District 13 Mission 7

[etcircenses]

Who| Jet, Cecil, Sam, Haruto, Albert, Porrim, Ermac, Alain, Tabris, Joan and Altair
What| Item Retrieval Mission
Where| An unknown facility in the Capitol
When| Night
Warnings/Notes| Violence on peacekeepers, warn for anything else in the headers!

Mission goers are assembled in the hanger at mid-day, dressed in the usual dark attire, a hovercraft prepped and ready for them. The ride takes several hours and by the time they set down well outside of the Capitol's surveillance, the sun is setting and the bright lights of the Capitol are turning on. But it isn't the streets the teams are headed for, but the underground.

The tunnels under the city take them most of the way and provide them an un-monitored progression at least part of the way. When they surface, those more familiar with the Capitol may notice they’re pretty far south. They emerge in an alleyway behind a large stone building, there’s one door facing the alley; their way in. As they approach the door, it opens to reveal someone standing there. They’re unarmed and something applied to their face makes it seem blurry to an observer and makes identification impossible. However, since they open the door and hold it open for the rebels, it’s clear they’re there to help.

The rebel’s guide leads them through back hallways until they reach a dark staircase, from here, they’re on their own and, wordlessly, their guide leaves as they descend. The staircase is dark and seems to go on forever until it finally ends in a plain looking door. Through this door is another hallway, but it seems to only have one purpose: the large double-door at the end of it. There, in front of the door, are peacekeepers. It’s left to Team 2 to get rid of them, they have the option to distract them with a small device that emits a high-pitched noise and then incapacitate them, or perhaps they want to attempt to use the darkness of the hallway to sneak up on the guards, either way, something needs to be done before an alert is raised.

Once Team 2 has incapacitated the guards, the teams are free to go through the double doors. The next room is divided by a large glass wall stretching across the width and height of the space. On one side of the glass sits a pile of clothes, some of it may be recognizable, some of it may not be, but it seems to have been discarded randomly. Across from the pile of clothing is a pile of armor and other less-common clothing articles. This pile seems to be less haphazard, but similarly uncared for.

On the other side of thick glass is the real gold, row after row of tables all full of weapons and items, recognizable and completely foreign. The door in the middle of the glass is the only way to safely get through, but a quick application of the code-hacking device to break the lock and the other side is open. It’s a free-for-all.

Rebels need to be quick, it’s only a matter of time before those peacekeepers go missing and with no packs granted to them, they’re limited by whatever they can realistically carry, although a few packs seem to be strewn among the pile of clothing and might be usable to carry a little more. Once time is up, one team is sent ahead of the other to make the trip back to the underground tunnels. Hopefully, if one team is caught the other can make it back.

Items that can be found (not including clothes and armor) are:
Cullen's sword and shield
Albert's communicator and fox totem
Initiate's club made of bones/horns
Jet's super gun, communicator, eagle totem, bag of mushrooms
Roland's revolver, silver knife, bullets and old bullet shells
Sam's collapsible machine gun gauntlets and wing pack
Luna's music box and passcards
Rick's Colt python, Gerber knife, secondary handgun and machete
Harley's oversized mallet and a couple of bombs
Ruffnut's knife
Wesker's twin desert eagles
Alain's large pistol, hunting knife and two bandoliers of bullets (mostly empty)
Sansa's amythyst hairnet
Karkat's sylladex and strife deck (both closed)
Sigma's lethal injection watch
Shepard's shotgun, lancer and omni-tools
Tabris' axe
Haruto's wizar driver, wizard rings and wizarswordgun
Black Tom's shillelagh
Coach's katana and shotgun
Vivi's ticket, tetra master cards, magic armlet and oak staff
Altair's hidden blade, longsword, knife/short blade and 5 throwing knives
Daryl's hunting knife, crossbow and bolts, lighter and pack of cigarettes
Jack's compass
Jeremy's badge
Ellis' gun
Terezi's dragon cane
Phi's bracelet
Nitou's Beast driver, mirage magnum and rings

Comments

[silberfuchs]

It's hard not to think of this as sneaking around infiltrating Black Ghost's stronghold in... Antarctica? Australia? He can't remember anymore, it was so long ago, but the idea is the same. Move through spaces where no one thinks twice to check. Back then it was in the walls and access corridors. Here, its the sewers.

The main difference here is that they can talk without fear of being heard. Not that it was that much of an issue before considering the entire group of cyborgs were equipped with brainwave transmitters, allowing them to speak directly instead of out loud, but they don't have that advantage here. Still, they're so far underground, as long as they don't shout they can speak normally.

For his part, Albert's not talking much at first. Mostly, he's trying to listen for threats around them and trying not to sneeze. Perhaps taking advantage of fresh air outside of Thirteen when the weather was this cold hadn't been a good idea. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, stewing in grief over loss and not having gotten a cold since he'd been 30 and never heard of Black Ghost. Damned immune system...

But a little cold wasn't going to stop him from making sure the band of rebels stays safe overall and completes their mission objective. Moreover, Haruto and Cecil had both volunteered and considering he's the one training the both of them, Albert feels more than responsible for their performance. He's here to watch over them, even if that's not what he'd say if asked.

He'd probably just sneeze if asked, actually. Damnit.

Miserable but determined, Albert makes his way through the party to not just Cecil and Haruto - though he checks on them first - but anyone else who he doesn't recognize or wants to check with or... anyone really. Anything to get his mind off of the fact that for the first time in something like seventy years he may very well be sick. And at the worst time, too.

"How are you holding up?" He might say. It's sincere, and he hopes it sounds that way.

[wizardplease]

Haruto had been adamant, in all the time leading up to this mission, that he didn't care what it involved. That he'd be able to handle anything. He was an expert at heroics and an old hand at suffering and discomfort. He'd say that he was now eating those words, except that he'd rather not ponder things like eating while wading through a sewer. It's cold, it's wet, and... and okay, it stopped smelling particularly bad a while ago but still. He doesn't like it.

So when Albert comes to check on him, he'll find that the young man has a grimace on his face. One that he immediately tries to turn into a carefree grin. Doesn't quite get there. There's still a lot of gritted teeth. "Fine. Just fine. It'll all pay off in the end, right?" If Albert's got some words of encouragement, he'll take them.

[silberfuchs]

"It will, but you don't have to feel good about wading through literal shit to get there," he offers, sounding a bit stuffed. Maybe the mildly clogged sinuses are a blessing in this case, at least. He hasn't smelled a thing since even before they came down here.

"But whatever we're able to recover should aid our side of the war effort, not to mention deal a blow to their morale in knowing we can simply waltz in and take what we want."

[wizardplease]

"I've been through the Capitol's shit before. I can take a little more of it." His next step is accompanied by a particularly unpleasant squelching sound, and he shudders involuntarily. "...even if it's literal, this time."

Wanting to be free of this all the sooner, he keeps his pace quick, though not so fast that he's liable to get separated from Albert. "I'm a little surprised that we're able to stroll on in. We've got someone on the inside, you think?" It's at this point that he realizes, standing next to Albert rather than a bit before him or a bit after him, that he sounds off. "...you doing alright?"

[silberfuchs]

"I'm fine," which might be convincing if he didn't punctuate it with a wet snuffle immediately afterwards. "And this is fairly standard. Most villainous organizations don't secure the sewers beyond some locked doors. It would take too much manpower, and who would want to come down here regardless?"

It's stupid, if you ask him. You've got to cover all of your weak points, but he does understand not having the men to cover every manhole in the Capitol.

[wizardplease]

"Fine, right..." Haruto is not buying it for a moment. But while his tone starts as teasing, when he speaks again, it sounds sympathetic. "When we get there, I'll keep an eye out for tissues or something. You coming down with something?" Good to check. Might just be an allergy. Or an old cyborg thing.

Whatever Albert's answer, his eyes go forward, eager to spot the way out of this cold, wet, miserable place. "First time I've done something quite like this. Being a wizard was more about spotting threats when they showed up, not sneaking in to places. That's more your line of work?"

[silberfuchs]

"No." The denial is childish and comes out more like a three year old caught with his hand in the cookie jar than a hundred-plus year old man.

He sighs.

"Possibly. I didn't realize until we were down here. I didn't used to gt sick." Ever. His cybernetics didn't allow for it, not unless there was a virus or a toxin specifically formulated for their unique physiologies. He shakes his head and lets the conversation move on, though, much preferring to talk about past experiences than present miseries.

"Well, threats would come up unexpectedly sometimes, but usually we would hear word beforehand and be sent somewhere specific to neutralize it. Our-" Mentor? Coordinator? "Our Professor was fairly proactive in that area, so we had our share of stealth missions."

A beat.

"When you say 'wizard,' you mean actual magic, don't you." It's not so much a question as curious dubiousness.

[wizardplease]

"Really? You didn't?" He makes a noise that's something resembling impressed, but then shrugs. "I guess there's some good to go along with the... rest." Who likes having colds? No one likes having colds.

"Aah... right, you worked as a team, didn't you? How many of you were there?" It's questions all over the place here, Haruto's snuck in during that beat. And after it, he has to stifle some laughter.

"Yes. Of course I do. I wouldn't go around calling myself a wizard if I didn't." That sounds like some actual doubt in Albert's tone. "Look, once I've got my rings and they've turned Dragon back on, then you'll see. I've got some pretty fancy tricks."

[silberfuchs]

"I suppose. It took me a long time to appreciate that." It still never fully set in. He'd rather be human fully than--

Another sneeze wracks him, muffled by Albert shoving his nose against the inside elbow of his shirt, otherwise it might have sounded like a gunshot for how it felt. He almost wants to make sure his nose is still attached.

No, he'd definitely rather have his original cybernetics back, if it would stop the sneezing.

"There were nine of us, not including the Professor, each with different specializations," he looks sidelong at Haruto, clearly not believing as far as magic is concerned, but he'll let the questions about his own team take priority and ask about this so called wizarding after.

[wizardplease]

Haruto is about to say something in regards to the unexpected benefits of the horrible things that can happen to a person, but that enormous sneeze is a distraction. He winces in sympathy, and is now doubly sure that he wants to find a pack of tissues as soon as they're somewhere dry.

"...nine. That's a whole bunch of you." From the sounds of his tone of voice, he finds it rather nice. Nine whole companions in the fight against... whatever bad things there were to fight against. Nine people that were... made into something they didn't want to...? That takes a little bit of the spark from his tone. "...I'm not the only Wizard. There's a few others. Mayu was still working to keep Tokyo safe, last I checked... Yuzuru's still pretty young, but Nitou'd been training him. Mr. Yamamoto's got a family, he's just glad everyone else is taking care of things now..."

[silberfuchs]

"More than nine, but others didn't get the chance to rebel or escape." He shakes his head, allowing a moment of silence for the rest of the Zero Zero line, for the cyborgmen and the Mythos group, for the assassins out of time, and the Pu'Awaks. They'd fought and killed so many of them all for their own survival, or had failed to save them, before they'd finally managed to do in Black Ghost.

He listens to Haruto instead, not wanting to dwell. He's always been the one to keep looking forward, keep practical. It was Joe and Francoise's jobs to mourn, and they did it well for all of them.

"I suppose this Mr. Yamamoto has taken up the mantle again with you and Nitou gone, yes? And the two others you mentioned." He looks at Haruto sidelong, gauging the right thing to say.

"I'm sure they'll have it covered until you're able to get back, if that's what you want to do when this is over." He knows Haruto had talked about exploring this world with them, but he understands if the boy has doubts about that course and obligations at home. Albert won't hold him to what he said before if he's changed his mind.

[wizardplease]

"Oh." And what else is there to say to that? "I'm sorry." Maybe there's that. Which Haruto follows up with a similar kind of respectful silence. Tragic stories are everywhere. Everyone seems to have one, if not from before coming here, then just by being here.

"I... yeah, he would, if anything big enough came up." Haruto puts a little more lightness into his tone, because he wants to think that things are going well in his absence. That everything's okay. "Nitou and I, we finished off the source of the Phantom problem, and then I had to head out to finish something up for Koyomi." If his smile grows a little tight at that, well. Some feelings will still be bittersweet, even after all this time. "Mayu really had things under control. There were still Phantoms left to finish off, but... there's only so many of them. There are enough wizards left that things are probably fine without us." He pauses briefly, footsteps splashing through the cold water. "I hope they're not too worried."

And the matter of being able to go back to them is one that he is just not going to address one way or the other. Hope remains, but he's not going to give himself reason to worry or doubt.

[silberfuchs]

"You sound as if you trust them greatly. I think you're right, things will be fine, even if they do miss you." He breaks through his feelings of fatalism - mostly due to illness in this case - to try and bolster Haruto instead. It's harder for him, Albert thinks, because he's younger. Being away from your family, accepting that they can work without you but also that they miss you and those two things are not necessarily bad states of being, just natural ones. Even if their reasons for being gone are unnatural.

"They likely trust you just as much." He sniffs, trying not to let it get in the way of his sentiment.

[wizardplease]

It is hard, when he allows himself to think on it. Having spent so long in denial that he needed others, only to open himself up to them just in time to get pulled away was genuinely painful. "It took us a bit, but we all pulled together." So if his voice is a little tight when he replies... well, there's the reason.

"...so you seriously don't believe that we're really a bunch of wizards?" You've got to laugh or you'll cry, and while neither is probably the kind of sound anyone should be making on an infiltration mission, humor is a good way to deflect from the serious stuff.

[silberfuchs]

"Magic is just unexplained science," Albert responds imperiously. "For example, on my team we had a psychic, whose powers included teleportation and precognition, both of which seem like magic if you're unfamiliar with how they work. However, Ivan was augmented cybernetically to harness these abilities. It's technology, not magic. I have to assume the same goes for your powers, even if you are not entirely versed in their exact mechanical structure."

Which, he has to be unaware, or else he wouldn't call it magic.

[wizardplease]

"Aaah, that explanation..." Haruto's laughter is quite genuine, now. "'Any sufficiently advanced technology'... right, well, technology's not that far ahead, where I'm from, and I've done things that I can't even explain." Like spontaneously regenerate the creature in his soul that gives him his powers after another monster carved it right out. That incident is part of why he believes that hope can accomplish anything.

[silberfuchs]

"The overall technology level of a society doesn't have the be significantly advanced to have a few far advanced outcomes. Things are discovered by accident much of the time, and even things that are in use widely don't always have clear explanations until much later. For example, take what we know about the human brain. For all of that, and all of the medical science meant to effect it, we still aren't one-hundred percent certain how it works." His voice becomes raspy in the middle of his sermon and Albert's forced to clear his throat, trying not to cough.

"You don't have to explain how something works for it to work, but that doesn't mean there isn't a logical explanation. Calling it magic is lazy."

[wizardplease]

Haruto nods right along, but he's not really listening. At about the time Albert's voice starts to go raspy, he looks for a spot to hop in and take over some of the talking. "When someone comes up with a nice scientific explanation for what I can do, I'll call myself something besides a wizard. Okay? Until then, I'm pretty used to the title, and I don't think I'd answer to anything else fast enough."

He laughs, he adjusts his pace so he's a little bit behind Albert rather than beside him... and then he lowers his voice a bit. "You doing alright? We can pick this up later, you know." They could probably hassle each other about this for hours, but as fun as it might be, the guy has a cold and the corridor's surely going to come to an end soon.

[silberfuchs]

"Call it what you want. To me, a wizard is the same as a cyborg." He wheezes and bit and finally nods, just wanting to get that out before he succumbs to his cold and has to let his voice rest. It's not something that will be resolved in one conversation anyway, nor does he really know why he's pushing the point other than he's miserable and he tends to make everyone else miserable too when that's the case.

At least Haruto seems to think it's funny, not insulting.

"Later, then. We should stay aler-... al-..." He sneezes into his sleeve again and groans.

[wizardplease]

"Oh? So can I call you a wizard, too?" The grin his is now wearing is the grin of a little shit who knows he is being a little shit. It's short-lived, for there are better things to be doing now than that. It settles into a more subdued smile.

"Bless you." He is really going to have to look for a handkerchief or some tissues once they're somewhere dry, isn't he? Poor Albert.

and done?

[silberfuchs]

The look on Albert's face can only be described as put-out by Haruto's comment, mostly because he's aware he invited it.

With a small exhale, Albert shakes his head and just moves forward. He'll take it up with Haruto later. For now, they need to be careful and judging by the change in light and building material in the walls, they're getting close.