xp_logs | The Trial of Jean Grey

The final group makes it to the LZ, several falling along the way. Clarice is wounded and unleashes a massive powers flare, buying them enough time to get clear.

The Guardsmen fell back under the furious assault, buying the team a moment to breathe as they regrouped. The first group had already retreated back to the landing zone that Blink had established at the extent of her range. Now it was them serving as the rear guard, falling back slowly and keeping the Guard from reaching the rest of the team as Blink teleported them back to the Blackbird. Remy pulled them to a temporary halt as the teams came together, watching the Guard rally and looking at the distance they still had to travel.

It was a cold equation. There were many Guardsmen, too many ISF soldiers, and too much firepower coming their way to retreat as a group without being picked off one by one. As Storm dropped down beside him, he took a second to mutter to her. "Dis is not going our way."

"We have given too much ground," she agreed, keen eyes assessing the state of their foes and finding them all too intact. Her group - both groups - had fought well but it came down to being outnumbered and overpowered. "We do not have the time we need to ensure everyone's safe evacuation. They will advance and as our numbers dwindle, so will our ability to hold them off."

"Only way dat I see getting most of dem out is if someone stays behind long enough to delay dem from advancing. But whoever it is stays here, one way or 'nother." Remy said, meeting her gaze.

"I would not ask anyone to do a task I would not do myself," she told him. "These are our people - we must ensure their safety."

"I guess dat answers dat." Remy gave a look over the battlefield. "You ready for dis, chere?"

"In truth? No, but that has never been a reason to refrain from doing what we must."

Remy turned to the others. "Wolverine, Rogue... get dem to de landing zone. We going to buy you some time."

Rogue gave a salute to Gambit before nodding towards Wolverine. He could get the ones out closest to the exit. With her flight, she could zip in and out easily enough, and avoid whatever ongoing attacks there were.

So much had happened and so much was still happening.

Logan nodded at Gambit. This wasn't the time for heroics. They'd been lucky to get as much time as they had. Blink's continual reports of who'd been evacuated were a reassuring presence in his ear. Now they just had to finish the job. He prowled a wide perimeter around their exit, prepared to dispatch anything and anyone that got too close.

"Mutants coming," Callisto said, still gathering together her knives from various places around the corridor, wiping them on her legs and returning them to her holsters. "A lot of them. We'd better fall back."

Jessica's vision swam, the corridor bending and twisting strangely around her. A bit of blood trickled down from her nose and her entire body felt as though it were on fire. Whoever the fuck that Gladiator bastard was, he hit like a fucking tank. She knew her breaths were coming in strange, uneven pants and she was trying to quiet herself. The group had enough to worry about without her distracting them. She'd be fine, eventually. If they made it out of here. "P-point me at what to hit. I-I think I could carry someone, if they need it." She wheezed. It was still a bit difficult to draw in breath and her lungs burned painfully.

"Sorry, chickadee, but you're the first one goin' home." There was no way Rogue could leave her girl when she was so bashed up.

The exit looked so far away, and even though she knew Logan could get her there in time, there was nothing wrong with speeding things up.

She punched and kicked her way through the wall, leading a path to the surface. "This'll be faster, Wolverine."

Scooping Jessica up, there was little resistance even though the girl obviously didn't want to go. Placing her at the new entrance, Rogue scanned to see who was next.

A blond head of hair appeared out from the battle-strewn rubble, and Arthur was doing much the same as Callisto, except that he was taking longer to look at the blades. The man had been serving as best as he could in a first aid capacity, but now he, or, well, his luck, was effectively acting as a shield between the ISF assault and their retreat. It was dreadfully boring being shot at, but Longshot's eye was shining like a beacon. Anything shot their way went wide. This gave excellent cover for Rogue as she steadily zipped in and out of her improvised hole and Wolverine's cover against any sad soul the Guard voted had to try to go in on foot.

One lift, two lifts. There was movement on the Guard’s Side.

Arthur blinked, running a hand through his hair. That couldn't be right. He squinted back at the enemy's fortified position, and his stomach dropped hard. "Hey, anyone," his voice was shaky, "Yeah. Tell me we got everyone out. They're getting creative."

"Creative isn't going to be favorable for us right now," Wade said, voice oddly detached. He turned to look over the entirety of the group, eyes settling on Callisto. "Thing One, get Scorpion here up to Rogue for evac transport, then you go. Try not to get too much of her blood on you. I'll hang out down here with Wolverine until we're sure everybody's through. Rogue, come back and pick me up next, then Longshot - Wolverine can use his claws to climb if he needs to." Then he turned away from Remy and Ororo because he was pretty sure he knew what they were doing and it was never an easy thing to watch.

Those who had come to rescue Jean — their teammates, their friends — had fled far enough to create a pocket of space between them and the approaching enemy. A space that needed filled, though nothing could fill the emptiness that came with such a stark and final resolution.

With a deep breath Ororo spread her arms, calling upon the last shreds of moisture in the air. Slowly, too slowly, it began to coalesce, gathering around her and Remy, shrouding them in a thick fog that for a moment obscured them from sight.

"Guess dis de last chance to disappear to a new life in Europe." Remy said, but took her hand anyway. The rising fog started to take on a pinkish hue as it rose from them, crackling slightly from the kinetic energy that Remy was pumping into each of the water droplets of the fog.

"You know I would go anywhere in the world for you, mpenzi," came the reply; it was hard to see her through the fog but he could feel her hand in his, warm and reassuring. "Where shall it be this time? Prague? Zermatt?"

"Always been partial to Venice." Remy said with a smile. His skin began to tingle as energy flowed between Ororo and him through their hands. They were both grounded, acting as a conduit for the power that was starting to flow through them. The hue of the cloud was starting to brighten and deepen in colour as more energy was pushed into it. "Tell you what, Stormy. All de time we been together, Remy wouldn't trade a moment of it for all de world."

The electric shiver that ran through her at his words had nothing to do with the static she was pulling from the atmosphere and everything to do with how he still made her feel with just the touch of his hand and a few simple words. "Nor would I. You are the best man I know, Remy LeBeau," she said, the wind carrying the words straight to his ears. "Loving you has been so very easy."

"Loving you been de most terrifying thing dat I've ever done. And de best by far." Electricity started to leap between the tiny water particles as the lightning and static electricity combined to make the now vast cloud hum and throb with energy. Dacoit shouted for an assault, and the nearest Guardsmen plunged into the cloud along with dozens of IDF.

The most terrifying thing I've ever done. And the best by far. Until now.

All it took was letting go.

The tiny water molecules had been fueled with the same kinetic energy as a car crash, each one suspended in a static web of constantly churning lightning. When the static web stopped, all of them unleashed with the same fury. Hundreds of billions droplets turned into unharnessed pure power, whipsawing through the cloud. There was only the sound of thunder from the explosion, as the flash ended and the atmosphere crashed in. The Guardsmen and IDF who had entered the cloud, and the earth around had been atomized by the raw energy. And of the pair in the very middle, there remained no sign.

Back at the safe zone secured near Rogue's tunnel, Cammie had been handed off to Callisto, the fight more or less knocked out of her. Everything was going wrong, but that was life. It didn't mean she had to accept it though. Right now she wasn't even really processing what was going on.

"They're okay, right?" she asked, no swearing, no preamble. She knew the answer, but the question fell from her lips again, "They're okay?"

Callisto pulled Cammie closer in her arms so that the younger woman couldn't see her bright eyes. Remy had almost destroyed her once - or Gambit had. And Ororo... she'd known Ororo before she'd met any of these people, before Garrison, before Vanessa - even before Sarah. She'd felt Ororo's blood on her knuckles - hell, the kid had cut her face open and left her half-blind for weeks. And yet here she was, her ruined face hot and her vision blurred as she made for the exit. She tried not to grip Cammie too tightly as she strode through the wreckage, reached the bottom of the pile of rubble that led up to the hole Rogue had made, the other mutant waiting above them to collect them. She could still smell the ozone from here.

"Yeh," she said. "They're okay."

And she began to climb.

Rogue watched from below as Callisto carried Cammie out, making sure that they got to the top. Clarice would know what to do and since Callisto seemed okay, she decided to find someone else.

She heard Cammie ask if they were okay, and she'd seen the tenseness in Callisto's body. Strange.

Back into the tunnel, she saw Wade with Logan, beginning to fight the ISF soldiers beginning to come at them through a haze of dust and debris. She mentally counted to see how many trips she had left, and her heart stopped. Remy and Ro.

She turned and caught Wade's eyes and she suddenly found it hard to breathe. "Right." She nodded. "Your turn, sugar."

Getting him to the top was easy enough with the ISF ‎fighting Logan and Arthur. Once she got to the top, she turned to Clarice as Wade hopped through the available portal. "Got Wolverine and Longshot still ta get. Remy and 'Ro..." Rogue shook her head. "Jus' a few more portals, Blink. Keep goin' strong, girl."

That was easier said than done, "I'm fucking tired of pronouncing time of death!" Clarice snapped back, though it wasn't Rogue's fault. She was going to be signing an awful lot of death certificates later. Too many. Too many funerals....she needed to not think about that right now, there were too many other things to focus on.

Just a couple more trips, a couple more trips, Rogue chanted to herself. Soon they could leave this godawful place with whatever little sanity they had left.

It was all the distraction the Imperial Guard needed though as Black Light and White Noise rounded the corner of a building and focused their powers on her, realizing that taking Blink out would cripple the X-Men team. The combination of pitch blackness and sound so powerful she thought her ears might burst all but crippled her as she shot her portals out randomly, as many as she could generate. She'd never made so many at once before, she wasn't even sure where they all ended, a thought she did not want to think about either. Flashes of laser lights were even more disorienting as Nightside joined the attack.

The lights were blinding as Rogue dove down.

Once below, it was down to Logan and Arthur. Nice first mission, Rogue thought to herself as she beckoned to Longshot. Looking to Logan, she asked, "You can follow me up, right? Should be solid enough for ya to climb." Their last line of defense. ‎One man. She shook her head at the thought.

Logan shot her a grin. "Why you worryin' 'bout me all of a sudden? You know I can take care of myself. Don't worry, I'll find a way up. Get Arthur outta here before it gets even worse." He was breathing heavy as he darted from one position to another, ending the lives of one Guardsmen after another. Bodies littered the ground and yet they still kept coming.

"Might wanna close your eyes," Rogue muttered to Arthur. She could see remnants lighting up the sky. Squinting against the brightness, Rogue landed near Clarice. There were portals all around, where before there was only one.

Rogue was hesitant to choose one but Clarice seemed to have reached her limit. Speaking softly, she tried to calm Clarice. "Jus' us two and Logan left. And you. Only a few more, sugar. It's almost done."

Logan cut as wide a swath of clear area as he could before he retreated for the exit. He really wished he had a smoke grenade right then. It would've bought him and the rest of the team a little more time. As it was it took a mere few minutes of cautious probing before the ISF overran his last position.

He ran full tilt for the hole Rogue had made. Solid or not, it was going to be his only way out of this place. In what state of alive was the question. He slammed his claws into the cement and dirt for handholds and started climbing his way up. It wasn't narrow enough he could use the sides for additional leverage so Logan took what he could. Rebar and jagged boulders of concrete were used as footholds along with whatever he punched into the crumbling dirt.

A grimace etched his face even as finally levered himself out over the top of the hole amid a shower of bullets. They'd lost two more. Remy and Ororo buying them time to retreat and it still wasn't enough. Logan expected to see one portal waiting for him but the dozens flickering in and out of existence didn't make things easy. He ran for the first stable one he spotted and dove through with a muttered curse.

Falling to her knees, Clarice screamed, a portals opening around her like a lens flare, criss-crossing each other. She had no idea where they led to right now, it was just a matter of ending this, of destroying what was killing them. To think that she had faced nuclear warheads, the Fury, madmen and been to outer space and this might be what killed her. Her own portals. But she was going to end this.

Arthur stepped forward hesitantly. Rogue's hand was still on his arm, comforting. He turned to her and placed a reassuring grip over her own gloved one. "We can't just leave her. We have to snap her out of it." There was a purple flash before the other woman could respond. A portal had appeared and closed over her in an eyeblink, leaving Longshot alone. He gulped, pulling himself back, and things quickly went from confusing to worse.

The portals, pulsing randomly in and out over the Landing zone, began to move.

Moving was perhaps a generous term, but Arthur had little time to fathom if the woman's mind was opening and closing portals so quickly that they appeared to dance across the landscape or if they were actually moving. The portals hungrily consumed any projected Darkforce blasts as to create a laser latticework around Clarice as she sat silhouetted in purple against Nightshade's screen of darkness.

Longshot didn't think. He reacted.

A front tuck into a three hundred and sixty slide flip was followed by a spinning cartwheel, and years of gymnastics training assured that he slipped past the lasers to be close to Clarice. He moved in time with the eclipsing portals at a maddening beat. Stop. Pause. Flatten. He swept down into a crouch, legs wide. "Blink! Sto—"

A roll saved him from the encroaching web, but swept Arthur right into the open mouth of a waiting portal. For the briefest instant Longshot sat suspended at the top of Mount Everest before he pushed back against a cliff-face and pivoted into a wall run as to reorient himself back to India, but away from Blink. That taught him a few things.

Light played against his daggers as Longshot's floor routine took him in and out of portals, changes in temperature from being taken across the world only an afterthought, as he closed the distance once again. It was blind luck that he didn't wind up stranded, but Arthur had always been lucky.

He finally landed not three feet from the quivering, rage-fueled Clarice. A moment hung as she sat, consumed by her own emotions, before Arthur lightly flicked her on the nose. He smiled. "Let's go home."

The portals shut off as quickly as they started and Clarice stared at Longshot for a moment disoriented. "Home?" she murmured, half falling into his arms. Home was good, she thought, opening one more portal. They could go home.