The first thing Laura felt when she woke was that her nose was itchy. She groggily tried to raise her hand and scratch it, but she was hindered by something strapped on to her wrists. She heard the helicopter blades above her and the soldiers screaming to each other over the noise. She opened her eyes and saw her predicament. The first thing she saw was the soldiers that were sitting on a few chairs mounted to the floor. A few of the others had taken their seat at a bench-like protrusion on the inner wall. Outside she could see the shadow of the helicopter passing through the landscape beneath them. She didn't want to see what she was caught in. That would make it real. She finally looked down. She was caught in a large vertical standing stretcher and her arms, hands, legs and feet were bound with leather straps. There was also a large strap over her chest. She started to breathe heavily and began to thrash in the stretcher, her heart pounding. She couldn't get them off. She needed to get them off. She pulled and pulled but the straps were sitting so tight that they already bored into her skin. The soldiers were looking at her now with tired and resentful eyes. She saw how Captain Blonsky, who had been seated in a seat nearest the cockpit, stood up in the same strange hunched position he had been in the interrogation chamber. With perfect balance in the moving helicopter, he wandered up to her and looked her in the eyes. The cut she had given him had nearly vanished, and only a little bit of scar tissue remained over his eye. Laura thought he looked bored, though there was something else there. Something that scared her.

"You done?" he yelled at her over the noise of the helicopter. "You're not getting out of those."

Laura trashed at him with a snarl, Blonsky didn't even blink. He grabbed her cheeks and pulled her head forward. His grasp was stronger that Laura had ever felt, and she could feel tears forming in her eyes. His face changed expression so fast that it was almost comical if it hadn't been so terrifying. It had gone from emotionless to hatred in a split second. Blonsky leaned in closer until he was right next to her ear. He talked in a growling whisper, loud enough only for Laura to hear over the other sounds.

"You killed one of my men, you know. Tretch was a good soldier, and you gutted him like a pig for the slaughter." He paused for a second, apparently trying to control himself. He took a breath and continued now loud enough for everybody to hear.

"Don't get me wrong, you were defending yourself, I can respect that. But you're not going to be able to do that much longer after what you've done here to me... and my troop." He had added the last part almost like an afterthought. Some of the soldiers looked at Blonsky with raised eyebrows, then unsurely at each other. The captain didn't seem to notice but continued on in his gravely strongly accented voice.

"You know what? I'll tell everyone what you did and how you should be treated, how you deserve to be treated. But look on the bright side, where we are going, well. Let's just say that where we're going you're not going to be the only monster."

He pushed her back into the stretcher and gave her a lopsided smirk.

"Did you know that he had a family?" Blonsky yelled at her, overpowering the roar of spinning blades "Did you know that he had a girlfriend back home? Did that even register in your mind?"

"Él era un mal hombre. ¡Intentó cap…!" Laura yelled back in defiance before Blonsky grabbed her by the throat and made her stop. She grasped for air as he pushed her further into the stretcher. Blonskey leaned in closer towards her.

"It's rude to speak another language with people who can't understand it. You exclude people from the conversation…" he slowly whispered by her ear.

The vain in his temple was pulsating again, turning slowly green. Laura couldn't breathe, she tried to get free, she unsheathed her hand claws and began to helplessly scratch the air. Her hands were pointed up into the air, and she could only watch as the captain's smirk turned into a cruel smile. She tried to plead with him to stop, but nothing came out. And in her darkening vision, she could see his eyes turning green. His hand pressing hard against her windpipe. Then Blonsky suddenly released her and she drew in a deep breath, coughing and wheezing. As she was trying to fruitlessly get away from her attacker her vision started to come back and she saw that Blonsky was kneeling before her. He had his hand over his heart and looked like he was in a lot of pain, heavy pants came from him and made Laura think of a dog she had seen by one of the gas stations she, Logan and Charles had filled up on fuel for the car. Only that dog hadn't had the same look of unbridled rage. Blonsky glared at a soldier with a large nose and a strong jawline who had taken out what looked like a black remote pointed at the Captain. He gave a small mock salute to the Captain.

"Yeah, You're way over the line here, sir. Think of some clouds or something because you need to calm down." the soldier said with a calm smile, though Laura could hear some fear in his voice. The captain let out such a frenzied yell that the hair on the back of Laura's neck stood up. It was the same mindless fury that she had heard from X-24 when he had fought her and Logan in the woods. The soldier pressed the remote again, and Blonsky turned and twisted on the floor before he collapsed, breathing heavily. He looked at the soldier and nodded once and held up an okay sign. The soldier put the remote in his chest pocket and nodded back slowly. The other soldiers with their hands on their guns, now large rifles, slowly disengaged the safety. The process of rising from the floor seemed to take a lot out of Blonsky and when he stood he turned to Laura, sweat dripping from his forehead. Laura throat still ached, but the pain was quickly disappearing. Blonsky stared at her throat with interest before looking her in the eyes. Laura didn't turn away.

"Look at your future, Laura," Blonsky said calmly now with a strain in his voice. "A monster now tamed."

After that, Laura didn't say much. If she even tried to adjust herself in the uncomfortable stretcher, the soldier would see. That would get the Captain's attention, and he would simply stare at her unblinkingly until she stopped. Her heart would then jump, and she'd stop whatever she was doing. The only thing she could do was feel her restraints and test their strength. She would do that carefully and slowly, one after the other. They were on pretty tight, they had been through after she had killed one of them. The only thing that was fruitful was that her left foot's restraints were loose enough to get herself out of it if she wanted to. But what was she able to do with a foot? She had a claw in there that she could use but she couldn't move her leg that much so her options were limited. What if the Captain saw her doing something? She wanted to kill that man, almost more than anyone. He had been wrong. She wasn't a monster. That man had been bad and so he had deserved it. But she had maybe taken the life of a person that just had been near her. The father in the forest. That man had been innocent, only at the wrong place at the wrong time. This man she had killed had been bad. No matter what the Captain said. He had to be.

Laura had a pretty good view of the land as they flew, she watched as they soared over a forest that looked strikingly similar to the one she had spent several days in. They flew over trees with crimson and yellow leaves. The wind was picking up and so every tree swayed in a chaotic pattern. It would have been pretty if it wasn't for the bad company. They soon flew past the forest and back into what Laura only could guess was North Dakota. The whole journey, the fighting, the death had been for nothing. Laura was back in the United States of America in the hands of people who wanted her for their own purposes. She sagged in her restraints. But if this was the Reaves, maybe…

"Have you found anyone else?" she yelled at her captors, hope and fear in equal measure mixed in her voice. The hope sank as quickly as it had come when she saw the confused faces of the soldiers when they looked at her. The Captain quietly rose from his seat and stood before her again. He knelt down to her level and looked at her.

"You weren't alone?" he asked with the smirk reappearing. Laura looked away from him. "Are they out in the forest too? Hiding and waiting to pounce on the first lumberjack they see?"

Laura didn't answer. The Captain kept examining her and she felt his lingering stare. She wanted to get away from this man. She didn't want him close to her. The Captain stretched out a hand to grab her again.

"Captain Blonsky, we're here. We're setting down, sir" one of the soldiers who was looking outside one of the windows yelled towards his superior. Blonsky's approsh stopped as he looked back at the soldier. He nodded, seemingly to no one but himself. His hand approached again as Laura tried to move away from it with no success. To her surprise, the Captain only moved away some hair that had fallen over her eyes.

"We'll talk more later, doll." he said with the same smirk he had had before and gave her two hard pats on the cheek. As he walked back to his seat and strapped himself in, she could only watch and wait to find an opening to escape. She shuddered. Only this time she wouldn't have help from anyone, she had to make do by herself.

The chopper landed with a thump and the blades started to slow down. The constant noise had given her highly sensitive ears tinnitus, but that would vanish after a little while as it always did. A ramp was lowered from the helicopter and a soldier started to push Laura's stretcher down it. They were at some military base. She had never been to one before and this one seemed very large. Iron fences surrounded the area and men and women in camouflage gear ran around, performing different tasks both related and unrelated to the newly arrived helicopter.
A soldier who had quickly started to refuel the helicopter noticed her on the stretcher, and she could see one of his eyebrows shooting up. He then quickly looked away as the soldiers that had been on the helicopter passed beside him, only glancing at Blonsky. If the captain noticed, he didn't pay him any mind. They moved through the base, and as they did more and more people noticed her and she could see confusion, concern, and fear when they looked at her and the troop escorting her. Yet no one said or did anything. After a short while, they reached an airfield and she got turned towards a large airplane. It wasn't as big as she had seen on some pictures but it was still so large that she wondered how it was supposed to stay in the air. Joey, one of the X23 project, had been able to make things fly. Maybe they had to have a person like him on the plane to make it run? The soldiers pushed her up the ramp and into the plane. The plane looked a little bit smaller on the inside with all the chairs that littered the main floor… main deck? She didn't know what it was called, but that didn't stop the soldiers to push her beside the main compartment and into a smaller one that was littered with metal and wooden crates, all strapped to the walls with what looked like black nets. The soldiers tied the stretcher to some hook-like protrusion in the wall with some rope until it didn't rock much when it was shook. In front of her sat an ominous looking chair, waiting to be filled.

"Was it me to take the first watch or was that you, Loop?" one of the soldiers with a surprisingly high voice asked the others.

"It's you, Gasser. Don't fucking try it." one of the others said through a mouthful of chewing-gum, he sounded highly annoyed.

"Airsickness getting to you again, mate?" the first one said with a mocking smile, the gum-chewer now looked at the first one with almost Logan-levels of irritation.

"No, just squeaky bastards who won't take responsibility." Loop said slowly while strapping the rope to the last hook. "So sit the fuck down, I'll come get you in an hour and a half."

"You really are the definition of 'stick up your ass'," Gasser remarked as he reluctantly sat down on his chair. Laura could now see that this Gasser was the same soldier that had used the strange remote on the captain. He was shorter than the other soldiers and Laura could now see that his nose wasn't actually that big. It did, however, look like someone had thrown a fire extinguisher at it.

"If you can't shut up, I'm going to make you the definition of boomstick up your ass.'" Loop said as he left through the door again leaving Gasser and Laura alone.

"That one is really bad at banter. He takes it too seriously." The soldier said to apparently no one in particular. He then turned to Laura and pointed at her face.

"Looks like we're going to have a long talk you and me. Are you more of a talker or a listener?" he asked as he leaned back as casually as he could in his chair. Laura glared at the man, he didn't seem perturbed.

"Even with that strange outburst you had before… I figure the latter." He clasped his hands together."Great, we're going to make an excellent combo then."

Laura perked up as she heard the loud voices of a lot of other people boarding the plane. Gasser looked behind him.

"Yeah, it's a big transfer today. A lot of people are getting sick of the work environment, so we need some replacements. People want to see their families you know." Laura didn't know exactly what he was talking about. But she understood people wanting to meet their families She was however not going to let him see that. So she demanded that her face be set in a permanent glare. She was getting pretty good at them. Traveling with Logan for a few hundred miles without speaking will do that to you. Gasser cocked his head at Laura and peculiar look flowed across his face.

"How's your nose?" he asked with one raised eyebrow.

"Fine," she said shortly, still glaring. Gasser leaned in closer and inspected it. He nodded and then flicked it. Laura blinked and almost sneezed from the impact as Gasser laughed at her. She glared at him again which Gasser seemed to find even funnier.

"Man, I wish I had your powers, then I wouldn't have this broken down thing" he pointed at his own nose.

"Did the Captain brake yours too?" she asked carefully. Gasser smiled and shook his head.

"Nah, but I think he really wants to sometimes." He fiddled with his belt and took out and showed the little black remote Laura had seen him use in the Helicopter. Laura examined it as closely as she could. It was pretty unassuming, just a black square in some sort of metal. It had a keypad with numbers and four buttons under it. One green, one yellow, one red and one black.

"What is that?" she asked curiously and Gasser leaned in closer.

"Classified" he whispered and put it back in his belt. "Very hush hush"

Laura looked away from the soldier. Of course, he wasn't going to answer her.

"Hey, cheer up. No need to beat yourself up over being a dummy." Gasser said as he once again leaned back into his chair.

"You're a dummy," Laura said under her breath. Gasser snorted at that.

"Great response kid. Real hurtful. We're gonna have to work on that banter of yours"

It sounded like the last of the passengers had entered the plane now as Laura could hear the stairs being raised. Gasser looked out through the door, he sighed and appered to be very bored.

"I should probably listen to this," he said as he opened the door and looked out.

The sound of a few hundred people talking filled the air they found a place to sit. Laura couldn't see what was going on since she was facing the wrong way. The only thing she could see on the other side was through the small window of the opened door, and that was only the ceiling of the plane. Then a loud voice broke through the crowded soundscape.

"Quiet!"

It needed only to be said once, the chattering disappeared so fast that it had almost sounded like someone turning off a radio. Laura recognized the voice. It was the voice of the Captain.

"I hope you've had a nice little autumn-break here at Camp Boot. You've wrestled in the sand, swam in the lake and played soldiers, but now the break is over and it's back to the hard school of life and death." There was a pause, still, everyone was silent. The only sound was a heavy set of boots pacing back and forth.

"After a few months here, you probably think you know that school pretty well, right?" There was no response. Blonsky continued on without missing a beat.

"Well, I'm here to tell you that you don't know shit. So you've done some pushups and fired a rifle at a moving target. You don't know what it's like to try to push yourself up when you have shrapnel stuck in your leg. You don't know what it's like to fire a rifle when the target is trying to kill you too. And you don't understand what kind of world we live in now." Laura could practically hear the soldiers shifting uncomfortably in their seats.

"Enhanced individuals are becoming more and more prevalent by the day. More and more reports of large-scale terror attacks are coming in every day from around the world. The Avengers are not enough, they cannot be in New York and Los Angeles at the same time and that means that we are the first line of defense."

Gasser huffed and, being out of sight of the Captain, put his feet up on some crates and leaned back farther into his chair.

"But ignorance is not an excuse. When I came here, I saw a few of you glancing at the asset currently kept in the cargo hold. Some with passing interest and I can't blame you for that. But I saw some looking with concern, some with doubts, some with empathy. Your concern is not needed! Your doubts are a distraction! Your empathy… a trojan horse." Blonsky had gone from calm to raging in a second and Gasser finally seemed to pay attention. He seemed to concentrate on something as he looked at the door. But then he shrugged and continued to relax. Blonsky continued though his voice was calmer now.

"You are going to be handling assets like the one in the cargo hold on a daily basis and you do not want to make mistakes around them. We lost a soldier today for not being careful enough with the asset. Even if they have tragic stories, even if they look like you. They are not like you and people will die if you treat them like people. Congratulations, you're now the first line of defense. Try not to die within the first week."

With that, the speech was over and it took a while before the soldiers started talking again.

"Is he always angry?" Laura asked quietly, she didn't want anyone else to hear. Gasser raised an eyebrow at her.

"Blonsky? Nah, most of that was an act. It's when he gets too deep into character that I need to step in."

"I thought he was your superior?" Laura asked confused. Gasser looked taken aback.

"He is, I just know when he's going to go over the line. So I have orders from the higher-ups to step in when he does," he said a little suspiciously."How did you know he was my superior?"

"You're a specialist. He's a captain. I can see your insignia," Laura said simply.

"Now where did a little girl like you learn a little thing like that?" Gasser said leaning forward in his chair.

"Classified" Laura retorted quickly. Learning about military ranks had been part of growing up with mercenaries as guards. Many of them had previously been part of the US army, and some still showed their ranks as a sign of pride and status. Gasser's eyebrows both rose, he rocked back in the chair and snorted a short and loud laugh.

"I deserved that I guess. But a word of advice, just because you entertained me," he said suddenly serious."That's not going to entertain Blonsky… and it's not going to entertain General Ross."

"Who's General Ross?" Laura asked carefully. Blonsky's eyebrows shot up again.

"You don't know about Thaddeus Thunderbolt Ross?" Laura shook her head and Gasser got a curious look on his face.

"Well, He's not actually officially serving as a general anymore, everybody just calls him that because of his massive influence and continual force of habit. He's actually the secretary of state now and that keeps him busy with a lot of other matters. Didn't you learn this in school or something?"

Laura shook her head again, and Gasser proceeded to scratch his.

"Well, what matters is that he makes it a point of interest to meet anyone new enhanced that comes into his… possession."

Laura got a tight feeling in her stomach. 'Possession'? This sounded suspiciously similar to the reavers way of doing things. However, these people didn't fully operate like the reavers. Firstly, they hadn't known about the others in the X-23 project and if they were hired by the Facility, they definitely should know about that. That was if they didn't lie of course but Laura couldn't figure out why they would. Second, Laura had never heard of the Reavers having large military bases like the one she had seen. Blonsky had even said that he was with the United States military, but she didn't completely trust that. She hadn't thought about it much before, but Blonsky had a weird dialect. In the travels from Mexico to Canada, Laura had heard a bunch of different accents from different people, but none of them had sounded like his. She had of course not been in the entire United States but she thought she had probably been in the majority of it so it wasn't a far off guess that he wasn't from the States.

"Why?" Laura asked Gasser after a while.

"Who knows? Personally, I think it's because Ross is a man that likes control. He likes to know what he is going to be dealing with." Gasser responded thoughtfully. Laura shook her head.

"No, why did you take me?" she asked Gasser took out some earphones and a black-green phone from his belt.

"That's classified you know, and Blonsky likes to keep his captures in the dark as long as possible, fearing the worst. I may push people's buttons, but I'm not gonna push his." Gasser responded as he put one of the earphones in. He then stopped and looked more carefully at Laura. He sighed.

"Alright, I will tell you one thing, since you'll find that out fairly shortly. But don't tell Ross or Blonsky I said anything."Laura gave a microscopic nod, she was going to keep that promise. Gasser did the same concentrated expression he had done before as he looked at her.

"I think I can trust you with this." he leaned in closer.

"The place we are currently headed is called the Raft."

Author's notes

As I suspected… things taking longer than expected is now a theme. But at least it's finally done. I have been extremely busy the last month. Got a new apartment and a new job as well as Tabletop games and putting on a Theater taking a lot of my spare time. So generally I didn't have the time and/or the energy to write this. Things have calmed down a little bit now so hopefully, the next chapter should come out a little bit sooner… though I'm even doubting that myself.

I have not really written villains before and I found it extremely enjoyable. It's also nice to write some proper dialogues instead of walls and walls of text :). Well, see you next time!