xXx

Hey guys! I'm so sorry for not updating yesterday like I said I would. I feel pretty lousy about that, but my internet wasn't working. I swear, I was going to post the new chapter at four reviews (because Imaninja41 sang a limerick, making that review count as two ;D), but like I said, the internet had other plans.

Some people might find this chapter not so interesting. Its the next one when everything goes down.

Please read and review :D

Six reviews and I'll update by Friday? Haha, and I'll keep my word this time? ;)

xXx

We had to fight twenty more soldiers before Jean and Tigra finally arrive with a stretcher. Eric came down with them. To be fair Dad and Cap fought most of them. I just knocked out one of them when he aimed a gun at Mom.

Jean got to work quickly to put Mom to sleep. Dad gave her a questioning look when she gave him a hug, but her only response was to shake her head and hug him again. That didn't look too promising for Mom.

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked in a small voice. Eric wrapped his arms around me for comfort and I was too frightened to even bother shrugging him off.

"We'll have a better idea of her status when we get her back to the mansion." Jean answered. Seeing my pain, she added a weak smile and said "Your mom is going to be okay Leah."

I didn't have to be a psychic to know she was lying.

I only allowed myself a small sob, and burying my face into Eric's chest. But no crying. Crying wasn't going to help Mom now.

The alarm changed its tone and rhythm.

Cap now looked alarmed, which made me feel tense. "We have to get out of here. Now!"

"Let me guess, the place is going to explode?" Tigra asked.

Cap nodded. Dad and Tigra picked up Mom's stretcher and headed towards the exit.

"Leah, stay close to us!" Dad called over his shoulder.

We hurried into the elevator and prayed that it wouldn't shut down.

I looked at Eric. "Were there any other mutants?"

"I don't think so." Eric answered. "We didn't find any. We were found out too soon and then fighting broke out."

That wasn't good enough for me. If there were any prisoners still here, I was sure as hell not going to let them be blown up with the building. If the private we talked to was right about holding cells on the second floor, I had to get to them and make sure no one was left behind. When we got to the ground floor, I waited till the others exited before pressing the button to go down to the second floor.

Dad spun, sensing the elevators activity. His eyes widened in horror as he saw me go back into the elevator.

"LEAH NO!"

As the doors began to shut, I called. "Doing a last check for prisoners, don't worry, be right back. Love you!"

A cat dragging a pair of army pants leapt through the doors just before they shut. I looked down at the cat.

"You didn't have to come with me." I said, though I was glad to not be alone.

Eric shifted back into human form and hurriedly put on his pants while I turned to give him privacy.

"Hey, do you really think I was going to let you have all the fun? Freeing trapped mutants, fighting, building about to blow at any second? This is my jam." Eric joked.

I couldn't help it. I stood on my tippy toes, leaned onto his bare chest and kissed Eric's lips softly. I pulled away, blushing.

"I, um, I'm just glad to have you with me." I said quietly, blushing.

Eric gave me a goofy grin, "Hey, you keep kissing me like that and I'll be with you forever, Leah."

The doors opened and we rushed out. This level was torn up from an obvious fight. There were burnt marks, fires still going and crumbling walls and ceilings. Dust from the destroyed walls and smoke made it hard to breathe and see.

"Eric," I coughed, "Can you hear anyone?"

"Ugh, its going to smell even worse down here." Eric sighed. "Give me a sec."

Eric morphed his head to that of a wolf's. It was very strange looking, like some sort of Egyptian god with the body of a muscular man and the head of a wolf. He shifted back.

"Down that hall." Eric pointed and we bolted down it.

"LEAH, ERIC! Get back up here now!" Cyclops's voice roared over our radios.

I coughed on the smoke, but answered. "We can't, we found some people down here and we need to get them out."

"Mutants?"

"Most likely. Could Ironman and someone else come down to help get them out?" I asked, ducking under a knocked over beam.

"Leah, we're still engaged in the fight. They have some serious machinery." Jean said, breaking in over Scott's radio. "A lot of us are down and Ironman's trying to diffuse some missiles"

"The place is going to blow at any second, you have to get out now!" Scott ordered.

"Not when there's still people down here!" I insisted.

"Leah, for God's sake, please! Come back up!" Dad's voice cut in.

"Just worry about Mom, Dad. I'll be okay." I said, though I doubted myself. "We'll be out before it blows, I promise."

Dad had begun to speak again, but he was cut out by the sound of what must have been a bomb. Only static remained. Every few second we'd hear another bomb go off.

"They're taking the place down one section at a time. We have to hurry."

We found twelve mutants in one cell and they were in a bad way. Apparently this was the 'experimenting' floor. They looked like they had recently had surgery. A few were hooked up to IVs that kept them sedated while others had gauze wrapped around parts of them.

"Oh God." I whispered, looking at the pitiful cases around me.

A woman, maybe in her early twenties, lifted her head to look at us. She had dark markings around her eyes, making her resemble a raccoon. She was chained to the wall, but she hissed and spat at us.

"I thought you were just going to leave us here to be blown up with the building." She snarled at us. "It would be a welcomed death compared to what you've put us through!"

Eric looked shocked. "Pardon?"

"They think we're MRD." I realized. I took off my cap to reveal my black and white hair. "We're not soldiers, we're here to help."

"Help?" The raccoon woman laughed. "That would be nice. The only help I need is a bullet in the head. Make it quick please."

This woman was so destroyed she wishes for death, I thought. Is Mom going to be the same way?

"We're getting you out of here." I announced, raising my voice.

There was a boy with skin that appeared to be some sort of pliable mirror. He was no older than five had gauze wrapped around his eyes. He crawled towards Eric and I, and when he reached us, he held up his hand to me as if he could sense we were here to help. His arm was shaky and terribly thin. I reacted without even thinking. I reached down and lifted him onto my hip, cradling him against me. His skin was ice cold.

"It's okay buddy, we're getting you out of here." I promised. I felt him nod against me before he buried his face into my chest. I turned to Eric. "Kind of makes you hate humans, doesn't it?"

Eric was doing a head count, his face grim. He went to the raccoon woman and began to fiddle with her cuffs. "Leah, are other's coming?"

I shook my head and Eric looked ashen. It didn't look like we could get everyone out in time.

Don't think that way! Just get to work! I growled at myself.

It took us four minutes to release everyone. Every minute that pasted brought more explosions and rumblings. By my count, only five were mobile and only barely. Of the few mobile, one was a small child who refused to let go of me. Our odds didn't look good.

"Okay, we can do this. Eric, what would be best to carry the most people, an elephant?" I asked. I shifted the little boy in my arms so that I could better support one of the walking wounded.

"I think I can carry six, maybe more? The only problem would be maneuvering through the place. I don't know if I could fit through all the places." Eric answered, chewing his lip. "Plus the drugged people might fall."

"LEAH GET UP HERE NOW!" A voice screamed over the radio. There was so much noise in the background that I couldn't tell who's it was.

"It will have to do." I said. Eric nodded his head and began to shift.

I arranged those mobile to walk beside Eric, to watch for those unconscious or drugged riders in case they began to slip. I also had one teenage boy with arms and legs that were almost six feet in length to ride with the unconscious and attempt to hold them steady. It wasn't a great method, but it was the best we had.

"Tick tock goes the clock, chickie." The raccoon woman sang sarcastically (her name was Jane), "Are we going to wait to be blown up or are we getting out of here?"

"You're a real treat, you know that?" I replied. "You good to move Eric?"

He nodded his large elephant head.

"Okay then, let's save some lives."

xXx

We were moving too slow. It was hard for Eric to maneuver around the caving in building, especially when he was also trying to keep people on his back. Another thing that slowed us down was saving trapped MRD personal. I hated them. I loathed them. But it was hard to remember my hatred for them when I saw them lying under fallen walls and they were begging for help. The mutants with us were outraged that I helped them, but I tried to ignore them. I'm here to save people and it's not my place to decide who gets a chance to live and who has to die.

"Next MRD bastard I see, I'm slitting his throat. Please let me slit his throat." Jane moaned.

"No."

"It would be therapeutic!"

"No, it would be murder." I replied. I felt bad for Jane. She was very messed up from her time here. But I couldn't help but feel a little annoyed with her as well for making my job more difficult.

We got everyone to the elevator. We were lucky that the place hadn't been blown to smithereens yet. Some higher power was definitely watching over us. We loaded everyone into the elevator. Eric, who had changed back into a human, stood beside me. He took the hand I wasn't using to hold my 'little buddy', and smiled at me.

"We made it. We actually made it."

I didn't want to spoil the moment by reminding him that we were still in the elevator and that we didn't know if a bomb was going to go off before we made it out. So I just smiled back. We got to the ground floor, which was even more totalled than the lower floors.

"Okay guys follow me!" I yelled over the sounds of the battle still going on. I opened up my radio, "Hey, superheroes! We made it up! If anyone isn't too busy, could you please meet us on the ground floor? We have some people we need to carry out."

"Eric, time to get big again. I don't know if anyone's coming to help but-" I interrupted myself and cocked my head to the side.

"Leah, what-"

"I hear someone." I checked around, squinting through the smoke and dust. I began to head down the hallway towards the noise. "Can you handle taking the others out of here? I'll catch up in a minute."

"Leah, this place is going to explode-" Eric called angrily as I raced down the hall.

"And when it does, no one will be inside!" I called back.

This part of the building was much more damaged. I had to get on my hands and knees to get around and under the collapsing building. I acuminated many more bruises and scrapes to add to the ones I already wore.

"Hey? Is someone still here?" I yelled.

There was a cough and then a man called "I'm over here! You have to get me out!"

"I'm coming!" I crawled faster.

I found the man crushed under a metal beam. It pinned his chest down. He looked to be in his early fifties, with steel grey hair and a hard serious face. Blood trickled from his temple down his face. I checked his vitals.

"Its going to be okay." I told him in my kindest voice. I attempted to lift the beam, but it was too heavy. Crap. Maybe if I could find something to lever it up or-

"Who are you?" The man asked, his eyes wide.

Hmm, weird thing to ask someone who's busy trying to save your life, but whatever.

"My name is Leah Logan, I'm here to help." I answered kindly. Maybe the guy was suffering from a brain injury. "Can you tell me your name?"

Instead of answering, he started laughing. I'm not talking like 'ha ha', I'm talking full out maniacal, crazy person laugh. This guy definitely had something wrong with him. Maybe he was like Jane, his mind tortured from being kept here.

But no…he wasn't a mutant captive, I realized. For the first time, I looked down and realized that the older man was wearing formal army wear. And he wasn't a low class private either. His tag read 'General Hardling'.

This was a man in charge. Not just some paid gun ordered to harm people but one of the men who made the decisions.

"You, you're Leah Logan?" He gasped for air. Blood trickled out of his mouth. "Do you realize how long I've been looking for you?"

I didn't answer. I didn't move.

"My girl, you are the answer to our problem." His creepy murky green eyes bore into mine.

I looked away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The one who is the cure."

Crap. He knows. How does he know?

"Leah, sweet human Leah, you can put an end to mutants. Forever.

"Is that why you took my parents?" I asked, my voice deadly cold. This was my fault.

"When we couldn't find you, yes."

"You took my parents from me. And you tortured them. My dad is reverting to some savage animal because you torture him. You put my claustrophobic mom into a tiny locker, and fried her mind." I hissed.

"Who cares, they're just some dirty muties?" Hardling laughed.

I stood up and kicked him in the face. He sputtered, and blood flowed from his nose. I looked down at what I had done and kicked him again.

"That was for those poor people you experimented on."

Another hit to the face.

"That was for Dad."

His mouth was now pure red and a tooth hit the floor.

"That was for Mom."

I went for the ribs that time.

"And this is for thinking you could use me." I spat on his face just before he went unconscious.

Despite this, I still worked to free him from the metal pillar. I hated him and more than anything, I wanted this evil man to die here alone. But that's not how I do things. I'm a hero. I managed to free him by using another one to lever it up just enough to get him out from under it. I leaned down, gasping for air, exhausted.

And then the world caught fire.