xp_logs | Genosha: The End of the Beginning: Keeping In Touch

Wade and Doug remain behind in the safe house, coordinating with the strike teams.

"Comm check. Sound off, ladies and gents," Doug murmured into his
slim headset as he settled it into place. He was responsible for
coordinating the three groups that were heading for the power grid and
Magistrates' security room, respectively. Mots of the people on the
other end of the lines were either his teammates or had been in the
past, and they answered back with easy familiarity. Businesslike and
professional, to be sure, but with that air of camaraderie that comes
from being in life-and-death situations on an all-too-regular basis.

"Hope you don't mind playing babysitter," he covered his microphone
and said to his companion in the room that they had set up as the comm
post.

Wade gave Doug an easy smile as he checked the perimeter of the room,
moving from door to window to window to window as he checked locks and
scanned the streets below them for suspicious movement. "Nah, Ramsey,"
he said, tweaking a curtain back into place. "Don't mind at all."
Which wasn't strictly true, but he understood the necessity. He
followed orders because that was what working as a cohesive unit
required, but he still wished he was part of the op that involved
possibly shooting the people who'd taken his kids and was doing God
only knew what to them.

He couldn't think about that at the moment, though, so he moved back
to the table and sat down across from Doug. Putting both of his guns
on the table, he tugged his makeshift cleaning kit toward him and
began taking one apart. He needed something to do with his hands and
it didn't really matter that he'd already made sure both weapons were
spotless. "Tell you what I really wouldn't mind, though," he said,
eyes glued to the gun in his hand. Glancing up briefly, he quirked a
brow at his friend and then looked back down before continuing, "Two
all-beef patties, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and some special
sauce - all on a sesame seed bun."

Doug snickered. He thought about chiding Wade on the need for code
names, but really, it was just the two of them in the room, and he
wasn't that much of a hardass. Besides, he recognized Wade's need for
distraction. He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel the same. He
might not have had the same protective mentor-type relationship with
some of the kids that Wade did, but he made up for it with his strong
opinions on How Things Should Be. He and his existed so that shit
like this didn't happen to kids like them. "McDonalds? Really?
Between that and Taco Bell, I'm really starting to question whether or
not you have any functioning taste buds, man."

"Judge me all you like, squirt," Wade said, unlocking the pistol's
slide and letting the round in the chamber fall to the table before
ejecting the magazine. "Micky D's a classic and I was around during
the Big Mac's heyday. Before everyone was worried about fat and carbs
and french fries cooked in animal grease." He started humming the Big
Mac jingle as he finished disassembling the gun and began scrubbing
the recoil spring.

"Okay, but there's way better burgers out there. Hell, even chains.
I mean, c'mon. Five Guys." Doug wasn't arguing the ubiquity of the
fast food franchises in question so much as the relative quality
compared to others. "Or In-n-Out. Except you can't get those on the
east coast, more's the pity." Of course, Doug still preferred finding
the perfect local hole-in-the-wall for any given cuisine, but he
recognized that chains had their place in the world.

"I'll give you Five Guys'," Wade said, checking down the barrel after
he finished with the recoil spring. Squeaky clean, just like it'd been
the last two times he'd checked. "But only because they make their
breakfast sandwiches with actual eggs. And a sesame seed bun." He gave
the barrel a cursory cleaning despite the fact that it didn't need it
and the cloth, when he'd pushed it through, came out white.
Reassembling the gun, he pushed the cleaning kit back to the left side
of the table. "How're our people?"

"Everyone's moving into position now," Doug said, concentrating on the
brief snatches of conversation coming in through the comm system.
"Remy's team's coming up on the security station, Angie's team is
about to hit the generators, and Ororo's team is in place and waiting
for the party to start." The old nickname for Marie-Ange slipped out
without even thinking - when he was listening to eleven people over
commlinks, and one in the room with him, and all three teams were
coordinating a complex simultaneous strike, being awkward about his
ex-girlfriend (and Wade's current girlfriend) didn't even make the top
twenty on the list of things he was trying to concentrate on.