Summary:A visit at the request of a friend brings some of the X-Men to their worst fears. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
     |
Scott had been approached about a pillar that needed to be checked. Something something magic stuff that he didn't understand. But he promised to help - so the one at North Brother Island was pointed to by Illyana.
"We're supposed to go in, gather what intel we can, and get back out again." It sounds like a cake walk mission. Or a milk run.
The Blackbird (no relation to Helena Wayne) descends in the darkness of the New York nighttime towards the long abandoned island. Scott decided to put them down in the courtyard that leads to the entrance of the hospital. The hospital itself is five stories tall, it's once neuvo-riche 1920s architecture long since in decay. The courtyard is covered in vines and plant life, birds taking flight that are disturbed from their roosts by the landing plane.
Everyone should be in uniform and Scott is the first one down the ramp as he checks the area and comes up to the doors of the hospital that are currently chained closed with a large and rusty lock.
Immediately, both Quinn and Jean will feel a heavy psychic 'white noise' in their head. It's hard to determine the location or what it is, but something here is giving some serious feedback that is scrambling their usually clear connection. Jean will find she has problems even with her 'always on' link with Scott.
Once landed, Hank cycles the engines down to a state that will allow a rapid-restart in case of an emergency and locks the systems and landing gear in place. "And we have arrived, please place your backrests and trays in their upright positions, and prepare to exit the plane." He even SOUNDS like a steward making an overhead announcement. For his own part he rises, and then waits to be the last one out the doors so he can seal the Blackbird (definitely no relation to Helena Wayne!) behind everyone and engage the security systems. Cake walk or not - security protocol will be followed!
Mirage looks a little weird, considering that her idea of a uniform is… well, she does have the uniform on, but it's underneath her Valkyrie armor and helm, which she's wearing, along with her sword. She glances over at Hank, "Well, this is a little odd going on a mission without Brightwind, but I don't think he'd fit in the plane." And well, in this case, there's probably going to be a lot of exploring indoors, which isn't the best spot for him anyway.
As she steps down the ramp and finds herself unable to establish a link among the team members, Jean glances over toward Quinn. Just in case it's just her. After all, it wouldn't be the first time her powers - especially the telepathy - acted up at an inconvenient time.
"Something's up on my end," she says in a low tone, looking to the others. "Quinn, can you establish a link?"
The uniforms were something left to be desired. The fit was alright for Quinn, but it was still annoyingly snug and it didn't allow her to carry the normal things that she would when she was out and about on the daily. That at least, was her train of thought as the blackbird landed, annoyance of the fit and the pocket that housed her cigarettes and lighter which made it all squished. There was a little eyeroll at Hank's joke, her buckle soon coming undone before she rises from her seat, making way after Scott down the ramp and following after, already picking out a cigarette and lighter, the cigarette tucked behind her ear and the lighter flicked lazily.
"Hoo.. I feel that." Quinn immediately says, glancing left and right, then towards the double doors.. and then up. Even though she didn't like nor appreciate the fact that Scott was team-lead, she was trying to do the Right Thing(tm) and not complain. "Nope." Quinn responds simply to Jean. But did she even -try-? "Not going to bother. If something's already trying to scramble our brain pans out here there ain't no use in fighting against it. Waste of goddamned time." Quinn looks up, then pops the cigarette into her mouth. "I'm going up. Meet you fu.. people in the middle." And with that, she launches herself into the air, then lands upon the rooftop with a lack of a heroic *thud*. And finally, thank the gods, her cigarette is lit.
As soon as Quinn lands on the roof - even with her lighter landing? It gives out /immediately/ and she goes straight through - what did she expect from flying up and landing on a roof that hasn't been maintained in over fifty years? She goes through the roof disappears into the building beneath.
"Quinn, wait!" Scott starts to call out - but it's too late, the pink-haired mutant is gone. "Dammit." he hisses as he uses a concentrated blast to break open the lock and as soon as he rips open the doors, something grabs him and he lets out a scream as he's yanked into the building - the last sound coming from him a garbled scream and a heavy blast of his visor.
Coming up to the door, on the other side of the entrance as it enters into the grand foyer - there's still traces of Scott's shot as it trails downwards, and carved into the desk below the broken admissions sign is the following message, carved into the paint and plaster:
https://pointsadhsblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/screenshot_1190.jpg
Up above on the fifth floor, Quinn lands in the middle of what looks to be the doctor's offices. The smell of mold and musk is thick, the leather furniture long since decayed.
That is until one of the couches stirs. The couch moves, and appears to take on a form. The creature is covered in a "blanket" of putrid skin, with the a human form trapped beneath the leather hide. The figure's arms and legs dange out the bottom of the couch, as if it had been slumped on it in mid-appointment. It moves on all fours, and the lower portion of the beast has the appearance of the couch as it starts to lumber towards Quinn, it's arms outstretched to her.
"And climbing stairs…" Hank shudders. "…murder for any equine, even one so august as your friend Brightwind, Mirage." Hank is a little nonplussed to hear that Jean's telepathy is having issues, however. A brow quirks up as Quinn declines to even try to establish a mind link. "Well." He watches the pink haired gir float up and non-superhero land on the roof…and then vanish /through/ it as it collapses.
Just as bad - when Scott blasts through the door and goes missing immediately.
Okay, THAT happened. THOSE happened, really.
"Marvel Girl…see if you can get height and spot what happened to Kid Omega. Mirage, you're with me, please." Hank advances towards the entrance, taking in the details as he waits for Jean's response.
So much for checking the comms!
"Scott, hold on, you're not going to make it any better if you-" Get snatched up before you can even get to Quinn. Like that.
Jean grimaces, but visibly steels herself, looking to Dani and Hank. "Check your comms, we're going to have to go mechanical," she orders tensely, thumbing the one in her ear as she fights back the urge to rush after Scott. "Test."
Only once the comms are confirmed will she take the next step. "No more splitting the party, Beast. Or rushing." Before they go inside, she creates a dome of telekinetic force around and above the remaining members of the team to keep them from getting jumped. "Cyclops," she calls out, tense. "Cyclops, Quinn, do you copy?"
Now would have been the time for a good ass snarky joke; but roof floor gives way before Quinn ever had a chance to touch down, her arms flopping upward into the air and losing her cigarette and lighter during the fall, quite possibly those two precious things landed onto the ground outside..
But the surprise and shock alone was enough for her to delay in cushioning her landing, the TK shield brought up beneath her feet to soften the hard land even though there was a sprain involved that would fix itself rightly soon. "Ooooww.. goddamn it.." She hisses, shaking her hands off and free of dust, coughing hard as she rolls onto her knees and then onto her two feet. She hops a little, hair band snatched from her wrist to tie her pink hair into a bun, a sneeze.. a cough.. then a turn ..
"What the fuck.." She mumbles as the thing begins to move, her hand pressing frantically to her ear.
"Guys.." She pauses. "..Hello?" Her bottom lip trembles, and her eyes begin to water. "..Why aren't you bi.. there's something in here with me and it's doing some mad Frankenstein walk and.." She looks all around, slowly begin to hop backwards. "..I'm in a room.. a hospital room.. hello?" By now she was smacking the side of her face. "If this is punishment for taking the high-ground I'm going to kill every last one of you.." Shuffle-shuffle..
Mirage stays next to Hank, drawing her sword as she checks her comm, "Testing…" She glances over at Beast, "Well, if Brightwind were here I could have gone after Quinn." She frowns, tilting her head as she thinks she hears, "Quinn… is that you on the comm? What's happening up there?" She glances over at Jean, looking concerned.
From Scott's comm there is silence, but Quinn's comments are coming through loud and clear. Up in the doctor's office, as she's trying to back away from the moving couch as it closes in on her, she'll realize it's not the only thing there. The door opens in the hallway, and what looks like should be a nurse appears.
It would be a nurse if it was in 'sexy nurse' clothing. She is wearing provocative attire, exposing large cleavage and sporting a miniskirt, the type of body that one wishes she could have.
Her head faces downward, appearing swollen and bloodied and covered in gauze, convulsing violently as they wobbles toward Quinn. Her only visible facial feature are their bloody, exposed jaws and teeth. The Nurse move in an awkward manner, her legs carrying her in a shaky and crooked fashion, appearing to be slow. Her faceh is bloodied through the gauze, as is the nose, as if her face has been smashed it; instead having what looks like a transparent film over the nose and surguical guaze on the jaws as if she had surgery. She also has a thin black spine coming out of the head and what appears to be large parasites on her back, as if seemingly feeding off of her.
As she approaches Quinn, she's holding what looks like a large syringe filled with a vile and disgusting liquid - a combonation of all the drugs that she was forced to take while in her coma, and when she tries to speak to Quinn, it comes out as a garbled screech of pain… and Quinn may notice the shock of red hair peeking out from under the nurses cap. The tag on her blouse reads 'Quire'.
Back in the main lobby, there's no immediate attack of anything upon the others. But they can hear it in the air. The screams, the moans, the cries of the damned, and then a voice, "We have the patient, prep him for surgery…"
They don't mean Scott, do they?
"Quinn, go back out the way you came in," Jean directs through the comms, keeping her voice calm. "Meet us back at the front door." One of the few benefits of having been doing this since she was just a kid - Jean has seen enough strange situations that she's pretty good at keeping her head.
She keeps the shield up around the group at the front door, holding off anything that might come after them. "Scott, if you can hear us, we're coming, okay? We're just being smart about it." Because if they aren't, he'll just yell at them for it later anyhow.
Unfortunately, it sounds like Scott is going to have the opportunity to yell at people, specifically at Hank and Danielle. "Jeanie, she's obviously freaking out, forgive us…we'll just be right back." A look to Danielle, and then he scoops her up as he knows Jean can fly, then leaps for the wall of the building to bound up the side of it until he finds the level Quinn is on. A tuck at that point so his back takes the brunt of his smashing them through the window, and he will land and set Dani off to the side. Blue eyes are WIDE when he sees what was freaking Kid Omega out, and then he does the only thing he can think of…he slaps her. "Get us Down To Jean, NOW Quinn." Okay, not the most diplomatic…nor is Jean likely to be happy at disobeyed orders, but…done is done.
Dani winces, "This is worse than that covert mission in Niflheim!" With that, she takes her sword and slams the flat of it into the back of the "nurse's" head! With that, she says, "Quinn, come on! We need to save Scott!" She looks decidedly angry now, apparently not liking the thought of fears coming to life.
Quinn was already shuffling back to the corner of the room, already a bit too freaked out to see reason. Reason that would say, 'Hey, just fly up and out of the building. In fact, just go home!' Nope, she picked up a rusted, metal pan and was ready to lob it right at the nurse who holds the vial. And just forget about the couch that was trying to hold her down. For-get-it!
While Quinn would have been -so- grateful to see Hank come to her rescue, and might have even thanked him for it.. he snaps her out of her mental reverie with a loud *SMACK*!
And then silence.
Her hand lifts to touch against her face, her delicately and undyed eyebrows lower into a scowl as she stares -UP- towards the blue monstrosity that is Hank with the fires that could set Goldilocks aflame. "Are you out of your goddamned mind?!" Quinn shrieks! "Do you NOT see those muther-.." Dani hits the nurse. "..THOSE mutherfuckers right there?!"
The silence meant that everything within the room stood still, not the X-Men, but the monstrosities, granted Dani's smack of the sword probably caused hell of a damage to Nurse Quinn, but.. everything else? Null. "You hit -ME-? But not -THEM-? Oooh, you fucking done it! You done did it! You wanna get down to Jean? You all wanna go save one-eyed crybaby FOOKIN' Willie? FINE!"
Her foot lifts (the good one), cranking her knee up towards her chest. If eyes were attuned to the way the flow of TK works, they could see the air simmering, wavering. She launches her TK-Clad foot towards the raggedy ass ground of the hospital floor they were on to send out a blast that could quite possibly rattle their noggins and clean their clocks! (But they were X-Men, totally better than that.. but that floor though..)
She stomped a hole big enough in the ground for them to fall through, hoping that blast will carry them four more levels down to the -first- floor, and probably behind Jean. Or on top of her. Quinn doesn't give a shit.
« Jean.. » it's weak, in Jean's head. It's coming from the basement. Pain, fear - he's scared, worried. She can feel it, it washes over her like so much of him has when it comes to his feelings and Scott's thoughts on her. It's a desperate, obviously should have been much louder cry. There's no telling what's happening to Scott down below.
She can feel the other thoughts. Abandoned. Again. This time by the woman to claims to love him. Are they his thoughts? They're jumbled, confused. Something's happening - she can't pinpoint it - but there's another rush of pain, and Jean can feel that pain in her belly.
Birth, rebirth - their children? The flame - it consumes all. The future, it consumes him. Does she only want to be with him because of the claim of children of the future? He's not strong enough. Not good enough.
Upstairs, Dani will find that the nurse is very squishy as she lashes out at it. But there's that couch person thing that they didn't deal with. It grabs the Valkyrie by the arm. And when it does, Dani can feel it. She's no longer a Valkyrie. She's not worthy. Brightwind is being taken away. Her sword is rusting in her hands. And there those hands. All of those that she should have promised Vahallah to, they're reaching through the floor boards, grabbing and ripping at her uniform - the voices of the damned - how many of them are here? In this building. The unwashed. The unworthy. The unbloodied and sullied. They all start to claw and pull, trying to drag the woman down with them.
How much of it can Hank take? Slapping Quinn. Now Jean and Dani are in trouble. Scott's missing. It's just him. Let go, it would be so easy. To go into his /primal/ urges and lash out. Just like he did to Quinn.
Then Quinn collapses the floor around them. They all tumble, they all fall, crashing, crumbling, dust, debris, all types of ruined and rot thrown up by Quinn as they crash through the next - and the next - the express elevator that Quinn has put them on.
They crash through the ground floor, near where Jean is - and into the basement. A glow eminates from there, bright.
Operating lights?
Jean can feel the fear all around her. But the thing is, she's felt fear most of her life. The Professor literally walled off parts of her mind to keep that fear from consuming everyone around her, including herself. So when it comes to fear, she has a lot of practice at pushing it away.
"Guys, report-" But before she can finish the check-in, the rest of the team is plummeting through the ceiling, bits of debris bouncing off the shield around her. For a moment, it seems as though they might slip through her fingers so to speak, before she manages to get a solid telekinetic grasp on them.
"Everyone intact?" she calls down, starting to float herself down as well. "Pretty sure Cyclops is this way, and not doing great."
Okay, angry is good…angry at HIM..not so much. "Quinnyou were LOSING it." Hank says reasonably in the face of her outrage. "Now if you-AWWwwp!" Yeah, she's getting them down stairs quick and dirty, even below what they were aiming for. Instinct prompts him to grab for both ladies, and keep them properly oriented, if it is a factor and making sure he's the one who hits the ground first…and on his feet!
"Jeanie…SHIELDS!" Even as he suggest it, he focuses his will on his own shielding and takes stock. He fights the urge to surrender, to give in - that's about the worst possibly tack to take with Hank, he's about drive, determination and above all else — HOPE.
Dani barely had time to scream when the hands took her, as the doubt and fear came crashing down on her. Just like the Demon Bear, making her weak and helpless. But then two things happened. First, Quinn blew out the floor and send them all tumbling down. Which helped Dani remember…
She Beat the Demon Bear.
She IS Worthy.
And whoever these jokers were, they were going to taste real Fear, as Dani slowly picked herself up from the floor, her armor and uniform taking most of the impact. "Alright. I don't know who these creeps are… but they are going to pay." She sheathes her sword, instead manifesting her psychic energy into a bow as she nocks an 'arrow', looking back and forth.
The four find themselves in the operating theatre. In the middle of the room is a large pillar, currently shielded against what's trying to attack it.
The creature that's attacking it looks like something straight out of an Eldritch horror. The bloated, twisted what may have been human corpse is splayed out on what was a gurney. Screaming and twisted, the woman currenly has one of her hands wrapped around Scott's head and is ripping the very life force away from the young man as he struggles and fights - his own visor being used against him to prevent him from using his eye beams, because his hand can't grab the control on the side.
The creature turns to face the oncoming heroes and she opens her mouth in a scream - and hundreds of moths pour out of her maw, filled with sharp teeth. The moths fly at them, and where they land, it's much like getting stung by an oversized mosquito. They bite, taking blood, life force, drawing on them as the creature continues to try to finish off Scott to work on attacking the others.
Whoo! That was a fun ride! Yes, Quinn was angry. Quinn was pissed! She was ready to go full Death Wish (Bruce Willie's version) on -everything- in this place! These are the thoughts as she falls, by the way! But that little TK buffer that was offered to them stopped their descent, and soon Quinn was wriggling her way out of Hank's grasp. Her body was patted down, pockets.. and with another stomp of her foot she lets out a hiss. "My FOOKIN' cigarettes.."
And then theres this. The monstrosities and the need to have that cigarette right fucking now. Thankfully, Quinn managed to take a pee before they left; the one idea that her parents instilled in her that really counts. Her teeth soon grit, and soon she was stepping in front of them all to smack her hands together, spreading them out at her sides to erect a pink, translucent shield with the hopes to try to stop them from being attacked..
..but if the moths attack her shields.. they'd be eating her own lifeforce as well.. "Try not to hit me this time!" That goes for everyone!
Jean's brows furrow slightly at Hank's shout, but she doesn't question it. She always has some level of shielding up - it's a natural side effect of being a telepath. But at Hank's call, she slams more of her will into the shields, trying to block out whatever might be feeding into these things.
"I'll take left, you take right, Quinn," she calls to the other psychic, erecting her own dome of force. At least if they split the damage they might make it to Scott. "Everyone advance together, stick close to us. Mirage, you take that thing's damn arm off when we get to Scott."
Mirage grits her teeth, "Way ahead of you, Jean." With that, she starts shooting psychic arrows at the Abomination. They normally paralyze foes or psychically damage them through fear, but what they do to something like this…
Well, only one way to find out!
Having hopefully taken the brunt of the fall, Hank releases both Quinn and Dani with alacrity! And honestly - her outrage, he's actually a little guilty for slapping Quinn! Oh well, they'll make up later, or not.
Regardless, he grunts at the bites from the death moths that attack. Moving with the group, Hank takes out, of all things, a leatherman's tool, and when it comes time - he will hurl it. Not at the beast, nope, at the actuator control on Scott's visor. He helped build it! He knows it won't be all that precise, but if he can — well — ANYTHING is going to probably be bad for the monster.
And possibly too much—-might be bad for them all! Ah well, you have to take chances, right?
The moths attack the TK shields thrown up by the two women - it hurts - they can feel the pull on their life force by the the creatures as they strike against the pair, like driving through a swamp in the middle of the night, they splatter and strike.
Hank's throw strikes against the side of the visor, knocking it slightly askew, but it doesn't manage to activate the blast - which means either Hank missed - or Scott's in bad shape.
When Dani lunges forth, the creature tries to whip around another arm - tentacles - all the tentacles, lash out to try to grab at the woman, small hooks on the inside of the tenacle lashing out to pierce the skin and try to draw the woman's lifeforce.
The arrows as they strike, are having an effect - Dani's able to get in some good damage before the tentacle lashes out at her - but apparently the creature needs to be rended apart to finish it.
"We don't have time for this. Scott doesn't have time for this." Jean's eyes flash, and the shield on her side of them flickers as she pushes her mind and her energy into something else. Her telepathy is restricted, but she's always favored her telekinesis. And when she lets go?
The tendrils of Jean's mind sink into the monster, focused on the shoulder of the arm that's holding Scott captive. And as soon as she has a grip, she tears it away.
Mirage draws her blade and cuts at the tentacle that tries to grab her, the barbs scratching against her armor as she shouts, "I am a shieldmaiden of Asgard, and I will not be stopped by the likes of you!" She pauses, then looks at the abomination, using the powers she rarely uses. The power of Fear.
"What, are you afraid of?" And with that, she projects her fear-powers onto the abomination, hoping to incapacitate it.
"You know, there are whole schools of philosophy aimed at turning an opponent's strength against them, or redirection of an attack - mostly in martial arts of course, but much of these same tactics can be used in other arenas, Sun Tzu' Art of War, or Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings, both have many outside applications, often employed in business." Hank's tone is almost…pleasant. "Well, THIS business…" He is disappointed at the results of the toss, he expects that Scott is that far gone, and that irks him mightily.
Finding the 'crossover' point of the layered shields, Hank leaps through in a mighty bound, muscles capable of lifting over twenty-thousand pounds with relative ease propelling several hundred pounds of meat and sinew and furry anger at the monster feeding on his friend.
And with a howl of pure animal rage he DROPS HIS SHIELDS. "…this business is OVER." He lets the urge to cut loose take sway, and focuses that fury and seething animalistic rage into his attack!
All risk. No reward.
Everyone was on the move; Dani fights with the grace of a true Valkyrie, Jean's mind mojo seems to be doing the trick. And finally, at long last, Quinn gets to see Hank let his freak flag fly and go apeshit on the monstrosities. This was fantastic, this was amazing! Quinn's new mood matches the joyous tone that Hank had before as she begins to laugh with glee.
"Fuck yeah!" She hollars out, attempting to hip check Jean out of the way so that she could take over with the shields. Shield's that seemingly grow bigger as Quinn leaves herself open to attack, bending forward in attempts to encompase and capture the moths that attack into a large bubble. A large bubble that wasn't shot away, but just held there until they're dissipated.
"Hank, I owe you fifteen chili dogs my man!"
There's a sickening noise of rending and ripping flesh and bending metal - before - SCHLURP! - Jean rips the arm off that has Scott held in check. He crumples to the floor in apile as the others are on the attack, finally. There comes the strikes from Dani as the creature screeches and screams, flailing about as it lashes out at everyone with tentacles and tendrils - striking at those that are not shielded.
Then Hank slams into it and the creature roars, as it's brought low and finally, it twitches and collapses, the massive form of the combined.. whatever that thing was and metal becoming a mess of ichor, flesh, and metal as the pillar remains standing in the middle of the room. Strong, shielded - protected from the creatures that attacked it by the newly arrived heroes. It seems this pillar will be safe.
Once the monster is down, Jean hurries to Scott's side, kneeling next to him and trying once more to establish the mental link that will let her know he's okay. "Eyes closed," she cautions, checking the status of his visor first. Because even if he was dying, he'd beat himself up about causing any damage he didn't mean to.
"Everyone else in one piece?" she asks as she does, listening for check-ins.
Dani sheathes her sword, then pauses, lips curling in a slight smile, "He'll be okay, Jean. He's not dying." Because, well, she would know. Then she flashes a grin at Quinn, "Nice work, by the way. Especially against a freakshow like this. Does… um, this happen often here?" She takes a few steps towards the pillar, looking at it curiously.
It actually takes Hank a few moments to get control again, he doesn't let the anger out often, and in this case it was being boosted!
After a time spent, beating on a wall slowly, cracking cement as he pants with rage, Hank slowly recovers his wits.
Sanity returns to eyes gone orange, and now blue again. "I…Scott…how is everyone?" His voice is rough, sandpapery, all that screaming after all.
He moves over, not quite able to meet anyone's gaze, and will gently pick Scott up if nobody else has. Let the brute do the brute work, right?
Quinn was totally okay. Fine. She was great. Worn out, could use a nap, little bit of marijuana and a orange Crush, but she was totally okay. "In one piece." She states, dropping that large orb that she made, rubbing her hands together as she looks around at the area with a frown. "Thanks, Dan-da-man.." She mutters, then looks back to her and shrugs. "I don't know but.." She lifts herself into the air, making her way to the first floor. "I'm gonna go smoke. Then I'm coming back to rob this place blind. -Then- I'm going to level -the- fuck out of it." Yup, Quinn, despite the laughter, was still a little butt hurt.
"Need a goddamned nap.." Is the last thing that was heard coming from her.. for now at least.
« Cold. » it comes to Jean's head - Scott's connection to her is back. But he's in no condition to do much else. The visor is going to need repair - it's pretty damaged. There's numerous marks on his face where the creature dug it's claws into him, but he's recovering - his hand grips Jean's and then releases when Hank picks him up.
« Pillar's safe. WAND said not to touch. » that comes from somewhere above him - and he's not protesting it at the moment to push his luck. For now? Sleep. Sleep sounds good. Or just being near Jean.
Jean doesn't breathe out until she gets a response from Scott, then nods to Hank to take him.
"So," she says as she stands. "What did we all learn about rushing in?"
Dani smiles over at Jean, "Well, I think we learned that maybe instead of an optic blast to shatter chains, let the Valkyrie with the sword that cuts through about anything do it instead. Since she was also wearing armor too." She winks, then nods, "Also, never split the party. But I learned that playing D&D back on the Rez." A bit of a grin as she then pats Hank on the arm, giving the big guy a comforting look as she then directs back to Jean, "Now, um, since we aren't going to be devoured by our own fears and existential terrors, can we please get out of here?"
"All is well, Scott. I think we found if not /the/ target, at least one of interest." Hank's voice is still a bit rough and there's one good thing about wearing his costume, less GUNK on his fur! Ugh. So gross right now. He'll NEVER feel clean again. The injuries he sustained - yeah, he's just going to sleep in a tub of disenfectant tonight with a rebreather, just in case.
Hank nods then in agreement with much, possibly all, of what Dani has to say. "Anyone remember where we parked?" No, not his wittiest repartee, but…at least he's trying. Some might say very trying, but well, yeah.
Getting out of here is a great idea. And hey, nothing ate the Blackbird. So they'll be able to make it home. Just a little worse for the wear.
And you know. Nightmare Fuel.