xp_logs | GBOS: The Briar Patch

Adrienne goes to find Klara and Laura on the makeshift farm, just as the Guard reaches them as well.

The farm area was now a lush acre of green plants and lines of vegetables growing. When the first sounds of gunfire rose up, the confusion kept both girls where they were. They didn't know where the staff were, or necessarily what they were supposed to do. The camp was far from any expected dangerous area, and now it looked like a warzone had erupted in the midst of it.

Adrienne had ducked into her tent when the insurgents disguised as refugees began their attack, as if the tent could shield her from bullets. After a few moments of panicked thought she realized she needed to find a hardier form of shelter. She poked her head out of her tent to see chaos erupting around the camp. UN troops were scattering everywhere, trying to protect the refugees and aid workers as several strange mutants descended on the camp and began to attack.

Through the mayhem that was erupting around her, Adrienne spotted a UN soldier making a beeline towards the makeshift farm that some of her students had been working on since arriving at the camp. Her stomach dropped to her feet. The students. Was the soldier heading out there because the students were there? What if they were attacked?

Though her flight or fight response was screaming at her to flee, Adrienne took off after the UN soldier, scrambling over the terrain in an undignified fashion and hearing herself shout something about needing to protect her students so the soldier she was following wouldn't mistake her for a hostile presence.

She reached the run-down barn adjacent to the garden plot in time to see two figures approaching the farm, one flying and the other doing some kind of supernatural leaping thing. While the UN soldier began firing his weapon at them, Adrienne entered the barn to find Laura and Klara. "Hey ladies," she greeted them, out of breath. "How're things? 'You both okay?"

"Everything good here so far", answered a clearly confused Laura as she looked around, trying to decide whether she should be mildly scared or totally terrified. "Okay might be...stretching it though." Turning to look around once more, she spotted the soldier. "Are there more of them around?" She could only keep thinking on her friends, hoping they all had found somewhere safe to hide. All she could do at the moment was listen to Adrienne, and protect Klara.

Although confused about what was going on, Klara wasn't confused about how to react. "Everything is not good," she said, light grey eyes wide with fear. There was gunfire. It wasn't far away. That alone was cause for concern. "But I will survive. I hope."

There were still seeds she hadn't planted yet. Unlike the crops, these were non-essential. Klara had a love for roses, and had thought that perhaps she might add a small signature touch to the work she and Laura had done once things calmed down a little. Nothing too fancy - just a couple of rose bushes to beautify the area.

"I can make a thorn maze..." she said. "If we need to hide I could make a big thorny maze and control the maze."

Her control wouldn't be perfect, but it had improved considerably from what it had been before attending school with the other New Mutants.

A pair of UN soldiers came into the farm area, waving for them to follow. But their attempts were almost immediately ended as an impossibly round figure dropped from the sky, and with a sickening crunch, landed on the two soldiers. His weight shattered their shoulders and spines instantly, and instead of heavily falling to the ground with them, he ricocheted off, impossibly high and over the tents.

The sickening crunch of their bodies being literally compressed and destroyed made Laura feel like throwing up right there, and if it hadn't been for the need to keep the others safe in her mind, she might as well have ended up fainting. However, that was not the case. Following the black thing that bounced back to the sky, she had to wonder what they were supposed to do now. "That was...a mutant? We need to find cover; somewhere resistant." Her claws came out at unison in both hands as she consciously get her senses to work. "But where...."

"The thorn maze is a good idea," Adrienne answered with forced calm, addressing both Klara's suggestion and Laura's question about where to find cover. "If it had a ceiling it would probably deter Pogo Stick over there from getting in," she mused. She peeked out of the barn door and watched the soldier she'd followed to the farm shooting at the pair of mutants, then saw the other one- not the Human Pogo Stick- shooting some sort of laser bolt from his eyes and the soldier go down, weapon falling from his hand. " Of course a thorn fortress probably won't protect us from Laser Eyes." How could greenery hold up against whatever he was shooting?

Cursing under her breath as she watched Laser Eyes begin to destroy the crops, Adrienne racked her brain furiously for other ideas. "Okay... how about this? Klara, can you make a thorn tunnel leading to that gun over there?" She pointed to the weapon by the soldier's prone body, maybe thirty feet away from the barn. "It'll give me a better chance to get to the gun without being a sitting duck. If I can get the gun and get back here to the barn, I can keep Laser Eyes busy and if Klara can make another tunnel leading back to the camp to keep you both away from Pogo Stick, the two of you can make a run for it and get to where the rest of the UN troops are?"

Klara was scared, but she also felt a great deal of anger watching the man Adrienne was calling 'Laser Eyes' destroying the crops she and Laura had worked on. She didn't have it in her to be wrathful and obsessed with vengeance, but she could feel righteous fury. She could use that, and her fear to use her powers to their fullest. It was just a matter of staying calm enough to maintain control.

"I will do everything that I can to make sure you get there safely," said Klara resolutely, tossing the bulk of her rose seeds onto the ground just outside of the barn. Within seconds, massive thorny tendrils sprouted up. Klara pushed them further, making them grow while still creating a small clear path in the center so that Adrienne could get to the gun. The growth was easy - the control was more challenging. Still, she created a reasonably clear path for Adrienne to travel through while making sure there was a large thorny roof to deter 'Pogo Stick' from trying to jump.

Adrienne set her jaw as she surveyed the course Klara had created for her, but she knew she wouldn't have much time before Laser Eyes guessed something was up with the new growth and started blasting it. "Klara, start making the tunnel back towards camp now. I'll be right back. If I'm not, Laura, don't take on Laser Eyes, just get Klara back to camp and let the soldiers take care of him." She knew Laura was tough, a fighter, but Adrienne hoped she wasn't arrogant enough to think she could take on Laser Eyes and Pogo Stick by herself. Hopefully charging her with Klara's safety would offset her desire to engage them. Though maybe not. Maybe it would just make her want to go after them even more. She was related to Logan, after all.

Laura didn't have a chance to protest, and had to suck it up and nod at the woman; protecting Klara was far more important than showing off. "Just take care of yourself, Ms. Frost."

With what she hoped was a reassuring smile Adrienne set off out of the barn in a mad dash through the tunnel Klara had made. Her clothes and bare skin tore on the thorns and she threw herself on the ground at one point with her hands over her head when a blast she assumed was from Laser Eyes exploded a hole in the tunnel on her left side, but she made it to the downed soldier and his gun unharmed. Adrienne barely had time to check for a pulse to assure herself that the young man was dead before the ground in front the body erupted with another blast from Laser Eyes, cutting through the vines before her like butter.

With another curse Adrienne grabbed the soldier's weapon and belt of extra clips, scampering back to the barn as she watched Laser Eyes tear up the tunnel with blasts. She began shooting from behind the barn door as he flew closer, stomach sinking as she spotted Pogo Stick bounding over to the barn as well. "Time to move, ladies, if you please," she announced through gritted teeth, taking aim and shooting until the clip was empty, and hurriedly reloading.

Twice Laura was about to jump out and help Adrianne, and twice she stopped herself. At last, the woman returned. "That is a very good idea, really." Turning to Klara, she offered the girl her hand; she didn't want to lose the girl in whatever chaos might ensue as they ran away. "Alright, here we go."

Klara took the offered hand, raising her free one up. Although Laser Eyes had destroyed a lot of her thorny maze, seeds could be extracted from the rose hips. The ones nearest the barn were within range, and she was able to move to part two of the maze from what had already been created. Since the rose hips were much larger than normal ones, that would make the next rapid growth spurt easier on her.

She squeezed Laura's hand a little without realizing it, both from fear and from concentrating her powers to create a path to safety. Or relative safety. None of this was safe but it was better than running with no protection at all.

Confident that Laura would protect Klara, and that Klara's maze would protect them both as long as Adrienne could stop Laser Eyes from blasting it all to hell, Adrienne placed a sweaty hand on the wall of the barn and pushed forward on its timeline to get a better idea of what could possibly happen next.

She saw Pogo Stick crash through the ceiling of the barn as she kept Laser Eyes busy with bullets, saw herself turn to shoot him only to be hit in the stomach by a blast from Laser Eyes. She didn't get up. The barn came crashing down around her, but she didn't emerge from it.

Drawing her hand back before the temptation to see whether anyone came to dig her out and if she lived overwhelmed her and stole more time she couldn't really spare, Adrienne swallowed hard and turned back to the doorway to fire another clip at Laser Eyes as he went airborne and began to fire his blasts at the barn. For a fleeting moment she considered running, trying to protect herself and leaving the girls to worry about their own safety, but the idea didn't even fully form in her head before the certainty that standing against Laser Eyes to give the girls a better chance to get back to the camp reasserted itself as the right course of action she should take. No, not should take. Had to take. She was responsible for keeping them safe, even if it killed her.

Hey Em? she thought down the telepathic link she had with her sister, the farm's under attack so I'm sending the two students back to camp while I try to take the guys out. I took a reading and it looks like I'm probably going to get hit, maybe die. I haven't updated my will in some time, but I'm sure Doug can whip up something authentic. I want you to have my company. And my shoes.

Concentrating on her stance, her sighting, the trajectory of Laser Eyes' flight, the weight of the gun in her hand, windspeed, on listening for Pogo Stick's approach through the barn roof, everything except the possibility of dying, Adrienne fired at the approaching Laser Eyes and snorted in satisfaction as she saw his left shoulder jerk back and his flight pattern waver for a brief moment. She'd hit him! The timeline was already wrong!

As she'd seen in her reading, Pogo Stick crashed through the roof and since she already knew where he was going to land it wasn't difficult for Adrienne to bury three shots in his chest before he hit the ground. The shots only staggered the man, but the follow up round between the eyes sent him reeling, and he collapsed to the ground. She paused to reload her clip but the sudden impact of something sharp and burning hitting her side had her stumbling to the floor. Laser Eyes continued firing at the barn, ripping the old building apart with the blasts and sending rotting timbers down around Adrienne, who curled up in a foetal position with one hand protecting her head while the other clutched at her side. As the building came down around her and blackness made the pain in her side go away, Adrienne felt the air of Laser Eyes' windstream leaving the area, felt it wash over her as Laser Eyes headed off in the direction of Klara and Laura.

Laura's grasp of Klara's hand tightened. "Klara, protect yourself; make vines, thorns, anything to keep you covered; I need to stop that man before he hurts someone else." With that, she let her hand go, only after making sure the girl was doing as instructed; Adrienne had been hit, and she was dead for all Laura knew; this was also part of what she had learned from Logan; expect from the worst all the times. She didn't like it, but at the moment it seemed like the proper way to react. Without a doubt, Laura started to run towards Black Light, arms extended at her sides as she rapidly closed the distance. "Come on, Laser Eyes! Give me your best shot!"

Klara created surrounded herself with thick thorny vines, but left herself some space to peek through. Even if she wasn't a fighter, she couldn't let Laura take on Laser Eyes on her own. There had to be some way she could help, even if it was minimal.
Laura's charge was halted as a shot smashed brutally down on her left shoulder, and sent her sprawling over the plants. The impact had broken her left arm and shoulder easily, and the figure they'd called 'LaserEyes shook his fist at her.

"~Stay down! Dammit Hardball, can't you even bounce fucking properly! I guess these bitches are mine." He snarled, and looked back at Laura. She looked like a Western teenager, almost like one of those cheerleaders, and he wondered again why they were the priority if spotted. He wasn't a man to question orders openly, but that didn't mean he didn't do so in the safety of his own head. Still, orders were orders and he sighted her carefully, deciding to make it fast and painless.

Way to go, genius. Laura made her best effort to ignore the pain on her shoulder, but she wasn't getting rid of it anytime soon. And yet, the pain was fueling a mad rage that was starting to numb her. "Don't move from there", hissed at Klara as she stood again, sparing one second to look at her arm healing; she was going to need a good deal of time to get it completely well. "Klara", whispered at the girl as she slowly sheathed her claws, mostly because doing nearly anything with her left arm was ridiculously painful. "Can you shoot some of those spikes at him? I'll charge at him, force him to stay still; we need to force him out of the air." Taking a deep breath -which interestingly so, didn't calm her at all-, Laura made her move again, although this time much more away of the incoming attacks; she needed to get to a wall in order to reach a higher point and jump at him if possible, although for the time being she needed to get Laser Eyes from moving.

And just as she expected, the man got into the offensive again; Laura avoided getting hit though; she had seen the attack coming, and knew how it worked now. An angered grunt reached her ears; oh, he was getting pissed. Closing the distance, Laura managed to avoid a number of blasts, one actually managing to graze her arm; for now she had bought enough time for Klara.

Klara had never tried shooting any of the thorns at anyone, so rather than try that, she decided to go a slightly different route. While Laser Eyes' attention was focused on Laura, she prepared tendrils of thick, thorny vines. She didn't know how to separate the thorns from the vines and now was not the time to experiment. But she did understand the need for rapid action.

Suddenly, she let the thick vines come at him as though they were spring-loaded. They wrapped themselves around his limbs. Klara realized that she would have to render him unable to use his hands and his eyes at least for a short time, so while she had him, she pulled his hands up directly in front of his eyes with the vines and pulled him down to the ground to pin him.

Klara wanted to check on Ms. Frost, but they were going to have to make sure Laser Eyes was taken care of before it would be safe.

Black Light thrashed against the vines, trying to clear his face enough to destroy them with his blasts. The vines were strong, but so was the man, and he managed to shoot through one of the vines, with only two left pinning him to the ground.

And that was all that Laura needed. The few seconds Laser Eyes wasn't looking, Laura made her way up a semi destroyed wall, and jumped at him, claws unsheathing, the pain that flooded over her let side only managing to put extra anger to her movements. It was almost a horizontal impact of bodies, followed by a quick movement of her right arm, claws plunging into his chest, the last bit of her rational self managing not to pierce the hearth or anything vital, although she would've just beheaded the man right there. There was struggle, but Black Light's strength was decreasing quickly as he started to fly lower, finally collapsing on the ground, unconscious. Laura pushed herself away, feeling the blood dripping on her claws, panting heavily.

"...Done. Can I go home please?" She felt like passing out.

Klara wasn't taking any chances with Black Light and made certain that his hands were pinned right over his eyes on the ground with strong vines before she decided it was, in fact, safe to turn her back on him.

"I would very much like to go home as well," she said, letting out breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. "But we should check on Ms. Frost...and I will do my best to help you. My first aid knowledge isn't as good as some. I should be able to make a splint for your arm, at least."

She was the only one who wasn't injured, because Laura and Adrienne had protected her. Even knowing she had done what she could to help, and that this was much more than she would have been capable of a year ago, Klara still felt a little guilty.

Standing slowly, Laura started to notice the pain on her shoulder. How long until she healed a broken shoulder? "I know, we need to get her out of there." She placed her hand -the one she could move without pain- over the girl's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "You did well Klara, now let's dig our teacher out."