xp_logs | Jailbreak - Prison Team

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Back at the prison, Clarice, Laurie and Crystal plan to assist medically. The best-laid plans, however...

Desks had been pushed back against walls, and chairs removed, what had once been a fairly standard office had been turned into a war ready room. A large table took up pride of place in the center of the room, a thin sheet of interactive technology that was currently serving as a map of the facility lay stretched out across it.

Laurie leaned against the wall closest to the door, listening to Clarice and Nick Fury talking quietly about the situation in the prison that lay underneath where they stood. She glanced over at Buttercup, wondering just what sort of injuries they'd have to face, from what Fury was saying, the riot was still going on.

Crystal didn't notice that Laurie was looking at her; she was too engrossed in listeing to the current discussion. While she had been out with the X-Men before, this was her first time going on a mission with them as an actual member of the team, even if she was still a new trainee. The other times, she had been "recruited" for her powers; this time, she was acting as medical personnel, which was exactly what she had wanted.

"...and we'll deploy squad delta to the east wing on the fourth sub-level. That just leaves..." Fury pointed at the map, "the fifth sub-level. It's where we keep the more...interesting inmates and there hasn't been word one from any guards, so we need to assume the asylum's being run by the inmates by now." He sighed and ran a hand across his damp scalp, the heat problem wasn't going to be fixed anytime soon and he was already down to his most basic kit. "My squad will start clearing things out on the west wing; think yours can take the east?"

She nodded, following where he was pointing, "We can," she agreed, "We're here for medical like we discussed," she indicated the backpacks each girl would be carrying in addition to their standard equipment. "I'm a distance hitter and Buttercup and Discharge are trainees," suddenly, she realized how the other X-Men had felt when she was a trainee going by Tinky Winky. Discharge was a truly terrible name. "None of us are really heavy hitters if things get rocky."

"Hmmm," Fury thought, looking around at his remaining troopers. "I was gunna have one team stay back here, but if you're just here for medical, I'll send them with." He tapped the speaker in his ear, activating the microphone on the shoulder-strap of his harness. "Alpha team, when you get this floor returned to order you are to fall back here and secure this command point, copy?" Short staffed, but the cavalry was already on the way- this would be a tighter win than he was used to.

"Alright, all teams, move out." Fury began to roll up the paper thin lcd display, handing it to one of his personal troopers, still in full kit.

Laurie stood to attention from the wall she'd been leaning against and grabbed one of the medical packs, before handing the others to Clarice and Crystal. They were heavy, but they hadn't been sure what to expect injuries wise, and it seemed better to overpack then to be lacking something needed.

"What sort of things do you think we'll be facing?" she asked Clarice, looking aside as one of Nick Fury's SHIELD agents fell into step with them as they walked down the hall.

Hefting the back onto her shoulders, Clarice untied and then retied her hair back more securely, "One of two things, most likely," she replied, "Chaos, where the inmates are running things, but there's no defined leader. Or control, where the inmates are running things and there is a leader. Both are dangerous in different ways and lead to different injuries," she paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "It's easier and safer to treat the injured in the second scenario...but in it the guards are more than likely already dead. So...expect contusions, abrasions, asthma or breathing difficulties, shock....the usual. Air goes in and out, blood goes around and around."

Crystal matched the pace of the others and allowed the full weight of her pack to rest on her shoulders and back. While she was prepared to give non-powered medical aid, her powers could be quite helpful in this situation as well, and it seemed far more prudent to conserve her energy than to waste it on lightening her load when she was perfectly capable of bearing the weight.

One of the SHIELD agents matched pace beside her, "Let me help you with that, ma'am." Before she could respond, the rather muscular man picked one of the stuff sacks off her pack and slung it over his shoulder with little effort. He gave her a smile and extended a hand, "I'm Agent Hicks," he said with a slight southern drawl, which seemed to have been forcibly masked through years of practice.

Crystal shook the man's hand. "Buttercup," she replied, giving the agent her trainee name matter-of-factly. It hadn't been her first choice, but it certainly wasn't as bad as Laurie's. For a brief moment, she wondered if and why she had been singled out for help, but mentally shrugged it off. In her new leather outfit, with her currently black hair pinned up and large dark glasses masking her eyes and part of her face, she certainly didn't resemble herself as she usually appeared in public photos.

"Alright kids," Clarice checked Laurie's pack and then Crystal's, taking her role as senior X-Man seriously. She wore blacks, they were both in grays. "Ready or not, here we come," she said as they headed down the halls towards the stairs that would take them down to the fifth sub-level. Elevators would not be a good idea in this situation.

Hicks stopped short and slapped a clip of tranquilizer bullets into his rifle and pistols. "Remember, non-lethal counter-measures only, unless you get the order from me sayin' otherwise- understand?!" He was speaking to his men who were also re-purposing their ordinance.

Without waiting for a response, the Agent nodded, "Alright, my squad will take point, give us a few moments and then follow down and to the left, questions?" He looked to the pink X-woman with the black command level leathers.

"X-Men don't kill, Hicks," she stated levelly in a voice that brooked no argument. She couldn't remember if he had worked with them before, he knew this, or should have, but it didn't hurt to reiterate it now for everyone. Giving a short nod to his orders she let the rest of his squad move forward before she followed with Crystal and Laurie.

It wasn't long after entering the fifth sub-level that they saw their first causalities, Laurie looked at Clarice for permission, and then moved to the first one and feeling for a pulse...nothing, the man was most definitely dead, and the state of his limbs suggested he'd been that way for at least an hour.

"Dead," Laurie said matter of factly, and moved to the next one, even as Clarice and Crystal moved out as well.

Kneeling down Clarice moved the body she had carefully, looking for a pulse. It was hard to tell from how he lay if the blood was his or someone elses. As he rolled, Clarice wrinkled her nose. Definitely his...and it was difficult to have a pulse with no face. Or throat. Sighing, she stood, "Dead. Yours, Buttercup?" she asked. This was not looking good.

Crystal nodded, then spoke out loud. "Yes, he is dead." None of the bodies on the floor were breathing, and her check had revealed a lack of pulse as well. "None of these men have drawn breath for quite some time, and whoever is responsible for these deaths appears to have chosen to bring about their ends in a horrific manner."

"Wait," Laurie said, noticing a slight flutter against her fingertips as she felt for the pulse of a woman a short distance away, removed from the others behind a slight corner. It was a light pulse, almost non existant, but it was a pulse. "Blink, Buttercup, I think I've got a live one but she's not breathing."

Agent Hicks was keeping his head down with his rifle pointed down the corridor as he backpedaled toward the medical team. "We need a medic up ahead," he said, falling to a knee next to the pink elf. "Something big came out of nowhere up there- this damn low-light is making it impossible to see without nightvision and it took almost all our tranqs to get this thing subdued." Checking his weapon back into single shot mode, he continued, "Took down one of my guys before we could get it though- we could use a hand up ahead."

"Laurie, fix it," she said, watching as the younger girl already began CPR, "Someone stay with her," she said to the soldiers with them, "Buttercup and I will keep going. I want everyone to stay in contact, got me?" she said, waiting for some sort of acknowledgement that Laurie had heard her.

"Got it, I'll let you know and catch up once this is done." Laurie replied, glancing up at Clarice briefly and then going back to her CPR, with the heart still beating it was more a case of getting her breathing then actually bringing someone 'back to life', so to speak. It was possible that once they were done, the woman might even be able to answer some questions about what had been going on down here.

Rifle at the ready, Hicks moved forward slowly, stopping every ten or so feet to take a moment and listen. At that rate it took precious time to get back to his squad, but they were better off being safe than sorry. A couple minutes later and they met up with a sentry who had been laying out on the floor like another victim. "How's Andersen doing, Rogers?" Hicks asked in a strictly business tone. Rogers prattled off something in SHIELD-ese before the foursome reached the victim. A short distance away, a large creature lay reposed on the floor; Hicks quickly moved toward the two soldiers inspecting the thing.

Knowing that Blink was capable of treating the injured man, and not wishing to crowd her, Crystal followed Hicks and stood near him and the other standing soldiers. She turned her attention to the other prone figure on the floor, frowning slightly as she took in its appearance. She had assumed that it would be one of the "more interesting inmates" that Fury had mentioned earlier, but this... this was not a visible mutant, as she had expected. Whatever it was, it wasn't breathing, and didn't even appear capable of breathing. Keeping an eye on it, Crystal asked, "Was anyone else injured? Do you know what this is?"

"Just Andersen," Hicks said, scrolling through a PDA like device. "This isn't a prisoner- at least not one of the roster," not that SHIELD kept any off-the-record prisoners. "SO, that begs the question...who...and what, is this thing?"

Clarice headed to Andersen, shrugging her backpack off as she got to work on him. Crystal and Laurie were both medic-trained, but neither were actually licensed EMTs. She was. Opening her pack up, she got to work. EMTs weren't doctors, they didn't diagnose, they worked to keep a patient alive and as stable as possible until they could get to a doctor and that is exactly what she did, efficiently snapping blue latex gloves over her hands as she cut his shirt away. "Buttercup!" she called, "Need a hand here!"

There was nothing Crystal could do about the unidentified lump on the floor, and at the moment it seemed to be harmless. Without looking back, she hurried over to Clarice and the injured soldier to see what help she could offer. If anyone (or anything) else tried to harm someone, they would worry about it then, and they did have SHIELD agents to help there as well. All of Crystal's attention was focused on Blink, Anderson, and trying to help.

One of the other soldiers moved over toward them, shining a powerful flashlight down onto Andersen to aide the pair of them as they swiftly moved to stabalize the fallen soldier. Hicks was still fiddling with his palm device, scanning the profiles of inmates to see who may have been able to summon, create or mold something like this. Finally, he said, "We've got a couple options for big, dumb and ugly over here. Could've been made by Robert Alan Fielder, AyKayAy, Masque; or Josephine Sarcina, AyKayAy Infectia." A sudden thud at the end of the hallway brought all the soldiers to the ready position. "Shit," Hicks swore, "it's another one."

Clarice's radio crackled to life as Hicks noted the new enemy, Laurie's voice sounding slightly far away coming out of the small device. "I couldn't save her, something was done to her, they're not sure what yet. She just never seemed able to breathe. SHIELD has picked up the bodies, and I'm heading back to your position now."

Clarice didn't look up, the soldiers were there to protect her and her girls, "Roger, Discharge. Be careful, we've got potential baddies," she replied, still working on Andersen. It was a race against time and they were losing. Even teleporting him to a hospital would only buy him minutes, "I'm familiar with both," she said regarding Masque and Infectia, "both by rep more than directly. Both are bad news regardless," she sighed, pulling bloody gloves off and glancing at the digital watch she wore underneath. "Dead," she said, memorizing the time. She couldn't legally pronounce, but she could give it to the doctor at least.

Dead. The word resounded in Crystal's mind. She'd come here to help, and so far they just kept finding people who were already dead or close enough to death where saving them was impossible. Her mind turned back to a scene that had taken place years ago, one with a snowstorm and a car accident and Nathan. While it was tempting, she knew it would be futile to use on people who would die anyway. She needed to save her ability to help people breathe for people who could be saved.

Laurie appeared several feet up the hallway, a shambling humanoid creature between herself and her team. She studied it for a moment, noting the molded look to the body, as if someone had taken clay and shaped it into a body but how was that possible? It didn't seem to be moving terribly fast, and Laurie remembered the training Logan and Yvette had given her about stealth.

She placed one foot delicately in front of the other, quietly moving toward the creature, even as she looked beyond it to her team. Hopefully Clarice would have some ideas once Laurie could get to them.

Staying very still, Clarice watched Laurie as she tried to make her way past that...thing. It was tempting to just throw up a teleportation disc in front of her, let her teleport over or to teleport that thing somewhere else, but what was it? If it was an inmate or a person they needed to save it. Stop it. Something other than destroy it out of hand.

Crystal followed Clarice's gaze, taking note of the creature blocking Laurie from rejoining them. "It is not alive," Crystal said quietly, after examining the slow-moving human shape. "At least, not in the sense of being alive as we know it. It may be moving, and perhaps it was a person at one point in its existence, but now there is no breath of life in it. Whether or not it can be helped now, I do not know, but I can tell that it is... not right. The way it moves, the very air around it, is wrong."

"Roger that, ma'am," Hicks said in a business like tone, his squad inching forward toward the thing. "Authorized use of full force on the tanks, fire once our consultant gets clear." The men and women of the squad quickly switched out their magazines and slapped clips of very real bullets into their proper places. They all took careful aim, waiting for Laurie to get out of their line of fire.

Laurie watched the creature as she slipped around it, it was when it turned to face her that she almost tripped over...it had no face. No face at all, just a blank, smooth mask where a face should have been. How it could be walking around, how it could be doing anything at all other then simply lying on the ground, an inert husk she couldn't know. It seemed to sense her in some way though, and its hand reached for her as she slipped by with a slight spin to keep herself out of grabbing range.

Once she was past, she took off at a run for the other end of the corridor and her fellow team-members.

"It isn't...I don't know how it's moving, but it's not human," she called to Hicks and the others, glancing back behind her only once as she ran. That blank, formless mask would be visiting her in nightmares very soon, she could tell.

"We know," Clarice said, patting Laurie on the shoulder. She had done well. Clarice could see it didn't move right, and she couldn't see any breathing, but from here she had no idea if it was actually breathing or not. There was a difference there. She hadn't been up close like Laurie or having the same abilities as Crystal, but she trusted their judgment. "They're going to take care of it," she said, her voice steadier than the pit in her stomach .She wanted to say no, that there might be a person inside it, that there might be a chance, but she couldn't. Not right now, not in this situation. She just hoped that she was not condemning an innocent person.

"She's clear, fire at will," Hicks ordered. As if they were a single unified organism, the soldier's rifles began emptying round after round into the beast, quickly blasting pieces off of it like putty. Finally, only yards away, the creature collapsed to the floor and began to melt into a puddle of reddish, visceral goop. The soldiers reloaded quickly, "Davis, Jackson go confirm the kill, we're not taking any chances down here," Hicks barked. "Reload, we're moving out!"

Once the creature lost its humanoid shape, Crystal relaxed a bit inwardly. More than seeing the creature move wrong, she had felt it. The moving, unbreathing creature had made her feel on edge, and now that it was reduced to a pile of glop on the floor, that feeling of wrongness was no longer there. "Whoever you were once, rest in peace now," she whispered.

Laurie placed a hand on Crystal's shoulder, squeezing once before she watched SHIELD moving out in front of them. "I was thinking maybe we could try keeping them away. If they have any human insides left at all, I should be able to use my powers to make them not want to come near, but I'd need your help to cover us all."

The idea of facing these distorted, once-living, moving human-shaped-being did not please Crystal but she merely nodded to Laurie. She knew that while it might appear that Laurie was capable of altering emotions, her pheromones actually had a physical effect, which is what brought about the changes in the way people felt and acted when they were affected by Laurie's abilities. "I will help spread your pheromones, Discharge," Crystal told her fellow trainee. "Perhaps if they are directed at a particular target they will be more effective. I would like to think that there is hope for some of these altered beings, that whatever was done to them can be reversed, but it is also hard to imagine what pain and anguish they must be going through if they have actually retained thoughts, feelings, and memories. However, if they are at the point where they will not respond to your power, I will make sure that they are unable to come close to us."

Crystal needed to think less, Clarice thought. Or at least. not point out that these creatures might be human inside and in pain. It was so much easier to stop them when she didn't think of them as human. "Try it," she agreed, "And if not...we blast them to kingdom come. Or we slice and dice Blink style. Regardless...." she trailed off. X-Men didn't kill she'd said, so then what was this? Were these human? Or just golem? She wished she knew.

Laurie nodded, and then concentrated for a minute, thinking about what exactly it was she wanted to do. Not fear, she didn't think these creatures had the physical capabilities of fear, but sleep perhaps, or paralysis. That one, that was what she needed to do, lock down their lower bodies so that they couldn't move, she just hoped it worked.

Having decided, she concentrated, removing the mental blocks she normally placed on her power and bringing to mind the particular hormone she wanted. It was harder then emotion, harder then simply putting someone to sleep. She'd never really tried inducing single hormone interactions outside the Danger Room before, and she glanced over at Hicks for a second.

"I'll need one of your men to help me along, I can't do this and watch where I'm going at the same time. Tell them not to touch me without gloves on, and just make sure I don't walk into any walls."

Hicks said nothing in response, but made a nodding gesture toward one of his female troops who hurried over. "Tieger, watch her, protect her but don't touch her, got it?" The soldier saluted and took up position by Laurie. Hicks turned his attention to Clarice. "My troops and I can try to hold here until backup arrives or we can go in on point to finish our sweep; either way, it's your call, ma'am."

Thinking for a moment, Clarice watched Laurie and then looked over at Crystal, both girls seemed alright given everything. "Finish the sweep," she said to Hicks lowly, "even if all we find are more dead, at least we'll know. I would hate to think there is someone we could save that we didn't. Anyways, my powers at least aren't solely defensive if it comes to that. I just can't incapacitate very well, it's all or nothing. Or strategic retreat," In case things got really bad.

Laurie was almost glad for her distracted levels of concentration when they came across the first abomination. It was a hallway, what should have been just a length of concrete connecting one place to another. Instead it pulsed with corrupted life, flesh stretched out along it's confines in ropey, viscous strands. She couldn't tell what was keeping it living, although the mass of veins and flesh stretched out might have hidden any number of organs.

The worst of it wasn't that they had to walk through the place, to hear the pulse of blood and the subtle gurgle of whatever passed for breathing of this thing. No, the very worst was the head, recognisably human and still possibly alive, although its eyes were not open. It hung in the centre mass, just above their heads, almost as if someone had thought it a pretty decoration for their obscene art.

"I have a feeling that we're getting closer," Laurie whispered, and then redoubled her efforts with her powers, losing herself amongst the complexities of her gift in order not to have to see what was around her.

This was even more horrible than the non-breathing drones, Crystal thought to herself. While they had retained a humanoid shape, they had not truly been alive. This abomination should have been dead and yet it was clear to anyone that it was stillalive. Yet, while it might have been possible for everyone in the group to wonder about saving the lumbering human-shapes, it was not so easy to imagine possible redemption for the various body parts stretched out throughout the hallway. And still, there was a human head connected to it all, and Crystal found her gaze drawn towards it. Does he think? Does he feel? Does he know?

Halfway through the space, the head's eyes opened, staring at them. That was the straw for Clarice, she had had enough. Maybe she was a hypocrite, but so be it. She was not taking this anymore, the idea that these creatures were still alive. Creating a tiny disk she sliced through it all, including the head. Severing it in half lengthwise three times. That would take care of it. Glaring, she dared anyone to question it. That was someone's loved one, and if it was dead, then she hadn't done anything worse than had already happened. If it was alive, then if it were her, she'd be thanking God for putting her out of her misery. "Keep moving," she ordered tersely.

"Yes ma'am," Hicks answered with a nod, motioning the rest of his squad ahead while he stayed behind for a moment. He unhooked the spare canteen on his belt and offered it to Clarice, "You know...my squad could finish their sweep. Judging by the uniform scraps we saw back there...there's going to be more of this sort of thing." He wondered if she'd ever taken a life before- remembering the first time he had, then the second and the rush of faceless adversaries after.

Taking a sip of the water, she nodded gratefully and handed it back. "Yeah, there is," she agreed, keeping her voice pitched to just him, "We have to stop it. Medical...is not secondary," she didn't think they were going to find anyone they could save. Anyone who would want to be.

Crystal hoped they were in time to stop the actions of the two prisoners whose names Hicks had brought up. She only knew a little bit about them, but it was enough to know that they were dangerous, that this was not the first time they had used people as their playthings. They had to be prevented from hurting more people. Maybe there were even people still alive here, people who had been lucky enough to avoid crossing their paths, or even people they hadn't "finished" with, people who might not yet be past the point of no return.

They had been moving for a few more minutes when they started to see more bodies, several stretched out along the hallway as if they'd fallen trying to get away. Looking more closely, Laurie could see limbs were missing but there was no corresponding blood, it was if someone had grabbed play dough and simply pulled until it snapped off. She continued with her pheromone output, the very act of concentration giving her a detachment to the horrors about her that she may not have had otherwise.

She was thankful for that detachment when they came across the room where a body had been...semi-dissected, skin and muscle pulled back from the bones of his legs but still moving, seemingly still breathing and she couldn't understand how he could still be awake but she could hear the whimpering.

There was no question here, these people were still alive, sort of. "Crystal, see what you can do here," she said, surveying the human destruction. She sighed, leadership training was NOT what it was cracked up to be. "Someone stay with her," she added, with a glance at Hicks to assign some people.

With a nod to the consultants, Hicks pointed at Merone and Dixon then to Crystal. The two troopers obediently took up positions on either side of her. Not eager to progresses through the nightmarish catacomb that still lay ahead, Hicks screwed up his courage and sipped a quick drink from his camelback- now almost empty.

The hallway opened into a larger area, perhaps intended for guards or paperwork or something. It didn't matter what its intended purpose was though, it wasn't being used for it. Instead, a body lay spread eagle on a table, unable to move as it was crusted over, almost armored the plates were so large. Blood seeped out between them and Clarice had a terrible thought of a tiling home improvement project gone terribly wrong. A red slit was all that remained of the person's features, whether it was even male or female was negotiable.

"Move," she said, her voice short. This was not at all what she expected in her first time stepping into a leadership position like this.

Laurie was unable to look away for a moment, the horror of what she was seeing freezing her in place. It was only after she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up into Hick's grave gaze that she nodded and continued on. There was absolutely nothing to be done for this person, whoever they had been, whatever their dreams or hopes for the future may have been were gone now. All they could do was move onward, and hope to find the mutant or mutants responsible.

They moved on through several more corridors and rooms, each with its own share of horrors, they encountered no one alive, although they did stumble across a few more walking hulks, one particular gruesome one had had it's head shoved down between its shoulder blades until what was left of it's face peeked out from where it's stomach would normally have sat. They killed those quickly, although perhaps 'exterminate' would have been a better word. What they were facing was not living in the easiest sense of the word, and thus Laurie felt no guilt for having terminated a life. You cut out the cancer, the malignant and vile growths in order to keep the body healthy and allow it to grow whole again.

After several more hours they finally made it to the last room on the floor, and what lay beyond...

Once upon a time it had been the prison hospital. Now no hint of sterility remained. Guards and medical staff had fought back, and their corpses had been piled in the hallway. Some suffered from malformations. Others, having seen what was happening, had clearly turned their guns on themselves.

Despite all its reinforcements the door had been ripped from its hinges, but in its stead someone had stationed a huge creature. The base material was clearly that of a drone -- or rather, three drones. They had been fused together, and then doubly molded to the door frame. They had no eyes, only jaws and teeth, yet they seemed to sense the medical team's approach. Moaning, the mass reached with taloned hands.

They were getting closer when they mass of bodies in front of them began to move and Clarice stopped, indicating that everyone else should too. Use bullets or slice and dice Blink style? She wasn't so cavalier about that anymore. Raising her hands she made several swift discs, removing minuscule amounts of the creatures to opposite sides of the room. Enough that they stopped moving. Dead. She caught Hick's eye, nodding. They needed to get ready, they were getting closer.

A drone stood in the middle of the room, half its body with the consistency of melted wax and clearly unfinished. Bent over a cot a few feet away was a man who could only be Masque, in the process of withdrawing his hand from what had once been a human skull. The victim had been strapped to the cot with his own skin.

The escapee turned towards the intruders. There was no question why he had decided against escape; his left leg was crooked, and his right so swollen beneath his clothing that it must have been difficult enough to walk, let alone run. The sheer mass of tumors on his face made it impossible to read his expression. His hands, perversely, were both completely unmarred.

"The hospital administrator," Masque rasped, his voice lisping but eerily calm. "We were discussing the subjective nature of beauty. Not much of a conversation. No art in his soul."

"Beauty's in the eye of the beer-holder," Clarice replied. Seeing Masque now, so pathetic, right there in front of her....she didn't feel sympathy. She didn't feel anger even at what he had done, though really, she suspected she should. She felt a lot of nothing. "You know we have to stop you. So it's your choice how. Me. Or them," she indicated the guards with her, guns already drawn and ready.

"Just say the word, ma'am," Hicks said dryly. His skin had taken on a greenish tinge upon entering this madman's sick and twisted world- if this was the one responsible...he was having a hard time waiting. He toed the line though, ever the obedient soldier.

"Wait," Laurie said, her eyes catching Masque's as she spoke, looking for something and seemingly not finding it. "Crystal and I can take care of this without any more killing, there's been more then enough of that today."

She turned to Crystal, nodding at her friend as she changed the pheromones she had been emitting from paralysis to sleep. She knew Crystal would know what to do, it had been something they'd done before.

Crystal nodded back. She'd used up a lot of her power helping people stay alive until they could be taken out of the building, but she'd been careful not to use her abilities in senseless ways and she was sure aiding Laurie was something she would still be able to manage at this point.

Concentrating on feeling the air around her and paying attention to the added sleep pheromones within, Crystal sent them directly at Masque, making it impossible for him to escape their effect.

Though he must have known something was happening when the breeze touched his skin, Masque made no attempt to run. His knees buckled as the pheramones took hold. As he slid to the floor his head rose one final time to look Clarice directly in the eye, and the corner of his mouth rose in a smile. Then, quietly, he slipped into unconsciousness.

Crystal and Laurie being able to take Masque down without killing him was....a blessing and not, to Clarice's confused moral compass right now. She stared down at the misshapen body on the floor and nudged it slightly with a booted foot. It didn't respond. Good. "Good job you two," she said to Laurie and Crystal, meaning it. Without them, she didn't have a lot of other options. She was certain the other soldiers were grateful too, but they wouldn't be in a moment. "I'm going to 'port him up to be secured. No sense in anyone touching him. Hicks, can you and your men get these ladies out of here? And...." she looked around at the human destruction, "take care of any survivors?"

Shouldering his rifle, Hicks nodded, waving a couple of his men toward Clarice. "Shouldn't be a problem, mind if I send a couple of mine with you...Fury will have my ass if anything happens to one of you." Without waiting for a response he made another set of hand gestures, telling which of them to stay behind, then started for the door. Four of his troop followed behind him- there was still much work to be done.