Weapon X: Man or Animal

Chapter 20

It was an understatement to say that Victor was pissed off, in fact that would be the kind way of putting it. There was little holding him in place rather than simply lunging at the crippled fool and tearing him apart slowly and very painfully. And Victor knew by experience on how to drag things out so his victims would feel every bit of what’s happening to them until Victor decides enough was enough.

And right now, all he could picture was the room splashed with warm blood. But, he couldn’t let himself go. Why? The reason was most likely pacing and thrashing in his cage at the moment. That was the only thing keeping the foolish bags of flesh in this room alive. Especially after Mr. Cripple’s screw up.

“Victor…” Charles started; Victor noted his face was nearly expressionless as he fought to save face obviously.

“Explanation instead of a half assed apology, cause let’s face it. You fucked up, and I’m only an inch away from killin’ ya where you sit.” Victor snarled out, not even giving them a chance to let that sink in as he added,

“And believe me, Xavier. I’m very good at what I do. An’ unlike my brother. I enjoy it.” Victor let out a cruel sneer as that bit of information sunk in with the threat. Let their imagination fill in the rest, it always served Victor best when people did that. Just like threats sometimes work better than the act itself.

“Very well Victor, what I did was unforgivable. I admit that fully, it is farther in the grey area of my personal morals when it comes to someone’s mind as it was. But my intentions, despite how flawed they are, were good. I intended on finding the dominant personality in a sense that is in essence Logan. His memories were not my focus as much as getting Logan back under the control of himself rather than the mind-frame you in fact are dealing with now. Once in, I came face-to-face with different projections in a sense of different aspects of Logan. Each with a different standing in life, each with a different appearance and each with a different name. James Howlett, Patch. And finally least, but not last Weapon X who is in fact tied in with that animal part a feral mutant has to deal with. But it wasn’t always like that, Weapon X is a mutilated beaten down and more aggressive version of what it should have been.

Each projection had a different meaning; the most damaged of them all was in fact the boy. James Howlett who doubled as the innocence Logan used to have. An innocence that was damaged over time throughout every war and every killing he had to do. In a sense also beaten down by you Victor because of your need to have him embrace that animal. And so, little James is afraid of Weapon X. That animal. And it is that fear that has him fighting a battle he should not have had to fight in the first place, not alone anyway. Logan the veteran from the Civil wars. Probably the most stable the man has ever been in his life, he spoke and felt very fond of you Victor. Patch the veteran from World War One, not so stable anymore. But still man enough to survive in society. Still stable enough to contribute to that society if he so chooses. As shown in his days spent with you up North in mining.

Weapon X however, was the part of his mind that I found concerned me the most. Over time the rest of the damage through the wars and time could have scared over. But not now, not with Weapon X being a big contribution to who he is at the moment. It is Weapon X that pushed me out of the very old and very damaged mind… I did not find Logan the X-Man or who he was before he lost his memories altogether around twenty years ago. Give or take.” Charles explained, and Victor snarled for it.

If he understood half of what the talkative cripple said, it meant that Jimmy wasn’t found and that he couldn’t be fixed with mind tricks and tinkering. That left little to no other options. So then, why was Victor even bothering?

“I didn’t say there wasn’t any hope or any reason to give up on him. It’s all there, I wouldn’t have spoken with any projections or saw a memory on how the mutant name Wolverine came to exist otherwise. I’m simply saying is that he’s too damaged and too hurt right now to come out of the state, the mindset that he’s in.” Charles added, most likely sensing the doubt Victor was starting to have to deal with. Victor’s lip curled angrily.

“So you’re saying that not snapping out of his current mindset is a cry of help Professor.” Jean asked, Victor sneered at her aggressively. He didn’t like having people speak about what is his family business. Especially when it was done so openly as though they had a right to it.

“In a sense, yes.” Charles agreed, ignoring Victor’s sneer. Did they not understand that they had no right to speak of things so openly like this! Did they not know common sense?!

“Enough!” Victor snapped loudly, his claws lengthened and cutting deep gouges in his palm causing two pools of blood to start forming on either side of him. They had no right! None! Adding in a snarl,

“Stop yer talking ‘bout this like it’s a fucking school project.” With that Victor turned and headed towards the door with a lot of self-control, he so badly wanted to kill them and do worse to the frails of his choosing. He could practically taste their blood. So they had to cut him a break when he gave them a once in a lifetime gift of living, despite their screw ups. It would be the only time.

Lingering at the doors to the infirmary that were now open Victor looked over his shoulder at all four of them,

“If you ever make a mistake like this one again…” Victor broke off with a cruel grin and chuckle to go with it. All of it a dark promise of things worse then death happening to them before he mercifully granted them the gift of death. What fun they could have should that happen.

He didn’t bother tell them about the down mutant in the hallway bleeding to death. Instead, he allowed Charles to figure it out and send the metal boy, four eyes and the frail out to fetch him. Victor ignored all of them as he walked towards the room that had the two cages. Finding them both occupied with annoyance. His brother was still pacing the cage angrily in between slamming up against the bars in attempts to break them. Victor’s presence was the only thing that quieted things down.

Victor glowered towards the second cage, the one with the lowly clone sitting against a wall. Disgusting creature. Opening the door he stomped into it.

She was already standing and unsure of what Victor's plans were. Her claws were out, but Victor didn't give the little clone a chance to decide to use them. Yet. Instead, he caught her wrist in a tight hold and practically dragged her with him.

She only fought him half way towards the door. Apparently she had a change of hearts and didn't want to leave Weapon X behind. Or at least that's how it seemed. Victor snarled and growled loudly when he felt her claws slice into his flesh. His grip on her arm and the fact that he wasn't dealing with two angry feral weapons at once made things easier. Sort of.

She still fought him like a hellcat. It didn't work as he practically threw her out of the room and closed the doors behind her so she couldn't come back in even if she tried. Those doors were thicker than her claws. Even Jimmy's claws couldn't reach all the way through.

Victor heard murmured voices, someone talking to her and pulling her away. Good riddance.

Steeling himself he approached the cage his brother was held in. He was going to do this a different way, a way Weapon X would understand. Then, maybe just maybe he would be able to have a word or two with his brother.

Victor hated how badly he hoped for that, and he will let that hatred fuel him on.

~ Man ~ Weapon ~ Animal ~

Weapon X watched as the clawed man enter X-23's cage alone and literally dragged her out. No handler would do such a thing without proper restraints. This guy had a lot to learn. Instead, he did things by hand and literally fought with her to get her out of the room. She didn’t make it easy, and her small size probably caused him enough of a problem.

And the clawed man had the marks to prove that more often than not, X-23 sunk her own claws into him. And the man didn't look happy for it either, not that it helped in the end. X-23 still ended up out of this room. Weapon X wanted him dead. Maybe then things could go back to normal rather than how upside down things were at the moment.

He understood the torture the bald one put him through enough. It was to break him; it must have been to break him. Well Weapon X isn’t broken; he’s just as savage and deadly as before. He doesn’t obey easily; it’s not in his nature. He doesn’t want to, they have to make him obey and that was where most of the struggle and diversion from his situation came from. Somehow. Maybe.

Weapon X didn’t know and he didn’t care either.

Things were how they were. Why should he think about them? Thinking is for men and doctors and handlers. Not for animal weapons like himself. And that was what he was; it was what he always was. It was in his nature just as much as his lack of ability to be controlled complete. After all you couldn’t control a wolf completely, or a tiger and a bear. And his handlers still used them for things.

So Weapon X fell into that category.

The clawed man, who forced her to leave approached the cage and stood in front of it just outside his arm range. Weapon X knew he wouldn’t be able to reach him; the red line on the ground was as far as Weapon X could reach with his claws extended. Weapon X’s eyes narrowed and a throaty growl worked its way up. A challenge, but he gained no response to it. In fact, the clawed man just stood there staring at him for a good five minute’s. Looking for something.

Was he going to yell meaningless words?

Was he going to dirty himself again?

What was he going to do?

Weapon X watched him back, seeing a nearly familiar anger swell in the clawed man’s cold eyes. Only there was something more hurt and fierce in his anger compared to his normal handler’s anger and sadistic glee that was directed at Weapon X whenever something happened or whenever his handlers simply felt like it. Taking care of boredom at Weapon X’s expense. What managed to get this man so angry all of a sudden.

“Okay, Weapon X. We’ll do this your way fer once. But let me tell you this, you won’t win this scrap. Do you want to know why?” The clawed man spoke, coldly and confidently. Weapon X got the feeling that the man probably had reason to be confident. Weapon X couldn’t wait. Taking deep intakes of breath through his nose, he caught the scent of the man.

No fear. There was anger. There was hatred. Something else Weapon X couldn’t recognize as well as sadness.

“Don’t you even want to know why? Come on, Weapon X. I know ya got a voice. Use it. Ask me why? Come on. Ask. Me. Why.” The clawed man taunted, Weapon X snarled loudly. He was being told to speak, Weapon X doesn’t speak. He never spoke. But the clawed man gave an order, almost a robotic temptation pulled at him to obey. Weapon X growled angrily with an unforgiving sound.

Why. The clawed man wanted him to ask why. Why? Why? Why? Why what? Weapon X paced in his cage a couple of times before stopping and glaring angrily at the clawed man with a smirk showing off fangs of an animal. Weapon X bared his own teeth.

“No? Okay, then I’ll tell ya. It’s cause I’m the older one, I’m the alpha male and the one who’ll knock ya on that ass o’ yours.” The clawed man said, obviously not going to wait for Weapon X to say the words he didn’t want to, but was nearly compelled to say. Only moments away from trying to force those words out without much skill in using words like his handlers could.

What drew his attention though was that the man approached a panel and pulled it off the wall. Doing something, switching colorful wires and things all before forcing the panel back onto the wall. Was he even allowed to do that? Weapon X never saw his handlers do that before. The next thing that happened was that the cage doors slammed open.

Freedom, but it was at a cost. He was still trapped with his current clawed handler whose claws were now lengthening into sharper looking weapons.

Weapon X grinned savagely as he stepped out of the cage. He understood now, the handler wanted a fight. Well, he had one coming and Weapon X was going to leave nothing more than a bloody smear. The clawed man let out a grin of his own, all teeth and savageness. It was good enough to match Weapon X’s own savage grin. Where did the doctors and directors find this guy? Maybe they did something right for once.

Weapon X let out a roar, matched by the clawed man’s own roar. The room wasn’t that big, but it was enough for them to have some room to lunge with room to recoil and defend yourself. Not that Weapon X knew how to do that, he just kept going forward. There was only going forward, not stopping, not resting and no mercy whatsoever. That was all he could do. Keep going forward.

So that was what Weapon X did. And apparently that’s what the clawed man did as well.