xp_logs | Genosha - In The Balance: Betrayed

In the end, the escape attempt is a failure, and the teams are betrayed by their own.

By the time Jim caught up with the rest of the group the guards stationed at the security post had been subdued. Fatally so, if they'd had the misfortune of facing Remy and Sarah. This group had fought hard; they were stationed near the weapons locker. A few of the escapees were already in the process of looking for access keys.

The telepath ignored them, jogging instead directly to his normal field-leader.

"Cyclops."

"Legion," Scott acknowledged as he looked up; a frown creasing his face. "Where are the others?" he asked in alarm, "I thought more of you were on the way?"

The younger man's face was blank. "They . . . decided to turn back."

"They decided to turn back?" Scott echoed in confusion. "Why?"

"They--"

"Get down!"

With that single command, the block was alive with magistrates.

They swarmed from every door, perfectly coordinated and weapons drawn. The one who'd taken point let his eyes dip for an instant to take in the casualties among the prison's guards, but the sight seemed only to firm his resolve.

"Get down," he repeated, "or we will shoot."

=

Marie-Ange had a length of pvc pipe tucked under her arm, barely six inches but enough to use as a weapon if she had to., and was pressed up against the wall, one arm out signaling Lex and Tabitha to wait. She peeked around a corner, and then nodded in the same direction. "Still clear." If by clear she meant Light chaos, and the clear sounds of someone being assaulted. but that was clear enough by her definition. She gestured at Lex, to tell him to go ahead of her.

Lex wrapped around the corner quickly, keeping low and moving with slight unsteadiness in his steps. He was in a lot of pain. With all that happened, when his adrenaline finally ran out he'd probably sleep for a month. Up ahead he could hear the clear sounds of violence. If they could get to the rest of the X-Men they'd stand a better chance of getting out.

Tabitha backed up to Marie-Ange, covering their backside. The feeling of a friend at her back was comforting beyond comprehension. She tightened the rags around her fists with short tugs. She glanced to Marie-Ange for their next move.

A loud bang erupted through the air. It sounded almost like an explosion but was instead the door nearly getting knocked off its hinges as one of the doors to the upper level burst open and the hallways from either sides started to fill with Magistrates. The anti-cavalry.

One went for Tabitha, using his baton to administer a well placed crack at the back of her knees. Two more came after Lex. One aimed a punch at his chest while another was prepared to grab him into a sleeper hold. Another tried to wrench the pipe out of Marie-Ange's hands, with a man behind her carrying a taser should she try to get testy and use the pipe.

"Under order of the government of Genosha you are ordered to stand down!"

Testy was a perfect word for Marie-Ange's mood, her face twisted in anger as she spun and jammed the rough end of the pipe against the side of the Magistrate holding the taser, just under his body armor. Charged tasers made the same noise and smell her cousin did. He made a rough 'gurk' noise, and Marie-Ange had enough time to wrench the taser to the ground and kick it away before the Magistrate lunging for her got his hands around her wrists. He earned an elbow in the nose for his attempt, but she simply did not have the strength to pull away, and her wrists were quickly zip-tied in front of her, and she was pushed against the wall, hard.

Moving with the fluidity of a well-trained soldier, Lex slid the punch and used the magistrate's momentum to slam him face first into the wall. The man's head snapped back and he fell limply to the floor. He didn't feel any emotion, there was no time for it. The second man managed to put him in the hold but quickly found himself flying through the air. "Hah," he snarled, "Is that-ghagh!"

The taser struck him just above the ankle and he collapsed in pain. Without his powers he was not able to redirect the shock or ground it out. He looked over to see the man who'd collapsed on the floor smiling with him. It had been easy to redirect him, too easy. "Damnit," he managed to wheeze out through the pain as they bound him.

Tabitha's knees crumpled like paper. She hit the concrete heavily, pulled her bum knee to her chest with a cry of pain. She didn't resist as they bound her.

"Put them in the common room with the rest," directed the lead magistrate as Tabitha was hauled to her feet, forcing her to put weight on her bad knee. He touched his earpiece. "We have the last. You can start flipping the cells. "

A few impatient jostles brought the three prisoners even with Scott and Jim, both X-Men equally restrained. Jim glanced at them and shook his head.

Marie-Ange's mouth opened for some kind of retort, but before she could get more than a word out, the sounds of yelling from behind them and then a strangled noise of pain filtered in, and she snapped her mouth shut, teeth clicking. The yelling was all too familiar voices, and that meant Very Bad Things were happening. "And that would be Sarah." She said, dryly.

=

With the doors between them and freedom unlocked and Terry going back to check on the others, Amanda cranked open the weapons locker to start handing out guns to those coming up the hall. "Help me!" she called to Sarah, turning around with rifles in each hand.

Sarah approached quickly, assisting Amanda with distributing the weaponry from the cabinet. "Hurry up folks," she growled, "we are getting the fuck out of here."

Remy oddly hung back for a second, looking over the security station. "Dere's something not right here." He said, fading back momentarily. There was a ping at the elevators, and the sound of the doors opening.

"We're fucked." He said quietly, as Magistrates rushed out of the cars, weapons at ready. More came up the hallway behind them. The first two reached Remy and instead of fighting, he let them put an armlock on him and force him to his knees. The others leveled weapons at Sarah and Amanda.

Amanda spun around at the sound of the doors opening, gun at the ready. But seeing Remy surrender without a fight, she hesitated, unsure. "What--?" she began, before several of the Magistrates levelled their weapons at her. "Drop the weapon and put your hands behind your head!" snarled one of them. The witch glanced over at Sarah, clearly unsure what to do now their leader had stopped leading.

Sarah watched Remy very carefully for a moment, searching for some clue as to the meaning of his reaction. He didn't just do things. But when there was no clear sign, Sarah slowly put her arms up nodded for Amanda to do the same. Her eyes never left Remy, and she snarled. "You're damn right something isn't right here. Rotten like the state of motherfucking Denmark."

"Prisoners are secured, sir." The Magistrate said, as they maintained a close watch on the trio. Wittcombe stepped off of the elevator, his expression more disappointed than angry.

"Very good, Captain. Make sure the others are similarly secured and returned to their cells." He sighed amd stopped in front of Sarah and Amanada. "This was a very poorly chosen effort. News is already on its way to Minister Moreau's office. I suppose I'll be reprimanded for not having shot several of you during the escape attempt." He turned and looked at Remy. "I see that your information was correct."

"I told you. Now, if your guards wouldn't mind lowering their guns, I'll just jump on the elevator and get out of your hair."

"I don't think that's an option any longer, Gambit." He said. "Your red-headed protage gave up your identity. I don't mind making a deal with a common mercenary, but with an absolute psychopath? No. We've already contacted Interpol. There's a lot of people who want to visit you in a cell."

Amanda looked up from where she was kneeling, hands on her head. "Wait, what?" She looked over at Remy. "You set us up?"

Unexpectedly, Sarah laughed. There was no humor in it, just the sound of someone finally seeing how all the puzzle pieces fit together. She looked at Amanda, and her expression was similarly empty of humor. "Of course he did. He was always waiting for the right time to sell us out. People don't change. We never change."

The last words were barely out of her mouth before she wrenched a bone from her back, the wound red and inflamed without her healing factor. She charged at him, Magistrates grabbing at her from all directions, but no one had expected her to attack one of her own and she had the advantage. The sharp end of the bone sank deep into Remy's thigh as the Magistrates finally took her down, and this time she put up no resistance. She looked back up at Remy. "Something to remember me by."

Remy staggered back, and as they gave him room, he struck. The stiffened fingers of his right hand crushed the windpipe of the man next to him, and he pivoted, tearing away his rifle. Short three shot bursts killed two more, but a body block threw him off balance, and he screamed as the man pushed the bone knife further into his leg. He twisted, popping the Magistrates' eye with his thumb, and scrabbled for his sidearm when blows came down on his head and back, forcing him to the ground.

Wittcombe, having been bourne to the ground by his protective detail struggled to his feet. "Get control of them! Sargeant, the woman is too violent for general population. Take her to the holding cell and contact the Genegineer's office with my recommendation that she be put through the mutate process as soon as possible. As for this piece of shit-" He indicated Remy who was still struggling and fighting with the four men restraining him. "Put him into solitary. No one goes near him without my express orders."

"Why not mutate him?"

"He's worth more as a gift to the Europeans."

"Should we send in a paramedic." He said, indicating the bone kinfe still sticking out of Remy's thigh.

"Leave it as a reminder."

Amanda watched as Sarah was hauled away, barely conscious from the beating the guards had employed to subdue her, to Remy being dragged off to solitary. Blood splattered the floor, Magistrates were moaning in pain or lying shockingly still. And finally, there was the Warden, glowering down at her.

The witch lowered her hands slowly, held them out in front of her. "I surrender," she said, voice low and broken. "Please, don't hurt me."