With a scowl at the building he had just pulled up outside of Logan tucked the cigar he had been chewing on irritably back in his pocket, then shut the engine off, and stepped out of his beat up camper. His left foot sinking immediately into half melted snow slush did nothing to improve his mood.

"Comm link is active, give us a signal as soon as you have eyes on her," the One Eyed Wonder’s voice pierced the quiet of the chilly night. Even setting the damn device on the lowest volume setting was still enough to aggravate Logan’s hearing; or maybe that was just Scooter's voice.

With a growling sigh he pulled his jackets tighter around him, and stomped angrily toward the bars entrance. God damn Scooter and his useless security protocols, it was all his fault he was here. It wasn't like the guy had to do much, how hard was it really to keep an eye on teenagers and stop them from getting kidnapped.

Of course if the fucking teenagers weren't so god damn stupid as to wander off alone it would help. Hell, he knew Kitty was pretty naive, having been raised in a sheltered religious family and delivered to the school by loving parents, never having had to develop any street smarts, but he had thought she was smarter than to go off alone, in a club she wasn't supposed to be in of all places. He was going to kick Jubilee's ass when he got back, only she could have encouraged the other girl to do something so risky, and just plain stupid.

Thankfully it had only taken two days for Chuck to track Kitty to this location, and Logan had been close enough to arrive in time. The X-Men were on their way but didn't want to tip their hand before someone had eyes on the girl, just in case the human traffickers who had taken her managed to grab her and run again.

Chuck was sure Kitty was only scared, she didn't think she had been touched inappropriately. She had been unconscious for some time when first taken though, and Logan knew well enough that anything could have been done to her then. Though, if she was still a virgin, she may have been left untouched; virgin's generally fetched a higher price and all at sale time.

With another resigned sigh, he fixed his most dangerous scowl on his face, and let himself into the last place on earth he wanted to be. He really did not want to be anywhere near the types of people who bought and sold stolen people but he was the only one of Chuck's freakshow that would 'fit in' in a crowd like this.

And damn wasn’t that an uncomfortable thought...

He walked into the bar, and did a quick survey of the room. There was a cage in the back of the room but it wasn't lit up, looked like he wouldn't even get the chance to kick the shit out of some of these scumbags. Walking up to the bar, he took a seat at the darkest end and waited for the barkeep to notice him.

"What'll it be?" the short man, almost as wide as he was tall, asked gruffly.

"Bourbon," Logan growled. Nodding to the darkened cage as the bartender set his drink down a moment later he queried, "There any... entertainment, to be had around here?"

"Depends what you're into, there's poker over there, pool in the back--" the bartender said, eyeing him calculatingly.

"Female pickings seem a little slim," Logan hinted, casting an eye around the room as he did, before cocking a brow pointedly.

"Might have better luck downstairs," the other man replied. “Just mind your manners," he warned, as Logan downed his drink and moved in the direction he was discretely directed.

He scanned over every detail as he moved toward the pool hall, ducking into a 'staff only' door when he was confident no one, other than the 'security', was watching him. Feeding images back to Charles as he went, so a blueprint could be built for the team to follow along after him. He felt his apprehension grow as he descended underground into a crudely constructed basement.

At the bottom of the stairs he encountered another 'security' guy.

"Weapons check," the guy stated, giving him a once over as Logan came to a stop in front of him. "Warm or cold?" he queried, once he was satisfied Logan didn't have any obvious weapons on him.

Logan cocked an incredulous brow. "Warm," he replied, knowing it was code for living cargo, humans usually; cold being inanimate cargo, usually drugs, maybe guns.

"Minimum two k on person to get in," the guy replied.

"That's some pricey cunt," Logan muttered, digging into one of the internal pockets of his jacket and pulling out a wad of cash, flicking through it quickly so the guy could see he had at least the required amount.

"Premium stock man, seen it with my own eyes, you won't be disappointed, even got a few fresh ones on offer," the guy replied with a grin, as he pointed Logan toward the correct door.

The room looked like it had been intended to be an underground strip club, though it was now devoid of decoration. There was a stage at one end of the room, makeshift cages along the back wall with a number of women and girls inside them. The auction hadn't started yet but Logan knew it wouldn't be long until, one by one, they were led out onto the stage and sold off to the group of perverted men gathered around him.

With a glare at nothing, Logan grabbed the arm of one of the terrified looking “waitresses” and requested a beer, he needed something to distract himself with while he tried to figure out where exactly Kitty was. She wasn't in the cages, which told him she had probably been correctly singled out as a mutant and was being held separately. They would likely be wanting a higher price for her, possibly trying to cash in on any lab interest these 'markets' no doubt attracted.

"How long will this take?" Logan muttered to his comm, after a half hour of waiting for the bidding to start. He was getting antsy, the desire to kill someone growing with each tick of the annoyingly loud clock on the wall behind him. He desperately needed to know how long it would take the X-Men to move in once he gave them the signal, so he would know when this nightmare would be over.

As Scott responded directly into his ear with a response time, Logan noticed a fellow buyer eyeing him warily. "This takes too much longer the fucking cops are going to come sniffing," Logan muttered a little louder, and just as irritably.

The mean looking balding guy, with a beer gut and three day old body odour, chuckled. "This your first time here? Don't gotta worry about the law, that over there-" he gestured to a portly man across the room- "He's the local law," the guy informed him, chuckling again when he interpreted Logan's deepening scowl as dislike of law enforcement. "Who do you think keeps him in town? So long as he's enjoying the spoils he won't act on us, and so long as the issue doesn't affect the local population he can keep doing both -- it's a crying shame that though, there's some real pretty little things around town, looking for something special tonight myself; neighbours kid's a real looker," the guy finished, with a disgustingly leery look, as he turned to the stage to see the first girl being brought out.

It took all his willpower to hold himself in check as Logan watched the young girl stand mutely and passively in place. Fat wet tears rolled down her face, and the scent of terror wafted off her. She would be no older than twelve, with gorgeous curly strawberry blonde hair, and big blue eyes. She would be a beautiful woman some day, if she survived whatever came next after one of these howling dogs was victorious in his bid for her body.

~'Please tell me you guys are picking these off as they leave?'~ Logan telepathically begged his teammates, watching the blonde girl being dangled off the edge of the stage as her new owner counted out cash into the bookies greedy waiting hand, before he grabbed her by her handcuffed hands and dragged her from the room.

~'We've got road blocks in both directions, we'll save as many as we can,'~ Jean assured him.

After several hours the cages were empty, the crowd had thinned some but there was still an air of expectation from those remaining. He found out the reason in short order when, to hollers and jeers, two girls, in their late teens, were dragged out from a side room. Logan immediately noted one of the girls as little Kitty Pryde. The other girl he didn't recognize but his reaction to her was unexpectedly potent.

She wasn't anything special. Her hair was long, and slightly curly, a pretty shade between brown and red. She had wide green eyes, that reminded him of lush early summer grass right before it started browning off. Her height was about average, and though she was skinny from malnourishment he could tell she had a decent figure. She definitely hadn't been starved long enough for it to effect her tits. For the life of him he couldn't understand why he had so much trouble drawing his attention away from her, eventually he managed though.

~'I've got eyes on Kitty,'~ he telepathically shared, letting Jean see his view of the girl in question, looking just a little worse for wear. Like the other girl she was shackled, and had a thick metal collar around her neck. Where this rogue outfit had obtained suppression collars was something they would need to look into, they hadn't thought that tech had made it onto the black market yet.

As the MC hyped up the crowd with tall talk of the 'fine mutie merchandise' he had on offer, Logan noted Kitty's eyes warily scan the room. He was worried that, in her panicked and terrified state, she would give him away by displaying recognition when she spotted him. The most she did though was pause her gaze on him a beat longer before looking away - the terror in her scent immediately receded though. His ears perked up when Logan heard the MC mention that both girls were virgins - he spotted the quick flick of Kitty's eyes back to him even as she blushed slightly at that. He would tease her about that later, right now he was more interested to know what they knew about the other girls mutation.

The bidding started not long after, and as much as the animal inside him was demanding he leave Kitty and focus on the other girl - he wanted her, and he always got what he wanted - he had a mission to complete, and only so much money to do it with. When Kitty realised he was bidding on her however, she signalled him discreetly and indicated he should focus on the other girl. Oh well, if Kitty was fine with it... He kept up the pretence for a while longer before bowing out and letting a few other guys duke it out.

The second auction began before the winner was even across the room, and, wanting to keep as close to him as possible, Logan came in with a hard and high bid on the, so called, untouchable girl, in the hopes it would end the bidding quickly. He still had a bit of competition but his increasingly erratic bids, and a dangerous glare at his competition saw him come out victorious. Kitty had 'sold' for five and a half grand, he didn't feel the least bit cheated for closing at eight for his girl, and she was going to be his girl.

He signalled the X-Men as he stood beside the first guy, peeling off hundreds hurriedly, to finish up his purchase so he could follow Kitty closely - the plan was after all for him to have her in his possession so no one could disappear with her before the X-Men arrived.

Just as the girls were being handed over to their buyers, a surprise final piece of merchandise was dumped on the stage.
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