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xp_logs2015-01-20 11:56 pm
x-gambit.livejournal.com) wrote in xp_logs2015-01-20 11:56 pm
The Dark Phoenix - Log 14
A group of the semi-invulnerables move in phalanx, facing a shredding TK storm
The X-Men had gotten through Dark Phoenix's guard several times, only to be viciously beaten back in each incident. Her telekinetic powers had been centred and now waves of energy, racing with the same fire as the firebird emitted from her. Where they touched the ruins of the mansion, brick and stone was shredded into dust. The closer they moved to her, the thinner and sharper the telekinetic assault hit, like a million tiny knives in the air.
"Fucking hell...." Logan didn't know what else they could throw at her. It was the Phoenix in full form and their strongest players had already gone up against her and failed. He held his arm up over his face to blunt some of the continual shredding of his skin and his eyes. He was going to be useless if he couldn't see. "Anybody got any bright ideas?"
"Might be able to blunt the attack enough to get us a ways to her," Marius offered. "Problem is, I'm not used to telekinesis for more than a short burst here and there. I can turn what hits me into a shield, but it's not likely to be a good one."
"So we move in sequence. My skin will adapt to an extent, you shield as long as you can, and Wade can see how his healing factor can survive a good scouring. If we can get Logan close enough, he's the one thing that we know can penetrate any last ditch psionic armor she might have and put the bitch down."
"Sure," Wade said, checking his tac vest again even though he knew it wouldn't do him much good. TKs were cheaters, so far as he was concerned, and it was more than likely that one or all of them were going to die going up against this one - and like so many others, their deaths would mean nothing. But it was throw in here and now or turn tail and deal with the imminent destruction of the world tomorrow. Might as well go ahead and get it over with. "It'll be fun. Form up."
"Never thought I'd be grateful for adamantium to put down one of our own," Logan muttered as he fell into place behind Wade. It didn't sit right with him letting them take the brunt of the onslaught especially since he had the strongest possibility of actually making it out of this alive. But they couldn't risk the Dark Phoenix figuring out what was going on. They needed this to work or none of them were surviving.
Despite his talk, Marius quickly discovered that countering the shield was easier said than done. The pressure he'd felt during his first attempt had doubled, even tripled; even his mutation's reflexive counter couldn't entirely offset it. It was like walking into a wave. Teeth clenched, Marius concentrated on the energy he was absorbing and pushed it outward into a shield.
The barrier was narrow and misshapen; Wade's elbow extended too far to one side and was immediately scoured of its protective clothing, while a swath of fabric on Garrison's shoulder and thigh shredded to bare his omni-skin. With each step the shield thinned, slowly worn away by the relentless sleet of energy.
Then, mere yards from their goal, it collapsed.
Their only warning was a grunt. Then Marius collapsed, and the full force of the telekinetic sleet was upon them.
Kane stepped over Marius, blocking the worst of the onslaught. Fortunately for him, the random hits by the telekinetic assault had primed his skin and now while it hurt, it failed to make a mark. They pushed forward as a group, like three men walking into a violent wind, moving slowly to keep from being blown over.
They were getting closer to her, but the power of the onslaught was intensifying. Kane had to shield his eyes, gritting his teeth with each step as the pressure grew greater and greater. Around them, brick and wood were pulverized in the radius of the woman; ground down into sand that they forced their way through.
Dark Phoenix hadn't seen them, hadn't spared them a look. Was it obliviousness or a lack of concern due to arrogance. Kane couldn't tell. His body was now glowing red and each step was exponentially more painful than the last. A few feet away, he sunk to his knees, burying his hands in the sand.
"I can't-" He gasped. "I can't go further."
Wade had been partially sheltered behind Kane after Marius went down but as soon as the Mountie fell the entirety of the telekinetic sandblaster hit him full-on and he barely made it two steps more. His body armor was gone, a few metal plates hanging by threads from his shoulders, his skin literally worn away where exposed - and pretty much everything was exposed. Things would have been worse if not for his healing factor, but gimpy as it was, all he could do was stay on his feet in front of Logan while his friend prepped himself to cross the final bit of space to the Dark Phoenix.
Enough was enough. Time for Logan to do what he did best. He stepped out around Wade, grunting as the full force of the telekinetic sandstorm hit him. His hair was immediately gone along with the X-Men uniform that had been fairly whole up until this point. His skin was next as he grit his teeth and staggered slow step by slow step closer. His healing factor kept him from being stripped to sinew and bone but barely. They weren't nearly close enough.
Logan started howling as his steps halted with the Dark Phoenix just within his reach. He struggled to lift his arm, claws extended, and unbearable levels of pain shooting through him. This was it. He put everything he had into shoving his arm through the telekinetic pressure. Muscle fibers were being stripped away faster than they could be healed and every inch closer scoured away more until Logan's arm looked like a caricature. The rest of the world fell away until it was nothing but pain and the strength of will to force his claws that much closer. Closer, closer until he was that last inch away from plunging his claws into the Dark Phoenix's back and ending this.
It was difficult for the Dark Phoenix NOT to be able to tell that the brutish, hairy oaf was headed her way due to all the screaming. Subtle. She remembered this one, time and time again. He was usually one of the last to go, mainly due to his sheer, annoying tenacity, and his healing factor. The same one that made the area smell like blood and viscera. He always seemed like he had a death wish. Perhaps that was the case.
But she was always too happy to oblige.
The Dark Phoenix turned slowly, freezing him in place as she considered the meat and bone and metal that was left of his arm, close enough to pierce her skin. But so painfully falling short.
"Bored now."
With a simple turn of her head, she took hold of his mind. Logan's arm started to move, until his claws were positioned right in front of his face. She smiled, giving him only a moment to ponder the repercussions of this before his claws launched forward.
The ease with which their last ditch effort to salvage anything of their lives and their world had fallen apart sent a wave of hot grief and anger through him. Useless, pointless, all those lives lost and he couldn't make them mean anything. Logan had come to terms with his own death and how he would always have to watch those he cared about die around him a long time ago.
His own death didn't scare him. In some ways he welcomed it. Maybe he would wake up in a better world because his healing factor hadn't failed him yet and if it did...then he wouldn't know what came after.
That didn't mean he'd thrown in the towel. He fought for control of his own damn body to no avail, straining against an immovable force. It was just like when Magneto had used his adamantium against him. It pissed him off even more. He wasn't going out fighting, which was all he figured he could ask for. Instead, he was going out helpless and useless.
Wade had closed his eyes, some of the TK shredder they were in blunted by Logan's movement in front of him - his eye lids had still been scoured raw, just like the rest of him, but he could hear every word the Dark Phoenix spoke. Bored now. Simple. Almost elegant, in its way. His eyes snapped open despite the pain - he was forced to hold one arm up in front of him, his blood flying out and around with the force of the telekinetic wind still whipping around them.
Logan stood suspended, his body moving like a well-controlled marionette - but a marionette nonetheless. The mercenary watched as the claws lunged forward, toward Logan's face, and sliced through the bloody mess of tattered skin and exposed muscle.
"You know, in Ancient Egypt, when mummifying the body they used to do this," the Dark Phoenix explained, sounding too close to their Jean for comfort in the way she lectured.
"Of course, the person was already dead but....I'd always wanted to try it. It was a fascinating procedure to watch." That part, however, was decidedly not.
The Dark Phoenix paused, her shoulders slumping in disappointment as she snapped her fingers. "Damn! I forgot it was a HOT poker," she said, tilting her head at Logan.
"You don't mind, do you? Ah well, better late than never." She whispered.
"We have to follow proper procedure."
The smell of cooking flesh and blood wafted outward along with bits of smoke as his skin began to sizzle around the singular claw. It had started to glow.
Wade had seen a lot in his life, but never something quite so grotesque as what was happening in front of him. Despite the fact that he could definitely see a white flash of bone on his forearm and the rest of him wasn't looking much better, despite the pain that blanketed him, the mercenary shoved himself forward into the bubble of echoing calm around the Dark Phoenix. He attempted a tackle, trying to force Logan's probably dead body out of Evil Jean's telekinetic grasp - and he failed.
One moment he'd been moving forward, almost upon them, the next Logan's free hand was up, claws extended... and Wade found himself skewered. Oddly, his healing factor seemed to be working better than usual - not that it mattered. He was pretty sure he'd be dead soon, anyway. Pointless.
They didn't see the chunk of concrete and because it wasn't aimed at Dark Phoenix, she lacked a telepathic fore-shadowing. The chunk hit Wade flush in the back, pitching him further forward on the claws but it also slammed Logan's body back in her telekinetic grip. Logan's adamantium skull smashed her in the face, splitting her lip and bloodying her nose.'
The mice had been busy while the cat was playing. And the Dark Phoenix had let her guard slip in her enjoyment. She would not make the same mistake again.
Wiping the blood away from her face oh so carefully, she narrowed her eyes. "Oh, Mr. Kane. You made a big mistake interrupting my fun," she said.
Whipping her two new puppets around, she tossed them out of the way like a piece of trash in the garbage. Their end stop was a nearby wrought iron fence as she turned to Garrison. A few of the metal spikes from the fence popped off, and she began to telekinetically toss them at him. One struck him in the leg, the other in his shoulder.
"You made me bleed. Seems only fair I should make you do the same."
The wrought iron fence broke beneath the combined weight of Logan, Wade, and the concrete block. Pieces of it disappeared almost instantly and Wade decided he didn't need or want to know where they'd gone. The whooshing sound seemed to indicate they were heading for Kane which meant he had a very, very limited amount of time to get Logan out of there. Oddly, he'd already regrown all the muscle on his forearm and his skin had basically completely healed where it'd been scoured away.
He decided not to question it as he pulled Logan up and over his shoulder, then pushed himself up so he could begin crawling away. The farther they got, the easier it was for him to move. He hoped Marius and Kane got out but he couldn't turn around to check.
Kane grabbed the spikes, pitting his strength against her telekinesis for a momentary standstill. All he had to do was keep her attention for a little while longer. He groaned as they pushed further into his body, but his skin was hardening around them, thwarting any followups.
The Dark Phoenix studied Garrison. "You ran out of hands," she said, quirking a smile.
"And I like to be symmetrical."
Three more spikes were ripped from the fence, and she flung them at Garrison's other shoulder and leg. The third was poised to go for his throat and actually stopped an inch short when it occurred to her that things were awfully quiet for there being so many people still alive.
In that instant something fast and dark slammed into Garrison like a truck. An opposing force burst against the Dark Phoenix's grip, and suddenly the Canadian was torn from the air.
Momentum carried them far from their assailant before terminating in an uncontrolled tangle of limbs and spikes that spun a few times before coming to a stop against a handy wall. It was his rescuer that spoke first.
"Apologies for . . . the perforation," Marius gasped. He lifted his head to reveal an ashen face, blood flowing from his nose and down his chest. He gestured vaguely towards the flame. "Had some trouble. Her power's a bit . . . hot."
"Don't worry about it. Skin stopped the worst." Kane said, slowly pulling out the spikes with a gasp. Despite the off-handed comment, he had nothing left to throw at her. However this battle was going to end, it would be decided without their help.
The X-Men had gotten through Dark Phoenix's guard several times, only to be viciously beaten back in each incident. Her telekinetic powers had been centred and now waves of energy, racing with the same fire as the firebird emitted from her. Where they touched the ruins of the mansion, brick and stone was shredded into dust. The closer they moved to her, the thinner and sharper the telekinetic assault hit, like a million tiny knives in the air.
"Fucking hell...." Logan didn't know what else they could throw at her. It was the Phoenix in full form and their strongest players had already gone up against her and failed. He held his arm up over his face to blunt some of the continual shredding of his skin and his eyes. He was going to be useless if he couldn't see. "Anybody got any bright ideas?"
"Might be able to blunt the attack enough to get us a ways to her," Marius offered. "Problem is, I'm not used to telekinesis for more than a short burst here and there. I can turn what hits me into a shield, but it's not likely to be a good one."
"So we move in sequence. My skin will adapt to an extent, you shield as long as you can, and Wade can see how his healing factor can survive a good scouring. If we can get Logan close enough, he's the one thing that we know can penetrate any last ditch psionic armor she might have and put the bitch down."
"Sure," Wade said, checking his tac vest again even though he knew it wouldn't do him much good. TKs were cheaters, so far as he was concerned, and it was more than likely that one or all of them were going to die going up against this one - and like so many others, their deaths would mean nothing. But it was throw in here and now or turn tail and deal with the imminent destruction of the world tomorrow. Might as well go ahead and get it over with. "It'll be fun. Form up."
"Never thought I'd be grateful for adamantium to put down one of our own," Logan muttered as he fell into place behind Wade. It didn't sit right with him letting them take the brunt of the onslaught especially since he had the strongest possibility of actually making it out of this alive. But they couldn't risk the Dark Phoenix figuring out what was going on. They needed this to work or none of them were surviving.
Despite his talk, Marius quickly discovered that countering the shield was easier said than done. The pressure he'd felt during his first attempt had doubled, even tripled; even his mutation's reflexive counter couldn't entirely offset it. It was like walking into a wave. Teeth clenched, Marius concentrated on the energy he was absorbing and pushed it outward into a shield.
The barrier was narrow and misshapen; Wade's elbow extended too far to one side and was immediately scoured of its protective clothing, while a swath of fabric on Garrison's shoulder and thigh shredded to bare his omni-skin. With each step the shield thinned, slowly worn away by the relentless sleet of energy.
Then, mere yards from their goal, it collapsed.
Their only warning was a grunt. Then Marius collapsed, and the full force of the telekinetic sleet was upon them.
Kane stepped over Marius, blocking the worst of the onslaught. Fortunately for him, the random hits by the telekinetic assault had primed his skin and now while it hurt, it failed to make a mark. They pushed forward as a group, like three men walking into a violent wind, moving slowly to keep from being blown over.
They were getting closer to her, but the power of the onslaught was intensifying. Kane had to shield his eyes, gritting his teeth with each step as the pressure grew greater and greater. Around them, brick and wood were pulverized in the radius of the woman; ground down into sand that they forced their way through.
Dark Phoenix hadn't seen them, hadn't spared them a look. Was it obliviousness or a lack of concern due to arrogance. Kane couldn't tell. His body was now glowing red and each step was exponentially more painful than the last. A few feet away, he sunk to his knees, burying his hands in the sand.
"I can't-" He gasped. "I can't go further."
Wade had been partially sheltered behind Kane after Marius went down but as soon as the Mountie fell the entirety of the telekinetic sandblaster hit him full-on and he barely made it two steps more. His body armor was gone, a few metal plates hanging by threads from his shoulders, his skin literally worn away where exposed - and pretty much everything was exposed. Things would have been worse if not for his healing factor, but gimpy as it was, all he could do was stay on his feet in front of Logan while his friend prepped himself to cross the final bit of space to the Dark Phoenix.
Enough was enough. Time for Logan to do what he did best. He stepped out around Wade, grunting as the full force of the telekinetic sandstorm hit him. His hair was immediately gone along with the X-Men uniform that had been fairly whole up until this point. His skin was next as he grit his teeth and staggered slow step by slow step closer. His healing factor kept him from being stripped to sinew and bone but barely. They weren't nearly close enough.
Logan started howling as his steps halted with the Dark Phoenix just within his reach. He struggled to lift his arm, claws extended, and unbearable levels of pain shooting through him. This was it. He put everything he had into shoving his arm through the telekinetic pressure. Muscle fibers were being stripped away faster than they could be healed and every inch closer scoured away more until Logan's arm looked like a caricature. The rest of the world fell away until it was nothing but pain and the strength of will to force his claws that much closer. Closer, closer until he was that last inch away from plunging his claws into the Dark Phoenix's back and ending this.
It was difficult for the Dark Phoenix NOT to be able to tell that the brutish, hairy oaf was headed her way due to all the screaming. Subtle. She remembered this one, time and time again. He was usually one of the last to go, mainly due to his sheer, annoying tenacity, and his healing factor. The same one that made the area smell like blood and viscera. He always seemed like he had a death wish. Perhaps that was the case.
But she was always too happy to oblige.
The Dark Phoenix turned slowly, freezing him in place as she considered the meat and bone and metal that was left of his arm, close enough to pierce her skin. But so painfully falling short.
"Bored now."
With a simple turn of her head, she took hold of his mind. Logan's arm started to move, until his claws were positioned right in front of his face. She smiled, giving him only a moment to ponder the repercussions of this before his claws launched forward.
The ease with which their last ditch effort to salvage anything of their lives and their world had fallen apart sent a wave of hot grief and anger through him. Useless, pointless, all those lives lost and he couldn't make them mean anything. Logan had come to terms with his own death and how he would always have to watch those he cared about die around him a long time ago.
His own death didn't scare him. In some ways he welcomed it. Maybe he would wake up in a better world because his healing factor hadn't failed him yet and if it did...then he wouldn't know what came after.
That didn't mean he'd thrown in the towel. He fought for control of his own damn body to no avail, straining against an immovable force. It was just like when Magneto had used his adamantium against him. It pissed him off even more. He wasn't going out fighting, which was all he figured he could ask for. Instead, he was going out helpless and useless.
Wade had closed his eyes, some of the TK shredder they were in blunted by Logan's movement in front of him - his eye lids had still been scoured raw, just like the rest of him, but he could hear every word the Dark Phoenix spoke. Bored now. Simple. Almost elegant, in its way. His eyes snapped open despite the pain - he was forced to hold one arm up in front of him, his blood flying out and around with the force of the telekinetic wind still whipping around them.
Logan stood suspended, his body moving like a well-controlled marionette - but a marionette nonetheless. The mercenary watched as the claws lunged forward, toward Logan's face, and sliced through the bloody mess of tattered skin and exposed muscle.
"You know, in Ancient Egypt, when mummifying the body they used to do this," the Dark Phoenix explained, sounding too close to their Jean for comfort in the way she lectured.
"Of course, the person was already dead but....I'd always wanted to try it. It was a fascinating procedure to watch." That part, however, was decidedly not.
The Dark Phoenix paused, her shoulders slumping in disappointment as she snapped her fingers. "Damn! I forgot it was a HOT poker," she said, tilting her head at Logan.
"You don't mind, do you? Ah well, better late than never." She whispered.
"We have to follow proper procedure."
The smell of cooking flesh and blood wafted outward along with bits of smoke as his skin began to sizzle around the singular claw. It had started to glow.
Wade had seen a lot in his life, but never something quite so grotesque as what was happening in front of him. Despite the fact that he could definitely see a white flash of bone on his forearm and the rest of him wasn't looking much better, despite the pain that blanketed him, the mercenary shoved himself forward into the bubble of echoing calm around the Dark Phoenix. He attempted a tackle, trying to force Logan's probably dead body out of Evil Jean's telekinetic grasp - and he failed.
One moment he'd been moving forward, almost upon them, the next Logan's free hand was up, claws extended... and Wade found himself skewered. Oddly, his healing factor seemed to be working better than usual - not that it mattered. He was pretty sure he'd be dead soon, anyway. Pointless.
They didn't see the chunk of concrete and because it wasn't aimed at Dark Phoenix, she lacked a telepathic fore-shadowing. The chunk hit Wade flush in the back, pitching him further forward on the claws but it also slammed Logan's body back in her telekinetic grip. Logan's adamantium skull smashed her in the face, splitting her lip and bloodying her nose.'
The mice had been busy while the cat was playing. And the Dark Phoenix had let her guard slip in her enjoyment. She would not make the same mistake again.
Wiping the blood away from her face oh so carefully, she narrowed her eyes. "Oh, Mr. Kane. You made a big mistake interrupting my fun," she said.
Whipping her two new puppets around, she tossed them out of the way like a piece of trash in the garbage. Their end stop was a nearby wrought iron fence as she turned to Garrison. A few of the metal spikes from the fence popped off, and she began to telekinetically toss them at him. One struck him in the leg, the other in his shoulder.
"You made me bleed. Seems only fair I should make you do the same."
The wrought iron fence broke beneath the combined weight of Logan, Wade, and the concrete block. Pieces of it disappeared almost instantly and Wade decided he didn't need or want to know where they'd gone. The whooshing sound seemed to indicate they were heading for Kane which meant he had a very, very limited amount of time to get Logan out of there. Oddly, he'd already regrown all the muscle on his forearm and his skin had basically completely healed where it'd been scoured away.
He decided not to question it as he pulled Logan up and over his shoulder, then pushed himself up so he could begin crawling away. The farther they got, the easier it was for him to move. He hoped Marius and Kane got out but he couldn't turn around to check.
Kane grabbed the spikes, pitting his strength against her telekinesis for a momentary standstill. All he had to do was keep her attention for a little while longer. He groaned as they pushed further into his body, but his skin was hardening around them, thwarting any followups.
The Dark Phoenix studied Garrison. "You ran out of hands," she said, quirking a smile.
"And I like to be symmetrical."
Three more spikes were ripped from the fence, and she flung them at Garrison's other shoulder and leg. The third was poised to go for his throat and actually stopped an inch short when it occurred to her that things were awfully quiet for there being so many people still alive.
In that instant something fast and dark slammed into Garrison like a truck. An opposing force burst against the Dark Phoenix's grip, and suddenly the Canadian was torn from the air.
Momentum carried them far from their assailant before terminating in an uncontrolled tangle of limbs and spikes that spun a few times before coming to a stop against a handy wall. It was his rescuer that spoke first.
"Apologies for . . . the perforation," Marius gasped. He lifted his head to reveal an ashen face, blood flowing from his nose and down his chest. He gestured vaguely towards the flame. "Had some trouble. Her power's a bit . . . hot."
"Don't worry about it. Skin stopped the worst." Kane said, slowly pulling out the spikes with a gasp. Despite the off-handed comment, he had nothing left to throw at her. However this battle was going to end, it would be decided without their help.