The ship rocked gently against the dock at Muir Isle, then a large, blue furred figure climbed out. He casually ambled along the wooden planks, until her reached a security camera nearby. Giving it a toothy smile, he said, "It's just Hank McCoy, stopping by." Then with surprising swiftness he crushed the camera! Working quickly McCoy plugged a small laptop into the loose wiring, typing away rapidly. "We're clear," he called back out to the boat. Feral jumped out first, clearly happy to be back on dry land. "I hate boats," she hissed, visibly shaking any moisture still on her right off. Plasma climbed up on the dock, reaching back to help Polaris out. "Thanks," Polaris smiled up at her gratefully. She looked over at Feral to say soothingly, "We didn't have a lot of choice getting here. This monthly supply run to the Mutant Research Station was our best bet to get in unnoticed." Sakura ignored Plasma's offered hand, smoothly vaulting up onto the deck and stalking over to McCoy's side. "Can you successfully hack the security systems?" she asked. "There's three lines of defense, each wired separately," McCoy still typed away, "this outer line has been hacked, but there will still be defenses active nearer the buildings. Then the internal system will have to be dealt with." Sakura just nodded, clearly not surprised. "I wonder why our big buddy Nemesis isn't along on this trip?" Feral complained. Polaris smiled grimly, "I've seen his file. If we wanted to nuke the island, bringing him along would be a good idea. Not a covert operation." "Not very subtle, I take it," Plasma smiled. A short burst of laughter from Polaris, "Not at all." "Let's go," Sakura said simply. They moved cautiously across the hills up towards the Research Station, and if any of them were curious about why they were doing this, they didn't ask aloud. Feral and Sakura acted as scouts, guiding them until they reached the inner line of defenses. "There's a gun emplacement on the other side of this hill," Sakura stated calmly, "we can use it to access the inner line of defenses." "Why does this place have this kind of defenses?" Feral asked disbelievingly. "The Xavier Protocols, maybe," Polaris answered quietly. At Plasma's inquiring glance she whispered, "After an X-Man went bad a few years back, Xavier wrote a series of plans on how to take the members of the X-Men down if needed." "I wonder if that's our target," Plasma looked curiously at Sakura. "We'll be told when we need to know," Polaris shrugged. Feral looked over at McCoy, "Gimmie a boost." McCoy cupped his hands, Feral stepped in it delicately, and he practically tossed her over the rise at the cannon there. There was a slicing sound, and McCoy grinned, "My cue, I believe." He went over the hill, the others following quickly behind him. The mini- cannon lay on the ground, sliced away cleanly. "I hate getting grease on my nails," Feral wiped her claws on the grass. "Smoothly cut," McCoy said admiringly, quickly plugging his laptop in. "Why, thank you Doctor," Feral actually smiled at him. "You're awfully trusting of our fearless leader," Plasma and Polaris moved off to quietly resume their previous discussion. "Not really," Polaris smiled slightly, "I'm just confident in our ability to handle whatever comes our way." "You got that right," Plasma agreed, letting fire dance along her fingers a moment. Sakura stood back a bit, watching them interact. 'Things are progressing like we thought,' she noted, 'Feral and McCoy are bonding in a psychopathic sort of way, while Plasma and Polaris' basic decency pulls them closer together.' She smiled coldly, 'Soon we'll be able to use one of them as leverage with the other, if needed.' "The inner line's down," McCoy smiled, "and quite quickly, if I do say so myself." "Keep under cover until we reach the main buildings themselves," Sakura ordered. "There's human security in there, and I have no wish for one of them to raise the alarm," she added. They moved on, carefully keeping out of the line of sight of anyone in the buildings. It took time, but in a few moments they reached the buildings themselves. "McCoy," Polaris asked quietly, "what sort of access do you need to shut down the buildings' security?" "I can clear some of it from an outside port," McCoy answered, "but the rest will require a PC access inside." Sakura shot Polaris a look, silently saying, 'Thank you for asking, but don't do it again.' She then said to McCoy, "Get to it." She turned back to the other three, "Once were in, I do not want any of the security personnel killed." "Aaawwww!" Feral wined. "I bet the X-Men will be after us just for busting in here," Plasma noted, "we don't need to add any dead bodies to the score." "And you'll get your shot at them later," Polaris added quietly. Sakura quietly said to Feral, "Don't disobey me." A gleaming shuriken appeared in her hand, seemingly by magic, "You won't live long enough to regret it." "We're good to go," McCoy appeared to say. They moved in quietly, the five of them ready to move at a moment's notice. "What's our target?" Plasma asked, looking back and forth carefully. "McCoy," Sakura nodded to a nearby PC on a desk. "Who goes there?" the man in a security uniform called from down the hall. Before he could even move, a metal panel from the roof went liquid, forming a muzzle and bonds to restrain him. "Gotcha," Polaris smirked. "Not bad," Plasma shot her a smile. "Thank you," Polaris nodded. She pulled two more roof panels apart, forming a belt, and two bracelets on her wrists. "What's that for?" Feral asked with a smirk on her face. "Parts of this place have no iron in it," Polaris explained patiently, "part of a defense against Magneto. This way, I'm carrying something for my powers to work with." McCoy finished up on the PC, "The automatic defenses are all down. We only have to worry about the human security now." "Our target," Sakura looked over the other four, "is the cold storage vault two levels below us. McCoy, I'll need your assistance to package the samples for transport. Polaris, Plasma, and Feral will be our cover." "Two levels down," Plasma noted. She looked over at Polaris, "Can you tell me how thick the floor is here?" Polaris knelt down, generating a low level magnetic pulse, "About a foot." "Everyone step back," Sakura cautioned the others. Plasma glowed softly, focusing her concentration. Then a focused stream of fiery plasma radiated from her hands, cutting through the floor like a hot knife through butter. "Instant shortcut," she smiled, adding, "watch the edges, they're still hot." Polaris picked up herself and Plasma, floating them down to the next level. Feral and McCoy leapt down easily, while Sakura just seemed to appear there. "How does she do that?" Feral murmured quietly. Completely deadpan McCoy answered her, "Ninja mojo." Feral snickered softly at that. Sakura did a quick check of the floorplan before saying, "Cut down to the next level here, please. We don't want to risk any damage to the vault." "Got it," Plasma answered. Another fast burn later, and they were on the final level. Sakura swiftly lead them down to the hall to a massive vault door. She typed a code in confidently, and a moment later the door opened, cold mist spilling out onto the floor. A computer terminal was sitting nearby the door, and she gestured McCoy towards it. "We want the cell samples from the X-Men, as well as any Summers clan DNA on file," Sakura instructed him. McCoy typed on the terminal quickly, slots opening up on the walls of the vault revealing vials of DNA. "I begin to understand," he smiled, "material for my enhancements, maybe?" "It's possible," Sakura opened up a carrying case, sliding vials into cushioned slots. A few moments, that's all it took to acquire what they had come for. Polaris hesitated when Sakura said it was time to go, asking her reluctantly, "Should we make a try on the Protocols?" Sakura actually smiled, "Thanks for the offer, but Stryfe specifically ordered me not to." They returned to the waiting boat much faster, Polaris using her magnetism to fly them back, skimming low over the ground. They climbed into their craft, and it sat there silently for a moment. Outer segments fell away, and it skimmed over the waters before rising into the air. The mini- jet climbed, slowly disappearing into the sky as it's cloak activated. Later that day Sakura entered Stryfe's chambers cautiously, waiting for the armored figure to see her. "Come in," Stryfe said calmly. Sakura carried the case in, laying it on the table. "Mission accomplished," she said simply. Stryfe opened it, looking at the vials, each carrying a precious cell sample. "Good work," he smiled slightly. "A question, Lord Stryfe," Sakura waited for his nod before continuing, "why didn't you want us to try to obtain the Xavier Protocols?" "Because they are no longer valid," he said simply. "The members of the X-Men have continued to grow and evolve since the Protociols were first written, and the composition of the teams has also greatly changed," Stryfe explained. "Sir," Sakura bowed her respect to him. "And this is far more precious," Stryfe ran his fingers along the vials, finally pulling it out. Her raised one to the light, the name on it reading, 'Katherine Pryde.' With a slight smile Stryfe asked Sakura, "How would you like to walk through walls?"
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