The others do what they need to prepare for the mission. Emma stands on the dais, taking in everything she can about these people/other beings as they gathered. Her interest is piqued by the TARDIS which Abby had dragged Alec into, and The Doctor enters soon after. Seems worth looking into how and why three people got into such a small box.
Collaboration with Wade von Doom
As the others got their rest, The Doctor was busying himself with seeing this TARDIS. At least he knew he had a future. Though, stylistically, he disagreed entirely with the aesthetic, it was like a weird beehive cave. He began fiddling with the buttons on the console, seeing what they did. They looked similar to the ones from his TARDIS, so the change wasn't too drastic, but one button did make a loud BOW-WOW Noise. He quickly turned that off, then looked around to see if anybody noticed. Thankfully, Emma would walk into the room before she saw what happened. "Ah! Our mysterious savior." 11 commented, moving around the console to greet her. "I don't believe we've fully acquainted, I'm the Doctor. Well, one of them at least, gets terribly confusing." At least they looked different enough to tell which Doctor was which. They just needed a name beyond 'The Doctor.' "Tell me, how long have you been on this planet? And where exactly did you arrive on it? It's become apparent the location of where 'scattered' arrive is random, some are in the ruins of a city, others in the wild, no rhyme or reason. Though, the same could be said with why we're here at all, and another group is trying to find that answer elsewhere in the main city."
Emma walks into the strange police box, and she immediately assumes it has to be magical in nature even with the technological bells and whistles seen. She greets the Doctor with a nod and slight smile. Trying to probe this one's mind is a mess she gives up. Its like trying to read the mind of a beehive, but bigger and more chaotic.
"I've been here for five years, two months, and thirty days." She answers him first without a moment to think. "And I arrived here, actually, in this very hall."
"What were you doing before you suddenly arrived here?" He asked her, looking down at the console as he finally figured out some of the buttons.
"I was getting ready to address the new students." Emma smiles wider at the memory. For a just a second. "I was Headmistress of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It was, to put it simple as possible, a place for young people with extraordinary abilities to learn how to control their powers for the benefit of themselves and humankind. How tragic that I would come to this place, then, where the gifted and different are actively hunted and imprisoned."
"Hm...." The Doctor moaned, compiling his thoughts. "And you received no contact from anyone as to why you showed up here?" She would've been hunted down by the same soldiers that imprisoned 11's group when they arrived here, but beyond that, she never got an explanation for why she arrived here.
"Did you?" Emma comes up to the console and looks it over, trying to find some sense of this machine without touching.
"No. I tried to reach out for my friends, my allies, even my enemies as far as my mind could reach. Only a Wasteland of feral monsters and a team of men on their way to me."
"Besides you, and a big fleshy planet sized monster, I haven't received a single clue as to why we're all here." Emma would find that The Doctor was looking at a screen overhead in the console's center, and it was scanning the whole planet. "That monster did tell us something though, at least one of its minions did. The legethog r'luhhor, meaning the false god. Sheogorath, the mad god we met in the lobby also echoed that notion, and with this," he brought up the picture of the Centurion on the screen. "It's our only lead to a culprit. Whoever this is, they brought us here for a reason. I could come up with a hundred different theories, but they don't have any proof to support them, except," when the scans finished, he began flashing up the results on the screen.
The image was of the planet, and it scanned for any anomalies. There were a few rifts being shown on several continents, each one different in size, and each bearing the same energy signature that teleported them all to this world.
Emma comes up behind Eleven to look at the screen.
"Well, I can't say I've ever seen someone like that here. Looks vaguely similar to the Ghost Rider of my home universe though." Emma shakes her head "I doubt it's one of them. As for those anomalies; the scientific community may be aware of them, but the government is too concerned with maintaining border security to venture out and study them."
"But if it continues, that will undoubtedly destroy this universe." The Doctor said plainly. "Two worlds shifting into one singular point, it breaks the scientific logic that keeps the worlds apart. I can't even imagine how destructive that would be... I mean, I can, but when I put it into words, it goes, buuuuush." He made that sound, and spread his hands apart to mimic an explosion.
"... But that'd be inappropriate." He looked back at the screen, resting his hands on the console. "We need to find out how this is happening. We already have teams all over the city, and I'm counting on your help to give us some more leads to find those answers."
"Afraid I can't be of much more help, Doctor. I am only the representative who dares to speak for the commoners, after all." She comes around him and taps the screen, on the energy signature closest to New Moscow.
"This? I've heard nothing about it. Project Exodus is a secret shared only in the government, and a serious one at that. But if this is an even deeper secret, I can only think a man named Kane knows more about it. I would have your people find and question him. Which I could, maybe, help with." Emma shrugs.
Suddenly some pieces started coming together. "....This man, Kane. What do you know of him?"
"His name is Kane Kucan. Military Representative. Had his post before I came here. Textbook definition of a warhawk, a fascist through and through." She states without tact and all vinegar. "He looks like this." The Doctor would get a mental image of the man in that moment. "And if he is not overseeing the facility we are going to infiltrate, he would be at the prison overseeing it's misery is being maintained."
Fun sounding lad was this Kane. "Do you have any reason to believe he's also a scattered?"
"I suspect. I made it far as a secret Scattered, after all." Emma steps back and shakes her head "Most people either fear or hate Scattered. But him, I felt it was neither. As if they were a means and an obstacle to him."
"What if.... He's planning on returning to his universe?" The Doctor started to say. "Project Exodus, bit of an easy guess to say he's planning on leaving, and with a ship in mind, that's easy, but why take a ship out into space with only a limited number of people? That's not colony size, you couldn't make a big enough population on some distant planet, especially if they're all political figures from this world. What if instead, he's planning on not just filling up that ship with people, but technology? Weapons, schematics, any advanced or alien technology that's brought here, he puts on that ship, and maybe he's not even going to put those politicians on the ship, but soldiers and those who he's studying in those same prisons made for scattered like him. Things he could use back in his home world, and he can go back because we already know there's something on this world that's creating roads between universes. What if he has that ability to create those roads, and with the technology, he will replicate it in his home world. You say he's a military representative, but he has more power that he should in this place, so that would make him a great manipulator, and people like that would want to be in positions of great power, and to get there, you would need experience in manipulating so many in this big spider web of deceit and deception, so he's an experienced leader that has done this for years if not decades, and if so... What if he's planning an invasion into other worlds across multiple universes?" The Doctor tended to ramble, and as he did, he paced around the console as he spoke aloud his thought process, before looking back to Emma with that question.
What if Kane was planning on creating an empire that expanded beyond any in history? "He might not be the one bringing us all here, but maybe he's going to take advantage of that mysterious power for his own benefit."
Emma stands there listening to the rambling of The Doctor and following his movements, thinking and I thought Deadpool was a rambler.
"Little bit of a stretch, Doctor, but only a bit." Emma nods when he allows her time to talk. "Whatever his full motive, it is vital the others know and get to him soon as possible." She looks around the console.
"Do you have some way to contact your other team? I can't risk extending my telepathy farther out to do it myself."
"They've got radios on them, I'll send the update. You gather up the others. We have a ship to steal!" The Doctor quickly scuttled off to inform the other teams. If his theory with Kane was correct, then they might have a way out of this world.
=================
Emma steps out from the TARDIS and marches to the dais. Her steps echo loudly in the hall. There could be no delay now. If The Doctor was correct, not only was this world doomed, but the universe itself as well; that made this mission all the more urgent. They needed to get this ship, load it, and hope Kane has fitted it with something to escape this universe before it ends.
On the short walk from the TARDIS to the dais Emma makes the decision to keep this from her team. For now. The mission was already asking for them to put a lot of trust in her.
Standing on the dais looking out at the weathered and rotten dance floor, Emma watches those who had volunteered gather.
Abby has donned the armor she took from the prison armory, and holds the rifle it was packed with as well. The Survivalist is slung across her back and Dirt Nap strapped to her right thigh.
Abby's Armor
"I hope you have all used this time wisely. From here there will be no chance to rest or restock. The Doctor will take us in his box to an abandoned subway station near the secret facility. I urge you to stay with the group, and when at the facility, do not speak or act out of turn. Rest assured that with my telepathic powers I can convince all who see our group, that they are seeing only myself and my security detail of human soldiers. Full disclosure, I cannot guide us through the entire facility; eventually they will detect my power and neutralize it. At that point, we must do all we can to steal the ship and fly it to the Exodus Point." When she says 'Exodus Point', all whose minds she can enter receive a mental image of a dull red tower among the others with a faded sign that says 'Paradise Tower' on the top.
"There, you will find my adopted people waiting.I am trusting you all to take them off this world and to safety, even if I do not survive this mission." Emma says solemnly but with resolute conviction.
Emma leads the group from the hall into the TARDIS and provides The Eleventh Doctor with the coordinates for their drop-off. The trip is quick, and the door opens out into a subway tunnel. The light from within the TARDIS cuts through the dark, illuminating part of the large space.
"If you have lights, turn them on, we will need it." Emma informs the others.
"Right on it." Abby turns the light on her Pip-Boy to it's maximum brightness giving her an ethereal green glow.
"Now, follow close." Emma says after all lights are on to find a clear path. They weave around the husks of subway cars, vehicles, unidentifiable rubble, and parts of structures that have fallen through from the surface. They round a corner and see the distant glow of a fire. As the group walks closer they see the fire is contained in a large metal barrel with a grizzled old man in rags warming his hands over it. He has a small shanty home nearby and reeks of booze and filth. Behind his shanty home is a subway car with a pile of rubble on top of it.
The man looks up from the fire to look at Emma Frost, and appears to not see the strange group behind her.
"The A-train just left." The homeless man tells Emma. As if this was a normal day between a commuter and a transient.
"Good. I'm here for the midnight E-Train." Emma replies.
"You're right on time." The homeless man rubs his hands together and beckons for Emma to follow as he walks to the subway car behind his home. The doors, it's windows blacked out, screech open to a brightly lit and well-kept tunnel. A squad of six soldiers stand at attention on either side of the doors. They wear beige uniforms and helmets, are nothing special themselves except the weapons they hold upright with one hand.
The Weapons
Abby looks at them and stops herself from whistling how impressed she is, only thinking how she has to try and get one, maybe two of those before they escape. She has no idea how such a complex-looking gun works, but it looks deadly and that's all that matters.
Frost appears, as her name might imply, chill as a human can be as she leads them in. Within her mind she is performing a multitude of tasks all at once; entering the minds of every soldier not only in front of them, but extending her power to every mind she can reach. The soldiers in this chamber can see with their naked eyes the strange cadre of people escorting her, and those watching the video feeds can as well; Frost twists their minds into believing they are not seeing any of them as out of the ordinary.
"Welcome to the Exodus Facility, Representative Frost. Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Baye." says an older man in the same uniform, with a beret instead of the helmet and the addition of medals and stripes for his rank. He salutes her and the squad of eight follow suit.
"I'm a very busy woman, Lieutenant Colonel. Let's skip formalities and the grand tour, and show me this vessel." Frost tells him. The man clears his throat. Emma feels resistance in his mind.
"We have our orders, unfortunately. Orders are to give you the grand tour to better show the scope of our efforts here. Please, follow me." He responds.
"Fine. But be quick about it, less gravitas the better." Emma huffs. She could overpower his will to take them directly to the hangar, but she is already pushing the boundaries of what may be detected. Best not press their luck.
The long barrel of a rifle comes into Emma's view, and it's aimed at the officer. It was Abby.
What are you doing?!
Covering our asses. He can't see this right?
They all see it, they just are not threatened by it.
Good then the second this goes South, I drop him first.
Emma has a mind to make Abby put her weapon down but the logic is sound. At any minute, they can be discovered and the fight could begin.
"First you will meet with the flight crew of the vessel." The officer starts to lead them. The squad of eight follow behind them, weapons up in a solid line.
The facility is nothing impressive on the surface, being only the long abandoned metro tunnels rebuilt to be habitable.
There is one large central tunnel which goes for two miles before bending off to the right, with lights going down smaller ones that have been dug out of the sides. In this section there are four on either side. To the right they are labeled by simple wooden signs to be Surveillance and Lockers/Showers. To the left are Barracks and Mess Hall. As the group passes, the doors to each are simple metal set in brick and mortar.
They make it around the bend and see this tunnel stretches a further four miles straight forward. There are now six doorways, but they are led to the first on their left labeled Simulation.The squad stands outside the door, ready.
Behind this door with no lock is a circular room with a high dome ceiling and ten white pods arranged in a circle around a central computer that also acts as a beeping and lightly flashing pillar of said room. The pods open, and from each comes a man in a dark blue jumpsuit who stands at attention in a line before Emma Frost and Lt. Col. Baye.
"Representative Frost, meet the flight crew. They have been drilled for the past year in simulated and real flights of the vessel. Without them and their training, Project Exodus is grounded." Baye explains.
"Captain Harold, at your service." The largest man steps forward and salutes.
Emma, while tricking this crew into thinking they were seeing nothing out of the ordinary including the commanding officer being followed by a long rifle barrel, feels the loyalty they hold to their stated mission.
That will have to change.
The crew give no physical indication that their loyalties shift to Markha, the woman with the pink skin who volunteered to be their pilot on this mission.
Good
Unbeknownst to Emma and anyone else, one of the soldiers watching the surveillance feed of the cameras flutters his eyes as Emma's telepathic control falters and he sees the group for what it is.
"What the hell are we looking at?!" The soldier looks from the screen to the five others in the Surveillance room. The others seem to ignore him completely. Training kicks in, and he knows what they may be dealing with.
"Psy-alert!" He yells and slams his thumb onto a yellow button on his panel.
The group hears a hum in the room. Emma falls onto her back on the floor, back arched and eyes rolled into the back of her head. Behind them, they hear a
whirrrr as the weapons of the squad are activated and trained on them through the doorway.
Abby pulls the trigger on her rifle the moment she sees in the peripheral of her vision Emma fall to the floor. Lt. Colonel Baye is riddled with rifle rounds before he can fully turn around.
The veil was down. Now was the time for action.
