Behold A Pale Horse - Part 4
Jan. 7th, 2024 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsIn a besieged District X, Marie-Ange takes command on the ground, coordinating with Garrison while Illyana ferries all hands available at the mansion.
Kane staggered out of the portal. Travelling via Illyana was very different from Clarice. He turned to say something to the Russian woman but she was already gone, ferrying the rest of the mansion personnel. Kane tucked his comm into his ear and hit the override on his phone, connecting him across the board.
"Kane is in District-X. We've got people incoming. MA, tell me you have people on the move?"
"In progress. I have Changeling on the roof, and Conduit just came on comms." Marie-Ange's voice was muffled at first by the sounds of fighting and emergency vehicles and then there was a distinct effervescent fizz over the comms and then improvement, ambient noises filtered to background murmurs. "Daytripper is heading to the thick of it, getting eyes on as many as I can. Who do you have?" She was still tucked into an alcove by the brownstone, phone in hand. "We need someone in the air, do you have Worthington on comms yet?"
"Rasputin is bringing people in. Warren, Bobbi, April, Kurt... anyone on hand." Kane said, looking around and trying to get his bearings. "What do you have?"
"Thank God. We need as many as we can get. I have Akkabites and Friends of Humanity coming in from every side." Marie-Ange pulled up her own phone. "I sent Felicia and Artie to scout, I have Cypher heading to our roof now to backup Changeling. I need someone else to spot for Darcy, I need someone for crowd control. Illyana, can you get Sue Storm? Or Terry, someone who can push people back."
"Do you have Death? I feel my IQ drop fifty points just saying that but do you have them?"
"No. Not yet. Just Akkabites and bigots." Marie-Ange said, irritated, and not with Garrison. "Waiting for Amanda or Wanda or someone closer to the Center to come online." She crept out of the alcove, and slunk into an alleyway and up against a dumpster, caught a flash of orange, and swore - Darcy needed a spotter, and the best vision on the block was sixteen. She tapped her earpiece for a private line. "Conduit, I have a spotter for you. Sending you Liam Nelson. Apologies, but he has the best eyes.' She'd apologize to the boy later.
Or recruit him in five years. A flash of white claw and red blood skittered past the blankness that was her left eye, and she shook it away
"We need wider eyes." Kane said, breathing heavily. "If they are showing up... we need to know. If not, fuck, that's good for us. If not... thousands dead in small towns. In New York?" The urgency was clear in Kane's voice. "We... we need to stop this."
"I am aware." Marie-Ange said, and then paused. "Apologies. I have no predictions about this Death and I am snappish." She stopped to listen to comm chatter, sending text after text as well, map pins and clear directions based on the vaguest of hunches and her own collected observations.
"Rasputin, I'm looping you in on this line. Who is coming in next?"
"Yes, yes, Canada Man, you are so impatient. Some of us do not live in X-Man gear." Illyana snapped her fingers at Madin, speaking briskly. "Clothing you can fight in, weapons, front lawn in 5. Go. Time to smash bigots in face." She turned on her heel, stalking down the hallway like it was her own personal murder runway, eyes on her phone and sword gripped at her side. "Coordinating with a few off-site, will bring in groups as ready, drop at community center. You will owe me large dinner later." She'd probably just expense it to her work account, honestly. But it paid to be consistent, lest people do things like drag her to other realms again. She still wanted that Valkyrie chick back.
"OK, so... yeah. This is what we got." Kane said, wiping his hand over his face. "Deploy everyone best you can. I think that's all we have from the mansion."
"I have Worthington checking in from above." Marie-Ange looped Warren's reports into the comm line. "Sending him to scout for clusters of movement, and pinch points." She watched her screen as Warren started texting photos and tiny video clips from above that identified a cluster of Akkabites destroying their way down a sidewalk. "Illyana, can you drop the next group with Madin a block north of me? We have movement heading to the centre of District X, I need people who can fight back and free up others to run evacuations."
"I will do this," Illyana responded as she opened her next portal. The benefit of being relatively close to the city was that she could straddle the thinnest line of Limbo to shuffle people through. The last thing this needed was demons in the mix. The downside... she was tiring already. "Last group, then any portals will need to be shorter distance." She shoved a handful of dried fruit into her mouth, chewing with a glare as she gestured towards the circle. "Go, quickly. Have phones, yes? Turn on communication, you will get directions from nice French lady."
She stepped through after them, swallowing her mouthful of fruit before reporting. "That is everyone available. Cannot do anymore longer-short porting, but can do very short if people are in other parts of city. What is killable?"
"If you can be here, there are members of Clan Akkaba who are in need of very much dying." Marie-Ange said. "Merde. Center of District X, and it is starting to boil over. I do not care how, Illyana, I need you to pick as many off as you can. This much activity...' She let out one frustrated grunt, and then stood. "Garrison, I may have reports of Death moving into the epicentre. A man in grey armor, no details yes."
Illyana gave the hilt of her sword a careful pat. "Do not know what this Akkaba is, but if they are magic..." Her bloodthirsty grin made her look even more fey than usual. "I have ways of dealing with that. Let me know if more teleports are needed." With that, she took off into the crowd, heeled boots stomping casually on feet as she pushed her way through to a group of cultists.
"Grey armor. Well, shit." Kane unclipped his baton and snapped it out. He didn't have powers but he did have training. "Throw anyone close at the figure in grey armor. He's the top priority. We need to keep him occupied and get as many people out of here as possible." He followed Illyana, angling towards the location that MA had identified, pausing to engage with a couple of cult thugs.
"Grey armor, and..." Marie-Ange went silent on her comm, long enough for multiple voices to chime in asking about her status. It felt long, but was a matter of seconds but when she resumed speaking, her voice was flat. "Warren confirmed, he made visual contact. It is Marius Laverne."
Angelo and Inez find themselves escorting a mutant youth group to safety
People were already starting to trickle away from the District in one direction, in response to those coming from the other direction. They were predominantly men, faces hidden behind bandanas with the Friends of Humanity symbol printed on it in red, white and blue. They wore heavy tac jackets or vests openly, usually either holding a hand weapon of some type, or had a bag slung, which was even more menacing.
Angelo cracked his knuckles, glancing sideways at Inez as they stood at the door of the youth club. "Right. Want to try to get the kids out, or defend them in here?"
"I wanna get 'em out but," she said, eyeing the many people around them and their weaponry - especially the unknown variations in bags, "maybe we should clear a path first, keep 'em safe in there," Inez reckoned. There was only two of them and they couldn't shield them with more than their bodies after all.
"I'm pretty good at fending off missiles", he said with a crooked grin. "Slow-moving ones, anyway. You do the shoving, I do the shielding?"
"Sounds like a plan t'me," she agreed, rolling up her sleeves and giving Angelo a grin. "Ready when you are, Hoss, just say th' word." She may not have had true super speed but she knew she could move faster than the first few could react at any rate and then it was on.
He stretched himself out to the maximum, forming a canopy over and around the two of them, and glanced back at the anxious faces gathered inside the building. "Right. Let's go."
With that said Inez burst forward, lunging towards the first pair of militants fortunate enough to be walking nearby the entrance. She snarled and took one out with a massive bodycheck, shouldering him into a nearby telephone pole so hard it cracked - or maybe that was just the sound of his ribs snapping, or both - and then utilizing her momentum to twirl and deliver a backhanded punch to his patrol partner. That one had been reaching for his sidearm as his buddy was drilled but soon ended up flying in the other direction, and without nothing to absorb his impact he skidded back a good ten or fifteen feet before grinding to a halt, unconscious on the asphalt.
"Y'all follow me," she said, waving to their escorts while Angelo covered them, waiting for them to catch up and watching for more of the guards to take out.
"Nice work", Angelo cheered her on, leading the kids forward in a tight knot at his sides under a tent of skin, poised to react and swat away anything that touched the "walls", as well as alerting him if anyone inside fell behind or slipped out.
One of the men had been carrying a riot shield, and Inez scooped that up, twirling around in a circle once before hurling it like a discus at another pair of guards who'd started to raise their firearms towards them, sending them scattering like bowling pins.
Another larger man came out around a corner and caught her off-guard, landing a punch to her ribs as she lunged to the side at the last second to avoid him landing the haymaker he'd intended. Using that momentum, she grabbed him and continued to roll over, taking him with her and violently slamming him to the pavement before bringing her fist down into his face, breaking something she was sure but not caring what at that moment.
"Keep goin'!" she shouted, panting a little now and looking around for more potential assailants.
There were plenty.
As the two were working their way one or two at a time, the Friends of Humanity could quickly see that their tactics were proving ineffective against this moving wall of force. These men, mostly men at least, weren't professionals in anything but having strong opinions and some basic training in how to weaponize their hate, so one remaining tactic seemed to be left for certain victory.
"Them filthy muties can't take us all at once!"
"There's only two! We have the advantage!"
This strategy was echoed down the line, and the remaining assailants all started to group for a single, desperate rush to win their prize of ridding the world of some mutant children.
They hadn't exactly been subtle about their intentions, and Angelo had reacted with the first shout. The children had been shuffled into a tight knot behind him as he turned to face the threat, his skin defences rippling and shifting to focus only on that side. "Outlaw? You take the half on the right, I'll go left."
"Y'got it, Skin," she replied, cracking her knuckles and veering off to the right, mumbling how apparently they hadn't just seen her take out a bunch of them at the same time and how she could in face take out many of them at once.
"Groupin' together," she grunted, punching one man out cold, "jus' means I ain't got t'go so far," she added, spinning and kicking another man in the midsection, doubling him over, "t'lick the shit out of y'all," she finished, clenching her hands together and swinging up and through the doubled-over mans chin, sending him bowling backwards into another oncoming pair, then smashing her hands down to take out another.
"It's real cute you think you have the advantage", Angelo said cheerfully, clotheslining three more attackers with a stiffly stretched out limb of skin. "You know, the youth club has cameras covering all of this. I'll have to put it on YouTube."
Inez snickered at that as she brought her fist into the face of yet another of their enemies before activating her comms. "We've got the kids an' are escortin' 'em out, slowly but surely... they had t'make it hard but we're equal t'the task," she said between punches and parrying blows. "Will radio when - ugh," she paused, absorbing a kick to her solar plexus before taking the assailant's leg and yeeting him a dozen feet or more into a nearby wall, "when we're all clear, over."
"Evacuation point going to your phones now." Marie-Ange's voice was followed by two map points, and then a flurry of 'avoid' warning signals on the other edge of the map. "Get out of the centre of District X as soon as you can."
Rictor and Shatterstar team up together, covering the escape route for the youth group and delaying the FoH coming after them.
As Inez and Angelo hustled their group away, one of the FoH thugs on the fringes pointed and yelled, drawing attention to the escaping group of mutants.
Doug had been tracking the movement through his hi-power binoculars as Angelo and Inez began to direct people away from the danger zone. The surge of FoH toward them had him cursing in Asgardian before keying his comm. "This is Cypher, I need an assist. Foxtrot Hotel making a break for Skin's evacuees. Snipers have no shot, anyone nearby sound off."
"Shatterstar here, with Rictor," Shatterstar responded. He had been teaching a beginners swords class at the community center after being encouraged to get involved and had Terry's family sword with him to show off to the kids for their good behavior.
He was glad to have it now.
He didn't think he could rely on his powers alone, but of course he had to fight. What else would an X-Man do? What else would Arthur, or Haller, or Terry, or even Mr. Sydney do?
It was a sentiment shared by the other mutant. Rictor had tagged along to watch the lesson, intrigued and delighted by Shatterstar's skill, and when the swordsman had bounded off at the call to action, Rictor was hot on his heels. He may not have been a hero or an X-Man himself, but what had Marie-Ange told him a couple months ago following Hurricane Valentine? When your home is in danger, you swallow your fear and fight to protect it.
"¡Aquí, aquí, vengan!" he called to the fleeing youth group, waving them to the hotel safe haven. The human thugs were right behind them. Rictor knelt and pressed his hand firmly on the ground. Cities were not typically charmed by his gift, but this was an emergency, so the ground acquiesced, and it shook violently beneath the "Friends"'s feet.
Shatterstar stood steady despite the shaking around him and took a breath, looking at the Friends of Humanity and hearing the children behind him.
What were bats and batons except blunter, shorter swords? He had the reach. And more importantly he could grab at their weapons. Shatterstar swung, forcing some of the "Friends" to block and he grabbed a bat, using all his strength and adrenaline to wrench it from their hands, jamming his elbow into the members throat. Most of the members were already unsteady on their feet.
"Gracias," Rictor thanked the shattered concrete as he got back to his feet. Shatterstar was in too close, so if Rictor remained at range, then any use of his own gift would catch the other boy. He would have to get in close, too, if we were going to be of any help. Questionable if Shatterstar really needed it, given how he seemed to be dancing circles around these thugs, disarming and dodging them with apparent ease.
A pair of villains who had kept their balance were trying to stealthily maneuver behind Shatterstar as he was preoccupied with his current opponent, and Rictor cried out a warning as he bowled into one, taking them both down in a tumble. The other man was considerably larger than the seismokinetic, though, and when he recovered from the shock of being taken down by a skinny teenager, quickly got the upper hand. Kneeling on Rictor's chest to pin him to the ground, the man rained blow after blow on his face. Rictor was pretty sure he heard his nose actually crack when a solid punch broke it.
The earth began to convulse again. Massive cracks tore through the street. The brick wall of a nearby building crumbled.
Shatterstar was feeling the most alive he had ever felt, an alien smile on his face on his face as he worked the crowd around him, disarming and slashing at the opponents, just on the side of careful enough not to do serious damage despite the manic rage building inside him, in tandem from he and Benjamin. That wasn't to say the Cassidy family sword wasn't tasting blood for the first time in a century.
Shatterstar swiveled at the sound of Rictor's cry and the distinctive sound of two bodies hitting the pavement, almost careless with his sword as he got two FOH members in the stomach. His friend, his very first friend, was pinned under a body larger than him, the fists raining down into him. Shatterstar moved the tip of his sword to the attacker's throat. He could feel the familiar feeling of the air humming around him, of his bones shaking and a heat inside of him raising.
Later it would worry Shatterstar that he wasn't sure what he would have done if the man hadn't scrambled off.
He offered Rictor his free hand.
The quaking slowed but did not stop when Rictor took his hand. Though his vision was clouded by a swelling eye and blood trickling from his forehead, any pain he felt from the assault was ebbing away. And not like when Topaz had empathically drained him at Hope's arrival, when he knew it was there but couldn't help but ignore it. It was like the pain was not even there, instead replaced by a rush of adrenaline surging through him. An unfamiliar green energy cascaded from the hand tightly gripping Shatterstar's, up through his chest, and down to his free hand where it pulsated in sync with the vibrations emanating off Shatterstar.
There was a high pitched whine like a tornado siren when they touched, Rictor's powers boosting the vibration of Shatterstar's own. The sword sang like a tuning fork as Shatterstar pointed it at the crowd of Friends of Humanity. Shatterstar had never felt so much power move through him, the combination of sound and seismic activity. He could feel it moving into the sword, directing it to the crowd of Friends of Humanity members.
A frightened voice in Rictor's head urged him to let go of Shatterstar, let go of this terrifying power. This wasn't too different from the empowerment ritual that had brought him to America in the first place. He didn't know how he knew, but he had no doubt that whatever magic this was, it was Shatterstar's and his own, not something borrowed from strangers.
Rictor held up his luminescent hand and allowed the pent-up energy to be released. The air itself shook, and concentrated waves of force slammed into the assembled thugs like a tsunami of sound. Not a one of them was left of their feet.
Shatterstar was struggling to stay on his feet, but the color drained away from his face just made the blood splattered across his face and white jacket stand out more. He was showing all his teeth but it wasn't a smile when he said, "Stand up and fight or stand down."
The community center's would-be attackers scrambled. Shatterstar collapsed against Rictor, arms red and burning from the force he had exerted. He was sure that only sharing the force with Rictor and channeling it through his sword had kept them from breaking.
He was smiling now.
Rictor nearly collapsed under Shatterstar, but he kept his footing and held up his friend so they could witness these pinche perdedores flee. "Yeah, get out of here!" he shouted after them. "¡Vayan a la mierda, pinche pendejos! Chingan tus madres."
Shatterstar let out a bark of laughter, pure adrenaline. "You were amazing," he panted out, looking at Rictor like he was the sun. "They're gone. You were amazing."
Doug's voice came over the communicators. "Well done, Shatterstar, Rictor. I see all hostiles retreating. Get to safe ground. Cypher out."
Kane staggered out of the portal. Travelling via Illyana was very different from Clarice. He turned to say something to the Russian woman but she was already gone, ferrying the rest of the mansion personnel. Kane tucked his comm into his ear and hit the override on his phone, connecting him across the board.
"Kane is in District-X. We've got people incoming. MA, tell me you have people on the move?"
"In progress. I have Changeling on the roof, and Conduit just came on comms." Marie-Ange's voice was muffled at first by the sounds of fighting and emergency vehicles and then there was a distinct effervescent fizz over the comms and then improvement, ambient noises filtered to background murmurs. "Daytripper is heading to the thick of it, getting eyes on as many as I can. Who do you have?" She was still tucked into an alcove by the brownstone, phone in hand. "We need someone in the air, do you have Worthington on comms yet?"
"Rasputin is bringing people in. Warren, Bobbi, April, Kurt... anyone on hand." Kane said, looking around and trying to get his bearings. "What do you have?"
"Thank God. We need as many as we can get. I have Akkabites and Friends of Humanity coming in from every side." Marie-Ange pulled up her own phone. "I sent Felicia and Artie to scout, I have Cypher heading to our roof now to backup Changeling. I need someone else to spot for Darcy, I need someone for crowd control. Illyana, can you get Sue Storm? Or Terry, someone who can push people back."
"Do you have Death? I feel my IQ drop fifty points just saying that but do you have them?"
"No. Not yet. Just Akkabites and bigots." Marie-Ange said, irritated, and not with Garrison. "Waiting for Amanda or Wanda or someone closer to the Center to come online." She crept out of the alcove, and slunk into an alleyway and up against a dumpster, caught a flash of orange, and swore - Darcy needed a spotter, and the best vision on the block was sixteen. She tapped her earpiece for a private line. "Conduit, I have a spotter for you. Sending you Liam Nelson. Apologies, but he has the best eyes.' She'd apologize to the boy later.
Or recruit him in five years. A flash of white claw and red blood skittered past the blankness that was her left eye, and she shook it away
"We need wider eyes." Kane said, breathing heavily. "If they are showing up... we need to know. If not, fuck, that's good for us. If not... thousands dead in small towns. In New York?" The urgency was clear in Kane's voice. "We... we need to stop this."
"I am aware." Marie-Ange said, and then paused. "Apologies. I have no predictions about this Death and I am snappish." She stopped to listen to comm chatter, sending text after text as well, map pins and clear directions based on the vaguest of hunches and her own collected observations.
"Rasputin, I'm looping you in on this line. Who is coming in next?"
"Yes, yes, Canada Man, you are so impatient. Some of us do not live in X-Man gear." Illyana snapped her fingers at Madin, speaking briskly. "Clothing you can fight in, weapons, front lawn in 5. Go. Time to smash bigots in face." She turned on her heel, stalking down the hallway like it was her own personal murder runway, eyes on her phone and sword gripped at her side. "Coordinating with a few off-site, will bring in groups as ready, drop at community center. You will owe me large dinner later." She'd probably just expense it to her work account, honestly. But it paid to be consistent, lest people do things like drag her to other realms again. She still wanted that Valkyrie chick back.
"OK, so... yeah. This is what we got." Kane said, wiping his hand over his face. "Deploy everyone best you can. I think that's all we have from the mansion."
"I have Worthington checking in from above." Marie-Ange looped Warren's reports into the comm line. "Sending him to scout for clusters of movement, and pinch points." She watched her screen as Warren started texting photos and tiny video clips from above that identified a cluster of Akkabites destroying their way down a sidewalk. "Illyana, can you drop the next group with Madin a block north of me? We have movement heading to the centre of District X, I need people who can fight back and free up others to run evacuations."
"I will do this," Illyana responded as she opened her next portal. The benefit of being relatively close to the city was that she could straddle the thinnest line of Limbo to shuffle people through. The last thing this needed was demons in the mix. The downside... she was tiring already. "Last group, then any portals will need to be shorter distance." She shoved a handful of dried fruit into her mouth, chewing with a glare as she gestured towards the circle. "Go, quickly. Have phones, yes? Turn on communication, you will get directions from nice French lady."
She stepped through after them, swallowing her mouthful of fruit before reporting. "That is everyone available. Cannot do anymore longer-short porting, but can do very short if people are in other parts of city. What is killable?"
"If you can be here, there are members of Clan Akkaba who are in need of very much dying." Marie-Ange said. "Merde. Center of District X, and it is starting to boil over. I do not care how, Illyana, I need you to pick as many off as you can. This much activity...' She let out one frustrated grunt, and then stood. "Garrison, I may have reports of Death moving into the epicentre. A man in grey armor, no details yes."
Illyana gave the hilt of her sword a careful pat. "Do not know what this Akkaba is, but if they are magic..." Her bloodthirsty grin made her look even more fey than usual. "I have ways of dealing with that. Let me know if more teleports are needed." With that, she took off into the crowd, heeled boots stomping casually on feet as she pushed her way through to a group of cultists.
"Grey armor. Well, shit." Kane unclipped his baton and snapped it out. He didn't have powers but he did have training. "Throw anyone close at the figure in grey armor. He's the top priority. We need to keep him occupied and get as many people out of here as possible." He followed Illyana, angling towards the location that MA had identified, pausing to engage with a couple of cult thugs.
"Grey armor, and..." Marie-Ange went silent on her comm, long enough for multiple voices to chime in asking about her status. It felt long, but was a matter of seconds but when she resumed speaking, her voice was flat. "Warren confirmed, he made visual contact. It is Marius Laverne."
Angelo and Inez find themselves escorting a mutant youth group to safety
People were already starting to trickle away from the District in one direction, in response to those coming from the other direction. They were predominantly men, faces hidden behind bandanas with the Friends of Humanity symbol printed on it in red, white and blue. They wore heavy tac jackets or vests openly, usually either holding a hand weapon of some type, or had a bag slung, which was even more menacing.
Angelo cracked his knuckles, glancing sideways at Inez as they stood at the door of the youth club. "Right. Want to try to get the kids out, or defend them in here?"
"I wanna get 'em out but," she said, eyeing the many people around them and their weaponry - especially the unknown variations in bags, "maybe we should clear a path first, keep 'em safe in there," Inez reckoned. There was only two of them and they couldn't shield them with more than their bodies after all.
"I'm pretty good at fending off missiles", he said with a crooked grin. "Slow-moving ones, anyway. You do the shoving, I do the shielding?"
"Sounds like a plan t'me," she agreed, rolling up her sleeves and giving Angelo a grin. "Ready when you are, Hoss, just say th' word." She may not have had true super speed but she knew she could move faster than the first few could react at any rate and then it was on.
He stretched himself out to the maximum, forming a canopy over and around the two of them, and glanced back at the anxious faces gathered inside the building. "Right. Let's go."
With that said Inez burst forward, lunging towards the first pair of militants fortunate enough to be walking nearby the entrance. She snarled and took one out with a massive bodycheck, shouldering him into a nearby telephone pole so hard it cracked - or maybe that was just the sound of his ribs snapping, or both - and then utilizing her momentum to twirl and deliver a backhanded punch to his patrol partner. That one had been reaching for his sidearm as his buddy was drilled but soon ended up flying in the other direction, and without nothing to absorb his impact he skidded back a good ten or fifteen feet before grinding to a halt, unconscious on the asphalt.
"Y'all follow me," she said, waving to their escorts while Angelo covered them, waiting for them to catch up and watching for more of the guards to take out.
"Nice work", Angelo cheered her on, leading the kids forward in a tight knot at his sides under a tent of skin, poised to react and swat away anything that touched the "walls", as well as alerting him if anyone inside fell behind or slipped out.
One of the men had been carrying a riot shield, and Inez scooped that up, twirling around in a circle once before hurling it like a discus at another pair of guards who'd started to raise their firearms towards them, sending them scattering like bowling pins.
Another larger man came out around a corner and caught her off-guard, landing a punch to her ribs as she lunged to the side at the last second to avoid him landing the haymaker he'd intended. Using that momentum, she grabbed him and continued to roll over, taking him with her and violently slamming him to the pavement before bringing her fist down into his face, breaking something she was sure but not caring what at that moment.
"Keep goin'!" she shouted, panting a little now and looking around for more potential assailants.
There were plenty.
As the two were working their way one or two at a time, the Friends of Humanity could quickly see that their tactics were proving ineffective against this moving wall of force. These men, mostly men at least, weren't professionals in anything but having strong opinions and some basic training in how to weaponize their hate, so one remaining tactic seemed to be left for certain victory.
"Them filthy muties can't take us all at once!"
"There's only two! We have the advantage!"
This strategy was echoed down the line, and the remaining assailants all started to group for a single, desperate rush to win their prize of ridding the world of some mutant children.
They hadn't exactly been subtle about their intentions, and Angelo had reacted with the first shout. The children had been shuffled into a tight knot behind him as he turned to face the threat, his skin defences rippling and shifting to focus only on that side. "Outlaw? You take the half on the right, I'll go left."
"Y'got it, Skin," she replied, cracking her knuckles and veering off to the right, mumbling how apparently they hadn't just seen her take out a bunch of them at the same time and how she could in face take out many of them at once.
"Groupin' together," she grunted, punching one man out cold, "jus' means I ain't got t'go so far," she added, spinning and kicking another man in the midsection, doubling him over, "t'lick the shit out of y'all," she finished, clenching her hands together and swinging up and through the doubled-over mans chin, sending him bowling backwards into another oncoming pair, then smashing her hands down to take out another.
"It's real cute you think you have the advantage", Angelo said cheerfully, clotheslining three more attackers with a stiffly stretched out limb of skin. "You know, the youth club has cameras covering all of this. I'll have to put it on YouTube."
Inez snickered at that as she brought her fist into the face of yet another of their enemies before activating her comms. "We've got the kids an' are escortin' 'em out, slowly but surely... they had t'make it hard but we're equal t'the task," she said between punches and parrying blows. "Will radio when - ugh," she paused, absorbing a kick to her solar plexus before taking the assailant's leg and yeeting him a dozen feet or more into a nearby wall, "when we're all clear, over."
"Evacuation point going to your phones now." Marie-Ange's voice was followed by two map points, and then a flurry of 'avoid' warning signals on the other edge of the map. "Get out of the centre of District X as soon as you can."
Rictor and Shatterstar team up together, covering the escape route for the youth group and delaying the FoH coming after them.
As Inez and Angelo hustled their group away, one of the FoH thugs on the fringes pointed and yelled, drawing attention to the escaping group of mutants.
Doug had been tracking the movement through his hi-power binoculars as Angelo and Inez began to direct people away from the danger zone. The surge of FoH toward them had him cursing in Asgardian before keying his comm. "This is Cypher, I need an assist. Foxtrot Hotel making a break for Skin's evacuees. Snipers have no shot, anyone nearby sound off."
"Shatterstar here, with Rictor," Shatterstar responded. He had been teaching a beginners swords class at the community center after being encouraged to get involved and had Terry's family sword with him to show off to the kids for their good behavior.
He was glad to have it now.
He didn't think he could rely on his powers alone, but of course he had to fight. What else would an X-Man do? What else would Arthur, or Haller, or Terry, or even Mr. Sydney do?
It was a sentiment shared by the other mutant. Rictor had tagged along to watch the lesson, intrigued and delighted by Shatterstar's skill, and when the swordsman had bounded off at the call to action, Rictor was hot on his heels. He may not have been a hero or an X-Man himself, but what had Marie-Ange told him a couple months ago following Hurricane Valentine? When your home is in danger, you swallow your fear and fight to protect it.
"¡Aquí, aquí, vengan!" he called to the fleeing youth group, waving them to the hotel safe haven. The human thugs were right behind them. Rictor knelt and pressed his hand firmly on the ground. Cities were not typically charmed by his gift, but this was an emergency, so the ground acquiesced, and it shook violently beneath the "Friends"'s feet.
Shatterstar stood steady despite the shaking around him and took a breath, looking at the Friends of Humanity and hearing the children behind him.
What were bats and batons except blunter, shorter swords? He had the reach. And more importantly he could grab at their weapons. Shatterstar swung, forcing some of the "Friends" to block and he grabbed a bat, using all his strength and adrenaline to wrench it from their hands, jamming his elbow into the members throat. Most of the members were already unsteady on their feet.
"Gracias," Rictor thanked the shattered concrete as he got back to his feet. Shatterstar was in too close, so if Rictor remained at range, then any use of his own gift would catch the other boy. He would have to get in close, too, if we were going to be of any help. Questionable if Shatterstar really needed it, given how he seemed to be dancing circles around these thugs, disarming and dodging them with apparent ease.
A pair of villains who had kept their balance were trying to stealthily maneuver behind Shatterstar as he was preoccupied with his current opponent, and Rictor cried out a warning as he bowled into one, taking them both down in a tumble. The other man was considerably larger than the seismokinetic, though, and when he recovered from the shock of being taken down by a skinny teenager, quickly got the upper hand. Kneeling on Rictor's chest to pin him to the ground, the man rained blow after blow on his face. Rictor was pretty sure he heard his nose actually crack when a solid punch broke it.
The earth began to convulse again. Massive cracks tore through the street. The brick wall of a nearby building crumbled.
Shatterstar was feeling the most alive he had ever felt, an alien smile on his face on his face as he worked the crowd around him, disarming and slashing at the opponents, just on the side of careful enough not to do serious damage despite the manic rage building inside him, in tandem from he and Benjamin. That wasn't to say the Cassidy family sword wasn't tasting blood for the first time in a century.
Shatterstar swiveled at the sound of Rictor's cry and the distinctive sound of two bodies hitting the pavement, almost careless with his sword as he got two FOH members in the stomach. His friend, his very first friend, was pinned under a body larger than him, the fists raining down into him. Shatterstar moved the tip of his sword to the attacker's throat. He could feel the familiar feeling of the air humming around him, of his bones shaking and a heat inside of him raising.
Later it would worry Shatterstar that he wasn't sure what he would have done if the man hadn't scrambled off.
He offered Rictor his free hand.
The quaking slowed but did not stop when Rictor took his hand. Though his vision was clouded by a swelling eye and blood trickling from his forehead, any pain he felt from the assault was ebbing away. And not like when Topaz had empathically drained him at Hope's arrival, when he knew it was there but couldn't help but ignore it. It was like the pain was not even there, instead replaced by a rush of adrenaline surging through him. An unfamiliar green energy cascaded from the hand tightly gripping Shatterstar's, up through his chest, and down to his free hand where it pulsated in sync with the vibrations emanating off Shatterstar.
There was a high pitched whine like a tornado siren when they touched, Rictor's powers boosting the vibration of Shatterstar's own. The sword sang like a tuning fork as Shatterstar pointed it at the crowd of Friends of Humanity. Shatterstar had never felt so much power move through him, the combination of sound and seismic activity. He could feel it moving into the sword, directing it to the crowd of Friends of Humanity members.
A frightened voice in Rictor's head urged him to let go of Shatterstar, let go of this terrifying power. This wasn't too different from the empowerment ritual that had brought him to America in the first place. He didn't know how he knew, but he had no doubt that whatever magic this was, it was Shatterstar's and his own, not something borrowed from strangers.
Rictor held up his luminescent hand and allowed the pent-up energy to be released. The air itself shook, and concentrated waves of force slammed into the assembled thugs like a tsunami of sound. Not a one of them was left of their feet.
Shatterstar was struggling to stay on his feet, but the color drained away from his face just made the blood splattered across his face and white jacket stand out more. He was showing all his teeth but it wasn't a smile when he said, "Stand up and fight or stand down."
The community center's would-be attackers scrambled. Shatterstar collapsed against Rictor, arms red and burning from the force he had exerted. He was sure that only sharing the force with Rictor and channeling it through his sword had kept them from breaking.
He was smiling now.
Rictor nearly collapsed under Shatterstar, but he kept his footing and held up his friend so they could witness these pinche perdedores flee. "Yeah, get out of here!" he shouted after them. "¡Vayan a la mierda, pinche pendejos! Chingan tus madres."
Shatterstar let out a bark of laughter, pure adrenaline. "You were amazing," he panted out, looking at Rictor like he was the sun. "They're gone. You were amazing."
Doug's voice came over the communicators. "Well done, Shatterstar, Rictor. I see all hostiles retreating. Get to safe ground. Cypher out."
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