Disclaimer: Marvel owns X-Men Evolution and the 616-mainstream, if any money was being made from this fic - which it's not - they'd get it, not me. The only way I'd get to make money off of my fanfics would be if Marvel or whoever owns the right to whatever fandom were to authorise and publish my writing, and that's not as easy as some people think...
"Sons of Liberty"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'
Fort Wadsworth Army Base
Staten Island, New York
Underground Military Facility
Whether through complacency or arrogance, Trask's personnel hadn't changed anything about the Alternate Emergency Escape, allowing the team easy access into the depths of the facility hidden underneath Fort Wadsworth.
"I'm a little disappointed, yo," Toad looked around as he joined the rest of the team at the bottom of the ladder, "I was expecting something like dark and dreary evil overlord or ultra-clean sci-fi futuristic for the decor... almost normal here... well, for a secret military base under the control of genocidal renegades."
"Yer just full o' sunshine an' good times, aren't ye, lad?" Banshee shook his head.
"I have to be," Toad answered, "Otherwise I might end up like you, yo."
Shadowcat rolled her eyes, "Play later, Toad, maybe we'll let you loose on the Institute to make a point."
"Hey, I can get in there anyway, yo," Toad countered.
"With someone on the inside willing to help you cause trouble for the rest of them?" Shadowcat asked, "Because I know one of the others would be up for it..."
"Now you're talking, Kat-girl," Toad did a backflip, "Yo, can't wait to get this done and have some fun!"
"If ye're finished actin' like a kettle full o' boilin' water, lad?"
"Yo, you can't speak good English or something?" Toad grumbled at the Irishman.
"From kettle ta pot," Banshee muttered, "Dinnae we 'ave a rescue ta perform?"
"Yeah, we do," Avalanche shot over his shoulder from where he and Shadowcat were looking over her PDA, "So if you'd shut up we could get on with it. Kitten, do you have to egg them on?"
Shadowcat tilted her head towards them and made a soft 'schnikt' sound. Avalanche understood then, intangibility might be Shadowcat's power, but learning was her natural talent and for all he'd claim otherwise, Wolverine was a skilled teacher in his own way. Avalanche understood she was testing Banshee the same way Wolverine would if he were there; where he'd break, why, did he lose his temper in a rage or go cold.
He had a feeling that Wolverine would be proud of her.
"Does it really matter?" Shadowcat answered as though she hadn't done so silently, "Now that we're in we've got more problems to deal with. From the looks of the blueprints, the floor ahead of us is covered with a security system to keep people from doing what we're doing... and the panel to turn them off is on the other side of them."
"Tha's nae problem," Banshee scoffed, "I dinnae know if ye've forgotten or nae, lass, but I can fly."
Shadowcat turned to glare at him, "The network extends up the walls, so unless you can know where each beam is, I doubt it'd do any good."
Quicksilver gave a low whistle, "Man, talk about not wanting any uninvited guests. What's next, robotic death machines?"
"Hey, yo," Toad complained, "Don't go giving them no ideas, Quickie."
"So, if we cannae walk an' cannae fly, what do ye suppose we do?" Banshee asked.
"I could try phasing through them," Shadowcat looked at the floor ahead of them.
"Sure ye could, lass," Banshee answered, "Excepting we dinnae know what kind o' effect ye'll have on 'em, meanin' ye could set 'em off just like th' rest o' us."
"He's got a point," Avalanche reluctantly agreed, "Toad, can you take the high road and take out those beams."
"Heh, and I thought you were going to ask me to do something hard, yo," Toad said, jumping up to his hands and knees on the ceiling and crawling over the infrared detection system.
"An' how did ye know there wasnae anything on th' bloody ceilin' itself?" Banshee asked, crossing his arms as Toad turned a corner and went out of sight.
Avalanche shrugged, "Something the Toad once told me; 'Nobody ever looks at the ceiling'."
"Oh, man, an old 2300? Forget museum, this thing belongs in a graveyard; I can't believe they didn't update the security system to at least a 2500-J. It'd still be years out of date, but at least it wouldn't be so embarrassing," Toad moaned as he looked at the security panel, "I can't tell anyone I broke into an army base protected by a 2300 series, I'd get laughed at..."
"Pick the lock and open the security panel door," Shaking his head, the amphibious mutant pulled a set of lockpicks from a pocket and worked the lock until it released, putting his tools away with one hand, he opened the panel with the other, still grumbling, "Yo, this is like 'B and E 101', the kinda stuff Morty would have me do for a warm-up..."
When his hand came out from the pocket, it had another tool in it.
"Peel away some of this safety plastic," Toad muttered as he flipped open a small knife and carefully cut away the plastic surrounding a wire on either side of a switch to reveal bare metal. Returning the knife to his pocket, he took out a pair of alligator clips connected by a thin wire and placed them on the exposed wiring, "Bypass the signal interrupter so it tells them it's still working..."
"And turn out the lights, the party's started," he finished as he flipped the switch and the security system went dark.
Quicksilver tapped his foot impatiently, "Did it ever occur to you that we have no way of knowing if the beams are off or not?"
"What, don't you trust me?" Toad asked, hopping around the corner and down the hall, right through where the beams were supposed to be, "Security for this exit is now deader than disco, yo."
Banshee raised an eyebrow, "Do ye even know what disco was, lad?"
"Yeah; John Travolta, 'Saturday Night Fever', I know the classics," Toad waved a hand, "What, so old you can't remember it anymore or something?"
"Not now, Toad," Quicksilver demanded, grabbing the smaller mutant by his collar, "I want to get this over with so we can get out of here, this place gives me the creeps, there's nowhere to run."
"So, what, you're a claustrophobic?" Shadowcat asked.
"Hey! Just because you and rocks-in-his-head over there are going steady doesn't mean you can say things like that about me!" Quicksilver snapped defensively, "I love girls, I just don't want to get tied down to only one! Girls are like... like... they're like goals, the more you score, the better!"
"Ignore him," Avalanche told his partner as he placed a hand on her shoulder from behind, "He might be Quicksilver, but his brain's a lead weight."
"Well, that's for sure," Shadowcat agreed, "So does that mean he gets to go first?"
"You want to risk our lives on the chance of him actually paying attention to what's going on around him?"
"I want him to scream like a girl when they shoot him so the rest of us know to run the other way," Shadowcat countered.
"Kitten's got claws," Avalanche chuckled as he planted a quick kiss to her collarbone.
"You'd better believe it, buster," she informed him.
"Somehow, I just know your parents are going to blame this on me..."
"So does that mean you don't want to come home with me for the holidays?"
Avalanche pulled back and stared at her for a moment, "You're asking me this now?"
"Think of it as a reason for us not to get ourselves killed," she answered.
"They always like this?" Banshee asked aside to Toad.
"Does today end in 'y'? Yeah, on pretty much any day that does," Toad shrugged in response.
"Oh, Nicky, ye'll owe me for this one for th' rest o' ye life... Infinity an' all..." The Irish mutant muttered.
Quicksilver looked at him curiously, "What's this about infinity?"
"Nothin' ye need be worryin' about, lad," Banshee answered, "'Tis Nick's business alone."
"Hn," Quicksilver shrugged, mentally filing it away for later.
"Hey," Avalanche called back over his shoulder, "You heard her, Quickie, you get to go first."
"Isn't the best supposed to be saved for last?" Quicksilver countered.
"That's why I got the rear, yo," Toad smirked, doing a backflip to avoid Quicksilver's attempted backhand.