Tropic of Capricorn: Garrison versus Magneto

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

Garrison breaks out of his cell and gets to the bomb room, where Magneto finds him. Jean, Kyle, Sooraya, and Clarice come to Garrison's aid.

Did she betray him? Was he in time? Could Erik be stopped? It was a litany of questions which ran through his head. Fortunately, Magneto had given him plenty of time to sit and ponder them. The cell was held by a magnetic field, the luminous energy crackling anytime a living magnetic field approached it. It was classic Magneto - simple, effective, and based solely on an unshakable self-confidence regarding his own abilities. But in the dead of the night, with only a single guard paying little attention, it exposed a major weakness of the Brotherhood. Guard duty was boring, and best managed by trained professionals who could keep boredom and distraction at bay. The current grade had none of those skills.

Kane watched him drift off to a magazine at his seat. The field crackled as he put his hand to it. Magneto knew about Kane's physical gifts, but nothing about the capabilities of the omni-skin, implanted by Blaquesmith in his mad quest for vengeance against Apocalypse. The skin reacted to the field, changing itself slowly until it achieved a composite structure that the magnetic field couldn't grasp; his hands sliding through without any resistance. He slipped out, and with a sharp strike, rendered the Brotherhood guard unconscious. He could only hope that Adrienne alerted the others, and that her defection was based out of fear.

Regardless, even if the X-Men were coming, the bombs had to be destroyed. If that meant it was a one-way trip- Kane pushed the thought aside and headed deeper into the complex.

The bomb room was deep in the complex, close enough to the volcano caldera that he could feel the heat through the walls. It wasn't active, but it wasn't dormant either. Much like the bombs, it was a waiting threat, that could never be counted out. One thing that Kane did know is that the small 'suitcase' style weapons Magneto had recommissioned the MIRV warheads into. They were not robust. Dozens would fail over a few years, even if the overall threat remained imposing.

Kane picked up the first bomb and started to pull out the wires. They were equipped with the kind of failsafe that more sophisticated nuclear devices sported. Even as he was pulling out the wires, the soft susurrations of Erik's magnetic aura whispered into the room.

"Mr. Kane."

"Magneto. You're under arrest."

"This fiction again, Mr. Kane? There's no escape here."

"Who said I was intending to escape?"

"A noble sacrifice? Xavier does so love to instill martyrdom in his people."

"You don't get it. You'll never get it, Erik. That's why I never believed in your Avalon story from the beginning. It's not about 'your people'. Mutants have never really been anything but a convenient identifier. The only people you've ever had is yourself. Which is why you mistake holding a gun to someone's head for peace." Kane stood tall, staring the mutant terrorist in the eye. "I'm not a martyr, Erik. Protecting people from people like you is my job. I took it knowing that the cost to protect them might be my life. That's why your nation will never be anything beyond your own ego. Because you've never been willing to die to keep it safe. Now, are the speeches done yet?"

"You are a disgrace of a mutant, Mr. Kane. And you will die like one." Around him, metal started to collect in the air, and it hummed as his magnetic field drew power from the mutant terrorist. With a gesture, it lashed forward - a deadly cloud of shrapnel, but Kane twisted too fast, and caught Magneto off balance with a rush. He held up his shield, ready to deflect Kane's punch. But the blow came through the shield as if it was no more substantial than smoke. Only his reflexive control over his metal armor saved him as Kane's punch connected solidly in the centre of his chest and knocked him back into the wall. The followup blow dented his helmet out of shape, and the Master of Magnetism found himself struggling to regain his wits under the assault.

Magneto lashed out with the tools on the bench next to him, burying them in Kane's forearm, even as the Canadian grasped his wrist, and broke it with a wet snap. Red fury filled Magneto's vision, and he pushed him away with a pulse blast. Kane rolled as he hit, and grunted as a metal table smashed into him. His omni-skin had bought him a few hits, but Magneto had gained some distance, and without the element of surprise, it was just a matter of time.

The echoing sounds of battle quickened Jean's gait from a fast stride to a sprint.

"They're this way," she said, then slowed to a stop just before the hallway leading to the doorway to the main chamber.

"Blink, I want you to stay out of sight for now. The less people he knows are here the better. We need the advantage. Strike when you think you have an opening. Dust, Wildchild. You're with me," she said. This was, provided Toad and the others hadn't reported their whereabouts to Erik. From the sounds of it, however, Garrison seemed to be keeping him occupied

Clarice wasn't the best at hand-to-hand, though she could hold her own well enough given her lack of super-strength, speed or agility. She was very, very good at sneak attacks though, so she nodded, stepping back to let the others past her. "Gotcha," she agreed, "How's Antarctica sound?" that was a fun place to send Magneto, right? That far south messed with magnets, so it'd mess with his powers. Hopefully.

Kyle had trailed just behind Sooraya, keeping a careful ear and nose out for sounds of Toad, or any of the other Brotherhood they'd run off - though the ugly green mutant was the most distinctive to Kyle's senses - the smells of engine grease and dank water seemed to always follow him. The closer they got, the more he could smell ozone, and iron - the smells he always associated with Jean-Philippe and Lorna, and the crackle of static raised the hair on the back of his neck and made his skin crawl, and under that, like a sour note, the smell of fresh blood. "Phoenix... I think Dominion's hurt.." he said, as quietly as possible. "I smell blood." It could be Magneto, maybe, he thought, but he'd read the reports of how Magneto had armored himself with metal and his own powers. He doubted it was Magneto.

Sooraya had mostly resumed human shape again after the encounter and had quietly stayed between Phoenix and Wildchild most of the time. She remained poised to shift though and had done so a few times to check out grates and other small openings. At Phoenix' her words she stiffened a little though and she felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The idea of facing the Master of Magnetism definitely made her uneasy.

"I can take a look ahead if you want me to?" She quickly directed her offer to Phoenix.

Jean nodded to Kyle. She'd brought her medkit just in case. "I'll take care of Dominion when we get there," she said solemnly, then shook her head at Sooraya.

"There's no time. We'll have to take our chances. Blind Magneto when you see him."

Glancing back to Clarice she nodded again. "Antarctica's good...but be careful." If he knew who she was he'd know what she could do. It was a good reason to try to take her out.

Her mind had fell into strategy, quick decision, anything to keep from letting her other thoughts seep in. Every time, she never wanted any of them to go in, to risk the chance of being hurt. But it was what they trained for, and she couldn't do it alone. She just wished there was an easier way.

Jean drew in a breath, then headed in.

~Dominion, we're here. Cover your eyes!~

Garrison didn't hesitate, throwing an arm over his eyes and ducking away from Magneto's hovering form.

Sooraya took one last deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves before she literally exploded in a cloud of sand. She was careful to keep her teammates out of firing range, but the particles her sand form was made up of steadily increased in speed, far faster then she had used on the woman before. Within moments she surrounded Magneto's head, the stinging particles not just hurting his eyes, but also the remaining skin of his face.

Magneto lowered his helmet in the face of the would be storm. His magnetic field began to glow, and Sooraya had time for a brief scream before the field flared, repulsing any of the limited metal and heavy crystalline particles that made up her body. The jarring dislocation forced her back into human form, to crash heavily against the floor.

Narrowing her eyes, Jean used Erik's distraction with Sooraya to send a telekinetic blast his way to knock him off his feet. Sooraya. She hadn't anticipated that. Damn it. Why hasn't she thought of that?

"Erik, please, stop this."

~Wildchild, check on Dominion. Dust? Are you alright?~

Kyle spared a glance for Sooraya, didn't smell any more blood, and sprinted to Garrison, moving awkwardly like he was prepared to get magnetically curbstomped by Magneto any second now. Whatever Jean was doing must've been keeping him busy, because he didn't find himself pinballed around the room by the iron in his blood. "You hurt bad?" Now that he could see some of the blood, he was... both more and less concerned. Gar looked okay - but Magneto had done a number on him anyway, even despite the Canadian's omni-skin "Besides the mess that's your arm..."

"Don't worry about it. This entire room is filled will small yield nuclear weapons. We need to neutralize them now." A cloud of shrapnel came their way, but Kane was able to get a table in the way to bear the brunt of the damage.

Magneto reached out, squeezing his hand, and Jean suddenly found herself wrapped in steel cables.

"I have little patience today, X-Men. Unless you want me to pop Ms Grey like a-" He suddenly froze, looking away in the distance as if a hunter catching a scent. Wordlessly, he waved his hand, and a magnetic pulse ripped through the room, smashing them all against the walls. But instead of following up his attack, Magneto sped from the room, leaving them behind.

"Uh. Okay..." Kyle had slid down the wall as Magneto fled, landing arms and legs spread, and slowly picked himself up. "Um. Did you say nukes, cause I'm pretty sure I heard nukes, and dude, I can fix a lawnmower, not disarm a nuclear weapon."

"He did say nukes." Sooraya stated as she awkwardly climbed back to her feet and shook her head in an attempt to clear the hazy feeling in her head. "And I have to agree with you there." She looked around the room for her remaining teammates, spotting Jean against the wall, still wrapped in the cables, Garrison also climbing on his feet and Clarice was nowhere to be seen.

With Magneto gone, Clarice emerged, already sliding her backpack of medical supplies off her shoulders to treat the worst in the field. "I've been nuked once. Do not recommend," she stated, surveying the damage with a trained eye and going to slice Jean off the wall before taking care of Kane. "Everyone okay enough to move this party away from here?"

Despite appearances, metal cables were not as flexible as Erik made them out to be. So while Clarice succeeded in cutting Jean away from the wall, the cables still remained tightly-wrapped around her body. In his haste in fleeing he hadn't loosened them, not that he would've anyway.

"Go--" she grimaced as she began to unwrap the cables. "I'll...catch...up."

"No. We can't leave yet." Kane looked around the room. "We don't have a bomb expert to dismantle the nukes, but we don't necessarily need that. We just need to make this room inhospitable."

He prowled around for a second, touched the hewn rock walls and ignoring his injury before stopping. "Here. The rock between this room and the main volcano caldera is thinnest. If we can break a hole between, the lava will destroy these things safely."

"I'll...do it..." Jean said, two angry red lines across her throat as she pulled herself to her feet. "Blink, stay with me. We'll need to teleport out quickly. The heat from the lava can kill within seconds before the actual lava even touches you. Everyone else get out. Wildchild, help Dominion, Dust bring up the rear."

"Right, just saying, Gar, that the doctor told me to help you out, so you don't get to tell me no." Kyle said, snagging a roll of bandage out of Clarice's backpack. "You want to go out fireman carry, or piggy-back? Because I do not argue with the doctor." The chatter was ab-so-lutely covering up his unease at leaving anyone behind, and that the list of things that could kill them started with Magneto and ended with 'nukes, and lava'.

"Come on, you two. Stop talking. We need to get out of here." Sooraya tossed a worried look over her shoulder at their two teammates remaining behind in the room, but then prodded Kyle to enter the hallway they had come out of. She waited for a moment to see if the men were indeed leaving, then followed after them, keeping out a weary eye for possible resistance popping up.

Jean smiled at Clarice. "Too bad you can't put this on a resume," she mused. Skills: Typing, Medical Degree, Saved world too many times to count.

Staring down the rock face, Jean clenched her fists together a moment, then lifted her hand, palm extended, with a furrowed brow. A sharp crack rippled through the air, then another, then enough, precise surgical movements, echoing down the hallway as the others ran.

A sharp hiss was heard, and flash of orange peeked out from a deep crack in the wall.

"Now!"Jean put her hand on Clarice's shoulder and the two disappeared as the built up pressure of the lava burst through the cracks in the wall, flooding the chamber and the weapons that lay within in a sea of red hot magma.