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Obi-Wan is aging surprisingly well (obi1) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-09-20 11:35:00

Typical field trip with t'X-men...
Who: Obi-Wan, Dani, Meetra, Scott, Illyana, Moira, and Neena
What: Rescue mission by an inept and very lucky squad...
When: Tuesday Night
Where: Warehouse in New Mexico, Mysterious Enemy Base
Status: Complete!
Rating: R for Serious Violence. Warnings: Many bullets are taken. Explosions and shrapnel. Swear words.



Somewhere in the middle of New Mexico, a faint pink glow illuminated the landscape. It lasted a few seconds before disappearing into thin air, and when it was over, six figures stood there where before there had been none. They collected their wits after portaling in, while a seventh figure looked on.

Dani didn’t recognize the seventh one, and squinted at it while turning on a flashlight.

The man stared at them, unblinkingly. He stood with his hands behind his back, like he was at ease, but he looked stiff.

"The number was to be called for a reason," He said, in a stilted voice. Moira studied him a little bit, wondering what his story was. He clearly didn't socialize much.

Scott folded his arms, studying the man, and decided he didn't like him. Meetra ignored all that. Her sabers felt heavy at her side. She wore a simple black robe, and had her hood up. By luck or coincidence, she'd found her second saber in the folds of the robe that she'd bought at the store.

Everyone seemed reluctant to respond to Seven, and while Obi-Wan did not in any real way feel he was the leader, he did feel some pressure to take the initiative. He approached, cautious but steady. "Well, perhaps if we felt the number was safe, we might have called."

The man stared at him a moment, then checked his watch, "You are on time. None of the people here officially exist, and no one is innocent. Make use of that knowledge how you will."

He turned, and started to walk away, into the desert.

"Glad to know we're on time I guess," Dani grumbled. She glanced at Meetra and Obi, then turned to the people who were staying behind, "So we're going in through the front door. That might be suicide for most people, but we've got two people who can mind trick, and I'll be laying down my powers as much as I can. Hopefully there won't be too many people to actually fight."

Illyana crossed her arms, "There is not much we can do from here but wait."

Dani nodded, "But I want to say that if we don't come out of there in 3 hours, leave. Don't be heroes."

Moira rolled her eyes. Knowing this lot if three hours passed they'd be storming in after them, no matter what Dani said.

Scott adjusted his visor, making sure it was secure, "Heroism is in our blood, Dani. Just be careful."

Obi-Wan had fallen a little quiet. He was thinking less about the heroes remaining outside, and more about the ones going in beside him: the woman he loved and the Jedi he had never dreamed he might march beside. There was a heaviness in his chest and across his shoulders; but his lightsaber was already in his hand, and his grip was firm.

Dani grinned with more confidence than she was feeling, "Oh we'll be really careful."

She pulled her bow off of her shoulder and nocked an arrow, then casually motioned forward to the facility that was on the horizon, "Well. Let's move out, then."

The facility in question was dimly lit against the darkness around them and looked like an old, abandoned warehouse. There were no windows and only one door that Dani could make out from this far away. She reasoned they'd probably see them coming, and was already trying to project forward as she pointed that way. The more chaos she created, the better chance they'd have.

Meetra drew her own sabers, testing the weight. Training and practice could only go so far. She wondered if they would have to kill anyone. She hoped it wouldn't come to that, but she was resigned to it.

She took their rear, hooking her sabers back to her belt. It wasn’t time yet.

Obi-Wan and Dani were on almost equal footing as they drew near. The gray of the building separated from the gray of the sky. "You're laying a path for us, yes?" he whispered.

"If we're lucky, everyone's going to be seeing things and no one's going to be seeing us. Just if you start seeing things, ignore it." Dani whispered in return, with a nod.

They approached a rusty fence which connected to a gate. The gatehouse had a lone guard in it, who had been previously sleeping. As Dani got closer, he leapt up from his chair and started dancing around in circles, screaming. It looked like he was on fire.

She kicked the door to the gatehouse in while he was busy, and opened it for them.

"That should keep him occupied," Obi-Wan murmured, ignoring the ghostly charred image of Anakin in the sand that sprung up beside the man. It flickered away in static.

All that Meetra heard was the screams of men and women burning. She followed them into the gatehouse, and looked around, "There's probably a hidden entrance to the underground. Probably."

"Split up or stick together and try to find it?" Dani looked around the horizon. She could get a general idea of the amount of people that were in there, just by sensing the level of emotions that were around them. She tilted her head to the side, "I might want Jedi confirmation here but I think they're under us and not actually in the warehouse at all."

"I was going to say the same thing," he replied. In fact, Obi-Wan was already crouching low, running his outstretched hand over the dry earth like it was a kind of metal detector. His ability to sense life forms had grown more keen. "I would venture a guess and say there are about forty. Maybe a few more."

Meetra ignited a lightsaber, and pointed it at the floor, "We could cut our way in, or try to find the real entrance."

"Cutting our way in is probably the last thing they'll be expecting. So I say go for it." Dani shrugged a shoulder. This is why people with lightsabers were awesome, though.

“I’d say right about... here...” Obi-Wan set his jaw and ignited his saber. The blue glow turned the sand an otherworldly color. He stabbed the earth much like the way one might cut into a particularly difficult to open mailing parcel.

Meetra stepped back, and waited.

"We'll need an entrance, but not a very wide one..." Dani got on the ground and put her ear to it, trying to hear for any disturbances below near the area Obi had cut into, "I'm not sure how thick the ground is. Probably not that thick."

Perhaps it was his draftsman skills, but he was cutting a neat circle into the ground. There was no one below directly below them. “Just keep them distracted,” he said to Dani.

"Yes,dear," Dani snarked, while sliding into the hole and dropping down into the room they'd cut a hole into. It was an empty office that wasn't currently in use, judging from the lack of personal effects. She got an arrow ready again, and looked up at the two of them, "One batch of mass hysteria, coming right up."

Unfortunately, she realised as she yanked on the emotions around her, she wouldn't be able to stop this from effecting Neena too, wherever it is she was.

Taking a breath, Meetra dropped through the hole, looking around to see if she needed to react at all. One man came at her in a panic, and she pushed him away with the force.

Someone opened fire, and all hell broke loose as others responded. Guards shot at anyone who moved while scientists and assistants ran around in a panic. Meetra twitched her left-handed saber on instinct and there was the hiss as a bullet was vaporized.

Obi-Wan slipped through the hole at the sound of the first bullet, and the saber swung in an arc as he landed. The gunfire fizzled in the air, and with his free hand he reached for Dani. The arrows would do her little good in close quarters.

"Go on ahead," Meetra said, before she leaped at the guards, her sabers blazing like orange flares. "I'll cover your retreat!"

"... Hold on. Let me try something new here." Dani allowed Obi to pull her out of the way and took the opportunity to put her bow and arrows away. She COULD use them in close quarters - had had dreams where she did - but now wasn't the time to test that.

Instead, she pulled out a knife, just in case. But her mind was mostly focused on changing the visions around, "The mass panic isn't helping us. Let's try desires instead."

She yanked on a different set of emotions, and started heading out the door.

What she opened the door to was one of the more disturbing sights Obi-Wan had ever seen. The secret desires of the terrified civvies, sexual fantasies, and a hallway full of Neena Thurmans that Obi was projecting himself. "Oh shit..." he breathed.

There were Revans in there, even a Roland in Revan's robe. There were other people that Meetra had known. There was Revan, and Bastila and their son, standing together like a happy family. She swallowed the dry lump in her throat and ignored the tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes.

"I don't see her yet."

"... Shit..." Dani frowned, taking in the scene, "This is really not working for us. I think I should stop."

Meanwhile, one floor down and to the left, Neena Thurman had been strapped to an operating table, heavily sedated and shackled in place. She'd woken up there, unsure what the hell they were planning on doing to her and too sedated to be as terrified as she wanted to be.

Standing at the end of the table was someone she'd never expected to see there, alive. She was pretty certain she was going to have to blame the drugs. The man's left eye had a glow to it, and his left arm was completely covered in metal.

"You get yourself into the biggest messes, Dom."

Yeah. That was something Nate would definitely say.

Back in the hallway... Obi hated to say it, but perhaps it was better Dani take a break projecting for a while. His hand brushed her arm and he offered her a steady and he hoped calming look. “Let’s go along the corridor a while,” he said. “And then we’ll decide what to do.”

Meetra backed into the corridor and then swung the door shut. She welded the hinges shut with her saber, "We can cut our way back out, but they won't be able to get in. Where next?"

Dani nodded at Obi, then took a look around the place, "No idea. Maybe we could grab someone and ask them."

Without wasting any time she headed over to the first guard she found, who was busy trying to smooch a woman who wasn't really there. She poked him with the flat of her blade a bit, "Hey. Quit making out with your woman for a bit and tell me where I can find that bitch they're holding captive in here. I thought I might pay her a visit if you know what I mean."

The man waved her off, not even really paying attention, "Down a floor. Good luck though, they've got her all rigged for some top secret procedure or something."

"Thanks, buddy."

She eyed Meetra and Obi, "Let's find a staircase."

If they weren't in the middle of a life-or-death situation, Obi-Wan would have been quite thrilled by Dani's tone. (Oh, what the hell? So what if he was? Point is, he was able to push it aside.) He gestured that they should follow him down the corridor. He could sense a change in the air a few meters away, a door that lead to a staircase.

They started down, stepping over a few dazed civvies along the way.

There was a beep, and some sort of ball dropped out of the ceiling. Twin barrels emerged from it and it opened fire. Two civvies in the way were cut down immediately, spraying the walls with their blood.

Not just the civvies' blood.

Obi-Wan was suddenly on the floor, his hand pressed to his right thigh, close to the hip joint. There was blood between his fingers. He wasn't sure whether to bite his tongue or cry out, so he did both. For a short time, he somehow managed to deflect bullets with his lightsaber, until the pain was too great and it fell from his hands. Retracted, thankfully.

"Shit," Meetra gasped, diving for cover as she FLUNG her off-hand lightsaber down the corridor. It spun through the air, then passed through the turret, before flying back to her hand. She picked herself up, "How bad is it?!"

"God DAMN it, Obi..." Dani couldn't tell where exactly he'd been hit but there was an artery running through that area and she was trying not to panic.

She shot Meetra a look in thanks for dealing with the turret and ran over to him, "Is it spurting? Tell me it's not spurting or I swear I'll kill you."

Through gritted teeth, he moaned. His hand was shaking, but he dared to pull it back. The blood was like a new layer on the fabric of his jeans, soaking through, but not spurting. "I'm... I'm okay," he tried to say, wondering if he could will himself to be so. It sounded like a guttural growl. Really, the only thing he was trying to do at this point, other than not scream, was meet Dani’s eye. Just in case...

"We need to cauterize it, just in case," Meetra said, evenly. "This will not feel good."

Dani ran a hand up into her hair and met his eyes. The look she gave him was unmistakable, and passed as quickly as it had begun before she was looking down at his leg and inspecting the injury. The bullet was still in there.

"This isn't going to feel good either." Without further ado, she reached her finger into the wound and tried to find the bullet, "We can't cauterize it with the bullet in there. It might move and nick an artery once we get him on his feet..."

He screamed then. For three, ear-splitting seconds. He allowed it for three seconds. It ended with a sharp cry and a breath that burned like fire in his chest. He felt he might even be sick. But Obi-Wan gripped the handrail and did everything he could not to fight her.

Spurting or not, the blood was spreading quickly down his pant leg.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry." Dani grunted, through grit teeth. It was hard enough to hear and watch, she didn't want to be him right now. She had to put him out of her mind in order to do this.

"Found it." Fingers weren't the best tools for getting bullets out. A scalpel, even her own knife would have been better. There was no guarantee she wasn't damaging his leg further, but leaving the bullet in there would just be worse. And they were operating on borrowed time, because she couldn't keep up using her powers while she did this.

So she dug the bullet out and tossed it to the side, then wiped her hands on her jeans, "There. Done. You're okay. You're going to be fine."

Meetra, as gently as she could, pressed the edge of the lightsaber into the wound. Just for a second, then she deactivated it, "That should leave a manly scar."

She sounded more reassured than she felt.

The pain of the lightsaber was not half as bad as what Dani had done, but Obi-Wan cried out again anyway. His head fell back. "Yes," he spoke through gasping breaths. "And quite the spot for one."

He allowed himself three more seconds to breathe. Three seconds to will himself to defy nature and stand. He was done wasting time. He ordered his leg to move, and it obeyed. But he reached for Dani's hand and held it tight until he had made it to the bottom of the staircase.

She squeezed his hand with a death grip, because that was all the worry she could express and all the apology she had the luxury to give him at the moment. Later, when they got out of there, she made a mental note to make it up to him.

At the bottom of the stairs, she projected desires on a broad wavelength, then headed right on through the doorway. It lead into a hallway with doors that resembled something one might see in a hospital. No one was currently in the hallway that looked to be alive. There were, however, a few more turrets.

She quickly dodged back into the stairwell.

"Two turrets. Both look active, but I'm not sure if they've already fired off all their ammunition or not. The hallway is gruesome."

"Gruesome?" Obi-Wan questioned, his voice still not quite his own yet. "They fired on their own?" He was horrified and it showed.

"They seem to be in riot control mode. We need to hurry before they start eliminating their..test subjects," Meetra said, grimly. She dispatched the turrets, but could hear something that sounded like a heavy treaded vehicle moving down the corridor.

"I'm not an expert but turrets like that probably don't have a friend or foe recognition program. Or what Meetra said." Dani nodded at Meetra. Her respect for the woman was growing steadily the further they got into this.

"... and whatever that sound is, is not a friend." She added. This was ridiculous. Whatever the hell they were doing down here, they must really want it to stay a secret.

"Where's my lightsaber?" Obi-Wan asked. He wasn't about to be left in the stairwell. And he sensed Neena was close.

Dani handed it over to him. She’d previously retrieved it from the ground while he'd gotten himself up.

“Thank you,” he said, almost unaffectedly. But then he stole a quick kiss. After all, the woman had just saved his life. At least, for the time being. A bullet in the leg was not so bad.

"Make love to her later, lets find the woman and get out of here."

It appeared to be some sort of miniature tank, like those search and rescue robots or the ones that disarm bombs. Except it was heavily armed.

Whatever it's purpose was, it was clearly not a friend to them. Obi-Wan closed his eyes and searched the robotic patrol unit with the Force, pushing aside the pain in his leg until it was nothing more than a faint whimper. The power source was a complicated battery. He wondered if he could affect the polarity, that it might shut the tank down. Of course, there was also the risk of turning the tank into an enormous bomb.

Ah, but the wheels! Obi-Wan began to focus on crushing the gears. No wheels, no movement.

"Good one," Meetra whispered. She peered out, then ducked back again as the machine opened fire. It was dead in it's tracks, but it was also an obstacle.

"It's going to block the way, we have to get past it."

"... OKay, so we come up with a way to get past it as a team." Dani got out her bow, and checked the tips of her arrows. She recalled a time, months ago, where Obi had blocked a bunch of tools from coming right at them. He might be able to use the force to block at least some of the bullets from getting at them while she took out the 'eyes' on the top of it.

Then Meetra could finish it off, she reasoned, "I'll take the eyes on it. It can't target without them. Meetra deflects with her sabers and gets in close, to melee it. Obi, can you put up some kind of ... wall with the Force, like you did to stop the tools? You wouldn't have to hold it for long I don't think."

It was a good plan, but he had a kneejerk reaction to shoot it down. The idea of Dani getting directly in front of the tank! What if he failed? What if the bullets pierced her skin? "I'm not certain..." But his voice trailed off, or perhaps he caught himself. There wasn't time. He nodded. He just wouldn't allow himself to fail.

If they did, then they did. Dani didn't really fear it. Obi had gotten shot today, too, so it wasn't like someone she held dear to her heart hadn't been pierced by bullets already. The part of her that had been trained to be a soldier knew that you didn't think about things like that in the field.

She nocked an arrow and nodded at Obi, "Go. We're right behind you."

With another nod, the door was flung open, though not a hand was laid on it. His hands were in the air, creating the shield as immediately as the fire began to rain down upon them. "Now!"

An arrow whisked past his ear from behind him and hit the camera on the top of the machine, shattering the lense and lodging itself there. Dani nocked another arrow and shot at anything else on the machine that looked weak enough to hit, "Camera's down!"

As soon as it was clear, Meetra rolled into the corridor and dashed down it. The machine fired blindly as she weaved to and fro, trying to predict where the bullets would pass or where she would need to deflect. She miscalculated several times, feeling something burn down her arm and another bullet graze her head. A third ripped through her shin.

Two neat slashes and a slew of curses later, and the robot was reduced to scrap. Meetra slid to the ground, gasping. She shoved a piece of metal from the robot in her mouth, and ignited her saber near her shin. For the second time that day there was a scream accompanied by the smell of burning flesh.

The scream echoed down the hallway, and silence followed in its wake for a few moments, before the sound like metal dragging along the ground could be heard, along with the sliding sound of dragging footsteps.

The woman they'd come down there searching for peeked her head around the corner and took a moment to lean heavily against the wall, before dragging herself - and her rifle - around it and heading towards them.

To say she looked like hell would be an understatement. There were several cuts, fading bruises, burns on her wrists and actual holes in her arms and leg, but the most important wound seemed to be her shoulder, which was soaking her shirt with fresh blood.

That didn't really matter, however, because it looked like a rescue team was there for her finally. She wordlessly tried to wave a hand at them.

Dani took a step towards her, "We're happy to see you, too."

Obi-Wan's hands fell with a shudder. Creating force fields like that still took so much out of him. For a moment, he was seeing double-Meetras, as the hallway swayed beneath him. With some effort, he knelt down beside her. He saw the blood trickling down her arm, but the shrapnel had only grazed her. It would heal.

His head was still throbbing when the sound of footsteps and metal began. It pounded in his skull like a trapped bird beating its wings against its cage. Obi-Wan turned carefully, still crouching low. He rolled onto his hip with a groan and stared at Neena. His eyelids fell for a few seconds.

"My man is going to kill me," Meetra muttered, pulling herself to her feet and hooking her sabers to her belt. The woman looked like death warmed over and she wished she knew a genuine healer. Too bad none of them know Bethany!

"Lets get you out of here, miss."

Several gunshots rang out as a turret dropped from the opposite end of the corridor.

A look of surprise shot across Dani's face as a bullet shot right through her side. She fell to her knees, in fact, and let out a yowl of pain, her hand pressing against the wound immediately and on instinct.

The rifle in Neena's hand lifted, and she shot the turret right off the ceiling. The knockback actually knocked her backwards, and on her ass. But at least the turret was taken care of.

Meetra groaned, "Shit. Hold on. Neena. This might hurt." She pushed aside the woman's shirt and cauterized the shoulder wound, without really waiting for an answer, before she was crouched next to Dani and pushing aside her vest.

She remembered enough to leave the exit wound alone. They could pack it, but they'd need it to drain. Moira had explained that to them before they'd left, "Do we have an exit wound?"

Obi-Wan was still on the floor when the new round of fire began, close enough to where Dani landed that she almost fell into his arms. The pain in his head was suddenly excruciating. Her name was like a drumbeat, booming in his brain. Dani... Dani...

He pressed his hand to her wound. "Shit!" he exclaimed. This was no shot in the leg.

But the bullet had gone through. The blood from the other side soaked into his shirt.

Deciding that it would be better if blood was pouring out the front rather than the back, Meetra ignited her saber and quickly took care of that wound.

They were a mess, could any of them actually walk? She was willing to give it a try, anyway.

"Obi, can you get Dani? I'll try to help Neena out." Or rather, they'd help each other out. She could support some weight on her leg, if she blanked it out. Now was not the time to panic.

There wasn't even a grunt in pain when Meetra cauterized Neena's shoulder with the saber. By then she'd started to see stars, honestly, and was getting to the point where she was used to the smell and feel of her own flesh burning.

She was still flopped on the floor as Meetra spoke. She wanted to say that she could get herself out of there, but knew better.

Dani was seeing stars, too, but she did let out a scream as the saber did its work. Well. At least she was part of the club now.

She gave herself a few seconds to clear her head, but thought she could manage to walk now that the initial shock was over, "I'm okay."

She glanced behind her at Obi, "Help me up."

The pain in his leg and head were both still throbbing, but he tightened his arms around Dani's waist like a belt and lifted her to her feet. He'd let his own pain kill him first, before he failed to get her out of there.

"Are we going back the way we came?" he asked, mostly to Meetra, who next to him was the most mobile of the group.

Outside, they weren't alone. Several helicopters were approaching the site, and all of them were heavily armed. They were likely meant to scrub the place down.

Scott let loose with a blast that took one out.

Inside, Meetra nodded her head, "Best chance. They should still be distracted, and we have a straight shot back that way. I don't think we can stand to stick around much longer."

Obi-Wan looked down at Dani. "Can you walk...?" The rest of the question remained unspoken. He was ready to carry her up the stairs. Somehow. If that was what she needed.

"I can walk." Dani nodded. She wasn't really sure if she could or not, but she was going to die trying if she had to. She took a few steps forward in fact, to prove to herself that she could. They were wobbly, but she seemed capable enough.

Above ground, Illyana was kind of relieved that it looked like they finally had something to do. Still, she was also deciding that Scott was an idiot.

"Oh, that is a great idea. Alert the helicopters to our presence with your gigantic glowing laser eyes. They will never think to fly down here and open fire upon us now." Illyana grumbled. She looked up at the sky and muttered a spell under her breath. A bunch of distracting lights sprang out of thin air in front of another one, blinding the pilot.

"You looked so bored, I thought I'd give you something to do," Scott remarked.

"Shut up both ye bampots," Moira snapped, anxiously. "They're takin' tae long!"

Meetra hooked her arms around Neena and hauled her up, "Okay, lets not be gentle and just get the hell out of here."

She was allowed to feel frazzled right? Jedi can feel frazzled!

Well, she wouldn't have been the only one. But Obi-Wan was focusing his anxious energy on Dani's wound, as they climbed the stairs. He pulled the pain out of her like venom. Without asking permission. He wouldn't have let her talk him out of it anyway. They needed to move as quickly as possible.

It especially helped as they stepped over the dead bodies.

Once hauled up, Neena proved she was capable of stubbornly putting one foot in front of the other, at least most of the time. That was probably a great help to Meetra, who wasn't in good shape, herself.

In fact, Neena wondered if the three of them were crazy. They were the last people she'd been expecting to see here - she didn't even know the woman who was helping her out of there. Where was Pete? Romany? Scott? Hell, even Kitty would have made more sense. It was the wrong time to ask.

Dani found it easier to walk with the pain removed from the picture, though she wouldn't have asked for it and would have fought him on it. Still, it made their exit easier.

By the time the four of them made it out and took a look at the night sky, they were all frazzled, and the worse for wear. Neena looked up at the stars, and tears started rolling out of her eyes.

Meetra didn't let herself feel anything. Seeing the condition of Neena had leeched any sense of sympathy out of her. It was a waste of life, which was always regrettable, but none of them had pulled the trigger, so to speak. The strange man had said there were no innocents here. She was willing to accept that for now, even if she thought none of them were entirely innocent, either.

The stars were beautiful, though a red lance of anger broke through the night sky, eliminating the third chopper.

"Typical field trip with t'X-men," Moira muttered, as she pulled out her kit, making a mental list of the injuries.

"Get us home," Scott ordered, rushing over and taking Neena from Meetra, "I've got you."