Logan skidded to halt when he heard Rogue's voice calling out worriedly, "James, where are you?" It took him a moment to spot her through the crowd around the information desk. She looked relieved when she saw him pushing his way through the crowd. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Sabretooth attacked us outside, I told James to run and find you, what happened in here?" he asked, suddenly noticing the lack of James, though his scent was in the general area.
"The information desk paged me over the PA saying my son was looking for me and to come pick him up, when I got here they said he had disappeared when the guy turned his back, they're pulling up the surveillance tape to see where he went..." Rogue faded off as she saw the video playing on the monitor as a security guard replayed the scene from minutes earlier.
Both Logan and Rogue watched mutely as the desk clerk sat James down on a chair, behind the information counter, before turning to the PA system. Moments later Sabretooth appeared out of the milling crowd, reached over the counter and plucked James out of the chair, one hand firmly over his face to stop him from screaming, before he disappeared back into the crowd.
"Oh God! He has James! Why does he want James!?" Rogue panicked, clutching at his arm as she began to sob.
Logan pushed Rogue into Jubilee's arms so she could console her, while he pulled out his phone and dialled the Professor's direct line, the info desk clerk grabbed a phone to call the police, while the security guard began to skim through the other cameras trying to track the kidnapper’s path.
"Chuck, Sabretooth’s here and he just took James, are you able to track him down?" Logan asked, the second the phone was answered, the statement shocked Charles so much he had to get Logan to repeat himself.
"I will begin looking for him immediately, are you on your way back?" he queried, as he began to wheel toward the elevator, phone in hand.
"Not yet, security is trying to track him out of the mall, I'll try and track him from there if I can, and the police are on their way, call as soon as you have an update or location," he responded, hanging up the phone as soon as he had confirmation.
There was no point trying to track the other feral mutant, he had jumped straight into a car at the side entrance according to the video surveillance. By the time the police arrived security had a plate number and the gate the car had left out of.
Logan was sitting down with Marie in his lap sobbing, when a police officer approached them. Logan explained the situation in brief to the officer, leaving out as much information as possible about who he and Rogue and Sabretooth were. If the cops somehow managed to track James down before he did, they'd have enough information to return the boy and hopefully not ask more questions.
Rogue's story was even briefer, all she knew was that she was paged to the info kiosk and by the time she got here, mere minutes later, James had been taken. Caleb was interviewed too; he'd overheard enough of Logan's statement to know to keep it short and avoid giving certain details.
Logan's phone rang a moment later, he answered it on the first ring. "I've found him, he's in an industrial area about ten minutes’ drive from your current location. The team are on their way, do you want them to collect you or will you meet them there?" The Professor replied, Logan could hear the rest of the team chatting in the background as Charles must have entered the briefing room.
"We'll meet them there as soon as we can get away, the cops should be finished with statements now and I need to get Rogue out of here ... yeah, she'll be okay, she's understandably freaking out, I'm not much better to be honest ... yeah, sure, thanks for your help." Logan finished the call, turning to Rogue he advised, "Chuck's got a lead, we need to meet him to get the info."
"Chuck is?" the cop asked, scribbling notes.
"Friend, private investigator of sorts, if he has any info that can help find James, we'll let you know, is that all you need from us?" Logan asked, not giving the cop time to dwell on that piece of information. The officer confirmed they had enough for now, they had put an alert out for the car, which had been stolen earlier that morning, and they would contact Logan by cell when they had any updates, for now they were free to go.
Collecting Ava from Caleb's arms, Logan hugged her tightly when she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Is James going to be okay?" she asked worriedly.
"Yeah sweetheart, he's gonna be fine, we'll find him before you know it," he assured her. Slowly they made their way through the crowd that had been hanging around, several people wishing them the best and a quick recovery of the missing child.
When they got back to the car, Jubilee took charge of getting Ava into her car seat, everyone trying to ignore the empty car seat that should have held James.
"Hurry up, we need to get to the location before they try and move," Logan rushed, boosting Jubilee into the backseat while Caleb jumped in the front next to Rogue. Logan pulled out of the lot before people had even finished securing their seatbelts. He raced down the road in the direction he had been given, keeping to the upper edges of the speed limit, and sliding through several orange lights in his haste.
As they closed in on their target Logan spoke again. "I don't like taking you kids into this fight, Ava, I need you to stay in the car with Jubilee, Jubes, as soon as the team gets here get you an Ava onto the jet, it'll be safer for you in there. Caleb, I don't think you're ready for this fight, these guys, they were messing around back at the park, holding back, here, in a private location with their target in sight, they're going to go all out..."
"Then I will too," Caleb replied, popping his claws. "Fuck, that still hurts," he muttered, as he put the claws away.
Logan grimaced. "Alright then, but stay out of the main fray, focus more on preventing anyone leaving, as many of them as we can round up the better, just promise me you'll stay away from Sabretooth, he will fuck you up just for fun. And Rogue, it's you they want but I don't know why, I know you're worried about James, and I know there's no way in hell I can get you to stay behind, but Sabretooth is going to try and mess with you, and he will probably try threatening James to do that, you can't react, you can't engage him, you leave him for me, just get James and get out, got it?"
Rogue nodded, already pulling herself together to focus on the mission, she had to think about it like a mission, she had an objective, and she had to stop the bad guys, end of story. "Yes sir," she replied, fully serious.
Logan pulled up in front of the warehouse Kitty had sent him the coordinates to. They all unloaded out of the car, except Ava and Jubilee. "Stay out of sight," Logan warned Jubilee, watching as she nodded before they both crouched down in the footwell between the two rows of seats.
"Are we going in or waiting for the others?" Rogue asked, as she shed her jacket to give her more movement and stripped off her gloves, she was wearing a bodysuit under her clothes so it was the only skin, aside from her face, that she could expose easily.
"They're two minutes out so were going in, I want eyes on the target asap," Logan replied, throwing his phone into the truck before slamming the door. He stalked to the large cargo door in front of them and ran his claws through the steel, like a hot knife through butter it split open, before crashing to the ground.
Sabretooth stood, from where he had been lounging on a stack of packing crates, he slow clapped as Logan stepped through the destroyed door. "Impressive entrance, very nice, ultimate destruction, congratulations," he mocked. He grinned ferally, as Rogue followed Logan into the room. "Thank you very much, I think it's a fair trade really, your brat is easily as much trouble as that one was, now just shove her over and I'll give the kid back."
"Sorry to disappoint you but I'm leaving here with both of them," Logan replied, with a growl. A movement behind the oversize feral drew his attention to James, his arms were tied behind his back and, by the look of it, to the wall as he stood perched on another stack of pellets, a canvas bag pulled over his head. "You hanging in there James?" he asked the boy, as several other mutants stepped into the room. He could see Rogue counting them up and signalling to Caleb, who was standing behind her, where everyone was.
"Yeah dada," James replied, thankfully not sounding the least bit upset.
"Well, he will be," Sabretooth added, kicking the pallets away. Surprisingly, the little boy didn't end up hanging from the wall, instead, he jumped, as the stack began to move, and dropped lightly to the floor, the rope he had been tied up with falling away in pieces before he ripped the bag off his head and ran for the nearest obstacle that he could hide behind.
Sabretooth jumped for him, grabbing him by the back of his overalls and yanking him backwards. He wasn't prepared for the claws, that ripped out of the little boy’s fist to slash at his eyes as he got close. His furious roar was interrupted as Logan's metal enhanced claws cut through his shoulder, as he bodily threw himself between Sabretooth and James, knocking the boy from his grip.
James scrambled to his feet and ran towards Rogue, who darted toward him, at the same time as a couple of Sabretooth’s team members also made a move toward the boy. Caleb intercepted one of the henchmen, punching one set of sharp bone claws through the thigh of the much larger mutant, leaving him screaming in a bloody puddle on the ground. Rogue faced off against the other who had managed to get to James before she could, holding him up, blocking body shots as an arm wrapped around the boy’s neck.
Before James could pop his claws again Rogue swung left, as soon as her opponent twisted, moving James into the line of her punch Rogue let a right come up behind the tall weedy looking man, her own claws ripped out of her clenched fist for the first time as she slammed them through the kidneys of her opponent, making sure to angle sideways so the claws didn't come anywhere near James. The mutant in front of her screamed, his skin rippled and wavered before a wave of blue took over, and Mystique collapsed to her knees. Rogue immediately grabbed James from her arms and turned to run for the door.
Rogue was monetarily distracted by the muted roar of jet engines, the X-Men were here, and not a moment too soon. Logan and Sabretooth were so engrossed in their own battle that they didn't seem to notice the carnage around them, Caleb was facing off against two more henchmen, thankfully they appeared to be two of the least experienced fighters and Caleb wasn't having too much trouble playing them off against each other. Unfortunately, Mystique wasn't as disabled as she had thought, and she grabbed her ankle as Rogue tried to get away, knocking her, and also James, to the floor.
Rogue hit the floor hard, cushioning James as much as she could. "Hide behind the crates, and get to the hole daddy made, Ava will be waiting for you on the jet plane, don't let anyone see you," she whispered in his ear, before she pushed him toward the nearest stack of empty packing crates. She had to deal with Mystique before she could follow him.
The room flooded with X-Men a moment later, they had brought everyone, even the training squad, and they quickly engaged the last few bad guys, some of whom tried to escape. Everyone gave the pair of warring ferals plenty of space as they traded killing blows.
Mystique tried to pull herself past Rogue, towards where she had seen James disappear, Rogue grabbed her by her hair and dragged her back, pinning her to the floor with a knee to her back, where Rogue had cut through her, a wound that was healing rapidly though was still obviously raw and tender. Mystique was trying to claw at her face, reaching behind her trying to catch hold of anything that might give her an advantage before she gave up and instead tried to push herself off the ground enough to flip over. She screamed again as another set of claws slammed through her shoulder, pinning her to the ground.
"Stay down," Rogue growled, as Kitty threw a pair of cuffs to her. Unfortunately they landed short and Rogue couldn't quite snag them. Wrapping an arm around Mystique's neck she squeezed tight enough to cut off her oxygen, not releasing her hold even as Mystique tried to shapeshift to slither out of her grip. When she passed out from lack of oxygen, Rogue grabbed for the cuffs, snapping them on quickly, before she left the shapeshifting mutant in Colossus' capable hands and made a dash after James.
She caught James up as he darted for the cut-up door that was his way out, talking to him soothingly as she did, so he didn't react negatively to her hold. They ran for the jet, Rogue punching in the emergency code to open the access hatch. A paff of sparkles greeted her as she rushed up the gang plank. "Shit Jubes, check who it is before you zap them!" Rogue yelled, as she hit the close hatch button.
"Mommy!" Ava squealed, as she dashed toward Rogue and grabbed hold of her, greeting her brother in the same manner.
Rogue set the kids up in the back of the jet, leaving them in the capable hands of Jubilee as she ran back to the front of the jet and patched into the comm system. "Target has been secured, wrap it up guys, and if someone can get the message to Logan... somehow..." Rogue added.
"That's cute Rogue, how exactly are we supposed to get through to him?" Scott radioed back.
"Is everyone else taken care of?" Rogue radioed back, after a pause for thought.
"Yes, everyone we've been able to find," Scott replied.
"Alright, you guys pull out, I'll get Logan," Rogue responded. She moved to the back of the jet and pulled out the medical supplies, taking out the strongest tranquilizers they had, she loaded up several darts and took out the tranquiliser gun. "You guys stay with Aunty Jubes, I have to go help daddy, I'll be back as soon as I can," she said, kissing both kids’ goodbye. "The team's pulling back, don't paff them okay Jubes?" she teased.
As she ran inside, she passed the rest of the team pulling out, Brotherhood prisoners in tow. Caleb broke away from the group and followed her back inside.
"This is the tricky part," she muttered, as they watched the two men still fighting, the floor was now slick with blood but the pair barely seemed to noticed. "Somehow we have to get them to stay still long enough for me to hit Sabretooth." She was watching closely for an opening into the fight when she caught a signal from Logan. A moment later he feigned a punch, broadcasting his intended manoeuvre clear enough for Sabretooth to intercept, and pin him. Rogue fired immediately, from only a few steps behind him, two darts lodging deep in his shoulder.
"Fuck," Sabretooth muttered, as his grip slipped, Logan effortlessly flipped their positions as the drugs began to kick in. "How'd you do it brother, how did you get a whole goddamn family, and the fucking girl," he commented, eyeing the ring on Rogue's uncovered hand. "You always were a lucky son va bish..." His voice faded out at the tranq's fully kicked in and he slipped into unconsciousness.
"I would have to agree with that statement," Rogue replied, grinning down at Logan as she placed a quick peck on his lips, "You are one lucky son of a bitch."
"That I am," Logan agreed, "Pure dumb luck, because I know I never did anything to deserve an angel like you."
"I can't help but feel this is just a little sappy and sentimental given we are standing in what looks like a scene from The Shining," Caleb commented, mildly amused, from behind the pair.
Logan laughed as he pulled himself to his feet, wiping the worst of the gore off himself as best he could, while Rogue radioed back to the jet to let the team know Sabretooth was down. Scott arrived a minute later, with feral level cuffs, and to let them know the Professor had sent a crime scene clean-up crew to their location before they alerted the police that James had been found. The clean-up crew arrived ten minutes later, took one look at the scene before advising they should move their scene to another location and alert the police to there; this area was likely to take days to clean.
Logan was cleaned up by the crew, and dressed in clean, non-shredded clothes, while Scott found a new location to dump those mutants they were leaving for the cops. It took them half an hour to load the stolen car onto the jet and move everything to another abandoned warehouse nearby, while Rogue drove the truck over.
They took two of the lower level mutants, the guy who had attacked Caleb at the park, and the guy they thought was the getaway driver, and laid them out for the cops. The rest were taken to the mansion until they could be handed over to the appropriate law enforcement, to answer for other crimes. Once the jet took off, Logan went over a basic story with the adults to answer as to what happened and how they found the bad guys. Then he turned to James.
"What happened buddy? What do you remember?" he asked the boy.
"I went to the shops place, to find mama, like you said, and a lady stopped me and asked where I was going, I telled her I was looking for mama and she said she would find mama but she took me to the big desk, then the man at the big desk said he would call mama to come get me. He made the noise boxes call mama, then the bad man grabbed me, but he covered my face so I couldn't tell, then he put me in a car and gaved me to someone else who put the bag on my head, and then I kicked and punched lots, and I bit too, so they tied my hands up. I don't know much what happen, cos my head was in the bag, but then dada and mama comed to save me," the boy answered, beaming up at his parents as he finished his tale.
"That'll do for the cops," Logan nodded, pulling his cell phone out to call the detectives who were running the missing persons case.
The police were intrigued at how they had managed to find and deal with the kidnappers so quickly but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth, just glad that for once they could wrap a missing child case up quickly and happily. They assured Logan and Rogue they would keep an eye out for the other kidnapper, Sabretooth, who had 'gotten away', when Logan's undisclosed 'friends' found the hide out.
Three hours later, they were finally released as the suspects were officially arrested, and loaded into squad cars to be taken to be booked. They both wisely kept their mouths shut after Logan had reminded them, information that the Professor held on them that could 'accidentally' find its way to a prosecutor’s desk, if they tried to snitch.
It would be past dinner time at the mansion by the time they got back, and no one in their party felt like cooking, so they grabbed take out on their way home. Commandeering the kitchen was easy, getting everyone to stay awake through their meal was harder. The rest of the team, who came to welcome them home, gave up trying to hold any sort of conversation with them, leaving them to eat before they all took the elevator up to their rooms.
"Girl, if this is what your life is going to be like from now on, just one more progressively fucked up situation after another, have fun, but could you leave me out next time, that was more stress than first thing the morning of a Black Friday sale!" Jubilee commented, as she prepared to leave the elevator, "But I'm glad everything turned out okay, more than okay actually, we got the little guy back and shut down the main Brotherhood unit, not bad work for a day at the mall."
They waved Jubilee off to bed as the elevator doors slid closed. When the car stopped at the next floor Flora rushed in, frantically grabbing hold of Caleb, in a death grip around his neck, as she murmured about how worried she had been. He didn't say another word to the group in the elevator, he just picked Flora up and carried her down the hall to the privacy of his own room.
The last stop was their floor. Once they were inside their suite Rogue immediately carried James into their room, before crawling into bed with him, Logan followed a few steps behind with Ava. "I love you all," Logan whispered to his family, receiving varying levels of coherent responses from each as they drifted off to sleep.
He lay awake for some time just listening to them all sleep, thinking how differently this day could have ended, until Marie rolled over and hugged him. "Stop worrying so loud, we're all safe Logan you can sleep now," she whispered, as she drifted off to sleep again.