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xp_logsWhile the kids are playing bait and switch, Emma, Wanda, Wade and Catseye are dealing with the command post.
From where he crouched, Wade could just make out the tops of the tents through the tree branches below. He'd decided days ago that subtropical locations were not his favorite, but they weren't his least favorite, either - at least he didn't have to constantly worry about rust here. With a gun in his left hand and his almost-machete in his right, he crept closer to the base camp. He couldn't fault their methods - some part of his brain kept noting that they were only doing their jobs, these soldiers. They hadn't personally set the traps that had brought the mercenary and his friends to this point.
Still. They were about the closest he was going to get to the people who'd really been behind it all and they were a threat to the safety of the group. Which meant he wasn't really worried about how this went down and was, in fact, maybe just a little hopeful that he'd have a chance to kill a few of them. "Light sentry coverage around the perimeter," he murmured to Wanda, wondering if he should specifically try to think at Emma or if he should just let her pick up the thoughts in his head. "Command tent's a little bigger."
"Rather hard to see but I am willing to bet they'll have good security around the commander," she commented back, voice just as low. While they had Emma to make sure no one got the drop of them, there was always the chance that another telepath was also skulking through the woods and Wanda wasn't going to take the chance. Wanda nodded to the left. "See there? Car park, of a sort. Seems to be at least four vehicles missing, so they're either sending out regular patrols by jeep or using them to communicate to other groups."
Which meant they were going to have to be aware that at least some reinforcements might end up trundling back at the wrong moment. Just one more thing to worry about. She straightened from her crouch and gave the camp below them a hard look. "If we do this right, we should be in and out quickly. But that will depend on a lot of factors." Like many of the others, she was tired and angry; trying to reign it in was hard but she was working on it.
She was probably right so far as protecting the commander was concerned - either that, or he was good enough that he didn't need protection. But there'd probably be more stuff in the command tent that would be worth taking a look at. Two men walking the perimeter, armed. "Weapons are standard issue," Wade murmured. "We'll want to take what we can once we finish this. And their maps. I want details."
Moving slowly along, the mercenary paced just a little ahead of Wanda - if somebody was going to get shot, might as well be him. "Shouldn't be much longer - we'll be in position in a few minutes - I've got the guys on the perimeter timed."
Wanda nodded - they were both silent as they moved through the underbrush as years of training, different perhaps but still effective, had honed their ability to eliminate as much noise of their approach as humanely possible. It was a risk to ambush the camp but a risk they needed to take. Not only would it help sow confusion amongst the ranks if they were successful but being able to get a hold of certain things, like weapons and maps and potentially other supplies, made it worth it.
"Chances are good that they will not be expecting an attack, so that will play heavily into our favor."
Wade nodded his agreement. People in positions of power rarely expected those at a disadvantage to make a bold move - and they generally believed they could crush whatever opposition came at them. Only this time, he was pretty sure they weren't expecting Miss Emma Frost, Miss Sharon Smith, Miss Wanda Maximoff, and himself. Between the lot of them, they could take down whatever baseline humans were trying to protect that command tent and be away before the reinforcements arrived.
Tilting his head to the side, he wondered about the viability of a plan that involved setting a trap for those reinforcements - but he discarded it a moment later because it would delay them. Every minute counted. "Wanna mind-meld with Emma to let her know we're ready?"
"Why is it when you say it like that it sounds remarkably dirty?"
Wade actually cast a glance over his shoulder and grinned at Wanda, then whispered, "Because I'm a very, very talented man, Wanda. My tongue does things to words that you would not believe. I'm pretty sure the sounds themselves send subliminal messages to the parts of your brain that control your baser instincts, which is why you interpret everything I say as being dirty."
The slow smile in response to that was hard to suppress and, truth be told, Wanda didn't want to stop it. She needed a moment to smile, to joke, to be normal. It reminded her that she was more than just the need to survive. "Well, that brings a whole new meaning to Merc With a Mouth, now doesn't it?" she said, shaking her head in amusement.
Gently, knowing she tended to be a bit heavy handed, Wanda reached out mentally. ~Emma? We're almost in position.~
~That's pleasing to know,~ replied Emma, lowering her binoculars again. She had scavenged them out of Jayresh's camp, bartering to borrow them from the man who had taken them as payment for guiding a lost bird watcher back to his tour group. Emma approved of bird watchers; the binoculars had to be worth thousands and gave her and excellent view of the camp. ~There's a large tent just east of the centre of the camp that I would suspect is the commander's. I've played a touch with the occupants; you'll probably find their initial reactions are slower than usual.~ It had been an interesting experiment in using her telepathy at a completely subconscious level, reaching out across the network of camp inhabitant and subliminally introducing the equivalent of a hum. Like white noise in the brain it soothed and calmed; not enough to cause noticeable changes in behaviour but enough to reduce levels of alertness and capacity to deal with surprises. It also didn't tax Emma's telepathy to any great extent, which pleased her. Attempting something more overt on such a large scale would have seriously reduced her capacity to join the fight.
~Catseye.~ Emma sent the name out into the nearest mind. ~What can you see?~
~Oh, you know. Birds. Trees. Big rocks. Small rocks. Clouds.~ The tiny cat gave the mental equivalent of a snicker as she snuck closer and closer to the camp. ~The men look sleepy. Or drugged. They blink a lot. I have eyes on four of them hanging around their stash of weapons, cleaning them. I can take them all out with one pounce, I'm pretty sure. Well, three of them for sure. The last might shoot me, but that's what healing factors are for, right?~
~Try not to let him shoot you,~ Emma’s mental voice was dry. ~You might heal from it, but I don’t think any of us can afford to be slowed down. Wade, perhaps you could assist Catseye with Mr Four?~
Wade grinned. ~That is definitely what healing factors are for,~ he thought, moving forward. It was what he used his healing factor for, anyway. ~Shall we, ladies?~ He was pretty sure his nonverbal agreement to take care of Number Four got the point across as he moved forward, waiting for Catseye to make her move.
Catseye shifted from tinycat to human to BigCat in the blink of an eye and lunged at the Magistrates cleaning their weapons. The crates of weapons helped as they provided good head-whacking surfaces, and she angled herself so that when she landed on the first soldier she knocked him back into a crate soundly. Before the others had time to react she launched herself at the second, mauling the arm holding the weapon. The third and fourth were raising their weapons when she used her prehensile tail to yank the pistol from the third and bowl the second over with her weight to send his weapon flying. While she was sitting on the third, however, the fourth was reaching into the crate for another gun.
An arm snaked around from behind and around his neck as Wanda quietly moved in. A yank backwards had the guard flailing as he found himself completely off-balanced and the gun he'd been reaching for fell back into the box as he brought up his hands to try and relieve some of the pressure she was exerting on his windpipe. But he didn't have long to struggle and after a moment suddenly went limp, going from alive and kicking to dying quietly. Wanda dropped his body before the dead weight could drag her down and bent to retrieve the knife she'd jammed into his spine. A knife and chaos energy went a long way sometimes.
She looked at Catseye and pointed at the tent, knowing they weren't going to have much time - someone had to have heard something and they needed to get in and out as soon as they could.
With four Magistrates down, Catseye dove into the sides of the canvas tents to try and cause as much chaos as possible, shredding the walls with her claws. She found a soldier hurriedly throwing his boots on in one of them to join the fight and dodged two shots from his gun before tearing into his shoulder with her teeth and claws, making him drop it. His baton hit her on the other side and she kicked out with her back legs to disarm him completely. Pressure with her paw to his windpipe cut off his air and had him passing out, but she'd been rattled by the baton blow and took a few seconds to shake it off, hoping she could spare the time while the others were fighting.
Wade gave Wanda an appreciative salute, glad he didn't have to bother with Generic Guard Number Four after all. She was quick on her feet, that Romani lady was. Grinning, he waggled his eyebrows and sang, "She's a brick-hooouse," just because he could and with all the noise the soldiers in the tent Catseye had taken down were making, there was pretty much no chance of taking the commander by surprise. He turned and headed for the larger tent, flicking throwing knives free of their sheathes at his wrists even as the tent flap burst open and a man started spraying bullets at him.
Diving forward, not even trying to make it to cover because there wasn't any close enough, Wade threw one knife, then the other as he rolled to his feet. The first hit the man's right shoulder while the second wound up embedded in his left upper arm. That stopped the shooting for a moment, but probably meant the sentries were on their way, if they hadn't been already. Enhanced reflexes came in handy as Wade headed for the man again, pulling one handgun as he did. The mercenary was at the man's side before he could reach for the pistol in his waistband. "I wouldn't, if I was you," he said, tone almost pleasant as he nudged the officer's temple with the barrel of his gun.
Emma appreciated a plan that kept her out of the direct fighting, even if she knew that it was because she was going to be administering the coup de grâce. ~Catseye, Wanda - Wade's in the commander's tent,~ she sent, watching the events unfold through the binoculars.
When she had her breath back Catseye wriggled out of the collapsed tent and joined her teammates in the command tent.
It was amazing what the appearance of a Very Large Cat coming into the tent will do for a distraction. Ducking around Wade and the Commander, Wanda was able to take out the first guard in the tent with a very hard punch to the throat. The second had a little more time to gather himself and, obviously worried about attacking the man holding his Commander hostage, went for Wanda.
She grunted as he used the gun as a blunt weapon and narrowly managed to avoid a broken nose, though her jaw and cheek were going to be sore for days. He tried again and Wanda caught the gun with her hand and yanked him forward, right into a sharp headbutt. He dropped with a broken nose and, Wanda had to admit, headbutting someone while probably having a concussion of one's own hadn't been the wisest of moves.
"If he moves," she rasped to Catseye, "eat him."
Catseye chuffed out a response to Wanda, nodding, then stared down the soldier and let loose a low, rumbling growl, making sure to show all her pointy, pointy teeth.
The smile on Wade's face was sharp, more a baring of teeth than an actual show of amusement. Shifting his gun to the base of the commander's skull, Wade reached for the man's pistol and tossed it to the ground. Next went the knife at his belt and the comm unit in his ear. He pushed the barrel of his gun in a little harder and said, "Kneel, kusottare jijii."
Knowing that Wade had it well in hand, Wanda hustled around the tent so that she could start to shove various things (maps, guns, and anything else that looked useful) into the over the shoulder bag she'd been carrying with her. They did not have much time and she needed to get as much stuff as she could. She glanced up and listened as the shouts in the camp grew louder. ~Anything of interest in his mind, Emma, before we beat a hasty retreat?~
Emma reached out and shoved an inelegant probe into the man's mind. His shields were no stronger than was natural and it only took her a couple of seconds to break through them and ream out all of the information she could find, pulling out everything she could find in short and long-term memory. It would take her a while to process all of it, but a few obvious things came through. ~Done,~ she said to the team. ~He's experienced, his team are not. Take him out and this patrol will fall apart until they get a new commander. Kill him now and get out of there and this whole group will be useless for days.~
When Emma told Wade to kill the commander (it must have been Wade she said it to since Wanda had left and Catseye sure as hell wasn't killing anyone) the catgirl headbutted the guard Wanda had told her to make sure didn't move and trotted out of the tent to join Wanda.
~Yes, ma'am,~ Wade thought, pulling the trigger without any hesitation. ~Target is down - if Wanda's got the maps and paperwork, I'll grab the rest of the weaponry and we can go. Emma, can you scramble this guard's memories of this so he can't identify Cats, Wanda, and myself? Or should I shoot him, too?~
~I say leave him alive,~" Wanda responded from where she was crouching next to the tent as she watched the other soldiers start to approach. ~We need to get out now before they realize that their commander is actually dead and can open fire on us without the nagging issue of hitting him themselves.~
~I can do better than clear out his memories,~ Emma replied. ~I can make him a serious liability to his team-mates, if you’d all take the opportunity to get out of there as soon as possible.~ She watched through her binoculars as Wade and Wanda abruptly exited the tent, her formidable powers holding the remaining guard perfectly still. With swift strokes of the telepathic equivalent of a scalpel, she excised the guard’s memories of the team’s faces and then abruptly cut out, rearranged slightly and shoved his memory of the attack into his head backwards. Withdrawing her mind, she watched again as the guard screamed and ran from the tent, shouting hysterically that the commander was dead and that the attackers had come and gone. As panicked men spilled from tents and emerged from the jungle in response and then set out in disorganised pursuit of the phantom figures in the guard’s head, heading in the exact opposite direction to her own people, she nodded in satisfaction and slid from the tree.
~Good job, team,~ she sent out to the three minds she recognised. ~Now, let’s get away from here.~
From where he crouched, Wade could just make out the tops of the tents through the tree branches below. He'd decided days ago that subtropical locations were not his favorite, but they weren't his least favorite, either - at least he didn't have to constantly worry about rust here. With a gun in his left hand and his almost-machete in his right, he crept closer to the base camp. He couldn't fault their methods - some part of his brain kept noting that they were only doing their jobs, these soldiers. They hadn't personally set the traps that had brought the mercenary and his friends to this point.
Still. They were about the closest he was going to get to the people who'd really been behind it all and they were a threat to the safety of the group. Which meant he wasn't really worried about how this went down and was, in fact, maybe just a little hopeful that he'd have a chance to kill a few of them. "Light sentry coverage around the perimeter," he murmured to Wanda, wondering if he should specifically try to think at Emma or if he should just let her pick up the thoughts in his head. "Command tent's a little bigger."
"Rather hard to see but I am willing to bet they'll have good security around the commander," she commented back, voice just as low. While they had Emma to make sure no one got the drop of them, there was always the chance that another telepath was also skulking through the woods and Wanda wasn't going to take the chance. Wanda nodded to the left. "See there? Car park, of a sort. Seems to be at least four vehicles missing, so they're either sending out regular patrols by jeep or using them to communicate to other groups."
Which meant they were going to have to be aware that at least some reinforcements might end up trundling back at the wrong moment. Just one more thing to worry about. She straightened from her crouch and gave the camp below them a hard look. "If we do this right, we should be in and out quickly. But that will depend on a lot of factors." Like many of the others, she was tired and angry; trying to reign it in was hard but she was working on it.
She was probably right so far as protecting the commander was concerned - either that, or he was good enough that he didn't need protection. But there'd probably be more stuff in the command tent that would be worth taking a look at. Two men walking the perimeter, armed. "Weapons are standard issue," Wade murmured. "We'll want to take what we can once we finish this. And their maps. I want details."
Moving slowly along, the mercenary paced just a little ahead of Wanda - if somebody was going to get shot, might as well be him. "Shouldn't be much longer - we'll be in position in a few minutes - I've got the guys on the perimeter timed."
Wanda nodded - they were both silent as they moved through the underbrush as years of training, different perhaps but still effective, had honed their ability to eliminate as much noise of their approach as humanely possible. It was a risk to ambush the camp but a risk they needed to take. Not only would it help sow confusion amongst the ranks if they were successful but being able to get a hold of certain things, like weapons and maps and potentially other supplies, made it worth it.
"Chances are good that they will not be expecting an attack, so that will play heavily into our favor."
Wade nodded his agreement. People in positions of power rarely expected those at a disadvantage to make a bold move - and they generally believed they could crush whatever opposition came at them. Only this time, he was pretty sure they weren't expecting Miss Emma Frost, Miss Sharon Smith, Miss Wanda Maximoff, and himself. Between the lot of them, they could take down whatever baseline humans were trying to protect that command tent and be away before the reinforcements arrived.
Tilting his head to the side, he wondered about the viability of a plan that involved setting a trap for those reinforcements - but he discarded it a moment later because it would delay them. Every minute counted. "Wanna mind-meld with Emma to let her know we're ready?"
"Why is it when you say it like that it sounds remarkably dirty?"
Wade actually cast a glance over his shoulder and grinned at Wanda, then whispered, "Because I'm a very, very talented man, Wanda. My tongue does things to words that you would not believe. I'm pretty sure the sounds themselves send subliminal messages to the parts of your brain that control your baser instincts, which is why you interpret everything I say as being dirty."
The slow smile in response to that was hard to suppress and, truth be told, Wanda didn't want to stop it. She needed a moment to smile, to joke, to be normal. It reminded her that she was more than just the need to survive. "Well, that brings a whole new meaning to Merc With a Mouth, now doesn't it?" she said, shaking her head in amusement.
Gently, knowing she tended to be a bit heavy handed, Wanda reached out mentally. ~Emma? We're almost in position.~
~That's pleasing to know,~ replied Emma, lowering her binoculars again. She had scavenged them out of Jayresh's camp, bartering to borrow them from the man who had taken them as payment for guiding a lost bird watcher back to his tour group. Emma approved of bird watchers; the binoculars had to be worth thousands and gave her and excellent view of the camp. ~There's a large tent just east of the centre of the camp that I would suspect is the commander's. I've played a touch with the occupants; you'll probably find their initial reactions are slower than usual.~ It had been an interesting experiment in using her telepathy at a completely subconscious level, reaching out across the network of camp inhabitant and subliminally introducing the equivalent of a hum. Like white noise in the brain it soothed and calmed; not enough to cause noticeable changes in behaviour but enough to reduce levels of alertness and capacity to deal with surprises. It also didn't tax Emma's telepathy to any great extent, which pleased her. Attempting something more overt on such a large scale would have seriously reduced her capacity to join the fight.
~Catseye.~ Emma sent the name out into the nearest mind. ~What can you see?~
~Oh, you know. Birds. Trees. Big rocks. Small rocks. Clouds.~ The tiny cat gave the mental equivalent of a snicker as she snuck closer and closer to the camp. ~The men look sleepy. Or drugged. They blink a lot. I have eyes on four of them hanging around their stash of weapons, cleaning them. I can take them all out with one pounce, I'm pretty sure. Well, three of them for sure. The last might shoot me, but that's what healing factors are for, right?~
~Try not to let him shoot you,~ Emma’s mental voice was dry. ~You might heal from it, but I don’t think any of us can afford to be slowed down. Wade, perhaps you could assist Catseye with Mr Four?~
Wade grinned. ~That is definitely what healing factors are for,~ he thought, moving forward. It was what he used his healing factor for, anyway. ~Shall we, ladies?~ He was pretty sure his nonverbal agreement to take care of Number Four got the point across as he moved forward, waiting for Catseye to make her move.
Catseye shifted from tinycat to human to BigCat in the blink of an eye and lunged at the Magistrates cleaning their weapons. The crates of weapons helped as they provided good head-whacking surfaces, and she angled herself so that when she landed on the first soldier she knocked him back into a crate soundly. Before the others had time to react she launched herself at the second, mauling the arm holding the weapon. The third and fourth were raising their weapons when she used her prehensile tail to yank the pistol from the third and bowl the second over with her weight to send his weapon flying. While she was sitting on the third, however, the fourth was reaching into the crate for another gun.
An arm snaked around from behind and around his neck as Wanda quietly moved in. A yank backwards had the guard flailing as he found himself completely off-balanced and the gun he'd been reaching for fell back into the box as he brought up his hands to try and relieve some of the pressure she was exerting on his windpipe. But he didn't have long to struggle and after a moment suddenly went limp, going from alive and kicking to dying quietly. Wanda dropped his body before the dead weight could drag her down and bent to retrieve the knife she'd jammed into his spine. A knife and chaos energy went a long way sometimes.
She looked at Catseye and pointed at the tent, knowing they weren't going to have much time - someone had to have heard something and they needed to get in and out as soon as they could.
With four Magistrates down, Catseye dove into the sides of the canvas tents to try and cause as much chaos as possible, shredding the walls with her claws. She found a soldier hurriedly throwing his boots on in one of them to join the fight and dodged two shots from his gun before tearing into his shoulder with her teeth and claws, making him drop it. His baton hit her on the other side and she kicked out with her back legs to disarm him completely. Pressure with her paw to his windpipe cut off his air and had him passing out, but she'd been rattled by the baton blow and took a few seconds to shake it off, hoping she could spare the time while the others were fighting.
Wade gave Wanda an appreciative salute, glad he didn't have to bother with Generic Guard Number Four after all. She was quick on her feet, that Romani lady was. Grinning, he waggled his eyebrows and sang, "She's a brick-hooouse," just because he could and with all the noise the soldiers in the tent Catseye had taken down were making, there was pretty much no chance of taking the commander by surprise. He turned and headed for the larger tent, flicking throwing knives free of their sheathes at his wrists even as the tent flap burst open and a man started spraying bullets at him.
Diving forward, not even trying to make it to cover because there wasn't any close enough, Wade threw one knife, then the other as he rolled to his feet. The first hit the man's right shoulder while the second wound up embedded in his left upper arm. That stopped the shooting for a moment, but probably meant the sentries were on their way, if they hadn't been already. Enhanced reflexes came in handy as Wade headed for the man again, pulling one handgun as he did. The mercenary was at the man's side before he could reach for the pistol in his waistband. "I wouldn't, if I was you," he said, tone almost pleasant as he nudged the officer's temple with the barrel of his gun.
Emma appreciated a plan that kept her out of the direct fighting, even if she knew that it was because she was going to be administering the coup de grâce. ~Catseye, Wanda - Wade's in the commander's tent,~ she sent, watching the events unfold through the binoculars.
When she had her breath back Catseye wriggled out of the collapsed tent and joined her teammates in the command tent.
It was amazing what the appearance of a Very Large Cat coming into the tent will do for a distraction. Ducking around Wade and the Commander, Wanda was able to take out the first guard in the tent with a very hard punch to the throat. The second had a little more time to gather himself and, obviously worried about attacking the man holding his Commander hostage, went for Wanda.
She grunted as he used the gun as a blunt weapon and narrowly managed to avoid a broken nose, though her jaw and cheek were going to be sore for days. He tried again and Wanda caught the gun with her hand and yanked him forward, right into a sharp headbutt. He dropped with a broken nose and, Wanda had to admit, headbutting someone while probably having a concussion of one's own hadn't been the wisest of moves.
"If he moves," she rasped to Catseye, "eat him."
Catseye chuffed out a response to Wanda, nodding, then stared down the soldier and let loose a low, rumbling growl, making sure to show all her pointy, pointy teeth.
The smile on Wade's face was sharp, more a baring of teeth than an actual show of amusement. Shifting his gun to the base of the commander's skull, Wade reached for the man's pistol and tossed it to the ground. Next went the knife at his belt and the comm unit in his ear. He pushed the barrel of his gun in a little harder and said, "Kneel, kusottare jijii."
Knowing that Wade had it well in hand, Wanda hustled around the tent so that she could start to shove various things (maps, guns, and anything else that looked useful) into the over the shoulder bag she'd been carrying with her. They did not have much time and she needed to get as much stuff as she could. She glanced up and listened as the shouts in the camp grew louder. ~Anything of interest in his mind, Emma, before we beat a hasty retreat?~
Emma reached out and shoved an inelegant probe into the man's mind. His shields were no stronger than was natural and it only took her a couple of seconds to break through them and ream out all of the information she could find, pulling out everything she could find in short and long-term memory. It would take her a while to process all of it, but a few obvious things came through. ~Done,~ she said to the team. ~He's experienced, his team are not. Take him out and this patrol will fall apart until they get a new commander. Kill him now and get out of there and this whole group will be useless for days.~
When Emma told Wade to kill the commander (it must have been Wade she said it to since Wanda had left and Catseye sure as hell wasn't killing anyone) the catgirl headbutted the guard Wanda had told her to make sure didn't move and trotted out of the tent to join Wanda.
~Yes, ma'am,~ Wade thought, pulling the trigger without any hesitation. ~Target is down - if Wanda's got the maps and paperwork, I'll grab the rest of the weaponry and we can go. Emma, can you scramble this guard's memories of this so he can't identify Cats, Wanda, and myself? Or should I shoot him, too?~
~I say leave him alive,~" Wanda responded from where she was crouching next to the tent as she watched the other soldiers start to approach. ~We need to get out now before they realize that their commander is actually dead and can open fire on us without the nagging issue of hitting him themselves.~
~I can do better than clear out his memories,~ Emma replied. ~I can make him a serious liability to his team-mates, if you’d all take the opportunity to get out of there as soon as possible.~ She watched through her binoculars as Wade and Wanda abruptly exited the tent, her formidable powers holding the remaining guard perfectly still. With swift strokes of the telepathic equivalent of a scalpel, she excised the guard’s memories of the team’s faces and then abruptly cut out, rearranged slightly and shoved his memory of the attack into his head backwards. Withdrawing her mind, she watched again as the guard screamed and ran from the tent, shouting hysterically that the commander was dead and that the attackers had come and gone. As panicked men spilled from tents and emerged from the jungle in response and then set out in disorganised pursuit of the phantom figures in the guard’s head, heading in the exact opposite direction to her own people, she nodded in satisfaction and slid from the tree.
~Good job, team,~ she sent out to the three minds she recognised. ~Now, let’s get away from here.~
