xp_logs | GBOW: Here Come The Drums

Paige, Angel, Kurt and Julian continue the assault, as India mobilizes air forces to attempt to push their assault.

The battle line for tanks to deploy across was always very long, but now, miles of Pakistan were littered with damaged tanks, stalled vehicles, and broken units. Few of the tanks were actually out of commission, and most of those were due to lucky strikes by Paige's steel form or Tabitha's bombs. Tracks and cannon barrels were relatively easy things to replace, assuming that you had your technicians close to the line. But when most of your first wave requires repairs, even the best engineers corps could not keep up, and the tank assault had paused to try and re-assemble themselves and find out whether they were to restart the charge and leave half their strength behind.

Moving ahead of the tanks, attack helicopters began to buzz around like locusts, scouring the countryside for intelligence about what made their assault pause, and targets to pinpoint for the new assault. As they swung about, rotary cannons tracks back and forth, now ready to engage anything that looked hostile or simply available.

Kurt stood with his three younger companions, watching the helicopters closely. "Those would be our new biggest problem", he said dryly. "Pants, you are our only true flier - do you think your invulnerability in flight would stand up to those guns if it had to?"

Angel stood next to him and stared at the oncoming helicopters with a frown. The shielding that protected when she used her powers had been tested but never quite like that. "Well," she said quietly, "I sure as hell hope so. Guess we'll find out."

"I could provide some extra shielding," Julian offered, glad that Professor Sefton wasn't telepathic and therefore couldn't hear that deluge of cursing about the teamwork drills he'd been subjected to recently. "Or maybe could get the guns to point in the wrong directions."

Kurt considered this, then nodded. "Those are both very good ideas, Lazybones, and here is another, if your powers would be strong enough- do you think you could disable some of the guns? Crush the barrels, pull them off altogether, anything along those lines."

"If all else fails and you're not too tired we could continue playing catch. Send me through a couple of tails. It worked well enough on the tanks. Actually, if any of you could get me at a tail, I'm fairly certain I could get through it fast enough and survive the drop back down," Paige said, offering the strange image as she chewed on her lip in thought.

Angel shimmered blue as she gained a little bit of distance from the group to avoid any broiling of companions. "Okay, so, we've got a rough plan, yes? Yes." Oh god, she was going to get shot at by helicopters. Well, no one said being an X-Men trainee was easy. "I'll hit the skies as soon as you give me the go ahead, Nightcrawler."

"God be with you", he said quietly. "Do what you can up there - and go when you are ready. Husk, if Lazybones cannot send you through a tail, I am fairly sure I could drop or throw you through one."

"How about this...I'll cover An-um-Pants while disabling the guns on the first couple whirly birds. Nightcrawler brings Husk up to drop height and I'll catch her on her way back down- just to be safe." Julian was slightly excited for this plan, a great deal would depend on him and his ability to multitask.

"That should work", Kurt said with a nod. "Or so we shall hope. If you are sure you are up to it, Lazybones, we will go with that."

Paige smiled at Julian warmly. "You can do it, sugar, just don't over do it. You're no good to us in a coma. Let's move."

***

"Son of a bitch that hurt!" Angel gasped as she pulled up and out of a short spin. Her voice crackled and warbled as it came out oddly warped from the full suit of fire that now encased her. Her shoulder ached and throbbed but she waved down to Julian to show she was okay - she'd taken a direct hit before Kurt had managed to take out the folks shooting at her. The fire shield had protected her, melted the bullet on impact, so she was left with a painful impact but no puncture. She'd take it.

Up until that moment, though, everything else had gone smoothly. They'd taken down or disrupted at least several of the helicopters and were working on more. It was dirty, painful and fast moving work but it was going well.

Angel flared brighter and turned towards the nearest 'chopper - a flash of silver and a implosion of blue cloud told her Kurt and Paige were doing their thing.

Sweat was pouring down Julian's face back on the ground. The multiple actions he was performing were starting to take their toll and he'd never pushed himself this far before. The hit Angel had taken weighed on his mind heavily and even though he knew she couldn't hear him, he yelled out, "Sorry!" It was getting to be too much. Then he nearly fumbled Paige.

There was a distinctive wobble, and Paige shot out her arms instinctively, like trying to gain back her balance on a tight rope. Looking down at the ground, Julian was little more than a blurry dot, but in her mind's eye he was slumping, tiring. If anyone could recognise the look, it was her. There was another wobble and then a lurch as if someone had pulled the ground out from under her, and she dropped once, paused, then again.

Julian was fighting back the darkness, but in the end, it was just too much for him. With a final gasp, Julian managed to squeak out a quick, "Son-of-a-bit..." before falling to the ground face first.

He was right in Paige's path, and Kurt reacted the second he realized it. Blessing the speed of his power, he 'ported in and grabbed the unconscious boy, vanishing again seconds before Paige hit ground.

It had all happened so fast that Angel had been unable to do anything but turn around in mid-air. Worried about her friends, she'd started to arc back down to the ground but fresh fire from one of the helicopters forced her to rethink that. She curled in to herself and rolled, bringing fresh fire up through her hands so that when she stopped spinning she blasted it at the one that had fired on her.

It went right through the main blades, instantly melting two of them to nothing more than twisted metal and caused the entire thing to immediately drop towards the ground. Her friends might be hurt but she couldn't stop what she was doing to check in on them.

Kurt was several feet away from Paige's landing site, laying Julian carefully out on the ground in the recovery position. "I do not think he is hurt by more than exhaustion", he called to the others. "Husk, are you all right?"

"I think the ground is worse off than I am," Paige replied, looking around at the small crater she was sitting in a moment, before getting to her feet. "Not that I'd want to do it again." Fractures in her spikey form appearing and she brushed at them, as one might dust off their trousers, revealing a smoother metallic husk underneath. Bending over she uncemoniously hauled Julian up and then over her shoulder, mindful that his forehead didn't bang too hard against her back.

"Come on, chickpea. Let's get you away from the things shooting at your dumb self."