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om_mainA JVX team goes in to grab Nico.
Cal wasn't sure how he felt so calm about the damn thing, but he did. He pulled a black hoodie over the kevlar vest he'd just pulled on and looked at the small team he had assembled in the War Room, wondering how they felt about what they were about to do.
"Given what we know, the hostiles are likely Reverend Stryker's people," he told them as Claudia fitted those who wouldn't fry them with small clip-on cameras. Not Kitty, not him. "They're religious nuts and gun nuts and they think we're all demons, so the kevlar vests are seriously not optional." For those of them not wearing Kitty Pryde prototype suits, anyway. "I'm gonna teleport us wherever Nico is, so there might be hostiles in there with us straight away. We secure him, then we make sure they don't have anyone else prisoner. Shadowcat, Anole, you'll check on that while Apollo, Patriot and I handle any hostiles we encounter. We secure their prisoners if there are any, and we get the hell back here. We're not going in to take anybody out, we're going in for a rescue." He was bound to have forgotten something; he was sure Surge would've made a better job of this. "Any questions?"
"I got one." Paul resisted the urge to raise his hand to ask the question. His wardrobe was short on black - short on most things - and he'd had to borrow from Midnighter, meaning the t-shirt fitted tighter than he was used to, and raising his hand would just remind him of that. "Who's gonna take care of Nico back here? I mean, you're gonna port back, right? So that's get him, bring him back here, and he's...probably not gonna want to be alone."
"The medical team's on standby," Cal replied, completely trusting Simon to handle things until Moira got here. It helped that he knew first hand the kind of knowledge and skills Simon had, so yeah, complete faith in him. "We can expect him to be in bad shape, shots were fired. One of my dupes will teleport him straight into the infirmary, so I can stay with you out there."
"Do we have any idea of where we're teleporting to? Like, is it a church or a dungeon or... are there gonna be harems of underage wives there or anything?" Kitty had no idea what Stryker's people were like. She tugged at her suit in the back, reminding herself to make them a little less, uh, sticky. She felt like she was going to have a wedgie for the next three years, and it wasn't helping her concentrate on staying professional.
"Illyana was kept in a cell, that's all we know," Cal replied, and made a face. "I'm hoping no harems." Then again, they were religious nutjobs, so who the fuck knew. "But no, we have no idea where we're going to end up, or who might be there. I want everybody in a defensive position until one of me's gone with Nico. Then you and Anole look for other prisoners while the three of us draw the attention of whoever's around."
Victor nodded when being addressed and though he felt more like a bundle of nerves inside with his stomach in knots, when he spoke he was all calm and confident. It was like being on stage really. The fact that he was in one of Kitty's suits only added to the surreal, staged feel of it all.
"Makes sense to me." He nodded, no questions left now that the others had asked.
Steve was standing near the back of the group, tugging at his kevlar and swinging his arms to be sure he had a full range of movement. He too felt calmer than he would have expected - the stress would come later, maybe, but right now he felt at peace with the situation, in his training, and his team.
Once he was satisfied with the vest, he looked up at Cal as he zipped the hoodie over it. "What’s the plan after we get them out? Are we calling the authorities?" He wanted to ask if they could use the images they picked up on camera as proof, maybe anonymously, but for the sake of expediency, left it for now. "And are we-" he paused to gesture between the two of them and Paul- "the distraction, or should we be attempting stealth as well?"
To Cal's defense, it wasn't that he hadn't thought about what would come next, it was that he had, and had decided that it was the kind of stuff to think about later. Once Nico was safe - and anybody else that might have fallen prey to these people. "If we can be stealthy, all the better. But if needed, we become the distraction, yeah." In a perfect world, they would all remain undetected. He wasn't really banking on the world being perfect. "Now, about calling the authorities - we can figure that out when we get back. There's a lot to take into account if we do contact them. For now, we get Nico back here safe - and anybody else who might be in danger. Then we can worry about what comes next." But they couldn't contact the legal authorities now and wait for them to intervene; then it might be too late. No, that decision would come once Nico was safe, and it wouldn't be a JVX decision only.
"I should be able to ping your location as soon as you arrive, and the more you can stay under the radar, the less chance anyone will get hurt," Claudia said. "I've got some additional wireless cameras you can set up so I can keep a more general eye on the landscape, but they're not a long-term thing."
"Set up how?" Cal asked with a frown, reluctant to have them distracted by tech. It was supposed to help, not be a hassle.
"Just stick them on any hard surface, like a wall or the like. I can monitor from here. I can also burn them if someone finds one so it can't be traced back," she said. She'd built them with the intent that anyone could just put them somewhere like a nanny-cam. Extra eyes, nothing too special.
"Alright, you guys take some?" Cal requested of Paul, Steve and Victor. "Hopefully we won't need them, but better safe than sorry." He went over the plan in his mind again as Claudia gave them a few of those cameras. Alright. They could do this. They were about to, after all.
"Anything else? Otherwise, let's cuddle close," he stated, gesturing for everybody to gather up, the closer the better. "Nico needs us ASAP."
Kitty stopped fiddling with her suit and scooted in next to Cal, taking a deep breath. She planned on phasing out as soon as they arrived. Just in case. She reached out and tugged Victor close, keeping a hand on his arm. She could phase him too, if needed.
Steve had accepted the answer about the authorities easily, and, as the huddled in, made a mental note to re-prioritize a little of his attention to remembering details, if he could. He could remember things easily, but he actually had to pay attention to them first, however briefly.
After making sure the pockets in his cameras were secure, he angled himself so it'd be easy to cut to the front with Cal and Paul, ready to run in case they dropped in on trouble.
Sticking close to Kitty since it made sense, Victor focused and watched as his arm became camouflaged with the floor and back again. A new suit with new material presented a challenge right when he needed to get it right first. He'd do it, Nico and the guys around him were pretty much relying on that as much as he was relying on them.
He knew couldn't afford to even for a second think 'what if' so instead made himself look around their little group and said "Good luck." Trying to smile though the weight and seriousness of the situation was pressing heavy on his mind. He swallowed hard and tried not to wonder what state they were about to find his friend in.
"And remember to keep your arms in," Cal concluded wryly, mostly under his breath, as he called up the largest disc he'd ever had to. Thankfully, with Paul's mutation, their flashy apparition in a dark cell thousands of kilometers away didn't seem to wipe him out half as bad as it normally would've.
Nico blinked blearily when a disc appeared. Was he hallucinating? Was Yana here? He couldn't find any energy in him to move. In fact, he couldn't find any energy in him to stay awake. Survival instincts alone kept his eyes half open.
"Yana...?" Nico tried to say, but mostly just wheezed out half the word, his lungs protesting their every movement. He was losing the battle to stay awake--his eyes fluttered shut, and Nico couldn't help but half wonder if he was going to get to see Bianca again.
Victor pulled from the group and bolted from the group. He was down on his knees next to Nico immediately
"Yana's safe and we're gonna get you outta here," He said quickly, softly. Cal would take over any second, he just needed to reassure his friend. Nico was in bad shape, sure Yana's story had warned them but nothing could have quite prepared him for the reality of seeing his friend it such a state. Even without his stupid crush, he was pretty sure it would still freak him out this bad.
"You're safe now." He promised and swallowed hard. Right. Cal needed to take him now.
He waited until Cal was moving in to back off, not wanting to move away from Nico until another was there. He must have felt so alone in this place...
As soon as Cal had situated himself in the dark cell, he duplicated. Prime phased out, just in case, and moved towards the door with the small barred window to keep watch, while his dupe moved to Nico. There was no apparent gunshot, at least; he just looked like he'd been severely beaten. 'Just'. Fuck this shit.
"Get away," he told Vic as he crouched beside Nico, and reached out to lay a hand lightly on his shoulder. He didn't need the contact to teleport them both, but it was a reflex anyway. "I'm taking you home, Nico."
"Unless you can tell us if there's anyone else here," Paul added swiftly, moving to stand clear of whatever room Cal would need to get Nico out. "Anyone you heard?"
"I don't think he's in any condition to help us," the Cal beside Nico replied. "Everybody stand back." And, once he was sure that he wouldn't catch anybody else with the stepping disc, he called it up and teleported himself and Nico to the infirmary.
The Cal that remained moved sharply back from the door's barred window. "We've got movement out there," he told the others in a whisper. "Two guys, armed. Let's see if they'll open this door for us, everybody get out of sight." They could always knock it open if they didn't, but that would be a lot less discreet to anybody else that might be within earshot.
Kitty ducked into a dark corner, phasing partially through the wall to check and see what was on another side. It was another cell, empty, but she had a feeling there were several of them...wherever they were. "Want me to take Anole to do some recon?" she asked quietly.
The easiest way for Apollo to get out of sight was to go up. Most humans didn't look for anyone above head height, so he simply floated up and flattened his back against the ceiling. "Better if we've got less people in here, I think," he agreed.
"You two go," Cal confirmed with a nod at Kitty. "We'll keep them busy." Banging hard against the door was sure to draw people to them, and if they didn't see anyone inside the cell, Cal was hoping they would panic and open the door. Of course, that would wait until Kitty and Victor were gone.
Steve crouched down low to make sure he could tackle easily, the corner of his mouth turned up at Apollo hiding up on the ceiling. He glanced at Kitty and Vic, giving them a smile and thumbs up as he mouthed good luck at the pair, then turned his attention back on the door.
With a small nod in response, Victor took Kitty's hand. He had game face back on again after that little blip though managed a small smile before they set off.
Kitty winked at Steve, mouthing You too, then tugged Victor through the wall with her, setting off on a stealthy circuit of their surroundings while the others drew attention their way.
Cal waited until they were gone, then asked Steve, "Bang hard on the door?" in a whisper. He didn't want to make more Cals or drop Jamie's mutation unless he had to. And that way, he could remain phased out for now. He moved to the other side of the doorframe, in the blind spot of anyone looking in from that small barred window.
Steve nodded and banged hard on the door, harder than someone in as rough a shape as Nico had been could have managed, and grinned as surprised chatter started among the guards. Sure enough, one looked through the small window and, finding no one, started sounding panicked. Steve nodded to Cal at the sound of keys jangling, and got ready to strike.
Cal drifted off the ground as the door was unlocked, still phased out. When it was slammed open right into him, he moved through it, then phased back in to grab the first man through from behind. His arm locked around his neck, his Paul-level strength more than enough to hold him in place (and up in mid-air) long enough for the cut of air flow to make him pass out - if nobody came to his help, anyway, but he trusted Patriot and Apollo to take care of his colleague.
It was easy enough to drop down when Apollo saw Cal wrestling with the first guy, and not only to help out. His priority was stopping anyone else getting to Cal, and that meant getting himself around Cal and in front of the next guy. Not behind, unfortunately. Behind would have been easier, but Apollo wanted to be between Cal and the rest of the guards, which meant gritting his teeth against the next guard's attack and bending down, driving his shoulder into the guy's midsection and aiming for a grip around his waist.
Steve sprung into action, putting himself between the door and the room, making sure that no one could get out. It wasn't likely anyone could get away from them, but if they did, it could be disastrous.
A quick glance showed another guard coming down the hall, his hand going for a gun that was still in the holster. Making a quick decision, he reprioritized and sprinted down hall and jumped on the guy, knocking the gun out of his hand as he slammed him to the floor by his throat. The man went limp, and a cold wash went over Steve, terrified, for a moment, that he'd been too rough. A quick check of his pulse and he sighed in relief, and after taking the guard's gun and walkie talkie, ran back to the room to check on the others.
The guy struggling in Cal's arms caused a couple of dupes to appear, but eventually he stopped struggling and went limp. Cal lowered him to the floor and took his pulse to make sure he hadn't gone too far. Good. In the meantime, one of his dupes joined Paul to take care of the next guard, and the second one merged back with him before they phased out again, flying straight through the wall to go check on Steve.
Lessons with Midnighter had taught Apollo to go for the unexpected, which was why he tightened his hold and lifted from the floor again, taking the guard with him. The guard wasn't bright enough to realize that struggling to be free put him in more danger, and Apollo resorted to dirty tactics, bringing his knee up hard to drive the fight out of the guy long enough for Cal's dupe to disable him before Apollo let him drop to the floor beside the first, reaching to push his hair back from his face.
"I think mine may have called for backup," Steve said to the dupe, indicating to the walkie talkie that he clipped to his belt. Once he was back in the room, he glanced over the group before clearing the chamber and unloading in the magazine of the gun he took from his guard, then twisted in the metal in a shape that rendered it unusable.
Sure enough, as soon as he'd taken another guard's gun in order to do the same, the radio on his hip crackled with a man's voice, telling him backup was on the way. He glanced up at Cal as he destryoed another gun up and went for the third. "What's the plan, Cal?"
The phased out Cal in the hallway was drifting back to the cell they had kept Nico in, and when he heard the radio, he called out, "Shadowcat, Anole, sitrep!"
Victor and Kitty had immediately split up after leaving the empty cell next to Nico's, each going in the opposite direction to cover more ground more quickly. While the guards were thoroughly distracted by the others, Victor had hastily blended into the wall and made his way up onto the ceiling. The quickest route and least noticeable, he'd quickly checked the cells and rooms in his area and found them all mercifully empty. A huge relief considering he hadn't quite known what to do if he had found someone, since phasing with Kitty had killed the comm he'd been given.
Still it meant he'd been on his way back when Cal had called out, several metres away and still using the ceiling route he let his disguise drop for a moment to reveal himself to the others. "Up here. All clear down this end."
He'd overheard Steve’s comment about backup though and now the cogs in his brain were turning. If he got over to above that door, with his tongue he could potential disarm whoever came through it without them realizing it until too late...
Kitty had tackled her few cells quickly, then had ducked through a few walls to get a feel for where they were. As she'd figured, it was a basement, and not all that extensive either. At least she didn't find any firearms or bombs, so the whole operation was probably still bumbling along in its infancy. Not that they weren't still dangerous. Throat closing on the thought of Illyana and Nico, she whipped around and darted through the walls toward the sound of Cal's voice.
At the sight of the guys on the floor, she gave Cal a nod of approval. "No one else here. I didn't check upstairs. I had an idea, though. If we have Patriot or Apollo pick a cell phone off of one of these guys, we might be able to get some intel on how big their operation is once we get back."
"On it," Steve answered, patting down to two men in cell and getting a phone off both. Smart phones, too. Good. They'd probably hold a lot more info than the basic models. He passed one off to Paul for safekeeping before putting the other in a zippered pocket, then jumped back to his feet. "Good thinking, Shadowcat," he said with a little grin to her, before putting all his attention back on Cal.
"Yeah," Cal agreed with a nod. "You go and check upstairs, make sure we're not leaving anybody in their hands," he told Kitty. "Go grab the guy outside, drag him in here, quick," he told his dupe, who got to it immediately. "Anole, you stick to the ceiling and do your thing from there. Same strategy as before - we draw them here, separate them and take them out. They'll be on their guard this time, but we've trained for this. Let's go," he concluded as his dupe came back in, easily carrying the unconscious man's body into the cell.
Kitty nodded succinctly and disappeared through the nearest wall to do a little more recon. She definitely did not want to miss any other captives, and getting a feel for their operation was a nice perk too.
Up above, Victor had blended himself in with the ceiling once more and gotten into position. When the first of the back up came through the door, he was already reaching for the gun at his hip. Which meant one chance, without time to think or panic he shot out his tongue and grabbed the gun leaving nothing but thin air for the now confused guard to grab at.
He wasn't planning to use it himself, not unless it was absolutely necessary but this way meant there was one less weapon to be pointed at his team-mates. He put in into safety and got ready for the next one, there had to be more close behind right?
Steve lunged at the guard from his spot pressed against the wall, diving to knock him down into the opposite corner of the cell. He wanted to make sure that the others had room to get to the other guards, if any, without tripping over the two of them. The guy put up a good struggle, punching Steve in the face once and shoving him back, but Steve quickly got his legs around the guy's waist as he went to punch again, flipping him face down as he forced and arm around his throat, putting him in a stranglehold.
Cal, who had reabsorbed his dupe, grabbed the next guy and easily threw him to the side; superstrength seriously came in handy. His weapon clattered to the ground and Cal was on him before he had a chance to reclaim it, creating a couple more dupes in the process of knocking him out.
With the phone safely stashed in a zipped pocket, Paul launched himself from the floor again, midnight training memories guiding him into aiming a kick at the nearest guard's shoulder, one hand braced against the ceiling to stop momentum sending him sliding back. Solid enough to drop the guard to the floor, thankfully, and Paul landed on top of his back, catching one arm and twisting it up with enough force to make the guard think twice about trying to fight back. One hand still free to twist his fingers into the guard's hair for a good grip, trying to keep enough control to only hit the guy's head against the floor and not snap his neck.
And then the rest of the reinforcements burst in and Victor, who'd been planning to keep in the fringe and only involve himself in the fight in more of a subtle sabotage role, changed tactics quickly. He wasn't going to stay put if he could do something especially when it looked like the others might (potentially) get overwhelmed.
Changing back to his usual appearance, he used the ceiling as a springboard and threw down onto the guy bringing up the rear. The sudden unexpected weight from above sent the guard crumpling to the ground with a surprised shout.
The shock didn't last for long and as the man beneath him started to struggle, for a split second, Victor felt panic and fear. It was the first ever fight he'd gotten into that wasn’t in controlled and ultimately safe conditions after all, but the moment was a fleeting one as he moved fast before the bigger guard could gain the upperhand. One slam of his head to the floor had him seeing stars, the second and he was unconscious which was good enough for Victor. A quick rummage relieved him of his weapons and the radio got kicked away before he climbed up the wall again to get a good view of the situation and see if anyone could use a hand.
The entire room was a mess of noise and chaos, but to Steve's surprise, his mind handled it easily. Tuned away what he didn't need, focused in on what it did, the steps he should take coming to him easily. He had been taking care of the loose gun when the next wave of guards came in, and he was knocking his arms away, the guy getting one good punch to the face before Steve was slamming him against the wall, punching one, two, three times before the man sagged, unconscious.
There were now three Cals adding to the noise and chaos in question, all the more so every hit they took only created more of them. The middle of combat was no time to reabsorb dupes, so they all kept on fighting. Short fights, given their mimicked advantages over the guards, between their strength and their abilities to fly or phase out when needed. They didn't even need to use their teleportation, which was for the better; they would need it fresh to take everybody back. It wasn't long until there was only two guards left standing, and several Cals turned to see if Paul would need help with them.
Paul needed help. Midnighter would probably be disappointed in him, but he needed help. One guard was easy enough to handle - easy enough that he'd felt the slightest flash of guilt over it, knowing how much slower and weaker the humans were - but two at once was unfamiliar enough that he wasn't sure where to focus his attention. He was fast enough not to be in real danger of getting restrained or disabled, but couldn't take out both guards at the same time. "If you guys are all done watching..."
One of Cal immediately moved in to swiftly knock one of the guys out, having no such qualms about his superior strength. "We good?"
Down the hallway, Kitty floated down through the ceiling just in time to see a man inch his way down the hall, a semi-automatic drawn on her friends. She'd had a lot of hand-to-hand combat training from Philip and Judd, but in the heat of the moment, she locked up, unable to remember any of the moves she'd been taught. Maybe she would have, if there hadn't been a gun. Maybe, if the gun hadn't been trained on the her friends.
Instead, all she could think to do was re-materialize and grab a nearby piece of metal pipe. She knocked the gun from his hand, then caught him in the chin on the upswing, her gaze wide, but determined as she watched him stumble back. The next swing dropped the man to the floor. Quickly, she grabbed the gun and dematerialized again, launching herself down the hallway toward the others, trying not to think about whether she'd killed him or not. "Yeah," she said with a soft huff. "We're good."
Cal looked at the gun in her hands, then back up at her, and just asked, "No prisoners upstairs?" If they could go now, they were going. Before more people showed up.
Kitty quickly put the safety on and shook her head. "Not in this building anyway. It's clear."
"Alright, let's get back," Cal stated, despite his very strong desire to go and beat up more of the bastards. He couldn't let himself start thinking that way, though. "C'mon," he added, gesturing for everybody to come closer, even as he reabsorbed his dupes. The entire group huddled close, and in a flash of light, was gone, leaving only unconscious bodies behind.
Cal wasn't sure how he felt so calm about the damn thing, but he did. He pulled a black hoodie over the kevlar vest he'd just pulled on and looked at the small team he had assembled in the War Room, wondering how they felt about what they were about to do.
"Given what we know, the hostiles are likely Reverend Stryker's people," he told them as Claudia fitted those who wouldn't fry them with small clip-on cameras. Not Kitty, not him. "They're religious nuts and gun nuts and they think we're all demons, so the kevlar vests are seriously not optional." For those of them not wearing Kitty Pryde prototype suits, anyway. "I'm gonna teleport us wherever Nico is, so there might be hostiles in there with us straight away. We secure him, then we make sure they don't have anyone else prisoner. Shadowcat, Anole, you'll check on that while Apollo, Patriot and I handle any hostiles we encounter. We secure their prisoners if there are any, and we get the hell back here. We're not going in to take anybody out, we're going in for a rescue." He was bound to have forgotten something; he was sure Surge would've made a better job of this. "Any questions?"
"I got one." Paul resisted the urge to raise his hand to ask the question. His wardrobe was short on black - short on most things - and he'd had to borrow from Midnighter, meaning the t-shirt fitted tighter than he was used to, and raising his hand would just remind him of that. "Who's gonna take care of Nico back here? I mean, you're gonna port back, right? So that's get him, bring him back here, and he's...probably not gonna want to be alone."
"The medical team's on standby," Cal replied, completely trusting Simon to handle things until Moira got here. It helped that he knew first hand the kind of knowledge and skills Simon had, so yeah, complete faith in him. "We can expect him to be in bad shape, shots were fired. One of my dupes will teleport him straight into the infirmary, so I can stay with you out there."
"Do we have any idea of where we're teleporting to? Like, is it a church or a dungeon or... are there gonna be harems of underage wives there or anything?" Kitty had no idea what Stryker's people were like. She tugged at her suit in the back, reminding herself to make them a little less, uh, sticky. She felt like she was going to have a wedgie for the next three years, and it wasn't helping her concentrate on staying professional.
"Illyana was kept in a cell, that's all we know," Cal replied, and made a face. "I'm hoping no harems." Then again, they were religious nutjobs, so who the fuck knew. "But no, we have no idea where we're going to end up, or who might be there. I want everybody in a defensive position until one of me's gone with Nico. Then you and Anole look for other prisoners while the three of us draw the attention of whoever's around."
Victor nodded when being addressed and though he felt more like a bundle of nerves inside with his stomach in knots, when he spoke he was all calm and confident. It was like being on stage really. The fact that he was in one of Kitty's suits only added to the surreal, staged feel of it all.
"Makes sense to me." He nodded, no questions left now that the others had asked.
Steve was standing near the back of the group, tugging at his kevlar and swinging his arms to be sure he had a full range of movement. He too felt calmer than he would have expected - the stress would come later, maybe, but right now he felt at peace with the situation, in his training, and his team.
Once he was satisfied with the vest, he looked up at Cal as he zipped the hoodie over it. "What’s the plan after we get them out? Are we calling the authorities?" He wanted to ask if they could use the images they picked up on camera as proof, maybe anonymously, but for the sake of expediency, left it for now. "And are we-" he paused to gesture between the two of them and Paul- "the distraction, or should we be attempting stealth as well?"
To Cal's defense, it wasn't that he hadn't thought about what would come next, it was that he had, and had decided that it was the kind of stuff to think about later. Once Nico was safe - and anybody else that might have fallen prey to these people. "If we can be stealthy, all the better. But if needed, we become the distraction, yeah." In a perfect world, they would all remain undetected. He wasn't really banking on the world being perfect. "Now, about calling the authorities - we can figure that out when we get back. There's a lot to take into account if we do contact them. For now, we get Nico back here safe - and anybody else who might be in danger. Then we can worry about what comes next." But they couldn't contact the legal authorities now and wait for them to intervene; then it might be too late. No, that decision would come once Nico was safe, and it wouldn't be a JVX decision only.
"I should be able to ping your location as soon as you arrive, and the more you can stay under the radar, the less chance anyone will get hurt," Claudia said. "I've got some additional wireless cameras you can set up so I can keep a more general eye on the landscape, but they're not a long-term thing."
"Set up how?" Cal asked with a frown, reluctant to have them distracted by tech. It was supposed to help, not be a hassle.
"Just stick them on any hard surface, like a wall or the like. I can monitor from here. I can also burn them if someone finds one so it can't be traced back," she said. She'd built them with the intent that anyone could just put them somewhere like a nanny-cam. Extra eyes, nothing too special.
"Alright, you guys take some?" Cal requested of Paul, Steve and Victor. "Hopefully we won't need them, but better safe than sorry." He went over the plan in his mind again as Claudia gave them a few of those cameras. Alright. They could do this. They were about to, after all.
"Anything else? Otherwise, let's cuddle close," he stated, gesturing for everybody to gather up, the closer the better. "Nico needs us ASAP."
Kitty stopped fiddling with her suit and scooted in next to Cal, taking a deep breath. She planned on phasing out as soon as they arrived. Just in case. She reached out and tugged Victor close, keeping a hand on his arm. She could phase him too, if needed.
Steve had accepted the answer about the authorities easily, and, as the huddled in, made a mental note to re-prioritize a little of his attention to remembering details, if he could. He could remember things easily, but he actually had to pay attention to them first, however briefly.
After making sure the pockets in his cameras were secure, he angled himself so it'd be easy to cut to the front with Cal and Paul, ready to run in case they dropped in on trouble.
Sticking close to Kitty since it made sense, Victor focused and watched as his arm became camouflaged with the floor and back again. A new suit with new material presented a challenge right when he needed to get it right first. He'd do it, Nico and the guys around him were pretty much relying on that as much as he was relying on them.
He knew couldn't afford to even for a second think 'what if' so instead made himself look around their little group and said "Good luck." Trying to smile though the weight and seriousness of the situation was pressing heavy on his mind. He swallowed hard and tried not to wonder what state they were about to find his friend in.
"And remember to keep your arms in," Cal concluded wryly, mostly under his breath, as he called up the largest disc he'd ever had to. Thankfully, with Paul's mutation, their flashy apparition in a dark cell thousands of kilometers away didn't seem to wipe him out half as bad as it normally would've.
Nico blinked blearily when a disc appeared. Was he hallucinating? Was Yana here? He couldn't find any energy in him to move. In fact, he couldn't find any energy in him to stay awake. Survival instincts alone kept his eyes half open.
"Yana...?" Nico tried to say, but mostly just wheezed out half the word, his lungs protesting their every movement. He was losing the battle to stay awake--his eyes fluttered shut, and Nico couldn't help but half wonder if he was going to get to see Bianca again.
Victor pulled from the group and bolted from the group. He was down on his knees next to Nico immediately
"Yana's safe and we're gonna get you outta here," He said quickly, softly. Cal would take over any second, he just needed to reassure his friend. Nico was in bad shape, sure Yana's story had warned them but nothing could have quite prepared him for the reality of seeing his friend it such a state. Even without his stupid crush, he was pretty sure it would still freak him out this bad.
"You're safe now." He promised and swallowed hard. Right. Cal needed to take him now.
He waited until Cal was moving in to back off, not wanting to move away from Nico until another was there. He must have felt so alone in this place...
As soon as Cal had situated himself in the dark cell, he duplicated. Prime phased out, just in case, and moved towards the door with the small barred window to keep watch, while his dupe moved to Nico. There was no apparent gunshot, at least; he just looked like he'd been severely beaten. 'Just'. Fuck this shit.
"Get away," he told Vic as he crouched beside Nico, and reached out to lay a hand lightly on his shoulder. He didn't need the contact to teleport them both, but it was a reflex anyway. "I'm taking you home, Nico."
"Unless you can tell us if there's anyone else here," Paul added swiftly, moving to stand clear of whatever room Cal would need to get Nico out. "Anyone you heard?"
"I don't think he's in any condition to help us," the Cal beside Nico replied. "Everybody stand back." And, once he was sure that he wouldn't catch anybody else with the stepping disc, he called it up and teleported himself and Nico to the infirmary.
The Cal that remained moved sharply back from the door's barred window. "We've got movement out there," he told the others in a whisper. "Two guys, armed. Let's see if they'll open this door for us, everybody get out of sight." They could always knock it open if they didn't, but that would be a lot less discreet to anybody else that might be within earshot.
Kitty ducked into a dark corner, phasing partially through the wall to check and see what was on another side. It was another cell, empty, but she had a feeling there were several of them...wherever they were. "Want me to take Anole to do some recon?" she asked quietly.
The easiest way for Apollo to get out of sight was to go up. Most humans didn't look for anyone above head height, so he simply floated up and flattened his back against the ceiling. "Better if we've got less people in here, I think," he agreed.
"You two go," Cal confirmed with a nod at Kitty. "We'll keep them busy." Banging hard against the door was sure to draw people to them, and if they didn't see anyone inside the cell, Cal was hoping they would panic and open the door. Of course, that would wait until Kitty and Victor were gone.
Steve crouched down low to make sure he could tackle easily, the corner of his mouth turned up at Apollo hiding up on the ceiling. He glanced at Kitty and Vic, giving them a smile and thumbs up as he mouthed good luck at the pair, then turned his attention back on the door.
With a small nod in response, Victor took Kitty's hand. He had game face back on again after that little blip though managed a small smile before they set off.
Kitty winked at Steve, mouthing You too, then tugged Victor through the wall with her, setting off on a stealthy circuit of their surroundings while the others drew attention their way.
Cal waited until they were gone, then asked Steve, "Bang hard on the door?" in a whisper. He didn't want to make more Cals or drop Jamie's mutation unless he had to. And that way, he could remain phased out for now. He moved to the other side of the doorframe, in the blind spot of anyone looking in from that small barred window.
Steve nodded and banged hard on the door, harder than someone in as rough a shape as Nico had been could have managed, and grinned as surprised chatter started among the guards. Sure enough, one looked through the small window and, finding no one, started sounding panicked. Steve nodded to Cal at the sound of keys jangling, and got ready to strike.
Cal drifted off the ground as the door was unlocked, still phased out. When it was slammed open right into him, he moved through it, then phased back in to grab the first man through from behind. His arm locked around his neck, his Paul-level strength more than enough to hold him in place (and up in mid-air) long enough for the cut of air flow to make him pass out - if nobody came to his help, anyway, but he trusted Patriot and Apollo to take care of his colleague.
It was easy enough to drop down when Apollo saw Cal wrestling with the first guy, and not only to help out. His priority was stopping anyone else getting to Cal, and that meant getting himself around Cal and in front of the next guy. Not behind, unfortunately. Behind would have been easier, but Apollo wanted to be between Cal and the rest of the guards, which meant gritting his teeth against the next guard's attack and bending down, driving his shoulder into the guy's midsection and aiming for a grip around his waist.
Steve sprung into action, putting himself between the door and the room, making sure that no one could get out. It wasn't likely anyone could get away from them, but if they did, it could be disastrous.
A quick glance showed another guard coming down the hall, his hand going for a gun that was still in the holster. Making a quick decision, he reprioritized and sprinted down hall and jumped on the guy, knocking the gun out of his hand as he slammed him to the floor by his throat. The man went limp, and a cold wash went over Steve, terrified, for a moment, that he'd been too rough. A quick check of his pulse and he sighed in relief, and after taking the guard's gun and walkie talkie, ran back to the room to check on the others.
The guy struggling in Cal's arms caused a couple of dupes to appear, but eventually he stopped struggling and went limp. Cal lowered him to the floor and took his pulse to make sure he hadn't gone too far. Good. In the meantime, one of his dupes joined Paul to take care of the next guard, and the second one merged back with him before they phased out again, flying straight through the wall to go check on Steve.
Lessons with Midnighter had taught Apollo to go for the unexpected, which was why he tightened his hold and lifted from the floor again, taking the guard with him. The guard wasn't bright enough to realize that struggling to be free put him in more danger, and Apollo resorted to dirty tactics, bringing his knee up hard to drive the fight out of the guy long enough for Cal's dupe to disable him before Apollo let him drop to the floor beside the first, reaching to push his hair back from his face.
"I think mine may have called for backup," Steve said to the dupe, indicating to the walkie talkie that he clipped to his belt. Once he was back in the room, he glanced over the group before clearing the chamber and unloading in the magazine of the gun he took from his guard, then twisted in the metal in a shape that rendered it unusable.
Sure enough, as soon as he'd taken another guard's gun in order to do the same, the radio on his hip crackled with a man's voice, telling him backup was on the way. He glanced up at Cal as he destryoed another gun up and went for the third. "What's the plan, Cal?"
The phased out Cal in the hallway was drifting back to the cell they had kept Nico in, and when he heard the radio, he called out, "Shadowcat, Anole, sitrep!"
Victor and Kitty had immediately split up after leaving the empty cell next to Nico's, each going in the opposite direction to cover more ground more quickly. While the guards were thoroughly distracted by the others, Victor had hastily blended into the wall and made his way up onto the ceiling. The quickest route and least noticeable, he'd quickly checked the cells and rooms in his area and found them all mercifully empty. A huge relief considering he hadn't quite known what to do if he had found someone, since phasing with Kitty had killed the comm he'd been given.
Still it meant he'd been on his way back when Cal had called out, several metres away and still using the ceiling route he let his disguise drop for a moment to reveal himself to the others. "Up here. All clear down this end."
He'd overheard Steve’s comment about backup though and now the cogs in his brain were turning. If he got over to above that door, with his tongue he could potential disarm whoever came through it without them realizing it until too late...
Kitty had tackled her few cells quickly, then had ducked through a few walls to get a feel for where they were. As she'd figured, it was a basement, and not all that extensive either. At least she didn't find any firearms or bombs, so the whole operation was probably still bumbling along in its infancy. Not that they weren't still dangerous. Throat closing on the thought of Illyana and Nico, she whipped around and darted through the walls toward the sound of Cal's voice.
At the sight of the guys on the floor, she gave Cal a nod of approval. "No one else here. I didn't check upstairs. I had an idea, though. If we have Patriot or Apollo pick a cell phone off of one of these guys, we might be able to get some intel on how big their operation is once we get back."
"On it," Steve answered, patting down to two men in cell and getting a phone off both. Smart phones, too. Good. They'd probably hold a lot more info than the basic models. He passed one off to Paul for safekeeping before putting the other in a zippered pocket, then jumped back to his feet. "Good thinking, Shadowcat," he said with a little grin to her, before putting all his attention back on Cal.
"Yeah," Cal agreed with a nod. "You go and check upstairs, make sure we're not leaving anybody in their hands," he told Kitty. "Go grab the guy outside, drag him in here, quick," he told his dupe, who got to it immediately. "Anole, you stick to the ceiling and do your thing from there. Same strategy as before - we draw them here, separate them and take them out. They'll be on their guard this time, but we've trained for this. Let's go," he concluded as his dupe came back in, easily carrying the unconscious man's body into the cell.
Kitty nodded succinctly and disappeared through the nearest wall to do a little more recon. She definitely did not want to miss any other captives, and getting a feel for their operation was a nice perk too.
Up above, Victor had blended himself in with the ceiling once more and gotten into position. When the first of the back up came through the door, he was already reaching for the gun at his hip. Which meant one chance, without time to think or panic he shot out his tongue and grabbed the gun leaving nothing but thin air for the now confused guard to grab at.
He wasn't planning to use it himself, not unless it was absolutely necessary but this way meant there was one less weapon to be pointed at his team-mates. He put in into safety and got ready for the next one, there had to be more close behind right?
Steve lunged at the guard from his spot pressed against the wall, diving to knock him down into the opposite corner of the cell. He wanted to make sure that the others had room to get to the other guards, if any, without tripping over the two of them. The guy put up a good struggle, punching Steve in the face once and shoving him back, but Steve quickly got his legs around the guy's waist as he went to punch again, flipping him face down as he forced and arm around his throat, putting him in a stranglehold.
Cal, who had reabsorbed his dupe, grabbed the next guy and easily threw him to the side; superstrength seriously came in handy. His weapon clattered to the ground and Cal was on him before he had a chance to reclaim it, creating a couple more dupes in the process of knocking him out.
With the phone safely stashed in a zipped pocket, Paul launched himself from the floor again, midnight training memories guiding him into aiming a kick at the nearest guard's shoulder, one hand braced against the ceiling to stop momentum sending him sliding back. Solid enough to drop the guard to the floor, thankfully, and Paul landed on top of his back, catching one arm and twisting it up with enough force to make the guard think twice about trying to fight back. One hand still free to twist his fingers into the guard's hair for a good grip, trying to keep enough control to only hit the guy's head against the floor and not snap his neck.
And then the rest of the reinforcements burst in and Victor, who'd been planning to keep in the fringe and only involve himself in the fight in more of a subtle sabotage role, changed tactics quickly. He wasn't going to stay put if he could do something especially when it looked like the others might (potentially) get overwhelmed.
Changing back to his usual appearance, he used the ceiling as a springboard and threw down onto the guy bringing up the rear. The sudden unexpected weight from above sent the guard crumpling to the ground with a surprised shout.
The shock didn't last for long and as the man beneath him started to struggle, for a split second, Victor felt panic and fear. It was the first ever fight he'd gotten into that wasn’t in controlled and ultimately safe conditions after all, but the moment was a fleeting one as he moved fast before the bigger guard could gain the upperhand. One slam of his head to the floor had him seeing stars, the second and he was unconscious which was good enough for Victor. A quick rummage relieved him of his weapons and the radio got kicked away before he climbed up the wall again to get a good view of the situation and see if anyone could use a hand.
The entire room was a mess of noise and chaos, but to Steve's surprise, his mind handled it easily. Tuned away what he didn't need, focused in on what it did, the steps he should take coming to him easily. He had been taking care of the loose gun when the next wave of guards came in, and he was knocking his arms away, the guy getting one good punch to the face before Steve was slamming him against the wall, punching one, two, three times before the man sagged, unconscious.
There were now three Cals adding to the noise and chaos in question, all the more so every hit they took only created more of them. The middle of combat was no time to reabsorb dupes, so they all kept on fighting. Short fights, given their mimicked advantages over the guards, between their strength and their abilities to fly or phase out when needed. They didn't even need to use their teleportation, which was for the better; they would need it fresh to take everybody back. It wasn't long until there was only two guards left standing, and several Cals turned to see if Paul would need help with them.
Paul needed help. Midnighter would probably be disappointed in him, but he needed help. One guard was easy enough to handle - easy enough that he'd felt the slightest flash of guilt over it, knowing how much slower and weaker the humans were - but two at once was unfamiliar enough that he wasn't sure where to focus his attention. He was fast enough not to be in real danger of getting restrained or disabled, but couldn't take out both guards at the same time. "If you guys are all done watching..."
One of Cal immediately moved in to swiftly knock one of the guys out, having no such qualms about his superior strength. "We good?"
Down the hallway, Kitty floated down through the ceiling just in time to see a man inch his way down the hall, a semi-automatic drawn on her friends. She'd had a lot of hand-to-hand combat training from Philip and Judd, but in the heat of the moment, she locked up, unable to remember any of the moves she'd been taught. Maybe she would have, if there hadn't been a gun. Maybe, if the gun hadn't been trained on the her friends.
Instead, all she could think to do was re-materialize and grab a nearby piece of metal pipe. She knocked the gun from his hand, then caught him in the chin on the upswing, her gaze wide, but determined as she watched him stumble back. The next swing dropped the man to the floor. Quickly, she grabbed the gun and dematerialized again, launching herself down the hallway toward the others, trying not to think about whether she'd killed him or not. "Yeah," she said with a soft huff. "We're good."
Cal looked at the gun in her hands, then back up at her, and just asked, "No prisoners upstairs?" If they could go now, they were going. Before more people showed up.
Kitty quickly put the safety on and shook her head. "Not in this building anyway. It's clear."
"Alright, let's get back," Cal stated, despite his very strong desire to go and beat up more of the bastards. He couldn't let himself start thinking that way, though. "C'mon," he added, gesturing for everybody to come closer, even as he reabsorbed his dupes. The entire group huddled close, and in a flash of light, was gone, leaving only unconscious bodies behind.
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