It had been pure hell to the senses for a full fifteen minutes or thereabouts, and just as suddenly, it stopped. As Cyclops pulled himself from the pain-induced inaction he'd fallen into, he slowly realised that the red-headed man was gone. He crawled towards an upturned desk, and grabbing the bottom of its in-built drawers, dragged himself to his feet. Once there, he wavered a little, clutching onto the badly damaged office equipment for balance. He tried to call out his fiancee's name, but his voice was absent. He cleared his throat again.
"Jah- Jean?"
A moan... soft moan. He turned, looking all about himself. She was on the floor nearby, on her hands and knees, cradling her head. He crouched next to her, hand sliding down her back, his heart still thumping from worry.
"You okay?"
"Mmm," she nodded. "Yeah... The others..."
"Over there," Cyke said.
Beast was still out, but Storm was already coming to consciousness, pushing herself up from the floor and blinking groggily. She looked to the big blue man next to her, nudging his large form firmly.
"Hank," she said, "Hank... wake up."
He grunted, then groaned painfully.
Cyclops made another effort to get to his feet and plodded over to Logan. The man lay in a ball, arms about his ears, unmoving. He knelt down next to him, shaking his shoulder moderately to wake him.
"Wolverine..."
He flinched, claws springing out, and glared all about him, scooting to his knees.
"Woah buddy," Cyclops lifted his hands. "Just us here."
Looking about him another time to confirm this fact, Logan's eyes rolled back into his head as he blinked slowly, cradling his head carefully. "I have the hugest fucking headache..."
"Tell me about it," Storm moaned. "Note to self: Next time we face the Brotherhood, bring ear-muffs."
"Good idea," Cyclops said.
Logan double glanced about himself, panic evident in his eyes. "Where's Rogue?"
Cyclops tried to keep calm as he looked to Logan. "She went off after Magneto."
Logan glared death at the visored man. "You let her go after Magneto by herself?!"
He didn't wait to hear Cyclops' defense. Jumping to his feet, regardless of the pain he was feeling, he raced to the emergency exit. His feet pounded the shaped concrete of the stairwell, nostrils ticking as he sucked in the air around him. He'd kick Cyke's butt if anything had happened to her, he swore blind that he would. Hell, he felt like kicking his butt anyway for the worry. His mind spun, panic gripping him. Her scent was clear, and he followed it to the ground level. The door to that level was open, and he raced in, heart pounding. He called out, brain thumping with pain, eyes burning, throat rasping.
"Rogue!"
"Under here!"
Alive! his mind gripped onto that, She's alive! With a sudden horror he realised the voice came from under a pile of battered filing cabinets. He yanked at the cabinets, pulling them off her, grunting with effort as he cleared the young woman of the bent metal about her. He frowned, brow dented, worry wracking him.
"You okay?" He stroked her face with a gloved hand.
"I'm fine," she said, drawl long and full of embarrassment. She blinked, looking down at herself, then throwing her head back. "The jerk made me into ah... unh... Rogue office partition pastry."
Logan sighed as he cleared the last of the filing cabinets. "Why didn't you just wriggle out or-"
"Magneto crunched this baby tight," she said. "It's taken me long enough to get enough space in here to breathe. Without the leverage..."
"Right," nodded Logan. "Hold still..." He gnashed his teeth, pulling at the metal. "Help me along here..."
She rolled her lips in, wincing and grunting. After a moment the metal moved more easily, and with a wriggling push she peeled the metal away effortlessly. She kicked it away as Logan helped her to her feet, looking down and swearing at it.
"Stupid piece of cra..." Her words drifted off as she felt a gloved hand at her face, and looking up at him, her heart dipped and sank within her.
Logan gazed at her, red-rimmed eyes fixed to hers, bottom lip twitching. She blinked slowly, her hand closing over Logan's on her face. She felt his other hand cup her jaw and he tentatively put one foot forward.
"Thank God you're okay!"
The female voice broke through the silence, and the frenzied steps of their teammates followed. Logan jerked his hands away from Rogue's face, pointing to her awkwardly.
"Yeah... glad you're okay..."
She nodded faintly, brows tilted up. Jean raced over to her, taking Rogue's face in her hands and pulling back her eyelids.
"Did Magneto hurt you? Are you okay?"
Rogue smiled, gathering Jean's hands in her own and pulling them away from her face. "Ah'm fine," she said. "I stopped Magneto from uploading all the files from this lab..." She turned, looking to the computer they'd been using.
It was a clear, grey Macintosh, the glossy cube that was its hard drive sitting there enticingly. Rogue pursed her lips and looked to Cyclops.
"Should we... you know?" She poked her thumb in the direction of the Mac.
"No," Cyclops said, crossing his arms. "We'd be as bad as Magneto-"
"If this were an innocent laboratory I'd be inclined to agree with you," interrupted Jean. "Something is going on here, Scott." She marched over, grabbing the G4's hard drive. "Let's go."
With a heavy sigh, Cyclops nodded. "Okay."
The team filed out down the fire escape, their steps echoing off the walls of the concrete stairwell. Upon reaching the exit, they winced at what awaited them. The scene outside was frenetic, a vastly different affair to the eerie deadness that had welcomed them before. Spotlights swayed back and forth in the sky, the chopping whirr of helicopters buzzing about them. They could hear the shouts of policemen, their steps beating the ground and their guns clicking threateningly. They were at the side entrance that Logan and Rogue had entered via, and thankfully were just out of view of the crowd out the front. No doubt the building was surrounded, and they didn't have time to hang about.
"We left the bike in the brush over there!" cried Rogue over the tumult. "We'll take that back to the mansion!"
Cyclops pressed his lips together for a moment in thought, then nodded. "You both take care! We'll see you back home!"
Logan and Rogue nodded, and they broke away from the group, racing off to where they had left the bike. They didn't notice the fresh media crews with eagle-eye lenses, or the flashing of cameras as they mounted the motorcycle. The Blackbird rumbled as it lifted off into the sky, and that too was caught by the watchful eye of the crews.
Shots rang out as Logan revved up the motorcycle beneath him.
"Hold on," he said into the helmet's microphone. Rogue nodded and wrapped her arms tightly about him as they sped off into the night.
As they rode down the highway, away from the bustle of New York's science and government district, police sirens wailed and made pursuit, but were no match for the super speed on the specially equipped motorcycle. Although the night was painfully beautiful, more stars peeking from the veil of light from the city than usual, the air sweet with the blooms that choked the residential area that the mansion was located amongst, there was a heavy darkness that filled the hearts of Logan and Rogue.
It was clear after the lab that things were changing now, things were coming to a head. The ramifications of Magneto's actions were haunting, near terrifying, and Rogue's arms tight about Logan echoed the tension inside of her, the fear of what was to come for them.
The mansion loomed down the street, lights warm and inviting, it's dark shape against the sky welcoming and secure. The security gates swallowed them up as they rode onto the estate, and the dying rumble of the Blackbird replied to their arrival. Now was the time where they would pile into the Briefing Room and lick their wounds. Rogue had only ever seen the team leave. She'd never seen them return and take stock of what they'd been through, only their tired faces in the morning. It was a first time for her, and not a very pleasant one.
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