Laura is a pragmatic superhero (nomorestrings) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-06-01 11:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !trigger warning, cassandra cain (blackbat), clarice ferguson (blink), kitty pryde (shadowcat), laura kinney (wolverine) |
"She needs a better code-name."
Who: Laura Kinney, (guy)Kitty Pryde, (guy)Cass Cain, (guy)Clarice
What: Rescuing Laura, Team 1 of 2!
When: 5/27
Where: A Cerberus Lab somewhere
Rating/Warnings: R, TW: Violence, Blood.
Status: Complete!
“The boys and Nat are already onsite and playing distraction,” Kitty said, adjusting the glove she (he?) wore that had one of Logan’s bone claws in it, and then fixing his mask. Her other wrist had a glove with a series of three metal claws inside it - a gift from the Age of Apocalypse. She’d woken up that morning as a man and it was irritating the hell out of her. Him. “That should give us our entrance so that we can find Laura and get her out of there. She’ll probably be hungry, and she may be feral. I’ve seen them feral. Let me approach first, I can phase if she attacks, but she’ll need both me and Cass to calm her. Blink, you port us out once we get her calmed down, then get the others.” He just hoped that Laura would recognize their scents scent.
Clarice nodded his head. “Seems simple enough. We had to find her today, didn’t we.”
Cass had been worried about Laura ever since she hadn’t returned home a couple of days earlier and she’d been trying to help find her ever since. Now, they had found out where she was being held and of course on the day they were to rescue her, Orange County had decided to be a dick and switch around a bunch of people’s genders, including the three of them in the rescue party. Had Cass still been a girl, she would have worn her Batgirl costume for this rescue, because it’d be easier for her to hide in the shadows wearing an all black skin tight costume, but that idea went out the window when she’d woken up as a guy.
As Kitty spoke, she listened and nodded in response to the plan, “Got it. Unless our scents are different too, she should be able to figure out that it’s us.” Living with Laura meant that she more than likely knew what Cass’ scent was right away. “We ready?”
And Kitty had slept with Laura once, so he figured that would leave an impression. At least hopefully. “Go.”
Clarice blinked them into a hallway. Immediately visible were two shocked looking guards, and alarms were already blazing. Kitty kicked one on the face then stumbled. “Shit this is harder than it should be!”
Upon waking up in a body that definitely wasn’t hers, Cass had actually spent some time going through the various exercises and routines she did normally so that she’d know what was easier and what was more difficult in this body so when one of the guards came at her, she was easily able to take him down since her strength hadn’t changed all that much from what she’d acquired from the dreams just because she was a guy now, “Just don’t try to overcompensate. If you’re stronger now or have more muscle mass, just use it to your advantage. Don’t try anything fancy that you might be able to do in your own body.” Cass knew that there were some moves she could do as a girl that she wouldn’t be able to do as a guy cause she weighed more.
"I'm still a stick, so that helps." Kitty phased through a man, turning around and hitting him in the back of the head. "Give me cover, I'm going to hack into that computer and find where they're keeping X. She needs a better code-name."
Kitty phased through another wall and got to work at a computer. Clarice, meanwhile, started porting badguys right to the Agency. "I hope Fury appreciates his presents."
“We can suggest that to her once we’ve got her.” Cass was intrigued by Clarice’s powers and was glad that she was on their side. As Kitty moved to the computer, those guards that Clarice wasn’t portaling, Cass was putting down to keep them away from Kitty. She moved with a similar ease as before, but it was adjusted and still not perfect, but she kept thinking back to the training she’d gotten from both her father and Batman in the dreams and adjusting it as needed as she fought the other guards.
“I like Talon. I’ll suggest that for her. Or maybe something big cat based. Or bird of prey based. I mean there’s a lot you can go for.”
Clarice laughed. “Of course Shadowcat would suggest cats.”
“Shut up, Blink. Okay I think she’s about two floors under us, but we’re in the right area.” Kitty inserted a virus that would send data back to the Agency while frying Cerberus networks. Once Natasha accessed a computer and recovered her files, she would insert a virus as well. That would set both trojans off together.
Meanwhile, two floors down, Laura had become a one-woman angel of death. She'd put everything else behind her, the blood memories, her guilt. The only thing that mattered was teaching Cerberus a lesson they wouldn't soon forget, and she was consumed by it.
Over the radio, a group of soldiers started screaming, only to be cut off quickly.
“She’s loose,” Kitty said. She(he) detached her thumb drive. “Port us down there but put some distance between her and us. Enough that we can approach without getting clawed to death.”
“Hold on.” Blink!
Cass’ head snapped up in the direction of the radio, “I have restraints, if we need them.” Her utility belt didn’t quite fit around her wider, more manly waist, but she had pockets in the pants she was wearing and had brought whatever she thought might be useful. She didn’t get a chance to brace herself for the portal before they materialized on another floor, “That’s gonna take a while to get used to.”
They ported in about half a hallway away from Laura, who had finished slicing off the head of the last guard and was now sniffing around for her next target. Not really in a mode where she was bothering to recognize the scents anymore, her nose caught a whiff of human and she went plummeting down the hallway towards the new arrivals.
Kitty popped the claw on his left wrist as Laura approached them. "Blink. Port her back twenty feet then drop me behind her, Cass get those restraints ready. When I distract her, Blink will port you in. Remember she's got claws on her feet too."
He dug his feet in. "Laura! We're friends!
Clarice opened a portal right in front of Laura, sending her back down the hallway. An instant later Kitty came out behind Laura, phasing through her to daze her, then bouncing back. “It’s Kitty! Smell me! Cass is here too!”
As Laura was ported back down the hall and Kitty was ported behind her, Cass retrieved the restraints from her pocket and waited for Clarice to port her in, bracing herself just in case Laura got past Kitty and came at her. “Whenever you’re ready, Clarice.”
“Three, two, one,” Clarice said, then opened a portal for Cass. She turned to deal with some soldiers, sending them via portal to the Agency. She strained her ears. “Something big is coming. They’re really not happy to see us.”
Cass was ported behind Laura and hoping she would be distracted by Kitty, she quickly secured her arms with the restraints, which her Batman approved.
Luckily for Cass, she managed to avoid Laura's claws while she secured the restraints. Laura felt disoriented, and she let out a little snarl as she tried to get her bearings. People were yelling at her, there were familiar scents, but no one looked like themselves.
She whirled a bit, claws flashing in the light, and then stumbled forward onto her knees. A strangled cry ripped out of her throat, and her claws slowly pushed back into her hands, "No... no... who? Why? You smell... what?"
Her voice was hoarse, and she sounded as lost as she felt.
Kitty was wary of Laura's foot claws, and she approached cautiously, one hand out for Laura to sniff at. "It's me. Kitty. And that's Cass. We woke up this morning like this. Orange County stuff. But we're still us. We're here to get you. We've been looking for you for a week. Logan's turned the county upside down to find you. Neena, Rogue, everyone. Sam even got Captain America involved for you."
Somewhere in the distance heavy machinegun fire started. "And he's probably dealing with whatever that is."
Cass dodged Laura as she turned then waited until she was calmer before moving to stand near Kitty, “It’s true. It’s really me, Cass.” She glanced in the direction of the machinegun fire, “And we should probably get out of here.” She didn’t want to have to deal with more guys with guns and figured it was about time to get Laura somewhere safe.
This was unbelievable. Were they really who they said they were? Laura wanted to rub her hands against her head, but they were still restrained behind her back.
She couldn't blame them for that. She would have killed them. And she never would have forgiven herself for that. But there was something more important that what she'd been through, or what she would have done to her own friends, or the machine gun fire in the background.
Laura shook her head. "...We can't leave. We can't... They have my DNA, they have... pieces of me. To study. We have to set everything on fire. Or blow it up."
"FUCK." Kitty ran fingers through his hair. He was pissed. He should have thought of that. And whatever they did to Laura... only pissed him off more.
Clarice approached, meeting Laura's eyes with his green glowing ones. "I've been a test subject before, I understand." An invitation to talk. But later. "X is right."
"I’m serious. She really needs a better code name.” Kitty thought that 'X-23' was too...not right. "Something she can choose herself. But that's neither here nor there. I've got a map of the facility, there's a reactor we can blow. I'll signal the other team to go scorched earth."
Cass wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what Laura meant when she said that they had “pieces” of her. She didn’t like to think of her friends being hurt and so far had done a pretty good job of blocking that possibility from her mind during all of this, “Okay, what do we do then?”
“Blow the reactor,” Kitty said, simply.
It was for everyone's benefit that Laura hadn't gone into detail about what pieces, exactly, they had. She wasn't the same Laura from the dreams - she was enough her old self to know that giving all the facts wasn't always welcome. Especially not now, not to her friends.
Her friends, who had come to rescue her. She was so grateful for that, even though she felt like she didn't deserve it at all, "You will need to tell the other team. And we should move before whatever that is comes our way."
Laura's arms tugged at the restraints a bit, and she looked up at Cass sheepishly, "Do you think you could undo these?"
Cass shot a quick glance towards Kitty and Clarice before nodding and undoing the restraints from around Laura’s wrists, “It’s really good to see you.” She said once the restraints were off and back in her pocket. She’d been so worried about Laura over the last couple of days and seeing her, relatively safe felt like a weight had been lifted.
“You’ll get hugs later,” Kitty promised. “Blink, commere.” He showed the teleporter just where the reactor was. “Put me there. The rest of you find their labs. Anything suspicious, send to Moira. Anything that so much as looks like Legacy, or targets mutants, send it into the fucking sun. Or the core.”
“What if it’s something that we need to make a cure for?” Clarice asked.
Kitty made a face. “Fine. Laura, I trust you’ll know anything...of yours you see. Blink can dispose of it if you want.”
It wasn't really a hugging moment, and Laura wasn't really a hugger, but she might have hugged Cass if it hadn't been. Instead, she gave Cass a reassuring smile she wasn't feeling, and then nodded her head, "I can do that. But most of it is better off just... burning into ash when this reactor blows up."
There was also the possibility that she'd taken some of it with her, that woman who had tricked her. Laura decided to leave that unsaid and gave another smile to Cass, "I'm okay. Let's go."