A series by November

Chapter 93: Whipping up a Fury

“...Circle of destruction, hammer comes crushing
Powerhouse of energy!
Whipping up a fury, dominating flurry
We create the battery...”
--Metallica

Upstairs in the lobby, Astrid noted the cameras on the walls. She stood, turning slowly, tracing wires she could not see. One by one she burned them out and traced their wiring to the source. Her gift was the ability to detect and manipulate electricity and energy fields and it was easy for her to trace them all the way to the computers that saved and transmitted data. Like a spider her mind worked backward from the cameras, throughout the building, tracing currents and networks and disabling them all.

Then it was done, and they and could only hope that the data that had been sent out would not be immediately monitored. She slapped her comm device. “Camera system disabled.”

“Okay Astrid, get out of there.” Scott’s voice came from Westchester and was distorted by the equipment.

The scene downstairs was as they’d hoped. Two security guards were slumped near the coffee machine. There was a doctor in one of the offices who had apparently just conked over right onto the chart on which he was writing.

A man came around the corner, shaking out a red biohazard bag. When knocking the staff unconscious, Carter had missed the janitor.

Kurt noticed the gun in his belt. He took one look at Kurt and reached for it. Kurt disappeared, leaving the man half-deaf from the ricocheting shot, gagging on brimstone.

“Sandman, the janitor!”

The janitor fell forward. Carter deftly took the gun from his hand before he hit the ground and tucked it into his waistband.

“Shot fired.”

“We’re okay, we missed a fourth perp and he shot but Kurt teleported.” Carter explained over the radio and Astrid relaxed.

“Astrid, get out,” Hank said. She obliged. She held the door for the influx of X men. Everyone but Nick, Claire and Storm came running in.

They each took their posts around the complex. Storm monitored them all. She was the lookout, and second-in-command.

The elevator opened and the X-Men spilled out. The place became a riot of activity as everyone did their job. Jubilee popped the locks on the cells with precise pops. Pyro went directly to the mainframe terminal. Jean and Hank went from cell to cell, relieved to know that each patient was on a vital signs monitor. None were in medical crisis, to their relief. There were thirty-three, all of them obvious mutants with scales, hair, or mutant colorings. They were all asleep.

Hank took a deep sniff. “Levrox. We can wake them with Narcan if necessary.”

"Where's the doctor?"

"Logan has him."

Logan was smelling the smells of the lab. He was sweating. His pulse was nearly two hundred and he was actively flashing back to memories that were new to him. He would sort them out later, but now he had a job to do.

“Hey bub. Wake the fuck up!” Logan roughly shook the sleeping doctor. “What about this guy, Hank? Will Narcan do it?” Logan shouted.

“Try a sternal rub.”

“With pleasure.” Logan pressed his knuckles to the man’s chest, rubbing hard. He smelled the hematoma he was creating under the man's skin. “Wake the fuck up!” The pain was excruciating and efficient. The doctor's eyes fluttered open.

“What?”

“Shut the fuck up. We’ll ask the questions.”

Jean was there. “Here’s the deal, Doctor. You’ll tell us all the conditions of these patients, and we’ll make sure you live. You tell us what drugs they’re on, what you’ve done to them, and anything we need to know in order to transport them safely.”

The doctor was a watery-eyed man in his thirties. He sat there gaping like a fish.

Jean was in his mind. He could feel her there. She didn’t bother with medical details. She went straight to his darkest, worst fear.

“Listen up, Joe. It’s time for rounds and you’re gonna do some case presentations. If you don’t, my friend here will cut you. He’ll make it last. He’ll start with your eyes. I can cauterize any bleeds so you’ll live a long, long time-”

“Okay! Okay!”

“Most acute first. Go.”

Logan slapped a pair of cuffs on him and shoved him out of the office.

“Okay, uh, subject 07609.” He nodded to a cell at the end of the first row. “Eight year old white female with mutant colorings. She regenerates. You chop any part off, it’ll grow back, short of decapitation.”

“What did you do to her?”

“He cut off her hand. Right hand. You can see, the stump is healing.”

“Medical history?”

“None known. You can take her.” Rogue and Bobby were there with a backboard. They quickly loaded the girl up and ran her through the snow to the Blackbird.

They got thirteen of them out before the day shift started coming in and they had to wait to evac them until they were neutralized. Logan was the biggest so he put on Kincaid’s uniform and manned the front desk.

The first one in was the head of security. He looked and talked like a retired army general. His eyes were cold and hard and seemed to crawl with something evil. “Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

“I’m the new guy,” Logan said. “Didn’t you get the memo?”

The man reached for his gun. When he came within two feet of the security desk Logan sprung his claws and impaled him in the chest. With a mighty flex of his forearm he dragged the man behind the security desk where newcomers wouldn’t see him. This dug three slits from his sternum to his jaw.

Downstairs, Rogue looked around. Nick was typing quickly at the computer in the nurses station. He was sweating. She looked around and realized that she and Matthew were the only medical personnel. There was no doctor. Carter stood by the elevator, waiting. “I’ll pull charts and put them on beds.” Some of the charts were thick and heavy. She ached. Once she had pulled all the charts from the nurses’ station, she found a whole wall of them in the lounge. She picked one at random. It had a picture of a little boy. The last entry in the progress notes read that he had died three months prior.

She went into a storage area and found a box of gauze pads. She dumped it on to the floor and began loading charts into it. The watery-eyed doctor watched her. She felt his eyes and turned to him.

“How many have you killed?”

“I don't know,” he lied. Jean saw that the answer was hundreds.

“These, you killed them all?”

“Those are the terminated subjects.”

She kicked the man in his ribs. She fought the urge to kill him. There was work to do.

“Logan, send the doctors down but take everyone else out.”

Logan had just enough time to clean up the blood before one of the doctors came in. He nodded to her and once the elevator doors closed behind her he hit his comm device. “Sandman, one doctor in the elevator. She’s coming down.”

“Copy, got her.”

Outside, Claire saw something on the horizon and quickly homed in with her binoculars. There was a SWAT team in camo. “We got company, approaching from the west. Five armed men at least, looks like a SWAT team.”

“Get behind the building,” Scott said. “If it’s clear get to the ‘Bird.”

“Copy.” Heart pounding, Claire ran. She would have a hell of a story to tell about her first mission, if she lived through it.

“Everyone stop the evacuation. Medical people stay inside the building, the van, or one of the planes. All combat-ready folks to the front.”

Kurt and Bobby teleported through he wall and crept around the side with guns out.

“There are seven,” Bobby whispered into his comm device. “I’ll jam their weapons.” He thrust his hand out and he was able to jam four of them before the others opened fire. Kurt grabbed his neck and teleported them behind a tree.

“Four disabled temporarily. The rest are shooting at our former location.”

“Iceman, stay put.” Scott said from the map room. “Nightcrawler, teleport back down and bring Pyro up. Jubilee, get into the lobby with Wolverine and ID people. Logan, take ‘em all out as they come in. Don’t worry about subterfuge. Just kill them.”

“Copy.”

“Pyro, blast ‘em.”

“Copy.”

“Hank, what’s the situation downstairs?”

“Three have been evac’ed, seven waiting evac, One doctor dead, another under our control.”

“We’ve got a situation out back and we’re still waiting on two doctors, two renta cops, one nurse, two security guards and a lab assistant.”

“Cyke, I’ll create some cover so anyone coming in won’t see the fire out back.” As she spoke her eyes whitened and so did the air. Fog rose with the snow out of nowhere.

“Storm, just keep our visibility good back here. We’re expecting more SWAT people.”

“Copy. The driveway will be one big wind tunnel.”

“Kurt, bring Carter up.”

“Copy.”

“Carter, knock out one of the SWAT people and keep him alive. We’ll use him for information.”

“Copy.”

Carter and Kurt appeared in the snow and one of the SWAT team dropped, just like that.

Pyro waited until they stepped forward a few paces, then flicked his lighter and a firecloud engulfed the SWAT team. Bobby waited for three seconds and put them out with a blast of ice. All was quiet, except for a car coming up the drive. Jubilee was crouched behind a potted plant in the lobby, but Logan didn’t care who she identified. If someone walked in who wasn’t one of them, they would be shot.

The only sound was the guttering fire out back and the wind. A uniformed guard materialized from the white outdoors. “Who are you?”

“I’m the new guy.” Logan said, eyes flicking to Jubilee, who nodded. “You know, the one who fucked your mother.” And he shot him.

“Friedel down, security guard.”

Logan was getting increasingly antsy, as was Scott in Westchester. “Dammnit, we have to evac these people. Isn’t there a back exit?”

“No.”

“Plan B. Logan, Jubilee, and Carter, take the van to the bottom of the driveway and do a fake security checkpoint. Jubilee, go with them and hide, to ID staff.”

“Copy.”

“Once the checkpoint is in place land the fucking Bird on the front lot and put the shields up. Evac on my order. Nick, your time to fly.”

Nick ran to the ‘Bird and did as Scott asked. Within a half hour they were able to evac five more directly to the jet. Rogue and Claire made one trip after another, carrying them out on the backboard. Some were children but some were very large adults. Lifting two babies did not even prepare her for this. She was sweating under her leather uniform and she could feel her milk let down. It was time to feed the babies and she was engorged and swollen.

It was unbearable. The scent of burning flesh that blew from the west and it made Erik Lensherr come out and remember the camps and make some choice comments about her current situation. She was aching, still she deposited one casualty for Hank and ran back with Claire for another.

Finally, the tenth one was taken to the plane. Rogue gladly hit her comm button. "Last casualty on the Blackbird."

"All combat-ready staff, guard the perimeter."

Meanwhile at the far end of the driveway the day staff formed a neat pile of sleeping bodies.

Scott watched it all from the map room in Westchester. “If they knew to send the SWAT folks, they’ll be sending more. Nick, how‘s the sweep coming?”

“It’s coming. Localized data is 95 percent downloaded.” Nick said, rapidly typing.

“Good.”

Jean collected research subject charts in a box and rushed them into the Bird in two trips. She and Hank were busy, putting each person's chart on their bed, checking charts for wounds, and, if possible, removing the IVs that administered God-knows-what. Rogue made the rounds, checking for wounds and taking vital signs.

Nick kept typing while Logan smashed the entire place: every medical implement, every monitor, all of it. It did just a bit to take the edge off the rage that lived inside of him.

“Scott, I’m into the network!" Nick yelled excitedly into his comm device. "If I can download this we’ll know where all the labs run by the company are. We have enough people to hold ‘em off.”

“We can hold ‘em off but what if they drop a bomb on the place?”

“I’m willing to take that risk. There’s data here from thirteen different labs. Locations, shit, even GPS coordinates, every mutant taken and held and killed going back to ninety three...”

In Westchester Scott sighed, meeting Xavier’s eyes across the map room table. They conferred without a word. "How long?”

“Half hour, tops.”

"Are you sure?" Scott was uneasy about letting one of his own risk their life, even if they volunteered to do so.

"Yes. The families deserve to know. Hold them off!"

“OK. Change of plans. Everyone who’s combat team, secure the perimeter. Kurt, get Storm up on the roof. Jeannie, can you tend the casualties by yourself?”

"I need Rogue, Darla, and Matthew."

“Affirmative.”

“Okay, Kurt, take Logan and Hank up too, Logan and Hank, you’re lookouts.”

Logan went up the stairs two at a time to meet Kurt.

He swallowed and looked toward the doors of the building. “C’mon, Pyro,” he muttered.

Kurt held out his hand and in a whir of air and soot they were on the roof. Hank faced West, Logan faced East. Storm paced and waited for something to do. Carter kept watch at the end of the driveway. In the snow, the rest crouched. The place was quiet and it started to snow more. To those outside, all they heard was the thudding of their own hearts. No one approached the driveway.

Logan spotted them first. He hit his comm device. “Fifteen, armed to the teeth, coming from the East.”

They heard it clearly in the Bird as they tended to patients. They were putting those who were not recently post-surgical on new IV’s without the sedating Levrox. Rogue’s heart began pounding when she heard Logan‘s voice. Her gloved hands fumbled with the IV tubing.

Outside, Hank and Logan crouched low on the roof. Logan grabbed for his gun and steadied it against the edge, like a soldier in a foxhole. He was cold and he wanted to go home. The cold grounded him, made him aware of his surroundings, but his metal bones were quick to cool. He thought back to Aruba, his honeymoon, the warmth of the sun. The cold hadn’t bothered him before, he thought. Was he getting old?

No, it wasn’t that. He had ceased believing on some bone-deep level that he deserved the stark cold wilderness.

It’s strange the things you think when your life is hanging in the balance. He squinted at the approaching men and sniffed deeply. He couldn’t smell Rogue in the air, just the faint trace of her on his uniform. She was still in the plane. He swallowed and breathed deeply. He felt a sudden ping to his forehead, then he dropped into dizziness.

“Hank, any action to the West?” Scott’s voice came.

“No.”

Storm’s eyes whitened and the heavens opened up above the flank at the east. Rain made an audible whoosh as it poured into the woods. “Jubie, zap to the East.”

One spectacular “pafft” made the East woods crackle and shimmer with blue light. Eight dropped from electrocution. Hank got off several shots, and two more dropped.

“Nick, how much longer?”

“Ten minutes.” Nick was sweating. He heard the shooting above ground.

“Hurry up.”

Logan lay staring at the sky and wondered why his fingers wouldn’t work. His thoughts were slow, like molasses, as they always were when he was healing. A look down showed that he was bleeding from his head. He felt it on his face. It was hard to focus his eyes and he felt like lying down and sleeping. Gunfire was ringing through the air. He smelled his blood on the snowy roof and it engendered memories that made him want to vomit.

He heard a noise in a tree up above and saw a sniper, a woman in camo, soot under her eyes. Where the hell did she come from? He must have blacked out. Her gun was on him. He met her eyes and at that second he rolled. He grabbed the gun in his left hand and aimed. He missed.

Suddenly the tree was shaking, and she faltered. She managed to stay up but her gun fell. Hank caught it and shot her out of the tree. Logan wondered if he'd blacked out. How did Hank get down off the roof? His thoughts were trickling slowly.

The sniper stood roughly and Hank pounced on her. One blow finished her. It had taken years, but he no longer had qualms with selective use of the Hippocratic Oath.

“Okay people, How many left?”

“Three,” Logan said. He could smell them, tell that there were three distinct scents before he could locate the sources. He scanned the trees and found no more snipers.

He rose slowly to a crouch as a drop of metal came from his temple and fell, then turned, looked, and sniffed in every direction.

One was running back into the woods, one was at the south perimeter, creeping up on Carter, and one was behind Rogue.

He blinked and staggered dizzily as he stood. What was Marie doing outside?