Hannibal glanced at his watch for the fourth time in the last two minutes and shook his head. It had officially been too long for him to keep waiting for his team. He had hoped that they'd make it out in time to share in the fun, that they'd make it out at all, really.
"Ohkay, Mr. Parton?" He turned to look at the embracing couple standing closer to the entrance of the building, and stepped toward them, "Looks like the rest of my team was held up a bit. We're gonna have to start the fun without them."
Dolly Parton hugged closer to her husband, her nightgown providing little cover from the nighttime breeze.
"What do you mean, held up? Was—was that part of the plan?"
"Y'see, Mrs. Parton, that's the best thing about my plans, they always come together, but never the way that they were originally meant to, Heheheh!" The two scientists stared at him as he passed them and then followed him into the building. "You know that already, Mrs. Parton!" Hannibal gave another snort as they entered the elevator, reminiscing on how the last half-hour had gone.
The moment that slimeball Castellano had gracefully excused himself from the office, Hannibal had put his newly-formed escape plan into action. The few guards that were there were diligent—Hannibal would give them that—but they'd just never been up against the A-Team before. An elbow in the face of one and a short fistfight later the two of them were weaponless, though one was persistent. Of course he went out like a light after Mrs. Parton had taken a wine bottle from the desk to the back of his head.
"Hannibal, I'm sorry to interrupt your thoughts, but-what exactly are we doing right now?" Mr. Parton looked quizzically over as the elevator opened into the basement, the three of them stepping out. Hannibal waved the scientists who had stayed for the night over with his hand and answered,
"Let me tell ya." He directed his next words to the small crowd that was forming, "Alright, people, we have some work to do. First of all I need someone to go outside and stand on duty by the Corvette for when my team radios in, so I don't miss it."
"I can do that." A hand was raised and a smaller scientist left to the elevator to stand on watch.
"Next, we need ideas."
"What kind of ideas?" Mr. Parton responded again.
"We need weapons. If my team and I are going to go headfirst into that casino, we're gonna need some weapons."
Another scientist spoke up, "But we don't have any weapons here, we only have our inventions."
"That's just what you think, my good friend." Hannibal put his hand on the shoulder of said scientist, and grinned. "You just gotta use your imagination! So what kind of weapons can we jury-rig with what you guys have?"
The scientists looked from one to another in wonder and Hannibal realized he had his work cut out for him. Hopefully he'd be joined by his team before too long.
He set about explaining to the scientists what he meant, and after a few examples of quick-rigged weapons he and his team had used in the past, they started to catch onto the idea and throw around their own. Another couple minutes after they'd separated themselves into groups, the smaller watch-man was back, running to Hannibal,
"Mr-Mr. Smith! Your team is calling you on the radio!"
Hannibal thanked the man and ran to the elevator to usher his friends to the party that had just gotten started, changing the side his cigar was on with a smile.