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What Are You Worth?
Chapter Three


Wolverine, Storm, Commander Macoy, and Gambit booked out of the trench as quickly as they could towards General Magneto and the unconscious Cyclops.

“Hold on General, the calvary is here,” Wolverine shouted over top the electronic hum of all the machines.

Magneto’s electromagnetic shield that was protecting him suddenly expanded and exploded outward, sending the Walker that was attempting to crush him flying towards the troops of other Machinery. He looked at his charging people, “Avast, push them into the river,” he screamed.

Scores of other mutants charged out of the trench rushing towards the lines of Machines. After dividing up, each smaller group of mutants began to attack the outer flanks of the machines. The center line was forced to break apart to cover its outer lines. Obviously, this was not a good strategic move. Storm, Gambit, and Mr. Sinister were left to charge the center nearly unopposed

Storm took to the air, and used her aerial skills to draw the attention of the lone Spider with it’s multi-laser attacks. After several loops she noticed that the lasers on the legs were following her.

She drew her hands together to draw in lighting to form a ball of lightning. The lighting surrounded her entire body, making her glow like an angry goddess. The electrical feedback destroyed the electronic sensing units of the Machines in a fifty foot radius.

After Storm felt her eyes take on the white hue, she was able to see the air shift and move all around her. She focused on created a swirling wind beneath the huge lumbering Spider.

“Whirlwind, arise!”

When the machine was abruptly lifted off the ground only to be slammed down again, Wolverine had jumped on to the out stretched legs, screaming an angry war cry. Strong Guy was his back up and ripped out the kicking leg of the Machine that was closest to Wolverine.

Having the bird’s eye view that she did, Storm was able to see that melee attacks against Spiders were often futile because they could easily surround a fighter on the ground. She had told her husband time and time again about rushing into attacks. His near daily response was, ‘I have a healing factor.’ Her constant retort was, ‘That does not mean you do not feel pain. You have a enhanced senses, correct. Does that not include a special tactile sense.’ The end of that discussion would always be a grunt.

Storm watched as Wolverine held on but was tossed around like a rag doll. His claws had damaged the one claw, but the lasers that were still working had made it impossible for him to move on to another leg. Strong Guy couldn’t touch the leg that held Storm’s husband.

“Logan! Get clear.”

Her break in concentration allowed one of the lasers to catch her in mid-air as she lowered herself. Her figure eight was cut short as the explosion from the Machine made her hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her, so to speak. Wolverine was also blown to the ground after the explosion, and knocked out.

General Magneto gave the struggling mutants much needed back up in a hovering car driven by Morph. By drawing out the fire of the Spiders, he was able to alleviate the fallen mutants. The combined strength of three Spiders eventually took out one of the engines of the hover car. As they had an emergency evacuation of the vehicle, Magneto use a magnetic pulse to strike down the Spider that hit his engine.

The second explosion seemed to help Storm wake up. She opened her eyes to see the unconscious body of her husband lying a few feet away in the debris of a Machine. She tried to push herself up, but her arms couldn’t support her own weight. She hit the ground again, but this time she was able to thank the Goddess for giving her the idea of switching to the leather. It protected her from the not-so-graceful landings.

She rolled over to get a better view of her husband. She was too far away to see wether or not he was breathing.

“Easy Leibling. Killing yourself will not solve any of these problems.”

Being as involved in her own world, Ororo hadn’t heard the signature *bamf* nor had she smelled the familiar sulfur.

“Kurt. Help him.”

“Help him? You’re the one about to get trampled.” After that Nightcrawler had disappeared again only to reappear in the Spider’s control pit. His nimble and strong fingers ripped out the CPU and tangled the arms of the mechanical driver. Before any of the inner self defense modules could activate, Nightcrawler had bamfed out. He managed to single handily take out of the three attacking Spiders.

Beast bounced of the remains of another mechanical soldier and gave the dying Spider a solid kick so it exploded far away from the two mutants on the ground.

“An opening in the line, sir,” Hank shouted to the General who was above him.

“Good work Macoy. Push forward.”

Sinister and Gambit took cover behind some of the walls that were left of surface buildings to attack at the on coming human tanks. Gambit threw kinetic cards to attack the cannon of the tank, but the humans had fired first. The wall that he was hiding behind did not hold under the blast. The green Morlock that was with Gambit was able to protect him from any fata injuries, but he was still knocked out.

Beast, who wasn’t far away, was able to artfully dodge the deadly projectiles.

“Hang on my friend,” he said as he collected Gambit. The medical tent wasn’t too far away.

Logan’s nose was the first thing on his body to move. It was always the first thing on his body to be aware of his environment. He could smell the fire of the explosions, Beast carrying Gambit, and not to far away from that he could smell his wife. With that thought registering in his head, he was able to open his eyes. What he saw scared the living daylights out of him.

Lying less than twenty feet away from him, surrounded by a small semi circle of fire, was the body of his wife. He panicked at first because his eyes hadn’t fully adjusted, and he couldn’t see her breathing. She was facing the ground so it was also difficult to hear her breathing.

“Stoooorm!” His voiced had jarred her awake, and she began to shift. He heard her moan and struggle to open her eyes.

He took her torso in his left arm and scooped her knees up in his right. “Common Storm, don’t you leave me.” He placed his forehead near her pulse on her neck. His sensitive ears caught the movement of her blood. She began to moan and shift again. He sniffed her mouth and her eyes. He left a trail with his mouth on his neck along with his stubble. “Please baby, I need ya now more than ever. We got a lot to work on.” He moved her so that she rested on his propped up thigh. With his free hand he gently laid a hand on her stomach. He knew that she was currently unaware of her current predicament. If she was, and she was purposely putting herself in danger like this, he was going to nail her down to a chair in the safest place on the planet and fill that place full of food. He shook his head. It was too early for most to tell. She had just had her flow a couple of weeks ago. He slowly dragged his nose down to the valley of her breast. The only thing that gave it away was her scent, and he savored it as much as he possible could because one way or another it wasn’t going to last forever.

“Wolverine? Do not worry, my love, you are stuck with me a little while longer.” When she completely came to she wrapped her long arms around her husbands neck.

“Mmn. Don’t cha know it, darlin.” He patted the back of her head in a soothing matter when he could smell her fear spike.

Not far away another explosion could be heard when Morph and Magneto took out a Walker.

Beast saw the couple and warned them, “Look around the east, the army has sent in another wave of superhumans.”

The superhumans were the morally lowest thing the Oppressors had created. To combat the melee strength of the mutants, the humans had genetically enhanced their own people to give them abilities and strengths that came with an active X gene.

A pair of tentacles shot out and nearly hit Wolverine. With a single roll and a swipe of his claws, he disposed of the abrasive weapons. The superhuman who owned the tentacles screamed in agony.

Storm had taken to the air again, but she was caught by the giant hand of a giant superhuman. Her first reaction was to let loose all the electricity she could muster in one breath. Closed up spaces and she did not combine well in any situation. The giant dropped her from a deadly height before she could prepare the winds to support her.

Wolverine saw his wife fall and was able to position himself to catch her.

When she found herself in her husbands arm, she expected a warm welcome, but instead she got his angry face.

He almost wanted to kill her. But again, he reminded himself that she didn’t know. She widened her doe-like eyes at him in question, and he smirked at her then kissed her head. Once again he found himself at a lost to tell her. Why was he constantly distracted by her or something else like a war. He needed to tell her before something bad happened.

Another mutant had collected the superhumans in a shield and sent them back into the dangerous unclaimed inner city. That had temporarily ended the fighting, for now.

Logan took a brief look at the retreated enemy and turned his back. With his wife in his arms he walked back to the medical bunker to finally have it out with her.

“Nurse!” No answer came from the woman who was obviously a nurse standing a couple of feet away just who had just finished working with Gambit.

“NURSE!”

A loud annoyed sigh came from the exhausted woman. “Yes, Wolverine. Your fine, as usual. What are you doing here?”

“Where’s Dr. Summers?”

The nurse turned around and gasped when she saw Storm in his arms. “Jesus Ro, are you hurt.”

“No, for the last time: I. Am. Fine.”

Before the argument could gather legs, there was a heavy explosion directly outside the medical bunker. The rubble poured down on the unconscious and the wounded. Those that could protected them as much as possible. Wolverine hugged his wife and covered her so that his body took the brunt of the fallen debris.

Another mutant who was quick on his feet went outside to shield them against the attacking Walker. He used his ability to create three dimensional tactile holograms to fool the Walker into thinking that there was nothing around.

During the tense moment, Ororo turned Logan’s face so that he was looking at her.

“Logan, I will be fine. Please just get us clear.”

“Ya got it, darlin.” He traced her ear with a gentle thumb. She looked so tired. He swore he would make her well-being an even higher priority. Nothing else from anywhere else was going to get in his way, and stay alive.

Just as Logan was about to head out, a bright white light assaulted them accompanied by what sounded like thousands of televisions on static at the highest volume.

“What the hell is that?”

Out of the bright light two human shaped figures emerged.

Bishop took one look around at the devastation and swore out loud. Shard looked confused and angry, as well.

“God dammit all,” Bishop said, “We’re too late. While we were traveling, Fitzroy and Nimrod already nailed Xavier and changed the fucking timeline, again!” He turned to his sister with a downtrodden expression. “In this world there are no X-men to help us.”

“Uh uh, Bish. I refuse to believe that all of this is for nothing. If it got messed up again, then we go back to 1963 and stop the assassination. But this time we go alone.”

Wolverine had watched the two newcomers from the shadows of the trench since they had appeared. He started his offensive charge towards them when he heard the word assassination.

When he was close enough, Wolverine unsheathed his claws and tackled Bishop to the ground before the larger man had the chance to counter the body slam. With his claws at the strangers neck, Wolverine gave the man the ultimatum, “Talk. Now. While you can breath.”

An exhausted and limping Storm made her way towards the tensed threesome. “You had better do as he says. He has a very short fuse.”

“That fuse is probably in proportion with the rest of him,” Bishop grumbled underneath the claws.

Wolverine just snarled at him.

Shard did a double take when she saw her idol. “Storm! Bishop, there are still X-men here.”

“Logan, get of the man and let him speak.”

Wolverine slowly let the man up, but he never put the claws away. “How do ya know our names, roadkill, and what are X-men?”

“They are our heritage,” Shard began. “You are. We’ve come from the future to save your time and our own.”

Another huge random explosion sent them all tumbling to the ground. After the initial shock they pressed their backs against the trench wall to prevent anymore falls.

Storm looked at her husband’s stoic face. She didn’t know if he was angry about all of this or if he just didn’t care. He had been acting very strange lately.

She turned to the younger woman and asked her what she was talking about. “Why should we believe you?”

“Ask yourself this, Storm” Shard said, “How did we get here, behind your lines? How did we know you, and why would we risk our lives just to talk to you?”

Storm felt Wolverine squeeze her hand, and she could hear the low threatening grumble in his chest. “I do not know. All of this is too difficult to believe.”

Wolverine pulled his wife’s face close and nudged her ear. “I say we gut these two, dump the bodies, and forget this ever happened,” he whispered low into her ear.

“Logan!”

“What?” He sighed, “Sorry, Ro.” He glared at the newcomers. “Look at this world. How the hell do ya think ya gonna save us?”

Bishop took a look around. He spent a large portion of his childhood in war torn New York He nearly laughed at the irony. Here he was trying to prevent this war, when he knew that a completely different one actually going to happen. “With your help, we are going to save the life of one man, Charles Francis Xavier.”

“Who is Charles Xavier,” Storm asked.

Shard opened her hologram watch. “This is the mutant we must protect.” The picture of a young bald man just in his twenties appeared. “Professor Charles Xavier used his assets to bring Humans and Mutants together in peace. He established a school, here, where he and his team of X-men fought for basic human rights.”

“That is until someone from our time took him out,” Bishop said.

“Xavier took his message around the world. When anti-mutant groups sprang up, you and Storm worked with him. It was a constant struggle, but it was better than this.”

“That ain’t hard to imagine.” Wolverine had also finally put his claws away.

“I can not believe it.” Storm said. “All of this destruction, all of this misery, is due to the absence of one man!”

“One of the most important men in history,” Bishop interjected.

“I don’t buy it. This is nuts.”

Bishop put a restraining hand on Wolverine’s shoulder, only to have it violently swiped away. “Everything here, this war, everything you know was cause buy a time traveler from our future. We have to go back, rescue Xavier, and keep this from happening.”

Logan didn’t want to hear anymore of this. Before Bishop could finish his speech, Wolverine had un-snikted his claws and took a warning swipe at the other man. “This is a trick.”

Shard pushed her brother out of the way and screamed, “BACK OFF!”

Lucas looked at his sister and rubbed his knuckles, “This new Wolverine is as dense as the old one.”

Once again, Wolverine just glared at this man who had just gotten on his last nerve. He felt his wife’s warm and soothing hands envelop him. “Logan,” she said in his ear, “I believe them.” he closed his eyes and braced his legs so the onslaught of that faint scent wouldn’t send him into a rage.

“Logan, doing it will end this perpetual war. Please, just think about it, love.”

“It will end everything else with it, darlin’. Ya saw those fuckin’ tapes. If, and I mean if, we find a way to save this Xavier clown, we’ll end up workin’ together,” he pulled out her hands to lace their fingers together, “and not bein’ together.”

“Sorry, pal, but your right about that. Turns out that the two of you never really got around to getting your acts together. Ya’ll ended up letting other stuff, and people get in the way.” Bishop just shook his head at the doomed couple.

“My darling, would you condemn the whole world just to keep our love?”

“Ya bet I would, anytime time anywhere. Why would I care about anything else?”

“Logan if this works, I will still be with you. It looks like we get to be best friends. I love you enough to take you any way I can. So, we will have to give a part of ourselves for the greater good. I am ok with that. We will gain so much in the future. After all, what else will we to loose?”

He drew her into a tight desperate embrace. “Darlin, ya have no idea.”

She gave him a tantalizing but bittersweet kiss. “Logan, I am sorry.”

He closed his eyes and felt her deep voice all the way to his toes.

Storm walked up to the pair of siblings, “I am ready to go.” She turned to her husband, “Are you with us?”

He took nearly no time to answer. It was a rhetorical question. He wasn’t going anywhere without his mate. No matter what happened, that was where his future was.





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