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xp_logsThey reach the floor below the hostages, but have a final challenge to face.
According to the plans they received, this way the floor directly below the one was where the hostages were being held. They had already deactivated four levels. Succeeding here would give the X-Men an opening to move in and take out the EMP generator, allowing both teams to reach Verde.
However, it still left them a level to finish, and as they entered, it was clear that it would be no easy task. Rotating paths led away, into the centre of the floor, as large hammers and pressure drivers marked intricate sequences designed to injure and kill people trying to follow them.
If Jean looked annoyed, that was probably because she was.
"Wow, another death-trap created to murder us. I never would've guessed," she deadpanned. She studied the paths, then turned to Kitty.
"Do you think you'd be able to short out the generator if we got you to it and helped you along by smashing the hell out of it?"
"I could try," Kitty said. She looked in Jean's eyes. But I've been phasing for a long time. Eventually I'm going to slip.
Jean was silent a moment, at least verbally. She nodded. ~I don't want to strain you. We'll find another way. But I think they'd understand if you told them. It's not a weakness to admit it. We're a team. We have each other's backs.~
"Eventually I'll slip," Kitty said, only managing half of what she meant to say. Fear rose up in the back of her throat. I spent so many years screwing things up. I can't screw up being a part of this.
She swallowed, then said, "I'll try. But a Plan B could get handy."
Jean put her hand on Kitty's arm unconsciously. "You've done an amazing job so far," she said, the words unconsciously spoken instead of thought, but she didn't regret it. Because it was true.
"Everyone has," she added, so Kitty wouldn't feel singled out.
"The moment you have a problem, let me know. Dust, perhaps you could help?" she said.
"I can get myself through. Maybe even block a few things." Sooraya replied after studying the various thudding objects. "But these things look even more powerful then the ones we saw before. I see very little chance of blocking of jamming something... Maybe I can trigger stuff, so you can disable it, but that is it."
"Let's get this done then," Julian interjected impatiently. He'd been on edge since they'd discovered who was behind all this, but couldn't get into the details due to Frankenberry-Cat rules. "The Doc and I can back you up, these things seem like they only go one way...I bet that if we encourage them to go another direction, they'd be disabled." He wished Doug was here, or even Tandy, as it seemed like a gamer's perfect challenge.
Jean smiled faintly. It was the best she could muster under the circumstances.
"I could definitely go for a little more wanton destruction," she said. She nodded.
"Alright...Dominion, are you okay with bringing up the rear? I know you're durable but I'd rather not mess up the uniform anymore than we have to."
"You got it, Doc. Be careful." Kane said, dropping back to support the rest of the team.
The plan worked perfectly, with Jean and Julian providing leverage and Garrison providing enough force to disable the last few piston-traps that lay in the team's way. The sound of wrenching metal, followed by the explosive impact of a working piston hitting the bent piston was deafening, the sound something that Julian would dread ever hearing again once the last piston was disabled. After that it was less than a minute until they entered a large chamber that looked completely normal, particularly when compared to the rest of the tower.
The roar of engines filled the room, and one of the walls parted to reveal a man-shaped figure, if you made the shape of a man out of Detroit steel and chrome, and it carried a muffler, swinging it like some kind of twelve foot tall automotive John Henry.
"Bill Ford brought in that upstart and ruined muscle cars. He put solar power in, for God's sake. What did it get us?" The man didn't answer his own question, he swung the muffler wildly, and with each swing, the walls crunched ahead and behind him. "The city in ruins, the end of the Thunderbird line and tens of thousands of people out of jobs!"
"Oh...kay," Julian's jaw had dropped slightly...of all the things he'd been expecting, this was certainly not it. Involuntarily he began to laugh, softly at first, then covering his mouth and moving to the back of the group. Had he hands, it would have appeared he was waving to the rest of his team in apology...instead, it appeared that he was pointing at the source of the humor. Finally, he got control of himself, but re-faced the villain with a smile on his face, "I'm okay...we doing this or what?"
"Yeeah... " Kane said slowly. He moved forward, blocking the man's way. Kane wasn't concerned about the muffler, shifting to parry it, intending to use it to pull the man off balance. Instead, the muffler hit him like a speeding truck. Garrison flew sideways and hit the wall with a sickening crack before sliding bonelessly to the floor.
Jean was not amused. She glanced over, brows furrowed with concern as Garrison struck the wall. But she could do nothing for him with the man still loose, ready to attack her as well should she try to help.
"You lost all my sympathy when you and your friends started murdering people," she said with a bright flare of anger in her voice.
She glanced to Julian. ~I can disarm him. See if you can find a way to slow him down. That suit's got to have a motorized system that can be mucked up. If we do it at the same time he'll be confused and won't know which way to go. Sound good?~
Julian nodded at Jean and readied himself, reaching he senses out into the suit itself. Inside was...intricate, but if the doctor was right all he'd have to do was start breaking things. Finding something that was in motion every time the chromed-asshat moved, Julian sent a quick thought of ~Ready~ into the air, hoping Jean would receive it.
The part was easy to grasp, and surprisingly it broke free of its fixture with minimal effort. With that out of the way, he began using it to break other things inside the machine.
The suit ground to a halt with a horrible crunching noise, and then collapsed, leaking oily smoke out of every plate and crack and grille. It shuddered, and then screeched as it went red with heat.
"You don't get bailed out that easily! This isn't the government! This is a real fight!" The tinny voice now came from the ceiling,
Then the collapsing pile of metal and chrome exploded, taking the ceiling down on top of them.
It was the boom that Jean caught first. She didn't have time to feel guilt for coming up with the idea (that'd be later), and instead focused instinctively on make sure the team didn't get crushed. Shouldering the burden, Jean let out a grunt as she used her TK to keep things steady.
"Everyone...start looking...for an exit," she said through gritted teeth.
"Ugh..." Kane shook his head. "We need to kill the power." The clearly dazed Canadian pulled himself to his feet.
Shifting the debris that he'd managed to catch, Julian looked up and spotted something that appeared to be a large generator. "On it!" he shouted to Kane, grimacing as he thought about how much this might hurt. Centering himself, gathering all the energy he had remaining, Julian sent a massive burst of telekinetic force upward, targeting the machine.
"NO, no no no no NO!" The speakers crackled and broke up the mechanical voice, but enough came through that it was clear - a full on tantrum as the wave of green force began to press against the generator. The metal screamed in protest as it ground against itself, and diesel fuel and oil dripped down on the team.
"Over here..." Sooraya called out. "It's a tight fit, but we can crawl under it." She was standing next to a strut that had collapsed, but a triangular space was visible next to it. "Shadowcat, Dominon... come on!!!"
He was moving much slower than normal as Kane limped over to the space. Sooraya was right. It was going to be a tight fit. He lay prone and started to wiggle under it. Several times, his uniform tore as he pulled himself through an almost too small space, but his omni-skin protected him from any real damage.
"OK, I'm through!"
Kitty was having trouble concentrating as every drip startled her and threatened to pull her out of phase. Her body was growing tired of the effort, her powers slipping in and out from sheer exhaustion. As she pushed toward the space, she became tangible and a drop of motor oil splashed down on her nose. Gasping suddenly, she phased, following Kane as swiftly as she could without a look back.
Julian stood rooted to the stop, still pushing against the machine which was proving more resistant than he had hoped. His reserves were beginning to drain, even more so when he noted he was one of the last ones out in the open. Knowing it wouldn't be possible to keep the pressure up, and move, he made the decision to stay. Resigned, and embittered by the many failures and losses he'd experienced as part of Kane's team, a sudden though sprang to mind and the lessons of the past came back to him. "Ugh...idiot," he said to himself, realizing he'd still been pushing up with his hands.
It had been his first teacher who taught him that the mind follows the body, but it wasn't necessary to use their types of powers. A lesson reinforced by an older Doctor Grey, and Sifu Paris. Drawing on his last ounce of energy, he shouted, "It's about to get very interesting in here!" and opened himself to the lines of force that filled the chamber, trying to feel them the way a blind man might try to find a light switch. Grasping onto what he could, Julian pressed upward against the engine with several more points of pressure, the metal beginning to crumple beneath his efforts. Against the far wall, he found a mostly intact piece of concrete and pulled with all his might, hoping to bring it over himself before the machine blew.
The metallic voice howled inarticulate rage through the speakers as his machines failed to crush the mutants. The screech of metal straining against invisible force was deafening. It pulsed with Julian's telekinetic force, screaming as the hydraulic presses in the ceiling fought against the young mutant's power and failed. The plates glowed in places, red-hot dimly visible through the green aura, and sparks flew where the friction was the greatest.
Sooraya waited anxiously for the two tk'ers. The small crawlspace behind her was groaning and creaking. "We have to go! Dominion and Shadowcat are already through." She called out hesitantly, not wanting to disturb their concentration.
"On our...way..." Jean said. She was slowly inching toward the crawlspace, waiting for Scion to make his was in before she brought up the rear. She felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland, without all the wonder.
Climbing out, she tripped and fell to her knees. Stray bits of debris around them gave a tremble in rhythm with a heartbeat, two heartbeats, before stopping. Her head continued to pound, and as she lifted her head, a stream of blood dripped down her nose, which she wiped away.
"Everyone okay?"
"I'm okay," Kitty said. "But--but J---you're bleeding..." Her eyes widened as she looked at the smear of blood on Jean's lower lip.
Jean glanced down at her glove, which was tinged red. She shook her head. "Oh...I'll be fine. Let's just focus on getting out of here." It'd been a long time since she'd had that happen before. It happened sometimes with over usage of psionic powers, like the equivalent of burning the candle at both ends. Push too hard too long and there were repercussions.
"Please tell me we're at the light at the end of the tunnel."
"Yeah, but I assume it means it's on fire." Kane said, snapped off the power to the generator. "Anyone see a way out?"
Moving his wrist-caps against his chest, Julian managed to brush the dust that had been kicked up off himself- which was immediately replaced by a mixture of dust and soot from the next chamber. With a sigh, "Unless you see a warp zone around here- I would wager the only way out is forward."
According to the plans they received, this way the floor directly below the one was where the hostages were being held. They had already deactivated four levels. Succeeding here would give the X-Men an opening to move in and take out the EMP generator, allowing both teams to reach Verde.
However, it still left them a level to finish, and as they entered, it was clear that it would be no easy task. Rotating paths led away, into the centre of the floor, as large hammers and pressure drivers marked intricate sequences designed to injure and kill people trying to follow them.
If Jean looked annoyed, that was probably because she was.
"Wow, another death-trap created to murder us. I never would've guessed," she deadpanned. She studied the paths, then turned to Kitty.
"Do you think you'd be able to short out the generator if we got you to it and helped you along by smashing the hell out of it?"
"I could try," Kitty said. She looked in Jean's eyes. But I've been phasing for a long time. Eventually I'm going to slip.
Jean was silent a moment, at least verbally. She nodded. ~I don't want to strain you. We'll find another way. But I think they'd understand if you told them. It's not a weakness to admit it. We're a team. We have each other's backs.~
"Eventually I'll slip," Kitty said, only managing half of what she meant to say. Fear rose up in the back of her throat. I spent so many years screwing things up. I can't screw up being a part of this.
She swallowed, then said, "I'll try. But a Plan B could get handy."
Jean put her hand on Kitty's arm unconsciously. "You've done an amazing job so far," she said, the words unconsciously spoken instead of thought, but she didn't regret it. Because it was true.
"Everyone has," she added, so Kitty wouldn't feel singled out.
"The moment you have a problem, let me know. Dust, perhaps you could help?" she said.
"I can get myself through. Maybe even block a few things." Sooraya replied after studying the various thudding objects. "But these things look even more powerful then the ones we saw before. I see very little chance of blocking of jamming something... Maybe I can trigger stuff, so you can disable it, but that is it."
"Let's get this done then," Julian interjected impatiently. He'd been on edge since they'd discovered who was behind all this, but couldn't get into the details due to Frankenberry-Cat rules. "The Doc and I can back you up, these things seem like they only go one way...I bet that if we encourage them to go another direction, they'd be disabled." He wished Doug was here, or even Tandy, as it seemed like a gamer's perfect challenge.
Jean smiled faintly. It was the best she could muster under the circumstances.
"I could definitely go for a little more wanton destruction," she said. She nodded.
"Alright...Dominion, are you okay with bringing up the rear? I know you're durable but I'd rather not mess up the uniform anymore than we have to."
"You got it, Doc. Be careful." Kane said, dropping back to support the rest of the team.
The plan worked perfectly, with Jean and Julian providing leverage and Garrison providing enough force to disable the last few piston-traps that lay in the team's way. The sound of wrenching metal, followed by the explosive impact of a working piston hitting the bent piston was deafening, the sound something that Julian would dread ever hearing again once the last piston was disabled. After that it was less than a minute until they entered a large chamber that looked completely normal, particularly when compared to the rest of the tower.
The roar of engines filled the room, and one of the walls parted to reveal a man-shaped figure, if you made the shape of a man out of Detroit steel and chrome, and it carried a muffler, swinging it like some kind of twelve foot tall automotive John Henry.
"Bill Ford brought in that upstart and ruined muscle cars. He put solar power in, for God's sake. What did it get us?" The man didn't answer his own question, he swung the muffler wildly, and with each swing, the walls crunched ahead and behind him. "The city in ruins, the end of the Thunderbird line and tens of thousands of people out of jobs!"
"Oh...kay," Julian's jaw had dropped slightly...of all the things he'd been expecting, this was certainly not it. Involuntarily he began to laugh, softly at first, then covering his mouth and moving to the back of the group. Had he hands, it would have appeared he was waving to the rest of his team in apology...instead, it appeared that he was pointing at the source of the humor. Finally, he got control of himself, but re-faced the villain with a smile on his face, "I'm okay...we doing this or what?"
"Yeeah... " Kane said slowly. He moved forward, blocking the man's way. Kane wasn't concerned about the muffler, shifting to parry it, intending to use it to pull the man off balance. Instead, the muffler hit him like a speeding truck. Garrison flew sideways and hit the wall with a sickening crack before sliding bonelessly to the floor.
Jean was not amused. She glanced over, brows furrowed with concern as Garrison struck the wall. But she could do nothing for him with the man still loose, ready to attack her as well should she try to help.
"You lost all my sympathy when you and your friends started murdering people," she said with a bright flare of anger in her voice.
She glanced to Julian. ~I can disarm him. See if you can find a way to slow him down. That suit's got to have a motorized system that can be mucked up. If we do it at the same time he'll be confused and won't know which way to go. Sound good?~
Julian nodded at Jean and readied himself, reaching he senses out into the suit itself. Inside was...intricate, but if the doctor was right all he'd have to do was start breaking things. Finding something that was in motion every time the chromed-asshat moved, Julian sent a quick thought of ~Ready~ into the air, hoping Jean would receive it.
The part was easy to grasp, and surprisingly it broke free of its fixture with minimal effort. With that out of the way, he began using it to break other things inside the machine.
The suit ground to a halt with a horrible crunching noise, and then collapsed, leaking oily smoke out of every plate and crack and grille. It shuddered, and then screeched as it went red with heat.
"You don't get bailed out that easily! This isn't the government! This is a real fight!" The tinny voice now came from the ceiling,
Then the collapsing pile of metal and chrome exploded, taking the ceiling down on top of them.
It was the boom that Jean caught first. She didn't have time to feel guilt for coming up with the idea (that'd be later), and instead focused instinctively on make sure the team didn't get crushed. Shouldering the burden, Jean let out a grunt as she used her TK to keep things steady.
"Everyone...start looking...for an exit," she said through gritted teeth.
"Ugh..." Kane shook his head. "We need to kill the power." The clearly dazed Canadian pulled himself to his feet.
Shifting the debris that he'd managed to catch, Julian looked up and spotted something that appeared to be a large generator. "On it!" he shouted to Kane, grimacing as he thought about how much this might hurt. Centering himself, gathering all the energy he had remaining, Julian sent a massive burst of telekinetic force upward, targeting the machine.
"NO, no no no no NO!" The speakers crackled and broke up the mechanical voice, but enough came through that it was clear - a full on tantrum as the wave of green force began to press against the generator. The metal screamed in protest as it ground against itself, and diesel fuel and oil dripped down on the team.
"Over here..." Sooraya called out. "It's a tight fit, but we can crawl under it." She was standing next to a strut that had collapsed, but a triangular space was visible next to it. "Shadowcat, Dominon... come on!!!"
He was moving much slower than normal as Kane limped over to the space. Sooraya was right. It was going to be a tight fit. He lay prone and started to wiggle under it. Several times, his uniform tore as he pulled himself through an almost too small space, but his omni-skin protected him from any real damage.
"OK, I'm through!"
Kitty was having trouble concentrating as every drip startled her and threatened to pull her out of phase. Her body was growing tired of the effort, her powers slipping in and out from sheer exhaustion. As she pushed toward the space, she became tangible and a drop of motor oil splashed down on her nose. Gasping suddenly, she phased, following Kane as swiftly as she could without a look back.
Julian stood rooted to the stop, still pushing against the machine which was proving more resistant than he had hoped. His reserves were beginning to drain, even more so when he noted he was one of the last ones out in the open. Knowing it wouldn't be possible to keep the pressure up, and move, he made the decision to stay. Resigned, and embittered by the many failures and losses he'd experienced as part of Kane's team, a sudden though sprang to mind and the lessons of the past came back to him. "Ugh...idiot," he said to himself, realizing he'd still been pushing up with his hands.
It had been his first teacher who taught him that the mind follows the body, but it wasn't necessary to use their types of powers. A lesson reinforced by an older Doctor Grey, and Sifu Paris. Drawing on his last ounce of energy, he shouted, "It's about to get very interesting in here!" and opened himself to the lines of force that filled the chamber, trying to feel them the way a blind man might try to find a light switch. Grasping onto what he could, Julian pressed upward against the engine with several more points of pressure, the metal beginning to crumple beneath his efforts. Against the far wall, he found a mostly intact piece of concrete and pulled with all his might, hoping to bring it over himself before the machine blew.
The metallic voice howled inarticulate rage through the speakers as his machines failed to crush the mutants. The screech of metal straining against invisible force was deafening. It pulsed with Julian's telekinetic force, screaming as the hydraulic presses in the ceiling fought against the young mutant's power and failed. The plates glowed in places, red-hot dimly visible through the green aura, and sparks flew where the friction was the greatest.
Sooraya waited anxiously for the two tk'ers. The small crawlspace behind her was groaning and creaking. "We have to go! Dominion and Shadowcat are already through." She called out hesitantly, not wanting to disturb their concentration.
"On our...way..." Jean said. She was slowly inching toward the crawlspace, waiting for Scion to make his was in before she brought up the rear. She felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland, without all the wonder.
Climbing out, she tripped and fell to her knees. Stray bits of debris around them gave a tremble in rhythm with a heartbeat, two heartbeats, before stopping. Her head continued to pound, and as she lifted her head, a stream of blood dripped down her nose, which she wiped away.
"Everyone okay?"
"I'm okay," Kitty said. "But--but J---you're bleeding..." Her eyes widened as she looked at the smear of blood on Jean's lower lip.
Jean glanced down at her glove, which was tinged red. She shook her head. "Oh...I'll be fine. Let's just focus on getting out of here." It'd been a long time since she'd had that happen before. It happened sometimes with over usage of psionic powers, like the equivalent of burning the candle at both ends. Push too hard too long and there were repercussions.
"Please tell me we're at the light at the end of the tunnel."
"Yeah, but I assume it means it's on fire." Kane said, snapped off the power to the generator. "Anyone see a way out?"
Moving his wrist-caps against his chest, Julian managed to brush the dust that had been kicked up off himself- which was immediately replaced by a mixture of dust and soot from the next chamber. With a sigh, "Unless you see a warp zone around here- I would wager the only way out is forward."
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