One Night in Madripoor - The Docks
Dec. 16th, 2013 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsTeam 3 heads down to the docks, where some clever acrobatics are needed.
“Brute force is not going to work dis time.” Remy muttered, putting down the binoculars. Their perch on the old Maritime Customs Building offered an expansive view over Madripoor’s massive harbour complex. A deep, sheltered harbour rivaled only by Hong Kong’s as the greatest in Asia, it had been built up, fought over, burnt down and built up again over the centuries into a complex warren of shipping warehouses, slips, docks, industrial transport and storage facilities. The naval base anchored one side of the Docks; a foreboding concrete installation that was a rare oasis of order amidst the chaotic Lowtown surrounding it.
The warehouse that was supposed to hold the bloodstone was suitably anonymous, but the figures around it were not. Remy counted three different Triad symbols; 14Ks, Sun Tee On, and Wo Hop To. Gangs that normally fought each other viciously were now working together. That meant a lot of money was in charge, or they were scared of their employer. Either way, it gave them a fighting force that could not be circumvented without the possibility of creating a much wider conflict. Lightning strikes were tremendously satisfying, but not exactly unnoticable.
“Docks are still chaos. We could bluff close enough to flank de compound, maybe.”
“Not that I doubt your powers of persuasion, mpenzi, but at least two of us are going to draw plenty of attention if we go down there. We do not know how far word has spread but we must assume any sighting will be met with hostility.” Ororo shifted, gloved fingers working themselves more firmly into a crack in the crumbling mortar. “Stealth may be our only option. Perhaps from above…”
"I'd like to say I could talk my way in, but my accent hasn't completely disappeared. The moment I opened my gob they'd totally spot me."
Jubilee had her own set of small binoculars and was studying the location, looking for convenient entrance points and weaknesses. There weren't any easy ways in, but with a good distraction and some flippy, complicated acrobatics, she could see a few window spots that might offer an entrance.
"How about over there, to the left."
"Scaffolding. Think dat we could make it work." Jubilee's choice was something extremely difficult for a normal person; a complex warren of scaffolding, storage containers and construction points along a half finished extension. It was partially blocked from view by the building itself and a high fenced storage yard, and ran almost the length of the Dock barriers. As a way in, you'd need to be highly limber, a parkour master or a cat burgler out of a movie script.
Which fortunately they fit the bill for.
"'ro, you take point. Lee, you behind her. Remy flank a bit, come in closest to de warehouse side." Ororo's ability to fly made her ideal to test the route for Jubilee, and Remy's preternatural awareness was the next best thing to telepathy to detect if they were spotted.
With a nod Ororo gathered the winds to her, rising slowly off the building and hovering in the air over the maze of warehouses and construction materials. It was amazing how the human mind worked - few people expected to see a person flying overhead and so they didn't, even when she was directly in sight. Without waiting to see how Jubilee and Remy were faring in their preparations she made for the nearest obstacle - a tall fence of wood and chain link - to check that the way was clear.
Jubilee's route was slightly less direct as she dropped off the edge of the building, grabbing the ledge of a window a few feet down before pushing off and landing on the fence, arms out to balance herself as she waited for the go ahead from Ororo.
On the other side, Remy worked his way around the edges, The workers below were ignorant of the movements above them, and his preternatural senses found only the normal rhythms of the docks. They hadn't tripped any alarms yet, or been noticed.
Gesturing at Jubilee that the coast was clear, Ororo hovered forward; just as the girl began to swing herself over the fence a guard rounded the corner, stalking down the alleyway. Ororo only had a moment to think - with a muttered curse she sent a gust of wind into an unsteady pile of boxes and boards, causing them to topple over with a crash and drawing the guard's attention. "Quickly," she hissed to Jubilee, touching down lightly on the roof of an outbuilding to monitor the guard's whereabouts.
Jubilee dropped to the ground lightly on the other side of the fence, her senses heightened to maximum as she took Ororo's advice to heart and took off in a sprint along the length of warehouse wall. She spied her next hold, an old bit of scaffolding that had been left to rot in the alleyway. She judged her angles and then pushed off from the ground, swinging around one steel bar to jump onto the next until she'd made her way up onto the platform, keeping her weight light on the sodden wood.
Remy held his breath as Jubilee scaled the scaffold, knowing that workplace safety wasn't exactly at the top of Madripoorian construction companies concerns and a loose platform would alert everyone. Fortunately, it seemed stable enough, allowing him to move. He carefully eeled his way out along a light crane arm, and with a quick trot, launched himself off the end and out over the courtyard. His jump carried him into the jungle of scaffolds, and he landed cleanly, close behind Ororo.
"Keep up, mpenzi," she murmured with a smirk, moments before she was airborne again and aiming for the main warehouse. Jubilee and Remy still had a maze to navigate through, but she wanted to make sure once they made it their next steps were unimpeded - which is where her lockpick set and gloves came in.
"Dude, I so got the wrong power when I was born."
Jubilee sighed deeply and looked about her for her next handhold before moving upward along the unsteady scaffolding to a less precarious perch. It was going to be a very long night, she could tell already.
"You power is to be loudly and brightly annoying. Dis revelation just coming now?"
"Dude, harsh. It's totally useful for blowing shit up at a distance, what's not to love about structural damage? Plus, I get to go to new and interesting lands and blind people. Spies Monthly totally calls me to be their front page model all the damn time."
Jubilee's running commentary cut off as she traversed a particularly difficult area, close to a series of workers and not the place you want to be making sound if you didn't want them to look up.
"I keep telling you dat it's Doug printing up dose covers." Remy said quietly as he followed behind into the structure.
***
Spreading out wasn't always the best idea, but with time at a premium there had been little choice. Luckily it had also proven the right choice in this circumstance, as after only a few minutes of stealthy searching Remy had located the bloodstone, stashed somewhat incongruously inside a shipping crate alongside a dozen other similar containers - apparently they had been going for misdirection. Now all that was left was to get out, hopefully with the same ease with which they had gained entry.
It was a vain hope, really, as while they had been picking up the bloodstone, a set of new arrivals had entered the warehouse, people who were not dock workers from the look of their clothes and the way they held themselves.
"We're going to have company"
Jubilee pulled herself upwards onto a stacked set of packing crates and tried to fade herself into the background as much as possible. Maybe they'd be able to avoid the fight she could see as their possible oncoming future, even without Marie-Ange present.
"Triads." Remy muttered, watching them as much with his powers as his eyes. After a moment, he faded back and over to Ororo. "Trained too. Dese are not normal thugs."
The weatherwitch pressed her lips together in a tight line - if the Triads' circuit included checking the container for the bloodstone their exit strategy might need accelerated considerably. Sure enough, a moment later a shout echoed throughout the warehouse and all chances of getting out without a fight evaporated.
The element of surprise was still in the favour as the Triads spread out to search the warehouse. "Jubilee should take the stone," Ororo murmured, "Remy, you and I will take point and clear the way." Remy was fast and lethal; between his agility, Jubilee's ability to think on her feet and her own powers they might all make it out together.
Jubilee nodded her assent and then caught the bloodstone after a quick throw from Remy, stashing it in one of the many pockets currently adorning her cargo pants. She turned and started making her way toward the wall and an exposed steel girder that should allow her to work her way higher and hopefully lead her to a path that would go over the heads of the current goons.
"Well, time to get loud, chere. Just like dat night in Marakesh, neh?" Remy snapped out his staff and drew a card. The Triad members had spread out, searching the space, chattering back and forth in Cantonese. Remy could see the crate full of coffee grounds open behind them, ready for shipping heroin in, muddling the scent for the Customs dogs. He charged the card to a soft pink colour and then flicked it up, high over the heads of the gangmembers. It floated down softly, like a leaf gently making its way to the ground, and settled on the top of the coffee grounds. Remy had been working on the trick for a while, using a card as a temporarily charge, which would then transfer the kinetic force to the area around it. The grounds started to light up, darkening to a deep purple. Remy smiled as they ignited. The grounds went off with a brilliant flare and a staccato concussion pops, like a chain of fireworks going off. In the confusion he charged out, lashed wide with the staff and dropping two men by sweeping their legs out from under them.
Using the distraction of the exploding grounds Ororo dropped down in the midst of a group of men unnoticed. As the ignition began to die down Ororo called up a wind to sweep the remaining grounds together, the coarse grains whipping around her like a dark, malevolent cloud. It was perhaps not as deadly as Remy's intervention but it was certainly distracting as she directed it at their foes, obscuring their vision and sowing confusion among them.
Jubilee for her part had put her compatriots' efforts to good use, her aerobics skills coming to the fore as she used the steel girder to swing her way higher into the rafters and thus give herself a somewhat unorthodox pathway across the warehouse that had the added benefit of being completely safe from those below. At least, that had been the plan until one of them decided to look up.
She dove to her stomach as gunfire started up below her, and swore softly to herself before belly crawling toward the next junction point. She was going to have to get lower, into a position that they couldn't simply pick her off from. She'd seen some detritus before, a little ways back that should give her a soft landing but it would require some backtracking.
She just hoped Remy and Ororo were able to keep the bulk of the assailants busy for just a little longer.
"Get them!" the Triad screamed, as they fell as a group on the pair. Remy slashed out with a left, snapping the jaw of the man closest to him. A fighting hatchet spun past between them, and he snatched it from the air and charged it. The hatchet exploded as it spun back into the crowd. He spun and snapped the knee of the Red Pole, earning a satisfying crunch and a scream as he went down.
Ororo jabbed an elbow into the nearest solar plexus, ducking under a blow coming from the other direction and then using the maneuvre to bowl into yet another body. Unfortunately, the Triad was ready for her, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her feet clean off the ground. "Remy!" she shouted, her voice urgent, but not panicked.
Remy spun and flung out one card. It smashed through the man's ankle like a sledgehammer blow, pitching him forward. All it took was ducking her head for Ororo to flip the man cleanly over her back, shattering his hold. A blade passed close enough under Remy's left eye to leave a light scratch and he caught the follow-up strike by the wrist. With a twist, the knife clattered to the ground and Remy forced the man back with a joint lock, bowling through three men and letting go to send him toppling into the maintenance pit.
"'Lee, you clear yet? It's starting to get interesting down here..."
"Workin' on it, Gumbo."
Jubilee had shimmied her way toward a slightly more protected spot in the rafters, the sound of bullets pinging off the metal as she caught her breath. She formed several plasmoids, dropping them from her hands to the people below. It was time to get a little more aggressive in her escape strategy. It was a few seconds later that she stood from her position, glancing below only once at the blinded Triad members, if you couldn't see, then you couldn't fire, which left her a perfect run for the exit.
"Dat's one clear." Remy muttered as Jubilee cleared the building. He flicked out a card, crushing the face of the man in front of him. The fog was rising around them, starting to obscure visibility in the room. There were simply too many Triad members to fight. As the fight pushed them back, Remy caught sight of the pallet of chemicals behind them. With a motion, he lashed out in a wide circle with his staff, and then slammed his hand on the pallet. The purple glow lightly suffused the containers. As Ororo took into the air, Remy used the pallet to leap up, as the Triads rushed into the space in the fog. She caught his wrist, climbing up to the roof and through a skylight moments before the chemicals went up in a massive fireball. Smoke and flames erupted into the air, and the concessive blast scythed down the Triad like wheat.
In the confusion, it was a simple measure to alight on the roof of a nearby building and let Jubilee catch up with them. The warehouse burned brightly as the firetrucks pulled in, trying to sort the chaos. As Jubilee joined them, Remy took the Bloodstone, turning it over in his hands before handing it back.
"Let's hope de others had an easy time of it, neh?"
“Brute force is not going to work dis time.” Remy muttered, putting down the binoculars. Their perch on the old Maritime Customs Building offered an expansive view over Madripoor’s massive harbour complex. A deep, sheltered harbour rivaled only by Hong Kong’s as the greatest in Asia, it had been built up, fought over, burnt down and built up again over the centuries into a complex warren of shipping warehouses, slips, docks, industrial transport and storage facilities. The naval base anchored one side of the Docks; a foreboding concrete installation that was a rare oasis of order amidst the chaotic Lowtown surrounding it.
The warehouse that was supposed to hold the bloodstone was suitably anonymous, but the figures around it were not. Remy counted three different Triad symbols; 14Ks, Sun Tee On, and Wo Hop To. Gangs that normally fought each other viciously were now working together. That meant a lot of money was in charge, or they were scared of their employer. Either way, it gave them a fighting force that could not be circumvented without the possibility of creating a much wider conflict. Lightning strikes were tremendously satisfying, but not exactly unnoticable.
“Docks are still chaos. We could bluff close enough to flank de compound, maybe.”
“Not that I doubt your powers of persuasion, mpenzi, but at least two of us are going to draw plenty of attention if we go down there. We do not know how far word has spread but we must assume any sighting will be met with hostility.” Ororo shifted, gloved fingers working themselves more firmly into a crack in the crumbling mortar. “Stealth may be our only option. Perhaps from above…”
"I'd like to say I could talk my way in, but my accent hasn't completely disappeared. The moment I opened my gob they'd totally spot me."
Jubilee had her own set of small binoculars and was studying the location, looking for convenient entrance points and weaknesses. There weren't any easy ways in, but with a good distraction and some flippy, complicated acrobatics, she could see a few window spots that might offer an entrance.
"How about over there, to the left."
"Scaffolding. Think dat we could make it work." Jubilee's choice was something extremely difficult for a normal person; a complex warren of scaffolding, storage containers and construction points along a half finished extension. It was partially blocked from view by the building itself and a high fenced storage yard, and ran almost the length of the Dock barriers. As a way in, you'd need to be highly limber, a parkour master or a cat burgler out of a movie script.
Which fortunately they fit the bill for.
"'ro, you take point. Lee, you behind her. Remy flank a bit, come in closest to de warehouse side." Ororo's ability to fly made her ideal to test the route for Jubilee, and Remy's preternatural awareness was the next best thing to telepathy to detect if they were spotted.
With a nod Ororo gathered the winds to her, rising slowly off the building and hovering in the air over the maze of warehouses and construction materials. It was amazing how the human mind worked - few people expected to see a person flying overhead and so they didn't, even when she was directly in sight. Without waiting to see how Jubilee and Remy were faring in their preparations she made for the nearest obstacle - a tall fence of wood and chain link - to check that the way was clear.
Jubilee's route was slightly less direct as she dropped off the edge of the building, grabbing the ledge of a window a few feet down before pushing off and landing on the fence, arms out to balance herself as she waited for the go ahead from Ororo.
On the other side, Remy worked his way around the edges, The workers below were ignorant of the movements above them, and his preternatural senses found only the normal rhythms of the docks. They hadn't tripped any alarms yet, or been noticed.
Gesturing at Jubilee that the coast was clear, Ororo hovered forward; just as the girl began to swing herself over the fence a guard rounded the corner, stalking down the alleyway. Ororo only had a moment to think - with a muttered curse she sent a gust of wind into an unsteady pile of boxes and boards, causing them to topple over with a crash and drawing the guard's attention. "Quickly," she hissed to Jubilee, touching down lightly on the roof of an outbuilding to monitor the guard's whereabouts.
Jubilee dropped to the ground lightly on the other side of the fence, her senses heightened to maximum as she took Ororo's advice to heart and took off in a sprint along the length of warehouse wall. She spied her next hold, an old bit of scaffolding that had been left to rot in the alleyway. She judged her angles and then pushed off from the ground, swinging around one steel bar to jump onto the next until she'd made her way up onto the platform, keeping her weight light on the sodden wood.
Remy held his breath as Jubilee scaled the scaffold, knowing that workplace safety wasn't exactly at the top of Madripoorian construction companies concerns and a loose platform would alert everyone. Fortunately, it seemed stable enough, allowing him to move. He carefully eeled his way out along a light crane arm, and with a quick trot, launched himself off the end and out over the courtyard. His jump carried him into the jungle of scaffolds, and he landed cleanly, close behind Ororo.
"Keep up, mpenzi," she murmured with a smirk, moments before she was airborne again and aiming for the main warehouse. Jubilee and Remy still had a maze to navigate through, but she wanted to make sure once they made it their next steps were unimpeded - which is where her lockpick set and gloves came in.
"Dude, I so got the wrong power when I was born."
Jubilee sighed deeply and looked about her for her next handhold before moving upward along the unsteady scaffolding to a less precarious perch. It was going to be a very long night, she could tell already.
"You power is to be loudly and brightly annoying. Dis revelation just coming now?"
"Dude, harsh. It's totally useful for blowing shit up at a distance, what's not to love about structural damage? Plus, I get to go to new and interesting lands and blind people. Spies Monthly totally calls me to be their front page model all the damn time."
Jubilee's running commentary cut off as she traversed a particularly difficult area, close to a series of workers and not the place you want to be making sound if you didn't want them to look up.
"I keep telling you dat it's Doug printing up dose covers." Remy said quietly as he followed behind into the structure.
***
Spreading out wasn't always the best idea, but with time at a premium there had been little choice. Luckily it had also proven the right choice in this circumstance, as after only a few minutes of stealthy searching Remy had located the bloodstone, stashed somewhat incongruously inside a shipping crate alongside a dozen other similar containers - apparently they had been going for misdirection. Now all that was left was to get out, hopefully with the same ease with which they had gained entry.
It was a vain hope, really, as while they had been picking up the bloodstone, a set of new arrivals had entered the warehouse, people who were not dock workers from the look of their clothes and the way they held themselves.
"We're going to have company"
Jubilee pulled herself upwards onto a stacked set of packing crates and tried to fade herself into the background as much as possible. Maybe they'd be able to avoid the fight she could see as their possible oncoming future, even without Marie-Ange present.
"Triads." Remy muttered, watching them as much with his powers as his eyes. After a moment, he faded back and over to Ororo. "Trained too. Dese are not normal thugs."
The weatherwitch pressed her lips together in a tight line - if the Triads' circuit included checking the container for the bloodstone their exit strategy might need accelerated considerably. Sure enough, a moment later a shout echoed throughout the warehouse and all chances of getting out without a fight evaporated.
The element of surprise was still in the favour as the Triads spread out to search the warehouse. "Jubilee should take the stone," Ororo murmured, "Remy, you and I will take point and clear the way." Remy was fast and lethal; between his agility, Jubilee's ability to think on her feet and her own powers they might all make it out together.
Jubilee nodded her assent and then caught the bloodstone after a quick throw from Remy, stashing it in one of the many pockets currently adorning her cargo pants. She turned and started making her way toward the wall and an exposed steel girder that should allow her to work her way higher and hopefully lead her to a path that would go over the heads of the current goons.
"Well, time to get loud, chere. Just like dat night in Marakesh, neh?" Remy snapped out his staff and drew a card. The Triad members had spread out, searching the space, chattering back and forth in Cantonese. Remy could see the crate full of coffee grounds open behind them, ready for shipping heroin in, muddling the scent for the Customs dogs. He charged the card to a soft pink colour and then flicked it up, high over the heads of the gangmembers. It floated down softly, like a leaf gently making its way to the ground, and settled on the top of the coffee grounds. Remy had been working on the trick for a while, using a card as a temporarily charge, which would then transfer the kinetic force to the area around it. The grounds started to light up, darkening to a deep purple. Remy smiled as they ignited. The grounds went off with a brilliant flare and a staccato concussion pops, like a chain of fireworks going off. In the confusion he charged out, lashed wide with the staff and dropping two men by sweeping their legs out from under them.
Using the distraction of the exploding grounds Ororo dropped down in the midst of a group of men unnoticed. As the ignition began to die down Ororo called up a wind to sweep the remaining grounds together, the coarse grains whipping around her like a dark, malevolent cloud. It was perhaps not as deadly as Remy's intervention but it was certainly distracting as she directed it at their foes, obscuring their vision and sowing confusion among them.
Jubilee for her part had put her compatriots' efforts to good use, her aerobics skills coming to the fore as she used the steel girder to swing her way higher into the rafters and thus give herself a somewhat unorthodox pathway across the warehouse that had the added benefit of being completely safe from those below. At least, that had been the plan until one of them decided to look up.
She dove to her stomach as gunfire started up below her, and swore softly to herself before belly crawling toward the next junction point. She was going to have to get lower, into a position that they couldn't simply pick her off from. She'd seen some detritus before, a little ways back that should give her a soft landing but it would require some backtracking.
She just hoped Remy and Ororo were able to keep the bulk of the assailants busy for just a little longer.
"Get them!" the Triad screamed, as they fell as a group on the pair. Remy slashed out with a left, snapping the jaw of the man closest to him. A fighting hatchet spun past between them, and he snatched it from the air and charged it. The hatchet exploded as it spun back into the crowd. He spun and snapped the knee of the Red Pole, earning a satisfying crunch and a scream as he went down.
Ororo jabbed an elbow into the nearest solar plexus, ducking under a blow coming from the other direction and then using the maneuvre to bowl into yet another body. Unfortunately, the Triad was ready for her, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her feet clean off the ground. "Remy!" she shouted, her voice urgent, but not panicked.
Remy spun and flung out one card. It smashed through the man's ankle like a sledgehammer blow, pitching him forward. All it took was ducking her head for Ororo to flip the man cleanly over her back, shattering his hold. A blade passed close enough under Remy's left eye to leave a light scratch and he caught the follow-up strike by the wrist. With a twist, the knife clattered to the ground and Remy forced the man back with a joint lock, bowling through three men and letting go to send him toppling into the maintenance pit.
"'Lee, you clear yet? It's starting to get interesting down here..."
"Workin' on it, Gumbo."
Jubilee had shimmied her way toward a slightly more protected spot in the rafters, the sound of bullets pinging off the metal as she caught her breath. She formed several plasmoids, dropping them from her hands to the people below. It was time to get a little more aggressive in her escape strategy. It was a few seconds later that she stood from her position, glancing below only once at the blinded Triad members, if you couldn't see, then you couldn't fire, which left her a perfect run for the exit.
"Dat's one clear." Remy muttered as Jubilee cleared the building. He flicked out a card, crushing the face of the man in front of him. The fog was rising around them, starting to obscure visibility in the room. There were simply too many Triad members to fight. As the fight pushed them back, Remy caught sight of the pallet of chemicals behind them. With a motion, he lashed out in a wide circle with his staff, and then slammed his hand on the pallet. The purple glow lightly suffused the containers. As Ororo took into the air, Remy used the pallet to leap up, as the Triads rushed into the space in the fog. She caught his wrist, climbing up to the roof and through a skylight moments before the chemicals went up in a massive fireball. Smoke and flames erupted into the air, and the concessive blast scythed down the Triad like wheat.
In the confusion, it was a simple measure to alight on the roof of a nearby building and let Jubilee catch up with them. The warehouse burned brightly as the firetrucks pulled in, trying to sort the chaos. As Jubilee joined them, Remy took the Bloodstone, turning it over in his hands before handing it back.
"Let's hope de others had an easy time of it, neh?"
