10514/Secret of the Sisters: Return to Alchemax

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Secret of the Sisters: Return to Alchemax
Date of Scene: 19 March 2022
Location: New York State - Alchemax Labs
Synopsis: The Outsiders and Deadpool move to infiltrate Alchemax only to find Gabby's missing sister already broke in. In the ensuing chaos, a new, unexpected threat is released. The dead puppeted but aware of what went on? What horrors is up with this Project Ryker they discovered?
Cast of Characters: Gabby Kinney, Laura Kinney, Wade Wilson, Conner Kent, Jonathan Sims, Tim Drake, Rebecca Ryker




Gabby Kinney has posed:
Alchemax. New York State. Upstate? Somewhere. It wasn't the most rural area but it was well away from the city in what might amount to an 'industrial location' given the occasional warehouse, shipping facility, or other such large expansive places around. A bit further out from them down a beat up gravel road with plenty of signs warning of 'Danger' 'Private Property' and 'Keep Off or Face Prosecution' brings the team to what looked once like a rather large series of buildings. They'd seen better days --- All that appeared to be left behind the chain link fence with further trespassing warnings were the burnt remnants of what had been here.

Buildings still stood with sooted windows blacked out. Brick crumbled in areas, and some simply had walls fallen in completely. It looked as if nothing was here still. Yet Deadpool's intelligence had found an odd lack of notation about this area. Nothing in, nothing out, not even mention of the fire that occured in the papers. This place was scrubbed from the collective memory of the world as much as it could be.

Yet there was still activity here upon inspection. The roads were cleared of debris. There were military-styled jeeps parked around, and an obvious array of very alive and well cameras situated at various points. Even the electric lines still ran into the dilapitated structure--And binoculars would prove they were run THROUGH the buildings down below. Something was still here underneath the fire hazards left seemingly untouched.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura Kinney is hardly known for whimsy at the best of times. But there are some situations which make her get /serious/. Trying to end the world? Mild annoyance. Threaten her little sister? There really isn't any point running. She'll find you and it won't be pretty.

So for a raid on Alchemax she's come loaded for bear. A belt with two revolvers so large they'd make Dirty Harry blush and mutter something about overcompensating. And a tube slung over her shoulder that those in the know might recognise as an M72 LAW. A single shot anti-tank weapon.

Her outfit is the standard X-23 issue charcoal grey pants & a t-shirt. No protective value but stealthy and easy to move in.

"I assume we're expecting heavy resistance?" She asks over the comms. Having picked out a spot downwind so she can sniff for intel. "They seem to have pretty good camera coverage."

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Deadpool is loaded for bear. Between the twin katanas on his back, the twin heavy pistols at his hips and the numerous throwing knives and grenades (some meant as explosives, others as determents and distractions) he looks as though he expects more than a little resistance from whatever is inside the dilapidated but not abandoned complex. He peers through a pair of binoculars at the place for a moment and then replaces the tool back into his hip pouch.

    "I spy with my little eye something that begins with the letter H" he says, to absolutely no one in particular. "If you guessed Hidden Base. Congratulations, you win a prize." He had managed to procur a comm from Gabby (at some point) for this particular operation.

    "Oh. We're expecting resistance alright. As for coverage?" he slides a katana from his back and unholsters one of the guns. "I think I can get all of them on me if I go out there and do what I do best. That should let the rest of you get inside with issue."

    He pauses and then sighs. "I'll do my best not to kill anyone if people are going to get offended at that sort of thing." He knows who he is working with and their particular stance on the K word, even if he himself finds it an absolutely silly notion. "Just give the word and yours truly can be the distraction of the year."

Conner Kent has posed:
"Are we going to be stealthy or..." Conner eyes the LAW Laura is carrying. And if the K word is not a thing (it is not!) someone is carrying too much C4 and too little ICER. Again.

He glances Tim. He usually has plans. Which don't involve destroying everything most times. "Hey, if there is something or someone in there that can really hurt you guys, and cause you won't be okay in a minute, let me handle it before starting with the anti-tank weapons, okay?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I might be able to make a couple of people invisible if we need to get past the cameras, but not all of us." Jon murmurs this into the comms as he peers at the facility with mystical Sight. Nothing to see that way, but it's a good idea to check, just in case. The one time he /doesn't/ is going to be the one time the mad scientists turn out to also have magical traps. "Could work with a distraction, I suppose."

    He frowns, briefly. "What are we going to do with them all, arrest them?" If there's anyone the Archivist is willing to outright kill, it's mad scientists who experiment on children. He's wearing SHIELD-issue tactical gear though it doesn't have any identifiying marks, carrying an oddly-curved sword and an ICER. Well, he /can/ disable the people in there if that's the plan.

Tim Drake has posed:
    With Gabby safe in the care of the Outsiders' medical officer and co-chair of the team morale and party planning committee (AKA, Phoebe) there's no further need for monitoring her vitals. And yet Tim has them up in the corner of his HUD with the rest of the team. Just for peace of mind.

    He doesn't move his gaze from the surveillance footage from the Outsiders jet currently being displayed on the hard-light projection from his left gauntlet. "We're here to find a cure, not wage war." Yes, Red Robin is one of those people with big K-word issues. When Conner looks over at him, Tim's chin finally lifts.

    After a moment, he shakes his head and sighs. "All the same, there's a very real possibility of someone on the inside initiating some sort of memory dump if they realize we're here for their experimental data," he says. "We need to hit them hard and fast, cause as much chaos as possible, and sneak inside before they have any idea what we're doing."

    For hard and fast, nods are given to both Superboy and X-23.

    Chaos? Well, it's probably no surprise Red Robin's attention shifts to Deadpool for that.

    That leaves the sneaking for the Archivist and himself. "I have several anonymous tips ready to be sent in, as soon as we're done here. Once we're out, there will be no less than five alphabet agencies converging on this location in under an hour. They can sort out the legal details."

    Coming to stand next to Jon, Tim folds his arms over the armor plating protecting his chest. He looks to the others. "So, who wants to go walk up to the front door and knock? I'll let the three of you decide amongst yourselves."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Whatever survellience that was around was apparently not sufficient to pick up the jet that had brought the team in. So far it's relatively quiet. Even the patrol Jeeps lay dormant with no one in sight. Not a single soul. It really would seem completely vacant if not for the scents that carry to Laura's sensitive nose through the air. There were people here inside somewhere. Recently at that. Along with it all, perhaps harder for the mutant to pick out, was a scent all too familiar: Her own.

To the Archivists senses this place was as magically dead as anything could be. Science ruled here.

The front of the building where the road led seemed the worst approach, yet most obvious if a distraction was needed. It's the side of the building with it's one wall knocked down that may offer the best entrance inside, provided there wasn't a secondary building just out of sight.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura pats the tube slung over her shoulder. "I have a portable doorbell," she says with a certain level of grim satisfaction. "It'll work just as well on the walls too."

She takes another sniff of the air. "Combat boots, gun oil and cleaning chemicals. This is the right place all right."

"Orders confirmed. Beginning infiltration." She takes a few steps back, then sprints and leaps off the roof. Landing and immediately rolling to absorb some of the bone crunching force. Then rising up fluidly into a silent sprint. Darting from cover to cover as she goes.

Her enhanced senses allow her to hear the humming of wires and the motion of security cameras. And with her training it's easy enough to pick out a path which'll get her as close as possible before anyone can detect her. And because she knows what groups like Alchemax are like she takes special are to look for the telltale signs of buried landmines. You can never be too careful....

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Deadpool, figuring Red Robin's question is enough of a cue as any, strolls forward. "But what do we do if the thing that can hurt us is made of glowy green rocks, oh Boy o' Super?" Wade asks in response to Conner's commentary. He is whistiling (naturally) and stops in sight of -at least- five cameras. "Maximum effort, DP. Maximum effort. This is for Gabs," he mutters to himself before looking up at the (not exactly) abandoned lab.

    "Hey!" he calls out to the building. "I'm trying to find a hidden brothel called 'Just the Tip.' Is this the place? I've got some itches that need scratching and I think some hairy beasts, maybe a Wolvering or a Sabertooth Cat might be able to do the trick.

    "Just in case you think I haven't brought enough money..." he holsters the gun, and pulls out a small spherical grenade from the back of his belt. It's not a pineapple, but the damage is just as noticeable. "I got a down payment right here." With a flick of his thumb he pulls the pin and waves at the closest camera with three fingers, holding down the release with his index finger and thumb. "Open sesame..." he says a smile on his face under the mask.

Conner Kent has posed:
"Well, hmm... then maybe we should know out the power right away," comments Conner. He can take out the power lines in a second, but there will be UPS units, maybe even an independent generator.

Glowy green rocks. He facepalms. "Actually, those are pretty rare and very expensive in the black market. Most bad guy groups and corporations don't have it unless maybe they operate in Metro, and even so only the best connected and wealthy have some of it."

And Deathstroke. Because Deathstroke is a jerk.

Anyway! Laura goes stealthy and Deadpool goes Deadpool-ish. Conner struggles not to laugh as he flies up and lands on the rooftop of the largest building, letting his tactile telekinesis spread over walls and floors, to attempt to map the whole building.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon visibly relaxes at Red Robin's assertion that he'll be calling in the authorities once they're done here. He doesn't really /want/ to start killing people, even if he's willing. As Laura goes in, he unholsters his ICER and holds it at an angle. Deadpool walks /right/ on up to the place and Jon has to stifle a groan. 'Just the Tip,' really?

    By the time pins are being pulled on grenades, he's reached out into thin air and pulled the concept of /invisibility/ out of the Astral Plane. He wraps that around himself and Red Robin, so the pair of them will be unseen as they move in to infiltrate the place. Then he starts to move toward the building, as silently as he can manage. He'll stick near Red Robin, following the familiar mental imprint.

Tim Drake has posed:
    That Red Robin somehow manages to keep a straight face through the running commentary being piped into his ear from Deadpool's borrowed comm-unit is, really, a testament to Batman's training. Though the way he faintly tilts his head towards Jon has a sort of long-suffering angle to it.

    Once the Archivist's astral invisibility settles over him, Tim gives a brief shake of his arms as if to rid himself of the initial sensation.

    Then he's on the move. It's just common sense to give the area Deadpool has sauntered over into a wide berth, and he avoids the direction Laura's gone off in too. Instead he moves to take an extra-wide approach so that he and the Archivist can come in from the flank, hopefully to take any opportunity to sneak in an open door that might present itself.

    "<<Doubtful that they have any kryptonite, but I'll keep an eye on the radiation levels. If they're sloppy with their handling, I might be able to pick up on it.>>"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The rooftop provides an entirely different view of the building. There was most definitely a fire at some point. It was quite awhile ago so the scent of smoke had faded until you were right up on it. Some things just couldn't be washed clean. They hadn't even tried. From the roof however, where the wall breaks away it's easy to see inside. There's a dim red glow of emergency lights likely leading to the hidden base below. It's impossible to see from the road, but above and as close as they were, it was easy for Laura to make it out. There's even the figure of a guard there currently slumped against the wall apparently asleep on the job -- Or potentially dead as the scent of blood reaches Laura's nose from her perch. It's the first warning that something may already have gone on here or be going on here.

Superboy's own approach to the roof allows him a good mapping of the building. Beyond the crumbling walls, on one of the interior walls still intact, there's a door with stairs down guarded by at least two more figures. Unmoving. On the floor.

Deadpool's distraction earns nothing but the confused chirrup of nearby crickets whose evenings he disturbed by walking past. He's left to stand there with arm held in the air with that grenade for several long, agonizing moments. Just as it seems there will be no response at all the distant sound of gunfire inside the building can be heard, and an alarm starting it's clarion wail. Just as abruptly some guards come charging through the front door guns unholstered to fire back -at- the building. "GET OUT MOVE IT MOVE--OH ... Shit."

The leader of the charge skids to a halt at the sight of Deadpool while one of his men crashes into him behind sending them ass over tea kettle. A few stray shots are let loose in the fracas whizzing by Deadpool's head just barely missing. Another cracks into the concrete beside his feet.

It's not the only place soldiers run out from. Where the walls break down several bolt going for the Jeeps unaware of their misfortune at running right toward Red Robin, and the Archivists' location. They were sitting targets for those on the roof as well. These men were clearly fleeing someone from within that had beaten the team to this location. Someone, or something.

Laura Kinney has posed:
The nose knows something is up. It pretty much always knows. The smell of blood and gunshot residue. Someone certianly seems to have started the party without them. Still it means no-one is going to be thinking about securing the data. Not if they're running for their lives.

Knowing there is danger ahead doesn't make X-23 slow down. If anything she speeds up. No need to be sneaky now.

But to be prepared her arms sweep out wide with that trademark SNIKT. Ready to swat incoming gunfire from the air or to go toe to toe with whatever is inside.

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Deadpool blinks at the soldiers, or guards, or whatever these men are perform slapstick gags in front of him. Complete with live fire. Fun. He tosses the grenade behind him where it hits the packed earth with a hollow metallic sound. "What?" he says to absolutely no one. "You didn't thinK I was going to use a baseball grenade, did you? How am I supposed to use the phrase 'I'm here to lay some pipe' if my artillery isn't pipe based?"

    He turns his attention back to the men and unholsters one of the guns. "So... fleeing the scene huh?" he asks. "How we going to do this? I let you go and you live to evil another day. Or I shoot each of you in the kneecaps and you can get captured by whoever shows up next." He waves the gun around absently, ignoring trigger protocol with incredible disdain.

    "I've got no truck with any of you apart from the fact that you work for people who like to use kids for experiments..." he says, still waving the gun as he talks. "My business is with them and--I imagine--whatever it is you are running from. So... skeddadle or make me waste..." he starts counting. "Maybe a clip. Maybe two, depending on if luck is with me. I'm thinking two since Dom isn't here."

    Does he -ever- shut up? No. No he doesn't.

Conner Kent has posed:
"I scan two guards in the ground level, but they seem unconscious or dead. Stairs down there," mutters Conner on the coms. He really shouldn't have bothered whispering, as two seconds later some guards come running and shooting. "Well, I guess just in time for the breakout?"

Or maybe for a distraction. Conner punches the rooftop, and then dives down, flying through the floors until he reaches the fallen guards and the staircase down. Then he spares a second to check if the guards are alive, dead or needing immediate medical help.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Maybe the fleeing guards aren't going to bother securing the data, but whoever or whatever got there first might just be there for the same reason. So Jon mostly ignores the men running out of the building as he and Tim take that wide berth, instead opting to take the opportunity of the men fleeing /out/ to take their point of exit as a way /in/.

    He doesn't bother dropping the invisibility cloak, so it's pretty easy to trip up any guards that get between them and their entry point. "<<Any idea what might be inside?>>" he asks over the comms. "<<Who might have the same idea we did?>>"

Tim Drake has posed:
    The sudden uptick in activity from the facility gives Red Robin pause, sure. Though he's quick to make the decision to keep moving, despite every indication that someone else got here first, and may be an even bigger threat than what the team was expecting from Alchemax.

    Though even that was an unknown, going in. The possibility of further human experimentation leaves a lot of room for surprises.

    "<<Until we have eyes on whatever they're running from, proceed with caution.>>"

    He has no answer for Jon, so he only shakes his head. Then immediately realizes the Archivist won't be able to see that, so instead he responds with, "<<No idea.>>"

    While Deadpool threatens the guards who have just run out through the front door, Tim slips in through it, hugging the walls to keep out of the way of any further potential foot traffic.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The guards that Laura and Conner come across are dead. Bloodied, and dead from apparent gunshots. It almost seems as if they aimed at each other but surely that wasn't the case. On the stairs down are more bodies cluttered in the corners as they made a stand and lost. The further down, the more bodies just litter the hallways, but it seems the level they're looking for is only down two flights at least.

Red Robin and the Archivist enter to find more bodies as before. Some still twitching but most unmoving. Dead, or close enough to it that it's going to halt their mission to stop and check. The hall they find leads to the singular staircase down where Conner, and Laura, are headed.

The men near Deadpool pause at the sight of him and scamper to their feet. One goes so far as to blurt, "Fuck this place I quit!" as he runs off at a mad dash not caring anymore. The others look at each other, then nod quickly. "Wouldn't go in there..." But that's all they offer. They were clearly stragglers that only made it by hiding until they could run. It seems a small group had survived whatever onslaught led to the others littering the hallways.

Down into the depths the emergency lights are active, flickering and swirling red hazard lights. It's a clear path down rows of doors. Some with chemical mixing tables, some with weapons currently being worked on. It's further in toward the heart that it becomes clear where the real computer systems lie. Everything was marked to be easily found: Chem Testing, Weapons, Munitions, Computers. Bio.

Laura Kinney has posed:
"We can't let whatever is doing this out," Laura notes over comms. Clearly reluctant to get side-tracked from the mission. "Red Robin should we move to intercept?"

There's no pause while she talks. She heads into danger at breakneck combat speed. Leaping one flight of stairs, kicking off the wall, and then whirling to throw herself down the next with wild abandon.

Once she's actually inside.. Well it's pretty clear from the signs where the danger is going to be. Munitions, computers and chemicals don't usually chase people out of a building. Weapons... Well given the origins of Alchemax that could mean all sorts of things.

She listens for potential danger and of course sniffs the air. Fresh blood has a distinctive tang she could track in her sleep.

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Deadpool smiles as the guards flee and he considers shooting out a few of their knees just for funsies but decides better and moves on in at a brisk jog. It doesn't take him log to catch up to the back of the crew. "Ooh... this looks like fun" he says, eyeing the bodies. "I'm going to guess we might have to face some horribly crazed experiment. Hopefully it's not an Omega Red clone. Those are -the worst-."

    He holsters the gun again and draws his other katana. Close quarters calls for melee in his case. He's a professional at least. <<X-23. what does your mutant nose smell?>> he says over the comms. He had to get the line in somehow, didn't he? <<Anything familiar in the air? Like say... Honey Badger's sister?>>

    Even as he slows his pace to a steady, cautious crawl his eyes dart around for any sudden movements; any sign of immediate danger.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner waits for the others before going down, taking point and keeping a hand on the wall to scan ahead with the TT. "Computer systems ahead, I think, Robin. They are working, can't say if they have been purged."

No one alive here? "Maybe we should have asked one of the guards about what happened here. I guess someone attacked or something broke out. Chances are whatever it was it is still around." He looks at Laura, "anything you can hear or smell?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon closes his mystical sight after the first couple of dead bodies. No need to stare at that too much, and though he hesitates at a couple of the twitching bodies he's aware that the amount of blood in the place makes it unlikely anyone survived.

    He drops the invisibility on himself as he catches up with the others, and he'll do the same for Tim if he joins them. He frowns between the various doors, considering, then looks to Laura for her report.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Despite very clearly walking into the depths of a horror film in the making, Red Robin doesn't let it affect his pace. The scans from his domino mask are faster than stopping to check for a pulse on any of the nearly-dead bodies that he passes by, which he'd otherwise be tempted to do.

    But there's no time for that. "<<Let's identify them at the very least, X-23.>>" He hesitates to actually give the order to engage, especially if it is indeed one of Gabby's sisters down here with them. "<<Copy, SB. I'll make for the computer bank, see what I can download.>>" He pauses, a quick skip in his step, when he feels the invisibility fall. Which is obvious, given that he can look down and now see himself.

    Which is, frankly, reassuring. Tim's much more used to standard stealth methods rather than having to contend with magical invisibility. Even if it makes the job much easier.

    Is it a good idea for him to split off from the group? Maybe. Maybe not.

    Still, that's what he's doing, though Tim does pause at some signage on the wall. "<<Might be worth checking out the bio-lab too while we're here. Could be the source of all this chaos.>>"

    Not on comms, he hums to himself and mutters, "The call is coming from inside the house!"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Contrary to how it may seem there's no signs of someone or something breaking out of any of the labs. The chaos only gets worse closer to the computer rooms. Even Superboy can feel that there's damage in there. One wall took a hit from something, potentially artillery, and a few large computer racks are tipped over onto the floor. And the room was large.

The gunfire begins again. Slow, steady shots from behind the computer room door. Not many fighting, perhaps a handful, attempting to take one another out. the majority smells of a men wearing the same tactical gear as the ones that lay around. The other smelled distinctly like Laura herself.

Through the door are rows upon rows of computer servers in this room. A few tipped over, most standing tall. The perfect hiding place for the shooters. Those still-active computers pulse for one moment with light. Then with a loud BANG the power goes out sending them offline in one go. The only light left is the eerie red glow of the emergency lights. One soldier calls out, "CLOSE IN!" Loudly causing several soldiers to step out from between the racks with guns drawn. A horrible time to walk in.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura Kinney tilts her head. Sniffs. Then sniffs again.

"I think we have company," she subvocals into comms. "And it smells very much like me. So prepare for extreme danger incoming."

When the lights go out it barely seems to slow X-23. She's as used to operating in pitch blackness as broad daylight. Using sound and scent to guide her towards the Kinney smell.

Perhaps, if they're lucky, she'll run into the missing sister. More likely it's going to be a mass produced mindless killing machine on a rampage though....

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Deadpool has nods as X-23 gives a report and rolls his shoulders. As the lights go out he makes a sound of amusement. The red glow of the emergerncy lights all does more to mask his place than darkness could. Letting him blend in with his surroundings relatively well, all things considered.

    As the soldiers move into place with weapons drawn he a smirk creeps into his voice. "Guns. Always with guns. After a while, you'd think they'd realize that those don't work on us with healing factors too well" he says. "Well... bring it..." he says almost invitationally.

    Is he hoping to draw fire so the others can dispatch the soldiers non-lethally? Why yes. Yes, he is. Besides, what's a bullet going to do him? He's been shot too many times to count by now. A few more temporary holes aren't going to bother him none.

Conner Kent has posed:
Hey, it is Conner's work to draw fire in this team. "Are all you guys with regenerating masochistic?" He is bullet-proof, you know? So, he tries to stand in front of the gunners, disarming those who come too close. "Because, really. I'd say getting shot so much should hurt some," he adds. "Not that I have a lot of experience with getting shoot-shoot, mind you. But it happened once or twice. It hurts like a bitch. Not as bad as getting stabbed with Kryptonite... but yeah."

If he manages to grab one of the guards, he pushes him (or her against a wall) to keep him from getting shoot. "What is going on? Have you been attacked?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon isn't looking gift tanks in the mouth. Particularly not /two/ of them. "I think you have to be a little masochistic to court danger when you can regenerate," he comments; he ought to know. He's neither as tough nor as likely to survive as Deadpool or Superboy, so he'll let them draw the fire.

    Instead, he pulls up his mystic Sight again to use it as a sort of night vision, aiming his ICER at the non-familiar auras and shooting the people trying to shoot at them. Hopefully these are normal types who are susceptible to the dendrotoxin in ICER bullets or that's going to be a waste of a clip.

Tim Drake has posed:
    If Conner and Wade are running defense while Laura and Jon are making an offensive push, then... Tim has lost the thread of this metaphor. Unsurprising. Sportsball has never been something he's cared much for. But he takes advantage of the low light conditions to get himself into place amidst the computer racks, crouched down to make himself as small as target as possible.

    "<<Keep them off me, I'll pull the files as fast as I can,>>" he says over comms, and then he starts doing just that.

    The lack of power is hardly a concern. As he jacks into the nearest server, his suit's internal battery should be enough to spin up the server enough to start pulling data.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Those guards in the room seem startled when the others step in. Their intent had been focused further in the room not toward the door. Now that they were out from behind their hiding spots it was obvious there were more targets than just what they were originally going after. The ones closest to the door turn to open fire on Laura, on Deadpool, and on Conner. Laura's intent on hunting down that familiar smell brings her further toward the back of the room where the servers had tipped over. It's there, caught beneath one with her leg pinned, that she finds the albino that looks just like her. Given her position she'd moved her weapons out to start sniping at the guards from the floor with a few mags set out on the floor beside her to quickly reload.

Bullets plunk into Deadpool and bounce off Superboy until the guard firing on Superboy is pushed back into the wall. The woman stares up at him with a look of abject fear as she stutters trying to still pull the trigger on her now-empty gun pressed against his stomach. It was useless anwyay. "Y-yes attacked by one of the Sisters," she manages to stammer out with her head tipping inside indicating where Laura had gone off to.

The guards attacking Wade unload a full clip. One then throws his rifle bodily at Wade to pull out a handgun instead holding it two-handed to begin firing anew. These men were freaked out. Clearly they were newbies, but there was someone yelling at them to fire. And they were firing.

When Red Robin hooks up to the server, it begins to light up again from the power supply in his suit. It hums to life, the sound nearly lost to the gunfire in the room. Nearly lost. From Bellona's position the woman calls out, "NO! Don't turn it on I just got it OFF!"

Lights on the server flicker. Files start to download, but processes begin to run as well. The HUD display shows a sudden s pike in Gabby's vitals before they flatline.

The guard that Conner has makes a choking noise when her eyes suddenly roll back into her head and her heart stops, just as Gabby's had the other day. The same seems to happen to the other soldiers as one by one they seize, and then fall to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura Kinney walks through gunfire like it's heavy rain. Her claws whirling infront of her slicing bullets out of the air as she goes in a shower of sparks. She stops once she's between Bellona and the guards.

Acting like a living shield that, once in position, begins to rapidly advance on the fireteam. The whirling of her claws getting faster and faster until she's up close and personal. Slicing the firearms themselves apart like they're made of paper.

With killing off the table she sticks to wounding strikes. Punching clean through clavicles to disable weapon arms with surgical precision.

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Deadpool takes the bullets in stride. Some are deflected by the carbonatium blades, others are sliced (because that's a thing he's done before) cleanly, but the majority end up in him. He jerks and looks at Superboy. "After a while you get used to it. I've been at this for... oh I can't remember how long."

    He takes a bullet in the gut wincing slightly at the sharp impact. "I mean at this point... I can ignore almost anything but the highest caliber fire. He waves the rest of the bullets along and jerks as the rifle is flung at him. "What the fuck? Really?" he says batting the gun out of the air. "Seriously... no class at all."

    He too moves in and starts to ginsu the weapons of the guards. "It slices. It dices. It even makes juillienne fries!" he says, copying the line from a Disney classic. He follows through and almost decapitates one of the men turning the blade flatside at the last instant to slam into the side of the guard's face with bone-cutting speed behind it. "See... that's just not as satisfying" he says, kicking the man in the leg with enough precision to break bone and elbowing him into unconsciousness.

Conner Kent has posed:
"Oh good, we were looking for..." Conner was about to declare it 'mission accomplished' when the guards start convulsing and collapsing. "Crap, they put killer nanomachines in regular guards. This is..." he has no words, seeing people dying without being able to do anything is painful, bringing back memories of the reasons why he left Hawaii. "We need to stop the signal!"

How? Did the Outsiders even investigate how the nanomachines in Gabby received the killing signal? If they did he missed it.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Well, /shit/," Jon spits, lowering his ICER as the guards all start to convulse and fall. He steps over to check one that's nearby and frowns. Presumably even the ones they'd knocked unconscious, and maybe even the ones that fled, might have been caught up in this.

    He flicks a glance toward Tim's general direction. "Honey Badger?" It couldn't really be as simple to fix Gabby's problem as turning off a computer, right? He flexes his hand on the stock of the gun, not willing to presume the fight's over until it's clear it's... over.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Hacking into an unknown system requires that Red Robin cuts off his connection with the Roost, if briefly. His firewalls are second only to Oracle's but he's nothing if not cautious. Which means the biometric feed for anyone not in his immediate surroundings is temporarily greyed out, showing a small rotating circle on his HUD as it waits to reconnect.

    But Tim doesn't really need to see it to know what it's going to show. He's never been a big believer in coincidence, not as a detective. He pokes his head up from where he's hidden to see the guards all beginning to react in the same way Gabby had, when she'd gone down.

    Meanwhile, his onboard computer suite is still pulling files. The data is shunted off to a server hosted in one of the safehouses, completely separate from the Roost. In case of potential harmful software.

    There's something big, a file with enough terabytes that Tim's human eyes can actually parse the number increasing steadily... 73%... 74%... 75%...

    He pulls the plug. His suit runs a quick diagnostic and purges the downloaded data from its memory--now safely quarantined elsewhere--and begins to reestablish connection. "I don't know!" Red Robin calls out. His voice is steady, but the uptick of his heartbeat shows he's shaken. "But she's with Balm, she'll be alright!" The focus of his gaze remains off to the side where team vitals display on his HUD as he waits for Gabby's signal to reconnect.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Circle. Spinny spin spin. As the HUD comes back up Red Robin can see exactly what he might expect: Flatline. It lasts a few moments longer before it blips. Another blip. Growing steadier and stronger her vitals come back up hopefully bringing the reassurance that Red Robin and the rest need.

Those that were being fought by Laura find their weapons as sliced and diced as can be. They go down holding their various injuries before they also seize and shudder on the floor. From behind, Bellona sits up from her spot on the floor with one leg outstretched for where it was caught by the fallen server shelf. "Get this damn thing off of me we need to get out of here stat!" She practically snarls while gathering up what weapons she could. "Hurry, before they reboot!"

Rebecca Ryker has posed:
    The guards fell like sacks of sand. There is a certain way that humans fall when they're dead, that living people simply can't emulate. The complete tonelessness of their bodies, the way they fail to control muscles they've held onto their entire lives. They stop being animated people and become dolls, their strings cut. Pinocchio without his magic has fallen.

    The suddenness of the silence in the room echoes. In that instant, the harsh breathing of the heroes becomes so much more audible, and the lights heavier to bear. But a blinking light on the HUD insists on being noticed. Tim's work hasn't stopped a countdown timer, it seems. Running program Ryker D. Systems activating. Startup sequence in 3. 2. 1.

    It is a very interesting thing to note that rigor mortis does not set in to human bodies for two hours. It begins in the face, progressing to the limbs over the next few hours. People have been known to stiffen and move after death. Very few however begin to stand back up.

Well aren't you all just lucky then, because you get a whole bunch of them.

    The fallen men open their eyes, gazes glazed over...but faces horribly aware. Then they start to roll over, beginning to get to their feet. Reaching for weapons, or for whomever is closest. Even if they have no arms to do so, they try. And the sound is out of movies best avoided, unless your stomach is strong.

    "Noooo....nooOOOooo..."

    Unnaturally strong suddenly, they grab. They bite. They have become something much worse than just soldiers. They can see you, and they know what's happened. As they reach for you all, anyway.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura Kinney twists and leaps into the air. Her foot claws popping and making a lethal gleaming circle of silver around her. Arms, legs, torsos or heads. Whatever connects with the blades should just come apart.

"We need to switch it off?" She shouts over the noises coming from the things. "Everyone but Conner should get back."

She uses the space her acrobatic whirling kicks can open up to unshoulder the tube from her back. Pointing the portable anti-tank weapon at the far end of the room. What could go wrong with this plan?

Thankfully she doesn't have Gabbys vitals on a live feed. Because if she did she wouldn't be pausing to give everyone time to clear the blast radius....

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Deadpool lurches back as one of the guards gets back up and starts for him. "Zombies? We're fighting... zombies?" he asks shuffling out of the way of one of the guards. "Didn't expect to see that one coming." He sidesteps another. "Am I allowed to kill these guys?" he calls as he grabbed from behind and the man starts to bite into his suit. It won't last long under the onslaught, he knows, but he needs permission from -someone- before he lets loose.

    The firing of the anti-tank weapon is noted, but he hasn't been given the clear and he struggles against the suddenly unhinged corpse-guard. "Look big fellow. I know I might appear as an ultra-tender piece of flesh under the suit, but I just don't know if it's going to work out for you and me. I've got a girlfriend... and a wife... and a few friends with benefits... and..." as it becomes apparent that Laura is getting ready to fire, and Wade shakes his head. "You know what... fuck it."

    He reverses his grip on the swords in his hands and assumes a skiiers pose. "I call this one The Slalom" he says before the blades go back and into the body of the zombi-fied guard working on his back. Hyper-sharpened metal goes through kevlar, ceramics, and flesh all the same and the result is an explosion of gore from the torso of the marionetted guard.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner pales visibly as the guard dies in his hands. He can't do anything to prevent it, and now he can't do anything to prevent the reanimation. No heartbeat, though, no breathing, they are dead.

He can't save them, but he can grab the server keeping Bellona trapped and use it to crush the 'zombie' with it. "There were some guards outside, if they are within the radius of this kill-switch they are going to be a danger to the people outside," he states coldly, "do we need anything else here? I can being the whole building down." He pushes another rack of servers, letting his telekinesis direct them to crush more reanimated guards.

Then he helps Bellona up, shielding her from the LAW explosion, but quickly gives her to Laura, "get out of here, I'll make sure none of these things escapes."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    It's funny what dying and coming back does to your view on life. Jon's aware just how precious life is now, but also how not-final death is; he's both more willing to kill now, and making more of an effort to avoid that final option. But for him, dying and coming back was a /choice/. He had multiple opportunities to stay dead, and at every turn he chose to come back, went out of his way to make /sure/ he came back.

    So his expression goes rather flat as he sees, /Sees/ what's happened to these men. Sees that the nanobots have revived them as puppets, in a way, aware of the horror of their state but unable to do anything about it. "Killing them would be a mercy," he says, voice tense and terse.

    The ICER is swiftly holstered and he runs his magical hand along the flat of the blade of the khopesh as he pulls it out, imbuing the blade with magical energy that glows a dull green. The color he associates with the gods of the Underworld, with Death, to add extra oomph as he slashes the blade at any of the cyber-zombies that get near. He's been practicing with the unusual weapon, but there's only been so much time; he manages to slash the throat of one and runs the swod through another, but he's still pulling the blade free as a third jumps at him, grabbing him and trying to bite.

    The biting seems dangerous, so Jon grapples with the zombified soldier as well as he can and turns them both so that the dead-but-alive man is between him and Laura's explosion.

Tim Drake has posed:
    As much as the dawning horror of Gabby having no vital signs insists that Tim stand still, he doesn't. This is why he trains: so his body can function on auto-pilot when he needs it to.

    Like right now. His staff is in his hand without him making the conscious decision to reach back for where he stashes it on his belt. The flick of his wrist that makes it telescope out with a click is second nature, at this point. Red Robin isn't using it with the intent to cause damage, as he's aware of Zombie Rules, and there's no headshots with a blunt weapon. It's plenty useful for keeping the nearby zombies at a distance, though, smacking them away as he ducks and weaves through the servers towards the door.

    He forces himself not to pay close attention as Gabby's heart begins to beat again.

    "<<Do whatever you have to do to get clear!>>" he calls out. Close enough to permission. Tim's the first out because he never went all that far into the room in the first place, and out in the hall he has the breathing room necessary to call in the Outsiders jet to do a low sweep.

    No point keeping up stealth now, after all, and the closer it comes, the better its sensors and ground-penetrating radar will work. Right now he has it set to search for additional life signs.

Rebecca Ryker has posed:
    Bellona curses in a fashion fit for a sailor in port at Madripoor after a storm AND six cases of the flu. "You can't shut it off! They're independent of the server once they're active, that's why I shut the (redacted) computers down in the first place! I don't even know if beheading them works!" For a person whose leg is pretty effed up, she's remarkably lucid.

    Given that Gabby's vitals came up at the same time as the zombies, it's not actually a perfect certainty that them 'coming up' would make people happy at this point, it's true.

    "Help me," is the main response from the zombie who is trying to bite Wade. The two skewers seem to do little, until the slicing starts. That's the problem though. They're not zombies. Zombies would be mindless. These men are...mostly being crushed, but terrified even so. Jonathan's senses are accurate, scarily so, and who here is really the victim now?

    And as Bellona is offered to Laura, she she glances around the room, and grinds her teeth audibly. "Blow it already, I never want to see this place again."

    As the sound of men, taken from their proper path, sound in the hallway. Scratch, and drag. Save us.

Laura Kinney has posed:
It's not really a bear. But close enough. Laura shifts her aim slightly, then there's a whooshing roar as the rocket inside launches. It covers the distance in the blink of an eye and explodes with a deafening BOOM. Taking out a portion of the wall, ceiling and a collection of computer banks.

It's hard to say if she's taken out anything structural just yet. But it's probably best if no-one but Conner (who else can withstand having a building fall on them?) sticks around to find out.

The tube gets thrown aside and she offers Bellona a steadying hand. Keeping the other free to clear her path of any of the nano-zombie-things.

Wade Wilson has posed:
    Wade turns and shoves the still active zombie guard away by mean strength and leverage. "Is that the retreat?" he asks, looking at the leaders of the Outsiders. "Please tell me that's the retreat call. Because... I could go through this entire complex slicing and dicing but... I got my shows to watch tonight if I can manage." What was that about professionalism before?

    Another comes into contact range and a katana is sheathed in favor of the large calibre handgun at his hip. He draws and with a single fluid motion, puts two new holes in the guard's forehead. Hopefully he'll stay down now.

    More shots are given with little heed to the collateral of the body moving and he looks to Laura. "Look, I'll bring up the rear. If Superboy here brings down the building on me I'll probably survive and you can bring construction equipment here to dig me out if necessary. Or my girlfriend..." a pause. "Or my wife. Either of them could probably handle the dig process well enough." He eyes the Kryptonian clone and takes a breath. "Just make sure everyone else gets out of here. I'll be right behind you."

    But will that be enough time before the place crumbles anyway.

Conner Kent has posed:
They are still aware? Conner feels sick, and as the others leave, he grabs pieces of metal from the remains of the server racks to immobilize the walking dead without breaking more bones. SHIELD can short them out. Maybe help them some way.

Or at least find out how to prevent Alchemax from doing this ever again.

He keeps up with Tim through the Outsiders line. "Change of plans, give me a minute," well, it probably takes several minutes to catch up and immobilize all the zombies inside the building. But he is quick when he needs to.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon shoves the zombie that took the blast off of him, with a muttered, "I'm /so/ sorry." Not much they can do but take the place down and then double-check to be sure nothing's left alive. He's trying not to look, he's /really/ trying not to look.

    As he moves out the door he stops and looks back. "Oh, I am /not/ explaining to Sara that I left you under a building, not to mention--wife?!" Jon glares at Deadpool and then points at him. "If you get stuck under this building you /owe/ me. An explanation at the /least/." Take that as incentive to get the hell out, hmm?

    Then he turns and follows Red Robin out of the room and back up the stairs as fast as he can manage.

Rebecca Ryker has posed:
Crump.

    It would be nice if this were simple, but this place was designed to be two things. It was meant to be unfindable, unless you had an inside man. Or woman, in the case of Bellona. The second thing is that it was meant to be untraceable. The simplest solution of having C4 built into all the support pillars, seems almost too obvious.

    The sound that everyone just heard was the detonators taking out the entire building's supports, all at once, activated by seismic sensors. In the event of Supers, break everything. The floor shifts beneath their feet; it becomes hard to traverse. Then sections begin to fall, and walls and ceilings join them.

    The zombies will have a burial after all, though it may not be the type that their families wished for them. People find themselves in their own solo adventures partly, moving between falling sections of concrete and dodging weak parts of the floor. Wade is, unfortunately, crushed beneath a falling anvil from a floor up, but he'll be fine really. Who even has an anvil anymore, anyway? Evil geniuses, that's who. And Superboy can nab him, he's very quick when he needs to be.

    Bellona moved well on her bad leg, as if it didn't hurt at all. She's Gabrielle's sister, so you have to assume it's really the case. Still, as folks gather outside the newly formed rubble pit, there's nothing left to show that it was ever a horror filled place, where people were treated like a build-a-bitch.

    And, what to do now? That's for another story.