Lex and Blink | Training on Thursday

[x-lexington.livejournal.com]

Lex and Blink in the DR for a "smash and grab" training mission.


Lex leaned against the wall, his leathers chaffing against his sweaty skin. The mission had seemed simple during the briefing, sneak into a moderately guarded facility and extract the informant without getting killed. Smash and grab. The reality of it was something completely different. As they entered the compound someone had spotted them and tripped the alarm, before Lex could successfully disarm it. The consequences were momentous.

Lights sprang on all over the compound, aiming right at the team.

Then the gunfire started, separating Lex and Blink from the rest of the team. Now, they were pinned down at the south side of the compound with no cover between the wall and the front of the building. Peering over the lip he quickly ducked back as chunks of concrete were thrown about by the heavy caliber machine guns. Well, he thought, I'm not going that way. Turning towards his comrade, he shrugged. "So, what do you think?"

"I think you're going to get your head shot off," she snapped, tugging his uniform so he'd get down under cover with her again. "What'd you see?" she asked, praying that his foolish attempt at getting his head blown off had yielded something useful at least. Her own uniform was filthy and a purple knee poked out between her breeches and boots where her black socks had torn. The bandana she had begun wearing over her hair back before it had begun growing back had been lost somewhere earlier.

"Half a dozen pillboxes, all fixed on our location. I think the rest of the team made it to some cover off to the east, but there is no way we can make it to them." He scooted towards the western edge of the wall. "There's a truck about forty yards out. If I cover you, I think you can make... there's really no other cover between us and those guns." He shrugged, and got himself into a crouching position. He'd almost forgot how much energy one can derive from being shot at, almost.

"Right." well, that was something anyways. Nothing good, but she hadn't asked for good information, "You forget I'm a teleporter. I can get anywhere. The question is, what is the best way to disarm everything?" she asked, taking a handful of pennies out of a pouch on her uniform. Tossing them up in the air a little ways, she let them fall into a teleportation disk in a circle, letting them gain momentum."Ever study Newtons laws?" she asked.

"The best way to disarm them would be simply to get me close enough to take out their lights. If I can overpower the system we should be able to take them out without a problem," he thought about it for second, "as long as we keep out of their firing arcs." If she could teleport them both to the back of the roof they'd be fine. He could disable the lights while the still thought the two of them were pinned, and then he could turn the pillboxes into conduits and shock the troopers inside. Not a perfect plan, but it was workable. "You think you can get us behind them?"

"Sure," she shrugged and let the coins drop before gathering them up again. "No sweat. Say...10 meters that way and a couple stories up?" she said pointing towards the guns. She could do that in her sleep practically. Now if he wanted something in China she'd need more precise coordinates and a picture and things.

"That should do it," he replied, "Do I need to hold on or anything, or are you just going to send us there...?" He looked around, he didn't relish the thought of himself being teleported, as he remembered the scene from Galaxy Quest where the monster was turned inside out. Even so, he knew they didn't have a choice. "Alright, do it."

"You're over thinking things," she replied, opening up two discs automatically and then dropping them a few feet above where the roof was. She landed nimbly like a cat and crept to the edge of the room. "Stupid machines. They think we're still over there."

"Oh, this works." Lex followed Blink's lead, sliding silently to the wall. He was ready to zap the first person who came within sight. He realized he was starting to prefer his powers over firearms, so much more control. "I'll let you take the lead then," he said with a wink. There was no reason he should lead if she was more experienced at this sort of thing.

"Hey, I'm the transport, you're the happy zappy guy," Clarice replied, but she was already making her coins circle again. "I hit high, you hit low?" she asked, eying things. When she got those pennies going they could do some real damage. Serious damage.

"Done." He said moving towards the massive pole that housed the lights. He reached out and felt for a current. When he found it he put his hand against the metal. "Going in three, keep your eyes closed." He counted in his head.

All the lights across the top of the building grew extremely bright for a moment and then burst in unison. With his eyes fairly adjusted to the darkness, hence why he kept them closed, he crept towards the first pillbox. Now came the tricky part. They had to take out each one without alerting the others.

Closing her eyes like instructed, it was still hard to miss the sudden brightness before everything went dark. When she opened them she saw spots and had to wait a moment before her eyes adjusted. Thankfully, she could keep her coins circling while blindfolded, literally. When she could see again, Blink waited until Lex reached his first pillbox and then released the coins, changing their exit from a few inches below where they were falling out of her original portal and to her intended target. At once little pinging noises of metal on metal hit every blaster, denting and warping them.

Lex quirked an eyebrow up in surprise as he heard the sound of pennies rattling inside the pillbox to his left. He almost laughed. It would have sounded like someone rattling a change jar if not for the groaning of warped metal. Reaching out, he touched the door and sent a quick pulse through it. He heard the man inside cry out in agony for a moment before falling limply to the ground. He knew he'd used just enough power to knock him out, and not enough to kill him, so he didn't bother checking vitals.

Move forward, Lex signaled Blink with sign language. He turned away before he got a response and headed to the next pillbox. She could probably take them all out from back there, but he knew that the moment you stopped moving the enemy could pinpoint your position. Not a fun place to be.

Clarice was certainly a long range fighter when it came to her powers, she wasn't bad at hand to hand, but she was no where near great either. She was fairly mediocre really. Her powers did not help her too much in an enclosed area or tight quarters, and killing was not something X-Men did. That was a good thing, because she wasn't a killer. It meant that she needed very accurate intel to operate though, or a long range scope. She'd used both before on different missions, even waiting on the other side of the world until her signal, but training for things up close like this was important for her. She had to be more well rounded.

Nodding, she moved to the next pillbox, teleporting the man inside to the first box she had destroyed with the pennies. The man inside was fine, but he couldn't get out and now he had company. Those boxes were not designed to comfortably hold more than one person.

They moved down the line, each taking one pill box at a time. Blink would knock the poor bastards around, shaking them up her pennies, and then cram them together in one pillbox so they could not escape. Lex would saddle up to the door and send a fairly strong shockwave through the metal. Either way, the soldiers didn't have a chance. Having found their natural rhythm, the pair made quick work of the opposition, and regathered by the light where they originally teleported in.

"Nice work," Lex whispered as he crouched in front of the light. "You ready to move in for the extraction?" He pointed to a hatch nearby as he spoke.

"If we must, we must," she agreed with a grin, these things were way too fun...when she wasn't being shot at. Being shot at was not fun at all. Their teamwork would help them here too - Lex to get the door, Clarice to get the guy out. "On three?"

Counting with his fingers, Lex moved forward and overloaded the keypad with a quick burst of energy. On three he pulled open the hatch, prepared to blast anyone waiting beneath. There was no one there. He smiled as he waved her in, "After you."