REMY'S ELEVEN: Witch-Fu
Dec. 11th, 2004 01:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_daytripper posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsJubilee finds that being a maid means you get all the really dirty jobs. Like going into coldrooms and finding the bodies...
Jubilee looked around, making sure no one was paying attention to her before slowly rolling the trolley around the corner. It was a massive pain in the ass to be going this slowly but if she appeared to be hurrying in any way, someone was going to notice.
'Careful does it, Lee.' she thought, as she wheeled up in front of the cold room door.
This was the difficult bit, if anyone at all caught her in here, she'd be screwed, and only this ‘don’t see me’ charm of Amanda’s to protect her, which was something of an exercise in irony. Quickly, she slipped the key into the lock and pushed the door open. Pulling the trolley through, she scanned the room, looking for Amanda.
There, slumped against a far corner. Pacing silently over to where Amanda lay, Jubilee hesitated. Amanda’s face was a horror of splintered bone and pulped flesh, blood caking her hair and clothes. What if something had gone wrong? Gulping, Jubilee reached down and placed a hand on the other girl’s shoulder. "Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty. We've got a safe to crack."
Amanda opened her eyes, the blue startlingly vivid against the bloody mess of her face. "Boo," she said she said, sitting up stiffly, shivering a little. "About bloody time, Lee, ‘m freezin’ me tits off in here. Got that change of clothes?"
"Yeah, I got it. But don't you think you should fix your face, first? Cause, dude, 'Night of the Living Dead' is so passe."
"Done." Amanda passed her hand over her face, cancelling the glamour. She was glad for the downtime involved in waiting for Jubilee - it had given her time to recharge, even though she'd had to put duct tape over the amulet to hide the glow. Not enough to heal what Arcade had done, ‘though – her eyebrow still smarted where he'd yanked out the piercing. Quickly she pulled off her bloodied jacket, then the shirt, the shivering increasing as she stripped down to her bra.
"Dude, what happened to your face?" Jubilee asked, noticing the fresh bruises, the gash in her eyebrow.
"Arcade decided t' get hands-on. Didn't have the power t' heal it, with the rest of the stuff I need t' do," Amanda replied shortly, reaching for the towel Jubilee handed her to wipe of any residual blood from the bloodpack's explosion.
Jubilee nodded, pulling the trolley around and looking back at Amanda. "Come on, we're workin' on a time limit here. We've got to get down that elevator shaft and to the safe."
Amanda already had the uniform over her head, and once it was on, stuffed her clothes and the bloody towel into the trash bag Jubilee provided. Then the wig, settling the shoulder-length blonde hair over her own and pulling the bangs down low to cover her eyebrow and Craig’s ‘don’t see me’ charm in her pocket. "'M ready, no need t' get yer knickers in a twist," she said, shoving the trash bag on the bottom shelf of the trolley. "Got everythin' we need from the Brains Trust?"
"Yeah, got everythin', including the Mission: Impossible rope thingies and some electronic gizmos from Forge. Radios too, so we can get them t' turn off the alarms and all that." Jubilee pushed her trolley out into the main hallway, her walk that of any other bored worker at least three more hours from the end of her shift. She looked back at Amanda. "I am so totally hanging out for the end of shift, dude. Gotta hot date with my boyfriend, ya know?"
'Oh goddess, not girly small talk with Lee,' Amanda thought, repressing an eye roll as she followed Jubilee out, locking the cold room door behind her. "You're still with the same bloke then?" she asked, going for the more generic British accent of a seasoned backpacker - there were a lot of them working the casinos as short-term labour. "I thought he was being a complete dickhead?"
Jubilee pushed the trolley around the corner, making sure no one was observing them very closely. "Yeah, but he's lightning in the sack. Makes up for the personality problems. Still, probably gonna give him the flick soon, too much trouble with his other girlfriend." She replied.
She'd been wanting to talk to Amanda for awhile now. But there'd never been any reason for the other girl to talk back, especially not since she seemed determined to keep her word about never talking to Jubilee again. This was the perfect time to do it, even if she had to talk in 'bored girly talk' code.
"Well, what do you expect? You and her don't get on at all, and you did get him hurt in that accident, even if you didn't mean to. Maybe she's worried you'll get him hurt again without thinking, and that's why she's being a pain in the arse. Especially after she spent all that time looking after him." Amanda's tone was a little tight, but she reminded herself that the job was far more important than her personal issues with Lee. Besides, she'd told Remy it wouldn't be a problem. At least the elevator wasn't a huge distance away. Another maid passed them, not actually noticing them at all – the charms were doing their job.
"Yeah, I know. I tried apologising' for the accident but I think she thinks I don't mean it. I'd take it back if I could. It just got to be this whole big mess and now my therapist is tellin' me I need to talk it out with her, listen to her side of it. Don't know if that's gonna help, seems like I hurt her too much. Shit, she won't even talk to me any more."
"Well, she ended up losing one person she really cared about, and nearly lost the other. The least you could have done was wait a bit longer before dragging the guy out t’ party with you. And you didn't exactly deny you were sleeping with him again. ‘Sorry’ probably doesn't cut it," Amanda said lightly. "Especially when you do all this stuff without meaning it - what would you do to her if you did mean it? You know all her weak points, and you obviously like hurting her, since you're always letting her know you can sleep with her boyfriend any time you like."
Jubilee didn't stop and look at Amanda, even though she wanted to. She knew how time critical this part of the operation was and while she was good enough to talk about other things and keep one part of her mind focussed on the job, her mutant power didn't include time manipulation. She kept walking, thinking about what Amanda had said. The elevator had appeared in front of them. "I didn't really think about it. What he did felt so nice. I don't like hurting her. I just didn't feel for her at all. It wasn't till that teacher of hers showed me what she'd been through that I realised I was hurtin' her. And by then it was too late to take any of it back, or even find a way to move forward. Only, I wish I could find a way. Maybe not to fix the past but to make things better, to not hurt her any more."
"Strange showed you...?" Amanda was startled out of the act for a minute, but quickly reined herself in, reaching under the trolley for the small crowbar they'd need to prise the doors open. "Save it," she said shortly, glancing around as Jubilee manoeuvred the trolley to shield Amanda from one direction. "Go keep an' eye out down the other side. Use that loud mouth of yers t' let me know if someone's comin' – Craig’s gizmoes only us hard t’ notice, they don’t make us invisible." Pulling the radio headset out of the pocket of her uniform and settling it into place, she spoke briefly into it. "We're ready. Time t' do yer thing." A response from Forge and she made an assenting noise, waiting a few moments before jamming the tip of the crowbar in the join between the elevator doors, and leaning backwards on it, using a bit of the TK spell to increase her leverage.
Jubilee shrugged and went to keep an eye out. She hoped to God Forge and Doug had been able to cut the alarms on the elevator. It would suck if they hadn't. She heard a soft grunt and the grating of elevator doors being forced open. No one had appeared in the corridor but she kept herself back in the shadows. Jubilee would soon need to set up the lines that would allow them to rappel down the elevator shaft but for the moment she kept herself still, and watching.
"Okay, we're clear. I'll ditch the cart while you set up the lines," Amanda called softly, peering through the small gap she'd opened, the crowbar now wedged longways at the bottom of the doors to keep them open. "Don't forget we're on a cycle with the motion sensors - for fuck's sake, listen t' what Doug an' Forge tell you. There's a ledge just t' the left. 'S not that wide, but you should be able t' stand on it."
'Like I need ya to tell me that.' Jubilee thought, stepping up to the elevator and placing the radio headset over her ears. "Okay guys, start cycling." she whispered into it.
Hearing an affirmative, she started counting, shimming around the door and onto the ledge. She'd have to attach their rappelling devices directly to the cable, considering there were no struts available except for those underneath the elevator that was sitting locked in place just above her. She'd have to be closer to the cables though, and instead of leaning outwards and maybe falling, it'd be quicker to be hanging from said elevator.
Pressing herself back against the wall, she took a quick step and launched herself upward, gripping onto the elevator struts. She had a moment of panic when her fingers started to slip and, feeling her heart in her throat, she swung her legs upwards to grip easily. She hung there for a moment upside-down, her breath coming in gasps as she calmed herself. Finally, she reached trembling hands downwards to grip the elevator cable and attach their devices.
That had been too close, and the fall would have been unforgiving to say the least.
In the meantime, Amanda wheeled the cart a little further down the hall until she reached a closet full of cleaning supplies. Perfect. Dumping the cart, she grabbed the two backpacks containing the disassembled disruptor from the bottom shelf (there was amazing amounts of room down there) and returned to the elevator. A snicker escaped her as she saw that Jubilee's skirt was hanging half over her head with her acrobatics, but she waited until the other girl was back on the ledge before saying anything.
"Good thing you wore yer good knickers, eh?" She passed one of the packs to Jubilee and clipped herself onto the rappelling device. There was a moment of making herself not look down as she put her foot into one of the tape loops, leaving her with just one foot touching the carpeted gap where the doors were propped open. Jubilee opened her mouth to retort, but just then voices were heard along the corridor. Snapping a quick 'shut the hell up' glance at Jubilee, Amanda bent and grabbed the crowbar, letting the doors close and engulfing them in darkness, Amanda balanced on the one foot, her hands in a death grip on the cable.
Jubilee quickly clipped herself into her device, working by feel in the pitch darkness, listening to the voices outside as they passed by the elevator. It had been close: if someone had wanted to use the elevator they'd have been squashed. Reaching out, she gripped Amanda's arm.
"We better go." she whispered before letting go and beginning her descent. She thanked the Gods she'd never been afraid of heights or the dark, the rappel down was difficult enough with the slippery walls of the shaft without fear to combat with. She repeated the steps for placing her fireworks in her head as she went, hoping that it didn't take her too much time. She was beginning to realise her fellow team members' lives were in her hands and the price for fucking up this time wasn't going to be a slap on the wrist.
This, more then the situation around her, scared her to death.
Jubilee mightn't have had an issue with the dark, but Amanda did. Resisting the urge to call up her werelight - it was too risky if the glow triggered any sensors and she needed every bit of power she had for the rest of the job - she followed Jubilee, slipping her other foot in the second loop and using the device to inch her way down. At least if it was dark Jubilee couldn't see her hands shaking.
They were perhaps three quarters of the way down (and had already had to freeze twice to allow for the cycling of the motion sensor, warned by Doug's crisp tones over their headsets) when there was a sudden jerking of the elevator cables, and the unmistakeable sound of an elevator descending. "Fuck!" Amanda exclaimed, glancing up, but seeing nothing in the darkness. Reaching out blindly, she grabbed the nearest available handful of Lee, and kicked her foot out of one of the loops. "Let go," she told the other girl. "Before it ends up on top of us."
Jubilee couldn't see Amanda in the dark, but this wasn't the time to hesitate. She let go, trusting Amanda to hold onto her. It was funny how easy what she might have considered a hard decision was when her actions didn't just affect herself. She felt herself start to swing downward as she stared blindly into the dark above.
Amanda couldn't help being surprised as she felt Jubilee let go. Maybe Remy had been right after all - but she wondered whether it was trust or fear that made Jubilee obey her. Oh well, no time to think about that now. Concentrating hard on the lessons Nathan had taught her about carrying load, she spread her telekinetic spell as thin as she possibly could and let go, not so much floating them down as controlling their fall. She couldn't afford to burn herself out, not with work still to do. Above them the elevator's motors whined as it followed them down, seemingly chasing them, and Amanda hoped there was going to be some kind of space left at the bottom. Otherwise they were going to be messy human pancakes. Then the bottom set of doors flashed past, and she spared a bit more power to soften the impact with the concrete floor.
Jubilee landed lightly on her feet, pulling Amanda with her as she made a controlled fall to the floor. She made a small oof as Amanda landed on top of her and then rolled off to the side before a warning in their ears from Forge had them freezing again for the cycle of the sensors.
When they could move again, Jubilee turned onto her stomach and reached for the pack on Amanda's back. It'd be too damn awkward trying to wriggle out of her own in the small space offered by the gap between the floor and the elevator above. Pulling out the disrupter parts, she cursed softly in Mandarin as she banged her head against one of the struts above her.
Unclipping the pen light from the side of her pack, she clicked it on, handing it to Amanda before pulling the different parts of the disrupter closer. She might as well assemble the thing while they were waiting for the elevator to go.
"Looks like it's a guard change, guys." came the voice of Doug in their radios.
"Great, fresh guards, just what we needed." Jubilee replied.
"Hope it's quick..." Amanda muttered. She'd reached under her dress and pulled off the amulet and stuck it in her pocket, away from her skin - she was getting control over her mutant powers, but not a lot, and if she started absorbing energy from the amulet, they were toast. There was a whine from the elevator winches, and slowly the elevator began its slow ascent, giving them space to work. Shrugging off the backpack and pulling out the rest of the pieces of the disruptor as Jubilee did the same, Amanda took on the assistant role, passing components to Jubilee as she asked for them, guided by the instructions Forge was giving her through the headset. At last the odd-looking device was completed, and Jubilee gave Amanda a wry look as her finger hovered above the 'ON' switch.
"Here goes nothing," she said, and flipped it.
A few small lights started flashing, but there was no noticeable difference in the atmosphere. "Well, only one way t' test it," Amanda said, pulling the amulet out of her pocket and slipping the chain over her head again. Her control - only minimal any way - slipped as her fingers touched it, and through the duct tape there was a faint glimmer of blue light as her mutation kicked in. Holding their breaths, they waited for an indication the alarms had gone off, but there was nothing.
"Looks like we're in the clear," Amanda told Jubilee with a brief grin, before speaking into the mike of her headset. "Welcome mat's laid out, time t' invite the rest of the party."
Jubilee looked around, making sure no one was paying attention to her before slowly rolling the trolley around the corner. It was a massive pain in the ass to be going this slowly but if she appeared to be hurrying in any way, someone was going to notice.
'Careful does it, Lee.' she thought, as she wheeled up in front of the cold room door.
This was the difficult bit, if anyone at all caught her in here, she'd be screwed, and only this ‘don’t see me’ charm of Amanda’s to protect her, which was something of an exercise in irony. Quickly, she slipped the key into the lock and pushed the door open. Pulling the trolley through, she scanned the room, looking for Amanda.
There, slumped against a far corner. Pacing silently over to where Amanda lay, Jubilee hesitated. Amanda’s face was a horror of splintered bone and pulped flesh, blood caking her hair and clothes. What if something had gone wrong? Gulping, Jubilee reached down and placed a hand on the other girl’s shoulder. "Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty. We've got a safe to crack."
Amanda opened her eyes, the blue startlingly vivid against the bloody mess of her face. "Boo," she said she said, sitting up stiffly, shivering a little. "About bloody time, Lee, ‘m freezin’ me tits off in here. Got that change of clothes?"
"Yeah, I got it. But don't you think you should fix your face, first? Cause, dude, 'Night of the Living Dead' is so passe."
"Done." Amanda passed her hand over her face, cancelling the glamour. She was glad for the downtime involved in waiting for Jubilee - it had given her time to recharge, even though she'd had to put duct tape over the amulet to hide the glow. Not enough to heal what Arcade had done, ‘though – her eyebrow still smarted where he'd yanked out the piercing. Quickly she pulled off her bloodied jacket, then the shirt, the shivering increasing as she stripped down to her bra.
"Dude, what happened to your face?" Jubilee asked, noticing the fresh bruises, the gash in her eyebrow.
"Arcade decided t' get hands-on. Didn't have the power t' heal it, with the rest of the stuff I need t' do," Amanda replied shortly, reaching for the towel Jubilee handed her to wipe of any residual blood from the bloodpack's explosion.
Jubilee nodded, pulling the trolley around and looking back at Amanda. "Come on, we're workin' on a time limit here. We've got to get down that elevator shaft and to the safe."
Amanda already had the uniform over her head, and once it was on, stuffed her clothes and the bloody towel into the trash bag Jubilee provided. Then the wig, settling the shoulder-length blonde hair over her own and pulling the bangs down low to cover her eyebrow and Craig’s ‘don’t see me’ charm in her pocket. "'M ready, no need t' get yer knickers in a twist," she said, shoving the trash bag on the bottom shelf of the trolley. "Got everythin' we need from the Brains Trust?"
"Yeah, got everythin', including the Mission: Impossible rope thingies and some electronic gizmos from Forge. Radios too, so we can get them t' turn off the alarms and all that." Jubilee pushed her trolley out into the main hallway, her walk that of any other bored worker at least three more hours from the end of her shift. She looked back at Amanda. "I am so totally hanging out for the end of shift, dude. Gotta hot date with my boyfriend, ya know?"
'Oh goddess, not girly small talk with Lee,' Amanda thought, repressing an eye roll as she followed Jubilee out, locking the cold room door behind her. "You're still with the same bloke then?" she asked, going for the more generic British accent of a seasoned backpacker - there were a lot of them working the casinos as short-term labour. "I thought he was being a complete dickhead?"
Jubilee pushed the trolley around the corner, making sure no one was observing them very closely. "Yeah, but he's lightning in the sack. Makes up for the personality problems. Still, probably gonna give him the flick soon, too much trouble with his other girlfriend." She replied.
She'd been wanting to talk to Amanda for awhile now. But there'd never been any reason for the other girl to talk back, especially not since she seemed determined to keep her word about never talking to Jubilee again. This was the perfect time to do it, even if she had to talk in 'bored girly talk' code.
"Well, what do you expect? You and her don't get on at all, and you did get him hurt in that accident, even if you didn't mean to. Maybe she's worried you'll get him hurt again without thinking, and that's why she's being a pain in the arse. Especially after she spent all that time looking after him." Amanda's tone was a little tight, but she reminded herself that the job was far more important than her personal issues with Lee. Besides, she'd told Remy it wouldn't be a problem. At least the elevator wasn't a huge distance away. Another maid passed them, not actually noticing them at all – the charms were doing their job.
"Yeah, I know. I tried apologising' for the accident but I think she thinks I don't mean it. I'd take it back if I could. It just got to be this whole big mess and now my therapist is tellin' me I need to talk it out with her, listen to her side of it. Don't know if that's gonna help, seems like I hurt her too much. Shit, she won't even talk to me any more."
"Well, she ended up losing one person she really cared about, and nearly lost the other. The least you could have done was wait a bit longer before dragging the guy out t’ party with you. And you didn't exactly deny you were sleeping with him again. ‘Sorry’ probably doesn't cut it," Amanda said lightly. "Especially when you do all this stuff without meaning it - what would you do to her if you did mean it? You know all her weak points, and you obviously like hurting her, since you're always letting her know you can sleep with her boyfriend any time you like."
Jubilee didn't stop and look at Amanda, even though she wanted to. She knew how time critical this part of the operation was and while she was good enough to talk about other things and keep one part of her mind focussed on the job, her mutant power didn't include time manipulation. She kept walking, thinking about what Amanda had said. The elevator had appeared in front of them. "I didn't really think about it. What he did felt so nice. I don't like hurting her. I just didn't feel for her at all. It wasn't till that teacher of hers showed me what she'd been through that I realised I was hurtin' her. And by then it was too late to take any of it back, or even find a way to move forward. Only, I wish I could find a way. Maybe not to fix the past but to make things better, to not hurt her any more."
"Strange showed you...?" Amanda was startled out of the act for a minute, but quickly reined herself in, reaching under the trolley for the small crowbar they'd need to prise the doors open. "Save it," she said shortly, glancing around as Jubilee manoeuvred the trolley to shield Amanda from one direction. "Go keep an' eye out down the other side. Use that loud mouth of yers t' let me know if someone's comin' – Craig’s gizmoes only us hard t’ notice, they don’t make us invisible." Pulling the radio headset out of the pocket of her uniform and settling it into place, she spoke briefly into it. "We're ready. Time t' do yer thing." A response from Forge and she made an assenting noise, waiting a few moments before jamming the tip of the crowbar in the join between the elevator doors, and leaning backwards on it, using a bit of the TK spell to increase her leverage.
Jubilee shrugged and went to keep an eye out. She hoped to God Forge and Doug had been able to cut the alarms on the elevator. It would suck if they hadn't. She heard a soft grunt and the grating of elevator doors being forced open. No one had appeared in the corridor but she kept herself back in the shadows. Jubilee would soon need to set up the lines that would allow them to rappel down the elevator shaft but for the moment she kept herself still, and watching.
"Okay, we're clear. I'll ditch the cart while you set up the lines," Amanda called softly, peering through the small gap she'd opened, the crowbar now wedged longways at the bottom of the doors to keep them open. "Don't forget we're on a cycle with the motion sensors - for fuck's sake, listen t' what Doug an' Forge tell you. There's a ledge just t' the left. 'S not that wide, but you should be able t' stand on it."
'Like I need ya to tell me that.' Jubilee thought, stepping up to the elevator and placing the radio headset over her ears. "Okay guys, start cycling." she whispered into it.
Hearing an affirmative, she started counting, shimming around the door and onto the ledge. She'd have to attach their rappelling devices directly to the cable, considering there were no struts available except for those underneath the elevator that was sitting locked in place just above her. She'd have to be closer to the cables though, and instead of leaning outwards and maybe falling, it'd be quicker to be hanging from said elevator.
Pressing herself back against the wall, she took a quick step and launched herself upward, gripping onto the elevator struts. She had a moment of panic when her fingers started to slip and, feeling her heart in her throat, she swung her legs upwards to grip easily. She hung there for a moment upside-down, her breath coming in gasps as she calmed herself. Finally, she reached trembling hands downwards to grip the elevator cable and attach their devices.
That had been too close, and the fall would have been unforgiving to say the least.
In the meantime, Amanda wheeled the cart a little further down the hall until she reached a closet full of cleaning supplies. Perfect. Dumping the cart, she grabbed the two backpacks containing the disassembled disruptor from the bottom shelf (there was amazing amounts of room down there) and returned to the elevator. A snicker escaped her as she saw that Jubilee's skirt was hanging half over her head with her acrobatics, but she waited until the other girl was back on the ledge before saying anything.
"Good thing you wore yer good knickers, eh?" She passed one of the packs to Jubilee and clipped herself onto the rappelling device. There was a moment of making herself not look down as she put her foot into one of the tape loops, leaving her with just one foot touching the carpeted gap where the doors were propped open. Jubilee opened her mouth to retort, but just then voices were heard along the corridor. Snapping a quick 'shut the hell up' glance at Jubilee, Amanda bent and grabbed the crowbar, letting the doors close and engulfing them in darkness, Amanda balanced on the one foot, her hands in a death grip on the cable.
Jubilee quickly clipped herself into her device, working by feel in the pitch darkness, listening to the voices outside as they passed by the elevator. It had been close: if someone had wanted to use the elevator they'd have been squashed. Reaching out, she gripped Amanda's arm.
"We better go." she whispered before letting go and beginning her descent. She thanked the Gods she'd never been afraid of heights or the dark, the rappel down was difficult enough with the slippery walls of the shaft without fear to combat with. She repeated the steps for placing her fireworks in her head as she went, hoping that it didn't take her too much time. She was beginning to realise her fellow team members' lives were in her hands and the price for fucking up this time wasn't going to be a slap on the wrist.
This, more then the situation around her, scared her to death.
Jubilee mightn't have had an issue with the dark, but Amanda did. Resisting the urge to call up her werelight - it was too risky if the glow triggered any sensors and she needed every bit of power she had for the rest of the job - she followed Jubilee, slipping her other foot in the second loop and using the device to inch her way down. At least if it was dark Jubilee couldn't see her hands shaking.
They were perhaps three quarters of the way down (and had already had to freeze twice to allow for the cycling of the motion sensor, warned by Doug's crisp tones over their headsets) when there was a sudden jerking of the elevator cables, and the unmistakeable sound of an elevator descending. "Fuck!" Amanda exclaimed, glancing up, but seeing nothing in the darkness. Reaching out blindly, she grabbed the nearest available handful of Lee, and kicked her foot out of one of the loops. "Let go," she told the other girl. "Before it ends up on top of us."
Jubilee couldn't see Amanda in the dark, but this wasn't the time to hesitate. She let go, trusting Amanda to hold onto her. It was funny how easy what she might have considered a hard decision was when her actions didn't just affect herself. She felt herself start to swing downward as she stared blindly into the dark above.
Amanda couldn't help being surprised as she felt Jubilee let go. Maybe Remy had been right after all - but she wondered whether it was trust or fear that made Jubilee obey her. Oh well, no time to think about that now. Concentrating hard on the lessons Nathan had taught her about carrying load, she spread her telekinetic spell as thin as she possibly could and let go, not so much floating them down as controlling their fall. She couldn't afford to burn herself out, not with work still to do. Above them the elevator's motors whined as it followed them down, seemingly chasing them, and Amanda hoped there was going to be some kind of space left at the bottom. Otherwise they were going to be messy human pancakes. Then the bottom set of doors flashed past, and she spared a bit more power to soften the impact with the concrete floor.
Jubilee landed lightly on her feet, pulling Amanda with her as she made a controlled fall to the floor. She made a small oof as Amanda landed on top of her and then rolled off to the side before a warning in their ears from Forge had them freezing again for the cycle of the sensors.
When they could move again, Jubilee turned onto her stomach and reached for the pack on Amanda's back. It'd be too damn awkward trying to wriggle out of her own in the small space offered by the gap between the floor and the elevator above. Pulling out the disrupter parts, she cursed softly in Mandarin as she banged her head against one of the struts above her.
Unclipping the pen light from the side of her pack, she clicked it on, handing it to Amanda before pulling the different parts of the disrupter closer. She might as well assemble the thing while they were waiting for the elevator to go.
"Looks like it's a guard change, guys." came the voice of Doug in their radios.
"Great, fresh guards, just what we needed." Jubilee replied.
"Hope it's quick..." Amanda muttered. She'd reached under her dress and pulled off the amulet and stuck it in her pocket, away from her skin - she was getting control over her mutant powers, but not a lot, and if she started absorbing energy from the amulet, they were toast. There was a whine from the elevator winches, and slowly the elevator began its slow ascent, giving them space to work. Shrugging off the backpack and pulling out the rest of the pieces of the disruptor as Jubilee did the same, Amanda took on the assistant role, passing components to Jubilee as she asked for them, guided by the instructions Forge was giving her through the headset. At last the odd-looking device was completed, and Jubilee gave Amanda a wry look as her finger hovered above the 'ON' switch.
"Here goes nothing," she said, and flipped it.
A few small lights started flashing, but there was no noticeable difference in the atmosphere. "Well, only one way t' test it," Amanda said, pulling the amulet out of her pocket and slipping the chain over her head again. Her control - only minimal any way - slipped as her fingers touched it, and through the duct tape there was a faint glimmer of blue light as her mutation kicked in. Holding their breaths, they waited for an indication the alarms had gone off, but there was nothing.
"Looks like we're in the clear," Amanda told Jubilee with a brief grin, before speaking into the mike of her headset. "Welcome mat's laid out, time t' invite the rest of the party."
