L.H.Q.
A strange calm filled Dorian as he opened his weapons cabinet, his Agents were quickly decreasing in number, some were falling to the shadows while the other were cut off from him, Sofie could be any number of things, his career was in Jeopardy. He had lost more or less everything, all he had left and all he could rely on was himself. He would fight like he never fought before, and by the dark leviathans that made him immortal, he will not go down by himself.
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Luckily for Skinner, the Underground was vacant of staff members and Agents who had disappeared, evacuated or sent to stop the Shadows in Greenwich.
"…Now turn left." said Tanner.
"Okay, I'm here." said Skinner.
Skinner was a few feet away from the Archives Department, he held up his shotgun as he kicked the door open.
The Archives Department was a massive hall with endless rows of cabinets, the only person there was a young brunette of her later twenties sitting at a desk in the corner reading a book of sonnets.
"Mr. Skinner, please put that gun away!" said the Archivist in an American accent, southern Californian to be specific.
"Oh, I'm reluctant to do that. Do they tell everybody about Shadows?"
"No, it's my job to know."
"How come?" asked Skinner as he looked around to make sure no one was hiding, keeping his hands on the shotgun at all times.
"I'm the Archivist, that's how I know your name, that's how I know you were born in Manchester in November the 5th of 1866 as Rodney Bartholomew Skinner and served two years with the military when you were eighteen, went back and had a failed attempt at a career in poetry so had to turn to crime to make ends meet, you met Hawley Griffin in 1895 whom you stole the Invisibility process from and had it applied to you by a physics student."
"That's quit enough."
"After the events of 1904 you traveled the world enhancing your skills, learning swordsmanship from Berber of Algeria, intelligence techniques from Russian spies, guerilla warfare from Che Guevara-"
"I said it's enough!" said Skinner who was impressed by her accuracy, "So, you know everything about me?"
"No." said the Archivist, "I know everything about every Agent and Operative of the League."
"So, do you know anything about an Operative from the fifties by the first name of James and aliases of Logan and Wolverine?"
"Let me check," said the Archivist, and then her eyes rolled back and then up as if they made a full spin and again, several times and rapidly till she returned to normal.
"Yes, James Howlett, born in Alberta, Canada during the 1860s to Tom Logan and Elizabeth Howlett, a married woman, but raised as the son of her husband, John Howlett. Worked directly with Mr. Gray throughout the fifties and sixties till he defected, sighting political reasons. You'll find his full file in the form of a microfiche in row six, cabinet twelve."
"Thanks." said Skinner suspiciously.
"My pleasure."
"You should leave, this place will be getting interesting in a while."
"My shift finished while we were speaking, so I think I will. Goodnight."
"Yeah…"
Skinner suspiciously watched the Archivist as she got up and put her blazer on, picked up her purse and walked out the door. As soon as she was gone, he went to the designated cabinet and collected Logan's file, buried it in his pocket and called Chas to come and pick him up in twenty minutes time. He next had to plant the explosives.
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Logan's elevator stopped suddenly, and no matter how many times Logan hit the button, it wouldn't budge. He was getting suddenly paranoid and prepared for an attack.
His enhanced hearing picked up on the sound of blades slicing through concrete walls, just a few seconds before Kroenen came crashing down through the elevator roof.
Kroenen went on to stab the fallen Logan in the back repeatedly, then pulled him up by the hair and prepared to cut off his head when Logan's claws blocked his rotating blade.
Logan's eyes widened in Anger and head-butted the Nazi assassin out of the elevator, through the elevator doors which parted just in time.
Logan went after the masked man and picked him up only to be nearly blinded by a slice of the blade, he stepped back and recovered, the two went on to fight, their blades desecrating each other's body, but neither ever falling down. Kroenen was able to slice a large portion of flesh from Logan's face, exposing the bone.
Logan screamed in pain and rage, his eyes went wide as he grabbed Kroenen by the face and head-butted him so hard that his mask was dented, then hissed, "Fuck this shit.", and decapitated Kroenen with a powerful blow from a single claw.
Logan looked at the headless body as it stood in place, the arms jerked upwards as if to continue to fight then the knees buckled and the corpse fell to the ground.
"Though so."
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Crawley, West Sussex
The hulking mass of a transformed Jekyll went soaring through the air and landed amidst a group of Agents, they managed to fire a few rounds into him which barely grazed him and only encouraged him to clobber them left and right, sending limp bodies of shattered bones and bleeding wounds through the air of that warm summer night.
The Agents were starting to get more organized, acting more like a well tuned government trained semi-military detail, but Zorba's troops still gave them hell. Men were falling on both sides, at this point it was anybody's fight. A helicopter baring the League's insignia then arrived and it's pilot started gunning down attackers with it's miniguns.
None of it mattered to Jekyll presently, he had a specific mission. He walked through a hole in the facility's wall caused by a missile hit.
Project FATE stood before him, some parts were still damaged, and some had been repaired. He picked up a piece of debris and hurled it at a group of electronics wired to the computer. He used a massive iron support beam and started clobbering everything and everyone who tried to stop him on his way as he marched on towards the arcane machine, comprised of Ancient Egyptian Artifacts used to search for lost treasure, connected together for the purpose of finding anyone.
A loud thud he heard behind him, followed by a cockney voice saying, "Back for more, are you?"
Jekyll turned around looked at Caine Marko, his massive arms barely able to fir into the sleeves of his black coat.
"Oh, yeah."
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As soon as Bond pushed open the door, he spotted an explosive right on the threshold and was forced to retreat, the explosion sent him flying through the air and landing on his back at the bottom f the staircase.
"Do you know what they say about the deepest circle of hell, if such a place exists, huh James?"
Elle Driver walked down the stairs to the wounded Bond, a sword in her hand and a shotgun strapped to her back.
"I may have heard about it." said Bond in pain as he tried to get up.
"They say that the Devil is frozen in ice, and in each mouth of his three heads is one of the worst sinners of mankind. And do you know they are? They're Cain, Brutus and Judas Iscariot. They're betrayers, Bond, your kind. And right now, I'm going to send you to them."
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East London Docks, Warehouse 64
Judas lay on the cement floor, battered, broken and bleeding, Nomak and Trick had been brutally killing him slowly and even cut off his left leg, and said they would cut off his other limbs as the night progressed.
"Look at you, you're pathetic." said Trick as he twisted the sword he'd buried in Judas's stomach.
"Kiss my arse, Trick."
The torture continued, more sadistic and painful than before, and Judas' screams could be heard from several blocks away.
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Crawley, West Sussex
Jekyll's punch knocked Juggernaut flat on his back, the brute then went on to stomp on the mutant's chest, willing to ground him to pulp, but his assault was soon cut short when Juggernaut grabbed his foot and hurled him into a wall.
He had to sabotage that machine before he was too tired and return to normal, which was no more than five or maybe ten minutes away. Jekyll got up and starred down his opponent, both powerhouses then charged at each other and collided, Jekyll used his bigger stature to his advantage as he tried to choke the smaller man to death, eventually the man's resistance started to weaken and Jekyll tossed him aside and made his way to the machine.
As his great fist was a mere six inches away, he suddenly felt something slowing him down, he looked down and saw Juggernaut latching onto his leg, then forcefully stabbing him below the knee with an iron bar, twisting it to accelerate the bleeding in the process.
Jekyll collapsed to the ground with a scream, his leg was bleeding profusely, Jekyll suddenly realized that the end was near as he felt himself change.
The Juggernaut looked down at the pale, bare-chested man as he lay on the floor bleeding, utterly pathetic. Sadistically, he kneeled down to deliver the blow of mercy, when Jekyll made a sudden move, throwing something at the machine.
Tracking the small object with his eyes, Juggernaut realized that it was a grenade. Wide eyed, the mutant enforcer forgot about the fallen Jekyll and rushed to drive the explosive away.
He managed to slap it away just in time as it exploded after he had tossed it away. He then spun around to see a once again transformed Jekyll charging at him full speed.
The unstoppable abomination collided with Juggernaut as he buried his shoulder into his gut, maintained his momentum as he carried Marko along and rammed him into the machine, shattering it into scores of pieces.
As the two landed on the floor, Jekyll crouched on top of Marko, raised his head high up and with one final roar, came down and slammed his head into Marko's, then repeated it, and again for five more times till the Juggernaut was knocked out cold.
Jekyll fell to his side, he had to reach deep inside to find the strength to transform himself again, he once again started to change back to the weaker form of his normal self, and then darkness settled as he fell into a sleep.
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L.H.Q.
"Wolverine, What took you so long?"
Dorian sat at his leather chair, arrogant as ever, a fencing foil resting on the bureau before him.
"I had to take care of something."
"Kroenen?"
"Yeah."
"My my, You killed Kroenen, that's something no one ever managed to do. Did you know he survived being impaled in a pit filled with iron spikes with a massive cog on top of him for three months?"
"Jeez." said Logan emotionlessly as he extended his claws, Dorian got up and picked the foil.
"I'll make you an offer, Wolverine. Why don't you retract the butter knives and I'll give you your past?"
"No."
"You can't kill me, I can't kill you. Come morning, some of my side will be dead, as will some of yours. I'll have to re-staff the league and I would like you at my right side. What reason do you have to say no? I'll give you the answer to the questions that had plagued you for twenty years, I'll give you power, and I will refrain from going on with any of the plans I had for you students."
"You are going to stay away from my kids, because you're going to die very soon."
Logan then lunged at Dorian and buried all six claws into his chest, Gray barely flinched.
"So, that's how it's going to be, two Immortals locked in a vicious battle for all eternity, huh?"
Gray stuck the sword through Logan's thigh and mightily punched him in the jaw.
"I may have spared you that night, but not tonight. And guess what, Logan, this fight will be ending abruptly, because as it so happens to be, I can kill you."
And with that, Dorian buried a syringe that was hidden in his sleeve into Logan's neck. Logan's clawed fist punched Dorian in retaliation and sent him flying back into a cabinet.
Logan felt something rushing through his veins, a strange substance that was changing him. He pulled the syringe out and tossed aside as sudden fatigue overcame him, fatigue so great that he couldn't keep his claws extracted.
Dorian got up and smiled in glee as he looked upon his old comrade, hunched over on the floor, out of breath.
"Son…. of a bitch!" Logan cursed, "What did you give me?"
"I'm sure you've heard of the miracle drug produced by Worthington Pharmaceuticals," said Dorian as he walked to his desk, "It's capable of eradicating the mutant X gene and de-evolving a mutant once it's in the blood stream."
"You asshole." Logan cursed, barely audible as the drug was taking it's toll, he fell to his side.
Dorian hit a hidden button on his desk and a panel in the wall opened up, exposing them to the London night and allowing warm breezes to enter.
"Oh, don't worry. Due to your regenerative abilities, the drug won't de-power you for good, you will eventually revert. No no, Mr. Howlett, the drug won't kill you…" said Dorian as he pulled up a limp Logan, "But the fall definitely will."
Dorian then kicked Logan into the opened panel, sending him plummeting from eleven floors high.
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Greenwich, London
Dr. Sebastian Cain stood by Natalya, who was entirely oblivious to his presence due to Cain's transparent self and all.
He grinned an invisible wicked grin as he looked at her as she worked tirelessly, she was on the verge of breaking the system. He could stop her right now.
No, he thought, it was too easy. He could still do other things and still stop her in time.
He looked closer at her, at her cascading raven black hair and creamy white skin, utterly tempting.
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Greenwich
Elle tossed her sword and gun aside as Bond got up.
"Come on, Bond. You may have been a traitor, but at least put up a fight."
Bond raised his fists in a boxing pose.
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Natalya suddenly felt warm breath on the back of her neck, as if though someone was standing right behind her.
Looking back, she saw no one, so she forgot about the whole thing and turned back to the console and resumed her task.
Dr. Cain got closer to her, watching her as she was trying to crack the system. Suddenly, she managed to have a great breakthrough, as an empty loading bar appeared with the sentence
"Shutdown of the All Seeing Eye is Pending Confirmation. Are you sure you want to Proceed?"
"Finally!" Natalya rejoiced as she hit the YES button.
Cain had to make the move right then, he quietly placed a hand on Natalya's waist then started to brush upwards.
Natalya jerked out of her seat as she heard a snicker coming out of nothingness, she instantly figured out who it was. She picked up one of the technician's guns and raised it, pointing at random points.
"What are you planning on doing with that, Bitch?" asked Cain as he moved from point to point to throw Natalya off guard.
Natalya fired at where she figured the voice was coming from, but the snickering didn't stop.
She looked at the screen and saw that the Shut Down was being overridden, all her work was about to go to waste.
She fired the bullets at the space by the console without hitting the console itself, and as the gun clicked empty, she rushed to stop Cain, knowing very well what she was risking. She hastily reinitiated the shutdown just as Cain wrapped an arm around her neck.
She raised a booted foot and stomped the heel down onto Cain bare foot, then whipped her neck back, ramming the top of her skull into Cain's nose.
He loosened his grip on her as he yelped in pain, allowing her to ask his hold and dive toward one of the bags they had brought in. She frantically searched for a suitable weapon, but the only weapon she could find was a grenade launcher that Turkish had previously used earlier in the night. It was already loaded, she raised up as she backed into a corner.
"Better think real well where you aim that gun, you cunt, cause if you miss me, I'm going to do all kinds of nasty stuff to ya'."
She did think about it thoroughly, weighing every possibility of failure or success, and finally made her choice.
She aimed at the roof and fired, the grenade exploded four feet away from a fire detector which was set off and the water sprinklers sprang into action.
"Smart move, but it'll do you no good."
She could see the outline of Cain's figure as it was covered with a layer of water.
She tired to bat him with the grenade launcher but he ducked out of the way and knocked her to the ground, then crouched atop her and wrapped his fingers around her neck and started slowly choking her, allowing just the smallest amount of air to pass through her wind pipes to ensure she wouldn't miss out on the pain. She tried to tear his hands from her neck but couldn't, her feet kicked insanely as she was being suffocated.
Cain had to stop to stop the shutdown again, giving Natalya a chance to call for help, crying, "Turkish! James!"
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Turkish ducked for cover as the onslaught of bullets rained from up the staircase, the firefight was still going on. He heard a scream in the distance but couldn't fathom who it was or what it was, he was more concerned with how to stop a dozen Agents from coming down there with only two magazine of ammunition left.
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Bond felt the sharpness of the metal iron pressing against his skin and digging deeper into his neck as Elle Driver pulled on it, and smiled in glee as she heard him choke.
Suddenly, he heard the faint call for help from Natalya, his instinct was to go and help her, which was hard to do given his current situation.
Elle's sword was just out of his reach, but he had to get it. He leaned forward and the wire dug deeper into his throat, almost cutting it, but he didn't care as he grabbed the sword by it's tip, take hold on the handle by the other hand and place the blade on his shoulder, then pulling it back into Elle's stomach.
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Skinner walked out the League's entrance, having just finished planting plastic explosives in strategic locations, set to detonate the explosives and bring the building crumbling down like a house of cards at five o'clock exactly. He had finished his mission and had to get out, wait till Logan was out and hit the button.
But something had gone awry, there was a totaled car right upfront, something had landed on it from a great high and totally wrecked the roof.
"Oh, no! God NO!"
It was Logan, he had obviously failed, Skinner rushed to him and felt his neck and sensed a pulse.
As Skinner wondered how could Logan not have healed by this point, the mutant made a sudden movement, coughing a bit of Blood.
"Sk… Skinner."
"Don't say anything."
Chas soon arrived and cursed at the sight.
"Take him to Heathrow." said Skinner as he stripped Logan of his Jacket and put it on himself.
"What? He's half dead, he belongs in a hospital!"
"You can't, just hide him for some time and then get him out of the country."
Skinner stuffed the microfiche into Logan's pocket then tossed a roll of pounds at the cab driver.
"Thanks, mate. You've been a big help." said Skinner as he walked towards the building.
"Where the hell are you goin'?" shouted Chas.
"I must see this to the bitter end."