The Professor wheeled out of the room he had been shut inside, looking concerned.

"Rogue has been tranquilised, I was able to ascertain from Mystique that Rogue saw through her deception and attempted to escape, Sabretooth is with them also, I wasn't able to get much information as both shielded themselves quickly when Mystique sensed the telepathic connection but their plan is being carried out tonight, and will be centred around the Statue of Liberty, I will continue to attempt to locate Rogue throughout the day, I would recommend a ground search as well, Wolverine, I take it you will be assisting?" The old man promptly explained.

"Yeah," Logan replied, "But I'll need to get away soon to have any chance of being able to track a vehicle, if they get too close to the city though... even I can't guarantee that."

"Of course," the Professor replied, "Ororo will accompany you, check in regularly and be aware, I was not able to ascertain if Rogue has been taken as a decoy or bait, or if it is indeed her they are after. If it helps, the last location I was able to get on them was near Chappaqua, however they are rapidly on the move."

"They're definitely after her," Logan confirmed, "It was her the hairy fucker was looking for when he hit the cabin, figure out what they want her for, and when this shit is supposed to go down, if anything happens to her..." he growled angrily, as his claws shot out of both fists, causing several people to jump in fright, before he turned and walked away, intent on getting back to the garage, and getting on the road, as fast as possible. Surprisingly, it didn't take Ororo long to follow him, despite the claws that were still exposed.

--

They were called back to the mansion not long after sundown, arriving just before eight pm. They had lost the trail on Rogue before the Hudson River. The Professor had only managed to get brief connections to her as she drifted in and out of consciousness throughout the day, which narrowed her location to few miles stretch along the western bank of the Hudson. Despite a thorough search though, Logan and Ororo hadn't been able to pick up a trail.

Ororo led Logan back to the lower levels once they arrived back at the mansion. They walked into what appeared, to Logan, to be a tactical room, just as the Professor wheeled in and announced that Magneto's group was on the move and heading for the Statue. He hadn't managed to get a read on Magneto but Rogue was present, along with Mystique, Sabretooth, and one or two other minor associates.

The brief for the mission was little more than filling Logan in on the specifics of each mutant, and their powers, that they knew would be present. Everything else was going to be improvised, once they ascertained what exactly it was Magneto was planning. Half an hour later, four black-clad figures boarded the military-grade jet, that the 'mutant school' kept hidden underground. Logan's borrowed uniform was running on the tight side and was definitely too restrictive for fighting, he spent the few minutes of flight time stretching the supple leather, and popped a few seams to give himself more necessary movement in preparation for the coming fight.

When they touched down on Liberty Island the immediate area was thick with fog, to disguise the plane's arrival. It muted the surrounding scents to a degree but he could still detect several new scents, that had come and gone in the last fifteen to twenty minutes. He catalogued each scent and locked onto those that were most important. He was there for one reason and one reason only, to get Marie, anyone who got in his way was history, he didn't care what these freaks opinion was on taking prisoners. Magneto he would need to avoid, the hairy fucker, Sabretooth, was going to be the hardest to take out. The other mutant that was going to be trouble was the shape shifter, he was the most likely to be able to pick her out if she disguised herself, now that he knew her scent.

They walked in the front entrance of the statues tourist area only to be confronted with a bank of metal detectors. 'No point announcing our arrival,' Logan thought as he jumped over the baggage conveyor. He ignored the odd looks he was shot by his current team members; they would figure it out.

He set about trying to track down Marie. "She didn't come inside," he told the others, "She is here though, they must have taken her up outside."

"Up? You're sure?" Scott asked.

"Positive," he replied, as another scent hit him. "The shifters here," he growled.

"Where?" Scott pointlessly queried.

"I don't know, keep your eye open," he snapped, walking through a service door to his left and out of sight of the rest of the team. He should probably feel bad about using them as bait but this was the fastest way to get the result he needed. Sure enough the shifter took her chance, and he heard his own voice coming from the foyer, addressing the others, only a few moments later.

He leapt back into the room and slammed into the shifter, just as she raised fake claws with the intent of stabbing Jean in the back. Jean started at the sudden movement behind her, and jumped out of the way of the two scrapping mutants. They separated as they faced off against each other before Logan spotted Scott, hand ready at his visor, ready to fire.

"Shoot!" Logan yelled.

"No, wait!" The shape shifter, disguised as him, replied.

Scott stupidly faltered which gave the shifter enough time to slam a door shut between the two of them and the rest of the team. Logan growled and threw himself towards her again. They tussled for a few minutes, he almost had her pinned when she managed to distract him, and slither her way out of his reach by shifting into her own slimmer, blue scaled form, before she scaled a utility pipe and disappeared from view.

When he pulled the door open to the foyer again the rest of the team had moved on, he could hear them upstairs; these guys clearly didn't know how to do stealth. He caught a scent approaching him from another door, quickly deducing that it was the shifter again, this time disguised as Storm.

"Come on Logan, she's gone, we have to catch up with the team," Mystique, as Storm, spoke.

He waited until she was close enough before he spun around and impaled her. "Now that I've got you, that sounds like a good plan," he growled, as he watched Ororo’s face shimmer before shifting to reveal the blue scaled face, red hair, and yellow eyes he had seen before. "Where's Marie?" He demanded, keeping the claws in place to slow down the bleeding from the holes he had just made in her gut, while he tried to get an answer.

"You'll never get up there in time," Mystique rasped, grinning evilly.

"We'll see, well, I'll see, you're going to bleed out on the floor here, and you better hope you're dead before I get back to you.” He withdrew his claws, dropping her body to the ground, as blood began to flow from her wounds, he should have punctured her liver at that angle which was kind of a shame; she would bleed out way too quickly but he didn’t have time to spend longer making her suffer for daring to touch Marie.

He turned then and took off for the stairs. He could hear lightening crackling, and saw a flash of red light as he sprinted toward the fight. Stepping off the stairs he came across the rest of the team regrouping, waving Scott off as he raised his hand back to his visor.

"Now you're going to shoot? In future, when it comes to me, shoot first, figure it out after, I'll be the one getting back up," he commented tersely.

"So, it is you?" Scott asked.

"No, it's the Easter bunny," Logan snapped sarcastically. "They've got Rogue up the top, we have to hurry, whatever is happening is apparently going down soon. Who's still unaccounted for?" he asked, as he made for the stairs to head up to the top of the statue.

"If you took care of Mystique then the only ones unaccounted for are Magneto and Sabretooth," Ororo replied, trying to stifle her amusement and remain professional. In spite of his tenseness and worry, she had found herself coming to like Logan over the day they had spent together searching for Rogue.

"They'll no doubt be guarding Rogue for whatever they're planning," Jean added worriedly.

It took Logan eight minutes and thirteen seconds to jog up the three hundred and fifty odd stairs inside the statue, a couple of minutes later the rest of the team entered the viewing platform behind him.

"Where are they?" Scott asked, glancing around the empty room.

"There," Logan replied, nodding towards the torch that was still forty feet above them.

"How are we going to get up th--?" Ororo asked in frustration.

"Get out of here!" Logan suddenly interrupted.

"What- why?" Jean asked in confusion.

"I can't move," Logan replied, "Magneto..." he barely had time to comment, before the man in question suddenly lowered himself through the large, jagged hole in the ceiling, followed closely by the hulking figure of Sabretooth.

"Good help is so hard to find," Magneto lamented, almost sounding bored. "I suppose I will have to take care of this myself," he added, as the room around them began to rattle as metal began to shift and warp. Before anyone could react, they were trapped against the walls, leaving Logan standing, alone but frozen, in the middle of the room.

"As for you," Magneto addressed him, "That is a remarkable metal, if we had met under different circumstances I think we would have gotten along very well, for now though, let's point those claws of yours in a safer direction."

The next moment Logan grunted in pain as he was slammed into the ceiling, arms twisted to point into his chest as more metal twisted around to secure him in place. A moment later he felt the magnetic hold on his bones disappear, leaving his body hung from the twisted restraints.

Magneto then began to monologue, in typical ‘bad guy’ fashion, going on about how noble his actions truly were, how the world was going to be a better place, how this sacrifice, while unfortunate, was necessary. He was interrupted by a scream for help from Marie.

Logan growled menacingly before spitting out a snarled, "You're so full of shit, if you were so righteous it would be you in that thing, not her."

Magneto froze and glared at him, before magnetically snapping Logan's jaw closed to shut him up, narrowly missing catching his tongue between his teeth. He turned to Sabretooth then, instructing him to make sure no one escaped, before Magneto left the room, floating back out through the torn ceiling, and back towards Marie who was still screaming for help.
You must login (register) to review.