xp_logs | The Dark Phoenix

The X-Men start trying to dig out the survivors

The injured X-Men pushed through the rubble half blocking the rear exit of the shelter. Above them, the mansion was in ruins; roof gone, half the walls collapsed and a cloud of debris caught up in a telekinetically generated wind as further damage was wrought. Pushing through, they moved towards where they had seen the students get covered.

Kurt was limping badly, but pressing on with determination. "Wildchild? Can you smell out exactly where they are?"

Kyle bit off his irritated mutter and shook his head. "I can smell fire and shit, literally." Despite that, he rubbed at the raw unhealed places on his face and blew his nose on his t-shirt, leaving a bloody streak across his sleeve. "Maybe. Maybe I might. Might be Hope." He'd sniffed her out before and there was something every so slightly faintly floral and citrus and expensive under the rank smell of death.

~And may that be the only time I’m ever mistaken for Hope,~ Emma sent to Doug. She could only risk a few seconds at most of changing back to flesh, trapped as she was under so much rubble, and her link with Doug was the easiest option. ~About three feet to your right,~ she managed before switching back to diamond as she felt her lungs begin to lose the fight to re-expand under the sheer weight pressing her down.

Doug shook his head. "Not Hope. Emma." He could see how Kyle's nose might mistake the two - high society probably smelled the same under rubble and fire and excrement, he thought to himself with a half-smile. Humor was where you could find it at times like these. He pressed forward, grabbing small pieces of rubble to fling them aside, digging toward where he knew Emma was from her voice in his head. Thankfully, there wasn't anything large enough that he, Kurt, and Kyle couldn't handle together.

Fearpanicdangerdangerrunalarmgriefanger-

Outwardly, Topaz's entire body was rigged - a response to the current mess that was her mind. A sizable piece of debris had hit her on the way down, leaving a gash in its wake and shorting out her shields, leaving her vulnerable to everyone in the vicinity. Lost as she was in the whirlwind, she didn't realize she was projecting, feeding into the people closest to her. At least she had enough sense not to try and snuff out everybody's emotions.

Panicsadnessconfusionfurymakeitstop-

"Anyone there?" Hope just managed to move around a little, popping up on her arms so she could look around. That was about all she could do in the tiny cubbyhole she was in in the rubble. "Topaz? Sue? Meggan!" She cried out, a slight panic in her voice growing. No one seemed to hear her and she could not quite pull herself back together to ghost out...

Johnny had been sheltered from the debris, nothing hitting him but he was pinned. He pinned. There was enough space for him to move, the door that had sheltered him had left him that much but only a few inches to each side. Carpet underneath, covered in rubble, what was left of a wall to one side and the door over top of him.

He couldn't get out and the roof had collapsed and it wasn't stable because his danger sense was still going and it was going to collapse and there were still enemies out there and they were all going to die and he couldn't move he couldn't move he couldn't move he couldn't move he couldn't move. His arms were underneath him and he thrust himself up three inches against the door, over and over again, crying. He couldn't move he couldn't move.

Kyle's hands were bleeding from the sharp edges of doorframes and rubble and he still kept digging, until the sharpness biting into his fingers wasn't wood or metal, but pure diamond - he left smears on Emma's arms as he pulled pieces of the mansion off her to give her room to tear herself an opening to get free.

Kurt was quickly at his side, grabbing a particularly heavy piece of rubble that was lying across Emma's chest and drawing on all his strength to teleport it away.

“Thank you, Kurt,” said Emma, smiling warmly at her rescuers. With the largest piece of rubble gone, she could use diamond hands to sweep away enough to pull herself out of the remaining, smaller pile. Once she’d extricated herself, she switched back to flesh and was immediately assaulted by the shouting hum of garbled words that were flooding from Topaz’s mind, the overwhelming sense of panic that she was feeding out to the others. With a quiet curse, Emma reached out with her mind to the empath, diving into the fear and pain effortlessly. Their powers were not the same, but Emma had had enough experience with empaths to be able to locate the source of Topaz’s terror easily. With a deft tweak, she turned down Topaz’s pain centres, reducing it to a duller ache, controllable, ignorable. Then, ignoring everything around her, death and pain and blood and endings, Emma spilled warmth and kindness and reassurance out of her mind into Topaz’s, a flood of gentleness that slowed the panicked words spilling out of Topaz, quietening them, making them smaller and slower until finally they were small enough to be kept within the boundaries of Topaz’s mind.

The last thing these kids needed was to get burned after being pulled out of the rubble which was where John came in handy. He focused on putting out the fire and getting rid of any electrical sparks; minimizing the risk of an explosion and creating a temporary safe zone for the group as they continued their rescue efforts.

Angel was leaning against a wall she'd managed to find that wasn't completely crumbling, trying to keep as much pressure off her broken leg as possible. As John started containing the fire she pushed herself up to help, starting with getting as close as she could to the biggest part of the flame and creating a barrier around it with a flame shield. She pulled the shield in, making the flames smaller and smaller until they snuffed out.

Getting the firebugs out was an easy task once they could all turn their efforts to it, and Doug turned his head toward another heap of rubble that started to move with someone under it. He grabbed and flung once again, efficient motions that let him almost blank out his mind from thinking about everything else. "Oh, hey, maybe I owe you an apology, Kyle," he said with a dry chuckle as he noticed who he'd helped out.

Hope shook her head as the debris was cleared away from her and she moved gingerly, pushing some minor debris remains of herself. Pushing herself up, she gratefully accepted Doug's hand he offered and moving slowly she rose to her feet. "Thank you." She muttered softly. "Have... have you found everyone else?" Hope rose in her eyes when she spotted Topaz and Johnny nearby and she let out a small sigh of relief.

At the sight of Hope climbing out of the rubble, Cecilia exhaled a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. A quick glance at Emma confirmed that diamonds were, indeed, quite hardy, so she turned her attention to the three teenagers they'd just unearthed. "Okay," she said, suddenly all business. As she moved toward Hope, she reached into her bag and pulled out a penlight and a few bandages. "Let's see how you kids are doing."

A cloud of sand suddenly shot out from between the rubble and Sooraya quickly assumed her form, relief in her eyes as she saw the tree teens and Emma. "You found some of them! That is good. No one is over there..." She gestured at the section she had just explored. "I will continue on there." Silently hoping she would not find any of the children buried there...