Rescue Mission

[Fine with me! Who starts?]

[I feel shtoopid, thus I'm replying to older stuff that I stupidly didn't reply to. So. Sorry for all this crapiness.]

Rayk
I looked over the grounds from our aerial position, black feathers extended as far as they could go to maximize my control of the air currents. Looking behind me, I saw Drift and Cho keeping pace, Lee beside me. Good. The more the merrier. I could see the run-down building about half a mile northeast of us, painting a shabby picture in the dim lowlight that the setting sun caused. Signaling briefly, I lowered my wings to pull into a shallow dive, making quick, though calculated, progress towards the treeline next to the shabby building. We had to be half a mile out. We could easily jog through the trees to get to the building and confront Quinn. I just hoped and prayed that Crystal was alright, and he hadn't hurt her.
I wasn't really all that hopeful of it, but I knew that I would make him suffer, tenfold, whatever he did to Crystal. I swear it.
I heard Drift shift towards my left to fly behind Lee and slightly to the left of Cho. The threesome were... Well, I harbored mixed feelings towards them. Lee, I trusted like a sister. A distant sister, but a sister. She had the military mind, and had surprising skill with knives, since she was so young. Well... Not terribly young, but... A lot younger than I am. Drift was even younger. She was along because of her strength, and because of her abilities. Quinn's joints were robotic. Robotics didn't stand up well under cold.
Cho. I didn't now much about her, other than she was incredibly strong, and she was part butterfly. How those two went together, I may never know. But hey, if it worked, it worked, right?
"Down here," I said shortly, folding in my wings without warning once I was about twenty feet from the ground. I just dropped, not seeing a point to getting my wings entangled in the branches and foliage of the early-Spring trees. I wanted to get a move on...
But I wasn't prepared to move out until everyone was ready, we had a plan, and it was fully dark. I worked best then, and I hoped the others wouldn't mind it.
Well... with any luck, anyway.

[*claws back to threads with evilly determined face*
HA. I CAME BACK. I HAVE CHEESE. MY DAD'S GOING TO GO GET DR. PEPPER. LIFE IS GOOD. MUSIC IS PLAYING. I HAVE NEW ENGLISH VOCALOIDS TO LISTEN TO. LANGUAGE ART IS FINISHED. KIT KATS ARE NEARBY. STAR TREK TOMORROW. BWAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH.
*cough*
...
Sorry. Just slightly excited. Muse is back full force tonight, (I hate saying that - it's like... jinxing it) and I've replied to - count 'em! - 9 threads. DIFFERENT ONES. Not the same ones over and over and over. o.O LET'S DO THIS!

Rayk: *comes in with 'Dew* ... -.- Fine.

Me: *runs over and hugs*

Rayk: -.- Get off me.

Me: I will if you go rescue Crystal. ^.^

Rayk: ... fine.]

Rayk
I glared at Lee when she made her remark. She'd pay later in some subtle way.
But I had to focus.
Every cell in my body seemed to be electrified with anger.
I had to push back emotions, though.
That's how I had been trained. When you don't push off emotions, you're a liability - a risk to the mark and a risk to the captive. Even if Erasers and whitecoats were devilish, they still had military-tactics classes. That's how I'd been brought up, and so help me they would help this situation now. As Drift landed silently in her black-and-gray clothes, she reminded me slightly of Crystal with the pale skin and white hair... But the eyes were so different. Gray and lively instead of magenta and rageful.
I wanted to bite myself for missing that look of disdain I'd get whenever I was in the same room.
Hair bristled on the back of my neck.
Drift didn't move a muscle, eyes closed like she was sensing moisture in the air. She'd done that one other time, too, when there had been a monster tornado go through our place of dwelling - wherever it happened to be at any given moment.
I realized belatedly that Drift was giving me a weird look.
I almost asked what was wrong when she subtly gestured towards me. Looking down, I noticed I was alternately turning visible and unseen, shadows streaking across my body. Wispy, fire-like substances of shadow lanced down my arms. I guess that would probably be cause for concern...
I cleared my throat awkwardly and forced all black misty substances to the ground. Unfortunately that was a little too forceful, because they just... melted to the ground. Oops.
No, Rayk... Control your emotions... Don't think about Quinn... Don't think about what he could be doing... Don't even worry about Crystal and how long she's been gone...
Gosh, Rayk. Not helping, you eejit.
I took a shuddering breath as I saw Drift shoot a sideways glance at Cho. The two seemed to be making friends. Then I looked at Lee, who was also still there. Ha. Shocker.
"He probably already knows we're here," Drift prodded slowly, tentatively, like she was worried of how I would react. I half-furled my wings, leaving them loose and uncovered in case of an urgent need to take off - which there would be if all that I was thinking would probably happen.
Oh good heavens, I can't even string together a sentence.
And 'good heavens?' Can someone just forcibly take my Man Rights away from me? It couldn't be worse if I started a diary... No, wait. That's pretty bad, actually... (Quester, don't... even...)
I swallowed dryly once, twice, three times... And then looked at our ragged band of depressed mutants. (What? We sure as heck ain't merry...) "Alright. The only plan I can think of is to get closer to the building. If Quinn hasn't sensed us as human beings rather than hawks, elephants, capybaras, platypuses, or mice by now--" That earned me a weird look from Drift. "-- then he will soon. So when we get closer, we try to find what level Crystal is on from as far away from the building as physically possible. Once we do, we charge through the windows. This place is so ramshackle that - if there are doors - he's probably locked them. There's nothing he can do about busted windows. I doubt there's anything he could do about Cho breaking through them," I said with a slight nod to the resident butterfly girl. Drift nodded her approval. I knew she had some ties to my brother, so she seemed to be taking this pretty well. By the way she acted, Kayr had probably broken things down like this before, too.
Being twins, I shouldn't be surprised. But I am. Which just shows how much of a moron I am--
I hated myself for a brief moment for reminding me who I was rescuing here. Shut up and think, Rayk! Just think it through, get through the directions... and don't get emotional, came Myth's subtle voice in the back of my mind. It was barely more than a whisper. We'll be there by the time the action begins, I promise... came the wraith-like voice in the back of my mind. She couldn't hear what I answered her with, but from the sound of her voice, she was probably a good fifty miles away. It would take them maybe 30 minutes to an hour to get here - which is exceptionally fast for wolves who don't tire, can phase through things, and who are really too far from their source of life than is good for them.
Drift was making subtle motions like: 'Carry on, Rayk... You're spacing...'
I cleared my throat again. "If we can clear the window in a reasonable amount of time, Quinn will be surprised. If we can break down before he tries to mess with our melatonin or whatever else hormonal crap he has, then we have a good chance."
Drift raised her eyebrows curiously: "And what about his sleep-bite?" The way she said it - with a slight Southern drawl - made me want to laugh... if I were anywhere but here.
I nailed her with a look that was unintentionally dark. "We just have to hope he'll be stupid and will try to charge us. Our goals are to get Crystal out -- alive. We will not take her any other way. If she has to be sedated, then at least she'll still be alive. That means she cannot be caught in the crossfire. So, Lee--" I said, looking over at her, "--no knife throwing unless Quinn is far away from her, capishe?"
I sighed and looked over at the building's silhouette against the sun. Good. As night fell, there would be more darkness - and by extent, shadows - and it would be colder. Perfect.
Turning back to the group, I absent-mindedly started to tighten knife holsters and sheaths, making sure the armored parts of my getup were secured down, and I pulled the fingerless gloves and armored facemask out of my pack.
In a slightly muffled voice due to the faceguard on the ninja-esque mask (no, I most certainly did not need to beg it off of Shasta...) I stared at the other four. "Questions, comments, concerns, or pleading of the Fifth?"

[Mine will be worse, I promise.]

Rayk
I turned to face Lee, eyes narrowed slightly, though not at her.
"Cho's right. His DNA is spliced and destroyed until he's this oddity of lots of useful DNA... unfortunately. Don't let him bite you; he has a sleeping venom. He can control certain hormones - usually to make you groggy. Don't let him do it if you can help it. He has a tail... Uh, robotic joints, so increased strength... Oh. And he can sense the slightest of movements, which is why he probably knows where we are right now," I finished, giving a pointed look at the building, reaching down to pull out a bowie knife. "So.... That's covered. Are you ready?" Drift gave a brief nod, pulling up a hood to cover what white hair still stuck out from the black skull cap. Instead of her usual white elbow-length fingerless gloves, she wore black gloves that were also elbow-length. Her clothes were all black, but her face was still blazing white.
NOthing we could do about it I guess. I shrugged and gestured.
"Any important things anyone needs to know before we go rain down heck on the bulidnig?"

[That... such a sad post. ;u;]