Hope Returns
Chapter Ten
By: Lily Handle
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Author's Note: Well I'm not stuck in the house anymore; I've gotten myself another job. The community center is doing Guys and Dolls as their summer musical, I can't act in it because of my cast, so I offered my services as a vocal coach. It's actually volunteer work, but I get to spend a lot of time singing, I love singing. Anywho, I think I'm running into a rut, so if there's a long pause between this chapter and chapter eleven, you know why. Please read and review.
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When Logan opened his eyes again most of the red haze was gone, it still lingered at the edges of his vision, but he could clearly tell he'd been placed in a cell. After someone had knocked him out. Logan had had enough. He was done with S.H.I.E.L.D. Done with dealing with the government and political bullshit. He was going to get Trask on his own, and deal with the bastard the best way he knew how. He sprung up from the cell cot, claws all ready out, slashing the cell door to nothing but a few metal stubs. There were no guards to get in the way of his anger, and frustration, only Fury stood on the other side of the bars.
"I'm done, Patch," Logan informed him, "I'm outta here."
"Logan…" Fury tried to break through, but within second Logan had him against the wall and had his claws inches away from Fury's face.
"Done damn it! I'm on my own," Logan growled, "And if you send you little agents to stop me, you're going to end up regretting it." Logan let him go and stormed away. He wasn't angry anymore so much as he was determined to get his hands on Trask.
"We've gone over this Logan, if you go off on your own…" Fury called, "You're making this too damn personal!"
"It is personal!" Logan yelled back, turning around to march back towards Fury, "You've seen what he's doing to her. You and your damn governmental policies won't do enough to find him! You can take your paperwork and sit around reading notes, but I'm going to find her. Before she's dead." Logan listened while Fury tried to make his argument, but Logan was beyond actually hearing them. He was going to Canada himself, he was going to track Trask down the best way he knew how, on his own. He'd start in Manitoba, with the van, and the donut shop in a little town near Saskatoon. Then he remembered what Mystique had said, Akelm, the other agent was supposed to be Trask right hand man. Logan needed a high power computer, one that could hack into sealed or private records and he needed one fast. It would take time though, even if he used the Institute's computers, digging up anything useful he'd have to go through tons of worthless information. He didn't want to spend that much time on the computer search, he had six days, and he wanted to get to Hope. So, he needed someone he could trust, someone who knew how to manipulate computers and quickly get the information to him. He needed Hank.
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"There are no computers like that around here that I can get access to," Hank said, outside Charles's hospital room, "I'd have to go back to the Institute."
"Then go back," Logan said.
"While you go wandering around Canada by yourself? Logan I want to go with you," Hank said, "I'm as good at tracking as you are, especially outdoors."
"I work better on my own." Logan turned his back towards Hank, "You're shoulder is still stiff and sore. You're not well enough to do any tracking." Logan heard Hank sigh, and turn back, "You can still help out, Hank, look into Akelm for me, see what you can find out."
"I'll look to see if he owns any property in Canada, near where you said the van was left. You'll have a way for me to reach you, correct?" Hank asked.
"Got my phone," Logan answered, "Thanks Hank."
"I finally get to help," Hank said more to himself than Logan, "Sitting here made me feel a little useless."
"I've been spinning my tires with S.H.I.E.L.D.," Logan mumbled, "Look, if you can take Charles back with you, and Ororo, take them. I want everyone out of Washington. There's no reason to stay here now anyway."
"And if S.H.I.E.L.D. turns up anything new before we do?"
"Can't do anything about that. They won't move as fast, though, I'm the best they had."
"There may be a way actually," Hank glanced sidelong at Logan, "If I'm careful I might be able to get their records and reports on this."
"You think you can hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"Well, it's something. I'll check with the doctors," Hank said, "You should start for the border."
"I'm going to go through the Capitol building before I head north, but if Fury or some other agent shows up, I'm already one the way north."
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The Capitol was still closed down, only S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were allowed inside the building. If Fury had spread the word that Logan was no longer working for S.H.I.E.L.D. getting in was going to be tricky. He didn't want to hurt the guards, if he could help it, but he wanted another look inside. If they got in the way, he'd just make them move. The guards watched him as he climbed the steps, but didn't stop him when he walked past them and stepped inside. His footsteps echoed loudly as he walked towards the room where the attacked had taken place. In his mind, as he walked through the hallways, he walked through the attack. He could see the people who knew what was about to happen sneaking other members in, or getting out of the way. Then the members who were outside took out the news vans, at the exact same time, and then contacted the member inside. The inside members replaced the guards and let in the members outside. Now Logan stood outside the doors, or what was left of them. He could see them attaching the explosive, backing up and letting them blow. He walked through the remaining doorframe, walked to the middle of the room and stood there. The room hadn't been cleaned up yet, rubble was lying over the floors, benches and chairs were still lying upside down or on their sides, and the hole from his fist was still in the podium. He had come here looking for the one thing he needed before going north, Trask scent. He stood in the middle of the room sniffing the air for scents. He'd never met Trask, so finding his scent would take a little detective work, but Logan had an idea on how to find it. He moved to stand over where Hope had gone down, kneeled down to get closer and breathed her in. He slowly worked over the scent patch, sniffing left to right trying to find where Hope's scent mixed with an unfamiliar one. Scents could mix when one person stuck another, and Logan was pretty sure that had happened when Trask struck Hope. He found a small patch of unfamiliar scent, drew it deep into his nostrils and made sure he remembered it. If he came across this scent again, he could track it, and if it was mixed with Hope's scent, he knew it was Trask's. Logan stood, took in the whole room and went to the door where Trask had come in through. The S.H.I.E.L.D. technicians had been over the door, twice, and hadn't found any trace of evidence. But Logan sniffed his way around the frame, looking for the same scent he found around Hope's, the scent could be stronger here. He found it not on the frame that was inside the room, but on the outside, on the wall where Trask must have leaned before going into the room.
"Mr. Logan." Logan turned around and came face to face with two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. "Colonel Fury has given orders not to let you enter here."
"If you'd follow us, we'll escort you outside." Logan thought about roughing the agents up a bit so he could continue looking through the room, but he felt a sense of urgency now. Like something was tugging him, telling him to go.
"All right," he said on a shrug and followed the two agents back outside into the winter. He stood there at the base of the steps looking up at the Capitol building, planning. He needed a car, something that could handle the rigors of a Canadian winter, and something that could make Hope comfortable when he found her. He thought about going back to the Institute and using the van, but it was too conspicuous. He needed something to blend in with normal traffic, in case Trask had people on the look out for anything suspicious, like the van would be. Problem was Logan's personal vehicle was his bike, not a good choice for traveling in winter. Hope's SUV was back at the Institute, it was beefed up a little, and would easily blend into the traffic in Canada. He could pick up some of his supplies there, he could even take some of the students with him. No, he thought, shaking his head and turning away from the Capitol. He'd leave the students there, just in case Jean got something on Hope. He worked better alone anyway. He'd head back to the hotel, get everything he needed to leave, and make his way to Bayville. He'd hunt down the keys to Hope's car, then take off, the border wasn't that far.
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Hope didn't feel the cold anymore, and that was a bad sign. When the light was just right and she could see her fingers, she knew they were well on their way to being frost bitten. Her toes, well, she didn't like to think about how she couldn't feel those anymore. Often she'd throw around bolts, trying to heal herself, but that quickly wore her out. She slept only when she wasn't shivering so hard that she'd wake herself up and most of the time late at night she was shivering. If Trask continued to keep her like this, she'd be dead in a few days. By now, she'd figured out that was the point, Trask was going to make sure she was dead by the time anyone found her and he'd probably broadcast it live to America. His pension to make videos of her suffering just reinforced her belief that he was going to make a statement out of her. She wondered who was taking care of her family a lot. She wished she had called her parents one last time to tell them she loved them, and her brother, she wished she called him too. She thought about the Institute too, but that always led her to think about Logan. She'd asked for his help in the last video Trask had taken, because she'd been thinking about him when Trask had come in. He would come, Hope told herself, he would come. Holding on to that hope, she could hold on to her life. Southern tenacity made her fight, desperation made her pray, and she even called out for Jean and Charles, but never got an answer. Trask was blocking them somehow she thought, and probably thought it was funny that she couldn't even find relief there. She wasn't thirsty anymore, though. Melting snow dripped in through the cracks in the roof and Hope would drag herself to where the strongest stream was and drink from it. She was starving though, but just like a cold, the gnawing hunger in her stomach was just something she dealt with. This day was made worse by a head ach, which was harder to ignore than usual. There was nothing to distract her from the pain, just pounding there in the back of head. When she heard the crunch of snow, Hope shifted closer to the nearest corner, trying to hide. Sometimes animals would wanted into the shed and sniff around her. She didn't like some of the larger animals, who looked at her as if she was a tasty snack. It was an animal this time, but one that wouldn't eat her, it was Trask, with the video camera.
"How are you doing today Doctor?" He asked, his footsteps on the floor underneath Hope just intensified the pounding in her head and made her wince. "You're looking just a little ragged. Ah, your getting a little frostbite on your toes I see. You know I expected that would set in a little earlier."
"Go away," Hope pleaded, closing her eyes. His voice was abnormally loud, and made her headache worse. It was making her feel sick, dizzy and she trembled from something other than the cold.
"Well, this is new," Trask picked up her face and forced one eye open, "What's wrong Doctor?" Hope whimpered and shied away. Everything was starting to hurt, and in her weakened state Hope couldn't control her powers. She felt more than saw the bolts that were flying around her and Trask.
"What are you doing?" Trask yelled, which didn't help and Hope actually sobbed against the pain. She lost even more control, dragged herself to her knees, and clutched her head in her hands. The pain from the headache was worse than the cold, than the dark and the fear. It was trying to break her skull apart from the inside, and Hope clutched her head tighter, trying to keep it together. Trask was still yelling, crying out in what sounded like pain. His yelling made the headache worse, and soon she couldn't feel anything but the pain. Couldn't hear anything but her own ragged sobbing. And couldn't see anything, all was lost in blinding white.
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Author's Note: Have you noticed that Logan is now thinking of Hope not as "the Doc" but by her name? Isn't it great? Makes me happy. Look, I know I said I wouldn't abuse Hope anymore, and I'm mostly done, I swear. Another cliffhanger ending, I know, but the next chapter is Logan's search, probably it will be another chapter with no Hope in it at all. We'll find out about what happened to her later. This chapter's rather short too, probably should have made it part of chapter nine now that I think about it. Ah well, too late now. Anyway, please review.
Lily