Laura Kinney (1creepylilgirl) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-04-29 19:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, laura kinney (wolverine), logan howlett (wolverine), neena thurman (domino) |
Who: Laura Kinney, Logan Howlett, and Neena Thurman
What: Looking for Creed
When: Early Saturday morning, after this log
Where: around Irvine
Rating: NC-17 for torture and mentions of PC injury
Status: complete
Laura was a little scared of everything that was happening. She didn’t want to be, she wanted to be strong and cool, like in her dreams. For once that kind of demeanor would be useful. The truth was that she worried about this whole thing. What it would do to Logan, to her, what would happen to Creed. It was all new and frankly terrifying.
She waited in the truck while Logan went down to the morgue, certain she couldn’t handle the smells and sounds of a city morgue and medical examiner’s office. She fidgeted with her phone, writing texts to Jubilee and erasing them before she sent them.
Logan was only inside for three minutes, before he opened the door to the truck and climbed in. He started it, keeping the lights off, and pulled out into the street. The lights didn’t come on until they were miles away. “Wasn’t her. Smell completely different. Means she’s alive an’ she’s gone to ground. So we need to sniff Creed out, before he finds her or he finds Vel or Alyssa.” He wasn’t so worried about most of the others.
Laura nodded. “Yes. Where do we start? His scent at the bar and your house will be very diluted by now.” She did her best to hide how worried and scared she was. She wouldn’t let Logan do this alone.
“Her house, first. Then one of her bolt holes. I’m hopin’ she’ll have stopped at one of the ones she told me about. We shared some of ours. Not all o’them, but some.” Logan snorted sharply, and turned down a side street. “It’ll be okay, darlin’. Jus’ not sure I want you doin’ what we hafta do.”
“I’m not giving you a choice.” Laura said firmly. “I know it’s going to be terrible, but logically I’ll eventually be a target, and Jubilee isn’t as invulnerable as she seems. If we figured out we’re related someone with a vendetta against you could do the same.” She knew she could do this. She knew it needed to be done. She was just a little scared. “Besides, I really like Velma and Alyssa too, and I’m really mad he hurt you and Velma.”
“You and Eli should talk,” Logan suggested. They were getting close to Neena’s house, and he was getting nervous. “Lets try not to leave any evidence of ourselves, in case the cops investigate the place.”
“Okay.” Laura pulled her hair up into a ponytail and tucked it under her hat. “Do you think either of them will be here?”
“No. But we might get a clue where she went.” Logan turned the lights off for the rest of the last mile, before parking a few houses down. He got out of the car and sniffed. No Creed, and no one around who he thought they needed to worry about.
Laura followed him out. As quietly as she could she said, “I hope you know where the spare key is.” The house was eerie. Probably because she knew it was empty. Empty houses could be trouble. At least now she could verify that the house truly was empty.
Without much effort, Logan located the key and got the back door open. He sniffed around. “Yeah, she came back here. Probably to get somethin’, but she’s been gone for hours. Her guns.” He didn’t turn on the lights, relying instead upon his eyes and enhanced vision.
Laura nodded. “It smells like cleaning stuff.” Not recently, but the biggest smell beside Neena and her dog was Windex and bleach. “So she was here recently, which means she’ll be easy enough to track.” Laura looked around curiously.
“Yeah, I know which direction to start in.” He couldn’t smell the dog recently, so she must have come for Dante as well, and taken him with her. Or gotten someone to get him. Either one was sentimental and dangerous, but they all had their weaknesses.
“Then let’s go find her. Maybe she saw which way he went.” Laura could hope, after all. She could smell Neena’s trail too. It also smelled of rubbing alcohol, burned things, and the guns she’d apparently come back for.
Which meant she was injured, and Logan was determined to find her or Creed more than ever. “We need to get movin’. Come on.” Logan headed for the door, following Neena’s scent, just like a bloodhound.
Laura nodded and followed after silently. Logan could devote his attention to tracking and she’d watch their asses. Luckily they didn’t run into any trouble, and Neena didn’t seem to be moving very fast.
The scent veered away from the suburb pretty quickly, and went toward a line of liquor stores and boarded up storefronts. There was the sound of someone in intense pain coming from one of the storefronts. The voice was definitely male.
Logan sniffed, and smirked. He could smell blood, and it didn’t seem to be Neena’s. He nodded his head towards the door, and then kicked it down. He figured if he got shot he deserved it.
He didn’t get shot, but Neena did have a pistol in his face before she turned to look. Laura gasped when she saw the room they were in. It looked like a sadist borrowed a corner to store his stuff in a mad science lab.
“Dammit, Logan, I’m trying to have a conversation with my new best friend here.” Neena put her gun down and went back to what she’d been doing. Laura averted her eyes, and the man screamed. “Just tell me what I want to know and I might leave you enough fingers to wipe your ass. No promises, though.” She was clearly a little upset about the night’s events.
Logan growled, and stepped closer. He popped his claws, so the man could see them. “Answer the nice lady, or I’m makin’ myself a new overcoat.”
“I don’t know I don’t know.” The man yelled, not at all pleased that she had reinforcements. “Jesus Christ I just sold the stuff, I don’t keep track of it!”
There was a snapping sound, and Laura left the room to ‘stand guard or something’. Neena didn’t seem very fazed, and moved on to the next finger in line. “So you sold someone a timed detonator and didn’t keep track of it at all? We should kill you for being so stupid. Save the world from a small time greedy dumbass.”
Logan described Creed, and waited for Neena to convince the man to answer. His eyes were hardened, and angry. He’d spare Neena the look of relief, later.
The man blubbered and lost the used of another finger, but he finally admitted to selling the device to Creed. Neena smirked and patted his cheek. “There. That’s what I needed to know. Where did you put the money? This is important to me, I’m only going to give you one chance to answer.” She reached into her pocket with her left hand, pulling out a pocket knife. She slowly unfolded it, her eyes on his. “I’m going to go after some softer parts this time. I’m pretty pissed off right now, which I guess you know, and I’m more than willing to start skinning you alive if you don’t cooperate.” Hopefully Logan could get a scent off of the money.
“She’s serious. Seen her to worse for less.” Logan bared his teeth.
The man pointed to a cashbox on a desk, and Neena smiled at him. “See if you can get a scent off that.” She pinched the man’s cheek, folding up her knife. “Good doing business with you.” She had no intention of leaving him any money. She’d need enough to get by for the next couple days.
Logan walked over to it. Creed’s stench was so strong it repulsed him. “It’s Creed. Think I can find him now.” He glanced back at the man, then at Neena, as if asking if he should eliminate him.
Neena wasn’t sure. He’d seen her real face, and she had messed him up pretty good. She shook her head, and straightened up. “Then let’s go get the bastard.” The nice thing about fucking scum like this up was they would never go to the police.
Nodding, Logan turned. He clocked the man in the back of the head, and then headed out the door. “We have a lead an’ a trail, darlin’. Come on.” He mentally willed Neena to not make any comments about dragging Laura around on this.
Laura was waiting outside, and the look on her face made Neena worry that this was a bad idea. “We should split up, I think. Like bird hunting. You follow the lead you have, I’ll keep up with mine. In about two hours I’m going to hit a wall and I’ll be dead weight, but with any luck I’ll flush him out toward you.” She neglected to mention Logan already had a little bit of hinderance.
Laura waited to see how Logan reacted. She didn’t have an opinion either way.
“Just watch your back,” Logan said quietly, meeting Neena’s eyes. “Try to flush him away from the city. This is gonna get bloody.”
“Of course. There’s some woods to the west of town, that’s my target.” She pulled out the mask Kitty had given her, with it’s communication chip. “Did Kitty give you one of these? She’s probably monitoring it, but we’ll need to co-ordinate. She’s smart enough to figure out what’s going on without being told.” And hopefully not to interfere.
Laura looked at the device with interest. “There’s a communicator in that?” It was so tiny. She liked it better than the thought of having a telepath poking at her brain.
Logan pulled his mask into place. “Yeah, I’m good. Didn’t have an extra for Laura.”
“I can hear through yours.” Laura noted. “We don’t have time to pick up another one.”
Neena nodded and reactivated her image inducer. “Alright, I’ll check in before I give up for the night, let me know if you find anything.”
“I will.” After Creed was dead. Logan nodded once more at Neena, letting his face show his true concern for her, then he was jogging towards the truck.
Laura followed Logan, a little confused. She didn’t say anything until they got to the truck. “You’re not going to try to get her to go to a doctor?” If she could identify the smell of burned flesh, she was certain Logan could as well.
“She won’t let us, an’ she probably won’t stop movin’ until she passes out. We can get Faiza to her then. Neena an’ hospitals don’t get along.” He started the car, and peeled out.
Laura nodded. She could understand that, at least. “So she’s a lot like the dreams, then.” Laura worried about that. She wasn’t sure she could handle being X-23. In some ways she was still learning how to be Laura Kinney.
“She didn’t used to be.” Logan had hesitated before answering. He didn’t think that Laura wanted or needed to be like the girl she was in the dream. He wanted to shield her from this, but there was no helping it - he needed the help, and she was the only one he trusted to have his back and live through it.
“Some people have an easier time than others. But that don’t mean you need to be who you dream about.”
Laura nodded. “The dreams are a problem.” She didn’t really like them. Even the benefits weren’t worth the hassles. “I don’t want to be her. I want to use her right now, but this world isn’t the one she came from, and she doesn’t have a place here.”
Logan reached over and put his arm around Laura’s shoulder. “Yeah. She don’t. Neither does the Wolverine. Not really. Maybe we need to retire ‘em after this.”
“Think it’ll happen?” Laura asked, snuggling into him for a minute.
Logan held her close. “I’d like it to happen. Maybe we need to make it happen. I’d like to give Vel some semblance of a life that ain’t always danger an’ death. I’d like to give that to you, too.” He wanted to get the paperwork sorted, for both Eli and Laura. Do right by them, even if Laura was technically an adult.
Laura giggled. “So you’re settling down, hmmm? Leaving your sordid past behind? I hear that’s contagious, sorry I got my clean living cooties on you.” She hugged him for a minute. “Let’s go get this done, so we can see how that works out.”
“..want to make it official? You bein’ my kid?”
Laura thought for a minute. “You really are serious about this settling down thing, huh?” She laughed a little. “Let me think about it? I’m pretty sure I do, but right now I want to focus on what we’re doing.””
“Yeah. That’s for discussin’ after I shit down his neck.” Logan reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar. It was his ass-kicking cigar.
Laura rolled her window down. “Aren’t we tracking Creed by scent? That’s going to be hard to smell around.”
Logan shook his head. “There were some clues in that box of money. We’ll start with that, an’ the scent helps a lot. I know what bank Creed was in. An’ we can find him from there, I guarantee it."