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

[affectate]

Is that so? I am a girl, so I'm afraid that I'm dreadfully unfamiliar with the sorts of things that boys enjoy.

But while sweets are certainly enjoyable, it won't do to subsist on them entirely! ... Although I do enjoy them... do you like macarons, Mr Kano?

[duplicitoussight]

Macaroons, huh? I've tried them before. Ah, are they your favorite?

[affectate]

Father once brought a box home to me after a trip to France! -- But, ah, no, my favourite sweets would be... well, I do enjoy financiers and madeleines, and apple strudel, and --

[And she's just going to keep listing off sweets until he interrupts or tells her to stop, it's awful.

[duplicitoussight]

[oh my god he didn't even know that half this shit existed

he needs to eat them all]

--uwah, you sound like a pretty rich person!

[affectate]

My family is somewhat well to do... I was allowed to leave my home only recently, and as a result I was often brought many different foods, as a child! Because I am disliked, Uncle Lawrence and Uncle Edward -- both far more able-bodied than myself and less restricted than Father, would travel and send gifts to our home in order to appease him.

[duplicitoussight]

Is that so... hey, hey, did you go to school or did you have a tutor? Did your uncles teach you?

[affectate]

School... ah, I was tutored for some time, before finding individuals that were both able and willing to teach me became difficult, and then learned I through self-study -- currently, however, I am a university student!

[duplicitoussight]

I thought so, I thought so. You talk a bunch with very proper language, just like one.

[affectate]

Like... one...? Is there something strange about the way that I speak?

[duplicitoussight]

Ah, you haven't noticed? You talk with a pretty refined manner! Just like a lady!

[affectate]

-- Oh, I see! It certainly is true that I did not notice... I only speak in the manner that I've been told.

[A pause of a second or two.]

But something more casual's better for Kano, right? It's less words, even when the point is the same.

[duplicitoussight]

I don't mind how you talk at all~ It's just easier for me not to worry about those sorts of things.

[affectate]

As long as Kano understands me, how easily he does it doesn't really matter. The way you talk stands out a lot too, you know.

[duplicitoussight]

Eh, does it? And I thought I was fitting in really nice!

[affectate]

It does, it does! No one here talks the way Kano does! It makes you very unique ☆

[duplicitoussight]

I'm touched to hear that! Ah, but what if I took on Elaine's way of speaking?! How would that go, you think?

[affectate]

Well, Kano would be trading his uniqueness for mine, right? That's interesting, how interesting! An even trade gives us a chance to fool everyone!

[duplicitoussight]

My, Miss Elaine, at this rate we'll become master tricksters!

[affectate]

Playing pranks on everyone with Kano doesn't sound too bad! Not bad at all. Ah, maybe if I cut my hair too...

Well? What do you think?

[duplicitoussight]

What I think? Well! [He blinks, and for a moment Elaine'll find herself staring at... herself!]

I believe-- no, I rather think that this will prove to be most fun!

[affectate]

[She almost, almost almost almost raises her hand to her mouth in her usual "oh my!" gesture. Almost says "oh my!" even.

But then she doesn't, because that would ruin the fun. Joking around like this is almost like being home again. She doesn't think on it too deeply though, for obvious reasons. That's probably his eye power. Did they all have illusions like that, or...?]

Wow! Not bad, not bad~ Fufufu, Kano looks just like me, how cool! I'm bad with illusions, but...

[She's pretty sure she has some someplace. So she digs around, first in her pockets, then she reaches her hand into her shadow (???????), and eventually she finds bobby pins.

And then pins her hair up and away in an attempt to get it frame the way Kano's usually does. Elaine is not a hairstylist. In fact it's kind of like trying to do your hair in a different style with a fixed-image mirror, the way he looks right now.

But she does okay. You can at least tell what she was going for.]

This works fine for now!

[duplicitoussight]

[It's a weird sight to see her reach into her shadow of all things, rummaging around like it's just some pocket or drawer before retrieving bobby pins. He watches in curious silence, but as she's pinning up her hair, he has to cover his mouth because oh my god how she looked--]

Pfftkuku--! Uwah-- I mean... my! Miss Elaine certainly looks beautiful!

[affectate]

[Kano don't be rude ok she is v. handsome]

Huuh, really? Kano would know his hair the best, right...? Ah, but my hair's so dark, that's too bad! Maybe I'll try to learn a glamour for it!

[duplicitoussight]

Glamour? Isn't that something reserved for faeries?

[affectate]

That's right, absolutely right! In stories, glamour's for faeries only. But there are illusions people can use to affect the viewer's perception. So we call those glamour too, since they work the same.

Like that, it's kind of like Kano's eyes, right? Or do they work a different way? -- Anyway, my speciality's something else, and I don't study illusions and enchantments enough, so I can't do it. Kukuku, what a shame! We could definitely fool everyone!