Fear in the Dark - Breaker of Oceans
Jun. 9th, 2019 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsFollowing an alert that the Juggernaut might have resurfaced, the X-Men arrive at an old Russian base and find someone has been there before them.
There was always that moment of uncertainty when you arrived in a new location, the pause of the unknown, you never knew what you were walking into. Scott had learned to keep it internal, not to let it show, to recover as quickly as possible. The man glanced around at the rest of his team, the handful of individuals who were gathered around him as he looked out at the abandoned base. "Remember, we have no idea what we're walking into, Let's be careful and watch one another's backs. The docs will kill me if I end up bring anyone back into their tender care."
“I would feel better if I knew what this place was for”, Kurt said frankly. “And what may still be here.”
"If it was simple and we knew what was here, then there would be no need to investigate, n'est ce pas?" Jean-Phillipe asked wryly. He shrugged his shoulders up against the cold and took his customary place behind Scott's shoulder, in his blind spot. Scott would make sure that everyone else got home safe... and the Frenchman tended to take it upon himself to make sure that Scott returned safely as well.
Logan arched an eyebrow. There wasn't much they encountered that he wouldn't eventually heal from. "Ain't this most situations we end up in? Go there 'cause somethin' looks strange and go figure out what it is." He shrugged. "This place looks like it might be more booby trapped than others, but could be worse."
"Don't say that!" Rogue gave Logan a good smack on the arm. "Bad juju! Come on, positive thoughts. We just landed in a big jet and no one is around. Also, there's no giant creature...things. So pluses, all around." She gave a big smile. "Anyone else?"
"Well," Scott rolled his head from side to side, slipping off his sunglasses and reaching into a pocket for his visor. "There's only one way to figure out what's waiting for us in there, we actually head out and see what they decide to throw at us today."
Through a door and down a number of stairs, and Jean-Phillipe was the one to spot what was getting thrown at them today. "That is a dead body," he observed as they approached a form lying in the hallway. There was no way a live person could be laying that still in that kind of position. "You truly take us to the nicest places, mon vieux," he observed.
There was a mix of stale and fresh air and they'd also introduced more on their trek down here. Logan eyed the body then went closer to examine it. "Nuthin' identifyin' on him." He patted the body down. "No weapons either. If we find anymore, we should search 'em too. Maybe see if there's some security footage."
Kurt nodded. "We press on, then. Though if whatever killed them has taken their weapons... everyone must be on their guard."
As one of the invulnerable ones, Rogue always tried to get in front, knowing that she could take most anything. She gingerly stepped over the body of another dead guard. The stillness was disturbing, and she was grateful for Kurt's reminder. It was too easy to want to go in, guns blazing so to speak, but this was not a normal situation. Although, really, were any of them. It took a few moments for her to notice but when she did, she stopped, holding up a hand. "This is going down...." She turned and frowned at Scott. "Cyclops, what's your call? We got dead bodies, missing weapons, and no noise...and it's only going to get worse going forward. Thoughts?"
Scott fell silent for a few moments before he shook his head, gesturing at the passageway with one hand. "We can't really turn back now, I agree that this doesn't look good, but we need to find out what's going on." The X-man nodded at Logan, "You're on point, call out if you sense anything coming. The rest of us, Rogue, Nightcrawler, you're on his shoulders. Bevatron you and I 2 meters behind them, Remember, check the doors, we don't want someone sneaking up on us despite Logan's nose. Whoever did this isn't playing around folks."
Logan nodded and moved to the front. He slowly extended his claws even though they weren't going to be the best weapon in close quarters. Maybe he should start packing more of an arsenal. Cautiously he moved down the rest of the hall toward the next set of stairs and started to descend. More stale air and dead bodies from the smell of it. Whatever killed the guards may have been long gone already.
Kurt was peering over his shoulder as they approached the next floor down. "When we have cleared the place, does anyone read Russian? Perhaps the documents left behind might tell us what the attackers came for."
"Not enough to read. Mine mostly consists of creative insults learned from Russian sailors." Jean-Phillipe wasn't sure whether it was the age of the facility, and its wiring system falling into disuse, but the dim lighting and background buzzing of the electrical systems was starting to give him a headache. Not to mention the unwelcome feeling that they were all walking into one of the grisly opening sequences of a horror film.
Rogue wished she had kept up with language classes. French was basically all she knew, and a smattering of Japanese, thanks to Logan's memories. None of her shadows had any Russian knowledge either. She just had to keep walking forward, on high-alert, which ...really felt anti-climatic when they reached the bottom of the facility and found nothing.
"All this for a big ass hole?" Rogue sighed and put her hands on her hips. "What the heck do you think they had here? I mean...we're pretty far from Kansas and you don’t put grandma's cookies down in a storage, surround it by guards, and thick steel doors."
"Well, I dunno about you, but I heard that my grandma's cookies are pretty awesome, worth protecting in a bunker like this," The joke came out off-handedly as Scott peered down the hallway, "If they're gonna build a base out there then we can be sure that whatever it is it’s gotta be pretty important to them."
Logan was reminded of Alkali Lake and the million other places where they’d had to sneak into a heavily fortified bunker to either find nothing or something that basically gave them the upper hand over whoever had stashed the thing there. “Cookies would be nice to find ‘stead of whatever’s down here.” He eased a hand around the handle of the door that ended the floor they were on then slowly pulled it open.
Nothing.
No immediate assault or scent of any living bodies. It just smelled like new dirt and air.
Kurt blinked as he stepped into the room. "There should not be fresh air down here." And then he saw why there was. "But what could do that, from inside?"
"Whatever it was they were trying to keep inside," Jean-Phillipe murmured as he leaned out to look into the enormous hole that was all that remained below the facility. "I suspect that it is not friendly."
Once past the carnage, the X-Men discover they’re most certainly not alone.
The group entered through the busted door, still sizzling from the energy blast. The room was primarily empty with windows lined around the circular room. In the center was a box and a man; one could assume he was the cause of all the destruction leading here. He was dressed from head to toe in what appeared to be armor of sorts. On the floor nearby was a hammer, similar to the one that they had seen in New York City.
Bent over the large box, Nerkkod was fidgeting with making sure the lid stayed closed and trying to seal it. It was not going as neatly as planned, and he was in mid-curse at the task when he heard the door swing open.
"Eh? Who are you?" he asked, frowning behind his helmet. "No matter," Nerkkod continued, then reached out and hefted the handle on the large hammer, flexing his fingers from loose grip to tight grip as he eyed them all.
This...didn't look good. When you wandered into a room only to find a man wearing a full suit of armour facing you, he was either some kinda medieval warfare buff or someone very dangerous, and this guy didn't look like a historian. Scott's hand came up, calling a halt before indicating the team should spread out, "We're just here for the hammer." As soon as he said it Scott knew that it was probably going to go down badly, but what else could he do?
"Great," Logan muttered to himself at the scene. Another idiot holding a hammer that didn't want his business interrupted. What the hell was with hammers right now? There a run at the hardware store or something? He'd already been slowly moving to encircle the man before Scott finished speaking. His claws were likely going to be useless in this situation but he still had them out anyway.
"He looks a bit... fond of his hammer," Jean-Phillipe opined, grimacing as he circled a bit the other way, still staying relatively close to Scott, though. Whatever this was, it looked like it was going to get out of hand very quickly.
Rogue bit back the mouthful of quips she had. Oh, the jokes. So many jokes. Instead, she stood there, hands on her hips. "Well Cyclops, ya asked, and he's not moving ...guess we have to do this the hard way?" Not that she wanted to really, although punching people was fun. "Come on buddy, no one's gotta get hurt here. Just hand us the hammer." Rogue tried to catch Kurt's eye.
"Also tell us what is in the boxes", Kurt added, eyeing the way the lid didn't seem to want to stay on.
Scott sighed and shrugged, glancing over at the hammer-wielding mad man apologetically, "So basically yes, we'd like your complete and utter surrender, and now if you please. I wanna get home in time for my show."
With a smirk, Nerkkod put both of his hands up over his head, one still holding the hammer aloft. Once they were both high in the air, he gripped his hammer with both hands and then smashed it down on the ground in front of him, sending a large blast of energy to wave outwards towards the intruders.
Nothing ever came easy. There had to be a time when someone just gave up at the sight of them, right? But that time wasn't now as Logan braced himself for the energy wave. It rattled everything around them, scattering dust down on top of them. It forced Logan down to one knee and once it was gone he leapt back to his feet and charged the back of Nerkkod, hoping to distract him enough so that someone else could grab the hammer away from him.
Kurt had teleported towards Nerkkod when he saw what was happening, avoiding the blast wave. He nodded to Logan and went into a flurry of appearing and disappearing, drawing Nerkkod's attention each time before he was somewhere else.
With a little shriek, Rogue launched herself in the air. The energy wave still hit her, and as she was thrown against the wall, she let out of a loud breath of air. It only stunned her momentarily though, and she went forward towards Nerkkod. "A little help? Anyone?" she called out.
There looked to be electricity in that blast, and Jean-Phillipe gave brief thought to trying to corral that energy with his own, the way he had attempted to with Thor's lightning. But there was fire laced in with it, and the sheer blunt impact of it sent him skidding across the floor. He managed to keep his feet, though, and he dug in with his power, drawing the remains of the electrical discharge. "Je travaille sur, Rogue," he ground out through gritted teeth. Metal armor being the most conductive, a half-dozen arcs of electricity lashed out at their opponent.
If he'd known how closely related to Logan’s his thoughts had been, Scott would have been very disappointed; as it was the man forced himself to his feet in the wake of the energy attack, clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to shake off the blast, "Well, I guess that's a no to the surrender thing then? Why don't people ever want to do this the easy way?” As he spoke the man unleashed a barrage of energy blasts. He knew that he stood no chance of actually hurting the man, but it was good to distract him while the others closed with him."
Nerkkod took a swing at Wolverine with the hammer while swatting at Kurt with his empty hand. Neither of his attacks connected, and he grunted at the dual attacks of electricity and power blasts from Jean-Phillipe and Scott respectively.
"Leave! Me! Alone!" he bellowed, taking to the air while spinning the hammer like a propeller. He wasn't really flying, just jumping pretty high, and he lashed out, drifting the hammer where he anticipated Kurt might pop up next before falling back to the ground.
He’d guessed wrong, as Kurt was deliberately avoiding any patterns and reappeared much nearer to where he’d last been, reaching out for the hammer again.
While he'd missed, Nerkkod caught the hammer on its return and slammed it into the ground again, creating another large blast of concussive force aimed at knocking Kurt back away from him and into his allies.
Scott's eyes narrowed as he stared thoughtfully at Nerkkod, his lips moving in a silent conversation before he grinned, one hand coming up to touch his ear, activating his commlink, "Ok, I've got it I think. He doesn't look to be the fastest or most agile so we just need to take advantage of that and get through him, Nightcrawler, I need you to grab Wolverine and get him inside his reach, drop him right on his head."
Kurt spared only enough time to nod in acknowledgment before he had a hand on Logan's shoulder and teleported them both right up to Nerkkod.
Logan barely had time to nod an acknowledgement before he was being dropped onto Nerkkod's head. He roared, claws unsheathing, as he basically became an adamantium anvil. He slammed into Nerkkod with a grunt and started slashing at every exposed piece of skin he could before being flung off. That was going to leave a spectacular bruise.
Hannibal Smith said it best, 'I love it when a plan comes together' and that's exactly how Scott was feeling now, the faintest hint of a smile pulling at his lips as he gestured at Jean-Phillipe. "We hit him on the count of three, then Rogue, finish him off." A single finger came up, "One...two..."
Scott's mouth was barely even beginning to shape the word 'three' as Jean-Phillipe murmured the count with him, and energy was pouring out of the pair - ruby force from Scott's eyes, and actinic white electrical bursts from Jean-Phillipe's hands. There was a cascade of light, almost blinding in its intensity as they kept pouring it on.
It was almost like a game of double dutch -- Rogue watched the pattern, counted it out before flying in with all the force she could. Her fist connected with his chest, knocking all air out, before a follow up punch threw him to the floor.
"Dammit!" Nerkkod spat out a curse or two as he slowly got to his feet. That woman really packed a punch, and he had no desire whatsoever to see what else she and the rest of her cohorts could do. He stared longingly at the box he'd been packing with the hammer inside for a few beats before realizing it wasn't worth it, then stormed off in retreat while there was still some distance between him and his attackers.
There was always that moment of uncertainty when you arrived in a new location, the pause of the unknown, you never knew what you were walking into. Scott had learned to keep it internal, not to let it show, to recover as quickly as possible. The man glanced around at the rest of his team, the handful of individuals who were gathered around him as he looked out at the abandoned base. "Remember, we have no idea what we're walking into, Let's be careful and watch one another's backs. The docs will kill me if I end up bring anyone back into their tender care."
“I would feel better if I knew what this place was for”, Kurt said frankly. “And what may still be here.”
"If it was simple and we knew what was here, then there would be no need to investigate, n'est ce pas?" Jean-Phillipe asked wryly. He shrugged his shoulders up against the cold and took his customary place behind Scott's shoulder, in his blind spot. Scott would make sure that everyone else got home safe... and the Frenchman tended to take it upon himself to make sure that Scott returned safely as well.
Logan arched an eyebrow. There wasn't much they encountered that he wouldn't eventually heal from. "Ain't this most situations we end up in? Go there 'cause somethin' looks strange and go figure out what it is." He shrugged. "This place looks like it might be more booby trapped than others, but could be worse."
"Don't say that!" Rogue gave Logan a good smack on the arm. "Bad juju! Come on, positive thoughts. We just landed in a big jet and no one is around. Also, there's no giant creature...things. So pluses, all around." She gave a big smile. "Anyone else?"
"Well," Scott rolled his head from side to side, slipping off his sunglasses and reaching into a pocket for his visor. "There's only one way to figure out what's waiting for us in there, we actually head out and see what they decide to throw at us today."
Through a door and down a number of stairs, and Jean-Phillipe was the one to spot what was getting thrown at them today. "That is a dead body," he observed as they approached a form lying in the hallway. There was no way a live person could be laying that still in that kind of position. "You truly take us to the nicest places, mon vieux," he observed.
There was a mix of stale and fresh air and they'd also introduced more on their trek down here. Logan eyed the body then went closer to examine it. "Nuthin' identifyin' on him." He patted the body down. "No weapons either. If we find anymore, we should search 'em too. Maybe see if there's some security footage."
Kurt nodded. "We press on, then. Though if whatever killed them has taken their weapons... everyone must be on their guard."
As one of the invulnerable ones, Rogue always tried to get in front, knowing that she could take most anything. She gingerly stepped over the body of another dead guard. The stillness was disturbing, and she was grateful for Kurt's reminder. It was too easy to want to go in, guns blazing so to speak, but this was not a normal situation. Although, really, were any of them. It took a few moments for her to notice but when she did, she stopped, holding up a hand. "This is going down...." She turned and frowned at Scott. "Cyclops, what's your call? We got dead bodies, missing weapons, and no noise...and it's only going to get worse going forward. Thoughts?"
Scott fell silent for a few moments before he shook his head, gesturing at the passageway with one hand. "We can't really turn back now, I agree that this doesn't look good, but we need to find out what's going on." The X-man nodded at Logan, "You're on point, call out if you sense anything coming. The rest of us, Rogue, Nightcrawler, you're on his shoulders. Bevatron you and I 2 meters behind them, Remember, check the doors, we don't want someone sneaking up on us despite Logan's nose. Whoever did this isn't playing around folks."
Logan nodded and moved to the front. He slowly extended his claws even though they weren't going to be the best weapon in close quarters. Maybe he should start packing more of an arsenal. Cautiously he moved down the rest of the hall toward the next set of stairs and started to descend. More stale air and dead bodies from the smell of it. Whatever killed the guards may have been long gone already.
Kurt was peering over his shoulder as they approached the next floor down. "When we have cleared the place, does anyone read Russian? Perhaps the documents left behind might tell us what the attackers came for."
"Not enough to read. Mine mostly consists of creative insults learned from Russian sailors." Jean-Phillipe wasn't sure whether it was the age of the facility, and its wiring system falling into disuse, but the dim lighting and background buzzing of the electrical systems was starting to give him a headache. Not to mention the unwelcome feeling that they were all walking into one of the grisly opening sequences of a horror film.
Rogue wished she had kept up with language classes. French was basically all she knew, and a smattering of Japanese, thanks to Logan's memories. None of her shadows had any Russian knowledge either. She just had to keep walking forward, on high-alert, which ...really felt anti-climatic when they reached the bottom of the facility and found nothing.
"All this for a big ass hole?" Rogue sighed and put her hands on her hips. "What the heck do you think they had here? I mean...we're pretty far from Kansas and you don’t put grandma's cookies down in a storage, surround it by guards, and thick steel doors."
"Well, I dunno about you, but I heard that my grandma's cookies are pretty awesome, worth protecting in a bunker like this," The joke came out off-handedly as Scott peered down the hallway, "If they're gonna build a base out there then we can be sure that whatever it is it’s gotta be pretty important to them."
Logan was reminded of Alkali Lake and the million other places where they’d had to sneak into a heavily fortified bunker to either find nothing or something that basically gave them the upper hand over whoever had stashed the thing there. “Cookies would be nice to find ‘stead of whatever’s down here.” He eased a hand around the handle of the door that ended the floor they were on then slowly pulled it open.
Nothing.
No immediate assault or scent of any living bodies. It just smelled like new dirt and air.
Kurt blinked as he stepped into the room. "There should not be fresh air down here." And then he saw why there was. "But what could do that, from inside?"
"Whatever it was they were trying to keep inside," Jean-Phillipe murmured as he leaned out to look into the enormous hole that was all that remained below the facility. "I suspect that it is not friendly."
Once past the carnage, the X-Men discover they’re most certainly not alone.
The group entered through the busted door, still sizzling from the energy blast. The room was primarily empty with windows lined around the circular room. In the center was a box and a man; one could assume he was the cause of all the destruction leading here. He was dressed from head to toe in what appeared to be armor of sorts. On the floor nearby was a hammer, similar to the one that they had seen in New York City.
Bent over the large box, Nerkkod was fidgeting with making sure the lid stayed closed and trying to seal it. It was not going as neatly as planned, and he was in mid-curse at the task when he heard the door swing open.
"Eh? Who are you?" he asked, frowning behind his helmet. "No matter," Nerkkod continued, then reached out and hefted the handle on the large hammer, flexing his fingers from loose grip to tight grip as he eyed them all.
This...didn't look good. When you wandered into a room only to find a man wearing a full suit of armour facing you, he was either some kinda medieval warfare buff or someone very dangerous, and this guy didn't look like a historian. Scott's hand came up, calling a halt before indicating the team should spread out, "We're just here for the hammer." As soon as he said it Scott knew that it was probably going to go down badly, but what else could he do?
"Great," Logan muttered to himself at the scene. Another idiot holding a hammer that didn't want his business interrupted. What the hell was with hammers right now? There a run at the hardware store or something? He'd already been slowly moving to encircle the man before Scott finished speaking. His claws were likely going to be useless in this situation but he still had them out anyway.
"He looks a bit... fond of his hammer," Jean-Phillipe opined, grimacing as he circled a bit the other way, still staying relatively close to Scott, though. Whatever this was, it looked like it was going to get out of hand very quickly.
Rogue bit back the mouthful of quips she had. Oh, the jokes. So many jokes. Instead, she stood there, hands on her hips. "Well Cyclops, ya asked, and he's not moving ...guess we have to do this the hard way?" Not that she wanted to really, although punching people was fun. "Come on buddy, no one's gotta get hurt here. Just hand us the hammer." Rogue tried to catch Kurt's eye.
"Also tell us what is in the boxes", Kurt added, eyeing the way the lid didn't seem to want to stay on.
Scott sighed and shrugged, glancing over at the hammer-wielding mad man apologetically, "So basically yes, we'd like your complete and utter surrender, and now if you please. I wanna get home in time for my show."
With a smirk, Nerkkod put both of his hands up over his head, one still holding the hammer aloft. Once they were both high in the air, he gripped his hammer with both hands and then smashed it down on the ground in front of him, sending a large blast of energy to wave outwards towards the intruders.
Nothing ever came easy. There had to be a time when someone just gave up at the sight of them, right? But that time wasn't now as Logan braced himself for the energy wave. It rattled everything around them, scattering dust down on top of them. It forced Logan down to one knee and once it was gone he leapt back to his feet and charged the back of Nerkkod, hoping to distract him enough so that someone else could grab the hammer away from him.
Kurt had teleported towards Nerkkod when he saw what was happening, avoiding the blast wave. He nodded to Logan and went into a flurry of appearing and disappearing, drawing Nerkkod's attention each time before he was somewhere else.
With a little shriek, Rogue launched herself in the air. The energy wave still hit her, and as she was thrown against the wall, she let out of a loud breath of air. It only stunned her momentarily though, and she went forward towards Nerkkod. "A little help? Anyone?" she called out.
There looked to be electricity in that blast, and Jean-Phillipe gave brief thought to trying to corral that energy with his own, the way he had attempted to with Thor's lightning. But there was fire laced in with it, and the sheer blunt impact of it sent him skidding across the floor. He managed to keep his feet, though, and he dug in with his power, drawing the remains of the electrical discharge. "Je travaille sur, Rogue," he ground out through gritted teeth. Metal armor being the most conductive, a half-dozen arcs of electricity lashed out at their opponent.
If he'd known how closely related to Logan’s his thoughts had been, Scott would have been very disappointed; as it was the man forced himself to his feet in the wake of the energy attack, clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to shake off the blast, "Well, I guess that's a no to the surrender thing then? Why don't people ever want to do this the easy way?” As he spoke the man unleashed a barrage of energy blasts. He knew that he stood no chance of actually hurting the man, but it was good to distract him while the others closed with him."
Nerkkod took a swing at Wolverine with the hammer while swatting at Kurt with his empty hand. Neither of his attacks connected, and he grunted at the dual attacks of electricity and power blasts from Jean-Phillipe and Scott respectively.
"Leave! Me! Alone!" he bellowed, taking to the air while spinning the hammer like a propeller. He wasn't really flying, just jumping pretty high, and he lashed out, drifting the hammer where he anticipated Kurt might pop up next before falling back to the ground.
He’d guessed wrong, as Kurt was deliberately avoiding any patterns and reappeared much nearer to where he’d last been, reaching out for the hammer again.
While he'd missed, Nerkkod caught the hammer on its return and slammed it into the ground again, creating another large blast of concussive force aimed at knocking Kurt back away from him and into his allies.
Scott's eyes narrowed as he stared thoughtfully at Nerkkod, his lips moving in a silent conversation before he grinned, one hand coming up to touch his ear, activating his commlink, "Ok, I've got it I think. He doesn't look to be the fastest or most agile so we just need to take advantage of that and get through him, Nightcrawler, I need you to grab Wolverine and get him inside his reach, drop him right on his head."
Kurt spared only enough time to nod in acknowledgment before he had a hand on Logan's shoulder and teleported them both right up to Nerkkod.
Logan barely had time to nod an acknowledgement before he was being dropped onto Nerkkod's head. He roared, claws unsheathing, as he basically became an adamantium anvil. He slammed into Nerkkod with a grunt and started slashing at every exposed piece of skin he could before being flung off. That was going to leave a spectacular bruise.
Hannibal Smith said it best, 'I love it when a plan comes together' and that's exactly how Scott was feeling now, the faintest hint of a smile pulling at his lips as he gestured at Jean-Phillipe. "We hit him on the count of three, then Rogue, finish him off." A single finger came up, "One...two..."
Scott's mouth was barely even beginning to shape the word 'three' as Jean-Phillipe murmured the count with him, and energy was pouring out of the pair - ruby force from Scott's eyes, and actinic white electrical bursts from Jean-Phillipe's hands. There was a cascade of light, almost blinding in its intensity as they kept pouring it on.
It was almost like a game of double dutch -- Rogue watched the pattern, counted it out before flying in with all the force she could. Her fist connected with his chest, knocking all air out, before a follow up punch threw him to the floor.
"Dammit!" Nerkkod spat out a curse or two as he slowly got to his feet. That woman really packed a punch, and he had no desire whatsoever to see what else she and the rest of her cohorts could do. He stared longingly at the box he'd been packing with the hammer inside for a few beats before realizing it wasn't worth it, then stormed off in retreat while there was still some distance between him and his attackers.
