2014.04.11 - The Status is VERY Quo

He could sense them burning the evidence one note at a time. Until now, he'd been content to bide his time and let people make foolish decisions, but now they're destroying the evidence of their crimes and Kilroy will have none of it. Taking Mittasurie's advice, he has called allies and is planning a direct strike. If he's going to be terrorist scum, then so be it...at least he'll be terrorist scum for the right reasons. "The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to preserve anything and everything that points to the evidence of their crimes against mutant kind within the facility. There are 400 guards, 10 I suspect of advanced nature, but I don't know everything. There are financial records for certain, likely also lab results and other political memorandum. We want it all and to show the world the darkness of their actions." He is, for the first time, wearing a uniform of Genosha, including scarlet Kevlar armor, without the 'origami' look he often has, though the armor is there, coins and all but now invisible to the naked eye.
The base in question is on a small island, two miles from the port. It's a jagged rock, jutting up from the Black Sea like a finger being poked by some long sleeping titan. Stairs, carved out by ancient settlers wind around the island with two freight elevators bolted on its side. Advanced radar detection and other sensors sweep the area. It's a satellite research facility, where blood samples and other materials were sent for analysis. It's very heavily defended, with plasma artillery and a naval vessel nearby for shore defense. In short, it's a fortress. Kilroy and Lunair are approaching on a stealthed speed boat.
The world stands still for someone like Pietro Maximoff. 
Only moments ago he was standing on the Crimean front dressed in an empirically cut Genoshan officer uniform and now he's in something a bit more practical for a mission which calls for digression. Black armored front with streaks of greyscale bolts running down his chest, sides, arms and legs. His face is uncovered, his eyes are not hidden. The cold nature of his impassively hard expression is the testament for exactly how little he seems to care for the humans organizing inside against mutant kind. 
He is a sentinel. 
Where there was nothing before, the shock white haired son of Magneto stands with his arms clasped behind his back and his eyes looking over the building a few yards from where they have gathered with a calculated observation of details. "Terrorism is perspective." Said in a voice that drips with disdain for such overt classification. 
"When the world sees the horrors perpetrated against mutantkind they will have little option but to acknowledge the heroism of those who fought against it."
 
Lunair cares. She does. And she's likely used to fighting. It's been a part of her life for years. Direct strikes are nice and direct. Usually. She has her armor on under a light long coat to keep herself from getting too damp. Her expression shifts at mention of lab results. That's not something she wants to think about. She seems surprised by his uniform, but Lunair trusts Kilroy deeply. She grunts softly. She seems sympathetic enough, but it's hard for her to process. Still, that voice is familiar and she might even recognize the white haired gentleman. She seems surprised. For now, she lets Kilroy do the talking since Deadpool banned her from dialogue briefly.
(pause)
Even though it was a pretty good thing since Lunair is kind of /bad/ at it sometimes.
Kilroy is not Batman...or Umoja. He's not really a master tactician, but at the rate they're burning papers there isn't time to consult one. As soon as they are in range, he doesn't even wave his hand. Two of the soldiers on one of the guns suddenly start choking...invisible salt in their nose and mouth...not enough to kill, but enough to sting and make their eyes water...then two more soldiers. But though the boat is stealthed, it is still seen and an alarm is klaxoned through the facility. The guns on the boat and above the island are brought down since they had pointed skyward; terrified of the Master of Magnetism.
Kilroy says, "We'll see." He doesn't want to be rude to Pietro but he is...in a very very foul mood.
Those are some large guns. Do you know what guns don't like? Water. Guns do not like water. Cloud 9 sees all those guns get pointed at the boat and she focuses. Clouds start to form inside the barrels of the guns, complete with ice crystals meant to gum up the works. She does this all from the relative safety of her cloud, because snipers, above all else, really don't like direct conflict. They tend to be squishy and go SQUISH when something tougher than a fist strikes them. No, she'll stay up here and let the apparent strike force that's on it's way (what luck is that?) do the...strike force-y work.
These soldiers are little more than annoyance to the mutant known as Quicksilver. 
At least, that's what he would say if anyone asked him. Long ago he learned the importance of 'image' and 'theatrics'. Like his father, he knows the value of fear. As all the alarms begin to sound he takes off in a blur. The speed at which he moves desolves the distance between himself and the fortress and he vaults straight up one wall topped by a gun nest and slides easily through the single slit openning with a twist of his body. Standing amongst the humans suddenly, startlingly. 
His fist hammers into one of their chest with force amplified directly by the speed with which he can throw it. An penny falling from the Empire states building can burrow itself into a man's skull, it is said. The truth of that is irrelevant, the punch is enough to throw the man against the far wall before anyone is able to bring a weapon to bare on the 'terrorist' that's suddenly appeared beside them. 
When those weapons 'do' rise, Pietro is moving, ducking beneath the fire effortlessly with a tucking of his shoulders and a twist of his abdomen. He comes up with his palm slamming into another guards jaw and his hand closes around the man's face as he continues to turn and hurls him into the last of the three. 
"Apes." 
For salt was once part of sala-- Ooooh. Lunair gets it now. She's doing her best to catch up on years of social development. But that is forgotten now. Lunair is but a humble metahuman (at least, as far as she's ever known and been tested), and sadly an awesome body and/or regen factor are not on the list of potential or current powers. It sucks to have totally missed out on the super soldier gravy train, but that's how it goes. Squishy she be, and squishy she shall be. Like an angry M&M, a slight shell and soft inside, even.
Fear has its uses and places. Even if a story isn't TRUE, the fact one might take pause and frown at it - who wants a penny embedded in their skull or worse? Also, they are wise to fear Magneto. All Lunair's heard and seen has portrayed the dude as a pretty solid badass. That, and metal is ubiquitous, even within the body. That thought alone might bring a pause in heartbeats. Yikes. Although, his brother was a nice enough dude provided you didn't get on his bad side. Nevertheless, Lunair is here and in the fight. She keeps that shockwave staff over her shoulder and hefts up a rather large gun. Today, it's all about shockwaves and lasers! Not lethal, but rather painful and will clear a path handily.
Kilroy grins and says over the comm...rather pleased that the boat has made it as far as they have. He can tell they have unknown support on the guns and isn't sure how it was achieved...but he does answer Pietro, suddenly smiling in spite of himself, "Now Now Quicksilver...My grandfather knew some apes. Apes were good friends of his...these goons are no ap-HOLY ELEPHANTS! Heads up there is something under the -" And like that, a result of one of the 'experiments', the 10 'powered' individuals being paid, literally in monopoly money rise out of the ground...8 feet tall, all cloned from the same mutant, a glittering green collar on their neck, created by Collar of the same name, one of the masterminds behind the tyrants in Genosha before Mystique and Magneto cleared them out. Two of them unleash a wide spread cone of sonic energy at the speedster while two more turn towards the boat. Kilroy steers it hard to the left but the boat is torn to shreds.
Pietro doesn't often engage in banter mid-brawl. His jab was intent and a very pointed dictation on his opinions of these individuals as they fall before the abilities of a superior individual. 
Him. 
His fists clinch inside the armored gloves as he regards the rumbling and rise of 8 foot tall super clones and narrows eyes at the audacity of these peons to use genetic modification and manipulation to create abominations of this sort. 
The sonic energy hits the wall of the gunnest where he'd dealt rather effectively against the guards and shatters it into rumble, but Quicksilver has already vacated by the time the first pebble falls. 
The world stands still. He could be walking amongst them and they would move at a snails crawl to his eyes. Turning his deep blue eyes across imperfect mesh of green flesh, their motions so slow he could stand for minutes observing the intricacy of their power's manifestation. 
The point of it is, he has time. 
Better still, he's accustomed to having it and knows how best to use it. He brings his hand back and throws it forward without all the dramatics of 'hai-yas', to put the full force of his speed enhanced punch right alongside the left ACL. 
Cloud 9 sees the boat get ripped in two. Ohh, that looked painful. The cloud creator focuses and creates a pair of clouds underneath Kilroy and Lunair, picking them up and bringing them into the air safely, up on the level with her. "Thought you two might like a hand," the woman comments. "Just tell me where you want me to drop you off and I'll do it". Which she will do once given the command.
The woman then reaches behind her back and pulls out her pulse rifle, setting it to 'stun' only. Still packs quite a punch. She shoulders the rifle and starts launching blasts down at the mutants, trying to knock them out. The blasts, from what people can see, come flying out of one of the clouds.
Lunair also missed out on cool travel powers. Lunair seems startled, as the fellows unleash attacks that tear the boat to shreds. Her and her coat go flying. "Look ou-" She's worked hard to look after Kilroy. And then suddenly, freaking cones of sonic. She might even like Sonic's milk shakes but sonic energy is just unpleasant. Sometimes, it is frustrating to be limited to destruction and weapons in terms of fighting. At least she can swi--
"Hi. Thank you." Kilroy and her are safe, then! She still has her weapons and will cheerfully pick herself up, pull the staff off over her shoulder and wade in. Righto then. She's wielding a cat motif staff that generates shockwaves. Things are going flying. "Sorry." It is kind of loud, isn't it? It is.
The mutant collapses on impact from the speedster, totally outmatched. His leg crumbles and he bellows in pain. For a brief moment, all of them clap their hands together in a unique blend of super slap and sonic burst but their focus is quickly diverted as stun beams bolt from the heavens. Sailors on the Russian naval vessel shoot back but the shots all go wide. Others are working to deice the cruiser's main gun. Two more have an anti tank missile up but haven't yet detected anything since the radar operator keeps sneezing salt from his nose. "**It's horrible...make it stop!** (In Russian)
Kilroy puts his hand gently on Lunair's shoulder, attempting to reassure her as they are rescued that she has his full confidence as he smiles at Abigail,"Thanks for the rescue. If you can set us down at the entrance to the building over there..." he points to a small 'radio shack', "There's an elevator there that will go down. They're destroying evidence of crimes against humanity." To Kilroy, mutants are human just as he is. Human is human.
The hypocrisy of Pietro is that he does not think that he is human. At least that's been his doctrine for years: he is better than them. This is all a case of fear of what is superior and to him, that's sad. 
Which is exactly why he's never had a problem destroying them when the mission called for it. These things, however, are not human. Not once he sees those collars. All evidence they have suggests that the collar is useful only against individuals with an X-gene. He is no more disgusted to find out a mutant is being cloned... but now he's angry that his brothers (clones that they might be) are being controlled. 
The crumpled sonic mutant laying at his feet is given a head tilted examination, but he ultimately leans down with a finger vibrating so finely that it may not even be possible to see it moving at all. The results of touching that collar is readily apparent. Unless the creators have done some serious engineering changes, it will crumble into bits, freeing the controlled mutant formally wearing it and bringing one more soldier to 'their side'. 
If that happens, "Welcome to the fight for your own freedom. Release your brothers while we take care of your captors." 
If not? Well, it will be disappointing, but he'll simply have to punch the creature until it stops moving. 
"Well then, allow me to grant you the gift of cover. Name's Cloud Nine, by the by," Cloud 9 says. She raises her hands up and, out of the water, a massive wall of fog rises up, tall enough to completely cover any buildings in the area. It's also thick enough to make it hard for anyone to see and to mess with targeting systems. "I'll drop you off by the door and keep an eye out for you out here for a pick-up, unless you need someone who can read Russian inside. Speedboy down there one of yours I take it," the woman says.
Regardless of the answer, Cloud 9 will direct the clouds carrying the two others down to the indicated building, well-hidden because of the cover. If there are any guards, she'll helpfully snipe them before she drops the other two off. If they indicate they'd like help, she'll join them inside.
Lunair is somehow alarmed as things get fired up on a bigger scale. Antitank? And ship's guns and mutant soldiers. She smiles faintly at Kilroy and nods. "Yea," The smile fades when what's being hidden and destroyed is mentioned. Superiority is lost on her. She knows people are afraid of her and what she does and what she can do. People sense a predator in their midst. And she is no doubtedly such. All of the genetic variants confuse her, but she has powers and that makes her different. "Pleased to meet you, Miss 9. I'm working on a new code name because of butt jokes and a guy with bots." She states simply.
Both compelling reasons for a code name change. But for now, she is more serious. And if she can or sees Pietro fighting, will boggle a bit. She trusts Kilroy and/or Cloud 9 to do their thing (if that includes following) as she dismisses the laser gun for something a bit more traditional. And electric. It'll hurt but the lethality should be low, at least. "We have to go quickly, whatever we wish to do. But onward, into the beech." Unto the bre-- oh, Lunair.
The collar's engineering has changed...a lot. It's the most advanced design Pietro has ever seen and it HAS been hardened but not a sufficient amount to withstand his touch. The giant blinks a moment and yawns. He seems...confused. At first he doesn't quite comprehend Pietro's words but takes them at face value. "Collar bad?"
The other seven don't give him much of a chance to respond and attempt to attack both quick silver and 8, but 8, free of the collar is a better brawler than his brothers and frees yet another.
There are no guards near the radio shack and Kilroy nods, "You can call me Kilroy. I suppose I should have a codename. I'm considering 'The Invisible Hand'...My old one belongs to someone else, and I'm still not sure he'd approve. But Kilroy will do just fine Ms. Cloud. And if you'd like to join us it would be much appreciated."
Using a one shot gizmo he borrowed for the mission, Kilroy connects a card taken from one of the guards decommissioned by Pietro and connects it to the security latch on the elevator. The doors open, as it slowly begins to descend with Lunair, Kilroy and Abigail (and if he joins them Pietro). There are two guards once the elevator opens behind a bunker, but both have been knocked unconscious by large invisible rocks. 
It's the 200 guards lining the hallway between them and the main office with plasma rifles pointed at them that are a bit of a problem.
A massive barrage of rifle fire, intense but hardly accurate opens fire at the elevator doors, lessened a bit by an invisible rai stone between them and the doors, but that won't stop them all....
Pietro lets his new companion handle the brothers, left to multiply as one becomes two and two becomes four... their abilities are trusted in as much as his own mission lies deeper inside the bunker. Ultimately, they are footsoldiers and their existence is only as important as the completion of th emission. 
If they survive, they will find a welcome to Genosha, if they do not... they will be honored for their sacrifice. Everything is perspective. 
Quicksilver joins the trio at the doors in the blink of an eye. Standing with his attention focused forward and no outward introduction of who he is. Whether this is because he is waiting for what surprise awaits them on the other side of the doors or pure self importance is up for debate. What remains true is his expression: Distant disinterest. 
He's here, however. So that likely speaks volumes on his inner dedication to what they're doing. Even if outwardly he plays the part of a prick quite well. An expression that not even two hundred humans with plasma rifles can ruffle.. even if he may well feel that tingling sense of concern when they open fire on them upon contact. 
He dances off to his left foot to dodge the initial barrage, then to his right, weaving his way between dangerously red fire. He doesn't slow down to consider the options, rather, his brain puts it all together as quickly as a super computer deciding the mathematical equivalent of two plus two. If there's one thing he's learned about humans, it's that when they have superior numbers they have a hive mind of confidence that borders on insanity. Use that to your advantage and you cripple them easily. In theory, that's effective, but he's usually not facing 'quite' so many as two hundred. 
He slaps at the barrel of one plasma rifle and turns it towards another further down the line, then another, pushing and pounding on the humans up close where they're forced to forgo their ranged weapons or risk friendly fire. 
Ducking to one side of the elevator to avoid getting pelted with plasma blasts, Cloud 9 reaches out with her abilities to form tiny 'mini-clouds' inside the guns of their enemies. Thick, wet fog clouds meant to wreck the delicate devices. Another cloud is generated in Pietro's wake, this one lifting the enemy soldiers up and slamming them against the ceiling as best she can, trying to knock them out if they don't fire on each other or get to the group with their fists first.
It's chaos. It is absolute chaos.
The speedster's move of the barrel and speed is indeed sufficient to cause most of them to stop, if for no other reason than they don't want to hit their comrade, but the turned gun does still cause several burns at the densely packed individuals. The clouds concealing the dense corridor cause even more chaos as the panicked soldiers begin firing at each other, often badly, and the sheer fire of the lightning gun begins knocking them down in droves. 
To put it bluntly, they route like scared little girls. But Kilroy is not joining them. He instead instantly notes in the magical little map in his head when "Sergey Isanopov" instantly changes from that to "Kl't'wew'as'aiath" which sounds like a demon name if he's ever heard one. There is a rasping sound as the demon says in spirit speech, "And now Kilroy Conneticut you shall pay w-" and doesn't even finish his sentence as he is silenced with a mouth full of salt and buried under a one ton rai stone. Not dead, but there are likely a few broken bones. 
There is a smell of smoke from down the corridor.
Quicksilver fights on until the line of soldiers breaks, only then does his quick moving hands and feet stop to regard his surroundings. He'd done so prior, obviously, but small details were naturally missed in all the chaos. Most notably, the smell of smoke further down the hall. 
Whatever happened with the demon is given an ounce of his attention, since it is truly not something you get to see everyday. Never the less, a mission to accomplish, no matter how interesting one small piece of it may be. 
Instead of bolting off like a lightning strike, he walks purposefully down the hall. Stepping out in front of the group as someone use to leading from ahead of soldiers, rather than back behind them. He may not have given a single order this entire time, but every bit of his demeanor suggests, possibly even in error, that he believes that he is wholly in command of this little taskforce. 
Such a nice guy. 
Lunair is trying not to kill people. Trying. It's a bit hard, even in the chaos. Still, she keeps from getting hit and that Kilroy and Miss Cloud seem to be in one piece. And then SUDDENLY, A WILD GIANT ROCK APPEARS. Whomever used that as money must've been really awesome or a firm believer in rock solid investments. Her eyes widen. "Wow." She hopes never to be on Kilroy's bad side.
And the smoke. She wrinkles her nose. "I guess that'd be where the burning is," She offers quietly. And well, she'll just follow Kilroy and Quicksilver. She is a follower today, given that for some folks - this is very personal. She keeps her weapons with her.
Kilroy is obviously distracted...normally everything he does is invisible. He doesn't even remember to destroy the Rai stone behind him but when he smells the burning, unlike Quicksilver *HE* runs for all the speed his merely human legs are worth, "No! Nononononono!" As Cloud asks which way, Kilroy motions with his hand, not really minding if Quicksilver takes command (like he could stop him if he wanted to anyway) but his primary focus is on the documents, around one corridor then down another, there are flames...tons and tons of flames, but a rain of pennies and shells and pearls (invisible this time) help put some of them out. There are still flames but it looks like there are computers, file cabinets and loads of other evidence of both Ukrainian and Russian duplicity. The motherload!
Quicksilver will never admit that he followed summons lead, no matter how obvious it might be. However, when Kilroy rushes after the flames, Pietro takes off in a blur towards the fire that has the man so upset. He barely even considers the fact that fire will hurt him and instead runs right into the middle of it and starts spinning in a pirouette. Like a cyclone in the middle of orange flickering flame, sucking the oxygen out of the room into the middle of this growing funnel cloud that is one shock haired mutant. 
Cloud 9 looks at the various bits of evidences and creates a cloud. This one is under the piles of evidence, which she lifts up with the cloud. "We need a door that leads upwards," the woman says. And she'll also be ready to pick everyone else up with her clouds with the full intent of flying them all out of there. She's ready to get out of here as soon as humanly possible!
Fire is bad. And Lunair only has limited water cannon action. She's not a hose, after all. She runs along after Kilroy, also at human speed. Which must seem megaslow to anyone with speed powers. She'll not interfere with fire extinguishing efforts, although she does watch the doorway for them. "Do we have a way to take this place fully or at least pull the evidence?" She asks quietly. An entire base of antimutant terrorists is not likely to go down lightly. Especially not one willing to use cannons on a Magneto.
Kilroy smiles as Quicksilver puts out the fire...every last bit of it. He listens to Lunair and furrows his brow, "I'm not..." then he beams as Cloud 9 begins to lift the evidence on a cloud, "There you go dear. Best. Forklift. Ever." He begins to run to put more cabinets on the cloud. They did it! This was going to work...and then....and then...
There was a brilliant white light, akin to the sun...a glowful warm feeling filled the room, whispering and soft...and a voice, audible only to Kilroy says in his mind, "Providence suggests there is a natural order young man. Your ripples in Serbia have crossed the line...and now you pay the price for it...' and just like that, one might even say miraculously...the room is empty...not even ash remains...the cabinets are gone, the computers are gone...and not a shred of paper remains.
Oh but wait, there's more. One of the unconscious sailors on the boat outside gets up, eyes glowing red and points one of the now thoroughly deiced guns at the facility. 
"**What are you doing?!**" One of the other sailors challenges him but too late...the mighty plasma cannon on the deck of the ship burrows deep and hits the buried fuel tank inside of the facility...shaking the entire island. Eight free Goliaths jump into the water, as do many of the slowly awakening guards above, but fire begins to move down the elevator shaft and down to the facility underneath the island...
Kilroy just..sits in shock. This cannot be happening!
See, Pietro finds himself in a pickle. On the one hand, he has a Genosha teleporter in his comm unit built into the right breast of his armor, just beneath the shock plate. On the other... there's these three people here. Outwardly, he's a stone wall of disdain for anything or anyone that, to all observation, aren't him... but inwardly? 
He sighs over this mental decision he has to make, one that might take an other person minutes to make, but even if he sat and thought about it at length would only be seconds to him. 
The world stands still as he makes his decision. 
"Your sacrifice will be noted." He says to the trio and smacks the transporter button on his breast. 
... That's one option that plays out in his mind. 
It isn't the one he actually picks. 
Pietro sighs and the mask cracks. He rushes at the open doorway and out into the oncoming flame. As he speeds through it, the air used to fuel it is caught in his wake and drug in the opposite direction. Could he have possibly survived that? 
"Right. The evidence is gone," Cloud 9 says, creating a cloud do descend on the room, just to make sure they hadn't been illusioned away. "We should get to safety. I'll give you all a lift". She creates another cloud and, if there are no objections, fully intends on flying them back out and up the elevator shaft to safety.
"Well, crap." Lunair is miffed. Annoyed. That was evidence! And poor Quicksilver. She doesn't know the guy well, but he seems good at heart. Even if he's all *aloof* *fabulous hair* *aloof aloof super fast yes* sometimes and it baffles her. "Don't we have witness accounts?" She asks quietly. Then her eyes widen as things begin to go south fast. "We should pr-- what she said." Lunair is about making sure none of them get killed.
At first Kilroy does not say much. At all. He merely steps on the cloud and whispers in response to Lunair as she speaks, "Yes. Some won't believe them, but there is still evidence, but not like this." Would the Portal of Zentral work on Heaven? Could it really be Providence? How could this be "Good"? A million questions whirled through his mind but Kilroy hadn't given up, not by a long shot.
The fire whirled and followed the speedster up the shaft, clearing the way for the cloud with the trio on board. The demon seemed annoyed that he hadn't killed Kilroy and fired the gun again for good measure before he was tackled by a bunch of conscious Russian soldiers...Though singeing that perfect silver hair, the speedster had indeed likely survived.
Quicksilver, moments later standing on the Crimean front once more, considers what exactly happened back in that bunker. Clearly there were things he needed to discuss with his father. Even with a war raging, soldiers firing in pitched skirmishes, the speedster had little pause to consider intricacies with as much depth as any arm chair general safe on the rear echelon. His mind just worked faster. 
Because the world stands still for him. 
The mask has returned, even that momentary small crack snapped out of his expression with years of discipline at never letting anyone see what really resides within him. Only a glimpse to the wrong enemy could be disastrous. 
Up and out they go on the clouds, and Cloud 9 actually splits the clouds up into three and kicks them into overdrive, creating little cloud 'safety belts' for the other two as she turns up the speed to around 6,000 MPH to get them flying out of there just as quickly as possible. She'll drop people off wherever they'd like, of course, and then be on her way. She wasn't planning on sticking around for now. Though she had a feeling she'd be seeing these people again.
Lunair seems to think well of those here. She seems sympathetic and a bit sad. Even worried for the speedy guy. She looks to Cloud 9. She isn't sure. She is quiet too, nodding at Kilroy. "I don't know," Is all she offers quietly. With that, she will quietly appreciate the ride, "Thank you." And go with them. She might see them again, she might not. Fate is strange that way.
Kilroy has Abigail drop them off in Genosha, ensuring clearance along the way. He also hands her a plastic card with a magnetic strip, "1 million, untraceable by nearly anyone in the world. Genosha pays its debt, and you have my personal gratitude Miss 9. I shall not soon forget it." He kisses Lunair as they step off the cloud and briefly confirms that Quicksilver is OK. He would NOT want to have that conversation with Magneto....
He looks upwards, towards the clouds and smiles...oh it's on alright. He's getting that evidence back, no matter what it takes.
Category:Log