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ax_mainX-Force invades a Right facility in Texas, freeing three prisoners and bringing the roof down.
(Long log. Very long.)
24 hours out in the Texas desert had been...well, 24 hours in the Texas desert. Scott guessed that kind of said it all. He hefted his backpack over his shoulders, his visor, and notes on the facility inside, and made his way with Jeanne towards the rendezvous point.
This facility they were hitting was a pit; it almost felt like a trap. Underground, with fuck-only-knew-the-extent build out. Even the best surveillance - and with such limited time, this probably didn't qualify as that - could only get them so much. Still, what he and Jeanne had gotten was a start, and they couldn't exactly afford to waste time. "Should get there in another 10 minutes," he murmured to his traveling companion.
Jeanne merely nodded to Scott's assessment on time. Her estimation of the facility was one of cautious hope. Its apparent smaller staff hinted at an overall smaller complex; smaller quarters were something in which she excelled. She had her escrima sticks in a special holster attached to her thigh, and while Cyclops could no doubt handle any threat at range, she still longed for a firearm to help cover him if need be.
She had her smart watch counting down their shift changes; she'd at least be able to monitor that. She was eager, she had to admit, to show what she could do to the others, but she had to be mindful to not think herself as more important than anyone else; her role in surveillance had been important, but she was certain that Scott had been just as essential. "It feels ... good, to have finally been chosen for a mission." That was the best attempt she felt she could make at conversation.
"Better than sitting home and just having to hear about it later," Scott agreed as they approached their destination. "But it means you've done competently in training,"
The scrubby mesquite tree didn't provide a whole lot in the way of either cover or shade, but it was still better than waiting for Scott and Jeanne out in the open. Teddy shaded his eyes against the setting sun and raised a hand when he recognized the two figures moving in their direction. He stepped back to join Duo and Billy, his nerves tingling with anticipation.
Teddy'd buried the stress of being chosen to lead a team on his first actual mission; now it was all about getting the job done right. He'd done lots of this kind of thing in games, right? Piece of cake. (Only this time there was no GM to bribe or saving throw to redo if something went wrong. High stakes. No problem. Sure. Just look confident.)
"They're coming back," he reported. "Looks like we're up."
That was something Duo wasn’t sure they wanted to be up, but they nodded anyway. There were a few kids at the other end of this who needed help after all; what they personally wanted at the moment was of absolutely no importance. Besides, the sooner they got this under way, the sooner Duo could grab a host to shield themselves and shield this awful feeling of being vulnerable to whatever was coming their way.
“I’m ready.” They smiled brightly, trying to chase off the worries.
“Great.” Billy replied a little sarcastically, nerves starting to hitch up as he shook out his hands to get ready to work his magic. He defeated demons in fucking Limbo, he can help get a few kids out of this hell-hole. He waited until Jeanne and Scott were with them and bit his lip. “Please tell me you have some info on the guards for me. Like color of uniform and shit.”
Last thing they needed was to walk in with navy blue when the guards wore something like Columbian blue.
"Physical descriptions, uniform colors, and so forth," Jeanne said. "This would, admittedly, be easiest if a telepath could pull the images directly from my head. I could give approximations of alpha-numeric hue values to a computer, but those tend to be less useful to individuals," Jeanne pointed out. "I also have my watch synchronized to when their shifts switch. We should be able to use that information to infiltrate."
Scott pulled out his cell phone and accessed the pictures he'd taken of the guards and what was visible of the facility before handing it off to Billy. "Their uniforms all matched these, as far as I could tell." Which wasn't as good of info as he'd like to give, but he was colorblind so they'd just have to make do and he'd rely on Jeanne to correct any inaccuracies. "They're running three eights for their shift schedule, so once we get in we should have another full eight hours 'til shift change."
Teddy looked over Billy's shoulder to get a glimpse of the uniforms, and he frowned. Concentrating, he shifted to look like the guy in the picture, his torso adapting to look like he was wearing the uniform jacket under his own jacket and the light body armor they'd been given for this run. He'd chosen dark pants to wear on the mission just in case they'd be close enough to pass muster, and as long as anyone didn't look at his legs too closely, he'd probably be alright. "How long do we have before the next shift change?" he asked, sending his voice deeper, more grown-up, and then shifting his face slightly again to settle into someone who wasn't a carbon-copy of a guy already on base. New guards were one thing, showing up as a twin or a clone was another.
"Two hours, thirty six minutes," Jeanne said, having checked her watch and waited for the moment that she'd be precisely on the minute.
Great. What were they going to do for the next two hours before it was time to start moving? Go a little bit stir-crazy, Teddy assumed. He nodded anyway, letting go of the test-shift and sliding back to himself. "What do you think, Bee?" he asked quietly, nodding to the photos on Scott's phone. "Is that enough to work from?"
Billy studied the picture on Scott’s phone, looking over every detail that could possibly get them in trouble if he missed. “Yeah. I think this is good and Scott gave me enough pictures of different guys so the ones that need disguises have a choice.”
He looked up at the group and counted. Scott, Jeanne and him would need it, Duo was possessing and Teddy was shifting, so three. Okay, yeah. He could do three. With a nod he took the phone from Scott and looked between the two of them. “Who wants to go first? Duo, do you want anything for getting up there or are you good?”
The question was a small hit to Duo's pride. The idea that they, of all people, would need a disguise when they would shortly be able to give themself a better one than anyone else... But it was probably a safer bet. They nodded. "This is a little different from sneaking into someone on a crowded street. Best that I'm cautious."
"Okay," Teddy nodded. "That's disguises worked out. Next question is timing on getting in. How do they do shift changes?" He asked Scott and Jeanne, trying to anticipate the options. "Are the guards already on base, or do they show up shortly before their shifts? We're going to want to avoid running into anyone other than the gate guard for as long as possible, so that means steering clear of rush hour at the parking lot." He was itching to get moving, to be doing something physical already, but a good leader made sure he had all the information going in. And Teddy wanted desperately for this to work out well.
"They seem to at least partially live off-site," Scott reported. "Groups of people began arriving 15 to 30 minutes before shift-change."
He was quiet for a moment, thoughtful, before offering, "Educated guess? They go through some kind of security when they get inside, and they don't get paid the moment they get on lot, they get paid starting when they get in. So whatever security they've got, it takes around 15 minutes to clear."
"I agree with Cyclops's assessment," Jeanne added, having done the math similarly. "If I can find access to their security systems, I may be able to disable any automated countermeasures they may have," she said, mindful of the possibility of that sort of thing. "And I may also be able to acquire any pertinent data they have on hand," she added.
Teddy paused for a moment, sorting through all the information. "Okay," he decided aloud. "We'll disguise up here and time our approach to get there for ten minutes before shift change. Duo tags the gate guard and uses him to get the rest of us through. The trick there will be making sure you're not in line of any cameras while you're - um. Going from two people in the booth to one. An EM pulse would be awesome here," Teddy added wistfully, "but we can't risk anyone noticing any issues with the systems before we're in."
His hand dropped unconsciously to tangle his fingers with Billy's for a moment, drawing focus from his nearness. "Once Duo gets us past the gate, Billy, Scott and I find wherever they're holding their prisoners. Duo and Jeanne split off and find a way in to the computer systems. We need automated countermeasures shut down," he nodded at her in recognition of her suggestion, letting go of Billy's hand. "Anything you can get about who's being held here and in what rooms, and then a data dump. But first priority has to be getting to the kids who are here right now and getting out clean."
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From his vantage point by the road, Teddy watched as the last couple of guards flashed their id badges and headed through the gate, one stopping to exchange a couple of words with the guard in his open-window booth. Once they were in, Teddy nodded to the others, their disguises turning them into a group of hopefully unremarkable uniformed guards just like the ones who had just passed into the facility.
"Okay. Let's do it."
That was Duo's cue, so they nodded and started up toward the gate. They'd played with half a dozen things to say to the guard at the booth, but had absolutely no confidence in their ability to step into him without being caught by the cameras. Unless they could get into the booth, and how would they manage that? Well, they were at the booth now, so it was time to find out.
They stepped up the to the window, and a bored looking middle-aged man stared back at them. He looked down at Duo's chest, then back up at their face and narrowed his eyes. "Where's your ID?"
Ah yes, the bit of small detail that Billy couldn't fill in. Duo looked down at their chest. "I, uh, lost it. I need to see someone about getting a new one."
"Fucking hell," snarled the man. "The shit they hire these days." He reached under the small platform and there was a buzz from above the door beside the window. "Get in here then. You've got paperwork to do."
Really? Just like that they were in? "In there?"
The guard rolled his eyes. "You don't think I'm letting you in with no fucking ID, do you?"
Not quite believing their luck, Duo nodded, opened the door and stepped in. Except luck wasn't exactly the right word because between them and the guard was a steel half-door with a small ledge at the top and above that, some sort of glass or plastic window. To get at him, they'd have to get past that.
The guard pushed a piece of paper through a small opening just above the ledge. "There's a pen in that basket on the wall. Get writing because you've got about another 10 of those to go through."
Duo groaned. "Is that really required, or are they just making sure I never lose it again?"
The guard snorted but went back to staring out the window.
All right, so far so good. What now? Duo started writing, filling in the blanks with random nonsense while they tried to think of their next step. Getting the man out of his secure post seemed like a longshot, but maybe they didn't to get him out. There was that small opening after all. It was certainly small enough for Duo to shove their fingers through if only they could get the man close enough. Maybe when they passed back the form, or - Duo looked an the pen - maybe now. They smiled, gave the pen a shake, then tapped on the window.
"Sorry about this, but the pen isn't working anymore. Have you got another I could use?"
The guard shot him a dirty look before grabbing one from his desk and when he reached to push it through the opening, Duo was ready. It was only the lightest of touches, but it was enough. In the space of a moment they felt the wrenching shift from themself to the other and then, back to to themself as they settled into their host. After months of not using their power, it felt good. It felt doubly good to be inside someone they had no obligation to protect because whatever happened to this body today was nothing that was going to haunt Duo. They leaned out the window just a little and tapped the sill to signal the rest that it was safe to come out.
Here went nothing. Cyclops had confidence in his team, he did, but he was headed into a situation with a hostile force in which he had no degree of control. He'd been more nervous than this in his life, to be sure, but he wasn't exactly calm either. Still. This was the plan. He was going to execute it. His visor was on and secured, and Billy was hopefully keeping him well-disguised.
He walked up to the gate, with the confidence and boredom of someone who did this every day, flashing a small, light colored piece of paper. From distance, and through low-quality feed, it would look to the casual watcher like any of the legitimate guards who had just entered. Cyclops doubted anyone would be looking any closer at that footage until they were already on their way out.
Billy prayed to God above as he moved behind Scott, who now was taller, heavier and blond, as flashed his fake badge at Duo as well. He was amazed at Duo’s ability, but tried not to stare at the man who now had his teammate...inside him? Ugh. Okay keep going, Kaplan. Billy clipped the fake badge to his pocket and glanced back to watch the rest of their team move in, their magic disguises working well for now, thank fuck.
They were going to have to split up soon and he hopped Jeanne’s disguise kept while he was away from her.
Jeanne repeated the same motions that the others had, though not too closely. Bored, mechanical. Uninterested. Those were the things she was trying to go with. She managed it, she would say, admirably as she flashed her fake ID to the guard who had been possessed by Shinigami. She was glad her illusory, magical disguise had made it so that her escrima sticks could still be concealed until she needed them. Not that she couldn't handle herself without them, it was just that they were a tool, and useful ones at that.
Eventually, they were going to have to split up inside the facility, and Jeanne was only slightly uneasy at that prospect. However, Shinigami had proven their capability, and she'd welcome their company. All that was left now was to get Hulkling and Shinigami inside.
Hulkling followed them in, scanning the road behind them while trying not to look like he was covering the rear flank. Pretending to be unstressed was harder than it looked. He paused at the booth and nodded as he flashed his not-ID, hopefully convincingly for the cameras. "And here comes your shift relief," Hulkling muttered, nodding back over Shinigami's shoulder at the pair of guards approaching at a casual pace. "Now's probably a good time to salute and get the heck out of here."
"I agree," whispered Duo. They didn't watch Hulkling head in, instead scouring the booth for clues on how exactly to get out of it. It didn't take long since the button was clearly labeled with a well-aged sticky note, and when their relief arrived it was a smooth process to switch places. Outside the booth Duo gave the man and wave and followed the rest of the team into the facility. All they could do was hope that none of that seemed suspicious to the new gate guard.
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Trusting that the others were behind him - a guard just entering shift wouldn't need to be checking over his shoulder, and it was the little things that could get you caught - Scott strolled in like he knew exactly where he was going. Years of learning to lie, well-used he mused to himself. He did glance around as he entered. On his left appeared to be the an entrance to some staff rooms; the door wasn't metal or otherwise heavy-looking and was propped open. To his right was a hallway that was stark, empty, and clean. And in front of him was some kind of sallyport. His side of it was open, of course, but included barred metal doors. Once he entered, someone would have to open the other side, which was another barred metal door, this one locked.
Either they'd have to take their chances with looking legitimate enough to fool whoever was operating the sallyport (presumably there was a control window he couldn't see from his vantage point), or they'd have to roll the dice with the long hallway. Unsure what Teddy preferred, Cyclops dropped down and pretended to tie his shoe so that the others had time to catch up.
"Okay..." Splitting the party was the moment the GM started cackling in every game Teddy'd ever played, but there really wasn't much help for it. "The prisoners are going to be behind the strongest fortifications," he said quietly, coming up to join the others in the hall. He paused and looked down at Cyclops - at least he was pretty sure he knew which of the disguises was Cyclops - shaking his head to look like he was giving the slow guy some grief for stopping. "Staff rooms and security, probably separate. We have to assume they've doubled-down on security features since the other escapes. Shinigami and Finesse, try the hallway and see what you can find. We'll try storming the castle."
"Alright," Jeanne murmured, fluidly moving toward the hallway as if she belonged. Even if she'd been out of disguise, she would've walked this way. She was ready for trouble, regardless of what happened. She didn't stop to see if Shinigami was following, but she was remaining aware of her surroundings, making note of security cameras as she walked, keeping mindful of lines of sight just in case something out of the ordinary happened.
Billy started moving down the opposite hallway that Jeanne had, taking a cue from Scot-er-Cyclops, and acting as if he wasn’t trying to have a conversation with the rest of the group for the cameras. He tried to remember what they had discussed lay out wise and glanced back at his team quickly. “Hey! Stop lolligagging. You can chit chat on your brake.”
He waved them over with an arm that was too long to be his and prayed to god that if the cameras picked up sound that he sounded like a disgruntled man annoyed with his co-workers.
Duo followed along, oddly enjoying the feeling of being tucked into a different body again. This man felt tall, strong, and healthy; it was very easy to find his pace and balance as they walked along and divorced of all the ethical concerns that usually dogged them (because this was someone who supported awful things), they could relax into their power in a way they hadn't before. But maybe that wasn't such a good thing right now when they were in the middle of a dangerous rescue. Duo refocused on keeping up with the rest.
Cyclops finished fake-tying his shoe, and stood. Alright. If it was going to get hairy before they got near the prisoners, it would be here. He stepped into the sallyport, and surreptitiously glanced at the two sides. Neither had a control window; it must all be being done remotely. Scott wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad. Still, apparently whoever was in charge of maintaining security in the sallyport wasn't paying the closest attention, and was fooled by their disguises well enough. The door behind them slammed shut and locked, the one in front buzzed loudly and then began to open. Here goes nothing.
Either they were being let in, or they were about to get boxed in and kept until they could be taken prisoner themselves. Teddy held his breath until the door in front of them began to open, letting it out in a relieved puff of air. Come on. An actual guard wouldn’t do that. Think casual. They were cut off from Jeanne and Duo for real now, and Teddy’s nerves started to settle into determination.
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Jeanne was fortunate enough to find herself entering the security room at the end of the hallway she'd been sent down. The door she ended up going through was apparently the security room, which she surveyed. A couple of men, suited much the same as they were, were sitting in office chairs; one had his heels up on the counter next to his keyboard as he watched security feeds. She was seeing the others enter the area beyond where they'd split up, and things looked like they were going well... for now, Jeanne kept in mind. Hopefully whatever system they were using was on a LAN, and any data stored on site she could access through the network, potentially.
If not, she'd have to improvise.
She approached the man who had his feet up. "You're being relieved," Jeanne announced, though she was ready to spring into action if need be. Hopefully, between herself and Duo, they could keep things quiet if they needed to take these two men out.
The man looked up at Jeanne and squinted. "Why? And where's the paperwork?"
Duo sighed, trying to sound as annoyed as possible. "About 20 minutes behind us. There was a fuck up" They gave the words as much weight as possible, hoping that the men would fill in what exactly the fuck up might have been in their own minds. "You can wait if you'd like, but we're here regardless."
The other guard raised his eyebrow at his partner. "That's a good break. I could have a smoke and we could get back here to check out the forms after."
"Then go smoke," the other replied. "I'll just wait; got nothin' better to do," the other replied, folding his arms behind his head as he watched the screen.
The other guard produced a pack of cigarettes and started to fish one out as he got up and left, passing Duo without any kind of suspicion evident. So they were down to one. Jeanne glanced momentarily at the now-empty chair and then to Duo, and then looked back to the guard she was in front of. The other guard was out of the room, but it was entirely possible he'd be back in, if he'd forgotten something.
She waited a minute, watching the progress of the others as they went. She needed to access the security systems, and shut things down remotely if need be. Expedience was important, but so was secrecy. Jeanne wouldn't be the one to blow their cover if she could help it. She turned and took a few steps back, acting as if she was going to go sit in the other chair, before turning, spinning, and delivering a kick to the side of the remaining guard's head. He didn't even make any kind of vocalization as he hit the ground, out cold.
"We're officially on a timer," Jeanne announced to Duo, quietly. "Twenty minutes or less. Cover the door," she requested as she sat down and began to navigate the security setup.
Duo nodded and took up a position by the door. "If the other person comes back early, I can jump to him to quiet him, but you'll have to do something about my present host. He'll be disoriented for a bit so it shouldn't be too hard." Not at hard at all judging by the body on the floor. They hadn't even realized what Jeanne was doing until the guard had hit the ground.
"Noted," Jeanne replied, figuring there would be some sort of signal other than just the door opening, but she got to work anyway. There were automated containment protocols in place, it seemed. If an alarm was triggered, the place would fortify itself significantly. Not significantly enough to contain someone like Cyclops, or any other energy projector worth much of anything, but enough that it would be a pain to get out. Not to mention it seemed like there were other, more insidious measures in place... all of which she was in the process of taking down. Security camera feeds were recorded... along with lots of other things. She reached into her illusory disguise to produce a thumb drive, which she plugged in. She started to go to work on getting the data while also dealing with what countermeasures she felt safe taking down before they activated. She didn't want to accidentally trip any kind of alarm.
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The door finished opening and Teddy stepped out, his heart sinking. He’d been hoping for another hallway, maybe some barred doors that Cyclops could blow open and then they could bail. What they faced instead was more akin to a nurse’s station crossed with a security booth, a wider, open area with a curved desk in the middle, monitors side by side and mounted to the walls above. A group of guards was already there, one slinging his jacket on over his shoulders, the butt of a gun glinting in the holster at his side.
“Bee,” Teddy murmured quietly, as the door slammed closed behind them and a couple of the guys looked over. “We’re not the droids they’re looking for?” To the onlookers, he just gave what he hoped looked like a curt nod.
“I am no Obi-Wan.” Billy muttered back, but if one of his powers included some kind of mind manipulation now was the time to try. Jesus Herman Christ how was he even going to do this? He took a deep breath and stepped forward, hitching up one shoulder and giving a small wave. “Been a slow night?” He immediately muttered under his breath for them to believe it three times, his heart stopping when his hands glowed soft blue before going back to normal.
The guards watched him for a moment, before going back to cleaning up their station and getting ready. “Yeah,” The one with their jacket on replied. “The inmates have been pretty quiet. Got a lot of my reading done though, so can’t complain.”
Billy felt like throwing up in shock that it seemed like it had worked and tried to give some kind of cocky smile, but frowned when one of the guards seemed to be staring hard at Scott. He turned to look too, not seeing anything weird and froze when the guard spoke up.
“Jones...you dye your hair? It looks...darker?”
When you had nothing good in your hand to play, all you could really do was bluff. "Huh," he said. He looked upward, as though seeing something unusual about the fluorescent lights. "Must be a trick of the light. Weird."
And now was definitely time for Teddy to do something to break the moment of awkward that was growing in the room. They only had a few minutes before the real second shift showed up, which meant getting rid of these guys and getting out, fast. "You're not fooling anyone. Just let it go gray already," Teddy snorted in derision, folding the character of a thirty-year-old bonehead rent-a-cop around himself. He stole a glance at the monitors over the desks. Some empty cells, some with people. Two - no, three prisoners. If they were lucky, they'd all be in the same hallway too. There weren't any windows on any of the doors that he could see, so maybe, just maybe... "Come on. Time to get the headcount over with." Teddy gestured toward the hall leading to the cells. "Don't trust the monitors, I want visual confirmation on everyone."
The guard who'd been staring at Scott turned his frown on Teddy. "What for? That's not standard protocol." Billy's spell seemed to be holding on the other two, at least for the moment, but that wouldn't last if a fight started.
It figured it wouldn't be that easy.
"New protocol," Teddy improvised, moving with totally feigned confidence toward the cell block. What would a guard say in this kind of situation? One who hated mutants enough to forget the fact that they were just kids. "Orders from up top. You know what kind of spooky shit these k- freaks can get up to."
"Yeah, I'm going to have to get confirmation for any kind of SOP change. It's not mealtime, it sure as hell isn't playtime, and no-one opens those doors without authorization." The guard started to move, hand dropping to rest more securely on his belt. He wasn't reaching for the gun, not yet, but his hackles were definitely up.
This was going to hell quickly. Shit only knew if it would work, but they needed to at least try to regain control of this situation. "Orders right from the top. Dr. Essex." He said seriously.
The guard stopped moving when he heard the name -- one Teddy didn't recognize. Scott must have pulled it from the files from the other sites; good one. Whoever the Essex guy was, the guard had practically gone pale at the idea of crossing him, and he backed off. "In that case," he muttered, shaking his head. "Do whatever it is you have to do."
Teddy exhaled, trying to keep it quiet, and he nodded like this was what he'd expected to have happen. "Come on," he ordered Scott and Billy's disguises. "Let's get this over with." And he headed for the entrance to the cell block, walking past the central desk to get there.
That had felt too easy, even with Essex's name thrown out there, but Cyclops couldn't put a finger on what was wrong. So instead he simply headed towards the cell block to do what they'd come to do.
Billy blew out a quiet sigh of relief as they made their way to the cells, frowning a little when he saw that they were still locked and glanced up at the cameras. “Ah, fuck it.”
He placed his hand on the nearest cell, hoping that the sparks coming from his hands weren’t too noticeable and grinned when he heard the heavy bolt move. Thank you electronic locks. He stepped back and gripped the door, pulling it open and looking inside. “Hello?”
Cal looked up when the door opened, frowning at the unknown guard. He had been lying on the bed, a hand under his head, but now he shifted to his feet, a tall, fit boy whose slightly tousled hair was probably due another crop soon, with a metal device strapped around his neck. "Where's Sandra?"
Not that she was called Sandra (probably), but he'd had to start calling his handler something, and they hadn't seemed to mind. The point was, she was usually here when they opened that door for any reason that wasn't meal time.
“Hey, uh, no. Not Sandra.” Billy answered almost apologetically. He made a come here motion with his hand and gave the blond a bit of a pleading look, but who knew how well that looked on his ugly disguise. “We’re here to get you guys out, but we have to hurry before they figure out something is up.”
He turned towards Teddy and Scott and made a motion towards the other cells with his head. “I think I disabled most of them, go get the others.”
The next cell down the line was closest to Teddy. He grabbed the door handle and gestured for Scott to head for the last one in the row. Something was happening behind them, radios crackling, and it was only a matter of seconds now before one of the real guards realized something was seriously wrong.
Teddy pulled the door open and took a step inside.
By the second day after Billy woke up, it had been clear that there would be no food coming. He'd started conserving his energy then. He stayed in bed, keeping as warm as he could, only getting up to get water from the sink and use the commode. No pacing. No exercise, save subtle stretching to keep himself limber.
The world had gone to pieces around him. He couldn't trust that the routines which had defined his life for so long would ever re-establish themselves. And it didn't matter at all.. All he cared about was finding Goody, and making sure he was all right. Letting him know he was all right, and none of it was his fault.
The only thing Goody had done was help him wake him up. He wasn't to blame for any of the damage the guards had done to him; as far as Billy was concerned, it had been worth it.
And Goodnight hadn't gotten Billy killed. He'd thrown him a lifeline. Billy had to let him know that.
The guards hadn't left him collared. That wasn't usual either; he almost never had access to his powers when he was alone. The handlers were probably waiting to see if he attacked the door or tried to escape. He wasn't going to let them think he cared. Not until they opened the door. Then they'd see it was their worst mistake to leave him able to fight, no matter how weak they tried to make him.
The door opened.
Billy flowed to his feet, ignoring the wave of vertigo that came with the motion. The hot prickle of energy ran under his skin, and he released a small cluster of blades at the guard. Three sharp-edged slips of gleaming, silver light shot out, one embedding itself shallowly in armor over the guard's heart, another slicing deep into the flesh of his upper bicep, and the last into his shoulder, dangerously close to the base of his neck.
Billy sprinted past while the guard was off-balance, hopefully dying. There were others in the hallway; he'd make sure of them. Billy silently willed two knives to his hands and started to close with the nearest of them, the one between him and the next corridor of cells.
Pain shot bright through Teddy's shoulder, his arm- "Shit," he hissed, stumbling back and grabbing at the knives- only for his hand to close on nothing. The burning tingle of healing swept through and over him, closing the wounds before they could do more than get messy, blood staining his hand bright red. He sucked in air and steadied himself, chasing out of the room after the prisoner to try and stop him before he got too far. "Stand down, it's okay!" He tried to keep his voice low, but was there a point any more?
A look down the hall as Teddy skidded out of the door showed him none of the chaos had been missed - and worse yet, the big armoured door to the rest of the base was opening, and fast. Screw it. "We're the cavalry, we're here to rescue you. And I think that's our cover blown."
He'd realized even before he'd gotten there that the last cell was empty, but Cyclops didn't have time to report that back or, really, do much of anything with that information. Teddy was hit, and one of their rescuees was headed Scott's way.
This was going to hell quickly - Cyclops supposed it had only been a matter of time - and he brought his hand up to his visor. His magical disguise might hide the device itself from watchers, but the strange gesture would be obvious. Too late to go back now.
"You okay, Hulkling?" He called out, though his eyes remained trained on the kid sweeping his way towards him.
He'd been quick with those knives, and accurate, which made him a formidable threat. But he was the slightest bit off-balance - injured, or sick, or drugged, or a combination - and Cyclops was wearing Kevlar. Scott figured the odds were skewed in his favor.
Get them out? Cal watched the stranger with undisguised wariness, even as he talked to some other people outside - what he managed to overhear from the others lended credence to this dude's words, but mind games wouldn't be proper mind games if they were poorly thought out. "Yeah, right. I'm not playing this one. What the fuck, man? I've been good." He'd behaved, and he'd done everything they'd asked of him, because he didn't want to go back to staying locked in his cell unless he was in training. He'd fucking behaved, and now this?
Billy glanced over to watch Teddy stumble out of the other cell, red all over his shoulder. Blood, Billy’s mind helpfully supplied and he had to stop himself from running over. Teddy healed. He was fine. The inmate was going for Scott, but Billy let out a breath when the guy seemed slow. Scott could handle him right?
He turned back to the one in the cell and held up his hands. “Look, I’m sure you have been good or whatever, but I really don’t care about that. I’m trying to get you out of here.”
But why would he believe guard? Billy bit his lips and muttered the spell away, blue light running over him and Scott, taking the disguises off easily. He held out his hand to Cal and gave him best pleading look. “I’m here to rescue you.”
Shit, okay. Cal's heart started beating double time as he watched the guard change into another kid. He could be with them. This could still be... Fuck, he really wanted it to be real. He took a couple of steps forward, curling his hand around the collar he wore and giving it a tug. "Get this fucking thing off of me, then." He didn't care how. If they did it, it had to be real, right? They wouldn't risk unleashing him against their own men, would they? Fuck it, he'd take it if it meant he could take out some of those assholes.
Billy eyed the heavy duty collar, wondering if he could just fry the thing without getting the guy shocked as well. “Okay, move your hand.”
He moved closer slowly, holding up his hands, before reaching out so only his pointer finger touched the collar. He focused, blue electricity going from the tip of his fingers to the collar and shorting it out bad enough the electronic lock came undone. “Alright. Let’s go.”
Scott's disguise vanished as the next shift of guards came running into the main security area down the hall, and Teddy gave up on the idea of subterfuge. Three -- there had been three prisoners on the monitors and only two in these cells. "Finesse, Shinigami," he called over the comm. "We've been made and there's still someone here somewhere. Can you find them?"
He ran to put himself between the others and the guards and dropped his own disguise as he went. He shifted straight from jerk-guard to almost-nine-feet-tall green Hulkling under the Kevlar body-armour, yelled in wordless rage, and unfurled his full wingspan.
Make an intimidation roll. Come on, natural 20...
Hulkling turning on the guards was the last proof Billy needed to believe these strangers were sincere. He turned and bolted down the corridor, trusting he wouldn't get a bullet in the back.
Billy's heart pounded in his ears; already he was light-headed from exertion. He didn't know that Goodnight's keeper hadn't moved him to a new cell as they had him. But he didn't think they would. It would probably hurt Goody more to stay in a space he'd shared with Billy. So they wouldn't have moved him.
It didn't matter. It didn't matter what the strangers at his back wanted after they got them out either. He wasn't leaving without Goody. If he wasn't in his cell, Billy would keep looking. And nothing was getting in his way.
The sight of a guard stationed in front of Goody's cell was the most welcome sight Billy could have hoped for; you didn't guard an empty cell. The commotion had alerted her, though; she had her sidearm out and raised it to fire as Billy drew near. A burst of energy seemed to well up from Billy's very core. A storm of gleaming knives erupted from the air before him and tore through the guard, shredding armor that had always been proof against his blades before. The arm holding the gun hit the ground; the rest of the body followed in a jerking, twitching heap.
Billy didn't bother trying to sidestep the blood. He skidded to a halt in front of Goody's cell, ducking to grab the guard's sidearm in one smooth motion. The lock was inert, and he wasted no time wresting the door open and dashing into the dimly-lit cell.
"Goody!"
Goodnight's head had been buzzing with the sounds from outside his cell--that danger was present was obvious, and he had no way of knowing who was being threatened and how... but it didn't feel like it was coming for him. So he'd sat on his bed and waited. Listened. Breathed.
When Billy's face appeared, followed by his voice, Goodnight could only stare for a moment. "A--Am I hallucinating?"
Billy pounced on the bed, landing close enough that he could feel Goody's breath on his skin. Goody was here, he was OK, and Billy was freshly dizzy with the sheer joy of that discovery, smiling wide enough to split his lower lip.
"No. No, it's me. I'm OK, and we're getting out of here." He glanced down at the gun in his hand. Something solid he could offer as proof that it wasn't all one more test. One more trick. He presented the weapon to Goody, grip first. "Come dance with me, mon ami?"
The accent was terrible, and Goody loved it. He wasn't sure if he was laughing or sobbing--probably both--but he burst out in something. With one hand, he accepted the gun. With the other arm, he grabbed Billy around the shoulders and pulled him in for a hug, then buried his face in Billy's neck.
This was probably all a dream. Billy was still dead. Goodnight was still dead inside. He'd wake up crying or something equally dismal. But fuck it, for now, Goody was gonna enjoy this, because it looked, felt, sounded, even smelled like Billy.
Billy hugged him back, more reflex than thought, but once he had Goody in his arms, he held on tight.
"I promise, Goody. I'm real. And I'm not letting you get hurt again." He stood and towed Goodnight out of his cell, back toward the strange mutants in the hallway. "This is Goodnight. He's coming with us." The light-headed feeling was getting worse. It was harder to keep his feet, but it was going to be OK. He could do this.
"Goodnight Robicheaux. Charmed, I'm sure," Goody said with a wild kind of smile.
It was not just a little awesome to see two of the other captives step into the hallway when Cal did. Goody, at least, he'd talked with. The other kid, he'd only been pitted against, but still. It was fucking nice to see them. Were they all being tested together, or was this real? Not that it would change what Cal was about to do, not when that guy had just sprouted wings and grown... well, fuck. Why couldn't he mimic him?
"Hey, guys," he told the other two captives (former captives?) with an uptilt of his chin, and since he couldn't grab that one, he reached for all of the mutations within reach. His senses went into overdrive as soon as he started running towards the guards, and knives appeared in his hands, which already crackled with electricity. He flung his knives even as his vision went red, and he'd only just reached the side of the green winged guy when something - optic force, he immediately knew - exploded out in his field of vision. Guards were thrown back, and he could feel the force of the blast build up as seconds ticked by.
“And Goodnight makes three,” Teddy ended up calling back to the group at large. “Is there anyone else being held here? Cyclo-” Teddy glanced over at the detonation, expecting to see Scott beside him, but apparently not so much.
One of the prisoners was firing off Scott’s optic blasts, had Billy’s electricity sparking around him - and yeah, those looked a lot like the knives that had been sticking into Teddy a minute ago. Okay, that was interesting. “You’re not him!” But not-Scott was keeping the guards off of them for a precious few seconds.
Teddy whipped around to make sure that whatever this guy had done, the others were still on their feet and hadn't been stripped of their abilities.
Shit. The now-not-collared kid had...Scott's mutation somehow. And Billy's. And the knife-throwing-kid's. And none of Cyclops' appreciation for just how devastating the power of his optic blasts were. He blasted some guards back himself - they grunted and shouted, but given the options they damn well should've been thankful it wasn't lethal.
Kevlar wouldn't stop his beams. Neither would cement or steel. "If you hit one of us with those, we go down too," he warned not-collared-kid. "Same for the building."
It took Cal a few moments longer before he managed to figure out how to switch the optic blasts off, and by that time, a few guards were pretty definitely dead. His eyes remained red as he glanced at the kid who'd just used the same mutation. What was up with the visor? "Well, maybe the building deserves to go down." Just, not while they were still inside it, probably. Mostly he wanted to find Sandra and show her what he could do now.
So, of course, when the next round of guards came rushing in and raised their guns, Cal unleashed the full power of that guy's optic force all over again. He was done playing nice.
There was no making sense of the chaos, so Goodnight just nodded his hellos to his rescuers and Cal, then let his Billy lead the way. When the onrush of guards smashed into Cal, Goody spun to cover his back. He caught a flash of a lab coat. Felt a surge of danger that focused and amped him—that came FROM him. He raised his sidearm and squeezed off a shot, not even thinking.
As she spun, blood spurting from a head wound, Goodnight met her gaze. Hoped his old handler saw who it was took her down. She’d trained him to do it, after all. Under his breath, he whispered, “Goodnight,” and nodded at Billy.
Then he went back to making sure their backs were covered.
Billy grinned back at Goody even as his head swam and the edges of his vision went gray. He tried to focus past it, even managed to project a knife into one of stragglers coming up the corridor behind them. But when the building shook from the force of the optic blasts taking out the main body of guards, he fell. Billy managed to catch himself, going down to just one knee. His limbs shook with the effort it took just to keep from going the rest of the way to the floor; trying to stand put him back down, harder than before.
Suddenly, getting out seemed a lot less likely than it had when he'd been standing in Goody's cell.
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The radio at Duo’s shoulder crackled to life. “We have a code yellow in the containment area. I repeat we have a code yellow in the containment area.”
Jeanne heard the radio go off, and that prompted her to take a few seconds from her typing, move to the guard on the floor who was still unconscious, and quickly strip his sidearm, removing the slide and magazine from the weapon. She could assemble it again just as quickly if she needed to, but it was enough to keep him from opening fire if he took them by surprise somehow. She began typing again.
Whatever locks Billy hadn't disabled with his tricks, Jeanne set to disabling. She was also in the process of overriding the security measures that the code yellow brought online, and also keeping things from escalating further. She trusted Duo to keep the door held for the moment. She still had data to gather, and the dump was in progress.
This would, of course, be the moment the other guard returned. He was coming down the hall with a determined look on his face that told Duo he'd likely heard exactly what they had on his own radio. They glanced at Jeanne but she working furiously at the console. Considering how much the others relied on what she was doing, there was no way they were going to interrupt. Duo stepped out into the hall.
"Did you hear?"
The man nodded, but slowly. He was suspicious. Well, Duo could wait a moment and hope that he'd chalk their unscheduled appearance up to coincidence, or they could deal with it now. As soon as he was within reach, Duo dove at him.
He tried to push Duo off, but all Duo needed was a small patch of skin, and they found it when the tip of their fingers brushed his cheek. After that, the guard could no more push them away then he could push his own arm away, and a moment later, his body belonged to Duo. Duo pulled the guard's gun out of his holster and pointed it at his former host.
"Finesse! Do I shoot, or can you put him down?"
Jeanne's response was rather immediate; she'd heard the exchange of words in the hall, and she'd reached a stopping point in her typing to push herself up and be ready to help. She was glad she did, and she pulled Duo's former host off of himself, glad that the man was still staggered by the disorientation of possession ending in his system, because it made what followed a hell of a lot easier. She kneed him directly in the stomach, and when he doubled over, she struck him in the back of the head with an overhand swing.
"Get him in the room," Jeanne requested, glancing down the hall for anyone coming. "I've almost finished doing what I can for security systems. Everything else is waiting for data extraction."
Duo put the gun back in its holster, marveling at how little the idea of shooting the man bothered them. If Jeanne had wanted them to, they would have have squeezed the trigger and watched the bullet tear through his face. Then again, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise. Blowing a hole in the skull of man complicit in this facilities actions was their right as Shinigami, wasn't it? Something to consider later.
Right now they need to get the gate guard out of sight. Duo grabbed an arm and dragged him in. They gave him a kick for good measure and went back to the door.
Jeanne's disguise began to melt as they re-entered the room, and she only spared her now undisguised hands a mildly frustrated look before heading back over to the console. "Your query has been answered already," Jeanne responded into her communicator, sitting once more and hoping the data dump was near completion. She had started a local wipe of data at the same time. "There is a significant amount of data here," she said, over the communicator. "I will need at least one more minute." Hopefully they would be able to buy her that much.
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"On it," Hulkling replied to Finesse through his comm, but was he? It had all gone to hell so quickly -- guards were everywhere, people were hurt, some were certainly dead, one of the prisoners they'd just rescued was collapsing, and Teddy had suddenly lost all semblance of control over the mission. This was not how things were supposed to go!
“Fall back and group up!” Teddy ordered at the top of his lungs, wheeling around to find Billy before everything got more confusing. “Wiccan, get everyone out of here, back to the rendezvous. I've got to buy Finesse more time.”
Billy could only stare at the multiple dead bodies while more guards just seemed to keep coming and HOLY SHIT this was chaos. He watched as one of the kids they rescued go down, moving over to help him when Teddy turned to him and ordered to get everyone out, but Teddy. “Are you kidding me? Leave you here in this?! You have to be stupid to think I would do that!”
Of course he was going to argue. Teddy shook his head. "I won't be here long. Get these guys out of here-" before they kill everyone in sight, "then come back for the rest of us."
Billy stared at him, ready to argue until he was blue in the face that this was a bad plan, but instead he sniffed and reached over to touch Teddy’s face. “You better be here when I get back. In one piece.”
Cal was getting the hang of this eye blast mutation, and it was fucking amazing. He flung a knife in the throat of a real life person the blast hadn't quite killed - it goes in like in the holograms - and had to wonder where the fuck Sandra could be. He didn't want to fall back and group up anywhere, but he was aware that he hadn't had the eye blast long enough to keep it going for long if he went out of range. Fine, then, but he wasn't going to leave without making the most of this opportunity. He thought of every beating, every treatment, everything he'd lost and the kids he'd never seen again. How they'd made him want to be good for them. They'd made him into this, and now they were going to reap what they'd sowed. He turned away from the group - he didn't want to hurt any of them - and pushed the damage up as much as he could, red flooding his sight as the blast started tearing through the facility itself.
"I'll watch your back, Hulkling!" Cyclops shouted over to their field leader, through the chaos, before turning back to the matter at hand.
Collarless kid was going to bring the building down on them, at the rate he was going, using Scott's mutation. If it was the real deal, though, there might be something he could do about that. Cyclops threw himself in the path of the other kid's beam, hoping. His rapid fire risk assessments accurate.
He and Collarless kid were up close and personal now - necessary to block as much of the beam as possible without physically putting the kid down - so Cyclops only had to raise his voice a little. "You're going to kill us just as much as them. Retreat, before the roof comes down on your head."
Wow, that guy was suddenly right there. Cal took a step back, instinctively shutting down the blast, although it - clearly hadn't done any damage to him, okay. He was breathing hard, and he looked around the guy at what damage he had done so far. It looked bad enough, with part of the ceiling cracked, and walls torn open. "Yeah," he agreed breathless, "fine, fine," and raised his hands in a sign of surrender before turning and jogging back to the rest of the group.
Back with the group, Hulkling nodded, grabbed and squeezed Wiccan's hand, hard. "You heard Cyclops - he's got my back. Now go, get everyone else out of here before the place does collapse."
Billy looked at the damage done, took one more look at Teddy with a frown before nodding and closing his eyes to focus on all those he needed to teleport. He muttered under his breath and with a flash of blue he and the kids they had set free were outside by the tree the mission had started at.
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Jeanne was watching the progress of the data extraction, and then the footage of her teammates liberating the prisoners. And then it all, as she suspected TJ might say, went to hell very, very quickly.
Something happened, and suddenly one of the prisoners had kinetic eye blasts much like, or rather exactly like Cyclops did, and he started blowing things up. If that kid wasn't careful, they'd bury all of them. She was certain that Hulkling and Wiccan would get them out.
"Shinigami. Head toward Wiccan and Hulkling's position," Jeanne instructed. "Use whatever force you deem necessary to get there. I will be close behind."
And then the power went out. Jeanne's hackles were already up, and she hissed as she saw her terminal go blank. She was relatively certain that the wipe would continue since she'd ordered it to be carried out server-side, rather than on her local terminal. However, the data dump would be incomplete. It would have to do.
"Correction. I will be following you," she said, picking up the flash drive and tucking it safely away in a secure pouch. She fished an escrima stick from its holster on her thigh, other hand available for grappling or picking up another weapon if need be. "We should move and go to Hulkling's position."
There was a questioning look for Duo from the first guard, but as soon as Jeanne attacked, his expression hardened and he fired. Fortunately, Duo dived between them just in time and his host took the bullet in the chest. The shot was lethal - They had time for one breath before they were violently shunted out, tripping forward towards the guard as the body he'd just been in fell back. The guard paled at the sight, hesitating just long enough for Duo to grab his wrist and give him a smile.
"Too slow." They taunted, and in the next moment the guard's body was theirs. The only problem was that Duo didn't want it, so they stepped out and took advantage of his momentary confusion by grabbing his gun and struck him on the side of his head with it. He went down, and Duo turned to grin at Jeanne.
"We should keep moving," Jeanne said, retrieving her escrima stick, and then giving the guard she'd downed a parting kick since she realized he was still moving a bit. "Turn right here." Jeanne was wearing body armor, sure, but Shinigami's hosts were at the very least disposable, and larger targets. Better to keep them in front. "We should see Hulkling in a few moments." If he hadn't moved, that was. Then again, it wasn't like this facility was particularly sprawling.
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Wiccan's magic flashed blue, the complex rumbling and crumbling around them. Then it was only Scott and Teddy again, and the guards that the rescuees hadn't killed. People were dead. More were going to die in a minute. They were undeniably evil -- but the price for that should be jail, not being crushed to death under a thousand pounds of rock.
"Get out of here or you're going to die!" Hulkling bellowed at them as he headed for the huge metal door, on the off chance that they'd listen- but no. Some of them were scrambling for the main door, same direction Teddy was headed in, and there came the guns again. "Run, you idiots, don't spend time shooting!"
A chunk of masonry fell from the ceiling behind him, and the guard who'd been suspicious from the start opened fire. Hulkling crossed his arms over his face, ducking his head. He focused on his front, shifting to make his skin thick -- super-thick, super durable, come on body armour -- the bullets bounced off, his skin only stinging like he'd been hit with a rubber band, and he yelped in surprise.
Cyclops followed up behind him, his long legs working overtime to get them to the door as quickly as possible. He felt the dull thud of a bullet glancing off the kevlar of his body armor. He jerked his head to the side, and saw the fucker who did it, shooting at him either unaware or uncaring that the wall behind him was about to come down on his head. Despite himself, he shouted out a warning and then kept running, triggering his visor and knocking down anyone who was angling to shoot their heads - there was a limit to his mercy, and he wasn't going to take stupid chances - as well as falling debris. He blasted the asshole who had just fired towards Hulking's face, knocking him to the floor. He also blasted a piece of ceiling that was about to crush the asshole, turning it into gravel.
Pebbles and dust sprayed around Hulkling's head, raining down on his shoulders and arms. If Billy homed in on them to teleport out, he was going to pop right in to a death trap -- that gave Teddy more than enough extra motivation to get moving again, barreling through the last couple of guards at the door and pushing out into the hallway. It wasn't any better out there, vast cracks opening up in the ceiling and walls, dust shaking down on them and billowing into the recirculated air.
Cyclops tried to recollect the limited blueprints they had managed to get as he and Hulkling booked it down the hallway. They needed to find a non-structural wall to blast through and out, because otherwise anyone who came to rescue them risked going down with the building. They couldn't ask Wiccan to evacuate them if there was a chance he wouldn't have the time. "Go left!" He shouted to Hulkling as they reached a fork. It would take them closer to the exterior walls, and allow him to blast through if they needed to.
Duo was running down the hallway just behind Jeanne when he heard Scott's shout coming from a side corridor up ahead. They only slowed for a moment, enough time to give Cyclops and Hulkling a lopsided grin, as they ran past. "Yes, you do NOT want to go right!" Their cheerfulness was just a little bit of a fraud; if the building came down, Duo would be just as flat as their host.
"Cyclops! Hulkling!" Jeanne called out, her voice only showing strict military discipline. "We have the data. We are ready for extraction," she explained.
"Your timing's perfect, we were just coming to get you," Teddy shouted back, relief evident in his voice. Now they just had to get the hell out of here. "Wiccan, we're all together. Pull us out," he sent over the comms. And -- because when was he ever going to get a chance like this one again? -- "Four to beam up."
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Billy heard the order in his ear and really hoped he didn’t take off anyone’s limbs or something and he closed his eyes. “Roger, Captain.”
Think of them right here! Picture them next to you! He focused on what the four of them looked like and muttered his spell under his breath, praying to god it worked. In a large burst of blue light the four were right beside the others and they had all their limbs!!
Teddy sucked in air that wasn't full of dust, trying his best to ignore the sounds of falling rock and screaming metal behind them. "Five X-Force, three rescues. All present and accounted for. Billy, take us home."
(Long log. Very long.)
24 hours out in the Texas desert had been...well, 24 hours in the Texas desert. Scott guessed that kind of said it all. He hefted his backpack over his shoulders, his visor, and notes on the facility inside, and made his way with Jeanne towards the rendezvous point.
This facility they were hitting was a pit; it almost felt like a trap. Underground, with fuck-only-knew-the-extent build out. Even the best surveillance - and with such limited time, this probably didn't qualify as that - could only get them so much. Still, what he and Jeanne had gotten was a start, and they couldn't exactly afford to waste time. "Should get there in another 10 minutes," he murmured to his traveling companion.
Jeanne merely nodded to Scott's assessment on time. Her estimation of the facility was one of cautious hope. Its apparent smaller staff hinted at an overall smaller complex; smaller quarters were something in which she excelled. She had her escrima sticks in a special holster attached to her thigh, and while Cyclops could no doubt handle any threat at range, she still longed for a firearm to help cover him if need be.
She had her smart watch counting down their shift changes; she'd at least be able to monitor that. She was eager, she had to admit, to show what she could do to the others, but she had to be mindful to not think herself as more important than anyone else; her role in surveillance had been important, but she was certain that Scott had been just as essential. "It feels ... good, to have finally been chosen for a mission." That was the best attempt she felt she could make at conversation.
"Better than sitting home and just having to hear about it later," Scott agreed as they approached their destination. "But it means you've done competently in training,"
The scrubby mesquite tree didn't provide a whole lot in the way of either cover or shade, but it was still better than waiting for Scott and Jeanne out in the open. Teddy shaded his eyes against the setting sun and raised a hand when he recognized the two figures moving in their direction. He stepped back to join Duo and Billy, his nerves tingling with anticipation.
Teddy'd buried the stress of being chosen to lead a team on his first actual mission; now it was all about getting the job done right. He'd done lots of this kind of thing in games, right? Piece of cake. (Only this time there was no GM to bribe or saving throw to redo if something went wrong. High stakes. No problem. Sure. Just look confident.)
"They're coming back," he reported. "Looks like we're up."
That was something Duo wasn’t sure they wanted to be up, but they nodded anyway. There were a few kids at the other end of this who needed help after all; what they personally wanted at the moment was of absolutely no importance. Besides, the sooner they got this under way, the sooner Duo could grab a host to shield themselves and shield this awful feeling of being vulnerable to whatever was coming their way.
“I’m ready.” They smiled brightly, trying to chase off the worries.
“Great.” Billy replied a little sarcastically, nerves starting to hitch up as he shook out his hands to get ready to work his magic. He defeated demons in fucking Limbo, he can help get a few kids out of this hell-hole. He waited until Jeanne and Scott were with them and bit his lip. “Please tell me you have some info on the guards for me. Like color of uniform and shit.”
Last thing they needed was to walk in with navy blue when the guards wore something like Columbian blue.
"Physical descriptions, uniform colors, and so forth," Jeanne said. "This would, admittedly, be easiest if a telepath could pull the images directly from my head. I could give approximations of alpha-numeric hue values to a computer, but those tend to be less useful to individuals," Jeanne pointed out. "I also have my watch synchronized to when their shifts switch. We should be able to use that information to infiltrate."
Scott pulled out his cell phone and accessed the pictures he'd taken of the guards and what was visible of the facility before handing it off to Billy. "Their uniforms all matched these, as far as I could tell." Which wasn't as good of info as he'd like to give, but he was colorblind so they'd just have to make do and he'd rely on Jeanne to correct any inaccuracies. "They're running three eights for their shift schedule, so once we get in we should have another full eight hours 'til shift change."
Teddy looked over Billy's shoulder to get a glimpse of the uniforms, and he frowned. Concentrating, he shifted to look like the guy in the picture, his torso adapting to look like he was wearing the uniform jacket under his own jacket and the light body armor they'd been given for this run. He'd chosen dark pants to wear on the mission just in case they'd be close enough to pass muster, and as long as anyone didn't look at his legs too closely, he'd probably be alright. "How long do we have before the next shift change?" he asked, sending his voice deeper, more grown-up, and then shifting his face slightly again to settle into someone who wasn't a carbon-copy of a guy already on base. New guards were one thing, showing up as a twin or a clone was another.
"Two hours, thirty six minutes," Jeanne said, having checked her watch and waited for the moment that she'd be precisely on the minute.
Great. What were they going to do for the next two hours before it was time to start moving? Go a little bit stir-crazy, Teddy assumed. He nodded anyway, letting go of the test-shift and sliding back to himself. "What do you think, Bee?" he asked quietly, nodding to the photos on Scott's phone. "Is that enough to work from?"
Billy studied the picture on Scott’s phone, looking over every detail that could possibly get them in trouble if he missed. “Yeah. I think this is good and Scott gave me enough pictures of different guys so the ones that need disguises have a choice.”
He looked up at the group and counted. Scott, Jeanne and him would need it, Duo was possessing and Teddy was shifting, so three. Okay, yeah. He could do three. With a nod he took the phone from Scott and looked between the two of them. “Who wants to go first? Duo, do you want anything for getting up there or are you good?”
The question was a small hit to Duo's pride. The idea that they, of all people, would need a disguise when they would shortly be able to give themself a better one than anyone else... But it was probably a safer bet. They nodded. "This is a little different from sneaking into someone on a crowded street. Best that I'm cautious."
"Okay," Teddy nodded. "That's disguises worked out. Next question is timing on getting in. How do they do shift changes?" He asked Scott and Jeanne, trying to anticipate the options. "Are the guards already on base, or do they show up shortly before their shifts? We're going to want to avoid running into anyone other than the gate guard for as long as possible, so that means steering clear of rush hour at the parking lot." He was itching to get moving, to be doing something physical already, but a good leader made sure he had all the information going in. And Teddy wanted desperately for this to work out well.
"They seem to at least partially live off-site," Scott reported. "Groups of people began arriving 15 to 30 minutes before shift-change."
He was quiet for a moment, thoughtful, before offering, "Educated guess? They go through some kind of security when they get inside, and they don't get paid the moment they get on lot, they get paid starting when they get in. So whatever security they've got, it takes around 15 minutes to clear."
"I agree with Cyclops's assessment," Jeanne added, having done the math similarly. "If I can find access to their security systems, I may be able to disable any automated countermeasures they may have," she said, mindful of the possibility of that sort of thing. "And I may also be able to acquire any pertinent data they have on hand," she added.
Teddy paused for a moment, sorting through all the information. "Okay," he decided aloud. "We'll disguise up here and time our approach to get there for ten minutes before shift change. Duo tags the gate guard and uses him to get the rest of us through. The trick there will be making sure you're not in line of any cameras while you're - um. Going from two people in the booth to one. An EM pulse would be awesome here," Teddy added wistfully, "but we can't risk anyone noticing any issues with the systems before we're in."
His hand dropped unconsciously to tangle his fingers with Billy's for a moment, drawing focus from his nearness. "Once Duo gets us past the gate, Billy, Scott and I find wherever they're holding their prisoners. Duo and Jeanne split off and find a way in to the computer systems. We need automated countermeasures shut down," he nodded at her in recognition of her suggestion, letting go of Billy's hand. "Anything you can get about who's being held here and in what rooms, and then a data dump. But first priority has to be getting to the kids who are here right now and getting out clean."
From his vantage point by the road, Teddy watched as the last couple of guards flashed their id badges and headed through the gate, one stopping to exchange a couple of words with the guard in his open-window booth. Once they were in, Teddy nodded to the others, their disguises turning them into a group of hopefully unremarkable uniformed guards just like the ones who had just passed into the facility.
"Okay. Let's do it."
That was Duo's cue, so they nodded and started up toward the gate. They'd played with half a dozen things to say to the guard at the booth, but had absolutely no confidence in their ability to step into him without being caught by the cameras. Unless they could get into the booth, and how would they manage that? Well, they were at the booth now, so it was time to find out.
They stepped up the to the window, and a bored looking middle-aged man stared back at them. He looked down at Duo's chest, then back up at their face and narrowed his eyes. "Where's your ID?"
Ah yes, the bit of small detail that Billy couldn't fill in. Duo looked down at their chest. "I, uh, lost it. I need to see someone about getting a new one."
"Fucking hell," snarled the man. "The shit they hire these days." He reached under the small platform and there was a buzz from above the door beside the window. "Get in here then. You've got paperwork to do."
Really? Just like that they were in? "In there?"
The guard rolled his eyes. "You don't think I'm letting you in with no fucking ID, do you?"
Not quite believing their luck, Duo nodded, opened the door and stepped in. Except luck wasn't exactly the right word because between them and the guard was a steel half-door with a small ledge at the top and above that, some sort of glass or plastic window. To get at him, they'd have to get past that.
The guard pushed a piece of paper through a small opening just above the ledge. "There's a pen in that basket on the wall. Get writing because you've got about another 10 of those to go through."
Duo groaned. "Is that really required, or are they just making sure I never lose it again?"
The guard snorted but went back to staring out the window.
All right, so far so good. What now? Duo started writing, filling in the blanks with random nonsense while they tried to think of their next step. Getting the man out of his secure post seemed like a longshot, but maybe they didn't to get him out. There was that small opening after all. It was certainly small enough for Duo to shove their fingers through if only they could get the man close enough. Maybe when they passed back the form, or - Duo looked an the pen - maybe now. They smiled, gave the pen a shake, then tapped on the window.
"Sorry about this, but the pen isn't working anymore. Have you got another I could use?"
The guard shot him a dirty look before grabbing one from his desk and when he reached to push it through the opening, Duo was ready. It was only the lightest of touches, but it was enough. In the space of a moment they felt the wrenching shift from themself to the other and then, back to to themself as they settled into their host. After months of not using their power, it felt good. It felt doubly good to be inside someone they had no obligation to protect because whatever happened to this body today was nothing that was going to haunt Duo. They leaned out the window just a little and tapped the sill to signal the rest that it was safe to come out.
Here went nothing. Cyclops had confidence in his team, he did, but he was headed into a situation with a hostile force in which he had no degree of control. He'd been more nervous than this in his life, to be sure, but he wasn't exactly calm either. Still. This was the plan. He was going to execute it. His visor was on and secured, and Billy was hopefully keeping him well-disguised.
He walked up to the gate, with the confidence and boredom of someone who did this every day, flashing a small, light colored piece of paper. From distance, and through low-quality feed, it would look to the casual watcher like any of the legitimate guards who had just entered. Cyclops doubted anyone would be looking any closer at that footage until they were already on their way out.
Billy prayed to God above as he moved behind Scott, who now was taller, heavier and blond, as flashed his fake badge at Duo as well. He was amazed at Duo’s ability, but tried not to stare at the man who now had his teammate...inside him? Ugh. Okay keep going, Kaplan. Billy clipped the fake badge to his pocket and glanced back to watch the rest of their team move in, their magic disguises working well for now, thank fuck.
They were going to have to split up soon and he hopped Jeanne’s disguise kept while he was away from her.
Jeanne repeated the same motions that the others had, though not too closely. Bored, mechanical. Uninterested. Those were the things she was trying to go with. She managed it, she would say, admirably as she flashed her fake ID to the guard who had been possessed by Shinigami. She was glad her illusory, magical disguise had made it so that her escrima sticks could still be concealed until she needed them. Not that she couldn't handle herself without them, it was just that they were a tool, and useful ones at that.
Eventually, they were going to have to split up inside the facility, and Jeanne was only slightly uneasy at that prospect. However, Shinigami had proven their capability, and she'd welcome their company. All that was left now was to get Hulkling and Shinigami inside.
Hulkling followed them in, scanning the road behind them while trying not to look like he was covering the rear flank. Pretending to be unstressed was harder than it looked. He paused at the booth and nodded as he flashed his not-ID, hopefully convincingly for the cameras. "And here comes your shift relief," Hulkling muttered, nodding back over Shinigami's shoulder at the pair of guards approaching at a casual pace. "Now's probably a good time to salute and get the heck out of here."
"I agree," whispered Duo. They didn't watch Hulkling head in, instead scouring the booth for clues on how exactly to get out of it. It didn't take long since the button was clearly labeled with a well-aged sticky note, and when their relief arrived it was a smooth process to switch places. Outside the booth Duo gave the man and wave and followed the rest of the team into the facility. All they could do was hope that none of that seemed suspicious to the new gate guard.
Trusting that the others were behind him - a guard just entering shift wouldn't need to be checking over his shoulder, and it was the little things that could get you caught - Scott strolled in like he knew exactly where he was going. Years of learning to lie, well-used he mused to himself. He did glance around as he entered. On his left appeared to be the an entrance to some staff rooms; the door wasn't metal or otherwise heavy-looking and was propped open. To his right was a hallway that was stark, empty, and clean. And in front of him was some kind of sallyport. His side of it was open, of course, but included barred metal doors. Once he entered, someone would have to open the other side, which was another barred metal door, this one locked.
Either they'd have to take their chances with looking legitimate enough to fool whoever was operating the sallyport (presumably there was a control window he couldn't see from his vantage point), or they'd have to roll the dice with the long hallway. Unsure what Teddy preferred, Cyclops dropped down and pretended to tie his shoe so that the others had time to catch up.
"Okay..." Splitting the party was the moment the GM started cackling in every game Teddy'd ever played, but there really wasn't much help for it. "The prisoners are going to be behind the strongest fortifications," he said quietly, coming up to join the others in the hall. He paused and looked down at Cyclops - at least he was pretty sure he knew which of the disguises was Cyclops - shaking his head to look like he was giving the slow guy some grief for stopping. "Staff rooms and security, probably separate. We have to assume they've doubled-down on security features since the other escapes. Shinigami and Finesse, try the hallway and see what you can find. We'll try storming the castle."
"Alright," Jeanne murmured, fluidly moving toward the hallway as if she belonged. Even if she'd been out of disguise, she would've walked this way. She was ready for trouble, regardless of what happened. She didn't stop to see if Shinigami was following, but she was remaining aware of her surroundings, making note of security cameras as she walked, keeping mindful of lines of sight just in case something out of the ordinary happened.
Billy started moving down the opposite hallway that Jeanne had, taking a cue from Scot-er-Cyclops, and acting as if he wasn’t trying to have a conversation with the rest of the group for the cameras. He tried to remember what they had discussed lay out wise and glanced back at his team quickly. “Hey! Stop lolligagging. You can chit chat on your brake.”
He waved them over with an arm that was too long to be his and prayed to god that if the cameras picked up sound that he sounded like a disgruntled man annoyed with his co-workers.
Duo followed along, oddly enjoying the feeling of being tucked into a different body again. This man felt tall, strong, and healthy; it was very easy to find his pace and balance as they walked along and divorced of all the ethical concerns that usually dogged them (because this was someone who supported awful things), they could relax into their power in a way they hadn't before. But maybe that wasn't such a good thing right now when they were in the middle of a dangerous rescue. Duo refocused on keeping up with the rest.
Cyclops finished fake-tying his shoe, and stood. Alright. If it was going to get hairy before they got near the prisoners, it would be here. He stepped into the sallyport, and surreptitiously glanced at the two sides. Neither had a control window; it must all be being done remotely. Scott wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad. Still, apparently whoever was in charge of maintaining security in the sallyport wasn't paying the closest attention, and was fooled by their disguises well enough. The door behind them slammed shut and locked, the one in front buzzed loudly and then began to open. Here goes nothing.
Either they were being let in, or they were about to get boxed in and kept until they could be taken prisoner themselves. Teddy held his breath until the door in front of them began to open, letting it out in a relieved puff of air. Come on. An actual guard wouldn’t do that. Think casual. They were cut off from Jeanne and Duo for real now, and Teddy’s nerves started to settle into determination.
Jeanne was fortunate enough to find herself entering the security room at the end of the hallway she'd been sent down. The door she ended up going through was apparently the security room, which she surveyed. A couple of men, suited much the same as they were, were sitting in office chairs; one had his heels up on the counter next to his keyboard as he watched security feeds. She was seeing the others enter the area beyond where they'd split up, and things looked like they were going well... for now, Jeanne kept in mind. Hopefully whatever system they were using was on a LAN, and any data stored on site she could access through the network, potentially.
If not, she'd have to improvise.
She approached the man who had his feet up. "You're being relieved," Jeanne announced, though she was ready to spring into action if need be. Hopefully, between herself and Duo, they could keep things quiet if they needed to take these two men out.
The man looked up at Jeanne and squinted. "Why? And where's the paperwork?"
Duo sighed, trying to sound as annoyed as possible. "About 20 minutes behind us. There was a fuck up" They gave the words as much weight as possible, hoping that the men would fill in what exactly the fuck up might have been in their own minds. "You can wait if you'd like, but we're here regardless."
The other guard raised his eyebrow at his partner. "That's a good break. I could have a smoke and we could get back here to check out the forms after."
"Then go smoke," the other replied. "I'll just wait; got nothin' better to do," the other replied, folding his arms behind his head as he watched the screen.
The other guard produced a pack of cigarettes and started to fish one out as he got up and left, passing Duo without any kind of suspicion evident. So they were down to one. Jeanne glanced momentarily at the now-empty chair and then to Duo, and then looked back to the guard she was in front of. The other guard was out of the room, but it was entirely possible he'd be back in, if he'd forgotten something.
She waited a minute, watching the progress of the others as they went. She needed to access the security systems, and shut things down remotely if need be. Expedience was important, but so was secrecy. Jeanne wouldn't be the one to blow their cover if she could help it. She turned and took a few steps back, acting as if she was going to go sit in the other chair, before turning, spinning, and delivering a kick to the side of the remaining guard's head. He didn't even make any kind of vocalization as he hit the ground, out cold.
"We're officially on a timer," Jeanne announced to Duo, quietly. "Twenty minutes or less. Cover the door," she requested as she sat down and began to navigate the security setup.
Duo nodded and took up a position by the door. "If the other person comes back early, I can jump to him to quiet him, but you'll have to do something about my present host. He'll be disoriented for a bit so it shouldn't be too hard." Not at hard at all judging by the body on the floor. They hadn't even realized what Jeanne was doing until the guard had hit the ground.
"Noted," Jeanne replied, figuring there would be some sort of signal other than just the door opening, but she got to work anyway. There were automated containment protocols in place, it seemed. If an alarm was triggered, the place would fortify itself significantly. Not significantly enough to contain someone like Cyclops, or any other energy projector worth much of anything, but enough that it would be a pain to get out. Not to mention it seemed like there were other, more insidious measures in place... all of which she was in the process of taking down. Security camera feeds were recorded... along with lots of other things. She reached into her illusory disguise to produce a thumb drive, which she plugged in. She started to go to work on getting the data while also dealing with what countermeasures she felt safe taking down before they activated. She didn't want to accidentally trip any kind of alarm.
The door finished opening and Teddy stepped out, his heart sinking. He’d been hoping for another hallway, maybe some barred doors that Cyclops could blow open and then they could bail. What they faced instead was more akin to a nurse’s station crossed with a security booth, a wider, open area with a curved desk in the middle, monitors side by side and mounted to the walls above. A group of guards was already there, one slinging his jacket on over his shoulders, the butt of a gun glinting in the holster at his side.
“Bee,” Teddy murmured quietly, as the door slammed closed behind them and a couple of the guys looked over. “We’re not the droids they’re looking for?” To the onlookers, he just gave what he hoped looked like a curt nod.
“I am no Obi-Wan.” Billy muttered back, but if one of his powers included some kind of mind manipulation now was the time to try. Jesus Herman Christ how was he even going to do this? He took a deep breath and stepped forward, hitching up one shoulder and giving a small wave. “Been a slow night?” He immediately muttered under his breath for them to believe it three times, his heart stopping when his hands glowed soft blue before going back to normal.
The guards watched him for a moment, before going back to cleaning up their station and getting ready. “Yeah,” The one with their jacket on replied. “The inmates have been pretty quiet. Got a lot of my reading done though, so can’t complain.”
Billy felt like throwing up in shock that it seemed like it had worked and tried to give some kind of cocky smile, but frowned when one of the guards seemed to be staring hard at Scott. He turned to look too, not seeing anything weird and froze when the guard spoke up.
“Jones...you dye your hair? It looks...darker?”
When you had nothing good in your hand to play, all you could really do was bluff. "Huh," he said. He looked upward, as though seeing something unusual about the fluorescent lights. "Must be a trick of the light. Weird."
And now was definitely time for Teddy to do something to break the moment of awkward that was growing in the room. They only had a few minutes before the real second shift showed up, which meant getting rid of these guys and getting out, fast. "You're not fooling anyone. Just let it go gray already," Teddy snorted in derision, folding the character of a thirty-year-old bonehead rent-a-cop around himself. He stole a glance at the monitors over the desks. Some empty cells, some with people. Two - no, three prisoners. If they were lucky, they'd all be in the same hallway too. There weren't any windows on any of the doors that he could see, so maybe, just maybe... "Come on. Time to get the headcount over with." Teddy gestured toward the hall leading to the cells. "Don't trust the monitors, I want visual confirmation on everyone."
The guard who'd been staring at Scott turned his frown on Teddy. "What for? That's not standard protocol." Billy's spell seemed to be holding on the other two, at least for the moment, but that wouldn't last if a fight started.
It figured it wouldn't be that easy.
"New protocol," Teddy improvised, moving with totally feigned confidence toward the cell block. What would a guard say in this kind of situation? One who hated mutants enough to forget the fact that they were just kids. "Orders from up top. You know what kind of spooky shit these k- freaks can get up to."
"Yeah, I'm going to have to get confirmation for any kind of SOP change. It's not mealtime, it sure as hell isn't playtime, and no-one opens those doors without authorization." The guard started to move, hand dropping to rest more securely on his belt. He wasn't reaching for the gun, not yet, but his hackles were definitely up.
This was going to hell quickly. Shit only knew if it would work, but they needed to at least try to regain control of this situation. "Orders right from the top. Dr. Essex." He said seriously.
The guard stopped moving when he heard the name -- one Teddy didn't recognize. Scott must have pulled it from the files from the other sites; good one. Whoever the Essex guy was, the guard had practically gone pale at the idea of crossing him, and he backed off. "In that case," he muttered, shaking his head. "Do whatever it is you have to do."
Teddy exhaled, trying to keep it quiet, and he nodded like this was what he'd expected to have happen. "Come on," he ordered Scott and Billy's disguises. "Let's get this over with." And he headed for the entrance to the cell block, walking past the central desk to get there.
That had felt too easy, even with Essex's name thrown out there, but Cyclops couldn't put a finger on what was wrong. So instead he simply headed towards the cell block to do what they'd come to do.
Billy blew out a quiet sigh of relief as they made their way to the cells, frowning a little when he saw that they were still locked and glanced up at the cameras. “Ah, fuck it.”
He placed his hand on the nearest cell, hoping that the sparks coming from his hands weren’t too noticeable and grinned when he heard the heavy bolt move. Thank you electronic locks. He stepped back and gripped the door, pulling it open and looking inside. “Hello?”
Cal looked up when the door opened, frowning at the unknown guard. He had been lying on the bed, a hand under his head, but now he shifted to his feet, a tall, fit boy whose slightly tousled hair was probably due another crop soon, with a metal device strapped around his neck. "Where's Sandra?"
Not that she was called Sandra (probably), but he'd had to start calling his handler something, and they hadn't seemed to mind. The point was, she was usually here when they opened that door for any reason that wasn't meal time.
“Hey, uh, no. Not Sandra.” Billy answered almost apologetically. He made a come here motion with his hand and gave the blond a bit of a pleading look, but who knew how well that looked on his ugly disguise. “We’re here to get you guys out, but we have to hurry before they figure out something is up.”
He turned towards Teddy and Scott and made a motion towards the other cells with his head. “I think I disabled most of them, go get the others.”
The next cell down the line was closest to Teddy. He grabbed the door handle and gestured for Scott to head for the last one in the row. Something was happening behind them, radios crackling, and it was only a matter of seconds now before one of the real guards realized something was seriously wrong.
Teddy pulled the door open and took a step inside.
By the second day after Billy woke up, it had been clear that there would be no food coming. He'd started conserving his energy then. He stayed in bed, keeping as warm as he could, only getting up to get water from the sink and use the commode. No pacing. No exercise, save subtle stretching to keep himself limber.
The world had gone to pieces around him. He couldn't trust that the routines which had defined his life for so long would ever re-establish themselves. And it didn't matter at all.. All he cared about was finding Goody, and making sure he was all right. Letting him know he was all right, and none of it was his fault.
The only thing Goody had done was help him wake him up. He wasn't to blame for any of the damage the guards had done to him; as far as Billy was concerned, it had been worth it.
And Goodnight hadn't gotten Billy killed. He'd thrown him a lifeline. Billy had to let him know that.
The guards hadn't left him collared. That wasn't usual either; he almost never had access to his powers when he was alone. The handlers were probably waiting to see if he attacked the door or tried to escape. He wasn't going to let them think he cared. Not until they opened the door. Then they'd see it was their worst mistake to leave him able to fight, no matter how weak they tried to make him.
The door opened.
Billy flowed to his feet, ignoring the wave of vertigo that came with the motion. The hot prickle of energy ran under his skin, and he released a small cluster of blades at the guard. Three sharp-edged slips of gleaming, silver light shot out, one embedding itself shallowly in armor over the guard's heart, another slicing deep into the flesh of his upper bicep, and the last into his shoulder, dangerously close to the base of his neck.
Billy sprinted past while the guard was off-balance, hopefully dying. There were others in the hallway; he'd make sure of them. Billy silently willed two knives to his hands and started to close with the nearest of them, the one between him and the next corridor of cells.
Pain shot bright through Teddy's shoulder, his arm- "Shit," he hissed, stumbling back and grabbing at the knives- only for his hand to close on nothing. The burning tingle of healing swept through and over him, closing the wounds before they could do more than get messy, blood staining his hand bright red. He sucked in air and steadied himself, chasing out of the room after the prisoner to try and stop him before he got too far. "Stand down, it's okay!" He tried to keep his voice low, but was there a point any more?
A look down the hall as Teddy skidded out of the door showed him none of the chaos had been missed - and worse yet, the big armoured door to the rest of the base was opening, and fast. Screw it. "We're the cavalry, we're here to rescue you. And I think that's our cover blown."
He'd realized even before he'd gotten there that the last cell was empty, but Cyclops didn't have time to report that back or, really, do much of anything with that information. Teddy was hit, and one of their rescuees was headed Scott's way.
This was going to hell quickly - Cyclops supposed it had only been a matter of time - and he brought his hand up to his visor. His magical disguise might hide the device itself from watchers, but the strange gesture would be obvious. Too late to go back now.
"You okay, Hulkling?" He called out, though his eyes remained trained on the kid sweeping his way towards him.
He'd been quick with those knives, and accurate, which made him a formidable threat. But he was the slightest bit off-balance - injured, or sick, or drugged, or a combination - and Cyclops was wearing Kevlar. Scott figured the odds were skewed in his favor.
Get them out? Cal watched the stranger with undisguised wariness, even as he talked to some other people outside - what he managed to overhear from the others lended credence to this dude's words, but mind games wouldn't be proper mind games if they were poorly thought out. "Yeah, right. I'm not playing this one. What the fuck, man? I've been good." He'd behaved, and he'd done everything they'd asked of him, because he didn't want to go back to staying locked in his cell unless he was in training. He'd fucking behaved, and now this?
Billy glanced over to watch Teddy stumble out of the other cell, red all over his shoulder. Blood, Billy’s mind helpfully supplied and he had to stop himself from running over. Teddy healed. He was fine. The inmate was going for Scott, but Billy let out a breath when the guy seemed slow. Scott could handle him right?
He turned back to the one in the cell and held up his hands. “Look, I’m sure you have been good or whatever, but I really don’t care about that. I’m trying to get you out of here.”
But why would he believe guard? Billy bit his lips and muttered the spell away, blue light running over him and Scott, taking the disguises off easily. He held out his hand to Cal and gave him best pleading look. “I’m here to rescue you.”
Shit, okay. Cal's heart started beating double time as he watched the guard change into another kid. He could be with them. This could still be... Fuck, he really wanted it to be real. He took a couple of steps forward, curling his hand around the collar he wore and giving it a tug. "Get this fucking thing off of me, then." He didn't care how. If they did it, it had to be real, right? They wouldn't risk unleashing him against their own men, would they? Fuck it, he'd take it if it meant he could take out some of those assholes.
Billy eyed the heavy duty collar, wondering if he could just fry the thing without getting the guy shocked as well. “Okay, move your hand.”
He moved closer slowly, holding up his hands, before reaching out so only his pointer finger touched the collar. He focused, blue electricity going from the tip of his fingers to the collar and shorting it out bad enough the electronic lock came undone. “Alright. Let’s go.”
Scott's disguise vanished as the next shift of guards came running into the main security area down the hall, and Teddy gave up on the idea of subterfuge. Three -- there had been three prisoners on the monitors and only two in these cells. "Finesse, Shinigami," he called over the comm. "We've been made and there's still someone here somewhere. Can you find them?"
He ran to put himself between the others and the guards and dropped his own disguise as he went. He shifted straight from jerk-guard to almost-nine-feet-tall green Hulkling under the Kevlar body-armour, yelled in wordless rage, and unfurled his full wingspan.
Make an intimidation roll. Come on, natural 20...
Hulkling turning on the guards was the last proof Billy needed to believe these strangers were sincere. He turned and bolted down the corridor, trusting he wouldn't get a bullet in the back.
Billy's heart pounded in his ears; already he was light-headed from exertion. He didn't know that Goodnight's keeper hadn't moved him to a new cell as they had him. But he didn't think they would. It would probably hurt Goody more to stay in a space he'd shared with Billy. So they wouldn't have moved him.
It didn't matter. It didn't matter what the strangers at his back wanted after they got them out either. He wasn't leaving without Goody. If he wasn't in his cell, Billy would keep looking. And nothing was getting in his way.
The sight of a guard stationed in front of Goody's cell was the most welcome sight Billy could have hoped for; you didn't guard an empty cell. The commotion had alerted her, though; she had her sidearm out and raised it to fire as Billy drew near. A burst of energy seemed to well up from Billy's very core. A storm of gleaming knives erupted from the air before him and tore through the guard, shredding armor that had always been proof against his blades before. The arm holding the gun hit the ground; the rest of the body followed in a jerking, twitching heap.
Billy didn't bother trying to sidestep the blood. He skidded to a halt in front of Goody's cell, ducking to grab the guard's sidearm in one smooth motion. The lock was inert, and he wasted no time wresting the door open and dashing into the dimly-lit cell.
"Goody!"
Goodnight's head had been buzzing with the sounds from outside his cell--that danger was present was obvious, and he had no way of knowing who was being threatened and how... but it didn't feel like it was coming for him. So he'd sat on his bed and waited. Listened. Breathed.
When Billy's face appeared, followed by his voice, Goodnight could only stare for a moment. "A--Am I hallucinating?"
Billy pounced on the bed, landing close enough that he could feel Goody's breath on his skin. Goody was here, he was OK, and Billy was freshly dizzy with the sheer joy of that discovery, smiling wide enough to split his lower lip.
"No. No, it's me. I'm OK, and we're getting out of here." He glanced down at the gun in his hand. Something solid he could offer as proof that it wasn't all one more test. One more trick. He presented the weapon to Goody, grip first. "Come dance with me, mon ami?"
The accent was terrible, and Goody loved it. He wasn't sure if he was laughing or sobbing--probably both--but he burst out in something. With one hand, he accepted the gun. With the other arm, he grabbed Billy around the shoulders and pulled him in for a hug, then buried his face in Billy's neck.
This was probably all a dream. Billy was still dead. Goodnight was still dead inside. He'd wake up crying or something equally dismal. But fuck it, for now, Goody was gonna enjoy this, because it looked, felt, sounded, even smelled like Billy.
Billy hugged him back, more reflex than thought, but once he had Goody in his arms, he held on tight.
"I promise, Goody. I'm real. And I'm not letting you get hurt again." He stood and towed Goodnight out of his cell, back toward the strange mutants in the hallway. "This is Goodnight. He's coming with us." The light-headed feeling was getting worse. It was harder to keep his feet, but it was going to be OK. He could do this.
"Goodnight Robicheaux. Charmed, I'm sure," Goody said with a wild kind of smile.
It was not just a little awesome to see two of the other captives step into the hallway when Cal did. Goody, at least, he'd talked with. The other kid, he'd only been pitted against, but still. It was fucking nice to see them. Were they all being tested together, or was this real? Not that it would change what Cal was about to do, not when that guy had just sprouted wings and grown... well, fuck. Why couldn't he mimic him?
"Hey, guys," he told the other two captives (former captives?) with an uptilt of his chin, and since he couldn't grab that one, he reached for all of the mutations within reach. His senses went into overdrive as soon as he started running towards the guards, and knives appeared in his hands, which already crackled with electricity. He flung his knives even as his vision went red, and he'd only just reached the side of the green winged guy when something - optic force, he immediately knew - exploded out in his field of vision. Guards were thrown back, and he could feel the force of the blast build up as seconds ticked by.
“And Goodnight makes three,” Teddy ended up calling back to the group at large. “Is there anyone else being held here? Cyclo-” Teddy glanced over at the detonation, expecting to see Scott beside him, but apparently not so much.
One of the prisoners was firing off Scott’s optic blasts, had Billy’s electricity sparking around him - and yeah, those looked a lot like the knives that had been sticking into Teddy a minute ago. Okay, that was interesting. “You’re not him!” But not-Scott was keeping the guards off of them for a precious few seconds.
Teddy whipped around to make sure that whatever this guy had done, the others were still on their feet and hadn't been stripped of their abilities.
Shit. The now-not-collared kid had...Scott's mutation somehow. And Billy's. And the knife-throwing-kid's. And none of Cyclops' appreciation for just how devastating the power of his optic blasts were. He blasted some guards back himself - they grunted and shouted, but given the options they damn well should've been thankful it wasn't lethal.
Kevlar wouldn't stop his beams. Neither would cement or steel. "If you hit one of us with those, we go down too," he warned not-collared-kid. "Same for the building."
It took Cal a few moments longer before he managed to figure out how to switch the optic blasts off, and by that time, a few guards were pretty definitely dead. His eyes remained red as he glanced at the kid who'd just used the same mutation. What was up with the visor? "Well, maybe the building deserves to go down." Just, not while they were still inside it, probably. Mostly he wanted to find Sandra and show her what he could do now.
So, of course, when the next round of guards came rushing in and raised their guns, Cal unleashed the full power of that guy's optic force all over again. He was done playing nice.
There was no making sense of the chaos, so Goodnight just nodded his hellos to his rescuers and Cal, then let his Billy lead the way. When the onrush of guards smashed into Cal, Goody spun to cover his back. He caught a flash of a lab coat. Felt a surge of danger that focused and amped him—that came FROM him. He raised his sidearm and squeezed off a shot, not even thinking.
As she spun, blood spurting from a head wound, Goodnight met her gaze. Hoped his old handler saw who it was took her down. She’d trained him to do it, after all. Under his breath, he whispered, “Goodnight,” and nodded at Billy.
Then he went back to making sure their backs were covered.
Billy grinned back at Goody even as his head swam and the edges of his vision went gray. He tried to focus past it, even managed to project a knife into one of stragglers coming up the corridor behind them. But when the building shook from the force of the optic blasts taking out the main body of guards, he fell. Billy managed to catch himself, going down to just one knee. His limbs shook with the effort it took just to keep from going the rest of the way to the floor; trying to stand put him back down, harder than before.
Suddenly, getting out seemed a lot less likely than it had when he'd been standing in Goody's cell.
The radio at Duo’s shoulder crackled to life. “We have a code yellow in the containment area. I repeat we have a code yellow in the containment area.”
Jeanne heard the radio go off, and that prompted her to take a few seconds from her typing, move to the guard on the floor who was still unconscious, and quickly strip his sidearm, removing the slide and magazine from the weapon. She could assemble it again just as quickly if she needed to, but it was enough to keep him from opening fire if he took them by surprise somehow. She began typing again.
Whatever locks Billy hadn't disabled with his tricks, Jeanne set to disabling. She was also in the process of overriding the security measures that the code yellow brought online, and also keeping things from escalating further. She trusted Duo to keep the door held for the moment. She still had data to gather, and the dump was in progress.
This would, of course, be the moment the other guard returned. He was coming down the hall with a determined look on his face that told Duo he'd likely heard exactly what they had on his own radio. They glanced at Jeanne but she working furiously at the console. Considering how much the others relied on what she was doing, there was no way they were going to interrupt. Duo stepped out into the hall.
"Did you hear?"
The man nodded, but slowly. He was suspicious. Well, Duo could wait a moment and hope that he'd chalk their unscheduled appearance up to coincidence, or they could deal with it now. As soon as he was within reach, Duo dove at him.
He tried to push Duo off, but all Duo needed was a small patch of skin, and they found it when the tip of their fingers brushed his cheek. After that, the guard could no more push them away then he could push his own arm away, and a moment later, his body belonged to Duo. Duo pulled the guard's gun out of his holster and pointed it at his former host.
"Finesse! Do I shoot, or can you put him down?"
Jeanne's response was rather immediate; she'd heard the exchange of words in the hall, and she'd reached a stopping point in her typing to push herself up and be ready to help. She was glad she did, and she pulled Duo's former host off of himself, glad that the man was still staggered by the disorientation of possession ending in his system, because it made what followed a hell of a lot easier. She kneed him directly in the stomach, and when he doubled over, she struck him in the back of the head with an overhand swing.
"Get him in the room," Jeanne requested, glancing down the hall for anyone coming. "I've almost finished doing what I can for security systems. Everything else is waiting for data extraction."
Duo put the gun back in its holster, marveling at how little the idea of shooting the man bothered them. If Jeanne had wanted them to, they would have have squeezed the trigger and watched the bullet tear through his face. Then again, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise. Blowing a hole in the skull of man complicit in this facilities actions was their right as Shinigami, wasn't it? Something to consider later.
Right now they need to get the gate guard out of sight. Duo grabbed an arm and dragged him in. They gave him a kick for good measure and went back to the door.
Jeanne's disguise began to melt as they re-entered the room, and she only spared her now undisguised hands a mildly frustrated look before heading back over to the console. "Your query has been answered already," Jeanne responded into her communicator, sitting once more and hoping the data dump was near completion. She had started a local wipe of data at the same time. "There is a significant amount of data here," she said, over the communicator. "I will need at least one more minute." Hopefully they would be able to buy her that much.
"On it," Hulkling replied to Finesse through his comm, but was he? It had all gone to hell so quickly -- guards were everywhere, people were hurt, some were certainly dead, one of the prisoners they'd just rescued was collapsing, and Teddy had suddenly lost all semblance of control over the mission. This was not how things were supposed to go!
“Fall back and group up!” Teddy ordered at the top of his lungs, wheeling around to find Billy before everything got more confusing. “Wiccan, get everyone out of here, back to the rendezvous. I've got to buy Finesse more time.”
Billy could only stare at the multiple dead bodies while more guards just seemed to keep coming and HOLY SHIT this was chaos. He watched as one of the kids they rescued go down, moving over to help him when Teddy turned to him and ordered to get everyone out, but Teddy. “Are you kidding me? Leave you here in this?! You have to be stupid to think I would do that!”
Of course he was going to argue. Teddy shook his head. "I won't be here long. Get these guys out of here-" before they kill everyone in sight, "then come back for the rest of us."
Billy stared at him, ready to argue until he was blue in the face that this was a bad plan, but instead he sniffed and reached over to touch Teddy’s face. “You better be here when I get back. In one piece.”
Cal was getting the hang of this eye blast mutation, and it was fucking amazing. He flung a knife in the throat of a real life person the blast hadn't quite killed - it goes in like in the holograms - and had to wonder where the fuck Sandra could be. He didn't want to fall back and group up anywhere, but he was aware that he hadn't had the eye blast long enough to keep it going for long if he went out of range. Fine, then, but he wasn't going to leave without making the most of this opportunity. He thought of every beating, every treatment, everything he'd lost and the kids he'd never seen again. How they'd made him want to be good for them. They'd made him into this, and now they were going to reap what they'd sowed. He turned away from the group - he didn't want to hurt any of them - and pushed the damage up as much as he could, red flooding his sight as the blast started tearing through the facility itself.
"I'll watch your back, Hulkling!" Cyclops shouted over to their field leader, through the chaos, before turning back to the matter at hand.
Collarless kid was going to bring the building down on them, at the rate he was going, using Scott's mutation. If it was the real deal, though, there might be something he could do about that. Cyclops threw himself in the path of the other kid's beam, hoping. His rapid fire risk assessments accurate.
He and Collarless kid were up close and personal now - necessary to block as much of the beam as possible without physically putting the kid down - so Cyclops only had to raise his voice a little. "You're going to kill us just as much as them. Retreat, before the roof comes down on your head."
Wow, that guy was suddenly right there. Cal took a step back, instinctively shutting down the blast, although it - clearly hadn't done any damage to him, okay. He was breathing hard, and he looked around the guy at what damage he had done so far. It looked bad enough, with part of the ceiling cracked, and walls torn open. "Yeah," he agreed breathless, "fine, fine," and raised his hands in a sign of surrender before turning and jogging back to the rest of the group.
Back with the group, Hulkling nodded, grabbed and squeezed Wiccan's hand, hard. "You heard Cyclops - he's got my back. Now go, get everyone else out of here before the place does collapse."
Billy looked at the damage done, took one more look at Teddy with a frown before nodding and closing his eyes to focus on all those he needed to teleport. He muttered under his breath and with a flash of blue he and the kids they had set free were outside by the tree the mission had started at.
Jeanne was watching the progress of the data extraction, and then the footage of her teammates liberating the prisoners. And then it all, as she suspected TJ might say, went to hell very, very quickly.
Something happened, and suddenly one of the prisoners had kinetic eye blasts much like, or rather exactly like Cyclops did, and he started blowing things up. If that kid wasn't careful, they'd bury all of them. She was certain that Hulkling and Wiccan would get them out.
"Shinigami. Head toward Wiccan and Hulkling's position," Jeanne instructed. "Use whatever force you deem necessary to get there. I will be close behind."
And then the power went out. Jeanne's hackles were already up, and she hissed as she saw her terminal go blank. She was relatively certain that the wipe would continue since she'd ordered it to be carried out server-side, rather than on her local terminal. However, the data dump would be incomplete. It would have to do.
"Correction. I will be following you," she said, picking up the flash drive and tucking it safely away in a secure pouch. She fished an escrima stick from its holster on her thigh, other hand available for grappling or picking up another weapon if need be. "We should move and go to Hulkling's position."
There was a questioning look for Duo from the first guard, but as soon as Jeanne attacked, his expression hardened and he fired. Fortunately, Duo dived between them just in time and his host took the bullet in the chest. The shot was lethal - They had time for one breath before they were violently shunted out, tripping forward towards the guard as the body he'd just been in fell back. The guard paled at the sight, hesitating just long enough for Duo to grab his wrist and give him a smile.
"Too slow." They taunted, and in the next moment the guard's body was theirs. The only problem was that Duo didn't want it, so they stepped out and took advantage of his momentary confusion by grabbing his gun and struck him on the side of his head with it. He went down, and Duo turned to grin at Jeanne.
"We should keep moving," Jeanne said, retrieving her escrima stick, and then giving the guard she'd downed a parting kick since she realized he was still moving a bit. "Turn right here." Jeanne was wearing body armor, sure, but Shinigami's hosts were at the very least disposable, and larger targets. Better to keep them in front. "We should see Hulkling in a few moments." If he hadn't moved, that was. Then again, it wasn't like this facility was particularly sprawling.
Wiccan's magic flashed blue, the complex rumbling and crumbling around them. Then it was only Scott and Teddy again, and the guards that the rescuees hadn't killed. People were dead. More were going to die in a minute. They were undeniably evil -- but the price for that should be jail, not being crushed to death under a thousand pounds of rock.
"Get out of here or you're going to die!" Hulkling bellowed at them as he headed for the huge metal door, on the off chance that they'd listen- but no. Some of them were scrambling for the main door, same direction Teddy was headed in, and there came the guns again. "Run, you idiots, don't spend time shooting!"
A chunk of masonry fell from the ceiling behind him, and the guard who'd been suspicious from the start opened fire. Hulkling crossed his arms over his face, ducking his head. He focused on his front, shifting to make his skin thick -- super-thick, super durable, come on body armour -- the bullets bounced off, his skin only stinging like he'd been hit with a rubber band, and he yelped in surprise.
Cyclops followed up behind him, his long legs working overtime to get them to the door as quickly as possible. He felt the dull thud of a bullet glancing off the kevlar of his body armor. He jerked his head to the side, and saw the fucker who did it, shooting at him either unaware or uncaring that the wall behind him was about to come down on his head. Despite himself, he shouted out a warning and then kept running, triggering his visor and knocking down anyone who was angling to shoot their heads - there was a limit to his mercy, and he wasn't going to take stupid chances - as well as falling debris. He blasted the asshole who had just fired towards Hulking's face, knocking him to the floor. He also blasted a piece of ceiling that was about to crush the asshole, turning it into gravel.
Pebbles and dust sprayed around Hulkling's head, raining down on his shoulders and arms. If Billy homed in on them to teleport out, he was going to pop right in to a death trap -- that gave Teddy more than enough extra motivation to get moving again, barreling through the last couple of guards at the door and pushing out into the hallway. It wasn't any better out there, vast cracks opening up in the ceiling and walls, dust shaking down on them and billowing into the recirculated air.
Cyclops tried to recollect the limited blueprints they had managed to get as he and Hulkling booked it down the hallway. They needed to find a non-structural wall to blast through and out, because otherwise anyone who came to rescue them risked going down with the building. They couldn't ask Wiccan to evacuate them if there was a chance he wouldn't have the time. "Go left!" He shouted to Hulkling as they reached a fork. It would take them closer to the exterior walls, and allow him to blast through if they needed to.
Duo was running down the hallway just behind Jeanne when he heard Scott's shout coming from a side corridor up ahead. They only slowed for a moment, enough time to give Cyclops and Hulkling a lopsided grin, as they ran past. "Yes, you do NOT want to go right!" Their cheerfulness was just a little bit of a fraud; if the building came down, Duo would be just as flat as their host.
"Cyclops! Hulkling!" Jeanne called out, her voice only showing strict military discipline. "We have the data. We are ready for extraction," she explained.
"Your timing's perfect, we were just coming to get you," Teddy shouted back, relief evident in his voice. Now they just had to get the hell out of here. "Wiccan, we're all together. Pull us out," he sent over the comms. And -- because when was he ever going to get a chance like this one again? -- "Four to beam up."
Billy heard the order in his ear and really hoped he didn’t take off anyone’s limbs or something and he closed his eyes. “Roger, Captain.”
Think of them right here! Picture them next to you! He focused on what the four of them looked like and muttered his spell under his breath, praying to god it worked. In a large burst of blue light the four were right beside the others and they had all their limbs!!
Teddy sucked in air that wasn't full of dust, trying his best to ignore the sounds of falling rock and screaming metal behind them. "Five X-Force, three rescues. All present and accounted for. Billy, take us home."
