When Noh's ship had landed at the North Pole, the group of them had already called SHIELD to let them know they were making their approach — though they almost didn't need to confirm it, what with Kate's friends Teddy and Billy on the New Avengers team texting her about penguins.

Logan and Scott were both ready to go, though they didn't have that same, easy, relaxed vibe that they'd had before. Both were tense and had their jaws locked into place as they stared ahead.

"And now, you see the other side of the coin as it starts up," Jubilee said quietly over Kate's shoulder as she was steering Noh's ship while Noh checked on some last-minute readings to be sure the Skrulls didn't know they were coming. "I have a feeling this is going to be very very ugly."

"I mean I don't get it," Kate said with a little shake of her head. "They're, like, five years old. Both of them."

"It's so complicated and simple at once," Jubilee said, still in a low whisper as she too was shaking her head slowly, as if she couldn't believe she had to put up with both of them. "I mean, they could make this so easy."

"You know — if they used words. Like normal people," Kate agreed.

"There is so much built up drama there. Seriously."

"And yet Kurt is the drama teacher," Kate teased.

"Wrong kind of drama," Jubilee replied quietly before she spotted her be-bopping alien boy and just grinned and patted Kate on the shoulder. "I'll tell you about it later."

In contrast to Logan and Scott, Noh looked perfectly relaxed and even was looking forward to blasting some Skrulls, and he shot Jubilee a little grin when she bounded over to him. He had been listening to some music, but he pulled out one of the earphones when she approached as he caught her up in a spinning hug and she could hear "Be My Baby" playing through the earphones. It was his favorite song, so she knew it meant he was in a perfectly good mood — with friends to fight with and Skrulls to crush.

"When we're finished here, we should go dancing," he whispered in her ear when he set her down, and she broke into a huge, beaming grin and just nodded her agreement.

Kate tried not to roll her eyes as she could hear Noh turn up the volume on his favorite song and pull Jubilee into a quick spin, instead focusing on landing them neatly at the pole. As soon as she started up the landing procedures, the rest of the group headed for the doors, ready for round two against the Skrulls as the alien force was taken by surprise on their arrival. It was a much smaller force than had been on Mars, but enough that as soon as the six of them came bursting out of the ship, they had plenty to do.

Noh and Kate actually found themselves in an easy, familiar rhythm blasting through aliens as they both just took to shooting every Skrull in sight, seeming to know beforehand where each other's shots would land and moving accordingly, their old ties as former teammates obvious to see even without knowing that they had once been particularly close.

Kurt was in prime form, all three swords in play as he teleported around the field of Skrulls, and Jubilee was sending off plasmoids left and right — but the two of them were also both half watching Logan and Scott, as they already knew trouble was brewing from experience.

As before, Scott and Logan found themselves working together and moving back to back - Scott avoiding Logan's claws, and Logan dodging Scott's blasts. The camaraderie was simply not there though. They both looked irritated at the very least — and increasingly more livid as the battle raged on around them.

It took much less time for Scott to wear down, as they really hadn't taken much of a break since the last battle, but this time, when Scott started to protest Logan's move to cover him, Logan flat ignored him. It was obvious neither of them was listening to a word the other way saying, and so they were drifting further apart.

But when the Skrulls started to close in on Scott's blind side, Logan still shouted out for him to move. When Scott didn't move fast enough — either because he was ignoring Logan or because he was tiring or some combination — the Skrulls behind him got the drop on him and managed to knock him flat and start tearing into him viciously.

"Damnit, Scooter," Logan snarled, bashing through the Skrulls between them to knock the Skrulls off of Scott, drawing the fire off of him so he could at least reach out to the bamf nearest him and teleport out.

Once he was out, Scott took a second to get his breath and his bearings before he looked back at where he'd just been to see that Logan seemed to be trying to take on all of the Skrulls at once. The Skrulls seemed surprised at his ferocity and were at first simply being driven back before they more or less switched tactics to just try and swarm him.

Scott swore under his breath as he just flat ignored the bruising and bleeding from the beating he'd just taken and headed back for Logan's position. He was halfway there when he half-shouted, "This is not a solo mission! Stop trying to take on the whole army yourself."

"I'm fine!" Logan all but barked back, though it was clear he was losing ground quickly.

"Back off — let some of the others help." Scott was glaring hard and obviously annoyed as he started to blast some of the Skrulls on his way over as Logan continued to lose ground, and by the time Scott got there, they'd taken a decent chunk out of Logan, and he was pretty well bloodied.

The Skrulls on Logan each got optic blasts as Scott very tiredly growled out, "Why don't you listen?"

"Same reason you don't!" Logan growled back, leaning his head back on the snow for a moment.

"Thought you said I was running this op," Scott countered with an obvious glare.

"Damnit, Scott — when have I ever listened to every little thing you say?" Logan winced as he sat back up and started to get to his feet.

"If you did, maybe we'd stop having this problem," Scott said, gesturing at Logan's wounds. "Is it bad?"

"I'll heal, you jackass," Logan snarled out.

"Yeah?" Scott snapped back. "Play it smarter and you wouldn't have to, you stubborn ass."

"Take your own advice and stop tryin' to micromanage me," Logan barked out as the two of them once again started fighting Skrulls — though this time, it was while arguing and sniping at each other, all while a little bamf with a camera phone cackled with glee with every escalating swear.

By the time they'd fought through the small army of Skrulls, it was clear that the entire group was pretty well tired out after two large battles in such quick succession. Even though Scott and Logan had spent the better part of the battle arguing, Scott had actually taken some damage from the beating as well as the rest of the fight, and while they were still sniping, Logan was half holding him up as they headed back toward the others.

"Can't you shut up for five minutes? You're bleeding all over," Logan grumbled as he shifted his arm to prop Scott up a bit more.

"I did notice that actually," Scott snipped back.

"You look like death warmed over," Logan said with a shake of his head before he looked to Kate, who was nearest. "Noh got any decent medical on that tin can?"

"Yeah, it should be pretty well stocked," Kate said, looking them both over and biting back the comments that she really, really wanted to make. "Had to keep a bunch of reckless kids all patched up when it was the official Young Avengers ship."

"Show me the way," Logan said finally, looking livid and refusing to look at Scott.

Kate nodded quickly and led both of the X-Men through Noh's ship to the pristine white-and-green medical area. She started to pull out medical supplies, since she knew where they were, and pointed out where the rest were to Logan. "You're gonna want to clean that before you stitch it," she said, pressing some antiseptic into Logan's hand.

"Yeah, I've done this a few times before," Logan growled back before he put one hand in the center of Scott's chest and pushed him back. "Got anything to numb it up?"

"Yeah, I've done this a few times too," Kate said simply as she started pulling out bandages with one hand as she looked through the drawers with another before she tossed Logan a bottle. "Here. It's some Kree thing I can't pronounce, but it works wonders."

"It's fine — I just need a quick patch before we get to the mansion," Scott tried to argue.

"You need to shut up before I smother you," Logan argued. "If you remembered half the trips back from you gettin' hurt you'd know I can whip stitches faster than Hank. So just try being quiet."

"Phew," Kate said, wrinkling her nose at an imaginary smell. "The testosterone fumes are thick in here."

"I'll smother you too, princess pain in my ass," Logan sniped.

She just smiled sweetly at him as she handed him the stitching needle. "And it won't make me any less right."

"Are you sure you can't stitch her mouth shut?" Scott grumbled.

"Sure. You hold 'er down," Logan replied as he worked quickly on Scott's side.

"Shame on you both threatening a sweet innocent princess," she shot back, waggling a finger at them with a grin.

Both of them snorted at that and Scott gave her a look. "Hey, try not making us laugh while he's in a position to jab me in the side? I'd rather not scar up more than what's strictly necessary."

"The ladies love a good scar," Kate countered with a smirk. "I'm sure Annie will think it's cute."

Scott's eyebrows rose high on his forehead for a moment. "You sure Kurt's going to be okay with you hitting on me like that?"

Kate laughed out loud. "Careful. He's the jealous type," she said, still grinning and chuckling.

Scott smirked her way and shook his head. "I'm not scared of Kurt. But you might want to curb that talk around Annie."

"Yes," she said, very seriously. "I'm scared of Annie."

"Alright," Logan said, sitting back and gathering up the assorted mess that he'd made. "Ten. Not bad, Slim. For your first mission in — how long?"

"Better part of a year," Scott admitted as he looked down to check over Logan's work.

"Yeah, don't touch it. We should wrap it up first," Logan advised, and Kate just wordlessly handed him a roll of bandages with a little smirk. "Got any pads or are you trying to give him an infection? I don't wrap like your usual patient."

She just smirked wider and pusheded a few pads his way with her other hand. "My usual patient is lucky I make him douse in alcohol first or he'd be dead. You've seen his place."

"I've smelled him. That's trouble waiting to grab a footing." He fiddled with the bandages, instructing Scott to straighten up a little as he started the wrap right.

Scott ignored Logan in favor of asking Kate, "Who's usually on the receiving end of your alcohol bath, then?"

"Hawkeye. The other one," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "He gets himself in more scrapes when he's not with the Avengers than when he is, honestly."

"That seems to be how it usually works. For everyone," Scott said pointedly. "Most stuff outside of your team will get you into trouble." Logan just glanced up at him for half a second and shook his head.

"Yeah, well, this one doesn't have the sense to know when to let someone else help him? So I do a lot of babysitting," Kate said, smirking.

"Says the girl that insists she's not on a team," Logan replied as he finished up the wrap.

Kate gestured at the X on her hip. "I am wearing the patch. What more do you want from me?"

He looked up at Scott, who just smirked wickedly. "Initiation ritual?" Logan asked, to which Scott just began to nod slowly.

"When we get back and Hank clears her for it," Scott agreed.

"What the heck kind of initiation needs Hank — no. I don't want to know. Just - no," Kate said, hands on her hips and shaking her head.

"Lookit, Scotty, we scared the little Hawk," Logan said as he helped Scott to his feet, who twisted a bit to see if his stitches were going to pull on him.

"Little Hawk?" Kate glared at him and stuck a finger out to point his way.

"You're right. My bad," Logan said. "Chicken Hawk." Scott snorted at that and just grinned at her.

"You—" Kate grabbed the nearest thing to her, which was a package of gauze, and started to hit him with it. "You are the worst!"

He chuckled her way and grabbed her hand to pin both arms to her side as he more or less gave her a bear hug from behind. "No violence around the patient, Dr. Pierce."

"You can't scare me," she shot back as she tried to worm her way out.

"And you're not getting loose until you calm down and play ... nice."

She twisted around for another moment until it was clear she wasn't getting anywhere and then just pouted for a moment. "Let me go."

"Say please," Scott suggested. "Basic manners, Kate."

"You are both so gonna get it later," Kate grumbled before she let out a sigh. "Let me go. Please. You stupid Wolverine."

"Okay, Chicken Hawk," he replied before he let her go and stepped back.

She immediately whirled to face him and stick her finger in his face. "What's it gonna take to get you to not call me that anymore, huh?"

Logan just grinned. "I think you might just be screwed," Scott said. "He knows you hate it. But maybe," he mused tipping his head to the side for a moment. "Maybe you could do the initiation."

"Fine!" She threw both hands in the air. "Fine. Fine — I'll wear the patch. I'll do the initiation. Are you both satisfied with your little frat boy selves?"

"Yes," they both replied at once.

She glared at both of them for a long moment before there was a little chime, and she looked over to see her little photographer bamf floating nearby and cackling gleefully as he looked at her phone. In a few steps, she snatched up the phone to see what he was doing — and let out a long groan when she saw that not only had the little imp been posting videos from the Skrull fight to her blog, he had also posted the video of the entirety of Logan and Scott's initiation threats and the bear hug.

Billy had already commented on it, too, with the phrase "Chicken Hawk" and a whole lot of laughing emojis, and Kate knew as soon as America added a comment promising to show it to Clint that she was never, ever going to get rid of that name.

Logan and Scott worked quickly on the stupid initiation — whatever it was they had planned. All Kate knew was that she wasn't allowed in the Danger Room when those two were anywhere around, and that they were working extra fast together, stopping their conversation when Logan heard her coming and just - waiting for her to appear around the corner before they would both just stare at her.

This time, she was convinced that they'd stolen her cell phone because she couldn't find it anywhere, and when she called it, it just didn't ring.

"Are you lost?" Scott asked when she had glared at them for an appropriate amount of time.

"Where is it?" she asked him.

"Where is what?" Scott asked, perfectly straight-faced.

"My phone. The device I use to communicate. I hope you at least know what one is, even if the dinosaur you're conspiring with doesn't." She had both hands on her hips as she glared at her tormentors.

Scott smirked and glanced Logan's way. "I thought you were on his speed dial or whatever," Scott said. "Which would prove that even a dinosaur can use one."

"And I'd like to use mine." She held out one hand. "Give it. I know you took it. And neither of you is prepared for the butt-kicking that will happen if my friends think I've gone missing or something and come busting in here and find out you're just being stupid."

"Yeah, we've never dealt with a buncha super powered kids," Logan said with a sarcastic drawl. "Whatever would we do?"

Scott smirked his way for a moment before he turned back to Kate."Really, we don't have it, Chicken Hawk."

"That," Kate said, pointing her finger at Scott, "is not my name."

"That," Logan said returning the point, "Is not what everyone on your blog is saying."

"Give me my phone, you lunatic!" She looked ready to tackle somebody.

"Honestly, we don't have it," Scott insisted, though the look of pure entertainment was obvious. "And I gotta warn you — if you hit Logan, you might just break your hand."

She crossed her arms over her chest and stomped her foot. "This is ridiculous. Just tell me where it went and just — just... gah!" She spun on her heel to face away from them. "I hate you both right now. So much," she informed them as she stalked away. "Forget you. I'll find it myself."

"Relax, Chicken Hawk," Logan called out. "See you in a couple hours."

She stomped off, deciding that it would just be easier if she found something less stressful to do until those idiots were done. Like legal paperwork for her business or something. She all but kicked open the door to her and Kurt's room and saw, in an instant, that her cell phone was sitting on top of all her papers. Which it had definitely not been about fifteen minutes ago.

"Stupid frat boys," Kate grumbled under her breath as she checked through the phone, but as far as she could tell, nothing had changed about it. At all. It was even on the same blog page she'd been reading before class.

She sighed and decided to call up America and vent as she headed downstairs to grab some coffee or maybe an ice cream bar or nine. But America didn't pick up — or Teddy. Or Billy. Which was probably the sign of the impending apocalypse, since she was pretty sure they weren't planning on doing anything but a movie night that night. Cassie, David, Noh, Clint — nobody would pick up, and Kate was starting to get frustrated.

She made her way down to the kitchen and grabbed two ice cream bars, some coffee, and a bag of popcorn before she went back to the bedroom so she could curl up with an actually good book from her company — she was going to have to reach out to this guy and see if he'd write anymore.

On her way out, she spotted a woman with purple hair who just smirked at her on her way into the kitchen as Kate was leaving. Kate had to pause, wrinkle her forehead, and just start to grumble to herself. Word was getting around, wasn't it? Great. She was halfway back to the room when she also spotted a pair of large, white wings and had to groan in frustration as she realized those two idiots were inviting more people.

"Well, fine," she muttered to herself. "More people to bask in my awesomeness."

As the day wore on, more and more unfamiliar voices echoed through the halls, and she distinctly heard a man with a deep voice conversing lazily in Russian with someone. But, about half an hour before Scott had told her to go down to the stupid Danger Room, all the voices and laughter faded off and it was once again silent in the halls, at least allowing her to concentrate on her book.

Until of course, there was a usually comforting bamf that announced Kurt's arrival. "You're not ready," he said with a broad grin.

She gestured down at her jeans and tee shirt with a little smirk and a raised eyebrow. "I'm not ready for what, exactly? Because the details have been sketchy at best."