2013.04.15 - Danger, Jocelyn Stream, danger! Part 1

Danger Room. Jocelyn's latest two trips to the Danger Room have had really awful scores. That was in thanks to getting yanked forward in the future due to the Space Phantom. Now, she did get returned right to the simulation, but the disorientation meant that she immediately got shot or exploded or something upon returning to the present. So, in an effort to to actually fool space, time, and dumb luck, Jocelyn has signed up for an early morning time slot in the Danger Room. One of those that is in the realm of some people wondering if the girl actually sleeps.
The scenario set in front of her was a factory. This factory had a lot of guards to it. There was information that the group needed locked away in a particularly nasty vault in the basement. The objective was to get in and obtain the information. Stealth was optional, though possibly highly desired, if she didn't want to wade through a million troops.
She was dressed in her X-Suit, cap pulled up and around her neck, somehow hiding her hair with the unstable molocules. She didn't know how it worked, but she loved it.
The simulation started with the participants about 100 feet from the factory. Jocelyn had mentioned to Scott she was going to hit up the Danger Room, and he was welcome to join her if he wanted some early morning training, if she saw the man prior to heading in.
Early mornings work best for Scott. He likes to get his work outs in right away before the day truly begins. That way he's not scrambling at the end of the day to find the time.
He takes Jocelyn up on her offer and meets her within the Danger Room, which has been pretty active lately. Just yesterday, Scott had run two simulations, and he was glad to see many of the new members were taking to the training like fish in water. In truth, he has needed a bit of a pick me up lately when it comes to the team. While the original grouping of X-men had remained very steadfast in their feelings regarding what was happening with the team, a group of the second wave was starting to show the creases of the paper tiger: They talked loud, but when push came to shove, Scott was concerned they did not have the stomach for it. Or the courage.
Scott is dressed as Cyclops, but it's a uniform that's different from the original outfits Jocelyn would have seen. Gone is the coverall wrap that came over the top of his head. Instead, a golden visor is all he wears upon the top of his head. Below, he's wearing a mishmash of yellow and black that has become popular these days.
"Alright," the teenager says to Cyclops, keeping her voice low. This was all about stealth, infiltration, and possibly some combat, depending on how things went. But the teen was treating it as any other mission. "I can see about twenty people in the area near the front entrance. There's enough electricity running through the west side that there's probably an entrance over there, too. Also, with the smoke and electrical juice running on up top, I could fly us up that way. No heat signatures that would indicate human up there," the woman suggests. They didn't have an interior layout of the building, so they'd have to make do.
"I'm not sure about you, but I don't really relish the idea of trying to just wade through the front door". Because while she's reasonably sure they could blast their way through, that just seemed excessively messy and bad for the old karma. "How're you at lock picking?" she asks. Because that might be useful to do in a simulation like this, Jocelyn thought.
Cyclops' retort is low and understated as his visor tilts towards Jocelyn, "I can pick a lock pretty well." He thinks for a moment, gritting his teeth together as his gaze goes from the girl out towards the factory. "When you're outnumbered, stealth is almost always the better option, in my experience. You wanna fly us up?" He nods a few times as the idea rolls around in his head. "Let's do it."
With the younger X-men, Scott has been trying to instill their own creativity on the field of battle. He appreciates the student's take charge attitude and seems ready for her to run with her idea on this one.
Jocelyn nods and reaches out to take hold of Cylcops with one hand. She flies upwards, taking a high arc over the factory to make it harder for any guards to spot them flying right at the building. She charges herself as well during this time period, enhancing her physical abilities, just in case they were needed. As a result, it is much easier to carry the field leader than normal. She lands them on the rooftop quietly, the girl setting Cyclops down once they land.
There is a door in front of them that led into the factory proper, it would appear. There was a variety of heavy duty equipment up here, and the smokestacks were billowing out black smoke as the factory continued churning out whatever it was they were making inside. In addition, there was a hatch in the floor about twenty feet away.
"Don't see anybody in the immediate area from either door," the teenager responds. "Hatch is probably going to have less people in the path, but it's going to be a tight fit I'm betting". Which meant one slip and everyone would know they're inside. The door, on the other hand, provided them more room to move, but would make stealth more difficult, but still possible.
As they fly through the air, Cyclops notices the window blowing in his hair. He's been flown places perhaps a million of times, but this is a new feeling for him. As they land, he's already adapting his visor to give a short, thin blast if picking a lock might be needed.
"What are your thoughts, Channel?" he asks coldly. Clearly he knows which one he'd pick, but he's interested in the younger woman's answer.
Glancing at the two doors, the woman considers for a moment. "If what we needed was in the offices, I'd say the main door. Offices are probably up top. But we need to get to the basement," Channel responds to the man. "If the hatch either leads us to a maintenance area or passes near the elevator shaft, we can exit it that way and slip through the shaft". She couldn't map the hatch though, not with her sight. "The elevators will almost certainly be upstairs as well, of course. But they'll be right where we don't want to be, which is a high-traffic area. I say go for the hatch and try to spend as little time in there as possible, get to an elevator shaft, and get to the basement that way".
"Sounds like a plan," Cyclops responds noncommittally. He moves over toward the hatch and once he spies the lock, he reaches up and takes an aimed shot at it with a tight optic blast. The lock blows away with a lot less drama than might be expected. Slowly, the X-man leans down and begins to lift the hatch up, careful not to allow it to creak too much to allow them to be scene. Once he gets it opened up, he looks downward to inspect what they're getting themselves in to.
There's a slight nod from Channel as Cyclops deals with the lock. Looks like she'd not need to always carry her lockpicks with her if he was around. Usefuil, that.
When Cyclops looks inside, there are two options. The ladder leads ten feet down to a short catwalk. The floor of the factory cannot be seen from this distance. At the east end of the catwalk is an access hatch that looks like it is just large enough for two people to crawl through side-by-side if they had to. However, it is too short to allow either of them to stand up in. The catwalk also seems to wrap around and head downwards to another level of the factor, if one wanted to use the catwalk instead, though they were notoriously loud. An elevator entrance that wasn't in use can be seen about two hundred feet ahead of them. The access shaft stops about thirty feet from the shaft, and is pointing straight down at that point.
After spying the data, Cyclops straightens and looks over to Channel. "Catwalk is gonna make quite a bit of noise. How's your control of flight indoors? You think you can handle getting us across to that access hatch heading downwards? Elevator might cause a ruckus too."
"Doable," Channel responds, floating downwards. She reaches over to take hold of Cyclops again and flies over towards the access hatch, bypassing the catwalk and getting them to the mouth of the access hatch. "I can try flying us through the hatch," she suggests. It wouldn't be fast, but they weren't looking for speed, really. Not at the moment at least. "We might need it for the downward portion anyway," she suggests. She was reasonably comfortable making her suggestions here. Unlike in class, when the girl tended to be a little more reserved about speaking up, she was more willing to go with something here in the field.
"We keep holding hands like this, the rest of the school is going to start giving you grief," Cyclops says as he takes hold of her on her descent downwards through the hatch. "Slow and steady wins the race. Quiet, slow, and steady keeps us alive," he adds with a smirk.
An amused smile comes to Channel's face. "Wouldn't be the first rumor started about me," she responds as she flies the man through the access hatch. The descent is a long one, easily three hundred feet deep, which would take them well below the ground level. It finally levels off, and a little more flying through the tunnels will bring them up to a grate. There are two men that can be seen guarding a door, each armed with a heavy duty machine gun and a pair of pistols at each side. They're wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets.
Setting Cyclops down quietly, Jocelyn gestures to her eyes, then to the men, then flicks the top of her head lightly, giving Cyclops a questioning look. Speaking here would be a very bad idea.
"Yeah, me either," Cyclops says with a lopsided smirk. The trip downward is uneventful until they reach the grouping of the two men. As Jocelyn looks at him, Cyclops gives a steadying hand gesture as if saying he has a plan. He reaches up to try and see if he can remove the grate without making a noise, in order to give him a chance at the two shots. Before he does so, however, he once again changes the make and shape of his optic blast by cycling through settings on his visor, looking for a setting to knock out and not kill.
Well, Cyclops' plan was the plan that Channel was trying to communicate to him, so either that hand signaling worked, or the two of them were just thinking alike. One of the two. The grate comes loose with a very small amount of noise - it isn't silent, because the grate was, in fact, old. However, the guards won't have a chance to take a shot at Cyclops before he can knock them out with his optic blasts. They'd been looking at the elevator and stairs instead of the grate, so the shot is going to catch them off-guard.
The door in front is made of some sort of extremely strong metal, and something that is really quite heavy and sturdy, from the look of it. There is a computer keypad and a monitor build into the wall, which presumably will let them enter if they hack it. Or they could try blasting their way in, though with the thickness of the door, that might take awhile, even for the two of them combined.
As soon as the grate is free, Cyclops shoots two quick, knock-out style shots aimed at the heads of the guardmen. It was once a football coach who noted the importance of headshots-'Affect the head. Affect the head.' Before waiting to see how the trick worked, he's out from beyond the grate, looking to kick the guns away if they clatter to the ground.
Channel flies out right behind Cyclops. She's checking on one of the guards to see if he's out or not. A nod is given to him. "This one will be out for a bit, but just in case". She reaches into one of her pouches and pulls out a few short but sturdy pieces of rope. She flips a couple over to Cyclops to deal with his guy as she binds the hands and feet of the one she was checking on. She then makes sure to divest him of all communications equipment.
She stands and looks at the keypad. "Okay, let me see here". The girl traces something through the wall that she can see before she stops at a spot. "Right here". Channel lets out a small little spart of electricity, and the door slides open.
Inside are a set of robots that are designed like giant brown bears. There are about two hundred of them lining the long hallway. They're about twelve feet in height and appear to be offline at the moment.
"Are you able to see any sort of technological security equipment that might alert them to our presence?" Cyclops asks quietly. Again, he thinks the best option is up and over. Although he's interested in the details about these monsters, he knows the Danger Room sometimes throws red-herrings out there for the X-men. His rule of thumb is to always stay on target. "Up, is probably our best bet."
"There's some sort of security in front of each bear," Jocelyn replies. "Goes up about ten feet. One of those complicated laser wire setups". Those weren't exactly hard for Channel to miss. "They've got cameras angled downwards, but they're fixed locations. I can use infared to mask us from them if needed," the teenager replies. "Nothing is looking up though".
So, Channel reaches out to take hold of Cyclops once more (she really needs to start charging airfare) and flies straight up, and then over to the other side of the hallway.
Upon landing, there is another door, again made of a very thick metal. There is an electronic keypad on the side of it, with a good three dozen keys on it. There is also a keyhole in the door.
"I've seen this before," Channel says. "You need to turn the key at the same time you activate the electronic lock. Which one do you want, the electronic or the physical?" the girl asks. "We'll have to time it just right".
"The physical one. Your skills with electricity might be our best bet." Cyclops hrms as he looks at the keys. "Anyone got a spare key? I don't see a rug to look under" he asks, inspecting the key hole. He takes a look back over his shoulder and raises an eyebrow; he's checking to be sure they're not followed. Then his attention goes back to the keys.
Reaching into her pouch, Channel pulls out her lockpicks and offers them to Cyclops. "We can go with this, unless we want to try and find a guard who might have the key. I haven't seen anyone in here though".
There isn't anyone following them at the moment, and no voices can be heard at this time. So far, they've either gotten very lucky with their approach, or the Danger Room was setting them up. It could really be either one.
Category:Log