Jean and Kurt: On Thin Ice (Backdated)

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

While out roaming the grounds Jean and Kurt are ambushed by a cadre of demon intruders.


Jean had received her black jogging suit as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. She found the green piping on the suit and the styling a source of amusement and so did the person who gave her her present, given how close it looked to their X-Men uniforms. She took to wearing it on cold days and it came in handy on a night like this. The air was cool, clear, and crisp, and her shoes crunched into the snow as she jogged along the treeline where the mansion grounds turned into forest.

Her thoughts drifted, going over aher Christmas list. She had so many people to buy for but had put it off, enjoying the quiet time. But it was perhaps a premature thought that things would stay quiet for too much longer as a burst of panic and alarm erupted from various minds at the mansion almost all at once.

She started to sprint back when something tackled her from behind, knocking her to the ground. The only thing she got from the intruder was that it was alive. Everything about it's mind was alien, almost unreadable. It allowed it to almost sneak up on her without being unnoticed. And that was all she needed to know.

The sound of heavy footsteps started to close the distance and Jean turned her head to face her attacker, causing it to strike a telekinetic shield like a car hitting a brick wall and crash into a nearby tree.

Jean climbed to her feet. It was a creature that stood a little taller than her but was three times her size. Its skin was a mottled grey, bulging with veins and muscles and lumps. Its face resembled concrete that was not smoothed out, resulting in craggy places that a pair of jaundiced yellow eyes, a bulbous nose, and sharp teeth had been jammed on almost on afterthought. It wore some sort of armor that looked too small for it, and clanked around as it moved.

Digging into the tree bark with a pair of black claws as a help up, the demon crawled to its feet. It's teeth curled up, and it let out a growl before charging at her again.

It didn't get very far before a blue-furred figure leaped out of the tree onto its back, knocking it down.

"Phoenix, run! Raise the alarm!"

"I think they already--" Jean was cut off as she found two more of the demons quickly approaching from both sides.

The demon Kurt had jumped on did not particularly like that and reached for him with arms that stretched down past its knees like a gorilla, plucking him off of his back. He proceeded to shake him back and forth like a rag doll.

Kurt retaliated as best he could, twisting his flexible back with the shaking and remaining entirely unbroken - and then getting hold of the demon's arm and twisting that, too, hard and beyond natural bending.

Muscles and tendons and bones snapped from the motion and the demon howled, reflexively trying to grab him again, to fling him toward a nearby woodpile.

Meanwhile two of the demons came at Jean, one slashing and swiping at her, the other swinging a large mace. The one doing the slashing found itself having its own momentum used against it as Jean saw the lines of force and used it to spin him around, sending him crashing into his buddy with the mace.

Kurt refused to be grabbed that easily a second time, and was teleporting and dodging to the best of his power, confusing all the demon's senses. Since the woodpile was there, he had also taken to pelting it with the chopped pieces, most of which were still quite heavy and solid.

The demon let out a roar-yelp, swatting at the wood but failing more than a few times, which only served to infuriate it more as it started to try to close the gap between the two of them. Its partner, however, was having better luck, and tried to sneak up behind Kurt, though the snow gave away its footsteps as it drew a rusty sword, swinging it at him.

As for the demons after Jean, they decided to give up their attack and soon got up, scrambling toward the mansion to look for easier foes. Jean took off after them, knocking one of them down by chucking a couple of pieces of discarded logs left over from Kurt's battle as they ran along the lake shoreline.

But her sights were distracted by the one, and she didn't notice the other one was a lot faster than he looked...and was only making it look like he was headed for the mansion. He had circled back around and was on her in seconds, crashing into her like a linebacker.

The two skidded across the iced over lake but the ice was wasn't properly frozen and promptly cracked as they came to a stop, sending them both under.

"Phoenix!" Kurt was occupied with his sword-wielding opponent, but he knew how Jean felt about water, and it was so cold. He snatched the sword away on one of the demon's clumsy swings, and teleported out onto the ice, running to the hole.

Darkness. Ice. Algae. Surrounded. No escape. Can' t breathe. Can't think. Can't. A hand shot out of the water but it wasn't Jean's, clawing at the surface, followed by a bald, misshapen head. Another hand, however, erupted out after it, shoving its head down back under the water.

Can't be afraid.

The struggle with the demon took most of her focus, distracting her from truly thinking about what would happen if they managed to swim any further under the ice. Used to hell fire, the demon did poorly in cold and fought to try to get out. Jean lifted her head above the surface, and the demon flailed underneath her, arms flapping like a bird unable to fly as she held steadfast to his neck, keeping him there.

The ice under Kurt started to crack under his weight, and the other three demons were right at the shoreline, waiting from him to cross back over. They were not prepared to go in.

Kurt shuffled back, trying to keep ahead of the cracks, and raised his stolen sword in case the demon managed to get away - or worse. In either case, he was quite prepared to use it.

Eventually the demons struggles ebbed to mere quivers, twitches of fleeting life, before finally ceasing and Jean let him go, taking in gasps of breath. She glanced around.

"Nightcrawler!" she shouted, as she noticed that one of the larger demons had gotten smart and ripped a rather large dead tree stump out of the ground. He flung it at Kurt.

It had to travel quite a distance, and between that and the warning, he flattened himself to the ice and let it fly over his head.

"We must go past them, I think, my way - or above them, yours", he called to her. "Back to the house."

Jean telekinetically lifted herself out of the water, though it was slow going, hard to concentrate to keep herself afloat due to the cold. The large tree stump had created a massive hole in the ice and further degraded the stability of the ice. The cracks were getting worse under Kurt's feet.

"Go--I'll catch up."

"No, I will not leave you." He skirted around, running as lightly as he could on the uncracked ice until he reached the side of the hole, and held out his hand. "Take my hand and we will be gone."

Bobbing like a buoy, Jean floated over, feet skimming the ice as she grabbed Kurt's hand. Her breath misted in the air, and rivets of water dripped off of her, onto the ice. She cast a look back at the demons circling the lake shore.

"They're already inside. Charles has sounded the alarm."

"Then we should go and assist there", he said with a quick unamused smile. "No doubt these will follow us, for lack of other prey."

"I think a little retaliation will warm me right up," Jean said, narrowing her eyes at their intruders. This was their home. She did not take kindly to anyone, people or creatures, attacking her home.

A grim nod, and they were gone.

Despite experience, it still took Jean some time to get used to teleportation. To be somewhere in one moment and somewhere else in another was a discombobulating experience. They arrived in a mansion hallway to the sounds of fighting and destruction all around. Jean welcomed the blast of warm air, as she was shaking uncontrollably from the cold water.

She did not welcome the three demons directly to their left, who had a slow start being surprised by their arrival to charge.

Kurt still had his stolen sword, and charged right back at the trio. No more practice or fencing here, only the determined intent to kill.

The sword was rusty, but with enough force and intent it made it's mark, running through one of the demons after a bit of effort. The demon let out strangled roar of pain, and it's buddy moved to defend him but was slammed into the remaining demon head first with a telekinetic pull.

Black blood spilled out onto the floor from the impaled demon, staining the wood and the carpet.

He made a face at it and stepped back, pulling his sword clear and raising it, to watch the fallen demons closely for any signs of movement.

"Are they dead?"

One of the demons Jean had rammed into the other one twitched a little, but a sickening crack abruptly stilled him. The look on Jean's face was one she did not relish. Taking lives was never something she wanted to do.

"Now they are."

She quickly looked up as she sensed a number of alien minds gathering, attention drifting toward the group of five or six demons that came to take their place, surrounding them.

"This could get messy."

"How do you think they would take to my dimension?" he asked, almost idly. "Given the right circumstances and very careful timing, I can leave things there."

The demons started to close the distance and Jean backed up, lifting her hands to create a telekinetic shield around herself and Kurt. The cold seeping into her bones was still messing with her concentration, however.

"Will it hurt you?"

"Only if I stay there myself", he assured her. "The weight of these demons cannot be more than the weight of a human, and that I can manage."

The demons began to beat on the shield. Jean began having flashbacks to the hotel and resisted the urge to send them flying. She wasn't sure how effective it would be at the moment.

"Do it. But be careful."

Kurt 'ported forward without another word, paused briefly before grabbing one of the demons - and when the cloud of sulfur cleared, he was standing alone.

"One down... and... none to go?"

Jean blinked, quickly glancing around. She felt the vacuum, the absence of the 'hum' of their minds suddenly disappearing shortly after he did. Not all at once, but quick enough to almost feel like it.

"I---Huh."

She shook her head. "We should find the others. These things had to be here for a reason."

Kurt nodded quickly. "I pray everyone is safe."

"Me too," Jean said, fishing out her cell phone. It had been modified to withstand circumstances such as the one she'd been in. She furrowed a brow at the text.

"Message from Charles. We should report to Scott."

"Then let us do so immediately. Where is he?"

"This way," Jean said, and the two headed toward the bowels of the mansion, surveying the destruction along the way.