The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
This chapter ended up being a lot longer then I meant it to and yes I wrote a bit of a cliched Kitty/Jubilee tag team duo, but I figure Rogue has to have some groupies of her own right? And I like the double trouble. :)
“You don’t have to do this. You don’t owe them a fucking thing.”
Marie looked at him and he could see the fire in her eyes. He wasn’t going to get anywhere talking to her. Damn the woman and her stubbornness!
“Logan, we’re talking about putting an end to Weapon X, taking down the entire operation. I owe it to myself and I’d think you out of anyone would understand!”
He did understand, he understood probably more then she realized because he’d been with the X-men long enough to know how they worked. Super healers always got sent on the suicide runs and he wasn’t so naive to think taking down a few labs would even put a dent in their operations. He knew Rogue wasn’t that naive either, but they were talking the sweet talk and playing straight into the dreams of revenge and justice that he knew burned deep within her like they did in him. Chuck always knew how to hit you were it hurt.
He glared at the Professor, wondering what had happened in the time he was gone to change the man so much that he was now spouting out warmongering propaganda instead of his usual dreams of peace. He’d noticed the same change in the other X-men as well. It couldn’t just be the Legacy Virus and the near extinction of the mutant race, there was something going on here that they weren’t telling him and that worried him more than anything.
“This is ridiculous, the kid’s not even fully healed yet and you want to toss her on a jet and send her off hunting down labs!”
“Chere don’t look much like a kid to me homme. Think she can make decisions for herself.”
Logan growled and felt the claws starting to edge out, “Don’t even start with me Cajun! You’ve been gone for months then suddenly show your face around now, claiming to know where Weapon X headquarters is, where the Legacy production facilities are, all too a bit convenient don’t you think?”
He could see Rogue’s face frown at that. Out of everyone she had met so far, he knew the only person she truly trusted was himself and though he would never abuse that trust, he wasn’t against reminding her a little of the fact if it meant keeping her safe.
“Logan, I can assure you, Gambit allowed me to see inside of his mind. What he speaks is the truth. If we had the time to wait, I would of course insist on allowing Rogue as much time as she needed to recuperate from her recent ordeals, but unfortunately, we do not have that luxury. According to the information we have, the General will only be at this particular lab for two days, giving us a small window of opportunity. I must admit, I did not expect you to be so vocally against this.”
A look crossed the Professors face that Logan recognized at once and he growled, “How many times I gotta tell you to keep outta my head Chuck.” Not for the first time, he found himself grateful for the psionic shields he’d spent years developing that kept his thoughts secret, even from the world’s most powerful telepath.
“You make accusations against Gambit regarding his trustworthiness, but you yourself have been away from the mansion just as long as he and yet have been much less forthcoming about your recent activities and what exactly happened in the lab. How do we know that it is not you who has been compromised Logan? Then there’s this matter of the mutants you brought back with you, they will need to be questioned as well.”
He felt a fury wash over him and opened his mouth to respond, but Rogue beat him to it, standing up, fists clenched, “Yeah, well, I was in that lab too and a hell of a lot longer than Logan, yet you’re willing to trust me and you don’t even know me! Logan’s a part of your team. You don’t know what it’s like! If Logan or anyone else we saved wants to keep their thoughts about the time in the lab private that’s their business and if you’re any bit of the man Logan’s been telling me you are, you should be respectful of that, but if it’ll stop this nonsense and keep you out of their heads, I got no problem showing you MY memories of the lab.”
Rogue glared at the Professor and Logan saw him flinch slightly, putting a hand up as if to stop the onslaught of memories she was apparently pushing into his mind. “That it is quite enough Rogue, you have made your point.” He took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose, “My apologies Logan, perhaps we are all acting slightly out of character recently. These have been trying times.”
Logan snorted at the understatement, but kept his eyes on Marie. She had sat back down and was now staring out the office window, a blank look across her face that made him slightly concerned and he wondered just what memories she had chosen to show Xavier. Apart from what he’d seen for himself, he knew very little of what life had been like for her at the lab, though he could make some pretty vivid guesses.
“I must admit Rogue, you have been quite a surprise. For one whose natural mutation is not telepathy, you wield the power you have absorbed quite well.”
She shrugged her shoulders and Logan could tell she was still fuming underneath the calm exterior. He didn’t blame her, he’d had trouble not jumping over the desk and strangling Xavier’s neck when he mentioned questioning the lab survivors. They’d been through enough, they didn’t need to undergo telepathic interrogation.
“We got time yet Professor, no? How about you give Rogue a bit to think it over.” Gambit said, “Maybe give her a go in the danger room to see how she feels. We could always get someone else, Scott said Jubilee and Kitty have been doing well.”
Logan couldn’t believe his ears. “You’ve got Jubilee and Kitty training to be X-men?! They’re just kids!”
“They have already proven themselves valuable assets to the junior team Logan. A lot of things have changed since you’ve been gone,” Xavier said, then looking to Rogue, “I think perhaps Gambit is right. There is no need for an answer immediately. Why don’t you spend the rest of today touring the facility? Logan can introduce you to the danger room and you can inform us of your decision first thing in the morning.”
She looked at the Professor for a moment, nodded her head, and then hurried quickly out of the room. Logan was right on her heels, leaving behind Xavier and Gambit in the office, and grabbed her arm, dragging her down an abandoned hallway.
“We need to talk,” he said. She pulled her arm from out of his grip and glared up at him.
“What sort of place is this?! The way you and Hank talked about it, about the X-men and Professor Xavier, I thought this place would be safe, would be different,” she said, frustration and anger seeping into her voice, “If he or any of the X-men so much as look wrong at the mutants we brought back from the lab I swear Logan, I’ll rip their heads off.” She was growling and he could see her eyes darken, a sign of her feral mutations coming to the forefront.
He needed to calm her down before it got out of control. This time he put a hand softly on her shoulder. “I won’t let anything happen to them,” he said, locking eyes with her, trying to make her understand. He felt a responsibility to them, to all of them, but especially to the young lads and even more so to her. He’d never let any harm come to them and if he had known what Xavier’s was turning into, he might have never brought them here in the first place. “Things around here are a lot different than when I left and I don’t like it. I need you to be careful Marie, don’t trust anything they tell you, and I need you to listen to me, until I can figure out what the hell is going on. You can’t go on this mission they want to send you on. You may have a bit of healing, but you sure as hell aren’t invincible and right now, keeping you safe is a heck of a lot more important than getting revenge.”
“I can still hear them Logan.” Her eyes had gotten that same distant look to them that she had in Xavier’s office. “You know that was the worst part of it. I’d been there so long, I could hardly remember a time I wasn’t in the lab, everything, even the tests became, routine. My mind was all muddled and I was barely even human, but when I heard the screams of the other mutants; men, women.” She paused, took in a deep breath, “Children. There were times I’d beg them to take me instead, let me take whatever they had to dish out in their place, just to stop the screaming. But there was nothing I could do. Sometimes I think they did it on purpose, left doors open so the sound could carry, as another sign of how helpless I was. Helpless to save myself, helpless to save anyone else. They were turning me into a super mutant of their own design and yet I was powerless against them.”
She looked up at him and he could see the tears she refused to let fall barely glistening in the corners of her eyes. Her arms were wrapped across her chest and she looked suddenly extremely young and fragile except for the fire burning behind her eyes. “There are labs out there, hundreds maybe thousands, with mutants still suffering, just like we were and now I have the power Logan. Thanks to your healing, I’ve got my control back, my mind back, and I have a chance to use it, to save them all. Everyone was protected from Legacy inside the lab, who knows how many mutants may still be alive, hidden and are being tortured, being killed.”
“Or it could all be a big fucking lie to lure you back into their hands. Gambit’s new to the team and he’s a member of the Theives Guild. He’s got a history of playing all sides, so long as there’s profit in it. You can’t trust anything he says.”
She looked up at him with those big eyes and he could feel his resolve wavering. “We have to try though, don’t we? What if it’s not a trap and we had a chance to take down the Weapon X program forever and passed it by because we weren’t willing to take the risk. I just don’t know if I could live with the wondering Logan.”
If it meant keeping her safe and alive he could live perfectly fine with the wondering, but he knew Rogue would question it and it would eat at her. She was just that type of person and he could see she had already made her mind up. She would go, with or without his help. Which left him with two options; steal her away and tie her up until he could make her see reason, which was extremely tempting, or make sure the girl didn’t get herself killed or worse, recaptured. He sighed.
“If we do this, we do it MY way,” he growled, wondering when he’d become such a damn softy, “I trust Sabretooth more then I trust that street rat and I’m not about to risk you getting caught in the labs again.”
He wasn’t prepared when she launched herself at him, hugging him tightly, nor for the feeling of her body pressed hard against his which was quickly making all the blood in his head rush south. Letting his arms fall to rest lightly around her, he drank in the sweet smell of her mixing with his own scent, causing a rumble in his chest.
Her whole body tensed suddenly and she slowly stepped away from him, a blush creeping across her face. “So tell me about this Danger Room,” she said, breaking the tension.
He took a breath to regain his composure and motioned her to follow him. A few minutes later they stood in the middle of a large metal room. Rogue looked around, “So it can make anything appear? Any scenario you want?”
Logan nodded, “Anything you can think up in the programming, it can do and more. You sure you feel up to this right now?”
“Oh yeah, it’ll be good to get some frustrations out,” she said looking anywhere, but at him. The blush still hadn’t completely faded from her cheeks. He thought it suited her and the Wolverine inside him was very pleased with himself at having unsettled her so much. He also had some very interesting ideas about what he thought their next course of action should be, but Logan pushed them aside and pointed up to the tinted one way glass towards the top far wall.
“That’s the control room up there. I’ll be able to see everything that’s going on and monitor your vitals. I’ll also be able to increase the intensity and change the programing to test different skills. We’ll start out with the basics to get some baselines and work our way up.”
He showed her to the locker room and gave her a training uniform to change into before heading up to the control room to get everything situated. First thing would be to test her strength and telepathy levels, then motor function, then straight into upper level simulations. He always figured the best way to gage a mutants ability was to stick them straight in over their heads and see how they reacted. Cyclops always had a tendency to baby the new recruits a bit and ease them in, but real life wasn’t like that.
The sound of the door sliding open and closed below brought his attention back to the Danger Room floor and he was glad Rogue couldn’t see the look on his face behind the one way glass. The simple black training suit left little to the imagination, hugging every single curve as tight as a second skin.
Made of specially designed material, it would keep her safe from possible burns and bullet wounds while at the same time allowing her to feel the impact of everything. It was also fitted with electronic sensors so he could monitor everything from her heart rate to hormone levels to the amount of sweat she released and set up with a tracking device allowing him to lock specific attacks onto her, which was useful when they did group training sessions.
As she started to stretch, he had to suppress a groan and closed his eyes to try and get a handle over himself. He was well past the age to be acting like a lusting teenage boy, unable to control himself around a beautiful woman.
“Let the good times roll,” she said looking up at the control room window, a feral grin spreading across her face as she crouched down.
A few hours later and the Control Room was now full of people.
“Did you see that? She ripped that Sentinel’s head right off!”
“Now how come I never thought to use the ceiling as a maneuvering platform before?”
“Did she just growl? I thought that was Wolverine’s thing.”
“Kick it up another level.” Cyclops had come in as word of the session began to spread around the school and had immediately started asking questions and requesting Logan to run thru various simulations. He felt it a bit unnecessary, he’d seen enough to tell him Rogue would be a huge asset to the team and definitely not someone you’d want as your enemy. Even he had been surprised when she had maxed out her strength at 75 tons while they were doing the baselines.
Logan raised an eyebrow, but went ahead and turned the dial. He was pretty sure she could take at least another five increases easily. She had already surpassed the minimum level requirements for the Alpha Team ages ago. Anything beyond that was merely showing off. He should know, they still had yet to find his own maximum level.
“You really think this is necessary Summers?” he asked, watching as the scene inside the Danger Room changed to accommodate the new scenario. Cyclops didn’t answer, just stood there with his hands over his chest.
Logan winced as Rogue took a nasty hit to the stomach while trying to take on three androids at once. She may be good, but she was cocky at times and too willing to take a blow instead of dodge it. Just because she could take a hit, didn’t mean she should. Her use of the surrounding area was good though. It took a lot of flyers years to realize that up and down were wherever they wanted them to be and she’d utilized the ceiling multiple times for some rather clever movements.
Another hit from a Sentinel knocked her halfway across the room, stunning her for a moment and he almost turned the simulation off, but she was quickly back on her feet, and flew fist first straight through its chest. Her attacks were breathtaking, but defense, the girl definitely needed to work on her defense.
She worked her way easily through the scenario like he knew she would and Cyclops motioned with his hand to turn it off then left without a word. Ending the simulation, he watched as Rogue looked around confused as everything around her disappeared until she was just standing in an empty room again. Turning, she looked up at the control room window, hands on her hips.
“That all you got sugar? I’ve barely worked up a sweat!”
But Logan was already out of the control room and walking through the doors. “Cyclops got tired of seeing you beat his scores,” he said, grinning as she jumped and spun around. He looked her over, other than a few cuts and bruises she seemed to be okay. They’d heal up within a few minutes. He gently grabbed her face and watched as the black eye that had been forming quickly softened back to pale white skin.
“If you wanted to prove you could take a punch I could have saved us all time and just got Colossus to come in here and wail on you a bit,” he said, glaring at her, “Would it kill you to actually dodge a blow every now and again?”
She frowned a bit and then got the look on her face that he recognized as her sorting through memories of those she had absorbed. When she finished, she shrugged. “Lots of scrapping up there, not a whole lot of dodging. Would it kill you to dodge a blow every now and again? Then maybe I’d know how.”
He looked at her stunned for a moment. He’d never thought about it before, but now that he took the time, he did have a tendency to just take the hits and let the anger build up and work its way out of him. Maybe it was a super healer thing. Still, her ability wasn't nearly as strong as his own. He could afford to take the punches, she couldn't.
“Just because I don’t doesn’t mean I don’t know how. I’ll show you a few things kid. You’re healing isn’t as strong as mine,” he looked at her and smiled, “But you did good, real good. How do you feel?”
Rogue’s face broken into a wide grin, “I feel great!”
As they walked out of the Danger Room, Rogue was bombarded by students in the hallway asking questions and wanting to congratulate her. By the look on her face he could tell she was being overwhelmed by it. A few growls and shouts later and they were once again alone, heading towards the room Xavier had given her. Kitty and Jubilee were waiting by the door when they got there.
“What are you two up to?” he asked, not liking the scheming looks on their faces.
The two girls frowned. “Why do you always think the worst of us Wolvie?” Jubilee asked.
He growled, “I told you not to call me that. Now what do you two want, out with it.” He put his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall.
“Well you see the Professors throwing a big party for some pharmaceutical company executives tomorrow. The lab here only has so much capability, we can’t produce the cure fast enough or in enough quantity so he’s looking to win over some outside help. You know how hard it’s been with mutant human relations. A few he’s spoken to have mentioned an interest in meeting Rogue,” Kitty said, turning to speak to her, “So he sent us to see if you wouldn’t mind attending. It would only be for a little while, just to show them that it does work, maybe answer a few questions. It would mean a lot to the Professor, to all of us really.”
Rogue looked at him as if for help, but he just shrugged. This was her call. “Like I said, you don’t owe the Professor anything. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it, don’t do it.”
He watched as she tossed the idea about in her head and then looked down at the training uniform she was still wearing, “I don’t have anything to wear really,” she said and Logan could hear a bit of longing in her voice. Maybe doing something like this, something normal and non-life threatening, would be good for her.
“Oh don’t worry about it. We can help you there girl!” Jubilee said, smiling brightly, walking over to wrap an arm with Rogue’s. She never did have any sense of personal space.
Logan could see a mixture of horror and confusion appear on Marie’s face as she looked down at Jubilee, as if she didn’t know whether she was a friend or foe. Kitty must have caught the look because she moved and took her other arm, smiling up at her the same as Jubilee.
He put a hand over his mouth to hide the smile. He knew what it was like to be tag teamed by the terrible duo. They’d done it to him numerous times to get him to sneak them alcohol or take them out somewhere.
“You know what this calls for Kitty?” The two girls looked at each other, Rogue sandwiched between them still looking like she wasn’t sure whether to fight or flee, the smiles turning to huge grins as they squealed in unison, “Mall time!”
Logan had to contain a laugh at the look on Marie’s face as the two girls dragged her off. Eyes wide and terrified, like a deer caught in the headlights. He grinned in amusement, shaking his head in disbelief. The girl had no trouble taking on him or Sabretooth, survived for years being tested on and tortured, and yet she had just been cowered by two young woman with shopping addictions.
“Well, she seems to be doing very well.”
He turned to see Hank walking towards him.
“Yeah Hank, can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for her,” he said, following the blue Doctor as he continued his walk down the long corridor.
“Indeed, I could do no less, especially after all you and Rogue have done for me and many of the other mutants here in escaping the laboratory, though Logan, there is something I must tell you that I did not wish to worry Rogue over.” Logan wasn’t sure he liked the look on Beast’s face. He looked around and took a sniff to make sure there was no one nearby and then nodded to urge the blue mutant to continue.
“I have been going over the partially mutated Legacy samples that we pulled from Rogue before your healing had taken effect and the data I am getting back is somewhat unsettling. Though incomplete, it shows signs that if it had been allowed to continue its mutation, the resulting virus would have been completely benign to mutants, making it no longer a risk to those displaying the x-gene.”
He could tell by the pause that wasn’t all. “Well, that doesn’t sound like bad news to me Doc, so where does the ‘but’ come in?”
“BUT, while the resulting virus would be completely harmless to mutants, it has mutated such that it would instead attack human DNA. In fact, the resulting virus would perhaps be even more deadly than the original, so much so that if the projections my computer models are predicting are correct, it would wipe out nearly half on the human population on the planet within a month, 89% within six months, 97% within a year. It would be the end of times for the human race as we know it.”
Logan stopped walking and looked at Hank. If what he said was true, then Marie had the potential to be a walking bomb for humanity. Obviously the Doctor’s thoughts had gone down the same paths as his own.
“Logan, if someone where to get their hands on her, force her to absorb an infected mutant and then allow the virus to fully mutate within her body, they would have the ultimate weapon against the human race.” The tone of Hank’s voice left no doubt in his mind about how serious this could be.
“But, she’s taken the cure now. She couldn’t get infected again.”
Hank shook his head, “She couldn’t get infected with Legacy before as far as we know, at least not through normal means, but when she contracted it thru absorption, her mutation had immediately started converting the virus into a different form, as if the actual process of absorption had changed it. You’re healing power allowed her body to stop that process and revert the virus back to its normal state, which in turn allowed us to cure her, but if she were to go thru the whole thing again, even though the vaccine is now in her system, my tests have shown that it would not have any effect on the mutated form of the virus. She would need your healing once again to convert it before the vaccine would take effect.”
Logan frowned, “Who else knows about this?”
“No one.”
“Good, keep it that way. Don’t need word like this getting out,” he said, turning over everything in his head, “We need to destroy all the information you have on it. All the samples of the mutated virus, everything. We can’t risk someone getting their hands on it.” Even though he could tell the Doctor was loathe to destroy any type of research, he nodded his head in agreement, understanding what would happen if the wrong people got their hands on this information. He paused a moment then added, “And do me a favor, don’t tell the X-men either.”
Hank gave him a strange look.
“Something’s going on doc, things are different now. I know you can feel it as much as I can. I don’t trust them.”
Hank’s eyebrows narrowed and his hand came up to rest on his chin in a thinking pose, “Yes, they have seem quite changed by recent events. Even Jean has not seemed herself lately, which was, I admit, part of the reason I wanted to speak of this to you first. I will keep this just between us.”
“Thanks, I just got something to do real quick then I’ll meet you down at the lab,” he said, and turned to go back the way they came. He needed to find Northstar and Colossus. Suddenly allowing Rogue to go off with Kitty and Jubilee unprotected didn’t seem like such a good plan after all.
Chapter End Notes:
*75 Tons is a shout out to Ms. Marvel
*The bit about flyers being able to choose which was up and down is a small shout out to Ender's Game. (Remember, the enemy's gate is down.)
*The bit about flyers being able to choose which was up and down is a small shout out to Ender's Game. (Remember, the enemy's gate is down.)