Silent Mountain (Part 3) by MaLAguA

Saturday, December 24th - 2:49 pm
British Columbia Forests - Ruben

Two men hiding in the distance and watching the kids have an argument. Use of false names, 'Steve' complains why they are doing this since they haven't even gotten there yet. The other guy going by 'Chad', 'Steve' is upset and growls, called wolfy by 'Chad', oh boy, who are these two? 'Ruben', the third of their group, wants 'Steve' to listen to the kids. He knows something is up with them being out there so close to Christmas and near their target. Crap, they are after something or someone in Silent Mountain.

2 more men and a statuesque woman, uh oh.

“Think they’re going to our base?” the woman asked. “Well, they’re kids, I don’t suppose they’ll put up much of a fight.”

“That, Barb, is why the boss left fine-tuning of details to me,” Ruben stated as he flipped screen after screen.

Their base, don't tell me these people work for the original owner of Silent Mountain or perhaps the last individual who rented the place from the Syndicate and got kicked out. Great, Chad and Steve both realize they aren't normal kids. Now they think the kids aren't in their path anymore, this is when these creeps went into the base and took over before the kids even got there, isn't it?

Ugh, they are from the group that got kicked out by the Syndicate, this is stupid, once they are found out the Syndicate will have a bounty on every last one of them.

“The moment I heard our boss decided to stop paying the lair’s rent this month and the warnings began to arrive, I set up this backdoor access to their systems,” Ruben bragged as he pushed himself up, just to confirm the kids had slipped further away from them, following the course of the river.

Arrogant as well, they are all dead people walking.

Guy One, Guy Two, name henchmen like that and you might as well be discount Dr. Seuss. *facepalms* Always change the master code for a place after you have had to kick someone out, check all electronic systems for any backdoors they might have put in, etc. Revenge, your boss stopped paying rent on the place, you are lucky that is all the Syndicate agent was told to do to you.

Saturday, December 24th - 4:12 pm
Silent Mountain Base - Level 2 - VIP Lounge - Lightning

The original architect of the base certainly had comfort in mind. Censer, never fidget with a heavy weapon even rolling it on the ground near anything it could possibly break. All good reasons for Censer's weapon, plus I love seeing a meteor hammer in action. Eesh, no wonder Censer has confidence issues,, the fight against Efreet messed him up.

Arrgh, I hate the Syndicate higher-up who decided to cut support for Root and Tidestriker, to rig the test against them. Lightning is nice, cooking for everyone a Christmas dinner. Crap, infiltration, but not a full ambush as Lightning knows they are in the base. Lighting dodges laser fire from the techie, turns, and recognizes them as henchmen of the evicted villain. Another infraction by the previous tenant didn't tell the Syndicate he had mutants on the payroll.

The woman's day off and she broke as many of the others out as she could, rats. A gadget that draws electricity towards it to absorb, eep. Tries to taunt Lightning only for Censer to slam the laser gun with his censer. Ruben, the techie, hands over his gadget to Chad. That darn box is too strong, how will Lighting work around it?

Ack! The box is draining the stored electricity from Lightning's body at a distance. What just happened when Lightning tried to judo throw Chad? Can Chad make himself heavier? Censer is being backed into a corner by Barb, and Lighting is pinned in a grapple by Chad, this is horrible. Censer is knocked unconscious, these creeps are going to kill them!

Lightning grabs the box and sends it flying down the hallway where it explodes, then gets free from the grapple and hits Chad hard in the throat. Powers of a density shifter, ouch, at least it worked. Lightning plans to flee only to be hit by the strange gun Ruben had, which seems to slow him down until everything about him stops and leaves him unconscious.

Trapped in a barrier made of air and frozen, Ruben, that is a horrific weapon. Great, he bought the gun from a devisor. Frozen in stasis, okay, better than I thought the weapon did to Lightning.

“Listen everyone. This piece here is the tethered dead space module. It remotely feeds the stasis field our prisoner is currently in. That means that, if this thing breaks, we’ll have to deal with Mr. Spark again… and I don’t have the time to go about building another siphoning box. Is that clear?”

Chad is being sarcastic about protecting it, he just ensured that it will get broken later on, I just know it.

Toss Censer in a broom closet, so he is at least still alive. Everything they came for is locked up in their Boss' former office and no way to unlock it, hah. Already planning an escape if things turn sideways. Blowtorch isn't good enough to get through the door, they are in trouble. Plans to search for tools to get through the door, they have the files on the kids, crap.

Improvise in this situation, Ruben is right, too many ways to slip up. Great, their plans for dealing with the kids and they know about Day Dreamer so wish to isolate her to use her as a hostage first. At least that means she is alive, or should be.

Saturday, December 24th - 5:56 pm
Silent Mountain Base - Level 2 - VIP Lounge - Crew

I almost pity Ruben having to put with Steve. Darn, they know the kids are there and only got there hours ahead of them. Why is Obscura's page redacted? It is never good when the villains move on to plan B that quickly. Oh, great. So one of them pretends to be Lightning using shapeshifting and isolates them one by one.

That was their whole plan, to lock down Day Dreamer's telepathy, get them locked down in the Lounge, and leave them there, good grief. Modified emergency phones, so that is how they communicate and get through the locked doors without issue. Chad, you are underestimating them due to their power ratings and they are teens, still learning. That is a huge mistake.

Bard and Chad need to be locked up, murderous psychos willing to kill kids all to cover up what they've done. Everyone else is annoyed at Chad, they could have just told the kids they were too late and sent them on their way.

“Whatever, we’re taking the Syndicate enforcer and a high level telepath they want with us. We’re getting more than we bargained for… in a good way.”

Chad, never talk about what you are getting before it all works out, you just jinxed your whole team. A devise that allows someone to scan another person's appearance and take it on themself, yikes, it is definitely in the wrong hands.

Saturday, December 24th - 6:34pm
Silent Mountain Base - Level 2 - VIP - Ruben

Ruben left with the job of cutting into the office with an upgraded acetylene torch, ouch. Hands it off to the henchmen with instructions on how to safely use it. Dang, Steve just cut their work time in half for cutting the hole. And it earns him the job of going to prep one of the ships since Barb can't do it. In the back area of the hanger, I guess Syndicate bases don't have to worry about OSHA violations.

Rats, Day Dreamer almost noticed something was off before it was too late. All the extra people, the frozen Lightning, Day Dreamer tries to turn off her inhibitor, but Chad stops her. Ruben saves her injury from the idiot Chad by using chloroform. An hour to an hour and a half to rescue Day Dreamer and Lightning.

*sigh* Chad is a moron, at least Ruben talks him out of copying Day Dreamer's powers due to the potential drawback. Chad, killing them would get the Syndicate and Whateley after the lot of you, listen to Ruben. Bwahaha, I love Barb's taunt at them both. Blow up the base, they really need to be hit by a clue-by-clue, check the files more to see if it mentions anything about one of the kids going to Whateley.

Saturday, December 24th - 7:27pm
Silent Mountain Base - Level 2 - Security room - Ruben

Ruben on the monitors, Guy One and Guy Two almost halfway through cutting the hole, Day Dreamer bound and unconscious alongside Censer in the closet. Steve informs Ruben the ship needs refueling and parts of the engine replaced, and Chad moves about all levels disguised as Lightning. Great, Ruben looks over FitTogether's spread-out parts through the monitor for stuff he might want. And he sends Chad to pilfer it for him, good grief.

Vic goes to the bathroom around this time while Ruben is distracted when Barb shows up to chat about plans to break their boss out next. Ruben is smart, lay low for a couple of weeks, though that might not be enough with screwing over the Syndicate like this. Obscura wants to go exploring, but Root gets a call that overrides the signal jammer due to security clearance. Shut-down protocol A-2, darn it, I knew Barb reading the manual would bite us in the butt.

And it activated the silence devise, darn it. Barb didn't fully read it so didn't know this would happen. Oh no, Barb is heading to the lounge. Please let FitTogether and Obscura be able to deal with her.

Saturday, December 24th - 7:38pm
Silent Mountain Base - Level 1 - Bathroom - Chad

Chad, you are a psycho and I hope you get put down before this all ends. Using this situation to try and murder the kids, Chad, I hope Vic comes back from this stronger and takes you down. Oh, the disguising gadget is holographic in nature. Barb is the one with the density warping, and Chad is a power mimic! And it is a sickening form of power too.

Can't copy the gadgeteer or wiz trait, good, that will give Vic the edge when he recovers. Chad scans and takes on Vic's appearance with plans to kill all of the other kids besides Day Dreamer in this form. Pretending to be injured like the one he inflicted on Vic, Chad would be a serial killer if given the chance.

Count Vic out, there is your first big mistake, Chad. A call from Ruben, Chad is caught up on the situation and Ruben is informed of what Chad did to Vic. Ruben says to off the kids, he doesn't care how just about the loot. Chad has to restart the generator and has to go downstairs to do so, why do I get the feeling that Cole will find him and realize it isn't Vic?

Saturday, December 24th - 7:42pm
Silent Mountain Base - Level 1 - Lounge - Raffina

Josh, you always make pantomime simple so others can understand it in these situations. Raffina was the first to think of using her phone's text feature to talk to each other. Josh is worried about Vic who is locked outside, Root is worried they are locked in, and Cole's messages didn't get through to Root, this keeps getting worse.

No internet and Root and Josh keep typing, erasing, and retyping their plans, Raffina gets impatient and goes to check what is going on. *eyes bug out* Raffina can create pools of darkness and pass through them anywhere there isn't sufficient light. Use the table to block the light, and in her transformed state goes through a portal to the upper floor, she is their ace here since the villains have no idea what she can do. Her shadow-imp form is impressive.

She gets through the door, but a red light on the other side banishes her portal as soon as she exits. Good to know she won't risk getting stuck in between due to light on the other side of a portal. Innate spells and it takes her a couple days to get her mana reserve full, interesting. Heh, I knew she was a thrillseeker, this is just the kind of rescue mission/to stop the bad guys she will love if she gets out of it intact.