Weapon neXt
IronRaven, with editing/betareading by Baby Beaver
WARNING: Violence and naughty words
There comes in a time, in the course of human events...
-neXt-
The customs officer lowered the passport he was looking at. "Purpose of visit, Mr Logan?"
"Crew rest, and it's just Logan."
The officer raised his eyebrow. It wasn't the normal, meaningless answer. "Business, then. Just for a few days?"
"At the most." Logan opened the small satchel he was carrying. Change of clothes. Toiletry kit that met regulations anywhere in the world, with some personal meds. Laptop. Nothing out of the ordinary for a pilot. "Nothing to declare, no fruits or vegetables."
"So I see. Thank you." The officer liked professional travelers who didn't try to bring in anything on the forbidden list, it made his job much easier. Clang! The stamp came down on Logan's passport. "Velkominn til Íslands."
They processed through, one by one. They each carried a part of Kurt's medical kit as personal medical items. Kitty explained some of her computer equipment as she was their telemetry specialist. Remy's staff was hidden as parts of a camera tripod, while Rogue carried the camera. There had been a tight moment on Alex's passport, but Remy's special charm worked in Iceland, too.
Even at almost eleven pm local time, they were able to find several rental car kiosks open, including most of the American chains. They quickly procured a van, and armed with recommendations for hotels from a helpful clerk, they were quickly on their way towards Reykjavik, about 30 miles away.
Despite the lateness of the hour, they found one that still had a suite. The clerk had offered them the bridal suite, free upgrade. He might have been joking. Logan looked over his shoulder at the others, then at the clerk. Logan wasn't joking- they took a business suite. They changed into dark clothing and Kurt bamfed them to the van. They went towards the old harbour.
-neXt-
"Laura, you sure dis is da address?" Remy looked out the window as they drove past, not slowing. "Has been a few years."
From where she crouched between Logan and Rogue, Laura raised her eyebrow- she had been made for espionage, sabotage and assassination. "Eidactic memory."
"They do all look the same." Kitty sounded a little dubious. They'd done training sessions like this, mostly hostage rescues and to sabotage super weapons. They'd had a lot of those since the others had gone to Kansas, using Magus' encyclopedic knowledge of how physics could be corrupted.
"That is the warehouse where I met the man called Skoldson. Five-foot-eleven, medium build, light brown hair in a conservative businessman's style, blue eyes with contacts, right handed, no wedding ring or signs one had been removed. Average suit, nylon, blue, English made but not tailored, with a white cotton shirt, German cut, no tie. Italian shoes. He had been in the presence of a brown, long furred dog that was familiar to him, but there was the scent of two dogs on him. Rolex, steel, brown face, self winding on the right wrist, but he was right handed based on the callouses- body language suggested left eye dominance. He was too comfortable for it to be a neutral meeting place- he owned it or spent a lot of time there, it was his space. He threw away a water bottle without looking for the basket, and knew which drawers a functional pen would be in. It is the only HYDRA cell that I know of that I can not confirm was destroyed."
Remy laughed, a little nervous. "Remy is convinced, petite."
Logan found a parking place about a hundred yards away in the lot of a cheap apartment building, lacking cameras or a fence. "OK. Gambit, you've got point. Kitty I want you right behind him. Me, Elf, Stripes. Alex, head up, eyes open- I want you looking for surveillance. Laura, tail guard and make sure Slim here doesn't trip over his shoe laces."
Alex looked down at his boots to be sure. They were tied. Laura rolled her eyes as a few others chuckled.
They had their comms, but they'd only use them in an emergency. Rogue, Kitty and Alex were wearing the heads up visors, Laura had her old night vision goggles on her forehead. Remy was a wraith, silent to the point that Kitty phased herself out so that she wouldn't make any noise. Kurt moved smoothly, his gait almost slow looking but he made sure there was nothing under foot before moving his weight to his long, strong toes and swinging his other foot forward. Rogue did her best to match that, while Logan and Laura moved with the practiced ease of hunters despite their heavy boots, nostrils flared, eyes open.
The smells of diesel fuel, the tide and dead fish chased eachother down the streets and the alleys, where they mixed with cheap restaurant leavings and coffee grounds. In the distance, they could hear the noise of a bar, but it was closer to the water. Despite the coolness, it reminded Alex of parts of home, the working parts of the water. He heard the grit under his shoes, the only thing louder was his heartbeat- he was pretty sure they could hear him a mile away.
But it wasn't as loud as the sound of hinge rusted almost solid squealing open. He froze for a second, just a second, but a lot can happen in a second.
"GUN!" Laura grabbed Alex by his jacket, tripping him. She pushed him down and threw herself on top of him. She grunted as she felt rounds impact her armour- they were hotter than what the vest was made for, but she wasn't too worried. The first thickness of armour and her body slowed the bullets enough to keep them from leaving her. She could taste the blood on her breath as her body closed the injuries. The slugs would work themselves out within a day. They would itch maddeningly- she'd probably cut them out before it got too bad.
At Laura's shout, Rogue grabbed for Kurt, and Logan for both of them. Kitty's hand found Remy's arm, and took them both out of this plane for a moment.
"Stay!" Laura pushed him down, hard, and jumped off him. Alex didn't know what had happened completely. He'd seen weapons, but he didn't know Laura had been hit.
Shooters, fourteen, armed with suppressed weapons of various makes. She made a spinning kick, splitting one from the right shoulder to the left hip. She grabbed the weapon of another, pulling hard, but it's holder didn't want to let go- that was fine, she jabbed the butt into his throat with a soft, wet crack. Then a second time, completely crushing his throat, but he let go. Muscle memory guided her thumb to the fire selector, setting it to single shot. Holding it in her left hand, she snapped off two shots like it was an over sized pistol, the stock against her forearm.
Eleven..
This is where the long hours of training paid off. The hours of sweating, grunting, hurting, the sprains and cuts and bruises. They knew each other's moves, their strengths and weaknesses.
Kurt bamfed and grabbed two out of the fight. They suddenly found themselves over the harbor. two hundred yards above the harbour. Kurt was gone before they were really aware of the gravity of their situation.
Nine.
Logan turned, seeing a weapon pointed at Kitty. His claws severed the receiver of the compact Spanish submachinegun. And the hand holding it, gone at the wrist. Follow through took it the blades into the attacker's thigh, through the femur. There was a shriek, arterial blood spraying a bright crimson. A hammer fist to the side of the head with a pound of adamantium in it silenced the screams quickly.
Eight.
Four glowing cards slapped the two closest green clad attackers, returning to normal reality a fraction of a second after they left Remy's hand. They detonated on contact, but Remy wasn't even watching. He was already jumping and reaching for the fire escape above them, then pulled Kitty up. His arm swung, and she let go.
Six.
An elbow locked at Rogue's twist, then bent backwards over her knee. He let go of the gun, but his left hand was reaching for a knife. She let him fall, kicked him in the face, nose and cheekbones breaking.
Five.
Kitty was slipping in and out of being. She stepped through one of the gunmen, becoming solid behind him, and throwing him while phasing out. It hadn't been planned like that, she didn't want to be solid any longer than she had to be. She let go of him as Kurt bamfed next to her, ready to jump them both in to attack or retreat.
Four.
Laura fired one round into the throat of one at less than an inch, then the weapon jammed. Her right hand slashed, opening the side of his head.
Three.
Rogue grabbed one in both hands from behind another. He grunted, trying pull free. A heavy brogue slipped from under his mask. "Nay, fae witch!," placing his gun under his chin. Rogue barely had time to let go before they HYDRA foot soldier deleted himself.
Two.
As he fell, his hand clutched tightly, clenching. The shuffs became louder as the continuous firing gutted the cheap suppressor. Kitty grabbed Logan's shoulder, taking all three of them out of phase as the first round passed through where Logan wasn't. Kurt had them out of the way before the next several rounds passed through. Logan could have handled being shot if he hadn't been phased and ported clear, but he wouldn't have liked it. The HYDRA agent that had been behind him didn't like it very much either, and he couldn't take being shot.
One.
Remy's staff connected, the hollow titanium shaft ringing softly as it found the skull of the last one standing. The other end swung around, connecting with the chin on the reverse. A third strike, a spear thrust, landed over the heart, stunning it.
Clear.
The one Rogue had kicked was getting up again. A pair of energy beams slammed him into a wall. Through a wall.
Forty-seven seconds. If there had been any questions before, the training had paid off.
Logan checked his team quickly- few scrapes, a couple tiny cuts. Rogue had a lock of hair that was quite a bit shorter than those around it. Laura was covered in blood, but she was up and moving; she checked the magazine of a carbine whose model he didn't recognize, then worked the action with practiced easy.
Kitty was physically ok, but she was staring at the guy she'd left in the pavement. One arm and the head were still inside the street, along with the weapon. The other hand, the fingers were bloody and torn, the knees no better as he tried to pull himself free.
"Kurt," Nightcrawler looked up at Wolverine, his face showing uncertainty as his hands hovered hopelessly over his girlfriend's shoulders, "med check on us, then them. Alex, secure them and keep a look out. Rogue, take Remy and Laura and check the building after Kurt looks at you."
Logan was looking at rooftops and listening for sirens, helicopter blades as the others told Kurt they were fine.
-neXt-
The goggles were an old and familiar tool, the left eye showing Laura a green world that magnified the available light, the right showing a thermal image in red, the two images mixing in her mind. She had the compact German carbine she'd taken from the HYDRA agent tucked in tight to her left shoulder- she was right handed, she preferred her claws, but the gun had range and even if she hadn't shot in over a year, she had been as good with her off hand at these kinds of ranges.
She didn't wait for her teammates as she charged the stairs, her right hand low in front of her looking for tripwires. Her feet thudded heavily on the well worn wood, not slowing she approached the door. The window was made of tempered glass without reinforcing wires. Two rounds broke the surface tension of the glass, then she went through the small opening, clearing it.
The office was empty. Not just of humans, but empty. No desk. No filing cabinets. There was a gap in the wall where a print of an impressionistic tree had hung to hide a wall safe.
There was only one thing, small, glittering on the floor. It was in the exact center of the floor, it had been left there intentionally. Laura slid her goggles up, then lifted it with her claw. She snarled at the sculpted brass medallion in the shape of the HYDRA symbol, tears of rage on her cheeks. "No... I destroyed you. You can't come back. You can't have me! You can't have them!"
-neXt-
There was nothing out there; Logan was still watching as tried to put his hand on her shoulder, to comfort her, only to find out why Kurt's hand hadn't been on her. Logan felt his fingers sink into her, like she was made of warm Jello. He could feel her body throb around his hand- she wasn't in phase with the normal world, nor completely out of it. He pulled his hand back, afraid he could hurt her. He'd never seen her like that, he didn't think any of them had. "Kitty, you are the only one who can get him out of there."
She was fixated on what even Logan would concede was one of the more macabre things in his memory. The HYDRA assassin struggled for several moments more- the body had almost succeeded in pulling it's own head off, deep lacerations on the neck from the edge of the tarmac. Then he stopped and the flailing arm went limp, but he was still on his knees
"Is he.. did I?" Kitty was breathing hard. She hadn't meant to do that.
"Yeah Kitty, he's dead." Logan had seen enough bodies to know for sure. Kitty's mouth opened, trying to form words for a moment before she was noisily sick. He'd seen young soldiers after their first battle before, even if he didn't know their names or even what battles those had been.
"Oh, Mr. Logan, I'm so sorry." Kitty looked down at his boots.
"It was your first time. At least you're solid now, Halfpint." And he was surprised. All the fights, and no one had ever been permanently hurt or killed anyone. Statistically it should have happened a long time ago, they weren't using foam balls out here. That was something he'd been so careful about- as her father, Charles had said that Logan could take Laura off any team sent on a mission, so he'd oked her for one mission in the past year and it was a simple bug planting with himself, Ororo and Kitty at the Friends of Humanity offices in Brooklyn and Albany.
"Logan, there is very little that I can do for them. The ones that are alive vont' die anytime soon." Kurt wrapped his arm around his girlfriend as he reported to their mentor.
After a few moments, the other three poured out of the building. Laura looked like she'd taken a swallow off a water bottle, only to discover it was filled with strong vinegar. The other two had come out behind her.
Logan knew Rogue's body language- she was disturbed by something. "There was nothing there, no files, no computers, no one. They are storing metal stock, boat parts and mechanical fluids, like Laura remembered, but someone cleaned out the office completely. They took anything bigger than a light switch."
"But they left this." Laura held up the medallion. "We were supposed to find it. It was a trap."
"Crap." A fast check showed that they were all mobile. "Laura, ditch the damn gun- it's got your prints all over it. Remy, can you get rid of it?" Logan slung the most talkative looking of the surviving HYDRA member across his shoulders. He was also the oldest looking one- the two highest ranking ones had both tasted claws "We need to get out of here. Kurt, get the van."
With a glower, Laura cleared the weapon, handing it and the magazine to Gambit. He charged them both as he jogged to the door, tossing them both in, the magazine up to the office, the carbine among the oil drums.
Remy jumped in through the side door of the van, Kurt putting it back in motion before the door had even slammed shut. As they left, the charged metal finally left Remy's control. In moments, it was on fire.
-neXt-
Laura stepped on the balcony, her hair wet. She closed her eyes, obviously biting back anger, when she realized Alex was out there already.
"Logan told me to go out here and watch." Havok didn't bother to to turn around. He could recognize Laura's foot step in her boots or bare feet, on wood, concrete or carpet. It wasn't any special power, it was because he'd spent six months learning her every movement. He loved her, that was the whole reason he was doing this. Scott and Jean had both pointed out to him that he was only 16. He'd asked them when they realized they'd loved each other, and then how long it had taken them admit to each other- maybe they would have been happier if they'd not wasted time. He clenched his hands on the railing, but his voice was soft and gentle. "Thank you: I saw your jacket."
"That is why I wanted you to stay home." She stood next to him, but didn't look at him. "You could have been killed."
"Yep. And if I had, then what?" He looked over at her- she hadn't brushed her hair yet, the brush was in the backpocket of her utilities. "Rogue would have probably been stabbed in the back. You are mad at more than just me."
She stiffened. "I didn't know you were a telepath."
"Your jaw is clenched and you are walking stiff legged so you can't let out your foot claws. Logan?" He reached down, taking the brush from her pocket.
"He killed, to." She pulled her head away from the brush. "It isn't fair, we were protecting all of you, there were too many to slow down." She looked at him over her shoulder.
"I know. I dont know if I killed that guy, I"m not going to ask. I don't want to know." He tried again, the third time she let him start to brush her hair. "Don't fuss- we both know if it dries like this, it get knots." He ran the bristles with short strokes starting at the tip, holding her mane over his arm as he gradually lengthened the strokes. "Logan doesn't like that you killed those guys. But was he really mad at you, or at the situation? Don't think about what he said, think about how he said it- you both have the same problem. You get mad a situation, and get nasty with someone who was in it, even if it wasn't their fault." He tugged at one of the snarls in her hair. "He was mad that you had to kill. And mad that he walked right into that ambush. He's thinking he almost got five of us killed, and you possibly recaptured."
"But it isn't fair. I'm not going to be hurt by this- Kitty's the one who is in pain." She felt the plastic tips touch her scalp. "And I can brush my own hair."
"I'm your boyfriend- I can do this, particularly after you save my life." He slid her hair aside, kissing the nape of her neck lightly, before going back to brushing. "Kitty is scared, she just killed someone, and that has to be the most gruesome thing I've ever seen in person. She got to have a normal childhood, most kids don't think about it that much."
"Hmm... but so did you." She was relaxing, just a hair. But six of the nine people who'd be able to tell were with her. "Why do you seem so calm about it."
"I don't know if I killed him. Ignorance is bliss." Alex shrugged, making long, slow strokes from her hair line to the small of her back. "And Dad, my foster dad, was my Father's XO. That's why he and his wife adopted me. He left the Air Force a year later. Fighter pilots don't kill eachother in dogfights, they shoot down other aircraft. So long as it is the uniform I'm fighting, or some other symbol, I might be ok."
"It's fine, you can stop." Part of her didn't want him to, she liked what he was doing. It made happy little tingles run up and down her arms and down her spine. But they were on watch. "You should have stayed in New York."
"Yeah, maybe. But who would brush your hair?"
-neXt-
"All right sunshine, wakie wakie." Logan broke an ammonia capsule under the man's nose. They'd bound him to the straight backed chair that had come with the suite. "What is your name?"
The man remained silent.
"Look Bub, I know you're part of one of the last HYDRA cells left." The man snorted. "So you speak English, good. "
"Fick dich."
"OK, I speak German to." With a loud snikt his claws extended. "But I'm pretty sure you speak pain in any langauge."
"Logan, no!" Rogue put herself between the two men. With her back turned to the prisoner, she winked- this was going according to plan. They were going to play a little bit of 'rabid cop-sweet cop'. "We can't use torture."
"Watch me." He made as to grab her by the arms and set her aside, but she'd refused to be moved. "Damnit Rogue, this scum tried to kill us!"
"No Logan- go outside." She pointed towards the open door, the only point of light behind the bright light pointed at his face. She waited while he stomped for the door, then slammed the door. He hadn't really left, it was all stage play. He was still hiding in the shadows, and Remy was behind their friend. If needed, Rogue would try to steal his memory, but they wanted to try the old fashioned way first.
They'd also put a number of anti-motion sickness patches on their subject- a little bit of scopalamine makes it hard to vomit. A lot of it, but not enough to kill you, makes a crude truth serum.
Squatting down, Rogue looked the man in the eyes from the side. "Yah can't say yah are innocent. You know that." The man shrugged. "What is yah name? Ah'm Rogue."
The man struggled with it. His training with HYDRA had included interrogation resistance, but... it was just his name, right? "Weber, Klaus Weber."
"Danke, Klaus. Can Ah get yah a drink, anything like that? Ah can't untie yah, don't ask- it is more for yah safety than mine."
"Da, sit on my lap." He leered.
Rogue shook her head. "Mah boyfriend is the jealous type, explosive kind of guy. They'd have to bury yah in a sponge."
She rested her hand on his knee. "So why did yah attack us?"
"Orders." He was feeling warm and fuzzy. They'd already seen what he was after. "You have a rogue agent, X-23-0 , as part of your team. We were to intercept and neutralize her. But... I watched her get hit, then get back up." He frowned in confusion.
"Body armour." Rogue softened her voice. "Ah have to tell you something that might be very hard for you. Most of yah team is dead or crippled. We want them to get the medical attention they need- who should be told."
He stiffened slightly. "I can not tell you that."
"But they were yah friends. They deserve better than being anonymous dead guys. Don't they have families."
"Not friends. We flew in three days ago, and were told to watch for..." Weber stiffened. "I have said too much, kill me now."
"Ah won't do that."
"Then send your teammate back in- he will what must be done."
" Ah won't do that, either." Rogue picked up a bottle of water from the base of the lamp. "Are yah sure you don't want some? As far as Ah'm concerned, if yah tell us who sent you, we'll leave yah here and let the cops know where yah are. I wouldn't tell them what you do- yah lost, but Ah'd let yah live."
She leaned forward. "But Ah was the only one who didn't want yah dead. If yah don't help me, Ah can't help yah. Just tell me who was the one who gave yah the orders."
He spat on the floor. "I'm dead either way. Your teammate will cut me up like sausage."
"Not if you tell me, then Ah can sneak yah out of here. Ah'll get yah to the hospital- feel that numbness in yah leg? The nerve was cut, your leg was broken in mid thigh." Rogue's face shown with concern. "HYDRA is destroyed, there are a few cells left but it is gone. Mah friends did most of the work. There is no one left to hurt yah, if we can take down the person who gave yah orders. It's been less than an hour, the nerve hasn't died yet, but the longer yah wait, the less chance it will recover. Yah'll spend the rest of yah life in a wheelchair, or on crutches. Is that what yah want."
Actually, they had strapped his leg with a nearly tourniquet tight band, cutting off blood flow. He could go a while longer before there was any chance of damage.
-neXt-
Kitty was curled up in Kurt's lap, trembling. He was curled up around her, and had blankets over him for warmth. She had been a little shocky physically, but mostly emotionally. She'd left Juggernaut in concrete once or twice, but never a normal person.
Other than her Oma, she'd never seen a dead body in person. Even in the riots immediately after A-day, she'd seen plenty of people hurt, but never a body. This one, she'd killed. She clung to Kurt's shirt and hiccuped softly, no more tears left in her. The worst part was that she could have saved him, but she'd frozen. The man had just tried to kill her and her friends, if she'd pulled him out he'd have tried to kill them again, but she'd let him die.
"Shhhh... Kitty, it vasn't your fault." Kurt had seen a few bodies; as part of his EMT training, he'd had to ride with an ambulance crew for a while. They'd mostly been decent people- he'd prayed for them. He'd even watched the dead come back to live on one occasion. He had also confessed with a great deal of guilt that he'd not prayed for those who's brought pain and suffering to others and had finally met someone even worse or luckier than they were. "You vere trying to protect us, the same as the rest of us. Shhh..."
They'd been in this ball for a while, since she'd gotten out of the shower. She'd wanted to bathe desperately, even through she hadn't had any blood on her. She'd also avoid touching Laura. She'd looked like a wild thing, covered in blood, and hadn't minded that she had bits of other people on her, in her hair. She hadn't looked happy with what happened, but Logan looked even more so about it. Kitty was a little scared of her right now- twice she'd seen Laura rampaging, once in a nightmare and once while holding back. This time Laura hadn't done either, and she'd killed like half a dozen guys in just a few seconds. And her copy was what they were hunting?
She was ashamed of herself- Laura was her friend, and Kitty was afraid her reaction would hurt the younger girl.
But she also knew that Laura had pushed her into the shower first, despite the smell of the blood. Laura had buried X-23, she didn't want to do this. And she'd been forced to show the people she loved the most just what she was. When she talked about being a killer in the past, she'd usually phrase it like 'when I was a monster' or something similiar, but she'd wanted Kitty to feel clean first. Kitty had stopped a bad guy, and here she was shaking like a leaf on the wind.
Kurt had seen the bloody holes on the back of Laura's tshirt, she'd been shot and it had gone through her vest, and she had basically ignored it. Kurt had tried to ask Laura, but she'd cut him off. She told him it wasn't important as she and Logan had gone to a corner to have a conversation. Any other people, and the body language would have suggested shouting and screaming and things being thrown. From across the room, even Kurt hadn't hurt them- they were both lethally angry and in full control of the rage that wanted out. It was a little scary.
"Kurt... am I a bad person?" Kitty's voice was a croak.
"What? Nein, nein leibchen." He kissed her softly, holding her tightly.
-neXt-
"You want to know? Do you really not know already?" He started to laugh, a horrid combination of girlish giggle and evil cackle. "I'll tell you. Jah, I'll tell you!" The laughter took a hysterical edge, tears streaming down his cheeks as he shook his head. "Talk to.. to the fat man... Madripoor... the fat bastard in... Madrip-AAH!"
With a rapid jerk, Weber's head snapped to one side, then the other, a loud crunch-snap coming from his spine. In the chair, what had once been a muscular man slumped like a broken puppet. His head hung with his chin behind his shoulder, looking back at Remy.
Rogue jumped back with a yelp. "No way! No one could commit suicide like that! What was that!"
Remy prayed in Creole and called on the Loa for good measure, crossing himself. Other than a very lengthy confession (there had been a need for a pee break) after months of prodding by Kurt, he couldn't remember the last time he'd done that.
Logan's hands curled angrily, his voice a furious whisper. "It was a compulsion order, he was programmed to die before he could say too much. But he said enough."
Author's notes:
I hate it when they go an die on you. It's not like you can leave 180 pounds of dead bad guy hanging around for the maid to clean up. Then she tells her boss, and he calls the cops, and your credit card gets all kinds of interesting flags on it, and your passports... *sighs* It is so very rude to kill yourself during interrogation.
Iceland is a lovely little country. 2-3 murders a year. Arsons, explosions, very rare. Drug dealers, organized crime, terrorism, nope. It's quiet, the dogs rarely bark, kids don't scream, it really is the peaceful kingdom. Err... ooops, sorry guys.
As someone observed, this is X-Force. Call in the X-men if it needs to be neat. The New Mutants if you need exuberance and raw talent. X-factor if you need something stomped by a lot of boots. X-Force... there is no X-Force; the Xavier Institute has no team with such a designation, and will not approve of assassinations, sabotage, espionage, or other illegal activities. Next question please!