Evangelion: X-Treme Measures
Chapter 6: Unleashing An Animal
He's in there. Logan thought with a look of rage on his face. He walked up to a bar's entrance, the bar itself was an old barn that had been abandoned long ago that had been turned into a bar when the town was set up after Second Impact. Logan had followed a scent from the hospital to here. He was at the hospital because Kayla was dead, the official report says a bear was the culprit, and if Logan had been an ordinary man he would have believed that. But he had seen too much in his long life to not notice it. That scent.
He had been noticing this scent following him around where ever he went the last few weeks. Work, home, the school Kayla worked at, it was truly following him. But whenever he would start to investigate the scent would vanish. The smell had some faint familiarity in it but Logan had pushed the thought out of his mind. That was until Stryker came.
He was working yesterday at the lumber yard when his old boss and Zero showed up and told him the commander of NERV was dead. He of course asked why this involved him, he like the rest of the world had heard about the good deeds the organization had done (although it reminded him too much of his few days with Weapon X), but if they were missing a seat at the company picnic who was he to care? Then the told him about Victor. He stared at the Colonel as he told the stories of Weapon X's interactions with NERV up til Gendo's demise with a grim curiosity about what had happened to his brother.
When asked about joining up with them to hunt Victor he had laughed in their faces.
"If Victor's getting himself in trouble, it's probably your fault." He had told them, in all honesty that was probably true, but truth and Stryker rarely went together.
The next day a co-worker had come running up with a phone and told him it was an emergency. It was the hospital, saying Kayla had been attacked. He dropped the phone, hopped in the car and went full speed all the way to the hospital, but by the time he got there she was gone. Now here he was, to kill Victor.
He opened the door and looked around the bar. The place was not a busy as it would usually be, only a few scattered crews and drunks. His eyes scanned the customers one at a time, until he came upon a large man, with a black trench-coat, hunched over the bar.
Logan wanted nothing more than to, march up and skewer him on his claws in front of everybody, but his instincts held him back. So he walked up to the bar as calmly as he could and sat down beside Victor. Victor looked over at his little brother, and smirked.
"Bottle of Whiskey." Logan told the barman. The bar tender gave him the bottle plus a glass, already filled with the dark liquid. The short mutant drank from the glass slowly and glanced at Victor. He finished his drink and set down the now empty glass.
"Why'd you do it?" He asked without looking at his brother.
"Why?" Victor said so casually, as if talking about the weather. "Really, I was bored. You never write, you never call, how else am I suppose to get you attention?"
Logan looked at his brother as if he were crazy, the look in Victor's eyes seemed to confirm it.
"Really it's your fault in a way." Victor said pouring some of the whiskey into his glass. "I mean all these years of rest and relaxation have made you soft and messy. You sensed me. You could have found me and we could have talked like civilized human beings, but noooooo! You had to be stupid and then I had to kill your little girlfriend just to catch up on old ti-". His mocking ended with a Whiskey bottle to the face.
Victor rolled out of his seat and stood up quickly, only to be met with Logan's right fist slamming into his face. Logan wasn't finished, he punched him with his left hand while extending his claws, leaving a large gash on Victor's face.
"Is that all you got?" Victor said with a smile, while his wounds healed. Logan charged at him, and Victor met him head on. While Logan went for a stabbing punch with his claws Victor just slammed his hands into the smaller man's shoulders, throwing him to the ground and throwing him across the room.
"Like I said Jimmy, you've gotten messy." Victor said walking towards the bar where he'd thrown Logan.
He was about to look over the bar to find his little brother when Logan popped up with a shotgun the bartender had for protection. He shot the weapon straight at Victor's face, but he moved his head enough to the side to just get the glancing spread of the gun.
Even with half his face shredded the man still smiled. "That tickled."
Logan dropped the gun and jumped over the bar, claws extended. He made a horizontal slash aimed at Victor's chest, while Victor went for his face. Both slashes connected spilling blood.
The two mutants staggered away from each other. Waiting for their abilities to heal them.
"We're going to be at this all day." Victor pointed out as his face healed up.
Logan snorted at the joke and said "Good". Victor smiled before closing the gap and swinging his clawed hands. Logan put up his claws to block, sending them through Victor's open palm.
The feral mutant roared in pain.
Logan seized the opportunity and heel kicked Victor in the chest, sending him through the barn doors. Logan ran outside to continue the fight but he saw no sign of Victor. He looked all around but couldn't find him.
"Looking for me?" He heard above him. He looked just as Victor descended upon him, slamming him into the ground. Before he could do anything Victor grabbed his head, and smashed it into the ground repeatedly.
Logan's brains were getting scrambled and he had to act on instinct. He shoved his claws through Victor's stomach making the man stop, before using a head-butt to get the mutant off of him.
"Still fighting like a man Jimmy?" Victor said holding his now broken nose, waiting for it to heal. "Haven't you realized we're not like most me-".
His little speech was responded to with a 4X4 to his already damaged face. Logan dropped the piece of wood and stabbed Victor's chest a few times hoping to puncture a lung , before one of his hands was caught.
"Alright no more playing around." Victor said, all jovial tones gone from his voice. He roared as he spun around Logan embedding his claws in his back before slamming his other hand on Logan's chest and tearing flesh away.
Logan roared in pain but soon found himself flying through the air, right into a moving truck! He was hurled over the vehicle from the impact and fell lifelessly onto the ground. He heard Victor coming closer but his head was still spinning from the impact with the truck, making him pretty useless at the moment.
Victor looked down upon his brother. He was disgusted and delighted at the site. How could this weakling be his brother? He raised his foot and smashed it on Logan's extended claws, breaking them and making him scream. Logan passed out from exertion and pain before Victor walked away.
2 hours later
Logan was flopped down on an operating table in the Hospital. The doctors had been told he had multiple puncture wounds, but when they ripped his shirt to begin the operation they found nothing.
"What is this some kind of joke? This guys fine." One of the doctor's said.
Suddenly Logan's eyes flew open. He stood up almost too fast for the doctor's to see.
"Where is he!" He asked grabbing a doctor. The doctor obviously not knowing what the man was talking about just shook his head while saying he didn't know.
"Now is it your problem?" He heard a voice say. Logan spun around to see William Stryker standing in the doorway.
He ran at the man and grabbed him shoving him through the door.
"Where is he!" He said wanting answers.
"I don't know, my people lost track of him soon after your fight with him. There's no sign of him." Stryker said trying to pry the mutants hands off of him.
"LIE! You know where he is! You have to know!" Logan said extending his claws.
"What are you going to do? Kill me? Not much incentive for me to tell you. Besides what would you do when you found him? He beat you Logan, and you know it. He was playing for most of that fight." Stryker said finally getting his suit free.
Logan just stumbled back and slid down the wall, knowing that he was right. He wasn't strong enough to kill Victor.
"But I can help you." He heard Stryker say. He looked at the army man to ask why but Stryker was one step ahead of him.
"Victor's killed the man responsible for NERV, the organization that's trying to save the world from the Angels'. He's now a liability for Weapon X."
"So you want me to work for you by killing Victor?" Logan asked with his classic cynicism.
"Consider it a win-win situation. I get rid of a nuisance and you get the tools and the information to kill Victor." Stryker said reaching his hands out to seal the deal.
Logan looked at the extended hand. He knew the resources the colonel had could really help him. But he had taken the man's help before and he didn't like where it lead him. He looked at the colonel with a skeptical glance.
"What kind of tools?" He asked. Stryker just smiled.
2 days later
Logan thought over the explanation he was given by Stryker once again as he was lowered into the tank that would give him his new "tools". They were going to lace his skeleton with the metal they had been trying to find in Africa all those years ago. The metal was near indestructible, and would make him, as Stryker said, unstoppable. He was also told it would be incredibly painful, if he made it at all. He was having second thoughts about this little operation Stryker set up. How could he kill Victor if he was dead?
An image of those six years with Kayla flashed in his mind, the trust of telling her about is mutation, her always telling him he wasn't just some mindless killing machine, her love, and his resolve was steeled again. No matter the pain, no matter the limits he had to surpass he would get revenge on Victor for what he'd done. He nodded his head to the doctors and the last sound he heard were the drills starting.
NERV Medical Wing 3 days later
Ritsuko was not happy when Col. Stryker had asked for this new patient to be put in the medical wing. But she was convinced it would be good for the pilots by the army man and relented. She was not as upset when she was asked to watch the man, as she wasn't doing any of the work on the Dummy Plug that Gendo had her doing, now that the powerful man was dead and buried. In fact she had deleted all evidence of that device from the MAGI, making sure she would be the only one to ever know about that sick machine her former boss tried to make her create. It made her shudder how he had made promises of the system surpassing her mother's MAGI system, but hey hindsight is 20/20.
Ritsuko pushed her heavy thought away as she came to the bedside of the patient of Col. Stryker and looked at his vitals. He seemed to be doing well, except for this coma he had been brought in. She gazed down at the man. Shorter than a few members of Team X, which she assumed he was here for, but not exactly super short either. He had a very unique hairdo, with some very long sideburns. He was also muscular, but not ripped. She checked his vitals one more time before turning away to leave and attend to her other duties.
That's when she felt a hand go around her throat and being pressed into a well muscled chest. The hand squeezed.
"Where am I?" A dark, grizzled voice said.
Ritsuko tried to answer but the hand around her throat was tightening. She grasped at it trying to remove it but to no avail.
"Where!" The stranger said again.
"N-N-NERV!" She scrambled out as she was able to get a small grip on the hand.
Another hand was raised into her view, when foot long metal claws extended from the knuckles with a snikt! Her eyes widened with both fear and fascination.
"Where's Stryker?" The voice said coldly.
"Logan! Buddy!" Wade said popping into view, surprising Ritsuko and apparently her attacker, because he loosened his grip.
"Wade?" Logan said losing some malice. Before Wade raised a pistol-grip shotgun and fired at the man's head point blank.
"Get your hand's off my woman!" Wade yelled pumping the shotgun.
Author's Notes:
Okay everyone a new chapter! Sorry it took so long but I've had some internet problems I had to deal with first.
I hope you guys stay tuned for the next chapter because I'm going to introduce my "developing powers" character, I can give you a hint it's not any of the pilots.
Logan's going to meet the NERV crew, for those wondering Victors going to be MIA for a while so say goodbye to him. I'm also going to have another big action sequence so a lots going to be covered but it will (hopefully) out very soon because I have it all planned out.