After Team Waterbreathing reports back, X-Force makes an ugly decision to give the nature spirit a sacrificial death.

Content Warning: Discussion of murder. Actual kidnapping.



Amanda sighed as she sat down in the back seat of one of the SUV's they'd rented to get around. "Well," she said. "It looks like ritual murder is the only way to go."

Topaz had been watching the downpour out the window, but it was a little hard to ignore ritual murder. "I can follow the thought train to ritual murder, but it feels like we're skipping a few stops?"

"Fair enough." Amanda scrubbed her face with her hands and shoved back her hair. "So, Baltimore's under attack by one fucked-off nature spirit who hasn't appreciated the metric tonnes of garbage and waste that have wound up in the bay. We tried appeasing her with the airy-fairy magic, but that didn't work. Seems Old Crabby is determined to destroy the whole city and won't listen to reason. So we're looking at wave upon wave of angry sea life vengeance until the place is rubble and there's no more humans to fuck things up."

"And so now we show her? them? it? Ugh, gender." Marie-Ange leaned back against her seat tiredly. "Now we show the spirit that we are willing to play the hardball game and kill for her? Will that work?"

"The spirit's one angry, ugly bitch, so I'm going with female." Amanda replied. "And it's all about vengeance. The spirit is torqued off about the damage that has been done and wants blood. In this case, literally. If we do a blood sacrifice, it should appease her. If we pick the right person to sacrifice."

Rubbing at the corner of where her bridge met eye, a careful soothing motion between her normal nails and, well, eyeballs, Felicia sighed. "I'm not dissecting that right now but you probably should," she said, before increasing volume. "So! I'm gathering you already have some options. Bring forth, will point."

"The target has to be local, and awful. Who knows the most about the local political scene?" Marie-Ange was already tapping out notes on her phone, coded initials and short phrases that would make no sense to anyone not in X-Force and perhaps little sense to her team. "We have to move fast, more than a few hours.. " She looked up. "Amanda, how close to panic is the city?" and then back down at her phone. "So we need a quick target, close by, enough power to make a difference, not enough that we have to worry about personal security."

"As close as it can get without completely losing it?" Amanda replied. "I keep trying to make suggestions, but Baltimore has Issues. In terms of targets... someone that can be held responsible for the spirit's grievances would be best."

"Shockingly, Baltimore is full of terrible politicians," Topaz said dryly, scrolling through a list on her phone. "Darcy might have a better idea of who exactly would be a good target. Re-homing the spirit might not hurt either. It'd probably be a lot happier in some clean water somewhere nearby."

"Can we steal an aquarium? The National, preferably," Felicia positioned, drumming her fingers. "They'd probably like somewhere clean where aquatic life is respected. Can't imagine the fish are grumpy being in one of the top three aquariums in the country."

"I imagine the focus on education and environmental causes will not hurt." Marie-Ange agreed. "We have a potential victim, and a plan. Felicia, do you have local insight into breaking into the aquarium?" By this point, all their phones were buzzing with Marie-Ange's weird shorthand texts. "Blueprints, plans, thief things? Also somewhere to get a boat. I do not even know where to start on boats."

"Boats and blueprints are easy enough. The rest..." Felicia shrugged, clearly not loving the lack of time but confident. "It's going to be a bit tech-y. Even if we weren't on such a crunch, which eliminates all but the most basic of recon for patterns, everything is monitored both for general security and educational data. With some short term loops and luck it shouldn't be impossible, though."

"It's the best option we've got," Amanda said, with a resigned noise. "And with the way things are escalating, it's the only option we've got. Let's go do a murder."



Darcy, Wanda and Natasha kidnap a local politician. He's absolutely the worst kind of human, and is certainly responsible for several horrible political decisions that caused this entire crab-tastrophy




Marie-Ange had relayed the plan that she and Felicia had brainstormed, handing off notes via encrypted text message before disappearing off to delegate slightly less horrible jobs. She had pointed Natasha and Wanda in the direction of a rental car, handed Darcy the keys, and was gone in the space between one text and another.

~Take pictures Kevin needs them~ had pinged on all their phones a moment later.

"Huh, alright, so!" Darcy started with a merry jangle of the keys as they slid into the car. "Our dude is Paul Bryan, he's on the state senate and part of the committee that covers the environment. And let me just say, Senator Bryan has been a very naughty boy, rolling back protections and diverting funds specifically meant to help with ecological issues in the Chesapeake Bay area. We've got an appointment with him as concerned citizens, but he'll probably try to blow us off. Maybe even best if he succeeds, honestly. But we need to nab him somehow. Thoughts?

Natasha had claimed the passenger seat and nodded in approval at the tinted front windows. They were going to need to stay as unseen as possible. It wouldn't do to have their faces splashed across the news as the last ones to have been seen with whoever this Senator asshole was. "Hmm, does he have a specific lunch spot he likes to frequent we could capture him from? Or some seedy business he attends to on the daily?" Natasha tapped her fingers against the armrest. "Or maybe someone can get his secretary to get him to take an impromptu meeting with a high flying donor and we snatch him then?"

Wanda’s fingers flew over the screen of her phone. “Thanks to Douglas, we have access to his schedule and calendar. His ‘secretary’ added a very important, last minute late dinner meeting just a few minutes ago with an old acquaintance.” She looked up and smirked. “Bryan slept with this gentleman’s wife a while back and thinks this is about a little bit of blackmail. He confirmed attendance - and indeed blew off our original meeting.”

Leaning forward between the front seats, she showed Darcy and Natasha the address.

"Oh good, it's close. Not a ton of cameras either, and he's. Well, politely, easily led. We can probably get him in the car without fuss, or we can get him into his car with a passenger. It wouldn't be outside the norm, he likes his extended lunch 'meetings'... and pinching asses he has no right touching, but that's not why he made the top of the shortlist." Darcy refocused on traffic, and a few minutes later they were pulling up to the side of a nondescript building with no cameras in sight. "Negotiation first, or snatch and grab?"

"Snatch and grab," Natasha said without pause. There was too much going on for them to waste time on a negotiation. They needed this done and settled sooner rather than later. "Besides, if he got to this position he's not going to be as dumb as he appears. Most of them usually have some sort of animal intelligence when it comes to working the crowd."

"Agreed - snatch and grab. He's anticipating this being a meeting with a potential husband looking for some blackmail. Negotiation is going to be a harder sell when he realizes there is no husband." Wanda snorted. "Easily led is one thing, even he might be suspicious of that."

"Mm, that's fair. Alright, I guess it's time to snag this asshole." She turned the car off, sliding out of the driver's seat before pocketing the keys. "I've never done this before, so. Literal grab and frogmarch to the car?"

"Too obvious." Wanda continued to think as she slipped out of the car. "We need to abscond with the target between the building and his car, without being seen by someone in the restaurant, any cameras, or his driver. I can render the cameras useless the moment we are ready to go - Nat, can you work your magic for the other portion"

"I should be able to. The question is how big of a distraction are we wanting?" She pulled a few smoke bombs and stun bites out of one of the pockets on her leather jacket. "If we want something that's more slight of hand, I'll need a few minutes to set up a plausible scenario that doesn't involve crashing a car."

"My normal distraction tactics are popping a few buttons or making an embarrassment of myself, and neither one is a good option for this." Darcy eyed Nat's smoke bombs warily. "I don't think we want anything a good samaritan might run towards, either."

(watch this space for more of this log)



Meanwhile, Artie and North steal a boat for Later.



The dock had an abundance of boats. Sail boats, little motor boats, a few pontoon boats, even a few fishing boats that bragged of money and the time to go fishing. Better yet, it had a single fence, with one shoddy lock standing between the access road and the boats. Artie rattled it slightly and smiled slightly.

It only took seconds to tease it open and walk on in. He locked the gate behind them, helpfully. Wouldn't want anyone to break in after them. Artie looked at the various options surrounding them critically. The small ones were clearly off limits. They all looked like one wrong move would lead the whole thing turning over and everyone drowning. The fishing boats were probably going to be complicated. Which left some medium looking boats. He stared at one and frowned. "Do you know how to drive a boat?" The text shimmered in the air and vanished. Hire Boat and arrows pointed at a few with obvious logos from one of the hire places. "Those ones probably have manuals. How hard can driving a boat be?"

"Yes," North affirmed, one hand tucked into the pocket of his trench coat as he surveyed the area. "Like driving a car without brakes."

He pointed at one of the medium-sized boats Artie had shortlisted that could comfortably carry four people and a dead body. "Would you like to learn?"

"I can't say no to that," Artie replied, unhooking and folding the covers to stow them before untying the mooring ropes. "But you're getting us out of the damn marina." The boat rocked alarmingly as he jumped in.

"Aye, aye," North replied, crossing onto the deck after him, heading straight to the controls and power terminals for some good old hot-wiring.

Between the two of them, they got the boat ready in short order and the rumble of the engine soon ripped through the quiet night.

North was no longer fond of unnecessarily kick-starting his powers, but the glint of the dark waters beneath the vessel reminded him of the visions of drowning that had been haunting his recent dreams. So it was with cloudy eyes that he waved his younger companion over and made space for him in front of the controls once they were out in more open waters.

"Steer left to go left, right to go right," he said, taking a seat on a nearby ledge. "Gear stick to the right - forward to forward, neutral to drift and back to reverse or brake."

Artie had found life jackets under one of the seats and finished putting his on before sliding awkwardly across the seat to take the controls. "Put a life jacket on. Please." The floating text illuminated the deck, giving everything a sickly green. "I suppose this is where I tell you I can't swim?"

"You have a life jacket," North pointed out, not quite succeeding in his vague attempt at sounding reassuring. He obligingly picked up the neon garment Artie had left out, but did not put it on as he added: "My powers are active."

"Please. Put. That. On." The words dropped, one by one, over the life jacket. "The sea is angry. Don't tempt fate." He frowned, focussing on steering and driving the boat. "And then tell me where to go."

North cut him an unimpressed look, seemingly iris-less orbs eerie in the green glow of the text. "I will if I have to."

On any given day, the generic life vest would be more hindrance than help. Increased visibility and decreased mobility were probably plus points for someone who could not swim like Artie, but a definite hazard in North's books, haunting visions or not. But the older man was not one to explain himself. Their journey was a short one in any case.

"Keep left and follow the curve of the bend."

Artie nodded and gave a quick thumbs up, steering down the coast away from the marina.



And Marie-Ange, Doug and Emma setup a cover-up before the target is even dead.



Marie-Ange swept damp hair off her neck and scrolled through the screen of her phone. "Kevin is on site." She continued to fuss with her hair, finally setting the phone down and pulling the wet mass into a messy bun. "I would like to be sure we have video feeds. Are they good enough for details?"

Doug tapped at the rugged tablet he brought for on-site hacking, verifying camera status and angles. "We're good from this end. Kevin knows where the cameras are and is giving them some good profile shots." The old spy was very good at this, all Doug had needed was to provide a coverage map of the closed-circuit system inside the store, Kevin knew the rest.

“So it’s all about alcohol, poor impulse control and insufficient reasons to deny him a car rental, is that right?” Emma said, as she sent out her mind, testing the shape of the, frankly, extremely susceptible minds she needed to work with.

"Darcy said he was a terrible person, so entitled rudeness, yes?" Marie-Ange was already back on her phone, had popped a piece of gum in her mouth, and was chomping to soften it up. A moment later, she had the slightly off vowels of the Baltimore accent, and a peculiar expression on her face. "Just wanna check on reservation number H two seven E E nine, thanks." There was a pause, and then she followed up with "Thanks, have a great one.", and then spat the gum into a tissue.

Her own light French accent was back a moment later. "Rental car reservation confirmed, he's got VIP status, and an Amex gold card."

Doug's eyebrow had raised at the stick of gum and the expression on Marie-Ange's face. "Nicely done, 'Mary-Ann'." He grinned teasingly. "I'd ask if the gum was strictly necessary or some kind of method thing, but if I wanted to owe myself five dollars I'd just make a note to give it to myself." He turned back to his tablet. "Okay, bottle of American Rye purchased, let me just splice that into our guy's credit card history...and a four-star Yelp review for good measure." He switched over to the rental car location on his feed. "Okay, I've got good camera coverage at the VIP board and the exit booth."

“Mm-hmm,” said Emma softly as she rummaged through the memories of the store clerk and the rental car agent. She rolled their memories of similar customers through her mind, building a sense of how much they tended to remember each customer, what stood out to them, making sure she didn’t give them something startlingly distinct. Smoothly, quickly, she slid the memories, edited to fit quietly within their heads, into the right minds. “Okay, they remember serving him now. As much as they need to.

"Okay, GPS is pre-programmed with our guy's nominal 'destination', all Kevin has to do is ditch the car where we discussed. Angie, am I missing anything?" Doug looked over to her for any input. He liked when a cleanup was this tidy, though.

"Not unless you want to go help put the boat back." Marie-Ange answered. "Though it is possible David and Artie may sink it. I am not sure they decided yet."