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xp_logsThe next team heads for the prison complex.
The Emergency Services uniforms flattered no one, but they fit, and the caps covered chopped-off hair and shadowed places where piercings had been once, and fit tightly over headscarves. The guards at the entrance didn't even seem interested in an all-female team, they just grunted out a "badges." and then opened the security gates, even as one of the women flashed her plastic ID card. All very routine, part of the emergency protocols.
Amanda steered the stolen ambulance slowly through the gates as they were opened. "Kid's doing a ride-along," she explained as the guard gave Nico a curious look. "All hands on deck and all that."
The man examined the plastic card she was holding up and gestured for the other two.
Nico help her card with a perfect poker face lined with defiance as she was looked upon; she could be considered a kid but she had her pride. She had taken care of most of her make up, and the effect was that she now looked a lot less dark than usual, and a lot more adult-looking. Totally not her style. Still, the mission was the mission.
With a beleaguered sigh Ororo fished her badge out of her pocket and held it up in a casual gesture for the man at the gate to look over. Despite the almost overwhelming urge to watch him closely for signs of suspicion she kept her gaze trained somewhere over his right shoulder, a bored look sitting atop her features. "Could you hurry it up?" she asked after a moment. "People need us in there."
The guard handed back the slips of plastic and tabbed the button to pull up the gate and drop the road spikes just beyond it. "A piece of advice, you'll be escorted through the building. If the Magistrates delay you, don't give them that kind of cheek. Uptight, the entire lot of them." He waved the ambulance on, and then reached over to a walkie-talkie on the counter of the guard shack. "Emergency Medical Team crossing checkpoint Theta, cleared."
Amanda drove the ambulance towards the Citadel, looming above them, a mountain of concrete and glass. Organised chaos reigned, with various squads of guards and Magistrates rushing to their stations. Without looking over her shoulder as they approached the back of the immense building, Amanda spoke in conversational tones:
"Your stop coming up, Cal. There's a rubbish skip just up ahead."
"Is that s'posed to be a joke?"
Callisto effortlessly unfolded herself from her current position reclined like a marionette with its strings cut in the back corner of the vehicle. She was closer to the right height and age for a magistrate than anyone else but the uniform they'd managed to cobble together still hung rather loosely on her slim frame. At least her cap and headset largely obscured her shaggy hair and cast something of a shadow over her distinctive scars - not that anyone around here would be likely to know her anyway.
The scowl was right, though.
Amanda barely paused the vehicle as she passed the dumpster. The back door opened and closed ever-so-briefly, a thin shadow slipping out and away, heading for the doors, and then they were on their way, pulling up to the rear entrance just as their designated guide appeared.
Perhaps she was well 'in character', or perhaps she wasn't acting at all, but Callisto certainly looked grim and humourless enough as she stood rather impatiently by the entrance, jerking her chin inside. "C'mon," she muttered, turning and heading in herself in front of them rather than ushering them through first.
The thing with everyone doing their thing was that you couldn't try and get an idea whether you were doing it right or not. Nico supposed that so far, so good, but she could just not relax after they had been allowed to enter. Following Amanda in silence, she made her best to remain the quiet rookie of the group.
It was incredible how similar prisons looked the world over - the concrete corridors they made their way through could have been set anywhere, the steel doors separating them from freedom on any continent. Their 'Magistrate' led them swiftly through the hallways, her keen hearing helping them avoid running into anyone who might look a bit too closely at their uniforms or question their story, and it wasn't long before they began to near the prison block proper, large laminate signs reminding them "NO AUTHORISED PERSONNEL BEYOND THIS POINT".
Amanda took a breath. Her little sister was somewhere beyond that door, and the urge to just smash her way through was building. But there was more at stake here. She glanced at the watch she wore. "Power should be down any second," she murmured. "And once it is, we're going in."
The Emergency Services uniforms flattered no one, but they fit, and the caps covered chopped-off hair and shadowed places where piercings had been once, and fit tightly over headscarves. The guards at the entrance didn't even seem interested in an all-female team, they just grunted out a "badges." and then opened the security gates, even as one of the women flashed her plastic ID card. All very routine, part of the emergency protocols.
Amanda steered the stolen ambulance slowly through the gates as they were opened. "Kid's doing a ride-along," she explained as the guard gave Nico a curious look. "All hands on deck and all that."
The man examined the plastic card she was holding up and gestured for the other two.
Nico help her card with a perfect poker face lined with defiance as she was looked upon; she could be considered a kid but she had her pride. She had taken care of most of her make up, and the effect was that she now looked a lot less dark than usual, and a lot more adult-looking. Totally not her style. Still, the mission was the mission.
With a beleaguered sigh Ororo fished her badge out of her pocket and held it up in a casual gesture for the man at the gate to look over. Despite the almost overwhelming urge to watch him closely for signs of suspicion she kept her gaze trained somewhere over his right shoulder, a bored look sitting atop her features. "Could you hurry it up?" she asked after a moment. "People need us in there."
The guard handed back the slips of plastic and tabbed the button to pull up the gate and drop the road spikes just beyond it. "A piece of advice, you'll be escorted through the building. If the Magistrates delay you, don't give them that kind of cheek. Uptight, the entire lot of them." He waved the ambulance on, and then reached over to a walkie-talkie on the counter of the guard shack. "Emergency Medical Team crossing checkpoint Theta, cleared."
Amanda drove the ambulance towards the Citadel, looming above them, a mountain of concrete and glass. Organised chaos reigned, with various squads of guards and Magistrates rushing to their stations. Without looking over her shoulder as they approached the back of the immense building, Amanda spoke in conversational tones:
"Your stop coming up, Cal. There's a rubbish skip just up ahead."
"Is that s'posed to be a joke?"
Callisto effortlessly unfolded herself from her current position reclined like a marionette with its strings cut in the back corner of the vehicle. She was closer to the right height and age for a magistrate than anyone else but the uniform they'd managed to cobble together still hung rather loosely on her slim frame. At least her cap and headset largely obscured her shaggy hair and cast something of a shadow over her distinctive scars - not that anyone around here would be likely to know her anyway.
The scowl was right, though.
Amanda barely paused the vehicle as she passed the dumpster. The back door opened and closed ever-so-briefly, a thin shadow slipping out and away, heading for the doors, and then they were on their way, pulling up to the rear entrance just as their designated guide appeared.
Perhaps she was well 'in character', or perhaps she wasn't acting at all, but Callisto certainly looked grim and humourless enough as she stood rather impatiently by the entrance, jerking her chin inside. "C'mon," she muttered, turning and heading in herself in front of them rather than ushering them through first.
The thing with everyone doing their thing was that you couldn't try and get an idea whether you were doing it right or not. Nico supposed that so far, so good, but she could just not relax after they had been allowed to enter. Following Amanda in silence, she made her best to remain the quiet rookie of the group.
It was incredible how similar prisons looked the world over - the concrete corridors they made their way through could have been set anywhere, the steel doors separating them from freedom on any continent. Their 'Magistrate' led them swiftly through the hallways, her keen hearing helping them avoid running into anyone who might look a bit too closely at their uniforms or question their story, and it wasn't long before they began to near the prison block proper, large laminate signs reminding them "NO AUTHORISED PERSONNEL BEYOND THIS POINT".
Amanda took a breath. Her little sister was somewhere beyond that door, and the urge to just smash her way through was building. But there was more at stake here. She glanced at the watch she wore. "Power should be down any second," she murmured. "And once it is, we're going in."
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