Broken Ground - X-Force, Friday afternoon
Aug. 24th, 2007 01:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_daytripper posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsAfter tracking the worms back to a likely spot, X-Force goes after the bad guy. They're in for a surprise.
The complex had been long abandoned, locked and sealed. Not that it made much difference - locked gates proved not much more difficult to circumvent (or flat-out destroy) than lowered barriers and sealed doors. The hallway filled in with concrete after the first two sets of doors proved a little more difficult.
Wanda tapped the wall with a knuckle and then grimaced, face settling into a far away look. "I think I might be able to find a shattering point," she told the group, "but it might take me a minute to find where the weakest part of this is."
Mark's fingertips sparked. "Or we could take the more direct route?" he suggested. "Old abandoned lab in the middle of nowhere. Probably no one's gonna notice if the door's missing." System of a Down was already cued up, and he was simply itching to let it out.
Remy shook his head. "Let's keep de destruction to a minimum. For all we know, dere's a couple of thousand of dose things waiting, or worse. Wanda, find de weak spot for Mark. Controlled. We only need enough space to get in." Not that blowing up buildings wasn't fun, but labs are usually abandoned for a reason, and Remy wasn't about to stumble on to some newly awakened equipment if he could help it.
"And here I was simply worried about the roof falling in on our heads," Wanda murmured, mentally picking through and discarding threads that really might just have brought the roof caving down. Soon, she pointed out a spot in the wall where a barely visible crack ran up towards the ceiling. "This area is simply begging to be blown up. Now, if you will excuse me, I'll be in the back at a safe but respectable distance from the explosion."
Blue fire illuminated Mark's hands. He closed his eyes and focused, concentrating the thrashing punk of the Armenian band into a tight, controlled blast. The crack in the wall grew bigger, traveling the length of the barrier and collapsing it to permit their entrance. "'How do you own the world? How do you own disorder . . .' Who came up with this crap?" he asked idly, the energy infusing his fists dying down but not extinguishing.
"Nicely done," Amanda said, her grin a flash of white in the dust-filled air. With a click of her fingers she summoned the werelight, the small ball of energy zooming restlessly around her head. "Okay, I know Mexico City's out of range, but something's amping my spells up here," she complained, trying to direct the light into the dark hallway. Eventually she had to grab it and fling it - George careened down the hall, bouncing off walls, before disappearing around the corner. "Bugger."
Marie-Ange handed her flashlight to Doug, and pulled one of her cards from a pocket. A moment later, a pair of the ectoplasic imps appeared, and clambered over the rubble. "If there are more lightning worms, I would like to know ahead of time this time. I think you agree, yes?" She kept tight control over the imps movements, which led to them moving more fluidly, but slower as they moved ahead of the group.
"Clever," Sofia commented, watching the imps as she carelessly gestured a fan. An impossible current swirled around their heads, clearing the air and lifting her up and over what remained of the concrete. Soft soles of her black boots gracefully touched the ground. "The faster we're controlled and logical, the faster we can throw it out the window, blow something up and go home. Come on, I'll even be in front."
"I always knew you were the perfect date." With the imps scampering through first, Sofia behind them, Wanda followed suit. She kept a hand slightly above shoulder level, the red light chasing away shadows. It added to the flashlights while still leaving both of her hands free. A win-win situation, really. "And if you get eaten by lightning filled death worms, I promise you I will never let you live it down." Despite her words, she was concentrating hard--mainly on her footing but also in an attempt to keep an eye out for a potential attack. The sooner they found those things the sooner they would, hopefully, be on their way home.
Somewhere in the middle of the group, Doug held his flashlight up near his head, sweeping it left and right with metronomic precision. "Is anyone getting a giant flesh computer feeling about this?" he asked nervously in an attempt to break the tension that was thick in the hallway. At that exact point, his flashlight swept over a series of faded biohazard warning signs. When he moved the flashlight back to confirm what he'd seen, he sighed. "I need to learn to not open my big fat mouth so much," he muttered.
"Worms. Why de fuck Remy travel wit' any of you, I have no idea." LeBeau's fist flared purple in the darkness, and the card hit with his usual accuracy. The trouble was that it wasn't with his usual effectiveness, as the worms surged out of the darkness.
"Oh bloody buggering shite," Amanda muttered, bringing up the shielding spell. "Is anyone getting deja vu here?"
The blue light surrounding Mark's fists intensified into great shining orbs of energy. "Someone else can fist it this time. Really trying hard not to catch any diseases." Without any further hesitation, he thrust his right hand forward, igniting the air between him and a group of worms with blue fire, the sudden heat vaporizing parts of the monsters. He tried not to gag at the odor of ozone and worm guts.
The lab had no place for the worms to burrow, making them far easier targets than out in the open. That said, Sarah remembered what had happened the last time one of them bit her, so the plan was a little bit different this time. Whatever happened, take out the teeth. Or the head. Preferably both. She slammed a bone club at the head of the one closest to her, and it connected with a sickening squish. The knife in her other hand sliced the creature crossways, and eventually the worm quit moving.
The smell of ozone filled the hallway as the worms, sensing they were outpowered, tried to escape. The floor turned foggy, but oddly contained; like three inches of frosted glass placed over the holes, before lifting up. The worms came with it, wriggling, caught, in the constantly churning block of wind, and Sofia looked over her shoulder at the group with a pleased smile. "I think this is the 'I'll hold and you punch'. Someone with a distance attack, please, I'm not riding back with any of you that smell of carcasses."
Sighing, Wanda wrinkled her nose at the sight. "That is just disgusting, I do hope you know that." The red light in the tunnel flared abruptly as a hex bolt streaked down the newly made tunnel. When it connected, the worms caught in the wind writhed even harder. Some of them seemed to melt, fat flesh rolling off in chunks, others just convulsed until they dropped dead. Several of them sparked before they died but with Sofia holding them fast, it didn't do much besides give a pretty light show.
Dropping her hand to her side, she grimaced even more. "Never mind, I think I win for disgusting on this trip."
"I really think you do." Amanda's own face scrunched up at the mess - and the smell. "Here's hoping the whole worm attack means we're almost at ground zero?"
"I think so." Remy said, as they stopped at a heavy metal door. It looked like an old airlock, or a pressure door on a submarine. There was a complex lock braking the wheel, but it only lasted a few minutes under Remy's careful work with his picks. It sprang open, and with a screeching gasp of metal on metal, the door was slowly opened. Beyond it was a large room, and their lights picked up the ruined south wall first; a large lightning bolt like crack that zigzagged down the concrete. Remy made a considering noise.
"Must have been an earthquake or something. Cracked de wall open 'nough dat someone could bypass de door."
The odor from the worms was strongest in the chamber, almost gaggingly powerful. Doug breathed shallowly, panning his gaze around the room. "I think this is home," he wrly understated, looking at the scores of worms in glass tanks and the evidence they'd been there for some time.
"I think no shower in the world will clean us up." Mark lifted a glowing hand, casting a blue light on a small glass case filled with some viscous liquid that suspended a smaller worm than what they'd seen. "This is like walking through a shitty '50s B-movie."
"This place hasn't been used for a while," Amanda observed, looking at the layers of dust, the worm casings. "Looks like they had some kind of weapons project going on, but it shut down with all the rest of it." She glanced at the others, faces cast in shadow by the torchlight. "Am I the only one thinking that maybe there's no bad guy here? At least, not one now?"
"Maybe the worms ate them too." Marie-Ange suggested sourly. "Like lions or sharks. They eat a person and realize they like it and never go back to whatever they used to eat." She prodded a worm casing with her toe. "The ones in the tank are much smaller then the ones we saw. This must have been here a long time.."
"It's consistent wit' a mothballed site. Can't dispose of illegal bioweapons research wit' out having to answer some questions. Easier to fill de entrance wit' concrete, kill de power, and pretend dat it just never existed." Remy didn't need to add that the government had once done exactly that to the program that made him.
A crunch of glass underneath a boot was the response to that and Wanda cursed under her breath before taking a step backwards. One of the tanks had been shattered and the debris was now under foot. More importantly, no dead worm bodies littered either the ground or the bottom of where they had been kept and that posed more than a potential risk. "How many of those lovely creatures are in one tank?" Wanda asked, keeping her eyes on the ground.
"About a dozen?" Amanda said, doing a quick 'head'count. Her eyes - and the reluctant werelight - moved to the crack in the wall. "You don't think we've got your garden-variety escaped experiment, do you?"
"That's so . . . anticlimactic," Mark sighed. "These things killed a bunch of people, and we don't even have anyone to blame for it besides the worms themselves. Ugh. Guys, can we just blow it up now so no more get out?"
"Yeah, picking off random experiments gone wrong while they're locked up in a tank isn't high up on my 'Cool things I do at work' list." Sarah was sticky with sweat, blood and worm guts, which was enough to make even Sarah a little disenchanted with this particular mission. "Besides, a good explosion might even be able to redeem this trip. Maybe."
There was a snort as Wanda carefully pulled out a small chunk of glass from the sole of her boot. "My boots are ruined, a good explosion isn't even going to come close." Straightening, she gestured to the others. "But it is a good, solid start. Before anyone can say 'disgusting worm creatures', I can sort out the best places to hit for those so inclined to seeing something go sky high. Which, considering this group, is just about everyone so I think we're safe on that count."
Mark nodded. "I vote yea." The blue light briefly flared in anticipation. "Just say where, boss, and I'll let 'er rip."
"Where oh where..." Concentrating, Wanda quickly started to shift through the strings, dismissing some and mentally marking the others. She paused and suddenly turned to Marie-Ange. "This place is huge," she said, "and you know buildings. Give me a rough idea of where to look and I will focus on those areas. It will take less time than me simply sifting through the mess that's currently in my head."
"So none of us should say 'disgusting worm creatures' just so soon?" Marie-Ange teased. The concrete walls were all fairly solid looking, but they were also poured concrete. Weak at the corners and where the poured sections met. She walked the length of the room, tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. "Wanda, I think the corners, yes?" She suggested.
Given an actual place to concentrate, she pushed passed all the distracting points that were flaring in her mind. After years of neglect, nearly everything in the building had some kind of fault in it and it was starting to get a little bit crowded. But the corners were the best and they looked like good focal points. Pulling and pushing gently in her mind to help weaken one or two of them a little bit more, Wanda turned back to Mark and pointed out where at the corners to aim for.
"All yours."
"Might wanna get ready to run the hell away in . . . oh, now!" Mark didn't hold back this time. The room flashed bright blue, and the wall exploded, causing the roof to start to collapse and what remained of the worm tanks to shatter. And as they fled, Mark idly thought about how proud System of a Down would be to know that their music was responsible for the destruction of a government bioweapons laboratory. He ought to write them a letter.
The complex had been long abandoned, locked and sealed. Not that it made much difference - locked gates proved not much more difficult to circumvent (or flat-out destroy) than lowered barriers and sealed doors. The hallway filled in with concrete after the first two sets of doors proved a little more difficult.
Wanda tapped the wall with a knuckle and then grimaced, face settling into a far away look. "I think I might be able to find a shattering point," she told the group, "but it might take me a minute to find where the weakest part of this is."
Mark's fingertips sparked. "Or we could take the more direct route?" he suggested. "Old abandoned lab in the middle of nowhere. Probably no one's gonna notice if the door's missing." System of a Down was already cued up, and he was simply itching to let it out.
Remy shook his head. "Let's keep de destruction to a minimum. For all we know, dere's a couple of thousand of dose things waiting, or worse. Wanda, find de weak spot for Mark. Controlled. We only need enough space to get in." Not that blowing up buildings wasn't fun, but labs are usually abandoned for a reason, and Remy wasn't about to stumble on to some newly awakened equipment if he could help it.
"And here I was simply worried about the roof falling in on our heads," Wanda murmured, mentally picking through and discarding threads that really might just have brought the roof caving down. Soon, she pointed out a spot in the wall where a barely visible crack ran up towards the ceiling. "This area is simply begging to be blown up. Now, if you will excuse me, I'll be in the back at a safe but respectable distance from the explosion."
Blue fire illuminated Mark's hands. He closed his eyes and focused, concentrating the thrashing punk of the Armenian band into a tight, controlled blast. The crack in the wall grew bigger, traveling the length of the barrier and collapsing it to permit their entrance. "'How do you own the world? How do you own disorder . . .' Who came up with this crap?" he asked idly, the energy infusing his fists dying down but not extinguishing.
"Nicely done," Amanda said, her grin a flash of white in the dust-filled air. With a click of her fingers she summoned the werelight, the small ball of energy zooming restlessly around her head. "Okay, I know Mexico City's out of range, but something's amping my spells up here," she complained, trying to direct the light into the dark hallway. Eventually she had to grab it and fling it - George careened down the hall, bouncing off walls, before disappearing around the corner. "Bugger."
Marie-Ange handed her flashlight to Doug, and pulled one of her cards from a pocket. A moment later, a pair of the ectoplasic imps appeared, and clambered over the rubble. "If there are more lightning worms, I would like to know ahead of time this time. I think you agree, yes?" She kept tight control over the imps movements, which led to them moving more fluidly, but slower as they moved ahead of the group.
"Clever," Sofia commented, watching the imps as she carelessly gestured a fan. An impossible current swirled around their heads, clearing the air and lifting her up and over what remained of the concrete. Soft soles of her black boots gracefully touched the ground. "The faster we're controlled and logical, the faster we can throw it out the window, blow something up and go home. Come on, I'll even be in front."
"I always knew you were the perfect date." With the imps scampering through first, Sofia behind them, Wanda followed suit. She kept a hand slightly above shoulder level, the red light chasing away shadows. It added to the flashlights while still leaving both of her hands free. A win-win situation, really. "And if you get eaten by lightning filled death worms, I promise you I will never let you live it down." Despite her words, she was concentrating hard--mainly on her footing but also in an attempt to keep an eye out for a potential attack. The sooner they found those things the sooner they would, hopefully, be on their way home.
Somewhere in the middle of the group, Doug held his flashlight up near his head, sweeping it left and right with metronomic precision. "Is anyone getting a giant flesh computer feeling about this?" he asked nervously in an attempt to break the tension that was thick in the hallway. At that exact point, his flashlight swept over a series of faded biohazard warning signs. When he moved the flashlight back to confirm what he'd seen, he sighed. "I need to learn to not open my big fat mouth so much," he muttered.
"Worms. Why de fuck Remy travel wit' any of you, I have no idea." LeBeau's fist flared purple in the darkness, and the card hit with his usual accuracy. The trouble was that it wasn't with his usual effectiveness, as the worms surged out of the darkness.
"Oh bloody buggering shite," Amanda muttered, bringing up the shielding spell. "Is anyone getting deja vu here?"
The blue light surrounding Mark's fists intensified into great shining orbs of energy. "Someone else can fist it this time. Really trying hard not to catch any diseases." Without any further hesitation, he thrust his right hand forward, igniting the air between him and a group of worms with blue fire, the sudden heat vaporizing parts of the monsters. He tried not to gag at the odor of ozone and worm guts.
The lab had no place for the worms to burrow, making them far easier targets than out in the open. That said, Sarah remembered what had happened the last time one of them bit her, so the plan was a little bit different this time. Whatever happened, take out the teeth. Or the head. Preferably both. She slammed a bone club at the head of the one closest to her, and it connected with a sickening squish. The knife in her other hand sliced the creature crossways, and eventually the worm quit moving.
The smell of ozone filled the hallway as the worms, sensing they were outpowered, tried to escape. The floor turned foggy, but oddly contained; like three inches of frosted glass placed over the holes, before lifting up. The worms came with it, wriggling, caught, in the constantly churning block of wind, and Sofia looked over her shoulder at the group with a pleased smile. "I think this is the 'I'll hold and you punch'. Someone with a distance attack, please, I'm not riding back with any of you that smell of carcasses."
Sighing, Wanda wrinkled her nose at the sight. "That is just disgusting, I do hope you know that." The red light in the tunnel flared abruptly as a hex bolt streaked down the newly made tunnel. When it connected, the worms caught in the wind writhed even harder. Some of them seemed to melt, fat flesh rolling off in chunks, others just convulsed until they dropped dead. Several of them sparked before they died but with Sofia holding them fast, it didn't do much besides give a pretty light show.
Dropping her hand to her side, she grimaced even more. "Never mind, I think I win for disgusting on this trip."
"I really think you do." Amanda's own face scrunched up at the mess - and the smell. "Here's hoping the whole worm attack means we're almost at ground zero?"
"I think so." Remy said, as they stopped at a heavy metal door. It looked like an old airlock, or a pressure door on a submarine. There was a complex lock braking the wheel, but it only lasted a few minutes under Remy's careful work with his picks. It sprang open, and with a screeching gasp of metal on metal, the door was slowly opened. Beyond it was a large room, and their lights picked up the ruined south wall first; a large lightning bolt like crack that zigzagged down the concrete. Remy made a considering noise.
"Must have been an earthquake or something. Cracked de wall open 'nough dat someone could bypass de door."
The odor from the worms was strongest in the chamber, almost gaggingly powerful. Doug breathed shallowly, panning his gaze around the room. "I think this is home," he wrly understated, looking at the scores of worms in glass tanks and the evidence they'd been there for some time.
"I think no shower in the world will clean us up." Mark lifted a glowing hand, casting a blue light on a small glass case filled with some viscous liquid that suspended a smaller worm than what they'd seen. "This is like walking through a shitty '50s B-movie."
"This place hasn't been used for a while," Amanda observed, looking at the layers of dust, the worm casings. "Looks like they had some kind of weapons project going on, but it shut down with all the rest of it." She glanced at the others, faces cast in shadow by the torchlight. "Am I the only one thinking that maybe there's no bad guy here? At least, not one now?"
"Maybe the worms ate them too." Marie-Ange suggested sourly. "Like lions or sharks. They eat a person and realize they like it and never go back to whatever they used to eat." She prodded a worm casing with her toe. "The ones in the tank are much smaller then the ones we saw. This must have been here a long time.."
"It's consistent wit' a mothballed site. Can't dispose of illegal bioweapons research wit' out having to answer some questions. Easier to fill de entrance wit' concrete, kill de power, and pretend dat it just never existed." Remy didn't need to add that the government had once done exactly that to the program that made him.
A crunch of glass underneath a boot was the response to that and Wanda cursed under her breath before taking a step backwards. One of the tanks had been shattered and the debris was now under foot. More importantly, no dead worm bodies littered either the ground or the bottom of where they had been kept and that posed more than a potential risk. "How many of those lovely creatures are in one tank?" Wanda asked, keeping her eyes on the ground.
"About a dozen?" Amanda said, doing a quick 'head'count. Her eyes - and the reluctant werelight - moved to the crack in the wall. "You don't think we've got your garden-variety escaped experiment, do you?"
"That's so . . . anticlimactic," Mark sighed. "These things killed a bunch of people, and we don't even have anyone to blame for it besides the worms themselves. Ugh. Guys, can we just blow it up now so no more get out?"
"Yeah, picking off random experiments gone wrong while they're locked up in a tank isn't high up on my 'Cool things I do at work' list." Sarah was sticky with sweat, blood and worm guts, which was enough to make even Sarah a little disenchanted with this particular mission. "Besides, a good explosion might even be able to redeem this trip. Maybe."
There was a snort as Wanda carefully pulled out a small chunk of glass from the sole of her boot. "My boots are ruined, a good explosion isn't even going to come close." Straightening, she gestured to the others. "But it is a good, solid start. Before anyone can say 'disgusting worm creatures', I can sort out the best places to hit for those so inclined to seeing something go sky high. Which, considering this group, is just about everyone so I think we're safe on that count."
Mark nodded. "I vote yea." The blue light briefly flared in anticipation. "Just say where, boss, and I'll let 'er rip."
"Where oh where..." Concentrating, Wanda quickly started to shift through the strings, dismissing some and mentally marking the others. She paused and suddenly turned to Marie-Ange. "This place is huge," she said, "and you know buildings. Give me a rough idea of where to look and I will focus on those areas. It will take less time than me simply sifting through the mess that's currently in my head."
"So none of us should say 'disgusting worm creatures' just so soon?" Marie-Ange teased. The concrete walls were all fairly solid looking, but they were also poured concrete. Weak at the corners and where the poured sections met. She walked the length of the room, tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. "Wanda, I think the corners, yes?" She suggested.
Given an actual place to concentrate, she pushed passed all the distracting points that were flaring in her mind. After years of neglect, nearly everything in the building had some kind of fault in it and it was starting to get a little bit crowded. But the corners were the best and they looked like good focal points. Pulling and pushing gently in her mind to help weaken one or two of them a little bit more, Wanda turned back to Mark and pointed out where at the corners to aim for.
"All yours."
"Might wanna get ready to run the hell away in . . . oh, now!" Mark didn't hold back this time. The room flashed bright blue, and the wall exploded, causing the roof to start to collapse and what remained of the worm tanks to shatter. And as they fled, Mark idly thought about how proud System of a Down would be to know that their music was responsible for the destruction of a government bioweapons laboratory. He ought to write them a letter.
