A white van seemed a fitting enough vehicle to haul around a bunch of explosives. Big, blank-sided vans often gave off that unsettling free candy vibe and it didn't surprise her in the least that Jaager had at least one sitting around in his garage. The guy seemed a little unhinged. It wouldn't really surprise her if he trolled around neighborhoods handing out poisoned lollipops.

Isabel climbed into the front seat and started up the van, not bothering with a seatbelt as the kid fastened himself in. She pulled out her phone to find the address when prompted, wondering when the kid had gotten the chance to send it to her without her seeing his phone and why her text tone hadn't sounded. The second question was answered quickly enough when she discovered that the information hadn't been sent through a text and it took her a moment of scrolling through various screens before it dawned on her to pull up her GPS.

She dropped the phone into her lap while it took a moment to calculate their location and decide on the route they needed to take to reach their destination. She still wasn't sure how the address had gotten into her phone, though she was certain the kid was behind it somehow. She figured he was probably some kind of techmancer or something along those lines, having met one or two of them in the past. It was an assumption she didn't like, especially if the kid was already tapping into her personal devices. She would have to go through the phone and double check to make sure there wasn't anything incriminating in there. Isabel wasn't often in the habit of deleting much of anything, but given some rather unanticipated activities in her recent past, wiping out a few text threads and photos was probably a good idea.

As soon as the first set of instructions was announced from the phone's GPS Isabel pulled out of the parking spot and maneuvered her way out onto the street. "Probably should've gotten yourself another driver if you wanted a smooth ride, kid. I'm not exactly licensed, but I think I can manage not to blow us up." She might have been taking a couple corners too sharply or stopping a bit too hard, but a little jostling never hurt anyone, right? If a bomb couldn't last long enough to get to their destination then it wouldn't be a very good bomb and she didn't see Jaager as the kind of guy that would pinch pennies, especially when it came to causing damage.

Isabel paid very little attention to the GPS for the majority of the drive, occasionally causing it to pause and recalculate their route. She'd been to the Mansion enough time to know where it was. The navigation was really only necessary toward the end of the route in order to find the correct house they were supposed to be targeting.

"Things get ugly when I start working. You sure you wanna follow me inside? " she asked as she pulled the van over and parked once they'd reached their destination. The kid would get one last out before she barrelled her way through the house. He might have thought he'd be able to keep up, but once things really started moving it was easy to get caught up in the chaos. Wrecking the place would be messy enough, but if she ran across anyone inside it would only get messier and the kid she'd gotten saddled with didn't exactly look like he'd have the stomach to handle gore.

It was day-after-his-birthday and he was in bomb-filled van driven by serial killer with no license and he could not complain because he was Almost An Adult now.

Being nine was terrible.

Panu did not grip the dashboard with white hands, even though many of her sharp stops and turns almost flung him into it. This was clearly 115% on purpose, and he was not give her the satisfaction. His hands stayed inside of his hoodie pocket, gripping a spare battery pack for courage. What would he say if crashed? If no explosion, then probably, 'Officer this woman has kidnapped me.' If explosion, then not much.

He pushed at the bombs with his power, but it was like trying to move a couch that was much too heavy. He could grip their edges, where they connected to their timers, but bombs were stupid. Bombs could not run DoNotExplode.exe, not even for the best technopath in the city.

He made himself relax, and drowned Bad Driving in catching up on his forum posting. Almost every thread on Audubon X had well-researched reply from TechnoBabble by the time GPS said Your destination is on the right.

He looked at the mansion they had stopped in front of. It had good security system, which made it very easy to look at lawn and front door and entryways and windows. There were people in most of these. People in black suits who looked very professional. And maybe very irate.

The blonde boy took a small item from his pocket, and shoved it towards Isabel.

>> "Things get ugly when I start working. You sure you wanna follow me inside? "

“Put earbud in ear. I will tell you about goons in your path. There are twelve inside. Most are by front right now. Side door on east is clearest entry. We are still getting burgers after.”

No. No he was not coming inside. Bluff was over and called and he was not risking mission for it. When Jaager returned he would be proud at many craters his son had made in city, not annoyed at many tantrums thrown.

Isabel didn't think the kid in the passenger seat could get any paler than he was, but apparently her driving had concerned him a little bit. His face could put a sheet of paper to shame and she was a little bit proud of that. Teach the brat to give her such a hard time.

It wasn't too surprising that he decided to wait in the van after all, but even so she was still a little relieved. The kid seemed to be fairly stubborn and having to babysit him while she was trying to plant bombs and murder people just so he could try to prove something was not her idea of an efficient mission. Having him talking in her ear didn't sound all the pleasant either, but it was still much better than having him there in person.

She accepted the ear piece and stuck it in one of her ears, fiddling with it momentarily until she was sure it fit well enough that it wouldn't pop out with a little jostling. "Twelve bodies. Easy." She'd mowed down larger numbers before and chances were they wouldn't be coming at her all at once. She was also willing to bet she could maneuver better than them indoors. It'd be a cake walk. She just had to get inside first.

Isabel climbed out of the driver's seat and made her way to the back of the van to collect the explosives, choosing to ignore the adamant comment about the burgers. That was still up for debate as far as she was concerned. The bag of bombs she was slinging over her shoulder were much more pressing. A layer of armoring rose to cover her skin as she settled the weight of the bag against her back. It wouldn't do much for a close-range blast, but it still made her feel better anyway. Now she just had to make it inside without getting blown up.

The woods bordering the estate were he best option as she saw it. They'd give her at least a little cover while she snuck around the side of the building. Waltzing across the front lawn definitely wasn't an option if it meant she could be exploded before she got to the porch. She anticipated being caught on some kind of security camera by the time she made it inside, but if most of the goons were out front like the kid had said, there'd still be a decent enough delay before anyone got to her.

All she had to do was quickly cross the space between the tree line and the building, and get through the door. "Some direction would be useful any time now, kid." Ear buds probably didn't work as walkie talkies like they did in the movies, but that wouldn't stop her from muttering to herself anyway.

She talked about murder like he talked about sending text messages. Twelve? Easy.

Panu's hands tightened again around the phone in his hoodie pocket, but he did not say anything. This was going to be one of those memories that he put into the Audobon X servers and then deleted from his mind so it did not visit him at night, that was all.

She got out and left him to go murder some people around back. He stayed in the van, and wished his dog was here, but mostly he got ready.

Earbuds did work like in the movies when they were actually fancy bluetooth hands-free ultra-portable make-Ms.-Brass-hiss-at-Amazon-Prime-bill headsets.

“Please wait approximately forty-six seconds,” the voice of the technopath came into her ear, small and professional and oddly confident in the number it had given.

He had watched her go around the back of the building, showing briefly as a flash of lighter gray in the space between trees. No one else did. Setting up simple loop of security footage was easy: not much changed from minute-to-minute on the forest-side feeds.

He waited until she was well around the side. Then he started Distraction.

In the basement of the mansion, the man watching the security tapes suddenly choked on his coffee. Right in front of front doors was Cold Steel, No. 1 Most On-TV-Mutant besides Cafas (but Panu would-not-use Brother Thor for this). The X-Leader's image crackled like an old TV set with bent bunny ears, or a very bad livestream hack. Next to him stood a Generic Shadowy Figure whose only distinguishing feature was an 'X' pinned to his-or-her generic shadowy belt.

(This was happen while Isabel was just rounding back of building.)

Security man got his boss on the radio and pressed many buttons, one of which brought up audio to go with his camera. Panu had been waiting very patiently for that. Now he played his crackling audio. Anyone who knew Cold Steel well would know it was not his voice. No one on the man's security team did.

“--sure they can not see us?” Asked the synthesized Cold Steel.

“My powers will mask us from organic visuals, but is glitchy with video. We will need to move fast before they catch on--”

(This was 20 seconds after Isabel's call.)

The boss, listening very trustfully to his camera security man, started barking orders. So so many guns were readied, pointed at front of house.

(30 seconds.)

The Cold Steel on the screen reached for the door.

(33 seconds.)

The nice extra-secure electric door lock unbolted itself.

(35 seconds)

The door swung open all on its own, as if someone invisible were ominously drawing out the moment. Or like someone had picked this mansion specifically because its owner was handicapped, and had installed an automatic opener.

So many guns went off. So, so many. Ten or eleven or twelve. All from the opposite side of the building from where Isabel stood.

“Now is good,” Panu's voice came through her headset, very small and maybe small bit smug.

Alright, so maybe earbuds could allow a back-and-forth. That would make things easier. And now that she knew that little tidbit of information the sudden voice in her ears wouldn't cause her to misstep in surprise again. Silently she counted down from the number she'd been given, not exactly happy about having to sit and wait, but she knew things would start moving very quickly once she hit zero, so she could be patient for now.

Like clockwork the sound of gunfire filled the air and Panu gave the the green light. He wouldn't have to tell her twice. Danger, adrenaline, potential bloodshed. This was the kind of thing Isabel lived for. It would be a shame if things didn't get a little messy, but if she managed to do the job well enough hopefully she'd get assigned to more violent missions in the future where she could really let loose and create some carnage. Bombs were a good method for chaos and violence, but it just couldn't compare to getting her hands dirty in a more literal sense.

The door swung open easily once she reached it, closing it over again without latching it once she was through, just in case someone came by and saw and open door. Even a few extra seconds before any realization could be helpful. Isabel adjusted the bag against  her hip so it wouldn't bounce quite so much and began moving into the home in the opposite direction of all the noise. "Alright, kid. You tell me where and I'll start stashing these things."