A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the bsp;to vote on the dire of the story!

  Thaddeus and Laura figure out what they're doing.

  -x-X-x-

  “You ’t possibly think I’m going to let you go off on your own, Laura.”

  The no-nonsense young woman tenses up at that, her eyes narrowing as she gres at him.

  “Are you going to try and stop me?”

  Thaddeus ches his jaw harder than before in response. He would be lying if he said the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. Pinning her down, calling for Kitty to e and talk her out of this. But… he tell this means a lot to Laura. And besides, if there’s actually illegal stific experiments going on in this city, he kind of wants to put a stop to it too. Even if there’s probably a bunch of junk happening that he doesn’t know about, anything he does know about… well, he wouldn’t want it to tinue.

  “No, but I am ing with you. I may not be a hero, but I’m not just going to leave you to tackle this on your own. I would think we’re closer than that.”

  Laura frowns and looks away, clearly not sure how to respond at first to su opeure. She rallies after a few seds though, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow at him.

  “Don’t think SHE would be too happy about that.”

  That gets a grimace from Thaddeus, because Laura is right… Emma wouldn’t be happy. But… thinking about it for even a sed, he realizes she would be even LESS happy if he didn’t tell her. It’s a crapshoot no matter what. But in the end, it doesn’t take him long at all to figure out that the best of all his options is to let Emma know ahead of time.

  “I’ll call her. Maybe she’ll have some information for us.”

  Laura blinks, clearly not having expected him to suggest such a thing. Grinning slightly, Thaddeus teases the female mutant as he pulls out his phone.

  “Unless you already kly where we’re going…”

  The leading query causes Laura to scowl a bit and huff.

  “I have… some leads to chase down. But you have to know she’ll say you ’t. She’s going to shut you down, Thad.”

  Thaddeus scoffs, even as he dials Emma’s number. Laura was misuanding a fual part of his and Emma’s stantly evolviionship. These days, they were partners in all but name. Equals with different strengths. Emma might try to shut him down, but Thaddeus wasn’t going to take that from her… nor anyone else.

  The call takes only a beat to pick up, with Emma’s voiing through the other end.

  “Thaddeus, I’ve been waiting for your call all day. I trust st night went well if it’s taken you this long to che with me.”

  The mild note of reproa Emma’s voice causes Thaddeus to wince as he remembers that yeah, on top of all of this Laura and the Facility stuff, he’s still not touched based regarding Domino… or everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours.

  “… Yeah, it went well. Better than well. A sed Domino from another universe fell out of a portal before I showed up through a… fortuitous of events, resulting in a threesome that sted all night long. In the m, another portal opened and the sed Domi back to her universe, while the first went on her way.”

  There’s a beat of silen which Thaddeus tell Emma is processing his words. He also feel Laura’s eyes b into the side of his head as he talks about some dht outndish things, even for their crazy lives. For that brief moment, he siders letting Emma muster up a response befetting to what else happeoday, or just leaving it off entirely for the time being… but in the end, he just shakes his head and chooses to rip off the band-aid wholesale.

  “Then, before I could leave the hotel, I was called over to a table in the bar area by the civiliaies of the , the Invisible Woman, and She-Hulk. After some chatting, the four of us retired to another hotel room, and proceeded to spend all day wreg that ohrough… al pursuits.”

  Laura’s gaze intensifies from his side, while he hears Emma audibly choke on her own spit oher end of the phone. He’d probably be a bit more pleased at having gotten such a rea if the current situation wasn’t so dire.

  “Anyways, none of that is actually why I called, Emma. I’m here with Laura at the moment… the one who helped me with my potential psychi. She and I are going to be hunting down rumors about an anization known only as ‘The Facility’ setting up shop somewhere in New York and I was w if you could provide any information on your end.”

  Silenkets the alley. Laura’s intense gaze has bee dht incredulous as she stares at him off to the side, while Emma doesn’t say anything for so long that Thaddeus begins ting the seds in his head and sidering whether the powerful bloelepath might have had a stroke or something.

  In the end however, its Emma who breaks the silence, speaking in a calm and measured tone of voice.

  “That is certainly a somewhat improbable string of events, Thaddeus. That said, I assume so far everything has… been going your way?”

  Thaddeus tilts his head to the side for a moment, thinking about it before letting out a chuckle.

  “Yeah, I’d say so.”

  “And when you finally left the hotel, did you… just happen to run into Ms. Kinney on your way bapus? Perhaps she caught your eye, despite trying to be sneaky?”

  Ah… man, it was great having a petent partner. Emma was so qui the uptake it would be scary if Thaddeus didn’t know for sure that she was on his side. Grinning now, he hums as he gives an increasingly disgruntled Laura a look.

  “Yep. That’s about it exactly.”

  “… Very well. I’ll send you everything I find on The Facility’s dealings in New York. In exge, please do your best to disguise your identity ahead of time, Thaddeus. All of the Lu the world won’t help if certain individuals find out you’re running around making a mess of boratories and experimental ‘studies’.”

  Looking Laura in the eye, Thaddeus nods.

  “Yeah, I do that. Thanks Emma.”

  “Of course… and Thaddeus?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’ll be expeg a full debriefing of the st twenty four hours ter.”

  Smirking a little, Thaddeus just shakes his head in amusement.

  “Sure. All you have to do is ask.”

  They hang up a moment ter, and Thaddeus ’t help but give Laura a big wide grin.

  “You were saying, Laura?”

  The young woman huffs, showing more emotion than Thaddeus is sure he’s ever seen from her… and all of it pure disgru and irritation.

  “You two have a weird retionship.”

  “Heh, I ’t argue with that.”

  Frowning slightly, Laura looks him up and down, as if seeing him in a new light.

  “All of that stuff you said… there wasn’t a single embellishment in there.”

  It’s not a question. She’s not looking for firmation, she’s merely stating facts. He nods all the same.

  “Yep. That all happened, exactly as I said it happehe st day or so has been… quite the ride. And it’s not over yet.”

  As if waiting for him to say that his phone dings right on cue. Opening the test message from Emma, Thaddeus turns it to Laura, showihe address that Emma has sent him along with information about security. Laura’s eyes light up with a distinct sort of hunger, her hackles raising as her entire body tenses like a well-oiled spring.

  “We go together, Laura, or not at all. Alright?”

  She hesitates for only a moment, but Thaddeus knows she’s sidering whether she might be able to break away a him there if she tried to lose him right now. In the end, Laura’s shoulders slump infinitesimally with the realization that that’s definitely not happening, and she gives a simple nod.

  “Fiogether.”

  -x-X-x-

  Fortunately, this ‘Facility’ pce clearly isn’t on the up and up. They’re not even on the level where they have a legal purpose to cover for their illegal activities. This means that they aren’t operating out of some proper pound-turned-boratory with all of the security in the world in the form of walls and sowers and guards or what have you.

  It also means they ’t call for actual w enfort to show up and defend them… on at of all of the illegal shit they’re likely getting up to.

  That doesn’t mean there’s zero security of course, but as Thaddeus and Laura approach the location from the sewers, it es in the form of more subtle stuff, like portable motion sensors and cameras set up hastily and illegally without any iion of the equipment sting in the long term.

  With his fad hair ged by his version of Mystique’s power and his body shifted so he’s a bit rger than his normal form with ’s power, Thaddeus looks nothing like himself. But on top of that, he’s also wearing a mask and so is Laura, the two of them dressed in all-bd sneaking along as stealthily as they possibly .

  Of course, that retty goddamhy, all things sidered. Thaddeus might not have had ninja training or anything like that, but what he did have at this point was a full suite of powers and the intuitive uanding to use them. On top of that was an intuitive uanding of his own body. He knew how to move to be as quiet as possible, despite being evehan his usual self. And with Laura leading the way and their bined enhanced sehey were able to avoid a lot of the obvious traps and arms that might have been tripped otherwise.

  As they mao ehe underground boratory through the sewers without beied, however, Thaddeus does have to stop Laura for a moment.

  “We’re here now… what exactly are we looking for? Are we just going to destroy stuff, or was there something else?”

  Laura’s hands ch at her sides as she pauses for a moment to ahe question.

  “We hunt for answers. Is this really them, really The Facility? What are they up to here, and we put a stop to it? And… if anyone from my past is here, I ’t promise heads won’t roll.”

  Thaddeus nods.

  “Okay the’s see what we find.”

  Unfortunately, Thaddeus ’t just use telepathy to locate everyone in the boratory and direct them from there. It would be nice, but there’s some kind of psychic dampener oire illegal underground facility, probably to at for the numerous mutants and other types of telepaths who call New York their home.

  Regardless, the halls are fairly empty as they make their way further inside, looking for anything that might help them figure this pce out. Eventually, they e across their first signs of life, though it doesly e in a form that Thaddeus is expeg. And from the sho Laura’s voice, she’s not anticipating this either.

  “Wha- Cessily!”

  Stepping into a bonafide b, Thaddeus looks around at the equipment for a moment, while Laura rushes forward. Her destination is the ter of the room, where a rge tube of some form of gss-like material rests. The only reason Thaddeus doesn’t think it’s actually just normal gss is that inside of the tube there’s a silvery living mass that’s clearly doing all it to break the tube.

  Thaddeus only wat in amazement as that silvery mass slowly coalesces inside of the tube, shifting and shrinking down into the approximation of a human woman with red hair. The skin is still silver though… or rather, not silver. Mercury. That’s what he’s looking at, Thaddeus suddenly realizes. This woman is made of mercury. A mutant, had to be.

  “Hey Laura… fancy seeing you here.”

  “Cessily, when did they catch you? What have they done?!”

  Before Cessily respond, another voice pipes up, causing Laura to whip around FAST.

  “Well, well, well… what do we have here?”

  She es through the wall, leaving Thaddeus w if Kitty had somehow followed them down here, or was going to turn out to be a mad stist experimenting on her own kind or something. But only for a sed. Then, he registers the woman beyond just her apparently ability to turn intangible and knows they’re not dealing with Kitty Pryde at all.

  “Hey there, 23. Miss me?”

  Dark skin, bck hair, green eyes… and a whole lot of ons. Those are the things Thaddeus notices first about this new arrival. Well, that and the way her armored bodysuit hugs her figure, but he’s self-aware enough to know that this is far from the time. Especially given the way Laura reacts to her. The young female mutant’s cws immediately uhe as she turns to the newer, and a snarl of pure, primal ferocity spreads across Laura’s normally bnd aionless face.

  “Kimura.”

  “Ah good, so you do remember. I’d have been disappointed if you didn’t.”

  Laura bristles, befnashieeth.

  “… My name is Laura.”

  The now named ‘Kimura’ scoffs at that.

  “Experiments don’t get names, X-23. Least of all failed experiments who ran away. Still, who would have thought you’d e crawling back like this. Saves me the trouble if nothing else, I suppose.”

  Kimura’s eyes slide away from Laura, over to his masked, hulking form.

  “Mm, even found yourself a big, beefy lover boy while you were out. How cute. Got a ranger? No? Well, we’ll see how long that dark and brooding act of yours sts once we get you on the rack.”

  Thaddeus stays quiet, knowing full well that this isn’t a versation he o be part of. Indeed, Laura doesn’t hesitate to point her cws at Kimura.

  “Yht is with me, Kimura.”

  The older woman scoffs at that, arms crossed over her chest.

  “Fight? There’s not going to be a fight, X-23. You’re in desperate need of some serious correeanwhile, everyone you’ve ever e into tact with is sted for execution, their days numbered. They just don’t know it yet.”

  With a scream, Laura unches herself forward in Kimura’s dire, causing the other woman to smirk in response and unwind her arms, clearly prepared to meet her charge.

  Thaddeus, meanwhile, hesitates for a moment. Does he back Laura up… or does he see about freeing her friend Cessily? On the one hand, Laura might he assist, depending on how tough this Kimura chick truly was. Oher hand, if they got Cessily out of the tube, it would bee three on one…

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [ ] Back Laura up against Kimura - 27%[X] Prioritize freeing Cessily - 73%

  -x-X-x- If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry. and QuestionableQuesting. where I have over a thousand stories!

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