Sabine wondered if her situation would be much better if she had been kidnapped with another agent. Pippa was pleasant and witty but that did not correlate to escaping a hostage situation. Training could help, but more importantly, they had to be on the same page. Trust had to be there. Considering most of her agents could be working against her, maybe Pippa was somehow the better option.

Pippa was not causing a problem, which was enough for Sabine while she struggled to piece together answers. The agent was not expecting much from her captivity partner, so she needed a second to process what Pippa was offering. "Wha? Oh! Is this related to..." Sabine was trying not to be rude, which was probably unnecessary given the circumstances. If Pippa was hoping to help, Sabine had to guess it was tied to her mutation.

Trust was key. Sabine moved out of the way of the door. "Go right ahead. Get us out of here and I'll pick up your asprin myself."

It took Sabine a moment to catch up. Pippa would have enjoyed it in a different situation.

>> "Wha? Oh! Is this related to..."

"My mutation, yes." it would have been hard to pretend otherwise, given what she was about to do. She was not even sure how or whether it would work; would she just read the door, or the whole damn ship? Either way, it was going to suck. A lot of people used doors.

>>"Go right ahead. Get us out of here and I'll pick up your asprin myself."

"Please. If I get us out of here I expect the good stuff." Pippa took a deep breath, pulling off one of her gloves. After a moment of hesitation, she placed her palm on the door.

Damn, there was a lot there. The door was old, which probably meant the ship was old. Pippa's mind was instantly flooded with a jumble of images layered over on top of each other; openings and closings, openings and closings, comings and goings, openings and closings... "SH*T." She pulled her hand away, shaking it; she was already feeling dizzy. "Well, this is not a VIP ride. This ship has been used for... a long time. I'm going to need to..." take time, and focus. Come on, Pippa. Don't be useless now out of all times... She took another deep breath, and put her palm back.

Images flooded in again, it was hard to tell them apart. She saw uniforms. She saw people moving supplies. She tried to sift through, sense a timeline. Closer to the present. Closer... closer... Then the stream of images cut out.

Pippa swore, trying to steady herself without using her bare hand.

"Oookay... so." she said after a few deep breaths "I'm not sure how useful this is... the ship, I think it's... emptied, or decommissioned or something. I saw people taking out anything movable, before we got here. I saw uniforms... navy, maybe? Something official. This is an old ship, and many people use a door, so there's a lot of static in there... But it seems like this place was abandoned before we got here. Sadly, I can't get... I can't see things from times when I was present. So, no face for the bad guys. But I don't see anything since from the other side..."

Up until this point, all Sabine knew about Pippa's power was that it would not be a hazard to the people around her. In the interest of working with Svetlana in good faith, Sabine did not press the issue or ask for more details beyond that. Now that the mutation was coming up, she watched Pippa's silhouette attentively.

There was nothing visible, even as her eyes started slowly adapting to the darkness, but something clearly happened to bother Pippa. That short moment gave her the age of the ship? "Don't push yourself if this is gonna hurt you. I don't want to be a terrible boss, after all." Not that she had much hope of that, given the kidnapping.

Pippa was confident enough to try again. This was an old, decommissioned ship, possibly from the navy. Evidently, Pippa was some kind of psychic. If Sabine remembered her classifications correctly, this seemed like psychometry. "Well, looking on the bright side, I doubt they could get a decommissioned government ship too far out into the water." It would have been nice to know who they was dealing with, but mutations had limitations and she could work with imperfect information.

Feeling around the door, Sabine did her best to "read" it in her own, more mundane way. "Doesn't look like any effort was made to update security from the olden days. I feel a keyhole. It's not exactly my expertise, but I could possibly pick the lock if I had something to fiddle with the lock."

>>"Don't push yourself if this is gonna hurt you. I don't want to be a terrible boss, after all."

"Yeah, I'm totally gonna file for overtime on this" Pippa muttered. Being sarcastic helped in stressful situations. Somewhat. As much as she would have loved to blame Sabine for being stuck on an old navy ship, they had about a 50-50 chance that this was all her fault somehow. Glass houses.
A glass house right now would have been preferable.

>>"Well, looking on the bright side, I doubt they could get a decommissioned government ship too far out into the water."

Pippa couldn't tell if she was right about that. Memories were still swirling around in her head, making her dizzy as she got her glove back on. That was enough scrying for now. Sabine took over, feeling around the door again.

>>"Doesn't look like any effort was made to update security from the olden days. I feel a keyhole. It's not exactly my expertise, but I could possibly pick the lock if I had something to fiddle with the lock."

"Well." Pippa reached up, frowning as she felt around in her hair. Her hair had been pinned up in a tight bun for the event, with a few strategically placed locks loose, and her hairdresser had lost at least a handful of pins in there. Even though she felt like a mess now, some of them were still bound to be in there. Unless their kidnappers had been female.

"Does a hair pin work, or is that just a movie thing?" she ventured, finally pulling two of them out. Part of her hair fell onto her shoulder as she handed them over to Sabine. Great, now she was in a dress, barefoot, with her hair all over the place. Prime escape outfit. "You... don't have any weapons still cleverly hidden on your person, do you?"

Pippa’s quippy attitude was, at the very least, consistent in a crisis. Keeping calm heads would be easier if they kept things normal, and Pippa giving her a hard time was normal. They had to keep their feet under them, and with Pippa wobbling in the aftereffects of her power, Sabine placed a hand around Pippa’s shoulder as an offer to steady her.

Thanks to Pippa, they were finally solution focused. Sabine watched as Pippa found the requested pin and pulled it away, letting her hair fall free. Her blonde hair was very pretty falling in waves like that. For the record.

Sabine took the pin and got to work on the lock, not wanting to wait for someone to come check on them. ”The hair pin thing can work on some locks. I’m mostly banking on experience, which is mostly the one time my roommate locked us out of our dorm room.” Her roommate accused her of moonlighting as a cat burglar after that.

”I’m pretty sure in a dress like this, I would have had difficulty hiding a weapon they wouldn’t find. What, do you think I’d have a knife hidden in my heel?” Sabine paused, before adding, ”That actually wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

Click.

Sabine smiled, slowly pulling open the door to minimize noise. ”We can accessorize for future parties later. Are you feeling up for our escape?”

>>”The hair pin thing can work on some locks. I’m mostly banking on experience, which is mostly the one time my roommate locked us out of our dorm room.”

"Well, that's a disappointment. I thought SUPER had classes for this." being snarky helped Pippa keep from panicking. She liked believing that Sabine was kind of a badass secret agent operative that was trained for these kind of situations and could do it all with one hand tied behind her back. And hopefully carrying a bunch of secret weapons.

>>”I’m pretty sure in a dress like this, I would have had difficulty hiding a weapon they wouldn’t find. What, do you think I’d have a knife hidden in my heel?... That actually wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

Or not.

There was a lot of rustling, and then there was a click. Pippa drew a breath. Maybe the hairpins did work. She slipped her glove back on as Sabine stood.

>>”We can accessorize for future parties later. Are you feeling up for our escape?”

"Yes please." Pippa nodded, allowing Sabine to go first. There was a little more light in the hallway, but no sound other than the occasional clanking or groaning of metal. It was easier to feel the shifting of the floor as the ship swayed on the water. "What... do you think we're doing here?"

How would some of her more macho agents handle being told to learn how to use a hairpin in an escape situation? Some would scoff. Michael would probably be fine, of course. The best agents Sabine worked with thought outside the box, and the ones she did not trust were rigid. Sabine was accused of being cold or frigid, but she was anything but when she was under pressure.

They made their way out of their holding cell, which was a start. Sabine took the lead, but made certain to keep Pippa close as they walked the halls. She had half a mind to take the woman’s hand in case someone tried to grab her from behind.

The spy kept her voice hushed. ”Realistically? Either a ransom or someone plans to make an example of us. Maybe mutant extremists mad at SUPER’s past. Maybe human extremists mad at SUPER’s new direction. Maybe you’re keeping some big secret that makes you a valuable target? You’re not a secret heiress, right?” That would be her luck.

Pippa moved along, trying to be quiet. Being barefoot helped, but her dress still rustled a bit, and she was worried she'd step in some rusty metal at some point. Not as worried as about the whole situation in general, though.

>>”Realistically? Either a ransom or someone plans to make an example of us. Maybe mutant extremists mad at SUPER’s past. Maybe human extremists mad at SUPER’s new direction. Maybe you’re keeping some big secret that makes you a valuable target? You’re not a secret heiress, right?”

So many options.

Pippa winced at the 'big secret' part. No one really knew that. No one would come for her for that, right?

"If I was a secret heiress, I'd live in a better apartment."

There was a clanking sound in the distance. Pippa paused. Was that just the ship moving? Or was that someone on board?

"What if there are guards?" she whispered. It occurred to her that still neither of them were armed.

As expected, Pippa was not harboring a secret surname tied to wealth and power. If there was a time to give up a secret like that, it was on a creepy kidnapper ship. It was most likely their antagonists were targeting Sabine, given her standing and the variety of enemies she amassed over her time in this universe.

Still… Sabine did consider the other Pippa. This gentle public relations expert might not have enemies, but maybe she got caught in the crossfire. ”No rich family, got it. Say, by any chance, has anyone ever briefed you on your counterpart? From my universe?”

Before they could proceed, that clanking sound surprised Sabine. Were they… hitting something? Fixing it? An old ship like this probably made plenty of weird sounds, she guessed, but something felt off. That only concerned her more when it was brought to her attention how odd it was that they still had not crossed a guard. Sabine was alert, but nothing was popping out of a corner to surprise them. Hell, she did not even hear the sounds of footsteps or guards idly chatting.

Why would they leave them on a ship unguarded? Unless…

There was a thunderous boom from somewhere in the ship, followed by the creaky rending of metal. The whole ship rumbled, nearly knocking Sabine into the nearby wall. ”We’re hit? Wait.” That made no sense. What on earth would be attacking a ship like this?

>>”No rich family, got it. Say, by any chance, has anyone ever briefed you on your counterpart? From my universe?”

Moments like this were kind of a mindf*ck. Pippa, after all, was the 'other Pippa' from Sabine's universe. She was referring to her own, formerly much more troublesome self. Which meant that she was at least entertaining the possibility that this... whatever this was, might have been aimed at her, and not Sabine. Or maybe kind of a two-birds-one-stone situation.

Something clanked in the distance. Pippa froze, hoping Sabine had some secret agent listening skills that would gather more information.

Then came a boom, and the whole ship shook. Pippa yelped and lost her balance, ending up on her hands and knees. Ouch. Very, vey bad day.

>>”We’re hit? Wait.”

"Why would someone shoot at the ship?..." she tried to scramble to her feet. The ship was definitely moving now, up down and sideways. "... sh*t." Pippa swore, pulling off one of her gloves again "I'm gonna have to try this one more time..."

Back in her home universe, SUPER had a habit of controlling narratives and stomping out dissent. This did not always come by violent means; the government was on the side of SUPER, media was somehow even more corrupt than the media of the MROverse, and anti-mutant sentiment still ran high in the general public. Despite all that, you could not control all corners of a populace, and SUPER justifiably had opposition groups speaking out against their efforts.

Among the rebels and activist groups, X-quality gave higher ups headaches. Impassioned “human first” agents held strong opinions over the group that kept framing them as the villains they were. Amongst their ranks was Pippa Swan, according to reports, and agents were on the lookout to bring her in for questioning before the rift between world shifted priorities.

Sabine knew hiring Pippa would raise red flags with some of the old guard of SUPER. Sabine never knew the Pippa of her world, and while suspicions were natural, Pippa had not misstepped or given her reason to ask further into the possibilities. Whether or not… well, whoever she was, she shared a name with a pro-mutant radical. Could that be part of what tossed them on this ship?

The why of their abduction would have to wait, as the whole ship moved uneasily following a powerful series of noises on a lower floor. A knot tied in Sabine’s stomach as she considered possibilities. They could just run—but what if that put them further into danger?

Begrudgingly, Pippa was willing to probe for more information. Steeling herself to keep from shaking, she rested a reassuring, steady hand on Pippa’s shoulder. ”Only if you are up for it. You’ve got this; any insight and we’ll figure out the quickest way to safety, Pippa. I promise.”

Pippa scrambled back to her feet and braced herself against the wall of the corridor, leaning with her shoulder as she peeled one glove off. She did not want to touch the old pile of junk again, but they sorely needed some information before they ran into something they were not prepared for.

>>”Only if you are up for it. You’ve got this; any insight and we’ll figure out the quickest way to safety, Pippa. I promise.”

Pippa blinked, glancing at the hand on her shoulder, then back at Sabine.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Sang?" she quipped, but there was a little relief in her expression. She took a deep breath, steadied herself as much as she could, and placed a hand on the wall.

The unfiltered history of the ship flooded her mind again. The wall was a large piece of hardware, and it had seen a lot; there was an endless static of people in uniforms, and things being carried and loaded and moved. Pippa tried to hold on to an elusive timeline, pushing the uniformity into the background, fishing for things recent, things out of the ordinary.

A different outfit. Also a uniform of some sort, but white and green... not military. People checking notes. Equipment being moved out, like with the door. Other things being moved in. Wires...

Pippa's eyes flew open and she took a deep, ragged breath.

"The ship is rigged."

People assumed Sabine was cold and detached. They were not wrong, but most people knew her as a professional with a mission. Staying on task was easier when she focused on the job and agents of SUPER did not need her to baby them. They signed up for risks. Pippa was not an Agent. She was handling things better than any civilian Sabine knew, but she deserved to feel safe. That was the mission tonight.

Letting Pippa’s accusation slide, Sabine watched the woman go into her trance-like state to read the ship, prepared to pull her out of it should the trip go bad. Eventually, Pippa came out of her reading with ominous shock.

The shipped was rigged. ”To explode? That is an insane thing to just set up off the coast of a—“ Sure, setting off a surprise explosion at sea near New York would be impossible to hide and hard to explain, unless it was already planned.

First thing was first, they had to move. No sense standing around thinking when the ship was actually exploding and sinking. Sabine grabbed Pippa by the gloved hand and ran toward anywhere that was not their storage cell. ”An artificial reef. I bet this ship was just consigned to be sunk to form an artificial reef,” she suggested as they took a turn. ”I sort of saw a documentary about it. I bet they snuck us on here knowing that was scheduled for tonight.”

They came to a T-intersection. Sabine could not see a sign toward whether left or right was the way up and out.

Pippa had only really seen explosives in movies before, but what she had seen from the ship's memories could hardly have been mistaken for anything else. She felt ice in the pit of her stomach as she realized what - and how many - she was looking at. Sabine was equally shocked.

>>”To explode? That is an insane thing to just set up off the coast of a—“

The next thing she knew, Pippa was being dragged along by the hand. They needed to get off this ship.

>>”An artificial reef. I bet this ship was just consigned to be sunk to form an artificial reef. I sort of saw a documentary about it. I bet they snuck us on here knowing that was scheduled for tonight.”

"Oh" Pippa blinked, the reality dawning on her "That is devious." she blurted out. The perfect crime, to get rid of bodies forever. A planned explosion. Whoever took them, wanted them dead. Not hostage. Pippa turned even paler than before.

They ran down a hallway until it spit in two direction. Pushing the rising panic back down, Pippa reached out with her free hand and touched the wall again, swaying with the effort of sorting through a tide of images.

"That way" she nodded to the left. Her head was swimming with the flood of new information.

With enough trouble on their plates, Pippa went along with Sabine grabbing her hand. If they wanted time to bicker, it would come when they were ideally on the shoreline, far from a sinking battleship.

Whoever was responsible for their situation, they were smart. This was the kind of assassination attempt you put months of planning, coordinating, and problem-solving into. Even Pippa could not help but acknowledge the plan, and Sabine had to agree. ”Devious and brilliant. If I wasn’t so annoyed about the attempt on my life, I’d probably be impressed with the creative vision.”

Of course, with a brilliant plan meant to kill them, Sabine could see the signs of fear on Pippa’s face. She had to give it to the PR specialist; she took that fear, shoved it down, and kept running. Attagirl. They made it to an intersection and without a word, Pippa extended a hand to read a wall. Understanding what to expect, Sabine helped keep her steady for the shorter vision.

The mutation kept coming in clutch, offering a direction. That was promising, because their steps were splashing in a thin layer of water that was rising. The ship was taking on water, and they were racing the ocean’s ability to fill a battleship from the bottom up. Nothing to gain from thinking about that; they would press forward in Pippa’s direction.

The water was reaching their ankles when the vision bore fruit: a metal staircase. In any other situation, she would have been ready for guards or captors, but Sabine doubted they would find anyone. If their captors had people so loyal to the cause of killing them, they would stand guard on a sinking ship, they were metaphorically and literally dead in the water.

The pair made it to the deck, instantly getting misted by the salty ocean air. Fresh air was a huge upgrade and Sabine gulped a breath down, feeling her head clear. Okay, their odds of surviving were higher, but still not great. She ran to the railing, seeing nothing but ocean. Tense, she ran to the other side of the ship.

This time, blessedly, she did see the shore. Great. It was also… very far. ”Any chance you used to be a swim team champion and left it off your resume?” Sabine was physically fit, but these were still the waters of the Atlantic. It could still sweep them away if they were not careful, but swimming might still be their only option unless something better turned up in the limited window they had before the ship was under the waves.