xp_logs | The Trial of Jean Grey

Strike team two under Ororo hits the Guard, wrapping them up so they can't deploy properly.

The course of the rescue was never going to run easily, but even so, this was chaos. They faced not only the Imperial Guard but Special Forces soldiers as well; a hail of bullets cut off routes of retreat and regrouping and forced them to face combat on all sides. They were holding their own so far - but how long would that last?

One, two, three - one, two, three. It was like a waltz, only with bullets. It wasn't as bad as it could have been weapon-wise. There was a fair bit of cover and Wade had plenty of ammo for the moment. He was waiting for the reinforcements to arrive, though. This was a shit-show, no question, but it was going to get worse. It always did. There was a momentary pause between the rapid fire exchanges and Wade slid from cover, moving from a pillar to a brick wall, ducking behind it just in time to avoid the renewed shooting from the ISF. And then the waltz started up again.

If there was anything she hated more, it was the sense of being trapped. No sense in flying when you're surrounded, but being on the ground made her nervous. It didn't help that Jessica was there, and at the back of Rogue's mind, she felt responsible for the younger woman. Rogue kept having to remind herself that the girl was super strong, and mostly invulnerable. Still. Rogue ensured she stayed in front of her, whether Jess noticed or not.

At each attempted movement, there was a return fire. It was obvious that this wasn't their usual battle. "They're shooting to kill," she said, in awe. "They seriously want to kills us."

Jessica was sweating bullets. She was surrounded by bullets and she was sweating them. The chaos around her was almost too much. Her face remained perfectly neutral even though her inner voice shouted for her to get the fuck out of there. 'Alright Jess, now is not the time to panic. Rogue's been training you and she has your back. You have to have hers.' She thought to herself. 'I'm not going to let her die. Not like all the others.' She continued, feeling a pit grow in her stomach as she thought about those that had fallen. It was time for a little of that typical Jessica Jones patented bravado.

"Fuck them and their guns. You haven't exactly trained me for all out warfare, but it'll have to be enough. You watch my back, I watch yours, and we both keep an eye on the others. I'll be damned if we fall to these fuckers." Jessica stated angrily. Her bones practically itched beneath her skin. She was on edge, ready to hit something, anything. It was as though all the frustration of the past few days was reaching a fever pitch. She was ready to raise hell.

Callisto's eyes were narrowed as she watched the bullets fly. Callisto could dodge a bullet. She couldn't dodge _this_ many. At length she caught Ororo's attention.

"Can you clear a path to them?" she asked. "A few seconds would do it."

The silver-haired woman gave a curt nod, and with a raise of her arms sent anything along the corridor that wasn't bolted down flying against the wall with a gust of wind - and that included a few soldiers and their rifles.

As soon as the hail abated, Callisto's lithe form was vaulting along the corridor, reaching the shooters almost before they could figure out what was going on.

Logan wasn't inclined to be nice. Not this time around, not with Namor's death on their hands, Jean being held hostage, and all the shit with the Brotherhood. They already had too many killed and injured. And what else was a healing factor for if he couldn't do this?

Logan didn't bother with cover. He ran right at the ISF soldiers and anyone else that was in his way, attracting their gunfire and their attention. He kept his claws in for the most part. Adamantium weighted punches doing the majority of the work for him and knocking soldiers out left and right. The claws he saved for permanently disabling weapons and if some soldier caught a backhand with claws extended he tried to keep it to only a crippling strike and not a lethal one. He didn't always succeed but he wasn't going to lose sleep over it. They were out of the fight. That's all that really mattered.

As the Indian unit fell back, a number of new figures joined the fight. Clad in green, white and saffron uniforms, they moved with military precision to meet the mutants attack. An angry tremor shook the area in front of them, checking their advance, and long blasts of electricity ground themselves at random around them.

"Daitya, Ifrit, take point. Khaincha and Shrvet-Kharosh, keep them off-balance!"

Jessica barely took note of the people in the strange uniforms among the heat of the battle and she couldn't make out what their leader was saying over the hail of bullets around her. She slugged one of the Indian special forces, careful not to turn him into paste, while at the same time letting loose a stream of profanities as a wave of bullets struck her from different angles. She flew upwards on instinct, curling in on herself to make a smaller target. She wished she could dance around the battlefield like Wolverine and Callisto. She'd noticed the pair weaving in and out of the battle, Callisto like a cobra striking at a its prey and Logan like a whirlwind of bladed death. She grabbed one of the men by the throat as she flew by and, after drawing close to his fellows, she hurled him into them. She only hoped they could keep this up.

The main thing for the moment, aside from covering everyone else in an effort to make sure no one suffered fatal injuries, was for Wade to try his hardest to incapacitate the ISF dudes. He wasn't necessarily shooting to kill, but then they'd offed Aquafina without much thought and oops - was that a throat shot? Poor little ISF man. Wade slid around another pillar, reloaded while he counted off the various shots coming his way, and then ducked out into the open again. Raising his guns, he took aim at a pair of men, the green an saffron of their uniforms garish, and -

Didn't manage to pull the trigger before he got hammered by a concussive blast. It knocked him off his feet, but he tucked and rolled, managing to mitigate the force of impact when he hit the floor behind him. He took the brunt of that on his shoulder and kept rolling, landing himself behind a toppled wall just before another concussive blast rocked the structure. Bricks and pieces of mortar rained down on him. "Christ," he muttered, wiping sweat and dirt off his face. He needed to figure out where that had come from. Preferably before whoever was aiming at him buried him in rubble.

Keeping one eye on Jess, she was proud of the girl and how Jess was handling the situation.

Calm, cool, collected: the three C's of success.

It allowed Rogue the opportunity to relax (as much as possible in the midst of battle) and get to the task at hand, namely rescuing Jean and getting rid of the baddies. Easy, peasy. Rogue wasn't picky -- if someone came near her fists, they were guaranteed a good knock to the ol' block. She did her best to hold back; she didn't want to be responsible for anyone's death, even though she had to admit, it didn't look like anyone was too concerned about her own survival.

Case in point, a large, grey looking man was lumbering her way, looking keen on taking out Jessica. That wasn't going to happen. "Hey ugly," she called out, forcibly moving bodies out of her way. "Where do you think you're goin'?" Preparing for a large punch, she threw it and looked in horror as the man laughed. What she thought was merely a grey skin color was actually some sort of sand, covering his skin. Where she had punched, the sand had merely sunk in, absorbing the majority of her force. And she'd really tried this time.

In an almost desperate pummel, she tried various parts of his body, ducking his own blows and sparring as best as she could. There wasn't a single inch that was vulnerable. Correction -- there wasn't anywhere vulnerable on him. She was plenty vulnerable, as she discovered when he knocked her clear into the next wall.

Owwwwwwww.....

Jessica slugged yet another member of the Indian Special Forces in the face. His nose broke under her fist, but she was hardly concerned. She whirled around, her ponytail following her movement, and her eyes quickly took in Rogue several yards away. Her skunk striped mentor was apparently fighting something akin to jello or a pillow. A large, grey, ugly pillow. There didn't seem to be much that Rogue could do against an opponent like that and, if Jess was being honest with herself, there probably wasn't much that she could do either. Still, that didn't mean she was going to stand back and watch Rogue get hurt. Not a fucking chance in hell. She ignored the peppering of bullets into her side as she launched herself through the air toward Rogue's opponent. She made it about half way before a man in one of the odd, garish uniforms sort of...bounced their way into her path. Jessica poured on the speed, willing her body to move faster. Her clothes groaned under the pressure of the wind, but Jessica didn't give two shits. She was going to pick this mother fucker up and drop him...hard.

Jessica's trajectory was changed suddenly as a heavy weight ricocheted off of her side. She twisted to try and identify it, but a second impact slammed into her back. She finally caught sight of a man hurtling away from her before hitting the wall and coming back at her even faster.

It had seemed almost manageable, for a moment... and then all hell had truly broken loose. A half-dozen - no, seven Imperial Guard members, neatly outnumbering them and quickly exhausting what little fresh energy they had left. Ororo raised herself above the battlefield for a moment, assessing her people, looking for weaknesses--

"Logan! Behind you!"

He whirled around to see a guy in a weird ass suit staring right at him with his arms raised. He charged, hoping to get to him before whatever shit he had planned could be set off. Who the hell was this guy? The suit reminded him of Magneto and bullets weren't coming anywhere near him. Electron's arms dropped and energy slammed into Logan before he could form another thought. It sent him howling to the floor.

Every muscle was spasming, his bones were on fire, and any thought of coordinated movement was out. Logan felt like he was being cooked from the inside out. He couldn't tell if the stench of burning flesh was just in his mind or not. This was getting old. What was the universe trying to say by throwing two different electricity mutants at him within such a short time frame?

Khaincha doubled up on his blast, electricity running across the metal panels of his suit and coalescing through his hands into arcing it into Logan.

As she watched her teammate twisting on the floor, Storm channelled her anger, drawing charge from the air around her and revelling in the crackle that ran over her skin. This was going to be satisfying.

Wade had just ducked another concussive blast that'd taken a pretty massive chunk out of the wall behind him and brought down part of the ceiling. Rolling free of the debris, he took aim at an ISF soldier and pulled the trigger only to find himself blasted across the floor, his shot all kinds of interrupted. "Goddammit," he grunted, picking himself up off the ground. Somebody was up high. They had a good view of the fight and they were making sure he couldn't minimize the ISF's movements. It was really fucking irritating.

From his momentary hiding place, Wade took a breath and prepared to move - only to stall when every single hair on his body stood on end. He glanced upward just as the charge abruptly disappeared and caught sight of Storm. Unable to help himself, he grinned. "This is gonna be good," he muttered, then turned his attention back to finding the asshole who kept pummeling him with concussive blasts.

For a second, Khaincha seemed to glow as the energy that he was channeling doubled in intensity and then doubled again. The panels of his uniform started to glow white hot and with a sound akin to a clap of thunder, he disappeared in a flash of light, his body flung back at high speed to crash into the ground and slide along for several feet, leaving him smoking and insensible.

Getting back to her feet was the easy part -- what was hard was staying on them. Every time Rogue punched Quake or threw something at him, his sand either absorbed it or her hand got caught. Neither were very beneficial for her cause.

Out of desperation, she slipped off her gloves. Blocking his attacks with her arms, and trying to duck around the sand, she finally managed to get a hand on him. And instantly felt nothing. The same sand and silica matter which were causing her problems with her blows were prohibiting her from absorbing his powers.

"Aw, fuck me," she said, narrowly flying away from a full frontal sand attack. "In another life, I bet we could've been friends."

Callisto had been shoulder height with her opponent when she'd first approached, but the figure she was now squaring off against was as tall as the room would allow, towering over her. A massive fist swung for her - she could feel the rush of air that accompanied it and knew she didn't much want to feel that punch first-hand.

Ducking and diving it was, then. Fast and low, Callisto pulled out her long-knives, and got to work, circling around - a slice here, a cut there as Titan took repeated swings at her. The guy was tough, her cuts barely making an impact, but they'd add up, and sooner or later he'd give her the opening she needed to get somewhere vital.

Logan gave a two fingered salute to Storm in thanks as he dragged himself up into a sitting position. His body was still giving small uncontrollable jerks. He shook his head and tossed a baleful glare at Electron's limp body. Fucker deserved every single moment of Storm's attack. He spat to clear the metallic taste of blood from his mouth.

He staggered to his feet and turned to rejoin the fray when a noise so loud and so piercing dropped him to the floor again. He clutched at his ears and writhed. He felt the blood on his hands and pretty much knew his eardrums had burst.

A few yards away, Callisto was caught by the edge of the cone of sound that had hit Logan. Her hearing wasn't as sensitive as his, nor was the blast targeted in her direction, but the noise was enough to disorient her nevertheless, and in the moment of distraction Titan caught her with a long, swinging backhand, the momentum of which was enough to send her flying.

Logan's healing factor was becoming a problem because the noise was constant. He felt it vibrating in his bones without let up. His ears would heal then burst again and repeat. Blood covered the sides of his face and trailed down his neck as he pulled himself into a crouch just to be slammed into the wall behind him by a red skinned blur.

Jessica grunted as the man collided with her face. Her head snapped back painfully and she was thrown off course and hurtled into the ground. Her face planted in the dirt, but she was unharmed as she got to her feet. Mud streaked her face and the strands of hair closest to her face, and a raging inferno was ignited behind her eyes. She flew upwards, her hands clenching into fists as she stared at the man.

"You seriously picked the wrong fucking woman to piss off. I hope you understand English, because I'm saying 'fuck you,' and 'fuck all the way off.'" Jessica growled. Something in her snapped and she let out a battle cry, loud and shrill, as she rocketed toward the man at an incredible speed.

"Hey everybody," Wade muttered to himself, peeking around the edge of the downed wall he'd taken refuge behind. "This is our handbasket - first stop Limbo, twelve minutes and counting. Last stop hell, no tickets needed, no refunds available." Logan looked like a nightmare version of Carrie with sideburns, Jessica and Rogue seemed to be alright-ish, Storm was up above and Callisto was still wrecking havoc amongst the few ISF guys still standing. That left the rest of the Guard and Wade finally caught sight of the guy tossing concussive blasts around like they were going out of style.

He had to duck and scramble before he could do more than note the man's position, though, as another blast of concussive energy slammed into the crumbling wall in front of him. Not good. This was definitely not good. He poked his head up again, feeling like a goddamn meerkat for all the good the short bursts of sight were doing him. "Fuck it," Wade muttered, pushing himself up and vaulting over the wall to attempt a shot at the red guy slamming into Logan. Didn't work - another concussive blast caught him mid air and sent him head over heels.

Rogue had tried everything and yet she still hadn't successfully landed a single punch. It was infuriating, frustrating and painful since her enemy couldn't say the same. "Storm!," she called out, hoping the other woman could hear her. "I could use a little help here!"

A localised tornado wasn't the easiest thing to conjure but Ororo worked to do so nonetheless, gathering a tight funnel of wind and directing it down to engulf Rogue's foe as he charged her once again. He gave a shout as the winds began to tear at his armour, the hungry torrents ripping it from him faster than he could form it back again.

Rogue only had a few seconds before she lost her minimal advantage. Seizing the moment, she stripped her hand of her glove and placed it against his arm.

He was much stronger than she thought, and soon had forcibly pushed her away. Ten seconds was all she'd needed though, as she now tried to acquaint herself to the new powers. Able to have a slight command of his sand pushed this fight from hopelessly doomed to one on an even level. That hope gave Rogue the means to keep on going. Coating her fist with his own silica matter allowed her to punch with an added strength.

Jessica cursed, her vision even more crimson as she hit the ground once more. Her body ached, invulnerability or not. Her head swam and she looked up to see the member of the Imperial Guard grinning at her. She cursed and coughed, looking around with bleary eyes. Fuck, she needed help.