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** ** indicates telepathic communication.
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words
“Cornelius is going to love this.”

“Uhgrrnn….” Logan groaned as he regained consciousness.

His healing factor had been pushed to its limits and had knocked him out to get every single resource and nutrient to help him recover. Trying to open his eyes, he found that he could open only one of them. The other one was *not there*, meaning he had lost it and the new one hadn’t grown as yet.

Taking a deep breath to get his *almost completely new* lungs to start working properly, he caught a familiar scent. ‘Ororo’

She was nearby. Nearer than she had been the last time he had caught her smell. Near enough so that he could sense her breathing. It was soft and leveled. ‘She’s asleep,’ his mind told him.

Then it hit him, the reason for her strong presence. ‘She’s in my cell.’ The Weapon X assholes had selected her as their first *test subject*. ‘Saves me from making the fuckin’ choice.’
Breathing in deeper, he could detect the residual smell of medical disinfectants on her. ‘She’s been examined,’ the experiment subject in him growled. Examined.

As the haze lifted from his brain, he started thinking about the last thing he remembered. ‘There were six of those fuckers.’ Four soldiers had dragged Ororo out of her cell and taken her away through that damn door. ‘Musta been for the examination.’ At that thought, he let out an involuntary *audible* growl. He knew what those fuckers did in their examination room. Smelling her again, he tried to detect any injuries or blood loss from her. He detected a small amount of blood dried somewhere on her body, most probably on one of her arm. ‘Blood sample,’ another part of his brain piped up. ‘Nothing serious….fer now.’

Next, he proceeded to conduct a *self* examination. There was no tightness around his throat, but there was a parched tightness inside it. That meant two things. One, he was still free from the collar and two, he was bone-dry thirsty. ‘What wouldn’t I give fer a beer?’ he might have chuckled at the thought, if he could move his hard, dried lips. ‘Might as well get water.’

----

“Ugh…” Ororo snapped her eyes open at the low moan.
In the present situation, it could only mean one thing. Logan was waking up; or was already awake.

“Logan,” she whispered as she pushed herself up to rest on a raised elbow, lying sideways to face him. “Logan,” she tried again, a little louder.
“Mmmmrrr…” his rumble told her that he was awake and could understand her. Roving her eyes over his completely naked body, she couldn’t detect any remaining wounds, except the tightly sealed right eye socket.
She shuddered at the memory of seeing the emptiness inside it. It had sickened her. She could feel the pain rolling off him. With his enhanced senses, it must have been at least a hundred times worse for him. He would heal. That was the only consolation they could have. It would take sometime for the eye to grow back, but once it was done, it would look like it had been there for all of his unknown…. ‘No, not unknown,’ Ororo reminded herself. ‘Hundred and Fourteen.’ That was his age, even if he didn’t look a day above thirty five, even younger sometimes. Especially at times like this when he was resting, whether voluntary or *healing factor* induced. Times like this caused his face to clear up; making him look younger, even innocent, if that was possible for him. The completely new layer of skin had a big part to play in it.

Ororo frowned and shook her head to clear out any thoughts about Logan. Thinking about him made her think about the torture he was being forced to bear on a daily basis. How anyone could commit such atrocities against another living being, both angered and saddened her at the same time, with her anger increasing with each passing day.
She now understood the reason behind Logan’s instinctive paranoia and mistrust of people. She remembered the time he had first come to the mansion – more like brought there. He had been so wound up, so wary. He had….

‘There you go again, thinking about the past,’ she scolded herself. The past was just that. The past. It was done and finished with. The present was all around her. The future. Well the future was unknown, except for one thing. They needed to get out of here if they were to have one.

----

Sitting up on the tattered mattress, she called out to Logan. “Logan…..are you awake?”
“Hmph…” even his grunt sounded odd.
Getting on all fours, Ororo moved towards him, one thin blanket clutched in her right hand. “Can I – can I get you something? Something to eat? Water?” she asked as she draped the blanket over him. She hadn’t done it earlier as his skins was still growing over certain parts of his body and she had been afraid that the rough wool would rub it raw.
“Waa….waattt…” Ororo understood the word Logan was trying to form.
“I’ll get some water,” she whispered to let him know as much. “You just stay right there,” she made a scrunched up face at her own words. It wasn’t like he was going to get up and run away.
Even if he could, there wasn’t any place to run to.

“Here,” she cradled his head in her lap, tilting the plastic mug to his parched mouth. Logan greedily drank in the water, coughing it all up after just a couple of gulps, his throat muscles still hadn’t relaxed. “Slowly,” Ororo advised him, running her free hand through his hair. His hair was so soft, like a baby’s, which it was, in a way. He had lost all of his hair, the acid burning and dissolving it away. The present, completely new *stubble* wasn’t as long as his usual *mane*, but was growing rapidly, even as she caressed it.
“Thanks,” Logan croaked out, his newly healed larynx getting its first work out. Clearing his throat to shake up his voice box and throat muscles, he tried again, clearer this time. “Thanks.”
“You are welcome,” Ororo smiled at him.

“Ororo…phssst….Ororo…..” Jubilee whispered from the other cell. “Hey Ororo.”
“Yes Jubilation,” Ororo responding, struggling to keep her voice even. She knew that she had to keep her calm, at least in front of the young girls.
“Hey, how’s Wolvie doing?” Jubilee inquired about Logan’s health. “Is he healing? You know, he was hurt real bad. Those dick-heads, literally rained acid over him. He was in so much pain. It burnt him badly. All of his hair, skin, muscles and other parts just seemed to disappear or fall away.”
“Goddess,” Ororo gasped at Jubilee’s narration of the monstrosity. “Logan is this all true?” she asked, gently moving his head so that she could look in his working eye.
“Ya talk too much,” Logan growled at Jubilee, jerking his head away from Ororo’s comforting lap. Pushing himself up, he sat up, feeling his cramped muscles open up and tense, as they flexed to support the hundred pounds of metal coursing through his body. After a minute of just sitting, he turned sideways, used his left leg as a fixed anchor, and stood up.

“Guess that answers my question,” Jubilee tried to make small conversation. She was trying to maintain her light attitude, both for her sanity and for the sake of her *conscious* cellmate, Kitty. Both girls were supporting each other, mentally and emotionally. “Hey Kit-kat, Logan is up.”
The next instant, face of Kitty Pryde came into view. “Hey Mr. Logan,” she raised a hand and have him a small wave, a small smile coming over her tear-stained face.

“Uh…..Hey kid,” Logan mumbled back. He had never been very social with any of the students at Xavier’s, except for Marie.
It was though her that he knew about her two roommates. The yellow one, who shot off her mouth as much as she shot off her plasma bursts, and the shy one, who walked through walls. It used to creep him out. He still remembered the firs time he had seen her do that. It was one his first day at the mansion and he had barged into Xavier's office.

Things had changed now. Where in the past, he could stay out of the mansion circle, now he needed to form relationships with those around them. Relationships of *trust*. The girls would look up to him and Ororo, both for guidance and for safety.

They had to get out of here. He was not going to act as Cornelius personal *stud* puppy.

----

“Uh…Uhmmm…You girls alright?” Logan finally asked them, walking to grab the new set of grey overalls thrown in the corner.
“Yes,” Kitty smiled at him.
“Yeah, as much as we can be in a dump like this,” Jubilee threw in her two cents.
Logan merely smirked at them, dropping his blanket to step into the overall pant legs.

“Dude,” Jubilee quipped at his back. “Do you mind not showing us your hairy-man-ass every few hours? You are going to give *little Miss. Blush-face* here a permanent red color.”
“Get used to it kid,” Logan turned towards them, buttoning up the top half of the overalls. “You are going to be seeing a lot of it….and more.”
“What do you mean?” Kitty asked innocently.

Before Logan could say anything else, Ororo interrupted him. “Logan would you like to have something to eat? You must be hungry after all the healing?”
Logan nodded his hand and walked over to where she was sitting on the mattress, the food boxes lying on the floor next to her.

“Thanks ‘Ro,” he plopped down next to her and began digging into the food. It was completely tasteless and a little stale, but it would work for him. His body needed the time to digest the food and store the nutrients before the next round of *birthday gifting*.

----

Meanwhile,

“Sir, X 101 is awake,” Cornelius looked up from his examination table, Mallory standing on the other side, taking notes from his observations. In front of them lay the unconscious body of their latest acquisition, a blue skinned, three fingered, arrow tailed mutant, whom they had designated as X 105. From their files, they knew about his identity and powers.
Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler, had the ability to teleport over short to medium distances, using a *brine* dimension for his teleportations.

“How is its physical condition,” Cornelius asked, turning his attention back to his *current* lab-rat.
“It appears to be healed and is moving around.”
“Very well,” Cornelius stepped back and peeled back his latex gloves. “Inform Colonel Wraith about him being up. Take this one away. Put the collar on him and then wake him up and put him into the cell next to X 101.”
“Yes sir,” the soldier saluted him and carted the stretcher away.

“Bring me the other one,” Cornelius ordered another soldier. He was indeed very glad with their latest find and was flitting about like a kid in a candy-shop.

In his glee, he failed to notice the tight expression on his assistant-cum-sex kitten’s face, or the fire in her *blue* eyes.

----

“Oh my God,” Jubilee was the first one to notice the soldiers dragging in a semiconscious Kurt through the door and flinging him into the empty cell next to Logan.
“Kurt?” both Ororo and Kitty gasped simultaneously.
Logan merely made a passing glance at Kurt, his attention focused on the soldiers. He was memorizing their faces and smells. It would help when he finally killed them. Those who tortured him and his teammates, would get the *Wolverine special*, namely a full payment in kind for every single action, with interest. Compounded a hundred times over.

“Kurt,” Ororo walked over to the side near his cell, both Kitty and Jubilee moving the same way, trying to get as near to him as they could.
“Ororo,” Kurt raised his head to look at her with dull yellow eyes. His face was covered with dried blood and dirt. His hair was matted with blood. “Kitty, Jubilee….Logan,” his eyes widened as he caught sight of his fellow teammates. His eyes finally rested on the unconscious female, a mutant, he determined by the collar around her neck.
“Hey elf,” Logan grunted from his bed. He had finished eating and was resting now. Waiting for the next round. He could feel his sealed eye repairing itself. By its own, it would re-grow within a week. However, given his current condition, he didn’t know how long would it take with his healing factor getting strained every few hours.

----

As if drawn by a telepathic command, three soldiers entered into the holding area. They were coming towards Logan and Ororo’s cell. ‘At least they don’t have any acid,’ he thought as he pushed himself off his bed. He didn’t want it to get all bloodied and more torn up than it already was. It was not as much for himself, than it was out of consideration for his new cellmate.
“’Ro, get back,” he whispered to Ororo. She had been busy conversing with Kurt and didn’t notice the soldiers come and stand in front of their cell.
“Logan,” she stepped forward to help him, but stopped short at his snarl.
“Get. Back. Now,” he spoke in a cold voice.

“Hey Wolverine,” one of the soldiers mocked him. “Ready for your daily workout.”
“Fuck you,” Logan growled at them. He didn’t pop out his claws, even he wanted nothing more than to cut that grin right off their faces, along with the rest of their body parts. He needed to conserve as much energy as he could. He was going to need it soon.
The soldiers just laughed among themselves. Then one of them stepped forward, a gas cylinder strapped to his back.

The next instant, huge flames, shot out of the soldier’s *gun*, engulfing Logan completely. This time however, he didn’t cry out. He clenched his teeth and snapped his eyes shut. He needed to save them, well at least the one that was still working. He just stood their burning like a paper doll. The smell of burning flesh and muscles filling the air flowing through the holding area.

None of his teammates made a single sound. Ororo and the girls knew that nothing would come out of crying out, silent tears flowing down their faces. As for Kurt, he was still hazy from the effects of tranquilizers to comprehend what was happening in the next cell.

By the time, he shook himself awake, one of the soldiers had grabbed a water hose and put out the blaze, a severely burnt Logan collapsing from the pain and the force of the water stream.

----

Back in the examination room,

“Take this one also,” Cornelius commanded one of the soldiers. “You know what to do.”
“Yes sir,” the soldiers stepped forward and pushed the stretcher away.

“I’d say we have had a good day’s work,” Cornelius stepped towards the cleaning area. “How about joining me in my room?”
“Yes sir,” Mallory followed him. “Very good indeed, except for one thing.”
“What?” Cornelius glanced up at her. “Oh, that. Don’t worry about it. It happens.”
“Yes sir,” Mallory nodded her head.

“I know what is on you mind,” the old man stopped and turned to her. “We could always use another female.”

“Too bad that this one died."
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