Participants:
Scene Title | Cloudy With A Chance Of Paintballs |
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Synopsis | In an attempt to help agents de-stress in a safe environment, paintball is arranged, with an announcement afterward by Agent Denton. |
Date | June 27, 2009 |
On its furthest edges, the Montauk Air Force Station — also known as Camp Hero — is surrounded by fifteen-foot high razorwire fences, with each gated entrance clearly marked as government property, and that authorization of lethal force is permitted on trespassers. Long ago, Camp Hero may have been a thriving military installation, now its appearance is that of something long since cast into abandonment and disuse. The roads that wind through the parklands that comprise the military installation are overgrown with weeds and wild undergrowth. Trees and hedges have been left to grow wild, and creeping vines have scaled the eastern face of the old concrete building at the compound's heart.
The central facility is a four-story concrete slab building, upon which rests an enormous AN/FPS-35 long range radar surrounded by smaller radar and satellite communications arrays. The entire eastern face of the building is consumed by overgrowth, and many of the ground floor windows have been boarded up after vandals shattered the glass in them. A paper notice pasted to the entrances notifies that the building is condemned, yet power substations nearby still hum with activity, and lights on the satellite arrays indicate there is still power going to the building.
Partly cloudy with a chance of meatba… PAINTBALLS!
People died, people were hurt. Morale was a wee bit on the low side. The company is an understanding organization. Understanding enough that with a new facility to become acquainted with and perhaps a chance to brush up on skills that have been left to the wayside a little in the terms of stealth, subterfuge and how to have fun there was a quick plan formulated.
And paintball equipment handed out.
Welcome to Montauk Air Force Station, home of many a secret clandestine projects that involved time travel, parallell worlds, teleportation and even aliens. Nikola Tesla was rumored to have walked these grounds, the Montauk Monster, and even experimentation in psionics.
Now it's home to another organization. The Company. How appropriate. But there's no experiments in the above being done. Though there just might be a teleporter or two and telepaths certainly abound. No. There's just people who have been handed camoflage vests with targets on them of two different colors. Some red, some blue. The woods are deep and vast and gated, there's no chance of unsecured civilians bumbling into everything today. The main buidlings are being left alone for people who were instructed to come out here to continue on with the moving in process.
A tall, dense man with the air of a drill sergeant had overseen the gearing up, barking out the rules of the engagement. No deadly use of abilities by those who have them - hence the paintballs. Most anyone was going to get from curt was a bruise. No face shots, or you would be disqualified.
Everyone helmeted, goggled, suited and hoppers loaded with the appropriate colored paintballs, everyone had been sent off tho their two home bases in the woods. The play area had been demarcated with caution tape, but the odds of running into that was slim.
"Agents, at the sound of the horn, you will proceed to track and eliminate your opposing team. There will be judges wandering around. Last surviving team is the winner. Play fair" And with that, off went the horn. Curt, Carrie and Veronica all part of the same team of about 20 people give or take.
The game is on.
"If I find out who replaced my red paint balls with pink, I will kick their ass." Carrie says loudly as she joins her group, dressed in a pair of old Army BDU pants, none of that digital crap. A black t-shirt and boots. Her dark hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her eyes go to Curt, plus few other of the agents she's pretty sure would do that and arches a brow.
One of the guys nearby and not actually playing has the balls to laugh. Lifting her gun smoothly, Carrie fires two shots at guy, dead center in the chest, splattering him with light pink. Someone is cranky.
Carrie turns back to the Curt and Veronica as the horn goes off and thier team starts moving. "The always have to put in that fair part don't they?"
Curt is dressed in full cammo fatigues, his arms and face smeared with grease paint, a 'forested' bandana around his head to keep his black hair from being spotted. His paintball gear is currently being grease painted at the big man speaks, especially the hoppers, which stand out like sore thumbs before he gets to work on them. Curt is the competitive sort, you don't get to be a Ranger without the drive to win at EVERYTHING. He looks up and grins at the mention of play 'fair'. Who wants to bet he's already planning on cheating? "Yeah, but it's only cheating if you get caught." he points out. Forest? Are you kidding? You couldn't make him more at home. You know… assuming he doesn't PTSD out of his mind and start screaming about Charlie and lobbing pine cones as if they were grenades.
Less enthused for the "morale boosting exercised" is Veronica, who looks like she hasn't had any sleep in the past couple of nights. She has the camo top with the target on it wrapped around her waist (yes, making her butt and the back of her legs the actual target) with a tank-top on over the camo cargo pants and a pair of all-terrain tennis shoes. Those military boots are uncomfortable, don't you know. Feet need to breathe. "All right. Let's get the blue team annihilated sooner than later so we can get this freak show over with," she grumbles, heading into the designated "combat zone."
The guy with pink across his chest is now groaning, since it really does hurt to get hurt with a flying projectile. A couple judges can be seen running off into the woods to presumably get into place to do their job.
Other members of the red team pare off, groups of two or three war whoops abounding. NO abilities are seen so far in use.
Across the woods and over the hill to grandma's house, team blue is on their way as well sneaking through the woods, hunkering down in grassy knolls. One guy leaps, jumping up above the treeline and will descend somewhere unknown to red team.
Shaking a finger at Curt, Carrie grins. "Mister, I like your thinking." She motions to Curt to take point. "I'm ready to get bruised, so you go on first. Personally, wish they had allowed tranqs.. There's that ass from the 3rd floor that grabbed my ass at that Company party I'd love to take down." She motions Veronica second, so the ex-sniper can take rear. "Let's paint some bastards pink and red, so poor Sawyer here can go soak in a tub. Oh.. and watch that trigger. They can be tricky, might snap a nail." The woman isn't above teasing the other woman, obviously.
Curt grins at her and reaches beneath his vest to pull out… a ghili suit, the mark of snipers and special forces everywhere, the burlap strips coated with bits of real woodland makes it camo so fiercely invisible many snipes can watch soldiers walk over them without ever being seen. He slips it on over his gear, carefully leaving room for his ammo. He smiles at Carrie through the netting and crouches low. He moves forward, from one mound of brush to the next, every time he stops he nearly vanishes. Cheating bastard. He begins a circular motions, a search pattern to their walk that means few enemies will have places to hide. He makes a motion with a hand, reminding everyone to keep an eye skyward too.
"You guys are way too into this," Veronica says with a shake of her head as she watches Curt make like a tree. When Carrie snipes at her, Veronica begins to walk ahead as instructed, then turns around and fires a paintball at her teammate, the red paint splattering all over the woman's t-shirt, arms, and a bit on her face. "Dibs on the first bruise," Vee says with a sweet smile. A judge glances up as the explosion of color catches his eye. "Weapon malfunction before we started, doesn't count," the agent tells the judge.
There's a yell, and a whistle blow to the left through the trees, some place off out of sight. "Anders is down! Blue team 20! Red Team 19" Comes the voice of the organizer across the speakers hooked up here and there. First blood has been had. There's a flash of blue somewhere up to the right, enemy has potentially been spotted. But as quickly as it came, it's gone.
One of the near team members kneels down at Curts reminder, looking up towards the air and keeping his finger on the trigger, strafing from side to side and looking for who might be using their abilities up high.
Looking completely jealous, Carrie smirks at Curt. "Lucky bastard." There is nothing but admiration in her voice when she says that. Glancing at him occasionally, Carrie nods her head to the hand signals and gives him an okay sign, before she get's splatter with red. Grinning, Carrie simply raises her gun a gets Vee right back in Pink, but since she's lower her team mate gets it in the leg. "Back at ya." She waves at the judge. "Oops.. Sorry.. Tripped." There is a wicked grin to Carrie as she passes Veronica. "Pink works for ya." This was going to be a fun game.
She moves to crouch behind a trunk and motions to Curt to get his attention. She signal to where there was a flash of blue and motions for him to check. Her eyes go treeward watching briefly.
Curt gathers himself low into a pile of shrubs and waits. These are all young people, used to the fast pace of urban warfare and combat, the running through alleys and ducking through open doors. They've no sense of time, of patience, of the difference between a battle amid trees and that amid concrete… See? Already Carrie's forcing the group forward. He sighs inwardly. Kids these days. They don't even let you spank them. It's uncivilized. He waits for a moments time, letting his eyes narrow in on the area, then he moves in that erratic shuffling gait of his that covers more ground then it has any right to. He sets up with decent cover and looks around the tree, seeking the blue. He's dreadfully silent through it all, no jokes, not even the sounds of his feet amid the twigs. Given his usual state of nonstop yammering, it's kinda creepy.
"I don't wear pink. Ever." And her nails are short, if nicely shaped. Wincing at the shot to her calf, Veronica hobbles forward, finding a tree large enough to hide her slight frame, watching there for a moment before darting to the next when it seems the coast is clear. A movement and a blue target comes into sight several meters away, and she takes aim, shooting a red paint bullet toward the blue team member.
While the two women are shooting at each other in their 'oops' fashion that the judge just rolls his eyes at, unseen to most goes Curt in his gillie suit. Stealth is his name, I am the wall, the wall is me, we are one. We are one…
I sense you. Where are you? I'm coming for you Agent Lu. Flashes through his mind. There's a telepath on team blue it seems.
We're coming for all of you. Might as well stand still and let us shoot you Ahh mental warfare. They DID say that abilities were allowed. Suddenly from on high comes the jumped, the slight wave of air pressure as he hurtles through the canopy above and fires off a spray of paint balls that dot the ground with blue.
There is no words from Carrie now as she continues to crouch in her spot, watching not only the movements of Curt, but other nearby teammates. The sound from the trees above her and blue splattering on the ground near her, She falls on her back and aim at the jumper. She can be patient too, as she lines up the shot, her focus narrowing.. don't have to be evolved to be a good shot. There is a rapid succession of soft thumps of her paint ball gun as she fires after the one above. Shots fired she rolls to her feet and scrambles to a new hiding spot, far enough from Curt to not give him away. "Damn Evo tree jumper.. Move it, Sawyer," she hisses at the other woman as she passes.
Curt just smiles. He's been a Company Man for twenty years. He knows how to handle telepaths. They want in his head, fine. He lets them in. Even as he trusts his teammates to keep their eyes upward as he reminded them to, he seeks the telepath while singing softly in his head. It's a Small World runs through his skull. LOUDLY. No telepath can stand that. Right? Just for giggles he adds in lesbian porn, staring Carrie and Vee. Hey, if that won't trip someone up nothing will.
After shooting at the blue target she spied a moment before, Veronica sweeps her gun upward to shoot at the jumper coming down from the trees, several rounds of blue paint pellets spewing from her gun. She covers Carrie's run for a new hiding spot before heading to another tree herself.
It's a world of laughter a world of tears, it's a world of hope and … fuck me you're a bastard The telepath had started to sing along once the defenses are started to put into play. The image of the two women though. You're a cruel fuck Lu But the telepath has what he wants, a sense of location and just above Lu's head, a fraction of an inch, a ball of blue spatters into being from some unknown location.
The jumper is gone and away, not staying still long enough to be nailed by Carrie's balls. splat splat splat against the tree's with the biodegradable and eco friendly paint. There's a cackle from the jumper before SPLAT Carrie's ass is nailed with a dot of blue. Jumper it seems, was a distraction.
But Carrie's sacrifice doesn't go unseen and there's suddenly blue jumper plummeting from the sky, a handful of red's dotting his legs. Someone brought down the bird.
Curt follows the splot over his head, turning. He hoped it would flush out the telepath, distract them. He turns to follow the trajectory, You have /no/ idea. he returns to the teep as he fires into the direction of the first shot. Not once but… a lot. He has about 200 rounds in his hopper, might as well use them. He literally peppers the direction someone shot at him from, filling the air with paint even as he changes position, moving to another tree.
Even crouched low as she is, Carrie get's nailed making her stumble, muttering a "Son of a Bitch.." as she stumbles to her feet with a limp. She hobbles over to the fallen tree jumper and bends down to offer him a hand up. "Nice job she says with a grin, slapping him on the shoulder before continue her hobble off the field of battle.
Veronica's days as a tom-boy and Daddy's girl were not spent in vain — she begins to climb the tree she hid behind, one with thick foliage so it's hard to see her or her screaming-red target on her butt as she scampers up like a monkey, stopping about fifteen feet up to give her a bird's eye view of the area, but allowing her to jump safely if she needs to. She finds a couple of Blue teamers crouched not far from Curt, behind a fallen log. They don't seem to see Curt, and she aims her weapon on them.
Once one is within her sights, she pulls the trigger; if she hits the target, she'll quickly re-aim to try to take out the other.
Missed meeeeeee
The jumper just grins, taking the hand up with a slight grunt. "It's all good. You almost had me. Jafferty got me though, Bastards ten feet over hiding in a tree!" He offers up to Veronica as he and Carrie hobble off presumably to go partake of refreshments before a second round would be played after this one is over.
For now it isn't. Not by a long shot as suddenly, from slightly behind the group, a handful of blue's suddenly start yelling and advancing forward, about to pass close by Curt and his new hidden spot.
The couple that Veronica can see are oblivious to the sniper from afar, one too busy at trying to take a passing shot at Carrie as she goes by. There's a yelp as the first one targets is nailed on his shoulder and the one beside him looks up in shock and tries to take cover.
Grabbing tree guys should and snatches his gun out of his hand with a smirk. Thrusts her own into his hands, she turns and aims at a certain target high in the tree. "Hold on.. One more thing." While Veronica is distracted and shootinig the blue team. Carrie shoots Veronica /several/ times… aiming point blank for the target on her ass. Once the shots are fired she quickly takes her gun back and gives the blue guy his gun back. "Thanks.. I needed that."
Curt is a good Company Man, so it's not like he's lost sight of his partner. Which means… Carrie feels at least a trio of paintballs slam into the back of her knee. They'll be red when she checks them out but as Curt's moved again he'll be almost impossible to spot. Perhaps. But that's okay, I'll find you, and if I don't find you here I'll find you another day. After all, it's not like I'm the nice agent. two can play mental warfare. He starts flashing images of Vietcong going down with slit throats, warm blood on his hand, soft gurggles in his ears.
Once Veronica hits the first guy behind the log, she shoots at the other, her red pellets spraying the length of the log in an attempt to hit him. But then — owch! She glances back and sees blue paint, and frowns, looking for the culprit. She sees Carrie holding the gun and the jumper laughing. "Well, that doesn't count," she mutters, looking for the nearest judge to rule that the disqualified agent's shot shouldn't count. On the other hand, if it gets her out of the game, well, maybe she can go have a shower and a nap.
Curt's not so invisible as he thinks as he pays attention to Carrie and nailing her. Gillie suits can't hide you from a telepath who's pinging your location from talking to you, and neither do images of dying men. Square on Curts forehead splats a paintball, blue spreading between his eyes like some foreign bindi that was improperly applied. Curt is out. Maybe. Unless he objects and calls foul.
You got serious mental issue Lu. This is just a game. You need to see Dr. Salonga
But curt paid attention to Carrie and the telepath and not the group that were coming right past him. Another trio of blue paint balls splat over his body and whoops of joy from the blue team as they carry on to find more. Two are taken down by some reds that pop up, cutting off the cheers of joy as they take cover.
Guy in the log got nailed, as the cry from inside of it marks him as being nailed good and hard. The judge in white however blows the whistle and points to Veronica up in the tree. Out. He didn't see who had the gun. He just saw the blue. Bad luck for Veronica, now she can have that shower and nap.
Carrie's gives out with the paintballs and she takes a touble, landing on her ass which is already bruised. Wiping her hand across the back of her leg and seeing it red, she chuckles. "Good man.." She murmurs, climbing to her feet again. Her eyes search for the suited man and chuckles as he's covered in blue paint. She nudges the tree guy with an elbow. "I love this game. Best stress reliever ever. That.." She says motions at Vee. "Was for all those time I had to listen to the argument." With a big grins, she motions him to follow as she works to hobble off the field again. "Motrin." She calls out. "Who's got the Motrin?"
Curt doesn't even call foul, he just drags the gillie suit off and sets it up like someone was still in it. He takes the advice of the telepath and sees Dr. Salonga, throat slit, blood, gurggles. The man is clearly not even a little bit sane. He wipes the paint from his forehead with the bandana he's wearing and grins. He ignores the trio of shots to his body as well. Game? I'm sorry. I thought it was a training exercise, and in a real situation I wouldn't be down yet. Let's see if the same is said for you. It's likely about this time that one should remember Curt is new to the branch and he's been in the game awhile. Rumors being what they are… I mean, he sleeps in the holding cells! How stable can he be!
Veronica swings out on a branch, a few people taking aim for her front as they can't see the blue paint on her rear, but she swings out, and lets go, her body flipping in the air before she lands on soft feet, knees crouched. "Come on, partner," she says to Lu, wincing as she sees his face. "Got a headache?" Her ass will be bruised, but she's not going to limp. She loops her arm through Curt's and heads off the battlefield.
But the telepath isn't listening anymore once he sees the scene in Curt's mind. Target is down, he slinks off in search of a new target to mentally play with and undermine, to locate. Claudine in the imaginary state may or may not be reported to his higher ups. Elsewhere in the woods, across the loudspeaker blares the continuing tally as it's called in and people walk off to get Motrin, food, drinks, talk and chat.
Everyone gets a hearty slap on the shoulder from the organizer as they filter in. Fist bumps from the jumper to everyone and a goofy grin. FOr a few hours, people are forgetting about what's happened, who was lost and having a sliver of fun. That was the purpose. Well, mostly everyone was having fun.
Curt growls at Vee as she heads over to him, his eyes narrowed to angry slits. "Remind me to check the roster of Company teeps against those playing today. I'm gonna hurt someone." he then helps her walk off the field. He's obviously fine. Though he does shoot a passing person in the ankle just to make himself feel better.
10 minutes later back at the starting point…
As the game ends, there's a loud squelching sound that comes from the entrance to the main building and the familiar voice of Len as he addresses the masses. "If I could have all personnel gather at the front of the main building, I will only keep you a few moments." Those who follow this direction are greeted by the sight of Len with a bullhorn, and his cowboy attire standing at the top of the steps.
Not afraid to look hurt, Carrie hobbles her way towards Len, with a water bottle and popping several Motrin tablets. She leans on the railinig of the stairs giving Len a smirk. When Curt and Veronica pull close she grins at the two. "Good game guys.. great shot there, Lu." She gives them a wink before turning her attention to the cowboy again.
"That was just mean," Vee says with a shake of her head at Curt shooting the nearby agent's ankle. "You know, you look like an octopus attacked your face." For her part, she's unwrapping the shirt with the bullet on it and tossing it into a laundry pin collecting the targets near the steps. Now there's only pink paint on her thigh. "I really hope that wasn't some sort of psychological test, because I think we all failed," she mutters once Carrie is within hearing. She has no clue just how badly Curt would have failed such a test, of course, not being a telepath herself. She glances up at her partner again. "What'd the teep do?" she asks curiously under her breath.
Curt growls again, "It annoyed me." me says as if this were a capitol offense. He helps her over to where she's supposed to go and then turns to head indoors. "I'm getting a shower." he has no intention of sticking round for ra ra speeches. Morale doesn't matter to him, he's dedicated to the job after all.
"As most of you know, the destruction of the Primatech Plant occurred earlier than expected. And as much as I'd like to send everyone out here to find those responsibile, it would be ill-advised for me to do so. We are not yet fully mission capable in this facility. We had projected at least another 30 days, at minimum before we would be ready to actually run operations from this location.
Len holds the bullhorn up to his mouth as he continues on. "Until we are one hundred percent fully mission capable, we are letting all agents go on leave or they can choose to work directly for Homeland Security. My personal preference is that everyone take some time, have a little fun, stay out of trouble and enjoy the next month off. Remain in contact, for if something major does occur then I will need to be able to reach each and every one of you as needed. The use of Primatech as a cover is no long authorized. New covers will be granted on an as needed basis"
"Remember those who fell this week. This paintball game was to allow you the opportunity to blow off steam, for some of you lost someone you knew, worked with, were close to or at the very least, said 'hello' to as you passed them in the hallway. When you're out and about, don't forget the losses we incurred this week. Do not do anything stupid. I expect each and every one of you to report for duty when word is given. You are all each key to the success of this organization, no matter what our mission might be. With that, I'll be available for concerns or questions following this. That being said.. enjoy your time off."
And that, appears to be that, as Len hands the bullhorn off to whoever was standing behind him.
Veronica's eyes are solemn as Len speaks. At the end, she arches a brow. "I need a shower, too. And a travel agent," she says with a slight smile. Time off is just what she needs right now, even if it means spending too much time with her own thoughts. She gives a nod to Carrie and the other agents around as she heads up the steps to go find a change of clothes, and more importantly, a very very hot shower.
There is a sigh from Carrie, she's not exactly going anywhere. "You mean we have to get a social life? Damn it, I knew I shoulda been nicer to people." She smirks and pushes away from the railing and prepares to limp on her way. "I better find out where the kid went too. I imagine he won't be too keen on being stuck here." A wave is sent after Veronica and a nod of respect to Len.
Len watches as his agents begin to go about their business. It'll be either a very long month, a very short month or someone will do something stupid and not live through the month. Whatever the case, Len is going to take time for himself. He has things he needs to deal with and this is going to be the perfect time to do so. He turns and heads into the building, knowing if anyone needs him, they'll know exactly where to find him.