Genosha: The End of the Beginning: Distracting Elements

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

The first team of X-Men strike at the Citadel.



The citadel stood as an innocuous, concrete building surrounded by a
stone wall. Security periodically made an appearance patrolling around
the grounds looking for anything suspicious or anyone who perhaps
should not be there. The upper levels of the building were dotted with
intermittent windows showing glimpses of offices or hallways. It
was...boring, not unlike passing the federal building in New York. The
small team of X-Men sat waiting until suddenly the windows went dark.
Cameras positioned along the perimeter wall slowed and then stopped in
the midst of their sweep over the grounds. It was time to move.

Scott looked around at his team gesturing to get their attention, "All
right people showtime." He nodded at the bunkers ahead of them, "Let's
go slow and careful, I want to try to maintain the element of surprise
for as long as possible, Hamster, take point and try to burn out the
radios of anyone we bump into; Meltdown, Sparky follow him, I'll bring
up the rear. Everyone ready?" he waited for the team to signal their
readiness before nodding, "Ok, lets go."

With a small grunt, barely audible but clearly acknowledging the
command, Lex rolled to the balls of his feet and moved forward with a
slow, easy grace of a practiced soldier. He kept his eyes peeled for
danger. The intel they'd been given in the briefing had made it clear
they were going to be in for one hell of a fight and he had no
intention of starting the party early - that's how people got killed.

Jean-Phillipe kept pace a few steps behind Lex. He tried to keep an
eye on whatever segment of their approach Lex wasn't immediately
paying attention to, so as to cover the maximum amount of visual
space. He wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but with this being
his first major action since his promotion (the bust had been more in
the nature of a brief scuffle), he was just the littest bit nervous,
and hoping not to let the team down in any way.

The only reason John had agreed to come along and be part of this
whole operation was because of the opportunity to blow shit up. He had
been reluctant about it at first because aside from having been part
of a couple of random missions in the past, he really didn't know the
first thing about being an X-Men and he was the absolute worst at
taking orders. Luckily for the team, they were looking to cause some
major damage tonight, and if there was one thing John was good at, it
was causing trouble.

Meltdown strolled along quietly, making a circuitous trip. She took
her opportunities to drop a bomb in every nook and cranny she could
find along the way. With that volume, they'd all have to go at once,
so she wanted to be far, far away when she detonated.

Scott followed his team his eyes constantly scanning his environment
for signs of trouble. Not that he was expecting any, everything looked
peaceful and the Genoshan's were in for a surprise when the team
reached the bunker that was their goal. He saw the bunker in the
distance as they rounded a corner and his eye started glowing as he
prepared for the coming fight.

Two guards appeared a short distance in front of the group and Lex
crouched low to avoid detection. The energy he had been building since
the group started moving was more than enough to take them both out.
He focused for a second and reached out with his mind. They both
carried radios and had some other complex electronic devices in
easy-to-reach pockets. Lex wasn't going to take any chances. He held
up two fingers, pointed at the two of them and fried all of their
equipment with only the faintest spark and sputter of smoke.

"Nice," he whispered to himself, pleased with the control he'd
exerted. A year ago he'd have hurled a charge through the ground to
stun them, but that would have given away their position. This way
bought them time to get into position.

"Tres bien," Jean-Phillipe murmured. Lex had clearly achieved
quite a bit of flexibility in the application of his power from the
paired training the two of them had done. The Frenchman had learned a
few things of his own about subtlety and control from the other man.
Spotting a video camera that covered their approach, he directed his
own carefully metered power with a flick of his arm and a twist of his
wrist. Sooner or later they were going to be noticed, but the later,
the better, and the more damage they could inflict.

Scott nodded in approval, both Jean-Phillipe and Lex were responding
precisely ah he had wanted them to, the guards and cameras had been
neutralized without even realizing it. He glanced at the bunker
memorizing the position of all the visible guards before gesturing to
the rest of the team and indicating a shadowed area which would bring
them within striking distance of the bunkers. "If we get there we
should be able to hit them with a devastating first attack and send
them reeling."

"So let's do this." John was eager to do some damage and was more than
ready to make some noise. This whole stealth thing was not his strong
suit. He didn't have precise control over his powers. He couldn't burn
say -- the wings off a fly, which was pretty much what precise to him
meant. It was too much work. "Unless of course you girls want to play
rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to make the first move?"

She didn't bother to contain her shit-eating grin as she closed her
eyes to concentrate. She held each bomb as a pinpoint in her mind,
making sure she had a grip on every one.

Then she let them explode.

"Ah," Jean-Phillipe said, a pleased look on his face as well. His
fine control had improved since he had started working with Lex, but
he still tended toward the desire to cut loose and cause mayhem.
Devastating first strikes were much more to his liking. A nearly
wrist-thick bolt of electricity stretched from his hand to the bunker,
spilling over cameras and other external bits of hardware.

As the enemy started reacting to the explosions and the devastating
electrical attack of Jean-Phillipe's Lex saw a great opportunity to
sew more chaos. Taking a cue from his earlier strikes Lex began
building up a charge and waited until the right moment. Men spilled
out of door ways, started firing wildly from bunkers, and generally
reacted the way most soldiers would when they come under sudden
attack: they fight back for all their worth in hopes of buying time
for them to regroup. That also exposed their positions.

With a grunt and what he thought was a battle cry, Lex concentrated on
detecting all of the electrical systems in the area. He excluded the
area near Jean-Phillipe's blast, which left him with dozens of
potential targets. He released the energy and recreated the explosion
from within the radios of several of the soldiers. This time he didn't
care how big the explosions were; this time, he'd turned each of them
into a frag grenade.

Scott noted how effective Jean-Phillipe and Lex were proving against
he soldiers and turned his attention to the nearby vehicles. A few
strategically placed optical blasts opened up the fuel tanks and he
waver to John and Tabitha pointing at the now exposed fuel. "If you
two would care to do the honors?"

John didn't hesitate to direct fire towards the opened fuel tanks, but
he didn't bother to focus much of his attention on it; as any fire
that could be fed by fuel could grow into an inferno on its own and it
didn't need to be controlled. He found his next target though as more
shots were fired from the guard stations. John created a large ball of
fire, increased its temperature as he sent it forward and doubled the
size of it as it neared its target.

Nearby, an armored vehicle moved forward from between the stationary
vehicles, aiming its main artillery gun in their direction. The
pyrokinetic could set it on fire, but he didn't think he could destroy
the gun in time.

The rain of bombs stopped as the armored vehicle became more of a
threat. Tabitha's breath came in pants and gasps as she burned through
her energy reserves, pouring her concentration to the bomb between her
hands as she rushed forward. With a grunt of effort, she threw it
beneath the wheels of the armed vehicle before flattening herself on
the ground, hands over her head.

That was quite possibly the second largest bomb she'd ever made, and
she was spent.

But the satisfying explosion was worth every gasp.

The force of the detonation staggered Jean-Phillipe briefly, and he
whistled, impressed with the carnage. "Perhaps we should change your
name to something more...suitably explosive," he quipped to Tabitha as
she picked herself up and dusted her leathers off.