Tropic of Capricorn: Destroying the Amplifier

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Scott, Yvette, Lorna, and Adrienne sneak into Magneto's base to destroy his power amplifier.

Adrienne wasn't sure where Mystique had run off to, so she kept her eyes peeled as she set the pace at a brisk trot to lead the team of X-Men through the trees on their way back to the Avalon camp. "That blue bitch has probably alerted the evil cavalry by now," she told the others, making sure to differentiate between her own cavalry and Erik and Mystique's cavalry. "Cyclops, you wanna go first so you're more of a target?" she suggested sweetly, since she figured his eye blasts would allow him to neutralize any oncoming attacks. "We just keep along this path here and then take a left at the fork."


Scott gave Adrienne a measured look, as he moved up to take point, it made tactical sense for him to take lead but he wasn't wild about being used as a shield by the others. "It works in our favor for Mystique to alert the other members of the brotherhood," he noted. "We get to play into psychological fear, and with reports of the X-men all over the island they're going to have to split up to deal with us or risk defeating one group only to allow the other groups to achieve their objectives."

"If it would help, I could scout ahead?" Yvette suggested. Her size and stealth meant it was her strong point, rather than acting as a shield. "There is plenty of cover for me to use and I could warn you if there is an ambush ahead?"

Scott considered the option before he nodded, "It can't hurt to know what's coming at us, especially since we don't know the island that well. Be careful and stay safe," he cautioned Yvette, "Stay off the comms unless you have to, we've got to figure that Magneto can use them to track us and I'd rather not gift him with our positions."

Lorna was silent for the most part as they made their way to the amplifier as she took note of their surroundings. It would had been paradise if the Brotherhood wasn't lurking around. "So we wait."


Creeping silently through the underbrush, her goggles pulled down to hide the tell-tale glow of her eyes, Yvette scouted ahead until she came to the edge of a clearing. Ahead of her was a small building, from which came a low hum, guarded by three people. She couldn't tell their powers by looking, but if they were Magneto's guards, they'd have powers for sure. Making a note of their positions and the layout of the clearing and the building, she disappeared back into the brush, moving swiftly and silently back to the rest of the group.

One moment Scott had been making his slow and cautious route towards Magneto's base and the next a petite red woman was standing in front of him. It had taken all of Scott's experience to spot her coming and stop himself from jumping when Yvette revealed herself. "You found something?" he asked as he held up a hand to the rest of the team signalling them to stop and close in.

Yvette nodded. "About two hundred meters away, there is a small building. I think it is the correct one - there is the electric hum coming from it. There are two guards - mutants, but I couldn't see if they had powers." Crouching, she scratched out a quick map in the dirt with a long finger. "See, here is where they are."

Looking down at the map Yvette was drawing in the dirt. "Electric hum? Might be a power source or our target." Lorna put a finger to her lips, "Might be able to ambush the two guards and get the upper hand before they sound any alarm and alert more. Granted they might be already waiting for us cause of Mystique. Whatever the case we should do it quick."

"Yes, please," Adrienne muttered. She squinted at the dirt map. "And yeah, that's the bunker. You guys go ambush. I'll hang back here and not die."

Scott stared down at the map on the floor, two guards and three of them. On paper this should be an easy victory but he didn't want to leave anything to chance. "Penance, see if you can sneak behind them and take one out. Polaris, you and I can open up at range at the same time." he said giving the group their orders. A quick lightning attack should carry the day here.

"Roger that Cyclops. We can draw most of their attention to allow Penance to get behind. I can take out their walkies - if they have any - just hope that none of them are a telepath or a telepath is linked up with them." Standing up straight Lorna looked in the direction they were heading.

Yvette nodded, face somber. Hopefully she could manage her task without trouble. "Please to be following me, then," she said. "As quietly as you can."

Despite what she said about about hanging back, Adrienne stopped them when she was able to spot the two guards from the trees before the team separated. "The one on the left does seismic attacks. The other one... I think is a feral?"

Scott nodded at Adrienne gratefully. With the additional information she'd been able to provide they could refine the plan ever further. "Ok, Penance try to take out the earthquaker, he's the primary target. We don't want him to give away our location to Magneto or his lieutenants. Polaris and I can focus on the feral."


Lorna smirked slightly and shook her head again, "The feral one won't know what hit him."

Yvette nodded, her skin rippling as she shifted into her battle form, spikes and crags disguising her features. She vanished back into the brush, moving silently towards her target. He was bigger than her, but she was going to have the element of surprise, or so she hoped.

Scott narrowed his eye as he lined up on his target fighting against he impulse to count down to the attack on his radio, instead he contented himself with counting down softly so Lorna could hear. "3..2..1..now." As Scott spoke he unleashed an optical blast straight a his target.

Floating near Scott as he counted down and lifted her hands up as the metal started to swirl around them. Letting the magnetic blast fly with the metals as they formed around Scott's blast towards their target, the feral one didn't know what hit him -but sure would feel it later- as the blast from both mutants sent him flying. Though he probably had regeneration, or some small form, it seemed anyone with feral had some kind of healing power.

A small red blur shot from the bushes, aimed at the man with seismic powers. Yvette hit him hard in the back of the legs, slashing at his hamstrings with one clawed hand as he aimed a blast towards the earth at Scott's feet. He stumbled and fell with a cry, clutching at the back of his legs.

Satisfied that the guards had been successfully neutralized Scott made his way over to stand near Yvette, "Perfect timing," he complimented "I don't think they even knew what hit them before they were all down." The X-man turned to face the bunker, "Lets get this generator down before anyone comes looking for these two."

Unsure about whether there would be guards inside the amplifier room, Adrienne approached the door nervously. She placed a hand on the keypad and typed in the code she learned from it, making sure she was out of the doorway as the door slid open.

Lorna stood in front of the door as it opened, her metals shot out and around the neck of the lone guard in the room. With a good squeeze, but not enough to kill him, Lorna put the man into a sleep. "Clear."

Yvette nodded, heading straight for the machine. "Why bring the wire cutters when you have me?" she joked, before consulting the list of directions that had been provided to her. Cut the blue wire, cut the green wire, avoid the white wire or you'll blow the whole building up... With a whine, the generator slowed and then stopped.

Scott moved over to the wall so he would be safe from the exploding generator before leveling his gaze at it and hitting the offending machine with an optical blast. "Quick, dirty and effective," Scott knew that given the time he could probably have disarmed the generator but he didn't want to stay in the same spot any longer than they had to. Besides a disarmed generator could always be re-engaged.. The X-man had chosen his spot carefully to allow him to keep his eye on the door without being in the direct line of sight of anyone coming in. "Alright good job guys, now lets get out of here before anyone realizes we're here." Anything else he was going to say was swallowed by the sudden silence into which his voice lapsed as the door swung open of its own volition to reveal a familiar helmet wearing profile.

Seeing Creepy Erik, Adrienne's brain went to it's defensive position- flippancy. "Oh... hey. Look at that. It's Magneto. You guys know Magneto? Magneto, X-Men. X-Men, Magneto," she said by way of introduction, making hand gestures.

"Ah, Ms Frost. I assumed your 'defection' was a pretense. But to bring so many X-Men against me..." One of the most immediately striking things about Magneto was his physical vitality. He looked younger than he should, as if decades had been turned back for him. "I will give you once chance to surrender. Otherwise, I can offer you no mercy."

Scott pushed himself off the wall, walking out into the middle of the room, his body language squaring off against Erik. "Funny I was about to say the same thing to you," Scott gestured around the room, "You're a little outnumbered here Erik. Don't force us to fight you." Scott knew from personal experience how difficult it was to beat Erik, it wasn't a fight he would have sought out, but the X-Man wasn't going to turn tail and run either.

Yvette had only just smothered a gasp as Magneto had appeared. He was something of a bogeyman to the younger X-Men - none of the mutants of Yvette's "generation" had battled him, but all had heard the stories and read the reports. Strangely, however, his appearance did not match the existing footage - for a man the same age as the Professor, he looked, not young, but strong and powerful. The amplifier, perhaps?

"We came for our friends," she said, voice trembling a little and her battle form hardening even further, but the young X-Men standing her ground.

Lorna felt her entire body tense up when she heard his voice, but she was ready for anything.

"Even if you take the four of us out, we have numerous other teams in the base already," Adrienne said to Magneto, standing her ground. "So it's probably us who should be offering you mercy to surrender."

Erik waved a single finger, and Adrienne was flattened by a piece of metal from the destroyed amplifier. "I could execute all of you where you stand, but that would take time which is better utilized elsewhere. Enjoy your temporary victory, X-Men. I'm sure you will applaud as those who followed me here are taken to prisons and government programs to be weaponized to further their political agendas. You may cast yourself as heroes, but the blood runs as thick on your hands as mine."

Magneto raised a hand and the fragments of the device went off like a bomb, forcing them to take cover as the Master of Magnetism quit the room unopposed.

Lifting her hands as the green glow of her magnetic powers went straight to work at stopping anything metal that went flying from the amplifier from hitting her teammates. "Everyone out before I let it go."

Yvette was already cutting away the sheet of metal that was holding Adrienne down. "Cyclops! Help me!" she called urgently, unable to help the woman up since her hands were uncovered.

Scott span on the spot, rushing over to the fallen woman. He nodded his thanks towards Yvette and reached down to help Adrienne up. "Come on, lets get out of here," he said as the group started for the door. A door that was suddenly no longer hanging on it's hinges as an optical blast smashed into it.

"Ugh, someone stop ringing those goddamned bells," Adrienne muttered, shaking her head like a dog. "I mean, thanks. You guys are the best with your saving the day by blowing stuff up and lifting stuff off people," she praised as she followed the others out. "Now let's go get that magnetic douchebag."