xp_logs | District X: Inferno

The ambush is set and the gangs are attacked.

Inferno had a reputation as being the sleaziest of places, even among the residents of Mutant Town. It was due to their toleration of the criminals that had been accumulating lately, or possibly their involvement, and because of that (and the recent opening of competition) the clientele was nearly exclusively people who were underhanded or aspired to be. Bishop's plans had made sure that tonight the top of the food chain was present and Doug's presence reassured them that nothing was out of the ordinary. Only the final ground work had to be laid, meaning the people from X-Force who were involved had to be out in the open to keep suspicion low.

Bishop's plan for an unassuming setup was distasteful to everyone involved, possibly even Mark. They had to look ridiculous. It had to be unthinkable that this group could possibly have the capabilities to plan anything threatening and that meant, with a little preparation ahead of time courtesy of their resident DJ, air banding. The music also had to be off until then; Bishop had been sponging up all sorts of energy lately, to include music from an earlier encounter with a charge from his coworker. Their window to get the music flowing before he made himself known as a threat would be short but they would need all the fire power they could manage and concentrated in one location to concentrate the gangs' focus for the X-Men to make their entrance.

When the carefully planned moment arrived, Bishop stood from his seat at a table with Mark, Remy, and Doug. He had to let the latter take the lead, known as a non-offensively powered mutant to the crime bosses. "It's about that time, isn't it?" He deferred to Doug.

Doug checked his watch and nodded. It was comforting at least to have the trio of heavy hitters with him in case things went pear-shaped on them. And no plan survived contact with the enemy, as the old saw about tactics went. He scanned the room quickly.

"I hate you, I hate your plan, and I hate this club." Pointing out what he found distasteful before missions was becoming a tradition for Mark. "I deserve at least a three second glimpse of abs for this, you know. We could've at least gotten a Guitar Hero controller so we look less retarded."

"If I can remind everyone, de crowd is full of gang members wit' mutant powers, and we a big fucking target up here." Remy said out of the corner of his mouth. He touched the earbud that linked them to the X-Men, quietly relaying information to where they prepared outside. "Looks like de leaders are just making dere way into de club now, Stormy. Lots of guns, several open mutations."

"We are ready to move in when needed," the silver-haired woman replied through the comms, her voice kept low in deference to the covert nature of their presence. Things were equally tense outside - perhaps they weren't in direct danger, but nor were they able to monitor goings-on except through what was relayed by the other team.

Callisto, standing near enough to hear Remy's transmission, found herself immediately more on edge, and scowled. This was her first active mission of any kind since the Apocalypse incident but that didn't make her any less reluctant. "You would be of real use," she said. "I am doing this favour for you, so I would like you to help us out here." Pushing to the back of her mind the uncomfortable conversation she'd had with the white-haired mutant a few days previously, Callisto only nodded as Storm motioned for the team outside the club to ready themselves for action.

Shifting on the balls of her feet, Lil cracked her knuckles as she batted down the First Mission Jitters. Nervous, she was not, but the idea of finally being able to do something real was making it hard for the giantess to keep still... and quiet. She nodded her own readiness to the team leader and mentally prepared herself for her role as sponge and shield.

"Born ready, boss" Clarice whispered into her headset. That wasn't at all true, she had been a scardy cat at one point, but that was years ago. Now? Now she was ready. She was a ways away, on a rooftop with high powered binoculars. One word and she was over there like white on rice.

Tabitha leaned against a wall, trying to relax before things got tense. An exercise in pointlessness, really. "They ready yet?"

Bishop trailed behind everyone on his way to the stage, moving into position with them and preparing the distraction. He wasn't looking forward to having to fake sing. Once they were on stage he had to put his act on, appear thrilled, drop any self-consciousness, and get into his role. He ignored the team behind him almost entirely, trusting them to do their parts as well, knowing Remy would give the X-Men their signal any second. It would have to be, his bones were already aching with energy.

Kaufman and Zapruder sat entirely unaware, across from each other, both tense. Their table shook, the air around them thick with a metallic smell; something easily confused for blood. Lieutenants stood in semi-circles, facing their opponents with stone cold faces. "This area's going to out grow either one of us in no time. If we split it up now we can stay strong, keep more then if we let others squeeze in while we fought." Kaufman had no intention of actually doing that, however, and the build up of his strength and the twitching almost gave him away.

"This only happens if you report to me, cut me in, owe me." Zapruder was insistent, though he knew that Kaufman's supporters would never let that happen. Supporters of Apocalypse allowing the Gene Nation mutants to be their equals? Never.

To Doug's eyes, the entire room was like a pot of water steadily approaching a boil, tension ratcheting upwards in the various lieutenants' body language. Hands clenched and unclenched, fingers twitched towards weapons that made obvious bulges under jackets, a series of pops sounded as a particularly muscled man rolled his neck back and forth. Still, he plastered a grin on his face just like the others, and trusted in Remy's impeccable sense of timing.

"Time for de finale." Remy muttered, as he nudged the smoke machine with his foot, shifting it so that instead of rolling over the stage, it was now pointed at the table with the two gang bosses. Remy had demanded a mineral oil-based fog machine for the stage, for the simple reason that unlike dry ice or glycol based machines, mineral oil based machines produced fog through atomization. Which meant that a spray of tiny, and above all, chargeable particles was flowing past him. Lebeau cranked the fog machine to high, ensuring the plume would go straight over the bosses table, and stuck his hand into the spray, which began to charge purple.

"Mark. Here come de drums."

Had they been at Madison Square Garden performing a sold-out concert, the sudden pyrotechnics that erupted with the first drum beat would have been a spectacular sight. In the much smaller nightclub, however, it proved to be havoc. Remy's exploding fog and Mark's plasma blasts simultaneously detonated as if a pipe bomb had been planted beneath the stage. His bass fell forgotten to the ground as he and the other two fled the stage. "Three seconds of abs," he reminded himself.

Even if Remy hadn't spoken the signal, it would have been obvious they were needed - the sound and vibrations from the blasts were noticeable from outside the building. "X-Men, move in," Ororo said shortly before shoving open a door and making her way into the chaos of the club. With a few well-placed currents she swirled the remaining fog to provide them cover, avoiding several large, angry clubgoers who were none too happy to be plunged into the mists.

"Can't let the boys have all the fun," Lil chuckled as her long strides carried her to the front of the pack and towards the eye of the storm. She didn't doubt guns had been pulled the minute the insanity broke out and bullets - among other things - were going to start flying in their direction any moment. "My kinda party. Who wants to dance?"

Callisto narrowed her eyes, peering through gaps in the mist, maintaining her flanking position near the team leader as she ducked down slightly, poised for action.

The sudden burst of violence was anticipated by both of the gangs, however not in the way they had both planned. The cover of fog added to the confusion and within moments a brawl was in full force. Only Kaufman was lucky enough to put together what was truly happening; the rest resorted to attacking each other, their minds only able to comprehend a double cross. Unfortunately, it only took one rushing the stage to put a snag in X-Force's plan to escape.

Bishop, being up front, might have been able to simply avoid Kaufman had he not been dealing with his powers. The ambient charge in the air, along with the music, had his energy absorption in over drive. As soon as he got a hand on the shaking mob boss running on stage, the former policeman became out of control. He began to manifest traits from all the mutants who had powered him within the last year, from Scott's glowing eyes to an ambient aura of energy that danced with the music.

The concussion of a large amount of energy being pulled from the room could be felt as the brief struggle between Kaufman and Bishop turned in favor of the latter. It was followed by a split second of calm before a strike fueled by Kaufman's own strength and the store of hex energy was finally released in a bone shattering punch, sending the mobster across the club and into the wall. Leaving Bishop without any stores of energy, unusually wobbly and weak. It was all he could do to start their retreat so the X-Men could finish the plan.

Since Kaufman had been the only one to rush the stage, Doug took in the chaotic brawl on the floor and instead turned to Bishop, slipping his shoulders under one of the larger man's arms to provide some measure of support and speed. Remy and Mark looked like they had things well in hand covering the retreat, and he urged Bishop towards the backstage door.

"Move, move." Remy hissed, waved them through the back. His tossed coins had added to the chaos in the bar, and now escape was the only objective. Staying longer would put them right in the way of the X-Men, and then the police. The first he didn't want to risk getting in the way or getting someone hurt, and the second he just didn't want them to know about their involvement. Doug helped Bishop past them, and Remy slapped Mark on the shoulder.

"Play us out of here, homme."

Mark's hands began to glow blindingly white. "'Gotta get dat boom boom boom,'" he sang and the back door exploded off its hinges. He followed the other three men, sparing a quick glance over his shoulder to ensure they weren't being followed. When he was sure they were in the clear, he slipped an arm around Bishop to help Doug carry him. "Need a booster?" he asked the cop, and without waiting for an answer, fired a quick burst of energy at him. "Wake up so we can get our asses out of here."

Back in then fray, Lil had two lieutenant goods by the collar, one in each hand dangling a good half foot off the ground when she saw a third make a dash for the door. "Oh, I don't think so." A grunt and the Canadian cracked her two captives' skulls together then hurdled the unconscious men after they slunk to the floor, hot in pursuit. She'd seen Bishop stumble and had nearly broken ranks to rush to his side but a bullet bouncing harmlessly off her arm had keep her in the heat of the battle.

"Leaving so soon?" she asked, spinning the man around. One quick hit to the wrist disarmed the thug and sent the gun scattering across the floor. Lil flashed him a quick smile then landed a right hook to his jaw followed by a punch to the gut. "Don't worry, sweetie. We've got a nice place for you to lay down."

Clarice teleported in, the blink disc barely disappearing behind her before she had her hands on the guy Lil was hitting and was gone again, taking the good with her. "Boys are stupid!" she called as she disappeared, "Throw rocks at them" she laughed, leaving the guy on top of the Empire State Building. One of these days, she was going to cause an international incident by leaving people random places like this. But she wasn't killing them!

With all the noise and panic already at a near-chaotic level, Tabitha was reluctant to add to it with bombs. Instead, she hit people. It was really very satisfying, even with the occasional returned blow. If the screaming and running lulled, she obliged with a flashbang thrown toward the ceiling.

The expected response by the police took quite some time, District X no longer being a place they would often venture and never without a significant amount of precautions. The loud, violent even left them no choice, however. By the time several squad cars arrived the club was left quiet, gang member unconscious around the scene, inside and out. For the officers it was going to be an even longer night.