This Devil's Workday (Finale)

[x-scorpion.livejournal.com]

Adrienne and the X-Men arrive at Brewster house and the hunt for Cammie. Unfortunately, there's very few other people in condition to be rescued...((slightly backdated))

"Are you quite certain that you have the right address? This place seems too," Hank looked around at the well manicured lawns with gnomish ornamentation and bird baths, "cheery." The blue furred doctor looked back at the two story suburban McMansion which had definitely been built in the last few years if his knowledge of architecture was still current. Turning his attention back to Adrienne he gave her a questioning look.

Adrienne was sitting on the curb with her head on her knees. The near-grey pallor of her skin was offset by the blood that had dried down the front of her clothes. Shortly after being hit, as she was tracking Cammie's movements from the biker bar using her powers, Bishop had returned her call informing her that the X-Men now knew Mark's information pipeline at Silver had turned up an area of the city from where young homeless mutants were rumoured to be disappearing. He'd let her know that a team was on the way, but with the location narrowed down greatly, it hadn't been as difficult for Adrienne to pick up Cammie's presence with her powers and follow the trail to this place, arriving just ahead of the X-Men.

Eyes closed, she cringed at Hank's question. "Oh yeah," she muttered, "I'm sure this is the place." She could see the images from the reading she'd done as clear as if she was looking at a scene unfolding in the present. "Kids go in. They don't come out. Amy, Cammie. Dozens of them. I bet there's a tunnel underneath so they take the bodies out someplace else," she hypothesized, knowing that Chicago had a labyrinth system as complicated as an entire city underground.

"And perhaps several of them are still alive", Kurt said grimly. "They have not had Cammie very long..." He couldn't let himself think she was dead.

Bobby was fighting the urge not to freeze the entire front of the building and kick through it. "If they've done anything to her, I'll beat them with their own frozen arms..." He had tried to not be so headstrong after the jailbreak, but when it involved the younger mutants, all bets were off.

Tabitha tried to quench the rage burning in her gut. She couldn't let it effect her performance, bomb-work had to be extremely delicate with so many fragile lives at stake. She tugged her gloves a little more firmly onto her hands. "Well, let's go be good guys."

Crystal stood nearby the others, her face looking stoic and unruffled, helping her stay calm and in control; allowing herself to feel enraged at what happened in the house would not help the situation at all. The young woman remained silent; no words would help now. They didn't know what they would find inside the house, but it was easy to guess that it wouldn't be pleasant. She hoped that Cammie was alive, that if anyone else was being held captive inside they would be alive, too, but she was ready to treat any injured parties. Hopefully they had arrived in enough time not only to prevent other mutants from being taken and killed but to save Cammie and others.

Hank led the way up to the wrap around porch of the house and gave a slight shrug as he knocked on the door. Bobby and Kurt took up positions on either side, while Adrienne and Tabitha stood behind him. Not entirely sure what to say if this ended up being the wrong house, the blue doctor reaffirmed his hopes that Adrienne was right.

Inside the house, Brother Daniel had been slowly preparing the proper mixture of vinegar and wine that they would put on a sponge and force the freakish devil-spawn to drink from once she had been properly crucified. The knock on the door had been unexpected, but they would always welcome more mutants to the house of the LORD. Answering it, however, he found himself face to face with a hulking, blue beast of a creature. "Can I-" was all he managed to get out.

"Help us?" finished the demonic figure off to the left, already forcing his way in. "I certainly hope so, but you will most likely not enjoy it."

Daniel drew his taser and lined up his shot on the freakish blue-black creature, ready to zap the intruder with a few thousand volts.

Kurt gave the taser a disdainful look, dodged rapidly before Daniel could shoot, then kicked it out of his hand. He wasn't particularly careful about not injuring him in the process. "Where is Carmilla Black?"

Bobby took a step forward to flank Kurt. Keeping his eyes locked on the man in front of him, he leaned forward and whispered into his teammate's ear "Easy, we need the information from this guy." Drake paused for a bit before adding. "Plus, I want to get in on some of the beating if it comes to that."

Hank stepped in and used his reflexes to snatch the taser from the frightened man's hands. "There won't be any of that now," he said with a slight smile- hopefully this would be the most resistance they would run into.

Drake turned his attention away from Kurt and back to the Purifier. "What the hell is this place exactly?" His eyes remained trained on Daniel.

Terrified, the zealot's hand went to his pocket where the pill was kept. The teachings were clear- Do. Not. Get. Captured. Of course, there was no harm in telling them what this place was, "This place is salvation for hell-spawn like you."

"Aww, I ain't been called something that nice in years!" Tabitha drawled lazily. "And I don't know what you're reaching for in that pocket of yours, boy-o, but you'd better stop, before one of us decides you don't really need that hand."

The pill was on his fingertips, but her comment gave him a moment of pause. Finally, he sneered at her, "I'm not afraid to die, the kingdom of God awaits me."

Crystal followed the group inside the house but remained standing behind them.. The 'kingdom of God' will have to wait for you, she thought. They needed this man to talk to them, so he had to remain alive and conscious, and it was best if that could be done in a way that would not alert anyone else who was in the building. There was no physical movement on her part, but the gust of wind that lifted the unknown man off the ground and held him against the wall was directed at her will. Her eyes focused on Daniel, making sure that his hands remained where they were.

Kurt went straight to the man's side, one hand going unceremoniously to rifle his pocket. "Oh, now what do we have here?" He showed the pill he'd found to the others, then held it up in Daniel's view and crushed it between his fingers. Powder trickled to the ground as he looked back at the Purifier. "I am sorry, but we are not going to allow whatever that would have done."

Daniel wanted to shout at the blue skinned devil, but that would only further the cause against his brethren in the basement below. "Do what you will," he said, looking at the front door impassively.

Moving slowly Hank started to take a walk around the first floor of the house, motioning for Bobby to come with him, "Get what you can out of him."

Quickly tailing behind Hank, Bobby turned around to shout a few last words of encouragement. "And if he tries anything, feel free to rough him up a bit." He passed a bit of a smirk as he spun around again to follow his blue teammate.

Still facing the man who had been willing to hurt himself, Crystal's eyes looked in Bobby's direction for a moment. She frowned inwardly, not pleased with Bobby's comment. This was only her second mission as a trainee, and now in addition to watching her teammates end lives she was hearing one of them encourage the others to harm someone. It wasn't that she'd never hurt anyone herself, she had certainly done worse than "roughing someone up," but Iceman's words came off wrong to her. She hoped what he had said had been meant to frighten the man and had not been what he genuinely wanted his teammates to do.

"Buttercup, kindly knock this young man out. He's going to trial, not God." Tabitha looked around the front room with a wary eye. "We should split up, see if we can find anybody alive, and proof to send these people to the big house for the rest of their bigoted lives."

Crystal nodded, and the air around Daniel began to move. Instead of holding him against the wall, the strong pressure that had been holding him there lessened and dissipated. It was over quickly, and the man slumped to the floor in what would appear to be slow-motion, "falling" on an unseen blanket of wind.

---

Beast and 'Buttercup' go searching upstairs, where files are about to be burned...

With a hefty thrust, Brother Michael pulled the last drawer from the filing cabinet in his tiny corner basement office and emptied its contents with the rest in the center of the room. Wiping his nose with the back of his hand, Michael thought about what a shame it would be to have to burn the information that they had begun to gather on the unholy spawn, but the rules were the rules. And besides, he knew that if it meant keeping the information away from the rest of the hoard that he had been warned was coming, then he would gladly turn himself over to the flames as well. Reaching behind him he picked up a small book of matches, struck one, and held it just a few feet above the files. "May the wretches still not go unpunished."

"In my professional opinion," Hank began, his feet clutching the wooden crossbeams that supported the upper floors as he finally dangled himself down to blow out the match. It had been a difficult measure of stealth, which meant he'd had to separate from Bobby- though Crystal was still backing him up, just outside the doorway with an injured mutant in tow. Spider crawling and holding his position on the ceiling had been a task of strength and will, but it took time to move unnoticed into position above someone. To drop down on them, however, took mere seconds, and this Hank did with trained precision, knocking the man into the empty cabinets with his feet. "You still won't."

Michael quickly struggled up to his feet. But his eyes were still wide and set on the hulking blue mutant in front of him. "The had of the devil truly has twisted you!" He began breathing heavily as he reached into his front pocket, fumbling as he tried to produce another match. "I can't let you get your tainted hands on these files!

Hearing the shouting, Crystal floated into the room, keeping the injured woman behind her. The slaughter that had occurred in this house had been great, and few could be saved, but those few lives were important. The young woman frowned at the wide-eyed man. "We are not the ones who have brought harm to innocents," she informed him in a cool tone. "Yet we are the ones involved with the devil, you say?"

The eyes of the man quickly jumped from the blue freak to the flying banshee. Was their no end to these demonic powers? "Don't try to play stupid with me! We know exactly what you are! And we'll make sure that your kind pays!" With a quick motion, the man pulled the match from his pocket, and struck it on the side of his coat. As it hit the files and began to ignite them, a smile began to gape across his lips. "I know you're all used to fire, but how are you with putting it out." The challenge was spit out as he quickly crossed his arms in front of him, wanting to revel in his joy for a moment.

Quickly, Crystal moved further into the room, her gaze focusing on the papers that had begun to burn. The air around the dumped files shifted and moved; deprived of the oxygen it needed, the fire ceased being able to burn, rapidly diminished, and became nothing. "I am quite good at it, thank you," Crystal told Michael, smiling back the man. She decided not to mention the fact that she could create fire as well; that would only confirm the man's belief that she was an agent of the devil.

A slight smile crossed Hank's lips as he quickly closed the gap between himself and the zealot. Grabbing the man's hand he twisted it around behind him and slammed him to the floor, causing a vial of dark red liquid to roll out from the top of the robe-like attire. His eyes followed it as it rolled to a stop beside the pile of files, "Would you be so kind as to hand that to me please, Buttercup?"

"My pleasure." Crystal looked at the vial; at her mental command it rose into the air on a cushion of air then floated over to her blue teammate. She frowned inwardly at its contents; the color in the vial was unmistakable.

Michael twisted around on the ground as he reached up towards the vial. "Put that down!" He fought as hard as he could, but the hellish creatures must be using some of their powers to keep him down. They must no find out more about the base. But what could he do?

"Thank you," he said, twisting the zealot down against the floor again and taking the vial. Putting his weight down against the captive, Hank dangled the liquid in front of his wide eyes, "What is this?"

"Nothing you or your spawn should concern yourself with." The man twisted again, but he couldn't even reach his cyanide capsule tucked firmly in his back pocket. "I'd think you'd know what it is anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if you and your lot drink it."

"Sorry, a fine wine is much more to my liking," Crystal commented. "It may surprise you to know that mutants do not drink blood any more than non-mutants do. What I am curious about is what your plans were for the contents of that vial. Assuming that you were not planning on ingesting it, that is."

Hank rolled through his mental rolledex, "Wait, who did you get that from?" He twisted the arm a bit more.

With one final sigh, Michael reached up at the beast on top of him. Feeling his shoulder pop out of the socket, he howled in pain before letting his head fall back against the concrete. "You'll get nothing else from me!"

With a sigh, Hank gave a calculated blow to the back of his adversaries head, knocking him unconscious. "True believers," he snorted, getting up. "Shall we see what we've found?" he smiled at Crystal.

---

Iceman takes a more direct approach.

As Bobby rushed down the hallway, he kept his eyes peeled for any young mutant who could have been subject to the horrors of this building. He was doing his best to keep his rage in check, but his body was still shaking slightly as his mind kept trying to wrap his mind around the fact of what had happened here. He didn't often believe that violence was an answer, but when it came to harming children, he may have to cross his own line.

Inside his small corner, Noah heard the commotion from outside and quickly got to his feet. Just in case, he tucked a taser into his back pocket as he turned the corner and came face to face with a tall man in an odd leather outfit. Having passed Noah's initial assessment as not looking like one of the Spawn of Satan, Noah quickly showed a warm smile as he walked forward. "Greetings Brother, how can I help you? Are you lost?"

Bobby was in no mood for games as he locked a cold stare down on the man. "Where are the mutant children kept?" Throwing his hands to his sides, Bobby did not back down an inch as he glared towards Noah.

Apparently these beasts could hide their affliction outwardly was the first thought that crossed Noah's mind as he dropped both his hand and his smile. "Well then friend, it looks like you're lost in more ways than one." He tried to keep his eyes focused on the strange man as he began to reach back towards his taser. "I would tell you that you could repent, but if you toss pearls to a swine, it still won't help now will it?" With a sudden jolt, the man pulled the taser gun forward and fired it directly at the other man's chest.

Already on edge, Bobby shifted quickly to his ice form. He looked down in time to see the two hooks of the taser bounce off his frozen chest and fall to the floor, shooting off a few useless sparks as they lie there. As his eyes looked up, he saw the man quickly turn the corner and begin to run the opposite direction. Without hesitation, Bobby was on the pursuit.

Noah quickly pulled around the corner running at full speed. What the hell are these things? He knew that he had to make it to the surface. Warn his superiors that the attack of the hellspawn was coming. But as his lungs began to ache, he couldn't help but start to feel colder.

A few feet behind him, Bobby was already draining the warmth out of the air. But he did not relent. With one hand, he began to formulate a small ice patch a few feet in front of the retreating man, and with the other, he began to form an ice wall a few feet further down the hall.

As the room got colder, Noah could only think about running harder. Without thinking about his feet position, the man hit the ice patch at full blast and skidded to a halt at the wall that had suddenly been errected in front of him. Looking around wildly, he tried to gain his barings, but as he turned around all he saw was a huge snow or ice creature marching towards him. All he could do was let out a small scream as he closed his eyes.

Bobby wanted to hurt than man in front of him, but he knew it would do no good. Quickly he wrench the man up with his hand, and pushed him back towards the ice wall. His voice came out through gritted teeth. "I'll ask you one more time. Where are you keeping the other children."

Although Noah was in shock, he still wasn't going to help the hellspawn. "I-I-I'll never tell you a-a-anything." Was all he could force out between chattering teeth. He face winced at the cold surronding him. He just hoped that he would be protected by a higher power at this poing. "Y-y-you'll have to k-k-kill me!"

Drake kept him pushed up against the wall for a few seconds before dropping him to the ground, keeping his glare locked on the man. "That would make me no better than you." He turned and quickly began marching back, hoping that Hank, Kurt, or one of the others had better luck.

Sitting on the ground, Noah praised the name. He had been protected. As a brief laugh escaped his lips, he shouted back at the man in the leather. "You'll never win you know? This is a second crusade! We will end you Spawn of Satan!"

The last bit was enough to get Bobby's attention. Turning, he quickly formed two ice clamps on the man's legs, cementing him to the ground. He had to only pause briefly before formulating another ice band around the man's lips. Was stopping the man's speaking a high priority in strategizing how to take down the building? Probably not. But if he made the man a little more uncomfortable, Bobby could sleep easier that night.

---

Kurt finally finds Cammie, not in the best condition she's ever been, but alive. And more than happy to see him.

Cammie was cold. But the constant lack of heating down here and the fact the cold always bothered her was the least of her problems. Her leg was broken. She had been down her a day or so, maybe. At this point she just wanted a blanket and a way to not be in pain anymore. But it was hard to get enough momentum to bang your own head into the wall when you couldn’t stand.

She almost missed the commotion.

Commotion that suddenly began again, as a familiar figure burst through the door and rushed to her side. "Cammie? Can you hear me?"

Cammie looked up, “Oh hey,” she managed, half sure she was dreaming, “How ya like Chicago?”

"Not a great deal." He reached out cautiously, not sure if it would make things worse. "Are you hurt?"

“My leg’s broke,” Cammie said, “You gonna be offended if I ask if I’m dreaming?”

"Not offended at all. But I assure you you are not dreaming. Some others of the team are here too, and Adrienne."

“Oooh, I bet she’s mad at me,” Cammie managed, “I sorta lied to stay a few days.”

"She will get over it once we have you safe", he tried to reassure her. "Though you should not have tried to deal with this alone... you are alive."

“Yeah, but these guys only love me for my blood,” Cammie said dryly, tiredly. “I am so glad to see you.”

"Likewise." Still crouched next to her, he squeezed her shoulder fleetingly. "Do you think you could stand to be carried? I can call Beast with painkillers if not."

“Painkillers won’t work, but I’d kill for a blanket. It’s freezing down here. And yes, please, let’s get the hell out of here,” Cammie said, the closest she had ever come to begging.
"We have blankets", Kurt promised, then nodded and slipped an arm under her shoulders. "Come, then. I may not be tall enough to carry you properly, but at least we can keep your weight off that leg."

“Sounds like a plain,” she said, breathing through the pain, “I never thought I’d say this, but let’s go see the doctor.”