Logan woke slowly, his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool and his ears were ringing. He tried to open his eyes only to be assaulted by too bright fluorescents, right above his head. He successfully stifled a groan as he clenched his eyes closed against the stabbing pain the light sent shooting through his head... maybe his nose was still working instead.
He scented the area, eyes snapping open as he bolted upright; this wasn't a hospital. A machine to his left started to squeal loudly, increasing the ringing in his ears but not enough to drown out the sound of hurriedly approaching footsteps. He was off the gurney and ready when a white-coat-clad figure rushed into the room. She squeaked in surprise when he spun her around and pinned her up against the wall.
"Where am I?" he growled.
"N-New York," she stuttered, "We brought you here for medical attention after you were injured fighting a mutant named Sabretooth..."
"Where's M- the girl?" he demanded, he could smell her, she had been in the room only an hour or so earlier.
"Rogue's probably still in bed," the woman replied shakily, though she was starting to recover from her initial shock.
He was distracted momentarily as the screaming machine behind him switched off, before he fully processed her statement. "Rogue?" he queried.
"That was the only name she would give us, she wouldn't tell us your name either, we've just been calling you Wolverine from your tag, the girl wasn't very helpful," the woman added ruefully.
Logan grinned, that was Marie alright, she was obviously not comfortable. If she was being anything like she had been when he had first met her, he could understand this woman's feelings, she wasn't going to win Marie over with an attitude like that though.
"Where’s her room?" he asked, he had to check on her first thing, let her know he was okay.
"Second floor, guest wing on the right," the doctor started, he was making for the door before she finished. "Wolverine!" she called sharply, halting his progress as he turned to look at her. "Clothes," she said, indicating toward a folded pile of his clothes.
He picked them up, noting they weren't the clothes he had been wearing, Marie must have grabbed them from the cabin. He quickly dressed; the doctor attempted to keep her eyes averted as she moved around the room righting all the medical equipment he had knocked over. He peeled off the sticky pads that had been holding the heart monitors in place, dropping them onto the gurney as he pulled his shirts on. He was out the door before he was even fully covered.
He moved into the hallway following Marie's most recent scent, a silver panel sliding open at the end of the hall to reveal an elevator now before him. He entered and hit the button for the second floor. The car began moving but stopped suddenly, the door sliding open to reveal an old bald guy in a wheelchair, and an African woman with snow white hair.
"This the second floor?" he asked confused, in hadn't felt like the car had moved far enough.
"Mr Wolverine, no, this is the ground floor, I was hoping I would be able to speak with—" the old guy started.
"Later," Logan replied, cutting him off. He hit the second-floor button again, the door sliding shut before more could be said.
When the door opened again, he assumed he was on the correct floor, he could pick up Marie's scent strongly, like she was the only person who had been on this floor, quickly he tracked her to a room halfway down the hall. Knocking softly, he opened the door and let himself in.
She wasn't there. Her scent was strong, she had definitely slept in here. He moved into the bathroom; she had showered in here but it must have been before she was in the hospital room downstairs.
He made a quick scan of the room, noting her jacket and boots where missing but her gloves were still on her bedside table, the leather ones he noted. He grabbed them and stuffed them in his pocket before he headed back to the elevator, hitting the ground floor button. If she was up, she was probably getting food, most likely place for the kitchen to be was the ground floor.
He stepped out of the elevator and quickly tested the area for Marie's scent, sure enough he picked up a relatively fresh trail heading down the hall. Stepping into a kitchen he spotted the African woman he had seen earlier fixing herself a coffee. He scented the air again and moved across the room to the patio door, a soft voice interrupting him halfway across the room.
"Wolverine, is everything alright?" the woman asked.
"Looking for Rogue, she wasn't in her room," he replied distractedly, reaching for the door.
"You think she's outside?" the woman asked apprehensively.
"That's where her trail goes," he replied, noting the woman following him outside.
"Trail?" she responded curiously.
"Scent," Logan replied, "I have heightened senses, she was here--" He broke off and leaned down to pick up the dropped and broken mug. "Right here..."
He scented the air again. “Someone else was with her, female, but, strange... they went this way," he added, stepping off the patio and heading around the building towards the driveway.
As they stepped around the front towards the garage the woman gasped. "There's a car missing," she informed him, "Can Rogue drive?"
"Apparently, but she wasn't driving, she was passenger, why the hell would she... she wouldn't have left willingly, not with a stranger, not now," Logan said.
"Come," the woman said, indicating for him to follow her, "The Professor can find her."
"How?" it was Logan’s turn to enquire curiously.
"He's a telepath," the woman replied, "He can track her too, by her mental signature. My name is Ororo by the way," she added, as they entered the foyer of the mansion and headed toward a well-appointed office.
"Ah, Mr Wolverine," the bald man, he assumed was the “Professor", greeted as they walked into the room, "Thank you for coming to see me--"
"Rogue's missing, Ororo said you can find her," Logan interrupted him again.
"What makes you believe she is missing?" the older man asked.
"She showered in her room about an hour and a half ago, about an hour ago she was in the hospital downstairs, then she made herself a coffee in the kitchen. I found the mug outside, looked like it had been dropped, and then someone took her to the garage, took her and one of your cars, about half an hour ago," Logan answered, bluntly.
"I see, may I ask how you were able to deduce this?" he was asked.
"Heightened senses," Logan replied, "I can pick out a scent and tell how long it's been since the source was in an area."
"You also heal?" the man asked again.
"Obviously, I took a goddamn axe to the head but I'm standing right here getting more and more pissed off that this isn't finding Rogue, can you find her or not old man?" Logan growled, showing his frustration.
"Certainly, I will begin looking for her now. Is Rogue likely to have left with a stranger?" he asked suddenly, pausing as he began to leave the room.
"No," Logan replied.
"Were you able to determine anything about the person she left with?" he queried.
"Female, that's all could tell, not a scent I'm familiar with," Logan replied.
With a non-committal 'hmm' the wheelchair-bound man left the room, indicating for the two individuals to follow him. As they moved back to the elevator the older man spoke to Ororo, "Track the car, if we are lucky and they haven't abandoned it we may be able to track them faster that way."
"Of course, Professor," Ororo replied, splitting off from the pair once the elevator opened back up on the metal lined hallway.
"Professor?" a male voice addressed the older man as they turned a corner, it appeared to Logan he had been waiting for them. "What's going on?"
"Young Rogue appears to have been taken," the Professor addressed the new man, and the red-haired doctor who had joined them also, "I am going to attempt to locate her, I believe, from what Mr Wolverine has told me, she may have been taken by Mystique--"
"Mystique?" Logan queried.
"Scott, could you please introduce the main team to Wolverine and fill him in on the details of those who have attacked him and Rogue," the Professor directed, rolling to a stop in front of a large circular bulkhead door, a quick retinal scan later and the door slid open to admit him.
There was a moment of silence once the Professor had wheeled away before Logan turned back to Scott. "So, Mystique?"
"Mystique is a shape shifter, she works for a guy named Magneto, he's essentially a mutant Nazi, believes mutants are superior to humans and humans should be wiped out or subjugated," Scott replied. “The guy who attacked your cabin works with them too, his name is Sabretooth, he's just general muscle, troublemaker, Mystique is trickier, she's higher up the organisational food chain and often involved in the planning of terrorist activities."
"A shape shifter?" Logan noted, "Explains why she got in the car willingly, she thought she was going with someone she knew... How long had we been here, how was Rogue?"
"We only brought you in yesterday," the doctor spoke, "She spent most of her time in the med lab or in her room, didn't really talk to anyone that I know."
"So, the shapeshifting bitch probably used me then, fuck!" Logan swore, resisting the urge to claw something in frustration.
Just then Ororo returned. "The car has been abandoned just south of Pound Ridge," she advised, "About twenty minutes from here," she added for Logan's benefit.
"Any idea what this Magneto guy wants with her?" Logan asked. How had the guy even found out about her was the more concerning issue.
"No idea," Scott replied, "We thought he was after you initially, Sabretooth seemed like overkill to send after a little girl," he added.
The crowd went quiet again, all deep in thought over the current situation, before Logan again broke the silence. "So, how long is this likely to take?" he gestured toward the closed door.
"Depends on a variety of things, if Rogue is unconscious, it can affect the Professors ability to locate her, Mystique may have taken precautions to shield the two of them from telepathy, we'll know when we know really," the redhead replied.
"You're the only one I haven't got any info on yet," Logan added, "Scott, Ororo, you are?"
"Doctor Jean Grey," the doctor replied, with a smile, "Scott also goes by the codename Cyclops, and Ororo, Storm."
"Storm?" Logan queried, "Is that something to do with your mutation?"
"Indeed," the whitehaired woman replied, "I can control the weather and associated anomalies – rain, wind, fog, lightening."
"Impressive, though if you could keep the lightening away from me I'd appreciate it," Logan replied, seriously but light-heartedly.
"Of course, the metal must be an impressive conduit," Jean commented curiously.
"Discovered that did you," Logan commented with a scowl, he did not like nosy doctors.
"Rogue was good enough to warn us before we tried to MRI you to check for head trauma, I did a CT scan instead but it was, uh, inconclusive due to the extent of the... coverage. She mentioned you didn't know who had done it...?" she queried indirectly.
Logan nodded, before turning to Ororo and changing the subject. "Can you get me down to this Pound Ridge, see if I can pick up a trail on them, beats sitting around here waiti--" The door opened behind him cutting off the rest of his sentence.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000