Maverick, Day Two: Endgame!

[x-jetstream.livejournal.com]

The final battle. Two-and-a-half men enter, two and a quarter leave.



The crash of the window had been music to his ears, the promise of edges and shards to cut through cloth and flesh a tantalizing lure as he rested his hands on the rim of the window, glass crackling underneath his skin as he flexed his fingers in anticipation. The resulting scent of blood only served to add to Arkady's good mood, however, and with a disturbingly cheerful laugh he leapt through the broken window, landing lightly on the ball of his feet before starting off, without a care in the world, after the running forms in the distance.

He had them, he knew. Had their scent, had the place seeded with all the right traps and presents for them, and now all he had to do was lead them back to where he was as one might lead lambs to a slaughter.

Haroun heard the window break, and knew that his time had run out. Giving no quarter, he flicked his power into action and charged into battle, leading with a right jab aimed at Arkady's jawline. No quarter given or received - he'd heard some of Psylocke's debrief of Maverick, and the tale was enough to chill even his blood.

The blow rocked Arkady on his feet, the back of his head hitting the wall. Not even feeling the blow, though blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, Arkady tracked the man who had just attacked him by both motion and sound with a wide, manic grin. He had time, he could catch the little rat and its new friend easily enough later.

"I suppose having a little fun first won't hurt anything... Dunno about you though, comrade." Wiping at his chin and laughing at his own joke, the Russian threw his head back, hair flying out of his face and spread his arms out wide in challenge, clearly giving Haroun another chance to land a blow. The sight of the slim, if not near skinny man doing such a thing might have drawn a laugh from oblivious onlookers, though the only one laughing then and there was Arkady himself.

Haroun blinked. Blow like that should have flattened this guy like cottage cheese. Clearly, he was tougher than he looked. But last time, he used his fists. Now it was time to bring the big guns in. A feint to the head, then a low scything kick aimed for a knee. Cripple and neutralize. Take him down quickly before he could move through Haroun and get to Betsy and Maverick.

A slim, almost knobby hand seemed to materialize from thing air besides Arkady's cheek, palm facing outwards - stopping Haroun's move dead in the air, fingers curling around his ankle as the man giggled in delight. "Oooh. That's not a normal leg now, is it." Eyes widening a bit, Arkady tightened his grip, the sound of metal and something not human cracking under his grip. "Ha! Not huuuman! What kind of thing are you, tin man?" With a sharp, vicious jerk of his arm, Arkady moved his hand in a sweeping arc, eyes never leaving Haroun's face, as though waiting for some hidden answer. "Does this hurt?"

Haroun would have answered, but Arkady's unnatural strength swept him straight off his feet and slammed him into a nearby wall. He got his guard up, so he took most of the impact on his arms. Even with that, it was enough to cause his eyes to swim and his consciousness to flicker. This guy wasn't even close to human. Haroun kicked out with his other leg, looking to do enough damage to pull his leg free.

"Not even a meep." The sound of a foot slapping into a hand was now a sound Haroun knew only too well. With a snarl, Arkady then pushed down with both hands, slamming Haroun into the concrete. "You're no fun at all, tin man. Guess I'll work my way up." Slamming a foot down on Haroun's leg, Arkady then leaned down, slamming the palm of his hand right into Haroun's sternum with an almost curious expression on his eyes. The resulting woosh of air drew a satisfied grin from him. "Let's see what you're made of…" With that gleeful comment, Arkady then grasped Haroun's other leg, pulling back his fist sharply.

Haroun felt pain like he has not known since he was fifteen. He heard something crack, and then _felt_ the injury as Arkady ripped into his leg. As the myomer tore - impossibly! - the internal power circuits, designed to keep the energy-hungry myomer fed, ruptured in a cascade of sparks and internal fires. The energy spike stopped at the breakers, slagging them. His entire cybernetic system spasmed before it crashed, all systems firing at once in conjunction with Haroun's scream.

The scream brought an almost beatific smile to Arkady's face - the fact that Haroun was clearly feeling the pain, twisting in agony with a look of near surprise on his face apparently meant approval, of some sort. "Well tin man, looks like we're in business after all!" He snapped his foot up and down again against Haroun's other leg, grinding the heel down viciously while whistled cheerfully. And then glanced up sharply, eyes narrowing as he tried to make out his earlier prey. "Or not. You distracted me, you fucker." With a snarl of fury, Arkady slammed the still sputtering limb he held in his hand against Haroun's lower back.

Haroun slammed down against the floor hard from the force of that blow, feeling bone, plastic, and metal give way under the force of it. Then something in his leg severed something critical, and another cascade of electrical fire ripped up from the cyberwear. The blast skipped past the slagged breakers and slammed into the MMI, and he screamed again until his world went red-tinged, and then black.

Eyes narrowing in displeasure, Arkady gave Haroun a few vengeful kicks in the ribs, ignoring the sputters from the torn off leg. And noted the blood spilling from Haroun's lips in the aftermath, trickling down to the asphalt. "Ha. You're human too, tin man. And now you're dead. Fucker." With the ease of long practice, not even needing to think about it over much, Arkady drew in a slow breath, enjoying the scent of the enzyme only he could smell, the sickly sweet odor which indicated that the infection process had begun. With a grin of anticipation, he waited for the fist flush of renewed strength and power to return to him.

Haroun swam back to consciousness, trying to crawl after Arkady. ~No~ he said in Arabic, trying to reach for him, trying to do something - anything - to stop his opponent. ~Stop!~ But he was too broken, too mangled to be able to pull himself forward. He felt the darkness clawing at his mind, interspersed with flashes of intense pain and shock radiating up his body.

"Tovarisch, we have only begun the dance. Now I-"  Trained ears picked up the cracking of plaster before a red-clad behemoth barreled straight through one wall, an uppercut sending Arkady staggering across the courtyard. He spun, directly into another punch, this one from a steel fist.

Colossus glanced over at Juggernaut, nodding to Haroun. "Evacuate Jetstream, I will deal with this beast." Crouching into a low wrestling stance, Piotr circled the albino, who appeared to be covered in a thick layer of sweat.

~Ah, a true son of the Rodina!~ Arkady exclaimed in Russian. ~It has been so long since I killed another of my countrymen, I had almost forgotten the taste. Tell me, do all you metal men bleed the same?~

Placing himself between the two fighters and Haroun, Cain dropped to a knee. Jetstream was-

"Holy fuck, he ripped his goddamn LEG off..." he rasped, before realizing his comm channel was still open.

#Evac. Get him back here now.# Alison's voice was flat and utterly devoid of any hint as to what she felt. #Betsy and North are clear. Leave the bastard to Colossus and get back to the bird. I'm landing her now.# The muffled sound of engines reached Cain's ears then, the Blackbird's descent easy to spot. #Are his fluid seals activated or," the barest of pauses followed, "is the 'ware still leaking coolant?#

Haroun coughed up blood and reached weakly for Cain. ~Stop him. Forget me.~ he said, both verbally in Arabic and over the mike. ~Get Maverick clear.~ He then spasmed again, and convulsed. ~Go!~

"I don't speak sand jockey," Cain spat back, crouching protectively over his XO. "So I'm going to assume you weren't trying to order me to be stupid or nothing. Boss lady says you get evac'd to the plane, you get-" Pausing, Cain threw his shoulder upwards, allowing Colossus to roll over him gracefully then vault back into a dropkick on the albino, who seemed to be laughing off every blow that the metal X-Man landed.

"As I was saying," Cain said, scooping Haroun's bleeding form gently from the ground, using his massive forearms to keep the wounded man's spine straight, "it's the plane for you." With that, he nodded to Colossus and backed away through the hole in the wall.

#I'm down. Clearing debris-# the sound of something being lasered echoed dimly over the comm, #-and opening the cargo bay now. You were all exposed, weren't you?# She'd have to seal the cockpit before they got to the plane, the call to the medlab already made. #I'll be clear in a second, heading back to the - what the hell?# The comm went dead at that, quiet the only answer to Cain's queries.

A crunch, and the wall gave way behind Piotr as the smaller Russian threw him like a javelin, and the X-Man rolled onto the lawn. Arkady stood in the hole, backlit by the flickering lights of the damaged farmhouse. He took a step forward, enraged by his bloodlust. "You will not fight to kill," he teased in English. "The Moor, he tried. You are not a killer."

"I am." The harsh rasp came from behind Arkady, who turned with an eyebrow arched in surprise. Near the building's battered facade, Haroun's blood and coolant still spread across the cement, Maverick stood, hands limp at his sides, his faded white suit showing the wear of the past two days, and his face showing the wear of a decade of living a false life.

But the killer was back. Arkady smiled, and walked back into the farmhouse. "Now you are fair prey!" he exclaimed gleefully, spreading his arms wide and letting the Spore loose. "I have your death, you know. It has been waiting for you, allowing me to carry it. Do you see it? Can you breathe it in?"

"I remembered something," Maverick said, taking a calm step forward. "Your spore. You see, I was the agent going in without a healing factor, so they shot me up with a full-spectrum antimicrobial culture before we even touched ground." He locked eyes with the Russian killer and let the smile finally show on his face.

"That means I'm immune, you verdammt son of a bitch. You want to kill me, you'll have to do it with your bare hands."

The comm signal sprang to life once more, Alison speaking clearly to Cain, each word bitten out at a rapid fire pace. #Juggernaut. Betsy says North headed back, something about him being immune and knowing how to take him down. She's heading back towards the mansion with the car, nothing she can do here now and the hold will be contaminated soon when you arrive. Colossus, pull back as well. Now. Someone give me a god damn update on Jetstream's condition and tell me you're all moving in closer to the 'Bird.#

"He's..." Cain glanced down at Haroun, trying to hazard a guess at his teammate's condition. "His condition is Fucked Up, heading towards Fucked Up and Dead, if this shit he's leaking is any indication." Cradling Haroun's head against his chest, Cain walked as fast as he was able to without shaking the wounded man too much. Keying his communicator to the off position temporarily, he leaned in, not sure if Haroun could even hear him.

"You keep yourself together until we get home, soldier. Or at least until she can say goodbye, which means you do not die on me now, because I don't even like you."

Haroun wasn't even feeling the jostling, which quickly ranked as a Bad Thing. The cyberwear was offline in a major, major way, and even thinking about moving was enough to nearly rip his head off. And his embedded mike was stuck on ON, which means that he was getting treated to quadrophrenic Static in Z Major. English, however, was just Beyond Him right now. Not happening. He tried to speak, to tell Cain that he was still numbered 'mongst the living for now, but the words wouldn't come. So instead, slowly, laboriously, and with great concentration he gave Cain the finger.

~*~

The jet roared into the sky, audible even in the farmhouse where Maverick and Omega Red were locked in combat. Every blow seemed to only make Arkady more determined and stronger, yet the German seemed
to sense every grapple, every punch and kick before they could land. Like a mongoose circling a cobra, Maverick never let the sly smile leave his face.

"You are immune to my spore, gospodin David," Arkady hissed, feinting to the left, then lunging in to wrap his hands around Maverick's throat. "So cherish these, your last breaths. How does the air taste, I wonder, when you are about to die?"

"An awful lot like propane," Maverick choked out, nostrils twitching at the acrid scent of natural gas, saturating the air from where he had disconnected the stove earlier. "And this..." he made a magician's pass with his hand in front of Arkady's face, producing a cheap cigarette lighter, "is me finishing what I started those years ago."

~We burn together, you inhuman abomination.~ Maverick said in perfect Russian, staring into Arkady's eyes as he thumbed the lighter.

As the air ignited, Arkady Russovich smiled with a beatific look, eyes turning skyward.

~Perfect.~