((Sorry, Minecraft happened.))

Natalie waited in silence for the others to return with the jeep. After Abigail gave a quick rundown of the plan, the group was ready to move out once again. Natalie herself didn't have a distinct role as of yet, which was just fine by her, so she simply watched as Bertók manifested a duplicate of one of the guards. The copy writhed about as it clawed its way out of his mirror in a way that she would describe as disturbing if it wasn't so comical.

If all went according to plan, Bert would lure the other guards into an ambush, at which point Austin would take one of them out, leaving the other to the rest of the group. A bit overkill, maybe, but whatever. Deciding she had probably better prepare, Natalie pulled out her trusty container and emptied it into her open palm. Before she could realize her mistake, most of the salt was scattered by a sudden gust of wind.

"Oh, come on! Damn it!" She cursed as her precious ammunition was carried off on the breeze, then quickly closed the bottle lest more of its contents be lost.

Abi watched in awe as Bertók effortlessly copied the image of the mercenary that had been knocked out. It was quick and efficient, and a seemingly flawless clone; she even recalled the battle in Manhattan, where he managed to clone the monster, as well as a car. What were the full extents of his abilities? Aside from being fragile, his clones seemed quite flawless.

"Um..." she spoke, realizing that they were looking at her for further instruction, "I'm not entirely sure how your abilities work, but if you could tell the clone to call the guards with an emergency of intruders, and that it needs their backup or something. That'd probably lead them towards us, where we'll take them out and commence with the next stage of the plan after we put on their uniforms."

OOC: was gonna post yesterday but mastodon got in the way

Bertók has his clone walk over towards the bunker in the distance. From their vantage point he could see, and therefore, control the clone. Distance was an issue because he could only manifest something as long as he could see it. Thankfully the desert was barren and, with the exception of a massive dune every now and then, he could see for miles, giving him unobstructed control of his illusions.

Unfortunately, he could not speak through the clone, and even if he did, it would not have been in the same language the other guards spoke, seeming strange. Instead, Bertók decided to improvise. When the clone came by the guards, he had it walk over as if deathly injured, point in the direction of the ambush, and then fall to the ground as if dead. Once the guards would run toward the ambush and his clone was out of sight, he'd break contact with it, causing it to shatter.

The guards watched warily as the mercenary clone approached. One of them yelled out in Arabic, in what sounded like a question, his voice was rough and authoritative. However, before the mercenaries could ask any questions the mercenary clone fell to his knees, pointing his shaking finger in the direction where the rest of the team hid, before collapsing face first into the ground.

The mercenaries raised their weapons, talking back and forth for a few moments in Arabic. They were all too far from the scene to actually hear what they were saying, aside from Mike, but he couldn't understand them anyways. They appeared to be arguing, as if making an important decision, and this continued for a few moments while the clone remained "unconscious" on the ground. Eventually one of the mercenaries pointed at the downed mercenary multiple times. Eventually the other mercenary conceded and they both ran in the direction towards where the group had hidden themselves.

Fortunately for Austin, one was definitely faster than the other, and as soon as he rounded the dune, the opportunity presented itself for him to strike. He only had a few seconds before the second mercenary approached and one of the other team members would have to incapacitate them until Austin could take them out as well.

Austin watched as the first guard rounded the dune. As soon as he saw him, he dashed towards the mercenary and tried to grab his forehead.

As expected, the mercenary began to flail about as he underwent a seizure, this left the other mercenary who was just around the bend open for attack by whoever decided to strike first.

Mike, quickly making his way and feeling the opportunity was destined for him, attempted to approach the second mercenary to strike him so Austin could get to him as well.

The mercenary did not even see Mike coming, before he could even react, he was knocked to the ground as the mercenary rounded the dune. This provided Austin with more than enough time to also ensure that this mercenary stayed unconscious long enough for them to break into the underground bunker. Time was now of the essence, there was probably going to be another shift, and they needed to make sure they got inside before the shift turned over. Quickly, it was determined that Natalie would be the prisoner, while the others put on the full-bodied uniforms over their own.

As Abi had assumed, their identification cards were inside the pockets of the uniform. Breaking in was now only a simple matter of sliding the card through the electronic lock at the door. The gates slid open smoothly; they were clearly well maintained and used quite often; and the group walked in two lines of three on either side of Natalie as they entered the facility. Another guard stood by an internal gate, eyeing the group suspiciously.

Abi, being fluent in Arabic, walked up to the guard and a rapid exchange between the two commenced. As she would later explain, she was spending the time convincing the guard why they had to personally take the guard to the prison level, instead of returning to their own posts while another set of guards took the prisoner. It took a bit of work, though after it was apparent that she was unrelenting, the guard let them pass, instructing them to take the elevator on their right. She nodded her thanks and the group did as they were instructed, apparently the holding cells were on B5, the lowest level of the facility.

It was here they ran into another set of guards. Again, Abi had to convince the guards that they would personally put the prisoner in her cell, but this time they were unrelenting. Not wanting to blow their cover yet, as they were unsure of whether the Saudi prince was still alive, she looked over to her teammates and they put Natalie into the custody of the guards. Hopefully she would know what to do. In the meanwhile, as a reward, the six of them were free to take their breaks, while another team took their patrol shift. Giving them relatively open access to the rest of the facility until Natalie and the prince escaped.

With another lull in the mission, Bertók pulled out the same piece of paper he used to write earlier in the desert from the spot in the mirror. What surprised him was that none of the mercenaries made any sort of comments. In fact, he was able to bring the mirror in with him without anyone stopping him. It was probably due to something Abigail told the guards earlier. Whatever the reason was, he found a vacant room and went back to writing what he had started in the desert.

Natalie wasn't sure what bothered her more, being dragged through an enemy base under the pretense of a prisoner or the fact that she had been too sheepish to protest when she was chosen for the role. For a girl who had trouble doing so much as going out in public, being the center of attention was a waking nightmare. She shrunk down as much as possible in an attempt to avoid the quizzical glances and derisive glares that were being cast her way as she was escorted through the complex, but as luck would have it, a person surrounded by an entourage of guards tended to turn heads.

Apparently, though, fate had deemed that her predicament wasn't quite dire enough. Impressive though Abigail's linguistic abilities were, the guards in the cell block wouldn't have any of it, and Natalie was taken into their custody. She looked back with apprehension as the rest of the team left, having apparently decided to throw her to the wolves rather than blow their cover. Perhaps they just had confidence in her abilities. That thought wasn't much consolation, though, and losing most of her salt had already put her at a disadvantage.

Natalie's first thought was to wait until she'd been locked up, then escape and find the prince without having to confront the guards. However, that idea went out the window as soon as she saw the cells. Like many other things in the bunker, the doors were electronic and would be impossible to break through by force. She would need to hack the locking mechanism from the inside with her Iris, and there was no way the guards were going to let her keep that. Right on cue, one of the soldiers began to pat her down while the other kept her restrained. He quickly found and confiscated her Iris, communicator, and salt container. Natalie saw her chance to act when the guard opened the bottle to check its contents. As soon as the lid was off, what little salt remained burst out in a small cloud, directly into his eyes.

Ramon paced around the hall super suspiciously for about 5 minutes before he even realized what he was doing. He hated just letting Natalie in there by herself without any of us knowing what's going on. He hated to sit around in the middle of a big enemy base even more. Ramon exhausted himself and then sat down and hoped everything went right.

The mercenary cursed in Arabic as the salt erupted from the jar and into his eyes, swatting his hand about himself blindly as he tried to see through the impromptu storm of salt. His eyes were overcome by the burning of the salt in his retinas, and he fell to his knees rubbing his eyes profusely trying to stop the burning.

*****

Meanwhile, Abi watched as Ramon paced about the hall in a very conspicuous manner. She would have said something, but her mind was much too occupied with how quickly their plan, no, her plan, seemed to be unravelling from the seams. It seemed like ultimately they would end up having to fight their way out of the facility, a fact she was prepared to face when the moment came. In the meantime though, she would wait, and hope that Natalie was alright.

Before the other guard could react, Natalie drover her elbow sharply into his gut. As his grip on her loosened, she grabbed him by the arm and twisted her torso, throwing him bodily over her shoulder. Then there remained only the soldier that was presently rubbing his eyes, whom the girl handily dispatched with an augmented round kick to the jaw. Thanking her lucky stars for the apparent ineptitude of her captors, Natalie rooted through their belongings until she located an ID card. With that out of the way, she began to comb the cell block for her objective.

Tailin was as excited as anyone that the operation appeared to be going smoothly, but she was reminded suddenly of another pressing matter that she had hitherto ignored. Approaching Abi, she whispered: “Uhm, Magnesia, how would one ask where the bathroom is? I really have to go.”

Fortunately for Natalie, the cell block was not incredibly expansive or quite occupied. In fact, the sole other occupied cell was that holding a man matching the description of the prince completely. As he saw Natalie approaching, he lunged for the bar yelling in English "Let me out of here you damn bandits!" Though his threatening demeanour changed rapidly as he realized that the person he was yelling at did not wear the token uniforms that many of the other mercenaries wore.

"Who are you?" he asked curiously, his body language was quite tense as he watched her suspiciously.

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Abi looked at Tailin with a blank expression, of all the places, she thought to herself. "Alright, follow me" she said, walking down on of the halls. She was quite thankful that she was well-versed in Arabic; reading the signs was apparently useful in their present situation. They both kept their heads down so not to attract attention to themselves as Abi led her to the bathroom. After a short walk, Abi nodded at the door with arabic inscribed on it and a woman sign. "There it is"