The Problématique: Incursion

[x-copycat.livejournal.com]

Warren and Jean clear the perimeter so the others can find their way inside

The sun wasn't quite cresting over the horizon yet. The woods held that pre-waking quiet that always tapers off as people rise for the day despite the people here all being awake and on their feet. Telepathic silence prevailed, even cutting off Jean's ability to communicate mentally with Warren as they drew closer to the building. His mental presence faded as if the volume had been turned down slowly until it hit zero. They were the first wave, their friends waiting behind them to clear the way so they could search out their missing friend and finally take her home.

Warren was doing his best not to rush into this, to keep a level head. But they were so close to finding Vanessa, so close to being able to snatch her back and take her home. But he was doing his best to stay calm, to follow the plan. He'd run the risk of messing all of this up if he followed his instincts, so he ignored them, moving quietly towards the first group of guards.

Jean was used to it by now, the disturbing quiet. It seemed to happen more often than not on missions as of late and was the method of choice for those who made their trade in nefariousness. The only comfort she could take was at least it was consistent. She trailed close beside Warren, suppressing the urge to mentally search for people nearby simply because she couldn't. She had to rely on sight. Even if it was consistent it was still like being blind.

She had a surprising peace that had come over her. Perhaps because she knew if she didn't she would be as anxious as the rest of them. Anxiousness meant high emotions, meant recklessness, meant death. It was her first mission since her encounter with Matthews and yes, she was quite surprised at how well she was doing.

She wondered how long it would last.

Warren spotted the guards first, his sharp eyes picking out their movement as they drew closer. He gestured towards them with his head to Jean, before two beats of his wings pushed him skyward. He had come to learn that few people looked up when they were on guard - or at least, not up in the direction of the sky. Tree tops, rooftops, anywhere someone could hide or a sniper could perch.

But few people expected an aerial attack. Which gave Warren an advantage when he looped over them and spiraled down to the ground, his surprise appearance giving him the opportunity to knock the weapon from one guard's hands with a stroke of his wing.

And then the fight was on.

Jean found Warren definitely efficient as she stood back to let him take care of the first two. She figured there'd be more, since generally a place that well constructed was probably also well funded. They had enough clout to have at least 8 facilities around the world after all.

She smiled up at Warren faintly as he landed. "Well, that was impressive."

Warren took a couple of deep breaths as he looked at the two now unconscious men. It surprised him, just a little, the fury he'd fought them with, and the satisfaction at seeing them at his feet. He frowned somewhat, before looking back up at Jean, the fury in his eyes only banked slightly.

"There's two more. Let's move."

Jean gave him a simple nod, then started ahead, trying to adjust to relying on five senses instead of six. Sound with her ears, sight with her eyes. A few minutes passed as they rounded the outside of the perimeter of the building and Jean suddenly stopped as she heard the sound of footsteps, holding up her hand.

She ducked behind the corner of the building, keeping an eye out as two men started to approach. Jean looked out to see if there were more and found herself satisfied when there were only two.

A moment passed and the men, walking side by side, were surprised by their guns being wrenched from their hands. But before they could put their hands on their radios their heads were slammed together with a sickening crack and they hit the ground like cast aside toys. One of the radios loosened itself from one of the men's belts and floated into Jean's hand.

Jean looked to Warren with a brief impassive expression before she nodded toward the building at large. They were alive, but would be out for a very long time. Oh yes, and there was the small problem with a skull fracture. But they'd heal.

Warren simply nodded back in return, barely sparing the guards a look. They were complicit in Vanessa's disappearance and imprisonment, they didn't deserve any of his pity or concern. He took the lead, heading towards the closest entrance. Time to go find Vanessa.


- - - - - - -

With the guards outside taken care of, Lex and Doug move in to take over the security station inside.

Despite the attack on perimeter security the facility was still quiet. Shift changes meant people were busy clocking in or trying to escape to their beds at home. No one was expecting the group infiltration that was taking place, not even when Lex and Doug slipped into the building. They only had the rough idea of where the surveillance room was from the interrogation they'd done with one of the guards to help guide them without Lex tapping into the building's power grid.

Moving through the corridor Lex kept a small charge built up in his body. It would be easy enough to release it on anyone who they ran into, and though it might not be enough to take down a well-trained guard it would be more than enough to fry radios and other communications equipment. The guard had given them vague directions to the security room and they were following them to the best of their abilities, but Lex felt the need to move faster. "Should I follow a camera back to its source?" he whispered to Doug as he slid his back against a wall to check the next corner.

"Let's hold off on that for now, until we absolutely need it." Doug checked the corner as well, then moved briskly along, sensing Lex's impatience. Better to be as inconspicuous as possible, and there was always the possibility of a fluctuation in electrical levels alerting someone to their presence. With that in mind, his gun remained in its holster in favor of the telescoping baton that Doug often carried. Gunfire would be like a glaring neon sign announcing their presence. A hand signal indicated that they should go right at the next hallway, and Doug replayed the interrogation in his mind, trying to gather every last nuance and minor bit of information from it.

"If you say so, but we need to find this room quickly." He moved around the corner and watched for guards, there were footsteps ahead and he signaled movement. If they didn't find the room soon they would have to start taking down guards, which would leave a neat trail right back to them. The only consolation would be that everyone would focus on taking them out - which would give the others more time to find and extract Vanessa. He waited patiently and let the charge increase in strength.

Doug nodded, and indicated they should follow the pair of guards they could see by stealing a glance around the corner. Down one hallway and around another bend, and the could see an office that might as well had "SECURITY" over it in glaring neon letters, as it was clearly the nerve center for several patrol routes, as they noticed after a few minutes of observation. They waited until only one guard was in view, and Doug made a chopping motion, indicating that Lex should take the guard while Doug went through the door. He snapped out the telescoping baton he favored for close-quarters work and ghosted forward silently.

Breathing out, Lex moved towards the solitary guard and extended his right hand. A faint hum arose from it as he concentrated the charge he'd been building just at the finger tips. By the time he reached the man, the air between them was crackling with a volatile electric current, which Lex sent through the man like a stun gun. He didn't bother to steer the electrical current away from the man's vital organs, nor did he check to see if the man was still alive as he slumped to the floor. You hurt Vanessa then you deserve whatever you get, he thought as loudly as he could. Any man caught between him and his objective would fair little better.

At the same time as Lex was taking down the outside guard with his thumb-and-forefinger taser, Doug was moving through the door. The single guard on duty inside was reaching for a button that would undoubtedly send out some kind of alert. The man's reaction time and discipline were good, but Doug's baton was already in mid-swing, and it crashed into the guard's wrist, crushing several bones with a wet snap before the button could be pushed. The beginning of an involuntary cry of pain was cut off sharply by the backswing ending against his temple. Doug shoved the guard off away from the monitors and took a seat.

"We're in."


- - - - - - - -

Bishop and Laura follow her nose in search of their partner.

Bishop grabbed Laura by the collar, both to make sure they stayed close but also to push her up to the corner the footsteps were about to come around. When the guard rounded the corner he wanted Laura to be on him before he could make a sound. "The throat." He mouthed to her, making sure they both understood what was about to happen. The people running this would be lucky if he didn't kill each and every one of them on principal.

Usually Laura would have qualms against killing people, even if it was a mission. But this was Vanessa, and Laura had been keeping her anger in check for too long already. Nodding softly, she focused on the steps that drew nearer. She still wasn't perfect at it, but judging by the sounds of the person she could tell his build and his rough size. The moment she spotted the man passing by, she moved silently toward him, a single claw extended. Without breathing, Laura made a swift movement, easily slicing the man and making sure he didn't fall to the floor making noise.

As Laura caught the guard and lowered him to the ground, Bishop rounded the corner and continued on their path, trusting Laura to fall in behind him as he had done while behind her. He left his pistol in it's holster; the goal was stealth and that would mean he'd need both hands available in case they encountered another patrol. He'd just have to be quick when it came to covering long stretches of hallway.

On his way by, Bishop caught quick peeks into different rooms, each housing individuals in various states of experimentation. While some appeared normal and some healthy (some even both), it gave the facility as a whole the feel of a haunted house. Each door was a gateway to another potential, gruesome horror held back by a small, glass window. It felt like a converted, decrepit insane asylum not a true hospital.

Laura decided not to peek, and let her nose do the job. She didn't have the time to be traumatized by seeing people that could very well have been captured like Vanessa looking like crap right now. It was a bit insensitive, but she had to keep priorities. Sniffing as she walked, she found something familiar after they crossed some doors. "It's faint, but I'm pretty sure I found her," she whispered with a shaky voice.

Bishop turned and stepped over to the door Laura had stopped at. It swung freely and, after giving it a soft push to check for alarms or wires, he pushed the door open quickly while turning around it in case anyone stood behind it. Clearing a room without a firearm was far from ideal but he had to make it work, following the wall into the main room within moments. It wasn't until his path led him into the main room he realized they had found an empty operating room; not a residence. They were interspersed with rooms to allow experimentation even on those mutants they couldn't easily or safely move far.

Having realized this was a dead end, Bishop stopped to just look. They didn't have much time but he had to fulfill his curiosity. His eyes wandered over the medical equipment, interspersed among it implements that could only be there to torture. "First do no harm." He shook his head and turned back to Laura. "Clear."

At this Laura made a scowl as she followed him without making a sound. Where the hell was she? "Well, she's been in here, but I don't know if this trail threw me off or if she's still somewhere around here." She surely wanted to believe the second. Still, she took a look at the instruments, which only made her frown in disgust. "This is way too messed up."

"Isn't a tickle factory." Bishop commented with a factual, monotone voice. "This is good news, she was resisting at some point. When she got here there was still fight in her."

Like a programmed automaton, Bishop lined back up to properly exit the room. He had done this in training and in the real world for years with the NYPD. It no longer took his concentration to do everything just right. "Ready."

Laura followed suit. "Well let's make sure she didn't fight for nothing." She was certain the trail hadn't gone cold, but staying there wasn't going to solve anything.

Once they were both in position, Bishop popped the door open so Laura could exit smoothly, following her lead down past the rest of the cells in the hallway. He had worked with Laura enough to know that her tracking wasn't flawless. This search may take a while.

More corridors, and Laura had to make sure not to reveal herself to whoever might be around. She wasn't really interested on moving everything that moved, but rather getting to Vanessa fast. That didn't stop her from silencing a couple of guards that unfortunately got in their way. She didn't want to leave a body trail either, so fortunately she and Bishop kept the killing to a minimum. Or at least until we find her, she thought quietly.

"Wait." Head raised, Laura sniffed intently. "Yes...this is Vanessa, I'm sure of it. We are just rooms away, but it's so faint I couldn't pinpoint it."

"We'll just have to use our eyes." Bishop observed idly as he began to look into each window they passed, forcing himself to quietly endure seeing each mutant between them and Vanessa so they could find her. It would be a small price to pay and reinforced his conviction to make sure they were reimbursed for all this cost them.

Mumbling something under her breath, Laura started to check the rooms as she sniffed now and then, still decided to rely on her nose even if she couldn't get a better read out of the place. Some rooms later, however, she didn't need her nose at all. "Hey", said as she turned to Bishop, and then to the window, staring at the bandaged, apparently unconscious figure on the bed at the other side.

"I think I found her."


- - - - - - - -

Monet and Wanda set off the alarms and unintentionally take out the telepathy nullifier.

Most of the noise in the place seemed to be coming from east of the corridor that led out to the parking lot. Cars had been driving in and out of the lot since the group had arrived which was only a small problem if they kept a low enough profile and if Doug and Lex could keep people locked in or out of where they needed to go. The safer option seemed to be down the quiet western hall, but two strangers stuck out less in the more crowded east hall, especially if they weren't dressed in whatever this place's dress code entailed.

They were moving quickly, Monet taking point because she could take more damage than Wanda. They made it to the first cross corridor before the building's security spotted them, three guards running toward them. Monet would have felt a bit of guilt as she pivoted, punching two and then kicking out at the third but she was too busy grabbing the first guard and sending him sliding down the corridor, sending the shift change workers falling like skittles in his wake. "Run!"

Unlike Monet, even if there had been time, Wanda would have felt no guilt whatsoever. Maybe she was becoming far too used to this kind of thing - break in, beat up the guards - but she was also far too tired of people she cared for being taken or disappearing. Still. There was only so much damage they could do before it got ridiculous. She did as M had said and ran, knowing they had to get further into the building - even as she took out a surprised guard that came around a corner, she tried to keep track of everything that they were passing by in case they had to retreat.

Working on the theory that more guards meant a more secure area, Monet bowled over another guard and then ducked as the shooting started. Shooting was always fun, in an exhilarating "ow, these bruises will hurt later" kind of way. It also meant no guilt, because they were actively trying to kill her. "Hi guys!" she called, running toward one of the shooters and punching him in the face.

The bullets might not bother M but they certainly had the potential of putting a crimp in Wanda's style. She dove into a roll as someone managed to put several slugs into the wall where she'd just been standing; she felt the plaster rain down on her as she scuttled away. A hex bolt was flung carelessly over her shoulder, more distraction than anything else.

It hit a man behind Wanda and he fell, gurgling and clutching at his chest. Monet hurled the gun she was holding back down the way they'd come and twisted in mid air to kick at another armed man. She suddenly fell and clutched at her head, her telepathy apparently working again. She clamped down on it, vision greying out slightly, blocking it off, bit by bit until the sense of the fight around them was nothing more than background noise and until she wasn't about to zone out with the overload.

Wanda immediately took out the lights, plunging them into darkness as she hurried towards M's side. Yes, the younger woman was as invulnerable as one could get but she had no idea what had taken Monet down and that worried her. She touched her shoulder as she whispered her code name so as not to get a punch to the gut for her troubles.

Monet blinked at the feel of Wanda's hand on her shoulder. "Think my telepathy's back on. Wanted to zone out for a minute. You do something?"

"I think I accidentally took out their walking telepathy blocker," Wanda said grimly. "You going to be alright?" Their attackers had backed off for the moment, put off by the sudden lack of light and the death. But that wouldn't last long.

She nodded. "Yeah, just got a little shook up when it came back on - there's so many people crowded around here inside my range and they're all so stressed and excited right now and it just overloaded me." Monet paused, listening to a thought sreaming out at her from the nearest guard and twisted around, kicking out at him, sending the man flying into a wall. "Yeah, I'm good!"


- - - - - - - -

Jean's telepathy finally reaches out to touch someone...only it's touching everyone.

After awhile the hallways all started to look the same. Jean wondered if that was the idea, at least as far as the prisoners were concerned. It probably made it harder to remember the way out.

She had just rounded the corner when it hit her like a punch to the head and she immediately put her hands to her temples, letting out a cry of a mixture of pain and surprise. She nearly doubled over, biting back a wave of nausea before she immediately threw up her mental shields. For a brief moment she felt it: the familiar burst of life burning out, a mind growing dark. There was no other feeling like it, nothing else it could be.

And then there was what came after that told her what had happened: Pain, anger, rage, excitement, monotony, boredom, hundreds of thoughts swirling around in her head, their minds reaching out, unknowingly searching.

"Jean!" Warren cried out softly, immediately moving to her side, hands almost touching her, but not quite. He didn't know if the touch would help her or make things worse, but for just a moment, his worry about Vanessa was eclipsed by his concern for Jean.

Even if her sudden outcry possibly meant her telepathy was back online. And that could only be a good thing.

Moments passed, silent, not even a breath, before Jean slowly looked up.

~"The link's back online,"~ Jean said, speaking both aloud to Warren and to the others mentally. She glanced over to Warren, then nodded.

"I'm okay. Let's find Vanessa."


- - - - - - - - - -

With an antsy Laura outside of Vanessa's technologically locked door with her boss, Lex scrambles to find a way to get them inside.

Bishop's voice in Lex's ear had stopped his heart beating: the words were almost too much for him to take. They had found Vanessa, but they couldn't reach her. He tried to clear his head but he could barely breathe, "You found her, and she's alive?" A tear came unbidden to his eyes, and he turned to the cameras to see if he could locate them. All he could see was empty halls, and the aftermath of fighting. "Where are you, more importantly what's around you?"

"Consecutive door numbers, plain hallways..." Bishop looked around for the nearest camera. He didn't know if they could be monitored from another room so he slipped around behind it, reaching up to tear it and the fixture down entirely in a swift jerk. "Camera just went down, along the left side of the hallway it was facing."

The bank of monitors looked normal, and so he had to wonder if they were on the right loop. "I need something more than that, the monitors all show up fine," his voice had a venomous edge to it, "I can't help if I can't find you, and I'm going to go through the electrical system, so I need something that sticks out so I can locate the door." He hoped Bishop understood, otherwise he was going to plug in and create a feedback loop that would send the whole complex dark.

"Take a breath, cycle through your monitors. I pulled down the entire fixture, one of them is not showing right." Bishop tried to take the edge of Lex's anxiety by speaking in a soft, pleasant tone. "If you can not find us, as far as I am concerned you can use that panel to open all the doors. We're in a building full of mutants being used as lab experiments; the more we can get out the better. This is not a problem."

Laura tapped her feet impatiently. So close, yet they were stuck in the most important part. "Rather than looking on the cameras, try to find the one you can't reach anymore, since we tore it apart." Did it even work that way? She wasn't really sure, but as things were it was easier to tell Lex to look for what wasn't there anymore rather than what they were tying to find.

Turning back to the console Lex tried to find the controls for the locks on the door, there was an interface to monitor the status of each door, but not to change it's status. Apparently, the people who ran this place did not trust their security enough to give them that power. He turned his focus to the monitors one more time and found the one that was down. "All right, I know roughly where you are... cover your eyes, and keep your heads down.. there's going to be exploding glass," he built up the charge and started tracing the connection back to that camera.

Not that she needed his protection but, out of habit, Bishop hooked an arm around Laura from behind. He towered over her while turning away from the windows like a big body shield. "Go ahead." Came over the radio within the shortest of moments after Lex gave them warning; fast action was certainly expected.

The hallway lights flickered for a moment before they started smoldering. Every electronic device connected to the main circuit breakers exploded in a spur of chaos, throwing glass and metal fragments around the hallway. Lex had tried to miss Laura and Bishop but he could not be sure of where they were, and he was ultimately more worried about making something burst in Vanessa's cell that would cause her further injury. He knew they would be able to take care of themselves.

There was a brief moment when Laura remembered she had been close to complaining the first time Bishop had, in a way, handled her, but by now she had grown so used to the way the man operated she didn't even move. He was the energy-absorbent one after all. Her track of thought was suddenly interrupted by everything around her going to hell, or so she thought at first; apparently Lex had gone the safe way and overloaded the fuck out of everything around them. "W-whoa!" She ended up pressed against Bishop this time, clearly taken by surprise.

A moment after the door opened, Laura struggled for a second to be released from his grasp. "I can smell her...I need to get in there. Now."

Lex shouted, "Go, get her!" Then the circuits tripping in the main breakers caused a momentary feedback loop that he had to channel through himself and out his hand. He was terrified that he would hit Doug so he aimed it straight at the far wall and watched as it burnt a hole into the thick concrete. Then he fell to his knees, completely drained. "For God's sake let her be alive."

Doug leaned forward over his computer, his fingers flexing and his mind spinning quickly. This was the hardest part of any mission, waiting to see what the people on the other end of the line found. He resisted the urge to reseat his earpiece, knowing it for a nervous tic, the impulse to do something, -anything- but sit there and wait.

Bishop stepped back from Laura with his hands up once the fireworks were over and everyone started yelling. "Don't touch her yet. We don't know what they have hooked up or why." He turned once she was in the room, pistol drawn and watching the doorway so if anyone did come to investigate he'd have the drop on them.

Vanessa lay on a hospital bed inside the room. The heart monitor she was hooked up to had been blown by Lex's electric overload. She wore scrub bottoms and a hospital gown along with restraints on her wrists and ankles. It was hard to imagine her putting up enough of a fight to look like she needed them right now. Vanessa was very still, blue skin paler than usual and her breathing seemed somewhat shallow. The bandages around her head were somewhat haphazard with small spots of blood that had bled through a number of areas, all of which seemed to be on the same line across her forehead and around her temples. There were more bandages on her, of course, but all were hidden by her hospital gown.

Laura needed all her self restraint to prevent herself from swooping the woman on her arms and leaving. She couldn't risk her safety, after all. So all she did was draw closer, taking in her scent and trying to figure what was going on with her. Bishop would notice how Laura started to get paler herself. "She smells sick", said with a broken voice. It was hard to explain, but she had sensed it in the past; just like animals knew when one of their kind had been hurt, Laura could tell Vanessa reeked of sickness. "I-I..." suddenly it was very hard to breathe and think. "I don't know what to do..."

"We're bringing the bed. We're not being quiet anymore so I'll lead us out. All you have to do is push the bed and kill anyone that tries to get close to her." Bishop instructed as he moved up, preparing to exit. They way they came wasn't direct but it was likely to be clear and it was a known exit. For the moment, minimal risk was the best option.


- - - - - - - - - - - -

With her telepathy back on Jean locates Bishop and Laura's minds and follows them to her friend.

There were so many minds inside the facility. Some were distressed, some were scared, some were going about their business and some knew they were under an attack of sorts. The important voices were those of Jean's companions. Most importantly among them seemed to be Bishop and Laura. It took a little time to sort through it thanks to the shock of having all those telepathic voices turn on suddenly and slam into Jean. They had found her. They had found her and there was no relief in their minds about that.

Jean looked up, turning her head towards the corridor that lay behind them. Reading thoughts was almost better than listening. They were layered, almost within blueprints of context. Where they'd been, where they were...with enough focus it was easy to put them together to form a sense of direction, much like how Cerebro worked in finding a person. At least, that was the ideal way, anyway. At the moment she was more concentrated on sifting through all of the voices. Their emotions were creating interference, and no one's thoughts were pleasant.

"This way," she said, nodding toward the left. "I think...I think. Bishop and Laura found her." She didn't want to tell him what they were thinking.

That was just the words Warren was waiting to hear. Inexplicably, he relaxed and tensed at the same time - they'd found her, they'd actually physically found her at last. But now they just had to face getting to her and getting her out of there. And who knew what sort of state she was in. It hadn't seemed good from the brief glimpse Doug had gotten.

But he wouldn't worry about that for now. They just had to get to her. And deal with anyone who got in their way. "Let's go," he replied softly, moving in the direction she'd indicated, trying not to break into a run.

"Hopefully we'll run into more of the guards on the way." Warren wasn't usually the bloodthirsty type - he vastly prefered finding non-violent solutions. But it had been more than satisfying taking out the perimeter guards, and Warren seriously wanted to find more people to hit.

Jean stared at Warren a moment before nodding, adjusting the small medical kit she had brought. It wasn't like him, but she knew why he felt the way he did, why they all felt the way they did. She was one of their own. So many times someone tried to take one of their own. They never figured out that was a mistake. They never left them.

"Follow me," she said, heading down the corridor toward where she sensed Bishop and Laura's thoughts. The halls were dark, the lights burned out. Jean pulled out her flashlight and held it down low, turning it on.

Warren followed her slightly, wings tight and flat against his back. He didn't want to risk catching them on anything, or them tripping him up at the most inopportune moment. Stealth wasn't at all easy when you had two large wings extending from your back, not when the tips could easily brush the ground as you walked.

He wanted to ask how she was. Now that she'd been found, now that someone from their team had laid eyes on her, he needed to know how she was.

But he couldn't find the words, couldn't break the silence between them asking. He'd see for himself soon enough, and he wasn't sure he would make it to her side if the news was very bad. So he simply trailed Jean in silence, constantly scanning behind them and around corners, not wanting to be ambushed by any of the guards that were left.

The hallways wound around, almost hopelessly maze like, but Jean seemed to traverse them rather easily, turning the right and left without hesitation, except for one of the doors she found at the end of a hall. Pausing a moment, Jean stood, her back to him. The thoughts in Bishop's and Laura's mind were bad enough to tell her what to expect without taking a telepathic peek of what they saw. "Warren. Whatever you see, don't panic. I will take care of her, I promise. Please trust me," she said softly.

Warren just looked at Jean, barely able to make her out in the dark. He knew he could trust Jean, she was one of those people he did trust without reservation. But what wasn't she telling him? "She's alive," he replied just as softly. "Whatever state she's in, that's what's important. She's tough. She'll bounce back from anything."

The sound of people scratching, moving, desperately trying to get out from their rooms, their thoughts, frantic, was starting to be a little overwhelming so Jean made her walls a little thicker. They were there for one but she could not ignore them all. Once they got Vanessa out she would try to do what she could. But, judging from what she anticipated seeing behind the door, she probably would have her hands full for awhile.

Jean nodded to Warren, but did nothing more. Her role as a doctor could not promise anything but her best to keep her patient alive. Much of it was up to them. Her patient. It seemed so cold. Her friend. That was better.

The door was already open, the hint of light from a small sliver barely able to be called a window near the ceiling. Jean readied her kit. She took a breath, shining the flashlight onto Vanessa's prone form.

Warren froze when he rounded the door. He knew Vanessa was in a bad state. And if he'd let himself stop and think about it, he would have processed how long she'd been in this state for. But nothing had prepared him for the sight of her after so long, and nothing prepared him for the sight of her like this.


- - - - - - - - - - - -

Doug passes on the news that Vanessa has been located and obtained, then directs Wanda and Monet to the servers where they can hopefully find out who was in charge and what they were doing with Vanessa and the others here.

Some doors were being pounded on by the people trapped on the other sides of them while others only had pairs of fearful eyes peeping out from behind them as the two women moved through the halls. It was easy to tell when they had found the section of the facility where subjects had been locked up, it was mostly quiet and some doors had been left open by the boys in the security room so those locked inside could escape. With Vanessa found the hardest part was over, but that didn't mean they left without knowing who these bastards were. All they had to do was find the server room and the filing cabinets.

"Ah, the downside of high-tech electronic locks," Doug murmured as he rapped at the keys on his laptop. "It's such a shame when someone gets into the system and locks you in..." He smirked, then tapped at the comm in his ear to un-mute his transmitter. The team didn't need to be distracted by his tendency to talk to himself when hip-deep in hacking, after all. "Scarlet Witch, M," he addressed the pair of women on the other end of the channel. "Main objective complete - Bishop has our girl. Time to raid the data storage on the way out."

Wanda's smile couldn't get any wider as she reached for her own transmitter. "Cypher, you have permission to keep relaying that kind of news as long as you might wish to do so." The hallway they were in was fairly nondescript but she figured between her sense of direction and Doug on the comms, they could easily find their way back to the server rooms. They'd passed them earlier when they'd been infiltrating the building and it would not be too difficult to find their way back. "And understood. We should be back in that area shortly."

"Good to hear it, Cypher," Monet muttered and turned to Wanda. "We've done about a half circle, and that puts the data storage a little ways back, on that corridor running parallel to ours. Want to take a short cut? These walls aren't too sturdy." "Good idea." Pressing a hand lightly against one of the walls, Wanda frowned for a moment before stepping back. "You might want to aim for where I was touching because while that spot is weak, the rest of the area is stronger. Basically, hit that and you will not bring the wall down around our heads."

Monet nodded and hit the wall. Twice. Hard. It was brilliant. She ran through the gap and ...some kind of meeting room, before kicking its' door off its' hinges. It was only a short run from there to the server room.

"Doug! We're in. What do we focus on? What's the priority? Wanda? Why is there all that smoke?"

"Hard drives, anything that's not irreparably burned or shredded." Doug was hoping that whoever had obviously begun the process of getting rid of the information hadn't had the time to do a thorough job. Hard drives were obviously preferable, a larger potential amount of information contained in a smaller space, but at this point he was hoping for whatever they could find.

"And there is smoke because someone tried to destroy the information before we could get here." Wanda sounded more annoyed than anything else and she was hoping that whoever had gotten to the server room before them had decided physical damage was better than wiping all the hard drives. Judging by the smoke, though, and lack of heat, there seemed to be more of that than actual fire but they were going to have to be careful.

Monet nodded and set to work, pulling her backpack off and carefully levering the sides of the computers open, snapping the screws and little fiddly metal bits that held the drives in place, rather than unscrewing them, leaving Wanda to go after the rest. There was fire, though and a lot of the computers were sort of ...scorched. "Should I bother with the ones that have been burnt or not?" she asked.

"Check and see if the burning has gotten inside the cases," Doug told her. Cosmetic damage to the outside of a computer might not have caused any actual harm to the hard drives inside. Besides, at worst he wound up with a few worthless hunks of metal. Better to do that than risk leaving an extremely valuable piece of data behind.

"The clock is ticking, ladies. Evac in five."


- - - - - - - - -

The group finds their way out of the facility, Vanessa in tow but unconscious, and Doug and Lex take it upon themselves to manually lock everyone in the building before blowing all of the electricity.

Those who were conscious were finding their ways out of their rooms and into the hall peppered with shards of glass thanks to Lex overloading the electrical circuits. Behind Jean and Warren someone swore when they cut their foot only for them to keep going. Walking on glass was apparently preferable to staying here. Inside the room silence was broken by motion. With the machines around her out of commission the only way to assess Vanessa's state was for Jean to do it the old fashioned way. It didn't leave much for anyone else to do in the meantime, something that clearly tore at the others.

Bishop touched Laura's back. He expected she'd be absorbed in looking and he wanted to enter her tunnel vision without it being on the business end of claws. "We need the van. I'll get her out of here." He didn't wait for a response, immediately raising up his radio. "We have Vanessa en route. We'll be leaving directly from here. Time is going to matter."

"But- Going." Laura bit her reply back, well aware this wasn't the time to get her feelings in the way. She had to do as told, because that was the only way Vanessa had a shot at living. At any rate, being in the room was almost physically painful for her, but once she was outside her senses cleared and Laura dashed towards the exit.

Jean stood over Vanessa's bed, her flashlight barely able to cast enough light to get her to work with. Her hands moved with the grace and fluidity of a harpist as she gave a quick check over of Vanessa from head to toe, moving sheets, peeling up bandages to see what lay within. She was in triage mode, trying to determine what was the worst and what needed to be addressed first.

"Warren, Lucas, I need you to find me supplies, a lot of them. Most of these should say what they are on the box or bag but if you need it I can send you a mental picture. I need antibiotics....amoxacillin, baytril...Painkillers....fentanyl, morphine, any inject-able vitamins and as much gauze as you can find, alcohol, syringes, IV bags that say lactated ringers on it, 24 gauge IV catheters, t-port and extension sets, and a working IV pump if you can find one," she said without looking up. If not she'd have to get creative.

It had taken Warren a few long moments to pull himself together after first seeing Vanessa, and he'd restrained himself from rushing to her side. He would only be in the way, and he had to keep it together and let the people who knew what they were doing take care of her.

He listened carefully to the instructions from Jean, making a mental note of all the supplies she requested. It was something of a long list, and one he hoped he - and Bishop - retained the important things from it.

"I remember seeing a supply closet on our way in," he said when Jean finished speaking. "Hopefully we'll find everything in there." He nodded to Bishop before hurrying to move out, pulling himself away and resisting the urge to insist on staying by Vanessa's side. There would be time for that later. When she was home.

Jean kept Vanessa on what could barely pass for a mattress as a way to steady her. It was the only 'flat' surface she could find. The other woman's body gently floated up from the bed.

"We're moving. We need to get to the jet, now, " Jean said as she gently maneuvered her through the door, walking beside the mattress with Vanessa on it. Her voice was calm and steady, but it was too calm, too steady. It was as hard as glass.

As they rounded the corner, a limp body of a guard went sailing past before he hit the ground and skidded to a stop. Wanda appeared mere seconds after; she'd taken her jacket off and had used it as an improvised bag. There'd been some saveable pieces from the server room along side some papers they could potentially piece back together and she hadn't had much of a choice about ruining her jacket.

She came to a stop for a brief moment at the sight before her. 'What did they do to you?' she thought, grief and relief tumbling over themselves. Wanda shook herself and knew that questions and answers would come later - they had to get Vanessa out, alive, first.

Monet stared in shock. "Oh, honey..." she whispered and shook her head. "I'll take point, Wanda covers us and Jean, you're in the middle." Hell, they'd drilled this, over and over, ever since Jean Paul's extraction. She could do this and took off at a steady run, back through the building toward the nearest exit.

Doug and Lex were waiting at the exit, having already made their way from the security room, locking exits along the way with a set of keys that had been lifted from the guard they'd knocked out. Doug watched each member of the team go by, checking off on a roster in his head. Bishop was the last checkmark, and he slammed the door shut, twisting a key in the lock, then swinging his baton downward, snapping the key off still inside the lock the way he had with every other door. "Hit it," he said to Lex as he turned for the van, swinging the keychain full of ruined upper halves of keys around his finger as he went.

Lex had only seen Vanessa for a moment as Jean levitated her past, but the rage and anguish he felt at seeing her in that state quickly became a static aura around him. When Doug spoke he was already moving towards a light fixture by the door. He reached out with his hand and grabbed the fixture. A moment later he could feel the systems of the facility - every pulse of electricity passing through cable upon endless cable. There was so much information it was threatening to overwhelm his senses. He gritted his teeth and held on until he found what he was looking for: a series of junction boxes and a capacitor. With a small twitch he rerouted the energy flow of the entire building back towards the capacitor and held it there until it discharged in a great electromagnetic wave. As soon as he was sure the electronics were down he turned and ran towards the van. "Go, go, go!"

One, two...Laura counted them as they entered the van, and then Vanessa; she had kept the engine running. "Okay, we are all in. Let's get the hell out of this hellhole."