2012-10-25 Nevada Liberation

The flight wasn't a luxury one. The plane- a repurposed old DC-8- is hardly the Blackbird that the X-men so seem to enjoy. The engines are loud, the conditions cramped, and the mutants are in varying stages of disagreement with one another. The necessity for close quarters can put anyone on edge- let alone mutants, who tend to have explosive personalities, explosive powers, and in many cases, short tempers.
"We are closing on the drop zone," Magneto announces, rising to his feet. Clad in deep red and purple, his hair is pulled back in a ponytail and his features made more gaunt and promising by the t-shaped mask around his head. He holds a purple helmet in one hand, the t-slit visor matching his black undermask. "I will land us and protect you from the counterfire. As we approach, we will need to make a hole in the east wall." He gestures, and a shimmering image of the facility leaps into view over his palm, illuminated iron shards glimmering like holograms. "From there, we have two targets. One of them is the research facility. I will need a team leader to enter the facility and download the files on their master drive." He holds up an autohacker- an incredibly illegal USB device loaded with exploit software. "And a second team leader will drive towards the camp barracks. You will need to neutralize the camps guards and free the inmates. Some of them may be very weak from treatment, or even violent. I need a volunteer for the second strike team." He looks around, his pale eyes stern and penetrating.
It's amazing what a person can do with such short notice. Domino's got herself rounded together, kitted out with an almost staggering amount of hardware which either isn't legal or probably shouldn't be. She's even managed to drag a new ally along for some extra fun and games! It may not pay, but she has her reasons for being here. One of them is the intended purpose of the mission, to get those mutants out of harm's way. The other... She wants to keep a close eye on this Erik fellow, see what he's all about. This seemed to be her best opportunity, thus here she is.
"I've run data retrieval before," she offers while fitting her ludicrously shortened rifle with a topped off magazine. A light smirk comes into play a moment afterward, "Though running assault sounds more entertaining." There's a brief glance over to One, "What are you in the mood for, Doc? Thinking we should hit up the data. I can lead, if we need."
When One gets dressed for work, he gets dressed for work. He's passed on his customary shirt and tie in favor of a load-bearing ballistic vest. Every pocket is stuffed with extra ammunition or some sort of explosive, much of the latter being handmade. His trench gun is tucked into a scabbard slung across his back, his sidearm is secured in its shoulder rig, and the new SMG he got from Domino has be strapped to his shooting side via an under-arm sling. An overcoat has been thrown over it all, its pockets also stuffed with tricks and treats.
"I agree. Domino and I can handle the download," he volunteers. "I'm... uniquely qualified to deal with computerized security if the need should arise. She's uniquely qualified to deal with any other kind of security."
After a while, the bickering faded back into a dull, solid wall of sound booming at the edges of Logan's perception; a variety of deep breathing techniques picked up in the Orient and the case of beer he insisted on lugging along 'for the crew' helped immensely in drowning the ruckus out.
So far, attempts at actually claiming those beers have been met with stony stares; by the time Magneto makes his announcement, twenty-odd cans are piled up around the wee, hairy man's boots. At the words 'neutralize the camp's guards', he crushes a freshly emptied can, chucks it with the rest, and holds a couple of fingers up.
"Won't know what hit 'em," he notes with a faint, fleeting grin. By the time Domino and One volunteer for the data side, he's rooting around in the case to see if he can't extract another can. Unlike his fellows, he kept it simple for today: leather pants, a leather jacket zipped all the way to its high collar, and heavy boots. No guns, no knives, no other 'hardware'. No armour, for that matter; God and man have conspired to give him all he needs of either.
There have been questions about a certain place in Nevada. A facility. The exact details aren't clear. But rumors indicate everything from an 'illegal' prison just for mutants. To some sort of facility that is turning them into weapons.
In other words, it's something that needs to be investigated.
Of course, somehow the person who is doing the investigating is one Kate Bishop a.k.a. Hawkeye. How she got as close to the facility as she is, is anyones guess. But not only is she is near the facility, but she's actually close enough that she can see it via her binoculars, as she hides under a 'camo blanket'. To be honest, she's not exactly sure what her next, best move will be.
Then again if she knew who else was about to arrive, her entire game plan would be out the window.
There's a ker-WHUMPH at the side of the plane, and Magneto leans to look out a window. "Damn. Anti-air fire." He shakes his head, turning back to the group. "Forget the plan," he snaps, putting the heavy helmet atop his brow. His eyes vanish into the shadows, nearly concealing his face. "First, drive for the datamine. We have to know what they're doing to these mutants. Once we have the intel, meet me in the yard. I will do my utmost to keep them occupied until we can strike en masse. Be careful-" he breaks off as another anti-air cannon shakes the plane. "of their sentries. And do not hesitate to strike anyone attacking you!"
Magneto presses a button and the back of the plane opens up. "Attend me!" He strides towards the back of the plane, and whether folks want to or not, they find harnesses getting undone and being floated along with Magneto. He steps off the back deck, hovering in place, and waits for everyone to catch up. Once they do, he drops out of the plane's slipstream and they begin descending at a dizzying pace. The persistent kerWHUMPH of anti-air fire surrounds them- but Magneto stands with arms crossed, a supremely confident posture- and the explosions do nothing, smashing against an invisible current of power surrounding the group.
Some mutants need a proper catalyst to get the most out of their powers. One of those individuals in particular also can't count on her powers to keep her from getting injured -all- the time. Dom's fairly squishy, as far as mutants go. Somehow though, she gets the impression that at least one other here is anything but an easy target.
The next glance is passed over to Logan, a teasing grin now upon her face. "If we ever go drinking, I'm not footing the bill. By the way, it's not too late to consider my previous offer." Not one for merc work, yeah right. Given that he's here, now? Hell, maybe instead of working for money she can get him to work for booze.
Incoming fire, already? "Great," Dom mutters while slapping the bolt down, the rifle locking home with a solid *chunk.* "Guess I get to leave the whisper cans at home today." In another moment she's free of her seat, geared up, making her way to the back, and watching as bits and pieces of metal sort of take on a mind of their own all around her... Okay, that's creepy. This is one of those times when she doesn't yet realize what all she's gotten herself into. At least this guy can get them safely to the ground!
"...fascinating," One muses. Initially, being removed from his restraints and being sent on a carefully controlled plummet toward the ground made him clench up. Just a little. His eyes are still wide and he's breathing fast, but now he seems intrigued instead of frightened. His head swivels to and fro, trying to watch every crackle and ripple of the magnetic shield. Occasionally, he glances back at Magneto. When he does, there's an expression of his face that he doesn't wear often. Respect.
"So," he says to Dom, affecting a casual tone and manner. "This is why you told me to leave the APC at home."
The gunfire makes Logan tense up and spill beer all over his coat; the rallying cry that follows just makes him grimace.
The things he puts up with to keep tabs on potential X-Rivals.
"Yeah, yeah," he mutters as he futilely swipes at the beer dribbling down his front. "I'm--"
--flying under Magneto's power; the sensation of being unexpectedly yanked along by the /everything/ is so jarring that whatever words were coming next come out as a low, rumbling growl. It isn't until they hit the outside air and he gets a first hand look at the defenses below that he manages to release some of the tension in his body--not to mention the bubbling desire to cut Erik's head off for being so darn presumptuous.
"We survive this," he hisses to Domino as they race to the ground, "I'll think about it." His eyes race for a few moments until they set on one of the AA guns beneath them, and then - after trying and failing to orient himself towards it - he shifts his eyes in Magneto's vague direction.
"Already got a target, bub; lemme off here!" After a beat and a bracing breath, he adds, "Gimme some speed, while you're at it."
That plane actually didn't draw too much attention from Hawkeye. Not at first anyways. And yet, as those anti-aircraft weapons start to fire on it, the female archer can't help but let out a faint 'Bwah?!?'. Thus she zooms in more on the aircraft itself with her binoculars.
Thus she's literally got eyes on it as everyone comes flying out. In fact as they go flying out, a camera built into her binoculars starts snapping pictures of each and every person that she can.
"I think things just went all pear shaped..." is said while for now, she remains under the safty of her 'cameo blanket'.
Magneto makes a few curt, slashing gestures, and nods at Wolverine. "Have a care, hunter," he warns. "They control mutants here. Don't let them surprise you. We will wait for you inside the facility." Wolverine drifts away about ten feet, his own sphere surrounding him.
"Go carefully," Magneto warns. He flicks his hand again, and Wolverine's descent becomes a dive, whistling downwards with incredible speed towards the AA gun being eyed.
Magneto takes the rest of the group down to the courtyard, where running guards seem panicked and confused. He hurls blasts of concussive power from his hands at the guards, sowing confusion in their ranks as they land. Magneto dismisses the global shield and like a conductor at his orchaestra, starts conducting the battle- but facing dozens of guards simultaneously. Bullets fly wide, lasers peter out, and mayhem reigns as Magneto rather dismissively manages an entire force of cybernetically-augmented warriors.
"Get inside!" he roars at Domino and One. "I will hold them here!"
Yeah, Domino's really, really glad to have her own feet back on the ground again. Even if it's in the middle of a warzone, which somehow none of the incoming attacks are getting through. The beer fanatic is ..well, gone. Hopefully he can handle himself out there. Now it's down to a team of two. All she offers is a glance back to One before sprinting forth toward the building they're after, not even bothering with the return fire yet. If Erik has them covered, she'll take it! Ammo conservation, and all.
Though as luck would have it, by the time she reaches the outside door, someone -else- is coming out of it. A quick swipe of her rifle and his head connects with the stock, then the door, then the ground. There she holds, crouching and rattling off return fire to cover One's entry. "Let's start this dance, Doc!"
One doesn't need to be told twice. He takes off toward the facility, and within a few steps he's moving as fast as a car on the freeway. He clears their landing zone and gets to cover in a matter of seconds. From there, he uses his submachine gun to hold attackers at bay while he digs a crude flash grenade from one of his vest pockets.
Smiling grimly, he drops a target with a well-aimed burst. It's the work of a moment to replace the magazine and chamber a fresh round. "Deadpool was right," One murmurs. "These things *are* pretty fun."
He repositions himself next to Domino, strikes the fuse on his grenade, and throws it through the door. A few seconds later there's a muffled thump and a very bright light, followed by shouts and sounds of confusion. He winks at his partner and ducks inside. Their targets are disoriented from the flashbang, leaving them open to crushing blows from One's fists. His firearm dangles from its sling, forgotten as he engages at close range, seeking out joints, seams, and any other vulnerable points in the armor the guards are wearing.
"Not for much longer," Logan matter-of-factly states after Magneto's warning. He knows a thing or two or six about men who would control mutants, and that - even more than the chance to get a closer look at the infamous Master of Magnetism - is why he's hurtling from a plane without a parachute.
When he's dropped into his dive, he narrows his eyes on the target and pulls his limbs in close; unbreakable bones and magnetic helping hands only go so far. The landing is going to be /rough/; the least he can do is try to minimize the damage to himself.
At least there's a silver lining--or six, about a foot long and glittering in the sky mere moments before landing; thanks to them, what is a crushing, explosively painful impact for Logan is merely explosive for the turret.
Several seconds after the initial fireball, the guards who broke off to investigate the wild-eyed man falling from the sky are treated to a first hand look at the mutant as he lurches from the flaming wreckage, smoking and shirtless. Numerous cuts and gashes criss-cross his body, interweaving with fresh burns; his claws, however, are pristine. At least, for now, they are; once he sees that he has an audience he lumbers forward for a few steps before suddenly breaking into a run, then diving to take the first man he reaches to the ground.
He'll be along shortly; with any luck, by the time he makes it to the facility, he'll have deprived it of a healthy number of guards.
Scope the place out. Get as much information as you can. Don't get caught. Stay safe.
In theory, it sounds like such an easy job. But in fact...
In fact, between the entire 'have to sneak around the military' thing, and now the attack...
It's definitely not a cake walk. And if Hawkeye knew why this group was attacking, she'd sympathize. Heck, she might actually help. But for now, all she can do, is sit back and watch, even as the group lands in the courtyard.
But in a little bit, when things really get chaotic, she'll move. That's right, the female archer has a plan.
Wolverine, like a hyperkinetic missile, obliterates the the turret easily. Magneto beckons the mutant over with a gesture, then turns and with a dismissive flick, obliterates a twenty-five foot tall cybernetic man. The operator inside the device screams in pain, then gurgles, crushed by the squealing metal plates.
Magneto abruptly turns and hurls a concussive blast at the air. A shadowy form, camoflagued by some kind of stealth system, is abruptly blasted into visibility. The body flies into the wall next to Hawkeye, crushed into bits. "Hurry! They are stronger than they appear!" Magneto uses one of the mid-sized units to smash through two others, toppling them artfully.
Domino and One are in turn engaged- not by guards, or giant robots, but by a quick, elite cadre of fast moving shadows, barely visible as flickering images that seem more mirage than man. The hyperkinetic knives they hurl, though, are visible as fluttering trails of motion, whipcracking through the air.
It's easy to miss at first. Just a ripple in the lighting, could have been from any number of reasons. None of the reasons on Dom's list include having knives getting thrown at them, one humming past her ear and another nicking the shoulder of her lightweight armor. "Shit..! Watch it!" Infra-red optics would have probably been quite useful at a time like this. Shame that she doesn't have any comparable hardware. All that's left to do is to put a lot of lead in the air, quickly, and hope that she gets lucky. With an automatic 7.62 in one hand and a 10mm pistol now filling the other, that's exactly what she plans on doing.
It's a deafening symphony, but one which she's excellent at orchestrating. There's a sharp clash of metal which leaves one of those thrown blades leaping off in a different trajectory, the blade striking one opponent while the deflected bullet strikes another. All in the timing, but how long is it going to hold out? "Try to keep moving, we don't have time to play!" The data's important, but she's not placing it at a higher priority over either of their lives!
One is almost too fast to follow with the naked eye, and even he can barely keep up with their shadowy attackers. "Agreed!" he calls out.
He's constantly on the advance, his machine pistol in one hand and a scalpel in the other. A knife grazes his arm, but his adrenal glands are working several times harder than they normally do. He shrugs off the hit and lashes out with his own blade. As small as it is, the edge has been honed by a laser to the width of a single molocule. It's sharp. At the same time, he snaps off short, controlled bursts at any available target.
Unleashed, he's like a wrecking ball. Unstoppable, always moving forward, crushing anything in his path regardless of the cost. He takes another hit, but his armor absorbs the brunt of the impact. Growling, he lunges at his assailant and grabs him by the throat. Slowly, deliberately, he squeezes until things start breaking. Then he drops the body like a sack of garbage and glances over his shoulder. "Alright, Dom?" he calls.
Logan looks up, sees Magneto beckoning to him, then grits his teeth and gives the bleeding guard at his feet a hard kick to the ribs. At least he isn't being /compelled/ to follow Magneto this time; he could happily go another lifetime without feeling like his bones are about to leap out of his body again.
"Looks like you've got 'em in hand," he hisses, walking over guards and parts of guards as quickly as he can. His original target was the cages, and so it remains; he figures that a pair of mercenaries bristling with guns and the Master of Magnetism can hold their own against men with guns and metal body parts.
Once he's through the field of human debris, he picks up the pace, sprinting through the compound until he finds an empty guard post separating the rest of the facility from the mutants' area. He gives the post a cursory look before deciding to thank his good fortune and cutting his way past the gate; his whole body is still raw from the fall and the explosion, even if the bleeding has diminished by now.
On the other side, he finds a ring of aging, barely kept mobile homes; beyond it, another guard post, this time stationed outside of a thick concrete wall crowned with barbed wire. He doesn't make it more than a couple of steps into the trailer circle before the door to his right is blown off its hinges by a gout of flame. He whirls towards it, claws at the ready as he eyeballs the impassive young man with burning eyes exiting the trailer.
Not /all/ of the facility's guards have occupied themselves with his fellow invaders, it would seem.
"Halt--" the man begins, only to be cut off when Logan dives across the distance to bury a claw in his chest; he can hear frantic footsteps echoing from all five trailers even as the two tumble to the ground. /More/ guards--at least a dozen, maybe more. As soon as he hits the ground, another guard's razor-sharp tongue lashes across his back; it's closely followed by hundreds of stinging, biting insects crawling up from the ground to carpet his body.
Whenever the rest of crew comes around to collect him, they'll find a ghastly scene: dead or wounded mutant guards everywhere, with Logan's burned, beaten and hacked up body among them.
Unlike them, though, he'll be fine in a day or two.
And as the 'battle' rages, Hawkeye does a few things. For starters, she connects her binoculars/camera setup to a satellite phone, and sets it so they're automatically sending any and all pictures somewhere else. Somewhere online. Second, the binoculars/camera are set up to take another picture every ten seconds on their own. Third, the binoculars/camera are aimed at the building. That way, even as she does what she has to do... Or at least is planning to do next, things will be documented.
Then, once all of that's done, she grabs her bow, slings her quiver over her shoulder, draws out a single, special, arrow, and starts to rush towards the building. A building full of people in power armors, or who have powers.
Yeah, if things go bad, she'll be in over her head, and possibly dead before she has a chance to even say 'Boo'! Still, she has a plan!
...Sort of.
And said plan starts with her firing what appears to be an 'explosive arrow' at a doorway on the exterior of the building, so that she can /hopefully/ get inside the facility.
They come at him in the dozens. Guards, giant attack robots hurling gouts of flame, rockets, lasers, bullets- they all come. The mutants Logan releases attack as well, hurling plasma and attacking towards Magneto with their bare hands or claws. A few try to vanish and rematerialize- and are stopped abruptly by the flickering ribbons of energy that sing out from his position like sidewinders across the desert floor.
Magneto stops them all cold. A terrible, fierce grin crosses his face, as he makes a gesture and rolls one of the giant robots across the courtard, crushing screaming mutants and humans alike in its path. He throws rolling blasts of concussive power at the few who approach him.
When Hawkeye blasts her way into the building sidewall, Magneto glances over his shoulder, then leaps backwards several feet with surprising agility, doging a brilliant plume of plasma. "You have company!" he shouts into his communicator. "Be alert! I do not know where Logan is- I think the mutants have stopped him. I cannot help you- I am holding as best I can, but hurry!"
Hurrying, that's a thing that Domino is certainly working on! The battle's reached the stairs, the black-eyed woman taking point and stopping for nothing. "Flash the stairs!" she calls back to Doc, "We'll hold 'em off here!"
Of course, she's not the one who's best situated to get the actual data. At the top of the stairs she holds, swapping positions, changing out mags, waiting for the stairs to erupt in sound and light while One passes her by. "I'm digging in, go get the data!" Even if they're shadows, even if they're moving quickly, they still have limited ways to close in on the two. This entry point's going to be well guarded. In order to attack her, they have to end right under her sights. Hopefully they'll be done and gone before the guards find alternate ways onto their level...
"Damnit, the last thing I wanted is an uninvited guest. We got any info on this new player, guys?"
Once they've cleared out their entry point, One makes a fast rush toward their destination. He barely slows down when he hits the next wave of defenders, cutting through them with cold, ruthless efficiency. The last of them is laid to rest with a spray of automatic gunfire at extremely close range. It's... messy. Then, as requested, he drops another of his flash grenades en route to the control room. BOOM!
"We're in position," he radios as he passes Domino. He leaves his SMG with her, as well as a handful of his grenades. Once he's in place, the hacking device is dug out of a pocket, along with a second USB drive that's quite a bit more standard-issue. Both are slotted into place, then he cuts his radio connection and starts tapping on the keyboard. "Dom, hold them as long as you can. I'll need... two minutes. Maybe three."
Okay, so maybe this is beyond suicidal and crazy. But with all the chaos going on in the facility, this may very well be Hawkeyes best chance to get an idea what's going on /inside/ the facility.
Of course it might not be as soon as she enters that she runs into resistance. After all, they're already dealing with Magneto and his forces, or on their way to deal with them. Thus she has a /little/ time before they respond to her.
Or at least that's her hope as she rushes deeper into the building.
Hersnd yet as she moves along, the female archer pulls out a second camera, a smaller, but high end digital one, and she tries to snap pictures of anything important. Or at least anything that looks important.
But as was said, odds are sooner, rather than later she's gonna have security responding to her. After all, with an explosion like that...
The hacking protocols in the USB device offered to One start doing their work. The device, once into the base security, starts spoofing credentials to gain access to the needed files. As it works, it suppresses counter-infiltration systems, blockading the spam data being backfed from being written. Images and flickering files show on the screen as the databrick hacks its way into the secured systems.
Domino's under heavy fire. These guys are no bruisers- they're smart and dangerous. They use smart cover fire to keep her pinned down, and one of them hurls a sticky-backed grenade up the stairwell she's guarding, plastering the high-powered explosive into the arch of the door she's firing out of.
As Hawkeye makes her lateral approach, she's accosted by two more of the shadow-cyborgs. All but invisible, they flicker in and out of sight as shimming mirages, flinging polymer knives at Hawkeye with thundering speed and devastating accuracy.
"I'll buy you the time, just make it count."
Well..! Things are getting good up here. Rather than burn the precious time to reload, Domino just switches guns whenever one runs empty. There'll be time to refresh them later. Hopefully. Shell casings click and clatter down the stairs as the muffled thunder of each shot echoes inside of the complex, though not even the sudden strobing of light is enough to cut past those cloaked guys. It's all down to instinct, which has a way of running her energy down. It's not easy focusing on a lot when a lot of it can't be -seen.-
The sticky grenade? Yeah. Totally seeing that. It figures that the best place for her to go for cover is -back down the stairs.- As it slaps against the wall beside her she has just enough time to give it a wide, blue-eyed stare before she throws herself into a roll down the stairs, shoving away from the landing as the world above her explodes.
Dom rolls back out into the hallway below before the floor can stop shaking and the debris can settle, her held guns empty and her landing carrying her directly in front of an unknown archer's path.
What are the odds?
While Domino is hard at work defending his position, One is sweating bullets and peeling through layers of computerized security. His USB drive is loaded with every intrusion program he's encountered or even heard of. It functions like a homemade (and less effective) version of Magneto's hacking device, but he's also there to supervise the process. After what feels like an eternity, he breaks in and starts downloading the entire database onto his drive. Impatiently, he watches the progress bar fill and taptaptaps on keys without actually pressing them down. "One minute!" he shouts. "I need one more minute!"
Then an explosion rolls through the door just far enough to scorch his hair and take his breath away.
"Thirty seconds!" One amends.
It was only a matter of time. Wasn't it? All it takes is a slight shimmer out of the corner of her eye, and Hawkeye is under fire as those odd knives come flying at her. It's mainly by shear luck that she notices that shimmer, thus she's already moving before the knives come at her. But when they come...
A few strike her arm. The arm that's protected by her costume, but they still strike. In fact one or two manages to completely slice through her 'armor' causing her to bleed slightly as well from the cuts. The rest of the knives... She just barely misses. But it's /insanely/ close.
And yet as she hears explosions and other sounds related to the fighting, as she runs away from what ever is firing at her, as she reaches for, aims, and fires a pair of 'flash bang arrows' in the direction those knives are coming from, which is them followed up with a 'smoke bomb arrow'. Then, the female archer notices a movement up ahead. A movement that as she looks towards, she can't help but blink at. After all, she has no way to tell if Domino is friend, foe, or something else.
Not that it matters much at the moment as she continues to dodge flying knives, and all that anyways.
Magneto roars in anger, driven back by the same plastic knives that are assaulting the girls in the facility. "I cannot hold this much longer! We've lost Logan!" He makes a sweeping gesture and brings up a hurricane of metal shards, spinning around him like a cyclone and shielding him from the pesky knives. Fewer and fewer sentries approach, and despite his claims, he looks to be doing overwhelming damage to their numbers. "You must hurry! We must free the prisoners as well!"
BANG!
"Frack!"
Domino's not expecting that kind of greeting to be waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs! On the other hand, the guys that are swarming it don't expect it, either. Furthermore, one of the guys that had been running forward isn't expecting a woman to be falling out onto the floor in front of him right before getting blinded. Dom feels a sharp tug on her lower leg as she inadvertently trips the cloaked, sprinting guy, who is left sliding across the floor while she's trying to get her bearings.
(Just a flashbang..you've put up with these before..shake it off, girl!) She doesn't need to see to reload. Then again, she couldn't really see her opponents -before- getting blinded! Now she gets to move by feel, whatever she manages to grab hold of that feels organic is getting a pistol barrel shoved against it long enough to get shot several times at point-blank range. Right now, the only one that wins is the one that acts first. Plus, she doesn't have to worry about friendly fire. Presumably.
One shot goes through a guy, snaps past Hawkeye, strikes the ceiling, and drops a section of it onto a baddie that's coming up from behind. Despite the ringing in her ears, Dom comms back "How we doin' on that transfer, Doc!"
Maybe she'll get a chance to see this mysterious archer. Or, maybe the archer will be long gone before her sight returns.
"Mmhmm. Prisoners," One mutters to himself. Clearly not a high priority for him at the moment. Once the download is complete, he scans the contents of both drives to ensure the data is authentic and nothing uninvited came along for the ride. When he's satisfied, he pockets Magneto's little toy, pulls aside his false ear, and slips his own drive into a concealed port in his skull. "Be there in a second, dear," he singsongs to Domino.
It only takes a few seconds to make the transfer. As soon as everything has been copied and pasted to his data storage unit, One pulls out the thumbdrive and crushes it in his fist. The trash is discarded, his ear is replaced, and he draws the shotgun he's got slung over his shoulder.
He announces himself by dropping a flechette round into one of the baddies. They're a new acquisition, and he raises an eyebrow appreciatively at the result. Then he grabs Domino by the shoulder and hauls her to her feet. "Grab onto my belt!" he shouts. "I'll lead you out!"
Maybe Domino will see Hawkeye.
But if she does, it's not for long. Because by the time One is trying to yank the female merc out one way, Kate is trying to head out another way. And she rushes. She fires more smoke arrows every now and then. And flash bang arrows. She tries to avoid any of the knife guys still standing.
In other words, the female archer knows she's not only hit her limit, but is beyond that. If she doesn't get out now, odds are she won't make it out. hence a wild run for the nearest exit... Any exit she can find, or in the worst case, make with an explosive arrow.
There comes a screaming of metal and the entire front wall of the build shears off. Magneto hovers above the battlefield, torn and bloodied, but surrounded by a whirling, screaming wall of tiny slivers of steel travelling at blurrying speeds. He gestures and the building wall floats off- easily fifty tons of material, moved as casually as a plaything. Magneto turns and makes a contemptuous gesture, and flings the crumbled hulk of metal across the facility at six inches over the courtyard, smashing and crushing through the remaining guards. It knocks over a dozen huts and outbuildings, and lands fifty yards away, smashing down a series of gates and fencelines.
Magneto turns in place and floats down to Domino and One. "I hope you are quite finished," he says coldly. More guards go flying and screaming, cast out by the metal of their weapons and equipment. "I would like to collect our fallen comrade and depart. We have a narrow window for pickup for our extraction, and I shan't miss it."
What a time to regain her eyes... It feels like a tornado just touched down outside and is, literally, tearing the building apart! Domino's still frantically blinking away the spots, latched onto One's side for direction, when she sees the master of magnetism appearing in front of them where once there had been a physical obstacle. A substantial one, at that. As she witnesses it being hurled away like nothing, it finally hits her just how much 'bad news' this guy can really be. Maybe the best option is to keep her distance, after all. Something which is easier to do in thought than in action, they still need to escape this mess.
The merc presses One's machine pistol back into his hand. "Yeah, going as fast as we can here, Big Guy. Why not rip the cages apart like you did the rest of this place?" She's back on her feet, cut up but ready to forge ahead. "Let's do what we have to so we can get out of here!"
"Yeah, we're done," One replies. He tosses Magneto's memory stick back to him and then reaches around to support Domino. "It checks out. Verified it myself."
Though his body still hums and thrums with adrenaline, he's finally starting to feel the hits he's taken. There's blood seeping into one of his jacket sleeves and a smaller spot is visible around his midsection. He also picked up some shrapnel at some point, which he plucks irritably from the side of his face. After he removes the debris, he works his jaw experimentally and winces when it gives an audible pop. "Ow. Yeah. We did our part. Do that voodoo that you do so we can get the hell out of here."
"It's done. Attend me." Magneto catches the USB stick, then makes a gesture and brings One and Domino into his hovering shield, a shimmering sphere of energy protecting the three of them from attacks- though, after his immense display of power, there's little enough resistance left.
Magneto makes a gesture and sends a steel sphere upwards. It detonates high overheard, a signal flare. Magneto looks down at the freed mutants staggering through the remains of the base and shakes his head. "If we'd had more personnel, we might have managed them. I do not feel we can protect them adequately if we escort them out." He shakes his head as the sphere of power starts to accelerate. Rubble shifts and moves, and Logan's limp body emerges from a pile of rubble, floating up towards them. "The plane is coming. Brace yourself." Magneto looks up as a plane passes by a few hundred feet overhead, and makes a grabbing gesture. Abruptly, the four of them accelerate towards the plane with shocking speed, pulled as ably along as if they were locked in place with a tether.
Category:Logs
Category:Events