Little Paper Dolls: Plan of Attack

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

A few members of X-Force (and guest Jean Grey for medical and psi-support) gather to discuss a plan for extracting Emma Frost's clones from a scary secret Canadian mountaintop base.



Wade was the last person to pile into the conference room X-Force used for mission briefings and debriefings. He brought doughnuts, which he slid onto the middle of the table around which everyone was seated. "So," he said, voice almost cheerful as he raised his eyebrows. "I hear we're taking a trip to Canadialand. The part I'm particularly familiar with. Can I get some more deets so I know whether we're packing snowshoes, bathing suits, or sniper rifles?"

"None of the above," responded Emma. "Our informants, as many small arms as we can hide on our persons, as much telepathic firepower as we can manage and a modicum of luck. I would like this to be as quiet an infiltration as we can manage, with the option of blowing our way back out the doors and walls if it turns out that this is the not even subtle trap that it feels like." Emma's mask dropped for a second as she grimaced and then it smoothed again, showing nothing.

Jean glanced around the room for a moment before rubbing the back of her neck. She felt a bit like Florence Nightingale on a mission with a team of James Bonds.

"I'll prep the jet for potential triage conditions. If there is a heavy amount of casualties I may require assistance in treating injuries. Hopefully it won't come to that. As for the psionic assistance. I'll do whatever you need."

They knew who she was if they even glanced at an X-Men mission report, and they knew what her moral stance was on killing, so she didn't need to spell it out. The idea experimenting on psionics had horrible implications.

"I took a first aid course back at the Agency," Dom said, her mouth half-full of Boston Creme. It was delicious. Luckily she decided to chew and swallow the rest of her treat before continuing. "But I think I'm probably better on the guns 'n luck front. And maybe blowing up buildings, if it comes to that."

"Once we have a layout." Marie-Ange glanced at Wade. "I can run scouting, as long as someone can get me a good picture of a guard. At least I can clear the way ahead of us, and get us a short warning if this is a trap. The prediction..." She outright frowned, and rubbed at her face, the migraine aftermath had not quite cleared. "Warned against fire."

"Ready oil and open flame light your way to wealth," Doug murmured, shaking his head. He tapped his fingers against the wood of the table. "So we go in the direct route, like we don't even suspect a trap, and then we spring it back on whoever tries to spring it on us?" At least they had luck and precognition on their side.

"Okay," Wade said, nodding easily. Give me something more than 'Alberta' to work with — we've got coordinates or...?" He trailed off, eyes flicking from one person in the know to another.

"I can get us there easy enough, assuming it's somewhere accessible by road. Also, if anyone wants more small arms and/or blades than they currently have on-hand, let's powwow after the meeting's done."

"We have coordinates," replied Emma. "Between Doug, Marie-Ange and I, we were able to triangulate down from what I picked up from the... message and Marie-Ange's rather cryptic clues for Doug to do some work on surveillance satellite footage. If Doug would be kind enough to bring up the pictures on everyone's screens, you can see the compound we're going to be breaking into. You might also note the words "forest" and "snowy" as useful descriptors."

"Bring your wooly undies," Doug advised with a small grin before getting to the business at hand.

"Okay, so. Likely entry points highlighted in blue, what looks to be a power substation circled in red for the 'blowing up buildings if it comes to that' portion of the plan."

The security footage was on the grainy side, so he'd had to make a few educated guesses as to the purposes of some of the structures.

"Patrol routes of guards are sketched in yellow, as best as I can determine them." As the overlays came over the grayscale pictures, he continued to point out features, what he thought might be weak points to be exploited and so forth.

The rundown was exhaustive and long. It was a good thing there were donuts. When Doug had finally finished his walkthrough and all the usual questions had been asked and answered there was nothing left to do but make the preparations for departure.

"Anybody know any good places to buy longjohns?" Dom asked as she stood and stretched.

"Aw, who am I kidding... Amazon, here I come."