Looking For A New Connection

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.

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Chapter 4- Sex as a Weapon

Night after night, and for the better part of a week now, Logan had spent that time driving up and down block after block in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan areas of New York City, doing so until the wee hours of each morning. The reason for his becoming engaged in such a prolonged endeavor was a desperate attempt on his part to locate the young mutant known only as X-23, whom had been purportedly spotted in the area by two of the Xavier Institute's former students.

And, whom Logan feared was now also in a desperate situation herself.

(Flashback- Earlier in the week, after a ringing phone at the Xavier Institute had just been answered moment's prior…)

"Yeah." Was the somewhat gruff greeting given to the party on the other end of the phone line, as Logan stood in a hallway near the mansion's front foyer area and spoke into the cordless phone's receiver.

"And a happy hello to you too." Was the obviously and intentionally sarcastic response immediately shot back by said party, who had called the Institute on this afternoon.

"You'd be a little less than chipper too, Rogue-darlin', if you'd spent ten-plus hours on a cramped plane, stuck next to a kid who couldn't keep still more than five seconds at a time. Annndd havin' to listen to his mother, who thought it was her duty to give us a runnin' commentary the entire flight on why she thought things didn't work out between her and the kid's old man, instead of her usin' that effort to tell her kid to quit runnin' up and down the damn aisle and sit the hell down!" Logan abrasively rattled off, and did so specifically for Rogue's benefit, having instantly recognized her distinct southern-twanged voice on the line with him, "Anyways, Jubilee just came and got me, said somethin' about you needin' to leave a message here for me?"

"Well, that's because Ah had actually thought you were still off over in Japan." Rogue replied, referring to Logan's recent trip out of the country.

"Just flew back in this mornin'." Logan confirmed for her, "And, you caught me at a good time too, 'cause I was just on my way out the door."

"You just got back, and you're already rushin' off again? Ah guess you really are tryin' to rack up those frequent-flyer miles, aren't you?" Rogue jokingly remarked to him, as Logan then heard another, also distinctive, voice talking in the background behind Rogue.

"Tell 'Half-Pint' I said Hi." Logan now told Rogue, as he had heard Kitty Pryde shouting out something to Rogue and her other roommates', presumably from up at the top of the staircase in their Manhattan townhouse not too far from the campus of ESU, "I'll probably be swingin' by your way later on this week, so I can catch up on things with all o' you."

"Actually, that's kinda why Ah was callin' you." Rogue replied, as she now got to the point of her phone call, "Last night, me, Kurt, and Wanda went out to a club up in the Bronx. When we came back out later, we saw a girl standin' out there that looked a lot like X-23."

As if hearing this news that X-23 had suddenly and unexpectedly turned back up after all of this time hadn't been startling enough for Logan, the fact that she had chosen New York City of all places to resurface had him extremely curious as to her reasons why? Especially, since he had gone to considerable lengths to secretly withhold the knowledge that X-23 had actually survived the destruction of HYDRA's mothership, all in an effort to keep the heat off of her from those after her.

"What do you mean, she was standin' out there?" Logan slowly articulated and further questioned Rogue.

"Exactly like Ah said. She was just standin' out there, on the corner down at the end of the block." Rogue clarified for him, as she switched her own cordless phone receiver from one hand over to the other side, "And the way she was dressed and actin', she kinda looked like a prostitute."

"I hate to say it darlin', but with some o' the outfits I see you girls' runnin' around in, they could accuse ol' Chuck here of runnin' some sorta underage cat-house. If, folks were just gonna go 'n judge offa appearances only, that is." Logan jestfully commented to Rogue, raising one of his eyebrows as he relayed his opinion to her through his own unabashedly frank way of stating things, which in turn led Rogue to reconsider her own statement and her next response a little.

"Uh-huh. Well, you also don't see none of us gals' standin' out on street corners 'til two in the morning, just waitin' there so's we can be picked up by our pimp's drivin' around in their loud-ass-green Caddy's either!" Rogue unapologetically huffed and further explained, now providing more evidence to Logan to support her own suspicions.

"Hmmph." Logan grumbled, as he stood in a contemplative stance with the phone receiver in one hand up by his ear, taking a brief moment to now earnestly process what it was that Rogue was telling him, before he gave her his next response.

"Alright, 'Stripes', I hear ya. I'll take a look into it then." Logan finally told Rogue, his tone now far more serious, as he then pushed the 'end' button on the cordless phone to disconnect the call.

Logan then continued standing there in the small anterior hallway, the phone still gently grasped in his hand and now sort of hanging there down by his side. On his face, Logan wore a pensive expression that relayed the anxious feelings now swirling about inside of him, at him having heard what Rogue suspected about X-23's current state of affairs.

And, at the thought that what she was saying just might be true?

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(Back in the present…)

As Logan made his way through this large cross-section of New York City, doing so in a navy-blue SUV procured from the Xavier Institute's garage back in Bayville, he had been busily combing the area and keeping his sharply-keen eyes peeled for any signs of X-23.

Over the past week, Logan had also kept his ear close to the ground for info that might aid him in his search. Logan had even gone so far as to ask around in these various neighborhoods' to find out if anyone had seen the girl in question. He had hoped to jog someone's memory by showing them a photo of X-23, which had been captured from the mansion's surveillance footage.

But, it was all to no avail.

And Logan was slowly coming to terms with the fact that in a city of this size, where a person who didn't want to be found could easily disappear for good, that his quest may ultimately wind up being in vain. So, it was to that end that Logan decided to take one last chance, before he completely threw in the towel and called it quits. He now found himself returning once again to the Bronx, and to the very same area where Rogue had said that she Kurt, and Wanda had originally seen X-23 a week ago on this night. Or, where they had seen a girl who looked an awful lot like X-23 at any rate. But after driving up and down a number of blocks in this neighborhood, for what now seemed like the one-hundredth time to him, Logan had still yet to turn up anything.

Then, he hit jackpot.

Down on the corner at the end of this particular street, which was just a couple of blocks over from the club where Rogue had reportedly seen X-23, Logan was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a girl whom he also thought fit her description. Pulling up slowly to the curb on this dimly-lit street in an inconspicuous fashion, which he hoped wouldn't draw her attention to him, Logan went and put the SUV in park before proceeding to step out of the vehicle. He then skulkingly made his way down the sidewalk, and in a few brief moments, he was mere feet away from this dainty and defenseless-appearing girl.

Logan knew all too well that looks could be deceiving, however, and that in X-23's case it was a visual farce that had been purposefully crafted to provide her with such an illusion. But as he got closer to her, Logan was now able to positively confirm for himself that this really was X-23, a conclusion that he reached both from recognizing her familiar scent, and by looking at her other physical features.

Features that, while still familiar to him, had also changed a lot since the last time he had seen her more than a year ago. Which, was only to be expected from a girl of her age, as she continued to grow and mature into womanhood. But, what really caught Logan's attention (and garnered a fair amount of dismay from him) was the fact that X-23 was wearing a tremendous amount of mascara, eye-shadow, lipstick, and makeup on her face, that she had her lengthy and stylized jet-black hair hanging down unrestrained right above her shoulders, and that she was standing there dressed in a tight and skimpy black tank-top, which had spaghetti straps across both shoulders, and had its bottom-hem cut up high enough that it completely revealed her mid-riff region.

X-23 also had on a tight black leather mini-skirt, which along with her aforementioned top, her well proportioned figure managed to fill out very easily. And, her somewhat indiscreet look was finished off by a pair of fencenet-web arm warmers on both of X-23's arms, a pair of black fishnet stockings, a pair of side-zip black knee-high stiletto boots, and a small black purse whose strap she had slung over her left shoulder.

But, in addition to these striking and telltale changes in her appearance, Logan now noticed that there was something else about her he hadn't been prepared to see.

In X-23's right hand she was currently holding a lit cigarette, which she was calmly puffing on as she stood there in the darkened area at the end of the sidewalk. It seemed from her position that X-23 was deliberately making sure to remain far enough off to the side, as to keep out of the scant light now shining down from a nearby lamppost.

"Since when'd you start huffin' on those things?" Logan now came out of the shadows to inquire of her.

Which would've probably startled your average person from the abrupt and sudden manner in which it had been delivered, but Logan's words wound up having no such effect on the person to whom his comment had been directed.

"Suppose it's justha nasty little habit must've picked up from somewhere?" X-23 coolly replied with a slight slur in her voice, as she had pulled the pencil-thin cigarette away from her face, the filtered end of it now heavily smudged all around in a deep shade of black-cherry lipstick, and then blew out a small waft of smoke up into the nighttime air, "But then again, seeing as it's probably all genetic, I guess I can't help but like them. And, it's not like these things're gonna kill me anyways."

And with her last remark exuding pure sarcasm, which was also tinged with a bit of truth in it, X-23 briefly turned to look at this man speaking to her, whom she had detected coming towards her from what seemed like a mile away. X-23 had partially intended her statement to also be a commentary in reference to Logan's own habitual love of a good cigar, which he usually to partook of on a daily basis, if not more often than that. And, it was thanks to Logan's indulgence that X-23 had always been able to pick up on his unmistakable scent in their previous encounters, which she observed was regularly co-mingled with a heavy residue left behind from second-hand cigar smoke on his person, and only served to more easily alert her to his presence through her own refined senses.

As he came up to her, X-23 gave Logan her own quick visual going-over, as she now took stock of the ensemble that he was wearing. An outfit, which consisted of his seemingly standard brown button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled part way up, a black t-shirt underneath it, and a pair of faded blue jeans with a pair of brown cowboy kicks. Logan also had on a tan-colored Stetson hat, which had a feathered Native American medallion in the front attached to a brown leather band going all around its brim.

"So 'X', you wanna tell me what it is you think you're doin' out here?" Logan now asked X-23, which was the name designation that she had gone by for as long as she could remember.

"Jus' waitin' for a ride." X-23 once again coldly replied, as she turned away from Logan and faced forward, placing her cigarette back in her mouth as she now cast her gaze out onto the mostly empty street in front of them, which wasn't much of a surprise at this early hour of the morning.

X-23's response only further served to confirm what Rogue had told Logan, as he knew that her excuse was perhaps one of the first and the oldest lines taught to those who were in, what was also perhaps, the world's oldest profession. And this realization made Logan feel just as guilty now, as ever, about his role in inspiring those scientists who had originally created X-23 and had given her life, a life which had seemingly been wracked with nothing but pain and misery ever since her inception.

In fact, after Logan's recent reunion with Colonel William Stryker and the rest of his Team-X colleagues' in Australia, where he had learned about their prior failure years' ago to prevent Donald Pierce from delivering the formula for the adamantium-bonding process to HYDRA in the first place, his guilt had only managed to increase that much more.

"You know, I'm not stupid. I know what it is you're really doin' out here." Logan calmly looked over to his right and said to X, as he was the one who now broke the brief silence that had walled-up between them with his matter-of-fact statement.

"Yeah. After your friends' saw me the other night, I figured sooner or later you'd be down here lookin' for me, jusso you could give me 'nother one of your lectures." X-23 replied in a cynical tone, as she continued standing there looking away from Logan and out onto the street.

"Well, the reason I came down here lookin' for you was because I thought we were friends too? I mean hell, you 'n me, we're probably all the family each of us've got." Logan replied, which wasn't quite the response she had been expecting from him, catching X-23 off-guard and causing her to pause once again before she responded.

"Told you beforecan't have any friennddsthor family for that matter." X-23 stumbled out to Logan, her voice now growing more embittered as she started slurring her words even more. And X-23's body mannerisms also became slightly more agitated and erratic in their movements, particularly with regards to the cigarette that she was now nervously fiddling with in between her fingers.

"You're dead-wrong on that, girl! We all need someone, folks to care about and who care about us." Logan said to X-23, as he made a move over towards her so that he could put a supportive arm around her. But, she wound up jerking her entire body away from him and his touch, before he got the opportunity.

"In that case, I must be fine. Because I meet all kinds of guys' every night, who justh can't wait to care about me." X-23 bitingly said to Logan, this time as she finally turned towards him directly and looked him in the face.

It was then that Logan got a good look at what Rogue and Kurt had seen the week before, with regards to what was being cast back at him. If Logan had thought X-23's outward appearance had undergone a profound change, then the look in her eyes now being reflected back at him was most definitely a radical departure from what he had seen from her before.

Gone from those dark-hued eyes was the fire and resentment that Logan had seen in them, back when he had first met X-23, only now to be replaced by an almost listless vacancy. And given her, at times, slurred speech and uncharacteristically low-key behavior tonight, and from what his own infallible senses had detected on her, Logan had a firm idea as to the reason why.

Logan was now positive, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that X-23 was high on something. Which was an accomplishment in and of itself, given the fact that to get a person high who was possessed with heightened immunity and an accelerated healing-factor, and to keep them that way for any significant amount of time, would take a substantial amount of drugs. In fact, Logan knew better than anyone that it would be an exceptionally and insanely vast quantity of narcotic substances needed to provide for such a long-lasting effect, and that in and of itself was indeed a frightening prospect even to him. For him to have to accept the undeniable fact that X-23 was now obviously strung-out on something, and that the drugs had probably been given to her by some john she had been with earlier in the evening, was something that Logan just couldn't get a handle on, just because of how much such a thought broke his heart.

"You're anything but fine, out here sellin' yourself like this!" Logan sternly told X-23, his tone rooted more in a disappointment in himself at not preventing her from coming to this point, than him actually being angry at her, "You got more value than that, darlin'."

"Yeah, I've got value all right. As a weapon. As a killer, whose services are auctioned off to the highest bidder." X-23 now told Logan, as she took a number of quick and deep drags from her cigarette to finish it off, before dropping it on the sidewalk's concrete and putting it out with the bottom of her boot, "When I hitched into town, I had no money and nowhere to go. Zebra Daddy took me in, and he took care of me. And with HYDRA, SHIELD, and whole buncha other agencies already lookin' to prostitute me for themselves, I had to keep a low-profile to make 'em think I really was dead. So, in the end, I guess joke's on them, huh?"

"Zebra Daddy? That the name o' the punk who's got you out here trickin' yourself like this?" Logan growled in a low-tone and austerely demanded to know from her, as he went to once again put his hand supportively up onto X-23's shoulder. Only, this time she didn't pull back away from him.

But, just as she was about to respond to Logan's fervent inquiry, like clockwork fate stepped in to give him an up close and personal answer instead. And judging by the twenty-inch chrome spinner-rims, the loudly flamboyant green paint job, and an even louder stereo-system blaring from inside of this clean and customized vintage Cadillac now pulling up to the curb in front of Logan and X-23, it appeared the ride that she had alluded to earlier had just arrived, albeit late as usual.

An individual then stepped out from the driver's side of this vehicle, which had license plates on it that read 'Big Z', and who was himself extremely curious about this guy now standing on the corner with the weird-looking hair cut. Especially, since Logan definitely didn't look like the high-priced, VIP client (read high-paying 'john' with an affinity for the masochistic), whom he had dropped his top-girl off to rendezvous with back at a local 'no-tell' hotel earlier in the evening, for their pre-set weekly date.

And, most especially since this guy who had his hands on her, also appeared to be standing there and verbally chastising her.

"The hell you think you are mamabicho, hasslin' one o' Daddy's girls' like that!" Zebra Daddy yelled, as he stepped out of the Cadillac dressed in a plum suit, which he wore with matching purple-toned shoes, a flashy and wide-brimmed plum fedora with a zebra-striped band around it, and a pair of medium-tinted shades, "You hear me, don't nobody put they hands on any of Daddy's bitches'! Unless, they payin' for it, that is."

As he was speaking to Logan very loudly, Zebra Daddy reached up to slowly pull a toothpick from out of his mouth, all the while maintaining a smug expression on his face as he simultaneously tossed a disapproving glance in Logan's direction.

"Look, 'Daddy', you and that zoot-suit hollerin' at me had better just climb back into that decked out ride o' yours, and keep it movin' along." Logan 'suggested' to him, and did so without the benefit of turning away from X-23 to face Zebra Daddy, "Before, things go 'n get ugly, and I wind up havin' to turn you into my bitch!"

"You the one who's gonna be ugly, when they find your corpse stinkin' up the place!" Zebra Daddy angrily shouted, as he responded to this challenge on his turf by instantly and instinctively reaching into the coat of his garish suit. He went for his piece and quickly drew out a grayish-black GLOCK-22 handgun from out of his concealed shoulder-holster, which he then aimed right at Logan.

But, just as instinctively, Logan reacted to this threat by going for his own weapon of choice. Not the razor-sharp claws housed in his forearms, rather, Logan used his lightning-fast reflexes to side-step Zebra Daddy and grab onto his arm, the one that he was holding the gun with. Before Zebra Daddy knew what had hit him, Logan had skillfully disarmed him, followed by him viciously snapping back and breaking Zebra Daddy's right arm, and then head-butting him with his own adamantium-laced skull all in one swooping motion.

Which, busted Zebra Daddy's nose wide-open and sent his blood splattering down onto the sidewalk and nearby curb, and knocked the self-styled pimp out cold.

"You didn't have to do that, I could've handled things myself." X-23 now said, as she took a few steps towards Logan and Zebra Daddy's unconscious, slumped-over form now sprawled out on the concrete before her, "I coulda done a whole lot worse than that to him, if I really wanted to.

"Of that, I got no doubts' at all, darlin'!" Logan said, as he smirkingly looked down at Zebra Daddy, and then over at X-23, "Even though knockin' out pushy pimps normally ain't on my daily to-do-list, this one's on the house."

"I don't know why you went and got involved in the first place? No one asked you to." X-23 now said, sighing as she folded her arms over in front of herself.

"Because, you ain't ever got to darlin'. Not when you're needin' my help." Logan told her, as he cocked his head to the side a little.

"Just leave, before you end up making things worse." X-23 replied, as she stood there facing away from Logan, closing her eyes as she took in another deep breath.

"Seems to me that things look as if they've gotten 'bout as bad as they can get for you." Logan pointed out to her, as he took a couple of steps over towards X-23.

"Like I said, I can take care of myself!" X-23 snapped at him in response, almost shouting at Logan in a somewhat defensive and unquestionably angry tone.

"And that's the problem right there. No kid your age should have to." Logan replied, his tone remaining steady and soothingly calm.

"Kid? How the hell can you stand there and keep callin' me that, after everything I've seen and been through! I haven't been a kid in a long time, if ever!" X-23 now yelled, as she suddenly became unglued and unloaded on Logan with an angry verbal tirade.

"I know what you've been through. Trust me, if anyone'd understand, it'd be me." Logan stood close by and reassuringly said to her.

"You don't know a damn thing about what it's like to be me! Just because we share some genes and an attraction to adamantium, doesn't mean our similarities automatically go past that." X-23 skeptically told Logan, as she continued with her abrasive diatribe.

"Well, I do know what it's like to wish you could just forget all the awful stuff you've done. All the things' other folks've forced you to do, and all the things' you did willingly. I know what it's like havin' to relive every job, every hit, every kill, whether they actually deserved it or not, over and over and over in yer head, and to see that look on their faces when they took their last breath, knowin' full-well all that blood is soaked in deep into your hands'. It's somethin' to have those memories do nothin' but keep you up nights' to no end." Logan told X-23, as he began to hit much too close to home for her with his statements, and hoped to show her just how much he 'got' and understood about her, "I also know what it's like to wake up in the mornin' and wish you hadn't. Wantin' nothin' more than a final way out, and realizin' we ain't allowed to get off that easy. I know what it's like to want nothin' but to dull that pain, that gnawin' guilt inside, and lookin' to find a way to numb it in whatever way you can."

Logan was of course referring to his own ways of dealing with what he had done in his past, after trying to leave his CIA and black-ops days' behind him. It was pain that he had tried to cope with by inflicting more of it onto himself in the form of nightly barroom brawls, followed by all-night drinking binges with prescription pills thrown into the mix.

And, Logan could see that X-23 had wound up trying to deal with the hurt she was carrying around inside in much the same fashion, although her weapons of choice had their own unique variations to them. Her release had come in the form of illicit drugs and cutting herself, the scars of which Logan could still see barely visible through the mesh material of the arm-warmers that X-23 had on. In addition, X-23 had taken to working the streets, both as a way to get by, but was also perhaps subconsciously letting herself be used and degraded in this manner as another means with which to hurt herself?

But, Logan knew that what X-23 needed more than anything was someone to come along and pull her back from the edge of that cold and dark abyss that was inside of herself, just as a young and unsuspecting newlywed couple had come along and done for him all the years' ago back up in the Canadian wilderness.

"See, you and me, we both know that killin' is the easy part. It's livin' with it that's tough." Logan continued, as X-23 had been standing there listening to him without uttering a word in response, "The only way you handle it is to face it head on, every day, one day at a time. And, by tryin' to find new purpose for your life by hopefully doin' some real good in the world, that'll at least try to balance out those scales."

Whether it was the fact that Logan was finally getting through to her, or if it was just the physical side-effects of X-23's mutant healing-factor slamming her down hard off of her drug-induced high as it purged those toxins from her system, X-23's emotional state quickly became very sullen. Depression swiftly set in, as those painful memories that she had been trying to bury now came back to her with a vengeance. And as Logan had intimidated moments ago, X-23 knew all too well that there was no truly forgetting what she had done, every brutal act, every horror visited upon those hundreds of various targets worldwide.

Even though she had been brainwashed and forced at the bequest of Madame Hydra to commit such appalling acts, X-23 had believed that things would've been different, that she would feel differently about herself, once she had concluded her vendetta against HYDRA by killing the Supreme HYDRA. But, X-23 was beyond disappointed when she realized that she still felt much the same about herself following Madame Hydra's death, as she had before. In fact, part of her still craved the excitement of the hunt, the thrill of the kill that came from pulling off those hit-job missions. And that made it all the more unbearable for X-23, to think of herself as not being an actual person, but as an animal that lived to prey off of those innocents around her.

That, she had in fact become a monster, just as her HYDRA masters' had hoped for.

Which was the reason behind why she had sought out such self-destructive behaviors. The irony being that X-23 had a body that was possessed of an ability to consistently heal itself, regardless of whatever injury inflicted upon it, but that neither it nor the drugs' could fix the part of her inside that needed mending the most.

"What's the matter?" Was the question now posed by Logan, when he saw X-23 suddenly break down and start crying. Like a fourteen year-old.

"I…I just wanna go home." X-23 looked down to the sidewalk and replied through her sobs.

'Going home' was a code-phrase from her training with HYDRA that was meant to signify that a mission had been completed, and that it was time for her extraction back to base. Which, was the only frame of reference X-23 really had to go by to say that she was ready to leave a particular situation, as she bottomed-out on this emotional ride of hers.

"Well, I've still got one for you, if you want it?" Logan now offered her, "Back at the Institute. That is, if you can stop hating me long enough to give it a shot."

"I don't hate you." X-23 replied in a soft and unequivocal tone, as she then looked up at Logan through her tear-stained and mascara-run eyes, "I thought about it for a long time after I crashed HYDRA's mothership and left you behind there. I'd been blaming you for what was wrong with my life before that, even though it wasn't really your fault. I'd figured out that it was actually Madame Hydra who was behind everything, so I thought that killing her would set things straight, but it didn't. I still didn't feel any different afterwards, and then I finally got it."

"Finally got what?" Logan curiously inquired, as he looked down at X, and she responded by turning her gaze away from him and back out onto the street in front of them.

"Who it was I really hated." X-23 replied to Logan, as she now slowly turned back to look up at him, "Me."

"Well, I don't hate you, and I don't see any reason why you should either." Logan now told her, as he put his arm up and draped it around her slightly shaking shoulders, "C'mon, let's just get outta here. We can figure out the rest later, you 'n me. Together."

X-23 now walked alongside Logan, as he led her back over to where he had his SUV parked by the curb a few yards away from them. X-23 then went around to the SUV's passenger side-door to get in, and did so without putting up any resistance or making any protests.

Perhaps, it was because she was now at a point in her life where she was actually ready to give Xavier's a chance. And even though she hadn't meant her statement, about going home, to be taken as a literal request, X-23 nonetheless was about to be taken to a new home and a new family, neither of which were anything that she had ever truly known before.

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Next Chapter: The Brotherhood…deconstructed!