trans_9 | Gently, but with undeniable will divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. (Pt. 5: Chances)

The plan was...well, it wasn't simple, but it sort of was.

While the CLF attacked multiple Clone Processing centers to distract the government, the group with the CLF would target one particular one in the region that'd once been New Jersey. The group with the government would offer their services in putting down their own people.

In the center, they'd split up into several groups. One would fight a fake fight, create a massive diversion, and blow up the room where the samples their DNA were being kept in the process. Another group would secure a teleporter pad. That team would teleport out other teams to steal a ship, steal some med tech to teleport to said ship, and steal a medical database. Another team would go to the main command center and hack into the government mainframe to down the sensornet around the planet so they could escape. And Nightwing himself would accompany the clones to upload the harvested memories to the Mother Brains, left unguarded because of the diversionary fighting, and make sure that was all they did.

Meanwhile, there'd be a standing order for all teams to avoid killing other crewmates, and avoid killing guards unless absolutely necessary.

It was a complicated plan. If a single part fouled up, they might find themselves dead, trapped, or worse. But if it worked, it'd work pretty spectacularly and leave them with medtech, a medical database, the clones helped, and possibly a grateful Council depending on how the fight went, because of the ones seemingly aiding the government.

In some worlds, things that were a million-to-one-chance (exactly a million-to-one) by their nature had to work. Let's hope this world is one of them, eh, mission crew?

[ooc: Only comment to threads if it says they are open here. All threads: OPEN. Characters may get injuries up to and including 7 on the Injury Scale (scroll to the bottom). Any higher, and they must ask permission of the plot-runners, just to make sure everyone isn't immobilized without enough people to help move them.]

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The guards came around the same corner a few moments later, rushing past until they came to an intersection in the hall. No way to tell which way the intruder had gone. After a brief moment’s hesitation, they split up into three contingents, each pursuing a separate direction.

Zouichi dropped down from the ceiling, barely making a sound as he hit the tiled floor. With the security forces off chasing a phantom intruder, he and Howard hopefully had a little more breathing room.

He moved quickly and easily down the hall, sidestepping or two harried-looking personnel. The building was rapidly emptying out. Good for them.

Zouichi stopped and backtracked a few steps, approaching the door to what appeared to be a small medical wing. His security card didn’t work on the door, but he could see more medical machinery inside. Hmm. He supposed he could simply try to break in, but that might inspire the guards to inspect the equipment, see what might have been stolen.

Better to find another way inside.

He continued onward.

Eventually, he made his way to a walkway overlooking the floor below – installed, no doubt, to convey a sense of openness about the place. Doctors and their visitors probably came here to watch the foot traffic go by. He tried the door at the end of the walk. Locked. His keycard wasn’t working either. Were they starting to lock down areas of the hospital?

Zouichi heard voices getting closer from the hallway in which he’d entered. Another set of guards.

Damn incompetent mall cops. They’d lost the intruders, of course, and what reports they did have of this so-called rogue doctor-intern duo were confused, fragmented. Apparently the doctor had fired some kind of energy weapon in one of the hallways. No fatalities, but plenty of bruises, scrapes, and a laundry list of other injuries that made Isaac’s head pound just thinking of the paperwork waiting for him. They’d even found one mouthbreather hidden under a cardboard box (which someone had poked little air holes in).

And now it was up to him and his sigmas to clean up the mess.

Isaac strode down the walkway, issuing orders over his communications device. He used his keycard on the door, and stormed out of the room.

Zouichi waited for a moment, making sure the man wouldn’t catch sight of him. At the last minute, he’d simply flipped himself over the railing, hanging by both hands over the edge of the walkway’s metal grating, nearly invisible unless someone decided to look over the edge. But the man had been more focused on his own problems than in examining the area beneath his own feet.

Now Zouichi pulled himself up, grabbing at the metal rail and swinging lightly back over onto the walk. He dashed toward the doorway just as it began to swing closed, slipping through.

Isaac met up with the team of sigmas at the specified contact point; as usual, they were waiting obediently for further commands. At least someone around here could be relied upon.

“You’ve been briefed on the situation,” he snapped, irritated at the entire affair. “We have two intruders in here, maybe more. The reports of their locations are confused, so we’ll be performing sweeps of the building…”

These guards seemed a little better than the others. More alert, more focused. Coordinated. The markings on their foreheads signified their status as clones. The ‘sigmas’?

He took a small device from his front pocket, tossing it over his shoulder into the hallway where the group was gathered. A split second later, a brilliant flash went off, accompanied by exclamations of surprise. His cue.

Zouichi charged out into the hall, taking advantage of the guards’ momentary disarray to take out each officer one by one. He knew exactly where and with how much force to strike a human being to kill them instantly. Which meant that he also knew how to put one of commission without killing them.

He just wasn’t usually required to do it.

Zouichi put this knowledge into practice now, clotheslining one guard, then striking another hard in the abdomen. He brought a fist down on the back of a man’s neck, using his prone body as a shield as one of the others began firing with her energy weapon. No problem; he thrust another guard facefirst into this new threat, kicking him forward with one booted foot. The officers collapsed in an uncoordinated heap even as Zouichi grabbed a man who decided to take a charge at him, throwing him easily over one shoulder and into the door behind him.

The man in charge, who had been further behind his subordinates, had begun barking panicked orders, trying to take control of the situation even as Zouichi made his way through the security squad. Most of the guards Zouichi simply took out with one blow, looking almost careless as he tossed aside one or delivered a swift, calculated strike to another. Their commander fell quickly silent, cowering against a nearby wall. It had taken less than half a minute for the sigmas to be effectively neutralized.

Zouichi wrapped a gloved hand around the commanding officer’s throat, shoving him against the wall and tightening his grip. Not enough to kill him. Just enough to restrict the flow of air.

“Hello,” Zouichi said, almost cordially. “Any more of you about?”

The man shook his head violently, hands scrabbling upward in a vain attempt to loosen Zouichi’s hold.

“Your identification, please.”

With trembling fingers, the officer attempted to extract a card from one of his pockets. It clattered noisily to the floor, the sound echoing in the nearly-silent hallway.

Zouichi smiled, took the man out with a blow to the side of the neck. “Thank you.” He released the officer, whose body slid slowly, bonelessly downward. Then he picked the keycard up, brushing delicately at it to clear it of dust.

(Fatal) injuries: Still 0.

He backtracked to the room from before, used the keycard to slip his way in, and placed his remaining stickers on the underside of several of the large pieces of equipment, where they were likely to remain unnoticed. Done, and done. Time to get out.

Zouichi looked down the open elevator shaft, estimating it to be some 150 meters to the bottom. There was shouting from behind him. He looked over his shoulder, only to see two or three guards running and shouting after him. Well, they could just

He gave them a little wave and jumped as they closed on his position, a long, slender cable running out from behind his wrist. Thirty floors. Twenty-five. Twenty. At around the tenth floor, he hit the braking mechanism, sending up a white-hot cloud of steam as he slowed to a stop.

Fifth floor. He swung out to the maintenance ladder, detached the cable, then pried the elevator doors open. So far, so good.

Also he punched out a few more guards on the way out. ~~Because he could.~~

(P.S. There were still no fatal injuries and also this song was playing? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aHQnDTd1y4))

Gently, but with undeniable will divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. (Pt. 5: Chances)

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