A/N: Wow, what a day at work. Busy as hell and demons for customers! I politely asked one lady how many copies she would be doing...she just about grew horns.
"What is WRONG with you? What's your PROBLEM?!" (personally, I think she had a problem...with drugs of some sort...or some kind of brain tranquilizer 'cause woooow.)
I remained polite. My first instinct was to blurt out something Laura would say...god this story is a bad influence on me .
Annnnd I had to spend my lunchbreak listening to the Creepy Coworker (the only one in our store who is so but oi!) His laugh...reminds me of a goat. He fidgets constantly,
he sucks and picks his teeth all the time in the lunch room (like a rat). And he's constantly trying to talk to me (I should note that he's asked me out before, in front of our boss.
I just about died of humiliation. O god spare me) Anyways, he was saying "Heh heh...guess who was in the store today?! Campbell!"(he's a politician here). I said "Oh" and tried
to eat my sandwhich very loudly so he would understand I was not willing to talk. No luck. "I think it's kind of cool! He knows me on a first name basis, he comes in and says 'hey
Peter, what's up?' to me!" I said "Oh...I don't care for politicians that much." Munch munch. "Well, you never know! I could end up with a cooshy political job or something!"
Oh. My. God. I wanted to yell "Peter, stay the hell away from my country's government!!"If he was a politician here, I swear I would leave. Period. lol yeah sounds mean of me
but he's the creepiest guy ever. He also had a conversation with me once where he asked what career I was planning to go into. I said medicine. He said he's an opera singer
(I couldn't imagine him on stage, he acts like he has ants in his pants). And then...and then..."Hey Katie, you know what? I would make a great trophy husband!"
/puke
Nunya:
Julian the jerk: Haha yes, typical Julian. But it's true to the character of young, fairly good-looking guys...sort of what my bf was like (apparently) before me...and the one I dated before him.
Not to say they're jerks ALL the time, as in meaning to be so...they don't think things through, or put too much weight on stuff. I used to be upset by this style of guy before myself, but I'm
laying back a bit...guys just don't think the same way girls do.
Is Kimura dead? ...no comment ;-)
Glad you liked the chapter! Hope you like this one!!
Volume: 2 Arc: "V for Violation" 2 Issue: 2/6 )
Chapter 36: vindication
"The subject escaped the facility," the woman said. She looked distraught—her hair escaping from its bun, her lab coat splattered with blood.
"She neutralized her handler. It—it—" she sobbed, and the officers looked at each other uncomfortably.
"Forgive me." She dabbed at her eyes with the handkerchief they'd given her. "I—I am supposed to assist the next operation," she said. "I don't…
I need to warn them that she is coming…I…I recognize her... Can you…I'm a little…"
"Can't take a civilian to Base 239," one guard said.
"We can't leave her here, either." the officer said. "We'll take you there, ma'am, no worries." he said, sympathetically. She smiled weakly at him; she
wasn't bad looking at all. He wondered if he could get her number from Head Office; he'd definitely like to follow up on her (for personal reasons).
They didn't need to know that, though.
…
Emma Frost clicked her e-mail inbox, expecting to be bombarded with forty Viagra ads and one or two asking for counseling on subjects she didn't teach;
perhaps some late excuses for her Psionics class. Occasionally there was a note from Hellion about wanting to withdraw from it, or regarding the team.
She was surprised to see a note from Laura titled 'help' ; she had never asked for counseling before. She was tempted to discard it without reading it;
however, this would be unethical, and make it especially ironic for her to be teaching the Ethics course.
Patiently, Emma clicked on the link.
From: Laura Kinney ()
To: Emma Frost ()
Subject: help
Text:
this is awkward, i'm kind of in a hurry and urs is the only address i have at the school. anyways, i'm sure u guys have noticed keller and i are missing.
well, we have been abducted by some sort of government co-vert operation, and, yeah, i'm hoping u guys can like suit up and do ur thing. i don't know
where we are, but it's somewhere in a snowy place, and there are lots of scientists. i'm thinking this is the place that cloned me b/cuz they tried to put
metal all over my bones except i killed them. they're planning to cut keller's head open like a coconut and i can't find him… i swear i'll give it my best
shot but don't blame me if he becomes a floating brain. i'm heading out to some base 239 place…that's apparently where he is. u'd best hurry.
k thx laura
Scott, we have a wee problem, Emma thought.
…
The woman was distant the entire ride, her eyes trained on the floor. The officer asked her questions about herself; she paused to think before each answer. Poor thing has had a hard go of it,
"Tell you what…we'll go find the director, you can share your info with him…then I'm taking you to somewhere you can wind down." He smiled at her kindly.
"What's your name? Mine is Jake."
"Cordelia," the woman answered. She rubbed the backs of her hands.
"Boss…" they were approaching the facility.
…
Cordelia stared up at the deputy director of the base—Xander Rice—seeming to have trouble speaking; and in turn, the man stared at her.
Jake wondered if he should intermediate.
"You idiot," the director said after a moment.
…
Laura wiped the blood off her cheek, shaking as she continued her vigil down the hallway. "Come out, come out, wherever you are," Laura hissed.
She reached a doorway and jammed her claw into the lock; nothing but a supply closet. On second thought…she switched her lab coat for a clean one.
Refreshed, she returned to her march, the heels of her stolen shoes clicking on the smooth linoleum. The fluorescent lights made a buzzing sound and provided stark,
white light, giving the whole place a very depressing atmosphere. Laura hacked into another room and shuddered; it was full of test subjects, all dead. Jars of body
parts lined the walls, floating in some sort of preservation solution.
If I'm too late…
The complex was a maze of dead ends; she couldn't smell, or hear anything…aside from the sterilized cleanliness and the almost aching silence. It seemed deserted.
Laura stopped at the end of the hall and pressed her head against the wall. What if…what if they had been separated? She felt a wave of nausea wash over her; she
pushed it aside impatiently. I—I don't care, she tried to think. I don't care if…
Rubbing her eyes, she decided to try the other side. This gamble turned out to be correct, as Laura could hear voices in the distance. Shouting. She hurried; there was a
large pair of revolving-style doors, with a sign that said Medical Lab #3: Isolation and Retrieval Center.
Laura pushed on the door. It did not open; there was a security device on the outside. She dug her hands in the pockets of the lab coat; she found a lanyard, with
keycards, and sighed in relief. Now to find the correct one…hopefully it wasn't booby trapped against multiple attempts.
Two men, holding clipboards and conversing. Laura tilted her head; they were coming this way. She continued to fumble with her keycards, but stepped aside. They paused,
watched her for a moment, then the tallest of the two men reached out and scanned his own, his eyebrow raised.
Laura flushed. "I—I'm new," she explained.
"You'll learn soon enough, how it is around here," the shorter man said. "Digits ending in '00 are for the labs. '10 are for the general doors. Yes, it's really that simple."
They entered the room as the doors parted, Laura trailing behind.
Her eyes darted back and forth like crazy. The room was semi-dark. There seemed to be several operations taking place today. There, in the corner! Keller was on his back
on a gurney, his eyes wide open. He looked miserable. And strapped down. And surrounded by about twenty twitchy-looking men with machine guns. She approached him,
behind a group of scientists, and peered over one's shoulder; his eye flickered down to her in recognition. She held her finger to her mouth in warning.
"Attach the neural inhibitors," the tall man who'd entered with her instructed. "Another dose of Botulinium type-AB. Three CC's." He seemed to be in charge. Laura wasted
no time; she saw an insubordinate picking up a tiny brown glass bottle and a syringe; she took the supplies from the other woman with a calm, professional manner. "Thank
you," she said, quenching any questions she might have had. "Please go get the sterilization supplies."
She made her way to Keller's gurney, then stopped by his side, and withdrew a dose from the bottle. She'd analyzed the situation—if she was re-dosing him with the muscle
paralytic, then it was about to wear off. And this meant that Keller would soon be able to help her fight. She would wait for him to knock the drugs off; without his telekinesis,
there was a good chance of him being Swiss-cheesed with bullet holes from a machine gun.
Laura reached down and swabbed an area on the outside of his shoulder. She could see his bicep flex ever so slightly under his skin; he was trying to show her that the drugs
were losing their effect. She flicked her eyebrow up a tad, and leaned over the site for injection. She then appeared to insert the needle, holding it about a millimeter away from
his skin and depressing the plunger.
A few minutes later, the helper approached with an armful of metal clamp-looking objects that Laura decided were probably the neural inhibitors. She couldn't allow these to be
attached, either; they'd effectively kill their chances of escape. She placed her hands on the table and leaned over Keller's thigh. "I'd wait, with that. Give it a few minutes for the
Botulinium type-AB to take effect. I've heard he can be…violent. Biting and such."
The helper looked startled, and backed away. She almost looked down, Keller had touched the inside of her wrist with his finger. Risky but effective; at the rate this was fading,
it would be about three minutes before he regained full control.
"I thought I ordered those inhibitors five minutes ago," the head surgeon said, annoyed, to the helper. "What's the hold-up?"
"S-she said he bites," the assistant said. "She advised I wait till the Botulinium type-B to finish working."
"You idiot, the Botulinium works immediately," the surgeon said angrily. "What are you…shit."
Keller sat up, his eyes green. The restraints severed themselves, and he clambered off the table, his hand in a fist and his face contorted with hate. Gunfire erupted but they
bounced off a slight green tinge in the air.
"Let's see how you like a shot in the ass," Keller said. The scientists watched in horror as their supply cabinet opened of its own accord, and the sterile needles floated over
to the bottles. "It's like a lottery. I don't know who gets what. The only difference is…everyone wins," Keller continued calmly.
Someone pounded on the door, trying to escape. It was too late; the syringes were flying, fully loaded. One sunk into the flesh of the man's back; he fell against the door, twitching.
"We'd better deal with these guys," Laura said, looking at the military units as they fired against the almost invisible shield. Her hand claws slid out.
"I've got it," Keller said, turning. She watched as he expanded the shield slowly, foot by foot, pushing the men into the walls. He continued, even when the space was too small; they
began crying out as their bodies were contorted into unnatural shapes. Some were unlucky enough to be forced into shelves of glass beakers. The air was filled with the tinkle of
breaking glass as each individual beaker exploded; the walls cracked and crumbled under the pressure Keller was exerting. Some of the men began to bleed from their orifices, choking.
"I think that's good," Laura said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Keller…"
He tilted his head at her, clenched his fist even tighter. The men screamed in agony as their bones broke with a multitude of snapping noises; then suddenly he opened his
hand and they fell to the floor.
"Now it's good," Keller said quietly, turning and stepping over the body of the lead scientist, which was still twitching. Laura looked at the bottle lying beside his head—a blend of
Barbiturates. It seemed Keller had given him the entire bottle.
…
"I think this is it, Laura," Keller said weakly. He'd been shot in the shoulder, and was losing blood at an incredible rate; they were surrounded by an extraordinary amount of military
support. Laura's arms tightened around his waist to support him better; she frowned. "It's been…good knowing you," she said, knowing he was right.
They were backed into a corner with no way out. Keller was going to lose consciousness at any moment, and the telekinetic shield would go with him. And then Laura would be alone,
with enough lead and tasers directed at her to down an elephant.
"Laura—" he pulled her down and kissed her briefly. "I lo—" his eyes rolled back into his head, and he slipped to the floor, suddenly too heavy for Laura to continue supporting. She
held onto his hand, her eyes suddenly full of tears.
They were about to die.
And then the ceiling erupted. She looked up, not sure what to expect. She'd never been so relieved; the school's teachers were here, including Jean and Cyclops and Emma.
Laura sat down in the corner, cradling Keller's unconscious torso against herself as the fighting ensued.
