Bella Donna Boudreaux is a cheerful assassin (petitmort) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-22 00:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, bella donna boudreaux, clarice ferguson (blink), logan howlett (wolverine) |
It’s probably a trap
Who: Belle Boudreaux, Clarice Ferguson, and Logan Howlett
Where: Portland, mostly
What: falling into a trap
When: Monday evening after this log
Warnings/Rating: R for violence, NPC death, and PC injury
Status complete
Belle was pretty tired all day. The drama with Wolfwood left her drained and aching, and if she had another cigarette that day she was going to asphyxiate. Part of her was very happy when Scott told her they’d found the scientist from the Cerebus lab, and part of her was just so tired she wanted to take a nap.
But she dragged herself out to meet him in the middle of nowhere. The minivan and jet made her black SUV the least weird vehicle there. She drained her coffee cup as she tugged on her blazer. She had to look official for the civilian whose blood just got stolen.
Someday she would have normal problems. Maybe a shitty boyfriend, maybe she’d break a heel on the way to work. She relished the thought of having an issue that had nothing to do with hiding most of her identity. She couldn’t help but snicker when she saw who was waiting outside the door. “Well, didn’t think I’d see you again.” She couldn’t remember his name, but she remembered his jaw.
Logan sniffed, and shrugged. “She messed with the wrong person.”
Right, they were being serious now. Belle nodded. “Apparently so. She say where your sample’s headin’?” If they could track it, maybe they could find out where the higher ups were. She hoped so. This capture could be the break she needed to find out which agents were abusing their status. In a way she was sad. If this broke Cerebus, she’d probably be on a plane to some other country by the end of the week.
“Yeah, we have a lead.” Logan didn’t explain where they’d gotten the lead, and it was probably better if Belle didn’t know. What Emma had done was worse than anything he could have done. He could have brought in Neena, she was good at extracting information, but Emma was faster.
“Where?” Belle asked, completely uninterested in ‘how’.
“Portland.”
“Then get in the car and we’ll see if we can catch ‘em. It’s a while t’ Portland, they’ll probably fly. I can get the local airports locked down, and we’ll try t’ figure out which one they went to, assumin’ they don’t have a private helicopter pad.”
“They’re probably already in the air,” Logan agreed. He wanted to get this over with. “We could call in a port.”
“I might as well sell Blink my firstborn at this rate.” Belle noted with a sigh. “You call her, I’ll get my things.” She opened the back of her SUV and shed her blazer and heels. It would only take her a minute to get into her gear, which was probably about how long she had until Blink arrived.
Not quite long enough, as Blink got another eyeful of Belle. She clapped her hand over her eyes and laughed. It was a nice, not -serious moment that Logan actually appreciated.
“I might need you to do somethin’ ruthless, darlin’,” Logan told Blink.
“They’re hurting people…” There was still a limit for her, but it was getting pushed more and more.
Belle didn’t even care by that point. Everyone present save Emma had seen her ass at one point or another. She grabbed her gun and slung it over her shoulder. “We could do it without you havin’ t’ fight, but we’d sure appreciate the help.” Of course taking Blink was a risk because they might get a sample of her DNA as well, but the other alternative was worse.
“Worse comes to worse I can port someone to Siberia,” she replied, cracking her knuckles. “You two ready?”
Belle nodded. “I am. I assume he is. Let’s go make the world a better place.”
Thirty seconds later they were standing on the rooftop of a building in downtown Portland. Logan narrowed his eyes. If this was it, they couldn’t just blast the place from orbit or otherwise get too destructive. He sniffed around.
Belle didn’t like being so exposed. She checked her rifle and her knives, hoping Logan would get a scent. “So the best codename I could come up with was Iris. I don’t want t’ hear any comments about my breasts.” She gave Blink an amused grin, her last of the day in all likelihood.
“This way.” Logan took off across the roof, heading for a door.
Belle nodded and made mental notes of the buildings around them as she headed into the building. “Remember, we’re just here to poke around and make sure they’re not usin’ your sample. I ain’t about t’ fight a whole bunch of guys with just the three of us, no matter how badass you two are.” She was very aware that she was the most vulnerable member of the team. It wasn’t a great feeling.
“We won’t fight if we don’t have to,” Logan said, sniffing around and pointing down a corridor.
“Our options are already limited,” Clarice said. “At least when it comes to a big strike. Having a base in an office building means any attacks have to be carefully coordinated.”
“No shit.” Belle noted. “Clever bastards. We could always phone in a bomb threat, get the civilians out, at least.” And probably half of Cerebus, but they would leave their information behind.
“No. If I was them I’d torch or erase anything that might get stumbled upon in a bomb threat investigation,” Logan pointed out. “We single out what we need, and we take out what we gotta. Shadowcat can hack anything. We got my nose, an’ I can think of a few folks who can give us some backup. Cyke probably already has a team in mind.”
“Probably we’ll be goin’ t’ the same place. If I can get a database of their research-” Belle paused. “No, I can’t take that. Merde. I’ll need t’ split off, look for an administrator’s office at some point. No way I’m lettin’ their research survive.”
“Torch what you need to, we’ll torch what we need to,” Logan snarled.
For her part, Blink just closed her eyes. “I know what it’s like to be tested on. Used and experimented, to be a twisted man’s plaything…”
“I figure we got enough intersectin’ between the two t’ not be a bother.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll use the main team’s arrival t’ cover me, and stick with you two until then.” She’d rather have transport out if shit went down.
Logan nodded. “Lets get a good map for ‘em, an’ some proof they’re doin’ shit here.”
“Yeah.” Belle said with a nod. They rounded a corner and several men were there, headed their way. She hoped they hadn’t reported in, yet. Wanting to be quiet she tugged a knife out of its holster. She’d save her gun for later. They had to get to the men and silence then before they got too loud.
“Blink.”
She nodded at Logan, and threw bolts of light. The men’s weapons disappeared. “All yours.”
Logan grinned. “Come on Belle, lets dance.”
“Didja really just use my real name?” Belle was impressed he remembered it.
The men started to yell, but the closest one was cut off when he got a throwing knife straight in his larynx. Belle was pleased with that, and closed to finish the job with her larger knife. She didn’t want him flopping around making a scene, and he distracted his buddy nicely.
Clarice winced, leaping into the fray, punching, kicking, and removing their radios. She started to blink the guards away. “I sent them to Easter Island.”
“Well, that was quicker, anyway.” Belle noted, putting her knife away.
“Damn it. Let me have some fun.” Logan sheathed his claws, then turned down a hallway. “Anyone smell somethin’ rotten?”
“If we start killing everyone they’ll know for sure we were here,” Clarice pointed out.
“That’s a good point.” Belle admitted. “And I don’t smell nothin’.”
“Me neither.”
Logan glanced at both woman and then nodded towards a door. “Server room.”
Belle ducked in, blackjacking the tech in the room. She couldn’t pull any servers, as much as she might like to, but she could try to copy the data. She set the machine up, then snuck back out, closing the door. “Should be done when we come back. Can’t wait around that long.”
“Okay, this way. I think I know where the lab is.” Logan took off at a jog. Clarice glanced at Belle and shrugged.
“I used to lead my own team, but it’s usually good to let the man with the claws and healing factor take point.”
“No shit. He can run headlong int’ all the stuff he wants.” Belle jogged along behind him, keeping her eyes open for threats. “This is all goin’ pretty easy.” Her tone made it clear that she didn’t trust this to keep going well.
“It’ll go to shit soon enough,” Logan growled. He kicked down a door, and a man inside screamed. Logan disappeared inside and the scream cut off. His head peeked out. “Get in here. I think I found the lab.”
“And here’s where recon ends and the fightin’ begins.” Belle noted with a sigh. She followed him in, looking around for threats to engage.
There were a lot of tubes, and coiled wires, and jars full of specimens. Logan sniffed. “Ain’t smellin’ me in here. Don’ know what all this shit is.”
Clarice stayed outside.
Belle made a face and went to examine the specimens. “There might be a back room. The other bitch worked on people, and I’m not seein’ any whole live ones in here.”
“Jus’ cut up ones. Bums an’ shit.” Logan checked a console, then cut holes into it. “Pisses me off. Why do I got the feelin’ this is a wild good chase?”
Belle huffed. “Fuck. That bitch lied to us. Or was misinformed.” She went to the walls to check them over, just to make sure there were no other doors.
“Considerin’ they ripped it out of her head, it has to be the latter. Ain’t no way you can hide from a telepath.” Logan punched the wall, then sniffed around, searching for anything that reeked of lab. “Lets get back to that server room. See if we can get a real location.”
“Oui. Hopefully it’s been long enough and nothin’s exploded.” Of course, if they were in the wrong location, it was almost certainly a trap. She walked back out, shaking her head to let Blink know they hadn’t found anything.
“It’s probably a trap,” Blink said, falling into step alongside the other woman. She was mildly attracted, though in that ‘if only I was single’ sort of way.
“It’s always a trap,” Logan agreed.
“Obviously it’s a trap. Probably not even any data on the servers.” It was frustrating, but she had to be certain. “If I die I’m gonna be real pissed off.”
“You won’t die.” Logan charged into the server room, which was completely empty still. He looked around and shrugged. “It done?”
Belle went over to look at the device. “Yeah, says it got a little bit of data, but not a lot.” She frowned at the machine and tucked it back in its pouch. “So can we just leave, then? Or do we need t’ keep pokin’ at the trap?”
Logan wrinkled his nose. “I smell gas.”
Something clicked, and Clarice opened a portal, sending the two of them back to Scott and Emma as an explosion engulfed the room.
Belle swore, even after she realized they weren’t blowing up. She was pissed that she’d forgone her free time to go on this stupid mission, and that she had nearly nothing to show for it. She was also pissed that she probably had two gigabytes of garbage data and she still had to go through it all with a fine tooth comb.
“Maybe I can have someone help you with that data, darlin’,” Logan said, clapping a hand on her shoulder. He looked around. “Shit. Blink?”
There was a flash of light, and Clarice ported in, coughing. Her clothing was scorched and there were burns on her arms.
“Dieu.” Belle exclaimed, moving closer to Blink. “We need some water t’ cool the burns down.” She grabbed the keys to her car and unlocked it, racing over to grab the gallon jugs of water she kept in the back. “Get her t’ sit down.” This was not her week at all.
“I’m fine,” Clarice said, before she wobbled and fell into Logan’s arms.
“Bullshit.” Logan lifted her up and carried her over to the car. “We’ll get you to Faiza. Really need to give that woman a big paycheck one o’these days.”
“She’s gonna get real tired of seein’ me standin’ over some poor asshole who’s got fucked up on my account.” She dragged a blanket out of the SUV and put it on the ground. “You burned anywhere but your arms?”She poured the water over them, glad that it was still lukewarm.
“Don’t think so. I ended up porting the wrong direction after I sent you away. Got all turned around.” Clarice hissed at the water.
Belle examined the burns and shook her head. “Call Faiza now.” If they weren’t as bad as they looked they were still too large for this kind of treatment.
"Yeah," Logan said. He'd also call kitty about the data. His gut told him it hasn't been entirely a loss.