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xp_logs2012-06-03 07:50 pm
x-gambit.livejournal.com) wrote in xp_logs2012-06-03 07:50 pm
Genosha: Onwards To Victory: The Coldest Cut
They continue to struggle with mutate Yvette to reach Grual and shut down resistance.
There was no hesitation. The moment he saw Yvette, Marius pounced.
He didn't even think. The last time he'd fought her had been in the woods, where there had been so much more room to maneuver, and just a swipe had maimed him. Molly was invulnerable and Vance could shield but Layla and Ororo didn't have those advantages and so Marius hit the mutate with all the force the enhanced strength of his hindlegs could muster, and her mass had increased and she was so dense it was like hitting a brick wall, but the force staggered her back. He dug in his claws and clung to her, biting at her armoured neck and shoulders in an attempt to find her windpipe for a primitive chokehold.
Molly 's eyes widened as she hit the ground, leaving a tiny indent she was thrown off by Marius when he went after...a girl Doomsday? But smaller. And red. She shook her head, blinking a little as she dusted herself off. Wow, Marius had gone really quick after the red lady. And he was mad. Red. And blue.
She tilted her head as she pulled herself up. "Wha..." she said. "Why...why does her eyes look like Yvette's?"
But she didn't have time to wait for an answer and didn't wanna think about that as she looked around for something big and heavy to swing...like the debris from the wall that the red lady came out of. She grabbed a big chunk of wall, then tossed it at her, trying not to hit Marius.
"Over here!"
She wasn't sure what the X-People's plan was but right now it seemed to be 'wrestle until something happened.'
Mutate 105's snarl was almost one of recognition as the multi-coloured cougar attacked. She squirmed around in his hold, her feet coming up to scratch at his underbelly and when that didn't work, she bunched up her legs and kicked him away from her. Then the chunk of wall bounced off her shoulder, knocking her off-balance slightly and she focused on the small girl who had thrown it. Her claws left long gouges in the floor as she pounced, intent on ripping Molly's throat out.
Oh, Goddess... That twisting feeling in her stomach didn't settle as Ororo stared in horror at the armoured creature charging for Molly - of all the terrible sights she had encountered in Genosha this was one of the worst. The inhuman snarl was enough to shake her from her reverie, however, and she blinked once, twice, before springing into action. "Find the handler!" she shouted to whoever could hear her, eyes frosting over to white as she began to draw the heat from the air.
Handler? Fuck, man, Layla was just trying to stay alive. What was that thing? The infinitely squishable blonde dove for the nearest cover she could find, a pillar on the opposite site of the raging red spiked thing. Handler, handler...oh shit, the one who ordered the crazed non-people around. "Okay Layla, find the handler. Uh...stay alive, and find the handler," she muttered to herself. Peering out from around her pillar, Layla took stock of the scene. She needed to get somewhere with a vantage point or vaguely safer or vaguely less likely to eviscerate her and she needed to get there now. She mapped out pathways, but mostly she mapped out the destinations of them. Around people, away from red monstrous things...to a vantage point.
Layla sprung out from her hiding spot, heading for what she was sure was the path of least resistance with utter certainty. Only it sort of put her right in the red creature's path as it bound for Molly. "Oh, fuck!" She pulled up short, skidded, and went into something like a baseball slide which helped move her but not out of the way. So she screamed for the nearest person she saw on their feet. "Eighty-Three!"
Vance had already begun to grab the guns of the Magistrates and start yanking them out of their positions, or slamming the guns bodily back into them to keep them off balance and from turning people into swiss cheese. Of course, that all came to a stop at Layla's yell, Vance's head snapping over to see her sudden predicament.
"Hold on, 78!" He turned and spun towards Layla in a sudden full-on sprint. And as he passed in front of the Yvette-beast, his eyes flared brightly in time for a shield of pink teke to slam bodily into the former housemate-turned-mutate, forcing her back a step or two-- just enough time for Vance to race past and scoop up Layla from the floor, getting her out of immediate harm's way.
As he turned and deposited Layla back on her feet, he let her go with a barked, "Go!" and immediately turned back to Mutate 105. Gathering his teke, he thrust his arms forward and forced yet another pink shield directly in front of the red beast, grappling against her greater strength to give Layla and Molly just enough time to act.
While Vance covered Layla the girl scrambled off out of the path of danger. She got near enough to Molly to catch the girl's attention. "Hey, can you cover my ass while I try to find its puppet master?" She looked back at Vance and remembered when he had first turned up at the mansion. His nose wasn't bleeding yet but it was a matter of time. "And help him, he can't keep that shit up forever."
Molly blinked, looking between Layla and Storm and Marius, and Yvette. That was a lotta stuff to do. "Uh...uh...Okay!" she said, clenching her fists as she hovered near Layla. She wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to do that other than punch stuff. She hoped that was what she meant. Otherwise this was going to be hard.
"And..." she bit her lip. "I don't think she's an it. I think she's a Yvette."
Marius forced himself back to his feet and bounded back to confront Yvette, snarling at her as he lashed the aching remnants of his tail. The knowledge Molly was seeing to Layla helped, but it didn't solve the problem that Yvette was simply too big and too vicious for him to pin. In this shape, he couldn't even talk to the others -- all he could do was try to keep her occupied until they had a strategy in place. He lunged again, this time aiming for her knees in an attempt to drive her legs out from under her.
With the tiny bundle of feisty firmly between Layla and the rampaging possible Yvette thing, the mostly useless blonde took off again. This time she managed to not put herself squarely in the maybe Yvette's path but rather dodge some flying bits of wall the the fight had sent flying her way as well as what she was pretty sure was a stray icicle? Looking to see what was going on behind her seemed like a bad idea so the girl didn't look back, just kept dodging, ducking and skidding until she came up short. There was some dude surrounded by Magistrates who was really calm and sort of between Layla and the door she thought might take them where they actually wanted to go.
And then she threw herself to the floor as a table came hurtling her way. It was cool, though, her leg totally helped slow down its trajectory to soften its shattering against the wall. And at some point in the near future feeling might even return to that leg. Feeling other than throbbing. Layla's string of expletives went a long way to making her feel better.
Molly narrowed her eyes. "Hey!" she said. The stormtroopers looked at her funny so she grabbed the bits of the table that were left and threw it right back at them. A couple of them yelled really loud and got out of the way. It made her laugh a little. Then she noticed a fire extinguisher on the wall...so she ripped that off the wall. The nozzle thingy wasn't working, though so she just tore off the top and let it spray at the guys.
"Stop hurting people!"
What had started with a drop in temperature had rapidly turned frigid as Ororo manipulated the controlled atmosphere within the room into something more suitable for the arctic climes. Each bit of moisture she touched was chilled until the air was thick with sleet and ice, whipping around in the wind. The space was too confined to truly be able to control it, though, and she worried about injuring or slowing down members of her own team even as she tried to bombard their attacker.
As Molly and Layla moved, Vance backed off hastily from Yvette, even as Marius took his turn in distracting her, recuperating and evaluating the next push, even as his breaths became more and more pronounced, each exhale a billow of white cloud into the frigid temperatures.
Shivering slightly, Vance looked over at Ororo and then back to Yvette struggling with Marius, and an idea struck him. "Emplate! Get clear! I've got an idea!" His eyes blazed brightly again, and a large funnel wrapped around the room, spiraling around and around until the end of the cone was directed directly at Yvette. "Storm! Funnel as much wind and ice as you can into the funnel, and I'll just keep it pointed right at her! Maybe we can freeze her in place!"
And as the wind and freezing cold and ice started to whip through the funnel, he bit down on the inside of his cheek as he forced himself to try and direct the forces of nature as best he could, right at Mutate 105. Take that, spiny, pointy mutate.
Marius took Ororo and Vance's coordinated attack as a cue to get clear. He couldn't really feel the cold, but his panting breath was coming in clouds and footing was becoming treacherous. Instead he turned his attention to the magistrates, many of whom were still blinded from Molly's assault. He didn't even bother with an attack; all he had to do was slam into their legs and they went down. Find the handler . . .
Molly and Marius-the-cat were handling the Magistrates just fine by time it was clear enough for Layla to stand. She was shivering like a motherfucker but who hadn't gotten caught outside without a coat in a New York winter before? Or so she liked to tell herself to try to trick her brain into thinking it was as cold as it was. Blue eyes focused on the guy who seemed more intent on the thing that might be Yvette than he was on the fighting around him. Sure, he dodged and moved out of the way, but he didn't seem to be there to fight. Use it only if you absolutely need to, she replayed in her mind. Pretty fucking sure I need it, Fremde. Oh this was a bad idea. It was such a bad idea and this was so not a thing she wanted to have to make good on. You don't threaten someone unless you can make good on the threat. Just like you don't pull a knife on someone unless you really mean to use it.
It was a terrible idea but it was the only real threat a lanky, skinnier than usual teen girl had. Layla's hand slid into her pocket as she moved toward the man. She dodged shards of ice and flying debris for the most part and ignored whatever sharp thing stabbed her in the leg. She walked right up to the man, pulled the gun out and raised the barrel to his face. "Call her off or tell me who can." And then, looking far more confident than she felt, she clicked off the safety. Right before the faint trembling of her hand came back just as it had after she had shot that other guy. Images of this guy's brains splattering on the people behind him made her shiver more than the cold did.
The TK-directed ice and sleet seemed to be working; at least, Yvette seemed to be slowing ever so slightly, and her attacks grew more haphazard as her vision was obscured by the flurry of slush the wind whipped up around her. In the split-second of leeway this afforded them Ororo glanced around, checking on each team member in turn. When her gaze fell on Layla she gave a start - she wasn't sure where the teenager had gotten a gun or whether she could use it, but the thought of leaving her to face down the handler alone was unthinkable. As calmly as she could she stepped towards the showdown, the whirling ice and wind continuing behind her like it had a mind of its own.
"We would prefer to end this without further violence," she told the man firmly as she arrived behind Layla. "You can save your men. Just call an end to this now."
The muscles of Grual's face twitched; a man wrestling with a difficult decision that had only negative outcomes. But a brief scream as one of his men went down broke through the resistance, and he took a deep breath.
"Mutate 105, to me. Magistrates, stand down! Stand down!"
As Grual gave the order to stand down, Mutate 105 immediately stopped her efforts to fight the ice storm and disembowel whichever mutant she could get her hands on. It was not unlike watching a switch being thrown - one moment she was a hulking red monster intent on destruction, the next a small, slim girl with red skin and glowing blue eyes.
"Yes, master," she said, her voice monotone as she came to stand by his side meekly.
Grual caught Ororo's gaze with his own steely and unflinching stare. "That makes us your prisoners, I'd imagine. I take full responsibility for any actions of my men. If you want revenge, leave them out of it."
"No revenge," Ororo said, the storm behind her stopping as suddenly as it had begun as she raised a hand to signal the rest of the team to hold. "Only justice, and that is not for us to judge. You and those who give your orders will one day be faced with the scrutiny of the rest of the world; I hope you are strong enough to bear it."
There was no hesitation. The moment he saw Yvette, Marius pounced.
He didn't even think. The last time he'd fought her had been in the woods, where there had been so much more room to maneuver, and just a swipe had maimed him. Molly was invulnerable and Vance could shield but Layla and Ororo didn't have those advantages and so Marius hit the mutate with all the force the enhanced strength of his hindlegs could muster, and her mass had increased and she was so dense it was like hitting a brick wall, but the force staggered her back. He dug in his claws and clung to her, biting at her armoured neck and shoulders in an attempt to find her windpipe for a primitive chokehold.
Molly 's eyes widened as she hit the ground, leaving a tiny indent she was thrown off by Marius when he went after...a girl Doomsday? But smaller. And red. She shook her head, blinking a little as she dusted herself off. Wow, Marius had gone really quick after the red lady. And he was mad. Red. And blue.
She tilted her head as she pulled herself up. "Wha..." she said. "Why...why does her eyes look like Yvette's?"
But she didn't have time to wait for an answer and didn't wanna think about that as she looked around for something big and heavy to swing...like the debris from the wall that the red lady came out of. She grabbed a big chunk of wall, then tossed it at her, trying not to hit Marius.
"Over here!"
She wasn't sure what the X-People's plan was but right now it seemed to be 'wrestle until something happened.'
Mutate 105's snarl was almost one of recognition as the multi-coloured cougar attacked. She squirmed around in his hold, her feet coming up to scratch at his underbelly and when that didn't work, she bunched up her legs and kicked him away from her. Then the chunk of wall bounced off her shoulder, knocking her off-balance slightly and she focused on the small girl who had thrown it. Her claws left long gouges in the floor as she pounced, intent on ripping Molly's throat out.
Oh, Goddess... That twisting feeling in her stomach didn't settle as Ororo stared in horror at the armoured creature charging for Molly - of all the terrible sights she had encountered in Genosha this was one of the worst. The inhuman snarl was enough to shake her from her reverie, however, and she blinked once, twice, before springing into action. "Find the handler!" she shouted to whoever could hear her, eyes frosting over to white as she began to draw the heat from the air.
Handler? Fuck, man, Layla was just trying to stay alive. What was that thing? The infinitely squishable blonde dove for the nearest cover she could find, a pillar on the opposite site of the raging red spiked thing. Handler, handler...oh shit, the one who ordered the crazed non-people around. "Okay Layla, find the handler. Uh...stay alive, and find the handler," she muttered to herself. Peering out from around her pillar, Layla took stock of the scene. She needed to get somewhere with a vantage point or vaguely safer or vaguely less likely to eviscerate her and she needed to get there now. She mapped out pathways, but mostly she mapped out the destinations of them. Around people, away from red monstrous things...to a vantage point.
Layla sprung out from her hiding spot, heading for what she was sure was the path of least resistance with utter certainty. Only it sort of put her right in the red creature's path as it bound for Molly. "Oh, fuck!" She pulled up short, skidded, and went into something like a baseball slide which helped move her but not out of the way. So she screamed for the nearest person she saw on their feet. "Eighty-Three!"
Vance had already begun to grab the guns of the Magistrates and start yanking them out of their positions, or slamming the guns bodily back into them to keep them off balance and from turning people into swiss cheese. Of course, that all came to a stop at Layla's yell, Vance's head snapping over to see her sudden predicament.
"Hold on, 78!" He turned and spun towards Layla in a sudden full-on sprint. And as he passed in front of the Yvette-beast, his eyes flared brightly in time for a shield of pink teke to slam bodily into the former housemate-turned-mutate, forcing her back a step or two-- just enough time for Vance to race past and scoop up Layla from the floor, getting her out of immediate harm's way.
As he turned and deposited Layla back on her feet, he let her go with a barked, "Go!" and immediately turned back to Mutate 105. Gathering his teke, he thrust his arms forward and forced yet another pink shield directly in front of the red beast, grappling against her greater strength to give Layla and Molly just enough time to act.
While Vance covered Layla the girl scrambled off out of the path of danger. She got near enough to Molly to catch the girl's attention. "Hey, can you cover my ass while I try to find its puppet master?" She looked back at Vance and remembered when he had first turned up at the mansion. His nose wasn't bleeding yet but it was a matter of time. "And help him, he can't keep that shit up forever."
Molly blinked, looking between Layla and Storm and Marius, and Yvette. That was a lotta stuff to do. "Uh...uh...Okay!" she said, clenching her fists as she hovered near Layla. She wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to do that other than punch stuff. She hoped that was what she meant. Otherwise this was going to be hard.
"And..." she bit her lip. "I don't think she's an it. I think she's a Yvette."
Marius forced himself back to his feet and bounded back to confront Yvette, snarling at her as he lashed the aching remnants of his tail. The knowledge Molly was seeing to Layla helped, but it didn't solve the problem that Yvette was simply too big and too vicious for him to pin. In this shape, he couldn't even talk to the others -- all he could do was try to keep her occupied until they had a strategy in place. He lunged again, this time aiming for her knees in an attempt to drive her legs out from under her.
With the tiny bundle of feisty firmly between Layla and the rampaging possible Yvette thing, the mostly useless blonde took off again. This time she managed to not put herself squarely in the maybe Yvette's path but rather dodge some flying bits of wall the the fight had sent flying her way as well as what she was pretty sure was a stray icicle? Looking to see what was going on behind her seemed like a bad idea so the girl didn't look back, just kept dodging, ducking and skidding until she came up short. There was some dude surrounded by Magistrates who was really calm and sort of between Layla and the door she thought might take them where they actually wanted to go.
And then she threw herself to the floor as a table came hurtling her way. It was cool, though, her leg totally helped slow down its trajectory to soften its shattering against the wall. And at some point in the near future feeling might even return to that leg. Feeling other than throbbing. Layla's string of expletives went a long way to making her feel better.
Molly narrowed her eyes. "Hey!" she said. The stormtroopers looked at her funny so she grabbed the bits of the table that were left and threw it right back at them. A couple of them yelled really loud and got out of the way. It made her laugh a little. Then she noticed a fire extinguisher on the wall...so she ripped that off the wall. The nozzle thingy wasn't working, though so she just tore off the top and let it spray at the guys.
"Stop hurting people!"
What had started with a drop in temperature had rapidly turned frigid as Ororo manipulated the controlled atmosphere within the room into something more suitable for the arctic climes. Each bit of moisture she touched was chilled until the air was thick with sleet and ice, whipping around in the wind. The space was too confined to truly be able to control it, though, and she worried about injuring or slowing down members of her own team even as she tried to bombard their attacker.
As Molly and Layla moved, Vance backed off hastily from Yvette, even as Marius took his turn in distracting her, recuperating and evaluating the next push, even as his breaths became more and more pronounced, each exhale a billow of white cloud into the frigid temperatures.
Shivering slightly, Vance looked over at Ororo and then back to Yvette struggling with Marius, and an idea struck him. "Emplate! Get clear! I've got an idea!" His eyes blazed brightly again, and a large funnel wrapped around the room, spiraling around and around until the end of the cone was directed directly at Yvette. "Storm! Funnel as much wind and ice as you can into the funnel, and I'll just keep it pointed right at her! Maybe we can freeze her in place!"
And as the wind and freezing cold and ice started to whip through the funnel, he bit down on the inside of his cheek as he forced himself to try and direct the forces of nature as best he could, right at Mutate 105. Take that, spiny, pointy mutate.
Marius took Ororo and Vance's coordinated attack as a cue to get clear. He couldn't really feel the cold, but his panting breath was coming in clouds and footing was becoming treacherous. Instead he turned his attention to the magistrates, many of whom were still blinded from Molly's assault. He didn't even bother with an attack; all he had to do was slam into their legs and they went down. Find the handler . . .
Molly and Marius-the-cat were handling the Magistrates just fine by time it was clear enough for Layla to stand. She was shivering like a motherfucker but who hadn't gotten caught outside without a coat in a New York winter before? Or so she liked to tell herself to try to trick her brain into thinking it was as cold as it was. Blue eyes focused on the guy who seemed more intent on the thing that might be Yvette than he was on the fighting around him. Sure, he dodged and moved out of the way, but he didn't seem to be there to fight. Use it only if you absolutely need to, she replayed in her mind. Pretty fucking sure I need it, Fremde. Oh this was a bad idea. It was such a bad idea and this was so not a thing she wanted to have to make good on. You don't threaten someone unless you can make good on the threat. Just like you don't pull a knife on someone unless you really mean to use it.
It was a terrible idea but it was the only real threat a lanky, skinnier than usual teen girl had. Layla's hand slid into her pocket as she moved toward the man. She dodged shards of ice and flying debris for the most part and ignored whatever sharp thing stabbed her in the leg. She walked right up to the man, pulled the gun out and raised the barrel to his face. "Call her off or tell me who can." And then, looking far more confident than she felt, she clicked off the safety. Right before the faint trembling of her hand came back just as it had after she had shot that other guy. Images of this guy's brains splattering on the people behind him made her shiver more than the cold did.
The TK-directed ice and sleet seemed to be working; at least, Yvette seemed to be slowing ever so slightly, and her attacks grew more haphazard as her vision was obscured by the flurry of slush the wind whipped up around her. In the split-second of leeway this afforded them Ororo glanced around, checking on each team member in turn. When her gaze fell on Layla she gave a start - she wasn't sure where the teenager had gotten a gun or whether she could use it, but the thought of leaving her to face down the handler alone was unthinkable. As calmly as she could she stepped towards the showdown, the whirling ice and wind continuing behind her like it had a mind of its own.
"We would prefer to end this without further violence," she told the man firmly as she arrived behind Layla. "You can save your men. Just call an end to this now."
The muscles of Grual's face twitched; a man wrestling with a difficult decision that had only negative outcomes. But a brief scream as one of his men went down broke through the resistance, and he took a deep breath.
"Mutate 105, to me. Magistrates, stand down! Stand down!"
As Grual gave the order to stand down, Mutate 105 immediately stopped her efforts to fight the ice storm and disembowel whichever mutant she could get her hands on. It was not unlike watching a switch being thrown - one moment she was a hulking red monster intent on destruction, the next a small, slim girl with red skin and glowing blue eyes.
"Yes, master," she said, her voice monotone as she came to stand by his side meekly.
Grual caught Ororo's gaze with his own steely and unflinching stare. "That makes us your prisoners, I'd imagine. I take full responsibility for any actions of my men. If you want revenge, leave them out of it."
"No revenge," Ororo said, the storm behind her stopping as suddenly as it had begun as she raised a hand to signal the rest of the team to hold. "Only justice, and that is not for us to judge. You and those who give your orders will one day be faced with the scrutiny of the rest of the world; I hope you are strong enough to bear it."