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xp_logsOnce on the ground, the scout team finds their target, and things go from simple to complicated very quickly.
Jan rode on Forge's shoulder for nearly a mile though the dense jungle until they reached a decent-sized clearing. Past a chain-link fence were a few people, probably patrolling the area, and behind them was a building that appeared to be a power plant. "I'm going to take a quick look around!" Jan announced, lifting up into the air, then quickly proceeding to fly around the fence a bit, then zipping over it. "You guys get to see whether or not the fence is electrified, I'm already on the other side!"
"Do not lick the fence to check," Forge jokingly whispered to Logan as he crouched low in the thick foliage and raised a pair of complicated binoculars to his eyes. The sun was descending past the bluff to the west, and the combination of the shade and near-twilight meant that anyone looking in their direction would have the hardest of times making out anything but the most obvious movement.
Clicking a dial, Forge watched the small blue dot that represented Jan zip around from corner to corner, beaming back digital camera images from her communicator. Another press of the dial threw the entire structure into sharp relief, the glow of electromagnetic power lines limning the edges of walls. But not, he noticed, the fence in front of them.
"Fence is clean," he announced to Wolverine. "Not picking up any automated perimeter security, looks like they're using strictly eyes on the ground. Want to make us a door?"
Logan just grinned and popped the claws on his right hand, making swift and efficient cuts through the metal of the fence. "This is too easy." he said uneasily. "Don't like it." And having Haller in his brain, even as lightly as he was, made him itch.
Fucking telepaths.
But the door was made and the excised fencing bits dragged back and covered with jungle debris. "You're first, Forge. Try not to step on anything that goes boom." he joked.
"What's taking you guys so long?" Jan mock-complained, flying in circles over the head of one of the guards. "I'm already checking these guys out. They're all big into armor and weapons, and we're not talking low-class stuff here!"
Following Logan's advice, Forge lowered his goggles over his eyes, carefully watching the readouts as he pressed himself against the wall, trying to stay into the shadows. "Millimeter-wave radar doesn't show anything buried, but the power signature of this place is weird as hell. No background radiation that would scream nuclear, no obvious coolant or steam towers, no exhaust from coal-burning... what in the hell is powering this place? Wasp, see if you can get inside and get to a computer. If they've got a standard network, I can try and hack into it via your communicator. This is weird."
"They've got power." he said as he made what Forge just so laboriously did look effortless - stick to the shadows. "Geothermal, maybe?" he guessed. "Doesn't matter. We get in, find out, and get out." he said.
"What do you mean it doesn't matter? Aren't we here to be all investigative?" Jan wondered out loud, speaking into her comm. While her teammates could hear her clearly, her voice could not be heard by the people in the area. "OK, I think this guy's about to go inside... yep, there we go, and Wasp has entered the building. All right, looking for a computer now... um, how exactly am I supposed to know if it's got a standard network or not? Is there some sort of unstandard network that would be a bad thing?"
"Yes," Forge said as he watched the telemetry from Jan's communicator scroll across his goggles. "If they're using frequency-hop closed-band IR packeting, I can't sync into that, but..."
Jan's communicator gave a series of tiny beeps as she passed a computer terminal, and Forge whistled as he withdrew his PDA from a pocket in his uniform. "Okay, we've got a login. Now, I might not be the great Cypher, but I've hacked a network or three in my day... okay, I think I have a file system here... operating commands... aha!"
Behind where he and Logan crouched, a ventilation fan slowed to a halt. "And there's our way in. We just need to - holy crap!" -he hissed the last as a loud buzzing hum rose from the building and set the lights flickering. Pulling his goggles away from his face, Forge turned to Wolverine with a look of confusion in his eyes. "Whatever's powering this place, it just spiked like nothing I've ever seen before. Geothermal doesn't spike like that."
Listening over the telepathic switchboard, Jim exchanged an uneasy glance with Marie. "Manifestation inside the place, you think?" he said aloud. "If someone in there has a mutation that's messing with the power-source and causing spikes . . ."
Logan sighed. "You gonna be able to keep up?" he asked Forge before he took the opportunity afforded by the ventilation shaft fan ceasing its spinning to enter the compound itself. No substitute for eyes-on-target. None of Forge's tech-geekery could get them that, so they'd have to go inside.
Jan set off down a hallway, continuing to investigate the building while the others were still getting in. Anyone paying particularly close attention might have heard her humming "99 Bottles of Beer" while she zipped up a flight of stairs. Careful not to get too close, Jan chose a guard and followed him, figuring he might go somewhere important. After a few minutes, she found herself in a room with... something. Jan's eyes widened, and she flew in for a closer look. Nope, she wasn't seeing things. "Um, guys... I think I found what we're looking for. They've got a kid in this tank thing."
Forge paused inside the air vent, looking ahead to where Logan was crouched down at a T-junction. "Wait, there's a kid?" He motioned for Logan to hold up as his goggles showed him a map of the facility, highlighting their location relative to Jan's. Suddenly, things started falling into place.
"Wasp, tell me if you see anything that looks... well, tell me what you're seeing there," he said.
"You know what, I think I need to get a little tiny camera so when I fly around people can see what I see! OK, let's see... well, they're doing something craptastic to him, I'm sure, he's got all of these tubes stuck into him, and it says something here, let me back up a bit..." Jan flew backwards to get further away from the letters. "Neuro," she began, then paused. "Maybe I should just spell it for you. "N, E, U," she began, continuing to spell out the entirely word that, in Jan's very humble opinion, was way too big a word and should not exist.
As Marie listened to Jan spelling, she cursed out loud. "Kick? Legion, tell the team to standby. And then get me the professor if you can." The fact that it was a mutant powering the plant with Kick to boost their powers made a lot of what hadn't made sense before fall into place, though it also complicated the situation. The fact that it looked like he might not even be aware of how they were using his powers didn't help either.
After the Southern girl had updated Xavier, she listened for a moment before sighing and nodding her head. "Ah hate it when the plan changes," she muttered under her breath before re-activating her comm. "Ok guys, Ah just got a little change-a-roo from the prof. This mission is no longer observe and report. It is now a rescue operation. Wasp, Logan, and Caldera, Ah want you to cause a distraction while Legion, Forge, and Ah grab the kid. Logan, you're in charge of keeping an eye on Caldera. Any questions?"
"Rock and roll."
Jan rode on Forge's shoulder for nearly a mile though the dense jungle until they reached a decent-sized clearing. Past a chain-link fence were a few people, probably patrolling the area, and behind them was a building that appeared to be a power plant. "I'm going to take a quick look around!" Jan announced, lifting up into the air, then quickly proceeding to fly around the fence a bit, then zipping over it. "You guys get to see whether or not the fence is electrified, I'm already on the other side!"
"Do not lick the fence to check," Forge jokingly whispered to Logan as he crouched low in the thick foliage and raised a pair of complicated binoculars to his eyes. The sun was descending past the bluff to the west, and the combination of the shade and near-twilight meant that anyone looking in their direction would have the hardest of times making out anything but the most obvious movement.
Clicking a dial, Forge watched the small blue dot that represented Jan zip around from corner to corner, beaming back digital camera images from her communicator. Another press of the dial threw the entire structure into sharp relief, the glow of electromagnetic power lines limning the edges of walls. But not, he noticed, the fence in front of them.
"Fence is clean," he announced to Wolverine. "Not picking up any automated perimeter security, looks like they're using strictly eyes on the ground. Want to make us a door?"
Logan just grinned and popped the claws on his right hand, making swift and efficient cuts through the metal of the fence. "This is too easy." he said uneasily. "Don't like it." And having Haller in his brain, even as lightly as he was, made him itch.
Fucking telepaths.
But the door was made and the excised fencing bits dragged back and covered with jungle debris. "You're first, Forge. Try not to step on anything that goes boom." he joked.
"What's taking you guys so long?" Jan mock-complained, flying in circles over the head of one of the guards. "I'm already checking these guys out. They're all big into armor and weapons, and we're not talking low-class stuff here!"
Following Logan's advice, Forge lowered his goggles over his eyes, carefully watching the readouts as he pressed himself against the wall, trying to stay into the shadows. "Millimeter-wave radar doesn't show anything buried, but the power signature of this place is weird as hell. No background radiation that would scream nuclear, no obvious coolant or steam towers, no exhaust from coal-burning... what in the hell is powering this place? Wasp, see if you can get inside and get to a computer. If they've got a standard network, I can try and hack into it via your communicator. This is weird."
"They've got power." he said as he made what Forge just so laboriously did look effortless - stick to the shadows. "Geothermal, maybe?" he guessed. "Doesn't matter. We get in, find out, and get out." he said.
"What do you mean it doesn't matter? Aren't we here to be all investigative?" Jan wondered out loud, speaking into her comm. While her teammates could hear her clearly, her voice could not be heard by the people in the area. "OK, I think this guy's about to go inside... yep, there we go, and Wasp has entered the building. All right, looking for a computer now... um, how exactly am I supposed to know if it's got a standard network or not? Is there some sort of unstandard network that would be a bad thing?"
"Yes," Forge said as he watched the telemetry from Jan's communicator scroll across his goggles. "If they're using frequency-hop closed-band IR packeting, I can't sync into that, but..."
Jan's communicator gave a series of tiny beeps as she passed a computer terminal, and Forge whistled as he withdrew his PDA from a pocket in his uniform. "Okay, we've got a login. Now, I might not be the great Cypher, but I've hacked a network or three in my day... okay, I think I have a file system here... operating commands... aha!"
Behind where he and Logan crouched, a ventilation fan slowed to a halt. "And there's our way in. We just need to - holy crap!" -he hissed the last as a loud buzzing hum rose from the building and set the lights flickering. Pulling his goggles away from his face, Forge turned to Wolverine with a look of confusion in his eyes. "Whatever's powering this place, it just spiked like nothing I've ever seen before. Geothermal doesn't spike like that."
Listening over the telepathic switchboard, Jim exchanged an uneasy glance with Marie. "Manifestation inside the place, you think?" he said aloud. "If someone in there has a mutation that's messing with the power-source and causing spikes . . ."
Logan sighed. "You gonna be able to keep up?" he asked Forge before he took the opportunity afforded by the ventilation shaft fan ceasing its spinning to enter the compound itself. No substitute for eyes-on-target. None of Forge's tech-geekery could get them that, so they'd have to go inside.
Jan set off down a hallway, continuing to investigate the building while the others were still getting in. Anyone paying particularly close attention might have heard her humming "99 Bottles of Beer" while she zipped up a flight of stairs. Careful not to get too close, Jan chose a guard and followed him, figuring he might go somewhere important. After a few minutes, she found herself in a room with... something. Jan's eyes widened, and she flew in for a closer look. Nope, she wasn't seeing things. "Um, guys... I think I found what we're looking for. They've got a kid in this tank thing."
Forge paused inside the air vent, looking ahead to where Logan was crouched down at a T-junction. "Wait, there's a kid?" He motioned for Logan to hold up as his goggles showed him a map of the facility, highlighting their location relative to Jan's. Suddenly, things started falling into place.
"Wasp, tell me if you see anything that looks... well, tell me what you're seeing there," he said.
"You know what, I think I need to get a little tiny camera so when I fly around people can see what I see! OK, let's see... well, they're doing something craptastic to him, I'm sure, he's got all of these tubes stuck into him, and it says something here, let me back up a bit..." Jan flew backwards to get further away from the letters. "Neuro," she began, then paused. "Maybe I should just spell it for you. "N, E, U," she began, continuing to spell out the entirely word that, in Jan's very humble opinion, was way too big a word and should not exist.
As Marie listened to Jan spelling, she cursed out loud. "Kick? Legion, tell the team to standby. And then get me the professor if you can." The fact that it was a mutant powering the plant with Kick to boost their powers made a lot of what hadn't made sense before fall into place, though it also complicated the situation. The fact that it looked like he might not even be aware of how they were using his powers didn't help either.
After the Southern girl had updated Xavier, she listened for a moment before sighing and nodding her head. "Ah hate it when the plan changes," she muttered under her breath before re-activating her comm. "Ok guys, Ah just got a little change-a-roo from the prof. This mission is no longer observe and report. It is now a rescue operation. Wasp, Logan, and Caldera, Ah want you to cause a distraction while Legion, Forge, and Ah grab the kid. Logan, you're in charge of keeping an eye on Caldera. Any questions?"
"Rock and roll."
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