Kitty and Kurt sneaking through the wall had gone better than they thought.

On the other side of it, they didn't find a whole lot of people, and the ones they did see were hurrying along, not looking at them.

The guards along the wall were mostly robotic, with machine guns and other weapons that weren't recognizable.

The mutant guards were barely paying attention to the ground.

"It is almost too easy," Kurt muttered.

"Pop me up there and I can get the guns," Kitty said. "You get the bad guys."

"I hope that is as easy as it sounds," Kurt said. "But that vill only draw more people to this vall. Ve vant to give the others a chance to get in. I vill try to lead them avay--you take out weapons as planned."

"That's kind of dangerous, Preacher," Kitty said.

"Pray for me," Kurt said. He poofed Kitty to the top of the wall, where she phased part of the way into it to hide herself.

Then Kurt kicked one of the guards. "Gutentag," he said.

"What the--?" The guard looked up. "Intruder?! Or just a troublemaker."

He swung at Kurt with a rod. "Get lost, bozo! I'll teach you to disrespect me!"

Kurt dodged and took off the other way, riding along the wall like a cat.

The guard ran after him, trying to catch him.

He dodged and evaded and poofed around, making them run into each other. He shoved one off the edge of the wall, where they plunged toward the moat. It was doubtful that drop would kill them.

Kitty wasn't sure how to disable these guns.... She'd practiced this in the Danger Room, but those guns weren't real.... Somehow she'd taken out the robots...

She stuck her hand in, grabbed wiring, and yanked it out. Then she pulled some bolts out of the base of it and raced to the next one.

"Unidentified mutant," she heard a mechanical voice say near her.

She turned to see one of the other guns was swerving towards her. It had some scanner pointed at her.

Uh oh.

The gun fired.

Kitty phased in the nick of time, and it went through her.

Kurt saw what happened and realized that the guns were going to pick him up to if he got in front of one for too long.

He poofed to get higher than them, and some of the enemy took to the air after him.

* * *

Down below, the other X-men were watching.

"I guess that's our cue to get in there," Wally said.

"Rogue, borrow Kitty's power," Shine said.

"If ya say so, Sugar." Rogue flew up.

She punched one of the guys off the wall and then pulled her glove off. "Sorry, kid, gotta use yer power."

Kitty yelped as the gun shot her way. "Not right now!"

Rogue swooped up and kick the gun off its base, then she took Kitty and dove to the ground inside the wall, where any mutants who saw what was going on were already running to avoid getting caught up in it.

Rogue touched Kitty's hand. Kitty gasped. "Oh...that's the worst feeling."

"Sorry, Sugar, but it won't stop yer power for that long, just a few seconds," Rogue said. "I gotta use it to get the others in here. You, run, hide or somethin'."

She flew through the wall, then waved at the others.

"All right, Pietro, Wally, up to you to get us to her fast," Shine said.

"You don't even have to ask." Wally plucked her up.

Logan growled as more guards were appearing along the wall. "We're not goin' to be inconspicuous."

"Well, it was either this or get stopped at the gate," Storm said. "Here we go..."

She smiled at him, then flew after the others.

Morph had made himself a shield out of his own body. "I hope those guns are insured. Look at them go."

"We gotta get that blue elf," Logan said.

"Blue elf?" Morph said. 

"I don't know why I said that," Logan said. "But it fits."

"Hey, that's what they used to call him in the other world," Morph said.

Logan shuddered.

Quicksilver ran them up. Rogue phased them through the wall.

"All right, where's Emma?" she asked.

Emma had slipped down the bank when she was trying to follow the others, and her cape was not helping.

"I need to rethink this outfit for stealth missions," she muttered to herself.

"Emma!" Rogue waved at her. "Quit dallyin'."

She flew over and plucked her up.

One of the people Kurt had pushed over suddenly came springing out of the moat, shaking off one of the reptiles in it--a fleeting glance told them it looked like a crocodile had been crossed with something else (Sinister's genetic experimentation might not just extend to mutants)--and charged at them.

"Uh oh!" Rogue ducked as he shot some kind of darts at them, or quills.

One of them grazed her calf.

"Ah!" She winced. "That stings.... Ah, now it's burnin'!"

"Rogue, I think that might have been toxic," Emma said.

"Ah! You don't think--?" Rogue suddenly dropped to the ground just in front of the wall.

"Rogue?" Emma cried.

The guard landed in front of them, looking smug. "Well, well, well, well, well, well, look who ran out of juice."

He raised his hand and pointed some more quills at Emma.

Emma wanted to scream. Oh, for her diamond form right about now!

Then someone shot the guy.

Ryan, who was not yet taken through the wall, was nervously shaking, standing by the wall. "Leave--leave them alone!"

The quill guy turned. "What are you supposed to be? Who uses guns?"

Ryan stuck his blue, forked tongue out at him defiantly.

"Is that it?" the guard laughed. "Not much better than a Weakling, are you?"

Emma frantically scrambled for something to use as a weapon.... She picked up a rock.

"Rogue..." She shook her. "Rouse yourself, we're going to die."

"Can't..." Rogue muttered sleepily. "Too...tired."

Suddenly a red laser shot the quill guy, and he flew back into the moat.

Kitty had brought Scott through the wall.

"I told you they were in trouble," she said. "Rogue?!"

"She's been poisoned," Emma said, looking paler.

Scott picked Rogue up. "Kitty, get us back to the others."

Kitty already had Ryan and was taking him through.

She peered back out at them. "I'll take all three of you at the same time.... I can do it."

She grabbed them and pushed them through the wall.

On the other side, she fell to her knees and gasped for air.

"We need help," Scott cried frantically at Logan and Storm, who were trying to get rid of some of the robotic guards.

"We have to make tracks," Logan said. "Or we'll fight this whole army here."

"Rogue?" Storm gasped.

Quicksilver ran up. "All right, found a path through the city. Gotta jet before they get more guns on us. Hold onto your lunch."

He grabbed them and ran.

In a matter of minutes, he'd snatched everyone away from the wall, with Wally's help, and they had moved through streets, dodging other mutants who were moving along or even scrapping with each other.

The guards tried to follow them, but lost them due to their speed.

"That was way too close," Trinity gasped, leaning on the wall of what looked like a factory.

"I actually helped." Ryan was shaking. "That was so crazy..."

"Yay!" Jubilee low-fived him. "I wish I did. I just shot, like, one robot."

"No one's gonna talk about how I was useful?" Kitty said.

"Guys, where's Kurt?" Shine asked.

That was when they realized--no one had grabbed him.

"I thought he was following us," Wally said.

"Oh no!" Storm gasped.

Hank took out his binoculars and climbed the side of the building a little for a better look.

"Oh dear," he said. "I see our other blue friend. I believe he may have overused his power. They are surrounding him now."

"I can go get him, then," Wally said.

"That may be unwise, Mr. West," Hank said. "He is already being restrained.... If you try to free him, you will only be caught also."

"We can't lose Kurt," Shine said. "Not like this. Maybe I can portal him here."

"No, they will see you," Hank objected. "Miss Likstar, if we do not keep a low profile now, we will never reach our destination.... The city knows we're here."

"In one way...if they take Kurt, they may not bother chasing the rest of us. They will just question him," Emma said.

"Is that supposed to make us feel better?!" Morph snapped at her.

Emma winced. "The odds of all of us getting through this city were infinitesimal as it was, Morph. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.... Consider this, they will probably only take Kurt to where they are keeping all your other friends. So, we'll find him soon enough if we find them. In a way, it's the perfect distraction."

"That's cold," Logan said. "We don't abandon people."

"Well, I believe it's the leader's call." Emma glanced at Shine.

The others all looked at her.

Shine looked wan.

Then, like she hated every word she was saying, she spoke slowly:

 "Emma has a point.... In the end, we may all end up in the same place. If we try to rescue Kurt, we'll lose the amount of time he just bought us...making his sacrifice for nothing. He wouldn't like that.... I hate doing it, but they probably won't kill him, not if they can question him...so we still have a chance to save him. And...by now they'll probably be prepared for us to come back. They could block all your mutations again.... Wally and I could save Kurt perhaps, but we'd expose ourselves more...and now it's more important to stay hidden as long as we can.... I'm so sorry.... Any other time, I'd never decide this, but this is like war.... We can't save everyone the same way."

They all were somber.

"That could be any of us, then," Morph said. He shuddered. "Just left behind."

"But it's not the same, Morph," Storm said slowly. "We left you in a skirmish.... Perhaps we were wrong then. After all, it was just our own safety we thought of...but here, it's the whole world and it depends on us acting quickly. Some of us have to escape.... If we all try to save one person, none of us may escape. And the world is lost too.... I'm afraid I have to agree with Shine--war rules have to apply here. Any other time, I'd go back for Nightcrawler, but..."

"Then it's how it is." Logan didn't like it, but he knew it was decided. "We move on. He'll understand.... Probably would tell us to do that. Likstar, do ya still see that Talis?"

Shine's eyes lit up. "Yes...it's...actually very close now. But we cannot just run to it. We're too vulnerable on the street..."

"What about Rogue?" Scott asked.

The others hadn't noticed yet that Rogue was not getting to her feet for more reasons than she'd just taken a hit.

She was getting pale and breaking out in cold sweat.

"What happened to her?" Jubilee gasped.

"Logan," Shine said, "try to sniff us another route, if you can smell a sewer or a drain.... It's not pretty, but so far it's worked okay, and it beats the open streets. We'll attend to this."

Logan nodded and stepped away to try to get more of a bead on those things.

Emma looked kind of emotional.

"It was my fault," she said tightly. "I tripped on that blasted bank and got slowed down.... Rogue picked me up to help, and one of the guards had quills, venomous ones. Who knows if they came that way or are enhanced?"

"If that is enhanced, the toxin is likely to be more potent than it would be in its natural form," Hanks said. "Rogue is a strong woman, and I don't know that regular poison would slow her down so quickly."

"If he's a guard, it's likely they dialed it up just for situations such as this, catching strong opponents." Shine pursed her lips together.

"Can you do something?" Scott asked.

"If we caught it the moment she was pricked, I might have been able to burn it out," Shine said. "Or Storm could have, but it's been a few minutes. That won't work--if it's in her blood already. Hank?"

"I have some general antidotes for venom, but if it's as potent as I fear, they will only slow it down briefly," Hank said. "Carbon might if it was ingested, but in her blood..."

[Fun fact: Both carbon and rose petals allegedly can counteract poison if you ingest it through your stomach. Obviously not a substitute for going to a doctor, but as a first aid measure, it can help save your life. Carbon can be taken from charcoal, like from a fire. But if you're bitten by an animal, that won't work. What can work is to immediately suck the poison out with an absorbing plant or with your mouth, and enough of it may not be left to kill you. Depending on your size, not all toxic bites are enough to kill a healthy person, but would still make you sick. Of course, it's best to research treatment specifically, not generalize, but even a tip can buy you enough time to save your life.]

"What do we do?" Kitty started to panic.

"Shh," Trinity told her.

"Couldn't Rogue absorb one of our powers?" Jubilee asked. "Like, could she get stronger?"

"That might work," Hank mused. "Briefly, but only for a few minutes. The poison would have to run its course in her system in that time.... We don't know how long that will take."

Shine suddenly looked at Wally. "Babe...your metabolism burns through poisons.... Do you think--?"

"If she could borrow it..." Wally said. "Yeah, that could work, but she takes powers. Would that work?"

"Well...that is part of your power," Shine said. "It's worth a try. But you'd have to hang on for a bit longer than usual, make sure she gets enough to last for a couple hours.... Let's see..." She rubbed her temple. "A few seconds usually gets her the power for a few minutes. A minute or so has gotten her the power for hours, so that should do it, hopefully."

"You time this?" Scott said.

"Context," Shine said, "Rogue and I have worked on learning how to pick and choose what she absorbs from people, so she doesn't pick up their anger and hatred. She's been making good progress lately. But right now she can't really control it, so we'll be taking that chance. But Wally and I can control a little more what gets absorbed from us. You got it, right, Babe?"

"I think so." Wally put a hand on Rogue's forehead. "Please work, please work."

Everyone held their breath.

Logan came back. "I think I found somethin', whenever ya all are done."

Storm reached up and grabbed his hand. She was so nervous right now.

Logan sighed and put a hand on her shoulder.

The kids were biting their lips.

At first nothing seemed to happen, though Wally could feel the absorption.

Then it started to hurt a little, and he pulled back.

Instead of looking better, Rogue began to look worse, flushed...

"It didn't work," Kitty said.

"Actually, no." Shine was gazing at her closely. "I think it did. Hank? Am I right this means that it's started moving through her system faster?"

"Yes," Hank said. "If she has enough power, it will pass eventually, but if not...we just sped it up either way."

"We have to move," Shine said. "Carry her...and the rest of us can take turns giving her some energy.... As long as she keeps Wally's power, if we keep giving her new energy, I think she'll pull through this, maybe in an hour or so. How long does it usually take you, hon?"

"The few times it even happened, it took usually an hour or less," Wally said. "Depends on the poison."

"It's possible the poison itself may not be intended to be lethal at all if you don't move," Hank said.

[By the way, for a normal person, moving around a lot is, I think, actually not recommended if you get poisoned. Staying as calm as possible and not moving unless you have to is better, keeps the poison from getting to your heart and vitals as fast. The only reason this would work in this sci-fi setting is because the Flash's power burns through things so fast to make energy for his speed, not his organs. Also it speeds up his recovery time. So it's plausible it could just burn the venom before it can get there...if you don't think about it too much. It is comic book logic. I just don't want anyone to say I gave bad medical advice here.]

"Let me," Logan said. "If Rogue gets my recovery power, she'll be all right in a few minutes."

"With both your powers together...yes, probably," Shine said. "I should have thought of that also."

"Well, do not worry about it," Hank said. "If that venom is designed to stop mutants, Rogue borrowing a non-mutation may very well be wiser and more effective than just Logan's would be. We should take no chances."

Logan gave Rogue a fair amount of energy.

Then he led them cautiously down a street while no one was on it. They had to time that just right.

And to a bit of grating in the side of a hill that sloped down a little bit into a different part of the city, which looked like it was also a factory or plant.

Kitty phased them through the ground and into the tunnel behind the grating.

"This doesn't smell like a sewer," Ryan said. "But it does stink.... What are we standing in?"

Storm peered more closely at it using light and then put it out hastily. "This is not sewage, it's oil...and other machine waste, it looks like.... This is some kind of drainage tunnel."

"I guess they have to put it somewhere. I mean, did you see all the smoke stacks up there?" Shine said. "It's like they still run on steam and coal.... Hmm...the pollution here is terrible." She coughed suddenly. "Now that I'm noticing it, it smells sooty."

"I thought that was just the smell of dirt," Ryan said.

"No, that is soot." Logan sniffed. "Didn't think much of it before. Back in the day, a lot of bigger cities smelled like that, but it's been a long time since I've sniffed so much of it. They must burn coal."

"We can't light anything," Storm said. "I could have blown all of us up if I'd put my hand any closer to that..." She shuddered.

"And that's the end of this outfit," Emma muttered. "Well, it was pretty much ruined anyway..."

"Even if this isn't a sewer, it's still gross," Kitty said. "And if we can't use light, how are we supposed to find our way around here?"

"I have a flashlight," Hank said. "I was saving it in case we didn't have Storm with us, but I suppose now is the time."

He scuffled and pulled it out and turned it on.

Shine's eyes were gleaming.

"The Talis is close.... Odd, it seems like it's getting closer on its own..." she mused. "Could they be moving towards the city? Maybe after we broke in.... Come, let's go this way, see if we can find another exit--close, this time."

She cautiously stepped through the oil. "Don't slip. This stuff will never come out of your clothes."

"Thank you for that," Emma said.

"I've never been so glad for my power," Kitty said.

"Ah, see? You're warming up to it." Morph had morphed himself some high boots. "Trinity, I'll give you a lift, okay? It's gonna be hard even for those of us who can kind of stick here."

Trinity got on his back.

Colossus picked up Ryan and Jubilee both, one in each arm. "Let us hurry."

"One thing you don't think about being an X-man," Scott said, frowning, "it's just how often you end up in sewers and drain pipes while you're on the job."

Most of the others laughed.

"I'll take Rogue now," Logan said. "Wouldn't want anyone to get jealous.... Besides I might need to lend 'er more power."

Scott didn't understand the part about jealousy, but he had no wish to carry someone as heavy as Rogue any longer anyway.

The good news is, she was starting to look better since absorbing Logan's power also. She was beginning to stir more.

After a few minutes of them picking their way through this pipe, she finally spoke in a fairly normal voice. "What up and happened ta me? I feel like I got hit upside the head with a barrel of melons."

"That one has to be made up," Ryan said.

"Just got a little poisoned, kid," Logan said. "The fast guy and I lent ya some of our metabolisms. Do ya feel better?"

"A little like I had too much coffee, actually," Rogue joked weakly. "But other than that, just a little queasy.... Thanks...ya can probably put me down now."

"No, we're playin' it safe for a little longer," Logan said. "Besides...trust me, ya don't want to walk in this stuff."

"I believe I may share Emma's regret at wearing white clothes..." Storm said. "Perhaps I should consider changing my outfit to black if we ever get out of this."

"No!" Shine said, like it personally offended her. "Please, not that."

"Why not?" Storm said.

"Bad memories," Shine said.

"How can you remember something that's never happened?" Storm said.

"It's 'er. Don't question it," Logan grumbled. "Are we close to that danged Talis yet?"

"Actually...yes," Shine said. "It's getting quite clear now.... We should be ready to exit in just another few minutes...but this is still weird.... We have to be careful. It could be a trick."

* * *

In actuality, it was more of a lucky break.

Where Domino was concerned, maybe that was just a normal break.

Perhaps it was her power, but things lined up so that, right when they all drove to the exit of this prison/factory part of the fortress, all the guards had run to see what the commotion was on the other side, and none of them thought to check the transports. It was like they never thought a slave would use one of their own tools against them.

And they didn't seem to understand that the trackers had been removed, up until it was too late.

Finally some of them thought to run for the entrance, and the one person who was still on duty there had already been taken out by the ground. Rogue had just had to touch him once.

And then she knew the code to get outside also.

"Well, this was a little too easy," Domino said, spying the people coming back.

She pressed the button to shut the door, and then she shot through it so it couldn't be open so easily.

"All right, Stud, let's drive." She leapt into the passenger seat.

Forge didn't waste time telling her to get back in the back, he just sped up.

The fortress had multiple entrances, and this one seemed specifically for the prison part of it, probably to avoid the common people seeing it. Who knows? They might have had a problem with it if they cared to notice.

Going this way, they were surrounded by a lot of tall buildings that also looked like factories.

"According to that guard's memory," Rogue said, "what I could pick out...we're not supposed to get away. They'll probably kill him. I feel a little bad.... He didn't really know anything about us, just thought we were outlaws."

"We can't waste time feeling sorry for these people," Domino said. "Anything actually useful?"

"Nah, he didn't know much," Rogue said. "We gotta find someone who knows more. I mean, how long can we just drive this?--Ah, turn that way."

Forge turned obligingly.

"I've not been out of that plant in years." Roach was looking to the back. "It's so big out here."

"This?" Domino snorted. "You haven't even seen open space, kid. This is cramped."

"Where do you live?" Spray said. "The open spaces are radioactive, they told us.... We're not supposed to leave the city without protective armor, like the soldiers. Grunts like us never do. Unless maybe they need more labor somewhere else."

"I hope that's just a rumor," Forge said. "I'm sure our rescuers didn't wear protective gear, and I'm sure they must have left the cities."

"If it was near and radioactive, we'd all be exposed already," Domino said. "Unless there's a lead dome over this, which I don't see. It's a load of bull to keep ignorant people from trying to escape."

https://youtu.be/vrgaB9xu7GM

["Radioactive-- Imagine Dragons]

"What, really?" Bolts said.

"Yeah, duh," Domino said. "If there're radioactive areas, I have no idea. Did you all have a nuclear war?"

"You mean the bombs?" Bolts said. "I heard that a long time ago the Lord released all of the Weakling's weapons into space. Maybe that's what you're talking about?"

"Sounds like it," Domino said. "Well...and we think Quicksilver is working for this guy? Remind me to punch him if we find him here."

Rogue laughed dryly. "Never thought The Brotherhood was this crazy, huh, Dom?"

"We might do things you don't like, Rogue," Domino said, dead seriously, "and maybe some of them aren't so good, if you look at it black and white, but this?" She pointed over the dashboard. "This is just a hellscape out of some sci-fiction author's nightmares. We'd never have wanted this. We're tired of humans pushing us around, but this doesn't seem better for anyone, does it? I can't believe Pietro would help someone who'd do this...unless he just doesn't know, but he's a moron, so maybe he doesn't know."

"Didn't you work for him?" Forge said.

"Yeah, and he's a moron," Domino said.

"He is," Rogue agreed, "and a daddy's boy. But even for Magneto...this seems extreme."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Domino said. "This is his dream, isn't it? Mutant domination, humans are less than dirt."

"How else should it be?" Roach said. "Power is everything."

"No, it isn't," Domino said. "That's how fools talk. If power is everything, then the tough person can make all the rules, and the tough people can be jerks."

"That's not what I thought a member of The Brotherhood would say," Forge said. "Are you sure you're working for the right people?"

Domino folded her arms, pointing one gun out of the window.

"Things weren't supposed to end like this," she said flatly. "We were going to stop the MRD, maybe crush some of the humans' pride...give mutants a fair chance. But this isn't what I wanted. I didn't think the others did either."

"For the record," Rogue said, "I never saw any sign either that Quicksilver really wanted something this extreme...but Magneto...who knows? And we all know, he does whatever his father says."

"But it makes you think, doesn't it?" Forge said. "We all wanted mutants to have more power...but one day here, and I almost wonder if mutants should have more power.... I know that sounds like I'm a traitor to my kind, but if this is what we'd do with it? Maybe trying to fight for our rights on a small scale isn't so bad. I mean, it's never fair for us, but we got a few compromises with Kelly and other people.... Couldn't we have worked it out? Why did we need to enslave humans?"

The three teens from this timeline were giving Forge odd looks, like they thought this sounded crazy.

"What else would you do with them?" Spray asked.

"You know, this regime has warped your mind." Rogue pointed at them accusingly. "Where I come from, not everyone thinks might makes right. Some of us care about being fair."

"It's not fair if weak people push stronger ones around," Roach said. "I mean, how would they even do that? It makes no sense."

"I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Democracy," Domino said. "I'd be glad to see one of our Senator's stupid faces talking about how we have to keep the peace right now--it was better than this."

She eyed the factory and shuddered.

"Well, if we undo all this, we can go back to being annoyed by our regular government," Forge said, trying to be cheerful.

"And you've been here one day?" Roach said, wryly. "Wow, you guys haven't even seen the worst of it yet. Wait till you hear about the fighting rings."

"Fightin' rings?" Rogue asked.

"Yeah...being a grunt sucks," Spray said. "But in some ways, it's almost safer to be grunts than to be a mid-level mutant. If you're not powerful enough to be ruling somewhere, then you might just be powerful enough to make an interesting fight out of. They take them out of the nursery as soon as they figure out what their mutation is. I knew a bunch of people..." She frowned. "Some of them weren't suited to it, though.... Not everyone is a fighter."

"So they just take 'em and use 'em like bulls in a bullfight?" Rogue said. "No other purpose in their lives but fightin'?"

"That's not always how it is," Roach said. "A lot of people are sent to the fighting rings for stepping out of line or pissing off some higher up. If they survive and become a favorite, they might give them matches they can probably win. If they don't, then they put them and someone they know they can't beat, and it's like a public execution.... In fact, they just stopped having public executions after a while, from what the older workers told us. They said now it's all for entertainment. No one really cares about the punishment part."

"Roman Coliseum," Forge said grimly. "That's...really messed up."

"But some people are kind of groomed for it," Bolts said. "They're like the pets of the people who run the whole show. They get more food, better medical care, to keep them in the game, and winning money from bets. They usually don't die, not fighting the ones who are sentenced, but they can fight each other. No one wants to go up against those ones.... I heard that a few of them even got promoted to being in the army because they were too useful to waste. But we never see any of that. It's all just stuff the guards talk about when they think we're not listening. They bet on it too."

"And hypothetically," Domino said, "if we get caught, how likely are we to get tossed into that ring?"

"I'd say none of us would be wasted in it," Roach said. "Who'd pay money to see Serfs fight each other? But Forge and Rogue might get a shot at it.... If you guys won, though, you might live."

"I ain't killing anyone for sport," Rogue said. "That's wrong"

"Wouldn't you do it if it was either that or dying?" Bolts said. "All of us have to think of that all the time.... Any day you might get in a fight with some idiot with a bad mutation.... Are you willing to fight dirty if it means living another day?"

"You ever killed someone?" Rogue said bitterly.

Bolts got a hard look. "Once.... Had no choice."

"A few times," Roach said.

Spray shuddered. "No. Roach always fought for me."

"You've both killed?" Forge slowed the car down in shock.

Domino was less shocked.

"It's not like we could avoid it," Bolts said. "They won't let you walk away every time. At our level, the fights aren't that destructive, so no one cares about breaking it up usually. They don't care if we kill each other off. Sometimes other people just...they snap.... They want to die...and if you don't...it's all you can do. In a way, it's doing them a favor, don't you think?" [😱😢🤮]

"I..." Forge looked green. "I need a second..."

He stopped the car to throw up over the side.

Rogue and Domino didn't get sick, but Rogue was shivering.

"Hang on." Domino suddenly sat up more. "Do you hear something?"