2014.01.07 - Wolverine Meets Squirrel Girl

Central Park. Dusk. Usually this time is rather bustling, as the world changes shifts. The night dwellers, both human and creature, begin stretching their arms and looking up to their reflective heavenly body, the moon, as it begins emerging from the shadow of The Sun. Those that have trudged through their well lit routines have begun their plans and schemes for rest and/or relaxation. In the distance, the roars of car horns and trucks can be heard here, even, as rush hour and it's usual chaos are in effect. Even the park gets hit with this effect, as people take their shortcuts amongst the trees and pathways. One particular nook, however, behind a remote overhead bridge, is ignored. And this is a lucky thing, because it's here where something entirely nasty lurks.

Doreen Green and her inscrutable pet squirrel Tippy-Toe are mere paces away from this spot, in fact. They've been expecting this encounter for the last few days, ever since they discovered that a multitude of Subterranean beasts were frolicking around New York City, she wanted to make sure that every last one got rounded up. Despite her attempts to warn SHIELD, Doreen was all but ignored. It might've been her wording, however: "The squirrels told me there were still some creatures loose!" Doreen, ever prideful, still hasn't accepted how easily her powers were dismissed. Yet another reason she was here. As she stepped closer, a snarling sound could be heard rustling through some fallen leaves. Quite a few leaves were around, in fact... carryovers from the Fall, all gathered in this nook, dirty and piled. She wasn't sure if she'd been detected or not.

Logan had been up early. Being a part-timer with S.H.I.E.L.D. gave him special privileges. Thanks to past service Logan still maintained some of his clearances. The most classified of documents were off bounds unless he asked for something by request. He still had the ability to pull up files on nearly anyone at his disposal.

Years with the X-men taught him never to overlook people and things others have passed over. Doug Ramsey was an example on this. On paper the mutant came off as a tour company's dream and nothing more. A man that was able to explain any tour in any language thanks to his gift wasn't exactly the mutant you wanted to send off in battle. Yet time and time again Doug has proven himself to be an X-man a lot more than others that could have moved buildings. Sometimes people of power or privilege turned out to be the biggest disappointments. Erik Lensharr was one of them. All of that power and he just wanted to be a sad little king on a sad little hill.

Another resource was having the opportunity to look over the rejected files. These were usually cases thrown out and deemed not a big enough threat, but sometimes, just sometimes people contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. And these moments had their own reject pile. When he looked over a report on Doreen Green, a small time vigilante that went by the name Squirrel Girl, Logan scowled.

The association with Karolina Dean should have sent off a red flag. Even if Doreen's sources were squirrels S.H.I.E.L.D. should have sent some low-level buffoon just on the off chance she was telling the truth. The world was one filled with aliens, mutants and metas, was it so hard to believe there could have been a real life Squirrel Whisperer? Stranger has happened.

Why Logan had been up early was to investigate Central Park. Dressed in the brown and black costume, his guilt still made him feel unworthy of the X-men colors, he scoured Central Park. The few people about gave him odd looks. New York was a strange place but seeing a guy dart about in a heroic costume during commute hours was just outright weird. Still no one said anything. The looks Logan gave them hushed any comment or protest before they began.

Sniff. Sniff. The smell of the outdoors and nuts went into his nostrils. Running toward the source he was a little shocked to see a woman with a Squirrel tail. His looked the girl up and down, "You Doreen?" For a girl with a tail, she was cute in the girl next door sort of way. He had no clue what lurked nearby them.

Doreen moved with the most carefulest of footfalls, trying to step around each and every dried, crackly, mangled leaf strewn across the concrete. She didn't know what exactly she'd been tracking here, and still wanted to maintain the element of surprise. Tippy-Toe, an adorable little creature donning a shiny, pink bow, nervously clung tightly to her shoulder. Even without Doreen's squirrel smell, as she got closer, she could smell the rank emanations coming from under the bridgeway here. It smelled like death, and feces.

Another step forward, and the slightest breeze pushed one of the loose leaves directly under Doreen's foot just as it stepped down. *crack*. She stopped, hoping she didn't blow it. Then she heard the quiet movements of someone... was it from behind her? The sound of something within the dimly lit bridge underpass began to respond to the subtle noises, and an almost slithery sound quietly rustled, making a sound which could described as a strange mix between a hiss and a growl.

It was at this exact moment that she heard her name uttered by Logan, and she looked behind her and caught his gaze. Not having a chance for conversation, Doreen only thought of the imminent threat she'd been tracking. "Get back!!" she shouted, the alarm in her voice reaching a sonic pitch. In one swooshing leap directly upwards, Doreen jumped up and latched onto a large tree branch directly overhead.

What tore out of the area was only about the size of a large dog, but it looked like nothing Doreen had ever seen: a dark greenish, scaly, four-legged beast, with teeth the size of a bear trap. Giant, yellow, glowing eyes that looked almost demonic sat on it's misshapen, bumpy head, and intuition told Doreen that whatever this thing was, it probably could move pretty fast. It locked it's gaze onto Logan and sniffed at him. Tippy-Toe shook in terror as Doreen stayed perfectly still, unsure if she should strike now or not.

Seeing the little demon creature ride atop of a green scaly hound from hell shocked Logan, but didn't faze him. He sniffed a few times to get the thing's scent. The X-men had scene worse looking than that, worse smelling too but not by much. Dashing toward the beast two "Shnkts!" cut through the air and six claws protruded from Logan's hand, three on each hand between all of his fingers.

"Let's go bub!" he cried out and leaped at the creature baring all claws. Midleap he cried out, "Ya just gonna sit there n' look cute or what?" The smell of nuts and the outdoors lingered underneath the beast's putrid aroma. He figured the Squirrel Whispering came with Squirrel like reflexes and maybe flight that would have put Rocky to shame. Someone from S.H.I.E.L.D. was going to get hell for this. The organization was there to help -stop- these threats not disregard them. Oh well, this meant more fighting for Logan. Sometimes you had to look on the bright side of things.

Doreen only knew scarce information on mutant groups, and certainly didn't know who it was facing down this monster. But she somehow instantly knew that he was more-than-human, even before the claws emerged. She didn't have much time to think about it, of course, but noted how animalistic he was in his movement... like a wolf, or a lion. Doreen realized she'd been perched on this tree branch for a full ten seconds now, merely watching Logan's initial strike. The thought occurred to her that gawking here was almost cowardly, and she wouldn't stand for that.

Planting her faithful squirrel companion on the tree in a swift arm movement, Doreen dove claws first at the monstrous beast below, driving her claws into it's back, her feet landing on it soon after. The beast made a low-toned squeal sound and twitched in response to the combined assault. From above, Tippy-Toe began to relentlessly squawk and shriek in a way that squirrels almost never do. Doreen looked up to see what was wrong, which was unfortunately the wrong way to look. From under the bridge, another beast came barreling out, this one twice the size of the first. Dried blood coated it's legs and head, it smelled absolutely rank.

"Wolverine. S.H.I.E.L.D. sent me," Logan replied to her. His attention was ripped away from the girl toward the snarling beast. The lovely thing about mindless creatures was their methods. They always preferred the head on attack and Logan was happy to give them that. Sprinting toward the creatures he growled and snarled in defiance. All he wanted was to see an exposed chest or belly, something that would have made a nice target for six adamantium claws.

Beasts often lunged or tried to pin down an opposing creature. Flesh was going to be rendered off of his body, along with the costume, but it didn't matter. Flesh healed quickly, a costume was easily replaced. When Logan saw his opportunity he screamed and stabbed the creature with both hands. Parts of Logan's inner animal reveled in the savagery of fights like this. Every part of him was able to cut loose without regret.

Maybe he would have thanked S.H.I.E.L.D. after all. It wasn't every day he was able to let the animal out. If they gave him a nice Cuban cigar he would have called this "No foul, no harm," because a good fight was a good fight.

Doreen's claws sunk deeper into the back of the creature, it's thick, red blood resembled the consistency of gelatin. The beast responded to the threat directly in front of him (the man with the claws), and it dipped momentarily, pushing it's weight forward with an impressive strength. Yes, this was a lunge, and Doreen was along for the ride, like some screwed-up rodeo. Despite wanting to understand what was going on with Tippy-Toe's calls, all this movement required Doreen's attention. She looked back to her 'host', and took several more rapid swipes at it's back with her claws, trying to inflict as much damage as she could.

The second, larger beast had already reached the scene, however, and took a bite at Doreen, latching onto her foot. She shrieked, but stayed clung to the other creature's back.

Seeing that the two beast were close and Logan's claws had hilted himself in one creature. A quick move with his left hand freed three claws from the smaller one and he stabbed the big one in the closest leg. Letting out a noise Doreen would have felt her foot freed for a split second. As an added bonus Logan slowed own the big beasts movement with the injured leg.

Breathing out hard for a second Logan ran his right hand downward a little more just to open up the smaller beast further. It wasn't enough to kill the thing. If he killed it right then Doreen may have been easy prey for the bigger one. The pain was bound to slow the big one now too.

Removing his right hand Logan went after the big one. Doreen was able to see flesh of Logan's that had been cut and bleeding was healing itself right then and there. "You got the little one!" he said and lunged at the big one. Trying to mimic Doreen Logan went for a downward strike except the big one had seen his jump. The big beast moved out of the way then lunged at Logan.

Being pinned down by the beast wasn't so bad if you ignored the razor sharp teeth that snapped at you. All of the drool that poured on you and the giant claws that flexed into your shoulders. Blood poured from Wolverine's wounds but he smiled. Logan's hands started to stab furiously into the creature. Dogs and wolves had organs in similar places due to common ancestry. This big demon beast probably fell to the same problems. He knew where a wolve's vital organs were. So each stab Logan made was precise. Howling the larger hound didn't expect an easy kill to be so hard. It tried to bite Logan's head but a quick stab to the jaw stopped it. "How ya doin' Doreen?!" he cried out hoping she was faring better than him.

Doreen twisted herself and looked behind her, her eyes locking in a direct stare down with this newly arrived, large monster. It's horrible, angry eyes read her as a snack, as it tried to shift it's jaw without letting go of her. Doreen was actually was surprisingly lucky in that her foot had found itself inside the creature's mouth avoiding almost all it's teeth, save for one large one, which kept her locked in its grasp. The searing pain was obvious on Doreen's expression, and she loathed being trapped in this way. But with Logan's strike, it released her, and she recoiled her foot to safety in a split-second. In the distance, from many different directions, the scrambled sounds of forest movement could be heard. It was quiet yet at the same time frantic.

Doreen, having become accustomed to hearing noises, especially in places like that, detected all the noise, but in this moment of pained desperation felt a sense of panic. Were there a whole *pack* of these creatures? How could she have been so stupid to do this alone? She looked back to her sudden partner in this Park brawl, noticing his healing. Doreen, too, had a healing ability, but it wasn't even a *tenth* as fast as this. Despite the intensity of the sudden onslaught, she felt a sense of comfort in his presence. Landing back on her feet, one of them slightly hobbled, she turned to face the smaller creature, it's goopy blood flopping from numerous holes. It snarled at her and prepared an attack. "Hanging in there!" she said, trying to project a confidence. She readied her claws, but noticed from behind the creature there was a flurry--nay, a torrent, of dozens--perhaps as many as forty or fifty squirrels swarming towards the creature like a sea of rodents. They were coming to her defense!

Hearing that Doreen was mostly safe, but a bit shaken, was good enough for Logan. Seeing the wounds that the poured and gushed the blood that felt more like rotting maple syrup he sheathed three claws. Pushing his hand into one of the wounds Logan just began to grab and pull. Any organ he could have grabbed he began to expose to the morning winter air.

The large beast howled in pain. It tried pulling away from Logan who slashed at tendon in the already injured leg, "We're not done!" A putrid aroma filled the air as Logan kept working. All of the other noise was lost on him until it became fury of sound. His blue eyes gazed out toward the sea of squirrels building speed and numbers. "What?!" he cried out in disbelief. Seeing a squirrel army was a new thing for him. "WAS THIS YOUR DOING?!" he cried out to Doreen unsure what to make of this trick. Suddenly squirrels became very intimidating. Hopefully none of them were related to any he killed in the name of a night's meal.

Doreen had been in this sort of situation before wherein an unsuspecting enemy was paying attention to her, and not the oncoming wave of squirrels. She took her role as the bait, the distraction, and let out a series of "Hya!" and "Ha!" karate-like yipes, displaying her claws in a bunch of wild but threatening swipes, trying to catch the gaze of the creature. Her tactic worked for the few requisite seconds necessary for delay, and within a matter of five or six seconds, it's entire body was covered in squirrels, each squirrel driving it's claws and teeth into the beast with an almost comical fury. The creature erupted into a hooting and wailing, thrashing itself aimlessly. Even as it swiped it's clawed foot, the squirrels merely moved out of it's way, the creature slashing its own side, a massive gush of blood pouring out of it's own desperate maneuver. Within the next 30 seconds, it'd fallen to the ground limply. Not dead, but helpless.

"Oh. My. God!" Doreen said, watching her little friends tear the creature apart, protecting her without her even asking. So pro-active! She thought, a bit stunned by all the blood and violence. She turned back to look at Logan, and was happy to see he wasn't eaten. She laughed, suddenly--both out of nervousness, and a sense of pride in someone noticing her powers in action. "Sure is," she beamed, her smug smile juxtaposed by the bloody gash of her chewed foot. She shuffled with a slight limp towards Logan, to see if she could help finish the beast off. The assembly of squirrels behind her had climbed on the wounded monster's body, every single one with it's head perked up alertly. Watching.

The giant beast tried to get away from the entire area when the squirrels swarmed its friend. Unfortunately for the beast Logan kept a firm grip. Pulling out more organs and slashing at the big one as squirrels bit and clawed the small worked caused more howls to fill the air. As the squirrel army and their human general watched the beast eventually fell in a dead head. Logan had rolled out of the way before being crushed by the big one's dead weight. Thick blood pooled by the corpse. Logan's mask had stayed intact; bits of the chest and stomach were clawed away. The pieces that stayed were stained with monster blood. Parts of the leg were stained blood and grass stains.

Seeing Doreen's injured foot Logan cut off a clean part of the leg from his costume then kneeled in front of her. "Gonna bind this up, don't move. You may need to lay down," he tied up what he could then waited for her to lie down. When she did he resumed the binding then offered to help her up. "Gonna need to stay off it for a while," he hadn't noticed Doreen's own augmented healing.

"More creatures from Subterranea, I'm pretty sure," Doreen started, as Logan worked on her injured foot. She smiled at him with a wide-eyed friendliness, even if he hadn't noticed her doing it, and declared: "I've been tracking them." She felt the first tingles of her own healing factor beginning to kick in. An injury like this would probably take a good night's rest to completely heal, she estimated, but at least she could move around. Sensing the threat gone, most of the squirrel army had already chirped their goodbyes and had receded back into the anonymity of the park. Tippy-Toe had, meanwhile, had returned to Doreen without even her detection, and had began ranting it's squirrel-chatter into her ear, suddenly. She turned to address her lil' friend: "It was you who called them over? Oh my gosh, thank you!" Doreen said, with a hint of both disbelief and glee. "How'd you find me? You're like... you're like a super-sized version of me," was the only thing Doreen could think to say to Logan. She at once felt stupid and shy, her cheeks blushing.

His blue eyes went up to her, "I ain't a super sized version of ya. You got the cute tail n' cheeks," he winked at her. "I ran with wolves fer a while. Learned how to track n' hunt like em', plus part of my mutation is animalistic darlin'. I've got the claws n' senses of an animal, mines just a Wolverine," he offered a shoulder in case she needed it to move around. "Besides I can't call wolverines to me or have one summon an army of them." Looking at Squirrel Girl Logan gave her a nod, "I want yer findings on the creatures. Every movement and not you've made in a report. I'll show my superiors so they can snuff these things out. If they don't lessen to me I'm shoving my claws up where the sun don't shine," a smile pulled at the corners of his lips, he wasn't joking either. "How long have ya been hunting them?"

"Just a few days, after a run-in at The Daily Planet," she answered back. "There's not much to tell: they like to hole up like this and pick off prey...think this one has been moving around the park. It's gotten at least a dozen squirrels... and I'm almost afraid to look at what it's been chewing on in there," she said with a subtle wince, pointing a finger towards the small, stone, bridge underpass behind them. "Mister Logan," Doreen started to say, but paused again. And with a sudden, almost overwhelming burst of emotional warmth, Doreen couldn't stop herself: she pulled forward and attempted to wrap her arms around Logan in a hug, accompanied by an almost undetectable little squee. It was a rare day that she met a powerful hero, much less one that seemed so similar to herself. He risked his life to help her in danger, and most of all, he actually acknowledged her powers. "Thank you," she mumbled. Tippy-Toe covered it's eyes, feeling uncomfortable.

Holding Doreen close during the hug Logan enjoyed the closeness. The combination of her smell, cute looks and animal nature was appealing to him. When the hug eventually ended he heard what she said about everything. All the info was quite valuable. "Meal's on me," it was the least he could do for her. She was giving S.H.I.E.L.D. all of this intelligence they really dropped the ball on. Plus she wasn't old enough to drink, he gathered from her youthful loose (for better or worse) so offering a brew was out of the question. "You got talent. Unconventional talent but I've seen people rush into battle with less and do just as well. I've seen people with more do worse. It's just knowin' what ya got n' how ya use it. You can use it," a respectful nod was tossed Doreen's way.

After a moment passed, Doreen released her hold and looked back at him, her eyes wide and appreciative. "I think... there's probably more of them out there," she said, her expression disconnected from her words, "But at this point, I think we should start asking why they're coming up to the surface. I've never dealt with the Mole Man before, and there's not much info I could find in the library on him..." she said, knowing her research limits. It was obvious that Doreen truly cared about this situation.

New York City could sometimes be a rumor mill--one rumored to run at lightspeed, but in actuality is just close to the speed of an avid runner. But even that is quite fast, spreading happenings in the Central Park to the more outer regions of town within even a half hour's time, or less if you care to listen. Stuff as high profile as monsters even traveled even faster, but in many cases that is too slow to be the first to respond or even there before the action is over. Still, a rainbow-colored trail zoomed in over the park, as Julie Power in her Lightspeed persona made her appearance with it. She landed on the scene, feet first, hair flying freely. Touching the ground just about when the S.H.I.E.L.D. Cleanup Unit was entering the park she sighed, giving a slight smirk at the couple breaking their hug just that moment.

"Don't want to disturb the turtledoves... and I might have missed the action." Julie started, trying to get Logan and Doreen's attention. "The clean-up crew is incoming. You know, the guys with the suits that hand out 'do not sue' papers. And the flamethrower crew to burn the corpses," Okay, that was an exaggerated, sure but the cleanup crew always had the bad jobs -- and it was kind of their job. "Wolverine? You owe Energizer an autograph since, like, forever."

The idea of having a meal sounded just about right, and Doreen made a mental note that she still had at least an hour until her next class, Organic Chemistry, she thought wistfully. She didn't like all the math, but it was prerequisite. Tippy-Toe tucked itself into the fuzz of her shoulder, trying to calm down after the sudden battle. Hearing someone speak praise of Doreen, especially this Logan fellow, wasn't something she heard every day, and it was at once both delightful and surreal.

It was at that moment that she heard Lightspeed's words, and looked over. Stepping back, she took a responsible moment to eyeball the scene, just to *make sure* everything was safe, and saw her. The familiar-looking girl jogged a memory... she'd met this girl recently somewhere, here in the park. Not looking like this, however. "Heeey," she said with a perky friendliness, trying to suggest recognition even though in actuality she couldn't quite place the face. Was this a famous hero she'd read about, that she'd derped on remembering? It wasn't Super-Girl...at least she didn't think it was. No 'S'.

"This looks bad, huh?" she said, referencing the bloody scene around them. And with that, Doreen took a step towards the dimly lit bridge's underbelly, sliding along her wrapped foot with a slight limp. As little as she wanted to see the temporary dwellings and renderings of these two beasts, looking for clues or possible victims seemed like the right thing to do. As she shuffled closer, her night vision kicked in, her eyes emitting a subtle red, glowing hue. Doreen gave out a slightly shaken, small gasp. Strewn across the bridge's inner-edge was a half dozen remains of various animals: dogs, cats, squirrels, as well as random trash. She saw a child's doll, but no signs of human remains. For this she was relieved.

Logan saw the new face approach. They were given a nod. Fans was a concept that was just alien to him. His reputation attracted attention. Usually that attention came holding guns, knives, swords and not pens with pads of paper. So hearing that someone STILL wanted his autograph was a little strange, "Got a pen and paper?" They mentioned the S.H.I.E.L.D. clean up crew and he knew time was ticking.

Seeing Doreen ump back caused Logan's instincts to flare back up, "What is it darling?!" When she gave an indication toward where she looked he hurried. Seeing the various guts, remnants and other left overs from victims he hopped out of the place. "Yeah. Let's get ya some place safe," he looked at the other person, "You too." When Doreen's stomach came back Logan was going to buy them both a meal, but only then.

Lightspeed smirked at Logan's response, shaking her head. "It's been like a half a decade," Julie added, "But she still might want it." She looked back to Doreen. "'Darling?'" she snickered, quoting Logan. "You two are not dating are you? I'd like to grab a snack, if that's okay with you two.  This isn't a 'cup of coffee', is it?" Julie asked, making a veiled question as to weather this as an 'intimate moment' or not. She looked back to the edge of the tree-line to the approaching SHIELD agents, while tucking a thin holo-marked card into the top of her boot. "I hate paperwork," she noted.

Doreen turned back to Logan, and nodded with a mournful twitch. She had a different relationship with animals, of course, and seeing a pile of fallen squirrels meant something very personal for her. After a few seconds, she regained composure, and opened her eyes again. In the distant edges of her view, she could eyeball some dark-clothed government-looking dudes approach. From her last encounter with these people, she quickly surmised this must be more SHIELD. Logan gestured for them to make their departure.

"C'mon," Doreen said, looking over with a friendly half-smile to Julie, as she idly rubbed the top of Tippy-Toe's head. Doreen was slow to move with her injury, but followed Logan's lead. "Logan here just helped save my life," she said calmly, "But I just met him." After two more steps she finally, suddenly remembered where she'd met Julie--it was in the park, with her little sister! "So meeting you wasn't just a coincidence," Doreen declared to Julie.

Lightspeed smirked, shrugging as she stepped closer to lend a hand to her, observing leg injury. "Was it? No idea. Lightspeed, by the way. I guess you are Squirrel Girl? Just read the registry."

She was on a registry?! Of superheroes?! Doreen smiled at this, thinking about what the last two weeks have been like. After years of solo-ing it, her rigorous efforts were finally bringing her into the company of other superheroes. She made a mental note to research this name 'Lightspeed' later. Gazing onto the city street ahead, she considered which deli was close-by to grab some food. She only had about ten billion questions for Logan and the recent arrival, and began mentally preparing her interrogation--er, conversation with them.