If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

[Coffee]

Coffee remembered the first time he had gone out tracking. A couple hours before dawn he and the other kits in his training clutch had been dropped in the middle of woods very much like these and told only one thing. That something was lose in the woods and they had to find and kill it. There had been a small scent to go on but nothing else. Only two kits had survived that first training in tracking. The kits hadn't been told that the woods were full of wolves who were each every bit as dangerous as the mystery creature they were after. They'd all known to keep low to the ground, stay upwind, and be quiet as church mice. They hadn't known that if you could see your quarry there was a good chance he could see you. Coffee made sure he had no direct site lines to Wolverine, and relied solely on his ears and nose.

What know, the tiny warrior asked himself. Aideen's smell was getting closer as was a faint aroma of scorched wood. The rabbit wanted to see Wolverine's reaction when he thought he was alone before showing himself and risking Wolverine's likely displeasure at an uninvited sidekick stubbornly insisting on playing back up for whatever the X-Man was about to do. He stopped and fell back as the teacher almost on queue came into site. And as Wolverine disappeared again from his site line Coffee sniffed the air deeply, and noticed it. There was a smell out of place here. A person had stopped and leaned against a tree. He'd waited for some time. It was still some ways from the scorched area the rabbit could smell but was practically on top of where Wolverine was standing now.

How stop here. the rabbit asked himself. How had whoever taken Aideen known to wait in this part of the woods. Stalk long time. But the smell of the man, if the stranger was a man, was new. Nothing he could smell suggested the stranger had been there before the other night. Coffee thought about it a little longer and decided now was the time. He started to creep toward Wolverine and plan how he would announce himself when *crack* a small twig snapped underneath his foot. It was a rookie mistake. Mansion make soft. Coffee thought with annoyance.

[Wolverine]

"Alright listen" Logan spun to look right at Coffee hiding as best he could "I was gonna just leave ya there to follow quietly, need but if yer gonna make all that noise ya better just come the hell up here with me." Logan said standing up slightly from the semi crouched posture he'd been tracking from to point to the ground next to his feet. "Now quit screwin around before I decide to dropkick you into next Saturday. I leave to get some space and this is what I get.. ya think I want the company? Think I need it?"

As he turned back to continue the deciphering of scents he caught the quickest flash of a shadow as it fluttered past the ground from above. It was too large to belong to a bird and glancing skyward the blue limbs betrayed the shadow's caster as Jocelyn. "Well, girl.. That goes for you too!" He called up "I ain't enjoyin bein spied on so bring yourself down here where I can keep an eye on you."

He went back to his task as dreamy images.. memories of his Angel Eyes.. haunted him.

He shook his head to free the thoughts of her face but it was no use his mind was a swirl of memories keeping him distracted even as he fought to dissect the traces of lingering smells that remained in the woods. The last time he was with her was in the woods. Her voice came back to him then, and the feel of her touch as her words made him close his eyes to fight back the burn of liquid sorrow-

-and as the video and all it held came crashing in on his mind he swore a silent oath to not just find her and the other two and bring them home safe, but to make those who took them pay with their lives.

[Splice]

Flying down through the trees, Jocelyn looked at Logan with a slight smile, though slightly forced given the circumstances. "Shame Logan, you taught me to be better than spying than that. You still would have caught me, but give me some credit, I wouldn't make it so obvious you know," she said landing on the ground next to him carefully, not wanting to mess up any evidence. It was ripping her apart inch by inch to see him like this, and made her own determination to make things better again rise as well. She remembered how out of it Logan would get with the whole Jean situation, but it was nothing like what he was then. Joce considered him along with the other X-men like her family, and she really would do anything for those she loved.

Knowing better than to mention any of the things that had gone down in the rec room, she looked around and walked gingerly to not mess anything that might be there up. "I think I saw tire tracks in a clearing not far up ahead while I was flying. At least I think they were but it was definitely tracks that looked a bit out of place," she said going back to fly a couple of feet in the air so she could move better and look around. "You know, Mason had a point. From what I've been hearing your girl wasn't one to mess with. I heard the whole story of how she took Rumble down easily and right through the boathouse wall, totally awesome by the way. I, well I can't think of anyone that would have those kinda skills and wouldn't kill her on the spot. Plus it's hard to go unnoticed around her you know? Emma would have sensed the closest enemy within a couple of minutes. It's just... strange." She trailed off, trying to figure it out herself.

Jocelyn sighed and looked around, flying carefully as she tried to put the limited tracking skills that Logan tried to teach her into play, but alas it was never her strong suit and she had to look three times as hard to find and focus on the right stuff. "We're going to find her you know," she said quietly not looking at him. "I mean come on, she's a kick ass hot chick that looks amazing in leather, and well you're you and then there's everyone else... they don't stand a chance." She nudged his shoulder lightly as she flew next to him. "I think that the tracks were from something though, cause they started in that muddy area by the garage. In this light they weren't hard to spot." It was careful territory that Joce was treading on with Logan, and she knew she had to be careful about what she said so it wouldn't set him off. She knew that it would be better if she just said that one reassuring thing to let him know that he wasn't totally on his own in the whole thing, even if she was just a kid she will stand by him so he could find his happiness.

[Coffee]

Think do. Coffee thought. If Logan had truly wanted him gone he would have actually gone ahead and kicked him instead of just growling about it. Or at the very least he would have told him to go. The rabbit suppressed a small smile and hopped up toward the X-Man. He did so very carefully. He had to be at peak performance both to to make sure Wolverine took him along and once there to get the children back. And now to protect the Acolyte girl who Coffee guessed was probably going to tag along too as Wolverine wasn't sending her away either.

Despite what the girl said, he doubted everyone else was coming. He hoped he was right. Big group. Be catched. They needed to travel small and light. And they needed to go quickly. Coffee looked at Splice and pointed toward his foot to tell her he was about to tap out a message. He wasn't sure how good her Morse was as he'd never talked to her before. But he had to know. "What see. See foot mark. Tell." he tapped. He didn't know how to tap foot prints or tracks. Between the tracks she'd seen and what he and Wolverine smelled Coffee hoped they could figure out where the abductor had gone, and most important to him at this second, whether she'd seen anything indicating that he was still there as the strongest smell of scorched wood and of Aideen and the children still came from ahead. He wanted to explore it, but did not fancy hopping into a trap. Know Morse, he pleaded in his head. I no see how charade this.

[Wolverine]

Logan looked at the sky and the angle of light in the early morning. "Hmm" he grunted a gruff agreement to Splice and cocked his head to the side as he considered her words. Lack of sleep hadn't made him any less sharp, nor any more personable.. or had it. "Dammit! You smell that?" He looked down at Coffee.

"Ahh kid" he said looking back over to Jocelyn as she hovered next to him. He knew she meant well and he was thankful for her being there, but he really wanted to do this whole thing alone. He owed it to his Angel Eyes, every time -needed or not- she would come for him and now it was his turn. This was no game though and THAT was why he couldn't dare to turn down the help. Anguish over his pride would have to wait but at this very moment he knew without the Atlantean's eye in the sky view he might have missed something huge. "I must be gettin old, or I was just too focused on Brock. How could I have missed it? Her bike was gone."

"Come on." He led the pair of them after the tracks that Splice had seen. "That smell you oughta be smellin" he said to Coffee "is a mix of chocolate chip cookie, unleaded fuel and two stroke oil. That's Chopper following Aideen's bike. The scent of *snifff* honeysuckle is the odd man out. so I'm gonna guess that was the other one, the one they dressed up like a schoolgirl. It's stronger from that direction, but Aideen's scent.. Ya pick it up yet ya chupmunk?" He said down to Coffee again "..is covering over everything so I don't see how ya could missed it. You go track that honeysuckle back to the source. It might shed more light on what went down here. Or at least why the other girl was out in the woods."

He shared a look with the girl he helped to raise as Coffee scampered off. He didn't need the rodent underfoot but he didn't want to make it feel useless either, and it might be possible the critter could help unearth a clue or two. "There" He said nudging Jocelyn in the thigh with his elbow as she hovered close "there it is Waterlily." He pointed to the bike laying over on it's side in the thickets as he called her by the pet name he'd given her so many years before. "Hey, just outta curiosity" He asked as he picked his way over to the motorcycle "how's your Morse Code?"

The look of confusion on her face made him almost smile, but he had too much worry for Aideen to indulge in any smiling. "Cause that rabbit is awful at it. It sorta understands English I think, but you'da thought Hank woulda hooked it up with a- hold on.. *sniff..SNIIFFF* I don't believe it." He began looking around almost frantic at that moment as something he smelled got him worked up into a lather. "I know that.. that.. it's, I KNOW that smell." He saw how it went down then.

All around him the signs and the smells. He could almost see the fight take place around him, and damn if he couldn't hear motor-mouthed-merc, that creep with a thousand mouths, spewing off as he went about his work. Each footprint in the dirt, the angles of movement and the depth of the marks showed him how they moved. "There.. look, this is where the boy fell. He was first, he walked up here and then fell, didn't react.. didn't run. The brushline.. there." He pointed "That's where the girl came in and look-" he pointed "do you see there? Her body went down there."

Logan played the scene out in his mind. Mostly extrapolating from what he saw, but some educated guessing was involved. "Aideen there.. our lone assailant here. Side step and twist. Yeah.. that was a defensive move so that means.." He scanned the area looking with eyes that saw more than the clues could reveal, experience adding an extra dimension to what he was doing as he stepped over and bent down. Touching a leaf he pulled up a sticky finger, the tip of which he showed to Jocelyn. "She got a shot in on him. Blood feels a little greasy still. It's his alright.. and" He cocked his head to the side slightly catching the glint he thought he'd seen once again. "Yup, he never did clean up after himself." He walked a few steps over to pick up a tranquilizer dart.

[Splice]

Still flying in the air around the newly discovered clearing, Jocelyn's stormy ocean eyes widened as she cocked her head, studying the dart that Logan held with intense focus. "That's a standard tranquilizer dart right? It's got that blue tip, or is that the nerve disabler... no nerve disablers are smaller I think. I seriously have been in Atlantis way too long." She shook her head and flew a little higher above the ground, her enhanced vision carefully scanning the area and looking over all the places that Logan had pointed out. He was the best tracker and could identify man marks and imprints that Jocelyn would have totally missed if they had not been pointed out to her.

While in the air, her feet hovered over the imprints and footprints that Logan had pointed out, trying to match their movements. "Who exactly is 'he'? You know obviously, but you don't look happy at all about it. Whoever it is though, he's good. Rumor has it that your girl is one hell of a fighter, and he for the most part matched her, but from this footstep right here." Her bare foot wiggled over the sliding tracks in one area, the damp ground from the forest preserved the footprints quite well. "It looks like she got one really good shot on him... I think. It would make sense seeing as there- OH look theres some more blood here!" She looked excited just by the discovery as she tried to piece it all together.

Jocelyn sighed and bit her lip, thinking back to the video that she just saw and trying to guess if there was any injuries on Aideen. "It's not her blood... right? I mean I didn't see any open wounds on her in the... video thing," her voice got low on the last part as she sneaked a glance over at Wolverine. "I know this isn't ideal to say, but you have to hear it. Aideen's fierce, and if she managed to catch your eye and handle you along with it, she's not gonna be contained for long. If looks could kill, that guy woulda been dead a hundred times over. That's pretty bad ass I gotta say. Someone as fierce as that, and someone who managed to handle Rumble's crazy ass, well I'm betting it's gonna take way, way more than drugs to keep her down." She grinned slightly, trying to get him to not take it all on his shoulders and remember that Aideen was no powderpuff.

Flying around the area as she spoke, anything that she may have said afterwards was lost as Jocelyn stayed frozen in the air, peering at something by the bushes where Logan pointed that Liv fell. Carefully leaning over while still in the air, Jocelyn retrieved two drumsticks that were scattered around the bush, feeling something swell slightly inside her. Drumsticks in one hand, her other hand brushed aside some grass blades to investigate another object. "Looks like she might have been making a call. Liv I mean, that's the other girl." Jocelyn picked up the phone and watched as the battery button blinked red. "Service sucks around here, and being new she was probably homesick," she said trailing off with a sad look on her face.

"She's not too bad you know. I have a feeling she's gonna drive you crazy, but she's a cool chick. Damn." Her face fell even more thinking about Liv and the friendship that was forming between them. "She's an innocent Logan, as innocent as Chopper, maybe even more. Chop gets that crazy shit happens here, this girl was a country girl, and now she's being..." Joce couldn't even say it, as desensitized as she was to horrors, this one in particular was effecting her far more than she would have liked. Taking a deep breath and keeping her composure, she looked back over at Logan in all seriousness, her eyes almost shifting like the ocean in a storm. "Who got them? And when do we leave? Cause you know I'm coming along whether you like it or not, and right now I'm ready to give someone one hell of a whirlwind swirly."

[Coffee]

Coffee followed the smell of honeysuckle and old cigarettes farther and farther away from anything of significance. The smells that mattered were back where Wolverine was standing, and the rabbit half expected that when he went back the X-Man would not be there. Liv's path was a fairly predictable one back through the woods towards the mansion. There was the occasional twist and turn with the contours of the land, and a couple of stops. There was also another smell. Badger. And there were tracks that were far closer together than normal for a badger. The creature had been moving very quickly. That it's tracks met Liv's this far away from the site of the kidnapping surprised the rabbit.

Find badger., Coffee decided. An interrogation of the little creature might uncover both why Liv was out here and maybe a description of what had happened. He followed the creatures trail for another ten minutes until he came to an old rotted out oak. Cowering in a hole at the bottom of the trunk was a terrified badger. It tried to slip out and run away when Coffee got there, but it did not take him long to corner it.

He growled out a couple of questions. The answers sent him tearing through the woods to find Wolverine. He did not care about the noise he was making. Nobody was going to hear him who had not heard the conversation between Wolverine and Acolyte girl. After what seemed like forever he got back there and standing panting for a minute he caught his breath and started to tap out a message about the man who had surprised Aideen in the woods, his darts, and his disappearing into thin air with the children. Coffee only wished he had some idea where the man had teleported.

[Wolverine]

An eyebrow lifted at the code the furry Mojoworld creature was thumping out on a nearby root as Logan realized the little fellow might not be all that useless after all. "Heh, seems the rabbit ain't as much a dumb bunny as I was expectin. Yea, yea quit yer thumpin you got it.. and yes Doll I know the guy that took em."

"The dart was only a hint to his identity, I know, it looks standard but that double reversing twist at the very back end of it is his own brand. I always did say he cheated. That just gives the dart a tighter spin in flight, some guys need all the help they can get. The greasy blood and the scent, though it's barely lingering, is a dead ringer for a soon to be dead mercenary who can't be killed.. but I'm gonna find a way." His lip curled into a snarl. Teeth clenched together Son of a bitch's been a thorn in in his ass so many times before. Then he made his face soften, if only slightly, as he looked over at Jocelyn.

"But.." he saw the look on her face and knew it to be one of determination. Like she was going to make a point to come along with him no matter what. Logan couldn't let that happen, not another life's youthful blood spilled out for his transgressions. "But I ain't one of them guys that need help. This is MY fight, and I know it's a trap so don't even think you're walkin inta it with me. You fly back to the mansion and tell em it was DeadPool who took em, and that I..." even as he knew this was something he would need help with he didn't want anyone else hurt for his sake. He had brought this upon them, Logan's own past had reared it's ugly head yet again and no matter how he tried to avoid it a lifetime of sins were the fields he had sown and now they were catching up to him and all those he loved.

".. that I got this, and nobody else has ta suffer. I'll be back in a couple a hours with the kids and then I think me and my Angel Eyes are gonna go on an extended vacation. It's like I'm siitin on a mountain, but it ain't made a gold kitten it's made outta sin and all the blood and all the death.. Hell, I brought it all here and it ain't fair to nobody so I don't wanna hear that it ain't fair to you and you want to come along. You just do like I say, deliver my message. I know what I gotta do. I'm done leading monsters to the innocent." He thought of the other two children on the video and what his grown up Waterlily had said. "I know I'd like the girl she looks tough, unbreakable.. and our little-man is gonna grow up to make a difference in this world. But what I gotta do I gotta do alone, can't have anybody slowin me down, understand? Don't worry though I'm gonna make em all pay, especially that one who was touchin MY Lady. I'm gonna gut'im and string him up with his own intestines. Hang him up someplace where the rest of the Romainian Under-bosses and their Mob Puppet-masters can get a good damn look at him."

Eye for an eye He shook his head as he turned to leave. Tipped yer hand with that little line whoever you are.. Now I just gotta figure out who lost out when the M/T Biruinţa IV went down with all her cargo and crew aboard. Follow the money, cause that's the quickest way to get to the bottom of it all. Cept that ain't gonna solve the riddle of who this other guy is... this was definitely not about money for that one- for that one it's personal.. Think old man, who could it be. Hell, who couldn't it be is probably a shorter list, but it's somebody oldschool Mob, Bratva, with ties to the Romanians.

[Splice]

Her ocean blue eyes flashed at Logan, swirling like the ocean in the midst of a storm. "That's bullshit Logan!" Jocelyn spat, still in the air as she flew in front of him to look him right in the eye. It was almost an ironic moment as he had played a big role into teaching Jocelyn how to stand up to someone and let them know she meant business, and here she was doing it to him. "I did not come back from Atlantis to watch another friend and you get hurt! Damnit Logan, this isn't all about you anymore, you're not the only one who's hurting over this." She pointed in the direction of the school vehemently. "Chopper is Shan's little guy! Can you imagine what she's going through right now? And damnit Liv is one of Kurt's kids, and Scott is torn up as anything. Yea I know, I'm not exactly thrilled with him now either, but he's hurting bad, and I can't remember the last time I saw him like that, even when Jean died!"

Now Jocelyn did set her feet lightly on the ground, looking over at him with the determination that was a core of her being. Her heart literally was hurting for him and for the rest of her family, and she was done losing her family to anyone. "I know Aideen's special to you, I can't imagine what you're going through. So think at least for her sake what would be best. With the others, you got the Blackbird which can get us anywhere seriously quick if you let Kitty take the controls. You have all of us to have your back. It probably is a trap, but we both know that us as a group have been seriously underestimated before. We would put up one hell of a fight and you would get your girl then. If you went alone, think of it worse case scenario, what if you were forced to choose between saving Aideen and saving Chopper and Liv? With us there, you won't have that choice," she said in a voice that matched her expression.

"Please Logan," Jocelyn reached down and took his hand, feeling so much younger again thinking back to the time that she used to get so upset when he or one of the other X-Men left and pleaded them not to go out of fear they wouldn't come back. "You can't push us away from this. We love you and them, and you can't take all the problems on your own shoulders. You don't know what's waiting for you over there. Would Aideen want you to put yourself in that kind of danger? Would she ever be able to live with herself if God forbid it so happened that you chose to get her over Chopper and Liv? Let us help, cause you know I'm not easy to get rid of and I'm coming."

"For the last couple of years, I lived with an overprotective paranoid Uncle who happens to be the damn sub mariner and my father who's the Captain of the Atlantean Guard, both who obsessively made me train in Atlantean combat. I know how to fight, and I can do it damn well so I won't get in the way. I have an image inducer that can make me look like anyone we want. I'm no Mystique, but it will be enough to help just in case. Most of all though, I'm done standing by as I lose more of my family. I'm going with you whether you like it or not, but I'm telling you that the rest of them," she pointed to the school again again. "Are your best bet. You're not on your own anymore Logan, and right now there are bigger things at stake than your own overprotective streak and pride." Jocelyn stared at him evenly squeezing his hands with both of hers and standing her ground to a man many would and very well should cower and relent when given a direct order.

[Wolverine]

He pulled his hands out of her grasp. Spinning away. With a deep throaty howl he popped his claws through his flesh with a *SNiKT* and sliced a hunk out of the trunk of a nearby tree. He wanted to just turn around and shove her out of the way. Make a break for it and go and get done what he had to get done, but the little blue darlin had a point. It all made sense and she'd made a hell of good argument out of it at that.

Damn her.

"When the hell'd you get so goddamn smart!?! Huh Waterlily?" He turned back around to face her, the frustration and anger still not fully spent. The heat that boiled in his veins only a cool shadow of a reminder to him. Only hurting him deeper as he ached more for the woman he loved and the longing he felt for her caught in his chest. "I ain't gonna tell this to you again, I NEED to do this myself, but I can't deny the odds would be better weight to our favor if I had some company. I Just don't trust too many people to do what has to be done, and I'm not about to pad it to save from bruising anybody's feelings not even your's kid.. this is gonna be dirty work and I got no time for soft hearted bullshit."

*SNakT*

He walked over to the motorcycle laying there, showing him all it had to tell of where her hands last touched it and where her feet stood as she left it to defend herself and the other students, and he picked it up off the ground. The keys were still in it and he was thankful at least it hadn't been laying on the carburetor side all night long, a flooded engine was no help to the sped he needed then. "Let's go Coffee," Logan said to the rodent. It was the first time he called him by name, but in Logan's defense it was the first he had actually been impressed enough to.

"Good job Waterlily. This skull's made of some a the hardest stuff around, yea I'm sayin I'm thick headed" he turned the key and primed the engine "but you made a dent. I'll try trustin," he hit the start button and as the engine kicked over, smooth as butter-cream icing, he felt the rabbit fellow land on the seat behind him and cling on. "But I ain't goin slow, so anybody that can't keep up I'll pick up on the way back." He grabbed the throttle and the clutch, stomped it down into first and gave it the gas.