Disclaimer: AU to X3! Not making any money from this. Corrinth owns Stifle and Vixen, Blaze is mine, Marvel retain all rights to all other characters, all knowledge of US military comes from watching Stargate SG1!
Above and Beyond: Scene 8Logan sneaked around to the rear of the helicopter, checking for GRSO patrols. Thanks to the storm, there were only two on deck that he could smell, and he sincerely doubted that they could see him. Wolverine signalled to Gambit that his route was clear. The Cajun sprinted forwards to the nearest access door and tried the handle. It was locked, but it had been worth a try. Charging a card, Remy slid the edge into the gap between the reinforced door and frame, just above the handle. Letting go he backed away half a pace and turned his head away to protect his eyes. There was a hiss followed by a pop that lit up the rain briefly with a shower of fuchsia-orange sparks.
Stifle appeared by Gambit's shoulder and preceded him through the door cautiously. The enclosed corridor was ovoid with beige panels and uniform stainless steel supports. Stifle looked down the tunnel each way, worried by how alike each direction looked. Short of using a ball of string, trailing it out behind them like the Grecian hero Theseus had done in the tale of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, ten minutes in this place would disorientate them completely. However that wasn't the most pressing problem. Someone had heard the bang caused by Gambit's controlled explosion and was coming running.
Stifle ducked back around the door at the sound of the approach and closed it to. When the seaman got to the door onto the deck, he stepped through carelessly. His attention was on the scorch marks and the broken lock, which gave Dell the opportunity she needed. She took hold of the nape of his neck in a pincer-grip, catching his jaw underneath with her other had. The compression on the spinal pressure point dropped the GRSO man completely, rendering him incapacitated. Stifle dragged him out of the way and hid him under a nearby collection of packing crates.
Mystique took one look at the fallen man and assumed his shape. Thus attired she confidently strode through the doorway. Two more of Kincaid's men greeted her with a nod and a smile as she stood in front of the broken door so they wouldn't see it. The carried on down the corridor from left to right, leaving Mystique to bring the X-Men through and send them left rather than right.
Blaze took up the lead, as Logan became rearguard, listening hard for anyone who might be behind them. They were fortunate, maybe twenty-five paces further down the corridor there was an elaborate schematic of the ship on the wall. The plaque was four feet by eight, with colour coded sections and every room, corridor and doorway given a code. Blaze stopped dead in her tracks, causing a mutant traffic jam as she examined the diagrammatic representation.
"Why the tailback?" Logan asked Dell who was in front of him.
"Blaze is looking at a map," Stifle replied, "Why I don't know. I didn't think she was technically minded, and there's no way she'll remember it."
"Wanna bet on dat Cherie?" Gambit offered, "How 'bout if she gets us to where we goin', you buy Gambit dinner?"
"Fine," Stifle agreed, "And if she doesn't, you can buy me dinner for a month, Gambit."
"Getting him to pay a bill is like trying to get blood from Logan," Blaze advised Stifle conspiratively, "Waste of a bet anyway, just tell me where you wanna go."
"The bridge," Mystique replied, "Get me there and I'll get the ship back to port."
"Not on your own you ain't," Logan cut in. "You need chaperoning Mystique, I don't trust you one inch." Stifle looked relieved at Logan's forceful statement, whilst Mystique looked mildly annoyed, but not surprised.
"Gambit can stay with me then, he might be some use," Mystique pursed her lips and looked over the Cajun intimately. "With the ship's systems," she quantified eventually. Gambit didn't bat an eyelid, but neither did he say anything.
"We need to find the prisoners and see if we can free them," said Stifle after a moment.
"Bridge first, then the prison levels, got it," Blaze pointed to a door on the left hand side of the corridor about eight paces away. "Through there should be a maintenance ladder. If we stay off the main corridors hopefully we won't run into anyone."
"After you," Stifle indicated that Blaze should go first. Steely determination glinted in the redhead's eyes as she opened the door, looked up and started climbing the ladder. One by one the others followed, with Wolverine shutting the door behind him and bringing up the rear. They climbed the ladder for three levels, by which time everyone's muscles were aching to varying degrees. Blaze then guided them down a tightly wound secondary corridor that she said ran parallel to the main access way to the bridge. There was another brief climb, and then they came up on the bridge from the left. Opening the door by a crack, Mystique and Stifle peered through into the expansive room full of technical equipment and flashing digital displays. More worryingly the room was also full of people.
Twelve men in uniforms worked the consoles and minded monitors. Five more of higher ranks were stood to attention whilst another addressed them. The speaker had his back to the X-Men so they couldn't hear what he was saying properly. Only when he finished and smartly about-faced did it become clear through the marking on his uniform that he was a well-decorated general, General Kincaid himself. Three of his senior officers left the room with him, whilst two others stayed and went back to work.
Knowing the necessity of clearing the bridge with as little disruption as possible, Mystique carefully assumed Kincaid's bulky form and obtuse mannerisms. Her face became angular and pale, her nose squat, her hair grey and receding. She bulked out to fill her military uniform with its array of badges and medals. Before the X-Men could react she was striding onto the bridge. Walking to the middle of the room without being noticed, she then cleared her throat.
"General?" one of the senior officers looked around, his expression bewildered. "Aren't you continuing your inspection?"
"Don't question your superior, boy," Mystique replied convincingly with a smile that showed Kincaid's yellow teeth. "Your men have impressed me today. If those nonessential personnel left their posts for the remainder of their shift, they would not be brought to heel for it. Understood?"
"Yes sir," the man replied. Around the bridge, Kincaid's men blinked at their leader, clearly unsure. Was this some kind of perverse test? Abruptly it seemed to dawn on them what had been said. Headsets were removed and consoles were abandoned as all but four of the men left the bridge completely. One commanding officer and three technicians remained. "That's very generous of you… sir?" Mystique dropped Kincaid's form and swung a roundhouse kick at the senior officer's head. He sprawled on the floor, knocked flying by the force of Mystique's attack.
At the same time the X-Men ran forward from their hiding place. Gambit and Stifle both disposed of a man each easily enough. Wolverine had a little more trouble with his as his target unloaded a clip full of bullets into Logan's gut. With a feral roar Logan let loose with his claws. He stabbed upwards, taking his prey under the jaw so hard that Logan's claws reappeared out of the top of the man's skull. Retracting his claws again Logan let the man slump to the floor dead. Blaze slipped a shoulder under Logan's arm to support him whilst his healing mutation kicked in, making the bullets pop out to clatter on the deck plate.
Mystique stepped over her victim, and went to place her fingers talon-like on the ship's controls. Stifle and Gambit dragged the bodies away and locked them in the room they had just come from. "Be good," Blaze warned Gambit and Mystique as she, Stifle and Wolverine made their way to a second maintenance ladder on the other side of the bridge. Gambit nodded to his protégée as Blaze closed the door behind them.