He could see it now, the fact that they were in deep shit wasn't helping him, but Jubilee had straightened up against his back, he could almost feel the power building within her.

"Cool"

He blinked, twice; eyes locked on ta the thing ahead of them. Normally he would have said the kid had been around him too long but it wasn't true, now. He had a bad feeling about the entire thing but this was a fight, he could understand that in a way he couldn't understand Jube's falling apart.

Then the first of the 'things' advanced, he knew what they were and wished he didn't. 'It looks that not even decades of running can save ya sometimes' his conscience taunted him. These were old enemies.

The black claw they had been called then. He doubted they were called something so, blatant, now. The thing was one of their edge soldiers. A mutant so deformed that if it had appeared in society someone would have shot it down, to put it out of its misery if nothing else.

And then it spoke

***************************************************************************************************************

It was like being filled with solid light and liquid heat; her power had risen and set her on fire at the first sign of a possible threat. Wild and out of control, the way her life seemed to be swinging these days.

But she revelled in this.

The thing didn't disgust her; she'd learnt long ago that the outside packaging didn't matter. It repulsed her though; the two were subtly different. It looked as if it had rotted from the inside out, but glowing in the darkness were two deep green eyes.

Power lit them the way they lit her eyes, and then it spoke. That shocked her. That it still could, and that the fact the voice was an angelic choir. Her inner voices were conflicting. The mouthy mall rat said that nothing that ugly should be able ta have a voice like that. While the Emma Frost educated voice told her something much more rational 'Karma Jubilation, Karma' As if its mutation had given it that voice ta even out the cost of the change.

"We want the girl. Logan. We will leave off our pursuit of you for the girl."

She stiffened he power raising to tidal wave force, she was struggling to keep it in as she listened for Wolvie's answer. It came quite and reassured as if this was one of the danger rooms sentinels.

"Go ta hell, bub, the kid ain't goin' nowhere"

Sweet Relief, it rolled through her, for a second there, just a second. A treacherous dark part of her heart had expected him to leave her again. To abandon her for the final time, that one moment of relaxation had been enough to let her control stretch towards the breaking point.

"Then"

Then Angel chorus spoke again.

"Then I'm afraid we shall have to kill both of you, I am quite regretful"

A second later the road around them exploded, fires began, and she could see it. There were more monstrosities of course, freaks of nature she would have called them before college. Or just freaks, but there were normal looking people there too. About twenty.

They could take them.

She was dizzy now, she could take them alone the amount of power that was creeping through her veins. Even drugs hadn't done this for her, she was going to loose control, and she was going to loose it spectacularly.

***

"Wolvie"

Her voice was a whisper in his ear, but something there made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"I need ya ta duck when I say duck"

Tight coiling strain was ripping through her tone, he was doubtful 'bout ducking in a fight but this was Jube's he had 'n idea that he should duck. He nodded his head in tense agreement and felt her tension hitch up.

"Duck"

It was little more than a whisper but he did it, a second later he was more than glad he had.

The world exploded, the fire wasn't multicoloured it was blue. A pure rush of flame that miraculously avoided him but he could smell the burning and hear the screams, the 'hand hadn't been so lucky.

He was grinning when she finished, but not for long, he could no longer feel her on the seat behind him and that was bad. And one man was still standing.

He appeared human, and handsome, a lot like the Cajun when you thought of it, in fact, he could be Remy's double. His eyes were burning though, black pupils at the centre of real flickering orange flame.

"My masters will be impressed"

The man flicked a speck of ash from a suit which screamed designer, even to the fashion dead Wolverine.

"Since I was only here to observe I shall leave you in peace now monsieur Logan. Regardé bién La Fauçon Noir are watching you"

And then he disappeared; the space he had been standing on was marred by a patch or scorched earth.

Logan turned slowly afraid to see the worst, not knowing what the worst was. And saw Jubilee lying on the ground, he wasn't sure if she was breathing.