The four heroes walked inside the helicarrier and got into a long corridor. Logan was, as always, looking around and examining the place: scientists and agents were passing beside him both from behind and and front, some carrying data pads, others talking to each other. After a bit of walking, the group arrived in front of a glass door that opened on its own, letting them enter a great hall filled with people, desks, advanced computers, all of this on beyond the rails that were delimiting the wide platform they were on, which had a huge round table with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on it. Logan caught Natasha glancing back at them and then turning around and keeping walking.

He looked around at the huge amount of working people and saw amongst them a woman dressed in a navy uniform that sported her brown hair tied in a bun, with a few strands framing her face. He recognized her smell as one of the agents that were looking for him. She was saying something to Fury about them being level, but Logan didn't really pay too much attention until Fury said

Fury: "Good! Let's vanish."

The woman gave another order to the agents and Logan, looking towards the glass, noticed that the helicarrier was becoming invisible. He raised his eyebrow, impressed by that, and Steve had en even more confused and impressed look on his face, something Logan chuckled at while smoking his cigar. Fury turned around and walked to the group as he greeted them

Fury: "Gentlemen."

He eyed Logan and, upon noticing his cigar, a scowl formed on his face. And Logan, noticing this, raised his fist and unsheathed his middle claw, flipping him off. Bruce, noticing the claw, touched the upper and lower sides of one of his glasses' glass with his pointer finger and thumb and mumbled to himself

Bruce: "Fascinating..."

And, hearing this, Logan turned to look at him with a confused expression and shaked his head, then, after sheathing his claw back, he went to lean on the wall and kept smoking his cigar. Meanwhile Steve had already grabbed his wallet, opened it, and slipped Fury exactly ten dollars, regarding the bet they made prior on the fact that nothing could surprise the soldier anymore. Obviously he lost, and Fury knew it was an easy bet to win. The director went to greet properly doctor Banner. He shook his hand and thanked him for being there, with Bruce thanking him for asking nicely. Then the doctor asked the director where were they with finding the "magical cube", and the whole group walked towards agent Coulson, who crossed his arms and, with a proud tone and a stoic expression, said

Phil: "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet: cell phones, laptops...if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

Steve was listening and was desperately trying to understand what the agent was saying, but being a man coming from the 40's wasn't helping a bit. And meanwhile Logan saw the distressed expression of Natasha while she was checking the state of a man's face tracing. The stress on her face suggested that she knew him closely, something the canadian would've remembered to ask her. She lifted her head and said

Natasha: "It's still not gonna find them in time."

And Bruce, being there only to find the cube and wanting to get away as soon as possible as to not hurt anyone, asked the director Fury

Bruce: "You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

And Fury sarcastically answered

Fury: "How many are there?"

After that Bruce, while taking off his jacket, said

Bruce: "Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the Spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for Gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places."

And Logan, from afar, took his cigar away from his mouth, puffed out the smoke and said ironically

Logan: "Huh, so apparently there is a scientific brain beyond those big, green muscles..."

This comment made Bruce clearly pissed as he tried to breathe in and out to calm himself down. His comment wasn't appreciated neither from Fury, who was starting to lose his patience, from Steve, who had a disapproving look on his face, and from Natasha, who was starting to wonder why would Fury even bother to include him in the whole operation. After a few seconds, Bruce asked the director

Bruce: "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

Nick answered him, without breaking his glare at Logan

Fury: "Agent Romanoff, would you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please?"

Natasha didn't waste any second and complied to Fury's orders, walking to the man and leading him towards their lab while striking a conversation with him.

Logan detached from the wall and walked around while looking at the whole place, eyeing every computer, every hard-working man and woman in the large room, until he felt someone's eyes on him. He turned around and spotted a woman whose dark hair was kept up in a bun, with a few strands falling down, framing her face. She had a notepad in her hands, her posture was rigid as she was giving him a harsh and disgusted stare. Logan puffed out some smoke before sniffing the air and picking up at the woman's scent: a sweet smell of vanilla invaded his nostrils, a scent he already picked up somewhere. He lifted his eyebrow and asked her with annoyance

Logan: "Do I have something on my face, G.I. Jane?"

The woman merely lifted her eyebrow at the nickname, then she answered with a venomous tone

???: "No, I was just thinking about the many ways I could kill you if you even dared to threaten the life of anyone on this aircraft."

Logan was very impressed by the woman's bravery, considering that she obviously knew what expected those who tried to kill him. He chuckled as he put his cigar in his mouth before speaking

Logan: "You're welcome to try, sweetheart. Many have tried before, all of them failed, but maybe you'll be lucky enough to keep all of your limbs in the end."

She was visibly fuming at his answer as she replied after a few seconds

Maria: "It's Agent Hill for you. If the circumstances were different, we would've never called you. I've seen the mess you left in Canada and, even if I trust director Fury, to me you're no better than the scum we fight every single day."

Logan chuckled again at her words as he aspired from his cigar. After puffing out the smoke, he took the cigar out of his mouth and smirked at the agent

Logan: "I like you, agent Hill. For this, I'll go easy on you if you try to kill me."

Pissed off by the nonchalant reply of the Canadian man, Hill walked away while clutching her notepad so tight in her hand that her knuckles turned white. Logan took another wig from his cigar and puffed out the smoke, when suddently he heard a bald man with glasses calling out to the team. Logan sniffed the air and caught his scent, along with a very expensive perfume that smelled like roses. Logan didn't question the man about his perfume choice, but he had a certain experience with scents, and that man's bizzarre choice mixed with the weird vibes he gave was enough for Logan to keep an eye on him

???: "We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent."

Agent Coulson walked forward and asked the man

Phil: "Location?"

The man rapidly pressed a few buttons, revealing virtual pictures of a few buildings, then replied

???: "Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."

The pictures showed the infamous god, their dangerous enemy, enjoying the party like everyone else around him. Logan had to admit that he could merge excellently in the high class crowd attending what he presumed was an important event. Suddently Fury called him and Steve

Fury: "Captain, Logan, you're up."

The two men turned to look at Fury, then they looked at each other, exchanging a nod. Fury turned to Coulson and said

Phil: "Agent Coulson, show these men their uniforms."

Coulson nodded at his boss with a dutiful and focused expression on his face, trying to hide his excitement at the fact that Captain America himself was about to see the suit he contributed to design. An excitement that he couldn't hide from Logan, who was able to smell all the chemical substances released from the agent's body, all the endorphins his body was releasing. He stifled a laugh at the agent's excitement and just followed him and Rogers through the long corridors. Coulson stopped in front of a metal door, towards which he gestured Logan to get inside. He opened the door and stepped inside, noticing an interesting suit standing at the end of the room. He got closer and stopped right in front of it, he brought the cigar to his mouth and aspired, then he slowly puffed out the smoke and smirked to himself, clearly liking the new look.

The team, consisting of Black Widow, Captain America and Wolverine, was flying on the Quinjet towards Stuttgard. The jet was quiet, with Nat keeping her focus on flying towards their destination, Steve looking at his small compass, and Logan rounding his shoulders a bit, trying to get used to the uniform S.H.I.E.L.D. made for him, while also trying not to think too much about the fact that he absolutely hated flying. Logan noticed the blond man staring at the object in his hand and, curious, nodded towards the compass and asked

Logan: "So, where are we headed, Rogers?"

Steve lifted his gaze with a dazed and confused expression, as if he was just awoken from a trans. Logan, sensing his confusion, continued

Logan: "You've been staring at that thing since we detached from land. What's so interesting about that old compass?"

Steve looked down with a pensive expression on his face, and after a few seconds he answered with both a nostalgic smile and a soft voice

Steve: "It's, ehm...it's Peggy."

Steve turned the small object to him, letting the man see the picture of a beautiful looking woman. Steve had an attitude that the Canadian could describe as an anxious kind of expectative, almost as if he was anxious to know his reaction to the picture. Logan lifted his eyebrow, surprised, and said to him with an amused smirk

Logan: "Well, good for you, Rogers, I didn't know you had a girlfriend. You see her often?"

Steve turned his gaze briefly down and sighed a bit, as if he was disappointed, then brought it back to Logan and, with now a more saddened expression that he tried to keep as stoic as possible, answered while nodding

Steve: "Everytime I can. And you?"

Now was Logan the one with the confused expression as he looked at the man out of time in front of him, to whom he asked

Logan: "Me what?"

Steve looked at him and replied

Steve: "Do you have a special someone waiting for you?"

Logan closed his eyes and chuckled at the Captain's question, then he looked at him again and, after leaning back on his seat with crossed legs and his right arm resting on top of the seats' backrests, replied

Logan: "You read my dossier, Rogers, what do you think?"

Steve leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees, as he said

Steve: "Well, the dossier doesn't say much about you, so..."

Logan slowly nodded in understanding and then, after a few silent seconds, he replied with a reminiscing and saddened tone

Logan: "There was one. That was a long time ago. It didn't end well."

Steve nodded, saddened by Logan's revelation, and went back to stare at the compass in his hand, while the other man stared out of the window. Unbeknownst to the men, Natasha heard everything the two said, and for the first time she felt sympathetic towards the Canadian. She started to wonder if he was always like that, if he always almost resembled a savage beast. Was he different before? Did he have a family? What happened with that girl? Natasha couldn't help but think that maybe what he was putting out was a tough facade, created so that the others couldn't see what was truly inside of him. Of course, it was just a theory, but Natasha was always good with her deductions.

Eventually the team arrived at Stuttgard. Steve pulled down his cowl, ready to drop into action, while Logan merely stood watching the scene before them: a crowd of civilians kneeled before Loki, who somehow was in five places at the same time. In his hand a golden scepter with a blue gem, encased between two metal blades, that emitted an intense light. His outfit was completely different from the one seen in the pictures before: black and green leather robes under a golden battle armor, with a horned golden helmet that Logan found simply ridiculous. Since Nat put the Quinjet in stealth mode, it was easy for them to watch everything unfold before their eyes, but unfortunately they couldn't hear what the mad god was saying. Suddently an old man stood up and stared at Loki, the two exchanged a few words before Steve pushed the button to open the ramp and jumped down. Out of nowhere, Loki shot an energy blast at the man, but luckily Cap got there in time to deflect the blast towards him. Loki suffered the effect of the hit as he was sent on the ground. As soon as he raised his head, Steve started walking down the steps in front of him and spoke

Steve: "You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing."

Since Cap activated his intercom, Nat and Logan were finally able to hear everything. Loki looked at Steve and, while using his staff to stand up, he said

Loki: "The soldier. A man out of time."

Logan and Natasha shared a nod and he pulled down his cowl as well, while Cap replied to Loki.

Steve: "I'm not the one who's out of time."

After walking towards the end of the ramp, Logan dropped on the other side of Steve, a few feet behind Loki. He popped his claws out and said

Logan: "Now you're in trouble, bub."

Natasha pressed a button, activating the Quinjet's machine gun, then she said with the intercom

Natasha: "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down."

Natasha had just a short amount of time to maneuver the aircraft away from the energy blast Loki shot towards her. Right after that Steve threw his shield at him, but he swatted it away with his staff. But, despite his high reflexes, the god wasn't able to dodge Logan's attack, who lunged at him with both his arms extended towards him, plunging all six of the claws into Loki's back. Loki grunted in pain, surprised that the human actually managed to hurt him a bit. He wasted no time, grabbed Logan with his free hand and threw him at Rogers, who was able to dodge him at the last second and go fight the god.

Logan ended up being sent against a short wall. He yelled in pain at the impact with the hard surface, but it was nothing he couldn't withstand. Just as he was getting up from the ground, another Loki appeared in front of him, smirking and laughing mockingly at him. And, when his laugh died down, he said with a mocking tone

Loki 2: "Surrender: it will be less painful."

But Logan merely stood up with a scowl on his face as he cracked his neck to the side. Then, after popping out again his claws, said

Logan: "That's funny, I was just about to say it."

After the brief exchange Loki pointed his scepter at him and fired a blast of blue energy towards him, but Logan used his super strength to jump up high enough to dodge it on time. He did a flip and landed behind the copycat, then turned around and started fighting him.

In the meantime, Cap and the original Loki were exchanging a few blows, but the Asgardian easily got the upper hand and sent the American away to the ground. Cap raised his head and gripped his shield with his right hand. He wasted no time and threw it towards the Asgardian, who swatted away the metallic object with great ease. The two exchanged even more punches as Steve got close enough, but every exchange ended with him being sent on the ground in mere seconds.

As this happened, Logan kept exchanging blows and slashes with the copycat, very surprised to see that he wasn't a simple hologram, but actual flesh and bones. Apparently the god was more powerful than they imagined. What put Logan in a difficult spot was the fact that it didn't matter if he slashed his skin, because it would simply regrow. Logan also noticed that the copycat wasn't as strong and fast as the original. As he was wondering how to beat the copycat and go help Cap, he also noticed that the blue gem on the scepter was glowing more than before. That made him think: if Loki could conjure his so called spells and attacks with the power of his mind, and if the scepter was enhancing his abilities, that meant that the solution was almost too clear. In order to conjure a copycat so accurate, the god must've used a lot of his concentration to make him move and heal, so Logan simply had to go faster: the more injuries he caused, the more concentration would be needed, the more likely it was for the god to lose it and drop the spell. So the Canadian did just that. His slashes became quicker, the cuts and injuries on the copycat's body became more frequent and deeper, and the healing process became slower each second. This went on until, finally, the clone dissipated in a bright blue light. After that Logan smirked satisfied as he said to the now disappeared copycat

Logan: "You'd expect a god to put up a more interesting fight, I'm not even sweating."

He then moved his gaze to look at Steve.

Cap was kneeling down as he was trying to recover from the hard blows the god threw at him, his head hanging low. Loki, while slightly panting from the mental efforts put into the copycat's spell, used this moment to place the back of his staff on the American's nape in order to force the man to stand down, this while saying with a dark tone

Loki: "Kneel."

Cap glanced at Logan, who was ready for another assault on the god. The two exchanged a nod and Steve, after swiftly grabbing the staff and spin-kicking Loki, said

Steve: "Not today!"

The kick made Loki stumble back a bit, and Logan didn't waste any more time as he ran towards the god with his iconic battle cry. The god was good at avoiding or parrying most of Logan's left and right swings, but the man was relentless, and Loki was really surprised by his ferociousness. As they crossed claws and staff, the two looked at each other. Logan was snarling like a wild animal while pushing against Loki, who pushed just as much as he looked at the man with his devious smirk. The god could easily overpower the man's brute strength, but he wanted these few seconds to exchange a few words

Loki: "I have to say, mortal, that all the tales about you don't give you justice."

Logan, not stopping pushing, replied

Logan: "You know me?"

With that Loki saw an opportunity to strike a nerve into the man as he said

Loki: "Oh, I know all about you, even the secret behind the watch you always carry with you."

As the god predicted, those words struck a nerve inside Logan, whose strength faltered for just a second, but it was just what Loki needed to push forward the man and send him flying back in a lamp post, denting and breaking it. Cap tried yet again to attack Loki, the two exchanged a few blows, but ultimately Cap was knocked on the ground.

Natasha was watching everything unfold before her eyes, unable to help his teammates as she risked to shoot them too. Frustrated, she muttered to herself

Natasha: "The guy's all over the place."

But suddently, right when Romanoff was seriously considering to get on the ground to help as much as she could, the Quinjet's speakers were overdriven as a loud rock music began to play: Shoot to thrill, by AC/DC. The moment she heard the song, Natasha knew what was coming, or rather who. And, right then, someone spoke in the intercoms of the Quinjet

Tony: "Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?"

Logan, Steve and Loki were confused upon hearing the loud song and an increasing sound that sounded like a jet flying towards them. As they looked up at the sky, they saw a man flying in a red and gold suit of armor shooting at the god of mischief, who was sent flying on the stone steps behind him. They all recognized the man as Tony Stark, Iron Man. As Tony landed on the ground, he stood up at the same time the song in the background was ending as he pointed his arms at the god, making appear all sorts of weapons: missiles, lasers, his repulsor...and right when the last lyric was sang, he said to Loki

Tony: "Make your move, Reindeer Games."

Logan and Steve, who by now were standing on either side of the armored man, were expecting Loki to attack again, reason why Cap held his shield tight and Logan kept his claws out. But, despite their suspicions were justifiable, Loki slowly raised his hands in surrender while his golden armor slowly disappeared. Upon noticing this, Logan was surprised that the one who was supposed to be a menacing god, was surrendering to a sort of Tin Can Man with no actual powers: he had a bad feeling about this. But it seemed as he was the only one having doubts, as Tony lowered his hands and made his weapons disappear, while saying

Tony: "Good move."

The three stood beside one another and finally greeted each other, with Cap saying

Steve: "Mr. Stark."

And Tony replying

Tony: "Captain."

Then Logan turned to look at the man and commented

Logan: "Nice song."

And Tony looked back at him and said

Tony: "Nice suit."

| 𝐗 |

𝐀/𝐍: 𝐇𝐢 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬! 𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐤𝐢 𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟! 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫?

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐫? 𝐈𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡'𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬, 𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧? 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐋𝐨𝐤𝐢 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭? 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭! ❤️