Chapter 6: Just A Little Intergalactic Warfare
The medical lab was empty.
Absolutely no one was there when Logan, Tyler, and Tony arrived, and it had Logan on edge. "Your dumbass sperm donor was a distraction," Logan growled Tyler's way.
"Where — where did everybody go? Where's Scott and Kurt and Dad?" Tyler asked, frowning as he looked around the empty med bay.
"Shi'ar," Logan said.
"Oh, that's what that scent is?" Tyler glanced around once more, frowning harder now that he knew what name to put with it.
"Where the hell's Noh?" Logan asked before he hit his comm to see who was around. "If you can answer, now's the time," he said into the comm.
"Logan?" came the response — but it wasn't from anyone he had expected. Instead, he definitely recognized Leslie Ann's voice on the other end.
"Where you at, little darlin'?" he asked.
"In the tunnels," Leslie Ann replied, sounding upset and slightly hyperventilating.
Logan turned to Stark. "You mind doin' a quick scan for those ugly bastards?"
"I'm on it," Tony promised as he got started, though it didn't take him long to report that, at least, there weren't any on the premises.
"They're gone for now," Logan said after Tony gave him the all clear. "Get up here."
"Where — is Dr. McCoy there?" This time is was Sophia on the other end of the comm, also sounding upset.
"No," Logan said. "But Tyler is if you're injured." He turned to Tyler. "If you need a bite to eat, now would be the time to get with it. And if those aren't healed up by the time you get back, you're getting stitches."
Tyler nodded and glanced down at the claw marks Victor had left across him, then scooted around Hank's desk and rummaged around for the supply of treats for his patients. Seeing that Tyler wasn't planning on leaving the med bay, Logan went over to wash up and grab the supplies to stitch him up, muttering under his breath about bleedin' all over the damn place.
When the junior squad came up out of the tunnels, Logan was part of the way through stitching up Tyler, though he quickly saw that Tyler wasn't going to be his only patient for the day. Rico and Jana had Noh propped up between them, and it was clear their security chief was unconscious and badly hurt. Sophia and Leslie Ann were both on the verge of tears as they trailed behind as well.
"Lay him down," Logan directed as he picked up the pace with Tyler. "Anyone else hurt?"
"Sophia broke her hand trying to stop one of those guys," Rico told him, his wings fluttering nervously behind him as he and Jana laid Noh out.
"That'll be Ty's turf," Logan said. "In about … five minutes."
"Nobody else got too badly hurt, though," Jana said. She looked around the med bay for a moment with wide eyes as she added, "Noh came and found us, got us somewhere safe and kept those aliens away, but we don't know what happened to anybody else."
Tyler looked a bit shocked when Logan finished up and taped him up much faster than he'd seen Hank work before he headed over to look at Noh. "Grab that crap Hank keeps around for him, Ty," Logan said as he started looking over the damage Noh had and put in an IV line. "He won't hurt me if he hits me," he said in explanation to Tyler.
"Can I help?" Leslie Ann asked as Tyler moved to grab the IV bag for Noh.
"Not sure yet," Logan said as he glared a bit at Noh's wounds. It was pretty obvious that had he been human, he'd be getting stitched up. But with Noh's advanced healing …
Tyler had just hung the IV bag and hooked it up to Noh's line when he joined Logan in frowning at the damage. "I don't know enough about Kree anatomy to help here," he admitted.
"I can download it for you, but… I don't have any extradimensional cockroach anatomy files except what he let me work on during the invasion," Tony offered.
"Don't bother," Logan said before he pushed Tyler back a bit and jammed his thumb into what was clearly a pressure point at the point between his neck and shoulder and a second one near his sternum that had Noh gasping as his eyes popped open and he blindly took a swing. Logan blocked then pushed him back by the shoulders. "What happened?"
Noh's eyes were still wide for a moment as he took a second to realize where he was and then glanced at Logan. "I'm sorry," he gasped out. "I could only get the younger ones out. The others... "
"Before you start — do I need to stitch you up?" Logan asked.
Noh glanced down at himself and let out a hiss and several swear words in his native language. "If I was home…" He swore again. "Stitches would expedite things, inelegant as they are."
"Alright, then you can tell me about what happened while I work," Logan said as he looked up at Tyler to get the stitches. "You guys have two minutes to make your bets before I start."
"On… how many stitches?" Rico asked, blinking a few times.
"Yep. Leslie Ann's gonna keep track of who says how many," Logan said as he gave her a little nod.
But Leslie Ann wasn't paying much attention to Logan as she'd spotted something — a little tail sticking out from behind one of the cabinets of medical supplies. She crouched down low and let out a little gasp when she found the little injured bamf. "Guys!" she called out, running over with the little guy and a look of deep and terrified concern.
The group as a whole looked her way as she brought him closer and Logan waved her over. The little guy was pretty hurt, but when he saw Logan, he started to chatter in his one-word language.
Logan narrowed his eyes as he clearly was concentrating on the little guy. "All of them are gone?" The little demon nodded his head. "Are all of them captured or …" But the little bamf just started yammering away at top speed for another few minutes, and Logan took a deep breath. "Can you get your other little brothers to get everyone that's not hurt to where the kids are?"
The little guy nodded fervently and chattered away again as Leslie Ann tried to baby him as best she could without much training.
"Okay," Logan said, nodding. "I'll fix up Noh, then you're next. After that, you're taking everyone outta here and then getting me and Ty to my place — got it?"
Even as the bamf was nodding, Jana had stepped in and was shaking her head. "If these guys captured everybody, you'll need help," she insisted.
"Yeah, but we gotta regroup where we know they can't find us," Logan said. "One thing at a time, mini-Slim." He shook his head as he turned to Noh and started whipping stitches. "Basic battleground tactics, kiddo."
"Yeah, but you told them to take us to where the kids are — and you and Lifeguard are going somewhere else. That's not regrouping."
"Yeah, because there are more injured that the kids don't need to see," Logan half growled. "Before you get yourself knotted up, you might want to ask what's going on instead of assuming you know everything." He looked up at her for a second between stitches. "Unless you can speak their language and you think I got it wrong."
"I can't speak their language. I just don't want to get left behind," Jana said, though she looked abashed and not nearly as confident as before.
It took a bit longer to finish up with Noh than it had to fix up Tyler, and Logan was quick to offer him a hand up when he was done. "Doubt you'll pull 'em," he said. "But I'll bet Jubes'd prefer you didn't try."
"She and Bobby were close by when the Shi'ar struck," Noh told him with an open expression. "I know Cassie was able to get many of the other students to safety, but… we couldn't get them all, my friend. Jubilee, Bobby, Storm ... I don't know who else ... I haven't seen them since I was knocked unconscious, and I fear they were taken. At least there are no bodies..."
"We'll get 'em back," Logan promised. "If I gotta tear that whole damn planet apart with my bare hands, we'll get 'em back."
Noh nodded and set his jaw as he closed his eyes and tried not to panic as much as he wanted to. "My Jubilee has a penchant for danger," Noh sighed out at last.
"No idea where that came from," Logan muttered under his breath as he took the bamf from Leslie Ann and looked him over. "You don't want stitches, do you?" he asked as the little guy cringed and shook his head. "Okay. Ty, got any dermabond? We'll just glue 'im together." He popped a claw and tried to make sure that the bamf's soft fur was gone all around the wound on his arm before Tyler came back.
"You do it," Logan said. "I'll just make sure the edges line up."
As Tyler gently helped Logan with the bamf, Leslie Ann was hovering nearby and trying to comfort the little guy. "You'll have a nice battle scar," she said.
"Doubt it," Logan said.
"Oh, hush. He'll look so cool and brave," Leslie Ann insisted, waving her head at him.
"You see that?" Logan said, leaning toward the little guy for a second. "They all think you're snuggly little fluff balls that need battle scars."
The little guy giggled impishly and flashed Logan a wide grin as he chattered back at him.
"Yeah, just keep out of my whiskey and it's a lot more believable," he advised, which only got the little guy giggling harder.
"Well, we don't have whiskey, but I did find a Twinkie that Tyler didn't eat," Jana offered, producing the little treat as Logan and Tyler finished their work — and the little guy gratefully took it and chowed down.
Logan and Tyler both headed over to wash up and grab some supplies before they headed back to the bamf and the kids. "Go on — get 'em outta here and then take us out," Logan said.
The little guy nodded and grabbed hold of Leslie Ann first, vanishing in a poof of smoke. A few moments later, all of the other bamfs arrived and quickly pulled the rest of them back to either K's cottage — for the younger team members and Tony — or Logan's cabin for Tyler and Logan and Noh.
As soon as the three men arrived, Tammy threw herself at Tyler to hug him, her eyes wide. "K's still bleeding. I don't… I tried to stop it but I don't know what to do!"
Logan had already found his way to K and was putting pressure on her neck as Noh brought him some supplies. "Tammy, you did fine. Wash up and pick her out something clean to wear. First door to the right. Everyone else, try to just … breathe."
Tammy took a deep, steadying breath before she rushed off to follow his instructions, leaving the rest of them to try to attend to K — and get their breaths as well.
The kids had started to settle down in K's cottage after the initial scare of everything that had happened. Most of them had eventually fallen asleep, tired out from all the excitement, though Elin and Sying were still awake and waiting for any sign of either of their parents.
"This is unexpected," Tony said as soon as the smoke had halfway cleared of his arrival with the bamfs. "Are all of your hideouts this … cozy?"
Both Annie and Kate glanced up at the arrival of Tony and the junior squad — one little bamf had also grabbed Brye from her exchange at the Avengers Tower — but before any of the teenagers could explain what had happened or either of the women could ask, Sying had run at full speed to wrap his arms around Tony's knees.
"Where Mom and Dad, Tony?" he asked. "They comenin too?"
"Mom is going to be a while, but Dad is with Logan and K and the … mini tooths. Or … whatever you call them," Tony said in as straightforward a report style as he could.
Annie and Kate shared a look as Sying climbed up Tony's armor to hang out with his favorite Avenger for a while and Leslie Ann crouched down by Elin to offer the little girl a hug to try and help.
"What happened?" Kate asked a couple of the bamfs, who started chattering away at top speed as Kate just frowned harder and harder the more she heard, clearly trying very hard not to give away how upset she was in front of the kids at what they were telling her.
"I'm sure Logan and company will be here soon," Tony said reassuringly.
"And my dad," Sying reminded him.
"He's part of the 'and company', kiddo," he said as he ruffled the little guy's hair.
"Tony, can you and the kids keep an eye on things here?" Kate asked, looking up from her chat with the bamfs. "I'm going to take Annie upstairs. Fill her in."
"Ah, sure … if you want to do the same for me later too?" Tony said. "I didn't exactly get the whole picture myself, and Logan wasn't particularly chatty. As usual."
"He never is," Kate said with a sigh. She frowned as she looked around the group. "Alright ... Sying, can you and Elin help Sophia and the others take care of the little ones?" she asked the little half-Kree, and he nodded enthusiastically as he climbed out of Tony's arms.
"We've got it," Jana promised. She scooped up the little boy as soon as he was away from Tony, and Kate shot her a grateful look before she pulled Tony and Annie into Logan and K's room to give them a breakdown of what the bamfs had told her.
"Sabretooth was a distraction," she explained, dropping all pretense of calm as she instead looked furious. "He busted through our security so the Shi'ar could get in behind him and take the X-Men."
"What for?" Tony asked with a small frown as Annie started to pace.
"They weren't exactly announcing their intentions, as I understand it," Kate pointed out before she scrubbed both hands over her face and looked suddenly much more upset. "They managed to get their hands on just about everyone on the senior squad. Jubilee, Storm, Bobby, Remy — and they grabbed Scott and Kurt and Hank right out of the med lab when Hank was trying to fix them up."
"But they didn't kill anyone," Annie said quickly, and Kate was sure to quickly grab her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze.
"No, but… the Shi'ar aren't exactly nice," Kate said softly. "And this isn't the first time they've snatched some X-Men. One of Scott's first missions back with us…"
"I remember — he went to save you, didn't he?" Annie said.
"Yeah. And if he hadn't shown up when he did … they were planning on shipping us back to the Shi'ar homeworld for trophies. They're not really…"
"As I understand it," Tony said. "They're right bastards."
"Yeah, that," Kate said. She ran both hands through her hair as she looked apologetically Annie's way. "They totally suck."
"So, too bad for them we've got two snarly rage balls, a couple of Hawkeyes, our very own snarly tooth, and … well. Me." Tony couldn't help but look at least a little cocky about it.
Annie looked toward Tony and cracked the smallest of smiles. "Get them back fast. Please. I'm getting very tired of being separated from my husband."
"Yep, just gotta text a few people …. get some of your buddies to meet up with us ... once we hear from Wolverine. Sounded like he had half of a plan brewing," Tony said.
"It's always half a plan with him," Kate couldn't help but say.
"That … is only because the other half is all snarls and claws," Tony countered. "And hitting them real hard."
"That's true," Kate said, leaning back the slightest bit. "Alright. Soon as Logan and company get back, we're staging a rescue. I didn't like it the first time when the Shi'ar had my little Elf, and I'm pretty sure the second time when he's my husband now means I get to break their faces."
Back at Logan's cabin, Tammy had finally stopped fussing over Tyler's stitches. "How hard did he hit you? You can heal!"
"I can heal other people," Tyler said softly. "My own healing isn't nearly that quick. Not like Logan and K anyhow."
"But you do heal." She squeezed his hand in hers and stared at him, wide-eyed.
"Yeah, but ... he hit me really, really hard," he said with a little smile. "And I hit him back just as hard."
"Yes, yes you did," Tammy agreed, looking very proud of her new husband. She pulled on his hand to get him to his feet. "Where are we, anyway? Did Logan tell you?" she asked as she kept pulling him toward the door.
"No, he didn't say where we were, but … it's gotta be his cabin. I mean…. They have clothes here, right?"
"Yeah, okay, but where are we?" Tammy asked as she shouldered open the door and let out a little gasp of surprise.
"Oh, wow," Tyler said as he looked at the deep snow and what had to be a lake, since the dark ice was visible beyond the drifts that lined the edge of the water.… And the mountain beyond that was kind of … "Wow. Um. North."
"It's beautiful," Tammy said, though she was starting to shiver and pulled Tyler's arms around her as she looked out over the snow. "Definitely not the beach, though."
"I love it," Tyler said with a smirk.
"Of course you do, Idaho boy," Tammy said with a little laugh as she pulled his arms a little tighter. "You're one of those guys that wears shorts when it's blizzarding, aren't you?"
"No reason to change until it gets cold," Tyler teased.
She rolled her eyes and turned around in his arms so she was facing him. "Well, I'm freezing."
"Let's warm up by the fire, then," he suggested.
Inside, Logan had carried K to their room to get her cleaned up and changed while the kids were exploring, though when she finally opened her eyes, he couldn't help but tease a little bit. "You know, if you thought I wasn't givin' you enough attention, you didn't need to go and get your throat torn out."
She gave him a dry look and reached up to slap him, but for as much blood as she'd lost, her aim was awful. He caught her hand anyhow and kissed her palm before he handed her a glass of water. "When you can stand up a little better, we'll go see the kids and get our teammates back." With that, he laid down with her for a moment to very quickly catch her up on all she'd missed.
And then there was Noh, who had been looking around the little cabin. When he found the room that Logan leant out to the girls, he had to grin to himself when he saw the decorations that, clearly, Logan's girls had put up. He grinned especially when he noticed that Jubilee had stashed some music in the room, and he lazed away while K was getting cleaned up just looking through Jubilee's music — and making note of anything she had here that he didn't have on his ship.
But when he found the little scrapbook tucked away in the room, he simply lost himself in it for a while, completely engrossed in the pages that chronicled her time spent with Gen X. He paused over a page that showed a young boy named Angelo — he recognized the name of her fallen friend. He simply stared down at the grinning Jubilee and Angelo in the picture for a long moment.
Tucked in the pages, he also found a few pictures of Jubilee with her family, long before the X-Men... And for just that moment, Noh felt the keenness of loss that never really went away. Jubilee had lost her friend and her parents ... he had lost his entire family and crew… this was a dangerous job.
But the pictures shifted quickly from a glum-looking teenager obviously out of her depth to more and more photos with her new family. Of course, pictures of Logan had a bit more prominence, but Scott and his first wife had a pretty heavy concentration too. Noh hadn't really known her, but she did look strikingly like Rachel. All of the X-men were well represented, and many of the pictures were of her with them.
Slowly and carefully, Noh put aside the scrapbook and seemed to realize for the first time how much time had passed as he quickly slipped out of the girls' room and headed down to find Logan and K. "We cannot delay," he said softly. "My Jubilee… all the others… we cannot leave them with the Shi'ar."
"No, we can't," K rasped out as she took Logan's hands and tried to balance herself a little bit better. "Let's get the little blue buggers and go. I can heal on the way."
"I'd rather you sit this one out," Logan said.
"And I'd rather you give me the fights and attention I want so I don't go drawing in trouble," she countered with a little smirk.
"And I'd rather have my intergalactic lawyer with me than not," Noh said. "My ship is fast — the kids just had lessons this morning, and it is brimming with energy. And the kitchen is well-stocked. We can heal on the way."
K let Logan pull her close, and she draped one arm over his shoulders as they headed out to the living room, where Tammy and Tyler were curled up under a blanket. "Vacation's over," Logan told them. "Time to get back to work."
"Great — let's get going," Tammy said. "Where are we going?"
"Headed off to wherever the Shi'ar have decided to stash the rest of the X-Men," Logan said as he let K take a seat while he doused the fire.
"O...kay," Tammy said, a bit wide-eyed.
"It'll be fine," K said with a little wave, though she still looked quite pale. "Just a little intergalactic warfare. Like Kindergarten."
"Yeah, well, last time there was an invasion didn't work out so well for me," Tammy said. Her tone was light and obviously meant to be joking, but her body language was not, and she had her hand over where Osborn's arm band had once been until Tyler wrapped her up from behind in a warm kiss to pull her mind off of things.
"No, no; we're invading them this time," K said before she turned to Noh. "You have coffee and chocolate on the ship, right?"
"I am married to Jubilation Lee. Do you really need to ask such frivolous questions?" he replied without missing a beat.
"Yes," she replied, totally straightfaced.
"I have enough chocolates and coffee to get us all the way to the Shi'ar homeworld and back," he promised her. "Which is likely where we are headed, as that was where they intended to take us when we were captured and enslaved years ago."
"Why didn't they take me?" K said with a frown. "I'm not complaining; I'm just … curious."
"Well… the bamfs took you here, and they took Scott and Kurt to the med bay," Tammy tried to explain. "Then they sent me here to … look after you, I guess. Since you don't really need Hank?"
"They're weird little demons. All I was going to do was bleed all over the floor anyhow," she said with a shrug.
"Perhaps they thought it was better for you to bleed someplace safe and hidden away and familiar," Noh said with a smirk. "At any rate, we'll ask them later — now is the time to find Jubilee and the others."
Logan had pulled K close again as the little bamfs came near to 'port them to K's cottage — which, Tyler was tickled to see, was also covered with a rather impressive amount of snow. However, it had been long enough that those inside had kept the fire going, and it was warm — and Annie had even managed to cook a little something in case anyone was in need of her stress baking skills.
"Perfect — can you pack this stuff up?" K asked as Logan set her down in a chair in the kitchen. "We got places to go and aliens to stab."
"I can — are you alright?" Annie asked, simultaneously looking her over with concern and packing food away for them to take with them.
"I will be by the time we're there to fight," K said. "Pretty sure it's going to take more than a few hours."
"Yes, unfortunately, I cannot traverse time and dimensions any longer," Noh agreed, though he didn't get to say much more as Sying came running up to him to climb up into his arms, glad to see at least one of his parents after the day's excitement and scariness.
"Tony helpnin me," Sying explained to his dad. "Teachnin me numbers."
"He's very good at numbers," Noh said with a little smirk.
"Sying is really good at numbers too," Chance piped up helpfully. "He can count as high as I can!"
While Annie was packing up food for their trip — with Krissy's enthusiastic help — Charlie had made her way over to where Tyler was to frown up at him. "Where is my dad?" she asked.
"We have to go pick him up," Tyler said. "He's further away than the bamfs can go get him."
"Is he fighting?" she asked with that same little frown. "You gonna fight bad guys too?"
"I think so," Tyler told her with a little smile. "We'll be back soon, we hope."
"Okay." She peered at him carefully and frowned a little longer before she headed off to go help Krissy pack up some food for them.
Elin was on K's lap, making sure her mom was eating, and nibbling with her as they finished up their final prep. "Did you text everyone to meet us at the mansion, or are the bamfs just going to 'port them onto the ship?" K asked. "Since … I'm assuming we're bringing more than Iron Man."
"Just a few more," Tony said with a smirk. "They're on their way to the mansion now. The way Clint drives, they probably beat us back, too."
"They're bringing Miles and Kamala, too — we asked for a few extra babysitters," Kate said.
"Good choices," K muttered half under her breath.
"We're coming too," Jana spoke up, drawing herself up to her full almost-five-foot height as some of the other junior squad members nodded along.
"You know the risks, right?" K asked, looking skeptical, though she wasn't going to say anything further in front of the little ones.
"What's the point of training us if we don't get the chance to help when you need it?" Rico pointed out.
"And they've got my uncle," Leslie Ann added quietly.
"And you need to stay here," Logan said to her. "The rest of these kids are old enough to go, but I'm not putting you at risk."
"That's not fair; I'm thirteen! I'm plenty old enough!"
"No, it's not, but I'm not gonna get your parents in a twist over this. If this was earthbound, I'd consider it," Logan promised. "But I'm not about to take you off world."
"And besides, I could really use your help here," Annie said soothingly, though she was shooting Logan a very grateful look.
"Tell you what: when we get back, I'll take you to Japan," Logan said. "With one other X-Man."
Leslie Ann's jaw dropped a bit as Kate beamed. "That's a good deal, Leslie Ann. That — that's an adventure and a half with ninjas."
It was clear that the young girl knew she'd be a fool to turn the offer down, and she just started to nod. "Can we bring Bobby?"
"I'll tell him he's gotta go — since you helped save his frozen butt," Logan said.
She bit her lip and nodded at last as Jana shot her a sympathetic look before she made herself busy helping out again by playing with Cody pointedly. It was obvious she wanted to go with the junior squad, but with a trip to Japan dangling over her head...
K and Logan took a moment to give their little ones kisses before they again stood close for the bamfs to teleport them all back to Westchester. "Ready when you are," Logan said to the group at large before he looked to Annie. "There should be plenty to eat — don't plan on being gone for too long either way."
"Just leave me with at least one bamf in case you do go long and I need to teleport to a grocery store," she said with a little smirk.
"Hear that guys?" K asked as she looked at the little bamf on Logan's shoulders. "She needs at least one of you to sacrifice from your busy schedule and stay here to be spoiled."
The bamfs all glanced at each other and giggled — and the next few minutes were spent in a very competitive few rounds of rock-paper-scissors before two of the bamfs won the right to stay and eat Annie's stress baking sweets while the others headed off with the rescue party.