Clause 16 - Daring Rescue

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Shiro, Amanda, and Wanda attempt to save Walter Lawson from The Hand before he is sacrificed on a dark altar.


Shiro stepped out of the taxi and absently handed over the fare to the driver, his attention focused on Minato's newest (and still standing) construction project. The imposing structure of metal, glass, and concrete stood all the more foreboding under the gathering thunderstorm. That the streets were near empty made the scene that much more ghostly. He quickly crossed the street and grabbed a hold of the lock that secured the chain fence around the tower. A second later he dropped a half-melted ball of metal, and kicked the gate open.

"Thank you for saving me the trouble of doing that myself."

Wanda appeared from around the corner, slipping her wallet back into her pocket as she took in Shiro and then the building that seemed to go on forever above them. She and Amanda had just paid their own taxi driver around the block, deciding it was better if they approached the building on foot for a block or two. "Well, I suppose this place could be worse. Hang a few gargoyles on it and it just might be able to convey a little more menace."

At her side, Amanda shivered - not from the cold, but from the energies she could sense gathering at the top of the tower. "I'm amazed every magic user in Tokyo isn't picking this up and heading for the nearest bomb shelter," she remarked. "There's definitely something trying to get through up there."

"What is it?" Although that was mostly a rhetorical question. If The Hand was preparing a magical ritual that required the abduction of a powerful mutant, there were few possibilities.

"Our friend was right," Wanda replied, coming to a stop next to him. Her gaze was still on the building as she continued to eye it with unease. She might not be as sensitive to the energies gathering around them but a sense of unease was certainly growing, especially once they had walked onto the property itself. "Whatever their ultimate goal is, the Hand seem to be going to extreme lengths to achieve it. They're testing the walls between dimensions, looking for weak spots to either open or exploit and we are currently standing at ground zero, by the way. Comforting thought, that."

"It gets better." Amanda's voice was slightly distant as she closed her eyes, feeling out the magic in the area. Definitely nothing beneficial. "The building that fell was on one hotspot - somehow they booby-trapped it to fall and the destructive energy and loss of life was supposed to open a gate. When you and your mate stopped the ritual, the energy hung around and they've managed to add that to what's going on up there. This hotspot isn't as strong as the other, but they've got enough oomph, between that energy and whatever they get out of Lawson, to rip open the dimensional wall. And from what you said about the last time you tangled with these fuckers, that isn't going to be a land of fluffy bunnies and rainbows." When she opened her eyes again, there was the slightest spark in them. "We need to get up there and stop whatever they're doing."

"One would think that they would try something new after being defeated the first time," Shiro growled, trying to get a view of the top floors through the gaps in the construction. "Fine. I will meet you at the top." He was in the air before they could protest. He felt the winds buffeting him and thunder clapping loudly around him, but ignored them. They were a warning he should have paid heed to, and when he approached the top floors, was blinded by a brilliant blue light that seemed to sear his brain. The next thing he knew it was seconds later and he was halfway back to the earth. The only thing that stopped him from plummeting into a Shiro-shaped grave was a blast of plasma beneath him, the force of which bounced him back into the air long enough to regain his footing so he could land.

"We may need to rethink this."

"If at first you don't succeed..." Amanda could have been referring to the Hand's persistence or to their own problem. Taking a breath, she opened herself to Tokyo's energy, trying to merge with it the same way she had in New York and in London. The difference here was that she or the city wasn't in mortal danger, but she hoped Tokyo would be big enough to give her a way around that. She sank quickly into the mud of the building site, as if she'd stepped into a hole, but only a few seconds later she resurfaced, clothes and hair muddy. She spat out some dirt. "Fucking portal magics," she grumbled, squinting up at the building. "They're messing with things too much."

Wanda stared blandly at the two of them when they turned to her. “Oh stop looking at me like that. The only way I can travel is on my own power and that is something that magical interference will not complicate. Or, well, it should not at any rate. It looks like the two of you are currently in the same boat.” She didn’t even look up towards the top this time, just shook her head and headed for the main doors. “Hopefully you both wore your comfortable shoes because I somehow doubt the elevator is working. The Hand would have probably seen to that.”

The inside was mostly dark, illuminated by a few flickering lamps tied to the columns that lined the hallway and the more frequent bolts of lightning outside. A quick infrared scan down the lobby revealed that they were alone, at least presently. "I suggest treading softly," Shiro said as he followed Wanda to the staircase. It seemed sturdy enough. "The Hand are what the legends of ninja are based."

At his words, red light winked out of existence. Not because Wanda was afraid of that the Hand would spot them because of it but because she'd seen enough of their current levels. "I would also advice walking carefully," she returned, trying to test her weight on the stairs and hurry at the same time. "This place might have been structurally sound before the Hand sunk their claws into it but now even the integrity of the building is being threatened."

"Joy," Amanda muttered. She was feeling, despite Tokyo's power, very vulnerable; her hand-to-hand skills were adequate, but certainly not up to ninja standard and she didn't fancy getting the Touch of Death or whatever the fuck they did. And until she worked out a way to have a non-glowy shielding spell, there was no chance of pre-emptive protective casting. "If I die, Shiro, I'm coming back to haunt you."

"A price I may be willing to consider," Shiro muttered. He'd much rather have had his team with him, but there was no time, and the serendipity of two allies being on this side of the Pacific had to be utilized. They climbed the first flight without incident, and then the second. Shiro put a hand on the railing as they turned to the third, and he noticed a flicker in the blackness above them. He cursed and turned around. "They have found us. Into the hallway! There is no space for us to fight in here."

A hex blast blew out the door leading to the hallway but even as Wanda was jumping through the remains, a heavy weight slammed into her back and sent her sprawling. The landing was hard as she was so off balance she couldn’t roll with it properly, sliding along the ground as the Hand member who had thrown himself at her flipped away, out of range of another hastily thrown blast.

Well, at least they didn't have to worry about being sneaky any more. Amanda clapped her hands together and brought up her shielding spell, but rather than casting it around herself, she used it as a battering ram to shove the ninja who had downed Wanda into the wall as hard as she could. The air exploded from his lungs and he dropped to his knees - not out of the fight, but at least Wanda would have time to get back up - and almost immediately she retracted the shield into a glowing neon ball around herself. No point taking any chances this time.

The older woman managed to regain her feet, grabbing onto an unfinished wall to heave herself back to standing. Two more figures were moving in from the sides but Wanda ignored them, confident that the others could handle them. And the fact that the one in front of her was moving meant she had more immediate concerns.

A sudden explosion of fire stopped the ninja on Wanda's right from advancing, and with barely a change in stride, he pivoted a launched a shuriken in Shiro's direction. Only the X-Man's speed saved him from being sliced through by the metal star that embedded itself in the concrete behind him.

The line of fire suddenly flared as it encountered flammable material as the ninja shifted his stance, trying to split his attention between Wanda and Shiro. A step in the wrong direction and the fire was suddenly leaping up his clothes, flaring bright and hungry as he screamed and attempted to put himself out, throwing himself down on the floor in his attempts. It helped and it was obvious that the fire hadn’t really gotten to any flesh or important bits – right as Wanda’s foot came crashing down on his head, driving it onto the floor hard enough that he was knocked out.

Shiro slipped past Wanda to intercept the third ninja leaping into the fray. The dark-robed assassin expertly threw a pair of bo-shuriken, and an arc of fire deflected them. The ninja slipped under the attack and came at Shiro with a foot long blade. He dodged and made a grab for the ninja's wrist, but the ninja was too agile and effortlessly stepped out of reach, tossing another shuriken as he moved back.

A glowing tendril of magic shot forward, intercepting and bouncing the shuriken back at the ninja. It hit the man in the shoulder before he could twist away and his backward movement became a momentary stumble. Amanda took advantage of the pause to repeat the technique of before, shoving her shield forward. This time, however, she used more force and the ninja slammed back against the wall with an audible crunch before falling to the ground in a limp bundle of black cloth and limbs bent in strange directions.

Blowing strands of hair out of her face, Wanda turned towards the other two. "Right, as much fun as whack a ninja can be, we're going to encounter this on every floor between here and the very high top. We might have to forget caution and just rely on speed."

"I am inclined to agree. Ikuzo." The three ran back to the stairwell and raced up, all senses focused on the next trap. It came at the fifth floor. The door flew off its hinges and Shiro had to slam back against the wall to avoid it. He responded with a wide blast of plasma to clear the doorway.

"Great. I needed a breather," Amanda puffed - running up that many flights of stairs was making her regret her half-pack-a-day habit. Snapping her fingers, she summoned her werelight and sent it zipping into the room to sniff out any survivors. Several small impact noises followed as shuriken were thrown through the glowing ball of light, hitting walls and fixtures. "Looks like we've got a couple left. Wanda, you want the honours?"

“My pleasure.” It was not necessary, really, for her to see inside the room – safer, perhaps, but not necessary. And as she highly doubted there would be any innocent people Wanda decided that it was more prudent to not stick her head in a room filled with the Hand. She pressed herself up against the wall next to the door and Looked at her powers, waiting for the right moment. Someone shifted and the lines changed enough that a simple touch had all hell breaking loose inside.

"That . . . was kind of cool." The Hand's advantage of lying in wait in a construction site was turned on its head when Wanda's attack loosened all sorts of half-secured bundles and weights. Shiro led the charge up to the next floor and nearly fell back to the ground floor when a stair crumbled beneath his foot. He stumbled back into Amanda as the rest of the stairwell began to follow suit. "Fuck."

“Bollocks,” Amanda agreed, releasing her grip on the back of Shiro's collar - she'd grabbed him instinctively when he'd stumbled. This next floor was bare bones - exposed beams and scaffolding to stop the workers from falling to their deaths, the wind whipping the plastic sheeting hanging from the ceiling. "Looks like we've got the jungle gym option, at least?"

As they edged out onto the scaffolding, the wind noticeably picked up. Wanda clamped a hand on a beam as she tried to find her feet and stared at something that wasn’t the ground. She wasn’t afraid of heights but being this far up without some sort of security would shake most people. “Some of this has to be coming from whatever they’re doing up there!”

Shiro flew slowly alongside the two women. After his last vertical adventure, flying too quickly or alone could be disastrous. "The storm has not changed yet in intensity. That means that Lawson is still alive, yes? Any estimate on how much longer we have?"

Amanda swore under her breath, inching along the scaffolding. Heights weren’t a big issue normally, but in these conditions every movement was precarious and it was a hell of a long way down. Besides, she wouldn’t put it past those ninja bastards to make another appearance just in case their stair sabotage failed. “Summoning spell like this needs a lot of power,” she gritted out between clenched teeth. “Not quite there yet, but soon. Maybe a half hour, tops? If we’re lucky.”

Or they could have killed him already and were using the corpse as power in the spell – though unlikely considering the strength of the storm. Still, Wanda decided it was best to not mention that to Shiro. She reached an ‘intersection’ and paused with her back to a beam. “You are going to need a lift up,” she told Amanda, cupping her hands in front of her.

“Stupid genetics,” the witch grumbled, holding onto the scaffold as she carefully placed one booted foot in Wanda’s hands. “No wonder the army has height limits – this is fucking ridiculous.” Still muttering in that vein, she was boosted upwards to where she could reach the next batch of scaffold… only to suddenly yelp and duck as a short sword flashed in the dim light, narrowly missing her head and cutting a few strands of blonde hair.

Shiro flew past her to distract the ninja and give the two the chance to climb. The ninja jumped onto the adjacent bar to avoid Shiro's attack, and drew a symbol with his free hand. The air around them cooled and a barrage of icicles launched themselves at Shiro. He didn't take the chance to see if his powers could hold up to magic, and dropped down so they flew over his head and nearly ripped through a girder behind him.

There were ninja coming straight at them and Wanda still had her hands full with Amanda. "Get the shield up, I have an idea!" she gasped, struggling to make sure her coworker didn't plummet off the building.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Amanda let go of her deathgrip on the scaffolding long enough to slap her hands together, grabbing on again before she toppled right off the side of the building. She'd managed to encompass Wanda in the shield by virtue of the fact that anything else would have also knocked her off the building.

There was a moment before the shield went up that Wanda almost lost her grip but she managed to keep it together long enough for Amanda to do her thing. The approaching ninja was coming fast, above and angled and with his magic there was a chance that he could breach it. But Wanda had a trick left up her sleeve.

She waited until the last minute before gripping Amanda tightly with one arm while the other one shot out to connect with the shield surrounding them. It wobbled but held as Wanda manipulated her own powers, using them in conjunction with Amanda's - it screwed with them, as always, and did exactly what she had meant it to do.

It turned to concrete around them and she grinned at the dull thud and slid as the Hand member couldn't turn to avoid it.

Shiro just stepped out of the way (so to speak) to let the ninja fall the six stories to his doom. There was little time to regroup, though, as another three ninja seemed to materialize out of nowhere and attacked in unison. "How are there so many of them?" Shiro demanded. "They have an army of clones."

"That," Wanda grunted, shoving Amanda the rest of the way up before scaling it herself, "is not funny." She watched with narrow eyes as she sent another one falling to the ground - he had landed on the wooden platform that could be winched up right as the ropes snapped and broke.

Amanda landed with an ‘oof!’ on the next level of scaffolding, clinging to whatever was solid. One of the new ninja obviously considered her a soft target – he barely glanced at her before drawing his sword and advancing. What happened next was purely instinct – Amanda held up a hand to ward him off, and in response the pipes comprising the scaffolding came alive, whipping around to seize the black-clad man and hurl him away. Of course, with several critical pipes no longer doing their job of holding things together, the whole structure shuddered and swayed.

Shiro aimed a blast at the third attacker's feet. Though the ninja had retained his balance through the wobbling like a professional acrobat, apparently his shoes weren't designed to take white-hot metal. He fell off with a yelp but grabbed onto a pole a few feet below, and crawled back up almost monkeylike. The ninja drew a mudra with his fingers, and the familiar burning odor of ozone permeated the building. Thunder rumbled overhead and a white bolt of lightning snaked down from the heavens to strike the ninja.

The last thing Shiro should have done was relax his guard. The ninja thrust his hands forward and redirected the lightning at the X-Man. The resultant explosion from the meeting of positively-charged plasma with negatively-charged electricity flung Shiro clear across the building, and he fell half-conscious onto a swaying platform below.

“For fuck’s sake, will you lot bugger off!” Amanda cried out in exasperation. Between hanging on for grim death to an unstable scaffolding and trying to avoid getting her head cut off, or electrocuted, or stuck full of shuriken, she was well and truly fed up with the whole scenario. The shielding spell went around Shiro, to stop him wandering off the platform, but that left her with divided attention – she barely rolled out of the way of the ninja appearing from above, lashing out with her feet. Not being a martial arts expert, the ninja saw the kick coming and leapt over it easily – if he hadn’t been wearing a mask, his sneer at her amateurish efforts would have been clearly visible. He responded with his own kick, this one landing squarely in Amanda’s side and causing her to lose the shielding spell around Shiro as she gasped in pain and tried to catch her breath again.

Pushing hair out of her face, Wanda started forward with the intent to help Amanda. But the beam she was on wasn't stable and a surge of magic from above them meant it was even less so. A groan of metal had Wanda scrambling to reach steadier ground.

"Gomen ne sunao ja nakute . . ." Shiro rubbed his eyes to clear away the stars and regain his bearings. He groaned as he pushed himself back to his feet, and immediately grabbed onto the chain holding it up before he lost his balance and toppled off. He couldn't fly without crashing into a wall, he was sure, so he settled for lobbing a fireball at the sorcerer who'd attacked him. The ninja sidestepped easily and drew another mudra.

“Well, this worked so well last time…” Amanda muttered and reached out for the pipes again. Doing it instinctively was one thing – trying to control them this time with Tokyo’s ample energy boost meant that various parts of the scaffolding were flailing around like a demented octopus, threatening friend and foe alike. “Head’s up!” she yelled to Wanda and Shiro.

Wanda was still trying to get more stable but saw her advantage as pieces flailed and surged under Amanda's influence. Taking a deep breath, Wanda leaped and barely managed to catch onto a rippling beam - it threw her in the direction she wanted and she smacked onto a steadier beam on the other side of Amanda, gasping and clutching at it desperately.

"Where did the tentacles come from? What are they doing to him?" A childish laugh escaped Shiro's mouth. It's possible that he was still a bit out of it from the lightning strike. But he was coherent enough to see the opening Amanda had given him, and the air around the distracted ninja ignited with another torrent of nuclear flame.

“They are not tentacles!” protested the witch, then took in the evidence. Long flailing limbs doing… something to one of the ninja that she figured was her subconscious frustrations coming out. “All right, maybe they are but it’s not my fault! I blame your country and its obsession with the bloody things!”

"Every day I am more and more convinced that I live in a manga. Today, apparently, is Urotsukidouji. Or La Blue Girl. I am going to call you La Blue Girl from now on." Shiro very carefully lifted off the platform and steadily floated up to the two women. "We need to get up there faster. I do not think we have a chance if they have any more powerful magicians like that one."

"Show us a better way up and we'll take it!" Wanda yelled from where she was now standing with a death grip on the metal.

Before anyone could respond to Wanda, the matter was decided for them – Amanda’s impatience translating to her magic. The scaffolding writhed again, metal ‘tentacles’ flailing around to grab each of them before they could protest, and then just as quickly hurling them upwards, only to be snagged again. Over and over the procedure repeated, several floors at a time, bypassing the remaining traps and opposition – any ninjas who tried to intervene found themselves wishing they hadn’t.

There wasn't even time to scream as the tentacles - Amanda had a lot to answer for - yanked them up faster and faster. Wanda blinked and suddenly they'd broken through to the top, dodging around girders and boards with ease.

Shiro landed on his feet, still a little stupefied but soon brought crashing back to reality. A wooden platform had been raised at the far end of the half-finished tower, and four figures in dark blue hanfu stood in a circle. They could see the Hand priests praying, their fingers dancing in the air as they drew their mudra to call down whatever powers they worshiped. Another half dozen ninja stood or crouched below the platform, apparently defenders should they be attacked. They took no time in taking the offense, and Shiro cut a swath of flame through the air to deflect the countless shuriken thrown at them.

Amanda was sweating now, the magic she'd been expending starting to take its toll, but nevertheless she called up another shielding spell, a neon flickering bubble around herself. "I'll get our bloke!" she yelled to the other two, knowing their powers would be far more useful in this sort of situation - if she could get to Walter, she'd be able to disrupt the spell and shield him from any further attempts. Ducking her head, she charged straight at the group of priests, knowing their sacrifice would be in the middle of the circle.

A group broke off in attempt to get around and behind Amanda but Wanda intercepted them before they could make it. She ducked a high kick and backed out of range, knowing that the odds against her rose if they were closer to her. Wanda used her height to her advantage, trying to gain more distance as she figured out the best form of attack.

They were outnumbered, three to one. Shiro might like those odds sometimes, but not when the three were ninja cultists figuratively holding a knife just millimeters over their sacrifice's heart. He leaped over a fireball and threw one of his own at his attacker, who dodged it with just as much ease. Shiro had some advantage in the air, but the continued cracking of thunder was an eerie reminder that it wasn't his domain alone. So he stayed close to the girders and zoomed past another ninja, leaving a trail of golden fire behind him, hoping to draw their fire entirely onto himself so Amanda could save Walter.

One of her attackers leaped at Wanda and landed in front of her before he threw a punch at her head. She saw the gleam of metal and knew it would be doubly bad if he landed it. Wanda dodged, throwing out her arm and managed to block the reverse blow, bringing it close and trapping it against her side.

Before he could kick at her, the palm of her hand slammed into the center of his chest with a burst of red light. As all of his ribs broke at the same time, he dropped with a scream.

Arcane lightning hit Amanda's shield with a sizzle, causing the witch to stagger momentarily, but she continued her forward movement, intent on the figure she could catch glimpses of in the middle. The Hand were apparently confident they wouldn't be stopped this time, to judge from the sheer firepower they'd brought - shuriken rained off her shield, bouncing willy-nilly, and blades snapped trying to pierce the mystical barrier. Magic, on the other hand, was another matter - a hail of ice struck the bubble, some shards piercing it and striking Amanda on the shoulder and arm as she brought it up to protect her head. Apparently she needed a helmet on every mission. At least she had time on her side - they couldn't do the sacrifice too soon, or all the pent-up power would go to waste.

Nuclear flame wrapped around Shiro like a cocoon as he turned and made a beeline for the ninja. The air around him exploded and the three were thrown away like yesterday's paper. Two fell off the building, but one kept his hold. Until Shiro blew up the wooden beam he was holding onto. "Sayonara."

The fact that their comrade had fallen screaming didn't seem to deter the others. They kept advancing and Wanda kept retreating, making them chase her. She had an idea but she needed to get 'her' group as far away from the raised platform in the back as possible. It wasn't as if she could control the end results of her powers and she wasn't prepared to take everyone down with.

As soon as they were far away, Wanda dropped to her knees and spread her hands across the top of the wooden platform and let the hex blasts flow. She gritted her teeth and kept it up even as the raced across towards her. They started to slow down when the wood - formerly pristine and new - rotted under their weight. They'd been going to fast to back track and Wanda threw herself as far away from the crumbling wood as possible, scrambling to get onto solid ground as the men behind her disappeared.

Coloured sand laid out in complicated patterns beneath her feet... finally Amanda had reached the circle. Scuffing her boots as much as she could to disrupt the ritual, Amanda flung herself forward to the man laid out in the centre, dropping the shield long enough to encompass him with it. Fire, ice, lightning... magical elements rained down on the fragile bubble and she gritted her teeth against the strain, dropping to her knees so she could lay her hands against the cold concrete of the rooftop. "C'mon Tokyo, give me a hand here," she muttered straining her mutant power as much as her magic to try and stop the slaughter of the man lying still - but breathing! - beside her.

"~I have had enough with you, fuckers!~" The priests were too focused on breaking through Amanda's wobbling shield for them to see Shiro appear behind one and grab him in a sleeper hold. "~Move too much and I'll break your neck.~"

"I have no idea if they can understand me," Wanda said quietly, sliding up behind another one, "but I would do as he says. Your friends would agree with me, I think."

"I think you ought to show them why they called you a Witch," Shiro growled.

Wanda stared at him for a moment, more than a little disconcerted. X-Men really weren't supposed to - movement caught her eye and she turned her head as one of the priests lunged at Amanda. The shield had wobbled enough to give him an opening and he'd gone for it, only to falter and then tip over sideways as his heart gave out. "I have not been called that in some time," she murmured under her breath.

The two remaining had better survival instincts than their fellows, and bowed to the three. One disappeared instantly, melting into the shadows as his teleporting spell whisked him away. The other remained for a moment, eyes locked on Shiro's. Though his cowl covered the lower half of his face, Shiro could tell he was smiling. "Kisama . . ." The platform was rocked with a small explosion, but the final priest had disappeared, too. Almost immediately, the sky began to clear, but the tower swayed dangerously like a game of Jenga with the wrong piece removed.

Wanda gasped and staggered forward, trying to keep her balance. "Amanda, drop the shields, we'll need you to get us out of here. Shiro, grab your friend!" As soon as the wobbling shields were dropped, Wanda was in there and lifting Amanda up, supporting her over her shoulders.

Amanda was clearly a bit out of it from keeping the shield up after everything they'd gone through to get there. But she was able, with Wanda keeping her upright, to bring enough concentration around and reach out again. The 'tentacles' were more erratic than ever but as they were the only way down...

Wanda only screamed once between being whipped around through the air and roughly put on the ground a safe distance away. She considered that a victory.

Lawson was almost a dead weight in Shiro's arms, but at least he wasn't dead. It was an awkward fly down, but they stayed on their feet when they reached the ground a block away. He saw Amanda and Wanda retreat the other way and just nodded. This place would become busier than midday in just a few minutes. With his grip on Lawson secured, they took to the air and fled as the tower, victim of the magics that had held it together, began to fall.

"I do not suppose you are hungry at all for sushi now." Lawson just groaned.