where we were, that much was obvious. We were out in the open, unprotected. I knelt to pick up Rogue's limp form and started walking, slowly. With each step, I tried to sort out the strange smells and sounds around us, tried to keep my nostrils open for anything that smelled animal or angry. What the fuck were we gonna do? What came next? After food, water, shelter, then what? Did we keep moving, trying to find what passed for civilization here? Hard to tell yet if this planet was inhabited, but if it was, then what? Hope they didn't burn us alive at first sight and ask if they had a spaceship capable of intergalactic travel that we could borrow?
All I could focus on was surviving; my brain couldn't handle anything else in that moment. Being off-world before, I knew my healing factor at least gave me an edge if I tried to eat anything alien. Took a lot to kill me if something was poisonous, and I could share that advantage with Rogue when she woke up. If she woke up. Shit, don't even think like that. I put one foot in front of the other and stepped, wobbling. I shook my head and tucked Rogue's under my chin to keep her steady. She was cold, had lost a lot of blood. If she could absorb my healing factor she would be fine, but now that she had control of her power it didn't work unless she made it work. For a fleeting second I wished she was like she was, then I could have forced my power on her no matter what.
No other scents were at the entry site but ours; Guthrie and Lila hadn't gotten sucked into the portal with us. Of course not. An easy way home would have been too much to ask for. If there was a win in this fucked up situation, at least nobody came through but us, nobody besides us was at risk. Rogue must have been able to stop that portal from growing any bigger, shutting it down and sending us through before it got anyone else. If Cheney survived, maybe she could find us, track us down. I was dreaming. If she had survived, a big fucking if, finding us would be like finding a needle in a haystack. I had no idea if Lila could backtrack portals she had previously created or not. I knew the X-Men would do whatever they could do to find us, but we couldn't wait for a rescue that realistically wasn't fucking coming. Best thing we could do was keep moving. Food, water, shelter. Anything else would be a bonus. I walked towards the trees in the distance, hoping to make it before nightfall and that there would be water nearby.
Funny. If I blurred my eyes, the landscape almost looked like a psychedelic England. Things weren't melting or anything, yet, but it was all just a little off, shapes of plants different, exaggerated, a plant with purple flowers curled into spirals, another one shot red spikes in firework patterns out from its stem. I heard skittering, smelled what I assumed were small animals that were keeping their distance from us. The lemon yellow grass outside our crash site looked like it went on forever; it grew nearly waist high. Rogue's dangling ankles swished through it as I carried her, and the noise was oddly soothing, like the tinkling sound of ice on the ocean.
I was getting tired, sweating a cold sweat, choking on my panic. Had to stay strong, stay in control. I kissed Rogue's hair and smelled deep her warm familiar smell, used it to steady me. She needed me. We both needed to survive, to hold on. I needed to find us water.
My heart sank as I realized Cheney's powers were probably gonna fade in Rogue before she was conscious enough to use them. I wanted to scream, but I kept walking for the trees, no idea how far away they were, putting one foot in front of the other.
Rogue
"You've gotta' wake up, darlin'."
With awareness came pain, a pain so intense I turned and dry heaved on the ground.
"It's all right, darlin', it's all right." A cool hand brushed the hair from my face. Everything hurt, I felt like I had been microwaved. My clothes chaffed every square inch of my skin. I was shaking so hard my teeth rattled against each other, the cold seeping into the marrow of my bones. "You need to absorb my powers, Anna, you gotta' do it. You're going into shock." Logan. Used my real name, too, must have been mighty serious. He was holding me in his lap and gingerly put his face against mine, one of the only places on my body that didn't hurt. Hurt as much, anyway. "Please, darlin'." I pulled with my powers and felt his healing factor spread over me like a cool balm. I moaned and bit my lip to stop from crying out.
"That's it, that's my girl," he whispered. I felt things start to weave back together, the agony of healing almost more painful than the wounds themselves. The blackness took me again and I didn't fight it.
Sam
"You are not recovering as quickly as I'd like, Mr. Guthrie."
Dr. Henry McCoy, the blue-furred Beast, looked up from my medical chart and pushed his glasses up onto his nose. "My tests concerning the elusive substance they injected you with, what I have affectionately begun calling 'Surge', the name taken in blatant disregard to the trademark of the discontinued carbonated beverage, have been inconclusive. There is no trace of any foreign substance left in your system or Lila's, yet you are still experiencing pain and she has yet to regain consciousness. Your description of the initial adverse effects of the injection, the power amplification and lack of control you experienced, alarms me. Until further research has been conducted, I do not advise you return to Avenger's mansion. Consider yourself on modified bed rest until further notice. No active duty with either team, no teaching at the school and absolutely no undue stressing of your system until we are in a better position to determine the long term repercussions of the Purifier's weapon, whatever they may be." Paper crinkled under me as I swung my legs down from the examination table.
"Thanks a lot, Doc." I pulled my shirt back on and stepped towards the door but wobbled when I moved. Hank's big old mitt grabbed my shoulder.
"I repeat, you are on the injured list. Until we know if there are any lasting effects, you are, quite frankly, an unknown quantity."
Lasting effects. I swallowed hard and my eyes made their way to the gleaming glass window separating us from the ward's hospital beds. Lila was lying there, tubes and cords coming out of her every which way from Sunday. She hadn't opened her eyes since they had ambushed us at her concert.
"It's only been a week, Sam. You need to take it easy on yourself." I clenched my jaw and shrugged off his paw the best I could.
"Take it easy? Lila's in a damn coma and Anna and Logan are who the hell knows where, with absolutely no way for us to get to them. Hell, we don't even know where or how to start looking for them. If that drug 'surged' my power, it did hers, and maybe Rogue's, too, when she absorbed Lila. Lila's normal range is over a thousand damn light years! Amped up? They could be on the other side of the known universe, if they even landed on a planet at all…and you want me to take it easy!?" I scrubbed my hands into my eyes. Hank's touch made its way to my shoulder again.
"This isn't your fault, Sam." I dropped my hands and looked towards the speckled acoustic tiles of the cream-colored ceiling.
"My mission. They came because I asked them. I…I think I got our friends killed, Hank." I tried to hold it together, but sobbed brokenly like some kid. "They're gone, and we're never gonna find them." Surprisingly, Hank spun me around and bear-hugged me. It was messed up, but I couldn't help but notice how soft his fur was, like how I always imagined hugging Cookie Monster would be when I was little. His voice was calm but stern, and his big chest rumbled soothingly while he talked me down.
"Not one person blames you, Sam, or Lila. Not one person. And no one is giving up on our friends, do you hear me? The X-Men know people out in the universe. My girlfriend has intergalactic connections, and there are the Shi'ar, the Guardians, all of the Avengers' contacts. The word is out. If anyone hears a peep from Rogue and Wolverine, we'll find them." He held me out and stared at me until I looked him in his eyes. "When Lila wakes up, she will help us find them. You did the right thing bringing her here. Rachel, our resident red-headed telepath, has been working to heal Lila's unconscious mind. She says that though Lila is hurt and needs time to heal, her psyche remains intact. Rogue's power did not cause any permanent damage. Her recovery will be slow, but she's a fighter. So are Anna and Logan. His healing factor will keep them both alive until we can find them." He squeezed my shoulders. "Try not to be so hard on yourself. And try to eat something, get a little rest."
I gestured to the chair next to Lila's bed in the next room. "You know where to find me if anything changes." He shook his shaggy head.
"Bed rest, Sam, not butt-numbing-plastic-chair rest. Take a break, doctor's orders. You can surely spare twenty minutes from your vigil to get something to eat." I opened my mouth to protest, but Hank raised an eyebrow at me. "Don't make me put in a feeding tube, Sam." He pushed me backwards out the door.
"Ten minutes?" I sputtered and he growled at me. I rolled my eyes and limped slowly along the hallway to the elevator. The sickbay was in the lower levels of the school, so I headed upstairs towards the kitchen. The new Jean Grey School was nice, don't get me wrong, state of the art, but every day I missed the old Xavier mansion. Cracks and all, it had been home in a way this place never would be. I shuffled along, dodging worried looks from students in the halls. The kitchen, thankfully, was empty. I wasn't hungry, but poured myself a cup of coffee. Yeah, caffeine probably counted as stressing my system, but it was hot and smelled too good to pass up.
I walked towards the windows and my heart hurt at the sight that greeted me. Gambit, Remy LeBeau, sat alone on the back steps, smoking a cigarette. 'Nobody blames you', Hank had said. Looking at Remy's drawn, haggard face I knew that statement was 100% wrong. Storm had called him as soon as a very guilt stricken Bobby Da Costa had answered my distress signal and brought me and Lila to the school. Remy was here by the time Hank had finished his first examination of me, and had been haunting the school ever since. He looked as lost as I felt, completely helpless. He hadn't said a damn word to me. I knew we weren't exactly friends, but I had thought we got along pretty solid. Guess I was wrong. I sighed and put my cup down on the table. This mess was my fault, and Remy deserved to hear the details from me. Wishing belatedly I had grabbed my jacket, I stepped outside into the crisp fall air.
"Thought you quit?" I asked as I stuffed my hands into my pockets and sat beside him. He took a long drag and exhaled.
"I did." His jaw was stiff and he stared across the grounds with those dark devil eyes of his. I swallowed hard.
"Remy, I…" His raised hand cut me off.
"Don't want your apologies, Sam. We find them. That's it. End of story." We sat in silence while he slowly finished his cigarette. I was ready to get up and go inside when he finally turned to me. "Your girl, Lila, I've been around her on a few missions over the years, worked with her when you guys came to stay with us in Valle Soleda. I remember that she's a teleporter on a galactic level, but can you tell me any more details about her powers?"
I leaned back, shivering against the railing. "Yeah. Sure. Uh, celestial-scale teleporter would be the official Xavier-definition. Means she teleports galaxy to galaxy, no jumps shorter than a thousand light years. She can skip across star systems, but she can't teleport across the room or to the other side of the same planet. Not so great in some respects, ridiculously awesome in others."
He furrowed his brow. "Nothing under a thousand? How far out can she go?"
"Her range?" I shook my head. "Don't know how far she's ever pushed it. And with the power amplification caused by whatever we were injected with…"
He crushed the cigarette butt under his boot. "Can she remember where she's gone before? Backtrack the portals she's made?"
Huh. For knowing Lila so well, I knew diddly-squat about how her powers actually worked. I only had a handle on what I had witnessed first-hand. "Are you asking if she could tell us where the portal she made during the attack was headed? I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know. She was pretty out of it when she created the jump, drugged and hurting, and then Rogue absorbed her powers and either finished the jump or…" He flinched at Anna's name and my mouth went dry. "Maybe, with Rachel's help, after she's conscious…" He stood in an angry huff. "I just don't know, Remy. I'm sorry."
He hung his head and moved for the door, but stopped. "I love that girl," he said quietly with his back to me. Anna. This was the tongue lashing I had been waiting for; I was responsible for the disappearance of the love of his life. "For so long, the two of us have done nothing but dance around each other and away from what we both really wanted. The last time I saw her, I pushed her from me with both my hands." He turned ferociously towards me, his red eyes burning. "That will not be the last thing between us in this life. Count on that, Samuel."