Devil's Advocate
Posted on Mon Dec 6th, 2021 @ 9:13pm by Charles Xavier & Iris Walker & Cameron Hood & Jade Farwynd & Gabe Spicer & Elias Buckley & Bliss Hawkins & Levi Rousseau
Mission:
Episode 1: X-Odus
Location: New York/New Jersey
Timeline: July 21, 1990
Tags:
"I have gathered you here today for a special mission," Professor Xavier said to the group assembled around the stainless steel table. "Many of you are new to our family, newer still to our team of crisis responders and interventionists. Even so, the world does not give allowances or recesses on injustice. What I'm about to show you may be shocking. Experimentation on mutants always is."
With no further ado, Xavier activated the A/V replay recorded from his latest Cerebro session. The video it showed was mildly distorted and ephemeral, as it had been reconstructed from his cerebral cortex.
A round, metallic structure descended several stories downward. It was shaped a bit like the interior of a silo, but instead of perfectly smooth sides, there were mechanicals at regular intervals for gauges, anemometers, and fins that reacted to the upward movement of air. At the bottom, a young man with dark hair stood in the central eye of a swirling torrent of air. Wind lashed outward in a spiral until it reached the rounded walls of the enclosed space, which served to contain and concentrate the wind even more, funneled it upward toward turbine and gears that churned along the overhead walls. The man, somewhere in his late teens or early 20s, seemed exhausted from the effort and faltered in his stance, the storm immediately collapsing around him into calmness.
As he took a moment to recover, a pair of identical figures shrouded in mechanical armor emerged from somewhere unseen. Although he struggled against it, one of the twins overpowered and held the subject down while the other injected something into his neck. They released him after a moment, practically throwing him to the floor as they made their exit again. It did not take long for the substance to produce an effect. With a renewed energy, he stood up and brought his arms upward toward the reinforced door that his captors had vanished through. Winds began to pummel the door with percussive strikes so hard that they began to deform its surface.
"It falls to us to not only rescue this young man, but to provide him sanctuary," Xavier said. "A safe place to heal and time to recover from the horrors to which he's been subjected." He paused for a moment under the gravity of the situation, but then offered, "I'll answer any questions as I am able, but time is of the essence."
Bliss stood leaning her hands on the stainless steel table. She was in one of the basic black and gold X uniforms. She'd not had enough time to fashion her own uniform. She was all about fashion, but time was clearly not on their side. She lifted a hand like in class to get the professor's attention. "When and were was this recorded? Do we have a bead on where we need to go? And how soon can we get there?"
"This was taken from my last session with Cerebro," Xavier explained. "The exact time frame is difficult to ascertain, as it was gleaned from the mind of the captive mutant. I do know the events depicted are recent and that he is currently alive, being held in a secure compound in New Jersey--a short trip in the Blackbird."
The still images from the Cerebro feed fell away and were replaced by a satellite feed. "GPS coordinates identify the location as the Roxxon Industrial Research Complex. As this is a multinational corporation with ties to government-funded research, the sooner we extract the captive mutant, the better." Xavier's face turned grim. "It is unfortunate that Roxxon's resources means the scales of justice are stacked in their favor and against this individual. The authorities will likely not be on our side, at least not without incontrovertible evidence--which Roxxon will be sure not to leave behind."
Bliss absorbed the information the professor was dropping in their laps. "So the authorities are not going to be on our side unless we find evidence we can take with us. But knowing that this is a well-funded organization against mutants is actually a good thing. It means we don't have to restrain ourselves. I don't want to hurt people. But the only way big organizations like this feel pain is the bottom line. If we put the hurt on them financially, they might think twice before they decide to start experimenting on mutants again. And I don't have a problem destroying a bad guy's toys."
"So what do we do and how?" Katy asked. She, too, wore the X-Man uniform, but she had her spare costume stashed away and could change in a moment if she needed to. "And what are they doing to him?"
Stood quietly taking all this in, Elias leant against the wall, arms crossed at his chest. He'd so far avoided any uniform, dressed in dark cargo pants and a sleeveless t-shirt with heavy short boots weighting his feet to the floor. "Just tell me which you want me to grab," he said, matter-of-fact tone suggesting they might be discussing picking up snacks from the store. "The dude or the evidence."
Iris stood silently near the front of the group, frowning at what she had just seen and wondering vaguely if she could sneak past those mech suits. If they had any detection devices, she doubted it. But, as she didn't know what they were, it was probably safer not to try. "Are we meant to come up with a plan ourselves?" she asked. "Because I think we'd need more information."
Jade hadn't dressed up in an X-Man uniform yet either, not having had time to consider apparel. "Do we know if there is anything living behind the mechanic armor? If there is, they can be dealt with...if not, I'm not sure how useful I can be against them."
"He may be in need of medical attention," Xavier said first to Jade, "and the information we have is sufficient for a plan of action," he said to Iris.
The display screen shifted yet again to show an overhead isometric view of the compound. "There is an approximate sixteen-foot security fence surrounding the perimeter of the area that appears to be constructed of steel-reinforced concrete. There is a sole gate to the south side which passes by storage areas, a couple of warehouses, and a commons of some kind. The secure research facility is north central. Satellite scans show a secret tunnel with a one-way opening that evacuates from beneath the research facility several miles away. An infiltrator who can get inside the research facility can open the evacuation tunnel in order to allow the rest of the team inside as well as allowing for an exit the same way."
Bliss looked over to Iris with a questioning look.
"Well, you're our sneaky girl. I don't like sending you in there alone. But if you're up for it, I'll back your play. You get in trouble, I'll come in like a bull in a china shop."
There was no comment, but just a moody snort of derision from Elias. Amateurs.... He'd offered his services, now he'd wait for the movers and shakers to decide who moved and who shaked. One hand fiddled with the Walkman stashed in his pants' side pocket.
Bliss looked to the rest of the team. "So we need a team to find, evacuate, and treat our subject. Me? I'm on toy breaking and causing distraction. Speak up, we got a plane to catch "
"Slow down, Escapade. If we rush in half-cocked we could very well end up like our target." Cam had stood behind the professor, leaning against a wall. But now he had joined them at the display. "Professor, Jade asked a question. And I have a few more before can properly formulate a plan. Do we know if those suits are manned, do we know the number of opposition we'll be facing, and will we have comms inside?"
"The armored individuals are unknown to me, but they appear to be mercenary types," the Professor said. "Avoid them as you would any other member of Roxxon's corporate security detail. The total number of individuals on site runs into the dozens, though it's unclear what threat levels each would pose. That is why I suggest infiltration, rescue, distraction, and extraction. Speed and stealth will be your allies. If no one is opting out of the mission, then I recommend continuing your strategic planning on the Blackbird. The onboard computer has an uplink directly to the mansion's database, and I will maintain communications through Cerebro at all times which will overcome any signal jammers."
"I'll meet you there," muttered Elias, quietly and with no need to draw attention to himself. Then he stepped backwards and vanished, as if through the wall.
Jade muttered a curse under her breath before she too took her leave to prepare the field medicines they might need.
With Iris in the pilot's seat and the others strapped into their assorted passenger chairs, the Blackbird soared through the New York countryside in a circumspect route that would bring them into New Jersey from the north-by-northwest. The onboard computer display charted their flight plan for all to see.
"I have taken the liberty of selecting a landing site in a meadow that should provide long-range visual cover," Xavier said through the comms. "The LZ will be within a mile of the parking garage with the secret tunnel which will lead you inside Roxxon's compound."
The display screen flashed as the various rendered images began shifting in time with the Professor's explanation.
"Alright. We'll be going in two teams." Cameron spoke from the co-pilot seat. "Iris will go in first, unlock the passage. The entire team will go in. Inside we're splitting up. Bloodhound, you're taking Escapade, and Hoodwink to grab the kid. Hoodwink, you're their scout, do not engage until Jade tells you to. I'll take Leadfoot, Fable, and Menagerie to grab as much information as we can. Leadfoot is the big distraction, but you have to stay close to us so we can back you up if you're cornered. Any questions?"
Gabe tugged at his uniform, slightly nervous. A bead of sweat began to form at eyebrow level. He had many questions, but narrowed it down to one. "So while leadfoot distracts the guards, the rest of us gather what info we can? What if guards come in on us?"
"What kind of distraction are you talking about?" Katy wanted to know. "Duct taped? Stripped naked? Slathered in peanut butter?"
Gabe hid the growing grin that formed at his mouth. "All three?" He mumbled to himself
"Make a lot of noise, draw attention away from the others. Don't go top speed, let them see you so they can think they know where you're heading. Pull down pants, smash coffee cups, tie neckties together. No violence until you're cleared by me." Cameron answered, smirking a little at the proposed visual.
Escapade nodded at Cameron's recommendations.
"So basically baffle the bad guys with stooge fu until you say get serious. I can play with these guys if you say so, but if any of my classmates get hurt I won't be saying mother may I kick ass."
"Where did you get the idea that I'm a court jester?" Katy asked. "Because I'm not. You want hijinks and hilarity, do it yourself. I'm not going to give them a chance to shoot me by letting them see me. You want them incapacitated and unable to move, I can do that without violence."
Cameron took a deep breath and remembered he was not working with soldiers but with children. "I want a distraction instead of incapacition because that draws more attention. I want them to see you so they won't see us. This isn't about how good you are at being fast, this is about being loud."
"Tell you what, take your girl wonder and your whatever the fuck and do it yourself. I'm not making myself a target, period." Katy said and leaned back to cross her arms.
"Alright, then stay with the plane and make sure nobody scratches the paint while we're gone." Cameron replied before turning his eyes to the rest of the group. "I'll be the distraction then. Rest of the plan stands." Cameron glanced at the console behind him, "Any last questions before we land?"
"Again, no," Katy said. "We land, you do you and don't worry about me."
"You'll stay with the plane, or you won't be on the plane and team next time we fly out. This is not about how awesome you are, this is doing what the team needs from you." Cameron replied, his face as if carved from obsidian.
"You may have been put in charge by Professor X for this mission, but you do not get to decide what I do or don't do," Katy said. "You want to come in and act like you're Mister Badass, but you haven't done jack or shit since you got here. So yeah, wake me when you wake up from your dream."
Gabe just mouthed a soft "Wow" while wishing he had popcorn. In his mind this was shaping up to be one heck of a show.
"That is exactly what being team leader means. If you don't like it, you can stay at the mansion next time. Leave the plane, you're off the team." Cameron turned his attention back to panels in front of him, then out the window.
Bliss looked around to the group and shook her head with a frown.
"Look, if we don't work as something resembling a team, the person we're going to rescue suffers. Hell, if we don't do this right we could all end up right next to him in their goddamned lab. I'm all about doing our own thing, but right now we got to listen to Cameron. He's got the experience and the Professor's confidence. So what if he's not excactly cuddly? I want to get this job done so we get to go home. If you're not down with that, then stay the hell out of our way."
Katy looked at Bliss. "You can't even make cookies without forgetting sugar, so I really don't think you have a say in this as all. My name isn't Bait, Jester or Sucker." She looked at Cameron again. "Just remember that you said it and you caused it."
Bliss chuckled at Katy's remark about her lack of cooking skills.
"I can buy cookies at the store, and while I'm there I'll pick you up a better attitude. Yours is past its expiration date."
"We all have jobs to do," Iris said mildly from the pilot's seat. "Cameron was put in charge, so he gives the orders. I fly the plane." She turned to look at the lot of them. "Or maybe one of you lot want to give that a go?" she asked mildly.
"As a Leadfoot," Jade spoke up as she stepped out of the back with a medkit strapped to her, "I'm sure you'll be fast enough to avoid any unforeseen issues that may arise from you being the distraction." She sighed, "you're a smart kid, you'll figure it out."
Xavier had not interfered up till now. If they were to function as a team, they needed to be able to iron out their differences as a team. It seemed only yesterday that the Professor was listening to Cyclops field similar disputes from Beast, Angel, even Iceman. And that was before his brother, Havok, had joined as a junior member. In time, perhaps Scott could return to the field, but for the moment, Professor Xavier knew he had to support Cameron as the leader in the field. This rescue mission would turn into a boondoggle otherwise.
"Listen to me, my X-Men," said the Professor through the comm uplink. "You do not yet have much time. I urge you to come to a mutual understanding because a rescue operation becomes self-defeating if anyone is left behind. Find a way to work as a team. I do not wish to stage a rescue for my rescuers."
"Not going to happen as long as Armory here keeps thinking I'm nothing but a cheap distraction," Katy said.
"Part of being a team means doing something you'd rather not do." Cameron explained a final time. "Being a distraction this mission doesn't mean you'll always be the distraction. Now can you be a team player, or will you continue throwing a strop while the rest of us is going to risk our lives?"
"Whatever," she said before she sat back and came up with her own plan.
With that settled, the designated landing zone lit up on the Blackbird's cockpit display. Rectangular red and green squares overlaid the windshield to assist in the vertical landing protocol.
"Seatbelts on, everyone," called Iris, flipping a few switches in preparation for landing. "Going dark," she announced, shutting off the running lights. If they were going to do this, they were going to do this right.
The landing itself was easy. The Blackbird took over almost completely, accepting minor corrections from Iris as they went. She didn't completely shut it down in order that they could make a quick escape if they needed to. "Everybody remember where we parked," Iris said to herself.
Once the Blackbird touched down, the main hatch opened of its own accord.
"The comms uplink will be routed through the Blackbird to your uniforms," said the Professor, "so allow for a second or two of lag time. If comms fail or are jammed, then I will supplement telepathically through Cerebro. Either way, I will be with you at every step. Be cautious, my X-Men, and bring our mutant brother home."
"Good luck everyone." Jade said, trying to get her nerves under wraps.
As the team departed from the idling Blackbird, they split up into designated roles while Iris headed toward the facility to sneak inside and open the way for the rest. The next five minutes were excruciatingly stretched out to an eternity, but soon enough the secret tunnel entrance opened where Xavier had indicated on the area map.
Iris waved at the others to join her within. As she turned around, though, alarms began to blare.
Deep within the Roxxon compound, a raven-haired scientist with thick spectacles and heavy lab coat watched with a dispassionate smirk as Levi was removed from the experimental centrifuge. His fatigued and exhausted body hung limp from manacles that restrained him to an articulating mechanical arm that could position him wherever the experiments required.
"You have done well, Mister Rousseau. The data gained from your subjection to our prototype will advance mechanical engineering for decades. Turbines, cooling systems, renewable energy--all of these fields and more will be indebted to your sacrifice."
"Sounds real... noble of me. I guess I'm racking up those karma points," Levi groaned lowly, accepting the hollow praise for the moment. He'd already learned that struggling against the mechanical restraints only led to further exhaustion and at this point even his eyeballs hurt. "If you had the balls to face me directly, Quartermaster, we'd find out exactly how noble I am." He couldn't make the words sound convincing, though, as much as he wanted to.
The lead scientist whom Levi had called Quartermaster let out a chuckle. "It is difficult to see from your position, yet nevertheless we do not stand opposed, but together, firmly facing toward the future. Your dismal view may be forgiven in light of the fact you may not live to see it."
Alarms began blaring all around him. The klaxons blared an incessant warning: INTRUDER ALERT!
Quartermaster rushed to his master console and pulled up the security apparatus. It appeared someone had triggered the trip lasers in the evacuation tunnel. While Quartermaster could see a lone girl heading toward the security checkpoint, it seemed not a soul among the security detail did. Guard after guard ran past her in their visual sweep of the tunnel, obviously confused.
"Assault! Battery! Nullify this threat on the double!" Quartermaster ordered. Something was obviously not as it seemed.
Twin hulking giants who were nearly 7 1/2 feet (2.5m) stepped into motion. Their power armor gave them a nearly cybernetic likeness, especially when their shoulder mounted machine guns whirred into position.
"We will find them," said Assault.
"And finish them," said Battery.
Levi's hands balled up into fists. The fatigue that had been weighing him down began to ebb away like the clearing of a dense fog, perhaps fueled by the threat of death or the glimmer of opportunity the distraction elsewhere was giving him. He pulled hard against the manacles, but super-strength was not on his character sheet even on his best day.
He focused instead inward and allowed his body to slack further. Existance is endless, the words, a memory of something an old monk once said to him at the beginning of a meditation exercise, were brought to his mind as a calm washed across him. No state, good or bad, lasts forever. Meditation is not about connecting with the supernatural. It is to eliminate the duality of mind and body and instead connect the two halves, still the mind, and open the gateway to change. He forced himself to block the external chaos from his thoughts and let the other voices and retreating footfalls around him fade into the background.
Somehow in that moment his body did something it had never done before. His right hand, bruised and sore from its binding, slipped into an aerokinetic state just long enough to slide free. As soon as he realized what happened, Levi snapped to full awareness again and without pausing to think, pulled his arm back and cast it forward, throwing a whip of air that wrapped itself around Quartermaster's arm with an audible crack.
With the element of surprise blown, the X-Men found themselves having to improvise.
Katy had left the Blackbird at a high speed blur the instant the door had opened, but she had no desire to make herself a target. She scoped the place out from every angle she could see while moving at speed, then cursed when the alarms went off. All surprise was lost, but if they had let her go ahead instead of the invisachick, everything would have been copacetic.
She took a second to assess the situation. Obviously, all the entrance and exit points would be sealed by now if they were smart, and they were smart enough to hold mutants captive, they'd be locked tighter than a frog's ass underwater. She looked up and gave a slight shudder; the building was tall, but if there was any hope at all of getting in, the roof would be the answer. She had never done what she was about to attempt, but if she could run on water, than damnit, she could run up a wall. She hoped.
Katy took a deep breath and recalled some basic school lessons before she had to drop out and run for her life and remembered that in order to defeat Earth's gravity, she had to run again 9.8 m/s/s to beat gravity. While on a vertical surface. That she had never ran on before. She figured she'd have to run a minimum of a hundred and fourteen miles per hour, but aimed for faster just in case. If she fell, it would hurt. Bad.
The young woman swallowed hard, got into a sprinters stance and took off, her limbs moving in a blur as she headed for the wall of Roxxon. She wanted to close her eyes as it approached at speed and she raised her leg at a ninety degree angle to her body and pushed off the ground with her other leg. She didn't fall. Yet. She looked upwards and caught a sense of vertigo, but forced her eyes to remain open. A step, another, and another. She was going up the wall while running. Now all she had to do was keep it up until she got to the top. Then figure out how to get over the edge onto the room without falling.
With their approach compromised, Jade who flanked Cameron grabbed the curved dagger she had strapped to her right thigh and slashed at her palm. Direct access to blood was faster than constantly having to pull it out of her vial. Her palm would heal, as it always did. Pain of the slash just reminded her that she was still alive.
From her slashed palm the droplets defied gravity and flew upward and outward, until they formed a solid long spear. Her eyes shone red, her wrists swirled with red energy. She could hear blood all around her, her teammates, those inside and a very...ethereal one blinking in and out of existence. How that was possible, Jade wasn't sure, however, it did give her an idea of how to locate their target and how to know who was coming at them.
Isolating who was who was going to be tricky, but with effort she could distinguish friend from foe. Or so she hoped.
"Armoury," she said over the comms, "I think I can track incoming attackers and I think I can track our target."
"Take point." Cameron ordered before turning to the rest of the group. "New plan, we grab the kid and get out. Element of surprise is gone."
Two lumbering giants rushed forward connected by a thick, unearthly cable. The only warning the team had was the whirring of the motors inside their shoulder-mounted machine guns before the place filled with lead.
An unnervingly familiar sound came to Cameron's ears. He had heard it while riding in the open door of helicopters, bringing steel rain down on foes. "DOWN!" He shouted as he threw Bloodhound to the ground with him.
The spear in Jade's hand dissolved as she hit the ground, a pool of blood now on the floor. Looking ahead from where she got pinned down by Cameron, she directed the pool behind the duo and raised her hand off the ground. The blood droplets coagulated into a thick tentacle shape. The tentacle gurgled out at the the feet of Assault and Battery, wrapping around their back legs to knock them over.
Responding with reflexes that seemed almost superhuman, the twin giants sprang into action. Assault pulled his end of their shared cable taut while Battery hunkered down. Once anchored in place, Battery gave the tight cable a hulking tug. Without any resistance from Assault, the result was a tetherball swing that moved first Assault and then Battery out of the clutches of the blood-tentacle. A swift yank from both giants on their ends of the cable severed the tentacle in half like a garotte.
"You will have to try--" said Assault.
"--better than that," finished Battery.
The autofire of their shoulder-mounted machine guns dropped bullet casings like hailstones all the while.
Cameron rolled off Bloodhound and to the side off the hallway. His fingers sank into the wall and peeled out a wide plate of steel from it. The thickness was greater than the original material, but it was smaller than the hole suggested. The thick metal shield was lifted, filling about half the height of the hallway to shield the team.
~This duo fights as a team~ Xavier projected to the group all at once. ~You need to do the same, or it will be too late for the young man you are to rescue~
"Escapade, make one of them stumble. He'll drag the other down! I'll drop the shield, then Menagerie goes left and Bloodhound goes right. Non-lethal! Copy?" Cameron called in a loud whisper as bullets bounced off the armoured metal plate.
Jade had quickly recovered and followed Cam's roll away from the firing line. Dagger in her hand, she slashed at her wrist again, her previous slash having already begun stitching back together. She waited with the creation of another weapon yet, as a spear or a sword would be determined by what happened after Escapade acted.
"Understood, guv," Jade acknowledged, crouching behind Cam and the makeshift shield.
"Copy."
Escapade scampered across the field of battle, barely paying attention to the firepower starting to focus on her. Dozens of rounds silhouetted her as she leapt upwards with a nimble purpose. She did a body splash across the stretched cable connecting Tweedledum and Twiddledee. The intent was to snap the connection downward and crash the together in a violent collision.
At first the gesture did very little. The momentum carried by Bliss, even airborne, could not physically budge either of the twin giants. Together they were over half a ton. But, as it is said, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Inertia took a cigarette break, which caused Assault and Battery to shift their weight enough to force a pivot. Turning as they did, their shoulder-mounted machine guns fired on one another. Bullets ricocheted from their chestplates long enough to press them back from one another. The result led to the cable being pulled taut, which launched Bliss into the air like a catapult and spun the two giants further off balance.
Snarls of cursing came from their mouths as they spoke in halves of one bluestreak. This lack of coordination was something they had not experienced since their amateur days.
With the shield dropped to the ground the team sprung into action. Through a combination of painful actions and blunt force the Tag Team was downed and out cold.
And then evacuation alarms sounded off, adding flashing red lights to the blaring security alarms.
"Target acquired." came over the team comms. Cameron turned to his team. "Everybody out. Double time!"
Up on the roof, Katy took a deep breath and made a point of not looking over the side of the building she had just ran up the side of. She made a bigger point to find her way down in a much more sane manner. She looked around and zipped around the top of the building and found two locked doors, and one vent big enough for four people side by side. It had some cool air blowing out and she didn't feel enough pressure to be pushed by a fan, so she found the screws and vibrated her fingers around them counterclockwise until they loosened and she was able to unscrew them. She set the grill aside and climbed it.
One floor later, she exited into an office in the massive building and took a peek around; no one. She got lucky and gave the office a quick once over. No computer. No access pass laying around. Locked drawers. Bah. She mumbled and let herself out after a quick peek out the door. She headed to the elevator and pressed Down, hoping it wasn't locked off, too.
When the doors opened, they revealed a pair of security guards who were making their rounds to secure the area.
"Hey, you!" one of them shouted at Katy while the other reached for his hip.
"Well, shit," Katy muttered and grabbed a roll of duct tape from her waist. She ripped a start, then slapped it to one guard's mouth and ran around the other guard with the tape and back to the first, going lower as she ran.
The two guards hobbled together and ultimately fell, mumbling their indecipherable protests through the layer of duct tape that bound them together. Behind them the elevator beckoned, fully empty and open.
After they went down, she stripped the keycards and weapons off of them and then stepped into the elevator and pressed the bottom button. "Here goes nuttin'," she said as she pulled another roll of duct tape off of her belt and waited as the elevator descended.
"Hey," said a voice next to Levi's ear. Not one the captive recognised, but one attached to a dark-haired teenager in X-Men colours who seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere. "Let's go." Fable briefly raised a protective shield around them both, then released the second manacle and grabbed Levi's right hand.
"Wha--" Levi startled at the sudden appearance of another person. His first thought was that it was someone from Roxxon, maybe someone like him, captured under similar circumstances but that seemed unlikely given the man's uniform. However, when the man grabbed his wrist unexpected, Levi pulled back weakly against the grip. "Who the hell are you?"
Fable didn't let go, needing to maintain that grip in order to take Levi with him when he stepped out of here. "Does it matter?" Elias grumbled. "I'm your rescue. You wanna stay here?"
While the two mutants were seeing to Levi's extraction, Quartermaster had limped his way down the observation platform to where his contingency plan was located. He slapped the hand of his broken arm against the palm scanner, at which point the security hatch opened to reveal a suit of power armor.
It had been designed to withstand the rigors of his field experimentation. In the event any of the equipment or test subjects went sideways, this suit would protect him long enough to force his escape. Once he climbed inside, the pain of his body began to subside. Analgesic protocols were already beginning to work.
While the power suit did not cover every inch of his body, it more than reinforced all of his vital areas and extremities. More importantly, the prehensile arm/tail that swiveled around his middle would be more than a match for anything that stood in his way.
"Oh, Mr. Rousseau!" called out Quartermaster. The servomotors let out a whine as he took his first assisted steps back toward the wind tunnel. "I have a rebuttal for you."
"Definitely don't want to stay," Levi confirmed in a low voice to his rescuer, panicked eyes keeping watch on Quartermaster's approach, "but the only exit is behind the psycho scientist."
"Not the only exit," stated Elias, keeping a firm hold of Levi's arm and stepping backwards with confidence.
From Levi's perspective, his surroundings changed instantly from interior evil lair to exterior and a grassy landscape with a Blackbird for a backdrop. "Target acquired. Good to go," Elias said simply over his comms.
Levi watched the fabric of space stitch back up almost instantly and he took a second to reacclimate to the new environment before he turned to get a good look at the rescuer. "Not to sound ungrateful, but I'm about done being acquired. So, thanks for the doorway..." He drew his free hand into a fist.
A sizzling sound came up around them, followed by a heinous toxic fume. Chemical burning dripped onto the ground from above.
"Where are my manners? Cocktails are on me." Quartermaster's voice was tinny thanks to his power suit. "Chemical cocktails are my specialty." Another green blast of viscous liquid shot from the prehensile mechanical arm protruding from the midsection of the doc's suit. This time it was directed toward the spot where Levi and Elias were standing.
At that moment, however, the secure elevator chimed.
"Excellent!" shouted Quartermaster. "Guards!"
The doors opened to reveal a teenage girl.
"Anyone order pizza with extra duct tape?" Katy stepped out wearing her X-Man uniform and asked before she saw the person in the weird suit with the robot arm shooting green goop. "That would be you," she decided and the sound of duct tape being ripped was heard before she was moving in a blur. She ducted low to duct tape legs, above and below knees, around torsos with arms bound and finally over mouths.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Quartermaster shouted. One moment he was anticipating reinforcements from the elevator, then the next he was wrapped in... "Duct tape!" The servomotors of his suit whined as they pulled against the restraining adhesive.
Overconfident in his own ability to simultaneously evade and remove them both from the dangerous environment, Elias' reaction to the unexpected attack was just too slow. He'd been focused on the other teen's raised fist, then been forced to try to summon up a shield in close temporal vicinity. Something had to give. With uncharacteristic protectiveness, Elias turned into the green blast, certain he'd block it in time with his forcefield. The howl of pain said different as gloop hit his arm instead, but the arrival of Katy saved him from further injury.
"Let's go!" Fable yelled through gritted teeth, tearing reality enough to reform that much needed exit. "Leadfoot! Now!"
Levi was entirely disoriented by the chemical assault and the speedster's simultaneous arrival. Some of the green spray had landed on his face and burned and blinded him, so he started to crumple to the ground in agony.
"On it," Katy called out as she turned and saw the other young guy get gooped. "Eww...sheet. Is there a coat or something here?" She made short work of ransacking the room and came up with a lab coat. She rolled the agonized Levi onto it and began to drag him to the portal thing that Fable was holding.
Quartermaster appeared to be readying another smarmy boast, but he was stopped in his tracks.
"AH!" he cried out as his mechanically assisted hands grasped at his helmeted head. "GET OUT OF MY MIND!"
~Get out of there~ Xavier's thoughts appeared in the minds of the young mutants. ~The mind of this individual is so perverse and brilliant that I may have to render him irrevocably comatose in order detain him much longer~
"But the proof!" Iris had appeared as if out of thin air. How long had she been present. "We need proof of the awful experiments here if we want to stop Roxxon for good!"
~No, Iris! Retreat with the others!~
Iris was already accessing the massive control panel that was connected to the cylindrical wind tunnel where Levi had been locked away. There was no real way for her to know exactly what she was looking for, but she knew her way around a directory. Even so, most of it was Greek to her. How would she know what was important and what wasn't?
"There's gotta be something!" she shouted. "Where is it?!"
As Quartermaster suffered under Xavier's remote telepathic bombardment, his flailing mechanical arms triggered another chemical burst from the launcher from the midsection of his suit. It missed Iris by a mile. The control console where she was standing, however, was not so lucky. Detonation was instantaneous. The cylinder looming overhead began to spin in rapid acceleration from the power surge.
Thrown back by the explosion, Iris screamed into infinity, having been drowned out by the centrifugal whirring of the wind tunnel. Overclocking and overloading sent it into an electrical failure and breakdown.
And then evacuation alarms sounded off, adding flashing red lights to the blaring security alarms.
~Retreat!~ Xavier repeated once more. ~Iris...is lost to us~
It would have been so easy to have simply slipped away, to have walked directly to safety by himself and not risk further damage. Remaining present involved a serious effort on Elias' part. Still he stood firm, injured right arm held protectively against his chest, and pulled energy from the inbound explosion into himself. With that boost, he defended their little trio by virtue of a swiftly raised forcefield. While that saved them from being turned immediately into uncomfortable jello it didn't prevent them hearing that agonised scream. Iris was indeed lost. Yup.
Elias showed no overt sign of remorse or empathy at that exodus of life, just an absolute and definite need to leave. As Katy drew close enough that he could safely walk them all out of there, Elias re-opened his unorthodox exit and helped the speedster pull Levi through into safer space.
Just as Elias' portal pulled close Cameron's team arrived outside of the Blackbird. As the rear guard, Cameron slid his hand in the metal wall and pulled a large furrow in it. The liberated metal instantly turned into tiny little marbles, hundreds of them which fell on the ground and might give their pursuers difficulty running behind them.
The flight back to the Mansion was bittersweet. Levi had been rescued, but the pilot's seat was conspicuously empty as the aircraft flew back home. Autopilot was already a proven quantity after the Blackbird had returned an unconscious Cyclops back to the Mansion. Now...
"I will not mince words," said the Professor to the team assembled in the passenger compartment. "Iris is gone." More than his face was magnified by the video screen which displayed it. Pain shone bright in his eyes. "I did not feel her die, but neither can I detect her anywhere, even through Cerebro. It is as if she just...never was."
There were no more words.
"Well done on recovering our new friend. I...I must make preparations." He frowned, then repeated himself. "Well done, indeed. I will see you all back at the Mansion."
And then his face vanished.
Content to travel the slow way for once, a seemingly utterly exhausted Elias rested back against his seat, gentle snores permeating the space in the absence of the Professor's closing words.
