Pied Piper Rescue pt 1
Setting: It's hot, wet, and jungley. Actually it's not quiet so hot now as it was earlier the day, since the sun is hanging low on the tree shrouded horizon. The trees aren't the only thing shrouding the horizon earlier, though you're not supposed to see the people ranged among them along the perimeter of the base. Terry shifts, running her hands down the side of her close fitting black fatigues that look almost green in certain lights, and nods to the advance group. Roll 'em.
Following a path earlier marked, avoiding detection from human guards in their approach to the fenced perimeter, Anne and Bahir make the first, quiet assault. They circle, moving out of range of the X-Factor forces waiting for their chance to break in, and then the pair unleash a quiet wave of power. Sleep covers the base, spreading in an inevitable tide as Anne reaches out, and then reaches through Bahir for greater range. Those nearest them fall asleep first, and fastest, while at greater extension, on the side nearest Terry and company, there is a moment for a few confused exchanges in Spanish -- "I don't feel so good...." "No, I feel--." -- and then the telepathy cuts out. A bare handful are left standing -- but they don't look happy, shaking off lingering fatigue.
Remy is in similar fatigues at Terry's, but he's decidedly not wearing the combat boots that traditionally go with them. Lighter hiking boots are the order of the day, mixing ankle support with ease of running and climbing. One hand clad in fingerless gloves lifts, checking the set of his radio's earpiece, before it drifts downwards to other checks, of radio, gun in its holster, and pockets on a vest that bulge with a variety of interesting things. (He does not have tiny feet and implausible muscles, however, so Rob Liefield is not afoot.) His eyes on Terry, he gives her a crisp nod before turning his attention to the Bahir and Anne show, settling into a crouch to wait.
The black shoe polish rubbed into Tim's hair isn't for camouflage purposes. He hasn't had time yet to die his hair back to its natural color since his first mission and he wants to be recognizable. The small inch of authenticity it lends him? A small bonus. He checks the latching on his gear, as he overs near Terry, trying to memorize by touch where everything is. Heart racing a million beats per second, he nods with each touch as he silently mouths the name and purpose of the equipment and waits for orders.
Natalie hangs back with the non-advance group, likewise clad in fatigues and gripping a weapon she isn't sure she knows how to use. Her hair is slicked back and swept up in a knot at the back of her head, and her eyes are wide as her jaw clenches. The snug fit of her radio in her ear is only a little comfort.
Pete is another for the list of those in clothing meant to blend in, settled absolutely still in his position in the line strung out along the perimeter of the base. No last-minute checks here - those have been done, and redone, and done again. He simply waits for the go-ahead.
Madrox is ready, alert, singular. In the mass of the main group, he is quiet, watching Terry obliquely.
The trouble with Zenith's new shorter hair is that it doesn't really like a ponytail, but she has it tightly, tightly bound back in a french braid, and only one lock is escaping to lodge behind her ear, over her radio. Trying to stop fidgeting, she stands in a dancer's rather than a fighter's sort of readiness, finding comfort in the familiar posture.
As the few people visible out on the grounds start to waver and fall, Terry taps her radio and whispers, "Gambit, Wisdom--We have dreams. Go." Those in line of sight for her are given a different signal--one that means 'make ready.'
Waiting, Sal's restlessness manifests itself in obsessive checks: her radio, her position, her weapon. Wash, rinse, repeat, until the signal to make ready comes from Terry. Then, she settles into a combat-ready stance, and waits to be deployed.
And now it is time for Anne and Bahir to sit back as others do the hard work, and eat candy. Power expended, Bahir crouches near the fence and tracks the movement across the compound. He chews on glucose tablets with a grim lack of enjoyment. He offers Anne the first. It is not a flavor he likes. Quiet, they wait.
Wearing loose-fitting black camo pants over a pair of black military boots, and what appears to be a black leather jacket with a black tanktop under it, and kevlar under /that/, is Amadeus; staying close to Tim. He hasn't said a word, he's just following the crowd until he's needed, trying very hard not to screw anything up.
Madrox does his ample best to look readier, but he might strain a shoulder. He might!
Waiting, Sal's restlessness manifested itself in obsessive checks: her radio, inhibitor, her position, her weapon. Wash, rinse, repeat, until deployed as cover for Bahir and Anne; when they fall back to wait, she takes up the defense of their position, weapon ready.
Get ready means one thing to Tim. With one last deep breath, his eyes close and soon after the rest of the kid vanishes from site, uniform and all.
Pete glances once at Remy to check his readiness, then makes his way quickly up to the fence. There is, from certain angles, a sudden, bright gleam along the hand he traces in a broad arc across the chain-link. The hiss of melted metal is perhaps more noticeable. After only a few moments, there is a neat hole, ends gleaming dull orange-red. Both Gambit and Wisdom hurry through, spreading out to better bring down cameras and stragglers between the main group and the building.
In the outpost, those dreams have not gone unnoticed. Sandinistas watch their brethern crumple and keel over at a distance, and one particularly unlucky fellow shifts lopsided and tumbles from the guard tower, landing at a dangerous angle with a sharp crack of some bone. /That/ one is enough for a sudden cry to be raised, a flurry of fast Spanish that suggests a possible attack, with a few shouts of 'kids!' and 'mutants!' filling the air with a slow-building fear. Several men take off for the back of the compound at a fast run, while others respond to a barked command and move forward to approach their fallen comrades, if a bit warily. This group alternates between glances down and glances out at the forest, carefully watchful. Unfortunately for Remy and Pete, they do this for a living. Another flurry of shouted Spanish rises, and men move faster now, finding cover behind familiar buildings and vehicles. Guns raise. Guns aim. Guns /fire/.
As soon as the first gun fires, a large part of the tree around where Tim was standing gets large sized hole punched through it with peeling invisibility.
From her place near the back, Natalie's eyes widen further, and she shoots a frantic look over at Terry as she straightens and tightens her fingers around her gun.
Remy is also doing this for a living, theoretically at least. He leaves off trying to take out security cameras as they are instead overruled in his priorities by living, angry, shooting Sandinistas. Cover is sought in the form of a belly-dirtying dive behind the nearest of the vehicles, one hand already groping not for the limited magazine of his handgun, but for one of his pockets. Snugged up with his back to a wheel and his eyes wide, he pulls loose not his trademark cards, but a tube of plasticine instead.
Amadeus draws a gun, a silver .50 Desert Eagle, the recoil not a problem for someone with super strength. He cocks the gun, firing and aiming at kneecaps as he looks for cover; still not saying a word, trying to focus, no hesitation.
Terry was planning on giving them 60 seconds to spread out and take down defense like the ninjas they are, but the sudden cries filling the air takes that option out of her hands. "Ok, we go now! T-Cat, take that fence down. Offensives, ring the others!" She hangs back just long enough to make sure the others start moving.
Pete also does this for a living. As the guns raise, he drops back to find momentary cover of his own behind the edge of a wall, wincing slightly at the cacophony of gunfire. One hand curls around his gun, the other raises. A spray of white-hot energy rips through the gas tank of one of the vehicles nearby, several meters from where he saw Remy drop for cover. Hello, fireball.
Zenith gulps at the noise of guns, and loses her good posture, just fidgeting again, until Terry gives the orders. She breaks into a run, bringing her gun up, but not firing until they reach a better angle.
Bahir eats candy for a living. Good job.
"Roger." Amadeus promptly responds, smashing his fist through the fence, then grabbing it so he can run to the left, starting to tear it down.
Terry thumbs her intercom again, and snaps "Hey, Psycho Bitch, get those two inside the building! Do you need assistance?"
The Sandinistas sure aren't waiting 60 seconds. They're pushing forward, moving to cover ground where they can as a few drag their unconscious comrades to safety. The others are shooting, filling trees with holes. A rush of heat sends a truck blooming into sudden fire. It does not explode - oh no. Instead it just burns with a rapid, angry heat, forcing the Sandinistas covered there to shout and slant off in a different direction, falling back toward the back of the outpost to regain cover. Another, tucked behind a building, finds Pete and swings his gun in that direction, letting loose a rain of fire.
There's still one hardy soul awake in a guard tower, and movement below makes for a hand target. His gun tracks Zenith, and bullets spray toward her, kicking up dirt just behind her heels as she runs and he tracks.
"Get down and /stay down/," Sal hisses to her charges over the sound of gunfire, then changes her tune as Terry radios. "Belay that -- stay down, but /move/." This is further facilitated by some reaching and grabbing and /pushing/ if necessary, before she starts moving too, laying down cover fire. "Copy that, Siryn. We're good down here for now."
The grass behind the advancing team shifts from side to side as Tim advances quickly. He WAS sticking close to Zenith, but as soon as bullets seem to be heading her way, he changes course. "Watch it Z!" he yells out after her and grabs some cover for himself near the fence. There is a click as he pulls out a weapon.
Zenith uses decreased gravity for a quick burst of speed to get her to cover behind a tree, where she stops, trying to figure out what to do next. A gravity field in front of the tree, pointed out, slows bullets, but makes it hard for her to shoot herself. She drops it to try for a quick burst of fire herself.
Amadeus has a good chunk of the fence pulled off, more than enough for them to run through. He draws a second Desert Eagle, trying to use that big chunk of fence as cover, as he continues firing with both guns, always either aiming for knees or elbows, and even a few crotch shots.
Madrox does what he usually does. He claps a few times and creates in himself a perimeter, all keeping low and all quickly advancing. And trying to be hard to hit. That'd be cool.
Pete drops, hissing out a curse as one bullet whines across his hip, angle wrong to be caught by the body armour he wears. (He is not, in fact, an idiot.) He returns a volley of blazing knives in the direction of the man shooting at him. It's faster than the gun, though he brings that to bear as well.
Mash, mash, mash, SQUISH. Where there was a tube of plasticine, there is now a trio of rough spheres, each about two inches in diameter. They are charged. Ducking briefly around the edge of his truck-cover, Remy tosses them one, two, three and glowing a chipper purple-pink at the nearest encampment of Sandinistas, before ducking back behind the truck again.
Terry's head snaps up to track the guard tower situation as she stays behind the others, herding them forward. "We need that tower down!" she barks into the radio, judging the distance too great to take care of the guard herself. Buildings rise on either side of them, but dead ahead is the target building.
In the midst of the base, a Nicaraguan falls to a gunshot from Amadeus' direction, and another crumbles to the ground with a screech of pain as a hot knife slices through his his arm, and then another catches him in his chest. He doesn't scream for long. Another pair find themselves caught in the wake of Remy's explosion, and soon the air is filled with shouts of pain and anger and instructions in addition to the gunfire. Most of it swings to find Pete and Remy, what with the exploding things and hot knives, but the guard tower keeps an eye on Zenith, intent on bringing her down, while a lonely gunman behind a car fixes on Amadeus.
"I wasn't planning on getting up and /dancing/," Bahir snaps back to Sal, crabby with a headache. Well. Crabbier. He hangs back to let musclewoman deal with the fence, and then follows after her. Mutational defenses flattened, he throws everything he has into simply shielding the psionic chaos from his weary mind, and drags after her. Yeah, yeah, explosions, dum de doo. He crouches. He flinches. He ducklings.
Natalie remains back, tucked behind a tree as she stares helplessly at the chaos in front of her in short peeks. She's breathing hard and heavy, almost paralyzed. She's very little use.
"Fuck!" Amadeus quietly exclaims when the gunman starts focusing on him, then suddenly he holsters his left gun, yanks a large chunk of fence off, then hurls it toward the gunman's car, trying to provide a distraction before he rapidly fires in the direction of the man's arms.
"Dammit!" Zenith spits as her field to slow the bullets doesn't come up fast enough to prevent one from clipping her arm as she ducks back from trying to fire back. She pants for a second, behind the tree and her field, then tries again, aiming better this time back along the trajectory of the bullets coming for her.
"Z!" Tim hollers again when she gets clipped. Several muffled coughs come from his direction as his silent side arm sends several tranqs up towards the tower and the bad person shooting as Z. JERK!
Something pungent and Cajun is yipped as a spray of bullets connect with Remy's sheltering truck and collapse the front two tires (Including the one he's -hiding behind-, the bastards) as they pepper the ground around him, kicking up dirt and dust and chips of rock, one of which clips at his cheek. The shout for the tower's demise gets his attention, and another pop of his head around the truck, rather like a whack-a-mole game, before he ducks back to plot out a run for it.
Pete does not feel inclined to remain a stationary target, even a small one. He returns fire at the most clearly obvious gunman, before sending another volley of knives into a nearby truck, offering another problem for the Sandinistas to deal with while he scrabbles for a more defensible position.
Distraction it is, as Amadeus' Sandista is forced to dive sideways to escape the bit of fence. Unfortunately, that dive also saves him from the gunshots, and he shifts into a quick crawl behind a building's corner to regain his aim on the kitty cat.
Too bad towers provide one with excellent angles and easy hiding. Gunshots scream toward Zenith, and hers in return do very little good save to chip away bits of wood. Fortunately, however, the gunman's rather preoccupied, and there's only one left up there - Remy isn't even noticed.
Madrox is admittedly a bit delayed as he scrambles in his backpack to toss some spare guns to his compatriot Madri, but then he's running forward again, toward that target building, a mass of men with shavedish heads heads and charming faces, trying to suss out human targets as they move.
The truck these knives find has a fuller tank of gas, and it flames for only a moment before a sizeable explosion rocks the area, roaring up into giant flames that send one man screaming, alight with fire. The flames lick up at the side of a supply building, eating hungrily at its wood.
Amadeus draws his second gun again, then starts running towards Zenith to cover her. "I got you, don't worry." he assures, starting to fire at knees and elbows that may be firing at them, letting Tim handle the tower.
Terry ducks down behind a conveniant truck for cover and tries to get a feel for the situation as a whole. Gambit, Wisdom, check. PM, DA, and Anne, check. Main body of agents moving toward building, minus pinned down Zenith, che-- Wait. She swings around looking for the missing figure from her head count. Simon. Terry spits a curse in Gaelic and turns to sprint back the way they came, dodging the stray bullet coming from who knows who.
The opening courtyard on the Sandisita base is nearly clear, save for flaming trucks and dead bodies and that single, pesky tower. Otherwise, all their countrymen (and a few mercenaries with wicked aim) have retreated back toward that guarded building.
Remy can deal with that. There's just -his- gunmen to worry about, and, in the wake of the Big Boom. (Where are the Mythbusters?) he -sprints- for the tower, throwing in zome zig-zags and hop-skips, and bouncing over a pile of supplies as he goes.
Through the fence, over the ground, behind cars and through a rain of bullets, Sal herds her ducklings ever closer to their target building. Lay in a little cover fire, hiss and yip and swear as something clips her, fir vack viciously in retaliation. On the whole, though, she is quietly competant and good at her job: Bahir and Anne get closer to the target, and Harper manages to keep them alive while they do.
Tim keeps pumping darts up to the tower whenever he sees the gunman go for shots.
"Jesus." With Amadeus approaching, Zenith skips the next in her cycle of trying to shoot back at those shooting at her and just remains behind cover until the situation hopefully changes, concentrating on keeping her field up to slow the bullets.
Madrox keeps-a-running. There's at least one warning shot from one of him. But that building is close.
Natalie remains close to her tree, hugging it with breaths close to hyperventalating. She grips her gun with death-white fingers and then forces herself to edge around the tree, glancing forward just in time to see Terry sprinting toward her. Shit.
Bahir and Anne and Sal mostly miss the first barrage of gunfire, but as they draw closer to the building, they draw more attention. No fewer than four gunmen catch them in their sights, aiming from around a building's corner and another car as the trio runs.
Darts do little good - the gunman in the tower is armored and blocked by wood slats that let bullets out, but aren't so big on letting darts in without extremely precise aim.
Collected as a man might be whose principal asset in a crisis of any kind is the ability to /cheat/, Percy moves with fair rapidity amongst the others of his comrades, behind the main group, firing shots almost at a rhythm in the midst of his half-jog, half-dodge-and-slink. He attempts to simultaneously track multiple potential targets at once, ducking and dodging with a faint snarl curling at his lip as he goes.
Terry skids to a stop a few feet away and snaps, "If you're coming, get moving. Otherwise I'm leaving you out here to fend for yerself." She hesitates a minute to see if her words do any good before heading back across the downed fence line and back into the melee.
Madrox keeps running! He is really being helpful in as far as his running, ducking, and dodging components go.
Natalie's eyes widen once more and then she /moves/, sprinting off after Terry. Who seems something like safety, anyway.
Precise aim Tim doesn't have, especially since he doesn't even have the use of the gun sights. Blast it. When he sees Mad go for Zenith, Tim abandons the hopeless situation, and advances quickly through the fence and heads for the next batch of cover he can find.
Pete smiles grimly. He circles around the nearest building, taking advantage of the smoke and the flames and the general chaos to get into position to have eyes on the guarded building. He keeps low and alert, gun up in one hand, the other spread at his side, flexing occasionally with the beginnings of power called but not released.
Amadeus finds himself bulletless, holstering one gun at a time so he can reload both. But when he holds both guns up to start firing at the tower guard with Tim gone, a bullet goes directly through the left side of Amadeus' chest, causing him to drop a gun. "Fuck!" he yells in pain, dropping down to one knee, then firing rapidly up at the tower out of anger.
Terry grins as Natalie takes off after her, and she slows down enough to let the other woman catch up. There is no fire following htme, otherwise occupied elsewhere as the guards are. Terry comes up alongside of Pete and kneels. "Guards inside?" she asks.
The flames that are eating at the supply building are spreading rapidly, their hot-hot nature making it easy to spread along a bit of leaked gasoline, into a pile of crates, across to the next building, and then there's another rocking explosion as the flames find another gas tank. At the secured building, there's a loan metallic groaning, and lights start to flicker. A few Sandinistas show panic - that building is secure, and it's key carded, and with eletricity goes their ability to get inside. Three of them turn and retreat as swiftly as possible, and the door slams behind them.
"Fuck." Zenith shifts her field so it's in front of Amadeus, not stopping the bullets like some kind of shield, but at least slowing and deflecting to various degrees. She runs for him herself, giving up on shooting to try to run and help him along to get out of the area.
Remy is less interested in the gunman as in the tower that holds him. Another belly-slide ensures that these fatigues will be the despair of the security-rated laundresses of Old Home, but does serve to make him a less visible target as he curls around one of the tower supports and commences rummaging through his pockets. (Entire towers are a bit much to take out.) Plasticine-not-yet-turned-plastique is produced, the last of his supply, and squashed around the support. There is another flare of glowing purple-pink, followed by Remy yelling "Run! Vite! Fifteen seconds!" and making a mad dash away. He has rather forgotten to zig-zag.
Natalie drops heavily to her knees at Pete's side, panting and otherwise silent as Terry speaks.
When bullets spit in Bahir's direction, his primary response is just to find /cover/ -- nevermind shooting back. He drops back behind the building, nudging Anne back with him, and largely allows Sal to deal with the ... problem. Hesitantly, he begins to unshield in order to make use of telepathy -- but he hastily reshields, chaos and pain and confusion too much to work through in residual fatigue.
Ten-- nine-- eight-- And at one, there's a big BOOM, with shockwaves that rock the area if anyone's standing too close. The wood splinters and splits, and with an angry groan, the tower collapses into rubble. The guy inside? Well. He ain't shooting anymre.
Pete nods once. "Fell back towards the building," he replies to Terry, words clipped. His gaze flickers towards the new explosion, then trains back on the secured door across the compound.
Amadeus runs along with Zenith, firing stray bullets at any guard he sees (that /don't/ look like they could be the kidnapped children). He's not just aiming at knees as he goes for cover with Zenith, he's aiming at kidneys, livers, and of course still crotches. "I'm bleeding, use your gravity to stop the bleeding so I can reload!"
The Madri are now hurrying into Terry's vicinity, huddled up in a protective group. "Sitrep?" asks one, "Ow!" snaps another, and "What now, huh?" goes another.
Anne happily follows Bahir's nudging and ducks hastily, counting on Sal's protection. Catching Bahir's expression at his attempt to reach out telepathically, she lays a hand on his arm to catch his attention and cocks her head to the side, saying without speaking, You okay?
"Get behind me," Terry mutters to the others, then takes a deep breath and opens her mouth. The sound that comes out isn't particularly impressive--more of a whiny, high-pitched thing-- but ahead of it, the building door warps. Behind it, though is the real work. The guards closest to the door are on the ground unconscious, arms wrapped around their stomachs and heads.
There's a hiss and a sizzle as the fire finds something electrical to eat at. Overhead, sparks rain down on anyone still in the courtyard. But the gunfire? That's stopped.
"Can't," Zenith pants. "'d implode you. Keep /going/." She points, trying to urge him the wake of Terry, letting Amadeus do the shooting for them, but readying her gun for when he runs dry. "Bandage when we have better cover."
Natalie shuffles behind Terry in obedient silence, and she winces, hands rising to clamp over her ears at the sound. Only when it fades does she drop them to grab at her gun again, and finally she looks a little less than completely and totally panicked.
Remy is delayed a moment as the tower goes down, still close enough to feel the shockwave against his back as it knocks him forward for a few stumbling stemps. "Sacre -merde-," he breathes, impressed with himself, before he resumes his darting and ends up beside Zenith and Amadeus. "He good to run or you need a hand in a carry?"
Pete backpeddles with alacrity to get out of Terry's line of...voice. That warning's one he's definitely learned to listen to.
Amadeus goes after Terry, grabbing a clip with a shaky hand as he drops the empty one. He momentarily curses the kevlar, the very crappy kevlar...
The building itself sits warped open and silent. There are no shouts - there is no gunfire. There is simply the ongoing whirr of machinery, a whirr that stumbles and halts and hisses as more and more of its power goes snap-crackle-pop in the spreading fire.
"Yes'm," say a few Madri and they cluster a-closer behind Terry. Aren't they friendly and good.
With Bahir taking care of the /duck/ and /hide/ portions of the equation, Sal manages not to get shot -- mostly because the people shooting have stopped. Well. "Come on, let's move," she snaps back at them, and gets moving again.
"I'm fine," Bahir says to Anne, looking up at the sparking of wires. He winces. "Just--." When Sal snaps, temper rises in his expression, only to get strangled back. He follows after her, rounding the building again to join the others. He glances over at Anne and then squints inside.
Dodging a few scattered sparks as he catches up with the assembling mass of comrades in arms, Percy arrives just in time to witness the rippling warp of the wood at her warble. His gun lowered in the momentary bulletless peace, he keeps scanning with his glance as though he expects extra Sandinistas to pop out from behind any particular corner, and hisses with the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
"I think he's--" Zenith answers Remy, and then lets Amadeus go as he keeps going on his own. "Good, I guess." Since she's not presently being shot at, she puts a hand to her arm, to judge the amount of bleeding there, and keeps going to fetch up behind Terry.
Anne hurries after the rest of her little group, looking a little grey and tight lipped, but having no trouble keeping level with Bahir. She too squints in at the chaotic events unfolding, trying to spot a guard and an opportunity to use her power again.
Terry turns her head to the spectacle of bloody Amadeus and frowns. REALLY HARD. "Ok... Sal, can you get the door out of the way? Everyone inside, now. PB, Wisdom, clear our way. Gambit, take him. The rest just /move/."
Natalie coughs and glances at Terry briefly before pushing up to move inside after Pete. She's braver now. There aren't any bullets.
"...apparently not 'bout to fall over," Remy agrees, with a blank and bemused stare at Amadeus that's distracted by Zenith's posture. "You?" he wonders, heedless of the small streak of blood on his own cheek, but Terry's direction catches his ear before he can express more concern. "On it," he reports.
"Doesn't hurt. Probably shouldn't think about it," Zenith says, but then she gets as distracted as Remy by Terry's order. She resettles her grip on her gun, and then stumbles into motion again, following the others inside.
Sal nods, shouldering her gun and stepping forward to take hold of the door. There's some wrenching and groaning (from the door) and muscle-y flexing, and the door is off its hinges. Sal does not toss it aside, because that would be showy, but sets it to one side and puts her gun back into play.
Sal's wrenching of the door reveals a number of Sandistas sprawled unconscious on the floor, or near to it. One is certainly bleeding - from his ears. And beyond that? There's a short hall, and at the end of it, a door stands open, as if someone had rushed there in a hurry. A flicker of blue and green shows past it.
Pete does nothing so foolish as race in headlong, though he does hurry forward, stance low and gun raised. He pauses once he comes up alongside the warped-open door, flicking a quick glance at Sal to coordinate entry into the building beyond.
Amadeus stops when he notices everyone appears to have calmed down for the moment, forcing the clip into his gun, then winces as his left arm drops again. "Can someone wrap this up? This hurts like freakin' hell, and I'm not gonna be dead weight..."
Sal catches Pete's glance and nods, holding up a hand; on the count of three (not ticked off) she waves it forward, and goes in low, weapon ready.
With Amadeus moving under his own power, Remy is reduced from fireman-carrying to following after like an armed and dangerous and dirty mother hen. "Jus' get inside, Madcat," he directs, one hand waving his sidearm (It is not a Desert Eagle. It is a very pretty Uzi.) "I'll give ya a bit o' field medicine once we set up and watchin'."
In the probably brief calm, Anne glances over to Bahir again with a questioning look. "Do you think you can.....?" She nods toward the doors, suggesting a possible repeat of their initial performance.
As Pete and Sal venture in, Bahir drops shields to sweep telepathy outwards. Things have quieted -- slightly -- enough for him to make a tally of those up and yet a threat. It is especially easy to count to zero. "No one there," he says to Anne, and secondarily, to Terry. "I think everyone's already out, or currently not a threat. We're clear for now." It is the later part that he addresses more to Terry: "I'd suggest taking a group to collect weapons from those who are just unconscious or stunned, and securing them."
The building is empty. Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse - so Amadeus shouldn't be too distracted. There is, however, movement. Or... flickering. The electric groans, and then abruptly, the entire outpost is light only by the roaring of the flames. Power is... gone. Completely.
No, wait, not completely... that flicker of blue and green is still there ahead, but it looks fainter now, and there's a loud electrical click as back-up power snaps into place.
Just behind Terry, Natalie's eyes fix forward, and she says succintly, "Oh, /shit/."
Pete moves in in a similar crouch, barrel of his gun mirroring the track of his gaze as he makes his way into the building littered with prone Sandinistas. He is cautious, keeping note of Sal's path so as not to cross her line of fire, or let his line of fire cross her. His jaw clenches slightly as he notes the open door and its blue-green gleam.
"That's not good." Tim's voice sounds near Remy.
"Well, fuck," Bahir echoes Natalie.
Gun (some vaguely defined gun) held at ready, Percy pads on light steps with the others after Sal. His lips are pressed into a thin line, gaze skipping over the fallen men that litter the hall. When Bahir confirms the absence of further threat, his weapon lowers. And then, it's dark. "--Fuck," escapes on a little hitch of his breath, largely because his habitual grace is not enough to prevent near collision with his nearest fellow.
Amadeus nods to Remy, following inside with his gun ready, just in case. Blood runs down his arm, though it didn't hit a huge artery. "The hell is going on?"
Natalie's gaze goes quick to Bahir, questioning. "Did you say no one there?" she asks in a hurry. "Because I think we just got a little fucking pressed for time."
"Jesus Christ," is Zenith's contribution to the general chorus. She stops moving at first, and only goes cautiously forward again after a moment. The meaning of the light has escaped her, but she responds to everyone else's sudden worry.
"No shit," says Remy to the invisible man, voice gone a little hollow and eyes a little wide. "...I think that put us on a deadline, is what's goin' on," he answers Amadeus, before motioning the other man to sit down with a sharp jerk of his head and one hand reaching for a small field first aid kit. "I think we gonna just not care about whether the bullet's still in there, f'now."
"No one conscious," Bahir says, and then glances over at Anne again. He gives her a nudge toward the door, token electrical engineer that she is, and looks back at Terry. "I have no idea what will happen to the portal when the power goes out. Mario didn't know. Send Cl-- A--." Right. Codenames. "--Sandman to check it out?"
"Well, fuck," is Sal's contribution, as she edges closer to the doorway and its flickering light.
Terry nods in reply to Bahir and lifts her voice. "Rains, you and Sandman take care of their wea--" She falls silent as the lights flicker and fail. She spits another gaelic curse (though who knows if it really is one. Things just sound cooler in Gaelic). "Come on, flashlights, people. Move it. We've got one thing we stop for, and it's not the hallway decorations." She uses her smaller size to slip her way to the fore of the group, and then ahead down the hall.
AND INTO THE ROOM.
Natalie pushes in after Terry, following obediently. It's easier, now that it's confirmed safe. Ish.
Anne in sagging in place, not paying a whole lot of attention to the talk around her until Bahir nudges her once more. "I could take a look. I don't really know how much I'll be able to figure out, but..." She shrugs and heads hesistantly for the door.
A few confiscated assault riffles begin to float through the air, and quickly follow behind the group.
Madrox moves on, all of them. They are maybe shakenly muttering to themselves.
Amadeus reaches into his jacket, pulling out a flashlight and shaking it up, then turning it on with his wounded hand. At least it'll be good for something. He keeps his gun drawn, he's not convinced that /everyone/ is gone, there could always be one left. "Someone finally fucking shot me." he idly says to himself, that's all he /can/ say, after all the times he's had guns pointed at him.
The flare of Percy's flashlight skips directly over his path as he picks up speed after the others. He remains largely quiet. Each inm.kkkkkkj;[f
In the room ahead, a single computers blinks a warning message. The others are dead, and this one looks as though it's running on very little power. Indeed, a gauge is conveniently located in the bottom corner of the screen. 'Seven minutes auxiliary power', it reads.
The flare of Percy's flashlight skips directly over his path as he picks up speed after the others. He remains largely quiet. Each intake of his breath marks the sour thrills of the fallen in adrenaline and fear and pain, not to mention what else might be reeking off everyone else here in their sweat.
Zenith pulls out her flashlight when prompted, shining the pool of light fair enough ahead that it should hopefully help out others, too. "Someone shot me too," she grumps at Amadeus, hurrying ahead to reach the room too.
Terry stops and blinks at the screen, her inhalation audible behind her. "Simon! al-Razi!" she shouts, spurring into sudden movement.
"S'what happens when y'dealin' with soldiers," says Remy, quick and dirty and through his teeth as he rips the top off of a packet covering a pair of gauze pads, and grabs Amadeus by the arm with a "Wait still a sec, homme" and a grab hold to try and wrap them in place with the help of a really ridiculous amount of medical tape.
Sal's flashlight is just one more in the small pool of lights, her gun at her side. This is more of that waiting part that she sucks at.
Pete's free hand dips into one of far too many pockets. After a moment, it emerges with a handful of small plastic cylinders. There is a quiet pop-crack, and chemical light blooms, then spreads as he tosses the glowsticks - heavy-duty rather than children's toys - to spread light a little further than a flashlight would manage.
"And we're okay! See, you should have put us in front," Madrox calls quiet, but chipper, over his shoulder. Onward.
Seeing the live computer ahead, Anne hurries her steps over to it, arriving just behind Terry. Looking to Terry for permission she asks, "Shall I see if it will tell us anything else?", and gestures to the computer's keyboard.
Bitching, Bahir picks up his pace to squeeze past others in order to catch up to Terry. He nudges Percy in passing, and, with steps dragging, approaches Terry with a complaint of, "That's not a /codename/." He eyes the screen. "/Motherfucker/." He gives Anne a swift nod. "See if you can do anything about maximizing the power usage. What's the least amount of power it takes to keep the portal open? What's it /running/ off?"
Natalie isn't far behind Terry, but the shout has her sprinting the last few steps forward in the sudden flare of Pete's light. She's breathing heavily, and she lifts her brows, glancing from Terry to Anne before her gaze drops to the computer, which now counts at 6:34. "Holy shit," she breathes, and blinks rapidly for a moment.
Amadeus winces when Remy starts wrapping his arm, but nods in approval. At least he won't bleed to death. "Thanks, but did you check on Zenith yet?"
"She next," Remy answers.
Taking Bahir's approval as good enough, Anne sets to work on the computer. She doesn't even bother check if there is a chair or not, hunched over the keyboard and mouse, and trying to extract as much information as possible as quickly as she can.
Five floating assault riffles are gently set to the ground in the computer room. Despite his desperate want to drop them in panic, random peppering of bullets would have probably been a bad thing in this room.
"Is it safe for transport?" Terry barks, staying out of the way of the nerds. At least physically. "How much time do we have for transport? Will that thing get us /back/?"
"I don't know. Time is different." While Anne extracts information, Bahir gives a slanted look at Terry. "It's possible that people who go over won't be able to come back, but we need to go /now/."
"I don't mind!" pipes up one Madrox. /Aren't/ they chipper.
"All the backup power is devoted to keeping it open," Anne informs the room in a strained tone. "You only have 6 minutes now to get over and get back. In our time frame, anyway. I don't know how long that will be there."
6:16. "Shit," Natalie says again, and then jerks sideways, scouring the room for pen, paper, pencil, /anything/. Failing that, she bends to the floor and scrawls a handful of invisible numbers against it with her forefinger, visualizing calculations at a rapid pace. It's 5:46 when she looks up and says, "Five minutes-- a little over two hours. If it's holding with what we got from Illy, which Bahir said it doesn't. Say an hour and a half ot be safe-- if you're going, you have to go /now/."
Amadeus raises his gun-wielding hand, waving it a few times. "If we might not be able to come back, it's probably good if I'm one of the people that go over. You're all specialists and shit like that, I just shoot stuff."
Zenith steps forward, ready to go through the portal. "If we're carrying injured or anything, we'll want as many of us as possible, so we don't have to make multiple trips, right?"
"No time for /us/ to test," Percy says in a low voice, slanting a look at Terry with another slight flare of his nostrils. Panic comes in many flavors. He jiggles a heel in place. "Not even with one of them." This with a jerk of his thumb towards the perky Madri. "Just have to go through and take all our chances."
"I am completely extraneous!" call three Madri at once, as one moves toward the area in question. Two are not nearly so perky at all and mostly express themselves with silence.
Terry spins and barges back to the doorway to stick her head out of it. "Are you two travel ready? she asks of Zenith and Amadeus, then spins without waiting for an answr. If they are, they'll get through. "Simon, al-Razi, Talhurst. You stay and try to feed us more power. Multiple! I want you to leave some of yourself with them for protection. Everyone else, /move/." Terry is the first through the portalhole. Bonsai!"
"Hour and a half," Natalie calls after Terry, pushing herself up to stand. "/Hurry/!"
"BlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastit" Tim's voice mumbles before he rushes through the portal as well.
And prompt, three Madri through after. Two, the quiets, remain behind. One is less quiet, enough to remark, "Here for duty." And then they form up around the other behinds.
Amadeus shrugs, walking towards the portal whether Remy is done or not, holstering his gun. "Always knew I'd die on the other side of a portal." are his last words before walking through.
Zenith is keeping cool at this point mostly by dint of Not Thinking About It, so she just goes forward. Pretty light! Nothing more!
"I gettin' -so- drunk when we get back!" With a run, and that optimistic shout, Remy unsafes the UZI pistol and takes his leap.
"Geronimo," says Sal, with an expression that is totally in no way a smile. Then, hard on Remy's heels, she runs through.
Pete wheels from where he had been standing in the hall, as guard against any possibly-waking (or arriving) Sandinistas, and races through the portal at a near-sprint.
"Those sound a lot like code names," Percy mutters, although whatever else he might have to say is blocked off and arrested by his catch of what Amadeus says on the way through. He boggles, for about a heartbeat.
Natalie stands, staring helplessly at the portal as the others pass through before she turns to look at Percy and Bahir and Anne and Madrox. Well-- what now?
Now for the longest six minutes of their lives. Percy shines his flashlight back towards the computer and the keyboard, but since Anne has already basically indicated that as a dead end, he shines it over the rest of the machine. "Is there a /way/ to supplement auxiliary power?" he asks. He is not an engineer. "Since I'm /pretty/ sure the double As in these flashlights are a dead end."
"You could hook me up. I have a lot of innate, but submerged energy." "Yeah," says the other Madrox. "We're expecting to acquire a secondary mutation of firebreathing any day."
"Maybe car batteries, truck batteries," Bahir says, looking blankly at the computer, and then back over his shoulder. "You know. If there are any that haven't been /exploded/. An-- Sa-- oh, fuck it. Angelica--" You see, he is terrible with nicknames. "--can you do anything with that? Natalie?" Bueller?! "Madrox, since you haven't /yet/ acquired that secondary mutation, can you begin disarming the people who are down, but not dead, and secure them?"
Natalie raises her hands a bit helplessly. "I can /try/, but..." She shrugs and shakes her head. "I think the wires snapped," she answers. "If we can find equipment, we might be able to repair them..." In five minutes, 47 seconds.
"Ye-es, sir," drawls one Madrox, but they both do get around to examining their new and prone friends.
"Wire cutters, electrical tape--?" Percy's iron grip on his control has loosened, letting energy burn through him and brightening his eyes. He glances at Madrox and gives Bahir a slight nod.
"Percy, go. Try to find some kind of battery." Because he is obviously the one to lift heavy things. "Angelica, Natalie...." Bahir trails off, glancing at the computer somewhat dubiously. 5:07. "See what you can do," he says, words short and clipped brisk. Bahir, you go sit in the corner and eat candy? Nah. "I'll see if there's any kind of repair kit around here."
"We might not want to try the battery connection until the very last second anyway. If we were to bypass the backup power somehow and cut the power to the portal even for a moment....I'm not sure what that might do." Anne cautions over her shoulder. Then she turns to Natalie and the mess of broken wires, musing, "Yuck. Can you tell what any of this is running to? That'd be the first step. Find the primary power supply, and rule out the lights and whatever else."
Natalie shakes her head helplessly. "I'm a /mathematician/," she answers, moving to stare at the mess. "I'd be better off with the computer, but you've already checked-- and as much electricity as this thing has been draining, I'm not surprised."
Better Percy go off and try to lift heavy things than loom around uselessly getting in the way of potential electrical or computer work. "Assuming I can even find a proper battery," he says over his shoulder as he turns to jog off down the hall, shining his flashlight around. "Cross that bridge--" It's a good thing everyone is dead or unconscious and Madrox is securing the latter ...
Madrox continues to ever so helpfully remove weapons as a pair. There's sometimes some humming. If they are perhaps relying on spare cord to tie up the unconscious.
"Well, you could see what's live and what isn't," Anne suggests to Natalie. "Live wires would be very helpful about now," she says with a faintly hysterical sort of a chuckle. "Grab something metal, preferably with a rubber or plastic hand-hold, or just wrap the end of it with something. Then see if you can get anything to spark." Careful not to touch any bare wire-ends herself, she begins following wires back to their origins, and attempting to sort out their different functions.
Natalie laughs, the sound more than a little hysterical. It breaks off abruptly as she swallows, and then she nods and moves swiftly to do just that.
SO. Since Anne is HERE, Bahir goes hunting for ... things. He doesn't even know what he is looking for, but it is a good way to waste a minute in distraction, rather than in knuckle-gnawing tension.
Percy jogs through halls, waving his flashlight around in a hunt for any supply closets or anything else that resembles a car battery. It's like trying to rescue Johnny Five.
Anne is having limited luck with her wires. Mostly she is muttering to herself while twisted into an awkward position to reach over the computers to just the right cluster of wires at the wall. Occasionally a little profanity or something about bad design is intelligible, but most of the rest of it is too quiet.
Natalie is touching things and getting no sparks. Belatedly. It's very interesting.
Bashir has yet to find anything. That's not so interesting.
Gosh, we've gained a member.
Damnit.
Doctor! What are you doing here?!
A and S are right next to each other, asshole.
You should have brought Garak along. He'd've been really useful.
I'm not talking to you.
):
Go find a battery.
HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS ME?
It might have been me instead
But was it?
No, it wasn't.
See?
I suppose
Seconds ticking away as sands falling through the hourglass, Percy returns at a more labored jog, lugging a large, blocky, dusty-looking and battered black and gold box-like thing stamped DIEHARD on the side. Car batteries are hilarious. He releases a heavy "Enh" sort of grunt as he sets it down beside Anne and Natalie and their wiring collection. "Fuck," he adds.
Bahir ALSO eventually returns. He carries two things: one is a computer repair kit, complete with tiny screwdrivers, et cetera, and the other is a more general toolbox, with wrenches, et cetera. In there, there /might/ be something that Anne and Natalie can use. "How's it going?" he asks, glancing at the clock.
"God fucking damnit," mutters Anne as she extricates herself and turns to regard the two returned men. The battery gets a long look first, and then she casts a glance at the tools before turning to tap the computer's keyboard a moment while glaring at the screen. "Wrong voltage, wrong voltage," she explains without turning to look at them. "We need to transform it. Find any wire? And something metal with a big hole in the middle would help a lot."
"There were some jumper cables," Percy reports in a dubious tone. "At least, I ... think they were jumper cables?"
"Go," Bahir says to Percy, sending him off on the wire errand while he looks around the room, helplessly, for metal. "Maybe ... there's something with a bullet hole in it...."
"Make one," Percy points out to Bahir as an option as he turns back to jog down the hall from whence he came.
"We'll need to strip the cables," Anne says, mostly to herself. Finding what she was looking for on the computer screen, she dives for Bahir's toolbox, fumbling with the catches in her haste before throwing it open. She roots through it, searching for wire cutters, all the while muttering some calculations to herself. There are words like 'Impedence, leakage flux, N primary, and net inductance,' all mixed in. She is too involved to notice the gust of wind, or anything much else.
Bahir startles, and looks at the portal with a somewhat desperate expression, fear widening his eyes. But, no, thank goodness: the portal is still there. After a second, he takes an unsteady breath and asks, "Do you think that was an explosion?" (Still looking for metal. Would you believe it just isn't at hand?)
Natalie's head jerks up and toward the portal as she blinks. "Shit," she breathes.
"What?" Anne belatedly looks up at the two of them with a frown, finally clutching a pair of wirecutters in one hand.
Percy misses the whooshing portal because he's off getting jumper cables! He does return swiftly, carrying the blue-wrapped cables by the armload.
"I don't know." After another wary glance at the portal, Bahir looks at the screen and goes back to trying to find metal. "What do you need the metal for? Does it have to be a single piece?"
The whooshing is easy to miss. The four kids who tumble out after? Not so easy. They're all going full tilt, sprinting from the opening portal and down the hall before they skitter to a halt just outside, eyes wide and staring at the conflagaration that was once the Sandinista outpost.
Following a path earlier marked, avoiding detection from human guards in their approach to the fenced perimeter, Anne and Bahir make the first, quiet assault. They circle, moving out of range of the X-Factor forces waiting for their chance to break in, and then the pair unleash a quiet wave of power. Sleep covers the base, spreading in an inevitable tide as Anne reaches out, and then reaches through Bahir for greater range. Those nearest them fall asleep first, and fastest, while at greater extension, on the side nearest Terry and company, there is a moment for a few confused exchanges in Spanish -- "I don't feel so good...." "No, I feel--." -- and then the telepathy cuts out. A bare handful are left standing -- but they don't look happy, shaking off lingering fatigue.
Remy is in similar fatigues at Terry's, but he's decidedly not wearing the combat boots that traditionally go with them. Lighter hiking boots are the order of the day, mixing ankle support with ease of running and climbing. One hand clad in fingerless gloves lifts, checking the set of his radio's earpiece, before it drifts downwards to other checks, of radio, gun in its holster, and pockets on a vest that bulge with a variety of interesting things. (He does not have tiny feet and implausible muscles, however, so Rob Liefield is not afoot.) His eyes on Terry, he gives her a crisp nod before turning his attention to the Bahir and Anne show, settling into a crouch to wait.
The black shoe polish rubbed into Tim's hair isn't for camouflage purposes. He hasn't had time yet to die his hair back to its natural color since his first mission and he wants to be recognizable. The small inch of authenticity it lends him? A small bonus. He checks the latching on his gear, as he overs near Terry, trying to memorize by touch where everything is. Heart racing a million beats per second, he nods with each touch as he silently mouths the name and purpose of the equipment and waits for orders.
Natalie hangs back with the non-advance group, likewise clad in fatigues and gripping a weapon she isn't sure she knows how to use. Her hair is slicked back and swept up in a knot at the back of her head, and her eyes are wide as her jaw clenches. The snug fit of her radio in her ear is only a little comfort.
Pete is another for the list of those in clothing meant to blend in, settled absolutely still in his position in the line strung out along the perimeter of the base. No last-minute checks here - those have been done, and redone, and done again. He simply waits for the go-ahead.
Madrox is ready, alert, singular. In the mass of the main group, he is quiet, watching Terry obliquely.
The trouble with Zenith's new shorter hair is that it doesn't really like a ponytail, but she has it tightly, tightly bound back in a french braid, and only one lock is escaping to lodge behind her ear, over her radio. Trying to stop fidgeting, she stands in a dancer's rather than a fighter's sort of readiness, finding comfort in the familiar posture.
As the few people visible out on the grounds start to waver and fall, Terry taps her radio and whispers, "Gambit, Wisdom--We have dreams. Go." Those in line of sight for her are given a different signal--one that means 'make ready.'
Waiting, Sal's restlessness manifests itself in obsessive checks: her radio, her position, her weapon. Wash, rinse, repeat, until the signal to make ready comes from Terry. Then, she settles into a combat-ready stance, and waits to be deployed.
And now it is time for Anne and Bahir to sit back as others do the hard work, and eat candy. Power expended, Bahir crouches near the fence and tracks the movement across the compound. He chews on glucose tablets with a grim lack of enjoyment. He offers Anne the first. It is not a flavor he likes. Quiet, they wait.
Wearing loose-fitting black camo pants over a pair of black military boots, and what appears to be a black leather jacket with a black tanktop under it, and kevlar under /that/, is Amadeus; staying close to Tim. He hasn't said a word, he's just following the crowd until he's needed, trying very hard not to screw anything up.
Madrox does his ample best to look readier, but he might strain a shoulder. He might!
Waiting, Sal's restlessness manifested itself in obsessive checks: her radio, inhibitor, her position, her weapon. Wash, rinse, repeat, until deployed as cover for Bahir and Anne; when they fall back to wait, she takes up the defense of their position, weapon ready.
Get ready means one thing to Tim. With one last deep breath, his eyes close and soon after the rest of the kid vanishes from site, uniform and all.
Pete glances once at Remy to check his readiness, then makes his way quickly up to the fence. There is, from certain angles, a sudden, bright gleam along the hand he traces in a broad arc across the chain-link. The hiss of melted metal is perhaps more noticeable. After only a few moments, there is a neat hole, ends gleaming dull orange-red. Both Gambit and Wisdom hurry through, spreading out to better bring down cameras and stragglers between the main group and the building.
In the outpost, those dreams have not gone unnoticed. Sandinistas watch their brethern crumple and keel over at a distance, and one particularly unlucky fellow shifts lopsided and tumbles from the guard tower, landing at a dangerous angle with a sharp crack of some bone. /That/ one is enough for a sudden cry to be raised, a flurry of fast Spanish that suggests a possible attack, with a few shouts of 'kids!' and 'mutants!' filling the air with a slow-building fear. Several men take off for the back of the compound at a fast run, while others respond to a barked command and move forward to approach their fallen comrades, if a bit warily. This group alternates between glances down and glances out at the forest, carefully watchful. Unfortunately for Remy and Pete, they do this for a living. Another flurry of shouted Spanish rises, and men move faster now, finding cover behind familiar buildings and vehicles. Guns raise. Guns aim. Guns /fire/.
As soon as the first gun fires, a large part of the tree around where Tim was standing gets large sized hole punched through it with peeling invisibility.
From her place near the back, Natalie's eyes widen further, and she shoots a frantic look over at Terry as she straightens and tightens her fingers around her gun.
Remy is also doing this for a living, theoretically at least. He leaves off trying to take out security cameras as they are instead overruled in his priorities by living, angry, shooting Sandinistas. Cover is sought in the form of a belly-dirtying dive behind the nearest of the vehicles, one hand already groping not for the limited magazine of his handgun, but for one of his pockets. Snugged up with his back to a wheel and his eyes wide, he pulls loose not his trademark cards, but a tube of plasticine instead.
Amadeus draws a gun, a silver .50 Desert Eagle, the recoil not a problem for someone with super strength. He cocks the gun, firing and aiming at kneecaps as he looks for cover; still not saying a word, trying to focus, no hesitation.
Terry was planning on giving them 60 seconds to spread out and take down defense like the ninjas they are, but the sudden cries filling the air takes that option out of her hands. "Ok, we go now! T-Cat, take that fence down. Offensives, ring the others!" She hangs back just long enough to make sure the others start moving.
Pete also does this for a living. As the guns raise, he drops back to find momentary cover of his own behind the edge of a wall, wincing slightly at the cacophony of gunfire. One hand curls around his gun, the other raises. A spray of white-hot energy rips through the gas tank of one of the vehicles nearby, several meters from where he saw Remy drop for cover. Hello, fireball.
Zenith gulps at the noise of guns, and loses her good posture, just fidgeting again, until Terry gives the orders. She breaks into a run, bringing her gun up, but not firing until they reach a better angle.
Bahir eats candy for a living. Good job.
"Roger." Amadeus promptly responds, smashing his fist through the fence, then grabbing it so he can run to the left, starting to tear it down.
Terry thumbs her intercom again, and snaps "Hey, Psycho Bitch, get those two inside the building! Do you need assistance?"
The Sandinistas sure aren't waiting 60 seconds. They're pushing forward, moving to cover ground where they can as a few drag their unconscious comrades to safety. The others are shooting, filling trees with holes. A rush of heat sends a truck blooming into sudden fire. It does not explode - oh no. Instead it just burns with a rapid, angry heat, forcing the Sandinistas covered there to shout and slant off in a different direction, falling back toward the back of the outpost to regain cover. Another, tucked behind a building, finds Pete and swings his gun in that direction, letting loose a rain of fire.
There's still one hardy soul awake in a guard tower, and movement below makes for a hand target. His gun tracks Zenith, and bullets spray toward her, kicking up dirt just behind her heels as she runs and he tracks.
"Get down and /stay down/," Sal hisses to her charges over the sound of gunfire, then changes her tune as Terry radios. "Belay that -- stay down, but /move/." This is further facilitated by some reaching and grabbing and /pushing/ if necessary, before she starts moving too, laying down cover fire. "Copy that, Siryn. We're good down here for now."
The grass behind the advancing team shifts from side to side as Tim advances quickly. He WAS sticking close to Zenith, but as soon as bullets seem to be heading her way, he changes course. "Watch it Z!" he yells out after her and grabs some cover for himself near the fence. There is a click as he pulls out a weapon.
Zenith uses decreased gravity for a quick burst of speed to get her to cover behind a tree, where she stops, trying to figure out what to do next. A gravity field in front of the tree, pointed out, slows bullets, but makes it hard for her to shoot herself. She drops it to try for a quick burst of fire herself.
Amadeus has a good chunk of the fence pulled off, more than enough for them to run through. He draws a second Desert Eagle, trying to use that big chunk of fence as cover, as he continues firing with both guns, always either aiming for knees or elbows, and even a few crotch shots.
Madrox does what he usually does. He claps a few times and creates in himself a perimeter, all keeping low and all quickly advancing. And trying to be hard to hit. That'd be cool.
Pete drops, hissing out a curse as one bullet whines across his hip, angle wrong to be caught by the body armour he wears. (He is not, in fact, an idiot.) He returns a volley of blazing knives in the direction of the man shooting at him. It's faster than the gun, though he brings that to bear as well.
Mash, mash, mash, SQUISH. Where there was a tube of plasticine, there is now a trio of rough spheres, each about two inches in diameter. They are charged. Ducking briefly around the edge of his truck-cover, Remy tosses them one, two, three and glowing a chipper purple-pink at the nearest encampment of Sandinistas, before ducking back behind the truck again.
Terry's head snaps up to track the guard tower situation as she stays behind the others, herding them forward. "We need that tower down!" she barks into the radio, judging the distance too great to take care of the guard herself. Buildings rise on either side of them, but dead ahead is the target building.
In the midst of the base, a Nicaraguan falls to a gunshot from Amadeus' direction, and another crumbles to the ground with a screech of pain as a hot knife slices through his his arm, and then another catches him in his chest. He doesn't scream for long. Another pair find themselves caught in the wake of Remy's explosion, and soon the air is filled with shouts of pain and anger and instructions in addition to the gunfire. Most of it swings to find Pete and Remy, what with the exploding things and hot knives, but the guard tower keeps an eye on Zenith, intent on bringing her down, while a lonely gunman behind a car fixes on Amadeus.
"I wasn't planning on getting up and /dancing/," Bahir snaps back to Sal, crabby with a headache. Well. Crabbier. He hangs back to let musclewoman deal with the fence, and then follows after her. Mutational defenses flattened, he throws everything he has into simply shielding the psionic chaos from his weary mind, and drags after her. Yeah, yeah, explosions, dum de doo. He crouches. He flinches. He ducklings.
Natalie remains back, tucked behind a tree as she stares helplessly at the chaos in front of her in short peeks. She's breathing hard and heavy, almost paralyzed. She's very little use.
"Fuck!" Amadeus quietly exclaims when the gunman starts focusing on him, then suddenly he holsters his left gun, yanks a large chunk of fence off, then hurls it toward the gunman's car, trying to provide a distraction before he rapidly fires in the direction of the man's arms.
"Dammit!" Zenith spits as her field to slow the bullets doesn't come up fast enough to prevent one from clipping her arm as she ducks back from trying to fire back. She pants for a second, behind the tree and her field, then tries again, aiming better this time back along the trajectory of the bullets coming for her.
"Z!" Tim hollers again when she gets clipped. Several muffled coughs come from his direction as his silent side arm sends several tranqs up towards the tower and the bad person shooting as Z. JERK!
Something pungent and Cajun is yipped as a spray of bullets connect with Remy's sheltering truck and collapse the front two tires (Including the one he's -hiding behind-, the bastards) as they pepper the ground around him, kicking up dirt and dust and chips of rock, one of which clips at his cheek. The shout for the tower's demise gets his attention, and another pop of his head around the truck, rather like a whack-a-mole game, before he ducks back to plot out a run for it.
Pete does not feel inclined to remain a stationary target, even a small one. He returns fire at the most clearly obvious gunman, before sending another volley of knives into a nearby truck, offering another problem for the Sandinistas to deal with while he scrabbles for a more defensible position.
Distraction it is, as Amadeus' Sandista is forced to dive sideways to escape the bit of fence. Unfortunately, that dive also saves him from the gunshots, and he shifts into a quick crawl behind a building's corner to regain his aim on the kitty cat.
Too bad towers provide one with excellent angles and easy hiding. Gunshots scream toward Zenith, and hers in return do very little good save to chip away bits of wood. Fortunately, however, the gunman's rather preoccupied, and there's only one left up there - Remy isn't even noticed.
Madrox is admittedly a bit delayed as he scrambles in his backpack to toss some spare guns to his compatriot Madri, but then he's running forward again, toward that target building, a mass of men with shavedish heads heads and charming faces, trying to suss out human targets as they move.
The truck these knives find has a fuller tank of gas, and it flames for only a moment before a sizeable explosion rocks the area, roaring up into giant flames that send one man screaming, alight with fire. The flames lick up at the side of a supply building, eating hungrily at its wood.
Amadeus draws his second gun again, then starts running towards Zenith to cover her. "I got you, don't worry." he assures, starting to fire at knees and elbows that may be firing at them, letting Tim handle the tower.
Terry ducks down behind a conveniant truck for cover and tries to get a feel for the situation as a whole. Gambit, Wisdom, check. PM, DA, and Anne, check. Main body of agents moving toward building, minus pinned down Zenith, che-- Wait. She swings around looking for the missing figure from her head count. Simon. Terry spits a curse in Gaelic and turns to sprint back the way they came, dodging the stray bullet coming from who knows who.
The opening courtyard on the Sandisita base is nearly clear, save for flaming trucks and dead bodies and that single, pesky tower. Otherwise, all their countrymen (and a few mercenaries with wicked aim) have retreated back toward that guarded building.
Remy can deal with that. There's just -his- gunmen to worry about, and, in the wake of the Big Boom. (Where are the Mythbusters?) he -sprints- for the tower, throwing in zome zig-zags and hop-skips, and bouncing over a pile of supplies as he goes.
Through the fence, over the ground, behind cars and through a rain of bullets, Sal herds her ducklings ever closer to their target building. Lay in a little cover fire, hiss and yip and swear as something clips her, fir vack viciously in retaliation. On the whole, though, she is quietly competant and good at her job: Bahir and Anne get closer to the target, and Harper manages to keep them alive while they do.
Tim keeps pumping darts up to the tower whenever he sees the gunman go for shots.
"Jesus." With Amadeus approaching, Zenith skips the next in her cycle of trying to shoot back at those shooting at her and just remains behind cover until the situation hopefully changes, concentrating on keeping her field up to slow the bullets.
Madrox keeps-a-running. There's at least one warning shot from one of him. But that building is close.
Natalie remains close to her tree, hugging it with breaths close to hyperventalating. She grips her gun with death-white fingers and then forces herself to edge around the tree, glancing forward just in time to see Terry sprinting toward her. Shit.
Bahir and Anne and Sal mostly miss the first barrage of gunfire, but as they draw closer to the building, they draw more attention. No fewer than four gunmen catch them in their sights, aiming from around a building's corner and another car as the trio runs.
Darts do little good - the gunman in the tower is armored and blocked by wood slats that let bullets out, but aren't so big on letting darts in without extremely precise aim.
Collected as a man might be whose principal asset in a crisis of any kind is the ability to /cheat/, Percy moves with fair rapidity amongst the others of his comrades, behind the main group, firing shots almost at a rhythm in the midst of his half-jog, half-dodge-and-slink. He attempts to simultaneously track multiple potential targets at once, ducking and dodging with a faint snarl curling at his lip as he goes.
Terry skids to a stop a few feet away and snaps, "If you're coming, get moving. Otherwise I'm leaving you out here to fend for yerself." She hesitates a minute to see if her words do any good before heading back across the downed fence line and back into the melee.
Madrox keeps running! He is really being helpful in as far as his running, ducking, and dodging components go.
Natalie's eyes widen once more and then she /moves/, sprinting off after Terry. Who seems something like safety, anyway.
Precise aim Tim doesn't have, especially since he doesn't even have the use of the gun sights. Blast it. When he sees Mad go for Zenith, Tim abandons the hopeless situation, and advances quickly through the fence and heads for the next batch of cover he can find.
Pete smiles grimly. He circles around the nearest building, taking advantage of the smoke and the flames and the general chaos to get into position to have eyes on the guarded building. He keeps low and alert, gun up in one hand, the other spread at his side, flexing occasionally with the beginnings of power called but not released.
Amadeus finds himself bulletless, holstering one gun at a time so he can reload both. But when he holds both guns up to start firing at the tower guard with Tim gone, a bullet goes directly through the left side of Amadeus' chest, causing him to drop a gun. "Fuck!" he yells in pain, dropping down to one knee, then firing rapidly up at the tower out of anger.
Terry grins as Natalie takes off after her, and she slows down enough to let the other woman catch up. There is no fire following htme, otherwise occupied elsewhere as the guards are. Terry comes up alongside of Pete and kneels. "Guards inside?" she asks.
The flames that are eating at the supply building are spreading rapidly, their hot-hot nature making it easy to spread along a bit of leaked gasoline, into a pile of crates, across to the next building, and then there's another rocking explosion as the flames find another gas tank. At the secured building, there's a loan metallic groaning, and lights start to flicker. A few Sandinistas show panic - that building is secure, and it's key carded, and with eletricity goes their ability to get inside. Three of them turn and retreat as swiftly as possible, and the door slams behind them.
"Fuck." Zenith shifts her field so it's in front of Amadeus, not stopping the bullets like some kind of shield, but at least slowing and deflecting to various degrees. She runs for him herself, giving up on shooting to try to run and help him along to get out of the area.
Remy is less interested in the gunman as in the tower that holds him. Another belly-slide ensures that these fatigues will be the despair of the security-rated laundresses of Old Home, but does serve to make him a less visible target as he curls around one of the tower supports and commences rummaging through his pockets. (Entire towers are a bit much to take out.) Plasticine-not-yet-turned-plastique is produced, the last of his supply, and squashed around the support. There is another flare of glowing purple-pink, followed by Remy yelling "Run! Vite! Fifteen seconds!" and making a mad dash away. He has rather forgotten to zig-zag.
Natalie drops heavily to her knees at Pete's side, panting and otherwise silent as Terry speaks.
When bullets spit in Bahir's direction, his primary response is just to find /cover/ -- nevermind shooting back. He drops back behind the building, nudging Anne back with him, and largely allows Sal to deal with the ... problem. Hesitantly, he begins to unshield in order to make use of telepathy -- but he hastily reshields, chaos and pain and confusion too much to work through in residual fatigue.
Ten-- nine-- eight-- And at one, there's a big BOOM, with shockwaves that rock the area if anyone's standing too close. The wood splinters and splits, and with an angry groan, the tower collapses into rubble. The guy inside? Well. He ain't shooting anymre.
Pete nods once. "Fell back towards the building," he replies to Terry, words clipped. His gaze flickers towards the new explosion, then trains back on the secured door across the compound.
Amadeus runs along with Zenith, firing stray bullets at any guard he sees (that /don't/ look like they could be the kidnapped children). He's not just aiming at knees as he goes for cover with Zenith, he's aiming at kidneys, livers, and of course still crotches. "I'm bleeding, use your gravity to stop the bleeding so I can reload!"
The Madri are now hurrying into Terry's vicinity, huddled up in a protective group. "Sitrep?" asks one, "Ow!" snaps another, and "What now, huh?" goes another.
Anne happily follows Bahir's nudging and ducks hastily, counting on Sal's protection. Catching Bahir's expression at his attempt to reach out telepathically, she lays a hand on his arm to catch his attention and cocks her head to the side, saying without speaking, You okay?
"Get behind me," Terry mutters to the others, then takes a deep breath and opens her mouth. The sound that comes out isn't particularly impressive--more of a whiny, high-pitched thing-- but ahead of it, the building door warps. Behind it, though is the real work. The guards closest to the door are on the ground unconscious, arms wrapped around their stomachs and heads.
There's a hiss and a sizzle as the fire finds something electrical to eat at. Overhead, sparks rain down on anyone still in the courtyard. But the gunfire? That's stopped.
"Can't," Zenith pants. "'d implode you. Keep /going/." She points, trying to urge him the wake of Terry, letting Amadeus do the shooting for them, but readying her gun for when he runs dry. "Bandage when we have better cover."
Natalie shuffles behind Terry in obedient silence, and she winces, hands rising to clamp over her ears at the sound. Only when it fades does she drop them to grab at her gun again, and finally she looks a little less than completely and totally panicked.
Remy is delayed a moment as the tower goes down, still close enough to feel the shockwave against his back as it knocks him forward for a few stumbling stemps. "Sacre -merde-," he breathes, impressed with himself, before he resumes his darting and ends up beside Zenith and Amadeus. "He good to run or you need a hand in a carry?"
Pete backpeddles with alacrity to get out of Terry's line of...voice. That warning's one he's definitely learned to listen to.
Amadeus goes after Terry, grabbing a clip with a shaky hand as he drops the empty one. He momentarily curses the kevlar, the very crappy kevlar...
The building itself sits warped open and silent. There are no shouts - there is no gunfire. There is simply the ongoing whirr of machinery, a whirr that stumbles and halts and hisses as more and more of its power goes snap-crackle-pop in the spreading fire.
"Yes'm," say a few Madri and they cluster a-closer behind Terry. Aren't they friendly and good.
With Bahir taking care of the /duck/ and /hide/ portions of the equation, Sal manages not to get shot -- mostly because the people shooting have stopped. Well. "Come on, let's move," she snaps back at them, and gets moving again.
"I'm fine," Bahir says to Anne, looking up at the sparking of wires. He winces. "Just--." When Sal snaps, temper rises in his expression, only to get strangled back. He follows after her, rounding the building again to join the others. He glances over at Anne and then squints inside.
Dodging a few scattered sparks as he catches up with the assembling mass of comrades in arms, Percy arrives just in time to witness the rippling warp of the wood at her warble. His gun lowered in the momentary bulletless peace, he keeps scanning with his glance as though he expects extra Sandinistas to pop out from behind any particular corner, and hisses with the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
"I think he's--" Zenith answers Remy, and then lets Amadeus go as he keeps going on his own. "Good, I guess." Since she's not presently being shot at, she puts a hand to her arm, to judge the amount of bleeding there, and keeps going to fetch up behind Terry.
Anne hurries after the rest of her little group, looking a little grey and tight lipped, but having no trouble keeping level with Bahir. She too squints in at the chaotic events unfolding, trying to spot a guard and an opportunity to use her power again.
Terry turns her head to the spectacle of bloody Amadeus and frowns. REALLY HARD. "Ok... Sal, can you get the door out of the way? Everyone inside, now. PB, Wisdom, clear our way. Gambit, take him. The rest just /move/."
Natalie coughs and glances at Terry briefly before pushing up to move inside after Pete. She's braver now. There aren't any bullets.
"...apparently not 'bout to fall over," Remy agrees, with a blank and bemused stare at Amadeus that's distracted by Zenith's posture. "You?" he wonders, heedless of the small streak of blood on his own cheek, but Terry's direction catches his ear before he can express more concern. "On it," he reports.
"Doesn't hurt. Probably shouldn't think about it," Zenith says, but then she gets as distracted as Remy by Terry's order. She resettles her grip on her gun, and then stumbles into motion again, following the others inside.
Sal nods, shouldering her gun and stepping forward to take hold of the door. There's some wrenching and groaning (from the door) and muscle-y flexing, and the door is off its hinges. Sal does not toss it aside, because that would be showy, but sets it to one side and puts her gun back into play.
Sal's wrenching of the door reveals a number of Sandistas sprawled unconscious on the floor, or near to it. One is certainly bleeding - from his ears. And beyond that? There's a short hall, and at the end of it, a door stands open, as if someone had rushed there in a hurry. A flicker of blue and green shows past it.
Pete does nothing so foolish as race in headlong, though he does hurry forward, stance low and gun raised. He pauses once he comes up alongside the warped-open door, flicking a quick glance at Sal to coordinate entry into the building beyond.
Amadeus stops when he notices everyone appears to have calmed down for the moment, forcing the clip into his gun, then winces as his left arm drops again. "Can someone wrap this up? This hurts like freakin' hell, and I'm not gonna be dead weight..."
Sal catches Pete's glance and nods, holding up a hand; on the count of three (not ticked off) she waves it forward, and goes in low, weapon ready.
With Amadeus moving under his own power, Remy is reduced from fireman-carrying to following after like an armed and dangerous and dirty mother hen. "Jus' get inside, Madcat," he directs, one hand waving his sidearm (It is not a Desert Eagle. It is a very pretty Uzi.) "I'll give ya a bit o' field medicine once we set up and watchin'."
In the probably brief calm, Anne glances over to Bahir again with a questioning look. "Do you think you can.....?" She nods toward the doors, suggesting a possible repeat of their initial performance.
As Pete and Sal venture in, Bahir drops shields to sweep telepathy outwards. Things have quieted -- slightly -- enough for him to make a tally of those up and yet a threat. It is especially easy to count to zero. "No one there," he says to Anne, and secondarily, to Terry. "I think everyone's already out, or currently not a threat. We're clear for now." It is the later part that he addresses more to Terry: "I'd suggest taking a group to collect weapons from those who are just unconscious or stunned, and securing them."
The building is empty. Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse - so Amadeus shouldn't be too distracted. There is, however, movement. Or... flickering. The electric groans, and then abruptly, the entire outpost is light only by the roaring of the flames. Power is... gone. Completely.
No, wait, not completely... that flicker of blue and green is still there ahead, but it looks fainter now, and there's a loud electrical click as back-up power snaps into place.
Just behind Terry, Natalie's eyes fix forward, and she says succintly, "Oh, /shit/."
Pete moves in in a similar crouch, barrel of his gun mirroring the track of his gaze as he makes his way into the building littered with prone Sandinistas. He is cautious, keeping note of Sal's path so as not to cross her line of fire, or let his line of fire cross her. His jaw clenches slightly as he notes the open door and its blue-green gleam.
"That's not good." Tim's voice sounds near Remy.
"Well, fuck," Bahir echoes Natalie.
Gun (some vaguely defined gun) held at ready, Percy pads on light steps with the others after Sal. His lips are pressed into a thin line, gaze skipping over the fallen men that litter the hall. When Bahir confirms the absence of further threat, his weapon lowers. And then, it's dark. "--Fuck," escapes on a little hitch of his breath, largely because his habitual grace is not enough to prevent near collision with his nearest fellow.
Amadeus nods to Remy, following inside with his gun ready, just in case. Blood runs down his arm, though it didn't hit a huge artery. "The hell is going on?"
Natalie's gaze goes quick to Bahir, questioning. "Did you say no one there?" she asks in a hurry. "Because I think we just got a little fucking pressed for time."
"Jesus Christ," is Zenith's contribution to the general chorus. She stops moving at first, and only goes cautiously forward again after a moment. The meaning of the light has escaped her, but she responds to everyone else's sudden worry.
"No shit," says Remy to the invisible man, voice gone a little hollow and eyes a little wide. "...I think that put us on a deadline, is what's goin' on," he answers Amadeus, before motioning the other man to sit down with a sharp jerk of his head and one hand reaching for a small field first aid kit. "I think we gonna just not care about whether the bullet's still in there, f'now."
"No one conscious," Bahir says, and then glances over at Anne again. He gives her a nudge toward the door, token electrical engineer that she is, and looks back at Terry. "I have no idea what will happen to the portal when the power goes out. Mario didn't know. Send Cl-- A--." Right. Codenames. "--Sandman to check it out?"
"Well, fuck," is Sal's contribution, as she edges closer to the doorway and its flickering light.
Terry nods in reply to Bahir and lifts her voice. "Rains, you and Sandman take care of their wea--" She falls silent as the lights flicker and fail. She spits another gaelic curse (though who knows if it really is one. Things just sound cooler in Gaelic). "Come on, flashlights, people. Move it. We've got one thing we stop for, and it's not the hallway decorations." She uses her smaller size to slip her way to the fore of the group, and then ahead down the hall.
AND INTO THE ROOM.
Natalie pushes in after Terry, following obediently. It's easier, now that it's confirmed safe. Ish.
Anne in sagging in place, not paying a whole lot of attention to the talk around her until Bahir nudges her once more. "I could take a look. I don't really know how much I'll be able to figure out, but..." She shrugs and heads hesistantly for the door.
A few confiscated assault riffles begin to float through the air, and quickly follow behind the group.
Madrox moves on, all of them. They are maybe shakenly muttering to themselves.
Amadeus reaches into his jacket, pulling out a flashlight and shaking it up, then turning it on with his wounded hand. At least it'll be good for something. He keeps his gun drawn, he's not convinced that /everyone/ is gone, there could always be one left. "Someone finally fucking shot me." he idly says to himself, that's all he /can/ say, after all the times he's had guns pointed at him.
The flare of Percy's flashlight skips directly over his path as he picks up speed after the others. He remains largely quiet. Each inm.kkkkkkj;[f
In the room ahead, a single computers blinks a warning message. The others are dead, and this one looks as though it's running on very little power. Indeed, a gauge is conveniently located in the bottom corner of the screen. 'Seven minutes auxiliary power', it reads.
The flare of Percy's flashlight skips directly over his path as he picks up speed after the others. He remains largely quiet. Each intake of his breath marks the sour thrills of the fallen in adrenaline and fear and pain, not to mention what else might be reeking off everyone else here in their sweat.
Zenith pulls out her flashlight when prompted, shining the pool of light fair enough ahead that it should hopefully help out others, too. "Someone shot me too," she grumps at Amadeus, hurrying ahead to reach the room too.
Terry stops and blinks at the screen, her inhalation audible behind her. "Simon! al-Razi!" she shouts, spurring into sudden movement.
"S'what happens when y'dealin' with soldiers," says Remy, quick and dirty and through his teeth as he rips the top off of a packet covering a pair of gauze pads, and grabs Amadeus by the arm with a "Wait still a sec, homme" and a grab hold to try and wrap them in place with the help of a really ridiculous amount of medical tape.
Sal's flashlight is just one more in the small pool of lights, her gun at her side. This is more of that waiting part that she sucks at.
Pete's free hand dips into one of far too many pockets. After a moment, it emerges with a handful of small plastic cylinders. There is a quiet pop-crack, and chemical light blooms, then spreads as he tosses the glowsticks - heavy-duty rather than children's toys - to spread light a little further than a flashlight would manage.
"And we're okay! See, you should have put us in front," Madrox calls quiet, but chipper, over his shoulder. Onward.
Seeing the live computer ahead, Anne hurries her steps over to it, arriving just behind Terry. Looking to Terry for permission she asks, "Shall I see if it will tell us anything else?", and gestures to the computer's keyboard.
Bitching, Bahir picks up his pace to squeeze past others in order to catch up to Terry. He nudges Percy in passing, and, with steps dragging, approaches Terry with a complaint of, "That's not a /codename/." He eyes the screen. "/Motherfucker/." He gives Anne a swift nod. "See if you can do anything about maximizing the power usage. What's the least amount of power it takes to keep the portal open? What's it /running/ off?"
Natalie isn't far behind Terry, but the shout has her sprinting the last few steps forward in the sudden flare of Pete's light. She's breathing heavily, and she lifts her brows, glancing from Terry to Anne before her gaze drops to the computer, which now counts at 6:34. "Holy shit," she breathes, and blinks rapidly for a moment.
Amadeus winces when Remy starts wrapping his arm, but nods in approval. At least he won't bleed to death. "Thanks, but did you check on Zenith yet?"
"She next," Remy answers.
Taking Bahir's approval as good enough, Anne sets to work on the computer. She doesn't even bother check if there is a chair or not, hunched over the keyboard and mouse, and trying to extract as much information as possible as quickly as she can.
Five floating assault riffles are gently set to the ground in the computer room. Despite his desperate want to drop them in panic, random peppering of bullets would have probably been a bad thing in this room.
"Is it safe for transport?" Terry barks, staying out of the way of the nerds. At least physically. "How much time do we have for transport? Will that thing get us /back/?"
"I don't know. Time is different." While Anne extracts information, Bahir gives a slanted look at Terry. "It's possible that people who go over won't be able to come back, but we need to go /now/."
"I don't mind!" pipes up one Madrox. /Aren't/ they chipper.
"All the backup power is devoted to keeping it open," Anne informs the room in a strained tone. "You only have 6 minutes now to get over and get back. In our time frame, anyway. I don't know how long that will be there."
6:16. "Shit," Natalie says again, and then jerks sideways, scouring the room for pen, paper, pencil, /anything/. Failing that, she bends to the floor and scrawls a handful of invisible numbers against it with her forefinger, visualizing calculations at a rapid pace. It's 5:46 when she looks up and says, "Five minutes-- a little over two hours. If it's holding with what we got from Illy, which Bahir said it doesn't. Say an hour and a half ot be safe-- if you're going, you have to go /now/."
Amadeus raises his gun-wielding hand, waving it a few times. "If we might not be able to come back, it's probably good if I'm one of the people that go over. You're all specialists and shit like that, I just shoot stuff."
Zenith steps forward, ready to go through the portal. "If we're carrying injured or anything, we'll want as many of us as possible, so we don't have to make multiple trips, right?"
"No time for /us/ to test," Percy says in a low voice, slanting a look at Terry with another slight flare of his nostrils. Panic comes in many flavors. He jiggles a heel in place. "Not even with one of them." This with a jerk of his thumb towards the perky Madri. "Just have to go through and take all our chances."
"I am completely extraneous!" call three Madri at once, as one moves toward the area in question. Two are not nearly so perky at all and mostly express themselves with silence.
Terry spins and barges back to the doorway to stick her head out of it. "Are you two travel ready? she asks of Zenith and Amadeus, then spins without waiting for an answr. If they are, they'll get through. "Simon, al-Razi, Talhurst. You stay and try to feed us more power. Multiple! I want you to leave some of yourself with them for protection. Everyone else, /move/." Terry is the first through the portalhole. Bonsai!"
"Hour and a half," Natalie calls after Terry, pushing herself up to stand. "/Hurry/!"
"BlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastitBlastit" Tim's voice mumbles before he rushes through the portal as well.
And prompt, three Madri through after. Two, the quiets, remain behind. One is less quiet, enough to remark, "Here for duty." And then they form up around the other behinds.
Amadeus shrugs, walking towards the portal whether Remy is done or not, holstering his gun. "Always knew I'd die on the other side of a portal." are his last words before walking through.
Zenith is keeping cool at this point mostly by dint of Not Thinking About It, so she just goes forward. Pretty light! Nothing more!
"I gettin' -so- drunk when we get back!" With a run, and that optimistic shout, Remy unsafes the UZI pistol and takes his leap.
"Geronimo," says Sal, with an expression that is totally in no way a smile. Then, hard on Remy's heels, she runs through.
Pete wheels from where he had been standing in the hall, as guard against any possibly-waking (or arriving) Sandinistas, and races through the portal at a near-sprint.
"Those sound a lot like code names," Percy mutters, although whatever else he might have to say is blocked off and arrested by his catch of what Amadeus says on the way through. He boggles, for about a heartbeat.
Natalie stands, staring helplessly at the portal as the others pass through before she turns to look at Percy and Bahir and Anne and Madrox. Well-- what now?
Now for the longest six minutes of their lives. Percy shines his flashlight back towards the computer and the keyboard, but since Anne has already basically indicated that as a dead end, he shines it over the rest of the machine. "Is there a /way/ to supplement auxiliary power?" he asks. He is not an engineer. "Since I'm /pretty/ sure the double As in these flashlights are a dead end."
"You could hook me up. I have a lot of innate, but submerged energy." "Yeah," says the other Madrox. "We're expecting to acquire a secondary mutation of firebreathing any day."
"Maybe car batteries, truck batteries," Bahir says, looking blankly at the computer, and then back over his shoulder. "You know. If there are any that haven't been /exploded/. An-- Sa-- oh, fuck it. Angelica--" You see, he is terrible with nicknames. "--can you do anything with that? Natalie?" Bueller?! "Madrox, since you haven't /yet/ acquired that secondary mutation, can you begin disarming the people who are down, but not dead, and secure them?"
Natalie raises her hands a bit helplessly. "I can /try/, but..." She shrugs and shakes her head. "I think the wires snapped," she answers. "If we can find equipment, we might be able to repair them..." In five minutes, 47 seconds.
"Ye-es, sir," drawls one Madrox, but they both do get around to examining their new and prone friends.
"Wire cutters, electrical tape--?" Percy's iron grip on his control has loosened, letting energy burn through him and brightening his eyes. He glances at Madrox and gives Bahir a slight nod.
"Percy, go. Try to find some kind of battery." Because he is obviously the one to lift heavy things. "Angelica, Natalie...." Bahir trails off, glancing at the computer somewhat dubiously. 5:07. "See what you can do," he says, words short and clipped brisk. Bahir, you go sit in the corner and eat candy? Nah. "I'll see if there's any kind of repair kit around here."
"We might not want to try the battery connection until the very last second anyway. If we were to bypass the backup power somehow and cut the power to the portal even for a moment....I'm not sure what that might do." Anne cautions over her shoulder. Then she turns to Natalie and the mess of broken wires, musing, "Yuck. Can you tell what any of this is running to? That'd be the first step. Find the primary power supply, and rule out the lights and whatever else."
Natalie shakes her head helplessly. "I'm a /mathematician/," she answers, moving to stare at the mess. "I'd be better off with the computer, but you've already checked-- and as much electricity as this thing has been draining, I'm not surprised."
Better Percy go off and try to lift heavy things than loom around uselessly getting in the way of potential electrical or computer work. "Assuming I can even find a proper battery," he says over his shoulder as he turns to jog off down the hall, shining his flashlight around. "Cross that bridge--" It's a good thing everyone is dead or unconscious and Madrox is securing the latter ...
Madrox continues to ever so helpfully remove weapons as a pair. There's sometimes some humming. If they are perhaps relying on spare cord to tie up the unconscious.
"Well, you could see what's live and what isn't," Anne suggests to Natalie. "Live wires would be very helpful about now," she says with a faintly hysterical sort of a chuckle. "Grab something metal, preferably with a rubber or plastic hand-hold, or just wrap the end of it with something. Then see if you can get anything to spark." Careful not to touch any bare wire-ends herself, she begins following wires back to their origins, and attempting to sort out their different functions.
Natalie laughs, the sound more than a little hysterical. It breaks off abruptly as she swallows, and then she nods and moves swiftly to do just that.
SO. Since Anne is HERE, Bahir goes hunting for ... things. He doesn't even know what he is looking for, but it is a good way to waste a minute in distraction, rather than in knuckle-gnawing tension.
Percy jogs through halls, waving his flashlight around in a hunt for any supply closets or anything else that resembles a car battery. It's like trying to rescue Johnny Five.
Anne is having limited luck with her wires. Mostly she is muttering to herself while twisted into an awkward position to reach over the computers to just the right cluster of wires at the wall. Occasionally a little profanity or something about bad design is intelligible, but most of the rest of it is too quiet.
Natalie is touching things and getting no sparks. Belatedly. It's very interesting.
Bashir has yet to find anything. That's not so interesting.
Gosh, we've gained a member.
Damnit.
Doctor! What are you doing here?!
A and S are right next to each other, asshole.
You should have brought Garak along. He'd've been really useful.
I'm not talking to you.
):
Go find a battery.
HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS ME?
It might have been me instead
But was it?
No, it wasn't.
See?
I suppose
Seconds ticking away as sands falling through the hourglass, Percy returns at a more labored jog, lugging a large, blocky, dusty-looking and battered black and gold box-like thing stamped DIEHARD on the side. Car batteries are hilarious. He releases a heavy "Enh" sort of grunt as he sets it down beside Anne and Natalie and their wiring collection. "Fuck," he adds.
Bahir ALSO eventually returns. He carries two things: one is a computer repair kit, complete with tiny screwdrivers, et cetera, and the other is a more general toolbox, with wrenches, et cetera. In there, there /might/ be something that Anne and Natalie can use. "How's it going?" he asks, glancing at the clock.
"God fucking damnit," mutters Anne as she extricates herself and turns to regard the two returned men. The battery gets a long look first, and then she casts a glance at the tools before turning to tap the computer's keyboard a moment while glaring at the screen. "Wrong voltage, wrong voltage," she explains without turning to look at them. "We need to transform it. Find any wire? And something metal with a big hole in the middle would help a lot."
"There were some jumper cables," Percy reports in a dubious tone. "At least, I ... think they were jumper cables?"
"Go," Bahir says to Percy, sending him off on the wire errand while he looks around the room, helplessly, for metal. "Maybe ... there's something with a bullet hole in it...."
"Make one," Percy points out to Bahir as an option as he turns back to jog down the hall from whence he came.
"We'll need to strip the cables," Anne says, mostly to herself. Finding what she was looking for on the computer screen, she dives for Bahir's toolbox, fumbling with the catches in her haste before throwing it open. She roots through it, searching for wire cutters, all the while muttering some calculations to herself. There are words like 'Impedence, leakage flux, N primary, and net inductance,' all mixed in. She is too involved to notice the gust of wind, or anything much else.
Bahir startles, and looks at the portal with a somewhat desperate expression, fear widening his eyes. But, no, thank goodness: the portal is still there. After a second, he takes an unsteady breath and asks, "Do you think that was an explosion?" (Still looking for metal. Would you believe it just isn't at hand?)
Natalie's head jerks up and toward the portal as she blinks. "Shit," she breathes.
"What?" Anne belatedly looks up at the two of them with a frown, finally clutching a pair of wirecutters in one hand.
Percy misses the whooshing portal because he's off getting jumper cables! He does return swiftly, carrying the blue-wrapped cables by the armload.
"I don't know." After another wary glance at the portal, Bahir looks at the screen and goes back to trying to find metal. "What do you need the metal for? Does it have to be a single piece?"
The whooshing is easy to miss. The four kids who tumble out after? Not so easy. They're all going full tilt, sprinting from the opening portal and down the hall before they skitter to a halt just outside, eyes wide and staring at the conflagaration that was once the Sandinista outpost.