Ride
Written by Darkstorm5000
Disclaimer: X-Men Evolution, the X-Men, and other related characters in their various incarnations are the property of Marvel Entertainment Group and Film Roman Productions, are used without permission and not for profit.
xxx
Chapter 2- Get It On (Bang A Gong), pt II
A few moments later after getting directions from Karma as to the precise whereabouts of Viper's hideout, something that she had apparently managed to discover for them through the use those same mysterious 'ways' that she possessed, which was then followed by a very brief wardrobe change into their 'workclothes' that had been stashed nearby, Logan and Laura found themselves racing through the streets of Madripoor from one end of this island to the other on the back of their newly acquisitioned street-cruiser. All, in the hopes of catching up with their targets before they managed to make good on what would be a likely departure to parts unknown. But, given the alarming speed at which they were riding and this island's relatively diminutive size, they easily managed to reach their waterfront destination in a matter of only a few minutes.
Stepping off of the rear-half of the motorbike's seating where she had been seated with a firm hold around Logan from behind, Laura just stood there for a brief moment staring up at the faded and crumbling exterior of this dockside warehouse that had a giant sign at its top that read Sovereign Freight, designating it as part of Madripoor's own nationalized shipping and distribution company. Then, without a word being said, Laura removed the top jacket-half of the brown leather pants and jacket combo that she was wearing and tossed it back across the bike's seat right where she had been sitting, revealing a simple black tank-top that she had on underneath. It was an unspoken gesture on her part to signify that the need for covert actions and elaborate covers was at an end, and that the time had come for them to just hit this place hard and with everything that they had.
Which, Logan immediately recognized as it was a sentiment that he could certainly identify with. Having already dropped the bike's kickstand down, after killing the engine upon entering this dockyard and coasting the several yards up to the warehouse's front-door, Logan too got off of it and was himself very much in the mindset of carrying out the endgame to this mission. Which, was further evidenced by his having decided to change into his black and yellow-trimmed X-uniform after leaving the tournament, and by the serious scowl that he was currently wearing on his face.
With a double dose of claw-strikes, used in lieu of actual keys to carve their way through the large steel doors of the warehouse's main cargo entrance, Wolverine and X-23 kicked in the now detached centers of these huge sliding doors and let themselves inside. Which obviously didn't go unnoticed, with the alarms throughout the interior of this facility loudly going off in acknowledgement of this blatant security breach.
And just as was expected, Wolverine and X-23 were met by squads of a few dozen men each, Viper's own personal cadre she had dubbed her 'Snakemen'. All of whom were highly trained mercenaries-for-hire dressed in matching green and brown uniforms with coordinating snake-themed masks, and who were also heavily-armed and ready to defend their leader Madame Viper to the death, if need be. Which, given the nature of these two individuals who'd just let themselves in, was a prospect that had a very realistic possibility of being put to that ultimate test of loyalty.
But luckily for them, Wolverine and X-23 were after much bigger game this evening and paid them only passing attention, knowing that the most effective way to take down any animal is by removing its head and not by wasting time hacking away at its limbs. So, with Wolverine content to simply disarm and incapacitate a number of them with brutal and blunt efficiency, X-23 followed his lead and did much the same. Albeit in a more refined manner, with her own fluid, graceful and precision-timed strikes being utilized in stark contrast to Wolverine's more bulldozer-like fighting style, as they both dodged the blaster-crossfire that was now all around them.
Having succinctly cut a swath right through Viper's Snakemen, the pair then made their way over to and then up the steel staircase that these armed men had been so fervently defending. Up to where the woman now known as Viper was herself likely waiting for them. But on their way up to this appointed moment of reckoning on the warehouse's second floor, both Wolverine and X-23 paused on an intermediary mezzanine-level when their mutant hyper-senses picked up on an unusual scent. At least one unusual in the sense that they were detecting it in this place, and that it was in such an exceptionally high concentration that it would've been impossible for them to ignore. Following their senses over to a nearby locked steel-door, Wolverine and X-23 instinctively popped their claws and went to work on finding out if they were correct in their assumptions about what was behind it.
Or rather, whom was behind it.
Cutting through the lock and large securing bar on this heavy cargo door in almost no time flat, Wolverine and X-23 opened it to find that they had unfortunately been correct in their suspicions. That, huddled within this cramped holding area was a group of frightened young ladies made up from a diversified range of nationalities, with most appearing at first-glance to be in their late teens to early twenties. Although there was good reason for them to believe that more than a few in there were probably far younger than that. Particularly since there was only one likely reason that they were being held here, obviously against their will, at this temporary stopping point in their transit to any myriad of destinations around the world as part of the human trafficking and sex-slave trade epidemic that has plagued nearly every nation.
While Viper probably viewed these girls' no differently than she did the weapons, narcotics, and other illegal items that passed in and out of here on a daily basis for her clients, it was precisely because of that very realization that X-23 could stand it no longer. Especially, given her own past and how it related to what she now saw taking place here in Viper's new operation.
"She is so dead!!!" X-23 shouted, unable to hold back the surge of raw emotion now coursing through her as she took off up the final flight of stairs to the warehouse's second floor, exhibiting a level of anger that Wolverine hadn't seen from her in quite some time, but one that was all too familiar to him. It was the kind that individuals' like her and himself only felt when they were right on the verge of falling into a blinding berserker rage.
Rushing up those same stairs right behind her, Wolverine was able to reach the second floor just in time to see X-23 disappear as she rounded a far-off corner on the other side of this upper warehouse level. And, just as someone else had caught glimpse of him and his sudden appearance up here.
"Let her go. There are old debts between the two of us that must now be settled as well, gaijin."
With those words spoken, Wolverine looked up towards a small platform area located a few feet over and above him to see that this statement had come from Harada, who was now garbed in the fully-armored regalia that had earned him the title of The Silver Samurai!
"All's I see is that same, two-bit punk hood I first met all o' those years ago, and helped your sister to eventually put away!" Wolverine sarcastically replied to him.
"Your inconsequential opinion to the contrary, you will find that much has changed about me since then." The Silver Samurai stood and calmly asserted from his perched position.
"Yeah, I also see you went out and got yourself some fancy chrome-plated britches." Wolverine smirkingly bantered, referring to the fact that when they had last met Harada was going by the more abbreviated moniker of simply 'The Samurai'.
"No, much more has changed than that. Allow me to demonstrate!" The Silver Samurai proposed, as he made his offer with far more zeal this time, then drew his daikatana blade and leapt down off of this elevated area right at Wolverine.
While descending into this freefall, the Samurai's sword suddenly began to crackle and burn with pure energy, flaring to life mid-air in a most foreboding manner.
But, the only discernible reaction that it managed to elicit from its intended target was a quick Snikt! and a huge smile, as Wolverine was more than eager to extend to it, and to it's owner, a most warm welcome.
xxx
After making her way down this corridor to a chamber-like room that sat at its end, X-23 was finally greeted by the sight of Viper in there. Who, appeared to have been quietly passing the time in this her personal quarters on a comfortably-cushioned antique chaise longue, which fit in well with the overall decor of these conspicuously posh surroundings.
"I suppose that you were expecting to catch me in the midst of some sort of mad-scramble to make it to the airport, or to the next vessel departing from this island?" Viper posed to her new, yet familiar guest upon her entrance. All the while, continuing to calmly puff from a lengthy jade cigarette-holder as she relaxingly lay on this equally decadent lounger with her outstretched legs and frame positioned in a sideways manner across it.
"If you want to keep breathing, you would be!" X-23 replied in a tone that sternly relayed just how much she meant business, as she released the razor-sharp claws from their housings in her forearms out through her hands.
"But then, we wouldn't have this opportunity to chat with one another." Viper said and flashed the younger girl another serpentine smile, which served to only infuriate X-23 just that much more, "And, I believe you would agree that there are a few unresolved...matters between the two of us."
With that last pronouncement made, the entrance behind X-23 was suddenly slammed shut as a heavily reinforced door came down to sever the chamber's connection to the adjoining outer corridor, which was the sole means of leaving this now confined and heavily-reinforced space. Viper then temporarily shifted the verdant locks that usually covered one side of her face over in front of the other, revealing the hints of scarring that had been purposely left behind to serve as a reminder of her near-death experience aboard her HYDRA mothership when it blew up.
And most importantly, as a vivid visual rememberancer of the individual responsible for instigating such a catastrophic incident in the first place.
"I thought we had trained you better. Never retreat from a battle where you have a clear advantage, and never rush into a fight without having fully evaluated what intangibles a foe may be able to exploit against you. But most importantly, never leave a target behind without ensuring that they've been fully eliminated." Viper was lecturing as she stood up from her repose, now putting on for full display the skin-tight leather green outfit that she was wearing, "Especially, one who is so intimately versed in how that little one-track mind of yours works, that I could easily predict what your course of action this evening would be and prepare well in advance."
At that same moment, X-23 immediately noticed that something else was amiss in there, as all of her senses began going off like alarm-bells and she began sniffing the air all around her.
"Undoubtedly, your accursed mutant senses have by now alerted you to the toxic compound being released in here." Viper revealed, as X-23 turned an eye up to the several air vents in there. And although she couldn't see the clear gas as it seeped into the chamber, she nonetheless detected its presence.
"What, you brought me in here to watch you kill yourself?" X-23 now asked with a skeptical smirk.
"Quite the contrary. This gas is derived from a poisonous concoction to which I am wholly immune." Viper responded with her seemingly ever-present smile, a new characteristic that X-23 found to be an disturbingly far cry from this woman whom she once knew as Madame Hydra, "But you, my little pet, have just rushed in here to your death."
"How do you figure that?" X-23 once again incredulously asked of her.
"Despite what you may believe, you are far from indestructible. This gas was created with you and your impressive healing factor in mind, a complex cocktail synthesized in a concentrated level lethal enough to tax even those abilities well beyond their limits." Viper replied, as she knelt down to pick up a pair of swords, which had been manufactured from an inferior-grade vibranium alloy, off of the floor beside the lounger where she had been seated and then withdrew them from their sheaths, "But, allow me to assuage any doubts that you may have regarding the veracity of what I've said, with an up close and intimate demonstration right from its source!"
With that promulgation, X-23 was left virtually speechless by the next sight that she witnessed. As an aqueous substance of a light harlequin shade began secreting through Viper's fingertips, which had been left exposed through the cut-off ends of the gloves that she was wearing on her hands. This venomous liquid then trickled its way down unimpeded, quickly coating these blades firmly in Viper's grasp down by her sides.
And without any further discussion or warning, Viper struck at X-23 using these poison-covered swords with a speed, strength, and ferocity worthy of her own new namesake. It was a furious offensive that the girl who once took orders from this woman was able to successfully stave off, but just barely. As she strategically reassessed this situation, X-23 was grudgingly forced to admit to herself that she had underestimated Viper and the lengths that she would go to in her own quest for revenge. Which included, apparently, allowing herself to be physically experimented upon and augmented to gain these bizarre new physical enhancements.
Although, when Donald Pierce had miraculously appeared at her bedside one day with an offer to make her whole once again, to heal and rebuild her body anew just as he had done for himself after she had rescued him all of those years ago, it was one she had little choice but to entertain. Given that she no longer had the vast resources of HYDRA at her disposal, and that she and her most loyal men were in hiding following her expulsion from the terrorist group for the unforgivable crime of failure, it was an agreement that she readily accepted.
Even, if her 'rebirth' did knowingly come with a hefty price.
Meanwhile, as X-23 used her adamantium claws to fend off Viper's whirling flurry of sword slashes, she was now beginning to put more weight behind the villainess' earlier claim. The more time that she spent in this enclosed chamber, the more she felt nausea, troubled breathing, and a heavy dizziness creeping up on her that were all beginning to take its toll. Which, was a foreign concept for someone who had never known what it meant to be sick with anything like the flu or simple food-poisoning.
This environment, in which the average person by now would have long since been completely overcome by the deadly effects of these airborne toxins, was proving to be every bit the difference maker in this fight that its progenitor had predicted. As evidenced by X-23's delayed reflex-time, causing a noticeable sluggishness in her usually otherwise fluid movements that seemed to now infect her entire being and would cost her dearly as Viper's poison-coated blades at last found their mark.
Delivering a deadly blow, all the while managing to stay clear of X-23's own unrelenting claws, Viper struck deep and hard by simultaneously sinking one sword into the younger girl's left kidney, and the other deeply across her left arm. The result was an atypical retreat, as X-23 was forced to take a few steps away from Viper and temporarily pull back from this fight.
"With the viper's bite inflicted, you will soon begin to feel the full effects of my venom. The burning sting that you are currently feeling will soon turn to a cold numbness, as your healing factor struggles to simply keep the tissue surrounding your wounds alive." A heavily perspiring Viper said, as she used this brief pause as an opportunity to catch her breath and boast a little while licking her wounds, as it were, from the various minor to moderate lacerations that X-23's claws had managed to wreak all over her body during their savage altercation, "In case you were curious."
But, X-23 was already well aware of the venom's effect, as she felt her arm indeed starting to go numb. And it only added to her resolve to want to end this all the more quickly.
"And to think that I once had such high hopes for you, especially when one considers the tremendous amount of time and money wasted on you. Now you're just a failed, broken weapon. A nothing. Less than nothing, not even a real person." Viper was in the middle of spouting her latest conjecture, when she was vehemently disagreed with.
"SHUT UP! I am too a real person!" X-23 spat back in her own defense, doing so with an intensity of conviction that showed for her it was a belief that she clung to with every fiber of her own self-validation as a human being, while she continued standing there clutching around her injured left arm and left side with her right arm.
"Really, is that what you've actually managed to convince yourself? Clone." Viper now inquired with a skeptical grin and raised eyebrow of her own, accompanied by a laugh that was as much humoring as it was humorless.
And it was more than X-23 could bear any longer.
To have to hear these things from this woman, this same woman who had used these same self-doubts to manipulate X-23 into believing that her only value to anyone was in her use as a cold instrument of death, as a killer, now had the enraged teen seeing red at being forced to relive those painful memories. Through intermittently blurry vision, a combined result of the venom and its aerated equivalent's effect, and from the angry tears that she could no longer hold back, X-23 only wanted to strike back at Viper now in the worst possible way and hurt her tormentor just as she had been hurt.
"I HATE YOU!!" X-23 screamed, as she ran at Viper with two fistfuls of claws and a lifetime's worth of accumulated rage all aimed right at her.
Unfortunately though, acting out on pure emotion alone is usually not a wise strategy in combat, as it often breeds carelessness and almost always leads to clumsy, costly mistakes. A realization not lost on Viper, since she had been counting on this very prospect when she initiated this last exchange between the two of them, and would be only too happy to capitalize on any missteps on her opponent's part.
As her own cybernetically-enhanced neurosystem allowed her to anticipate and avoid X-23's claws as they flailed about her with definite purpose, to such a degree that they seemed to be coming at her from every direction, Viper was once again able to bide her time until the proper opportunity presented itself for her...
To Strike!
After drawing a precise angle and trajectory on her quarry, one of Viper's poison-drenched swords once again found its mark.
"Aiieee!"
Was the next sound heard as Viper rammed one of her virulent blades into X-23's abdomen, managing to thrust the sharp weapon upward deep into one of her lungs. Both women were by now physically tattered and bloodied, with X-23 having received the worst of this conflict. Hitting the floor hard, she slumped over into an almost lifeless heap after Viper yanked her sword out of her fallen foe.
Holding her sabre out and above X-23 in something of a victory pose, Viper now re-positioned it again. All in anticipation of delivering a final, possibly fatal blow through X-23's heart.
"Any last words, clone, before I grant you the ignominious death that you are most deserving of?" Viper asked, as she stood triumphantly over X-23 and prepared for her coup de grace.
"More like a question." X-23 struggled to reply while crouched on the floor on her hands and knees, coughing up blood in between sentences thanks to her grievous wound, as she stared down at the concrete floor beneath her, "What I want to know is with all of those new Bionic Woman upgrades that you've gotten, how many limbs do you grow back when I cut one off now?"
And before that rhetorical statement had even been finished Viper, for the first time since this violent contest had begun, found herself totally caught unawares. As the girl that she had helped turn into the world's premier child assassin tightly leapt up and over in a lightning-quick bodyflip, in the process using one of her toe-claws with surgical-precision to cleanly and completely slice off Viper's sword hand. This was followed up with two more quick claw strikes against Viper's knees, one of which had already undergone cybernetic repairs because of her previous injuries that had been caused thanks to X-23.
What occurred next was a high-pitched shriek that came from Viper, one borne as much of indescribable pain as it was pure seething anger. Anger, at having fallen for such an elementary subterfuge (with X-23 having obviously feigned the degree to which her injuries had incapacitated her in this fight, in order to lull her opponent into lowering her defenses), as it was at having lost yet another thing to this girl.
In the meantime X-23 had managed to stagger back up to her feet, and now had her claws unsheathed around both sides of Viper's neck. Who, since receiving this vicious amputation from X-23 had dropped down to her knees (at least what was left of them) and found herself in a role reversal, now left prostrate before this young girl and totally at her mercy. But even left with the undeniable reality of her current situation, Viper was determined that there would be no begging this time on her part for any level of benevolence, which she herself less than rarely had ever been the grantor of.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and do it! It is your sole reason for existing, after all." Viper now shouted at X-23, as she looked up and then leaned forward into the crux where X-23's claws crossed over one another at her throat, offering one final act of defiance in the face of certain death.
Although, her appointed deliverer now appeared not quite as sure regarding her role in deciding Viper's ultimate fate, as X-23 stood there with every fiber of her being screaming to just finish this with a quick double-flick of her wrists. But, there was no discernible movement at all from X-23, save for the trembling rage vellicating throughout her entire person.
As X-23 stood there and stared in enraged silence down into the chartreuse eyes of the woman responsible for so much that had gone wrong in her life, she unexpectedly began to think about the few things that had gone right since disassociating herself from HYDRA. About the fact that she had a real home now, had managed to make real friends like with her closest one being Angelica, and had found a real sense of purpose now in Bayville. The fact that she had made a new life for herself, a real life, and that she knew deep down in her heart that she never wanted to go back to being that 'thing' that Viper had just described her as, what the former Madame Hydra and her elite team of HYDRA scientists had originally tried to mold her into, the perfect killing machine.
Because for the first time in her brief life Laura actually liked herself, and this new person that she was trying to become.
While Laura was contemplating these introspective musings, however, Viper was about to turn this moment of hesitation to her advantage. Even though Laura had cut off her right hand, she hadn't actually cut off the right hand, as Viper nonchalantly fumbled with an odd-looking ring on her left hand while simultaneously resting her severed right wrist above it.
The ring itself was actually a device created by the cutting edge techno-terrorist group known internationally as A.I.M., in an attempt to develop a mobile matter transporter with unimaginable military and non-military applications. But after several years of hard work and tremendous financial resources had been poured into this project, the only progress that had been made on this front was an instantaneous teleportation device that could move at most 1-2 people at a time, which was a far cry from the mass of armies that A.I.M.'s head scientists had originally envisioned being whisked away at a moments notice to any point on the globe.
But where A.I.M. had seen a massive failure that was eventually shelved indefinitely, Viper saw something that might come in handy one day when she came across this item during a raid on one of A.I.M.'s research facilities. A day that had finally come, as Viper managed to reposition the ring around her left middle finger with a single thumb and flip its small side lever to activate it. And with a flash of light that enveloped her entire body, Laura watched helplessly as Viper quickly faded from sight right before her very eyes.
Leaving behind the hollow echo of her laughter as a final parting shot, a stinging reminder for Laura of how Viper had once again managed to escape her wrath. A realization that only further angered the already infuriated Laura to no end.
"No!!!" Laura screamed, as she reached out in a desperate attempt to grab Viper and prevent her from making her departure, but only pulled back empty air as Viper's molecules were dispersed to the winds and she danced away.
While Logan and Laura's official/unofficial reason for being here was as a favor to Nick Fury, to help him disrupt Viper's operations before she could rebuild her powerbase into the significant threat it had been under HYDRA, all involved knew it was really about something far more personal between these two women who had torn each other part in this chamber. And given the inconclusive manner in which it had ended, it should have been no surprise why Laura reacted next in the way that she did.
After reaching the exterior door of the chamber, which was still sealed shut, Logan quickly searched for and found a secret control panel connected to it. Once he was able to figure out how to deactivate the room's various switch-locks, including the one feeding highly toxic gas into it, the huge door opened to reveal a scene to him that looked like a small-scale warzone inside. And while Logan looked to be in pretty rough shape himself, with his X-uniform thoroughly shredded in a few small areas where a tachyon-reinforced samurai sword had found its mark, the person that he now saw before him appeared to definitely be having a far worse time of it.
"Raahhrr!!"
Was one of a litany of snarls and otherwise incomprehensible grunts that met Logan, as he watched Laura now going to town in here with her claws after setting herself to the task of destroying all of Viper's personal and very expensive belongings. But, what had Logan really concerned certainly went beyond just the wanton destruction of all of this private property.
It was the look that he saw in Laura's eyes.
The very same look that he saw every time he looked into a mirror, coming from that animal within staring right back at him in the reflection. And recognizing that Laura was now caught up in the throes of a full-on berserker rage, having given herself over completely to the primal fury that they constantly struggled to keep in check, Logan was now worried that she might have been finally pushed past the point of no return.
"Laura...darlin', you gotta let it go." Logan said, as he stepped into the room, knowing full-well what had caused this after the Silver Samurai had also suddenly disappeared in the middle of their fight outside.
But his remark drew absolutely no response from Laura, who continued with her own personal swath of destruction through the long chair that Viper had been sitting on. And when finished with that, she moved on to the hand-carved dresser in this boudoir, still without any acknowledgement to Logan's presence in there.
Seeing that his gentle approach was having no effect at all, Logan decided to talk to Laura in a language that he knew they both spoke.
"Dammit Laura, I know you can hear me! So you better just snap the hell out of it!!" Logan scoldingly shouted at Laura, and this time did manage to finally get her attention.
Stopping immediately halfway into working her way through Viper's spacious wardrobe closet, Laura stood there silently staring deep into the armoire for a moment before turning back around to face Logan.
"I failed. She got away. Again." Laura sighed and then told Logan in a defeated tone as tears rolled down her face, continuing from a stream that had begun before Viper's escape and that had yet to fully cease.
"So, you thought a little on the spot redecoratin' was in order here because of it?" Logan smirkingly remarked as he surveyed the debris around the two of them, trying his best to lighten and raise the spirits of this dejected young lady before him, if only just a little, but to no avail.
"No, you don't underdstand." Laura said, as her sniffling began bordering on full-blown crying, "That's twice I've failed. And I never fail. I'm not programmed to fail!"
Logan recognized immediately what was happening with Laura, who now had the look of a person on the verge of a nervous breakdown. That whenever she found herself confronted with an emotionally stressful situation that she was unable to cope with, Laura instinctively reverted back to the indoctrinated mindset that had been burned into her psychological makeup from birth by HYDRA. Which, as an outlook on her purpose in life, had never made allowances for her to entertain any concepts regarding the possibility of failure, not even to the slightest degree.
"Look, we been over all of this before. You're not programmed to do anything, not anymore. You get to make choices, just the same as everyone else." Logan said, as he attempted to talk Laura back down from the emotional precipice that she was currently standing at the edge of, "And we didn't fail anything. We did exactly what we came to do, and put Viper's operation out of business."
"But, she still got away..." Laura reminded him and once again chided herself, having by now calmed down considerably from where she was just a few brief moments ago, but still wasn't totally sold on Logan's explanation just yet.
"We'll get her. She and Harada'll both turn back up soon enough." Logan replied, while visually surveying the rest of the room, "Besides, I see you went and got yourself a souvenir to remember her by in the meantime."
Logan then pointed over across the room, to where a severed limb was still conspicuously laying on the floor. Which did, at last, bring the faintest of smiles to Laura's face.
"C'mon kid, we better get goin'." Logan now said, as he started over towards the door and gestured for Laura to join him.
"Where are we going to next?" Laura asked, as she walked alongside Logan step for step, although she was beginning to show the after-effects of her injuries in her slightly hampered strides.
With the adrenaline-rush of combat rapidly fading from her system, it was apparent that Laura was definitely starting to feel the cost of her battle with Viper. One that she would be paying for for a while, even with the recuperative assistance of her mutant healing factor.
"First, we go get the girls' downstairs and get them over to Rose's. She'll know how to get them all outta Madripoor and safely back to their homes." Logan answered, as he was instinctively about to pull out one of his cigars, but then decided it was probably best to save it for later, "Then we should probably get scarce ourselves. Every criminal and low-life thug in this country'll be gunnin' for us once word gets out about what happened here."
"That'd be fine by me. I'm not afraid of them." Laura stoically said, as the pair were nearing the staircase to the lower levels.
"Yeah, I know." Logan chuckled, partially because he knew that she was being one hundred percent honest and serious. But, mostly because he knew that he in all likelihood would've probably been sticking around here to do just that and take on all comers, if he had come here to Madripoor by himself.
But as they continued on towards the staircase, it was Logan who now found that he had a question for Laura.
"Say, you ever been to Japan?" Logan looked over and asked her, having this entire time been mulling over in his mind the fact that an old friend of his there would very interested to know exactly what her brother's been up to here.
"Are you kidding? You do know where HYDRA started, don't you?" Laura stopped and turned towards Logan, folding her arms over in front of her before responding.
Her retort, which began with what was becoming a trademark indignant huff and dripped in a tone so tinged with sarcasm, that any worries Logan may have had about how Laura was going to handle this latest disappointment in a life already overflowing in its share of them, were quickly alleviated upon her already starting to show this hint of getting back to her usual-self.
Of the girl who already made such tremendous leaps and bounds in her quest to find and reclaim her humanity.
xxx
Next chapter: Wherever I roam...
