A/N: Yay, another chapter! By the way, I'll try to post once a week, but school's coming up soon and that's going to take up most of my time… I'll still finish posting this though, I'm not giving up on this story!
*DISCLAIMER* The X Men belong to Marvel, not me.
After dinner was over Luna had gone back to the garage, still a little upset about the question and answer routine. Logan had decided to follow after her, wanting to ask a few more questions, if she was okay with that. Several questions had started swimming around in his mind, and he wanted some answers.
"From Louisiana?" he asked, "All the way from Louisiana?"
"New Orleans, specifically," she told him, standing up and wiping her hands on her jeans.
"Why start from there?" he asked, surprised that she was answering his questions so readily.
Luna tossed a rag into a bucket before turning back to her bike. "Remember I mentioned Remy LeBeau?" she looked back at him and he nodded, "I spent a month with him before I finally decided to try an' find you."
"Now I have to ask why you didn't just follow me in the first place…"
"You basically told me to piss off," she pulled a box out of one of the side bags, "Though not with those exact words. Cigar?" Luna held the box out towards him.
"Thanks," Logan snatched a box of matches off a nearby shelf and lit the cigar. "Here," he said, tossing the matches to her.
She lit up her own cigar and took a long draw before blowing out a large puff of smoke. "Are we going to continue our earlier tour?" she asked.
He shrugged, "Do ya want to?"
"Sure would like to know what else is in this place."
He shrugged again. "A'right then, follow me."
"Feelin' a bit more comfortable 'round me?" Luna asked in the hallway.
"Whaddaya mean?" Logan asked around his cigar.
"You don't seem quite as tense as before," she blew out another puff of smoke, "Startin' to trust me a little?"
"Something in the back of my mind says I can," he said, "That don't mean I'm completely listenin' to it." He turned towards her, "Meaning ya still ain't completely trusted."
She shrugged, not intimidated by him at all, "Didn't figure I was, but it's a start."
"What is wrong with you?" Logan muttered, pressing the elevator button.
"I'm your twin sister, that should explain a lot."
The door opened and they stepped inside. "Twins…" he mumbled to himself, "Just how "twin-ish" are we?"
Luna rolled her eyes. "Let's just say the universe went as literal as it possibly could with the two of us," she muttered.
He thought about that until the elevator door opened back up again and they stepped out. "So… You know about Weapon X?" he asked her.
She froze dead in her tracks. Logan could smell sheer terror and raw fury rolling off of her in waves, but he wasn't sure which was stronger. "…Yeah… I know about it…" her voice was close to growl.
'Nerve definitely struck,' he thought in panic, backing away slightly. "Sorry, I didn't-"
"Forget it," she almost snapped, "I ain't mad at you," she turned her head away, "After all, it isn't your fault the world's got manipulative bastards like them in it…"
"Right…" Logan started forward again. "You've seen the uniform room and hangar…" They walked up to an enormous circular door with an "X" decorating it.
"Think there are enough 'X's in this place?" Luna joked, trying to erase the tension from before.
He smirked, "Not sure. Anyways, this is Cerebro. Xavier uses it to find mutants."
She leaned over his shoulder to look at the door. "How's that work?"
He shrugged. "Works with his telepathy, that's all I know." He grabbed her shirt collar and started dragging her away.
"Let. Me. Go," she growled through her teeth. He did as she demanded. "Where are we going now?"
"The Danger Room."
"What's that?"
"This," Logan stopped and pointed at a door in front of them. "The Danger Room is typically used as a battle simulation. Though, I tend to use it for workouts and stress relief." He led her into the room.
"It looks like an empty room…" she commented, walking around the enormous metal room, "Though that sounds like fun."
He smiled. "Activate program 'Rocky'," Logan commanded. The room was filled with gridlines as various pieces of gym equipment appeared. Luna jumped back as a barbell materialized where her foot had been.
"'Rocky'?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"This is the program I tend to use for basic workouts. Plus it's a helluva lot better than putting a hole in the wall of the mansion every time I get pissed off."
Her eyes locked on the set of punching bags in one corner. "Are those metal punching bags?" she asked, walking over to them.
"Yeah, they tend to last longer than the normal ones."
Luna smiled slightly. "Well, when you can punch with enough force to put a hole in concrete, and your bones are covered in metal, it's kind of needed." She stood in front of a punching bag, pulled back a fist and landed one massive blow that sent the hunk of metal crashing into the wall. It fell to the floor after a few seconds, leaving a large dent in the wall.
"Damn…" Logan muttered, "Enough strength to give Juggernaut a run for his money…"
"Oops… Didn't mean to put a hole in the wall…" she said sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it. It's just a hologram. It'll rebuild itself next time the program's activated."
"Cool," she said, before turning to another punching bag and letting loose with a volley of less powerful punches.
After a few minutes the computerized voice suddenly announced, "Program X-13 activated."
"What's that?" Luna asked.
"Not good," Logan growled, "Prepare for a real workout." The scenery changed to a forest. Without thinking, he ordered, "Back to back!" Luna didn't hesitate in doing as he said.
*SNIKT!* They both popped their claws and began moving in a circle, never getting more than a foot away from each other. Logan was a little surprised with how natural it felt.
"This another of the programs you came up with?" Luna questioned him.
"Yeah. It's one that only I ever us. Usually to get rid of stress and frustration."
"What're we facing?"
"Depends, could be super advanced government robots, specially trained soldiers, genetically enhanced animals…"
"Sounds like a fun party," she muttered sarcastically. A gunshot sounded. Seconds later, Luna retracted her claws and gripped her right shoulder as a bullet hole appeared there. "Shit!" she exclaimed.
"Where'd that come from?!" Logan demanded.
"Somewhere to my left." The bullet fell out of her now bloodied shoulder and she rolled it, working any lingering pain from the joint. "I can smell more movin' out there. But not one with the scent of a robot or animal."
"Like I said, it depends. Sometimes I get 'em, sometimes I don't. The program can tell there's someone else here, so it's goin' easy on us."
"Easy?"
"Easy for us anyways."
Luna rolled her eyes, "So should we attack?"
"Might as well be the first to make a move."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, let's try and shut it down. "She smiled and charged into the forest. Logan laughed a little. "She's insane, so she's gotta be my sister," he mused, before following after her. Two soldiers appeared immediately in front of him, terrified despite the automatic guns they were carrying. "Graagh!" Logan roared, sticking his claws into them. As a shot went off he felt a slug hit his forehead. It glanced off his skull with a small spark, knocking his head to the side slightly.
"Oh great," the soldier who'd shot complained, "Another one with a metal skeleton." Before he could try anything else, three claws to his heart made sure he was dead.
"Gave 'em intelligence this time around," Logan noted. He sniffed the air, "And no animals…"
"RRAAUGH!" Luna's wild yell was preceded, and followed, by a series of gunshots and screams of terror. Moments later she burst forth from the trees, her claws gleaming red. "Hi," she said breathlessly, "I thought you'd followed me."
"Right…" Logan looked at her. Three bullet holes decorated the area near her stomach, though most of the blood on her clothes was most likely from the soldiers, as was the blood on her claws. "Hardly a scratch on ya…" he mused.
"Yeah, well," she panted, "Fifteen years of travelin' can teach you how to fight agilely." He shrugged and nodded. "So does fightin' in five major wars," she mumbled.
"What was that?"
"I'll tell you later," she snapped, retracting her claws to move her bloodied hair out of her face. "You said something earlier about shutting this down?"
"Yeah, we gotta find the wall, then the door to the control room." A bullet whizzed past him, slicing at his cheek.
"That door being the only way out of here?"
"Yep."
"Great, how do we find it?"
A beeping disc flew through the trees and landed between them. "Hit the dirt!" Logan ordered. They both dived away and hit the ground just as the explosion went off.
"Shit!" Luna yelled. She appeared a few moments later at his side, pulling him up out of the dirt. "You were saying?" she asked.
"First," he breathed, "We find the wall, then we find the door."
"Yeah, got that. How in hell's name do we even find the wall?!" Her eyes flashed with annoyance, the blood covering her making her look like a demon.
"Easy!" he backed a step away, "You've gotta find the spot where you can touch the air. If that makes any sense."
"Yeah, when the air feels like a wall, you've hit it." She spit out a mouthful of blood with a bullet in it. "Jeez, thought they'd all gotten out already."
"And you can find the door from there?" Logan asked her.
"Piece of cake." She brushed her hair out of her face again. "Logan!" Suddenly she threw herself at him, knocking both of them to the ground as another explosion went off. Luna groaned and pulled herself back onto her feet. "Sorry, you okay?"
Logan pulled himself up. "Perfectly fine," he groaned sarcastically, "Especially when someone else's adamantium skeleton is dropped on me."
"Again, sorry."
He popped his neck and brushed a few hairs out of his face. "Forget it, just go find the door while I keep 'em busy."
"Right," she nodded and took off.
"There he is!" several soldiers appeared amongst the trees. "Fire at will!" one of them commanded. A hail of bullets slammed into Logan, but he ignored them and rushed at the men firing on him. Hopefully Luna'd have enough sense to get herself the hell out of there once she found the door.
I ran through the holographic forest. Burns from the last explosion were still healing up, but I didn't let them stop me. 'Find the wall first,' I thought, 'But how am I supposed to know where the limit to this thing is?!' The answer came when I slammed into it. I fell onto my back, dazed a little since the wind had been knocked out of me. I looked up at where I had hit, a dent showed in the air. "Found it," I muttered to myself, getting back onto my feet. I pounded on the spot and listened, it sounded solid. I started walking along, pounding against the wall at every step. Finally, I reached a spot that sounded hollow. I stopped and hit it again to be sure I'd heard what I thought.
Another explosion sounded back in the holographic forest. I turned around to see an enormous fireball rising up through the trees. "ARAAUGGH!" My head swiveled towards the sound of a pained scream. "RRAAAUUGGH!" There was no mistaking that voice, Logan needed help. *SNIKT!* I clawed an "X" into the door to mark it before running back to help my brother.
Logan howled with rage and pain as the bullets tore through him. The last explosion had torn through his left arm, exposing his adamantium covered bones. He could feel his flesh crawling back over them, already healing back up. Blood dripped from several cuts on his forehead into his eyes. Something moved in the trees ahead of him and he tensed up, ready to attack the next wave of soldiers.
Instead a lone figure burst forth into the clearing he was in. Logan popped his claws and charged at them, the blood in his eyes blinding him. He felt his claws slice through flesh and swung again.
"Logan!"
His name made him freeze. The claws retracted and he wiped the blood from his eyes. Luna stood in front of him, three gashes in her abdomen healing back. She looked surprised instead of frightened. "Luna? What the hell are you doin' here?!" he yelled, "You're supposed to be finding the door!"
"Relax! I already found it." She looked at the three slashes, "Wonderful, this was one of my favorites."
He sighed. "Then why didn't you get the hell out of here?"
She huffed, "First, you needed help. Second, I have no idea how to work the controls."
Duh! Of course she wouldn't know how to work the controls, she'd only just learned about the Danger Room. Idiot, a voice in the back of his mind told him, You should've known that she'd come back to help. She's just like you.
He shrugged it off. "Right. This time you keep 'em busy while I go try to fix this mess."
Luna nodded, "Sounds like a plan." A rustling in the brush alerted them to the next wave of wannabe assassins. "Go I've got your back!" she yelled, shoving him in the direction she'd come from. He took off as gunfire sounded once more. A few of the bullets hit him in the back, but he just shrugged them off and kept going.
Soon he reached the spot. Luna had marked the door with an "X", making it easy to find. Logan pushed it open and rushed through. A quick left put him in the control room, right in front of a startled student.
"M-Mr. Logan!" the kid gasped out, "I… I uh…"
"What're you doin' here?" The kid looked scared half to death. He was blonde with orange looking spikes sticking up at the front of his hair. Berserker was his codename, but Logan couldn't remember his real name. His mutant power had something to do with electricity. "What're ya doin' here?" Logan repeated.
"I uh…" the kid gulped, "I was scheduled for a solo run. But when I got here, you two were already using it." His eyes flickered towards a video screen where a bloodied Luna was using her claws to block a hail of bullets. "So I was just going to wait till you were done." He took a moment to steady his nerves. "But I leaned against the control panel and… Well, I guess I accidentally pushed a button or two…"
"No kiddin'," Logan moved the kid out of his way, "Stay there and don't touch anything else." On the screen Luna sliced through three soldiers. Logan quickly put in several commands that were answered with a beep, indicating they were invalid.
Move faster! the voice in his mind ordered, Luna's in trouble, she's getting beat up out there!
He looked up at the video screen again. She was trying to cut her way through a group of men. They were still firing, her clothes were now bullet riddled. Two more soldiers fell, but so did Luna as one of them knocked her onto her back. Logan could tell she was a bit winded even though she was back on her feet in seconds. He looked back to the controls and punched in the command for a system-wide shut down. Everything began to slow down.
"Shit…" Luna said. Logan looked back up to the video screen. A disc was stuck to her torso, the soldier who'd placed it there was falling to the ground. "This is gonna hurt." Logan's eyes went wide as he realized the thing was a bomb. The explosion sent a fireball several hundred feet into that air, and Luna flat on her back.
A/N: Ow! Poor Luna, that one had to hurt! And before anyone points out or asks; yes, the name "Program X-13" was put in here on purpose. I did that for fun and as a small shout out to the X Men Evolution series. Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoyed!