As soon as he found out who had betrayed him, Logan was going to track them down and gut them. Hell, after everything that had been done to him, Logan was going to do a lot worse than that. Logan was having a hard time remembering a time when his body hadn’t been in a constant state of agony. Or when he had actually been able to move.
Truth was, there wasn’t much Logan could remember anymore.
All that had been good about his life was lost in a haze of fear and agony. There was only darkness that Logan could no longer see beyond.
“Looks like its your day in the rotation,” one of the doctor pricks taunted as he entered Logan’s cell.
Since his head, along with the rest of his body, was latched to the table he was lying on, there was no way that Logan could see the bastard. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. No matter how much Logan strained his eyes, he could not see the doctor that had entered his cell. Not that he needed his eyes to see who it was. Logan knew this particular one by scent.
Montgomery.
The leader of the group and the one with the most twisted sense of humour.
“I’m jumping for joy on the inside,” Logan snarled bitterly. He knew that they liked it when he cowered and cringed, so Logan liked to piss them off by acting indifferent.
“Too bad you can’t do it on the outside,” Montgomery taunted. By this time he was in Logan’s line of sight and he could see the smirk on the prick’s face. “So, are you going to behave yourself today or will I have to gag you again?”
Logan shrugged his shoulders as much as he was able, which wasn’t much. “Haven’t decided yet. You never know. I might be in a talkative mood today.”
In the back of his mind, Logan was trying to remember what day it was. If it was Tuesday that meant the Dwyer guy was on duty. In some ways, Dwyer was worse than Montgomery. Dwyer got off on hurting the girl that Montgomery kept locked in his lab. And if it was Tuesday, Logan was going to be talkative. Just so he could piss the bastard off. He didn’t like it when people hurt his Marie.
Logan wasn’t sure when he’d come to think Marie as his, but he suspected that it was around the first time she had cried for him. Despite her own helpless situation, she still cared for him and felt compassion for him. The first time it had happened, it had caught Logan completely off guard. Montgomery and one of his goons had been on a lunch break, giving Logan time to heal, when the room’s usual scent of blood was overpowered by the scent of tears. Turning his head as far as he was able, Logan had seen her for the first time.
Marie.
She had been crouching behind the glass of her prison, one hand pressed against the clear substance while tears streamed down her pale cheeks.
Then she had asked him if he was all right.
Since that afternoon, Logan had found himself instinctually drawn to the girl with the soft voice and caring eyes. He could always smell her tears and was surprisingly comforted by the fact that someone cared enough about what was happening him to actually shed a tear. It was a rarity in this place. No one was supposed to care about anyone but themselves, yet she seemed to care for him.
“I hope you are prepared for a long day. You are my only subject today,” Montgomery told him as a pair of orderlies began wheeling the table Logan was strapped to down the corridor towards the hated laboratory where Logan’s body was slowly being altered by a bunch of sadistic doctors.
“That’s supposed to scare me, right?” Logan grumbled, straining vainly against the restraints that kept him strapped to the table.
“Fear is such a vulgar thing,” Montgomery sneered. “This is not about fear, Wolverine. This is about creating the perfect weapon. And you are the best candidate so far. You and the girl.”
From the look on the man’s face, Logan knew exactly who he was talking about. And he’s be damned if he let it happen.
“You stay the hell away from her,” Logan snarled, fighting harder against the nylon bands that restrained him.
Montgomery started to laugh at that. “Really, Wolverine, where’s your sense of self preservation? You really don’t strike me as the hero type.”
Logan said nothing but continued to struggle to free himself. Snarl and snap his teeth as much as he would, the effect was the same. The orderlies and Montgomery ignored him completely. It wasn’t as though they had any reason to fear him when he was tied immobile to the table. Were he free, it would be a completely different story. Even outnumbered the way he was, Logan was confident that he could still beat them. He was the Wolverine, after all, and the Wolverine never lost. Unless, of course, his opponents were armed with stun guns and tranquilizers powerful enough to knock out an elephant. Those were unfair odds and Logan didn’t much care for them. Especially not since they had ended him up in this hell hole.
“I’ll bet you’re wondering what we’ve got planned for you today,” Montgomery said, more or less to himself since Logan refused to acknowledge him. “Today is going to be exceptionally interesting because you will be outfitted with your weapons.”
That caught Logan’s attention and he couldn’t help but arch an eyebrow. “That meant you’re going to give me a gun? ‘Cause I’ve gotta say that’s real stupid of you. I’m liable to kill you all.”
“Oh you will be given a weapon,” Montgomery confirmed. “Unfortunately for you, it won’t be a gun or anything that would be useful in your present state. No, you are going to be outfitted with something much more lethal and primitive. Just as your name suggests.”
“I may be primitive, but at least I’m not a prick like you,” Logan mumbled, making no attempt to mask his words from the other man.
Montgomery’s smile made Logan feel uneasy. “I do believe that it is all a matter of opinion, Wolverine. What I am doing will benefit mankind. Can you say that your existence would have been so profitable had I not entered it?”
“Well I’m never going to find that out, am I? You took away all my options when you grabbed me off the side of the road,” Logan growled. His abduction was always a touchy subject that was likely to get him riled up real quick.
By that time they had reached the laboratory and Logan tensed up instantly. Flaring his nostrils, Logan attempted to search out Marie’s scent and became worried when he couldn’t. If she wasn’t there, he couldn’t distract himself with talking to her. Simply talking to her had kept him sane on more than one occasion when they were cutting him open and playing with his insides.
“Dwyer seems to be taking a little long with Rogue so we’ll just have to begin without him,” Montgomery informed the two orderlies who had accompanied him thus far. “Jacobs, could you please insert the gag into Wolverine’s mouth. You know how he gets when Dwyer is on duty. Then you and Thompson can go retrieve Wolverine’s new weapons. They are in the sterile room.”
The room became a flurry of activity then as the three prepared for what Logan knew would be an agonizing day. The thing that made it all the more unbearable was the fact that the doctors didn’t seem to believe in anesthetics. That meant Logan felt every second of intense pain that their little experiments created.
Logan knew better than to fight Jacobs as he stuck the gag in his mouth. The last time he had fought, Logan had ended up submerged in a tank of water with no available air supply. His mutation had kept him from drowning as the water invaded his lungs, but that hadn’t made it any less painful.
“Before inserting the adamantium grafts to subject Wolverine’s arms, the claw mechanisms will be inserted in his forearms,” Montgomery said to the hidden camera that recorded every session. “Each mechanism contains three laser cut adamantium blades that measure nine inches long a piece. These mechanisms have been designed to take the place of his radius and ulna. The blades that are being encased-- the ‘claws’ --will extend from between subject Wolverine’s knuckles after being activated by neurological messages sent from the brain to nerves in his arms....”
Montgomery’s words droned off as he began making the incision in Logan’s right forearm. He may have said something else, but Logan paid him no mind as he attempted to scream past the gag in his mouth. He screwed his eyes shut, his back arching as much as it was able considering there were restraints across his waist and his chest.
The sound of the bone saw sounded incredibly loud to Logan’s heightened senses. Of course, it was nothing compared to the feeling of that same saw slicing through the bones of his forearm. It didn’t help matters much when Montgomery’s hand slipped a little and he accidentally knicked some surrounding muscle.
The last rational thought Logan had before the pain became too great was that he hoped Dwyer didn’t hurt Marie too much. It was an odd thought in his present circumstance, but Logan had become rather protective of his tiny guardian.
The scent of his own blood was soon all that Logan could smell. It was thick and oppressive and only added to Logan’s suffering.
“LOGAN!!”
At the sound of his tiny guardian’s voice, Logan cracked his eyes open. There was a fluttering of motion in the corner of his left eye and the new scent in the room confirmed what he believed.
Marie was there.
Logan could just make out the sight of her small form struggling against Dwyer’s larger one. There were tears on her face. She was crying for him just like she always did.
“Gawd, Logan....” she moaned, her tears becoming so great that she fell limp in Dwyer’s arms. At least Logan assumed that was what had happened. Before his fuzzy mind could comprehend what was happening, she was moving towards him in a flurry of motion.