He saw the white of her running shoes, lined up beside each other on the forest floor, followed by bare golden legs held tightly to her chest with her forehead resting on her knees. She was sitting under a tree far removed from the maze of pathways that crisscrossed the woodland, its foliage covering her. Slowly, he approached her and his ears pricked back. She was weeping, her shoulders shaking from the force of her silent sobs. He paused, confused by a compulsion to make her stop.
Relegating all his power into his legs, he leaped across the rocky ledge separating them and knocked her over, covering her mouth with one gloved hand as the other held her wrists over her head. Her eyes were wide, more from surprise than fear, he knew, but he reveled in the expression anyway. Nothing made him feel more alive than her helpless in his arms. Before she could look into his eyes, before she could recover, he crashed his mouth down on hers, brushing back the wet tendrils of hair from her beautiful face.
He was on fire, every nerve ending ignited as sheer want consumed him. She was – delicious.
He released pheromone out of every pore, the air thick with his heady musk and he could have roared with victory when he heard her moaned response, becoming soft and pliant under him as she returned his kiss with hungry enthusiasm. Her body arched off the damp moss to meet his, pressing her fevered skin against the leather of his uniform, long legs opening for him to fit in between. Nostrils flaring, her aroused fragrance laced his throat as he dragged it deep into his lungs, her taste coating the walls of his mouth as their tongues swirled for dominance over the other. Her purr filled his ears with carnal promise and a tremor overtook him. He felt more than need for this female.
He craved her.
“Anata wa ore no mono.”
He felt her go rigid beneath him. Through the haze of lust, he felt her pull away, saw the liquid jade of her eyes disappear as her pupils overtook them in horror.
“You’re not my Wolverine.”
Daken almost whimpered from the loss of her passionate embrace, the wantoness that heated her dissipating and replaced with chilled revulsion. What was once soft, became stiff - what was once hot, turned cold.
“No,” he snarled, choking with disappointment and something else he refused to acknowledge. “I’m not. I’m better.”
His free hand grabbed at her breast, bringing his head down to capture the tip into his mouth. Rogue cried out and struggled against him but he was larger, stronger. One heavy leg lay crossed over both of hers, the other bent by her side to keep her in place while he roughly ran his palm over her body, his teeth biting through the material of her shirt. Rogue desperately tried to free herself, twisting to make contact with his bare skin but he was covered completely except for where his gloves ended and the shoulders of his uniform began. He came prepared.
Daken shifted himself easily to match her movements, using his weight to keep her pinned. The aroma of her fury inflamed him, fanning his lust. He would have her, willing or not. This female was his.
“I like your idea of foreplay, kanari shōjo.”
Rogue rotated her wrists to try and free her hands, knowing she couldn’t ignite anything without touch. But his grip tightened painfully, making her fingers splay out in frustration as they went numb from the pressure.
“That’s a mighty big uniform to fill, Daken,” she taunted, breathing hard from her efforts. “It fits loose on you.”
He laughed, sliding his body purposely against hers so she could feel his entire length, pressing his erection against her hip. “Don’t worry, little one,” Daken murmured gruffly into her ear, “I fit nice and tight.”
Logan’s feet hit the ground faster than his heart beat, blurring through the trees as his claws slashed at the unlucky branches in his way. He could hear her, could hear him and their words fed the berserker raging within.
Anata wa ore no mono.(You are mine.)
Japanese. A deep, masculine voice rasped by desire.
You’re not my Wolverine.
There was fear in her voice. His mate was afraid.
No. I’m not. I’m better.
He could hear his female cry out – could hear her struggle.
I like your idea of foreplay, kanari shōjo.(pretty girl)
He ran faster. Her scent, his scent, getting stronger. Getting closer.
That’s a mighty big uniform to fill, Daken. It fits loose on you.
He almost snarled in approval. That’s it, darlin’. Keep him angry. Keep him distracted.
Don’t worry, little one. I fit nice and tight.
The Wolverine lost the ability to think – fury dousing his vision in red.
Rogue lifted her head but Daken pulled back sharply, making a tsking sound with his tongue.
“That’s a no-no, Rogue,” he grunted, swiveling and thrusting his hips against hers. “Those full, delicious lips of yours are going to be put to a much better use – later. You’ll be tasting me soon enough.”
Enraged, Rogue spat on him. Grinning, Daken wiped his face with deliberate slowness, his eyes blackening further. Fingers wet with her saliva, he reached between her legs, digging under the legs of her shorts and managing to push upwards despite her renewed struggles to get free. He bruised her inner thighs as he slipped first one finger between them, and then another.
Rogue bit back a sob, his invasion of her body bringing tears to her eyes. She tried to keep her legs locked but he continued to gain access, finding her entrance and stabbing into her, pushing deep inside. Rogue closed her eyes as tears escaped them, turning away from his harsh puffs of breath hitting her face. There was nothing but ice in her veins, nothing but aversion as nausea lined her mouth and turned her stomach.
Daken growled, relishing the sight of her under him, her redolence tempting him lose control, the tight feel of her exciting him further. He slid his fingers inside her easily; his gloved hand slickened from her earlier arousal. Coating his fingers thoroughly, he removed his hand and brought it to his nose, inhaling her scent before working his tongue over the moistened digits to smear them against her lips. Rogue tried to bite him but he was quicker, bringing his hand back down between their bodies.
“So sweet. So succulent.” He used his knee to wedge apart her legs, pressing a powerfully muscled thigh to open them. He pulled aside the crotch of her shorts and she could feel humid air against the exposed core of her. “It’s time to get fucked by a real man, beautiful Rogue. It’s time for me to claim you.”
Rogue decided she would rather die.
Daken looked up in surprise as lightning crashed directly above them. He barely had time to roll out of the way before the earth around them shook from the impact of multiple electrical charges hitting the ground where they had been laying. Rogue curled into a ball, her skin blistering from the strike that caught her alongside the right side of her body. Grimacing in pain, she pushed off the granite outcropping to her left and landed on the pebbled bank of the creek below.
She could see others appear, surrounding her, slowly closing in and blocking her escape. Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Spiderwoman and the Black Widow - all imposters, a quick sniff told her as much - their scents unknown except for two. The scent of the false Black Widow was familiar, and Rogue snarled, baring her teeth as she recognized it. It was the scent that had been on Laura after she had been attacked.
Rogue would kill her first. But the one dressed as Spiderwoman, she would catch first. Melanie – the fear and guilt coming from the arachnid costumed female confirming it. Rogue’s thoughts raced. This was the team Daken enlisted mutants for. A bunch of Avenger wannabes on behalf of H.A.M.M.E.R., traitors to their own kind by supporting Osborne’s known stance on Mutant Registration. But why were they after her?
“I won’t go with you,” she told him, drizzle soothing her healing skin. He stood at the edge of the escarpment above them. “I want nothing to do with your pathetic band of misfits.”
Daken widened his grin, looking down at her. “You will. But don’t worry. When the lovely Blindspot is done with you, there will be no memories left for you to pine over. Only I will exist, only I will matter. Forever.”
Ugly fear washed over her, the arrogance in his voice only slightly less frightening than learning what he had planned. Rogue grabbed a handful of rocks at her feet and quickly charged them, whipping the tiny bombs at the fake Hawkeye and Black Widow who separated from the rest to lunge at her. They ducked for cover as the bits exploded, giving Rogue needed space to sprint past the two mutants – directly towards Blindspot who had already turned and was running towards a nearby clearing.
Rogue pulled off her running shoes, charging them, keeping the retreating form of Blindspot in her sight but shifting the focus of her remaining senses to her pursuer. Rogue waited until the fake Ms. Marvel was almost on her before spinning around and launching the purpled bombs directly at the flying mutant. The explosives caught the blonde woman mid air, sending Moonstone hurtling down as the blowout from the blasts pounded into her.
Running faster, Rogue cursed under her breath. She should have returned to the Westchester instead of wallowing in self pity in a secluded part of the park, should have known that Daken would seek her out when she was most vulnerable. She might as well been dressed in neon, with flashing lights to match. She pressed her Avenger Communicator repeatedly, but didn’t receive an answer, deepening her frown. Where the hell were the real Avengers? Why weren’t they helping her?
She could still make Melanie out in the distance, quicker than Rogue thought she would have been. Rogue ripped off the tiny, now useless earpiece that kept her linked to her teammates, intending to use it a weapon. Fury flushing through her, she eyed the fleeing memory thief and aimed.
Suddenly, Rogue felt a shoulder slam into the side of her, dislodging a rib and forcing her hard to the ground as the explosive set off harmlessly into the air. Wind completely knocked out of her, Rogue tried to stand, only to have a set of powerfully muscled arms throw her onto her back, pinning her arms between her body and his much bigger one.
“You make this fun, Rogue.”
Daken barely broke out into a sweat in his run to catch up with her. She tried to enter his mind but was met with pain – his psychic defenses surprising and cutting into her. “You are just full of surprises,” she heard him say through the psionic distress she found herself in. “What else can you do?”
The sound of claws extending, followed by the slick sound of flesh giving way reached both their ears and his sharply indrawn gasp made her smirk. Eyes wide, Daken looked down between them and stared at the claws she had embedded deep into his chest, his blood pooling down on her as both their olfactory receptors bathed in its metallic scent. Despite the pain piercing through her skull, Rogue shoved harder, twisting deep inside his solar plexus and pushing upwards, carving as much lung and tissue she could on her way to his heart.
With an infuriated roar, he grabbed her hands and fractured her wrists with a quick bending of his fingers, the sickening snapping sound swallowed by Rogue’s screams of agony. Daken pulled her lamed hands away from his shredded thorax, her claws sliding back and puncturing out of her mutilated joints as they tried to retreat back into her forearms. The added pain made her cry out again.
“Oyamaa,” he whispered in awe, staring as her appendages worked to repair themselves, the jagged ends of protruding bone knitting back together as shorn tendons snaked back around recovering muscles. Blood poured from his mouth as he wheezed, his harsh intakes of breath initially failing to inflate his collapsed lungs. Within moments his healing factor made quick work of returning pulmonary function to the eviscerated organs, allowing him to tell her quietly, “You are fucking perfect.”
Daken fisted Rogue’s hair with both hands and cracked her head against the bed of rock under them. All she saw before she blacked out was his face, still covered in the mask of the Wolverine, onyx eyes full of blatant adoration. For her.
Flying over Manhattan, the sudden lightning strike over Central Park was like a beacon to the X-Men’s Blackbird. Reaching the thick grouping of trees just past the Bethesda Terrace, Cyclops could make out four figures encircling a couple lying on the ground. At his nod, Nightcrawler reached out to touch Jubilee, Gambit, Beast and Colossus – bamfing down to the ground as the side door slid open to release Storm and Northstar into the sky.
He landed the aircraft onto the lake and immediately H.A.M.M.E.R. agents raced towards the uncloaked Blackbird in motor boats. Iron cables shot over the fuselage of the jet, their ends anchored under the water as they tightened the binds to prevent the aircraft from taking flight again.
Charles took over the controls, already using his telepathic power to convince the government soldiers that the X-Men were still inside the jet. “Go, Cyclops. You must find it. It is your only objective.”
The X-Men leader nodded tersely before running out the opened back, somersaulting through the air a hundred feet from where the rest of the X-Men landed. The uniformed men around him were none the wiser as they focused on keeping the Blackbird under constraint, congratulating themselves on the quick takedown of the famous mutant team’s mode of transportation.
Storm evaded the blasts sent her way by Moonstar, her supple but lithe body bending seamlessly as she flew. Summoning power from the clouds above, she sent bolt after bolt towards the fake Ms. Marvel who managed to escape each electrical attack by turning intangible, knowing to keep to the trees. Not wanting to destroy the landscape, Storm soared closer to the ground where she was immediately tackled by Bullseye who had been following the women’s fight, anticipating the powerful X-Man’s move.
“You should have stayed up in the air, weather witch,” he hissed, cracking his fist across her jaw and striking her senseless. Hawkeye raised his dagger but a large mass of blue fur threw him off her, the roar of the Beast almost shattering his ear drums.
Beast drew his hands back and swung them towards the fake Hawkeye’s head, intending to knock it clear off his shoulders, but not in time as multiple blasts from Moonstar’s hands hit him, having returned from the sky to assist her team mate.
Beast flew back several feet, stunned, but was quickly replaced by both Colossus and Northstar swooping in from both sky and land. Moonstar screamed in anger as Northstar held her tight in his arms before becoming intangible again and slipping through his grasp to fly away. In a flash, the Canadian gave chase, streaking through the sky after her.
Colossus picked up a dead tree from the ground to pound on top of Bullseye but the fake Black Widow stepped directly in its path, the wood splintering against her indestructible skin. With a screech, Kimura launched herself at the large Russian, punching his midsection with rapid fire palm strikes, sending him sprawling to the grassy knoll outside of the Ramble a few feet away.
Meanwhile, Bullseye turned to face Jubilee and Nightcrawler, both X-Men appearing to the left of him. The blue demon bamfed directly behind him, leg out to make contact with the back of the assassin’s head but he was brought down abruptly as Bullseye easily determined where he would reappear using his heightened instincts. Pulling out his dagger, he brandished it in the X-Man’s direction, contacting with Nightcrawler’s chest just as the air infused with sulphur, the teleporter disappearing to safety before his death blow could be dealt. Simultaneously, fireworks set off all around the Freedom Force member, blinding him, but Jubilee caught sight of the fake Spiderwoman who was trying to escape and turned her attention to the scampering non-Avenger.
“Hey! Stop!” Jubilee tore off her yellow trenchcoat and threw it to the ground as she ran, yelling at Gambit to focus on Bullseye who managed to slash at Nightcrawler again, drawing blood.
“Oui, petit. I got dis one.” Gambit’s eyes brightened, his hand of cards charged and smoking. Stepping out soundlessly from behind the trees, Daredevil held out his hand, his club twirling menacingly by his side.
“Allow me, Mr. LeBeau. Bullseye and I have some unfinished business to attend to.”
The Guild leader nodded his head in assent, knowing the two’s history and instead threw his cards towards Moonstone who was flying overhead. She became intangible again to avoid his attack, but it forced her to the ground and the impact of her crash landing shook the forest floor. Furious, her hands threw out blasts in every direction, paying no heed to teammate or enemy as X-Men and Freedom Force members worked to avoid the concussive energy sent their way.
Gambit raced over to Nightcrawler and threw the teleporter’s arm over his shoulder. “Can you teleport back to de plane, mon amie?”
Nightcrawler winced. “Ja. Just get me to Beast and Storm. Storm needs medical attention.”
“Maybe you too, non?” At his friend’s grimace, Gambit picked him up and quickly approached Beast who was holding an unresponsive Storm in his arms. All three X-Men vanished, wisps of blue smoke left in their wake as Gambit turned to assist Jubilee.
“Over here, Gambit!” he heard her scream, making him spin on his heel and retrace his steps from where he saw her run. There, beside a fern alongside the pathway lay Jubilee, her trademark coat pressed into her stomach. It was darkened with blood.
Horror crossed over his features as he dropped to his knees beside her. “Hang on, cher. Remy will get Kurt. You’ll be okay.”
She coughed, reaching for him. “Just hold me, Remy. I’m so scared. And it’s so cold. So, so cold.”
He held her in his arms, looking down into her pale face, rage racing through him. “Kurt, get back!” he yelled into his telelink, fear making his voice hoarse. “Jubilee…”
“….is just fine, stupid man.” Gambit stared in shock as the chocolate brown eyes of the beautiful Asian woman in his embrace lightened to bright yellow. He felt the knife as it plunged into his abdomen, burning and sharp, its quick twist shooting shards of pain through him. Mystique threw him off her just as Nightcrawler reappeared, scowling when he caught sight of his mother.
“Son. You’re hurt.” She frowned, seeing blood pouring out from the wide wound across his torso.
Kurt bent over Gambit who was clutching at his stomach, blood seeping through his fingers. His team mate was losing consciousness. “Mein Gott! How could you?”
Mystique shrugged, wiping the blood of the Cajun against her white glove, staining it scarlet. “That’s for thinking I would ever let a common thief join our family, dearest boy.”
Noting the shallowing of his friend’s breathing, Kurt had no choice but to teleport his Remy back to the jet before he weakened further from his own injury. Shooting his mother a look of contempt, he vanished, yelling into his tele-link to the rest of the X-Men that Mystique had joined the fray.
Black H.A.M.M.E.R. helicopters swooped around the park, forcing television networks to ground their own – soldiers keeping back crowds of people pushing forward from where they were lined along the sidewalks bordering Central Park. Standing on the roof-top of their mansion, the Avengers looked over to where the battle raged – the sight of Storm engaged with the false Ms. Marvel in the sky making the real one clench her teeth in anger.
“We should be there, Steve!” she yelled, glaring at the motionless Captain America. “Rogue is our team mate! We can’t just abandon her!”
“This isn’t our fight, Carol.”
“Like hell it isn’t!” Jessica Jones stepped in front of him, eyes spitting fire. “When someone attacks one of us, they attack us all!”
The Avenger leader took a deep breath, but his body remained tense. “Once Rogue is in custody, we’ll get this sorted out. Homeland Security is under H.A.M.M.E.R.’s roof now. There’s nothing we can do, right this moment, so the best thing is for Rogue to surrender. Matt is there right now, in his Daredevil alias and as her lawyer. There’s no reason for her to resist arrest. He’ll be with her the whole time.”
Luke Cage pulled his wife away. “Come on, babe. You know Cap’s right. We need to go by the book now. The X-Men are only making things worse by getting involved.”
“Worse? No, Luke. The X-Men are proving what it means to be a team.” She turned her glare to the rest of the Avengers behind her. “So help me if anything happens to Rogue. This whole thing just stinks of Osborne. And you’re all letting him get away with it.”
Spiderman, Hawkeye, Thor, and Luke watched the female members of their team fly back into the opened windows of the Avengers Mansion. The taciturn expressions on their faces indicated their frustration with their leader’s instruction to stand down before re-entering the home as well. Iron Man remained behind and stood beside Captain America whose eyes remained fixed ahead. Both men caught sight of Northstar shooting across the sky in pursuit of the unknown mutant masquerading as Ms. Marvel.
“Steve…”
“I know, Tony. I know. As soon as it looks like the X-Men need our help – we’re going in. Just you and me. Agreed?”
Anthony Stark nodded. He half hoped the X-Men would fail. He was spoiling for a good fight and besides, it was a perfect opportunity to play hero to Rogue’s damsel in distress. Nothing wrong with that.