A/N:
I've decided that I'm going to update as often as I can, regardless of feedback. I was just going through the reviews on one of my stories, Rose Evans, and I saw one review that I had read before but that really caught my eye this time- I told you that I read them ;)
Lady Elizabeth of New York- "I don't care if you get zero reviews, you have to update. This is so well-written. I love it. Please update even if noone besides me reviews." 8/21/11
So thank her for my sudden update. Also, I'd recommend reading her stories; she's a fantastic author.
I don't own X-Men. The end.
"What do we have?"
"Bar fight. Multiple knife wounds on both," a man's voice reported. I opened my eyes, gasping at the light and the smell of chemicals assaulting my nose. I looked down to find my favorite leather jacket torn, matching each of Victor's claws, and pushed to the side. The marks were still healing, slower than usual, and I noted that my arm was numb.
"What is this, a joke? The guy's fine," another man said farther away, his voice annoyed before he yelped in surprise. I sat up and glanced over, waving the scared doctors and terrified nurses away from me as I caught sight of Logan. He had one very frightened looking man in scrubs held up against a wall.
"Where is he?" Logan growled at the man who clearly had no idea.
"Hey, hey, don't-"
"I said, where is he?"
"I don't know who he is," the man said, glancing nervously around the room as he tried unsuccessfully to calm Logan down.
"I can help you," a voice said from the doorway. I glanced over and felt my blood boil. I was at him even before Logan, pushing him against the blinds.
"You bastard!" I growled. I was roughly pushed to the side as Logan took control.
"Six years I've been here! No one knew me, and then you show up, and the next day she's dead!"
"I tried to warn you," Stryker gasped heavily. Logan tightened his grip.
"Why didn't you tell me it was Victor?"
"I- I didn't know!" Stryker said. I could smell the lie, just as Logan could.
"Bullshit!" Logan pulled Stryker away from the window, throwing him in a small corner in the wall and forcing him two inches off of the ground with a hand around his neck. "Why?"
"I swear- on my son's life…" Stryker choked out. And Logan released him to pace the hallway, frustrated.
"Victor's appetites were becoming too public," Stryker said, recovering as he sat collapsed on the floor. "I had to lock him up. He felt I had betrayed him."
I could smell the lie but, in his rage, I doubted that Logan could. I kept my silence, wanting to see how this played out.
"Went AWOL. Said he was coming after all of us," Stryker said, looking up at me. I growled, deep in my throat.
"Six years, Stryker. I've left you alone for just six goddamn years and you manage to turn Victor against us all! Who's he gotten already? Bradley? Wade? John? Who?" I said, clenching my fist.
"You didn't come to warn me," Logan cut in. "You came to save your own ass."
"So what's your plan, Captain?" Stryker asked me intently as Logan began to walk away. "You can't beat him Logan!" he shouted after him. "You know you can't!"
"I'm gonna find him and kill him," Logan growled under his breath.
"I can give you the tools to defeat him," Stryker coaxed. I froze. This wasn't going anywhere good. Logan also paused but for a different reason, I'm sure.
"And we can still save the others," Stryker continued.
"You mean save yourself," Logan corrected bitterly. Stryker gave him a crafty smile, the smile that made me want to crawl into a hole and hide in wait for World War III.
"I promise you two things. You will suffer more pain than any other man can endure, but you will have your revenge," Stryker promised. I could see the brief indecision in Logan's eyes, just as Stryker could.
James, I don't like this. This isn't-
"I come with you, I'm coming for blood," Logan glared. "No law. No code of conduct. You point me in the right direction, you get the hell out of my way."
Stryker smiled and I bit back a sarcastic remark when he turned to me. I put on my best mask: apologetic and ashamed.
"I'd like to come with you, if you wouldn't mind. I've been away from this for too long. This is what I am. There's no point in trying to deny it any more," I lied evenly. I smiled to myself as Stryker swelled smugly. I knew Logan could probably smell the lie in my scent, but the human didn't stand a chance.
"Then it seems we have an agreement."
Stryker knew how to pick a location for a secret base, that's for sure. How many people would search inside a mountain right beneath a waterfall for a secret facility? Not many, I'm sure.
As beautiful as the scenery was, I couldn't help but tense at the laboratory Logan and I were brought to. This room was made for the experimentation of mutants, both with and without informed consent.
This was the bonding chamber. Both of us were being experimented on with informed consent. Logan would be undergoing a highly painful and quiet likely deadly test in which Stryker's scientists would be attempting to bond a near indestructible alloy named adamantium to his skeletal system.
My procedure was immoral, even in the eyes of the scientists that were to perform it. It was just as dangerous as Logan's was and much more involved. Stryker, soon after Logan and I had left, came up with a new idea. Unfortunately, the idea needed both of us to carry out, a slight hitch in his plans. His plan was to graft sections of Logan's mutation onto my own, amplifying my feral senses and giving me my own pair of claws to replace my lost wakizashi blade. Then, if I had survived the first procedure, I'd undergo the procedure Logan would be going through. Needless to say, I was fully prepared to wrap my mind into a cocoon of telepathic energy to survive the pain, especially since normal painkillers were metabolized too quickly by my body to be of much use.
Scheduled so that Logan could be briefed on Victor's movements and that I could be a viable weapon faster, my procedures were set much earlier. So much so that I'd be done and ready to fight, assuming I survived, just as Logan would begin his round of pain.
Having gleaned most of my information from the minds around me, I kept up my oblivious mask as DNA was collected and duplicated from Logan and as I was led to my own room and told to relax as they strapped me onto a table. I kept my face smooth, forcing my body to wince as the needles were pushed into key points on my body unceremoniously. Honestly, they didn't even have a countdown or anything… No dramatic drilling noises… Nothing, I thought to myself, already wrapping my mind around itself, heavily dulling the pain receptors in my mind. I forced my body to respond to the stings I allowed myself to feel, acting as if I was in incredible pain and discomfort.
Without the pain, and the burn of a new mutation, I didn't realize it was over until a female doctor came to my side, apologizing as she removed the needles. I felt a new command in my muscle memory and I flexed my arm, staring in disbelief as three bone claws slowly pulled themselves out from between my knuckles.
"Freaky," I commented, putting on a wince at the end for the doctor's benefit.
"How do you feel?" one of the doctor's asked me. "Any aching, itching, or anything even remotely odd?"
"No, I feel… Powerful. It's good. Nothing bad so far… I guess that's good, right?" I said, loading on the hesitance and caution. The doctor's eyes softened slightly and I remembered that I must looked awfully young to her.
"Dr. Richards, report to Colonel Stryker that the subject's body seems to be adapting the new mutation without any negative side effects," she called to another doctor. The man nodded before speaking into a small radio on the lab table.
"Now, Raven, if you are ready, the room is prepped for your next procedure," she said gently. I nodded determinedly.
"Let's do this," I smiled briefly, flexing my arm and sheathing my bone claws.
Pain. Burning. Indescribable agony. Even with my shield, the pain was only dulled slightly. Without that thin membrane of telepathic energy surrounding me, I doubt I could have survived. Even with it, there were no words for this.
My bones were cracking and healing simultaneously, my newly improved healing factor working its hardest to prevent long term damage.
I writhed in the liquid of the tank, semi-suspended and connected to dozens of cables and needles. I almost lost a grip on my oxygen, the pain making me incoherent.
But then, the burning began to drip away. Ever so slowly. I could feel it. The beeping of the heart monitor sped up… faster and faster… but I could feel the burn begin to recede.
I opened my eyes as the needles pulled out slowly, the tissue healing behind them. The wounds healed over but I still felt scarred.
I tried to lift my arm, but found it impossible. It might have been the sudden heaviness knowing that there was metal coating my entire skeleton or it might have been the very thick straps holding me down, but I couldn't tell.
This is gonna be hell to explain to Charles.
A/N:
Yeah, a bit cliche, I know. Please don't hate me!
Anyway, I think that's something that Stryker would try, don't you? A bit cold, reasonably inhumane, and amazingly near-sighted. He didn't stop to think about any future repercussions two indestructible enemies could be, especially if they were to team up.
Till next review- I mean, update ;)
^-^ Susie ^-^