xp_logs | Something Slender This Way Comes

The rescuees find their rescuers. And finally everyone can go home.

The kids breaking out of the bubble they were in and back into the "main" world sent a bit of a ripple through Topaz (whether it was magic or emotion or something else, she really had no idea), and she jerked around just in time to see the group of bedraggled teens appear. "Jesus Christ," she hissed, blasting another Slenderman, looking to make sure the portal back to Earth was still stable, and raising her voice to yell, "Oi! Everybody out, now!"

Nica could not remember being so tired before, and her glow was weak and flickering. But her head jerked up. "Did you hear something?" she asked the others. "A voice? With a British accent?"

"Dude you heard it too?" asked Bobby, still looking at his hands before looking up at the sound of the voice. "Oh hey, I think we're supposed to go over there, maybe?" There was a portal and a familiar face fighting off Slenderman, so that's what he assumed at any rate and he headed toward it, blasting ice at any Slendermen he could target on the way.

Rogue looked in Bobby's general direction and gave a sigh of relief. A shower was calling her, and frankly, it was pretty damn tempting to go before anyone else, but nope. Damn adulthood.

"Spider-guy," she called out, heading towards the portal. "Rally the troops and get the heck out of dodge. I'll make sure no one gets through that shouldn't."

"Aye aye, X-Lady," Miles replied, mildly startled to see such a large group of rescuers, but he saluted Rogue before turning around to make sure everyone had followed out of the bubble to the larger and, to be honest, more terrifying landscape of the Askew World proper. He counted all of his Generation X peers plus Ganke and his three new friends and then gave the X-Man a thumbs up. "We're all out."

"Thank God," Jean said, carefully studying the group as they came out for bumps and bruises. This was one of the stranger missions she had been on, especially with the inclusion of magic. She didn't know how Amanda did it all the time. Perhaps it was just a matter of getting used to.

"Is everyone alright?"

The group separated and Rahne hesitantly stepped forward. She caught Jean's eyes and tried to project who she was because she knew she was nearly unrecognizable. As gently as she could, she shrugged Maya off her shoulders and laid her with only a tiny little thump when she ended up on the floor. Remaining in a crouch next to Maya, she stared up at the large group of adults and tried to talk, "I want ... to go home."

Logan couldn't be happier to be out of that grey place. The buzzing in his head was already clearing up. He shook it once and winced. Bad idea. He took stock of the group clumping together around him and it looked like just about all the kids they were sent to get had made it back out. Kids from the mansion. Just like always. Kids living at the mansion would always have trouble find them.

"Another fun day in the life of X," Clarice remarked dryly, going to assist Jean now that the fighting was over. Job was never done when you went from fighting to fixing injuries. "Kids did good."

"Another day in the life? You mean this kind of thing happens all the time?" Stephen queried, "All of a sudden I'm a little worried."

"Does it matter Steve? We are out. Free." Clea took a deep breath in. "The magic is still heavy and I would do anything for a cheeseburger with large fries and a large milk shake. And perhaps a good nights sleep to forget about what just happened."

Amara hadn't powered down out of her flame form as yet, and despite the retreat, she held onto it as she kept moving. The sooner she was out of here and everyone was safe, the better.

A burst of flame sizzled a skeletal shadow creeping around the edge of portal. "Exit now, talk later, please," Haller said mildly. His eyes darted to the side and another unlucky Slenderman crushed beneath an invisible fist, like a magnified version of stomping a daddy long-legs.

Alison came next, now that Rahne had slipped out. She had been acting as a rear vanguard for her group, but it seemed that was well covered at this point. The din of two dozen people, all talking and fighting and quipping and happy to go home, was more than enough to keep her current flowing. She let the light spark between her fingers, occasionally turning a blasting a slenderman with the point of a finger.

She knew tomorrow was going to suck, but she had to do this. It was her fault that Rahne and Tabby were even here to begin with, and if a few days of exhaustion and sore arms were to be here penance, she'd take it with a smile. Right now, she was floating on that euphoric cloud of adrenaline again. She felt like she was gliding as she walked to the exit. "You heard the man, Tabby" she grinned. "Exit, stage left." And she was gone too.

Tabs snorted with humor. "You are ridiculous, Blaire." She tossed her bombs to the ground with a small puff before she dove after her friend.

Sooraya dove between two approaching Slendermen, pausing a moment to turn them into tiny bits to cover their retreats. Seeing all the students had left, she hovered next to the portal, waiting for her fellow X-men to head through.

"Tell me someone has been counting?" Kane called over the din. He was still in the heaviest side of the fighting, retreating slowly and steadily to keep the mob trying to flank them at bay. "Kurt, I'm going to push back and make a little room here! Call out when all the kids are clear and I'll follow you out."

Kurt was standing between the Slendermen and the way out, counting off each youngster as they passed through, and fully intending to be the last but one out.

"Noted, Dominion. Try not to die."

Jean-Phillipe was covering one side of the retreat, sending sizzling bolts of electricity at anything that popped up that looked like a Slenderman. He was going to shower for approximately a day to get the stink off. Well, only if he could manage to eat at the same time to replenish the large amount of reserves he had burned through. "That is not entirely reassuring advice, Nightcrawler," he observed dryly.

Meanwhile, Megan, slightly apart from most of the others, continued to stab stray Slendermen with her Soul Dagger. She just couldn't seem to stop, even though the kids were safe and it was time to go home. But the dagger in her hand proved that she could never go back to the way things were, before her own extra-dimensional experience years prior. She'd always be tainted with demon magic. Finally, the glow faded from the blade and she flitted over to the portal, eyes cast down.

"Hey, Stabby McStabberson," Billy called to Megan. "We can't hold this thing forever." He looked over to Topaz, catching her attention before he ducked through. "I'll do what I can to help keep this thing stable from back home. See you on the other side!"

Topaz threw out a hand in front of her, forming a shield between herself and as many of the Slendermen as she could. The ones who couldn't be blocked were blasted, and damn it she could already feel the burn of a migraine behind her eyes. She was going to regret this later.

"Kids are out, everyone is safe, time to get the hell home!!" She called to the stragglers, backing slowly toward the portal she, Billy, and Megan had been keeping open. She waited for the stragglers to get out in front of her, eyes still locked on the suited, faceless men on the other side of her invisible wall. Once everyone else was out she dropped the shield and dove through the portal, which crumpled like paper as it closed, leaving the twisted, demented world void of human life once more.