CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

IN ROGUE AND JUBILEE'S DORM ROOM

NO P.O.V in particular

Getting all of his "pack" and "extended pack" (aka Victors mate and cub) settled was no walk in the park. Emotions were all riled, for one thing (excitement over Ororo/Storms pregnancy and what they all knew or at least suspected of Nick Fury.) Then there was the matter of beds.

As there were only supposed to be two people sharing this particular dorm room, there were only two beds. Already, Clarisse and Jubilee were sharing one of the beds but Rogue, with her "toxic skin" was too paranoid to share a bed with anyone, doubly so with Jonesy or Roddy.

"Ah couldn't bear it if somethin' happened to uh child because of meh, Logan, Ah just COULDN'T!"

The Southern-belle had almost gone into tears and, sensing and reacting to his mates distress, Logan had immediately pulled her into his arms and began purring. One calloused hand gently stroked Rogues long, chocolate hair while his other arm held her firm around her waist.

"Relax, Marie. Breathe. Yer not gonna hurt anyone, you know this."

When it looked like the Southern-belle was about to protest, Logan gave her a commanding growl. "No but's about it, Marie." When she STILL looked uneased, Logan shocked them all by darting forward, quick as a cobra, and latching his teeth onto Rogues neck in a dominating position.

Cassie's jaw dropped.

Jubilee actually shrieked in pure panic. "WOLVERINE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? HER POWERS!"

Clarisse clapped her hands over her mouth and Jonesy covered his eyes.

But no-one panicked more than 'the Rogue' did. As soon as Logans teeth touched her neck then latched on, she immediately began to try to pull away, pummeling his chest with her fists.

Logan gave her a low, commanding warning growl, his teeth going deeper, his arms tightening.

In all the panic, it was surprisingly Cassie who pointed it out (perhaps because she hadn't been around the school long enough to contract the communal fear of Rogues powers) "Um…..isn't something supposed to be happening to Logan by now?"

That silenced everyone.

Even Rogue stopped attempting to get away, her chocolate eyes widening even further as she realized the Wolverine was still standing.

Of course, Rogue HAD absorbed his powers before, back before she knew better than to try to wake Logan from a nightmare and he had skewered her with his adamantium claws. Given his tremendous healing powers, Logan had held out for far longer than any other mutant could, but now he wasn't showing ANY signs of weakening, and Rogue realized that she couldn't feel any of his HIS mutant powers pouring into her.

Now it was ROGUES turn for her jaw to drop as she froze.

Logans growl turned into a soothing purr the instant she stopped fighting, and one hand resumed petting her back.

Cassie looked over to the blonde Clarisse who still looked shell-shocked and reached over the bed to poke her. "Heah…..has this ever happened before?"

Still mute, Clarisse shook her head.

Mischief suddenly dancing in her eyes, Cassie reached over to poke the blonde again, but she reached too far and tumbled off of the bed with a loud THUNK!

The sound made Logan dislodge his teeth from Rogues neck and look over at the other brunette in amused exasperation. "*&^% girl, can't ya stop fallin' fer one minute?"

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NICK FURY'S HELLICARRIER

Having re-established "order", Victor turned back to the one-eyed super-spy. "Alright, here's what's gonna happen; we're all gonna hightail it to this secret lab of yours and I'm gonna try ta pick up the scent. In the meantime, let's review the surveillance footage. I'm assume'n you can do that on this fancy ship of yers."

Fury clenched his teeth. "Of course," he managed to bite out.

"It's a good plan," Steve Rogers pointed out fairly, even though he himself was annoyed with the Sabretooths manner. He addressed this as he looked the feral straight in the eye. "But you need to show a little more respect to your superiors, soldier."

Victor gave the American figurehead a warning growl. "Superior my a$$. I've been fightin' wars since the eighteen-hundreds, blondie. As far as I'm concerned, that makes me superior to each and every one of ya."

Tony opened his mouth again (probably to make some smart-aleck comment about age) but Bruce quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Let's get move'n. I've got a lot ta do." Victor ordered, crossing his arms and looking pointedly at Nick Fury. "Well? Are ya gonna pull up the footage or what?"

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XAVIERS SCHOOL FOR GIFTED CHILDREN

Cassie put both hands on Maries bed and began to hoist herself up off the floor, blushing slightly and mumbling; "Sorry about that."

Jubilee, Clarisse and Jonesy, however, were still gaping at Marie/Rogue.

"Chica, why didn't you TELL US you can control your powers!?" Jubilee exclaimed and her ever-present bubble-gum fell out of her mouth and onto the floor.

"B-because ah didn't know." Rogue finally managed out softly, still staring into Logans eyes.

"This is GREAT!" Jubilee exclaimed, bounding up from her bed to embrace the Rogue.

Logan, however, held out one calloused hand to stop her. "Whoa there, Jubilee."

When Logan used her real name instead of the nickname he had given her (Firecracker) the pyrotechtonic teen knew he was serious and froze in place, eyes wide.

"But Wolvie—!"

"Slowly, now." Logan cautioned the teen, not unkindly. "I don't know if she really got control of her powers or if this is just 'cause I'm her mate."

Jubilees jaw dropped again. "Her WHAT!?"

Rogues shaking hands went to cover her mouth as she recalled something Sabretooth had said to Logan before he had left to go to Fury.

-flashback-

"Keep an eye on the cubs and your mate and mine."

-end flashback-

Rogue squeaked.

She actually SQUEAKED before moving her cupped hands a little bit away from her mouth. "Ya mean…Logan…..Ya mean ah'm your mate?...really?"

Everyone blinked as Logans face took on a cherry red hue.

"Whoa." Clarisse said, leaning back a little.

Jubilee, snapping out of her shock the quickest, was delighted. "Wolvie, are you BLUSHING!?" The teen bounced on the balls of her feet, clapping her hands.

The great and terrible Wolverine coughed then snarled. "I am NOT!"

"Your face says otherwise." Clarisse said quietly, smiling gently.

"You're as red as a tomato." Cassie commented more bluntly while nodding her head, one arm absently reaching out to pull the interested looking Roddy into her lap.

Wolverine turned his growl on his brothers mate next, but Cassie simply blinked at him (she supposed she was somewhat immune because of how many times she had heard Victor growl at her in the past week). "Would you prefer scarlet?" she asked instead.

Roddy looked up at the woman he now considered his Mother and asked, quite simply, "Ma, what's a mate?"

Cassie face-palmed herself.

HOW did she manage to get herself into these situations!?

Logan sniggered.

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NICK FURYS HELLICARRIER

Victor snarled to himself as the security camera footage came up on a huge holoscreen on the hellicarrier, annoyed and at the same time grateful at the sheer number of vid-screens showing. Men and women in white lab coats milled around on the screens, flashing ID cards, using computers and other various machines, filling and emptying glass beakers and writing on clip-boards.

"Keep an eye out fer glowing, golden eyes." Victor instructed the Avengers, standing tall and firm with his bulky arms crossed over his chest.

"I believe I can speed this process up." Genius Tony Stark volunteered, raising one hand as he leaned back and put his feet up on the table. "With permission, of course." His smirk said he really didn't care whether or not he had permission.

Victor growled at him. "Do it."

"Actually, I believe Nick Fury is the so called 'captain' of the ship—" Tony pressed his luck.

Victor roared at him. He actually ROARED, making everyone jump (the billionaire Tony actually fell OUT of his chair.)

"Right," Tony said from the floor, blinking as Thor helped him up.

Tony pulled his small phone out of his pants pocket. "I believe I still have this place hooked up from the last time I hacked the system."

Nick Fury glared at the genius at the reminder, but Tony wasn't paying attention. Holding his phone up infront of him he began pressing buttons.

"Okay, I'm running the scan for any flash of the color gold….."

The screens began to flicker at extremely fast speeds, showing flashes of gold; gold watches, gold liquid in a beaker, the light of a golden sun after it had risen a little flashing on a window-pane.

"…..okay, now let's break it down to gold eyes." Tony continued, pressing some more buttons, his eyes flickering from his phone to the screens then back to his phone continuously. "Aaaannnnnd, bingo!"

All of the little screens merged together to become one big screen showing a tall, brawny-looking man with tiny little spectacles walking in the lab coat standard to Furys scientists. The eyes behind his glasses were flashing a brilliant, dazzling gold.

Victor looked over to Nick Fury. "Okay, One-Eye, who is that SUPPOSED ta be?"

The super-spy gaped for a second before he caught himself and shut his mouth. "That's Lewis Evans, a brilliant scientist who helped break down the chemical compound of the Infinity Serum."

"Correction," Victor growled, looking back at the screens. "That's the shapeshifter who LOOKS like Lewis Evans. Alright one-eye, how do you get ahold of yer workers?"

Nick Fury blinked at him, anger rising in him regarding the scientist so that it clouded his attention for the moment. "What?" he asked, snapping his mind back on track with an intense focus.

Victor growled. "Yer WORKERS, Fury! We need to find out where the REAL Lewis Evans is…..if he's even still alive. " The feral smirked and Fury glared at him. "So get ahold of the guy."

Fury bit his cheek as he turned to his head of security. "Greaves! Contact Lewis Evans, NOW! Get a video feed. I want to know the last time he sneezed and called his Mommy!"

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VICTOR CREED / SABRETOOTH

His temper was rising, as was his worry, but he stood as still as a rock in a tempest, though, if he had had a tail, it certainly would be lashing right now. Had it really only been a week since he had met his mate? A week and a few days since he had been completely feral?

Now he was practically commanding Nick Furys Team of Avengers, and his thoughts keep turning to his mate and cub back at the mansion, as well as his brother and all the other cubs.

It was almost one in the morning now. Had Jimmy managed to get his frail and cub to sleep? What about the bugs his cub needed to eat for breakfast? And the rest of the cubs? Would the bear and deer they had caught earlier in that week still be enough? Probably not. He would have to return soon so that either he or Logan could go hunting again. And what about his list?

Victor let a snarl entirely unrelated to the vid-screens. He was going to have to give his little brother a call.