Chapter 5

Warning Shot

Laura didn't crawl out of bed until late that afternoon. It was the longest she'd slept without major brain trauma in months, and had woken to the fullest bladder she'd ever had. Apparently the combination of Jubilee's hypnotism and her direct order to X-23 had made sure that she rolled back to sleep every time she woke up, even when it was to use the restroom.

She spent the remaining daylight hours resting, making phone calls, and preparing for their mission later that night. Gabby meanwhile did her best to stay out of her way while Jubilee slept the day away in the bathroom. Vampires preferred frigid temperatures when they hibernated, and while a bathtub full of ice wasn't necessarily her first choice, undead creatures of the night weren't exactly known to complain about comfort.

It wasn't until an hour after sunset that Jubilee emerged from the bathroom, ignoring Gabby when she told her good morning and asked how she slept, and made her way into the kitchen where she chugged an entire pint of blood. Gabby watched her, fascinated, but Laura was almost as disgusted as the time she caught her sister drinking milk straight from the carton.

"Could you please do that somewhere else?" Laura asked. Although the sight of Jubilee drinking her blood in her kitchen was off-putting to say the least, doing so while dripping wet and wearing only her trademark yellow coat was something she could've lived without.

Jubilee finished a second pint, her crimson eyes dimming and her pale skin regaining some of its faux complexation. "Sorry," she muttered, blood smeared across her lips. "Slept too long. Woke up hungry." She grabbed two more pints of blood and headed back toward the bathroom.

Laura nodded, keeping the vampire in her peripheral until she closed the bathroom door behind her, sighing with relief when she was gone.

"I guess that confirms I'm straight," Gabby chuckled awkwardly. "If a hot naked vampiress doesn't do it for me, I don't know what will."

Her sister ignored her, still unamused by the conversation from the night before.

"She's worse than you before you've had your coffee. Is she always like that after waking up, or-"

"That was a vampire whose only concern was feeding," Laura said, catching Gabby's eye and hoping she caught her meaning. Jubilee's hearing was even better than their own, and Gabby nodded, appearing to understand her unspoken warning. No matter how much they loved Jubilee, no matter how much they trusted her, she was an apex predator, and they were her prey.

She might look human and even act human, most of the time, but she didn't necessarily think like one anymore. If Jubilee had been just a little hungrier, or her blood supply a little further away, chances were she wouldn't have been able to resist sinking her fangs into one of their necks. Thankfully losing half the blood in their bodies would've only been a mild inconvenience to them, but it would've been soul crushing to Jubilee who tried with all her might to resist the primal urges and instincts of her vampiric nature.

The shower started up, and the sisters used the remaining time to finish packing their gear for the mission, as well as anything they wanted to bring back to New York since this could very well be their last night in Madripoor. The mission at face value was tying up loose ends regarding Adam Harkin's human trafficking network, but it was mostly just to keep themselves busy while Jean and Kitty searched for solid leads and people that needed killing.

A little while later Jubilee exited the bathroom, looking human once more. Her eyes were still red and she was still pale of course, but her fangs were now barely visible and she merely resembled someone who didn't see the sun often enough rather than a walking corpse possessed by a demon.

"Alright," she said, flashing her fangs, "it's gonna be hard to top Nazi vampires, but I've got a good feeling about tonight. Where y'all taking me out for drinks this time?"

"Buccaneer Bay," Laura replied. "There's a few ships in port loosely connected to Harkin. It could just be gun or drug smuggling, or something more legitimate, but the cargo could also be people. I don't expect to find anybody onboard after the past forty-eight hours, but we'll know by the smell whether they've been trafficking humans or not. If so, we interrogate the officers, access the ship's computers, confiscate cell phones, and leave the cleanup to Tyger."

Jubilee laughed and clapped her hands together. "Sounds like a plan!"

The trio snuck aboard over a dozen docked ships of various kinds without ever coming close to being spotted. None of the ships had human cargo, but a couple did have the lingering stench of dirty bodies from weeks past. All the others appeared to have been shipping everything just short of nuclear weapons, which were probably just as legal for sale in Madripoor as everything else.

When they found the guilty ship captains and their officers, Laura taught Gabby a few more tricks on how to conduct a proper interrogation, but otherwise relied on Jubilee's siren-like charms to get the answers they desired. Only one woman had the power to resist her, just barely, and her fortitude was rewarded by Jubilee revealing her true nature and sinking her fangs into her neck.

She had been all too willing to cooperate afterward, but it hadn't been necessary since vampires could read minds and get flashes of memories when drinking blood straight from the source. Jubilee had likely gotten to relive the woman's entire childhood before Laura stepped in to keep her from completely draining the woman who Jubilee claimed deserved it and much worse. It was only after a not-so-subtle threat from Laura that the vampire reluctantly obeyed.

As was becoming routine, they left the cleanup to Tyger Tiger, who was appreciative of their efforts, but Laura got the distinct impression that she was starting to grow tired of her island's corruption being rooted out by outsiders. Laura was used to the sentiment of begrudging appreciation, and so didn't take it personally. Her job was to get rid of problems as quickly and quietly as possible, which often meant stepping on toes due to leaders not always wanting to accept someone else solving their problems for them, especially if they didn't know the problem existed in the first place.

"So what's for dinner?" Gabby asked, the trio taking a circuitous route back to the apartment.

"I think she said her name was Mia," Jubilee said, picking something out of her teeth. "Oh, you mean dinner-dinner. What about that place from last night?"

Laura shook her head. "Never eat at the same place two nights in a row, or even the same week if you can help it. You should also never go home the same way twice in a row. Unpredictability keeps you alive."

"Says the most predictably unpredictable person I've ever met," she chuckled. "Or is that unpredictably predictable? Either way, I'm already dead, so I'm good."

"Unpredictability keeps us from accidently creating patterns," Gabby explained, eyeing her sister who might've been the least bit surprised by her answer. "Hey, I might not have had the exact same training as you, but I know how to keep a low profile, and I know how easy it is for us to fall into habits because of our programming."

"Gabby," she sighed, "you couldn't keep a low profile if your life depended on it. Then again you're not the one wearing a bright yellow coat..."

She scowled at Jubilee who proudly twirled as if she were a runway model. "Thanks for the BDSM lesson by the way. Not gonna lie though, you've always struck me more as a chains, whips, and handcuffs kind of girl. Have I ever mentioned that I really miss the leather pants and dominatrix look you had going on a few years back?"

"Duct tape is faster than rope," she said simply, "and doesn't make noise when you move around like metal does. It's also lighter to carry, you can't wiggle out of it, and you can use it as both a gag and blindfold."

"You know better than to tease me with a good time, Laura."

"Is it really necessary to strip people down to their underwear while interrogating them?" Gabby asked. "How does that work?"

"It makes people feel vulnerable and helpless," Laura said. "Trust me, it works. The only reason I didn't strip them naked is because you're too young, and because I didn't want to hear either of you cracking jokes."

"Either way, my compliments to the chef," Jubilee said. "Fear's my second favorite flavor, and scaring bad guys so bad they piss themselves doesn't waste blood. Wanna know what my favorite flavor is?" She licked her lips in a savory fashion, staring at Laura. Although she was full by her usual standards, vampires were always hungry, and walking around with Laura but especially Gabby was like having a portable buffet within fang's reach.

Laura, perhaps sensing Jubilee's mouth watering, quickened her pace and changed their route to shave a couple minutes from their journey. "I can make a rather educated guess, and maybe it's not such a good idea for you to be drinking my blood so regularly," she turned to Jubilee. "I know it makes you stronger, and I don't mind, but I'd rather if you didn't associate my sister with food any more than you already do."

The vampire grinned sheepishly, perhaps already thinking the same, and Laura thought she might've spied a hint of shame. "Don't worry. I've got some AB- buried in the back of the fridge. At least now if I get a craving for Wolverine or Honey Badger, I don't have to ask permission or make a mess."

"Logan was Wolverine," Laura growled. "Wolverine is the name of a superhero. My name is Laura Kinney, and I'm an ex-assassin turned soldier."

Jubilee sighed and nodded to keep from starting another argument. Laura was full of peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, one of which was her disdain for codenames and even aliases. For thirteen years her 'name' had been a letter and a number, and giving Laura her name had been her mother's dying act. Having a name was something deeply personal to her, so much so that she didn't even tell anyone she had a name for her first year living at the X-Mansion.

"I just realized something," Gabby said thoughtfully. "Jubilee, you don't have a superhero name either. Not really anyway."

"Jubilation Lee didn't exactly roll off the tongue," she said, "and I'm not much of a superhero anymore, or a mutant for that matter. Jubilation Lee is dead, but Jubilee is here to stay."

Laura snorted. "Whatever you say, Carmilla..."

"Dude, I've met the real Carmilla, and trust me, she makes Lord Dracula look like a teddy bear in comparison. What was the name of the girl she seduced again? It's on the tip of my tongue..."

She leaned over to try and lick the back of Laura's neck but received an elbow for her trouble. Had she still been human, Jubilee would've had at least two broken ribs and a punctured lung, but the vampire laughed it off just as she did everything else.

"I seem to recall Carmilla eventually getting her head cut off in the book for doing exactly that."

"Yeah, well, the real Carmilla doesn't die so easily, and she took it as her Laura playing hard to get. They make a pretty cute couple actually. If you're into psychotic lesbian vampires that is. Believe it or not, Laura's the scary one, not Carmilla."

Laura gave her a lopsided smirk, a rarity nowadays, almost as rare as her making sarcastic quips. She looked as though she had more to say but was interrupted by Gabby squealing behind them. "Look at the cute puppy!"

Laura and Jubilee followed where she was pointing, but admittingly they could've just followed their senses of smell, heightened or otherwise. Huddled in the back of the alley was a shaggy brown dog with a matted coat, looking as though it hadn't eaten in a day or two. Gabby sprinted toward him before Laura could stop her, but although the dog briefly growled, it almost immediately rolled over and exposed its belly, which Gabby was all too happy to rub.

"One of these days you're going to get mauled and eaten," Laura said, "and I'm going to let it happen so that maybe you'll learn a lesson." She strolled toward them but kept her distance on account of the smell, already dreading the walk back to the apartment with her sister smelling like a wet dog and roadkill.

Jubilee cautiously joined them but took several steps back when the dog growled at her. "I'm not gonna hurt you, Dude," she said, holding up her hands. "Dog blood tastes disgusting. Almost as bad as cat." She gave him a sad smile and turned to Gabby. "Sorry, but animals are naturally afraid of vampires. Can't exactly blame them since we have a bad habit of eating them, but I really do miss scratching their ears and rubbing their tummies."

"Jonathan's not scared of you," Gabby said, referencing their genetically engineered pet wolverine.

"Yeah he is, but he's too polite to say anything, and he doesn't exactly like me being near you."

Gabby rubbed the stray's face with her own before turning to Laura. "Can we keep him? Please?"

Laura shook her head. "You've collected enough strays already, and it's not fair to ask Meg and Debbie to watch another."

"Look at his face! We can't just leave him living on the street! Look how sad he looks!"

The mutt didn't look terribly upset to Laura, especially with his tail wagging and tongue hanging out, but then again he probably didn't know any better either.

"I know some nuns that run an orphanage across town," she said simply. "They'll give him a good home."

"You'll help!?" Laura nodded. "Hear that, Mr. Scruffy? An orphanage! That means lots of mentally distressed and maybe disturbed kids needing a comfort animal!" The dog yipped in agreement.

Laura sighed and Jubilee playfully nudged her. "Don't tell me the cold hearted assassin has a soft spot for furry critters?"

"If it makes Gabby happy, it makes me happy, and nothing makes me happier than shutting her up. Besides, I know how it feels to be homeless and living on the streets."

"Yeah, good times..."

Laura frowned and shook her head. "You ran away from your foster family because they were boring, and lived above an arcade at the mall eating chili dogs from the food court for six months. It's not the same thing."

"Care to enlighten me then? There's about two years of your life I'm still a little fuzzy on. I kinda have trouble believing you of all people were sleeping in back alleys and eating from garbage cans."

"What's there to say?" She turned around and started back the way they came. "For the first time in my life I was on my own without anyone to give me orders. I had just murdered my mother, and I had Weapon X, Hydra, multiple world governments, and several crime syndicates hunting me like a wild animal, which is essentially what I was. I didn't understand anything about the outside world, and sometimes I still don't."

She came to a halt at the end of the alley. "Gabby, I'll call the orphanage when we get back to the apartment. Hurry up or I'm leaving you there!"

"Coming! Just giving Mr. Scruffy some tasty treats!"

Laura turned her nose at Gabby when she joined them, but silently promised the stray that he'd have a good home in the morning. She would've considered dumping him at the orphanage tonight if not for the need for secrecy and it taking them out of their way. The dog had probably lived his entire life on the streets, meaning he'd be able to survive one more night.

It brought back memories of her own final night living on the streets before confronting Logan and him taking her to live in upstate New York at the X-Mansion. She wondered if Mr. Scruffy would have the same struggles adjusting to sleeping in a bed, eating regular meals, and socializing with others, but somehow doubted it.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice that she had led them down the same desolate street she had the day before, and realized her unforgivable sin only a moment before her sister's head exploded behind her.

In the milliseconds it took for Gabby's body to hit the ground, blood and gore spraying Laura, the protective older sister fiercely wrestled with X-23's programming. She instantly knew the distance of the shooter from the time between the bullet hitting Gabby and hearing the gunshot, and knew in the back of her mind that Gabby had a healing factor, but Laura's body seemed to react on its own accord, putting herself in between her only reason for living and her sister's would-be murderer.

Laura cried out a bullet tore through her midsection, spilling blood and internal organs, but although she stumbled, even another tearing through her left shoulder wasn't enough to stop her from dragging Gabby into the safety of a nearby alley.

"Jubilee," she gasped, barely able to speak, "go-"

"Already on it!" A bullet passed through Jubilee's no longer corporeal body as she leaped into the air, wings of darkness appearing behind her as she disappeared into the night.

Laura collapsed behind a dumpster and hovered over her sister, barely able to look at what remained of her head without vomiting, and probably would have if she still had a stomach.

"Come on, come on!" Laura growled. "Heal already!"

It felt as though an eternity passed before she finally saw the tell-tale signs of tissue beginning to regenerate, and only after confirming this did Laura remove her bloodstained jacket and cover what little remained of Gabby's head with it.

"Y-you're gonna be alright, Gabby," she nearly sobbed. "You're gonna be alright..."

She sensed Mr. Scruffy hurrying down the alley to check on his new best friend, but Laura instinctively positioned her body over Gabby's and bared her teeth at the potential threat, sending him running clear across town with his tail between his legs.

A few moments later Jubilee dropped down beside them, carrying a limp body in one arm and a rifle in the other. She unceremoniously tossed them both onto the ground, as well as a pistol from her jacket. "Asshole already killed himself," she snarled.

She kicked a nearby trash can, sending it flying across the alley, and followed it up by slamming her head against a brick wall, coming away with barely a scratch despite breaking several bricks.

"Stupid!" She furiously removed her long coat and placed it atop Gabby like a sheet over a corpse. "Stupid! Stupid!"

"Jubilee," Laura said, her shoulder and chest nearly finished healing, "it's not-"

"Yes it is! I got your sister shot, Laura! I stick out like a sore thumb because of that stupid coat! You just got done telling me so, but like the idiot vampire I am, I just laughed it off because death already lost all meaning to me!" She took an unnecessary deep breath and looked away from the sisters. "I'm sorry, and I will make this up to you. Both of you. I swear it."

Glancing at the body Jubilee had brought with her, Laura got to her feet. "Maybe you attracted the sniper's attention or maybe you didn't, but you weren't the target. Snipers normally aim for center mass, but all three bullets were intended for Gabby's head."

*snikt*

Four adamantium claws released as she stalked toward the body with two sizable holes on either side of its head, but Jubilee moved between them, albeit while keeping her distance.

"Laura," she warned, "I know that look and I know what you're thinking. He's already dead. You're not a butcher, and you have rules. Live by them."

Laura growled but took a series of deep breaths and eventually retracted her claws. Once she could guarantee she wouldn't carve the man to pieces or skin him, she lowered herself beside him and sniffed his body like a dog might when greeting someone for the first time. Jubilee's sense of smell was several times stronger than her own, but she hadn't been trained to use her nose like she had, nor did she know what to look for.

"He landed in Madripoor earlier today," she said, "and probably bought all his clothes and even his rifle here in Madripoor."

She checked his pockets and when she came up with nothing useful, removed his clothes, looking for tattoos and birthmarks but also to confirm that his socks and even underwear were generic brands that could've been bought anywhere.

"He's a professional hitman," Laura concluded. "He was given very specific instructions, and when he failed his mission, or believed he failed, he took his life to keep from being captured and interrogated." She opened his mouth and sniffed the stale air that released, checking for drugs, alcohol, or anything else of note.

"Why would someone hire a hitman to shoot Gabby?" Jubilee asked. "I mean, I get why, but everybody knows you two have healing factors. Blowing her brains out might put her out of commission for a while, but it's gonna take a bigger bullet than that to decapitate her."

Laura stood up and after taking a clear picture of the assassin's face with her phone, and taking a hair sample just in case, threw his naked body and his clothes into the dumpster. "He didn't know, obviously, but you and I weren't the target. I only got shot trying to shield her, and he only shot at you after you posed yourself a threat."

Jubilee nodded, putting the pieces together. "This was Kimura sending a message."

"Which means she knows we're in Madripoor, and she's already one step ahead of us. Shooting Gabby in the head was Kimura expressing her displeasure with me, and warning me that I don't have much time left."

The vampire reached out to grab Laura's hand but she ignored her and turned her attention to the rifle and handgun. The latter was a .40 caliber Glock 22 that could be found anywhere in the world, but the former was far more interesting and enlightening.

"Accuracy International 300 Winchester Magnum," Laura said absently, turning the rifle over and checking the magazine. "Costs about fifteen grand back in the states, probably less than half that here in Madripoor. Definitely overkill for a human target." She snarled when she studied the scope and its mount. "Badger Ordnance. This was definitely Kimura. Nobody else would be that petty, or know that's what Gabby calls herself."

She picked them both up and set them down beside Gabby. "Looks like she gets to add these to her collection," she said humorlessly. While Laura appreciated a finely crafted firearm, Gabby obsessed over them, and had a trophy collection back home of all the guns she'd ever been shot by. Laura had a feeling this was probably going to be the crown jewel of her collection.

Jubilee grabbed her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "It's gonna be alright, Laura. How long until Gabby heals completely?"

Laura blinked, realizing she was shaking. "At least a couple of hours. She should regain consciousness soon, but she'll be confused and exhausted. She-" Laura swallowed and wiped something from her eyes. "300 Win is a very powerful caliber. It's meant for big game hunting. It nearly decapitated her."

She took several long, deep breaths, doing her best to keep the dark thoughts at bay for the time being. "She already has memory problems, Jubilee. Every time she gets shot in the head, she loses something. God knows what all she lost because of that bastard. Because of Kimura..."

She knelt down and placed Gabby's head in her lap, grimacing when she checked how the regeneration was coming along. Jubilee watched from afar, and it was only now that Laura noticed that the vampire refused to get any closer, and appeared to have difficulty not looking at the pools of blood in the alley. She seemed to realize that Laura had finally noticed her unease, and slowly backed away.

"Gabby's gonna be alright, Laura. I-I'm sorry, b-but I need to get out of here before I do something stupid. I'll grab our bags from the apartment and call in The Blackbird. We'll be out of here in about ten minutes, and back in New York by morning. Just sit tight until I get back. Call me if you smell trouble."

Laura watched as she disappeared into the night sky with a pair of ethereal bat wings behind her, and slowly lowered her gaze back down to Gabby. A few minutes later she started breathing shallowly, with the only issue being that with her heart beating again, blood was pumping out of her body faster than it could regenerate.

She applied pressure, and Gabby babbled for several minutes, spewing nonsense with only the occasional intelligible word, until finally she was able to string a sentence or two together.

"Zelda?" she mumbled, sounding as though she were drowning. "Zelda, is that you?"

Laura suppressed a sob and turned Gabby's mouth to the side in order to drain it of blood. Zelda was the eldest of Gabby's nine sisters, and the closest to Laura in age. "It's me, Gabby," she said, not wanting to lie but not necessarily wanting to tell the truth either.

"Bellona," she sighed with relief. Bellona was the second oldest, and according to Gabby, sounded the most like Laura, and the one she had always felt safest with. "W-what happened?"

"Sniper shot you in the head. Just relax and let your healing factor do its thing."

Gabby nodded. "S-sorry if I screwed up again. We didn't fail the test, did we? You're not all gonna get punished because of me again, are you?"

"No," Laura sniffled, "I'm the one who screwed up and who's sorry, Gabby. If anyone deserves to be punished, it's me..."

She glanced at her wrists, almost entranced when Gabby reached for her hand. Laura squeezed it more for her own reassurance than Gabby's who only felt discomfort, not actual pain.

"I've really missed you, Bellona..."

A shadow flew overhead, cloaked in the night sky, and Laura scooped her baby sister into her arms, awaiting Jubilee to help them aboard.

"I'm never gonna let anybody hurt you, Gabby," Laura promised. "Kimura just crossed the line and signed her own death warrant..."

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I needed to get the girls out of Madripoor, and what better way of Kimura sending a message than shooting Gabby in the head with a high-caliber bullet? I like the idea that even though she's effectively immortal, seeing her sister get injured still bothers Laura, but especially in a case where the majority of her head/brain is gone. If decapitation can kill all three of them, perhaps a high enough caliber bullet can do the same? Regardless, it'd still freak anybody out, and as we've seen, Gabby has memory issues, and this probably isn't going to help. I also like the idea that Gabby sometimes mistakes Laura for one of her nine older sisters, and that it absolutely breaks Laura's heart every time.

All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and all of you wonderful readers. God bless)