aubergines | ( #002 ) FAKE MARRIED AU

[ Naturally he follows, and the little rush of adrenaline makes him smirk. ] Ready as I'll ever be.

Let's do this.

[ When the door slides open, Kasumi's on her omni-tool almost immediately, waving it at a nearby surveillance camera to block them out and make sure they don't arouse any suspicions just stepping out into the hall. ]

One of those secret doors down the hall, around the corner. It leads down to one of the tunnels.

So try not to get spotted till then. Got it.

[ He heads down the hall, walking like he owns the place -- just in case a distant observer finds them suspicious. Their luck seems to hold when they don't meet anyone coming or going on this floor; maybe everyone's out doing activities?

And anyway, the less civilians involved the better. No need to deal with some random nine-year-old who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. ]

What are we looking for here, exactly? Do I just, like, say "friend" and a door pops up?

[ It's with another wave of her omni-tool that a holographic console appears on the wall in red. ]

We're looking for that. It's easy to find hidden locks--just have to run the right algorithms. This one looks like it only opens using a signal from a special transmitter of sorts--probably on the staff or guards.

[ Meaning, they'll have to do some damage to get in. They probably figured DNA or voice recognition would be too easy to crack without being noticed; this way any infiltrators would basically have to confront someone. ]

[ He sighs a little. ] Wish we'd known that earlier before we geared up. Coulda probably nicked one pretty easily.

So-- think we can hack it? Or do you want me start a ruckus and attract a security guard up here?

[ She's still looking at her omni-tool's screen, seeing if she can crack the thing when the console on the door starts turning green. ]

Um, well. [ She looks at Peter: that wasn't me. ] Quill, someone's coming in from the other side.

[ Peter's reflexes have always been fast -- so once she says that, he grabs Kasumi by the wrist and hauls her around the corner, ducking behind the wall. ]

You wanna knock him out, or do I get to?

[ She nods at him and gives a thumbs-up. ]

Go for it.

[ She'll be on-guard, though, in case any other surprises come up or there's some unexpected back-up. ]

[ His grin has a wicked edge to it -- and by no means is he a bloodthirsty type of person (he's not a psychopath like some of his friends are), but god damn does it feel good to finally be doing something. He triggers his helmet and returns the thumbs up.

So when the guard finally steps through the door, looking at some device on his wrist, Peter darts out from their hiding place waves a hand. ]

Hey, bud, how ya doin'?

[ Peter doesn't wait for a reply, though, which is pretty rude. Instead, he surges forward, headbutting the guy and then dropping down to sweep his legs out from under him. And just for good measure, Peter grabs him by his forehead, slamming the back of his head into the floor.

You know. Just to make sure he's really out.

It's as he's nodding to Kasumi that he takes the device off the guy's wrist. ]

We'll need to hide this guy, but I'm guessin' this is what we need?

[ She rounds the corner they were hiding at when he nods at her and approaches. ] Yup, that's it. Nicely done, sir.

--But let's get in first, before anyone sees us out here. I'm sure there's like, a bad guys locker room somewhere, right?

Or an evil broom closet or something.

[ He tosses the device to her, then lifts the guy into a fireman's carry, and he counts his lucky stars that the guy is a normal human size, and not built like Drax. ]

[ She catches it with one hand then promptly activates it, looking on at the door as the console turns green once more. It opens silently than most doors do, which makes a lot of sense, and Kasumi takes the first step in before giving Peter an assuring nod. ]

I was half expecting it to open to a room of guards. Guess we're out of luck? Anyway, looks clear to me, Quill.

[ He makes a face, hidden beneath the metal of his mask as it is, as he steps in after her. ] Why are you trying to jinx us? Seriously?

I'm just saying. Now...

[ She first looks back to make sure the door closes behind them, which it does. Now they're in another hallway, punctuated at the end by an elevator shaft that would presumably take them into the underground passages. There do seem to be a few other doors along the way, although Kasumi's schematics couldn't tell them what they would find behind each one. ]

... Let's find out what's behind door number one?

[ With one hand he keeps the dude steady, as he listens briefly at the door. He doesn't hear anything, which seems like a good enough sign, and he slowly opens it--

And it looks to be an empty electrical room. Lucky them.

He glances around to make sure he didn't catch some snoozing engineer before dumping the unconscious dude unceremoniously to the ground. ]

That at least takes care of one problem.

[ The other problem, of course, is the risk that the guy could wake up at any moment. So Peter grabs a few coils of spare cabling on a nearby table and-- yep, sure is using it as rope to tie the guy's wrists and ankles. As an afterthought he fashions one into a makeshift gag before he stands, clapping his hands together. ]

That should do it. [ He gestures back out the door. ] Shall we?

[ She watches him tie the poor guy up with some degree of amusement. She would have basically tazer'd the guy by way of her omni-tool and Overload, but this was such a Star-Lord style of making sure someone doesn't give you any more trouble. ]

We shall. I call the next guy, though.

[ With that, she starts walking towards the elevator, pulling up her ~~best friend~~ omni-tool once more in anticipation of another surveillance camera and holding the transmitter in her hand in case they need it for any further access points. ]

[ He follows her out to the elevator, hand resting on the grip of his blaster, and they take it to the next floor up. Naturally, though, it’s slow going, and Peter leans back against the elevator wall, sighing impatiently. ]

-- Seriously, who the hell designed these things, anyway?

[ ~~You mean take it to the next floor down right~~ Kasumi similarly leans against the wall opposite Peter, folding her arms. ]

You'd think they would have figured out fast elevators by now. We've got FTL, sentient artificial intelligence, but elevators that move faster than a glacier? Forget it.

[ When they finally reach the underground level, the elevator comes to stop with a noticeable thud. The door to the elevator opens almost as slowly as it descended, revealing a much darker, not at all luxurious and interior. It definitely reeks of secret evil lab of doom. ]

[ ~~oops yeah my b my b~~ Once the doors open, Peter immediately thinks, Oh, okay, this isn’t ominous in the slightest, and immediately draws one of his blasters. There may not be any enemies in sight, but it definitely makes him feel better than going without -- sort of like a security blanket, actually, if security blankets could shoot fire and/or electricity.

He steps out cautiously and moves down the hall, noting possible areas of cover, should the worst come to pass. They’re only here to infiltrate, but, hell, with Peter’s luck? They’ll probably end up attracting every single guard in the place down here. ]

So, at a guess, I’d say this is the workout facility?

Definitely. The villains have to look good too, you know?

[ But as she's saying that, she's looking around. There are pieces of Reaper tech here and there, similar to the ones she's seen (and subsequently stolen) during her other jobs. But where those were little Cerberus camps holding tech, this is something much, much larger in scale, and Kasumi's not liking the looks of it. ]

[ For Peter's part, he doesn't recognize the machinery, just assumes it's bad. And he's-- getting some seriously bad vibes from the whole thing, anyway. He knows, to some extent, that Cerberus has been poaching Reaper technology, using it for their own ends, and seeing as how they had suspected Cerberus had a hand in Refuge, it's not hard to put two and two together.

And the sum does not look good in the slightest.

There's an open lab to Peter's right, and he steps in, sweeping the corners for hostiles and once again coming up empty. And that's unsettling, too, to not have run into anyone in a lab as large as this. At a glance, he spots tables of machinery and small devices. Some of them Peter recognizes as implants and body mods, the others are a mystery to him. ]

The hell are they planning to do with this stuff?

I almost don't want to find out.

[ But she already has a hunch, and it's a serious horror movie tier conclusion but she can't put Cerberus past serious horror movie tier. I mean, she thinks, this much Reaper tech lying around, and people who come here disappear all the while the Illusive Man's army just keeps growing?

She'd followed Peter into the open lab, and she's looking for any more clues when she finds a data pad on one of the desks. ]

But we probably will find out. We have to. Whatever it is they're doing here, it can't be good, and we'll need to sound the alarms when we get out.

[ Before she starts reading the data pad, she spots a machine out of the corner of her eye, located at the far end of the lab along with a few others like it. Definitely looks like something Cerberus would make, but with an infusion of Reaper stuff. Her chest tightens as she looks away from it and down at the data pad, all the while realizing, it's just big enough for a person to fit into. ]

[ At that, he nods. He's coming to the same conclusion as he looks over the tech. He's more than familiar with the look of body mods, having stepped in on accident on more than one occasion as Rocket or Gamora helped each other repair the various cybernetics laced throughout their bodies. (And fuck that was always unsettling, seeing one or the other lain out, muscles exposed, as the other carefully worked at repairing whatever damage had been done.)

So Reaper cybernetics. Doesn't that sound interesting and dangerous as hell?

He moves around the room, looking at the completed mods and unfinished projects. While he recognizes some of it, the majority of this stuff goes way over his head. If Rocket were here, he'd probably be able to discern the purpose of some of this stuff.

And still Peter keeps thinking, Where are the scientists? Where are the engineers? as he finally disengages his helmet. Maybe they're all out getting pizza and celebrating someone's birthday? Chances are, though, they're just in another part of the facility they haven't explored yet. (Or at least, that's his hope. He really doesn't want to stumble into anything more sinister than what they've already found.) ]

Read anything juicy?

[ Kasumi's eyes are darting across the data pad quickly. It's... a list of names?

But then she looks up at Peter with her lips parted, which is to say that she has a look of horror, when she pieces together the document she just read, realizing that the names were sorted into two categories: Indoctrinated, which Kasumi had expected, and Experimentation risk - converted.

My god, she thinks, converted into what? ]

This is bad. Really bad, Quill.

[ She accesses a link to another log on the data pad, which causes a nearby screen to activate and play back a surveillance video showing the large machines and, well, people being trapped and turned into husks. ]

[ He's about to ask, "How bad?" when the the sound of the screen flicking on catches his attention, and then--

Oh. That bad.

-- something icy goes through his veins at the sight. ]

... I think I just threw up a little.

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