Chapter Eighteen: Wrath
One minute you’re on top
The next you’re not, watch it drop
Making your heart stop
Just before you hit the floor
One minute you’re on top
The next you’re not, missed your shot
Making your heart stop
You think you've won
And then it's all gone
~Linkin Park
Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning
“Ok, so I come running down the stairs and there’s Wolverine, standing in the kitchen in front of my parents, my brother, and the cat. He’s got a beer in his hand and a look on his face like he just got caught scamming on a girl in his dad’s car.”
The surrounding adolescent mutants dissolved into laughter. Logan, peering at them from beneath his Stetson, continued his idle drawing. They weren’t doing anything particularly annoying aside from just being kids. He remembered that moment clearly; Drake wasn’t embellishing enough to be flat out lying, so it didn’t bother him.
Content to allow them their amusement, he fought a grin himself. He would ruin it if they caught him laughing. Watching kids be, well kids, was worth holding back. It was a comfort.
“I just stood there for a sec,” Iceman said through laughter. Alison “ for whom the story was being retold “ held her sides as she laughed.
“So, I tell my parents he’s a teacher. We end up going into the sitting room, I’m so not excited to tell them I’m a mutant. Anyway, Wolverine cuts in when my mom mentions the “mutant problem”.” The boy scoffed, using his hands for quotation marks.
“Wolverine says in his growly voice “What mutant problem?” My mom looks ready to die and dad says “Just what are you the professor of.”
This was Logan’s favorite part. Every time Bobby told this story, he could see how much it meant to the kid that an adult had bothered to stand up for him. The reason this particular anecdote was repeated again and again was that it was the moment Bobby realized he was happy as a mutant. Logan had just been there to ensure his own parents understood he had someone to go to.
“I swear to God,” Drake was saying. “Without missing a beat, Wolverine goes “Art”.”
That did it. The gathering of a half-dozen teenagers promptly went hysterical. Biting back a smirk at how they gripped one another to howl with mirth, Logan peeked at them again. Bobby was holding Rogue, whom had been there and heard the story a million times and still loved it, as they slapped their knees.
Dazzler fell from her perch. She nearly crashed into the floor, saved at the last moment by a quick thinking Colossus. Even the serious young man was chuckling helplessly. Kitty had her hands over her mouth, laughing into them until Logan thought she might bust a blood vessel.
“Wait, wait,” Marie cut in, still shaking with humor. “But before that, we get inta Cyclops’ car. John “ Pyro “ says “This is Cyclops’ car”.”
“Wolverine goes snikt,” Iceman chimed in. Logan was almost in stitches himself when he realized the boy had a hand motion and sound effect for his claws. “And he says “Oh yeah?” He stole the car with a claw!”
For some reason, the kids just laughed harder. Careful they did not notice he was paying attention, Logan looked back down at his blueprints. He shifted papers until he could add something to the sketch accompanying it.
“Oh! Oh!” Kitty nudged Peter, but she could not seem to get a hold of herself long enough to explain herself.
Ever patient, Peter watched her as she fought to control her giggles. “What is it, Kit-Kat?”
Boy’s whipped. Logan smirked to himself.
“Tell the one about the time Storm electrocuted him!”
“Yeah!” Bobby and Marie encouraged quickly.
“Oooh,” Dazzler was rubbing her hands together gleefully. “That’s a good one.”
Peter cleared his throat. “All right, so we are watching Storm go a little crazy because there is a blizzard and she could not warn her friend. As she decides to go rushing out into the storm, Wolverine steps between her and the door.”
“Oh my God, he didn’t!” Marie gushed.
“They are trading barbs as though in a verbal Ultimate Fighting Championship game. Captain Britain sides with Storm, Beast with Wolverine. The rest of us are intelligent enough to stay out of it completely. All of the sudden, out of nowhere, they stop talking. A second later, lightning appears out of thin air and Wolverine’s on the floor.”
He didn’t exactly know why that was funny, possibly because no one ever challenged him and it was common knowledge that Storm often threatened to electrocute people.
“Wait,” Peter cut into the laughter. “He wakes up some time later and the first thing he says is “Did that bitch just shove a lightning bolt up my ass?”
This time, Kitty and Alison both fell from the sofa, rolling around on the floor. Marie was in tears, Bobby red-faced from the constant laughter. They were all fighting for breath, making Logan chuckle at them soundlessly.
Just three years ago sitting in a living room while a bunch of kids told stories about him would have had his hackles up. Now, he was proud to bring them some measure of comfort.
When Bobby launched back into the mansion battle some time ago, Logan scented rain on the air. He glanced up to the hall that led to the staircase. A heartbeat later, Ororo appeared. She came into the room, seemingly looking for him.
She spotted the howling children and raised a solitary brow. Obvious confusion was quickly replaced by amusement. He waited patiently, pretending to not look up at her. The whisper of her sundress “ white with blue trim today “ told him she was coming closer.
“What are they laughing at?” Ororo asked when she was close to him.
“Me.”
That made her giggle soundlessly. “Trading Wolverine stories yet again?”
“Always.”
Though he carefully tried to hide what he was working on, his quick hands were not fast enough for her thief’s eyes. She peered down, leaning slightly so that her hair fell forward. For a second, Logan was distracted by the wealth of chocolate breast peeking at him.
“What is that?”
“Nothin’.” He attempted to hide it from her.
He should have known better. What happened next became fodder for Wolverine stories for the next ten years. Though the younger mutants had witnessed it, they could not really believe it.
In one smooth motion, Storm had snatched the papers from him. And his hat. She dunked his hat onto her head and ran. Amid cheers from the children, she vaulted onto the sofa and with gymnast balance, walked quickly along the back of it.
Logan snarled, jumping up after her. She was fast and agile; easily avoiding him the second he was near enough to make a grab for her. The slender mutant leapt in a graceful flutter of thin cotton and long white hair from the back of one sofa to the other. Had Colossus not grabbed both Kitty and Alison to shove their heads down, it might have ended the game right then and there.
“Woman!” Wolverine barked. She only threw him a “come get me” look over her shoulder. “Bring that back here, or so help me…”
The empty threat was left hanging. Peter’s hand came up to steady her as she ran back and forth on the thin lip where the upholstery met on the couch back. Logan jumped around Bobby and Marie, trying in vain to capture his teasing weather witch.
Delicate hands were flipping through the pages as though they contained the answers to the meaning of life. Logan finally got into position while she was distracted and shot a hand out to capture her.
Ororo was prepared. She lashed a hand out, flattening it to his forehead. Her long arms kept him out of reach as her bright blue eyes danced over the papers. Admitting defeat, Logan stopped attempting to capture his drawings. Her humming skin just wasn’t fair sometimes.
“Logan.”
It was then that he realized the room was dead quiet. All eyes were on the woman standing on the back of the sofa. In her eyes were unshed tears. Not really understanding, he let her go when she jumped down between Kitty and Alison.
“It’s my house,” she said in a choked voice.
Logan divested her of his hat, clearing his throat uneasily. He settled it back on his head with a hearty pat while Ororo showed off the drawing.
“The house in Alaska?” Alison was peering over her shoulder. Marie came across the coffee table, peeking with Kitty.
“Yes,” Ororo’s voice was breathless. “But with improvements. Look at the irrigation system for the garden. Another two rooms…a deck that encompasses the hot tub.”
Her last comment made both Peter and Bobby look sharply to Logan. The youngest gave him a quick thumbs up. Logan tossed them a coy smirk.
“Blueprints,” Ororo was telling her young friends. “He has it completely mapped out. How…?”
Aware that she had turned her head to look at him, Logan shrugged. “Musta had construction trainin’ somewhere. Comes natural.”
Ororo was over the sofa in a heartbeat. He barely had time to anticipate her leap into his arms, even with advanced instincts. She was suddenly wrapped around him, capturing his lips in a very serious manner.
Several feminine sighs reminded him a few moments later that they had an audience. Lost in the feel of his woman around him, it took him a lot longer than usual to pull away. The girls were watching with moony eyes while both boys looked ready to throw up.
Typical kids.
“Will you build that for me?” Ororo asked in a whisper meant for his ears alone.
“I’d planned on buildin’ it fer us.”
That earned him another of her scorching kisses. Finally, it looked like Wolverine had done something right.
~**~
Logan had one arm slung over her shoulders as though they had walked this way for years instead of days. Ororo leaned into his embrace, one of her hands entwining with his. The way he kept her close at all times was something akin to a dream come true.
The last few days taught her much about Wolverine. He was overly tactile by nature. There was scarcely a moment when he did not have his hands on her. While she expected him to remain somewhat standoffish in the presence of others, he proved her very wrong.
He would idly hold her hand, kiss her for no reason at all, keep her in the comfortable circle of his arms. She knew that the girls in the mansion were jealous, if not because he was Logan but the younger men were still too immature to understand the benefits of public displays of affection. The little details melted a woman’s heart faster than diamonds. She would have to explain it to them soon.
Reminded of their moonlit dance, Ororo wrapped her arm around his waist, so they walked completely interlinked. They eased down the busy New York street, peering into windows whenever something struck them. Life with Wolverine would be anything but boring.
When he’d switched the songs on the player “ Ororo recognized the disc as a ballad mix she would never cop to owning “ he had silently held her hand out to him. The simplicity of his romantic request nearly made her swoon. He never did anything he did not want to, had he not told her that in Fairbanks?
How long they remained that way, dancing under the moon, she wasn’t sure. They made love in the dark, lost in a world that consisted of only them.
“Hey, now,” Logan said, suddenly bringing her back to the present. “C’mon.”
Confused as Logan unwrapped her from his arms and tugged on the hands he joined instantly, she had little choice but to follow. They ducked into a quiet shop that had large belt buckles, sturdy jeans and flannel shirts. Ororo followed Logan wordlessly, pausing only long enough to inspect a pretty, feminine belt.
He released her hand, muttering for her to stay put a minute. Ororo slipped back a few steps, taking the belt from the stand. It was made of soft black leather. The buckle, which immediately caught her fancy, was silver with four little turquoise stones creating a simple circular pattern.
Deciding she would buy it for herself, she checked the price tag and then looked around for Logan. He was in the rear of the shop, moving around as he looked at something along the wall. Shrugging, Ororo made her way to the register. The young girl was obviously distracted by the man who just walked by.
Ororo was slightly smug at her jealous glare while ringing up the mutant’s purchase. She wanted to taunt the woman like a child while declaring “MINE!” for everyone to hear.
Logan appeared a moment later, telling her to close her eyes as he hid something behind his back. Complying, Ororo resisted the urge to peek as Logan purchased something. His “Naw, she’ll wear it out” made curiosity almost too much to bear.
A moment later, she felt something on her head. Logan was fixing it quickly.
“There, that’s downright sexy.”
“May I open my eyes now?” Ororo asked with an inkling of what he had bought.
“Yep.”
Regaining her sight, she glanced at a nearby mirror. On her head was a brand new woman’s Stetson in his signature black. It was something like a claim, a statement that she belonged to him alone. She nearly swooned again.
He had moved the Stetson low over her eyes, giving her a mysterious look. Her white hair was shocking against the black color.
“You bought me a hat,” she grinned at his reflection.
“Maybe now you’ll quit snatchin’ mine.”
Ororo laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him noisily. He tugged her out of the shop quickly, asking to see what she had bought. When she produced the belt from her shopping bag, he immediately decided she had to wear both to Harry’s that night.
Thrilled at the idea that he wanted to show her off, she was busy planning her outfit when they rounded the street corner. Logan had her wrapped in his arms again. They were on their way to a restaurant a few blocks away, which her love swore up and down made the best steak this side of the Mississippi.
Teasing him that he was spending too much time around Rogue, she never noticed the three mutants tailing them.
It was not until Logan turned, pushing her protectively behind him, that she even realized something was wrong. Ororo flattened to the wall, trying to figure out what was happening. Logan had unsheathed his claws, standing between a tall, lanky man reflecting blinding light and an Asian woman who seemed to have no problems fending Wolverine off hand-to-hand.
Pedestrians were running. Ororo’s X-Man button clicked on in her scattered mind and she shouted at them all to find safety. Wolverine was snarling, attempting to catch the strange mutant laughing at him. Ororo let her eyes glow white and she gathered wind to thrust herself into the air.
She lost her balance almost immediately, several feet above the street. Something was affecting her equilibrium and she crashed to the dirty New York sidewalk. Pain erupted all over her body from the impact. The wind was knocked from Storm’s lungs. She gasped for air desperately; the urge to blackout was so strong it momentarily stunned her.
In the battle, Logan was busy with his two demons. Ororo scanned the area for her own when she regained control of her breathing. A silvery haired woman was standing above her, one hand pointed negligently at the fallen weather manipulator.
She was watching Logan fight. Storm let loose a snarl worthy of the man she loved. Before the woman could react, Ororo flipped her legs around, catching the woman below the knee so she crashed to the street as well. The thud of a body hitting pavement was rewarding, making her smile wickedly.
“I know you,” Storm gasped when she scrambled to her feet. Her balance was still shaky, but her memory was sharp.
“Her DNA mapping, Doctor.”
“Excellent, my dear. Isn’t it fascinating? Her very flesh contains millions of electric volts. ”
“Who are you?” Storm demanded.
The woman clamped her mouth shut. Noticing that her hands were twitching, Ororo pressed her high heel into the woman’s throat.
“Try it, bitch, and I will spill your blood right here.”
Her tone was deadly serious, her expression one of fury. This woman was one of Sinister’s minions. What did they want with her? Was nothing sacred? Had they not taken enough from her already?
“You are an X-Man,” the silver-haired mutant said icily. “You do not kill.”
Unable to resist, Ororo dug her heel harder into the woman’s flesh. “Try me.”
“Vertigo,” the mutant offered a beat later. “My name is Vertigo.”
“Good girl,” Storm said in a sugary-sweet tone.
Hearing Logan swear, she addressed him without looking up. “All right, honey?”
“Peachy, darlin’. You?”
Adamantium striking metal made her smile. They were fine for now. Capturing a few of Sinister’s lackeys could prove useful.
“Just fine, love.”
Vertigo was whimpering under Ororo’s heel, but the X-Woman was still slightly dizzy. Judging from the woman’s name, she assumed the mutant had affected her balance. It would take her a few minutes to fly without fear of falling.
Deciding to help Logan, she covered the area with rain. The sky darkened above, heeding the call of the elemental mistress. Logan preferred fighting when wet. He felt it gave him the upper hand against trained fighters that only practiced in controlled environments.
Her momentary distraction proved lethal. Ororo heard Vertigo shout.
“ARCLIGHT!”
A beat later, before Storm could turn to defend herself, the Asian woman was on her. The slight mutant grabbed her by the hair and the back of her dress, lifting her effortlessly over her head. The Stetson tumbled from her head, plopping into the wet gutter.
Panicking, Ororo tried to bring down lightning. But Vertigo was free. She pulsed her unusual mutation toward the struggling woman. Instantly, Ororo’s world spun and she had control over nothing.
The mutant called Arclight tossed her as a dog would a chew toy. Ororo heard Logan scream her name, the sound filled with raw rage and fear. She briefly noticed the male attacker blinding Logan as he attempted to rush to her aid.
Immense pain slammed through her body when she hit a wall across the street. Falling limply to the ground, her prone form sent more bystanders screaming in fear. Ororo could barely open her eyes, Wolverine’s animalistic wrath echoing through the suddenly empty street. Debris fell around her, the dust choking her already labored breathing. Everything in her body was screaming.
But the sound changed a moment later. Instead of roaring in rage, he was crying for help.
“STORM!”
“Logan?”
Her voice sounded weak even to her ringing ears. Shaky arms attempted to support her battered body when she flipped from her back to her stomach, but she fell a heartbeat later. Watery eyes opened in time to see Logan fall in the wet street. Several of what looked to be darts stuck out of his neck and back. Glassy eyes met hers across the scarce meters that separated them.
It struck her then. They were not after her. They wanted Wolverine. A sob was lost in her dry throat as Arclight took Logan into her arms and tossed him into the back of an unmarked van. Gritting her teeth, Ororo got a good look at the plates.
She flopped back onto her back, trying to breathe as she repeated the plate number in her head.
DFC-901.
~**~
In her many years, no matter the injustices and injuries inflicted on her, Ororo had always carefully controlled her temper. She could endure a beating at the hands of her thief leader in Cairo without betraying emotion at all.
But when she awoke to Henry’s relieved eyes and gathered X-Men, an F-5 tornado tore through the grounds. There was no consoling her. She could tell that Charles seriously contemplated shutting her mind down, if only to protect the children.
“They have Logan,” was all she offered in explanation.
“My dear, the tornado?”
At Beast’s gentle reminder, she closed her eyes. The fight inside of her was something she could lose herself in. Energy of the elements was clawing at her for release. Someone was going to pay for hurting her again. The primal nature she tried to keep under wraps at all times nearly consumed her.
Quieting the force of nature took almost all of the energy she had left.
Collapsing against Beast from the effort, she let him pat her back soothingly. It was explained, in quick and quiet tones that a bystander had leapt to her aid. After the other mutants vanished, a middle-aged father of four had jumped in before the police could interfere.
He’d scooped up her hat and shopping bag, learning from a half-comatose Ororo that she lived in Westchester. He recognized her as one of the mutant vigilantes responsible for saving hundreds of lives on Alcatraz and delivered her in his minivan to the gates of the school.
Ororo vowed to thank her Good Samaritan some day. As soon as she got Logan back, eviscerated Vertigo, stabbed that bitch Archlight, and tore Sinister limb from limb.
“Wolverine is a terrible influence on you,” the Professor said with something like amusement in his tone.
“Did you discover why they wanted Wolverine?” Beast was asking.
Her head was still spinning. Falling into the med-lab examination bed, she gripped her temples and tried desperately to find a shred of placidity. As though sensing her distress, Betsy and Charles placed one of their hands over hers.
A moment later, her world came sharply into focus.
“Thank you.”
They answered with small, understanding smile. Taking a moment to catch her breath, she shifted various muscles. Her back ached terribly. There was a nasty cut on her arm that Beast was quickly bandaging.
“They want Logan,” Ororo said after a moment. It was all she could say. Remembering the way he called to her, asking for her help was making her heart hurt.
“I think I know why,” Shadowcat interrupted. “Hank?”
“I transferred everything here.” He indicated to the computer on the small desk.
Kitty rushed over, turning the monitor so everyone could see what she was doing. After several seconds of the girl typing furiously, she brought up several DNA sequence maps.
“I pulled these off of the disk Beast and I made in Sydney,” she explained. “These are all DNA strains from mutant males.”
“Logan and Ororo reported something similar to me this morning via phone,” Charles nodded.
“Right, but look at this.” Kitty typed something into the computer’s keyboard and the DNA sequences began to shift. “Male mutants carry the strain that gives us our powers, but it’s real weak. A male is more like a carrier.”
“Yes,” Beast answered as he finished with Storm’s arm. “Female mutants have a strong mutant gene.”
“Ok, everyone with us?” Kitty glanced around the room. More images flitted onto the screen.
“This is Storm,” she pointed to the left side of the screen and then to the right. “And this is Betsy.”
Beast smiled at his young student. She had taken a crash course in advanced genetics the previous evening, from what he whispered to Ororo. The girl had wanted to understand what she was looking at.
“Ok, now these…” she trailed off, pulling two more images up. They changed every few seconds. “Are what Betsy and ‘Roro’s kids would look like, depending on the male.”
Aghast, no one spoke. Kitty rushed on. “This doesn’t mean there are little Storms and Psylockes running around. It’s more like a computer program that matches it up.”
“The catch, Kitty?” Beast prompted her.
“Oh, right.” The girl frowned, pointing to some of the dots on the screen. “None of these matched up sequences would produce a viable mutant.”
“For every two homo sapiens that mate, they have a 15 percent chance of producing a mutant. For every two mutants that reproduce, the chance jumps to 60 percent,” the girl was on a roll now. “But for a mutant to be born, certain conditions have to be right.”
“In the last thirty years, many have thought the mutant strain was completely random. However, Mr. Sinister’s research completely undermines that ideology.” Beast motioned for Kitty to continue as he fell silent again.
“If certain DNA strains are just right, the conditions perfect, you can produce a mutant. For DNA that matches perfectly, the probability for giving birth to a mutant is 98.789 percent. Now, you can’t predict the mutation, but the more powerful the parents…”
“The more “elite” the mutation,” Betsy chimed in as though she caught on.
Ororo swallowed hard. “Henry?”
“Yes, my dear?”
“You have Logan’s DNA mapping on file, do you not?”
“Well, yes. Kitty, it is in the Project: Valiant file, under his codename.”
Ororo slid from the bed, moving toward the computer as Shadowcat brought up the requested file. “Good. Kitty, can you map my DNA to Logan’s and then to Betsy’s?”
“Um, I think so,” the girl said. She concentrated on her computer screen for several seconds, her brow furrowed and tongue caught between her teeth as she worked.
The pattern on the screen shifted, finally melting into a single, cohesive whole. A prompt box at the top of the screen popped up, flashing “Match” eagerly. Kitty gasped, then repeated the process with Betsy’s information.
That flashing box appeared again.
“No way,” Kitty breathed.
As the girl continued comparing Logan’s genome to several recovered from Sinister’s file, Ororo turned to the assembled X-Men. They were watching her cautiously, as though wondering if another tornado was going to erupt. Perhaps a hurricane. Or a blizzard.
Storm, however, was completely composed. “Logan’s healing factor.”
“Oh my stars,” Beast cut in as he stared at the computer screen in wonder. “It shifts to compensate for any weaknesses. With Logan, and the human male ability to continue producing sperm almost endlessly, Sinister has the perfect control factor.”
“He can create this army of mutants.” Charles, for the first time, sounded as though he wanted to rage.
Ororo exhaled slowly. “They cannot know this yet. Logan will have to be tested and mapped by his captors.”
“The process takes several hours, perhaps days if the equipment is not hospital quality.” Beast offered gently.
“It is safe to say that they do not know how Logan’s mutation works quite yet. They did know to pump him full of enough drugs to take out a herd of elephants, so they will have prepared to hold him.” She glanced around the room.
“We’ve got a little time,” Iceman said coolly. Storm could almost see his anger taking over. If he were not careful, he would “ice-up” without thinking about it.
“I managed to take a look at the license plate, but I have a feeling I know where we are going to find Sinister,” Storm said quickly. “Henry, there is a genetics lab in Albany, correct?”
“Yes, but it is run by government…oh, wait!” Beast snapped his fingers, grabbing his forehead. “A pharmaceutical company bought the building last year.”
“Why do you…?” Alison questioned quietly.
“The woman that attacked me, Vertigo, she worked there. Henry and I met her four years ago when he visited for a conference.”
“Oh,” a few of them said in unison. Beast cast Ororo a heartbroken look. She offered him a small smile, her mind already working out a quick and decisive offensive.
“Ororo?” Charles asked carefully. “What are you planning to do?”
She met his blue gaze with one of glowing white. The room was deathly quiet, as though everyone in it was holding his or her breath. Storm knew, without a doubt, that while she may have wanted to retrieve Logan alone, there was no way his family would stay behind. Where she had pulled away from the team, he had become an integral part of it.
Kitty, Henry, Bobby, Peter, Warren and even Alison were going to help her, whether she wanted them to or not. Inhaling deeply, Ororo lowered her voice until it nearly matched that of Logan.
“I am going to get my Wolverine back.”
