Logan growled as he tugged on his shirt collar, trying to loosen it for the fifth time that night. The bow tie kept getting in the way. How had he gotten wrangled into this thing?

He remembered back to the day before. Jean had told him that Scooter was too sick, and they needed more adults at the mutant rights fund raiser to help prevent the mutant registration act from getting passed. She'd said he could wear Cyke's tux, since his uniform had fit reasonably well on the mission last month. She had tried to convince him, using the argument that it was in every mutant's best interest to prevent that law from being passed.

"No way, no how," had been his answer to all of her arguments. He wasn't getting in a penguin suit and traipsing around with the upper crust, not even for a night, not even for Jean.

It wasn't until Marie and her friends came up to his room that he changed his mind.

"C'mon, Logan, it'll be fun."

"No it won't, Marie."

"You'll get to go and drink champagne and eat expensive food."

"Never cared for that stuff, Kitty."

"You'll get to ogle all the rich ladies in their expensive low cut dresses."

"You might have a point there, Jubes, but still..."

"Please, Logan," Marie asked, using that puppy-dog expression he was learning to be wary of. "I don't wanna be in that big group of people alone. What if someone touches me?"

"No one's gonna touch you... Awww, all right, I'll do it."

And now, here he was, stuck in the thick of high society, trying his best to stay out of the more convoluted political discussions that seemed to be going on all around him.

There was a fat general off to his right, talking about how mutants should be well-treated by America and not discriminated against. How they'd make wonderful soldiers in the military, since they had built in weapons.

It was suddenly much hotter in the room to Logan. Weapons... military... soldiers... It was getting harder to breathe. The room took on a greenish tint. It was like he was looking through liquid. He started gasping for oxygen, but all he could get was thick, metallic tasting air. He could smell and feel rubber on his face, covering his mouth and nose.

He looked to his left. A waiter was moving through the crowd with a tray of champagne glasses. People were laughing, clapping, congratulating themselves, slapping each other on the back.

Turning back to his right, a general, military men in full dress uniforms, watching him. Watching what they were doing to him. He whirled around to the h'oers doevers table. People with knives, cutting into the X-shaped patte. Only they weren't knifes, they were scalpels and they were cutting into him, not food. And he couldn't move. He was trapped, like an animal.

"NO!!!!" Logan shouted in the midst of the crowd, unsheathing his claws and breathing deeply, ready to attack the first person who threatened him. The party guests around him quickly backed away, giving him about a five-foot radius buffer zone.

Soon enough, the commotion caused by Logan got the other X-Men's attention. Jean walked to Logan, trying to read anything from him. She stopped short of the security perimeter he had built around him by unsheating his claws.

The girls — Jubes, Kitty and Rogue — were by Jean Grey when the telepath tried once again to reach his mind, to no avail.

"Logan, what's wrong?" she questioned.

He stared at her, breathing heavily, but said no words.

Rogue made a movement forward to try and calm him, but he stepped back, snarling at her.

"Rogue, step back," ordered Jean.

"He's freaking out everyone," noted Jubilee.

"We have to get him out of here, and fast," added Kitty.

"Yeah right. No good for a fund raising party..."

While Kitty and Jubes talked, Rogue looked around. For once, she was glad she had Logan's memory. She sure couldn't say what had happened, or triggered what was happening, but one thing she knew: he had to get out quickly. By himself. Otherwise, it could get messy in there.

She finally spotted the nearest emergency exit.

"There," she showed the others. "Let him get out," she kinda ordered.

"Maybe we could try and calm him..."

By that time, Logan was whirling around like a caged animal and he was obviously not in a state of mind to calm down and listen.

"All right. Let's clear a path to the door. Jubes?" Rogue had taken the matter in hands and none of the other X-folks argued. After all, she knew the man better than anyone.

Jubes circled around Logan in front of the frightened crowd to "clear a path" behind Logan to the security exit. Extending her hands, she let go a stream of fireworks which sure enough clear the path of any living soul.

Logan watched as the young person he didn't know sent sparks into the military staff. He couldn't tell if she was with or against him. The path. He had to get out. There was a door. But why did she showed him the way? It was a trap!

She would pay for it if it was a trap.

In a split second, before she could realize what was happening and the other X-Men could react, Jubilee found herself in a vice-grip arm and manhandled away.

With his hostage, Wolverine felt more secure. The bastards might want to try and stop him, or kill him, but at least one of them would go down with him.

He ran to the door and with a push of his shoulder, he crashed it open.

Freedom. For now. He looked around at the dark street. Hide. He had to hide.

The person in his grip stuggled to get free, and it bugged him. Nothing a nasty punch in the back of the head couldn't fix. Now he could run away undetected, carrying his docile hostage with him.

She had showed him the way to escape, so maybe she was a friend, but he couldn´t trust her yet.

Making his way down a side alley, Logan found a place to hole up behind a pile of boxes. He'd carefully stayed away from the dumpsters, so he could track the occasional passersby by smell as well as sound. It didn't sound like anyone was on his trail, but it was too soon to let down his guard.

He turned his attention to his hostage. She was young, probably still a teenager, and dressed in a blue formal gown, that was torn and slightly sullied in his escape.

If she was dressed up, she had to be one of the observers; one of the people watching them experiment on him. But then, why had she helped him? She was a mutant. She had done some sort of light show to help him escape. Maybe she felt sorry for him. Maybe she thought they would hurt her next. Maybe she was trying to trick him, bring him back to them when he was on the verge of escape.

His thoughts were diverted by the commotion down the street.

"The doorman said he ran this way," a young feminine voice called.

The sounds of running feet on concrete, the deep breaths of exertion from several young bodies. The soldiers. They were coming to take him back.

"You guys keep going. We'll look around here."

That's when his hostage started to moan as she woke. He snatched her up, pulling her against his body and roughly pushing a hand against her mouth.

The moans were replaced by startled squeaks.

Logan growled deep and low, releasing a single claw on his left hand and putting it up to her throat as he tightened his right hand against her mouth.

She stopped struggling immediately.

"Rogue!" an older woman's voice approached. "Any sign of them?"

"Not yet, Jean. Logan's fast. He could be long gone by now."

"Maybe if he was alone, but not with Jubilee."

His captive stirred under his grasp and then froze again, as if something had startled her.

"They aren't here. Let's go back to the party."

"But Jean, they have to..."

"Rogue," the woman's voice took on a hard tone, but no words followed it. Just silence, then...

"Ok, Jean. Let's head back."

Jean caught up with the younger students a few blocks from the assembly hall. She knew Logan was close. She could feel the rage emanating from him, but she couldn't get through to his rational mind. Then, she picked up on Jubilee.

~Jubilee?~ she asked psychically.

~Dr. Grey. You've gotta get away. You're seriously freaking him out right now.~

~Are you in danger.~

~... No.~

~Jubilee,~ she started, filling her mental voice with doubt.

~It's ok. I can handle it if you guys back off.~

~Ok, but we won't go far. Just out of range of his hearing. Tell me when he calms down and we'll stop.~

~Ok.~

"They aren't here. Let's go back to the party."

"But Jean," Rogue protested, "they have to..."

"Rogue," Jean said, with a warning tone, then deciding it'd be easier, opened up a mental connection. ~Rogue, Logan's close-by, but he's not stable. Our presence is making the situation worse. We're not leaving them, but we have to give him some breathing room.~

The teenager thought for a moment and then replied, "Ok, Jean. Let's head back."

Logan stood still for a long time, holding tight to his hostage. Good for her, she had stopped struggling and making noise. She didn't know it, but one more sound and she was dead cold. He would stop for no one. And the bastards would not take him alive.

The soldiers had gone away. Looking carefully around, Wolverine couldn't see anyone. He needed a way to get out of there, and fast. Luckily, the soldiers had carelessly parked their jeeps all around. He only had to pick one, which he did.

Carrying Jubilee as if she was a sack of potatoes, he ran to the closest car. Unsheathing a claw, he easily picked the lock on the driver's door, yanked it open, shoved his hostage into the passenger's seat and got in. All that took 3 seconds. It took him even less time to hot wire the jeep. He stepped on the gas, and they drove away into the dark.

Wolverine had driven for 30 minutes when he noticed the gas tank was almost empty. He snarled, slicing the dashboard in an enraged fit.

Jubilee sat silently, only glancing at him sometimes. How she wished Jean Grey would *talk* to her. Could the distance have cut the psychic link? Gee, she was so lucky: get kidnapped by a psycho, nonetheless a known psycho no one wanted to hurt, and now... what? Why had the car slowed down?

The car came to a stop. Jubilee dared a glance at the outside. All she could see were trees, trees and trees.

A hand grabbed her and pulled her out of the car. She tried to not resist — it would just make him angrier — but he was hurting her. A little bit more pressure on her arm, and she was sure it would break.

He dragged her towards the trunk. That lock didn't resist an adamantium claw, either. Holding her by the arm, he looked inside for anything useful. Gee, not even a weapon in this jeep. He only found a woolen blanket. Nothing else deserved to be carried away.

"Logan?" carefully tried Jubilee.

"One flamin' word and yer dead. SHUT UP!!!" He yanked Jubilee behind him, into the woods. Yeah, in the forest, no one would find him. It was HIS territory.