xp_logs | The Trial of Jean Grey

They find Jean but run into unexpected resistance

The sun was about to set, casting waves of purple and red across the waters of the Atlantic. But for now the light remained. The ocean was calm. There was barely a cloud in the sky. It would have been a lovely day for an outing. But that calm was disturbed by the roar of engines cutting through the water as the Blackbird neared its target.

It was quiet and somber in the Blackbird. Rogue was finding it hard to stay still, her foot tapping on the ground. It was one thing after another, after another and here they were, with no time to process anything. The quiet was driving her crazy.

"Namor," she said, breaking the silence, "this here's your turf. Can you jus' explain to me again what to expect? I ain't never been to Atlantis before..."

"Attilan, not Atlantis," came with the practiced tone of someone used to correcting this mistake on a daily basis.

Namor himself was in the middle of securing his wetsuit during this intrusion, but even he could not frown at a break in the tension. He fiddled with the camera apparatus attached to his ear while continuing, "However, being truly deep in the ocean is an experience like no other. Metaphors fail to do it justice."

"You'll understand if no one cares about the beauty of it all," Clarice put in as she put aside her medical kit, "This isn't a sight seeing mission." Not after their losses.

"Underwater is to Namor as the sky is to me," Pixie piped up in an odd tone. "Movement in all planes. Freedom from the distractions on land." The memory of sitting in Cat's deli seemed like a lifetime ago, faded like the day's light. Her wings clattered in nervous anticipation for the task at hand.

Lorna stopped the Blackbird near the location on the radar. She moved away from her seat and made adjustments on her own wetsuit, including several pounds of metal that was laced around her arms and legs. "Alright, Team. This is Jean we are talking about so I don't want to use our powers against her unless it is completely necessary. However, due to recent events, be cautious." Lorna looked away for a brief moment, remembering the events on Muir Island. It was very obvious that Lorna was troubled. "We are going to treat this as a rescue...with just a suppressor with us."

"And how do we know she wants to be rescued?" Julian descended the ramp, the dry suit he'd purchased for sky diving with Tandy a stark contrast of color to the others around him. He forced himself not to think of Tandy, remembering the advice that it would get easier with time if he practiced it.

The suppressor was in his hands, since he could use his ability to control it from a distance. "For the record, I've trained with Jean...if she doesn't want our help...we are going too be in for a hell of a fight." The slight buzz from the scotch he'd swilled at the start of the mission was wearing off.

"Jean is one of our teammates, a teacher, our nurse, and one of my best friends." She pressed the button, rather hard, to have the back of the plane opening up. "She would be doing the same thing if it was one of us." She grabbed a face mask with a tank of oxyggen. "Just be on the alert and we have to be quick about it. We are also dealing with a Telepath."

Pixie put on her mask and gear as practiced. The water looked dark, not like movement and freedom. "Will O' Wisp," she whispered, summoning a small version of her light spell.

Fully suited, Rogue sighed heavily. It was do or die time. "Alright folks,now's the time to say your peace. Once we get there, there's no turnin' back, eh, Polaris." Codename time. The mission was starting.

Shifting her oxygen tank on? her back, Rogue gave a little wave. "See y'all on the flip side," she stated before putting in her mouth applicator and diving in.

Someone had to go first.

Tying her hair back with a ponytail, Clarice fit her goggles on, "Alright. Here we go," she agreed, entering the water. This was either going to go really well or really horribly. She couldn't see anything in between and that terrified her.

"Namor, I will follow you." Lorna said to the younger man, "Scion stay close to the both of us." She walked out to the edge of the back of the plan before putting on her own masking and breathing gear over her face before jumping in.

She got a nod for this, and Namor tapped his earpiece experimentally. "Testing?" Good. He swan-dived gracefully into the water, unburdened by breathing apparatus, oxygen tank, or flippers.

"Testing again." His voice was oddly clear although submerged. "Good. Now the video feed." A flip for the battery, and --

"Receiving," came Haller's voice through the earpiece as the screens on the Blackbird came alive. "All teams receiving." The X-Man was uncomfortable with this on a number of levels. Utilizing Cerebro had been pushing his comfort levels, but it had gotten the job done. Telepathically hijacking a freighter to provide the search party with a staging area, however, had been a bit much for his taste. Unfortunately once Jean's location had become clear Emma had pointed out, with her inexorable logic, that given the realities of sea travel it was much more expedient to forgo a yacht rental and simply pressgang the nearest vessel. He hoped the crew were at least getting a sound sleep below decks.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Jim added, privately, ~Lorna, be careful.~

~I'll be back before you know it.~ Lorna said back to Jim. She led the group down into the murky depths carefully checking the pressure gauge every so often. "Okay, she should be in this general location." Checking her depth meter once more before swimming down a couple more meters before seeing something glowing a little deeper. "I think I spotted her. About 10 meters further down. This is going to be difficult putting on the suppressor down here. We might have to teleport her to the surface and do it there."

At that, Clarice turned away from the group and headed back, climbing out the water almost as quickly as she had jumped in. "I need visual," she stated, discarding what she could before joining Haller. The water was too dark and cloudy for her to do it in the water. It would difficult enough using the cameras. "As good as we can get it."

Jim was staring at the screen. He could understand why Lorna had only asserted she thought she could see Jean. A patch of the ocean floor was unnaturally bright, illuminated by a sphere of light. At its core was a spot of darkness: a humanoid shape, curled in a fetal position.

What the hell is going on?

"We may need more than the feed," Jim said after a moment, telepathically alerting Emma and Rachel that their presence would be required on deck. "Everyone, get to the ship and be ready, please. Namor . . ." the Attilani wasn't an X-Man, but he was tough, and the water was his element. ". . . stay where you are, but back up as far as you can while maintaining visibility. I'm going to link you and Clarice for a visual."

Namor craned his neck to get a better visual of the mess of bodies above. They sat backlit against what would be the sky on dry land, but here, in his domain, it hardly mattered. He was much quicker and more agile in the water, and his ability to withstand the pressure of the depths that psychic probing had revealed Jean have sequestered herself in was the reason he was here. "Yessir."

He swam back a little and circled the glowing cocoon. There was an impact crater barely visible over the glow and buzz of psychic energy, and everything else living had abandoned this stretch of ocean before they arrived. "Miss Blink, please confirm when I am in position." Codenames were no reason to abandon propriety completely.

"You're fine, stay in position Namor," he knew what she thought of his propriety, but now was not the time or the place. How was it that they managed to survive Genosha, she'd been nuked! and yet, this was their match.

A purple glow appeared in the water, then imploded in on itself only to reappear almost simultaneously on the deck of the ship. Jean and the water around her came through, the water splashing across the deck.