Cyclops was right and he wishes he wasn't (cyclopswasright) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-08-25 00:06:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !complete, bella donna boudreaux, commander tyra shepard, dani moonstar (mirage), emma frost (white queen), illyana rasputin (magik), kitty pryde (shadowcat), scott summers (cyclops) |
What are we looking for?
Who: Scott, Belle, Shepard, Dani, Illyana, Kitty and Emma
What: Taking care of business. For now
When: 8/22
Where: Laughlin, NV
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13 for violence and wise-cracks
Scott had had everyone meet at a predetermined location. The briefing had been simple - get in, raid the lab, then destroy it. The objective was to cripple their ability to research or bring harm to them or others.
Kitty had the blueprints to the Aquarius, as well as… borrowed… infrared satellite information on the area. There was a large series of chambers three hundred feet below the casino. “Safest entry would be here, I think.”
Belle examined the infrared pictures and nodded. “Yeah, think you’re right. This looks big enough for what we’re lookin’ for, and closer, too.” It made more sense than a Portland location. “We know if they’ve succeeded with any of their experiments?”
"Also, we need to consider how we're handling the civilian element. If this goes to hell we've got people on all of these floors who are in danger." Dani indicated the casino proper. There were too many people in there for her to use her psionic arrows on, "I can probably fear them out of the building, but that'll be chaos."
Emma cleared her throat. “I’ll get them out in an orderly fashion.” She wasn’t hovering over the plans. They needed to know the layout more than she did. “It will only take half an hour. Is there another casino close?”
"Either side, yeah. Plenty of places to move the crowd to," Dani replied, with a nod.
Illyana peered at the specs, then nodded. “The rooms look big enough for porting in, and I can conceal us if there are any surprises, long enough for countermeasures. I will port us in six inches above the ground, pause us, and then let everyone down. Prevents nasty surprises, yes?”
Illyana had been dreaming her worst and best dreams and some of her harder training had started to come home to roost in her mind. Tactics bored her, but keeping her comrades alive did not.
“I like that. Nasty surprises are the worse,” Shepard replied. She had her omnitool, a submachine gun, and several other guns besides. She also was in full sexy N7 armor. Shutting down any branch of Cerberus was a highlight of her day, and now that she didn’t have a family to worry about, she was going to focus on shooting a lot of people in the face.
Scott nodded. “Magik, drop Emma in the Riverside. I had Shadowcat reserve a suite, she can coordinate us from there.”
Kitty nodded her head, and pulled her mask on. She tested her wrist claws, which popped with a satisfying snikting sound. “Ready.”
“Okay. Lets go in hot.”
“Always do.” Belle noted with a smirk, her fingers brushing over her knives to make sure they were ready. Not that she’d need them. They could be as noisy as they wanted this time.
Emma took a deep breath and began to clear her mind. “You’ll be mentally linked when you arrive, try not to think of anything embarrassing, the whole team will hear it.”
"I guess I better start thinking of something completely benign like cat pictures, then. I'm sure everything else in my life isn't suitable for public consumption," Dani snarked. She was trying her best to keep her game face on and be professional. The sooner this was over, the better.
Illyana nodded and turned to Emma. “See you on the flip side.” A white glowing circle slowly slid to Emma and with that, took her to the waiting room, clean and quick. Then Illyana closed her eyes, and they all vanished in a white swirl, that resolved itself to the room they were appearing in. They popped in just above the ground as she had said, and then dropped the six inches down a moment later.
Magik was in back of the others, and her sword slicked out as she finished, concealment all around them, making it hard for anyone or anything to see them.
Touchdown.
Shepard unslung her assault rifle - Systems Alliance issue - and flicked the safety off. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the lighting, and listened. She didn’t hear anything unusual, which was in itself a cause for concern.
She wanted to move forward, but this was Scott’s mission.
“Shadowcat, scout the corridor up ahead then report back via our ‘comms’,” Scott asked. “Magik, go with her. Commander, take Mirage the opposite direction. Iris, come with me, I want to check out that elevator shaft.”
“Got it.” Kitty nodded at Illyana and slunk down the hallway, back to the wall, feet silent as a mouse.
Belle nodded and moved closer to Scott, readying her rifle. “I’m guessing you’ll be taking point.” She didn’t care much, they’d both get there one way or another.
As far as I can tell there is at least one person worth capturing in this building. I’ll monitor him as he moves around and let you know if he comes near any of you. Emma’s voice was calm and collected in their minds.
Dani didn't bother getting any weapons ready. She'd trace out an arrow if she needed to, but the glow they emitted right now would just give away everyone's position, so she abstained.
She nodded at Shepard, "After you, Commander."
Illyana moved with Kitty, her feet barely padding along as she kept her eyes moving, her sword dark in the halls as they moved together. She was clad in her silvery eldritch armor, but even it was darker, without sheen as she tried to mimic Kitty’s ninja skills.
Checking the heatsink once again, Shepard led Dani down the hallway. She crouched and peered around the corner, then turned down it. At the end of the next hallway, it opened up into a large chamber, filled with centrifuges and other medical equipment. She shared the image with Emma.
Scott started to force the elevator open. It would bring less attention than trying to use it, though it was more danger. “Need something to prop this open.”
Kitty, meanwhile, had the misfortune of turning into a room filled with mechanical objects, every one of which with a glowing red, sentinel like eye, and numerous melee weapon attachments. Buzzsaws, swords, razor whips…
“Shit.”
The machines came to life.
Belle searched her pockets and came up with a tube of glue. “This’ll expand and block the tracks.” She moved to grab one of the doors when he had a crack, so they could work together. She didn’t understand the significance of what Kitty found, so she ignored that input for now.
This was already a very boring field trip. Sneaking around in a place didn't really give Dani the same kind of adrenaline rush it gave someone like Kitty, and if all they were going to find was some spinning medical equipment...
Well that was probably for the best. It was easier to quickly destroy, anyway. Her eyes scanned the room for charts or labels. Wasn't Wolverine's blood somewhere in this mess?
Emma shared Shepard’s find with the rest of the group, as well as Kitty’s. She was still trying to evacuate the casino, so she had to rely on those present to know shit was about to go down.
Illyana swore in Russian and immediately made sure Emma and the rest saw what she saw as she put herself between Kitty and the sentinel-thingies. Her armor flared, bright and her sword came up as she attacked the closest weapons which were already orienting on them.
One lunged forward, attacking Illyana with a buzzsaw, and slashing at her with a spikey tail-like protrusion.
Kitty’s claws popped and she put her back to Illyana’s, covering her rear as several of the machines came around to flank them. A half dozen more shot off down the corridor. You’re going to have company!
She slashed through one, then stuck her fist inside it and ripped out the CPU.
Shepard started going through the lab, searching for something that looked like Logan or signified Logan. They probably used some kind of codename for his sample, and she paged Emma to try to find that. In the meantime, she started smashing things, and knelt to plant the explosives.
Oh great, I was hoping our night would get more interesting, Dani remarked in return. She turned to Shepard and pointed at the woman's gun, "Suppressive fire is all on you when those things show up. I've got a pistol and a bow with some arrows. And a hunting knife."
The only thing they could do in the meantime was try to track down that sample. she smashed the rest of the equipment and looked through things while Shepard planted the explosives.
Belle paused in her work and looked up at Scott. “I guess this can wait a little bit, right?” It would still be there later, and two people versus a room full of robots wasn’t good odds.
“Going to have to. Commander, you and Mirage concentrate on wiping out their samples.” Scott made an adjustment to his visor, and as one of the robots rounded the corner towards them, he lit up the entirety of the hallway with his beams. It was pulverized, but several other slipped through and were on them!
Illyana swore as she saw some shoot away and she snarled softly. Not good. She started swinging her sword with more ferocity, then shook her head. She spotted the central control across the room and smirked., “Kitty. it’s time for Fastball special.” And she reached for Kitty, magic flaring around her, with the intent of pitching her friend faster and harder toward the control panel and hopefully shutting some things down.
“Just don’t give me a wedgie,” Kitty said, bracing herself just before she was shunted across the room. She phased through two robots, shorting them out, and hit the console. She started to hack into it. “Cover me!”
Shepard’s assault rifle echoed through the complex as she positioned herself as a wall between Dani and the incoming attack. “All else fails we can blow this place and make a run for it!”
Days like these made Dani very happy that she was ambidextrous and formally left-handed. She pulled her pistol with that hand and fired off a few rounds at the robots, aiming for what she hoped were weak points while she set the other charge, "Are the above floors stable enough for that?"
Did it really matter if the casino was evacuated? Emma, how are you doing with that Evac? We might need to blow this place, charges are set in the lab.
There are stragglers, mostly Cerebus plants. A few who won’t leave their slot machines until they win. Stubborn asses. Her mental voice reflected her irritation with those willfully staying at their machines
The casino would be fine, the foundations go around this facility, blowing this floor shouldn’t cause any collateral damage. They probably won’t even notice. Scott flipped backwards, avoiding a buzzsaw. He fired another blast of light, then pulled Belle out of the way of a spiked tail.
Belle gasped as she was pulled, but regained her composure soon enough. She hadn’t brought anything for robots. They were getting close, too. Her gun wouldn’t do a whole lot, and if they backed up they’d fall down an elevator shaft.
She didn’t know what to do. This was a little beyond her training, even in the dreams. She didn’t notice the heat and tingling in her arms and hands at first, but after a moment those sensations registered, and she had just enough time to dodge around Scott and point her hands at the robots before heat and energy streaked out of them, clearing out a good chunk of the remaining robots. That was new. Holy Hell.
Illyana sprinted after Kitty, flinging her sword into one of the things, and letting it vanish as she took up position guarding Kitty’s rear. Her hands and eyes glowed, and she smirked as the robots sailed at her. “Hello, boys!” And she spat one term, learned in a dream one time, and blue glowing bolts of pure force shot from her hands, one after another, slamming into and through the robots.
She nodded.
Sometimes, you needed the classics.
"Nice." Kitty grinned, then flipped around Illyana and cut down another robot. "Did they say something about explosives? Why don't we lead all these into the room with the explosives and trap them in there? Simple!"
“Any luck?!” Shepard dove behind another machine, and rolled a small device towards one of the robots. It sparked and shorted out the robot.
"Yeah, the charges are all set. We're ready to blow this thing, you want to lure our new friends in here? I think we can loop back out towards the door." Dani grunted leapt over a robot, then used the weight of her pistol to crush the top of its red, glowing eye in, "The machines are all trashed and the explosives will torch the samples. I'm pretty sure Logan's is in this mess."
Did you get a positive visual ID? I don’t want to fight regenerating humans and crazy robots next time. She looked over at Scott, then the robots still headed their way. “If we go down we can get ‘em under the lab on the next floor down. We’ll just slide down and run like hell.” Just slide down a steel cable, stop themselves, jump onto a platform and run under an exploding lab on a different floor. No big deal.
Set it for thirty seconds. Scott ordered. He turned back towards the bots. Shadowcat, Magik, play bait! Get them into the lab!
“Didn’t we have people in there where the explosives are?” then Scott’s orders echoed in Illyana’s mind and she sighed. “Okay, then. Bait it is.” She pinged Kitty and turned her bright glowing pink, then herself, and turned a bright glowing green. “Come on robots! Come get your freshly visible mutants!”
Then she was running.
“I’ll assume they’ll get their hot asses out of there,” Kitty quipped, plinking a robot on the back of the ‘head’ and then started to run after Illyana. The robots gave chase, screeching their death cry. She pushed herself faster.
Explosive are set are we ready for the fourth of July? Shepard pulled out the timer and tossed it to Dani. “All on you.”
"I'm holding off a sec, I think Kitty and 'yana are bringing us more robots to play with," Dani replied. Her eyes were still trying to find a visual confirmation that Logan's sample was in there. It was harder, since none of the samples had any names on them that made any sense.
She pulled out the lab log and flipped through the sheets, sending a visual of the records to Emma and everyone else, This is as close to a visual as we get. None of these are labeled 'Wolverine', but this log here fits the timing correctly and the label they made up sounds convincing enough. Also, Kitty, you've got about 30 seconds to bring that party in here before I set this timer.
Scott dodged across the hallway, and started using his beams to help herd the Sentinels after Kitty and Illyana. “Iris, help me cover them!”
“On it!” She replied. Using her powers on purpose was awkward, but now that they weren’t bearing down on her the rifle became much more useful. She shot at anything that deviated from the course they wanted them to take, letting Scott handle any that needed to be physically knocked back into line.
Emma’s voice sounded in their heads again. The sample is in there, and the head is en route to that location. If you can capture him alive it will help a great deal.
Tell me where, I can get to him quickest, Kitty declared. She could take Illyana with her for back up, and she wouldn’t need to worry about locked doors. She ran into the lab, a trail of robots behind her!
Emma shared the man’s route with the group, and began digging around in his head.
Illyana spun as soon as they were in the lab and made eye contact with Shepard and Dani, and silvery portals formed at their feet. Out where Scott and Belle stood, silver lined them as well. Teleport is ready. Blow the stand and let’s go get us a bad guy. Illyana’s mental voice had a cowboy twang, which sounded odd, overlayed with her russian accent.
I’m taking away your netflix and John Wayne. Kitty took Illyana’s hand.Lets grab the target and we’ll take him to where Miss Monster is waiting. They could commiserate.
Shepard shot a look at Dani. “Hit that thing just before the portal closes!” Lets go people!
Dani primed the charges, and nodded, hovering her finger just over the button. She holstered her pistol and stared down at her feet, waiting until the last possible second to hit the switch.
Bombs away, she broadcasted, right as she hit the button. The time on the charges would only give the rest of them a few seconds to escape before they went off.
It felt really damn good to get to blow something up.
Scott felt nothing but relief. This was one door to hell they’d manage to close, and they hadn’t even had to really hurt anyone. It felt good.
Meanwhile, Mr. Head Scientist was furiously trying to gain access to the lab, fumbling with his keycard.
Emma chuckled in their heads. Poor dear has the coordination of a drunk man in the casino next door. Treat him carefully. She wanted to be able to question him.
As the bombs exploded, the stepping disks took them to the coordinates Emma had given, and suddenly, six pairs of feet hit the floor behind the scientist, with Illyana smirking as her sword came out and up, shimmering. “Need some help there?”
Belle couldn’t help but chuckle as she walked up to him, wrapping her arm around his chest from behind and putting a knife to his throat. “Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
Scott smiled from underneath his visor, and scorched the wall next to the man’s head. “We’re going to need to talk to you.”
Kitty popped her claws. “Yeah. Talk.”
Shepard stuck a finger in her ear to try to clear out the ringing from the explosions. “Let me handle this.” She grabbed the man by the face and slammed him back into the wall. Her Omnitool glowed, and a blade swiveled out, glowing orange. She pressed the tip against the man’s balls. “I like to start here.”
"You guys look like a bunch of seals fighting over a grape," Dani observed. Her ears were still ringing, too. There were definitely enough people dealing with the scientist douchebag, so she leaned against a nearby wall and folded her arms over her chest. Though her pose was casual, she was very alert; Her eyes were peeled for any incoming trouble.
Illyana snickered and pressed a hand against the door the man had been trying to get into. “Kitty? Dani? I think we should open Door number one and see what he was so desperate to get to…”
Belle twisted her arm from around the man’s shoulders, shaking her head, ‘tsk’ing at Shepard. “No, see you’re like an eager teenager jumping right for the main event.” She took one of the man’s hands, smiling sweetly at him. “You need a little foreplay.” She used her knife to pry off one of his fingernails instead. “So, whacha doin’ down here?”
The man started to sweat, and shook his head too scared and too stubborn to actually say anything. Shepard’s grip tightened and she grinned at Bella. “Like your style.”
“Guys…” Kitty found herself the moral voice, which irritated her. Most of them had serious reason to start ripping balls off.
With a sigh, Scott thought. Emma, lets just bypass the frivolties.
If you insist. Knock him unconscious, he’s resisting me right now and I don’t want to ruin another person this week.
"Now that, I can do," Dani replied, with a quick nod. She stood up more straightly and motioned through the air, creating a blue, glowing arc. With another motion she had a bow arrow in place on the makeshift bow.
She aimed for the man's head, winked at him, and let the arrow fly. "Night time, Sir."
Then she turned back to Illyana, and nodded, "Magik's right. We should see what was in there that he wanted that badly."
Illyana nodded. “We should check for traps, yes? This is always when we lost the rogue in games.” Illyana tapped the door, and hmmed, hands sliding into arcane gestures that looked something like seventies dance moves, and the door lit a pure blue. “Nothing magical that I can tell.”
“My turn,” Kitty said. She rolled her shoulders and then walked right through the door. There was the sound of a scuffle, something mechnical thudding, a gunshot, and then silence. The door swung open and Kitty stood there. “All clear.”
“Good job,” Scott said, shaking his head. “You and Iris hack their computers, the rest of us need to search this room from top to bottom.”
“My favorite part,” Shepard remarked, dryly.
Belle snorted and sheathed her knife. “Same for me, but less sarcastic.” She pulled out her most used tool and plugged it into the closest computer. “Hopefully nobody comes in here while we’re workin’.”
Make sure you bring the man up with you. I can get most of what he knows, but it would be better to have him as a resource. He’s very high in rank, he could prove useful over time.
I'll shoot him with another arrow if he starts acting up, too, but he should be out long enough while we search.
Dani grabbed the guy's arms in each hand and dragged him into the room with her, then set him on the ground where someone was sure to see him before they skipped out.
"Top to bottom, right. I'll get that wall," She pointed to a wall of filing cabinets.
Illyana moved to some cabinets and started searching. “What are we looking for?” She had no idea what would be in these files.
Kitty had in hand something that looked like it belonged on an alien ship, or some distance future sci-fi. She plugged it into another server and set it to do its thing. “Anything that looks important. Or doesn’t look important.”
Along another were were rows of incubators and refrigerators with clear glass doors and dozens of neatly labeled samples of blood inside. Scott looked at them, and scowled. “We torch those.”
“Lucky me, I brought more explosives,” Shepard replied, cheerfully.
“See, we all get t’ do our favorite things.” Belle noted with a smile as she monitored her device. She couldn’t help but look over to check out Kitty’s as well. “Where the hell didja get that?” It didn’t look like any piece of equipment she’d ever seen.
Dani'd pulled out several drawers and was leafing through the contents, "This guy kept hard copy on all of us. Names, dates, exhibited powers, projected powers? How the hell do you project-- I don't even want to fucking know. Shepard, toss me some charges."
Shepard laughed and tossed Dani some charges. “Good news is, this looks like the hub for this cell. Bad news is there are other cells.”
Kitty snorted. “There are always other cells, these guys are worse than Hydra.” She patted her little computer. “You could say it’s out of this world.”
Scott tipped over a fridge full of samples. “Lets get this place trashed.”
Illyana nodded, looking for anything labeled, well, anything at all. She soon had a stack of folders, a few small devices, and a few flash drives.
“Sounds like it’s definitely time to go.” She turned to Shepard. “Set the explosives in the center. I’ll make them burn a little brighter.”
Shepard nodded and set about laying the bomb. She didn’t say anything. She felt like it had been a rather cathartic adventure, actually.
Belle’s device finished and she pulled the cord back in, tucking it safely into its pocket. “I’m ready when you all are.”
"Charges in the center. Okay." Dani started dragging the filing cabinets into the center of the room. She'd already placed a few charges on them. They were really heavy, though, and she ended up glancing over at Scott, "You want to give me a hand with these, Fearless Leader?"
Scott looked up at her, expression inscrutable, but he’d never known Dani to actually ask for help. He said nothing about it, and came over to help her tip everything over.
Kitty bounced on her heels, stuffing her own device away. She promptly started sticking her hands in all the servers. “This’ll fry them. My powers disrupt electronics.”
Illyana laughed as she went through casting a spell on the explosives, one at a time. “You are having too much fun.” She stuck out her tongue at Kitty, before standing up, dusting her hands and nodding. “Ready for evac and big bada booms. Are we done?”
She concentrated and everyone was once more limned by silvery light. Emma. Coming with, this time? Luckily, she had seen pictures of where Emma would be, so she would be able to pull her along if so.
Yes. I’ll leave the bystanders where they are, what are you going to do about the remaining Cerebus grunts?
Belle checked that she had all her things, then hummed tunelessly as she waited to be teleported.
Shepard had an answer for that. She walked out of the room, and pulled an alarm. “That’s the difference between them and us. It’s always important to make sure you keep that difference. Or you’re no better than they are.”
Scott nodded his head. “Take us home.”