For Treason, Act IV, Scene i
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xp_logsThe X-Men knock on Weapon X's front door. It is a very. Very. Loud knock.
TW: blatantly stealing from X-Men 97, gratuitous fandom of K-Pop Demon Hunters
It wasn't often you could just let yourself go without any concern for hurting other people or for being seen, so much of what they did was careful. Careful not to attract too much attention, to hurt civilians or to not make themselves out as too great a threat.
Scott was tired of being careful.
A flick of his wrist activated the autopilot, the Blackbird almost humming to its own beat now as he stood and glanced back towards the flashing lights as the rear doors opened. "Well, this is the part where we go knock on the front door and see who's home. Shall we?" The wind from outside blew through the open bay doors, tugging at him as he sank his fingers into the two pilot's chairs before nodding at Nica, "Show us how it's done."
Nica gave him a terse nod as she reached up and removed her earpiece. "Keep at this altitude - I'd hate to bring the 'Bird down with everything else," she said as she handed the small piece of electronics to Alison. "You'll know it's your turn when the place blacks out." Then she turned to the open hatch, abruptly vanishing from sight as she let the wind take her. She didn't use her powers yet - there was no need, in her black leathers , with her dark hair and skin, she was invisible against the black sky. Best to save her energies for the task ahead.
Just before reaching the arc of the spotlights, she shifted, blinking out of sight and slowing her plummet to float the final twenty feet down. The tiniest crackle of energy across the ground was the only sign of her landing. She paused, cocking her head to listen for any response, any sign she'd been detected, but there was nothing. A grim smile crossed her face.
"Okay, fuckers..."
Over the years, Nica had mastered channeling various wavelengths, one or two at a time. Channelling her entire range all at once was a more recent challenge; what she was doing now was pushing the extent of her powers harder than she had ever done. And fuelled by rage and fear of what had been done to colleagues and students, she was more than motivated.
It began with a flicker, a brief hiccup of the lights and screens and various electronic items. Then an abrupt blacking out, monitors going dark, motors whining to a halt, emergency lighting flicking on. And in the middle of the cluster of buildings, a young woman in black leather glowing brighter and brighter, until it seemed a small supernova had landed. Nica pulled her arms in towards herself, gathering in all the energy of the facility, gritting her teeth with the effort. And then at the highest peak, when it felt like her skin must split with the amount of energy she'd absorbed, she flung her arms open.
A massive EM wave burst from her in a circle, rapidly expanding and shorting out every electronic device in a two-hundred-meter sphere. The facility went utterly silent and dark.
Terry looked from the black wave that rolled outward across the facility back to Scott. "You're up." She had her hair braided into a crown around her head so it wouldn't fly out around her or become something an enemy could hold on to, and she'd refused to use her powers in the lead-up to this mission. Too much was riding on its success.
Scott's dark eyes took on a reddish glow, shining like a demon's as the man turned to nod at Terry and Alison, "See you on the ground."
Then he stepped back into the air, eyes starting to glow brighter, twin meteors soaring towards the ground, growing brighter and brighter as he twisted to face the compound. "Knock knock." On cue, an energy blast slammed into the side of the building, leaving walls shattered and opening up the side of the complex as the beam sliced through the walls like a knife through hot butter as Scott felt himself slow in the air, drifting down like a leaf on the wind...if that leaf had engines that let it control the descent.
There was barely any momentum left by the time the X-Man dropped out of the sky next to Nica, eyes trained on the building.
"Do you think they know we're here?"
Terry reached out for Alison's hand. She didn't need physical contact to fly the younger woman down with her, but the other redhead was one of her closest friends and the contact was a nice reminder that she wasn't alone -- her team was here and they were going to get their people -- her person -- back. Then she captured the soundwaves around them, and they stepped out of the plane, flying down to Scott and Nica's level before dipping lower. Tapping her ear to activate her comm unit, Terry snorted softly. "Oh, they definitely know we're here."
Alison, who had been rapping since literally the moment they'd stepped out of the airplane (Yeah, something about when you come for the crown that's so humbling, huh?) until the moment they'd hit the ground, clicked on her own com as well, placing a hand on Terry's shoulder. "We just HUNTR/X'ed out of a plane directly onto their front door. I don't think the quiet path was ever really an option. Dazzler and Banshee on the ground. Who wants to be the one to knock?"
"Cyclops made such a lovely start," Terry murmured, bringing the surrounding soundwaves closer and bunching them up before her. Tilting her head slightly, she gave a rictus grin. "Dazzler, on three?" She counted down by tapping the younger woman's hand on her shoulder, then opened her mouth as the footsteps she could hear approaching came within range of their combined powers. Bolstering her volume, she began singing at the top of her lungs.
"The time will come when you’ll have to rise above the rest and prove yourself — your spirit never dies…" She'd learned a great deal from Alison over the years, but Terry was barely holding onto the song as her voice rose higher and higher, sound turning deadly as Alison's powers locked in with her own. She heard Alison’s voice join in at the crescendo, harmonizing to her lead. "Farewell, I’ve gone to take my throne above, but don’t weep for me, cause this will be the labor of my love…"
Terry's singing was rough, just a step away from straight up screaming. Her voice was thick and coarse, and the sound that came from it clung to her skin like sandpaper. The upwelling of emotions made it, in some small way, more tactile to Alison's power than normal sound normally could.
She turned to look at their planned point of entry and held up a hand. The brilliant light of a laser lit up the tip of her index finger. Golden light was glowing under her skin and leaking out of her eyes. The weight of it all swallowed any one-liner she might have had.
She released it all in a single colossal laser, and for a moment, night became day.
The almost blinding light that illuminated the landscape and sent the shadows scurrying into the deepest pockets of dark gave Scott all the cover he needed, a crimson shaft of energy colliding with the door, sending it flying back with such force that it shattered the walls behind it, spearing into the compound like a battering ram driving through any defences the defenders might have thrown together.
"That's not a problem; I'm not in a quiet kind of mood."
Terry lost the melody of the song, didn't even attempt to find it again as she covered Scott's ears with her usual barrier of sonic protection and began truly screaming. Between Scott's eyes and Alison's sound-based lasers, there was very little of the actual door left but melted slag for her to batter down, which her scream sent careening backward into the facility as Weapon-X's teams scrambled to respond.
If the molten metal happened to damage a few people as she flung it in front of her, well. It wasn't as though she was aiming for them.
Well, maybe just a little.
"Doors are open," Alison said, shaking off her hand. "Let's go get our people."
TW: blatantly stealing from X-Men 97, gratuitous fandom of K-Pop Demon Hunters
It wasn't often you could just let yourself go without any concern for hurting other people or for being seen, so much of what they did was careful. Careful not to attract too much attention, to hurt civilians or to not make themselves out as too great a threat.
Scott was tired of being careful.
A flick of his wrist activated the autopilot, the Blackbird almost humming to its own beat now as he stood and glanced back towards the flashing lights as the rear doors opened. "Well, this is the part where we go knock on the front door and see who's home. Shall we?" The wind from outside blew through the open bay doors, tugging at him as he sank his fingers into the two pilot's chairs before nodding at Nica, "Show us how it's done."
Nica gave him a terse nod as she reached up and removed her earpiece. "Keep at this altitude - I'd hate to bring the 'Bird down with everything else," she said as she handed the small piece of electronics to Alison. "You'll know it's your turn when the place blacks out." Then she turned to the open hatch, abruptly vanishing from sight as she let the wind take her. She didn't use her powers yet - there was no need, in her black leathers , with her dark hair and skin, she was invisible against the black sky. Best to save her energies for the task ahead.
Just before reaching the arc of the spotlights, she shifted, blinking out of sight and slowing her plummet to float the final twenty feet down. The tiniest crackle of energy across the ground was the only sign of her landing. She paused, cocking her head to listen for any response, any sign she'd been detected, but there was nothing. A grim smile crossed her face.
"Okay, fuckers..."
Over the years, Nica had mastered channeling various wavelengths, one or two at a time. Channelling her entire range all at once was a more recent challenge; what she was doing now was pushing the extent of her powers harder than she had ever done. And fuelled by rage and fear of what had been done to colleagues and students, she was more than motivated.
It began with a flicker, a brief hiccup of the lights and screens and various electronic items. Then an abrupt blacking out, monitors going dark, motors whining to a halt, emergency lighting flicking on. And in the middle of the cluster of buildings, a young woman in black leather glowing brighter and brighter, until it seemed a small supernova had landed. Nica pulled her arms in towards herself, gathering in all the energy of the facility, gritting her teeth with the effort. And then at the highest peak, when it felt like her skin must split with the amount of energy she'd absorbed, she flung her arms open.
A massive EM wave burst from her in a circle, rapidly expanding and shorting out every electronic device in a two-hundred-meter sphere. The facility went utterly silent and dark.
Terry looked from the black wave that rolled outward across the facility back to Scott. "You're up." She had her hair braided into a crown around her head so it wouldn't fly out around her or become something an enemy could hold on to, and she'd refused to use her powers in the lead-up to this mission. Too much was riding on its success.
Scott's dark eyes took on a reddish glow, shining like a demon's as the man turned to nod at Terry and Alison, "See you on the ground."
Then he stepped back into the air, eyes starting to glow brighter, twin meteors soaring towards the ground, growing brighter and brighter as he twisted to face the compound. "Knock knock." On cue, an energy blast slammed into the side of the building, leaving walls shattered and opening up the side of the complex as the beam sliced through the walls like a knife through hot butter as Scott felt himself slow in the air, drifting down like a leaf on the wind...if that leaf had engines that let it control the descent.
There was barely any momentum left by the time the X-Man dropped out of the sky next to Nica, eyes trained on the building.
"Do you think they know we're here?"
Terry reached out for Alison's hand. She didn't need physical contact to fly the younger woman down with her, but the other redhead was one of her closest friends and the contact was a nice reminder that she wasn't alone -- her team was here and they were going to get their people -- her person -- back. Then she captured the soundwaves around them, and they stepped out of the plane, flying down to Scott and Nica's level before dipping lower. Tapping her ear to activate her comm unit, Terry snorted softly. "Oh, they definitely know we're here."
Alison, who had been rapping since literally the moment they'd stepped out of the airplane (Yeah, something about when you come for the crown that's so humbling, huh?) until the moment they'd hit the ground, clicked on her own com as well, placing a hand on Terry's shoulder. "We just HUNTR/X'ed out of a plane directly onto their front door. I don't think the quiet path was ever really an option. Dazzler and Banshee on the ground. Who wants to be the one to knock?"
"Cyclops made such a lovely start," Terry murmured, bringing the surrounding soundwaves closer and bunching them up before her. Tilting her head slightly, she gave a rictus grin. "Dazzler, on three?" She counted down by tapping the younger woman's hand on her shoulder, then opened her mouth as the footsteps she could hear approaching came within range of their combined powers. Bolstering her volume, she began singing at the top of her lungs.
"The time will come when you’ll have to rise above the rest and prove yourself — your spirit never dies…" She'd learned a great deal from Alison over the years, but Terry was barely holding onto the song as her voice rose higher and higher, sound turning deadly as Alison's powers locked in with her own. She heard Alison’s voice join in at the crescendo, harmonizing to her lead. "Farewell, I’ve gone to take my throne above, but don’t weep for me, cause this will be the labor of my love…"
Terry's singing was rough, just a step away from straight up screaming. Her voice was thick and coarse, and the sound that came from it clung to her skin like sandpaper. The upwelling of emotions made it, in some small way, more tactile to Alison's power than normal sound normally could.
She turned to look at their planned point of entry and held up a hand. The brilliant light of a laser lit up the tip of her index finger. Golden light was glowing under her skin and leaking out of her eyes. The weight of it all swallowed any one-liner she might have had.
She released it all in a single colossal laser, and for a moment, night became day.
The almost blinding light that illuminated the landscape and sent the shadows scurrying into the deepest pockets of dark gave Scott all the cover he needed, a crimson shaft of energy colliding with the door, sending it flying back with such force that it shattered the walls behind it, spearing into the compound like a battering ram driving through any defences the defenders might have thrown together.
"That's not a problem; I'm not in a quiet kind of mood."
Terry lost the melody of the song, didn't even attempt to find it again as she covered Scott's ears with her usual barrier of sonic protection and began truly screaming. Between Scott's eyes and Alison's sound-based lasers, there was very little of the actual door left but melted slag for her to batter down, which her scream sent careening backward into the facility as Weapon-X's teams scrambled to respond.
If the molten metal happened to damage a few people as she flung it in front of her, well. It wasn't as though she was aiming for them.
Well, maybe just a little.
"Doors are open," Alison said, shaking off her hand. "Let's go get our people."
