xp_logs | Operation: Mad Men

X-Force goes after the revealed HELIOS; a nuclear bomb set in the middle of the city.

They had been closing on the last location when the revelation regarding the true nature of HELIOS had been revealed; a 1965 nuclear bomb capable of leveling a substantial amount of New York City and killing millions which the Russians had planted but then lost first control of and then knowledge about during the ongoing restructuring following the purge of Khrushchev. It had sat idle and forgotten for over fifty years; a fatal poison pill in the middle of one of the world’s greatest cities.

"At least we know we had the right building," Amanda quipped as they arrived at the building on Water Street. "Bomb's in the basement, probably guarded - what's the plan?"

Doug shrugged. "I was kind of thinking of going with the Edna Mode classic: 'go, confront the problem, fight, win!'" He grinned. "I mean, it's got simplicity going for it. But we know the Sapien League has a bomb here, and it's certainly guarded. Pound faces, disarm bomb. Because I would definitely rather not re-enact that Judgment Day flashback from Terminator."

"There's bound to be security on the building," Dom said, pulling out a small, robust tablet from her bag and balancing it on the nearest segment of waist-high wall. "We can get an idea of the layout and how many people we're up against and go from there. There's no point in being quiet about it - we can be pretty sure they won't trigger it until their people are safe so the quicker we can get in there the better. Anyone want to volunteer to be a distraction?"

"I guess I volunteer as tribute. As if I really had a choice," Gabriel said, every bit as resigned as those words suggested. As if being in the Financial District wasn't frustrating enough, now he'd have to be the canary in this homicidal coal mine. Go figure. "Though if I'm going to run in — and I do mean run, this is going to be a speed operation, because, come on — I could use a little help." He looked at Artie. "If you don't mind."

Artie nodded, signing "What do you need?"

"Oh, god, am I coming up with this plan?" Gabriel sighed. "I guess I can run around, knocking a bunch of shit over, maybe punching someone and pretending to be a ghost or some shit, but they'll inevitably start firing bullets at me or whatever, because, hello. So anything you can do to, you know, make it harder for me to get shot at? You're a creative guy."

"I can go in with you," Amanda offered. "'Port in, 'port out... Between the two of us, we should be able to get the lie of the land." She grinned. "And since there's a bomb involved, I think I can get New York to cook up some fog as cover."

Doug fished out a small electronic brick a bit larger than a phone out of one of the pouches on his vest. He thumbed a sequence of buttons and waited for the indicators to flash. "And I've got the electronic version - any cameras in there have just all gone static. They might think there's someone out here, but if they've got any monitors they won't be seeing where you're coming from."

"Right, so. Let's make them think there's a whole fucking army on their doorstep - with any luck the smart ones will get the hell out of Dodge and leave us to it. The less smart ones... I'll take care of those." Dom closed her tablet cover and shoved it back into her bag. "Let's get in position; I'll broadcast rough plans of the building and we'll go from there. You're with me, Bomb Boy," she added, nodding to Doug.

***

Twilight was gathering along Water Street, and along with it came tendrils of fog rising from the river, despite the clear weather. The fog crept up the steps of their target building, seeping in under the door and through window frames and gathered inside the rooms, a damp haze that smelled vaguely of cabbage and garbage. On the roof where she was crouched by the air conditioning unit, one hand shoved into the concrete up to her wrist, Amanda activated her comm. "Ground floor should have enough cover for you to go in," she reported. "Facade, you're up. They're going to need more than just the fog to get past the guards on the door. I'll start clearing things from the top down."

Artie nodded and gave a two beat of 'yes' over the comms, before taking a breath to centre himself and twitching slightly to feel the location of each of his weapons against his body. This was always the hardest part. Flames lit up down the street, illusion backed by by reality as real smoke billowed out around the fake flames. The guards attention shifted and their bodies told Artie that they were discussing whether they should act on the fire or not.

"Operation Commotion is a go," Gabriel fired back on his comms. He cracked his knuckles, because it felt like the kind of thing you did, and because Kevin wasn't around to tell him that being a spy was nothing like it seemed on movies and television. He looked at Amanda, hoping his face hid the churning in his stomach. Since this was half his plan, he was determined not to fuck it up. "Okay, I'll speed up and start to raise hell. Do what I can to grab some guns away from these guys. Maybe do that thing where it looks like a poltergeist is pistol-whipping them." He shrugged. "I'll play it by ear, but there'll be enough chaos that you all can do what you need to." Then he vanished.

"Got it," Dom said. She fidgeted restlessly as she let the seconds tick by; there was no point in breaking in before 'Operation Commotion' commenced, but patience was literally the last thing on her mind right now. "Okay, that's probably long enough, he's super-fast, right?" she muttered to herself after a long pause, reaching for her tablet again. The building's basement only had a single entrance accessible from the outside and it was protected by what appeared to be a relatively new biometric lock; the Sapiens League would probably assume it was safe even after the invasion began.

Hopefully that assumption would ensure they were uninterrupted for as long as possible.

"Right, cover me just in case," she told Doug, pulling the faceplate carefully off the lock and setting it aside. "Here's hoping Speedy is as good a distraction as he claims to be."

"SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO NOW?" Amanda bellowed the lyrics as loud as she could, with the help of some amplification from New York. New York really didn't like the idea of a nuke going off in the middle of it and was cooperating enthusiastically. The off-key Ramones lyrics were doing exactly what was intended - drawing the attention of the guards throughout the building who were now searching the upper floors for apparent ghosts - between Amanda's teleporting, Gabriel's speed and Artie's illusions, things were getting very confusing for them. Still, the guards were professionals, not like the usual rent-a-thugs, and they were starting to close in as they organised their searches.

"Oop!" Amanda popped part-way out of a wall, only to find herself looking down several gun barrels. "Wrong stop!" She pulled herself back in, to re-emerge in an empty bathroom. "Things are getting hot up here," she said into her mic. "How're things your side, Speedy?"

"That still feels a little racist," Gabriel muttered from a middle-floor room as he punched a burly man in the stomach, then grabbed his gun. He turned so he could strike the guy across the face, only to find he was now moving in normal time, which he hadn't been expecting. "Well, shit." He did it anyway, even though it was less satisfying than he'd expected. The man staggered back, and Gabriel felt a moment of pride, until he heard a commotion — and several footsteps — in the hall. "Any chance we can step the hocus pocus up?" He asked into the mic.

Artie took a deep breath - this would hurt, powers strained to the limit - and blinded the men, covering their heads with a globe-like representation of the room, with the lights out, to hide some of the inconsistencies as they moved their heads inside the bubbles. As with VR goggles, there was a subtle shit-aint'-right vibe, but since the lights were out, and Gabriel was essentially invisible, it worked. He flashed a message to Gabriel, text showing near the man's face: "Plan G: The lights are out." He held it all for almost thirty seconds before dropping the illusions to run from his cover to the entry.

Meanwhile, in the basement, Dom and Doug had gotten past the lock and were quickly sweeping the area inside. It was quiet, but a prickle on the back of their necks was all they needed to know that it wasn't time for them to let their guards down yet. The basement was, unsurprisingly, dank and dimly-lit. Dom wrinkled her nose as she edged along the corridor. "This is where they're keeping the nuke that could blow us all to Kingdom Come?"

Any further criticism of the Sapien League's bomb storage techniques was interrupted by the grunt of a burly man lunging out of the nearest doorway at them. They had already been over how guns plus bombs were Bad News and so she resisted the urge to reach for her weapon, instead spinning out of the way and bringing her clasped hands smashing down on the back of his neck. He went down in a heap as Dom sucked in a breath. "Fuck, I know it's effective but it hurts like hell. Kane has a lot to answer for."

Doug had one of his telescoping batons out in case of additional guards, but it seemed like the commotion upstairs had drawn almost everyone to it. Which gave the pair of mutants plenty of time to take in the device before them. "Holy Fourth Protocol, Batman," Doug breathed. It was one thing to know what awaited them, it was another to see the bomb with their own eyes. Even though it was freed of the need of a large missile type delivery system, the nuclear weapon was still a canister a bit larger than a footlocker. And to make matters worse...

Doug chopped off a few guttural syllables of German. "The bomb is set -into- the fucking concrete," he hissed over the comms.

The German swearwords were echoed by Amanda. "Gimme a sec, I might be able to do something..." There was a pause, a thump and a groan and then her voice returned. "You two boys gunna be okay without me? I need to pop down to the basement."

"Please stop distracting me with questions." Gabriel's voice came in a bit fast; he barked his reply in between elbowing one goon in the face and tackling him to the ground. "Warn me if you're about to blow the place up," his voice crackled back in a few seconds later. "I can probably save one of you."

Artie shrugged and swung his baton into one of the other guards's knees and followed with a baton strike to the solar plexus. The man dropped. He couldn't do anything about the bomb so, fuck it, he was going to beat someone up.

Domino and Doug were still inspecting their target when Amanda appeared in the room beside them; Dom had to stop herself from jumping a foot in the air. "Fuck, I'm never going to get used to that," she muttered. "And dibs on the high-speed rescue, by the way. Just thought I'd get that out of the way." She pushed to her feet and gestured at the bomb like it was just a particularly pesky debugging problem. "You think you can get this thing out of the floor?"

"Sorry." Amanda's apology was vague as she squatted by the concrete slab housing the device. "'S bigger than a bag of takeout, but New York really doesn't like the idea of a nuke going off. So let's see if that balances things out." With that, she reached forward and pushed her arms into the concrete either side of the canister, closing her eyes to better meld with the city's 'consciousness'. New York was always a cacophony of noise and lights and smells and activity, a huge Presence in her mind, but lately it was even more so. Too much disruption, too much anger and fear in the wake of M-Day made it harder for Amanda to hold onto herself when she was merged with New York for any length of time. Something this intricate needed her to link more closely with the city than she had for a while.

But as she'd said, New York didn't want to be blown up any more than she did and the mutual goal helped her keep hold of the slender thread of her identity. Slowly the canister began to loosen, and with the city's help Amanda slowly pulled it upwards, until it rested on top of concrete slab instead of being buried in it. With a gasp Amanda let go, managing to push herself backwards on her butt several feet before flopping on the floor. "Well," she said, unaware her voice was echoing with the myriad sounds of the city. "That sucked. Please stop us going kaboom now?"

"There is -not- supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom, yes." Doug was already examining the weapon, trying to suss out what went where by the pattern of colors and wire connectors. The good news was that all he really needed to do was separate the timer from the detonation chain, and then the bomb would be inert. Or as inert as a large metal canister of fissile material could be, anyway. The bad news was he had no idea what sort of 'after market' modifications the Sapien League might have made to it.

He grunted as he traced wires, looking for things that didn't fit the rest of the pattern around them. "What I wouldn't give to have..." His mouth clipped shut. Frankenberry cat. But John Henry Forge could have looked at the thing and instinctively known what to do. "Hell, I'd even take that Russian cuchka derganaya right now." For all that memories of Mastermold still haunted him, he doubted even the technopath would want to be at ground zero of a nuclear explosion.

"Oh well, here we go. Cross your fingers, Dom." At least if he was wrong, it wasn't like they'd have long to regret it. Prying the timer's faceplate loose, Doug pulled it out far enough to expose the wires running to it, and sliced through the whole batch at once with one of his daggers.

A few pregnant seconds passed, then Doug sagged backward to a seated position. "We all still alive? Cool, cool cool. Coolcoolcool," he babbled. "Let's wrap up and get this thing the fuck out of here."

Gabriel made a vague noise of assent between heavy breaths. Getting the fuck away from the bomb seemed like a good idea. But not without some extra reassurance.

He squatted down over the prone body of the last guard he'd brought down and reached into the man's pockets to pull out his phone and his wallet. "Unlocked?" he muttered as he swiped. "Really, motherfucker?" After a few taps he brought the phone to his ear and started rifling through the man's wallet.

"Hi," he said after a few seconds, "is this SHIELD? We've got a bomb in the basement." A beat. "Where am I? Trace the phone. You'll figure it out." He hung up and dropped the phone on the man's stomach .

"Okay," he fired back on his comms as he pulled out a Starbucks card and 38 dollars, "let's roll."