Rogue, dashing at breakneck speed down the hallway on the third floor of the mansion, grabbed the banister at the top of the main staircase and used the change of momentum to swing herself up and over the railing into the open air over the foyer. She spun in a circle, put the package between her lips and flicked Kitty the double bird. She then did a summersault, stopping upside down in mid air, jerked her skirt up and underwear down to moon her before dropping to the floor in front of a somewhat dazed Scott.
He looked at her, fixing her under things and pulling her skirt back down in the entranceway. "Rogue! No powers in the house. And no nakedness. What kind of impression is that to set for all the children running around?" His focus diverted with his next thought. "Not that his Mutant for Hire thing is going to set a good impression anyway. We're being whored out-"
Rogue rolled her eyes and saw Kitty was almost all the way down the stairs. She patted Scott on the chest. "No time to talk, laser boy. Gotta hide the evidence." As she rushed down the hallway she heard Kitty squeak as he grabbed her. The last words Rogue heard over her own snickering were "Whoring us out!" She fell into full chuckles as the door slammed behind her, releasing her into the wilderness and freedom (well, actually the mansion's well-manicured grounds and several acres of trees that Xavier kept maintained for the ferals in residence).
"I'm free! I'm free! You'll never catch me!" she screamed over her shoulder, not seeing the chest of super hard metal in front of her until after she had bounced off of it and hit the dirt. She was instantly surrounded by a box of ice that was in turn surrounded by a ring of fire. She laughed maniacally. Did these amateurs actually think this, this, child's prison could hold her? They might as well have used tinker-toys for all the trouble this was going to be. She sat on the floor and held both of her hands over her head, pointed like she was getting ready to dive, and used the thrust of her power of flight to propel her through the ice, relying on indestructibility to keep her hands intact. She started to smile as she felt the ice give before she shot face first into a huge cloud of sparkles. A brief 'bamph' noise and the smell of sulfur accompanied Kurt's appearance and disappearance, with her package. She looked down to see Jubes and Kitty staring up at her and waving.
"Think about what your doing. This will end so badly. Hell will reign down like you've never seen. They'll be cleaning up for months. This is all kinds of bad karma and dogma and ju-ju and anything else that can be bad and make life suck. Just give i-". She barely had time to register a huge boom before everything around her exploded into bright light followed by crushing darkness.
Two Hours Earlier:
Everyone sat in stunned silence in Xavier's office, staring at him. He really did feel kind of bad about this, but there was no other way to make ends meet. He grabbed a folder out of the top drawer of his desk.
"Now, I'm just going to take your continued silence as indication that you all are in agreeance with this plan." He heard about half of the room inhale, probably to start to spout off again about all their ideas, none of which would work as well as his. Not letting anyone get a word in he continued. "That video hasn't aired on television yet. It is set to run on every major network starting tomorrow. Everyone was most kind to donate some of their advertising time to us so we can get our business out there for the good of the world." And if it had taken a few well placed mental suggestions to a few CEO's, who was going to know? "So, tonight, I am posting bios for everyone to the website. The site is being run though an outside company because I don't exactly trust any of you to not do something stupid and childish if you're given control."
Scott and Jean actually looked hurt by that. Kitty, who had obviously thought she would be in control of the site, being the most qualified of the household, slouched over in disappointment. In her brain, he caught a brief glimpse of himself in a very racy photoshopped pic over a bio that read 'Will do anything and anyone for cash' and was suddenly glad for his foresight on this matter.
"I need each of you to bring me a picture. It doesn't have to be displaying your powers or anything, but make sure it captures some aspect of yourself. I want these people to see that they are getting cool, capable, mature adults who are well put together and trustworthy." God surely was going to smite him soon for his lies. He briefly wondered if living under the desk would protect him before decided that God (or Jubilee) would positively come after him if he hid.
"So, go hunt them down and have them turned back into me within the hour. We need to scan them and send the files, in mass, over to the company."
He watched everyone stand and file out of the room, accepting the looks of hatred that got thrown his way with a grain of salt. They would come to realize that this was a necessary step to take in their lives. He was doing the right thing.
Right after that
Rogue, Kitty and Jubes shuffled into their room, each lost in their own thoughts as they headed for the photomontage that they continuously added to. The thing took up most of their wall by this time, having grown over the five years of friendship, soon taking on a life of its own. They scanned the wall together, looking for pictures that didn't involve alcohol (eliminating half), stupid costumes (another quarter), naked boys (maybe an eighth) or the occasional animal ass (please don't even guess why there were 10 different pictures in this category).
"Here Jubes." Kitty said, plucking one down of the girl sitting on the bleachers in the gym, rooting on a basketball game. You couldn't see it in the picture, it had been out of the frame, but at the time she had been holding a paintball gun in her lap, her version of 'disciplining' the losers. And the evil grin actually could be mistaken as one of extreme pleasure to those who didn't know her well.
"Thanks chica. That'll work."
Rogue was the next to find one, pulling a half buried picture of Kitty out from behind a collection taken at a random bachelor party they had crashed one summer. Those were good times. All you had to do at those things was shimmy a bit and it was free liquor all night. Cheapest drinks they had ever 'bought'.
This picture though, sadly, was of Kitty sitting in front of her computer, concentrating on something that was evidently important enough that she missed the incoming whip cream filled condom zooming at her head, having been thrown by Bobby. With a little cropping though, the picture would be just fine.
"K, Rogue," Kitty said. "Where's the one from the water balloon day? I think there were a few good ones taken before your shirt turned transparent and you flashed the goods to all of mankind."
"Oh yeah, good call Kitty." Rogue walked to the left side of the mural, grabbing a picture of herself with a water balloon raised over head, preparing to attack. It wasn't the most serious picture, but it captured a sense of fun that Rogue thought would appeal to customers.
She swallowed, trying to force the lump down her throat. "Girls, are we really doing this? Putting our lives, not to mention our fortunes, into the hands of strangers?"
"Yup," Jubes chirped, grabbing the three photos and turning to stalk out the door, as the professor rang the three of them on the brain phone.
"Ladies, I don't seem to have a picture of Logan. Rogue, I believe if anyone in the mansion has one, it will be you. Please bring that as well."
Jubes started smiling and devil horns would have been appropriate to match her heart at the moment. She murmured sweetly, "Yeah, Roguey has the only picture ever taken of the Wolverine that we're aware of, don't you?" Rogue started shaking her head, backing slowly towards her closet.
"Don't know what she's talking bout professor," she drawled, digging though a box and coming up with picture in hand. She then started circling the outside of the room, keeping an eye on the other two as she neared the door.
"She has it, Professor." That Kitty Pride. What a fucking traitor.
The other two girls were the only ones that knew of this picture, even Logan was unaware. And if he saw it, he would know exactly who had taken it. And if he knew who had taken it, he would blame her for it getting circulated to the masses. And she was in no way near ready to deal with that.
She was almost to the door. A few more steps. Then she could get away scott free.
"Rogue," Xavier's voice again, sounding stern. "This is no time for childish games. We can't have a profile without a picture. We need that. Our well being depends on it."
"I can't, professor," she whispered, sprinting for the door.
"Oh child," she heard before a broadcast to all the adults took over her mind. "Rogue has a picture of Logan. I need it. If it isn't in my hand within twenty minutes, all of you will find that you have a strange obsession with licking the underside of the toilet seat. Think I'm joking? Do you really want to bet on it?"
Fuck, she thought, kicking up the speed.
Present time:
Rogue slowly rose to consciousness, helped along by wet sounding chuckles and occasional full out sobs coming from whomever else was in the room. Couldn't they let her sleep? Her head hurt like a bitch and her personal form of aspirin happened to be in fucking Florida trying to get fucking cigars while everything fell down around her ears and a brass band marched doughnuts in her skull. Oh God! Logan! It all came rushing back to her in that instant, almost knocking her back into blissful out-of-brainedness. But she'd never been that lucky.
She sat up slowly and looked around the room. Jubilee was sitting, staring dejectedly at her hands, on the left side of Xavier's office while Kitty was behind the desk, looking at the computer screen with horror on her face.
She staggered up off the couch in the back of the room and stumbled over to the desk, sinking down into the chair in front of it, knowing that Kitty had to be looking at the website because nothing else on a computer could ever scare the girl that bad. She twisted the screen around and zeroed in on the bio labeled "Logan/Wolverine". She whimpered and twisted the screen back around.
The bio was burned into her brain.
Logan/Wolverine
Mutant Powers: Enhanced feral senses. Super healing. Six indestructible, metal claws.
What can he do?
Logan is a supremely handy man to keep around. He has increased stamina, due to his healing, and is able to perform any task for hours on end without breaks. His senses allow him to know what people are feeling, sometimes before they even know themselves and also help him locate objects that may need to be found. His claws make it easy to cut through anything, giving him that added 'edge' over the competition. There is no task too great or too small for this man.
Over the top of it was his picture, the one she had taken over the summer when the two of them had gone up to his cabin in Canada just to get away from the hustle of everyday life. He'd just crawled out of the lake, so his hair was wet and extra spiky from running his hand through it. He was wearing soaked cut off jeans which were suction cupped to his legs, showing the tensing muscles of his thighs off better than she had ever seen. His white tank top wasn't as wet but had picked up a few damp patches here and there because he hadn't dried off before putting it back on. Either way, it was still stretched beautifully over his gorgeous chest. He had a cigar clamped in the right side of his mouth and the left side was pulled up in a smirk, some private joke that he had never chosen to share evidently amusing him. And, to top if all off, he was chopping wood, ax over the top of his head on the downward swing, muscles of his forearms and biceps flexed and looking extremely bitable.
She shuddered. The whole thing looked and sounded like they wanted to market Logan as a male escort. She breathed deeply for a minute, trying to dredge up some of her meditation techniques. Nope. Not working.
"Take it down Kitty!" She launched herself over the desk, grabbing Kitty's shoulders in desperation, not even hearing Kitty's groan of pain at the intense squeezing. "Take it fucking down now. He's going to kill me! I've heard death hurts. I don't like pain."
Rogue felt herself picked up by unseen hands and deposited on the floor of the room. She looked up into Xavier's face. "It's done Rogue. Kitty has no control over this."
She crumpled over onto the floor, all strength leeched out of her by betrayal. "Oh God. The end is here. The end is here! Excuse me. I'm going to go spend my last days in solitude, trying to remember why I ever called any of you people my friend while I try to devise ways to take you fuckers with me." She turned and crawled out the door, kicking it shut hard enough to knock the whole thing, frame included, to the floor.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
Well, 5am's better than 7, right? Here's chapter 2. Hope it's to everyone's liking. Bedtime. Kiss Kiss.
Chapter End Notes:
What do you think? Let me know!