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“They are most DEFINITELY mutants.”

“Shouldn’t we take out take off our collars too,” Jubilee’s point received a shark hiss from Wolverine who was leading the small group, all six of his metal claws out in their glorious shininess.
“We ain’t got the time kid,” Wolverine scowled at her from across the corridor.

It had been like this for the past teen minutes, ever since they had broken out of their prison. Being the first and only person to have her collar taken off by Ororo, Kitty had phased through the females’ cell and into Logan’s, drawing him out within seconds.

Once that was done, the rest was easy enough, because apart from the Wolverine’s cell, the others weren’t made from Admantium and their bars were sliced off like a hot knife through soft butter.

An unconscious Kurt was then lifted by Ororo and Stacy, with Jubilee and Kitty backing them up. Kitty stayed close to them for any emergency in which Logan might not be able to reach them. In that case, she would grab hold of her teammates and phase all of them, until the time the threat was *gutted*.

“What is going on?” Kitty squeaked as they felt the walls shake as yet another missile launched by the Friends of Humanity, collided and exploded in the base.
“We don’t know Katherine,” Ororo grunted under the weight off the unconscious teleporter, her cerulean eyes looking eerily dark under the red emergency lights, the main power unit haven been blown off by a previous missile collision. “However, I agree with Logan in that this is not the time to deliberate, but to take avail the opportunity to the fullest.”

“Don’t worry kid,” Logan growled as he gave the all clear signal to traverse yet another empty corridor.

“Whatever it is, its got them shittin’ in their pants.”

------

Control room,

“What do you think you idiots are doing?” Wraith snarled into the ears of his deputies, especially one who was monitoring the twin battles, with both humans and mutants. “You are supposed to be the best. That’s why you were chosen to serve here.”
“We are the best colonel,” the same subordinate snapped at him, his own heart thumping at his latest discovery. “But are in situation to handle all five fronts.”

“FIVE,” Wraith bellowed incredulously. “Who the FUCK is in this fifth front? The fucking forest critters.”

“No sir,” the answer was equally terse, but the voice cracking with the onset of fear and panic.

“It’s the prisoners, sir,” he elaborated as she brought up the last camera feed from the holding area. On the screen were visible three metallic claws whizzing through the air destroying the camera.

“Wolverine has escaped.”

-------

Outside,

The small mutant group had just entered through the rubble that used to be the eastside wall of the base, their advance comparatively easy as most of the soldiers had been deployed against the F.O.H. and were yet to come over to their side.

The ragtag group consisted of the x-men who had managed to escape together when the mansion was destroyed. Their leader was the blue furred mutant Dr. Henry Phillip McCoy also known as Beast. With his enhanced senses, which were almost as strong as that of Wolverine, he was easily able to see in the night and also hear out for any approaching danger.

“Hank,” his younger teammate, student and only female in the group whispered to him. “Do we go in now?”
“Patience dear child,” he was as courteous as ever. “We have to wait for any reinforcements. And I once again suggest….”
“Zip it bub,” the young woman known to *almost* everyone as Rogue, growled like her favorite teacher and closest male friend, informing everyone in the group who was driving her now. “Ahn goin’ t’ get him outta theah and non of these shitheads is goin’ t’ stop me.”

“Leave it Hank,” their Cajun teammate, Remy Lebeau aka. Gambit shook his head and turned his eyes to the base. “We all know why she is here.”
“Remy,” Rogue’s sigh carried a world of pain and longing. “Y’ know its not lahke that. Ah only lo….”
“Later Marie,” he snapped at her, deliberately using her true name that only Wolverine used.

“Rogue,” a completely white, ice covered hand came to rest on her shoulder.
“Ahm ok Bobby,” Rogue whispered as she wiped off the stray tears that had appeared on account of the venom in her lover’s behavior. Steeling herself she took a deep breath before standing up.

“Lets get this ovah with.”

-----

On the other sides of the base,

“How are we progressing brother John,” Graydon Creed’s voice sounded over the communication link.
“Very well brother Graydon,” the man addressed answered. “We have the surprise advantage and that has served us well. We should be able to have access to the lower levels soon.”
“Very Good,” Graydon Creed’s voice carried a sick smugness. “Brother Peter, Brother William, how are things on your side?”

“No major problems here Brother,” Peter answered.
“None here either,” William answered. “But some of the soldiers from this side have been removed. I think they are sending them to the fourth wall. It seems that there is someone else who is interested in the muties here.”

“Hmm,” Graydon Creed mused for a few seconds. “I will see what is that all about. Maybe we have more supporters, who want to help humanity get rid of this devil scum that is choking our god created world.”

“Go on boy,” the feral growl was lost to the winds as the mutant known as Sabertooth observed the proceedings from a few feet away.

“Give yer pappy somethin’ t’ hunt.”

-------

Back in the Control Room,

“What is happening?” Cornelius exclaimed as he entered the room. “What is wrong?”
“Very good of you to finally grant us with your presence, SIR,” Wraith seethed as the sight of the balding scientist. “Finally finished fucking your blonde slut.”
“Watch your language major,” Cornelius shot back, the weird twinkle in his eyes going unnoticed by the agitated Colonel. “You DO know who you are talking to, don’t you COLONEL.”

“Yes SIR,” Wraith answered tightly, scowling at the grin on the face on the officer sitting at the control panel.

“So,” Cornelius came forward. “What is going on? Why did the lights just go off?”
“We are under attack Dr. Cornelius sir,” he was informed. “By both humans and mutants.”

“And Wolverine and the rest of the prisoners have also broken out,” Wraith added in a frustrated manner. “We have had to break off troops from two of the human fronts to handle him.”

“This is bad,” Cornelius shook his head, ignoring the snort from Wraith at stating the obvious. “Come with me Colonel.”
“Are you crazy you old coot,” the army officer gave him an incredulous look. “Here we are being attacked both from outside and from inside and you want to go out. Who the fuck do you think is going to co-ordinate the situation here? Your bimbo?”

Neglecting the second salvo on her *character* Mystique-Cornelius walked right up to the scowling Wraith.

“Now look here, you worthless piece of shit. You are going to follow my orders. We need to get to the cold storage to get the egg sample from X 102 and the semen sample from X 101. I need you for that.”

At Wraith’s reluctance to leave his post, Mystique-Cornelius stressed again.

“Get moving Colonel…NOW.”

-----

The prisoners,

“Sssh,” Wolverine brought a claw to this lips to signal complete silence to his teammates, who instantly stopped any movements and snuck back into the corridor they had just come out from.

“Did you hear something,” a nervous sound reached their ears, informing that they were finally going to face some interruption, news that caused a menacing grin to appear on Wolverine’s face.
“No,” a second soldier answered.

“Man this sucks,” a third one squeaked from among the group who was stalking down the corridor. “Why did we have to sent here? I don’t wanna face that animal.”
“Yeah man, same here,” another one contributed to the impromptu conversation. “He makes me wanna shit my pants.”

“Don’t worry,” a deep growl stopped them right in their tracks. “You won’t have the time.”

“FUCK,” the first soldier stopped and cocked his gun. “Who-who’s there? Come out with your hands up, or we will shoot you.”

“Oh, I will come out with my hands UP, and you WILL shoot me and then….” Wolverine’s warning caused chills to run down the backs of even his own teammates, who knew what was going to follow.

Sure enough the next instant a bone chilling roar filled the corridor as Wolverine *came* out in front of the soldiers.

“Muties! Mut….gggghh,” the warning cry from the soldiers was lost as three nine-inch long indestructible claws were literally shoved down his throat.

Sounds of cries, roars and machine gun fire filled the closed space, causing the x-men to cover their ears against the inhuman battle going on a few meters away from them.

Soon however, all that was left was an inhuman snarl that could only be the Wolverine.

“Come,” was their all clear signal to proceed to their teammate.

“Goddess,” Ororo exclaimed at the sight before them. Standing before them, among a virtual cornucopia of sheared body parts and gore, his clothes torn, blood literally flowing from his claws, was Wolverine, his own face blown half off, eerily making him look like the terminator from the movie of the same name.

“What happened here?” Jubilee squeaked, just before both her and Kitty upchucked contents of their stomach on the bloody floor.

Wolverine took deep breath, waiting for his healing factor to heal his jaw before speaking.

“I had a little fun.”

----

The Friends of Humanity,

The three assault teams were having mixed success. One of them was able to overpower the base infantry on their side and was just entering the second level of the base. They had lost eight out of their seventeen group members, but were still progressing because the opposition had just dried off as more soldiers were sent to face the mutants, both inside and out.

The second team was still facing off with the soldiers, as was their plan. They were supposed to remain out and draw attention from the first team, who were in charge of negating the mutant threat. They were the ones with the most firepower as they continued to launch missile at the base, causing it to crumble down from their side.

The third team had been completely wiped out, not as much as from the soldiers as from a mysterious figure that had come out from the night to literally claw out the life out of them.

The same figure who was right now stalking the fourth and smallest group, led by Graydon Creed….his SON.

“What was that?” Graydon whirled around only to face a dark night….and a missing teammate.

“Where is Rogers?” he asked of his only remaining *brother*.
“He-he was just here,” the younger and about piss man literally pleaded as he stepped closer to his *leader*.

“I know, he was just here,” Graydon leveled his gun towards the forest. “But where did he go?”

“Here,” a deep growl answered as something came flying through the night.
“Tha…that’s….Ugh,” the young man’s words were lost in the blood that had just started flowing out of his mouth, his eyes moving from the bloodied head of his formerly alive teammate to the massive gash in his own stomach.

The last thing he saw was the hulking shadow that was standing just behind his leader.

“My boy,” Victor Creed’s snarl froze his son right in his tracks. “Ya have grown so big….but so naughty. I’ll haveta do somethin’ about it.”

“What-what do you mean?” Graydon tried to move in the iron strong embrace around his midsection.

“Ya need ta be punished. An yer pappy is just the one ta do that,” Sabertooth’s words preceded loud cries filling the forest air.

-----

“Hurry up Cornelius,” Wraith growled as he looked over his shoulder, keeping an eye out for any approaching mutants.

The main reason that the Colonel had been reluctant to leave the safe confines of his control room was because it was literally the safest place to be right now. It had three feet thick solid steel walls, with an Admantium lined doors and windows. The only entry place was the vents, which were too constricted for anything larger than a two-year-old child to enter. Apart from that, it connected to a secret passageway, which led to a bunker three miles away, where a fully fueled plane awaited to take him further south into Mexico or even another country.

“I am walking as fast as I can,” Mystique-Cornelius limped along on his cane. “Anyway, here we are.”

Both men stood on either side of the door, slid in their pass-cards and gave finger and retinal prints. Confirming their identities, the independently powered storage door unlocked with a loud *click* and slowly started to open.

“You get X 102’s sample and I will get X 101’s,” Wraith instantly followed the older *man’s* command, hastening to get back to his fortress.

“Here,” he practically shoved the sample into Cornelius’s hands. “I have more important things than to tend to some eggs from a bitch. You take care of them.”

“Oh, that I will,” Cornelius grinned as he watched Wraith run down the empty corridor.

“That I will,” *he* answered in her own voice as she shifted yet again. This time changing into a common soldier.

Turning around *she* hurried towards the exit, her *invaluable* package carefully stored in a temperature and radiation insulation bag, flung over her shoulders.

“Goodbye boys, Mystique is leaving the building.”

-----

“Hank we gotta hurry,” Rogue practically growled in her whisper. “The *Friends* losers already have one team inside.”
“Hmm,” Beast mulled for a couple of seconds before turning to the tallest member of the group. “If you please.”

“Da,” Piotr *Peter* Nikolaievitch Rasputin, also better known as Colossus changed into his organo-mettalic form, growing from his normal height of six feet six inches to almost seven and a half feet with a *clang*.

The others stepped back as Iceman laid a hand on the wall to form an freeze the inner steel lining.

“All yours big guy,” Bobby Drake gave him the thumbs up as he too stepped behind the upturned table they were use as a safety shield.

Taking a couple of steps back for increased momentum, Colossus crunch and took off at a speed that was astonishingly fast for a such a huge figure.

With a loud crash an almost eight feet high and four feet wide hole was blown into the wall, making a way for the group to enter.

“Enter,” Piotr informed then in his usual calm tone.

------

“What was that?” Ororo turned towards the source of the sound.
“Must be another missile strike,” Jubilee shrugged her shoulders as she continued on her lookout duty with Kitty.

“Nah,” even Logan stopped and turned towards the sound. That was somethin’ else.

“That was….” Ororo tried to remember when had she felt like that last.

“That was Colossus,” Logan answered before she could gather her thoughts. “And he’s got Marie with him.”
“Peter? Rogue?” Kitty kit up at the mention of the Russian giant. “How do you…?”

“Can smell them pumkin’,” the gentle smile on his bloodied face looked very out of place. “Well can smell Marie. I’ll know her scent anywhere. The Ruskie….well that hit was all his.”

“So we should move that way,” Ororo spoke for all her teammates. Even Logan agreed with her and changed direction.

They had barely gone through one corridor when….

“Stop,” Logan held up a clawed hand. He hadn’t retracted his claws ever since Kitty had drawn him out of his cell.
“What?” Jubilee stopped just before she collided with his still form.
“Ya guys wait here,” Logan turned to his teammates. “Rest and let the elf lay down for a while. I have some business to take care of.”

“Business,” Jubilee gave an incredulous look to his retreating back. “Here we are in a life and death situation and he has to piss.”

“Jubilation,” Ororo’s brow slightly furrowed with frustration as she pulled the teenager down to her level and started working on her collar. “Logan isn’t going to answer nature’s call. He has some other business. He has most probably caught a scent.”

“Scent? Oh,” the teenager rolled eyes at her own stupidity. “Whose?”

The next instant a loud roar sounded throughout the corridors, answering her whispered question.

“WRAITH”

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