OPERATION SEXY MARIO: CONCLUSION

[initiates]

Date & Time: Sept 19th
Location: The UE Holding Compound, and surrounding area.
Characters: Anyone being rescued, doing the rescuing, or doing the distracting.
Summary: There have been some slackers freeloading off the UE for the past couple weeks or so, so let's go drag them home.
Warnings: Likely violence! Let a mod know if we should update this.

Those meant for distraction and those meant for rescue alike are both loaded onto the same stolen highspeed train. It's a great distance to cover, but the train manages in just under two hours, and deposits both groups three miles from the Holding Compound — a desolate and cold area, with rocky, uneven ground, small but jagged hills well-scattered and covered in scraggly trees — and there they part ways.

The diversion is sent away north, to draw United Earth attention and aggression upward, further into the continent, while the rescue team takes a much slower and quieter route to approach the Compound from the south, closest to Exsilium. The rescue team's orders are to wait a full half hour, to be sure that all forces who can be drawn out of the Compound to meet the sudden onslaught from the north will have already left.

The diversion team won't have an easy job of it. The soldiers are heavily armed, and trained to fight to the death before they surrender. They're grouped in organized squadrons, about 20 in each, and seem to outnumber Transports by three to one. Scattered throughout these soldiers are the Masked, the UE's special forces. These soldiers strike with a deadly precision, enhanced speed and strength, and highly advanced weaponry. Also, oddly enough, they seem to have a few smaller members among them, standing about 4 feet tall, and wielding strange powers… Those familiar with the powers of their kidnapped friends may see distinct similarities.

The Compound itself, when the rescue team makes their way in, will be very quiet. All prisoners had been forced into locked rooms (together or separately — whatever was most convenient) before the soldiers had left to face the encroaching threat. There are still personnel left to man the base, of course, and a few of them are armed soldiers — but for the most part it's scientists and researchers. Careful, though. Even scientists and researchers are perfectly capable of sounding the alarm to bring back the armed threats.

Once everyone is out of the Compound, the train will begin running a return trip. It will be kept as long as possible, while the distraction teams sneak back from the battlefield in small groups, but it can't wait forever. Those on the battlefield for the longest, the hardest hitters or the most dedicated fighters, might just have to find another way home. So… any Transports with relocation abilities feel like lending a hand?

Comments

[retraced]

[He sits up straight, keeping his hands in his lap.]

No, I'm sorry. I was late again...and because of that, you...

[velveteened]

What are you talking about?

( it's easier to sound bemused with the newly opened up distance, awful as he feels about it. but still, sincerely — )

I knew you would come here as soon as you could, and you did.

[retraced]

I should have been here sooner!

[He'd tried, but he'd been stopped. Which, in hindsight a few days from now, he's going to realize was for the best. He definitely would have been killed if he'd attempted this sort of rescue mission on his own.]

[velveteened]

( most definitely for the best, and oz is glad for precisely that reason. he could point out also what happened of the team that tried to get there earlier, and did — as prisoners themselves; but doesn't feel that would reassure either. )

Gil. ( he pauses for emphasis, to give gilbert a chance to look at him properly. ) I meant what I said. Always, the whole time, I knew you would be on your way. You weren't late at all.

1/2

[retraced]

Oz...

[retraced]

[All that time, even when Gilbert had bickered with everyone, lost faith in himself, watched his self restraint crumble and the last bit of light in his world start to fade, Oz had believed in him through it all.

He leans forward again, but this time it's to hide his face in his hands and sob more genuinely. Forgive him, it's been a long couple of days.]

1/2

[velveteened]

(




oh. )

[velveteened]

( well, of course it would've been hard on him too. oz's exhale is softer this time, not needed as steadying, and he reaches out a hand to pat the top of gilbert's bowed head.

there, there. )

[retraced]

[Continues sniffling pathetically into hands for another few seconds.]

[velveteened]

( pat pat pat. )

[retraced]

[His face is red and gross when he finally surfaces.]

Sorry...I'm sorry...

[velveteened]

( and that pat becomes a flick. )

Stop apologizing!

( he lets that hand fall back to his lap after, tired. head patting is hard work! especially after a long day (days). )

1/2

[retraced]

[WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING.]

[retraced]

[But he takes the hint, leans back in his seat and pulls out a handkerchief to clean up his pathetic face. But even though his drying tears, he can still see Oz's tired movements.]

...You should try to get some sleep. We'll probably be leaving soon.

[Hopefully with Break and Kevin joining them before the train leaves the station.]

[velveteened]

Sleep?

( he hadn't thought about it honestly, and there weren't really mirrors at the compound! which was probably for the best all things considered, though it also means he has no idea how he actually looks. )

[retraced]

[NOT TO BE RUDE OR ANYTHING, BUT]

You look tired. Did you get any rest at all?

1/2

[velveteened]

I did!

( at moments. sometimes. here and there. )

[velveteened]

It was just...

( drops his eyes a moment to consider a way to finish that sentence — "dark" isn't even all true, and "claustrophobic" is hard to say — and it's without thinking about it that he raises a hand to around his heart (or something else), picks through the fabric of his shirt at already frayed bandage edges. )

[retraced]

[His heart drops into his stomach seeing that gesture.]

Your incuse - did it move?

[He reaches out again, hesitantly this time.]

[velveteened]

What?

( he doesn't immediately follow the conclusion, has to look from gil's hand to his own before he thinks to drop it. )

No. How could it, with them blocking powers this whole time?

[retraced]

They could have taken you somewhere else, or -

[Or any number of terrible worst case scenarios like the ones that Gilbert has been preparing in his head the last few days. But he believes him, and drops his hand back down into his lap.]

[velveteened]

They wouldn't.

( he's not as sure of this as he sounds. )

They were too... ( afraid, is what the b rabbit thinks, just beneath conscious thought. he stops himself before risking articulating an ugly sentiment. ) ...I don't think even they could make it progress.

[retraced]

Then...

[He doesn't want to ask it.]

What did they do?

[velveteened]

( he has to ball his hands into fists in the plush seat to keep from repeating the gesture or doing something equally incriminating. it's tempting not to answer, but gil's going to hear from break or someone else sooner or later.

detached: ) They were studying us. If they could understand how we are, and then copy the powers for themselves — something like that.

( tests, he'd kept saying at break, but also experiments, something becoming clearer now (and enough to make b rabbit bristle: he's no demios, no chain so easy to replicate and confuse for another) and perhaps even after they return. )

[retraced]

[Copy powers...

Of course, there would be no way to replicate it here, no matter what sorts of technology they had. A Chain could only be born in the Abyss, and this place is a world that the Abyss doesn't touch. They wouldn't have the means to form a contract, let alone replicate one through backwards-anachronistic technology. But they don't know that, so there's no telling just how invasive everything really did get.]

Tell me the truth. [Gilbert says, voice low and dangerous.] While they were 'studying' you...did they hurt you?