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xp_logsFollowing the burn notice, X-Force gathers at the mansion to figure out what to do next.
All of X-Force, minus a recovering North, were finally huddled up in one of the mansion parlors. Unlike her usual meeting setup of tea, pastry and laptop, Marie-Ange had a water bottle, and notebook, curled up in an armchair with her feet tucked up underneath her. "I have good news, we have a plan. I also have bad news, we are all going to be very close neighbors for the next week to two weeks. Worse news, no one gets their phones back until we get Jasmine Destine back and John Sublime dealt with."
“Wait! No, I need my phone, it’s my baby,” Jubilee protested as she looked up from the joke she’d been tapping out to one of her contacts in Malaysia. “What if someone has an emergency?”
Darcy let out a squawk of dismay almost at the same time as Jubes. Her tunes. And her wordle streak! And ugh, the pocket camp events. "Just our phones?" She could deal with that, it was.. okay, it wasn't fine. Being without her phone made her almost as uncomfortable as not having an extra hair tie or forgetting her glasses or contacts. She could function without them, but it made everything more obnoxious and difficult.
"Low tech until we figure out how badly we're up a creek, and can get out from under it." Low tech didn't mean no tech, but Doug was definitely wishing for his laptop a bit already. "That means strictly prepaid burner phones, cash only. And for those of you who haven't already, hand the phones over." His and Marie-Ange's were already stashed in the small Faraday cage he'd put in the office.
“You all are focusing on the wrong thing,” Gabe said flatly. He reached into his pocket but pulled out a vape instead of his phone. “What do you mean one to two weeks?”
"That's where the plan comes in," Amanda announced from her perch on the arm of Marie-Ange's chair. "We can't just hunker down here - there's too much chance of there being blowback on the mansion itself. So we're going proactive and getting our people back, plus any info they might have shared."
A few more taps and some short scribbles on the notepad in front of her had Darcy powering down her phone and nudging it towards Doug. "Alright, so we're going somewhere, and we're doing it low-tech. Where and how? What's the plan here, and are we all going together or splitting up to cause confusion? I assume flying is out, since air cyber security isn't nearly as good as airports would like us to believe."
"Our best chance of catching Sublime out is in public, oddly enough. And based on his erratic social media, he's planning some kind of announcement at Burning Man in Nevada. We've got eight days to get to him beforehand." Kevin said, looking up from his notes.
"And that means we have to get all of us from here to Nevada, without being tracked. Darcy, yes, no flying, and no trains." Marie-Ange reached over the arm of her chair, and pulled a spiral bound map book out. "We get to drive. From here to Nevada."
Wanda stood up from her own chair to peer over Marie-Ange's shoulder, her eyes following the route that was being traced out. "That explains the one to two weeks," she said, nodding. "Which is if nothing happens to our transportation during the trip. Plotting a safe route will be more difficult on low to no tech - doable, though. I've done these kinds of trips before, with uncle and the family. Hopefully, the most dangerous thing we have to worry about is cabin fever, especially if Jubilee can't text."
Artie projected a large interstate map against the wall so everyone could see and sighed audibly. "What's the route?" He'd memorised the paper copy once, years ago and fuck, google was off limits. He added a couple of routes in different colours. "Weather is going to suck, regardless." That came out of his synthesizer as most of the eyes were now pointed at the map. "And timing is going to suck, too."
"Burning Man, huh?" There was a flicker of recognition in Doug's eyes at the mention of the annual festival. "Hm." He considered his own mental atlas, flicking his eyes down to the one Marie-Ange had in front of her to check his thoughts against it. "Most direct route is probably I-80 from here in New York, through Chicago and the plains all the way to Reno. That passes closest to Black Rock." He frowned a bit, tapping a finger against his lips. "But most direct might not be what we want. The clinic our person was investigating is in Vegas, right?" He started tracing another route more south from Chicago, down through Missouri and Oklahoma. "If we want to just blend in with a lot of other people doing road trips..."
He chuckled. "Get your kicks on Route 66."
Topaz, with no phone and no tablet and no laptop, was scribbling notes in her notebook, as she did when she needed to do something but had no other way of contributing. She looked up, raising an eyebrow at Doug. "I'm sure that's just a reference I don't get, but the map says I-40."
Doug's eyes flashed over to Kevin, who had probably forgotten more about the history of US Route 66 than Doug knew, but he was in the talking seat for the moment, so. "US Route 66 was the main thoroughfare from Chicago to LA starting in the '20s and lasting through to the '50s when the Interstate Highway Act was signed. The route got slowly taken over by what is now largely I-40, but in the '80s associations sprung up to preserve and restore historic parts of the route and buildings along it, leading to a lot of 'Historic Route 66' signage being put up along it."
He leaned back in his chair, enjoying the chance to go on about an interesting topic. "Lots of people still use it to travel, either vacationing or moving. In a lot of ways, if the Oregon Trail is the track of westward expansion in the 1800s, Route 66 is the track of the early to mid 1900s."
He grinned. "Probably with less dysentery, though."
"Probably is still some. I'm already going to be two weeks in a car with all of you and no phone or higher tech than an analog watch, let's not invoke dysentery. It's going to be tough enough keeping stress induced psychotic murder spree off the agenda," Felicia dryly added, continuing before a possible lecture. "Look, I'm going, but I need to get all my complaining out now and I didn't want to interrupt the actual brief."
"Hold that thought." Sarah held up a hand, leaning lazily against the back wall. "I might have a guy who can get us cars for cash, if that's the kind of transportation we're looking for. Can't promise he won't overcharge us, but I might be able to convince him to be reasonable."
Marie-Ange pointed at Sarah - and then Jubilee. "Good, because I had already put you on the list for our transportation crew. Artie too." She ticked off a line on her notepad. "Doug, Darcy, Natasha, technology please. Felicia, Wanda, both of you on financials. We operate in cash and gift cards. I absolutely do not want any details."
Wanda and Felicia glanced at each other and just smiled. "Neither will be an issue," Wanda said to Marie-Ange.
Artie raised a hand to direct eyes toward himself before signing. "I'll get on set dressing as well as bikes. There's some thrift stores full of college kid junk and between that and the stuff in the attics here I can kit us out as cyber hippies."
"Ooh, can I help you with attic trawling?" Darcy gave Artie her best pleading face as she asked. "I know there's some older tech up there, I saw it when I was cleaning out the last of Collins' shit a bit ago. I'll bring it down and you can repurpose anything that we -" she indicated herself and Doug, then gestured towards Natasha "- can't or won't waste time to modify for team use."
Artie nodded. "I'll go over it all with you and rope in one of the tech types to help us with it and with programming the laser rigs."
"Which leaves Topaz and I on research - U-Corps, Sublime, Burning Man and everything in between," Amanda chimed in. “Old school, so library trawling, internet cafes and actually talking to people. In between prepping some glamours for if we need to hide our faces out of Artie's range. We all can't shapeshift, after all." Amanda glanced over at Kevin with a smirk.
"Burning Man has an extensive website." Marie-Ange offered. "We do not have a great deal of time, grab burner phones for the duration. As soon as we have vehicles and know they are reliable, I want us on the road, so expect to be ready to go sooner than later."
"I'll modify what I can to send with you and anything that needs more time for modifications I'll pack on the plane when Emma and I fly in. We have to look all official and all. Can't have the head of Frost Enterprises not come well protected," Natasha said. Her role as bodyguard was amusing as most wouldn't consider her much of a threat at first glance. Appearances were always going to be deceiving and arriving with Emma Frost was going to require an entrance befitting her station. "Perfect cover for anything extra to bring and schelp off to the camps once I get the chance."
Marie-Ange nodded at Natasha. "Yes, you are also on emergency exit duty. If this goes horribly, you have the best route out, come back here and coordinate with North. He is staying at the mansion, laying low and keeping the fires lit, so to speak." She was still ticking items off on her notepad as she spoke. "That leaves coordinating with our resident car mechanics and laying in supplies. I would say text me your grocery lists but as we said, low tech. Write them down, please do not make me guess. I am estimating four days of travel, so you have two days to get us ready to leave."
"Make sure you get everything you need. Get everything wired up tight." Kevin said. "You won't like it if I have to turn this convoy around..."
Marie-Ange puts Jubilee in charge of the transportation.
Everyone had started to scatter, but Marie-Ange waved Jubilee over towards the armchairs and table that she and Kevin had taken over earlier. "Mourn your phone for a little while, but said I said, I have a job for you."
“I’m all ears,” Jubilee noted, slinging herself into one of the armchairs in an artistic slouch that could only be called indolent in its intensity. “You’re not sending me to Phnom Penh, are you? Because my hair hates the humidity there. I was sticky almost 24/7 last time. It sucked.”
"Yes, I am sending you on a complete side mission that ignores the entire mission statement I just gave." Marie-Ange was too tired to take Jubilee's obvious teasing as what it was. "No, do not remind me you are joking. I have not slept yet. I know, I am just tired. After this, I take a long nap and then go shopping. I need you to lead the vehicles team. We have thirteen people to get from here to Nevada. Talk to me about what you think you could acquire in less than a day."
“Easy on the cars, that’s Sarah all over and she just totally voluntold herself. RV might take a moment but if you’re willing to not ask me a lot of questions, I know a guy who plays mahjong in Columbus Park who could probably get what we need with a few words in the right ears. We’re gonna need to do some rebuilds though, mansion wonks should be able to help with that tho. Molly and Scott, that new guy Forge.”
Jubilee had been making lists in her head as she spoke, an internal Gantt chart spooling itself out in her mind.
“Do we have any leeway on the time, or do you literally want them in the next few hours?”
"As fast as you can get them because as you said, rebuilds. My next stop is Scott, Molly, and Daniel LoneEagle." She couldn't bring himself to call him Forge yet. "And Clint Barton, and anyone else who likes cars and engines. If I have to, I will give them the cars after we are back as a present. I need them reliable and boring." Marie-Ange said. "If that means bringing one car at a time, I trust you to make that decision. I think we can all drive stick shift, if not, find out who cannot. I will have Emma put the skill in their heads."
“Telepath acquired skills for the win! I still think we missed the boat actually studying for our degrees there.” Jubilee noted, ignoring the fact that she technically hadn't finished the study she was supposed to have done for her own degree. She'd get there eventually, when it mattered, which wasn't right now. “I gotchu. Leave everything to me.”
All of X-Force, minus a recovering North, were finally huddled up in one of the mansion parlors. Unlike her usual meeting setup of tea, pastry and laptop, Marie-Ange had a water bottle, and notebook, curled up in an armchair with her feet tucked up underneath her. "I have good news, we have a plan. I also have bad news, we are all going to be very close neighbors for the next week to two weeks. Worse news, no one gets their phones back until we get Jasmine Destine back and John Sublime dealt with."
“Wait! No, I need my phone, it’s my baby,” Jubilee protested as she looked up from the joke she’d been tapping out to one of her contacts in Malaysia. “What if someone has an emergency?”
Darcy let out a squawk of dismay almost at the same time as Jubes. Her tunes. And her wordle streak! And ugh, the pocket camp events. "Just our phones?" She could deal with that, it was.. okay, it wasn't fine. Being without her phone made her almost as uncomfortable as not having an extra hair tie or forgetting her glasses or contacts. She could function without them, but it made everything more obnoxious and difficult.
"Low tech until we figure out how badly we're up a creek, and can get out from under it." Low tech didn't mean no tech, but Doug was definitely wishing for his laptop a bit already. "That means strictly prepaid burner phones, cash only. And for those of you who haven't already, hand the phones over." His and Marie-Ange's were already stashed in the small Faraday cage he'd put in the office.
“You all are focusing on the wrong thing,” Gabe said flatly. He reached into his pocket but pulled out a vape instead of his phone. “What do you mean one to two weeks?”
"That's where the plan comes in," Amanda announced from her perch on the arm of Marie-Ange's chair. "We can't just hunker down here - there's too much chance of there being blowback on the mansion itself. So we're going proactive and getting our people back, plus any info they might have shared."
A few more taps and some short scribbles on the notepad in front of her had Darcy powering down her phone and nudging it towards Doug. "Alright, so we're going somewhere, and we're doing it low-tech. Where and how? What's the plan here, and are we all going together or splitting up to cause confusion? I assume flying is out, since air cyber security isn't nearly as good as airports would like us to believe."
"Our best chance of catching Sublime out is in public, oddly enough. And based on his erratic social media, he's planning some kind of announcement at Burning Man in Nevada. We've got eight days to get to him beforehand." Kevin said, looking up from his notes.
"And that means we have to get all of us from here to Nevada, without being tracked. Darcy, yes, no flying, and no trains." Marie-Ange reached over the arm of her chair, and pulled a spiral bound map book out. "We get to drive. From here to Nevada."
Wanda stood up from her own chair to peer over Marie-Ange's shoulder, her eyes following the route that was being traced out. "That explains the one to two weeks," she said, nodding. "Which is if nothing happens to our transportation during the trip. Plotting a safe route will be more difficult on low to no tech - doable, though. I've done these kinds of trips before, with uncle and the family. Hopefully, the most dangerous thing we have to worry about is cabin fever, especially if Jubilee can't text."
Artie projected a large interstate map against the wall so everyone could see and sighed audibly. "What's the route?" He'd memorised the paper copy once, years ago and fuck, google was off limits. He added a couple of routes in different colours. "Weather is going to suck, regardless." That came out of his synthesizer as most of the eyes were now pointed at the map. "And timing is going to suck, too."
"Burning Man, huh?" There was a flicker of recognition in Doug's eyes at the mention of the annual festival. "Hm." He considered his own mental atlas, flicking his eyes down to the one Marie-Ange had in front of her to check his thoughts against it. "Most direct route is probably I-80 from here in New York, through Chicago and the plains all the way to Reno. That passes closest to Black Rock." He frowned a bit, tapping a finger against his lips. "But most direct might not be what we want. The clinic our person was investigating is in Vegas, right?" He started tracing another route more south from Chicago, down through Missouri and Oklahoma. "If we want to just blend in with a lot of other people doing road trips..."
He chuckled. "Get your kicks on Route 66."
Topaz, with no phone and no tablet and no laptop, was scribbling notes in her notebook, as she did when she needed to do something but had no other way of contributing. She looked up, raising an eyebrow at Doug. "I'm sure that's just a reference I don't get, but the map says I-40."
Doug's eyes flashed over to Kevin, who had probably forgotten more about the history of US Route 66 than Doug knew, but he was in the talking seat for the moment, so. "US Route 66 was the main thoroughfare from Chicago to LA starting in the '20s and lasting through to the '50s when the Interstate Highway Act was signed. The route got slowly taken over by what is now largely I-40, but in the '80s associations sprung up to preserve and restore historic parts of the route and buildings along it, leading to a lot of 'Historic Route 66' signage being put up along it."
He leaned back in his chair, enjoying the chance to go on about an interesting topic. "Lots of people still use it to travel, either vacationing or moving. In a lot of ways, if the Oregon Trail is the track of westward expansion in the 1800s, Route 66 is the track of the early to mid 1900s."
He grinned. "Probably with less dysentery, though."
"Probably is still some. I'm already going to be two weeks in a car with all of you and no phone or higher tech than an analog watch, let's not invoke dysentery. It's going to be tough enough keeping stress induced psychotic murder spree off the agenda," Felicia dryly added, continuing before a possible lecture. "Look, I'm going, but I need to get all my complaining out now and I didn't want to interrupt the actual brief."
"Hold that thought." Sarah held up a hand, leaning lazily against the back wall. "I might have a guy who can get us cars for cash, if that's the kind of transportation we're looking for. Can't promise he won't overcharge us, but I might be able to convince him to be reasonable."
Marie-Ange pointed at Sarah - and then Jubilee. "Good, because I had already put you on the list for our transportation crew. Artie too." She ticked off a line on her notepad. "Doug, Darcy, Natasha, technology please. Felicia, Wanda, both of you on financials. We operate in cash and gift cards. I absolutely do not want any details."
Wanda and Felicia glanced at each other and just smiled. "Neither will be an issue," Wanda said to Marie-Ange.
Artie raised a hand to direct eyes toward himself before signing. "I'll get on set dressing as well as bikes. There's some thrift stores full of college kid junk and between that and the stuff in the attics here I can kit us out as cyber hippies."
"Ooh, can I help you with attic trawling?" Darcy gave Artie her best pleading face as she asked. "I know there's some older tech up there, I saw it when I was cleaning out the last of Collins' shit a bit ago. I'll bring it down and you can repurpose anything that we -" she indicated herself and Doug, then gestured towards Natasha "- can't or won't waste time to modify for team use."
Artie nodded. "I'll go over it all with you and rope in one of the tech types to help us with it and with programming the laser rigs."
"Which leaves Topaz and I on research - U-Corps, Sublime, Burning Man and everything in between," Amanda chimed in. “Old school, so library trawling, internet cafes and actually talking to people. In between prepping some glamours for if we need to hide our faces out of Artie's range. We all can't shapeshift, after all." Amanda glanced over at Kevin with a smirk.
"Burning Man has an extensive website." Marie-Ange offered. "We do not have a great deal of time, grab burner phones for the duration. As soon as we have vehicles and know they are reliable, I want us on the road, so expect to be ready to go sooner than later."
"I'll modify what I can to send with you and anything that needs more time for modifications I'll pack on the plane when Emma and I fly in. We have to look all official and all. Can't have the head of Frost Enterprises not come well protected," Natasha said. Her role as bodyguard was amusing as most wouldn't consider her much of a threat at first glance. Appearances were always going to be deceiving and arriving with Emma Frost was going to require an entrance befitting her station. "Perfect cover for anything extra to bring and schelp off to the camps once I get the chance."
Marie-Ange nodded at Natasha. "Yes, you are also on emergency exit duty. If this goes horribly, you have the best route out, come back here and coordinate with North. He is staying at the mansion, laying low and keeping the fires lit, so to speak." She was still ticking items off on her notepad as she spoke. "That leaves coordinating with our resident car mechanics and laying in supplies. I would say text me your grocery lists but as we said, low tech. Write them down, please do not make me guess. I am estimating four days of travel, so you have two days to get us ready to leave."
"Make sure you get everything you need. Get everything wired up tight." Kevin said. "You won't like it if I have to turn this convoy around..."
Marie-Ange puts Jubilee in charge of the transportation.
Everyone had started to scatter, but Marie-Ange waved Jubilee over towards the armchairs and table that she and Kevin had taken over earlier. "Mourn your phone for a little while, but said I said, I have a job for you."
“I’m all ears,” Jubilee noted, slinging herself into one of the armchairs in an artistic slouch that could only be called indolent in its intensity. “You’re not sending me to Phnom Penh, are you? Because my hair hates the humidity there. I was sticky almost 24/7 last time. It sucked.”
"Yes, I am sending you on a complete side mission that ignores the entire mission statement I just gave." Marie-Ange was too tired to take Jubilee's obvious teasing as what it was. "No, do not remind me you are joking. I have not slept yet. I know, I am just tired. After this, I take a long nap and then go shopping. I need you to lead the vehicles team. We have thirteen people to get from here to Nevada. Talk to me about what you think you could acquire in less than a day."
“Easy on the cars, that’s Sarah all over and she just totally voluntold herself. RV might take a moment but if you’re willing to not ask me a lot of questions, I know a guy who plays mahjong in Columbus Park who could probably get what we need with a few words in the right ears. We’re gonna need to do some rebuilds though, mansion wonks should be able to help with that tho. Molly and Scott, that new guy Forge.”
Jubilee had been making lists in her head as she spoke, an internal Gantt chart spooling itself out in her mind.
“Do we have any leeway on the time, or do you literally want them in the next few hours?”
"As fast as you can get them because as you said, rebuilds. My next stop is Scott, Molly, and Daniel LoneEagle." She couldn't bring himself to call him Forge yet. "And Clint Barton, and anyone else who likes cars and engines. If I have to, I will give them the cars after we are back as a present. I need them reliable and boring." Marie-Ange said. "If that means bringing one car at a time, I trust you to make that decision. I think we can all drive stick shift, if not, find out who cannot. I will have Emma put the skill in their heads."
“Telepath acquired skills for the win! I still think we missed the boat actually studying for our degrees there.” Jubilee noted, ignoring the fact that she technically hadn't finished the study she was supposed to have done for her own degree. She'd get there eventually, when it mattered, which wasn't right now. “I gotchu. Leave everything to me.”
