Chapter 38: Chp 35

Chapter 35 - (Spoiler)

"What do you mean 'It's hero time' ?" Logan asks me, sipping his beer.

"We're going on that raid I talked about. The place is just above the Canada-North Dakota border." I make an Arnold-Palmer and take a sip. It's about the experience of drinking things, not the necessity.

"Ok, just me and you? How are we getting there? You can fly but I sure can't. And can you even fight? Beating Magneto to a surprise attack is impressive, even if he's an old man, but someone trained? I saw your moves on television and though you have some kind of talent, I've seen children who could beat you in a 1 on 1." It's true but there's no need to be so harsh about it.

"Yeah it's just me and you. You'll see when we get there, but it's more than just business for you, it's personal. As for transport, I was thinking I would princess carry you, but it's probably a better idea for me to borrow or rent out the X-wing. And for a superperson, sure my fighting abilities have some things to be desired, but I'm gathering experience, I'm being trained by one of the best. I have plans for my growth and I have a whole lot you haven't seen. But if you're really that worried, just know that you're all we need."

"I don't see how it would be personal if I don't know about it, but ok. The Professor will lend out the X-wing if I ask, but you'll still have to pay for repairs unless you join the school." Figures, you only listened to the first half of what I said.

"I'll coat the thing in Adamantium if he wants it. Let's go." I finish the rest of my burger and drink while Logan does the same, then he turns to the Professor who's still in his wheelchair, talking to Magneto.

"Hey Professor, me and Tyler are taking the X-wing for a quick mission, just call us if you need anything." Logan hollers. That's not fucking asking to use the X-wing, that's a statement. And don't say quick mission, you'll jinx it.

"That's fine. Fuel has been a little hard to get lately, so Tyler, if you could refuel it when you get back, it would be appreciated."

"Alright, follow me and we'll head out." Logan tells me, turning and walking into the mansion. I follow.

We head through the mansion and arrive in front of a spacious elevator. The inside of it was all brass and wood paneling. Logan hits the bottom most button and we head down. Then the elevator opens up to a metal hallway, a man and a women's changing rooms, all the way out into massive underground space. A massive jet black jet was parked on a dimly lit hanger. And it looked nothing like the Blackbird X-wing in the movies or the comics.

"She's a beauty, ain't she? Why don't you check her out while I get changed." Logan taps me on the shoulder and bolts into the men's changing room.

I walk up to the plane to get a closer look at it. Just from the outside, It has quite a big passenger and cargo area, not exactly what a bulky sci-fi aircraft would have, but still fairly large. And probably to make up for it, the plane has large gull wings pointing towards the ground, but they're pointing forwards a little, unlike the vast majority of planes. It also has an inverted Y tail tip. The twin jet engines on each wing seem different from the norm, but I'd have to check the designs if I wanted to know more. Everything on the plane has lots of curves, but there's so little seams for bolting or welding. Repairs must be super expensive on this thing. All in all, a very beautiful piece of art but impractical from a repair standpoint. I do appreciate that's not a box with rockets attached on it like most sci-fi aircraft. Though boxes with rockets are very aesthetically pleasing.

Sounds like Logan is done.

"Bub, what are you standing on the outside for? It's time to go." I...have no words. I just follow Logan into the very standard plane cockpit. Logan gets into the pilot's seat and I strap into the copilot's seat, not to help pilot it, since I know nothing about the controls of this plane. Autopilot can take care of most of it. I morph into my battlesuit and pop on my tech when Logan finishes his preparations.

"So do you have coordinates for the facility or what?" Logan asks. 

"Of course I do. Cortana, can you please transmit the coordinates to the plane navigation?" I answer Logan. The. Ask Cortana. She pops up on my contact hub.

"Yes Father. Can I hack the plane?" She asks.

"Is it necessary to transmit the coordinates?"

"No Father, I just wanted to know if I could."

"Then no you can not at the moment. If you want to talk to Dr.Xavier and get his permission, then that is fine. Please try not to impede upon friendly factions."

"I understand Father. The Professor just agreed to my request. He said he doesn't trust Logan's flying and that Father is responsible for all damages." The plane begins to hum and beep in some sort of startup sequence.

"Who's that that  showed up on my eye? And why is she so friendly but also menacing?" Logan asks me.

"She's Cortana, an A.I. She's young and learning, despite her appearance and voice."

"If the Professor said it was ok then that's fine. Just as long as she wasn't born yesterday and can fly a plane, then I'm good. I only fly in emergencies anyways." Funny thought…

"Makes sense."

"No argument there bub. I may be the bluntest tool in the shed, but this baseball bat will hit the ball out the park every time."

The hanger doors open out into a tunnel at a T-intersection. The plane drives out slowly and then picks up speed down one of the tunnel branches. As it speeds up. The tunnel goes up at an incline until we shoot out and fly above the Xavier mansion.

The ride was generally silent. It's nice, but I'm also very nervous. I may very well have to kill someone. It will become a necessity at some point. Logan's biological daughter, Laura, is being made into a weapon, a slave. And even if I'm perfectly okay with killing the worst of humankind, what about those that have the potential for better? Will I one day be okay with killing them too, just like Magneto? 

"Hey bub." Logan calls out to me.

"Yeah?"

"I...I know where we're going. I know about what's going, the cloning, my clone or daughter, everything." So it's like the comics huh.

"I was hoping you didn't. Want to talk about it?"

"I'm not a good person. I don't really remember everything, but I know that I'm not a good person. Even with everything I've done since joining the school, I'm just not cut out to be a father. I figured that at least there she has a mother that cares for her."

"Logan...have you ever seen a drug king's daughter? The father can do some of the worst things, but at the end of the day, they protect and care for their daughters or sometimes their sons too. You're not them Logan. You may think you act like an animal and slaughter people, but when has that ever been your fault? You just have a lot of guilt. That's ok, we can work through that, but you can't stop helping people. You're one of the strongest, bravest, and most capable people to walk this earth and you're more afraid of helping people than anything else. If you want to do better, then let's start at step one."

"Thanks bub. I still don't think I'll be a good father, but will you help me? It's kinda hard asking for help from a kid but you do seem to know a lot."

"I am in no way qualified to be a parent, but I can be there and give you advice if you really need it. I'm sure you'll be fine. Do you know of any other kids you might have?"

"Two. Both of them are in Japan. They should be fine though. I have them in strong families."

"Clans are not families Logan, they're companies. But we'll take this one step at a time. They seem to be living fine from what I could find out. But that can always change. Get unbuckled, we're almost there and I don't want to tip them off too early, so we're jumping." I unbuckled myself and headed to the back of the plane. Logan follows behind me and the small cargo door opens to the elements and snapping wind. 

Then. We jump. As we fall, an altitude gauge comes up on my retinae. 30,000 feet. 26,000 feet. 20,000 feet. 12,000 feet. 2,000 feet. I grab logan in a bear hug and use my thrusters to slow our fall. I prepare for a roll and even then, a small trail is carved into the earth. My knees creak a little. Logan gets up and pops a shoulder back into place.

"The landing could have been a little cleaner bub."

"The landing could have been worse and we would still be fine. Come on, let's move" The facility is an appropriate name for the place in the comics. It's kinda like a hospital, but also like a prison with barbed wire, guard towers, the works. 

"Ok Logan, what's your idea."

"Hard and fast like always, but we need to find out where everything is."

"How about hard and fast. But we can just smell and hear our way around. She's your daughter so she'll smell like you." 

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"I thought you would be the smart one, but ok. Follow me." Logan runs as low to the ground as he can while I do the same. The guards probably didn't see us, but the cameras definitely did. 

We smash the front door open and pass the welcoming desk to a set of double hospital doors. Behind them is hospital hallways and a security room to the side of it with 3 security people watching camera feeds. One pulls a handgun strapped to his side and fires on me. It bounces off and I make the distance and shatter his jaw with a zap, making him go down twitching. Logan pierces another with his claws. The remaining one hits a security alarm before my electric arc or Logan can get to him. The lights go red and emergency noises honk over the speakers.

Logan and I rush out back into the hallway and I start sniffing something similar to Logan's scent and follow it. As we head closer to the source of the smell, the hallways start having leaves gashes on the walls and floors. Like the one Logan leaves behind except they only have one or two steaks instead of three.

Weird that there's hardly any resistance from guards in here. Then I start smelling a very light smell of rotting flesh originating from one room. Inside were maybe 30 black body bags. 30 dead bodies. This must be where all the guards and people are at. The whole room was ice cold  with large blocks of dry ice throughout the room. It's almost like it was transferred into an emergency morgue. Probably why I didn't smell death from far away.

My guess is that X-23 is not here at the facility, but me and Logan continue on following her scent. We arrive at a circle hub with 7 doors and rooms behind them. Each one has a label above the door frame and each room is decorated like a regular girls' room. All the doors are hanging off their hinges. One of the rooms has X-23 above it, so I know she was here, but it seems like her and all these other designations escaped.

After taking a rummage around the bright but bland bedrooms, I found nothing of use besides a few strands of hair, so we headed back out into the hallway to look for more clues. One room was essentially just a big clear box with some liquid metal in it and a few tesla coils constantly zapping the metal. I dip my finger in the liquid and it feels like mercury. I absorb a bit of it and the metal reacts violently, moving around a lot and then I see an ill-defined face. It looks in pain until another zap hits the metal. So a metal human face. In a mutant lab facility. So this is probably a liquid metal mutant whose ability is stopped by electricity. This should be Cessily Kincaid. I know it's not a nice thing to say right now, but where are all the guys in my life. Anyways, I have work to do. I destroy the tesla coils and let the metal settle. It moves a bit but it's not taking the shape of a person. She probably just needs more time. But I need to transport her. I take the box, add a lid, some handles, and carry it like a suitcase.

Logan is off somewhere else, but I can hear him rummaging around through other rooms. The lack of people here is really eerie especially when the alarms are still going on. I start looking for people to hopefully gather information. Following the signs to the main offices, I arrive at the director's  office and the papers are in disarray, but there is one heartbeat coming from a closet.

It's a woman, I can hear her heavy, nervous, breathing and maybe the clacking of a firearm in shaky hands. I open the door and *BANG* a small bullet bounces off my chest. Behind the gun is a woman with short blond hair and a purple right and short cocktail dress. Secretary material.

"Hello Ms. Can you tell me where everyone's at and what happened?" I ask her.

"Who...who are you?" She stutters.

"That depends on who you are. If you deserve death, then I'm your killer, but I'd like to not kill you. I mean, I've never done it before, but I came here prepared for that possibility. Would you mind telling me who you are?"

"Ra...rachael. Rachael Sutter's. Please don't kill me. I... I'm just a secretary. I have a son."

"Secretary to the big boss man that used to sit out there? Where's he at?"

"Wife...He's dead. He was one of the first ones they killed."

"Ms. Sutter, please take a deep breath. Who killed him? Why? Tell me the story."

"The experiments...the girls. They escaped because of me and they killed all the scientists, everyone except for a few people, me, and X-23's handler, Kimura. We've been waiting for new people."

"Where are the girls?"

"I don't know. They ran away weeks ago. Their tracking chips were removed by one of the doctors that ran away with them."

"And where is Kimura, the handler?"

"She's somewhere in the facility. She's very hostile so I don't hang out around her." Hold on...I think I can hear Logan fighting someone, that must be Kimura.

"Come with me if you want to live." I grab Rachael's hand with my one free one and drag her out towards the fight. She trips a little with her heals before she reaches down and throws them away.

Out in the hallway is a white woman with long black hair in a black combat suit with smoke cans on her utility belt. Logan is fighting like an animal, not giving her time to do her punches or kicks, but she manages to block his attacks or dodge the ones using his claws….That is until he pulls her hair and throws her against the wall. Truly the hero we need. Logan puts his claws to her throat and once he takes a breather, he notices me.

"What's with all the baggage?" Logan asks me.

"The box has another mutant inside it. The other is a secretary and combined with the woman you have right there, they could be useful in the future. The experiments or girls broke out a few weeks ago and killed almost everyone."  I answer.

"Hey lady, where are the girls?" Logan asks the handler.

"How the hell should I know?" She spits some blood on his face.

"It's no use Logan, she won't be helpful. Their tracking chips were removed and they left weeks ago so we're not sniffing our way anywhere. They would have left with basically nothing and would need some sort of safe space. I think they would look for the X-Men or family, but without transport, they would be forced to hitchhike. Cortana can follow a trail through traffic cameras and such. Let's get out of here and get going."

"What about my son? I can't go with you." Rachael says, jerking her hand.

"Ms. Sutter. If more people haven't gotten here yet, then they're not coming. They're likely planning to erase you and everyone else involved in this facility. We can go pickup your son, that's fine, but we're still going. Even if I didn't care about a child dying, you won't be leaving. Do you understand? Good." I head to the exit of the building.

"Hey bub, this one is kinda squirmy. Do you mind binding her?" Logan asks while Kimura tries to backhead headbut him.

"Sure, but you're carrying her." I let go of things in both my hands and form metal bindings over her arms, shoulder blades, ankles, and knees. Then a metal pipe goes in between her ankles and wrists to keep her from bending. Then I grab my luggage once again and we go to exit the building. 

We turn the corners and see 9 people. 5 guardsmen and 4 lab coats. They must be the only other people in the facility. Logan pops out his claws and they take off running. They must be scared shitless of the girls that escaped. There's no use to attack them. 

We exit the facility and out on a long stretch of rand in front of the facility is the Blackbird, with it's cargo bay door already open. We get inside and the door closes. I sit Rachael down and strap her into a passenger seat. I check up Mercury. Her body's starting to become more defined, but she's still mostly a puddle and knocked out. Logan drops Kimura on her back on the ground unceremoniously and takes the pilot seat while she looks at both me and him menacingly. I ignore her and take my seat.

"Thank you Cortana for landing the plane even though I didn't ask. How long do you think it will take to pinpoint the girls' location?" I ask Cortana.

"You're welcome Father. It will take anywhere near a half hour to a full hour. But I have already identified the location of Ms. Sutton's home residence."

"Ok. Let me go do something real quick." I forgot to do something important. I get out of my seat and head out the plane.

"Bub, what are you doing?" Logan asks.

"Cleanup." I head back inside the facility.

Prioritizing necessary support structures, I plaster a pasty explosive compound all over the place. Beams, corners, and studs on the inside of the walls. I lathered it on like my mom lathered vaseline on me during the winter. I won't bother with taking any information or technology here. The only things as far as connections go in this building are the internal connections for the cameras and the electricity. The computers won't boot. The lab equipment that I could find was either basic or slashes to oblivion. Just better to destroy it all. I make a fast fuse and lead it out the building and over to the plane. 

I light the fuse and turn away from the resulting explosion. The heat, sound, and light is all that I feel. I hear a few pieces of debris falling back to Earth, but kool guys don't look at explosions. I get back into the planes and strap in.

"Let's go to the house. We can get the kid while you look for the girls." I say.

"I thought this was going to be a short raid. So far it hasn't been a raid or short." Logan complains.

You were the one who had to fucking jinx it Logan, not me.

=<=>=

Chapter 35 - (The Facility)

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