xp_logs | There Will Be Peace... Act 3 (Part 1) (Reply)

Backdated to the end of November due to...well, would you believe me if I said- stuff?

Strike Team One: Beast, Angel, Iceman & Hamster attempt to rescue James Keller from a shipping crate in San Fransisco Bay.

The sun bore down upon the ground, allowing Lex to see the thirty-odd men making their rounds of the docks through his binoculars. He calculated how much time it would take to incapacitate them and realized that they would never get to the boy in time. He shuddered slightly, glad that they had planned on using the SHIELD operatives as a diversion. If they could get in there undetected then they would have a good chance getting out with the boy in one piece.

"Beast, you're eyes are sharper than mine, can you see a good way in without us getting seen?" he looked at the men on the roof with him. He couldn't have picked a better team to handle this situation if he'd been given the task. They were all smart and relatively level-headed, which would be essential if things went wrong. When, he corrected himself instinctually, there were too many factors for it to go off without a hitch.

Hank dropped down from the oddly firm down spout he'd been holding onto and landed in an acrobatic crouch as he started sketching shapes into the dirt. "Three men with super-sonic rifles and possibly a fourth with a sniper's nest." Looking up, he started to point out things on the map he'd laid out, "Our adversaries have not changed our topography in any great way, except to block off the Southern entrance to the facility- which means they are expecting our attack to come from there- and since that's where SHIELD will be striking from, all the better. The men on the roof are going to be a problem, though I think...Warren, how are you at bowling?"

"I haven't been bowling in years," Warren said with a little bit of a laugh. "But it's like riding a bike, isn't it? I'm sure I can get back on pretty quickly. And men on roofs happen to be my speciality."

"Splendid!" Hank brushed away the drawing and took a look up at the sun. "Then Angel and I will take care of the people on the roof, Hamster, Iceman, you two make your way to that green shipping container on the docks- the number on the side will be eight-seven-zero-bee-zee, got it?"

Bobby's eyebrow instinctively shot up. "Yo, all I got out of that is that there's a bunch of bad guys out there, the SHIELD Commandos accompanied by help from Angel and Beast are gonna distract them. And me and the jumper cables over here are suppose to grab the kidnapee in the crate." A smirk appeared on his face as he turned back to the group. "Is that the short version of the situation?"

Lex gave him a stern look and then turned back towards the dock. "As long as you remember what's on the side of the crate, then yes, that's the short version of it." Lex had memorized the number as soon as it had been passed on to him. There was a kid out there, scared and alone, and he was not going to let anything stop him from getting him out of harm's way. Looking at his watch, he counted down the time. "We go in 1 unless one of the other groups calls it off."

Suddenly a small explosion rocked the gate of the dock, prompting Bobby to whip his head around one more time. "Is that the sign we were looking for?"

"I believe it is." Warren unfurled his wings, a couple of beats and a push getting him airborne. "Let's go bowling," he said with a grin to Hank. "Do you need a lift?"

"I think I'm good." In an instant Bobby had hardened the molecules around his skin, pushing himself into his ice form. His breath now visible, he turned back to his team. "Unless of course you need one Hamster." He added as he pushed himself towards the window.

"I'll take one, actually, just to get me inside the compound," he looked at his three comrades, noting that he was sorely lacking in mobility, "After that, I'll be much better moving under my own power." Not to mention using it to knock some mercenaries on their asses, he thought with an unspeakable rage. He moved towards Angel and prepared to be lifted towards the docks.

"Let's rock and roll," Angel replied, swooping low to pick up Lex, grabbing him under the arms and lifting off. A few careful beats of his wings got both men up and over the fence, Angel setting him down as close as he could get to where Lex needed to be without attracting too much attention.

"Good luck," he said softly before swooping up into the air, heading for the roofs. There were snipers to take care of.

Hank scoffed and prepared to tuck and roll as they neared the flat roof of the warehouse the villains were occupying. "When have we ever had good luck, Angel?" With that, his slightly younger peer released him and he did a series of somersaults across the rooftop with a great deal of stealth. In fact, the first sniper team hadn't even noticed him approach until he landed in a crouch directly next to him. "Gentlemen, I feel obliged to over you a deal- surrender your weapons and no one need be harmed."

The pair of goons gawked at the blue furred monster that had landed next to them for a moment before trying to bring their gun around toward him, away from the soldiers currently exchanging gun-fire with their brothers and sisters at the main gate. Hank shrugged and grabbed the rifle's barrel, giving it a sharp pull and bending it ever so slightly, rendering the fire-arm useless. His muscles strained at the feat, he was strong enough to accomplish it, but no where near young enough to get away with it unscathed. He knew it would only be a matter of time before he wasn't needed in the field any longer. With a sigh, Hank spun around and landed an elbow jab against the side of the sniper's head, knocking the boy out cold immediately. The other goon turned to run, but tripped over the small barrier of sandbags that they'd built up around them, taking a tumble off the side of the building- Hank barely caught him by the heel of his boot and began to pull him up when the first shot exploded a sandbag next to his head. "Angel, the other team if you please!" he shouted, hoisting the unconscious boy into the safety of the every shrinking bunker.

Once Angel had deposited his load, he'd swept off immediately, targeting the other group of snipers. He'd given them very little time to react, kicking one of them off their perch on his first pass, dodging away fast to avoid any retaliation from the second sniper.

He was harder to take out - aware now, of being attacked, he watched the skies, rifle trained as he craned to listen for the beat of Angel's wings. But the gunfire around the place was louder than Angel, as he landed silently on the roof, wings folding against his back as he crept up behind the wary sniper. Somewhat unfortunately for Angel, he turned just at the last moment, and what could have been a simple clobbering from behind turned into a fierce battle for the rifle, Angel clamping his hands down on it to yank it out of his hands.

The struggle eventually sent them over the edge, Angel quickly spreading his wings to catch them as they plummeted to the ground. A few scant feet from the ground, he shook off the sniper, the other man letting go of his weapon before crashing to the ground. Angel looked at the rifle for a few moments before sweeping up towards the sky, dumping it on an empty roof before maneuvering to find Hank.

"Done and dusted, Beast."

Bobby, still in his ice form was skating forward on his freshly formed ice chute. He continued to swerve from side to side in spite of the lessening gun fire all around him, still aware that there could be a baddie waiting just around the corner, but for now, the pathway to his and Lex's mark seemed to be a straight shot. He raised his voice above the sound of the forming, crackling ice for his partner to hear it. "I think we've got a straight shot Hamster. I've got you covered."

"Thanks, Iceman," Lex called as he bolted from cover. He still didn't like not having a gun, but he realized his powers were more versatile when they functioned properly. They would have to now, a kid's life was at stake. There was plenty of cover between him and the shipping container, and he made the most of it, dodging around crates and ice flows to keep out of the line of fire.

A man with an uzi stepped out in front of him, gun leveled.

Without thinking he put his hands forward and shot an arc of electricity through the weapon and ducked to the side. The gun went off, the powder ignited by his charge, and he ran through his shoulder through the man's gut. "Excuse me, but you're in my way."

Bobby arched his chute downward, landing just in front of Lex and next to the crate. "I would have gone with freezing the barrel, but nice touch." Freezing the lock on the front of the crate, Bobby turned his head to the side as his elbow smashed the lock off the front. "You might want to be the one to open 'er up. A face of ice isn't exactly the most calming one, ya know?"

"If you say so, I don't think anything will be calming at this point." Lex lifted the latch and slid it to the side, opening the door to the container. "Kid, we're here to help. Don't freak out, but I'm going to have to come in to get you out."

Without waiting for a response he slid into the crate, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. Halfway down he could see a relatively small figure hunched over a blinking red box. As his eyesight grew sharper in the dim haze he realized what it was and instinctively took a step forward. The muffled cry from the kid made him stop dead in his tracks. Well, I'll be damned. What kind of sick, sadistic bastard would strap a kid to a bomb?

"Bobby, I'm going to need your help. The Keller's son is strapped to a bomb, if you can freeze it I can wipe out the circuits and we can get him out of there safely. Do you think you can hit the detonator from here without giving the boy frostbite?" He kept his voice low and level, the last thing he wanted to do was terrify the kid even more.

Bobby wrapped his hands around the top of the crate as he slid himself into the crate. "Please, I could make it snow just over your head." To be honest, Bobby had to swallow a large lump in his throat. A year off looking over books in Europe hadn't exactly given him confidence in controlling his powers, but he'd never show that to a teammate, and would do absolutely everything he could to hide the truth from a kid. Despite his icy exterior, Drake flashed a warm smile at the child in question. "Don't worry kiddo, we're gonna have you out of here in a flash."

Closing his eyes, he began to harden the molecules around the bomb. As the ice formed over the top, Drake opened his eyes to make sure that the crackling didn't get too close to the boy. As the tiny Keller's breath began to show through the coldness of the air, Bobby dropped his arms, and stopped the freezing act. Slowly he clapped his hand onto Lex's shoulder. "You get to your thing, and I'll call us a cab."

Turning his back to the bomb, Bobby walked to lip of the crate, bending over and turning his face to the communicator at the top of his collar. "Oh Angel, we're gonna need a pick-up for three down here."

"Hope you boys have been spending plenty of time at the gym," Angel quipped in response, not long before he appeared over the three waiting figures. "If either of you have been eating too much of Lorna's cooking, I'm not responsible for the repurcussions." He landed at the door to the container, the serious expression on his face belying his joking tones over the communicators.

"Let's get moving, shall we?" There weren't any guards lurking close by, he'd checked, but he didn't want to hang around long enough for more to appear.

"Agreed," Lex moved towards the boy and handed him a harness. "This is Hamster, we have the package and we're coming home." He was glad that they were able to save the boy and glad that they hadn't run into anything that his powers couldn't handle. He'd have to get back into the Danger Room for some intense training as soon as they got back.

*****

Strike Team Two: Wildchild, M, Wallflower & Boom-Boom attempt to rescue Elizabeth Keller from a mine shaft in Eastern California.

Laurie adjusted the miner's helmet she was wearing and turned on the lamp as she looked at the entrance of the mine. She was just glad that she suffered from neither claustrophobia nor nyctophobia, or she would have had a very hard time doing this at all.

"Is everybody ready?" she asked, looking back at her companions.

Tabs thought the dual mag-light wield might be a little overboard, but nobody really wanted bombs underground. The heavy flashlights felt a little like a security blanket. She nodded. "The rest of you?"

"Blind from your flashlight but I'll adjust." Kyle would've been okay with just a penlight, but he was the only one so he wasn't gonna complain much but that light was damn bright. "Echoes aren't too bad in here, but try to keep things quiet just in case. Don't whisper though, the hissing'll make it worse than if you just talk." He glanced up at the low (for him) ceiling of the mine they were entering and snorted. "This gets any lower, I'm gonna be on all fours and I swear anyone takes pictures I will eat your cameras."

They were being watched. The camera set up was complete, there wasn't a corner of the mine he couldn't see and therefore touch somehow, "We got company," he said to the two who stood behind him, "What do you say we make it interesting?"

"Let's lead 'em on a bit first," Ramona said, leaning over the control panel, "We're fuckin' bored. A li'l excitement is a good thing."

"Go wit her," Randal said, leaning against a wall, "Better then goin' against."

"Lady's choice then," Dennis said, cracking his knuckles, "Just say when."

Kyle stopped every so often to listen. Even with the echoes, his hearing was their biggest tool in trying to find the people they were looking for. It was harder to track someone by scent when he didn't know the person, so he wasn't relying on his nose at all. "Yo, M, can you hover? I think I'm getting something but it's hard to figure out and cutting out a set of footsteps might help."

Monet nodded. "Sure," she said, obidiently floating slighlty above the mine floor and holding an arm out to Tabs. "I'll carry you as well, okay?" she offered. In that moment she had before Tabs might take up her offer, she dropped her shields. Here, right on top of her, were three presences, loud and overwhelming in their closeness but also familar so she could block them out. In the distance, far enough away that she couldn't get individual thoughts were ...more presences. "I think the mine shaft must bend a bit? There's something there that's not too far off in a straight line but if you can't hardly hear them, it's got to wind back and forward a bit, right?"

"Mine shafts depend on the surrounding rock structure normally," Laurie confirmed, having done a bit of light study when told where they'd be going. "Can you hear anything about what they're thinking?"

"Fucking no. I just know they're there."

"Hey, walking wikipedia, when's the last time anybody used this mine for mine stuff? I might actually have a scent trail but if there's been people here..." Kyle had crouched low to the ground, trying to hear, and had caught what was unmistakably the smell of people.

"At least three years," Laurie noted, remembering what she'd read on this particular mine. It had ceased to be a productive resource for the mine's owners and despite local protest they had shut it down. It had recently been resold, but there had been no official work begun yet as far as she remembered.

"What do you think we should do?" Laurie asked, looking to Tabitha as one of the senior X-men. Apart from Kyle, she was the longest serving X-man amongst their group.

Tabs took Monet's hand to get her own footsteps up off the floor. "Let Kyle's beautiful nose work its magic and proceed with cautioun," she said. "Pay attention to where you step and keep an eye on the ceiling."

"Say wha?" Kyle's question was cut off by his yelp as he hit the ground hard as the mine walls shook suddenly. "Fuck! Wallflower, tell me this isn't an earthquake area!" Except that he could very clearly see that the shaking was from the tunnel rearranging itself, and wasn't the familiar rumble of a tremor. Living with Julio had been -very- educational in that way. "Pair up! We do not need to be separated right now!"

Tabitha practically climbed Monet for a purchase on something solid. "Someone's doing this, find them!" Her eyes struggled to keep up with the changing scenery.

Monet dragged Tabs through the shifting tunnels, now close enough to get a fix on the folk they were after when the tunnel closed up in front of her. She could hear them. They were on the other side of the damn wall. She began hitting it, careful, precise strikes that made her knuckles ache. "They're in there!"

"Fuck." Kyle growled. "Can you two get through the wall? How far back should Wallflower and I go if there's gonna be bombs?" He really needed to train more with Tabitha, Kyle thought. "I am already sick of this asshole with the earth powers. How the hell does he even know how to do this right where we are?"

Laurie wondered that herself, and looked about as she slowly let her power loose, pumping out a low dose of adrenalin in order to sharpen her team-mates senses and response times.

"Power up," she murmured to give them fair warning, and then spotted what looked like a flash of light in the glare of her torchlight and then realised it was a camera lens when she moved back over it. "It looks like they've got surveillance cameras, Kyle. Boom-boom, can you take them out?"

"Need a boost!" Tabitha formed a different kind of bomb. It was rather odd to be doing something beyond flash-bangs, almost thrilling.

Monet caught her around the waist, lifting her toward the cameras. "Stick a bomb into some of those cracks I've made in the walls, too, okay?"

The cracks suddenly sealed up and a wave of earth began rolling toward Tabitha as she tried to find somewhere to put the tiny bomb. Close by, Dennis watched the chaos unfold through the monitors, focusing his efforts on the two women as he quickly closed off a wall between the two pairs.

"Not bad," the female twin said, "keep them busy while I go find a cell signal to let Gordon give us permission to kill this bitch." She pointed to the woman who was gagged and bound by her wrists by chain, dangling over a cavernous drop.

The subsonic noises made by the shifting earth made all the hair on Kyle's neck and arms stand up. Now that he knew what it was, it wasn't hard to anticipate. He lunged, grabbing Tabitha by the waist and rolled with her, pulling her away from the wave. Despite the attempt, the wave crashed over them, breaking into a hail of dirt and pebbles. Kyle sat up, spitting dirt and expletives. "No more fucking around. M, just punch the damn camera!"

Because, hey, attempting to kick down a wall wasn't enough? Jesus, what did he fucking want? Monet shot into the air, grabbing the camera and pulling it from the wall. She crushed it in one hand, dragging the wiring it was attached to from the wall with the other and swearing as she saw what was left of the wall crumble away in front of her, the presences she'd been tracking visible in the clearing dust. ~Wildchild, Wallflower, get the tunnel dude. Meltdown and I'll take the twins!~ she sent, dropping to a crouch.

The raggedly dressed and unkempt form of Dennis was the first through the new gap in the cave as he rode another wave of loose dirt toward the group of heroes. Close on his heels the twins emerged, heading for Kyle. "Denny, take the flying one, we've got the others," Randal shouted over the cacophony currently in the cave.

"How do you want to do this?" Laurie asked, touching Kyle on the arm to give him an extra boost of adrenilin while she was at it. "I was thinking, you bail him up and I put him down?"

Tabitha jumped back to her feet and charged straight at the woman, following Monet's prompt. She still had an undetonated bomb and it seemed these people wanted to play rough. She was all too happy to oblige.

Dennis quickly closed the gap between himself and the two heroes, recklessly sending a tiny stalagmite at them from the ceiling. Randal was closing in on the flying mutant as she hovered off the ground a few feet from the woman with the glowing orb in her hand. Ramona balked at their movement, "What are you doing?!"

Randal rolled his eyes and turned toward her for a moment too long, "You're not in charge here, sis."

"I believe you've all made a dire mistake if you think any of you are currently in charge here," Laurie noted, moving away from Kyle and toward the woman who appeared to think she was the leader. She let the simple adrenilin she'd been pumping out mix with other flight or fight hormones, seeking to send their foes into an unstable condition that could only help her companions. "If you'd simply surrender without too much fuss, it would be better for the lot of you."

Romona narrowed her eyes and lunged forward at Laurie screaming, almost unintelligibly, "Fuck you, bitch!"

"Fuck you too, bitch," Monet snarled, dodging around Romona toward the guy she'd already tagged as her own. She wanted this *over*.

Ramona swung at thin air as Monet dodged her, hitting the solid cave wall and howling in pain. Behind her, Dennis was flying through the air toward Kyle as spikes of solid earth launched down from the ceiling.

Kyle managed the dodge the spikes, though not by much and he could tell he'd be sporting some bruises and scrapes from where smaller pieces had hit his shoulders and back. But Laurie's boost had pushed the endorphins in his system enough that pain was the last thing on his mind. Foremost was his want to punch all three of these jerks in the mouth, but he'd settle for the one who was heading his way and knee jabs to the guy's stomach. That was satisfying and effective.

Monet grabbed the guy nearest to Kyle and swung him across to the X-Man on catching that thought before grappling with the one she'd targeted. He seemed to have some sort of psi power and she could feel it with the physical contact. Crap. She spared a moment to putting up the thickest shields she could and prayed they'd hold.

Tabitha swung her mag-light straight at the back of Monet's thug's head. The bomb went to waste, reabsorbed, but two feet of steel and D-cell batteries made their own impact.

Dennis hit the ground like a sack of potatoes...then the cave around them started to shake, cracks forming in the walls around them.

“What in the hell is this?” Laurie yelled, falling to her knees amidst the shaking and rolling earth beneath her feet. “Tell me we’re not about to be buried in a cave-in!”

Monet dropped to her knees beside Dennis, placing her hands on his head. Matter manipulators, she'd learned, always had this innate sense of what the matter they were manipulating could do. Biting her lip, eyes crossed in concentration and a headache spiking behind her eyes, she rifled through his short-term memory. "Not yet. But soon." She found another memory and gasped. "We need to run. This isn't stable without him." Monet hurled him over her shoulder in a fireman's carry, catching up one of the others around his waist. "We gotta run. Now!"

"Fuck. Keller's mom. Wallflower?" Kyle glanced through the crumbled wall to where the older woman hung. "Chains. Shit. M, you and Wallflower are gonna have to get her. If she needs first aid..." He kicked the geokinetic in the ribs lightly. "Get your ass up. If this mine collapses before we have her... " The flash of fang and claw sealed the threat. It was empty, but the point was that only Kyle knew that.

Monet caught Laurie around the waist, holding the other woman against her as she flew through the tunnels toward Keller's mother, homing in on the presence, just as she had earlier with the kidnappers. Elizabeth Keller was chained to a wall, bruises visible on her face. "Liz? I'm M and this is Wallflower. We're X-Men and we're gonna get you out of here, okay? It's all going to be okay, love."

She pulled the chains from the wall but didn't bother to unchain Elizabeth. That could wait.

Laurie immediately went into what she was sure her teammates called her 'obnoxious doctoring' mode. She eyeballed Elizabeth Keller, looking for the more obvious signs of injury first. The way she was holding her arms and shoulders told her a lot about their possible condition, dislocated shoulders were a possibility, maybe torn rotator cuffs. She reached for Elizabeth's wrists and manipulated them gently, aware of the fact that they didn't have much time.

She needed to make sure of the initial level of damage to Julian's mother before they tried to move her any further however. Groans met the movement of badly bruised looking wrists and Laurie filed away another series of diagnosis to share with Jean and Hank.

"Okay, Mrs Keller, I'm going to put you to sleep now, and we're going to get you out of here. I promise you that this won't hurt a bit."

Laurie reached forward and brushed a gentle hand over the woman's face, catching her as she slumped backwards before slinging her arm across her neck and then hoisting her upwards across her shoulders in a fireman's carry. It was awkward, and if Laurie had been any shorter it might have been impossible but she managed it.

"M, get the others, I've got Mrs Keller," Laurie noted, heading for the exit at a slow run, hampered by the movement of the floor and the dust being kicked up from the seismic activity. What she wouldn't give to have Julio here right now, they'd never have had this problem if he'd been around to stem the tremors.

"Okay." Monet turned and ran. She threw one of the kidnappers over her shoulder and caught one of the others around her waist. "Wildchild, can you and Meltdown manage the third one? We've got to run!"

"Fuck me sideways. Kyle pulled the third into a fireman's carry, not caring if he was the opposite of gentle. "Wallflower, I may need a boost. You tapped out?" He didn't wait to hear her answer, he was already jogging out, a few steps behind Tabitha. "Go! Go go go!"