xp_logs | Genosha: The Dawn of Liberation: And Brother Shall Slay Brother

Jean's team joins the increasingly desperate fight against Thomas Moreau.

The Citadel was already seeing damage, a hole through one of the outer walls, and scorch marks, windows blown out, crumbling bits of concrete and steel littered the ground around it. The ... thing.. that fought was hardly human, a head on a grotesque monster's body that could have easily been from a Gigerian nightmare made real.

It was no nightmare, however, it was something very real indeed, no matter how much Sam desperately wished that he was asleep. He was at the forefront of the other mutants that had arrived, flying ahead of them, and if it would've been possible to come to a standing halt in midair he probably would have done just that. The behemoth in front of them was terrifying, and from the look of the damage done to the area it was a force to be reckoned with. One thing was certain, it had to be stopped at all costs. Sam saw there were people in its path and, given his power, he immediately made a beeline for the beast and tried to get its attention in an attempt to distract it.

Angelo didn't have much to offer in this fight, not in terms of size or powers given the sheer scale of the problem and the fact Moreau's body was made of metal, but he was right behind Sam nevertheless, yelling like a berserker and brandishing his piece of wood, making for the eyes.

"Holly Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" That was a big...something. "Crap, I'm going to need a minute over here." Nico ran to the middle of some wreckage, and settled there. Time was essential and she had to come up with something big, nasty, and painful. It was a good thing that her magic was almost specialized on that.

Bishop moved into position flanking Nico smoothly. He knew that he could absorb magical energy if anything went wrong and also that she would be vulnerable for a moment. He was a good choice to cover her. "Take your minute, I got you."

The creature moved like a viper, smashing Sam aside with his tail and making him glance off the concrete walls. Angelo had to duck to avoid being skewered by a steel spike, and then another, twisting his body desperately with his skin to avoid the rapid strikes. Kane rushed in, grabbing one of the spikes long enough for them both to retreat.

Jean stared up at the behemoth, tilting her head. She had had a long month. Her family and friends had been kidnapped, some turned into mindless slaves. Her team had been captured by a group of soldiers lead by her husband's brainwashed ex-girlfriend (this was becoming something of a repeat issue). She'd been on the run for days. She listened to a man get murdered and couldn't do a damn thing about it. Two people committed suicide in front of a audience of thousands. Citizens rioted in the streets. The city was in flames. A country was on verge of folding in on itself.

And now...now a sadistic megalomaniac had turned himself into a giant techno-organic monster that threatened all of them, not to mention the entire city at large.

She laughed incredulously. "Of course," she said. Because, why not?

Letting out a breath, Jean glanced around.

~"Civilians are first priority,"~ Jean spoke and thought to the others. Moreau wasn't going to be stopped in the first five minutes but there were a lot of Genoshan citizens that could be killed that quickly.

~"Get them away. Stay in twos if possible. Engage Moreau if you see an opening but be careful."~

~"And who would you have me partner with, mon amie?"~ Jean-Paul thought at her even as he darted forward and up, dragging the attention of a few of Moreau's weaponry from those who were unarmed or unable to get out of the way in time. His thoughts couldn't necessarily be considered cocky, but there was a rueful amusement tinging them when he twisted out of the way of a series of spikes. ~"Who could keep up?"~ Swooping down, he picked up someone, he didn't bother to see who it was, only to note that they didn't appear to be doing much but acting like a target, and deposited them farther away, near where others were streaming out of the Citadel in an attempt to escape Moreau. He was back to attempting to distract the creature almost instantly.

Safe... They only had to defeat this... creature to keep everyone safe and they'd get to go home. But there were also people fleeing all around them, some people of them innocent, and they deserved protection. So when a rush of tentacles shot forward from the monsterly Moreau, both flesh and metal, she rushed forward. She had a very faint hope of maybe actually trying to penetrate the metal tentacles, so she could take them out from the inside out, but as she formed the multiple tendrils of the Whip and started to parry with them, she could at least try to keep them busy and away from the fleeing people.

Instead of engaging with his spikes, instead blasts of superheated lava arced out from a pair of cannons, and it was all Sooraya could do to dodge before the heat fused her particles together and trapped her in her sand form.

Maddie knelt on the ground, brow knit in deep concentration as she worked to form and maintain a telekinetic shield. It would never be able to keep all the debris and various ammunition from hitting people, but it was better than nothing. And even though every time something hit it Maddie flinched and her concentration faltered, thus far her shield was holding. If she could protect just one other person from serious harm, then she would have done something worthwhile.

Artie was shocked into movement, scrambling behind Maddie's shield.

Holy shitsticks, that was lava. All of fifty three feet away from him. Lava. The part of his brain that wasn't gibbering in terror at the goddamn lava had to wonder what Doug would do (or Wade but WWWD required, well, probably a rocket launcher and hey, he was shit out of luck there). Doug would've had a plan. At the end of the day, all he had were coloured lights. Artie began to flash strobed pulses of black and white at the corners of the Moreau monster's eyes.

Moreau turned, and Maddie's shield was hit with a combined volley that snapped it like a soap bubble and sent both of them flying back into the cargo crates behind them. Before Moreau could follow up the attack, he paused, head sniffing the air like a hound looking for a scent. On his internal radio, he could hear the alerts running back and forth through the GDF command line.

[The President is down! Repeat, the President has been shot and killed!]

Thomas' left eye twitched for a moment, the hideous leer dropped for a long second as he ignored the attacks raining on his armored form. Then slowly, like a leviathan emerging, a howl erupted at ear splitting volume from his body.

'MMMMME-AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" Then charged forward, smarking Callisto aside so hard that she went through a steel cargo container. Weapons lanced deadly fire all around him as a jibbering mantra fell non-stop from his lips.

"FuckingkillshitcuntfilthdieripkillfuckdeadburnfuckingKILLKILLKILL!!!" He raised up over Maddie and Artie, when Kane cannonballed into him. He overbalanced for a moment, and the Canadian grabbed him by the back of the head and landed two thunderous rights, caving in the metal guard. Before he could land the third, a spike impaled him in the shoulder, and whipped him away, skipping across the concrete floor until he finally fetched up hard against the crate that Callisto had crashed into.

The crate itself shuddered then, as though something big inside it was kicking up a hell of a fuss. A moment later, there was a screech of tearing metal and Callisto, looking a little disoriented and even more pissed off than usual, vaulted out. Shaking her head a bit as if to clear it, she eventually looked down and spotted Kane slumped against the crate and hunkered down beside him.

"You all right? Lookin' a bit... punctured."

"Yeah, that one hurt." Kane said, using her help to get up. His healing factor was working on it, and Moreau hadn't had a chance to do more than spike him the once. He looked up at the frenzying Moreau. "I think we made it mad."