Thirteen Days: General Winter
Oct. 29th, 2007 08:37 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsThe cavalry arrives in Siberia, and things get bloody. And strange.
The Altay Mountains were some remarkably vertical territory. Not to the same degree as other mountain ranges in this part of the world, obviously, but still, nothing to be sneezed at. The fact that the weather had picked this of all weeks to be so thunderously bad was not helping the situation any. It was cold, and dreary as well, the low-lying clouds making it nearly impossible to find Terry and Jean from the air - although Ororo was aloft in the Blackbird, making the attempt.
Which left Logan and Janet the 'tracking from the ground' option. The two lost X-Men had no longer been in the abandoned mine building where Charles had first found them, and there had been signs of a fight. Not a happy combination of evidence.
Logan was having a royal bitch of a time hanging onto Jeannie's scent. It helped that she was apparently exhausted and al the end of her rope - more sweat to carry the smell further - but the foul weather made scent-based tracking hellaciously difficult.
Not impossible, just very difficult.
And they'd stuck him with the Wonderful Shrinking Flying Girl, which was great for her catching a ride in his pocket but crappy for when she tried to fly her six-inch-tall self through nasty wind shear.
At least the winds had calmed down a little. May as well take advantage of it.
"All right, kid, you're up." he growled.
"Up for what?" Jan asked, peering out at the mountainy nothingness, not quite eager to leap out into the cold. "I'm quite happy where I am, thanks. Point me at a bad guy and I'll give 'em a sting, but you're the tracker guy. What do you want me to do, fly up high and look for them or something?"
"Right. Because Phoenix and Siryn really care about what you want when they're in it up to their necks." he groused. "Get topside and scout up ahead. Keep an eye out for signs of a struggle or anything else useful." he said, squatting down and sniffing the rocks and snow, trying to rediscover Jean's scent.
"I don't suppose you have a pair of mini-binoculars on you?" Jan said, speaking more to herself than really asking Logan a question. She leapt into the air but quickly landed on Logan's shoulder. "Hey, what if I fly up and then get big and maybe they'll see me? Or yell... I wonder how loud this thing goes..." She toyed with her voice amplifier, then spoke into it as loudly as she could. "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"
Logan growled as her amplified voice slammed into his sensitive eardrums. "Don't do that again." he said from gritted teeth. "Especially not right in my EAR!" he roared at her. "Now get your ass airborne and make yourself useful." he said, crouching down again to try to re-catch the scent.
"I wasn't in your ear," the miniature girl pointed out cheerfully before remembering that the amplifier was still on its highest setting. Translucent wings flashed, and the tiny teen flitted into the air. Lowering the volume, she apologized to Logan in a loud whisper, then rose higher into the air before changing the volume again.
Logan was tempted to explain about enhanced hearing but then decided it'd be a waste of his time. Grumbling, he kept moving forward, pausing often to stay on the very faint and very hard-to-follow scent trail. Good thing he'd know Jeannie's scent anywhere. Now, if they could just speed this whole thing up ...
--
Tunnel vision. That's what this was. Tunnel vision. Or at least tunnel focus. Foot, foot, foot, foot, breathe, breathe, don't stop, don't turn, don't talk. Just run. There'd been sleep. Thank God there had been sleep or she'd have been less than useless when Mystique finally found them. As it was, discretion being the better part of valor and all that, Terry had gotten them the head start that would give them what little chance they had. Jean's head was pounding in time with her feet as they raced across the tundra, just trying to stay far enough ahead, keep going just long enough. They knew the Blackbird was on its way. They just had to hold out.
Foot. Foot. Breathe. Foot. Foot. Foot. Breathe. Don't talk. Foot. Foot. Don't turn. Foot. Breathe. Foot. Foot. Don't stop.
The wind fought them, blowing ice and snow into their faces and blotting out every other sound with its hollow moans. Terry followed Jean, stumbling occasionally, trying to hear something, anything other than wind. She was afraid to scream. With the mountains rising around them, it was asking for trouble. When they were caught, and they would be, they were as good as lost. They wouldn't make it, Terry knew that well enough even before she'd alerted Jean to the Brotherhood's approach and she wondered if it wouldn't have been better to try to make a stand there rather than wearing themselves out in the snow trying to run.
"X-MEN!" The mocking voice was Kamal's, somewhere in the distance. "Why run, X-Men? Wait for us and we'll make it quick!" Presumably Mystique and Katu were still with him, but neither of them joined in the taunting. Which raised the possibility they weren't with him, but possibly elsewhere. Closer?
Jean didn't even turn to look - she couldn't spare her attention from the ground for even a moment or she was pretty certain she would fall. And that would most definitely be it. It seemed like the only reason she could keep going right now was that it was simply more effort yet to stop.
Terry turned, sucked a breath and then thought the better of it, facing forward again and moving faster to catch up. She'd lagged behind Jean again, that was happening more and more. Where the older woman was getting the energy, Terry didn't know because the adrenaline that Terry had been running on was all but burnt.
The sleep she'd gotten last night had helped Jean more than she could have imagined but there was no question she was, quite literally, running on empty. She kept going because the other choices were unacceptable. She kept going and she kept going and she had to keep going and the ground was uneven and there just wasn't any way.
Her leg stretched out, her foot hit the ground wrong and her momentum carried her forward, pitching Jean to the ground.
It was the best thing that could have happened, oddly enough. Because it meant that the blast of energy that would have slammed squarely into her from behind passed over her instead and struck the rocks ahead, harmlessly.
Mystique was there before Katu, unsurprisingly enough; she emerged out of the mist, launching a flurry of blows at Terry. Terry, quite unceremoniously, fell. She hit the ground and used the little air left in her lungs to knock Mystique back with a broadwave shriek, a little like hitting the blue mutant with a sledgehammer in her chest. Wasting no time, Terry scrambled back to her feet, trying to assess the situation. Visibility was poor but the sounds were crystal clear. Terry braced again.
Jean rolled through the fall as the energy blast went by overhead, and tried to use the momentum to push herself to her feet. Unfortunately, she just didn't have the power left. Jean ended up in a crouch facing towards where the blast had come from.
Katu appeared out of the mist, moving more slowly than Mystique, although there was something inexorable about his advance. He said something in Russian, his voice grave, and the crackling blue energy started to gather around his arms again. Something, perhaps some effect of the gathering energy, seemed to make the mist start to swirl, as if the weather was suddenly changing around them.
Mystique rolled back to her feet and aimed a kick at Terry's midsection. Terry managed to block the kick, taking the force hard on her forearm and struck back, not expecting her punch to land, just wanting to drive her back long enough to regroup. The sonic wave that accompanied the punch was just as much of a feint--that bizarrely dissonant scream that turned the world upside and made it spin sickeningly.
Katu, in the midst of aiming another blast at Jean, hesitated, looking back over his shoulder. He rumbled something in Russian at Mystique.
And then another figure erupted out of the mist. It wasn't Kamal.
--
Kamal snarled and swatted at the tiny X-Man trainee as she darted past him. "Come here, little bug," he hissed, his eyes almost bulging with rage. The intention had been for him to play decoy, to make the two X-Men they were chasing think that their pursuers were coming from another direction entirely. He should have rejoined the others by now, but this tiny... annoyance had appeared out of nowhere, and seemed determined to stall him.
"You want a bug? I'll give you a bug!" Jan laughed, zipping around Kamal's head. "You can't catch me, you can't catch me!" She hovered right over his head, use both palms to slap his forehead with a sharp zap!, then dashed away again.
"Insect!" Kamal bellowed, looking around as he ran for some sort of club-cum-flyswatter.
"Your insults suck and are entirely unoriginal, dumbass!" Jan scolded, swooping down once more. This time, she hit the side of his neck with a higher intensity zap before darting away so that she wouldn't be hit.
Kamal swore - and suddenly grinned, a fierce and unpleasant expression. He leaned down, scooping up an armful of snow, and threw the makeshift giant snowball at Jan. It disintegrated as it flew, of course, but that was the point. to prevent her from easily dodging it.
What went up must also go down, but the snowball couldn't get any higher than Kamal had thrown it, so rather than attempting to dodge the snow heading her way, she flew up, back, and to the side all at once. Too bad this guy didn't have sensitive hearing like Logan, then she could just yell in his ear. His ear? Her eyes narrowed, and Jan made a beeline at Kamal, acting as though she were aiming for his nose. Taking a deep breath, she zipped into his ear. Eyes tightly shut, she reached out and let out the highest intensity biolelectric zap she could generate.
He promptly howled and fell over, clawing at his ear.
"Yuck!" Thoroughly disgusted by her surroundings, but determined to take down her bad guy, Jan slid forward through the Acolyte's ear canal. Wishing she knew more about the inner workings of the human body, or more specifically, that of the ear, Jan made a mental note to set up some sort of training session to help her with this. Oh, and another note for a mask and maybe a little oxygen tank, because this was just gross! Hoping this would work to stop the guy so she could go ahead and get out of his nasty ear, Jan stung Kamal's eardrum, shouting, "STUPEFY!"
With a last twitch, Kamal grew still. Making a face, Jan crawled back out of his ear and lifted up into the air. Safely out in the cold air once more, Jan looked down at her uniform and frowned. "Ew. Gross."
--
Logan leaped out from the mist, claws extending with a metallic *SNIKT*. He made a beeline for Katu - the hell he'd take another shot at Jeannie. He screamed a warcry and slashed at the Russian mutant with his claws, not particularly caring about the no-kill orders he normally operated under.
Rules of engagement were for lesser men. The only rule he was following was that of survival or death.
The claws connected, but barely, as Katu dodged with surprising speed for a man of his size. He let off the blast he'd been preparing, squarely at Logan. It seemed to be done out of surprise and pain rather than intent, to judge by the expression on his face.
Logan's sudden appearance - not to mention his shout - had given Mystique a moment to recover. She cartwheeled at Terry, kicks and punches aimed directly at the smaller woman's jaw, with the obvious intent of stopping any further screams.
Unfortunately for Mystique and fortunately for Terry, it took more force than that to break her bones. Terry moved back, trying to get out of range anyway, then dropped again to the ground, letting the force of Mystique's advance carry her over Terry's curled form. Then Terry screamed, with enough power to shake the mountains around them but tightly directed at the snow pack just above Mystique's head.
Logan came on like an engine of destruction. He let the blast hit him full-on, his leathers and the flesh beneath them smoking from the force. But almost as soon as the blast had ended his body started to repair the damage. "Surprise, bub." he growled as he slashed again, looking to take the big man down.
The snow cascaded downwards, appearing to bury Mystique - or providing cover for her retreat. Either way, she didn't reappear. Katu dodged Logan's strike - and managed to trip over Jean, the two of them landing in a tangle.
Jean went down under Katu and seriously considered just staying there. For one thing, it was likely to be safer - since she didn't have the energy to dodge, staying out of the fight seemed wisest - and for another, she wasn't sure she really could have managed to stand up again anyway. As the Russian returned to his feet Jean rolled away from the brawl, but remained prone, watching the battle. Or, at least, watching it as best she could, given the double vision.
Mystique dealt with, Terry turned to deal with the next threat and saw Jean lying on the ground, Katu over her. When Jean rolled away, Terry saw an opportunity. Logan was too close to make this safe, really, Terry already knew that. Taking a breath of frozen air, Terry screamed, blasting Katu back, catching Logan in the backwash. He was going to get hurt, Terry couldn't help that. But they were all too close for Terry's comfort and he would heal.
Logan's eardrums blew, causing Logan to bleed from both ears. His world went silent save for the thrumming deep in his bones from Terry's scream. When Jean took her hit and collapsed beneath Katu both his rational and his feral side were in complete agreement.
Jeannie needed to be saved.
He bellowed harshly and went stabbing in, looking to dig Jeannie out of the pile she was in. And if her attacker had to bleed for his crimes, so much the better. Howling in joy, he dug in with his claws into Katu's torso and grabbed the other mutant to pick him up bodily and throw him down farther away from Jean.
Oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell. The spray of blood as Logan ripped the Russian's chest open washed over Jean even from where she lay a few feet away, seemingly lost track of in the feral blood rush Logan had slipped into. Which, combined with her lack of powers and the blood dribbling from his ears, meant there was only one way to stop this, and her medical training wouldn't let her not try.
Where she found the energy she was never certain, but Jean launched herself from the ground to place herself bodily between Logan and his victim, eyes pinched shut against the blow which never landed. Opening them she saw Logan pull back and sighed in relief before turning and dropping to the side of her attacker turned patient.
--
Laurie had turned pale at the sight of the blood, watching as Jean quickly cut away the man's shirt in order to get to large wound that was currently pouring out his lifeblood onto the floor of the Blackbird.
She'd never seen so much blood, and it took her a moment to get her urge to throw up controlled. Even then, her hands shook slightly and she felt like her mind was skittering all over the place, trying very hard not to panic and bolt to the other side of the jet, as far away from this scene as possible.
This was not good. This was worlds of not good. There were very few situations Jean could think of that it would be worse to not have access to her telekinesis than something like this. "Damn it damn it damnit damnitdamnit," she muttered to herself, trying to see through the pouring blood. "Would really help to be able to close off these vessels right about now..." She could apply physical pressure with the tattered remains of the Russian's shirt and try to stem the flow that way, but then she couldn't see.
Laurie blinked, bringing herself back into focus on the situation at hand. Concentrate now, panic later, there would be time for it then. She moved forward to where Jean was standing and placed her hand on the man's shoulder. Luckily for them, he'd passed out several minutes ago from the pain, so at least he wasn't thrashing around any more; unluckily he was still bleeding heavily.
"What can I do?" she asked.
"I need to see the wound," Jean muttered, mentally cursing the entire world. The adrenaline pumping through her system was helping her focus, somewhat, and deadening her headache, somewhat, but it wasn't enough. Suddenly she looked up and really saw Laurie and a thought occurred to her. "The blood vessels," she said without preamble. "Minimize them, cut off the flow."
Laurie knew it was possible, both from her extra studies with Jean and her standard biology classes in school. But she'd never tried it before, not a single set of hormones to a small area and not while she was so all over the place mentally. If she didn't though, the man was dead, it was all the thought she needed to reach forward, purple glimmering against her finger tips as she pressed them into the wound.
She needed three hormones, serotonin, adrenalin and noradrenalin, she knew these were the things platelets released when they disintegrated, helping with vessel constriction. She'd learnt to shut off her power under stress with the help of Logan, now she needed to use her power in a specific way despite the stress. She just hoped it worked, hoped that all the practice paid off now when she really needed it.
Jean gave it a few seconds for the hormones to kick in - all she could spare, really - and then eased up on the pressure against the wound. The ruined shirt suddenly became more sponge than bandage as she fought to clear enough of the blood to see the extent of the damage. It was working - Laurie's powers were working. While the blood hadn't stopped it had slowed immensely, finally giving the two a good view of what had happened.
When she saw everything fully exposed, Jean sucked in a deep breath and briefly prayed that Laurie wouldn't lose her composure. Or her lunch. The wound cut all the way through skin and muscle, revealing bones. And organs.
It was enough to make you want to go home and never even look at another medical textbook but Laurie knew if she didn't keep up the flow of hormones that things would be bad. She needed to keep this up for just a little longer, long enough that the man's own body would take over the work.
"How can he still be alive, Jean?" she asked, forgotten to call the doctor by her last name as she usually did, possibly an indication of just how shaken she was.
The obvious answer to that, which Jean quickly suppressed, was that he very almost wasn't. Distracted by the obvious wound, the less obvious signs had gone missed and only now that she was seeing the full extent did she realize how tough this was going to be. Field medicine was so much easier with the telekinesis. "He's gone into shock," she told Laurie, keeping her voice level and calm, even as the heart, obviously labouring to deal with the grievous wound, stopped. "He's not breathing - I need you to resuscitate him." Because she was going to have to manually massage his heart.
"Okay," Laurie said, removing her hands from the wound and moving them to the patients neck, tilting it as she got ready to start CPR. There wasn't time for questions, or for shock, she just needed to do and worry about why later. Leaning down, she pinched her finger and thumb against the man's nose and placed her mouth over his, blowing out a breath to fill his lungs as she began counting them in her head.
Hopefully there was still enough skin contact for Laurie's powers to continue working, because otherwise this was about to get really messing. Jean reached unflinchingly into the chest wound, setting her hands in place and beginning compression.
Laurie kept one eye on Jean's actions as she continued breathing, taking her timing off the older woman's actions. "Should we try a shot of adrenalin to the heart?" she asked between breaths.
She'd seen it in a movie once, someone pumping someone's heart full of adrenalin to get it to start beating again. She wasn't sure whether that was real medical science of TV faux science though, or that it would even work in this situation at all.
Jean's eyes widened in alarm, but as she was focused down Laurie couldn't see it, and she managed to keep her voice level and not yell out the firm, "No. Right now, that would be a very, very bad idea."
Laurie nodded, continuing with the CPR, obviously something she needed to look up after this then. She wondered how long they were going to have to do this for, and if the man would survive. She hoped so, she really did, despite the fact that he was a bad guy.
"Do you think we can save him?" she asked, voicing the concern she'd had since she saw all the blood.
"It's possible," Jean said, although her voice lacked certainty and she seemed to realize it. "Were going to try," she added, and that was better.
The thing with resuscitation was that it wasn't anywhere near as certain a thing as movies and tv would have one believe. Less than a third of the people who needed resuscitation survived, and there was a moment when a professional knew that it wasn't going to work - the heart wouldn't catch the beat, the lungs wouldn't pump, and it was all over. This, though, was not that moment. Jean felt the flutter of independant movement and pulled her hand free, watching as the accolyte's heart faltered for a moment and then returned again, the fresh movement of blood proving it had begun to beat again, even as his lungs inflated of their own power. "Bandages and tape," she snapped, a bloody hand reaching to pull Laurie back from the man. "Quickly."
Laurie stumbled slightly as she was pulled back but rather then protest, she turned and grabbed at the medical kit they'd placed within reach and fished out bandages and medical tape as fast as possible, handing them over to Jean and thanking whatever deity that currently watched over them that she wasn't having a clumsy day. Having completed that task, she watched anxiously, resisting the urge to cross her fingers.
Jean's hands were steady as she took the bandages and set them in play, taping them down enough to keep them in place, but loose enough to not put any new strain on the man's chest. Only when it was placed properly did Jean sit back and take a deep breath. Now there was a hint of shaking in her shoulders and she closed her eyes for a moment. Another deep breath as she opened her eyes. "Now we just have to get him to a hospital. And maybe we've given him the chance to make it."
The Altay Mountains were some remarkably vertical territory. Not to the same degree as other mountain ranges in this part of the world, obviously, but still, nothing to be sneezed at. The fact that the weather had picked this of all weeks to be so thunderously bad was not helping the situation any. It was cold, and dreary as well, the low-lying clouds making it nearly impossible to find Terry and Jean from the air - although Ororo was aloft in the Blackbird, making the attempt.
Which left Logan and Janet the 'tracking from the ground' option. The two lost X-Men had no longer been in the abandoned mine building where Charles had first found them, and there had been signs of a fight. Not a happy combination of evidence.
Logan was having a royal bitch of a time hanging onto Jeannie's scent. It helped that she was apparently exhausted and al the end of her rope - more sweat to carry the smell further - but the foul weather made scent-based tracking hellaciously difficult.
Not impossible, just very difficult.
And they'd stuck him with the Wonderful Shrinking Flying Girl, which was great for her catching a ride in his pocket but crappy for when she tried to fly her six-inch-tall self through nasty wind shear.
At least the winds had calmed down a little. May as well take advantage of it.
"All right, kid, you're up." he growled.
"Up for what?" Jan asked, peering out at the mountainy nothingness, not quite eager to leap out into the cold. "I'm quite happy where I am, thanks. Point me at a bad guy and I'll give 'em a sting, but you're the tracker guy. What do you want me to do, fly up high and look for them or something?"
"Right. Because Phoenix and Siryn really care about what you want when they're in it up to their necks." he groused. "Get topside and scout up ahead. Keep an eye out for signs of a struggle or anything else useful." he said, squatting down and sniffing the rocks and snow, trying to rediscover Jean's scent.
"I don't suppose you have a pair of mini-binoculars on you?" Jan said, speaking more to herself than really asking Logan a question. She leapt into the air but quickly landed on Logan's shoulder. "Hey, what if I fly up and then get big and maybe they'll see me? Or yell... I wonder how loud this thing goes..." She toyed with her voice amplifier, then spoke into it as loudly as she could. "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"
Logan growled as her amplified voice slammed into his sensitive eardrums. "Don't do that again." he said from gritted teeth. "Especially not right in my EAR!" he roared at her. "Now get your ass airborne and make yourself useful." he said, crouching down again to try to re-catch the scent.
"I wasn't in your ear," the miniature girl pointed out cheerfully before remembering that the amplifier was still on its highest setting. Translucent wings flashed, and the tiny teen flitted into the air. Lowering the volume, she apologized to Logan in a loud whisper, then rose higher into the air before changing the volume again.
Logan was tempted to explain about enhanced hearing but then decided it'd be a waste of his time. Grumbling, he kept moving forward, pausing often to stay on the very faint and very hard-to-follow scent trail. Good thing he'd know Jeannie's scent anywhere. Now, if they could just speed this whole thing up ...
--
Tunnel vision. That's what this was. Tunnel vision. Or at least tunnel focus. Foot, foot, foot, foot, breathe, breathe, don't stop, don't turn, don't talk. Just run. There'd been sleep. Thank God there had been sleep or she'd have been less than useless when Mystique finally found them. As it was, discretion being the better part of valor and all that, Terry had gotten them the head start that would give them what little chance they had. Jean's head was pounding in time with her feet as they raced across the tundra, just trying to stay far enough ahead, keep going just long enough. They knew the Blackbird was on its way. They just had to hold out.
Foot. Foot. Breathe. Foot. Foot. Foot. Breathe. Don't talk. Foot. Foot. Don't turn. Foot. Breathe. Foot. Foot. Don't stop.
The wind fought them, blowing ice and snow into their faces and blotting out every other sound with its hollow moans. Terry followed Jean, stumbling occasionally, trying to hear something, anything other than wind. She was afraid to scream. With the mountains rising around them, it was asking for trouble. When they were caught, and they would be, they were as good as lost. They wouldn't make it, Terry knew that well enough even before she'd alerted Jean to the Brotherhood's approach and she wondered if it wouldn't have been better to try to make a stand there rather than wearing themselves out in the snow trying to run.
"X-MEN!" The mocking voice was Kamal's, somewhere in the distance. "Why run, X-Men? Wait for us and we'll make it quick!" Presumably Mystique and Katu were still with him, but neither of them joined in the taunting. Which raised the possibility they weren't with him, but possibly elsewhere. Closer?
Jean didn't even turn to look - she couldn't spare her attention from the ground for even a moment or she was pretty certain she would fall. And that would most definitely be it. It seemed like the only reason she could keep going right now was that it was simply more effort yet to stop.
Terry turned, sucked a breath and then thought the better of it, facing forward again and moving faster to catch up. She'd lagged behind Jean again, that was happening more and more. Where the older woman was getting the energy, Terry didn't know because the adrenaline that Terry had been running on was all but burnt.
The sleep she'd gotten last night had helped Jean more than she could have imagined but there was no question she was, quite literally, running on empty. She kept going because the other choices were unacceptable. She kept going and she kept going and she had to keep going and the ground was uneven and there just wasn't any way.
Her leg stretched out, her foot hit the ground wrong and her momentum carried her forward, pitching Jean to the ground.
It was the best thing that could have happened, oddly enough. Because it meant that the blast of energy that would have slammed squarely into her from behind passed over her instead and struck the rocks ahead, harmlessly.
Mystique was there before Katu, unsurprisingly enough; she emerged out of the mist, launching a flurry of blows at Terry. Terry, quite unceremoniously, fell. She hit the ground and used the little air left in her lungs to knock Mystique back with a broadwave shriek, a little like hitting the blue mutant with a sledgehammer in her chest. Wasting no time, Terry scrambled back to her feet, trying to assess the situation. Visibility was poor but the sounds were crystal clear. Terry braced again.
Jean rolled through the fall as the energy blast went by overhead, and tried to use the momentum to push herself to her feet. Unfortunately, she just didn't have the power left. Jean ended up in a crouch facing towards where the blast had come from.
Katu appeared out of the mist, moving more slowly than Mystique, although there was something inexorable about his advance. He said something in Russian, his voice grave, and the crackling blue energy started to gather around his arms again. Something, perhaps some effect of the gathering energy, seemed to make the mist start to swirl, as if the weather was suddenly changing around them.
Mystique rolled back to her feet and aimed a kick at Terry's midsection. Terry managed to block the kick, taking the force hard on her forearm and struck back, not expecting her punch to land, just wanting to drive her back long enough to regroup. The sonic wave that accompanied the punch was just as much of a feint--that bizarrely dissonant scream that turned the world upside and made it spin sickeningly.
Katu, in the midst of aiming another blast at Jean, hesitated, looking back over his shoulder. He rumbled something in Russian at Mystique.
And then another figure erupted out of the mist. It wasn't Kamal.
--
Kamal snarled and swatted at the tiny X-Man trainee as she darted past him. "Come here, little bug," he hissed, his eyes almost bulging with rage. The intention had been for him to play decoy, to make the two X-Men they were chasing think that their pursuers were coming from another direction entirely. He should have rejoined the others by now, but this tiny... annoyance had appeared out of nowhere, and seemed determined to stall him.
"You want a bug? I'll give you a bug!" Jan laughed, zipping around Kamal's head. "You can't catch me, you can't catch me!" She hovered right over his head, use both palms to slap his forehead with a sharp zap!, then dashed away again.
"Insect!" Kamal bellowed, looking around as he ran for some sort of club-cum-flyswatter.
"Your insults suck and are entirely unoriginal, dumbass!" Jan scolded, swooping down once more. This time, she hit the side of his neck with a higher intensity zap before darting away so that she wouldn't be hit.
Kamal swore - and suddenly grinned, a fierce and unpleasant expression. He leaned down, scooping up an armful of snow, and threw the makeshift giant snowball at Jan. It disintegrated as it flew, of course, but that was the point. to prevent her from easily dodging it.
What went up must also go down, but the snowball couldn't get any higher than Kamal had thrown it, so rather than attempting to dodge the snow heading her way, she flew up, back, and to the side all at once. Too bad this guy didn't have sensitive hearing like Logan, then she could just yell in his ear. His ear? Her eyes narrowed, and Jan made a beeline at Kamal, acting as though she were aiming for his nose. Taking a deep breath, she zipped into his ear. Eyes tightly shut, she reached out and let out the highest intensity biolelectric zap she could generate.
He promptly howled and fell over, clawing at his ear.
"Yuck!" Thoroughly disgusted by her surroundings, but determined to take down her bad guy, Jan slid forward through the Acolyte's ear canal. Wishing she knew more about the inner workings of the human body, or more specifically, that of the ear, Jan made a mental note to set up some sort of training session to help her with this. Oh, and another note for a mask and maybe a little oxygen tank, because this was just gross! Hoping this would work to stop the guy so she could go ahead and get out of his nasty ear, Jan stung Kamal's eardrum, shouting, "STUPEFY!"
With a last twitch, Kamal grew still. Making a face, Jan crawled back out of his ear and lifted up into the air. Safely out in the cold air once more, Jan looked down at her uniform and frowned. "Ew. Gross."
--
Logan leaped out from the mist, claws extending with a metallic *SNIKT*. He made a beeline for Katu - the hell he'd take another shot at Jeannie. He screamed a warcry and slashed at the Russian mutant with his claws, not particularly caring about the no-kill orders he normally operated under.
Rules of engagement were for lesser men. The only rule he was following was that of survival or death.
The claws connected, but barely, as Katu dodged with surprising speed for a man of his size. He let off the blast he'd been preparing, squarely at Logan. It seemed to be done out of surprise and pain rather than intent, to judge by the expression on his face.
Logan's sudden appearance - not to mention his shout - had given Mystique a moment to recover. She cartwheeled at Terry, kicks and punches aimed directly at the smaller woman's jaw, with the obvious intent of stopping any further screams.
Unfortunately for Mystique and fortunately for Terry, it took more force than that to break her bones. Terry moved back, trying to get out of range anyway, then dropped again to the ground, letting the force of Mystique's advance carry her over Terry's curled form. Then Terry screamed, with enough power to shake the mountains around them but tightly directed at the snow pack just above Mystique's head.
Logan came on like an engine of destruction. He let the blast hit him full-on, his leathers and the flesh beneath them smoking from the force. But almost as soon as the blast had ended his body started to repair the damage. "Surprise, bub." he growled as he slashed again, looking to take the big man down.
The snow cascaded downwards, appearing to bury Mystique - or providing cover for her retreat. Either way, she didn't reappear. Katu dodged Logan's strike - and managed to trip over Jean, the two of them landing in a tangle.
Jean went down under Katu and seriously considered just staying there. For one thing, it was likely to be safer - since she didn't have the energy to dodge, staying out of the fight seemed wisest - and for another, she wasn't sure she really could have managed to stand up again anyway. As the Russian returned to his feet Jean rolled away from the brawl, but remained prone, watching the battle. Or, at least, watching it as best she could, given the double vision.
Mystique dealt with, Terry turned to deal with the next threat and saw Jean lying on the ground, Katu over her. When Jean rolled away, Terry saw an opportunity. Logan was too close to make this safe, really, Terry already knew that. Taking a breath of frozen air, Terry screamed, blasting Katu back, catching Logan in the backwash. He was going to get hurt, Terry couldn't help that. But they were all too close for Terry's comfort and he would heal.
Logan's eardrums blew, causing Logan to bleed from both ears. His world went silent save for the thrumming deep in his bones from Terry's scream. When Jean took her hit and collapsed beneath Katu both his rational and his feral side were in complete agreement.
Jeannie needed to be saved.
He bellowed harshly and went stabbing in, looking to dig Jeannie out of the pile she was in. And if her attacker had to bleed for his crimes, so much the better. Howling in joy, he dug in with his claws into Katu's torso and grabbed the other mutant to pick him up bodily and throw him down farther away from Jean.
Oh hell oh hell oh hell oh hell. The spray of blood as Logan ripped the Russian's chest open washed over Jean even from where she lay a few feet away, seemingly lost track of in the feral blood rush Logan had slipped into. Which, combined with her lack of powers and the blood dribbling from his ears, meant there was only one way to stop this, and her medical training wouldn't let her not try.
Where she found the energy she was never certain, but Jean launched herself from the ground to place herself bodily between Logan and his victim, eyes pinched shut against the blow which never landed. Opening them she saw Logan pull back and sighed in relief before turning and dropping to the side of her attacker turned patient.
--
Laurie had turned pale at the sight of the blood, watching as Jean quickly cut away the man's shirt in order to get to large wound that was currently pouring out his lifeblood onto the floor of the Blackbird.
She'd never seen so much blood, and it took her a moment to get her urge to throw up controlled. Even then, her hands shook slightly and she felt like her mind was skittering all over the place, trying very hard not to panic and bolt to the other side of the jet, as far away from this scene as possible.
This was not good. This was worlds of not good. There were very few situations Jean could think of that it would be worse to not have access to her telekinesis than something like this. "Damn it damn it damnit damnitdamnit," she muttered to herself, trying to see through the pouring blood. "Would really help to be able to close off these vessels right about now..." She could apply physical pressure with the tattered remains of the Russian's shirt and try to stem the flow that way, but then she couldn't see.
Laurie blinked, bringing herself back into focus on the situation at hand. Concentrate now, panic later, there would be time for it then. She moved forward to where Jean was standing and placed her hand on the man's shoulder. Luckily for them, he'd passed out several minutes ago from the pain, so at least he wasn't thrashing around any more; unluckily he was still bleeding heavily.
"What can I do?" she asked.
"I need to see the wound," Jean muttered, mentally cursing the entire world. The adrenaline pumping through her system was helping her focus, somewhat, and deadening her headache, somewhat, but it wasn't enough. Suddenly she looked up and really saw Laurie and a thought occurred to her. "The blood vessels," she said without preamble. "Minimize them, cut off the flow."
Laurie knew it was possible, both from her extra studies with Jean and her standard biology classes in school. But she'd never tried it before, not a single set of hormones to a small area and not while she was so all over the place mentally. If she didn't though, the man was dead, it was all the thought she needed to reach forward, purple glimmering against her finger tips as she pressed them into the wound.
She needed three hormones, serotonin, adrenalin and noradrenalin, she knew these were the things platelets released when they disintegrated, helping with vessel constriction. She'd learnt to shut off her power under stress with the help of Logan, now she needed to use her power in a specific way despite the stress. She just hoped it worked, hoped that all the practice paid off now when she really needed it.
Jean gave it a few seconds for the hormones to kick in - all she could spare, really - and then eased up on the pressure against the wound. The ruined shirt suddenly became more sponge than bandage as she fought to clear enough of the blood to see the extent of the damage. It was working - Laurie's powers were working. While the blood hadn't stopped it had slowed immensely, finally giving the two a good view of what had happened.
When she saw everything fully exposed, Jean sucked in a deep breath and briefly prayed that Laurie wouldn't lose her composure. Or her lunch. The wound cut all the way through skin and muscle, revealing bones. And organs.
It was enough to make you want to go home and never even look at another medical textbook but Laurie knew if she didn't keep up the flow of hormones that things would be bad. She needed to keep this up for just a little longer, long enough that the man's own body would take over the work.
"How can he still be alive, Jean?" she asked, forgotten to call the doctor by her last name as she usually did, possibly an indication of just how shaken she was.
The obvious answer to that, which Jean quickly suppressed, was that he very almost wasn't. Distracted by the obvious wound, the less obvious signs had gone missed and only now that she was seeing the full extent did she realize how tough this was going to be. Field medicine was so much easier with the telekinesis. "He's gone into shock," she told Laurie, keeping her voice level and calm, even as the heart, obviously labouring to deal with the grievous wound, stopped. "He's not breathing - I need you to resuscitate him." Because she was going to have to manually massage his heart.
"Okay," Laurie said, removing her hands from the wound and moving them to the patients neck, tilting it as she got ready to start CPR. There wasn't time for questions, or for shock, she just needed to do and worry about why later. Leaning down, she pinched her finger and thumb against the man's nose and placed her mouth over his, blowing out a breath to fill his lungs as she began counting them in her head.
Hopefully there was still enough skin contact for Laurie's powers to continue working, because otherwise this was about to get really messing. Jean reached unflinchingly into the chest wound, setting her hands in place and beginning compression.
Laurie kept one eye on Jean's actions as she continued breathing, taking her timing off the older woman's actions. "Should we try a shot of adrenalin to the heart?" she asked between breaths.
She'd seen it in a movie once, someone pumping someone's heart full of adrenalin to get it to start beating again. She wasn't sure whether that was real medical science of TV faux science though, or that it would even work in this situation at all.
Jean's eyes widened in alarm, but as she was focused down Laurie couldn't see it, and she managed to keep her voice level and not yell out the firm, "No. Right now, that would be a very, very bad idea."
Laurie nodded, continuing with the CPR, obviously something she needed to look up after this then. She wondered how long they were going to have to do this for, and if the man would survive. She hoped so, she really did, despite the fact that he was a bad guy.
"Do you think we can save him?" she asked, voicing the concern she'd had since she saw all the blood.
"It's possible," Jean said, although her voice lacked certainty and she seemed to realize it. "Were going to try," she added, and that was better.
The thing with resuscitation was that it wasn't anywhere near as certain a thing as movies and tv would have one believe. Less than a third of the people who needed resuscitation survived, and there was a moment when a professional knew that it wasn't going to work - the heart wouldn't catch the beat, the lungs wouldn't pump, and it was all over. This, though, was not that moment. Jean felt the flutter of independant movement and pulled her hand free, watching as the accolyte's heart faltered for a moment and then returned again, the fresh movement of blood proving it had begun to beat again, even as his lungs inflated of their own power. "Bandages and tape," she snapped, a bloody hand reaching to pull Laurie back from the man. "Quickly."
Laurie stumbled slightly as she was pulled back but rather then protest, she turned and grabbed at the medical kit they'd placed within reach and fished out bandages and medical tape as fast as possible, handing them over to Jean and thanking whatever deity that currently watched over them that she wasn't having a clumsy day. Having completed that task, she watched anxiously, resisting the urge to cross her fingers.
Jean's hands were steady as she took the bandages and set them in play, taping them down enough to keep them in place, but loose enough to not put any new strain on the man's chest. Only when it was placed properly did Jean sit back and take a deep breath. Now there was a hint of shaking in her shoulders and she closed her eyes for a moment. Another deep breath as she opened her eyes. "Now we just have to get him to a hospital. And maybe we've given him the chance to make it."
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