The knife screeched with a sound that Quinn had never heard before as she sped at a good pace towards the bottom of the vent shaft. She hadn't anticipated the noise and suddenly she was more worried about others hearing the noise than her reaching the bottom in one unbroken piece. Nonetheless she kept her legs a little bent, ready to crouch once she touched down.
The drop might have taken her all of about a minute top, the shaft not having being as long as she had thought. She might have been able to just jump down and maybe suffer some bruising, but she still thought that this was the best idea. She pulled the knife from the wall and inserted it back into her boot before stopping to listen. She could hear sounds around her, faded voices and even more distant footsteps, and she guessed that this shaft was in a wall of some sort. She would have tried to break through if she didn't have another objective.
With that reminder she turned and lay back down on her stomach, once again worming her way down the metal tunnel. A couple meters down her hands brushed against one of the grates that were placed every dozen paces down the shafts. She usually just passed over them, but this time she stopped; she heard footsteps and mumbled voices from the gloom below.
I think I've found something, she projected.
What have you found?
I'm not sure but I can hear a lot of people below me. The noises are echoing around so it seems like a pretty big room.
Jean was silent for a moment. Beast, Blackout and, Ink are on their way. Go down and figure out what's going on, but be safe.
Will do.
She reached her fingers through the slats in the grate and unlatched it, letting it swing downwards. The sounds of intermingled voices were steadily growing louder, but then a scream cut through it all and the rest of the noises died. The screaming continued and lasted for a good couple seconds before turning into a series of whimpers. Quinn didn't understand how someone could leave another person in just torment.
As the whimpers started to fade there was the clack of heels on the floor and a familiar voice shouted out, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!" Kitchie screamed.
"Only what he wanted," a woman replied, disappointment in her voice.
"YOU-" His sentence was cut off and there was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.
Quinn pulled back a bit from the opening, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. Kitchie was upset at this woman, who clearly had the power to knock him out and treat him like an animal. That could only mean that she was Jane Kelley, and that she had done something to Mark… Quinn swallowed and steeled herself, locking her emotions away in the safe at the back of her mind. She couldn't afford to let her heart lead her head here.
She slid out of the vent without thinking and her knees and palms crashed onto whatever structure she had landed on. She wasn't expecting the short drop and the connection jarred her. The sound of a bullet whizzing by brought her back to her senses and she rolled, surprising herself by dropping off the edge of the structure. She managed to catch herself on her feet though, only bent over a little bit, and she turned around to sprint off as a bullet pinged off of the structure beside her. She dashed off blindly, guessing that her shooter or shooters had night-vision goggles to be able to shoot even close to accurately in this pitch.
Tell Blackout we need the lights back on stat!
Her, Beast, and Ink are right near you.
A bullet grazed the back of her heel and she summersaulted forward, gritting her teeth against the sting.
Tell them to hurry! Kitchie's here and something's happened to Mark!
Just as she projected her need for them to hurry a glow came from somewhere to her left and started to expand. The snake that until then had remained around her neck vanished and she knew that Ink was the cause of the light. Then the lights in the ceiling flicked on and the glow switched off. Quinn's pursuer cried out as he was blinded and Quinn tossed him into a pit full of rabid dogs as she stopped.
Screams rang out, some more battle cry-like while others were edging on what Quinn assumed was a fight. As she returned to reality from the guard's nightmare she raced back to where the fight was. She knocked one guy down with her elbow as she pulled her knife from her boot. She made it back to the main row to see Beast throw a guy up and over what Quinn realized were individual cell blocks. Ink and Blackout were fighting close to back-to-back disarming guards and using hand-to-hand combat to push them down or injure them enough to stop fighting. Ink's tiger and wolf fought around the two and one honorable X-Men.
As Quinn took a minute to examine the situation she noticed the people in the cells and saw their anxious, fearful, and encouraging faces peering out from behind the bars of their doors. They all had white collars around their necks and Quinn guessed that they weren't just some fucked up fashion sense; they looked like they could hurt.
Quinn moved in to cover Ink's back as Blackout got pulled away by a rather aggressive guard. Once they had both freed themselves of a human burden Quinn spoke to the other girl. "Get the locks of those cages," she said. "I'll watch yours and Ink's back." Blackout nodded and started on the locks closest to them. She blasted them off with minimal energy and soon people were stumbling out. Kitchie was one of the last ones of that batch out. He rubbed at a bump on his forehead and Ink caught him before he fell. "You need to find him," Kitchie begged. "Go find Mark!" He pointed down the hall as Ink helped him to sit. He rested his head in his hands, shaking uncontrollably. "I…I couldn't stop him…"
"Mark rarely listens to others," Quinn consoled him when she realized they were no longer being attacked. "Don't take it personally." She forced a smile and Kitchie looked up at her. "Go," he whispered. "Find him…"
She nodded and raced off; she had been waiting until it was clear that she wasn't needed. She didn't know why she had waited, but then the shaking of her emotions safe reminded her. She sprinted down the hall as the sounds of exploding locks and raising voices continued behind her.