Day Zero - Frontal Assault

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

The "heavy hitters" squad makes an entrance, and finds almost immediate resistance.



It was almost too nice a day. Terry's sense of drama told her there should be whipping winds and lowering storm clouds, lashing rain and deafening thunder. That all would have made it too dangerous to even attempt this daredevil maneuver. As it was this had to be timed perfectly. The longer they took to jump, the more likely they were going to be noticed and yet they had to pause long enough to avoid hitting the skyscrapers that loomed around them. Far below, the city looked almost normal, but Terry could feel the silence even if she couldn't feel it. The people, what few people there were, had only two goals--fight or escape. As the jet came in low, hovering between buildings that should have been full of life and activity.

"That's our cue."

The short trip from the mansion to Battery Park had been silent, offering Shiro the opportunity to meditate and establish a much-needed sense of tranquility and comfort. At Terry's words, he opened his eyes and unbuckled the safety restraints. He spared a brief glance back at Alex (Squirt, he supposed he ought to call his teammate), and all that inner peace vanished. With a muttered curse, he helped open the door and leaped out.

Alex too had spent most of the trip with his eyes closed as he just concentrated on feeling his power. It was an exercise that helped him control it without thinking so much about it. He had his suit on under his leathers to help him regulate his power flow just in case, since he'd rather be safe then sorry and a blow up was the last thing they needed. And while he'd never admit it, he kept his eyes closed so he wouldn't see Shiro in front of him. It wasn't that he had a problem working with the other man...it was just...weird.

When Terry spoke, Alex opened his eyes and avoiding Shiro's glance, he turned to Crystal with a small grin. "I'm ready to fly if you are."

Crystal gave Alex a nod. Just a few moments later, the two mutants were no longer inside of the Blackbird, and were on their way down to the ground. There was no need for Crystal to physically hold onto Alex during their descent; she had been moving objects in the air for more than a decade now. Transporting a person was not quite the same as moving an inanimate object, and during the trip' down, Crystal watched her aerial passenger to ensure that he was comfortable. Crystal set Alex down on the earth and remained hovering several inches above ground.

Cain hit the ground feet-first, bending his knees with the impact but still sending up clouds of dust and chunks of concrete as he surveyed the site. The flyers were descending as the Blackbird pulled away, and the black spire of the Citadel was visible in the distance.

"Well shit," he drawled as his black armor formed around him. "Couldn't have actually dropped us close, could they?"

Marie had been the last out of the jet, wanting to make sure her team got out without any problems. They had enough trouble ahead of them that anything that could go smoothly needed to. "You wouldn't want them to make this too easy, would ya?" she replied to Cain before focusing her attention on the rest of the group. "Alright, y'all already had the briefing, so Ah'm not gonna rehash. Siryn, you take the lead, Ah'll take the rear. Let's try and get to the Citadel as quickly as possible."

The echo of Terry's screams still bounced off the building-made canyon walls but the redhead herself was silent and solemn. She nodded acknowledgment of Marie's order and checked her comm before taking point in their rough patrol. No point in stealth. With as much noise as they'd made coming in it wouldn't be long before someone or something came to investigate. She wanted to be as far away as possible when that happened.

The group hadn't advanced a block when they saw figures coming at them from the direction of the Citadel, their shouts and chants audible even from blocks away. It looked like the X-Men were going to have to fight their way forward after all.

Cain cracked his knuckles, the sound like a series of gunshots. "All right, people," he intoned. "Have at 'em."

--

Marie wiped at her face, leaving more smudges behind then she wiped away as she glanced down at the latest person she'd had to knock out on the team's journey to the citadel. Pushing back off the ground, she flew up to join Terry. "This feels so wrong," she finally said as she watched a few of the remnants of the mob the pair had disbanded run off.

"Fighting people who are only fighting back because they're scared?" Terry returned, her words winding through the keen that kept her aloft. "Oh yes. Down!" The last was an order, a reaction to something behind Marie.

A mid air pirouette was an efficient dodge for the red energy blast that shot through the space Marie had been. While Rogue could have easily withstood the blast, Terry's cry allowed her to get behing a smug mutant, sure that his blast would knock her from the sky. Instead, by the time he registered the missed shot, Marie had landed in front of him, her fist aimed squarely at his face.

Terry winced a little as the energy projector went flying from the force of the punch. She scream, just enough to cushion his inevitable slam into the building behind him so that he wasn't killed then swooped down to Marie. "Nice. Let's go."

A curt nod, and the Southerner continued flying in the direction of the Citadel. Splitting up her team had been a hard decision, but they had to make it to the tall spire curving upwards from the metropolis. As well as call as much attention to themselves as possible to create a diversion. One group may have been hard to miss, but several could cover more ground. Stopping over a small park, Marie signaled her redhaired companion to look down at the two obvious mutants facing off a human mob. "Shall we?" she said, the smile on her face anything but happy.

"Fuck this day." Terry sighs and nods, her voice lifting again to the crashing keen that was her namesake and they dove back into battle.

--

Their orders were to be as flashy and divertive as possible, to drive all attention to them so that the other teams could accomplish their missions. There was no better way to do that than to literally ignite oneself, because anyone would be immediately drawn to a man on fire who is trying to ignite others. "~Come on, you fuckers~," Shiro taunted from behind his fiery veil as he blasted a taxi, the explosion sending it up into the air and scattering the three ferals who'd been hiding behind it.

Alex shook his head as he concentrated on blasting at a group of rabid mutants from his perch on top of a bus, making a point of scattering them in every direction possible, chuckling at Shiro around biting his lip. "I'd almost think you're having fun." He said as blasted at a car some others were trying to get away in. He was shooting at the smallest thing, lighting up the sky with bright energy to be as flashy as possible. It helped that he'd unzipped the jacket of his leathers, letting it hang open around the flickering white gauge on the chest of his suit that helped him regulate his blasts. The flickering under the collar had been driving him crazy.

"I am surprised that so many have chosen to stay," Shiro replied. One of the ferals swiped a claw at him, but he dodged it and grabbed the feral's wrist to slam him into one of his buddies. "They are all asking to die. I hope that we can convince them otherwise."

"Or chase them out first." Alex said amused as he shot at the heels of some of the mutants who he'd scattered earlier as they tried to double back. Melted pavement was a great method of persuasion.

The third feral launched himself at Shiro, but promptly found himself even higher in the air when a plasma blast from below hit him in the stomach and tossed him away. "Those who have allied themselves with Apocalypse are unlikely to change their minds. One would have to be legitimately insane to follow him and believe him right."

"And yet they still do. What is it with Gods and crazy cults?" His tone was light and teasing, obviously referring back to Pele. A new stream of mutants began pouring out of an alley, so Alex blasted a car to block the entry. When they began climbing over it, he blasted a moving truck in the way.

"Enough." Shiro landed in the middle of the group and, lifting his arms up like Moses parting the Red Sea, ignited the air in every direction. None of the mutants appeared to be flyers, so they all crashed messily. "Come. We should meet this so-called God."

Sending only last blast to fully block the alley, Alex jumped down from the taxi and ran towards where Shiro had landed. "After you, dude."

--

Cain looked at the three mutants in front of him and arched an eyebrow. One looked like an everyday law student, probably, in a threadbare tweed jacket - but the other two were a bit more flamboyant. A snake-skinned man with two swords that he'd probably ripped off from a pawnshop somewhere, and a Goth-looking girl with way too much eye makeup that was currently wasting her time blasting Cain's chest with lasers from her fingertips.

"Kids today," he grumbled, stepping forward swiftly to cautiously snap his fingers right next to the girl's head, the concussion knocking her for a loop momentarily. However, the motion let the snake-man slip past him and lunge at Crystal.


Crystal rose higher into the air. Wind whipped around both her and the man, the other mutant also lifting up into the air under her power. Crystal eyed the snake-man through the holes in her mask, then dropped him. The man hit the ground, temporarily stunned, the swords falling from his hands. A moment later, a blast of wind hit him, and he was out.

"Two down," Cain said with a smile, carefully tapping the dazed girl on the forehead with one finger, then wrapping a girder around her to pin her arms to her sides. He turned to the third member of their trio of assailants. "Give up?"

The man in the tweed coat just smirked and began to glow from within, his skeleton seeming to light up from the inside. Cain's eyes widened, then he covered his face with his hand just in time as the man... exploded.

Pieces of flaming tissue bounced off his invulnerable skin and the air shield Crystal immediately conjured. Lowering his hand cautiously, Cain saw a flaming skeleton where the man once stood, laughing feverishly and dancing from one foot to the other.

Scowling, he turned to Crystal. "Blow out this candle, would you?" he asked.

Crystal pretended to actually blow out a candle, simultaneously sending forth a gust of wind to extinguish the flames emanating from the skeleton. Unsure as to whether or not the flames would reappear, and figuring the guy should be stopped, with or without the flames, Crystal trapped the skeleton inside an invisible "box" of solidified air. No more oxygen, no more flames... or at least that's what the case should be, and what she was hoping was the case.

The skeleton flailed, the flames beginning to dim until they went out and the pile of bones collapsed. Slowly, flesh began to regrow until the unassuming brown-haired man lay naked and unconscious on a pile of rubble.

"That," Cain said flatly, "is officially the nastiest power ever."

"I have seen worse," Crystal said matter-of-factly. "This one is not very hygienic, though, I will admit. I wonder if there is a limit to how many times he can use his power this way in a certain amount of time, and does he feel any pain either when he explodes or regenerates?"

Cain just shrugged and turned to the next wave of attackers.