xp_logs | Operation: A Hammer To Fall

The last attack - and not everyone makes it out alive. London Time: Evening

It was like déjà vu, in a weird way. They were right back where they had started, hiding in the bushes, staking out the Destine house. For the last time.

Topaz stared at the house for a long moment - there was a light on in the living room, shadows moving, a faint sense of worry and anger and guilt. She looked to Taboo, trying to ignore the feelings radiating off of him.

"Are we going, then?"

He didn't reply, at least not verbally. Instead, he rose to his full height and stalked towards the house, apparently uncaring of triggering any warnings or keeping hidden. Dark energy crackled over his hands as he raised them, leaping out to smash the door into splinters.

Well that answered that. Topaz hurried after Taboo, balling her hands into fists as she watched the door explode and doing a hurried analysis of the emotional atmosphere, trying to find the best advantage. If she could just cause a few more slips like the one at their house...

"It's polite to knock first." A hand closed on her neck, and another blocked off her mouth before she could alert Taboo. Adam had been silent in the shadows, concealed through a spell and watching them move on the house. When her attention was diverted, he struck, grabbing her and pulling back from the fray while Taboo charged alone at the rest of his siblings. "Under normal circumstances, I'd beat your fucking gob in and pass you around with Al and Dommy until you bleed. And then it would be off to a mate of mine who gets paid a lot of money by rich men who like to use teenaged cunts like you for a toilet. But, lucky you, I don't have the time for revenge. Instead, I'm going to rip your lifeforce and that of your fucking father out and use it to make my family whole. And if for a second it looks like that won't work, I'll break your tiny fucking neck sharpish." He hissed in her ear, foul breath washing over her.

If Taboo was aware of Topaz's predicament, he didn't show it. Instead, with a roar, he was charging at the rest of the Destines, dark energy crackling from his fingertips. "Come out and fight you bastards! Let's finish this!"

Albert flicked a splinter off his jacket as the strode out of the house and calmly looked at Taboo. "Well that wasn't very nice, I liked that door," he said trying to control the anger welling up inside him. There was no way he was going to leave any vulnerabilities to be exploited this time. "Nice of you to save us the trouble of hunting you down," he taunted, "back to let us beat you again? This time you're not leaving."

Jasmine had to split her focus, most of her concentration on even keeping Dominic in this world so that her family could execute the plan. Yet, she also knew they would be focused on the man and the girl, so being ready to shield herself and her patient in an emergency, was also essential. Still she found a moment to call out: "If you are going to do this, do it fast! He is fading!"

Topaz kicked, quite uselessly, against Adam's grip. He was bigger, he was stronger. So she resorted to an old fallback - she bit him.

"Fuck!" Adam jerked his hand away and lashed out with his other, backhanding her across the face and breaking her nose with a moist crack. The urban mage cradled his hand for a second, wishing that he had his sister's healing abilities. The little bitch had broken skin. "Bertie, finish that fucker off. I'll tame this bitch!"

"Touch her again and I'll take your fucking arm off." The voice was new, young, female and very pissed off, followed up by a blast of pure London that knocked him back across the yard and in through the broken door, taking Taboo and Albert with him. Amanda crouched by Topaz, checking her pulse and finding it steady. "Watch that one, he's definitely one of Rack's," she warned as the rest of the group moved in.

"Take his arm anyway," Marie-Ange muttered, as she passed by Amanda, one hand reaching out to take what looked like a glowing baseball bat out of the air, and the other holding one of her ever-present cards. "Small payment for everything no?" She shouldered the bat, and flicked some hair from her face. "I do not suppose all of you would like to surrender now and prevent the inevitable beatings?"

"If it innit little Mandy, Rack's own personal condom. Figures I'd find you about." Adam smiled, and pointed, blue energy leaping from his finger and trapping Topaz. She screamed as the energy wrenched through her core, as if it was her life being torn from her. "You remember this one, cunt? His favourite every time you came up short in your weekly earnings." He clenched his fist, and the screams grew louder. "Remember what happens if someone tries to interrupt the spell? What was her name again? Lisa? Suppose it doesn't matter. Not enough left of her to bury."

"Dis de part dat we're supposed to be impressed?" Albert didn't have time for more than a surprised yelp as his forehead connected with the wall sharply. A blade buried itself just under his eye, and while he twisted to try and avoid the pain, the grip that held him was like iron. "Because dis not a game, homme, and Remy is done fucking around. Unless you'd like to be an only child, you will back away from de girl now."

"You'd better do it." Amanda was cursing herself for not throwing up a shielding spell as soon as she reached the girl. "Gambit's kind of pissed off at the best of times, but he really hates magic."

Albert looked worriedly at the knife Gambit was wielding, but his voice came out confident if a little shaky. "For Dommy," he told his brother as he gathered his magical power in his amulets leaving them glowing as he hold them in preparation for the gathering fight.

Things were going wrong again. Horribly, terribly wrong. Taboo cast a wild glance around the scene. Topaz was lying on the ground, unconscious or possibly worse, some stranger hovering over her. More strangers had appeared on the scene, getting between him and the Destines. Friends or foes? All Taboo knew was they were getting in the way of his revenge.

With a loud cry, Taboo drew on all of the energies he possessed, casting what was possibly the last spell he could manage, a Summoning.

And around the small yard, the shadows came alive.

X-Force -had- had the situation under their control, as they had outnumbered Taboo and the Destines. And with one spell, that all shifted. Doug was already in motion as the shadows surged and twisted. The quiet metallic ping of his customary collapsible baton extending and locking was lost in the chaos, and a dagger appeared in his off hand.

One of the shadow creatures reared behind Marie-Ange and Amanda where they were watching Remy and the Destines. But the whiplike tendril that lashed down toward the two women was caught by Doug's baton as hethreaded between them, his dagger slashing at the tentacle.

A streak of red zipped right over Doug's head as Wanda directed a hex bolt right into the midst of one of the rolling shadow creatures. She'd been hanging back, attempting to undo any harmful magic in the area with her chaos powers but there'd proven too be too much magic, both 'good' and otherwise, being flung around for her to feel as if she could safely attempt anything. Once the shadow creatures came had come out to play, though, she'd stepped it,

The first shadow monster lurched backwards as red veins sneaked through the murky darkness seconds before it imploded - as much as a shadow creature could implode, anyway. She didn't have much time to admire her handiwork, though, not with the growing chaos around her.

"I hate magic," Jubilee noted to the world in general, sending a barrage of sparks upwards to light up the immediate region and hopefully slow down whatever spell had been used. You couldn't make anymore shadows come to life when there were no shadows. "Note to self: punch Merlin in the face if I ever meet him, then run like hell."

“Take a queue number, Kleine,” North grumbled, the gun in his hand swinging straight from Adam to the lunatic (in his esteemed opinion) in the middle of the yard. “Stand down, Taboo!”

He had had a clear shot of Adam, but his powers told him that the outcome of taking the shot was highly undesirable. Neither did the spy fancy shooting an angry Cajun or testing his bullets against a magical shield. Especially since he could already see the outcomes of that. Taboo, on the other hand, seemed to be free game… Or not. North blinked against the barrage of images in his head. “Or ‘Bertie’ over there is going to make you.”

Nico remained silent through the whole thing, practically at the center of the whole shitstorm, but doing nothing much beyond frowning and looking around. Seriously though, on a team made of people specialized to take down threats one by one, Nico was the one that could probably bring the entire house down, along with anyone inside, but no less. Not that she would've suggested Remy to leave this one to her but...she was seriously wondering where her time to actually act was going to come.

She had started to feel frustrated enough to pull the Staff of One out of her chest, several spells flashing through her mind as she tried to find a proper opening. Wide area magic was akin to shooting a canon, she couldn't risk blowing her friends/team/whatever to bits along the baddies and the crazy dude playing hero. As she was considering what to do, a shadow lunged over her, jumping straight towards the goth as she looked at it unamused. It was just about to fall over Nico when, much to its apparent surprise, it hit what seemed to be an invisible barrier, vanishing seconds after. "Man, these things taste horrible", muttered a now dark-eyed Nico as she waved her staff, mind finally done.

"Adam, Adam, this is when you understand a newer, better, prettier and far more skilled generation of magic users has arrived. So you think you're totally bad with that spell? Well then... Why don't you have a taste of your own medicine?" The Staff of One shot what looked like a semi-transparent string of energy that quickly wrapped around the spell binding Adam and Topaz, first taking in its color before turning into bright golden...and exploding. In that moment, Adam would feel all the pain he had been causing to the girl in one long, relentless go.

The pain lanced through him, breaking his control over the spell and sending Adam and Topaz reeling in different directions. Remy smashed Albert into the wall face first, leaving him dazed. Adam was the dangerous one here.

With a feral sound, Adam broke Nico's spell, the feedback making the young Asian's ears bleed. His voice was a broken, wounded thing, thick with malice. ""You fucking cunts don't know who you've just fucked wit'. Oh yeh, I'm going to have the lot of you, 'specially you Mandy. For making me do this, you're going to die last."

The urban mage reached into his reservoir of spells; the ones that only he had been taught. Rack had been cruel, and had rewarded survival. After Amanda had disappeared, it had been Adam who sacrificed his body to Rack, being used and twisted in exchange for knowledge. Scarred runes glowed on his skin, mostly hidden by his clothes, as he overrode Amanda's magic, seizing hold of the city around them. Jasmine screamed at him to stop, but he didn't acknowledge it. Blue energy crept around Dominic, and the young man had time to issue one last terrible scream as his lifeforce was sacrificed to the spell, and London ate the Destines, melting them into the pavement and disappearing. Only Adam's burning gaze remained to the last, focused on Amanda and Nico, and promising revenge.

Wanda let out a yell as the thing she'd been fighting suddenly vanished. The disappearance allowed her to see the chaos strings around her more clearly and what she was seeing was not good. She turned to the others and gestured for them to get out. "The entire structure is about to come down! Everyone out!"

Marie-Ange had been directing a trio of large elephantine monsters from one of her cards to press into the shadow creatures, and they fell back with her, the thudding of grey ectoplasmic flesh matching her hurried steps towards the nearest way out - a blown out wall that still smoked with residue from a blast. Her baseball bat disappeared as she swung it into a splintered plywood, clearing the way for anyone retreating behind her.

Jubilee, who had been battling the shadow creatures before they suddenly disappeared, watched as the others retreated toward her position, her own steps carrying her hurriedly backwards toward the edge of the small yard and with more then enough distance from the suddenly collapsing structure. She kept a wary gaze on the street as she counted off her companions, ready to rush back toward the house should someone fail to appear.

"Everyone get out?" Remy said, taking the nods from the group. The Destines were gone, but they had found the girl, at least. The sounds of sirens hit him, and he motioned towards the street. "Let's get out of here before we end up in jail."

"Any sign of the old man?" Amanda asked, from where she was tending to the unconscious girl. She would be bruised and battered, but nothing was broken at least. "Doug, help me with her."

"Perhaps I can assist," said Emma, appearing behind Amanda. "Apologies for being late," she waved a negligent hand outwards. "Traffic was appalling. Is someone missing?" Emma switched to diamond form. "I may be able to help with that. Or," she switched back to flesh, "keep them missing." She raised a suggestive eyebrow. "Whichever suits."

Amanda looked down at the girl again. The old man had tried to protect her, and by all accounts, the kid had been with him willingly. Family, perhaps? "See if he's alive," she said at last. "But quick - we need to get the fuck out of here and she needs looking after."

"Of course," said Emma and send her mind outwards, past the familiar psyches of the people she knew and down into the rubble around them. She sent it down first, and then outwards, a wide still pool of thought that would reverberate against any other mind that was in there, even if it was unconscious. For a few minutes Emma let her mind rest in the darkness, hoping for another spark to touch it, but none did. Finally, regretfully, she pulled her mind back and shook her head at Amanda. "He's either not there, or dead. If he was a magic user, I'd suspect it's an even chance of either."

"No time to check." The sirens were getting closer. Amanda looked worriedly at the girl, lying limp in Doug's arms. "Let's get out of here."