Chapter 78

(Happy new week! So...we didn't hit the goal again, but I appreciate the stone contributions anyway. I'm lowballing, but what the heck. If we hit 700. We get an extra chappy. It's already so close to where we reached last week)

"Aaah!" A lady in the back screamed her lungs out.

"Monster!"

"No," a large man corrected, swaggering forward. "She's a muttie, and she's done something to Earl."

"Someone call 911," a voice suggested.

"And the police," the large man grunted. "We'll be keepin' her here till they come. Don't let her touch you if you don't want to end up like Earl."

"Wait please!" she begged, reaching out, but the portly man pulled back, and a blonde lady from behind the bar produced a shotgun and leveled it at her.

"We don't want no trouble." her lips quivered, "but if you try and give us any, we'll return the favor."

"Please," she continued. "I didn't mean it. That's why I sat far away from people and alone. I—"

"Shut it!" the large man roared. "You mutties never take responsibility, do you? Everything is an accident, no matter who gets hurt. Be glad we're letting the police handle this! If you breathe one more word, I'll grab that gun from Mary and put you down myself."

The girl shrunk back, whimpering as the bar grew deathly quiet.

I had to do something. Letting the police have her was a disaster waiting to happen. Either the mutant extremists would come for her, or she'd disappear before she ever saw a trial date.

"He's still breathing," I said, muscling my way to the front of the group.

"What?" the large, round man, who easily had two feet on me, blinked.

"I said he's still breathing," I pointed to his gropy friend. "See, his chest is still rising and falling. He's probably just asleep, and even if he isn't, he's still alive, which is about as much as he deserves for grabbing her as he did."

The big guy frowned. "What are ya trying to say?"

"He was drunk, aggressive, and didn't even try talking to the lady before he grabbed her. If I asked every lady in this room, they'd probably tell me it's not the first time Earl tried that. This is just the first time he got checked."

Mary, who was holding up the shotgun, lowered it a bit, and whispers pulsed through the crowd.

"That's enough!" the big guy roared. "You don't know shit! I'll let that horseshit slide because this is your first time here, but if you don't get to stepping, It's going to be your last."

"Sure, I'll leave," I said, "but only with her."

The big man let out a loud, raucous laugh. "Don't say I didn't warn ya." He swung at me, and I raised my fist to match his. His bones snapped, and pain flooded his face. But I could tell from his body language that he wasn't ready to let go.

I dodged the second swing when it came, ducking underneath, and shoved him into the bar table. I kicked him in the back of the knee and dragged his whimpering, hurting body in front of me to shield me from the shotgun Mary leveled at me.

"Nobody has to get hurt …anymore," I said, slowly surveying the room. I nodded at the girl who started this entire mess and looked at the door. She got the message.

"What are ya doing, Mary!" the big guy barked. "Don't let her escape!"

"How's about you shut up and let Mary think for herself? You're risking a whole lot if you pull that trigger," I said to the bartender as the girl slowly inched toward the exit. "I'm taking fatty here along with me at the very least. If I survive your first shot, then all bets are off."

The bartender twisted her lips before she lowered the gun, and the fatty growled. I hit him in the back of the head before he could start any more shit, and I was out of there before they had a chance to rethink their situation.

The girl tried sneaking up on me as I ducked into an alley.

"You're not used to being on ya own, are ya?" I called.

"No," she answered, pulling down her cloak. She was a young, beautiful brunette in her late teens to early twenties. "I just wanted to say thank you for saving me. My name is Rogue."

"Logan," I grunted. "You look like you need help, kid, but I'm not in the position to do much for ya right now. I've got my own kids to think about."

"You have kids?"

"Students," I corrected, "like you. Special."

"No one is like me," Rogue said.

"You'd be surprised," I said, fishing out a piece of paper and a pen. I wrote my phone number down and handed it to her. "Call me if you're ever in New York."

With that, I turned away, disappearing deeper into the alley.

"I will!" I heard a somewhat shaky voice call after me.

---

Dante

With the Sentinel dead and Nadia secure, the team reconvened in the warehouse. We had one final target on our list, and thanks to Bolivar's paranoia, he didn't know we were coming. Trask didn't trust Strucker, even if he was the man he worked with the most, because of his eagerness to study and use mutant kind for his own purposes.

Bolivar thought he wouldn't be able to stop himself from capturing and studying Nadia if he ever discovered his base, so he made sure there was no open communication line between Hydra heads. In fact, Bolivar's base was completely insulated from the rest of the outside world. He was paranoid up to a fault.

'I supposed that worked in our favor,' I thought, smiling down at Nadia. She blinked at me suspiciously. "You're not human…" she concluded, earning peculiar looks from everybody present.

I tsked. The girl was too smart for her own good.

"Don't you mean he's part human?" Clint offered, suddenly looking at me suspiciously.

She shook her head vehemently, then pointed at Rin, who seemed even more confused. "He's part human and part scary thing," she said, then pointed back at me. "But he…I don't know what his other half is. All I know is that it is bright and powerful."

"Well, that's news to me," I said with a shrug. Looking in Jean's direction. Of course, she already knew about my peculiar ancestry. I would've asked her to ask the young girl to keep what she learned to herself, but Nadia might've reacted badly, bringing even more attention to my little secret.

"I always looked human," I said, "but I figured out I was not quite normal a while back. The only people I've heard with powers like mine are mutants, and I'm not that either. So…"

Natasha narrowed her eyes, clearly unsatisfied with my answers, but she didn't press the issue.

Clint, ever the great sport, clapped my shoulder. "Well, you're human in all the ways that count, buddy."

Rin, on the other hand, gave me a peculiar, understanding look.

After we dropped Nadia off with the ancient one, Jean took her time scanning Strucker's lair before we stormed in and did not have the handicap that was Nadia limiting her perception somewhat. She'd only caught about half of the soldiers waiting for us in the warehouse and had missed the giant robot entirely. To be fair, it was made out of mental, and Jean dealt with the metaphysical.

Her scans revealed a complicated maze of interconnected rooms, alleys, testing facilities, cryogenic chambers, and training halls for mutants.

Behind a series of complicated biometric-enforced security systems sat Strucker, enjoying a Cognac.

He was talking with a girl with a strange pair of metal claws reminiscent of Wolverine, and there were two other mutants on the floor and one enhanced soldier.

The first guy was a blue-skinned teleporter that Rin immediately recognized.

"Kurt? I thought he'd have been shipped out by now. We go way back, and he hates Hydra as much as I do. Let me talk to him."

I looked at Jean, and she nodded. "He seems stable enough."

"Go for it, then," I said. "And I'll take the other mutant and the super soldier. Natasha, Clint, and Aaron are on. We have the element of surprise on our side. Let's not squander it, eh?"

We appeared in Strucker's office first. Jean's hand stretched out, seizing Strucker and the lady before the portal opened, rendering them mute.

I gave Jean a thumbs up and left her to handle business while Aaron dropped us some distance away from the mutants and the super soldier. I took the soldier first, running up on him while cloaked in Angel Evade, and swung with Rebellion. Impossibly, somehow, he dodged, spun around, albeit at a considerably slower rate, and tried to kick my head off.

I leaned out of the way of the kick and lashed out at full speed, switching to two fingers of Orochi. I shoved both into his gut, eliciting a surprised grunt from him, and butted him in the nose hard. As his head rocked back, Rebellion materialized and stabbed straight into his chest as he went down.

It was a disappointing but promising fight.

Belatedly, I realized that the sound of my footsteps gave me away.

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