Night Work (Emma)

[Dr. Neil Marshal-Timlin]

Neil sat in the Astral plane, floating several inches above a chair. This chair, in the material world, was pushed up against the wall in a nightclub. Even though it was a side room, relatively private, he could still hear the beat of the music. The words were garbled, but Neil wasn't sure if that was due to the distance, or simply because it was dubstep. Either way, he was getting incredibly tired of the noise. By his estimate, he'd been here for nearly four hours; the phone he used to tell the time was significantly less effective in the Astral plane, without a radio signal. For the upteenth time, he considered getting an actual wristwatch, but once again rejected it. As useful as they were, he could never stop himself from fiddling with them when he was bored. It was an annoying habit.

His target—the reason why he was in this tasteless establishment—was sitting at a booth nearby, having a conversation with someone unknown. Their voices were too low-pitched to make out words, but their body language and tones of voice told him everything he needed. His target was self-assured, even smug. The unknown man was tense, and speaking urgently. Neil dug around in one of his pockets until he produced a digital camera, and managed to get a few pictures before the unknown man pushed some money across the table. His target handed over a small paper bag in return. After taking a few pictures, Neil returned the camera to his pocket. SHIELD's facial recognition technology would uncover the man's identity fairly quickly.

The target himself was a known dealer and mutant; one that SHIELD had been watching for quite some time. The drug he pushed was MGH—Mutant Growth Hormone—which was nasty under the best circumstances. SHIELD was content to keep an eye on him, and simply hunt down anyone who he was dealing with. He was a middleman, after all. His clients were, as a rule, far more dangerous than him. Recently, however, they had gotten word that he'd begun selling to the Brotherhood. That complicated matters somewhat, and Neil had been directed to take the man into custody. Unfortunately for him, that required catching the target alone. This was hardly the time and place.

After a few more lines of conversation, the unknown man got up and walked away, apparently pleased with his purchase. SHIELD would deal with him later. Probably after he started displaying the aggression that most MGH users developed. It was a few minutes later when the target himself got up. Finally. Neil breathed a sigh of relief as he began to follow. Maybe this would be his chance.

The target exited the nightclub, and Neil watched from the Astral plane as he pulled out a box of cigarettes. Hmm. It wasn't an ideal situation, with the number of cars still on the street, but perhaps he could make it work. The mission briefing had mentioned the man's powers—something about plasma manipulation—but it was unclear if he used MGH, himself. If he did, he would be a formidable opponent indeed. With the use of his powers, Neil wasn't too worried about his own safety. He'd be able to ignore pretty much any attacks the man used. The rest of the street, unfortunately, would be less immune. Pausing, he considered a plan of attack. It would need to be nonlethal, but incapacitate the target quickly. He didn't want any collateral damage, if he could help it.

[Emma Frost]

Staking outs where never Emma's favorite part of the job. That was other teachers and advanced students area, not the one for the Headmistress of Xavier's Institute. But since this target they were tracking was one that they were tailing for a long time, she couldn't trust her students with a mission this important, and they didn't have that much battle experience anyway. Time were rough for the mutant race, and with the Brotherhood wreaking havoc and the TANKS waiting for any excuse to get them in the superpowered slammer, they had to be really cautious on how they handled the missions. When finally they got the info, they got into it immediately.

It seems the night is the best time for carrying risky and shady bussiness, so they waited until the night was raging with activity on the perilous areas of the city. When she got word of the place were the man would be, she couldn't help but smile. This was so cliché, they always had to go to the bad taste places, blaring music and dizzying lights with dirty environments, hidden between sordid buildings.

She went in alone, using her telepathy to project an illusion where she was dressed on a brown attire, leather jacket with black pants and leather boots, with a bun and some locks cascading at the sides of her face, while in reality she was wearing her all white uniform in case the usual battle ensued. She made a mental note to contact Kurt for watching purposes, after all, shadows made him invisible and he could teleport at a moment's notice. She scanned the place, and found her subject. It wasn't that difficult, his thoughts and those of his client were really obvious for her. A nearby seemingly alone chair bothered her, it looked so out of place on a crowded bar but she had more important matters to attend and after charming a drink out of the bartender, she went to a booth near the target.

They were a long time in, and she cast another illusion on her booth so that no one wanted to get near it, to avoid any interruption, except the ocassional connection to Kurt after he told her he was located on top of the building across the street after she reached him via her Mini cerebro watch, she had all her attention on the exchange held on the small place. The target was trying to find mutants with destructive powers to test a new compound of Mutant Growth Hormone that one of his chemists devised.

What the man hadn't told the obviously needy customer, was that he was buying a sample of the compound, just a twisted form of entertainment for him. She hated him already, mutants like him made the humans hate them more, but she knew better than to fry his brain with her powers, they needed him alive and well to learn more about his clients, if the Brotherhood dealing rumor that tailed him proved true, it'll be something of a large scale and a bad problem in itself.

After he left too, she passed near the chair that struck her as odd. She removed her glove and touched it, her psychometry had gotten a bit better and she felt a faint trace of psychic energy. She alerted Kurt to communicate to the school and tell Scott to be alert in case they were needed on her position.

She went outside, made a mental link with Kurt to see from his position and saw the man ahead of her by half a block. She started walking to the same direction, hoping he went to a more secluded area, she didn't want any harm done to humans, the less problems they could blame on the X-men, the better.

[Dr. Neil Marshal-Timlin]

Neil stuck close to the target, still trying to decide on the best course of action. His plasma creation would be lethal enough without MGH adding to them. If the target decided to use his powers, things could get messy very quickly. Neil had seen plasma in action a few times before. With some encouragement, the man could probably turn the street into a ruin of glass and burning tar. There would be people dead, and a massive amount of paperwork to fill out about why he broke part of the Bronx. Not exactly something that would help the Tanks’ relations with the outside world. There was one solution he had managed to come up with, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to try it. Although it would, almost certainly, keep combat away from the public, it also meant that Neil would be incredibly vulnerable.

The man strolled along the sidewalk at a leisurely pace as he smoked, and Neil ghosted along behind him. Although he was increasingly certain that he had come up with the most effective solution, he was still reluctant to enact the plan. It would be better if he had backup, but he couldn’t get any without revealing he was here. By the time the other Tanks arrived, the target would have either run, or left the street in a smoking crater. Still, Neil paused to go through with his plan. It would work better if he had a more thorough understanding of his target. Besides, Neil wasn’t in any real rush. He could do this all night, if necessary.

Neil paused as an odd sensation struck him, and he glanced back down the street from where he came. He stared for a second, then narrowed his eyes. He knew that uniform…and knew about the woman wearing it. He glanced back towards the dealer, then to the White Queen. Her target was unmistakable. Bloody hell. If the X-Men intervened, it could ruin this mission. Looked like he was going to be acting sooner, rather than later.

Carefully, Neil phased into the material plane, maintaining his invisibility but otherwise becoming completely solid. He felt the ground connect with his feet once again, and inhaled a deep breath of real—if dirty—air. Abruptly the woman quickly approaching his position changed into a less obvious outfit, and he blinked at her. Hmm, good illusion. Completely beside the point, though. Turning back to his still-oblivious target, Neil swiftly grabbed him by the neck, and pulled both of them into the Astral plane. This, at least, would keep him from causing any real damage. Well, any real damage to anyone but Neil.

[Emma Frost]

Everything was going normally as following someone could go. But suddenly, the target dissapeared in fornt of her very eyes. She searched telepathically, but aside the others around her, she picked nothing, so that ruled out invisibility, since that ability doesn't cloak minds, and when standing on the spot, for a faint moment she picked some residual thoughts of another person near the target, so it was clear, the astral plane was involved.

For a moment, her mind left her body. And in front of her, she could see two figures standing a few feet from her. One was the target, with a look of rage and ready to pounce, though disoriented, so it tipped her that he was new to the astral plane. The other, with his back to her, was a man on the short side, but opposite to the normal astral travelling, something struck her as odd... she had heard of a rumored ability to travel to the astral plane all solid and physical, after all, they had to have eyes and ears everywhere. Time in the astral plane is a lot different to the normal one, so she went back to her body even before it started to close the eyes.

She kept doing that until she was into an alley. She contacted Kurt and asked him to keep her body safe on a roof. She entered again, and approached the men.

-"Well, gentlemen, can you be kind enough to invite this lady into the dance? after all, is quite an exclusive place, wouldn't you say?"

[Dr. Neil Marshal-Timlin]

As Neil had predicted, the quick switch between planes had disoriented his target. It tended to do that to people not used to the shift; he’d never really understood why. He took advantage of the quick lapse to take a few steps back and dig through his pockets. It didn’t take him long to find his dart gun, right on top where he’d left it. Good. It would incapacitate the target long enough to get a neutralizing collar and handcuffs on him, and then Neil could take him back to SHIELD. It would be fast, neat, and have absolutely zero collateral damage.

Provided, of course, he lived through the next few seconds.

A blast of plasma shot by Neil’s head, singing the tips of his hair. Unfortunately for Neil, being in the Astral plane didn’t make the target’s powers any less dangerous. Well, to him, at least. At least the people passing them on the sidewalk, absolutely oblivious to what was going on, would be fine. He ducked a second blast before firing, and his shot managed to catch the man in his thigh. Good enough. It was a region with high blood flow; the dealer would be down for the count in a minute or two. Which meant that Neil needed to keep dodging plasma for a minute or two. Lovely. The target was already busy pulling the dart out of his leg, but that only served to give Neil another minute to retreat. The dart would have already delivered the entire dose of sedative.

A voice from behind startled him into turning, and Neil found himself facing the White Queen. Oh, this was just getting better and better. Her form was distinctly incorporeal, as expected. Her access to the Astral plane was different from his own. It also meant that the drug dealer’s plasma blasts would be even more lethal to her. He frowned as she spoke. She didn’t seem to realize how dangerous her current position was. “Apologies,” he replied dryly, ducking another blast of plasma, “But you’re hardly my type. I suggest finding a different partner.”

[Emma Frost]

The target was using plasma, by the looks of it. Missed the other man by a few hairs, but still the heat could be felt. The good side was, people around wouldn't be harmed. Bad side, since he was fully physical, his powers could be used at his fullest.

Bringing that into the astral plane could be dangerous, for a non telepath, that is. This was Emma's territory, certainly not one that she liked to visit that often but the posibilities that she could have, even as a "ghost" where considerable. Certainly the man saw her alright, because his string of attacks ceased while he stared at her, the source of the voice. A white apparition, if you will.

-"Oh well, then if I'm not your type, then you won't mind taking this gentleman as my partner. Now, handsome, let's see what you can do"

She raised her arm, giving a sideway glance to the TANK. She sent an instruction to his brain to paralyze the muscles. She walked towards him.

-"See? he's a doll, surely knows how to please"

Turning to the target, she got near him, and tapped his forehead.

-" Now, please don't give us problems"

She turned to the other man, then again focused into the target. She closed her eyes, and started searching in the man's mind, any chance to get information was to be used as much as it could.

[Dr. Neil Marshal-Timlin]

Neil watched as the dealer stood stock-still, expression obviously panicked. Telepaths did have their uses, as long as they were on the fight side. Neil carefully flicked his consciousness back to the Material Plane, and constructed the mental walls that he’d been trained to use in case of attack. If Frost decided that he was to be the next target, this would, at least, slow her down. He reloaded his dart g un and holstered it, keeping it close in case she decided that she was going to steal his assignment. Although SHIELD’s relationship with the X-Men was a little tenuous, he wasn’t about to just give the target away.

“Thank you for your…assistance, but please be gentle with him,” Neil said as Emma began probing the target’s mind. For now, he’d assume that the woman was just offering assistance. She hadn’t shown any hostilities towards him yet, after all. He had nothing against the X-Men, and there wasn’t anyone watching them. She was probably just interested in the same information that SHIELD was, and her methods of extraction were significantly faster. “I do need him in one piece. Physically and mentally.” As Neil spoke, he began looking through his pockets for a pair of handcuffs and a neutralizing collar. Even if Emma was keeping him restrained now—and the sedative would kick in soon—he didn’t want any unpleasant surprises.

It didn’t take him long to find the neutralizing collar, but the handcuffs had apparently slipped deeper into the dimensional mess. Oh well. They weren’t as critical; he could go searching again after the X-Woman was gone. Drifting over, he clipped the collar around the target’s neck, keeping a close eye on Frost as he did so. Despite the dealer’s paralysis, there were still some signs that the sedative was beginning to take hold. Good; perhaps this case would, for once, be easier than Neil anticipated.

[Emma Frost]

Quiet. Polite. Hmm. They always hid the most surprises. Emma didn't lose time to scan the target's mind, though she was aware of the other man getting out of the astral plane. That only meant, since he wasn't hurt at all, that he has some psychic training, since the other option was that he went out to raise mental blocks.

That was fine by her, his mind wasn't the one she was interested in, for now, anyway.

The dealer was known in the back alley world as "Hot stuff", a lame pun on his powers and the drugs he sold, but his real name was Daniel Ross, though few people knew that. Burn marks changed his appearance so if he saw again the people he knew as a kid, they wouldn't be able to recognize him.

That was mainly the thing that drove him to the edge of humanity. Still, there were many things he had to pay for, despite the background. She found names and faces, and slowly put together the plans this man had. Mainly, get money and favors from the Brotherhood, have mutants from them and unaffiliated ones addicted to the drugs so that he could blackmail them into making a personal army. He wanted to pit the X-men vs. the Brotherhood yet again to make a diversion to steal many of their high ranking secrets.

Great. As if they needed another reason to be fighting against them. But still they were mutant problems, and they had to handle it themselves. The other man (she would ask his name later) wasn't giving off hostile vibes, but she wouldn't take risks. She "downloaded" the most important data from the man's mind. She learned that he was trying to make connections to get info on S-H.I.E.L.D and the TANK program, so she left them alone and left minor mutant targets for them to find, and put others in place of the ones she removed, enough for them to not suspect his biggest plans but enough to give them plenty to work on, some treats for the telepaths she knew they surely had. There were other interesting bits, but she would give the trophy to the TANK to take to his bosses.

She made sure to flatten any mental "wrinkle" she could have left, paying attention in telepathy classes surely had perks.

When she finished, she felt the other man presence and turned to him

-"There, I wanted to make him a big baby, but you wanted him in one piece, physically and mentally, and surely you have him restrained in that kinky BDSM gear. He has plans to expand his power by making his fortune on drug traffic, mutant growth hormone, that by itself is powerful enough, but has a lab where he's trying to mix the most powerful drugs with the hormone

Since you have him captured, I gather you want to take him. So, Mr. TANK, I know you know my name, but I'm not getting into your mind to have yours, I have manners So, can you be a gentleman and tell me your name? I'm sure we'll meet again, if you're the liaison instead of your, well, less polite bosses, operations like these would go better. The X-men will go to the lab's location, can I have a pen to write it down for you?"

[Dr. Neil Marshal-Timlin]

Kinky BDSM gear? Hmmph, like she was one to talk, with her current outfit. She wasn’t leaving much to the imagination. Neil hadn’t even gagged the target. Besides, his ‘other’ gear was back at his house, where she didn’t need to see it, thankyouverymuch. Still, it was nice that she was willing to cooperate, and even better that it seemed she was willing to share information. If the X-Woman had decided to keep the dealer—or erase his memories—there was little Neil could do about it. He was, honestly, surprised she was being so helpful. The X-Men and SHIELD had their fair share of altercations in the past; enough that she honestly had no reason to help them. Perhaps they were trying to improve relations now. Neil couldn’t say he minded that idea. Unfortunately, it was very possible that Frost had manipulated the target’s memories, and made them unusable. He sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case.

The information that Frost was giving him now, however, was entirely accurate. SHIELD had been watching him long enough to know his intentions, although the location of his lab had remained a mystery. The fact that he was trying to mix MGH with other drugs was interesting, however. It would be interesting to see the results of his work.

A name in exchange for the prisoner? Not the most conventional of trades, but Neil was hardly about to complain. “Dr. Neil Marshal-Timlin. Ghost, if you prefer. A pleasure to meet you,” he replied. That in itself wasn’t a secret, and hardly information he minded parting with. Unlike certain other members of the Tank program, it didn’t much matter if his identity became public. He was just as effective either way. Besides, refusing—and annoying the telepath—would end up being far more trouble than it was worth.

Much to Neil’s surprise, it seemed like subduing the target wasn’t to be the end to her helpfulness. Giving him the lab’s location would be helpful indeed, if the information proved to be accurate. Even if the X-Men got to it first, SHIELD could probably still find some valid evidence. Providing, of course, that the vigilantes left the place intact. Neil knew their record for property damage. At Miss Frost’s request, he began digging through one of his pockets. He knew he had a pen. Somewhere. Unfortunately, he had a feeling that it had fallen to the bottom. Neil pushed his hand in deeper, up to his elbow, frowning. “Apologies. Just a moment and I’ll have one.”

Ah. There. Neil’s hand closed around a long, cylindrical object, and pulled it out expectantly. Wait, never mind. That was a laser pointer. He set it aside. Perhaps if he made some room by removing other small items? Grabbing a blind handful, he pulled out and set aside a fire blanket, some loose change, and a clothespin. Still not what he needed. At least he knew it was the right pocket; his extra-dimensional ‘junk drawer’. Nothing explosive or sharp. Continuing, he pulled out a flashlight and note pad. At least the latter would be useful.

[Emma Frost]

Emma stared with interest. He surely took enough time checking his pockets, so they were like a dimensional pocket or something, since he could take out many more objects than the ones he could naturally have been carrying.

It gave her enough time to do a quick scan of his mind. She detected psychic barriers, so she realized that her hunch had been right, he built psychic barriers. At least she knew a bit more, she wouldn't peg him as an enemy but she stashed it away for future reference.

-"So, Ghost. Quite fitting. Is a rare ability you have, now. But we'll have time for questions later, I hope. Those are special pockets you have, too, it seems. I have to be going, so, I guess you'd like to do the honors and keep him in custody. You've been helpful. If you want to get the address, contact me. I'm sure your bosses know my number, but the thing stands that I'll only talk with you."

She approached the sedated target one more time, and implanted him a mental instruction, when he was interrogated she would know what they said to him, a mind link if you will. She was used to "hacking" minds, and since this man's mind wasn't that resistant, she'd make him a remote "microphone", she made sure to conceal it as just a memory of a contact in passing, if they ever found out, couldn't trace it to her.

With that, she waved her goodbye to Neil and disappeared. 500 meters back, Kurt watched as Emma regained consciousness.

-"Kurt, I've got important info. We're preparing for a big operation tomorrow. Could you be a darling and take us to the school?"

[Dr. Neil Marshal-Timlin]

Bloody hell. Neil knew he had a pen in here. Unfortunately, it seemed he was fated to pull out everything else in his pocket first. There was a sizable pile next to him before Ms. Frost spoke up, apparently impatient. He could hardly say he blamed her. Her solution to the problem, however, was somewhat more surprising. She was willing to talk to him. And…only him. Hm, that was going to make things interesting. Still, Neil nodded politely in agreement. “Thank you for your assistance. I will be sure to get in contact with you later.”

Frost went over to the target again, giving Neil a few free minutes to think through her offer. Just this once, he couldn’t wait for the debriefing. The Director’s face would be brilliant. One of the leaders of the X-Men had shown up in person, decided to meddle in SHIELD affairs, and had then claimed that she would rather speak to him, than anyone higher ranking. Neil wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about this new arrangement either, to be fair; he would far rather be doing field work than acting as a messenger. If it managed to irritate Fury more than him, however, he would still consider it a net gain. Hopefully, it would be a while before SHIELD had to deal with any emergency involving the mutants.

The X-Woman gone, Neil’s attention turned back to the target. He was out cold by now. Good. Interruptions aside, his shadowing and capture had gone fairly well. The only thing left to do was to get them both back to the Helicarrier. Hoisting the man up to his shoulder, Neil began the walk to somewhere more discreet. He would need to call in for a medical team; it was standard procedure for any use of sedatives, even if the target seemed to be fine. Better to do so somewhere that wouldn’t procure as much attention. Even if he was fully within his rights to appear in the middle of a sidewalk, he still wasn’t keen on the idea of getting more civilians involved. This had gone smoothly so far. No need to tempt fate.

((And thread closed, unless you want to add another post.))