For Treason, Act I, Scene v
May. 6th, 2026 01:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsDoug, Scott, Garrison, Amanda, Clint, and Lorna all get together to discuss the aftermath of the attacks and kidnappings, and start to try and figure out how to get them all back.
Doug wasn't sure he'd ever be able to walk into one of these meetings without looking for Pete or Remy. Most days, despite his experience, he still felt like the kid in the room with a bunch of grownups. Today, though, he was very aware of being all too close to 40 years old, and he was feeling all of them. He gripped the edge of the table and leaned forward, meeting each set of eyes around it.
"Okay. We know who hit us, and who they took. Logan seemed pretty damn sure that it was Weapon X, which meshes with who they targeted." He was tempted to make a quip about going to war with Canada, or at least the Weapon X shaped portion of it, but that seemed unnecessarily glib. It didn't need to be said that they were going to get their people back, whatever it took, it was why they were all there.
"First things first, we need to figure out where they are." They couldn't very well mount a rescue without knowing where to go, after all.
"We need to be careful. Weapon-X is... nebulous. The Hudsons have possible leads to connections with real government programs. And no, hitting official Canadian facilities isn't an option." Kane said carefully. "Fortunately, that isn't the case in order to get our people back."
Lorna looked around the room and felt the tension in the room. "We asked around at the scene where the two kids were taken, Liam and Laura. Their friends didn't see anything and thought it was a mugging and the couple in the bakery only saw an unmarked van and kids scattering everywhere. And there were no license plates on the van so we couldn't run it." She hated not having more helpful information at the table.
"At least that tells us we're dealing with professionals, that means we know what to expect when we get there." Scott wished it meant that they wouldn't hurt the kids, but everyone around the table knew better, knew what Weapon X were capable of. "We can talk about excising the program from whatever dark holes they've spread to later, for now we need to focus on getting the kids back quickly. We also need to be prepared to face them, or other mutants, we all know what Weapon X can do, so if necessary be ready to take them down and immobilize them. We can sort out whatever the program did later." His gaze shifted over to Kane before nodding, "The program has written a cheque and I intend to cash it, no matter what."
"When are we hitting them?" Marius asked bluntly. He was leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest and relaxed attitude fully absent. The man hadn't moved since his arrival; the only flick of motion was his amber eyes as they tracked from one speaker to another, only to linger with unsettling intensity while the person said their piece. Clearly politics were not his priority.
"As soon as we find them," Amanda replied. Her expression was equally grim, although lacking in the subtle predatory vibe. Instead, fury simmered just below the surface, expressed in her clipped tones. "Topaz, Clea and Megan are working on location spells, but if they start messing with their minds, that's going to make things difficult." Location spells were deeply tied to the connections individuals had, and once that individuality was breached... "The rest of the team is pulling info from every connection we've got."
"Which means I've tapped a couple people who owe me favors in SHIELD and SWORD -- the former for any intel they have on Weapon-X's current functionality and mobility, the latter for any speculative information they might have about what Weapon-X is doing these days. We know they've gone the super soldier route in the past and they've dabbled in psionics as well as cloning and genetic manipulation... but what did they want these people for? And why take them while leaving others they'd already disabled behind?" Clint's fingers tapped silently on the table, his mind half on the problem and half on the phone he had sitting face-up in front of him with a real-time view of eXcal's portal monitoring system visible. "I'll make whatever information my contacts provide available to all of you as soon as I get it and Coulson's already agreed to help facilitate crossing international boarders, though he'll need some assistance from the other side to make sure infil and exfil are clean. I'd normally be down for border hopping, but eXcal's been dealing with mini-incursions lately that seem to be forming a pattern and I'm reluctant to leave it just now. Anything else you need, though, if eXcal can provide it, you've got it."
"Appreciated. The core problem is that no one really knows what Weapon-X is. Just what it does." Kane said, leaning back in his chair. "When it was under Stryker and later Lyman, it had a direction and a command and control we could hit. But the last ten years, every time it has popped up, it's been different leaders, different programs. I think we need to narrow our focus. Treat the specifics of the abduction, locate the most probable location, and hit them hard and fast. If there's a wider leadership, maybe we find them. If not, chasing ghosts just distracts us."
A metal fidget spinner was twirling just above Lorna's palm as the green haired woman contemplated for a moment before speaking, "If - and I mean a pretty strong if - If we need support not from the government, I can reach out to Magneto." Lorna offering this was big, but from what she knew from Weapon X, it might be needed. "Can't guarantee that he will respond but I have my ways of making sure he gets the message." One of the perks of being the baby daughter of a feared mutant.
"If we need to involve Erik then the situation has gotten a whole lot worse than we're dealing with right now. He's a nuke, and pulling him out here will guarantee a war with Canada. Not that an armed incursion into their airspace isn't going to have all sorts of repercussions we'll deal with later." And there would be consequences, too many people knew about the team for them to be able to claim anonymity, but at the same time Weapon-X couldn't have done what they had without some complicity. Hopefully people decided to le the two duke it out, otherwise...well Scott wasn't too worried about a few people having their noses tweaked, he'd deal with that later.
"Garrison's right, let's just focus on the problem in front of us and getting our people back. We only have limited room on the Blackbird, and if we're doing this we need to leave people behind to protect the mansion as well. This one hit us all so talk to your people, let me know who volunteers for the rescue team, and make sure they know how much of a mess they're going to be getting into. We'll pick a final team from the volunteers."
"I've put in a word with Brand. She's providing me with some intel." Kane said, shifting back in his chair. "Weapon-X is a confused group. It is long dead and yet still around. It's a broken agency and yet." Kane said, rubbing his chin. "Protean. We need to keep that in mind."
Looking up from his phone again, his expression grimmer than it was a few moments ago, Clint asked, "Gar, Scott, Amanda - I know there are plans in place for neutralizing each team member if necessary... are they available for the Gex X members as well?"
Amanda glanced at Doug and when he gave the smallest of nods, she sighed and replied: "The Trenchocoats do. Fuck, too many of us - or our classmates - were used as weapons as kids that it would be weird if we didn't. Our methods might be a bit more... permanent than we'd like, tho'. She looked to Garrison and Scott. "The Leather Brigade might have less lethal alternatives."
"Whoa. There are not plans for neutralizing each team member in place. We have some general protocols and frankly some of us are quite good at figuring out weaknesses, but there's no manual with an X on the front with the tactical recipe to upend every member of the mansion." Kane said, firmly quashing that mansion legend that had been going around for decades now. "We can reverse engineer some scenarios based on their DR performance and powers training. The problem is that... if we're correct that this is Weapon-X, people they take have an unfortunate tendency to come back... well, let's just say with a different profile."
Scott's fingers thrummed against the top of the table, a momentary pause in the movement of his fingers creating an uneven beat for a heartbeat before they continued their steady rhythm. "I'm confident that we would be in a position to handle most major threats if we need to or that I can generate guidelines to handle common mutations and their weaknesses. It wouldn't be the first time, but there is no tech designed to incapacitate though, we generally rely on our psychics for that. Regardless of the plans that we have, Garrison's right, Weapon-X has a tendency to throw curveballs into the mix so we'll need to be prepared to adapt on the ground." His gaze swept across the room before he nodded, "If anyone has any information from files or contacts to share get them to me, please, and make sure to get those volunteer lists as soon as you can. We're going to get our people back, and make them regret deciding to poke this sleeping bear."
Doug wasn't sure he'd ever be able to walk into one of these meetings without looking for Pete or Remy. Most days, despite his experience, he still felt like the kid in the room with a bunch of grownups. Today, though, he was very aware of being all too close to 40 years old, and he was feeling all of them. He gripped the edge of the table and leaned forward, meeting each set of eyes around it.
"Okay. We know who hit us, and who they took. Logan seemed pretty damn sure that it was Weapon X, which meshes with who they targeted." He was tempted to make a quip about going to war with Canada, or at least the Weapon X shaped portion of it, but that seemed unnecessarily glib. It didn't need to be said that they were going to get their people back, whatever it took, it was why they were all there.
"First things first, we need to figure out where they are." They couldn't very well mount a rescue without knowing where to go, after all.
"We need to be careful. Weapon-X is... nebulous. The Hudsons have possible leads to connections with real government programs. And no, hitting official Canadian facilities isn't an option." Kane said carefully. "Fortunately, that isn't the case in order to get our people back."
Lorna looked around the room and felt the tension in the room. "We asked around at the scene where the two kids were taken, Liam and Laura. Their friends didn't see anything and thought it was a mugging and the couple in the bakery only saw an unmarked van and kids scattering everywhere. And there were no license plates on the van so we couldn't run it." She hated not having more helpful information at the table.
"At least that tells us we're dealing with professionals, that means we know what to expect when we get there." Scott wished it meant that they wouldn't hurt the kids, but everyone around the table knew better, knew what Weapon X were capable of. "We can talk about excising the program from whatever dark holes they've spread to later, for now we need to focus on getting the kids back quickly. We also need to be prepared to face them, or other mutants, we all know what Weapon X can do, so if necessary be ready to take them down and immobilize them. We can sort out whatever the program did later." His gaze shifted over to Kane before nodding, "The program has written a cheque and I intend to cash it, no matter what."
"When are we hitting them?" Marius asked bluntly. He was leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest and relaxed attitude fully absent. The man hadn't moved since his arrival; the only flick of motion was his amber eyes as they tracked from one speaker to another, only to linger with unsettling intensity while the person said their piece. Clearly politics were not his priority.
"As soon as we find them," Amanda replied. Her expression was equally grim, although lacking in the subtle predatory vibe. Instead, fury simmered just below the surface, expressed in her clipped tones. "Topaz, Clea and Megan are working on location spells, but if they start messing with their minds, that's going to make things difficult." Location spells were deeply tied to the connections individuals had, and once that individuality was breached... "The rest of the team is pulling info from every connection we've got."
"Which means I've tapped a couple people who owe me favors in SHIELD and SWORD -- the former for any intel they have on Weapon-X's current functionality and mobility, the latter for any speculative information they might have about what Weapon-X is doing these days. We know they've gone the super soldier route in the past and they've dabbled in psionics as well as cloning and genetic manipulation... but what did they want these people for? And why take them while leaving others they'd already disabled behind?" Clint's fingers tapped silently on the table, his mind half on the problem and half on the phone he had sitting face-up in front of him with a real-time view of eXcal's portal monitoring system visible. "I'll make whatever information my contacts provide available to all of you as soon as I get it and Coulson's already agreed to help facilitate crossing international boarders, though he'll need some assistance from the other side to make sure infil and exfil are clean. I'd normally be down for border hopping, but eXcal's been dealing with mini-incursions lately that seem to be forming a pattern and I'm reluctant to leave it just now. Anything else you need, though, if eXcal can provide it, you've got it."
"Appreciated. The core problem is that no one really knows what Weapon-X is. Just what it does." Kane said, leaning back in his chair. "When it was under Stryker and later Lyman, it had a direction and a command and control we could hit. But the last ten years, every time it has popped up, it's been different leaders, different programs. I think we need to narrow our focus. Treat the specifics of the abduction, locate the most probable location, and hit them hard and fast. If there's a wider leadership, maybe we find them. If not, chasing ghosts just distracts us."
A metal fidget spinner was twirling just above Lorna's palm as the green haired woman contemplated for a moment before speaking, "If - and I mean a pretty strong if - If we need support not from the government, I can reach out to Magneto." Lorna offering this was big, but from what she knew from Weapon X, it might be needed. "Can't guarantee that he will respond but I have my ways of making sure he gets the message." One of the perks of being the baby daughter of a feared mutant.
"If we need to involve Erik then the situation has gotten a whole lot worse than we're dealing with right now. He's a nuke, and pulling him out here will guarantee a war with Canada. Not that an armed incursion into their airspace isn't going to have all sorts of repercussions we'll deal with later." And there would be consequences, too many people knew about the team for them to be able to claim anonymity, but at the same time Weapon-X couldn't have done what they had without some complicity. Hopefully people decided to le the two duke it out, otherwise...well Scott wasn't too worried about a few people having their noses tweaked, he'd deal with that later.
"Garrison's right, let's just focus on the problem in front of us and getting our people back. We only have limited room on the Blackbird, and if we're doing this we need to leave people behind to protect the mansion as well. This one hit us all so talk to your people, let me know who volunteers for the rescue team, and make sure they know how much of a mess they're going to be getting into. We'll pick a final team from the volunteers."
"I've put in a word with Brand. She's providing me with some intel." Kane said, shifting back in his chair. "Weapon-X is a confused group. It is long dead and yet still around. It's a broken agency and yet." Kane said, rubbing his chin. "Protean. We need to keep that in mind."
Looking up from his phone again, his expression grimmer than it was a few moments ago, Clint asked, "Gar, Scott, Amanda - I know there are plans in place for neutralizing each team member if necessary... are they available for the Gex X members as well?"
Amanda glanced at Doug and when he gave the smallest of nods, she sighed and replied: "The Trenchocoats do. Fuck, too many of us - or our classmates - were used as weapons as kids that it would be weird if we didn't. Our methods might be a bit more... permanent than we'd like, tho'. She looked to Garrison and Scott. "The Leather Brigade might have less lethal alternatives."
"Whoa. There are not plans for neutralizing each team member in place. We have some general protocols and frankly some of us are quite good at figuring out weaknesses, but there's no manual with an X on the front with the tactical recipe to upend every member of the mansion." Kane said, firmly quashing that mansion legend that had been going around for decades now. "We can reverse engineer some scenarios based on their DR performance and powers training. The problem is that... if we're correct that this is Weapon-X, people they take have an unfortunate tendency to come back... well, let's just say with a different profile."
Scott's fingers thrummed against the top of the table, a momentary pause in the movement of his fingers creating an uneven beat for a heartbeat before they continued their steady rhythm. "I'm confident that we would be in a position to handle most major threats if we need to or that I can generate guidelines to handle common mutations and their weaknesses. It wouldn't be the first time, but there is no tech designed to incapacitate though, we generally rely on our psychics for that. Regardless of the plans that we have, Garrison's right, Weapon-X has a tendency to throw curveballs into the mix so we'll need to be prepared to adapt on the ground." His gaze swept across the room before he nodded, "If anyone has any information from files or contacts to share get them to me, please, and make sure to get those volunteer lists as soon as you can. We're going to get our people back, and make them regret deciding to poke this sleeping bear."
