Chapter 148 0148: Mission
Hydra Earth.
Wolverine's talk with Laura regarding her new attire left him with more questions than answers, making him give up on trying to understand the deal with the new suit.
All Laura told him was that it just happened and that she felt like it was good for her so she didn't try to get rid of it, plus, she said it was much more comfortable than her usual suit, considering that she was wearing it even under her sleepwear.
Hearing her explanation, he decided that it was okay as long as she didn't feel that it was detrimental to her.
He left her after telling her that he wanted her to let him know if at any moment she felt something wrong with it.
The next morning, Laura and Wolverine met with the team that they would be working with to execute the next mission.
"You're sending a bunch of kids with me!" Wolverine growled at Agent Maria Hill who had led him and Laura to the team that was composed of multiple men and women, most of them seeming to be relatively young.
"Kids with very good abilities. You are an experienced combatant and leader, so I know that you'll be able to manage them without too much trouble." She shrugged Wolverine's concerns off, "Everyone, this is Agent Logan, aka Wolverine. You can all introduce yourselves." She told the group of four young adults.
"I didn't agree to babysit a bunch of kids, Hill. I'd rather get things done by myself, I already have a student." He gestured to Laura who was quietly standing beside him. She didn't speak much.
"You won't have to babysit them." She calmly explained, "They are competent." She vouched for them.
Her words seemed to have some effect as he calmed down and looked at the group with an intense look, making the four of them shiver. But they still maintained professional expressions as they started introducing themselves.
The first to speak was a slender, dark-skinned woman with curly black hair and brown eyes, "I'm Agent Ironheart. I have an armored suit similar to Mr. Stark." Her eyes had a glow of reverence as she mentioned Stark.
Wolverine almost scoffed at her naked Iron Man worship but settled with a nonchalant nod before turning to the next person.
The next person was a bald African-American male wearing a blue and white outfit that seemed to be inspired by Captain America himself, "I'm Agent Patriot..." Wolverine interrupted him, "Rogers' protégé himself. What a surprise." He said with a narrow-eyed expression before turning to the next person.
The next was a black-haired, clean-looking man who was wearing some kind of blue Kevlar-like suit along with a worn-out red cape, "I'm Demiurge. A warlock." He greeted Wolverine succinctly before giving Laura a narrow-eyed glance and turning his head away.
"Okay, you're new." Wolverine nodded, not really understanding what being a warlock meant, but he would understand with time. He turned to the last member of the team.
The last was the most superhero-esque of the lot. She was wearing a blue leotard over a red spandex bodysuit. The blue of her top was contrasted with a yellow lightning bolt that was cut off at the neck of the leotard, "I'm Ms. Marvel!" She said cheerily, "I'm an Inhuman with the power to stretch my body into different sizes." She got close to Wolverine and asked, "I'm a big fan, can I get your autograph?" She produced a pen and notepad from somewhere.
Wolverine looked at her with confusion, caught off guard by her enthusiasm.
He got swept in her rhythm and took the pad and pen before he even realized it. Giving her a weird look, he decided to just sign it, making her jump and squeal in delight. As she went back to her position, Wolverine nodded and said, "This is Laura, my daughter." Laura just nodded to them in greeting. She was wearing her new black and muted-yellow tone suit.
Just as the group was thinking that Wolverine didn't seem that harsh, "I'm not babysitting a bunch of kids, Hill." His rough growl made them all develop wry smiles on their faces.
"This is your team for this mission, Agent Logan." She said impassively, "You don't have a choice here."
Wolverine stared Maria Hill down for a whole minute and she unwaveringly met his gaze before he finally grunted and went quiet, showing acceptance.
She nodded and addressed everyone, "This mission this time is to infiltrate a facility in Sokovia and retrieve..." She started briefing them about the mission.
...
"Can you show me your claws?" Ms. Marvel asked Wolverine while standing beside his seat.
The entire group was inside the cockpit of a Quinjet as they made their way to Sokovia.
Wolverine didn't reply to her and asked instead, "Why are you here?"
"What do you mean?" She frowned and asked, "I'm here to help my country. When Captain America himself gives you a mission, you don't question it, you do it." She said the words with a determined creed.
"Right..." Wolverine trailed off deep in thought. His off-putting question dampened Ms. Marvel's ever-glowing enthusiasm and she decided to sit down in her seat.
As for Laura, she was curious about her new 'suit'. She instinctively knew that it was much more than a simple suit. She extended her claws out of one of her hands' knuckles and tried to get the suit to cover the metal.
She was fascinated as she saw hin threads made of the same material as the suit extend out of her knuckles and wrap around her claw. It wasn't perfectly covered as with her body, but it was a nice scene nonetheless.
Wolverine noticed Laura's actions and narrowed his eyes, but ultimately chose not to do anything. Considering that Laura had been surviving on her own for years before she met him, she should have sound judgment.
"That's really cool..." Ms. Marvel seemed to have found her new prey and stretched her arm in Laura's direction before pulling herself into the empty seat beside her, "Do you have full control over this material?" She asked curiously. She didn't know if the material was something that came from Laura's powers or if it was some kind of nanotech like some of Ironheart's gadgets.
'It seems that Venom didn't have much of a presence in this version of 616...' Alex thought. This was a variation of the comic book Earth that was eerily similar to the Secret Empire storyline from what he'd gauged by now.
"Not sure..." Laura answered succinctly. She wasn't much of a talker in the first place.n)-o//V.-e.-l/.b--1//n
"Can you try to wrap it around my arm?" Ms. Marvel instantly decided to make herself the test subject.
'Should I...' Alex was having some devious thoughts, but then he reigned them in. He was definitely interested in the hot piece of exotic ass that was Ms. Marvel, but the presence of Demiurge put a damper on his plans. The man's senses were fully alert and he'd been constantly paying attention to Laura. To be more precise, he was paying attention to the suit that she was wearing. The warlock could sense that there was a consciousness inside the suit and was wary of the unknown variable.
'Considering that he hasn't mentioned much about himself, he should probably have his own motives with this mission...' Alex had some guesses considering that this 'Demiurge' was one of the Scarlet Witch's two 'dead' sons. But all he had was speculation based on the original Secret Empire storyline. He would have to slowly explore everything that was going on on this Earth.
Ultimately, Alex could only lay low without acting suspiciously and attracting too much attention from that guy. He was confident that he would be easily able to escape if Demiurge tried to go after him, but he didn't want to risk it. Depending on the current scenario of the planet, Demiurge could potentially be strong enough to rival Scarlet Witch at her peak. He didn't want someone with that kind of power after him.
As Laura tried to get the suit to wrap around Ms. Marvel's hand, the thin threads extended out of her palm and started slowly wrapping around Ms. Marvel's palm, but within a few seconds there seemed to be a resistance and the threads retracted themselves, seemingly unwilling to wrap around Ms. Marvel.
"Hmm..." Laura hummed thoughtfully as she felt that the suit was grumbling at her. Though there seemed to be an imperceptible smile on her face.
"I guess there's something on me that you(?) it(?) doesn't like?" Ms. Marvel didn't know how to refer to the threads. She initially thought that they were made from Laura's power, but considering that they rejected her, meant that it was something else.
"It." Laura corrected her, "It's my suit. I have the same powers as my father."
"How cool..." Ms. Marvel quickly got chummy with Laura. Even though Laura's answers weren't very conversation-friendly, Ms. Marvel wasn't one to give up.
Throughout the ride, she gave Laura multiple ideas on how she could use the suit in different ways and helped her test some of them. After the initial uncomfortableness, Laura got used to Ms. Marvel's presence and didn't seem bothered by her.
'Hm... These two would make a nice duo...' Alex wasn't just planning to kill this version of Laura, if that was the case, he would've completely replaced her instead of going through this roundabout way and giving her a 'variant' of the Venom suit.
He wanted to test some theories that he had and she was going to be his test subject, 'Another guinea pig doesn't sound bad...' He decided as he saw Ms. Marvel and Laura getting chummy with each other. Or at least as chummy as they could get with Laura looking and acting like a typical edgy goth chick.
***
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