Two days had passed since Peter and Matt's conversation when Logan finally found the time to come to Manhattan. He had previously discovered some leads regarding X-23 and went to investigate, only to come up empty-handed. Forget finding X-23 herself; finding a reliable witness was proving difficult.
"It's actually quite similar to those ninjas you mentioned. They all appear and disappear like ghosts. Hm, I remember those living corpses from the Hand didn't use to be able to mask their scent, but that was decades ago."
Logan arrived at the rendezvous point with a cigar clenched between his teeth and began conversing with Matt. Matt nodded thoughtfully and then asked about another matter. "Is the lady who came with you also an ally for this mission?"
"No... but her presence might be of some help, and there's no harm in it."
Logan glanced into the distance at Shadowcat, who was chatting with Spider-Man. In truth, Kitty had requested to come herself after learning that Peter Parker was involved in the operation. Beyond the fact that it was unlikely for Kitty to take any damage in a battle of this level, Logan simply hadn't the heart to refuse her.
Since the Professor's return, he felt as though the burden on his shoulders had lightened considerably. Many matters could now be handled by Cyclops or the Professor, allowing him to settle back into his role as a lone wolf. Currently, Logan had no needs other than finding his clone daughter, X-23.
His memories had returned, the X-Men were rebuilt, the Professor had been resurrected, and he even had a daughter whom he might be able to care for—someone who, with proper guidance, might not turn out as twisted as Daken. Aside from the fact that Jean was dead, Logan had very few regrets left.
"Alright, so it's here, right? The people who died inside were taken care of by those undying freaks."
As he spoke, Logan pulled on his mask and pushed open the door. The stench of blood and chemical enhancers rushed out, strong enough to overwhelm the sense of smell of any police dog.
However, Wolverine's nose was far more acute than any hound's. He could even use scents to reconstruct the flow of a battle. In this room, where only the victims had left traces and the killers had left no evidence, he caught a few familiar whiffs.
Without a doubt, this was the scent of the Hand.
Logan paused for a brief two seconds, then turned to leave, passing between the chatting Peter and Kitty. "I've found them. You'd better keep up."
"That fast?"
"Yeah. The scent isn't very strong, but luckily this happened today, so the trail is still fresh. Move it."
Logan walked down the stairs as he spoke. Peter, who had just been catching up with Kitty on what they had been doing lately, shrugged and followed. Matt followed quickly as well, and the four of them stepped into the elevator.
"Wait, the Hand takes the elevator?"
"They likely stopped on top of the car and climbed through the elevator shaft." After explaining this to Kitty, Peter opened the trapdoor at the top of the elevator and climbed up. However, even after scanning the area, he found nothing. "But there are no footprints here—"
"They've undergone special training to leave no footprints during their movements, but you can't mask a scent."
After another sniff, Logan dug his claws straight into the wall and climbed rapidly. He pried open a ventilation duct entrance and crawled inside. Matt followed swiftly, using his grapple to catch up. Peter looked into the air, then glanced back at Kitty. "Can you get up there yourself?"
"Uh, no?"
Ignoring the questioning tone in her voice, Peter wrapped an arm around her waist and brought her to the duct entrance before continuing the pursuit. Logan crawled ahead with incredible agility until he found another elevator shaft, then leaped down, landing directly at the bottom of the pit.
The others followed immediately. Above them was an elevator that could descend to the underground parking garage at any moment, yet there were no anomalies here. Matt specifically tapped the ground, confirming that it wasn't hollow beneath them.
At that moment, Kitty dove directly into the ground. A moment later, a massive slab of rock over a meter thick was shifted aside, revealing a pitch-black passage. Peter let the spider emblem on his chest light up, then jumped down first, looking at the surrounding tunnel.
"Man... they didn't even use New York's existing sewer system. They even installed such a thick barrier. No wonder we couldn't find them."
Peter looked up as Matt and Logan jumped down one after the other. His voice echoed through the tunnel, which appeared to have been excavated entirely by hand. Logan ran his hand along the rock wall and let out a curious "Huh," drawing everyone's attention.
"What is it?"
"These walls were cut with katanas—more specifically, nodachi. But katanas are famously fragile among bladed weapons. Using them to cut through rock is practically unbelievable—"
This had nothing to do with the hardness of the metal. Even with his Adamantium claws, cutting a tunnel like this would likely dull the edge, let alone a regular katana. This was why he was perplexed.
"Maybe it's some esper's superpower?"
Peter suggested as he moved forward. He suddenly thought of something and turned to look at Logan. "Speaking of which, Daken's mother was killed by the Hand, right?"
"That's right. What of it?"
"If that's the case, Daken must have been trained by the Hand. They should be well aware that you can smell them, Logan."
Daken's abilities were nearly identical to Logan's, so whatever Logan could do, Daken certainly could as well. In other words, the Hand had always known that Logan had the ability to track them. Matt quickly understood Peter's point. "So, there's likely a trap ahead. A trap specifically designed to deal with Logan."
After all, Logan was generally a lone wolf, so this was likely a trap set for him alone—or perhaps it was a trap for all of them.
The group was silent for a split second before they couldn't help but chuckle.
They certainly weren't afraid of the Hand. To put it bluntly, if there really was a trap ahead, they would be more than happy to walk right into it. Aside from Kitty, the other three were actually more worried about what they would do if the Hand had already fled.
Kitty watched the three of them laughing in the hollow tunnel and felt a bit uneasy for some reason. Matt finally restrained himself after they finished laughing.
"Regardless, let's keep moving. I hope there really is a trap ahead. I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing what the Hand can cook up."