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xp_logsAs the chaos spreads, a team goes into the Security Rooms to shut down the systems, and trigger a mansion evacuation.
"Full disclosure," Gabriel said as he, Kurt and Sooraya made their way toward the mansion's security and communication rooms. "I am still not really sure what a nanite is. Hoping that doesn't stop our progress, just thought I should... get that out of the way."
Of course, failing to understand an enemy had been par for the course since Gabriel had arrived at Xavier's, and it hadn't stopped him from figuring out how to expel alt-dimension zombies half a decade ago. The deja vu, actually, was powerful. Here they were, confronting a foreign threat that had burrowed into the mansion's core. And here he was, all these years later, feeling remarkably clueless.
"So, you know," he said after a second. "If either of you have a college-level education that could help us come up with a plan... speak up."
"I've read the report about this guy and his nanites in the past, but I'm still working on getting the full picture. Thing is, those nanites do something with us if I remember everything. I don't know if that's also true when I am in sand form, but we better watch ourselves in that." Sooraya stated as they turned a final hallway.
"As well as every piece of technology in here, until we shut it down", Kurt said grimly. "I suspect anything that can move will be trying to stop us."
"Great." Gabriel sighed. He briefly weighed pinching the bridge of his nose in the hopes it'd help him come up with a plan. But he knew that was a thing that only ever happened in movies; a cinematic gesture rarely performed candidly in real life. "Well, between the sand and the poof and the speed, maybe we can at least out-move them. Or confuse them. Or something. Once we get in."
"... that is going to be a challenge" Sooraya replied as she took in the state of the door. Wires sparked where they touched each other and some equipment that looked like Danger Room practice weapons had been incorporated in the weird metal structure that covered the door. "I wonder if he thought of the ventilation system..."
"That might be worth trying in your sand form", Kurt agreed. "Especially as you do not need to breathe and are harder to hurt in that shape. I would assume he has thought of it, however."
"Well, the others are supposed to be taking care of him," Gabriel said. "So hopefully he's a little distra—" He was cut off by the whir of a panel. On hearing it, he powered up and immediately dove for the ground, and a dart of some kind flew past just where he'd been standing.
The dart flying past her had Sooraya explode in a cloud of sand automatically as a defense mechanism and a tendril of sand lashed out to block a second dart. When no third dart launched, she dropped it and shifted back to her normal form. "Well, that was a bust." With that she cautiously approached the wall a little closer and started examining it for ventilation access.
"I know this question has no meaning coming from me, but how long is this gonna take?" Gabriel said as he rose from the floor. "I mean, they know we're out here and this mansion has, like, 400 different ways of trying to kill intruders." He looked to Kurt. "You can't, like, poof us in?"
"Normally, yes." He looked at the sealed door. "But there is no telling what changes he may have made to the inside, and I cannot be sure we would not land in the middle of something solid."
"There..." Sooraya rose from where she had crouched to examine the floor. "It's tiny, but there is ventilation access there. If I remember correctly, it connects to one of the larger pipes in the ceiling and from there it's not hard to get in the room." After a moment she added: " As long as the nanites haven't blocked things of or succeed in some kind of attack. But aside from this door, it's the alternative entrance I know of."
"When you say tiny", Kurt asked, "would either Gabriel or I fit in there? At least enough to see into the larger pipe, so I can be sure of teleporting safely?"
"Hmm..." Sooraya quickly scanned Kurt and Gabriel. "You might just fit in the larger ones, but it'd be a tight fit. The tiny one... not gonna work. But you might be able to poof in the larger one from the central access point... I think it's about two hallways back?"
"Two of us, teleporting into an air duct. Great." Gabriel couldn't hide his displeasure at the idea. But he had no alternatives. "Guess it's as good of a plan as any." He looked at Kurt. "You think it'll work? No time like the present."
"I think it is the best idea we have, lacking any way to cut through that door." He nodded to himself. "Sooraya, you go in through the small one and we will meet up with you inside."
Sooraya nodded. "I'll see if I can secure the entrance into the control room while you make your way there." Almost immediately she dissolved into a cloud of sand again, diving to the floor almost immediately to enter the small grate there.
Kurt wriggled out of the end of the ventilation duct, dropped into the room beyond, and instantly had to duck as a live wire flew at his head. "Dust? Where are you?"
A cloud of sand quickly rose from the floor and reformed into Sooraya, only completely made of sand. Quickly she whirled around, blocked a metal bar that was suddenly launched from the opposite wall with her body. A few seconds later it harmlessly fell to the floor and she shifted into flesh. "Here. To borrow Lorna... 'welcome to the nuthouse.' You better use the eyes on your back in here."
Gabriel grunted as his feet hit the floor, his eyes immediately darting around the room. "We have to shut this shit down." A computer monitor glitched out near him, then suddenly a Bluetooth-enabled coffee mug flew toward his head. He held his hand up to block it, but the thing still hurt as it slammed into his knuckles. "Fuck," he winced. The mug thudded to the ground, apparently shatter-proof. He immediately began trying to break it apart with his feet. "Who thought this was a good idea?"
"I may well advocate going lower tech after this", Kurt agreed dryly, trying to get further into the room. "Dust, would it be too dangerous for you to get into these systems and try to short them out?"
"Short them out, I don't know. But I can cause enough damage to shut them down, I think.." Sooraya quickly surveyed the room for another suitable access point. "I can already picture Cyclops' face though..." Once more she dissolved into a plume of sand and moved over towards one of the main access panels.
"I think Cyclops will understand, given the circumstances." Dodging more assaults from flying objects, he started cautiously making his way towards the power sockets on the wall.
Gabriel was barely monitoring the conversation. To his left, more monitors was shorting, sparks exploding. To his right, a printer was practically unraveling, hurling parts in the air toward him. He jumped back to avoid a projectile and then yowled in pain as a live wire, loosened by some nanite shenanigans, brushed his skin. "Shit!" He instinctively pulled away from the shock. "Watch your step."
Kurt, with all available limbs shielding his head and face, had reached the wall he had his eye on, and began yanking out plugs as fast as he could.
While she knew her way around the ventilation shafts of the mansion pretty well, Dust definitely didn't know her way inside the various consoles. Still, she recognized the various disks and focused on all the wires, tiny tendrils of sand ripping through them at top speed as she felt her way through the consoles. It was impossible to see outside though and she just hoped it was working as she envisioned.
"God, this is bullshit." Frustrated, Gabriel grabbed a printer that was ejecting toner cartridges at him off the desk, yanking it from its plug. He amped up his powers and ran it around the room, in some half-thought-out attempt to burn out its internal clock — did printers have internal clocks, of that he wasn't sure — then dropped it on the floor.
The machine exploded, and though Gabriel couldn't entirely be sure why, he hoped it would bring some nanites with it.
Kurt ducked under the flying pieces that shot in his direction, and slapped one three-fingered hand on the big red button when suddenly all the chaos around them... stopped, all the machines shutting down.
"...Dust? I think your work is done."
It took Sooraya a moment to realize what Nightcrawler was talking about and she quickly pulled away from the delicate systems. "I don't think that was me... but at least it's over..." She took a moment to look over the mess they had created. "Well, this is gonna be fun to clean up. Anyone got a broom?"
"Full disclosure," Gabriel said as he, Kurt and Sooraya made their way toward the mansion's security and communication rooms. "I am still not really sure what a nanite is. Hoping that doesn't stop our progress, just thought I should... get that out of the way."
Of course, failing to understand an enemy had been par for the course since Gabriel had arrived at Xavier's, and it hadn't stopped him from figuring out how to expel alt-dimension zombies half a decade ago. The deja vu, actually, was powerful. Here they were, confronting a foreign threat that had burrowed into the mansion's core. And here he was, all these years later, feeling remarkably clueless.
"So, you know," he said after a second. "If either of you have a college-level education that could help us come up with a plan... speak up."
"I've read the report about this guy and his nanites in the past, but I'm still working on getting the full picture. Thing is, those nanites do something with us if I remember everything. I don't know if that's also true when I am in sand form, but we better watch ourselves in that." Sooraya stated as they turned a final hallway.
"As well as every piece of technology in here, until we shut it down", Kurt said grimly. "I suspect anything that can move will be trying to stop us."
"Great." Gabriel sighed. He briefly weighed pinching the bridge of his nose in the hopes it'd help him come up with a plan. But he knew that was a thing that only ever happened in movies; a cinematic gesture rarely performed candidly in real life. "Well, between the sand and the poof and the speed, maybe we can at least out-move them. Or confuse them. Or something. Once we get in."
"... that is going to be a challenge" Sooraya replied as she took in the state of the door. Wires sparked where they touched each other and some equipment that looked like Danger Room practice weapons had been incorporated in the weird metal structure that covered the door. "I wonder if he thought of the ventilation system..."
"That might be worth trying in your sand form", Kurt agreed. "Especially as you do not need to breathe and are harder to hurt in that shape. I would assume he has thought of it, however."
"Well, the others are supposed to be taking care of him," Gabriel said. "So hopefully he's a little distra—" He was cut off by the whir of a panel. On hearing it, he powered up and immediately dove for the ground, and a dart of some kind flew past just where he'd been standing.
The dart flying past her had Sooraya explode in a cloud of sand automatically as a defense mechanism and a tendril of sand lashed out to block a second dart. When no third dart launched, she dropped it and shifted back to her normal form. "Well, that was a bust." With that she cautiously approached the wall a little closer and started examining it for ventilation access.
"I know this question has no meaning coming from me, but how long is this gonna take?" Gabriel said as he rose from the floor. "I mean, they know we're out here and this mansion has, like, 400 different ways of trying to kill intruders." He looked to Kurt. "You can't, like, poof us in?"
"Normally, yes." He looked at the sealed door. "But there is no telling what changes he may have made to the inside, and I cannot be sure we would not land in the middle of something solid."
"There..." Sooraya rose from where she had crouched to examine the floor. "It's tiny, but there is ventilation access there. If I remember correctly, it connects to one of the larger pipes in the ceiling and from there it's not hard to get in the room." After a moment she added: " As long as the nanites haven't blocked things of or succeed in some kind of attack. But aside from this door, it's the alternative entrance I know of."
"When you say tiny", Kurt asked, "would either Gabriel or I fit in there? At least enough to see into the larger pipe, so I can be sure of teleporting safely?"
"Hmm..." Sooraya quickly scanned Kurt and Gabriel. "You might just fit in the larger ones, but it'd be a tight fit. The tiny one... not gonna work. But you might be able to poof in the larger one from the central access point... I think it's about two hallways back?"
"Two of us, teleporting into an air duct. Great." Gabriel couldn't hide his displeasure at the idea. But he had no alternatives. "Guess it's as good of a plan as any." He looked at Kurt. "You think it'll work? No time like the present."
"I think it is the best idea we have, lacking any way to cut through that door." He nodded to himself. "Sooraya, you go in through the small one and we will meet up with you inside."
Sooraya nodded. "I'll see if I can secure the entrance into the control room while you make your way there." Almost immediately she dissolved into a cloud of sand again, diving to the floor almost immediately to enter the small grate there.
Kurt wriggled out of the end of the ventilation duct, dropped into the room beyond, and instantly had to duck as a live wire flew at his head. "Dust? Where are you?"
A cloud of sand quickly rose from the floor and reformed into Sooraya, only completely made of sand. Quickly she whirled around, blocked a metal bar that was suddenly launched from the opposite wall with her body. A few seconds later it harmlessly fell to the floor and she shifted into flesh. "Here. To borrow Lorna... 'welcome to the nuthouse.' You better use the eyes on your back in here."
Gabriel grunted as his feet hit the floor, his eyes immediately darting around the room. "We have to shut this shit down." A computer monitor glitched out near him, then suddenly a Bluetooth-enabled coffee mug flew toward his head. He held his hand up to block it, but the thing still hurt as it slammed into his knuckles. "Fuck," he winced. The mug thudded to the ground, apparently shatter-proof. He immediately began trying to break it apart with his feet. "Who thought this was a good idea?"
"I may well advocate going lower tech after this", Kurt agreed dryly, trying to get further into the room. "Dust, would it be too dangerous for you to get into these systems and try to short them out?"
"Short them out, I don't know. But I can cause enough damage to shut them down, I think.." Sooraya quickly surveyed the room for another suitable access point. "I can already picture Cyclops' face though..." Once more she dissolved into a plume of sand and moved over towards one of the main access panels.
"I think Cyclops will understand, given the circumstances." Dodging more assaults from flying objects, he started cautiously making his way towards the power sockets on the wall.
Gabriel was barely monitoring the conversation. To his left, more monitors was shorting, sparks exploding. To his right, a printer was practically unraveling, hurling parts in the air toward him. He jumped back to avoid a projectile and then yowled in pain as a live wire, loosened by some nanite shenanigans, brushed his skin. "Shit!" He instinctively pulled away from the shock. "Watch your step."
Kurt, with all available limbs shielding his head and face, had reached the wall he had his eye on, and began yanking out plugs as fast as he could.
While she knew her way around the ventilation shafts of the mansion pretty well, Dust definitely didn't know her way inside the various consoles. Still, she recognized the various disks and focused on all the wires, tiny tendrils of sand ripping through them at top speed as she felt her way through the consoles. It was impossible to see outside though and she just hoped it was working as she envisioned.
"God, this is bullshit." Frustrated, Gabriel grabbed a printer that was ejecting toner cartridges at him off the desk, yanking it from its plug. He amped up his powers and ran it around the room, in some half-thought-out attempt to burn out its internal clock — did printers have internal clocks, of that he wasn't sure — then dropped it on the floor.
The machine exploded, and though Gabriel couldn't entirely be sure why, he hoped it would bring some nanites with it.
Kurt ducked under the flying pieces that shot in his direction, and slapped one three-fingered hand on the big red button when suddenly all the chaos around them... stopped, all the machines shutting down.
"...Dust? I think your work is done."
It took Sooraya a moment to realize what Nightcrawler was talking about and she quickly pulled away from the delicate systems. "I don't think that was me... but at least it's over..." She took a moment to look over the mess they had created. "Well, this is gonna be fun to clean up. Anyone got a broom?"
