The Genie in the Bottle

[Saladin]

A trail of fallen guards led to the network maintenance station, a small, sterilized room stacked with whirring servers. Tron had nestled himself down in a corner with his sleeves rolled up and his arms covered in exposed cables he'd pulled out to maximize his skin contact with the system.

His eyes flickered back and forth as he jumped through the network pathways, squeezing around firewalls and sidestepping the security protocols. Then he smiled. "I'm in."

Saladin nodded. "Excellent. How long until you can find our friend?"

"I'm gettin' there... that's at least three more security levels up. Ah, two more."

Behind the Brotherhood, a small security camera came to life and swept over the room. "Hey! I can see you guys now." The camera paused, moved back toward Spectre, and settled there as the zoom lens rotated for a better look.

"Tron."

"I'm still workin' on it! I can multitask, all right? Okay, I'll look for the other cameras..."

The teen blinked, and now he was looking out the lens of another camera - the ID stamp in the lower-right corner told him it was three levels up. Another squad of armed guards charged past the field of view. He blinked again, and again, until finally -

"Woah - I think I see him!"

It was a fisheye view of a reinforced cell, probably from a concealed camera. Aslan Sagidev was reclining on an army cot in the corner.

"Where?" Saladin asked.

"There's no ID stamp on this camera... Getting into prisoner transfer records. Oh, hey, I can talk to him if you like. Or flood his cell with chlorine gas."

Saladin crossed his arms, though he knew Tron couldn't see the gesture.

"Okay, okay, I think I've got it. Vault Gamma, sublevel seventeen... that's fifteen levels down. Can't get much more specific, but I'd guess the massive radiation doors and troops of haz-mat suited guards should tip you off."

"Well done!" Saladin turned to his army. "We'll take a lift down there and fan out. The heat's about to turn up, but it shouldn't be anything we can't handle. Arsenal, I want you to stay and watch Tron's back in case anyone breaks in here. The rest of you, you're with me. And, Tron, tell Mr. Sagidev we're on our way."

Geryon grumbled something unintelligible and settled down on the floor as the rest of the Brotherhood made for one of the lifts. Tron took a moment to make sure there'd be one waiting for them, then patched himself into Neutron's cell.

"Hey. Wake up, Sparky. Time for you to get packed. That is, if you wanna get out of here."

[Spectre]

The formidable show of mutant strength, the Brotherhood, was at present descending ever deeper into Yucca Mountain, rapidly approaching sublevel seventeen. Spectre leaned casually against the back wall of the lift, to Saladin's immediate left, arms folded across her chest, apparently not too worried. Could have been her ex-fortune tellers instinct kicking in, but she fully expected the mission to be successful. Though she doubted it would be without incident..

"You won't need me and Void to free Sagidev. I'll stick around and make sure anything that moves behind you only does it once.."

Her gaze popped up to the camera's red blinking light. She focused on it, trying to visualize Tron, wired in, back in the maintainence room.. She had never attempted to meld her mind with someone this way before and didn't even know if she would be succesful but it would be easier, for her at least, to remain in contact this way. She narrowed her eyes at the static and interference trying to find her way to the mutant within the machine.

Tron..

Tell me where they are..

[Neutron]

"Hey. Wake up, Sparky. Time for you to get packed. That is, if you wanna get out of here."

It wasn't his imagination. There was something going on upstairs. Alsan rose from his cot, and looked up at the intercom. After a pause, he hit the reply switch.

"Who is this? Bring me water."

Aslan sighed, and smiled, stretching as he paced in his cell. The voice didn't sound like a mujehedeen, so if somebody else had an interest in his trade, it was a job opportunity he welcomed.

[Void]

The lift thundered downwards at what felt like an ever increasing speed. Throughout the compound guards frantically punched at the elevator controls, trying to bring it to a stop – but nothing would stall the hurtling metal box. With Tron blocking every available entrance into the system surrounding the lift, there was almost nothing between the Brotherhood and their goal...

The gears ground to a halt, with a small light above them illuminating the number seventeen. Void held up a hand and stepped forwards, passing through the thick metal doors before they could open. As he emerged into the hallway beyond, he vanished.

“Peekaboo, I see you.” Tron's voice came through the tiny speakers in the elevator. “Eight-man welcome wagon awaiting your arrival.” There was a barely audible crack followed by the sound of gunfire, as Void gave a sudden sharp yank to the neck of one of the guards, dropping his limp body to the floor. “Make that seven.”

[Saladin]

The voice in Aslan's cell grew uncertain. "Water? Uh..." Tron rooted his way through the subroutines - most of the automated systems in the cell seemed designed to kill or subdue the prisoner without exposing anyone to his ability's deadly side effects. "Looks like this is the best I can do for you now."

There was a mechanical click from the ceiling, followed by the hiss of an automatic sprinkler.

---

The guards were still so preoccupied with the insubstantial menace that they failed to notice the green glow bleeding around the elevator doors - until the doors blasted from their housings and flattened three guards against the far wall.

Then Geryon came thundering out of the lift, seized the nearest guard, and swung him like a kevlar-coated blackjack at the other three. The man's assault rifle spat indiscriminately into the walls and ceiling around them before it finally went flying off into the poorly-lit corridor.

Once the dust settled, Saladin took point again. With Tron running the facility's security systems, there was little need for stealth. They came to a massively reinforced hatch - Saladin was about to tear it off its hinges when, seemingly if their own accord, the pressure valves spun open, and the hatch swung free.

Beyond the hatchway was a metal staircase descending into cavernous warehouse with endless paddocks of corroding metal barrels.

"Behold the legacy of the nuclear age," Saladin said, curling his lip. "Humans. They never think about what becomes of all their garbage."

He looked across the warehouse and saw another pressure hatch flanked by six guards in baggy, white hazard suits. If this was all the resistance Yucca Mountain had to offer, this should be over quickly.

[Michael Lawston]

Michael strolled behind Saldin with one hand lazily resting an assault rifle on his shoulder. Looking into the open vault was like a child viewing a candy store for him. All that radioactive waste would be enough energy to keep him running for well over a century. A grin split his rough face. The feedback'b probably kill him though, along with every else in this god forsaken mountain.

Arsenal lowered the weapon and a flash of silver later it vanished. This was getting menial, Saladin didn't need him here at all. The humans 'guarding' this place were pathetic and he really wasn't feeling like babysitting this Neutron or whatever he called himself.


"There are still guards running around this place." Michael's eyes made one more sweep of the room, wondering for a moment. "They'll be reqrouping and arming soon." He turned to face the boss. "There's an armory somewhere. I'm going."

He couldn't care less if the humans were collecting toys, he just wanted to do something. Besides, it'd been a while since Arsenal replenished his stock.

[Ethan Daniels]

It was easy for the X-men to slip into the storage facility unhindered because of the chaos the Brotherhood had created. The team had slipped into the building through one of the loading docks with a little breaking and entering. Ion was able to short the cameras as Gaia used her abilities to, litterally, spike through the door with one of her plant creations.

"Okay guys and gals, remember: the Brotherhood has caused quite a stir and the guards are going to be shooting first and asking questions later. If you have to take them down then do it but avoid it if you can. Oracle?" Ion turned towards his fellow X-man and old friend. "I know it's hard to pin point where Sagidev is but does anything look familiar from the flash you had?"

[Francoise Dupont]

The members of the X-men looked towards Francoise expectantly, yet she seemed to be entirely oblivious to them all. Her eyes had glazed over and it was as if she had departed from another world. Removing one glove from her hand, she touched the cold steel wall of the corridor they stood in and, in an instant, her body became rigid, head rolling back as her eyes swam with visions and revelations. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months all flew by in her mind, as the clock wound backwards towards the date of Sagidev's arrival. She heard fragments of distorted conversation, as his arrival and transport was discussed in the weeks before he reached the facility. The image lurched forwards, and she saw the warped images of men and women moving through the corridor, destroying the guards in their path, bristling with energy and malice and-

Francoise gasped, pulling her hand away from the wall as if it and her palm had been locked together by some powerful magnetic force. The haze faded from her vision and she looked ahead, nodding. “We're on the right path. This way.”

[Dragon]

As the member of the team most likely to be able to weather an unexpected assault, John Rhee took point. He'd participated in raids like this before, only, at the time, he likely would have been among those causing the mayhem. But this time it wasn't a corrupt government using mutants as pawns, it was the mutants who were striking first at a government they feared. Hatred was a ring - if you let it run its course, it inevitably curved back on itself.

Their path was mercifully clear, despite the facility already being on high alert. "If I had to guess, I'd say the Brotherhood has already compromised the security systems somehow. We should have attracted some kind of attention by now."

"Gracias al Dios," Rainah Selvano murmured. "For small favors, anyway. There's been more than enough damage here."

Francoise's postcognition led them to a general-purpose lift and down toward sub-level 17. As the car plummeted deep beneath Yucca Mountain, John glanced toward Ethan. Their leader had been completely unreadable since they'd launched on the X-Jet from Westchester, moreso than any mission John had shared with him before.

It was bad enough going up against fellow mutants. To go against someone who used to be a friend, almost a brother...

The lift slowed to a halt, and the doors hissed open, depositing the X-Men on the level where Sagidev was incarcerated. The trail of broken bodies was signal enough which way the Brotherhood had gone. From here, it was Ethan's show.

---

Tron's attention was divided as he explored the Yucca Mountain facility's vast network, nosing into some confidential files here, browsing some technology reports there, and it was some time before he noticed the new intruders. Hastily, he patched himself into the Brotherhood's two-way-radio frequency. "Hey, guys! I think we've got company heading your way... two men and two women... and I think they're mutants!"

[Maxine Flannery]

:: Max's eyes were hidden behind a pair of mirrorshades. Better for them not to see me worry, she thought. She was inexperienced in the field, but was tired of staying behind on missions like this, especially considering the edge Francoise had on her. She wanted to prove she was capable of handling it to Ethan, and to the rest of the team as well ::

[Michael Lawston]

Click-ClICK Arsenal pumped a Mossberg 500 shotgun in one hand and stepped over a bloodied body lying on the ground. Small spatters of red marred his leather hauberk. He’d been right; the humans had been trying to collect the weapons. Too bad they were all sprawled on the floor of the weapons armory.<o></o>
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It had almost been a rush, for a person who didn’t need any adrenaline running through his body. Hell, he wasn’t even sweating….he never sweated. Arsenal spun the shotgun in one hand and absorbed with a spark of his fingers. A finger tapped the radio in his ear.<o></o>
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“Tron, get into the security systems and split them up.” Michael stepped over another body leaking from a deep gash in his throat. More mutants? Unless Saladin was pulling something funny, this might actually end up being a challenge.<o></o>
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“Uhm, ‘kay….I’ll give it a shot. You okay down there? I thought I heard gunfire.”<o></o>
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Arsenal paused in the doorway, looking into the armory. A half dozen soldiers lay on the floor in various states of mutilation and blood even soaked the walls. But the shelves and gun racks…..every thing was empty. A cold laugh escaped the mutant’s throat.<o></o>
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“Worry about yourself kid, you’ll live longer. Just lead me to them.”<o></o>
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Brotherhood or not, he hope the newcomers were coming for a fight. After all, he had plenty of energy to spend.<o></o>

[Neutron]

The friendly voice on the other side had paid with a favor, and Aslan eagerly opened his mouth beneath the sprinkler, drinking his fill. He paused, listening to the approaching sounds of violence and laughed, running his hands over his wet face and shaved head.

"Too much to ask for conjugal visit?"

He bantered with the helpful voice, looking out the viewport to see if his savior was close.

"Bring pretty friend, da?"

[Spectre]

The corridor was seemingly deserted. The last group of men who had been silly enough to try to come up behind the jail break party, had died fairly quickly, at each others hands. Spectre didn't often like to get her hands dirty, not when it was so much easier to have the homosapiens take care of it for her. Although she was quite capable of breaking a neck or two, should the situation call for it. Six of the original twelve men were still alive, and frozen still, lined up against the wall. She yet to decide their fate.

She heard the message from Tron. Mutants? What were they thinking? It was time to regroup, it had been long enough. They had been given ample time to free Sagidev. They needed to move or they would be up against more than pitiful human adversaries.

She had a use for the leftovers, after all. The six men formed a line, barring the hall to anyone who would pass. They took aim on the hallway before them. Whatever came from that way was going to be shot dead, on sight.

Tron, be a dear and make sure none of our boys come this way..

Spectre continued on, meeting up with the rest of the visible Brotherhood. She shimmered into appearance at Saladin's side, arms folded across her chest.

[Void]

As Spectre materialized beside Saladin, Void took in the vast warehouse laid out before them. It stunk to high-hell of damp and something not quite natural down there, though if the smell offended Void he didn't show it.

“What's the plan?”

[Saladin]

Mutants - Saladin had a few guesses who might have answered the facility's distress call, but he preferred not to stick around to find out which one was right. They needed Sagidev out quickly.

"Spectre, make yourself scarce and watch the door. Geryon, back her up. Void, you're with me, in case there's a failsafe on the hatch doors. Tron, be sure Sagidev is ready to move. We'll have him out in less than two minutes."

Saladin and Void disappeared around the banks of barrels toward the suited guards. A few shouts and futile gunshots rang out. And then there was a thunderous complaint of twisting metal as the six-ton pressure hatch came tearing off its anchors amid a bright green glow. Beyond the hatch was an observation room peering into a small, hastily converted containment cell.

Saladin held up a staying hand just in case Void had forgotten himself and was about to enter the cell too early.

---

There was an audible smirk in Tron's voice. "You'll meet pretty friend soon, though I wouldn't get on her bad side. Hang on..." A tray near the door of Aslan's cell slid open, revealing a pair of lead-shielded guantlets. "Better get dressed, Sparky. We're comin' to pick you up."