X-Men Mission: Repent Harlequin, Said The Tick-Tock Man - log 2

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

The X-Men split into two teams; a group to assault the roof and shutdown the main power, while a smaller team works there way up through the floors already controlled.



The emergency elevator ground to a halt a half story below their destination. Exiting into the shaft showed that the bizarre clockwork mechanisms had infested this far down. Garrison held the cords of the elevator and pulled them up as they cleared through the metal over the tracks, allowing them to finally force the doors open at the seventh floor from the top.

Opening the doors revealed a bizarre sight. The floor had been overwhelmed by technology; pipes and complex gearing ran every which way, punctuated by gouts of flame and the hissing of steam. The air was heavy and humid, already making them sweat as they stepped into the strange environment.

Jean's skin felt sticky underneath her full body uniform, and she unzipped her collar down a little more to get some more airflow, her footsteps masked by the mechanical workings and steam. The amount of heat in the area would easily risk heat exhaustion if they weren't careful. That is, if they weren't burned to death or crushed first.

Sometimes she really wished she could turn off her medical knowledge.

"Well, okay," Jean said, wiping away a bead of sweat as it dripped down her forehead. It felt like a Alice in Wonderland/Steampunk pyrotechnic-fueled nightmare.

"Looks like we need to find a way through that doesn't involve incineration. Any ideas?"

"Well, the obvious way is to phase ourselves through." Kitty frowned. "But that assumes I don't break my concentration."

It was hard enough to concentrate with the sweat rolling down her back and plastering her uniform to her skin. Kitty licked a bead of sweat off her upper lip and squinted. Her eyes drifted to a pipe and she winced as steam hissed off the lip. "Or maybe we just channel our inner Mario Brothers. I call Luigi."

Jean smirked. "I guess that makes me Mario. Now all we need are the coins and mushrooms," she said. She craned her neck, glancing past Kitty.

"How long can you use your powers to phase someone else with you? I could use my telepathy to try to help you focus and we could disable the traps along the way so everyone else can get across."

"Five minutes, max. And...I don't know if I'd want to trust that." Kitty bit her lip. "But I'd try... How fire-resistant do you think our uniforms are?" She managed a weak smile, trying to avoid the thoughts that were flitting through her mind. Jean unphased the moment they walked through a pillar of flame or worse still, half-phased as they touched down through a floor...

The question made Jean unconsciously glance down at her uniform. She glanced back up, then smiled. "We won't need to find out because we've totally got this," she said. The alternative was X-Women Flambe, and she didn't particularly think that 3rd degree burns were a good look for them.

"And I don't think we have any other choice, if that's helpful?"

She surveyed the hallway, letting out a deep breath. "Alright. When I give the signal, we take off running. You phase, I destroy. When you start to lose your concentration I'll keep you in check. When we get to the end of the hall we do a celebratory high five and optional victory dance. Sound good?"

Kitty nodded. Talking might be a way to soothe her nerves but she wasn't sure it would help her concentration.

You can do this, she thought and took Jean by the hand. For a moment, she could feel the warmth of the other woman's hand but then, as she focused, the warmth slipped away and there was nothing to feel than the slight curve of fingers. Kitty moved slowly in spite of the phase, wincing as a jet of flame burst in front of her but managing to keep them both safely phased.

A drop of sweat beaded on her forehead and she blew a strand of hair away from her eyes, saying, "Let's keep moving around these things. Don't trust the phase. Just... in case."

Jean moved with Kitty, doing a bit of multi-tasking as she kept her mind's eye on her friend, and her real eyes on the contraptions. The first plume of fire had dissipated, and Jean could see where the fire was coming out. So she crushed the spigot, enough to where the fire had nothing to pour out of.

"Good plan."

A sudden noise, followed by a hiss echoed through the room. Directly in front of them, the hallway suddenly filled with what looked like a thick fog. It seemed limited to a certain area, but one thing was for sure: it was scalding.

The surprise caught Kitty off guard and she stilled, going off phase just long enough to feel the heat singe her hair. Snapping back into phase, she drug them both back and looked at Jean.

"A fog." She felt her stomach dropping still as she said the words. "I don't know if that could fuck with my intangibility." Kitty glanced up. "There's gotta be something powering these traps. Some control switch....some panel..."

She pointed to a ridge in the ceiling overhead. "Think that means anything?"

Jean seemed distracted. She didn't say anything in reply at first, her face sullen, with a slow burn of anger flickering across it as she stared at something on the ground.

There was a body. A woman. It was hard to tell what age she was, but her clothes -- a simple work dress in a bright floral print-- suggested young, maybe their age, maybe less. Her skin, boiled and peeling, looked like it had been nearly melted off by the steam. She lay curled up into a ball on the ground, as if doing so would protect her somehow. Wisps of wet, honey-blonde hair peeked out from behind her covered face. She wore a ring shaped like a star on her pinky finger, and an engagement ring.

"Hmm?" Jean said, glancing over to Kitty, then up toward where she had been looking.

"What?"

Don't look. Kitty nudged Jean and pointed above. "Do you think there's some sort of control anywhere?"

Jean finally returned her focus, studying the area Kitty was pointing at. "Probably. Unless he's a technopath. Still, there should be some sort of hub," she said.

She rubbed her forehead. "I really want to make sure this guy gets what's coming to him."

Eying the ridge in the ceiling, Jean reached out telekinetically, then gently started to remove what appeared to be a hatch.

"Can you short out the tech by phasing through it?" She remembered the time Kitty accidentally overloaded her sister's computer the time she phased through the wall when Kitty visited their house.

"I can but I'll need to let go." She looked at Jean, than at the room that surrounded them.

Jean blinked. "Of me? Oh.That would be bad," she said, then let out a breath.

"Plan B....try to figure out what button goes to what? Or Plan C? Smash it to hell telekinetically?"

She was really not anticipating having to navigate a room made of fire and steam with her best friend today.

"C. Unless..." Kitty paused, glancing down at the bodies that were scattered around them. "You can't shield yourself, can you?" Even a few seconds would give her the time she needed.

Jean's memory flashed back to Ryker's Island, and the battle she and Clarice had against Scorcher. It definitely required a shield, but it was only short bursts of flame, not like this. Good thing it was steam, making it more dense. "Yeah. How long do you need?" she said.

"I.... thirty seconds. Can you hold out that long?"

Silent a moment, Jean hesitated, but finally nodded. "Yeah," she said, letting out a breath. Her powers were already strained, but they had to do what they needed to. The team was counting on them.

"Just say when."

Kitty took a deep breath. "When."

She released Jean, feeling them both go tangible for just a moment. Sweat beaded up on her palms instantly, trickling through her fingers and dripping down on the floor.

Focus, Pryde. Focus.

Her body took over and she slipped into phase, her head tingling and her stomach dropping. Feet stumbling through the air, she ran toward the panel, fighting the urge to look back down.

The steam washed over the telekinetic shield, the dense air curling around the bubble like a cloud of death. Jean had her hands in the air, like she were surrendering, except her fingers were curled slightly, as if she were holding something up...and she was.

She could feel the heat on the other side of the bubble like the world's shittiest sauna, her lip curled, teeth gritted, brows furrowed in deep concentration as she kept the steam back. The sweat was drenching her skin now, her hair wet with it.

There was a mantra that helped her concentrate, a string of words that she whispered under her breath as she waited for Kitty to give the word.

"You guys alright up there? We can't see shit through this goddamned steam." Kane called out ahead of them.

"Oh, yeah, it's a fucking blast," Kitty muttered just before she punched through the panel.

A shower of sparks flew from overhead, startling her enough to go solid. She gasped as floods of steam and heat choked her but before she could take another breath, the air hissed out of the room.

"Shadowcat!" Jean shouted reflexively. The remaining steam lingered, but without it being continually pumped out it had started to dissipate. Jean took the opportunity to hurry things along and telekinetically forced the rest of it back into the vents she could see. She put her hand on Kitty's back.

"You okay?"

"Fine." She took a breath. "Are we clear?"

Jean turned to scan the rest of the hallway. The steam was starting to clear, like a fog lifting, and she could see the outline of a door a few yards away. She brushed her sweat-slickened hair back.

"Yeah. I think so."

"Alright then." Kitty smiled as she saw the door, then grinned and turned to Garrison with a slight bow. "After you."

"Why am I feeling like this is some kind of awful video game and we just cleared level one?" Kane said, bracing against the door and popping it off of its hinges. There was a metal stairwell that led up and the air seemed even hotter. "And why do I have to be right?"

"Because now we can be sure that we'll be stuck in said video game. Since you said it." Sooraya commented as she filed past Garrison, her face twisting a little as little droplets popped up on her forehead. "Though this feels if it might be X-men flambe instead."

"Look on the bright side," Julian smirked, wishing that Tandy was there for entirely new reasons- if this was a video game, she'd be invaluable. "Maybe the next level will be a water-world."