Trapped (Sequel to Becomming and Animal X-men Fanfiction)

Friends are Worth Fighting For

"Starlight!" I heard Thruster wail and I could imagine his eyes stretched wide in fear.

Triflud as pressed his paw against my shoulder to hold me down. My healing power had kicked in and my eyes suddenly shot open. I surged a paw forward and flipped Triflud down. He gasped in shock and I extended my long claws. "You shouldn't have messed with me." I slit his neck and blood pooled out.

The rest of the wolves darted forward and I extended a claw into a wolf's chest before throwing him against the ground. Thruster killed two while the pups took on one by themselves.

I smiled at them but suddenly I heard an alarming sound. It must have been trigged for when Triflud died it would open. Lifts began to open and gas pooled out. I flicked my ears and I took a step against the holding cell.

"What is it," gasped Keen as he lowered beside his sister as Mirra bristled her fur in fear.

"I don't know," confessed Thruster as he pawed at the ground. His pelt began to blaze (literally because he can make his fur be on fire) and his green eyes bore into mine. "All I do know that is it can't be good. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible."

"How do we open it," I asked as I tried to claw at thee corners but all it made was my claws begin to bleed and I had to wait until they healed to try again.

Thruster pressed his paws against it but nothing happened, even when he tried to melt it. He turned back to me. "I don't know. But we have to do this quick." His voice was beginning to become raspy and I saw his nose was a bit moister than usual.

I flew upward and looked down. I flew back down and shook my head. "Nothing from the sky." Now I was finding it difficult to breath. "Maybe it's connected to Triflu'd collar."

Mirage tilted his head and strode toward the dead Triflud. He sunk his teeth into the collar but it wouldn't snap. "What is it made of," he gasped as he tried to break it but nothing worked.

Poultice bounded to his side and touched his paw to Triflud's head. "'Some substance that he made. It is a mixture of something that I don't know."

He pulled his paw away as he almost fell forward Mirage rushed to catch him and his brother leaned on his side, his eyes beginning to roll back in his head when he coughed.

I had enough of this wolf-scat. I struck a paw toward the collar and tried to snap it with my claws. Still didn't work. This was going to be tougher than I thought and we were running out of time. I lowered down and sniffed it but I couldn't smell anything.

The green gas was beginning to engulf us and when I wasn't gasping for breath I was coughing. This gas was meant to kill us slowly but only used as the last defense if we managed to kill Triflud.

Mirra suddenly fell to the ground, blood leaking from her nose. I let out a gasp. They were plaguing us with blood-cough!

Blood-cough is a respiratory infection where you cough and sneeze out almost all of the blood in your body. It liquifies so much that it seemed out of ever opening, especially mouth and nose and sometimes ears. It is a very painful illness and it is very contagious. There is also no cure known so about 99% out of 100% die.

I felt blood splattering the ground as I coughed but I wasn't about to give up. I hopped forward with weak legs and pawed at the device. Eventually my paw gripped it but I still couldn't open it.

Thruster pushed forward and thrust his claw into the opening and turned. He let out a wail but the gas stopped flowing and the cage opened. (Humans have a strange resistance to blood-cough that animals just don't have. I envy them but there are some things that they can catch that we don't.)

Jean rushed to Mirra's side and rubbed her flank. She sighed before turning to me. "She's dead Starlight."

"No," Keen wailed although blood was pouring out of his mouth nose and eyes as he cried.

The doors suddenly opened and I was hit with a blast of fresh air. It didn't help much but my healing ability was kicking in. Thruster didn't seem to be ill either. (I learned later that since he had been around blood-cough before he had built up a resistance to it.)

I turned my head and realized that we were in the middle of a forest, yet in a building. "We have to go," I growled as I sunk my teeth into Keen's shoulder and hauled him onto my back. Thruster did the same with Poultice although Mirage said he was alright I didn't believe him.

"Where are we going," asked Logan as he looked at the forest. We were still in Canada and if that wasn't bad enough there was still snow on the ground considering this part of Canada was almost always covered in snow.

"I don't know," I confessed as I looked around. I flapped my wings and realized that no one could make it far, especially the Professor who's wheelchair wouldn't roll over snow easily. I let out a sigh and saw a sled, a sled used but dogs who used to pull humans around.

I smiled and set Keen down gently. "Thruster," I called and he let Poultice beside Mirage who was finally beginning to show symptoms of his ordeal.

Thruster lowered beside me and sniffed the sled. His tail wagged and his eyes glowed. "Excellent idea Starlight! We can't carry everyone though," he pointed out as his eyes darkened.

I shook my head but turned to see another sled. "Maybe I could take one and you could take one."

"Can you carry a few mutants," he asked, knowing that although I wasn't ill I was still weak from healing myself from the deadly blood-cough.

"I believe so," I murmured as I turned to the old yet strong rope and Thruster grabbed the rope in his jaws. He help it up so that I could leap into it and I did. The rope rubbed against my chest and I realized that this had been a dream of mine when I was young. Muffler had told me about it and since that heartbeat I had wanted to be a sled dog.

Thruster leaped into his and he spread his wings, to give him extra speed and agility. I turned to everyone else. "Split up and get on the sleds. They are larger than normal sleds and should hold more people than they look."

"I know a small cave close to here," Thruster added as wind began to buffer his fur and I smelled snow. Great! That was the last thing that we needed right now.

Logan clambered onto mine with Jean following. Tony leaped onto mine as well and sunk his claws into the steel sides. This was one of the nice ones.

Storm could levitate with her power. Magneto gabbed onto the metal part and Mystique made herself a smaller wolf so that she wouldn't take up as much space. The professor sat in the bed of the sled while Rouge stood next to Magneto. Scott was with Jean and Logan because he was afraid Logan might do something he wasn't supposed to to Jean. It was a tight squeeze but we managed to put the pups on as well. Once we were all loaded I turned to Thruster.

"Mush," I ordered before he began to bound forward, his paws barely touching the snowy surface that made running difficult.

I followed but not as swift. My muscles ached with effort and I didn't think that I could make it another step although we had just started.

Thruster suddenly halted and I stopped, almost crashing into Rouge. "We're here," he barked as he turned to us with blank eyes. "Welcome to Akra Abla."