Group - Unlucky Shenanigans

[xp-blackcat.livejournal.com]

X-Force learns that the mutant slave ring is making a shipment and Artie goes under cover to smoke them out. Felicia has similar plans. Featuring exploding fire hydrants and certain people in officer uniforms. You're welcome!


Over the smell of engine grease and dust was a layer of unwashed bodies, blood and hints of piss and vomit and alcohol and Artie swore he was going to fucking cut that woman if she came over his side of the room again, crying about needing a drink. He sat sullenly against a wall, hat pulled down over his ears and an old, stained Goodwill coat on, still zippered despite being indoors. The room, large as it was, held another two dozen mutants. Most homeless. Half drugged, half straight. All of them the minor, low powered sort that made an operation like this safe. He was as cowed as the rest - they'd made an example of a girl with half-grown skeletons of butterfly wings, iridescent skin and long, long fingers, breaking the bones in her wings one at a time when they'd been brought in, the promise of cash work vanishing. Stupid, to break someone as valuable as her. She was pretty and pretty sold. They should have made an example of the middle aged woman, who stalked around the room shaking, asking over and over "do you anything to drink? I need a drink. I need it."

She cycled back to his side of the room, asked again and he hissed at her, teeth bared, tongue visible.

The door opened and a figure slipped through, shutting it again quickly with hardly a sound but for the click of the one way lock sliding back into place. When she turned around, her face was confused a moment before her eyes rolled northward. "Fuck me," Felicia uttered, raking her fingers through her hair in frustration. Scanning the room, she rubbed at her face, removing the colour from her lips, pulling the eyeliner around her eyes down in a half-hazard smudge. Her jacket came next, balled up and thrown out of sight, as she settled onto the floor.

Luckily, the group seemed to either be too confused or out of it to move away, and so when the door reopened - a tall, ugly man with a permanent sneer - she didn't seem too set apart. He scanned the room suspiciously, several times and always pausing on Felicia and a few others, but as if slightly pained; it was obvious that so many mutants came through here, and with no real reason to get to know them, he wasn't entirely sure if they were new or not.

Felicia tensed as he moved to step into the room and started counting heads

;

Across the alley from the garage, a small figure was perched on a roof. There was little to see of her, given she was wrapped in so many layers barely any skin was visible, and she held a set of night-vision binoculars to the eye slit in her balaclava. As she watched the goings-on in the garage, she sighed and activated her comms.

"Looks like we've got potential trouble. New player, now, and the call in for shots fired should be arriving any minute. Stand by and wait on Facade's signal."

There was a brief burst of static followed quickly by Wanda's voice. "Copy that but we have a slight problem. We are perhaps ten minutes, maybe fifteen tops, ahead of the real police. I think our hand is being forced if we want to beat them to the punch."

At that moment, a nondescript police cruiser pulled up to the curb in front of the building. Wanda and North exited the front of the car, sporting police uniforms that would have fooled even another cop. Which had been the point. Wanda nodded her head towards the building before she scanned the area. No outside guards on their end yet but the real police were not far behind.

She trailed behind North as he went to the door, guarding his back as he banged loudly on it.

"Police! Open up!" He yelled, the mildly irritated expression he was sporting hidden behind reflective aviators.

There was a loud scuffle from inside before the door inched open. The German man shoved his fingers into the gap and pushed it open the rest of the way as he shouldered his way in. "Thank you for inviting us in."

;

The banging on the door caught Felicia and the thug's attention in unison, her head shooting up at the same time he paused mid-step and quickly shut the door. Felicia pulled back her sleeve, revealing a small wrist detonator, which she flicked open.

"New plan, nice people. Make a fuck ton of noise!"

Artie had been waiting for something. This wasn't quite it but, when it Rome... He'd faded into the wall before the fire cracker went off and a moment later, illusory flames burst out of the trash cans and began to spread up the wall. The illusion didn't have to last long - it only took moments for the chaos of being locked into a burning building to spread. He grabbed Felicia by the shoulder and pulled her back against the wall as the firecracker after firecracker rang out.

;

North had someone in a headlock and was using the man as a shield against another guard. But Wanda whirled to the left, her attention drawn away from the brawl by the sound of explosions. "Pretty sure I found them," she deadpanned into her ear piece, moving towards the heavy door that stood between her and what she assumed was the hostages.

She dropped into a full out run as she gathered not only speed but chaos and entropy to her. Red energy crackled and arced as Wanda let it loose right as she lowered her shoulder and hit the door full on.

It should have broken her shoulder or at the very least sent her careening backwards. But the explosions on the other side of the door had weakened the structure enough for her powers to manipulate things to her favor. Instead of a broken collarbone, the door frame cracked and the door flew backwards with Wanda on top of it ... and some unfortunate bastard right underneath.

She landed hard and her arm screamed in warning as she rolled as best she could with the room a riot of blurred faces, fire and the twitching hand of the man under the door.

;

Amanda grinned under her balaclava as she watched Wanda and North make their entrance, but her attention was soon caught by the advancing sirens and lights. "Better speed it up," she warned. "Fuzz incoming. I'll see what I can do to slow them down."

She sounded more confident than she felt - since the world had been put back together with the Xorn equivalent of duct tape, Amanda's connection to the city had been... iffy. "C'mon, old girl, be nice," she muttered as she let out her breath slowly and let herself drop slightly into the surface of the roof. Nothing dramatic, just a blocked off street or something that would slow them down...

There was a rumble from the street below as a fire hydrant shuddered and abruptly exploded into the air, a geyser of water pluming twenty feet into the air.

"That's your idea of nice?" Amanda complained out loud as she watched the water cascade down across the street, mixing with the last slush of winter and mud and basically making a huge mess. "Fine, fine, I'll take it. But we're having Words later."

;

Carried in the mass of people all running for escape, Felicia's gaze caught on Wanda, turning her head to keep her in sight as she passed. The officer - a loose term, she seemed to be standing on someone with the door, and Felicia was fairly certain that was not by any book - gestured the people past her, and Felicia felt her hand grabbed by Artie, pulling her along. They were shoving through the corridor now, and her eyes narrowed, moments from pulling out of his grasp and using the panic to slip away, when they seemed to purposely pause at a man, North, carelessly tossing a thug aside.

“What-?”

His gaze lingered on her for only an extra second before he jerked his chin meaningfully at the open door. "Squad car by the door," he said shortly, letting out a sharp whistle to get Wanda's attention above the commotion before shoving his knee into another thug's face and whirling away to crowd them out the door.

"Get in and keep your heads down," he ordered, jogging around to slide into the driver's seat and dropping a quick sit-rep into the comms. "We should probably go now."

The gravity of his words were punctuated with a pair of real police cars came around the corner, lights flashing. The street was a mess of escaped mutants, muscle for hire and a persistent faulty fire hydrant and it was all too easy for Felicia to nudge things her way. Hand on the door of the car, she watched as the two cruisers suddenly lost control, sliding into the mud and getting stuck, the officers inside yelling at each other in debate of whether they should try to push the cars out now and risk losing the suspects or with the suspects inside, adding their weight.

Felicia slid into the back seat, folding her hands into her lap with a smug smile.

"Time to go while our lucky friend in the back has them occupied," Wanda said, closing the passenger door right as North slammed on the gas. She twisted around in the seat so she could grab the small pile of clothes on the floor. "So - Felicia, yes?" she continued, voice casual as she started to change out of the police uniform. They were going to be ditching the car soon and as much as the uniform amused her, she needed to change fast.

Wanda looked back over her shoulder and smiled. "Apologies. I normally introduce myself before taking off my pants in front of someone but time is of the essence. And not to sound too much like a shadowy conspiracy group but we've had our eye on you for a while, Felicia, and we would like to have a friendly chat."

She paused. "I'll probably even wear pants."