Xaviers!

"My oh my how they've tried," he replied, "I've been in six different Muir's alone. Killed that bitch MacTaggert twice."

"That's not something to be proud of." Victor stated dismissively. Reaching into his jacket's inner pocket he produced a small black chrome case which he popped open with one hand. Inside were cigarettes, appropriate for a cigarette case, with white filters and devoid of any band or logo. He removed one and placed it in his mouth, lighting it with the lighter built into the side of the case. He then held the case out toward Emilie.

"Here, this'll help keep the mosquitos away. Malaria would suck pretty bad right about now. I'm guessing that you won't have that problem though since they listen to your every word, sir."

"Oh I see, when I do it, it's ' me trying to look cool'. When you do it, it's necessary." She teased, taking the cigarettes and paraphernalia.

Of course after a drag or two she realized -- " Why are you carrying stage-puffs with you?"

"In a word, misdirection. Sometimes I might want someone to focus on the cigarette instead of something else. Makes you look more local too."

"Yes, no cigarettes for the bug god," he grinned. Then he slapped his neck and frowned. "Curses! I hath been denounced!" he said dramatically.

Emilie sighed, and tossed held out the already lit fake cigarette from her own mouth.

"I won't be handing you a lighter, sorry."

Hazard took the cigarette and held it up in front of his face. "I didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning," he said dreamily as he simply watched it burn.

Emilie furrowed her brow.

"Come on, let's go." She stated, attempting to spurn Hazard into leading again.

Hazard took a drag of the cigarette as he got moving again. Before long, he was dancing along like he was part of a marching musical number. In his deranged mind, he probably was.

Victor walked with his hands in his pockets while contemplating the situation, the less flesh out in the open the better when it came to insects. Despite his dress he was easily able to weave his way through the jungle as they made their way upward, having some experience in walking through the woods.

"So, what's the plan?"

"We just have to infiltrate a Bond villain lair and secure the dimensional teleporter until the away team catches up," he answered.

"And then I'll..." he whispered to himself, breaking into a secret smirk.

Emilie wasn't certain what he was mumbling to himself, but she didn't particularly care either as she would naturally assume it wasn't a good thing.

"Got any idea of how we're breaking into Gringott's or are you making this up as you go along?"

"Me? Plan?" he cackled. "I just do what the Void wills."

"I'm rather partial to sneaking in. For obvious reasons."

"Yeah I wouldn't hold my breath. Our River-cruise tour guide ain't exactly known for his stealth tactics. "

"I know! I can be the distraction!" he offered, "And I won't even double-cross you even though it'd be hilarious!"

"All the better for you if you don't." Victor said in a flat tone. He was taking this all with a mixture of displaced calm and uncharacteristic seriousness. "But not a bad idea. It gives you a chance to show off and have some fun."

"He won't betray us. He can't. He needs us. Otherwise he wouldn't have sought us out."

Making their way through the jungle is exhausting. The terrain is treacherous, though not actively dangerous at the moment, the heat and humidity is oppressive and with Hazard's insect powers gone the way of the Dodo they are being hounded by mosquitoes. At least the things are so large they are hard to miss. Eventually the elevation of the terrain changes and while the incline makes progress harder the vegetation thinning out more than makes up for that. Eventually they come to a clearing that gives them a good view of where they are for the first time.

Stretching out in the direction they came from is nothing but thick jungle. Further to the east they can spot what appears to be an expanse of marshland. Large shapes are barely visible, occasionally lifting their long elegant necks as the herd of diplodocids wanders through the area. Further away on the edge of the marshes seem to be a collection of small huts with thin lines of smoke rising up from some of them. In the west is more smoke rising from beyond the jungle. It appears to be volcanic but the pillars of smoke seem almost too neat and in too regular distances from each other to be entirely natural. Looking to the north-west might provide a clue as to why. Stretching out from where the smoke is rising to the mountains is an area that has been clear-cut. Squat buildings have taken the place of the jungle and hunched over humanoid shapes are moving between them. There's a couple vehicles too, ranging from jeeps to large exo-suits that are being used to move large crates, missiles and other martial equipment. Among them the occasional dinosaur is moving, usually wearing various pieces of armor strapped to them. Mostly they seem to serve as beasts of burden but here and there they can spot trios of smaller creatures patrolling the perimeter as guard-dogs. Throughout the whole are flags are raised, showing an odd symbol of an upside down triangle.

Slightly to the north of the military camp, sitting against the mountains is a huge facility, steel and glass glinting in the sun. A large dome sits next to a tall tower tipped with countless satellite dishes and sensor arrays.

Hazard raised his arms in triumph.

"Behold the Dark To... shiny? shiny... Shiny Tower!" he grinned.

"Don't you just want to knock it down, set it on fire, and wallow in the ashes?"

Emilie had rationed the water in her canteen carefully enough that they were now down to their last couple of swigs. Having just finished one, she passed the canteen to Victor as they observed their target destination from a distance.

"Who's in there?" She inquired, wondering what they might be up against.

"Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent," he recited darkly.

"Or, yanno, some guy named Bill."

"Looks like the symbol for asexuals." Victor wiped his mouth and put the cap back onto the canteen, handing it back to Emilie.

"Why can't these things ever be simple?"

"Nah. An Ace doesn't have the pent up sexual energy it takes to trudge into the middle of the Land Of the Lost and build this obvious display of over-compensating."

She joked back, holding out the canteen to Hazard to allow him the last bit of water, if he wanted it.

"So what's the plan to get to the tower then? You intend to act like an asshole the entire way there?" She asked Hazard.

"Let's spin the wheel and find out, shall we?" he smirked back at them. He proceeded to turn in a slow circle, making a 'tick tick' sound with his mouth.

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner!" he said with a flourish. He snapped his fingers and became as a living shadow before their eyes. "Come close, come close, I'll hold you tight, for now we take the road of night."

"Take my hand Victor. We're shadow-jumping." She held out her open palm for him to take, and would hold out her other after Victor took hers.

Victor seemed a little squeamish. "This stuff is all dark side sith feelin'." Still, he took Emilie's hand and held it tightly.

"What can I say? Sith happens," Hazard commented as tendrils of shadow shot from the jungle. The writhed and coiled around them like an angry cephalod, coalescing into a dome that snuffed out all light. When it opened again, they would be somewhere else much closer to the facility.

Hazard manages to push closer to the compound with his power but the closer her gets the more resistance he feels until finally the teleportation just stops and spits them back out as close as they can manage. In this case that's in an alley between two barracks. There's no one immediately near them but they can clearly hear the bustle of people marching, things being moved and the distant thunder of the heavy footfalls of dinosaurs. From where they are they can notice that scattered throughout the area are what appears to be ramps leading down underground.

As she hears the footfall of people or creatures not them, Emilie holds out her hand and puts up a half dome in front of them, the shade of it slowly turning from clear and translucent to the colour of a tinted car window. She hopes between the shadowy nature of the alley and her powers, they're less likely to be spotted.

Emilie jerks her head towards one of the downward leading ramps and quirks a brow at Hazard as if to ask if that is the next goal.

The shadow-Hazard just nodded and made a series of incomprehensible hand gestures that were probably a plan of some sort. That or a dirty joke. It was hard to tell. Then he started for the nearest tunnel, oozing under the dome and deepening the shadows for cover.

Victor snuffed out his cigarette into what looked like a small metal cigar tube and followed, his footfalls rather quiet thanks to choosing sneakers instead of the dress shoes his attire usually required.

Emilie followed Victor, just like she always did.

They safely make it to the tunnel and into it's cover. It's fairly wide, almost ten meter and it leads right to a big metal door, almost more of a gate. In the wall nearby is a small door, presumably to let people through without having to open the big gate. Unfortunately it appears to not have any noticeable handles or locks. It's just a smooth metal plate that appears like it slides into the wall to open but lacking any obvious mechanisms to initiate that. Only what seems to be some kind of magnetic reader but it's placed way higher than one would expect, roughly at head height.

"It like they aren't even trying," Hazard said before attempting to ooze his currently shadowy self under the gate.

Just like before when he tried to teleport in, some kind of force pushes back against him, throwing him back several feet and into humanoid shape again.

Wisps of shadow rose from Hazard like smoke. "That's... cheating..." he groaned as he stood.

"Only I get to cheat!" he snarled, blades of solid darkness growing from his body in preparation for an all out attack on the door if nobody stopped him.

Emilie looked at Vic momentarily. She had an idea, but it was rather violent so she was intending to leave it at the last resort. Therefore she'd give him the opening before trying to 'wreck shop'.

"Wait! What if someone has a keycard?" She asked Hazard, trying to keep down on the noise.

"In their skull?" he beamed, a sword becoming a bonesaw.

"Maybe... what if that's how those creatures get in? If they have short arms they'd have to use their heads to swipe the card."

Victor realized how stupid that sounded, so he contented himself with investigating the much larger gate.