xp_logs | A Touch of Brimstone Log 5

Lorna leads a team into the command centre of the Muir Island facility only to discover a nasty surprise.

Lorna's team had expected some kind of resistance when they'd landed - Lorna using her powers to quietly lower them all from the hovering Blackbird - but for all of his posturing, Magneto had apparently missed the small side door they were to use to gain access. The door had, in times of old, been a servants' entrance, but now it was mostly forgotten, the wood swollen by the weather and jammed firmly. And it was completely unguarded.

"This must be it." Lorna looked around before reaching her arm out a as liquid metal formed off her wrist to the edges of the shut door. A moment later she gave her hand a jerk and the door came free. "Be alert. Cannonball take the rear."

"Can do." Sam replied, taking up his position. He watched as Lorna opened the door and stood aside as the others walked past him. They'd been lucky enough not to encounter any resistance up to that point but they had to be careful nevertheless. Once they were all ahead of him he took up his position and followed.

For all Matt's training and the few missions he'd gone on as a trainee, nothing had been quite this level and he was nervous, but tried not to let it show. It was more because he wasn't sure what they would encounter as opposed to fear. He had trained for this, but excitement wouldn't help anyone. "I don't hear anything," he murmured, though Muir was a huge complex that went far underground.

"Not getting anything unusual, probability-wise" Jennie said, narrowing her eyes. The world sparkled with incipient probability, but it stayed safely neutral. For now. She cracked her neck and sucked in a deep breath. She'd been active again only a short time, and she was jittery from it. She had only gone up against the Brotherhood itself once, as a trainee all those years ago. It had left her with bruised kidneys and a newfound sense of her own mortality.

Though she did hit a guy with the blackbird, so that was cool.

Polaris heard Matt's saying that he didn't hear anything and Jennie not getting anything off her own radar. The senior X-Men nodded slowly as she lead her team towards the CINC. She had been to this island plenty of times and knew her way around fairly well, at least she had a look of the layout before they left. She wanted to keep quiet as possible as she started to float down the hallway and made a motion stating that they would be going left next.

Checking their six as they moved further down the hallway, Sam waited until the others had turned left before following suit. It was quiet, almost too quiet, but he'd had more than enough experience to know better than to say something like that out loud. "Clear back here." he reported, keeping his eyes wide open.

On the one hand, it seemed too quiet. On the other, Matt did not want to jinx them, not with a probability manipulator in the mix. That was just asking for trouble. "How much farther?" he asked. He hadn't been able to check the map before coming, which worried him.

"Not much," said Jennie, who had studied the map. Suddenly a pulse went through her vision. "Something's ...happening." Will happen. Her time away had taught her about the aspect of her power that she'd always just kind of ignored. The fact that, like most probability manipulators, there was a bit of short range precognition involved. Before this ability had been at times annoying and confusing, but now having trained in it, it was proving itself to be very useful.

Lorna turned to look at Roulette, "Good or bad?" She needed more information than something was happening. The door that lead into the Security Office was up ahead and yet they hadn't had one disturbance. Lorna looked around as she approached the door and stopped as she put a hand to the door as her eyes glowed. Slowly she opened it to see another already inside, "Emplate."

"Polaris." The younger X-Man was lounging against the wall beside the security monitors. While seemingly at ease, his body was positioned in such a way that he was not immediately visible until you had entered the room. He'd left the mansion months ago plagued with the tumors and deformities that taking Lionel Jefferies' tainted mutation had left him with. Now he was once again the same man who had accompanied Lorna on the mission to Slorenia.

Marius pushed himself off the wall, his body language relaxing a few notches. "Can't say you're not a welcome sight," he remarked, glancing at the assembled team. He gave Jennie a small nod before continuing. "I'm all the reinforcements to be had here, unfortunately. The firestarter and I felt it more expedient to part ways."

"Same. It has been awhile, our last mission." Lorna gave an involuntary shudder remembering the scene. "Well I am glad you are here." She gestured to Ping, Cannonball and Roulette. "We are here to take control of the room and get eyes in places." She walked up to the control panel. "Roulette mentioned something was happening."

"I think we may have found the something," Jennie said dryly, eyeing Marius. Then her vision pulsed again. Like a red heartbeat. "Shit, no." Her nerves felt on edge, not unlike that night over two years ago. Jennie slammed down on that feeling, wrestling it into a corner of her mind.

"It's bad," she confirmed. "Very bad. Check the monitors."

A quick glance at the monitor was all it took for Sam to confirm Roulette's conclusion. A portal could very clearly be seen as it stretched open, a yawning chasm that was very bad news indeed.

"Shit." was all he could manage.