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Rated M for Mature
Appropriate for readers 18 and over. May contain extreme violence, sexual themes, nudity, or profanity.
Note- This series takes place after the events of Project X: The Birth of Wolverine.
Marvel Genesis: Wolverine, Chapter 30- The Rising Dead, Part 6
Year- 2005 A.D.
Location- Rome, Italy.
It has been a long search for the mutant thief, Vanisher. He must have been teleported somewhere in the city of Rome. The night was dark and quiet, yet nobody came walkin’ by the street, holdin’ each other hands or talkin’ to one another. I may not like the quietness here, but somethin’ tells me that Vanisher has already been turned into a zombie.
There were cars nearby the subway station. Two people, one man and a woman came upstairs, laughin’ at each other and then they kissed. Elixir saw the scene and smiled. As the couple left, I looked at him, wonderin’ if he had any girl in his life. Not that I would want to interfere his personal life. He may have one, which the file report didn’t even say. Anyway, the kid and I split up to find Vanisher. The rest of the team had their communication devices, so that we could talk to each other, regardin’ the status of Telford Porter. His last name sounded funny in a way that he had the ability to teleport from one place to another. He probably should have called himself the Teleporter rather than Vanisher. I guess the codename didn’t much matter to him. The only thing matter is what he does best, stealin’ lotta goods from different countries.
Elixir and I went to the subway station, down the stairs and then stopped. We looked around to see if Vanisher had teleported himself to this place. It seems to me that Telford wanted to stay away from us. There’s no tellin’ that he could still be infected or became a zombie and spread the disease by bitin’ and eatin’ the human flesh. He was a mutant and it didn’t matter. We have to stop him before the hunger strikes him. Elixir told me that, durin’ the healin’ process, he managed to sustain the zombie infection from spreadin’ throughout his body. I already told him, the amount of infection did happen, when I noticed it back in the coliseum. He didn’t say anythin’ about that. But the kid had guts and sure would do anythin’ to try another healin’ process on Telford.
“Logan,” the golden kid said. “If he becomes one of them, we’ll have to...”
“I know what you mean, kid,” I interfered. I didn’t know what to say about the former thief’s current condition. There wouldn’t be a choice but to kill him. Even though, the Ring Imperial is already contained inside the Crimson Stone, there’s a chance that the zombie infection can still occur in Vanisher’s system. I took out the magic object and saw it was kinda glowin’ red. It sure tells us that the zombie infection is nearby, which is how we came to know that the Vanisher could hide himself in the subway station. But there was another theory about all this. Maybe, the Ring Imperial wasn’t meant to detect the zombie infection. It only controls the zombies. Besides, I ain’t the one, who is controllin’ him now unlike that b!tch, Selene. I wonder what happened to her. She may have gone to her hidin’ place, who knows where. Right now, we have to focus in findin’ Telford. We had to take chances that he could be anywhere else in Rome. Due to his condition, there was no way; he would able to concentrate on teleporting himself to another country. The implanted device on the base of his neck must have prevented him to do so. But it didn’t make sense, why or how Telford was able to teleport, since the device got malfunctioned somehow, which is what I thought before. We’ll have to find out for sure, once we get back to D.A.G.G.E.R.
Elixir knelt down on the floor and discovered blood. I also knelt down and smelled the blood. It was him, all right. There wasn’t any reason why he would come here. He only wanted to prevent his hunger for flesh. He could have killed himself easily. But I doubt he would do such a thing or that he wanted to live.
Elixir came to the tracks of the subway train. We looked at the dark tunnel. Maybe, Telford had vanished inside there. A sound just rang from one of our communication devices. I pressed a small button, answerin’ it.
“Yea,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Did you find him?” Domino said on the other line of the speaker.
“Yea,” I answered. “He’s in the subway station. We just came here and saw his blood.”
“We’ll be coming there,” Domino said.
“No, Domino,” I said. “You guys just keep cleanin’ the dead mess. Make sure there’s nothin’ strange happenin’ around. We’ll deal with Telford.”
“Are you sure?” Domino asked.
“Yea, I’m sure,” I said. “Over and out.” I turned the communication device off, walked into the dark tunnel, and switched the torchlight on. I looked back at Elixir, wonderin’ why he wasn’t followin’ me.
“Hey kid,” I said. “Are you comin’ or what?”
Elixir nodded, switched the torchlight on, followin’ me, yet he didn’t say any words. He must be scared of the fact that Telford has already succumbed to his own darkness. I can see that he tried to save Telford the last time. His powers were too great and valuable for the team, which is exactly why Nick Fury hired him in the first place. He held his hands, tightly, probably wonderin’ if he can help Vanisher the second time.
“I don’t know about this,” Elixir said, while walkin’ through the dark tunnel. It sounds like he wasn’t confidant at all. He tried to heal Telford’s injury. It may have taken time, but I’ll have to give the kid, some credit.
At this point, there wasn’t any train that would travel through here. Unless, there is any sound, then we have to be careful about it. A lot of people travel inside the subway station these days, whether there were tourists, businessmen, hard workers, or a family. Rome is a place where anybody could visit. This is the first time; I’ve ever visited the ancient city.
“So, kid,” I said as I looked through the dark tunnel, hopin’ that the teleportin’ mutant come outta his hidin’ place. “I heard you joined the X-Men before. What made you leave?”
Elixir didn’t seem to listen to me. He only looked over the dark tunnel, also hopin’ he could find Vanisher. Sometimes, I wonder if kids would ever listen to their parents.
“I quit,” Elixir finally answered. “That place wasn’t for me.” He was referrin’ to the X-Mansion.
“I see,” I said. “Why did you quit?”
Elixir was still quiet. It must be that he’s hidin’ some things from me, which he wouldn’t like to share. I didn’t mind about sharin’ personal secrets. The file reports didn’t say anythin’ why he left the X-Men. Maybe, Nick Fury knows about it.
“You don’t want to know,” Elixir said. He continued walkin’ forwards through the darkness. I followed him, makin’ sure that he didn’t fell off from his tracks. I felt sorry for him, when he accidentally killed a man in his childhood days. He only tried to heal him. His foster parents did a wrong thing to him, castin’ their son out, thinkin’ that he was the son of a devil or the devil himself.
“Logan!” Elixir cried out, somewhere in the darkness. I pointed the torchlight towards the darkness. “Come here. Quick! I think I’ve found him.” I ran towards the kid and saw Vanisher who was holdin’ his gun, pointin’ towards the side of his head.
“Vanisher,” I said. “Drop that gun. Now.”
The former thief didn’t listen to me. His tears came off from his eyes. He knew that he was gonna become one of those dead things. He actually wanted to blow his head off, so that he couldn’t come back as a flesh-eatin’ zombie. We came to him but the Vanisher stepped away, a few inches back.
“Stay back!” Vanisher cried out. “Please.”
“Look, Telford,” I said. “Joshua can help you. He can heal you. Just listen...Okay? Everythin’ is gonna be alright.”
“No...” Telford said. “Nothing is going to be...right. I...couldn’t teleport.”
“What?” I said. “But you did teleport yourself, Domino and me, back at the coliseum.”
“I can’t do it...again, Logan,” Telford said. “Something’s...wrong here. I think it’s...the device.”
Maybe, he’s right. It could be the implanted device, which prevented him from usin’ his powers. He wanted to get far away as possible. But for some reason, he can’t. There’s a reason for it. The device could have been malfunctioned or someone is preventin’ him to escape, which I highly doubt it.
“Telford...” I continued. “Everythin’ will be fine. Just stay where you are. Don’t shoot. You can’t do this to yourself.”
“Do you...realize that I don’t have...freedom?” Telford said. “I never wanted... this.”
“Look, I know where you’re comin’ from,” I said. “But you gotta understand that we’re doin’ this mission for the better good. Don’t you see, that b!tch almost killed us? She raised an entire army of the dead. Would you allow it to happen if you weren’t to come with us?”
Telford was quiet and seemed to understand of what I’ve said. But there’s no tellin’ of what he might do next. I can’t just jump on him and slash him into pieces like the zombies. I had to stop Telford from killin’ himself.
All of a sudden, the golden kid rushed towards him. I shouted at the kid to stop. But he didn’t listen to me. I ran, followin’ him. Telford pointed his gun towards me and shot my head. I fell down on the ground, findin’ myself in another place of darkness.
A few minutes later, I woke up, got off from the ground and saw Elixir lyin’ beside Vanisher’s body. I looked at my hand, still holdin' the Crimson Stone. The good thing is that the magical object didn't break. I came over to the kid and noticed that he cried. He must have failed to save the former thief.
“What...happened?” I asked.
“He’s dead, Logan,” Elixir said. “I...I tried to heal him. I held his arm and...He tried to stay away from me. I wanted to heal him. I wanted...”
“That’s enough, kid,” I said, touchin’ his shoulder. “It’s okay. It ain’t your fault.”
Elixir stopped cryin’ for a while and got up, stood away from me and the dead Vanisher. I looked at him, wonderin’ if he’s gonna come back alive. There might be a chance and we didn’t want another zombie infection. I closed my eyes, thinkin’ if this was gonna be the right thing to do. Then I opened my eyes and looked at the dead Vanisher again.
“Goodbye, Telford,” I said.
SNIKT!
To be continued in Marvel Genesis: Wolverine, Chapter 31- Regret.
The Vanisher is dead. What will happen in the next chapter of Wolverine? You’ll find out soon enough. The past is the past and ya had to live with it. SNIKT!
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