The girl was screaming her lungs out. The girl. Just a girl. Right now his first priority was the machine. Scott lunged to the right with Jean, his visored gaze locked to Magneto who was already eyeballing Logan with amused and hungry look on his face. He stopped long enough to flip a finger towards the old mutant and started climbing towards the base of the machine. He hated the fact that he’d have to trust Scott to cover his back. He hated the fact that he could do it so easily, because Scott was a Boy scout with the capital B, following instructions and plans to a T. Had it been the other way around, him watching over Scott, he’d let the brat suffer awhile before getting in to business.
“Guess there’s a reason why they picked him as the leader…” He muttered, reaching for a better hold of the railing surrounding the torch. Suddenly he was violently wrenched away, thrown backwards through the air.
He could see Jean and Scott below him, wrapped tightly together with iron bar from the torch’s railing, facing each other. Mystique walked to them and took Scott’s visor. And Magneto was waving at him, wide, evil smile on his face.
“Meep, meep… Shit. Don’t have even an umbrella…” Yep. Wiley E. Coyote had things far better organized than him at the moment. Mary fucking Poppins had things better organized than him. If he was lucky, Magneto would settle just dropping him to the ground somewhere down, very down below.
Magneto in her head was the first to go when machine started to draw out energy from her. For that she wasn’t sorry. No more dry and clinical voice telling her how this must be done for the sake of the brotherhood of all mutants. No more pair of ghostly hands holding hers. And finally she was able to reach out for Logan without fearing that Magneto would get to him through her. She wanted to feel him, see him for the one last time. She’d die soon, but she wanted to be with him when it happened. She wanted to apologize him for bringing him in to this mess. And maybe, just maybe feel his touch for the one last time.
He felt it when Magneto let him go. Sudden jolt and the feel of weightlessness, and he was falling rapidly. Another jolt, gripping his stomach, threatening to turn him from inside out. Yet the hold wasn’t restrictive as Magneto’s had been. Jean. She had caught him again. And again he was sailing through the air with sickening pace, towards the Blackbird this time. Mystique was approaching Jean and Scott again. As he watched the blue bitch raised her hand and slapped Jean, sending her head reeling backwards from the force of the blow. Jean’s knees buckled, and if Scott hadn’t stood on his ground, they would have both toppled over. Now Jean was hanging from the metal bar, unconscious. And Logan was on freefall again.
She met his shields. He had closed her out again. She threw herself against the barrier in Logan’s mind with everything she had left, but barrier refused to give.
He fell smack dab on the middle of Blackbird’s windshield. Front of the plane was flat and long enough, but tilted slightly downwards from both sides. For a moment his eyes locked with Ororo, then he started to slide. His fingers sought purchase from the flat, smooth surface in vain. There was nothing to grasp. He was going to fall for real. There was nothing Ororo could do, and Jean out of the count there was nobody except Magneto able to stop his fall, and he had a nagging suspicion that the old fart was not going to give a rat’s ass if he fell.
Leather of the suit slowed the slide a bit, gave him few extra seconds to think. When his feet slid off and rest of his lower body followed he unsheathed his claws.
“There better be nothing important under the hood…” He muttered, plunging his claws through the plating of the jet. He could feel the hum of electricity going through his body when he severed some wires, but jet seemed to be okay. He managed to drag himself back on the hood of the jet and knocked on the window.
“Scott and Jean are down! We have to get rid of Magneto! How’s your aim, Weathergirl?” Ororo shook her head and spoke, mouthing every word as clearly as she could.
“You’re afraid you hit Scott or Jean?” Logan asked. Crap. There was no time to be afraid now! Cloud of radiation was spreading outwards with every passing second, and Marie’s cries were weakening. He raised his fists, sheathed and unsheathed his claws.
“Me! Aim to me!”
On several occasions in the past he had noticed that for some reason lightnings found him irresistible. Maybe this time he could use it as his advantage. He stood up on shaky legs.
“Goddamned but I hate heights!” He lunged towards Magneto whose whole attention was now riveted to his cursed machine. Mystique tried to stop him by stepping between him and the old mutant. His greater weight made them both topple over and roll to Magneto. Logan moved quickly, grasping from Mystique with one hand and wrapping his other hand around Magneto’s ankle. Magneto turned o look at him, surprised look on his face.
“Say bye-bye, Buckethead…”
Lightning Ororo had called upon him coursed through his bones and muscles. For a moment it felt like he was flying again. He could feel Mystique’s wrist and Magneto’s ankle shatter when electricity made the small muscles of his fingers coil and cramp tighter than the string of a violin. Charge left him, flowed to its intended targets. Both Magneto and Mystique slipped from his grasp from the force of the blow.
He didn’t know if they were dead. He didn’t know if Jean and Scott were okay. Both issues he didn’t particularly care right now. From this angle he couldn’t see how far the radiation had already spread, but Marie had stopped screaming altogether.
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