The Morning After

"Fascinating. You know, I..." John began to say to Akana, but just then the door swung open and he smiled.

"Sorry, that's my party. I should get going. It was a pleasure."

John nodded as Alatea introduced her to Adansonia and fell in step with the women.

"Pleasure to meet you."

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Number 1 shimmered back into visibility as he carefully scanned the contents of the maintenance closet he had located. It was slim, but it would do. He picked up a mop in one corner and snapped it over his leg, taking the two foot length of the wooden handle and shoving it into his belt.

He grabbed a small toolbelt that was hanging on the wall and quickly emptied it of everything except a claw hammer and a long, thin phillips-head screwdriver, then slung the belt over his shoulder.

He took a bottle of ammonia and a bottle of bleach from the shelf, along with a roll of ducttape. Moving quickly and efficiently he taped the two bottles together by the handles and removed the caps, replacing them with a long piece of duct tape wrapped securely enough to keep them from spilling, but loosely enough to be easily ripped off. He then attached the bottles to his tool belt.

Next he grabbed another bottle of ammonia and poured half of it out onto the floor. Into the bottle he poured a cocktail of other chemicals, including drain cleaner, over cleaner, and turpentine. He shook the bottle well and duct-taped one of his bic lighters to the handle. As an improvised explosive, it would be weak, but it would make a hell of a distraction.

Finally he grabbed a bottle of roach spray and shoved it in the other side of his belt along with a three foot length of thin rope he cut from a spool he found coiled in the back of the closet.

"All right..." he said to himself as he again shimmered into invisibility and opened the door, "Let's go to work."

Alatea followed Adansonia with a small smile. Of all the ways for this trip to go, it was pretty much perfect. She knew full well that the odds were good that Calypso was tweaking things for her own amusement, but since that was working in her favor, she could't really complain.
Adansonia waved both of them into the medical center before rushing forward to a supply room. She stepped inside and closed the door.
"I get the feeling they don't quite trust us. Isn't that a shame?"

The source of all the chaos and uproar in this local bastion of Goodness and Mom's Apple Pie had long since been bored out of her skull. The teenager known as The Giggler had gone over every inch of the cell several times looking for surveillance devices, indulged in a little singing, done what ballet exercises and stretches she could in the confined space, even meditated while doing a handstand against the wall. She even had gone so far as to sculpt her mashed potatoes, but there was only so much that could be done with such a medium. It certainly was not suitable for the fine detail necessary for Michaelangelo's David.

She'd poked and prodded the protected minds obsessively, examining them from all avenues in order to have as much information for Mother as possible about how the drug worked. She'd cross-referenced from brain to brain and mulled over them all so much that she was certain she would be able to at least positively identify every individual no matter what sort of protection they'd managed to procure. Well, short of some amazingly thorough disguises or magic or some such thing. Pierette been careful not to tamper too much with the minions after the revolution had been planted. They would know better then she what would cause the most damage.

But she did have fun listening in and plucking out certain key points. She had a map of the complex in her head now, and had given one of the librarians the bright idea to copy as much of the databanks as possible and hide the disks behind a ventilation screen that she would be able to get to with relative ease from most escape routes. Other useful things were stashed in similar locations by other unsuspecting minions; clothes of an appropriate size, first aid kit, stun gun, rations, et cetera. Pierette made certain to mark each place very clearly on her mental map.

In one particularly playful mind she planted the seed of an idea with built in encouragements to grow quickly into suitably epic proportions once stumbled upon; it started with a remembered story of some girl having a Furby on her dresser that once said "I'm watching you" in a tremendously creepy voice during coitus and a corollary that the girl had hidden it in her sister's closet to freak her out. Where could the Prince of Pranks hide a talking doll that would cause the most chaos? In the bottom of an extra long pillowcase? In the flight simulator with a tiny toy gun strapped to its hand? And could he get any of the High and Mighty's with this? Imagine, Ouevre waking up with a Furby voice in her ear. How cool would that be?

The Giggler had eventually gotten tired of waiting for someone to come and Deal With Her. She'd curled up and slept, better then she would have expected for being in a glorified jail cell. She refreshed herself out of the little sink upon waking, careful to keep her face hidden from all the cameras she'd noticed, and gone through her stretches again. Once limbered up and thoroughly awakened, she settled back down on the bed and began scanning minds for updates.

(OOC: Ella, I'm... slightly confused. Why did Adonsonia go into the supply closet? Was she talking to John's clone? Did you mean Alatea? If so, how did she know John's clone was there?)

As the BMW pulled up to the building, Double Agent and Fraulein saw the surging crowd outside standing in front of the building. As they drove, DA opened his briefcase, revealing eight gleaming black Walther PPK pistols and several spare clips, all neatly strapped into place. There was a ninth space that was currently empty. He removed all eight of them from the case and tucked them in various places on his clothing; his belt, one on each ankle, one on each shoulder...

"There's the building." DA said, "The Giggler has the pleebs rioting with her mental suggestion. They're on their way to knock her unconscious. We don't have a whole lot of time. One of my clones is on his way to where she's being held in the medical pavillion, one is working crowd control, and one is... stocking up. I should have us an entrance into the building any minute."

((Adansonia has gone into a medical supply closet to retrieve the sedatives. Sorry for the confusion.))

After a couple minutes, a nervous looking Adansonia emerged, slipping a vial and syringe into her pocket. "Alright, I've got it, lets just get this done and get out of here."
Alatea patted her on the shoulder with a smile. "Relax, you know this is the best way."
Alatea continued to attempt to soothe the other woman as they walked down the hallways towards Pierrette's holding cell. She seemed to genuinely care about her much taller contemporary.

John watched Adansonia emerge with the hypodermic needle and vial, her hands shaking visibly.

"You know..." he said with his most reassuring gaze, "You seem a little nervous. I have some medical training. If you prefer, I could give her the shot. I wouldn't want you to slip or something."

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Number 1 exited the supply closet with his new-found arsenal and invisibly prowled the corridors, making his way stealthily down to the first floor in case anyone around could see through his invisibility. He made his way to a side door into the building and surveyed it for any guards or alarms.

Adansonia shook her head with a weary smile. "Thank you, but I'll be fine. I'd be in so much trouble if I let you do it..." She breathed deeply, tiny flowers blooming in her hair. Given a few moments, she started to appear much calmer.
"Who are you, anyway? Tea said you were a friend of hers, but I don't recall ever seeing you."
Alatea winced at the nickname, but didn't correct the other woman. "Oh, he's..."
Adansonia shook her head. "Let him talk, Tea."
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Number 1 would find the door unguarded, but there is an alarm. Cautious observaton would also reveal a cache of clothing hidden along the way, in the Giggler's size.

John smiled sheepishly, putting on his best humble act. He caught Alatea's wince out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, we've beens friends for a little while now. I'm actually an EMT for St. Mary's hospital. We met at a city fundraiser a while back. I have a very minor super ability, not really hero-level..."

To illustrate he grabbed his left wrist with his right and tugged gently, the hand coming away from the wrist. He raised it up slightly and it waved to Adansonia before he quickly reattached it.

"...but she asked me to come here with her anyway, just to meet a few people. I figure if there's anything I can do to help you guys out, then it's basically my duty to."

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Number 1 looked skeptically at the clothing, wondering how it had gotten out here, but after a moment he grabbed it, putting it into one of the large pouches on the toolbelt. He then went to the security alarm panel and pried it off with the screwdriver, quickly getting to work attempting to disable or reroute the system to open the doors.

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"Around there..." Double Agent said to Fraulein as they got out of the car. He gestured to the door on the side of the building that was relatively unobserved. He glanced down at his watch.

"Aaaaaany second now..."

Alatea smiled at John. "Oh, I keep telling you, you're not giving yourself enough credit. You have a very unique gift." After a moment's thought, she kissed him on the cheek before giving a long look to Adansonia. "You must forgive me for keeping him secret-It's never a good idea for a hero to advertise any attatchment to a civilian. Promise you'll keep it a secret, Addie?"
Adansonia smiled a little smugly, clearly pleased to be in the loop of the goings on. "Your secret is safe with me, Tea."
With that, she headed forward down the hallway again, nerves forgotten.
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Number One would be able to disable the alarm without much difficulty, the electronics in the place not being quite up to par considering the damage to the grid done by the entire computer bank being destroyed.

Pierette was quite pleased with how things had progressed while she'd slept. Heroes were so pitiful, they never had the stones to do what needed to be done. If they'd just release some knockout gas, they could get to everyone individually and wipe their memory. A few little tweaks in the mind and nothing like this could ever happen again. But no, instead they wiffled and waffled and let the situation get out of control. How marvelous.

Hello there, here were some minds who hadn't been present when she dozed off. Who was... DA! If there was one DA, there were probably more. The Giggler cast her net out wide for multiples and found two more. Finding one of them with Adansonia and Alatea Calypso's Fury surprised her, as did the sensation of that damned blocking pill on all of them. Did this mean she wouldn't be able to talk with him? Wait a minute, there was a fourth dupe on the fringes of her radar. Accompanied by... Fraulein! They hadn't abandoned her after all! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

Uh oh. The big guns were coming her way. Oh well, she'd been wondering why they hadn't sent someone to deal with her. But why did it have to be CF? Pierette dropped down out of the headstand and hurried off to the little bathroom to make sure she was presentable. First impressions were always important, and looking like a worn out puppet in front of the enemy would not be smart. Did she want to look like she'd been expecting them or like she didn't care? Not caring was more comfortable. She sat down on the bed, back against the wall with the door to her side, and started twiddling her thumbs.

While she waited for her doom to fall, Giggler began tapping on the mind of the dupe in the crowd, carefully maintaining her shields so any psychics keeping a mental eye on her wouldn't be able to tell what she was doing. "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? I have a map here that you might find useful."

"3... 2... 1... aaaaand...", Double Agent said as he and Fraulein walked up to the door. At that moment it slid open and Number 1 stood in the doorway, looking very pleased with himself.

"What took you two so long?" he asked.

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Number 2 she heard the muffled echo of the Giggler's telepathic signal, sounding as though it were coming through a pile of towels. She concentrated on the signal, trying to boost her reception and soon she could hear somewhat better. She hoped it was enough to be able to talk back.

"I can hear you..." he thought, hoping it would get through, "I'll take any help you can give me. Hang in there kid, the calvalry's coming. Just be ready to do what you do best when the time comes. It's almost time for our curtain call and with any luck we'll give 'em a show that will bring the damn house down."