2013.06.25 - Chinese Take-Out

International politics and relations are touchy things, they really are. They get even touchier when it has to do with the United States and China.. particularly when business is concerned. (Even moreso when interpersonal relations are concerned, but thankfully, there's none of that today! Maybe.)

It's stayed out of the news, thankfully. The kidnapping of an American businessman by his factory employees. On the surface, it simply looks like pay demands.. and for some, it could very well be all that it is. But, for others, looking deeper, there may be something else lurking in the shadows.

A paying gig.

Kurt's spent a reasonable amount of time in St. Patrick's asking for intercession (it's not polite to pray for money!), when not bugging Amanda, or haunting the Majestic (which is one and the same, really) or lounging on his boat (puttering!) bothering, well.. everyone at the Marina.

Now, however.. meeting in the living room of Amanda's place, Kurt is pacing- all have been told the basics.. and all have been given, well, what he was so everyone knows exactly as much as he. Not content to pace on the floor, he leaps up to the door lintel and does the same on the ceiling, his tail obeying gravity for the moment, and hanging down-- like a bell pull.

Seems the elf craves... action.

Not far away stands the fairly diminutive form of Domino, bedecked in her usual gloss black and thirty-odd pounds of hardware. She stands with one arm folded in front, supporting the elbow of the opposite arm which currently has a matte black dagger in hand, her index finger lightly tapping the flat of the blade against her temple in thought.

"Not to further complicate the mission, but it might be worth mentioning that I'm not..entirely welcome on Chinese soil."

Big explosion, ruined building, many injured or killed, traffic backed up for two solid weeks, and someone that got their undies in a bind and decided to out her to the authorities. You know how it goes.

"If we get cornered, plausible deniability isn't going to cut it. Just saying."

It's a rare day. Amanda has a laptop open, and is actually using it. She's looking, in fact, at the materials the elf shared with her -- an email containing one photo, two links, and a set of coordinates. She's opened the two links in her browser. One is a Google map overview of a particular industrial park in Shanghai that matches the coordinates, the other is a news article from one of those outside-the-Chinese-firewall leak sites, awkwardly translated by Google translate.

She glances up at Domino. "I can fix that for you," she notes. "If you don't mind a bit of magic. Fact is, even I don't want to go in there looking like I do. Probably best if we're cloaked in illusion spells and in possession of what I like to call 'whammy badges'. Or something similar."

Kurt's pacing on the ceiling earns him a long-suffering look from the blonde. She'll be having him scrub the footprints off again later. As always.

"Is this really all you got, Kurt? It's not a lot to go on."

From Kurt's spot on the ceiling, Domino is given his full attention for a moment, his tail swishing, pulling up and around. There's a smile that grows to a rather toothy grin, easily showing fangs in that shadowed, blue fuzzy face of his.

"Bamf."

Still, Kurt can't say anything about Domino not being welcome in China. That whole, 'he's not welcome in two countries' thing. That's not to mention Interpol. "Somehow, liebling, I don't think we'll be going in the front door," he teases, "My passport isn't very good-- or perhaps, in China, they would welcome me with open arms?" Anyone the Europeans don't like, they would?

"I'll put in a good word for you."

Blinking glowing, featureless yellow eyes in Amanda's direction, Kurt nods slowly. "Ja. The photo is a nice touch. Means that when we get there, I can bamf us in, und it won't be blind." Blind teleporting is a no-no.. "But it is all I have. It could be that it is all that is available, nicht wahr? China is not the most forthcoming of countries."

"Either that or I'll have to dust off my image inducer," Domino replies to Amanda's offer. "Keep control in our hands as much as possible."

"Yeah, 'bamf' to you, too," she automatically says back to Kurt, reaching out with her open hand to lightly tug on his tail twice. "Hey, the front door is always an option. I've made that play plenty of times." Though it tends to be easier for her.

"Thanks, I feel safer already."

With the discussion focusing around the lack of intel she wanders around to peer over Amanda's shoulder, checking out the data for herself. "Don't worry, kids. I've been on ops that had even less to run with than this. From the picture I already see three potential entry points and one point that would make for a timely distraction in a pinch. We'll be fine. Besides," she adds with a sly grin, "it means this will be more fun."

Amanda nods to that. "Okay," she says slowly. "How about this little hiccup, then: Who here speaks and/or reads Chinese?" Because, she doesn't. And she's pretty sure Kurt doesn't. Of course, she doesn't know Domino's talents in that regard.

Wrinkling her nose, again, she zooms in on the sat pic until she's got a nice close-up view of the area. "I'm pretty sure I conjure up a portal to get us there." But it's really at the extent of her range. "When we get there, though, I'll be handicapped by the strange environment. Just so you know." Which means she's bringing her bag of tricks. Though, on the bright side, the place is urban, which means there's less chance of really weird backfires happening.

Kurt's grin turns to a laugh at the tail tug and it's up and swishing lightly. His tones turn towards a theatric sulkiness, complete with dramatic frown. (Not that it can last very long!) "Last time I had my image inducer on, you both mocked me for weeks."

Still, what Amanda says is right. "Nein, I haven't learned Chinese. English still gives me a run for my money." Though, that's a question, and he looks back at Dom. "Liebling, do you know Chinese?" Which might mean that Dom gets to be their front end! Not that he minds being behind her...

Either of them, really.

Ahem.

"We all will be a little handicapped, liebling," Kurt's back looking to Amanda now, and his words take a lilting, 'devil may care' tenor. "What could go wrong? A teleporter, a merc und a witch going to China."

"I don't," Dom replies with an almost casual sort of grace. "But we've got that bit covered. There's a translator already there waiting for us. All we have to do is rescue his sorry ass."

Surely the boss knows how to speak the language... Problem solved!

"That's because of your alter ego, Mister Flynn," she teases Kurt with a smirk.

"We've got this, guys. If we want to play it extra careful then I can lead us to a safehouse outside of the city, give us a chance to recharge and give me a chance to switch out my gear. China's real big on using their own weaponry, any brass I'd leave behind will instantly mark the hit as foreign. They don't export, with their hardware it'll be impossible to trace."

The part which she's failing to mention is that the safehouse isn't hers. She'll owe someone a big favor later.

"Safehouse it is," Amanda says, glancing between them. Oh, yeah. Even a few hours of meditation in Shanghai, while Domino works her mercenary magic, will give Amanda a better handle on her magic there. She'd prefer three days -- enough time to completely to attune herself to the city -- but she'll take what she can get. A few hours will be enough.

She considers the essentials of what she wants to bring with her. Leathers, hood, satchel. Extra potions. She'll need to check her chest to see what other useful artefacts she might be forgetting may be hidden there. Thus, she pushes up out of her chair. "Get me a picture of where we need to go," she tells Dom, "and I'll open a portal. Do either of you need to go collect anything before we do this thing?"

Kurt hasn't left the ceiling, and he points to a satchel on the ground, tucked behind a chair. Now, he curls, up, hands at his feet (while still upside down), and back flips down and off the ceiling to land easily and lightly upon the floor, his tail high. "Swords are there. Change of clothes. Image inducer." His smile turns to a grin again, and he's abuzz in the excitement.

"All I have to do is leave a note for TJ. Make sure there's enough groceries.." Kurt levels his glowing yellow eyes on the ladies before him, two for whom he cares more than life itself, his tones turning towards the serious and sober for a moment. "I want files too. Medical equipment, lieblingen.."

To Amanda's request Dom inclines her head in acknowledgement, dropping the knife back into place with a soft shik! as she walks over to borrow the laptop. As long as they've got satellite imagery and all, she'll find it. "Anything that I'd need is likely going to be found right there. What I'd like to do is ditch my current stuff somewhere local so retrieval isn't an issue. We'll probably be leaving in a hurry once this run's over."

TJ..? She passes an inquiring glance toward Kurt this time, "This TJ of yours isn't going to be a problem if I leave a few thousand dollars' worth of restricted ordnance behind, are they?"

A moment later and she's got the street view of a run-down area just outside of Shanghai proper. It looks gloomy and dangerous and exactly like the sort of place where someone would secretly stockpile military equipment.

"TJ will be fine," Amanda says to Domino. "Curious as her 'father', of course, but the girl's not stupid. I'll be back in a sec."

She moves, now, toward her bedroom, going to pull out the various items she knows she'll need. She dons her leathers, though the hood stays down over her shoulders, and pulls out her chest to refill her satchel. Various potions go into it, a few spell components, and a couple of artefacts she figure might come in handy -- one 'Universal ID' badge (a.k.a. a whammy badge), the 'translator earpiece' she used most often when flight attending (which means she should be able to speak and understand the languages they encounter, though reading will be impossible), and a magical version of Kurt's imagizer (just in case). Oh. And two small bags of marbles.

That done, she pushes the chest back under the bed, slings the bag over her shoulder, and returns to the others in the living room.

Emit error(s): kurt (unknown)

"No worrying about TJ. She's... cool." Kurt echoes Amanda easily, though he looks towards Domino when the blonde mentions 'her father', but doesn't move to explain it quite yet. "She may be a little upset with me that I'm not bringing her along, mind.. but she won't do anything to your things."

Kurt looks over Dom's shoulder as she brings up the pictures for the safehouse before he turns about to get his back. Packed already! Jeans. Shirts.. and he's got a toned down version of his X 'uniform', minus the spandex and the giant X.

"Ready when you are..."

Domino's heard this one before, she's certain of it. But, there's always something about the 'father' bit that leaves her staring at the Blue Dude with a peculiar expression. This time she doesn't push the matter, momentarily stepping out into another room where she can hide a pair of pistols and explosive devices, and a few other odds and ends.

Two minutes later she returns, stepped down to blades and batons and very little else. The street view around the safehouse's location is closed out, just to be safe.

"Let's go terrorize China, kids."

Sometime Later...
The portal between the safehouse and the factory closes with a wink behind Amanda, who now stands deep in the shadows with her two compatriots alongside the likeliest entry point to the building proper. (After all, why try breeching the outer perimeter when a portal gets you in right to the front -- or back, as the case may be -- door?) She raises a hand to her ear, pressing the translator in firmly, and adjusting her hood.

She looks to Domino, now, who has better skills for this sort of B&E that either she or Kurt... for the moment (since bamfing into an unknown interior is a Bad Idea). "Showtime," the witch says softly, her smile sharp, even predatory.

The moment showtime is called, Kurt stays in the shadows, and leaps to the ceiling, tucking his tail in. On the move now, yellow eyes glowing in the light, he looks down at the ladies. It's true. Bamfing in blind is a bad idea.. and getting a portal in via a floorplan? A little safer.

With production shut down, the offices aren't being utilized, certainly. It's a question as to where they'd put their captive.. and how many people they'd use. Could be they're watching for the Chinese police (read: army), and so they're ready to die for their cause, or.. they're all innocents and have no clue what they're doing.

Kurt would much rather err on the side of caution.

Moving easily across the ceiling to the door, Kurt drops his tail to rest on the knob and looks back with those big, yellow eyes of his. He gives a nod, and he's gone in a soft *bamf*, presumably right on the other side, on the ceiling.. in shadows.

"A corridor, lieblingen.. the production floor is beyond." What he can see, anyway.

He's back in a *bamf*, again.. landing upon the ceiling before he allows himself to fall upon the floor, soundlessly.. and with the effortless grace of one that has done such a thing for years.. "I can take you there."

Several minutes of looking through crates and lockers has taught Domino something new. "..Huh. There's a lot more 9 NATO around here than I was counting on." Seems like they aren't strictly using their own calibers, after all!

The side trip was concluded with her leaving a scrap of paper behind with the simple message 'Owe Ya, D' with a single dot in the center of the lone initial. Overall the detour didn't take much time.

Nor does the 'entering' portion of the B&E to follow. "That saves me the trouble of guessing the keycode," she thinks aloud when Kurt finds them a point of entry. Teleportation does have its uses! Without the 'breaking' part involved the crime they're now committing isn't nearly as bad.

"Right on, Blue," she replies while flicking the selector switch on her chosen SMG. "Make it happen."

Amanda says nothing as Kurt does his explorations and returns with news of access. She didn't really doubt he'd find something. As he preps to bamf them in, however, she notes, "We're assuming they're on the production floor, yes?" Because, 80-some-odd workers would fit their easiest. But, her gut tells her the 'boss' may not necessarily be out on the floor with all 80. That many people is a mob, and mobs are fairly mindless. There's always a leader, however, and usually a small cadre of trusted support around that leader.

"Give me a sec. I wanna see if we can get a clearer picture of what we're dealing with..."

She reaches into her satchel and pulls out what looks like a make-up powder compact. When she opens it, however, it's clear the thing's not for powdering her nose. Or, if it is, she picks some mighty strange colours, given the power inside it is a dark, metallic grey not that dissimilar to gun metal. Glancing about, she notices a tile with a small piece of its corner chipped off. Prying it up, she lays it in the center of the powder, spreads her hand over the compact for a brief moment, and whispers a soft spell. As if moved by an invisible magnet, several motes of the metal powder swirl up into the air, coming to rest on the mirrored surface of the upper half of the compact. Within seconds, a little blue print of the building, with little moving dots on it to represent people appears. There's the expected cluster on the production floor... and a smaller cluster in a room beyond it, up some stairs if the dusty blueprint is correct.

She shows the readout to her friends. "Odds on hostile the folks between here and there are?"

Kurt has the same thought. People peppered through the building; probably some looking out for the military. No sign of them, thankfully. (Yet, anyway!) He has a quiet footfall as he stands beside Dom, and his tail rises to wind about her waist.

Amanda's questions, therefore, gains a nod. "I would think.. at least a good number of them. To protect access upstairs," he ends up murmuring as he watches the compact fill in the unknowns. His head bobs in a nod, and he looks between the girls now. "I think they would be quite put out if we showed, though.. what weapons could they have? Unless all those Kung Fu movies were right und everyone knows it.." Now wouldn't that be fun?

"Though, I have to admit. My Spidey senses are tingling."

Domino's alright with waiting a little while longer, eyes and ears open to the world around them while holding. The three weapons which she's rounded together are exactly the same as what Chinese police forces would be issued, which would seem appropriate given the hostage situation and all. Know your scapegoats!

Amanda's surveillance trick is downright unreal, and wickedly cool, though it doesn't stop the albino from fighting back a slight shiver upon seeing everything coming together. It's the magic, man... That stuff creeps her out.

"I'm assuming that's a rhetorical question because it's a total sucker bet. Anyone that's not a part of this operation should have left long before we got here, not many people enjoy the thought of getting shot and arrested."

To Kurt, she says "Could be just about anything. They've been copying everything from Kalashnikov's to Koch's for decades. Best bet? Don't stay under their sights."

Helpful, as always.

Dom knows how she would proceed if she were doing this alone. Already their plan is differing from hers, but that's okay. They have a portal caster and a teleporter at their disposal. They could cheat. "Got a few options. We could bamf in, swipe the boss and be gone before anyone knows what happened. We could switch him out and secure the room long enough to gank some of your data. Or, you kids could go for the boss and I can stay at ground level and distract the hell out of our Team Eighty."

Yep, by herself. The odds of any of the workers being a better shot than her are well within her favor.

Amanda glances between the other two. "If you want the data," she says to Kurt, "we can't just bamf in and bamf out." She looks directly at him. "What, exactly, do we need to collect for you? Perhaps we need to split up?" She can teleport as much as she can portal. She just doesn't combat bamf. She glances at the compact. "We need to decide, now, however." Because dots are on the move, potentially their way.

Kurt looks to Domino, his smile creeping back to his face. "B. I choose B. No one ever chooses B. They choose 'A', or C.. or D. All of the above. But, I like 'B'. Not over achieving, und not getting a gentleman's grade either.." Which means the elf wants to switch him out, secure the room to capture the data.. then bamf. "So.. B."

Looking to the pair, Kurt nods and shifts his weight a little before reaching up to take Amanda's hand too, keeping his tail around Domino. "It's time to move.."

Bamf!

Option B happens to have its very own name between Domino and Kurt, the perhaps not so creatively named Switch-Up. She already knows what to expect, what role to play, and how to execute the manoeuvre. All it takes--

-Bamf!-

--is a change of scenery.

As soon as Dom's combat boots hit the different patch of floor she's moving, the SMG rhythmically pelting the formerly secured workforce with an almost polite Thip! from the suppressor. Teleportation is handy but she need not rely upon it to end up being in places where other people don't expect her to be. She's barely aiming half of the time, motion, action, and reaction all lost together into a fluid mix that's orchestrated by nothing more than her power of luck. To anyone else it would appear to be a complete disaster, at least until the opposition starts hitting the floor.

As Kurt's tail snakes around Domino, his hand reaching out for her own, Amanda closes the compact with a soft snap and slips it into her satchel once more. As she withdraws her hand, she has two small, thin-glass phials in her fingers that appear to be filled with shimmering, dark blue sand. She glances to Kurt, displaying them to him, so that he knows what to expect when they land in that office. Instant shadow cover. She whispers a soft spell, and closes her eyes just as they *bamf* into that first room to drop Dom off. Her eyes remain closed until Kurt bamfs a second time.

And he should be bamfing a second time...right into that foreman's office, where the leaders of this little hostage taking are ensconced with their captors. It's there she releases the two sand phials she held. They fall to the floor and shatter with a tinkle of tiny shards. The exposed sand billows up not as particulates but as an inky blue darkness no one by Kurt and, thanks to her whispered spell, Daytripper are going to see through at all.

Nodding at Amanda the moment she shows him the vials, Kurt smiles widely, the points of his fangs showing. Does he even have to offer 'Deep breath' to these two?

Nope!

The moment they all land, Kurt's looking for the hostage in his part of 'Switch up'.

It's one of his patented 'combat bamfs' that comes next- the moment he catches sight of 'one of these people is not like the others'.. and the next teleport is with the American Hostage -and- Amanda into the foreman's office.

Bamf! Bamf!

The moment they land, they are obfuscated, and Kurt takes his spot on the ceiling, only to land upon one of those that has chosen to hole up here. He lands hard, his tail wrapping about the man's neck to pull him backwards, flipping him up and behind him, only to have the man slam against the wall with a dull *thud*..

These three aren't the only ones that brought toys to this shindig. Once people out in the factory start to figure out that there's an oddball on the loose that's cutting them down left, right and center, things go from calm but tense to chaotic and tense.

The factory floor is quickly filled with noise that has nothing to do with machinery being productive.

Dom drops down between another group of disgruntled workers, striking one in a cluster of nerves at the shoulder which causes a reflexive shot from his pistol to strike the ground beside her foot and spark off of the rifle held by another behind her.

In turn that rifle's aim gets thrown wild before the trigger gets bumped, the sudden Crack! sounding at almost the same instant the loosed bullet bounces off of the metal rafters, punching through the window to the office then drilling another worker through the neck before his next blind shot could cripple the spellcaster within.

As the darkness billows up and Kurt deposits the hostage out of the way and goes for the first of the conspirators within the office, Amanda turns and throws shields up over the door and window to keep any unexpected interlopers or any more unexpected bullets from bursting in on them... which has more to do with the fact she doesn't want to get hit than anything else.

Her translator picks up the shouts of the various Chinese gunmen, giving her some warning as a third man in the room starts shooting randomly. Her fists come up and she zats him with a pair of magic bolts that send him flying back into the wall, where he falls senseless against the floor, his gun clattering onto the tiles.

Three down. Two to go. Spinning around, it's another heavy zat into one of the remaining two, Kurt fully capable of handling the last while Domino continues to wreak havoc outside.

"Zum Teufel! Watch the shooting!" comes .. though he's not mad. Honestly, he's not. Kurt simply has to step up his game now and try to work out where Dom is going to shoot next!

The fact there's a gunman in the office really doesn't come as any surprise. After all, this room has a window, and they were waiting for the police to show.. which are still remarkably absent. (Tacit approval of taking an American hostage, perhaps?)

Amanda's zatting of a couple leaves Kurt's one, and it's a combat bamf now.. one.. two.. three.. each time landing in a different spot and taking a strike at him, until the elf is essentially keeping the man on his feet, balancing and rebalancing with his hits. Finally, he allows the man to fall to the ground, unconscious.

Raising glowing yellow eyes, he looks to the American hostage now, and offers what would be a reassuring smile- if it were given by anything but a blue furry demon. "We're here to rescue you.. und find out what you're making."

With that, Kurt settles his tail down and perches in a chair, poking at the computer system to get it booting up. "I want your password." Beat. "Now."

This place is about to be making a whole lot less. Sometimes, distractions can use some distractions.

From a walkway between pieces of equipment Domino vaults over the railing, the backflip giving her a chance to strike down a few more guys giving pursuit while the top of a foot catches the grenade which she had primed and bounced into the air an instant before making the jump.

The merc drops low while the explosive charge arcs across the room, striking a network of pipes then detonating with an instantaneous flash of light. Windows shatter outward. Debris starts raining down from above, dislodged from the force of the blast. Gunfire gets mixed into the crashing of chunks of steel and hollow tubes against the hardened concrete floor, raining down upon a mass of workers.

As soon as her feet touch back down the sprinkler system kicks in, spraying the entire factory floor with gallons of water. it's quickly followed by the chiming of shells all around her, catching up from the mid-air shoot-out.

Fortunately, the people in the office aren't getting soaked.

"Woo, baby! We're gettin' somewhere now!"

"Who the hell are you people?!?" the American CEO sputters, clearly disoriented and frightened. He's still tied to the chair they held him on in the main room, of course. Because, really, bamfing the chair and body together had to have been easier. "I'm not telling you anything!"

"So..." Amanda says speculatively, her own accent shifting to emphasize the German. (Because, hey, it's another level of redirection, right? The Germans did it!) "You would prefer we left you for the Chinese?"

"What? No! But, I..."

"The password," Amanda says, circling behind him in the darkness -- he cannot see, only hear and feel -- and draping herself over his shoulders, hands playing with his tie as she lays her cheek alongside his. "Now, mein herr. Before my friend becomes... unfriendly."

"Whut? F-fine!" The man sings like canary, blurting out his password for Kurt to use.

"Do hurry, Liebende," the sorceress says, speaking German, now. "Even the Chinese police must react to the sound of gunfire and grenades, ja?"

Kurt grins in the magical darkness at Amanda's use, theatric overuse of their native accent, and he reverts to all German. "A veritable Mata Hari, liebling.."

Of course, all hell is breaking loose out in the other room. Even if the sprinklers aren't going on in their room, the building is rocking with the explosions going on. And yes.. the police will be around.. one can hear the sirens in the distance.

The elf is quick, however, and he gets into the files. It's a matter now of shotgun scatter, as it were. Drag a bunch of files over and hope something hits the clay later. File after file is transferred. Production rates. Customers. Past sales. Pre-orders. Engineering notes.. and emails.

Once he's got it, Kurt rises to his feet, yellow eyes landing upon Amanda. His voice is quiet, and he still speaks in their native tongue. "We're done, liebling.. I'm going to get the other, then we can leave."

BAMF!

Kurt stays with the German now; it's easier for him as he calls out, "Time to go, liebling!" Where.. where is she? Blinking in the destruction, he's getting.. sprinklered on, and there's concrete dust.. everywhere. "Wo bist du, liebling!" Where are you?

Another jump leaves the albino woman kicking off of more equipment, 'stepping' from the left to right over another guy as he tries to take aim at her with a rifle. Then he's down on the floor, his rifle now in Domino's hands with her SMG run dry, already slung across her back. Reloading is for suckers, she's surrounded by guns!

A few rounds to one side bursts open a steam pipe, disrupting a few more workers.

A few more in another direction peppers a worn-out ladder which collapses and swats the weapons out of two more pairs of hands.

Two more shots blow up a fire extinguisher, violently throwing foam and shrapnel out over an impressive distance.

The one guy that manages to get lucky in all of this? He brought the wrong gun to the party. Her armor stops the pistol fire dead, though not before it can bruise the hell out of her back. For his success he takes a blade through the throat, connecting with a meaty thunk from twenty paces out.

(Keep moving, keep moving--)BLAM!--Another lunge forward has her sliding across the top of a shelf, dropping down behind cover as a pair of shots spark across the space she had been a second earlier.

(And pause.)

-Bamf!- "Wo bist du!"

Up snaps the merc, stolen assault rifle whipping around and blind-firing right in Kurt's direction. There's a supersonic snap! as the bullet just clears his ear, pegging one of the guys that had been pursuing her but a moment ago. Instead of gunning down her, or the suddenly appeared teleporter, his last pull of the trigger takes his buddy off to the side in the gut.

When blue eyes find glowing yellow ones there's nothing but understanding, Dom flipping back over the shelf and sprinting right for the indigo mutant. Evac!

Amanda creates a portal while Kurt is off hunting for Domino. It leads to the front lawn of the nearest US Consulate. With a soft, "Danke, mein herr," to the flustered CEO, she gives his chair a gentle push. He falls backward onto the lawn, still bound, but safe on 'US soil'... such as it may be considered to be.

That portal closes with a soft pop and she drops a second small phial to dissipate the darkness in the room, collapses her shields about the window and door, and turns to open a second portal... this one the quick trip home for the trio -- just as soon as Kurt and Domino arrive...

There is something to be said for lovely ladies leaping into his arms, there really is. As concrete rains down, the water turning it to a muddy, dirty, well.. mud, it's sticking in his fur. He catches the distinct *whap* of a high velocity .. projectile pass his ear, and he reflexively teleports to the side to avoid it.

But there... there she is, and those glowing yellow eyes meet those blues, and he holds it there.. taking a couple of steps through the chaos as if he was cross the distance through hell. (Which, admittedly, he would! And the place is looking like a warzone..)

The moment she's there, he wraps his tail around her, his arm draping around her shoulder, and in the next beat of their hearts, they're gone.

BAMF!

Only to reappear in the foreman's office.

With Amanda's portal up.. they're through in the next breath, and back home. Though once Kurt sees where they are?

A huge grin creases the blue elf's face, and there's a secondary *bamf*, and that one happens to leave all manner of weaponry that Domino may be carrying on the kitchen floor.. and somewhere in the apartment, there is the sound of-

*SPLASH!*