A Little Piece of Blackreef Across The Water, Friday Night

[lets_do_the_timeloop]

Across the muddy bridge sat what could only be described as a vehicular graveyard. A thin layer of marshmallow snow dusted the slopes. Somewhere between two massive structures laid a small illuminated path, leading further onto the island.

As a small band of Fandom's finest crept across the bridge, the island seemed... quiet.

	Jesse was really glad she'd brought her heavy coat with her this time. The air seemed to chill by at least a dozen degrees as she hopped off the land bridge onto the snow. "I don't like this," she said, looking up. "There's a lot of light here for a place that looks this abandoned..."
	Was Anakin going to do that creepy Jedi thing where he could feel other people's presences? Of course he was, especially since this place was giving him Hoth flashbacks. "It's not abandoned," he said, hand on his lightsaber hilt.
	"It is fucking cold, though." Eliot may have spent much of his time in the last few years in Upstate New York, but he'd also been in a land of magically controlled weather. Also, Upstate New York was not actually the arctic, like this place was. He flipped up the collar of his stylish wool peacoat and thought longingly of Idri and his furs. And tried not to think too much about Brakebills South.
	"All the more reason," Prompto noted, a bit wryly, as he had more than enough nervous energy to keep him fidgeting enough to keep warm, "to get going and get this over with as soon as we can..."
	Alara was still mostly confused by what was happening but well she figured she could at least help out with the situation. Even though the last time she tried to sneak in a compound she ended up several hundred feet below Fandom but she decided not to volunteer this fact. “There’s quite a lot of ground to cover,” she noted as she looked around.
	Annie resisted the temptation to use her powers to stay warm -- too much of a risk that she'd affect the power here somehow, and they needed to maintain the element of surprise for as long as possible. "But the lights seem kind of centralized, at least," Annie offered, as optimistic as she could muster as she pointed toward the path.
	Miguel looked where she was pointing and nodded. "The question is if that path is a trap or not. Maybe we can approach from the side or top?"
	"That building's too high for me to fly up to," Jesse said, nodding at the massive structure to their right. She took a few steps forward, looking around the carcass of a large truck. "Can you get there? That might at least get us a better visual."
	Miguel nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem, as long as there's not a force field or anything on it. Any particular requests, or just look for people and traps?"
	"That should be enough to get us started," Anakin decided.
	Eliot formed a lens with his forefingers and thumbs and peered through. "I don't see any force fields. Though . . . I don't know if I would, if they weren't magic."
	Amaya wasn't exactly sure if squinting at it the way she had been was enough to tell if there were any force fields that weren't magic, either, but.... "Only one way to find out, I suppose," she offered, oh-so-helpfully. "We'll probably find out the hard way sooner or later." And this is why you weren't ever on the strategizing teams, Amaya.
	"Go ahead, Miguel," Jesse called. She was already moving further towards the path, just to... scope things out. "Let us know what you find!"
	"I'm on it," Miguel replied. He leapt for the wall and pushed off it, shooting out web to swing up further and get a good view. He nodded back down at the others; it seemed to be clear for the moment.

They snuck in quietly through the corridor, Miguel keeping an eye on things from above. A guard along the way was easily dispatched; but soon, they found themselves standing in front of a towering concrete structure, built into the cliffs.

It remained quiet.

Until they opened the door.

	"Wait, who the hell are you?!" Well. So much for walking in quietly. In the central hall, at least three guards were training guns up at them, towards the entrance. Their buddies came rushing in behind them. This was going to be a fight.
	Right. Well. Stealth didn't really seem like this island's strong point anyway. Eliot fired off a magic missile at the nearest guard, and wondered if maybe he should have borrowed Margo's pistol.
	"Well, that went well," Anakin said dryly, dropping his cloak into the marshmallow snow in order to free up his arms for lightsabering. "Very sneaky." Though sneaking with a group this big was probably a lost cause from the beginning. "Fan out!"
	Yeah, Prompto's narrative would have agreed wholeheartedly with Bus Dean's that sneaking was pretty much right out the window the moment they'd arrived, but he appreicated that they'd still made an effort. But, the moment things were on, the moment Anakin barked out that order, his brain seemed to switch entirely into miliary mode as he started to fan out, gun poised and on the ready, already starting to fire out strategic shots where needed as he scanned over what the others were doing...and, more importantly, where the guards were doubtlessly fanning out to, as well.
	Jesse drew the Service Weapon from her hip the second Anakin spoke - not because he'd told her to, but because that was her instinct, too. She leaped over a concrete divider and took to the air, hovering a few feet into the hall, and-- "I see five on the left from here!" she yelled, opening fire. So did the five.
	"They'd already noticed us," Eliot grumbled, feeling Anakin's comment like a personal slight. It was fine, he had a very healthy self-image, really. He scraped the magic missile plan to throw up a quick shield against the incoming guard fire.
	Annie, meanwhile, took two bullets straight on -- one to the chest, one to the hip. (It's okay. She'd done it on purpose as a means to move in closer to the guards -- but that being said: God, getting shot hurt like a bitch, every time.) She staggered slightly, taking both bullets with a loud grunt, and shot a bright blast off towards the closest of the guards. And thanks to the closure of that distance between them, she was able to not just hit him, but send him careening back a dozen feet and into a wall.
	"You might want to --" Eliot started, then saw the hits land and her keep going. "-- Or you could just get yourself shot. It's up to you, really. . . ." He poured a bit more power into his shield, trying to cover as many of the others as he could.
	"You're doing great, Eliot!" Annie called, sincere in spite of the pain. "It's okay, I can take --" Another bullet struck her, and with an "Oof," she seemed to reconsider in real time, and shifted position to drop back behind Eliot and the shield, firing a blast away from the group and into the eyes of the guards as she fell back. (If someone needed her spot, she'd get right back out there and keep getting shot, though, okay? But maybe three gunshots was enough for one day!)
	Well, from Jesse's position up in the air, it looked like she had two options. Fall back, help Eliot and make an extra shield people could move behind, or... She could let the incoming gunfire make the decision for her. "Dammit," she snarled, shooting forward, hitting the ground hard with a shockwave that knocked three guards to the ground. It left a neat little crater on the concrete floor, too. Of course, when she looked up, there were at least-- "Six more!" Did her shoulder hurt? Oh well.
	"On it," Anakin called back, reaching into the Force to first yank their weapons away and then to make them tumble over like a giant stack of human playing cards. "Anyone need a weapon?" he asked as his newly acquired cache floated to pile at his boots.
	Despite himself, as he fired off a shot into the chest of at least one of the guards in their confusion, Prompto had to laugh. "I will never say no to more guns, man," he admitted, taking a moment to actually switch to a different one as he moved in a little closer to take advantage of that offer, yeah.
	Alara was fighting her way through a small group who had cornered her and was starting to realise that her elevated strength alone might not be enough, she sent a few of them flying across the room but then one of them starting firing at her. She ducked out of the way but still managed to get hit. “Ow,” Alara groaned when the bullet bounced off her, at least her Xelayan physiology came in handy for a few things. “I’ll take a weapon?” she said sheepishly to Anakin.
	"Wait, how many of you all are bulletproof?!" Eliot asked, eying Alara. He was starting to sweat, his hands moving constantly to keep the shield in place. He was kind of wishing he'd brought an emotion bottle. Staying zen enough for proper battle magic had never been his strong suit.
	"Probably not enough of us," Annie answered easily, ignoring the pain in her hip and chest where she'd taken those bullets a moment prior as she aimed both hands at the oncoming guards and fired a larger, brighter blast than before. This time, the building's electricity responded with a deep pulse and an answering flicker from the lights in time with Annie's blast. Hey, if nothing else, it'd probably make it easier on everyone if those guys couldn't see too well, right?
	Jesse bit down on an, Annie, is that you? Of course it had to be her. No point in calling attention to her powers. "I think we can carve a hole that-away!" she yelled instead, eyeing the door at the far end of the room. She reached out and yanked a few chunks of concrete out of the wall, hovering them up in front of her as a shield to soak up some of the bullets coming her way.
	Right along the road at the center of the hall sat a convenient chest-high wall. While the others fought, some snuck past.
	Miguel clung to that wall, moving across slowly, keeping out of sight, and waved the rest of the science team in, staying alert.
	Knowing full well that stealth was hardly in her realm of ability, Amaya was definitely following the lead of the others until they managed to get somewhere that could actually be more useful. So, with that wave from Miguel, she crouched as low as she could manage as well and...well, she got there, and she tried her best, and that was all you could ask for, really. With maybe a thumbs up thrown it to let him know that things were at least good on her end.
	Hopefully the general shooty-bang-bang would keep them from being noticed. Miguel threw his own thumbs-up back at her.
	Anakin sighed at both of them. "Just move."
	Miguel rolled his eyes (which was kind of lost under the mask, but whatever). "We're moving, we're moving."
	"Remind me again," Amaya tried her best to keep her voice down, though she was pretty sure there wasn't much reason at this point, moving a little further in and searching now just for a good place to start, "what we're looking for again? Or is it just...sort of everything right now?"
	"A way to get them unstuck?" Anakin guessed. "Both from the island and from whatever time hiccup they've caused."
	Someone had been watching them. Quietly. In the shadows. Observing their every– Ahahah no. It was Colt. He’d been busy shooting people, and now he’d stumbled on a bunch of people shooting back, and one thing led to another, and anyway, there were a whole bunch of people just runnin’ around poking at shit... trying to be stealthy... "Hey, Miguel, buddy! Is that you?! And you! I know you!" Hopefully not too stealthy, because Colt - standing on top of the hill with a large gun in his hands - was yelling right at everybody.
	Miguel facepalmed. A lot. There went their stealth. Then he lifted up a hand and waved back, in the hope it might stop Colt from yelling any more and actually pointing directly at them, or something.
	"What are you guys looking for?" Colt hollered back enthusiastically. "'Cause you seem to be digging around a lot."
	"A way to make you leave," Anakin said. Well, that was direct. "...no offense?" Somewhere Obi-Wan was facepalming hard.
	"I mean, I don't wanna fucking be here either. Why do you think I've been trying to kill Julianna for three days now?" Colt strolled towards them more casually than any man had a right to under the circumstances.
	"Great!" Miguel yelled. "So help out!"
	"So Julianna's the one keeping you here?" Anakin asked, blinking.
	"Her, me, Egor," Colt said, waving up at the lab with his gun. "I mean, I don't fuckin' know how he stuck us here, exactly, but I know there's only one way to break any goddamn loop."
	"So you three need to leave?" Miguel yelled back, the eternal optimist.
	"We want you to go away," Anakin said. "A lot."
	"Specifically, we need to die," Colt said, casually gesturing at his head with his gun. "Supposed to snap everybody back to their bodies before the loop. Problem is, I'm the only one on team 'Break It'."
	"You mean the only one on team shoot yourself in the shocking head?" Miguel yelled back. "Can't imagine why!" Of course there wasn't an easy way to do this. "How do you know that'll work?"
	"He did what?!" Focus, Anakin.
	"Oh, that's easy," Colt said, strolling a little further in Miguel's general direction. "I told me. From the future! Or the past, or... I don't know, there's a lot of time and space bullshit going on and I'm not the scientist around here."
	"Never would've guessed," Miguel muttered. "How did that version of you know?"
	"My brain hurts already," Anakin complained. "I'm just glad it did. So we have to kill you three and then we get to stop living in permanent Friday?"
	"As far as I know," Colt said, nodding. "But it's pretty damn hard. I've been trying to kill Julianna since Friday, and it keeps not happening in time for me to get Egor, too."
	"What if we kill Egor and you concentrate on Julianna?" Anakin asked.
	Colt raised a hand to argue. Then he lowered it. "Actually, that's not that bad of an idea," he said. "He can go invisible, though. That's gonna be a problem..." He glanced past Anakin at some weird suitcases on the floor. "...Or not. Yeah. I, uh, I can help you with that part, too."
	Anakin turned to stare at the suitcases, too. "Wonderful. We've have a deal."

[[ thank you to everyone on team Science/Infilitration! violence under the cut, naturally. ]]