Summary (Chapter.01): The first meeting….two words, Laughlin City. Things work out differently this time.

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the x-men character in any of the different Marvel universes (Cartoon, Comic or Movie). All owned and copyrighted by Marvel Comics.

Author’s Note: This fic. is going to involve and take from all sources I have access to, i.e. the two X-Men movies, the Evolution Cartoon series and all the comics (Uncanny, New, Astonishing and Ultimate). Lets see how it works out.

This has been in the works from my very first fic. I hope I know the characters well enough to do justice to them.

---

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

“Hey kid,” the trucker’s gravelly voice jarred the woman, nee girl from her semiconscious state. “Get up. Yer stop is here.”

“Huhn,” large innocent dark brown eyes peered from inside the green hood covering the girl’s head.

Looking through the front and passenger side window, she saw the *city* she was in. All it consisted of was about a handful ramshackle buildings that looked like they would collapse at any moment. One of them had lights on inside and from the shadows appearing in the windows, was the *in* place to be in this city.

“Ah thought ya were taking meh t’ Laughlin City?” she turned to the potbellied trucker, who even as she sat inside the truck, was backing up to turn around and return on the path he had come on to leave her.

“This is Laughlin City,” he replied as he scratched his three-day-old stubble.

“Some city,” she mumbled under her breath, casting another wary eye at the dump she had managed to land in.

“Thank ya,” she drawled as she opened the door, which took a couple of tries to yank open. A couple of tries and hard kick to be factually correct. She was truly thankful, not for the place, but for the ride and for the fact that the fifty plus father of five had kept his hands to himself. He had been kind enough to get a decent enough meal, even if consisted of a simple burger and coffee, in which she had dumped a shitload of cream in order to get the most amounts of calories as possible.

As soon as she jumped off the truck, did the driver pull away, causing snow…slush to splash all over her calf length overcoat.

Anther *freebie* which she instantly felt was the frigid winds which slapped against her, causing her to draw herself closer and run, well huddle to the building, which turned out to the only bar in the *city*.

‘Fuck city,’ she wanted to say, but even after spending eight months on the road, she was still able maintain her manners.

-----

The first thing she did once inside the *building*, was cough her lungs out as the choking smell of smoke, alcohol, sweat, blood and urine hit her.

“The best in Canadian backlands,” she said, as if talking to herself.

Looking around, her eyes stuck on the cage in the middle of what must have been at one time a warehouse. It seemed to the center for attraction for almost everyone in the place.

Inside it were two men, who were clearly trying their level best to pound the living hell out of the other.

As if drawn by an invisible force, she found herself walking to the cage. Once nearer, she was able to get a clearer picture, and it was then she saw the most perfect specimen of male body she had ever seen.

He was standing with his back to her, cracking his neck just after having knocked his opponent down….the poor guy was so out that his tongue was lolling out, licking at the dust on the cage floor.

She appreciated his physique, which as he was wearing a pair of faded jeans, was clear as day for anyone to see. He was covered with blood, but as there was no torn flesh or marks of any other kind on him, she thought that it must have been from his opponents. His whole upper body was covered in a light sheen of sweaty moisture and his hair…his hair were sticking out like in each and every direction, giving him a ferocious and intensely threatening look. *WILD* her mind screamed out.

Feeling something boring into her she looked up to gaze into dark, almost midnight black eyes, which seemed to stuck at her as their *owner’s* nose flared. The whole *do* made her stop in her tracks, her own eyes widening as he seemed to grow large right before her eyes.

*CLANG* the cage door opened and drew the attention of her *observer* away from her, causing her to let out the breath she had been holding.

-----

Turning towards the door, she saw the *emcee* enter the cage.

“Gentlemen, in all my years, I have never seen anythin’ like that. Are ya gonna let this man walk away with yer money?”

Even as the girl looked on, another soon to be stretcher *lover* jumped up and plodded to the cage.

“Whatever ya do,” the emcee whispered loud enough for the girl to hear. “Don’t hit him in the balls.”

“Fuck off,” the challenger flicked his warning off.

Meanwhile, Mr. Perfect as the girl had taken to call the winner, was lounging in his corner, taking a puff off his smoldering cigar and a shot of some kind of alcohol that the jaded waitress had handed him, while giving him a clear view of her, uh, assets.

Cracking his neck and stretching his perfect muscles, he turned around and walked to the center of the cage where both the emcee and the challenger were waiting for him.

----

As soon as the emcee made the obligatory announcements and waddled out, the two men started circling each other.

It was the challenger who made the first and in his case, the last move. He aimed at Mr. Perfect’s groin, but just missed and hit just below his jumbo size belt buckle.

‘Thaht’s gotta hu….maybe not,’ her line of thought of thought changed as Mr. Perfect just seemed to go crazy.

The next punch thrown by the challenger sounded as if it had hit a metal wall….although all he had hit was the center of Mr. Perfect’s *perfect*palm.

“AAAAaaaaa…,” his cry rang as Mr. Perfect’s palm closed as in a fist, the *chall-loser’s* fist caught between it.

----

‘Did he just growl?’ the girl’s mouth fell open as Mr. Perfect drew the *chall-loser* towards him.

A loud and effective sound announced the end of the fight as Mr. Perfect let go of the loser and with the same fist that had been crushing his bones, knocked the daylights of him. The punch was so forceful that the other man flew off his feet and landed ass-first on the floor, his body making a loud *THUD*.

Moments later the emcee entered the cage along with two other men, who brought the loser’s newest lover, the stretcher and carted them both out.

Knowing that there would no other idiots stupid enough to challenge Mr. Perfect, he stepped forward and yanked the hanging mike down.

“Ladies and gentlemen tonight's winner and still king of the cage, the WOLVERINE.”

‘The Wolverine,’ the girl finally got a name to pin on Mr. Perfect’s perfect chest.

----

Almost instantly the crowed thinned. Now that the main attraction had ended, the people were going home for the night….leaving the *city*.

Walking to the main counter, the girl dug into her pockets and drew out all her *monetary* funds….one Canadian Dollar, plus change. Her eyes rose and fell from the menu board where the cheapest item was listed at more than double than what she held in her gloved hand.

“Huhn,” she sighed as she asked for the only thing she could at that time….water. The bartender was so *helpful* that he asked if she wanted it on the rocks. Having spent the better part of a year in places like this, she glibly answered, “Plain.”

Looking up from the *super-clean* glass and water she had been just served, her eyes fell on the large glass *tip* jar that stood just a couple of feet from her.

Given the dire state she was in, the barest temptation rose in her, which from the bartender’s next action was pretty clear to him too. Grabbing the jar, he moved it to the other end of the counter.

Picking up her *order*, she settled down on one of the now empty tables in the place. She had no place to go and was in no hurry to leave the warm confines of the now bearable bar for the lovely weather that awaited her on the other side of the door.

She had just started wallowing, when….

….Mr. Perfect came and sat down on a stool at the counter.

----

“In other news…” the television blared as the bartender handed over a wad of cash to Mr. Per…Wolverine.

Her breath hitched at the news story. It was about the mutant *menace*….about *her kind*.

As soon as the story changed, she averted her eyes, drawing the hood of her coat closer, as if trying to disappear. She further moved away, when she noticed the Wolverine glancing at her before returning his attention to the beer lying before him.

“Ya want somethin’ else, honey? Or are ya stickin’ with the water?” the bartender rattled her already frayed nerves, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“No, thank ya,” she answered meekly, wanting the old man to just walk away and leave her alone, which he did gladly.

----

The next moment hell broke loose…well started to break loose actually, as the stretcher-lover came trudging from lord knows where, his piss drunk friend accompanying him, just for show sake.

“Hey,” he barked at the Wolverine. “You have something that belongs to me.”

With those prophetic words, hell DID beak lose, and before she knew, she was crying out to Wolverine, who even as the words left her mouth, had sprung into action and pinned the man to one of the many wooden support beams…literally pinned him, with two, twelve inch blades on either side of his neck, while a third one slowly emerged from what she saw with bulging eyes, was from between his second and third knuckle.

*Cling Clang* her mind started again at the sound of metal hitting the wooden floor and striking against metal. Her eyes saw that what she had heard was what had been the end of a double barrel shotgun that the bartender had leveled against Wolverine's head.

Fearing for her own *mutant* life, she silently slid away, and moments later got under the tarp of trailer of the only truck left standing in the parking area….the only truck she thought she might be save in…..the truck belonging to the Wolverine.

-----

“Ow,” she whimpered as the truck came to a grinding halt, causing her to hit her head against the cold-hard metal side.

Moments later, “Hey,” something poked at her freezing body.

“HEY,” the growl was louder the second time as the tarp was yanked off, bringing her face to face with a very angry and due to the dark, a very scary Wolverine.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” he growled at her, blowing smoke and breath into the pitch black night.

“Ahm sorry,” she apologized as he pulled her into a seating position. “Ah needed a ride. Thought ya might help meh.”

“Get out,” he yanked her out of the trailer, growling as her painful wince.

“Where am Ah supposed t’ go?” she cried out, her voice a mere squeak due to the intense cold and fear of being left behind in the middle of nowhere.

“Don't know,” he tossed over his shoulder, surprised at her actions. Not only had she hitched a ride in his trailer after witnessing the bar scene, she wasn’t even scared of him, which he found intensely annoying….even unnerving.

“Ya don't knoh or don't care?” she tried again.

“Pick one,” he shot her down once again as he opened the driver side door.

“Ah saved yer lahfe.”

“No you didn't.”

----

“Please, Ah’ll do anything,” she pleaded in a last ditch effort. “Ahm just lahke ya.”

“What do ya mean?” that got his attention. “What do ya mean *like* me?”

“What?” she was taken aback for a moment at the sudden change in him. “Ahm also a mutant,” she whispered dejectedly. “Ah really need this rahde. Ah’ll do anything.”

Even with her head hung to her chest, she heard the crunch of snow as heavy feet padded towards her.

“What do ya mean ya will do anything?” Wolverine took a deep sniff, his nostrils filling with her young, hungry…practically starving, scared, cold and *pure* scent. What he also detected, and what was of the utmost importance to him was that there wasn’t a whiff of lying about her.

“Anything,” she didn’t want to look up, fearing that her false strength would fade away.

-----

“Uhmm,’ she flinched away as a gloved finger came up to her cheek. “Don’t touch meh, I don’t want t’ hurt ya.”

“WHAT?” His annoyance grew even further.

“Its mah – mah….”

“Mutation,” he supplied the word.

“Ah can’t touch anyone,” he caught the hitch in her voice, also noticing that her body had started shivering in the intense cold. “Its mah skin.”

“What about it? Why can’t I touch ya?” she thought that she imagined the mildest of concern in his growl.

“When people touch meh, they get hurt,” he smelled the pooling tears. “They – they die.”

It was only through his enhanced senses he caught the last word.

-----

“So ya will do ANYTHING. Will ya?” he asked for confirmation.

This time she merely nodded, not able to look him in the eyes. She knew what she was offering and by his tone, it seemed….do did he.

“Get in the truck.”

----

“Thank ya,” her voice was thick due to her accent and the cold.

“Hn,” was the entire acknowledgement she got, as the truck started moving again.

“What’s yer name?” he rolled the cigar to a side.
“Rogue.”

“What kind of a name is Rogue?”

“What kind of a name is Wolverine?” he arched a brow at her almost teasing tone. The warmth seemed to be working to loosen her.

“Logan,” his right hand shot out at her.

“Marie.” She answered sweetly as she hesitantly took his hand, his large paw swallowing up her smaller one.


“Now Marie lets see what can ya do fer this ride,” he jerked his head to the back of the cabin, a grin forming on his face at her widening eyes.

“Oh….”

-----

Back at Laughlin City,

Two strangers walked out of the now closing bar, one of them a tall, handsome man, oddly wearing ruby colored glasses, while the other almost equally tall, dark skinned woman, with hair matching the color of the freshly fallen snow.

“We were late,” breath-vapor clouded his view of his companion.

There was no answer from the woman, who seemed to be lost in the gentle snowfall. She enjoys the weather…because she *controls* the weather.

“Ororo,” her name is like a soothing rain on the parched Sahara. “STORM,” he tried her codename.

“Yes Cyclops,” she looked as if she had woken up from a dream.

“Are you alright?” his voice carried a brotherly concern. They are teammates, friends…even family.
“Yes,” her voice still carried the accent of her motherland, or at least the place she calls as her true motherland….Africa.

“We should contact the Professor,” her tone became all business.

“Yes,” he nodded. “I don’t understand how we lost this one. According to the bartender, she left along with a cage fighting mutie freak….”
“….Wolverine,” she completed his words, frustration clearly visible on both of them. They had been tracking the young girl for months now.

----

**Professor** Cyclops sent out a mental call.
**Yes Scott** Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X, one of the most powerful telepaths on earth answered.

**She’s gone sir**
**Gone?** even the thought that came back had a cultured British accent to it.

**Yes sir…and apparently she left with someone names Wolverine**

**I had detected a mutant signature in the area. I didn’t know it was him. Even with Cerebro I cannot have an accurate lock on him, and the girl, she seems to have the same case…maybe they share mutant characteristics** Xavier answered. **However, even that single mutant signature disappeared about an hour ago.**

**What do we do now sir? If she is with him, she is as good as gone.**
**Yes, I am afraid that seems to be the case** Xavier sighed.

**Scott, return home**

-----

Four months after that night,

“What are you thinking?”

“You should know,” Scott Summers smiled as he answered. “You are the telepath, not me.”
“I know,” two slender hands snaked around from his back as red hair were draped across his back. “It…”
“….feels nice to ask sometimes,” he completed her thoughts.

“I thought I was the telepath,” Jean Grey, the telekinetic-cum-telepath came to his front, placing a light kiss on his lips, before turning around to face the open window.

“Oh,” a sad smile formed on her face, as she understood what her lover had been observing.

“Yes, oh,” Scott rested his chin on her shoulder. “She’s changed.”
“Yes,” Jean sighed. “Even after all this time, she still hasn’t been able to move on.”

“Hmm,” Scott let out an equally dejected sigh. “Any discoveries or suspicions?”
“No,” Jean shook her head. “Not as far as I can tell.”

----

“Scott should we…” Jean started.
“No Jean,” Scott cut her line of thought. “Let her be. Give her time.”

They were both lost in thought when a mental call alerted then and the subject of their silent observation.

**All X-Men, report to the war room**
**Yes Professor** Jean replied for Scott and herself. **Is there an emergency?**

**Yes** Xavier answered. **I have just detected a possible source to help us finally find Wolverine**

**Who Professor?** as the leader Scott started his conversation to get a before hand knowledge of their upcoming mission.

**Its another mutant Scott. He may be able to help us. Scott, you will need to get the team ready**

**You are going to New Orleans**

---

Note: I will be explaining the characters and their origins as the story develops.

Professor X: This one is a mixture of the movie and the evolution series Xavier, with a dollop of uncannyverse Xavier thrown in for good measure. Nothing from the ultimateverse yet for him…..that Xavier is just too *horny*…man, come on – Mystique and Frosty of all the people. He really slummed in that one. Still stuck to the wheelchair. (Age: Fifty plus)

Cyclops: Mostly Ultimateverse…with Evoverse sometimes. (Age: Mid twenties….26)

Marvel Girl/Phoenix: Mixture of Movie and Ultimateverse….with Evoverse sometimes. Jean is younger than Cycke here. (Age: Early twenties…23)

Storm: Everything goes for her. All comics, movies and cartoons I access to. (Age: Mid twenties…..25)

Rogue: *Do ya even need ta ask?* Background story taken from the movies, but the accent is all comic/cartoon. Nothing Weapon X i.e. Ultimate about her….well not yet anyway. (Age: Late teens…not an adult yet…16 and then some)

Wolverine: Same here. All comics, movies and cartoons I access to….body type is taken from Movieverse, but muscular like the Uncanny/Ultimate verse. (Age: Don’t ask)

The rest will be explained as they come.

Please don’t forget to Review!!

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the x-men character in any of the different Marvel universes (Cartoon, Comic or Movie). All owned and copyrighted by Marvel Comics.

Author’s Note: This fic. is going to involve and take from all sources I have access to, i.e. the two X-Men movies, the Evolution Cartoon series and all the comics (Uncanny, New, Astonishing and Ultimate). Lets see how it works out.

This has been in the works from my very first fic. I hope I know the characters well enough to do justice to them.

Spoilers: Ultimate X-Men #01, #02, #13

---

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

New Orleans, Louisiana,

“Now Cheri. Cast yo’ perdy eyes on da card yo’ pick--,” the street performer instructed the captivated woman standing in front of him. “—but don’ tell! I ain’t s’pose ta know, now, am I?”

Lost in his mesmerizing red on black eyes and his charming wit, she touched and pulled out one card from the deck spread on his make shift table.

“Da’s it. Very simple.” He flashed his pearly whites at her as he reached for the card she had her finger on.

“Now le’s see if I can make dis work,” he spoke like the experienced performer he was. “Sometime’s does, sometime’s don’.”

“’Course, dat’s not a problem I have in uddah areas.”

-----

“Now, how did I know he was going to say that,” a female voice spoke from a few meters away.

“That’s because he is a man,” a male voice answered her. “And more importantly—you are a telepath.”

“I did not need telepathy for that,” the first speaker stressed on her *not*.

“Cyclops, Marvel Girl,” their communicators crackled with the smoothly accented voice of the third of their eight-person team. “What is your position?”

“We have tracked him down Storm,” Jean Grey aka. Marvel Girl answered evenly. “Converge on my coordinates. That goes for you too, Iceman.”

“Coming, coming,” Bobby Drake aka. Iceman’s cheery voice sounded over the communication lines. “Finally, some action.”

“We are not here to fight him or anyone else for that matter,” Scott Summers’ no nonsense command caused the second newest member of the fledging X-Men team to jump up and salute the empty space.

“Sir, Yes sir,” he flipped the bird at a imaginary Cyclops. “Cadet Iceman, reporting for duty sir.”

“Bobby,” Jean good-naturedly admonished him. “Just be here in the next five minutes.”

“Yes Mam,” Iceman replied as he started for the coordinates Jean had patched through to their PDAs. “I know who wears the pants in this relation,” he muttered under his breath, but loud enough for both Scott and Jean to hear.

“Idiot,” Scott gritted his teeth to avoid firing off a retaliatory comment of his own. He knew about Bobby’s teenage crush on the older Storm and would have teased him about had it not been for the fact Storm would be able to hear it and more importantly, because he was the leader of the X-Men and had to maintain a certain standard, both in his public and personal life.

“You do know that he is correct,” Jean didn’t refrain from taking a dig herself.

That comment only made him grit his teeth even further.

-----

A week ago,

**All X-Men, report to the war room** Charles Xavier sent out a mental call to all members of his crime fighting team.

**Yes Professor** Jean had replied for Scott and herself.

**Coming Charles** Ororo had replied from her outdoor garden.

**Be right there** Bobby’s answer came from the recreation room.

**Do you want me to come also sir?** the soft, shy thought came from the newest member of the X-Men, Katherine Anne Pryde, better known as Kitty. Her codename was Shadowcat.

**Yes sir** answered Warren Kenneth Worthington III, who was right then in the far corner of the expansive mansion grounds. He was aptly codenamed Angel. His large snow colored wings giving him an almost ethereal appearance.

-----

Five minutes later, all of them were collected in a large room. It was a special room, called the War Room for obvious reasons. It was where the X-Men met and conducted their business.

“What do you think this is about?” Warren inquired of Bobby as they took their places in the lecture hall style seating arrangements. In from of them was a massive screen, which effectively covered the whole wall.
“Don’t know man,” Bobby shrugged his shoulders. “The Prof. just paged and here we are. Maybe Scott or Jean know something. Hey Scott,” he called out. “What is this all about? Magneto? New mutant? Someone new?”

“It deals with everything Robert….” Professor Xavier’s sounded as the door slid open, the mechanical whine of his wheelchair’s motor drowned by the *whoosh* of the door opening and closing. “…and more.”

“Oh,” Iceman exhaled as he meekly settled back into his chair.

----

“Thank you for coming,” Xavier dealt with the usual pleasantries before getting to the main matter at hand.

“This matter is of utmost importance,” Xavier started. “I have finally managed to find a contact who might be able to help us track down Wolverine.”

“What? Wolverine!!” Scott Leapt off his seat.

“Are you sure Professor?” Jean expressed her own doubts.

Bobby decided to put in his own two cents. “Are you sure this is the right guy? Or are you yanking our chain. Again.”

“What’s a Wolver…uh?” Kitty started innocently.

“Yeah, someone better explain it to the newbie who Wolverine actually is, so she too can join us in peeing in our pants.”

“Wolverine,” Xavier spelled out slowly. “Is the most dangerous killer in the world. The only proof I have that he even exists is from a blurred surveillance video I was able to get my hands. Scott.”

Taking his cue, Scott started to explain it to Kitty in particular and everyone in general.

“All we really know about him is that at point of time, he is supposed to have worked for a joint US-Canadian Black Ops unit. The last record that we have is almost twelve years old. After that, he just seemed to have just dropped off the face the earth, until he resurfaced again about five years ago. Even after that there have no sightings of him….well not from anyone living that is.”

“Sounds scary,” Kitty squeaked from her seat. “Dangerous.”
“Yes Shadowcat,” Xavier nodded his head. “We have reason to believe that he was recaptured or has rejoined his previous partners and is assisting them.”

“Assisting them?” Warren raised his hand. “With what?”

“Capturing mutants for experimentation purposes, or…,” Xavier made his voice as gentle as possible. “Executing them.”

----

An eerie silence set over the room at Xavier’s words, only ending when Xavier spoke again.

“Until four months ago, we had no idea about the physical appearance or mutation to match with our elusive target.”

“Now we do?” Bobby sounded hopeful. “At least a partial one.”

“Yes,” Scott smirked as he pressed a button to bring up a computer-generated hologram. “From what he gathered from the eye witnesses,” Scott started. “He is almost six-three, muscular and has a lot of facial hair…..”

“Hey, maybe that’s his mutation,” Bobby piped up. “Mabye he should call himself Fur-verine.”

Neglecting Bobby, Scott continued as he held up his fisted hand. “He supposedly had knives within his jacket sleeve, which he ejected with his thoughts. His moves are blindingly fast and he is supposed to have fought and beaten a dozen men, separately but consecutively, and still walked away as if nothing had happened. Any more comments, Iceman,” Scott inquired with his *Leadery* tone.

“No sir,” Bobby gulped nervously.

----

“Thank you Scott,” Xavier waited for him to sit before starting again. “I have tried all possible avenues, both official and unofficial and still haven’t been able to find a single lead that has garnered me even a photograph.”

“What about that eye-patch you contact when nothing else works?” Bobby asked frankly.

“General Fury,” Xavier answered evenly. “Has refused any help in this matter. He has also suggested that we restrain from following up ourselves. His exact words were, you won’t be able to find him if he doesn’t want to be found. And even if you are able to find him, it won’t be beneficial for the wellbeing and lives of you and your students.”

That led to another stretch of uncomfortable silence.

**Professor** Jean started telepathically.

**I know Jean, I can sense their nervousness** Xavier informed her. **But they need to know who were going to be up against…..at least as much as I know myself**

“If he as dangerous as you say he is,” Angel brought words to the thoughts of his younger teammates. “Why don’t just let him be. It’s not as if he has attacked us or harmed us in any way.”

“Because one day he might,” Xavier answered bluntly. “In the last two years we have lost three *probables* due to him, including the young girl he picked up four months ago.”

“Do you think he is killing them?”

“We don’t know Katherine,” the telepath looked directly at her. “The only thing we know is that he is not detectable via Cerebro…..as soon as he reaches his targets, neither are they.”

“Do you think that is also a part of his mutation?” Iceman asked solemnly, all traces of his usual flippant behavior gone like snow in summer. “Is that the reason he is able to shield himself and the others around him.”

“We don’t know Robert,” Xavier shook his head again. “That is why I want you to undertake this mission. The six of you will be joined by two more team members.”

“Two more?” That surprised even Scott. “Who professor?”

“One of them is an old student of our institute. You know him well. And the other is a young lady whom I have been trying to get to spend some time here. Luckily for us, both of them have finally agreed to our wishes. They will be arriving shortly. Once they do, you can brief them.”

“Who are they Charles?” Ororo finally broke her calm silence.

“The young man’s name is Samuel Guthrie. He goes by the name Cannonball. And the young lady is Ms. Elizabeth Braddock, also known as Psylocke.”

----

Present Day,

“Psylocke, are you in position?” Cyclops spoke into his communicator.

“Yes, and call me Betsy, luv’,” a posh but lively British accent answered his question. “I have my eyes on him, and from the looks of it, so does the young lass currently under his charm.”

“Cannonball, what about you?” Jean’s tight voice wiped the smile off her boyfriend’s face.
“In position ma’m,” this time the answer came in a drawled Kentucky accent.

“Please Sam, call me Jean,” Jean smirked at the constipated look Scott’s sported at her comment.
“Yes ma….I mean, yes Jean,” even through the audio signal, his shyness and embarrassment was clear to the listener.

“Iceman in position,” Bobby sounded across the link. “Lets get this over with, so that we can go to that rock concert that the Professor got us passes for.”

“He didn’t those passes for enjoying the concert,” Cyclops shot him down again. “He wants us to contact the lead singer of one of the groups performing there.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Bobby sulked as he created an ice state of Cyclops, complete with a made to scale pole sticking out of his behind.

-----

Meanwhile, a few feet away from them,

“Two-one-six-four,” the young woman just ended recounting her phone number to the street performer who had caught her fancy. “You know you could just come to my hotel in about fifteen minutes.”

“Or I could walk you there now,” the charmer offered slyly.

“No, I uh –” she hesitated. “—fifteen minutes.”

Even though he realized the reason behind her delay, the shabbily dressed man, flashed an easy smile. “Minute’ will seem like hours.”

With that, the woman left, flashing a smile over her shoulder.

----

Grinning at her, the performer bent down to fold his worktable, when, “Mr. Lebeau,” an unknown voice called to him.

Neglecting it, he folded the table, tucked it under his right arm and started to walk away, only to be stopped by a man stepping in front of him.

“Mr. Remy Lebeau?” the stranger with rose-colored glasses spoke again. “You are him.”

“Whos’ askin’?” his left hand went into his trouser pocket, separating three cards from the extra deck he always had ready.

“No one,” the man answered. “My name is Scott Summers.”

“Sorry, mez ami, but I ‘ave a date wit’ a beautiful lady, an’ I don’ wan’ to keep ‘er waitin’,” Remy replied as he started to walk away again.

“We don’t mean any harm to you,” Scott offered as a peace offering. “We just want to talk.”

“If you don’ mean any ‘arm, den why do you ‘ave to say it,” Remy looked around. “An’ who’s this *we*.”

“Just give us half an hour of your time. We will make it worth your while,” Scott offered.

“Wit’ what,” Remy let his gaze pass over the plain clothed Scott. “Sorry, but Remy not go that side. ‘e only play wit’ the ladies.”

**How long has it been since you had a proper cigarette, Mr. Lebeau** a female voice echoed through his mind, causing him to flinch at the experience.

“So that be *we*,” he smiled as Jean stepped out of the shadows and stood alongside Scott. “Nice hair. Wo’ else you got hidden there homme? Maybe a white haired one?”

----

Jean’s eyes widened in shocked-surprise, just as Scott’s mouth all but fell open.

“How do you know that?” Scott demanded warily. It seemed that the stranger Professor Xavier had sent them after, knew more about them, than they knew about him.

“Why don’ you make da beauty ‘ere read my mind,” Remy offered easily. “Dat’s what she does. Ain’t it right, Marvel Girl?”

“How. Do. You. Know. Us?” Scott reached forward and yanked the younger man by the coat that was tied across his shoulder and midsection.

“Careful homme,” Remy answered evenly. “You don’ want to lose yo’r family jewels. Do you? An’ don’ move or it WILL go off.”

Turning his gaze down, Scott saw that Remy had two fingers touching the metallic buckle of his belt. His whole belt had a fluorescent glow around it.

“Now, let me go easy and I will let you go,” his eyes glowed with a dark fire.

Scott complied with his demand and moved his hands to his sides in a show of piece.

-----

“Dere, now dat’s moe’ like it,” Remy winked at Jean and let go off the buckle. The belt just frizzled out and crumbled onto the street.

“We are sorry, we got off on the wrong foot,” a new voice caught him from behind as Ororo walked out from her position. “We mean you no harm. We just want have some words with you. If you want we can do it right her.”

“Ah Cherie,” Remy looked at the Nubian beauty standing before him. “Now dat be the way to talk. Remy expected notin’ less from the storm goddess.”

In the silence following his remark, Jean was able to sense something odd about the seemingly simple street-performer-cum-charmer, not that what he had already done wasn’t unnerving enough. It was as if he knew all of them.

“How do you know so much about us?” Ororo asked over her carefully hidden surprise.

“People talk. You just ‘ave to keep an ear open,” came the cryptic answer. “What do you want with Remy? An loose da tough guy look homme,” he grinned at Scott. “You be too much of a good boy to pull it off.”

----

“We need to know where to find Wolverine?” Scott asked bluntly, having got fed up of Bobby and Jean’s ribbing earlier and now being *put down* by this man.

“Who?”

“We know you know him,” Jean crossed her arms around her chest. “Telepath, remember.”
“Of course Cherie,” she received a sarcastic smile. “’ow can Remy forget that. Not after ‘aving met such beauty as you and Stormy ‘ere.”

That got a reaction out of Ororo. “Don’t call me Stormy.”

“My bad Cherie,” Remy gave her mock bow. “Den, maybe Remy should call you ‘Rory?”

“You will address me as Storm, Gambit,” Ororo answered as she revealed Remy’s own codename, which Jean had telepathically conveyed to her.

“As you wish Stormy,” he pressed his luck.

----

“What do you know about Wolverine?” Scott demanded again, his hands balled at his sides. The man was getting on his nerves. He talked too much and knew too much. Always a bad combination.

“Ain’t that a forest critter,” Remy’s reply frustrated him even further.

“We know you know about *the* Wolverine,” Jean sensed Scott’s condition and interjected smoothly. “Just tell us and we will leave you alone.”

“As temptin’ as that offer is Cherie,” Remy drew out his deck and began to shuffle it. “Don’ tink’ that it will be ‘appening.”

“You do know, I could pull it out of your mind,” Jean raised her hand threatening as she let her presence be felt in the Cajun's mind.

**And I assure you, it will not be a pleasant experience**

**Den why don’ you do it Cherie?** Remy projected his thoughts.

As Jean withdrew from Remy’s conscious, he grinned and sided out from between her and Scott.

“Now, if you excuse Remy, he ‘ave to be somewhere.”

“We can’t just let him go,” Scott turned to his teammates. “I’ll ask Cannonball to trail him.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Ororo offered evenly. “I have planted a transmitter on his coat. As long as that stays with him, we will know his location.”

“When did you do that?” Jean asked incredulously.

“Just after he swiped Scott’s purse.”

“WHAT?” Scott jumped as he felt for his missing wallet. “Why didn’t you stop him.”

“If he tries to use anything from that,” Ororo reminded him about his credit cards. “We will be able to track his movements and they lead us to Wolverine.”

“Now come on, we have a concert to attend.”

------

Some time later,

**Tring Tring** the phone rang.

“One, two, three, four,” Remy flipped the calling card between his fingers as he held the hand piece to his ear. He was making an international call….to Japan.

“Hello,” a familiar female voice answered just before the fifth ring.

“Cherie,” Remy greeted easily. “You miss Remy.”

“Sure Cajun. As much as I miss ingesting blowfish poison,” the young woman replied from the other side.

“Aw, you ‘urt Remy’s heart.” The charmer feigned flawlessly. “There be information.”

“What?”

“Tell yo’ poppuh, da x-men be looking fo’ da Wolverine.”

“Now are they. Well let them. Let them look. We are ready.”

*SNIKT*

---

Note: New character introduced and their descriptions.

Gambit: Remy Lebeau is a common street performer-cum-charmer-cum-thief. He seems to have some information about Wolverine and a lot about the X-Men. Mostly taken from the Ultimate-verse, with characteristics from both the Evolution series and the Uncannyverse. That will come later. Such a setting chosen for a younger Gambit, unlike the one depicted in the Uncanny X-Men and the later issues of the Ultimate X-Men comics. (Age: Early Twenties….somewhere between 21 and 23 years)

Iceman: Also a mixture of Evolution and Ultimate verse Bobby, along with a hint of the one shown in the movies…although not such a dweeb. (Age: 17-19)

Kitty: Mixture of early Uncannyverse Kitty and the Evolutionverse Kitty. Is new, therefore the shyness. (Age: 15-17)

Angel: Had thought of going with the younger one shown in the Ultimateverse, but then settled on the one shown in the Evolution series. Will share some characteristics with the Angel being shown in the latest issues of Ultimate X-Men. Not as stuck up as the Angel from the Uncanny X-Men. (Age: mid twenties….23-25)

Cannonball: Don’t know much about this character as yet. Will be talking from Uncanny X-Men and the Evolution cartoon series. (Age: somewhere between 19 and 21)

Psylocke: Mostly from various places in the Uncannyverse. Ultimateverse doesn’t have much on this character. Evolution and Movies have nothing at all. Also haven’t decided whether to use the original one, or Kwannon….but the hair are going to be purple….that much I am sure of. (Age: somewhere between 18 and 23)

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Disclaimer: Don't own any of the x-men character in any of the different Marvel universes (Cartoon, Comic or Movie). All owned and copyrighted by Marvel Comics.

Author’s Note: Thanks for all the feedback. Its been a great help in deciding on the character and their placement.

Reviews are always requested and welcomed.

Spoilers: Ultimate X-Men #42

---

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

New Orleans, Louisiana,

After the *commanding* failure with the mysterious and charming Remy Lebeau, the X-Men retired to their hotel rooms, which the Professor had reserved for them. Usually their missions did not warrant such a situation and the change was welcomed by one and all.

“Whoo-Hoo,” Bobby yelled out as he jumped into the king size bed of the room he was sharing with Sam. “This is the life. World saving missions, a five star hotel with babes ‘round the corner and a kick ass rock concert. Can life get any better?”

Taking the question seriously, the soft spoken Cannonball answered sicerely. “A home cooked meal, made by mah mama, with the whole family sitting at the….”

“Sammy m’ man,” the self-proclaimed *hip* Iceman cut him off mid-sentence. “It was a hypothetical question. You know, like do bears shit in woods? Like that.”

“Wheah else do they….” Sam started again, only to have Bobby slap his own forehead.

“Man, I need to get you down with the…I mean you need learn how to speak city talk,” the younger teenager tried once again.

“Why? Is theah somethin’ wrong with mah way of talkin’?”

“Uuuugghhhh…”

-----

In the next room, Warren and Scott were getting settled themselves. Although Scott would have liked to share a room with Jean, he couldn’t on account of Psylocke. With Kitty *bunking* with Ororo, that would have left Warren and Betsy. So they had decided on an all boys and an all girls system. In the room across them were Jean and Betsy, while Ororo and Kitty’s room was the one in front of Bobby and Sam’s.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Scott asked of Warren who had just emerged from the bathroom, freshly bathed and rubbing the excess water from his hair.

“Yes,” Warren answered, the tone of his voice clearing showing the private and grooming schools he was sure to have attended as a Worthington. “Rock is not my kind of music. I’ll stay with Storm and Cannonball. We can keep an aerial lookout while you finagle the deal.”

“Ororo will be there, but I am afraid you will not have Sam.” Scott informed, his eyes not leaving the TV as he cycled through the various channels. “Nothing interesting. All you have are soap operas. That’s more Jean’s territory.”

“Why? Why not Sam?” Warren inquired as he pulled up his trousers. “He is able to fly. It would be helpful.”

“Yeah, but Bobby seemed to have taken him under his *wing*,” Scott grinned at the prospect of the younger boy tutoring the older one. “So, they, along with Kitty are definitely in for the concert. Ororo declined because she doesn’t like large gatherings and loud noises.”

“What’s with Ororo? I remember the first time I had met her. She wasn’t so…”

“Closed,” Scott supplied.

“No,” the blond haired billionaire mutant shook his head. “So-so private. What happened to her? I have been here for six months and I have noticed that she is the changed…a lot.”

“She is not the Ororo you remember Warren,” Scott sighed as he let the remote fall on the sofa. “…she is not even the Ororo I remember.”

“What happened Scott?” Warren settled down beside him. “Did some….”

“Its not for me to answer,” Scott cut him off. “We don’t talk about it and I’d rather that even you don’t. No one knows the whole truth...not even the Professor.”

“Oh!”

------

In Jean and Betsy’s room, the two telepaths were busy among themselves, their common power and their near about same age giving them a lot to talk about.

“So, how do you know the Professor?” Jean asked enthusiastically. She had noticed the familiarity that the *new* entrant shared with Charles Xavier and given the nature of her powers and her flirtatious behavior with Scott, she felt slightly unnerved.

“Don’t worry luv’, I am not going to take either your place or you boy-toy,” Betsy answered easily.

“You READ my thoughts,” Jean exclaimed as she clamped down her mental shields.

“No luv’,” the purple haired Braddock winked at her. “You have been projecting ever since you saw me with the Professor and then with Scott. Rest assured, I'm not the enemy here. I may *test* him out, have some fun, but he is all yours. I like my men with a certain flair. You are welcome to keep your Mr. Tight ass, and by that I mean a *nice* tight ass.”

“Gee thanks,” Jean replied sarcastically as a grin broke over her face. “It IS a nice ass.”

“So, how’s it to ride?” that question just threw Jean off. “Oh you Americans, you are too wound up for your own good. Let your hair down, have some fun. You only live once.”

“Are you always like this?” the redhead asked incredulously.

“Nah,” Betsy threw over her shoulder as she held up as she modeled her *outfit* for the evening. “Sometimes I really let it all hang out.”

“I don’t even want to know about that.”

------

On the other side of the common wall,

“Do you think this will look good Ms. Monroe?” Kitty peered at the mirror, her eyes on the reflection of her teammate.

“You look very pretty Kitten,” Ororo smiled serenely. “And you can call me Ororo. We are not in class. We are here as teammates, not as student and teacher.”

“Alright Ms….I mean alright Ororo,” the young girl blushed pink. “So, this is good huh. How do you think I should wear my hair? I want something stylish, yet modern. Like the one you had last month for the Professor’s fundraiser.”

“I don’ think that style will quite sit well here,” Ororo answered, continuing at the sad expression on the teenager’s face. “However, there is something else we can try. If you are interested?”

“Oh yes ma….I mean, yes Ororo,” Kitty corrected herself once again. “Would you please?”

Setting down the magazine she had been flipping through, Ororo came and stood behind the almost half a feet shorter Shadowcat.

“Now lets see what can we do that will make you look….*Hot*.”

-----

Half way around the world, in Japan,

*Trrring Trrring*

A young woman waited as the placed a call over a secure line.

“Yeah darlin’,” the gruff voice belonging to the elusive Wolverine, answered moments later. “How are ya doin’?”

“Fine daddieee,” the young woman shot back, knowing how her father cringed at that elongated name. “Got news from New Orleans.”

“Yeah,” even through the gravelly tone, his concern and interest was clear to the experienced ears of his daughter. “Gumbo?”

“Who else?” the girl’s accented voice grew serious. “The X-Men were around asking questions. They are looking for you.”

“Let them,” Wolverine answered offhandedly. “I give a shit what those fuckers think. Let them prance around in their S&M uniforms. Saving the world. Load of horse shit.”

“Daaaaaddd.”

“Sorry kiddo,” Wolverine apologized. “Got carried away there. Let them look.”

“What if they find you? What will you do then? How will you…..”

“I don’t gotta explain shit to anyone,” her father cut her off.

There was a silence over the lines as the daughter heard her father take deep breaths to get temper under control.

“You don’t worry yerself darlin’. I’ll see to them,” he finally spoke, his voice much calmer now. “You take care of yerself and yer sister…and tell that freaky one to stay alive.”

“Oh Yukio, she is not even here. Just upped and disappeared three days ago. Me thinks she is heading your way.”

“Oh shit.”

-----

Back in New Orleans,

It was around eight in the evening that the X-Men collected in the hotel lobby and proceeded to the in hotel restaurant.

Jean spoke first. It seemed that the Professor had detected yet another mutant who be performing at the concert. He had informed them that while they were there, they should try to contact her too.

“So we have two chicks for the prize of one,” the words barely left Bobby’s mouth that he received a swift whack upside the head from the redhead. “HEY!!”

“Its no wonder that you don’t have a girlfriend with that attitude,” Jean admonished him jokingly.

“Chicks?” Sam asked confusedly.

“Let the boy have some fun Jean,” Betsy shot back and winked at Bobby, causing him to turn a bright crimson, the curves of his ears frosting over.

“Lets go through it once again. Storm and Angel will remain outside the stadium as lookouts. Iceman, Cannonball and Psylocke will do the same inside. Marvel Girl, Shadowcat and myself, we will contact the singers.”

“Hmm, why don’t I go with you handsome?” Betsy interjected. “And let Jeannie here, enjoy the concert and have a gala, while we have ours.”

**What do you think you are doing?** Jean shot telepathically.

**Just pushing your buttons luv** came the reply. **Yours and his**

“We will follow the plan and that’s IT,” Jean spoke aloud, thumping the table for forcefulness.

“And they call us the kids,” Bobby whispered to Kitty.

“Did you have something to say, Iceman,” Scott’s bark shook him.

“Nothing sir, Cyclops sir,” another salute answered his question. “Just one thing sir.”

“Drop the sir Bobby and ask the damned question.”

Had it been any other time, Bobby would surely have made a comment at the use of a slang word by ol’ fearless.

“What is the name of the second singer *we* are to contact?”

“Her real name is Alison Blaire, but nowadays she goes by the name *Dazzler*.”

-----

Back in New York,

“Yes,” a female voice answered the phone on the second ring.
“Its me,” came the answer from the other side.

“Hmm, me?” the woman feigned ignorance as she twirled her patent weapon, the three pronged weapon known as a *sai*.
“Me,” the man stressed again. “Logan…Wolverine. Man Elektra, did you hit yer head or somethin’?”

“She’s not here Logan,” Elektra Natchios, one of the world’s most dangerous assassins answered the unspoken question.

“Where is she?” Logan barked instantly. “How is she?”

“She’s fine…..must be out prowling somewhere?”
“Well get hold o’ her. I need some work done…..tonight.”

“Work?” Elektra’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “What kind of work?”

“It ain’t offing anyone,” Logan clarified. “Just some show.”

“Go on.”

“There is this school….” Wolverine started explaining his plan.

-----

At the concert in New Orleans,

“EAT MY #$%! YOU #$%&@ #$%’&%$!!!” the singer known as Dazzler screamed into the mike, sweat powering down her face.

The three X-Men looked on in shock as the rowdy crowd urged her on, going wild as she exercised her power and released an energy flare, which everyone took as a part of the special effects.

“The Professor wants us to contact HER,” Jean finally blurted out, lifting a hand to close the gaping mouth of her boyfriend and team leader.

“I like ‘em.” Exclaimed Shadowcat, her words taking both Jean and Scott by surprise, who in their wildest dreams wouldn’t have imagined the shy Kitty listening to something that even caused them to blush pink.

Minutes later that song ended and the other and *main* singer returned from her break.

“That is our first target,” Cyclops said as he gestured towards the back entrance. “Come, lets go. The back door is usually open in such places. We should be able to get in from there.”

“Or, I can just *phase* us through,” Kitty offered, her body still humming from the tune and energy of the previous song.

-----

Back in New York,

A figure prowled the grounds of the Charles Xavier School for the Gifted, having climbed an almost vertical cliff to enter undetected by any of the surveillance cameras spread all over the outsides of the huge X-Mansion and its grounds.

Dressed in all black, it easily *dissolved* in the nighttime shadows and with a stealth rivaling that of a tiger or lion on the hunt, it stalked its targets.

The mansion shrouded in darkness was completely silent, except for a single light from what was the personal suite of the headmaster of the school and one of the most powerful telepaths on the earth, Charles Xavier.

Eyes stuck at the window, the intruder waited for it to shut off and only did then did it make its move.

The mission parameters were simple. Deliver a written *message* to the x-men….and enjoy yourself while doing it.

“This is fun,” the low growl was lost in the winds.

*SNIKT*

------

New Orleans,

“Are you sure we cannot interest you in joining us?” Jean asked for a third time as he waited for Lila to change into normal clothes. The rest of her troupe had already left and Lila was getting to do the same.

“Yes,” the now familiar British accent didn’t confuse Jean. “I am happy the way I am. I’ve completed all the studying I wanted to do and now ‘m living my life.”

“Our school is no only for normal education purposes, but also to help mutants like us to learn proper control of our *gifts*,” emphasized Jean.

“Control,” Lila stepped out of the changing room. “Where do you want to go luv. I can take you there….anywhere in the galaxy.”

“Anywhere in the galaxy?”

“Yes,” Lila smiled pleasantly, no hint of pride in her tone or in her behavior. “Want to give it a try?”

“No, maybe some other time,” the telepath declined easily, having sensed the confidence in the teleporting mutant. “However, it would be a great favor if you could just visit our school once and meet Professor Xavier.”

Finding no harm in that request, Lila finally relented.

“Just tell me the time and place, and I will be there.”

-----

Somewhat satisfied with the result, Jean joined a sullen Cyclops at their designated meeting point. The other x-men, including Angel and Storm were also already there.

“What happened?” She gestured towards Scott. “Why the long face? Did she refuse too?”

“So, Lila Cheney also refused,” Psylocke’s words carried a statement, rather than a question.

“Yes,” Jean nodded. “But she did agree to meet the Professor. She will be coming over next week. What happened with Dazzler?”

“She spat for an autograph,” Kitty answered for Scott. “And then she gave Scott the, uh….”

“Gave him the middle finger,” Bobby supplied readily. “Flipped him the bird, showed…..”

“Thank you Robert,” Ororo silenced him. “Jean got the idea.”

------

“So what do we….” Jean started.

**Jean** Xavier’s voice echoed in her mind.

**Yes Professor** she replied as she let the others know about the *talk* she was having.

“Oh god,” she exclaimed seconds later.

“What happened Jean?’ Scott caught her as she stumbled back.

“We need to get back,” she gasped as she steadied herself. “We need to get back, NOW.”

“There has been attack on the mansion.”

---

Note: New character introduced and their descriptions. (In order of mention/appearance)

Yukio: Taken from main timeline i.e. Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine comic series. Not a major player as yet. May become in the future. (Age: Late twenties to early thirties)

Lila Cheney: Mixture of Uncanny X-Men and X-Treme X-Men, albeit a bit younger (Age: late teens to early twenties)

Dazzler: Will be a mixture of both Ultimate and Uncanny-verses. Same age group as Lila Cheney. However, while Lila is an established name, Alison Blaire is just starting out in the rock world. (Age: late teens to early twenties)

Elektra: Taken from normal time line as the Ultimate Elektra is too young to work here and I haven’t seen the movie one. Most of my knowledge comes from her appearance in the Wolverine comic series.

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** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

“There has been attack on the mansion.”

It was around three in the morning when the SR-77 ‘Blackbird’ or as it was more commonly known as, the X-Jet taxied into its subterranean hanger located under the basketball court on the Xavier mansion’s grounds.

Within moments, all the eight x-men rushed into the office of their mentor and x-men founder, Professor Charles Xavier.

“Professor,” Scott was the first one to speak. However, he stopped short at the sight of the man sitting with Xavier.

“Come in Scott, everyone,” Xavier signaled them to enter as he turned to his guest. “I would like you to meet someone.”

----

The group entered and gathered around the table, spreading out so that they would be able to face both men.

“This is General Nicolas Fury,” he introduced politely, almost smirking at the surprised expression on the faces of the younger team members, who although had heard about the mysterious Fury had not seem him face to face.

“Hmm, you have more members than the last time,” Fury mused as he took in each team member.

“General, I know about your office keeping an eye on us,” Xavier’s admission surprised the X-Men even further, but did not seem to faze Fury at all.

“Comes with the territory Professor,” Fury answered just as easily. “Need to keep a track of possible hostiles.”

“Hostiles?” Angel stepped forward instantly. “We are the good guys here.”

“Warren,” Xavier started but was cut off by Fury.

“Mr. Worthington, I didn’t deny the fact that the X-Men are trying to help mutants,” he stated in a matter of fact manner, his *working* eye boring right into the blonde haired Angel. “But we need to keep track none the less. You do not know when someone will turn on you. Your Professor can attest to that….from his personal experience.”

“If by *someone*, you are implying Eric Lehnsherr, Magneto, then I have to sadly admit that I agree with you,” Xavier nodded. “But that is not always the case.”

“One case is one too many,” Fury pointed a finger towards the window. “Or at least it should be. It avoids instances such as this.”

----

“What do you mean?” Jean narrowed her eyes at their ‘guest’.

“Jean,” Scott’s voice drew her attention to the window where he was standing staring at something outside. “Come here.”

“What is it Scott?” she asked as she joined him, her mouth falling open at sight before her. “How….” She started, her words falling away in disbelief.

From their position, they could see two things. One, the mansion gate and front doors had been destroyed….they had been cut right off from the bricked wall. Two, the garage shutters had been cut in a similar way, the only difference being that they weren’t completely cut off as was the case with the Gate and the door. Instead they were cut into…with a word carved into the metal sheeting.

STOP

“Who did this?” Scott turned to the two older men, his eyes sparkling red with contained anger. He looked like he wanted to blast the culprit away.

“We don’t know,” Xavier shook his head. “That is why I requested the General’s assistance. He has kindly agreed to do so.”

“Before I give you any information,” Fury was all business now, his earlier laid-back attitude gone. “I would like to stress that you heed the warning.”

“What warning?” Bobby asked in confusion as he once again looked at the garage. “It just says Stop, but from what? Stop leaving our home? Stop driving the cars? Stop having doors?”

“Iceman,” Xavier silenced him. Placing his elbows on his arm rests; he formed a triangle as he brought his hands together, his fingertips almost touching his chin. “It seems that this was done as a warning for us to desist from our current mission.”

“Current mission?” Kitty asked in a confused manner. She was the newest member of the team. “But we met the two singers. They couldn’t be the ones who attacked the mansion. They were there, in New Orleans, at the concert.”

“I think, by the current mission, the General meant our search for Wolverine,” Storm surmised correctly.

“Very perceptive Ms. Monroe,” Fury responded, *not* as a complement as he turned his attention back to the Professor. “I think I advised you against this, didn’t I? I clearly remember suggesting that you restrain from any activities to try to find him.”

“Yes, that you did,” Xavier nodded his head.

“I also remember saying that you won’t be able to find him if he doesn’t want to be found. And on an outside chance that you are able to find him, it won’t be beneficial for the wellbeing and lives of you and your students.”

“Yes General,” Xavier answered tightly, his friendly, accepting attitude losing out to the shock at being *attacked* in his own home and the concern and fear he had for his students’ lives.

“Then can either you or anyone of your X-Men tell me, why wasn’t that taken seriously,” the General fired off.

At getting no reply from any of the younger or older X-Men, he surged forward.

“You should consider yourselves lucky Professor Xavier….” he deliberately used the Professor’s last name, emphasizing his own position as head of S.H.I.E.L.D., the super-super-super spy agency. “…that you are alive right now. You should also thank your stars that it wasn’t Wolverine who was here; otherwise we would have to spend weeks matching your body parts.”

“General, if you are trying to intimidate me or my X-Men, it is not working,” Xavier responded icily.

“Isn’t it,” Fury arched a brow and looked up at the younger members.

“Sure is,” Bobby muttered under his breath, almost icing up from the nervousness.

“Same-same here,” Kitty nodded her head.

“And anyway, I am not trying to ‘scare’ your children, Professor,” Fury sighed in annoyance. “I am trying to save your lives. This is not even the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to Wolverine….and that too when he wasn’t even here.”

“He WASN’T here,” Scott burst out in shocked surprise. “Then who….”

“This was someone much younger, someone who is almost equally skilled, equally powered, equally dangerous…equally lethal, with a whole lot more anger and pardon the pun, a whole lot more fury than Wolverine…under normal conditions. Although, I must say, it is almost comical that he sent her. Its like he wanted her to have fun.”

-----

“HER?” This time it was Jean’s turn to blurt out.

“Yes, her,” Fury answered evenly, almost enjoying himself now. “Let me tell you another thing, the only reason anyone who was in the mansion at that time including Professor here, is alive, is because of Wolverine. He did not want anyone dead…yet. He just wanted to warn you, and I must say, from the letter and the sign on the garage door, it should be pretty clear to you, who you are dealing with.”

“Letter?” Scott turned to Xavier. “What letter Professor?”

“This letter Scott,” Xavier lifted the single sheet and handed it to the X-Men leader, who read it out aloud for everyone.

Stop your actions and stay away. First and last warning.

“That’s it?” Angel, Jean and Kitty asked in unison.

“Yes,” Xavier nodded. “I found it here when I came to contact the General.”

“Here? In your OFFICE?”

“Yes Scott,” Xavier answered gravely. “And the perplexing thing was that, I was unable to detect any suspicious presence in and around the mansion…..in a radius of twenty miles.”

-----

“How do you know, it wasn’t Wolverine?” Ororo put up her first question of the meeting.

“Because, the slash marks make only two grooves and the spacing is totally different,” Fury let them know that much.

“What does that mean?” she pressed on further.

“If it had been Wolverine, there would have been three….at least somewhere and they would have been a different spacing between each slash.”

----

“How did you trip to New Orleans go?” the General turned the questioning on its head and directed it towards Scott. “Find anything useful about him there?”

“Scott?” Xavier’s tone told him that he could talk frankly and openly.

“Nothing useful Professor,” Cyclops shook his head. “In fact the person, whom you sent us to question, seemed to know everything about us.”

“And about Wolverine?”

It was then that Jean stepped forward to present her findings.

“He knows Wolverine; that much I am sure of.” Cyclops answered and gave Xavier an abridged version of the events of the previous day. The narration was more for the benefit of the General than for Xavier, who had already been contacted and updated by Jean.

“Hmmm, interesting,” Xavier mused in thought, thinking about ‘inviting’ the mysterious Mr. Lebeau to the mansion. “Interesting and unnerving.”

Sensing his line of thought, Fury decided to let another of card show on the table.

“Don’t worry Professor. You will get your chance too. I have asked Mr. Lebeau to be brought in for questioning. Although I have my doubts you will get anything out of him…..not verbally at least.”

“Are you suggesting that I enter his mind and read his thoughts General,” Xavier asked guardedly. “I don’t appreciate using my powers that way.”

“No Professor, I am not. Neither will you get a chance to do so. He is now under SHIELD custody, the X-Men have no jurisdiction, not that they had any earlier,” this time Fury did chuckle. “You can only observe the interrogation proceedings, while our telepath conducts the probing.”

“Your telepath?” Jean asked suspiciously.

“Yes Ms. Grey,” Fury turned to the students. “One whom you all know and whom I find acceptable and skilled enough to get the job done…without any harm to Mr. Lebeau.”

“Isn’t that right, Psylocke?”

-------

Elsewhere,

“Grr,” The ringing and vibrations from the phone roused the sleeping man from his sleep. “Fuck.”

Grabbing the infuriating gadget from the side-table, he almost threw it against the wall before bringing it to his ear. “Yeah.”

“Gambit has been captured,” the words stunned him awake in an instant. “His distress beacon activated fifteen minutes ago. He is airborne, heading towards the Atlantic,” the mysterious voice supplied all the relevant information.

“New York?” Wolverine asked as he rubbed the remnants of sleep and fatigue off his face. “The X-Men?”
“I cannot confirm that hypothesis my friend,” the cultured but serious voice answered from the other end. “I do not think that Professor Xavier would resort to kidnapping.”

“Yeah? I guess that makes one of us,” Wolverine answered as he looked to the second bed in the room. “I’ll get on the road. Should be in New York within ten hours, eight, if yer new modifications work.”
“That they will; I am sure of that. I will monitor your progress and collect data on the performance of the new tweaks.”

“Yeah, well, thanks for the heads up,” Logan replied gruffly. “Listen. Don’t tell the kid anything about this. Don’t want her to get worried uselessly.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” the other person responded. “And Logan….”

“Yeah”

“Happy hunting.”

“Now yer pulling my chain.”


Ending the call, he silently started gathering his belongings. Fifteen minutes later, he had stowed his and his travel buddy’s luggage in his camper, checked the room and cleaned it thoroughly, cleared his account at the main desk and returned to his room, the motel manager following close at his heels.

Growling at the middle-aged man to remain outside, he entered the room, only to return a minute later, his still asleep partner, nestled in his arms.

“Ummm….wolvie?” came the sleepy female voice from the blanketed form.
“Yeah darlin’, its me,” Logan replied almost softly. “Nothin’ to worry about. Sleep.”
“’k,” and the bundle was silent once again.

“She yers?” the manager grinned toothily.
“Hn,” was the all the answer he got.
“I got two of my own,” he supplied as he locked the door and checked it once and then a second time.

“She sure likes yellow huh.”

----

“Psylocke?” Everyone, including Xavier was surprised at the revelation.

“You work for SHIELD?” Jean asked with confusion, a bit of anger, somewhat awe and a whole lot of surprise.

“Wow,” Kitty had to close Bobby’s mouth, which had fallen open, the excitement causing him to fully ice-over.
“Elizabeth?” Xavier turned his chair towards the purple haired telepath.

“I don’t work for SHIELD,” she clarified instantly. “Well, not full time anyway. Its a temporary thing….more of a hobby.”

“A hobby?” Scott and Ororo asked at the same time, one with shocked surprise, the other with a curious one.

“Yeah. It kind of runs in our family.”

“In the family?” Scott crossed his arms at his chest, automatically going into leader mode.

“Yes luv,” Betsy winked at him and started to tell her teammates about herself and about her father and twin brother’s involvement in STRIKE, the European version of SHIELD.


Once she finished her story, she was bombarded with a whole slew of questions.

“Your brother is Captain Britain?” Bobby.

“You are an international model?” Kitty asked in awe.

“Why did you come here then?” Scott. “Why not stay back in Britain?”

“An international model?” Bobby, with eyes zoning in on her, uh…you know.

“How many times have you worked for them?” Angel.

“An international MODEL.” Bobby repeated, with a whole lot of drooling and eyes bulging out of their sockets.

“How strong are your powers?” Jean.

“An inter….”

“SHUT UP BOBBY,” Scott.

“But guys…”

“Robert,” Ororo.

“Yes mam,” Bobby, with sullen, pouting face.

----

“I am sorry to interrupt, but I have news for you. Both good and bad,” Fury cut in. While the X-Men had been talking he had been in contact with his subordinates who were bringing in Gambit. He had also received a phone call from an undisclosed number, which his people had been able to track to Canada, somewhere in the proximity of Toronto.

“Yes General?” Xavier and the others turned their attention to him.

“Mr. Lebeau will be arriving with the hour.”

“I hope that is the bad news,” Bobby whispered to a silent Sam.

“No young man,” Fury’s smirk unnerved him. “That was the good news.”

“That’s what I feared.”

“Then what is the bad news?” Ororo asked the question on everyone’s lips.

“Someone else is also on his way,” Fury’s smirk grew even wider…. almost becoming a smile…..a scary smile. “And he should be here within the next twelve hours.”

“Who?” Scott asked seriously.

“Wolverine.”

“O shit,” that was Bobby’s succinct and given the situation, completely apt response.

------

“Professor, what do you want us to do?” Scott went into action almost instantly. He wanted the X-Men to be ready to face any hostility from the ‘visiting’ mutant.

Xavier had in the meantime opened his laptop and was in the process of starting it up.

“We should make arrangements for the safety of the students. Move them into the danger room and have few of the older students be in charge and ready for evacuation incase of any emergency.”

“Professor…” Fury started coolly, but stopped, as it did not seem that the X-Men were paying much attention. ‘Anyway, its not my place to tell them that they are going paranoid uselessly.’

“We can….” Xavier pointed to the computer screen, which had the schematic of the security system on display.

----

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” the sound shocked all of them into silence. Not only because of its unknown nature, but also from where it was coming….Xavier’s personal computer.

“I would like you to please sit back and enjoy the soothing sounds of Vivaldi, a personal favorite of mine,” the mystery voice informed them. “And to allow you to appreciate this piece of musical genius, I have taken the liberty to make sure you are not distracted until your guests arrive.”

With that, the whole room….the whole school was plunged into pitch-black darkness, only the wheel-chair motor and battery powered laptop working. Even the backup generators had somehow been shut off.

“What is happening,” Kitty squeaked, almost phasing through the floor. “Why did the lights go off?”

As the X-Men looked on, a message appeared on the blue screen,

You have been *Beast-ed*

(Signed) Big Blue

“This is good,” Fury chuckled as the ball lightening generated by Storm temporarily dispelled the darkness, allowing Jean to get the emergency flashlights from the first aid box, inside a wall closet.

“He is really enjoying himself. He is playing with you guys.”

-----

“I know that voice,” Xavier exclaimed as the realization dawned on him.

“I know that voice.”

---

Note: In case, you missed the references

Nick Fury (General): Taken mostly from the Ultimateverse as that is the one I have read about the most. Will have a couple of drops from the Evolution-verse Fury too, although he isn’t a general in that one. Haven’t decided where to base him, the flying fortress they have in the Uncannyverse or Triskelion. (Age: Early to Mid fifties)

Also, incase someone wasn’t able to guess the intruder, it was Wolverine’s clone, X23

X23: Taken from the X-Men Evolution cartoon series and her appearances in the Uncanny X-Men comic series. None from her own comic series…at least not yet. (Age: teenager…14 to 16)

As for his ‘partner’, the one and only….

Jubilee: Well, as there is no Jubilee to take from the movies, Evolution cartoon series or Ultimate X-Men comics, I have had to take from whatever I have been able to gather from the Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine comics and use that….along with my own imagination. I enjoy writing her. (Age: Pre to Early teens….11 to 13)

And the mystery voice and ‘Big Blue’ is….

Beast: Dr. Henry ‘Hank’ McCoy. My inspiration for this character was the version portrayed in the Evolution Cartoon series, except that in this, he didn’t teach in a high school as in the cartoon series, but was a full-fledged research scientist. His story will come out later. Didn’t take anything from the Ultimate-Beast, because as far as I am concerned, it sucks. (Age: Late twenties to early thirties…..29 to 32)

Next, Wolverine and the X-Men….do they finally meet? Hint, things are going to get green….in a big way.

Don’t worry, RoLo will come up soon. Its just that this is a full X-Men fic…..series, so am building it up accordingly. Will have quite a few RoLo chapters…soon.

Please, don’t forget to review!!

Spoilers: The Uncanny X-Men - Annual (1999)

---

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

Few months ago, (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

“And I hope I never see either of you, EVER AGAIN,” the blonde teenaged girl yelled as she slammed the front door of her house behind her and walked up the young man waiting for her outside.
Her boyfriend, who sported a cherry colored mop of hair, drew her into his arms, his face full of regret for her loss.

“What happened?” He asked nevertheless. “What did they say?”
“I don’t care! They’re not my family anymore,” the girl mouthed off as she cupped his face and leaned in to kiss the lips of the man she loved. “You are…” was all she said before their words were lost in their joining.

There was nothing unusual about this; hundreds of couples came together this way, especially when faced with opposition. What made this case special was the grayish tinge of the man’s skin, and the markings allover it, along with the gray on black color of his eyes….all making it clear for anyone to see that he was a mutant. On the other hand, his lover, the girl he had given his heart to, was a vivacious blonde-haired woman with perfectly formed lips and clear, large brown eyes, which held all the world’s love for him, was a hundred percent human.

Their love had sprouted and grown, and now, they were going to be together.

“I love you Sofia,” the young man whispered softly as they grasped each other’s hand and started walking, to what they hoped would a better future, where both of them would be happy….together, with each other.
“I love you too Jake,” the girl reflected the sentiment as she snaked her arm around his.

In their love for each other, they didn’t notice what was occurring behind them.

“Blasted mutie…” the girl’s father cursed and slammed his fist against the window sill.

Seeing him reach for his gun, her mother pleaded, “D-Don’t do anything rash, d-dear….”

“If you don’t want our little girl runnin’ away with that freak of nature….,” he reached for his coat and cell phone. “….I suggest you stay out of my woman!”

With that, he placed a call as he stepped out and walked towards his pickup.

“Yeah, Larry,” he started when the call was answered. “Get some of the guys together….

….we got us a mutie that needs to be put down.”

-----

Today, (Somewhere in Canada)

Two people were sitting next a pristine lake, enjoying their first day together, in the open.

“What are you thinking?” the man whispered into the woman’s ear.

She lifted her head from his shoulder and turned around to face him. “I can’t believe we are doing this. I can’t believe we are still alive,” she caressed his cheek and in a familiar fashion, he brought his hand up to cup her slender hand.

“I know. This is crazy,” he replied as he draped his arm across her shoulders and brought her closer. “But, we are together. That’s all that matters to me.”
“Me too,” her eyes dimmed as she remembered the night when they were attacked and almost beaten to death. “I almost lost you. I don’t want that to happen again…EVER.”

“I love you Sofia,” the mutant known as Jake whispered to his human beloved.

“And I you….” With that, they leaned closer to each other. Their lips were millimeters apart, when….

“Ahem,” both lovers literally leapt off the ground.

“Oh, sorry Mr. McCoy.”

------

Salem Center, New York,

“Ah, we meet again, eh Stormy,” the French-Louisianan accent accompanied the entry of the X-Men into the holding cell that currently housed Remy Lebeau, aka Gambit. “If Remy know dat you miss ‘im so much, he would’ve come wit’ you. Where is dat redhead beauty dat you had wit’ you? Remy like to see ‘er too. She also be easy on the eyes, but Remy must tell you dis, she ain’t you.”

“Mr. Lebeau,” Charles Xavier answered before either Ororo or Scott could give bite on the charmer’s verbal bait. “My name is Charles Xavier. I hope your journey was uneventful.”

“Yes, the X-Prof,” Gambit’s caricature of his codename surprised even the telepathic Xavier. “Just peachy. Once they drug Remy, he slept like a baby. Nice way you ‘ave to bring in guests. Remy sure wanna see how you bring in da enemies.”

“Gambit,” the eye-patched man was unknown to Remy. “You haven’t been brought here as a first prize in the sweepstakes. You have been brought here to answer the questions that the Professor will ask of you. Once that is done, you will be dropped off in the same place from where you were collected. Is that understood?”

“An’ who might you be?” Remy asked suspiciously. He knew about the X-Men, and this man was no X-Man. First of all, he was too old, second, he didn’t look to be from the school and thirdly, he looked as if he didn’t give a shit about what Xavier said or did.

“That’s not for you to know,” Fury replied evenly. “You just answer the questions and we will let you go.”

“Ok homme,” Remy relented. “If you are askin’ so nicely, Remy do it. Ask what you wanna.”

“Psylocke,” at Fury’s voice, the door slid open and the purple haired telepath entered the room.

“Mon dieu,” Remy’s eyes glinted flirtingly.

“Dis, just gets betta an’ betta.”

-----

Elsewhere,

“So we are going to meet the great X-Men huh,” the teenager commented with a pop of her bubble gum bubble.
“*We* ain’t going nowhere,” the mutant known as Wolverine snapped at her. “I am gonna drop ya off at a friend’s place. Yer gonna stay with her until this whole shit goes through.”

“Hold on there partner,” his young passenger, the livewire firecracker, Jubilation ‘Jubilee’ Lee fired her own salvo. “What do you mean, ‘we ain’t goin’ nowhere’,” she repeated his words with a characteristic mimic. “I am going to come with you. I don’t want to be dumped off like yesterday’s lunch. And I definitely don’t want to be dumped on one of your hussy friends. Not even if is that *red* T&A sideshow Elektra.”

“I ain’t gonna leave you with her,” Logan scoffed at her. “She is outta town for some work. Once I leave ya, I’ll pick up X and….”
“Woah, woah, pick up X,” now she was really getting *active*. “You mean to tell me you are going to take her and not me. No way buster. If she goes, I go….and even she doesn’t go, I definitely go.”

“Now look here kid,” Logan tried to reason with her.
“I know that she is your clone and everything,” the young Chinese-American girl knew how to play her cards well, and right now she was going in for the emotional blackmail card. “And that you think of her as family….”

“Jubes darlin’,” Logan’s tone told her that the blow had been struck just right. “You know its not like that.”
“Yeah, well then why take her and leave me with some pole dancer friend of yours,” the firecracker pushed on. “Do you want me to take lessons from her?”

“KID,” Logan snapped at her. “First of all she isn’t a stripper or anything. She is a cop and a damn good one. Second, she is got more power in her right hand, than I have in my whole body, and thirdly and most importantly, I never want to listen you even thinking about taking yer clothes off for a living.”
“Oh, and here I was thinking of taking up modeling as a living,” Jubilee’s wink caused Logan to frown in exasperation.


“What do you mean she is so powerful?” the young girl finally questioned. “She a mutant or something?”
“Or something,” Logan responded. “She has this doohickey, the Digitabulum, some magical shit. That gives her a real kick ass power. It made my claws and healing factor look like it wasn’t even there.”
“So what is she doing being a cop?” Jubilee asked curiously. “Why doesn’t she become a full time superhero, like us,” she pointed towards herself.

“We ain’t superheroes kid,” Logan corrected her. “We are just people trying to make a living for ourselves. As fer Sara, she is already a hero. She is a cop, cuz she wanted to be like her old man. He was a cop too. You know, the whole family thing.”

“How do you know so much about her?” Jubilee narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You boned her or something.”
“Or something,” Logan repeated his earlier answer. “Where do you learn all this crap talk? Can’t ya talk like normal thirteen year olds?”
“No, old man,” she shook her head. “Now spill. What do you mean by, ‘or something’?”

“I-Iwaskindamarriedtoheronce,” Logan rattled off his answer.
“WHAT?” Jubilee wasn’t sure if she heard it correctly. ‘Did he just say…”

“I said,” Logan started loudly. “I was married to her once.”

“Oh, that’s what I thought you said,” the youngster said it if it wasn’t anything big, blowing her top the next moment. “HOLY SHIT. Jeez-Louise Is there someone on his green earth that isn’t a female of jumpable age that you haven’t done or married? You seem to have them all over the place. Elektra, that Mariko lady in Japan, now this Sara and then there was that….”

“Don’t,” Logan’s warning tone silenced her, the pain clear in his growl.

There was silence in the camper. “Sorry Wolvie,” Jubilee finally apologized. “I didn’t mean to…”
“I understand kid,” Logan patted her shoulder. “And my thing with Sara, it was just a mission. We got married, completed the mission and annulled it. All within a night.”

“Oh, so you didn’t,” Logan slapped his forehead at the pumping action Jubilee made with her arm.
“No, we didn’t,” he replied. “She is a nice lady. Smart, sexy, but tough as nails, with a no nonsense attitude. Ya will like her.”

“I am sure I will….” Jubilee replied in affirmation. “…when I meet her. But right now, I am going with YOU to the X-Freaks.”

“Yer not gonna listen are you?” Logan asked for the last time.

“You got a doubt on that bub?” came the answer in another mock imitation of him.

“Then,” he flipped open a cover on the dash to reveal a red colored button. “Hold on tight,” he warned and pressed the button.

“WHOO HOOoooo…..”

-----

Back at the X-Mansion,

The interrogation of Remy Lebeau was taking place uneventfully. Only Charles Xavier and Psylocke were present with him in the room, with the Nick Fury and the senior X-Men watching the proceedings from a closed circuit camera. They had been able to get the backup generator up and working and were working on the main systems.

Fury had given Xavier three chances after which he was going to end his involvement in the questioning. The three chances were for him to go anywhere in Gambit’s head that didn’t involve he X-Men. In short, it meant that the telepath would be constantly monitored by Psylocke and would ensure that Xavier didn’t get any information about Gambit’s personal life or his supposed involvement with Wolverine. This was both as a security measure for SHIELD itself and as a favor for Logan.

So far Xavier had used two of those three chances and was on his last leg. During his two unauthorized intrusions, he was able to get a clear picture of Wolverine and a couple of other people. One among them was a mutant he had known about in the past and who was now supposedly responsible for wrecking the school’s security and electrical systems. The other was a teenaged girl who was quite prominent in the mind of the charmer. Xavier had no idea who that girl was and due to the cold setting of the memory, didn’t find it out of place that the girl had covered most of her body, with only her face visible and exposed to the elements.

“You are a very knowledgeable young man,” he started his next question, a question he had asked thrice before, wording it differently every time. “Your skills and experience could be of great assistance in our mission. Would you consider joining us? We could help you learn more about us, than you already know from your sources.”

“Nice offer homme,” Gambit didn’t seem to rise to the bait. “But like Remy said before, he don’ wanna be a X-Man, and you also not gonna get an answer for your ‘source’ question.”

“I already guessed that your source was Wolverine,” if his words surprised the Cajun, Xavier didn’t know, but the answer he got next sure surprised him.

“Den why you askin’ Remy,” Gambit, hooked his hands behind his head. “You will get it soon. He’s comin’, isn’t he?”

--

“How did he know that?” Jean asked in the observation room. “We didn’t tell him.”
“And I don’t think the General told him either,” Ororo and Scott looked towards Fury, who had a passive expression on his face.

“Its in front of you,” he gestured to the screen, avoiding spelling out what everyone already knew, the street performer had something to do with Wolverine. Quite something, if he already knew that he was on his way.


“Wolverine is coming here?” Xavier tried to sound surprised.
“You know he is,” Remy caught onto the shift in his emotions. “So don’ insult Remy by lying.”
“Very well,” Xavier took a deep breath. “How did you know that?”
“Because Remy call ‘im,” red on black eyes glinted gleefully. “So, how much longer do you have left?”
“Left?” the Professor arched a brow.
“Before your card is cut,” with that he looked up directly at the camera and gave a small wave to the observing X-Men. He was mostly firing from the seat of his pants. He knew that Logan would come, but when and what would he do when he got here, he had no idea.

“How long have you known Logan?” Xavier’s question gained an instant response from both Psylocke and Fury, who barked into the mike.

“That’s three. You just struck out Professor. End of questioning.”

“Just one more question?” Xavier’s words were both for Psylocke and Fury. “Do you know someone named Dr. Henry McCoy?”

“Who?” This time Gambit surprise was true and clear.

“You got your answer,” Fury sounded once again. “Now please, no more questions.”

Xavier’s hands tightened at his chair’s armrests. However, having given his word to the General he thanked Gambit for his time and guided his chair out of the room, with Psylocke close behind him. Two SHIELD soldiers stepped into the room and escorted Remy back to his holding cell.

-----

Few hours later, (New York City)

“Stop.” Jubilee pleaded. “I need to pee.”

“We just stopped a hundred miles back,” Logan scowled at her.
“I know, but I need to go again.”

“Can’t you hold it?” That got a snort from the teenager.
“I am hungry too,” she gave her real reason.
“What?” Logan couldn’t believe his ears. “You have been munchin’ the whole time and you are hungry. Shit kid, even I don’t eat so much.”
“Yeah well, I am a growing woman, dude,” Jubilee flashed her non-existent biceps. “And I have a super-fast metabolism. So stop already.”

“I ain’t stopping,” Jubilee pouted at him. “We’ll stop soon. But not right now. The traffic is less, we are making good time. Chomp on yer sugar bombs some more. We’ll stop soon.”
“How soon is soon?”

“Half an hour,” Logan tried.
“Fifteen minutes,” the bargaining started.
“Half an hour.”
“Make it twenty and I won’t trouble you,” Jubilee offered as she flashed one of her boy-band CDs. “And I won’t even play this, and sing along with it.”

“Twenty minutes,” was the instant and hurried answer.

Twenty minutes later, the Wolverine-Jubilee truck pulled into the parking lot of a McDonalds.
“Hurry it up, ok.” Logan instructed as they stepped out. “I don’t wanta spend an hour with you just reading the menu over and over again.”
“You got it bub,” Jubilee replied as she hurried to avail the facilities.

Logan followed her silently, but stopped as he caught a whiff of a familiar smell. ‘Right on time,’ he smiled as he stepped inside.

“Kid, an extra order,” he called out to Jubilee.

Ten minutes later, they were back in the truck, with Jubilee already wolfing down her order of fries. “Here… ‘chomp’…take… ‘crunch’….your ‘chomp’.”

“Give it to her,” Logan jerked towards the back of the cabin.

“Her?” Jubilee questioned as she started to turn around.

-SNIKT- That answered her question.

“Hey X,” Jubilee flashed a friendly grin at the older teenager flopped behind her as she handed her the second order. “When did you pop up?”
“Ten minutes,” the other girl dug into her bag.

“So, that’s why you wanted a second order,” Jubilee narrowed her eyes at Logan as they resumed their journey towards the X-Mansion, where Remy’s signal was still active. “Why didn’t you just told that X was here,” she turned once again to the *Canadian* girl. “And why couldn’t you come inside?”

“Hn,” both Logan and X23 grunted in unison, gaining an exasperated cry from Jubilee.

“Oh great, just what I need, more grunt talk.”

-----

Salem Center, New York

“Scott how are the repairs coming along?” Xavier asked. The X-Men had been discussing about their findings from the question-answer session with Gambit. They now knew that their *guest* knew Wolverine and knew him quite well. What they still did not know was how he knew so much about them.

This unnerved and disturbed them. How many more people had this kind of inside information about them? Did any of their enemies have hold of it? Given that there hadn’t been attacked yet, except for the previous night, that thought had been ruled out.

“Professor, look,” Jean drew everyone’s attention towards the front door, outside which Fury was standing waiting for the soldier running towards him. In the distance, just across the demolished front gate, stood a beaten up truck.

“Looks like our guest has arrived,” Xavier said as he concentrated for a few seconds, only to sigh in defeat.

“I am still unable to sense his thoughts,” he informed the other x-men. “Jean?”
“Me neither Professor,” the younger and less powerful telepath shook her head. “Maybe that’s a part of his mutation also? Or maybe he just has very strong shield?”

“Strong enough to evade the Professor?” Ororo asked in surprise and awe.
“Ororo, if you remember, I wasn’t even able to detect him using Cerebro,” Xavier informed the weather witch.

Seeing the truck drive down the driveway, he started towards the front door himself.

“Lets go meet the mysterious Wolverine.”

---

Note: New character introduced and their descriptions (In order of mention/appearance)

Sofia and Jake: A human-mutant couple from Uncanny X-Men - Annual (1999). Both are in their early twenties. Even though their presence was short lived, I liked them and was kinda put off them they were lynched by a mob. So brought them in here. Don’t know much about Jake’s mutation, so will basing it mostly as a physical one i.e. no special powers. As for Sofia, she is a human. They will have a small part later on. (Age: Late teens to early twenties….19 to 22)

Sara Pezzini (Witchblade): Taken from the normal Top Cow comics series ‘Witchblade’. Not a big character. Don’t think will use her anymore. Used, the ‘Bloody Wedding’ oneshot. I liked the character pairing in that one, more than any other pairing in the Witchblade comic series. (Age: Mid to late twenties…25 to 28)

Please, don’t forget to review!!

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

“Lets go meet the mysterious Wolverine.”

Earlier,

“Hey. What are you guys doing here?” Bobby Drake burst through the doors of the recreation room.

“What the F,” he cursed as he tried to stop himself from running slam bang into an orange slushie.

“BOBBY!!” Kitty Pryde cried out in horror at wearing the liquid that she was planning on drinking. As if that wasn’t enough, most of it had been frozen, thanks to the mutant powers of the atmospheric moisture manipulating Iceman. Pushing him away from her, she phased through the walls and ran to her room.

“Kitty,” Bobby cried back in a mock imitation of the doused Kitty. Shifting to his ice form, he easily flicked the frozen orange colored ice off his body.

Turning back to normal, he came back the reason for his excited state.

“Guys, you won’t believe what-who is coming?”

Seeing his enthusiasm, his best friend and resident fire manipulator John Allerdyce, aka. Pyro spoke from in front of the television. “Who is it ice for brains? That rocker chick you were babbling about yesterday.”

“I wasn’t babbling,” Bobby answered automatically. “No man. Someone much cooler.”

“Who is coming Bobby?” inquired Jamie Mardox, the youngest of the group. He was among the newest entrants into the school and the ability to create multiple *copies* of himself, earning himself the moniker, multiple man, although given his age, most of his friends called him multiple boy.

“Wolverine,” a single word stopped all movement in the room, only to be replaced by an uproar a moment later.

“When?” asked one student.

“Who told you?” asked another.

“Is he going to hurt us?” a small girl asked.

“You are joking,” spoke a voice of disbelief and suspicion.

“Is he coming to stay here?”

Seeing that things were getting out of hand, Bobby took the easy way out, he yelled out at the top of his voice.

“EVERYONE QUIIIEEETT.”

Pin drop silence set over the room.

“I heard Scott and Jean talking in the kitchen,” he spoke softly. “According to them, he should be here within the next couple of hours. Scott was also saying…”

Bobby stopped as he felt a restraining hand on his shoulder. Fearing that it would be Scott, he clenched his eyes and didn’t turn back to face, “Robert…” Ororo.

“Oh, Ms. Monroe,” he sighed in relief. “Its just you.”

“Yes,” Ororo’s arched eyebrow was enough to silence him. “Please inform the students that after lunch they are to return to their rooms and remain there until it is announced otherwise.”
“Yes mam,” a nod.
“As for you, Katherine, Samuel and St. John, you are required to report to the Professor’s office…in your uniforms.”
“Yes mam,” another nod.

“Thank you,” with that the white clad Ororo turned around and left the room. Bobby was just about relax when her smooth voice came from the door.

“And in the future, please refrain from eavesdropping on your teachers and fellow students. It is not a good practice, especially not from a X-Man.”

“Yes….mam.”

-----

At the same time, a hundred or so miles away,

“Understood kid, no unnecessary yapping.”

“I got it in one,” Jubilee gave a confirmatory nod, her words and actions betrayed by the mischief glimmering in her dark brown eyes. “You don’t haveta repeat it a gazillion times.”

“I mean it Jubes,” Logan stressed again. “This ain’t a picnic. We are going for a single purpose, to get that stinkin’ Cajun outta there. Idiot. Got himself captured. Shoulda let him die the first time. Now gotta save his sorry ass.”

“He likes him you know,” Jubilee turned to the silent X23. “He just has a difficult time showing it, and he also knows what will happen when he gets home. Roguey will chew him a new one, maybe even a couple.”

“Hn,” was all the answer she got.

“Very glib,” Jubilee stuck out her tongue at the uninterested X, whose raised eyebrow expression was eerily similar to her father’s.

“Please Jubilee,” Logan softened his tone, or at least tried to. “I am pretty sure that they will give you their usual sell about the betterment of mutants, peaceful co-existence with mankind and all that shit. You just…”

“Ignore it,” the firecracker completed the sentence. “For real Wolvie, what do you take me to be? And why are you telling all these things only to me? Why not to X?”

“Cuz she knows how to deal with it if they try to mouth off in front of her,” Logan answered frankly, an audible -snikt- from the rear of the cabin, accompanying his words.

“Oh, just because she has claws like half the people we knew, she knows how to handle herself huh?” Jubilee’s emotional blackmail routine didn’t work this time. “And what am I, last season’s fashion?”
“Yeah,” Logan answered flatly. “Fer X, I just gotta one thing, don’t pop the claws until absolutely necessary. Use yer hands and feet to get the point across…an’ that goes fer you too. No paffing unless necessary….and if ya need to, do it hard enough to blow the hair offa their balls.”

“Hmph,” Jubilee pouted and crossed her arms at her chest, the upturned collar of her coat hiding half of her face, the rest being covered by the oversized pink goggles.

“Jubes, Jubilee,” Logan got no reply for his calls. “Sorry ok. Please.”
“Hmph,” this hmph, meant okay.

“Just do one thing, that’s all,” this got a tilted head look.
“What?”

“Just stay within hearing distance from at least one of us.”
“Hmph.”

“Now what is that *hmph* supposed ta mean?”
“Hmph.”

“I know that one,” Logan cracked a lop sided grin. “It means fuck off. Doesn’t it?”

“Hmph.”

----

About an hour and half later,

“Professor, look,” Jean had drawn attention to the black truck that was standing at the front gate.

A security check later, it was allowed to pass through, with General Fury and his aides waiting at the foot of the steps of the mansion. Charles Xavier and the rest of the X-Men including the four juniors were at the top.

“Man, what a heap,” Bobby was the first one to comment about the dilapidated condition of the truck. “How does he even get that thing to start?”

Scott Summers, the team leader and a self-proclaimed car and bike fanatic, stayed silent at the remark. Even from a single look, his keen eye had been able to discern that what met the eye was not everything. Even though it had all the looks of a twenty-year-old truck, it was riding along smoothly….too smoothly for what it should have been.

Even when it came to a halt in front of Nick Fury, it stopped without the characteristic screeching of the brakes.

However, as soon as they doors opened, all thoughts of the vehicle were lost. From the truck driver’s side stepped out a scruffy and *naturally* pissed off looking man, a smoldering cigar clenched between his teeth. He was dressed in worn out, skin tight, navy blue jeans, muddied work boots, at least two flannel shirts, a black t-shirt and a brown leather jacket.

Equally surprising for the X-Men was what came out of the passenger’s side, two girls, both in their teens. The first one was the younger and clearly livelier of the two and had an attention drawing yellow raincoat. That struck more than one person present as odd as there were no rain clouds anywhere on the horizon, neither was there any forecast of rain in the near future. The rest of her attire was matching blue colored shorts, gloves and boots and a red shirt with buttons on the side. The last pieces of her attire were a pair of super-sized earrings dangling and pink shades, which were perched on her nose. She also had on a cowboy hat, which looked to be at least one size too big for her. It was clear whose hat was it.

It was the last person of the trio that was dressed most conventionally as far as the X-Men were concerned. The second girl had an uncanny resemblance to the mutton chopped male and her black leather attire was very similar to the X-Men’s own uniforms, right down to the gloves and the zipped jacket. However, while the X-Men had a sort of basic armor woven into their jackets, the girl’s was a generic one.


The X-Men looked on as Nick Fury stepped forward and shook hands with the man, while the girls stood in silence, with the shorter one chomping away on a fresh piece of bubble gum she had just popped in her mouth, while the taller and older one kept an eye on the people gathered at the top of the stairs. She also spared a glance at the mangled remains of what used to be the front door and almost broke her smile on her unexpressive face.

**I am still unable to sense their thoughts** Xavier conveyed to the senior X-Men.
**Neither can I Professor** Jean informed about her own inability to read the minds of either of the three. **Can their mental shields be so strong?**

**What if they have some other means to block telepathic intrusions?** Projected Scott.
**Like Magneto** Ororo supported his point.

**That maybe the case** Xavier agreed. **That would also make them invisible to Cerebro**

**Heads up guys** Scott ended the conversation. **Newcomers at twelve o’clock.**

----

“Where’s he? Where’s Lebeau?” Wolverine neglected any welcome wishes and directly went to the point. As far as he was concerned, he had done all the welcoming and hand shaking with Fury. These fuckers were basically the cheerleading squad and could jump around shaking their pom-poms and he still wouldn't give them the time of the day.

“Mr. Logan, I presume,” Xavier offered an easy and completely non-threatening smile. “Or would you like to be addressed by your codename, Wolverine.”

“What I would like,” Logan started just as smoothly before dropping back into his characteristic growl. “Is for you to take me to yer prisoner. Fury,” he called to the smirking General.

“Don’t look at me,” Fury raised his hands in defeat. “This is in their hands now.”
“Is it?” Wolverine’s face contorted into a menacing smile. “Then I suggest that you take us to the kid.”

“Are you trying to threaten us?” Scott’s right hand was ready to reach for the visor control.

“Who said anything about trying?” the answer and the person who gave it both took Scott and the rest of the X-Men by surprise. “Who said anything about trying, you one-eyed jackass,” Logan did not know whether to laugh or scowl when Jubilee repeated her answer, attaching an additional endearment towards the end.

“You heard the kid, one-eye,” he settled on adopting Jubilee’s nickname for Cyclops.

“Scott, Warren, please take Mr. Logan to Mr. Lebeau,” Xavier did not let the situation get out of hand. Even though all three guests were free from telepathic manipulations, rendering him effectively powerless against them, he did not lose his nerve. Being an adept public speaker and student counselor, he fell back on his oratory skills. “Meanwhile, Jean and Ororo can help….” He looked towards the girls as if waiting for their names.

“Jean and ‘Ro ain’t gonna do shit with the kids,” Logan cut him right off. “They came with me, they stay with me.”

“As you wish,” Xavier acceded, not missing out Logan’s use of the familiar endearment for Ororo’s name.

The conversation being brought to an abrupt end, the X-Men, General Fury, Wolverine and his two teammates and the General’s aides made their way indoors and towards the elevators leading to the lower levels.

-----

“You fuckers got him in lock up,” Logan snarled at the sight of the young man behind the force field.

“It was for the safety of the school and the students,” Scott didn’t take his words lying down. He was already pissed off at the way Wolverine had rebuffed the Professor’s welcome. “We wouldn’t have done it if someone hadn’t attacked us first.” His mildly veiled accusation did not have the desired effect.

“Switch it off,” Logan jerked his head at the control panel.

Barely suppressing another retort at being ordered around on home ground, Cyclops entered the security code to disengage the force field.

“Get yer ass out here Gumbo, we’re leavin’,” Logan’s growl was answered by a laid back yawn from the former inmate, who sat up on the smooth metallic surface that served as the only sitting or sleeping structure in the otherwise barren holding cell. Apart from that, there was another polished metal surface which served as a mirror, a wash basin and a toilet.

“Ah, da Wolverine is here. Remy knew that you would come, but he didn’t know it be so soon,” Gambit stepped out with his usual flare, his worn out overcoat flapping around his legs. “Remy was jus’ getting’ comfortable.”

“I didn’t come fer yer sorry ass. I came for the kid. She’d miss ya,” Logan disregarded his prattle and started back on the way he had come on, leaving a scowling Scott and grinning Jean standing in front of the now empty cell. The rest of the X-Men and Fury were waiting for them in the war room, with Jubilee and X-23 standing outside the room, within visual range of the hulking Wolverine.

“What are you laughing about?” Scott gritted out to his teammate and girlfriend as they followed the two strangers.
“Nothing,” answered the redhead, letting free yet another round of giggles. She had accompanied Scott, in place of the winged Warren. “Its-its…”

“What?”

“You look constipated,” Jean answered, finally giving in and laughing a full throaty laugh.

“Ha, ha, very funny Jean, very funny,” Scott chuckled sarcastically. “I’m glad at least someone finds the situation humorous. We have a maniac in our midst, with two young girls god knows where he got or kidnapped from, and you find it funny. Real mature Jean, real mature.”

“Oh, come on Scott,” Jean grabbed his arm and pulled him to her. “Betsy was right. You are a tight ass. What happened to the man I fell in love with? When did he leave, leaving this grandmother of twelve in his place?”

“Don’t talk to me about Psylocke,” Scott harrumphed. “I don’t trust her one bit.”

“Oh, now who is being the immature one,” came the instant response. “Earlier you were panting over her, and now that she turned out to have a past, you are all puckered up.”

“I was not,” Scott’s scowl didn’t let up. “And I am not.”

“Sure flyboy, whatever you say,” Jean composed herself as they reached and entered the war room.

----

Inside the room,

“I don’t a shit about what you wanna know about me or my kids,” Wolverine was bellowing at an unaffected Charles Xavier. “You wanna ask them something, you go through ME. And the next time, I find that you or anyone even remotely known to you has been stickin’ their noses where it don’t belong, you will lose much more than a gate and a door.”

“Mr. Lebeau is an adult Wolverine,” Xavier’s voice held a sternness that his students knew well. It was akin to a don’t give a shit tone with anyone else.

“Logan, I ordered that Gambit he brought in,” Fury’s support added weight age to Xavier’s words.

“Yeah, excuse me for not giving a shit about either of ya,” Wolverine’s rebuke surprised the X-Men but not Fury, who had heard it hundreds of times. “Come on kids, lets blow this dump,” both Jubilee and X-23 were up in an instant. Jubilee had been talking to Bobby, who was unsuccessfully trying his level best to impress her.

“What are you doing with those girls?” Scott voiced his suspicion. He had been observing both girls and from the first look itself, it was clear that the younger one wasn’t related to the asshole Wolverine. About the other, he wasn’t so sure. She was too old to be daughter, at least it looked so, and she was too young to be his sister. As far as their information told them, Wolverine did not have any family. He was the quintessential loner. “Who are they?”

“None of yer business,” was the grunted reply, with an additional so fuck off, for goof measure.

“Did you kidnap them?” Cyclops continued to prod. He didn’t even want to think about any kind of physical relations.

“Swamp rat,” Logan called more than a bit loudly, instantly drawing Remy’s attention from the thing he was getting himself busy with, not only because of his volume, but also due to the name he just used. A name that was normally used by just one person, and she wasn’t in the room. “You wanna stay here?”

“Non mon ami,” Remy answered with a grin, wiggled his eyebrows at the vivacious Psylocke and leapt down from the table he was sitting on. “Remy had enough of da X-Men, and even though da X-Women are ‘ere, he don’ wanna stay ‘ere. He don’ like da accommodations.”

--

“Wolverine,” Xavier’s baritone sounded clear in the hall like room. “What about the other children you pickup? What do you do with them?”
“Like I said to one-eye,” Logan answered over his shoulder. “None of yer business, cueball. So don’t try an’ stick yer nose in it, or it won’t be the only thing you lose.”

“Do you sell them to the government labs?” Even Fury winced at Scott’s words…well almost winced. His jaw muscles did twitch…a millimeter.

Before anyone knew what had happened, Cyclops found himself thrown against the wall, two sets of metal blades….claws against his body, one pair on either side of his neck, while the other, a smaller set around his right hand’s wrist, holding it in place, leaving him helpless, unable to reach for his visor’s controls.

“Scott,” Jean cried out in horror.

“Fuck,” was Bobby and St. John’s gasp.

“Goddess,” Ororo blanched at the sight of the claws, not only from Wolverine’s hand, but also from the hand of the young girl.

“Wolverine,” Xavier called out. “Don’t”

“You wanna see what comes out of those labs,” Logan growled at his ear as a third claw peeked and then gradually made its way out until it was resting right against Cyclops’s Adam’s apple. “Huh asshole, do ya?”

“N-No,” Scott managed to voice with minimum of muscle movement.

Time stood still as Wolverine took heavy breaths as if trying to get himself under control. Finally he withdrew the middle claw and lifted his free hand and gently laid it against X-23’s forearm, knowing from personal experience how to approach such a situation.

“Its alright kid,” his voice carried a softness yet unheard by the X-Men. “He got the message. He not gonna do anything? Are ya one-eye,” he deliberately stretched out the nickname that Jubilee had given to the visor wearing Cyclops.

“No,” this time his voice carried his usual confidence as Scott agreed with Wolverine’s words.

“Hn,” was all he got as an answer as Wolverine also stepped back from him, turning around and walking away to the door as if nothing had happened. Both him and X-23 still had their claws out, their internal sensors now set on a kill to survive mode.

--

“I hope you understand and accept my advice now…” Fury stated once the three had left the room, a clearly shaken Jean, Warren, Bobby and John accompanying them to help and ensure that they get out.

“Sir,” one of his aides interrupted him, the look on the young man’s face telling him that it was an emergency.

Stepping away from Xavier and Ororo, he read the printout that had just been handed over to him.

“Not again,” his face scrunched in frustration. Pressing a finger to his ear, he spoke contacted the soldiers posted outside the mansion.

“Stop Wolverine from leaving. His country needs him.”

-----

Elsewhere, few hours ago,

“General,” a soldier knocked and entered the room. “You instructed to be informed when he woke up.”
“Good work private,” the four star army General looked up from behind his reading glasses. He knew about whom the soldier was talking about, even if the soldier himself didn’t. There were only a handful of people in the base, who knew the identity of their single inmate.

Closing his file, the General stepped out from behind his desk and started towards the door. Five minutes later he was standing in front of a bulletproof glass enclosure, four cameras focused on him. This was nothing compared to the two dozen inside the cell where a slender bespectacled man sat, silently eating his first meal in two days.

Seeing the General standing before him, the geneticist stood up and came towards him. He had just one thing in mind….and also in his heart.

For the ten minutes that they talked, the man inside the cell requested the same thing six times, each time with growing unease.

Their conversation ended when the older man started walking away towards the door, his last words ringing in the man’s ears.

“She’s gone to my cabin in Muskoka….”

“….gone with her new boyfriend.”

“….to get away from you.”

“…stay away from my daughter you freak.”

“No, no, no,” the man inside the cell fell to his knees, his whole body shaking, first with shock, then when anger and finally with rage.


“Oh, my god,” the sergeant in the control room gasped in fear, his hand automatically gravitating towards the emergency alarm button. “General Ross sir….sir…..we have a situation.”

“What do you mean a situation?” the battle hardened voice barked over the comm. lines
“Sir, he is shaking sir,” the sergeant squeaked out.

“WHAT?” This got the General’s attention, along with a whispered sweet-motherf**king-god. “This is not supposed to happen. We have him doped up to his eyeballs with the antidote he developed himself. And he needs the serum to turn in the first place.”

“I don’t sir, but it is happening right before my eyes sir,” the subordinate tried again.
“I know that you idiot, I can see it for myself,” this time the answer came from the war room.

“All stations, code red, all stations, code red,” another voice rang out over the intercom. “This is not a drill, this is not a….

RRAAARRGHHH!!

….drill.”

BETTYYY!!!

---

Note: New characters introduced and their descriptions (In order of mention/appearance)

John Allerdyce (Pyro): Mostly from the movieverse, except for the fact that he is not joined the Magneto’s Brotherhood….yet. Unlike Iceman, Shadowcat and Cannonball, not a major player in the fic….yet. (Age: About six to eight months older than his best friend. Iceman…..17 ½ to 19 ½)

Jamie Mardox (Multiple Man): Haven’t had much exposure to this mutant, most of it has been from the Evolution cartoon series. Therefore basing this character with that in mind. Young teenager, shy but wanting to impress teachers and peers, sometimes looses control over powers…at the most inappropriate times. (Age: Pre to Early teens…11 to 13)

As for the third entrant, its pretty easy to guess who that is. Character explanation, next chapter.

Please, don’t forget to review!!

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

Somewhere in the Alberta province of Canada,

“Thank you for coming doctor,” the blue furred behemoth smiled at the dark skinned woman walking next to him. “And thank you for bringing in these supplies.”
“Its no hassle doctor,” he got a smile and an emphasis on the doctor. “I only had to transport them up from the city. As you said yourself, if I wasn’t coming, one of you would have driven and picked them up.”

“Nevertheless, thank you,” Beast smiled at his counterpart. “And please call me Henry.”

“Only if you call me Cecelia,” came the instant answer.

“Very well…Cecelia.”

Reaching the end of the corridor they were walking along, they started up the stairs, continuing their conversation.

“By the way, where is Logan?” the Puerto Rican stunner asked with concern. “He was supposed come to by yesterday, Jubilee along with him. I waited for them, finally I gavbe up and decided to make an impromptu trip myself. Although I must say, the drive over is a tough ride, even in the no-snow fall weather.”

“He had some work come up,” Henry initially tried to avoid revealing the truth of the situation, but deciding not to. Checking for any one else within hearing distance, especially Rogue, he spoke softly. “He had to go to Westchester.”

That wiped the smile off Cecelia’s face, her body tensing up at the news. “Xavier’s?” she asked tightly.

“Yes,” Beast replied with a slight nod. He knew about Cecelia’s aversion to Charles Xavier and his X-Men. She blamed them for the one of the largest disasters of her life…..the loss of everything she had built since her birth.

--

It had been more than three years since that accursed day, when Charles Xavier had showed up at her hospital, his two ‘yuppie’ students in tow.

He had asked her some of her time to talk and had then gone on to give her his usual sales line, (according to her) about the betterment of the mutant race and its peaceful co-existence with humans. Cecelia had told him in no uncertain words that she was already living in peaceful co-existence with humans and did not want any part of his great vision. When even after repeated tries on behalf of Xavier and his companions, she didn’t agree, they had left peacefully and silently, with Xavier giving her his assurance that he wouldn’t contact her again, nor reveal to anyone that she was a mutant.

However, by that time the damage had been done. Unknown to Xavier, his archrival and one time best friend Erik Lehnsherr aka. Magneto had his own tracker, the feral Sabertooth on Xavier’s trail. He was under orders not to reveal himself or confront either Xavier or his students Cyclops and Marvel Girl. He was just supposed to get information on the mutant they were going to contact.

‘If only Xavier hadn’t come to me,’ that thought had come often to Cecelia. Not fifteen minutes after Xavier’s leaving, Sabertooth, improvising on his orders, decided to get some action with the beautiful Cecelia. He attacked her right there in the hospital, slashing and killing two orderlies who tried to confront him. He would surely have raped her….even killed her, had it not been for her using her mutant powers and the handy defibrillator to shock the living daylights out of him, over and over, until he wasn’t able to get up.

What she didn’t know then was that Sabertooth possessed a killer healing factor and soon enough he was up and running again, looking for her. He stopped however, when his master got news of his indiscretion and reprimanded him accordingly.

Cecelia didn’t know any of this because she didn’t care. She was too busy running to save herself, her life as a newly appointed resident surgeon at New York’s Mother of Mercy Hospital and as the person known as Cece to her family and friends, over. In their eyes, she had become a thing, a mutie freak….and for that she blamed, then and even now, a single man, Charles Xavier.

She had gone to Xavier and told him as much. She had cursed him and everything he stood for.

//Flashback//

“This is all YOUR fault,” Cecelia screamed at the silent Xavier, Scott and Jean standing by his side like obedient soldiers. “You had to come in my life, you had to spew all that garbage of yours, you had to….had to….destroy me.”

“Cecelia,” Xavier motored his chair towards her, trying to get closer to console her.

“Stay the hell away from me,” the distraught woman let out a blast of her power, stopping the wheelchair in its tracks. “I don’t want you or any of your freaks near me.”

“You are one of us freaks,” the much younger Jean couldn’t contain herself.

“No, I am NOT,” Cecelia shook her head, the look in her tearful eyes one of pure murder. “I’ll never be one of you. Not until I am able draw breath. NEVER.”

“Cecelia….” Xavier got a glare, which made him to paddle back on the familiarity meter. “Dr. Reyes, I am sorry for your loss. Please give me a chance to make it up to you. I would like to help you in any way…..”

“Help,” Cecelia chuckled sarcastically. “What are you going to do? Take over every mind in the hospital and everyone whom they have told about me and remove that memory. Even then you couldn’t give me my life back. Unless you destroy the security tapes of me killing that…whatever that was.”

“Sabertooth,” Scott supplied the name. “And you didn’t kill him. He got up after your left and ran away before the cops got there.” The X-Men had seen the video footage and knew everything that had occurred after their departure.

“Great,” the doctor threw up her hands in exasperation. “That makes me one less thing. At least I am not a killer. I can tell that to anyone who doesn’t kill me first for being a mutant. I only wanted one thing in life, which was to be a doctor, a person who could save lives.”

“You decided that after your father’s death, didn’t you,” Jean’s supposedly considerate words got a paperweight lofted at her, which she barely stopped in time.

“Stay the fuck out of my mind, you boneheaded bimbo,” Cecelia lashed out as she had never done, ever, ignoring all semblances of civilized talk. “That is one thing I still have that is mine. I don’t want anyone meddling in it, not him….” she pointed towards Xavier. “…and definitely not you. Try that again and I’ll forget my vow to never lose or take a life.”

“Jean,” Xavier’s hard tone silenced the fuming teenager. “Dr. Reyes, I am sorry for your loss…” he was struggling with his words. He had never expected such a thing to happen. First of all he had thought that a learned mutant like Cecelia would welcome a chance to help others like her and secondly, he hadn’t factored in Magneto completely. He had been keeping a track through Cerebro and none of the Brotherhood members were active in the area. “I know a way that maybe to your acceptance.”

“I am not living or working here,” Cecelia gestured towards the walls of the room, implying the school.

“You won’t need to,” Xavier’s answer surprised all three people present in the room. “You might however need to change countries, at least for some time. If you agree with that, I could explain it further and make the appropriate arrangements.”

Cecelia was silent for few moments. “I am listening,” she said finally.

//End Flashback//

Xavier had used his contacts and obtained a clean record from the hospital she had been working in. That, her entire life’s savings and four boxes worth of clothes, books and other stuff, was all she took when she left New York and America, moving to Canada, first to Toronto, Ontario where she searched for a job for three months. Finally she got one, but not in Toronto, but in Calgary, Alberta.

It had been there, that she met a young woman, a mutant, who knew a man who needed help with a mutant boy, whose mutation was obvious to the naked eye, thus making it impossible for him to come to the hospital.

That man’s was cryptically called Wolverine. That chance meeting led to a sort of pseudo-friendship cum family-doctor relationship between the transplanted Cecelia and the gruff man she came to know as Logan.

Their arrangement had continued until Logan’s household gained a new runaway, the blue furred *Beast*, or Dr. Henry Phillip McCoy aka. Hank. After that Cecelia’s visits as a doctor ended, but that as a friend and older sister to Logan’s extended family continued. She made it a point to try to come every fortnight, something she found herself doing on a regular basis since the past six months. The reason for that was the man walking next to her.

With Henry, she had found a level of like-minded thinking she hadn’t with anyone, human or mutant, at least not since her debate days in med school. He could talk, even if at times it was more than normal, on any subject, from classical opera to junk food to the latest developments in any field of medicine, engineering or anything else. Even if theirs wasn’t a romantic relationship, it was definitely something more than the usual friendship.

--

“Would you like to partake some tea before you depart for Calgary?” the gentle voice didn’t seem as if it would come from such a hulking form.

“Only if you join me,” Cecelia replied with a smile. “And by tea I mean tea and something wholesome to eat, not just twinkies.”

Beast’s eyes twinkled at the mention of his favorite food of all. “Maybe we can have them for dessert,” he offered good-naturedly.

“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

-----

Back in Salem Center, New York,

“You of all people ain’t one to talk,” Logan snarled at the ebony beauty in front of him, her arms crossed at her chest, her cerulean eyes livid with barely contained anger.

“What do you mean by that?” Ororo’s tone mirrored the dark clouds overhead.

“I mean, its none of yer business what I do or say,” Logan snapped at her. “So butt out.”

----

Earlier,

“Mr. Wolverine sir,” the shield soldier stepped up the scowling Wolverine and his young companions.
“Yeah,” Logan gave him a slanted look, meaning speak before I gut ya. “What?”

“General Fury has asked you to wait for him,” the younger man gulped at the sight of the metal claws still sticking out from Logan’s clenched fist. X23 had let hers slide in once they reached the front door of the mansion.

“Now what’s his problem,” Logan turned back to look at door as if expecting to see Fury there. ‘The fucker has the stealth of a cat,’ he thought to himself turning to face the uniformed soldier. “Anythin’ else?”

“No sir,” the man seemed more than happy to leave the immediate surroundings. He had heard of the claw wielding legend that was Wolverine during his post-induction training with SHIELD. It had been specified clearly, on more than one occasion, not to engage the one time agent of SHIELD, and more importantly, as a non-official warning, not to piss him off. That bit of sage advice had come from General Fury himself, who visited the class on only once and that when they were being taught about extreme-special-cases. Wolverine’s name had come in that list, along with a few others, once of whom was the cause of the current emergency.

--

Minutes later, the X-Men and Fury came out from the opening that was supposed to hold the front door. They saw their three guests perched on and around the truck. Logan was leaning against the front fender, a stogie sticking out of his mouth. X-23 was standing erect next to the passenger’s side door, where Jubilee sat shaking her head in tune with the rhythm of the song playing on her new ipod mp3 player. She had finally managed to save enough to pay for half of it, borrowing the other half from Rogue and X, both of whom had been promised that they would be paid back either in cash or in kind, in the form of household chores. The only person that wasn’t visible was Remy, who stepped out from the driver’s side door as soon as Jubilee alerted him of the X-Men’s presence.

“You know, those two could be related. Both have the same pissed off look.” Bobby whispered to Kitty, both blanching as Logan’s head snapped towards them.

“Mind what you say young man,” Fury warned him. “They can cut through titanium, for them ice is nothing.”

“Uh-oh….uh….thanks for the heads up,” Bobby replied, falling back to the rear of the group, ready to ice-away at the slightest moment’s warning. He had seen what happened to Scott and wasn’t too interested in that happen to him. In fact, he was down right averse to the whole idea. He loved his body parts too much for that, every icy-bit of them.

“What dya want Fury?” Logan grunted as Fury stepped off the last stair, the X-Men alongside him, save for Xavier who had taken the wheelchair ramp. “I’ve gotta hit the road. Gotta throw Gumbo back in that shithole your guys yanked him from.”

“We have a situation, one that requires your expertise,” Fury answered, raising a hand to silence Wolverine. “Don’t tell me that its not any concern of yours, because its is. You have been specially requested by Canadian Government, your old colleagues at Department H putting in a word for you.”

“What do those fuckers want now?” Logan growled through clenched teeth. “Green boy went crazy or what.”

Although he had meant it as a joke, Logan’s momentary smirk fell at Fury’s silence. “Nick.”

“Sorry Logan,” Fury shrugged noncommittally. “He got out and headed straight for the Canadian border.”

“Get those frickkin’ Avengers of yours to stop him. I get their membership brochure every goddam year,” Logan growled at him. “Or those Fantastic Four. Grimm is always talking the big talk that he could take the Hulk in a fight. Let him at it. Let him get the shit beaten outta him for once. Or better yet, take these puppies,” he gestured towards the X-Men. “They wanna play superhero, let them. Its not my fight, not anymore.”

“Logan,” Fury’s tone changed from his usual all business no nonsense one. It gained a sort of familiar camaraderie that none of the X-Men had heard from him, not even with the Professor. “As of 1723 hours and 45 seconds eastern standard time, the Hulk crossed over into Canada. The Canadian Government has refused anyone who is not a Canadian. That leaves us with very few viable choices.”

“What about Alpha Flight?” Logan’s growl lost some of its anger. “Heather, Mac and the others.”
“They are tied up in the arctic region,” Fury seemed to have all ends covered.

--

A tense silence settled over the gathering, as both Wolverine and Fury seemed to be playing a game of who blinks first.

“I’ll do it,” the Canadian grunted finally. “Just give me time to get the kids to a safe place.”

“You could leave them here,” Ororo and Jean offered simultaneously, get an oblique glance for their words.

“Yer kiddin’, right?”

“Logan, we don’t have the time,” Fury seemed to agree with the two X-Women. “As we speak, he is tearing through Ontario. We have to stop him before he gets to Muskoka, or at least steer him towards an uninhabited area, so that he can cool down.”

“Why? What’s he got there?” that piqued interest. “Got a cabin to hole up in fer the winter?”

“Not him,” Fury knew what was coming next. “But General Ross does.” At Logan’s silence he started again. “General Ross as in….”

“I know who the fuck Ross is,” the angry growl was back. “Yer tellin’ me, I gotta go through all of this just to stop him from getting a woman….a piece of ass.”

“What does he mean General?” Xavier voiced the question running through all the X-Men’s minds.

“The Hulk as you all know is the alter ego of Dr. Bruce Banner,” the older X-Men nodded at that, the younger ones standing in stupefied silence. “Before he became the Hulk, he was engaged to Dr. Betty Ross, his colleague and only daughter of General Ross, the person now in charge of containing Banner. Ross seemed to have some problems with Banner being the choice of his daughter. He had always envisioned her marrying an army officer, not some science-nerd, which Banner was in his eyes.”

“What’s that got to do with the Hulk tearing through the American and Canadian countryside?” Scott voiced his question.

“It seems that the General sent Betty off to Muskoka and appointed the son of an ex-army buddy of his as the head of her security.”

“So?” Scott was still lost. “That still doesn’t explain how Dr. Banner got hold of that information, although it does clear up as to why he is headed in that direction.”

“Fuckin’ idiot,” Logan expressed his disapproval. “Mooning over a woman.”

“In your eyes, if a man loves a woman, he is an idiot,” Jean was quick on the uptake, her remark having no affect on Wolverine, whose growl had by then, settled into a continuous rumble.

“Jean,” Ororo laid a hand on the shorter woman’s shoulder. “Let it be. Its not worth your time.”

That seemed to rankle Wolverine, eliciting a biting; love is something that you women use to jerk us guys around, from him. “Ain’t it right Ms. Monroe? How many men do ya think Red loved before she settled on one-eye here,” he smirked sarcastically.

“That’s none of your business Mr. Logan,” Ororo answered a bit angrily, her loss of control surprising even her. “It shouldn’t concern you,” she composed herself and answered calmly.

“I don’t give a shit whomever ya wanna fuck,” Logan snarled at her. “You of all people ain’t one to talk.”

“What do you mean by that?” Ororo’s voice cracked with emotion for the second time, the clear sky suddenly growing gray with dark ominous clouds.

“I mean, its none of yer business what I do or say,” Logan snapped at her. “So butt out.”

“Logan,” Fury stepped in. “We’ve got to make a move.”

Sparing one last heated glance at the silken haired Ororo, Logan turned around and stepped towards the truck.

“Ten minutes,” was all he said as he opened the door and lifted himself through it.

-----

“Jean, please make arrangements for our guests,” Xavier smiled at the girls. “Your names children?”
“None of your business,” X23’s growl was an exact copy of Wolverine’s.

“I’m Jubilee,” the younger one seemed more open and outgoing. “She’s X.”
“X?” Kitty asked in a surprised tone. “X what?”

“X23,” the older, scarier girl answered for herself.
“X23? What is your real name?” was Bobby’s question. “By the way, I am Bobby,” he offered his hand for a handshake, which he didn’t get from the feral girl. All he got was a “Hn.”

“That means, keep your paw to yourself,” Jubilee answered as an interpreter. “Unless you want to lose it.”

“You don’t need to feel threatened child,” Ororo tried softly. She had sensed that although the younger girl was talking quite freely, both were wary of their surroundings and wouldn’t hesitate to attack if the need arose.

“Yeah, right,” Jubilee looked up at her, staring into her deep blue eyes. “Nice talk lady. But its not gonna work, not on us. Not when you guys are going to throw us in the brig.”

“Yer gonna to lock them up?” everyone turned around at the menacing growl, which was preceded by the -snikt- of metal sliding over metal, the claws of Wolverine’s right hand sticking out of his gloved limb.

Before anyone could say anything, Scott blurted out. “You are Weapon X.”

-SNIKT- -SNIKT-

Two sets of claws were out in an instant, one from Logan’s free hand and two each from X23’s hands.

“You have a death wish, shithead?” Logan snarled at him, his yellow and blue mask grasped within one clenched fist. “’Cuz you are one word away from gettin’ gutted.”

“Logan,” Fury interrupted impatiently. “Leave the kid alone. He must have seen some old footage of yours from your uniformed days. By the way, why the spandex?”

“Just nostalgia Nick,” Logan’s eyes didn’t turn from the silent Scott. “Reminder of my first time with greenie.”

“Come on, lets go,” Fury started towards the jet that had been specially called for ferrying Wolverine to the drop zone.

“Gimmie a minute, gotta talk to the kids.” Logan got a over the back wave as a confirmation.

-----

He first one to the younger of the two girls. For all her bravado, Jubilee was worried for her friend-cum-mentor.

“Get on with the speech,” she huffed.

“Don’t talk too much,” were the first words for her. “Eat all you like, but only after having X confirm it is not drugged or something.” That got gasps and snorts from the X-Men. Logan knew that they wouldn’t do such a thing, but it was a golden chance for yanking some x-chains and he didn’t let it slide.

Stepping closer to the girl, he whispered so that only she and X23 could hear his words. “An’ if somethin’ happens to me, contact Hank. He’ll get someone to take your from here and to him. X knows her way around the city, so if you need to get away, you can do that too. Gumbo knows how to take care of himself, just get him out of here in one piece. Then he is on his own.”

“Alright, alright,” Jubilee’s eyes were damp with tears now as she reached forward and hugged him tightly. “I’ll do all that and more. You do just one thing for me.”
“What?” Logan let a gloved hand rest over her head, caressing it lovingly.
“Just come back in one piece…..alive.”

Pushing her back from him, Logan wiped the stray tear rolling down her cheek. “You got it kid. One piece an’ alive.”

Stepping back from her, he turned to the older and more stoic X.

“You know what to do,” he got a silent nod for that. “Got any words?” another nod. “What?”
“Don’t die.”

Logan gave an understanding nod. There were no hugs for them, not in front of strangers. X23 was still learning the emotional aspect of her free life, something her training as a weapon of the Hydra had tried to eliminate from her personality. She still had trouble sometimes in controlling her berserker anger, another remnant of her days with the terrorist organization.

“Take care of her,” he jerked his head towards Jubilee. “An’ yerself. You know where to go if you need to get away,” he whispered under his breath.

A nod and an equally low Elektra, answered his question.

--

His bonding with his children done, Logan donned his mask, completing the original Wolverine attire.

“Anything happens to either of them,” that warning was for Xavier and the X-Men. “You all die…slowly.”

“You have our promise that no harm will come to them,” Xavier’s words were answered with a snort.

“Yer words an’ promises mean jack,” the white eye-slits of the mask narrowed at the Professor. “I know what happens to the people you make them to.” The next words from Wolverine, came, not vocally, but as thought projections, which only the Professor and Jean caught.

**Or forgotten what you did to Cecelia Reyes**

Before either the Professor or the redhead could respond, Wolverine’s mental bocks were back in place, the man himself walking away towards the jet. Fury had already taken off and was heading towards the border in his private jet, his two aids gone along with him.

-----

Once the place was out of sight, Xavier turned to the silent Ororo. “Ororo, if you could please get Jubilee, X….23 and Mr. Lebeau situated in the guests rooms.”

“Yes Professor,” Ororo answered, her words joined by a ’we stay together’, from X23.

“Scott, please join me my office,” Xavier asked of his team leader. **You too, Jean** he telepathically communicated to Jean. “The rest of you, please continue your day.”

--

Five minutes later, Xavier, Scott and Jean were in Xavier’s office, a pensive look on the Professor’s face.

“What is it Professor?” Jean asked concernedly. She could sense the worry rolling off from the older telepath.

“Professor, are you worried about the girls?” Scott tabled his question. He hadn’t liked that someone like Wolverine was traveling around with two young, teenage girls, both of them mutants. Even though, one of them seemed to share his mutation and appeared to be family, and the other one was equally attached to the guy, it didn’t improve matters all that much in the cautious Cyclops’s eyes. But, even he gave leeway after witnessing Wolverine’s departure.

“I am concerned with many things Scott,” Xavier sighed. “Not the least of which are the two young ladies currently under our roof. It seems Wolverine has some very expansive contacts.” He then went on to tell Scott about the comment Wolverine had made about Dr. Cecelia Reyes, something which had come as a bolt from the blue for the Professor. Then there was the matter of Dr. Henry McCoy, about whom Xavier didn’t mention to his students.

“But that is not the thing foremost on my mind. Its something more closer to home,” that surprised both Jean and Cyclops. “That’s why I have asked you two to come here.”

“What Professor?” Both chimed in unison.

“Its Ororo, I am worried about .”

---

Note: New characters introduced and their descriptions (In order of mention/appearance)

Dr. Cecelia Reyes (No Codename): Don’t have much info about this character. Most will be from the top of my head. As you already read, she has a grudge against ol’ Charlie Xavier and his merry band of mutants. Haven’t decided if her friendship with Henry will progress to something more intimate, after all not everyone can been with somebody. You need friends. Mutant powers and profession same as in the Uncannyverse i.e. Surgeon with ability to generate a translucent psioplasmic bio-field around herself as a protective force shield or reshape it into a variety of patterns and forms (Age: Mid to late twenties…..26 to 29)

Dr. Bruce Banner (The Hulk): Well, I have seen the movie and read some of the comics and even seen some of the cartoon shows. So, will be taking from all those. And although may use an inspiration from the Ultimates comics series, neither Dr. Banner, nor his beloved Betty Ross will come from that. One is too wimpy in that, and the other to slutty. No offense to any Ultimate Hulk or Betty fans. For starters, think of the movie Hulk and build from there…..and please, I know, the movie sucked on so many levels, so no comments on that. (Age: Late twenties to mid thirties…..29 to 34)

Dr. Betty Ross: Although, she hasn’t appeared as such and might not anytime soon, or ever, my character takes from the movieverse Betty Ross. She is a scientist like Banner and has a hard-ass for a father, whom I will not explain here….saying only that, his character is completely movieverse. (Age: Sort of late twenties…..26 to 28)

And for Wolverine's uniform, couldn't resist the yellow and blue. His usual attire will be black leather, but with yellow and blue overtones. Wolverine without that is like Storm without a cape, just doesn't cut it for me.

Please, don’t forget to review!!

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

---

White lights, green people, white lights, green people, white…

Four, then one, four, then one…..ONE

HIM

Hair the color of hay, eyes the color of the sky, smell….smell that of HATE.

Hate…towards her, and yet not. Hate of who she is, what she is, what she comes from….who she comes from.

WEAPON X

--

A clear plastic thing is coming towards her. That’s the way it always is….at least in this one. There are others too. Like the one where she is jump started.

“Stop,” The man in charge stops the nurse. “No anesthesia.”

He revels in the pain he causes her, not once, but repeatedly.

“You’re joking right?” One of them raises a question. “Dr. Rice…” That’s what they call him. Either that or…Zander. “That’s…that’s inhuman….” She can feel the anger inside him. Along with that, there are other smells. Pride, superiority, hate….always hate. That is always there.

“OUT!” He jerks a thumb at the door. “Everybody out! NOW!”

The others fear him. Fear what he about to do you her. Fear what he can do to them.

So they leave.

They leave her all to him.

‘Don’t,’ she wants to cry out. ‘Don’t leave…p-p-please. Don’t.’


Behind the mask, his lips curve in an evil, satisfied smile. He sets on his work….the one thing that gives him the most joy…torturing her.

-----

“What are you doing out here?” Jubilee looked up at the group headed her way. She ticked their names off her mental roster. Cue ball, Xavier, One eye, Scooter, Red, Jean, White, Ororo.
“Sitting,” she answered as if the redhead had asked the most obvious question.

“Why are sitting her child?” Xavier wheeled himself near her, stopping at the grunts and groans coming from the other side of the door.
“What’s going on inside?” Scott recognized a particular grunt as the one he had heard from the other girl. “Who is in there?”

“Who do you think?” Something about him didn’t sit quite well with Jubilee. Maybe it was that he was an authority figure and the only authority that either of the two girls recognized was not there and the fact that an upstart was trying to establish himself in that position, seemed to set their alarms off. ‘It could be that,’ Jubilee mused. ‘Or it could be that he is a jackass. Yeah, that sounds better.’

“Jubilee, what is happening to your friend?” the Professor inquired calmly. He had half asleep when a wave of emotions hit him, causing him to clutch his head at the sheer intensity of it. Conducting a telepathic sweep, he was surprised to find that it was from one of the temporary inhabitants of the mansion. If the emotions in themselves weren’t enough, the fact that he could read the girl’s thoughts almost threw him for a loop. Only a few hours ago, he couldn’t even get a peek and now, now she was like an open book to him. An open, but highly dangerous book.

Fearing for the safety of the students and the girl’s companion, Xavier contacted Scott, Jean and Ororo. He had updated them on the precarious situation, and together they had made their way to the guest room where the girls were situated. It was there that they were right now, with Jubilee sitting on the floor, her back against the door.

“Having a dream,” although the answer had given in an nonchalant fashion, it didn’t take telepathy to see the worry in her eyes.

“That doesn’t sound like a dream,” Ororo pointed out. Just then, a loud cry sounded both from inside the room and from outside it.

“Jean!” Scott caught the falling form of his girlfriend.

“Jean, I specifically asked you to restrain yourself and not to probe telepathically,” Xavier just about snapped at her. Instructing Scott to help her to a seated position on the ground, he began to calm the frazzled telepath.

Once again the silence was shattered by a sound from within the room, except that this time, it was a cry, it was a full fledged scream.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!”

“Ok, that’s it. I’m going inside,” Scott tried to move to the door, only to stopped by Ororo.
“Don’t,” Ororo face had a sick look on it. “Don’t go inside. Not yet. Give her some time.”

“Ororo!” Scott turned out and held her as she looked to follow the route Jean had taken a few moments ago. “What’s wrong? Professor, what’s happening to them?”

Xavier had a look of concentration on his face as he scanned the girl inside, only to have her abruptly drop of his mental radar. ‘Just like before.’

Moments later the door was yanked open by a sweaty, haggard looking X23. Without even sparing a glance at the collected x-men, she looked towards Jubilee and jerked her towards the inside of the room. That done, she disappeared back into the darkness.

Pushing herself off the ground, Jubilee stepped into the room. “Goodnight,” she wished and closed the door behind her.

“Professor!” Scott wanted to find out what had just happened inside the room. However, at the same time he was worried about the wellbeing of both Jean and Ororo. Jean, he understood had received a telepathic backlash or overfeed or whatever telepaths got. What happened to Ororo?

That thought and the conversation of the previous evening were still rolling around in his mind, when Xavier spoke and made matters easy for him.

“Scott, please take Jean to your room. She should be all right now. However, let her get a goodnight’s sleep. I’ll stay with Ororo until she recovers.”

“Yes sir,” the younger man nodded numbly. Lifting the now languid Jean, he walked away towards their room, leaving Xavier to deal with Ororo’s sudden ailment.

Once in their room, he laid Jean on the bed, pulling the covers over her. Kissing her gently on the forehead, he lay down himself, his thoughts returning to the seemingly outlandish claim that Xavier just a few hours ago. Seeing Ororo’s reaction, it didn’t seem so outlandish now.

----

“Ororo, if you could please get Jubilee, X23 and Mr. Lebeau situated in the guests rooms,” Xavier had easily got Ororo out of the way. He wanted her to be busy, at least for quite some time.
“Yes Professor,” Ororo answered, and led the two girls and the young man away.
“Scott, please join me my office,” Xavier asked of his team leader. **You too, Jean**

Once there, he had asked Scott to close and lock the door. That has set both of them on guard. Locked doors meant something FYEAEO i.e. For Your Eyes And Ears only.

“What is it Professor?” Jean sounded worried, concern clear in her voice and telepathic projections. It was the same with Scott, although with him, he was worried about the girls, who in eyes were in grave danger with someone who he in no uncertain terms called a maniac, although not to his face.

“Professor, are you worried about the girls?” Scott voiced his thoughts.

“I am concerned with many things Scott…..” Xavier’s answer hadn’t been so direct. He knew that what he was going to say was something that had worried all of them for quite some time and still did. He was sure that he would have to face at least one flare up either from the usually emotional Jean or in this specific case, even Scott. “Not the least of which are the two young ladies currently under our roof. It seems Wolverine has some very expansive contacts.”

He then told Scott what Jean already knew, having caught it from Wolverine’s mental projection. He however, did not discuss the matter Dr. Henry McCoy, whom neither of his students knew and whom he had approached years ago for joining the school and team he was trying to establish. Things hadn’t worked out for them, with McCoy graciously refusing his offer. Xavier had all but forgotten about the mutant scientist, until he heard his voice over the music playing on his laptop.

‘How did McCoy land up with Wolverine?’ was the something he still had trouble understanding. He hoped that once Wolverine returned from his mission, he would be able to get some information. He hoped, but given what he had seen so far, he wasn’t pinning his hopes on that idea.

“But that is not the thing foremost on my mind. Its something more closer to home. That is why I have asked the two of you to come here.”

“What Professor?” Scott and Jean spoke in unison, both missing the subtle hint that the Professor gave by saying ‘two of you’.

“I am worried about Ororo.”

“Ororo!” Their faces wore their surprises. That the meeting would be about Ororo was the last thing either of them would have imagined.

“Yes,” Xavier nodded. “I believe we have found something, someone to help us with her…condition.”

“Someone?” Jean was the first to speak. “Who Professor?”

Scott wasn’t so quick on the draw. He took his time and was able to match two and two to get four. “Why do I think I am not going to like where this is going? I am not, am I?”

Xavier had to give it to Scott; he was great at handling facts and dealing with them. It had been that quality of his, which had struck Xavier when he had first met the young, seemingly blind teenager.

“Scott, I am afraid that you are right. I am talking about Wolverine.” Jean let out a surprised gasp and Scott a unsurprised sigh at that news.

“Wolverine?” The redhead piped up. “What’s he got to do with this?” The memory of Wolverine and X23 attacking Scott once and almost again a second time outside the mansion still clear in her mind, she wasn’t too happy to hear the Professor link him with her best friend, even if it was to help her. Also wasn’t forgotten the demolished gate, door and garage shutters, along with the power outage they had to suffer.

“Yes,” Xavier nodded. He might have neglected the warning signals he had noticed as mere co-incidences, but seeing Wolverine in that yellow and blue and with the mask on top of that, proved to be a homerun as far Xavier was concerned. The cherry topping on the cake was Ororo’s emotional reaction, which given the weather witch’s Alcatraz like control, shouldn’t have happened with any of the X-Men let alone a stranger. There was no doubt in Xavier’s mind that somehow, somewhere, Ororo had met Wolverine, either as himself i.e. Logan or Wolverine, or as his previous codename, Weapon X.

Then there was the question of the girl named X23. Seeing her reaction, first to Scott’s comment about the labs and then to his blurting out and calling Logan, Weapon X, assured the Professor that she too had been to one of those torture cells. That would explain the metal claws, which although not numerically equivalent to Wolverine’s six, were from the same genetic strain.
That particular thought brought up two more even disturbing ones, breeding experiments and experiments on children.

However, now wasn’t the time to think about that. It was Ororo, they had gathered to talk about.

----

“I believe Wolverine knows about Ororo’s time…about her time away from us,” he finally said.
“Away from us? You mean in those labs?” Jean asked for clarification, getting it by a slight nod.

“Professor, we aren’t even sure whether she had been in one of those labs or not,” Xavier’ hypothesis didn’t convince Scott.
“Scott, she was gone for more than two years,” Jean contested Xavier’s and also her point.

“And she came back,” Scott shot back. “On her own.”
“What if she ran away?” the ball was lobbed back into his court.

“Did it look like she had been running from anything?” the team-leader persona was on full force.
“No it didn’t,” Jean agreed. “But how do you explain the memory loss and the fact when she came back, she had more control over her powers than she had ever had before, then any of us ever had before….or now.”

--

That seemed to work as Scott’s face scrunched in concentration. “I can’t,” he finally relented. He knew what Jean had said was the truth. From the time she disappeared to the time she came back, Ororo Monroe had changed both as a person and as mutant wielder of the weather. Her power and her control over it had grown multiple-fold. Where she had to concentrate to generate and control a medium sized twister, she effortlessly did the same with half a dozen jumbo ones.

“From what I know of the labs,” Xavier opened a secret compartment in his table. Taking out the one of the folders from the dozen of so stored inside it, he handed it to Scott. “Their experiments have known to cause amnesia in their subjects, or in some cases, complete loss of memories. Moreover, from what I know about Weapon X, whom we now know is Logan; he case was the latter one. He has been searching for those lost memories and also for his past for the past fifteen or so years.”

“Fifteen years!” Scott’s eyes widened behind his visor. “That would mean he was a teenager when they got hold of him and put that metal on him.”

“I am not too sure about that,” Xavier shook his head in denial. “According these files, Weapon X possesses a highly potent healing factor. That allows him to heal from any kind of injury, whether it is inflicted manually, explosive propelled or mutant powered. He was able to recover from all kinds of poisons, acids, alkalis, drugs, tranquilizers….the list goes on for quite some time.”

“They did all that to him,” Jean blanched at the mere thought.

“And Scott,” Xavier finally came to the point he wanted to make. “His healing factor also takes care of the body’s breakup.”
“What does that mean?” Scott turned to Jean.

“It means, he doesn’t age like we do,” was the simplest explanation the redhead could manage. “He might be thirty years old or he might be three hundred, or even older than that.”
“Three…hundred….” The words seemed unnatural by their mere sound. “Or…older than that. He could be older than the Professor.”

“He could be,” Xavier answered with a amused smirk.

“And you say, he knows Ororo,” Scott was quick to recover.

“I am not sure whether he knows her personally or whether he has read her file,” Xavier presented his various theories. “Or if he was a prisoner at the time Ororo was there.”

“Or if she was even there,” Scott didn’t let up on his side.

“Or if she was even there,” Xavier acceded that much.

--

Silent for the past few moments, Jean spoke again.

“Professor, do you think it is a good idea to bring it all up again. Ororo has had a difficult time getting over the two lost years of her life. In some ways she still hasn’t.”

“I agree Professor,” Scott nodded in support. “And if Wolverine has anything to do with it, I am not sure if it’s worth knowing.”

“Scott, Jean, put yourself in Ororo’s position or Logan’s position for that matter,” Xavier’s words held wisdom and years of experience of dealing with people. “Wouldn’t you want to know about everything in your life? Even if knowing it is painful, not knowing it is not worth the ignorance…or avoidance.”

That had the desired effect, silencing both Scott and Jean as well as any arguments they might have had in mind.

Ending the meeting, Xavier had one more thing to say. “I would request to keep this to yourself.”

“Sure Professor,” the redhead smiled ruefully. “No use in getting her hopes up, or troubling her.”

------

Elsewhere,

“Fuckin’ nostaligia,” Logan growled and pulled at the spandex for the umpteenth time. “Been a long time since had this one on. Its frickin’ riding up my ass. Gotta start keeping underoos with this.”

He had been tracking the hulk for hours after the green giant disappeared from the aerial surveillance team that had been tracking him. They couldn’t afford to be too close. That was yet another precaution to take with the hulk. No one knew when he would do a 360 degree turn, both figuratively and literally. One second he could be sitting around, smell a flower or something, and the next he would be leaping into the air, rising hundreds of feet to shove the same flower down your throat.

“Green skinned jackass,” the expletives didn’t let up. “Had to come here. Had to get me to freeze my nuts off searching for you to get you back to that crazy old fart Ross. I’m tired, I’m hungry, need a brew, a cigar. Fuck, I need away from here. This ain’t even my gig anymore.”

Talking to himself, Logan stopped short as a now familiar scent reached him.

‘He’s here somewhere,’ falling silent, Logan crouched to the ground. Luckily for him, his move was just in time to avoid a thick tree trunk that whooshed above his head.

‘The fucker is using a tree as a baseball bat,’ that thought wasn’t quite appealing to Logan. ‘Seems to have learned new tricks since the last time.’

THUMPPPP!!

The ground shook as tossing the tree trunk away, the Hulk decide to get a hands on experience.

“HULK SMASSSHHHH!!!!”

“FUCK!”

------

Back in New York,

Having assured Xavier that she was feeling better, Ororo returned to her loft apartment and almost immediately feel asleep….a fitful one.

Minutes later, she entered a dream of her own.

“Ororo….Ororo,” a distant voice is calling her. Something about the voice strikes her as familiar.

Sitting up, she finds that she is laying on something white and fluffy….snow. “Where did all this snow come from?” she says out aloud, reaching out to grab a lump, she is surprised to find that as soon as her fingers touch it, all the white vanishes, becoming instead a dry, gravelly sand, which inspite of her efforts slips from her grasp.

“Ororo, Ororo,” there is that voice again. This time she recognizes the voice.
“Mother?” She isn’t sure that she spoke it aloud, so she tries again. “Mother.”

“Ororo,” the female’s voice is urging her to do something, but what? “Come quick. Hide here.”

“Hide?” The word has barely left her lips that she finds herself in that hotel room in Cairo, her parents standing before her.

“Come quick dear,” its her father’s turn now. “Stand under the door. We will be safe here.”
“No we won’t,” she wants to cry out to them, but she cannot. Flailing her arms, she feeling something yanked out from within her. Falling to the ground, her body wracking with pain, she sees a young girl emerge from within her and join the couple calling to her.

“No…don’t,” she tries to warn them, but fails yet again. Reaching for her throat, she finds a metallic collar around it.

Suddenly, another familiar…harrowing sound reaches her ears, the approaching drone of an aircraft engine.

“No.” She is unable to move, unable to speak, watching helplessly as death comes in from the sky. The very same sky where she rides her winds. “No. Get away….get…”

Words are lost to her, her eyes widening at what happens next. The plane transforms….It grows claws….sharp, metallic claws. At the same time, she see the sand change back to snow.

“Goddess, help me,” her pleas are ignored. “Help….them.”

GGGRRAAAHHHH!!

There is a mouth and eyes on the plane now. Golden, almost reddish eyes stare right at her, twinkling with a sick mirth that frightens her.

“I’m gonna kill ya,” the voice from the transformed plane is a blood chilling one. “All of ya.”

Raising its claws, it plunges head long into her parents, killing them instantly.

Dispensing of their bloody bodies, it steps towards her. “Now yer turn.”

“HELP!!” She finds her voice just in time to hear another sound, one that she instinctively knows means safety.

It is that sound that causes her to wake up.

-SNIKT-

---

Note: No new characters in this one. Can’t just go on adding, can I? The whole Ororo dream sequence was done on a whim. Needed to get her some representation and she got quite a lot in this chapter.

As for the difference in her power levels, think the Ororo initially shown in Ultimate X-Men and then think the Ororo in Uncanny X-Men (The present one). You'll get the idea.

Hope you liked it. Next chapter, ass kicking!!

Spoilers: X23 #02

Please, don’t forget to review!!

It had been four days since Wolverine and his companions had come to the Xavier mansion, and two since Wolverine returned from his confrontation with the Hulk.

He had returned, or to be correct, had been returned by Fury and his SHIELD operatives. In his confrontation with the green giant, he had suffered massive injuries with parts of his body, the skin, muscles, cartilages torn right off his bone, revealing the metal underneath. The shocked X-Men were dumbstruck as to how could someone survive like this, their shock only increasing when they realized that not only was Wolverine alive, he was conscious and refused any sort of medical help, either from the X-Men or from SHIELD.

-----

//Flashback//

“We need to get him to the infirmary,” Jean stepped forward, her hand going to her forehead to telekinetically control of the stretcher Wolverine lay on.
“Nnnnnoo….” Wolverine grunted between coughs of blood, instead he raised his hand and grabbed X23 and yanked her towards his face.

Whatever he whispered into the girl’s ears, none of the x-men heard, but the very next moment, X jerked her head, signaling to Jubilee and Remy to help her.

“Where are you taking him?” Scott only spoke, but made no movements to halt their progress. He had had two run-ins with Wolverine and his protégé, or his daughter as the X-Men had taken to calling the intensely private X. During the whole time she, Jubilee and Remy had been the X-Men’s guests, the girl had barely spoken a whole sentence to any of the residents. She limited herself to Jubilee, keeping her distance from even Remy, something that surprised the X-Men.

“To the truck,” Jubilee answered for the trip as they resumed their movements.
“To the truck?” Jean repeated in exasperation. Almost done with her medical school, she couldn’t fathom how anyone could refuse medical attention, and that too at such a life or death juncture. “Are you nuts? He needs medical attention, he needs a doctor. Professor,” she turned to her mentor.

The way both X23 and Jubilee were behaving, Xavier surmised that maybe they knew what they were doing. Deciding to give them a chance, he contacted Jean telepathically.

**Jean, give them a chance. The infirmary is prepped. If the need arises, we can get him there within a minute**
**But Professor…** Jean started, but was silenced by a raised hand from Xavier.

Following their guests, Xavier and the other X-Men, Scott, Jean, Ororo, Bobby and Kitty reached the ramshackle looking truck. What struck them as odd was that Jubilee and Remy stopped near the front of the truck, with only X23 unlocking the door and stepping inside.

“Wha…” Scott started to speak but stopped at a low metallic whine of a motor running. His and his teammates’ eyes widened at what happened next. Right before their eyes, the almost a decade and a half old looking truck just fell apart….or looked as if it was falling apart. In fact, what was happening was something that none of them would have even fathomed, not even Scott, who had suspected something odd about Wolverine’s choice of transportation.

The driver’s side of the truck, just opened up, to reveal an interior that seemed to be out of a high tech vehicle, the X-Jet even, not a seemingly redneck mutant’s truck.

Whatever X23 had done inside had changed the interior completely. Instrument panels, screen and whatnots, littered the far side of the interior. The midsection, where Jubilee and Remy, with help from Jean’s telekinesis laid down Wolverine, was changed into a single bed. There were other things, which were covered by innocuous looking cooling boxes, closets etc.

“Holeeee….” Bobby whistled in awe. He had been impressed by Wolverine from the get go. After all, a guy with a rep like his had to have something. The fact that he didn’t take shit from the Professor, and more importantly from Cyke-‘tight-ass’-clops, made things even more in his favor. Now…now he was officially a charter member of the Wolverine Fan Club. “Do you see that?” He nudged Kitty with his elbow. “Do you?”
“Uh huh,” Kitty nodded the first time, scowling when Bobby didn’t let up on the elbowing. “Stop it icebox.”
“Uhn-what, oh, sorry,” Bobby withdrew his hand and stepped towards the truck for a better view.

--

**Professor** Scott telepathically contacted his mentor. Jean was helping X23 and Jubilee, but from the way the girls moved, it was clear that they were used to and adept with this sort of medical emergencies…..someone had taught them.
**Yes Scott** Xavier replied back, his mind also thinking the same things that both his students were. One, the two girls were trained….by a professional doctor, and two, some of the things he was able to see were as advanced as what the X-Men had in their underground headquarters and their vehicles….maybe even more. He was sure by now, that Wolverine had access to this technology, freely, and if his guess had been correct the first time, he knew who that person was, Dr. Henry Phillip McCoy, a mutant he had approached some years back. Although, McCoy had refused to join Xavier and his then fledging team, he had helped him out by designing various systems, including their base security and medical systems. The same systems that the mysterious hacker, who Xavier was sure was McCoy, had shut down so easily, and which the interior of Wolverine’s truck had installed in it.

‘But how…?’ Xavier was still mulling over this thought when Scott put up his question.

**Professor, we have the same technology** The engineering minded Cyclops reached the same conclusion as the telepath.
**Yes Scott, we do** Xavier’s answer didn’t reveal anything.

**But how?** was the obvious question. **Do you think they…he…**
**Rest assured, it wasn’t stolen from us** Xavier put an end to that line of thought.

**Then how…** Scott’s next question was silenced by a we’ll talk later, from Xavier.

----

“Why cannot we do this inside?” Was Ororo’s question. Jean had given up after the first couple of tries and was helping the girls, not that they needed it.
“He won’t go in,” Jubilee answered as she finished bandaging a deep gash running along Wolverine’s right forearm.
“We do it here,” X23’s tone left no room for argument, silencing even Ororo. Ororo stepped back, not so much from the tone or the words, but because of the girl. There was something about X23 that set her alarms off, not in the danger sort of way, but in the making her nervous sort of way.

Xavier detected her nervousness, but elected to remain silent. He already knew what was going in her mind and the reason behind it. Ororo had come to him, that morning and revealed the nightmares she had been having, not only at night, but also at any time she tried to sleep. At first, they had been vague and linked to her parents, but as they got more detailed, her parents went into the background and other people; strangers came in. Even the location, which was shuffling between a cold mountainous region and the African desert and savannah, grew more and more sinister, to where finally she repeatedly found herself in a lab of sorts. She was submerged with hundreds of wires and pins attached or inserted into her body. However, one thing that did not change was the ending. It always ended with a dark clawed figure diving towards her, claws extended as if to kill her. It was at that point that she always got up, her body shaking and covered with sweat.

What she had concluded and what Xavier thought too, was that maybe it was her memories that were trying to force their way back into the conscious psyche through these nightmares. Xavier would have been sure that it was one of the two ‘claw-possessing’ guests, except that Ororo wasn’t sure about the size and number of claws. According to her, the number of claws and the size and sex of her attacker kept on varying. The claws varied from two to four, while the sex alternated between male and female.

--

“Leave him,” X23’s growl drew his attention to the truck. The trio of Jean, Jubilee and X had finished cleaning and bandaging the wounds. Jean suggested that they should sedate him…for his own good; however, a blunt NO from both X23 and Jubilee silenced her.

“We cannot just leave him,” Jean voiced the thought that was on her and the mind of every single one of her teammates. What unnerved both Bobby and Kitty, and to some extent their seniors, was how the two girls had changed the moment they laid their eyes on the battered form of their friend-mentor-leader or whatever Wolverine was to them. It was as if they became someone else, well Jubilee became someone else, X23 was the same as before.
Where Jubilee has been talking nonstop, she had gone eerily silent, her attention completely focused on the task at hand. ‘They are better trained than us,’ Bobby kept his thought to himself. However, in the presence of two powerful telepaths, he couldn’t keep it from them, causing them to think along the same line.

“Leave,” X repeated a second time, emphasizing her *request* with a -snikt- of her closed right hand.

**Jean** Xavier telepathically contacted the redhead. **Step back**
**But Professor, I can’t just leave him** the doctor in her spoke. **Just look at him. He is hanging between life and death**
**I know** Xavier’s mental tone was firm. **But we have to think about our safety too. Both girls and even Gambit are on a hair trigger right now. Don’t provoke them.**

Sighing audibly, Jean sent a mental, **Yes Professor** and stepped out from within the truck which started to close behind it. Within seconds, it was back to the way it had been….looking like just another ‘normal’ truck.

--

“Let go homme,” Gambit stepped up to Scott who didn’t let up. They were still continuing their primping and showing off that they had begun in New Orleans, with the younger Gambit adding oil to fire by incessantly flirting with any and every ‘within range’ female in the mansion. His within range, started from the blush-able Kitty and went up. He deliberately paid special attention to Jean, not because he was especially ‘taken’ with her, but because he was Cyke’s girl and that pushed his buttons, on so many levels. However, what neither the annoyed Scott nor any of the other blushing females noticed was that for some reason he kept his distance from Ororo. Kept his distance, in his case meaning, he didn’t get all in her personal space and fiddle with her, caressing her hair, sides etc. etc. etc.

“After you monsieur,” Scott stepped aside, trying to get the last word in.
“Thankyou mon ami,” Gambit turned sideways and winked at Jean, who smirked and shook her head. She had caught onto Remy’s game and even if she wasn’t reciprocating to his advances, on some level, she was enjoying the affect it was having on Scott. Angry at Gambit, he was paying special attention to her, leading to two consecutive orgasm filled nights for her, thanking to her friendly neighborhood Cyclops.

“You are welcome,” Scott didn’t let up. “Jackass.”
“Back at ya,” neither did Gambit.

“Idiot,” Scott shot back.
”Ass…” whatever Gambit was to say was lost in the physical shove that Jean gave to him and to her boyfriend.

“Just get inside you two. Why don’t you just whip ‘em out and start measuring.”

“Jean!” Scott exclaimed in surprise and horror.
“Nice eye Jeannie,” Gambit’s red-black eyes glinted mischievously. “But the winner gets….” His gaze lingered over the redhead’s lithe body.

“Just. Get. In.”

//End Flashback//

-----

Present,

The senior X-Men were gathered in Xavier’s office. Their meeting had been going on for more than an hour now, with Jean starting by informing the others what they had already seen. The seemingly and truly near dead Wolverine had recovered from all of his injuries. It would have been a miracle, had it not been for his mutant powers. Even though neither he, nor any of his companions had been forthcoming about his powers, let alone theirs, the keen eyed X-Men had noticed and recorded some instances.

From what they gathered, Wolverine and X-23 shared powers, except that instead of Wolverine’s three claws on each hand, X23 just had two. What they didn’t know, was that, along with her hand claws, X23 also possessed a single claw on each foot. Apart from this, both seemed to possess a sort of healing factor that the X-Men had only seen in one other mutant, Sabertooth. Gambit’s power was clear to them the first time they had met the charmer. He was able to kinetically charge any and every object, as long as it was inorganic. That left Jubilee. About her power or powers, none of them had any idea. During the whole time she had been at the mansion, she hadn’t used her powers once. ‘Maybe she is a human,’ that thought had also risen, more than once.

Xavier then went on to reveal, mostly for Ororo’s sake, the case of Dr. Cecelia Reyes. As it had occurred during her ‘absence’, Ororo hadn’t known about it and was sorry for what the X-Men, inadvertently caused to happen to the surgeon. When Xavier revealed that Wolverine knew about her case, she just nodded and took it in silently. So far, nothing had disturbed her.

--

That all changed when Xavier handed her the Weapon X program file, the one he had until now, kept in his private locker. Waiting for her to skim to through, he resumed once she was done.

“I believe that Wolverine might be able to help us in finding out what happened to you,” was the simplest explanation he could come up with. “Either him or X23, or maybe even both.”
“Wolverine,” all three present X-Men detected the slightest of crack in her usually calm voice, but only the Professor knew the reason behind it….her nightmares. “Why do you think that?”

“We think that is a possibility because he was also in the Weapon X program,” Xavier started.
“The same people that got you….” Jean carried on. “….captured you.”
“The people we think may have captured you,” Scott presented his side of things. Somehow, he wasn’t still sold on the idea of Ororo being captured by the Weapon X people. Although, she had been gone for more than two years, she didn’t have any markings, like bar codes, or any implants, like locators etc. In his view, that alone, should negate the whole Weapon X and consequently Wolverine and/or X23 link.

“Yes Scott,” Xavier nodded patiently. He had detected aversion from the newcomers. First, because of Gambit and then because of his rescuers, Scott felt that his authority had been undermined and that they had shown…tried to show him up in front of his own teammates, and being the team-leader, that was something Cyclops couldn’t stomach quite well. “Nevertheless, we feel that from what we have been able to gather about Wolverine and his companions and what we have observed in the last few day, they might be able to help us in finding out about what happened to you, and maybe even to help you remember that time.”

His end of the speaking done, Xavier looked towards Jean and Scott if they had something to add. Getting a silent nod from either of them, he then turned to Ororo. “Ororo?”

Ororo was silent for what seemed like hours. On some level, she wanted to let that part of her life go. Even though she didn’t remember it, she dreamt about, at least she thought she did….and what she saw, pulled her equally towards both sides of the argument, the leave it and the get it sides. She had always thought that those two years were gone forever, along with everything that happened during that time….and she had made her peace with that decision. However, now, now, there was a chance, the barest one, but it was there. She could finally get to know whether her dreams….and her nightmares were her true memories, or just figments of her imagination….and that made the decision for her.

Taking a deep breath, she looked towards her three teammates and spoke just four words.

“I want to know.”

-----

Elsewhere,

“What do you have to report?” A European accented male voice spoke into the phone.
“Got news for you boss,” a make, but younger voice answered from the other end.

“Go on.”
“Wolverine’s here,” just two words were spoken from the other end. “And he’s got two girls with him, one of them with metal claws coming out of her hands.”

At the mention of the girl, there was a slight vibration in the air as the metal fork in the older man’s hand twisted, its three prongs bending in three different directions.

“Anything else?” The man asked tightly.
“Yeah, he’s…he was hurt,” the informant continued. “Been here for couple of days.”

“Good work.” The call ended with a click.

Standing up from his dinner table, the red and blue clad figure, the master of magnetism, the mutant known as Magneto, walked to the next room.

“Quicksilver,” he barked to the silver haired man sitting beside a beautiful redhead woman.
“Yes fa…” he began, only to stop at the hard look he got from his own biological father. “Yes Magneto.”

“Get me Raven….get Mystique.”

---

Note: Got a few faces here. New characters introduced and their descriptions (In order of mention/appearance)

Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto): Erik Lehnsherr aka Magnus aka Magneto, is a mixture of the movie, Ultimate and Evolutionverse Magneto. Mostly from Ultimateverse…cause that’s the one I am familiar with most at present. The normal Marvel Magneto is kind of a lost cause right now, and although the movieverse Mags is great (hats off to Sir Ian McAllen), he is a bit old for this specific fic. (Age: Same as Xavier i.e. fifty plus….50 to 53)

Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver): Same here, mostly Ultimateverse. The Evolutionverse Pietro is too young and too shallow (but that’s just my view) (Age: Early twenties….23-25)

Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch): Same as with her twin. Mostly Ultimateverse. The Evolutionverse Wanda is too angry for my taste. Oh, and another point. She has long red (Aurburn) hair, not the punk black as in the Evolution cartoon series, or the current long black in the Ultimates. (Age: Early twenties….23-25)

However, I would like to state, as I am following the Ultimate timeline for these three characters, they will be having the same dysfunctional family as in that comic series…including the whole underlying Pietro-Wanda thing.

Raven Darkholme (Mystique): This character is going to be a surprise one. A mixture of all universes, she will be different from the way I have written her until now. (Age: Unknown….in lieu of her mutation)

Please, don’t forget to review!!

“So….what do you think?” A female voice spoke from the door, causing the man standing in front of the mirror to turn his head and look in her direction.

“The black one….” She asked as she modeled the black spaghetti strapped gown, its cut sticking to and flowing along her voluptuous curves as the scooped neck showed of quite a bit of her generous cleavage.

“Or this one?” She twirled around, her gown changing to an orange strapless creation, a beautiful ruby studded necklace gracing her smooth neck as her flowing flame colored hair kissed her bare shoulders and back.

“I like the blue one,” the man complemented as his steel-hazel eyes caught her yellow ones. Even through the her skin hue, he caught the blush coloring her cheeks.

“I know you do,” she shot back as she turned around to step into the bathroom, her gown once again changing, this time to a embroidered white creation, her hair gaining extra length, while losing some their previous waviness to become straight styled.

“We’ll play ‘Dirty Old Man’ later,” she spoke from across the closed door. “Are you….”

-----

“Raven….Raven…”

“Uh-what?” Hearing her name jarred the woman in question out of her silent musings. Looking up she saw the face of her leader and current lover….Magneto.
“Yes Magneto,” the blue skinned Mystique lifted her hand to her shoulder, covering her lover’s hand with her own.

“You seemed lost,” Magneto’s voice carried a concern that very few people ever heard, not now, not for several years. Not since, the end of Erik Lehnsherr started….with the birth of the Magneto.
“Nothing,” a forceful sigh and Mystique’s cold, calculating exterior was up. “Just thinking.”

“Hmmm,” that explanation was accepted. “Have you given any thought to…?”
“I am sorry Erik,” Mystique lowered her head, her auburn colored locks falling forth and curtaining her sides. “But I cannot help you this time. Not against him….not against Wolverine.”
-----

Earlier,

“Hey Blob,” the mangy looking mutant known as Toad called out from his monitoring post in the control room. “Did you order for a delivery or somethin’. You know how the boss hates it.”
“No man,” the nine hundred pounds plus Fred Dukes, better known as Blob, spoke in a garbled tone, his mouth filled with a humungous bite of the two foot long sub he was currently munching on. “It wasn’t me.”
“Then who could it…” Mortimer Toynbee aka Toad’s words were lost as the pizza-boy lifted his free hand to the hidden keypad situated next to the front door. Seconds later, the door opened. Not only that, but the entire base’s security system went into passive mode towards the newcomer.
“Its her,” Toad leapt of the table at the deep voice. Blessed with some sort of a skittish personality, he was often the target of practical jokes for the rest of his teammates, something which even the naturally scary Magneto seemed to partake in. “Its Raven.”

--

Within a minute, the door of the inner sanctum of the Brotherhood of Mutants’ base opened and the pizza-boy who was in fact a girl stepped through, a soft smile playing on her lips as she started to change into her natural form….starting with the yellows of her eyes.

“Hello my love,” she greeted as the transformation advanced to her hair.
“Mystique,” Magneto’s all business tone and helmet hid the twinkling of his eyes and the smile beginning on his lips.

“The eyes may be fooled by a woman’s disguise…” Mystique began crooning, her shift into her natural form almost complete. “….but the heart never fails to recognize.”

“Do you have to go through this routine every time you two see each other?” Commented the man standing just behind Mystique.

“Shut up Forge,” Magneto’s bark silenced him instantly. Nodding meekly, Forge, the mutant with the power of genius, able to make anything…well mechanical, slithered off to the control room. He had been assigned to Mystique by Magneto to assist her in her covert missions for the Brotherhood. It was one such mission that he had been on, when the emergency call to return came in from the Big-M himself. One word from the big cheese, well from Forge’s point of view at least, and Mystique dropped everything and ran like a lovesick puppy to her master.

--

‘I used to be that way,’ he remembered a time when someone had caught his eye too. ‘Too bad it didn’t work out,’ he mused further. ‘I coulda shown that Ororo Monroe a thing or two. But noooo, she had to be an X-Man, help the world, until mutants and mankind…..had to keep herself safe for someone special.’ He gritted his teeth at the memory of a teenaged Ororo turning him down.

Both she and him, they had just arrived at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters and were being shown the ropes by the cripple. Forge hadn’t been impressed at all by the whole idealist outlook which Xavier seemed to carry around and which Ororo adopted almost instantly, helped…brainwashed no doubt by the three stooges, Jean, Scott and Warren.

Deciding not to stay on in the school and strike out on his own, using his mutant power to make money, Forge had approached the African Sex-bot and awarded her the chance…the opportunity of a lifetime, to join him in his great, rich destiny.

“You give me what I want and I’ll make you a real queen, a real Goddess,” he had offered her.
“Give you what you want?” Ororo had arched an eyebrow at him, making him think that maybe the tribal bimbo didn’t understand English too well.

“You know baby,” he reached up and laid a hand on her shoulder, slowly sliding it down. “Gimmie some sugar or whatever they say in your jungle tongue. Roll in the hay, horizontal mambo, ugga-bugga, whatever.”

Stepping back to make some space between her and him, Ororo crossed her arms at her chest. Although still new to the Western world, she had discerned what *sugar* Forge was talking about. Forcing down her first instinct to fry his metal leg, she decided to try out what the Professor had taught them… try to handle matters by talking. Fighting only leads to sorrow and destruction.

“I am sorry, but I cannot,” she shook her head. “I don’t think of you in that way, and even if I did, it is not possible for me to do so.”
“Why babe, the plumbing not ok,” he pointed to her waist. “You don’t have a dick, do you? Don’t worry, I’ll make do with the other hole. You know, the one you have between your ass ch…Aaaggghhh,” any further words or actions were lost as a solid lightening bolt lit up his circuits, overloading them until they burst.

“I had heard of men like you.” It was no longer Ororo who was speaking. She had been replaced by the Windrider, Goddess of the Storm. “I tried to reason with you, but it seems people like you do not understand the spoken word. They have to be….”

**Storm** Xavier’s mental boom caused her to lose her concentration…but only for a moment.
**Stay out of this Professor** The teenager lashed out, both because he was an older authority figure, and because she was not used to taking orders from anyone.
**Storm…Ororo** The telepath adopted a more calm tone. **I know what Forge has said has angered you, but damaging him won’t serve to remove his ignorance. All you are doing right now is maybe killing him** That particular line was a stroke of genius on Xavier’s part. Ororo had vowed never to take a life, not even that of scumbags like the one frying before her.

The next instant, the storm ended…..and at the same time ended Forge’s stay at Xavier’s.

--

Lost in his thoughts Forge missed out on Magneto’s revelation of the upcoming mission to Mystique and her unexpected and seemingly impossible denial to go on it.

Luckily for Magneto, no one else had heard it either, nor had anyone paid much attention when he stormed away towards his private suite, with Mystique silently following him. ‘Just going to get one for the road,’ had been the general consensus.

----

Present,

“I am sorry Erik, but I cannot do this,” Mystique repeated once again. “Please don’t ask me to do this. I can’t.”
“Raven,” Magneto had tried both the soft, lover and hard, leader approach and neither had worked. The usually enthusiastic to do anything against anyone Mystique was not only denying but closing off…right before his eyes.

At her silence, he sighed, mentally calculating whom else he would have to take in her place, before finally asking just one question. “Why?”

After a few seconds of silence, Mystique started. “The man, mutant known as Wolverine aka Logan aka Weapon X….and me, we used to…work together.”
“Work together?” Magneto repeated, his brow crinkling at the hidden message in her words. “What do you mean? When? Where?”

“In SHIELD, about fifteen years ago,” was the answer. It didn’t surprise Magneto all that much. He knew that his younger lover was maybe in fact as old or even older than he was. He also knew that she had spent some time as an operative for SHIELD. What he didn’t know was that Wolverine had no only worked for SHIELD but worked alongside Mystique. They were teammates….and from the look on her face and her concrete denial to go against him, maybe even more.

“And?” He asked, expecting her to go on, which she did.

“Erik,” Mystique looked up at him. “You know I love. I love you more than any other man I have ever loved before…..”
“….except him,” Magneto gritted out the rest of the sentence.

“No,” Mystique instantly denied that. “More than anyone…even him. But Logan, he was the first man who just didn’t make me feel loved as a woman, only to betray me later. In fact, it was the other way around. It was me who did all that…to him.”
“What do you mean?” Magneto had settled down in front of her, his attention completely on her and he story she was about to tell.

--

“It all started about seventeen years ago….”

With that she started telling him how she had been running away from a mod of angry villagers, who were trying to kill and had even managed to shoot her, her injuries preventing her then less developed powers to help her in changing her shape. What she avoided telling him, hoping that he would take it as another mutant lynching, was why they were after her. They were trying to kill and her newborn ‘demon’ son, whom she had in an act of desperation had through off the edge of a waterfall, his pleading cries striking shards of pain through her heart. Avoiding all that, she straightaway went onto the part where a masked, claw toting Wolverine saved her, slicing open a couple of the attackers before the others ran off for their lives.

“After that, he took me to the hotel he was staying at, dressed my wounds and fed me,” she carried on the explanation. “It was him who brought me into SHIELD. Soon we became partners, and even before that lovers. He had a whole life of memories that had been taken from him by the Weapon X people, from whom SHIELD had rescued him only a couple of years before I came in, and I….I had a lifetime of memories I wanted to forget. We were the perfect couple…..that is until I destroyed it….destroyed us.”

Seeing a side of Raven that he had never seen before and becoming privy to a part of her life that he knew she had closed off, silenced Magneto as he waited for her to carry on.

“Two and a half years after I joined, they rescued another of Weapon X’s subjects from one of their labs,” she emphasized the word rescued. “His name was Victor Creed….Sabertooth.”

“Sabertooth!” That got an exclamation out of Magneto. He had never known that Sabertooth could be a secret agent…not with his rage and his lust for killing and torture. He was more of a serial killer than a specialized killer, an assassin.

“Yes,” Mystique seemed to grow cold yet again. “Wolverine and him, they never got along, not from day one. According to Wolverine, Sabertooth had not been a subject but a willing participant, and had been in charge of dealing out special treatment…torturing several of the experiment subjects, including him. They only tried to work on him when he started going overboard and taking his tortures to such an extent that the subjects started dying. They moved him from place to place, until the time SHIELD found him.”

“But, what does it have to do with you?” Magneto was really interested now. He had decided that he would take his human-mothered progeny the worthless Quicksilver and his slightly better sister, Scarlet Witch with him. Hopefully they wouldn’t botch it up.

“Wolverine was away on a mission…” Mystique sighed dejectedly. She was coming to the end of her story…at least the one she was telling to Magneto. “…when I made a mistake that sounded the death knell for both our partnership and our relationship as lovers. I slept with Creed.”

Magneto did not say anything. He knew that Mystique and Sabertooth had been lovers at one time, a fact that Sabertooth used often to taunt her, that is until Magneto suggested that he stop, unless he wanted to loose the Admantium coating his claws. It was before Mystique became intimate with his private suite, his bed…him.

“Knowing Wolverine, I knew that no matter how hard I tried, he would smell it out. That is if Creed didn’t throw it in his face first.” Magneto knew about Wolverine’s enhanced senses. They were similar to Sabertooth’s. “I thought I would be able to assuage him, somehow make it up to him, and I am sure I would have. I am sure he would have forgiven me….had what happened next, not happened.”

“What?”

“I got pregnant…and even before I knew both he and the father detected it.” The way Mystique spat out the word father left no doubt, as to who the father of that child was. “I knew then that whatever chance I might have had was lost with that. I think, had it been anyone else’s child, Logan might have accepted it…..even cared of it and brought it up as his own, but not Sabertooth’s. As soon as he came to know, he left….left not only our room, but left SHIELD, disappearing completely. After that, I left too. I didn’t go after him. I knew that if he didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t. So, I tried out on my own, going into freelance work….until I met you,” she ended, grasping the hand lying on her thigh.

“And the child…” Magneto had to question.

“Oh, that,” she flipped her hand. “Lost it. Miscarried the thing. Pained like hell, but I got better.”

“And you’ve never met Wolverine again?” Was Magneto’s next question. He still couldn’t get his mind around as to why Mystique didn’t want to confront him. It couldn’t be just because of what happened all those years ago. Could it? ‘What about what happened to your parents?’ A part of him piped up. ‘Did you just forget how they were tortured….murdered? Have you forgiven?’

“Just once, few years back,” Mystique answered. “Funny thing, it was he who detected me first. Still remembered my scent. I’ve got to tell you, for a man who has no memory of his past; he sure keeps everything he has now.”

Her story ended, she once again expressed her regret at not being able to take the mission…said she owed it to him.

As Magneto departed from the room, she stood up and walked to the windows….the one facing North.

‘He doesn’t need to know about that,’ she thought to herself, once again burying the main reason for her not going up against Wolverine. It was a secret, buried so deep that even she almost never thought about it.

It was a secret from seventeen years ago…a secret that right now, was somewhere deep in the Canadian wilderness. A secret that Wolverine had saved from death…just as he had saved her.

It was her son….Kurt.

-----

At the same time, at the X-Mansion, Salem Center, New York,

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Jubilee spoke between chomps as she settled down next to her sister. At getting no answer, she followed her line of sight to the greenhouse, where a white and blue clad Ororo was busy working her garden. “Laura….”

“Don’t,” X23 grunted angrily, her eyes never leaving Ororo. “Don’t call me that….not here.”

Sighing at the still somewhat people shy X23, Laura X or Laura Logan to the people who knew her and more importantly the people she knew, Jubilee adopted a silent vigil by her side.

-SNIKT- - SNIKT-

The claws popped out, only to return a second later.

Jubilee knew….or could guess what was going through the other girl’s mind.

“X...” she kept her hands to herself, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Don’t do anything ok….we don’t hurt or kill anyone.”

Getting a nod from X23, Jubilee amended herself.

“At least not until Wolvie gives us the green signal.”

---

Note: New characters introduced and their descriptions (In order of mention/appearance)

Raven Darkholme (Mystique): Mentioned in the last chapter, Mystique was fully revealed in this one. Although physically she is from the Ultimateverse, and so is her relationship with Magneto, her past is a mixture of House of M, normal Marvel timeline and a few twists of my own. While in the normal 616 timeline, her pregnancy from Sabertooth gave rise to Graydon Creed, in this fic. she miscarried. As for the other differences, they are clear enough. This Mystique is a little different from the one I usually write. Although she is as hard as nails and cold as ice, she does have some…well a couple…uh, one redeeming quality. (Age: Unknown….in lieu of her mutation)

Fred Dukes (Blob): Mostly from comics (both 616 n’ Ultimate) with a little of Evolution thrown in. (Age: Mid twenties…24-27)

Mortimer Toynbee (Toad): Similar to Blob, except this one has more of Evo-verse and less of Uncanny. (Age: Early twenties…..22-24)

Forge: As he is with the Brotherhood, the inspiration obviously comes from the Ultimate X-Men. However, as you have read, he does have a past with the X-Men, although not a good one. (Age: Mid twenties….24-26)

Special introduction,

Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler): Physically and attitude inspired by Evolution cartoon series. However, instead of the Xavier, it is Wolverine, who got hold of him first, as clear by the three *probables* Xavier mentioned in the second chapter (Da Big Easy). More on this character soon. (Age: Given Mystique’s story….approximately seventeen years old)

---

Spoiler and other information: The starting scene is between Mystique and Wolverine and is from Wolverine #33 (House of M tie-in – 1 of 3)

The Mystique-Magneto meeting is from Ultimate X-Men #64. (Magnetic North – 4 of 5) So is Forge’s comment.

“You should try this on. It will look good on you.”

She remembered that day as if it had just happened yesterday and not so long ago, and as clearly as she remembered that day, she remembered that thing, that T-Shirt even more.

There was nothing special about it. It was black, just like most of the clothes she wore then….most of the clothes she wore now. What was special was the small flowers embroidered into the waist and wrists.

Those flowers…..They had been so plain, just white, so unnecessary, serving no purpose, so useless…so precious.

She had worn it, worn that blessed t-shirt only once, after all it was her special occasion t-shirt….her anniversary t-shirt. By the time the second chance came around, both the t-shirt and the cause were useless. The t-shirt no longer fitting her growing body, and the reason for wearing it….

-SNIKT-

-----

“Hey kid.” Shaken out of her musings, the teenager known to the X-Men only as X23 looked up at her ‘father,’ his face half-hidden by a cloud of smoke, the smoldering end of his cigar easily visible to her incredibly sharp eyes.

“Hey,” she responded with a stiff nod, her guard still not completely down. After all it wasn’t easy to forget and overcome years of programming as a living weapon. The original Weapon X, the man she saw as her father, still had remnants of his training active within him. Even after decades of freedom, he still didn’t know where the weapon ended and where the animal and/or man began. Finally giving up, or maybe overcoming it, he had stopped analyzing, trying to break it and had made his peace with it.

“Why the claws?” Logan jerked his head towards X’s left hand where her claws had extended and dug into the ground.
“Nothin’,’ she shook her head as the claws retracted with a -snakt-, the wound instantly healing over.

“We’ll leave soon,” Logan laid a supportive hand on her shoulder, but only after checking for any approaching scents, sound or sights. He knew that even after more than four years of being free and in the civilized world, well as civilized as she could get with him, Laura was still an intensely private person. ‘Even more so after….’ He started to think but stopped when his own claws reached up to his knuckles. He had promised himself that he wouldn't think about it and he had stayed true….tried to stay true to that promise…everyday…unsuccessfully.

Being here, so close to her, wasn’t helping things either….not when the animal inside him wanted to tear her apart.

----

A few hours ago,

**Tring Tring** the phone rang in Japan. It was the same number that Remy had called to; even the person receiving the call was the same. What was different, was the person who making the call.

As with Remy, four rings rang and just as the fifth ring started, a female Japanese accented voice answered. “Hello.”
“Message for Wolverine,” a male voice answered from the other end….an unfamiliar male voice.

Knowing that it wasn’t a crank call, not from the security level of the line, the young Japanese woman asked suspiciously. “Who are you?”
“Message for Wolverine,” the caller repeated himself. “Tell him to get the girl out of there, out of New York. Magneto has found him.”

“Magneto,” the young woman repeated the name with a mixture of fear and anger. It was a name she knew well….by personal experience. She also knew which girl Magneto was coming after. “Who are you?” She finally found her words.

“It doesn’t matter who I am,” the man answered, his voice cracking with the barest of emotions. “Just tell Wolverine to take care of the elf, and that this warning was a one time deal.”
“Elf,” the word barely left the girl’s lips, when the call ended with a click, the line going dead. She knew which Elf the man had spoken about…..he was the only elf she knew.

Left holding the phone receiver, a dial tone in her ears, the smartly dressed woman wondered aloud. “What do I do now?”

Her indecision lasted for a couple of seconds before she rushed out of the room, calling out in Japanese.

“Amiko chan, get ready. We are going to America. We are going to father.”

----

Back in New York,

“Come on Cherie, Remy new to this place. You can help Remy see the sights and sounds.”
“I know which sights and sounds you are thinking about Gambit,” the redhead telepath shook her head. “I have read your mind, remember.”

“How can Remy forget that,” the Cajun charmer leaned against the fridge, his red-black eyes dancing over the lithe figure of the green eyes beauty standing a few feet away from him. “We had our self a good time, non.”
“Non,” Jean mimicked him, breaking into giggles at the wounded expression she got from the street performer. “Like I said, I have seen what little is in that brain of yours. I know you are doing this, this flirting, only to pass your time. You already have someone you love.”

“Oh, but she’s in…she’s not ‘ere,” both Remy and Jean bit their tongues at the near slipup. Remy because, he nearly revealed the secret location and Jean because, he didn’t reveal it.
“Then I suggest you go find someone else,” Jean was quick to recover. “I have seen you try out with every single female around, even Kitty. The only girl or woman you haven’t tried to trick is Ororo, I wonder why.”

Jean had deliberately turned their conversation this side. It was a conscious effort on her side to try to find it any of Wolverine’s associates knew anything about Ororo, which from what she had seen, both buoyed and pushed down her hopes. While on one hand, it looked that maybe they knew her, on the other, they looked at her as they looked at the other X-Men, a wary caution. She had hoped that the talkative and friendly Jubilee would be of some help. She even thought that the young girl would be easy to read. What she didn’t see, what no one saw, was that, even though Jubilee talked a lot, her mouth working almost continuously, she never gave any secret of hers or Logan’s or anyone else in her group….while absorbing everything the institute’s students told her.

“But Remy like you,” Gambit easily avoided answering her question, forcing her to ask it directly.
“Remy, what do you know about Ororo?” Jean shot out. “I know that she is a few years older than you. But I also know that you aren’t going to let such a small thing stand in way of flirting with her….that is if you wanted to, which, seeing as you flirt with anything that is not a male, I am sure is not the reason for you keeping your distance from her. What is the real reason?”

“Cherie,” Jean’s blunt question had shaken Gambit. However, her lengthy explanation had indirectly worked against her, giving him the time to recover and mask his surprise. “Remy don’ know what you are talking about? Remy like you, not Ororo. That’s why he is wit’ you, not ‘er.”

To emphasize his answer and draw her attention, Remy laid a hand on her shoulder, trailing it down along her arm, reaching her wrist just in time for Scott to come through the door, his entrance completely taking Jean attention, away from Remy and from her question about Ororo.

----

Meanwhile, in Xavier’s study-cum-office,

Xavier looked at the man standing before him. Having just entered the Professor’s office, Logan refused sitting down, preferring to stand and getting right to the point.

“What do ya want now?” He had been making his preparations for leaving the mansion, when an iced-up Bobby and meek Kitty informed him that the Professor would like to meet him immediately…if it was okay with him, that is.

Putting his urge to scare the already ready to freak out Kitty, he slammed the hood of the truck shut and stomped towards the mansion, Bobby close at his heels and Kitty trailing a little back….at what she thought would be a safe enough distance.

“Mr. Logan, please have a seat,” Charles started with his usual pleasant voice. “Thank you for accepting my request.”

At the quirked eyebrow Logan sent his way, he too got the subject he wanted to talk about. “There is something I wanted to talk to you….wanted to get your input about.”
“You ain’t gettin’ shit about the kids,” Logan was quick on the draw. “Or any else or anythin’ about me.”

“I understand that and I assure you, it is not about the children or you. It is about something else….about one of the students here. However, I would very much appreciate it if you sat down,” Xavier gestured towards his wheelchair and then towards the empty chair, thanking with a nod when Logan flopped down into the plush sofa style chair.

“Talk,” Logan’s eyes bored into the man before him, his claws already itching for release. ‘Don’t trust him,’ a voice reminded him. ‘Don’t trust anyone of them….not again.’ “I didn’t do nothin’ to any of yer students, not even to the icicle.”

“Ah Robert,” Xavier cracked a smile. Highly impressed by Wolverine, Robert Drake had been a constant companion to at least one of the three members of his family. He kept his distance from the Remy, not because he was afraid of him or his powers, but because Remy was an even bigger and more importantly more successful flirt than Bobby. While Bobby joked, flirted and acted loud, to hide his true shy character, Remy seemed to be created for flirting. Hell, he even flirted with the cook, and she was forty plus. “I will instruct him…”

“Nah,” Logan cut him off. “Don’t scold the kid or anythin’. We’ll be outta here soon enough. Now, what did you want to talk about?”

“Its about an older student of mine,” Xavier tried to progress as slowly as he could. “Ororo M….”

-SNIKT-

That sound and the splintering of the side of his mahogany desk, told Xavier one thing clearly…he wasn’t slow enough.

---

Hoping that the claws would retreat, but not getting it, Xavier decided to move forward.

“I was going to ask whether you knew her, but seeing from your reaction, that question is redundant.”

-SNIKT-

This time the claws did retract.

“What about her?” Logan growled dangerously.
“I was wondering if you….”

The sound of the alarm blaring cut into their talk, their attention completely occupied elsewhere as an excited Jubilee burst through the doors.

“Wolvie…wolvie…,” she didn’t even bother looking at Xavier. “They’re coming….from Japan.”
“Japan. Amiko, Kirika,” Logan was instantly off his chair and out the door, leaving a confused as well as intrigued Xavier staring after them, his eyes leaving the door at Jean’s mental call.

**Professor, we have incoming**
**What is it Jean?** Xavier responded, wondering who it was.

**It’s a small, aircraft sir** Jean answered back. **Scott is trying to….oh, it is for Wolverine sir**
**Wolverine** Xavier was sure that whoever X23 was talking about was the same person who had contact Jean. **Who are they Jean? What do they want?**

**Sir, it doesn’t seem to an attack** Scott had scanned their weapon systems, which although impressive, were not active….not yet. Moreover, whoever it was, had contacted them first. **But they aren’t revealing anything, except that they want to meet Wolverine and have message for him from Japan**

**Thank you Jean. Wolverine is on his way. You and Scott join him and the others there**

Xavier ended the call and sent out a telepathic announcement to all the X-Men. Although only the senior X-Men would be in the welcoming committee, the others were to stay at attention….just in case an emergency arose.

----

Following Logan and Jubilee, Xavier stopped short and unusually active X23 landed right before them, having jumped out of the second floor window.

“She doesn’t remember it,” this really got the Professor’s ears up and perked.
“What?” Logan asked in confusion, himself slightly taken aback by X’s behavior. “What are you….?”

“’Ro,” Everyone stopped at that, including the three approaching X-Men just on the other side of the front door, the snow haired Nubian beauty amongst them. “She doesn’t remember anything…any of it.”
“What?” Was all Logan could say. What did it mean she couldn’t remember anything? She couldn’t forget it just like that…could she? If that were true, that would mean only one thing….he had lost his past….again.

“No,” Laura shook her head vigorously, her grip on her father’s forearm tightening. “That Ice-pick and that Kitty, they told me. She doesn’t remember any of it….any of us.”
“X…Laura,” Logan whispered low enough for just the two of them to hear it, his calloused hand rising up to wipe the tears running down his daughter’s cheeks. ‘She doesn’t remember anything,’ that thought brought joy as well as sent a claw of pain right through his heart.

“Wolverine…Logan….” Xavier wheeled forward, hoping to take advantage of the situation, his progress halting at the sudden locking of his wheelchair’s wheel….the sudden magnetic locking.

---

**X-Men, we are under attack**

---

Note: New characters introduced and their descriptions (In order of mention/appearance)

Kirika Yashida: Although not a major character and due my whim, separate from X23, Kirika is Logan’s daughter, her mother being Mariko Yashida. In the Age of Apocalypse 10th anniversary edition special, this character was introduced. As I didn’t have the #02 issue when I started this fic., I created two separate characters X23 and Kirika. While X23 is Logan’s genetic twin, Kirika is his biological daughter. Also, unlike X23’s two per hand and one per foot claws, Kirika’s are exactly like Logan’s, meaning three on either hand. With her, there isn’t much to start with, therefore most of it will be my own imagination. (Age: Late teens to early twenties…19-22)

Amiko: Her character is pretty much as it is in the comics. Logan’s adopted daughter. However, unlike the comics where first Mariko and then Yukio take care of her, here it is a combined effort (Age: Pre teens….9-11)

Remember to REVIEW!!

“How long has he been in there?” The ruby glassed Scott stopped at the glass partition, his hand automatically going around the waist of them woman standing next to him.

“He’s never left.” Jean sighed tiredly, resting her head against her lover’s shoulder. It had been a long day and an equally long night for all of them. “Neither has she.”

That got Scott to lean slightly forward, looking towards a slightly shaded corner of the room, where, on the floor, sat a sleeping X23, her arms stretched out on her bent legs. Even in her fitful slumber, her hands were subconsciously twitching, as if wanting to let the claws out.

“He knows Ororo, and so does the girl, X.” Jean whispered. “It seemed the Professor was right.”

‘He sure was,’ was something Scott wasn’t going to…wasn’t ready to say out aloud, not even after seeing what was before his eyes…..and what he had seen few hours ago.

----

**X-Men, we are under attack**

Xavier’s mental call had coincided with the newly installed gates of the mansion twisting and bursting open, a telltale sign of a magnetic manipulation, a power that only one of the enemies had….Magneto.

Within seconds, they had gotten into a full-fledged conflict, with the X-Men, Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Iceman, Angel, Psylocke and Cannonball going against the Brotherhood consisting of Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Blob, Toad, Forge and Mastermind.

Taking advantage of the slim element of surprise they had, Wanda flashed off Xavier to an empty parking lot…in New Jersey, thus giving Mastermind the upper hand.

Too bad, she didn’t take into account the four guests the X-Men were entertaining for the past few days, and their immunity to telepathic manipulations. His mind in chaos at the revelation from his daughter, his worries only added on by impending arrival of his two daughter’s from Japan, Wolverine and consequently X23, Jubilee and Remy also jumped into the fray, throwing the balance of power back into the X-Men’s favor.

In the sky, her eyes blazing white with electric power, Storm reigned down, a mixture of freezing rain and golf ball sized hail onto the impromptu battlefield, her wind currents easily supporting her.

-

“AAAaaagghh,” Logan’s cry drew her attention. He was hovering three feet in the air, his body stretched tight backwards, like a bow ready to let go, a helmet clad Magneto only a few feet away from him.

“Where is the girl Wolverine?” Magneto’s voice was cold and threatening. “Where did you take her? Where did you take MY weapon?”
“Fuck yo….Aaagggh,” Logan’s claws started bending in an unnatural direction. Inside the metal casing that covered them, he could sense the bone straining to splinter.

“Hmm. What do we have here?” The raging X23, who right then was battling it out with three of Forge’s mechanical constructs, caught the Master of Magnetism’s eye. “Another one. A different one. I think, I’ll just take her.”
“Nnnnn….” Logan grunted deep in his throat, unable to move even his jaw anymore.

-

“Let. Him. GO.” Ororo swooped down from the sky, using a gust of gale force wind to knock Magneto off his aerial position and into the ground. His momentary loss of concentration freed Logan from his magnetic prison, he too falling onto the hard earth, his healing factor taking over full force to heal the internal injuries caused by all the stretching, not to mention the four metal poles sticking in gut. They were the remains of the mansion’s gates, which guided by Magneto had found a perfect target in the super healing mutant.

“Oh, no you don’t,” a lump of green slimy goop striking her face, a long tongue lashing out and curling itself at her right ankle, Ororo was yanked down with such a force that she went slam bang into the metal boned Wolverine, their head to head collision, injuring her, knocking her out.

-

Toad’s retaliatory move against the weather witch literally blew up in his face, as the next instant all hell seemed to break loose, with both Wolverine and X23 going into a berserker rage that had hem slashing at everything and anything that came within their arm’s reach. It was Jubilee, Remy and a newly arrived Kirika’s presence of mind that saved a few of the X-Men themselves, especially Scott and Bobby.

Te Brotherhood finally making a break or it, fleeing with their injured leader, Scott had turned towards his teammates and made the mistake of approaching a still unconscious Ororo. Bobby, who had tried it already, only to have a bloodshot eyed X take a swipe at him, tried to warn him, but being the leader that he was, Scott tried to talk down the father-daughter pair, both of them hovering protectively around Ororo’s prone body.

His efforts to sound like the alpha male; he had got him a nice slash across his chest, with Jean’s timely telekinesis saving him from having his heart sliced into two, ending with only a surface wound, one that would heal within a couple of days.

Once again, it had been Jean, whom Wolverine and X allowed to get close enough to Ororo for conducting a preliminary scan and then to transport telekinetically to the infirmary, with both feral mutants accompanying her, one on either side of the unconscious Ororo.

---

Now, in the Present,

“How are you feeling?” Jean laid a gentle hand at Scott’s chest, smirking slightly at the mock wince the X-Man put forward.
“I’ll live,” he supplied with a mischievous but tired smirk of his own, his eyes once again turning to the view inside the room. “What about Ororo?”

“She should be coming out of it soon,” the redhead went into doctor mode. “Luckily, there weren’t any major injuries, just a mild concussion. The sedative I gave her was to help her sleep the pain out. Another hour and she should be up, and if everything checks out fine, ready to go to her room and get some sleep.
“Sure, like that’s going to happen,” Scott pointed towards the clock. It was almost dawn. “She’ll go to the greenhouse.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” The doctor spoke again. “She will have to take it easy for at least a couple of days….not that it is going to happen, not now anyway.”
“Why?” Scott asked, his gaze narrowing at Logan leaned forward and moved a strand of silky white hair from the dusky beauty’s face.

“Scott, we…you also heard what the girl…what X said to him just before the attack,” Jean noticed the throbbing nerve along the side of Scott’s face tick at her words. “And now this,” she gestured towards the room. “Just look at them. They are not even leaving her side. Whatever it is that they knew, it is a sure lot more than any of us do….”

“I know,” Scott’s tight words cut of Jean. “I just don’t like it.”

----

A few stories up, Jubilee was sitting with her other friend-cum-sister Kirika, the younger Amiko asleep on the newly installed third bed in the room.

Seeing her father and sister’s berserker rage, Kirika had immediately taken over. First requesting and with whom it did not work, threatening, she got all the men to step back, an act not liked by either Scott or Warren.

After that, she had taken Jean and slowly brought her near the growling mutants, talking with them to get through to them. It was Logan she got through to, his higher brain functions returning….just enough to make him understand the severity of the situation, and that the female he was guarding needed help and the redhead would be able to do just that.

Once they were able to do that and send them off to the infirmary, she had turned to the remaining x-men, out of whom Warren and Betsy had left to retrieve Professor Xavier.

----

“Who are you?” Scott asked angrily. “And what are you doing here?” He knew why the newcomer was here. She had told him as much during their initial conversation.
“As I told you,” Kirika composed herself, hoping to avoid a confrontation with the already on edge X-Men. “I am here to see Wolverine. I came here to warn him, but it seems that I was too late in arriving.”

“What do you mean?” Scott didn’t let up. Ever since they had got involved with Wolverine, the school had been attacked twice, once by Wolverine and his *gang* and the second time by Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants, an attack which according to the woman standing before him was somehow related to Wolverine. Then there was the thing with Ororo. Three years after her return, they finally found a link to her time away from the X-Men, and surprise of surprises, it was once again Wolverine.

“The people who attacked you, Magneto,” Kirika spat out the name. “He came here to get me.”
“WHAT!” Bobby piped up from his position behind Scott, with Cannonball standing a few feet away from him.

“Magneto came here for me, and for that I apologize,” Kirika repeated with a bow.
“What do you mean he came here for you?” Even Scott was confused now. From what he had heard, Magneto had been after X23. “Who are you?”

“My name is Kirika Yashida,” Kirika finally introduced herself. “With me, is my younger sister, Amiko,” she gestured towards the aircraft currently standing on the mansion grounds. “I came here to warn my father.”

“Father?” Scott repeated. “You mean Wolverine.”
“Yes.”

“Pardon my suspicion,” Scott wasn’t taking anymore chances. First the two girls who were already with Wolverine, one Chinese, Jubilee and the other Caucasian, X23….and now this, two more. How many children did this man have? “How do we know for sure that you are who you say…?”

-SNIKT-

By now all the X-Men were this particular sound, and what it brought along with it.

“Yup, that will do,” Bobby snickered at Scott’s stunned silence. “She’s his, alright.”

----

**X-Men, to the infirmary**

The mental hail jarred the purple haired Betsy out of her peaceful slumber, also waking up the blonde haired man lying next to her, his super-sized wings protectively draped around both of them.

**Coming Professor** Angel answered back before opening his eyes and seeing two blue ones staring at him. “The Professor’s….”
“I know luv’,” Psylocke crooned softly, stretching and rubbing her lithe supermodel body along his muscular one. “Told ‘im, we’ll be there in a jiffy.”

“In a jiffy?” Angel smirked amused at the difference in their usage of the English language.
“You got something against the Queen’s English?” Betsy caught his thought and lobbed it back at him.

“Hey, no fair,” Warren’s wings once again closed around them.

Even though comparatively new to the X-Men, Betsy and Warren had hooked up quite soon and although not in a ‘relationhip’, they were taking the teammates-with-benefits-with-a-possibility-for-a-relation route, taking it one day at a time.

“We should go,” Betsy sighed at his chest. “Storm’s woken up.”
“How do you….?” Warren started only to stop as he remembered who the woman alongside him was, a telepath.

“Yup, got it from the Professor,” Psylocke supplied as she eased out of the arms and wings embrace and sat up. “He says he’s got an announcement to make.”

-----

Elsewhere in Canada,

“So ven is Logan coming?” The teenager asked of the man in charge.
“He just said soon,” answered Henry McCoy, Beast. He had just received a communicate from Logan stating the same and that they should expect some outsiders along with him. That was a cryptic way of saying, get ready for anything.

“Oh,” Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler sighed.

At the first glance anyone would confuse the two blue furred mutants as family, too close to be father and son, but possibly brothers. It was only on paying closer attention that the differences started becoming clear. While sharing the same basic skin color, slightly elongated canines and modified ears, leonine in Henry’s case and Elf like in Kurt’s, there were differences that set them clearly apart, the least of which were their mutant powers. While Kurt had three digits on both hands and feet, Henry had all five. Also unique for Kurt was his arrowhead tail and his bright yellow eyes, both of which the long nailed i.e. clawed Henry lacked.

“Yes,” Henry nodded. He knew the reason for Kurt’s excitement and at the mention of guests his dejection. It was Kurt’s turn to accompany Logan on his next ‘trip’. In an effort to keep their location secret and yet give the children a normal life, a schedule had been set up in which every time Logan left for a trip, one or sometimes two of the younger residents would accompany him. This time it was Jubilee who had gone with him, and the next was supposed to be Kurt.

Also adding to his impatience was the new watch that Henry had finally been able to make for him….a watch that apart from telling the time would for short time periods, would make him look like a normal human, masking his unique mutancy with a hard light hologram around him. Presently the time was around three hours per charge, something that Henry was working hard to improve upon. That meant, unless someone got close enough to touch him, there would be no guessing that he was a mutant.

“Don’t worry Kurt; we can have a trial run when Logan arrives,” Beast smirked at the whoo hoo, and, oh yeah, that the spunky teenager gave him.

“I’ll go tell everyone,” he leapt up, leaving Henry to resume his work.

*BAMPF*

----

Back in New York,
Ororo had woken to find two faces staring at her, faces she knew but did not expect to be there…or did she?

‘Wolverine and X23,’ her mind told her. She had heard the girl’s frantic voice. “She doesn’t remember it….she doesn’t remember any of it,” That is what X had said over and over again, her voice cracking with emotion.

‘She was talking about me….’ Jean’s entry ended that line of thoughts as well as any chance of her talking to either Wolverine or to the girl. Thankfully Jean accepted her request not to let anyone know about her recovery, not until she had talked to her vigil keepers.

The Professor, who had been maintaining a close telepathic eye on her, agreed with that and gave her the appropriate time.

----

“You don’t remember anything?” Logan asked after she finished telling her side of the story.
“No,” Ororo answered frankly, the look on both Logan and X23’s, no, on Laura's face, she reminded herself….the look on their faces making her wish it were otherwise.

“I-I thought you…..” Logan started to say something, choking up mid-sentence. “You wanna know about it? About us?”
“Us?” Ororo echoed, gulping as her nervousness jumped a couple of notches at which us this man was talking about. Him and his daughter….or him and Ororo.

“Yeah. You, me, the kid….us,” Logan nodded hesitantly having caught the change in her behavior. Maybe she was better this way? Maybe she just wanted to just know and not go back? Would she?
“Y-Yes…” Ororo’s answer brought some hope in those hazel eyes.

“You sure?” He had to question. He had to be sure. He couldn’t go through this….not again.
“Yes.” This time around, her answer held no hesitation, only firm confidence.

“You’ll have to come with me…with us for that,” Logan corrected himself, back pedaling on the *me* factor. He knew what it meant to lose your memories and how it affected your behavior with people, especially anyone who says that they are trying to help us and that you will have to accompany them for it.
“Where?” And true enough, suspicion raised its head in Ororo’s voice. There was something in the back of her mind that said, she could trust this time….the same feeling that had been having ever since she had met this stranger. Having that feeling had unsettled her, a fact made clear when she lost her cool against him.

“Canada,” Logan answered promptly. “You can bring your friends with you….if you want,” he supplied rather reluctantly, but only to prove that he did not mean any harm or pose any danger to her.
“Where in Canada?” Her suspicion slightly dissipated, Ororo still had to question.

“That I can’t tell,” Logan sensed her instant withdrawal and fumbled to find the correct words to get her back. “Not that I don’t want to…Its not for me, I can take care of myself an of you…its for the kids. Someone might follow us….” Finally giving up, he sighed. “We will go to Calgary, Alberta. Its near that….that’s all I can tell you for now.”

Taking her ensuing silence as further withdrawal, he leaned forward and grasped her hands.

“Please ‘Ro, trust me….please. Just once, just one day…twenty-four hours. That’s all I ask….Please.”

Shocked more than surprised at the sudden change in the man, who until yesterday would have just as easily have killed her as he would have talked to her, Ororo’s eyes danced from him to an equally hopeful Laura and back to him again.

Gently squeezing his hands with her free one, she nodded, smiling uneasily. “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll go with you.”

----

A few hours later,

“No. No way,” Scott shook his head vigorously, as he marched up and down on the plush carpet lining the floor of Xavier’s office. “No way are we going to send Ororo with that maniac.”

“Scott…” Jean started.
“No Jean,” Scott’s face had gone as red as the ruby quartz of his visor. “How can she even think we’d allow something like this?”

“Ororo is a grown woman Scott,” Xavier spoke from behind his desk. Although he himself had some reservations regarding Ororo’s decision and would liked to have been consulted in it, he was going support it, both because he had confidence in Storm’s abilities at being able to handle herself and because he knew, even if he said no, Ororo would leave. He did not need his telepathy to realize that. She was getting a chance to get answers about the two lost years of her life, answers she might not get a chance to get again. “And Wolverine had offered to allow two people to accompany her. With Jean, Samuel and Kitty accompanying her, she will not be alone.”

“Jean, Sam and KITTY?” The look Scott gave his mentor clearly said, have you lost your fucking mind?
“Yes,” Once again the choice had been Ororo’s. “Its Ororo’s decision, one with which I agree completely. It’s a strategically sound one.”
“What do you mean?” Scott huffed at not being included the three member team that would be accompanying Ororo. After all, he was the team leader. Not only should he have been on that team, he should have been consulted with who the other two members would be. For crying out, Kitty, what was Ororo thinking?

“From what we have seen, Wolverine’s technological support is as strong, if not stronger than ours. This is clear by his truck and by the psychic inhibitors, he and his companions seem to possess. Therefore if there is some problem and if they use the same gadgets on us, Shadowcat would be the best choice in breaking free from it. By phasing, she could not only get rid of the inhibitor, but also destroy their systems, thus giving Jean a chance to use her telepathy on them, or, if the need arose to contact me.”

“Hmm,” a frowning Scott nodded reluctantly. “What about Sam? Why send him? He hasn’t been an X-Men for all that long. Why not send someone more experienced, like Angel or even me. Why not me? We are better prepared at handling serious situations.”
“I agree Scott,” Xavier nodded. “But with both Ororo and Jean away, you and Angel will be needed here. The recent attacks have left us with a very precarious situation. We need to rebuild and strengthen our defenses. We cannot afford to send all the senior team members.”

“Why Sam?” Scott questioned.
“For in case a speedy escape is required.” Propelling literally like a rocket, Cannonball was the best choice. There was no one on the team who could overtake him, not even Ororo, who although able to fly farther and for longer durations, lacked the sudden burst that an emergency escape would require. “Besides, Samuel Guthrie has something that none of us have….not where it comes to Wolverine.”

“What?” Scott scowled at the mere mention of Wolverine.
“He is not found irritating by either Wolverine or his daughter,” Jean chuckled at the Professor’s explanation, her giggle become a full-fledged laugh at the lost puppy look on Scott’s face.

“How long will this mission be?” Scott finally relented. As far as he was concerned it was a mission, one that should be completed as soon as possible.
“Wolverine has asked for a day,” Xavier answered, silently adding. ‘….after that its Ororo’s decision.’ He knew that it would take longer than that. The expressions on Logan and Laura’s faces had told him so. They were sure of it.

“So they will be away for a day,” Scott mused. “Is that from time of leaving to the time they get back or from when they reach wherever he is taking them?”

“Oh god. Stop it Scott,” Jean slapped her forehead. ‘Why did I have to fall in love with such a man?’ She asked herself. ‘Because the rest of him overcomes this…his habit of anal-lyzing everything.’

“What!” Scott caught the frustration flowing off her, it telling him that if he didn’t stop, he was in for it.

“Then we are agreed?” Xavier neglected the lovers’ bickering, his question getting the same answer from both.

“Yes Professor.”

-----

About eight hours later,

“We’re here,” Logan’s guttural voice roused the sleeping group.

After being dropped off in Calgary by a still grumbling Scott, they had gotten into Logan’s truck to drive the rest of the way. Before starting, X23 had given all four of them what they initially thought were hearing aids. In reality, it was the telepathic inhibitors the Professor had wondered about.

As soon as put them on, they fell off Cerebro’s grid, thus becoming invisible to the Professor and any other telepath monitoring them. Logan had also asked them to leave behind any electronic gadget, including their cell phones and watches, saying that either they leave them with Scott, or they would have to throw them away….he would make them throw them away.

Once everything had been done to his liking and once he ensured that there was no one following them, he drove to the outskirts of city, leaving his truck to take a SUV. That would ensure that anyone tracking the truck would find it parked in an empty warehouse with no Logan or anyone from his party in sight. It was standard practice for him, something that both Jubilee and X23 were used to….even if the X-Men weren’t.

----

“Oh good,” Jubilee practically stumbled out of the vehicle, feeling lethargic from the long trip back home. “Now to finally get something good chow. Really missed Jake’s cooking.”

Ororo and the X-Men picked up their overnight bags and joined Wolverine to find themselves standing in front of a large palatial house, which, although not as large as the X-Mansion was quite a sight to behold.

“You live here?” Jean couldn’t contain herself from asking. She had thought that they would be going to some broken down cabin deep in the Canadian Rockies.
“Yeah,” Logan answered as if it wasn’t any big deal.

“Who owns this place?” The redhead was all questions. Unable to use her telepathy, she would have to rely on her other investigative skills.
“Someone,” was all Logan gave as an answer.

---

“Someone? What do you….?” Jean’s next question was lost as a growling snarling form of white and black fur appeared from nowhere and launched itself at Logan.

“What the…” She was instantly on her guard, Sam and Kitty adopting the same pose….all except Ororo, who was staring wide eyed at the fight….at the PLAY fight-taking place between Logan and the now giggling bundle.

“Goddess…” Ororo stepped back in shock, almost falling over.

Standing before her, firmly held in Logan’s arms was a child….a girl child, with soft snowy hair….just like her mother.

“This is Kendall,” Logan broke the silence. “Kendall Logan…Our daughter.”

---

Note: Hope you liked the new addition. As you might already have guessed, thing start RoLo-ing from here.

Stay tuned for next update….And so REVIEW!!

“She has your eyes.” Ororo spoke, her own twin sapphire not straying from the hazel ones of the child staring at her, her attention focused at the strange woman who had hair just like hers.

Her dada had told her that she had white colored hair because she was special….good special, because only good special people had white hair. That would mean this new person was also special.

“Dada,” she yanked at the leg of her father’s denim jean. “She ‘pecial too?”
“Yeah darlin’,” Logan’s growl carried a unique caring, protective warmth, his gaze darting from between his legs, where on the carpeted floor Kendall sat with her toys, to Ororo, sitting on the couch in front. “She special too.”

The other X-Men, Jean, Kitty and Sam were also in the room, but they had long been forgotten by the trio.

----

Earlier,

“Goddess…” Ororo’s gasp caused her teammates to turn to her, their heads whipping back at Logan’s next words.

“This is Kendall,” he introduced his attacker. “Kendall Logan…Our daughter.”

“Oh, my God!” Jean’s eyes practically jumped out of their sockets. Whatever secrets Wolverine was going to reveal about Ororo’s two years away from the X-Men, never in her wildest dreams, had she thought that it would be this….not a child!

“Wow,” was all Kitty could say, her head repeatedly jerking from Ororo to the small girl and back to Ororo.

As for his part, Sam was left speechless, unsure how to respond to this unusual and completely unexpected development. Mr. Summers had told him to take care of his teammates and get them out at the slightest sign of something odd. If this did not count as odd, he did not know what did.

-

Conscious at the way the strange people were staring at her, Kendall turned around in her father’s strong head, burying into his warm chest, the corner of her eyes not leaving them. She was on her guard now….as well as scared.

The slight variation in the surrounding air currents jarred Ororo out of her stupor. Gulping and bringing her fluctuating emotions under control, she settled the weather, only to have it unsettled again….and again….and again.

‘Its her! She’s doing it.’ Ororo’s eyes sought the huddled child, her slightly milky eyes confirming her suspicion. ‘She’s frightened.’

“Its alright baby,” Logan also sensed his daughter’s turmoil, his nostrils flaring at the fright rolling off her. “Dada’s here. No one is goin’ to hurt you.”

-

Opening her mouth to speak, Jean’s words gave way to a cough and subsequent scream at audible bampf announcing Kurt Wagner’s entrance, Kitty joining in with her own yelp.

“Yaaaahhh,” Kurt leapt of his feet at the scared cry from not one but two of the guests Logan had brought with him.

“Watch it,” Logan’s snarled at their behavior, the claws of his free hand coming out on their own accord. “Yer scaring the kids.” By kids, he meant Kendall as well as Kurt, who having been at the receiving end of such reactions, and even worse ones, throughout his life, lost the expectant glow in his eyes. Trying to hide himself, his pulled the hood of his jacket closer, his tail automatically curling up out of sight.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, getting ready to teleport away. He had come out to meet Logan and welcome the guests, and help them with their luggage. Henry’s words, that the people coming were mutants, had made him forget that even among mutants, people like him were treated differently.

“Wait, don’t go,” Jean had the presence of mind to speak up. “We are the ones who should be sorry. Its just that….” She once again looked at Ororo and at the girl who was supposedly…. ‘No, not supposedly,’ she corrected herself. ‘There is not doubt. Even if this is not her daughter, this child is somehow related to Ororo.’

“Vas is das?” Kurt gasped as he got a good look at the third and seemingly frozen woman in the guests. Ororo hadn’t spoken a word since seeing the white haired, mocha skinned child. “Logan?” He asked his mentor, his voice filled with confusion.

“Lets get them in Elf,” Logan grunted and jerked his head towards the mansion, his next words spoken only for Ororo. “Come. We got a lot to talk about.”

-----
Present,

“Wow,” that word had found a starring role in Kitty Pryde’s vocabulary. She had wowed countless times since reaching this place. First by seeing Ms. Monroe’s daughter….daughter!! She still couldn’t get over that, everything else in this place only adding onto that disbelief. First it was that scary looking Kurt, who had scared the living daylights out of her. Then that other man, the blue furred one, Mr….Dr. McCoy, had come to meet Logan and introduce himself to the X-Men. Then there was the man with the skin marking and his human…human girlfriend.

‘What is a human doing here?’ That thought had been a natural one, but one she was ashamed of. She wasn’t a racist or ‘specist’ or whatever. Her own parents were non-mutants. ‘I shouldn’t be thinking like this,’ she was thankful that Jean wasn’t able to read her thoughts as she said a quick prayer for forgiveness at her vile thoughts.

“Ms. Monroe’s daughter is so cute,” she turned towards Jean, getting a silent nod in return.

“Yeah, a real peach-plum,” Jubilee grunted between chomps of her favorite junkfood. “You should see her when she’s in her Wolvie mode. It makes you thank that she doesn’t have her claws like her old man.”

-

Jean was herself in a difficult situation. At seeing the young child, her first instinct had been to take off the telepathic inhibitor and contact the Professor.

However, having given her word not to do so, she had stopped herself….just barely, from doing so. It was no longer just a question of her or her teammates. The ballgame had just gotten a whole lot bigger. She was in completely new territory now.

‘This is definitely going to take more than a day,’ she told herself, her eyes filling with tears at the way Ororo just about broke down at the first tentative touch from her daughter, who after her own lengthy scrutiny and urging from her father had finally got up and walked up to the strange lady.

‘She’s matching colors,’ Jean realized at what the child was doing. First, had been Ororo’s hand; small fingers firmly grasping at Ororo’s index digit, checking to see how colors matched between them. After that, she had climbed onto the couch, and reached for a lock of silky white hair, her eyes lighting when she held it against her own and found that it was the same as hers.

“Dada, same hair, same hair,” she called to her father, who just nodded with a happy-sad smile, his throat too choked to form words.

-----

“Watch out,” Ororo gasped at Kendall’s leap off the sofa, her hands instinctively reaching out to protected her child, who showing amazing…almost animal like litheness slipped out of her grasp to run to her father.

“Dada sad?” Kendall climbed onto her father's knees. Grabbing at his shirt lapel for support, she intently looked at him, demanding an answer for her question.

“Nah, darlin’,” Logan lifted one hand and laid her against his chest. Looking up at Ororo, he smiled. “She’s got it, my senses and healing factor. Not much, but enough so that she heals faster than normal and doesn’t fall sick as often or as easily.”

“Oh,” Ororo nodded, his words bringing back the memory of how the young girl had manipulated the air currents around them. “Her mutation is already active?”

From what Xavier had told them, it was usually at puberty that mutations became active. It was very rare to have them working at such a young age.


“Yeah,” Logan responded, sitting up Kendall to face her mother. “Been like that since day one…since her birth. Hank says it’ll change as she gets older. Its already changing.”

“Changing?” A lump formed in Ororo’s throat. “How?”

“When she was born, the part she got from me was already active,” Logan explained calmly. “She had yers, but only a little of it. Like when she cried, her eyes would change color like yers. Not full white, but a little, sort of blue-grey. We thought that was all she got frem you. But now, now its changing. The things she got from you, they are starting now. She can do small things. Not fly or make lightening or anything like that. Not yet. But, she can change the air a little. The thing she got from me and the air thing she does, it gives her a hell of a jump. No other four year old can jump this much.”

“Oh,” Ororo once again recalled her first meeting with her child. Kendall had attacked Logan. Was her daughter as feral….as animalistic as Logan’s other daughters?

Other daughters…..that brought along a whole lot of questions. Where were their mothers? Having seen X23…Laura and then Kirika and Amiko, she knew that girls did not have the same mother. Where did that leave her and her daughter? Moreover, how old was Logan anyway? Looking at him, she guessed him to be in his mid thirties. That would make him too young to be Kirika’s, who was in her early twenties, biological father. ‘But the claws,’ she reminded herself.

“Does she….” She started to ask, hesitant in her question. “Does she have…have claws.”
“Nah,” Logan flipped his hand. “Didn’t get that. Good for her. Saves her frem the pain.”

“Pain?”
“Yeah,” Logan sighed. Setting Kendall onto the floor, he patted her behind, urging her towards her mother. Lifting one hand away from her, he let out its claws, just a little….and showed it to Ororo. “When they come out….”

“They cut the skin,” Ororo’s eyes widened as a something akin to a memory flashed at the back of her mind.

--

“Do they hurt,” she had asked him.
“Every time,” he had answered with a sigh.

--

“An’ everything in between.” Logan amended her answer. “It’s a good thing she didn’t get them. Better if she gets yet powers. Hank says the animal part she got from mine, it will stay the same. That will keep her from going crazy like me and Laura do.” At home now, Logan finally used X23’s real name.

“About Laura….” Ororo couldn’t contain herself. She had to ask the questions; including the ones she wanted the answer for most. What had happened to them? Why had they separated? Why had he not tried to find her? Why had he kept her daughter away from her? “Their mothers….”

“Not in the picture,” Logan cut her off halfway. “Kirika’s mother was first….” He started to say wife because that was he regarded her as. “She was my fiancée. She died years ago. Kirika’s all her I got left o’ hers. Amiko, her I found and brought home. Her mother was dying and the kid would’ve been alone. An’ since I can’t adopt her in Japan, Kirika is her legal guardian.”

“And Laura?”
“Laura,” Logan was silent for a few seconds before starting with her story. “She’s mine, but not…she was born in a lab,” he tried to be as simple and direct as possible. “The same people who put this metal in my body,” he drew back his claws. “They also took my blood. Years later, they used that blood to create her. They had twenty two tries before they got it right with her.”

“She’s your clone?”
“Yeah, could say so,” Logan nodded.

“And the other twenty two?” Ororo asked with a foreboding feeling.
“They were all considered as failures and destr…..they all died.”

“Goddess,” Ororo’s heart clenched with pain. “Why did they do it? Why kill children?”
“Same reason they got me…same reason they got you. They wanted a weapon,” Logan’s words stunned her. He had just said what the Professor had already suspected…..It had been the Weapon X people who had captured her.

---

Back in Westchester,

“Professor, any message?” It had been for the third time in as many hours that Scott *officially freaked out* Summers had tracked down his mentor, every time asking the same question.
“No Scott, I’m afraid not,” Xavier sighed the same answer. “As I have already told you, Jean, Ororo and the others disappeared soon after you dropped them off in Calgary.”

“I should have gone with them,” Scott’s frown was back. “Its been over eight hours and still not any contact from them.”
“I know Scott, and I am worried about them too,” Xavier supplied beforehand, having memorized Scott’s answers from the previous times.

“Where do you think he has taken them?” Yet another repeated question, although this one only for the second time.
“I have no idea,” Xavier shook her head. “The tracker you planted on the truck, and which I am sure Logan knew about, any movement from that?”

“No Sir,” it was Scott’s turn to shake his head. “None at all. It has been stationary since the last seven hours. Warren and I already went back and checked it out. The truck is there, and so is the tracker, but that’s all. Also, no one remembers seeing anyone matching either Jean, Ororo’s or even Logan’s description.”

“In that case,” it was time for the Professor to retire for the night. “I suggest we wait, at least for the twenty four hours we decided on, before making any moves.”

Still not convinced, but bowing down in front of his senior’s decision, Scott nodded numbly and started for the door.

“Goodnight Professor.”

“Goodnight Scott.”

-----

In Canada,

“Logan…” The question had been gaining strength inside Ororo. Barely able to contain herself in front of the now asleep Kendall, she fired as soon as the child went to bed. What had hurt….angered…pained….her even more was that her own child wanted not her but her father to help her get settled for bed. The rational part of her told Ororo this was completely understandable, seeing that to young Kendall this woman, even though sharing the same skin and hair color was still a stranger, someone she would go near and allow near her, but not someone to put her to bed and kiss her goodnight….the rational told her that. However, her entire existence through for a loop at finding that not only did she have an almost four year old daughter, she was also married….MARRIED to man she had no memory of….to a man she wasn’t sure she even liked.

While she might have not believed a thing of what he said, she could not refute the irrefutable proof he had just handed her.

Scattered before her were photographs of Logan and her…..a younger, five years younger her. Apart from the ones of just the two of them, there were dozens of her, Logan and Laura or just her and Laura, once again a younger, barely teenaged Laura. Not only that, there were even photographs of them and Kirika….in Japan, and if those weren’t enough in themselves, along with the photographs documenting her pregnancy, all taken in wacky poses, with her standing almost in profile cradling her slowly growing belly, there were also documents. Kendall’s birth certificate naming her as mother and Logan as father, her Canadian immigration papers, her marriage certificate, it was all there.

----

“Why?” Her one word held a plethora of questions inside it.
“Why?” Logan had been staring at her nonstop…..he had almost three years of separation to make up for.

“Why?” Ororo spoke again, her tear-filled eyes flashing with all the emotions welling up inside her, something that Logan sensed as well as heard in the howling winds and incessant rain that had appeared all of a sudden and had been going on and gaining strength….for the past three hours. “Why this? Why so long? Why did we separate? Why did I leave? Did you not try to find me? Did you not want my daughter to have her mother?”

“Ororo,” Logan tried to assuage her, to have her keep her increasingly loud voice down.

“WHY DID YOU KEEP MY DAUGHTER AWAY FROM ME?” Ororo bellowed, a loud lightening and thunder flash accompanying and accentuating her words.

“YOU LEFT,” Logan yelled back, his anger quickly dissolving to pain. “You left….you were the one who said you wanted to forget it….like a bad dream. Remember? You said that.”

Having her own words thrown at her stunned Ororo into momentary silence, not because Logan was lying, and not only because it was the truth, but because when and where she had spoken those words….in a party, a public gathering….at the X-Mansion, in New York.

“How do you…?” She was finally able to ask, trailing off at the way Logan looked at her. There was no accusation in that look, not anymore, only pain….pain akin to her own. It was as if, he had spent all these years carrying that pain.

“I followed,” Logan hung his head, staring at his hands. “Three months, that’s how it took me to find you. You had just upped and disappeared. I had to. Trashed all the labs I could find….then trashed them again, so that if they’d got you, they’d have one less place to bring you to. Finally got a lead from a small town newspaper. Freak attacks innocent man. That’s what the headline said.”

“He tried to take advantage of me,” Ororo recalled her run-in with that trucker. On her way to Westchester, and having gotten tired after hours of flying, she had hitched a ride, only to have him try to rape her. Electrifying his nuts off, she had made a break for it….not approaching anyone for a ride or any kind of help again. Almost a day later, she had arrived at the mansion, fatigued and hungry.

“Yeah, well, he won’t do that anymore…to anyone.” -snikt- Logan had made sure of that. Following Ororo, he had tracked down the trucker in the news article and had left him with a souvenir….his sliced off genitals shoved into his mouth, his hands chopped off, his eyes gouged out and his tongue where his penis used to be.

----

“I followed you all the way to Westchester,” Logan resumed his explanation. “Was so happy to finally have found ya. Didn’t have Kendall with me. Left her at a friend’s place. Told her, she’d get her mamma soon. Thought they had captured ya….was ready to kill each one of them for it.”

“They didn’t,” was all Ororo could say. Things were becoming clear to her now. Logan had come after her, even found her. Too bad it had been on the night when Scott and Jean had organized a party officially welcoming her back. The words he had told her, the ones were the ones she had spoken to Jean’s father.

He had asked her whether she remembered anything of her last two years. She had not only denied that, she had also said that it all seemed like a bad dream, a nightmare that she wanted to forget…..and at that time, it had been true.

Until weeks after her return, she had nightmares of a different her, a her who had a family….a child. It had become so harrowing for her that she could not sleep anymore…..apart from being physically and emotionally draining for her, it was dangerous for the others around her. When she fell asleep and did have those nightmares, she lost control over powers. She had finally got over it with Xavier’s help, the telepath giving her a little nudge away from her nightmares, helping her lock them away….until Logan and Laura came to the mansion. Their return had brought back those nightmares, those subconscious memories, as she now realized what they were.
----

“You can come out. I know yer there,” Logan’s grunt jarred her out of her musings. Turning around to see whom he had spoken to, she caught sight of Jean, who had been hiding behind a door at the far end of the room.

“Sorry, we didn’t mean to….” Jean started but stopped at the slanted look Logan gave her. ‘Enhanced senses,’ she reminded herself. ‘He’ll catch your lie.’

“Done with One-Eye?” The redhead nodded at Logan’s question. After dinner, she had called up Westchester, telling a highly animated Scott that everything was fine and they’d be calling in the morning. She had however, avoided revealing anything about what she had learnt about Ororo’s past, feeling that it should be Ororo who should get to break that news…..unless it was the Professor who asked her.

“Yes. Thank you,” she came and sat down next to Ororo, a guilty smile on her face.

----

An abrupt silence fell over the now party of three, a silence that Logan broke.

“You wanna know everything?” His query had been more for Ororo than Jean.

“Yes,” Ororo’s answer was instantaneous.

Silent for the next few seconds, Logan gathered his thoughts, deciding where to begin from.

“I met ya…found ya more’en five years ago.”

---

Note: Forgot to write about the latest and most important character introduction.

Kendall Logan (No codename….as yet): Daughter of Logan (Wolverine) and Ororo Monroe (Storm), this character is from the ‘What if?’ series that Marvel publishes. Although she was shown as a teenager, here she is much younger. Having both parents as mutants, her powers have been active since birth, growing and developing with her. She’s got enhanced senses and a healing factor that she gets from her father. Although no where as strong as Wolverine’s, its more than enough to get by the usual scrapes and nicks, even illnesses. The powers she gets from her mother have been slower in developing. While her father’s half was active since birth and has remained the same, her weather controlling powers have gone from non-existent to minor manipulations at present. Dr. McCoy has hypnotized that as she grows, so will those powers, until hopefully one day she is able to reach the same levels as her mother. (Age: Three and a half to four years….3 ½ to 4)

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**Professor** Jean’s telepathic voice held a level of panic that was clear in the hearts and minds of her other teammates as well, including their mentor back in Westchester. **We can’t find her anywhere**

**Calm down Jean** Xavier answered back. It had been the fifth outing for his newly formed team of mutants, his X-Men and they had already lost one of their teammates. Not to death but to capture.

They had been tracking a newly discovered mutant, whom Xavier had found with his newly commissioned power-enhancing machine, Cerebro. This Cerebro allowed his to join his mind with millions of mutants worldwide, something he hoped to increased to every mutant. The machine was located deep underground, under his personal mansion which he had changed into a school with plans to add on as the school population grew.

Currently there were just four members, all of whom were a part of the X-Men. There was Scott Summers, who was the second student he had approached an enrolled for his venture. Scott shot energy blasts from his eyes and went by the name Cyclops. He was also the team field leader, a position second only to Xavier himself. The second student to join was Jean Grey, a telepath-telekinetic. Her, he had been just able to rescue from being sent into a mental asylum. Her, he was training both to enhance her already stronger telekinetic skills and to control her telepathy which was what got her into trouble in the first place. He also hoped that once her powers were developed enough, she would be able to take charge and operate Cerebro in his absence, something she couldn’t do at present. The load of the machine was too much for her. She went by the codename Marvel Girl.

Next was the wing possessing flyer and healer known as Angel, or to be more precise Warren Worthington III. He was the scion of the multi billionaire Worthington family, who were one of Xavier’s chief financial supporters, not because of any philanthropic feelings on part of Warren’s father, but because unable to hide their son’s growing wings and keep him locked away in some remote region, due to his increasingly rebellious nature, Worthington senior had shipped him off to Xavier’s with instructions that as long as Xavier kept him there, he would have a steady monetary help.

The last and currently missing member of the group was Ororo Monroe, Storm. Her story was different from the rest in the way that Xavier discovered her years ago in Africa when she tried to pickpocket him. Finding that it was too soon for her, he planted a suggestion in her subconscious that compelled her to find her way to him once she turned an adult. During the ten years from that day to the day they finally met, Ororo had led a varied life, going from a common thief to one who stole ‘boosted’ cars and bikes. During that time, she somehow found her way back to US, most probably under the influence of Xavier’s implanted suggestion.

Right now, she was missing, with her mutant signature undetectable not even via Cerebro. On his telling his students that, they felt even more dejected. Whoever that mutant had been, was most probably a plant by the same people who had captured Ororo.

**Return to the base X-Men** He sounded in their minds, not wanting to expose them too any more danger and possible capture.
**Professor, what about Ororo?** Cyclops responded.

**Do you think it was the Brotherhood?** Angel contributed his thoughts. **Maybe Magneto’s got her**
**We cannot rule out that possibility** Xavier agreed, although thinking that it was not the modus-operendus of his onetime friend and present enemy to resort to covert kidnapping. Magneto had a flare for big things and for announcing himself with a bang. He believed that the mutant race were the next rulers of the world, which was in total opposition to Xavier’s cohabitate with humanity belief. **However, I suggest that you return. We don’t want anymore casualties**

**Yes Professor** Scott answered, hoping that they would be able to find their teammate soon.

What neither of them knew or even suspected was that it would be almost two and a half years before that happened.

------

Five years, two and a half months into the past, in a remote part of the Alberta province of Canada,

“Hey George, don’t strain yourself there!” The young man called out to the older one who loading the last of his five delivery boxes into the back of his equally if not more old pickup truck. “You ain’t getting any younger.”
“Where are you going with all that stuff anyway?” Asked his friend, who even before the sun had set already had his alcohol bottle out and about.
“Out by the river bend,” the balding man answered, breathing a relieved sigh as he finally let the box go on the wooden one below it. “I figured I’d take the day off from you two boneheads.”

“River Bend?” That got a reaction from the man who had asked the first question. “Are you goin’ out t’ see the weirdo?” The younger man pointed a finger in the general direction of the senior’s destination.
“Ah…ehhh….he ain’t weird. He’s just like you an’ me.” George dallied with his answer. “Besides, it ain’t like I am givin’ the stuff away. We got a deal. Where do you think half the pelts in this town come from?”

“I heard the guy’s a mutant….” The blonde haired man with the bottle commented, his words causing the older man to falter as he reached for the driver side door handle.
“So what?” His friend retorted. “Your cousin Tiffany is a mutant.”

“She ain’t a mutant,” came the slightly annoyed response. “She has a glandular problem, is all.”
“She looks like a whale. They should put her back in the ocean where she belongs….” the childish bickering started, giving George a way out to get away.

Starting his truck, George honked the horn and leaned his head out the window. “Uh-huh…well, stimulatin’ as you two idiots are, I gotta be back by six.”

“Hey George…” the raven haired mutton-chopped youngster stepped out of the way. “Just how long have you been deliverin’ out to that old nut at River Bend anyway?”

George didn’t answer outright. He waited until he had driven a short distance, before he finally whispered the answer, more to himself than to anyone else.

“Since I was eleven.”

----

In another part of Canada,

“Is the subject ready?” A bespectacled white lab coat garbed male peered at the large glass tank in the center of the cavernous room below.


“Yes sir,” a technician answered, checking to make double sure that in fact the white haired dark skinned woman floating in the water-filled tank was indeed unconscious or not. They did not want to take any chances, especially after the last time when she came out of her drug induced sleep and literally electrocuted two other technicians.

“Hold her steady,” that command let to an instant reaction as they wires and supports holding the ‘subject’ grey taut, preventing any movement except for the rhythmic rising and falling of her chest as the breathing apparatus attached to her mouth and nose supplied air to her.

“Be ready to go subcutaneous as soon as I give the word,” was the second command.
“Ready sir,” another assistant replied seconds later.

“Will she remember anything?” A second doctor asked her question, noting down the various steps on her PDA.
“She doesn’t even remember her own name,” the first one chuckled evilly. “And once we get done, she never will.”

“What IS her name?” Another colleague piped up, his middle-aged eyes leering at the lithe form floating in the water. Where once there had been long luxurious snow colored hair, there was now a rough patchwork left, one that covered only the front half of her head. The rest had been chopped off and cleared away to make space for the two sensors tubes fitted there.
“What does it matter?” The first of the three answered. “She’s our now. Weapon X can give her any designation it wants.”

“What was her name before she came here?” The leery one stressed more for his later personal pleasure than for anything else.
“Let me check,” his colleague drew up her file. “Ah, here it is…..Ororo Monroe. Codename – Storm.”

----

“Hey Mr. Logan!” George greeted the ‘younger’ man. “I brought out that fishing lure you wanted…it’s in the box.”
“Fine,” Logan looked up from his porch side chair. “Stuff’s round back.”

Finding it odd that the usually to-the-business George stayed set at his position Logan returned his gaze to him.

“You want somethin’ else, son?” He asked in his usual gruff manner. “I told you before, I ain’t got no tip for you.”
“I been comin’ here more ‘en forty years, Mr. Logan. You ain’t never tipped me yet.” George crossed his arms almost looking like the young kid he had been when he first saw this mountain of a man. It had been the sixties then and although the passing decades had done their work in him, they did not seem to affect this somewhat of a friend stranger. “I just wanted t’ give ya this…” he stepped forward, his hand going into this back pocket.

“You got a letter.”

-----

One month later,

“Alarms,” The half-asleep sentry woke just in time to see metal flash before his eyes, just as his entire life did seconds later. With the last bit of his living energy leaving his body, he saw the face of his attacker, the face of the man who killed him…..the face he had been warned about.

Dispensing with the now dead man, Logan started along the corridor. The blaring alarms and the frantic voices and footsteps told him that they had detected him. ‘Let ‘em,’ he grinned to himself as he cracked hi neck, his claws ready for his next kill.

It had taken him just a month for this one, from the time he came to know about this base to the time he actually got here.

It had been one of his many informants. That was what the letter was about. The work of these informants was simple. Whenever they came to know about any such lab or base, they were to try to gather information, only without putting themselves in danger, and then they were to send that information to him…..he would take care of the rest.

In the last two years, Logan had found and destroyed, three such installations, two of them in Canada itself. Weapon X was all over the world, mostly in remote and hard to approach places like the Canadian Rockies. With this one, he would add a third to that already present two.

He had reached this place a day before and had spent the entire time scoping it out before moving in. Disabling all their getaway vehicles, he had entered through the only surface side opening and was making swift progress to the main work center. He had his destination in mind and his target. He was looking for a woman, one about whom he had come to know by chance while on a previous operation and whom he had been tracking ever since.

A girl with claws….claws like the ones he had.

----

“Stop,” he wanted to chuckle at the fear rolling off the soldiers that were confronting him. He smelled the men even before he came across the bend and was already readying himself for the kill.

“STOP,” the second one yelled, louder this time. “FIRE”

A volley of bullets tearing into face, chest and sides did nothing to stop the approaching Wolverine, the original Weapon X the soldiers had heard about. It had been mostly rumors, ones that had gotten louder with the subsequent destruction of each of previous labs.

KHHUUCCCCH

Simultaneously two sets of claws entered and tore through the two men, beheading one of them completely.

Panting to regain his breath, Logan straightened up to face the door on the other side of which lay whatever the men were guarding. He had killed more than two dozen of them in the last hundred feet and from the smell; he could tell there were a dozen more ready to die.

‘Musta got someone here,’ he thought blood dripping from his hands and claws. ‘Hope it’s the kid.’

With that thought he tore though the double enforced bullet proof door…..just as he tore though the soldiers guarding it next.

---

More than a dozen kills and ten minutes later, he found himself face to face with what….who the soldiers were guarding.

“Fuck, she’s dyng,” he cursed as the figure inside the glass cylinder began to writhe….her oxygen had been cut off.

Two more slashes and the glass and the water like fluid inside it fell away, giving the emaciated woman inside it precious life giving air.

----

ONE MINUTE TO DESTRUCTION

An electronic voice and the ensuing red light told him to get his butt in gear and get out of the underground base. He knew he could make that easily…but alone. With the woman in the state she was in, he knew he would have to carry her and that could pose a problem. Even if they got out, the weather outside was bitter cold, thirty-Celsius below zero and would freeze this bag of bones under thirty seconds.

Whoever this chick was, she had to be a mutant, otherwise why would these fuckers be doing to her what they had done to him. Maybe she was the one he had been looking for. In that case, her healing factor would save her….at least until he got her some clothes and something to fill that skeletal body of hers.

None of that came into Logan’s mind as he grabbed the female, cradled her within his strong bloodied arms and rushed for the door.

“Let’s get outta here babe.”

---

Note: The conversation with the character George is from the Wolverine: The End miniseries and although in that one, Wolverine is over two centuries old and has aged quite a bit, I have used it here with the younger one….with minute changes.

Please Review!!

“We should tell the Professor,” Jean’s comment had not affect on the woman standing not feet away from her, her gaze and attention stuck at the lone figure sitting at the base of the stairs of the impressive mansion they were currently staying in.

“Ororo,” Jean called again as she pushed herself off her bed and walked to her friend. It was only when she came to stop next to her and laid a hand on her shoulder did Ororo snap out of her almost hypnotic state, her eyes still not ready to leave their vigil.

“He has been out there for almost an hour now,” she whispered softly, her fingers grasped around the box Logan had handed to her.

Finishing the story of how they first met, Logan was interrupting by the chime of the cuckoo clock in the kitchen, its twelve chirps telling him that it was midnight and maybe time to retire for the night. Reluctantly both him and Ororo ended their talk, with Jean relegated to an almost absent presence. Their reluctance rose from different reasons. While Ororo wanted to know everything about the two lost years of her life and about her daughter, Logan just wanted to throw his arms around his wife and hold her close, breathing in her sweet vanilla and sandalwood scent and make love to her. However, her hesitation towards him and the fact she had not asked a single question about their time together, told him not to do so. Besides it was too early….even he understood that.

“And you have been standing here for just about the same time…” Jean arched an eyebrow at her friend. “….holding that box. Why don’t you open it and see what is inside it. He’s already given you the documents and photographs, and even though all of them maybe forgeries….”
“Jean,” Ororo turned to look at her friend, seemingly put off by her insinuation. She had had the same thoughts, regarding the documents and the photographs. She would have believed that…had it not been for a living breathing mocha skinned, snow haired child she had seen with her own eyes and felt with her own hands.

“Just listen to me Ororo,” Jean was feeling incredibly lost without her telepathy. Once they had entered the house, Logan had informed them that they could take off their telepathic inhibitors, not because he trusted them or felt safe on his turf, but because the entire house was rigged with one super-sized inhibitor, effectively cutting it off from any telepathic intrusions.
“Yes Jean,” Ororo sighed as she finally moved away from the window and settled at the edge of the bed Jean had been laying on. All the four x-men were given separate but conjoined rooms. This was Ororo’s room with Jean and Kitty’s on either side of this one and Sam’s across the corridor.
“I think we should contact the Professor and ask him for help. Maybe he can find something to prove or disprove Logan’s claims.”
“Claims?” It was Ororo’s turn to arch her snow colored eyebrow. “Which claims? The one about me being with him for over two years? About Kendall and my obvious kinship? Or about what I said to your father?”

“About yours and Logan’s marriage,” Jean hit on the one point that Ororo had managed to avoid, the slightest flinch on the older woman’s face telling her it had been deliberate.
“I-I don’t…” Ororo fumbled for words. “I don’t want to think about it right now.”
“But will have to,” Jean shot back. “Sooner or later, you will have to. What will you do when Logan wants to pick up from where you guys seemingly left off. I say when and not if, because believe me, he will. Even you can see that much. See how his behavior changed when he came to know that you did not remember anything about your supposed time together. He instantly went from cold and aloof to sappy, which from my personal perspective was incredibly unnerving seeing happen to a man like him.”

Ororo had not answer for her redheaded teammate. She had seen it for herself. Where once the man they knew only as Wolverine was ready to slice her head off, the man calling himself Logan had professed his love for her, not by his words, but by his actions and the various proofs he had laid out in front of her.

“I don’t…” she started to deny again, her words turning to a gasp as she flipped open the box grasped within her hands. “Jean,” she looked up, her shaking hand reaching into the box to draw out something very small, seemingly very fragile.
“What is….Oh god,” Jean’s grew silent herself at seeing what lay in the center of Ororo’s outstretched palm. It was a ring….a gold and platinum, diamond engraved wedding ring.

Both women stared at the shiny band for what seemed like hours, their stupor only broken by Ororo’s palm closing over the ring.
“Try it,” Jean blurted out unceremoniously.
“What?” Ororo’s hand stopped midway to the box.
“Try it,” came the repeat answer. “Lets see if it fits.”
“Why? Then what?”
“Well,” Jean fumbled for the reason different from the most obvious one. “If it doesn’t, we’ll know its not yours and that maybe Logan is lying.”
“And it does fit….” Ororo trailed off.
“Then…then….just try it,” Jean finally gave up and stepped to grab the ring for herself. She was now going to get Ororo to try the ring on, and she was ready to use her telekinesis for it.

Giving into her friend’s insistent badgering and her own curiosity, Ororo brought the band to her ring finger and slowly started to slid it in, hiding it from Jean’s eyes.

“Well,” Jean looked at her expectantly. “What…?” She did not get a chance or need one as Ororo presented her ringed hand to her.

Right in front of her, glimmering as if it belonged there, was the ring….it was a perfect fit.

-----

Over in the next room,

“So like Ms. Monroe is married to Wolverine,” Kitty had just sat down to gossip with the on the prowl Jubilee. Both girls were too hopped up on excitement and in Jubilee’s case sugar to get to sleep so soon.

“Yup,” Jubilee nodded. “Your Ms. Monroe isn’t a miss. She’s a Mrs., has been for more than four years now.”
“Wow?” Kitty was still in somewhat shock, her imagination still unable to completely comprehend how someone as sophisticated and level headed as her had managed to not only become involved but also marry someone like the Wolverine, one of the most infamous yet unknown mutants in the world. Unknown because by the time a person knew enough to attach a face to the Wolverine myth, his or hers life was about to reach an untimely end. Mr. Summer had said that he had worked as an assassin, a trained killer, but a killer nonetheless….and Ms. Monroe abhorred killing.

“Yup,” Jubilee nodded over a mouthful of bublicious bubble gum. “I thought she’d be kind of a heartless bitch.”
“Why?” Kitty asked in surprise and with more than the slightest of annoyance. Not only was Ororo her teammate, she was also her favorite teacher and the closest thing that the young sheltered girl had to a mother. When she had arrived at the institute almost two and a half years ago, it was Ororo who helped her get settled in. In fact, it had been her who had accompanied Charles to her house to present her parents with a choice to send their newly powered-up daughter to a school where she and others like her learned to control their gifts.

“Well, its not like I know her,” Jubilee flopped onto the bed as if she belonged right there, lying on her stomach, her head resting between her crossed arms. “I mean, I knew what she looked like, but what kind of a mother would she be to just leave her eight month old daughter and disappear into thin air. Hell, if it hadn’t been for X, the squirt woulda squirted away to heaven. Not to mention what she did with Wolvie. The man loved her like crazy and she just chucked it all away for what, to go back to those goody two shoes Professor Cueball, One-Eye and Ms. Small boobs-wearing wonder bra.”
“What?” Kitty cried out in exasperation. She knew which three people Jubilee was talking about. “Its not….”
“I mean your Professor bald-head Xavier, Scooter Summers and Jeannie Grey-hair,” Jubilee came up with yet another series of nicknames. “Don’t tell me you can’t tell her tits aren’t that big. She wears a water bra for sure. What is she trying to do by that, she might as well stuff socks in there.”

“Why? Do you do that?” Kitty shot out, remembering the time she had done the same herself.
“Wha-I-It doesn’t matter what I do or don’t do,” Jubilee was quick to recover. “Anyways I am just entering my teens, its allowed for me. Not with an old maid like Marvel Girl. Sheesh, even her codename is a whimpy one.”
“She is called Phoenix now,” Kitty clarified, scolding herself for enjoying the animated turn the gossip had taken. She missed this in school. Most of the women around her were either older than her or into things that didn’t quite gel with her likings.
“Yeah, like that’s any better,” Jubilee scoffed. “It perfectly matches her boyfriend’s codename. Cyclops, perfect for one-eye. You do know what Cyclops and one-eye stand for don’t you?” She asked suspicious of the ‘street’ knowledge of the prim and proper Kitty.
“Uh, yes,” Kitty quickly nodded, her ears turning crimson as a deep blush ran through her.

“Yeah, like I was saying,” Jubilee flipped back to the point she was making before she was detoured into explaining body parts to the older Kitty. “I always thought this Ororo woman was a real heartless bitch. You know, someone like a female version of Magneto or one of those Friends of Humanity dickheads or even that dump-hole Stryker. I mean, I know Kendall, and believe me when I tell you, when she is in the swing of her things, you will thank the gods that you are not her mother, but still, the quarter pounder is a good kid, real cuddly most of the times, and especially good for shopping bonanzas. How could she leave her?”
“But you heard…” Kitty tried to step in with her thoughts, but was washed away in the deluge of Jubilee’s voluminous vocal flow.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, she lost her memory,” Jubilee flipped her hand. “I can understand that….I guess. Its just that….” The way the Chinese girl suddenly trailed away intrigued Kitty immensely. She could sense that below her boisterous exterior, Jubilee was hiding some deep pain.

“You have parents?” The question and the sudden change of line startled Kitty.
“Why-uh-Yes,” she nodded, not knowing where this was going to lead to.
“Alive?” That was enough to make things clear for her.
“Mine died,” Jubilee revealed quietly. “I was almost eleven then. The cops said it was a car accident and that my dad was driving drunk. But I know that that’s all a lie. My dad never drunk, not a single day in his whole life. Mom too.”
“I-I’m sorry,” was all Kitty could say.
“Yeah, well, that’s life,” Jubilee took put the stale bubblegum and chucked it into the trash can. “But you know what?” She dropped her ever present goggles over her eyes to hide the tears brimming there.
“What?”
“Even though I miss her and know that I am never going to get to see her again, I still have memories of hers; memories that help me get up whenever I slip into the dumps….like I am doing right now,” she added in a deliberate effort to lighten things up. “When I see Kendall, even with everyone loving her, her dad, her older sisters, X, me, Kirika, Roguey, Amiko and all the others….”
“You still feel the absence of her mother,” Kitty completed finally understanding what Jubilee had been leading too.
“Umm-hmm.”

Silence reigned for the next few moments as both girls remembered their parents and thanked for all they received from them, not the materialistic things, but the emotions, the care…..the love.

“Enough moping,” Jubilee threw her hands up into the air. “How old are you?”
“What? Why?” Kitty was half-afraid to answer.
“How. Old. Are. You.” The repeat was slow and deliberately stressed on.
“Sixteen,” Kitty answered hesitantly.

“Sixteen,” Jubilee eyed her as if not believing her answer.
“Umm-hmm,” Kitty nodded warily, her suspicions confirmed at Jubilee’s next words.

“Got laid yet?”

-----

“Penny for your thoughts?” The cultured voice of his blue furred friend drew Logan’s attention to him. Had it been some other time, he would have caught his scent from a mile away. Right now….right now he could bowl him over with a feather and Logan wouldn’t know it.

“One penny too many,” Logan’s answering grunt and his slight movement to the left told Beast that it was alright if he wanted to sit down.

Moving with the grace that his name warranted, Beast or Hank as he was otherwise known as, settled himself down next to the deep in thought Logan. Having lived the better part of two years in this place, Hank knew enough about the man sitting next to him, to know that if he wanted to speak about something, he would come out and say it by himself, he couldn’t be forced into anything.

He had also seen how he still loved his wife, the mother of his youngest child, the woman he had planned on spending the rest of his days with….and how she had left him, left them, leaving them in a lurch….deliberately. Or so they had thought, until a couple of days ago. It was on one such night that Logan told him an abridged version of his entire existence, of his failures, his losses, his gains, his plans….everything. He also told him how he had come home one day to find a near panicked Laura and a bawling Kendall, both girls agitated and calling out for their mother. In Laura’s case, it was not so much a matter of her crying as it was of her losing control over the ever present rage inside of her, a rage that her ‘genetic’ father and her ‘heart’ mother were helping her subdue and control over.

In her near berserker state, Laura explained to him that even though she fed, burped and even cleaned the infant Kendall, she still could not get her to shut up. She wanted her mother and if was almost seven hours after when Ororo was supposed to return.

His instincts split between rushing after his mate or caring for his cub, the Wolverine in Logan gave up things to the man. Getting Kendall to sleep had been easy enough. She was tired after hours of crying and feeling the familiar arms and scent of her father enveloping her, she nuzzled into his chest, her eyes closing and breathing growing even within seconds.

Once she was asleep, Logan strapped her into the child seat in his truck, told Laura to stay at home incase Ororo called or came back, and left for the last destination his wife was headed for….Calgary.

It was from there that his search started, one that finally ended on a rainy night in Westchester, New York. He left his girls with his friend Elektra and went alone to do reconnaissance and if possible retrieve his wife from the people who he assumed had kidnapped her. What he saw there was the last thing he expected….what his eyes saw and his ears heard breaking his heart into a million pieces.

//Flashback//

“Ororo dear,” Elaine Grey walked over to the stunningly beautiful and newly returned x-woman, her husband John accompanying her.
“Mrs. Grey, Mr. Grey,” Ororo greeted graciously, the clear uneasiness in her smile instantly clear to the eavesdropping Logan.

“Please child, call me John,” Professor Grey smiled a fatherly smile. “Mr. Grey reminds me of the gray hair on my head.”

Both women laughed at that. Everyone knew about the elder Grey’s humorous nature, the self-deprecating kind being his specialty.

“How are you feeling?” Elaine laid a hand against Ororo’s, her eyes showing genuine concern.
“Better,” once again Ororo smiled that uneasy smile, this time in an effort to mask her reluctance at discussing about the topic.

“Have you….” John’s incomplete question was enough to let Ororo know what he was talking about, but not Logan.

“No,” Ororo shook her head, her next words and the firmness with which they were spoken breaking Logan’s heart into a million pieces. “I’d rather not. I just want to forget the last two years. Its all like a dream,” Ororo said, referring to the ones she had been having lately, the ones in which she saw herself in different places, with different people, sometimes even with a family of her own. “Its like a bad dream…one that I can’t wait for forget, leave it all behind and move on with my life.”

//End Flashback//

“Logan,” Hank’s voice brought him back to the present, his eyes widening in surprise at seeing his claws unsheathed and sticking out from between his knuckles.
“Sorry Hank,” he mumbled an apology, drawing the claws back in. “Just thinkin’.”
“Something you want to talk about?” Hank offered easily, hoping that Logan would take him up on his offer.
“No, yeah, don’ know,” Logan flipped around the answer.

“I understand,” Henry sighed. Patting Logan’s shoulder, he got up. “Good night my friend.”

He had barely taken a couple of steps, when, “Hank,” Logan’s voice stopped him.
“Yes,” he turned to find Logan looking at the window of the room that had been assigned to Ororo. “I did the right thing, right? I mean bringing her….telling her….showing Kendall…”
“Yes,” the doctor’s reply was instant.
“I guess so,” that reply told Hank that there was something more on the way. “Then….then why do I feel I shouldn’ta done it.”

“Logan…” Henry started to say something, stopping stupefied as Logan continued.

“Why do I want her to get the hell away from here?”

---

Note: The previous chapter was a look into the past, Logan and Ororo’s first meeting…sort of, while this one was set in the present. Will be using both these techniques and the ever present an’ trusty ‘flashbacks’ to keep the story chugging along.

Hope you liked it….as for the your thoughts about it, you know what to do with them!!

“I want to kill him.”

“What?” The dark auburn, almost black haired beauty spoke from the bed. Clad in a sleeveless silk nightie, she followed the to and fro of man who had spoken those threatening words.

“I said I want to kill him….sometimes I really do,” Pietro Maximoff, a.k.a. Quicksilver stopped and whirled around to face his reclined sister, Wanda, the Scarlet Witch.

“You don’t mean that Pietro,” Wanda returned in a soothing voice, one that she knew would work to assuage her agitated brother. Twin children of the Master of Magnetism, Magneto, Wanda and Pietro were close, too close in eyes of other people, not that they cared one bit. Having lost their mother at a very young age and having a father who resented them with a vengeance, had pushed the two children towards each other, their bond strengthening as they grew older, first into their teens and then into adulthood.
“Don’t I?.” Pietro glared at Wanda, his hurt and pain shining in the pools of his clear blue eyes. “Why does he take such pleasure in hurting me? Have I really been such a bad son that I deserve to cry myself to sleep like this EVERY night?”

“Magneto couldn’t ask for a more perfect son, Pietro,” Letting go of the magazine she was flipping through, Wanda sat up. “Blob says he just resents us because we’re constant, living reminders of his one moment of weakness with a homo-sapien female all those years ago.”
“But I wish he’d stop criticizing me in front of people. He even said my mutant power was effeminate this morning.” The silver haired speedster flopped onto the bed, sitting sideways to his sister.

“Poor Pietro….” Wanda leaned forward and turned his face towards her. “….even when you were a little boy, all you wanted was to make him proud.”

“Wanda I….”

“Sssh,” Wanda laid a slender finger against his lips. “Just let it go….and get some sleep.”

His childlike headshake told Wanda that he wasn’t ready to give in, his mind, which process thoughts at the same speed as he ran, was still in too much turmoil. She needed to cool him down, get him to slow down.

“Ok, then tell me about how we will go to Venice,” she lifted her finger and ran her hand through her brother’s soft silken hair, noticing the knowing smile that started on his lips. He knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to get him to slow down and relax by thinking happy, calming thoughts, thoughts about just the two of them.

“It will be just us,” he began visualizing the plan they had discussed so many times before. “Just you and me…..”
“In one of those boats they have for tourists,” Wanda supplied as she moved back, sitting up with her back against the headboard. “What it is it called? A gondola?”

“Umm-hmmm,” Pietro nodded. “A sunny day, champagne, a picnic lunch in the boat itself and just lying back. Perfect.”
“Yes, you can read poetry like you love to read.”

“She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies,” the male twin began to recite from memory. “And all that’s best of dark and bright, meet her aspect and her eyes.”

“I love it when you speak like that. It is so soothing and at the same time, so…invigorating.” Wanda patted the side of the bed next to hers, the side that was Pietro’s.
“Just for you,” she smiled at the answer she expected and got. She knew that Pietro would do anything for her, and even though she appreciated the power she wielded, in her own heart, she knew that she too would do anything when it came to him.

“After lunch we can have ice cream,” she sighed wistfully. “And then take a walk though the monastery of St. Lazurus where Byron wrote ‘Don Juan’.”
“As you wish darling,” Pietro whispered in return as he settled down next to her.

“We will go there one day. Won’t we?” Wanda’s voice cracked a bit, as she reached and grasped her brother’s hand for support. “He…”
“Please Wanda, lets not talk about him, not now,” Pietro silenced her with the same gesture she had used for him. “Lets there be just us.”

“Oh, all right, Pietro,” she smiled, planting a soft kiss on his finger, bringing her own up for him. “But just for you.”

-----

“You want us to kill him?”

“No, my child, I don’t.” A deep male voice answered the younger one sounding through the telephone. “Not that you will be able to anyway, but you are on a reconnaissance mission.”
“We are not on any mission you asshole,” an angry female joined in from the other side. “We are only doing this because you have our friends.”

“Ah, precocious Sarah,” the older man leaned back in comfortable chair, a cold, unfeeling smirk playing on his lips.
“Hey, fuck-nut,” the woman called Sarah shot back. “You don’t get to call me by my name. To you and your flunkies, I am just Marrow. Get it Erik.”

“I will call you whatever and whenever I want stupid girl,” Magneto growled at his name being spoken by the filthy slut….at least in his eyes. “Understand that, or else...”
“Yeah, yeah, we get it man,” her male counterpart silenced her. He just as Sarah a.k.a. Marrow knew the trouble they were in. They needed to get this job done, at any cost. “Go to Calgary, we’re already here, get on the mutant grapevine to find anyone helping freaks like us.”
“Yes. Your target works in that area.”

“Got it,” the teenager returned, his skin green hued. “We’ll let you know as soon as we find anything.”
“No,” Magneto snapped instantly. It had taken his great time and planning to get to this point. He did not want anything out of his control. Even though, he would have to stay out of the picture, for now anyways, he had made sure this ‘recruits’ did not get any ideas. “You will report back every twenty four hours. And remember one thing, Leech….”

Both Leech and Marrow remained silent at what was coming next.

“Remember that this is for your own good….and more importantly, for the good of the rest of your Morlocks.”

----

“He’s going to kill them.”

“Scott…..” Xavier sighed at his Cyclops’s outburst.
“Seriously Professor,” Scott was getting real antsy, especially after the last communication from Jean. “I don’t have a good feeling about this. They were supposed to be gone for just twenty four hours and now you say that they have asked for seventy two more.”

“At least seventy two more,” Xavier corrected him calmly.
“At least!” That correction was not necessarily a good idea. “And you gave them. How could you? You let four x-men, including two students, go to god knows where, in which kind of conditions….”

“Scott, Jean and Ororo are with them.”
“That is what I am worried about. Jean and Ororo.” The X-Men’s team leader had worked out all the contingencies and possibilities. “Ororo seemed so out of it ever since she came to know that Wolverine might have some link to her two years away from us…..she didn’t apply logic. As for Jean, you yourself said that they are not even visible on Cerebro’s grid. That could mean that they have set up her with a psychic inhibitor or maybe even shut down her telepathy completely, in which case she might be in trouble and not even know of it.”

“I understand your concern Scott and I share it,” Xavier answered truthfully. He himself was worried about the ‘deployed’ X-Men and especially about their co-leader, Storm. However, Jean’s communicate, even though cryptic had told that things were progressing favorably. “You don’t need to worry about lack of support to our teammates.”
“What do you…?”

“Lets just say that they are not going to be alone for much longer.”
“Professor…?” Scott felt both relaxed and confused at the same time, something he was used to by now, when speaking with his mentor.

“Even as we speak, our guests are waiting for their pick up.”

----

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Sorry sir, it wasn’t my intention to….” Sam Guthrie a.k.a. Cannonball apologized once again, feeling responsible for the sentiment expressed by at-the-wheel Wolverine.

“Come on Wolvie,” the back seat driver, Jubilee, piped up in Sam’s favor. She was just too excited at the prospect of getting to meet their famous guests, the ones they were on the way to pick up. “We’ll have a groovy time at home. You don’t know how famous…..”
“Aw shaddup Jubes,” Logan snapped at her, his scowl having next to no affect on the ‘immune to it’ Jubilee. “I’ve had it upta here with yer famous an’ cool an’ groovy blabbering. I don’t give a shit who they. I just don’t want any outsiders coming into my house and I sure as hell don’t wanta leave it right now. Not with these X-tuckers there.”

“Why don’t you just say that you did not want to leave with yer ‘Roro there,” Jubilee lobbed the latest addition to her needling and black mailing arsenal.
“….”

--

Getting no reply, she started again. “Come on big guy. I know you guys have got some serious boinking time to make up for….”
“Jubes.”

“Ok, ok, you have some serious bonding to do….” She cleared her vocal expression, her mind running along the same previous track. ‘On the bed, under the sheets, in the garage, on the hood.’ “But….”

“There they are,” Sam pointed to a couple standing at a corner, his eyes lighting up at catching sight of one of them, the one he was most concerned with.
“You sure its them?” Logan growled suspiciously at the seemingly harmless but possibly dangerous ‘rocker chicks’. He had one run in too many with such ‘baits’ and wasn’t in any mood to have a repeat show, especially not now, when he was in hurry to get back to home to Ororo.

“Yes sir,” Sam nodded in confirmation. “Ah know that black haired one.”
“Kid, them both have got black hair,” Logan pointed out the obvious.

“The one without all those piercings,” the southerner corrected himself.

“Oh man, oh man,” Jubilee’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “I’m going to meet Lila Cheney and Ali ‘Dazzler’ Blair. Hoo boy. Whoo hoo. Yippity doo….”
“Shut up Jubilation,” Logan’s use of her complete name told the girl that he meant business.
“Hmph,” not that it would completely silence her. “Spoil sport….old fart.”

--

“Lila,” Sam called out, practically leaping out of the truck before it came to a halt. Just like before, Logan had driven the SUV to the safe-house/warehouse, swapping vehicles to maintain his secrecy.

“Hey lover boy…” Lila’s eyes lit up at her boyfriend’s smart, yet naturally innocent face. It was that what had attracted her to him. Well, that and more importantly the truth and innocence that just seemed to flow through him. Ten minutes at the concert and she was hooked. Since then, whether known to Xavier or not, they had met secretly quite a few times. It was on that plan that Lila had gone to the mansion. On not finding Sam, she approached Xavier who used the opportunity to get her message to Sam and her and her ‘protégé’ or sorts, Ali, here.

“Lover boy!!” Jubilee stopped short at the greeting that the famous Lila Cheney sent Sam’s way. When did this happen? She hadn’t heard or read about it on the gossip sites she frequented.

“Oh, ah, we met each other.” Sam offered the safest introduction. Even though he had spent only a short time with the Chinese-American girl, he knew that it was best to keep your mouth shut against her.
“I’m his girlfriend,” too bad that Lila did not posses that tidbit of information.

“You-you are his girlfriend,” Jubilee gasped. “But you are Lila Cheney. Don’t you mean that he is your boyfriend?”
“Hey, I am his, he is mine, its one and the same thing,” Lila replied with her British accent as she reached forward and pulled Sam down for a kiss. “Come here Canny…..mmmm.”

“Canny!!”
“Its her pet name for him,” Alison grunted as Lila and Sam got busy. “You know like a poodle an’ shit.” Seeing Jubilee open her mouth to speak, she fired off her own salvo. “And listen kid, before you start, I am NOT Dazzler. I am Ali, Dazzler is my band. Understood?”

“Ok, Ali…I mean Dazzler, I mean….”
“Whatever.”

--

“Hey, stop sucking at each other and get yer stuff into the truck,” Logan growled from his driver side door. “I ain’t got the whole day to waste here.”

“Who is scowly fuzzface?” Ali jerked her head towards the other man.
“Oh, he,” Jubilee got the opportunity to yank Logan’s chain. “He is just the driver. Come one Logie, pick up the misses’ luggage.”
“Ah’ll help ya.” Sam offered; his one arm still around Lila. Even if Jubilee paid no attention to Logan’s growl, he sure did.

“Some shitty driver you have there,” Ali grunted as she heaved up her own suitcase.
“Yeah, I know, but you can’t get good help these days,” Jubilee answered poking her tongue at Logan.

“I am going to kill all of ya.”

-----

“He is going to kill me.”

Getting no reply for her loud spoken words, Jean turned from the window to face her teammate, who at that instant was lost in her newly discovered daughter’s antics. “Storm,” she tried again, louder this time and with Ororo’s codename.
“Huh,” that got her attention. “You said something Jean?”

“She say, he is goin’ ta kive me.” Kendall supplied a repeat with her rudimentary grasp of the words.
“Oh shi….” Jean almost exclaimed, slapping her hand over her mouth at the last second. She had forgotten about the young girl and more importantly about her parentage. ‘Just what we need,’ she thought to herself. ‘A toddler with enhanced senses.’

“Jean. Language.” The fact that Ororo spoke to her as if she was a student only added to the mother hen image she had of her ‘in real life’ mother teammate. Truth was that Jean knew about a possibility of Ororo having birthed a child. Three years ago when she had returned to the mansion, Ororo went through a barrage of tests, one of which found that she had been pregnant and even given birth. On Xavier’s instructions, she kept that information secret, only revealing it to Ororo the previous night. It had been done so to not further trouble the then traumatized Ororo. She told Ororo all about it and also that even after three years, just as Xavier was continuing his search to find about her lost past, so was he trying to find the ‘possibly’ alive son or daughter.

“Sorry Ororo,” the redhead finally spoke. “Its just that, I know Scott and he must be ready to climb on trees by now….if he hasn’t already.”
“What do you mean?”

“In case you missed, Scott wasn’t too impressed with that dear husband of yours.”

“Huband,” Once again Kendall caught a word and inquired about it. Kendall was an incredibly bright and inquisitive child. That was Dr. McCoy’s expert opinion. Logan just said that she wanted to know everything about everything, and a killer affinity to nature. That particular attribute of hers, got the toddler her own ‘sizable’ share of trouble, especially when she ran, jumped and semi-floated behind the various forest critters that usually hung out near the mansion. “What does huband mean Ms. Muno?” She crooned, her eyes looking up at the same color-same hair woman that sat on the ground next to her.

--

//Flashback//

“WHAT!”

That reaction had come from Jean, its cause the conversation that been going on before her.

It was Ororo who had started it. “I hope you don’t mind, but can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” Logan mid lift, his fingers firmly grasped around the fork in his hand.

“Its personal,” Ororo hesitated. This man was supposed to be her husband, she had the ring to prove it, even if it was still in the box he gave her. “Not that you look odd or anyting, but I am almost twenty six…..and Kendall is almost four, so that would mean, I conceived around twenty one. And we….”
“Married after ya came to know,” Logan supplied that bit of information even without her completing the sentence. He had spent a whole night thinking about this and had quite a few bases covered and ready.

“Oh, ok,” now came the tough part for Ororo. “How old are you? I mean how old were you when we married?” ‘I hope that he doesn’t think that I think that he is too old to marry a twenty one year old woman,’ she wished mentally.
“Five years younger than what I am now,” Logan’s answer was cryptic.

“And that would be?”

“Ororo,” letting go of the fork, Logan ran a hand up his face and along his hair to the back of his neck. “My mutation, my healing factor, it heals me from everything, even aging to an extent.”

“What do you…?” Ororo started, trying to gauge how old he really was. Fifty, maybe sixty years. He couldn’t be older than that. Could he?
“I am…I was born….I am way older than I look,” was all Logan said, putting up a question of his own. “How old do you think I am?”

“Thirty two, maybe thirty three,” Ororo answered frankly.
“Thirty five max,” Jean gave in her estimate from the end of the table.

“Not even close.”
“Oh,” that silenced both women.

“Yeah,” Logan sighed as he revealed the truth. “I was born in this house…in eighteen ninety two.”

“WHAT!” Hence Jean’s cry.

“I am hundred and thirteen years old….almost one fourteen.”

//End Flashback//

--

“Husband….” Ororo came back to the present. “Kendall.”
“Hmm,” the smiling child peered up at her, her visage reminding her so much of her child picture, the only one in her possession. The one with her mother and father.

“You know who Logan is, right?”
“Umm-hmm,” the girl nodded at her father’s name. “My dada’s name is Logan.”

“And you mother?”
“Mothuhr?” That was new. “What’s that?’”

Trying to squelch the pain shooting though her heart, Ororo explained the word mother to her own daughter. “Your mommy, mom, mama.”
“Oh, my mama,” that word the child knew. “Her name is Ororo James Howett,” she replied with firm, correctly spoken words, well, except for the last name.

“Kendall, I-I am….” Ororo started. Logan hadn’t told Kendall about the truth behind this same skin-same hair lady. He left that choice up to Ororo. Even though he wanted things as they were all those years ago, he knew that times had changed and so had his wife. While having many of the same habits and characteristics, this woman was very different from the Ororo he had fallen in love and gotten married to. This Ororo wouldn’t have given him the time of the day, let alone agree to become his wife.

Anything that Ororo was about to say, about to reveal, was lost as Kendall shot up from her Indian style cross legged pose on the ground. Her ‘more than average’ sensitive ears had caught a familiar sound.

“Dada!” Her eyes lit up in recognition as she sprinted towards the front door. “Dada back, Dada back.”

“Ororo….” Jean saw the way Ororo reached out for her daughter, her hand stopping and falling away midway as the child ran to its known and familiar parent. Now that Logan was back, he would resume the tale he had begun the night before.

“She knows Jean,” Ororo looked up with tear-filled eyes. “She knows her mother’s name….she might even remember it subconsciously. Won’t she?”
“It-Its possible,” Jean nodded hesitantly, currently unable to confirm with a telepathic scan.

“Then why don’t I remember her….why don’t I remember.”

----

“He killed them.”

“WHAT!”
“He killed them sir,” the young man repeated meekly under the glare from the older, bald, dark skinned man. “The watchers, he killed all five of them.”

“Sonofa….” Nick Fury, head of SHIELD cursed at the news. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was supposed to be completely under their control. “How did this happen?”
“He-he got out of control sir.”

“What do you mean, he got out of control?” Fury bellowed at his subordinate. “I was told that his programming was complete.”
“Yes sir,” the man nodded.

“Then what the fuck happened?” Fury pointed at the screen showing the mangled, torn remains of what until a couple of hours ago were five live, healthy men.

“He sir, he seems to have healed over it.”

---

Note: New character introduced and their descriptions.

Real name unknown (Leech): From main Marvel timeline and a little from the Evolution series. Powers include generating a suppressant field, disrupting and negating the superhuman powers of others. Member of the mutant group the Morlocks. (Age: Teenager….14-16)

Sarah a.k.a. Sarah Rushman (Marrow): Taken from main timeline and just like there, here too she is a member of the Morlocks. Hot headed and ready to ‘shoot’ at the drop of a hat. (Age: Late teens to early twenties…..19-21)

Other information,

Spoilers: Ultimate X-Men #5, The Ultimates Vol. 2, #2.

Next chapter onwards, I will be focusing more on the two years Ororo spent with Logan, while keeping a track of the present times.

Elsewhen, (in the past)

“Uhn,” groaned the prone figure on the rocky floor of the cavern, deep in the Canadian Rockies.

“Shit,” The mutant-man Logan or as he was better known in his ‘social’ circle, Wolverine, cursed both mentally as well as audibly as he exhaled and poked his tongue out to wet his dry lips, only to get a mouthful of dirt.

His body and mind going through the usual waking up processes, Logan realized when and where he was and with whom…..or in his case, was with whom.

‘I hate this,’ he tried to lift his head, only to have it flop again onto the hard rocky ground with a slightly echoed thud, an action which elicited yet another fuck from the still recovering Logan.

“The girl….shocked….kill…..her,” were the disjointed thoughts running through his still half unconscious mind as he recalled the events that had led to this situation.

---

After having escaped the now destroyed secret military base cum Weapon X laboratory, Logan quickly made his way to his truck, hidden away about three miles from the base, the woman/girl/whatever he rescued along with him, either on his back or in his arms. He said, whatever, because, from her psychical situation it wasn’t clear how old this freaky chick was. With her half gone, quarter chopped off and quarter matted white hair, her ‘for a black woman’ oddly colored and currently dilated blue eyes and her one time lustrous but now dull and dried mocha colored skin covering what was essentially a bag of bones, this Ororo, whatever kind of name that was, could be anywhere from say sixteen-seventeen to around twenty one-twenty two years old.

Like a good rescuer, Logan not only carried her properly, well except for the time he bopped her knee and lower legs against that tree. Hey, so sue him. He was in a hurry to keep HER alive, not to mention get his, ‘currently’ lead-shitting ass some healing time.

Once he got to the truck, having hidden his tracks and masked his scent, for any who might try to follow him, he put this ‘Roro, he dumped the first ‘O’ of her name for ease and less tongue rolling. Hell, if he kept her long enough, he was liable to dump the next two alphabets too, leaving just a short and ease to say, ‘ro. He put this ‘Roro into the make-shift bed at the back of the truck’s cabin, and drove like crazy to his safe spot. Having surveyed the surrounding area of the base as he always did, Logan found and prepared a tactically solid hiding spot, Just in case he needed to lay low for some time, especially given the injuries he usually suffered while gutting a few dozen or hundred of these excess-weight-on-the-earth assholes.

----

The safe spot was a hidden cave in the mountain side, one that was deep, closed and with only way in or out, well, except for the small, just fit for one person, stream that passed through it, on its way to the river flowing close by.

Carrying miss drooling at the mouth fellow mutie into the cavern, he rested her on the only sleeping bag he had, himself falling on the bare ground next to her. With the shit those Weapon X fuckers pumped into the veins of their experiment ‘subjects’, something that Logan remembered from first hand experience, it would be quite some time before she even made a move, let alone be lucid enough to walk properly on her own, especially given the whole living zombies from the X-zone look she was sporting right now. Unless, she possessed a healing factor like his, she wasn’t going to ask for a ‘hall pass’ to even go answer nature’s call anytime soon.

Still recovering from his own injuries, Logan awakened a few hours or many hours later, a faint but irritating scratching rubbing and jarring at his sensitive eardrums. At first, he disregarded it as so wild critter who might have come to find shelter from the cold weather outside. That was until he remembered, he wasn’t alone. ‘Oro, boro, toto, fuck what her name was,’ chick was with him, or was the last time he laid eyes on her or more like where she had been when he lolled off.

“FUCK,” he growled as lifting his sleep raddled, healing stiffened body; he gave a couple of testing sniffs to find and place her scent. Even with all the crud and the muck flowing through her and hence oozing out through sweat and other bodily secretions, and the damp shit smell of the cave itself, there was something good about natural her scent, like fresh rain good. ‘Maybe that’s her power,’ Logan thought to himself as he lumbered along, his one hand resting against the cave walls for support. He knew about mutants who possessed this freaky power of giving out pheromones to scare, arouse and do other things to their vict….uh, targets.

“Hey, where are you…?” Was all he could get out on seeing his errant good-deed-of-the-decade recipient, before everything went white and damn, painful.

----

‘The bitch shocked me,’ the thought ran through Logan’s mind as he finally got up the second time. ‘She shocked ME. Like that was something that was missing in my metal boned life.’

“What the…?” Were his next words, ones coming out not because of his own eau-de-burnt-skin smell, but because of what his instantly awakened and saucer wide eyes were seeing.

Lying next to his feet, her upper body curled around one leg was the same nut-frying Ororo. That he had not expected, especially after she sent what seemed like a million volts through his body. Had it not been for the Admantium in/on his skeleton, Logan would not have been hurt so much. ‘Yeah well,’ he corrected himself. ‘Had it not been fer yer healing factor, ya woulda been Wolverine shish kabob by now.’

Unable to decide what to make of her, Logan carefully freed his leg from Ororo’s arms and soundlessly moved away from her. The way she was curled up in a foetal position made Logan think that maybe she was cold, which, given the sub-sub-zero temperature and the fact that they were just a few away from the cave opening, was a completely understandable situation. Heck, she should have frozen to a Chocolate Popsicle by now.

“Yeah, well, maybe Ms. Nut-buster doesn’t feel the cold,” said Logan, cradling to check on his afore-mentioned nuts. When Ororo had struck him, and just before he passed out, he could feel not only his external appendages cooking, but also a couple of his internal organs, his continuously ‘jump starting’ heart one of them.

“Shit darlin’, the first date and ya already done playin’ with my heart,” Logan spoke to the unconscious Ororo, draping his jacket over her before going back deeper into the cave to retrieve their, HIS, other belongings.

‘Better not move her again,’ he concluded perceptively, not wanting a repeat performance of Christmas tree ala Wolverine.

----

“Hey, hey, get up, get up,” Ororo felt a gruff voice reaching out to her and pulling her through the drug and sleep induced haze that clouded her mind. Even in her state, she could comprehend someone was making some sound, but what and who, she did not know.

“Mmmmph...Ughn,” her moan turned painful, as her body seemed to be caught in an intangible web of pain.

“Wake up,” Logan called again. He had sensed the woman waking up, both due to her increased heart rate and the sounds coming from her. She as barely moving, which, given the shape she was in was completely understandable. Hell, he was surprised that she even made it this far by herself. Getting somewhat impatient with staying in this place for too long, he wanted her to get up so that they could make a move, so that he could get her something to eat, find out where she lived or wanted to go and get rid of her. It was not he was interested in. His mind was more occupied by the markings of two claw slashes that was imprinted in his memories. There was someone out there like him, and he wanted to find her. He knew it was a her because he had been able to salvage bits of paper from the almost completely destroyed and burnt out base he found those claw marks at.

“Uhn...” the snowy chick’s painful moan brought him back to the present. Given their last interaction, he kept at a comparatively safe distance from her. Moreover, given the time of the year and the naturally volatile climate, he did not make too much of the sudden change in the weather conditions visible just a few feet away from them. Not much, but it was as if, all of a sudden, the fuckin’ sun just blinked off, with deep grey clouds gathering in the previously, comparatively clear sky.

‘Storm,’ he remembered reading her name on one of the two dog tags hanging around her neck. The other had given him her name. He did not care much for that either, mostly because, just as it had been for him, he assumed that it was the Weapon X’ers who gave her that splashy name. ‘Musta been ‘cause of her hair, or what’s left of it.’

---

“Hey Ororo,” no sooner had the woman in question managed to pull herself up into a seating position, did she push away from him, her liquid blue eyes suddenly watering over as she stared wide eyed at the man in front of her and at her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was being fitted something over her face and then being drowned in water.

“Nnnnnnn….Nnnnn…..” Logan’s hackles rose at the way Ororo reacted. Her reaction wasn’t that of a human but that of a cornered animal, reminding of the way he might have been when he broke free himself, all those years ago. That part of his life was still a bit of blur for him, and he liked it that way. As it was, he knew too much, remembered too much.

“Hey,” putting on his best ‘Concerned Good Samaritan’ look Logan started; his hands on his side in a show of peace. ‘Like with a wild animal,’ he told himself. “Look, uh, Ororo. I ain't gonna hurt you. See, got nothing in my hands.” He wiggled his fingers to draw her attention to them, her eyes instantly snapping to the dancing digits, but only for a second, before returning to his face. Fear and suspicion shone clearly in her twin sapphires.

“Eat?” Logan offered, making no move except to tilt one hand and point one finger at the open box lying in between them, nearer to Ororo than to him. At getting no movement, he thought that maybe she couldn’t talk or something, or worse yet couldn’t hear.

“Eat,” he repeated, once again pointing to the food he had laid out just as soon he caught the first signs of Ororo’s rise from sleep. Offering food, got animals to calm down too, well, at least for sometime if not completely and hopefully would do the same with Ororo here. Too supplement his words, his also made an eating gesture by bringing his hand to his mouth.

As if catching his drift, Ororo’s glanced at the food, a part of her mind recognized it and within a flash, especially given the state her body was in, she wan onto it, literally grabbing it before retreating to her corner….her territory. Just like an animal.

‘What did they do you darlin’?’ Logan thought, anger rising in him as he watched Ororo wolf down the semi solid food. She paid no attention to the fact that he hands were coated with dirt. Using her fingers as a spoon and fork replacement, she soon finished with the broth. It was a mixture of the frozen canned soup that Logan carried along in his truck and week old bread. Logan hoped that it would be fine for her and that her, gone to hell, digestive system would be able to keep it down and use it.

Once finished, she wiped her mouth with the front and back of her palm, managing to get a bit of the soup in her hair in the process on her hair.

----

SNAP!

The way she jerked her head when he experimentally snapped a finger, told Logan that at least her ears were working fine.

“Can you talk?” He stayed on his ‘comforting’ voice. Not that it mattered to him, but, if he was to…. ‘What the hell?’ he stopped mid-sentence. ‘What do ya mean if, when, yeah when.’ When he was supposed to drop her off, he needed to know where do it and for that she would have to either speak or write it out for him. If she couldn’t talk, she hell as sure couldn’t write shit.

“Can you write?” He asked the question nevertheless, growling at the muted stare he got in return.

“Wrrrrr…..”

“Well, yer not dumb either,” he answered at Ororo’s try to form the word write. “Well, I am Logan.” Again, that stupid stare, although by now, the suspicion levels had gone down a notch or two, allowing Logan to himself settle down, his hands resting comfortably at his sides on the cave floor.

“Lllll….”

“Lo-,” Logan started slowly.

“Lo-,” Ororo repeated.

“-gan.”

“-gggggun.”

“Close enough.”

-----

“Here, eat.”

Opening the driver side door, Logan pulled himself into the truck, jerking a plastic bag towards Ororo. His seemingly white powdered hair was a testimony to the snow falling outside.

They had been together for about three days now and in those three days, Ororo not only seemed to have gained strength but also relaxed and somewhat started to trust her savior. She still did not speak, well except for the few words Logan managed to teach her. Logun, food, watuh were the only three words she used, the fourth, ‘Rrrrooro, a caricature of her own name although present in her limited vocabulary, was not used.

Logan had given her some of his clothes, which, given her utter ignorance and naiveté, he had change for himself. He had cursed under his breath almost the entire time he was doing it, not because he had to do it, but because of the innumerable nicks and cuts spanning Ororo’s entire back and quite a lot of her front side. Tentatively touching a tube-hole, his heart clenched at the way Ororo whimpered from the pain. That alone, made him want to go back and kill all those fuckers, all over again.

At his ‘eat’ command, Ororo near tore through the plastic and cardboard packaging to get to the food. That too had been a learning experience for both of them. The first time Logan had done this, Ororo had nearly started to chew on the plastic bag itself. Logan, in his haste pulled the bag from her, regretting it instantly at the lost puppy look she gave him. He then explained and showed her that the bag was not for eating, nor was the cardboard boxes. It was what was inside the boxes and other plastic bags that was to be eaten. The bags and boxes were to be thrown away.

He watched from the corner of his eyes as Ororo chomped down on a handful of French fries, while gobbling up what seemed to be some sort of chicken preparation with the other. After two days of semi-solid food, Logan had finally started her with complete solids. Even now, she used to spend most of the time sleeping, much to her chagrin. That was because, just as a young child would, she was fascinated by traveling in the truck, and used to mash her face against the passenger side window to see outside. Once Logan made a mistake of opening the window for her. Mistake because, as soon as the window went down, Ororo practically leapt out, sticking her head out to breathe in the clear, clean mountain air. ‘Mutt,’ Logan had cursed jokingly.

----

What he hadn’t told her was about his and her being mutants, something, given her situation, she wouldn’t have understood anyway.

“Hey, ‘Ro,” at his grunt Ororo stopped mid-chew, her trusting eyes instantly zoning in on him. She knew that ‘Ro was her and Logan calling her that meant he would be making more noises with his lips.

“What’s this?” Logan held up a small plastic package. He had not seen it before, because he had not bought it and yet it was there. It was some sort of sweet that Ororo had urged him to buy, but which given its useless nature, he had not. Yet it was there in the truck, sticking out of Ororo’s jacket pocket.

Grabbing the packet, Ororo turned away from Logan, as if hiding her face like a child.

“Hey, hey, look at me,” Logan reached forward and turned her face to him. “You lifted this? You stole this?”

The blank look that Ororo tried to give him was one that he was used to by now. It was a, I know I did wrong, or I know you are angry, but I am going to act as if I don’t understand, look.

“Did you? Yer a thief?” He asked, feeling like slapping himself for his own stupidity. ‘Dickwad, she doesn’t even know her own name properly. How do ya expect her to know what the fuck stealing is and that it could get ya into trouble?’

----

What Logan missed, almost until it was too late, was the effect that his last spoken word was having on Ororo. Letting go of the food, the packet sliding from between her legs, her eyes widening, she seemed to go into a fit.

“What the fuck? What’s happenin’ to…..oh shit,” all that came forth as Logan saw the previously clear blue eyes turning to a shining white. He had seen it happen once before, experienced its result. He wasn’t in any mood to go through that….ever again, and especially not in a truck.

Pulling over instantly, he pulled Ororo to him and managed to move just about ten feet from the truck when.

KKKRAAAKKK-BOOOM!!

One final thought went through Logan’s mind before he lost to the darkness.

‘Fuck, fried nuts again.’

-----

Present time,

Two pairs of eyes watched in awe as a tall, dark skinned man easily handled and disposed of a bunch of teenaged gangster wannabes. The object of their chase a young woman, a clearly visible mutant woman, lay on the ground behind the man.

“Do you think it is him?” Leech looked up to his older companion.
“Don’t know kid, but he kinda fits the bills, ‘cept for,” Marrow trailed off, her eyes noticing the man’s headgear. “Come,” she gestured for Leech for follow her as the three boys ran, more like stumbled away.

“Are you hurt?” They heard the man turned to the young woman, seemingly oblivious to the two strangers coming towards him.
“What do you think?” The girl snapped at him, her tail wrapped around her left leg as tightly grasped at her bleeding forearm.
“Uh,” the man seemed to be put off, almost ready to walk away. “I can help you with that. Do you want it or not?” He asked, his softer tone giving way to a harder, no nonsense one.

For a second it seemed that the woman was about to make yet another biting remark. Instead, she very intelligently opted to remain silent and mutely nodded her head.

“Can you help us?” The six-foot plus man stopped mid bend looking over his shoulder at the new arrivals.
“We-we are also mutants,” Marrow put forth her best lost and needy face. “I am Marr…Sarah and this is my friend Leech. We-we are new here.”
“Get lost,” the still on the ground girl snarled at them, secretly afraid that the man might leave her and help them instead.
“No, wait,” the man reached out a hand mid-way in a gesture to stop them. “I will help you….all of you,” he added, for the benefit of his first find.

“Thank you sir,” Leech smiled hesitantly.
“No, don’t thank me,” the man shook his head. “And don’t call me sir. That’s a white man’s name.”

“Yeah, well, I am Maria, Maria Callasantos,” the firebrand introduced herself. “Just call me Feral. What’s your name hunkie?” She looked up to the mystery man.

“I am John Proudstar. They also call me Thunderbird.”

---

Note: New character introduced and their descriptions.

Maria Callasantos (Feral): I had planned on using this character as one of the Morlocks, finally giving her spot to Leech. Her powers include heightened strength, speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes, hyper-keen senses, prehensile tail and razor sharp claws. Mostly from the main Marvel timeline, with a bit from the Age of Apocalypse series. (Age: Early to mid twenties…..21-24)

John Proudstar (Thunderbird): Known as Thunderbird (I) in the current Marvel (616) universe. Haven’t decided if he will be playing a major part. Mostly own making, with whatever I can get from the old Uncanny X-Men issues. (Age: Late twenties to early thirties…..29-32)

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“Here,” Ororo looked up at the voice to find yet another box in front of her eyes, this time with X23, no, Laura, she corrected herself, with Laura holding it.

“What…?” She started, her eyes flitting from Laura to the box and back to Laura again.
“Help you remember,” the teenage girl spoke almost shyly. Ororo was still not quite used to how the father-daughter duo’s behavior had changed towards her in the span of a few days. Where, once both of them oozed barely contained, ready to blow rage, now there was a sort of calmness, one their behavior attributed to her. Of all the residents of the Howlett mansion, it was Logan and Laura who seemed to be most attached to her, even more so than her own daughter Kendall herself. Logan’s other daughters, Kirika and Amiko left for Japan soon after their showdown with Magneto and his Brotherhood. Amiko had school and Kirika work. However, it seemed that those too also knew about her time and her supposed relation with Logan. She said supposed, because confirming it would raise a completely new array of questions.

“Th-Thank you,” Ororo accepted the box, watching Laura settle down on the carpet next to her. She did not miss the almost subconscious way the teenager protectively leaned in towards the contently coloring Kendall. Logan had told her that Kendall seemed to have a knack for drawing, coloring and other artsy stuff.

“Don’ know where she gets it from,” he commented with a self deprecating smile. “Musta been her version of yer potting n’ planting.”

‘Or like my father’s photography,’ the thought came up in Ororo’s mind. Her father, David Monroe had been a professional photographer and amateur artist of sorts.

----

“Ororo,” Logan refrained from using her petname, or at least tried to as much as possible. It was because, using that name made him want to reach forward and envelope her in her embrace, to kiss her…..to do more, much more.

“Yes,” answered Ororo, her eyes and ears keeping a check for any signal of Kendall. Whether it was just her curiosity to know more about the child that from Dr. McCoy’s tests was without a doubt proven to be the biological progeny of her and Logan or was it just the mother inside her, she did not know. Whatever it was, she did not want to spend even one second away from the little girl, her two deepest wishes being hearing her daughter call her mommy and to ask/allow her to put to her bed at night. So far, it had been Logan who had been doing it, and when on one occasion he did offer to Kendall to allow Ms. Muno as the child called her to help her get settled for the night, she refused. She said she wanted her daddy.

Her own daughter’s reply, although completely innocent and devoid of any hate for her, pained Ororo’s heart. Although Logan was spending quite a lot of time trying to tell her every single detail about their time together, Ororo still could not push down the blame that her own conscience seemed to be sending her way. If only she had tried harder, if only she hadn’t been so eager to pick up the pieces, putting on her usual Ice Queen front, maybe she would have found her daughter and her husb….her daughter’s father earlier.

“You want me to tell her?”

Both of them knew what that question was about. It was telling Kendall about her mother, about her mommy….about the truth of this same color-same hair Ms. Muno.

Although, Logan had left the decision up to her, Ororo knew his personal feelings behind it. He hoped that once she would relate and bond with Kendall as mother-daughter, maybe she would allow him in too, looking at him something more than just the man who donated the sperm for her creation of this beautiful life. Maybe she would look at him as a possible husband.

“Logan, I….” Ororo hesitated. What if Kendall did not like her? She liked her, but as a sort of aunt figure. What if she did not like her as her mother? What if she hated her for leaving, for abandoning them? What if she lost the little love that she had gained from the child? All those questions and more swirled around in Ororo’s head confusing her even further. “Yes,” she finally answered, admitting defeat to needing this man to help her bonding with her own daughter.

In response, Logan merely nodded, before standing up and walking towards the rec. room cum game room, where all the youngsters seemed to have gathered. Kitty, Jubilee, Kendall, even Laura and Kurt. Sam was busy with Lila, (Not that ‘busy’, okay) while Ali was most probably sleeping or loitering somewhere within the safe limit of the mansion grounds. The others were busy with their work, with Jean joining Henry in the medical bay.

“Hey squirt,” Ororo heard Logan call out, his still gruff voice levels gentler than his usual tone.

“Come I wanta tell ya somethin’.”

-----

“Laura, this…?” Ororo’s brow wrinkled in confusion at the carefully folded, plastic wrapped black t-shirt that occupied almost half of the box.

“You got me this,” the teenager nodded at the t-shirt, her fingers reaching into the other side of the box to draw out her own set of pictures. While some of them were common with those in Logan’s records, others, Ororo had seen earlier.

“Here,” taking out one particular photograph, she held it towards Ororo, explaining its significance to her. “It was the marriage day…..one year later.”

‘The one year anniversary,’ realized Ororo, hesitantly accepting the snap, almost as if it were scalding her, Ororo turned it straight to see three smiling faces and one seemingly giggling one staring at her. It was her, Logan, Laura and a barely few months old Kendall. It was clear that they were in some sort of restaurant and either one of the other patrons or one of the waiters had taken the shot. All of them seemed younger, all with the exception of Logan, who looked exactly the same, except for, maybe to just her eyes, his deep hazel eyes looked a little livelier.

The top that Laura wore in that picture was the same as the one lying before her and from its pristine condition, Ororo could tell that it had been worn sparingly…..almost as if just once.

----

“This also,” Laura drew her attention to the rest of the box’s contents. Cosmetics, light jewellery, a couple of silk scarves….all things that Ororo had never seen on Laura. ‘Almost as if she gave them up, after…...’ she did not complete that thought, not needing to.

“Laura, I-I don’t know what to say,” even Kendall seemed to have grown quite at the interaction between her older sister and Ms. Muno, her large hazel eyes, her exactly like her father’s eyes, staring up in open curiosity, if not in complete understanding. For her, it worked both ways. The abilities she got from her father would tell her when someone’s scent changed, and having had them from the start, it was as normal for her as listening or seeing. Moreover, with her mother being there, she was subconsciously tapping in into the weather fluctuations whenever it occurred due to Ororo’s emotions.

“Its…” Laura shook her head in acceptance. She knew about her father’s story about how he did not have his memories for the major part of his life, only getting them by accident, as she knew how her mother, Ororo as had been when they first met. “Can I…?” She started only to stop, her clenching and withdrawing fists signaling her hesitation.

“Yes,” Ororo spoke, softly urging her as she urged students in her class.

“Can I hug you?”

----

“Come ‘ere,” Logan led Kendall towards where an increasingly nervous Ororo sat, the sudden weather shift outside mirroring her emotional state. Maybe she should postpone it? They needed more time to bond. What if…?

Any other possible questions were lost as Logan brought Kendall to her, his hand protectively placed at the back of her head. This time, unlike other times, he did not sit across from her, but next to her, placing Kendall between the both of them, facing them.

Giving one last to his amnesiac wife, the mother of his child, Logan took the plunge.

“Kendall,” that alone told Kendall that whatever it was, was important…very ‘serious’. “You know about your mama, right?”
“Umm-hmm,” a single nod confirmed the answer, the child’s eyes never leaving her father’s.
“An’ I told you that she went far away.”
“Umm-hmm.”

“Well,” Logan sighed. Leaning forward, her turned Kendall sideways. With her back to his thighs, she was face to face with Ororo, which she turned to look up at her father, who also had leaned into her field of vision. “This is your mama.”
“My mama?” The child’s eyes widened at the news, millions of questions dancing in them. “Ms. Muno?”
“Yeah,” Logan looked up at Ororo, silently signaling to step in and take the lead.

“Kendall,” Ororo spoke through a choked throat and tear filled; apprehensive yet hopeful eyes, her ears straining to hear one word.

“Mama.”

-----

At that moment,

“YAAAGGH!”

“Oh, shit,” Kitty Pryde cursed at the sight before her. Lying on the bed, well, one of them on the end, the other on the floor, his legs over his head, were Rogue and Remy. What was even more odd, embarrassingly odd for everyone in the room was the way Rogue’s top was being pulled to a side, with Remy’s hand tangled within it…..just near her right breast.

“Whaht are ya doing heah?” Rogue cried out, her particular position taking a lot away from the scary factor of the admonishment.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t see anything. I didn’t meant to do this either. I didn’t mean to break it,” Kitty blabbered off, very thankful for the phasing power for yet another time.

This wasn’t the first time that such a thing had happened to her. At one time, she phased into the Professor’s office and somehow managed to lose all her books, clothes and her earrings on the other side. Thankfully, for her, Xavier wasn’t the pervy kind and averted his eyes as soon as he saw her. She had right about died then. If that wasn’t enough, the next time it hadn’t been her who was naked but the people she had walked in on. Jean and Scott were right in middle of their, uh, close-personal-intimate time, when the ever-phasing Ms. Shadowcat, previously Sprite had waltzed in on them, humming the latest tune from some ‘now here now gone’ boy band. Seeing two of her teachers and teammates, naked and doing the nasty, as Jubilee would term it, with one of them sitting on top of the other, humping away to kingdom come, wasn’t something that Kitty wanted to do….ever again.

---

Ready to phase through again, she gasped, her heart jumping a beat as a realization dawned on her.

“Oh god, no.” Both Remy and Rogue looked at the horrified Kitty.

“Whaht happened?” Rogue pushed away Remy’s advancing hand. Her usual pale skin had gone deep pink, almost red at the unexpected and unwanted incursion. ‘Wait,’ she grunted her breath, turning her attention to Kitty. “What did ya do?”
“Oh, no,” Kitty looked as if someone had killed her puppy….or in her case, her kitty. (No pun, any kind, x or non x-rated) “I just, I was just showing her a trick….I forgot…..” She mumbled as she held up her inhibitor, its circuitry shorted put.

“What happened to the inhibitor? An’ why did you have it on in heah?” Rogue demanded, both she and Remy more than slightly wary of the visiting X-Men. For Remy it was the time he spent as their guest, while for Rogue it was both what they did to Remy and her own hesitation at trusting strangers.

“Huh? Aren’t you supposed to wear it all the time here?” Kitty asked in confusion.
“Not whehn ya are in tha house dumbo.”

“Rogue Cherie,” Remy put in his two cents, getting a kick out of needling Kitty, and hoping that she would leave soon, allowing him to get to, uh, more pressing matters at hand. “Let it go. Don’ frighten da petite. Remy sure dat Logan will do enough of dat when he comes t’ kno’ about it.”

“Oh god, please,” Remy’s words had the desired effect, as Kitty’s nervousness grew to almost full-blown panic. “I didn’t mean it. I really didn’t. I wasn’t trying to contact the Professor or anything. Its just start, I was showing Kendall a trick and I phased and walked through the wall, and my powers, they short-circuited and I didn’t want to walk in, not that I saw anything. I didn’t see his hand on your….”

“Shut up,” Rogue silenced her. Walking to Kitty, she took the broken inhibitor and pointed to the door. “Get out, both of ya and this tahme use tha door.”
“Cherie….” Remy just about lost his cool façade, along with certain non-mentionable things.

“Get out Remy. No ya stay here. Kitty ya leave,” Rogue alternated, both angry and embarrassed at being chanced upon like this. Although, she and Remy hadn’t gone all the way, and weren’t planning to anytime soon, especially if Remy wanted to stay alive and not die a painful and prolonged death at Logan’s hands, they still preferred their privacy to pursue other, not so life-threatening avocations. “No both leave,” she finally settled on. “Oh mah god. This is so embarrassing.”

----

“Please, he won’t hurt me, right?” Kitty stood frozen, her feet phased into the wooden floor. “I don’t want to die. Please don’t let him kill me.”
“Kill?” Rogue questioned, while Remy coolly smirked, hoping to get a reprieve. If Kitty would just leave, he was sure he could get Rogue to see things his way. “Who?”

“Wolverine,” Kitty just about shuddered at the name. “He won’t kill me, right. I didn’t mean.”

“Now look at what ya h’ve done,” Rogue glared at her boy friend. “Ya scared her half ta death. No one is going to kill anyone. Just leave it heah and ah’ll get ya a new one. An’ ya don’ have ta wear it in and near tha house. Only when ya go more than one kilometer away, then do ya need ta weah it. Ok.”
“Ok,” Kitty nodded numbly.

“Now,” Rogue arched an eyebrow, her arms crossing at her chest as she regarded the shorter teenager. It was a leave sign. Too bad, in her state, Kitty missed it.
“Now?”

“Now,” Rogue gestured towards the open door.
“Now….oh, now,” finally getting it, Kitty bolted. “Sorry, I-I….carry on…I mean, no, oh, I better leave.”

“Now, where we Cherie,” the Cajun Casanova tried to lay it in thick.
“We were no where sugah,” Rogue moved before Remy could lay a hand on her. “Ah need ta get this replaced befoh Logan fahnds out or befoh they have t’ leave.” With that, she too left the room, hearing Remy call after her.

“Rogue, Cherie, ma petite….”

-----

Outside,

“Fuck, what a dump,” Alison Blaire cursed out aloud, more for the ears of the ears of the couple sitting by the lakeside than for her.

“Come on Ali,” Lila looked up at her disgruntled friend. “Its not a dump. Its….peaceful.”
“Yeah, like I said, a dump,” Alison reiterated her point by chucking a flat-bottomed stone over the calm waters of the lake.
“Reminds me of mah home,” Sam put in his two cents, his arms loosely draped around Lila’s midsection. They had been there for a couple of hours now, spending time eating the picnic basket they had brought with him, talking and generally just enjoying each other’s company. For Lila, the calm, collected, slightly shy, yet self-assured Sam was very different from the usual men she came across in her line of work and/or dated. As for Sam, he still couldn’t believe that someone as beautiful, as famous and as bold as Lila could like a simple farm boy like him.

“I’m going for a walk,” Alison spoke over her shoulder as she walked away from the lovey-dovey couple.

She had barely gone about a hundred meters when a cabin or small warehouse structure drew her attention to it. Well, not the building itself, but the young man standing in front of it. He seemed to painting with anything and everything her could use, his hands, the brush, a cloth, everything to apply the paints just correctly.

Impressed at the man’s physique, even from this distance, Ali found her legs carrying her towards him. There was something about him….other than the obvious physical aspect that drew Ali to him.

“Lets rub metal baby.”

----

Back in the past,

“Shit kid, yer a real pain the ass, do ya know that?” Logan grunted pushing himself off the ground to see a still unconscious Ororo. He could feel the tingles of the residual healing taking place inside him. Although, he healed from anything, anything he had come cross till date, it always played havoc on his senses. Having enhanced senses meant not was his vision, smell and hearing incredibly strong, so was the effectiveness of his pain receptacles. Every time his body recovered from an injury, no matter how short the duration, the pain and the knitting of skin and muscle was always a feeling that he’d rather not have.

His second and only spare wristwatch blown to high heaven, he had to check the still standing truck’s clock for the time. The first one met a similar fate the first time Ms. Nutbuster zapped him. According to the time, he had been out for nearly one hour this time and luckily for them, no one had ventured on the relatively unknown back-road that they were on.

A few feet away from him lay Ororo, still unconscious. Being in his arms had given her a fair dose of the lightening too. However, unlike his healing factor that kicked in to get him up and going, she was still lolling off in la-la land.

“Lets get outta here,” Logan cursed under his breath, expletives shooting forth from his lips as he bent down to pick up Ororo, only to have his legs give way under him, nearly crushing the sub-hundred pound Ororo under him.

“Or lets just wait some more an’ enjoy the frickin’ scenery.”

----

“Hey,” Ororo woke once again to a gruff voice calling out to her and the feel of a large hand on her shoulder. “Hey Ororo. Hey. You okay?”

Opening her eyes just the barest bit, she instantly snapped them open at the not too attractive three-day-old beard sporting face of Logan.

“Hey,” Logan relaxed at seeing those blue orbs once again. At least she was awake now. “You’re a piece of ass you know that,” he scowled-smirked, shaking his head at the stupefied look on his passenger’s face, his mouth falling open at what happened next….Ororo spoke.

“Who the fuck are you?”

---

Note: The Kitty Pryde losing clothes while phasing thing is from an issue of the ‘What if?’ series, however, the Jean-Scott one is my own.

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“What the fuck were you thinking?”

Ororo cringed at the barely contained anger in Logan’s voice. She knew she had done wrong, not that she was going to admit to the jackass. She knew she should not have flirted with that trucker at the last bar they stopped at, the bar, which for all purposes was closed now, and would remain as such until the owner got rid of all the broken furniture, bottles and glasses and fixed the front door and the large gaping hole in the wall.

“You crazy or something woman?” Logan repeated ran a hand through his sweat and alcohol smelling hair, his face set in scowl, his other hand tightly wound around the steering wheel of his truck. “You could have got raped or something even worse? You know those asshole ain’t ever alone.”

“How was I to know?” Ororo pouted like a petulant child. Her own hair was growing back, and the previously bald patch was covered by a centimeter long growth of white silky softness. She had even managed to trim her longer hair to get a sort of semi crew cut look. She was still woefully thin, and the short hair coupled with the baggy clothes, Logan’s clothes she was wearing only made her look more like a man, except for her now cleared and refilling smooth facial features and her obvious chest.

----

“Who the fuck are you?”

Logan’s eyes widened at the first proper sentence from Ororo. ‘What happened?’ He thought in amazement. Bringing the truck to a screeching halt, he turned sideways to Ororo.
“You can talk?” He blurted out, getting a duh look from Ororo. Even her body language seemed to have changed after his second and her first lightening strike.
“Of course, genius,” Ororo replied sarcastically. However, any fight she might have had in her all went away the next moment, as in trying to sit up; she found that not only was she in intense pain, her brain seemed to have a train bumbling through it or a whole colony of bees or maybe both.

“Hey, take it easy,” Logan’s voice instantly dropped a couple of notches on the gruffness meter. Reaching forward to her shoulder he tried to get her to sit straight, only to have his hand smacked away. “What the…?”
“Keep your hands to yourself,” Ororo grunted, trying to mask her pain, not knowing that it wouldn’t have worked with Logan anyway, not when he could catch its smell coming off her.
“I ain’t gonna hurt you,” Logan drew back, bringing both his hands to the steering wheel so that she could see them.
“Yeah, well, anyway, keep your paws to…..” Ororo drew further back, stopping mid-sentence, as something seemed to dawn on her. “You’re him, aren’t you?”
“Who the fuck, him?” It was Logan’s turn to put on the annoyed face. Not only had the she fried his ass twice, twice, he killed people for even trying, she also practically accused him of kidnapping and trying to rape her. ‘Yeah, like that’s gonna happen,’ the Wolverine inside him chuckled at the thought. Even if this female’s base scent was good, pleasing, the rest of the package wasn’t up to the mark. Hell, he had thought her to be in her mid-teens when he first got her and although with a proper meal, rest and set of clothes, she looked older, but still not old enough to meet either his standard minimum age limit. That meant she looked younger than the legal drinking age in Canada, which is nineteen years. There was no way in hell that he was going to touch a kid. Even if she was an adult, which she wasn’t in his ‘drinking age limit’ eyes, she still fell under the sick-pervert section.

---

“You are the guy in my dream?” Ororo blurted out, biting her tongue at the way it came out.
“I am the guy of your dreams?” Logan inquired with mocking amusement.
“Not OF jackass, in, INNNAH,” she deliberated on the last word to make it clearer.
“What’s with you huh?” Logan was really getting, no, he WAS pissed off now. This is what he had saved, a loose mouthed, nagging, useless lump of a woman. “I saved your ass lady. If it weren’t for me, you’d be with your friends back at the base, getting yer guinea-piggin’ of the day.”

At the mention of the base and the experiments, tortures conducted there, Ororo flinched visibly, the light in her eyes sudden blinking off.

“Look, I didn’t mean it like that,” Logan caught onto her hesitation. He did not mean to scare her. It was just that…..fuck. “No one is going to get you. You are safe.”
Ororo answered by nodding her head. What neither of them noticed was how the weather seemed to have changed once again. “Thank you.”
“What?” Logan nearly didn’t catch that.

“I said, thank you,” the second time she spoke louder. “I remember some of it. It is almost as if it is in a dream, a nightmare or something. I remember you too, a little. I remember you giving me food to eat. I remember being somewhere dark and just wanting to get away.”
“We were in a cave,” Logan supplied the filler. “I took you there for safety.” ‘Yeah, and got lit up for it,’ a sarcastic voice spoke up from within him. “But you kinda ran away. Zapped me too.”
“I don’t like closed spa….what do you mean zapped you?”

“You used yer power on me,” Logan clarified.
“My power?”
“Yeah, yer mutant power.”

The eyes scrunching and widening with confusion, Ororo looked at her hands and then at Logan.

“What’s a mutant?”

----

A little while, at the bar,

“The lady said to leave her alone.” The young, blonde haired man looked up to see who had spoken those words to him.

He was the same man that Ororo had been talking to and initially feeling like his bed-prayers for the night were answers, his arousal soon changed to anger when on his debonair offering not only did the black bitch refused him, her eyes also turned white, something that told him instantly what she was, a mutie freak.

“There ain’t no lady here man,” a second man, who had joined the first to take care of the mutie slurred, the stench of too much whisky clear on his breath. “Only this monster. This mutie.”
“She’s a mutie huh,” Logan cracked his knuckles, giving hope to the two men and their third companion that he would join them in teaching this bitch a lesson. “Well, guess what…”
“What?”
“She’s still a woman,” Logan grunted his answer, his eyes going several shading darker as his hand rose to the familiar attack position. “And something else…..”
“What?” Ororo knew what was coming next. She knew why Logan had lifted his hands. He was going to let those metal blades of his out. He was going to kill those men.
“No,” her soft whisper reached Logan’s and no one’s ears, and he seemed to ignore it.

-SNIKT-

“She ain’t the only one here” The claws of his right hand out, Logan grabbed and pulled the stupefied trucker, lifting him a feet in the air.

“Now, how would ya feel if I do to ya what ya were going to do to her?” The man near about wetted his pants at the threatening growl.

---

“How about ya let him go?” A voice sounded over his shoulder, as Logan’s ears caught the familiar click of a gun, a hunter’s rifle being cocked. “An’ I promise ya to put ya out of yer misery too.”

“Drop it, Elmer Fudd,” Ororo stepped into the fray, albeit from a safe distance. She just wanted to get away from here. That’s was the main reason why she approached that stupid trucker in the first place. She and Logan had an argument and in her anger she mouthed off that, he could go and fall from the tallest mountain for all she cared, while Logan blasted off that the sooner that he got rid of her, the better. “Bullets won’t kill him. They’ll only make him grumpy,” she repeated from what Logan had told her.

‘I heal from everything,’ he had said. ‘Fire, poison, acid, drugs, stabbing, bullets, explosives, all of it. It fucks like hell, but in the end, I do it.’
‘Don’t you feel pain?’ She inquired curiously.
‘Hell yeah, I get it,’ Logan spoke without taking his eyes from the road. ‘An’ the healin’, itches like a bitch. But ya get used to it.’

‘Oh,’ was her only reply. She knew about the two times she had shocked him, and still there he was, acting and looking like as if nothing had happened.

“Stay there mutie,” the man holding the gun whipped it at her. “We’ll get to ya soon enough.”
That particular move proved to be the undoing for the man and for all his ‘brave’ companions.

“’Ro,” Logan growled as he mentally checked out the order in which he was going to take out the fuckers. “Say put.”

-SNIKT-

AHN!

THUD

SHANK

Four sounds, one, Logan flinging blondie away, his second set of claws coming out, two, blondie crying in pure terror, three, him hitting the wall, cracking it and falling to the floor and four, Admantium claws whipping through air and slicing through the metal of the rifle as if through paper.

All that and then a fifth sound, as the afore mentioned hunter found himself holding up three fingers of his left hand, the thumb and index finger lying bloodied on the floor.

“AHHHHHH!!” His cry snapped the other ‘fighters’ into attack, each of them proceeding to get their asses handed to them.

----

“Behind you,” Ororo cried out, just in time for a wooden chair totting old timer bring down his weapon on the back and head of the clawed mutie. However, all his bravado vanished like draft beer at a college fraternity soiree when instead of falling to the ground as he was supposed and expected to, Logan just stood there, tilting his head to look at the dumbstruck man.

“That the best you big-game fairies got?” And the second round of drunkard ass-whopping began.

“Don’t kill them Logan!” Ororo spoke from the sidelines, now really fearing for the very lives of the same idiots that were ready to do her in minutes ago. Even in her amnesiac state, the thought of taking someone’s life seemed wrong to her.

‘Huh, what the…’ Logan scowled, thinking that she had once again lost her head. “Why, you got a funnier idea?”

“Well, I-I….” Ororo hesitated, trying to find a proper answer. “I could try zapping them.”

Even after gaining some of her memories back, neither she nor Logan could confirm what her true powers were. All they knew was what Logan had seen and experienced. One, she seemed to shoot or get electric discharges from out of thin air and two, the cold weather didn’t seem to affect her…much. The true extent of her powers was still unknown Ororo.

“Yeah, and that won’t kill ‘em, right?” Logan grunted as he hefted one of his many attackers and threw him against towards the front entrance, knocking the door and a part of the surrounding wood clean away.

“Come on,” grabbing Ororo by her hand, he practically yanked her away towards the gaping hole, and towards his truck.

----

“Don’t EVER do that again,” Ororo listened quietly as Logan bellowed at her. Driving continuously for the last seven hours, they had managed to put a lot of distance between them and the bar. “What were you thinkin’?”
“I was thinking to get a ride,” she grunted, her head hanging low at her chest.
“A ride?” His surprise clear on his face, Logan yelled again. “What the fuck is this? A freakin’ pony cart? What do you another one for?”
“Because of you,” Ororo yelled back, tears appearing in her eyes, tears of anger, shame and regret. At the same time, lightening and thunder sounded in the distance.

“Me?” Logan exclaimed in surprise, mentally cursing the weather. It was winter. It was supposed to snow, not freakin’ rain. “What did I do?”
“You were the one who told me that the sooner you got rid of me, the better.”
‘Fuck.’ “Yeah, but…listen…..that,” Logan grabbed for words to explain himself. One the sudden tropical rain shower outside and two the one inside, what was he supposed to do.

Pulling onto the side of the road, he turned to Ororo.

“Listen lady,” he barked, cursing himself at the way Ororo flinched away from him. “Listen, Ororo,” he softened his tone, well, soft for him. “I…..I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then how did you mean?” Ororo asked between sobs. Suddenly very tired, her feeling of despair only increased. Captured by people who treated her like an animal, most of her life forgotten to her, no possessions or IDs to know who she was, people ready to rape her or kill her for being different from them, lumped with a man who couldn’t wait to get rid of her, what else could go wrong to worsen this situation?

“I, uh, I mean,” Logan scratched the back of his neck trying to find the correct words to calm her. “I didn’t mean that you whore yerself out to….” ‘Wrong, wrong, wrong,’ he mentally slapped himself at Ororo’s worsening situation. “I didn’t mean you need to leave right now. It was that…I am…..I was…I was just angry ok,” he admitted finally. “I didn’t mean for you to actually leave.”
“No?” Ororo looked at him from the corner of her eyes, trying to gauge the truth behind his words.
“No,” Logan promptly shook his head in a no ma’am gesture. “You can….mmph.”

Anything that he might have wanted to say was lost as Ororo, showing an incredibly burst of energy and flexibility, literally climbed onto his and threw her arms around him to hug him tightly, her face nuzzled away in the crook of his neck.

“Thank you, thank you, oh, thank you….” She kept on repeating.

“Uh, its-its okay,” was all Logan could say, while his mind formed only one thought.

‘What have my gotten myself into?’

----

Elsewhere,

A solitary green and white clad figure sat atop a skyscraper, his silver colored hair blowing in the night wind, tears welling up in his eyes.

So alone, he felt so alone…..lonelier than he had ever been in the almost eighteen years of his existence. He hadn’t been this lonely when his father left for the first time, nor when his mother died all those years ago and neither when he was ostracized who he was….a mutant. Never.

Yet, here he was, cradling the only remainder of his father, a blue and red colored helmet and memories of the only other person who mattered in his life, his sister.

His name, Pietro Maximoff, also known as the mutant speedster, Quicksilver, son of Erik Lehnsherr, better known as Magneto, the Master of Magnetism and twin brother of Wanda Maximoff a.k.a. the Scarlet Witch.

--

About an hour ago,

“What if we’re wrong?” The flame haired Wanda stood near the roof’s edge, her arms crossed at her chest, both as a defensive posture and as poor attempt to guard from the chill in the air.

“We’re not,” her brother, Pietro answered with a mixture of anger and sorrow. Their had finally received confirmation of their father’s death while in trying to rescue him from the clutches of the government, all they got was his helmet, the only thing that could be salvaged from the rubble that had become his tomb. The sentinels, an experimental program of huge ‘mutant terrorist’ battling robots, had taken the ambushed and managed to down the might Magneto. Alone, they would not have stood a chance against him, given that by wielding his powers, he could just as easily reconfigure their circuitry and programming as he could lift a metal spoon. The unknown factor of the human special-op forces planted and exploded C4, plastic explosives to draw his attention, allowing the sentinels to make their move before Magneto brought down all of them.

“Humans don’t change,” continued Pietro. “They won’t change. You saw that.”
“Pietro…”

“We turned our backs on our father once and it killed him,” the silver haired teenager cursed himself. “We will never do it again.”
“But you hated him,” Wanda lifted an accusing finger at her brother. Truth was she wasn’t a big supporter of her father either. However, unlike Pietro whom Magneto tried like dirt most of the times, she got off easy.

“No. I love him,” in a flash Pietro had his sister’s hand in his. “And I….I love you.”

Time seemed to stand still as Wanda caught and absorbed the true meaning of what Pietro had just said to her.

“I…” she pulled her hand back, her bewildered mind not caring the way Pietro stumbled towards her. “I’m leaving.”

-----

“Wherever your path has taken you father….” Pietro spoke to himself, bringing his father’s helmet up to place on his head. “….I hope it is far from this land. And I pray you are in a better world.”

“A much better world.”

----

A few hours later,

“Is it done?” A deep male voice sounded from the window.
“Yes,” the female answered tightly, squelching down the pain and shame that filled her heart at what she had done.

“Good,” Erik Lehnsherr turned to face his daughter, his face expressionless as ever. To the government, his enemies, even to his own son, he was dead, killed in the sentinel attack on his last base. What none of them knew that the information about the location of that base was leaked by no other than by Magneto, himself. It was a tactical move to get a fresh start, one that would allow him to work under the radar, and away from the always spying ‘telepathic’ eyes of his old friend and now nemesis Charles Xavier himself.

“Fath…Magneto,” Wanda corrected herself. Although in private Magneto allowed her and only her to call him father, never her brother, this time she deliberately chose to use his formal name. “I have a question.”
“Why did I cut off Pietro?” Magneto supplied the question.

“Why did you abandon him?” Wanda corrected him, silently adding, and make me betray and abandon him too.

“For his own good,” Wanda’s eyebrows rose at her father’s revelation. “Pietro is too weak, too soft to be a good soldier and I don’t have any place for weaklings with me.”

‘You mean too caring towards you and me,’ Wanda wanted to correct him; instead she chose to remain silent. Her mind was still replaying the last few moments she had spent with her brother. He had looked so tired, so lost, so much in need of her, of her care, her support…..and what had she done? She left him alone. She betrayed him. She betrayed the only other man she trusted and cared for beside her father.

“If he is to work under me,” stressed Magneto, clearly avoiding saying besides or in my stead. “He will have to learn how to earn and command respect and not just demand it.”

“Magneto.”

----

The voice sounding over the intercom interrupted and effectively ended their talk.

“Yes Mystique,” Magneto responded back.
“The package is here and so is the courier.”
“Good,” Magneto’s lips curved in a humorless smile. “Bring them in.”

‘Who is it?’ Wanda thought, not voicing it to her father. She knew about a mutant named Forge that he was interested in, but Mystique hadn’t left to recruit him yet. So who was this new man.

The near silent whoosh of the door opening announced the entry of Mystique with a head to toe clad short statured man following her. In front of her, Mystique was pushing a heavy-duty trolley with a solid lump of metal lying on it.

“Welcome child,” Magneto walked towards the black clad teenager. “Are you ready?”

The response was just a simple nod of the head.

“Good,” Magneto lifted his hand and the aforementioned lump of metal rose in the air, its molecules seemingly breaking apart. “But first, why don’t we introduce ourselves. You already met Mystique,” another nod from the stranger. “And this,” Magneto gestured with his free hand towards Wanda. “This is the Scarlet Witch.” He did not mention the father-daughter relation that the two of them shared.

“And you are?” Wanda asked as she got a confirmatory nod herself. In response, the stranger pulled of his mask to reveal a female face.

“My name is none of your concern,” she spoke evenly. “Just what I am to do for you and what you are going to do for me.”
“And what is that?” Wanda questioned suspicion.

“I am going to find and kill Charles Xavier for you,” the girl answered coolly. “And you….”

-SHUCKK-

“Are going to help me kill the Wolverine.”

---

Note: This chapter borrows heavily from the Ultimate X-Men series.

Spoilers: Ultimate X-Men – issue #59 and Ultimate X-Men – Wizard ½.

Hope you liked it and submit your reviews!!

“AAAHHHH!”

“Fuck,” Logan cursed as he nearly fell over himself, his sleep addled mind unable to manage his muscled frame. “Watch it will ya.” He cursed loudly, a slew of curses following those words, both towards the witch that had woken him up and towards himself for being such a klutz.
“Watch it? Watch it? You watch it.” Ororo cursed from behind the shower curtain, her soapsuds covered face sticking out from just above the edge of the tub. The fact that Logan was practically naked, and taking a whiz not three feet from her made her go all shades of red. “Get out,” she demanded.
“Hahn,” Logan flipped one hand, his action causing Ororo to blush even harder as his aim once again wavered from its intended target.

“GET OUT,” she cried out again, louder, not that it would have any affect on anyone staying in the next room. The motel they had taken up residence in, although better than sleeping in the truck, wasn’t all that safe or respectable either. That much had been cleared the second the front clerk asked Logan how many hours he wanted the room for.

“Shaddup,” Logan's alcohol (according to Ororo) and sleep husked voice disregarded her. As far as he was concerned, it was he who was paying for the room and that gave him the right to do whatever, whenever and wherever he wanted.

His morning watering the garden done, he ran the flush, flopped down the cover and settled down on top of the toilet seat as if it was the most normal thing to do.

Ororo couldn’t believe what was happening. One second she is enjoying the first proper bath and the second a ‘reluctantly’ boxer clad Logan is strolling in through the bathroom door as if it were the goddamn Central Park. Now, this was the limit. He was just sitting there, one hand scratch the back of his head and hair, while the other clenched and unclenched at his knee, almost as if he was getting those claws of his going. “What are you doing?”
“Thinkin’.” Ororo couldn’t believe her ears, she’d stopped believing her eyes, at what she was hearing. She’d heard about men thinking while sitting on the crapper, it seemed to get their brains going, but this, this put a whole new twist to it.
“Yeah, well, go think some where else,” she lifted soapy hand from the water, pointing to the door, her other one trying to get as much of the fluffy stuff to her ‘right’ places as possible. “Or come back later and….”

“I said shut up,” Logan cut her with a snarl. “What the fuck are you doing up at this time?” It was middle of the night for crying out aloud. Time to sleep and have wet dreams about some boy-band pimply or some pansy assed actor, or whatever women did at night. Not that he cared or knew about such things. He wasn’t concerned. All he needed was a good night’s lay and that was it. Fuck the feeling talking shit.

“Why? Its nearly seven. Morning time, time to get up,” her seemingly mocking and equal amounts condescending answer caused Logan to literally slap himself in his face.
“I liked her better when she couldn’t talk,” Logan grumbled under this breath. Ever since she got her speech and her memories back, Ms. Nutbuster had been nothing but trouble. First, she fried his ass while getting those memories of her. Shit, was that painful. He just hoped that the next time such thing happened to her, he wasn’t even remotely near her or she near him and his truck. His metal covered skeleton provided an ideal conductor for whatever electricity shit she drew out. Drew out, because whatever it was didn’t seem to come from her, or did it? Hell, he was too busy getting his insides pickled to pay any attention to such minor details such as whether the thing came out of the air, her hands or her ass.

Then, there was the slut-o act at the bar. She was lucky she got away from that hand…..lucky that he was there.

Last but not the least was what had happened three days ago.

---

//Flashback//

“Uh, thank you,” Ororo muttered meekly at the man standing next to her, both of their, well her face and in Logan’s case his ears showing their barely suppressed embarrassment as the counter lady processed the package before her.

For his answer, Logan dumbly nodded, wanting to be anywhere else but here. “This okay?”
“Umm-hmmm,” Ororo answered without looking up to make eye contact with him. She wasn’t embarrassed by what she was buying, it was a perfectly normal requirement. The problem was whom she was buying it with and how she had to ask him to get it for her.

Logan gritted his teeth as the freakin’ counter hag sounded out their purchase. ‘She couldn’t just let it go, could she?’

“One jumbo sized package of Stayfree long lasting super absorbent pads, with wings.”

//End Flashback//

-----

“Uh, hello,” the smooth, but currently irritated voice, drew his attention to the present. “Having a bath here.”
“So?”
“So? What do you mean, so?” Liquid blue eyes flashed with indignation. “So, that means I don’t have clothes on. So, that means pick your hairy man-butt up and let your hairy legs carry you out of here.”
“Man….butt?” Logan repeated slowly, shaking his head at the mouth on this woman. Woman. That was what he thought of her now. Young woman, but woman nevertheless. Having eaten properly food, (Read, non-veg. three times a day) had put some meat on her bones. What neither of them realized was that this personality of Ororo’s was not so much as her own as it was a subconscious reflection what she saw and absorbed from Logan. Her own, her real personality was still nowhere in sight….except for certain bits and pieces, the chief among them being her thieving skills and her waking up early.
“Yeah, man-butt.” Ororo stressed on both words. “Now get out.”

“Yeah, yeah. Stop yer yappin’,” Logan snapped at her as he stood up and walked to the door. “I’m gonna get some sleep, so keep yer trap shut. Don’t wake me up. I’ll get up when its time.”
“What do you mean, when its time?” Ororo demanded of him. “Its morning already. Its time.”
“Fer freaks like you maybe,” Logan’s response was just as prompt. “Not for normal people.” He really needed to do something about her. Ever since she had started moving on her own, she’d starting waking at the crack of dawn. Hell knows what she did at that time. It wasn’t as if either of them had a fuck-to-five job or something.
“Normal people like you, you mean,” Ororo really wanted to stand up, place her hands on her hips and full on confront him, but given her current condition, dared not do. “Which one was it last night? The red head bimbo or the dyed blonde hag?” She demanded about the two waitresses who had been horning over Logan and he was letting them….and right in front of her. What was she? Chopped liver or something?
“Both of them,” Logan grinned over his shoulder, giving a perfect viewing of the aforementioned hairy man-butt of his. In truth, it had been neither. Dropping her off at the motel, Logan had driven the two-hour route to this contact’s meeting place. There was some information about the girl he was looking for. Not wanting to involve Ororo and still not completely trusting her, he made the round journey alone, only returning around four in the morning to their shared two-bed motel room.
“Ughn,” Ororo turned her face away from him, oddly feeling slightly hurt by his put-off of her. Not that she liked the guy or anything, but this was the limit. Screwing some two-bit sluts and then coming to sleep with….uh, coming to sleep IN the same room as her.

“By the way,” Logan’s voice sounded from the other side of the door now. “I’ve seen ya. Yer legs are going the same way as mine….and so is yer hairy woman-butt.” He made that last comment only to rankle Ororo and it worked.

“Yeah, I was in club-mutant-spa, right? Had a ton of time for waxing and shaving.”

The ensuing laughter only served to enrage her more, causing her to yell out at the top of her lungs.

“JACKASS.”

----

Present time,

“Aw, come on,” Alison huffed as she leaned against the side of the warehouse cum studio for the young man she was currently in conversation with. “How about you and me go and make some art of our own.”
“No, thank you,” the at least a foot taller artist answered as he gathered his paint and brushes. His concentration and mood wasn’t for painting…not anymore.

“Why?” The spiky haired rocker demanded, mostly in surprise over being refused, and that too by such a hunk of met….muscle.
“I-I am busy.”
“Busy doing what?” She gestured towards the canvas. “Drawing stupid landscapes. Why don’t you and me go inside and you can paint me, my portrait. I’ll even do it naked for ya.”
“I am sure you will.”

Although spoken evenly and no hint of sarcasm, the answer pissed off Alison. Here she was, giving the guy, a normal guy a chance of a lifetime and he was just chucking it away.

‘He’s not normal, is he?’ A softer, gentler inner voice called out from within her. A voice she seldom paid attention to. ‘There is something about him that is pulling you to him. Why can’t you try and do normal for once?’ Her brow twisting in a frown, she told that voice to shove it and turned again to the man in question.

“Hey, I am not a slut or anything?” She yelled to the grey-overall clad painter. She’d met him a couple of times since she and Lila came to this place in the middle of nowhere. The driver that brought them, that dickhole Logan, made them wear blindfolds for over an hour. If the ride and company hadn’t been so shitty, she might’ve even enjoyed the kinkiness of it.
“I did not say you were,” the heavily accented voice answer.

“What’s with you?” Alison walked right up to the young man and poked him in the chest, which for her was right at her eyelevel. “I’m smoking hot, and I’ve got a thing for stupid accents. Why won’t you get with me?”
“For one thing,” deep blue eyes regarded her. “You are not who you say you are.”
“What do you mean?” Alison barely covered her surprise.
“You are hiding something,” the eyes were boring into her now. “You seem to have a mask on,” he gestured to her whole punk look including her numerous tattoos and piercings. “A mask you use to hide the real you.”

“Ooo, good one Yakov,” Alison cursed herself for the shake in her voice. ‘How does he know?’ “What’s the other thing?” The bitch front came on. “I’m too skinny for your tastes?”
“No,” the barest of smiles passed over his smooth chiseled face. “You have more metal in your skin than I do. We would scrape.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” A full body scan revealed no piercings on ‘Yakov’. In fact except for his boots, there wasn’t a single piece of metal on the man’s body. “You don’t have any metal. What, you got ding-a-ling pierced or something?”

CLANGKK!!

“Holy shit,” Alison stumbled back, nearly falling over as a metallic hand reached forward and grabbed her. “What the….what are you?” She looked up at the metal giant who in the blink of an eye had just grown a foot taller.

“I am ….or something.”

----

Back in the mansion,

“I went to Japan?” Asked Ororo, her eyes wide in surprise.
“Yeah,” Logan nodded, his own hazels ones never leaving the beautiful visage of his wife, his Ms. Nutbuster….well, Mrs. Nutbuster now. “An’ Thailand, India, Afghanistan,” he started counting from the east. “Also, went to Morocco a coupla times. Once after Kendall came.”
“Why Morocco?” She asked in confusion. Having no memories of any of this, she was surprised as to why she would go to a country completely unknown to her…..and why not to her homeland.
“Yer from there,” it was Logan’s turn to be confused now. “At least that’s what ya remembered then.”
“I am not from Morocco,” Ororo shook her head.

This was hers and Logan’s second session of the day. The previous one had been cut short when Logan revealed the truth about her to their daughter. The reaction wasn’t anything like Ororo expected….or maybe it was. Instead of jumping onto or away from her, the young girl slowly reached forward as if seeing and touching her mother for the first time, her hazel eyes repeatedly turning to her father for confirmation.

“Mama,” Ororo broke down sobbing at the single simple word that made her maternal status whole, complete….made her ‘a mother’.

Logan sat by silently, his own eyes threatening to moisten up as yet another part of his broken heart and broken family seemed to fall into place and mend itself. If Ororo could accept and love Kendall and Laura, maybe there was hope for him too,

“Then where are ya from?” He asked in confusion.
“Why do you say I am from Morocco?” Ororo put up her own question.
“Well, ‘cause that’s what ya remembered an’ told me.”

With that, he began telling her about the history that she had no memory of….one that was false to her.

“Ya were born in Morocco and yet parents died when ya were six years old. After that, ya begged to eat and finally got into stealin’ to survive. When ya were ten ya met an old coot that started training ya, and by the time ya turned eleven ya got into boosting cars. That went on for about five years until the old man bought the ticket to the big-boost in the sky. After that, things didn’t seem to work for you…..a year later ya smuggled into America. It was there where the Weapon X assholes found ya.”

By the time he finished recounting her tale, Ororo had gone even more silent at the close similarities and yet glaring differences in the true life story and the one that Logan had told her.

“Its not like that,” she shook her head and started on what she knew as the truth. “Meeting the old man and learning from him, that much is the same, but the rest is different.”
“What do you mean?”

“I was born in America,” she began, telling him about her parents, her birth in Harlem, their subsequent death in Egypt, her turning to begging and eventually stealing, finding her teacher, learning from him and developing her skills. Then she went on to tell him the really eye-popping details of how she traversed nearly half of Africa, to find the tribe she called as her own and where she was regarded and treated as a Goddess. “It was there that Charles approached me to join the X-Men, when I was around seventeen,” she continued. “He brought me back to the US and resumed with my training and education. Except for the two years….” She hesitated at saying, with you. “Except the two and half years away, there is where I have been ever since.”

‘And now?’ The question was on Logan’s lips, but did not come out. ‘Not yet. It’s too soon.’

----

Back in the past,

“Fuck,” Logan cursed, a louder than usual, both for the worsening weather and to draw the attention of the eerily silent Ororo sitting next to him.

They had been on the road for about an hour now, and the rate at which the weather conditions were going, he would have to pull over soon. ‘Shouldn’ta left the motel,’ he frowned at himself. The weather forecast had said about a mere smattering of snow, not a full-scale storm. ‘Assholes. Don’t know shit.’

What neither he nor his passenger noticed was that the weather was having an affect on Ororo, causing her emotional state, which, given her current state of mind were going haywire, to worsen even further. That in turn was having an affect on the weather, forming a vicious circle.

“I can’t remember my family, my parents,” she had said to him, speaking in a near whisper as if only to herself and not to anyone else. Her memories still hadn’t come back completely, with huge blank patches over the years of her life.

Not knowing how to respond or even comfort her, Logan had grunted a pathetic, “It’ll come back,” knowing from experience that it might not, and even if it did it might be years, even decades before it did.

All her usual sprite and sassiness was missing as they bundled into the truck, Logan carrying his bag, while Ororo hefting the one that he had bought her, along with the clothes, soap, shampoo and other women things that she’d asked for or those he thought she might need. They were on their way to Toronto and then to Niagara. In Toronto, he had a couple of contacts who might be able to get her across the border legally or illegally, depending on the money you send their way. He was in a hurry to get there and then back on the trail of he illusive girl he had been following for so long now. However, at the same time he found himself thinking about how he’d the miss the firecracker next to him. Only if she’d stay here in Canada, better in Alberta. She wasn’t like the usual women he came across, the wham-bam kick off the stand kind woman. Even with her crude and sometimes rude behavior, he could sense calmness just below the surface. Almost as if her exterior persona was a mask to hide the true her….a her, he felt himself wanting to know.

---

“Ororo,” he called out softly, his foot automatically stomping on the brake at her answer and the state she was in.

“Y-y-y-esss,” Ororo stuttered, her lips blue with a cold that wasn’t present anywhere inside the truck.
“What the…?” His eyes the size of saucers, Logan stared at the visible vapor coming out of Ororo’s mouth. Not only was she cold, she was freezing. In a twenty-two degree Celsius, truck interior.
“W-what?” Thrown against her seatbelt, Ororo tried to manage a scowl as she looked at Logan staring at her. Her usually lively, melodious voice, weak and hoarse with cold, she whispered, trying to put all her energy there.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Logan lifted a finge at her. “Yer fuckin’ freezin’.”
“Its cold,” a shaky hand lifted towards the window.
Logan growled at her obvious and useless answer. “Yeah, outside. Not in here. An’ you don’t feel cold.”
“I-I don’t?” Ororo asked as if it was news to her. Why else was she wearing those warm clothes Logan bought her.

‘Wait a second,’ Logan’s subconscious piped. ‘Wait one goddamn freakin’ second. Storm,” he recalled the name on the dog tags. The same dog tags that had the name Ororo stamped. The ones that had been in her neck and were lying somewhere in the snow or trees or wherever they landed when he chucked them. Electricity. Lightening-strike. Air and weather. Not feel cold. ‘What the fuck?’ A sort of realization dawned on him. She wasn’t named Storm ‘cause it was just a stylish name, it might have actually something to do with her mutation.

“Logan,” Ororo’s barely audible whisper shook him out of his ‘the thinker’ mode.

“I’m cold.”

----

“How are ya feelin’ now?” Logan’s concern was clear in his eyes even if his voice as gruff as ever. ‘Just don’t die, okay,’ was his silent wish. He still couldn’t understand what had gone wrong with Ororo. Just this morning she had been ready to ‘shock’ me a new one over walking in on her in the bathroom….and now, now she was stone cold and growing colder by the second.

The fact that there wasn’t even a moan of an answer from the near unconscious Ororo was signal enough for him.

He had already loaded her with all the warm clothing he had with him, including both his sleeping bags, including the newer one, which he had been using himself while Ororo had the older one. Cranking up the heater to maximum had worked a little, but something told Logan that it wouldn’t hold for long…..not if the weather outside stayed the same, which another nagging suspicion told him was linked to Ororo’s emotional and physical condition.

“Fuck,” he cursed, running a frustrated hand through his hair repeatedly. What was he supposed to do when the cause and effect were so strongly linked that they were driving each other. On top of that was the ever present possibility that there might be another lash-out and he would be caught in the bulls-eye, this time within his truck.

Letting out a sigh of, here goes nothing, he took his jacket off before reaching down to unbuckle his belt.

“Just don’t fry me, okay.”

-----

What neither Logan nor the near unconscious amnesiac Ororo knew then, was, even as they were enroute to their destination, they were being tracked…not by one but three hunters.

One of whom was on their trail….even today, in the present.

----

A couple of days ago, back in the ‘deceased’ Magneto’s base,

“They are here Magneto,” Mystique intimated her boss. With his recent death, Magneto had availed himself with a fresh start, dumping all his past plans, well, except for the mutant domination one. In the process, he also let go of a few of his followers, including his son Pietro. This necessitated his to draw (mainly through Mystique) to draw in new blood. Currently his supporters, his team consisted of only five members including him. That was about to change in the next few minutes.

“Bring them in Mystique,” Magneto spoke into the communicator, not paying any attention to the sullen look on his own daughter’s face. He knew that she was still moping over his cutting of Pietro, but didn’t think too much into it. She’d get over it, and even if she didn’t, it didn’t concern him as long as she did what he ordered her to do.

---

The door slid and the blue skinned shape-shifter sashayed through it, with four very different looking men, two of whom seemed to have their eyes stuck permanently at her shapely behind.

“Forge, Toad,” Magneto’s baritone boomed in the room, instantly snapping both drooling testosterone-factories into attention.
“Uh, sorry boss,” Toad dipped his head in apology. ‘Seems like the old man wants some of blue-lovin’ for himself.’

Sending a cursory glance around the room, Magneto raised a hand to the first person in line, gesturing him to introduce himself.

“Toad.” A long prehensile tongue shot of the mutant’s mouth, grabbing onto the rafter overhead to lift him up. For his second show, he shot out what seemed like a goop like substance onto a ‘testing’ control panel, instantly covering and shorting out it. The others may nor may not have been impressed by it, but what he did next nearly made them all retch. Just like his namesake, his tongue zoned in, shot out and captured a fly buzzing near the window. “I can do a lot of things with it,” he suggestively wiggled his eyebrows and tongue at both Mystique and Wanda.

“Forge,” the second man introduced himself. He did not reveal anything about his past with Xavier and his X-Men, because Magneto had forbidden him to. Amongst the group, he was the only one who knew and had worked before with the Master of Magnetism. “I make things,” he said simply. “Made this,” he gestured around the room they were standing in. It was true, as it was during the secret construction of this new base that Mystique, on behalf of Magneto, approached and recruited the inventor.

Next was a huge blob of the man, with the same name. “Blob,” he grunted between chews and a handful of potato chips. “I am the immovable one,” he boasted, scraps of chips sticking to the front of his teeth.

The last and most definitely the tallest of the group was a young man who looked as if he would be anywhere but here. “I am called Colossus,” was the only introduction he gave, not going any further to show or even explain his powers. The only reason he was here was because the blue and red clad man before him had something over him that was very near to him, a thing for which he would do anything, even kill.

“Colossus, Blob, Forge and Toad,” Magneto repeated them down the line. “Welcome to the future.”

“Welcome to the *Brotherhood of Mutants*.”

---

Note: Character description. (Sorry Rhapsody, I was going to bring this one in earlier)

Piotr Rasputin (Colossus): Was initially going to place him with the X-Men, but seeing his interaction with Wolverine (both in 616 and Ultimate universe), flipped sides. Takes a lot from the Ultimate X-Men as the age and background of the character is similar to them

“Logan.”

Getting no answer to her first hail, the Ororo called again, her breathing a little labored from the strain of having to keep up with Wolverine. “Logan.”

“WHAT!” The man of the moment, the uber-sulking form of Logan, the Wolverine growled without even turning around.
“You okay?” Ororo pushed the frown bubbling up to her face, keeping her voice as calm as possible. She knew he was angry. Hell, she was angry.
“Hn,” was all the answer she got, bringing up the frown all over again. At least the idiot could say yes or something, or just nod his head. Instead, he just grunted like a bull in heat.

“Look, I am sorry for what happened to your truck,” Ororo expressed sincerely. Truth was she was happy, not because the truck and everything inside it was gone, but because both of them had managed to get out alive and unscathed. Well, except for the few nicks here and there, she was okay. Not like Logan. He had born the brunt and was still digging out shrapnel from chest and sides, something that made Ororo want to throw up.
“Hn.”
“Hey, stop this grunting and give me a proper answer,” she lost it , jumping back in surprise when his middle claw of his right hand out, Logan whirled around and snapped at her.

“What do you want me to say woman. That I am happy that we’re still livin’ and that those fuckers didn’t riddle our asses, no, riddle yer sorry ass with bullets. Do you want me to say that or should I say I almost wish that they’d taken you away, so I’d be free of yer naggin’ an’ complain’. Do ya want me to say that?” By the time he ended, he was practically yelling.

“Aw fuck.” Logan cursed at the tears welling up in the tired Ororo’s eyes. He knew it hadn’t been a fault of her, just like it hadn’t been his fault. It was just the luck of the draw for them that the Weapon X fuckers came after her and in turn ran into him. “Uh, sorry okay,” he tried to salvage the situation. “I didn’t mean….”
“Fuck YOU,” it was Ororo’s turn to cry out now, as she wiped away the sudden flow of tears along her cheeks. “That’s what you want. Don’t you. You just want me to leave. Just want to get rid of me. Even if its to those….those monsters.” Her voice cracked towards the end.

“Ororo,” Logan reached up a hand towards her, only to be whacked away by the angry Storm. “Listen kid….”

“Kid? KID? I am a kid now?” That was the wrong thing to say too. It hadn’t been a conscious effort on Logan’s part. Just that, seeing her like this, tears staining her smooth cheeks, her manner defiant, Logan was reminded of a small innocent child. Well, not small, but a fully-grown and fuckin’ bend-her-over-an’-put-it-in worthy woman…but an innocent one nonetheless.

“Look ‘Ro, it ain’t…I didn’t mean….”

“I am a child now? A kid?”

“No, that’s not what I….”

“An hour ago, you were…”

“Listen ‘Ro’…”

“….humping me….”

“No, I wasn’t….”

“…with your….”

“Oro….”

“…Wee-Wee up my ass.”

“..ro….I…huh. WEE-WEE?”

------

//Flashback//

“Hmmm,” Ororo smiled in her sleep at the feeling of warmth and safety surrounding her. Her eyes still closed, she moved her hand, pulling the blanket, quilt, or whatever she had on, to her chest. Imagine her surprise when, along with the said covering something else rode up her body, right up to below the swell of her breasts.

CLANG!! CLANG!! CLANG!!

Her internal alarms went off.

‘Oh Goddess…..Oh Goddess…..Oh Goddess…..’ she mumbled silently as she tentatively lowered her hand to find and trace her fingers along the heated limb, following it up until she hit a patch of soft hair. Masculine. A man. A man in bed with her. A man in bed with her naked. A naked man with a naked her in a naked…. ‘Huh,’ she stopped at that thought. That was one naked too many.

The thought about the identity of the man was just rising up in her mind when the proffered hand left the comparatively safe location, for her, of her midsection and moved up to slam-bang on top of her hoo-haas, fingers curling around to mold themselves along the generous swells. The movement of the rough palm and its related fiddling resulted in waking to attention a certain ‘extensible’ part of the concerned hoo-haa.

“Hmm-Uhmm-Hmmm,” the man behind moaned as he leaned in further towards her, spooning her from behind, causing, his, hmm, thingamajig to move and fit right in between her ass-checks. His action caused Ororo to let out a barely suppressed whimper.

Goddess, what had she done? And with whom?

---

Looking around, Ororo realized that she in a by now familiar place, Logan’s truck. That would mean the man behind her was the owner of the truck. Logan.

Had she and Logan…? Had they…? How…? Why didn’t she remember anything about…about…..about whatever had happened to maker her be in a state with a naked Logan fitted against her naked side, his hand on her, uh, and his ‘thingy’ up and ready to go where she wasn’t ready to take it. Hell, she hadn’t been ready to take him in the other place either, but apparently had.

“Lo…..eep,” she squeaked as possibly dreaming a happy dream, Logan jerked against her, his hand tightening on her breast to pull her even closer, until they were flush against one and another.

“Hmm, smell nice,” Logan growled against her hair, nuzzling in deeper to take in the freshly washed fruity-flowery smell of her inch long hair. “Nice like Oro….”

The sudden silence and tensing up, complete tensing up, told Ororo, he was awake.

----

THUMP!!

Logan’s body hit the side of the truck as he literally flew away from Ororo, his action pushing off the Nubian beauty to the other side, where she lay, her widened eyes staring directly at his equally, if not more wide ones.

“I….we...you were cold,” Logan fumbled for words, blurting out whatever came to his mind first. Shit. One second he was dreaming of fresh rain and oooh, and aah, and the next…fuck.

Ororo was still giving him the deer in the headlights look, prompting him to think that she had gone back to her three word vocabulary days.

“Hey, I am Logan,” he lifted his hands, showing the open sides of his palms to her in a show of peace. “Can you understand? Talk?” He asked hopefully.

All the response he got was a head nod and a quivering of the lower lip that told him, things were about to get real weepy.

“You were cold and I….” he stopped mid-sentence as his ears and nose sensed something odd, something very very very odd. “Fuck,’ he cursed under his breath. “Get your clothes on.”

“Wha- (cough, sputter) -What?”

“Get your fuckin’ clothes on. NOW.” Logan snapped at her, pulling on his own jean and reaching for his shoes in a hurry to get ready before all hell broke loose.

“What did you do to me?” Ororo asked, her brow furrowing in confusion and rising anger. That was it. The guy just did her and now…...

“Get your clothes on woman,” whatever thoughts might been in Ororo’s mind, fled at Logan’s next words.

“We got company.”

//End Flashback//

----

Ororo was barely able to get her jean and top on when a hard blow to the neck knocked her off. Logan, remembering her fear of closed spaces, thought it better to it day way, especially for what he was going to do next.

Lifting her up, he flipped open the industrial size freezer installed in the makeshift kitchen of his truck and threw her into it, along with a whole lot of clothes to provide her protection. Given that the freezer wasn’t working at that moment, there was no need for insulation for fear that she would freeze in there. Moreover, in case something happened to him or to the truck, the freezer and packing her set around her would save her. For the same reason he didn’t lock it either. Wouldn’t want her dying in there.

That done, he got out just in time to escape the truck’s engine being blown to high heaven. Having had a few run ins with these assholes himself, he knew they were nothing more than gun-toting morons and were firm believers of the shoot first, salvage later policy. Luckily, after the last such thing happened to him, he had a special feature put in the truck. That was the ability to jettison the fuel tank, which he had already done minutes earlier. It was not so much as to save himself, than to spare himself the unnecessary task of digging out shrapnel and other debris from his body.

‘Just stay alive, okay,’ he sent on last glance towards the truck and Ororo inside it. He knew he might just have signed her death warrant, but anything would be better than falling in the hands of Weapon X again.

He had barely got out when fifty or so soldiers converged onto him thinking that he was just another normal human. It was Ororo they were looking for. Just their day that they found the Wolverine, the original Weapon X….the creature of myth and legend…..and nightmares.

In the course of about ten minutes, every single one of those poor bastards was dead and or mutilated beyond repair. Things would have been great, if just one of them wouldn’t have been able to get a .45 caliber shot to the truck’s engine, setting off whatever fuel was there in the fuel line and blowing near about the whole front half of the truck away.

Explaining their current predicament.

----

“What the fuck’s a wee-wee?” Logan demanded again, his face red with a mixture of anger and maybe even embarrassment.

“Your…you know…that thing,” it was Ororo’s turn to have a full body flush, tingling at the memory of him and his whatchamacallit nestled against her. “Your…p….” she stopped herself from saying pee-pee, commonsense telling her that it would not be the best thing to do.

“Hah,” Logan flipped his hand, turned around and stomped away from her. Arguing with her about the correct terminology to use while addressing his dick was the last thing he needed to do. He was cold, he was hungry, his clothes were torn, he needed to get some sleep to get his healing back up to power after the recent work it had had. He sure as hell did not need giving a full-grown woman a lecture on the male anatomy and the importance that it held to their egos that you not make even a wee-wee bit of fun of it. It was just not done. That, and the fact that talking about it with her was bringing back the memory of good her body felt against his and she just molded with him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

‘Fuck. Too late. Gone hard again.’

----

Somewhere else,

“Magneto.”

“Yes Mystique,” the Master of Magnetism looked up at his second in command, a sheet of paper grasped in his hand.
“I have a question for you?” The blue shape-shifter inquired in her naturally husky voice, her appreciative curves catching and reflecting the light from the single tabletop lamp just right.
“Yes.”
“Why did you let the girl go after Wolverine first? Wouldn’t it have made better for us for her to find and take care of Xavier first?”
“It would have…” Magneto acceded that much. “If I knew that the girl wouldn’t be able to get Xavier, let alone this Wolverine.”
“Oh.”

Magneto’s knowledge of the illusive Wolverine came from whatever little Mystique had told him. Her past life was something she held very close to her heart. The only reason she told Magneto the basics of the Wolverine and his powers impressed him enough to think about recruiting him for his newly formed, Brotherhood of Mutants. However, according to Mystique that idea wouldn’t work as Wolverine, she kept his real name a secret, wasn’t concerned with anyone or anything except himself. For all he cared, either side, humans or mutants could do anything they wanted, as long as they left him alone.

“You see my dear,” Magneto explained his real plan for taking out Xavier. “The girl is merely bait, a ruse to get Wolverine into the picture. That’s why I have not only let her go after him, I have also given her full independence to do as she likes.”

“But what about Colossus and…” Mystique inquired about the two people following the girl.
“Those two,” Magneto grinned sardonically. “They will be the ones to tell Wolverine who to look for.”
“They will tell that they work for Xavier,” was the correct summation.
“Yes,” the silver haired man nodded. “That’s why I have sent who I did. Either those three can take care of themselves or they are entirely expendable.”

“It would seem everyone is expendable for you,” Mystique alluded to what had been done to Pietro….and what might happen someday with her.
“Times of war require sacrifices my dear,” was the hard and cold reply. “We each do what we can.”

Having nothing else to say, Mystique nodded and started to walk away.

“Mystique.” Magneto called to her back, causing her to still and turn around to face him.

“Not everything….everyone is expendable. Not so easily,” he spoke in a voice that she had never heard before. An almost soft voice.

“Some things are precious Raven.”

----

“So, when do you want to bop him? Take him down.”

“What?” Logan stared at Ororo as if she had grown a second head.
“Aren’t you going to…” she lifted a finger towards the front of the truck that they had hitched a lift in. The grandfather type trucker hearing their sob story, well, the one Logan told him, had allowed them to rest in the rear of the cabin until they reached the next town where Logan and Ororo would be getting off.

“Why are ya doing this?” Ororo’s eyes snapped up at Logan’s comment. What did he mean? “Act like somethin’ yer not.”
“I-I am not acting.” ‘Smooth ‘Ro,’ she cursed herself. Even she didn’t believe herself.
“Wanna try again?”
“I-I….” Ororo hesitated. “I just want to fit in. Stay under the radar. So that they don’t….”
“Fit in? Darlin’ yer a….” he left out the word mutant for the benefit of the driver. “On top o’ that, the way ya look. Yer never gonna ‘fit’ in.”
“Is that a racial thing?” Ororo scowled at him.
“No, it’s a using yer head thing,” Logan snapped back. “Those fuckers don’t come after ya ‘cuz yer good lookin’ or got a nice ass or something. They want what’s inside o’ your body, not yer mind.”
Stunned by his ‘good looking’ comment, Ororo flushed as the tingle came back, sending a shiver down her body.
“Jackass,” she whispered softly, this time with none of the anger or force of the earlier times.

“Hn,” Logan grunted as she lay down on the three by six feet bed, leaving Ororo staring at him.
“Hey. What about me?” She hissed.
“What about you?”
“Where am I supposed to lie down?”

Sighing in resigned frustration, Logan turned sideways to make space for her. Lying that way, he vacated enough space for Ororo to lie down sideways.

“Oh, no, no,” a black tuuk clad head shook in denial. “Not that again. I am not going to have your…no.”
“Suit yerself,” Logan replied dryly, looking not even the least bit concerned as he scratched his mutton chopped whiskers. ‘Need ta shave.’

Sensing the hesitation rolling off Ororo and also the tiredness in her, Logan sighed and turned around so that he was facing away from her. “This better?”

Again, there was silence, as the wary yet about to fall off Ororo weighed the pros and cons of the situation. With their current position, she would be the one on the outside and that would preclude the pokey-monster from, well, from poking into her. However, it would also mean she would have to put her arms around him, lest she fall off from what was essentially a raised platform with a scraggy old mattress on it.

“No funny stuff, okay,” she spoke aloud, both for Logan’s and for the driver’s benefit.

Lying down beside him, she snaked her arm through Logan’s, her fingers curled around at the buttons of his shirt. Within seconds she dozed off, one last thought on her mind.

‘Hmm, nice chest.’

-----

Back in Westchester,

“Anything Professor?” Scott Summers stepped up to his mentor as he rolled out of the door, on the other side of which lay the gigantic hollow sphere housing the telepathic power enhancing machine, Cerebro.

“No Scott, nothing.” Xavier shook his head. It had been almost four months since his student and Scott, Jean and Warren’s teammate, Ororo had vanished, most probably captured, by whom, they did not know. Since then, Xavier had been trying his level best, getting all his contacts up and running to get even a single clue as to her location or about the people who took her.

Keeping track of any freak weather occurrences, the X-Men seemed to have struck gold the previous night as a sudden and intense snowstorm descended on a particular area of Alberta, Canada. What got their attention was that this storm seemingly came out of nowhere and at a speed that was eerily unnatural.

Since then, Xavier had been continuously monitoring the area in an effort to check out for Ororo’s psychic signature. However, even after almost ten hours of monitoring he had nothing in his hand or mind for that matter, except a killer headache and an intense fatigue that came from using the Cerebro continuously for such a long period of time.

“But what about the snowstorm Professor?” Warren asked as he tried to rub the fatigue off his own face.

“That may just have been just another freak weather occurrence,” Jean offered her thoughts. “Its known to happen.”

“But Jean, more than two feet of snow in one night?” Scott exclaimed. “I am from Alaska, and even we don’t have that.”

“I agree with Scott, but I have found nothing to suggest that it was a mutant who did that, let alone Ororo.” Xavier sighed, looking much older. He had failed in his promise to Ororo. He had promised the young teenager that he would take care of her and the others. He was the one supposed to protect them for them to protect the innocents.

“We’ll find her Professor,” Jean offered her support. “We will.”

What neither Jean nor Xavier knew was how close they had been to finding their lost teammate and that it would be almost two years before they finally found her…..before she finally found them.

----

Back in Canada,

“She was here.”

“Are you sure?”
“What do you mean, if I am sure Ruskie? Who’s the tracker here fucknut?”

CLANGK!!

“You want to take that back comrade?”
“Or what kid? Yer gonna give me a back massage with those hands? Blow me?”

“Just get to work.”
“Fuck off.” *sniff**sniff* “An hour. Went that way.”

“What about her target?”
“The runt. He wuz gone much before. Had some fun here. They cleaned it up though.”

“What are you grinning for?”
“He ain’t alone...he’s got a frail with him.”

---

Note: Well, by now you all must know which character is coming next. This one had been coming in for the last few chapters and will make an actual ‘named’ appearance in the next one. He is going to be playing a major role in both the past and the present.

Please Review....you read it, you review it. Now how difficult is that concept??

“Morning Ororo.”

Ororo looked up from her stair-side seating, smiling at her friend and teammate.

“Good Morning Jean,” she moved to the side, a silent gesture for the redhead to join her.

Settling down next to her, Jean breathed in deep, taking in the fresh mountain air. This was their third day in this place, wherever it was and she already didn’t feel like leaving. The only thing she missed right now was the strong arms of her boyfriend, Scott around her, and his chest to her back, the rhythmic thumping of his heart sounding a beat almost hypnotic in nature. If only.

“So, how is motherhood suiting you Ororo?” She asked humorously, just to begin the conversation. At first, she had been surprised to find Ororo alone. Ever since they had come here and she had seen her daughter, it was seldom that the newly discovered mother was seen without and apart from the young child. It was the same with the other parent, Logan, the Wolverine. Seeing him here, with his family and now even the way he behaved towards Ororo, Jean was hard pressed to make him as the same person. In fact, had she not witnessed it in its entirety, she would have sworn that they were two different men.

As she sat down next to Ororo, her eyes followed her friend’s and her lips curved up in a smile at the sight before her. In the distance, she could make out the familiar diminutive shape of the snow haired Kendall. Leaping about like a frisky deer, Kendall seemed to be enjoying the company of a rather tall man.

“That’s Peter.” Ororo answered her unspoken question. “He’s Kendall’s art teacher.”

“Her Arts teacher!” Jean echoed, her eyes snapping back to the man and the child, both of whom seemed to be coming towards the mansion. “She has an arts teacher?”

“Yes,” Ororo answered with a smile and a knowing nod. From what Logan had told her, about a year and a half ago, Kendall had chanced upon the otherwise reclusive Peter and had sat for hours just watching him paint. When it happened the second time, Peter, just on a hunch and to keep her busy, handed her a plain sheet of paper and non-toxic crayons. Since then, the gentle giant and the wild child had been the best of pals, with Peter taking on the role of a sort of an art mentor for the daughter of the family.

----

“Interesting place they have here,” Jean commented once again looking around the property, especially the mansion. “Has similarities with what the Professor has done, but unlike us, these people are…..” she trailed off trying to find the correct words. She did not want to say secluded, nor did she want to say, not interested in helping others, neither of which was a complete lie or the truth.
“Content,” Ororo offered serenely, her own eyes following the slow but steady progress of her daughter. Walking together like this, Piotr, who was a good three to four inches taller than Logan, and the around three foot tall Kendall, presented quite an interesting, if not funny sight….almost as in one of those fairy tales. The Giant and the Kid….or in Logan’s words, the Giant and the Squirt. Even the name had a nice ring to it.

“Hmm, you could say so,” Jean acceded after a few seconds. “But staying so far from society….don’t think I’d be able to do it.”
“That’s because you are a city girl,” Ororo grinned in a moment of levity. “Even more so than young Jubilee.”
“Hey, I resent that,” Jean was quick to comment. “Hmm, not more….I’d settle for as much.”
“Okay, Jean,” Ororo smiled and shook her head. “As much a city girl as Jubilee.”
“Yup, that’s better,” the telepath gave a satisfied nod. “Wonder how they pay for all this? Henry, Dr. McCoy told me that the owner was one Mr. James Howlett. Haven’t seen him around. Is he a mutant too?”

Instead of answering her friend’s question, Ororo remained silent. She knew who this Mr. Howlett was. It was Logan’s real name, one that he had told her on her second day here. Even though on their marriage certificate it was just Logan, with Kendall being registered with the last name Logan, the mansion and the property was under the Howlett name. It was to maintain secrecy from anyone trying to find the truth about the Wolverine. Only a handful of people knew that Logan, the Wolverine and James Howlett were the same person…..a hundred year plus mutant with incredible healing properties that even at this age made him look like a man in his mid-thirties.

----

“Oh my god,” Jean gasp drew Ororo’s attention out of her thoughts and towards the thing….the person that had surprised her. “That’s Colossus.”
“What?”
“Colossus,” Jean repeated, still not believing what she was seeing. Who else was in this place? There was Beast, Dr. Henry McCoy, the genius geneticist that Charles had spoken about. Nightcrawler a.k.a. Kurt Wagner, the acrobatic teleporter, the first teenager that had ‘slipped’ through their hands courtesy of Wolverine, the second being the girl, Rogue. Even out of the two other guests, Lila and Alison, Lila also had some past connection with Wolverine. That was the only reason that they were allowed here in the first place. Jubilee and Laura she already knew….and now this, Colossus. An ex-Brotherhood member.

“He was with the Brotherhood,” she whispered softly, wary of any one overhearing them. Just her luck that at that very moment a gruff voice answered from behind her.

“He ain’t anymore.”

----

“Oh, Logan,” Jean mentally cursed herself for forgetting about Wolverine’s enhanced senses and his ability to move like a shadow, something she on more than one occasion suspected, was some sort of mutant ability of his and his ‘daughter’ Laura, who even now was standing next to her father, dressed in an almost matching black get up. Heck, except for the pendant around her neck there was nothing visibly different about the duo.

As she watched, Logan’s ears twitched as if hearing something. The next instant, he turned his head towards the direction from which Kendall and by now, at least a dozen wild flowers holding Piotr were coming from. Every few meters or so, Kendall would spy something and run off to check it out, with Piotr waiting patiently for the girl, who he had come to love and care for as much as his own sister Ilyana. Smiling at the sight of his daughter, Logan lifted his hand in his version of a ‘manly’ wave when the child called out to and waved at him.

“He looks….” Ororo concentrated on the young man. Even though she had only seen him a couple of times since she came here, she had a feeling of familiarity with the young man. One similar to the one she had on seeing Logan, Laura and Kirika for the first time. “…familiar.”

“He should,” Logan chuckled, stepping down a couple of steps to lean against the sides. “He nearly did us in.”

“He tried to kill you?” Jean gasped at his comment. “Us?”

“Yup,” Logan nodded. A very out of time, out of place, wistful smile playing on his face. “Us. Me and ‘R….Ororo,” he corrected himself, his slip of the tongue not going unnoticed by Storm. She was still not sure about how she felt towards this strange man who for more than two years of her life had been her companion, and husband for more than one. However, she did appreciate his giving her the distance she needed to come to terms with the situation and to get to know their daughter before thinking about whether there was a possibility of a future for the two of them or not.

“He tried to kill you and you still….”

“It wasn’t his fault,” Logan stopped Jean mid-sentence. “Although, it was on Ororo’s saying that I let him live. I was ready ta pay him back for what he was trying to do….with interest.”

“Mine?” Ororo croaked, her surprise clear on her face.

“Umm-hmm,” Logan nodded, watching Laura go off into the forest. The previous night had been hard for the girl, as she had another of her nightmares, an unwanted gift, courtesy of her creators at Weapon X. Right now, she was going to get some solitude and practice the meditation techniques that Logan had taught her. If that wouldn’t work, she was going to do the next best and foremost natural thing, let her inner beast and its anger out and let them run rampant until they simmered down to controllable levels.

----

“Dadd-deee,” Kendall’s lively and full of energy and mirth voice ended any conversation about killing and or failed attempts to do so.

“Hey squirt,” both father and mother’s eyes lit up at the mischievous giggle on their daughter’s face. Sitting like this, they almost appeared to be just another family, sitting together and enjoying the cool, fresh autumn morning. “What dya say?” Loan jerked his head towards Jean and Ororo.

“Oh, sorry,” a toothy grin made everything fine. “Good morning mama, good morning Missi-jee.”

“Good Morning Kendall,” both women returned at the same time, with Ororo’s opening up her arms as Kendall skipped up the stairs, towards her.

“This for you mama,” Kendall held up the, thanks to Piotr, tied up and somewhat arranged, bouquet of flowers. Although still not at hundred percent, the mother daughter duo had been making consistent progress. Kendall had easily taken up calling Ororo mama or mommy, depending on her mood, but was still not quite open in other areas. Like the other night, even though she agreed for Ororo to help her get ready for bed, she still wanted her daddy there. Yet, even that small victory had been a major achievement in Ororo’s eyes.

However, there was one thought or one point rather that both Logan and Ororo had so far avoided, either deliberately or just by chance, was the question of what would happen next. What would happen when at the end of the week, the x-men and consequently Ororo had to return to New York. What then?

That question was still on the back of Ororo’s mind and hour later as she and Logan sat down for their next round of recounting memories.

-----

In the mean time,

“What have you to report?” Fury stared down at his subordinate, his working eye nearly boring a hole into the younger man. “Have you found him?”

“We are trying….”

“Have you FOUND him soldier,” the general bellowed, and it was at all possible, the ‘soldier’ in question went even more pale.

“N-No sir,” he shook his head. “The transmitters we had planted inside him, they were all collected….from three different locations.”

“Of course they were,” Fury didn’t need to know that. “What do you think he was going to do? Keep them inside him and let us track him.” He internally cursed himself. Not only was their escapee vicious in his actions, with his memory ‘enhancements’ he was equally cunning too boot. Fuck. This was not supposed to happen. That’s why the fail-safes were put in place. Logan was going to blow a gasket when he’d know about this, which given the fact that he was the intended target of their rogue agent, would be sooner rather than later.

“Any luck with the telepaths?”

“Sir, he is practically invisible to telepaths,” the other man gulped. “His psychic shields….”

“I know about his psychic shields and all his other shields and enhancements,” Fury shut him up. “I was the one that sanctioned them. What I want to know is that have the telepaths been able to get anything useful?”

“That would be a no, sir.”

“Get out.”

“Sir?”

“I said get ou.”

“Yes sir.” With that the younger agent practically ran out of the room.

Running a hand over his baldhead, and down his face, Fury reached for the phone.

“Get me a chopper and call up Xavier. Tell him to expect us.”

---

Note: Sorry for the shorter chapter. I have been trying to keep the chapters in this fic. above 3000 word mark. Had more of the Logan-Ororo story in mind. Guess will cover it in the next one.

Any suggestion on who might Fury approach to reign in the rogue agent. Wolverine is not an option….he is kind of de facto. Someone else.

Please review and let me know!!

Eight hours ago,

“Just don’t kill me okay.”
“Ororo.”

“Hey, I’m just joking. I know you won’t let me die….”
“Hmph.”

“I-I trust you Logan.”
“You do huh.”

“With everything I’ve got.”
“…..” (silent) “Don’t worry darlin’. Nothin’s gonna happen ta ya. Not until I am here.”

----

Eight hours later (now),

The smell of blood, bandages and medicines filled the room, a killer to someone like Logan. What was even worse was that HE was the cause of all this, of making the silent form of Ororo, bleed. Lying there, in the middle of the double bed of their motel room, completely unaware of what was going on around her, she looked so much as peace that it was hard to even tell that she had gone through not one but two emergency ‘surgeries’, Wolverine style..
Her lower left leg, right near the calf muscle and right upper-arm were wrapped in bandages, pointing out the locations of her surgeries. It was not something that either of them wanted to do, but had to do….it was either that or….well, the second option was really a non-option.

Moving silently, Logan settled down on the bed, the mattress dipping under his weight as he opened the bowl of soup that he had got for her. Looking at her again, he almost didn’t wake her. Her face clear of any tension, she looked so peaceful and he did not want to disturb her. However, this was something that she needed, especially if her body had to recover from the recent assault….fast.

“Hey, ‘Ro,” he whispered softly, resting a heavy hand against her left arm and squeezing it gently. “Hey ‘Ro.”
“Ummm.”
“Wake up babe. Got something fer ya ta eat.”

Stirring at his voice and perhaps the aroma of the food, Ororo’s eyes fluttered behind their eyelids her as she licked her lips trying to moisten them and her dried throat.

“Here,” Logan reached a hand behind her head and lifted it, offering her water. “Drink this.”

Barely had one gulp gone down her throat when the still near unconscious Ororo choked on it, spitting it all back out.

“Shit,” was the curse as Logan set the glass of water back on the table, reached for a towel, cleaned her up and then set her into a semi-reclined position so that it would be easier for her to drink the water and eat the soup he got her.

“How are you feelin’?” He asked as he finally got the water to go down her throat without chocking on it. Her eyes deep blue eyes were still dull and dilated from sleep and the pain that was wracking her body, especially her right arm and left leg.
“Hmmm,” Ororo leaned her head to one side and straightened it in a slow nod for an answer. “Kick….ass.”
“That good huh,” the fact that she was able to form thoughts, let alone words was a big relief to Logan. This meant that they would be able to make their move soon. Just a few hours more rest and they would be out of this place.

---

//Flashback//

The trucker that the couple had hitched a ride from had dropped them in a middle of nowhere, but still kind of respectable town….respectable in the sense that it had buildings than the customary bar, motel, convenience store and jail. The thing that interested Logan most was the automotive workshop cum second hand car sales depot.

“What do we do now?” Ororo sighed as she looked around at the godforsaken place. “We got no truck, no clothes, no money, no one we…well, you know. Nothing. Guess, I’ll have to so some ‘shopping’.”
“You ain’t doin’ nothing,” Logan snapped at her. It was not so much her fault or that he was angry with her, it was more to do with maintaining a low profile. He had taken great pains and care for getting the Weapon X fuckers off his back. Spent a lot of time and energy, killed hundreds of the assholes. The last thing he wanted was for them to come after him and set him off on yet another rampage.
“Then how do you suppose we are going to eat?” Ororo shot back, her growling stomach seconding her motion. “Let alone get out of…wha…”

Her words were lost mid-sentence as Logan pulled her into a vacant alley….more like the side of dumpster.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Ororo tried to swat away Logan’s hand as he reached forward and unzipped her jacket. “You really have a one track mi….”
“Shut up,” Logan growled at her, his scowl turning to a smile…smirk, as he found what he was looking for.

RRRIIIIPPP!!

Ororo gasped as her bottom left half of her jacket was torn open, revealed three a slim ‘envelope’ sized pouches stuck to the sides. It anyone had felt it from outside, it would just feel like the hard lining that some of the jackets had around the waist.

“What is that?”

RRRIIIIPPP!!

The same happened to the right side, making it a total of six pouches, all of which Logan tore off the cloth and stuffed into his own jacket’s inner pocket before gesturing to Ororo to zip up hers.

“What is that?” She demanded again.
“Our ticket out of here,” Logan grunted noncommittally, starting to walk away towards the lone motel of the town.
“What do you mean our ticket out of here?” Ororo hurried after him. “What is it? Money?”
“What do you think?” Was all Logan let out.
“You hid money in MY jacket and didn’t even tell me?” She caught up to him.
“No.”
“No?”
“One, I didn’t hide it,” Logan continued his trek, his speed not wavering even as his eyes, ears and nose kept a constant look out for any possible dangers. “Two, stitched it when I got it, and three, the jacket ain’t yers. Its mine and I gave it to ya.”
“So now its mine.”
“It’s a loan.”
“Wha….hmph…. (mumble, mumble and even more mumble) …screw you.”

---

Fifteen minutes later, they stepped out of their motel room. Luckily, for them, the room came with its own stove-oven. That would allow them to keep their excursions to a minimum and out of sight for any spying eyes and ears.

Walking towards the convenience store cum pharmacy cum barbershop, Logan stopped mid-step his ears twitching. What the fuck? How did he miss that?

“Wha…will you stop doing that?” Ororo scowled at being yanked a second time in an hour, with Logan once again reaching for her jacket. “What? Have something more hidden in YOUR jacke…?”

-SNIKT-

“Logan,” she grew somber at the claws striking out, but intrigued as to why only one was out and why not the others. What got her even more worried was the way Logan was leaning towards her, as if hearing everything going inside her body.

“Shit,” he cursed under his breath. “They got you tagged darlin’.”

“Tagged?” Ororo echoed. “What do you mean….hey…OW.” Ororo let out a cry as Logan not only ripped the right arm off her polo neck top, but also cut her with that claw of his. “That hurt. What are you trying to do? Kill me? And….Logan…” she trailed off as Logan fell out of sight and onto his haunches, and did the same with her left leg. “Logan, what are you doing?” She was truly worried now and fast progressing towards being freaked out. What had got into him? And what did he mean by they had her tagged? Who had her tagged? ‘Goddess, no. Not those peop….hey, wait a minute. Where did that Goddess comment come from?’

Whatever thoughts she might have been thinking all vanished at Logan’s next words.

“They bugged ya,” he cursed, his eyes snapping around furtively. “Fuck, should known that. Couldn’t hear it earlier.”
“What….what do you mean?”

Logan in simple short words explained that his senses allowed him to pick on things that other people could not hear. Her heartbeat was one such example. A transmitter bug another.

“So, why couldn’t you hear it before?” Ororo seemed to draw towards the wall of the building, trying to get away from any…from everyone.
“Dunno,” Logan shook his head and started pulling Ororo back towards the motel. “Maybe it wasn’t working, maybe it just worked a time when we’d be sleepin’ or some shit. Who the fuck cares? The only thing is that we needta get it outta ya.”
“How do we do that?” Ororo paled, a sudden memory of blurred figures in white lab coat sending a shudder through her. “I-I…no doctors.”
“Doctors?” Logan gave her a, duh, scoff. “I am yer doctor darlin’.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let ya die.”

The way Logan said those words to her and the look on his face told Ororo that he was indeed serious….about everything.

----
Half an hour later,

“Just don’t kill me okay,” Ororo spoke from her bedside position. Returning to the room, Logan had told her to stay put and had left for the pharmacy. He returned almost twenty minutes later, twenty minutes that seemed like hours to the worried and even slightly afraid Ororo. He had everything he needed for the procedure. Although he did not explain it to Ororo, the look on her face told him that she knew what he was going to do. That and the comment she had just made.
“Ororo,” he frowned at her seemingly flippant attitude. She knew that he could smell the fear rolling off her, so why was she trying to act otherwise?

“Hey, I’m just joking,” Ororo relented. I know you won’t let me die….”
“Hmph.”

“I-I trust you Logan,” she said once, repeating it a second time, her sincerity and trust clear in her eyes.
“You do huh,” Logan smirked and sat down next to her, her hand automatically reaching for his.

“With everything I’ve got.”
“…..” That stunned Logan into a stupefied silence. He did not know what to say for that. Although, both of them knew that the procedure was necessary and not all that dangerous, yet the risk of something going wrong was there.

“Don’t worry darlin’. Nothin’s gonna happen ta ya. Not until I am here.”

//End Flashback//

-----

“The swelling seems to be under control. Another few hours an’ we can hit the road,” Logan murmured, bringing his hand up to feet Ororo. “Then you can go back to chewin’ my ass off an’ I go back to bitchin’ at ya.”
“Bitching…ugh,” Ororo tried to laugh but the pain from the wound caused her to whimper.
“Hey, I said not until we hit the road,” Logan rested a hand against her other shoulder, gently setting her back in the semi-reclined position he had set her in. “So, tell me. What the fuck does Ororo mean?”

Knowing that he was making small talk and ‘peppering’ his words with the usual expletives, Ororo smiled a soft tired smile at his effort.

“Beauty….” She whispered, her voice low and coarse from the pain and semiconscious state she was in. “….beautiful.”

‘Suits ya just right,’ Logan mused silently, but for her benefit, “Who would name ya that?”

“My….my parents?” By now, Logan had fed Ororo half of the bowl of soup. Just a little more and they’d be done. It would be great if she’d have all of it, but three fourth’s would do the trick too.
“Didn’t they see ya before givin’ ya that name? Seems like a waste of a good name.”
“Ha, ha…..very funny Logan,” Ororo flailed her left hand, letting it fall and rest on Logan’s thigh. “Thank you.”
“Fer what?” Logan gulped. Due to his sitting on the bed, his leg was bent and Ororo’s hand had landed on the inside of his thigh…at a very precarious location. “Fer not killin’ ya.”
“Hmm,” her strength fast fading, Ororo turned her head away from the next spoonful, indicating that she did not want anymore. “That….and….for saving…..”

“Ssssh, I didn’t save anyone,” setting the bowl down on the side table, Logan wiped the corners of Ororo’s mouth and her lips, gently urging into a prone position on her back. She’d be asleep for the next few hours, hopefully the night, allowing them to leave the motel and the town by dawn. “Sleep ‘k.”
“Hmmm,” a gentle squeeze of a slender hand confirmed her comprehension. “Logan.”
“Yeah darlin’,” Logan stilled half way through standing up.

With a slight nod of the head and curling of her fingers, Ororo asked him to draw near her, nearer, until they were just inches apart, when, using the last of her energy, Ororo turned her head and lightly kissed him on his cheek.

“Stay….‘kay,” her hand hit and curled around his leather clad one, gently tugging it to support her words.

Stunned stupid for a couple of seconds, Logan nodded dumbly, cursing himself on his actions. ‘She can’t see you dumbass. Eyes are closed.’ “Sure darlin’. Whatever ya want.”

“Hmm,” a soft smile formed on Ororo’s lips as she slipped into a deep, restful sleep.

However, the same sleep did not come to Logan as he first sat and lay beside the sleeping beauty (no frickin’ pun in-10-did), watching for hours the gentle rhythmic rise and fall of her chest, his ears tuned into her heartbeat for any sudden change in it.

Things had just gotten complicated for him….very complicated, and he did not know what to do, except lie there, the barest of hopes taking birth in the depth of his heart that Ororo would have the same complications.

Hours later, he too went to sleep, his hand protectively and a bit possessively draped around Ororo’s midsection.

----

The next morning,

“You okay?” Logan asked over his shoulder as he turned into the ramp leading to the highway. Behind him lay Ororo, in his new ‘turn of the frickin’ millennium’ old truck (SUV). Having lost his own full size truck-cum-camper, he had bought this one for two thousand Canadian dollars. Three hundred more and the beer-gutted-dick owner had ‘graciously’ thrown in newer tires and a full service. Logan had to exercise utmost restraint from not losing it and just ripping the man apart.

Once the truck was in his hand, Logan drove it to a secluded spot before ripping the rear seats out. After that, he bought about half a dozen two by fours and a mattress to cover and line it up for Ororo to lie down on. That all he had done during the time Ororo was still unconscious. In truth, he had not expected it to be this bad. After all it was just removing a couple of metal chips or whatever things and bandaging the wound up. The leg transmitter came out easily enough, but the larger, primary one, the one in her arm that he had to literally dig out of muscle, too some time with Ororo losing a small chunk of her bicep and triceps muscles, each. That fucker would take longer to heal.

“Umm-hmmm,” Ororo nodded, still tired and half-asleep. It wasn’t even dawn yet as they vacated their room and pulled out from the driveway of the motel, with Logan pointing the truck in the opposite direction they had come from. He would have to rethink his entire strategy now. He could not take her to Toronto….not for at least fifteen days and definitely not until they got Weapon X trackers off their back.

“Logan,” she called out softly, slowly stirring herself awake. For the last thirty hours she had done very little except sleeping and the way she was, it looked that she’d be doing the same for the next thirty also.
“Yeah,” Logan answered without turning his eyes from the road. He was constantly on the lookout for any suspicious looking vehicle.

“I’m sorry,” he nearly jumped at Ororo’s voice just next to his ears.
“What the….” Whirling his head around, he saw that Ororo has lifted herself up and was leaning against her working arm, the bandaged one lying along the curve of her body. “What are you doin’?”
“What? I just wanted to say I am sorry for causing you all this trouble.”
“That’s fine darlin’, but you need yer rest,” Logan was alternating between keeping an eye on the road and on Ororo. “Lie down.”
“I am feeling better now,” Ororo offered hopefully. “Thank you for all this.”
“Lie down ‘Ro.”

Instead of arguing back this time, Ororo quietly lay down on the bed the Logan had set up for her. Either it was that she felt thankful for what all he had done for her or maybe just her ‘original’ personality was finally coming out, Logan noticed that over the last couple of days, their fights had grown fewer in number and lesser in intensity. Whatever it was, he was thankful about it? Although, a small part of him did miss that feisty look of hers, especially the way her eyes just lit up with energy….and not the kind she had before she fried your butt, or in his case…oh, never mind. They always grow back.

“Logan.” She asked from her prone position, wishing that she could at least see his face.
“Hmm.”
“What did you do with the transmitters? Destroy them?”
‘Are you crazy?’ Would have been Logan’s first reply. However, seeing her current state and the innocence of her question and her naiveté, he mellowed his answer. “Nah. Did something better.”
“Better?”
“Yup. Chucked both of ‘em in a truck going south. The ol’ timer was headed towards Detroit.” He added with a chuckle.
“So, they will follow him now?”
“Yup.” He nodded, relaxing a bit from his conversation with Ororo. He too wished that she would be healthy enough for her to at least spend some time in the passenger’s seat. Having an over the shoulder conversation was tiring, not to mention dangerous. Hell, if they hit something, he’d walk away no problem, Ororo would be the one who would be done for….and somehow that thought made him want to snap out his claws and take out that truck, car or whatever, even before it came near them.

----

Enjoying, uh, tolerating…yes, tolerating, not enjoying, no, never. Tolerating each other’s company both mutants had no idea about how close they came to running into another and probably more dangerous enemy. Thanks to their Weapon X attackers and their hitching rides, Logan and Ororo had got a head start and were more than three hundred kilometers away when their pursuer finally chanced upon their vacated motel room.

Within a couple of hours of her leaving, her own trackers arrived at the same place. Thanks to the ‘cash prize’, Logan had awarded to the motel clerk and the car salesman, both men truthfully and promptly gave the direction they had seen the truck go in. In fact, that was what the prize was for….to offer up information. Able to sense their truth, the pursuers let go of the men and promptly drove off into the same direction, which was the same one that Logan had taken…..for the next seven kilometers. After that, he took an intersection, followed the country road back to the previous town and then pull back towards the town they started from and the hundred kilometers from it, headed north. Although, spending near about six hours in the same region, he was able to make such a circuitous journey that anyone tracking him to either Detroit or Toronto would be far away by the time he and Ororo finally set on their way…..to their actual destination.

He just needed to talk to Ororo about it.

-----

A few hours later,

Ororo pulled on new top Logan had bought for her. Although still limited to the truck, except for the customary bathroom break, she was feeling much better, especially in her leg. Her arm was still feeling as if it had lead inside and was thus seeing negligible action.

Almost all her memories returned, including her knowledge about her powers, she had grown quite serene and calm, falling into her usual controlled state of emotions to maintain control of her powers…..except for when she was around Logan. With him, the return of her powers did not mean a decrease in the odd sensation she had been having for the past week or so, it worked the other way round. She finally was able to understand and give a name to it. She was attracted to Logan. Where there had been a purely platonic, playing-offa-each-other partnership, now there was something more….at least from her side. She did not know whether Logan shared the same feelings or not.

“You shouldn’t have done this, Logan,” her words drew Logan’s attention to her, but he still stood face turned away from her as she changed into the new clothes, stuffing the old ones into the plastic bag the new ones came in. “The old ones….oh, you can turn now.” She offered at seeing his back still towards her. ‘Its not anything he hasn’t seen already,’ an impish voice from inside her piped up. ‘Or felt it.’ A shiver ran down her spine at that particular memory.

“You cold?” Logan turned around just in time to see Ororo shiver, against what he took to be the cold weather. “Yer power on the fritz again?” He inquired, hoping that it wasn’t the same as the last time. She’d scared the living daylights out of him.

“Why? Do you want to share you body heat again?” She asked coyly, her cheeks burning even as she spoke those words. Had she looked at Logan, she would have burst out laughing at the way his mouth fell open, but not at the tightness in his chest and groin.

“Is that an offer?” Logan quickly recovered and leaned in towards her, his hands resting against the open door of the truck.

Getting no answer from the dumbstruck and blushing red Ororo, he shook his head started towards the driver side door.

“Maybe.”

----

“Hey ‘Ro,” Logan looked over to his passenger. A couple of hours after their last stop, Ororo finally got fed up of staring at the dull gray plastic and metal roof of the truck and told Logan to pull over or she was going to climb over the front seats and onto the passenger side one. Given her physical health and the possibility of her stitches tearing open, Logan promptly pulled over and allowed her to get into the front seat.

“Hmm,” Ororo smiled as she turned towards him. She was doing a lot of this lately, smiling at him….and Logan, inspite of himself, found himself returning it just as frequently.

“I-I…we can’t go to Toronto yet….not fer a couple of weeks.” His words caused some of the light to go out of her eyes.

Sensing there was something on his mind that he wanted to tell her, Ororo nodded for him to continue…..secretly hoping against hope that….

“I-I….” ‘Fuck it,’ he decided to take the plunge. “I wantcha to come with me. Whatdya say?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?” Logan echoed, not believing his ears. She didn’t even ask where and for how long. She just said…
“Yes.”
“Huh, that’s what I thought you said,” Logan nodded as if still not quite sure of himself.
“Logan,” Ororo grew hesitant. “If you don’t want, you can drop me…..”
“NO,” Logan loud response startled both of them. “No. It ain’t that. I am sure that’s why I asked ya.”
“Then what is it?” Ororo was confused now. On one hand, he says that he is sure and on the other this.
“I didn’t…I wasn’t….You sure na?” He questioned again, his eyes looking for any hesitation or fear, but finding none.
“Yes Logan, I am sure. Want me to write it down.”
“Yes.”
“WHAT!”
“No. No need ta write. You said it, that’s good enough.” Logan felt incredibly relieved now and just as stupid. He just hoped that it was a mutant power of hers that had made him act this way. The same power which over the last few days had him looking at her more than the tolerable normal limit.

----

“So, where are we going?” Ororo asked a couple of minutes later, once both of their heartbeats had calmed down.

“First we needta make a small stop and dump this piece of shit,” Logan cursed at the rackety truck. “I got a contact. We’ll be to get a new one from him. I can pay him later.”
“And then….”
“Then…” Logan was still double minded about telling Ororo about that mysterious girl just yet. Especially since their recent run in with the guys who might have done same to that girl what they were going to do to her. Nevertheless, a lead was a lead. He had follow-up on it before it went cold. Making up his mind to tell her once they changed trucks, he turned to her, smiling the same goofy smile.

“Ever been to Montreal?”

---

Note: It seems that our couple are finally on their way, both literally and figuratively. Next up, the mysterious girls and the others.

Hope you liked it enough….to spare a minute to review!!

Friday evening, Montreal,

“Oh, shi….”

SLASSH!!

“LOGAN….NNOOOO…!”

‘Shit. An’ here I thought that the week wuz goin’ well.’

-----

Monday,

“So, we’re gonna do this, right? You ready?”

“Do you even have to ask?” Under the slanted look Ororo gave him, Logan felt more than a little stupid.
“You know, I think I liked you better when you weren’t so…” he frowned, trying to get the correct word.
“Snobbish? Uppity?” Ororo supplied. Although she could not remember where and when she had heard them, she felt that people had called her that before. It was due to the strict control she had to keep over her emotions in order to keep her powers and the weather conditions from raging out.
“Nah, I was gonna say closed up.” Logan shook his head as reached and unlocked the door of the brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Although, he would have preferred something larger, like his truck was, he had settled on the next best thing. He did not care much about the frills and doohickeys in the Jeep truck, just how fast it went. After all, you never know when you need to make like bananas and split. Even the color was his standard black, something that even Ororo had agreed with. Personally, she would have gone in for a red or a white one, but luckily, for Logan, neither of those colors was in stock. Whew.

“Logan.” Ororo got in from her side and snapped the seat belt in place. Thanks to Logan’s hidden stash of emergency money, in his jacket and boots, plus the three thousand dollars they had left from before, they were able to make a substantial down payment on the Jeep, stock up for their journey, get new clothes and still have money left for the whole journey. Living mostly off the grid, Logan did not have a bank account or credit card to his name. However, he was able to get to contact, who it was, Ororo didn’t know, and ask him to make arrangements in Montreal.

“What?”

“I told you how I need to retain control all the time,” Ororo gestured towards the clear blue sky. Although, not her doing, both mutants were thankful for the weather. “Otherwise….”
“Otherwise what?” Logan grunted, as they finally pulled out of the driveway of the motel they had spent the night at (separate beds). “We’ll have a bit more rain or snow. Nothin’ harm in that.”
“How about two feet in one night?” Ororo drew his attention to the severe snowstorm that they read about in the paper over breakfast. The ‘Met’ department guys were still stumped over how it happened and how it just vanished.
“Hey, that was a one time thing?” Logan offered, secretly hoping that it wasn’t. Well, not the her almost getting ‘popsicled’, but the thing after that. The sharing of the body heat thing. Lately he had been getting quite a few thoughts involving Ororo, body, sharing heat an’ more and him. That’s why he had made it a point to get separate beds this time. He did not trust himself to keep his paws off her. Fuck, even her scent was innocent, let alone the rest of her.

For all her street smarts and her shoot from the hip attitude, well, not now, Logan had smelled her ‘experience’ in the more carnal aspects of life. It was a big whooping zero. Zilch. Nada. Nei. Shoony’a. She was a virgin and that meant, trespassers will get ‘hymenated’. The thought of being someone’s first had never appealed to Logan….not since a long time. Silver Fox. His first, true adult love. He had been her first, just as she had been his…but all that was a lifetime ago, and even though he had gotten back the memories, the feelings and emotions had almost faded away.

With Ororo, it was different. It did not trouble him that the animal inside him, the Wolverine, wanted to be her first. That fucker would horn in on anything with a set of tits and a vagina…yeah, yeah, but the human and mutant kind. The problem arose when with his growls of being the first one, the Wolverine also started to growl about being the ‘only’ one. Now, that was just too much. No way would someone like Ororo want to be with someone like him…and that too for the rest of their lives.

She was everything that he was not. Hell, since her memories came back, well, almost all of ‘em, she had taken to read. Read! An’ not the restaurant menu or the back of the beer bottle kind of reading, full-fledged novels and shit. He had given her a hundred dollars to buy her woman things, (no way was he going to do that again. Once was one time too many) and what did she do, she dropped on a couple of cosmetics and bought some kinda book that caught her fancy. Now she would be able to spend her free time by reading it, and more importantly ‘not disturb’, (in his eyes, avoid) him while he was driving or watching the TV. That alone was enough for Logan to want to shred it.

---

“A one time thing?” Ororo gasped. “Isn’t one time enough?”

“Nah, I am used ta it,” Logan avoided telling her about the five years he had spent in the wild, after his escape from Weapon X for the first time. The second time, that was six years ago, he had relatively waltzed out of it, after killing everyone inside…..with a special surprise gift with him, his REAL memories. All of them. Since then, he had spanned the globe trying to visit his past. He knew, whatever or whoever might have been there at one time, would have long since died or moved on, but still, he just wanted to touch base, if that was all he could do. Finally returning to Canada, he had kinda settled in Alberta. Although, he had been able to get his parents house back, thanks to the wonders of forgeries and broke family lines, he did not stay there. Not just because of the memories linked with that place now, but also because; it was just too damn big. Heck, what was he supposed to do with twenty two rooms, each with their own bath-n’-crapper, and that was without taking in the basement, the by now ‘stripped’, library, the two dining rooms, the dance hall, (yeah, like he was gonna dance), the living room and the front hall.

Instead of all that, he lived in his own cabin that he had built with his own hands about fifty years ago. Even its two rooms were more than what he needed. ‘Will be just fine with ‘Ro and the kid,’ the animal in him piped up. Fuck. Kid? Now where did that come from?

----

“You only want that because you just want to feel me up?” Ororo’s teasing words only served to cause his jeans to tighten even further.
“Grr,” a growl escaped unchecked, so did his answer. “Don’t need the weather to do that?”
“What!” Ororo echoed in surprise.
“Oh, nothin’. Nothin’ at all.”
“It wasn’t just…..” Ororo trailed off mid-sentence wondering if she wanted to go there herself. Maybe it was just nothing. Maybe it was just him teasing her as she had teased him. Maybe he was just being friendly? The whole Good Samaritan bit. Hmph. She felt like pouting. Yes, must be that. ‘What would he want with someone like me? Probably has a wife and children already.’ Double hmph.

“Logan,” she started hesitantly, her mind gone into autopilot mode. That wife and children thought had just been too much. The sudden clouds in the sky were proof of that.
“Hmm.”
“Are you married?”
“Hehn,” Logan regarded her from the corner of his eyes, looking for a reason for her sudden question. “Why do you wanna know?”
“Oh, nothing, just like that.” Now it was Ororo’s turn to feel stupid. ‘Idiot,’ she cursed herself. ‘If he wanted you to know about his life…or his, grrrr, wife, he would have told you about it.’ “You don’t have to tell if….”
“No.”
“No?”
“No, I aint’….I am not married,” Logan grunted, secretly smiling at the change in her scent at his answer.
“No. Oh.”
“Why? Any reason to ask?”
“No. Just for information sake. You know to make small talk, so as not to seem so….closed up.”
“Dontcha mean uppity?”

“Just drive okay….no need to get fresh with me.”
“No huh. Thought you’d like that…me ta get fresh with ya.”

“Drive.” (Secret smile)

----

Somewhere else,

“What’s the report Raven?” Wanda arched an eyebrow at her father’s use of Mystique’s real name. Still seething from what he had done and made her do to her brother, Pietro, the Scarlet Witch wasn’t at all happy with his new development.

“The girl is tracking him,” Mystique presented Magneto with a printout of the communicate. “Says he is not alone. Has a woman with him. Most probably shot…seems to have been wounded and maybe even operated upon.”
“Hmm, the woman is not of consequence.” If only he knew who the woman in question was. “What about the other two?”

“They are on her trail, and are maintaining suitable distance so as not to alert her.”
“Good. Tell them to keep on tracking her.”

Nodding in confirmation, the shape shifter started to move away.

“Raven….”
“Yes Erik,” that got another pointed look from the hex-casting Wanda.

“If the girl survives Wolverine, tell them to kill her.”

-----

Aboard the floating fortress, SHIELD HQ,

Looking at the green and blue mass below, a smug smile forms on the face of the dark skinned, eye-patch wearing man.

“Looks like Logan is going to have a party soon.”

----

Thursday, Montreal,

“I got her….”

“YARRGGH!!”

THUK!

THUD!

CLANK!

“OOmmph!”

THUK!

“No. Goddess….No….Nnnn….”

Closed. Dark. Closed. Lonely. CLOSED.

“Momma….Poppa….”

“Ororo….Ororo…Shit.”

Slash!

CLANK!

Light. Closed. Darkness. Open. Closed. Closed. Clo…..

“’Ro…..Ororo...hey…ORORRRO!!”

-----

Tuesday,

“Holleeee….Wow.”

“Hn.”

“Wow. Really?” Ororo looked as Logan with disbelief clear in her eyes and voice. “You are really THAT old.”
“Hey!” Logan spun around to face her. “I said my age was hundred and nine. I didn’t say I was ‘old’ old.”
The scowl on his face might have unnerved Ororo, had she not seen the barely disguised mischief in his eyes. He was playing with her. Making fun. The….humph. ‘Two can play at this game.’

“No, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, clearly indicating that she did. “I mean look at you,” ‘Oh Goddess, just look aaaiittttt you,’ she almost slurped out the drool that she was sure was falling off her panting tongue. Taking the opportunity to check him from foot to head, she shuddered as a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold, ran through her body. The fact that he had his chest bared only added to the affect. “I mean, you don’t look a day over forty five.”
“Forty-Five? Forty-FRICKIN’-Five?” Logan’s eyes shot up momentarily before his nose caught the change in her scent. The same change that he had senses quite a few times in the last couple of days, and even on that morning when….. ‘Ugh,’ the mere thought was enough to make him uncomfortable in his jeans. ‘Fuck, she’s hot,’ the Wolverine growled appreciatively. In the time since he had found her to now, not only had Ororo regained her weight, well, still was still on the way with that, but her skin had also cleared up. That was another thing about her mutation that both of them had realized a few days ago. She didn’t scar. Not like the healing factor, but even though she healed like normal ‘non-HFP’ (Healing Factor Possessing) people, once her wounds healed over, the scarring would vanish too. This had given her previously cut, nicked skin its lustrous glow back. Even her hair was progressing along just fine. Maybe it was just Logan, but to him it seemed that even her hair grew faster than other peoples did. Already it was nearly a couple of inches long, and almost seemed like an aura around her head….at least it did to Logan. He wanted her to grow it long, so that he could, gr….it, and…pu…her to him when he thru… ‘Oh, sweet Jesus. My jeans are fuckin’ killin’ me.’

His ‘unease’ was only compounded to even greater levels as the first whiffs of Ororo’s arousal hit him. Even by itself, it was enough to knock him over, but mixed with her innocence, embarrassment and hesitation, it made for a lethal mix. Forget the warm shower he was planning to take. It would need three freezing cold ones and at least the same number of…uh, ‘self-help sessions’ to get himself under control.

----

“Oh, not Forty-Five. Forty-Twwooo…..” Ororo trailed off at the heated look in Logan’s eyes. The way he was regarding her was as if she was a piece of prime steak, or something to….
“Ororo.”
She gulped. “Y-Yes Logan,” her voice was barely a whisper. When did things take a turn for the this?

The way Logan prowled up to the bed, to her… Well, lets just say that he wasn’t thinking of playing Parcheesi, and neither was she.

“Ororo.” Logan growled again, fighting against his inner animal as he bent down to take a deep breath of her arousal, which had just spiked up with an anticipatory want, one that was making it difficult for him to think, let alone stand. “’Ro…..”
“Logan.”

Almost right down to her face, Logan turned his head at the last moment to nuzzle at her neck and shoulder.

“’Rrrrroooo…” his muffled growl rumbled through both of them, causing Ororo’s breathing to hitch. She wanted him to stop; she wanted him to continue…she did not know what did she want. All thought process had left her mind for parts unknown.

Suddenly, almost as slowly as he had approached her, just as quickly, Logan straightened up and shook his head as if too clear the haze clouding it. Ororo was dumbly staring up at him, her eyes brimming with sudden moisture. ‘Shit,’ Logan cursed. She was afraid, scared...scared of…. Helllllooo!! No smell of fear there, at least not towards him. Needing to get out of there before he did anything stupid like pull her down and fucked her to high heaven, he snapped his head at the towel in his hand, at Ororo, then at the bathroom and back at Ororo again.

“Uh, I am going to take….hit the showers.”

No reaction.

Tucking his tail, or in case his erection, between his legs, Logan literally sprinted to the bathroom door.

“Uh, ‘Ro,” his head popped up from the side, hoping to say something to help matters.

Still no reaction, except for that dumb, wide-eyed look.

“Uh, you smell nice,” and he bolted.

‘Smell nice? …..Oh Goddess…No!’

----

Somewhere in New York,

“Uhnn…..”

“He’s waking up….” A small boy’s voice piped up.
“Sssh!” A female voice silenced him. “Go, call Callisto. Tell her that the surface dweller is waking up.”
“Okie-dok,” the child lively voice seemed very out of place in the dark, drab setting of one of thousands of swears under the city of New York.

“Uhnn….” The man opened his eyes, finding nothing except darkness. In this semi-unconscious state, he did not notice the candle burning next to him. Trying to sit up, he found a slender hand holding him down.
“Don’t move,” a young….teenaged voice spoke to him. “You are weak. You need to rest.”

“Wh-Where am I?” The man inquired; his voice barely a croak.
“You are in New York, under the surface,” the voice explained to him.

His eyes clearing up, he saw red hair come into view, followed by the teenaged face of a woman.

“Who…who are…..ugh,” he choked mid-sentence, his throat dry and parched.

“Here, drink this,” the girl instructed as she brought a steel mug containing water to his lips. “I am one of the Morlocks,” she explained as the man drank the water. “My name is Sarah.”

“Uh, hey Sarah,” the young man wished back, for the first time noticing the bony projections from various parts of the girl’s body.
“What’s your name?” Was her innocent question.

“My name is Pie….” the silver haired man trailed off for a second as if trying to remember is name….or in his case, think of a suitable alternative.

“Peter. My name is Peter.”

----

Wednesday, Montreal,

“OWWW!”

“Geez, I bet that must’a hurt.”

“Whaddya takin’ about? Muties don’t feel pain like real people.”

“I-I….not…!”

“Like we care?”

“Hangin’ wit’ muties is worse than bein’ one!”

“Little skank’s a RACE TRAITOR!”

“She’s pretty cute, though.”

“This one’s WAY cute.”

“Not for long.”

SLAG!

“YEARGH!”

RRRIPP!

“Donnie!”

THUK!

“It’s some kind’a monster!”

CLUMP!

“Please don’t hurt me Please I’ll do anything PLEASE!”

SHOK!

(Silence)

“They’re all….dead…..Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee…”

-----

Wednesday (earlier in the evening), somewhere in the Ontario Province of Canada,

“What’s got yer beef?”

“….” It’s the silent treatment for him.

“’Ro…” he frowned as he tried to recall what had happened to do a one-eighty flip in her mood.

She seemed to be okay when they pulled up to the diner they were in. In fact, she was more than okay. Having slept peacefully for the last hundred kilometers or so, she was lively and fresh. Heck, he had to stop himself a couple of times from just reaching forward and caressing her.

They were working on a strange shift. Traveling mostly by night and early mornings, they used to spend the day in any motel they could find. Something within him switched, causing Logan to dump is usual haunts and look for something better for them…for her.

‘Doesn’t need to live my shitty life,’ that is what he told himself, while the truth was somewhat different. He wanted her to be happy, because her joy, her smile would bring the same to him.

“Where are we?” She had asked, looking around to find some semblance of a town or its name.
“Somewhere,” Logan answered noncommittally. “Does it matter?”
‘Of course it does,” bright blue, sleep glazed eyes tried to focus on him. “The journey is as important as the destination….maybe even more.”
“You got that frem that book of yers?” He deliberately hinted towards it. For the day and a half, he had not seen it, not even when they were at the motels they stayed at…..and all he had to say was good riddance. Not that he minded her reading it. Hell, if she wanted, he’d get her dozen more to read. What he minded….missed was her talking to him.

“Hmph,” she spun around and walked away from him, her body still stiff from sleeping all curled up, her hidden smile clear to both. “I am going to the restroom,” Ororo spoke over her shoulder. “Order whatever you want.”

----

Joining him five minutes later, Ororo stopped mid-step, a frown forming on her face.

Sitting there in the corner as his norm was, Logan seemed completely at ease. However, it was not him, who she was scowling at. It was that two bit sl….waitress practically dry humping him.

Stomping up to the table, THEIR table, she missed the way Logan’s eyes lit up at her, her own focused on the hussy, her hand just itching to blow her away. How dare she, Logan was supposed hers….Whoa!! ‘Where did that come from?’ Common sense brought her back. ‘I should not be acting like this, as if I am…No. No, I am not jealous, because there is nothing to be jealous about. No. Nothing. Nadaaaa…the bitch,’ she nearly cried out at the way the bimbo leaned against the table, her ‘udders’ practically spilling out. ‘Stupid Cow.’

“Excuse me,” the hussy in question, Sandie, ‘Wow, what an original name,’ looked up at the at least seven inch taller dark skinned woman standing next to her. With her woolen cap still on as were here pink ‘girly’ glasses, Ororo looked just like any other African woman. It was part of her disguise, one to cover her snow-white locks and baby blue eyes, because if anything, those two littered yelled aloud different.

“Yes?” Sandie did not seem quite happy at the intrusion. “Have a seat. A server will be with you soon enough.”
“I am sure she will,” Sandie’s uneasy smile faltered as Ororo slid down in the seat in front of Logan’s. “I’ll take the Caesar salad, with a side of Tuna and oh, a diet coke.”

Flustered by the sudden shift in the balance, Sandie plummeted even lower at Ororo’s next words.

“And what would you like dear?” The weather witch crooned to Logan, deliberately letting her hand slide over his in a show of, fuck off bitch, this ones’ mine, ALL mine.

“Uh….” Poor Sandie was at a loss of words. In one fell sweep, this woman came out of nowhere, cut in and swiped Mr. Hunky from under her, and look at him, the son of a bitch is smiling. He finds it funny. Well, fu….

“Steak, largest you’ve got,” Logan’s growl silenced every unseemly thought within her.

“Y-Yes sir,” and with that Sandie was gone, and as soon as she disappeared, so did Ororo’s hand from his and the sweet smile from her lips.

In its place was a frown….which was still going on as he tried to speak to her.

-----

“’Ro….” Logan reached forward for Ororo’s hand, only to have her yank it away.

“What’s the matter?” No answer.

“Somethin’ happened?” Nope.

“Somethin’ I said?” Still nothing.

“Hmph,” last resort. “What’s the matter ‘Ro? Stop acting like a prissy, kid?”

OOooo!! That scored a direct hit.

“I am not talking to you,” Ororo bit out and started to read the menu.

“What? What did I do?” Logan scratched his head trying to make out what had just happened. He even took a courtesy sniff to check if she were….you know, having her flow. ‘Shithead,’ his mind cursed him. ‘She had that like ten days ago. How the ‘fuck’ many times do ya think she has it?’ “Is it about the waitresss?”

“Screw you Logan.” Bingo!

“Come on ‘Ro,” Logan rubbed his face. “You know that it was just fun. She don’t mean anything to me. Not like….” He stopped mid-sentence, knowing he had just crossed the line of, saying too much.

“Not like?” Ororo’s eyes changed within a second. Gone was the anger and hurt in them. Now there was just hope and anticipation.

At his silence, she asked again. “Not like what, Logan?”

“Here yer order?” Sandie stepped in just in the nick of time.

The talk ended there…but neither of them forgot about it. The playing field had just been taken up a level.

----

It was early Thursday morning that the black Jeep Grand Cherokee entered into Montreal city-limits.

Lost in their personal thoughts…the ones about each other, the couple still had no idea about the danger following them or the one ahead.

Half of the week was gone and half remained, and the remaining three and a half days would change their lives.

Forever.

---

Note: I had earlier planned on making it a five parter with short chapters for every day of the week (neglecting the weekend). However, finally settled on two ‘episodes’ to tie this all up.

Spoilers: Uncanny X-Men #450

Next, see how the remaining three days turn out for the couple, both for them personally and for the others around them.

And oh, please do review!!

Tuesday Afternoon, Somewhere in Alberta,

“….”
“Hmph.”

“….”
“Say it.”

“Huhn? What?”
“I know you want to say it, so spit it out already.”

“I didn’t say anythin’.”
“But you want to? That I shouldn’t have done that….shouldn’t have used my powers on that man…”

Looking away from the window and at her travel buddy, she is surprised to see grin…the barely contained guffaw of laughter on his face.

“Why you….” Strikingly blue eyes narrow at him. “You got a kick out if it huh?”

Finally a sputter breaks through. It was indeed a sight. One moment the Romeo wannabe is drooling all over her, earning a gutting, and the next….he’s soakin’ wet.

“You gotta agree, it was a nice sight what ya did ta him.”

Her scowl turns into a frown, rapidly giving way to a mischievous smile, the anger and worry flowing away from her twin sapphires.

“It was nice, huh. That’s why you stayed back and let me handle it?”
“Yeah, and….”

“And?”
“I didn’ want to be there, if ya got caught.” He finally breaks out into a full-throated laughter.

“Why youuu…..” *punch* *pow* *smack*
“Hey. HEY!”

*BIFF*

“I hate you.” There’s no anger in her voice this time.

-----

Thursday,

“Uhnn….” The lone, scantily clad figure on the bed came out of her sleep at feeling someone’s eyes on her. “Logan?” Her naturally sultry voice, sounded huskier due to the effects of being asleep for more than five hours.

A few feet away from her, on the raggedy sofa of their ‘no-star motel’ room, sat the man she had called out too.

“Its me,” Logan returned as softly as he could, his lips curving up as the tension that had suddenly piped up in the Nubian beauty’s body, all of it, just withered away, her head flopping back onto the pillow.

Even though his lips seemed relaxed and smiling, the rest of his body was as taut as a bow and growing tighter by the second. Even the darkened room, her figure was clear to him, thanks to his excellent night-vision and her naturally glowing skin….a lot of which was visible now that the bed sheet had been pulled off having being entangled around one leg.

Lying on her stomach facing him, her still short but rapidly growing hair kissing the side of her face, the first thing that caught Logan’s attention was her incredibly kissable lips. Almost like two rose petals, if ever there was a pair of lips worth kissing before your last breath left your body, they were it. Just after talking to him, the tip of her pink tongue darted out to wet them, and Logan’s erection all but shot through the roof of his jeans. He had already stopped the lie he had been telling himself, the one that said that the only reason he ‘kept an eye’ on her was to ensure that she was safe. He could just as easily do it in his sleep, or without continuously staring at her as if he were a bum who hadn’t had a sip of even the shittiest booze for the last month and she was the perfect blended, fine aged, bottle of scotch.

All he, both the animal and even the man now, wanted to do was span those five feet, reach down and kiss those lips….as a start. Part them with the gentle nudging of his own mouth and tongue, draw hers out to him and suck on it….again as a start. Just that simple kiss was enough to send him to the bathroom for a cold shower…the rest of his fantasy necessitating a masturbation session, or two….or more. The fact that even right now, her using one of his flannel shirts as a nightshirt had put his scent on her, was overkill. Normally, it came down to the middle of her thighs and with her body askew, her one leg hitched up, he could clearly make out the lace of her…..uhn, fuck, lace….why did she have to put on lace ones? For that matter, why did she put on one at all?

‘To help ya keep the little sanity that ya have left,’ his conscience sounded from within him.

-----

Lost within her….well, lets just leave it at that, Logan felt a counter gaze on him. His head snapping up to her head, he saw two blue, sleep glazed eyes regarding him. How did he miss her getting up? He should’ve caught the change in her heart beat….yeah, should’ve…Surrrree!

Already half awake, feeling Logan’s stare on her, Ororo roused completely when even after her calling out to him, his eyes didn’t waiver from her...his gaze becoming even more heated.

Keeping herself as still as she could, she first peeked one and the other open, blinking them a couple of times to get whatever vision she could manage in the near pitch dark room….the only light being the one coming from the streetlights outside.

Reaching Montreal, the first thing they did was get a room, and while she had one of the hottest showers she could manage, feeling her tensed muscles relaxing under the warm of the water, Logan checked out their surroundings and got them breakfast. They would leave in the evening to check out the leads that Logan’s contact had provided him…until then, well, Ororo had had a good sleep and Logan was thinking of doing the same. However, the Wolverine did not want to sleep, let alone sleep alone…..not with HER within breathing distance.

---

Clearing his throat, Logan straightened up and crossed one leg over the other, hoping to hide the ‘distraction’ in his jeans. As if his own feelings weren’t enough his instincts and senses were telling him the same story from Ororo’s side.

“How’s the arm?” He asked, his voice overtly husky from his arousal. Never one to step back from a chance of a romp in the bed, there was something within him that stopped him this time. At first, he tried to convince himself that it was just due to the proximity of a woman. When that did not work, he tried a different route and reminded himself that even if going by how he looked instead of how old he really was, there was still an appreciable age difference between him and Ororo. Even for that, his inner Wolverine had a prompt and unbeatable answer.

‘Yeah, like yer gonna get a live one of yer age.’

The next excuse met and even swift death. ‘What would she want with someone like me?’ Her memories returned, Ororo had changed from the mute, almost childlike way she had been when he first found her, to a loud, acting obnoxious teen. Her third and final change brought her to the way she was now, what Logan perceived as her real personality. Although street-smart, there was an underlying grace in her, almost regal in nature. Heck, she read….and read like crazy, had grown quieter, more controlled, well, except with him, but within the last ten days itself, just as her body recovered, gaining weight to make her look almost her age, so it seems, did her mind.

“Better.”

“Huh?” Once again lost in his thoughts, Logan missed what Ororo said.

“I said, my arm is better,” he almost growled at the soft smile on her face. He needed to get out of here, out of this room…either to the bathroom for yet another ‘artic’ cold shower or even better at least ten miles away from her. He wasn’t sure that even ten miles would be enough, not with her. Fuck, her scent just seemed to pull him to her. He had to find some solution for that….because, that scent continuously battered away at his final excuse. All his previous excuses gone, Logan finally settled on a ‘wimpy’ one….he wanted Ororo to make the first move. What he had thought was that move would come in the form of something verbal or visual, like a kiss or hug or something. He did not count on the pheromones that her body seemed to be releasing, pheromones that were freakin’ sending HIM into heat.

“Uh, ‘k,” barely mumbling an answer, Logan pushed himself off the sofa, but not before grabbing his jacket and holding it in front of him. “I, uh, I gotta go.”

“Where?” Ororo asked hopefully. This was another change that slipped unnoticed and unobstructed by Logan. Somewhere along the way, Ororo started showing interest in him, in his comings and going, not in a nagging way, but in a ‘I hope you take care of yourself and come back soon’ kind of way. Moreover, instead of feeling stifled by her ‘intruding’ on his personal space, the man in the Wolverine started to appreciate and look forward to it. As far as the Wolverine was concerned, the man was a pansy in the sense that it wasn’t making a move to establish his claim. The Wolverine wanted a pack, something that he had lacked for so many years….and with Ororo, no, Ororo was the woman, she was for the man, the Wolverine wanted the ‘elemental’ animal inside her, he wanted the Storm.

“Weren’t you going to rest?” She asked further. It was their usual practice. They tried to make it such that during their day stops, at least one of them would stay awake. In the case of any emergency, it would not take them both by surprise.

“Uh, not now,” Logan waved his hand, not even turning to look at her. “If I stay….just ferget it…neither of us is gonna get any sleep.”

The last few words spoken just under his breath, Logan was certain the Ororo wouldn’t have heard them….until….just as he stepped out and closed the door behind him….

“I wouldn’t mind that.”

----

Hours later,

“What is this place?” Ororo looked around feeling very out of place, and yet eerily fitting in as well.

“This darlin’,” Logan instinctively drew her close, keeping her injured arm on the inside. “Is the Montreal night life.”
“Huh!” It was clear that Ororo was out of her depth. She remembered going to a dance club, but one like this…never.
“Say anything; these French fuckers know how ta have a good time.”
“Logan!” Ororo’s voice rose in mild admonishment. “Its not nice to make fun of someone’s language or country or….”
“Hn, I do it with everyone,” Logan cut her off. “French, English, African, German, whatever, alls the same to me….as long as they stay away from me. I’m just sayin’ of all the cities in Canada, Montreal’s best if you wanna roam out….or hide,” he added under his breath. Although enjoying the company, most of his newfound glibness was for Ororo’s sake, to keep her calm. The fact that this nightclub was half-underground, did not help matters. At the same time, he was keeping a whiff out for any signs of the girl.

“Otherwise?”
“Otherwise what?” Logan seemed to catch a scent, but just for a second and then it was gone.
“You said as long as they stay away from you. What happens if they don’t?”
“This.” Almost nonchalantly, Logan whipped out one middle claw, it Admantium glittering in the overhead lights.
“Hmph,” Ororo slapped the back of his hand, the same on with the claw out. There was no fear in her eyes or actions. “Put it in.”
“You sure?” Logan tilted his head and grinned down at her, his eyes dark and at the same time, glowing.
“Of cour….” Seeing into his eyes, Ororo lost her words, suddenly realizing the way they were leaning into one another, how Logan’s one arm was wrapped around her waist, his fingers, gently caressing but not quite touching the bottom swell of one covered breast. Her own hand was at his waist, her fingers playing with his belt, almost going over to the inside.

“’Ro,” Logan growled as the tip of her tongue slipped out to wet her suddenly dry lips.
“Logan,” her sapphire blue eyes widely staring at him, Ororo found herself turning further into his embrace, as Logan’s other arm came up to her shoulder.

As if in a slow motion replay of a dance move, both leaned forward, their lips parting in anticipation of what was to come….their words falling away into nothingness.

‘’Ro…’
‘Logan….’

---

BUMP!

“HEY!”

BUMP!

CRASH!!

“FUCK. Yer….” *Sniff* *Sniff* ‘Its her.’

----

Within the span of a few seconds, everything changed as one overtly enthusiastic dancer bumped into another, who then cried it as he bumped into one of the waitresses, causing her tray to topple over. About to ask if Ororo was fine, Logan tensed up as his senses caught and confirmed the identity of the waitress.

“Logan? What is….Ahhhh,” Ororo cried out in pain as the woman….girl in question pushed her towards Logan, the collision causing her still healing arm to get squeezed rather badly. The pain only worsened as, reacting on instinct, Logan grabbed her, right at her wound.

“Ororo, shit.” Realizing what he had just done, Logan withdrew his hand as if had been burnt. “’Ro, you okay?”
“Yess…” Ororo hissed and nodded a lie. “T-The girl?”

His sudden panic fading away, Logan looked around but could not any trace of the girl…well, not any ‘visual’ trace. Apart from the dozen or so toppled over dancers still pulling themselves or being helped up, the girl had left a clear ‘odor’ trail behind her.

“She’s headed out.”

----

Half an hour later,

“LOGAN!” Ororo’s voice reached down from the sky. “I got her….”

Rushing out behind the girl, the couple broke up when they finally lost her in an alleyway. Although within his reach, the rusted fire escape gave way under Logan’s metal weighted body. As a result, while he took the ground route, his sniffer working at full capacity to keep track of the girl, Ororo rose up into the air. Thanks to her dark navy blue jeans, black leather jacket and ‘tuuk’, she was nearly invisible in the night sky.

Even before he could respond, a loud cry, almost like a battle cry, tore through the night as the girl launched herself off the roof and at Ororo.

“YARRGGH!!” Possessing enhanced senses herself, she threw a perfect punch…right onto Ororo’s arm, while following it up, almost instantly with a hook across her jaw.

Her concentration gone, her winds rapidly dissipating, Ororo hurtled towards the ground. Just as they were about to hit the ground, or in their case, a garbage dumpster, the girl launched herself off Ororo. Landing perfectly on her feet, she whirled around just in time to see Ororo go into the metal container.

THUK!

Even before she could get her bearings back, the world turned dark, closed and small….very small and very closed, for Ororo.

THUD!

CLANK!

Dropping the cover, the mutant teen, locked it into position.

“OOmmph!” THUK! That told Ororo that her effort to open the box, to escape from the closed space were in vain. “No. Goddess….No….Nnnn….”

Closed. Dark. Closed. Lonely. CLOSED.

“Momma….Poppa….”

“Ororo!” Logan’s voice sounded as he came around the corner, his nose and ears leading him directly to the dumpster. “Ororo…Shit.”

Slash!

One swish of a clawed hand and metal pieces fell to the ground.

CLANK!

Light. Closed. Darkness. Open. Closed. Closed. Clo…

“’Ro…..Ororo...hey,” Logan pulled the nearly catatonic Ororo could and cradled her in his arms. “ORORRRO!!”

----

Monday Afternoon, Some Diner,

“You want to WHAT?”
“Sshh!” Logan

“You want to what?” She spoke with a much lower tone.
“Want to…..have to find a kid.”

“A girl…”
“Hmmm…”

“…and that’s why you are going to Montreal.”
“Nah. That’s why *we* are going to Montreal.”

“We!” Inspite of her surprise, a soft smile formed on her lips. ‘We.’ She liked the sound of that. Not remembering anything, it felt good to have someone close to you. ‘Even if it is for a short time.’

…and that caused her smile to falter and fall away.

“What?” He caught the change in her. Not only did her smile vanish, but even her eyes lost some of the light in them. “’Ro?”

“Logan…”
“Yeah!” Now he was worried.

“What about me?”
“You?” He had no idea what she was talking about.

“What are…what are *we*…” she automatically included his opinion too. “…going to do about me?”
“About you?” Still no idea.

“Yes. How long do you plan on keeping me with you?” Even as the words left her lips, her desperation shone clear…even to her.
“….”

“Logan….” Damn the desperation. She wanted an answer.
“….”

“….”
“How long do you wanna stay….with me?” He tossed the ball back in her court, because as far as he was concerned, a small…no, an increasingly big part of him welcomed the change in their plans.

Had they continued to Toronto…they would have parted company by now and with the transmitters those Weapon X fuckers planted in her, she would surely have been caught and returned to one of their labs.

“I-I…” She was at a loss for words.
“…”

“Logan, I…”
“Lets do like this…” He gave her a break. “You take yer time an’ once you decide, you let me know...deal?”

Slowly the smile and the light came back, brighter than before…brighter than he had ever seen.

“Deal.”

---

Friday,

KRRKK! KRRKK! KUTHUCK!

The sound of metal encased bones cracking did not have any affect on the slim figure sleeping on the bed. Lying almost diagonally on the queen sized bed, one arm beneath her upside down form, the other, the healing one spread out over the empty space, her exotic features free from any tension or worries, Ororo seemed completely at peace…completely different from how she had been a few hours ago.

Carrying her with the care of a newborn, Logan had rushed back to his jeep and then to their motel room. Least concerned about the girl they had been chasing, the only thing on his mind was Ororo….and what was happening to her. He knew, from a rather painful experience that she did not favor closed spaces…closed, dark spaces even less. However, even when she unknowingly lashed out and electrocuted him, her mental and emotional state did not come even close to what it was now. Moreover, from the way her body seemed to be growing cold in his arms, he was thankful that she was still breathing…giving him proof that she was still alive.

Once at the motel, he swiftly divested her off her wet, and thanks to the dumpster she had fallen into, stinking clothing, and carried her to the bathroom. A quick shower, just enough to wash away the dirt and grime, and it was to the bed with her. During all this time, the nearly catatonic Ororo, a blank look in her eyes, did not speak even a single word or even lift a finger by herself. Her claustrophobic attack had been so intense that for all purposes, she seemed to have gone into a vegetative state.

Barely able to contain the rage welling up inside him, Logan limited himself to growling under his breath and mumbling expletives at the girl….and even more to himself.

‘Shouldn’ta taken her.’

‘Got her all fucked up now.’

‘That kid’s gonna pay fer….Yeah asshole, take yer mistake out on the kid. Its yer fault she is like this.’

‘Just wanna see her smile….”

‘Fuck….say somethin’ darlin’.’

‘’Ro….’

Those were just some of the thoughts that were bubbling over inside him, with the last one, the one of Ororo’s name, coming out almost like a whimper….from the Wolverine.

---

The rest of the night was spent with Ororo quickly falling away into a deep sleep, and with Logan sitting down on the ground beside her, just so that she would be within easy reach from him. His senses firing on all cylinders, Logan was alert to detect even the smallest variation in her, whether a change in her heart beat, an external move….heck, even the slightest movement of her soft silk like hair.

It was almost dawn when sleep finally came to him….too bad it did at a wrong time, as just as he was about to doze off, the sudden spike in almost all of Ororo’s systems, jolted Logan out of his semiconscious state. Within the span of a few seconds, not only had her heart beat almost double, Ororo also started to move around. Turning over onto her back, the, by now, sweat slicked Ororo, began kicking and pushing at an invisible barrier around her. The sudden change in the weather outside mirrored her agitated state. Her breathing coming in pants, Logan detected the telltale signs of going into shock….or in her case, coming out of it.

“Ororo?” He was instantly at her side, forcing himself too keep his hands off her. Knowing from experience, he knew that being touched or intruded upon by someone was the last thing Ororo needed right now. She needed to ride out whatever nightmare she was battling against and come out on her own.

That did not mean he couldn’t help her. It just meant no actual physical contact. Instead, he began running his fingers through her short hair, hoping the familiar practice would help her recognize who he was.

---

All of a sudden, “NOOOOOO….” White electrified eyes snapped open as in a display of almost superhuman strength, Ororo, not only sat up, but also practically tore the mattress right off as her finger dug and balled into it.

“Fuck,” Logan cursed at the shrill cry playing havoc on his senses. “Ororo…” he called out, wanting her to stop with the screaming already. “Ororo.”

Whether it was hearing his voice, or whether it was just hearing someone call her name….or just hearing someone’s voice, Ororo instantly grew silent, her head whipping around towards the direction of the sound.

The whiteness giving way to her natural blues, a realization seemed to dawn on Ororo, her breathing coming in pants, her bare chest rising and falling with his each gulp of air.

“L-Logan?” Her voice was soft and hesitating, as if she did not trust her eyes.

Taking his own hands off his ears, Logan nodded at her and even offered a half-smile as identification. “Its me.”

“Are you alright?” He nearly scoffed at her words. She was the one who had gone through hell, and she was asking HIM if he was all right. “Did I hurt you? Tell me, I didn’t hurt you again. I…please…I didn’t mean…”

“’Ro, Ro….” Logan reached forth and placed his hands on either side of her face, stilling her shaking body and her babbling. “Sshh…’m okay. No need ta worry.” Now he understood. She was afraid that she might have electrocuted him again.

“I didn’t hurt you….” Ororo still didn’t seem convinced, her eyes flitting over Logan’s flannel clad chest and arms, as if wanting to confirm what he had just said to her.

“Come ‘ere,” even as he said the words, Logan pulled Ororo to him, taking care of her injured arm, while wiping away the tears flowing down her cheeks. Not one to intrude in other people’s lives, and especially their nightmares, Logan limited himself to holding her close, whispering….what he hoped, soothingly into her hair.

For her part, Ororo let Logan guide her, first into his arms and then back onto the bed, pulling and tucking in the covers around her. Even though her catatonic state had passed away, her mind and her emotions were still skirting the razor edge between control and panic. Even her body, although not having suffered any actual injury, except for the lump on her forehead, where the girl had hit her, seemed unusually heavy and lacking in energy.

---

If Logan had any plans of leaving the bed, they got whisked away as Ororo curled herself around his arm…..and as soon as he lay down beside her, practically climbed over onto him, her head resting at the crook of her arm and shoulder, while one hand snaked itself through his shirt, her leg intertwining with his. There wasn’t anything sexual about her movements, more to do with her subconscious need to feel someone close to her….to feel safe….safe from the closed darkness.

Soon both of them fell asleep, Logan’s one hand resting along the curve of Ororo’s neck, while the other protectively draped over her hand at his chest.

Neither of them woke up until noon, and even then, it was only to eat, after which Ororo returned to her recuperative slumber, while Logan made plans for the evening. He would leave around eight, going back to the last place where they saw the girl, the dumpster…..and from there he would track her…and this time he would do without Ororo. There was no way in hell that he was going to put her in danger again.

----

Friday night,

“Logan, she has claws…on her feet,” Ororo commented in surprise and somewhat awe. Even though Logan wanted to leave her behind, there was no way Ororo was going to let him go alone….if nothing else, she would keep an eye out for him.

They had however, reached a compromise. Ororo could come along, but once Logan sensed the girl, she would take off and remain airborne until he gave the all clear signal. Even though she would have liked to be near him, Ororo realized that from what she had seen of the girl and heard from Logan, she was no match for her in close quarters combat. Her only advantage was in ranged attacks, hence the airborne clause.

“Saw that darlin’.” Logan grunted up at her. Truth be told, even he was surprised at that. He knew about the hand claws, heck, those were the ones that had got him started in the first place…seeing twin-claw marks on one of the Weapon X facilities that he had chanced upon.

“So, what do we do now?” Ororo asked as she dissipated her winds and landed next to Logan. Things had gone much better than last night. Not only was she not attacked, even Logan wasn’t….well, hurt. The girl did attack him, but her stupefied surprise at seeing not two but three, longer claws shoved in front of her face, gave Logan the time and opening to present his case.

Ten minutes and no bloodshed later, Logan stepped back and drew in his claws, giving the girl a way out to leave. He presented his side of things and told her what he was offering…in straight and simple words. He also told her that he would give her the time and space to think and decide, but not to run away. He tracked her once (he told her he had done it in four months) and would do it again, and again.

“We go back to….”

Logan stopped mid-sentence as a familiar scent assaulted his senses.

“Ro, get in the air,” he growled. Even though he did not let his claws out…yet, he did err on caution. This had to be a set up. There was no way that….

“Logan,” Ororo stepped to his side, but stopped short from touching him as a masked figure landed with a loud thump on the car beside them.

----

“GO!” Logan pushed her away as yet another set of scents hit him, one of them clearly an unfriendly one. ‘Creed.’

Ororo had just lifted about ten feet or so, when….

“Oh, shi….”

SLASSH!!

Three, razor sharp, Admantium encased claws sank into Logan’s chest…right through his heart.

“LOGAN….” The weather witch’s cry sounded through the empty alleyway. ‘NNOOOO…!”

---

‘Shit. An’ here I thought that the week wuz goin’ well.’ Logan’s eyes widened as his attacker tore the mask from her face.

“M-Mariko?”

“No Logan-San. Kirika….Kirika Yashida.”

---

Note: There will be one more part in this subsection to cover the remaining two days of the week. Everyone seems to want to either kill or capture (or do both) Logan and Ororo….including family members.

TBC…Please Review!!

26. Days of Our Lives 3

Summary: The final night...and its fight.

---

“No Logan-San. Kirika….Kirika Yashida.”

Dumbstruck and in more pain than he’d care to experience, Logan stared first at the young woman, then at her claws embedded into his chest and then back at her.

“Ki-... (cough)….Kirika… (cough cough),” he tried the name, blood gurgling up his throat and past his lips.

Who was this woman? This girl? That question did not even come up in his thoughts….it did not need to come up. The face alone would have been proof enough. Bearing an eerie resemblance to her mother, it was clear that Kirika was Mariko’s daughter, her eyes exactly the same as her father’s…as were the claws, which more than anything were an overkill.

“Kirika Yashida.” The teenager spat the name out, twisting her hand for added effect. How she had waited for this moment, when she would not only face this man, the man who disgraced her mother, but also exact her revenge on him…but carve out his heart to do so.

“LOGAN!!” Ororo’s loud cry was what finally broke Logan out from his stupor, his head jerking out towards her, just in time to see her disappear from his line of sight…her slim form seemingly swallowed by a larger shadow, one that Logan knew very well. ‘Creed.’

First things first, Logan reached up, grabbed the hand sticking into his chest and yanked it out, letting out a loud snarl at the pain shooting through his entire being. Fuck. No matter how often and how many times he got cut, shot or blown up, it never stopped hurting.

“Let. Me. Go.” Pulling but unable to free herself, Kirika fell back onto option two, using her free hand to slash across the face of the man whose dirty blood flowed through her veins.

“GAH.” Stunned as well as hurt by the sneak attack, not only did Logan grab at his face, holding it in place as his healing factor kicked in to heal it, he also fell also onto the ground only to have Kirika jump onto his chest, her legs pinning his arms to the ground.

“Kid. What the fu…” Logan was still unable to get his rage built up, even after two life threatening attacks. “Who are you?” He inquired, already knowing what the answer to that question would be. But that wasn’t what he wanted to know. What he wanted to know what where had she been for so many years…and more than that, how was she even alive. Five and a half years ago, soon after getting all his memories back, he had rushed to Japan, to his Miko…only to find that not only did she not live there anymore, she wasn’t even alive. That she had been pregnant when she died had been news for Logan, the timeline of her death telling him that the child had been no one but his.

“Who am I?” Retracting her claws, just enough so that they stuck out of her knuckles, Kirika started punching across the older man’s face…hard, hard enough to peel skin while protecting herself from hitting against metal.

---

Back in the alley,

Landing and rushing towards where Logan stood skewered on the claws of the mysterious attacker, Ororo was interrupted herself, with a rather forceful hand swipe throwing her against the wall. Though not hard enough, the hit and the subsequent blow against the brick wall was enough to daze Ororo.

Her attacker not going her the time to recover and gather herself at least enough so that she could use her powers, stomped up to her and grabbing her hair raised her and smashed her face first into the wall, his other hand coming up to clamp down on her shoulder, his fingers digging into it. Not only that, not only was it heavy, the grip grew more and more painful by the second, the claws…CLAWS! tearing through to her skin.

“Where’re ya goin’ frail?” The hot stinky breath of her captor sounded at her back, its sinister tone sending chills down her spine. What was even more sickening was the way he was pushing against her, almost as if a wild god getting ready to rut.

Gathering all her energy and scattered senses, Ororo placed her hands flat against the graffiti covered surface and pushed, pushed with all she was worth. “Get…your...filthy…paws…off me.”

Getting free, she fell onto the ground and quickly rolled away, wincing, not only because of the pressure on her still sore arm but also because of the way that her attacker’s claws had torn through her jacket and t-shirt, getting right down to her shoulder muscles.

Once far enough, she turned around and crouched like a cat getting ready to attack and came face to face with the hulking behemoth that was Victor Creed, the mutant better known as Sabertooth.

“Yer a feisty one, ain’t ya.” Sabertooth stepped out of the shadows and lifting his hand to his mouth, the same one that had been holding Ororo. Leering at her, he took a deep sniff from the limb before licking the now bloody nails. “Taste nice too. Guess I’ll fuck ya…make ya scream fer me.”

Pushing her fear down, Ororo shot back hoping that the brave front that she put forth held out. “Nobody is fucking me. Least of all you.”

“Grr. Who else but me? That runt?” The growl that emanated forth from the strange man caused her to stop short. ‘Goddess! He’s a feral too.’ Her eyes widened at the realization. She had heard Logan’s growls but they were nowhere as bestial as this one’s, nowhere near as hideous. With that another thought came forth. If he was a feral, that would mean his senses…

“Nice try bitch.” Sabertooth’s words predated and confirmed her suspicions. “But I can smell the lies rolling offa ya. I like that, like it when your broads protest. Makes it all the more fun to break you….to get ya to scream fer me.”

With that he started towards her, his sudden burst of speed taking Ororo by surprise as she realized that his allowing her to break free and get even this far was all his way of toying with her, playing with her…as a cat played with a mouse, with its food.

‘Get away!’ Ororo’s sense of self-preservation cried out aloud, but not in time for her to escape Sabertooth’s grasp as grabbing her hand, the larger mutant yanked her down and towards him, the force causing the her arm to twist back sharply…and pop right out of the shoulder socket.

“AAAARRRGGHHH…LOGAAANNNN!!”

---

“…LOGAAANNN!”

“Ororo.” Even through the blood flowing out from the shredded remains of his face, pooling in his ears, Logan heard it…heard her cry of pain, her call to him…for him.

Even Kirika stopped at the cry from the alley, her fist stopping mid-swing. In her rage and thirst for revenge she had missed two very important things, one that unbeknownst to her Magneto had sent two of his lackeys after her, one of them currently causing pain to whoever was that woman was. The second thing she neglected noticing was that even after all her blows, even after her all she had said and done to him, the Wolverine had not lifted even a single claw at her. Instead he had just laid there, taking all she gave…almost as if blamed himself of how things had turned out for her.

What did she hear was the mumbling that tore forth from the exposed mouth of the man that lay below her, his lips already torn away and not yet healed from the repeated clawed punches.

“Who is she to you Logan-San?” The teenager reached down and turned the face of the man towards her just a second before she found herself moving…well, moving was an understatement. It was more like she was brushed away, almost as if she weighed as much as a feather instead of her near ninety pound weight.

“Who. Is. She?” She snarled again, picking herself up and getting ready to attack again, her claws out to full extension. “Who is she that your heart stopped at her cry?”

“K-Ki….” One hand at her mouth, Logan started towards the alleyway, only to have the young woman step in front of him.

“You won’t get to help her…you won’t be there.” Kirika did not know who that other woman was but if she meant anything to this man, let her suffer. “Just as you weren’t there for my mother.”

“Kid-d…you don’t…” Logan wheezed between breaths, his throat still not fully healed. “You don’t kno…”

“Aaaaggghh…” Ororo’s cry sounded again, with both Logan and Kirika hearing the sound preceding it, the sound of fabric being shredded, and of the underlying skin being torn along with it.


Once again Logan stepped forth and once again Kirika obstructed his path. She knew that whatever Sabertooth was doing to whoever this Ororo was, it couldn’t be good….and possibly fatal. And although she did not want to harm anyone other than Logan, she would gladly accept any sort of emotional wound to him, which it seemed Ororo’s pain seemed to be causing.

“Get out of my way girl.” -SNIKT- Logan let his claws out, having previously retracted them against Kirika. Daughter or no daughter, she wasn’t going to stop him from getting to Ororo. “I don’t wanta hurt ya.”

“Oh, that is a good one,” a cold laugh disregarded his warning. “Specially from a man who has done nothing but hurt other…deal out pain and death. What is one more corpse on the….” THUMP!!

Kirika’s sentence got cut midway as yet another female form landed over her, having leapt off the third floor balcony of the building just behind them. Although smaller, X23 had been able to gather enough momentum and force to temporary knock out the larger and almost four years older Kirika.

“Go.” She snarled at Logan. “Go. Help her.”

With barely a glance at the daughter he had never known to be still alive, Logan ran towards the alley a red haze of rage already descending upon his thoughts growing denser at the whimpers that reached his ears.

---

‘If that son of a…’ Coming around the corner his heart leapt to his throat the sight that before him.

“Creed.” Ready to ‘enjoy’ his prey, Sabertooth stop mid-step, the air in the alley falling silent as he turned around to regard his one time teammate and all time foe. “Heya runt.” He flashed his oversized yellowish fangs. “Long time no see,” he threw out resuming his advance towards Ororo, her unconscious form lying against the wall, a rather deep cut at her forehead bleeding down her face, multitude of scratches and bites covering her completely bare torso and chest.

“Get. Away. Frem. Her.”

Although he stopped, Sabertooth did not make any move to step away from Ororo. What he did was turn to face Logan completely, positioning himself so that he stood between the two mutants, making sure that for Logan to get to Ororo, he would have to got past him. ‘And that sure as hell isn’t goin’ to happen.’ “Aw runt,” he teased. “You know the deal. You get ‘em an’ I fuck ‘em. Did it to the blue bitch and to yer squaw before that.”

If Logan did not already have his claws out, they surely would have shot out at the mention of Silver Fox. Not only had Sabertooth raped her, he had also tortured her and left her for dead. Logan still remembered cradling her mutilated body and how she had died in his arms. Even as her last breath left her, it was still his name that she uttered. That is how much she had loved him.

“Though I must say,” Creed’s taunting tore him out from the past and into the present. “This new one, she seems the best yet. A virgin, huh? What happened runt, can’t get it up anymore? This is one prime piece of ass, runt. I’d like nothing better than to have a go at her myself. I imagine she’s quite a screamer, isn't she” The larger of the two, Sabertooth chuckled mirthlessly.

“Creed! Touch her again an’ I’ll rip yer fuckin’ balls off.” Logan snarled at his oldest nemesis.

Tottering the cliff of berserker rage ready to go over it, he paused at sensing someone nearby, a second before a powerful blow struck from behind him, sending him flying into the hard wall. Barely did he turn around did a kid, one harder than he had ever received connected with his knees, causing him to buckle down to the ground….only to be elbowed to the ground. The air knocked out of him, his senses momentarily disrupted, Logan let himself get kicked around, waiting for the right moment to make his move. When he did make his move, hoping to use his opponent’s momentum against, he was more than a little surprised that when he let his punch fly, his metal boned fist made contact with something almost equally hard…and from the sound of it, metallic.

“Uhn…” Both battling men stopped at the painful groan, their heads snapping towards the sound to see Ororo waking up and Sabertooth reaching down towards her. “Logan…”

“Lookeit,” Sabertooth straightened and squared his shoulders, reading himself for the fight that was going to come. The blond giant flexed his hands and allowed a smile to flit across his face. “Even now, she calls yer name. But not for long. Once she gets a taste of a real man, she won’t even remember yer cuckold name….not that I’ll leave her alive to use it.”

This was going to be like a walk in the park, especially with the beating down that the girl and the Ruskie had given to the runt. Heck, its be too easy. He wanted the Wolverine at full power, so that he could show him and his frail who was the better animal of the two.


What happened next surprised him as letting go of the shorter man, Colossus stepped away from him, leaving the path open for him to get to Sabertooth and more importantly to Ororo.

Torturing innocent people and that too women was a part of his ‘mission’ not that that Piotr would stand for it.

Seconds after he let the Wolverine go, the two ferals were rolling around the alley, clawing and punching, almost like to rabid dogs.

All Logan was seeing now was red, the red of blood, his own and Creed’s and the rage of rage…even his eyes seemingly adopting the same crimson color.

---

“LOGAN!” Fully awake, her entire body being wracked with shooting pain, Ororo screamed aloud when lifting him up Sabertooth threw the Wolverine against the dumpster, its rusted metal edge tearing into him.

Pushing herself up, a rather difficult proposition given the incessant rain that had started due to her emotional and physical state, she was about to start towards him when a pair of arms reached down to not only steady her but also hold her back, not in the restraining kind of way that Sabertooth had done but more in a supportive manner.

Standing up and shaking himself to get rid of the excess water, Logan, using the added height of the dumpster launched himself off it, plunging his claws into the bigger man’s chest, the Adamantium slicing clean through not only the ribcage, but also the underlying soft lungs and heart, slicing the pumping organ into three neat pieces, both men falling onto the ground with Logan and his claws not letting go of monster for even a second.

The Wolverine reveled in the squishing sound of his opponent’s blood and internal organs, the claws slicing away to literally gouge all of Sabertooth from within him…wanting to make him pay for all his words and actions towards Ororo. Logan would fight and kill anyone to keep her safe…and for someone like Creed, a fucker that he’d readily kill any and every time, it would be a shame to leave him to live another day. Not after all he had taken from her.

---

Nearly about to lose himself, even the Wolverine although missing the newcomers standing at the far side of the alley, stopped at the fearful cry from Ororo. “LOGAN!”

The sheer fear in her voice tore through the Wolverine’s haze, causing him to pause, and glance at her, his rage flaring at, this time at the metal giant holding her…until he realized that unlike Sabertooth earlier, this metal man was not holding Ororo back but holding her up. He was helping her.

Along with that he also noticed all the three men walking towards him, instantly recognizing the dark, over his eye form of the one leading them.

With barely a glance at Sabertooth’s mangled remains, Logan stepped over him, his claws retracting, the telltale -snikt- muffled by the blood and gore sliding past them. Reaching the duo, he near about grabbed Ororo from the stranger, tempering himself at the last moment at her physical state.

Disregarding his own battered state, he lifted her up in his arms, carefully tucking her face to his neck, using the tattered remains of his jacket and shirt to temporarily stop the bleeding.

Only did then did he turn to the Colonel.

“What’dya want Fury?”

---

Hours later,

Freshly bathed, her wounds dressed Ororo had busied herself by playing with the deck of cards they’d bought at the gas station at their last stop before Montreal.

Even though she had said barely a word the entire time that Fury man and his subordinates were here, she knew everything…almost everything.

It had turned out that the man who had helped her while Logan fought against that Sabertooth, he wasn’t a bad guy but had been a ‘plant’, working undercover with the Brotherhood to pay off whatever Fury had over him.

Thankfully enough, well, thanks to Logan, Piotr, ‘odd name’ was no longer with Fury or for that matter with the Brotherhood. Whatever had gone down between Fury and Logan, the details she did not know but it had worked out in Piotr’s favor, not to mention that strange girl who had attacked them.

Kirika Yashida. It was Piotr who told that name to her. He also told her that it was Magneto who had put the metal on her previously bone claws. What he hadn’t been able to tell her was who she was and why she hated Logan so much.

And then there was the matter of the second clawed girl, the one that they had been after in the first place. Not only had she taken down the larger Kirika, she had also managed to break her bones, an injury that Logan had inferred came from having bring dropped from an appreciable height. And what was that smell that Kirika had on when they finally found her…or to be exact, her crumpled unconscious form.

All those thoughts and questions fled as soon as Logan stepped into their room and settled besides her on the bed. With Piotr in the second room as was a still unconscious and recovering Kirika, Ororo and Logan were going to have to share this one.

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As for Logan, as soon as he sat on the bed, he noticed Ororo gather and put away her cards. Not only that, she also, crawled over to his side.

Raising an eyebrow at her actions and about to question her wellbeing, Logan stopped short at what she did next.

Grabbing his shoulder for support, Ororo not only drew closer into his personal space, she down right climbed onto him, lifting and wrapping his arms around her, her legs doing the same around his waist.

Though there was nothing new about this, for during her ‘recovery’ Logan himself had used this to both placate her and give her a sense of safety…especially after one of her nightmares. What was new was how she was nuzzling against him, rubbing her nose and lips along the curves of his throat. It was almost as if along with gaining a sense of safety from him, she was also trying to get him to relax…something given her scantly dressed state was working opposite for Logan.

Tensing up, Logan parted his lips wanting to draw away…only to stop once again, this time due to Ororo’s going limp in his embrace. She’d fallen asleep…but not before whispered those four words that would keep Logan up the entire night.

“Thank you….Love you.”

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Note: Whew. Finally got this chapter done. How long has it been since my last update…but then again, this is one stretched out fic. Thanks to everyone who’s been after me to get my butt in order and not let this story slide away. Roxxi, Steph, tamazi, sinisterkamui, Mandy19, CeeCee, Vaberella, henred5, saucy_duck and everyone else.

Hope you liked it…and also hope that the next update won’t be as delayed as this one.

BTW, if thesuppernugget is reading this, have posted the Romy and Gambit pics you requested on my site. (Got new albums for both of them. In the Marvel sub-section of the Gallery) Hope you like ‘em and will do more as and when I get ‘em ready. (www.xcave.net)

Please Review!!