Log:Independence Day 2058 - The Brits Are Back

2058/06/05 	 Lorelei Col Steel Nexus Sable Howl Akeno Xysis 1

It's early afternoon on the 4th of July. Independence Day. Parades and street celebrations are in full swing. The observant though may have noticed a couple of Black Helicopters flying overhead in a very business like fashion to the Locke Industrial Park. Listening in to police transmissions would pick up instructions to blockade that Park from public access until further notice.

Nexus gets an annoying-albeit-unofficial phone call from someone in the police department letting him know about this. Not for the first time, he curses having agreed to this "Police Liason" position, but agrees to take a look.

Lorelei gets involved largely by being a busybody, noticing that there seems to be trouble and approaching in her car, sweet-talking her way past anyone trying to turn her back. She also tries to find out from any such what's going on.

When Nexus approaches the Industrial Park he finds a police cordon around the Optimum Manufacturing Plant. Lorelei catches up at that point. On the road a hundred yards, more or less, from the plant are the two black helicopters. Standing beside the helos are a pair of US army officers.

Nexus adds quietly to Lorelei "DO you have any way of telling if someone's being mind-whammied? I'm not too trusting of the Army these days..."

Lorelei says, "Sorry - I'm not a mentalist, as you know."

Lorelei looks for someone who might know what's going on.

Nexus nods. "Yeah, I know. Doesn't hurt to check, though. Oh well... let's hope I'm just paranoid." He approaches the cordon, figuring he might as well try this straight the first time through. "What's up, guys?"

The police at the point where Lorelei and Nexus approach shrug. "No real idea. We've just been told to keep this road blocked. Not that anyone wants to come to an industrial park today. Seems like the army is in charge. Do you want to pass through?"

Nexus nods. "Well, tell you the truth, I'd rather get back to barbecuing. But I guess I should take a look, long as I'm here."

Lorelei says, "Likewise."

At this moment, though, Detective Akeno arrives on the location.

Akeno arrives in his black truck, stopping on the side of the road as he looks towards the blockade, then back at his scanner. Windows rolled up and everything at the moment as he seems to be talking on his PDA and the police scanner.

Nexus doesn't pay any particular attention to the new truck, and steps through the cordon towards the Army officers.

Lorelei decides to follow. As Nexus says, there's reason not to be entirely sure of the army.

The army officers look up as Nexus and Lorelei approach. They both pay more attention to Lorelei than Nexus. Army, right. The collection of silver braid and pips on shoulders suggest fairly senior ranks.

Sighing, Akeno gets out of the truck, pulling out a cigarette. All this trouble, he might as well kill his lungs slowly. Taking a drag off of it as he heads towards the police line, he looks to the heroes, then at the two that let them through. "You two have a meeting with your superiors when this is over. The Department of Defense ordered the blockade." Heading after the two capes, Akeno rubs his eyes. 4th of July and the Army's pulling something? What's the world coming to?

Nexus grins and lets Lorelei do the talking. In the meantime he looks around for anything that seems out of place.

The police officers call after the Detective, "Hey, they're capes."

Lorelei goes up to the one with the most impressive braid and pips and says, with a smile, "Hi - what's going on?"

When Howl arrives by some unexpected chance or fortune he finds a police cordon around the Optimum Plant. Inside the cordon are two black helicopters, a pair of army officers, Akeno, Lorelei, and Nexus.

The army officer half grins, "Hey, are you Lorelei?"

Lorelei says, "None other. Is there some trouble here?"

Howl glances between the two helicopters. "My god. They don't even try to hide the conspiracies any more."

Nexus chuckles. "Yeah. Can't trust those helicopters anymore. They're just taking over..."

Akeno calls back, "Doesn't matter. Blockades are for a reason when it comes to the army." He turns to frown as he looks about the sight, a silent pulse of wind flowing out of him as his eyes take on a distant look. "Nexus, Howl, Lorelei, you all three know you shouldn't be here unless something is exploding."

"Unknown unauthorized intruders have seized the plant. They may have hostages. We sent in a response team but lost contact with them about ten minutes ago. There's a Delta force group inbound. ETA half an hour." The officer tell Lorelei.

Nexus turns around at Akeno's voice. "Nope, I don't know that at all. For that matter, I don't know that nothing's exploding." Then he turns back to the officer. "Damn."

[To Akeno] Lorelei says, "That close enough to exploding for you?"

Nexus says, "Do we know anything about the intruders? Pictures, how they got in, anything?"

Howl snorts lightly. "I also like to think that I show up when there's free food or supermodels." He gestures to Lorelei.

Nexus searches his pockets and shrugs to Howl. "No food, sorry. Supermodels, we can manage."

The officer shakes his head. "No. We have recieved a list of demands though."

Nexus says, "What demands?"

The detective just shakes his head, "Fine... go do your thing." He starts towards the plant, eyeing it as he finishes off the cigarette and tosses it off to one side. He stops a bit ahead of the group, eyes looking at different points on the plant for the moment.

The officers gets out a printout and reads from it. "Unpaid taxes for a shipload of tea imported into Boston, $12,500. Interest on the amount due at 1.5% for two hundred and seventy six years. Colonial Bay to declare secession from the United States and announce it has reverted to being a Crown Colony."

Nexus scratches his head. "Never did understand how to calculate compound interest, but I'm guessing that comes out to a lot, huh?"

Lorelei says, "Um - this isn't just a big practical joke, right?"

Nexus sighs. "Remind me to tell you about the leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day, Lor. Something about the holidays brings out the nutjobs in this town. But they always turn out to be powerful nutjobs." He chuckles. "OK. Gimme a few minutes to check the scene out, I'll be back with some info."

Howl arches a brow. "Ultra British nationalists? There is never a good time for this."

The officer nods to Nexus. He looks at Lorelei. "No joke Ms Lorelei. We sent in a crack anti-terrorist team. There was a short burst of gunfire and since then we haven't been able to raise them via radio."

Nexus becomes difficult to see and takes a stealthy route towards where the trouble seems to be.

Lorelei waits for Nexus to return.

Nexus ghosts through the plant. He finds most people in the plant's canteen. There's a dozen US army grunts, all tied up, along the east wall of the room. A couple of them look unconscious. On the opposite side are a man and a woman dressed in civilian clothes, and a little girl about ten or eleven years old. They are also tied and gagged. Standing over the hostages are six men, young and fit looking, wearing army type uniforms with no country flag or unit patches.

Howl waits as well, just shaking his head. "This must be a front for something. No one is this loony."

Nexus reports what he sees when he returns. "Any idea who the girl is?"

The army officer shakes his head. "Unknown."

Nexus nods. "So... doesn't look like anyone's in any immediate danger, but we go charging in and someone might get their head blown off. On the other hand, this might just be a stalling tactic while they do whatever they're gonna do." He tilts his head to Regan "Yeah, good question about the plant. If there's anything special about it, I dunno what it is."

Nexus says, "I guess, if we've got some time, I can do some hunting for info..." He pulls out his PDA hesitantly, not sure that waiting is at all clever."

Sable leaps down from a nearby building to joing the congregation of heroes gathering on the periphery. She follows the exchange as Nexus offers his report before stepping forward. "Do the hostage-takers have much in the way of equipment?"

Akeno botices nothing much on the outside of the building. Looking inside the main doors you see a air conditioning vent that has dusty handprints on it.'

Nexus says, "Nothing that jumped out at me. They look like regular military grunts, but they were tough enough to fight their way in."

Howl shrugs to Sable. "Milspec but still dangerous, I guess. We need surprise on this one."

Nexus nods to Howl. "Yeah. If I had to guess I'd guess they were boosted somehow, but that doesn't really change anything. I can get most of the hostages out of range pretty quickly, but I'll need someone to cover me."

Akeno frowns a bit as he seems to concentrate. "... an air conditioner vent?" He calls back to the capes, "Hold up. There's a problem. Some sort of low sound beeping. I can barely pick it up."

Nexus looks puzzled. "Beeping?"

Howl arches a brow at Akeno. "Bomb?"

Lorelei says, "Hm. I'm probably most useful if I can get captured - what?"

Nexus grins to Lorelei. "Yeah, I think I saw that movie."

Akeno nods. "Possibly." He says towards the army officers, eyes still having an eerie unfocused look to them. "What is their list of demands?"

The officer gets out a printout and reads from it. "Unpaid taxes for a shipload of tea imported into Boston, $12,500. Interest on the amount due at 1.5% for two hundred and seventy six years. Colonial Bay to declare secession from the United States and announce it has reverted to being a Crown Colony."

Akeno quirks a brow as he looks at the officer. "You're not serious, are you?"

The officer nods and hands Akeno the printout so he can read it himself.

Nexus frowns. "OK. If there's a bomb, then we're on the clock." He puts his PDA away. "Lor, I can port the two of us in pretty close to where they're standing. If you can distract 'em, I can try to get the hostages out of the way. After that, though..." he shrugs.

Lorelei says, "I'll do my best. Can you get all the hostages in one go?"

Akeno reads it, blinks a few times, then just shakes his head before handing it back. "Distraction's mine. I can do negotiations. Get the hostages out, then get out yourselves." He turns to look at the officers, "Do you mind if I take it from here, gentlemen?"

Nexus looks back and forth between Lorelei and Akeno, and shrugs.

Howl nods to Akeno. "You're the boss."

Sable's lips purse slightly. "Did we get any feedback on the significance of the facility itself?"

"We have an inbound Delta force team ETA twenty-five minutes. We can give you that long." The officer tells Akeno.

Nexus says, "Or, I can port the whole bunch of us to a staging area near the canteen where everybody is."

The officer shrugs, "It's a major manufacturing plant but nothing classified or of interest to national security as far as I'm aware."

Nexus says, "We can just take the badguys down before they even have a chance to twitch."

Sable says, "Always assuming the bomb isn;t linked to biometric monitors implanted in them"

Nexus nods. "Yup, that's true."

Akeno sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Huh. Fine, twenty five minutes." He looks at Howl and Regan, then at Nexus and Lorelei. "How many can you teleport, Nexus? I need to do the negotiations. Get them in there as quick as possible. No killing. Subdue only." He disappears for a moment, and reappears with a bullhorn as he heads back over towards the plant.

Lorelei says, "So if I'm not distraction, what am I doing?"

Nexus says, "I can port all of us in. There were three civilians, and about a dozen guards tied up, that'll take me a while. I say we just go in and take 'em down before they blink. Any objections?"

Akeno calls back to Lorelei. "Distract from the inside."

Sable says, "But we don't seem to have much of an alternative at this stage. If they've got any brains they'll have security sensors set up throughout the facility so before we go to far from Nexus' jump point I'll try taking care of that ok?"

Lorelei thinks. o O (Won't that distract from the distraction?)

Lorelei says, "Are the baddies male, Nexus?"

Howl hmms. "I worry about this, for some of the reason's Sable's said. The hostages are the first priority. Port in and port them out. A bomb changes the situation."

Nexus shrugs to Sable. "If you want, but it's probably easier to just charge in." To Lorelei he adds "Well, I wasn't checking all _that_ closely, but they looked male enough with their pants on."

Lorelei says, "Ok. Warning guys - *don't* look at me once we're inside, if I'm doing distraction."

Nexus says, "There's half a dozen of 'em, spread out around the canteen."

Nobody shoots at Akeno as he gets closer to the plant.

Nexus nods. "_Don't_ look at the pretty girl. Check."

Nexus says, "OK... whoever's going in, latch on. Anyone got a better idea, sing out now."

Nexus waits for people to latch on.

Nexus says, "Remember, we're gonna be sitting ducks for a bit. I picked a spot that should be out of sight, but you know what they say about battle-plans and the enemy."

Akeno pulls up the bullhorn as he gets closer to the front doors, senses still active. "This is Detective Akeno Matsuya, Colonial Bay Police Department. I am here to negotiate the release of the hostages."

Lorelei holds on to Nexus.

Howl nods at Nexus. "We need to get in and out fast. Hostages are number one priority. That potential bomb changes everything, ok?"

Nexus nods. "OK, fair enough."

Sable hold up a hand. "PK, we go in, we hold position while I scope out security, Nexus can phase to the hostages, Lorelei springs a distraction and Nexus whisks away the hostages."

Nexus says, "I can get the hostages out pretty fast as long as I don't get shot while I'm doing it."

Lorelei says, "I'll try to make sure no one's looking at you."

Sable says, "Howl provides protection for Lorelei"

Howl nods, latching on. "And I'll be fallback. If anyone gets shot, it should be me."

Sable says, "Nobody do anything too quickly, scout first ok?"

Nexus nods to Lorelei and Sable. "Sounds good. Let's hope they're straight. Everybody ready?" He ports inside as soon as he gets a ready indicator from everyone.

Sable checks everyone and then grabs Nexus's shoulder

When he starts speaking over the bullhorn Akeno spots a slight movement at the air conditioning grill that he saw had small dusty handprints. It's as if someone inside pushed it open a fraction to see where the voice was coming from.

Akeno sighs, then repeats the same message as he steps forward more. Up to the door.

Sable spots a pair of claymores, rather well concealed. They aren't IR triggered or they would have detonated. Likely motion detection. In which case bamfing in has no relative motion, but moving will probably set them off. They are pointing up the passageway towards the group.'

Sable stands rigid and hisses under her breath. "Everybody stay still or we'll be blown to pieces."

Lorelei whispers, "What? Why?"

Nexus stands still and looks more carefully around his chosen spot.

Sable inclines her head down the passageway. "There are two claymore mines down there which I'm guessing are motion sensitive, since IR mines would already have gone off."

Nexus doesn't quite understand what Sable's talking about, but "mines" and "gone off" is quite clear enough. "Gotcha."

Nexus says, "Can you disarm 'em?"

Lorelei stays *very* still.

Sable. o O (Is there any situation Yusuko *ISN'T* useful for?"

Akeno pokes his head in the door, glancing back and forth and hopefully not getting blown to bits. He's looking for any obvious traps, gunmen, or the like. "Hello?" He says without the bullhorn. "... no way they could have vanished that quickly."

The grill pushes open a little more and a very dirty faced girl peeks out. "Are you a policeman?" She asks Akeno.

Sable inclines her head slowly. "I think I can deactivate the sensors." she slowly moves forward, her weight gliding onto her front forward at about the speed of a tortoise walking through molasses. Her hand rises with equal deliberation to a small pocket in her suit to withdraw a slender screwdriver and a small omni-tool.

Frowning a bit, Akeno pulls out his badge and holds it out so the girl can see, "Yes, I am. May I ask why you are in a vent?"

Howl waits silently with the others, watching Sable go forward carefully.

Akeno makes sure to switch off the bullhorn. He also makes sure to check with his sonar now that he's inside and can track down the beeping possibly.

The girl opens the grill a little more. "I'm hiding from the bad men who took my mummy and daddy and sister away."

Lorelei whispers, "Can we move now? Or might there be more?"

Akeno can now tell the ultrasonic beeping was coming from around the corner of the passageway. But it's just stopped."

Sable spends an absolute age navigating her way forward, muscles trembling slightly from the constant aerobic exertion of straining against any sudden movement or any imbalance. Once near the mines, which are really quite tiny things set in the corner of the corridor she sets to work with her tools. After a few minutes she rises to move onto the second of her targets and finally wipes her brow before straightening. "Sorry that took so long gang."

Nexus says, "Slow beats dead. Nice job."

Howl strides forward to meet Sable. "Indeed."

Nexus prepares to get as many hostages out as he can once Lorelei distracts the goons. "OK... let's do this thing."

Sable says, "You can move, let's just be cautious. These guys aren't mucking around. And just FYI wolfguard are very partial to claymores."

Lorelei says, "Remember - don't look at me...."

The girl hiding in the air conditioning trunking puts up her hands to Akeno. "Can you lift me down, please?"

Lorelei had thought that of Wolfguard and was trying not to think about it. Having Wolfguard's attention on her would probably be BAD.

Nexus thinks. o O (Not that that proves anything... but then again, I guess it doesn't make much difference either way. OK, here goes.)

Howl shrugs at Sable. "It's a claymore. Hardly a distinctive mine."

Nexus nods in Lorelei's direction, looking off to one side. "Your show..."

Sable shakes her head. "Not at all, I draw no conclusions, I just mention it as a possible indicator, now let's get moving."

Sable holds up a hand. "Wait Lorelei." She looks to Nexus. "Can you phase and get close to the hostages first?"

Nexus hrms. "Lemme think..."

The girl repeats her plea to Akeno, starting to wiggle out on her own. She's filthy with dust and dirt from being in the air conditioning trunking.

Howl glances at Lorelei. "I'm going to stand slightly in front of you and to the side with my back turned. Is that alright?"

[To Sable] Nexus says, "I can try. I won't be able to get all of 'em, though. I'll take the civilians out first."

Sable nods to Nexua. "Let's do that then."

Nexus says, "OK. I'll be easy to spot for a second before I port out, so I'll sneak in now and then port out after Lor appears."

Nexus becomes difficult to see and attempts to sneak into the canteen to within 10" of as many hostages as possible.

Akeno nods. Reaching up he gets the girl down from the vent and sighs, "Well, that changes my plan. Let's head back outside."

Lorelei and Sable hear a faint noise from behind the group, coming from around the corner. It's a muted thud followed immediately by a soft thump.

Lorelei is the opposite of subtle. She just walks through into the room with everyone, and strutting for maximum eye-catching. "Hey guys. What's up?" she asks, smiling, calm as if nothing were amiss.

Howl make sure to pull the brim of his hat down low as Lorelei goes out, but stands ready to assist her if things go wrong.

Nexus watches the soldiers and prepares to port out when they seem distracted.

The six armed men swing around to look at Lorelei and are frozen into immobility for a full phase.

Howl steps out after Lorelei, looking away from her and stepping lightly so that he can support her but still remain inconspicuous.

From around the corner of the passageway a very dirty dusty and mucky little girl runs towards the group in seeming panic, "Help.. help.. He's behind me!"

Sable. o O (That's a very FAST little girl)

The girl hostage rolls dexteriously up onto her feet, her wrist-tie snapping loose like cotton. She was holding silvery sphere behind her back and that gets tossed towards Lorelei and Howl in line with the doorway to the passway."

Nexus thinks. o O (Damn. Should've been looking at Lorelei.)

Nexus is well aware that the clever thing to do is to port away, wait for his sight to return, and then come in and deal. Whether he does that or not...

...is almost predictable. Instead, he takes a blind swing at where the girl was.

Sable's gloved hands lift to cover her ears, her face contorting into a mask of pain. Despite the obvious agonsy she twists and sidesteps by instinct, good fortune carrying her out of the way of the attack aimed at her.

Sable moves backward, perhaps trying to find her way through the doorway, or at least get her back to the wall so she only has to face attacks from one direction.

Howl immediately tries to quell some of the panic that comes when two of his three primary sense explode in a painful burst of light sound. He tries to tone down these other senses and get in touch with the picture of the area painted by the scents that color the area, to get back in touch with his environment.

Inside the room one of the girls strikes at Lorelei with an attack."

Outside the room the other girl strikes at Sable with an attack."

Unheard by any except the most distant soldier guys and the man and woman civilians, the girl outside the room says, "S***" as her weapon shorts out.

Sable bends and spins into a low crouch before rising and side-stepping. To a sighted onlooker her frenetic weaving seems awkward and rather like someone trying to dodge imaginary attackers but it somehow steers her clear of the girl's blow.

Equally unheard, the following exchange, "Xysis, language!" from the woman...

"Uh, yes, Col. Sorry Ma'am." from the girl.

Howl recognizes the corona discharge smell. He's smelt it many times. It's an energy whip.'

Howl lurches into action as the girls attack Lorelei. "Son of a..." He mutters, bending his arm and leaning in to a blinded but targeted strike that leverages the iron of his gauntlet against the girl's head.

The girl goes flying back from the impact of Howl's blow and smacks into a wall.

A momnt later Lorelei regains her senses from the initial attack by one of the girls.

The two armed soldiers furthest from the grenade can see and shoot. They shoot at Howl as he seems the threat.

Nexus decides the most useful thing he can do at this point is draw fire, in the hope that _someone_ on the team can still see. That is, assuming he's not making a fool of himself in an empty room. "Hah!" he shouts, adopting a hostile stance. "You've fallen right into my trap!"

Howl takes the hit like a champ. Not the first time he's been shot. He wheels on the other girl having sent the other way away, and performs a similar attack. He's trying to buy time for his comrades to recover, for the most part.

Sable shakes her head slightly as she perceptibly steadies herself. Spotting what would seem to be an injured young girl in front of her she demonstrates the full depth of her compasssion by launching a smooth, well-practiced kick at the middle of the child's chest.

Nexus thinks. o O (Wait, wait, wait. _Young_ and not twins? That doesn't make sense. Feh. OK, finish this, then talk with the twins again.)

Howl can sense Sable moving and redouble his attack on the same girl, continuing with a similar attack.

Nexus glares at a spot about two feet to the left of anything potentially interesting. "OK, you asked for it!" He punches hard at nothing in particular, his hand disappearing from the end of his wrist at the last second and clouting whichever of the two girls looks easiest to hit.

The girl doesn't notice it coming. She doesn't abort to dodge.

The girl inside the room looks surprised as Nexus' fist appears beside her. Then she crumples quietly to the floor.

Nexus thinks. o O (Oh. Disguise. Duh.)

Lorelei doesn't dare try anything blind now - she doesn't know which side she's affect. So she just keeps her head down til she can see again.

Nexus adds to the dodging girl "OK, hon. Since I doubt they've started putting loon into your genetic mix, I'm guessing this is a training mission. Which you've blown. You're half down, woozy, and we know you're Wolfguard. Is there any point to continuing this?" At least, that's what he means to say. He can't hear a word coming out of his own mouth.

The 'Mum' laughs. "Okay. Creasefire." She calls out. "So who called in ringers on us? Nice recovery by the way given we got the surprise advantage." Her accent is very English.

Nexus nods vaguely.

Nexus holds to see what happens.

Nexus laughs at Mom. "Problem is, you've deafened your opponents. They can't hear the ceasefire, now can they?"

Nexus tsks. "Poor tactical thinking, y'ask me."

Sable apparently has no respect at all for little girls, English, people or ceasefires as she spins smoothly into a back-fist aimed at the junction of her opponents neck and shoulder.

Nexus hrms. "Though your dodging training's pretty good."

Sable's attack swings wide as the girl nimbly sways away from the blow, expertly keeping her opponent in view the entire time.

Nexus realizes he probably shouldn't say what he's about to say. But he does anyway "And with only half her eyes, too. That's impressive."

"Two pre-teens and six soldiers not wearing battle gear against five Capes. I'd call this a pretty reasonable showing actually." Mom replies to Nexus.

Nexus snorts. "The soldiers are ignorable. But then, you should hardly be counting Lorelei."

Nexus thinks. o O (Where the _hell_ am I going with this?)

Mom chuckles. "Lorelei is a class one effective. Even if she didn't have a hint of meta talent."

Nexus thinks. o O (Yeah, I know that. Didn't think _you_ did, though. F--k.)

Howl starts getting snippets of the conversation between Nexus ad Mom. "So...What'd I miss while I was out?"

Nexus says, "Not much, really. We're evaluating how well they did. I guess we can stand down for now."

Howl arches a brow at Nexus. "Really? Wolfguard? We're going to back down from them?"

Nexus shrugs. "I guess we can play through if you want..."

Howl shakes his head. "They're the ones playing with us." He glances at the parents. "Who are they?"

Mum and Dad stand up. "Col Jessica Steel, SAS." She introduces herself. "Capt Peter Brentwater, my adjutant." She puts out a hand to Nexus.

Nexus blinks and feels surprisingly stupid for having come off pretty smart.

Nexus stands slackjawed for a moment then takes her hand.

Howl snorts lightly, folding his arms. "SAS. Shoulda known you were the guys running the Wolfguard show."

Nexus looks back and forth between Jessica and Peter. "So, you two aren't-- I mean, he didn't -- no, actually, never mind. I don't want to know."

Nexus turns to Lorelei, still keeping his guard up. "Are you OK?"

Sable's head tilts slightly as she spots the action unfolding in the canteen proper. The her weight transfer suggests she was about to launch into another attack she pulls up short and steaps back a pace

Mum says, "It's a cooperative exercise between the US and UK armies. We get mission training in insertion. Delta force get to practice against meta opposition."

Lorelei nods. "Jessica Steel - Steel as in the gym?"

Howl uh huhs. "They're a little young to be enlisted, don't you think?"

Nexus chuckles and looks at his watch. "Well, they won't be here for another, um, 10 minutes or so... if you want to reset, we can take off."

Nexus says, "Or you can _really_ freak 'em out and we can announce that we've decided to join the Redcoats..."

Mum nods. "Yes. I was over here for a while a couple of years back. Set up the Gym and also worked with Starguard Gamma."

Nexus looks around. "Anybody know what happened to the detective?"

Howl just shakes his head. "I'm not sure that I have time for this sort of thing. I'm sorry for having disrupted your exercise."

Mum looks at Howl. "Best choice for what's feasible. The kids were in school but it wasn't working out. They need an adrenaline rush on a regular basis. So they joined up. Cadets rather than enlisted. Although every one of them is itching to get on active duty. Xysis, come and say hello. Oh, do you know anything about a detective?"

The girl nods. "The nice policeman who tried to rescue me? I knocked him out near the main doors."

Lorelei says, "You think the army might have *told* us what this was about."

Nexus facepalms. "Oh, he's gonna be grumpy when he wakes up. Sucker-punched by an eight-year-old..." He sighs. "I'll go get him." He turns back to Col Steel and adds "Hey, I might be able to trade some info with you you'd find interesting... is there a number I can reach you at?"

Jessica Steel nods. "For normal calls the regiment switchboard will put you through to my office."

Nexus nods and goes outside to check up on Akeno.

Mum says to Howl, "Look, I'm sorry if you got roped into this unknowingly. But you can blame your people. Not us. We were as surprised as you to be facing metas in the exercise."

Howl shrugs at Col. Steel. "How convenient that the limit of what's feasible is the enlistment of a juvenile meta-human of incredible destructive potential into your country's military." He shakes his head and turns to leave, waves of disgust practically radiating off of him. "I'm sorry in the sense that I'm now complicit in this." He calls over his shoulder.

Sable wanders back into the canteen after her opponent. Her somber gaze follows the ebb and flow of the exchange before she comments to the little girl. "Very nice technique. But when you have someone blind go for their feet and put them on the ground. It takes more time but increases your advantage to overwhelming."

Lorelei gives Howl a worried look, while not entirely disagreeing with the sentimement behind his comment.

The girl nods, listening to Sable's advice. "You're really good too. If my whip hadn't burnt out I could have taken you though."

Lorelei says, "I suppose this means I'm stuck living in the US after all? No reversion to the crown?"

Sable's lips curl into soft smile. "I'm sure you would have, I reacted poorly and clumsily to the ambush."

Mum laughs, "I doubt it." She looks at Lorelei, "But where there's an Englishperson there's a part of England."

Xysis asks Sable, "Who disabled the claymores?"

Nexus ports back to join the crowd, with Akeno. He catches Sable's last comment and shrugs. "Doubt you did any worse than the rest of us, really... she suckered all of us. Too busy looking away from Lor to look away from the flash grenade."

Lorelei grins. "That was a nice touch, especially today."

Sable says, "That was me, it was very tense, I had no idea they were harmless."

Nexus hrms. "_Were_ they?"

Xysis grins, "Hey. That's neat. How you do it? I though I had the passageway fully covered."

Lorelei says, "I'm just kicking myself. I think I should have had more of a clue what was going on."

Xysis nods. "Flash power and a dye spray. It counts as a takedown under the exercise rules."

Nexus grins at Lorelei. "Honestly? I didn't figure it out 'till _after_ they introduced themselves."

Nexus says, "I was just bluffing."

Sable says, "Motion sensors can be by-passed if you move slowly enough, I think in the order of less than a metre a minute."

Sable says, "You should have set them to IR"

Xysis pouts up at Col Steel, Ma'am, after we beat up the Delta force can we go to Lisa's place and have one of her milkshakes? Can you come too?" She asks the heroes.

Nexus chuckles. "Milkshakes on me, but only if you kick their asses _right_.

[To Nexus] Lorelei says, "Well, you know. I have been best friends with the twins for a year and a half now."

Xysis tells Sable, "I was worried the residual heat from the plant might detonate them. Weren't you worried? You're pretty brave to walk up on a claymore when you didn't know it was safe."

Sable's shoulders lift. "I was petrified but I didn't see the alternative."

Akeno pops back up, sighing. "You know, a little clue to the brass might be more helpful. I think the chief of police is about to gripe at your superiors for a bit."

Col Steel laughs, "Did they show you the list of demands? It should have been obvious from that is wasn't a serious real situation."

Nexus adds to Akeno "Y'ask me, he should gripe at the brass outside."

Nexus shrugs to Jessica. "Really? You don't spend enough time in Colonial Bay. Insane, yes, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a real situation."

Sable says, "It's often hard to tell, recently we had terrorists who thought Bizet was polluting human culture."

Lorelei says, "Bizet-1058, that is. Well, he can try again next week when the theatre reopens...."

Nexus says, "Oh, the alien opera guy?"

Lorelei says, "Does French count as alien?"

Nexus nods. "Absolutely, yes."

Jessica Steel chuckles. "Really? Anyway we're got a couple of minutes to set up for Delta force. Unless you want to join in on our side you'll best be heading out. See you in Past Time's in say, twenty minutes?"

Sable says, "Anyway." She inclines her head slightly. "A pleasure to meet you Colonel Steel, we should get out of your way, but we will meet you for milkshakes."

Lorelei says, "Yeah - don't really want to fight Delta. They have enough troubles at the moment."

Sable smiles to the Xysis twins. "Thankyou for exosing the flaws in my technique. I'm grateful."

Nexus smirks. "Joining in on your side sounds like fun. But hardly fair. See you guys later...

Akeno shakes his head as he looks at Steel. "In this city? Anything's possible, including those kinds fo demands."