The Caged Bird - Ambush

[xp-havok.livejournal.com]

Lorna goes to Alex's childhood home to confront Mystique. Unsurprisingly, the plan doesn't go quite the way it's supposed to.



Lorna hated how quiet the house seemed as she walked up to the front door. Truth was, she was terrified of what might happen when she walked through that door but the main priority was to make sure that Alex's family was alright. She looked over her shoulder knowing that somewhere next to her Sue was hiding before forcing the door open with her powers. "Hello? Kara? Allison?" She called out as she walked slowly into the house, ready for an attack with the metal balls swirling around her hands.

Sue had her forcefield pulled in so tight against herself that she felt she could almost feel the light bending around her. The house, where Lorna said her mysterious fiance and his mothers lived was utterly silent, not a companionable silence of people doing their own thing but something all together more malevolent. The house felt cold, abandoned and unused. The young woman fell a pace or two behind Lorna, silently following in her wake - if someone were to attack her teammate Sue wanted to be in a position to deal with them while Lorna kept hold of their attention.

"Now!"

Without any further warning the stillness exploded into chaos; the attack came from all around them, decisive and well-coordinated. Resolving out of the shadows came a blue figure, sauntering towards the dark-haired girl with a predatory look on her face. Lorna knew her immediately.

Of course, Lorna had very little time to process this as a too fast, too large, and too strong brute restrained her from behind with a precision that belied his size. Despite his superior positioning, the brunette man's grip was delicate; cage-like and restricting but not crushing.

A thick Hungarian accent spelled out a simple ultimatum for his former teammate: "Do not move. Do not breathe."

The older Russian mutant crackled with energy as he faced off the rest of the team, eyeing the other mutants. He was eager to fight, and hoped that one of them would make a stupid, heroic move to try and rescue their friend.

"Or don’t. Please try to fight.."

"Oh yes..." The black clothed figure that slinked from the shadows hissed out. "Yes, fight monsters, become monsters. It is inevitable." The shadows followed him, clinging to his ankles and wrists as he crept closer. "When you fall into the Abyss, I will bring you home to daddy."

"Don't breathe? I could say the same to you...when was the last you brushed your teeth?" Lorna hissed as she was held in a tight embrace. Yes, she was provoking the large man. She glared at Mystique but Lorna already knew this was going to happen. "Abyss... scary as usual I see. Looks like I am teleporting out of here. I am one lucky girl." That was for Sue, telling her to grab on.

Holding her breath Sue stretched out her hand, her forehead burrowed in concentration as she slowing dissipated the forcefield over her palm, reaching out to seize a hold of Lorna. If any of hte goon were to look too closely then they would notice Lorna's top seemed scrunched up oddly, but without more information on how this teleport worked Sue couldn't take the risk that her forcefield would dissipate the energy used to teleport them to, well wherever it was they were going. All part of the adventure.

If Abyss' eyes hadn't been pools of the deepest black, his eye-roll at Lorna would have been far more cutting.

He stretched out an arm, and shadows pooled off his fingers and around the group, sucking the light from the room and pulling everyone down into a puddle of disembodied night.

"Fuck, Nimrod, did you get fat in the last half hour? Nimrod, son of Ham isn't supposed to be literal."

The minute Lorna was grabbed, it was all Rogue could do to not charge in afterwards. Sue was there. It was Sue's job to protect Lorna, although judging from the rest of the team's faces, the others were also struggling.

Fuck it. "Sue's got Lorna's top, see the crinkle? Arthur, you and Bobbi distract them. Jess and I will deal with the big ugly one," Rogue said, pointing to Abyss.

And then the whole thing went to hell. The second the blackhole started to appear, Rogue's eyes widened. "Get Lorna!"

The X-People charged. It was not majestic nor grand — more a mad fumble as surveillance vans are not really made for speedy anything. Arthur, perhaps luckier than most in gaining his footing, tumbled out the door and across the lawn. It was graceful but not subtle, and he had managed to produce a knife from somewhere as he landed poised to pounce.

There was a swell of darkness from the front of the house, and suddenly their teammates were gone. There was no one to save.

Arthur, puffing, was not smiling for once. "Where did they go?"

Jessica, not nearly as graceful as Arthur on her best days, had tumbled out of the van and into the air. She'd watched as the tide of blackness had swelled and then receded, and her spirits fell.

"Damn!" She swore as she lowered herself to Arthur's side. "They must have teleported. Maybe we can make contact with the others so they can give us a location. Bobbi, want to give that a shot?" Jessica asked.

"On it," Bobbi replied, attempting to track down Sue via her cell phone in one hand while holding both her battle staves in the other. She kept an eye out just in case, then frowned at the results of her search, holding out her own device for the others to see. "Huh."

Rogue massaged her temples for a moment, before sighing heavily. Just one time she'd like things to make sense. "Alright. We still gotta find Alex's parents. I'm gonna check upstairs, Arthur, do a perimeter check, Bobbi and Jess.....downstairs and garage."

Without waiting for an answer, she carefully floated up the stairs. Although they hadn't heard any noises, Rogue had learned ‎the hard way to never assume.

She did a cursory check and when she found nothing, she landed and frowned. "Well if that don't beat all‎." Kicking a random object, she sighed and was about to leave when she heard something muffled. "Hello? Alex's moms? We're here to help..."

The noises increased in intensity and ‎when she opened the closet door, she sighed in relief. "Hold on, Ah'll getcha out of here. Guys!," she called out. "Get the first aid kit! Ah got them!". Reaching forward, she gently undid their gags. "Are y'all okay? Ah'm Rogue and Ah swear, Ah'm with the good guys."

Allison blinked furiously against the sudden bright light, struggling against the ropes that still kept her trapped. It took a few moments before she could speak, the gag having made everything bone dry. "Alex! Where is my son? Is he okay? Do you have him too?" She asked frantically.

Rogue tried her best to undo the ropes, as Allison's movements were starting to tighten them. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a swiss army knife. "Jus' one sec," she muttered, cutting both sets of ropes and releasing them‎. "Um, right Alex. We don't got him...yet, but we're workin' on it," she added quickly, noting the chafe marks on the wrists. "First things first, we gotta make sure y'all are okay. Where's that first aid kit?!"

"Bathroom cabinet," Kara replied, gasping as her bonds were cut. "We're fine. We need to make sure Alex is, too!"

"I've got it, Rogue." Jessica stated as she entered the room, the white box between her hands. "Let's get you ladies cleaned up." She added calmly to the two women

Rogue gave Jessica a smile. "Thanks, sugar."‎. Opening up the box, she started to sort the materials. Disinfectant, polysporin, bandages...."Ah know it's probably the last thing ya wanna do, but could ya tell me what happened?"

"I am not sure... I thought Alex was home, but it wasn't him..." Allison explained frantically. "It was some kind of blue woman!!! Please tell me you know where Alex is?"

"What's happened to our son?" Kara agreed, trying to stay calm and calm her wife, but failing miserably. "We should call the police!"

"Deep breaths," Rogue responded with. Trying her best to speak calmly and carefully. "Ah wanna assure you all ‎that we are better than the police, okay? We are on top o' this, and there really ain't no better team." Rogue caught Jessica's eye and nodded.

"Now my friend Jess here, her and her team are gonna get you ladies safe and away from here. Get you some medical attention. All Ah need from y'all is to stand up, alright? And Ah promise, when we learn somethin' bout your boy, we'll tell ya. Now, give me your hand," she finished extending a gloved hand. "First step is always the hardest."

Allison accepted her hand and rose slowly. "Wait... before you leave... The blue woman, she was trying to find information on Lorna Dane, Alex’s fiancee..." That last bit of information given, she leaned into her wife and let Jessica guide them outside.