"You okay?"He asked,surprised to find his voice was a bit scratchy.Either he screamed too loud,or the bullet scraped his trachea,or both.

"Yeah,"she said,her own voice sounding shaky.There was a splotch of green on her black t-shirt,close to her left breast,two on her left thigh,and blood running in jade rivulets down her left arm,but none of the wounds looked fatal (having slept with her,he felt confident in saying her heart was nowhere near her left side;if he didn't know better,it was closer to her back on the right,somewhere near the kidneys).

There was a single gunshot in one of the connecting corridors,and as Logan glanced back,Helga cursed and fell against the wall of the elevator.Instinctively he reached out and steadied her,but she yanked her injured arm away violently,accidentally splattering her own blood."I'm cool,Logan,just off balance.I need to get these fuckin' slugs out of my leg,or they're gonna slow me down."She pulled a switchblade out of her back pocket and flicked it open,presumably to dig the bullets out.This was one ballsy dame-he really liked her.

"I can do it if you want,"he offered,aware his claws were a lot sharper-and,in theory,less painful-than most blades.

She shook her head as he heard,distantly,Xavier shout,"Rogue!"

Shit!

"No,Logan,go,"she said,a trickle of blood now dribbling from the corner of her full green lips."Help Bob.I don't want to lose him to another time.Our secret weapon's on the way,but you have to stall-buy some time."

Secret weapon?He knew it couldn't be Scott or Jean,so who was it?Another Bob friend he had to assume.Had he called Angel?

He simply nodded and ran down the hall,silent and sure footed despite the blood on the soles of his feet,and he knew he had no idea what he was going to have to do to kill the time ripper,but ultimately it didn't matter.She wanted him to buy time?He'd keep that fuck so busy even he wouldn't know what time zone he was in.

He knew by smell and by sound where they were-the war room.How appropriate,because he intended to go nuclear on his demon ass.

He heard Xavier's voice,angry and tense,but did not hear his words.The adrenaline was back,flooding his system like new blood,and the rage he felt seemed to fill him with energy,the bloodlust back in full.

And if Helga was right,he was going to need it.

He came roaring around the corner,muscles tensed,and threw himself claws first at the black clad thing between him and the rest of the room,aiming for what he just assumed was its head.

All at once,he knew several things:it seemed to be hovering off the ground,and looked like some strange combination between Claude Raines in "The Invisible Man" and a giant squid;it smelled awful,like burnt hair and rotted meat;Bob was laying in one corner of the room,partially buried underneath the two hundred pound display table;and Rogue was laying in a crumpled heap on the other side of the room,and from here he could smell her blood.

Man,was this ugly fucker dead.

Even as his claws punched through the demon's skull,he knew this guy was fucking weird;it wasn't like cutting through bone and flesh,it was like cutting through gluey cement,only three fourths set.And yellow light seemed to burst through the new slices cut in his skull,like he was a blast furnace or something.

"Logan,no!"Xavier yelled,and he honestly didn't know why,until he felt tentacles wrap around one of his legs,and while he slashed out with a claw,literally ripping it through its head (and tearing its black,peusdo-Amish hat off) in time to cut off the tentacle reaching it...the tentacle still wrapped around his throat like a python,squeezing tight enough to make his adamantium protected bones creak.

What the fuck..?

When its head seemed to seal up,the air shimmering around it like a desert vista,he understood what had just happened.This thing fucked with time on a minor scale as well as a broad scale,and somehow it altered time,just enough to escape from being hurt,or wasn't completely phased into this time anyways (would explain the weird consistency of its head).But it had phased just enough in to try strangling the life out of him.It was hard to breathe,but he wasn't quite strangling;it couldn't crush the bones in his neck,as much as it was trying to do so.He kept slashing at its face,at its tentacles,but it was like fighting something that wasn't really there.

Then he felt the tip of one of its tentacles (not dry like a snake,but cold,slick,and rubbery-just like an octopus) trying to worm its way into the almost completely healed bullet wound in his throat.It was trying to tear the skin,and even though he knew it was just trying to rip his throat out since it couldn't crush it,he had a strange flashback to Krek getting at his throat with his goddamn arms (what was with all these tentacled demons?!Couldn't they have arms like normal people?),and it just made him angrier.He kicked out,the ball of his foot hitting the thing hard in what may have been its torso (who knew at this point?),but the point was he hit something solid-not gluey,not wavering out like a mirage in the distance-and it seemed to...well,not step back,but move suddenly,which was good enough for him.He kept kicking it,driving his heel into its sternum (well,he chose to think of it that way-he honestly didn't want to know what the coat was hiding)as hard as he could,and it must have hurt the bastard because he felt muscles in its tentacles tighten,twitch,and just before it happened he knew he was going to get thrown like a piece of garbage.

But even though his lungs were starting to ache from the lack of decent air (the stench of this thing didn't help),and his throat hurt from the constant pressure,black spots exploding in front of his eyes like some really pathetic light show,he was ready for it when Squidward flung him across the room.

Rather than simply collide with whatever he flung him towards,Logan had his claws ready,body tensed,so when he hit the wall he held on,claws cutting right through the metal plating,and put his feet flat against the wall like a rock climber.He took a deep breath,looked back at Squidboy-ignoring the literal pain in his neck-and just as he was ready to spring he saw Helga limp into the room and shoot him almost point blank in the back of the head.

It did nothing to him,of course-Logan just knew it wouldn't-but he turned his attention on Helga,and that gave Logan a chance to twist off the wall and lunge for the demon,which hurt a hell of a lot more than it should have.But this time,he stabbed it through the back,where his neck (if he had one) might have met his spine(if he had one),and his claws punched through something that felt more solid,something a lot closer to flesh.

But then again,so did the tentacle that wrapped tightly around his throat,trying to yank his head off.

He kept driving his claws home,kicking him hard enough to shatter bone (if he had bones-he wasn't willing to bet money on that),and its tentacles slowly gathered up his limbs and threatening to rip him apart.Good luck to it-if it couldn't crush the adamantium in his throat,he doubted it would be successful.And now,having a good look at its hatless scalp,he saw it was a greyish white,a sort of maggoty color,and there seemed to be dozens of misshapen tumors and fleshy nodes just underneath its pasty skin,and he realized they were all very lucky they couldn't see his face.He had to be so unbelievably ugly the Human mind would find it hard to tolerate.

The worst part was it had grabbed Helga too,and he was sure it would kill her;it already looked like it was trying to break her neck.He tried to squirm out of its grasp,or at least get its attention back,when he saw a blur out of the corner of his eye,and suddenly Helga's tail was holding a knife.If Squidboy saw it,for once it did not move fast enough to protect himself,and she drove it straight into his chest.

Logan did not expect it to scream as it did,nor did he expect the burned meat smell that suddenly emanated from it,but the second he felt its grip slacken he yanked his arm free and drove one of his claws straight into its back and through its chest, ripping down as he dropped to the floor.

It screamed like an air raid siren,high and ululating,and it seemed to fill the entire level,making Logan wince with the sheer volume of it.One of its tentacles snapped up and slammed into him,throwing him into a computer console,hard enough to break glass and knock the wind out of him,but he was only glad it had dropped (well,thrown) Helga.

He noticed then a dark blur moving across the ceiling,and his first thought was Toad,but what the hell would he be doing here now,assuming he had survived Storm's flash frying of him (which he sort of doubted)?Also,beyond the burned meat smell of Squiddy,there was a new scent of burning tires.

Flyboy.Shit-just what they needed,another goddamn problem.

Flyboy skittered across the ceiling like a gecko (no,a fly),palms and soles flat against it even as he moved,until he was almost directly overhead of his Squid friend.He turned his head to look down,compound eyes bulging and black in their sockets,then he opened his mouth...

...and projectile vomited black fluid all over the Squid.

His screaming reached a new,agonizing pitch,as Squid was apparently unable to time shift himself away from the acid,which proceeded to make his skin(well,surface) bubble and pop,and the demon started melting like a candle left too close to a heater.He screamed as long as he could,tentacles drooping to the floor before he completely collapsed into a grotesque, liquefying heap.His screaming did not last very much longer at all,and the stray spatters of acid had already eaten through the metal floor.

Now Logan was sure he'd suffered a severe head injury.Wasn't Fly guy on Squid's side?It wasn't a miss-he was aiming for him,and hit a three point shot.So what the hell was going on?

He got it then,just as he got his breath back:Bob.Bob is what happened.He couldn't push Squid,but he could push the Fly.

Speaking of which,Bob-who must have thrown Helga the knife (and what kind of knife was that?Squid sure didn't like it)-was out from under the table and sitting against the wall,blue blood from a deep gash on his forehead pouring down the side of his face,holding Helga tightly and murmuring something to her,probably healing her injuries.

Logan hurt all over,and was rather surprised he was still standing,but looking at Bob and Helga,sitting there -their foreheads leaned against one another,him stroking her hair while she had her hand cupped around the base of his neck-he felt both terrible and slightly jealous.Terrible because he used Helga-no,in all fairness she used him-and jealous because they really did love one another;it was evident simply in the way they clung to each other.

(And he loved her without fear,even though he knew he'd probably outlive her-like he had outlived how many others?Logan didn't know how he didn't go mad when everything he loved inevitably died and fell away.)

He shook out of that pointless and strange reverie (he must have gotten a head injury),and looked to Xavier,who was staring intently at the remains of the Squid:even here at mutant central,watching people dissolve into puddles of goo like a scoop of ice cream on a hot day was not a common occurrence.He then looked up at the Fly,who had climbed down the wall on the far side of the room,and glanced at Logan,a pale eyebrow raised in a sort of mute skepticism."A friend?"He wondered.

Logan didn't have to ask if Xavier was fine-clearly he was."Not by choice,"Logan admitted,then remembered Rogue and quickly  went to her.

He had to pass Fly guy,now standing on the floor like an almost normal person (with fly eyes),and he gave him a leering grin, showing off yellow teeth that had been fused together."Hey,Wolvie,"he said mockingly,crossing his strangely long arms tightly over his strangely slender chest.

Clearly he remembered him,and still felt that strange,lingering antipathy towards him,but he wasn't going to act on it,as much as he probably wanted to.Because Bob wasn't going to let him."Another time,asshole,"he growled,walking past him.

"Indeed,"he agreed,with patently false amiability.

He had just knelt beside Rogue when-too late to see the melting demon-Scott and Jean showed up."It's over?"Scott asked, sounding equally relieved and disappointed.

"It's over,"Bob agreed,sounding a bit weak.

"We encountered a few reinforcements outside,"Scott explained,and for the first time Logan realized he sounded slightly out of breath.

"Jean,over here,"Logan said,remembering at the very last second he couldn't touch any of Rogue's exposed skin.

Jean was wearing a long sleeved shirt,and pulled the fabric over her hands so she could grab Rogue and turn her carefully over onto her back.There was a small cut on her scalp,oozing blood,but that was the only apparent physical injury she had except for some red marks on her face that would probably become a monster bruise later.

Jean glanced at him with great concern in her dark eyes,and asked,"Are you all right?"

He knew he had healed from all the previous attacks,so it was probably just all the blood on his chest (and possibly tentacle marks around his throat) that bothered her."I'm fine.I'm always fine."

She smiled tightly,and he was sure she was going to make some sort of comment-whether sarcastic or humorous or friendly he had no idea-but Scott asked,"Is this a friend of yours," and seemed to cause her to lose her nerve.

Logan glanced over his shoulder and wasn't surprised to see him staring warily at Fly guy,one hand on his visor as if ready to shoot him.It wasn't a bad idea."Not of mine,no."

"Everybody,Reddick.Reddick,everybody."Bob offered.Logan could see from here that Helga was no longer hurt,but blood still dripped down his face,and small shards of glass glittered in cuts on his cheek and forehead.

"Demon?"Scott guessed.

"Freak?"Reddick replied snarkily.

"You're done here,Reddick,"Bob said dismissively,and as if that was the magic phrase,he stopped giving Scott the stink (fly) eye and simply left,with no further comment.

"He was under your control,"Xavier said,realizing it for the first time.

"Absolutely,"Bob agreed."He's a fucking psycho nutjob."

"Then what the hell was he doing here?"Scott wondered,and while on the surface it seemed like a good question,Logan already knew the answer:Reddick was guaranteed to kill Squidboy.He had no other guarantees they would succeed.

"He shut down the League.You no longer have to worry about it-the demon mob has been cleaned out of New York City."Bob
,now that Helga had let him go,stood up with help from the wall and some supplemental help from her.

"Shut it down?"Xavier asked,and then added,somewhat crisply,"Like he shut down this demon?"

Bob simply nodded,looking grim but not at all sorry.

"Was that necessary?"Xavier wondered.

"Rhonik had it in for you too,so yes,"Bob replied,coming over to Rogue.As he knelt down beside her,Jean winced in sympathy at his injuries,apparently paying no attention to the fact that his blood was blue."I think you might need some stitches,"she said,remembering at the last second-much like he had with Rogue-that she couldn't touch him.

He gave her a weak but appreciative smile."Nah,I'll be all right.I ain't Logan,but I heal pretty fast all the same."

"How could you control him from such a long way away?"Scott asked,confused."Or was he hanging around here the whole time?"

Bob scowled,as if he really didn't want to explain himself."Reddick was operating under the assumption that I was paying him three times his average salary to wipe out the League."

"His group,"Scott commented,now scowling at him."Nice to know he's loyal."

"He's a professional merc,"Helga pointed out,leaning against the far wall.Yes,she looked fine,in spite of her blood soaked clothes."His only loyalty is to the almighty dollar."

"But you're not paying him,"Xavier said.It was not a question.

"No,of course not."

"So what happens to him now?"Scott asked.

"He's not your problem."Helga said defensively.

"I can assure you he'll be gone for good.He wiped out the League-he'll be even more sought after and feared than he was before."

And Logan knew then Bob was lying:Reddick was a dead man,as dead as Hedwin,as dead as all those Ressiks cluttering the upstairs hallway.There was no way in hell Bob was going to let a psychopath like Reddick-no matter what he did on their behalf-walk away,just like he didn't let Hedwin walk away.And the troubled look in Xavier's eyes seemed to say he knew that too.

But no one said a word.There were some things it was just best to leave alone,and some causes not worth fighting for.