Trouble: My Disease

[Panthera]

Looking back at the delapidated building she use to call home, Samantha continued her stroll from the music store at the mall. It seemed like forever since she laid eyes on the place, but now her perspective of where she use to live took on a whole new meaning. She lived in the slums, the bad part of town, dealing with mutant haters and cruel criminals of the streets. The safety net around the area was minimal, something Sam began to realize as the stroll took her to a small inlet between buildings.

Taking one last look at her once home, she waved a relieved goodbye in one small hand swaying in the air and headed toward the alley. But something made her stop, something she couldn't quite trace. She stopped there and closed her eyes allowing her feline acuity of scent to take over. If someone or something was in that alley, she was going to try and detect it before taking the first steps. The stench of garbage overwhelmed her nostrils, at first, opening her eyes to a nearby dumpster making a bit harder to detect anything else. Rotted vegetables and soiled diapers seemed to be the predominant aroma. She could smell the faintness of cologne, but put it off as part of the garbage. Squinching her nose at the awful scents, she covered her mouth for a second in disgust. Sam would have taken a moment to listen for anything suspicious. However, she couldn't hear anything for, as always, construction workers were always near by making more noise than a full orchestra at a recital.

Nothing else filled her nose as she took the first steps into the alley. A quickened step would take her through in no time and away from the God awful smell. It was the middle of the afternoon, so she felt a bit more at ease thinking nothing would happen during the daytime. Crime usually happened more at night.

Or so she thought.

<Tag Logan>

[Logan]

(meanwhile...just outside of the Quickie Mart...)

Dressed in a mean leather jacket that somehow never quite manages to go out of style, Logan creaked slightly as he grabbed the handlebars of his Harley and swung one booted leg over. His blue jeans stretched tight as he settled down in the leather seat and slid his cop sunglasses toward the bridge of his nose.

Logan didn't give a flying crap about what was in style.

The cigar in his lips was just a small and lifeless butt, but he chewed it like he was trying hard to get the last few cents worth out of it. A woman in a sky blue Mercedes locked her car door as the engine roared to life. She tried not to make it seem too obvious that she was keeping a close eye on Logan. Everyone in the convenient store parking lot was doing the same.

Kicking the stand up, Logan popped it into gear and the low rumble of the bike could be felt in the sternum of anyone within twenty yards of him as he headed out onto the street. He was the picture of American rebellion. Born to be wild. It would have been a perfect picture save for one minor detail: the jumbo sized box of Pampers bungee corded to the back of his bike.

Parents lived by a whole different code of cool.

[Panthera]

The sunlight was behind the buildings making the alleyway seem like a darkened pit of hell. As her paces became a bit quickened, a noise came from somewhere above her head. A squealing noise, something she recognized but couldn't place. The eerieness of the area was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up and she was anxious to reach the end of that walk as quickly as possible.

The louder squeal made her stop and she slowly looked around the ground first. Only puddles of water from a recent rain were scattered on the cement and litters of cardboard and paper laid scattered amongst the walls of the tall abodes. She scanned up and around trying to focus on every centimeter of the hall of hell she was striding through, seeing broken and rusted fire escapes.

Sam felt like a victim in a horror movie when a sudden loud noise came from behind. It was enough of a noise to make her scream jumping around ready to shapeshift on a seconds notice. But, a small ball of dirty white fur ran by her as the alley cat made his way back to his home with a dead mouse proudly encased within its jaws.

"Yuck", she sighed as her heart slowly returned to its normal pace.

[Logan]

Keitha was getting to be so big so quickly. It wasn't too terribly long ago that Logan was finding it impossible to imagine how one baby could crap so much in one day when all she ate was formula. Now Keitha was toddling around the school, and even able to use the stairs for the most part. He was glad that he got the healing factor thing from him. Kid was a daredevil if he ever saw one.

Logan pulled up to a stoplight that nobody else was at and sat there in reflective silence while his thoughts mused on his daughter once again. His nose twitched as a familiar scent carried on the light New York breezes caught him.

Sam?

[Panthera]

It happened too quickly for Samantha to even have a chance to respond or defend herself. As soon as she took another deep breathe to get her bearings, a hand was around her mouth and an arm was clamped around her neck. Her feet were swept up from under her and tightly bound by hands or maybe arms. Instinct made her body squirm instantly, but whoever had a hold of her was strong, too strong for her.

Her eyes opened and darted around, but everything was a blur. She could smell different aromas around her, different musks and body odor. She heard only one voice snap at her while she desperately tried to break free.

"Stop squirming bitch! Or this will become more bloodier."

She felt her body being moved, carried but to where, she didn't know. She saw daylight, then it was black. All she could do is moan loudly sceaming in the midst of cigarette stenched fingers.

[Logan]

The light turned from red to green and Logan just sat there for a moment. It was definitely Sam's scent he was picking up on, and this part of town wasn't exactly the kind of area that a young lady should be roaming around in by her lonesome. Not even a woman that could turn into a three hundred pound tiger should be in this area too long.

Logan revved the engine and turned toward the wind, following the scent as he rode. Keitha would have to wait on the diapers just a little longer. Besides...uncle Guido having to get creative on what to swaddle her little butt in when she made mud in her pants was kind of funny to him.

The scent trail took Logan down some very discouraging roads. He knew this part of town...and this feeling in the back of his head that was almost like a sixth sense told him this was bad news. He stopped his bike outside of an abandoned warehouse and killed the engine, straining his ears to hear inside.

[Panthera]

((300 pound tiger? wow, she's tiny for a Siberian Tiger ))

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light inside the building, her nose took on new senses. Rotting wood and mold coursed through her nostrils while being planted hard into a metal chair. Thankfully the vinyl cushion, or what was left of it, padded her behind from the intensity of the shove. Hands were immediately around her arms holding them down onto the wooden armrests and another set of hands still had a firm hold on her neck. Maybe too firm a hold, as she could feel the breath leaving and barely heard a voice demanding for it to be released.

"How in the world do you expect us to have any fun with her if she's knocked out? Get your hands off her throat, she won't move."

Sam wasn't about to move at the moment. She wanted her bearings before attempting any escape, if that was even possible. She could see and smell the stench of at least 4 men around her, but didn't notice until she looked around, that there were 2 men guarding the doorway. Great 6 of them she muttered within the confines of her brain. They weren't exactly scrawny little males around her either. The two men holding her arms were strong and well built as was the man with his hands nearly choking her death. They all smelled of liquor and body odor which she put to the back of her mind. However, they all looked like they knew exactly what they were doing as though they had done this on numerous ocassions before.

"Is this how you treat a lady everytime you meet one?" she scowled at the one who seemed in charge. He simply turned around and smiled an evil grin with his response. "At least you're not a bimbo. She's a smart one", he proclaimed to others of his gang.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out something familiar, something that put fear into Sam's mind and began a wretched increase to the beat of her heart. She stared at it and knew exactly what was going to happen. Her eyes darted from the syringe to him back to the syringe. Oh God, not again she feared as he came closer to her.

"Relax little lady, this is only a drug to help you become a little more, let's say, cooperative with us. Besides, you'd want to feel pleasure before your painful death now wouldn't you?" he teased.

As her heart nearly lept to her throat, she looked up at the man with anger increasing within her bones, but fear as to what she may become. With a fearful shaking tone, she pleaded with him to stop. "You don't want to be doing this." As he approached with a bigger grin, her voice rose louder. "You really don't want to be doing this", she exclaimed as her voice began to change to a deeper more sinister tone. As a warning her eyes became a feline slit and back to normal again.

She thought the man was retracting his steps to change his intent, but the hard hand slapped across her face implanted another image in her mind. "So, what do we have here? A mutant. This makes it a different story then boys." Peering close to her face, his foul breathe spoke softly but with anger and evil resolve. "We're mutant haters bitch and I guess we need to be a little more rough than we thought."

That was enough for her mind to snap back to the cold non-fearing woman she had become in the Danger Room. The pupils within her eyes seemed to have changed into ice cold daggers pointing straight toward the leader as she spoke. Her voice became dark and malevolent.

"I'll be sure you are the first one I kill then, human."

[Logan]

Sitting outside Logan strained his ears to listen. There was the chance that Sam had just come here to be alone with whatsisface...Jacob. The last thing he wanted to do was to walk in when Sam and Jacob were doing the wild thing. He had enough trouble with nightmares already.

The sound of several men's voices reached his ears and the sun gleamed off of Logan's mirrored sunglasses as he listened and impassively chewed on his cigar. As far as bad situations went, this one was up there.

He kicked the stand down on his bike and stepped off, stretching his neck to one side and then the other with multiple tinny popping noises as the bones creaked and cracked. Spitting a bit of the cigar out of his mouth he put on an unsettling scowl and headed for the door.

Not more than a dark silhouette in the open doorway, Logan looked in on the scene with disgust in his heart. They had her sitting back in an uncomfortable looking chair. It didn't take much to know where this was all going with the needles and the leering looks from the different men.

"What's goin' on here, boys?"

His voice was like gravel under a boot.

"Anything I can join in on?"

Logan took a few steps in to the warehouse and toward the guy who was inches away from losing inches.

[Panthera]

Her icy cold stare made her heart beat that much faster as the needle came closer and closer to her arm. Wait until I snap his neck like a twig she scowled within her mind. The anger she had in the Danger Room was in full swing again. The hatred towards these pathetic excuses for humans increased like an uncontrollable grass fire.

As the needle made contact with her skin and began to be injected, the door swung open knocking one man aside who'd been watching and making the two guys on both her sides loosen there grip. What was more in her favor was the needle only made a tiny hole as the scumbag retracted it quickly to stand and turn around.

"What's goin' on here, boys?"

The voice was familiar to the clouded mind of Samantha, and at this moment she would have taken anyone coming through that door for the distraction she needed.

"Anything I can join in on?"

She didn't care if he was another gangster or if he was an angel sent from God. He wouldn't get near her long enough to join anything they had planned.

Using the men's braced wrists around her arms, Sam used that as leverage while she flung her legs up and over. With the sole of her nicely thick heeled boot, she kicked the needle up and away from the leader's hand and sent another towards his head to knock him on his ass where he belonged for the moment. Luckily for her, he fell into the man on her left side making him totally lose his grip on her arm.

With an evil smile and a quick step, she regained her stamina with both feet planted on the ground and swung herself up and out of the chair quickly and staring into the eyes of other burly smelly rodent. He grabbed for her throat but her feline quickness and womanly gesture allowed for her foot to come up and plant a nice thump onto his precious jewels sending him slumping in pain. As he released her arm and bent over, Sam came down with all her strength jamming her elbows into the back of his neck. With a thud and scream an octave higher, he fell.

"One down, five to go", she muttered not showing any emotion but revenge.

[Logan]

Feeling the door that he opened knock someone aside, Logan stepped inside and pretended to be interested in helping these scumbags out with their dirty work. The attention all being on him, Logan was proud to see Sam stepping up and taking advantage of the diversion.

Something about her scent was off. She smelled like she was going feral or something, and within a few seconds she was a blur of arms and legs, sending one of the men crashing to the floor. Logan grabbed two of the other thugs who didn’t seem to know what to do and slammed their heads together forcefully. They looked at one another with dazed expressions and then sank to the floor in unison.

“This tha kind of party you always go in for, Sam?” He had to admit, she had some pretty good moves. “Cuz this happens to be one of my favorite things to do.”

The clicking of metal sounded next to his ears and Logan could feel the cold metal of a handgun against his temple.

[Panthera]

Looking down at the scum before her, Samantha eyed him one more time to be sure he was down for the count. Her attention was diverted when she heard a voice behind her, a familiar voice.

“This tha kind of party you always go in for, Sam?”

Her vengeful side, the one that wanted everything and everyone dead around her seemed to dissipate like coming out of a foggy drive through a valley.

“Cuz this happens to be one of my favorite things to do.”

She stood there staring battling to put the feral into the back of her mind.

"Logan?" she whispered trying to get his scent fighting herself all the way. Then the click of the gun was heard and the barrel was pointing towards his head.

That was all she saw, and because of delayed reaction, Sam didn't see the blow coming from behind. But, she heard it. She began to jump forward. Luckily her senses were still in tact because the two by four still hit her back pretty hard knocking the wind out of her and to the floor with a loud painful grunt.

She regained her composure quickly and the anger returned as her eyes became ice cold shards once again. She was pretty pissed off.

Sam stood up wincing a bit, then turned with pure hatred and wrath screaming from her orbs. She gave the creep a small growl and approached him with no fear. His eyes opened wide not really knowing what to expect. She was a mutant after all. So out of fear for his own life, he swung the wood at her again. This time she had so much adrenaline built up, she stopped the plank in midair snatching it from her opponent with one hand.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you", she started with the first swing at his calf breaking a knee. She didn't care, her anger had reached its peak and she swung again breaking the other knee.

"..never to hit a woman", she finished with a blow to the head not even caring if she killed him or not.

[Logan]

In the space of a heartbeat Logan found himself with a loaded gun aimed right at his temple. Wasn’t the first time, and it damn sure wasn’t likely to be the last. Logan had been through this whole routine a number of times.

“Don’t know who you are,” said the voice from behind him. “Don’t care.” He could hear the tendons tightening on the man’s arm and Logan clenched his teeth. Claws sprang out as he spun around and ducked. The firearm went off and grazed the top of his head as his claws connected with the man’s arm. The gun clattered to the ground with hand and forearm still attached. The man’s eyes widened in horror, but Logan paid him no mind. His attention was on Sam.

Sam stood there for a moment in silence before she spoke his name. He could see the fog lift for just a moment, and even from the distance between them Logan could smell the feral in her abscess a little. There was something in her hormones and pheromones that he knew from experience smelled completely different when she was going feral.

And he also knew that he was protecting her by not letting her go there.

She must have sensed the attack coming from behind because she tried to get out of the way. The wooden two by four still managed to clip her pretty good, and Logan narrowed his eyes at the assailants. Before he could interfere Sam had dropped both of them. The room was littered with blood and bodies and both wounded and healthy were scrambling for the door. The fight was over.

Logan came over to Sam’s side. “You okay?”

[Panthera]

When the snap of bones was heard from the contact with the wood, Sam could have cared less if that was his neck or cheekbone. That son-of-a-.....deserved it. All humans did, in her eyes at the moment and the feral anger was there. She wanted to run after the ones she heard scrambling off. But, a voice from behind, sounded again.

“You okay?”

Somehow some of the blood from the guy she just gave a lickin to was speckled on her face and some of her clothes. She stood there staring at the guy, obviously dead with the ooze of blood pouring from his head. It was then and his voice, her savior's voice, that brought her back once again.

She lifted her hands where more blood was sticking to it, some of it her own, and they began to tremble slightly. Her voice turned from the evil deep tone, to her normal sensitive one, yet timid and scared. Not even looking to Logan, she spoke in a choking whisper.

"What's happening to me?"

[Logan]

As the feral instincts began to wear off, Logan could see some of the strength washing out of her posture. Her hands shook just slightly, and she looked over at Logan with confusion and fear on her face.

"What's happening to me?"

Logan put a supporting arm around her and nodded toward the door. "Let's step out for some fresh air," he said softly. There really wasn't an answer she wanted to hear to her question. But Logan was the kind of guy that usually chose needed to hear over wanted to hear anyway.

"They didn't...do nothin' to ya, did they?"

[Panthera]

His arm around was very comforting but it also was extremely painful. The welt on her back seemed like it was from shoulder to hip as though that 2x4 was tattooed permanently. Sam nodded a no with her head and wiped her hands on her pants. Should she tell him that killing that guy felt really good and that she liked it? But that's not the real Samantha Carter and she knew it.

There was one emotion that wasn't on the cliff's edge ready to fall off. It was one that she needed to convey before it was gone in the darkened abyss of her confused mind. She was here, alone, with Logan and it seemed like the right time before her hell would break loose.

Turning to face him, she looked into his eyes with her own searching for the right words. "Logan, I need to say something first before we walk out that door." She took in a small breathe and first explained a little about what was going on in her mind.

"My emotions feel like puzzle pieces scattered in my head. The ones connecting together are the ones I'm most afraid of." She looked away and then back to him calmly with the sincerest of expressions. "For reasons I'm not sure of, you've saved me from three different possible tragedies." She closed her eyes searching for the right words to show just how grateful she was and how much she just appreciated him in her life as a friend.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is.....", she started fumbling. "I mean, I just want to....." Finally, she just gave in to the moment and her jostled emotions. Her hand gently caressed his cheek and she kissed him softly on the lips. It was only a kiss of gratitude, nothing more. It was few seconds longer than it should have been, however, it was a one-sided kiss as she expected it would be and was fine with that.

When she pulled away, her eyes opened and she smiled with a tender warm expression and just offered him a few words,

"Thank you, for being there for me."

Her hand lowered itself and she lightly patted his chest before she turned and began to walk tenderly towards the door.