Uncanny X-Men : An X-Cellent Death

Rogue #4

"Well, spit it out, Kid." Wolverine orders. "We haven't got all night."

I pause for a moment to think. Even though the mind of the ninja is no longer in control of me, I recall it clearly. I am intensely aware of Wolverine–how alert he seems. How he appears to be standing casually, but is actually ready for anything at a moment's notice. He is perhaps the finest fighter I have ever seen. These, I know are the observations of the ninja inside of me. I wish I could fight Wolverine to learn more about his techniques. With effort, I put aside such thoughts and search the Ninja's mind for the information Wolverine requires.

"There are another twenty Hand assassins on the island." I tell my partner. "They're hidin' in a secret underground tunnel. Whoever hired them told them about it and gave them a map of every nook and cranny on the island."

"Do they know who's footin' the bill for this operation?" Wolverine asks.

I shake my head. "There is something unusual about this job, however. Usually, when the Hand are hired to kill an individual, they're given a picture of that person, which bursts into flames once they've studied it. This time the order came in over a computer terminal."

I close my eyes, trying to remember everything the ninja saw on the computer terminal. "Code name: X-Cellent Death. Fee: one billion U.S. dollars. Assignment: kill every human on Obar Island." I quote from memory. "Then the screen appeared to burst into flame."

"That's just fucking wonderful." Wolverine growls. "The Hand going high-tech. As if we didn't have enough problems."

"There's one more thing." I whisper.

"What else?"

"They seem to know that the scientists are havin' trouble keepin' up the mass wall. They believe that whoever's hired them is going to lower it somehow. They're waiting for it t' crash so they can storm the base."

I can feel the Ninja's spirit in my mind slip away from me, even though it has no physical being to return to.

Wolverine's eyes are narrow slits.i can see he's deep in thought.

"Do we go after their secret base, boss?" I ask.

My partner shakes his head. "As much as I'd love to tear into twenty Ninjas, we can't afford that pleasure just yet. Jesse said her problem with the mass wall had something to do with the computer. Something tells me someone is messin' with it. Storm will have to be warned. You'd better fly us back there right away."

"Ah wonder what Storm and Nightcrawler have been up to since we've been gone…" I muse.