Chapter 144 0144: Preparing the Destination
More days passed with Laura training underwater with Alex as he looked for traces of Atlantis.
At the same time, he'd already started making preparations for his next destination with Laura.
He was going to bring her to the Hydra-controlled Earth and there was a perfect person for Laura to replace on that planet. He wanted to infiltrate Hydra and get some benefit from their takeover of another version of the Earth.
"Kid, cover my flank." Wolverine's voice was heard in Laura's intercom and she instantly got out of cover and blocked a stray bullet from hitting her as she moved to another location.
A buff man wearing a yellow and black costume burst out from the location that Laura was running toward and charged at the line of defense that comprised the resistance forces.
He extended his claws and crossed them in front of his head as he charged at them. Meanwhile, Laura cut through a person who was approaching Wolverine from behind and slashed at them with her Adamantium-coated claws.
She stood behind Wolverine and defended him from attacks that came from the sides and behind him as he charged at the line of defense, uncaring of the wounds that he got.
Working together, they quickly made their way to the line of defense and made quick work of the non-enhanced individuals there, either subduing or straight-up slicing through them.
"This sector's clear." Wolverine activated another intercom that was attached to his bracelet and reported his status.
"Copy that, Logan." A feminine voice came from his intercom, "I need you to provide cover for the team at site C. They have sighted Spider-Man and Silk, and might potentially be facing more enhanced individuals."
"Isn't that the Defenders team? With all due respect, Hill. I'm not dealing with that fucker right now." He spat out into the intercom.
"That's an order, Agent Logan." She said and Wolverine went silent.
After a few seconds of silence, he looked over at Laura who was looking at him innocently. In the end, he grunted into the intercom before cutting the connection.
It was at this time that a team of soldiers wearing combat armor with Hydra logos entered the building. They ignored Logan and Logan ignored them.
"Keep up, kid." He said as he left the building and made his way through the almost dystopian 'battlefield' that used to be a bustling borough of New York City, namely, the Bronx. Many of the buildings had been destroyed and the ruined streets were completely deserted except for the occasional pests. It was a complete warzone.
Within minutes, the duo heard the sound of gunfire mixed with loud shouts and approached the fighting forces.
Wolverine signaled to Laura to attack one of the shooting people while he went to attack another. They both quickly joined in the conflict and killed multiple of the resistance forces before their presence was registered.
That was when Logan felt a strong kick at his back and was thrown away from his position as he flipped his body multiple times before coming to a stop. He faced the figure of Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O'Hara.
Wolverine growled as he attacked Spider-Man who blocked the man's claws using his own spinnerets that were on his forearms. As they got into a fight, Spider-Man extended the claws that were on his fingers and scratched Wolverine's forearm with them. At the same time, he received a knee in the gut from Wolverine.
As they were fighting, Laura was facing her own foe. Silk.
She had a radically different fighting style in comparison to Wolverine, yet there was a sense of similarity that one would see with Wolverine's combat style when looking at how she fought. She was countering all of Silk's attacks with her acrobatics-leaning combat style.
With Laura and Wolverine's presence, the Defenders finally had some room to breathe. After regrouping themselves, they quickly started taking care of the remaining resistance forces.
As Spider-Man and Silk noticed their people being subdued by the Defenders, their actions got more and more desperate, leading to them getting more hurt.
With both Wolverine and Laura having a monstrous healing factor, it was impossible for the two spider people to take care of them quickly enough.
Soon, Spider-Man signaled to Silk and they quickly shot their webs at a remaining building before swinging away. The resistance forces were already incapacitated by then.
Wolverine narrowed his eyes as he looked at Spider-Man's receding back and said, "Let's regroup."
Laura and Logan met up with the Defenders.
"Rand," Wolverine said toward Iron Fist.
"Howlett," He replied with a gruff tone. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones stood beside him as they looked at Wolverine with slightly apprehensive expressions. They were ready for a fight.
"Logan, come in." The tense atmosphere was broken by the sound of the intercom at Wolverine's wrist.
"I'm here." He brought his wrist close to his face.
"We need you and Laura at the containment facility. The line of defense there is being attacked." She said.
"Copy that." Wolverine replied before turning back to Iron Fist, "Fuck off, Rand." He then turned to Laura and said, "Keep up, kid."
He started moving to his next destination before Iron Fist could say anything.
Laura looked back at the fuming team and asked Wolverine, "Do you have something with them, Dad?"
"It's not important," Wolverine replied with his usual gruff voice as he increased his pace, making it slightly difficult for Laura to keep up. It had the necessary effect and Wolverine didn't hear any more questions from Laura.
As he approached his destination, a large prison was made visible. It had been repurposed for Hydra's purposes.
As he approached the line of defense, he understood why the soldiers were having trouble. The forces of Hydra were being annihilated by The Thing as the resistance forces were gaining ground.
"You asked me to deal with this guy?" He muttered with a tone of slight disbelief as he didn't stop his approach and directly kicked the Thing.
The rocky man stumbled from the effects of Wolverine's kick and roared at him, ignoring the troops that he was previously decimating. At the same time, two more heroes, namely Gambit and Blade came up to the troops and started incapacitating them. Without the cover that Thing was providing, their task just got much more difficult.
"Fuck off, Logan." Thing roared and swiped his arm at Logan who barely countered him with his claws. Laura also came up from the side and attacked Thing.
He raised his arm and received Laura's claws. They created four cuts on his rocky skin but also caused her claws to be stuck in his skin. Thing swiped his arm and hurled Laura away as she was freeing her claws, throwing her into a pile of concrete debris.
Thing focused back on Wolverine and received a slash directly at his chest. That moment that he took to take care of Laura had given Wolverine a nice window.
As for Laura. As she was about to get up from the rubble, she felt her hand touching something slimy.
"Huh?" She raised it up and saw that her hand was now covered in black and her yellow glove was nowhere to be seen.
Moments later, she realized that that black substance was extending along her entire body. She frowned and tried to pull away her glove. As she was unable to pull it away, she was about to try harder, but something compelled her to allow that 'suit' to cover her body.
Feeling a little weird, she ignored the new black suit that had taken over her costume and rose out of the rubble, wearing a new black suit.
'I've been following these two for so long…' Alex cheered to himself as he decided to play Venom for a while until he could replace this Laura with his Laura.
Laura came out of the pile of rubble wearing a new all-black costume with yellow tones and instantly pounced at Thing who couldn't react until he felt her claws getting embedded into his back.
She ferally stabbed him multiple times until he charged backward into a thick concrete pillar, forcing Laura to get off of his back. She jumped away and regrouped with Wolverine.
"Easy there, kid. We just need to keep them busy." Wolverine told Laura. He noticed the change in her costume but decided to leave it until they dealt with The Thing.
Wolverine and Laura kept the Thing busy until more reinforcements could come and help them out.
In the end, Hydra deployed one of the heavy hitters, and the assailing forces were all repelled as Wolverine and Laura were extracted from the battlefield.
"You were holding back." Wolverine heard as he was reporting to his handler, Agent Maria Hill.
"I was supposed to be holding back The Thing." He replied in his usual gruff tone.
"If you made some effort, we would've caught one of the Fantastic Four in one fell swoop. It would force Richards out of hiding." She chided him but Wolverine didn't care.
She shook her head and said, "Rest up. Tomorrow, you'll be deployed with a team to attack one of the Inhuman bases."
"You know I don't work well with others." He told her.
"And yet you have an apprentice." She glanced at a closed door. It was the door to Laura's room, "It doesn't matter. You will be deployed with the team and you will get along with them." She told him and without waiting for a reply, she turned around.
Wolverine growled at her back with a hostile gaze, but he didn't make a move.
He shook his head and turned to Laura's bedroom door, 'Let's see what the deal with her is…' He'd noticed her acting weird since she got that all-black suit. She'd gotten more feral than she already was under normal circumstances.
***
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