ArchivedLogs:Scrambled (Prometheus Raid, Team 1)

Scrambled (Prometheus Raid, Team 1)
Dramatis Personae Ash, Dorian Siccavil, Hive, Jeremy, Kismet, Lia, Xiao-shan, Flicker, Joshua	2013-10-16 (Concurrent with Vector and outside drone strikes.) (Part of Prometheus TP.)
Location Prometheus Facility - Virginia
This hall could be one of any, in some generic residential facility in some generic medical establishment. Bland tile on the floors, identical doors with numbers beside them and plastic slots to hold folders of information for the orderlies to identify the people inside. The tiny rooms beyond are identical, too; matching twinned cots with matching white sheets, matching plain wood chairs by their matching end tables, not much personality to any of them. Each comes with a bathroom, small and bare, too. Toilet. Washbasin. Tiny cube of shower with plastic floor and plastic sheet of curtain to pull across. The rooms all lack in windows to the outside, though, and the doors are suspiciously heavy, the small slat of glass set into them bulletproof-hard. Things around Prometheus have been exceptionally quiet, lately. Though the labrats have received no explanation for the change, it's not all /that/ unusual for any individual to go for weeks at a time without being selected for experiments; still, for /all/ of them to be dormant at once is an oddity. Not that most of them are talking to each other; with a skeleton crew of security, social time has been eliminated, and though they are all still being fed as per usual other routine has ground to a mind-numbing halt. Nothing to do except eat and pace their small rooms. Read books, when the orderlies bring them. Stare at the walls. Talk to their roommates, if they're lucky enough to have one. Talk to themselves, if not. For the inmates, things at the moment are much as they have been. At the moment. The breaching of the facility with its skeleton-crew of guards was easy, with a Hiveminded guard to let them in. Hive's initial reports would have turned up this: three floors of labs, offices, operating rooms, all currently deserted save for a pair of staff in the kitchens getting ready the next meal; 13 prisoners on the east wing of the third basement floor, fifteen prisones in the west wing; under normal circumstances the west wing would have been the more-secure labrat housing, but with security slimmed down it mostly means heavier doors and heavier locks but not actually an increase in staff. A floor below that, five more prisoners, though per capita these seem to have commandeered more security than the rest. Jax's team has been split up. Liam and Jane and Ryan to the secure housing, Jax and Dusk heading downstairs a floor. Which leaves Ash and Xiao-shan /here/ with Joshua, heading down the stairs to a hallway that currently -- seems kind of quiet. Halfway down the row where the common room usually is for socializing there are a few guards playing cards; with staff so minimal, the alarm hasn't even yet sounded. Xiao-shan is dressed for war. The woman's breasts have been severely bound, flattening her chest out beneath straps, bandages, and armored padding; her face has vanished underneath a black hockey mask -- and matching hood. She looks like some sort of hunched bank robber, moving besides Joshua and Ash -- notably moving in /front/ of them, the bulk of her body having a way of manuevering itself between them and anyone who happens to be near. Likely because out of the three of them, she's the only one who can shrug off bullets. "...probably some men down the hall," Xiao-shan growls, her voice rough and hoarse. Her fists -- wrapped in heavy knuckle-padded 'boxing' gloves -- clench, fingers curling beneath the large lump that rests atop of them, designed explicitly for smashing through things. "I can keep them busy if you two can -- bust the cells, move everyone out?" Sitting on the floor with his back against the cot, Jeremy has his little stacks of notepads and markers doing his best to stave off the boredoms with crappy art. Two weeks without having to perform any tasks for the handlers was leaving him somewhat itchy, having gotten used to the supplemental energy meals of his training. At least with the room mate present, he and Lia/Copplia have had time to spend getting used to their quirks and teaching each other. Signing over towards her to ask if she wanted any of his paper and markers he occassionally glances over towards her, but his gaze mostly goes towards the room's monitoring equipment, wondering if this was some new experiment that they were going through. Lia is curled up on her cot with a book, a worn hardcover copy of Bridge to Terabithia to be exact, lying on her side with her knees pulled up. Coppelia, the look-alike doll, is tucked into the nook made between her stomach and thighs, little face turned to the pages as if to read them, too. The pale teenaged girl is dressed, as always, in the jade green scrubs provided to all of the lab rats. Her ash brown hair falls in messy waves around her face. Occasionally, she reaches up to push a stray tress behind an ear or to turn another page. She had been spending a great deal of the past /boring-boring/-many days learning hand-talking with Jeremy. But just now there is a Book and Books are sacred. She might have offered to read aloud for Jeremy and Coppelia at some point, however. << Definitely some men down the hall. >> Hive's voice is quiet, a soft echo of many-voices rolled together into one. << Two in the common room. Two at the far end of the hall. >> This sounds to his team, together with a reminder: << Thirteen people to get out. Flicker can start at the far end if you guys get the near. He's got three floors to cover, though. He's only going to get them /out/ of their cells, you all need to take them to the surface. >> It's after this that his voice sounds /to/ the labrats, all of them at once: << Hello. Please stay calm. Please stay quiet. My friends and I are here to get you out. Come with us, and we'll do our best to keep you safe. Is there anything we need to know about any of you that could hurt people who are trying to help you? >> All detention and no play makes Dorian a very fidgetty, very bored lab-otter. Dressed as usual in the standard issue jade scrub set, crumpled from repeated movement and attempts at sleeping, for lack of anything better to do. Normally gregarious, bubbly, and all around difficult to make shut up, Dorian has fallen into a somewhat uncomfortable silence, at least for now - flopped on his on his stomach, long furry tail twitching in silent aggitation. Chances are he has spent the better portion of two weeks chattering endlessly at Kismet, but even the obnoxious otter has run out of topics for now. He's grown increasingly nervous - no contact from scientists, no contact from doctors. This pattern has proven bad for him in the past, and he's jumpy as a result. At the sudden intrusion onto his mind, however, he whimpers slightly and curls up, before glancing around nervously, as though worried that he was finally losing it. He scratches at the notched ear, frowning and glancing across to his room mate, head tilted in concern and curiosity, "Did..." He falls silent again, as instructed, sitting up on the bed to look around mor, as though wondering if this were some sort of trick or test. Kismet sits seiza on his bed, legs curled beneath him, hands resting loosely on thighs, eyes mostly closed, breathing slow and steady. His dark brown skin glistening with moisture from a recent shower or very clean-smelling workout, and he wears a fresh set of the same old scrubs. A Spanish textbook, complete with cheesy forced multicultural cover photo, lies beside him, much bookmarked with little scraps of paper. When the instructions arrive, his eyes open and flick immediately to Dorian, whose reaction confirms it wasn't just in /his/ head anyway. He stretches out one hand, palm flat, in a fairly straightforward 'stay put' gesture. Then he unfolds himself and starts going through his stretches. Ash is content to let Xiao-shan lead the way, a tense wideness in his eyes and faint fidget in his posture. He is dressed in dark brown, for the most part. His jeans show signs of blue, but that blue is ground deep with dirt. His brown tank top is completely disguised by a black vest, with a bark colored jacket over the top, a mocha colored hoodie in between. He's wearing the hood up and has a bandana across his face. On his back, it almost appears he's wearing a back pack full of small helium balloons, but the sound they make when they bump up against things is that of rough rock on rock. "I'm telling you, man, this is totally eerie. I don't know what to make of it." His voice is barely above a whisper and his movements are quick and perhaps a little uncertain. "Okay. You do that. I'm going to bolt all the way to the end and then... we'll work our way back to this point, eh?" << thanks, Hive. >> As he gets ready to dart past the entrance to the common room and get started, he reaches back to summon out two rock disks, looking something like a sports discus, but with a section cut from the outside to the center that looks thick enough for a man's wrist. They hover until he reaches up and grabs one with each hand. "Ready when you are." The other minds that Hive finds, throughout the facility, answer him with a host of conflicted uncertainty. Some perhaps thinking they're going crazy, some /eager/, some angry. Answers trickle back to him: << If I were dangerous I wouldn't be in /this/ fucking floor, >> sounds bitter; << Yesyesyes I'm the /scariest/. >> comes in a blustery young voice though further exploration will find only a small girl with the rather undangerous power of transforming into a ferret. << -- Not right now, >> is more reluctant, from another woman down the hall, reticent to trust this new voice but at a loss for anything /better/ to do. There is a slight start from the muzzled young man at the sudden words appearing in his mind. It had been some time since Jeremy had anything like that directed at him, at least not without them seeing if he could eat it. Raising up from the floor, he scoots over to the girl and doll, a questioning look on his face to see if she had 'heard' what he had. Either way he isn't one to resist queries and orders, and he thinks to himself assuming that he will be heard. << I eat things, but can't now. >> The short mental sentence however comes with the imagery in his mind of a swirling black vortex of cold and darkness being crammed shut with a metal vice. Taking his notepad and marker though, he scrawls on the page ~test?~ showing it to Lia in a way that is slightly somewhat trying to be stealthy. It is pretty fail stealth though from the motion of his scrubs and trying to get Lia attention. << Hello! >> Lia's mind-voice is quite happy right now, because there has been Book! Between that and prolonged Bored she is not bothering with any kind of caution or suspicion of voices in her head today. Poor Hive. << You are a brain-talker. I have met /many/ brain-talkers and many of them are not nice. But you are not trying to steal things from my mind, so you /must/ be nicer than they are. I won't hurt you, so will you come play now? Are we going to go play? We haven't been allowed to play for all of the days. /All/ of them. >> She likely means what she says about meeting many brain-talkers, the way she chatters along easily without a second thought. Outwardly, she shows no change aside from a cessation in her eyes' movements across the pages and her hands' lifting to turn them. Her eyes flick up, just a moment, to read Jeremy's page. And offer an unknowing shrug. So helpful. Xiao-shan pops her neck to the side, her torso hunching forward. For a moment -- with her shoulder-pads and abundance of ad hoc armor plating -- the woman resembles some sort of deranged, towering linebacker. And then, following in Ash's wake, she moves forward -- steel-toed boots hammering into the ground. With each of Xiao-shan's footfalls, the ground rumbles -- the sound growing with every step. The woman's posture grows more hunched, as if a weight was building up inside of her -- and the floor begins to groan. By the time she's reached the common room, she's over 7 times her ordinary mass -- and then her foot is /slamming/ down, causing the tile beneath her to buckle and creak as she pivots and swings a single arm around to /tear/ through the side of the doorway. Her arm smashes through solid brick, exploding out the other side in a rupture of crumbling concrete and plaster; as she turns to face the two guards inside, she proceeds to do her best Christian Bale Batman impression: "I'm the fucking JUGGERNAUT. Drop your guns. And get the /FUCK/ out." "OK. I -- guess she has the guards," Joshua seems oddly /amused/ at Xiao-shan's entrance, "we'll get the labrats Flicker finds. Ash, can you do anything about the cage doors?" Flicker is hardly noticeable at all, when he appears. Flitflitflit, a ghostly unperson who is in one of the cages before even the guards have noticed anything. To Dorian and Kismet he stays still, though, a lean young man in cargo pants and bulletproof vest, dark knit cap pulled down over his head, cheerful blue bandana on his face that he tugs down once he's inside to reveal warm bright smile, brilliant green eyes set in a boyish face that many would probably call handsome save for the pockmarking of scars mottled all down one side of it. "Hey." His voice is quiet. "I teleport. I can get you guys out of here, but you're going to have to trust me. I'll take you to my friends, if you can stick with them they'll get you out." He holds out a hand, hopeful." Dorian curls his knees to his chest as Kismet signals for him to stay put, long tail wrapping around his ankles in an attempt to make himself smaller. His experience with telepaths in the past, apparently has not been pleasant, judging from his hunched reaction and hesitant mental response, << I'm... I'm not dangerous. Not that I know of, um, anyway. Annoying, yes. Dangerous, not for a long time. >> In the room still, Dorian has fixed Kismet with a slightly frightened stare, as though waiting for orders. When Fliker appears, he yelps aloud, ears flattening to his skull and vanishing into the short mop of dark hair - he recoils further onto the cot, but relaxes at the statement. "Um... is.... really? You're... there's people? Real people, not doctor people or stabby people?" his expression brightens as the renewed hope sets in, and he glances towards Kismet for reassurance. But he tenatively reaches a scarred hand out to take Fliker's hand, trembling slightly as he does. As soon as Xiao-shan begins moving, Ash starts running. His eyes narrowing on the guards at the far end of the hall way. He whips right then left, reaching back up for more discs as soon as each hand is empty. The rocks that leave him sail through the air, aimed at the wrists of each of the guards, one for each arm, looking to disarm them first and foremost, but if he's lucky, stick them to the concrete walls. He skitters to a stop near them to see how well he's done. "Sure. I can take out the doors! Just... one sec." There's a quiet droning noise, coming from down the hall, when Xiao-shan storms in. The guards at the end of the hall look up with wide eyes, turning to flee -- they're not even getting /paid/ at the moment, they're certainly not getting paid enough for /this/. One of them makes it out before Ash's restraint hits, though the other stays pinned to the wall. The droning is drowned /out/ a moment later by the blaring of the alarm. The two guards with Xiao-shan don't drop their weapons. They just /stare/, wide eyed. One looks at the other. "-- Isn't the Juggernaut a dude?" Kismet drops into a half-crouch when Flicker shows up, pivoting on one foot to place himself nominally between Dorian and the new arrival. Even now, his mind is disciplined in its excitement, considering and dismissing the possibility that this is some bizarre experiment. He studies the other young man closely as he speaks. Then he relaxes his stance. "Out is where we need to go." Only half turning, he lays a hand on Dorian's shoulder. "/I/ will protect you, my friend. I promise." With a quick bow, he steps within Flicker's reach along with Dorian. "Thank you, Sir. We are in your hands now." << You'll be allowed to play when you're out of here, >> Hive assures Lia. << It's not a test. We've all been in these cages before. We work now to get other people out of them. But you're going to have to come, when we come get you, and come fast. >> "Really really," Flicker assures, warm smile lingering for just a minute before he pulls his bandana back into place. "Come on." He takes the offered hands, jumping both the labrats out at once; it's a queasyish disorienting feeling, the world vanishing and reappearing and vanishing and reappearing in a blur before he deposits them alongside Joshua and Ash. And disappears again. He reappears with a second pair, one small rather /bouncy/ girl and an uncertain sallow-faced woman who looks more wary than pleased about all this. And then another vanishing, reappearing in Lia and Jeremy's cell. "Hi. Can you guys come with me? My friends can help you get out, but we have to move fast." "Fine." Ash replies, taking the chunk of wall that the one guard is pinned to and tearing it away, turning it to block the exit that the fleeing guard too with the human adornment facing away from the mutants. "Okay. Doors now. Hi there!" He pauses just a half step to wave at Kismet and Dorian before moving forward, running up to the first door and slamming his palm against the concrete wherever he sees a hinge and a lock. There's a grinding noise a puff of 'smoke' as cracks appear in a semi circle around the securements. He pauses from time to time, to check Flicker's progress (so he doesn't run into him) and the appearance of others. "Guys, if you're feeling up for it, start pulling the doors open and helping people out, okay? If you're not feeling healthy enough, stick close to the group, okay? We'll get you out of here." The droning is getting louder, though it's still hard to hear over the blaring of the alarm. There's no telepathic warning when the first pair of drones arrive -- just a quiet rattle of -- gunfire? It's not /quite/ gunfire; these ones have been fit with rubber bullets, but they still /hurt/ like hell when they shoot at Ash. At Joshua. At the group of inmates Flicker has just deposited with them. An arm, a stomach; they do little against the vests but are enough to bruise or even crack bone when they meet flesh. One hits the sallow-faced woman right in the temple; her quiet "--ah--" is lost to the droning of the robots and the blaring of the alarm, but it's obvious enough when she stumbles back, hitting against the nearest door. What's less visually apparent is the damage this does to her focus -- around the hallway, though, /other/ people's powers start -- losing focus. Losing /control/. Firing too strong or too erratically, refusing to fire at all. "Er," Xiao-shan responds to the guard's comment, under her breath: "Liberal media lies." She proceeds to /lunge/ forward for the table between the guards -- reaching out to snatch them both by their collars and try to heft them into the air. "Seriously, though," she adds, voice once again resuming its gruff, growly nature: "Get the /FUCK/ out or I /WILL/ rip your fucking heads off." And that's when she hears the droning -- her head cocking to the side, a frown settling across her features. Simultaneous to the sudden flood of -- power malfunctioning. Suddenly, the floor underneath Xiao-shan produces a low, rumbling groan -- followed by a series of cracks. Her shoulders hunch forward a bit more, and she clenches. "--what the--oh, /shit/, uh..." At the sudden appearance in their cell, Jeremy looks to the door, then to the fellow with his face covered, then to the monitoring equipment. Of course a test like this would say it isn't a test but he looks to Lia then offers a small wave with some waggling of fingers to the flickery one. He holds the notepad close to his chest though, and his eyes seem to trail the toilet and the rings of water that appear each time the stomping Xiao trudges around outside in the halls. He had seen Jurassic Park, so not wanting to be around for the incoming tyranosaurus, he grabs hold of the mans shirt for something to grab onto. << Out? >> Lia now sounds perplexed at her brain-talker. << Not for a test? Are we going to the art room? I don't want clay. It made the keepers mad. >> Flicker's sudden /physical/ appearance proves far more of a shock than Hive's mental one, it would seem. Lia kicks her heels into her mattress, pressing her back against the wall and clinging to book and doll as if someone means to steal them. "No clay! No running shapes! I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Please?" She ducks her head behind the book like a tiny paper shield. Dorian nods to Kismet and Flicker, a tenative smile tugging at the corners of his lips, though he looks wide eyed and shocked when they arrive beside the others outside of the cell. "Hi -- I'm..." his voice trails off and he looks wide eyed at the suddenly appearing drones. "What the hell are those things...ouch oh god, what's going on now, what the..." he yelps, panic starting to fill his mind as the bullets start flying. His ears flatten, and he ducks his head, curling his arms around his stomach to protect from the bullets, though angry welts appear along side the winding scars on his forearms as bullets graze past him. He tries to keep up with the others moving around, trying to stay near Kismet if possible, generally unsure of anything now. << Not for a test. Out of here entirely. You can keep your book and your doll, just -- >> There's a brief quiet, while Hive mentally checks in elsewhere, and then: << Flicker's going to take you. It'll be a little disorienting. >> Flicker puts one hand on Jeremy's shoulder, vanishing to reappear beside Lia. "Sorry," he says quietly, putting a hand on her arm as well. There's the same feeling of disorientation, and then he deposits them -- rather less smoothly than usual out in the hall. And promptly vanishes -- sort of, turning into a person-shaped /blur/ that appears at erratic intervals throughout the room, unsettled. From Hive there is quiet, now. And then an uncomfortable squeezing /pressure/ in the minds of his team, there and then gone, replaced by a << fuckfuckfuckstopthatfuck -- >> that /probably/ isn't intended to come through. Ash focuses on his task at hand, smashing the doors open, trying his best to ignore as he is shot with bullets. His back pack elevates to cover his head, but falls down heavily a moment later, his balance thrown. He cringes as he stares at the walls instead of his bag. The concrete next to his hand is barely cracked. He slams his hand harder against the wall with a disturbed wrinkle on his brow. "GUYS?" And he does it again, just a tiny little crack adding to the progress he's made. "Anyone else got faulty wiring? We got an electrician?" When Hive's presence comes back and stronger than before, Ash's hand sends a shimmering crack from floor to ceiling on the wall he's working on before all of the concrete next to the door turns itself to gravel and dust in his face. The earthbender stumbles backwards with his hands covering his eyes. The effect of erratic powers is somewhat hard to track, on Joshua. With a whole /host/ of mutants around him to eat from, for a short burst the woman's power-scrambling is only /amplified/, coming from him as well as her. And then a brief shorting of the light nearest him; the /drone/ nearest him finds itself drained of power, too. And then suddenly there is a ferret where a Joshua used to be. And then -- nothing at all. Just Ash and Xiao-shan and a very unstable Flicker, left to deal with the guards in the hallway. Guards who, as they note the disruption among the others, are scrambling to their feet, rifles aimed as they back down the hall -- one at Xiao-shan, one past her down at Ash. "... do we kill them?" They don't, apparently, have an /enormous/ wealth of /caring/ for this whole situation, at the moment. It seems almost /experimental/ as one shoots at Xiao-shan. The nearest drone drops heavily to the floor with a CLUNK. The one beside it is still firing, thunk-thunk! The one beside it is still firing, thunk-thunk! Aiming at Kismet, as the next near available target. Kismet is half-way through pulling a loosened door out of the wall as instructed when the drones start shooting. Gritting teeth, he tips the door onto one corner and swivels it to provide cover. "Get behind this!" He stretches out a hand to Dorian, who /slides/ across the two steps separating them and into the shelter of the door. "Hold this up." Without waiting for confirmation, he twists out from behind cover and comes face to face with the remaining drone. He does not even flinch, but gestures, jerking it aside to smash it against the wall...and back the other way. No, wait, up. "Merde!" And down, and sideways, still firing wildly. "Gghhg." The guards Xiao-shan reached for are thrown, roughly -- but it's a sloppy, slipshod event, involving a convulsion of her shoulders and biceps. She's spasming -- clenching up in certain spots, relaxing in others -- her teeth grit beneath her mask. The soldiers are likely hurled with random strength toward a nearby wall. The gunshot that lashes out hits her in the back; there's a rough *THWUMP*, but little more -- the woman grunts, stepping forward -- suddenly light again. And then, just as quickly, /heavy/ again. "--problem," she hisses through gritted teeth. "Can't--" Well, do much. << Woman. Woman -- fucking with powers. >> This comes to everyone in the building, not just Hive's team anymore; it comes in a sharp snap of kind of /panicked/-sounding mental voice. << -- ngh Josh -- /stop her/. >> Flicker has vanished, too; who /knows/ where he's reappeared. There is a muffled eep from behind the muzzle as Jeremy is roughly teleported to join the fray amongst the other mutants. Oh look lady on the floor and others on the floor and whizzing bullets. Freezing in place is not precisely the greatest of self preservation techniques but with the chaos around him he gets to watch falling drones, and drones falling upwards and everything moving about chaotically. At least till a ricochetting shot clips against his muzzle, snapping his head to the side and knocking him over to join others to the ground. Laying there he watches the downed drone dazedly, wondering what the neat toy is, as whisps of darkness float around a small crack starting to show from the dented metal surface. Lia's mouth opens, very likely to scream, but then she is deposited suddenly and unceremoniously on her backside in a hallway. Doll in one hand, book in the other, she presses her hands (albeit full) to either side of her head and rocks in place. Her eyes are wide-open-terrified from the stranger and the surprise! new location, but clearly take on a shade of /panicked/ when she finds herself still in her own body despite her powers' attempts to make this otherwise. "She was a girl and the girl was in a room and it was not a room but she was still a girl," the steady murmur slowly becomes a little helpless whimper. The whimper ramps up into a distressed cry at the brain-talker suddenly scared and hurting in her mind, as well. "Oh Hell." Ash spins around and takes a discus from his bag and whips it at the guard that shot Xiao-shan. It whirls through the air like a decently thrown discus, getting a small push of direction and speed toward the end rather than the smooth circuit it would have followed assisted by Ash's mind. "Hey, anyone one with powers that can fuck wit.. sorry, change other people's powers want to volunteer to be unconscious now? Raise your hand? Sorry about this, but we really need you to be unconscious now or just stop what you're doing because this is bad." He pulls his shoulder out of his bag and lets it fall on the ground with a heavy thud. "Everyone else. Grab a rock. Throw it at drones, Okay? Try not to hit anyone else." He upends his bag and stares at the group. Dorian lets out a rather undignified yelp as he is pulled, as though by an invisible hand, towards Kismet, whimpering resignedly. And then he's handed a door without too much warning, eliciting another surprised yelp from the young man. "O... okay. I'll, um," he leans his back against the door, keeping it between himself and the drones. with a pained grunt, "Just stay here." And that's about what he does, glancing around from his spot somewhat pinned in place by the door, gesturing to others he can see to come to the relative safety of the shelter. A terrified look crosses his face as he sees Lia collapse onto the floor. "Psst. Lia," he tries to say over the chaotic noise, crouching slightly against the door, balancing it against his back, even as the bullets riccochet off the surface, "Can you make it over here? It's ok. Do you remember me? From the art room? I'll keep you safe, it'll be ok." The slight crack in his voice as one of the bouncing bullets comes back his way, slamming into his shoulder with a muffled thud. He glances around for others, but is limited by the weight of the door-shelter - either the exertion from holding up is getting to him, or he is warm, as he is starting to sweat through the scrubs slightly. "--zzzhisisn'tgood," Xiao-shan manages to grit out from between her teeth, her voice a constant, thrumming hiss. She's /slowly/ making her way out of the common room -- step by slow, jaw-grinding step -- as she struggles to maintain control over her fluctuating mass. Heavy, then light, then heavy, then light. The ground beneath her intermittently groans; occasionally, a footstep will /bounce/ off the floor, launching her knee upward -- right before it /snaps/ back down with a painful /THWUNK/. Still, she's making progress -- trudging her way into the hall, brow crunched, slowly sweeping her head this way and that. Looking for something slow and easy to maybe... walk into. Shaking the daze out of his head, Jeremy's brain gets a reboot, though perhaps farther from reality. Yes, this is a test, the scientists want to see his powers in a more realistic simulation Obviously. Making his way over to Ash on his hands and knees so he doesn't seem to be a target as much, he tugs at the earthbender's pants leg trying to get his attention. Pointing at the downed drone, then pointing at his muzzle he tries to get the point across as best he can amidst the chaos. Of course the flickering blackness in the crack of the metal may be getting the point across a tad bit better than any lack of words could. The woman slumped against the wall raises her hand, tired and shaky. "Please," she tells Ash, "I can't stop it." There's another rattle of gunshots -- mostly aimed to Xiao-shan though this ends as the other guard /tugs/ at the first one: "... dude we're not even paid for this." He's -- none too /sanguine/ about being trapped in a hallway with a host of unstable mutants, evident as he flees for the far stairwell. The drones have no such qualms. Thwip? Thwip? One of them has -- glued Coppelia to Lia's hand. Maybe not the most effective strategy, but with the chaos down here its targets are confused. Flicker reappears, just as blurry-unstable as before. It takes him three tries before he manages to drag another pair out of their room. It seems like Lia is planning to just sit and rock and make formless noises until the sound of her name--which is just enough to flit her eyes in Dorian's direction. "Teddy?" She suddenly looks like she might cry. The direct orders and promises of safety manage to make it through, the small girl pressing her tiny form flat against the floor to commando crawl down the hall, book cradled in one elbow and doll in the other. Somehow, the doll becoming /attached/ to her doesn't faze her in the least, though everything /else/ seems upsetting. She darts at Dorian once she reaches his door-shelter, burying her face in his shirt. "It was not a room and she was still a girl!" she complains muffledly against him, as if this explains everything. Kismet ducks back behind the door in time to see Ash's 'ammunition' hit the floor. "Is that a bag of--" Yes, it is. Having been warned, he doesn't even try to Force-throw any rocks. He scrambles over, picks up a baseball sized projectile, and lobs it at the nearest offending drone. His next missile chosen, he darts a glance at Jeremy. "Muzzle! You want it /off/, yes?" That rock gets throw, too, more hastily aimed this time, and he looks for another. "Behind... me. If--zzzht." The next bullet that hits Xiao-shan -- actually seems to hurt her. She grimaces, shoulders shuddering, snapping up; she shifts down to one knee. A few more shots ping off her shoulders, one off her torso -- a hand hits the ground with a loud CLUNK, the tiles cracking and crumpling beneath her fingers. Even hunched over like this, she's nearly as tall as an average person -- a boulder-shaped woman in the hallway. "Can't even -- move like -- zzznnht." "Sorry, lady. Don't have a lot of options. Maybe I'll buy you a drink later." In the heat of a power surge, Ash's mind lifts three c-shaped discuses and launches them at the drone all at once. He feels Jeremy pulling at him, slowing him down. He stares at him as he reaches a hand out blindly for the woman's shoulder. When he clamps down, he tears his attention away from the young person his leg and balls up his free fist. "Don't tense up." Seconds later, he throws a mean cross at her jaw, slamming the back end into her trigeminal nerves to knock her down. The drones seem to be tired of their rubber bullets; they're shooting real ones, now. Rat-tat-tat -- though they seem to be trying to target /Flicker/ in his erratic shift of motion -- cycling rapid again once the woman is unconscious. Their shooting proves futile, for the next room he evacuates, and the next; but even as fast as he moves, eventually bullets move faster. He stops outside one door with a bullet in his shoulder, breath wheezing harsh from behind his bandana. "-- Come with me," he says instead, stooping to reach his good arm for Lia's hand. "We need to go. Now. Everyone, towards the door. Ash -- /someone/ get the drones." << Ffff -- >> is the last thing that comes from Hive. And then quiet. One of the drones sways, clattering against a wall and taking a moment to right itself. The other -- starts shooting at a wall instead when it is hit by a rock. It also needs to take a moment to reorient. Nodding rapidly to Kismet as he gets the message, Jeremy scoots away from the Ash, wincing at the dull thud of fist to head of woman. He really really doesn't know why the scientists are conducting the test this way, but obviously the quickest way to finish the test and get back to the room will be to complete it. Scoot scoot, hide behind other fallen mutant, scoot scoot, whimper at the bullets sparking and knocking chunks of people and concrete everywhere. Looking up occassionally, he orients on the jedi one, not wanting to get any farther up from the floor though. Dorian is occupied almost entirely by trying to comfort Lia, stll supporting the door with his back as best he can, while the insanity continues around them. "It's ok. I know, it's scary, and loud, and not normal, but it'll be ok," he says quietly, reaching an arm around to hug her as best as he can under the circumstances. There's a glance to Kismet as the other man starts lobbing rocks - Dorian is doing his best to keep the blind panic knotting up in his stomach from creeping out into his facial expression, and likely failing. When the real bullets start whizzing past, he yelps, pulling Lia closer to sheild her further, inten on being of some use at least. When Flicker arrives for Lia, Dorian glances at the teleporter, nodding, and hugging Lia again, "Go with him. It'll be ok. He'll get you out safely. It'll be ok." The reassurances might not be entirely for the girl, but her lets go of her gently nudging her towards Flicker., "I'll be along in a bit. But go with him now. It'll be safe there. Promise." Ash moves forward and pulls the unconscious woman over his shoulder, pinning her legs to his shoulder and torso. "Okay, Everyone, head that way! Let's leave! Out, out, OUT!" With his powers back under his control, he starts shooting off discs with expert aim at the drones. Eyes shift a moment later to the hallway that the drones are coming in from. He digs his heels in and focuses, tearing sections from each wall to close off that point. The seal is not one hundred percent, but there are no holes large enough for drones to get through. "Come on, people. Let's goooo!" He starts moving fast for the exit. Lia looks all queued up to scream again when Flicker touches her, because that worked out /so well/ last time. But then Dorian is telling her she has to go, with /hugs/, and promising to follow. She trembles but doesn't withdraw her hand from Flicker, nodding mutely in reply to Dorian as she finally, begrudgingly, lets him go. She hugs the doll and book instead, compliantly following along with (scary!) Flicker. "Putain de merde!" Kismet's language is growing less and less becoming of a Jedi as the situation worsens. He drops to the ground, as much to make himself a smaller target as to /reach/ Jeremy. No time for politeness now, he seizes the other young man's head. The metal around the small crack in the muzzle starts warping as if pulled outward by unseen hands. A few seconds of effort later, the restraint is loose enough to allow jaw movement. "C'mon, do that thing you did before!" And then, suddenly, Xiao-shan is standing -- on her feet -- rising like a mountain surging upward in an earthquake. And /running/. The pounding thump of her footsteps again rings through the halls; the doors and windows rattle under each land of her soles. As she moves, her arms swoop out to catch any scragglers -- hurling them up on her broad shoulder -- as she charges, linebacker style, for the stairwell. Grunting in pain with each step. There is a wincing as the restraint is mindhandled a bit roughly, Jeremy does his best to man up and not whimper too much. As it finally gets loose enough though, he shakes his head somewhat roughly and the restraint creaks with the motion and is freed up enough fully to move. "Ahhhh," comes out a bit roughly, but the noise is already dying away as it gets out farther from him and then he tilts his head back. It looks for all the world as if he were a wolf howling at the moon, but with mouth thrown wide open, the area around Jeremy starts to darken and chill as every spare bit of heat, light and electricity gets sucked down the mutants gullet. The drones are still shooting, when that darkness starts to yawn. Real bullets, now -- towards Kismet, towards Xiao-shan, towards Ash -- but the growing sphere of power-sucking starts to make their shots more erratic, aimed at nothing in particular but the room in general. And then no more shots. The drones clatter heavily to the ground. The room is darker, now, and a lot more quiet. Dorian offers a weak smile to Lia, nodding, "It'll be ok, Lia." He winces slightly from the sound of crunching concrete and steel, but glancing up and around to see where the orders are coming from. He stares at Ash, wide eyed and terrified of what is going on, and then at the order to move, checks around him again, before shrugging out from behind the door he had been bracing against, grimacing as he struggles to move the door balanced against him, but finally shuffling it far enough off balance as to drop it to the floor with a loud thud. He starts making for the door, slinking along in a crouch as best he can, glancing back to Jeremy and Kismet, "C'mon. Need to go now, I think, right? Yes, go now before more shooting, I think." Dorian starts following the moving mountain as best as he can in the growing darkness, flinching at the new onslaught of bullets, one of the stray, erratic rounds seers a line of pain along the back of his calf, send him stumbling forward, but decidedly intent on not getting left behind. He made promises, after all. Ash drops when bullets come flying at him again, landing heavily on his hand and knees, doing his best to keep from roughly dropping his package. He frowns... but the expression evaporates when the lights fade and the drones drop from the air. "Huh. Okay." He struggles back to his feet and turns on Jeremy and Kismet. "Can you guys take her? I gotta open more doors." Unfortunately, they don't get much choice in the matter as he lowers himself to put the woman back on her feet and flopping in a controlled fashion toward Kismet. Xiao-shan continues to plow forward up the stairs in the wake of the dropping drones, teeth grit as she hammers her way through the extending shadows -- forward, toward the exit, as many labrats as she can carry atop of her shoulders. Surprisingly, it's quite a few! She keeps them as close to her front as possible -- letting bullets ping against her back, jaw set and tense as she moves. Kismet rises and offers Jeremy a hand, hauling him to his feet. He tips a curt nod at Ash and accepts, then almost drops, the unconscious woman. Though rather strong, he obviously has not had a lot of experience carrying dead weight in the shape of human beings. He fumbles the woman's head and torso over his shoulder awkwardly and kneels down beneath her. When he straightens back up, his load seems much more manageable and his expression serene. He waves Jeremy on toward the human bulldozer clearing the way out. "Allons-y." The darkness and the quiet accompanying the use of his power is a comfort to Jeremy, if for no other reason than the additional 'food' it provides. Normally his handler would touch him to tell him the test was over, but the test being funny the way it is he isn't sure if he will receive his signal or if he has to make the choice himself. Thankfully the choice is taken away from him at the command from Ash and touch from Kismet, and he closes his mouth tight, biting his lip to keep from accidentally doing any worse damage. He nods to show he understands the command and, glancing around, he picks up one of the drones to prove his powers worked to the scientists and follows after the ongoing departure squad. Ash turns and makes short work of the remaining doors, straining as he pulls the loosened doors out of their concrete frames and lets them fall to the floor with a clatter of metal. He encourages those inside to file out and leave, following the others. As he leaves the floor, he casts his attention down the hallway, his brow furrowed with concern. "Hn." And then he turns and leaves.