Arise X-man || All Fall Down
Dec. 20th, 2021 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsTrigger Warning: Medical Procedure, Mentions of Stroke, Accidental Injury
Kyle, Nica & Logan race against time to find Laurie and rescue her from Essex's clutches.
"Are we sure this is it?" Nica asked as they pulled up outside a gated light industrial complex. It seemed so ordinary, down to the sign requesting visitors to report to reception. "What would Laurie be doing here?"
Logan had been thankful the item they'd used to trace Laurie's scent had been an innocuous piece of clothing. One of her favorite sweaters or something. While he'd gotten plenty of whiffs of her scent around the mansion, it'd been light and abstract, buried under a million others. Unique but not enough to track without a closer source. He rolled down the window and took a deep breath. "Yeah, no mistakin' it. She's here." He was glad for the sunglasses he'd slipped on for the drive as they cut down on the reflections gleaming off the metal that was visible in all directions.
"Aw, fuck." Kyle muttered - his head was low, buried in a phone screen until he looked up, face barely composed under the anger. "Her phone just woke up. Battery finally charged, she's been emailing that motherfucking son of a fucking bitch, that creepy fucko from Genosha." His voice dropped to a low growl. "Fuck fuck shit fuck, she's the only one who came out of Genosha and then survived the M Day bullshit. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She had a goddamn healing factor in Genosha. She had my healing factor." He thrust the phone out wildly. "Fuck. Fuck, I could probably regrow an arm."
"Whoa, slow down..." Nica took the phone. "Wait... Essex? Dr. Nathanial Essex? The one from the files? What would he want with Laurie?"
Logan grimaced and gazed at the industrial buildings that surrounded them. "Million and more things. That asshole could do a lot with Laurie's pheromone powers." He would've expected Laurie to have better sense than that after everything that'd happened. Out of anyone she should know first hand what that man was capable of. There were questions to be answered once they got her out of this.
"Like I said. I could regrow an arm my powers got pushed, and that fucko pushes powers. Laurie's, like. " Kyle pulled at his hair in frustration. "Laurie had other powers when she was a mutate, she was the only one who did, what if he's slapping a bunch of powers on her and gonna make her a mutate again. I mean. What if she's like.... science shit, weirdly compatible to genetic engineering or something?" He shrugged. "Fuck. Fuck, I bet he's been all up in her shit this entire time."
"Time to put a stop to that then," Logan said as he walked over to the security fence surrounding the complex." He squinted at it before tapping a finger against the box. "How discreet we wantin' this to be? If not so discreet, not sure we have the time, Nica, think you can fry the box? I can cut us a hole and then we gotta get Laurie quick and get out of here before they come down on our asses."
"As good as done." Nica pushed her hand through the box and into the wiring inside, focussing a moment on the energy she could feel pulsing inside. A sudden eruption of sparks and the electrical hum stopped. "I don't think we have time to call in anyone - whatever's going on, we need to get in there as soon as we can and pull her out."
Logan sliced through the locks in quick order. Hopefully, that'd also shorted out any cameras in the vicinity. If Essex was in play, he'd probably know who they were anyway and he'd know full well to keep any footage he had out of the news. "Let's get movin'." The hairs on his neck were standing up with everything screaming that this was not going to end well.
A moment after Logan's claws cut through the locks, Kyle kicked the door open. "Why the eff is it so quiet?" He glanced around the front reception area. "I mean, you'd think he'd have... I dunno. Security?"
He didn't wait for an answer and pulled at the next door. "This one's locked too." This door, unlike the front door, was a simple wooden door and came open with a kick. "Aaaand, it's a creepy hallway."
"Of course," replied Nica wryly. She was in her full light form, floating above the floor so she left no trace of her presence. "I'm getting a whole lot of electrical energy being used at the end of this hallway, down where those hospital doors are?" She was obviously trying to hold her voice steady as the situation reminded her more and more of the Halloween nightmare of several years ago, where they'd been trapped in the haunted house. Laurie had been at the center of her fears then as well. "Are either of you getting any scents? Staff, security, that sort of thing?"
"Not much of anythin' headed this way. All I got is Laurie's scent gettin' stronger and stronger along with whatever bullshit Essex is playin' around in there with," Logan said as he scanned the eerily empty hallway. There were a few closed doors along their way. Their signage told him nothing. Just room numbers. The one door with a window in it showed the clean sterility of a lab with multiple lab benches devoid of any items. "Not likin' what this is sayin' about things."
"I don't hear anything. Like. At all." Kyle shouldered a door open to a tidy living area, armchairs, and an entertainment center with a video game still on the television. "What the fuck." He said in a low voice. "Dude, someone lived here." He took a careful step in and frowned. "Laurie's been in here."
"Willin' or unwillin'?" Logan said as peered through the door around Kyle. It wasn't hospital sterile but it was lab experiment sterile. What fucking weirdness had happened in here? Essex didn't have the best of track records no matter the universe they were in. He sniffed and stuffed back a gag cause he really didn't want to think about that.
"Yeah." Kyle rubbed his nose, and let out a huff. "Well, Logan's not sayin' it so I guess I gotta. I don't know who Laurie was fuckin' in here, but she sure as hell got nasty with somebody. Which is gross, because ew, didn't wanna picture her getting it on with Doctor Creepy Mutate Maker."
He looked around the room and shrugged. "Nothing else in here though. Don't hear anyone, don't smell anyone besides Laurie, but she kinda dominates the smells. I don't smell a lot of people though. Maybe like. One or two? I mean there's a reception desk, so he's probably got goons. Thugs. Creepy lab assistants."
Nica paused in the hallway, hovering uncertainly. “No guards, things left abandoned… Are we too late?” She glanced up at the room at the end of the hall, the door with the hospital windows. “We should check what’s in there,” she said slowly - it was actually the last thing she wanted to do.
Logan grimaced then resolutely made for the said door. They'd come here for a reason. They might as well see it through. What else was there to do? Laurie's scent got stronger the closer he came. She'd been here recently with how fresh the scent was. He pushed the door open to a lightning extravaganza. Blue lights were placed all over the room in various strips attached along the walls and along shelves. Several metal lab tables were arranged around the room with papers and notebooks stacked neatly on one. Liquids sat in containers on the shelves accompanied by animal skeletons and diagrams. The whole room reeked of science and an energy Logan didn't like. The centerpiece of the whole thing was a large pod also accentuated in blue lights along with green and orange. It looked like a modern version of a LightBrite. He cautiously crept closer as there were conveniently placed viewports on the pod. Laurie's scent centered in this room and they needed to find out why.
Kyle stalked the room on silent feet, twitching nose in the air as he paced the outer perimeter. "She's been in here a lot." He said. His path mirrored Logan's, a slow spiral to the unavoidable pod in the middle of the room. "Yo, that thing is on. There's..." he cocked his head to one side. "There's... Wolverine, can you hear that noise? Like that ... you know how when the Blackbird's cooling down it makes that noise, only whispery." He stopped next to the older, shorter man and stretched up on the balls of his feet. "Fuck, I can't see shit in there, it's got some kind of ... "
He went still, and pressed one ear to the pod, and then pulled away as though it were white-hot. "Somebody... shit, Laurie's in that thing. I hear breathing. I can hear her. Fuck. How do we fuckin' open this thing?"
Nica had been hanging back, letting the two more experienced X-Men do their thing. The whole place reminded her of the Halloween haunted house nightmare, with Kyle’s presence only exacerbating it and her mind was full of memories of Laurie performing experiments on mutants, the atrocities she committed in the name of science with no more emotion than academic curiosity. At his words, she started and rushed forward to join them at the pod.
“It’s some sort of experiment of Essex’s,” she burst out. “Making her stronger, making her into a monster… we have to stop it!” and with that, she plunged both hands into the bulk of the pod which housed its mechanical and electrical components, blasting a surge of wide-spectrum electromagnetic energy into the heart of it. There was an answering flash of sparks, the pod fell silent and smoke drifted up from the ruined device.
That...was not what Logan had expected to happen. If experience was anything to live by, tampering with a science experiment that haphazardly was only going to lead to trouble. But that was a discussion for later. Logan slammed his claws into the side of the pod and ran them down its side before prying it open like a tin can. No time to waste. Whatever functions the pod provided to Laurie had been immediately cut off and she needed out of there. The jagged lid opened to reveal Laurie thrashing and jerking around clearly in the middle of a bad seizure. Her eyes were rolled back, mouth set in that in between of slack and tight from the convulsions shaking her, and he wasn't sure she was breathing. The sizzle charred smell of skin floated to his nose. Had Laurie been hooked up to wires and electrodes that'd shorted and carried current onto her skin when the pod had shorted?
Logan attempted to scoop her up in his arms but was unable to get a decent grip. "Wildchild, c'mon, gonna need a second body so she doesn't twist outta my grasp and fall to the floor. Spectrum, stat evac call to Blink. We gotta get her to the medlab, fast."
Kyle, Nica & Logan race against time to find Laurie and rescue her from Essex's clutches.
"Are we sure this is it?" Nica asked as they pulled up outside a gated light industrial complex. It seemed so ordinary, down to the sign requesting visitors to report to reception. "What would Laurie be doing here?"
Logan had been thankful the item they'd used to trace Laurie's scent had been an innocuous piece of clothing. One of her favorite sweaters or something. While he'd gotten plenty of whiffs of her scent around the mansion, it'd been light and abstract, buried under a million others. Unique but not enough to track without a closer source. He rolled down the window and took a deep breath. "Yeah, no mistakin' it. She's here." He was glad for the sunglasses he'd slipped on for the drive as they cut down on the reflections gleaming off the metal that was visible in all directions.
"Aw, fuck." Kyle muttered - his head was low, buried in a phone screen until he looked up, face barely composed under the anger. "Her phone just woke up. Battery finally charged, she's been emailing that motherfucking son of a fucking bitch, that creepy fucko from Genosha." His voice dropped to a low growl. "Fuck fuck shit fuck, she's the only one who came out of Genosha and then survived the M Day bullshit. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She had a goddamn healing factor in Genosha. She had my healing factor." He thrust the phone out wildly. "Fuck. Fuck, I could probably regrow an arm."
"Whoa, slow down..." Nica took the phone. "Wait... Essex? Dr. Nathanial Essex? The one from the files? What would he want with Laurie?"
Logan grimaced and gazed at the industrial buildings that surrounded them. "Million and more things. That asshole could do a lot with Laurie's pheromone powers." He would've expected Laurie to have better sense than that after everything that'd happened. Out of anyone she should know first hand what that man was capable of. There were questions to be answered once they got her out of this.
"Like I said. I could regrow an arm my powers got pushed, and that fucko pushes powers. Laurie's, like. " Kyle pulled at his hair in frustration. "Laurie had other powers when she was a mutate, she was the only one who did, what if he's slapping a bunch of powers on her and gonna make her a mutate again. I mean. What if she's like.... science shit, weirdly compatible to genetic engineering or something?" He shrugged. "Fuck. Fuck, I bet he's been all up in her shit this entire time."
"Time to put a stop to that then," Logan said as he walked over to the security fence surrounding the complex." He squinted at it before tapping a finger against the box. "How discreet we wantin' this to be? If not so discreet, not sure we have the time, Nica, think you can fry the box? I can cut us a hole and then we gotta get Laurie quick and get out of here before they come down on our asses."
"As good as done." Nica pushed her hand through the box and into the wiring inside, focussing a moment on the energy she could feel pulsing inside. A sudden eruption of sparks and the electrical hum stopped. "I don't think we have time to call in anyone - whatever's going on, we need to get in there as soon as we can and pull her out."
Logan sliced through the locks in quick order. Hopefully, that'd also shorted out any cameras in the vicinity. If Essex was in play, he'd probably know who they were anyway and he'd know full well to keep any footage he had out of the news. "Let's get movin'." The hairs on his neck were standing up with everything screaming that this was not going to end well.
A moment after Logan's claws cut through the locks, Kyle kicked the door open. "Why the eff is it so quiet?" He glanced around the front reception area. "I mean, you'd think he'd have... I dunno. Security?"
He didn't wait for an answer and pulled at the next door. "This one's locked too." This door, unlike the front door, was a simple wooden door and came open with a kick. "Aaaand, it's a creepy hallway."
"Of course," replied Nica wryly. She was in her full light form, floating above the floor so she left no trace of her presence. "I'm getting a whole lot of electrical energy being used at the end of this hallway, down where those hospital doors are?" She was obviously trying to hold her voice steady as the situation reminded her more and more of the Halloween nightmare of several years ago, where they'd been trapped in the haunted house. Laurie had been at the center of her fears then as well. "Are either of you getting any scents? Staff, security, that sort of thing?"
"Not much of anythin' headed this way. All I got is Laurie's scent gettin' stronger and stronger along with whatever bullshit Essex is playin' around in there with," Logan said as he scanned the eerily empty hallway. There were a few closed doors along their way. Their signage told him nothing. Just room numbers. The one door with a window in it showed the clean sterility of a lab with multiple lab benches devoid of any items. "Not likin' what this is sayin' about things."
"I don't hear anything. Like. At all." Kyle shouldered a door open to a tidy living area, armchairs, and an entertainment center with a video game still on the television. "What the fuck." He said in a low voice. "Dude, someone lived here." He took a careful step in and frowned. "Laurie's been in here."
"Willin' or unwillin'?" Logan said as peered through the door around Kyle. It wasn't hospital sterile but it was lab experiment sterile. What fucking weirdness had happened in here? Essex didn't have the best of track records no matter the universe they were in. He sniffed and stuffed back a gag cause he really didn't want to think about that.
"Yeah." Kyle rubbed his nose, and let out a huff. "Well, Logan's not sayin' it so I guess I gotta. I don't know who Laurie was fuckin' in here, but she sure as hell got nasty with somebody. Which is gross, because ew, didn't wanna picture her getting it on with Doctor Creepy Mutate Maker."
He looked around the room and shrugged. "Nothing else in here though. Don't hear anyone, don't smell anyone besides Laurie, but she kinda dominates the smells. I don't smell a lot of people though. Maybe like. One or two? I mean there's a reception desk, so he's probably got goons. Thugs. Creepy lab assistants."
Nica paused in the hallway, hovering uncertainly. “No guards, things left abandoned… Are we too late?” She glanced up at the room at the end of the hall, the door with the hospital windows. “We should check what’s in there,” she said slowly - it was actually the last thing she wanted to do.
Logan grimaced then resolutely made for the said door. They'd come here for a reason. They might as well see it through. What else was there to do? Laurie's scent got stronger the closer he came. She'd been here recently with how fresh the scent was. He pushed the door open to a lightning extravaganza. Blue lights were placed all over the room in various strips attached along the walls and along shelves. Several metal lab tables were arranged around the room with papers and notebooks stacked neatly on one. Liquids sat in containers on the shelves accompanied by animal skeletons and diagrams. The whole room reeked of science and an energy Logan didn't like. The centerpiece of the whole thing was a large pod also accentuated in blue lights along with green and orange. It looked like a modern version of a LightBrite. He cautiously crept closer as there were conveniently placed viewports on the pod. Laurie's scent centered in this room and they needed to find out why.
Kyle stalked the room on silent feet, twitching nose in the air as he paced the outer perimeter. "She's been in here a lot." He said. His path mirrored Logan's, a slow spiral to the unavoidable pod in the middle of the room. "Yo, that thing is on. There's..." he cocked his head to one side. "There's... Wolverine, can you hear that noise? Like that ... you know how when the Blackbird's cooling down it makes that noise, only whispery." He stopped next to the older, shorter man and stretched up on the balls of his feet. "Fuck, I can't see shit in there, it's got some kind of ... "
He went still, and pressed one ear to the pod, and then pulled away as though it were white-hot. "Somebody... shit, Laurie's in that thing. I hear breathing. I can hear her. Fuck. How do we fuckin' open this thing?"
Nica had been hanging back, letting the two more experienced X-Men do their thing. The whole place reminded her of the Halloween haunted house nightmare, with Kyle’s presence only exacerbating it and her mind was full of memories of Laurie performing experiments on mutants, the atrocities she committed in the name of science with no more emotion than academic curiosity. At his words, she started and rushed forward to join them at the pod.
“It’s some sort of experiment of Essex’s,” she burst out. “Making her stronger, making her into a monster… we have to stop it!” and with that, she plunged both hands into the bulk of the pod which housed its mechanical and electrical components, blasting a surge of wide-spectrum electromagnetic energy into the heart of it. There was an answering flash of sparks, the pod fell silent and smoke drifted up from the ruined device.
That...was not what Logan had expected to happen. If experience was anything to live by, tampering with a science experiment that haphazardly was only going to lead to trouble. But that was a discussion for later. Logan slammed his claws into the side of the pod and ran them down its side before prying it open like a tin can. No time to waste. Whatever functions the pod provided to Laurie had been immediately cut off and she needed out of there. The jagged lid opened to reveal Laurie thrashing and jerking around clearly in the middle of a bad seizure. Her eyes were rolled back, mouth set in that in between of slack and tight from the convulsions shaking her, and he wasn't sure she was breathing. The sizzle charred smell of skin floated to his nose. Had Laurie been hooked up to wires and electrodes that'd shorted and carried current onto her skin when the pod had shorted?
Logan attempted to scoop her up in his arms but was unable to get a decent grip. "Wildchild, c'mon, gonna need a second body so she doesn't twist outta my grasp and fall to the floor. Spectrum, stat evac call to Blink. We gotta get her to the medlab, fast."
