X-23 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cutting_edgex23) wrote2008-09-05 09:57 pm
cutting_edgex23) wrote2008-09-05 09:57 pm
In the wilds of Canada . . .
Julian is unconscious. Elixir is, too. This is very bad.
She was not in time to stop the Sentinels from destroying the Institute, and the nanobots that possessed them were able to escape.
They do not know much more than they did before.
The baby is still missing.
Surge and David are not okay. Cessily is very much not okay. Sooraya feels guilty for staying behind.
There is nothing X can do.
Until Logan approaches her with Cyclops' plan. They will re-assemble X-Force, combining their efforts to track the baby down. She does not know any of her new teammates, but that is okay. They are all good at what they do.
***
Tracking Cable down is harder than anyone suspects. The trail leads from New York to Cooperstown, Alaska to Canada. Alberta. It is snowing.
And Cable is not alone. Deathstrike is there. With her Reavers.
X's mission objective shifts. Logan gives the go-ahead.
And then all that exists is the necessity of putting Deathstrike down. For good. The fact that the other woman regards X as a child is useful. X makes no effort to change her mind--not past the first punch, anyway. First blood is important, but last blood is even more so.
X will not forget that. She cannot afford to.
"I want to see what you can do." She does not think Deathstrike will understand how true this statement is, for X. Arrogance is always stupid.
Deathstrike will learn. X is sure of this, even as she bleeds from multiple slash and stab wounds to her torso, her arms, the muscles in her legs. Ever sound the cyborg makes is a clue.
And at last--
Deathstrike's mechanical arm sparks, stark blue-white even against the snow, as X jams her foot-claw through the shoulder joint--and the wiring inside. The blood seeping out of her own midsection is irrelevant. It is already healing.
"Pathetic," Deathstrike hisses.
X does not smile. She just levers herself off the ground, springing for her enemy. "No. I was paying attention."
Deathstrike bleeds. X is brutal, efficient, and very thorough.
"You were dead from the moment you touched Julian Keller."
If X were anyone else, she might feel a sense of vicious satisfaction as she slams her claws home, ripping open Deathstrike's belly and leaving her to bleed to death in the snow.
But she is herself. And the only thing Deathstrike's demise means is that her mission is completed.
She can go home now. With X-Force.
It's only then that X realizes that Caliban is dead. And that Cable is gone.
Her mission is not over yet.
That is okay.
It is what she was made for.
She was not in time to stop the Sentinels from destroying the Institute, and the nanobots that possessed them were able to escape.
They do not know much more than they did before.
The baby is still missing.
Surge and David are not okay. Cessily is very much not okay. Sooraya feels guilty for staying behind.
There is nothing X can do.
Until Logan approaches her with Cyclops' plan. They will re-assemble X-Force, combining their efforts to track the baby down. She does not know any of her new teammates, but that is okay. They are all good at what they do.
***
Tracking Cable down is harder than anyone suspects. The trail leads from New York to Cooperstown, Alaska to Canada. Alberta. It is snowing.
And Cable is not alone. Deathstrike is there. With her Reavers.
X's mission objective shifts. Logan gives the go-ahead.
And then all that exists is the necessity of putting Deathstrike down. For good. The fact that the other woman regards X as a child is useful. X makes no effort to change her mind--not past the first punch, anyway. First blood is important, but last blood is even more so.
X will not forget that. She cannot afford to.
"I want to see what you can do." She does not think Deathstrike will understand how true this statement is, for X. Arrogance is always stupid.
Deathstrike will learn. X is sure of this, even as she bleeds from multiple slash and stab wounds to her torso, her arms, the muscles in her legs. Ever sound the cyborg makes is a clue.
And at last--
Deathstrike's mechanical arm sparks, stark blue-white even against the snow, as X jams her foot-claw through the shoulder joint--and the wiring inside. The blood seeping out of her own midsection is irrelevant. It is already healing.
"Pathetic," Deathstrike hisses.
X does not smile. She just levers herself off the ground, springing for her enemy. "No. I was paying attention."
Deathstrike bleeds. X is brutal, efficient, and very thorough.
"You were dead from the moment you touched Julian Keller."
If X were anyone else, she might feel a sense of vicious satisfaction as she slams her claws home, ripping open Deathstrike's belly and leaving her to bleed to death in the snow.
But she is herself. And the only thing Deathstrike's demise means is that her mission is completed.
She can go home now. With X-Force.
It's only then that X realizes that Caliban is dead. And that Cable is gone.
Her mission is not over yet.
That is okay.
It is what she was made for.