A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also ans the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
Thaddeus and Laura figure out what they're doing.
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“You can’t possibly think I’m going to let you go off on your own, Laura.”
The no-nonsense young woman tenses up at that, her eyes narrowing as she glares at him.
“Are you going to try and stop ?”
Thaddeus clenches his jaw harder than before in response. He would be lying if he said the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. Pinning her down, calling for Kitty to co and talk her out of this. But… he can tell this ans a lot to Laura. And besides, if there’s actually illegal scientific experints going on in this city, he kind of wants to put a stop to it too. Even if there’s probably a bunch of junk happening that he doesn’t know about, anything he does know about… well, he wouldn’t want it to continue.
“No, but I am coming with you. I may not be a hero, but I’m not just going to leave you to tackle this on your own. I would think we’re closer than that.”
Laura frowns and looks away, clearly not sure how to respond at first to such an open overture. She rallies after a few seconds though, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow at him.
“Don’t think SHE would be too happy about that.”
That gets a grimace from Thaddeus, because Laura is right… Emma wouldn’t be happy. But… thinking about it for even a second, he realizes she would be even LESS happy if he didn’t tell her. It’s a crapshoot no matter what. But in the end, it doesn’t take him long at all to figure out that the best of all his options is to let Emma know ahead of ti.
“I’ll call her. Maybe she’ll have so information for us.”
Laura blinks, clearly not having expected him to suggest such a thing. Grinning slightly, Thaddeus teases the female mutant as he pulls out his phone.
“Unless you already know exactly where we’re going…”
The leading query causes Laura to scowl a bit and huff.
“I have… so leads to chase down. But you have to know she’ll say you can’t. She’s going to shut you down, Thad.”
Thaddeus scoffs, even as he dials Emma’s number. Laura was misunderstanding a fundantal part of his and Emma’s constantly evolving relationship. These days, they were partners in all but na. Equals with different strengths. Emma might try to shut him down, but Thaddeus wasn’t going to take that from her… nor anyone else.
The call takes only a beat to pick up, with Emma’s voice coming through the other end.
“Thaddeus, I’ve been waiting for your call all day. I trust last night went well if it’s taken you this long to check in with .”
The mild note of reproach in Emma’s voice causes Thaddeus to wince as he rembers that yeah, on top of all of this Laura and the Facility stuff, he’s still not touched based regarding Domino… or everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours.
“… Yeah, it went well. Better than well. A second Domino from another universe fell out of a portal before I showed up through a… fortuitous chain of events, resulting in a threeso that lasted all night long. In the morning, another portal opened and the second Domino went back to her universe, while the first went on her way.”
There’s a beat of silence in which Thaddeus can tell Emma is processing his words. He can also feel Laura’s eyes boring into the side of his head as he talks about so downright outlandish things, even for their crazy lives. For that brief mont, he considers letting Emma muster up a response before getting to what else happened today, or just leaving it off entirely for the ti being… but in the end, he just shakes his head and chooses to rip off the band-aid wholesale.
“Then, before I could leave the hotel, I was called over to a table in the bar area by the civilian identities of the Wasp, the Invisible Woman, and She-Hulk. After so chatting, the four of us retired to another hotel room, and proceeded to spend all day wrecking that one through… carnal pursuits.”
Laura’s gaze intensifies from his side, while he hears Emma audibly choke on her own spit on the other end of the phone. He’d probably be a bit more pleased at having gotten such a reaction if the current situation wasn’t so dire.
“Anyways, none of that is actually why I called, Emma. I’m here with Laura at the mont… the one who helped with my potential psychic problem. She and I are going to be hunting down rumors about an organization known only as ‘The Facility’ setting up shop sowhere in New York and I was wondering if you could provide any information on your end.”
Silence blankets the alley. Laura’s intense gaze has beco downright incredulous as she stares at him off to the side, while Emma doesn’t say anything for so long that Thaddeus begins counting the seconds in his head and considering whether the powerful blonde telepath might have had a stroke or sothing.
In the end however, its Emma who breaks the silence, speaking in a calm and asured tone of voice.
“That is certainly a sowhat improbable string of events, Thaddeus. That said, can I assu so far everything has… been going your way?”
Thaddeus tilts his head to the side for a mont, thinking about it before letting out a chuckle.
“Yeah, I’d say so.”
“And when you finally left the hotel, did you… just happen to run into Ms. Kinney on your way back to campus? Perhaps she caught your eye, despite trying to be sneaky?”
Ah… man, it was great having a competent partner. Emma was so quick on the uptake it would be scary if Thaddeus didn’t know for sure that she was on his side. Grinning now, he hums as he gives an increasingly disgruntled Laura a look.
“Yep. That’s about it exactly.”
“… Very well. I’ll send you everything I can find on The Facility’s dealings in New York. In exchange, please do your best to disguise your identity ahead of ti, Thaddeus. All of the Luck in the world won’t help if certain individuals find out you’re running around making a ss of laboratories and experintal ‘studies’.”
Looking Laura in the eye, Thaddeus nods.
“Yeah, I can do that. Thanks Emma.”
“Of course… and Thaddeus?”
“Yes?”
“I’ll be expecting a full debriefing of the last twenty four hours later.”
Smirking a little, Thaddeus just shakes his head in amusent.
“Sure. All you have to do is ask.”
They hang up a mont later, and Thaddeus can’t help but give Laura a big wide grin.
“You were saying, Laura?”
The young woman huffs, showing more emotion than Thaddeus is sure he’s ever seen from her… and all of it pure disgruntlent and irritation.
“You two have a weird relationship.”
“Heh, I can’t argue with that.”
Frowning slightly, Laura looks him up and down, as if seeing him in a new light.
“All of that stuff you said… there wasn’t a single embellishnt in there.”
It’s not a question. She’s not looking for confirmation, she’s rely stating facts. He nods all the sa.
“Yep. That all happened, exactly as I said it happened. The last day or so has been… quite the ride. And it’s not over yet.”
As if waiting for him to say that his phone dings right on cue. Opening the latest ssage from Emma, Thaddeus turns it to Laura, showing her the address that Emma has sent him along with information about security. Laura’s eyes light up with a distinct sort of hunger, her hackles raising as her entire body tenses like a well-oiled spring.
“We go together, Laura, or not at all. Alright?”
She hesitates for only a mont, but Thaddeus knows she’s considering whether she might be able to break away and beat him there if she tried to lose him right now. In the end, Laura’s shoulders slump infinitesimally with the realization that that’s definitely not happening, and she gives a simple nod.
“Fine. Together.”
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Fortunately, this ‘Facility’ place clearly isn’t on the up and up. They’re not even on the level where they have a legal purpose to cover for their illegal activities. This ans that they aren’t operating out of so proper compound-turned-laboratory with all of the security in the world in the form of walls and sniper towers and guards or what have you.
It also ans they can’t call for actual law enforcent to show up and defend them… on account of all of the illegal shit they’re likely getting up to.
That doesn’t an there’s zero security of course, but as Thaddeus and Laura approach the location from the sewers, it cos in the form of more subtle stuff, like portable motion sensors and caras set up hastily and illegally without any intention of the equipnt lasting in the long term.
With his face and hair changed by his version of Mystique’s power and his body shifted so he’s a bit larger than his normal form with Wasp’s power, Thaddeus looks nothing like himself. But on top of that, he’s also wearing a mask and so is Laura, the two of them dressed in all-black and sneaking along as stealthily as they possibly can.
Of course, that was pretty goddamn stealthy, all things considered. Thaddeus might not have had ninja training or anything like that, but what he did have at this point was a full suite of powers and the intuitive understanding to use them. On top of that was an intuitive understanding of his own body. He knew how to move to be as quiet as possible, despite being even larger than his usual self. And with Laura leading the way and their combined enhanced senses, they were able to avoid a lot of the obvious traps and alarms that might have been tripped otherwise.
As they manage to enter the underground laboratory through the sewers without being detected, however, Thaddeus does have to stop Laura for a mont.
“We’re here now… what exactly are we looking for? Are we just going to destroy stuff, or was there sothing else?”
Laura’s hands clench at her sides as she pauses for a mont to answer the question.
“We hunt for answers. Is this really them, really The Facility? What are they up to here, and can we put a stop to it? And… if anyone from my past is here, I can’t promise heads won’t roll.”
Thaddeus nods.
“Okay then, let’s see what we can find.”
Unfortunately, Thaddeus can’t just use telepathy to locate everyone in the laboratory and direct them from there. It would be nice, but there’s so kind of psychic dampener on the entire illegal underground facility, probably to account for the nurous mutants and other types of telepaths who call New York their ho.
Regardless, the halls are fairly empty as they make their way further inside, looking for anything that might help them figure this place out. Eventually, they co across their first signs of life, though it doesn’t exactly co in a form that Thaddeus is expecting. And from the shock in Laura’s voice, she’s not anticipating this either.
“Wha- Cessily!”
Stepping into a bonafide lab, Thaddeus looks around at the equipnt for a mont, while Laura rushes forward. Her destination is the center of the room, where a large tube of so form of glass-like material rests. The only reason Thaddeus doesn’t think it’s actually just normal glass is that inside of the tube there’s a silvery living mass that’s clearly doing all it can to break the tube.
Thaddeus can only watch on in amazent as that silvery mass slowly coalesces inside of the tube, shifting and shrinking down into the approximation of a human woman with red hair. The skin is still silver though… or rather, not silver. rcury. That’s what he’s looking at, Thaddeus suddenly realizes. This woman is made of rcury. A mutant, had to be.
“Hey Laura… fancy seeing you here.”
“Cessily, when did they catch you? What have they done?!”
Before Cessily can respond, another voice pipes up, causing Laura to whip around FAST.
“Well, well, well… what do we have here?”
She cos through the wall, leaving Thaddeus wondering if Kitty had sohow followed them down here, or was going to turn out to be a mad scientist experinting on her own kind or sothing. But only for a second. Then, he registers the woman beyond just her apparently ability to turn intangible and knows they’re not dealing with Kitty Pryde at all.
“Hey there, 23. Miss ?”
Dark skin, black hair, green eyes… and a whole lot of weapons. Those are the things Thaddeus notices first about this new arrival. Well, that and the way her armored bodysuit hugs her figure, but he’s self-aware enough to know that this is far from the ti. Especially given the way Laura reacts to her. The young female mutant’s claws imdiately unsheathe as she turns to the newcor, and a snarl of pure, primal ferocity spreads across Laura’s normally bland and emotionless face.
“Kimura.”
“Ah good, so you do rember. I’d have been disappointed if you didn’t.”
Laura bristles, before gnashing her teeth.
“… My na is Laura.”
The now nad ‘Kimura’ scoffs at that.
“Experints don’t get nas, X-23. Least of all failed experints who ran away. Still, who would have thought you’d co crawling back like this. Saves the trouble if nothing else, I suppose.”
Kimura’s eyes slide away from Laura, over to his masked, hulking form.
“Mm, even found yourself a big, beefy lover boy while you were out. How cute. Got a na, stranger? No? Well, we’ll see how long that dark and brooding act of yours lasts once we get you on the rack.”
Thaddeus stays quiet, knowing full well that this isn’t a conversation he needs to be part of. Indeed, Laura doesn’t hesitate to point her claws at Kimura.
“Your fight is with , Kimura.”
The older woman scoffs at that, arms crossed over her chest.
“Fight? There’s not going to be a fight, X-23. You’re in desperate need of so serious correction. anwhile, everyone you’ve ever co into contact with is slated for execution, their days numbered. They just don’t know it yet.”
With a scream, Laura launches herself forward in Kimura’s direction, causing the other woman to smirk in response and unwind her arms, clearly prepared to et her charge.
Thaddeus, anwhile, hesitates for a mont. Does he back Laura up… or does he see about freeing her friend Cessily? On the one hand, Laura might need the assist, depending on how tough this Kimura chick truly was. On the other hand, if they got Cessily out of the tube, it would beco three on one…
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The Vote:
[ ] Back Laura up against Kimura - 27%
[X] Prioritize freeing Cessily - 73%
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