Genosha: The Unrelenting Struggle: In Victory, Defeat

[x-gambit.livejournal.com]

The Magistrates fall back, but Jenny learns a hard lesson about what victory means.



The explosion caught them all by surprise. A giant geyser of water erupted into the air, steaming as it went up as columns of flame and smoke chased it into the air. From the top shaft mount of the power plant, more flames ripped free, throwing twisted pieces of bent and burnt metal in all directions. The power transmitters started to explode one by one, in a steady line until the distribution field was flattened and shattered. Even the Magistrates stopped for a moment in shock and disbelief at the cataclysmic damage.

The loss of the plant had just turned Prenova from a major military resource into an unacceptable risk of manpower to try and hold. A calculation that was not lost on Commander Braddock.

She braced herself as secondary explosions ripped through the facility. Commander Braddock assessed the scene. Complete pandemonium. She turned a disgusted glare at the terroritsts, gritted her teeth and called the order. "MAGISTRATES!" Braddock bellowed. "RETREAT!"

Into her radio, Commander Braddock ordered the evacuation. "Prenova has been leveled. I need evacuation teams here. Now." Braddock turns her attention to Amara. The young woman stared back at her handler. "Keep them off our backs!" With an understanding nod, Amara raised her arms and the earth began to rip apart.

Jenny stared at the destruction wrecked by the fiery mutant, and similarly called for a retreat, everyone scrambling back from the chasms being ripped through the earth. A few of the fighters attempted to keep firing at the retreating magistrates, but they were out of luck.

"Roll call!" She yelled once it was safe enough, her gaze moving quickly through the people that surrounded her, trying to figure out their losses.

"Yo." Kyle had one hand pressed tightly against his forehead, and his hair was matted with blood, but he was standing steadily and as he pulled the hand away, the skin was pink and new where it wasn't smeared in drying blood. "Well, that sucked. A lot." He wiped the blood off his hand and onto his skinsuit and then rubbed at the newly healed wound.

Jubilee stood from where she was checking the pulse on one of the downed mutants and she waved and pointed at the man by her feet, hoping she wasn't going to have to try and talk in order to let someone know this guy needed some medical attention.

"We need some help over here!" Jenny yelled again, ticking off people in her head as she caught a glimpse of them. One of the Genoshan mutants moved towards the injured fighter, Jenny's attention moving on immediately.

"Are we missing anyone?"

"I think we're all here," Layla piped up after searching the area for everyone she remembered coming in with. She had remained relatively safe with Herr North or Ms Frost the whole time, which was way better than most people did. Now the girl was doing her best to avoid getting too close to dead people because the last thing she needed was an impromptu zombie raising to knock her ass out for the next three days in a really fucking hostile country. No thanks.

North had ducked his head as they approached, eyes briefly slipping shut against a wave of exhaustion that had crashed over him despite still-active powers. But when Layla spoke, he looked up and raised a hand at Jenny in a vague half-wave. Tired blue eyes scanned the gathered forces even as he continued to track the information from his visions that were slowly winding down. “From our side, at least.” He was generally uninjured, although his mutate suit and beard were splattered with blood that wasn’t his, a near-spent rifle weighing heavily on his back.

Kurt approached at that moment, fur slightly singed from the brief moment he'd spent in Angel's inferno, and echoed North's small wave at Jenny. "Firestar and I are present and in one piece."

Angel raised a hand in acknowledgment of her code-name. "Present and accounted for," she agreed tiredly, still swaying a bit from the overuse of her powers and alternatively flying high from the adrenaline rush that came with being the cause of such a large-scale explosion. Her body was very confused.

Cammie shrugged a bit, which moved close to the rest of them, but not so close that any left over toxin would fuck with anyone, "I'm not saying 'here' or any shit like that," she said, "This isn't fucking elementary school."

“No,” North agreed, voice wry as he turned and peered through the dust and smoke behind them. He glanced down at his watch-less hand out of habit and scowled when he caught sight of the colourful suit he still donned. “In fact, in about a minute and a half,” he hazarded vague timeline. “This will be a riot zone if we don’t move out.”

His adrenaline levels were spiking again despite a protesting brain, and the precog unholstered a handgun out of habit as he turned back to Jenny. “Angry workers approaching from your twelve o’clock, Ransome.”

Ororo stepped up to flank Jenny as the large and apparently irate group of workers swarmed around then, lifting a hand reassuringly to the younger woman's shoulder for a moment before letting it drop back to her side. This was not her place to speak, but she wanted Jenny to know she was not alone.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

One of the workers emerged from the crowd, addressing Jenny. She was honestly shocked at the question, and in the moments that ticked over without a reply from her, other voices started to chime in.

"Terrorist!" "You're destroying Genosha!" "Traitor!"

The insults finally stirred her, and Jenny forced her shoulders back, looking over the crowd. She was grateful for Ororo's presence at her shoulder, it helped her to be able to face the accusations.

"I'm no traitor!" She called out over the crowd, who were ignoring her and continuing to yell furiously. "You deserve better --"

A woman stepped out of the crowd, spitting in Jenny's direction.

"Your parents must be so ashamed of you." Jenny just stared at her, unable to form a coherent response to her statement. The woman's words had only spurred the ground on, and it wasn't going to be long before things turned out violent again.

"We need to retreat," Jenny said quietly, only loud enough for Ororo to hear. "You should start moving your people out." Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, attempting to speak over the crowd.

"I know most of you won't believe me," she began. "But I'm fighting for Genosha, not against it. I only want what is best for all Genoshans."

"I know." A small group of workers broke off from the mob, approaching Jenny. They hadn't been calling for Jenny's blood with the rest, merely caught up in the evacuation. A small smile formed on Jenny's face, and she nodded at the group.

"We're leaving," she said again loudly. "Those of you who wish to fight for a truly equal and prosperous Genosha are welcome to join us."

"Or perhaps a Genosha that does not kidnap and murder children", Kurt joined in, voice loud and carrying, stepping forward to Jenny's shoulder. "As was done in front of me, to a girl I knew, just for the company her parents kept."

"Fuck them, they don't want to listen they can all go to hell," Cammie said briskly, "We have to get the fuck out of here. Anytime now."

"Miss Black has the right idea," Adrienne agreed, self-preservation instinct in high gear. She just wanted to get Layla away from this mess. "I would say 'let's bounce, yo,' but I'm too blood-spattered to do Gangsta right now."

"You have done very well, Jenny, and you and I both know the cause is good," Ororo murmured, watching the milling crowd for signs of unrest or violence. "But to try and convince each individual would take a lifetime. There are better ways to effect change, to help this society realise the errors of its ways."

Jenny just nodded, looking at the workers who had stepped out in support of her. She glanced at one of her fellow Genoshan resistance fighters, who nodded and moved over to speak to them. If they wanted to join them, all the better. Now they needed to retreat.

"Triage the wounded, we need to move out." Jenny glanced back at the angry crowd, her shoulders slumped and a somewhat lost expression on her face. She thought they'd join the cause, that they'd understand what she'd been fighting for. It seems she was wrong.

"I don't understand," she said quietly, only loud enough for Kurt and Ororo to hear.

Kurt put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently before turning her away. "Remember to them, this was a job, and they may not even have known what was truly going on here. In any case, leaving the status quo always brings fear and anger."

The young women said nothing, only nodding and looking south, across the great plains, to where Hammer Bay and the only way to truly win lay.