ArchivedLogs:Slip 'N Slide

Slip 'N Slide
Dramatis Personae Hive, Jax, Kay, Sage, Benjamin, Flicker, Joshua, Scramble
In Absentia	2014-07-21 Training time. Part of Prometheus TP.
Location <XS> Danger Room - B2
The room is large and circular, a geodesic hemisphere of hexagonal ceramic panels. It is the Danger Room, and is thus often full of danger, but is presently not in use and is thus remarkably danger-free. Safest room in the school, probably. The world right now is frigid, icy-chill that doesn't /fit/ with the hot July afternoon outside. But outside is /outside/ and in here the summer heat is not penetrating the thick coating of ice that is turning the floors slippery-wet and reaching up hard frozen /blades/ to wrap around legs, to slice into shins, to trap and encase and /hold/ -- Somewhere nearby one brainchipped cryokinetic is being /unleashed/ at full force, working in concert with a hyrdokinetic who is supplying plenty of sopping-wet /ammo/. It's a hallway like many others they've been in -- stairwell ahead leading down to a more-secured level of the facility, rooms (quite cozy-nice rooms, really) up here for lower-risk labrats. Or at least they /were/ for lower-risk labrats; at the moment there's blood leaking out of the open door of one of the cells, a very freaked-out teenager attempting to /bite/ Joshua in another, and barrage of guards flooding in from either side with guns and darts. Against one wall, Scramble has already been ensconced in ice and stuck right where she stands. Whups. It has not been a /perfect/ run, so far. Kay for one is a soaking wet MESS, his body armor beat to hell where bullets and laser shots have put the fear of god into it. The ice finds precious little purchase on him, but the closed in spaces has been a well-explored /limit/ for the full force of his power. "-ff. /Incoming/." He calls out, and low-slings his arm along the ground. Flames find precious little to CLING to - it generates a small explosion into the ground where it's mostly his /own/ proximity that takes the full force of the blast (ow). It sends a wave of ice fragments and sideways rain that is two parts freezing, one part /boiling/ towards the guards, along with a /wall/ of steam. He takes the moment to drop low and roll towards Scramble, seizing onto the ice gribbing her legs. Trying not to, y'know. Cook her in the process. Too much. "You been hit?" << Hhhhhh two more down. >> The grim meaning of this is clarified in mental connotation: a series of pale star-lights against the stark black background of Hive's mindscape, one for every inmate they're here to /rescue/. Two more winking quietly out of existence. Flicker is as usual hard to /track/, a flurry-blur of motion that shivers in space just a bit too /fast/ for the eye to properly catch. He should be winking into cages, /would/ be winking into cages, but the /cages/ are equipped themselves with suppression-devices and entering them poses for him the risk of not /leaving/ them again, with many of the doors still locked. And so instead he is blipping, here-and-gone, over behind the guards to /snatch/-yank a set of keys. In the rapidfire burst of moton it would almost be easy to /miss/ the spotted trail of blood he is leaving on the floor where he passes, body armour badly shredding and a speared shaft of /ice/ tearing a hole in one leg. Right now, Benjamin's a bloody mess himself, already in beast form but blood covering his black fur. He's moving in an attempt to subdue the guards in the side that wasn't just assaulted, mist emerging from his body and flying at them in an attempt to blind. No matter how much he gets his by bullets, he keeps snarling, his mind semi-feral in thought, focusing on tossing all of these guys into a wall as hard as he can. Sage is swiftly moving up towards Joshua, stun gun in hand in an attempt to subdue the labrat biting at him, attempting to strike the Labrat in the neck and /hopefully/ not miss and hit Joshua. << Tell Joshua to get the doors so Flicker can get people /out/. >> Jax isn't exactly ignoring the /body/ count but times like this you just /can't/ focus on it too hard -- he's paying more attention to the winking lights still left to them. In front of Benjamin a shimmering shield flickers into being, prismatic-translucent where it catches a dart and a bullet meant for the canine-man. Jax cannot, actually, be /seen/ at the moment, /invisibly/ somewhere in the room -- but the bright flash of light that spears out to sizzle into one of the guard's hands is visible enough. "I'll live." Scramble's eyes are focusing on the hydrokinetic -- out of /reach/ at the moment but her fingers are flexing in preparation as her leg loosens from its melting prison. (It comes with a small /hiss/ at the heat.) A heavy solid /column/ of water snakes out to slam towards Kay, shooting him with the thudding strength of a fire hose. The labrat near Sage does at least cease her biting, jittery-shaking as she lands back against the wall. Around Sage's feet a crinkling column of ice is starting to encase her boots, freezing soles to the ground. The steam of boiling water makes the atmosphere eerie and strange, walls of white drifting lazily until slashed open by quick movement, moving shapes, or ghosted apart by Flicker's sudden existence - like he finally has his own whispery 'bamf!' - and then slowly reclaiming the vacuum he leaves behind when he flickerdeparts once more. It plays odd and hallucinogenic amongst Jax's shields, recoiling from the dry-stark heat of his light blast. The downside to rapidly melting ice is it's /decrease/ of surface friction beneath the water. Kay has become a bit of a /menace/ to himself, long legs slipping and sliding like a blood-soaked Bambi-on-ice, arms thrown out and keeping his footing /mostly/ by virtue of steel toe boots built with toothy /grip/. Less effective against the spray of water. He barely finishes Scramble's legs (rush job leaving second degree burns) before he's washed away and slammed into a wall by the watery torrent, where he just as rapidly he yanks himself UP from the ground into a crouch so fast his sopping hair leaves a beaded trail of droplets in his path, "Guys -/pwuh/ - that hydro's," again, he shoves his hands /down/, agains the ground, to send up another explosion, "gotta /go/." The fog for a moment is shoved back by the force of the blast, all hair and clothes whipping away from the shockwave... then whipping back /towards/ it as oxygen sucks in to fill the void. And the steam grows /thicker/, droplets of condensation falling merrily down from the ceiling. In Kay's mindperception, there remains a stark spacial awareness of body heat signitures, even without sight. This, he gives up to the hive mind for use as he begins /marching/ through the white towards the hydro's last seen location. In answer to Kay's mental registry of bodies there's an absent background feel of /thanks/. Taking this information and moving on; it's clear enough he's relayed Jax's instruction to Joshua because the power-thief yanks the keys out of Flicker's hand on one blipping ultra-fast loop (... coordinating such a /rapid/ relay-handoff is infinitely easier with realtime mental tethering.) The hysterical biteyface of a labrat is left in Sage's hopefully-capable hands; Joshua is /teleporting/ himself out of the ice with a crackle-snap (and maaaybe a little bit of skin left behind where the frozen blades were starting to clench.) The cell doors are starting to open -- -- which, really, just dispenses scared confused inmates into the line of fire. Hive's mental touch right now might read a little bit more like '... shit' as his attention scrambles to keep all these unfamiliar-uncertain minds apprised of What The Hell Is Going On. Flicker is only taking them one at a time. With only one arm he can't really /grab/ more than one at once -- to compensate he's just not /stopping/ for breath. A whispery-swirl of steam, a quiet pop of air. And, << Duck, >> to Kay, this time helpfully /before/ another blast of water. Benjamin growls as the light shield appears, but seeing what it did, is most likely a growl of thanks. Charging forward, he's attempting to smash one of the guards into a wall, not to kill, hopefully to maim and break several bones if possible, mist protruding from his body in an attempt to blind another. Sage looks down to her feet, before up to the labrat. "Calm down. We are here to help. I do apologize for the electrical shock, you were attacking one of my allies.". Her voice is calm, attempting to soothe the labrat, as she attempts to break her soles from the ice, stungun still in hand incase the labrat can't be calmed. If the ice doesn't break, she's carefully attempting to remove herself from her boots as fast as she can. The ice does crack and break -- staying /still/ too long leads to being solidly rooted to the spot but provided people keep moving faster than it latches on it is possible to crackle your way back out. The growing sheets of ice (they're still /spreading/, over the floor, slippery-slick though the guards' grippd boots seem to manage it more or less decently) are joined by shooting icicle-daggers, sharp-tipped and knifing through the air towards Benjamin. One of the daggers sizzles and shatters into harmless spray of ice-chips, intercepted en route by another beam of ice, though two more are still on their trajectory. Part of Jax's mind is very strongly /thinking/ that they could really use some psionic /subduing/ of this pair but -- with a whole /building/ full of traumatized confused labrats he is not (willingly) interrupting Hive in trying to keep calm and direct the prisoners as to where to go. Instead, a slow bubble of shield-wall is blossoming around the guards at one end of the hall. The guards at the end that Kay is running towards, though -- there's still bullets coming from that end, still an occasional dart. With the twin obscuring of Benjamin's mists and Kay's thick steam, though, their /aim/ is kind of /off/. Less aimed, more just /firing/. Kay need not be told twice; he hits the deck like the cops are showing up (okay, so they kind of ARE), arms over his head. Belly down and chin-deep in meltwater (slowly sizzling where it touches his skin, so SOOTHING on his burns oh god that's nice), his mouth compresses slowly harder... then forms a bloody-toothed grin. And he extends his hands in the direction the water had just come - and fires off a low-impact blast at leg-level towards the hydrokinetic /and/ the guards in one. In the breath of a millisecond, the heat wave presses against the cloth of each pair of pants like a warm breeze in the cold environment, sending the material rippling. It's less delicate of a feeling when the cloth rips away and the flesh takes up rippling in its place, peeling back and flash-frying black. There's a ripple of information sliding into Sage's head, just right now -- oh sorry were you fighting no please pause that a moment because Hive needs /logistics/. A brief infodump of what guards are where with a wordless return question: The quickest route to getting Scramble and Joshua one floor down? Hive is prodding Sage's brain for help on this, having earlier supplied her with a map to the facility. There have occasionally been small shivery /yelps/ of pain from Flicker, largely lost in the general din, but Jax's helpful bubble cuts these off short, briefly clearing a small island of peace (backdropped by the rat-tat-tat of bullets hammering against the shield) for the teleporter to work in. The labrats, at least, are starting to calm -- not /thrilled/ with life but at least on the same page now of what is going on, hanging back to the sides of the hall and trying to stay out of the /way/ as evacuation takes place. The two ice daggers slide into Benjamin's neck, a howl as he attempts to continue his charge, smashing into the guard, but panting heavily. A quick mental burst flows through his mind, << Need. Get out. Blood. Pain. Can't hold. >>. He's still trying to hold his own against any guards still near him until he can burst out. "It will be all right. I have abilities like you, I do not want to hurt you.". Sage is slowly approaching the labrat, but she doesn't drop her stun gun. Meanwhile, her brain is working rapidly, taking the information Hive is transmitting, and popping up the facility map. This time, the map is drawing a line through itself in her brain, pathing quickest and most efficient route down. << Can Flicker grab Benjamin? He's hurt bad. >> There's a touch of regret in Jax's mind at the un-intercepted ice daggers but not a lot of time to linger on it. He's visible again, shivering back into existence to one side of the hall near the stairs where they came in, not actually able to hold the invisibility /and/ the shields at once. Rat-tat-tat. Rat-tat-tat. His face is pale and he's a little shaky where he leans back against the wall, trying hard to just to /keep/ that hallway clear enough for Flicker to do his thing. There's a /yowl/ down from Kay's end of the hall. A sudden rippling /stream/ of water cascading down it, one tiny-skinny teenage hydrokinetic falling to her rear and coursing down towards Kay like this is their own personal slip-n-slide. Behind Sage the icebender -- tired but still /going/, the chip in his head not really letting him /stop/, is working his way up to another storm. << -- Sage web him. >> Jax is mostly just trusting Hive to relay these commands. His teeth grit as Joshua vanishes with Scramble, mental check taking stock of Hive's remaining points of light that mark the rescuees still present. << And get everyone ready to get out of here. Hive, you're gonna need to get these last two, >> the two that are /attacking/ them, that is, << once the rest are gone. >> Suddenly Kay is latching his nails /into/ the icy ground as water rushes into him, closing up over his head. He tries to duck down and form less resistance as it washes past him, but funfact: water is alarmingly heavy. A few nails torn back, and he's lost all purchase, washed along once more on a shoving current, elbows and knees scraping at the ground and sputter-coughing to get his head up for /air/. About as happy as a /wet match/, he takes in a deep breath, lets himself just submerge with the current. When his legs hit the far wall, he braces feet against it to keep form getting /battered/, and grasps through the water to try and get his arms /around/ the skinny slippery-wet teenager bearing down towards him. The labrat near Sage is calming, finally, reluctantly shifting to go with the strange woman. Hive takes the information Sage transmits, relays it in turn to send Scramble and Joshua off. << Brace yourself. >> This goes out to Benjamin just a moment before Flicker reappears, a dizzy-sick wrench of nausea accompanying the teleporter clapping his hand against Benjamin's furry shoulder and blipping away to whisk him off to the vans outside. There are a few points of light brighter-lit than the others, highlighting for Jax's benefit the scattered few remaining labrats that Joshua has been sent to corral. For the most part, though, this floor has been emptied -- which means the /team/ now is starting to be yoinked, too, in stomach-churning rapid-jumps that leave things suddenly /quieter/ than the previous hail of bullets. With most of the labrats safely out and not in danger of accidentally running in front of a guard's pistol Hive's mind turns to the hydrokinetic and her frozen counterpart. The storm of ice and torrent of water both taper off as the girl collides with Kay in a bony tangle of sopping wet limbs. Flicker's hand against Kay's shoulder is soon followed by the world blurring into -- "-- Danger Room, end sim." The wet and the labrats and the ice and the bullets are all replaced swiftly by quiet. The cool metal paneling of the round room, a large empty space devoid of obstacles. There's still /exhaustion/, still the frazzled overtaxed strain of constant power usage and stress. Still burns in places from Kay's heat and Jax's lasers, still bruises where Flicker's rapid handling has left its marks, but the bulk of the injuries vanish with the rest of the room. Jax's chest is heaving. His palm lifts, presses to his eye. "Got the last of 'em. How many'd we lose?" Benjamin doesn't have much to say when Flicker appears, except a jumbled thought, << Please thank you >>. He goes without issue, mostly just lying down once he's blipped away. Sage rapidly does as transmitted, firing the web gun at the cryokinetic, as she turns to the lab rat she calmed down. "Alright, let us get you out of here.". Taking her arm, Sage flees out to the van, as the simulator ends. Benjamin's still lying on his back, his body starting to shift bones again to turn him back to his human form, as Sage brushes her hair, breathing deeply. "I am not positive. Three or four, but I may be grossly underestimating." Panting on the ground, Kay is also making a kind of 'hhaaah hhaaah' kind of... choking-coughing laugh. Fake-choking, with the water gone, give his body a second to /grasp/ this. Then he's rolling over and sitting with his legs splayed out. Hands on knees and /shaking/ out hands that are a little crispy-fried still, "I fry anyone?" Anyone with REAL skin? << Four, >> Hive answers in agreement with Sage. Scramble is looking down at the singed cuffs of her pants, lips twisting up in faint -- amusement? Though it's almost a grimace at the burns washing against her ankle. "Just a little." Flicker doesn't answer at all. Shaky-pale and more than a little overtaxed, he lies down in boneless sprawl against the floor, staring up at the round ceiling. It takes a long slow minute for him to struggle back up into seated position. Jax surveys the room quietly -- out of everyone his eye lingers longest on Flicker, ticking over tremor and pallor with a small tightening of his jaw. He runs a hand against his scarred cheek, and breathes in deeply. "Take fifteen," he tells the team. "And then we're going again. Be the last time 'fore Wednesday, so let's make this count."