xp_logs | Operation: Red Letter Day

X-Force shows up in London to prepare a trap for HYDRA.

Henry Stillwater was not a particularly useful contact. He’d once been a highly placed clerk in Britain’s treasury department – a mix of analyst, policy expert and secretary who had the majority of the UK’s financial planning cross his desk at one point or another. However, since his retirement last year, his access was spectacularly reduced, and now he could only provide tidbits heard from his still employed friends and contacts in the industry. Still, they kept him on retainer for the chance that he could fumble into something useful.

Now the old man was quietly off in a hotel room on the coast, enjoying a free vacation while they took over his home. Henry’s house had two major advantages. The first was that it backed on to a small, wooded park, which offered a number of potential exit points. The second was that it was beside a small, old industrial plant that had been out of business for several years. That gave them three grounds to fight on if needed.

"Doug provided us with as much tech as he could spare." Marie-Ange didn't bother to Which was about as much as they could manage to use between the three of them. Anything truly high-tech was still with Cypher. But low-tech was all they needed for this, really. But first, information.

"Cammie, if you are not feeling too corrosive, there is an antenna on the roof that we could use to intercept cellular transmissions. They are going to tap us, I just want to know how." Marie-Ange pushed a device towards the newest member of X-Force. "Attach this to the antenna, do not worry about being subtle, I want you to be seen." She dug around in the bottom of a duffel bag and came up with a black wig. "Oh, and put this on. You are going to be Jubilee for the next ten minutes."

"Oh, do I get to make sparkles and be way too bright and colorful?" Cammie said, taking the device and the wig, "Looks like someone fucked a dead rat. Is this supposed to fool anyone or can I wear a sign that says 'Obviously not my real hair'?"

"If you want, you can chew bubble-gum." Marie-Ange said tersely. "All I want is a report of a small black-haired woman on the roof. If they are close enough to get details we have more important problems to worry about because it means they have a man on the grounds, and if they have a man on the actual grounds, we are in trouble." They had only just arrived, she was fairly sure no one was actually watching them from the grounds just yet.

"Once I get the wards up, the grounds will be peeping Tom free," Amanda said from where she had a number of markers spread on the table in a pattern. "I'll take a stroll on the garden in a minute, maybe have a chat on my cell about how 'crowded' this place is."

Cammie resisted the urge to fuck with said pattern as she put the wig on, covering up her green braid with a fair amount of ease. The long sleeved shirt she had on also hid her traditional bandages and the discoloration of her left arm. And she supposed she could fake being right handed for a bit. "Fuck gum. I prefer tar, heated to perfection and nice and chewy. But yeah, off I go to toddle along on the roof and pretend to be Captain Sparkles."

"If there is tar on the roof you can chew that." Marie-Ange said dryly. While Cammie was leaving, she maneuvered around the room, setting up laptops and cell phone chargers and other pieces of potentially useful equipment. "Amanda, if you mention anyone specifically, let me know? I have photographs of everyone, I can walk an image around by a window for a few minutes once we know where they are watching us from." She took out a pile of photographs and spread them out on a table. "Oh, you should complain about Jake eating all the cake. He always does..."

"All the cake, and the chocolate, and the bread and whatever else we have. Between him and Captain Sparkles, we tend to have to go grocery shopping twice a day on a stakeout," Amanda replied wryly, passing her hands over the markers a couple of times. "And still we have to order in pizza. These are done - I'll head out and get the wards up now and then come back and do the light timers, okay?"

"Oh, yes, that is clever, we should order in too much pizza." Marie-Ange made a note on a index card that said that very thing. "I have a laptop running Doug's computer game, with one of those water birds to hit the space bar, he says that will keep it from logging him off, that should account for internet usage." Since they certainly couldn't actually try to mimic Cypher's actual download habits. "I just wish I had more actual bodies. Even fake ones."

Cammie came back in, pulling the wig off. In truth the stupid thing was as itchy as hell, "Yeah, about that. Give me some money and we can hit up a sex shop. I won't even buy the goats. Damn cute goats."

"Except when they decide to eat your shoes," Amanda said as she passed Cammie on the way out. "Who's going to be the dressed-up sex doll? Doug?"

Marie-Ange was very obviously holding back laughter as she handed Cammie a roll of bills. "I think they might wonder why Doug had enormous breasts if we did that. Unless they make male dolls, in which case, sure, we can put it in a t-shirt and prop it up in front of a computer and yell at it from time to time."