Jubilee and Bobby kept up steady banter on the Blackbird in a too-obvious effort to diffuse the tension which radiated from Carol and Logan. They finally stopped when Jean shot them an irritated look, unusual for her, and the plane descended into silence.
Logan wanted to smirk at the discomfort he was causing, but he held himself in check for once. It wouldn't do his cause any good to set the rest of the X-Men against him. He needed to stay around to get his Marie back.
Finally Scott set the Blackbird down on a rocky ledge on the side of a low mountain. He turned in his seat and said, "The mutants we need to track were last seen two miles from here. Let's get moving." Logan stood first and exited through the open hatchway. The rest of the team followed. Logan could smell the resentment oozing off of Carol, and that made him even more pleased. She didn't like him. She shouldn't.
"You got a way for me to identify their scent, Cyke?" Logan growled out. He accepted the piece of clothing Scott handed him and sniffed it. Whew. Not something he'd normally want to come into contact with, but efficient enough. That pungent smell couldn't belong to too many people. Finding them wouldn't be too hard at all.
Logan was regretting his earlier confidence as he and the X-Men wound their way through hundreds of trees in the godforsaken wilderness that called itself part of a civilized state like Pennsylvania. The scent was more elusive than he had counted on, and he assumed that whomever had taken the pair of mutants had thought of being followed and done their best to make it difficult for pursuers.
"Have you picked up a clear trail yet, Logan?" Scott asked impatiently from his left.
"I'm workin' on it. You try picking up a three-day-old trail usin' nothing other than a dirty old sock!" he growled out with equal measures of hostility and frustration.
At that moment he detected again the odd mixture of sweat and a deep musk which clung to the sock he clutched in his hand. He turned his head in the direction which the wind had carried the scent from, his nostrils flaring.
"West," he directed tersely before heading that way himself, already lost in the chase. It was strong now, stronger than it had been for the last hour that the X-Men had been straggling through the woods.
The scent led them to a large, run down barn which looked to be completely abandoned at first. Logan's sensitive nose told him otherwise, though. The smells here were fresh, less than an hour old, and their owners had been tracking through for the past few days, too.
"I'll take it from here," Scott whispered harshly.
Logan wanted to argue with him. He always wanted to argue with Cyke. But he didn't. Instead, he dropped to the back of the group and decided to watch events unfold. This was only his second mission, after all. He might be a terrific cage fighter, but this was something else altogether. Very unfamiliar territory that he wasn't just going to barge into.
Scott led them up a dirt path and into the apparently deserted barn. They fanned out, searching through the moldy stalls filled with decaying hay for any sign of the missing mutants.
Bright lights suddenly filled the large complex, and figures in dark green-probably to differentiate themselves from the X-Men who were known for their black uniforms-came pouring into the building. The X-Men went on the defensive, trying to gather together so that they could fight back to back, in pairs or small groups.
Logan managed to fight his way over to where Carol and Jubilee were ably defending themselves, claws ripping into anyone who got in his way. The mind might not be Marie's at the moment, but the body was, and he wasn't about to let Carol damage it with any damn foolishness if he could help it.
He reached the two girls in time to see two of the green-clad thugs grab Carol and twist her arms painfully behind her. Despite what the Professor had told him about Carol's abilities including superstrength and invulnerability, it didn't look to Logan as if they were doing her any good at the moment. She screamed, and Logan could hear the muscle and bone tear as another thug reached down and twisted her legs hard, tying some kind of device around them.
Logan shouted and jumped the man tying Carol's legs, shredding his back with fully extended claws. He growled and went for the two holding her, sinking nine inches of adamantium into their necks and slicing through the meat and bone there.
Carol stumbled free and fell. At the same time Scott yelled from somewhere to Logan's left, "Let's get out of here!"
The X-Men all began to obey, fighting their way to the only exit. Logan didn't hesitate and instant before reaching down and picking Carol's broken body up, slinging her over his shoulder. He grabbed Jubilee by the arm and began running for the exit.
Scott, Jubilee, and Iceman were the last to leave the barn, covering the backs of their wounded or less visibly defensive comrades as they made they way back through the woods to where they'd left the Blackbird. Logan shifted Carol so that she was in his arms and not so uncomfortably over his shoulder. They had a long walk ahead of them.
"What's on her legs?" Jean asked softly as they made their way steadily through the trees.
"Not sure. Some damn asshole back there tried to put it on her," he ground out harshly. Even though she was blond now, Carol still had Marie's face, and it had terrified him to see those thugs attacking her.
"We'll have to check it out when we get back to the Blackbird," Jean said worriedly.
"Yeah, well, that's not the only thing you've got to worry about. There's blood soaking through tears in the arms of her uniform. I can feel it, I can smell it, and let me tell ya, Jeanie, it might be coming out slow but it's steady," Logan told her, trying not to let her see how really worried he was.
Jean reached over and pressed her hand to Carol's forehead briefly. "She's weak, fading in and out of consciousness. Damn, I wish we could get there sooner," she said softly.
They were silent the rest of the way back to the plane. When all of the X-Men were finally on board and Scott had taken off, Logan went into the makeshift medlab and watched Jeanie check over Carol.
"They really did a number on her, Logan," Jean said. Her voice was tense as she unwrapped two thick metal cords from around Carol's legs. She had straightened the younger woman's arms and there was a cast on each of them.
"Yeah, they did," Logan agreed regretfully. "I saw 'em coming, but I couldn't get to her in time," he said regretfully.
"She'll heal, though, Logan. At least she made it out alive. We're lucky we didn't lose anyone," Jean told him quietly.
"I shoulda known it was a trap. Those bastards don't ever do us the favor of leaving a clear trail if they can help it," he growled.
"I know. I hate them sometimes," Jean confessed. Her hands were busy checking Carol's legs for any external injuries.
"Especially times like these," Logan agreed. He reached out and ran a finger over Carol's-no, Marie's lips, her jaw.
"Logan-" Jean began.
He wasn't paying her any attention. Instead, he was focusing on a something that was tugging at his hand were it rested on the pale woman's cheek. It was a very familiar pull. He felt himself begin to weaken even as the cut which had crusted over on Carol's-no, Marie's, face began to pull together.
It was healing. Because she was absorbing his powers.
"Logan!" he heard Jean cry, but it was like she was talking at a distance.
Hell yeah, was his last thought.
As some light came into the darkness, Marie began to laugh. It was a laugh full of joy and triumph and tinged with weariness. The light dimmed and she sighed, ready to prepare herself for the next battle
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