Blake had been waiting in the briefing room for about forty-five minutes when who should enter but Tony Stark. Blake smirked up at him before putting her phone away. He motioned for her to come to him as he approached the table.
They both chuckled as he pulled her into a quick hug.
"How's it hanging kiddo?" He asked her as they both took a seat, "Still seeing the pretty blonde from Honolulu?" He added after a moment.
"No, we split a few weeks after Christmas actually…" she told him with a sigh and a slight frown.
"New man or lady in your life then?" He asked seeing her shake her head.
"Not a 'new' man exactly…" she told him showing him a picture of her and Pietro from the wedding.
"Well well… how did you both manage that?" Tony questioned her after viewing the image.
"His dad had a meeting with the professor and him and his sister weren't allowed to be present even though they were brought on campus!" She told him getting a nod.
"So anyway, I'm supposed to ask you about whatever happened during your camping trip!" He told the girl who nodded.
"Like yesterday specifically though?" She asked for clarification which made him think for a moment.
"How long have you been camping?" He asked her in response.
"Like two weeks…" Blake told him with a quirked eyebrow.
"And it's a long story not a short one…" he added getting a nod, "the incident only happened yesterday too!" He continued after a second.
"Yeah, it's pretty long but the deal I'm here for was only yesterday…" she explained making him smirk and lean back in his chair.
He clasped his hands loosely together by the fingers and rested them on his stomach. Turning back, he took a look at an impatient Coulson before making eye contact with her once more.
"Maybe fill me in on the whole story… Just to be sure!" He told her with a wink, making her laugh and shake her head in response.
"Well, it all started with us meeting up at the institute…" she began describing the exposition for her situation.
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Blake was seated on the tailgate of one of the two jeeps that belonged to the institute. She along with her dad and Darius were unpacking the things they had brought with them to go camping. While they were technically at Logan's cabin, they had decided to set up two tents outside to have a more authentic experience.
Darius and Logan were in the middle of building the larger tent. Blake had agreed to put Logan's together after they finished the first. She was surprised to see the two cooperating so well.
While they had gotten along fairly well for the last year or so, they had very different task management styles and typically quarreled in moments like this.
After they had begun the final step of attaching the rain tarp over the tent, Blake began emptying the contents of the second tent bag.
She was halfway through attaching the first pole to the corners when Darius and Logan both begin commenting on what she was doing.
"You know I really think it would be easier if" Darius began again to which his sister snapped.
"If you shut the hell up?" Blake retorted making her father chuckle slightly as he walked back to the cooler in the jeep.
Logan grabbed a beer for himself and his all but adopted son.
"May as well let that one go kid…" he told the boy who shook his head and sighed.
"Any good fishing near here?" He asked Logan after a moment who nodded his head before responding.
"Yeah, there's a River about half a mile east of here…" Logan answered motioning off in the direction he had spoke of, "decent salmon and trout normally!" He added after a moment.
"Good deal… B, you comin' with?" He asked his sister as she finished with her tent and had begun pulling some kind of shrink-wrapped thing from the car.
"What the hell is that?" Logan questioned with a quirked eyebrow.
"Futon…" she told him shrugging her shoulders. She then released a single adamantium claw, just far enough to cut a slit in the bag and spreading out the thin mattress on the floor of her and Darius' tent.
"And how do you plan to get that back in the car?" Logan asked her, stepping into the tent to get a closer look.
"I don't!" She told him looking over, "I'm gonna leave it here for next time we come up!" She added gesturing toward the cabin.
"That's fine…" he told her as he brought over his sleeping bag and began unfurling it.
Darius grabbed his sleeping bag and tossed it into his and Blake's tent. Blake rolled her eyes before she unrolled her old sleeping bag and began to fold it into a strangely tucked pillow. Darius rolled his eyes back and laughed as he watched her handy work.
"Ok when do you wanna go catch dinner?" He asked her to which wolverine failed at stifling a scoff, "Pardon?" Darius added looking back at the older man.
"You are a fire hazard in the kitchen, but you can catch and cook a fish out in nature…" Logan commented with a shake of the head.
"My dad taught me how to fish and cook on a fire, but mom never showed me anything about cooking in the house…" Darius told him looking away with a scowl.
"Got it…" Logan responded gruffly before walking toward the cabin.
"Dick!" Darius called him under his breath.
Blake sighed and shook her head before going back to the car to grab the fishing poles and tackle box.
"I've never done this, so you'll have to show me!" She told her brother as she approached him.
"Well then, I got you dude!" He told her with a smile that didn't quite reach the eyes.
Blake, the impatient type, didn't manage to catch anything but Darius managed to reel in half a dozen fish. They began to hall their catch back to camp when they got on the subject of Antoinette and Logan.
"So, you don't mind that Logan and your mom are like friends or whatever… right?" Blake asked the boy who smirked softly and shrugged his shoulders.
"Eh… they make each other happy I think… plus he'd never let anyone hurt her, so it's a win for her and me both!" Darius responded receiving a nod from his sister.
"Yeah, she's been bringing out a lot of good in him…" Blake pointed out after a moment, "Heard from Kurt recently?" She asked another question seeing him smile.
"Yeah, we talked this morning, I even said hi to his mom for a minute!" He told her with a chuckle, "promising to keep him in line and stuff!" He added making Blake laugh for a moment before stopping short and whipping her head to the left after hearing a distant sound of screaming.
"Did you hear that?" She spoke softly narrowing her eyes, still peering off in the direction of the sound.
"Sounded like screaming?" Darius asked her to which she looked over wide eyed.
"I didn't hear it well enough to say for sure, but I have seen multiple hawks circling over the forest for the last few hours!" He clarified to which his sister nodded slowly, "just keep your ears clear and eyes peeled… just to be safe!" He told her calmly.
As if to say, 'I believe you heard that but it's probably just a small thing!' And keep her from worrying.
It wasn't until a week had past when Blake was convinced with certainty that she wasn't just hearing nature.
At about 4:30 AM, in the pitch-black night, Blake was awoken to the sound of something running outside the tent. She awoke suddenly and was unable to sit up, as if frozen solid in place. After a moment past she was able to move her eyes and let them dart to the almost completely zipped tent window at her side. She could see a human shaped figure running quickly past her tent at top speed.
Her eyes went wider, and she tried to move her body, but she was still seemingly frozen in time. She could feel her heart beating four times faster than usual and wasn't unconvinced she was having a heart attack.
She saw two more figures dart past the tent quickly before a fourth and final approached and stopped. Blake felt time stand still when, through a barely visible gap in the flap of the window, she saw a steel gray eye peek through and straight into her soul.
She started trying to thrash, to scream, to do anything to alert her brother that someone was outside the tent. Small whimpers were the only thing that managed to escape her mouth before she heard a chuckle, and the figure took off away from the campsite before she could muster an audible noise.
After a few moments of her muffled sobs, Blake finally managed to make Darius stir. He blinked a couple times before looking over and seeing the look of fear that had overtaken her face.
"Are you ok?" He asked her receiving only a sob, "can you move anything yet?" He added, nodding softly, and crawling over.
She darted her eyes back and forth a few times unable to shake her head or speak.
"Ok, deep breaths… it's ok… now start wiggling your toes!" Darius told her making her eyes go even wider, "No, you can… Trust me!" He told her grabbing her hand and squeezing it.
With all her willpower Blake began to try to move her toes. After about a minute her toes slowly began to wiggle. Tears welled up harder in her eyes and Darius nodded his head softly.
"First time, huh?" He asked her with a soft chuckle.
"Y-y-yes" She managed to get out as he helped her sit.
"Yeah, you get used to it after a while!" He told her before going to lay back down and leaving her very confused.
Several hours later Logan was making them Bacon and Eggs in a cast iron from inside the cabin. Blake was sipping tea from a mug and Darius arose from his bed roll.
Exiting the tent, he stretched his arms above his head and yawned.
"Glad you slept better than your sister!" Logan told him causing him to peak over at Blake.
She was staring into her mug with tired eyes.
"You ok B?" He asked her with a look of concern.
"No… No, I'm not ok!" She told the other teen sharply, "I saw someone outside our tent last night Darius!" She added rolling her eyes.
"You were probably hallucinating…" he told her shaking his head before making himself a mug of tea. That caught Logan's attention quickly.
"Why would she be hallucinating?" He asked the boy who looked back at him sharply.
"Sleep Paralysis!" He told the elder who nodded.
"You've never told me you have sleep paralysis Kid!" Logan stated to his daughter.
"Last night was the first time, but I know what I saw, and it was NOT a hallucination!" She told both men with a defensive tone of voice.
Her father and brother exchanged glances before she sighed aggressively and got up to walk away.
A week went by with the family hiking through the woods, Darius and Blake fishing and swimming, and doing their version of quality time. While Darius was off collecting kindling in the woods, about thirty minutes to sunset, Blake and Logan were sitting around the fire.
It had been relatively silent until the two heard what sounded like a woman screaming in the distance. They both looked off in the direction of the sound quickly before Logan shook his head.
"That sounded just enough like an owl…" he started after taking a moment to analyze the situation, "but keep an ear out just to be safe!" He commented to the girl who shook her head and stood quickly. She had been on rough ground with her dad and Dari since the night where she had that bout of sleep paralysis.
"Look" Logan started before hearing the clear sound of gun shots coming from the same direction as the screaming.
"Still think it was an owl?" She barked back as she took off in the direction of the sound. She didn't have a second thought about running into danger, she could handle more than most people, and someone was in trouble.
Logan was at a sprint just behind her but hadn't made an attempt to stop her yet. After a moment they both stopped, seeing Darius staring into the distance nails drawn to a point.
"You heard it too then!" Logan stated as they walked up to the boy together.
"It was close enough I could see running in the trees up ahead…" Darius responded receiving a nod from Blake before Logan spoke again.
"Any signs that they're like us…" Logan questioned the other gruffly.
"Hard to say but one of them was like appearing and then disappearing…" Darius told him making Logan look over.
"Teleporter?" Logan asked to which Darius shook his head.
"No… not exactly…" He told the man and seeing his sister nod out of the corner of his eye.
"Like a mix between super speed and teleporting?" She questioned with him nodding silently, "There's probably two of them here then…" She added with Logan stating simple agreement.
They scanned the woods for a minute before Blake pointed and took off in one direction with her brother and father following. After several minutes, they came upon a gruesome scene. At least twenty bodies, bloodied on the ground, many with head and face shots. Worst of all three of them were clearly toddler aged children. At the sight of the kids, Darius paled, and Blake was physically sick to her stomach. Logan stepped away from the teens before violently slashing at a bush.
"I need to call in S.H.I.E.L.D…" Darius began to say before the three heard a chuckle behind them.
They all turned sharply and saw a woman with dark steely blue hair and a sharp steel colored eye. She was surrounded by four mutants in red light uniforms. One had a teen-age girl in a tight grip, the girl was sobbing silently behind the gag they had placed on her, tears pouring from her eyes.
"Do you now?" the Red Light woman called to him with a laugh.
"Why would you do this… for god's sake, children… Innocents!" Darius called to her gesturing to the bodies of the three dead young ones, "What does that help!" He added seeing the woman chuckle again.
"We are the Red Light on Humanity; we will pave the road for mutant superiority in the blood of all the transgressors who stand in our way… mutant and human alike!" She called before raising her hand palm up and snapping her fingers. Palm filling with fire she cackled as she threw the flame hard onto the teen. The girl screamed loudly through her gag and fell to the ground, writhing in the dirt through the flames.
The woman smirked again before gesturing quickly for her associates to deal with the three family members.
"Go!" Logan shouted to the two teens, Blake drawing out her claws and Darius jumping and pouncing on the man who came at him. Blake began slashing at the two men who had approached her. Logan turned and without a second thought, jabbed a set of three claws into the gut of the Red Light member who had came at him. Darius scratched hard to the eyes of the one he was dealing with, hearing him scream as he rolled away thoroughly blinded. Blake slashed across one man's throat sending him flying back as he grabbed for his neck. The other went wide eyed before raising his hand and casting it out.
Blake turned to see a portal open behind her back, the final Red Light man and his superior quickly running through it before it vanished. Logan turned back to see Darius helping the teen girl extinguish the flame that had overtaken most of her body.
"It's ok… You'll be ok!" Darius told her as the last of the flames were squashed.
"Go call Fury!" Blake told him as she ran over to check the girl, "I'll stay with her!" She added as her brother stepped away and pulled out his phone.
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Tony was looking at the girl, with a hint of sadness in his eyes when Blake had finished her story, looking away.
"Did they tell you if she made it?" Blake asked him after a moment. He shook his head softly before holding out a hand and taking hers.
"I'm not sure kid, but I'll find out!" He told her nodding his head.
"Thanks!" She said before taking her hand back, turning when she heard a tap on the glass behind him.
"Sounds like the men in black need me… take it easy Blake…" Tony told her before patting her back and heading for the door.
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Ok folks, next week we'll be hearing Logan's side of the situation. It'll be SIGNIFCANTLY shorter than Blake's version.