The vehicles in the caravan dimmed their lights as they approached the trees that shielded the complex from prying eyes. Rogue followed the other mutants as they parked in a clearing half a mile south of their target. She turned to her three passengers.
“Everyone ready?” She threw a wild grin their way and opened her door. A strong grip on her wrist made her turn back.
“Don’t take too many chances, Marie,” Logan said, his eyes serious. “We still have a lot to talk about.”
Rogue’s smile softened. “Ah won’t take too many, sugar. Just enough to get the job done,” she promised, pulling her wrist away to step out of the car.
Jubilee grabbed her by the waist after hopping out from the back seat. “What’s up with you and Wolvie?” she tried to whisper in Rogue’s ear. Jubilee still had no idea what a whisper was.
Rogue rolled her eyes. “Shush. Are you ready to have some fun?”
“Do I get to see aerial acrobatics?”
“It’ll probably be the easiest way to get their attention without ripping down the fence…Ah might do that later, though,” Rogue mused as they joined the others.
A quick rehash of the plan—Rogue, Wolverine, Jubilee and Gambit would cause a distraction, the rest would go in once it looked like enough guards were occupied—and then the larger group melted into the trees while Rogue lifted into the air and flew slowly towards the entrance to their target. The other three jogged behind her, far enough away to be able to remain out of sight until she had the guards’ attention. After a few short minutes the gate was in sight, two bored looking men the only ones in sight. Rogue shook her head in mock disapproval at the way one was reading a magazine while the other kept flicking a knife into a nearby sapling and then running to retrieve it. That would be the one to take out first, she decided.
Rogue flew forward a bit faster until she was across the road from the two men but just over the treeline so that the moonlight would shine on her. “Yoo-hoo!” she called loudly, her voice echoing in the otherwise still twilight. “Y’all have a friend of mine, and Ah want her back!”
Their heads snapped up. Knife-thrower had just released his knife, and it stuck in the sapling while he looked at her, jaw dropping. Magazine-guy threw down the glossy pages and drew the firearm at his hip. “Stay where you are!” he yelled as he took aim.
“Oh, sugar, why would Ah be scared of little ole you?” she asked as she flew just a bit closer.
Magazine-guy kept her in his sights as she drifted higher. That was just fine to Rogue. He never saw Wolverine run in, but he sure felt the claws ripping into his chest moments before his eyes glazed over and rolled back into his head. Knife-thrower shouted, just as Rogue hoped he would, and ran towards the sapling holding his knife, apparently his preferred weapon since he left his gun propped next to the small guard shack. A shower of white-hot sparks exploded in his face at the same moment that a flaming card flew into his back, catching his dark uniform shirt on fire. Rogue glanced back to see Gambit and Jubilee grin fiercely at one another.
A movement to her left caught her eye, and Rogue looked back in time to see Wolverine slicing through the fence ten feet away. That must have set off an alarm because bright white lights began flashing across the compound, spotlights searching out the slightest movement, while ten heavily armed men poured out of a door in the middle of the largest building. Rogue maintained her height, giving them plenty to focus on as the lights slid over her dark hair, white streak prominent and setting her apart as different if the flying didn’t clue them in right away.
“C’mon and play, boys,” she yelled loudly, hoping that the sound of their boots slapping on the pavement combined with her taunts would distract them from the sound of movement in the trees behind her. Jubilee came to stand beneath her, hands sparkling like the Fourth of July. Gambit and Wolverine, finished shredding the steel fence like it was paper, held back, letting the two showy women lure out the guards even though Rogue knew it must be killing them both.
It had been months since Wolverine had had a chance to have a really good fight, and even though his first target hadn’t been much of a challenge he was hopeful for the next group. Even the adrenaline rushing through him didn’t stop him from worry about the woman hovering above, however. He tried to keep an eye on her even as the larger part of him focused on the first man coming out of the hole he had made. This one was hers, he knew, even though it galled him to let her attack. It always had. He had trained her, knew what she could do, so he tried to bury the worry in admiring her skill.
Admiration turned to surprise when she pulled a move he didn’t recognize. Rogue flew higher then dove back down to slam her fist into the guard’s temple before popping back up into a kick that would have incapacitated him even if she hadn’t been high enough to gracefully catch his throat with the tip of her boot and fling him back into his compatriots. The other guards flung him to the side, obviously not caring that he fell with a heavy thud. Their eyes were focused on Rogue and Jubilee, just like they were supposed to be. Wolverine decided that if Rogue kept fighting the way she was, he was safe to go down the fence a bit more and make a second and then a third hole large enough for three or four people to pass through side by side. He shot a glance into the woods as he finished the third hole and returned to the fray.
Wolverine was back in time to throw a punch at the man who was going for Jubilee’s back while she was distracted with kicking the ass of a tall redhead who probably thought she would be an easy target. “Thanks, Wolvie!” Jubilee called over her shoulder as she slammed into the giant in front of her, catching him off guard and knocking him to the ground. That’s where Jubilee’s advantage was, he knew, getting them once they were down.
More guards were running across the grass to join the fray. Wolverine lost himself in the fight, using fists sometimes but mostly claw. These men knew what they were guarding. That made them dangerous to mutants, a classification that meant deadly force as far as he was concerned. Rogue, Jubilee and Gambit appeared to agree because soon the grass at their feet was littered with bodies. It was only when no more came out that he noticed the stumbling line of mutant men and women, most with small children or infants clinging to them, making their way towards the holes in the fence. Scott was in the lead, and the other X-Men and Gambit’s Thieves were helping the frailer or heavily-pregnant women. A couple had kids riding their shoulders. Wolverine let himself relax and the claws snap back in. If they were moving like that, there were no further threats inside.
“We have them,” Scott called.
“Thanks, Scott. We’re gonna stay and do clean up, then we’ll meet back at the White Dove, okay?” Rogue yelled back.
Scott nodded and shot a look back at the building. “Think you’ll need help with that?”
Logan let his lips stretch in a grin as Rogue laughed. “Nah. You get those poor things somewhere safe. Hey, Angie!” she yelled with a wave to a short, blond girl who grinned wearily back at her.
Rogue turned back to him, so Logan forced his smile away. No need for her to know how just her laugh affected him.
“Sugar, I think the Thieves left us a little present by the tree line. Want to help me lug them back?” she asked. Logan just nodded and followed her to what he saw was a pile of red gasoline jugs, their yellow spouts gleaming in the bright lights still circling around.
“Arson, darlin’?” he asked, arching one eyebrow.
“Quickest way to get rid of the evidence,” Rogue said, not showing any discomfort at the endearment. Well, she had been the one to start with the whole “sugar” thing anyway. He thought he could get used to it pretty quick. They each grabbed two jugs and headed back to where Jubilee and Gambit were starting to pile the bodies against the larger building.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Ugh. Feels like it's taken forever to get to this part...wait, it has. Sorry! I hope it's worth it.
Chapter End Notes:
More to follow, hopefully by the end of the weekend.