Tropic of Capricorn: Hitting the Base

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Jean, Clarice, Kyle, and Sooraya attack Magneto's base in search of Garrison.

Adrienne’s email had mentioned that Magneto’s base was a decommissioned US research facility that had been partially built into the volcano itself. While the idea was bizarre, the volcano had been considered long dormant, if not entirely inactive, and the researchers had obviously thought they had plenty of time. As for Magneto, it was remarkable just how far his powers could go in making inhospitable environments secure.

They had a rough idea where Kane was supposed to be, in a secure section in the heart of the base, but no specific map or layout, which is why their team had been chosen; get in, find his mind or his scent as fast as possible, and get him out. Unfortunately, getting in involved a massive locked steel bulkhead in their way, as the first sounds of combat echoed from the far beach.

"Wildchild, keep watch. If you smell anyone coming from behind, let us know. Do not engage unless provoked," Jean said quietly to her team. The bulkhead loomed in front of them a few yards away, while behind them was unprotected.

"I'll try to get through the bulkhead. Once I'm in...Dust, blind anyone unfriendly behind the door. Blink, if you get a shot? Send them a couple of miles away from the island in the open water. We need to find Dominion quickly. Any questions?"

The thought of running into the Brotherhood and Erik again had often crossed Jean's mind over the years. It'd been such a long time between encountering him and the others, however, that those thoughts had started to become infrequent, taken up by other threats, but the they were always there.

She could not suppress her memories of the man Erik used to be, no matter how much she tried, and wanted to forget. It was often easy to think of those they faced as soulless. It made it easier. Most of the only knew Erik as the man they saw, the acts he performed. But to know him as someone who had once had light and lost it...it sometimes made it worse. Sometimes she wanted to only know him as a cold, cruel shell.

"Nada." Kyle said, frowning at the reminder about attacking. Maybe it wasn't specifically for him, but there were a few people he wanted to pound in the faces of, and he suspected that his "wanna punch that Abyss dick, wanna punch Toad, wanna punch that Senyaka asshole..." thoughts weren't exactly subtle. "As soon as I got something on the nose, I'll sound off, but no Brotherhood of dickheads, and no Gar."

"Got it," Clarice replied, retying her hair back into a ponytail. She could remove a piece of the door so they could get in, but then they wouldn't be able to put it back and sometimes, that was a good idea. Slightly more subtle anyways, "How's the Arctic sound?" she suggested. Her usual modus operandi was to teleport people to an inhabited place on the other side of the world and let them work their way home if they could. Sometimes though, you just had to drop people into freezing water.

"Perfect, thanks," Jean said with a nod, then glanced to Kyle.

"Wildchild..keep your head straight. You let your anger get to you and mistakes can be made. We're here for a rescue, not a rematch. If you get attacked, by all means fight back. But don't go looking for trouble just because you've got a score to settle. It never goes as planned," she said, a hint of personal experience in her voice.

"Dust?" The woman had been quiet.

"I am sorry, Phoenix. Everything is clear." Sooraya quickly refocused her attention from the blasts flaring up above the distant beach on the scene in front of her. "Blinding I can do..." Not that she was entirely sure it would have much effect on some of the people they might encounter. Nimrod for example if she remembered the files she had studied correctly. Still, it would not help to worry about thát. "Is there any indication how much resistance we might encounter?"

"I'm uncertain. But its safe to assume a lot. Magneto has a way with words and has had years to build an army. We're at his doorstep. He's probably got quite a few surprises up his sleeve. We--"

Toad bounced once and gave a laugh and then again, springing forward to kick the bulkhead. He clung to it and spat at the hinges. "All right, Vindaloo, you're up!" he called.

"I told you, don't call me Vindaloo, mate! It's Shiva. Like the God of destruct- stop laughing!" The young Indian man raised his hands and for a moment the air between him and the X-Men shivered, before suddenly coming alight with super-hot, super-charged plasma flashed into existence. The bolt of flame only barely missed cooking Kyle and Clarice, sending them both scrambling.

"Since they wanted to get in so badly-" A young black woman with a vaguely mid-western accent appeared at the door, where Toad's acid had burned the hinges, and pulled it down with ease, intending to crush Jean and Sooraya beneath the heavy weight.

"Whoa!" Sooraya reared back as the door flew in their direction, shifting automatically into her sand form and coming up above the door. She didn't hesitate though, lashing out with a fat tendril of sand at where Toad was clinging to the doorpost. With a little bit of luck he would dislodge.

Jean reflexively lifted her hands as the door was caught in midair a foot away from landing on her head. Narrowing her eyes, the door let out a screech as she tossed it backward, launching it towards Vindaloo as a distraction.

Part of Kyle wanted to stare at Toad and very seriously ask him if that guy's name was no-shit "Vindaloo". Most of the rest of him was making growling noises as he backed up several steps. "Hey, Licky! You wannanother round? You got two knees, right?" He cracked his neck and grinned wide. "Come on, you know you want to. Make up for that time I kicked your ass when I was sixteen?"

"Vindaloo? Really?" Clarice barely moved from where she crouched, but the guy disappeared in one of her portals. "Idiots."

"Aww no, not Vindaloo! I'll get you later, Rat Boy!" Wow. He'd been one tall, freaking hairy sixteen year old. Toad hopped across the room and spat at Clarice.

"Fun powers, Barbie." Jean had to scramble as a punch shattered rock just by her head. Frenzy saw the telekinetics and had made the jump that the red-headed woman might have other psionic powers. So it was safest to press her advantage as she boxed Jean in.

"Barbie?" Jean echoed with an incredulous look, keeping her eyes on the woman, she slowly backed up, keeping equidistant from her.

"That's new." In focusing Frenzy's attention strictly on her it made her vulnerable to distraction from the beach ball-shaped boulder that came careening for Frenzy's own head. Turnabout, fair play.

Frenzy shot her arms up as the boulder hit it, but to Jean chagrin, all it did was fracture into shards. Frenzy brushed the dust from her arms and shoulders.

"Yeah, that's all I thought you had." She bullrushed Jean, shoving her away from the other X-Men, and trapping her between the wall and the angry mutant.

Two options... there were two options that Sooraya saw she changed course. Her sand form would probably not hurt her skin, but her eyes were another story. Blinding as Phoenix had suggested as general idea in the beginning would probably work. Second one was throwing of her balance.

She attacked from above and behind, hoping that the woman never would see it coming. Within seconds the head of the dark woman was surrounded with a sharp cloud of stinging sand particles that seemed to focus on her eyes. Doing serious damage was harder though, since she had to be careful not to hurt her teammate a few inches away. Therefore, as soon as the woman seemed of balance a little, she rushed down, forcing herself under the woman's boots for the rug pull trick.

Jean reflexively covered her face, the sand bouncing off a thin telekinetic shield as Frenzy took a hard fall. She dropped her hands, staring down at the woman with a smile.

"I suppose you forgot Barbie has friends."


The way Clarice's powers worked, she was nearly impenetrable when she had a portal open as a shield. Anything that hit it, simply disappeared.The problem was that she could maintain two portals, but not more.They weren't a true shield all around. "I thought you were all over tall blonde and ripped over there?" she growled, annoyed. Toad was not someone she wanted to deal with right now. "Come any closer and you're meeting piranhas!" she warned Toad.

Toad shrugged, leaping straight up into the air and clinging to the ceiling where he tried to spit at Clarice before dropping to the floor again. "You suck!" he called. It wasn't witty reparte but that was okay. He snapped his tongue out and snagged a piece of rubble, flinging it, covered in adhesive at Wildchild.

Kyle dodged the flying debris and barked out a profanity. He scrambled back to his feet just as Toad lept down off the ceiling, and dove to avoid the other man's lashing tongue - a face full of caustic spit was not his idea of a good time. The idea that it might've been a feint hadn't even crossed his mind, and he took a chest full of two webbed greenish feet. The crack of his ribs was audible - even over the growl as Kyle recovered, turning the drop kick from Toad into a back flip that had his claws connecting with the ugly mutant's face.

Toad screamed and kicked, jumping away to cling to the wall, blood dripping down his face. He turned and ran.

Frenzy looked around, finding herself short the rest of her teammates asToad legged it. Unable to easily shake the sand storming around her, she choose a second option. With a grunt, she pitched herself forward, closer to Jean until the telekinetic shield creaked with the effort of holding her out. With a blow to the shield, she actually bounced it slightly from the wall, and before Jean could react, shoved her off like a hamster trapped in a ball. It only took a second to right herself, but that was enough time for Frenzy to escape past their position and down the hall.

"You think..." Kyle started as he pressed a hand into his side to try to check how badly he'd broken his ribs - "You think they're heading towards wherever buckethead stashed Gar, or trying to get us to chase 'em and go in the wrong direction?" He coughed once, swore explosively and then stretched, taking in a deep breath. "Cause I can't smell anything over Toad's stank and athletes' foot."

Jean hadn't real expected to play telekinetic pinball today so when Kyle asked her she was in the middle of pulling herself to her feet. Ow. She tilted her head, listening for things the rest of them couldn't hear.

"Don't chase them. I hear Garrison. He's further inside. I'm pretty sure Magneto's with him," she said. Even if she couldn't sense him, Garrison was damn sure thinking about him.

She surveyed the gaping maw that was the door that lead down into the depths, then nodded.

"Let's go."