Body Snatchers: The execution

[x-pressive.livejournal.com]

Time to take down this arm of the smuggling ring. Sarah starts things off by playing the slut to lure out the baddies.


Their contract called for ten, and they had nine. Ten due by Friday night. No money without ten. The man known to his associates as Dirk sighed heavily as he reclaimed his (fake) ID from the bouncer and entered the club. He reckoned that maybe it's not such a good idea to fish from the same pond all the time, but this place was ripe for the picking. No one would miss these folks. A better future awaited them with Dirk's employers anyway. Mutants are much more useful as tools than living beings.

His first stop was the bar. The place seemed more crowded than usual, especially for a Thursday, but Dirk remembered that universities were starting up soon. Best to stay away from those kids, because they have families and families mean police and police mean no more contract.

A girl caught his eye, though. She was sitting alone, a little away from the crowd, nursing her drink. Either waiting for a friend or just the kind of girl he's looking for. He made his way over to her and raised his glass in salute. "'Evening. Mind if I sit here?" he asked, indicating an empty chair.

"It's empty...knock yourself out." Sarah smiled at him lazily, stretching her arms out over the table with her half-empty glass clutched in both hands. In reality, that half of a drink was the same half of a drink she'd been carrying around all night, but he didn't need to know that. "Are you here by yourself too?" she asked brightly, moving her attention slowly from him and back to the liquid in her glass.

For a moment, Dirk was afraid that she'd just blow him off and he'd have to actually work at this. But this girl's question was like a saving grace. "I am," he replied with a faint Southern accent. "My buds decided that they'd rather get a head start of their theses than, you know, enjoy themselves." He offered her a smile, flashing pearly white at her. "Name's Jon."

"Sounds like somebody needs to sit them down and explain to them the true meaning of college." She chuckled at her own joke, and returned her attention back to him, giving him what she hoped was her best shy 'be careful with me, I never go out by myself and talk to boys' smile. "I'm Megan, Jon, It's very nice to meet you."

Dirk almost licked his lips in anticipation. "The pleasure is all mine, Megan. So are you a student 'round these parts, too?" She looked to be around that age. She was perfect except for that. Please don't be, please don't be, please don't be . . .

"Don't be silly," she giggled, tracing a finger around her glass, "I was sick of school after the first round. I'd rather do things my way." She gave him an excited glance and mused, "Who knows, maybe I could be an actress or something. You don't need a degree for that."

"An actress?" The money was all but his. Dirk couldn't have asked for an easier final task. "Funny you should say that. I've got a friend who runs a community theater not too far from here. It's a small gig, usually, but the talent there is, like, whoa. You know?" He chuckled. "I'm sure he'd love for you to audition for him."

"You really think so?" Sarah's eyes widened just slightly, and her drink lay 'forgotten' on the table. All her focus was on him, showing all the excitement she could muster. "When does he do auditions?"

"I'm sure I could get him to squeeze you in tomorrow morning, if you're really interested," Dirk offered. He placed a hand on hers. "If you don't mind me saying, I'd love to see what you've got, too."

"Oh, well, I'm not -that- good," Sarah added quickly. She played up the nervousness, practically feeding him innocent stupidity with a spoon. Giggling, she added, "I'm really glad I met you, Jon."

And he happily ate it up. "Like I said, the pleasure is mine." He slowly began caressing her hand with his thumb, paying close attention to her response. "If you'd like to give me a little taste of your talent, I sure wouldn't say no to it."

In her mind, Sarah cringed. This guy was an asshole, who needed a good kick in the balls, and what she was doing was definitely 'taking one for the team'. "I think I'd like that," she smiled shyly, leaning towards him just a little.

"Wonderful." Dirk stood up and offered the girl a hand. Twenty minutes and he could clock out. Arm-in-arm, he led her out to his car, a rather well-kept red convertible. The drive to the west end of Manhattan was short, and with the roaring of the wind and the sounds of the street, conversation was (thankfully) kept at a minimum.

But instead of an apartment complex or a studio, they'd driven down to a series of warehouses on the Hudson River. Dirk's smile instantly faded into a vicious grin as he exited the car and walked over to the other side, grasping Sarah's wrist with a powerful grip. "Are you always this dumb or is it just for me?"

"Funny, I was just about to ask the same thing." She twisted his arm around, landing a solid kick in his ribs before he could fight back. He fell backwards, leaving Sarah pointing at him with a bone covered finger. "Like I would be interested in a fucking asshole like you." She could hear people rushing in from both sides, the ones in front of her coming from the warehouse and looking terribly cranky, while she hoped the ones behind her were the rest of the group coming to help finish the job.

~*~

Remy and Betsy join in the fun and find themselves more than equipped to deal with the trouble.


Remy mentally ticked off the seconds as Mark and Amanda disappeared. They'd trailed Sarah into the dockside shipping area, a perfect place to quickly moving their mutant cargo around. Wanda was on the other side, waiting for the signal from Sarah to move. He wasn't all that worried about Sarah. The girl could hold her own and was ready for blood. Betsy crouched beside him, waiting just as urgently.

{I'd say fifteen men down there.} he projected over the link.

{Seventeen. Four of them have actual mental training.}

{Some professionals. I wonder who they're connected to?} Remy eased his staff beside him, still in its retracted position. There was the sound of alarm raised, which meant Wanda and Sarah had decided the time for the distraction was now. "Gunmen first, Betts. I'll go left, you go right."

She swept past him and into the shadows. Finding her first target, she neutralized the man without much effort. Betsy raised her eyes and saw Remy's form moving stealthily up against his intended victim. She didn't bother watching as she heard the rustling of a slight scuffle but instead moved toward her second armed guard. A swift muted thud was the only indicator that Betsy had dispatched with him.

{How're you faring over there?}
{Not bad. We've got--} A red hex explosion threw them both to the right. Obviously Wanda had joined the fray. {Guess we not secret any more.}

Remy twisted his staff, either end lancing to the full extention. His next victim, a man holding a submachinegun, went down with a thud, and both mutants were in the middle of combat. Remy pivoted and lashed out with the staff, taking the feet out from two men. He turned, using cards to force another gunman back. However, they weren't cutting and running.

"We've got pros." He called over to Betsy, as one of the men he had toppled struck out with his foot. Remy blocked it with the staff, but it held the weapon long enough for another man to tackle him. Remy released his hold on his staff, rolling with the tackle. The man was strong, but Remy's uniquely flexible bones gave him the edge as he forced the man's wrist over. It snapped with a wet crack. LeBeau rotated it the other way, striking with his other fist to break the elbow while extended. The now screaming man twisted away from the pain, only to have Remy short jam his arm, and drive his weight into the shoulder, dislocating it with a snap.

"Noted," Betsy called back with a grimace. She moved again this time taking out the last guard, keeping his suffering to a minimum, Betsy kept from twisting her fist as it impacted loudly into the man's skull. His body seizing and then going limp. She watched the body drop and stared down at her emblazoned hand. "That never gets old."

"You alright over there?" Looking over to Remy's position, Betsy searched him out. "Or do you need some help?"
"Merde!" Remy cursed at the sound of two cars being gunned. Looked like at least some of them had decided to cut and run immediately. He turned the corner and spun back as the car blew past him. By the time the second one was around, he'd gotten out his cards and let fly, blowing huge rents in the tires. The car skidded and slammed to a stop against the side of a warehouse.

"A little help here!" He yelled, moving on the stricken car.

Betsy jetted over to him and shook her head at him. "What did you do that for? Couldn't you have hit a tire or maybe the boot?" She slammed her boot against the cracked driver side window, watching the glass break after two rapid jabs. Betsy reached in and dragged the unconscious driver out. "Not like you could've made this easy for us?"

"Where would be de fun in that?" Remy helped with the other man, pulling them both away from the car in case it exploded. "De first car got away. Three, many four men inside. How do I know dey going to be de ringleaders, neh?"

"Why?" Betsy grunted as she dragged the last man a good twenty feet away. "Why is it that after every crap mission you ask, 'why do things go badly, cher?'" Betsy imitated as she wiped at her brow. "My answer never changes. It's simply our lot in life. And if it's a shit job from the beginning. Well," Betsy paused, shrugging her shoulders. She looked down at the slovenly fellow below her, tapping him with her foot. "What do you want to bet this one here is the plucky, but lovable sidekick?"

A loud bang brought her attention to the task at hand. Betsy started toward the warehouse, checking to make sure Remy was following. "We should check on the others. See if they're still in one piece."

~*~

Wanda and Sarah have a little fun of their own.


"Glad you could join the party." Sarah grabbed a bone from her shoulder, and nodded at Wanda, taunting: "Boys, this is the part where you get your asses kicked by girls."

Grinning, Wanda rolled her neck back, listening as it popped in release. "This is always a fun way to end our evening," she replied, crouching down slightly as the "boys" advanced cautiously, "kicking ass in style."

"Is there any other way to do it?" One of the men took her speaking as distraction, and charged at Sarah, unarmed. Obviously, he hadn't learned anything from his buddy. Sarah swung the bone club at him, pulling a smaller shard from her thigh to fight back with both hands.

"Well, I think our friends here are attempting to do it in a slightly different fashion..." Grabbing another one by the back of the jacket, Wanda kicked out his knees from behind and knocked him out with a punch to the head. "Which is why they will be losing."

Sarah elbowed one of them in the face, barely moving out of the way of a punch aimed at her midsection. Off balance, she let herself tumble backwards and away from them both. When they moved to follow, she grabbed a bone club from her shoulder and swung it hard at their ankles. Not the most impressive way to take someone out, but it works.

Another of the ones that had been advancing on Sarah scuttled backwards, turning to attack Wanda, thinking that the unarmed opponent would be easier to take out. He suddenly stumbled back, head snapping from the front kick to the jaw and going down as a flash of a hex ring glared slightly, his legs buckling under him as the nerves suddenly went to sleep.

"So," she called out to Sarah, urging another one to attack her, "how are you doing? Having fun yet?"

"I haven't felt this good in weeks." Sarah grinned, shoving the rounded end of a bone club up and into the stomach of one, connecting her other bone covered fist with his nose. He fell into the man behind him, taking them both down to the ground. "Last time I did this I was still trying to regrow everything they'd taken out of me."

"They always say that a little bit of exercise does a body wonders." Grinning, Wanda had to agree with Sarah on the feeling good part. Beating up the bad guys always put her in the best of moods. Twisting out the way, she snagged the man rushing her by the neck and arm, heaving him up as she flung him away from the fray, sending him sprawling into several others. "Oh, it's like evil bowling."

Sarah might have giggled mid-swing. No, she definitely giggled, and kept right on fighting, making her look even more psychotic to the men coming after them. She beamed back at Wanda. "Oooh, I like you."

This entire fight had been surreal but it didn't make it any less real and Wanda grinned right back at Sarah. "The feeling is certainly mutual. Now...where were we? Oh, yes." The next man staggered back from her, clutching at his nose and she swept a hand at the few remaining thugs. "Now, if we finish this up quickly I think some of the bars may still be open...I feel like a drink."

~*~

Accidental roaches! Amanda and Mark go searching for the hostages, and find a disturbing situation. And of course, disturbing leads way to disaster. Thankfully, X-Force manages to make the most of it.


Warehouse districts were, Amanda decided, far easier to sneak around than jungles. Less roots and branches to trip over, better cover, no creepy crawlies to test your ability to keep still... Glancing over at Mark as they waited in a pool of deeper shadow by the back door for the distraction to start, she asked, quietly: "You set?"

Mark had set up a special playlist on his iPod for tonight. He normally spent a few hours deciding what to play at Silver each night, but this playlist was the work of at least half a day. He was clutching his iPod tightly for reassurance, his thumb over the Play button, ready to go at a moment's notice. "As ready as I'll ever be," he whispered back, hoping that his voice wasn't trembling as much as he thought it was.

It was, but Amanda knew better than to draw attention to the fact. Besides, she wasn't exactly nerve-free either - at some point she was going to have to get some serious combat training in. And learn how to bloody well shield again. Before she could say anything, a muffled boom could be heard echoing around the surrounding warehouses, followed by shouts of alarm from inside their target. "Showtime," Amanda said with a brief grin, and quietly crossed the gap to the door, already pulling out the lockpicks Remy had given her. Along with months of lessons in New Orleans.

Mark let out a low whistle as he followed Amanda. "Impressive. You guys do this often?" Following her into the warehouse, he found that he was gripping his iPod so tightly that he was going to leave an imprint on his palm. He forced himself to relax.

"On and off. The breaking and entering's more the misspent youth, tho'," she replied with another of those brief grins. Motioning him to stay still and be quiet, she tiptoed to the doorway between the small back office and the main warehouse and listened for voices. Hopefully all the bad guys would be out the front. She couldn't hear anything, and she gestured for Mark to join her. "All clear," she whispered, keeping her voice down for safety's sake. She hazarded a peek out, taking in the set up - warehouses tended to be big empty spaces usually... "Okay, looks like we got lucky - see those shipping containers? Plenty of cover for us to get closer."

"I wonder if all non-profits work like this," Mark mused, silently sneaking from behind one container to the next. They reminded him of trash containers, though, and with Amanda there, he couldn't help but shudder just a bit. "Where're the kids?"

"Not sure..." she began, thinking to herself it was going to be fun, explaining the other side of the Snow Valley Centre to him, if it came to that. He had guts, she had to admit. Then a slight noise from inside the container they were using as cover caught her attention. "Wait, you hear that?"

Mark frowned. "It can't be . . ." He knocked softly on the container, wincing at the echo it made, but heard another knock in reply. "Oh no. Those Goddamn . . . they put them in boxes? What the hell."

"Portable cells," Amanda said grimly. "Makes sense - these things are tough, you can lock 'em and saves you having to shuffle people around when you're ready to move out. Tho' they might have something else for anyone with a power that's bigger than something like this could hold." She peeked around the corner again. "Not all of the containers have cargo, tho' - there's a good half of 'em empty. Pickings must have got slim lately, what with Magneto throwing his weight around."

"That's sick!" Mark exclaimed. "Hang on in there," he said to one of the containers, knocking it softly in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "We'll get you out." He turned to Amanda. "Um, how do we get them out?"

"Wait here, I just want to check something..." Amanda slipped around the corner and vanished for what was only a few moments, but seemed like eternity. Outside, the battle continued to rage. Reappearing, she pulled a face. "Padlocks," she said in disgust. "I can pick 'em, but it takes a while." She gave his iPod an appraising look, thinking of Alison. "You able to do lasers?"

Mark gulped. "Not very well. I mean, I can do them, but I don't know if I can make them hot enough. I've never tried before." He spun the track wheel, gazing intently at the glowing screen for an appropriate track. He found a series of house pieces, and then clicked the Play button. He winced as the sound poured out from the headphones around his neck, and quickly spun the wheel to quiet it down. "Might be better if I actually wear these for a change," he said as he put them on, moving to the end of the container where the doors were. Light danced from his fingertips, and he concentrated, trying to focus the energy to lase the carbon dioxide in the air.

"Here," Amanda said, indicating the narrowest point on the padlock with her finger before touching his shoulder to get him to look at her. "I'll start on the next one," she mouthed, gesturing to another container that stood locked beside this one. "Keep an eye out, yeah?"

With a nod, Mark pointed his index finger at the padlock and concentrated. He was pretty knowledgeable in physics for someone with no higher education, and he knew how his powers worked. It was just a matter of integrating these data into something practical. And it wasn't going very well. Dazzler he is not. He was sure that a good old Aerosmith-inspired plasma burst would do that job just fine, but that would make an awful lot of noise. It made Mark curse his own inefficiency.

Mark wasn't the only one cursing his inefficiency. If she'd kept up with the magic, she'd... well, she'd still be figuring out a way to do this faster, since she'd never been able to magic metal that well. Gritting her teeth in concentration, Amanda jiggled the fine wire she'd inserted into the lock gently, feeling for the mechanism. Nearly there...

It was then movement caught her eye and she glanced up to see one of the gang approaching Mark from behind. The DJ was oblivious to the danger he was in, and with his headphones on, he wouldn't hear a shout, even if she could without raising the alarm. And the bloke was too far away for her to intercept... Instinct cut in and she pointed at the man, fingers splayed, words of a spell coming from her lips. A sleep spell ought to do it, send him quietly off to the land of Nod...

Or at least, that was the plan.

A bulge appeared in the man's shirt and he looked down, startled. The surprise became panic as the bulge moved upwards and suddenly thousands of small scuttling creatures erupted from the neck of his shirt. Cockroaches, hundreds of thousands of them, swarming over the man and onto the floor as he flailed at them, screaming at the top of his lungs.

The screaming grabbed Mark's attention, and he spun around, stepping on more than a few of the crunchy bugs. He'd have been disgusted if he weren't so terrified. "I guess stealth is out," he said to himself, instinctively shooting a series of lasers at the guy. Still not hot enough to do any damage, but lasers plus eye equals blindness. The horrified shrieks grew even louder, and Mark winced.

He reached into his pocket and change tracks. Light wasn't doing the job, so he needed different fuel. The lasers changed to bursts of concussive force as house made way for KISS. Two such blasts easily knocked the guy out. "What the hell was that?" he asked Amanda frantically. "Where did these things" - he shivered - "come from?"

Amanda was staring horrified at her hand, until Mark's question roused her. "Me," she whispered, obviously in shock. She'd only meant to put the guy to sleep, how the hell had that happened? But there was no time for reaction, shocked or not, as another shock indicated the screaming hadn't gone unnoticed. "Quick, we've got to get them out of here!" she exclaimed. "No need to worry about being quiet, just get these fucking doors open!"

Mark rubbed his hands eagerly and incarnated KISS's music into bright, booming bursts of concussive force. The padlock instantly broke. "Get 'em out, I'll take the next one." He sprinted over to the next container, and blasted it open, too, though the boom was much louder. ". . . Was that me?" he asked, before another boom - a much louder one - erupted the room in flames. "Oh shit, that couldn't've been me."

"Those fucking cunts - they booby trapped the place in case they got raided!" Already the heat was searing, the large room filling with smoke and flames. Accellerant, and a good one... "Remy, Wanda, we've got a fucking situation on our hands here!" she yelled into the mike that she'd all but forgotten about. She waved at Mark to open the containers, coughing a little in the smoke.

Three young women and a young man all but fell into Mark's outstretched arms, and he stumbled back against their weight. "I can't carry four people on my own," he said, trying to help them stand. But days in the small, confined, dark spaces had robbed them of much of their mobility. "A little help!"

Amanda, meanwhile, had been tugging on the handle of the second container, trying to get it open. "Bloody thing's stuck!" she yelled back, coming to join Mark and help him out. One of the girls all but fell onto her supporting shoulder as she slipped an arm around the victim's waist, and she winced - she was still bruised from the encounter with Mark a couple of nights before. "Out the front, fast as we can! 'S the fastest way out!" She jerked her chin at the big main doors. "We'll just have to hope the others have taken care of things out there." And if the mikes weren't working, at least they'd be able to get the attention of the rest.

A red glow appeared around the edges of the door before they were kicked in, swinging wildly back and forth for a second. Wanda stuck her head in, frowning as she spotted Mark and Amanda. "I see you have your hands full," she called.

"Just a bit. You're getting good at this 'in the nick of time' thing," Amanda said dryly as Wanda took charge of the young man, leaving Mark and herself with the girls as they stumbled outside. "I fucked up, blew our cover. There's still some kids in the other container and I don't know about the rest - we didn't get time to check them all. And there's still the bad guys."

“What can I say? I think perhaps really, I just am that damned good.” Dipping her head, she got the young man’s arm around her neck and started to help him outside as fast as she was able. “Well, we may not have the advantage of surprise anymore but we can probably work that to our advantage. After all, they have no idea what is going on, who we are or how many we have to back us up.” Wanda grinned at the two over her shoulder. “Let’s see if we can shake up their world a little more, yes?”

"Think we can get dis done before de fire trucks show up?" Remy said sarcastically, passing Wanda with Betsy in tow. "Couple still left in here?" The other men that they'd fought outside were in neat rows, hands and feet in plastic restraints, waiting for the police.

"Hurry!" Mark shouted, dragging the dead weights that were the two barely conscious girls he still had. "There's another box. Lock's busted already. Just get 'em outta here!" This was not exactly what he'd been expecting tonight. It was not quite as ninja an evening as he'd anticipated. "C'mon, girls," he said softly to the two, "You'll be just fine. Drinks are on me tomorrow night, eh?"

"Take it easy Trouble," Sarah approached, very little of her not covered in some sort of sharp pointy bone growth. "They'll get the rest of them. I think maybe these kids out here need some stuff healed?"

The look Amanda gave Sarah was pure gratitude, but she still hesitated, looking to Wanda and Remy. "Do you need me back in there?"

Reaching over, Wanda clapped Amanda on the shoulder as she went by. “Watch our backs out here as well as watch over the survivors,” she said softly, dusting off her shirt and jacket. “If the police arrive faster than we can move, we will need to know.”

Amanda nodded, joining Mark and Sarah with the survivors whilst the other three dashed inside the burning warehouse. No healing spells - after tonight she had a feeling it was going to be a while before she tried any kind of magic again - but she had the medlab knowledge. "Keep an eye out for us, yeah?" she asked Sarah. Mark was already working on keeping them calm, talking to the girls quietly as the shock of their rescue set in.

"Got it. It's about all I'm good for right now." She pulled another bone from her shoulder, taking note of the places she needed to look out for. If anybody came in, she needed to be able to cut them off quickly. The closer she let them get, the more chance that somebody innocent was going to get hurt.

Meanwhile, Remy had already destroyed the lock on the last container, and he and Betsy had freed the last of the kids. They came out blinking into even the dim light of the warehouse, limbs unsteady after days of lightless captivity. Remy took two of them, leaving the last to lean on Betsy as they left the warehouse.

"Get de kids over to dat gatehouse. Dese batards can wait until de police arrive to get dem." He indicated the bound men.

{Rem, I also pulled a laptop out of that car.} Betsy remarked mentally, and he smiled.

"Bet Doug's going to love dat. Alright people, we need to get out of here. Mark, ask de kids nicely if dey appreciate dere rescue to get our descriptions wrong when talking to de police and paramedics, neh?"

"You're the boss," Mark called, forcing a smile even as he forced his heart to stop beating so fast. He needed some alcohol. And maybe a lay. Checking his watch, he figured that it wasn't too late to head back to Silver for a bit. A good job demands a good reward after all. And was there really even a better job than this?