xp_logs | Day Zero - Team Foxtrot vs Madrias and Friends

One last bastion of Apocalypse's forces stands against a combined team of mutants, police, and FBI agents.

Garrison pulled the helmet from his head and tossed the cracked and now worthless visor aside. Three different barricades, countless madmen, and yet, somehow, the tide had turned. Apocalypse's forces, lacking leadership or reinforcement, had been driven north, while Duncan's cobbled together forces of police, FBI agents, paramedics, firemen and doctors had brought scores of refugees safely into the south of Manhattan, behind the tenuous line they held. The lack of Horsemen made Kane hope the other teams had done just as well, and were on the way to the Citadel even now. No matter what, Apocalypse's total control over the city had been broken, paid for by the blood of those who lived here, and refused to give up to a tyrant.

He waved over Wanda and Sofia, who were back on the ground, and both Morgan and Bishop joined him at the corner leading to Columbus Park, where they watched the last opposition between them and the Citadel wait. It wasn't a large group, a half dozen mutants in Apocalypse's colours, looking worse for wear. The main strength were the creatures called 'Primes', over-sized puppets of a creature called Ignatova, superstrong and impervious to pain. A knot of them stood, waiting motionlessly in the midst of a crowd of meat spores. The bulk of the forces were comprised of men in grey robes, and a crowd of distant looking people thronging around them, like some kind of revival. A young man in a grey robe stepped up to speak to them, not cowled like his other followers, and Garrison trained a weapon scope on him.

His earpiece crackled to life, and one of the dispatchers came on. "Agent Kane, one of the SWAT riflemen needs to talk to you."

"Patch him through."

"Agent Kane? I know the guy in the grey in front of the others."

"What?"

"I live down the street from his little store front church. His name is Sebastian Madrias. He's from El Salvador, or Honduras or something. He's the pastor for the Baptist Church of the Risen Christ down in Alphabet City."

"What can you tell me about him?"

"Not much. His church is small but pretty popular with the locals, and they've never been on of the crazy ones, doing exorcisms or anything that I heard about. I think he trained in the seminary to be a Catholic priest, but dropped out or something. His parents were old school Catholics, right off the boat. They used to go to St. Paul's. My brother goes there. That's all I got."

"Thanks." Garrison killed the connection and quickly relied the information to the others. "Anyone else got any bright ideas about this guy?"

"Not without more information. It's hard not to move to the cliché otherwise. I'd probably do better with his kills, if he has any." Sofia frowned, drumming her fingers against the table, long past surprised at the sound of flesh instead of nail. "It's always possible that he believes Apocalypse to be some sort of religious figure, I suppose."

Wanda grunted as a passing EMT pressed another bunch of bandages into her hand. The cuts on her head weren't too bad but they were still bleeding and she pushed her hair out of the way while someone worked on getting it to stop. "So, what, this guy goes from local, lovable preacher to -" She waved a hand and then winced when the woman working on her smacked her shoulder. "To cult leader extraordinaire? They always say it's the quiet ones. Can we take him out from here?"

Morgan was relatively unscathed, the perk of hiding out in buildings for most of the day, but her thigh was bleeding where someone had gotten a blast of something in her direction. The wound was mimicked on her left side but most of that bleeding had slowed, or so she told the medics who kept trying to look at her. Another one was waved off, this time with the hand that held a pistol in it. She glanced at the guy in question before holstering the pistol and mirroring Kane's earlier action to observe him through the scope on her rifle. "Eh, maybe? Do we know if he's working on his own will? Better question, do we care?" Morgan tilted her head up just enough that both red eyes trained on Garrison, a white eyebrow quirking. "You should maybe take him out from here but he's surrounded just enough that you're going to hit everyone around him. Again I ask, do we care? If not then I could shoot him from there," she nodded to a smashed car over near the side of the street.

"How about I just walk out there and ask him?" Bishop responded to Morgan. Anyone would assume it was a sarcastic question but he seemed to very seriously be suggesting it. He two good marksman as backup, Wanda could cover him as well, and if things did go bad then they would resort to the plan they were considering anyway.

"I like it. If they're following orders from him, at the very least, we can use it as a distraction." Kane nodded. It didn't take long for them to position themselves, and Bishop to walk out into the park, hands glowing slightly as a sure-fire indication he was a mutant. The figure at the head of the crowd, Madrias, didn't hesitate to walk down to meet him.

The preacher's smile seemed incongruously gentle as he looked up at the towering form of the mutant before him, raising his hand to forestall Bishop from speaking. "It's no use, my son."

Madrias's smile dimmed slightly as he cast his eyes past Bishop toward X-Men and their motley army. "May you know the mercy in the next life, that we must deny you in this fallen world. But the Son of Man has returned to us, to sit and judgment. And he Spake heard which the Law, and Throne decreed that those who are not of the Chosen must be cleansed." His head jerked in an almost involuntary movement, the tear-filled eyes tracking to ward the motionless body of a pregnant woman, cradling a broken corpse of her daughter. "I hear his voice, you know," Sebastian continued in a calm, conversational tone that was all the more terrifying for its evenness. "He drove out the spirits, his Presence is all. I hear none but Him. The King of Kings has come back to us - it is folly to deny Him. And only in death of your mortal shell, will you find redemption and welcome into his heavenly abode."

Madrias turned away, his voice dropping slightly, almost as if he was ashamed. "We'll try not to make you suffer."

"Well, at least we're now sure he's insane." Kane remarked dryly. He clicked over his mike. "Fred, we're going in."

The mutants fanned out from their position, their first priority to help clear Bishop, and the second to cut the head off of the remaining resistance. Garrison sped forward, aiming for the Primes that were closing in on Bishop. The ex-cop could handle himself, but the odds weren't in his favour, and they needed him in the fight. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see some of Apocalypse's forces starting to make a break for it. A mutant wreathed in fire cut down a police officer with a blast of flame, but was gunned down by the other five officers around him. For all their power, facing a coordinated foe, most of them could only contend with a few men at a time, and few had protection against the heavy sniper rounds, semi-automatic fire, or even the plain service pistols in the hands of trained humans.

Kane bullrushed the semi-circle of Primes, smashing the one in front of him to the ground and bouncing off the next one, putting him shoulder to shoulder with Bishop. "You missed a career as a negotiator." He said, earning a brief laugh as they faced off against the superstrong creatures. Kane parried a blow that would have crushed a car, and turned the movement against the thing, using the momentum to take it off its feet. Garrison wrenched the arm up and brought his foot down on the thing's chest, crushing it under his boot.

A blow stunned him, the Prime rushing forward to take advantage, but Kane's tactical chip had been soaking up information for two days. It came straight into a kick to the throat, and then a hammerblow to the stomach. He lifted the Prime up over his head, and tossed it directly into the group of them, bowling them over like ninepins.

Two Primes circled around back, seeking to trap the two men in a circle with no easy way out. The plan was simple - trap and overwhelm them. They'd only begun to get in close when they stumbled from twin hits from behind. Hands scrambled at throats that suddenly glowed a dull red; the flesh rippling outward, bulging and rippling. With a grunt from behind, the throats split and exploded outward as Wanda pushed her fists through the backs of their necks.

It took some effort but she was able to rip her hands free and the Primes toppled over, their heads unable to be held up without most of their necks. She spun, red light slicing through the air as she tried to clear a path for Sofia who was close behind her.

"I've got you covered!" Wanda told her, ducking a grab from one of the Primes - she simply shifted and it crashed into one behind her, sending both of them to the ground. The two were quickly trampled by the surrounding crowd, taken out by some quickly manipulated strings.

Wanda made an easy distraction, giving Sofia the concentration, and reassurance that her back was safe, to narrow in on the small molecules of air around one of the Prime's head. Her hard stare pulled a quick breeze out from around him, a circle of much needed oxygen, and he clutched at his throat, opening his mouth in a scream cut short by the lack of air moving past his vocal cords.

The Primes were being contained, but now the followers of the church were closing in, and they couldn't use the same kind of force against potentially innocent people. Garrison considered it as the mob surged forward, and made his call.

"Morgan. Do it."

One shot rang out, and Madrias crumpled. Her shot had taken him clean in the forehead. Almost immediately, the mob faltered, and began to disintegrate as they shook their heads, tottered around, and tried to determine where they were. As the last of the meat spores were quickly mopped up, Duncan's men came into the park, escorting the former and unwilling members of the church out to medical attention and safezones.

The mutants, on the otherhand, simply turned to the Citadel itself, where it grew from the city like a sore. Wordlessly, they made their decision, and leaving the rest of the people behind, walked towards it, ready to finish the battle for the city, no matter what the cost.