Ch. 19 His Daughter

Ch. 19 His Daughter

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= While they've been talking, the stuff he's unloading has changed. Instead of photographic equipment, he's now pulling out tools - - a pry bar, a small ax, a set of chisels and punches, bolt and wire cutters.

Malcolm, having realised what this is for steps forward with a held out hand. "We're only going to find Dr. Harding, then we leave immediately. You won't need all that."

"Oh, I think I might." Nick scoffs.

"I do think he will as well." Madison pipes in, picking up one of Nick's cameras and aiming it at her male companion. "Can I?" She asks Nick.

"Yea, sure." Nick nods in agreement and Madison turns to Ian who was watching her skeptically.

"Make a funny face- oh wait, that's your typical look again." Madison utters, preparing to take a selfie as she pretends to do a funny face. Scrunching up her face while smiling widely. Hearing it click, she pulls away despite the feeling of a hand slipping off of her lower back. Then in response a piece of tiny white picture emerges from the very top.

"Shake it." Ian tells her while Madison tore it. Glaring at the man.

"I do know that ya know." She raises a brow. Ian shrugs behind her in response.

Just then, from the ceiling, a large metal cage crashes down, landing on the floor right between them with a deafening clang. The group had to leap backwards and look up. Another worker waves from a scaffolding.

"Sorry, Eddie! Specs say it can't deform at 12,000 PSI, we had to test it!" Eddie bends down to inspect the cage, which is rectangular, constricted of inch-thick titanium-alloy bars.

"What the hell is that?" Malcolm asks from where he stood beside Madison with a hand that had flown over and gripped the females left sleeve.

"A high hide. This care goes up on top of a fifteen foot titanium scaffold. Keeps the researchers out of harm's way." Eddie answers.

"Fifteen feet?" Madison tilts her head with raised eyebrows before she turns to face the object. "Actually, it puts them at a very convenient biting height."

Eddie then examines the cage quickly. "This aluminum's too shiny. We should paint it matte black." He tells a worker standing behind him. "And Bobby, I said I wanted camera mounts in the corners of the cage too, not just on the scaffolding."

"More cameras?"

"Oh yeah." Eddie stands up and gestures to a tall scaffold that's nearby. On it, workers are attaching long, dangling wires to four strategically placed camera mounts.

The same man cont'd's, "The remote heads are automatic pivoters with heat sensors that are active twenty-four hours a day."

While as they talk, one of the already-installed cameras on the high hide whirs to life, picking them up as they walk past. The camera follows them as they go, displaying their image on a video monitor near the base of the scaffolding.

Eddie goes on to say "The data gets multiplexed and we'll uplink it back to New York at the end of every day. It's a great system, just a little buggy at the moment."

He reaches out and reframes the camera, which has pivoted off of them and is now shooting a fluorescent light above them.

Tony approaches the group as he checks his watch. "Our charter leaves in three hours. If it isn't ready, leave it behind. Now, I want to talk to whoever's in charge of security."

Eddie just looks at him. "You know, weapons. Guns. Who's doing that?" Madison gains his attention by speaking.

"you're talking to him." Eddie points to himself.

"You're kidding." Malcolm peeps into the conversation, staring with a dead panned look.

"Kidding?" Eddie tilts his head.

"Hey, when was Tony supposed to join us?" Ian asks his female companion.

"I just found out ten minutes ago so don't ask me." Madison answers. Shrugging in answer.

Eddie smacks a metal case down on a workbench and flips a couple latches. He opens it, revealing a heavy silver rifle, an aluminum canister hanging beneath the barrel.

He cracks open the cartridge bank, revealing a row of plastic containers filled with straw-colored liquid. Each is tipped with a three inch needle and carries a bright yellow warning tag "EXTREME DANGER! LETHAL TOXICITY!"

Eddie sighs, "I loaded the enhanced venom of Conus purpurascens, the South Sea cone shell. Most powerful neurotoxin in the world." He says. Turning to the group as he began explaining.

"Acts within a two-thousandth of a second. Faster than the nerve-conduction velocity. The animal's down before it feels the prick of the dart."

"Yea... definitely point that away from me, unless you want a giant dinosaur chase you." Madison ducks when the man turns to her and the nib of the gun moves to aim to her. She then quickly moves to hide behind her friend. "Use my tall friend here as a target practice instead."

"I won't be a target practi-"

"He is, better him then me." Madison utters in a hushed tone towards Eddie, Tony was just watching it all with amusement.

"I feel offended." Malcolm speaks, shaking his head and eyeing the gun next. "Is there an antidote?"

"Like if you shoot yourself in the foot? Wouldn't matter. You'd be dead before you realized you'd had an accident." Eddie shakes his head.

"I've already been shot with something like that, wasn't nice." Madison shivers, shrinking into her clothes to which the group of men chortles. A gasp lifting out of someone's mouth behind her.

"Wicked cool."

The group spins at the new voice, Madison almost tripping up until the taller male grabs the fabric of her jacket. Making she was okay. Now, an African-American girl around twelve years old, stands behind them, impressed by all the goings-on.

"Hi, Dad!" The girl waves and Madison falls back when Ian drops his hold on her and walks over.

"Kelly! What took you so long?" He laughs, greeting the kid as he hugs her tightly.

"Sor-ee. Couldn't get a cab." Kelly rubs the back of her neck with a strained chuckle.

"I have to talk to you." Malcolm points to the girl who looks at him, suspicious, reading his face.

"You're going away. Again."

"Blueberries?" Madison hums, turning from the book in her hands and finds the one and only billionaire holding out an opened packet of blueberries towards the girl. She smiles and takes some.

"Thanks, you think that's the best outfit for this?" She eyes his suit. It was one you'd wear to a business meeting or something.

"Nah but I'll change on the way there." He replies, shaking his head while the purple and pink headed woman plops a blueberry into her mouth. "Spoke to Dr Grant yet?"

"He is busy with his excavation site, said he'll be a month busy." Madison answers, hopping up to sit on a desk while kicking her legs back and forth.

"Could always visit them, even if they are busy." Tony remarks.

"SHIELD has been booking all my free slots so I couldn't and this time, they don't even know I'm going." Madison expresses, throwing her back backwards before she grunts and grasps at her back. Confusing the male.

"Pull your shirt up." Tony orders her. Only making Madison's cheeks flare up in shock at his words.

"I ain't becoming one of your one-night stands bitch." Madison avers. Watching the billionaire roll his eyes as he walks over. Placing the bag of blueberries on the desk.

"Let me check, you're obviously injured Maddy." Tony informs, grasping at the bottom of her obviously baggy dark purple top. His eyes search for confirmation to which he receives in a nod. "I need words Madison."

"Fine yes, you can do it Jesus." Madison tells him and the billionaire hulls the top up to the bottom of the girls purple bra she then used her own hands to keep it there while Tony views the sets of bandages.

"How on earth?" Tony asks.

"SHIELD invaded a possible terrorist warehouse and one of the weapons fired at me, hitting directly in my chest here." Madison explains, freeing one hand to point in between her breasts. "Then, the radiation caused by it has somehow to my knowledge extended my mutant abilities capabilities but at the same time caused scars to form."

"Can I uh- can I see?" Tony was awkward about this whole thing and Madison could tell.

She allows him, despite having the feeling of a pair of eyes boring into her skull.

END OF CHAPTER NINETEEN