Owner	Pose
Laura Kinney	It all started with a rumour. Just the barest of whispers really. The Facility was transporting a highly experimental sample in a private cargo flight taking off from Gotham airport. Decades of research that has culminated in a tiny vial filled with a chemical. A tiny innocuous vial. You wouldn't think it could be dangerous to look at it, but that sample? It's for a very special version of the trigger scent compound. Special because it doesn't need the subject to be brainwashed to react to it. It's gene coded to drive anyone or anything with the X-gene into a frenzied killing rage. Release it in a public place and every mutant around will throw themselves at your intended target heedless of their own personal safety. X-23 has been hunting the Facility ever since she broke free from their clutches. And even she didn't think the story was that credible. Which is why we found our heroes high above the clouds without the support of the Outsiders and very little in the way of equipment or preparation. The 'plan' was simple. Recon with drones. Destroy the sample if possible. If not find out where it's going to destroy it later. If it was even real. Easy. Of course nothing is /ever/ easy in the world of super heroes. What better way to set a trap for X-23 than to use a story about a fake superstrength version of the trigger scent as bait? And where better to locate that trap than in the sky? Where she can't run and she can't hide. (Okay so space technically is a better place for the trap but alas the corporation has a duty to shareholders to keep costs down.) "Once we get out of this Bluebird I will owe you an apology for getting you into danger," X-23 calls out from behind a crate as bullets ricochet around the cargo hold. "I should have known it was a trap when all the mercenaries were wearing parachutes..." She leans around the crate and fires back a few rounds. "I do not suppose your utility belt contains anything for HALO jumps? Because I do not think they ever intended for this plane to land.."
Harper Row	Bluebird hunches, tilting her head away and a cheek flinching at each sound of a bullet making contact with something solid. The whine and deflected bullets put the fear of death and injury into her. The random element that the careening bits of alloyed round provide making her heart hammer in her chest. "No such luck!" Harper yells and sways partially out of cover to deliver a few rounds of her own. Her bullpup railgun returning fire without a great deal of time to carefully aim. She is dreadfully aware of the dangers of gunplay within a pressured environment ever since someone forced her to watch Goldfinger. It's funny how certain movies and shows will insist themselves into headspace at certain moments. Her electric rounds are placed as carefully as she can, trying to hit a limb rather than center mass. Hit something that isn't an important panel. "It's okay! Once we nail them all, I just need to get to those controls and we won't need to swan dive." she says sassily. Bluebird manages to paste one of the goons, but damn if those chutes on their backs make good insulation. Numbing of limbs and gun-wielding hands is taking too long and she's sure the glancing hits she's taken on her kevlar are going to be ugly and purple in a few hours. "We just gotta get to a stick! It'll be alright!" Bluebird has to slam herself back into better cover by return fire, and give her gun a moment to cool. It's about then that she notes the webbing of crates nearby. The fine print is a little smudged, perhaps on purpose, but her fevered glance, augmented by her HUD betrays contents she's not fond of sharing a flight with. "Oh shit...Oh SHIT. This place is packed like the Fourth of July!"
Laura Kinney	Laura Kinney tilts her head to one side. For a change not sniffing the air. "Did your ears just pop?" she shouts over a burst of automatic fire. "I think they just opened a door..." Thankfully with the explosive cargo the goons are at least firing frangible rounds. They're paid to do a dangerous jobs like assassinating mutant vigilantes. They're not suicidal. Meaning their bullets aren't designed to break through Harpers body armour or leave holes in the plane (they're designed to do the exact opposite in fact!). Less good? The only reason they'd wear parachutes and open the doors on a cargo plane filled with things that go boom is if they intended to leave /now/. "I'm not sure we have time to take control of the plane," X-23 says with a shake of her head. "Even if we do what if someone with a remote detonator has got away?" She looks back at the double doors of the cargo compartment. "Ever been skydiving before?" She dives between crates firing off a few rounds from a handgun. Claws popping with a distinctive SNIKT noise before she pulls the door release and then swipes her claws through it. No closing the door behind her now. "It's easy. Follow my lead." She ducks as another staccato burst of gunfire comes from the goons. "We'll have to grab chutes on the way down though." Can Laura heal from a fall this high? Probably. But not even she wants to try healing factor herself back together from that.
Harper Row	Harper is all ready to push back at the possibility they could all just take the plane for a spin, probably because the alternative is pretty bad. The alternative is hella bad. "Oh hell." Bluebird pops off a few more rounds and slings the strap for her weapon up and over her shoulder before clamping it on good like she was going to drop off a rooftop. A rooftop thousands of feet up. "Easy my ass!" she screams over the rising sound of air whooshing past. "OhmygawdOhmygawd! I don't know if I can make myself jump!" She windmills one of her arms, firing back up the corridor of the interior of the plane, teetering on the edge. "Oh shiiiiiit!" She tries to spy one of the falling goons and judge her fall.
Laura Kinney	"The longer we wait the further away they get," X-23 shouts over the roar of the air leaving the plane. "Just follow my lead." Most of the goons are falling back. Moving to leap out the side doors of the plane. Getting the hell away from the death trap. Away from the costumed super heroes. Or at least trying to. X-23 runs, keeping low to avoid being shot any more than necessary, and leaps out the plane. She switches to the Outsiders team comms. "Keep your arms out wide to slow your fall. Pull them in to go faster. We need to catch up with the goons before they get too far away." Laura explains, pulling her arms in to gain speed. "If anyone else on the team is nearby we could really use airborne assistance!" In the distance? There's a whole bunch of mercenaries. Black body armour, tactical harnesses, and lots of weapons. And they seem very aware they've got company...
Harper Row	Bluebird holds a palm up to the side of her head to better hear over Comms. The other hand has her weapon pointed in fear and anger towards the center of the plane. Her shots are a bit wilder, harried and hasty. She stops before she's spent the clip. "Alright! Alright!" she yells and turns back to the yawning opening and the plummet that's promised. "1, 2...threeeeeeee!" Harper tries to psyche herself up a lot, and it's the possibility of things going boom that helps, rather than there's parachutes dwindling away. All that comes over the Outsider's comms for a few seconds is her panting, yelping and wailing. Freefall tugs at her guts and she wonders when they'll catch up with her on the way down. "I don't wanna go fast!" Orientating herself like a human vulture, she tries to level out, get her bearings. Tick tock goes the altitude clock. "I'm packing a glider if I ever survive this!" She tries to angle on the black figures, letting her weapon go on its strap to use all of her body.
Laura Kinney	"Going fast and getting a parachute is better than going slow all the way until you stop at the /ground/," Laura points out. Having to shout over the wind. "Follow my lead." They're not falling for long before there is an almighty BOOM behind them as the plane explodes. Scattering pieces of burning wreckage and debris through the sky. The air this high is thin and cold. Both would be concerns if the ground wasn't such a big. Imminent. Terrifying threat. X-23's missions always wind up being in the nicest places... Our heroes don't even have the option of falling in peace! Because those goons sure seem to have noticed their target didn't stay on the plane to get blown up like they'd hoped. And those automatic weapons? They're doing their best to aim and shoot at Bluebird and X-23. Not that aiming while you fall is easy. Especially when your target is closing in so quickly... X-23 opens fire in return. Although she's limited in where she can aim for fear of damaging the rather vital parachutes!
Harper Row	Harper bets the 'splosion left behind is hella cool. The sort of thing she'd ~do~ this for. But reality has ruined the selfie potential with the need for one of those precious silk-stuffed pouches. Trying to imagine she's leaping off a brownstone a few floors up is impossible. She stares fixedly at one of the goons twisting to fire at her, choosing one out of the flock like a lioness might select a prey from a pack. Prey that shoots back. Shots fly past her, the sound lost in the roar of wind past her ears. Thank goodness for HUD visors keeping her eyes from turning to a blurry mess of tears. Flapping her arms, she becomes a bit of an erratic target until she can start on a vector that'll sacrifice agility for pure intercept speed. The danger is overshooting, but Laura is right after faster being better than slower in her mind. Zipping down fast, she cannons into one of the goons with enough force to knock the wind out of both of them. She grapples on with the strength off desperation. "Gimmie!" she croaks.
Laura Kinney	The goons have one advantage in the parachute game, well two if you count having one in the first place, and that's the straps keeping them safely attached. Harper will need to unclip a few buckles and carabiners before she can yoink that precious silk away! On the plus side the impact is so forceful the goons weapon goes flying out of his hand. Probably to land violently and get smashed against the ground somewhere. That's probably a later problem though. Like all the raining debris. Thankfully the goons weren't totally heartless and planned for the explosion to take place long enough after take-off that they're above a mostly rural area. X-23 seems more intent on dealing with the goons for now, she is after all going to survive the fall no matter what (although the landing without a parachute would suck even for her messed up sense of 'acceptable injuries'), firing back into the falling mercenaries. Hitting shoulders and legs. Serious enough wounds those hit will think better of continuing the fight and begin pulling the cords on their parachutes. "It's a shame most holographic simulators can't properly replicate free fall like this," she shouts into the team comms. "It would be nice to practise the situation in case it happens again in the future."
Harper Row	Over the Comms comes an assortment of grunts, inarticulate shouting and even a few ASMR worthy rasps and hissing. The individual Harper tussles with coming over the mic due to the close proximity when they're both snarling in each other's faces. It probably doesn't take a genius for Harper's adversary to realize what she's up to. It becomes a feral affair of close-range attacks, going for vitals. Harper's knee swings, the cap thudding a triplet of impacts into kidneys. It's not as effective if she had a foot planted. Like in a cozy training room for example. "You're! Too! Relaxed!" Harper yells between huffs and puffs. There's nothing else for it but to go for the gadgets. She's also super close, but she's going to have to trust on her on insulated biz. "Dance turkey!" One of her hands reaches away from washing the goon's face, activates a strobbing blue spark at the palm and then she slaps. The taser crackles and sends her enemy into herky-jerky dances, playing off metal like tinfoil in a microwave. Harper hangs on for a good 10 seconds before she struggles to unclip the parachute while she vices her thighs around as an anchor point. "Almost...almost got it. How...How long...?!" Tick tock. Tick tock. More details of the ground coming up.
Laura Kinney	"You're not having fun?" Laura jokes into the comms. "I do this sort of thing all the time!" Not exactly this sort of thing. But desperate struggles where the stakes are near certain death? It's when X-23 is at her best. Harper will find that her goon is in no way prepared for electrical shocks. They were geared for fighting Laura who doesn't tend to use tazers. And the shock catches him totally unprepared. No matter how desperate the struggle is and how much he really wants to keep the chute.. Well Bluebird will be able to either knock him out and share it. Or steal it and hope the goon has a back up chute and/or ignore that stealing his parachute means sending him to near certain death. Thankfully a quick search will reveal they do indeed have back up emergency chutes in case of the main one failing. Laura runs out of ammo and, rather than try reload, ditches her pistols. They're easily replaceable after all. And with her hands now free she plummets into one of the goons just as he pulls his parachute cord. Her claws pop with a SNIKT that's lost in the roaring wind and she simply cuts the harness. It means she's left hanging on to the remains with her bare hands with almost no control. But a bad landing is better than a crash landing. The poor goon wails with terror as he falls away. Frantically pulling on the emergency cord. "Not long," she calls into the comms. "Remember to bend your knees and roll. Or you might break your ankles."
Harper Row	"Thanks Mom!" Harper tries sarcastically. It comes off maybe as a bit more panicky though. The goon probably has a 50/50 chance of waking up in time to pull their own backup 'chute. A small mercy given. She won't outright ensure he's a pancake after this, but she won't lose sleep over a bad survivable landing. Not after shooting at her. She pulls on the back, hopefully the right side up, and pulls the clasps over herself. It's not as snug a fit as the previous owner, but it's something. "Oh I'll bend alright! I'll fold up like a noodle whether I like it or not!" she yells and releases the goon giving him a slap across the face and follows up with a boot to push herself as far as she can to get away from them. "Wakey wakey asshole!" "Huff!" Harper risks a glance to the ground and a strangled cough comes from her as she pulls the cord and is yoinked by the force of the tug. Anything not already secure on her gets stress-tested or plummets from her pockets and utility belt. "Huuuurrrrrk!"
Laura Kinney	The other good thing about the explosion happening over a rural area? Lots of relatively flat land for people to parachute down onto. Part of The Facilities evil scheme no doubt. So thankfully our heroines don't have to worry about parachute landings in an urban area. It's one thing to learn to land by doing in a field. It's another thing entirely to land in the middle of moving traffic or to try dodge high voltage power lines. Laura pretty much lets go of the parachute she's clinging onto once she's within 'safe' drop distance. Rolling as she slams into the ground. Heedless of any broken bones, they'll heal anyway, and coming to her feet looking around for enemies. Most of the goons deployed their chutes at the recommended altitude and are still high above. Steering themselves well away from Bluebird and X-23. Probably landing near parked vehicles intended for a speed getaway. With operation exploding plane foiled they are keen to leave the area asap before anyone can come to investigate! "You okay?" Probably a rhetorical question. If Harper's able to answer that means she's alive. Which means a successful landing!
Harper Row	After the world stops going end-over-end, Harper gets to her feet, blinking rapidly and shaking herself of grass and dirt. "Aaaaarrrrrrrggg..." comes over the Comms, indictating that she's still alive at least. The harness wasn't as snug as she would have liked it. Getting slowed down so fast has her walking around like she's got peg-legs. An undignified bit of drunken dancing as she sheds the buckles and clasps and stretches out her back and arches. "Still alive." Doing a little panoramic revolution to take in the area, she winces and rubs at some friction burns. "I think we deserve a bit of Denny's. Gonna need a grand slam breakfast after this. Gawd, how long a walk we got..." Harper starts to triangulate and geo-position herself.