Eric the Red: Conflict!

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

The X-Men take on the Imperial Guard in order to save a crew of heroes.



The Yos Sudarso was riding the stormy seas like a toy boat in a bathtub, tossed from wave to wave, trying to maintain distance from the brightly lit Indian Naval vessels that had it trapped between themselves and the rocky shore. Even with the poor visibility, the X-Men could clearly see the boat had run out of sea to flee to, and smaller boats in the water around it were likely landing parties sent over from the Indian forces. The storm around the plane made handling the VTOL difficult, and Marie was fighting to keep the plane as level as possible, over the stern of the ship.

As they got into position, the rear ramp was opened, and the flyers went out first, carrying steel lines down to the ship, and affixing them in eyehole ports for the non-flyers to zipline down. Only Garrison stayed back as Storm gave her orders to the team, and leapt into the sky. Kane was busy setting up the harness seats, making sure the lines wouldn’t tangle in the fierce wind, and double checking the winches. Their plan was simple; the other X-Men would get the crew to the stern and stop any opposition while Kane would load them into the harnesses, and Marie could have them automatically winched up to the plane while keeping it stable against the storm.

Kane looked back at Marie for her thumbs up.

There was a slight scowl on the Southerner's face as she fought the controls. "Ah want to go someplace sunny for my next mission. The Bahamas maybe, with the need to rescue a kitty cat from a tree," she muttered before turning and giving Kane the go ahead.

"I'd like to rescue someone from a wading pool next." Kane said, and jumped down, sliding on the line and untangling the harness as they reached the deck. Already crew was starting to come back to the stern, and with a mix of Chinese, French and English, he made himself understood to how the system work. He quickly got two men ready as he could hear the sounds of battle start, and hit his comm.

"I've got two ready to go!" He called up to Marie.

"Roger," Marie said as she hit a switch and the two man began the journey up to the plane. She quickly unhooked them when they arrived, sending the harnesses back down to Garrison and communicating to the men to go sit through a series of gestures. "Ready for the next load," she said into her comm.

Garrison quickly set up the next batch, falling into a comfortable pace to getting the crew off. He looked up to see a fiery trail coming in, and paused long enough to lob two cargo crates at it and force it off for a moment. "Rogue, keep your eyes open. You've got bogies coming in on the Blackbird!" Garrison called back to her. He knew that Shiro and Ororo were screening the plane, but if someone snuck through, it could be dangerous.

Marie let out a few choice words as she quickly secured the next crew members. As she sent the harnesses back down, the hair on the back of her neck tickled and she knew that things were about to get ugly.

"I think Shiro is on him." Kane said, getting the next person into the harness. A bright flare of fire at the bow of the ship exploded, shuddering the decks. "We're running out of time here." Garrison suddenly froze. His eyes glazed over as the telepathic hold slammed into his mental shields, and began to take them apart. "Tango." he was able to mutter before they fell.

Tango was one of the codewords for a psychic attack, and the last thought Kane could get out. Almost entirely hidden in the storm was a flying blue skinned woman, who was concentrating on shutting down the mutant she could see, before planning to surprise the pilot of the escape ship that she and her fellow Guardsmen had been sent to crash. Tango didn't mean anything to her almost fluent english.

Flipping the switch to pull up the next person, Marie dove out of the ship with a short prayer that the winds wouldn't stress the autopilot too much before she was able to return. Garrison wasn't responding to calls to raise him on the comms, so her eyes searched the skies and surface of the ship for a sign. Her lip curled as she saw a blue skinned mutant looking in Kane's direction, hovering between the Blackbird and the ship. Damned countertransference. she thought as images of another blue skinned woman flashed through her mind. Packing all her anger into her speed, she found herself enjoying the surprised "oomph" the woman made as Rogue slammed into her.

Oracle shrieked at the sudden impact, Marie's rushing slamming into her like an oncoming truck. The blow destroyed her hold on Kane's mind, and he began to shake his head clear as she desperately clawed to stay in the sky. Her back was aching and she couldn't focus enough to try and turn her powers back on Rogue.

Keeping her grip on the woman, Rogue shifted her grasp so that she held one of Oracle's wrists in her gloved hand. Without warned, she pirouetted like a ballerina, then released, watching the blue skinned woman soar through the air before splashing into the ocean far from the ship. "Alright Dominion, let's get this rescue back on track, shall we?"

"Great, my ex just rescued me from an evil Smurf." Kane said, as he shook away the cobwebs and started back to loading more of the crew up into the ship. "Thanks for the save, Rogue." Kane's welcome grin could be heard over the comm.

Wildchild and Bubba run straight into the Imperial Guard, in a desperate fight belowdecks.



The ship was pitching in the ten foot seas, lashed with rain and illuminated by weak yellow lights and the occasional blast of fire from the Indian ships that were trying to trap it between them and the coast. The ship had taken damage, and was wallowing in the way that suggested cracks below the waterline. Already the deck sported twisted and charred metal craters from shells and perhaps more.

Through the blinding rain, Kane had translated for the first mate that there were still men belowdecks, and Ororo had dispatched Lil and Kyle with a nod towards the main hatchway to the cargo areas and belowdeck compartments. "Now I know how freight feels," the blonde woman groaned, bracing herself against a fallen beam as she made her way through the mess that was the underbelly of the ship. "Soggy freight. Here's hoping we find whoever's trapped down here before they drown," Lil added, nodding to the water that was trickling in through a hull.

Kyle was having an easier time moving, using his natural agility to move with the ship as it pitched in the water, but easier by much. The worst of the waves occasionally caught him offguard, and he'd been keeping a hand or foot against a bulkhead for stability. "Or we sink." He wasn't particularly optimistic about this at all.

"Or we sink," Lil agreed with a bob of her head. Adding boats to the list of 'ways not to travel' the Amazon continued to carefully make her way through the debris, keeping her eyes and ears open for signs of the missing men. "So, did you piss off Ororo or did I to get us stuck with this part of the search and rescue?" "Must've been you. I got stuck with it 'cause I'm good at it." Kyle said with a shrug. The smell of 'human being' was a little hard to pick out under salt water, metal, storm, and the smoke from the attacks, but not impossible. Listening was harder, with the pounding rain and waves crashing against the metal of the ship making his ears ring.

Lil clicked her tongue and shook her head, still following behind him but not closely enough so that a toss of the ship would send them crashing into each other. "Yeah, well, you and the super nose lead on then. I'll just sit back and look pretty 'til me or my diamond skin can be of any use."

The compartment up ahead was already knee deep with water, and cargo had been broken from their restraining lines and strewn about. Random bits bobbed on the dark surface, and from the door, they could see a man thrashing, pinned under a large crate, barely able to stretch his neck enough to stay above the rising waters.

"Fuck." Kyle had to pick his way through the water - bare feet and murky water were not a great combination. Still, he reached the man as fast as Lil did, as the water began to close over the trapped crewmember's face. "Fuck fuck fuck, can you get this thing off him?" He didn't speak in, and didn't need to, it was pretty obvious what they were there to do.

As Lil moved in to heft the crate, Kyle got behind the man to pull him free, thanking God that the man was thrashing. Thrashing meant he could move, and moving meant he could BE moved.

The blonde woman grunted as she muscled the crate away from the fallen crewmen, looking to help free him as quickly as possibly but while avoiding causing him more injuries. Using her strength, Lil rocked the cargo back onto a corner furthest from the man and held, giving Kyle time to yank him out of danger's way. "Put a little speed on it," she requested, through bared teeth. "Working on it." It came out as a series of grunts as Kyle got his hands under the man's arms and finally got him upright. "Can you walk?" He asked, making the walking motion with his fingers, and only letting go of the man when he nodded at the gesture and they got him to the doorway.

"There's at least one dead body in there." He said, but only once the crewmember was carefully picking his way back, and Kyle and Lil were both again headed towards the rising water. "I can smell shit, and it wasn't from that guy."

"Gross," Lil replied, her nose wrinkling in disgust. Death wasn't something she was used to encountering yet and there were certainly enough less-than-pleasant aspects that made her want to keep it that way. Their continued trek was made slowly and it wasn't until they'd almost made it to the doorway of the second hold that the blonde stopped, throwing an arm out to halt Kyle as well. "Hear that?" she asked, cocking her head in the direction of the other room where the faint sound of something tapping against metal pinged beneath the rush of water. The tapping continued, a steady thump of metal against metal. But the doorway was a solid black void, and even the hold around them seemed to grow darker and more oppressive. The sounds of the storm fought its way below decks, adding to the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped inside a sinking metal tomb.

And suddenly, there was light.

An impossibly bright beam lanced out from the darkness to catch Lil full in the face; a riotous explosion of stimulus that cracked up her optic nerves and punched out the front half of her brain with too much intensity to shut out. Kyle watched as the darkness seemed to split somehow, and a glowing woman stepped into the hold.

[One is down, Nightside.] The glowing woman said, and another figure, dark haired and with traces of shadow chasing themselves across her form joined her.

[Excellent work, Manta. This one will pose little effort. Leaving the trapped crewman as bait worked.] Tamisrā said, and Chandrikā nodded before turning back to Kyle.

Kyle had no idea what language the pair were using, but the message was clear just by their expressions. "Schyeah, right." Claws were out, hands and feet, and he crouched down, sinking into the water up to his shoulders, and then went under. The dim light and murky water, he hoped, would shield him from whatever the woman with the light powers could do, and if the other woman had some kind of darkness thing, he wouldn't be able to rely on his eyes anyway. Most importantly, he knew where most of the debris in the water was, more or less, and they couldn't possibly know.

She was really going to have to talk to Forge or someone about adding a pair of sunglasses to her leathers. Blind, on her ass, in a pool of water that contained shit and God knew what else while some jerks jabbered away? Not the best day. Especially now that she couldn't place where Kyle had gotten to. Taking a deep breath, the Amazon prayed to whatever deities existed that her instincts were right before raising her hands to prove herself unarmed as she very slowly shifted onto her knees. Keep the attention on herself while Kyle put some sort plan into action. "So. Um. That was one hell of an entrance. You guys do parties and corporate events?"

The non-glowing woman smiled, and the shadows built around her, simply wiping away her presence from the room. The other woman was glowing softly, but seemed to just be waiting. The blast from the back of the room was entirely unexpected, slamming into Kyle like a truck from behind, pitching him facefirst into the water.

[Excellent work, Nightside.] The figure's face was entirely concealed behind a large visor, and his body was wrapped in anonymous black leather. The shadows touched around him in goodbye as the blackness slithered out the open door, and now the two guardsmen closed on the two X-Men.

[She will support Ifrit and Titan's withdrawl. We need to end this quickly.]

The blow did more than knock Kyle down. He struggled under the water, arms flailing until he hit something solid and pulled himself up. He came up gasping out mouthfuls of water, and croaking out Lil's codename, barely understandably.

The choked call of 'Bubba' sent the blind, blonde woman springing into action. Basing her attack on the way she felt the waves of water flowing and ebbing around her torso and the sound of the pair moving, Lil launched from her kneeling position onto her feet and charged the form she judged to be closest like one of the Giant's defensemen she'd started taking a liking to.

Kyle was never going to play football with Lil. Ever. Still coughing out water, he lunged for the glowing woman, shutting his eyes as he moved. He could hear the water splashing if she moved, he knew where she had been standing, and he hoped shadow-bitch couldn't help both the woman and whoever had taken him down.

Pulsar went down heavily as Lil crashed into him, but she couldn't feel anything like bones or flesh under his leather. It was like it had been filled with nothing more than malleable plastic. Still, the blow from the short range optic blast was enough to snap her head back, and tear holes in the ceiling from where it had been deflected to.

Chandrikā circled Kyle, seeing him with his eyes shut, and occasionally pulsing him hard enough that his eyelids flared red from the blast.

The flashes were distracting and painful enough that Kyle did more stumbling and splashing around in the water than getting close to the light-emitting woman. The few times he did connect, it was glancing blows, enough to tell that despite her slight frame, she was as solid as any of the X-Women he'd sparred with. And enough for him to know that he was at a serious disadvantage.

He circled around her, and listened closely to the sounds that he and Lil, and their opponents were making in the water. Besides the five of them, nothing else was moving. He knew there was a body, at least one, in the water. He'd smelled it, and nearly stepped on it. If there were more crewmembers trapped down here, they weren't moving, and if they weren't moving, they were dead - or dying.

"Bubba, pull back!" Kyle hoped Lil would be able to follow his voice. He couldn't see her, she couldn't see him, and he could track by sound. He had no idea if she could or not. "Nobody down here except us and them." They'd gotten one crewmember out and that would have to be enough because getting pulped or drowned or burnt or shadow'd wouldn't do shit for anyone else.

Lil's head jerked toward the sound of Kyle's voice, long wet strands of gold hanging in a limp curtain around her face. Oh, this couldn't be good. Struggling to her feet, the Amazon stomped hard on the lump she'd fallen on then hurried in the direction she judged her partner to be in. One hand reached out and failed until she managed to catch him with a grunt of "Come on, 'Child" and kept running. Lil kept her other arm out, searching blindly for the doorway they'd come though. When the two stumbled back into the other room, the blonde woman spun, pulling down the low hanging beams she remembered dangling there to seal off the exit and instructed Kyle to do the same.

Metal lunched and whined before falling into the rising water, causing Lil to stumble back. "They still behind us?" she panted, leaning heavily on the wall as she worked to catch her breath, rubbing at her neck.

He didn't hear anything, but he hadn't heard them coming in either, so his senses were about as useful as Lil's. "Don't think so, but I'm not sure." Kyle grunted. "Fuck. No way we can deal with them." He could see, but his face hurt like it'd been badly sunburned and he was pretty sure at least one rib had cracked. "Gotta get back to the rest of the team. Those assholes probably aren't alone."

Wolverine and Amara try to protect the crew trapped at the bow of the ship, against a very unusual boarding party.



The bow of the ship once again smashed down at the end of a runnel, spraying foam and seawater up onto the decks. The storm was lashing rain and howling winds around the turbulent seas, and grabbing on to the guiderails had saved more than one person from getting sucked overboard. The only positive thing about the storm was that it was keeping the Indian naval ships from closing and simply blowing the boat out of the water. Maybe they wanted prisoners.

Regardless, Logan and Amara had been dispatched to the bow, where several of the crew had reported a small vessel in the water coming towards them, and having taken fire from it. It was a long open path between the bow tower and where they were loading the crew into the Blackbird off the stern, and it offered no protection if a landing party was inbound.

There was something really quite frustrating about trying to work through the rain - at least for Amara. Cold and wet were definitely not something she enjoyed, and powering up wasn't something she wanted to do quite yet. Being a-flame was just presenting too much of a target for her liking. Her gaze swept out towards the ocean, and only just ducking in time to avoid being hit by fire from the vessel that was getting closer and closer. Well, at least she didn't have to worry about being a target anymore. She quickly powered up, going from a very damp and straggly X-Men trainee to a woman a-flame with a burst of light and hiss of steam.

"Nice trick." Logan said with a grin. He was tempted to light a cigar off her skin, but that'd probably be not precisely welcome. All the water in the air was doing a damnedably good job of scrubbing the air clean of scents. "All right, kid, how do you want to play this?" he asked the trainee. "And try not to set the boat on fire, all right?" he added wryly.

The crew jumped back at the sudden flaming figure appearing, but any attempts to further back away were stopped by a scream from the man who had been keeping watch on the helm. The sailor had been all but torn in half by a long scything claw blow, from a demonic looking red-skinned figure that perched on the rail. Behind him, an improbably large hand reached up to grab the rails, bending them like twigs as he did so, and a ten foot giant pulled himself on to the deck.

[One down.] The red skinned creature growled.

[Don't get sloppy, Ifrit. Daciot says we have opposition. Mutant opposition.] The tall man said in a booming bass.

Amara smiled a little nervously to Logan. "I won't! It's really more heat and light than flame, and I really don't think the boat would burn all that well with all this rain anyway." Wait, she was babbling now, wasn't she? She'd just have to blame it on nerves. ... and being partnered with Logan, because really. That was just a little bit intimidating. Before she could say anything else, however, their quarry appeared.

If Amara could have gone pale, she would have, instead the light dimmed a second before flaring even brighter. She tilted her chin up, her gaze focused solely on those boarding the boat, working hard not to look at the dead sailor. An Aquilla didn't flinch from battle, but it was possible she would if she focused on the remains.

"I can try and keep them at bay as long as possible, my flames won't go out, even in this weather."

Just to demonstrate, she raised her hands and fire streamed from them, a wall of flame seperating Ifrit from the rest of the crew.

"Just watch my back, kid." he said, popping his claws and charging across the somewhat slick deck towards the clawed demon-looking thing. Put him down then worry about the big guy. Protect the civvies, take the OpFor down. He grinned slightly to himself as he ran.

"You will surrender." The giant said in halting English, obviously repeating a memorized phrase. Ifrit didn't bother to listen. As the flames raged infront of him, the man started to change, his skin growing lumpy and darker. After only a few seconds, he strode into the flames, ignoring them as they licked as his now thick and scaled hide which was virtually fireproof.

[Come on, little man.] He said, opening up his claws and waiting for Logan's charge amidst the fire. An obscenely long tongue licked his lips in anticipation.

Logan didn't bother with a kiai or other war-cry. He stutter-stepped to throw off his rhythm, then ducked in with both claws slashing, aiming for non-lethal but crippling targets. One set of claws looked to dig a chunk out of the meat of the demon's thigh and the other set went looking for ribs to break. The fire didn't even bother him at all, even though throwing down in wall of fire was invariably going to lead to someone burning.

Most likely him.

Not if Amara could help it. While she wasn't exactly good at fine control with her powers (there would be no flaming creatures from her), she'd do what she could to keep the flames away from Logan.

And keep her eye on the giant. Which could get interesting. With her attention split, attempting to control the flames wasn't going to be easy. She'd just have to hope none of the crew were dumb enough to come to close. Her gaze shifted to the giant, her fists clenching.

"I don't think we'll be doing that."

The giant shrugged and closed on the woman of fire, who was between him and the crew. His massive fists rent the bulkheads when he swung, and the fire barely seemed to touch him through his thick uniform.

Meanwhile, Ifrit had taken the rents from Wolverine's adamantium claws as part of the price for closing, as he tore two scything blows through the flesh on his chest and torso. He went as far as to sink his now elongated fangs into Logan's shoulder, and the X-Man could feel spikes starting to pierce his skin as Ifrit added yet another element to his combat form, growing bonehard spikes out of his hide for close combat.

Logan set to trying to flense the other mutant with his claws. No lethal hits yet, but maximum pain and maximum injury. Since his head was close enough to sink his fangs into Logan's shoulder, Logan raked for the other mutant's eyes with his own fingers. The other hand was raking with its claws down Ifrit's hide, looking to shed blood and shred muscle.

Gulp. Amara's hands flexed, fire streaming from her hands to blast the giant coming towards her. Backing up wasn't an option, even if it had occured to her - keeping these two as far away from the crew was far too important. So instead the streams of flame simply burned hotter than any flame had a right to in these conditions, her aura flaring brighter the closer he got.

The giant put up his arms to shield his face, but continued forward against the inferno. However, at his feet, the steel bulkhead was already starting to buckle from the weight and the heat. Each ponderous step warped the weakened metal, and the ship began to creak dangerously with the groaning metal.

Neither Wolverine or Ifrit paid any attention. Logan was pinned momentarily as the bony spikes suddenly jutted out an extra two feet, skewering him like a bird on a thorn bush. Ifrit used it to rake a new pair of dew claws down his front, and then retract the spikes, kicking himself back and away from Logan. They both circled warily on the burning deck, leaving trails of blood.

Logan didn't give Ifrit much time to get set and stay set - he sprung right back to the attack, the holes in his body starting to close. He was still rational, even if the bloodlust was rising and his ability to think and plan was starting to get a little shaky. This time he went for joints if he could get them - specifically, knees.

Amara watched the metal starting to warp around the giant's feet, and she directed the fire to help the process along. Flames licked at his feet and the metal continued to buckle further. A wave crashed over the side of the ship, the fire going out for a moment and Amara losing her footing. She flung out another couple of streams of fire along the deck as she struggled to get to her feet.

Seeing her stumble, Titan lunged forward, but his weight proved to be too much for the weakened bulkheads. The plates buckled under him, and before he could reach and crush Amara, the whole section of the hull bowed outwards and sagged towards the waves. Titan went over heavily, hitting the water with a splash audible even over the wind.

Ifrit had forced Logan back from his attack, at the cost of bloody rents in his legs, when he heard the crash, and saw his partner disappear under the waves. He muttered a curse, and abandoned the fight with Logan, diving into the water, already growing webbing for his feet and hands as he hit the surface of the sea. The ship was now starting to take on water heavily, and it wouldn't be long before it sunk.

With wide eyes, Amara watched both of their adversaries go over the side of the ship, and she sagged with relief. She powered down, pushing herself up off the deck and surveying the damage for a second. She and Logan were nowhere near as heavy as the creatures they'd been fighting - but it was time for them to get off the ruined deck before they got tossed overboard as well.

"Wolverine! Let's go!"

Logan was on the ball - his uniform had seen better days but every place where it was torn or punctured only revealed whole and unpunctured flesh beneath. "We gotta get the people off!" he hollered back. "So let's go!"

Storm and Sunfire run into the leader of the Imperial Guard, and a mutant with a familiar looking powers set.



From the air, the ship looked like a toy, being tossed around by white-spumed waves, almost lost in the ferocity of the storm. The visibility was bad, but even through the rain, the Indian naval vessels were lit up like tiny islands, and their purpose was clear; drive the ship between them and the coast, leaving it no option beyond a futile fight or surrender.

For a moment, it looked like a flare had been sent up by the lead boat, but it quickly resolved itself into a trail of plasma. It was as good as an announcement that the reports were correct, and the Indian Navy had mutants onboard as a strike force.

"Excellent," Shiro spat, looking out the window onto the scene below. "An Indian me. What is the saying? Fight fire with napalm? Let me out." He carefully held onto the railing near the hatch as it opened, and without a further word stepped out and ignited his fire form, rocketing forth to confront his apparent double. "Oi! Aho!" he taunted, and launched a small fireball, more to get his attention than anything else.

[They appear to be hostile.] Dhūm-ketu said, banking right to avoid the blast. Daciot simply grunted in reply. They angled off towards the ship, only now starting to see the black shape of the plane hovering in time with it.

[This is Daciot. There appear to be mutants helping the pirates escape. Be advised that mutant opposition is expected. You are cleared for lethal force.] The leader of the Imperial Guard said over his headset, skimming through the fierce winds. [Starbolt, the plane is our primary objective.]

[It will make a nice explosion.] Dhūm-ketu promised, whether they were trying to stop him or not

A good part of Ororo's attention was involved in maintaining the storm, whipping the wind and waves just so in order to make it difficult for their opponents to mount resistance while not endangering anyone's lives. She joined Shiro in the sky, however, as soon as the mutants made a move towards the plane.

As the mutants swooped in, Daciot took the lead ahead of Dhūm-ketu, trusting in his invulnerability to shield the other man. He could see the mutants up ahead; both flyers, a black woman and a Japanese man. Interesting.

"You are interfering with an anti-piracy operation of the Indian Navy. Surrender immediately or we will take action." He said in excellent English, his voice booming over the sounds of the storm.

Shiro's eyes narrowed, and he hoped that he looked intimidating behind his fiery veil despite his stature. "You would 'take action' whether or not we surrendered. Stop pretending to be noble."

Nobility or not, surrender was not an option anymore, and Ororo preferred to get this across to their opponents without any words. A twisting wind rushed towards them, impeding their flight path momentarily as Ororo and Shiro positioned themselves between the plane and the Guardsmen.

[Starbolt, burn that ship. I'll hold them off.] Daciot said, and his fellow guardsman executed a tight reverse loop that sent him twisting down to skim over the waves at high speeds, fire trailing from his wake as he sped towards the Blackbird.

Daciot's flying was much less complex, simply barreling straight in at the X-Men, looking to engage them directly.

Shiro dodged as quickly as he could managed, shocked by his attacker's speed, and fired a wide blast of plasma at him. "Rogue, you had better move now!" he shouted over the comms, and fired another burst to hopefully distract Daciot long enough to give Shiro a chance to disengage him and move to his Indian double.

Seeing that Shiro had already provided distraction for the guardsman heading their way, Ororo turned her attention to the other man, noting his proximity to the water and the fiery trail behind him. With some effort, she stirred the waves around him to a fever pitch, making it so he would have to risk flying straight through the churning waters or rise to meet them.

Dhūm-ketu was forced to pull up, to avoid smacking straight into the waves. He pivoted and let loose a stream of plasma blasts at Storm, looking to catch her in a shotgun like approach to his attack, seeing if she'd make a mistake to put herself out of the air.

Daciot simply shrugged off the plasma wash from Shiro, the wide burst not enough to slow his advance. He was trying to close with Shiro, where he could get his hands on him and cause some serious damage.

Luckily Ororo had more than enough flying experience to keep her from making any rookie mistakes, though she did have to fall back slightly as the blasts came sizzling towards her in the rain. "Shiro," she said over the comms, "we need to trade foes. How much closer do you need to be to fire at this man?"

Not many could ignore Shiro's attacks like they were nothing more than a momentary annoyance. The X-Man rocketed backwards to keep out of Daciot's reach and blasted again, this time focusing the nuclear flame into an almost white-hot intensity. "Just take this one off of me and I can take the other!" he cried back.

"Gladly." There was a rumble of thunder overhead from the darkened clouds, and then a forked tongue of lightning licked out, directly towards Daciot. If it didn't hit him it would surely distract him long enough to let Shiro make his move.

The sky filled with the smell of ozone as the lightning lanced down and cracked into Daciot. Surprisingly, the man stayed in the air, but his clothes were a smoking ruin, and his face was streaked black.

An angry glare settled on Ororo.

"That hurt." He growled, and shot towards her.

Meanwhile, Dhūm-ketu's journey to the plane had been interrupted by a couple of carefully aimed cargoboxes flung from the stern at him by Dominion, forcing him to loop once more and gain altitude to renew his attack.

"Hey, asshole!" Shiro shouted just seconds before ramming into Dhūm-ketu. Nuclear flame would be useless, but Shiro always liked to be in the melee more, anyway. He slammed his foot against his enemy's ribs with a powerful roundhouse and quickly followed with a quick flurry of jabs to his torso.

Using the gale winds, Ororo repelled Daciot, both from herself and the plane. She knew they did not have much time; both the guardsmen were obviously bent on getting to the vehicle and it was only a matter of time before one of them slipped by. She primed the lightning again, not knowing how much her opponent could take but seeing little other alternative. "Rogue, Dominion - how much longer?"

Kane shouted into the comm over the howling wind. "We've got the crew onboard! We just need a minute or two to get the rest of our people back on!"

Dhūm-ketu had been buffeted by Shiro's blows, but he was a highly trained military officer, and that training reasserted itself as he caught one of Shiro's wrists, twisted it aside, and slammed his elbow right into the bridge of Shiro's nose with a crack.

Meanwhile, Daciot was growing frustrated. Storm's winds were keeping him separated from the plane and from her, either of which he could destroy with a single blow if he could land it. He redoubled his efforts, pushing against the galeforce, stretching to reach his target.

Shiro recoiled from the blow and instinctually released a wave of plasma in all directions. The heat wouldn't harm Dhūm-ketu, but the force was enough to separate the two and give Shiro the opportunity to regroup and launch another assault, despite the blood dripping from his nose. "How do you expect to attain moksha when you enslave children?" he snarled.

The plasma turned the rain around them to steam, and the haze befuddled Dhūm-ketu long enough for a gale to pull him off balance. He was forced to break off and climb for altitude, unless he wanted to risk running flat into the waves.

It wasn't often that a lightning strike, wind funnel and freak wave all hit one particular place at once, but the advantage to being a weatherworker was that impossibilities like that became much more achievable. It was only unfortunate for Dacoit that he happened to be at that particular place at that particular time time.

The very air around him burned, as the funnel channeled the electricity in all directions and smashed into him. He was disoriented when the wave slammed him from the air, and he spent a brief moment not knowing which way was up as he clawed for the surface. Daciot exploded out of the water, holding his barely functioning comset to his ear.

[Imperial guard, fall back.] He croaked. He wasn't hurt much, but his battle plan had totally come apart, and now he needed to regroup his forces before launching another assault. His superiors wanted those pirates, but losing more guardsmen wasn't worth the risk of a disjointed assault.

Shiro bit back another taunt as the two retreated, and floated still for a moment in contemplation before following Storm back to the Blackbird. "Fucker broke my nose."

***

The X-Men collected in the Blackbird, and with the last person aboard, Marie hit the jets and the doomed ship was left behind to sink in the seas as the crew enjoyed a remarkably smooth ride back to Madripoor. Each crewmember shook their hands before stepping out on to the free soil of their home, leaving the X-Men with a sense of accomplishment, but also that of forboding. How many shipments had gotten through? How many children were now being turned into weapons? It was a question that burned them all in the long flight back home.