Second Opinion
Jean finds those memories interesting. She then wonders what it was that Stryker had been searching for in Africa. She'll find out. Stryker is dead… drowned after the dam burst at Alkali Lake… that leaves searching the memories of Victor Creed. She knows the savage Mutant is still alive. She focuses her telepathy and can feel the surge of power that swirls like fire around her. It fills her consciousness and she can feel her mind, her ghost, move across the vast distance from Logan in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest to the hustle and bustle of Washington D.C.
She can hear Victor's frustrated mind as he sits in his sealed quarters in the Triskelion, the main headquarters for S.H.I.E.L.D. located in the Nation's Capital. He shouts his mental protest as he looks at the metal device around his throat. It's a high tech collar that periodically injects a drug that suppresses Victor's, or any Mutant's, abilities… rendering them normal and defenseless. Jean knows Erik Lehnsherr would have a meltdown if he ever found out about such a device.
But Jean isn't concerned about any of that at the moment. She wants a deeper understanding of what happened so she uses her power to put Victor to sleep. He yawns and blinks his blue eyes a few times before making his way to his bed. The large blonde man then crashes upon it and Jean scans his mind for the desired memories. She stimulates certain memories and a slew of various others flash before her mental eyes. She catches one that strikes her interest and probes it to see it in full detail. It is from a point in time nearly six years after Logan had left the team that Stryker had put together.
Jean watches as Scott Summers is hunted down at his High School and captured. She understands that at some point, Stryker started capturing Mutants and ran experiments on them. She moves the memory away and notices that it sparks another one to surface. So she watches…
Victor is dressed all in black with a long black trench coat on as he walks briskly down the well-lit concrete hall. He approaches a set of double doors and is forced to stop abruptly or get hit with one as it opens suddenly and another man dressed in a skin tight, deep red, sleeveless skirt with twin swords strapped to his back walks out. He is very good-looking and stops to regard his fellow teammate for a moment.
"Oh, sorry about that Snaggletooth. Didn't see ya there." Wade says quickly in his usual sarcastic tone before hurrying away and not giving the taller blonde man in black a second glance. Victor's otherwise ruggedly handsome features then twist into a scowling frown as a low growl escapes his throat. He watches Wade walk away for a second before entering through the open door. Inside is a room about the average size of a high school classroom complete with a few rows of desks and chairs and a large white projection screen at the front, which is pulled down and the white light is the only illumination in the room at the moment.
"Ah, Victor!" Comes the voice of Stryker who is dressed in the military regalia of a Colonel. His dark hair is combed back nice and neat just like his uniform is nice and neat. "I have an especially good hunt for you, my friend." Colonel Stryker says in his smooth voice. Victor's mood lightens as he raises his left eyebrow slightly in interest.
"What new prey do you have for me now, Stryker?" Victor replies evenly in his deep and slightly gruff voice. Colonel Stryker smiles warmly.
"This one is a bit trickier than most of the others I've had you hunt." Stryker starts as he turns to the projection unit in the middle of the room. He picks up a cord with a handle on one end and presses a button. Immediately, a slide clicks into place of a lovely young woman with short black hair. She is in the midst of kicking a soldier in the crotch. Victor's raised eyebrow goes higher and a smile starts to cross his face.
"This woman is special like you and the others but we don't really know the extent of her… 'uniqueness'. We only have a name… Vanessa Pyre… and this." Stryker says as he hands Victor a sealed plastic bag that contains some dark purple fabric. "That was pulled off of her during the last encounter the containment team had with her. I figured…"
"You figured I could use it to sniff her out." Victor says as he levels a piercing blue gaze the Colonel's way. If Stryker is bothered by Victor, he doesn't show it. He just smiles knowingly as he watches Victor use one of his long talon-like claws to open the bag and let the fabric spill out into his waiting hand. It is a purple scarf of a shimmering see through material and Victor slowly brings it up to his nose. He takes a long deep inhale.
His extra sensitive sense of smell picks up the sweet scent of jasmine perfume, cheap motel shampoo, and then he find it… that subtle scent that is unique to every human being. Hers has a delightful sweetness to it that is subtle and soft. It makes Victor wonder for a moment how soft her skin is, then he smells her sweat and he wonders how hard of a fight will she put up.
"We tracked her all the way to western Montana. She appears to be headed west but has slowed recently. We don't know why but we do know that if we intend to catch her then now is the time. I know you won't fool around on this mission, Victor, but I and two of the containment teams will be accompanying you on this hunt… for this will be our seventh attempt to capture this elusive woman." Stryker says confidently. Victor is impressed now. Six times they had tried and six times they had failed. Victor takes another deep inhale from the scarf and smiles. This will be the seventh and final attempt and he will be the one to catch this Vanessa Pyre.
Five hours later… the black army helicopters are flying low through the rolling foothills of western Montana in the deepening dark of the evening hours. They are running in stealth mode so the blades of the helicopters make almost no noise as they cut through the air. Victor sits strapped into his seat with nothing on his mind and the scarf up to his nose. His eyes are closed as he concentrates on Vanessa's scent. He wants to find her quickly and see just what she can do.
"Alright we are about one click east of the target's last known location." Colonel Stryker says to Victor from his seat across from the savage blonde man. Victor slowly opens his blue eyes and looks at Stryker. "Our tracking agent reported her going into a bar in the small town to our west. We are going to drop you off here and wait for the signal you will give us as soon as you spot her. Do you got that, Victor? You radio us as soon as you spot her, then you are free to hunt."
"Don't worry… I'll call." Victor says smoothly as he unbuckles the straps that secure him. He stands and opens the sliding door on the side of the chopper.
"We're getting ready to land, Victor. Just be patient." Stryker says to the brooding blonde man who looks ready to jump. Victor ignores the Colonel as he sniffs the scarf one last time before stuffing it into his coat pocket. He then jumps from the helicopter. The wind whips past and in less than a second Victor falls through the trees breaking branches and he even impacts hard against a rather thick low one, which he bounces off of and hits the ground hard. A few painful moments later the cuts, bruises, and broken ribs heal quickly and Victor stands up with a groan popping a dislocated shoulder back into place before he starts to walk off.
About an hour later Victor finds himself in the small town. He sniffs at the cool mountain air that is blowing gently from the mountains. Several scents fill his sensitive nose. Exhaust from vehicles, smells of the local restaurants, and spilt beer. Suddenly there comes a loud commotion from the local bar and a man who obviously has had too much to drink is thrown out by a large burly man. Victor makes his way over to the bar, giving the fallen drunk one glance as he tries to stand only to fall flat once more. Victor then pushes the door open and enters.
The bar is dimly lit and the music… country… is loud. It must've been karaoke night for several people are crowded around the brightly lit stage area and the man singing there, poorly, is reading the lyrics from a television set to the right of the stage. As Victor walks through the threshold and lets the door close behind him, the large burly bouncer gives him a stern look but doesn't hassle him. Victor takes a deep inhale as he sniffs the room. Tobacco and booze of various kinds fill his nose, then comes the subtler smells of people and… Jasmine perfume. Victor's interest is peeked and he becomes exceedingly more alert as his piercing blue eyes survey the crowded bar room. There are a few lovely women in here but none of them have 'her' smell. He continues to follow the scent and finds that it leads to another room where pool tables are set up and a few men and women are playing. It is quieter in here and better lit too. His blue eyes immediately fall on a hooded figure who sits on the far side of the game room all alone and seemingly quite comfortable. Victor follows his nose as he approaches the table slowly.
"It's rude to stare." Comes the soft smooth voice of the hooded woman. Victor stops and is only ten feet away from her lonely table but he is still closer to the pool tables. He acts innocent by looking around before he replies.
"Were you talking to me?" He asks as he slowly closes the distance. The woman lifts her hands and pulls back her hood slowly to reveal her jet black hair which is short in the back and long in the front. She looks up at the tall intense looking man in black with beautiful inquisitive golden eyes that shine in the florescent light. Her long bangs seem to act as a curtain so she runs her right hand through her dark hair and lets her lengthy bangs fall into a more manageable place that is out of her eyes.
"Sit." She says simply in her lovely voice to Victor as their eyes lock. He feels compelled to do as she says… so he takes an empty seat across the table from her. He finds her eyes striking and can't help himself but stare into them. "Let me see your hands." She says almost in a whisper which any other person would have missed but Victor hears her clearly with his enhanced sense of hearing and he does as she asks. He lifts his large clawed hands up and onto the table to let them rest palm up on top of her waiting smaller hands. Her touch is soft and delicate. She breaks the gaze that their eyes had been locked in to look down at his bigger hands. Victor finds himself wondering about this woman who sits across from him. He figures out just then that one of her abilities involves her eyes. They are enchanting and Victor makes a mental note of that.
"How interesting. Your Life Line is very long and deep." She says smoothly as she traces one delicate finger over a line on Victor's left palm. It tickles. "And this line here implies that you are a strong, if not forceful lover." She then adds with a hint of a smile in her voice as she traces another line on both of his palms with her thumbs. Victor chuckles at that and sits back a bit.
"You could say that." He replies and lets her take whatever meaning she will out of it. Her golden eyes then find his blue ones once more. There is no enchantment to them now. Victor is ready for that.
"You remind me of a character in a story." The woman then starts. Victor raises an eyebrow at that.
"Oh really… which one?" He then replies curious to see where she is leading this conversation. He thinks of contacting Colonel Stryker and the teams, but at a later time maybe after he has had some fun first. Victor is finding this easy, almost too easy, but it is curiously exciting at the same time.
"What do you know of fairytales?" The woman then asks.
"Stories for kids and nothing more." Victor replies.
"That is an over-simplification. In fact they are based off of myths which are far older and most definitely not for children." She then says and leans in a little. Victor notices that the black hooded outfit she is wearing is low cut and that she has ample cleavage. He smiles wider then. "You see, the character you remind me of is the Beast Man from an ancient Sumerian myth in the Epic of Gilgamesh who was violent and wrathful until his animalistic savagery was quelled by the sensual touch of a lovely priestess and then he knew peace." Victor is taken by surprise at that. Her tone then changes suddenly.
"I know you have done very savage things, Victor." That really catches his attention then for he didn't reveal his name. "But even you can learn to change, to be less of the animal and more of a man." Victor starts to grab at her wrists but Vanessa puts her hands up quicker and suddenly Victor feels his whole body including the chair he is in go flying backwards across the room to impact roughly with a small bar along the far wall. While the people are distracted by Victor, Vanessa quickly ascends upward and her flight path takes her to one of the large windows which she quickly opens using her telekinetic power and slips her curvy athletic frame through easily enough.
Victor growls in rage and gives a roar as he pushes pieces of the chair, counter, and broken bottles off of him. He then rushes over to the empty table and sniffs her perfume trailing upwards. He doesn't care as the people who were playing pool move away in fear as he leaps higher than any normal human can and claws his way up to the window which he smashes open and squeezes through. Her perfume flutters in the cool evening air around the back of the building and toward an old brick warehouse.
Victor jumps from the roof and hits the ground in a roll. He comes up on his feet and hurries over to the old building. He looks up and sees where she had broken a window out. He hurries to the closest door and kicks it in.
"She's in an old warehouse behind the bar." Victor says calmly into his radio comlink. He then enters the large brick building. He sniffs her out fairly quickly and finds her on the other side in the office area in a large storage room. Her back is to him. He gives a low growl and rushes her on all fours. Vanessa dodges simply by flying up. He gives a loud growl as he misses and quickly claws his way up the brick wall then he leaps off and almost reaches her before she lifts her hand and stops him in midair. Victor growls in frustration as his body is frozen and held in place.
"What the hell did you do to me?!" He demands. Vanessa then slams him down to the ground where he is now sprawled out on his back. She then floats down and lands next to him. She straddles his waist and pulls open his coat. She then rips open his shirt to expose his broad muscular and hairy chest. She runs her delicate hands over his exposed skin in a very sensual manner. Victor is thoroughly confused. First a hint of romance, then fighting, and now it seems like she is going to 'force' herself on him.
"If you wanted 'that' all you had to do was just say so, Honey." Victor then says with a wide grin. Vanessa's golden eyes meets his gaze once more as she smiles in a sly manner. She then points two fingers at the top of his chest and makes a quick motion downwards almost to his groin. The pain is sudden and sharp. Victor gives a small cry at its immediacy. He gives her a hard look but she is all eyes for the now quickly closing wound upon his chest.
"Simply… fascinating." She whispers as she watches in awe. After it has completely healed, she runs her fingers over his chest once more. "I must have your powers. I require them." She says cryptically and Victor gives her a questioning look then. She opens her mouth and he watches in awe as her upper canine teeth grow longer and sharper. "Look at me… and know no pain." Her golden gaze then meets his once more and he finds himself falling into their sparkling depths quicker than before. He then feels her soft, smooth naked skin rub against his body. He hears soft moans and feels gentle kisses on his neck, then the plunge of penetration and the pleasures of the flesh.
Vanessa gently tilts Victor's head to expose the left side of his neck as soon as he goes into the trance. She then bites down on the exposed flesh and feels the warm hot liquid spill into her mouth. She tastes the metallic coppery taste of his blood and sucks hard. He convulses under her and she has to hold his head with her left arm so as not to break her hold on his neck. She sucks hard and long drawing out much of his life-giving blood then the images flood her mind, a rush of a lifetime of memories longer than any average human lifespan. She can't make sense of them all but she sees a great deal of fighting and killing. Vanessa stops suddenly and releases Victor. His head hits the ground as his body gives one last hard spasm and a deeply satisfied moan escapes his lips. Vanessa sits up but still straddling her victim.
Victor's eyes open slowly and a wide grin is plastered across his bearded face. He looks up to see Vanessa still on top of him. His blood trickling down her chin, and dripping down to trace red lines which go down into her ample cleavage. She then licks and sucks on her lips to get every last drop it seems. Her eyes are closed and she looks deep in concentration then her body convulses on top of his and Victor enjoys the spectacle.
Vanessa feels every muscle in her body rip and tear as it grows thicker and stronger. She then opens her eyes just barely to look down at her hands. She watches her nails being pushed out by thicker similar looking nails only these are harder and lengthened to points. She feels her canine teeth lengthen and sharpen as well. After the assimilation is complete, she leans forward and supports herself on her arms. Her face is directly above Victor's.
"So… was it as good for you as it was for me?" He asks with a chuckle. He is almost fully recovered from the loss of blood now but is still trapped by her telekinetic hold. Vanessa opens her eyes and finds that she can see better in the low light. She sniffs the air and can smell her perfume, no surprise there, but also the subtle scent of her skin. She then leans lower and sniffs at the trapped Victor. She can smell his subtle muskiness and a hint of a men's cologne but he isn't wearing it.
"You were recently around someone who wore heavy cologne. I'd say… less than two hours." She says as she straightens up. She then focuses on the sounds around her. She can hear a mouse scurry inside the wall on the other side of the room then she hears several heavy footfalls that are coming from a few different areas in the old warehouse. She smiles then as she looks around the room they are in. There are three ways into this room and it has only one large window on the wall that is high up.
"Looks like we have visitors." Vanessa says simply to Victor then the door behind her bursts open. Vanessa quickly launches herself to fly backwards with her arms out and palms facing behind her. She impacts against two men dressed in black like a swat team. Her newly acquired claws dug deep into their lower abdomens and she flings them forward suddenly. Victor watches the two soldiers fly over head and impact the wall. He then discovers that he can move again and so he stands to watch this display.
Two more soldiers in black appear from the doorway behind Vanessa. She kicks high and her boot impacts the man in the face hard. She then drops and rolls as the second man aims and fires a short burst into her stomach. The noise is minimal since these soldiers are using silencers on their weapons. Vanessa takes the pain and feels a rage well up within her the likes of which she has never known. She kicks the gun away and then flips up to catch the soldier under the chin. She holds him suspended in the air with her new enhanced strength she has received from Victor. The door to Victor's left bursts open then and four more soldiers come into the room. They quickly open fire on her. Vanessa simply turns and lets the bullets hit the soldier she is holding. She then flings him at the new comers as hard as she can. The soldier goes flying through the air and impacts against two of them to crash through one of the crumbling inner walls.
Vanessa then leaps high and twists in the air. She uses her telekinetic power to jam the guns of the last two soldiers. She then lands on the brick wall which she quickly kicks off of to impact with the closest soldier. She slams into his chest and smashes his head against the ground. Her head snaps up suddenly to stare at the final soldier who holds a hand gun with a silencer pointed right between her eyes. She looks up the gun and into the soldier's eyes. The gun flies upwards jerking the soldier's hand then suddenly Vanessa is up and her claws dig into the front of his uniform and body armor. She spins him around to be between her and the final door which then bursts open and the final four soldiers enter. They fire but stop suddenly. Vanessa tosses her human shield behind her to impact the two soldiers who are trying to get up from under the one she had tossed earlier.
Vanessa then rolls forward and stops in a crouched position in which she holds her hands out towards the four soldiers with all five fingers of each hand pointed directly at them. She then uses her telekinesis to rip out all her nails and launch them like bullets at the soldiers. They impact the first two and drop them. She then runs across the room. Before she reaches the last two soldiers standing, her claws regenerate quickly and appear red from her blood.
The closest of the two remaining soldiers starts to fire but the gun goes up as Vanessa grabs it. She then grabs the soldier and flings him away behind her into the center of the large room. She then strikes hard at the last one. He fires a short burst into her torso and then the gun is jerked sideways with her left hand and the right comes in at a sweeping arc which slashes through his throat. He drops to the floor and Vanessa just stands there for a second but immediately she is hit with gunfire to the back. Pissed off, she spins around swiftly and leaps the distance to the final soldier in the center of the room. Both hands go for his throat. She sinks the claws of her right hand into the soldier's throat and rips it out with a powerful yank. Blood spurts upwards and around in a crimson shower of sorts. And with that… the battle ends.
Vanessa then stands and looks down at her blood covered hands. Some of it is hers but most of it is from the men who now lay motionless on the floor. She drops the lump of flesh and tries to shake the blood off as the shock sets in. She has killed! She has killed several people now. Suddenly she is grabbed from behind and slammed up against the brick wall. Victor's large clawed hands trap her wrists against the wall.
"That was the most intense, most efficient, most artful slaughter I have ever witnessed." Victor says smoothly in his deep voice which trembles with excitement.
"No, I didn't want to do all that. I didn't want to kill." Vanessa says meekly as tears well up in her golden eyes. Victor smiles and gives a low chuckle.
"Then why did you take my abilities?" He then asks.
"To protect myself." Vanessa whispers and she closes her eyes and turns her head away from him.
"A scared rabbit doesn't fight like a tiger. Tell the truth this time." He then says roughly.
"I needed your healing ability because my skills will be needed several years from now and it won't help if I'm old and worn down." She then answers.
"And how do you know that?" He then inquires.
"I just do." Is all she will answer. Defiance shines in her eyes for a moment then it fades to a more somber look. Victor decides to leave that line of questioning for a later time. He now has her pinned and she is in a vulnerable state mentally. A wicked smile starts to cross his face then.
"That vision you put into my head before you bit me…" He starts to say and then presses his body up against hers. He even thrust one of his knees between her legs to part them. Vanessa then looks at Victor's smiling face and a hint of recognition fills her eyes as Victor whispers into her ear. "I want to make that a reality."
"Victor." Comes Colonel Stryker's voice from behind. The second containment team then files in. Victor gives a low growl as he turns his head to look back over his shoulder.
"You could've given me at least five more minutes and I would've brought her out to you." Victor growls in frustration.
"No one responded, so we came in on our own." Stryker replies matter-of-factly as he looks around at the fallen team. Victor takes a deep breath and contains his rage. He then looks at Vanessa and leans in to whisper in her ear once more before the soldiers come to restrain her.
"You'll be seeing me again real soon." He says and Vanessa doesn't doubt it. She can tell what his thoughts are without reading his mind. She doesn't seem worried about that though. What troubles her is the killing she has done. This second team is quickly cleaning up the mess and a soldier even comes over to put a special glove like set of cuffs on her.
"She does something with her eyes when you look at her." Victor says after she is cuffed. Stryker then orders her to be blindfolded and all Vanessa has left is the sounds and smells. After the bodies are taken out, a fire is set and the old warehouse is burnt to the ground. Vanessa can smell the fire as the helicopter she is put in hovers. As the last passengers climb aboard they fly off. Vanessa doesn't know where but she does know that it will be surrounded by water for she had foreseen it in a vision. She can also smell the soldiers and even Victor, who sits across from her. She just knows he is staring at her… hard and longingly. She has seen his past and even a bit of his future. She will be a part of it but she doesn't know if she can ever get used to his current attitude and personality. Only time would tell.
Jean pulls back. She knows this Vanessa woman is the lynch pin to the plans Stryker had in the running all those years ago. She could sense it in Victor, in Stryker, and even in Vanessa herself. Jean makes a note to herself to track down this woman later. Right now she needs to return to Logan.
Her shade slips back across the distance to the sleeping dark haired man. He dreams of scenes from wars long past. Jean touches his mind and shifts the dreams to a more peaceful state. She then probes through his past and returns to the memory of when he spilt off from Stryker's team. She gets a mixed jumble of memories of the early seventies. Logan jumped around, did odd jobs… like worked as a bodyguard for a mob boss protecting his lovely daughter and then heading west and north back to Canada where he met that lovely dark haired woman… Jean focuses in on that line of memory… She gets a name… Kayla… Kayla Silverfox.
A/N: This chapter broke away from the movie a little bit, and I even added in an Original Character. As for what Vanessa Pyre can do? Hell, it's in her name… Van Pyre. I found naming her that amusing. Anyhooters, she absorbs powers through consuming blood… and that key ability is what Stryker is going to use to create Weapon XI a.k.a. Deadpool.
This fic will start straying more away from the movie when it gets to that point… especially the end. I don't know about any of you, but I found the 'bullet to the head' explanation to be very weak. I mean come on… neither Logan nor Victor went through all those wars without taking at least one bullet to the computer?
I like my version better… and the sad thing is, they actually had the opportunity to do what I will suggest to be the cause of his memory loss. It's one of those wasted moments… that I plan to correct!
Let me know what ya'll think so far. Reviews are welcome. And feel free to browse my other stories… after all they all come together in a future storyline. ;)