xp_logs | GSIH: Fists of Fury (Reply)

Callisto and Yvette face the first invaders on the train, and Yvette nearly gets bested before Kevin steps in.

The flying man let go of the man larger man he'd been holding, and he dropped like a stone from the sky. With a thud, he slammed down on the ground a hundred metres or so in front of the train and started to run forward at it. The figure was at least eight foot, covered in a plasticy black suit, and he moved swiftly to meet the train and with a leap, jump on to the side of the engine, his huge hands finding purchase. As he did so, another figure alit from his back, this one half the size, who scuttled like a crab over the top towards the cab.

The Captain pulled his sidearm, but it was clear after two shots that the suits were bulletproof at the very least, as both of his shots whined off and away from impact.

"AwferChristssake..." Callisto, hanging half out of the window as she observed their visitors' arrival scowled darkly, running her greasy hands first across her thighs, then through her wild hair, before reaching behind her for one of the knives she'd secreted, as usual, at the small of her back.

Yvette gulped, her hair visibly sharpening, and she pulled her gloves off. The smaller figure would probably be a better match for her, she was already deciding, especially with her own agility, and she glanced at Callisto, automatically deferring to the more experienced fighter. "Shall I be taking the high road?" she asked, hoping to hide the quaver in her voice with the joke.

Callisto didn't seem to notice either the quaver or the joke. "If you're up to it." She glanced between Yvette and the figures on the engine. After a second's hesitation she placed the knife between her teeth and instead reached for a wrench from her toolbelt, weighing it in her hand before moving away from the window. "You go round the outside," she said - although it sounded more like, "Ooo oh ou-ige," around the knife, then, "I ee oo ere." Without another word she was off in the direction of the engine.

"Outside. yes." It was more to herself than to Callisto, given the older woman had already gone. Yvette gulped and made for the window, hauling her small frame outside and onto the side of the cab, clinging as tightly as she could as she worked her way to the roof. Fortunately the train wasn't going very fast, or the wind of their passage would have made things difficult, she reflected, trying to distract herself from the thought she was about to get into her first actual combat as an X-Man. And on her own, too.

The small figure moved around on the roof mostly on all fours, looking spider-like in his scuttling movements as he reached the top of one of the panels and began to pry at it, to reach the machinary underneath. As Yvette came on to the roof, it slunk back a few steps, and then came forward, defiantly ready to fight for its possession of the roof.

If the smaller figure looked spider-like, Yvette herself was not unlike a red-carapaced beetle, clinging to the roof with fingers and toes. "Please," she said to her opponent, hoping that perhaps she could reason with him. "These people, they will die. We are only taking them to a safe place. You do not have to do this."

The figure cocked his head to one side, and improbably, opened up his arms wide, as if inviting Yvette in for a hug.

Yvette paused, wondering if perhaps her words had penetrated and then shook her head. "You really think I am that silly?" she replied, moving to a crouch that freed her hands, her long toes dug into the roof of the carriage. "Very well, let us do this. I will not let you hurt these people."

The air between his outstretched hands began to crackle with blue sparks, and a bolt of electricity grounded itself in the plate at her feet. The shock spasmed her feet, causing her to yelp and lose purchase and nearly pitch her off the roof of the train and to the side of the tracks rushing past.

Metal screeched under Yvette's talons as she dug her hands into the roof to arrest her fall. Grimacing, she heaved herself back up, springing at the Guardsman and lashing at him with her feet, toes becoming longer and sharper. Her feet tingled unpleasantly from the shock, but she could withstand normal household current - she could manage this.

He moved like a striking snake, ducking under her kick and letting her momentuem carry her just passed him before striking her deftly in the kidney. His blow connected with a hissing explosion of sparks, as a jolt of electricity hit with his strike. He took a few scrambling steps sideways, opening up the distance on her again.

She rolled with the blow as Logan had taught her - she could handle damage, but as he had said, she wasn't big and she wasn't going to be able to out-muscle anyone any time soon - and came to her feet, toes clutching at the roof, hands loose and open at her sides. Warily she circled, looking for the opening that Logan said would come always in a fight.

The man scuttled again to the left, and then lunged forward, slamming both hands down on the plates they were standing on, and electrifying them with a blue glow.

Yvette squeaked and did the only thing she could - she leapt into the air, throwing herself at the Guardsman in an attempt to break his concentration at the very least. Given how spiky she was, it would hopefully be more, since he'd have to protect himself from her hair and hands and feet all at once.

Her claws left furrows in his strange armor, as he covered his head and body with his forearms. He reeled back and grabbed a handful of her hair, ignoring the lacerations to punch her square in the nose; the jolt from the electricity making her teeth clamp together hard.

She lashed out instinctively then, more from the pain of the jolt than the punch. With hands and feet she slashed at his body, hoping to force him to release his hold on her. This fight was seriously getting more than she could handle.

He let go, as her fingers sliced narrow gouges in his chest. With deceptive speed, he ducked under her lunge, and grabbed the back of her ankle. This time she was anchored with the charge, and the spasm crashed her on her back to the plates, and momentuem took her off the other side, hurtling towards the ground.

The electrical current arced through Yvette, this time penetrating her thick skin and causing her muscles to convulse and for her to lose her grip. Scrabbling for purchase with hands and feet that weren't quite obeying her, she rolled off the roof and over the side of the train, tumbling past the window on the way down.

Somehow, she managed to stab her hand into the side of the train before she hit the ground and hung there helplessly, metal wheels churning only inches from her feet. Weakly, she tried to pull herself up, but only managed to make a series of faint scratches on the carriage's side. Then movement caught her eye and she looked up in horror to see her opponent crawling spider-like down the side of the train after her. Obviously, he had decided to make sure she couldn't interfere with his mission for good.

In the chaos that had erupted on the train it was hard to keep track of what was going on around him. Movement out the window of the train caught Kevin's eye in a blur of red and black. He almost dismissed it until he heard all the scratching. Moving through the panicking people as carefully and quickly as possible, he got a head out the window to find Yvette hanging there. "'Vette!" He tried frantically to hold a hand out to her to help her up but she was too far and focused on something else. While Kevin kept stretching to reach her his head turned to see what she was looking at. There was someone coming down there and it didn't look like he was out to help.

The creature scuttled down, staying just out of reach of Yvette's hands. It took a moment to examine her position carefully. It set its feet in the plates, ignoring the vibrations of the train, and once again spread his hands wide, obviously planning to strike her directly, or put enough voltage into the plate that there was no hope of holding on to it.

Registering the threat to Yvette quickly, Kevin stopped reaching for her and instead pulled his glove off with his teeth. Whatever it was that was going after Yvette wasn't close enough for her to touch, but it was certainly close enough for Kevin to reach. He didn't even think about it, he just needed to get the threat away. He needed to get Yvette safe. So he reached out and his hand wrapped around the small man's face, fingers spread wide over it's cheek and jaw. Kevin felt that pulling sensation down deep in his gut when his mutation acted on the creature's body and the Southerner pulled at that, trying to get the decay to move faster and deeper through the layers of flesh and bone. It wouldn't kill unless the critter bled out, but it would get the attention off Yvette.

There was a soft gasp from Yvette as she watched what was going on, but any further reaction was interrupted by her hand starting to slip from its hold and her having to scrabble harder to try and pull herself up. Now the immediate threat of the Guardsman was dealt with, she managed to latch her long fingers into a crack and drove then deeper into the metal, using them to anchor herself better.

His arcing electrical blast instead went wide, a radial burst of energy that buckled plates and washed over both Kevin and Yvette before the little man fell sidewise, boneless, and crashed to the ground beside the tracks as they rushed past, unconscious.

The electrical current shook Kevin, his grip on the small man and the side of the window going slack. There was a terrifying moment of realizing he had no control over anything before the current washed away and he collapsed on the floor of the train car. The glove that had been grasped between his teeth had fallen somewhere as well. There was an uncomfortable tingling left in the wake of the shock and Kevin realized he felt too hot everywhere, but that wasn't the important part, was it? As loudly as he could manage, Kevin called Yvette's name.

There was a long pause and then, just as it seemed Yvette must have fallen off as well, long-fingered hands appeared at the window, hooking over the sill and leaving deep gouges. With effort, the small girl heaved herself up and over the window ledge, pausing half in and half out to make sure she wouldn't land on anyone if she rolled herself through the window. She caught sight of Kevin, and managed the faintest of smiles, her eyes lighting up instead to express her emotions.

"Thank you," she whispered, panting slightly. "You were saving my life, Kevin."

"No one hurts my 'Vette if Ah can help it," Kevin murmured, though he wasn't sure it was loud enough to be heard. He cleared his throat and more loudly said, "We're kindred and all, right? You gonna be okay?"

"I will be fine," she replied, with another of those faint smiles. "Once I am inside."

"Oh, right!" Kevin scrambled out of her way and unsteadily got to his feet so he could offer Yvette a gloved hand in case she needed it. Obviously he wasn't thinking about how right now she'd slice clean through that hand if she took it most likely.

Fortunately for him, Yvette was thinking about it and she heaved herself inside the rest of the way, half rolling, half falling with a squeaked "oomph!" Now the adrenaline was beginning to fade, every muscle ached from the electric shocks and she very much wanted a nap. So much for her first combat; if it hadn't been for Kevin... At that thought, she looked up at him. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, Ah'm fine." He didn't actually stop to think about that answer before giving it. He didn't want her to worry about him, but he wasn't sure what the electric current had really done to him. Kevin certainly wasn't sure what using his mutation on someone had done to him. He could see the half rotted face looking at him from the ground, but that was probably his imagination. The unsteadiness of standing and the slight fuzzy feeling in his brain were taken note of but Kevin pushed it along with his exhaustion away. "Ah think Ah need some water or somethin'."

He probably shouldn't be in this crowded carriage, with its edge of barely-surpressed panic, either, Yvette thought, watching him sway slightly. "Would you like me to come with you?" she asked, even though the very thought of getting up made her feel exhausted. "I should go and help Callisto. There were two of them, attacking the engine..."

"Ah'm okay, you go help Callisto and Ah'll bring you back some water, too, once Ah find it, 'kay?" He was sure he could find enough water for both of them. Yvette probably needed it more than him anyway if he couldn't find enough for two. Was he really going to let Yvette wander off alone, though? "You want me to come with you?"

"I will be fine," she said bravely, hauling herself up with a lot of help from the wall. "And I do not have my gloves - I would not like to stumble into you and hurt you. Go and get some water - I will be okay."

Honestly, Kevin was a little relieved to be dismissed from duty, as cowardly as that may have been. "Alright. But Ah will find you later, 'kay?" He gave her a nod and then moved off to make his way through the crowd of panicked people.