Junior phased only his face threw the wall before motioning to Jeremy that the coast was clear. They'd made their way to the restricted areas of the asteroid and so far came across a few board rooms, labs and a very nice "executive" gym.
There had just been a few moments where
Jeremy had drifted accidently into a running machine, wanted to keep going and had spun it's treadmill dramatically before noticing and leaving. Still, nothing too bad so far. He glanced over at Junior, gave him a glowing thumbs up and moved with him.
Someone came around the corner and flicked on one of the lights in the gym. It was a middle aged woman with lavender skin, she had a towel over her shoulder and a gym bag in her hand.
The moment the light flicked on
Junior manipulated his fur to mimic the surrounding area. He effectively turned invisible and walked on the pads of his paws to keep his claws from making any noise on the floor.
There was only the slightest flickers in the air, high up by the ceiling as
Jeremy floated above the woman. She seemed pretty harmless, no need to bother her. For a moment he wondered what the twins would do with his powers... probably be very perverted.
Junior moved silently towards the wall and slipped through invisibly.
Drifting silently,
Jeremy quickly followed after Junior. He decided to hug the ceiling, he'd be more difficult to spot up there. He wasn't sure what direction to head in though.
Junior wasn't really a feral by any means but his Auntie Lyra had graced him with slightly higher than normal hearing. He stopped and put his ear to a wall and emoted with his hands that he could hear voices. Junior became invisible again and headed in the direction of the comotion.
It didn't take much for
Jeremy to fade from existance, so he followed after Junior quickly, drifting through the air and occasionally slipping into inanimate objects to disguise himself for a moment.
The two boys came upon a room that looked out over the Earth, all bright and shining in a blanket of stars. There where a few consoles that looked as if they might have some vital function aboard the station. Inside the room where Magneto and the Cortez fellow the others had met during the improperly coordinated conference.
Magneto seemed a little gray around the gills but there was passion in his eyes as he berated Cortez. "You should learn your place Cortez, the humans on board are my guests, as well as the X-Men. I will not have your spreading discord among the populace."
"You yourself fought against the humans for decades." Cortez rebutted "And now you harbor them as guests aboard this station. You promised us a future without the flatscan humans."
"Please, refrain from using that word." Magneto said pinching the bridge of his nose "I know mor than anyone that humans as a populace should never be trusted with the well being of mutants, but I will not be responsible for another war. You forget that I have worked too hard to build this instillation to have it destroyed."
"I have not forgotten your efforts my Lord." Cortez told Magneto "It is my powers that have sustained you and you have come to depend upon them far too much." Cortez shot his hand forward and a yellow aura enveloped Magneto, draining his energy and returning it to Cortez' body "And if you have lost sight of the fight, I have no choice." As he drained Magneto's energy Cortez moved to one of the consoles and hit a series of buttons. "I shall start with Genocia, the bane of so many's existence." From out of the viewing window a rocket left the asteroid and began it's decent towards the planet.
"What have you done?" Magneto demanded as he became weaker by the moment. To his horror his body was fading, becoming intangible. "You have doomed us all!"
"No it is you Lord Magneto who are doomed." Cortez told him "You do not even have enough energy to hold your own molecules together. Do not worry my Lord, I shall usher mutants into a bright and shining future, in your name. It is too bad the X-Men must take the fall for your death, but I cannot have them trying to stop me." After hitting a few more buttons Cortez left Magneto to be jettisoned into space. As he left the room the viewing portal opened.
Magneto was effectively swept threw the portal and into the vacuum of space, where his intangible form succumbed to the energy loss and he disappeared quietly.
For just one moment, the brink between dissapearing into the sparse world of moleculer seperation, where his body was not quite human and not quite ghost, Magneto could see
Jeremy shooting through the airless space completely unharmed. That was Jeremy's realm, between life and death, and Magneto passed through it much too quickly. Jeremy on the other hand was thinking about nothing but the missile, the moment it had been launched he'd been racing after it, trying to somehow catch the speeding rocket. He just hoped he got there in time...
"That sonofa-!" Before
Junior realized it he had become visible and in the hall outside the room he pounced on Cortez. "Your not blaming us for this!"
Cortez saw Junior and hit an alarm in the split second it took Junior to pounce. The sirens and flashing lights where going off threw the entire complex and Cortez only laughed as he grappled with Junior, drawing his energy subtly so the boy didn't notice he was being put to sleep.
The alarms roused everyone on the floor and 'asteroid police' came running to the rescue.
"TRAITORS!" Cortez shouted as he grappled with Junior, he managed to kick him off and scramble towards the police "They killed our beloved Lord Magneto!"
"The hell we did!"
Junior snapped back as Cortez kicked him off. he tried calling on the energy in the room but whatever Cortez had done to him made him temporarily unable to activate his abilities. "He's the one who killed Magneto!" his voice was distinctly effected by a broken nose Junior had just given him.
The officers immediately rounded on Junior. After all they knew Cortez and his relationship to Magneto, Junior was a stranger recently arrived. They had no cause to question Cortez' orders.
Out of the shadows stepped a very angry looking Waya, accompanied by the rest of her team and Jeremy's body. Immediately she could tell that things had defiantly gone south. Junior was being arrested and Cortez was nursing a bleeding nose. "Let him go!" She shouted "I demand to know what he's done!"
"Arrest them as well!" Cortez ordered, trying to stave his gushing nose.
"On what charges?"
Waya demanded, the shadows in the room stretching towards her, drawn by her anger.
"Conspiracy." Cortez hissed "This was obviously an X-Men conspiracy to assassinate Lord magneto! They have never trusted him and openly voiced it in the council chambers. I only wish that your subterfuge was discovered sooner."
The guards didn't need much more coercion than that. After snapping a power dampening collar on Junior they moved forward to arrest the X-Men as more guards flanked them from behind.
(jeremy, needs to hurry, he can't get captured)
Maribel was quite nervous and frightened. She felt very defenseless, even with her mutation. Maribel's grasp on her ability wasn't the strongest and it's why she came to the X-school in the first place. But this was all happening before she had a chance to train herself. She backed up behind the twins and Phinagin. Nothing like this ever happened to Maribel at her small cottage in France. She didn't realize however that she was now first in line to get captured from the guards that had just flanked behind the group.
The twins didn't want to leave Jeremy's body unguarded. Jayden passed the entire body to his twin before turning to the guards in front of them. With the flick of his wrist, the gravitational pull on them shifted and they were tossed up towards the ceiling. (If that's ok?)
"Oh hell no."
Phinagin said in a very ungentleman like manner. As he said this two, foot long rods of bone shot out of his arms and he wielded them like tonfas. He went straight for the guards nearest him, slamming the bone tonfa into the first guards head dropping him instantly.
"PHINAGIN!"
Eliza said, swatting at his hands, then at the twins desperatley "Now is not the time to fight. We can't win a fight here, on a space station floating above the planet filled with guards and innocents." She turned to Cortez, gritting her teeth slightly "It is never the ones who openly voice dislike who kill, it's the ones who instantly throw blame on others without a SHRED of evidence."
There was no chance
Jeremy would catch the missile, it was going way too fast. He floated there for a moment, just drifted and gazing at it as it descended. He'd failed, he hadn't caught the missile in time; the image flashed through his head, Magneto being sucked into space, the missile appearing in the distance, and that horrible man standing there, gloating with the... controller in his hand. He glanced at the missile, then sped back towards the station. There was still time! There had to be!
Passing off Jeremy's corpse to Jayden,
Jaden countered the lift of gravity by lowering the guards gently. Eliza had a point. "Aren't there security cameras in here?!"
Phinagin looked back at Eliza with a frown and stepped back. He kept the tonfas out and kept his eyes on the guards. He didnt care what really happened, all he knew was that he wasnt going to let them arrest him Phinagin Carlyle IV.
Waya managed to make the guards fall back a bit with a very large, very snappy shadow crocodile. "Yeah but they aren't on our side." She told Jaden "We have to get off this rock."
More guards where flooding towards the corridors and those who had arrested Junior had carted him off to places unknown. As more and more guards entered it was apparent that most of them where mutants. One man even multiplied into fifty more that made defending against them quite difficult.
"We didn't do anything!" shouted the
twins, splitting Jeremy's weight again. Where the hell was he anyway? "Waya....you might want to get us out of here..." whispered Jaden.
"And NOW would be a good time!" added Jayden.
"Don't hold on to anyone, cept Jeremy."
Waya ordered as she kicked a guard in the face and recalled her shadow-dile. The room went dim again and the group was enveloped in shadow. For theatrical effect she left behind a large shadowy flutter of bats to discombobulate the guards. She had remembered seeing escape pods during their tour and teleported them to a set of three located in one of the many eateries along the social sector. She gave Jeremy a mental picture of where they had gone so he could follow and re-obtain his corporeal self.
The flash of image went into
Jeremy's head as he entered the station again, but he just blinked it away as he tried to concentrate on his goal. He could see the mass of guards in the room, all confused and flailing from the shadow bats. One of them must be Cortez... There! He shot down, dashing forward; for a moment a while blur appeared in front or Cortez's eyes before Jeremy entered the controller. It sparked hard as Jeremy began to try and figure out what to do, burning Cortez's hand.
After a few moment's of Jeremy's effort the rocket detonated several thousand feet above the island of Genocia. Much to the surprise of the Genocian people.
"What the hell?!"
the twins exclaimed, looking around quickly, just in case there were guards in the area. "Junior and Jeremy didn't do anything like that!" they said confidently.
Maribel lifted her hands, "What are we going to do?"
The bone tonfas began retracting back into his arms as
Phinagin spoke. "Well we dont have very many options. The guards will be looking for us so we cant wonder around the asteroid. That Cortez is going to be looking for us as well. The only option I think we have is to hop into one of these life pods and get back home."
'Can't they shoot at the school from here?'
Maribel signed with a hectic face. 'What if they hurt our loved ones?' she asked quickly. Her signing was a bit sloppy since she was rushed from worry.
"They won;t fire again, not with the whole planet now alerted to the asteoid's location."
Waya explained "I agree with Phinagin and as much as I would hate to admit it, we may want to stop by SHIELD headquarters and give them a heads up. Maybe swipe a team from Fury and come back for Junior."
"Come back for Junior? He could be killed by then!"
Jayden said, outraged that Waya would suggest something like that.
"We can't just abandon him here!" piped Jaden.
Phinagin had forgotten about Junior in all the chaos. "I can get him." he said seriously. "If we can find out where they took him I can get him, while you all jump a pod out of here."
"No, Cortez will want make an example of him."
Waya told the twins "I wouldn't be surprised if there's a televised trial or something."
In the distant halls the sounds of marching feet could be heard growing louder and louder, accompanied by the occasional radio static.
"Yes, Waya."
Phinagin said, turning to look down the hall towards where the sounds were coming from. "If they catch me then you get ahold of my father after you get a hold of S.H.I.E.L.D. He has a few things that no one knows about that will get me out of here. We have to hurry though before we are all made an example of."
"Now is not the time to become a hero Fancypants."
Waya told Phinagin "Get your rear into an escape pod."
"How can you be so sure, Waya?" asked a
twin
"The whole asteroid things Junior killed their precious Magneto! That guy was a deity to this place!" argued the brother.
"Junior doesn't have a chance with all of us behind bars."
Waya told the twins "And if we don't get out of here we're not going to be remembered very fondly in the history books, now get in the damn pod!"
"Wait, we can't just leave, not yet"
Eliza said, biting her lip and gazing at Jeremy's lifeless body "He's not back, we can't just go down to earth and expect him to walk all the way there. What HAPPENED to him anyway?"
As if on cue
Jeremy's body jerked to life, his spirit shooting up through the floor and entering his body quickly. This sudden reintergration made him wobble a bit, then fall from the twins' grips with a heavy thud "Ohhhhhh..." he mumbled gently "Missile stopped..."
The twins jumped back immediately. "HOLY-"
"-SHIT!" They leaned over him, "What did you do?"
"Cortez guy"
Jeremy groaned, feeling like he'd hit the floor maybe a little bit TOO hard "Fired a missile at the earth. Tried to get the missile. Failed. Got the controller. Hope I managed to stop it in time."
The sounds of marching boots where growing, but they stopped every few seconds, apparently checking other rooms and corridors as they sweat threw looking for the X-Men. Cortez' face appeared on one of the many screens hanging throwout the compound. "Good citizens of Asteroid-M, there are traitors among you. Trators who have stolen the life of out beloved Lord Magneto. Observe their treachery." A video played of Magneto speaking, the audio was gone and instead of him speaking to Cortez he was speaking to Junior. They looked as if they where arguing then all of a sudden Magneto went white as it appeared Junior was stealing his energy. Once Magneto looked intangible Junior cued up the missile and left the room to jettison Magneto into space where the video stopped. "Thankful our operatives where able to stop the missile before it detonated. This act of war was perpetrated by the X-Man known as Hellian, Junior Relman and he did not act alone." A series of pictures popped up, one showing Junior in custody and the others showing the rest of the group individually kicking guard butt. "It is believed that these traitors are attempting to leave the asteroid as we speak. I implore all free citizens of Asteroid-M to aid in the capture of these so called X-Men." Cortez image faded out, leaving the photos of the team and streaming text at the bottom, recounting Cortez' words.
"Believe me now?"
Waya said "No way we can take this whole place on, we have to go back to Earth for reinforcements
." She grimaced at the picture of herself, her foot was connected to a guard's face but the expression on Waya's was less than flattering.
"HEY!" Jeremy said angrily, seeing a clip of him doing a massive round house kick to a guard's head "I wasn't even alive and I can't do that!" He grimaced at the screen and sighed "Dammit, like they'd care. We have to leave... but... I think I should stay behind." He rubbed his hair back, breathing deeply as he tried to think "I can be invisible. I could stay behind..."
"But your body is vulnerable and if they stick one of those collars on you." Waya pointed to the image of Junior in restraints "Then you might not be able to get back into your body." Waya started shoving people into escape pod, starting with Maribelle since she was least likely to fight her order. "If we don't go now we're screwed."
"They wouldn't stick a collar on a dead man, or someone so sick they can't even stand" Jeremy pointed out, wincing as his bruised ribs were shoved by Waya "And I can break the collar, possess that, make it explode and then go back in. The collar stops my powers from leaving, not from itself being taken over."
"Ok, this it's an order then." Waya said loosing her patience "It's going to be hard enough freeing just Junior, I don't wanna have to worry about you too."
Phinagin sigh defeatedly. "She's right, we have to leave now or we wont be leaving at all." As he spoke he pushed the button and opened the door to the escape pod. "Hurry up guys and get in."
Maribel stumbled into the pod from Waya's pushing. She sat down in a seat and strapped herself in tightly. She started to quickly read warning signs and instructions in the pod although it was difficult to decipher some of the complex English words. 'Do you guys know how to fly this thing?' she signed worriedly. Although she didn't think anyone saw her signings since they were all busy arguing.
Eliza clambered through the pod, finding a seat near the front that must have been the co-pilots "Oh well I saw this movie once" she lied. Most of their early teachings had been about driving or what to do in this situation; it was pretty depressing when you got old enough to realise that it was so you could run away at the slightest chance.
Jaden planted his hands on Jeremy's shoulders and shoved him into the pod with him. "No way we're carrying around your corpse again...it watches you from across the room."
Jayden stepped to the side of the pod and gestured into it, "Ladies first." he mused to Waya.
Waya stepped into her pod and made a quick scan of the controls and stuff inside. "They're programed to land in Manhattan Bay." She told them, not knowing why, which meant she probably scanned it from some local mind.
A mass of guards came around one of the hall corners and spilled into the lobby. One of them shouted "Halt, you are under arrest for the murder of Eric Magnus Lencher!"
"Kick it kick it kick it!" Eliza said, scanning the console in an attempt to find the start button. Dammit she always lost her cool when this stuff happened.
The lights went red in Eliza's cockpit and a screen flashed a happy face and a voice said "Please fasten seat belt, departure in 5...4...3...2...1..." With a loud bang and the sound of pressure releasing Eliza's pod shot backwards threw a tube and gained momentum. A door slid in place to lock the chamber and the pod was ejected into space at the proper velocity and trajectory to enter earth's atmosphere and hopefully land safely in Manhattan Bay.
Phinagin walked over to Waya's pod entrance. "Ok, everyone is in a pod. I will go get into mine...once I rescue Junior." As he said the last four words he hit the button on Waya's pod to shut and launch the pod. As he turned and faced the guards flooding the room his skin began to rupture as bone began so shoot through and cover his body entirely with thick, interconnecting plates of bone. "We did not kill Magneto, infact, most of us were in our rooms asleep when he died at the hands of your precious Cortez." As he spoke he used his hands to help pop his neck. But I can tell that you all are not going to listen to me." Two foot and a half long poles of bone popped out of his arms, he grabbed them and snapped them off in each hand, wielding them like batons. "So I am going to go retrieve me friend from your fine prison and will be leaving. Anyone who tries to stop me will find themselves in a crumpled heap on the floor trying to figure out which bone they have protruding from their body."
"Phinagin! NO! There's too many of them!" Before Waya had a chance to gather the sufficient shadows to teleport back into the lobby her pod lurched backward, throwing her against the door since she hadn't been strapped in. The last thing she saw before being ejected into space was Phinagin's smugg ass as he walked towards the guards.
Some of the helmeted guards smirked at Phinagin as he approached. Those who didn't have active powers with which to try to subdue him tried thait hands at initial combat rather than letting the flashey guys handel him. One of the guards was distinctly larger than the rest and there where long bits of shaggy gray hair sticking outfrom beneath his helmet, cuffs and feet. He released a mughty roar and charged for Phinagin vowing "FOR MAGNETO!!">
"That's what I figured." Phinagin said, mainly to himself as he was drowned out by the guard's roar. He lowered himself and waited till the man was only a few feet away before he leapt straight up into the air and brought one baton against the man's temple region with all his amplified strength.
(ooc: everyone better infact be on the pods, this ois phin's moment to shine.)
Maribel was having a slight panic attack. Being in outer space with no one to guide the pod but Eliza, she was getting sick to her stomach. She was sweating profusely and shaking nervously. One could tell she was feeling faint.
The twins noticed Maribel's discomfort and said, "Don't sweat it, love- we've traveled through space hundreds of times. There isn't anything to worry about."
"Dammit dammit dammit" Eliza was hissing as she flicked her gaze back and forth between the planet below and the asteroid behind "Dammit dammit" she muttered "and my machine's still up there." She shook her head and took a deep breath "Ok, ok, who's here. We need to make sure everyone made it with us... we know Junior is back there. Anyone see a radio?"
The twins looked around and nudged Jeremy to the side, trying to see if there was anything useful on the wall behind him. "Nothin' over here, babe." said a twin. The other twin managed to open a compartment on the back wall, "Hey-- this could be a radio. But we need to be sure we don't phone the asteroid instead of the other pod."
Maribel placed her hands on her stomach and tried to take herself out of all the movement in the pod. She wasn't feeling very good about this situation. Flying through space might be a daily thing for the x-group, but not for her.
"Where the hell is Rhydian?" Waya asked as their pods floated in space. Everything had happened so quickly she couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed he wasn't with them.
The three pods containing X-people where moving towards earth steadily as if guided by a preset order. Eliza and Maribel's pod was first, followed by the twins and Jeremy, then Waya bringing up the rear. The momentum gained by being propelled from the asteroid would grant them sufficient speed for entering the earth's atmosphere.
The overly large guard's head snapped to the side and he chuckled as if the impact hadn't phased him. He looked at Phinagain, his bright green eyes now revealed by a rather large crack in his visor. He took a step forward and stopped, his eyes seemed to dull and after a moment they rolled into the back of his head and the beast began to topple, swaying slightly before he crashed loudly against the floor.
Phinagin discarded the now broken bone baton and quickly grew another one to replace it. This time he didnt wait for them to charge as he took the inititive and ran straight in. Using batons, fists, feet, knees, elbows, almost every part of him coupled with his decade of combat training he began dropping guards left and right trying to make his way through to any sort of computer interface.
Maribel lifted her hands from her gut, 'I don't feel so good.' she signed to Eliza.
"So what really happened to Magneto?" the twins asked Jeremy.
Eliza managed to catch Maribel's words and nodded, pausing in her examination of the front of the pods before standing up carefully. She made her way over to Maribel's side and sat down next to her, wrapping her arms around Maribel slowly "I'm sorry we got you all messed up in this."
And that was all it took. Maribel shoved Eliza off of her and onto the floor. She urked and dropped to her knees in the corner of the pod. She managed to open up a storage compartment a mere second before vomiting.
Eliza grimaced, but sighed and stood up slowly so she could move over to Maribel. "That's it" she sighed, pulling Maribel's hair back so she didn't get anything in it "Let it all out... you'll feel better afterwards."
"That guy" Jeremy said softly "that Cortez guy, apparently Magneto was relying on him to keep his atoms together or something... He said that Magneto had grown soft on humans, launched the missile and blew Magneto into open space."
Maribel spat and whipped her lips with her wrist. This tasted horrible. She closed the compartment so Eliza couldn't see or smell her vomit. Swallowing whatever type of residue was in her mouth with a wince, Maribel shuffled back and made her way to a seat once more. This was so embarrassing. 'Asteroids, murder, running for your life, fighting guards, flying through space...Is this normal for you?! I just wanted to go to school and learn how to use my mutation!' It was clear from her face that she hadn't EVER experienced anything of this matter. She was just a middle class French girl who lived with her Father in a small cottage outside of Paris, how the hell was she expected to react to all of this!?
The twins sat back. "Wait...do you know what his mutation is? Or was the atom thing, it?" asked Jaden.
Jayden rubbed his arm as he looked out of the pod window, "I hope Junior is ok..." he muttered to himself.
Waya keyed her coms and atempted to contact Phinagin, he was too far out of her range to reach telepathically "Phinagin, you've got to find Rhydian too, I don;t know what happened." Though the distance of the pods caused her message to sound more like "Phin ssskkkk ydian skkkk what happened."
Guards began falling around Phinagin like extras in a John Woo film. Helmets went flying, ribs could be heard crunching and the squeaking of rubber soles on hard tile bounced back off the walls. A dozen or so guards found themselves slamming into the floor after being unceremoniously taken out by Phinagain. A beam of yellow shot passed Phinagin's head as the last of the first wave went crashing down. A second wave was quickly advancing, one of them men could obviously fly, another was bathed in yellow energy and a rather enticing looking woman was holding two whips bathed in some sort of purple glowing substance, purple splashed threw the air each time she cracked her whips. Several drops landed on Phinagin's bone armor, sizzling and scorching the topmost layer.
Phinagin frowned as the new group walked in. He didnt like the idea of hitting a women, but if it meant saving Junior then he would put her down as quickly as he could. The man bathed in yellow became he first target. He charged forward growing a large shield from his forearm so minimize the damage to his armor, it was also the first weapon he used against the man. Swinging it hard at the man's upper torso and head.
The man's yellow energy flared and keen to mock the young lad, the man mimicked his armor and shield. Ducking behind his shield the man blocked Phinagin's first blow and producing a baton himself swung out to knock Phinagin off his feet.
The woman however moved in and cracked her whip against Phinagin's back armor, leaving behind a thick sludgy streak of purple goo that began to sizel and pop as it ate threw the bone.
Else ware, above Manhattan Harbor three glowing lights had entered the night sky. The harbor had been evacuated and SHIELD watercraft prevented boats from entering the harbor. Quite a crowd had become accumulated along the banks and several hundred phones where being held up to capture the disturbance digitally.
Cursing, Phinagin found himself in quite a situation. As he thought his next moves over he leapt upward to avoid being tripped, at the height of his jump he lashed out with his bone covered foot towards the man's head. During this leap he also grew a large 5-6 inch spike out of his forearm, quickly snapping it off he used the momentum from his kick to also twist his body around and launch the bone spike at the whip-wielding woman's hand, hoping to make her drop her whip.
"Pretty much..." Eliza admitted, helping Maribel and leading her to a seat so they could strap in as they reentered earth's orbit "Sorry... I... we..." She sighed and shook her head as the craft began to heat up quickly "You're going to go home aren't you? After this... just leave."
Jeremy shrugged and gave a small jump as they began to enter the atmosphere "I... i don't know. Probably he gives out energy..."
The orange man was sent spinning and smacked into the floor with a thud. He promptly stopped glowing, obviously unconscious. Phinagin's spike was successfully lashed out of the air by the woman and her whips. Behind Phinagin the one gifted with flight swooped in, hoping to catch Phin by surprise.
Phinagin had completely forgotten about the flying man and was caught completely off guard. This knocked him off his balance and caused him to smack into the floor hard instead of landing gracefully. He was up on his feet again quickly, the broken pieces of his armor replaced by new. Cursing himself for not keeping his combat awareness up he kept an eye on the two and waited for them to make the next move.
A hand consisting of the panels of the wall reached out and grabbed a hold of the two guards in the room. It quickly pulled them back to the wall and smashed them clean into it as it reformed itself within the wall. Rhydian stepped around the corner, his body swaying slightly. The effects of the night's alcohol clearly were still in his system. "Hey Phin, where'severybody else?" He pressed his hand against the wall the prevent himself from falling over.
Phinagin was shocked by the sudden hand made of wall. When he saw Rhydian he sighed with a bit of relief. "What are you doing here?!" he asked, "Your supposed to be on a pod with the others."
the two from before fell to the floor in a crumpled heap. The other guards swarming down the hall didn't care about letting the boys catch up. Weapon's and active power fire erupted in their direction. "For magneto!" Some of them shouted, effectively brainwashed into thinking the X-Men where the bad guys.
"I'd say I'm savin your boney butt, man." Rhydian replied, his head ducking quickly as weapon's fire whizzed past him. He waved a hand nonchalantly and the floor rose up to meet with the ceiling, effectively blocking off the hallway. "Now where's everybody else?"
Phinagin created the bone equivalent of a 50lb bowling ball and lobbed it at the oncoming group as hard as he could. "Everyone but us and Junior should be back on Earth now. Junior was captured by Cortez and will hopefully be in a jail cell." He paused for a moment to smack down a guard that had gotten too close. "We have to get access to a computer to find him and get him and us the hell out of here."
"Have you not heard this Cortez guy? I doubt he'll keep Junior in a cell for long. If anything, I'm guessing he'll call a general assembly soon just to make everybody watch what happens to 'traitors of the mutant race'" Rhydian explained, raising his other hand and bringing up the other side of the hallway until it too was closed. They were effectively sealed off from the guards now. "We could just allow ourselves to be captured, they take us right to him."
The weapons fire stalled moments after Rhydian manipulated the floor. One or two of the guards was no incapacitated by ricocheting bullets and a few of the men left to drag them to safety. More arrived however, mutants with much more ostentatious powers. Rhydian's floor wall was being impacted by something very large and very strong.
"If we allowed ourselves to get captured we would have a collar on us before we even got out of this room." Phinagin said as his bone helmet retracted to allow fresh air in. He wiped some sweat off his face before speaking again. "Hey, if you can control the walls can you control the floor panels? If so you should open a hole in the floor and let us drop through to the floor under us."
"If the floor will let me." Rhydian told him truthfully. His powers didn't really work that way. He couldn't make a hole appear that wasn't there before, generally. But if the flooring were entirely made of paneling, then he could make the panels move aside for them. He released his hold on the bit of the floor that raised up to meet the ceiling, which effectively left them connected. He swayed slightly and shook his head, rubbing the bottom of his nose with the sleeve on his arm, a bright red stain streaked up it's length as he did so. He shook his hands before him and took a deep breath, looking at the floor panels and wanting them to move aside so they could leave.
The panels shifted, preforming as Rhydian had intended but not responding in exactly the intended shape. A crude tunnel crumbled and things spread apart to offer a sewer entrance sized hole leading into the lower level.
"Good job Rhydian." Phinagin said as he looked down to make sure they werent going to drop into a vat of something toxic or into a power grid. Knowing that they would be through the walls soon he didnt waste anytime and dropped down the hole. The second he landed he was prepared to defend himself.
Rhydian dropped down after him, landing with a hard thud. He coughed and spat up a mouthful of blood. "I can't do that again...let alone close it..."
"I can cover that." Phinagin said as he pointed his hand towards the hole. A shoot of bone came out of his finger and went all the way to the top of the hole then suddenly expanded, filling the hole. Then to make sure they dont just push it out he created spikes that buried themselves about three feet into the sides of the tunnel and made thousands of needle sharp spikes spring from the top so anyone that touched it would be stabbed multiple times. With this task done he turned to his teammate. "Are you alright? Can you continue to walk?"
The corridor they dropped into seemed not quite as pretty as the rest of the station they had seen. The walls and floor where very utilitarian,leading them to believe that they had stumbled into a maintenance corridor. Thankfully no one with a weapon or super charged powers where waiting for them.
"Yeah, I'll be fine...I'm just exerting myself a little too much today." Rhydian explained, shaking his head lightly to get rid of the foggyness
"I can carry you if you need it, but until then we need to hurry." Phinagin said as he starting down the hallway. He stopped at an intersection and peered down both directions to make sure the way was clear.
"I'll be fine." Rhydian told him, wishing he knew why the use of his powers affected him so roughly. He squinted his eyes as a fresh wave of pain surfed through his skull
The sound of hurried footsteps could be heard at the end of one corridor, however the other was clear. At the end of that corridor appeared to be some sort of map. Hopefully the kind that said "you are here"
"Rhydian, follow me." Phinagin said quickly and then went towards the map. "Quickly Rhydian."
"I'd like to see how quickly you move when your head feels like it's splitting open." Rhydian grumbled as he moved up to look at the map
The map looked as if it where some sort of schematics for a very complicated piece of machinery but, there was an orange dot indicating their position. Blue dots signaled the location of escape pods and emergency facilities. Green dots marked civilian and educational facilities and red dots signified the defenses. There where quite a few more red dots over the other colors but one red box near the center of the map denoted the possible location of some sort of control room.
Phinagin didnt have much trouble understanding the map and located the possible control room. "Ok Rhydian. We have a bit of a run ahead of us so let me know if ever your not up for it."
"I said I'm fine, didn't I?" Rhydian snapped at him. The only thing worse then having your powers affect you like this, was everybody pointing it out
Phinagin just shook his head as he took off at a brisk pace towards the control room. He knew that Rhydian was greatly weakened by using his powers and that he was greatly weakened now. They were in the middle of a very hostile compound and the last thing he needed was for Rhydian to pass out or fall behind and get captured.
Rhydian followed after Phinagin, moving a little slower, but not getting left behind in the least
The mutants where obviously headed towards the control room. If they could get in amidst all this ruckus perhaps they could take out the missile systems before Cortez decided to launch another rocket and declare full scale war.
As Phinagin drew closer to the control center he drew up his bone helmet again and made sure that he was fully armored. The last thing he needed was to be caught off guard in an ambush and knocked out. "You have any skill with computers Rhydian?"
"Not exactly, but I can manage quite a bit more than most people. Whatcha need?" Rhydian asked as they approached the control center. He cracked his knuckles and smiled.
"Your gonna need to get into the system and figure out where they are holding Junior and what they got planned for him." Phinagin said as he rounded the corner and saw the door to the control center. He walked slower as he approached the door and peaked in to see if there was anyone in there that had to be dealt with.
There where only three people inside the control room, it smelled of coffee and stale doughnuts. They where talking about why the Genoshia aimed missile had exploded before hitting it's designated target.
Phinagin stepped into the room and grew two large blades from his wrist. "I am going to need you three to get up slowly with your hands in the air and go sit in the corner there." He said as he gestured accordingly.
Rhydian stood outside the control room. In his present state, he'd only get in the way if it came down to hand on hand combat, Phin had clearly trained for something like this for a while and his mutation certainly helped him out as well. If needed though, he could manipulate the room itself, but that was best done while not inside...
A coffee cup shattered on the floor as one of the technicians instantly put his hands up at the sight of Phinagin. Another pushed his chair a few inches away from the console where he was sitting. He looked too stunned to do anything heroic. The last guy however grabbed a fire extinguisher on the wall and held it aloft, declaring "THIS IS FOR MAGNETO!" and brought the extinguisher down towards Phinagin with intent of bashing in his skull.
Phinagin stepped forward and rammed his bone blade straight through the fire extinguisher. He glared at the man through his helmet before ripping the extinguisher out of the man's hands and then promptly smacking him in the head with it. "Anyone else?" he asked as he pulled it off his blade and let it plop to the floor.
The punctured extinguished hissed for a moment then rocketed off Phinagin's bone and against a wall where it continued to spin and sputter till the pressure released enough to become an annoying hiss. The individual formerly holding the extinguished found himself on the floor, slightly more unconscious than he had been a moment ago. The remaining two didn't seem like they where interested in causing any more trouble.
Phinagin looked up at the other people. "Take him to the corner and stay put." He watched them as they dragged him away into the corner, once there he grew bone manacles that would lock their hands and ankles together and to each other. "Ok Rhydian. Find Junior." He waited till Rhydian entered the room before growing a large amount of bone to block the door way to prevent anyone from sneaking up behind them.
Rhydian sat quickly and his fingers danced across the keyboards, his eyes seemed to have glossed over as he did so, his mutant power moving through him as if he were possessed. A computer may not be your typical inanimate object, but it is one and as such he can manipulate them as well. His fingers stopped and he took a deep breath, looking up at Phinagin. "Got him."
Phinagin hurried over to him and took a look at the computer screen. "Where's he at?" he asked as he couldn't see very well through the helmet.
Rhydian's typing brought up a complete schematic of the asteroid and as his fingers danced across the keyboard the schematic transformed, revealing their area and a direct route to the block where Junior was being held. As the schematic moved again it was revealed that over two thirds of the asteroids defenses where on red alert and aimed at Earth.
"Can you shut all those down?" Phinagin asked, pointing at the asteroid's defenses. "Also try and disrupt any other electronic device or system that may be a hindrance to us."
Rhydian's head was in a mighty fog now. He shook it lightly and coughed. He took a slow breath and set his fingers to work again, his eyes glossing over once more as he worked the computer over. When he stopped, a small trail of blood leaked from his nose. "I think I've got everything...I hope."
Phinagin saw the blood and gave a concerned frown. He knew that Rhydian wasnt going to be able to contribute much more and hopefully he wouldnt have too. He looked around to make sure they wouldn't have to fight their way out.
As Rhydian worked one by one the sections on the schematic that where marked as defenses slowly blinked out. The fighter hangar doors flashed that they where now in lock down and could only be opened by manual override. The turret defenses flashed little orange warning labels that they (which always remained active) had now gotten new orders to stand down. A few inner doors locked down as well, trapping reinforcements in the wings they where searching. They where bound to encounter more men and mutants on foot but at least now their numbers wouldn't be so thick.
"We're still gonna run into ground troops in a couple places, but there's no way around that. Hopefully though, I've managed to cut off the brunt of the defense forces." Rhydian explained as he sat back and took a few breaths
"Good, lets get moving then." Phinagin said as he moved over to the door. With a swift and hard kick he knocked the bone plug loose and put it against the wall on the other side of the hallway.
the hall was empty but the voices from those who had just passed by where still lingering at the turn of the hall.
Rhydian got to his feet slowly. He looked at the cowering men in the control room as Phinagin went into the hallway. He knew what he needed to make this pain stop, but he didn't want to admit it. He needed help and didn't want to ask, but he knew if he didn't soon, it would kill him. He didn't know if the others chose to study up on those around them last night, but he had the foresight to raise a query on the teaching chip prior to succumbing to the bottle of wine. As he slept, the chip downloaded statistics on all the major players in Magneto's private army up here. It was interesting how much intel the chip was able to gather, most of them had been prisoners in Genosha apparently. He wiped the blood from his face yet again and joined Phinagin in the hallway. "Lets go get Junior..." his voice was enthusiastic, but exhausted at the same time.
Phinagin nodded and moved down the hallway in the direction the system told him to travel. He tried to avoid any guards as they moved, but he knew that an encounter was unavoidable. So he prepared himself by creating a large softball sized ball of bone in his hand and broke it free. He planned on using it to try and end some fights before they started.
<hR><hR><hR>
The way was clear for a while but eventually they came upon a group of technicians who'd been dispatched to see while the defenses where offline. they were escorted by two of Cortez personal team. They had all served as Magneto's acolytes but now that their lord and master was gone their orders came from the mad dog Cortez.
"Shit." Was all that Rhydian was able to say as they came around the corner and saw the two Acolytes and the technicians. He knew from his download exactly who these guys were. Cortez wasn't holding back, he sent his two murderers as protection for the techs. "That's Senyaka and Delgado..." He whispered to Phinagin. He didn't have enough time to tell him what their opponents could do, but he did recall them in his own memory.
Senyaka possesses the power to drain the bio-electrical essence of others upon physical contact. The living energy he drains augments his natural strength, endurance, and reflexes, as well as accelerating his recuperative powers significantly.He can also utilize the excess life-force he drains to generate a pair of psionic whips composed of bio-electric energy. These whips move according to his mental command and can greatly increase the distance of his absorption ability. The whips can also conduct his bio-electric energy to ignite nerve clusters in an opponent to cause intense pain or paralysis, as well as sear into their flesh.
Marco Delgado has the power to grow in size, strength, speed, and stamina, expanding his physical proportions in order to exponentially increase his size, strength, speed, and durability. The upper limits of the size that he could attain and the strength that he could wield have never ascertained. Delgado draws the extra mass that he gains upon using his power from a presumably extradimensional source.
As soon as the young mutants came around the corner, Senyaka's hands grabbed a hold of two of the technicians. Energy crackled through the air as their bodies withered and fell to the floor. A grin crossed the man's face as a pair of bio-electrical whips grew from the palms of his hands. "Looks like we found 'em, Delgado."
Delgado grinned as his body grew until he almost filled the hallway. "They ain't goin no where, eh Senyaka?" He chuckled as slammed a massive fist into a nearby wall, buckling the steel and sending a shockwave down along it.
"Well, this is going to be much more difficult then the rest." Phinagin said before lobbing the large ball of bone at the head of Senyaka. As the ball soared through the air, Phinagin balled one hand into a fist and grew a basketball sized ball around it and sprouted spikes, turning his hand into a large mace, the other hand sprouted a large kite shield.
Delgado's hand reached out with inhuman speed and grabbed the ball of bone before it had a chance to connect with Senyaka. "My my, looks like we're gonna have us a ball." He told his partner as he hurled the bone ball back to it's creator
"You get the boney one, I'll get the other one." Senyaka said as he lashed out with his bio-electrical whip. It slammed into the wall and sent a chain of lightning surging down the metal hallway, arching off and striking Rhydian
"F*CK!!!" Rhydian shouted as the electricity corsed through him, sending him flying into the other wall of the hallway
Phinagin brought up his shield and deflected the bone ball and changed course to attack the large fellow. This was going to be very tricky and he had to figure a way to bring this guy down quick. Since the guy was much larger then Phinagin he knew that he would have to gain some elevation so he jumped up and then did a small leap off the wall next to him to hopefully deliver a devastating mace-fisted punch to his face.
Senyaka grabbed a hold of two more technicians and made them wither to nothing as he drained them of their life energy. He made his way down the hall to where Rhydian lay. "Somethin tells me, you're gonna be a tasty treat, kid."
Delgado watched as Phinagin flew through the air at him. He was an arrogant one, and stood his ground as the boy came at him with a mace for a hand.
Phinagin brought his mace fist down aiming for Delgado's face. Hopefully this will put him down fast.
Delgado had no idea of the strength behind Phinagin's attack. The bone mace smashed into his face and drove his down onto his knees, with a loud grunt.
"I guess you'll find out." Rhydian told him as he swept his legs out, connecting with the Sri Lankan man's ankles, knocking them out from under him.
When the man hit the floor, his bio-electric whips immediately extinguished. He grunted and shook his head, glaring at the little boy who dare to strike the great Senyaka
Phinagin didn't waste any time. With his opponent on his knees he quickly brought his mace hand up, again at the man's face hoping to do some severe damage. A broken face is a sure fire way to debilitate someone.
The second blow that Phinagin was hoping to achieve, never happened. Delgado wasn't about to take another blow like that. He underestimated the kid once, it was unlikely to happen a second time. As the boy's mace came up, so did the big man's fists, connecting with the young one's chest and sending him up into the ceiling
Senyaka got to his feet quickly. "Nobody does that to Senyaka, nobody!" He would have to drain some more life energy in order to get back his whips, but they only had a few technicians along, more energy would have to come from either this boy or the other one.
"It looks like I just did." Rhydian told him as he too got to his feet. He swayed a little, blood still slowly trickling from his nose. "I don't need to use my powers to defeat someone as weak as you, Senyaka. Everybody knows you're only second best." He took up a fighting stance, knowing he was angering the foreign man. Pride was every super villain's major weakness.
Phinagin had taken the blow, bounced off the ceiling and fell to the floor before the pain of it all finally hit him. He stood up quickly, not wanting to be an easy target. He noticed that his chest armor had shattered from the blow and he quickly grew another one, he also had to use his powers to reset the three broken ribs he had just sustained. He sprouted a few good sized spikes all over his armor so if the man hit him again he wouldn't go unscathed. "Hmm...for a nobody you hit pretty hard." He said as he shook his arms to loosen up a bit. "But when i\I'm done with you, your going to be so messed up no one will ever forget your face." He charge forward again and made a leap into the air to aim for his current favorite target. He brought his shield around to bash Delgado in the face and planned on using the momentum to put the mace right into his gut.
Delgado may have been larger and stronger than Phinagin, but the one thing the man lacked was speed. Even without using his powers, he was slower than most people because of his size. His increased size only hampered that even more. He managed to get his hands up just in time for the shield to slam into them instead of his face, but he was unable to block the blow to his gut.
Without hesitating any further with the banter, Rhydian dashed forward and connected his knee with Senyaka's chest. Among many other things that he had downloaded via the learning chip, he took the time to teach himself multiple forms of martial arts and spent alot of his free time practicing it in the danger room. When his knee landed, he immediately struck out with both hands. He brought both hands down on the Sri Lankan man's ears. "Discombobulate."
Senyaka was clearly taken off guard by the sudden outburst of martial arts by this tiny little boy. The knee to the gut was painful, but when his eardrums burst from the second attack, he truly became discombobulated, just as the child had said. His blood boiled as he fell to his knees from the assault. It was not much of an attack, but how?! How could such a frail child as this take him down so easily?! He was the great Senyaka! Murderer of thousands!
Phinagin kept the assault up keeping Delgado occupied with blocking instead of attacking, because he knew that with the superior strength Delgado had a few more hits would put Phinagin down even with his armor and healing factor. Deciding that now was a good time for a cheap shot he feinted a kick with his right foot to Delgado's midsection, but instead he quickly brought his now cleat like spiked foot down on his opponent's own foot and jabbed forward with the top edge of his shield.
Delgado let out a hiss of pain as the bone spikes punctured his foot. Like his comrade, he too was beginning to wonder how such young children could put up such a fight against the likes of them. His size was not much of an asset in these tight quarters, and Senyaka needed more life force for his powers to work, clearly he was already drained or he'd be siphoning from that boy right now. It was beginning to look as if they were set up. Having gone to block the feint kick, he was unprepared as the top of the shield smashed into the underside of his chin, forcing his head to snap backward and thud into the wall roughly. With a groan, the large man's body began to shrink back to normal size as he slid effortlessly to the floor.
Rhydian's breathing was rough, but he did not let up his assault on Senyaka. As the Sri Lankan clearly struggled to get to his feet, he wasted no time in snapping kicking the man in the face. As the deadly Acolyte collapsed onto the floor, Rhydian braced himself against the wall, catching his breath. He looked up at Phinagin and noted that he too had defeated his adversary.
Phinagin Stood ready for the man to get back up for a few seconds before he relaxed. He looked over at Rhydian and gave a thumbs up. "That...was invigorating." he said with a hidden smile. Before they moved on he made sure to bind them two men as best he could, putting both their arms and legs behind their backs and laying them on thier stomachs then binding the together that way as well. "Are you ready to move on?" he asked Rhydian.
"Gimme a moment to catch my breath." Rhydian said as he stood, braced against the wall. He had managed to go the entire fight without using his powers, that was a bit of a plus, it gave them a few minutes to relax at the very least. "You sure that'll hold them?" He asked Phinagin as he looked at the bindings on the two Acolytes. "I'd hate to have Senyaka come at us from behind...."
"Well, cant promise everything." Phinagin said with a shrug, his bone armor grinding a bit as they rubbed against each other. "The only thing I can do is bind them more but with the large one's strength there is still a chance that he can just grow out of them."
"Fair enough...let's get movin then." Rhydian said, pushing off from the wall slowly. The bleeding seemed to stop for now, but he knew should he use his powers again it would start right back up. He sighed and rolled his shoulders. "Hopefully we won't come across any more resistance til we get there."
Phinagin nodded and continued down the hallway. "I agree. If we keep hitting these groups of people we may have to resort to more desperate measures." He said as he peeked around a corner to make sure they wouldn't get ambushed.
"It looked to me as if they were simply go to inspect something." Rhydian told him as he looked at the remains of the technicians. "These look like they were workers. They were probably on their way to check out what we did at the security hub."
"We did what we had to do. If the security systems were still on I doubt we would have made it this far." Phinagin said grimly. "It is unfortunate that it resulted in the deaths of those techs, but it just gives us more of a reason to put this Cortez down."
"Trust me, I'm not complaining. Let's just get Junior and get the hell out of here. We're not exactly suited for bringing down a space station." Rhydian pointed out, even with the whole team together they didn't exactly have the proper firepower for such a job.
"You would be surprised." Phinagin said as he hurried down a vacent hallway. "From what I have seen most of their machinery and systems arent much different from Father's inventions. A few well placed smashes and your hacking skills we could make Whistling Dixie play through the intercomms. Bringing the asteroid down is just a few steps away from that."
"Well it probably wouldn't be a very good idea to just land the asteroid on Earth." Rhydian pointed out with a lop-sided grin.
"Hmm...good point." Phinagin said as he tried to think of ways to protect Earth should this thing take a dive. "Do you know if we are anywhere near where we should be?"
Elsewhere in the facility there was a sudden explosion of white light and thankfully the remaining X-Men; accompanied by the new Captain America and a very nervous looking lawyer, appeared in an uninhabited lobby.
James pushed the lawyer forward to obtain the teams signatures for their recent transport. "He has his orders." he told them "He'll be skint alive if you guys don't sign."
Waya sighed and stepped forward to sign the document, it was ridiculous, especially after they'd already arrived unharmed.
The twins signed along with Maribel. "You think they are in a holding cell or something? This place is enormous!"
"Didn't I say when I had time to READ what I'm signing?" Eliza huffed loudly, her right eye twitching slightly as she glared at the lawyer. It wasn't the fact they might have gotten hurt that kept her from signing, it was that they could slip anything in there and they'd have to sign it hurridly to get it out the way. "And if we think we're safe yet you're very very wrong!" she grumbled and looked around for her team, wondering where they were. DID anyone have an escape plan for when this asteroid went plummeting?
Maribel just wanted to find the rest of their group and get out of here as soon as possible. She grabbed Jeremy's arm and tilted her head down a hall. Who knew what these people were going to Phinagin, Junior and Rhydian?!
Jeremy nodded to her "We need to get moving guys, we need to find Phinagin, Junior and Rhydian." He scanned his mind, trying to think of anywhere they could be right now "Are there prisons in this place?"
another briliant flash of light produced a whole gaggle of nondescript looking SHIELD persionell. They way they where outfitted with identical body armor and weaponry it wasnt hard to believe that they could all be clones.
James promptly ordered the men into three groups. Six would go with Liz, six with the other team and the remainder with him. He handed the team identical comunicators "When you've completed your objective signal with this and you'll be transported back to the planet."
Eliza sighed at the man's pathetic face as he held his copies of the contract "Fine, you know what?" she took them, signing quickly and stuffing them into the lawyer's hands. "If this bites me in the ass I'm putting you on one of the rockets this thing drops" she growled; she did not like the way this guy opperated.
The twins were glad things were starting to really go underway. "Alright- Waya, what's say we try to find someone that we can...pursuade to tell us where prisoners are held?" suggested one of the twins.
"Unfortunately it's probably where the most security is." said the other.
Maribel jumped when more men arrived. Thin spindles crept out of her fingertips on reflex.
Jeremy reached out and signed the papers, sighing softly as he thought about what could have been in those. Still, better to get it out of the way he supposed...
Waya held up her hand to the twins when they addressed her, her eyes looked particularly dark and unfocused. "Phinagin and Rhydian are somewhere below us but I can't pinpoint them, their alive, Rhydian's signature is weak though, he might be hurt... I can't sense Junior but I'm getting a feeling that we should go this way." She pointed down one of the corridors and without waiting for anyone to follow her orders, headed in that direction.
"Well, we've got our orders." James said and gave the team a wry salute as he and his decision of men set off on their mission. The lawyer was gone now, having used his device to be transported back to the planet after getting everyone's signatures.
Eliza turned to the men she would be commanding and waved her hand for them to follow "Come on lads, I know exactly where we need to go." She smiled at Waya and the others "See you guys later alright?"
Maribel faced Eliza and sighed, 'Be careful.'. It was the first thing she had signed since they first left the asteroid. She moved along quickly with the group. She felt so useless in this situation. The poor girl didn't have as firm of a grasp on her powers then the others did.
The twins ran behind Waya. "We like you from this angle." they said together. They really couldn't stay serious for too long, could they? "Jeremy- hurry up!" one of the twins waved back.
Jeremy gave Eliza a small wave before heading off with the others, wondering what he could actually do to help. Drop dead... and then what? What would the soldiers think when he suddenly stopped breathing?
Maribel was just as useless. She barely knew how to control her power, all the reason she even came to the school. She'd seen the others work their magic and it was remarkable. All she could do was thread violins at record speed.
"Keep your nose clean Liz." Waya told her, she doubted Liz would encounter much resistance on her way to the labs though. She ignored the twins, deciding to harbor her annoyance for later when she would deduce something diabolical for pay back.
The teams of SHIELD backup split and followed their designated team. they where armed to the teeth and provided no chatter between themselves. They however had no trouble keeping up with the younger, stronger mutants.
"Step aside! Excuse us!" Jaden shouted to pedestrians as they ran down the hall.
"Move your asses out of our way!" shouted Jayden, thinking it was helping.
"Just a couple more hallways till we reach the elevator that goes down to the brig." Rhydian replied with a shrug. "That's assuming that's where they're keeping him for the moment, if the files can be believed."
"I find it hard to believe that they would lie to themselves." Phinagin said in all seriousness. "Unless they are moving him now he should be there. We should be more concerned about the security they have on him."
"They could have put false data into the computer, because of the simple fact that they knew we'd be lookin for him." Rhydian told him with a shrug as they moved through the halls. They were getting close, at least according to the data they were. "The elevator is right up ahead on the left. If we take it down, we should expect some heavy reinforcements on the other side."
"Good." Phinagin said not making it clear what he was glad about, the elevator being close or the heavy reinforcements in the prison. He came around the corner and the elevator came into view, he walked up to it nonchalantly and pressed the summon button. He half expected the elevator doors to open and expel several guards, so he readied himself.
As Rhydian walked up behind Phinagin, he slapped him on the shoulder. "Settle down, Phin. They barely know that we're active right now. We took Delgado and Senyaka out well before they could call for backup or give a report. I think the elevator will be just fine until we get downstairs."
Phinagin relaxed only when the elevator doors opened to reveal nothing. "Hmm...seems like you may be correct. Still its better to be on our guard then in cuffs." He stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button that led down to the dungeon. "After you."
Rhydian got on the elevator and closed his eyes as he leaned against the cool metal of the back wall. "How do you propose we handle who's waiting on the other side?"
"We beat them until they stop moving." Phinagin said as he popped his neck. "I was never much for strategy." he added with a small chuckle as he turned and looked at Rhydian." He began a quickly look over of his armor checking for any weak spots and reinforcing them when he found some.
"Brilliant plan, but what're you gonna do?" Rhydian asked him with a laugh
"I will sit on my rich behind and watch all the fun." Phinagin said with an honest laugh. He kept his eye on the number above the elevator door as it chimed away the floors with a pleasant little "ding". Thankfully Magneto had foregone the elevator music or Phinagin might have already turned himself in.
"You think we're having too much fun?" Rhydian asked him curiously as the elevator slowed to a stop. He swallowed hard, not exactly ready for the slow ride to end
"One should always have fun when doing a duty to the world." Phinagin said as all the muscles in his body tensed and readied to leap out upon whatever was on the other side of the doors. "If you dont find saving the world fun then you should find another profession."
Eliza waved to her team, leading them towards the labs quickly. She glanced around as they moved, wondering if they'd find much resistance on the way... and how bad this would turn.
As Liz and her team traveled towards the labs (which they should already have the link for) Waya and the others traversed the social corridors surrounding the lobby they had all arrived in. She was being led by the distant sensation of Phinagin and Rhydian's personal signatures. Had she been as experienced in her telepathic talents as her father she may have been able to pinpoint their exact location and even open telepathic communication. For now she was just going to have to rely on that distant nagging feeling that they where going the right way.
The people they met as they traveled seemed to be comprised mostly of family oriented types. So far they hadn't crossed anyone's path who wanted to avenge the death of magneto... so far.
The twins kept up with Waya just fine. They used gravity to gently push pedestrians aside. "Can you tell how far they are, Waya?" asked a twin.
Jeremy wasn't really used to having normal people like this around them when they did missions; he tried to keep his gaze locked forward so he didn't look at any of them. He really didn't want to see the hate in their eyes...
A little boy woth green skin pointed a crab-like claw at them a they passed and shouted "Mommy they killed Mag-" his mother quickly slapped her hand over his mouth and carried him away quickly.
Waya couldn't help but notice the boy but she ignored him further to answer the Twins "With more pratice I could." she said, she'd never really had any issues controling any of her other abilities when they surfaced but the most recent one was making her second guess herself and for an X-man that was the kiss of death "All I can tell is that we're headed the right way."
Maribel was picking up the back with Jeremy. She had to lift up her summer dress in order to run as quickly with the others. Maribel couldn't help but be mad at Phinagin for bailing on them at the last second. Now they were one man short in rescuing Junior and Rhydian. But for now- she would only worry about his safety along with the others.
Jeremy couldn't help but feel the pang of emotion as the little green boy spoke up, his eyes turning towards him for a moment before he snapped them forward again. He couldn't afford to take his mind off their goal.
"Good- so which one is the right one?" The twins asked as they noticed that hallway split into two.
Waya stopped when they came to the Y in the corridor. She looked down both halls and looked as if she wasn't certain "It..." She obviously couldn't make up her mind.
"I could check them all" Jeremy said slowly, biting his lip softly "Quickly, just dart around the rooms, find Junior and the others if they're there."
"No." the twins said sternly, each walking into one of the halls "We're not dragging your corpse around." they warned. Looking at Waya, they tried to encourage her. "Come on petal..." they began.
"Is it this one?" asked Jayden.
"Or this one?" askd Jaden, in the other hall.
Waya scented the air between both corridors as she did so she detected something sudden, that hadn't been there a moment ago "This way." She said sounding sure of herself "It's defiantly this way." She went left where there where decidedly less people, in fact other than the SHIELD goons they where alone.
Maribel hurried, holding her dress up to her knees so she could sprint. Finding this annoying, she let her dress go only to guide the spindles of thread from her hands to hold the dress up for her. They broke off and sewed the dress to act more like a baggy skirt with an elastic tighter to her thighs. Fabric just flopped and swayed as she ran with the others.
Waya jogged on a bit, keeping pace with the twins so they couldn't watch her run. The sensation that they where close to Rhydian and Phinagin was like a deep thrumming at the base of her skull. Subsequently near the spot where she usually felt danger.
The twins kept their pace. "They weren't serious about blowing this entire place up, where they?"
"Definitely not. There are thousands of innocents up here." replied the other brother.
"You sure about that?"
".....we should just focus on getting our team back first."
Waya suddenly froze in her tracks, letting the boys pass her up and nearly letting Maribelle slam right into her. She caught her without taking her eyes off what she could see in the distance down the corridor. She looked almost frightened.
"H-hey!" the twins slowed to a halt, glancing back to Waya. "What's the matter?"
Maribel backed off of Waya and glanced around to her face, wondering if she mentally sensed they were going to wrong way.
"Cuckoos." Waya said and pointed down the hall. She'd inherited her mother's senses and her wolf-sharp eyesight caught the sight of three girls down the corridor.
Standing with their hands crisscrossed around each-other where a set of triplets. Their feet where only inches apart as the identical blonds grasped hands without actually touching each others bodies. They where all blond, with piercing blue eyes and their womanly frames where clad in identical white skin-tight uniforms which bore the symbol of Magneto's acolytes.
The twins perked and looked down the hall at the three females. They squinted to try and get a better look at them.
"Hot." they said at once. Glancing at Waya, they felt uneasy at how scared Waya looked. "Don't worry, petal."
The two waved a hand at the triplets. "Excuse us- you wouldn't happen to know where they are keeping our friends, do you? We just want to get them and go." they shouted down the hall at them. They were like their Mother in so many ways they didn't realize.
"Don't kill them they're special!" Jeremy declared loud enough that everyone should be able to hear it, including the twins... Especially the twins. He was feeling a little overwhelmed by what was happening, like someone was force feeding him taffy made of plastic explosives; sure it was nice and thrilling but soon lots of bodily fluids and several body parts would hit the fan.
The three young women spoke together, each one taking a piece of their statement rather than speaking in unison "Your friends are being detained." one of them replied "We are likewise charged with your detainment." "And how easy it was to lure you to us." The final one said looking directly at Waya. Then they all spoke together "She is quite young in the gift, quite inexperienced." they drifted towards the team on the tips of their toes, never breaking their clasped hands. none of them possessed the power of telekenesis but they altered the teams perceptions to make it appear as if they where drifting forward.
Waya spoke, but her voice sounded strained, as if she where concentrating very hard on something "Don't let them in your heads... knock one of them out I think the other two will fold." A small bead of sweat drifted from Waya's hair line and stuck to the paleness of her cheek.
"I-I..." Jeremy mumbled, biting his lip as he gazed at the three as they floated towards him... or walked... It was as if there was something in the corner of his eye that let him see what was really happening, or maybe what wasn't there, he couldn't tell. "Should I try?" he asked Waya quickly, turning his gaze to the woman he thought of as the leader; he wasn't sure if he could do anything to help, but he wanted to try.
More beads of sweat protruded on Waya's brow as it was obvious she was concentrating very hard. "Make them stop." Was all she could manage to say as slowly she was forced to her knees. Her hands grasped ether side of her head as she tried her best to keep the sisters from entering.
"Try as you might," "You will not susceed." "Her mind will be ours soon enough." The sisters said "Cortez will have you all," "Earth shall be next." Then the galaxy."
Jaden looked at his brother and nodded, giving him the hint.
Jayden walked forward and lifted his arms forward. He swooped his arms up quickly. The gravity around the triplets lifted. This would cause their bodies to lift up into the air, almost forcefully onto the ceiling.
Jaden stepped in next and did the same motion with his arms, only aimed down. The gravity around the triplets then shifted dramatically. This would cause their bodies to flatten on the floor. Their own bodies feeling 30x heavier then normal.
The three sisters lifted up and slammed down again, the assault was enough to break loose their concentration on Waya's mind.
Waya fell forward all of a sudden, as if she had been pushing against a tremendous weight that had suddenly lifted.
"Petal!" the twins knelt to her side and grabbed her arms, hoisting her up again. "Come on- this is obviously the wrong way. Let's ask around the old fashioned way." they mused.
Maribel was quickly stepping backward in the hall, wanting to sprint. She waited for the others though. Without them, she was REALLY in trouble.
Jeremy turned with Maribel, heading back towards the hall but scheming as he did. If he waited until they weren't expecting an attack he could sneak into one of their brains, disconnect it from the rest and persuade her to tell him where Junior was being held... but first they had to get out. He just hoped the others weren't for the head on hero stuff or he wouldn't get the chance to get in their heads.
"They'll find us." Waya groaned, she was unsteady on her feet "They know where the others are but I can't get threw their barriers.
"Come on-" the twins said, heading along with Maribel. "We'll just get someone to tell us where they are. We can use our persuasion."
"Waya?" Jeremy asked the weakened woman hurridly "Waya, I'm going to try and get in their head alright? Try and take them out while they're still stunned and confused by the twins' attack."
"Let him try." waya told the twins, she managed to stand on her own now but her hand was still rubbing his temple "See what you can do Jeremy, I'll come with you, maybe I can fend one of them off rather than all three.
The Stepford Cuckoos seemed unconsious or perhaps just dazed, but at the moment they didn't try to fight back.
Jeremy made sure he was at the very least sitting down before suddenly dropping back dead, a brief flash of light like static in the air showing that he'd just left to go mess with some little blonde girl heads. He just hoped nothing bad would happen, he hadn't had much good luck with his powers, which he mainly saw as being dead and less as something he actually could use. Still, he contemplated as he entered a random cuckoo head, he had to give it a try.
Maribel jumped and bent down to Jeremy's lifeless body. She placed a hand on his shoulder and looked onward to the triplets. Everyone was so useful expect for her.
Waya, no longer encumbered by the sensation that her brain was going to explode, accompanied Jeremy. She used his unique signature like like the sail of boat and followed it. Hoping the information they where looking for wasn't buried too deep.
The twins approached behind the others. They paused and looked back at Maribel. "Come on love, we'll protect you."
She followed meekly behind, her knees shaking.
Stumble!