Day Zero - All Falls Down

[x-juggernaut.livejournal.com]

The final direct assault on the Citadel is made, with one heroic return and one necessary sacrifice.



Cain knelt by the husk of what used to be a convenience store, before it had been blasted, smashed, and gutted in the previous day's battle. Even after everything; after the showdown with the Horseman of Death -Alison, he thought to himself - they still had a mission to complete.

The Citadel had to fall.

But even so, the team had needed to rest, so he'd held vigil until the telepathic communication came in. They were going to need reinforcements. And from the way that a familiar golden glow was moving closer from the north, Cain figured reinforcements had arrived.

Nathan landed with uncharacteristic neatness, the exoskeleton folding its wings and fading. Somehow he'd also managed to keep just ahead of Monet. "Cain," he said briefly. "Where are the others?"

Cain jerked a thumb over his shoulder silently, barely raising his eyes to Nathan.

Marie flew over and landed quickly at Nathan's side. "I wish we had better news. Damn thing has some force field around it that's been able to take everything we've thrown at it. And..." she trailed off, looking away. The rest of the news was harder to share.

"And what? What, Rogue?" Monet demanded, past politenes. The codename felt awkward to use. "What else is it?" What else could it be? He'd already done so much. "Because I'm officially going to cry if it's something bad."

"Apocalypse got Alison Blaire. She was the Horseman Bravo team was battling," Marie replied, still looking away.

"Fucking Horseman, angel of Death, whatever," Cain said despondently. "I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. But she did her best to kick the shit out of us, so whatever's gotten into her head..." He punched the ground next to him, sending cracks darting through the concrete. "We got a mission, take that Citadel down. If she's in it... she ain't the mission."

Nathan was silent for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "Cain, get on your feet," he finally said, and his voice was both crisp and strangely remote.

Snapping his head around, Cain glared Nathan right in the eye. Slowly, the big man rose, moving chest to chest with the telekinetic. "Yeah?" he growled. "What?"

"This is no different," Nathan said steadily, "from any other time one of ours has been brainwashed or otherwise mindfucked. All of us know she's not doing this of her own free will." And if anyone started bitching and moaning about that possibility, there would be steps taken to shut them the fuck up. "Now, where are the others?" he went on, looking in the direction Cain had gone and thinning out his shields wearily. "I'm only having this conversation once."

"Y'all can go toe to toe some other time," Marie said, her tone firm. "They're right around the corner there, fortified and resting," she continued, pointing towards one of the few buildings still in halfway decent condition. "They've taken a beating, both physically and mentally. Yes, we have a mission. We all G-ddamn know the mission. Give me the some time to adjust." Spinning on her heel, Rogue headed for her team.

***

The Citadel loomed high above them, twisted rails and girders forming a support for the blackened spire of concrete and glass that stretched up to the sky like some horrible avant-garde sculpture. The ground around the structure was littered with debris, crushed cars, and trenches dug in the surrounding streets. But for about a block's radius from the spire, some unseen force seemed to be emanating from the obsidian spike, pushing away anything that attempted to come near.

Crystal, as was usually the case, was up in the air. She assessed the Citadel for a moment, then decided to set a hurricane against it. The Attilani had multiple methods of attacking the Citadel in front of her, but knew she was strongest and most effective when sticking to the same use of power. Besides, they had energy projectors with them, others who could play with fire, but no one present could control the very air itself as she could.

Even through the chase of Death, apparently also known as Alison Blaire, Crystal's hair had stayed pinned back, but now as she began to summon enough wind to create a large spinning vortex to thrust at the citadel, a few wisps of burgundy hair fell over the mask still covering half of her face.

Terry's hair whipped in the summoned wind, pulling out wisp by wisp from its tightly coiled braids. She strode forward, hands clenched to fists at her side and took a breath, then began to scream--a banshee's cry of pain and grief that smashed into the Citadel with the same destructive gale force as Crystal's gathering storm. For her teammates, it was just a dull roar. Even now her control was deadly precise.

Nathan struck at the foundations, shockwaves of TK exploding outwards and slamming into the base of the building. It was hard to see if it was having any effect at this distance, but he thought he felt a reaction. Maybe.

Monet found herself working as a cannon-ball, flying curled up at full speed into the point where walls met foundations following Nathan's strikes, slamming into the wall and then shooting back out of the way again only to repeat her action.

Cain grunted as he hoisted a wrecked bus onto his shoulder, charging forward to use it as a battering ram, only to have it crush like a tin can before he could strike directly. He swore loudly, hammering away at the invisible field to no effect. It obviously wasn't just at ground level either, as the flyers were having the same difficulty.

Jennie, stood back, hands in front of her, searching for cracks, weaknesses in the foundations and walls. Everything was moving to fast, variables changing too quickly for Jennie to get a proper hold on anything. She made a frustrated noise and pushed harder, hands shaking with effort.

Enough people were throwing their bodies at the forcefield. Marie had already tried and failed at that. So instead, the Southern girl decided to try Cain's tactic of assaulting the invisible wall with objects. It would at least be something different and less stressful on her own body. Narrowing her eyes, Marie picked up the first thing she saw and threw it full force at the Citadel. When the small SUV she'd chucked bounced off, she quickly lifted up to catch the now dented vehicle before it hit any of her teammates. She couldn't supress the frustrated scream that passed her lips. What the hell is it going to take?

Nick Fury's words ran through Shiro's head as his fellow X-Men unleashed the full destructiveness of their powers on the Citadel's force field. I will turn you into Fat Man, Little Boy, whatever bomb you wanna name. "~You want a bomb, Fury? Then I will give you one.~" He flew around to the other side of the fortress to put distance between himself and the others, and then took a deep breath as he focused the sun's fury through his body and released it.

Well, this wasn't very effective, now was it? Crystal frowned slightly. They had tried wind, sound, energy blasts, direct physical attacks, heat... maybe cold would do the trick? The young woman altered her hold on her hurricane to move the air over over the Citadel, simultaneously moving herself upwards as well. Concentrating on what she was about to attempt to do, an air vortex forming overhead even higher than her spot in midair, Crystal cooled the air between the swirling air and the shield surrounding the Citadel, pulling ice particles down from above and flinging them directly at her targeted spots on the shield.

Nathan went to his knees as the TK shockwave he had tried to shape misfired, fatigue making his control erratic. Getting old, Dayspring... He reached out, TK moving like invisible fingers over the forcefield, seeking - something that his eyes confirmed to him, as he stared hard enough at the Citadel.

#It's weakening!# A surge of hope brought with it an accompanying surge of strength, and he pushed himself back to his feet, the glow of the psimitar steadying. #We're getting through - keep at it!# Without quite making the conscious decision to do so, he was projecting what he was feeling, what he was seeing, and absurdly, he was laughing as he did. #We can get through if we just keep pushing! Once more unto the breach, people - let's do it!#

Jennie stumbled forward suddenly, as she sensed a massive change in the variables. She looked up at the citadel, and her eyes widened. What had once been a shifting mess of white and red, moving so fast she'd been unable to get a hold on any of it, shifted again, the red swirls settling and the shimmer taking on a pure white tinge.

"Hey...Hey!" Jennie yelled, trying to get the attention of her teammates. "The fucking things down! Hit it! Hit it with everything you have!" she pulled more energy towards herself, ignoring the stabbing sensations of her broken ribs and flung it at the wall in front of her, and was rewarded when a two story crack appeared in the surface.

Everyone intensified their efforts - blasting plasma, throwing debris, focused gale-force air blasts, telekinetic shockwaves and even direct physical attacks on the structure. The massive Citadel shook with each blow - and then the unthinkable happened.

It began to pulse, almost like a living thing. In defiance of all logic, it somehow seemed to be repairing itself even as the team kept doing damage.

"Shit!" Cain yelled as his fists struck like jackhammers at the foundation. "We gotta do something fast before it..."

"Once more unto the breach!"

Nathan had quoted Shakespeare again. What was the rest of that damn speech? Cain couldn't figure why it came to mind right now, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knew it.

We few. We happy few. We band of brothers.

These are the kind of people you sacrifice for, he realized.

Cupping his hands to his mouth, he bellowed for the team's leader. "Rogue! C'mere!"

Marie stopped her barrage, flying over to land by her teammate. "Juggernaut, tell me you have some brilliant plan. Because Ah don't." Her brief moment of hope had been extinguished and the Southern girl found herself exhausted, mentally and physically.

"I don't know about brilliant," the big man said, pulling the black iron knuckledusters off his hands and taking his helmet off to look down at Rogue. "But I got a plan. We gotta hit this thing hard and fast. We need someone unstoppable."

"You wanting me to give you a boost or something?" Marie asked, nodding in agreement.

Cain shook his head. "Ain't gonna work. If I ain't moving under my own power, it don't work that way." He remembered the fall from orbit that had knocked him out for three days, testing the limits of his invulnerability.

He held a hand out towards Marie. "It's gotta be you, kiddo. Take what I got, and you go up and come down and hit this thing as hard as you plus me can."

Marie hesitated, the word "no" poised and ready on her lips. Sure, she'd experimented with taking bits of power from her teammates, but the process was far from perfect. And taking a power like Cain's...then she saw the rest of her teammates, her friends, battering the Citadel to no effect. "Concentrate on your powers," she said, stripping off one glove and reaching a bare hand out to Cain.

Without hesitation, Cain took Marie's tiny hand in his and immediately felt the jolt of her power - like a simultaneous electric shock and being hit all over with a tidal wave that suddenly rushed out of him and into her, like the floodgates of a dam being opened.

Whirling about his body on an unseen wind, the black armor of the Juggernaut dissolved into ash, leaving Cain standing - kneeling now -in front of Marie in his X-Men leathers as the air shimmered around Marie and solidified into a similar suit of dull black iron, fitted to her frame like some kind of caryatid statue of destruction.

Eyes rolling back in his head, Cain slumped to the ground, whispering four words as he did so.

"You cannot be stopped."

Marie's eyes rolled into the back of her head as the surge of power flooding her system ceased. She saw the professor, a look of hope in his eyes, looking up at her/him. Children in grey suits crawling from under him/her. She/he watched the moon rise, feeling the boat dock beneat her/him as she/he felt at peace. And in that moment of peace, Rogue pushed the memories aside, clenching her fists.

She allowed herself a brief moment of shock at the figure of her collapsed teammate. But time was a luxury she didn't have. They had a chance and she was not going to let it slip through her fingers. Rocketing up into the sky, Marie felt stronger than she ever had before. As she passed through a cloud, she somersaulted in midair, then dove straight done. Her descent grew faster and faster, the wind whistling past her, until she finally reached her target. The sound at impact was deafening.

Actions spoke much louder than words. Though he'd turned up the intensity when Cable and Roulette gave the order, Rogue's Juggernaut-fueled attack did more to inspire Shiro than mere shouts. He tapped into every joule of energy he possessed and recalled the scene in San Diego two years ago where he'd given birth to a new star over the Pacific to destroy the tidal wave and help save that city. He didn't have Kick anymore to strengthen him, but now he had something stronger that he didn't have then: faith. He was no Fat Man or Little Boy, he was just Sunfire. He smiled.

Nathan drew himself up, trying to push what he'd just seen and felt through the switchboard away - later, his own voice whispered in the back of his mind, somehow soothing away the raw burn of shock and fear, allowing him to refocus. Coldly, feeling no emotion at all, he stepped forward and cut loose with a full-power groundburst. The light that exploded around his psimitar and his body was like the heart of the sun, and it tore through earth and rubble, disintegrating it, before it smashed into the foundations of the Citadel. Vast cracks spiderwebbed outwards from the impact zone.

Jennie followed the lines, adding bursts here and there, causing chain reactions that would make the citadel crumble faster. She fell to her knees with the effort of it, and the dampness on her lip she knew to be her nose bleeding. "Almost there," she muttered to herself.

With all of the attacks being carried out by the X-Men, pieces of the Citadel were breaking off and flying in all directions. Once again, Crystal formed a fast-moving air vortex, this time moving it and using it to catch the broken-off, hurtling pieces. Rather than finding their way to the X-Men all around her, the various bits of Citadel were caught up in Crystal's contained "tornado". Glass, concrete, steel, and asphalt raced through the air in a circular pattern, gaining momentum, then were flung out rapid-fire near the bottom of the crumbling Citadel.

A black armored figure rose from the wreckage. Their goal finally seemed to have been reached, she thought, as she looked down at the crumbling Citadel. "Guess they won't be passing their next building inspection," she drawled as she slowly circled down to land near where she'd rocketed up moments before. It was then she truly saw the change her touch seemed to have had on the large man who was suddenly...small.

Cain barely moaned as Marie picked him up - and luckily so, as the ground beneath them shuddered, then sank into a crater.