07 / 15 / 10 - Alden, Andrew, Dante, Harrison, Ilad, Illyana, Isabel, Jean-Paul, Mickey, Remy, Xen
Nightfall. As the last feeble gleam of sunlight dips behind the mountains and the stars take over the sky, voices drift here and there from the would-be base, guards in quiet conversations at their posts. Every so often, a bark of laughter. A call from one position to another. They have begun to grow lax in their watchful waiting, in their too-alert state of being.
The three-man patrol slowly rounds the perimeter, progressing along the treeline west of the base, progressing north. They pass the dog team on patrol, pausing briefly to chat, share a light for a cigarette. Then they split again, and the dog team heads around the southwest corner, making for the gate. Inside the yard, the second dog team appears from the door. One of the men tosses a tennis ball for the dog to tear after while they wait to switch off.
The spotlights on the two guard towers come to life. The beams wash slow, bright patterns over the woods.
As the spotlights spill over the forest, Jean-Paul crouches high above with a pair of flanking birdies. Each is armed in their fashion, with all that fly carrying flashbangs, and Jean-Paul further armed and armored with pistol, tranquilizers, and lightweight body armor that covers (most of) his torso. He is dressed in dark shades, trending more gray than black. He waits. They all wait. They wait for that first whisper, the 'go'.
As the spotlights sweep outward and the two patrols and their dogs come together at the gate, Xen pulls the pin from his flash bang, gesturing for Alden and Mickey to do the same as he crouches low for a moment. "Nightmare, Jackson. In three, take out the lights, then hit the guards in the tower. Northstar, you have the nests." The FBI team is signaled to take out the patrol that they are waiting for. He gestures for Mickey and Alden to follow his lead, and he stands up in the dark, takes a few steps and LAUNCHES his flash bang, looping it up and over the jeeps to bounce it along the ground and to the front gate. "1-- 2-- 3-- GO! Take them in, Magik!"
With a rush of feathers, a whisper of displaced air, crow and owl take flight. The limits of their speed defined by nature, they move first. At Xen's signal, Hailey and Kestrel swoop down over the main building; half a heartbeat later, Jean-Paul follows. The stun grenades land one, two, three. First to go off is the grenade on the small building, with Jean-Paul a quiet rush just behind: tranquilizer darts stab toward exposed flesh with wrenchingly careful control pulling back the speed of his limbs. As Kestrel and Hailey deliver their load and makes for the trees, the grenades are set to go off a bare blink of the eye later on the forward portion of the main building, then the back.
Proud, the dog with the ball returns it to his handler, and the man pockets it, moving with both his two-legged and four-legged partners to the gate to meet the other team. One of the dogs barks at a passing shadow, wings catching in the growing moonlight, as the birds pass overhead. A man growls at him to knock it off. And then, then there is only blinding noise and a deafening series of booms as the stun grenades thrown by Xen and his small company land around them.
The chaos further spreads as the small, feathered stealth bombers drop their payloads more or less in tandem with the speedster. Chaos erupts. Shouting. The men on the smaller building are knocked out before they even know what is happening. The spotlights sweep wildly to and fro, trying to pick out an enemy, before one shatters.
Meanwhile, to the north of the compound, the FBI men ambush the three-man patrol.
As the spotlight shatters from the bullet's impact and the flash bangs explode at the front gate, Xen is out of the bushes, his gun in hand as he suddenly erupts from cover, similarly clad like Jean-Paul, racing at breakneck speed over the open ground. Xen leads the way with Mickey close behind, Alden coming up the rear as they race towards the disoriented patrols at the front gate. The pilot vaults and slides over the front hood of one of the jeeps, his aura exploding into brief light as he uses the momentum to bounce, vaulting airborne into the knot of disoriented guards, arms braced as he looks to bounce into their little group forcefully and bounce into the lot of them to send them all reeling; keep them from recovering from the stun grenade and giving Mickey and Alden the chance to move in and tranq the guards. Oh, and the dogs. Bad dogs.
It takes less than a heartbeat from Jean-Paul to move from one roof to another, from the side building to the main. The bright flare of light might not bother him, but the dwindling light from shattered spotlights -- well. You know. He works with what light he has while it lasts, while the men below are still dazed and recovering. He skids to a halt above the forward nest on the main building and then drops into place. With fluid grace and quickly darting movements, he strikes: more tranquilizers find homes in the flesh of the men on the forward gunnery nest, one for each. A sharp backwards pull of his hand spares them from anything further than a punch's force, but exacts its own price from musculature imperfectly evolved to accommodate the speed. Very slightly favoring his right arm, he advances to the last nest.
Alden isn't as fast as Xen with his bouncing and breakneck speed. It might be a bit before he can get to the guards as well, Eventually, he stops close enough to where he can be sure to hit, raising his gun and steadying it in a moment. He fires a tranquilizer round at the guard closest to him.
The distinctive whine of the SAR chopper's engines coming to life emits from the tarmac outside of the hangar, and the slow, heavy chudda-chudda of the rotors speeds up.
Gunfire cracks from the northwest tower, a sniper's bullets whizzing after Jean-Paul in a feeble attempt to chase after him. The second gunner's nest goes down still reeling from the flashbangs, but the men in the third come around and begin to turn the heavy machine gun his way. Bullets spit angry into the night.
As Xen and his small company work on the two dog teams, a man drops out of the tower above them, no doubt brought down by either Nadia or the FBI sniper. The second man, however, hefts the odd rocket launcher onto a shoulder, takes quick aim, and fires. A brilliant swatch of fire erupts briefly behind him. Meanwhile, the small missile impacts the ground near the agents. The explosion, however, is small, a deep whump and a chemical-tanged burst followed by a pulse that none of them can feel; all of their electronics, comms and all, die, as well as all of the cars and the spotlight on the tower.
One dog, crazed by the flashbangs, snarling, barrels after Alden.
{RescueTeam} Xen: *skzt* <-- Sound of sudden silence.
Not skilled enough with his guns to even attempt at hitting a moving dog, Alden instead scrambles back with a sharp curse in a language that no one present would understand. He looks around quickly for something to get on top of to escape vicious teeth.
Moving faster than the machine gun can track, Jean-Paul zips around to come behind and -- cue the darkness. His curse spits out in profane French, which is perfectly intelligible to plenty, if only they could hear it. In the dark, with the men at the guns recovering, he comes down on them. Why not, right? He's quick and sharp with hands and feet, lashing out to take out the first with a sharp kick as he comes down, and follow it up with the almost gentle prick of a tranquilizer dart. (Then there's the other guy.)
As the collection of guards at the main gate reel, knocked backwards and sideways by the suddenly bouncing man, Xen flips and lands next to one of them, his gun aimed at exposed flesh, the tranq in the guards' muscle even before Xen stops moving. *Whssss- THUMP!* "Shit! Heads up!" The Agent scrambles to dive behind one of the vehicles as the whole thing goes *WHUMP*, and his comm dies. As the whole night doesn't explode, but all of the lights go off instead, Xen looks out from the front end of the jeep. If any of the other guards are moving, he'll dispatch them with some sleep juice. Or maybe any crazed dogs.
The dog slams into a car, bounces off of it, and continues after Alden, leaping, white teeth slick with saliva gleaming in the moonlight. The other dog and the four men have dropped, and a gurgle sounds from the tower. No more shots follow from there.
The machine gun continues to fire into the night, even as Jean-Paul zips around it. As he comes down to dispatch the first guard, the second reaches for a pistol. Shots crack in rapid succession as the man fires, trying to hit the speedster even as his vision clears. He hollers at the top of his lungs, a warcry of a sound without words.
The air becomes heavy with the chudda-chudda of the chopper as it maneuvers over the trees and heads for the main part of the base. A rifle shot cracks, and the bullet pings into the jeep Xen is by. The smell of gasoline creeps out as the fuel begins to spill onto the dirt.
Alden gets himself onto the hood of a car even as jaws clamp down on his ankle, pain flashing in eyes. There's no attempt to pull his foot away, however, as his limb works like a dog bone to keep the animal in place to allow him to raises his gun, aim and fire a tranq at the beast.
Mickey was close to Xen; he didn't bounce, but breakneck is definitely true, so he was right on his heels, to help nail the guys that go flying with tranqs. He spots Alden's problem, and fires a tranq at that dog's rear, pausing to see if it needs another, before wheeling to check Xen's other targets to see if they need more shots in them as well.
As the metal pings brightly rught by Xen's head, he can't help but flinch, immediately throwing himself into movement as he pushes himself up and off the ground, vaulting over the next vehicle, bouncing once more into the air and somersaulting to the far side of the jeeps to land behind them again. His voice rings out, though it's no longer transmitted on the comms, making it harder to hear over the incoming chopper, "Live fire coming from the chopper! They've hit one of the gas tanks!" He works the gun in his hands, switching to live fire, and comes up over the hood of the jeep, aiming down the barrel at the side door of the incoming chopper. He takes a good ten seconds to aim, and then unleashes a small burst of bullets into the open side door of the helicopter.
On dispatching the first guard, Jean-Paul yanks him around with a tight hold to push toward the second as he fires at him: more distraction than an attempt to shield, there's still the possibility that his buddy will take a bullet meant for Jean-Paul. One grazing his upper armor, another impacting armor, he closes hard behind to bring the last guard down with the stab of the dart. When he goes down, he slaps reflexively at his comm to report -- and then curses, and glances up to track the helicopter's silhouette in the night as he ascends.
The dog, in an imitation of a certain agent, perhaps, takes a tranq to his rear, courtesy of Mickey. And also one to the side, courtesy of Alden. The biting jaws release and sag, and the animal slumps down and off of the car. It is most likely very, very dead.
The chopper above rotates, giving the men in it a better firing angle from the door, but also exposing its flank in the process. Since Xen stands out there for ten full seconds, bullets rain down on him with an unholy vengeance. With his burst of shots, one man drops out of the door and jerks to a halt just beneath the landing gear, danging by a safety line.
The pistol and man both finally silence when Jean-Paul closes in and darts him. He slumps over, finger twitching for a moment longer inside the trigger guard.
Looking straight up next to them to the tower with the guy with the rocket in it (the guy that fired into the dirt right by them and disabled the coms: that guy), Mickey dodges around an unconscious guard and jumps onto the tower, tail lashing with balance as he snares the tower's ladder one-handed, the other hand with his tranq gun--- and squirrels up the tower to peek over the ladder and shoot at rocket man. Or probably just his legs and feet, really.
It takes Alden a moment to slide off the car, ankle already bleeding as he ducks behind a car and scans for someone to shoot. No one? Alas. Well, he took down a dog and a person. Good job, Alden.
Jean-Paul takes just a second (or two) to breathe. Adrenaline rendering him momentarily oblivious to injuries, he regathers as he hovers, a darker shadow against the night. He watches the exchange between Xen and the helicopter with a frustrated futility and a twist of his fingers at his wrist. Stupid comm. Then he drops, tracking swiftly toward the others.
The pings and thumps of the bullets driving into the ground and the jeep around Xen put him on edge as he pulls off his rounds. And even as one of the gunmen falls, he grabs a stun grenade from his waist moments before Xen lights up like a quartz screen, a bullet driving him down into the ground, his body bouncing unlike any other human's as it arches back up. He tucks into a ball and flips backward, switching his gun to his offhand. And then he erupts in brief light again, bouncing erratically forward on an angle, bouncing between some of the jeeps. Moments later, he stands up just fast enough to launch the stun grenade at the open door of the chopper before dropping down between the jeeps, hitting flat on the ground.
Don't worry, Alden! You can have some more friends to play with! The lights in the smaller building die, and a few moments after that, it disgorges three more gunmen. The muzzles of their assault rifles blaze in the night as they fire on the ground team.
The swearing in the chopper is no doubt drowned out by the steady chudda-chudda of the rotors, the wind caused by them starting to kick up dust. Bullets bounce off of Xen and smack into everything else, including the leaking jeep. A spark. Then another, before a guttering flame catches and takes hold, licking hungrily after the spilled gasoline. The stun grenade finds the open door of the chopper, and before the men inside can chuck it out, the flashbang goes off.
Immediately, the chopper lurches, and the whine that emits from the engine changes tone as the heli pitches and starts to roll. It lurches right for the guard tower Mickey has climbed.
Alden will play with them after they stop shooting. For now, he remains behind the relative safety of a car, hoping they don't shoot at it since they aren't magic bullet shields like movies make them out to be.
Hey! Fire! That produces light, which makes it easier for Jean-Paul to identify targets. ...hey, fire, heading toward a jeep... /No longer heading toward the others/, he veers sharply to give the helicopter a wide, wiiide berth and lands on the roof of the smaller building. Flinging himself low against it, Jean-Paul switches out tranquilizers, pops in bullets, and shoots at the lower legs of one of the men firing at Alden.
As it turns out, Mickey's target was already down, and so no shots needed to be fired; it was easy to get up on the tower for the treasures, to see if there's rockets and oooh look this one is--- OHGOD A HELICOPTER. Mickey grabs at the rockets, wheeling, for a running jump at rather close, nearby roof, tail lashing, ready for a rolling landing if he has to.
Xen stays down until he hears the whine of the helicopter, the muted 'whump' of the jeep catching fire slightly distracting, also lighting the pilot up as he looks up a little down the way, gun back in his hand. His eyes track the listing chopper, and then he crouches down low once more as more bullets ping into the metal jeeps as the small assault squad comes running his and Alden's direction. "Caduceus! Get back behind the vehicles and away from the fire! I'll cover you." This time, he properly puts arms and shoulders above the hood of the jeep, moving to track the incoming assault team, pulling off the rest of his clip in response. Maybe he'll hit who JP doesn't.
One of the men drops thanks to Jean-Paul, a yell escaping him from the bite of pain as he goes down hard on his knee, assault rifle chattering. The vehicles shield Alden for at least a few precious moments, until the fire finally snakes into the gas tank of the jeep. A hellacious FWOOM goes up, and suddenly the jeep is a raging inferno. Xen manages to drop one of the other men, but the third drops to a prone position and continues to fire.
Meanwhile, the helicopter's path takes a sickening turn, and as two men tumble out from the open door, the massive rotor blades bite into the guard tower, chewing wood and metal like so much cardboard and sending shrapnel out in all directions. The engine whine turns to a scream, and the chopper jolts and rolls, slamming into the corner of the big building with a loud and heavy bang. Metal twangs, pops, screeches, and the ground shakes when the fallen SAR crashes into the ground.
Shit. Alden rolls away from the firey car, the pain of his ankle ignored as he attempts to get /away from the fire/ more than pay attention to anything else.
From his position on the roof, Jean-Paul glances uncertainly toward his best guess of where Xen, Mickey, and Alden are. He fires again, this time at the man dropped prone with his shot aimed toward his right upper arm. Shot made, he lowers his gun to swap back to tranqs and drop to ground level.
Mickey runs like his tail's on fire across the roof, of course, away from the collapsing helicopter, pelting across the roof, in case the Helicopter kept coming his way; he didn't have time to look, really. Some of the shrapnel imbeds into Mickey's pack, and some flying wood smacks his legs, to bruise, as he hides behind his good ol' Shed. But once he gets some distance Mickey does look, scanning below and around, and cocking an ear to those vents, in case here's like, screaming and gunfire.
Xen /would/ try to keep an eye on Mickey, but he's still coming under fire as he rolls away from the last remaining guard and the burning jeep, putting a little distance and the burning jeep between him and the last man with assault rifle, sliding back down to the ground again, keeping low on the earth as he drops his clip and pulls out a new one, reloading it. He holds that position, prone until the world stops shaking, and the screeching and grinding of metal has died. Hopefully by that time, Jean-Paul will have made friends with the last man with the gun.
The prone man squeals at the shot he takes to the arm, but despite it, he is quick to move, hustling to the fence, as if that can provide him with some cover. The jeep continues to burn, a bright bonfire in the night, gutters of flame reaching to the stars.
A three-foot section of rotor blade whips through the air, metal singing, and embeds itself in the shed just after he hides behind it. A single man pulls himself from the downed chopper, crawling on his hands and knees. Black smoke billows from it, hinting at a fire in its belly.
On the ground, Jean-Paul advances swiftly to tranquilize the downed men with a mid-air twist to glance back across the scene. Between fire and smoke and smoke and fire -- well. Real nice and cozy here. He puts the fire at his back as he looks out into the night, looking for targets or -- also nice! -- teammates.
As the screeching metal goes quiet, only to give way to more quiet as Jean-Paul puts down the last guard, Xen pushing up from the ground, crouching low, his gun held in his hands as he advances, his eyes looking out for any of his teammates. Or on enemies who may be coming out to play. He pauses by Alden, looking down at the man, "How are you holding up, Caduceus?" Jean-Paul can probably see him in the flickering light of the burning keep.
After scrambling away from the fire, Alden pulls himself to his feet, heavily favoring his right as the left one continues to ooze blood. As the man jumps up and starts running towards the fence, his tranquilizer tracks him before firing on him. Take that.
As the screeching metal goes quiet, only to give way to more quiet as Jean-Paul puts down the last guard, Xen pushing up from the ground, crouching low, his gun held in his hands as he advances, his eyes looking out for any of his teammates. Or on enemies who may be coming out to play. And as Alden gets up and moves in, Xen flanks the other Agent, noting Jean-Paul. His eyes then look over at the billowing helicopter, his voice rising slightly, "Northstar, can you help me get these mean clear of the chopper before it goes up?" And with that, he slides his gun in his holster and races over towards the downed chopper, climbing up to the pilot's door, wrenching it open and unfastening the flight harness. He figures the guy crawling away probably won't be shooting right now.
Well, better the Shed took the hit than Mickey, really. Lousy giant rotor blade. Mickey drops flat on the roof's edge, so as not to be hit by anything else that might come flying his way, a small shape on the roof, not doing anything other than keep track of people and things below as much as he can, gun still out and ready, setting the rockets down, but close at hand.
The last of the guards go down with the tranqs, although the arm-squealer might not be waking up. :/ Meanwhile, the guy crawling away from the chopper finally gets enough of his feet under himself to get up and try feeling at this pathetic shambling hobble of a run. Inside, the pilot is dead.
The very pungent and distinct scent of burning dog fur starts to roil as the fire from the jeep begins to spread to nearby vehicles, searching out anything that can burn.
That is really sad. MOVING ON. Jean-Paul goes to assist Xen, but as he does, he asks, "What about sending people to the main building?" Oh. Wait. Dead pilot. Not much to assist with, is there?
Alden winces slightly as he sees the second dart aimed towards his mark as well, tracking it to Jean-Paul for a moment before he studies the scene in a sweep of grey eyes. After a moment, he limps forward to grab one of the unconcious bodies and starts dragging it away slowly without questioning.
"Find Tarzan. He may be up on the roof somewhere. Caduceus and I will meet you at the front door as soon as we get these bodies clear." Xen glances over at the last man trying to shamble away in a limping half-run. "And knock him out, please. Away from the wreckage." And then he reaches in and hauls out the pilot's body grimly, hauling him far enough away from the wreckage, putting him with the body Alden's dragged as well.
"Right." Leaving Xen to the sad business, Jean-Paul puts a hand briefly to his side and then rises up into the smoke -- which is crap for visibility, so he /drops back down again/. He zips over to dart the shambling limper and then drag him away from the fires before doubling back with a call up to the roofs as he goes to peek over the edge: "Hey, Tarzan." Oh, look! Mickey. "Front door, main building. Let's go."
Alden continues dragging bodies. And his ankle. How many are there? We can probably ignore the dead one at the fence, at least. Probably far enough away, maybe.
Mickey reacted to the voice first, so he isn't so jumpy as to shoot Jean-Paul as he peeks up at him. "...Okay, once I find a way down," Mickey agrees, and starts looking for, say, a drainpipe, or some kind of handhold to get down from the roof. Last time he had a makeshift 'rope'.
Not counting the man at the fence, there are his two friends, the four men from the dog patrols, a man that pitched out of the guard tower (the other, unfortunately, is currently in a few pieces thanks to the rotor blades of the chopper), and the two around the chopper that aren't dead, one of which Jean-Paul just darted.
As the bodies are deposited, Xen draws his gun again, glancing down at Caduceus's ankle before back to the man, his own adrenaline racing through his system. "Let's go, Caduceus. How's your ankle holding up?" The pilot doesn't pick a pace that has him racing any more, but simply moves as his eyes sweep the yard, watching for any other movement as he moves towards the door of the main building. All of the unconscious or dead guys are just left wherever they are right now. And the FBI guys out around the perimeter do whatever they do. They're special backup. Or something. Maybe they're watching the road in case anyone gets out of the main building and past X-Factor somehow.
Nellson is crunching Tums angrily and wondering what the hell they did to that /chopper/.
Knocked it out of the sky. Duh.
Once Mickey finds his way down -- with a hand offered for holding if he really needs it, since, after all, Nadia is even taller than the midget -- Jean-Paul makes his way to the front door of the main building. And then he waits. And waits. And hey! There's Xen! Catching up! He nods to him with a wary alertness, and nevermind that his left arm is looking a little bloodied from something or another. He steps to the side.
"Better than my face, worse than the rest of my body," Alden replies neutrally, his finger sliding along the side of his gun as it removes itself from the tranquilizer as he steadies it now that he has both hands fee. He follows Xen at a slightly slower pace, even, but he makes it to the door last.
The outside door into the main building looks formidable, constructed out of metal. A dead camera sits above it. It is, alas, locked.
Once Mickey finds something to hang onto to get down, he doesn't need a hand, and gets down off of the building with ease, landing running, to head to the front, keeping track of Jean-Paul as they go to their spot to rejoin the team of Xen and Alden. Mickey still has his rockets, which are occupying his left arm. "...Pick it, or...?" Mickey asks, pointing at the lock.
"Or." With a sidelong glance at Xen, Jean-Paul retreats from the door to keep a watch on the yard.
"Shit," Xen says lowly, some sort of heat to that word as the team discovers the main door locked tightly. "I don't think we have time to waste on it." The pilot pulls a pair of grenades off of his belt, looking none to happy about it, really. His glance catches the rockets in Mickey's arms, but there's really no time as he says to the rest, "Get clear of this. Northstar, help Caduceus. I'll drop these and run like hell." Because he can take it if there's shrapnel. No, really.
Grey eyes flick from Xen to Jean-Paul, no words coming from Alden before he starts limping back away from the door as he tries to get clear of whatever crazy plan is in the works.
"There's another door, stairs, on the roof," Mickey offers to Xen as well, but he'll move his ass when told to get clear, if the others move. The rockets he has are occupying his hands regardless. He'll find a place to stow them while they're getting clear.
Lip twisting, Jean-Paul moves in to support Alden's weight on his bad side. Hand snaking around Alden's waist, he pulls him up, weight off his feet, and scoots them away from the doorway to put something, anything between them and the doorway.
Alden doesn't fight against the support, but he doesn't lend his weight to Jean-Paul either. Or he doesn't try to, at least. He's fine, seriously! He can walk.
Shut up, Alden, or Jean-Paul will drag you. In fact, maybe he will drag you anyway.
"Too far into the building. The team's going to be heading down this way; we need to try and meet them halfway." Xen waits until everyone else is clear of the entrance before pulling the pins, holding tightly to the handles. One breath, two breaths... the pilot flips off the handles, which starts the timer, dropping them into place. At which point, he announces, "Take cover!" And, of course, he turns and burns. As fast as his legs will take him. And at the count of four, the pilot slides down onto the ground, face first. All the better to avoid shrapnel.
As Xen explodes, Alden is kind enough to use his height advantage to cover Jean-Paul from shrapnel even with their cover. Have to protect the pretty, after all.
Condescending jerk! Jean-Paul ... waits.
Kaboom goes the door, dirt and debris flying through the air as that portion of the building shakes. It puts a massive dent in the door and knocks it off its hinges. With a groan, the destroyed door collapses and slams down to the ground. There is a decided lack of casualties behind it.
Mickey became a small ball behind whatever cover there was, be it a body, or the corner of a building, or some big piece of shrapnel, and puts his rockets down, too. It would figure they'd get shot and he'd explode, or something; best to leave them for later.
It isn't until the dust settles that Alden pulls away from Jean-Paul, putting space between the curve of his body and the other agents. He pushes himself awkwardly to his feet, silent as he looks towards the door.
As the air clears, Jean-Paul pushes to his feet with just a brief glance at Alden. He glances around for any sudden swarms of bad guys, and then advances swiftly toward the door -- although he holds, hanging back and waiting for Xen. Looking into the darkened interior, he asks, "Anyone have a working flashlight?"
Even as the dust is settling, Xen picks himself up off the ground and pulls his gun back out as he turns back to the now-open front entrance. He advances back on the door, stopping just to the side to wait for the rest of his team to join him. When they do, he says, "Two by two. Cover each other as we move, keep alert. We're bound to bringing someone to find us now that we're knocked on the door." He look in around the door frame, peering into the entrance, sticking just his head out to listen and look for any movement. Helloooooooo?
Heavy machine gun fire sounds when they look into the darkness of the building, bullets spraying out through the ruined doorframe as well as smacking into it.
There is a soft thwump as a stray bullet digs in to Alden's thigh as he stands there, helplessly not expecting a machine gun. Luckily, this helps with him dropping to the ground.
Mickey wasn't near the door, he was handling the rockets, and creeped back in behind Xen to wait to follow him-- so he jolts back out of the way so as to not block Xen's retreat from the gunfire, automatically trying to help tug Xen back out of it.
Xen's head whips back around the door frame, and he quickly rolls away from the entrance and aided by a grab and a sudden wrench from Mickey, swearing loudly and hitting the ground AGAIN, his heart pounding in his chest. "Who still has a stun grenade or two left?!"
The chatter of the machine gun draws Jean-Paul zipping back awaaay from the door to flatten against the outside wall next to it. He drops low, fingers brushing light at his belt. He doesn't seem to notice Alden take a bullet. "Just have one," he calls to Xen. "It was my backup." Taking the question as instruction, he pulls it free to lob in with a sharp pitch into the entry. To his teammates, he calls, "Watch out." That's all the warning that they get. Be smart, guys.
Mickey jerks his face aside and away, arm up. And behind Xen, anyway. Hopefully bad things will rebound off him, right? Right. Use those powers in good combination: ability to be a little target, engage. "I have one that wasn't used, too," he says, to Xen's back. But makes no move to throw or produce it, yet.
As Jean-Paul lobs the stun grenade into the blasted open entry, the machine gun starts up again. The grenade is clipped twice by the hail of bullets, and explodes not that far within the building. The bright flash of light practically whooshes out of the shattered doorframe.
Crouching with his back against the wall and off to one side, Xen reaches out and for Mickey's flash bang. He turns his head away from the main entrance, and so misses the light show, but hears the machine gun kick up moments before the stun grenade blows up. That was too soon. and then his eyes fall on Alden, "Shit. Does either of you know first aid?" He's asking because obviously, he does not. His advice? Put pressure on the wound.
"Fine," Alden says in response. Go on without him. He'll... sit here and learn to heal himself. His eyes slowly open as he talks, slow in responding to the flashbang finishing with its flash bangyness.
Mickey's grenade is handed over. Mickey'd rather someone experienced throw it, for sure. "No," Mickey answers, with dismay. Not a first aid person, sorry.
"Yeah," Jean-Paul says as he risks a peek down the hall. "Why?" w/e Alden
"Caduceus is down. Looks like he took one of the bullets," comes the grim reply from Xen. He stays where he is at the moment, off to the side and away from nasty machine gunfire. However, he does heft the last flashbang consideringly as he looks over at Jean-Paul hovering around the periphery of the door frame.
A heavy boom sounds from within, and the machine gun goes silent.
"Go /in/," Alden snaps, frustration in the words as he jerks his chin to the door. Go, team, go. He'll... probably be fine.
Glancing between swears-he's-fine-Alden and the silent hall, Jean-Paul looks to Xen with a tip of his head and the arch of an eyebrow. Which way is a silent question.
Xen nods to Jean-Paul, moving next to the quiet hallway himself. Mickey should probably follow. "I'll lead, just in case. Cover me." Gun leading the way, Xen rolls into the now silent hallway, hugging against one side and quickly moving into the darker section of the hall. When he gets to strewn debris and wreckage, possibly kicking a body, he reports loud enough to be heard behind him, "Clear."
With Xen hugging the wall, Jean-Paul hugs ... the ceiling. (And thus negating all the point of Xen as bullet shield. wtg, JP.) He ghosts along behind with tranq-loaded pistol out to cover. He glances to either side for surprises from side corridors or doorways.
If anyone on the capture/rescue team bothers to look down the hallway to the former murderhole, they'll see Xen, Jean-Paul, and Mickey come into view. Likewise, if Xen, Jean-Paul, and Mickey look down the hallway, they'll see their teammates.
Seeing a plan underway, Remy flashes a thumbs up and leaves it to be enacted. He heads for the turn of the hallway at the sound of footsteps, gun lifted... but lowers it on spotting the friendlies. Plz do not shoot him. "Situation around the corner," he reports lowly. "Wait here."
Also, it is a pretty standard pistol that X-Factor probably does use, or at least uses a model very similar. Isabel shouldn't have very much difficulty.
The firelight of a small orange-yellow ball not unlike a miniature sun lights the hallway, floating about a foot above Ilad's head. He looks like hell, and is currently squinting in Isabel's direction, too distracted to immediately note the remainder of our heroes.
Dante keeps the gun trained, not replying to Sachs as he looks to the positioning of the man's trigger finger and his form. "You're not going to go far."
Catching sight of the others down the hall with Remy incoming, Jean-Paul opens his mouth to maybe call a HEY GUYS HOW IS IT GOING before Remy's low report stalls. Eyebrow twitching upward, he looks from Remy to Xen and then back. As he turns to look toward the entry, he asks, "What situation?"
As he gets further into the hallway, he sees the ball of fire giving light into the hallway, illuminating the other team. His gun comes up halfway when Remy steps around the corner, but is quickly dropped again, his voice going low, "What's happening?" That would be Xen.
Mahler, wild-eyed, teeth beared--he is, you know, a little crazy--tightens his grip around the doctor's throat. She half-sags against him. "I said drop the guns, you fucks!"
Mickey comes along, quietly after Xen and Jean-Paul; he lets them both ask the obvious question, and then blinks when Mahler is the one that answers it. Hey, he knows that voice. "Mahler," he mouths at those near him.
"Doctor's a hostage," Remy reports lowly. "Mahler/Mahlox. Williamson's dead. Suicide real soon after we got in."
"Lower your weapon," Harrison snaps at Dante. His own is hanging by his finger in the trigger-guard in his raised hand, mostly flat against his palm. He lowers his hand slowly and keeps a careful eye on Mahler.
Hopefully Ilad's squinting means that he understands, because Isabel's fingers continue their countdown, and as soon as her final finger closes into her fist, teke moves in two fast directions. One snaps the saftey into place, and the other jerks the barrel of the gun up and away from the good doctor's head. Her force is not strong enough to arm wrestle Mahler, but the fast yank of surprise is usually enough to get it out of the way long enough for someone to say, maybe, SHOOT HIM.
Dante shakes his head slowly. "If I do, he'll still shoot her." Oh hey! Opening! Dante moves his hand, aiming to fire at Mahler. And he does fire.
Xen looks down at Mickey, and then grimly to Remy, at which point he curses lowly, mouth twisted in distaste. "Shit. We needed Williamson alive, that miserable f--" His body jerks as there is suddenly gunfire, his head snapping in the direction of the room.
Jean-Paul keeps his gun pointed back down the entryway. You never know. He waits with a quivering, wary tension.
Ilad jerks toward the door and the other two men, but by this point Dante is already firing, so it's probably too late for him to fit Isabel's plan to action. He also moves stiffly, ungainlily at odds with his usual grace.
"Probably knew it was over. Here's hopin' we can get things from his off--" Remy tenses at the gunfire, head swivelling quickly back around the corner. "Magik took Confusion out her way. Others are mobile if rough."
As the gun jerks upwards in Mahler's hand, he snarls in surprise and anger and pulls on the trigger, but comes up with nothing. He also tries to rotate so that he is completely shielded behind the doctor. He is not quite fast enough, however, as the bullet meant for his shoulder crashes through his upper arm of his gun hand. The gun drops, either deemed useless or else because his arm is, and he staggers backwards two steps to the wall, doctor dragged with him. Better move fast.
The doctor finds himself suddenly struggling for air, and with the gun presumably taken care of, Isabel steps around the corner to catch him in her gaze. It makes teke easier. She squeezes.
The bad guy finds himself suddenly struggling for air, and with the gun presumably taken care of, Isabel steps around the corner to catch him in her gaze. It makes teke easier. She squeezes.
Gun lowering, Dante moves in, kicking the firearm away.
Harrison can't move /super/ fast, but he does drag himself over there with as much stiff-limbed efficiency as he can manage. He jams his gun right under Mahler's chin. "Get your hands off her." At the first sign of choking, without looking back to the woman he knows is there, he snarls back, "Just give me one conscious minute."
Mickey moves in now, and goes after the weapon that gets kicked. A good weapon picker-upper. And stares at Dante and the others. Holy shit, they look like HELL. Mickey's just got bandaids all over his face. These guys need a lot more than that.
The choking Mahler manages a glare at Harrison, but his grip loosens on the doctor. He would like to breathe pls. As soon as his hold is gone, the doctor spills away, her attempt at flight a somewhat dazed, staggering-around affair. Who the hell are all you people? She would like to go /home/.
"Then get him under control," Isabel snaps to Harrison from the doorway. Her breath - and Mahler's (look I spelled it guys) - eases as Harrison's gun jams upward and telekinesis eases against his throat. Isabel stays where she is, watching with a sharp gaze.
Remy, report given, manages to return to the doorway around the time the doctor is starting to stagger. "We're with the government, ma'am," he offers from behind Harrison. "If you come with me, I'll get you out to the special agent heading this."
Ilad backs away from the door, his gun lifting as he walks backwards. He flattens himself against the wall for a moment, tipping his head back and letting his eyes close and he puffs out a breath past his lips. The little sun is starting to flicker and sputter.
Isabel still has a water bottle. It nudges against Ilad's elbow. Hi!
When the doctor is free, Harrison says in a low growl, "You know how much electricity it takes to stop a human heart?" But he doesn't. He just slams the butt of his pistol across Mahler's face. That's keeping him under control, right? "Go ahead," he says in a low voice back at Isabel.
"Tranq him," Isabel says, quiet.
Xen simply lets Remy corral the nice doctor lady, who is obviously the one majorly scared person Nadia was sensing earlier, stepping aside as the Cajun passes with her, taking her out to see Nellson and the crew. However, his gun isn't put away just yet-- there are still some folks unaccounted for.
Jean-Paul: still chillin'.
The doctor is only too happy to go with Remy and/or Xen. Is this nightmare over? Mahler, meanwhile, sags at the pistol whip.
At the end of the hallway, near the ruined murderhole, a door pops open. Footsteps, fast and hard, sound down to the team as Bonilla darts for the freedom of the blown-open doorway of the building. His disappearance, however, is brief; he soon reappears, slowly backpedaling with hands raised. Special Agent Nellson follows after, gun trained on him. "You guys done blowing shit up or what?" he calls down the hallway after glancing to the team.
Things pretty much handled in here, Dante looks to Mahler before stepping out of the room, glancing around the hallway to the others who have shown up. Seeing Xen, he walks over, glancing to the pilot before giving a smirk, swatting a hand on the back. "'bout fucking time." He murmurs before wandering down the hallway a few more steps.
Mickey raspberries Bonilla a little when he's pushed back their way. One point for the 'freak', k.
Harrison flips something on his gun, presses it to Mahler's neck, and tranqs him. It is probably really unpleasant point blank. He turns away from him and walks, body slumped with receding energy quickly becoming exhaustion, back to the door and leans heavily on the frame.
Turning toward Nellson as he leads Bonilla on back to the party, Jean-Paul twitches his eyebrows upwards and trains his gun on the returnee so that he can be double-targeted. He's quiet as he waits for things to sort out nice and neat.
Remy can do escort duty of scared doctor-ladies, offering reassurance and promises of clean clothes, food and safety with as much poured into said reassurance as he can manage. He stops in his steering of her at the backpeddling Bonilla, one arm held across her path warningly. "Just as soon as we get this fella to surrender," he calls to the familiar voice of Nellson.
Isabel turns in the doorway to face Harrison, her gaze dark as he slumps into the doorframe. "Hey," she says lowly, seeking his gaze. "Okay?"
Ilad lowers his weapon. He slowly unscrews the cap from this new water bottle and throws it on the floor, the shreds of his ruined orange jumpsuit dangling loosely from his arms as he shifts his lean such that the wall is taking up more of his weight. He looks exhausted, as he takes a sip, even as the little fiery sun flickers back out into darkness.
Ow, Harrison, what'd Mahler ever do to you?! He collapses in a bleeding, tranqed heap on the floor. Bonilla, meanwhile, licks his lips, glancing between Nellson and anybody else eying him or pointing a weapon at him. Nellson cocks a brow at Remy and says, "Hell, sure." And shoots Bonilla. With a borrowed tranq! Down he goes. "Perimeter's clear," Nellson also reports.
Despite the grim set to his face, Xen returns Dante's smirk with a brief, if reserved, grin of his own. "Good to see you too." And as Dante wanders off a little, the pilot turns back to Bonilla and Nellson. He doesn't train his weapon on them, mostly because the FBI and Jean-Paul got it covered. And then Bonilla goes down. Woo.
Harrison looks down at Isabel, and for the first time since his teammates arrived he actually takes the chance to look at her. He just looks at her for a moment with dark, grateful eyes. "I'm--" His smile is very small and very dry, and its appearance isn't helped by the dark bruising, and it's a little hidden by the beard. "--hungry, thirsty, and tired."
"Yeah," Isabel says, her smile a bit ruthless as her gaze rakes over Harrison. "You look like hell." Telekinesis slides forward to squeeze at his hand again, short and firm, and then she jerks her chin toward the hall. "FBI's securing shit. Let's get our injured out of here."
Although Jean-Paul's finger flirts with the safety of his gun, he doesn't lock it. Instead he looks to Xen to ask a low-voiced question: "Everyone Nightmare marked accounted for or--?"
"Nicely done," says Remy to Nellson, and attempts to hand off the doctor. "This is Special Agent Nellson," he explains to her, spoken words tossed out as much to get a head-start on cover stories as to reassure. "FBI. Head of this little rescue operation here. He'll see you safe, ma'am."
Mickey scoots over to the team members... HIS team, too, that he was forced to leave in this place. Particularly with a focus on Harrison, as he was the team's leader, but Ilad, too. "I decided felt left out of the fun in here, so we came to crash your party," Mickey smiles up at Harrison.
Xen looks back over to Jean-Paul grimly, "Hard to tell with all the action. We should do a last sweep of this entire building before we put it to bed."
Nellson takes the doctor, escorting her out with the words of, "I'll have my boys sweep in here, if you don't mind," left with the team as they go.
Ilad sips some more water from his bottle, eyes half-lidded. His gaze flicks between ally and ally to ally.
Harrison's fingers curl in on the ghost of teke sensation, then open out again. He nods at Isabel's suggestion and moves a few steps out of the doorway into the hall when Mickey approaches. For a moment he just looks at the younger man, then his expression is quietly approving. "You did good, kid."
Isabel gives the group a once-over, gaze settling with a moment's surprise on Bonilla before she does a mental head count. She gives Ilad a weak smile, Jean-Paul a slightly larger one, and then, blinking with sudden and dark worry, asks, "Where's Al-- Caduceus?"
Mickey turns a bright red color, and salutes Harrison with his tranq gun in a kind of goofy way, sliding aside out of the way. He'll help with the sweeping. And probably be red with pleasure for quite some time.
"Should at least get pictures of Williamson's office before the FBI get in there an' claim it," says Remy, but as he slouches up against a wall, he seems less inclined to do it himself and more inclined to look over each of the rescued team in turn, searching and satisfied in equal parts.
Catching Isabel's smile to return it with a twitch of his lips, Jean-Paul nods back down the hallway to the entry. "He took a bullet," he warns her. "Not critical."
Harrison's expression quiets when he hears Isabel's question, and he watches her reaction to Jean-Paul's answer for a moment before he finds a spot of wall to lean against. Can he go sleep now?
Isabel's reaction is startled worry and a pace toward Jean-Paul to ask after the details and other things but I won't go into it because we're faded now.
So, the end tally: one rescued civilian, thirty tranqed or dead nutjobs, one dead Richardson/Williamson, one captured Mahler/Greer and one captured Bonilla, two dead dogs, one blown open compound-type base, and one downed SAR helicopter. Guess this mission works out to be normal.
A couple dead bad guys, a couple explosions, one helicopter dropped on a building--. Oh, and an EMP to start it all off. It all goes according to plan.
Set Thursday night. GMING BY GABE THANKS GABE.