Sons of Liberty: Into The Fray

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

The X-Men arrive to confront a group of former Spuer Soldiers.



Shaver Lake flashed past the jet in a blink, surrounded by green forests. The lab that Kane had told them about was visible from the air; a three story cube on a small lot carved from the foliage. Based on the observations from the air, there was only one real road past it. The goal was a small clearing about a half kilometer from the west side of the building, and the Blackbird's stealth kept them quiet and unnoticed as they set down. Jean and Kyle were waiting at the edge of the clearing, and as the ramp opened, loped up to collect their uniforms and brief the other X-Men on the situation.

"What we know is this..." Jean said as she slipped off her jacket.

"A group calling themselves the Sons of Liberty have laid siege to the lab nearby, killing some and taking hostages of the rest. What might normally be your routine combat and rescue has become complicated by a couple of obstacles," she said, nodding to the flashing red and blue lights in the distance before glancing to Kyle.

"Eff the po-po." Kyle grunted. "Minus Gar, of course." He pulled his uniform jacket on and left it unzipped, and kicked off his shoes. "Which, incidentally, who wants to bet that fighting these guys will be like fighting Gar, only not nearly as nice and Canadian?"
Sam slipped on his own jacket and nodded. "That's probably a good bet." Unlike Kyle, he zipped his up and then put on his game face. "How many people are we talking about here anyway?"
Jean's eyes briefly took on an unfocused look. "Ten outside...Inside...there's a lot of people in there...a lot of hostages...maybe...five or six bad..." The hostages were panicked and that added some static to the reading.

"So we need to get in, take out these Sons of Liberty and get out without alerting the police to our presence," Warren supplied, his gaze briefly going to the cops. "Sounds easy." Except not, of course.

"Kyle, I feel the need to point out your sheer whiteness right now," Laurie noted, but the wink she gave him took any real sting out of the word. She'd been listening quietly as the elder X-men discussed the situation, waiting for any instructions they might have for her.

"We can do it," Monet said and checked to make sure her hair was tied back. "So... do we go in loud and fast or try to slip in under the radar?"

"Under the radar," Jean said. "The quieter we are, the less chance we have of making both parties get too excitable. If the law enforcement start attacking us the Sons of Liberty might get trigger happy and start killing hostages if they feel threatened."
"I might be able to help with that," Laurie said, voice steady despite her nervousness at the situation.

"And in that case, Doc Grey, where's the air masks? If Wallflower's gonna need to go all calm yerself the hell down on people, the last thing we want is me affected." Kyle answered his own question by digging into one of the medical supplies containers and pulling out one of the masks. "What you think, you guys keep the po-po from noticing us, or giving a crap, M, Cannonball and I go punch people in the ears a little bit?"

Sam did likewise, finding one of the masks as well. "I reckon that sounds like just as good a plan as any." If the others could provide them with the cover to get inside unnoticed, they could take care of the rest.

"I can keep watch from the skies," Warren confirmed. "Steer you clear of anyone."

Monet nodded. "Sounds good. I'm all in favour of punching people," she said and quickly adjusted the straps on her mask.

The X-Men were lucky in the fact that the area was rural enough that there weren't a lot of men on-scene yet, and those who were manning the perimeter were spread thin. Kane had warned them a helicopter was being diverted to the area, and any rescue had to take place immediately and in as short a time as possible. As they slipped through the cordon, manipulating the few police close enough to see them into not registering the black-clad mutants as anything more significant than a random shrub, the X-Men found themselves in the rear of the building, near one of the shipping doors for large deliveries.

Sam knew they were on a time limit so he headed straight for the shipping doors, signalling the others to follow as soon as he'd reached them and found the path clear. Their targets were likely positioned just inside the large doors, so he leaned against the door frame and waited for the others to get into position so they could move in as a unit. Once they were, he held up his fingers to count down from 3 before they burst inside.

In some cases, Kyle was more than happy to not be the first guy through the door. He was quite content to confirm to Sam that he could hear people just inside the door, and then take a step back to let M and Cannonball do their thing. When the other two people were functionally invulnerable, he was the squishy one. Granted, he was the squishy one with claws and amazing reflexes, he thought to himself, which made things a lot less uneven.

As the X-Men breached the door, it was clear that whomever held the lab knew what they were doing. All of the materials in the landing area had been pushed against one wall, making it impossible to slip in and hide from sight. They had studied a layout of the building on the flight over, and between that and Kyle's senses and Jean's telepathy, it was obvious that the hostages could only be held as a group in one place; the main lab adjoining this large loading bay.

However, the only access to it was a set of double doors, through which a half dozen men waited. They ranged in age from their early thirties to their fifties, and carried assault rifles with the practiced ease of long familiarity and use. Their clothes were simple; almost a uniform of khaki combat pants and t-shirts, and all of them boasted physiques which belied their age.

"Burnside was right. SHIELD finally sent their mutants against us." The eldest said, and another shrugged.

"Mutants die the same way as Feds." There was an odd tone to his words, as if he was almost parroting something he'd heard. Their mentalscapes were awash with chaos; like insane men despite the cold, rational words. "I hope you're not here to surrender."

~There are six suspects on first sight. Their minds are...disorganized. Very hard to follow coherently. Something's definitely off with them mentally.~Jean thought to the x-team. Well, more off then the fact that they were holding a number of people hostage with the intent to kill.

~They may be being controlled.~

"And why is that? You know we're mutants. If we engage you people could get hurt, including you and your men. I don't think you want to see your teammates hurt, do you? We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we have to if you try to hurt these people," Jean said.

"What do you want? If you've taken people hostage you must want something." Otherwise they'd be dead already.

~We need an idea of what weaponry they're using. They're likely not mutants so we don't know what they may have. Sam, Monet, we need cover on both sides of the entrance in case they start to attack.~

"Nothing that a bunch of SHIELD fascists are going to provide." As a unit, they brought up their weapons, and the staccato sounds of automatic weapon fire filled the room.

~I think that gives us a pretty good idea of what to expect.~ Warren thought at Jean, for her to share with the group. ~We're going to have to draw them away from those doors if we're going to anywhere.~

"Humour us," Warren called out in response. "Pretend we're not - what was it? SHIELD fascists?"
Laurie had hung toward the back after helping get the team safely past the cops, knowing that her powers and even more, her skills were not going to be much use in a straight up fight. She stayed silent and watched her fellow X-men, waiting for a moment when she could be helpful.
The weapons fire was deadly accurate, and if they had been normal humans, half of the X-Men would have been felled by the first volley. Half the men charged the team, while the rest set up a defensive position at the door, guarding it against them coming through. Their window of opportunity was closing quickly; it was only a matter of time before Burnside heard the sound of the assault, and decided whether or not to detonate the explosives that he claimed to have left with the hostages.

Sam was quick to react, advancing on the oncoming troops and engaging them as soon as he could to prevent them from firing on him and his teammates at close range. He threw a punch at the first opponent when close enough, prepared to follow that up with a swift kick from his steel toed boots when the opportunity presented itself.

Even with a healing factor, Kyle didn't much like the idea of being shot, and more than a few of those bullets had come way too close before he had a chance to hit the ground. He kept low, and wove in and out between his more invulnerable teammates. M and Cannonball could take a few shots if they had to while Kyle went for tendons, slashing at wrists and shoulders with his claws and kicking at the occasional knee. They couldn't shoot if they couldn't stand - or couldn't hold the guns.

Monet took her place, moving forward in a series of springing, half-flying leaps and began to throw punches and wincing at the impact the bullets made as they hit her. "Ow! Do you fuckers mind? That shit hurts. Honestly!" she snarled and grabbed the gun off one man. "Give me that. You're too stupid to use it," she said and grabbed his shirt, hurling him into a wall.

The bullets that came toward Jean bounced off a telekinetic shield and the man who was closest to her found his gun ripped from his hands and slammed against the wall before he could realize what was going on, though he was too dazed from being punched by Sam to really do much other than blink and fall down.

~We need to get past the men behind those doors. There's something else going on. I was able to pick out some collective mention of a man named Burnside from their thoughts. One of our contacts mentioned his name when Kyle and I spoke to him. I think he's the one behind this. He may be mentally unstable like the rest of them. He's not here, so he may be somewhere else in the building.~ Jean thought to the group.

~I'm going to try to bring the loading dock door down halfway to distract them, then we're going to rush the remaining men. Get ready...~ Jean said, her eyes trailing up toward the door.

~Now!~

The door came down from the ceiling abruptly, confusing the men, who momentarily looked upward to try to figure out who had hit the button. As they looked up, Jean rushed forward, stopping the door halfway and pulling another gun from one man's hand. Since he had a pretty firm grip on it he came with it and wound up landing on the floor, to where his face smacked against the ground.

Being a large doorway it left a good amount of clearance but still required some people who were taller to duck down.

~I smell sulfur. Not like Nightcrawler, like rotten eggs and silly putty.~ Kyle thought, hopefully loudly enough for Jean and Monet to hear even over all of the other stuff he figured must be going on. ~That's bad, right?~. He was distracted enough to get a sharp blow to his ribs by one of the men and he grunted in pain even as he went in claws first to the man's arms, leaving ribbons of rent shirt and skin. ~and now all I smell is blood. Shit.~.

Joining the rush, Sam bolted for the doorway, ducking down slightly so he didn't bang his head as he did so. He kept an eye out for any other potential assailants with firearms as he did so, ready to blast into any of them if need be to prevent them from gunning down him or any of his squad mates. Monet let Sam take the rush for the door while she worked on mopping up the last standing gunman, clubbing him down with a rifle she'd snatched from one of his teammates. ~ We're clear! Shooting's over! Make a quick entrance, Angel, Wallflower. ~

One of the men bounced up from the floor, obviously not as dazed from the telekinetic blow as they had thought. He moved forward with surprising speed, evading Monet's grab and literally using her face as a stepping stone to toss himself over the X-Men. He rolled as he hit, going under the door with the agility of an Olympic gymnast, and was back inside the lab. Before they could stop him, he snatched up a small detonator, and held his thumb over the button. All around him were the frightened Kirmon workers, crying and screaming at the sounds of the battle. Scattered around, between the clusters of hostages, were bulky grey packages, sealed with green tape and wired to small consoles; obviously the explosives that they'd been warned about.

Laurie's eyes widened and she quickly moved her way around the other combatants toward the hostages. "You don't want to do that," she said when she got within speaking range, still considering which pheromones would be most useful.

"Are you afraid I will?" He said, a man easily twice her age. "Fear is the passion of slaves."

"Not particularly," Warren drawled, having shadowed Laurie to watch her back. "A little concerned, sure. You're threatening to kill a bunch of people. I start getting concerned about a person when they start making those sorts of choices." He glanced over towards Laurie, hoping she'd figure out something quickly. There was only so much he could talk. "Do you really think this is going to get what you want? Holding hostages, killing people? History tells us that's a fast way to make things far worse than they are, and it just ends up with a whole lot of people on both sides dead."

Laurie let go the control on her pheromones, pushing slightly to keep them to a calming aspect despite her own fears. She watched as the hostages relaxed, seemingly now unconcerned about the man with an explosive device in their midst.

Jean glanced around as she entered the room behind the two of them. Laurie's ability had helped in allowing Jean to get some better clarity on the man's mind--but not much.

She broadcasted to the others. ~Warren, it's no use. This isn't going to be solved with logic or words. Their minds are too far gone for them to see reason. Whatever was done to them has seen to that. We have no choice.~ Not to kill, they didn't kill, but to subdue. They were running out of time.

Her eyes flickered up toward the man.

~Sam, knock him out. I'll keep his hand on the button. Laurie, keep the hostages calm so they don't panic. Sudden movements would be very bad. We need to diffuse the bombs. Monet, please keep an eye on our soldiers, make sure they don't try anything.~

~I'm on it.~ Sam thought in response. He then moved in a flash towards the man as quickly and silently as possible. The man was still focusing on talking to Warren, and Sam took advantage of that, aiming a blow to render the man unconscious as Jean had requested.

[~I'm on it~, Monet said and moved to her spot. "Will you knock it off? Seriously," she snapped and gave one a gentle kick.

The hostages were screaming or yelling to be freed as the final man was dispatched. It wouldn't be much longer before their absence was noted either by their leader, whom Garrison was keeping engaged, or the police. It was time to move, before they ended up caught in here to answer questions as well.

Zip-ties were relatively easy to break if you had claws, and Kyle busied himself snapping the plastic ties that kept the hostages secured. He ignored the flinching from a number of the hostages as he came close, calmly taking the claw on his thumb to each zip-tie and then helping the lab employees to their feet if they seemed unsteady. ~Pretty sure the cops are getting closer. They're making noise out there, we're gonna need to get the hell outta here soon.~

~Talking's very distracting, didn't you know? Let's pick up these clowns and get out of here before the police show up.~ Warren moved to pick up one of the closest men, tucking his wings in tight against him and hefting him over his shoulder. His teammates followed suite, the X-Men moving out as quietly as they'd come in, albeit slightly slower thanks to their burdens.