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xp_logsDown to the last defenders, who run into the same fate.
“Bulow. It’s over.” The clipped professional no nonsense voice carried through the darkened room. Doug and Artie were now offline as well. The figure moved carefully into the room, her MP5 pushed to the end of the sling, every step measured and purposeful. She paused and sighed.
“If you’re going to ambush me, can we get just get started? I’m on a timetable.”
"From your reputation, you should know better," Natasha said from out of the darkness. She was situated behind one of the heavy metal cabinets that were in this room, angled with a decent enough sightline to the door. It wasn't the best and the Clint in her head was already bitching up a storm about that and not being up high enough. Night vision sunglasses allowed her a clearer look into the depths of the room. She gripped two high caliber handguns and strapped to her back was a submachine gun along with a shotgun. They'd come prepared.
The dim light did Marie-Ange no favours - her power required sight, she would make nothing but shadows without it, but she had stashed several knives, the long-handled black blades up under her coat and strapped to her leg. Shadows were useful, not quite as useful as a nice solid image of a spear or a giant bird, but still useful, and she roughened the floor with them, using the dark corners of the room to make the floor a puzzle of lumpy black.
Shadows that Felicia used, sliding out from behind Mary to wrap around her, claws extended. Luck powers; good for making people pay attention, and looking the other way. "Hello, big fan."
"Wish I could say the same, but I have no idea who you are." Mary sounded unperturbed at the claws Felicia had at her throat. "Sorry about this." She suddenly jerked her head back, aiming to headbutt Felicia in the face, at the same time grabbing the mutant by the wrist and twisting it sharply.
Felicia hissed in pain, managing to mostly avoid the headbutt but in her vanity now pinned by her wrist. "No, it's fair. Just know that I was going to seduce your skin care secrets out of you but the plan has taken a more beating it out of you turn." Making a sharp stomp at the bridge of Mary's foot - she'd likely be wearing heavy toes on her boots given the military precision of her actions so far - Felicia yanked free her trapped wrist with her other hand through the weak point in Mary's grasp and stumbled back.
Once Felicia was clear, Natasha unloaded several short bursts of gunfire at Mary and trailed them in the likely direction she would run. It destroyed her night vision, hopefully only temporarily as she waited for the tech to recalibrate. Maybe it was enough for Marie-Ange to do something. Natasha was good in close quarters but with everything that complicated this op distance seemed the better way to play this situation. If it came to it, she had some tricks up her own sleeves.
Once the sharp pops of gunfire ceased, the shadows and obstacles parted to make way for Marie-Ange. She'd kept back, muscles coiled and ready, one knife angled along her arm. She signaled to Natasha, one hand up and one sharp whistle, and then slid in low to slice at the back of Mary's knees.
Mary had rolled away from Natasha's gunfire and was just back on her feet when Marie-Ange came at her. She managed to turn and avoid the hamstring slash, but felt the knife slide along her calf, cutting through her combat pants and into the flesh. A hiss escaped her and she shifted her weight onto the uninjured leg. Her response was quick and brutal - she rammed the butt of the gun that was still hanging from its cradle across her body downwards at Marie-Ange.
The strike came at exactly the right place to send a harsh burst of pain up and down Marie-Ange's arm. She dropped the knife, fingers shocked numb and slipped backwards, pulling herself behind one of the misshapen lumps she'd copied from the shadows.
It was only luck that allowed Felicia to manage to find some proper cover with only a whisper of a bullet as Mary turned her clubbing weapon outwards, though maybe better luck would have been Mary not having figured out she'd have to maim this group before a quick kill would be an option. This sort of fight was not Felicia's forte; she was sneak attack to down or kill when she attacked at all, and if had been just her, she'd already be making for the air vent she'd spotted earlier.
Instead, it was a blind throw of tiny shock buttons - stolen tech from Natasha - though if she probably wouldn't mind did it still even count as stolen?
Mary reacted impossibly fast, sweeping aside the shock buttons with her arm and sending them flying at Marie-Ange. Her shield blocked some, but as they released their electrical currents, the image crumbled into ectoplasm and left her wide open. The remaining buttons hit her in several places.
Marie-Ange was all the worse for having taken cover behind one of her own images. The ectoplasm did nothing to resist the taser-like bursts, and her quasi-psionic connection to every active image magnified the pain a dozen times over. It did not matter if most of the shock buttons bounced off the shield, they activated none the less. The lumpy black flooring, Marie-Ange's knives, the dull grey spear that she'd readied to throw all vanished at once as she went to the ground, blood staining her mouth where she had bitten through her lip.
Close quarters, darkness, and friendly fire were not the ideal situation to be in. Natasha quickly holstered her guns and moved for cover next to another one of cabinets in the room. She weaved through several ectoplasm images as they disappeared. The situation was going to shit. Their effort to get Mary cornered and captured was falling apart fast. Natasha pushed back the bracers covering her wrists and aimed the poison prongs at Mary. It wasn't ideal, She'd still prefer to use a knife with a coated blade but the faster this ended the better. She flicked her wrists, unleashing the poison stingers.
"I don't think so." Mary saw Natasha rushing at her and grabbed Felicia, using her momentum to swing the other woman around between herself and the Russian.
Felicia's eyes widened in surprise as the poison hit, then rolled, blinking hard to focus. "Well fuck-" she managed to utter, the flippant tone stark against the wild panic on her face. Her claws drew, a muscle twitch, and she grabbed at Mary's throat, thumb trying for an arm of the artery, but barely nicked before her body gave out and she dropped to the floor.
"Shit!" Natasha scrambled for one of the antidote vials tucked into her belt. She'd prepped for something like this but still hadn't expected it to really happen. They might even need more than one vial to counteract the poison coursing through Fi's veins. She backed away from Mary, trying to keep her in sight while reaching for one of the daggers tucked into her boots, but her bracers were now akimbo and getting in the way of everything.
Braced for Natasha's responding attack, Mary took in the scene with an assessing glance. "I'm going to knock you out," she said almost conversationally to Natasha. "But I'll let you take care of your pretty friend first. I'd hate to lose a fan." She hoisted her gun back into place on her shoulder. "Or you could attack me again and she'll die in the meantime. Your call."
"Friend" Natasha said without hesitation. She put her bracers back into place then popped open the pouch on her belt, retrieving two antidote vials. They hadn't tested what two full doses of poison would do to someone and Natasha was more than willing to waste antidote than not give enough. She moved slowly toward Fi then knelt beside her where she pressed both auto-injectors into a leg. She anxiously scanned Fi for a response to the antidote. Relief flooded her as the tortured splay of Fi's body relaxed along with the grimace of pain. At least that wouldn't be on her conscience. She sighed and braced herself for whatever Mary had in store for her. The solid thwack against the back of her skull sent her out cold.
“Bulow. It’s over.” The clipped professional no nonsense voice carried through the darkened room. Doug and Artie were now offline as well. The figure moved carefully into the room, her MP5 pushed to the end of the sling, every step measured and purposeful. She paused and sighed.
“If you’re going to ambush me, can we get just get started? I’m on a timetable.”
"From your reputation, you should know better," Natasha said from out of the darkness. She was situated behind one of the heavy metal cabinets that were in this room, angled with a decent enough sightline to the door. It wasn't the best and the Clint in her head was already bitching up a storm about that and not being up high enough. Night vision sunglasses allowed her a clearer look into the depths of the room. She gripped two high caliber handguns and strapped to her back was a submachine gun along with a shotgun. They'd come prepared.
The dim light did Marie-Ange no favours - her power required sight, she would make nothing but shadows without it, but she had stashed several knives, the long-handled black blades up under her coat and strapped to her leg. Shadows were useful, not quite as useful as a nice solid image of a spear or a giant bird, but still useful, and she roughened the floor with them, using the dark corners of the room to make the floor a puzzle of lumpy black.
Shadows that Felicia used, sliding out from behind Mary to wrap around her, claws extended. Luck powers; good for making people pay attention, and looking the other way. "Hello, big fan."
"Wish I could say the same, but I have no idea who you are." Mary sounded unperturbed at the claws Felicia had at her throat. "Sorry about this." She suddenly jerked her head back, aiming to headbutt Felicia in the face, at the same time grabbing the mutant by the wrist and twisting it sharply.
Felicia hissed in pain, managing to mostly avoid the headbutt but in her vanity now pinned by her wrist. "No, it's fair. Just know that I was going to seduce your skin care secrets out of you but the plan has taken a more beating it out of you turn." Making a sharp stomp at the bridge of Mary's foot - she'd likely be wearing heavy toes on her boots given the military precision of her actions so far - Felicia yanked free her trapped wrist with her other hand through the weak point in Mary's grasp and stumbled back.
Once Felicia was clear, Natasha unloaded several short bursts of gunfire at Mary and trailed them in the likely direction she would run. It destroyed her night vision, hopefully only temporarily as she waited for the tech to recalibrate. Maybe it was enough for Marie-Ange to do something. Natasha was good in close quarters but with everything that complicated this op distance seemed the better way to play this situation. If it came to it, she had some tricks up her own sleeves.
Once the sharp pops of gunfire ceased, the shadows and obstacles parted to make way for Marie-Ange. She'd kept back, muscles coiled and ready, one knife angled along her arm. She signaled to Natasha, one hand up and one sharp whistle, and then slid in low to slice at the back of Mary's knees.
Mary had rolled away from Natasha's gunfire and was just back on her feet when Marie-Ange came at her. She managed to turn and avoid the hamstring slash, but felt the knife slide along her calf, cutting through her combat pants and into the flesh. A hiss escaped her and she shifted her weight onto the uninjured leg. Her response was quick and brutal - she rammed the butt of the gun that was still hanging from its cradle across her body downwards at Marie-Ange.
The strike came at exactly the right place to send a harsh burst of pain up and down Marie-Ange's arm. She dropped the knife, fingers shocked numb and slipped backwards, pulling herself behind one of the misshapen lumps she'd copied from the shadows.
It was only luck that allowed Felicia to manage to find some proper cover with only a whisper of a bullet as Mary turned her clubbing weapon outwards, though maybe better luck would have been Mary not having figured out she'd have to maim this group before a quick kill would be an option. This sort of fight was not Felicia's forte; she was sneak attack to down or kill when she attacked at all, and if had been just her, she'd already be making for the air vent she'd spotted earlier.
Instead, it was a blind throw of tiny shock buttons - stolen tech from Natasha - though if she probably wouldn't mind did it still even count as stolen?
Mary reacted impossibly fast, sweeping aside the shock buttons with her arm and sending them flying at Marie-Ange. Her shield blocked some, but as they released their electrical currents, the image crumbled into ectoplasm and left her wide open. The remaining buttons hit her in several places.
Marie-Ange was all the worse for having taken cover behind one of her own images. The ectoplasm did nothing to resist the taser-like bursts, and her quasi-psionic connection to every active image magnified the pain a dozen times over. It did not matter if most of the shock buttons bounced off the shield, they activated none the less. The lumpy black flooring, Marie-Ange's knives, the dull grey spear that she'd readied to throw all vanished at once as she went to the ground, blood staining her mouth where she had bitten through her lip.
Close quarters, darkness, and friendly fire were not the ideal situation to be in. Natasha quickly holstered her guns and moved for cover next to another one of cabinets in the room. She weaved through several ectoplasm images as they disappeared. The situation was going to shit. Their effort to get Mary cornered and captured was falling apart fast. Natasha pushed back the bracers covering her wrists and aimed the poison prongs at Mary. It wasn't ideal, She'd still prefer to use a knife with a coated blade but the faster this ended the better. She flicked her wrists, unleashing the poison stingers.
"I don't think so." Mary saw Natasha rushing at her and grabbed Felicia, using her momentum to swing the other woman around between herself and the Russian.
Felicia's eyes widened in surprise as the poison hit, then rolled, blinking hard to focus. "Well fuck-" she managed to utter, the flippant tone stark against the wild panic on her face. Her claws drew, a muscle twitch, and she grabbed at Mary's throat, thumb trying for an arm of the artery, but barely nicked before her body gave out and she dropped to the floor.
"Shit!" Natasha scrambled for one of the antidote vials tucked into her belt. She'd prepped for something like this but still hadn't expected it to really happen. They might even need more than one vial to counteract the poison coursing through Fi's veins. She backed away from Mary, trying to keep her in sight while reaching for one of the daggers tucked into her boots, but her bracers were now akimbo and getting in the way of everything.
Braced for Natasha's responding attack, Mary took in the scene with an assessing glance. "I'm going to knock you out," she said almost conversationally to Natasha. "But I'll let you take care of your pretty friend first. I'd hate to lose a fan." She hoisted her gun back into place on her shoulder. "Or you could attack me again and she'll die in the meantime. Your call."
"Friend" Natasha said without hesitation. She put her bracers back into place then popped open the pouch on her belt, retrieving two antidote vials. They hadn't tested what two full doses of poison would do to someone and Natasha was more than willing to waste antidote than not give enough. She moved slowly toward Fi then knelt beside her where she pressed both auto-injectors into a leg. She anxiously scanned Fi for a response to the antidote. Relief flooded her as the tortured splay of Fi's body relaxed along with the grimace of pain. At least that wouldn't be on her conscience. She sighed and braced herself for whatever Mary had in store for her. The solid thwack against the back of her skull sent her out cold.
