5197/Changeling: Cuckoo

Changeling: Cuckoo
Date of Scene:	18 August 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	An extraction mission goes horribly wrong. Skye gets her man, almost meets her father, and learns the hard way that sometimes even the best laid plans go awry.
Cast of Characters:	Arnim Zola, Quake, Melinda May, June Connor
Tinyplot:	Changeling

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Arnim Zola has posed:
Markovia

Oracle had tracked Agent Lumley to a three story walk up in a quiet corner of Markovia's capital. The building was a good pick, three stories, easy to jump or scale down in a pinch, three obvious entrances and the quiet neighbourhood made tales and surveilance easy to spot. It would have all worked out but for a chance Instagram pic that put his face online and into Oracle's sights. But being as he'd been off the grid for most of the time Skye had been alive he'd had a good run.

One that was about the come to a close.

It was night time and the quiet neighbourhood was extra quiet tonight. So quiet that even some of the night birds had fallen from their perches to lay on the ground. As for Lumley's building, a pair of vans park askew outfront, doors thrown open, engines idling, providing the only noise on the narrow street.

Quake has posed:
Skye had gathered the others with Oracle's help, and debriefed them. Skye was setting up an intel trail through SHIELD that made it look like this particular bit of video had been noticed via facial recognition as 'suspicious', and had been working up the chain of agents until it hit Skye - Skye who filtered most everything that went into SHIELD's intel net by virtue of her programs.

Once it hit Skye, it appreared that she'd tossed it directly to Fury. Fury who was right now, even, setting up a meeting for an extraction team.

In reality, all of that had been engineered by Skye, even a remote tracer that had her seeming to send the info to Fury while she and the others were already at Lumley's residence doing the extraction. by her telling, they had a small window while they were still ahead of the Benefactor on this one. And while they were extracting, Fury was setting up a safehouse via secure channels set up by Oracle.

The whole thing, hopefully, would run smoothly, and introduce the latest members of the Birds to one another.

Reality, though, often panned out differently.

For now, though, the ladies were making their way upon Lumley's place.

"Hey, M? Those vans aren't us on any front. Any suggestions?"

Melinda May has posed:
"We proceed carefully," May replies quietly. She's in a well-concealed spot for the moment, and she takes the moment to pull a tiny version of a rifle scope from inside her jacket to look for likely snipers' nests. Honestly, it's something that Barton should have drilled into Skye by now, but she's not going to bet on it, not without already knowing it's been done.

"Innocent but distracting passerby is always an option, but nowhere near subtle." Or, she could go in alone ala Bahrain, but even starting to think that hits a solid wall of NO in her mind. So, she doesn't even offer.

June Connor has posed:
    June went along with the request. She's squatting at Babs' place, and in the midst of hiding out from the Foot, it is a nice change of pace. She looked over the intel, She wears her Killers T-shirt, open sides that reveal her black bra with a pair of cut off shorts and shredded black stockings. Very formal infiltration gearl. Despite the appearance, though, she does have a number of kunai and shuriken hidden along a black belt, arranged so that it looks like they are decorations.

    "Right," she mutters. "So, dunno how you guys do this stuff normally," she says. "You got two vans with doors open, they are running, so they are there to get out of something. You stop the vans, you screw the plan. Just act like you belong and nobody usually asks questions." She shrugs, "At least, that's what I do."

    "She moves out from the watching position without another word, doing nothing sneaky at all as might be expected of a ninja. She channels her chi, making her presence small as she has been trained, and she starts toward the van, slipping two shuriken into her left hand. Her objective is to simply drop them to her foot, then kick them so they wedge beneath the front tire of the first, and the rear of the next. She pulls her iPod phones out with the right hand, and sticks the cable in one ear. She hits the tunes, not willing to just 'pretend' that she's listening. After all, What's an infiltration without a little good music?

Arnim Zola has posed:
For Skye and May there's something familiar in the air. The scent left behind by an ICER round going of, just, more of it or a lot of them. Though there are no spent shells or signs of impact.

May's search for snipers reveals a body on a rooftop, limp, rifle bent in half, his neck twisted at an impossible angle.

By the vans there's a similarly gruesome sight. The drivers are slumped forward, one with a broken neck, the other, looks like he took a headshot and his brains are all over the cab of the van. Both are wearing street clothes.

That's when the window breaks and a man in black tactical flails backwards through a third floor window onto the street with a thud, and the sound of gunfire echoes inside the building.

Melinda May has posed:
May frowns faintly to herself at the faint waft of a familiar aroma, but before she can really think on it to place it her eyes catch on the body on the rooftop. She's able to tell that something's already gone sideways just by damage to the rifle and to the man. Damn. "We have a pro--"

And a man is thrown out a window. May manages to not utter a Mandarin curse out loud as she stows the little scope and pulls her ICER. "Forget subtle. Get inside. Now."

And she breaks her cover, bolting for the nearest entrance at a full sprint.

Quake has posed:
Skye notices it about the time May must be noticing it. "Fuck," she curses under her breath. "So much for stealth mode. Guys, they're here. We don't have cover to blow. They've ICED someone.."

She's just saying that when all hell breaks loose. "I'm going in. The objective is Lumley. Leave 'em down where you find them girls."

June Connor has posed:
    June arches a brow, and lets out a whistle. She's seen stuff like this before, though. Life as a Foot ninja isn't without gore. "Well fuck me," she says low. "Got a mess here girls," She reaches down, picking back up the planted shuriken, then replaces it to her belt. "Guess these guys weren't on his side." She reaches in to grab the MP5. Not exactly the first choice of ninja weapons, but hey, it's a submachine gun, she's not too proud.
     She reaches into her pocket, pulling out a stick of gum. "Well, I came to kick ass and chew bubblegum," she says. "But I'm all out of ass."

    That's when a body comes flying out of the window, landing on the ground not far from her. "Or, maybe not," she corrects, pointing the SMG up. She makes a full sprint, crouching against the building next to the stone steps, looking up to see who just threw the poor sap. She changes tracks to "Whistle for the Choir" by the Fratellis.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The nearest door to May and Skye is left open and ajar, kicked in by the state of the lock. Beyond is a lobby, and a pair of guards in black fatigues with sub-machine guns like the guy who went out the window. One covers the stairs, the other the door. Beyond them is the stairs up, where it sounds like the party's happening with more gunfire and the odd scream.

Someone bellows, "LUMLEY" then there's a crash like something big went through a wall.

Outside at her vantage point, June sees a brief flash of a man in the window where the man was thrown, then, something else takes its place, humanoid, pinched faced, and featureless but for it's mouth and overlarge eyes. It doesn't seem to see June as it peers down to check on the man thrown out the window.

Melinda May has posed:
May takes a very quick glance through the doorway, then steps around the frame and fires her ICER at the two men in the lobby. She advances to make sure they're truly down just as someone up the stairs bellows, and her eyes catch Skye for a second.

"Go. I'll clear the path out." Which means she'll be right behind Skye flattening anyone who might want to get in their path. "Update, please," she adds for the third person on their team, as she wasn't sure about the etiquette of asking for a name. Skye will know she means June.

Quake has posed:
Skye nods, to May, knowing what the detail is going to be. They've worked together enough. She leaves it for June to check in on her own, but adds, "We've got eyes on the stairs, J. Keep the street clear. Watch for surprises." Like back alley stragglers. Though given the way things look, this wasn't set up to be a finessed job. It looked a hell of a lot like barge in, take what you want, and screw anything in your path.

Which, ironically, was a tiny bit like what May was planning. At least the 'screw anything in your path'.

On point, Skye was making sure her path wasn't straight into the arms of surprises, but heading as quickly as possible for the third floor. That window she thought they had? It had been forcibly closed. It was time for plan B.

June Connor has posed:
    "Aw shit," June mutters. "Got a mutant lookin' guy. somebody probably strong from what is obvious," she says. "Shoot first and ask questions later kinda situation." She pulls up the gun, checking the safety. Once the figure in the window isn't looking in her direction again, she resolves to scale the window, putting the MP5 over her shoulder and reaching to grip the window ledges, using them for hand holds and footholds to scale the outside of the building.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The two guys in the entryway go down quickly, clearing the way to the stairs.

There's another door past the stairs, but one of the men is slumped against it.

As Skye head upstairs the sound of gunfire grows louder, covering the sound of her approach, two men crouch on the top of the third floor stairs looking onto the floor, firing quick short bursts into the hallway.

"What the hell are these things," one of the guys says.

"Don't care keep shooting," the other says.

Another bellow of "LUMLEY" comes from beyond them.

Outside, the mutant looking thing turns from the window and slips back inside giving June a chance to climb the building to the broken third floor window. Inside the room, three guys with black fatigues lay scattered around the room. One has an exploded head. Of the other two, one has a slit through, the other a broken neck.

Beyond the door to to the room June can hear gun fire in the hallway.

Quake has posed:
Skye's bounding steps two by two. She's got her ICER out - and would be a lot more cautious about using it, except they're using them, and ultimately if teh Benefactor doesn't figure out she's involved in this little escapade, it's plausible that a downed man's piece could have been taken. Regardless, Skye's past covering her involvement in this up - and there's no way to trace her to the Birds. In fact, with May here, this will look, smell, and taste like a SHIELD operation. Everyone's secrets are safe.

She fires at the men at the top of the stairs when she rounds on them, not bothering with a warning.

Melinda May has posed:
'Mutant looking guy'. That's never a good sign. May chases after Skye and stops next to her just short of the two men. She fires just a second after the younger agent, taking the other man down with her own ICER. And hoenstly, she's not thinking about who's going to think what about this escapade. There's a person in this building in extreme danger, and she's going to do something about it. This will NOT be Bahrain all over agian.

Not bothering to wait if the men are truly down and figuring Skye will make sure of it, she puts her ICER away and pulls the taser-ended batons from her sleeves and starts toward the direction of the bellowing and the report from J. The big ugly things are hers. "Find Lumley, get him out."

June Connor has posed:
    "They ain't done shootin' people up yet," June says as she reaches the window. "Time to be a bitch." She pulls herself through the broken window, landing inside. She hears the rounds going off inside, and she rushes through the room, leaving the MP5 slung around her shoulder, and she makes for burst down the hallway, eyes taking in each door along the way to assess whether they can be busted through easily in a pinch. She grunts. "Find Lumley, sure, as soon as I know nobody's gonna shoot me," she says, slipping a kunai from her belt, hoping to use the shots from the bottom of the stairs as enough distraction to come in for a kill with a knife to the back of the neck.

Quake has posed:
Skye totally makes sure the men in the hallway are down. She doesn't headshot them or anything (that would just be mean), but she shoots them both again to make sure they're ICED but good.

"Lumley is the package" she tells her team, finger to the comms. "Everything else is collateral. Ice him if you have to. Hell, Ice him anyway. They've got to get him and get out. We can hold ground."

Meaning with Oracle in their back pocket, they can have backup on the way and make this a fight Kyle's people can't win, let alone want to engage in. This was Skye's op to win, and she wasn't pulling punches.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The hall is a mess. Broken furniture, bullet holes and a couple more dead guys in fatigues. These ones were shot, neatly, good groupings.

There is still sound on the third floor, footfalls, wreckage crunching under the weight of movement.

There's a shout. "Found you!" then the sound of gunfire bam-bam-bam, then a man, Lumley, is thrown through a wall into the corridor, he lands on his back and keeps firing through the hole until his gun clicks dry. He scrambles for his feet.

One of the gunmen near June raises his weapon.

At the same time the pinched faced mutant steps into the hall from one of the other rooms, black eyes, fixing on May and Skye.

A pressure begins to build in both of their heads, like something expanding outwards wanting to break free.

June Connor has posed:
    June puts a hand to her ear, "Kill Lumley? What the fuck? Thought we were here to save him?" she asks. She leaps up and delivers a kick to the man raising his gun, spinning around to follow it up with a stab toward his chest with her kunai.

Melinda May has posed:
May would correct J, but with the pinched-faced mutant staring at them her her head starting to feel like the onset of the worst migraine ever, she doesn't really have time to deal with that. So instead she all but snarls at the mutant and flings one of her taser batons at him, the business end already sparking and ready to deliver a hefty shock.

Not waiting for the baton to hit the mutant, she immediately puller her ICER and fires at that horrid face, hoping her aim isn't already too badly compromised.

She can tell. She's got seconds. At most.

Quake has posed:
It's all rather.. quick. And Skye plays a gut hunch. She should shoot the mutant. Should. But she doesn't. Even if she's wrong about this, and the man with the horrid face gets the upper hand, they'll still have to deal with what she's about to do.

"Stun," Skye corrects, "Not kill." Even as she shoots Lumley with her ICER. Now he's a dead weight to everyone, and in this particular crap shoot, they've still got the upper hand - at least until mutant man makes their heads explode. But hey! He doesn't know about June. And June has no SHIELD compunctions to follow.

Things could get interesting.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The ICER rounds and electric baton hit the mutant full force and the pressure suddenly vanishes from both Skye and May's brains, leaving a headache in it's place. The creature is still standing though, wavering, punch drunk but still standing, it focuses it's attention on May, the pressure begins to build again, but slowly.

The gunman's shot is ruined before the kunai is planted in his chest and he goes down gurgling on his own blood.

Lumley's head turns towards May and Skye as Skye pulls the trigger. His eyes widen with recognition at the sight of one or both of them, then they close as the ICER's chemical stun does it's work. He slumps to the floor as if dead.

"NOOOOOO!" rages a voice from the room Lumley was thrown from. "No. He was mine! I didn't get my gift!"

The wall shakes and a figure steps through, human enough, just too big and subtly mishapen, eyes glinting with feral madness.

Standing over Lumley he turns his head towards Skye and May, a fiendish look on his face, that freezes and slowly falls as recognition dawns. "No, no, no, no," he mutters, drawing back towards the hole. "This can't be happening!"

June Connor has posed:
    June mutters to herself, pulling free the kunai. "Good, I hate changes in the plan," she answers, catching sight of the strange mutant. She pulls a smoke pellet. "Too many people here," she says, throwing the pellet to the ground. It erupts, a black smoke bursting through the hall, and she dives toward the pinch faced mutant, her attack masked by the smoke, seeking to drive the kunai into the strange creatures eye socket. She doesn't know who or what it is, but she knows that it's an enemy, and she isn't going to waste time trying to knock it out.

Quake has posed:
There's a gasping noise of shock from Skye at the feral looking mutant figure. At least she thinks it's a mutant. Normal folks don't just walk through walls.

"No." She shakes her head, and backs up a step, looking confused, and hurt and shocked all at once. "No. No. No. No. NO."

Then screams out "Don't shoot him! I know him. I mean.. Fuck."

Skye, usually unflappable, has been flapped. And it's most definitely because of the man who walked through the wall.

Melinda May has posed:
May DROPS her ICER and the second taser baton, pulling an object no larger than a small pill bottle from her jacket and with a tiny gesture making it pop out to a full-length staff. She advances toward the pinched-faced mutant, her eyes narrowed and her expression as close to openly furious as Skye has likely ever seen.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Head." she grates at the mutant and then attacks him with the staff in open aggression.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The mutant reels back and screams when its stabbed in the eye, blue-black ichor pouring from the wound.. It swings a clawed hand at June hard enough to drive her back if she's hit. Apparently this thing is tough. A wild swing with the second clawed hand comes after trying to keep the ninja away blinded by it's wound and the smoke. Though there's no further mental assault as May comes in with the staff.

The feral mutant's shoulders collapse in on itself, as it mutters. "Not like this, not like this," retreating back through the whole in the wall, using the smoke for cover.

Quake has posed:
Skye can't help herself. As the man pushes himself back through the wall, she stumbles forward, free hand out, imploring, "No.. don't go.. don't.. please.." Only with the smoke and the chaos, she can't be sure he hears, let alone sees her.

She stops, and mutters in a small voice, likely missed in the very same chaos, "Dad."

Melinda May has posed:
Having missed Skye's reaction to the other mutant in her own preoccupation, May swings her staff at the pinched-faced mutant the moment June's far enough away to not risk hitting. She's using every bit of strength she can muster, and aiming to crush the mutant's skull.

Let's see how YOU feel like a splitting headache. She doesn't stop after the first hit, though. She keeps pounding at the mutant until there is ZERO possibility of his cranium having even a chance at retaining structural integrity.

June Connor has posed:
    June clenches her teeth, and grips the head of her foe, rearing back for a palm strike to the kunai to drive it the rest of the way into its skull, but before she can, the clawed hand connects with her right ribs, breaking her hold and landing her in the smoky hallways on her back. She quickly rebounds, twisting around into a crouching ready position.

    The word dad catches her ears, but in the midst of the situation, she is not ready to follow up with any questions.

    "Lumley is here," she interrupts the reflection. "We need to get him out, right?" She abandons the fight with the wounded black-eyed mutant, expecting him to either die, or at least be delayed enough that they can escape. She goes to Lumley's side, and tugs on one arm, trying to pull him up and onto her shoulders. She's not very big, however, and he weighs more than she does. "Damn, why did we knock him out again?" she asks, struggling to hoist him up.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Dad.

That stops the sound of footfalls in the room, but only for a moment. There's a mournful cry, then sound of smashing glass, and a second or two later crunching metal.

The pinch faced mutant continues to writhe knocking May back with a swing of it's arm, before the blood loss from the eye and the blows to it's head bring it to it's knees and then it drops to the floor dead.

Lumley proves a more difficult problem, he's heavy and even though June can hoist him. He's a lot of dead weight.

To complicate matters, one of the dead merc's radios sounds << Extraction 1 you missed check in. Gas is wearing off the neighbors are going to be waking up. Sending back up to your location >>

Quake has posed:
With the sounds of retreat crashing in her ears - more to the point, the sounds of the chaos out here mingling with the crash out there. The wail a mangle wSkye's lips purse into a tight line that would give May's resting bitch face a run for its money, and the girl moves perfunctorily towards Lumley's body. "Why? Because if we didn't get him, they'd have to drag him too. And we've got backup if we need it. Dead weight is harder to move around, let alone without being seen."

Melinda May has posed:
May gets knocked back by the mutant and hits a wall harder than could ever be comfortable, but despite that and the lingering migraint, she stares him down until he's clearly dead. Then she turns to retrieve her scattered weapons and stow them away in her jacket. This is why she wears what looks like a leather jacket in the middle of August.

She watches the two younger women struggle to move the stunned Lumley and somehow manages to refrain from rolling her eyes. It'd hurt if she did right now anyway. "Sit him up." She steps over to try and pull the man into a fireman's carry, because that's the only way they're getting out of here quickly considering the squawk that radio just gave off.

June Connor has posed:
    "Sounds like they have backup, too," June grunts, forcing herself to her feet, one of his arms wrapped around her shoulder, waiting for Skye to reach her to help before she tries to actually walk anywhere. "So lets get out of here before theirs gets here, sound fair?" She looks back at the body of the mutant. "Get my kunai," she says to May. She doesn't like leaving evidence.

Melinda May has posed:
May aborts reaching to help carry Lumley and turns back to collect the kunai as well. And now, she doesn't ask what the kunai is. She knows.

Quake has posed:
Skye is sullenly silent. Moving with mostly perfunctory and curt motions. By this time she's figured out the best way to carry Lumley, and with June's help, gets the man up and over her shoulders in a carry. It's rough going, but she'll manage.

"Let's go. Our window is closed."