For Treason, Act I, Scene i
May. 2nd, 2026 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsA morning out and about in Salem Center goes quickly awry for Laura and Liam. One minute you’re talking about butts, and the next minute you’re getting flashbanged and abducted.
Downtown Salem. The sidewalk wasn't wide enough for six, so they were three-and-three, and sometimes walking backwards to chatter at each other about the inconsequential things college kids did. Classes. Exams. Who was fucking whom. Hangovers, and pot hangovers and someone's missing thong and failing a quiz because of the hangovers.
Laura turned to walk backwards, neatly dodging one of those kinda useless free-newspaper boxes that littered the sidewalk. "When are you going to talk to Lacy?" She said - watching Liam's expression.
He shrugged, "Why should I?" he asked, "Just 'cause she wants me to ask her out I'm obligated?" Lacy was cute, but she was also kinda... not his type. And that was saying a lot.
"I see. I will tell her to stop asking then." Laura said. Liam was her closest friend and she didn't want him to do anything he didn't want to do. The dating scene was something Laura was not great at, nor did she understand the need for that kind of connection. But she was still curious. "How do you know a type?" Walking beside Liam now.
He shrugged, "It's....I dunno. Your brain just goes 'yes, that,'" he tried to explain. "Like, you like those pants, right? Your brain says they're comfortable or make your butt looks good, or whatever. That's your type." He turned, hearing the roar of an engine approaching.
"Butt looks good?" Laura mumbled to herself as if she was trying to piece together this mystery when her attention was also pulled to the approaching van. "Liam. Run."
The doors of the van were flung open, but instead of anyone leaping out, there was the clink of metal bouncing on pavement and then a burst of light, sound and smoke - a flashbang.
Liam didn't run, he had to help Laura, but he did spin, jumping to see if he could get out of the smoke, coughing. Fine. He'd fight without being able to see much. His claws came out and he swiped at an unfamiliar scent, determined not to make this easy, whatever this was.
Laura was down on her knees coughing from the smoke, ears ringing, and half blinded from the flash. Laura clenched her teeth as she tried to get back her senses. It would be a few seconds before she was able to get back on her feet but already felt a prick. She took out the dart and her vision blurred again, but only for a second as her healing had kicked in. Laura turned to her friends as the smoke cleared, "Go!" Her friends didn't wait for an explanation and scattered. Laura turned back, balling her fists before two claws on each first emerged.
"Shit. Etorphine! Grab the etorphine!" One cried as Laura ran past Liam and charged into the one that had originally shot her, claws digging into his shoulders as she took him down. The element of surprise was gone.
A dart hit Liam moments later, even as he was doing his best to toss these guys at each other, causing as much chaos as possible. It wasn't enough, not even with Laura.
Laura turned towards Liam and she kicked one of the guys in the groin, her bone claw doing more damage than just a kick. "Liam!" She turned but felt her own dart hit her and her vision blurred, then felt another dart and her vision went dark. Laura dropped with a thud as the remaining goon worked against time to administer more drugs before it wore off.
Others stepped in, applying cuffs, restraints, a gag, until Laura was completely immobilized. As she was being picked up and loaded into one of the vans, another of the goons prodded the unconscious Liam with a boot.
"Terminate this one?" he said into his mouthpiece, lifting his gun to the feline teen's temple. There was a long pause, and then the crackling response:
"No, secure and detain. Command wants him."
The gun muzzle was removed and the gloved hand beckoned others over. "Looks like we've got two for one."
-
Jessie and Ashley have had brunch and are going to see a show! Unfortunately, they don’t get there because they are rudely interrupted by kidnappers. And Ashley embiggens.
"Back in the old days of Tumblr, when you went to make a text quote post, they would give you an example from a selection of silly exchanges. Like 'You know what sucks?' and the reply is 'A Vacuum.' Well there was one that was like 'Can you give me directions to an Olive Garden?' and the reply was 'No but I can give you directions to a real Italian restaurant.'"
Jessie made air quotes around "real Italian restaurant" - which is what she and Ashley had just walked out of after getting brunch together. "And it bugged me. Like sir, I didn't ask for directions to a 'real Italian restaurant.' I asked for directions to an Olive Garden because I want unlimited breadsticks and that soup with sausage in it that I'll eat even though I don't like sausage and it's called Toucan Tonya or something like that."
She smacked the side of her left hand into her open right palm as she spoke to emphasize the point. "It's like asking for directions to a Taco Bell and being told 'I can give you directions to a real Mexican restaurant.' That's not what the person asked for, though! Bro just wants a Supreme Crunch Wrap and is instead getting lectured about what counts as authentic Mexican food. No one thinks Taco Bell or Olive Garden or authentic, I promise."
"I mean some people do, have you been to the Mid West?" Ashley said. "Also okay I know we just had dinner but now I kind of want that doritos locos taco." She waved a hand "I know, does it really count if I get the veggie one, I say it does."
"Absolutely it counts," Jessie said with a firm nod. "If you want it, it counts. All food is equal, even pineapple on pizza. Even if I think it's gross. And yes to doritos locos tacos."
She dug her phone out of her pocket to start looking up a Taco Bell. "Hopefully there's one close to the theater..."
"Siri says there's twenty in the city." Ashley said absently, tapping at her phone. "Siri is being a useless bitch right now and is not answering my actual question, which is homophobic." She glared at her phone and sung under her breath "I'm a bitch my name is siri such a bitch my name is siri" and trailed off a little. "ehh, that doesn't quite work as well as I'm a bitch my name is robert..."
"We could start toward the theater and then search Taco Bell near me?" Jessie suggested. "Maybe Siri will be less of a useless bitch after she has time to think about what she's done."
It was early evening on a New York City street, so of course there were people everywhere. Walking down the streets in pairs, on their phones, heads down as they hurried to their destinations. No one was paying attention to the two young women walking down the street, talking rapidly about things only they understood. Nor did they pay attention to the casually dressed man following them.
"I think a Pomsky is the most cursed dog mix in existence. All the energy of a husky in a pom body? But fuck they are cute-"
Jessie cut off abruptly as something sharp hit the back the back of her neck. "Ow! What the... hell..."
Her voice drifted off as she raised suddenly clumsy fingers to feel the dart in the back of her neck. The man calmly walked forward, grabbed her, and swept her into the alley they were standing in front of.
Ashley didn't have the capacity to make a noise and sure as hell didn't have it in her to say something cute or quippy or even profane, she shoved. She shoved the man hard enough that he went into the brick of the building wall, just a little, and she spun to try to pick up Jessie, because Jessie was boneless.
Maybe like a little literally, she looked like her arms and legs were rubbery, greying out and soft and the wrong size for her torso, too broad too long, the wrong color, and Ashley got one arm under her roommate-bestie and then fell back, looking down at her shirt, and the hole, the burn mark, the piece of flattened metal -in- her chest, and tried to stand, Got to her feet, feet -way- too big for her legs, and she stumbled, clumsy, and had to catch herself with her hands.
Jessie's legs were jelly, unable to support her as she collapsed. Her vision was hazy, her hearing muffled. She felt someone who wasn't Ashley picking her up. Her vision spun. And everything went black.
Panic button panic button panic button - Ashley's hands fumbled over the phone, her thumbs felt thick and too big and she couldn't get the button to work right or maybe it did she couldn't tell. Impossible to see the screen through tears and panic and trying to get herself back up to her feet. She slipped, foot sliding out of a ruined shoe that had split it's seams. She pushed up, couldn't make out what the people grabbing Jessie were even saying, it sounded like muffled grunting in her ears. One heroic shove up, one desperate lunge and she had one of the people by the waist, spun, and let go and could hear something - him? hit the side of a car, and the alarm went off, but when she looked up. The alley was empty, the side of the car was dented - and Jessie was gone.
-
Logan takes his motorbike to go get groceries. It’s a lovely morning, right up until the gunfire starts.
They shoulda brought more guys.
10:00AM: Westchester County
The woods around the mansion were brimming with the signs of spring - green misting the trees as leaves budded, wildlife waking from their winter torpidity and filling the air with their chirps and chatterings, the smell of damp earth and rotten leaves from the previous fall... just the right sort of morning to get out the bike, even with the threat of rain, and make a run to the local gas station store for some odds and ends Marie had asked for. Taking the long way around, of course. The motorbike roared into life and the rider grinned at the sound and the prospect of the Westchester back roads ahead of him.
Getting out and having his senses filled with the sights and sounds of places largely untouched by humans was just what the doctor ordered for Logan today. The mansion had its patterns and otherwise hummed along steadily without interruption aside from the occasional X-Men situation. The adrenaline crash of returning from a mission and settling back into the sedate, structured life so that the kids that lived there had stability didn't always wash out of his system fast enough. The bike helped with that and then trips to the cabin when he needed more time to settle back into his skin. Maybe one of those trips needed to be sooner on the horizon than originally expected. It was the perfect time of year for it.
***
"Target spotted, traveling north, alone. Orders? Over."
"Hold. You'll need the full detachment for this one and with his hearing we can't deploy until the last second. If he stops, corner him. Over"
"Affirmative, over and out."
***
He'd stopped at the old familiar gas station countless times over the years so pulling in today was as comfortable as picking up his favorite cigar brand and tugging on his favorite jacket. He'd waved at the guy behind the counter and circled through the aisles. Some beer, some snacks, some household items, some sweets for Marie, and a bouquet of flowers. They'd been busier than he'd like and not spending nearly enough time together. Always something coming up in one way or the other that interrupted their plans or ability to make plans.
Logan hummed to himself under his breath as he paid for the items and nodded his thanks for the bag. The flowers he handled carefully as he shouldered the door open back into the parking lot. There were things he'd like to make a point of getting sorted and back in good repair.
***
"Target on foot. There won't be a better chance. Permission to deploy? Over"
"Deploy. GO! GO! GO!"
***
A rumble, like thunder. A sudden occluding of the spring sunshine. And then several black vans pulled in, disgorging men in black military fatigues, armed with electric prods and sub-automatics, while a half-dozen more swung down from the stealth helicopter that abruptly zoomed in. Several flash bangs were flung at Logan's feet from several directions at once; those were immediately followed by a veritable hail of gunfire as a half-dozen semi-automatics opened fire on the mutant.
Logan had a split second to register the overhead presence before everything went up in a cloud of smoke. He dropped his bag of groceries and instinct had him diving away from the flashbangs. His claws were already sliding free even as he snarled in confusion. The rattle of bullets tearing through his flesh had him roaring in pain as he came up swinging at the nearest target. He couldn't see anything. His hearing was working over time to get rid of the ringing as he swung at anything that came near him.
Where his claws made contact, there were cries of pain and sprays of blood adding to the confusion of sensory inputs. The injured retreated or were dragged back to one of the vans, others filling their places as the gunfire continued and gunsmoke filled the air. Cripple the target, then subdue him with the electric prods and tranquilisers, that was the plan.
It felt like a never ending wave of black suited bodies coming his way. Logan knew the only way out was through. The next highest priority was making sure he didn't get taken in whatever the hell they were planning. This much manpower, this fast, out in the middle of nowhere meant only one thing. He roared as he drove into the fray again. Out, out, out was the only thing ringing in his head. He'd have thoughts for the mansion later. Maybe.
Downtown Salem. The sidewalk wasn't wide enough for six, so they were three-and-three, and sometimes walking backwards to chatter at each other about the inconsequential things college kids did. Classes. Exams. Who was fucking whom. Hangovers, and pot hangovers and someone's missing thong and failing a quiz because of the hangovers.
Laura turned to walk backwards, neatly dodging one of those kinda useless free-newspaper boxes that littered the sidewalk. "When are you going to talk to Lacy?" She said - watching Liam's expression.
He shrugged, "Why should I?" he asked, "Just 'cause she wants me to ask her out I'm obligated?" Lacy was cute, but she was also kinda... not his type. And that was saying a lot.
"I see. I will tell her to stop asking then." Laura said. Liam was her closest friend and she didn't want him to do anything he didn't want to do. The dating scene was something Laura was not great at, nor did she understand the need for that kind of connection. But she was still curious. "How do you know a type?" Walking beside Liam now.
He shrugged, "It's....I dunno. Your brain just goes 'yes, that,'" he tried to explain. "Like, you like those pants, right? Your brain says they're comfortable or make your butt looks good, or whatever. That's your type." He turned, hearing the roar of an engine approaching.
"Butt looks good?" Laura mumbled to herself as if she was trying to piece together this mystery when her attention was also pulled to the approaching van. "Liam. Run."
The doors of the van were flung open, but instead of anyone leaping out, there was the clink of metal bouncing on pavement and then a burst of light, sound and smoke - a flashbang.
Liam didn't run, he had to help Laura, but he did spin, jumping to see if he could get out of the smoke, coughing. Fine. He'd fight without being able to see much. His claws came out and he swiped at an unfamiliar scent, determined not to make this easy, whatever this was.
Laura was down on her knees coughing from the smoke, ears ringing, and half blinded from the flash. Laura clenched her teeth as she tried to get back her senses. It would be a few seconds before she was able to get back on her feet but already felt a prick. She took out the dart and her vision blurred again, but only for a second as her healing had kicked in. Laura turned to her friends as the smoke cleared, "Go!" Her friends didn't wait for an explanation and scattered. Laura turned back, balling her fists before two claws on each first emerged.
"Shit. Etorphine! Grab the etorphine!" One cried as Laura ran past Liam and charged into the one that had originally shot her, claws digging into his shoulders as she took him down. The element of surprise was gone.
A dart hit Liam moments later, even as he was doing his best to toss these guys at each other, causing as much chaos as possible. It wasn't enough, not even with Laura.
Laura turned towards Liam and she kicked one of the guys in the groin, her bone claw doing more damage than just a kick. "Liam!" She turned but felt her own dart hit her and her vision blurred, then felt another dart and her vision went dark. Laura dropped with a thud as the remaining goon worked against time to administer more drugs before it wore off.
Others stepped in, applying cuffs, restraints, a gag, until Laura was completely immobilized. As she was being picked up and loaded into one of the vans, another of the goons prodded the unconscious Liam with a boot.
"Terminate this one?" he said into his mouthpiece, lifting his gun to the feline teen's temple. There was a long pause, and then the crackling response:
"No, secure and detain. Command wants him."
The gun muzzle was removed and the gloved hand beckoned others over. "Looks like we've got two for one."
-
Jessie and Ashley have had brunch and are going to see a show! Unfortunately, they don’t get there because they are rudely interrupted by kidnappers. And Ashley embiggens.
"Back in the old days of Tumblr, when you went to make a text quote post, they would give you an example from a selection of silly exchanges. Like 'You know what sucks?' and the reply is 'A Vacuum.' Well there was one that was like 'Can you give me directions to an Olive Garden?' and the reply was 'No but I can give you directions to a real Italian restaurant.'"
Jessie made air quotes around "real Italian restaurant" - which is what she and Ashley had just walked out of after getting brunch together. "And it bugged me. Like sir, I didn't ask for directions to a 'real Italian restaurant.' I asked for directions to an Olive Garden because I want unlimited breadsticks and that soup with sausage in it that I'll eat even though I don't like sausage and it's called Toucan Tonya or something like that."
She smacked the side of her left hand into her open right palm as she spoke to emphasize the point. "It's like asking for directions to a Taco Bell and being told 'I can give you directions to a real Mexican restaurant.' That's not what the person asked for, though! Bro just wants a Supreme Crunch Wrap and is instead getting lectured about what counts as authentic Mexican food. No one thinks Taco Bell or Olive Garden or authentic, I promise."
"I mean some people do, have you been to the Mid West?" Ashley said. "Also okay I know we just had dinner but now I kind of want that doritos locos taco." She waved a hand "I know, does it really count if I get the veggie one, I say it does."
"Absolutely it counts," Jessie said with a firm nod. "If you want it, it counts. All food is equal, even pineapple on pizza. Even if I think it's gross. And yes to doritos locos tacos."
She dug her phone out of her pocket to start looking up a Taco Bell. "Hopefully there's one close to the theater..."
"Siri says there's twenty in the city." Ashley said absently, tapping at her phone. "Siri is being a useless bitch right now and is not answering my actual question, which is homophobic." She glared at her phone and sung under her breath "I'm a bitch my name is siri such a bitch my name is siri" and trailed off a little. "ehh, that doesn't quite work as well as I'm a bitch my name is robert..."
"We could start toward the theater and then search Taco Bell near me?" Jessie suggested. "Maybe Siri will be less of a useless bitch after she has time to think about what she's done."
It was early evening on a New York City street, so of course there were people everywhere. Walking down the streets in pairs, on their phones, heads down as they hurried to their destinations. No one was paying attention to the two young women walking down the street, talking rapidly about things only they understood. Nor did they pay attention to the casually dressed man following them.
"I think a Pomsky is the most cursed dog mix in existence. All the energy of a husky in a pom body? But fuck they are cute-"
Jessie cut off abruptly as something sharp hit the back the back of her neck. "Ow! What the... hell..."
Her voice drifted off as she raised suddenly clumsy fingers to feel the dart in the back of her neck. The man calmly walked forward, grabbed her, and swept her into the alley they were standing in front of.
Ashley didn't have the capacity to make a noise and sure as hell didn't have it in her to say something cute or quippy or even profane, she shoved. She shoved the man hard enough that he went into the brick of the building wall, just a little, and she spun to try to pick up Jessie, because Jessie was boneless.
Maybe like a little literally, she looked like her arms and legs were rubbery, greying out and soft and the wrong size for her torso, too broad too long, the wrong color, and Ashley got one arm under her roommate-bestie and then fell back, looking down at her shirt, and the hole, the burn mark, the piece of flattened metal -in- her chest, and tried to stand, Got to her feet, feet -way- too big for her legs, and she stumbled, clumsy, and had to catch herself with her hands.
Jessie's legs were jelly, unable to support her as she collapsed. Her vision was hazy, her hearing muffled. She felt someone who wasn't Ashley picking her up. Her vision spun. And everything went black.
Panic button panic button panic button - Ashley's hands fumbled over the phone, her thumbs felt thick and too big and she couldn't get the button to work right or maybe it did she couldn't tell. Impossible to see the screen through tears and panic and trying to get herself back up to her feet. She slipped, foot sliding out of a ruined shoe that had split it's seams. She pushed up, couldn't make out what the people grabbing Jessie were even saying, it sounded like muffled grunting in her ears. One heroic shove up, one desperate lunge and she had one of the people by the waist, spun, and let go and could hear something - him? hit the side of a car, and the alarm went off, but when she looked up. The alley was empty, the side of the car was dented - and Jessie was gone.
-
Logan takes his motorbike to go get groceries. It’s a lovely morning, right up until the gunfire starts.
They shoulda brought more guys.
10:00AM: Westchester County
The woods around the mansion were brimming with the signs of spring - green misting the trees as leaves budded, wildlife waking from their winter torpidity and filling the air with their chirps and chatterings, the smell of damp earth and rotten leaves from the previous fall... just the right sort of morning to get out the bike, even with the threat of rain, and make a run to the local gas station store for some odds and ends Marie had asked for. Taking the long way around, of course. The motorbike roared into life and the rider grinned at the sound and the prospect of the Westchester back roads ahead of him.
Getting out and having his senses filled with the sights and sounds of places largely untouched by humans was just what the doctor ordered for Logan today. The mansion had its patterns and otherwise hummed along steadily without interruption aside from the occasional X-Men situation. The adrenaline crash of returning from a mission and settling back into the sedate, structured life so that the kids that lived there had stability didn't always wash out of his system fast enough. The bike helped with that and then trips to the cabin when he needed more time to settle back into his skin. Maybe one of those trips needed to be sooner on the horizon than originally expected. It was the perfect time of year for it.
***
"Target spotted, traveling north, alone. Orders? Over."
"Hold. You'll need the full detachment for this one and with his hearing we can't deploy until the last second. If he stops, corner him. Over"
"Affirmative, over and out."
***
He'd stopped at the old familiar gas station countless times over the years so pulling in today was as comfortable as picking up his favorite cigar brand and tugging on his favorite jacket. He'd waved at the guy behind the counter and circled through the aisles. Some beer, some snacks, some household items, some sweets for Marie, and a bouquet of flowers. They'd been busier than he'd like and not spending nearly enough time together. Always something coming up in one way or the other that interrupted their plans or ability to make plans.
Logan hummed to himself under his breath as he paid for the items and nodded his thanks for the bag. The flowers he handled carefully as he shouldered the door open back into the parking lot. There were things he'd like to make a point of getting sorted and back in good repair.
***
"Target on foot. There won't be a better chance. Permission to deploy? Over"
"Deploy. GO! GO! GO!"
***
A rumble, like thunder. A sudden occluding of the spring sunshine. And then several black vans pulled in, disgorging men in black military fatigues, armed with electric prods and sub-automatics, while a half-dozen more swung down from the stealth helicopter that abruptly zoomed in. Several flash bangs were flung at Logan's feet from several directions at once; those were immediately followed by a veritable hail of gunfire as a half-dozen semi-automatics opened fire on the mutant.
Logan had a split second to register the overhead presence before everything went up in a cloud of smoke. He dropped his bag of groceries and instinct had him diving away from the flashbangs. His claws were already sliding free even as he snarled in confusion. The rattle of bullets tearing through his flesh had him roaring in pain as he came up swinging at the nearest target. He couldn't see anything. His hearing was working over time to get rid of the ringing as he swung at anything that came near him.
Where his claws made contact, there were cries of pain and sprays of blood adding to the confusion of sensory inputs. The injured retreated or were dragged back to one of the vans, others filling their places as the gunfire continued and gunsmoke filled the air. Cripple the target, then subdue him with the electric prods and tranquilisers, that was the plan.
It felt like a never ending wave of black suited bodies coming his way. Logan knew the only way out was through. The next highest priority was making sure he didn't get taken in whatever the hell they were planning. This much manpower, this fast, out in the middle of nowhere meant only one thing. He roared as he drove into the fray again. Out, out, out was the only thing ringing in his head. He'd have thoughts for the mansion later. Maybe.
