**18.00 something, 21 March 1996, Undisclosed location aka spoiler or ask Rainbolt.**
LOGAN
Logan shot Wade a silencing glare before focusing back on Banner. "We're here on a job. Someone hired me to retrieve data from this lab to create a cure." He gestured to the destroyed servers. "That was the data. We managed to salvage about seventy-five percent before... well, before your other half redecorated."
Wade piped up again, unable to help himself. "Well, it's incomplete, but your employer might still want it, right? Maybe their nerds can piece it together! It's better than nothing. Or we could just lie and give it to them like this anyway… They wouldn't know anyway,"
"Wade…"
"Just throwing out some ideas!"
Banner's posture shifted slightly. The scientist in him was clawing its way to the surface, overpowering the fear. "A cure?" he repeated, the word laden with a desperate, personal hope. "For the... that creature?"
"The Wendigos, yeah," Logan confirmed. "It's a product of a failed super-soldier serum. At least, it was what I was told. Something called Project:Rebirth,"
Banner's eyes lit up like a Christmas light. "Rebirth... The Erskine formula. Of course. The metabolic instability... the aggressive cellular degeneration..." He looked from Logan to the data drive in Wade's hand as if it were a holy relic. "If I could see the data, even if it was the incomplete matrix... I have a background in gamma radiation and cellular biology. Perhaps I could complete it. It might... it might provide a foundational insight for my–I mean to help with the cure for those people."
Logan studied him. Having him making the cure probably would be better than a half ass data that they would gave Fury. It's also would better the chance on them escaping since Logan saw how high the furball could jump.
"You think you can finish it?"
"It's a possibility," Banner said, his voice gaining strength. "But I would need a lab. Preferably with good equipment."
"This base wasn't deserted that long ago, maybe there is still some supplies lying around…"
Wade, who had been tapping away at a surviving terminal, spun around. "Bingo! The main R&D lab on the third floor! The facility map shows it's mostly intact and has its own independent power backup. If there are any lab supplies left in this dump, that's where they'll be."
The trek to the third-floor lab was tense but uneventful. The R&D lab was, as promised, in remarkably good condition for an abandoned base. It was a sealed environment, with humming servers and pristine workstations. Bruce Banner immediately gravitated towards a central synthesizer, his movements becoming sure and focused as he plugged in the data drive.
"Fascinating," he murmured, his eyes scanning the corrupted files. "They were using a retroviral vector... brilliant, but the delivery system is what's causing the rampant cellular mutation... Oh... God!"
"WHAT? Is something wrong?"
"They... they already experimenting on human! What they did to there poor people! Jesus! Even Ross ain't this bad..."
"What! They told me it because the rabbit they experiment bite someon--Motherfucker they lied!"
Logan positioned himself near the door, his senses stretched to their limit. He could hear them now–dozens of scratching, shuffling footsteps moving through the floors below. They were coming.
"Wade," Logan said, his voice low. "Find a vantage point. You're on overwatch. Protect Banner, Do it like what we did before. But you do not, under any circumstances, engage directly unless I'm telling otherwise. Understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Wade said with a mock salute, already scouting the room. He found a wide window that screen already cracked overlooking the main base floor. It was perfect.
No sooner had Wade scrambled up to his perch than the first Wendigo slammed against the base's main door. Then another. The reinforced metal began to crack. He pulled out his sniper rifles and began to snipe at the wendigos.
"YO! The party is here already!"
"Banner," Logan said, his claws sliding out with a definitive shink. "How long?"
"I'm working as fast as I can!" Banner replied, not looking up from his work. "The base antigen is stable. I'm trying to isolate the catalytic trigger... I need to run simulations..."
Logan didn't reply. He just braced himself as the door finally gave way, and a tide of pale, snarling death poured into the base.
WADE
Wade lined up his shot. CRACK. A Wendigo that was about to flank Logan dropped with a new hole in its skull. "Heads up, Pops! Two more on your left!"
/Here we go./
(LET'S FUCKING GO!)
He watched Logan spin, claws flashing in the light.
He took the legs out from under one.
The other one got a .50 cal round to the knee from Wade–CRACK–before Logan finished it with a throat-slash.
"Good job, kid." Logan grunted.
"I gotchu Papa!"
A big one, bigger than the others, charged Logan.
It ducked under a swipe and grabbed him, slamming him hard into a concrete pillar.
Wade saw his dad's face contort with the impact.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.
Wade didn't even think.
He put three rounds in a tight group on the big Wendigo's back.
It roared, its grip loosening just enough for Logan to shove it off and decapitate it.
"They just keep coming! Fuck! I forgot they also could regenerate!" Wade yelled, ejecting the hot magazine and slamming a fresh one home.
The sea of white bodies at the door seemed endless.
"Doc, we need that miracle cure, like, yesterday!"
"I'm close!" Banner shouted, holding up a cartridge filled with glowing blue liquid.
Finally, Banner held up a beaker filled with a vibrant, green liquid. "This is it! The binding agent is stable! The antigen should reverse the mutation!"
Wade stared at it from his perch. "Great! Awesome! How the hell do we get it into them? I'm not gonna run down and spoon-feed it to the angry yetis!"
His eyes scanned the chaotic lab, past the broken glass and scattered papers. There, tucked under a toppled cart, was a long, rifle-like device with a compressed air tank and a magazine for large darts. A tranquilizer gun, military-grade.
/I mean… sure, so convenient…/
(Lucky!)
"Jackpot!" he yelled, sliding down the ladder. He scrambled over, yanking the rifle free. He tossed it up to Banner on the platform. "Here! Fill the darts with your magic juice! I'll test it over!"
He didn't wait for a response, turning back to the fight.
Logan was swinging his claws non-stop, but he was being pushed back as the tide of Wendigos kept healing slash after slash.
"Pops, incoming on your right! Big one with a chipped tusk!" Wade shouted, firing his sniper rifle.
The bullet tore through the creature's shoulder, spinning it around and giving Logan the opening he needed to decapitate it.
A moment later, a loaded dart rifle clattered onto the balcony floor beside him.
Banner gave him a thumbs-up.
"Field test is a go!" Wade yelled, scooping up the new weapon.
He loaded the green-filled dart, the weight of the moment feeling heavier than the rifle itself.
He exhaled, lined up a Wendigo that had Logan pinned against a console, and fired.
THWIP.
The dart hit a Wendigo square in the chest.
For a second, nothing.
Then the thing... vibrated, and its cells just came apart.
It exploded in a disgusting shower of black goo and chunks.
(Yikes!)
"Yeah, that's not it Doc. That just makes them explode, unless that's what kind of cure you wanted!"
"No! I'll make more! Fuck!" Banner yelled, already frantically preparing another mix.
"Language! Hah, always wanted to say that!"
/You also love using that words, hypocrite!/
The next one made a Wendigo grow bigger and angrier. The one after that just gave it a bad rash.
"YUP! That's not it, keep it coming doc!"
Wade kept shooting, calling out targets, watching his dad's relentless, tiring dance below.
He could see the slashes on Logan's body healing slower now. They were running out of time.
Finally, Banner held up a single cartridge filled with a vibrant, green liquid. "This is it! The binding agent is stable!"
Wade loaded it, he exhaled, lined up a Wendigo that had Logan pinned against a console, and fired.
THWIP.
The dart struck right in the wendigo's back.
The creature froze.
A full-body shudder wracked it.
It shrank.
The white fur receded like a bad special effect, the claws retracted, the fangs vanished.
In seconds, a naked, unconscious man lay on the floor where the monster had been.
They repeated the process with the last three Wendigos, curing them one by one. When the final creature was returned to its human form, the fight was finally over.
Wade slid down the ladder, his boots hitting the blood-slicked floor with a squelch. Every muscle in his body felt like overcooked spaghetti. He looked at the thirteen unconscious, naked men and four naked women lying where monsters had been just minutes before. The air still stank of gunpowder and black Wendigo blood. He'd lost count of how many they'd put down before finally nailing the cure.
He watched his dad slump against a shattered console. The old man was breathing heavily, his healing factor visibly struggling to close the worst of the new claw marks crisscrossing his body.
Then Wade's attention snapped to Banner. The doc was leaning on his workstation like it was the only thing holding him up, his face pale.
"You still plan on just... running?" Logan's voice was rough with exhaustion. "After this? These things infect people. There's no telling how many are still out there. And two of them followed you before. Not to mention, they actually could have regenerated unless you somehow could produce that cure before they turn your other half like some kind of hybrid of them,"
Banner stared at his own hands like they were foreign objects. "What choice do I have?"
Wade saw his opening. This was a man who thought he was a bomb waiting to go off. He knew that feeling.
"I don't know if this was a bad idea," Logan said, lowering his voice like he was sharing a secret. "But the guy who hired me, while he cannot be trusted and probably only think us as a tool. He still have some of his uses, he might be able to found you a place where it safe to lay low and deal with whatever your other half are."
"I recommend yoga and therapy!" Wade chimed in, "What? You said you tried everything to cure yourself, but what if you didn't actually need a cure? Like us? I mean, that got that inner animal too and he was able to control it with meditation every morning."
"Wade…"
"At least try to read some psychology books, maybe you'll find an epiphany. And for the record, I like Hulk. He's not so bad when he's not that angry. I mean, you aren't yourself when you're hangry, right? A Snickers commercial told me so. It's scientifically proven!"
"Alright" Banner gave a slow, resigned nod to them.
"Okay lets pack up! You put everything in the drive right?"
"Yeah…"
The helicopter touched down in the same dusty hangar they'd left from. As the rotors whined down, Wade saw the two suits waiting for them. Agent Coulson and Director Sam–Nick Fury himself. Their eyes did a quick sweep of the scene–lingering on him, then on a very out-of-place Bruce Banner wrapped in a lab coat–but their faces gave nothing away.
/Are they really gonna just pretend like they didn't know the severity of all of this?/
(Well, we did get paid to do the job, not to question it.)
Wade hopped out first, grabbing two of the unconscious, blanket-wrapped survivors. He slung one over each shoulder like they were sacks of potatoes while Logan held the other two.
Coulson stepped forward, the picture of polite efficiency, and addressed Banner. "Dr. Banner. It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Agent Coulson, and this is Director Fury. We're from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."
Wade snorted. "Say that five times fast."
Fury ignored him, his single eye fixed on Logan as he handed over a thick envelope. "To think you bring a child to your mission, Logan… I guess you have not really changed at all."
"He followed me himself," Logan shot back, not missing a beat. "Which says more about you than me that a child could escape dozens of agents without anyone noticing."
"Father! Is that a proud papa tone I heard!"
A ghost of a smile might have touched Logan's lips.
Might have.
Honestly, Wade isn't so sure.
"These are the deeds and keys to a farmhouse in Upstate New York. Rural. Quiet. You'll love it. And your family's new identifications."
"You sure not even your organization would knew about this?"
"That's my private safehouses, don't worry only I and Coulson knew about it."
"If anyone came to disturb me and my family unannounced, I'll fucking kill you."
"Anyway, here." Fury gave Logan a flip phone.
"What this?"
"The new Stark Phone, it function like a normal phone just portable and more convenient than normal pager. Just for easier communication between us." Fury then turned his gaze to Banner. "I heard you want to see me?"
Banner nodded. "I heard you could help me."
"We can discuss it later, if you want." Fury said, turning his sight to Logan. "I'll call you later, Logan."
Logan tucked the envelope and the phone into his jacket. "Nope."
"Buh-bye, Sam Jackson! Mr. Agent! Doc!" Wade waved as he jogging to catch up with his father.
"Coulson, gather the men meant to surveil the Wolverine's family. I need to know how a twelve grown-ass field agent could lose sight of a ten years old."
"Alright sir, but to be fair... he is Mr. Howlett's son sir."
"Lets keep a close eyes on him..."
"Yes sir."