Chapter 11: Madripoor
There really weren't a whole lot of places in Madripoor to park a personal craft the size of the one they arrived in. Carey, who was piloting, finally huffed in exasperation and headed for a large parking garage uptown of where Logan's apartment was. "Go on," she said. "We'll wait here with the craft. It won't take long for Logan to pack; it never does. Oh, Jubilee; if you could just slip into my apartment—Logan has my keycode—and pack my things, I'd be obliged." She smiled at Jubilee.
Jubilee raised her eyebrow. "Oh, Logan has your keycode?" she said, raising her eyebrow. "My, we've been a bad little boy, haven't we?" She giggled at Logan's annoyed look.
Logan swatted her irritably. "Get on with ya."
Carl and Tom were entranced. "So hey, you mind if Carl and I go sightseeing a little?" Tom asked the group at large, his eyes sparkling. "We've never been out of the US before. I want to look around a little, see what a dive like this has by way of technology—"
"And I want to sample the food," Carl said.
Jubilee smiled at her friends. "Sure. We'll meet you at Logan's apartment in an hour." She slipped a piece of paper into Carl's hand. "This is the address. One hour, okay?" She waggled a finger at him. "I trust you'll pry Tom away from whatever he's looking at at the time."
"Yeah," Carl grinned. "Okay. Come on, Tom." They exited the craft.
Carey watched them go. "Quite the pair, those two," she said cheerfully. "All right. I'll see you back here in about an hour and a half."
Logan led the way off the craft, Jubilee following. She looked around at the buildings around them, noting the proliferation of concrete and steel. "Wow," she said, impressed. "I guess modern technology finally caught up with the ol' home town, didn't it?"
Logan grinned at her. "Yeah. Still can find plenty o' bars, though. C'mon, there's someone I want ya ta meet." At her wary expression, he smiled. "No, not like that. She's actually tendin' bar for me. Her name's Kathy."
They threaded their way along the streets, Logan showing her the landmarks and stuff that had changed since the days of Jubilee's teens, hanging out with him here. Jubilee absorbed it all, wide eyed, shook her head wistfully when she saw the spot where the Princess Bar used to be. Logan saw her wistful look. "Yeah, brings back memories, don't it?" he said sympathetically. "I tried ta keep a hint o' the old Princess alive in the Glass an' Tap. C'mon." He led the way down a side street to a small entrance, opened the door, stepped aside, and let Jubilee pass in first.
As soon as Jubilee entered, she was transported back to the old days. The Glass and Tap still had the old hanging lamps with nostalgic bulbs, though Jubilee suspected the bulbs weren't like the lightbulbs of old. At least there was none of the more modern bright recessed lighting. In the corner was an old jukebox, battered but still playable, and the walls were lined with booths upholstered in vinyl, not the gel-filled synth stuff that was now prevalent everywhere. There were old-fashioned ashtrays at the tables, although the ashtrays were now fitted with the new smoke removal systems that sucked cigarette smoke in. And there were real wooden stools at the bar, upholstered in vinyl too, and behind the bar stood a woman, wiping down and old-fashioned glass with a towel.
"Hey," she greeted Logan cordially. "Nice to see you. Figured I'd be seeing you here; the news just hit the world press. They tried to keep it quiet for a day, I guess; but it was bound to get out sooner or later." She noticed Jubilee, standing beside Logan, her eyes still roving around the bar. "New girlfriend?"
Logan grinned at her. "Nah. Ol' friend. Very old friend. Kathy, meet Jubilee. Jubilee, Kathy."
"Nightshade," Jubilee said, friendly but still slightly guarded. "Only my close friends call me Jubilee." Unspoken was the implication that Kathy wasn't a close enough friend to use her old nickname.
Kathy nodded, picking up on the slight coolness but unfazed by it. "Nightshade, then. Nice to meet you." They shook hands briefly, and Kathy said, "So, you staying, Patch, or heading out somewhere after this?"
Logan leaned across the bar. "After this, I gotta lie low for a while. An' I received an invitation to visit the states fer an…extended stay…from an old friend o' mine. I'm gonna leave the bar to ya. Don't tell nobody where I gone, eh? Say ya ain't seen me since the Dictator died."
Kathy nodded. Her grandfather had talked about Logan's disappearing for extended periods; her father had done the same. And she remembered several times when she was young asking her father where 'Unca Logan' was, and being told he was 'away on business'. She was old enough to know that she really didn't want to know what that business was. "Okay. I should deposit the profits into your account like we arranged?"
Logan nodded. "Yep."
Kathy grinned. "Can do." She slapped him on the back. "Have a nice…trip. Don't be a stranger." She reached for a glass, poured a generous amount of his favorite liquor into it, and plunked it down in front of him. Then she did the same for Jubilee. "One for the road." She grinned before heading down the bar to talk to their first patron of the night.
Jubilee picked up her glass stein, clinked it with Logan, grinned, and tossed back a mouthful. And hacked. "Damn," she wheezed. "What is that stuff? Feels like it's taking the enamel off my teeth!"
Logan grinned unrepentantly. 'Home brew," he said wickedly. "Got a small brewery out back. Very strong stuff."
"I'll say!" Jubilee swallowed another mouthful. This time the wheezing wasn't as bad.
By the time she had drunk half the stein, she wasn't feeling the kick at all. In fact, she was feeling relatively mellow. And she asked Logan a question she'd been wanting to ask him for almost a century. "Logan," she said quietly, "What happened when you guys came to rescue me?"
Logan sighed. He knew he'd have to tell her sooner or later; might as well be now. "Those mutant haters who captured you and took you to the Hulkbuster base left a piece of equipment, one of the old restraint devices (like the one they used on me) beside your bike outside the mall. They knew we would recognize the design as one Bastion used; and they knew we would follow you to the Hulkbuster base.
"But we was dealin' with a coupla things that were kinda demandin' attention. The FOH were holding an anti-mutant rally in front of the UN building in New York City, an' right across the street was a pro-mutant rally. They were hurlin' insults at each other an' ready ta break out in a huge fight. We an' practically every superhero team in the area were called in ta help break it up. An' at the same time we got a call from Alpha Flight sayin' they'd found a cell of super-Sentinels, like what Bastion turned Mustang inta, up in Canada. They wanted our help in apprehending them and confining them. Apparently the Canadian government had some kinda new deprogramming thing they wanted to try, and they wanted our help. So we had two emergencies to deal with an' we wanted ta get to ya as soon as possible too." His eyes were dark as he looked at her. "We knew they wouldn't kill you, cause you were supposed to be the bait that drew us in. But we couldn't leave ya there neither; seein' what happened ta ya the last time ya was in there, we hadda go get ya. Scott put 'Ro in charge o' rescuin' ya, an' she chose Kurt and Rems ta go with her. That was gonna be it…but I insisted on goin' ta rescue you too, even though Scott wanted me up in Canada helpin' Alpha Flight.
"It took so long for them ta get the teams sorted out that I almost went after ya myself. Woulda been quicker an' faster. Scott told me ta wait fer the rest o' the team, an' even though it went against my instincts, I listened ta him an' I waited.
"In retrospect, I shoulda gone myself. I coulda had ya back by the time the team got sorted out, but I waited for them. We took one of the smaller jets out ta New Mexico, an' set down there. We went in, took out the two guards watchin' the upper level, an' Ororo stayed there tryin' ta figure out the controls while I took Kurt and Remy down there ta rescue you. We kept runnin' inta obstacles along the way; they had set a lot of booby traps along the way. Remy got hurt when one o' his cards tossed at a wall that was supposedly solid blew the wall apart and he got banged up some with the shrapnel.
"We ran into a big group of them soldiers about two levels over the one where ya were. They put up quite a fight; we all got hurt. But we took them out. One of them, when I 'asked' him where ya were, told me which level you was on. And after that, we figured they couldn't have much more security, and we underestimated them. We went down the last two levels unimpeded, and we figured there weren't any more, so Kurt teleported directly into your cell to get you out. Remy and I were halfway down the corridor when we heard the gunshots, and by the time we got into the cell, Kurt was dead." He swallowed. "I think I went berserk; I was so angry that he'd died 'cause I'd sent him on ahead that I took it out on them soldiers. And when the dust cleared, and I saw how bad off ya was…well, it didn't help the rage any. You followed Remy blindly after he freed you; seeing you could walk, he picked Kurt up and we made tracks outta there, pursued by the guys from further down your level. The ringleaders, I guess.
"When we got up to the surface, you collapsed. I picked ya up an' carried ya, Remy carried Kurt. Ororo saw we had injured, so she tried to cover our retreat. Just before we reached the mini-jet, a sharpshooter caught her right in the middle of her back. She just barely managed to make it into the jet before she collapsed. Remy and I took the controls, and we got outta there. By the time we were far enough away that we could put the mini-jet on autopilot and look at her and Kurt…" he swallowed hard and drained his mug. "…Kurt was dead, and Ororo died right there in front of me. The last thing she said was 'I love you' to me." He sighed. "And we had been talking about maybe getting married."
"Logan…" Jubilee couldn't think of a thing to say. She picked up her mug and drained it, barely feeling the kick of the brew as it hit her stomach. "I'm sorry, Logan. I didn't know. I barely remember following Remy up to the surface; my last clear memory was of Kurt collapsing, but I didn't know he was dead. And Ororo…" Jubilee felt tears sting her eyes, even after all this time. It still hurt. "She was my friend too. Kind of an older sister. I blamed myself for their deaths, more so when I saw how much it affected you. Emma tried to tell me it wasn't my fault, tried to convince me, but I still blamed myself. She finally told me to go talk to you, that day in the library, and you would tell me it wasn't my fault. So I went to talk to you…and you just reinforced everything I'd been telling myself. And then you threw the computer, and it hit me…and I felt kind of like I deserved it. And when I woke up later in the medlabs with my shoulder all bandaged up, you were gone…and I thought it was my fault, that seeing me reminded you of them. I saw your room empty, and there was no note, and your Jeep and your bike was gone…I knew you weren't coming back. And I couldn't bear to live there without you. So I left."
Logan gripped her shoulders fiercely, seeing for a moment not the poised, self-assured young woman, but the lonely, frightened teenager she had been. "It wasn't your fault, Jubilee. I was wrong to blame you for it. Let it go."
Jubilee leaned on Logan's shoulder, smelled his familiar scent, felt the roughness of his sideburns on her cheek, and felt tears start sliding down her cheek as the huge weight lifted off her shoulders. After a century of blaming herself for their deaths, having the one person she loved most in the whole world tell her it was all right made a load of difference. She returned his embrace.
His apartment was Spartan, severe. Jubilee looked around, her heart aching as she saw that the only decoration in the whole place was an old picture of her sitting in a frame propped against his night table lamp. Smiling sadly, she started to put it in the battered old black bag he had told her to pack his things in. He was in Carey's apartment, packing her things.
A sudden blinding stab of pain low in her belly drove her to her knees with a gasp. It hurt too much to scream. It went away almost as quickly as it had come, and she started to rise again, only to be sent back to the floor with another flash of agony. This time she did scream.
The door to Logan's apartment flew open, and she saw, through the tears of agony that blurred her eyes, a monster duck through the doorway. She stared.
It looked like a huge misshapen robot from out of a movie. It towered over her, measuring perhaps seven feet tall, covered all over with a silvery, metallic armour that Jubilee could have sworn was adamantium. Its chest and back was all one piece; the only parts of him that seemed to present any vulnerability at all was its joints. She raised her hand to try and paff it, unable to call out to Logan in the next apartment for help for the excruciating pain in her stomach.
Her paffs bounced harmlessly off the hard adamantium carapace, and one of its arms rose. In its hand she saw a small silvery device, which he pointed at her and pressed a button on its surface. The crippling agony stabbed her belly again, and she cried out weakly, her arms coming up to cradle her middle. "Target disabled," said an odd, mechanical-sounding voice from the robot's mouth. "Subject Nightshade located and neutralized. Commencing retrieval." A thick tendril of silvery metal extruded from its chest and disconnected itself, dropping to the floor and wriggling in a very snake-like way over to Jubilee. She cringed away from it in terror, but another jolt of pain to her lower stomach from the device it carried made her forget the tendril and concentrate on the pain in her body. The tendril wrapped itself around her, slimming out and lengthening until it could wrap itself firmly around her wrist and ankles.
There was a sudden roar from behind it, and Jubilee heard the unmistakable shriek of metal on metal. Specifically adamantium. The robot-like thing swiveled its entire torso around to meet this new attack, and she heard it recite, mechanically, "Cease interfering with the lawful arrest of this target or you will be neutralized."
"Ain't no way yer gettin' my girl!" Logan roared, and attacked it again. The robot swiveled its lover half around to face Logan, and dropped the small device into a 'pocket' which opened up in its chest, then closed again. The pain never lessened, though. Through eyes blurry with tears of pain, she watched the battle.
Logan dropped to a fighting crouch, eyeing the monstrosity warily. Behind it, he could hear Jubilee crying in pain; the sound drove him nuts. He wanted to get to her, rip off the bonds holding her, and stop her pain…but this behemoth was in his way.
It was made of adamantium. At first glance he had taken it for steel, some bizarre escapee from a movie set somewhere, but when his claws barely dented the thing, he came to the conclusion that it was adamantium. And when it turned to face him, he saw the logo of the United Americas on its chest, and his body went cold. Somehow they had found Jubilee, had tracked her here. This must be some kind of robot police, an upgraded Sentinel, bent on bringing her 'back' to the government.
Not if he could help it. He never took his eyes off the metal 'mask' over the robot's face, and tried to circle around it. Maybe he could maneuver it out of the way so he could reach Jubilee and free her. He assumed it was that silver binding that was causing her to cry so desperately in pain.
He lunged. The monster ducked. He lunged again. Again the monster ducked. Logan lunged again, turning it at the last moment into a feint, and his claws bit into the 'joint' of the robot's left 'hand'. The severed limb fell to the floor, twitching, and he saw blue electricity sparkles dance around the mutilated limb. The robot stared stupidly at its suddenly limb-less arm, and Logan took advantage of its momentary distraction to spring in and cut deeply into the second elbow. He stepped back, out of range of the flailing, cicatrized limbs, and went low to try and slash at the robot's legs.
He was stopped by what felt like a hand on his ankle.
He stared down in disbelief. The severed hand had grabbed hold of his ankle, and was now melting into a puddle of living adamantium that seemed to crawl up his leg. The second severed hand grabbed his other ankle, and stretched out a long tendril to the other ankle. As soon as they connected, they stiffened, and he was effectively hobbled.
A thick tendril captured his wrist, and Logan howled. The monster had regrown the limbs he'd severed! The left arm had morphed into several tentacles, and one of those tentacles were now holding his wrist. His other hand immediately came up to sever the tentacle with his claw, but as soon as he touched it, it wrapped firmly around his claws and refused to let go. It flowed smoothly up to his other wrist, trapping him effectively.
He saw the other arm go liquid, wrapping itself around his shoulder. Helpless to fight, he could only scream in pain as millions of adamantuim nanites burrowed into his skin, through muscle tissue and connective fiber, and delved deeply into the tiny spaces in his joints. His bones were adamantium, and the creature would have a hard time getting through that, but the cartilage in his joints wasn't similarly impenetrable. Blood spurted as his arm fell away, and Logan howled in agony. Jubilee was screaming in distress and pain and terror, as the independently-moving nanites came up and burrowed into Logan's other arm, then dropped Logan's bleeding torso on the floor. The monster reached down again, and Jubilee screamed hoarsely in anguish and grief, "Stop it! Stop it! No, don't…" but the monster was implacable, and Logan was cut cleanly in half, the adamantium nanites burrowing through the cartilage disks in Logan's spine to sever his spinal cord. Jubilee's stomach lurched sickeningly.
Time seemed to slow for her as she saw the spreading pool of blood. He looked at her, eyes unfocused from shock, surprise, pain, and a realization that he was going to die. She began screaming and crying hysterically as the full impact of what had just happened sank into her brain. Logan was dying; he wouldn't be able to survive being dismembered.
"No," she moaned weakly. "No, no, no…" She tried to inch across the floor, to reach him, to get to him one last time…
And then she heard footsteps, and turned to the door, eyes streaming. Tom…and Carl! They were supposed to meet her and Logan here…they mustn't come now… but it was too late. They stood in the doorway, shock and surprise on their faces as they saw the metal monster in the room, saw Jubilee lying on the floor, apparently bound, and saw Logan's headless, limbless torso on the floor. And that was the last thing they saw, as two appendages at the ends of the telescoping tendrils turned into a deadly adamantium blade, slammed into their bodies, hurled them back against the walls, and sent them into eternal darkness.
Jubilee froze, her disbelieving eyes seeing nothing but the bodies around her. Then she began to scream in shock and anguish. The screaming stopped as the robot-like monster struck her across the face with a club he morphed his arms into, then it scooped her up carelessly and tucked her under its arm. Shattering the glass doors calmly, it stepped out onto the small balcony, activated the anti-grav units in its 'feet', and flew off into the darkening sky toward its programmed destination, leaving behind the ruined apartment and the dead bodies.