Long Road Home (the_wolverine) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-06-30 15:11:00 |
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Roger, what do you need?
Who: Logan, Clarice, Dani, Remy, Vel and Candy. Neena over Comms.
What: So Cerberus is back. And they nabbed a couple of their People. Rescue! (aka your typical x-men tuesday)
When: 6/25/2013
Where: Some desert base, also Graymalkin
Status: Complete
Rating: R for violence, cursing.
triggers: npc death, mentions of temporary pc death
Logan rolled his shoulders, and looked at his watch. He was in his black and grey X-force uniform, and he popped his claws, then sheathed them. “Thirty seconds.”
Clarice nodded. She had on her own outfit from the dreams, but she didn’t feel too weird about it. “Got it.”
Dani felt completely out of place. She had no dream outfit and didn't really have that much in the way of clothing anymore, either. her choice was basically what she had - jeans, a tank top, and a wrist guard for her bow.
She raised both of her eyebrows and hooked her bow over her shoulder, "Yeah."
Remy had everything except what usually went under his coat; he’d done his best with black trousers and shirt, and a kevlar vest. His bo was in hand, and he just nodded at Logan’s instruction, crouching low and ready to go in when Logan gave the word.
"This might make you guys a little sick, so I'll try to be gentle," Clarice said, to Dani and Remy. There was a flash of pink light and then they were in a large room, with equipment whirring softly. Somewhere else in the facility, were the distant retorts of gunfire and fighting, but it was hard to tell where it was coming from.
"Looks like Summers met resistance. We'll use that to our advantage," Logan said.
"I can put any stragglers to sleep, I'll cover the rear as we head out," Dani replied, pulling her bow off of her shoulder. She didn't have arrows, but she didn't really need them, either.
It did make Remy a little sick, but once his head cleared, he was able to process where they’d landed. “That’s a new one,” he murmured, looking around. “Which direction we headin’? I can take point.”
Logan sniffed. "...smell blood. An' Emma an' Jubilee. This way." He headed for a door, crouching and listening. He held up three fingers. Clarice looked around, then picked up a crowbar to use as a weapon. It started to glow pink as she held it.
Logan nodded at Remy, giving him the go ahead.
Dani pretty much just got ready to move after they'd walked through. She sketched an arrow into the air across her bow, blue and crackling with energy. Mostly to make sure she still could.
Remy couldn’t entirely be chill - the closest he’d actually got to killing things was targets at the ranch - but old habits from the dreams died hard. He slipped into a role that felt familiar, being as quiet as possible so he could hear footfalls, a card slipped into his sleeve at the ready. It was slow going at first, but when they turned a sharp corner, Remy saw masked men ahead.
Quiet as possible, he beckoned Logan up to the front for a look. If these weren’t humans, Logan could tell; if they were, Remy would charge in and see what went down.
Logan sniffed, and listened. Then he nodded at Remy, mouthing, 'They're just guards, nothing special.'
It was the kind of thing that Dani was sure the other three could easily handle. She put her back to Clarice and watched their tails.
This would be fun. Remy closed his eyes, building power, and then simply let a card fly.
He heard the yelp before he saw anything; he’d run forward and sent his bo twirling into a seeming pile of black-limbed foes. It felt good to kick a little ass; hopefully nobody would notice if he was a step or two off what he was in the dreams.
Logan didn’t notice. Hell, he was off a bit himself, even now. He followed Remy, watching his back for any additional shenanigans.
Behind them, Clarice gave a shout as three men charged around a corner!
"Take a nap," Dani whispered to herself, as she let her arrow fly at one of the men. She quickly sketched out another arrow and pointed it at another man's head, only really having the time to make it hurt.
"I hope you've still got that crowbar," She mumbled to Clarice.
Remy handled two of them himself, and he only had time to duck as Moonstar’s arrow flashed past him. “Damn, girl, you still gonna need me.” He grinned a little, just teasing. There was a small hallway at the back of the room, though, and he nodded his head to Logan. “Down that way?”
Logan nodded. "Yep. I smell a couple people in there. Blood too." He frowned. "Jubilee an' Emma's blood. They ain't in there."
Clarice brandished her crowbar, but there wasn't much need for it, yet. She grinned lopsidedly at Dani.
"You were fine, Gambit, my aim's pretty good. Promise!" Dani flashed him a grin. It felt kind of good, actually, to be back in the swing of things like this. It was a part of her life from the dreams that she didn't mind reliving every now and then. Just not with the same level of intensity as before.
"How much of their blood are you smelling?" Because that decided how quickly they needed to move.
“Or you get any stronger scent?” Remy kept looking around. “Don’t matter where their blood is, matters how quick we get to ‘em.”
"A lotta blood. Antiseptic an' medicine too. They were injured." Or being tested on. "They wanted 'em alive. But they're not in there. Those people might know where."
"Well I can wake one of them up if you like," Dani replied, quickly walking over to one of the men she'd put out and nudging him with her toe. Antiseptic and medicine meant that they might be providing medical treatment at least, but that didn't sit well with her either way. What kind of game were these people playing?
“Probably a good idea. ‘Specially if we playin’ for time.” He knew Jubilee wasn’t a vampire anymore. Remy kicked one of the men. “Eh, shithead, rise an’ shine.”
Logan sat on his haunches, claws dangerously close to the man's balls. "You're gonna tell us where your prisoners are. Or you're never gonna have sex again. Your choice."
"I could teleport him into orbit for five seconds," Clarice offered.
"I could also make your worst fear a reality for you for the next five hours or so," Dani added, firing up another arrow and pointing at his head, "So really, between the very precise guy with the claws in his hands, the pink woman who can teleport you into a vacuum, the Cajun man who can blow any number of your things up and me making your headspace a frothing cauldron of hell.... I think you should just tell us what we want and go along your way."
“Now I think you scared him shitless,” Remy said, kicking the guy again to snap him out of what looked like panic. “But seriously. We ain’t screwing around, homme. We’ll be needin’ your hostages’ location within the next five seconds, or you gonna have a coupla issues.”
It took a little longer than five seconds, but eventually the man stuttered and wheezed out, “B-b-b-back tun-tunnel, tr-trap d-d-door, p-pl-pl-please don’t k-kill me - ”
Remy was already off, figuring Logan or one of the others could knock the little worm out again. People weren’t gonna die on his watch if he could help it.
Clarice finally got to use her crowbar, and then she was running with the others to get to the hostages.
Logan’s nose led him to point to the left. “That way. Something down there. I can’t tell what, either.”
"Whatever it is, it doesn't have emotions that I can pick up," Dani added, heading down the tunnel after the rest of them. Like before, she had their six. Hopefully they'd get where they were going in time.
“Ain’t sure that’s a good thing.” Remy grimaced, but he kept moving. “C’mon.” He did stop, however, when he heard footsteps behind him. “Eh?”
Velma had made her way through the trail of bodies quickly, especially after Candy had landed and worked more magic - it was weird to think they were invisible, but it was handy. It was hard not to stare at the ... henchmen, she supposed - but the important thing was Logan. They kept moving through halls until she heard voices. She beckoned to Candy and whispered “Visible?” She didn’t want to be invisible if this was Logan and Remy and the others.
Neena cut into Logan’s team’s commlinks. “Hey, you guys have some kind of weird energy thing on your six.” The connection was staticky with them, too. She huffed and did her best to hone in more. So much for awesome future technology.
Candy nodded, murmuring the incantation to drop the invisibility spell. She snapped her fingers and a shield made of light appeared on her left hand, as well as her sword once more. She moved first, quietly and silently creeping forward.
Logan smelled them, then snarled and turned to look down the hall. "You're fuckin' kiddin' me."
"What is it?" The crowbar glowed purple again in Clarice's hand.
"Someone who's got a lot of explaining to do."
Something ahead of them thumped.
"Well the explaining can wait."
Dani pointed ahead of them, at the whatever thing that was making thumping noises. Thumping noises were, in her dream experience, bad. She didn't much like them in the real world either, "Whatever that is isn't going to wait while we yell at people."
She didn't even know who one of them was. The other one she did recognize, though. Dani wasn't sure she wanted to explain to Logan and Clarice how she knew Candy. Honestly, she'd rather face the big scary thing.
Velma saw the shock in Logan’s eyes, but she also heard loud thumping noises, even as she moved forward. “Touch me,” she said, raising her weapon and pointing it toward the source of the noise. “I’m protected. If I’m protected, I’m in.” They could argue later, if they needed to. He could feel the steel over her shoulders, even if he couldn’t see it. Better to go on adrenaline and help get their people out.
Remy wasn’t quite as surprised that Candy had shown up, and as far as he was concerned, the more the merrier; whatever was down there sounded big and angry. Candy could handle herself. “Eh bien,” he said heavily, “somebody invisible wanna go first?”
"You're gettin' the fuck out of here," Logan growled, but there was no time to argue as a large, metallic thing came rolling down the hallway. It looked like something cobbled together from various and sundry salvaged things. And it opened fire, bullets ricocheting about and splashes of energy rocking the corridor. “Fuck, Dommy you read?”
"Just get me to the hostages and I can port us all out of here," Clarice said, diving for cover.
Domino was reading, vaguely. She’d yell at him for ‘Dommy’ later. “Roger, what do you need?”
"Guns. Guns would be good. I can't exactly get medieval on a giant mech," Dani muttered. She dove for cover just slowly enough for a bullet to graze past her shoulder, "Damn it. Dom, we should have switched places."
Remy couldn’t exactly either, but damn if he couldn’t try to distract the thing so someone else could hit it. “Hey!” he yelled, throwing himself at the creature’s leg area, figuring if he was under it, he couldn’t get shot by it, either. As he dove, he saw something on the wall that caught his eye, though - a rack of rifles. “Moonstar!” he yelled, hoping she saw what he was pointing at.
Velma had frozen for half a second, but when a bullet grazed her leg, it jump-started her into action. “Ow, fuck!” She landed on the floor, trying to hide among the bodies, though at least she had her shotgun. She tried to aim for the center, trying to find a weakness.
Candy, on the other hand, whooped as she saw something she recognized intimately from her dreams. Fighting. She walked in a circle, chanting to herself, making yet another glyph out of light. She flew toward the creature, aiming for its head, making herself invisible as she went. “I’ll distract it!” She was good enough at flying to dodge projectiles for the time being.
The thing clicked and whirred, and then a red, glowing eye appeared to scan at them. It looked eerily like the eye on the smaller sentinels that had appeared the year before. Cerberus had managed to salvage one or more.
“Danger high, initiating lethal measures.” And then the hallways filled with crackling electricity.
Logan darted forward, the comm shorting out in his ear.
Domino frowned as she lost Logan, “I can’t send you any guns, Mirage, I didn’t get that stuff set up, yet.” She paused as the machine lost contact then reestablished it. “I hope I can get you guys out if things are fucked.” She noted, mostly to herself.
"Don't worry about it, Dom. Remy just found me some rifles. I think I owe him a drink later," Dani joked. Her arm stung but wasn't bleeding badly enough for her to worry about bandaging it just yet. She leapt over the crate she'd taken cover behind, dodged past Candy, slid around the Mech, and grabbed up a rifle off the wall.
A quick check to see if it was loaded, and she fired it off at the mech's red scanny eye. Because red scanny eyes weren't good. At all.
"Hey LeBeau, if I tear a hole in that thing you can charge up its insides, right?"
“Can’t see why not!” Remy was still trying to duck behind the thing, keeping it away from Logan and the girls. He looked around. “You’n Vel grab them guns and blast it!”
Velma heard him, but she already had a shotgun. She waited until Remy had the big machine turned away from her, then ran for the side of the room, where she dove behind the open door. From there, she opened fire quickly, just trying to do what Remy had asked.
Candy shimmered in and out of view near what she assumed was the thing’s head, slashing at it with her sword. Flying her glyph was made easier because it operated on her thoughts, moving where she thought she needed to be next. “Cajun, stop worrying about me and smash it,” she called out.
The machine dropped something, and a dozen metallic balls rolled across the floor, spraying gas as they went. The gas was designed to nullify powers.
It turned, firing a cannon at the direction of whatever shimmery flying thing was being annoying. "Terminate."
Luckily, Dani didn't need powers to shoot a Mech full of holes. She wasn't sure what the gas did, actually, though she did feel a little thrown off in general.
She fired off another shot before deciding it was probably a good idea to cover her mouth. Her eyes didn't seem to be tearing up too badly, though, and she could breathe well enough at least.
Remy felt his magic fade, and it was hard not to panic. “I can’t charge!” he called, a note of fear in his voice.
“Try and look for a weak spot!” Velma kept shooting, hoping she could grab another weapon. The gas was making her cough, but otherwise, nothing.
Candy had expected to fall down, so she’d flown a bit lower. But then she blinked. “I’m still good. Bright Eyes, hop on!” She moved to the side, glad she’d made a glyph big enough for two. Then she moved to make him another sword even as she flew toward Logan to do the same thing.
"Fuck." Logan was bleeding profusely from his knuckles. He decided to ignore it. He'd get better, eventually. "Just get me close enough an' I can cut that thing wide open. Where the fuck is Clarice?"
Clarice was already in the next room, staring at a very pale and bloody looking Jubilee, and a very dead Emma Frost. She saw the gas start to blow in, and flung twin javelins. Emma and Jubilee blinked away. The pink woman grew a little dizzy a few seconds later.
Meanwhile, the mecha-sentinel was trying to track everyone’s movements. It fired towards Dani, then at Remy. It seemed confused.
The shot missed. Even through the gas, the mech's movements were telegraphing enough that they were easy to dodge if you were paying attention. As long as Dani didn't get too tired, she figured she'd be okay. Maybe.
"Well none of us are strong enough to give you a fastball special, so I guess you'll have to run in, Logan."
She fired off another shot, then dove for another rifle.
Remy saw Candy, but he also heard Logan. “Get him up close!” he called to Candy, waving her over toward Logan.
Velma figured it was better to stay out of the line of fire, given the big ugly thing didn’t seem to notice her. She was running low on ammunition, so she figured she’d try to grab another gun when her clip emptied. She noticed the blood on Logan’s hands, but she figured if his powers were malfunctioning, the gas probably had something to do with it. She’d heard Remy yell.
Candy nodded, shimmering back into visibility long enough to swoop down by Logan. “Jump on, cowboy.” She deflected one of its shot with a panel of light in front of her and Logan, sending it sailing back and nicking it a bit.
Logan hopped on. He might lack his healing factor and a lot of his strength, but his claws should open it up to finish it off. “Go!”
If Logan's knuckles were bleeding that was really, really bad news. Worse news than being all out of a ready source of Remy explosives. Dani wasn't really sure what else to do than let Logan rip that thing a new one. The more quickly they got out of there the better for all of them.
She noted that Clarice had run off and hoped that the other woman had found what they were there looking for.
"Hopefully whatever's jamming our equipment will stop when it dies. So cut this thing a new one so we can go home, Logan."
Velma kept up covering fire, trying to keep the big bastard’s attention even for short bursts of time. But then her clip ran out; she cursed and chucked the shotgun away. She was looking around for a new weapon, but unless she left cover, she figured it was better not to risk it. Whatever was fucking up the magic, Remy’s girl didn’t seem to have that problem. And it was getting hard to breathe.
Remy, meanwhile, heard her curse, and jumped back down toward the mech’s feet. “Hey, pikachu! C’mere!” It seemed to look at him for just long enough.
Candy flew Logan in closer, batting away projectiles with her shield of light. Looking to Logan, she flew him in closer, waiting for him to jump off. She’d fly him back again if need be.
Logan lept off, careening towards the mechanical monster. He hit it full force, cutting a hole inside it before flipping back off and hitting the ground hard enough to make a clanking sound. He groaned.
The machine stumbled back. There was a clacking sound and it revved up a large vulcan cannon. It fired so fast it sounded like a hum.
Clarice bounced in, throwing something underneath the machine. “Take cover! I found a toy!”
"I hope this new toy goes boom," Dani commented, while dashing for cover. She put her fingers in her ears just in case.
Remy dove behind a row of boxes, holding his ears. “Candy!”
Velma was further back, but obediently covered her ears and head, ducking behind the door.
Candy whipped back to grab Logan, helping him onto the glyph and surrounding them with light in case they didn’t get away before the thing exploded. It’d sting when they landed, but they’d live.
Beep beep beeeeeeeeeeep Ka-booom! The shockwave rocked the hallway, rending huge tears in the metal plating around where the thing had been standing. There was nothing left but a blinking red eye.
After the smoke was done clearing, Dani pulled out her comm, "Well, the big metal thing is dead, can you read us now, Dom?"
“Fucking finally. Get ready for extraction, we have all the hostages.” Domino was extremely relieved to be back in contact.
Remy had felt shrapnel rain over him, but he was relatively unharmed. “Candy, where you at, girl?” He was looking around, relieved to see her in one piece. “All accounted for?” he asked, trying to count heads. “We find the girls?”
Velma appeared, coming back into the room, picking up the shotgun just in case it would be problematic to leave it here. She didn’t say anything, just waited for the people who were running this.
Candy looked around for Logan, holding a hand out to help him to his feet. She let the shield she’d been carrying dissipate, dusting off her clothes as she did so.
Logan rubbed at his shoulder, and sheathed his claws. It didn’t stop the bleeding, and seemed to make it worse. “We got some unexpected help. But we’re ready to go. They hit us with some kinda poison.” By the growl in his voice, it wasn’t entirely welcome unexpected help. But without Candy they’d probably all be dead.
"Something hit our powers, too, as a warning. Do you have healers up there?" Dani wasn't sure if anyone with healing abilities had even gotten their powers back yet, but it was worth asking.
“Yeah, we got people. You’re coming up to the med center in three, two, one.” When she said one the bodyslide kicked in, picking everyone up and dropping them in the medical center.
And in nearly everyone’s heads, a gentle warm, and for some, familiar voice sounded. Welcome back everyone, and welcome home. Nate was rather happy to see them all back.
Velma was quiet, just taking it all in. “What is this place?” She murmured, to anyone who might hear.
“Graymalkin,” Remy murmured. He turned toward Candy. “You doin’ okay?”
Candy nodded, moving to hug Velma. She looked like she needed one. “I’m good.” Her shirt had slipped a bit, exposing the curly-q shaped scars all over her shoulders and arms, but she wasn’t worried about it. The people she’d just worked with weren’t exactly going to ogle.
"It's from our world. You're in space," Logan said. He needed to speak to Vel in private. When he wasn't going to die. And by speak, he meant yell.
"I'm going to bandage up. I'll see the rest of you around. I'm sure I owe one or two of you a drink," Dani said, while checking on her arm. It was still bleeding, so seeing the healer was probably her next order of business. She shot Logan a look like seeing a healer better be on his list, too, then headed over to get in line.
Everyone was there and in more or less one piece, it looked like. So at least for the time being, it looked like the mission had been successful.