>>”Well nothing wrong with a women who knows what she wants am I right Gawain?”

"Nope" Gawain said, and it came out more awkward than it should have been. The mirrorwalker started to realize with growing horror that the trickster instincts he had cultivated through his teenage years had been neglected since he started a career as an X-men and as a boyfriend in a stable relationship. It was not a great time to find out he did not have the knack for flirting, or even pretending to flirt, while his girlfriend was potentially getting into trouble a couple of feet away from him.

>>”Tell them about the one time we had the shootout in Vegas. Literally the scariest moment of my life!”

Sam threw him a lifeline, and Gawain grabbed on to it. He started making up a completely outrageous story and ran with it, taking cues from Sam's reactions, and earning delighted and shocked noises from the women clinging to their arms. If nothing else, they made enough noise to draw some of the attention away from the part of the room where Sveta and Eve seemed to be flirting with a bunch of guys.

"Your dates seem to have ditched you two" brunette noticed at an unfortunate moment, tilting her head at Sam and Gawain and giggling in anticipation of an explanation from the two. Or, even better, a blush.

Another glass gone and another semi-full one arrived. Sam had a pretty good buzz at this point meaning so far so good. Gawain seemed to catch on quickly and hit the ground running with a nice and difficult to believe story, ”How this happened.” Sam said once Gawain finished pointing to his eye, ”Thought the patch was better than one of those glass eyes.” Sam said taking a smaller sip of his drink this time. He had to stay somewhat sober for the remainder of the night, enough people saw him knocking them back at least some of the women around them did and at this point there was a pretty good chance he smelled a bit like it.

Sam snapped his fingers at the brunette and pointed at her, ”Seems to be the case doesn’t it?” he nodded his head towards the blondes, ”I only just met the lovely lady I brought, and him well.” Sam shrugged knowing that one or both of the couple would try hitting him later, ”They be on the rocks.” Sam sipped his glass slowly and then shook his head. ”Sad too.” Sam snapped his fingers, ”Gawain here happens to be a fabulous dancer, why don’t…” Sam paused and offered his hand to the brunette, ”Your name again?” Sam asked before smirking, ”Why don’t you take him to the dance floor and help him get his mind off her?” Sam asked with a wide smirk, ”Who knows maybe you’ll get a better eye on things.” Sam said dropping the hint to Gawain.

Turning himself to the redhead who asked him something earlier he offered her his hand, ”Maybe you can show me how to dance?” Sam asked hoping he two could get a better view on things. The two at the door would be closer in his range and he could try and detect any other threats. The air around them chilled slightly causing the girls nearest Sam to shiver slightly.

It was not hard to hook one of the guys; despite the night still being young, he was already heavily lubricated, and he kept staring openly into Sveta's cleavage. There were certain advantages to being dressed like Jessica Wabbit, and sadly, this was one of them. Sveta kept up a flirtatious smile and a series of small touches on his hands and shoulders, until she found a moment to lean over and whisper suggestively into his ear. The guy grinned as Sveta turned around, announcing that she needed to powder her nose - a line that, said with her strong accent, made the little company laugh - and wandered off towards the kitchen door. She threw a come-hither glance over her shoulder from there, but she didn't need to; the guy was already on his way after her. Subtle he was not. Good thing that was kind of the point. Sveta also caught the worried expression on Eve's face. The girl was good.

She grabbed the guy by the hand, smiling at kitchen staff too busy to give them a second glance as the stumbled past, her giggling and him grinning, and found the door that led to another hallway, and the stairs to the basement. Bingo. It was time to get rid of her date. Sveta turned, and found herself pushed against the wall of the hallway with the guy slobbering around her neck.

Ewwww.

She put it on her mental list of things he needed to bill Sam for later on.

"Whoa whoa, honey, wait a second" she muttered, pushing the guy back, who was way too drunk and horny to really pay attention. He looked up eventually, grinning in a dazed way at Sveta, a look that soon turned into wide-eyed surprise as she punched him right under the sternum, knocking the air out of his lungs.

"Sowwy hun" she smirked, spinning out of his reach before she delivered a second blow, her elbow taking him hard behind the ear. He slumped to the hallway floor. Svea knelt down to loosen his clothes and turn him onto his side - for all intents an purposes, he looked like he just passed out in the middle of an intense make-out session. She even smeared some lipstick around his mouth and neck before she headr Eve's footsteps.

Evelyn tried to ignore what was happening on the other end of the room, but the echoes weren't really great at that game. A slight glance caught sight of Gawain and CS in the middle of the crowd of girls, and it was hard to suppress the sensation of jealousy that rose. Just a mission. Just an act. She reminded herself as she tried to smile back at the guy in front of her. She was secretly glad when she could pull away from in all in search for her "friend". She looked worried, realistically so, although part of that was concern that she would let her jealousy get the best of her.

I'm going to kill Sam after this... She thought irritably. Mission or not, she had some guesses that the flirting plan was all his.

Crossing the corner, she found Sveta in front of a now unconcious guest. She couldn't resist the slight smirk that crossed her face at the sight. "Looks like you're having fun..." She commented.

>>”How this happened. Thought the patch was better than one of those glass eyes.”

Gawain rolled his eyes. Sam did love the eye patch, even if he lost depth vision to get it. And apparently he was right, because the girls seemed to like it too.

>>”Seems to be the case doesn’t it? I only just met the lovely lady I brought, and him well. They be on the rocks. Sad too. Gawain here happens to be a fabulous dancer, why don’t… Your name again? Why don’t you take him to the dance floor and help him get his mind off her? Who knows maybe you’ll get a better eye on things.”

Gawain shot Sam a glare before he smiled at the brunette. The smile was not very convincing, but she seemed to think it was because he was sad about the loss of his date, and she smiled back at him with the promise that she would make him forget any other girl if he'd let him.

He led her to the dance floor and they started to sway. Gawain glanced around; Sveta was already gone from the room, and Evelyn was on her way out with a worried expression through the kitchen door. The plan was in action now.

Gawain made small talk and danced around the dance floor with the girl a couple of times before he led her back to the cocktails, and looked around for Sam. He knew they were both counting down for the next part of the plan.

Okay, so there wasn’t much of a plan once getting the girls down the stairs. Sure there was a number of things at this point that he could to prevent any detection and help the rescue however most of them seemed less and less likely as the night progressed. Any trouble and they’d go and grab Serge only to realize that he wasn’t there anymore or there were two bombshell blondes in his presences. Both of those slimed his options. So far there were only two heat signatures that were brighter than the normal read.

Sam looked to the redhead he was with and pretended to sound interested as she was talking. She was boring him now, talking about her friend who was here as well. Sam nodded his head and smiled while shifting his gaze again to Gawain who was looking around. Sam shifted back to the girl when he saw opportunity knocking.

A greased up guy in a suit pushed a waiter and a woman in a pink dress out of the way as he was walking toward them angrily. Sam knew he was coming towards them. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Sam and the redhead. Sam’s nostrils flared as he sipped his whiskey putting two and two together. Red had a friend. A friend who seemed upset. Sam looked back to the redhead and was about to say something when the greased up guy grabbed her arm just a little too hard. He pulled her then fell to the ground when Sam stepped forward and hit the guy with an uppercut to the chin knocking him off his feet.

The guy let go of the girl who had first looked shock then she horrified. “Hey!” she yelled as greasy suit dropped to the floor like a fallen rag doll. Sam lowered his arm then sipped his whiskey. ”He grabbed you a little too hard.” Sam said watching the people around him stop talking and stare at him. ‘Distraction’ thought Sam as he sipped his whiskey wondering if he could get a refill.

>>"Looks like you're having fun..."

Sveta stood and poked the guy with her toe. He was out cold.

"He certainly looks like he vas" she nodded, satisfied with the result "Dat, or making out with a vampire. Oh well."

Flipping her hair over her shoulder, Sveta looked around. No one was in the hallway, but that was likely to be temporary, given the amount of business going on in the kitchen.

"Let's go."

She marched down the hallway and down a flight of stairs with confidence, followed by Evelyn. But once they made it to the basement, Sveta's momentum dwindled. Instead of one hallway, or maybe the prison cell itself, there were multiple ways to go, and they all looked the same.

"Oh wonderful" she muttered in Russian, before realizing she was not alone. Working with a partner was still fairly new for her "All right, Evelyn. Your turn. Do your thing."

Evelyn followed and stopped behind Sveta. The muttering made it pretty evident something was wrong even before she noted the branching hallway. Stepping forward, she shrugged off the girl's commanding tone, and looked at the situation. Noises from the party were muffled down here, and it made it hard to distinguish if there were other voices around as well.

Looking closely at the floor, the walls, she quickly crossed one of them off her list. "That direction goes towards storage rooms. Regularly used by the cooks. You can see flour and baking ingredients that got carried down on their clothing." She scanned the other corridors, considering. "My guess is off to the right. The materials seem a little different, new maybe. The rest of the building materials seem consistent, but my bet is they had to remodel slightly." She wondered if remodeling would include things like heavily armed guards or cameras. Sam seemed like he was betting on the former. Getting shot didn't sound particularly pleasant.

"With the party, they're probably already guarding pretty closely down here. Guests can wander off and get into areas they shouldn't. I doubt they would shoot first unless we actually see something, even if they're armed. My best suggestion is to just play dumb, and act fast." The echoes were humming, ready to take in more information. While it was useful, it also didn't feel quite as helpful when thinking about trying to get past guards.

Sam had to go ahead and start a fight. Splendid.
Gawain made sure his own... er... new acquaintance was behind him as people backed away, girls gasping and guys murmuring, no one entirely sure who was in the right, or if there would be retaliation if someone ruined the carefully designed event.

"It's okay" Gawain intervened "It was a misunderstanding. There is such a thing as the drinks being too good, right? C'mon pal, you need some fresh air. Someone help the gentleman on the floor, I'm sure he's going to have a headache in the morning. Ladies, please excuse us. We will be right back and we'll make it up to you. Promise."

Taking Sam by the elbow Gawain escorted him in the general direction of a door. Maybe this could give them an excuse to go find the girls?

"So... what's the big idea, hm?"

>>>"It was a misunderstanding. There is such a thing as the drinks being too good, right? C'mon pal, you need some fresh air. Someone help the gentleman on the floor, I'm sure he's going to have a headache in the morning. Ladies, please excuse us. We will be right back and we'll make it up to you. Promise."

”It wasn’t.” Sam said simply as he got the attention of everyone around him. The guy was still down though his eyes were open now. Sam hoped he could get up and help continue on the distraction. However Gawain seemed in a hurry to get him away from the situation. Sam smirked to the girl who he was talking to before and raised a glass in her direction before he sipped it and was being pulled to the door.

>>>"So... what's the big idea, hm?"

Sam shrugged at Gawain’s question, ”Grease ball was well… a grease ball and well…” Sam looked over to two of the security members who were once standing by the door but now however they were making their ways towards Sam and Gawain. Sam felt the heat from the two approach one was clearly brighter than the other. Something Sam would have mentioned to Gawain if it wasn’t for greaseball number two approaching them with his fists clenched. “You hit the wrong guy. There are guys you can hit and guys you can’t hit. I’m telling you he was one of the guys you can’t hi—“[/color] Sam stopped him from talking with a quick swing to the jaw causing him to stumble back. It wasn’t a hard hit seeing as Gawain was still holding his elbow but the guy got the message.

Sam looked over his shoulder and smirked to Gawain revealing his part in the plan, ”What you thought I brought you here to keep an eye out?” Sam looked to the nearest waiter and put an emphasized slur in his words, ”Nother Whisky, too sober to deal with al of these clowns.” he looked back to Gawain this time in a lower tone one that sounded more a little more sober, ”A drunken fight best distraction causes the least amount of trouble for our girls.” Sam pulled his arm free from Gawain and sipped his drink again as if nothing was happening.

>>"That direction goes towards storage rooms. Regularly used by the cooks. You can see flour and baking ingredients that got carried down on their clothing. My guess is off to the right. The materials seem a little different, new maybe. The rest of the building materials seem consistent, but my bet is they had to remodel slightly."

Sveta nodded, looking down that corridor. It took a turn down a few steps. She listened as Enelyn analyzed the possibilities.

>>"With the party, they're probably already guarding pretty closely down here. Guests can wander off and get into areas they shouldn't. I doubt they would shoot first unless we actually see something, even if they're armed. My best suggestion is to just play dumb, and act fast."

"We can do that" Sveta grinned, stowing the gun in its holster and pulling the slit in the dress into place "Drunk and cheerful, here we go." she tugged on the dress to make the cleavage lower, and ran a hand through her hair. She took a glance at Evelyn too, but let her do her own modifications, before she hooked an arm into hers, and let out a drunk-sounding laugh.

"Iiii am pretty sure the bathroom's dis way" she noted, walking with Eve down the corridor and around the corner "Dey said dowwwwn the hall and to de left, right? Or to de right...? Excuseee me, gentlemen?..."

Evelyn did her best to adjust her own attire, which was difficult while trying not to expose too much skin. The last thing she wanted was to discover what power boosting did to the echoes. She left the jacket open and mentally searched for playbacks of being drunk. Hopefully she could behave realistically when she was mentally feeling tipsy. While the memories were a bit unhappy, she focused on the mission instead. She felt a slight rush of panic when Sveta took her arm, but did feel much different, so the thin jacket may have been working for the moment. She walked with Sveta and squinted, stomach tipping from tipsy to queasy at moments.

"You ladies need to get back upstairs. This area is off limits." One of the guards was instructing. Evelyn tilted realistically. At this point, she wasn't sure how much of it was acting. The playbacks were awefully strong, and her whole head felt like it was hammering.

"I don't feel so great. Is there a bathroom nearby? The whole room is all....tilty." She clung to the guys arm and the echoes picked up on his panic. One of the guards seemed like he was about to drag her off, but the other seemed genuinely worried. Protect the captives, keep party guests safe and oblivious. Having a job like this must suck.

The echoes seemed a little louder than normal too... One of the men reached out and caught her wrist. She flinched even before he made skin contact. He let out a groan of pain and reached for his head, quickly stepping backwards. Instant hangover via memory transfer...She always wanted offensive powers but that felt a little cruel. There was some yelling among-st the guards, but she wasn't quite sure what was happening because at that point...she threw up all over the first guys shoes.

Opps. Classy first impressions.

>>”Grease ball was well… a grease ball and well…”

Sam was either getting tipsy, or faking really well that he was getting tipsy. Either way, Gawain realized that it was not going to be smooth sailing from here. And if they overdid it, and managed to get thrown out of the party, or otherwise bogged down, the girls were alone.
Cue another opponent.

>>“You hit the wrong guy. There are guys you can hit and guys you can’t hit. I’m telling you he was one of the guys you can’t hi—“

Gawain felt the jolt in his arm as Sam threw a punch.

"Oh, for the love of..."

>>”What you thought I brought you here to keep an eye out?... Nother Whisky, too sober to deal with al of these clowns... A drunken fight best distraction causes the least amount of trouble for our girls.”

"Unless we get held down" Gawain groaned, letting go of Sam's arm and taking on a defensive stance. The two security guards from the door made their way through the crowd just in time for one of them to get hit by greaseball number two, falling like a log. The other one growled menacingly and advanced on Sam, ready to take him down and throw him out. Gawain decided to take the role of the voice of reason, until someone actually threw a punch at him.

"Really, we don't want any trouble... oh hell."

”When do we ever get held down?” Sam asked Gawain slurring his words a bit as he looked to the guy who just threw a punch at Gawain. ”Yeah!” Sam yelled as he cheered Gawain on then took a step back only to realize one of the guards hands had landed on his arm. He was about to grab the hand on his arm when his suit where the guard touched his suit erupted in flames. His arm was burning and he quickly threw a kick to the guys leg and pushed off of him breaking the connection.

”Hot!” Sam yelled as he looked to his arm then to the guy who had grabbed him. “Thought I recognized you!” the guy said when Sam took a step back. His hands started to smoke then erupted in flames burning the sleeves of his suit. ”Hot hands!” Sam said snapping his fingers and pointing. ”That’s not my name!” Hot hands said growling. ”You got lucky last time, won’t happen again.” he was about to say something else when he noticed Sam was no longer paying attention to him.

”Dude!” Sam said to Gawain who was busy with the other guard as people were backing up or exiting the building knowing that police might be there eventually to deal with the problem. ”It’s hot hands!” Sam shifted his attention to the nearest table and spotted glass of champagne. He grabbed it and took a swig probably not the best idea but he wanted to keep his ‘ploy’ going.

Hot hands jumped towards him trying to burn him again. Ice covered the burn from before and coated under his suit as Sam dodged and drank the bubbly. “Stop moving!” Hot hands said to Sam as he leaned back and shot his foot up dropping the rest of the glass, ”Yeah… I’ll do that.” Sam said looking to see how Gawain was doing.

>>"You ladies need to get back upstairs. This area is off limits."

"Which way is upstairs again?" Sveta mused, looking around. She felt Evelyn tilting. How did she even get drunk this fast? And off what?... The girl was obviously a really good actress. Sveta checked to make sure they were not touching skin to skin.

>>"I don't feel so great. Is there a bathroom nearby? The whole room is all....tilty."

Evelyn grabbed one of the guards, and the guy grabbed his head and stumbled away. Sveta used the distraction to stab her stiletto heel into the other guard's foot, and take him down with a kick and an elbow to the neck. As the guy slumped to the floor, Sveta noticed Evelyn throwing up on the other one.

"What de..."

Stepping past Evelyn, she grabbed her gun and pointed it at the other guard, still groaning from a headache.

"Gun on the floor, then you on the floor. Face down. Hands behind your neck. Now."

The guard did as he was told. Sveta hit him on the way down, so now both guards were out cold.

"I didn't tell you to get actually drunk!" Sveta stared at Eve "How did you even do dat?... Are you okay?"