The once cosy house was a mess. Broken wood splintered across the floor from the door that was hanging off what was left of its hinges, glass strewn about both inside and outside from the shattered windows. Furniture broken and thrown around the room, cushions split open and spilling stuffing. A shelf had collapsed when the wall was impacted, spilling its contents across the floor, and the coat rack, holding several pieces of outerwear, had been strewn across the room. There was splattered blood everywhere, along with a growing puddle of the same under the unconscious man lying on the floor.
"We need to move," the latest intruder, a leather-clad man, commented to his companion, an also leather-clad woman. "If this guy's alive we'll take him with us, see if you can find the girl."
The woman began a quick search of the house, starting on the ground floor before jogging up the stairs. "Empty, she's not here!" she advised as she returned to the ground floor, "She must have run, Professor can you locate her?"
*'She is still there,'* came the mental response, *'She is very close to you Scott, to your right.'*
Both intruders looked in the direction indicated, seeing only empty room. It took a moment of consideration before Scott hypothesised, "There must be a basement."
It didn't take long to locate the door to the basement, flicking on the light the woman made her way down the stairs. "Scott, where are you?" she called back up the stairs, a thump sounded on the ceiling in the direction her companion stood upstairs. "It's a wall, there must be a hidden room, this might take a while," she called again up the stairs, as she began trying to find something that looked like a door in the wall beside her.
She was just about to admit defeat when a soft female voice echoed from around the room. "Who are you?"
"Hello," she replied, "Where are you?" She looked around the room, spying a partially hidden speaker on one side of the room.
"Who are you?" the speaker repeated.
"My name is Ororo Munroe, we have been tracking a dangerous mutant that has been following yourself and your... friend. He is temporarily disabled but we need to get away from here as soon as possible before he comes back."
"Why should I trust you? You turn up right as someone breaks in and starts smashing this place up, that's a little suspicious don't you agree?" the disembodied voice asked, surprisingly calmly.
"I can see why that would be a legitimate fear for someone in your position but I swear to you we are only concerned for your safety, if we had been able to get here sooner we would have, we are still not entirely certain why he is after one or both of you, only that it is not good and he won't stop until he gets to you--" she explained.
Scott's voice interrupted her. "We need to get out of here, hurry it up, we have to get this guy back to medical!"
"Look, we do not want to leave you here alone but your friend is very badly hurt and we need to get him to a doctor, will you please come out and come with us?" Ororo asked.
"... Go upstairs, I'll meet you up there," the speaker replied, after a brief pause.
Ororo agreed and hurried up the stairs, she had barely shut the door behind her when she heard footsteps begin to rush up the stairs. She hurriedly stepped out of the way as a young woman burst through the door, rushing across the room to the side of the unconscious man who was now wearing a neck brace, and had been maneuverer onto a reinforced stretcher.
"What are his injuries?" Marie demanded, before anyone else could speak.
"Uh, serious head wound, probable concussion, neck damage, a few smaller injuries that we won't be able to triage until we're out of here," the man she had heard called 'Scott' replied.
"What about the other guy?" she asked suspiciously.
"Well, I blasted him out the window and then Ororo hit him with lightning, but that won't keep him down much longer, if you need to pack any necessities to take with you do it quickly," he answered.
Still looking wary the girl paused before jumping to her feet and dashing up the stairs, 'five minutes' she called over her shoulder as she disappeared into the loft.
Marie's mind was racing as she tore up the stairs, what would they need, what would Logan expect her to grab, she went for the two packs first. Logan had left them minimally packed, with things they didn't need day-to-day, under the bed. She added a few changes of clothes to each, and pulled a sizeable wad of cash out of the stash Logan had shown her, for emergencies.
Just as she was about to head back downstairs another thought popped into her head, she had seen the odd looks the two strangely clad individuals had been shooting at each other. Quickly she stuffed her bag inside Logan's before she headed down the stairs, once she hit the ground floor she bolted into one of the downstairs bedrooms, pulling her bag back out so she now had two bags in hand. She killed time in the bedroom, opening and closing drawers in a partway convincing illusion of packing, before she stepped back out into the main room. The stretcher with its passenger was already being dragged out to a sleek black plane now occupying their clearing, the woman was standing at the busted door waiting for her.
Marie wasn't sure what to do about securing the cabin, the windows at one end were just gone, and the door was not even going to close, let alone lock. She checked their food stores were more or less secure, she had no doubt the local wildlife would be popping in at some point. Then she gathered up hers and Logan's jackets from around the room, slipping her own on, along with her boots, and stuffing Logan's into the pack she had loaded for him.
"Done," she said softly, to the woman waiting for her, who led her out towards the waiting plane. They were halfway up the gangplank of the plane when they heard an enraged roar behind them, both turning to see the original intruder pulling himself to his feet.
"Quick, hold onto something," Ororo told her, pushing her toward a seat as the door slid shut behind them with a mechanical hiss. Without looking at her twice Ororo rushed to the front of the plane and began to fire up the engine from muscle memory, while simultaneously raining down lightning outside the jet. Within moments they were airborne.
As the plane reached altitude and levelled off, Scott spoke up from the behind her, where he had been attempting to secure their unconscious passenger. "Thanks for the warning 'Ro," he grumbled good naturedly, "Did you see where he went?"
"He slunk back into the forest like he usually does," Ororo replied, sounding annoyed as she focussed on pushing the plane as fast as it could go back home.
Scott then turned his attention to their conscious passenger. "Hi, my name's Scott," he said, holding out a hand in friendly greeting. She ignored it. "And you would be?" he prompted after a moment.
"Hungry," the girl replied, semi sarcastically.
"Um, okay, I think we've got some snacks in here," he mumbled, rummaging around in a cupboard before pulling out a couple of energy bars. "Now, how about your name?" he asked, smiling at her in an effort to convey he wasn't a threat.
The girl snatched a bar out of his hand, eyeing him as she ripped open the foil and took a bite. "Rogue," she replied, once she'd finished chewing.
"And your... friend?" he asked, eyeing up the unconscious man behind him.
"I don't like your tone," was all the girl, Rogue, replied.
"His dog tags say 'Wolverine', is that his name?" Scott tried again but the girl had turned her attention back to the unconscious man, and studiously ignored his attempts to engage her further.
After about twenty minutes, wherein she appeared to be engrossed in studying the gory wound to her companions’ head, she finally let out a relieved sounding sigh. Scott turned to face her in time to see her wipe away a single tear, before she sunk down deeper into her chair and appeared to close her eyes in an attempt to sleep, still facing their other passenger.
It was then that Scott noticed the grisly wound was not looking so frightfully serious anymore, in fact, it was no longer bleeding and he couldn't see, what he had thought previously was bone, through the mangled flesh.
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