Notes: The Bobby referenced last issue was Robert Decosta, Sunspot. Forgot
that there were two Bobbies running around.
Also, the fight scene in this chapter is a little...violent. Not excessively or graphically so, but when two people with healing factors fight it can get nasty.
Also, (shameless plug time) if you like my handling of Rahne, follow the link to Marvel 2000 and check out Force Works. It's not 14 plus issues of Rahne action, plus an upcoming Giant Sized in which Rahne focuses heavily.
Now, on with the fic...!
Some unassuming hotel room on the West Coast
"Rahne, you're pregnant."
Rahne Sinclair struggled to comprehend what X-23 had said. Intellectually, Rahne understood her perfectly. But emotionally was another matter.
"I cannae be pregnant! I've never...I mean, I haven't..."
"Had sex? Knocked boots? Tossed the salad?" X-23 offered casually.
"Made... love." Rahne stammered out, blushing despite the situation.
X-23 sighed and sat down in front of Rahne on the bed, "I know kiddo. I asked the scientists what Hydra wanted you for, but they weren't sure if the procedure had been performed yet. Why I insisted on the test."
"What did they do tae me?" Rahne asked, deathly afraid of the answer but needing to know all the same.
"I'll start at the beginning." X-23 stated, "You know who Wolverine is, right?"
"Mr. Logan? Aye."
"Well, before he worked as a teacher he worked for the C.I.A, D.E.A and a whole bunch of other secret organizations doing...nasty work."
Rahne shuddered. She'd always been afraid of Logan back at the institute on some level, and now it looked like her fears were justified.
"Anyways, he was really good at his job. 'Best there is at what I do' was his motto, and it wasn't ego. It was fact. Eventually, Wolverine stopped doing that kind of work. Thing is, no one stopped wanting to a soldier like him. Hydra discovered and adopted the Weapon X program that'd given Wolverine his claws."
-Snickt!-
Rahne nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw X-23 pop her two claws in her left hand.
"You recognized these, right?"
Rahne nodded.
"Well, they were first bonded onto Wolverine by the Weapon X program, like they were to me. We weren't born with them. In attempting to get their own Wolverine, Hydra tried cloning him. Wasn't until they switched chromosomes that they got a clone strong enough to withstand the bonding process."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Cloning is hard to do. I was born in a sixty five million dollar test tube that I later blew up. Sometimes the old ways are the best. From what I can tell, they used artificial insemination, using one of your eggs and the altered DNA of the soldier they wanted to create and well..."
"Who's...the father?" Rahne croaked out, the conversation distressing her as it continued further and further.
"Hard to say, really. For all I know, it's just an altered DNA strand mixed with your egg."
"So these monsters used me as a bloody brood mare in their sick experiments?!" Rahne felt like she wanted to vomit. Just what kind of creature was growing in her womb now? Was it human, mutant or some beast?
X-23 put her hand on Rahne's shoulder to steady her and said, "Don't worry about it, kid. We'll find a doctor and get this situation fixed."
THAT caught Rahne's attention, cutting thru her fears like a knife, "I turn into a wolf, but I'm nae some bloody animal!"
X-23 rolled her eyes, "Rahne, I meant..."
X-23's voiced trailed off as alarms went off in her head. War-trained instincts told her something was up even though she wasn't conscious of a threat.
X-23 began concentrating on her enhanced senses. She could smell Rahne's body temperate rise as she contemplated what was done to her and smell the salt of her developing tears. The room stank of old sweat, smoke and molding walls, but otherwise nothing was amiss.
X-23 next focused on her hearing. Her heart rate was normal, Rahne's heart was fluttering and someone was listening to Judge Judy three rooms away. Then she heard it. Someone was walking down the hall about to cross in front of curtained window that was right beside the front door of their hotel room. The man's breath and heart rate was increasing in preparation for something, and she could hear metal pins slapping against clothes flesh. X-23 found she almost recognized the sounds, which set off even more alarms.
X-23 stood up, ready to strike, when suddenly two hissing metal cylinders burst thru the front window and landed in between the T.V and the beds.
"Rahne, get down!" X-23 screamed. She pushed Rahne to the floor and fell atop the startled girl. With speed that would put Quicksilver to shame, X- 23 grabbed the mattress of the bed they'd been sitting upon and pulled it over them.
The first cylinder exploded in a hail of shrapnel. The second one bellowed out white smoke that engulfed the room.
"What's happenin'?" Rahne whispered anxiously, smart enough to know to keep quite in situations like this.
"Dunno yet. We'll find out in a second, though."
The wall that the faced the two beds exploded and a tall, well built man wearing an odd combination of black and red and armed with dozens of various weapons stepped thru. "Honey, I'm home!"
Rahne saw X-23's jaw drop open. It wasn't in terror or fear, rather it was outraged annoyance. X-23 stood up and pushed the mattress off her and Rahne, and glared at the new arrival.
"Deadpool, just what the hell are you doing?!" X-23 demanded of the masked madman.
Deadpool shrugged sheepishly, like he'd just arrived for a party at the wrong time, "What? Where's the love? I thought you liked it when I blow stuff up!"
"Hydra Wade! I like it when you blow up Hydra! And there was a reason we agreed you would take the East Coast while I took the West Coast." X-23 snapped.
"Women, who can figure 'em?" Deadpool asked no one in particular.
"Ye know this madman?" Rahne asked as she timidly stood behind X-23.
"He's Wade Wilson. They first tried to recreate the Weapon X program using gene therapy on a normal human. They got Deadpool instead."
"Yeah, I'm basically the same story as X-23 there, only with no boobs, even uglier and less armpit hair." Deadpool quipped
"Hey!"
Deadpool raised his hands defensively, "Hey, I call it likes I sees it, babe."
X-23 sighed, "We had an agreement, Wade. One that kept you far away from me, for a reason. Why are you here?"
Deadpool pointed at Rahne, "I'm here about little orphan Annie. You got sloppy kid. Rin tin tin's room had a real time camera feed at Hydra HQ. They know she's still alive."
X-23 threw her hands up in frustration, "Sonofa...! Well, thanks for the utterly insane heads up. You can leave now."
"I don't think so." Deadpool said. He withdrew a knife from his belt, and began rolling it thru his fingers like it was a quarter, "See, I like you kid, and I feel sorry for red there, but you two being ladies, I don't know if you have the stones to do what you gotta do. No offense meant to lady folk in general."
X-23's eyes narrowed as she regarded Deadpool, "We haven't gotten that far Wade. And you know what? Whatever her choice, it isn't your concern."
Deadpool stopped rolling his knife and pointed it at X-23, "That's where you're wrong, babe. See, speaking as a freak of nature created by Hydra wackos, I'm not about to let Hydra bring any more freaks of nature into the world."
"Rahne..." X-23 spared a glance behind her at the frightened mutant, "...run!"
Rahne didn't need to be told twice. Shifting to her half werewolf/human form, Rahne leaped over the bed between her and the door in a single bound. Deadpool threw his dagger at the fleeing girl, but X-23 blocked it with her claws as she leaped at the madman. She crossed her claws across Deadpool's chest, creating a long bloody 'X' on his chest.
"Hey!" Deadpool slammed the palm of his hand into X-23's nose. Blood flowed freely from it as X-23 staggered backwards. Deadpool aimed one of his handguns at X-23 as a warning, "That's trademarked! Stab me, burn me shoot me but don't get the lawyers on my ass!"
X-23 charged forward with a growl, and Deadpool unloaded his clip at her. X- 23 largely ignored the barrage, most of the bullets impacting harmlessly off indestructible bones. With a swipe of her claws, X-23 sliced the gun Deadpool shot had shot her with, taking bits of his fingers. She then tackled the bright red madman to the floor, but Deadpool went with the maneuver and rolled backwards and kicked X-23 off of him thru the hole in the wall he'd created in the adjoining room. X-23 sailed thru the air upside down and impacted the plaster wall, leaving X-23 shaped dent. She then fell towards the ground in a heap, her chin catching the nightstand.
"Okay, first you get lawyers on me, then you hurt my love life!" Deadpool stalked towards X-23 with any small pistol in his hand. X-23 tried to get up to meet the attack, but suddenly the world began to swim around her, twisting and turning.
"Mercury laced bullets. Instantly lethal to those without a healing factor. Even screws up those with one." Deadpool explained. He loomed closer, "Look, this doesn't have to be personal. I'm not going to kill the kid, I swear. But I ain't about to let that thing in her stomach into the world."
"You don't get a choice, Wade." X-23 growled.
Deadpool pulled back the hammer of his gun, "Is that so?"
"Yup." X-23 brought her foot up and slammed it into Deadpool's crotch.
"I got a cup, babe. And a healing factor."
"You'll need it."
-Snickt!-
Deadpool looked down, and then back towards X-23, "Oh yeah, that's right. The metal hang nail."
Deadpool's eyes then rolled up towards the back of his head and he passed into blissful unconsciousness.
"Don't you talk to me about stones." X-23 sighed as she stood up, "I really should kill you, Wade."
She brushed herself off and made her way outside, her nose searching for Rahne's scent. Surprisingly to X-23, she found Rahne hiding behind a corner at the far end of the hallway, waiting anxiously.
"I thought you'd be half way to Texas by now, kid." X-23 called out.
Rahne stepped out from behind the corner, "I don' like running away from those who help me."
X-23 chuckled, "You got guts, kid. Now, lets get to the parking lot, we've gotta get out of here."
All the residents of the hotel were smart enough to know to avoid both coming out of their rooms and the two women, but X-23 was curious as to where the cops were. After all, her battle with Deadpool had to scare someone into calling the police. She'd later learn that Deadpool called in some fake bomb threats, but now she was concerned with high tailing it out of the area. She opened the cab of her little bug, and then eyed the cars parked next to it.
"I'm gonna miss you, little guy." X-23 sighed as she opened the door to a Honda Accord parked two cars away.
"What are ye doin'? We need tae leave!" Rahne exclaimed.
"I know. But we're taking this car, not the 'Bug. Deadpool knows that car." X-23 explained. She grabbed the magnetic license plates off her 'Bug and slapped them in the accord.
"But that's stealin'! It's nae ours!"
"Ya think?" X-23 snapped at the frightened and confused girl. X-23 took a moment to take a deep breath. As much as she hated the idea of taking Rahne with her, X-23 knew it was wrong to get angry with the young mutant. Rahne was an innocent pawn in all of this, and X-23 understood and appreciated that.
"Look Rahne, I know it's wrong to steal. This life I lead, I don't like most of what I do. But I have to do it. Is one car worth your life, my life and maybe even the life of the child growing inside you?"
"Nae, it's not." Rahne said softly.
"I know it's hard and I know you're scared, but I need you to trust me." X- 23 put her hand on Rahne's shoulder, the first sign of support from her that registered to Rahne, "I am going to get you home, Rahne. But you need to follow my lead. And right now, I need you to get in the front seat of this car and just wait while I load some things into it."
Rahne reluctantly complied. Once X-23 was done loading her gear, she hotwired the car and they sped out of the parking lot. Once they were a respectable enough distance, X-23 slowed down to meet the speed limit.
"So where are we going?" Rahne asked.
"Seattle."
"What? But the institute...!"
"I said I'd get you home and I meant it." X-23 said curtly, "But Hydra knows you're alive. Which means we can't head straight towards the school. They'd catch us in an instant. From Seattle, we can catch a train or somethin' to Nevada or somewhere else. We'll see. I'll get you home, but it won't be a fast trip. You're stuck with me for a while, kid."
Rahne said nothing in reply. She simply crossed her arms and began unconsciously rubbing her stomach. When her powers developed, Rahne was thrust out of her comfortable life and into a world of hate and fear. But at least her one constant in life, her adoptive mother Moira, was always at least one phone call away. Not anymore. Now, Rahne only had herself and X- 23, a girl she barely knew. For all intents and purposes, Rahne was on her own. A difficult place for any thirteen year old, let alone one who was now pregnant.
Sparing a glance towards X-23 and a thought regarding both Hydra and the madman Deadpool, Rahne made herself a silent promise.
"I won't let them drag me down to their level. I swear it." She vowed.
***
Hydra general Peter Jackson watched Madame Hydra review the security recording of Rahne's rescue alongside a contingent of other high level Hydra members. Being the old Hydra member that he was, he thought Madame Hydra took the matter very well, though that was largely due to his fear of seeing Madame Hydra enraged. He was still unsettled by her acts of brutality years ago when she became slightly angered by the failures of the people under her.
It took two years and hundreds of hours of therapy for his nightmares to finally stop.
All illusions of control were shattered when Madame Hydra pulled out her side arm and shot the video image of X-23 right between the eyes and kept on firing until the video screen was utterly destroyed.
"That girl, X-23, has done more than enough damage." Madame Hydra told her generals, every word laced with venom, "I want her found. I want her killed. Slowly and as painfully as possible. As of now, that is the mission of Hydra."
"And the girl?" One of the more courageous generals asked.
"She is nothing more than cattle, property." Madame Hydra hissed, "Our property. I want her returned. As long as she's alive and relatively unharmed, I don't care. We can start over with the experiment if need be. But I want that...that... thing back under Hydra control, at all costs."
Next chapter: Hunted by two dangerous enemies, Rahne is faced with the hardest choice of her young life
Also, the fight scene in this chapter is a little...violent. Not excessively or graphically so, but when two people with healing factors fight it can get nasty.
Also, (shameless plug time) if you like my handling of Rahne, follow the link to Marvel 2000 and check out Force Works. It's not 14 plus issues of Rahne action, plus an upcoming Giant Sized in which Rahne focuses heavily.
Now, on with the fic...!
Some unassuming hotel room on the West Coast
"Rahne, you're pregnant."
Rahne Sinclair struggled to comprehend what X-23 had said. Intellectually, Rahne understood her perfectly. But emotionally was another matter.
"I cannae be pregnant! I've never...I mean, I haven't..."
"Had sex? Knocked boots? Tossed the salad?" X-23 offered casually.
"Made... love." Rahne stammered out, blushing despite the situation.
X-23 sighed and sat down in front of Rahne on the bed, "I know kiddo. I asked the scientists what Hydra wanted you for, but they weren't sure if the procedure had been performed yet. Why I insisted on the test."
"What did they do tae me?" Rahne asked, deathly afraid of the answer but needing to know all the same.
"I'll start at the beginning." X-23 stated, "You know who Wolverine is, right?"
"Mr. Logan? Aye."
"Well, before he worked as a teacher he worked for the C.I.A, D.E.A and a whole bunch of other secret organizations doing...nasty work."
Rahne shuddered. She'd always been afraid of Logan back at the institute on some level, and now it looked like her fears were justified.
"Anyways, he was really good at his job. 'Best there is at what I do' was his motto, and it wasn't ego. It was fact. Eventually, Wolverine stopped doing that kind of work. Thing is, no one stopped wanting to a soldier like him. Hydra discovered and adopted the Weapon X program that'd given Wolverine his claws."
-Snickt!-
Rahne nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw X-23 pop her two claws in her left hand.
"You recognized these, right?"
Rahne nodded.
"Well, they were first bonded onto Wolverine by the Weapon X program, like they were to me. We weren't born with them. In attempting to get their own Wolverine, Hydra tried cloning him. Wasn't until they switched chromosomes that they got a clone strong enough to withstand the bonding process."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Cloning is hard to do. I was born in a sixty five million dollar test tube that I later blew up. Sometimes the old ways are the best. From what I can tell, they used artificial insemination, using one of your eggs and the altered DNA of the soldier they wanted to create and well..."
"Who's...the father?" Rahne croaked out, the conversation distressing her as it continued further and further.
"Hard to say, really. For all I know, it's just an altered DNA strand mixed with your egg."
"So these monsters used me as a bloody brood mare in their sick experiments?!" Rahne felt like she wanted to vomit. Just what kind of creature was growing in her womb now? Was it human, mutant or some beast?
X-23 put her hand on Rahne's shoulder to steady her and said, "Don't worry about it, kid. We'll find a doctor and get this situation fixed."
THAT caught Rahne's attention, cutting thru her fears like a knife, "I turn into a wolf, but I'm nae some bloody animal!"
X-23 rolled her eyes, "Rahne, I meant..."
X-23's voiced trailed off as alarms went off in her head. War-trained instincts told her something was up even though she wasn't conscious of a threat.
X-23 began concentrating on her enhanced senses. She could smell Rahne's body temperate rise as she contemplated what was done to her and smell the salt of her developing tears. The room stank of old sweat, smoke and molding walls, but otherwise nothing was amiss.
X-23 next focused on her hearing. Her heart rate was normal, Rahne's heart was fluttering and someone was listening to Judge Judy three rooms away. Then she heard it. Someone was walking down the hall about to cross in front of curtained window that was right beside the front door of their hotel room. The man's breath and heart rate was increasing in preparation for something, and she could hear metal pins slapping against clothes flesh. X-23 found she almost recognized the sounds, which set off even more alarms.
X-23 stood up, ready to strike, when suddenly two hissing metal cylinders burst thru the front window and landed in between the T.V and the beds.
"Rahne, get down!" X-23 screamed. She pushed Rahne to the floor and fell atop the startled girl. With speed that would put Quicksilver to shame, X- 23 grabbed the mattress of the bed they'd been sitting upon and pulled it over them.
The first cylinder exploded in a hail of shrapnel. The second one bellowed out white smoke that engulfed the room.
"What's happenin'?" Rahne whispered anxiously, smart enough to know to keep quite in situations like this.
"Dunno yet. We'll find out in a second, though."
The wall that the faced the two beds exploded and a tall, well built man wearing an odd combination of black and red and armed with dozens of various weapons stepped thru. "Honey, I'm home!"
Rahne saw X-23's jaw drop open. It wasn't in terror or fear, rather it was outraged annoyance. X-23 stood up and pushed the mattress off her and Rahne, and glared at the new arrival.
"Deadpool, just what the hell are you doing?!" X-23 demanded of the masked madman.
Deadpool shrugged sheepishly, like he'd just arrived for a party at the wrong time, "What? Where's the love? I thought you liked it when I blow stuff up!"
"Hydra Wade! I like it when you blow up Hydra! And there was a reason we agreed you would take the East Coast while I took the West Coast." X-23 snapped.
"Women, who can figure 'em?" Deadpool asked no one in particular.
"Ye know this madman?" Rahne asked as she timidly stood behind X-23.
"He's Wade Wilson. They first tried to recreate the Weapon X program using gene therapy on a normal human. They got Deadpool instead."
"Yeah, I'm basically the same story as X-23 there, only with no boobs, even uglier and less armpit hair." Deadpool quipped
"Hey!"
Deadpool raised his hands defensively, "Hey, I call it likes I sees it, babe."
X-23 sighed, "We had an agreement, Wade. One that kept you far away from me, for a reason. Why are you here?"
Deadpool pointed at Rahne, "I'm here about little orphan Annie. You got sloppy kid. Rin tin tin's room had a real time camera feed at Hydra HQ. They know she's still alive."
X-23 threw her hands up in frustration, "Sonofa...! Well, thanks for the utterly insane heads up. You can leave now."
"I don't think so." Deadpool said. He withdrew a knife from his belt, and began rolling it thru his fingers like it was a quarter, "See, I like you kid, and I feel sorry for red there, but you two being ladies, I don't know if you have the stones to do what you gotta do. No offense meant to lady folk in general."
X-23's eyes narrowed as she regarded Deadpool, "We haven't gotten that far Wade. And you know what? Whatever her choice, it isn't your concern."
Deadpool stopped rolling his knife and pointed it at X-23, "That's where you're wrong, babe. See, speaking as a freak of nature created by Hydra wackos, I'm not about to let Hydra bring any more freaks of nature into the world."
"Rahne..." X-23 spared a glance behind her at the frightened mutant, "...run!"
Rahne didn't need to be told twice. Shifting to her half werewolf/human form, Rahne leaped over the bed between her and the door in a single bound. Deadpool threw his dagger at the fleeing girl, but X-23 blocked it with her claws as she leaped at the madman. She crossed her claws across Deadpool's chest, creating a long bloody 'X' on his chest.
"Hey!" Deadpool slammed the palm of his hand into X-23's nose. Blood flowed freely from it as X-23 staggered backwards. Deadpool aimed one of his handguns at X-23 as a warning, "That's trademarked! Stab me, burn me shoot me but don't get the lawyers on my ass!"
X-23 charged forward with a growl, and Deadpool unloaded his clip at her. X- 23 largely ignored the barrage, most of the bullets impacting harmlessly off indestructible bones. With a swipe of her claws, X-23 sliced the gun Deadpool shot had shot her with, taking bits of his fingers. She then tackled the bright red madman to the floor, but Deadpool went with the maneuver and rolled backwards and kicked X-23 off of him thru the hole in the wall he'd created in the adjoining room. X-23 sailed thru the air upside down and impacted the plaster wall, leaving X-23 shaped dent. She then fell towards the ground in a heap, her chin catching the nightstand.
"Okay, first you get lawyers on me, then you hurt my love life!" Deadpool stalked towards X-23 with any small pistol in his hand. X-23 tried to get up to meet the attack, but suddenly the world began to swim around her, twisting and turning.
"Mercury laced bullets. Instantly lethal to those without a healing factor. Even screws up those with one." Deadpool explained. He loomed closer, "Look, this doesn't have to be personal. I'm not going to kill the kid, I swear. But I ain't about to let that thing in her stomach into the world."
"You don't get a choice, Wade." X-23 growled.
Deadpool pulled back the hammer of his gun, "Is that so?"
"Yup." X-23 brought her foot up and slammed it into Deadpool's crotch.
"I got a cup, babe. And a healing factor."
"You'll need it."
-Snickt!-
Deadpool looked down, and then back towards X-23, "Oh yeah, that's right. The metal hang nail."
Deadpool's eyes then rolled up towards the back of his head and he passed into blissful unconsciousness.
"Don't you talk to me about stones." X-23 sighed as she stood up, "I really should kill you, Wade."
She brushed herself off and made her way outside, her nose searching for Rahne's scent. Surprisingly to X-23, she found Rahne hiding behind a corner at the far end of the hallway, waiting anxiously.
"I thought you'd be half way to Texas by now, kid." X-23 called out.
Rahne stepped out from behind the corner, "I don' like running away from those who help me."
X-23 chuckled, "You got guts, kid. Now, lets get to the parking lot, we've gotta get out of here."
All the residents of the hotel were smart enough to know to avoid both coming out of their rooms and the two women, but X-23 was curious as to where the cops were. After all, her battle with Deadpool had to scare someone into calling the police. She'd later learn that Deadpool called in some fake bomb threats, but now she was concerned with high tailing it out of the area. She opened the cab of her little bug, and then eyed the cars parked next to it.
"I'm gonna miss you, little guy." X-23 sighed as she opened the door to a Honda Accord parked two cars away.
"What are ye doin'? We need tae leave!" Rahne exclaimed.
"I know. But we're taking this car, not the 'Bug. Deadpool knows that car." X-23 explained. She grabbed the magnetic license plates off her 'Bug and slapped them in the accord.
"But that's stealin'! It's nae ours!"
"Ya think?" X-23 snapped at the frightened and confused girl. X-23 took a moment to take a deep breath. As much as she hated the idea of taking Rahne with her, X-23 knew it was wrong to get angry with the young mutant. Rahne was an innocent pawn in all of this, and X-23 understood and appreciated that.
"Look Rahne, I know it's wrong to steal. This life I lead, I don't like most of what I do. But I have to do it. Is one car worth your life, my life and maybe even the life of the child growing inside you?"
"Nae, it's not." Rahne said softly.
"I know it's hard and I know you're scared, but I need you to trust me." X- 23 put her hand on Rahne's shoulder, the first sign of support from her that registered to Rahne, "I am going to get you home, Rahne. But you need to follow my lead. And right now, I need you to get in the front seat of this car and just wait while I load some things into it."
Rahne reluctantly complied. Once X-23 was done loading her gear, she hotwired the car and they sped out of the parking lot. Once they were a respectable enough distance, X-23 slowed down to meet the speed limit.
"So where are we going?" Rahne asked.
"Seattle."
"What? But the institute...!"
"I said I'd get you home and I meant it." X-23 said curtly, "But Hydra knows you're alive. Which means we can't head straight towards the school. They'd catch us in an instant. From Seattle, we can catch a train or somethin' to Nevada or somewhere else. We'll see. I'll get you home, but it won't be a fast trip. You're stuck with me for a while, kid."
Rahne said nothing in reply. She simply crossed her arms and began unconsciously rubbing her stomach. When her powers developed, Rahne was thrust out of her comfortable life and into a world of hate and fear. But at least her one constant in life, her adoptive mother Moira, was always at least one phone call away. Not anymore. Now, Rahne only had herself and X- 23, a girl she barely knew. For all intents and purposes, Rahne was on her own. A difficult place for any thirteen year old, let alone one who was now pregnant.
Sparing a glance towards X-23 and a thought regarding both Hydra and the madman Deadpool, Rahne made herself a silent promise.
"I won't let them drag me down to their level. I swear it." She vowed.
***
Hydra general Peter Jackson watched Madame Hydra review the security recording of Rahne's rescue alongside a contingent of other high level Hydra members. Being the old Hydra member that he was, he thought Madame Hydra took the matter very well, though that was largely due to his fear of seeing Madame Hydra enraged. He was still unsettled by her acts of brutality years ago when she became slightly angered by the failures of the people under her.
It took two years and hundreds of hours of therapy for his nightmares to finally stop.
All illusions of control were shattered when Madame Hydra pulled out her side arm and shot the video image of X-23 right between the eyes and kept on firing until the video screen was utterly destroyed.
"That girl, X-23, has done more than enough damage." Madame Hydra told her generals, every word laced with venom, "I want her found. I want her killed. Slowly and as painfully as possible. As of now, that is the mission of Hydra."
"And the girl?" One of the more courageous generals asked.
"She is nothing more than cattle, property." Madame Hydra hissed, "Our property. I want her returned. As long as she's alive and relatively unharmed, I don't care. We can start over with the experiment if need be. But I want that...that... thing back under Hydra control, at all costs."
Next chapter: Hunted by two dangerous enemies, Rahne is faced with the hardest choice of her young life