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….
Or the kicker: Why'd I see myself as me, not Loki with "future knowledge" tacked on, plus human baggage from another universe? Chew on that one…
Lost in that mental rabbit hole, I got moving again, though my two illusions stayed put: one in Xavier's school, the other hotel-bound with Yuriko, both parked in chairs with eyes shut.
They'd been like that pre-brood, actually; easier to sift memories that way, and infiltrating a black-site op meant no distractions from extra viewpoints or limbs.
Didn't want to botch it over dumb multitasking, juggling three live scenes could've meant missing a key detail or zoning out at the worst second.
So, navel-gazing aside, I swept the bunker. Security neutralized already, it was methodical, almost zen.
Most of these Mengele-wannabes never even clocked the shift from breathing to not; I just kept strolling toward the wing holding X-23.
Where a deep chat with Sarah Kinney awaited.
Question was: Kinney first, or Laura? Er, X-23, girl wouldn't get her name till later… or would've, from a dying Sarah amid a self-destructing bunker purge.
Still, who to hit up? The scientist lady or the kid who knew zilch, molded into a feral killer sans basics like "social skills"? Tough call. And here's the corridor splitting left-right… Fine, stay in character: left it is. Why not?
Fifteen minutes of leisurely extermination later, I hit a beefy hermetic door. Rice's intel pinged it as the weapon-girl's "room."
Feet led me here; might as well. Punched the code, door hissed open, and… there she stood, ramrod straight, ten or eleven-ish in a flimsy medical smock over bare skin.
Face like stone. Feet naked on the floor. Tense as hell, Kimura's "lessons" had already sunk in, even if she'd only been on payroll a year.
Maybe drowning her was too quick; should've gotten creative.
"Hey there," I said, tossing in a mental curse at the universe's creators.
Why? Well… future Laura was downright adorable. No, scratch that, an absolute charmer, primed to blossom into a stunner. Up close, sans filters?
Obvious as daylight. What kinda world was this?
Hot women you could count on a botched carpenter's fingers, but this pint-sized marvel already outshone Black Widow by a mile.
And nah, not exaggerating much. How the hell to take it? What was I supposed to make of this?
Universe dropping hints? I'd flirted with Ororo a couple times, she's a thousand-plus years my junior, and bam, pedo label? What the fuck is going on here?!
…Silent glare from under furrowed brows was her only reply.
"Hmm…" I sat down in front of the child and pondered. My usual demeanor clearly wouldn't work here.
What can you even talk about with a ten-year-old girl who doesn't even have a name, but does have training, albeit "initial"? "Let's introduce ourselves. My name is Loki. What's yours?"
"Callsign: X-23," the girl answered succinctly, looking at me unblinkingly with brown eyes.
"I see." According to Rice's memory, adamantium was applied to her claws thirteen months ago, but conditioning to the "trigger" scent had been ongoing for a year and a half, starting at eight years old.
Fortunately, the latter work wasn't finished, and the berserker state hadn't become a conditioned reflex yet.
"Well, I came to take you to a much better place than this. Will you come with me?"
"I am ready to follow you." Yeah, this is going to be difficult.
"Alright, let's go." I straightened up and in one motion lifted this miracle into my arms.
Of course, I should be wary of her claws, but knowing Wolverine's and Sabretooth's speed, I'd have time to dodge a little girl's hand ten times over.
"Um?" The picked-up child fell into a stupor. Apparently, she had never moved this way before.
"What?"
"No, nothing, sir…"
"You can drop the 'sir'," I shrugged. Right, now let's go down the remaining corridor and visit Sarah.
"Hm…" The girl's gaze fixed on the body of a guard with a slit throat sprawled in the middle of the corridor. Though the reaction ended there.
Rice is a moron, just like Kimura. If you're hell-bent on raising a sapient weapon, the first thing you need to worry about is its loyalty.
But here, the reaction to the corpse of "one of her own" was completely indifferent. In the future, she would have organized these corpses herself.
Oh well.
A new walk down a new corridor took another ten minutes and seven corpses, my illusory double coped quite well, so I just walked forward with the child in my arms, while lab technicians suddenly died in separate offices behind my back.
Sarah was waiting for us in her office.
She looked rather pale, which wasn't surprising, the woman had access to surveillance cameras, and since I hadn't blocked her personal line, she quite clearly saw the "bloody trail" I organized and the methodical cleanup of the complex personnel.
So she could quite reasonably assume I was coming for her soul too. Moreover, the assumption was true. In a way.
"Miss Kinney," I smiled politely at the scientist, "good evening. Lovely weather outside, isn't it?"
I must say, the woman was somewhat prettier than most ladies of this universe, but still didn't reach my requirements. And besides, I have Storm… well, hypothetically.
"Please… not in front of the girl…" she answered with trembling lips.
And said girl in my arms tensed up and, trying not to attract attention, shifted slightly. Just so it would be more convenient to stick claws under my chin.
Good girl.
"No, no, I'm not going to kill you," X-23 in my arms immediately relaxed. "Moreover, I came to you with an offer!"
"An offer?" Sarah didn't understand anything.
"No, not of hand and heart, you're not my type. But I think you'll be interested in the opportunity to disappear from your employers' radar and start a new life?"
"What will I owe for this?" You can see a person beaten by life.
Scared, realizing she has no real choice, but almost reaching that mark where a person stops caring about themselves, yet the prospect of getting to the enemy's throat is inspiring.
Even if there was no "throat" here, it seemed to me that between death and an offer to work for another set of vivisectionists, the woman would prefer the former.
….
Bonus Chapter on every 500 power stones;
If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
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