Who's the Thief, part 2

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

A team of X-Men arrive in Gush Katif Tuesday evening (Israel time) to help relieve a hostage situation. Storm and Nightcrawler meet Ruth bat-Seraph, aka Sabra, an agent for Mossad who briefs them on the situation.


The table shook as Ruth tapped her foot impatiently. The soldiers in her charge eyes her warily, as if she might snap at any minute. More than a few thought they could surreptitiously back up a foot or two. But a glare from her brought them back to their places.

Finally, the sleek black jet she'd been waiting for landed and Ruth strode forward. The walkway descended, and out came half a dozen black leather-clad men, women, demons, and lions, followed by an elderly bald man on a motorized wheelchair. Charles Xavier, she suspected. Her aunt sure knew how to pick them. But she had no interest in him; she was looking for the young African woman and a blue-skinned German.

"Storm and Nightcrawler, I presume?" Ruth asked, her voice lower and more resonant than one might expect from a woman such as herself. "Professor Xavier informed me that you are in charge. My name is Ruth bat-Seraph, but I go by Sabra. Please, follow me." Without waiting for a response, she led the two to the command tent not far away.

Soldiers all but jumped out of their seats as she entered, saluting her and not relaxing until she returned the gesture and waved her hand dismissively at them. "You have dealt with hostage situations involving mutants before, I gather?" A rhetorical question, as she was fully aware of the X-Men's missions against the Mutant Liberation Front in Texas and the mad hunter in Hungary, among others.

Kurt nodded, glancing at Ororo. "We have. More often than I would like."

"With mutants on either side of the hostage taking, as well, depending on the situation," Ororo added calmly, having glanced around the room briefly as they walked in, taking in the occupants and their surroundings in that brief moment.

Ruth nodded and led the two to a table where a map of the barracks lay open. "Our problem isn't so much incapacitating the criminals as it is getting to them in the first place. As you can see, the barracks is nothing more than a large gymnasium with some smaller quarters at each end. However, it appears that at least two, if not more of the criminals can conjure shields to surround them. After our first failed raid last weekend, they learned to protect themselves."

She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. The pullout had been going surprisingly well, and Ruth had nearly hoped that large incidents could be avoided. But thank the fanatics to change things. "But they can hear us through their shields, so that means that sound can
pass. We believe that an enormous sonic blast will pass a threshold of tolerance and blow it open."

Kurt nodded slowly. "It would make sense. How do you intend to produce such a blast?"

"We have a machine that can produce sonic blasts up to two hundred decibels." Ruth grinned. "We do, of course, have protection for everyone so no one's ear drums burst and your heads don't explode. And you have telekinetics with you, yes? Shielding from them would be greatly appreciated." She said it as though there was no choice in the matter for Nathan or Jean. Which, in her mind, there wasn't. The X-Men had agreed to assist Mossad and IDF in this effort, but that didn't mean that Sabra was giving up her authority.

She placed her finger over the door to the barracks on the map. "We will blast open the force field and charge. We don't know how long it will take for the field to regenerate, but we should be able to make it inside before it closes again. We observed in our first raid that the hostages are not locked away. They're just sitting there, tied up and beat up. Nightcrawler, it will be your job to teleport them out before assisting your teammates in combat. How long will it take you to move twelve people?"

"We already have such equipment as well due to the nature of the power of one of our teammates," Ororo said, declining politely the use of the protection offered in favor of their own, which was geared towards Sean's ability - which was considerably stronger than any machine's. "Cable and Phoenix can handle protecting the hostages from being harmed during the initial entry, and also while Nightcrawler teleports them out."

Ororo frowned a bit, then continued. "I'm afraid that a batch teleport is not possible though, which means at least one of them will be tied down shielding hostages. I can assist there as well myself. Particularly if we get the shield up around the hostages from the start - a strong blast of wind will serve well in pushing away any direct threat to them and give Nightcrawler a head start." Ororo turned to look at Kurt to confirm that this was acceptable to him.

Ruth nodded. "I'll go in first, since my mutation will let me take most of what they can throw at me. I want the telekinetics behind me so they can throw our enemies away from the hostages, which will offer Nightcrawler his chance."

"I need physical contact to take passengers", Kurt told her. "One at a time would be easier, but two is possible since speed is of the essence."

Ruth chewed on her lip as she pondered. "Only two at a time. Hmm. Storm, who is your stronger TK? If they can maintain a shield around the hostages as Nightcrawler teleports two out at a time, then you and the other TK can have some fun playing pinball with the terrorists. Nightcrawler, you can teleport through a TK shield, yes?"

"Cable would be the one with the most experience in such a situation," Ororo smiled a bit at that, suddenly less inscrutable than she'd been before. "He would be ideal in many ways. Phoenix and I can handle confusing the rest - we've worked together in such a fashion more than once before, as well," she added, that small smile showing once more briefly.

She turned to look at Kurt, a curious gleam in her eyes. "If not through, then might you and Cable mindlink and work out a way for him to drop a safe portion of it for you to work through?"

"We have certainly mindlinked in a similar way before", Kurt answered thoughtfully. "In the hostage situation in the apartment block."

"Good." Ruth stood up. "Of course, we don't want any casualties, even among the terrorists. I trust that you and your team are well enough disciplined to use the necessary restraint." Not that Ruth didn't have leave to rescue the hostages by any means necessary, but terrorists though they may be, their anger and frustration were at least warranted.

"Just as I trust your people will refrain from excessive violence as well, of course," Ororo replied calmly, rising to her feet as well. "I will go brief my team immediately and see what information they might have gathered already on their own," she said without missing a beat, turning around to leave - one did not have two telepaths on one's team and not expect some sort of data to be acquired.

~*~


Sabra and the X-Men break through the shields surrounding the barracks and charge. Nightcrawler teleports the hostages to safety, and then tries to converse with one of the kidnappers.


Everyone says that God works in mysterious ways. No one could agree on what those ways are exactly, but the Shivtei Yisrael were convinced that they were His messengers. After all, one of them was a prophet and had foreseen this.

The telekinetic blast from one of the mutant attackers had sent Reuben across the barracks. But he'd covered himself in a coat of metallic leaf-life projections, almost like a coat of scales, which protected him from injury when he landed. Recovering, he bit back an exclamation that was sure to get him punished in the World to Come, and pulled out a half dozen projections to throw at their attackers.

The knives flew at a tremendous speed, whistling as they cut through the air, intent on their target: the blue thing that was disappearing with the traitorous soldiers and reappearing to take more. But they bounced off. He was shielded, much like Issachar. Reuben fumed and charged the blue thing.

Kurt ignored him, since he couldn't break through the shield, concentrating on completing the evacuation.

"Cease!" Reuben bellowed. "Have you any idea what you are doing? How you are risking Heaven's wrath by siding yourselves with those who'd see us destroyed?"

"I am saving lives", Kurt answered tightly between jumps. "And the will of the Lord is that we turn theother cheek, even if these would see us destroyed."

"Your so-called savior was blind!" Reuben retorted. "The Israeli government is rodef! Pursuers! Not only am I in the right and you wrong, but this is our duty!"

"These people are the servants of that government, no more. Doing theirduty, as they see it."

"This country was designed for us. We are all Yehudim, and we answer foremost to an authority higher than Knesset and the prime minister."

"I also have authorities I answer to. The one that sent me here, and one far above him. I am doing what I must, and you do not seem able to stop me."

"Why do you refuse to see the truth? Our own government, the people we have chosen to represent us and guide us, are turning their backs on us! We will not be led to the slaughterhouse again. For millennia we have been abused, raped, and murdered. But now we take a stand. You are a mutant. Why do you not understand?"

"I do understand. I understand that returning murder for murder is not the way to achieve anything except a place filled with the dead."

Reuben snarled, the metallic scales projecting a bit further out, as if he was ready to just shoot them all out at once. The soldiers were gone, and his brethren were falling. Why were they sent to do this if they were just going to be stopped?

"Better their dead than ours," he countered. "They are murderers, and we are commanded to put them to death."

"You are not a man of the law", Kurt pointed out. "If you do this thing, do you think you would be allowed to live?"

"By Hashem's laws, and those are the only laws that matter, then yes, I am. Lo tirtzakh, 'you shall not murder.' Not 'you shall not kill.' Everything we do is permissible, even required, under the eyes of Hashem."

"You did not answer my second question. If I and my colleagues had allowed you to kill these soldiers, do you think their superiors would have allowed you and yours to live?"

"We would have only resorted to execution if all else failed. Give us and our families back our homes and drive out those pigs who think this land is theirs, and we'd have let the soldiers go. But we'd sooner be an Akiva, blessed be his memory, than The Other."

With the last of the soldiers safely away, the shield dropped. Kurt could have 'ported away and left Reuben to it, now... but he didn't, quite yet. "You will get neither, now. The soldiers are gone. You can try to fight me, if you wish... but I would rather talk."

"Talk! It's all anyone ever does!" Reuben bellowed. "Sharon talks, Abbas talks, McKenna talks, and the rest of us die. And we're expected to just sing Ani Ma'amin. For the sake of our sons and our daughters, we cannot."

"For the sake of your sons and daughters, you will", Kurt said sharply. "Unless you would rather they and their children grow up at war? There is no ending a war by violence."

"They will not grow up at all if we're led to the slaughter!" Reuben shouted, firing a dozen of the leaf-shaped knives at Nightcrawler.

Kurt had dodged bullets, before now. The knives were easy to evade. "Nor will they if you bring retribution down on your people by what you do."

Reuben fired off a dozen more, which were quickly replaced so his scale-like armor remained intact. "Your people killed us, German. Six million of us. An entire culture was annihilated. That is why we are here now, to have our own land to maintain and protect so people like you can no longer harm us. And now you tell us that we cannot defend ourselves?"

Kurt gave him a level look when he had dodged this volley. "I am Rom, in point of fact. Or at least, they raised me. My people suffered as yours did in that time. I wish you no harm."

"So then you should understand," replied Reuben, taking a step back in shock. "We should be fighting for our lives together."

"I do not think I ever said I do not understand why you are doing this. But I believe you are doing it the wrong way."

"Then you really are a fool," Reuben spat, flexing so he could unleash a barrage of projectiles all at once.

He never got the chance. Kurt vanished before he could blink, reappearing behind him to bring joined fists down on the old man's head, at a point designed to knock him out.

As Reuben went down, he offered a quick prayer to Heaven as well as an apology to his brethren, the displaced citizens of Gush Katif, and especially Hashem. He only hoped that his defeat was the only one, and that they would manage to claim victory after all.

~*~


Kylun faces an energy manipulator and a speedster, but out-classes them. In fact, that may be an understatement.


Bastards. Joseph had been right; the United States was now involved in the fray. What kind of Messianists were they, helping Israel destroy herself? Those Christians were supposed to want the Jews in charge of the Middle East, since they erroneously believed it would hasten the arrival of their Messiah.

So they would be punished in Gehenna for their idol worship in the World to Come, but for now it was up to Levi and his brethren to punish them. He opened himself to the limitless source of energy (the divine energy of Hashem, of course) and channeled it into a sword with which to destroy the invaders and follow his Heavenly mission.

It was a Big Sword.

Kylun noticed the big sword, of course, but was far less impressed with it than was its owner. For one thing, the boy was holding it like a tyro; for another, if it were made of steel instead of some sort of glowing energy, it would have the approximate balance of a similarly-sized spoon.

He had decided during the briefing that his own swords were unlikely to prove useful during the mission--these young men were overly-idealistic and fanatically stupid, but they were not, strictly speaking, evil.

Not that he was likely to need his swords here. Three quick steps brought him into range for a kick to the boy's wrists, at just shy of bone-breaking force.

Levi cried out, the pain momentarily fogging his mind and breaking his concentration. The sword winked out of existence. "Why?" he demanded, rubbing his wrists and preparing to conjure another weapon.

"Because the fear of innocents is not the proper coin with which to purchase your goals," Kylun replied simply, dropping into a low sweep to take the young man off his feet.

Levi let out an "oomph" as he fell to the floor. He kicked back ineffectually, hoping to catch Kylun's legs or something. When that didn't work, he held out his hand and focused his energy into a rod. Swinging the staff, he hoped to whack Kylun. "We follow divine words. That's all the currency we need."

Kylun rolled under the staff and pinned his opponent's arms, scissoring legs like steel bars around his throat. "If I thought that your God condoned this, I would be happy not to worship Him." A few more moments of careful pressure, he judged, would be all that was required.

It was a few moments he never got as Naphtali darted in to knock the intruder away from his brother. Unlike Levi, he did not waste breath on the intruder, instead blurring quickly behind him and kicking at the beast man's legs, intending to dislocate them if he could.

Air rushed back into his lungs, and Levi slowly got back to his feet. "We all worship the same divinity," he said, coughing, as the sword appeared in his hands again. "It is just a matter of how you see Him. And as it turns out, we see Him the way He wishes us to."

Kylun saw the blur of Naphtali's advance out of the corner of his eye and disentangled himself barely in time, somersaulting to his feet and taking the measure of this new opponent. Fast, clearly, but by his stance, just as clearly no fighter, and he and the first man were unused to fighting in concert. Kylun set himself; those who were used to speed were often impatient, and that was a weapon he could use.

Naphtali looked from the intruder to Levi and back. If he could distract the one long enough, his brother would be able to get an opening. The intruder was fast but not so fast as he. "You should not be here," he said then threw himself forward, his movements blurring again, hoping that Levi would take advantage of the distraction.

The second man was fast--but against Kylun, and lacking surprise, even that superhuman speed was a disadvantage. He would have smiled, perhaps, if he could spare the concentration.

As it was, the young man's first punch found Kylun's hands ready to receive it, closing around his wrist in the instant his wrist was there to be seized . . . and from there, it all came down to principles of leverage as old as human understanding; Kylun made himself the fulcrum around which Naphtali's momentum reshaped itself, and all that stunning speed transformed into an equally stunning—but very short--flight into the nearest wall.

Levi charged, the sword morphed into a halberd, and he swung it wide, much like he thought an axe should be swung. He missed decapitating the beastman, and tried to recover by slamming down what was now a pike.

Kylun swayed aside, avoiding the pike, and lunged forward again, striking the nerve cluster at the shoulder to numb Levi's weapon arm, then spun past him, driving a carefully-calculated elbow into his temple; the boy crumpled like a sack of flour.

~*~



Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch finds herself up against two opponents, both of whom are intent on eliminating her but can't quite follow through.


Gad landed on his feet, the sudden whirlwind barely dizzying him. He glared at the interlopers. How dare they! They were doing Hashem's work! Oh, how they would be punished in the World to Come. But until then, Gad and his brethren would be the punishers.

He launched forward, intent on the first person he saw: a tall woman with short hair who looked way too cocky for her own good. Normally, he wouldn't touch what he was certain was an impure woman. But desperate times call for desperate measure, and he was sure that he'd be forgiven.

In a move that probably surprised him, but Wanda had no way of knowing, she let him hit her, red hex rings around her hands glimmering brightly. Mostly a brawler, she had been working with a few other ways of fighting and now was the best time to implement that.

His momentum carried them backwards and with a well placed knee and hands, he kept going as Wanda flipped him away from her, rolling immediately to her feet again.

Gad was shocked. He was strong, so he should have sent her reeling. But luck was on his side, as usual, so he managed to tumble as he landed and recovered much more quickly than any normal man could. "Witch!" he shouted. "You have no place here!"

"Close," she responded, watching him warily, "it's actually Scarlet Witch, thank you very much." She shrugged at his last retort. "We are not leaving until we're done." The rings around her hands flared and then died down as she started gathering enough energy to throw a hex bolt at the floor underneath of him.

Isaachar staggered back up to his feet, and triggered his own gift with a prayer. Smiling thinly, he advanced warily on the foreign woman who had come into the barracks and assaulted his brothers. The force field around him sizzled with barely-restrained energy as he advanced.

"Do you normally come in pairs or am I just lucky?" Wanda sighed. This was not going to be a cake walk like the rescue had turned out to be and she backed up to give herself more room and time to study the strings.

"The luck is with me," replied Gad, stomping his foot through the floor as a demonstration of his strength. "That is because Hashem, Blessed be His Name, is with us and not with you. We are doing His bidding, so leave now!"

"If Hashem wanted me to leave, then He will make me leave, not you." Perfect. Wanda smiled a little bit and stroked the strings around the floor, watching as he went further than he had intended and getting quite stuck. "Luck is fine, gentlemen, until it runs out."

"~Isaachar, hold her!~" ordered Gad, wrenching his foot back. The force sent him reeling backwards, but he managed to keep his balance. Luck was still on his side.

Without a word, Isaachar stepped forward to grab a hold of this self-proclaimed witch and hold her fast. Just to be on the safe side, he thickened his force-field to stop any potential unpleasantness that she might command.

Unable to move fast enough to avoid getting grabbed, Wanda thought quickly, twisting and turning in the man's hold. With the other one advancing quickly, looking for all the world like he wanted to land a nice solid punch, she really had no choice.

"How thick is that force field?" she asked, rings glowing brighter and brighter as she placed her hands against the invisible force between her and her captor and then let it go.

Isaachar grunted as he felt his force-field grabbed at a fundamental level and twisted about, but still he hung onto the struggling woman. Grinning now, he tightened his grip on her and snapped his head down for a punishing headbutt.

Twisting her head to the side the head butt smashed into her shoulder. Grunting in pain, she sighed. She really, really didn't want to do this, she'd never hear the end of it. Ever. But if she didn't get out of this hold now she'd be out of this fight.

While unable to see her own, personal strings, Wanda was still able to view the strings that were attached to the other items around her, namely her clothes. Changing tactics, she concentrated, aiming for those lines there, the ones that were only slightly red in nature and not the blazing ones attached to her pants.

With a soft sound, the sleeves on her uniform tore off--the result of two oddities in the leathers themselves--and she rolled her shoulders, sliding her arms out of them and herself down to the ground, where she quickly dove out of the way.

Isaachar blinked and then threw the empty sleeves of leather at the fleeing woman. "Never suffer a witch to live, indeed." he said with pious zeal and leapt for the curly-haired woman, looking to end this fight once and for all.

Turning in mid-step, Wanda lashed out, pushing her powers in order to affect certain strings exactly as she wanted to. The first one stumbled, slipping on one of the sleeves that the man with the shielding had thrown, sliding into the way of his comrade.

As they went down in a tangle of limbs and cursing, she yanked, pulling what was starting to become one of her favorite tricks. They had been right over the area where the man had smashed through the floor, weakening it, and weaken further it did, coming undone underneath of them.

They fell through, crashing through the floor and landing in a mass of tangled limbs on the floor below. Gad tried to move, but between the fall, the debris that fell on him, and Isaachar's shield smacking into him, he couldn't.

Luckily for him, at least he'd landed on Isaachar.

~*~


[Placeholder: Jean's first mission as Phoenix pits her against another psi.]

Cable gets the easy job: shield the hostages and disable the precog and lycanthrope.


This kind of thing was all too familiar, really, Nathan thought. It took no effort at all to fling up a shield around the hostages and yet respond appropriately to the approach of two hostiles. No effort, and considerably less than a fully-formed thought.

"~I knew this would happen.~" Joseph struggled to get to his feet, recovering from the telekinetic blast that had sent him clear across the barracks. The precog had known since last night that these American heathens would attack. He just hadn't expected them to be mutants too. Apparently, Hashem hadn't offered him such vital information.

"~Stay back,~" growled his younger brother. "~They won't be sending us to the gas chambers.~" Joseph nodded and stepped back as Benjamin began to shift form from a small, wiry boy to a titanic, snarling red-furred wolf. He sometimes wondered why Hashem had gifted them with powers that had no conceivable beneficial purpose beyond causing violence.

As Benjamin rushed forward to the leather-clad invader who had sent them reeling, Joseph realized that this was their mission.

Oh, look. It was a giant wolf. Nathan flung up a telekinetic wall in front of the charging lycanthrope, who bounced nicely. With the lycanthrope lying on the ground stunned, Nathan eyed the other young man warily, careful to keep his shield on the hostages intact. Time to put his money where his mouth was on the subject of multitasking.

But despite his careful focus, there was something very familiar about him about the youngster, something that reminded him of... the psi-pattern clicked, suddenly, and he raised an eyebrow. Mel... he reminds me of Konstantakis. Another short-term precog?

"Stand down," he said, and the blade of his psimitar flared star-bright as he poured telekinesis through it. "Don't make me put you down."

"And risk retribution?" Joseph asked, asking Hashem to guide his eyes past this time. Benjamin was recovering quickly, he could see. All he had to do was distract this man so his brother could get to him. He reached into his multicolored cloak, a gift from his father long ago, may his memory be a blessing, and withdrew a pistol he'd taken from one of the hostages.

Nathan saw the gun come out and jammed the mechanism with a thought. That would not be firing anytime soon. He flattened the precognitive with a carefully judicious blow - he didn't actually want to do serious harm if he could avoid it.

As Joseph crumpled to the floor, his brother recovered and charged again, shifting form in midair from the hippo-sized wolf to a seven-foot tall man/wolf/beast-thing. He swiped at Nathan with his claws, roaring in fury. How dare this . . . this goy barge in like he was right and the Shivtei Yisrael were terrorists? They were protecting their country! They should be celebrated as heroes!

The clawed hand froze in midair. "You are not possessed of a high intelligence level, are you?" Nathan asked coldly. His psimitar flashed, and Benjamin was sent hurling backwards and into the nearest wall.

It was a lot like the old Road Runner cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is charging forward in another futile attempt to eat his nemesis, and just when he thinks he's finally caught the bird, he realizes that he's run off a cliff and just standing in midair. And then with a regretful look, he plummets to the earth.

And that was Benjamin. The realization that he was way outclassed by this mutant hit him like, well, a barracks wall.

He was out.

~*~


[Placeholder: A battle of the elements: Storm encounters a pyrokinetic and a hydrokinetic.]

Sabra gets the big guys. But brawn doesn't come with brain, even if they're supposedly scholars, and they do little to stop her.


Sabra smiled as she and the leather-clad American mutants charged into the barracks. Finally. Getting in was the tough part. Taking out the terrorists? Easy. At least, it would be with other trained mutants. Her own team wasn't skilled enough to deal with the power the so-called Tribes of Israel wielded, and she couldn't take on the twelve of them at once. But with the X-Men behind her, victory was assured.

Judah was ready for her, though. He recognized her from the first raid, and was anxious to face her again. "~I thought you had reconsidered~," he said to her as he stepped in her path. "~You know why we do what we do~."

"~Out of my way, Judah~," she replied, cracking her knuckles menacingly. "~You know why I do what I do, and you know what I do isn't all that healthy for you~."

"~But you can't take two of us~," Simeon said growling as he attempted to rush Sabra. He was more of a "hulk smash" kind of fighter. And he enjoyed it immensely.

Judah crossed his arms and smiled smugly. "~Leave us be, and we won't be forced to see you as a pursuer. You don't want that.~"

Ruth snorted and rolled to the side to dodge Simeon, then stuck out her foot to trip him. Spinning, she dodged a punch from Judah and kicked him in the side. For a petite woman, she packed quite a force. "~You're all the same. All muscle and no brain. I thought you Haredim are supposed to be intelligent.~"

Instead of hitting the wall when the smaller woman moved, Simeon pivoted around hoping to catch her off balance. Despite his awkward size, he moved quickly and effectively through maximizing both his physical strength and stamina as well as his feral sense. Unfortunately, his intelligent wasn't as developed as it otherwise could have been. "~Intelligent enough to know you are going to lose~," he gloated, smiling.

Getting kicked by this woman felt like getting bitten by a mosquito. Sure, it hurt for all of a second, but it was easy to ignore. At least for Judah. He quickly recovered and advanced on Sabra again. She rolled aside again, then charged Simeon. She jumped, her super-developed musculature sending her much higher into the air than a normal person could jump, in an attempt to land on his head.

"~There's a little gnat buzzing around!~" Simeon laughed at his joke, swatting at Ruth and having fun trying to buck her off. She was a great diversion to real work.

Okay, he was stronger than she'd anticipated. He'd swatted her out of the air, but she was tough too, and quickly got back to her feet. "~Oh, go murder your brother-in-law,~" she spat.

"~So she's not as ignorant as she looks,~" said Judah. "~So why do you attack us? You know we're just trying to save our lives and those of our families.~"

"~By killing others?~" Sabra replied. "~I forgot which of the 613 says you can do that.~"

"~Moses broke a tablet, or do you not watch Mel Brooks movies?~" Simeon replied, feeling witty, although her comments did not sit well. The faster they got rid of her, the better, as far as he was concerned. They had a job to do.

Judah glared at Simeon, then turned to Sabra. "~You of all people should be with us. The people you're ultimately protecting want us driven into the ocean. So you'll punish us instead?~"

"~My duty is to my country,~" she spat, rubbing her wrist to inconspicuously calibrate the gauntlets she wore under her sleeve. "~Not to your idiotic take on a three thousand year old dead book.~"

Simeon growled, screaming sonically in frustration, she would not leave and he was no longer having fun trying to tear her to pieces. "~Do not speak so of the Torah! It is the word of G-D!"

A normal person would be stunned by the force behind his shout. Luckily for Sabra, she wasn't a normal person. She winced, but remained otherwise unharmed. "~His word, not yours. I doubt he's fond of you misinterpretations.~"

"~Who are you to judge? You are as flawed and full of sin as we are,~" Simeon pointed out smashing his hand into a wall as Sabra ducked to the side to avoid it.

"~My point exactly.~" Pulling back her sleeve and taking aim in one quick motion, Sabra flicked her wrist, activating the gauntlet to fire a sharp steel quill coated with a neurotoxin at Simeon's jugular. He was robust enough that he'd be knocked out for an hour or two at least with little lasting damage. She smiled as he crumpled to the floor. "~Stand down, Judah, unless you want this, too.~"

"~You will regret that, woman,~" Judah threatened. He took a deep breath, and then screamed.

Even with protective gear on, the sonic generator that had granted them access to the barracks hurt. While Judah's sonic scream wasn't at that level (yet), the only things that Sabra had to cover her ears with were her hands. She had to think quick, or else Judah would overpower her and possibly the rest of the X-Men.

He was too tough for her to just beat up by herself. She glanced around the barracks, searching for something, anything, to use as a weapon to stop him. The steel quill lodged in Simeon's neck shined in the moonlight coming through the shattering windows.

Sabra grinned. "~Shut up,~" she said, aiming and firing off another quill.

All of a sudden, it was silent again. Judah wrenched the quill out of his neck and snapped it in half. He opened his mouth again to scream, but nothing came out.

"~I figured that one of these wouldn't knock you out,~" Sabra taunted. "~But it's enough to paralyze some parts of your body, isn't it?~" She ran forward and punched him in the gut. Twice. And kicked him in the groin. Judah doubled over in pain, gasping for breath amidst the pain. "~And it even slows you down.~" She checked the gauntlet and grinned.

"~I still have two more. Either you surrender, or you get to find out if you can survive being injected with four times the lethal dosage of batrachotoxin. Despite what you've done here, though, I have no interest in doing so. We could end this peacefully, as we have managed so far.~" She looked around the barracks, nodding at the X-Men who were pretty much unharmed after their respective battles. "~The soldiers are free and will be able to see their families again. Your brothers are all alive and will recover. Your lives aren't over. Don't be an even bigger fool than you've already been."

No. This was unacceptable. They'd come so far, overcome so many obstacles, and now they would lose it all? Millennia of persecution led to the establishment of their home state, and Judah's family had legally settled in the unpopulated regions that were rightfully Israel's. And for that, they'd suffered decades of terrorism, desperately believing the assurances that the violence would end one day and everyone would be happy.

But that never happened. No one cared about the settlers, so Judah had been forced to take matters into his own hands. This was his land, his family's land, and his people's land. No one could get rid of him. He would not let them.

"~You condemn your own,~" he said hoarsely, his voice barely above a whisper.

Sabra snorted, firing the remaining two quills. Judah fell to the ground, the floor beneath his shuddering under his weight. "~You are not my own.~"