For Treason, Act II, Scene vii
May. 14th, 2026 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_cypher posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsLaura does in fact know who to call, and it is not in fact the Ghostbusters. It’s the dad figure who’s -not- currently being held by shady Canadian jerks.
It was a little after one in the morning and Laura was in the manager's office with a plate full of bacon and eggs and pancakes. When she entered Tim Horton's 20 minutes ago, the lady who owned the establishment immediately took to her. She was cleaned, a jacket was given to hide the mess of her garments, food was ordered, and the owner said it was okay for Laura to use the phone in the manager's office.
She put the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she punched in the number Doug made her memorize. She let it ring twice before hanging up and waiting 10 seconds and then calling it again. She reached over for a handful of bacon and curled up in the seat as she heard the other line pick up, "Hi." She said through a full mouth.
It was even later in New York due to time zones when Doug's phone went off. His sleep schedule was currently in the erratic 'when I can get some' stage, finding bits of downtime during the search for their missing friends. He'd set his phone to a volume he liked to describe as 'wake the fuck up' levels, trusting that if someone called that particular number, it was going to be important. So when the first two rings sounded, it had him halfway to wakefulness. When the ringer began again (a protocol he'd established with the few people who knew the number in the first place), he struggled the rest of the way toward coherence. Even before he was awake, there was a sense of his nanite arm reaching toward the phone, as if the 'friendos' were picking up on the heightened level of urgency everything he did was tinged with right now.
The 'hi' didn't entirely register as any particular person's voice to him yet. "Ramsey, go," he rumbled, his voice still rough.
"Pops, it is me. Laura." The feral said after swallowing a bacon and felt the itching sensation in her head. Ignoring it and picking up the milkshake before taking a long drink from the straw.
The word 'pops' had Doug upright and his adrenaline surging in a heartbeat. This was the break they needed, they were going to get one back, and that meant they would get all of them back. He did his best to hold himself steady, though. There was still the possibility that this could be a trap, or that Laura could be otherwise compromised. He'd taught her some of his verification protocols, the passcodes that would indicate she was herself and not under duress. Nothing as complicated as what he'd exchanged with the time traveling Eleanor Camacho-Wilson-Ramsey-Colbert, but at the least her response should indicate whether it was her or an imposter, and if she thought she was being tracked.
"Vorlon," he said sharply. Who are you?
Laura set down the milkshake and said the next sentence in response, "I'm settled in for the night Pops." It is Laura, Dad, and I am in a safe location. She looked back at the door and then back down at the bacon as she took another piece. "Clouds might be rolling in though." Not sure for how long. I will be missed. They might come looking for me.
She was safe. Doug could feel the weight unclench from around his chest. Now they just needed to get the rest. "Five by five." Heard and understood. "I'm having a package sent your way, but I'm waiting on a pickup." I'm coming to get you as soon as I can, but I need to get transport. "Circle takes the square." It's me, I'm not under duress, it's safe.
Laura finished chewing her bacon before responding, "I'll keep the lights on until noon and then I'll head down." I'll stay where I am until noon but I will start heading south then. That should give her time to get some sleep as she yawned. She was exhausted.
"Won't take near that long. Stay on the line." Doug had been pulling clothes on since realizing who was on the other end of the line, and as he finished pulling his boots on, his nanite hand interfaced with the gun safe he kept in a reinforced nightstand, pulling a back holster and the weapon within out. Dashing down the hall, he stopped at Clarice's door, pounding loud enough to hopefully wake her.
"You think I'm asleep?" Clarice snapped, opening her door as she pulled her hair back, already dressed in the underlayers of a tac suit. She wasn't on a team, she didn't have a uniform, but that didn't mean she wasn't capable or going in. Medical was still needed. And transport. "Where we going?"
"Laura, can you put whoever's phone this is on? Clarice and I can be there in a jiffy." Doug passed his phone to Clarice, checking to make sure he had everything he needed so as to avoid twitching with impatience.
"We'll be there in a minute. Or less," Clarice said, hanging up with one hand as she opened a portal with the other. "Let's get the kid. And ruin so many people's day."
The pair blinked out, and when they reappeared, they were somewhere in central Canada. Outside a Tim Horton's, because of course it would be. Doug rapped his knuckles against the locked entrance, waving to Laura and the manager as they peered out from the office.
Laura was carrying a bag of food and still was munching on some bacon as the manager opened the door. "Alright, sweetheart. You take care, eh.” Laura moved past her and right into Doug wrapping her arms (but still holding her bag of food tightly) as she buried her face into his chest letting the scent hit her.
Doug ran his hand soothingly over Laura's back, holding her just as tightly as she was him. Since she was much shorter than him, he could rest his chin on her head, and from there he could see a patch of hair that had been shaved down and was starting to grow back. The sort of shave job that one gets before some kind of surgery is performed. A tide of rage started to rise from within him, an urge to hurt whoever had done this to her.
"Blink, we need to get back," he said roughly, before turning his gaze to the woman who had taken Laura in. "Thank you." He wasn't sure what else to say that could encompass what she had done.
"Already on it," she agreed, opening a new portal. She smiled as kindly as she could to the lady, "We'll be back later," she promised softly. "We have to deal with this, first."
Doug and Clarice get Laura back to the mansion, and immediately start a debrief with Scott and Garrison. At least there’s coffee.
A purple flash brightened the lobby of the mansion, and when it faded, Doug, Clarice, and Laura stood on the carpet. Doug scanned the vicinity, looking for any of the handful of people he'd texted urgently before departing with Clarice. It had only been a handful of minutes since he received Laura's call, but he hoped someone had woken up.
Scott wished that he could say that late night messages were an uncommon occurrence at the mansion, that he hadn't gotten used to being dragged out of bed for some emergency or the other, but the truth was he couldn't. Stumbling out of bed to deal with situations had become almost a tradition at the mansion now, not that Scott had been able to sleep much recently with Kyle and the others still missing. It was why he was leaning on a doorframe, eyes blinking away the remnants of purple light as his fingers tightened around the mug of coffee in his hands. "Welcome back, there's a fresh pot in the kitchen," his eyes fell on the dark-haired girl with Doug, then we need to talk.""
The familiar scents of the mansion filled her nostrils and the tension from Laura's shoulders released. She held her Horton's bag close as she walked past Scott and into the kitchen to get something to drink to go with the food the nice lady at the restaurant had given her. Now that they were in better light, they all could get a good look of the state she was in. Though she had cleaned most of the blood and dirt off her, there was still some near her hairline, and underneath the thick flannel jacket was once grey sweatpants and sweatshirt that was covered in dried blood, mud, and sweat. Her slip ons, (she wasn't allowed shoe strings due to her using them against a guard a few days prior), were nearly black and falling apart from the long trek through the Canadian Wilderness. Entering the kitchen she put the food bag on the counter and went to pour herself a cup of coffee with lots of creamer before digging into the bag and pulling out a sandwich.
Doug was grateful for the coffee, now that the adrenaline of the phone call and the rush to get Laura were wearing off. He waved Scott in and poured a second cup of coffee to hand to Clarice. "Well, we've got one back."
"It's a start." Kane muttered, taking the pot to pour himself a black coffee before passing it on. "Laura, don't take this the wrong way, but you look like hell. What can you tell us?"
Laura finished chewing from the big bite of the breakfast sandwich. "It is Weapon X. They took us." She looked at the room. "Different doctors, horrible mean doctors. Horrible things to me. I escaped with help from a trainer. I climbed over the walls and ran."
Getting herself coffee, she turned to Scott, "I'm going to the medlab so we're ready to go when you are," she stated, "And I'm coming," team or no team, she wasn't asking.
The X-men's eyes were pools of darkness that glanced over at her, taking in her state with a once over before he nodded at her. "If, and only if, the docs clear you. If they say you stay, then you stay, we lost you once, we're not doing that again. If you want to help the others, we need to know anything you can tell us, future targets, where they're based, anything."" There was no give in his eyes as he shifted his gaze back to Garrison, "Looks like they've got more lives than Logan, I'll let the others know, see if you can reach out to your contacts and find out what's going on."
Laura nodded back at Scott. "Agent X told me to run NorthEast and then to turn South. I ran NorthEast until the sun slipped behind the trees. Then I ran South until I found this." Laura pointed towards the bag, "Then I called pops shortly afterwards." Laura thought about it again. "The time is weird. There was no clocks that I could see. But according to the sun and when I eat lunch last, it was about 2 or 4 in the afternoon when I escaped." Her hand went to the small buzzed spot and the constant itch she felt. "They did something to me. Here."
"You're going to need to let Jean look at that right away." Kane said, leaning back. "I'll put the word out, see what the Hudsons know. But it doesn't make sense, Weapon-X was always at its most aggressive in service to other entities. I wonder if this is some part of what was Weapon-X that's been picked up by some group like AIM."
"C'mon, Laura," Clarice said gently, guiding her towards the elevators. They could teleport, but if she could walk, better to let her. "Let's get you checked out, eat and clean clothes. Then you can finish the debrief," her eyes meet Garrison's, "You've got enough to start working leads for now."
"Get her down there." Kane said, waiting for Clarice to shepherd her into the medlab. He sat down heavily. "Look, even back in the day Weapon-X was decentrealized. How are we going to track them now?"
"You saw the shaved head, right? Let's start there." Doug's hands tightened around his mug. "Five bucks says they put something in her. Maybe we can use that. Or see if she can tell us more about whoever this 'Agent X' person is who helped her escape." He set his mug down and made to try and catch up to Laura and Clarice as they headed to the medlab.
As Laura was led out, coffee and food bag in hand, "They are also planning an attack. A test of sorts for everyone taken and to test our loyalities. I don't know where or what it is, but I know it isn't an escape the room type. They are going to kill."
Doug turned back around to face Garrison and spread his hands in a sleep-deprived 'well there you go' response. "So maybe we don't -have- to track them. We just figure out their likely target list and have a response team ready to turn the tables on them." He yawned. "Either way I need some damn sleep. Night, Kane." And he shuffled off toward the stairs.
It was a little after one in the morning and Laura was in the manager's office with a plate full of bacon and eggs and pancakes. When she entered Tim Horton's 20 minutes ago, the lady who owned the establishment immediately took to her. She was cleaned, a jacket was given to hide the mess of her garments, food was ordered, and the owner said it was okay for Laura to use the phone in the manager's office.
She put the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she punched in the number Doug made her memorize. She let it ring twice before hanging up and waiting 10 seconds and then calling it again. She reached over for a handful of bacon and curled up in the seat as she heard the other line pick up, "Hi." She said through a full mouth.
It was even later in New York due to time zones when Doug's phone went off. His sleep schedule was currently in the erratic 'when I can get some' stage, finding bits of downtime during the search for their missing friends. He'd set his phone to a volume he liked to describe as 'wake the fuck up' levels, trusting that if someone called that particular number, it was going to be important. So when the first two rings sounded, it had him halfway to wakefulness. When the ringer began again (a protocol he'd established with the few people who knew the number in the first place), he struggled the rest of the way toward coherence. Even before he was awake, there was a sense of his nanite arm reaching toward the phone, as if the 'friendos' were picking up on the heightened level of urgency everything he did was tinged with right now.
The 'hi' didn't entirely register as any particular person's voice to him yet. "Ramsey, go," he rumbled, his voice still rough.
"Pops, it is me. Laura." The feral said after swallowing a bacon and felt the itching sensation in her head. Ignoring it and picking up the milkshake before taking a long drink from the straw.
The word 'pops' had Doug upright and his adrenaline surging in a heartbeat. This was the break they needed, they were going to get one back, and that meant they would get all of them back. He did his best to hold himself steady, though. There was still the possibility that this could be a trap, or that Laura could be otherwise compromised. He'd taught her some of his verification protocols, the passcodes that would indicate she was herself and not under duress. Nothing as complicated as what he'd exchanged with the time traveling Eleanor Camacho-Wilson-Ramsey-Colbert, but at the least her response should indicate whether it was her or an imposter, and if she thought she was being tracked.
"Vorlon," he said sharply. Who are you?
Laura set down the milkshake and said the next sentence in response, "I'm settled in for the night Pops." It is Laura, Dad, and I am in a safe location. She looked back at the door and then back down at the bacon as she took another piece. "Clouds might be rolling in though." Not sure for how long. I will be missed. They might come looking for me.
She was safe. Doug could feel the weight unclench from around his chest. Now they just needed to get the rest. "Five by five." Heard and understood. "I'm having a package sent your way, but I'm waiting on a pickup." I'm coming to get you as soon as I can, but I need to get transport. "Circle takes the square." It's me, I'm not under duress, it's safe.
Laura finished chewing her bacon before responding, "I'll keep the lights on until noon and then I'll head down." I'll stay where I am until noon but I will start heading south then. That should give her time to get some sleep as she yawned. She was exhausted.
"Won't take near that long. Stay on the line." Doug had been pulling clothes on since realizing who was on the other end of the line, and as he finished pulling his boots on, his nanite hand interfaced with the gun safe he kept in a reinforced nightstand, pulling a back holster and the weapon within out. Dashing down the hall, he stopped at Clarice's door, pounding loud enough to hopefully wake her.
"You think I'm asleep?" Clarice snapped, opening her door as she pulled her hair back, already dressed in the underlayers of a tac suit. She wasn't on a team, she didn't have a uniform, but that didn't mean she wasn't capable or going in. Medical was still needed. And transport. "Where we going?"
"Laura, can you put whoever's phone this is on? Clarice and I can be there in a jiffy." Doug passed his phone to Clarice, checking to make sure he had everything he needed so as to avoid twitching with impatience.
"We'll be there in a minute. Or less," Clarice said, hanging up with one hand as she opened a portal with the other. "Let's get the kid. And ruin so many people's day."
The pair blinked out, and when they reappeared, they were somewhere in central Canada. Outside a Tim Horton's, because of course it would be. Doug rapped his knuckles against the locked entrance, waving to Laura and the manager as they peered out from the office.
Laura was carrying a bag of food and still was munching on some bacon as the manager opened the door. "Alright, sweetheart. You take care, eh.” Laura moved past her and right into Doug wrapping her arms (but still holding her bag of food tightly) as she buried her face into his chest letting the scent hit her.
Doug ran his hand soothingly over Laura's back, holding her just as tightly as she was him. Since she was much shorter than him, he could rest his chin on her head, and from there he could see a patch of hair that had been shaved down and was starting to grow back. The sort of shave job that one gets before some kind of surgery is performed. A tide of rage started to rise from within him, an urge to hurt whoever had done this to her.
"Blink, we need to get back," he said roughly, before turning his gaze to the woman who had taken Laura in. "Thank you." He wasn't sure what else to say that could encompass what she had done.
"Already on it," she agreed, opening a new portal. She smiled as kindly as she could to the lady, "We'll be back later," she promised softly. "We have to deal with this, first."
Doug and Clarice get Laura back to the mansion, and immediately start a debrief with Scott and Garrison. At least there’s coffee.
A purple flash brightened the lobby of the mansion, and when it faded, Doug, Clarice, and Laura stood on the carpet. Doug scanned the vicinity, looking for any of the handful of people he'd texted urgently before departing with Clarice. It had only been a handful of minutes since he received Laura's call, but he hoped someone had woken up.
Scott wished that he could say that late night messages were an uncommon occurrence at the mansion, that he hadn't gotten used to being dragged out of bed for some emergency or the other, but the truth was he couldn't. Stumbling out of bed to deal with situations had become almost a tradition at the mansion now, not that Scott had been able to sleep much recently with Kyle and the others still missing. It was why he was leaning on a doorframe, eyes blinking away the remnants of purple light as his fingers tightened around the mug of coffee in his hands. "Welcome back, there's a fresh pot in the kitchen," his eyes fell on the dark-haired girl with Doug, then we need to talk.""
The familiar scents of the mansion filled her nostrils and the tension from Laura's shoulders released. She held her Horton's bag close as she walked past Scott and into the kitchen to get something to drink to go with the food the nice lady at the restaurant had given her. Now that they were in better light, they all could get a good look of the state she was in. Though she had cleaned most of the blood and dirt off her, there was still some near her hairline, and underneath the thick flannel jacket was once grey sweatpants and sweatshirt that was covered in dried blood, mud, and sweat. Her slip ons, (she wasn't allowed shoe strings due to her using them against a guard a few days prior), were nearly black and falling apart from the long trek through the Canadian Wilderness. Entering the kitchen she put the food bag on the counter and went to pour herself a cup of coffee with lots of creamer before digging into the bag and pulling out a sandwich.
Doug was grateful for the coffee, now that the adrenaline of the phone call and the rush to get Laura were wearing off. He waved Scott in and poured a second cup of coffee to hand to Clarice. "Well, we've got one back."
"It's a start." Kane muttered, taking the pot to pour himself a black coffee before passing it on. "Laura, don't take this the wrong way, but you look like hell. What can you tell us?"
Laura finished chewing from the big bite of the breakfast sandwich. "It is Weapon X. They took us." She looked at the room. "Different doctors, horrible mean doctors. Horrible things to me. I escaped with help from a trainer. I climbed over the walls and ran."
Getting herself coffee, she turned to Scott, "I'm going to the medlab so we're ready to go when you are," she stated, "And I'm coming," team or no team, she wasn't asking.
The X-men's eyes were pools of darkness that glanced over at her, taking in her state with a once over before he nodded at her. "If, and only if, the docs clear you. If they say you stay, then you stay, we lost you once, we're not doing that again. If you want to help the others, we need to know anything you can tell us, future targets, where they're based, anything."" There was no give in his eyes as he shifted his gaze back to Garrison, "Looks like they've got more lives than Logan, I'll let the others know, see if you can reach out to your contacts and find out what's going on."
Laura nodded back at Scott. "Agent X told me to run NorthEast and then to turn South. I ran NorthEast until the sun slipped behind the trees. Then I ran South until I found this." Laura pointed towards the bag, "Then I called pops shortly afterwards." Laura thought about it again. "The time is weird. There was no clocks that I could see. But according to the sun and when I eat lunch last, it was about 2 or 4 in the afternoon when I escaped." Her hand went to the small buzzed spot and the constant itch she felt. "They did something to me. Here."
"You're going to need to let Jean look at that right away." Kane said, leaning back. "I'll put the word out, see what the Hudsons know. But it doesn't make sense, Weapon-X was always at its most aggressive in service to other entities. I wonder if this is some part of what was Weapon-X that's been picked up by some group like AIM."
"C'mon, Laura," Clarice said gently, guiding her towards the elevators. They could teleport, but if she could walk, better to let her. "Let's get you checked out, eat and clean clothes. Then you can finish the debrief," her eyes meet Garrison's, "You've got enough to start working leads for now."
"Get her down there." Kane said, waiting for Clarice to shepherd her into the medlab. He sat down heavily. "Look, even back in the day Weapon-X was decentrealized. How are we going to track them now?"
"You saw the shaved head, right? Let's start there." Doug's hands tightened around his mug. "Five bucks says they put something in her. Maybe we can use that. Or see if she can tell us more about whoever this 'Agent X' person is who helped her escape." He set his mug down and made to try and catch up to Laura and Clarice as they headed to the medlab.
As Laura was led out, coffee and food bag in hand, "They are also planning an attack. A test of sorts for everyone taken and to test our loyalities. I don't know where or what it is, but I know it isn't an escape the room type. They are going to kill."
Doug turned back around to face Garrison and spread his hands in a sleep-deprived 'well there you go' response. "So maybe we don't -have- to track them. We just figure out their likely target list and have a response team ready to turn the tables on them." He yawned. "Either way I need some damn sleep. Night, Kane." And he shuffled off toward the stairs.
