X-23 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cutting_edgex23) wrote2013-06-02 05:06 pm
cutting_edgex23) wrote2013-06-02 05:06 pm
Tyger, tyger burning bright
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.
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.