xp_logs | Fires From The Ashes

Remy's team discovers Apocalypse only to meet the firebird for the first time

Based on the information that they had culled from the Cairo flight system, Remy took an educated guess and brought his team to the Indian city of Visakhapatnam. The city of over two million boasted popular beaches, a bustling seaport and ship building industry and India's own 'chemical alley' of manufacturers and distilleries. But the only thing that interested him was the destination that Apocalypse had circled in his notes: Simhachalam Temple.

The ancient Hindi temple was a noted tourist destination, and it had been simple enough to move their rental van anonymously into the parking lot, opposite the elaborate gopuram tower at the entrance. They had confirmed Apocalypse' flight had landed although it was too late to draw in other support, and they didn't know if Apocalypse's plans involved just one of the sights, or all of them. Instead, they sat and waited, binoculars trained on the temple.

Or, well, some of them did. Arthur figured that a crack spy team would know to bring binoculars for everyone. So he sat, watching the rear of the dirt and gravel parking lot, and kicked up a few rocks while learning against the van's bumper. The goal was to look touristy, and the man casually kicked around a hacky sack ball to keep the illusion.

"So," he casually mentioned between juggles, "Where do you figure we could find a cow to donate?"

"Dude, focus."

Jubilee had hopped out of the van to stretch her legs a bit, the dyed blonde hair and valley girl speech pegging her as 'ugly American' tourist effortlessly. It was a cover she'd been born to play, and she did it well.

She hadn't been expecting the firebird suddenly blooming over the temple however, having been on the lookout for Apocalypse.

"Looks like we've got some company"

"Well, dat's something." Remy muttered, watching the firebird slowly descend. For a moment, looking at the fury boiling in it, he regretted being right. He could see a figure in the centre, but it was too far away to make out details. "If we right, Apocalypse should be inside right now. Jubilee, you and Arthur go in through de side. Do not engage until I tell you. Artie, you wit' me."

They quickly moved out, pushing against the tide of screaming people fleeing the temple as a section of the roof was being ripped away by the firebird. Remy and Artie moved quickly through the entrance and then off to the side, arriving just in time to see the flash of a teleporter as Apocalypse and several of his henchmen ported in.

Artie pulled back a step, and asked, "do we evade them or engage?" He had illusions read to cloak them, for all that he looked harmless — a college kid surfer here for his winter break, all sneakers, jeans and hoodie, camera dangling over one shoulder.

Longshot and Jubilee, however, took the high road.

The architecture of Simhachalam provided many opportunities for footholds along its delicate and decorative stonework and the two, after a brief bout of only slightly competitive parkour, had been able to conceal themselves along the vaulted ceilings of the main amphitheater outside the Gopuram of Narasimhaswamy. Below a series of feral, inhuman men and women confronted a hooded figure in green as a tall, broader man looked on with an air of absolute authority.

Arthur sat perched on a sculpture of Ganesha as he used his phone to zoom in and record (just like a real tourist). He pantomimed toward Jubilee, who was far more professionally poised. Who is, and this was accompanied with a series of finger gestures toward the scene below and then to a snapshot of the hooded woman on the phone screen, that?

The stranger seemed oddly familiar. Whoever it was, the photo exposed a shock of wavy red hair.

Jubilee had to smile at Arthur's antics as she watched the scene below, shrugging slightly after she figured out just what it was he was going on about. There was honestly only so much you could say silently if the other person didn't know sign language and since she couldn't be certain what sort of hearing the people below had, she chose to remain silent and still. There'd be time for talking later when they had a better idea of just what was going on down there, she'd already recognised Apocalypse, but the other woman reminded her of Jean - and that was totally not Jean, she was sure.

Apocalypse approached the figure, a small coterie with him, as he began to read aloud. Holding up his hand, as if summoning her, he moved closer. They could see the firebird start to distort, as the energy was being pulled towards the dark figure. According to Ororo, his notes and research had spoken of the firebird manifesting before in history and many of the sites he'd noted had been the first place it was seen. Was it drawn to those places or did those places have some kind of other connection? The notes hadn't said. But what they had said was that Apocalypse believed that he'd found a means to control it; a combination of magic and his powers with which he could force the creature to submit and steal the lion's share of the power for himself.

Remy made a sign to the others, creeping closer to the scene. He could finally see the face of the woman; it was Jean but not. The woman looked younger, harder; predatory. Her face was currently contorted in rage as she watched the lines of fire swirl around Apocalypse. With a sharp gesture, she somehow pulled and the lines stopped as the firebird snapped entirely back to her. With a motion, she picked up Apocalypse in her talon, the African mutant struggling as his men moved forward to attack her.

Before Remy could move, he could sight of another figure entering the temple. This one in a white, saffron and green military uniform; Imperial Guard. He had slipped in unnoticed, watching the scene before making a move. Turning back to Apocalypse, they watched as he was lifted into the air and for all his power, his body began to diffuse, slowly dissipating into dust under the fiery glare of the woman. As his men attacked her, a fearsome display of telekinesis was shown, breaking bones, tearing away weapons and punching through armor. There was no way that his team was ready to take that on. Instead, Remy pointed at the teleporter, at the back of the room with the few remaining men. On his signal, they moved on them.

Artie blinded the teleporter, distracting him, aimed, and shot. The man fell.

Jubilee jumped across the distance between herself and her target, using what might have seemed impossible hand holds and crevices in her journey. Cities, temples, anything made by man had long ago become roads to her and she used them as such.

She jumped down on top of the man, pulling the scarf she'd been wearing around his neck. It was only now as she used it as a weapon that the wire stitched into the lining was obvious.

She wasn't expecting the man to chuckle and pull the wire from his neck in a contemptuous sign of power, or to grab her and throw her over his shoulder. She managed to avoid broken bones as she hit the wall but she barely had time to get her bearings before he had crushed her with a charge.

Jubilee screamed, pushing power out of her back and shoulders to burn him with multi-colored sheets of plasma.

It seemed to work, as he backed off, giving her room to breathe as she dropped to the ground. Everything hurt, but she couldn't give up, she needed to take the guys out.

Her scream would have given the game away, even if her use of powers after hadn't.

She turned, giving the hulking mutant a wink before she sent another wave of molten plasma over him, melting him down in a matter of moments. Once she was sure he was gone, she let go, allowing her body to slump to the ground.

She would have hit, too, if she hadn't been lucky.

Arthur was there in a blink after having dispatched his target in a decidedly less showy, and lethal, way. His eyes darted frantically for Gambit across the room as he supported her head and back, but Arthur did not intend to move her until absolutely necessary.

The firebird had swelled at the assault, pulverizing the last of Apocalypse's men which attacked her. The inside of the temple was now littered with torn apart limbs and splashed with blood. She turned ferally, looking at the other people in the temple, the fires in the air shimmering in intensity. Before she could do anything, a blast of energy caught her square in the chest. The firebird screamed in pain as the Imperial Guardsman from the shadows emerged.

"I am Āftāb-dhamak of the Imperial Guard, and you are under the arrest of the government of India!" He fired a second blast that caused her to fall back further in the air. "You will surrender!"

With a hiss, the firebird lashed out, grabbing him in a fiery claw.

"You hurt me, you insect!" The man writhed in the grip. "A scrap of energy in a bad suit and you dare to hurt me?" Āftāb-dhamak screamed as his uniform was stripped away and his energy body began to glow furiously.

"Dat's what I thought." Remy muttered as he grabbed the teleporter by the throat. "Get all of us out of here now."

"I-"

"Now, or Remy promise de last seconds we have are going to be de most painful of you life!"

The man recoiled at the fury in Remy's look and nodded, jumping Remy and his team out of the temple and far away.

Āftāb-dhamak continued to glow brighter, and then the firebird held it up for a moment. "Now, you can all burn."

Āftāb-dhamak body collapsed into itself, the energy whirling in and then erupting out. The intensity of her power was enough to tear the atoms apart within his body. The energy began to fuel a chain reaction and the temple was consumed as the nuclear reaction flared. Standing at the epicentre of the explosion, the firebird watched at the explosion rushed out, consuming buildings and people with equal ferocity. The globe of destruction swelled before finally vomiting forth a mushroom cloud at the same time as the shockwave smashed through the city. Millions died in an instant, the last sound the shriek of triumphant from the firebird as it disappeared.