X-23

A weekend trip to visit the petrified forest seemed like just the thing, though unfortunately one is often obliged to take pit stops during a road trip.

This is perhaps not the fanciest gas station and shopping complex in the area, but it's close and the people in it seem happy.

X will take it.

Hopefully Thor also does not mind.

X stops in front of a vast, dark cave mouth, head tilting as she studies it for a second.

Then she turns to Brienne and Harry.

"This is where we go in."

Beat.

"You are ready?"

It is best to have a plan, X thinks, when bringing Deadpool home for a visit.

Introducing him to the Cactus With No Name seems safe enough.

For now.

And then they will go to the ocean.

Undead hordes might attack from there at any time.

Plus it is occasionally very entertaining to annoy Namor.

(Shh.)

But first, cactus!

Fisherman's Wharf is a nice place. Crowded, but nice. There are a lot of people, and it is a good place to pretend to be normal.

To practice blending in, as it were.

And also, at this particular moment, to go see the Musée Mécanique. Because 19th century penny arcade games are great.

And X has been told it is fun.

Some days a woman just gets bored with the same old, same old.

Some days this happens in the middle of sparring with Thor.

Some days, like this day, it results in two people who should probably know better but don't care heading off into the Labyrinth.

A change is as good as a rest, right?

And new things are fun.

X, after a long Security shift, has finally settled at a booth near the back of the bar.

She's got sandwiches in front of her, several glasses of milk, and --

Is that a beer?

(Maybe.)

Possibly she's waiting for someone.

Go figure.

Once she catches Charles' scent in the air, it takes X only a few moments to do the rest of the work of tracking him down.

Some things should be done as quickly as possible.

Especially when they involve people being trapped in Milliways, however self-inflicted.

"Charles."

Norman agrees to take X, Elle, and Bruce up to the mountains, though he does sniff disdainfully when Thor decides to fly himself.

The trip itself is cold and breezy, because it is made in dragon claws, and they do not offer all that much protection against the elements. Still, it is not raining. That would make this even more difficult than it will be already.

Norman -- in consultation with the others -- eventually sets them down on a flattish outcropping of stones, then takes himself and Bruce to perch on a separate, nearby rock.

It gives them the best view.

X, in the meantime, gives Elle a small bottle of trigger scent, then goes to stand by Thor and wait.

She is tense as piano wire.

The scent of fear is heavy in the air.

The phone call from Gambit is a surprise. But he has been in Madripoor, recently, visiting an old friend named Tyger.

She had information for him. About an arms deal. One of the parties was Colcord.

He sold something called a 'trigger scent' to a woman. None of Tyger's sources know the woman's name.

But they do know the port of call for the shipment. Paris.

X calls Warren. For this, he is willing to lend her Worthington Industries' jet.

She makes good use of it.

******

Tracking down the shipment is more time consuming than X would like. Even with Gambit and Jubilee helping, and Pixie relaying information from Cypher --

If she were not so afraid, X would be better at waiting.

******

The information breaks eventually, and X and her chosen teammates stage a raid on the labs where the testing is taking place.

There is blood everywhere. Most of it is not their fault.

Several potential clients were witnesses to a staged testing scenario. Humans rounded up from the street and doused with the trigger scent ripped each other apart with absolutely no hesitation.

X could not save any of them.

As for the clients --

Maybe it would be better to leave them for the authorities. But some of them liked what they saw. So much. Too much.

And messages are important.

Many people will not miss the point of this one. She will make sure of it.

As for the surviving victims and test subjects -- those not used for the demonstration --

X leaves Gambit and Jubilee to call the police. And deal with them.

She wants to be alone.

******

She's riding the elevator down to the platform at Cité, seeking to blend into the crowd and disappear for a while, when a voice comes over the intercom system.

X stiffens.

"Laura Kinney."

The voice sounds amused. And familiar. There should be some comfort in the fact that the speaker is using the wrong name, that she doesn't know her anymore. But it's too late for comfort now.

"You remember my voice, don't you? My . . . scent? I suppose you also realize, now, that your old trigger scent has been modified. It will send anyone into a killing rage now. But your rages, Laura . . . they've always been particularly spectacular."

X's pulse picks up. Her breathing rate does, too. This is what it means to be afraid.

No.

This is what it means to be terrified.

Stepping from Milliways into Madripoor is like moving from silence into chaos. The riots are still raging, and everywhere seems full of smoke, fire, the press of frantic bodies, and the sharp prickle of too many eyes watching.

"He has a meet scheduled nearby. Colcord. With a man in a mask."

Beat.

"We will need to immobilize them both."