xp_logs | Higher Than Hope: Cyclops and Firestar vs The Archduke

As the remaining X-Men go look for Laurie and Hope, Scott and Angel face down the Archduke.

Only the faint smell of sulfur remained the hall as the two teleporters made their exit, the footsteps on the various X-Men spreading out already dying away as well. Only Cyclops and Firestar remained, eyes trained on the man standing next to the chair.

Angel tilted her head just slightly, eyeing Holocaust. Now was not the time for a joke about the appearance of the man's face...but yikes. "If you ever you needed a cautionary tale about not messing with microwaves," she muttered, bits of fire sparking to life between her fingers.

"You think he'd have learned," Scott replied conversationally turning his back to Holocaust dismissively as he talked to the redhead. "I guess some people just never learn do they?" he asked in a tone of voice which carried across the room to Holocaust.

Holocaust's hands tightened on the chair back, a faint crackle of breaking wood as it splintered under his strength. But his voice, when he spoke to the two X-Men, was calm, almost urbane,

"Unannounced guests. If only I had known we were to have visitors, I would have prepared for you." Blue fire began building in his eyes, the only sign of his true rage. "But, alas, it seems I shall have to respond on the fly, as it were." And with that he released the building microwaves directly at the back of Cyclops' head.

Angel was ready, at least. Holocaust was older and more experienced and without a doubt stronger than her, but she had the element of surprise. She knew his powers. He didn't know hers.

She whirled around, managing to catch the microwaves before they connected with the fearless leader. "I don't wanna be pushy or anything," she muttered quickly to Scott, "but you might wanna move." Holocaust was no powers-copying bio-machine, and she had a feeling he could get a little more creative than the Fury had.

"Interesting." Holocaust's voice conveyed his emotions far better than his face did at the moment, and he sounded genuinely curious. "I have not encountered someone with my powers before. Let us see just how similar they are, child." He rose up from the floor, hovering on waves of microwave energy, a nimbus of blue fire surrounding him. Almost casually, he raised his fist and sent a blast of energy directly at the redhead.

"Don't worry," Scott assured Angel as he turned around to face Holocaust, "I had absolute faith in you." he told her with a smile as he launched a pair of optical blasts at Holocaust blocking his blast of energy and sending one back at him. "Besides, I've got experience with this particular powerset before." he told her with a smile.

"Your arrogance will be your downfall." Holocaust tilted slightly and let the optic blast go by him and into the wall, blasting a large hole in the wood and plaster. "Because you have not met me before." His next attack was from both fists, one head high and the other at Cyclops' midsection.

Scott span away from the blasts, loosing one of his own at Holocaust's midriff, "Get round to his other side," he told Angel quietly over comms as he moved away from her, "We can get him in a pincer."

Angel nodded and took to the air, kicking off and speeding up, blue flames sparking around her as she flew. As she went up she fired off a blast of fire at him to distract him so she and Scott could get into place.

Unfortunately for them, Holocaust was a student of European history - which meant a history of warfare. He immediately caught onto what they were planning and reacted, catching Firestar's blast and redirecting it at Cyclops as he made his own move towards one of the large windows illuminating the room. "I think not, sir," he told Cyclops. "You have invaded my home and destroyed my property. You will not trap me so simply." AS he spoke, he pointed his fists, one at each X-Man, and blasted them with torrents of blue fire.

Scott skidded to a halt as he span to face Holocaust and unleashed a steady optical beam to block Holocaust's attack, "You're seriously going to complain about that?" he asked in amazement, "you who decided to kidnap our friends don't get to complain."

Angel threw her hands out, diverting the blast around her like Moses parting the Red Sea. "You talk a lot, and that's saying something coming from me," she called as she pulled one hand back from shielding herself - which made the job significantly harder, but hopefully in a moment she wouldn't have to - and fired off a spiral of blue fire at Holocaust.

Holocaust's response to both X-Men's responses was to redouble his efforts, forcing their own energy beans back towards them. Angel's shot glanced off his skull, tearing open the blistered skin and exposing bone, but still he resisted. "I. WILL. NOT. YIELD." he grated. "All I do, I am doing to preserve my country and its people. And I will do whatever it takes."

Oh god that had not been Angel's intention. She brought her hand back to refocus on shielding herself, mind whirling around the possibilities. Clearly his grotesquely deformed face and head were his weakness...

Sometimes Angel hated the things she had to do.

With some effort she deflected the torrent, redirecting it to the ceiling and dropping down to the ground, hands out, and she fired off another shot - right at Holocaust's head.

The double-edged attack did what sheer energy hadn't been able to do before - it broke Holocaust's concentration. As pieces of ceiling crashed down on him, he instinctively reacted, breaking off his blast in order to deflect them away. It opened him up to both mutants - Firestar's blast caught him squarely in the face, peeling away more burned skin.

As Holocaust's hands flew up to his devastated face Scott unleashed the strongest blast he could right at Holocaust's chest. Distracted as he was the Archduke never stood a chance to deflect or dodge the attack as it slipped through his fragmented guard and smashed into Holocaust's chest. The Archduke was knocked backwards off his feet and driven through the air till he impacted a window. For a moment it looked like he's journey would stop there, but with an almighty crack the window shattered under the force. For a brief second Holocaust hung in the air before vanishing out through the open space behind him as gravity and momentum grabbed hold of him.

The man went through the window, and Angel hopped into the air, landing back down a moment later right in front of the now gaping hole. She leaned out, looking down at the broken, sizzling body below. Eugh. "Sometimes this job makes a good argument for a vegetarian lifestyle," she said as she stepped back, turning to look back at Scott. "The Archduke seems to be down for the count. Time to catch up with the others?"

Scott nodded, "They should have found the girls by now," Scott shot a glance at the shattered window. "There's nothing else to hold us here. Let's go."

The two X-Men left. And behind them on the ground the shattered figure of the Archduke twitched.