The team was relatively quiet as they gathered by the Blackbird and climbed inside. Rogue took her usual seat next to Jubilee, with Kitty and Bobby across the row. Jubilee took advantage of the rustling of settling harnesses to lean over and whisper to Rogue, “So, Roguey, did the big bad Wolverine eat you alive?”
Rogue gave her friend credit for keeping her curiosity to herself in the locker room, but she wished Jubilee could have kept her mouth shut until after the mission.
However, the sight of Logan boarding the Blackbird, last as always, seemed to spark the irritation she had felt for him earlier, and his glare when he saw her looking in his direction fanned the flame higher. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and whispered back with a small smirk, “He got a bite taken out of him instead. No one has the right to tell me how to live my life!”
Rogue knew Logan must have heard her whisper, but since she immediately turned to look out the window, she didn’t see his reaction as he passed. Jubilee’s low whistle and tension beside her for a moment told her it probably hadn’t been pretty. That was fine with her. That man seemed to think he could run her life just because she had turned to him a few times during moments of weakness, but Rogue thought it was time for him to learn that she was more than capable of standing on her own two feet a majority of the time. She certainly didn’t need a fucking babysitter!
The flight was a quick one by mission standards. Their target was a small farm on the outskirts of Pennsylvania where a group of Friends of Humanity fanatics were holding a young mutant couple and their two children.
This particular group had advertised in circles where the X-Men’s doctor, Henry McCoy, still had informants that they had a family of mutants available for sale to the highest bidder. Since these circles also included members of the team who had invented the so-called mutant “cure”—the one that was only administered to the weak while the government kept the strong mutants for experimental purposes—knowing that there might be potential buyers had spurred the X-Men into swift action. A quick reconnaissance mission by a smaller team had concluded that there were only six FOH members on site at any one time. The Professor and Scott had decided that an extraction mission would be the best option, and so the team had been alerted. Now, less than twenty-four hours after the first report, they were on their way.
Rogue kept her gaze on the night sky beyond the window the entire time they were in the air. She didn’t want to risk meeting Logan’s glare and becoming angry all over again. She wanted to focus on her job, which would be rescuing one of the two children. Nothing, not even a damned aggravating, stubborn man, was going to keep her from completing her mission.
Apparently, that included explosions, Rogue thought ironically as she flew through the first one, then another, and finally a third while trying to make her way across the small battlefield to the dilapidated barn beyond. Behind her she felt sprays from Storm’s cooling rains putting out the fires started by the fireballs, which meant that she and Kitty, whom Storm was using wind to carry, were following closely but not so closely that they had been injured. Rogue ignored the fighting as best she could, given that her friends were the ones down there. She did glimpse Logan taking on two fighters at once, which was reassuring. If anyone could handle this, he could.
Rogue reached the barn and landed in front of the open doors. Deciding that it would be easier for her to go in first and attract any potential bullets, Rogue ran through the doors. The stall walls had long since fallen down, and so she was able to see clearly that the only people in the barn were the seven—seven!—huddled forms in a metal cage, four of whom were adults with very obvious mutations. Rogue called the all-clear to Storm and Kitty and approached the cage with caution. Thankfully there were no traps in the floor. Rogue reasoned that any traps would be on the cage itself.
She was right. Rogue gripped the rusty metal bars of the cage to bend them as Storm and Kitty ran into the barn.
Crackling blue electricity flashed over her hands and up her arms as she made quick work of the cage. Add electrical burns to the singes to my uniform and hair, some abstract part of Rogue’s mind suggested drily.
“Rogue! Are you all right?” Kitty asked as she ran up to her.
Rogue just smiled grimly. “I’m fine, but we have two more to get out of here. I’ll take the children and their mother if you two will get the men,” she said, gesturing to the dazed former captives.
Storm nodded and turned to the new mutants. “We need to get you out of here quickly. Ma’am, please follow Rogue here with your children. We will be following close behind,” she instructed them gently but firmly.
The woman and her children obediently went with Rogue to the barn door. They peered out a little fearfully at the battle still raging, so Rogue laid a reassuring, glove-covered hand on the woman’s arm. The other mutant was actually smaller than her, and her sons appeared to have inherited that her petite frame, which had given Rogue cause to believe that she would easily be able to carry them the short distance to the jet.
Rogue pulled her black gossamer silk hood, specially made for situations such as this, out of the collar of her uniform and slipped it over her head, covering the skin of her face and neck to avoid inadvertent contact. Then she turned to the woman and said, “Some of my abilities are strength and flight. I am going to fly you and your sons to safety. Please hold on as tightly as possible.”
Without giving them time to think about this, Rogue scooped up the children in one arm and wrapped her other arm around their mother’s waist. As her feet left the ground, the mother remembered her instructions and threw her arms around Rogue’s neck, prompting her children to cling to whatever parts of her arm and torso they could reach. The younger woman silently thanked Hank for the suggestion of the hood and the nagging he had done to convince her to add it as she felt the woman’s firm, clammy skin press against the silk. She negotiated the air above the battlefield quickly but with a mind toward the more vulnerable state of her passengers. They landed safely at the Blackbird, and Rogue gestured for the other woman to take her children and board, giving them no other options. Then Rogue reached into a compartment on the outside of the jet by the hatch and pulled out a loaded pistol. After checking the safety she turned it off and took up a guard position beside the Blackbird.
As Kitty and Storm arrived with the three men, Rogue shouted to them over the noise of the battle, “Is it just me, or are there more than we thought there would be?” She gestured toward the fighting.
“Twelve,” Storm replied, her features drawn from her efforts. “They must have changed shifts later than they did previously. Time to come in, Scott. We’re done,” she added into her earphone. The rest of the X-Men followed their leader, fighting their way through the remaining fanatics back to the jet. Only two of the enemy remained standing as the X-Men and former captives scrambled on board the Blackbird and the hatch closed. They fired their rifles futilely at the hull and were knocked over by the wind as Storm lifted the jet to safety. Scott took over flying from there while the rest, including the captives, found seats and harnessed themselves in.
Rogue sat quietly in her seat on the way home while Storm informed the newcomers who they were, why they had helped, and what would happen next. Rogue had noticed the black, cold look Logan had shot her as he went past on his way to his seat, and her stomach clenched painfully in anticipation of the argument she knew would inevitably come once they were home. Why was he, her best and oldest friend, suddenly so overly concerned? The question plagued her throughout the flight despite the rest of the team’s elation at the successful completion of the mission and the refugee’s similar joy. She couldn’t help but notice that Logan was ominously silent as well.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Well, here's some action for those of you who like that. This action has a particular goal, though, so even if you're not sure that's your thing, read carefully.
Chapter End Notes:
How was that? Does anyone really think they can stay friends?