Home and Native Land: No Answers

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Backdated. Lil, Marie, Logan, and Garrison search for clues at the ambush site.



It was cold, but not tremendously so. Most people would have been surprised that the Canadian Arctic isn't a frozen wasteland year round. In fact, it was a pleasant six degrees Celsius, and while the great sheets of ice were visible out into the ocean, the approach to the radar station was a greenish cast on the permafrost. Overhead, Rogue rocketed through the clear sky, taking an aerial recon of the area, looking for clues and keeping an eye open for any potential threats. While danger seemed very unlikely, especially considering that an RCMP forensic team, as well as several Department H specialists had already been through the site, the deaths of five former teammates had a tendency to inspire caution.

The stopped at the front door of the installation, a small, squat building dominated by the complex radar array built part on, part off of the building. It was a sparse facility, the main road leading to it in poor repair, and most of what would have been living quarters and support structures during its past as a full time station had been dissembled and removed years ago. Only several lines of fencing, mostly to keep animals from the interior, protected the station itself.

"Marie says it's all clear from her station. She's going to scout the coastline, see if she can find anything indicating if they came in by water." Garrison said, keeping an ear on his comm, listening over the wind. He'd been spoiled by the telepathic switchboard the team used.

Crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive position that had nothing to do with the weather given her powers, Lil's gaze remained locked on the ground at their feet. Clues, signs, anything that would point to who was responsible for the death of their friends and Alpha Flight - and perhaps, if the teams before hadn't collected it all, a piece of the Boxbot to take back to Madison.

The giantess gave a shake of her head to clear the thoughts of her husband from it. Focusing on the man who'd gone from vacant stupor to muttering incoherently while fidgeting almost uncontrollably after learning the fate of the Box Program. "Do you really think we're gonna find anything?" Lil asked, trying to keep the exhaustion from her voice.

Kane shrugged. "RCMP has a good forensic team, but it's not going to beat Logan's senses." He knew this was likely a fool's errand, but they had to try. There were just too many questions unanswered, and this was the only lead they had to start from. "I don't know. We have to at least try."

Logan was crouched down, close to the ground, and all business. "Hard to get anything - this is bad ground for scents." he muttered as he sniffed and tried to get something - anything - he could use. Luckily, he knew the scents of the Alphans quite well. "But I think they went this way." he said.

They followed the trail right to the front door of the station. "Poor bastards had no idea what was coming." Kane muttered, as he considered the jagged hole in the station above their heads, where Madison had rocketed through with the Box robot to escape. The door was closed, and sealed with 'police line' tape, but Garrison simply cut it and inserted the key he'd bullied out of his fellow Mounties.

The entrance to the station was dark, and even in the mild weather, the rank smell of blood and death greeted them.

Pulling the sleeve of her jacket over hand, Lil used it to cover her mouth and nose. "Jesus Christ," she hissed as her stomach rolled and her eyes adjusted to the lack of light. The giantess forced back the rising fury before growling, "Sonsofbitches better pray to whatever gods they believe in that I don't find them."

"Considering they killed five trained people, and nearly killed two others, I think looking past the bravado, it might be the other way around." Kane found the light switch, and the inset globes slowly flickered into use. The Mountie stepped back to allow Logan access.

"After you."

Logan grinned toothily at the Mountie and headed inside, claws in for now. The place, for lack of a better word, stank. Cordite, oil, blood, the unique sharp scent of energy weapon discharge, rocket fuel, this place had it all. "Musta been one helluva fight." Logan muttered as he moved about the room. Something about this place tickled the back of his brain, but he couldn't pin it down. "Dominion, left side, Tag and bag, tell me what your cop shit finds. I got right." he told his team-mate.

Something about this whole thing was setting him on edge. He could almost see it, but not quite.

While the boys went their own ways, Lil kept straight, moving to the center of the sparse space at the ready should the unexpected arise. It reeked of death and the only noises that filled the air were the ones the trio made. "Like a fucking tomb," she muttered to herself, lifting her head and surveying the ceiling - or what was left of it. "There ain't nothing here. Got cleaned up good - all except that fucking smell."

Kane played a black light over the floors and walls, looking at the splatter patterns. "Jesus. It looks like some painted the walls and floors with blood. They got fucking ripped apart." His statement was literal. Who or whatever had ambushed the members of Alpha Flight had attacked with stunning brutality, and torn them apart before they could escape.

He took a few more steps in, looking at the mostly empty building. Colcord had been right. There was nothing of value here. A few boxes of old files, some dusty cold weather gear, a half empty and out of date first aid kit, some silver foiled rations; nothing that had any real value. Either they had expected something else to have been here, or Alpha Flight was the target all along. "Logan, I'm getting nothing over here. Unless they were after copies of-" Garrison pulled out a file. "weather tracking reports and maintainance schedules, there's nothing worth shit here."

Logan didn't say anything. "They were here." he said quietly, moving to a fairly dusty corner of the room. "Fuck me."he said. "Oh, fuck me _like a goat_." he repeated, a great bit angrier now. "Either someone is fucking with me or this facilitty is Alkali Part Two." he said, reaching out and grabbing something to wing at Garrison's head with great force.

"What the _fuck_ was Alpha doing up here, Garrison." he growled in a voice that usually meant bodies were about to hit the floor. "You want to explain _that_?" he spit as his claws erupted from the backs of his hands.

"You got just as much information as I do, Logan. Get a fucking grip." Kane said, although his voice was still even. Logan's temper aside, he was unafraid of the other man, and if it came down to it, he was confident he could send him sailing out the same hole Box made until he calmed down. "If this is a secret weapons lab or something, tell me where it is, eh? Are they cleverly hiding the cloning tanks in the broom closet? There is nothing here worth anything!"

"Would the two of you just shut the fuck up, already?" Lil growled as she spun back to face both of them, her fists clenched tightly at her side. "Bicker all you want on the way back to Ottawa but we got a fucking job to do here. Five people are dead, another one's in a coma and if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my husband's bedside to make sure doesn't do anything stupid so let's fucking focus on finding whatever we can about these bastards who put more than our teammates in the ground, okay?"

Logan let a pair of dog-tags dangle from his fingers. "Look familiar, Lil?" he hissed as he presented the item for Gar and Lil to inspect. "They were on that _fucking_ counter over there." he growled. "They told me Weapon X was dead and gone." he said to no-one in particular. "It ended with Bill Stryker's death."


Lil looked from the tags to Logan to Garrison and back to the pieces of metal that clinked together softly as they swung in Logan's hold. "Fuck, Weapon X was behind this? Failure to keep up with the times and thought you were still leading the team and set this up to get to you?" She didn't like that possibility but it was the only one that came to mind.

"Logan's never led Alpha Flight. I can't imagine someone competent enough to plan this wouldn't have some kind of intel on who they are actually going to be ambushing." Kane slipped on a pair of gloves, and took the dogtags. "These things look brand new. Odd thing to leave at the scene, unless they were here all along."

"Either this is a grade-A mindfuck or someone's reactivated Weapon-X. Again.' he said roughly. "They wanted someone to find this. Clean the scene. I want to know everything." he said then stomped out of the ruined lab.

Kane shook his head. The re-activation of Weapon-X was a hell of a jump to make based on a pair of dogtags, but he didn't fault Logan his paranoia. Being built by a deadly top secret military weapons program would do that to you. "Marie?" He said into his handset, and listened to her over it. After a moment, he scowled and shook his head. "According to her, there's some signs about a klick from here that a boat was pulled up and moored recently. That's it." The Mountie looked around the radar site for another moment. 'Come on. There's nothing else to find here."

They left the site to its reek of death, leaving with more questions than they had entered with.