xp_logs | Yvette, Angelo and Sooraya

Yvette and Angelo encounter Sooraya. Together they go to find Leyu.

Determinately Sooraya moved through the vents, trying to stay as close as possible to the path that she had been taken through when she was taken from the room where Leyu was being held. She wasn’t sure what she could do or if she could even take out the two female ‘attendants’, but she was sure about one thing: she was not gonna leave her friend behind.

She paused for a second when she heard voices. Male voices… And she was already fairly close to where Leyu was being held… ‘Peeking’ through a grate, she could spot the two men. They were carrying rifles and she knew what that meant. Sayyid was not below using conventional weaponry if his followers didn’t posses any offensive powers.

But what were they doing? Sooraya listened carefully. Suddenly one of them mentioned the words ‘kill’ and ‘Japanese’ and she had enough. She rushed forward, the sand storm ‘pouring’ out of the ventilation system and she rushed the men from behind and dove under their shoes, using the same trick as she been working on during the training with Mr. Haller… the carpetless equivalent having the rug pulled out from under them.

Both men hit the floor with a thud. One was not very lucky, hitting his head on a crate and being knocked out almost immediately. The other scrambled to his feet and aimed his rifle at the sand cloud. Swallowing once, he fired…

Again Sooraya didn’t hesitate. She rushed forward, surrounding him with her sand form. One part took out the rifle, filling up the chamber with sand as the slug was ejected, while another part blinded him. He wheeled around with his arms and dropped the rifle. After he dropped the rifle, she formed a ribbon around him, keeping him in place with tiny sand stings…

She was not quite sure what to do with him now though…

Angelo rounded the corner just in time to see this, raising his eyebrows at the man on the floor, then at Sooraya. "Suddenly I'm not sure you needed a rescue after all."

The sand cloud seemed to react to what he was saying and one tendril gestured frantically to the one guy still awake who was being held in place by the sand ribbon.

"On it." He smiled unpleasantly at the wide-eyed man, stepping closer. "I could do this with no pain at all, but for you..." A solid punch to the jaw ensued.

Sooraya pulled away so that she wouldn't hurt the man with her sandstorm as he sank to the floor. She hovered there hesitantly, not wanting to reform naked in front of them. Finally she moved behind the crate and reformed while she was crouching down. Only her head could be seen. "I am really glad to see you, but... Would one of you mind getting one of their coats?" One hand gestured from behind the crate towards the unconscious men.

Yvette stooped and removed the man's coat, tossing it to Sooraya. "I should have known you would escape by yourself," she said, with a smile. "Are you all right?"

The young Afghani gratefully pulled the coat around her, firmly pushing away her feelings of embarrassment at being so uncovered. She stood up and walked over the other two. “I am okay, just a little shaken up. Lucky that that stupid inhibitor malfunctioned and I could get away…” She looked around for just a second. “Where is everybody else?”

"They're off dealin' with Sayyid and his mooks", Angelo told her. "We came to get Leyu an' you."

"And Leyu might still be in danger," Yvette pointed out from where she was keeping watch. "Je--- er, Phoenix thinks she is at the back of the building, not far from here."

Sooraya nodded. “I know where she is. They have been keeping her sedated so she won’t burn them to ashes. At least, that is what Sayyid said.” As she spoke she started to walk in the direction where she knew Leyu was being held. “I know that two women have been keeping an eye on her . But I don’t know how much of a fight they’ll be able to put up…”

"They can't touch Yvette's skin and I can smack them down from across the room", Angelo pointed out. "If they're not psions, we've got pretty good odds."

"And if they are, we'll think of something," Yvette added with a wry grin.

***

"Here it is." Sooraya said as they approached the door quietly. "But I don't have any idea what kind of powers they'll have..."

Yvette glanced at Angelo - he might not be actively with the team any more, but he was the most experienced X-Man of the group. "Sneak attack?" she suggested. "I can see if there is the handy vent in the ceiling to cut through and drop us down?"

"Sounds like a plan", he agreed. "Or maybe Sooraya could even do a bit of recon as sand first, if there's a vent."

"That I can do." Sooraya nodded. "I'll be right back." Almost immediately she dissolved into sand and disappeared in the grate closed to where they are standing. A few minutes later she returned and reformed inside the coat. "There are two women there. And Leyu is still unconscious. If the door is here..." Sooraya pointed in the right direction. "Leyu is lying in the left back corner. And if you can get up there, we should be able to crawl through the shaft..."

"Built-in climbing ropes", he said with a grin. "And Yvette's climbed walls before, plus neither of us is very big. We can get up there."

Sooraya immediately changed into sand again and hovered in front of the grate, waiting for the other two to enter first.

Yvette stripped off her gloves and flexed her fingers as they visibly grew longer and harder. It was the work of a few moments for her to climb up to the vent and slice through the thin aluminium, climbing inside the air conditioning vents with small clicking sounds from her bare feet and hands and her hair scraping against the metal. She turned and poked her head out, eyes glowing in the dimness. "There should be enough space for you also, Angelo," she commented.

Angelo nodded and immediately reached up to hook his skin onto the vent, then swarmed up it to pull himself inside the vent. "Come on in, Sooraya, and we'll get going."

Sooraya whooshed in after the two X-men, careful not to sting them. Hovering in front of Yvette she showed them the way they needed to go. Having arrived at that point though she hung back, giving Yvette the space to work.

Moving in a low crouch which seemed more natural to her than walking upright, Yvette scuttled quietly along the air conditioning shaft until she reached the vent Sooraya had indicated. Hooking her fingers in the vent she carefully lifted it off, peering down into the room. Holding up her hand, she pointed to herself and to the guard on the left, and then Angelo and the woman on the right, and then to the unconscious Leyu and the cloud of sand that was currently Sooraya.

Angelo had leaned cautiously forward to look over her shoulder, taking in the scene, and drew back before he nodded. Raising a hand into her line of sight, he counted down on his fingers.

One... two... three.

While the two X-men rushed to their opponents, Sooraya quickly whooshed to the unconscious Japanese girl... She resumed her human form for a few moments, just long enough to use her Red X training to reassure herself that Leyu was really breathing steadily. She quickly shifted back when that was done though and hovered in the background, waiting to see if she could or had to act…

Angelo had dropped right in front of his target, counting on the element of surprise to let him attack before she could gather her wits for a strike. He whipped his skin out at her, trying to pull at her niqab to obscure her vision.

At the same time Yvette had dropped behind her target, slashing at the woman's knees to set her off balance as well. She had to be careful - until she knew if the woman had super durability or a healing factor, she didn't want to risk permanently maiming her.

The woman Yvette had attacked pushed herself up off the floor and glared at the dark red skinned girl. "How dare you," she spluttered in rage. Her eyes started glowing as she thrust her hands out towards Yvette as a burst of flame burst out at the petite girl.

"I -do- dare," was Yvette's retort as she ducked and rolled away from the flame. The edges licked along her arm without apparent effect, and almost immediately Yvette was on her feet, facing down her opponent. "It is over. You are fighting for nothing. Surrender and you will not be hurt."

"We fight for destiny and our master's dream of a perfect utopia. What do you fight for? Co-existence" She scoffed, "Human lapdogs, I would rather die than surrender to such as you." Yvette's opponent spat as she threw the brightest fireball she could in Yvette's direction hoping to blind her as she charged her opponent with flames wrapped around her hands.

Instinctively Yvette closed her eyes, pulling her goggles down and cursing that she hadn't done it earlier. Influenced by Saayid or not, the woman was a fanatic and wouldn't simply back down. The flames washed over her arms as she reached up and wrapped her long fingers around the woman's wrists, the smell of charring leather from her uniform strong in her nostrils. The fire was a dull warmth on her thickened skin.

"You cannot hurt me," she told the woman in her best Wolverine tones. "and if I close my hands, I will cut your hands off. The choice is yours."

The woman stifled a sob of fear at Yvette's ultimatum and her implacable tone. The flames around her wrists ebbed, "Why are you fighting us? Don't you want your children to grow up in a better world than this?" she asked desperately.

"I do," Yvette replied softly, loosening her hold slightly - her skin had left grazes on the women's wrists - "But this? Kidnapping young girls forcing marriages? That is not the way."

The woman took a step back as the surprise attack was successful by Angelo, lifting her hands in defense. The next moment her vision was gone as her niqab was pulled over her eyes - though she didn't need to see to attack. With her hands already in attacking mode, a jet of water emerged from within the left sleeve towards her attacker while the right hand went to adjust her niqab so she can see again.

Angelo had been ready for some kind of projective power, given the way she was holding her hands, and a broad shield of skin came up to protect his eyes, the water splattering and spreading harmlessly over it. Another rope of skin went to her right wrist, tugging it away from the cloth.

Feeling her right wrist being tugged away, "Let go of me!" She couldn't see and she was panicking, which could be heard in her voice. Taking a deep breath she unleashed her water jets and kept a full blast of it on her attacker without stopping. She would tire quickly but maybe she would be able to escape.

"I'll let you go if you stop fighting and give up the girl", he proposed. "Of course, then SHIELD'll come right in here and get you anyway."

"I'll stop fighting when you let go!" She snapped at him, she was still being defensive, but at least her water jets have died a bit, she was growing tired.

"Not gonna happen. All you had to do was give up, but now I have to do this." And his skin snaked around the headpiece of her niqab, pulling it smotheringly tight on her face.

The woman opened her mouth to talk, but then the cloth around her face tighten and she panicked more. The struggle didn't last long from using her own powers and the lack of oxygen the woman went limped in his grasp. The water stopped flowing.

He let go instantly, not wanting to kill her and satisfied that she'd be out for long enough to get Leyu safely away - then he glanced around to see how Yvette was doing.

"I… ah…" the flame manipulator looked confused as she glanced around the room. She saw the body of her friend lying at Angelo's feet and looked back at Yvette her gaze hardening, "No, we were warned about you and your silver tongues. I won't betray my friends or Sayyid. Not when you reveal your true colors, you lecture me and then kill us." As she spoke she threw a ball of flame at Yvette's goggles and kicked her in the stomach driving her back.

Taking a deep breath the girl wrapped herself in flames, slowly getting hotter and hotter. Her body glowing white hot she launched herself at Angelo planning to avenge her friend.

Sooraya's mind flashed back to a battle in Afghanistan as she saw the girl rush the man she considered her brother... There she had been able to smother fires that were burning... Maybe she could do the same here. She moved forward quickly, praying the flames weren't hot enough to turn her into glass and she surrounded the girl, trying to cut off the oxygen as much as possible.

"Noo!" The girl fell to her knees coughing as the air was sucked away from her. The flames she had surrounded herself with gutted and died and she fell to her knees coughing as the sand rubbed against her niqab. She struggled to breathe as her forward momentum came to a halt and she fell to the ground mere meters from Angelo.

As soon as the flames died down, Sooraya pulled away. She remained close though, in case she tried something like this again.

Yvette coughed, her own lungs feeling the punishment of inhaling super-heated air. "Thank you," she managed to Sooraya, before looking to Angelo. "What now? We cannot just leave them here and we must get Leyu out of here."

"We'll have to leave them, we can't handle them as well as Leyu", Angelo said reluctantly. "But not free. Cut up their clothes, we'll tie them up."

"That would be my cue." Yvette said, holding up her hand and waggling her fingers.

***

They had to leave the two women behind... that was pretty much the only decision they could make. Getting Leyu to some kind of medical professional had priority... Besides, both were unconscious and hogtied with pieces of one of the torn abaya's....

Angelo was carrying Leyu while Yvette remained on guard, alert for any movement from possible other opponents. Sooraya hovered behind them, still in sand form because of a possible another attack and the fact that she needed to hunt up some other clothing before she reformed once more...

"Want to circle back and find that coat?" Angelo asked with a glance over his shoulder at Sooraya. "Although thinking about it, those two probably woke up by now."

The sand cloud paused for a moment to form a very crude N and O in the air. Then it seemed to gesture forward frantically.

"Okay, okay, we're going." He stepped towards the exit, then stopped. "Someone not me want to take point? Leyu doesn't need to be in the middle of a fight right now."

"That would be me," Yvette said wryly, dropping to all fours so she could creep forward in the shadows. She paused at the corner ahead, looking first in one direction and then the other...

Achmed wealked down the hallway and when he saw a head poking out from the corner not too far from his position. The being looked one way and when she turned, Achmed did a turn jump, with his arms swaying working up the wind and pushed it towards her - with enough force to knock her back if she didn't get out of the way in time. He walked over to the corner in a calm manner and looked down the hall towards his opponents. Without another word, Achmed did another spinning jump and landed, and a large gust of wind traveled down the hall.

Even though she had thought she was ready for anything, Yvette hadn't expected the wind gust and she was blown back, hitting the wall with an audible thump. She had just begun climbing to her feet when the second gust hit, sending her back into the wall again.

Angelo had dropped to the floor as carefully as possible the first time Yvette was sent flying, and set Leyu down against the wall out of harm's way. "Hey!" he yelled down the corridor. "You want to stop playin' with wind an' have a real fight, or are teenage girls more your speed?"

Sooraya had been blown back by the first gust of wind, but she quickly gathered herself more or less and took to the ceiling in the hope she would affected less by the wind there. When the second gust came, she was blown back a little bit, but quickly gathered herself and hurried forward, hovering protectively in the neighborhood of Leyu and Yvette.

Achmed just gave a smirk at the man, noticing that Sooraya was in her dust form. "Your taunts mean nothing to me. Why have power and not use them!?" Yelling back. He looked back at Sooraya, he felt betrayed and even hurt that she would reject him yet again. Lifting his hands and moving them in a circular form he started to create a wind tunnel continually blowing towards his enemies at high speeds.

"You want to play it that way, fine." Angelo got up, ducked as small as he could against the wind, and rushed at Achmed. "You know, if you were even close to good enough for Sooraya, none of us would be here."

Still catching her breath, Yvette shook her head as she saw Angelo going for a direct attack. "Sooraya!" she exclaimed. "We need to help Angelo! Blind Achmed, like you do in the training - he cannot fight us all if he cannot see!"

If Sooraya had been in human form, she would have taken a deep breath at what Yvette suggested. But since she was in sand form, this was not possible. She could feel the wind rush past the particles that made up her sand form, but the circular streams of wind meant she was able to stay above them. She rushed forward, aiming at Achmed’s face. She swirled around him, targeting his eyes in a way that knew that would cause his eyes to sting and tear, but shouldn’t cause too much damage.

Seeing that Angelo was starting to rush him, he was getting ready for a big wind push. But it seemed that his beloved Sooraya had plans of her own. Closing his eyes as Sooraya started to sting his eyes, "You know what wind does to sand don't you Sooraya. I don't want to hurt you but if you leave me no choice." The wind that was pushing forward had stopped and he was focusing on the wind swirling around him faster and faster. He wasn't planning on hurting Sooraya, just enough to push her out of the way since he knew that Angelo was probably within hitting distance of him by now.

More than that, Angelo barrelled into him full force, knocking him off balance and into the wall. He could only count on Sooraya trying to keep herself off him and only on Achmed, as far as she could.

Even as Sooraya had moved towards Achmed, Yvette had pushed herself upright, launching herself at the man as well. The scouring sand whipped by the winds could not hurt her skin, although it was battering her already-scorched leathers. "Harder, Sooraya," she called, even as she lowered her shoulder and plowed into Achmed's knees.

The winds faded in strength as Achmed hit the floor and this enabled Sooraya to form a ribbon that danced around Achmed, stinging more fiercely him wherever she could so he was being kept of focus. It also had the advantage of more control, enabling her to avoid stinging Angelo too bad.

Angelo got to his feet, then stepped on Achmed's back, bouncing once or twice for emphasis. "You're done, accept it an' stay down. Also stay away from my little sister."

A crack could be heard when he was slammed against the wall. The blow to the knee did take him to the ground. The wind stopped and he moaned when Angelo stepped on his back, with a bit of fight in him, he summoned the a large gust of wind with a twirl of his hands to get Angelo of his back and to get everyone away from him. He got up on his feet slowly. "I am will not stay down for dogs like you." He spit out blood from his mouth. "If you want me down you have to kill me." He leaned against the wall, holding onto his ribs. Achmed used the last his strength to form a wind vortex, so strong that it was like a shield and he blasted his way through the others and ended up on the other side of the hall. "But no one has to die." He looked over at the dust that was Sooraya. "Is this what you wanted Sooraya? To have others fight your battles?" He gestured towards the two. "All I wanted was to be a husband to you and be by your side. Is that wrong?"

Sooraya hesitated a moment. She could attack him, but knew one attack that was more far damaging than anything physical she could do. And far more peaceful, though potentially embarrassing… So she reformed, seated in her way he would see a little as possible of her naked form, but met his eyes squarely. “Yes Achmed. It was wrong. Because you know it was not the choice I made. Listen to me… I will never, ever choose you as my husband and be by your side. I will not carry your children or clean your house. Choose someone else who is willing to be your match if you ever get free.” With those words out she resumed her sand form before she turned into a complete tomato.

He looked away for a moment when she reformed, as he did have some respect for the female body. Looking into her
eyes and hearing her words he lowered his head in defeat. "Then go Sooraya and her friends. I will not stop you. Leave me to my misery and the pain you have caused." He pointed to his heart and leaned against the wall as he coughed and winced, before sliding down the wall and looked away from them. "May you never find happiness, my beloved Sooraya." He cursed under his breath, but he would trouble them no more.

Yvette picked herself up from where the last wind blast had knocked her over. "There is a trial to finish," she said. "And Leyu needs medical attention. So misery and pain will have to wait."

Sooraya pulled away from Sayyid, hovering closer to the still unconscious Leyu. She kept a close eye on Achmed as Yvette and Angelo moved to deal with Achmed and Leyu respectively.

Angelo gathered the unconscious girl back into his arms and stepped forward. "We didn't come alone, Achmed. Turn yourself in quietly."

Achmed leaned back and laughed. "You speak like I still have the strength to resist." He made a wave with his hand a little breeze stirred. "Just leave."

"Get Leyu to help with Sooraya," Yvette said to Angelo. "I will stay and watch him until the others get here."

Sooraya's eye was suddenly caught by an open crate. Hovering over it, she spotted some black cloth. Shifting behind the crate one hand shot out to grab the abaya and scarf and she quickly wrapped herself in the black fabric. She quickly moved over to Angelo and checked on Leyu. "Let's get out of here..."