Operation: Mutant of the Seas 22

[xp-changeling.livejournal.com]

The rest of X-Force starts the evacuation as they leave the ship and the passengers to their own devices



"Say again?” Kevin held his hand against his earpiece to listen more intently. “Wait, our target is the fucking power plant? That doesn’t- yeah. Yeah, we can do that.” He straightened up and grabbed one of the junior officers that they’d corralled. The man’s white trousers had been thoroughly soiled at the sight of armed men.

“You must have procedures for a general evacuation? Well, get them started with the crew. All of them; entertainers, entertainment-“ His voice turned nasty on the last one. “I want them moving to the lifeboats.”

“We’re supposed to clear the passengers first-“

“You get the crew first, or no one gets off this ship.” Kevin looked at the others. “They’re going to blow the power plant. We need to get the crew and mutates off the ship first.”

"So much for women and children first," Dom quipped, reholstering her gun for the time being. She was pretty sure just the sight of it would be enough to motivate any stragglers, and she wanted to have her hands free for strategic grabbing and shoving. Orders in place, she headed for the nearest uniformed crew; Kevin and the others could see her gesturing towards the nearest exit, making a no doubt cogent and well-formed argument as to why they should relocate to the lifeboats.

"Can I point out," Gabriel looked around, trying to surmise where he was most useful, "that I bet Titanic in the pool before we even got on this damn boat?" He shook his head a bit too rapidly, prompting a return of the mild nausea he'd been shaking since they left port. He closed his eyes for a second until the queasiness subsided. "Just want to point that out. I definitely win." He dashed over to a group of crew members standing idly and began darting around them, effectively nudging them toward lifeboats.

Wanda was yelling and gesturing, switching languages every few sentences. One tried to sneak past her for whatever reason but she shot out a hand, snagged his jacket and forcefully turned him around. She snapped at him in Russian and, cowed, he headed for the boats. "Luckily," she said over her shoulder, "we appear to be intimidating enough to be doing the trick."

Terrifying people in order to save their lives. Just another day on the job.

"Hey! You!" A heavy man hustled up to Kevin, trying to intimidate him with his bulk. "What's happening with this ship! I demand to know!"

"The ship is being evacuated. The power plant is going to go critical."

He blanched at the news. "Well I- well then, escort us to our life boat."

"That's not going to happen."

"Excuse me?"

"The innocent members of the crew and the 'entertainment' that was brought on is being evacuated first. After that, you and your fellow passengers can work out an agreement to fill the remaining lifeboats. There's plenty, so as long as you work together, there shouldn't be any problem getting you all off the ship in time." Kevin said, a nasty edge to his voice.

"Unless you prefer to swim?" Wanda's soft suggestion came over the man's shoulder and when he turned to look at her, she was holding out a hand. "I can certainly assist you with that."

He looked at her, back to Kevin and then left as quickly as he'd come through. "Shame, I was looking forward to throwing someone overboard." Wanda made sure the man heard her comment and she grinned.

"You know, you guys are kind of assholes," Gabriel appeared rather suddenly next to Wanda, the heavy man's wallet in his hand. He opened it, alternating between rifling through the billfold and looking at them. "Here." He pulled out 13 bucks and tossed the wallet to Kevin. "Nowhere I go will take hundreds, and nobody will believe I could ever own a black card." He looked between the two of them again, and his general bravado turned into surprising earnestness. "We're not seriously letting all these people die, right?"

"There's plenty of room in the boats if they don't mind getting cozy with one another," Dom pointed out, eyeing the wallet with interest. A black card could come in rather handy... "So if any of them do die it's their own fault really. Hey!" She snagged the arm of a woman rushing past her back into the ship. "This isn't a drill. Forget your stuff and get in the damn boat."

The crew and staff, even if complicit, where still largely innocent of the depravity of the passengers, and formed largely orderly queues to the first wave of life boats, taking off and travelling a safe distance from the ship. Kevin wasn't much of a sailor, his experience mostly confined to the calmer waters of Chesapeake Bay. Still, even he could tell that the looming wall of black clouds on the way was trouble.

"Gabriel, Cammie, get the mutates down into the boat North brought. I think we're going to need to get out of here in a hurry." He said before turning to the crowd of worried, angry or simply shocked wealthy passengers. "On either side of this lobby are the accessways to the remaining life boats. If you leave your possessions and wait for each boat to fill before launching, there's plenty of room for everyone. An Icelandic naval vessel has already been notified and sea rescue resources are deploying. The rest is up to you."

He had to admit, it was with a certain amount of satisfaction as he watched chaos descend. They kicked and fought, trampling over each other to reach the boats. Most of them were launching half full, as fights ensued for space.

"Well, I think that should be cue." Wanda stepped away from the crowd, checking to make sure her people were clear of the chaos behind them. "We need to be on our way, the faster the better, to get the others and get the hell out of here."

"Best idea I've heard all day," Domino said, wincing as a man in an impeccable suit elbowed a young man in a polo shirt in the neck in his haste to make it to the boats. "C'mon, anybody wanting to avoid getting stepped on can follow me," she announced and then took off, trusting her luck would help her make it through the crowds unscathed.

It took all five of them to manhandle the mutates into the boat. The conditions were going to be cramped but livable. Kevin gunned the motor and brought the boat around the bow and towards the stern access that the rest of X-Force had just opened. There, they loaded the remaining mutates and their colleagues. Sydney surrendered the con to North as they arranged themselves on deck and below. The former staff had moved their lifeboats into a professional huddle, while the others drifted amok in the ocean. Incredibly, some of the staff boats were collecting passengers from the water and forcing them into half full boats. They turned the nose of their boat west and had just accelerated to top speed when the explosion tore the rear out of the cruise ship. Life boats scurried away as the ship's aft section began to fill heavily with water. In less than ten minutes, the ship slid under into the cold Atlantic waters, disappearing as the coming storm washed over the area. Their radar had already picked up the naval vessels moving in, prepping their search and rescue resources to bring in the crew and the passengers as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, even buffeted by the storm, X-Force's boat sped west, thirty uncomfortably damp hours between them and land. Most were below deck to avoid the rain and the wind. North and Jubilee were in the forward con, making as much direct progress away from the wreck site as they could. Only Emma stayed in the open deck to the aft of the ship, watching the horizon behind them. Kevin stepped up from below decks, a rain jacket in hand. He passed it over to Emma without a word.

"He knew what we were doing. Before the end," she said, without taking her eyes from where the Emperor had disappeared beyond the horizon. "He knew that he wasn't going to be alive for very much longer. He was," she closed her eyes and the slightest pained grimace crossed her face, "so grateful. So very grateful." She glanced at Kevin for a moment. "I stayed with him until the end. Took the pain away. All that I could anyway. Some of it was his to keep." She paused for a moment and her voice was suddenly breathy with unshed tears. "He has two children. He remembered their faces before the end. He couldn't remember their names. They were buried too deeply when they ran the mutate process on him. We tried to remember their names, before he died, but I couldn't find them in time." She pulled the jacket tight around her shoulders. "I would like to be alone, Kevin. Please."

Kevin nodded. “A hard choice, Frost. Just- a hard choice. Just stay wrapped up." He started back down the stairs, obviously considering saying more but stopping himself. "Don’t want to catch a cold."