Logs:No Tanks

No Tanks
Dramatis Personae DJ, Jax, Lily, Matt, Polaris
In Absentia	2021-10-29 "I think we're gonna need a bigger team."
Location <XS> Dirac Research Laboratory Grounds - Danger Room
Today's training program has been loaded but not yet begun. Even so stepping into the Danger Room from the bright warm hallway feels jarring and, for those unlucky enough to have experienced Dirac Raid: Take One, ominously familiar. Upon entering they are plunged into a western Massachusetts night, air unpleasantly chill and damp beneath low-hanging clouds that threaten but are not producing rain. Through the darkness and trees, the target facility looms not so very far from the team's insertion point like some titanic monster drowsing--or lying in wait. Polaris is already here, readjusting armor and harness straps that probably do not need all the extra attention. Her hair has been meticulous secured in a flattish braided bun, and the black-on-black of her tactical outfit makes her un-made-up face look all the paler in the cold eerie light from the clouds. Finally she just crosses her arms to keep them still, blows out a long breath, and tips her head back to study the illusory yet uncannily realistic sky. DJ seems unbothered by the chill or the nighttime, just quiet as he steps into the room. He's dressed dark as well, several pouches hooked on his belt next to the gun that's holstered at his hip. His eyes turn upward only briefly to the sky, turning out after that toward the facility nearby. "Gosh," is his only quiet remark, fingers reaching out to trace the coarse bark of a nearby tree, "I'd half forgot how convenient this was." Lily is also readjusting her armor and harnesses beside Polaris, clearly uncomfortable in all this gear. Her hair is braided tight against her scalp, the tail of it tucked under the collar of her shirt. There's a taser holstered on one hip. "This is eerie," she's saying, looking up at the projected building ahead of them. "I did not understand what you all meant when you said realistic." She turns back a little at DJ's approach. "Was?" Jax's small frown and shiver as he enters the room may not have much to do with the chill; he's certainly warm enough in his armor and tac jacket. "It is real helpful in the planning department," he agrees readily enough. "Both the supercomputer part an' the Holodeck part. Um -- DJ, you're gonna be on all-purpose backup, then. Any bots or guards that seem to be gettin' past the rest of us, any stragglers seem like they need a hand from the building to the vans. I think that's a good place to start. The rest of you, remember, we ain't going in this time -- just holding the door and keeping the hallway clear best we can. We'll be here with Peter'n'em tomorrow --" 'n'em might be optimistic, but such is life! "-- an' after that we'll see how it goes together." The look he gives to the cloudy sky is a little baleful, but that doesn't stop him starting toward the building. Trailing in Jax's wake, Matt is dressed much like everyone else, a gun at his hip and a knife at the small of his back, some extra pouches of ammunition. He glances at the shape of the lab building through the trees, his expression serene. "I'm more than happy to sit back and watch the fireworks," he assures Jax with a fey smile as they move out. "You do have such a flare for...artillery." The building looms in silence -- with something fluttering above through the night. Birds? If so, very large ones; three in total, circling the parking lot. When one bobs low enough to catch a glint of the glow from the high parking lot lights, the spherical shape becomes obvious -- a small pack of drones, circling the grounds in a steady perimeter. Polaris stares at DJ, her eyes gone wide and her mouth opening, then closing again. Her gaze darts to Lily, then to Jax, then back to DJ. "What--" This doesn't even sound inquiring in any way. "What the--" This still doesn't sound like the start of a question. If she was planning to go somewhere with it after biting back the profanity, she stops when their team lead gives the admittedly brief briefing. To that last she just nods, once down and back up before circling around to her position on Matt's other side. Darts another wide-eyed glance at DJ, and then sucks in a deep breath and turns her focus to the sky. Her power stretches out and into the nearest drone, hopefully before it's even detected them, quietly destroying its battery before moving on to the next. "The school -- didn't really survive. Is a nice practice space, though." DJ's cheeks flush at Polaris's reaction, though he says nothing in reply. At least not until Matt enters, at which point it's his turn to -- "What the --" But his frown is short-lived, not much time for his confusion to resolve itself before they're on the move. He glances up toward the drones -- to Polaris -- stays on the ground where he is following after Jax toward the building, though with an added tension in his posture, now. Lily doesn't stare, not exactly, but her eyes dart back to DJ after his answer. She gives Polaris a little shrug, muttering "This might as well happen," under her breath while falling into position on Matt's near side. As Polaris destroys the drones, Lily catches them from the sky, depositing them quietly on the ground behind them. Jax trusts to the others to handle that first small cluster of drones. He's focused on the door as they near -- a lot less subtle than Polaris, in his work. Even the precise thin beams of light that slice through first the hinges and then a quick wide arc around the doorway are hard to miss in the dark nighttime landscape, but they're effective in their job. It leaves a gap neatly carved out where the door once stood, a solid tug enough to ease the entire structure out thumping onto a neatly-placed shield to catch it and eeeeease it to the ground. "Guessin' here's where either we wait an' pray or 'bout to get real busy." Matt arches one eyebrow at DJ. "Ah. He never told you, then." His lips compress momentarily. "Well. I'm the other bard." As they approach the building his power blossoms out over his teammates. While imperceptible in and of itself to most, its effects are quite dramatic: strengthening the others' powers, extending reach, increasing capacity, reducing strain. The man himself still does not look as though he is doing anything at all, peering with idle curiosity through the permanently--probably?--opened door. The three drones are yoinked out of the air, one-by-one -- first, by gravity (courtesy of Polaris bricking their batteries), then, by magnetic force (courtesy of Lily's mimicry). Each is quietly placed upon the asphalt, effectively rendered inoperable -- quick, subtle, stealthy. The door is then removed with a flash of scintillating light, effectively carved open by the equivalent of a high-powered welding torch -- leaving the gaping darkness looming ahead. It's precisely at that moment that a distant, thunderous explosion -- followed by the distinct pop-pop-pop -- of gunshots are heard from beyond that looming darkness. Distant yelling... more pops of gunfire... ...only for what's presumably one of the 'inmates' -- a young pale man with dark hair in a medical gown, his eyes dark with sleepless rings -- to stumble forward out of the darkness, toward the parking lot -- toward the approaching party. His hands outstretched, he looks panicked and confused. His exterior charge is suddenly interrupted as one of the pincer-like legs of a drone snatches him around the waist, yanking him back inward. Muzzle-flashes illuminate the interior as two guards fall to their knees and open fire in the direction of Jax and the others -- three more drones directly behind them. One of the drones is pulling the inmate back. Behind the guards, more muzzle-flashes can be seen -- firing back into the facility. Presumably at the inmates trying to escape. DJ lifts a hand to shield his eyes from Jax's light-beams, still holding it there for just a moment when the wall comes down and the flashes of gunfire start up from inside. His jaw has tightened slightly, his eyes darting from his teammates to the hole and then to the emerging rescuee. He's a blur of motion a second later -- passing by the carved-open entryway on his way to the newly arrived labrat -- it's too quick to really see him stop, but Polaris and Lily can feel the change in the two nearest guards shooting at them before he lands, neat wristcuffs of beaded metal now embedded in their arms. "Hey, friend," he's saying to the inmate, offering out a hand as if everything is calm and normal, "we're here to help, come with me? It'll be a little disorienting for a second but I can get you away." Polaris's eyes go wide again. "I call the left one," she tells Lily even as a nearly effortless flex of her power grabs hold of the steel in the left-hand guard's wrist and snaps it up, slamming his gun squarely at his nose if he isn't fast enough to drop it. This hardly done, she's killing the battery of the drone trying to fight DJ over the disoriented escapee. A light touch to the wrist extracts the inmate from the ill-fated drone's grasp, and DJ is shimmering away with him a moment later. Lily has just dropped her hand from her eyes when she feels the ball bearings come into play — “Right,” she grunts, twisting an open hand up to the open sky. The right side guard’s arms swing back and up behind him, fast and violent to tear the ligaments connecting arm and shoulder. It takes her longer to do this than it does Polaris to get her guard and drone, but it’s easy with Matt’s help. “We gotta get some of those.” "Told-who-what?" Jax is a little distracted -- first one shield goes up and then another. Walling the team off from the initial spray of bullets, walling the inside corridor off where the guards are shooting back down it. "Kinda blocked any escape off too though can you get those guards out, you think? Else there's just gonna be some folks trapped in there with the bots for fear of letting 'em get shot to death." "On it -- or well, they can be on it." DJ's just dropped back into place by Matt near the open hole in the wall, empty-handed, now. Or mostly so; he reaches into one of his beltpouches, comes back up still empty-handed -- but more of the guards inside have sprouted steel lacing, this time cuffing their ankles. To Matt, still casual: "Is it rude to ask what you do here? Because if it's the puns I think it's a stretch to call that inspiring." "You wound me, Sir, though your confusion is punderstandable," Matt replies, also casual, "since apparently other-me was closeted even to friends and allies." He's drawn his gun but keeps the muzzle pointed at the ground, his bright green eyes keen and watchful. "I can make you jump farther and faster--throw things farther and faster, too. Only to about thirty feet out from me, unless you need me to push it." This last with a slightly apologetic smile. "I'm a bit more helpful to the spellcasters." The mutant who's just emerged from the darkness -- only, for a moment, to be left in the terrifying grip of one of the drones -- manages a blank-faced "huh?!" to DJ as he appears, right before -- zzzzzp. He's gone, just like that -- and now two guards are proceeding to perform what appears to be their best Three Stooges routine (minus one stooge) as one snaps his gun right up into his nose with a sickening crrnch, and the next finds himself performing a very painful new stretch-exercise -- his shoulder making a sickening CRRKT-pop! as he yelps out in shock. The drone, meanwhile, drops like a brick; thwump. Deeper inside, the muzzle-flashes and gunfire is sporatically interrupted by shouts of confusion -- Jax's shield providing a clear buffer. The shouts of confusion soon become shouts of pain -- as Polaris and Lily become aware of a whole new litany of metal beads firmly planted inside the appendages of perhaps six more guards. And then -- quite suddenly -- the entire interior of the corridor simultaneously goes completely silent and 'pitch black'. As if a literal wall of darkness has suddenly manifested from the very entrance, obstructing everyone's view. Polaris isn't bothering with finesse with the next set of guards--she pulls their legs out from under them as a body, then drags not the nearest but the farthest one out, slamming them into as many of their comrades and nearby walls as possible before hurling by their probably broken and dislocated leg at the (irritatingly ball-bearing-free) guard just outside of the suppression field. Perhaps Matt, with the lacing of his power through hers, can feel Lily reach with her own power, metalbending seemingly forgotten, for the void where the guard is. It’s a moment before it draws back and rearranges into Polaris’ power once more. “Stupid — illusion, obviously I could —“ she’s muttering under her breath, clenching a fist as ball bearings shatter the ankles of the the bowled over guards. A light blossoms, smack in the middle of the thick cloud of darkness that's obscured the hallway. Small first and then brighter, pushing back against the murk. "Matt, can you feel who's doin' that?" With the shield still up inside against the continued peppering of gunfire and no way to see the rescuees who might or might not be trying to get out, the tension hasn't left Jax's voice. "Yep. It's your nemesis from last time." Matt's eyes narrow at the wall of darkness. "I'll grab him, but this is going to get harder and harder the more of these traitors come out of the field." Even as he speaks he's partitioning his control--individually augmenting his team now while shutting down the shadow guard's power. Despite his warning, his teammates who can feel their powers strengthened feel a bit stronger, and he does not, in fact look too strained. Yet. DJ has blinked into the doorway, starting toward the guard outside the suppression field when the shroud of darkness falls. In almost the same instant it closes in, he's back outside, juuust a little bit paler than he was before. with the enveloping blackness his current fistful of ball brains has nowhere to go -- he just waits by Matt, poised when Jax's light begins to bloom. The screams of the guards within the interior space ring out; a series of crashing, slamming bodies, a rattle of gunfire -- more crunching as Polaris's sweep is accompanied by Lily's ankle-crunching. They likely won't be walking out of here any time soon. Meanwhile, Jax's beam of light penetrates the shroud of darkness, pushing deeper and deeper, as the darkness resists -- like a wall of rubber being stretched inward on itself by an intruding pressure -- until, quite suddenly... Matt's grip forces that shroud to evaporate like so much flimsy smoke. Whoosh! Just as DJ flashes in right besides Matt. As the shadows evaporate, the guard responsible grimaces, hands held in the air, looking very pissed at the fact that his power has been shut-down. Besides him, another man stands -- this one an inmate, judging by his uniform. He looks to be in pretty bad shape -- missing an eye, his left arm from the forearm down -- old injuries gathered from a long and well-credited history of violence. But right now, the pale, red-haired man is grinning cheerfully as he just rushes forward -- clearing the distance between the doorway and him. And as he charges, his entire body seems to stretch, elongating and extending -- the missing hand emerging in a splash of red, with fingers as sharp as daggers -- as his entire form is swept in crimson... with two brilliant moon-yellow eyes glowing from the pits of his now blood-red form. His entire body is a churning sea of blood, with fingers like steak-knives that rapidly extend into the shape of razor-sharp cleavers and blades -- lunging out from the interior, his mouth open wide... a forked tongue of blood as long as a forearm lashing out as he hurls himself right for Matthieu. The windows on either side of the upper floors explode -- three drones from the left, two from the right -- climbing out, lunging toward the group. Meanwhile, more gunfire echoes from deep inside the lab... Polaris does not immediately attack the second mutant accompanying the now de-shadowed shadowmancer--presumably because they look like someone they're here to rescue. When they charge she emits a startled cry and sends a throwing daggers flying toward the lower half of the roughly person-shaped mass of blood. It's only after this she notices the newly arrived drones and melts the battery of the nearest one to her. "Lily more bots!" This warning comes high and wavery, and while she does not specify the location, presumably the one she just attacked will momentarily become obvious. The moment the darkness is illuminated DJ blinks forward, a hand touching lightly to the shoulder of the miffed-looking formerly-shadow wielding guard. The man is shunted back several yards, his feet lodged with a painful crunch into the cement back in the still-suppressed zone of the facility. "Hey, friend --" DJ is starting to say to the redhead -- until the man surges forward, and despite himself his face drains of blood as it begins to roil around him. Two more drone batteries overload — Lily tosses all three off side, no longer concerned about precision as long as they don’t land on her allies. As soon as they’re careening off her power is changing, losing the senses of Polaris and replacing it with Matthieu’s, the full force of her version dedicated to shutting blood man’s power all the way down. Her teeth are gritted, eyes wide and face pale. The inner shields come down, now that the guards inside are somewhat more incapacitated. A new one goes up in front of the churn of blood, not restraining the newly arrived labrat but momentarily barricading the sea of blood away from Jax's team. "Hey, man, we're here to get y'all out," Jax offers with a good deal more confidence than he is currently feeling. "It's okay, y'don't have to --" Though a description for whatever is happening eludes him, it seems. "Matt, d'you know if there's -- anyone else coming inside." He's getting a little paler, too, but that doesn't stop one more of the drones overhead falling from the sky, severed in a bright flash as several beams of light slice it into multiple pieces. "Crissssse d'ostie de tabarnak!" Matt's exclamation is not loud though certainly quite filthy. He'd only begun to shift his divided attention when Jax barricades the charging blood-person, and his powers relaxes back into his established control even if he does not. "A handful just past where your shields were, probably labrats," his voice is still a touch shaky, but his expression stunningly placid. "There are also some upstairs--I can't keep reaching but uh..." He peels his left hand from the grip of his gun to point at one of the broken windows above without looking at it. "I've got a bad feeling about that one." "I WANT YOUR FUCKING 'BLOOD'--" the person-shaped thing charging at Matt shrieks, his voice hitching up to an unnaturally shrill pitch -- right before Jackson's shield slams down between him and his prey, his crimson hands expanding out and splitting into dozens upon dozens of rapidly-thinning capillaries, searching for a way through. "GIVE ME--" Polaris's daggers THNK into the mass of blood, vanishing. Meanwhile, Lily's replicated power crashes down on him, and that shrill voice warbles and drops -- as the blood recedes into his skin. The one-eyed redhead is pressed up against it, jaws open wide -- caught by Lily's power mid-lick, his tongue smearing against the barrier. "What the fuck is this shit?!" he wails, suddenly realizing he's mere flesh and bone again. He batteries the wall with one arm and one stomp. "You fucking pussies let me the fuck THROUGH--" Thump. Thump thump thump thump thump-- Meanwhile, between Polaris and Lily, three more drones are taken down -- with Jax's quick beam splitting a fourth in half. That leaves one more remaining, descending from high above and firing a steady THWP THWP THWP canopy of darts down on the trio, with particular focus on Jax. From the shattered windows, three, no, four guards are taking positions -- one at each window. Two on the left, two on the right; at least one window is shattered with the butt of a rifle. They take aim, opening fire with assault rifles -- they're rather indiscrimnant about who they're firing at. Jax, Matt, Lily, Polaris, DJ -- even the red-head labrat (he's not very popular). A fifth guard approaches one of the windows already broken -- the one Matt is pointing at. Notably, he doesn't have a gun. Instead, he's just... extending his arm out toward the group, oh-so-casually. He opens his hand, lining his thumb and index finger up with where he sees Matt... suddenly bringing them together and slowly lifting. _ _ As he does, Matt suddenly feels a hard, invisible force pushing on him from both sides -- like he's pinned between a gigantic thumb and forefinger. Enough to drive the air out of his lungs, but not enough to break or fracture any bones -- not yet. As this happens, he can feel the weight sinking in his stomach, as if he's about to be lifted off the ground... Simultaneously, the labrats inside are rushing forward in the absence of the injured guards. As they reach the exit, they start to emerge from the suppression field... and suddenly, the concrete and asphalt around the exit begins sprouting jagged, multi-colored crystals, ranging from a few inches to several feet in length... each with edges as sharp as a razor's blade. "Should ask before you take people's blood." DJ hasn't gotten any less pale but he does start moving again once the redhead has snapped back to human form. He blurs into motion, heading upward this time -- toward the guards that are shooting from the broken windows above. The two on the left find themselves without their guns -- by the time he lands back on the ground one of the guns is in his hand, the other lodged within the remaining drone. DJ himself looks a bit queasier than when he landed, teeth gritted hard; there's a quiet plunk-plunk as two bullets appear from who-knows-where, ejected from somewhere in him to fall to the suddenly sharper and more colorful concrete. Polaris is just reaching for the last drone when DJ co-locates a gun with it, but she pivots quickly enough and just chucks the now-defunct drone at one of the still-armed guards shooting out the windows. Whether it's one last shot from that guard or one of a steady stream from the remaining unmolested guard, a bullet finds Polaris somewhere on her upper right torso. It's hard to say immediately whether it punched all the way through the armor, but the force of the impact spins her around as she falls, not enough air in her lungs to even cry out before she hits the ground. "-- Polaris!" The blur that is DJ has been heading back toward the upper windows but reroutes himself when Polaris falls, veering to her side instead to loop his arm beneath hers. They vanish into the distance. “—Shit, Polaris—“ and boom, the other woman is gone. Lily swears low under her breath, twisting out a little of her power back through Matt and Jax, keeping just enough pressure on Carnage to keep blood inside him. “Jax, what do I — who do I —“ Matt was already dividing his attention between reaching for the labrat impeding their own escape with crystals and the mutant guard at the window, and his concentration slips from both when his lungs suddenly compress. His breaths come shallow and fast--then even shallower and faster and noisier when his feet leave the ground. He tries calling out, presumably for help as if it might have escaped the others he's in trouble, but there isn't enough air in his lungs to sustain speech. His power grasps, crude and desperate, for Mr. I'm-crushing-your-ribcage. There's a tremor of light around Jax as two of the darts lodge themselves in his forearm. His breath hisses in through his teeth, a shield -- a little too late -- spreading between the windows and his team. He's looking a lot less steady on his feet than he had been at the beginning of this exercise, and a moment later the shield that had been walling Carnage drops, right before -- "Cere, end simulation." His knuckles are scrubbing against his eye, his other hand rubbing at a sting from puncture wounds that no longer exist as the chaos melts away around them. "I think," he manages not to sound entirely bone-weary when he says this, "we're gonna need a bigger team."