Face the Facts (ID)

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Grateful as she was that Max was still able to play the part of a journalist convincingly and that Ryan and Percy hadn't completely lost their cool, Lydia could only sit in her seat and hope that Will could keep it together. She was nowhere near his facial nerve and it was too late to turn back in case the morph started to fail. And a bit tricky, given her present location. While blood was thick and somewhat difficult to pilot Proteus II in, piloting through cerebrospinal fluid was like steering a submarine through pudding.

Then again, at this point, what else could they do besides escape? Lydia couldn't deny that she was anxious to get to LunArc HQ now that they knew where it was, and she was starting to care less how they went about it or how quietly they accomplished it. The clock was ticking on her oxygen tanks.

She gritted her teeth and shook herself off, reminding herself that she wasn't the only one in imminent danger here. She just had to trust Will and Max. And continue to offer her own commentary. "Ask him who's on the preliminary testing crew."

[DanteMGalileo]

Okay, Will didn't like the way his face felt. Just try to hold it together. Do it for Lydia. Do it so you can only mostly fuck up Max's plan instead of completely.

"... Ah, yes, of course. The PathEngine suit will be returning to the main faculty today." Gotta keep it together, don't freak out, just pretend everything's normal, oh hey did his nose just change or is that a delayed reaction from the two-day-old booze? Will's just gonna pretend it's the latter for now. "If- nay, when it succeeds, we will further revolutionize the biotechnical industry. Imagine this- shrinking a pilot and sending them on a mission to destroy the cancer before it becomes a problem!" Just pretend you didn't feel that weird twinge on your cheek. "Remind me again, technician, who will be joining us today?"

Flap, flap.

"A-Ah, is he well enough? Mr. Stone? I mean, I know LunArc's repair capabilities are the best in the world, but even still, would exercising some caution be safe in this case?" Anything to avoid potentially running into the psychopathic guy that kidnapped him. Who apparently had a name.

"No need to be too cautious, Will, we've got your back..." Percy muttered to himself, still charging up his spell. Now he's just gotta wait for an opening...

"... So, I feel like this calls for a celebra- ah!" For fuck's sake Will, hold the face morph! Even if green asshole birdy suddenly materializes in your general direction! Gah! Wh-Where the hell did he come from?!

"Ah, good doctor, I was wondering what was up," Liderc said in response. "I must say, it's better than what I expected. After all, I got a call saying we had an infestation..." He looked directly at 'Doctor Kent' and his slowly changing nose, before turning back to the technician. "So, why don't we break out the champagne and celebrate?" A green swirl of fire formed in the angel's hand, vaguely resembling a bottle. "No need for real pain, right, Doctor Kent?" And with that, he shoved the fiery bottle close to Will's face, narrowly avoiding burning the guy...

OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH MY VISION WHY IS IT SO BLURRY ALL OF A SUDDEN OH GODS MAKE IT STOP-

"Doctor Kent! What's going on!? Are... are you okay?!" Percy ran past Ryan and Max, checking on Will and what the hell is that?!

Will's face was shaking wildly, features contorting, jawline receding, making a weird screaming sound, nose smoothing, lips thinning, hair coming loose...

And then it stopped, the blonde's hair a wild mess from the shaking, said man feeling his face with relief, quickly turning into shock-

"Hello, William Lowe. I believe you have something we need, you blonde buffoon."

[ColArana]

Ryan's eyes narrowed in on Liderc. In obvious horror, at this development. Fuck. Language, Ryan. Geeze. There went.... Basically everything. Somehow, Liderc had busted Will's disguise. Time to do what he could do. Ryan gave Max a look, his eyes open in panic. "Go." He whispered to her and Percy.

"Doctor Kent, what's wrong!?" Ryan exclaimed, hoping to preserve the facade, and the technicians confusion for even a handful of seconds longer. Just enough to keep him confused at the current events for a few moments and give Max, Will and Percy a few more moments to take action while his own reaction was delayed. Ryan tried to rush around Will's side, and, as he did, conveniently "tripped". "Whoa!" He exclaimed, as his body flew forward at a somewhat alarmingly fast velocity.... Right into Liderc, attempting to ram the angel to the floor with about three hundred or so pounds of metal, while covering it up as a somewhat dramatic stumble, and pin the angel to the ground.

Ryan didn't even know what he was doing in that moment. He'd said he'd get the group through this, or out of this. Whichever the choice was-- abandon the plan or hack it out from here, was in Max and Will's hands. All Ryan could hope to do was delay the complication for about a few moments, and give them enough time to make that call...

[ParamountKeymaster]

Hearing William's answer to her improvised question prompted Max to write a note on that, not just to keep up the facade, but out of genuine curiosity. "So the purpose of this suit is to conduct... miniaturized, internal micro-surgery?" How exactly did Will know that? Did he read it in one of the letters in Andrew's office and she just missed that detail, or...?

Before she could go further into detail, Will asked about the crew running the preliminary tests on the PathEngine suit. He seemed apprehensive when he heard Mr. Stone was attached to the project, and Max had a good idea why.

But again, before that could be examined more thoroughly, a newcomer suddenly approached the group, drawing dangerously close to Will in the process. It took Max only a second to recognize Liderc, and when she did, she reacted by jumping back a few feet and suppressing a mortified shout. Just when she though things couldn't get any worse! What was he doing here?!

Ryan's order to run seemed to go right over Max's head. All she could do was stand there rigid as Liderc threatened Will with fire. Under that sort of intensity, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he lost control over his disguise, but still, the process of morphing back to his normal face was... unsettling. Grotesque. It only served to further petrify Max with terror-induced nausea.

And just like that, from just about every angle, they were screwed.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Lydia couldn't help but whine. Of course Mr. Stone was working on the PathEngine. Because why wouldn't they have to fight their way through every one of their enemies before they got the chip back? OH AND SPEAK OF THE DEVIL, NOW THERE WAS A GREEN MUG FILLING HER MONITOR.

"What the...?!" The LunArc technician seemed just as taken aback as the others by this turn of events, if more out of anger than fear. "Who are you?!"

He was rather quickly shut back up when the interloping angel summoned a pillar of green fire much too close for comfort with Will's face. In his place, Lydia provided an adequate summary of this situation. "Oh sh*t..."

"WARNING: ADRENALINE LEVEL INCREASING. STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY CANNOT BE MAINTAINED."

"Oh sh*t...! Will...! Will, ya gotta stay calm!"

She could tell from the turbulence outside that staying calm was not a possibility. Her monitor briefly went fuzzy, something Lydia took as a sign that Will's eyes were readjusting to their typical position, undoubtedly along with the rest of his face. Hearing Liderc address Will by name only further cemented how much trouble they were in.

"SH*T."

Ryan rammed into Liderc out of the corner of Will's eye. Seeing this action taking place snapped Lydia out of her stupor, prompting her to take action as well. "WILL, RUN! HEAD FOR THE HANGAR! RUN!!!"

[DanteMGalileo]

Liderc grunted when Ryan slammed into him, more out of shock than out of actual pain. So, his plan was to exploit his heavy body and pin him down to buy the others time? How disgustingly noble. "You know..." The angel's voice was low, in Ryan's ear. "I like it rough sometimes, but not like this. Also, at least buy me dinner first." With a shout, Liderc's body burst into flames, far hotter than what a human could take. Once the metal man was off him, Liderc swatted Ryan with a fiery palm, the rest of his body returning to normal. "Call security. Or not. I don't care," he said to the technician, walking up to the very-stunned Will, a smaller version of his usual naginata forming...

Will gulped, looking around frantically for some way out. No windows, no way to tell just where those doors went... Lydia told him to get to the hangar, whatever that was. He grabbed Max's wrist, and began to run. "I promise I'll explain everything! Hangar! We need the hang-" A wall of flame burst into existence, blocking their path.

"I believe we're not going anywhere. You, reporter," Liderc addressed Max first. "If you'll hand over your notes and never speak of anything you saw in here, I will let you leave unharmed. As for you..." He turned to Will with a wicked grin, licking the blade of his weapon. "I'm not allowed to kill you, but you ruined my ship, so I'm going to take it out of your arse, this time for real. Now, shall we-"

"DUSK TEMPEST!!"

A blast of shadowy energy slammed into Liderc, knocking the angel off his feet. The darkness lingered, dimming the lights of the faculty, the wall of flames dying down. Percy stood to his full height, shaking lose his hair, sword materialized. "Max, Will! You two get out of here! I'll get Ryan and handle these guys!" Whipping around, the brunette pulled off a shoe and tossed it at the technician, running in Ryan's direction.

"... Fuck. This is bad. Bad bad bad..." Will mostly muttered to himself. He turned to Max with what he hoped was an apologetic expression. "... Hangar. Percy can handle himself. We can trust Ryan's safety to him. We need to get out of here. Hangar."

[ColArana]

Fire!? This guy could ignite in fire! Crap! Crap! Crap! Ryan flinched back and was shoved off of Liderc by the attempt, rolling along the ground to put the flames out. "What are you waiting for!?" He exclaimed at Max while she stood there, stunned. He rolled back and forth to put out the flames and finally started to stand up. If he had adrenaline left in his body, it would have been surging through it. Instead he found himself, thinking in near perfect clarity. Near perfect that is-- because although he may have lacked many of the other biological functions that made humans make irrational decisions under pressure, his brain was still human all the same, and it was in full freak-out mode. "I told you I'd make sure you all got out of here, right!? So get going!" He exclaimed, looking at the technician as Percy chucked a shoe at him. "I'm sorry about this!" He exclaimed. And then punched the poor guy in the jaw, exerting just enough force to knock a human out.

The real problem was Liderc. Percy had bought the group a little bit of time by his magic attack. Ryan had to do what he could to help. Ryan lifted up his left arm-- the arm he'd used to solder the door back into place. The burns from the flame had peeled back some of the skin, and a metallic sheen was showing through. Ryan winced at the sight, but he did what he had to do. His fist glowed with electricity and sparks, as he overloaded the circuits, running through his hand and ran at the prone angel before trying to land a wide haymaker on Liderc. "Do as he says Max! Hurry!" Ryan pleaded with her as he attacked the greenskin.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"AAH!!!" Seeing the angel set himself on fire with her teammate still on top of him startled Max out of her inertia. "RYAN!!!"

Before she could take any further action, though, Will grabbed her by the wrist and started hauling her away, only for a wall of fire to cut them off after a few awkward stumbles. Max whipped around to face Liderc, responding to his ultimatum and the threats directed at Will by growling, holding her notebook to her chest, and plunging her hand into her tote. Percy's spell kicked in before she could try her initial idea, breaking Liderc's concentration on his flames and giving Max and Will back their escape route.

She spared a quick, terrified, anxious look in Percy and Ryan's direction, then despite her apprehension, she turned and started sprinting down the hall. "Hangar! Got it!"

Running as fast as she could, Max led Will in the direction they had tried to take prior to their discovery, eyes constantly on the lookout for directories and other employees. Along the way, her racing mind fumbled to piece together what just happened. They'd dealt with Liderc yesterday, sure, but between the technician's apparent lack of familiarity with the angel and Liderc's own cryptic words, his role in this heist was somehow even less clear than before. "I don't get it! What does this guy want with you?!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

The technician was well and truly stunned silent by that point, looking between the angel and the man whose face had just morphed from Andrew's to a total stranger's like he was witnessing the most effective horror movie ever made. It took him a while to start stumbling away from the increasingly chaotic scene, but getting a shoe tossed at him was the final incentive for him to run away and find some help. A sharp uppercut from one of the intruders was enough to end his search before it started.

He slipped out of consciousness unaware that the journalist and the impersonator had escaped along with some highly valuable cargo...

Lydia's eyes constantly checked her monitor, anxiously tracking Will and Max's route through the facility, hoping beyond hope that the hangar wasn't much further away. Aside from a nervous squeak, she didn't speak when Max questioned Liderc's involvement. Again, she could only pray that Will kept his trap shut about her, not just for Max's sake, but because who knew who else might hear them in these hallways?

All the while, Lydia fumbled with her instruments, booting up another program. One that she had not used in a long, long time. One that she knew was going to be hell to control, but insert desperate times cliche here.

Two compartments on either side of the pod's cabin opened up, unfolding into two identical cylinders, each one split horizontally in the middle by adjustable ball joints, hanging from the ceiling by two extremely mobile and intricate metal elbow rods like complex dental exam lights.

[DanteMGalileo]

"I'll explain once we're out of here!" Will shouted back, following Max's lead through the faculty. "I'm sure they've got eyes and ears in every single wall here! If they knew, they'd... they'd have their way with me, let's just say that much for now!" Muttering curses to himself, Will managed to call his sword to hand. "Max! Get your electric gun out! Best be safe than sorry here, yeah?!"

Want to know what I don't like? Where this is going! Gah! Where the fuck is the hangar!?

---

"... So sad. You take one little punch, and you fall over," Liderc shook his head at the fallen technician. Such a weak species. "Now then, I believe I'll be removing your l- GAH!!"

WHAM!!

Ryan's electrified fist slammed into Liderc, sending the angel reeling, stunned from the sudden attack. And this is why you don't gloat, kiddos. Percy caught Liderc, seizing the angel by the hair, before turning to Ryan with a serious expression. "Ryan, promise me you won't tell a soul about what I'm about to do here." Once he was assured of Ryan's silence, Percy nodded and turned back to face Liderc...



After that, Percy slammed Liderc face-first into a wall, and began running, dragging the angel along, grinding the green annoyance against the hard surface, going the opposite direction as Max and Will.

[ColArana]

A sigh of relief escaped Ryan's lips as he saw Max and Will disappear around the corner and out of sight. They were in the clear. For now. "Percy, can Will take care of himself?!" Ryan asked the man fighting beside him. Now that stealth and subtlety had gone out the window, he was very much concerned for the group's well being. His fist crackled a few times, like a stun baton.

Ryan was taken aback by the look on Percy's face. "Uhh.... yeah. Of course, Percy." He replied. And then stared in bafflement at what Percy did next. "I uhh.... I'm guessing you don't need.... help, huh?" Ryan murmured, taking a step or two back in shock. He gave a dry swallow. "Do you have this under control... Percy? Do you need me to stay and help, or do you want me to go after Will and Max?" He asked. As he asked this, Ryan's body emitted a pulse of sonar, just as he had back in the alleys, to try and track the duo's progress. He needed to know where they were heading so he could catch up with them if Percy had this handled. He was kind of worried about what trouble there might still be to get into.

After hearing an affirmative response from Percy, Ryan nodded. "Then kick his ass, and catch up to us!" He exclaimed, and started booking it down the hallway. The sound of heavy footsteps exploding like machine guns down the hall as bionic legs launched and fired faster than human muscles could manage and Ryan began to try to sprint to catch up to Will, Lydia and Max. He was working his body's internal sonar to try to keep aware of his surroundings, and track if security was on their way to intercept them yet.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"You better explain!" Max hollered back, holding Will to that promise. The further she dug herself into this half-baked rescue mission, the more aggravated she became with it.

As they dashed through the winding halls, Max blindly searched through her tote bag for her taser gun, a task made much more difficult by the multitude of items inside and the awkward movements of her run. She still hadn't found it by the time a LunArc employee rounded a corner in front of them, quite reasonably startled by the two intruders charging through the facility. In response, Max ducked and tumbled across the floor next to the technician, leaving him open for a well-timed strike from Will.

Upon springing back onto her feet, Max found herself looking through a window, beyond which was an assortment of cars, vans, jets and planes of various shapes and sizes. "There it is! Will, this is the hangar!"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Oh, thank God..." Lydia breathed the moment Max announced they had reached their destination. "Lemme take a look!"

She gave herself a moment to study the various modes of transportation docked inside the elaborate garage. Most of them seemed to be cars and vans, though she wouldn't doubt that at least a few of them were transforming hybrid vehicles like that Mercedes from yesterday. What did catch her eye almost immediately was the personal jet lined up against the far wall, not too far from what was hopefully the hydraulic door to the outside world. Not too big, a window count that conveyed enough seating for the whole team, a sleek and shiny look, adjustable wings equipped with turbine fans... even from her awkward vantage point, Lydia could tell at a glance that those engines could take them through space just as easily as they could carry them through the atmosphere.

Few could blame Lydia for the sudden burst of excitement she was experiencing. The girl was a pilot after all.

"Ohh, baby, that's our ticket outta here! Get inside! Head for that jet back there! The silver one with the red stripe!"

All the while, Lydia continued to flip switches on her instrument panel and get a new system up and running. It was a good thing the brain had no pain receptors, otherwise hardwiring all of these cables into Will's motor cortex would've caused one wicked migraine.

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Ah! That one! We need to take that one!"

Okay, the badge thing had opened the door to the hangar. Yay. Another yay for Lydia guiding him and Max towards the right one. "That's gotta be the best way out! Looks like we'll all fit in, too! I think..." Sounded vaguely like Percy was dragging someone along the wall somewhere else in the faculty, and he heard heavy footsteps. He whipped his head back, and was relieved to find that the source of that noise was Ryan. "Good timing! Where's Per... forget it! He can handle himself, perks of being a space chimera bullshit thing!"

Okay, now how do we get out of here? There's no door big enough to get the jet out. Unless... Will grimaced slightly. "Well, we're already inflicting a ton of damage as-is... Might as well go big or go home, security's gonna be on our collective tokhes either way." He inhaled, and ran up to the metal blocking their way out, sword drawn. Shouting, he plunged the glowing blade into the wall, creating a hole and a series of cracks. "This'll be enough. Just don't freak out." And with that, his sword vanished and the blonde placed his hands into the hole, pulling in opposite directions, slightly straining, slowly creating a wide enough gap for the jet...

Pendleton, you owe me big time!!

[ColArana]

Ryan's sonar was picking up Will and Max just ahead. Good! That was great! He didn't have augmented hearing, so when he heard their frantic voices ahead, he knew they were close. "Coming through!" He exclaimed, skidding to a stop. Ryan didn't look.... great, after Liderc's little fire trick. The clothing that he had been lent was burnt and scorched, and his arms especially looked a bit frayed, with the metal being visible. Ryan was trying not to look at his arms.

"How are we doing!?" He exclaimed, his body emitting a soft 'ping' sound. "Yeah, Percy's doing fine. Looks like he's winning." Ryan answered quickly, as he watched Will try to get through the door. "I'll keep an eye out for security, while you get us in." He said. Despite having sprinted to get there, Ryan didn't seem out of breath. "I'm assuming this is the right place at least, right?"

Seeing Will struggling with trying to crack open a gap, Ryan slapped his forehead. "Will, the doctor probably had an access card you idiot!" He groaned as he moved forwards. "I've got this." Ryan shoved his own hands into the hole, joining with Will, and exerting the same strength that ripped the bathroom door off its hinges earlier, worked to make a hole wide enough for the group to get through. "We're on the clock, let's go!"