Subject: [OTL]: HellsX 19 Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 20:53:25 -0700 (PDT) From: D Benway HellsX [19:45] On The Same Page Produced by Benway. See notes for disclaimer. _______________________________________________________________________________ "Let's go through this again, one more time," snarled the Professor. The Professor was in Bad Coach mode, as if everyone had completely fucked up their combination jumps in the short programs of the semi-finals. "First, the perimeter," said the Professor. "Pryde. You were supposed to intercept all intruders." "Got the one with the camera, my master," said Kitty. "What were your orders regarding any intruders?" said Frost. "Deal with them, my master," said Kitty. "Got the camera, drove the other one away." "Have you ever heard of a euphemism, Miss Pryde?" said Frost. "Yes, my-" said Kitty. "Stop the 'my Master' crap right now," said Frost. "It's getting on my nerves. Provide a definition or example of a euphemism." "Minimum healthy weight," said Kitty. Ororo snickered, then cringed as Frost glared at her. "Given your perverse point of view, I must conclude that you understand," said Frost. "Here is another example. Scott uses the phrase 'deal with' to mean subdue with near-lethal or fully lethal force. The only good witness to an operation like this is one who is in custody or is dead. Understand?" "Yes," said Kitty. "Which brings us to you, Worthington," said Frost. "As your comrades come under assault from a massively empowered alien, you're off taking a night flight around the perimeter." "There wasn't much I could contribute to a fight like that," said Worthington. "I heard something in the bush, found that witness. She spent the whole walk to Ground Zero telling me how she was going to tell everyone in town about what she'd seen." "Why do you even bother to lie?" said Frost. "Your cowardice has served us well, this time. Deviate from your orders again and I'll send you to Doctor McCoy." Worthington grunted, but Kitty could smell the fear. "Rasputin," said Frost. "You were to go in after Drake and Summers had subdued the target. You were not to attack it until it had been subdued." "I saw an opportunity," said Rasputin. "Initiative was not asked for," said Frost. "We gave you those orders for a reason. Next time, read the damned briefing notes beforehand." "It would have been the first time the notes had advised me better than my own instincts," muttered Rasputin. "And how well did your instincts serve you this time?" said the Professor. "Not so well," said Rasputin, staring at the table. "Which leaves us with Ms. Monroe," said the Professor. Kitty glanced over at Ororo, whose arm was bound up in a cast, after breaking it during her fall. "The attack was to go in under cover, as provided by a heavy rain," said Frost. "There was nothing in the orders about thunder and lightning." "Something went wrong," mumbled Ororo, staring at something under the conference table. "I did not ask you to tax your abilities," said the Professor. "You should have been able to produce a small rainstorm without fainting, if you could have been bothered to eat your dinner instead of flushing it down the toilet." "Did eat," mumbled Ororo. "Why do you even bother to lie?" said the Professor. "I can read your mind, what little there is of it. You flushed it because you decided that our new recruit was thinner than you were, and that you had to start losing again." Ororo whimpered. "You're going to see Dr. McCoy this afternoon," said the Professor. "You will be fed. You will eat. If you do not, I will personally come down and ram a tube up your nose and fucking well feed you myself." "No," whispered Ororo. "Yes," said the Professor. "So you will eat?" Ororo nodded. "If you do not, you will have lied to everyone here," said the Professor. "If something like this happens again, all of their deaths will be on your conscience, alongside your mother's." Ororo froze, staring at the Professor. "She'll do it," said Summers. "I'll see to it." "I'm sure you'll do your best," said the Professor. Kitty glanced back at Ororo, who was still staring at the professor. Ororo was weeping. Tears were good. They reduced the fluid content of the body significantly, and any suppressed sobbing was quite effective at burning off calories. "As usual, it was Logan who managed to save all of you," said the Professor. "While I applaud your initiative over disposal of the heart, I must ask you not to take a risk like that in the future. You are the one member of this team we cannot do without." "Yes, my master," hissed the darkness in the corner of the room. "That having been gotten out of the way, let's go over the official version one more time," said the Professor. "We have successfully executed our side of the bargain, with regards to containing the alien. We attempted to stun it with a lightning bolt in order to effect capture, but were unsuccessful, and the creature attacked the team with intent to kill. Through the combined efforts of the team, the alien was subdued, and, unfortunately, killed, though not before his assault had also killed the co-conspirator Alexander Luthor." "They won't buy that last part," muttered Rasputin. "If you had read the briefing notes, Piotr, you would know that the alien could fire heat beams from his eyes. The effects have been documented as being very similar to lightning strikes in their effects upon plastics, metals, and human flesh." "Stretches plausibility," said Summers. "What's the point?" said Bobby. "They saw us fuck up." "The point, Mr Drake, is that they have no record of it," said the Professor. "The region was under the surveillance of a satellite owned by one of our companies, and Logan took care of the equipment in Castle's chopper. What goes on the record is our testimony and theirs, and the true causes of this little disaster all vanish into the fog of war." "Standard operating procedure," said Summers. "Standard operating procedure in the event of a catastrophic fuck-up in the field," said the Professor. "Any questions?" "I-" said Bobby. "Yes?" said the Professor. "Those girls," said Bobby. "What about them?" said the Professor. "What were we going to do with them?" said Bobby. "Any intruders caught within the operational zone were to be handed over to the Sentinels at the end of the operation," said Summers. "To Castle," said Rasputin. "What I did was a mercy," hissed Logan. Kitty had watched the entire clean-up as Summers and Castle had argued for an hour over contractual details. When that had gone beyond being boring, she'd watched two troopers pour napalm over the remains of the women and the corpse from the car, then torch the lot with a flamethrower. "Yes," said Summers. "It certainly was a mercy." 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