mission impossible theme goes here [CLOSED]

[iaijutsu]

WHO: Saitou, Feliks, Aqua, Reki, Amelia, Madeline, and some hapless NPCs probably.
WHAT: The prison mission.
WHERE: A federal prison in ???.
WHEN: Forward dated to Saturday.
WARNING(S): None, yet; if we actually need a violence warning, this mission has just failed, but I'll update this. o/


Plans were set, preparations were made, and unforeseen circumstances were mercifully absent, and so early on Saturday morning, the telltale sound of the Blackbird taking flight could be heard on campus.

Final review of the battle plan was handled en route: they would split into two teams (one consisting of Saitou, Feliks and Aqua; one consisting of Reki, Amelia, and Madeline) inside. They had some intelligence on the basic layout of the prison, but with incomplete data and without a precise location, there was also no choice but to play some things by ear...


(Top-level comments for chatter on the flight over, and for the mission itself, are here for now. In a couple of days I'll add a top-level for the flight home and discussion of what they've learned - that thread will include the basic outcome of the mission if threading hasn't yet progressed that far!)

Comments

PRE-MISSION SHENANIGANS

[iaijutsu]

[For all your "on the way over" needs, whether that be discussion of tactics, frantic searches for the airsickness bags, or dread-filled realization that we should've brought a better pilot.]

[gloriousandfree]

Amelia, she knew and was fairly confident she could work with. But Reki she wasn't particularly close with. On the way there, Madeline taps a pen on her pad and gives both her teammates a look. She's aware that getting out for is as easy as becoming a bird or a mouse, things she's practiced on her own. In the end, she's sort of prepared to let her more obviously mutant teammates get out ahead of her if things go badly.

"I can become a guard if we need it but I don't have a uniform. So we should probably avoid that if we can."

[totallystoned]

"And I can draw one up if we need one, but he'll vanish when I'm not looking at him." Reki said in reply, doing final check on the series of snap-locks in her uniform that housed all her little notepads. She wasn't going to get caught unprepared.

[ladyliberty]

Amelia didn't like airplanes. The seats were uncomfortable, and she didn't like being so close to the sky and not be able to touch it. She's not really much for planning, either, so she's lounging across two seats, listening to her two teammates make plans. Her powers didn't lend themselves to stealth, but she was prepared to bring out the big guns when if things went south.

"Sounds great, ladies. And I can get us all on the ceiling if we need to."

[niepokonany]

Playing by ear was Feliks's specialty, to a slightly ludicrous degree; the lack of specific details didn't bother him in the slightest.

He knew he could work with Saitou -- they'd known each other for ages, and understood each other to an honestly pretty surprising degree considering how incredibly different they were from each other. He didn't know much about the other teammate, and sort of wished it had been Amelia, or Reki -- he didn't do well with strangers, but having the mission to focus on and Saitou there should make it fine, right?

Either way, he was probably the one of his group with the best powers for staying out of trouble, which was why he'd decided to spend as much of the trip as possible resting up -- if everything went according to plan, he'd have to use his power more than them. He was sprawled across a full three seats, dozing lightly, though he seemed to wake up every now and again, make light conversation, pore over uniform designs for a minute or two at a time, and go back to sleep.

MUTANT GEAR SOLID

[iaijutsu]

[Please feel free to NPC your own guards to avoid - just remember that avoiding them, rather than taking them out, is the primary goal on this mission!]

/hums James Bond theme - Team Saitou - Aqua - Feliks

[niepokonany]

There was a good reason he was on this team, despite technically still sort of being a student, and it was one that had very little to do with his long friendship with the team leader.

He brushed off his X-uniform one last time, straightening the little skirt on it, then transformed it into whatever they'd agreed was going to get them through the gates -- a guard's uniform, or a delivery service one. Either way, it was a big step down as far as fashion was concerned... but he supposed he had bigger concerns than fashion, for the evening.

With a flick of his hand that, honestly, was utterly unnecessary, he did the same for the other two, then handed them ID cards. They'd turn blank if he wasn't around -- all the better to keep the other side from seeing their faces more than necessary -- and were believably awful, the way ID photos always seemed to be. It might have been some kind of requirement of international law, for all Feliks knew. There were fake names on each one -- "Keita Tanaka" for Saitou, "Sarah Johnson" for Aqua, "Jordan Green" for himself. All unremarkable, but not John Smith-unremarkable, not remarkably unremarkable.

[iaijutsu]

Saitou glanced at the ID card in his hand, his expression twitching very slightly, but he made no comment and no reaction other than that. The photo was, indeed, pretty heinous, but that kind of attention to detail was what made Feliks good at these kinds of things - it was what made Feliks one of the first choices in his mind for this mission.

"Everyone ready?"

[aquawayfinder]

Aqua glanced at her card, curiously. She had shed her armor even before the disguise, so that was covered. She wished she could have her Keyblade out, but the hope was to not need it. The one power she kept stored inside herself was healing. Hopefully they would not need that either. She hesitated just a moment and glanced at her teammates. Should she tell them to attack her if they had to fight, to hit her first? No, hopefully they would not have to fight, and if they did... well, hopefully they would trust her. But this was neither the time nor the place to have this discussion. She should have brought it up on the ...flight...

She mastered herself, took a deep breath, then nodded, hand closing as if around the Keyblade, but not actually summoning it.

Ven. Terra. Master. "Ready."

[niepokonany]

Wow, nothing but serious faces! Feliks guessed that wasn't too out of the ordinary, but he had rarely been one to take things too seriously, himself. He took out his phone, turned it briefly into a hand mirror, checked his hair, and slipped it back into his pocket.

"You know it. Let's get this show on the road!"

[aquawayfinder]

She glanced at the phone as it turned into a mirror. Was that something all phones could do? Focus, Aqua.

[iaijutsu]

Saitou nodded, straightening up his posture to something just shy of his usual - straight enough to suggest discipline but just lax enough to suggest that he was perfectly comfortable where he was and not a bit nervous, as befitted someone who worked around here and for whom walking in and out of the security checkpoints was a normal and everyday occurrance.

(He was plenty nervous. If this went wrong, if his first command was an absolute disaster...)

(This definitely wasn't the time to think about that.)

"If anything goes wrong, remember that we're not here for a fight. Getting ourselves out is the first priority."

[aquawayfinder]

Aqua nodded. This was not what she was used to, and so she was following his lead. Her posture was strong, but not the typical perfect, her shoulders and knees were loose enough to MOVE if she needed to. But that suited a guard.

She nodded when he spoke. "Sooner started, sooner done," was her only comment.

[niepokonany]

"Right, right..."

There wasn't even a hint of nervousness in his posture as they headed towards the first checkpoint -- though his usual carefree, bubbly disposition was missing, too. He had his hair in a loose ponytail, a natural-toned, matte lipstick on to make his lips stand out less, a fake earring in -- little differences to draw himself away from his usual, somewhat hard to miss image. For now, he was just a blue-collar guy, somewhat bored with his work, going through the daily grind.

Walking in silence didn't seem really natural, given that -- not while they were walking up from the outside, not quite on duty yet. "So, Keita -- whatever happened with that girl? The waitress? She ever call you back?"

[aquawayfinder]

Aqua glanced over when he spoke, watching to see how this would play out. Subterfuge was not something she had trained much in, but she understood enough to keep her expression casually bored. At least, she hoped that was the right answer.

[iaijutsu]

Trust Feliks to go for the kind of subject that Saitou would find it least natural to fake conversation about. (Then again, kendo and "that awesome sixteenth-century war treatise I finished reading last week" might be a lot easier for him to convincingly bullshit about, but they also weren't nearly as convincing a subject for "things normal people talk about with their co-workers.")

"Not yet." Uh. Why would someone not call back - "I think she mentioned working a few doubles last week, though. She might've been too tired to bother."

He casually flashed his ID at the checkpoint, keeping his gaze directed at the other two rather than at the guards they were passing, as though he'd done this so many times it was automatic.

[aquawayfinder]

Aqua followed his lead, flashing her badge as if more interested in their conversation than the task in front of her. Of course, she had no clue what to add, and the impression that even had this been real, she wouldn't have been expected to add anything.

As soon as she had flashed her badge, she snapped it closed and made like she was tucking it into a pocket that her illusion clothes had, but she did not. She palmed it instead and casually slid it into the top of her thigh highs. She didn't know if the ID would just vanish, or if she would need it again, but she certainly didn't want it falling to the ground when she put something more solid than she expected into an imaginary pocket. She also didn't fully know how his power worked, and it was best not to push it.

So sorry for the long wait! I was meeting every single person I know, and getting engaged ;;

[niepokonany]

As the gate guards gave their IDs a lazy, end-of-shift once-over, Feliks flashed Saitou a sidelong, teasing grin. Not a full-on smile -- he was more recognizable with his smile, frankly.

"Man, too bad. Maybe she just thought you weren't that into her -- you get so awkward, I swear!"

He nodded slightly as their IDs got handed back, tucking it into his pocket. "Oh, thanks."

gosh ket, hdu have a love life...!! shakingmyhead

[iaijutsu]

This conversation, really, felt like one they could just as easily be having on any normal day, out of disguise.

And Saitou had no doubt that was a deliberate move on Feliks' part, because if nothing else, it made the awkward flash of embarrassment coming from Saitou that much more convincing as he nodded to the gate guards and shoved his own ID into his pocket.

"I'm...not that bad."

I know, right? I'm pretty awful.

[niepokonany]

"You're pretty bad," he replied, cheerful as anything about it. The guard passed his ID back to him, and he tucked it into his pocket, maintaining his passive focus on all the little details of their disguises and props. "It's good, though, I still like you!"

He took a couple of steps forward, but didn't say anything to urge the others to follow -- no need to seem in a rush, and his "character" probably wouldn't be that eager to get to work.

[aquawayfinder]

Aqua boarded the Blackbird with some trepidation. The mission didn't faze her. Getting there, however... As soon as she was aboard, her Keyblade vanished, and she smacked the gem on her right sleeve. Her armor covered her within seconds and she nodded to everyone, finding her teammates and sitting with them.

She did not know how missions worked with this group, she would follow their lead. If they spoke to her, she would speak. She wanted to serve, and this was how she would do it. And she would keep them safe, if it came to that.

She buckled and strapped herself in with every buckle and strap that she could find, then called in her Keyblade again and rested it across her lap.

Just so long as she didn't have to jump out of the plane she would be fine. Right? She took a deep even breath. She had mastered this fear, she had passed her Mastery exam. She was Master Aqua of the Island of Departure, and the flight was not going to conquer her.

THE FLIGHT BACK

[iaijutsu]

[And as it happens, Trask's cell is occupied by a very convincing android replica. Thankfully, nobody's cover was blown in finding out and getting back to the jet. Discuss?]