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

[lucency]

[ any dismissiveness - which belle may later interpret as coldness - is, in the moment, understandable, and belle does not question it. and she doesn't rush max (or donny, for that matter, either). any feelings that max might harbor toward him, she doesn't know, but she's familiar with the stakes and the desperation and the feeling; it wouldn't be right for her to break up such a reunion. even one as short as this.

but there's a place they're to be, work to be done that technically never involved this. max takes the lead and belle's quick to follow, keeping a close eye on the woman, ready to assist where needed. donny can take any guards (though they seem to be sparse; an attack could've been staged in that split second and still one wasn't), but there are more important things to take care of for the moment. briefly, she turns back, gestures quickly for him to follow: ] Hey. Come on.

[bumbles]

( That she reaches for him would stagger him, if he were Donny. It's enough to make Atlas halt, caught for a moment, but she pulls away. His look is longing and lost, fractured. Max is bruised, they hurt her - he needs Belle's words to spark action, before he's running after them. ) Yeah.

( Almost breathless. Soon he's keeping pace with Max, overtaking by a couple of steps, so he can scout ahead.
He and Belle have already made the path in, they know the way out. And maybe he doesn't want to watch Max's back moving away from him any more.

A group of researches are approaching at an intersection: it's a relief to tackle the quartet, throwing himself in like it doesn't matter. )

[thephix]

[It's not hard to tell that she's not on top of her game, right now, but she refuses to let it slow her down, she just has to press a hand against the wall occasionally to help her stay upright.

It certainly doesn't stop her when the researches appear, and Max is right behind Donny. She's vicious, almost, finally letting out the frustration that's been clawing at her for a whole week, as she kicks out the legs of one researcher and drives them to the ground. She doesn't have any weapons, but she can adjust, snatching a pen from their shirt pocket and driving it into their jugular, unconcerned by the blood.

It doesn't matter that they aren't soldiers; they've kept her caged for a week, and she needs revenge.]

[lucency]

[ belle wants out. the attacks keep coming, yes, but if they just get out, they'll stand a better chance. won't they?

for the moment, distracted as donny may be, belle's main concern is max. max, tired and clinging to the wall and exerting potentially all the strength she has towards an angry blow to one of the researchers, and though belle doesn't show it, the violence of it all startles her. particularly so close to the end. but she doesn't run. she can't. instead, she doesn't waste a moment, hurrying forward to the one closest to max to tear him away. distract him. let her and donny go free, if need me.

meanwhile, she throws a punch at his jaw. ]

[bumbles]

Max!

( Much in the same tone as what are you doing? Alarmingly, he's seen her kill people before - but as much as he has killed today, as he killed on Elmer's world, it'll still leave him a mess. As much as Max claims to be a monster, he doesn't think that means she can kill without there being consequences, a weight, and he grabs her wrist. ) D-don't.

( Don't do that, don't exert yourself, because he has been questioning her ever since Atlas fell in with the Sphinx. He twist, drive his heel into one of the researchers jaw, so he's out cold. ) You o-okay?

( to Belle, because of what just happened and the attack, though he doesn't hold her gaze for long, to concerned with keeping an eye out for another patrol. To Max: ) I'll c-carry you.

( Because she looks like a mess and that was energy she didn't need to expend. )

[thephix]

[She snatches her hand away from his hold, glad for the blood that makes her skin slippery, hard to get purchase on.]

They need to learn that they can't cage a monster.

[She played the perfect prisoner until now, biding her time instead of wasting her efforts on attempts that would fail. But she's free, now, and she wants to show them what happens when they take the Sphinx and lock her up and treat her like a lab rat.

Later, she'll regret letting her anger control her, but it's all she has right now.]

I can walk.

[She's carved from stone, harsh and unyielding.

She can walk.]

[lucency]

I'm fine. [ she mutters it, flexing her fingers, shoulders tensing as she tosses a glance back to them. the words are you? bubble in her throat, but she doesn't say them; watching the two of them gives her every answer she needs. ]

Come on. We need to go.

[ more of a precaution than anything, but again, this isn't belle's territory. it can be, but donny and max are fighters. physical. belle isn't afraid of such things, certainly unafraid of combat, and even a detour in plans doesn't faze her, but there will always be a dominion over things like this that they will have, and she will let them have.

and max says she can walk. belle believes her, but finds herself biting her lip anyway. ]

You shouldn't -

[bumbles]

( Not another word, from him. Her Atlas never spoke, anyway. Not when he was working the way he was supposed to. Occasionally there were quiet conversations, but never with witnesses, and Exsilium had stretched and distorted him from what he was meant to be.

If she insists that she is a monster, that she doesn't need help, doesn't need him? Fine. Then he will be Atlas. He'll bear this up and he will get them clear of the compound, and it'll be done.

With a nod to Belle, a glance to reassure her, he starts to move again. She's right, that they should move, and Donny is quick but cautious as he leads them down hallways, checking and listening, careful enough to make sure they don't cross paths with any other stray scientists. Finally, they're in the home stretch - close enough to see the outside, but he's going to make sure Max and Belle are out, before he crosses out into the open. )