Long Road Home (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} the_wolverine) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} valarlogs,@ 2017-05-24 04:58:00 |
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Who: Logan and Aria
What: Aria dreams a terrible dream and Logan finds a place to take out her aggression
When: Recent
Where: A lab
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13, mentions of death and actual dismemberment
Aria’s recent few dreams had troubled her. An ex-Cerberus operative coming to Omega was bad. It had been her daughter’s insistence that she let the man into her organization that had ultimately swayed her. But even so, she still had her reservations. She knew Cerberus’ reputation and how it never liked former operatives slipping away without consequence. She fully expected Cerberus to come knocking on Omega’s door one of these days.
What she hadn’t expected was the turn of events that transpired in her dreams that night. She’d been called to the scene of a fight on Omega. The former Cerberus operative was long gone, and little evidence left behind. But all that Aria had been able to really focus on was the body of a naked asari on the bed. Her throat had been cut and she’d bled out. It was one of Aria’s daughters, Liselle.
Anger and hatred fueled her, but she kept it all inside as she gave orders to her men that were inspecting the scene. Aria was ready to kill the one responsible for this. She just needed to find the slippery weasel first.
When she woke up, Aria was overcome with rage. She got out of bed and started pacing. A blue shifting aura encompassed her statuesque body, a sign that she was ready to unleash holy hell with her biotics. Her blue eyes were harsh and icy.
Logan felt like hell. And he also felt like he was driving into something that would only end with his death. Little Laura was quiet, but she was also fierce and terrifyingly deadly. But he was more concerned about Xavier's health, especially after what had happened in Atlantic City.
So he was kind of expecting some kind of telepathic disaster when he woke up, and saw his lover pacing naked and glowing blue. "The fuck?"
She barely heard Logan, too lost in the pain and anger she felt within her. However, she hid the pain completely. The look on her face was icy and blank, but her eyes were blue fire, a hint at the inner rage. She cast a glance back at her lover who seemingly just woke up.
“My biotics. Powers, if you will.” She explained the blue glow. She clenched her jaw and glared at the wall. She needed to punch something, kill something, but the person she wanted to kill didn’t exist in this world. Her fists clenched and blue energy began to gather around one of them. Needing a release, she pulled her fist back and sent a burst of energy a little larger than her fist bursting through the wall, leaving a hole behind.
“I gathered.” Logan sat up, pulling the sheet around his waist. He knew that kind of look, that kind of anger and rage. Aria had lost something, and gotten her powers in the same night. This could hurt.
Only it was his wall that took the damage instead of him. Logan could live with that. He didn’t actually enjoy getting hurt all that often. Aria’s nails notwithstanding. He hopped out of bed and reached for his pants. “What happened, Aria. If you wanna talk about it. If you wanna blow shit up I know a place.”
Aria had actually had her biotics for a little while. They just tended to be more apparent when she was angry. She didn’t yet have quite the finesse type of control over it that she did in the dreams, but that would come in time. Or so she hoped.
“I’d rather kill someone, but that someone doesn’t exist here. I will take blowing shit up.” Aria took a moment to try and calm herself enough so that the blue glow of her biotics disappeared. She then started to find her clothes and pull them on. As it happened, she’d worn the outfit she wore in her dreams. It felt right to wear it, even if her skin was the wrong color currently.
“As for what happened, I let myself be persuaded to let a certain person onto my station and work for me. Now my daughter is dead because of it. She was murdered, and I will find the fucker who killed her and make him sorry he ever, ever crossed my path.”
“We could find some people that deserve it.” Hydra, Logan was thinking. Perfectly safe to take out, and it would accomplish something while they were at it.
He say on the bed, watching her. “He crossed the wrong person. I’m just sorry you lost your kid over that.”
“Deserving, undeserving, I’m not picky right now.” Not that Aria would ever kill a completely innocent person if she could help it, she may be on the evil side of things, but she had a code and standards she stuck to.
Aria smoothed out her multi-colored hair, though she didn’t quite give a damn about her appearance currently. She looked back at him, her face stern and cold, hiding the firestorm of emotions within her. “She didn’t deserve to die, least of all like that.” It was strange to her to feel so strongly about a child when Aria had no children in this life. She may have distanced herself from her children, for obvious reasons, in the dreams, but she did love them. She just refused to let them be potential tools her enemies could use against her.
“Take it you don’t got any kids in this life?” There was a small probability they could be HIS which would be awkward. She didn’t offer her a hug or anything like that, but he did squeeze her shoulder. “If I know anything about you and anything about dreams like this, you’ll get your justice for her. In the meantime, I’ve been tracking a few people for a friend who are involved with a terrorist group if you wanna bust some heads.”
“No, I don’t. I was always more focused on my career.” Aria had been very career driven her entire adult life. She hadn’t had time to raise a kid. She didn’t shrug his hand off, instead taking the comfort for what it was. Aria wasn’t precisely a huggy type of person, but she’d take the shoulder squeeze. “That sounds like a perfect outlet.”
Aria focusing on career seemed fitting. Logan didn’t think any kid of hers would get the right kind of attention. In some ways, they were alike. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number before hanging up. “Our ride’ll be here in ten. Guess I’ll get to show you something from my dreams.”
What quicker way to attach a Hydra cell than from the Blackbird?
Of course now her dreams had made her wonder what it would have been like had she raised a child in this life. Not that it precisely mattered, if she turned asari she wouldn’t have a biological clock ticking as mercilessly as the human biological clock did. “I do look forward to seeing this. Especially if it will aide us in attacking these terrorists.”
Normally, Aria wasn’t the heroic type or doing anything out of the goodness of her heart. But she was the type would go after assholes if they angered her, or otherwise got in her way. So Logan was basically pointing her rage at a target and she was more than happy to unleash herself on them.
And time would tell if the Cerberus part of Hydra found out there was an asari around these parts.
Logan led her out of the apartment, texting Blake to not expect him to come back until way late. The big plane decloaked in the parking lot. It looked like a large version of the old SR71 spyplane. “Timing is pretty good. Someone else took this thing out a few days ago.”
Luckily for Logan, Aria was used to starships in her dreams, so upon seeing the plane, she didn’t even pause. Sure, it was obviously Earth-made, but some planes were awe-inspiring and unsettling if they had an unorthodox look to them. Aria just looked it over with an approving eye. “I like it. The cloaking feature is rather useful as well.”
“Yep, it’s handy.” Logan settled in the pilot’s seat. Some versions of him got airsick but most didn’t. “All right, there’s a place in Wyoming I’ve been meaning to check out. Underground facility, kind of place where unsavory sorts might like to run tests on people. We pulled someone out of one a month ago. I’d like to shut this one down before they go after someone else.”
Aria took a seat in the other seat, gaze moving over the interior of the plane. “Just point me at the fuckers and I’ll hit them with something they’d never expect.” She didn’t care what they were doing or anything like that. She just really needed to let loose and not give a damn who died.
“I love it when people get like that,” Logan said. The jet suddenly lurched and they were in the air. Wyoming was only a few minutes away at this speed, and Logan started heading for the ramp. “It’s programmed to drop us onto the roof. It’s a shack, won’t look like much. It’s what’s under that counts.”
“Clearly you’ll love being around me. I tend to get that way a lot in my dreams.” Even in this life she’d had those tendencies at times, though it tended to take more for her to get physical with people here. “Clearly they don’t want to draw attention, so making it as inconspicuous as possible on the surface.”
The plank lowered. Logan peered out at the roof then popped his claws. “Blow the roof off and we’ll jump in. I’m feelin’ frisky.”
The claws were certainly a bit on the sexy side, but Aria did tend to have different definition of what entailed sexy at times. Aria looked at him, then down at the roof, that somewhat psychotic, evil smirk crossing her face. “Don’t mind if I do,” she purred. She concentrated for a moment before her body was encased with the blue aura as her biotics were activated.
When she would have better control of her biotics, she could do a lot of mind-blowing things. But right now, she only had the basics down. So she focused and sent a large white-blue ball of dark energy flying at the roof. The following explosion as the roof was blown to hell was rather satisfying.
And with that, Aria jumped down the proverbial rabbit hole, using her biotics to help soften her landing.
Okay, that was really hot. Luckily, the basics were all they really needed. Logan jumped in after her, falling like a cannon ball. He hit the ground hard, rolling and bouncing to his fit. A man with a gun opened fire and he gutted him. “Elevator!”
There was only one way below, and it would probably be a trap.
Aria ducked the gunfire. She didn’t have the benefit of being able to survive multiple gunshot wounds. Even as an asari, she could be killed easily with enough wounds or a well-placed shot. Aria would probably be a little more effective if she had either of her guns with her, but it was more fun to show off her biotics.
She moved to the elevator door, deciding to do something different. Using her biotics to help, she pried the doors open and looked down the shaft. “We can still use this to our advantage. Got any explosives?” Aria could literally explode if she wanted to, but she’d rather save that for a bit later.
Logan tossed her some C4. He’d come prepared. “What do you got planned?
Someone tried to sneak up behind him and he twisted, shanking them.
“I’m going to say hello and let us still have the jump on them.” She pressed the button for the elevator to come up. That would alert people down below, if word hadn’t already reached them. When the elevator got up to her, Aria first looked it over to ensure a surprise hadn’t come up with it, then she opened the escape hatch in the roof, climbed out and stuck the C4 to the roof. Once it was in place, she climbed down, leaving the hatch open so she could see when someone stepped inside, then stepped out of the elevator. She spotted another guy trying to come up on them and she promptly utilized her Lash ability, snagging the man and rocketing him across the room, slamming him head first into the far wall. He never got back up, not with his neck being at the angle it was at.
“Now, let the party begin,” Aria said as she pressed the down button for the elevator. She peeked over the edge once it went down and waited. Of course, when it reached the bottom and the doors opened, gunfire lit up the inside for a few seconds. Then silence came. After several moments, a couple guys moved into the elevator. Once Aria saw them, she sent a biotic blast right for the C4, then she stepped back from the elevator shaft. The explosion was rather satisfying.
Logan folded his arms, watching her work. It was a nice view, and Aria seemed like she knew what she was doing. Considering Logan worked with a large variety of badassed women, this was really just another Tuesday for him.
“Fuck, that’s hot.”
“Not as hot as the fuckers that just blew up,” Aria commented with a smirk. Once the fire died down enough, she glanced over at him. “Shall we make our entrance?” No doubt they’d be greeted by gunfire, but the explosion would give them enough of a window to get their bearings and so forth before the bullets started flying.
“Can you throw people?” Logan asked.
“I can improvise with what I used to break that fucker’s neck. I can use that to toss someone into someone else.” Aria hadn’t completely mastered the art of throwing regarding her biotics, but she was willing to experiment.
“Good. We call that a fastball special.” Logan nodded, and jumped down. If Aria got the memo, well there’d be a Logan flung out of the elevator and into a group of Hydra agents like a cannonball.
Hopefully Aria gets the memo.
Fastball special. Aria nearly laughed, but got the memo as Logan jumped down. This would be a little difficult doing it blind, but she had a good idea there was a group of guys straight ahead. So she grabbed hold of Logan with her biotics and launched the fastball special right out of the elevator and into a group of guys who seemed a little horrified at what was flying right at them.
Aria also took the opportunity to leap down herself. Not being greeted by gunfire immediately was a good thing. Luckily she did have her omni-tool, so she at least had shields to help protect her from gunfire, to an extent. After jumping down, she quickly ducked behind the nearest cover as she analyzed the situation, and also let her biotics recharge a bit.
They were right to be horrified. A 300 pound man with class being flung out like a shot right at them would be enough to make the bravest man piss his pants. Logan hit them like a truck, leaving behind an array of limbs and a floor slick with blood. He straightened, and rolled his shoulders. “Get the feeling this is too easy?”
“So far. Maybe they’re bringing out the mechs?” Aria mused. She didn’t know if they actually had mechs here like she saw in her dreams. But she supposed anything was possible considering how Orange County tended to be. She spotted a couple guys coming and she Lashed one, slamming him into a wall, and the other got thrown back by a blast of biotics.
“It they have mechs we’re in serious shit.” They had been Cerberus originally, though Logan didn’t know the details of the change over or anything like that. “Okay darlin’, There should be a hallway past those doors. They got labs down here an’ we’re gonna get some data then trash the place.”
“On the contrary, I think that’s when things get fun,” she responded. Aria was enjoying this a bit too much. She moved to stand next to Logan, looking at the doors he indicated. “Sounds like a plan.” She was looking forward to trashing the place. Aria really wanted to let loose, let out some of the rage she felt.
Snorting, Logan approached the doors, and kicked them open. He was immediately shot, stumbling back. “Fuck, you’re gonna pay for that.”
More gunfire erupted as he charged back in. Logan wondered if he could invest in armor. It would be nice not to be in pain. “Blue, clear the left!”
Aria was momentarily worried when Logan got shot, but quickly refocused herself. She turned and went left, tossing a couple guys as she took a few bullets, but her shields absorbed the damage. She then decided to try a certain trick of hers and basically charged right at a couple guys. The blue aura pulsed around her and the guys froze, not knowing what the hell was happening. When Aria got close enough, she curled up on herself, then let the biotics explode outwards. The guys were all thrown backwards and none of them got back up.
“Good work.” Logan kicked one of the agents in the stomach, then took another look around. He tilted his head back, inhaling deeply. “This way.”
The hallway led to several labs, with subjects floating in vats and numerous cadavers on tables. Logan’s expression darkened. “They’re augmenting people.”
Aria followed Logan. Though upon seeing the obvious experiments in the lab, Aria frowned a bit. She’d seen her share of experimentation in her dreams, but seeing it in this life was...somehow much worse. “I assume that means they give them special abilities and make them superhuman.”
“Yeah. Not quite sure, but it’s like they’re some kinda demon. We rescued Shepard’s friend from them. Probably too late for… some of this damage.” Logan walked up to a computer terminal. He should have brought someone like Kitty along. “... this is in Russian.”
Make that bring Natasha.
“At least Shepard got her friend out of a shit hole like this.” Aria studied some of the subjects, then looked over at Logan. “Sadly, Russian is not a language I learned. Are you able to copy files and have them translated later?”
Wait a second.
“Actually hold on.” Aria walked up beside him, holding up her left arm, she activated her omni-tool. “I’m not sure if this can translate, I’m still learning how to use this thing. But I can at least copy the files.” She used the omni-tool to copy all the files on that computer.
“I think I can figure out how to make copies,” Logan said. He hoped anyway. “I ain’t had to read Russian in … a fucking long time. I’m better at speaking it.”
He stepped aside so she could make the copies, and making a note to work on his language skills.
“Well, this’ll give you a reason to dispel the cobwebs on that matter,” she said. She hit a couple buttons on the omni-tool. “I have all the files. Destroy the computer?” She phrased it as a question because she wasn’t certain what his plan was in that respect.
“Yeah.” Logan sneered in its general direction. “Torch the fucker. Think that tool of yours can send a worm through their network?” Might take out more of Hydra than they could here by themselves.
“Just watch it,” she responded with a little smirk. Aria pressed some buttons. She was by no means an engineer or a tech expert, but in her dreams she’d hacked her fair share of computers in her long life. “Though allow me to go one step further.” She hacked into the systems, attempting to see if there were any defenses that she could turn against the bastards here. With the friend-foe settings switched, Aria then sent a virus through the system, aimed at taking down the network. “Any defenses they have will be on our side. And any device connected to the network now has a virus running through it that will lock it down. It may also wipe all data on the network and any device it gets on to.”
“I don’t know why, but that’s kinda hot,” Logan said. “If we’re lucky they’re connected to another cell’s network. Cause some kinda cascade and wipe all their operations out.”
They probably wouldn’t be that kind of lucky, but a man could hope.
Aria smirked. “Call it a gift of 22nd Century technology. They don’t call it an omni-tool for nothing.” It even had a weapon function. Aria didn’t use that function. Most people didn’t survive her biotics and gunfire to get close enough for her to use the omni-blade. “I estimate we’d be able to take down maybe one other network, two at most, before they put word out. Now, shall we make this little more than a smoking hole in the ground?”
“The last one of these had a reactor and a self-destruct,” Logan explained. “If you can trip that into overload, we’ll get a good five minutes to get out of here.” He looked in the direction of the test subjects, “And bury this hell hole forever.”
“That is certainly something I can do.” The more destruction she could cause the better. And if some of the test subjects were still alive, death would certainly be far better for them than whatever they’d suffer at the hands of these assholes.
Logan turned back to the computer but the system was too corrupted at this point. He realized there was only one way to overload the reactor. “Fuck. We’re gonna have to do it by hand.”
“It’ll be my pleasure,” Aria said flexing her hands a bit. “Which way?” There could be a million paths to take in this place. So she’d see if Logan had an idea. It also meant they’d probably be able to tear through any guards or whatever on the way. That just made it even better.
Logan nodded at her. “Last time there was a tunnel. An access hatch.” He started to circle around the room, then moved to the corridor. He could sense some air nearby and followed the sound of it. “This way darlin’.”
He pulled the hatch open. “Ladies first.”
Aria let Logan lead, following after him while keeping her eyes open. She brushed some blue hair off her shoulder. Sometimes her hair annoyed her of late. It was probably mostly due to the fact she had no hair in her dreams. She didn’t have to worry about hair suddenly getting in her eyes during fights in them like she did currently.
“So courteous,” she chimed as she went through the hatch and immediately looked each way, looking for any enemies.
Hair had its upsides. Good to tangle fingers in. But Logan had been with bald women before so it wasn’t really a problem for him. “Yeah, yeah.”
He slid in after her. There were two paths, one that went west and hooked around a corner, and one that went east and seemed to go on forever. “West.”
Hair definitely had its upsides. Aria probably should’ve brought a hair tie so she could’ve pulled it back for this sort of operation. But she was making do. Glancing both ways, Aria turned west and went down that corridor. When she got to the turn, she slowly poked her head around it to get a better look at what was there before moving around it completely.
So far, there wasn’t any indication of resistance. Most of the scientists had bailed as the computer systems turned against them, and Logan felt some grim satisfaction when he pushed the crate open to enter the reactor room. A dozen bodies lay bleeding out.
“We just need to bring containment down.”
Aria looked at the bodies, not even batting an eyelash at the scene. She then moved into the reactor room. “Shouldn’t be a problem.” She was no engineer, but Aria knew what it took to bring a containment field down. At least she did in the 22nd Century. But that was also where her omni-tool could come in handy if nothing else was available for them.
She didn’t even try a computer, knowing the system was down. She moved over to the reactor itself, eyeing it for a moment before she activated her omni-tool and took scans of it.
Logan thought she could just hit it with her powers, but if she wanted to be gentle and precise who was he to argue. “Make sure we got time to actually get the fuck outta here. I might be able to walk outta this, but you won’t.”
“In theory, I could walk away if I got caught in the blast.” Aria didn’t quite trust her grip on her biotics yet to be able to generate a shield strong enough to keep herself safe. With the readings taken, she read them over before she deactivated her omni-tool. “Get ready to run.”
The pulsing blue aura appeared around her again and she clenched her fists tightly. Liselle didn’t exist in this world, the people here didn’t kill her, but Aria sent a silent prayer for Liselle to the Goddess. “To the fucking void with this place!” She exclaimed as she launched a blast of biotic energy at the reactor. She then turned and started to run back the way they came.
Logan watched her. There was something almost vaguely phoenix like, which was alarming. Considering the Phoenix was around and Logan could do nothing about it, that just made it more alarming. But he ran too. If he didn’t have to heal up from a massive explosion, he wasn’t going to.
The elevator was trashed, so Logan popped his claws and started scaling it. “Hop on my shoulders!”
Perhaps there was something like a phoenix mixed in with biotics, though Aria had never made that connection. It was power, and Aria was extremely powerful. She was old, and her strength had only increased in that respect. Perhaps she’d tell Logan some war stories she had, like her battle with Patriarch that had been one of the toughest fights of her entire life.
She glanced up the elevator shaft, then at Logan. Normally, she wasn’t the type to do this, but she didn’t exactly have any other choice at the moment. So she simply climbed on him and held on, letting him do the work.
“Don’t worry darlin. I won’t tell a soul.” It took surprisingly little time for him to claw his way up the shaft, even with Aria hanging off of him. He pulled them over the edge and into the destroyed room they’d entered less than thirty minutes ago. “Blackbird is landing outside.”
Okay so maybe he was a little out of breath.
“You’d better not.” Aria replied cooly. She could threaten him with no sex if he did tell someone, but she doubted that would do much. She wasn’t an asari yet, withholding the mental side of sex would probably do more to motivate a partner of hers.
Back on her feet, she looked at him with a bit of a smirk. “Why Logan, you sound as though you’ve been running a marathon.”
Knowing better than to make a losing weight joke, Logan shrugged. “You wore me out earlier, ain’t had a chance to recover yet.”
He nodded towards the Blackbird. “Lets get out of here. But we don’t gotta go home yet if we don’t wanna.”
Aria chuckled, a gleam passing through her blue eyes. “I know I’m still a bit amped up. We should perhaps work that out so I don’t blow anymore holes in other people’s walls.” Which she would pay for. Though they could discuss that later.