As soon as the car pulled out of the driveway, Kitty ran inside and jammed the panic button on the passcode beside the door. The siren that rang through the house caused Bobby to flinch slightly, but only gave Kitty a sense of vindictiveness.

Logan was going to be ticked.

Partly at the two of them for not being cautious enough, but mostly with the woman that just took their younger charges.

"So… time to suit up?" Bobby asked from behind her. Kitty gave him a hard stare.

"What do you think?" She asked before jogging over to the somewhat secret elevator. Everyone in the manor knew about it and it wouldn't really stand up to intense scrutiny from the MRD. Was it really a secret elevator?

Kitty punched in the passcode and stepped inside when the wall paneling opened to reveal the steel interior. Bobby followed.

"Geez, Shadowcat. No need to get all hissy." The blonde complained as he leaned back against the steel. "Cheer up, we're about to go bust the heads of the people dumb enough to go after our baby X-men." The steel doors opened, and the two X-men stepped forward in unison. Kitty punched him in the shoulder before rushing over to her locker.

"Don't let Logan hear you say that. He doesn't want Harry involved in the X-men." She reprimanded. Kitty hurriedly pulled on her uniform before hurrying to the briefing room. Bobby followed right behind her, also dressed for the occasion.

Beast and the White Queen were already there and already suited up. Storm's footsteps sounded as she followed the younger mutants into the briefing room.

"What's the emergency?" Frost demanded.

"Amara's rat grabbed her and Harry. She held a gun to Harry's head and forced them into her car. They're about three minutes out now." Kitty reported.

"What? And you just let her?" Storm shifted uneasily at the sharpness of Frost's tone but didn't intervene. Bobby and Kitty had failed with keeping the two safe, and they had known Amara was a kidnap risk. When they were younger, she would have spoken up on their behalf. But now, they were adults. Both of them were of age and that meant that any mistakes they made could no longer be written off as childish naivety. As their teacher, she wanted to protect them. But as their comrade and fellow X-men, Storm knew that it was about time they started taking their actions more seriously. Lives depended on their judgement; they could no longer be hidden from the heavy weight of responsibility.

"No, she'd already pulled it by the time Harry opened the door. Harry's not a combat kid. If we had opened fire on the woman like that he would have freaked." Bobby defended his best friend. "We've put a tracker on Amara's hair clip. With Shadowcat to get them out of the line of fire, the camouflage mode on the blackbird, and our normal smash and bash tactics, we should be fine so long as they don't have a mutant on their payroll. Which they won't because they're a bunch of racists." Storm nodded in understanding. The best way to make an already bad situation worse would be to react without forethought. Even Frost seemed appeased, if only a little. Her nose pinched like she had smelt something particularly fowl, but she no longer seemed quite as vicious.

"What?" Logan's voice growled out from the doorway. The man was already suited up in his Wolverine uniform. A furious snarled marred his face in anger and his eyes squinted in rage. Ah, this must be what a bug feels like when they look at a lizard. Bobby took a step back. Kitty took a step forward. The baton was passed.

"Honoura, Amara's dad's secretary, showed up with a gun and used that to forced Harry and Amara into her car. We've got a tracker on Amara's hair clip and we sounded the alarm as soon as it was clear." Kitty reported smartly. She wasn't a high-schooler terrified of Logan's temper anymore. She knew he would never hurt any of the students or X-men. Logan growled angrily.

"And why was Harry in grabbing range at all? Weren't you following Xavier Institute protocols?" Logan demanded. Kitty winced.

The Xavier Institute protocols stated that young mutants should never be the ones opening the door for just this reason. Even without considering the fact that not all mutants could hide or control their abilities, the children of the Xavier Institute were prime candidates for kidnapping due their power, age, or in Amara's case, social-political status. Back when the Institute was really up and running, only seniors or staff members had been allowed to open the front doors and all visitors were screened for weapons before being allowed further into the school. Kitty had actually set off the metal detectors multiple times by accident when bringing in the newest metallic fashion accessory.

"No," Kitty admitted shamefully. "We didn't even think about it." There hadn't really been any reason to teach Harry about the protocols. The school was no longer functioning, and Harry was Logan's kid so there weren't any divorced parent disputes to watch out for anyway. Any intelligence agency worth its salt would know the Institute was closed (and thus not worth sending kidnappers to). And Harry had no prior issues or elevated status that they knew of. They hadn't thought to tell him anything like that because they had assumed Harry wouldn't need to know it. Logan sent the two a withering glare before giving an angry sigh.

"As soon as they're back, I want you to go over protocols with Harry. And refresh Amara on them too." Logan ordered before grinning as a thought struck him. "In fact, I believe Hank is still holding onto those safety-first videos the professor made. Why don't ya'll make a movie night of it and watch them. All of them." Bobby and Kitty exchanged horrified glances. Not those! Anything but those!

"Er, Hank, you aren't really holding onto those old things… right?" Bobby asked tentatively as he glanced over at the retired teacher. Hank chuckled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well, you know what they say about teaching materials. You can never really have enough." The blue mutant admitted with a wry grin. "Besides, those videos aren't that bad. The Professor brings up several good points on mutant safety in them." Bobby groaned and Kitty put her head in her hands.

"Those key points go on for hours."

"Then you'll be able spend several hours regretting letting Harry and Amara get kidnapped. Now, Forge, you heard all that, right?" Logan addressed the X-men's resident 'Big Brother'.

"Righto," Forge confirmed as his visage popped onto one of the nearby screens. In the background the hangar doors and Blackbird could be seen. Kitty almost rolled her eyes. Leave it to Forge to be creepily stalking the team from the Blackbird hangar. "I've already got the tracker pulled up. They're about ten miles out, heading North on the interstate. The Blackbird is prepped and ready for takeoff." Forge flicked a hand back to gesture to the majestic jet. Already, the low hum of the engines warming up echoed through the hangar and over the screen's speakers.

"Good." Logan turned his attention back to his team. "Shadowcat, you're on extraction. We're going in under cloak and dropping you into the cab. You'll be going with her, Iceman. If they've already reached the interstate, they'll be going too fast to phase out of safely. Your job is to put down an ice ramp and get them off the road once Shadowcat phases you all out. Queen, I want you on perimeter in the Blackbird. Use your telepathy. If someone even thinks the MRDs are on their way I want to know about it. Beast, you and I will be wrapping things up with Honoura and her driver. Storm, I want you running interference with White Queen." Wolverine looked around the meeting room in irritation. "And where the hell is Cyclops? He should be here."

"He left for town about an hour ago. Mentioned something about a bar." Hank grimaced in distress. The sight of his former student acting in such a way was disheartening. Logan rolled his eyes. He'd known the brat couldn't cut it years ago. This was only validation.

"Whatever," Logan huffed. "He's probably got too much of a hangover to see straight anyway. We don't need another liability. Does everyone understand their mission particulars?"

The group nodded as one. Compared to some of the other missions they had pulled off before the explosion, this was barely a drop in the bucket. Even Frost, who had not served with them back then, was well prepared for something as simple as this.

"Right, then. Let's go, X-men," Logan ordered as he led the way to the hangar.

Harry did his level-best to remain as still as possible. The gun pointing at his head was more then enough incentive. Quick as a snitch, Harry darted his eyes over to Amara. The blonde met his eyes for a second before looking over to Honoura.

Harry swallowed and looked back at the woman. Honoura met his eyes calmly and raised an eyebrow. Harry looked away again. Instead, he focused on the too quick beating of his own heart and tried to calm himself. After all, he wasn't the target here. Amara was. If they were going to give her to the MRDs, they would need Harry's continued health to keep Amara in check. So, for now at least, Honoura wasn't likely to shoot him fatally.

A buzzing sound interrupted Harry's thoughts. He glanced back to Honoura as she fished a sleek cell phone out of her pocket.

"Honoura Igna speaking, who is this?" Honoura asked. Harry twitched his ears under his hat. Thanks to his enhanced senses, he was able to hear the voice from the other end of the call.

"Ramon from Unit Three. Do you have the target? These Americans are getting antsy."

"Yeah, we are about to point eight. Will the Americans be in place to finish this?"

"Yeah, they're ready. You're already to point eight? That's great. Your ETA is about five minutes then." Honoura flinched and growled.

"Shut the hell up Ramon! No mission specifics on unsecure lines." The woman growled almost ferally. Harry's eyes widened and he glanced over at Amara again. The panic he felt must have shown on his face because she subtly raised eyebrow in return. Harry glanced back at Honoura who continued to berate Ramon. The young wizard did his best to make his movements as casual as possible as he lifted a hand to scratch within his hat; revealing his feline ears to Amara. As he brought his hand down, he shifted his stance so that the angle of his face hid his hand as he made the 'call me' motion next to his human ears. Then, he jerked his chin at Honoura. The woman remained oblivious. Rather, she focused her attention on arguing with Ramon on mission protocols.

Amara widened her eyes before cocking her head to the side in a questioning manner. Harry glanced back at Honoura before moving his hand to his opposite wrist and rubbing circles where a watch face would have been had he been wearing it. Then he carefully unfolded all five fingers and flexed them open a few times. Peering up through his unruly bangs, Harry saw Amara nod subtly in comprehension. Her brows drew together in worry and she nibbled at her lip a little as she looked back at Honoura. The woman continued on with her conversation, oblivious to the silently conversing teenage mutants in front of her. Amara's feet twisted nervously and the older mutant looked a second or two away doing something drastic.

Harry frowned and panicked further at this response. Before telling her their ETA, Amara had seemed rather unconcerned about the situation. Certainly, she wasn't happy with it and did look worried when Honoura pointed the gun at Harry, but she hadn't been truly fearful until now. If Amara was only now freaking out about the situation, then that meant that whatever she had been counting on to get them away from Honoura wouldn't be able to take effect in only five more minutes. Most likely, Amara was expecting a rescue by Logan as had happened previously. However, Logan probably couldn't track their vehicle down within the next five minutes and that was making Amara afraid.

Thus, Harry was left with two options. Option number one would be to accept whatever happened and try to shadow hop away from danger as soon as Honoura didn't have Harry in the bullseye. If Harry chose the option, he would be leaving Amara in harm's way. Harry grimaced at that and looked towards Honoura. The woman had relaxed slightly now that she had been talking with her co-conspirator for a few minutes. The gun that had once been aimed at Harry's head was now oriented more towards his shoulder.

Option two was certainly an option, albeit a risky one.

Harry took one more glance at Amara. The blonde Brazilian was still focused on Honoura and hadn't noticed Harry's new focus.

Harry took a moment to take a deep breath in. He likely wouldn't get another chance at this; Honoura's tirade was wrapping up.

The car slowed for the turn off the interstate and Harry leapt at Honoura.

"What the-!" Honoura shouted as Harry unsheathed his double pronged claws and swiped at the gun. However, instead of merely batting the gun to the side like he had intended, Harry's bone claws cut through the pistol.

"Eep!" Harry yelped as he overreached and ended up toppling to Honoura's side instead of on top of her. His claws sunk through the plush leather and into the hard material beneath the limo's bench. He tried to pull back and reorient, but found himself stuck in that awkwardly crouched position.

"You little freak!" Honoura screeched. Quick as lightning, the woman whipped out a steel blade from the back of her pink designer heels. She loomed above him; her blade raised to strike. Luckily a distraction made itself known in that moment.

Kitty and Bobby phased the roof of the car and landed behind Honoura, in the middle of the car's walkway. It took about a millisecond for Bobby to notice the ongoing struggle.

"Harry!" The blonde shouted. He threw his hands forward and let loose a quick blast of frigid ice. Honoura screamed as the ice coated her hands, immediately turning them pale and blue tinted. She lowered them and clutched them to her chest in a useless attempt to relieve the pain. Iceman hurried over to Harry.

"Harry, are you okay?" Bobby asked. Harry looked over at him in relief. For a moment, he had been sure he'd just made the last mistake of his life.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay." Harry answered shakily. He tried to pull out his claws again, but still couldn't get them unstuck. He blushed a little. "I'm kind of stuck though." Bobby tilted his head before he chuckled in realization.

"Ah, okay." The older mutant reached down and carefully rubbed the tops of Harry's hands. To Harry's amazement, his bone claws retracted flawlessly. The boy shook his hands out and flexed them a few times.

"Thanks! How'd you do that?"

"Your claws are similar to a cat's. I just relaxed your muscles a little. It's a stress reaction so as soon as the muscles relax so do your claws. Now hold on, it's about time we made our exit." Bobby grinned as he gripped Harry's shoulder, his other arm linked to Kitty who held onto Amara.

"What? No! don't you-!" Honoura rose and was going to do something, but before she could the group of mutants had already phased out of the moving vehicle. The sound of speeding cars and the smell of exhaust greeted Harry's senses in nauseating blur.

"Iceman!" Kitty yelled as she pulled the mutants out of the moving vehicle. Bobby's reaction was immediate. Smooth ice formed into a slick ramp off the road.

"Ack!" Harry gasped at the cold feeling of ice as he tumbled and slid down it. Beside him, Amara faced the same unorganized tumble.

"What the heck!" The Brazilian screamed. Behind them, Bobby laughed as he calmly skated after them. "What's wrong? It's just a little ice!" Bobby called. "Don't you think its nice?"

"Shut up, Iceman. The only one who thinks your rhymes are cool is you." Kitty shouted back. She also slid down Bobby's frigid creation, though with a good deal less tumbling due to her own impressive experience. Instead, Kitty rode calmly on her rear, appearing almost bored as Bobby's slide dropped them into the grass on the edge of the road. She hopped up and immediately bent to pull Amara up. The whole thing had lasted all of a moment or two. "Up you go, sweetheart. We need to get you back to the mansion before your dad arrives." The group had arrived at the edge of the Interstate exit ramp. The limousine Harry and Amara has been in braked a few hundred meters away.

Harry scrambled up as well but ended up dropping back down and clutching his ears at the sound of a thunderous screeching noise. Sharp pain lanced through his skull and it took a minute for Harry to be able to focus through the ringing.

When the boy glanced up, he was shocked to silence by the sight of Hank ripping a sub-machine gun out of a dark-skinned man's hands. Logan followed Hank up by delivering a wild haymaker to the foreigner's skull. Harry couldn't hear anything that the older mutants might have said due to the ringing in his ears, but he thought he might have seen Logan's mouth moving a little. What was he saying? Meanwhile, Honoura had finally stumbled out of the wrecked limousine (when had that happened? Harry wondered as he took in the large dent in the hood and the burnt tires) and was attempting to hit Logan with her iced over hands. While the blow would have been quite powerful had it connected, as the ice was rather thick, it never did.

Logan took one look at her, gave a dismissive huff, and knocked her out with a blow to the head. Harry found himself staring at them in no little amount of awe. Logan and Hank had taken care of the kidnappers so easily! Logan had almost looked bored as he took care of Honoura. The ringing in Harry's ears began to dissipate and he heard a strange humming noise approaching.

Harry glanced back at Kitty and Bobby just in time to catch sight of a massive jet appearing from no where overhead. It began lowering in preparation of landing.

"What?" Harry gasped in awe. The jet was a thing of beauty; sleek and streamline.

"That's our Blackbird." Logan's gruff voice startled Harry. He glanced back at the man and was surprised to see Logan dragging Honoura and her accomplice by their collars.

"Why are they coming with us? Aren't you just going to leave them for the cops?" Harry asked.

"And let them get out of facing justice? Nah. They're going back to Brazil with Amara where they'll be tried for political kidnapping." Logan glanced back at his captives with a sadistic grin. "Plus, even if our judicial system would persecute mutant kidnappers, Brazil jails are more similar to hell than ours are. In fact, they-"

"Logan," Hank warned form his place a little behind the X-men leader. "Not child appropriate."

Logan rolled his eyes and let out a put-upon sigh. He didn't pick that topic of conversation up again though.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, you two alright? Half-pint and Freezer-burn didn't goof anything did they?" Logan asked both Amara and Harry as he cast a dubious glance at Kitty and Bobby. Harry was quick to reassure the man of his continued life.

"No, they did fine." Harry assured. He didn't want Bobby and Kitty in trouble; they had just saved his life!

"Yeah, we're not green behind the ears anymore, Wolverine. We're not going to mess up a simple rescue. Geez," Bobby complained. The blonde glanced at Harry before grinning. "Besides, not much to mess up when junior here already had our opponent disarmed." Bobby placed his hands on Harry's shoulders and maneuvered him in front of Wolverine. Harry blushed. He hadn't really helped that much and had needed to be rescued in the end. It wasn't really noteworthy.

"Really? What'd he do?" Logan asked as he led to way up the ramp of the now ground level Blackbird. Harry stared about at the advanced technology. He had never seen anything this amazing or modern before. It was mind-blowing.

"Come on, Harry. You can ogle at it later. We need to leave before the MRD arrives." Kitty gave him a slight shove to get Harry moving towards the Blackbird with the other mutants. Harry looked back to the wrecked limousine and the nearby interstate. It wouldn't be long before someone turned onto this exit and saw the wreckage.

The boy nodded mutely and scrambled into the Blackbird.

Harry glanced around the inside of the blackbird in awe. Each state-of-the-art seat had a monitor next to it and several high-tech looking mechanisms. In fact, one of them looked a bit like a targeting system he had seen on one of Dudley's sci-fi shows. Wicked.

The fact that Forge was flying it via long distance connection was even cooler though. The man's face had popped up on the nearest screen as soon as Harry had stepped aboard to welcome him to the Blackbird and remind him to buckle his seat belt. It had been a pleasant surprise.

"Harry, are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?" Frost asked from her place in the seat ahead of Harry. She had swiveled her chair around to get a better look at him.

"I'm okay. Bobby didn't let Honoura hurt me." Harry said truthfully. Besides having been terrified for his life, Harry hadn't experienced anything particularly damaging. This situation had just been a good bit out of his comfort zone.

"Are you sure?" Frost pushed. "And you as well, Amara. Are you alright?" Frost turned her slightly less frigid than normal gaze towards the Brazilian. Amara sat across the aisle from Harry; idly playing with the screen at her own 'desk'.

"Leave them along, Queen. Geez, you're worse than my mother." Bobby complained. He sat two seats ahead of Amara, but had apparently heard enough of the conversation to butt in. Frost narrowed her eyes.

"I have a right to be worried." Frost practically growled. "They're students. They don't have any combat training; especially Harry since he's only recently activated his X-gene." Frost looked like she would have continued but was interrupted by a derisive snort. All heads turned to the front of the jet, where Logan had taken over piloting from Forge.

"Amara's already pretty combat trained from back when Xavier ran the school. She just doesn't have the disposition for fighting. And Harry's going to be getting some training when we get back to base."

"I am?" Harry asked; bewildered at this sudden announcement. Logan glanced back out of the corner of his eye.

"You cut straight through the barrel of a pistol. Did you know that hitting the chamber with one of your claws could cause it to misfire into your claws? They're bone. Not adamantium. Sharp, but incredibly fragile. If you take a bullet to one of them, it's going to do some damage." Logan looked back to the front of the jet and pressed a few buttons. "As soon as I can, I'm giving you gun safety classes as well as self-defense." Harry flinched.

"Guns?" He asked tremulously. Why did he have to learn about guns? All they did was hurt people. Logan gave an angry sigh.

"Right, you're from across the pond. You don't like guns." Logan rolled his eyes. Harry bristled.

"Why would I? They just hurt people."

"Wrong. They keep people safe. Besides, Britain has a huge crime rate compared to cities without such restrictive gun laws. People do evil with or without guns. Technically, I could kill someone with a credit card easier than I could a gun." Logan pantomimed slitting his neck with a credit card.

"But-"

"Harry. He's right." Kitty's calm voice spoke from in front of Amara. She spun her chair away from the glowing panel she had been looking at. "At my old school, one of the troublemakers was a mutant. He set off an earthquake trying to steal test answers for the midterm. When he got caught, he used me as a hostage. If I hadn't recently activated my X-gene and been able to phase through him, things could have turned out very differently than they did. You don't need guns to hurt or kill people. All you need these days is a truck, a credit card, or even a phone cord."

"A phone cord?" Harry asked skeptically. How would that kill someone? Attract aliens with its telecommunication status?

"Dude, don't diss the phone cord. I've been choked out by one of those before. Not my idea of fun." Bobby pitched in. Harry gazed at him in shock. Bobby blushed. "Yeah… I followed a foreign spy home by accident. Not that smart," Bobby rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Kitty glared at Bobby.

"If you weren't so busy staring at her-"

"Children. I think that's quite enough." Hank chided. The gentle giant turned back to Harry. "Don't just think of it as learning to shoot someone, Harry. You can also apply gun training to disarm someone with a gun or empty out the chamber of a weapon. There are multiple uses of gun safety training that don't apply to actually firing the gun. You'll learn how to safely cut through the barrel of a gun, put one on safety, and even carry one. Besides, you're much too young to carry around a gun. Right, Logan?" Hank asked Logan pointedly. Logan cocked an eyebrow at his blue friend before sighing and adjusting some nobs on the pilot's control panel.

"Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. No guns for his birthday present. Just some martial arts tools. And knives. Maybe a miniature cross bow for fun." Logan grinned. If the older mutant wasn't flying, Harry was sure that grin would have been directed at him.

"What?" Harry gasped out, nonplussed. A miniature crossbow? Why would Harry even want that? And what would he do with it? Shoot cats?

"Aw, come on, don't tell me you've never wanted to shoot one. Those things are dang fun; easier to draw than a full-sized crossbow and with a third of the recoil. Lighter too. Though the arrows are hard to get. Not many places stock them."

"Gee, I wonder why." Harry grumbled incredulously. At his mutter, the cabin of the Blackbird burst into lighthearted chuckles.

"Sorry, Harry. You fell into the wrong mutant group. We're all a little mad here." That at least, Harry could agree with. He looked around the circle of unsympathetic faces before grimacing.

"Fine, but I refuse to fire one. I'll learn how to disarm them, but I'm not shooting one." Harry growled. The teenager crossed his arms over his chest petulantly and ignored the amused glanced being passed about the cabin. Geez, out of danger only to come back to this…

Saying goodbye to Amara was hard. Not in the way that saying goodbye to Ron or Hermione was, but in a whole new way. After all, Harry knew that he would see both Ron and Hermione again after the summer ended. He had no such assurance with Amara.

The Brazilian would be returning to her home country and most likely staying there until the mutant controversy died down. If it did.

So, when Amara told him to call her cell to talk sometimes. Harry agreed, but actually meant it this time. Something had changed in the last few hours. Much like when he had faced down the troll with Hermione and Ron, Harry's relationship with Amara had been put under pressure and come out as something stronger than before. Trust had been woven into its weave; their friendship was now set in something stronger than diamonds.

Still, Harry couldn't help the discontent that settled in his stomach as Amara's plane lifted off from the private airport Amara's father had paid off. He'd miss her. He barely knew her, and yet he felt like he was losing a limb.

"It's hard, isn't it?" Harry glanced over at Bobby. The blonde gave him a sad knowing look before explaining. "Watching our fellow mutants leave. Going through this kind of stuff with them makes them more akin to family than anything else. They have our backs we have theirs. Yet at the end of the day, we all go home to our own little corners of the globe and pretend to be normal humans. Its like saying goodbye to a brother or sister. Plus, other mutants tend to actually understand. Makes it easy to get close them in comparison to people who don't."

"Yeah." Harry managed to choke out as his throat tightened a little. The young wizard looked back at the plane, a small figure in the distant sky now. Family? He'd never felt like this with Ron and Hermione and he'd known them for so much longer, been through so much more with them. So why? Was it like Bobby said, a bond forged of understanding? Harry sighed, ran a hand through his messy hair, and turned away from the runways.

Mmmmm... I both hate and love this chapter. Some parts of it are great. Others are... not so great, don't flow, and feel contrived. At least to me. Also... I kinda just see Logan as a Winchester with allllllllllllll the weapons. And a love of teaching others to use them as well. Added to a little culture clash and you get Harry's predicament. Poor Harry... I'm not very nice to him in this chapter as far as being the hero goes.

In other news, I DID NOT BINGE write this! Woohoo! I was a normal human being and wrote a couple hundred words before work every day! I also made an A on my college trig class. So for everyone else doing summer college courses, CONGRATS! Its almost over! You can do it! Go You! I'd like to throw you some cyber cookies, but I burnt them all. Still, good job for everyone doing summer courses. You're all amazing.

Anyway, please review if you enjoyed and even if you didn't. I'd love to know how I can improve.

PS: My eye sight is at an all time low and this is not proof read. Apologies.