Genosha - Stemming the Tide: Attack Part 7
Jun. 2nd, 2012 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsWarren and Pixie come to help Lorna, Catseye and Molly against Mutate 557 and rescue Meggan from death by tree.
Every possible escape Meggan attempted—from shimmying along another branch, to shoving her way through the tangled limbs before they trapped her—was closed off. Branches had slammed down like a gate before a castle. Not even kicking was putting a dent in the twisting limbs that had caged her. Yes, she’d had dreams about meeting the Ents after reading the Tolkien stories three times in a row, but this was taking things too far—she didn’t want to be killed by Old Man Willow’s little cousin, not now, not here. There was still space enough to see out, even if things were closing in on her.
As loudly as possible, hoping someone was close enough to hear her voice and her frantic pounding through the tiny opening, Meggan shouted, “I need help up here! Someone’s making the tree lock me up!” She stepped away from the largest branches as best she could when they wiggled even more threateningly by her feet, terrified they might try to snake up her and twist until she smothered.
The world was spinning. It was like one of those mirrors at the fun house, but not as fun. Molly had found a rock to hide behind as she clutched her hand to her chest. The red was staining her outfit. There was a hole in her hand. And lots of red. She didn't like red any more. Or orange.
She could hear people around but couldn't see them very well. Everywhere she looked the world was twisty. She tried to stay as close to the rock as she could, cause the rocks weren't moving. The trees were moving, though. And apparently the sky. And the ground.
There was a blur in the distance. Poison Ivy. She remembered because she had stabbed her hand. She wasn't sure why she shaved her head and was wearing a funny suit, but she knew she had to be very quiet.
Lorna turned her attention to Molly, "Angel. Molly is hurt, I need you to come and get her." Bending down to Molly's level. "Here take this and use it to keep the plants away." Handing Molly a small makeshift knife, touching the girls head and looked over to see Meggan trapped by a tree. "Stay here, Angel is coming for you." She said again before flying up and going to the tree. "Let her go!" Lorna said as the metal on her arm formed to be a long sword as she started to hack at the tree.
"Got it, Polaris." Warren dropped down to the ground near Molly, crouching down in front of her with a reassuring smile. "Hey there sweetheart. I'm going to take you somewhere safe, okay? Where someone can fix up that hand for you."
The sun was in her eyes , though Molly saw wings. She clutched her knife with her good hand, swiping at things that moved. Unfortunately she swiped at the wings but wasn't a very good shot. She put the knife down when the winged man got closer. But there were two of them, so she had to squint.
"She hurt me..." she said, blinking up at him. It wasn't Poison Ivy...it was...it was Callie. Why would Callie hurt her?
The ground where Lorna was standing began to shake as roots pushed themselves out from deep beneath the earth's surface. They dated back further than anyone could tell, their strength and size leaving small holes on the forest floor, and the tree began to rock violently back and forth. trying to throw its attacker off. More vines appeared, as thick the average adult's forearm, their waxy surface gleaming in the sun, and quickly wrapped themselves around the long blade and pulling it from the X-Man's hand.
Mutate 557 smiled from her lofty perch, admiring her handiwork as the vine swiped at the air with the blade, and the attacker became the attackee. This was her element. This was what she had been created for. No one was going to get through her forest. Master would be pleased. She would destroy these enemies.
BigCat scampered on uncertain footing over to where Pixie was, trying not to linger lest she be caught up by the forest again. She shifted to human form in mid-leap so she could talk to Megan. "Can you get above the tree line carrying me, if I was in my small form? I wanna try to dive bomb her, maybe get the jump on her that way. Distract her from the others." She hated the idea of hurting Callie, but was still clinging to a shred of hope that some superficial pain would wake her up to who she was actually fighting, and make her stop.
Pixie nodded, nervous but confident in Catseye. Besides, what other options did they have at the moment? They just needed to get the attention off Lorna and Meggan for a minute. Pixie scooped up the purple house cat and lifted off with her into the air. She flew around Callie, carefully staying out of way of her attacks on Lorna while scanning for an opening.
Lorna lifted into the air once the grounded started to shifting. “What now..?” She whispered as she focused on the vines that were shifting all around her. One of them grabbed her sword and pulled it away. “I don’t think so.” Her eyes went from normal to green as she pulled the metal back towards her, her sword turned into a disc and she used it as a frisbee cutting.
The metal came back to her and formed on her arm again. Lorna started to fly towards Meggan cutting all vines that stood or hanged in her way.
Meggan ducked further down inside the cramped space she had left in her wooden enclosure, narrowly avoiding a vine that was bent on wrapping itself around her throat. She could see the fight through several gaps, which continued to narrow and pulsate, keeping her off-balance. She felt the movement of something sharp in her hair, followed by swift and painful yank, and frantically slapped away the grasping branch. It was trying to drag her down while she watched the ones at foot level. At the sound of slicing and tearing, she risked looking out the now widening gap. Rescue! Rescue that had a lot of cutting to do to get her out, but still...rescue!
Lorna continued to hack and slash the vines as she tried to free Meggan from her tree prison. It was a lot harder than it looked, as the vines kept coming. "Hold on Meggan. I am almost through." Lorna called out reassuring the girl that she was coming for her.
"I know, sweetheart," Warren said soothingly to Molly. "She's not in her right mind right now. But I'm going to take you somewhere safe." With that, he scooped her up in his arms, and with a few beats of his wings, they were airborne.
"It's now or never," Pixie said softly, darting into primo position 15 meters above Callie. "Are you ready? On three. One... two... drop!" She quickly let go, as if bitten, dropping Cats and whirling away to a safe distance.
Catseye felt like doing one of her war whoops, the ones she did for FlyingCatDeathFromAbove, as she fell. But this wasn't a game she played with her friends. It was real, and she didn't want to tip mutate!Callie off about the incoming attack. Sorry, real!Callie Catseye thought to herself as she shifted to girlform and then BigCat form in the blink of an eye. She used her tail like a rudder while she fell, positioning herself to land right on Callie's shoulders, landing on Callie with all her bulk. With an apologetic meow the claws dug in and tore, albeit superficially, into Callie's shoulders and back, and her jaws closed around Callie's neck. She couldn't seem to force herself to clamp down, though, hoping instead that the move would freak Callie out and that her friend would snap out of it.
The armor of greenery served to do more than provide camouflage in the wooded area, but by its very nature it was self-repairing. So even as Mutate 557 stumbled backward as she took the brunt of the blow, the plants protecting her continued to harden and grow over where claws and teeth had punctured the surface to protect against further damage. But she had not been quick enough, and the cat's attack had cut through her skin, leaving it now stinging. A cooling sensation quickly spread over her body, and the Mutate smiled as the plants closest to her skin worked to heal her wounds even as her outer layers secreted a foul-tasting, nausea-inducing chemical into the cat's open mouth.
The back of her neck now bore a shallow cut from where those twisting limbs had coiled around behind her earlier and given one last parting shot at dragging her around the small confines by the hair, before she had twisted free. Albeit earning a narrow defensive cut where she’d whacked the thing as hard as she could to make it let go. Meggan kicked away a smaller vine that looked like it was going to be merging with the larger ones. That could only make it worse in here. She was more than ready to get out as the thickest of the bark crumbled and broke away. Nothing but grateful for the rescue, she quickly called out, “Thank you so much!”
"Let's get you out of there," Warren flew up next to Meggan, catching her under the arms and hauling her out of the tree. "Time to get you out of harm's way."
Lorna stayed until Warren took Meggan and flew her away. "Pixie I got an idea. Get your dust ready." She said into her ear piece and gathered up her metal again. Lorna flew towards Callie, this was going to hurt Lorna more than it was going to hurt Callie. She didn't want to hurt the girl, more like distract her as she flew into the girl to knock her off guard and to focus the attention on her. Cautious of all branches, she wasn't going to be knocked in the head again.
Pixie summoned her dust and buzzed around Callie, waiting to the right moment to rain down her dust. She didn't want to dust Lorna, and the two were too entangled at the moment. "Say when!"
“Now!” Lorna said as she pulled away and the metal covered her face as she flew away.
Green tendrils flailed wildly as Mutate 557 breathed deeply, the powder entering her lungs and landing on her armor. She stood, frozen for a moment, watching the green haired woman fly around, a trail of green light flowing behind her. The voices of her handler and enemies echoed hollowly between the mutant soldier's ears, reminding her that a fight was afoot. That woman with the green hair was still stupidly flying between the branches, making her an easy target as one of the branches reached out and wrapped the flier around her waist.
Pixie darted out of the way as the tendril wrapped around Lorna. Infuriatingly, the dust didn't seem to be having a great effect. She looked around wildly for something to throw as a distraction, like a rock or... "Ha!" Pixie snatched a fruit from a tree as she flew past. It looked almost like a tomato, bright orange and split open with an abundance of juices. She flung the persimmon with all her might at Callie's head, where it burst on impact.
"Ah.." Was all she said when the branches stopped her in mid-air. Looking at the branch, "Mother Nature...I hate you right now. Really hate you right now." The metal that was covering her face formed on her arm again and it formed a ax and she started to attack it to loosen it's grip on her. "Let go let go let go..." She said with each blow until the branch let go and she flew out out reach. She came up near Pixie. "I don't think that will stop her."
A low guttural growl erupted from deep within Mutate 557 as the juices from the persimmon stung her eyes, temporarily rendering her blind and breaking her concentration. The branch around Lorna loosened its grip, and the vines stopped whipping in the air as the the pink Mutate lost track of her aggressors as they took to the air.
Warren had deposited Meggan safely back at the camp, and had an idea for dealing with Callie - it wasn't a nice idea, nor was it one he was completely comfortable with implementing. But there was only so many choices they had at this point, and only so much they could do. So before he winged his way back to the fight, he snatched a container of fuel, quickly taking to the air.
"Polaris! Pixie! Grab Catseye and retreat." He didn't want to douse them in the fuel he was about to dump on Callie - nor for them to be caught in the second stage of his plan. Once they were out of harm's way he flew in low over Callie, dumping the contents of the container over her and the plants surrounding her.
"Copy that." Lorna said back and flew up and away from Callie. Seeing the purple cat nearby she flew down, "We are retreating and we are flying you out." She picked up Catseye and flew upwards, though Cats was a little on the heavy side. "Pixie grab her and just fly back to camp." Not looking back to what Angel was about to do.
"Are you hurt?" Pixie asked Cats as she hoisted her from Lorna as gently and quickly as she could. "Let's get out of here." Wings buzzing furiously, Pixie darted after Lorna and headed for the camp.
They were gone. Her plants had lost contact with the enemy, and Mutate 557 turned her still stingy eyes to the sky. They had taken flight. They were retreating. Mutate 557 smiled. Until she caught sight of the straggler still circling above. But he would be no problem to take out, she thought, reaching trees taller and swiping at him with thick, thorn covered branches.
Warren had hesitated to drop the lighter he'd purloined, a little sickened by what he was about to do. But then the thorny branches began attacking him, feathers ripped from his wings before he dropped the flame, setting the gas on fire as he winged higher, away from both the branches and whoosh of fire.
A high pitched howl of pain rose into the air. Everything was burning and the air was quickly filling with the thick, heavy smoke that came from burning still living leaves and wood. Her forest was dying, and those dastardly bastards were getting away.
"That's enough Mutate 557," her handler's voice echoed in her ear. "Fall back. Your work here is finished."
Every possible escape Meggan attempted—from shimmying along another branch, to shoving her way through the tangled limbs before they trapped her—was closed off. Branches had slammed down like a gate before a castle. Not even kicking was putting a dent in the twisting limbs that had caged her. Yes, she’d had dreams about meeting the Ents after reading the Tolkien stories three times in a row, but this was taking things too far—she didn’t want to be killed by Old Man Willow’s little cousin, not now, not here. There was still space enough to see out, even if things were closing in on her.
As loudly as possible, hoping someone was close enough to hear her voice and her frantic pounding through the tiny opening, Meggan shouted, “I need help up here! Someone’s making the tree lock me up!” She stepped away from the largest branches as best she could when they wiggled even more threateningly by her feet, terrified they might try to snake up her and twist until she smothered.
The world was spinning. It was like one of those mirrors at the fun house, but not as fun. Molly had found a rock to hide behind as she clutched her hand to her chest. The red was staining her outfit. There was a hole in her hand. And lots of red. She didn't like red any more. Or orange.
She could hear people around but couldn't see them very well. Everywhere she looked the world was twisty. She tried to stay as close to the rock as she could, cause the rocks weren't moving. The trees were moving, though. And apparently the sky. And the ground.
There was a blur in the distance. Poison Ivy. She remembered because she had stabbed her hand. She wasn't sure why she shaved her head and was wearing a funny suit, but she knew she had to be very quiet.
Lorna turned her attention to Molly, "Angel. Molly is hurt, I need you to come and get her." Bending down to Molly's level. "Here take this and use it to keep the plants away." Handing Molly a small makeshift knife, touching the girls head and looked over to see Meggan trapped by a tree. "Stay here, Angel is coming for you." She said again before flying up and going to the tree. "Let her go!" Lorna said as the metal on her arm formed to be a long sword as she started to hack at the tree.
"Got it, Polaris." Warren dropped down to the ground near Molly, crouching down in front of her with a reassuring smile. "Hey there sweetheart. I'm going to take you somewhere safe, okay? Where someone can fix up that hand for you."
The sun was in her eyes , though Molly saw wings. She clutched her knife with her good hand, swiping at things that moved. Unfortunately she swiped at the wings but wasn't a very good shot. She put the knife down when the winged man got closer. But there were two of them, so she had to squint.
"She hurt me..." she said, blinking up at him. It wasn't Poison Ivy...it was...it was Callie. Why would Callie hurt her?
The ground where Lorna was standing began to shake as roots pushed themselves out from deep beneath the earth's surface. They dated back further than anyone could tell, their strength and size leaving small holes on the forest floor, and the tree began to rock violently back and forth. trying to throw its attacker off. More vines appeared, as thick the average adult's forearm, their waxy surface gleaming in the sun, and quickly wrapped themselves around the long blade and pulling it from the X-Man's hand.
Mutate 557 smiled from her lofty perch, admiring her handiwork as the vine swiped at the air with the blade, and the attacker became the attackee. This was her element. This was what she had been created for. No one was going to get through her forest. Master would be pleased. She would destroy these enemies.
BigCat scampered on uncertain footing over to where Pixie was, trying not to linger lest she be caught up by the forest again. She shifted to human form in mid-leap so she could talk to Megan. "Can you get above the tree line carrying me, if I was in my small form? I wanna try to dive bomb her, maybe get the jump on her that way. Distract her from the others." She hated the idea of hurting Callie, but was still clinging to a shred of hope that some superficial pain would wake her up to who she was actually fighting, and make her stop.
Pixie nodded, nervous but confident in Catseye. Besides, what other options did they have at the moment? They just needed to get the attention off Lorna and Meggan for a minute. Pixie scooped up the purple house cat and lifted off with her into the air. She flew around Callie, carefully staying out of way of her attacks on Lorna while scanning for an opening.
Lorna lifted into the air once the grounded started to shifting. “What now..?” She whispered as she focused on the vines that were shifting all around her. One of them grabbed her sword and pulled it away. “I don’t think so.” Her eyes went from normal to green as she pulled the metal back towards her, her sword turned into a disc and she used it as a frisbee cutting.
The metal came back to her and formed on her arm again. Lorna started to fly towards Meggan cutting all vines that stood or hanged in her way.
Meggan ducked further down inside the cramped space she had left in her wooden enclosure, narrowly avoiding a vine that was bent on wrapping itself around her throat. She could see the fight through several gaps, which continued to narrow and pulsate, keeping her off-balance. She felt the movement of something sharp in her hair, followed by swift and painful yank, and frantically slapped away the grasping branch. It was trying to drag her down while she watched the ones at foot level. At the sound of slicing and tearing, she risked looking out the now widening gap. Rescue! Rescue that had a lot of cutting to do to get her out, but still...rescue!
Lorna continued to hack and slash the vines as she tried to free Meggan from her tree prison. It was a lot harder than it looked, as the vines kept coming. "Hold on Meggan. I am almost through." Lorna called out reassuring the girl that she was coming for her.
"I know, sweetheart," Warren said soothingly to Molly. "She's not in her right mind right now. But I'm going to take you somewhere safe." With that, he scooped her up in his arms, and with a few beats of his wings, they were airborne.
"It's now or never," Pixie said softly, darting into primo position 15 meters above Callie. "Are you ready? On three. One... two... drop!" She quickly let go, as if bitten, dropping Cats and whirling away to a safe distance.
Catseye felt like doing one of her war whoops, the ones she did for FlyingCatDeathFromAbove, as she fell. But this wasn't a game she played with her friends. It was real, and she didn't want to tip mutate!Callie off about the incoming attack. Sorry, real!Callie Catseye thought to herself as she shifted to girlform and then BigCat form in the blink of an eye. She used her tail like a rudder while she fell, positioning herself to land right on Callie's shoulders, landing on Callie with all her bulk. With an apologetic meow the claws dug in and tore, albeit superficially, into Callie's shoulders and back, and her jaws closed around Callie's neck. She couldn't seem to force herself to clamp down, though, hoping instead that the move would freak Callie out and that her friend would snap out of it.
The armor of greenery served to do more than provide camouflage in the wooded area, but by its very nature it was self-repairing. So even as Mutate 557 stumbled backward as she took the brunt of the blow, the plants protecting her continued to harden and grow over where claws and teeth had punctured the surface to protect against further damage. But she had not been quick enough, and the cat's attack had cut through her skin, leaving it now stinging. A cooling sensation quickly spread over her body, and the Mutate smiled as the plants closest to her skin worked to heal her wounds even as her outer layers secreted a foul-tasting, nausea-inducing chemical into the cat's open mouth.
The back of her neck now bore a shallow cut from where those twisting limbs had coiled around behind her earlier and given one last parting shot at dragging her around the small confines by the hair, before she had twisted free. Albeit earning a narrow defensive cut where she’d whacked the thing as hard as she could to make it let go. Meggan kicked away a smaller vine that looked like it was going to be merging with the larger ones. That could only make it worse in here. She was more than ready to get out as the thickest of the bark crumbled and broke away. Nothing but grateful for the rescue, she quickly called out, “Thank you so much!”
"Let's get you out of there," Warren flew up next to Meggan, catching her under the arms and hauling her out of the tree. "Time to get you out of harm's way."
Lorna stayed until Warren took Meggan and flew her away. "Pixie I got an idea. Get your dust ready." She said into her ear piece and gathered up her metal again. Lorna flew towards Callie, this was going to hurt Lorna more than it was going to hurt Callie. She didn't want to hurt the girl, more like distract her as she flew into the girl to knock her off guard and to focus the attention on her. Cautious of all branches, she wasn't going to be knocked in the head again.
Pixie summoned her dust and buzzed around Callie, waiting to the right moment to rain down her dust. She didn't want to dust Lorna, and the two were too entangled at the moment. "Say when!"
“Now!” Lorna said as she pulled away and the metal covered her face as she flew away.
Green tendrils flailed wildly as Mutate 557 breathed deeply, the powder entering her lungs and landing on her armor. She stood, frozen for a moment, watching the green haired woman fly around, a trail of green light flowing behind her. The voices of her handler and enemies echoed hollowly between the mutant soldier's ears, reminding her that a fight was afoot. That woman with the green hair was still stupidly flying between the branches, making her an easy target as one of the branches reached out and wrapped the flier around her waist.
Pixie darted out of the way as the tendril wrapped around Lorna. Infuriatingly, the dust didn't seem to be having a great effect. She looked around wildly for something to throw as a distraction, like a rock or... "Ha!" Pixie snatched a fruit from a tree as she flew past. It looked almost like a tomato, bright orange and split open with an abundance of juices. She flung the persimmon with all her might at Callie's head, where it burst on impact.
"Ah.." Was all she said when the branches stopped her in mid-air. Looking at the branch, "Mother Nature...I hate you right now. Really hate you right now." The metal that was covering her face formed on her arm again and it formed a ax and she started to attack it to loosen it's grip on her. "Let go let go let go..." She said with each blow until the branch let go and she flew out out reach. She came up near Pixie. "I don't think that will stop her."
A low guttural growl erupted from deep within Mutate 557 as the juices from the persimmon stung her eyes, temporarily rendering her blind and breaking her concentration. The branch around Lorna loosened its grip, and the vines stopped whipping in the air as the the pink Mutate lost track of her aggressors as they took to the air.
Warren had deposited Meggan safely back at the camp, and had an idea for dealing with Callie - it wasn't a nice idea, nor was it one he was completely comfortable with implementing. But there was only so many choices they had at this point, and only so much they could do. So before he winged his way back to the fight, he snatched a container of fuel, quickly taking to the air.
"Polaris! Pixie! Grab Catseye and retreat." He didn't want to douse them in the fuel he was about to dump on Callie - nor for them to be caught in the second stage of his plan. Once they were out of harm's way he flew in low over Callie, dumping the contents of the container over her and the plants surrounding her.
"Copy that." Lorna said back and flew up and away from Callie. Seeing the purple cat nearby she flew down, "We are retreating and we are flying you out." She picked up Catseye and flew upwards, though Cats was a little on the heavy side. "Pixie grab her and just fly back to camp." Not looking back to what Angel was about to do.
"Are you hurt?" Pixie asked Cats as she hoisted her from Lorna as gently and quickly as she could. "Let's get out of here." Wings buzzing furiously, Pixie darted after Lorna and headed for the camp.
They were gone. Her plants had lost contact with the enemy, and Mutate 557 turned her still stingy eyes to the sky. They had taken flight. They were retreating. Mutate 557 smiled. Until she caught sight of the straggler still circling above. But he would be no problem to take out, she thought, reaching trees taller and swiping at him with thick, thorn covered branches.
Warren had hesitated to drop the lighter he'd purloined, a little sickened by what he was about to do. But then the thorny branches began attacking him, feathers ripped from his wings before he dropped the flame, setting the gas on fire as he winged higher, away from both the branches and whoosh of fire.
A high pitched howl of pain rose into the air. Everything was burning and the air was quickly filling with the thick, heavy smoke that came from burning still living leaves and wood. Her forest was dying, and those dastardly bastards were getting away.
"That's enough Mutate 557," her handler's voice echoed in her ear. "Fall back. Your work here is finished."
