Proteus, Part III

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No matter how often it happened, Sunfire felt that he would never get used to hearing other people's voices in his head. That's why when he heard Cable's command to retreat, he almost ignored it as one of the monster's deeds, until he saw Dazzler begin to fall back. He fired off another blast of solar flare, and then landed to join her.

For some reason, all of them backing away slowly from Proteus as they were doing was giving them some form of respite. Alison could feel the ground being somewhat semi-solid underfoot, feel heat radiating from Shiro that was entirely normal and safe and not at all about sloughing the flesh off her bones as the previous reality warp had been. She'd been using light mostly to keep Proteus off balance, dazzling arrays of luminosity meant to disrupt his concentration - but he'd been catching on slowly and the last had barely affected him. It would be lasers soon, if he followed them as they retreated.

"Shiro. Fall back. Now." Her tone was flat and businesslike as she skittered back herself, eyes never leaving Proteus.

He almost corrected her (he was Sunfire now, after all. Hadn't she seen him fight?), but decided to leave it. The tone of her voice told him that he would be getting it, and it wouldn't do to make anyone even angrier with him. So he just nodded and walked away quickly, firing off more plasma over his shoulder as cover. But the blasts were weak, as he found his stores of energy being rapidly depleted, like when he was in Limbo. "Kuso," he spat.

The curse and the reason why were noted, Alison barely smiling just a touch dryly in response. Spent himself too quickly and now he was paying the price - brash and cocky. It was all there. Now wasn't the time to go into the technical analysis of his performance, considering there never should have been one in the first place. "You were told to back down earlier, Shiro." Yes, Proteus was definitely letting withdraw slowly, not trying to snare them into any of the more disturbing reality warps he'd used earlier with every bit of distance they gained. She didn't like it, not one bit. Memory and luck provided her with just the right direction and soon both she and Shiro were concealed from his sight, for just a moment. She had to find Haroun and Nathan. Soon. And making it clear to Shiro that he wasn't going back out with them - they would have to, she knew - was wasting precious time they didn't have to waste.

Ambient radiation only provided so much energy for Sunfire to use. Solar energy was the best, but he would have to wait until morning for a proper recharge. Which was reason number two that he would actually follow orders this time. "That would have been a mistake," he said, shaking his head to clear vision distorted by the monster's draining of his power. "You, Cable, and Jetstream could not provide adequate ammunition to battle this. Range is required."

Right, because Alison was the crumpet throwing lady, perhaps. "I must have missed the notice advising us that you were now a team leader, Shiro. Or part of a team at all." The use of the word team was on purpose, though she thought he'd not catch on just yet. Maybe one day. She didn't even point out that if he'd known well enough to ask, she could have powered him just fine. That she could power Scott was already public knowledge and out in the journals. He wasn't thinking properly. Not for this. And that made him very dangerous to the rest of them.

"Listen to me carefully. You will fall back. You will not come out again with us when we do, because yes, we will have to." She paused, eyes glazing over just a bit - talking to Nathan, though whether Shiro would pick up on that she didn't really care about. "Moira needs time to plan. You will stay right next to her and not go anywhere else." It was too late to send him off, never mind that they didn't have anyone to carry him there if she knocked him out. Although at worse, he could always be knocked out and by Moira.

"Formality in battle will get you killed," Sunfire responded, as if experience had taught him so. Since when was being an X-Man a prerequisite for saving someone's life anyway? But he didn't have the energy to fight with Dazzler, much less with Proteus, so he had to listen to her. "Fine, I will do as you say and cover Doctor MacTaggart until this is over."

Formality was keeping him in one piece right now. "Good." She'd wasted enough time making sure they wouldn't have to worry about Shiro all over again, the mental undertone of what she was getting from Nathan hinting at nothing good. "Go." She'd talk to him later. Maybe. If they made it out of this alive, at any rate. She pointed at one of the side passages, leading to where Moira would be from what Nathan had 'showed' her, and then slipped off on another route of her own, to rejoin both him and Haroun.



Place holder for upcoming log.



"Nathan!" It wasn't a sob, no it was _not_, Moira thought as she scrambled around lab equipment. Papers were clenched tightly in her hands so as to stop the shaking. She and Rory had run test after test, unable to believe what they were seeing. "_Nathan_!" Were they about to head out again, to tackle and try and stop Proteus? She had to talk to him before he left.

Haroun and Alison were a few steps ahead of him, but Nathan stopped, turning back as he heard Moira calling his name. "What is it?" he asked sharply as she hurried towards him, her hands white-knuckled around the papers.

"We got Joe ta talk some when Rory an' I were runnin' tests," she gasped, one hand instinctively dropping down to cover her stomach. "This was revenge, as well as 'im gettin' 'ead in whatever th' 'ell 'e wanted ta do. We're double checkin' but...this boy's power, 'tis nay 'is."

Nathan glanced back over his shoulder at Alison and Haroun, but then took two rapid steps towards Moira, raising his hands to rest on her shoulder. #Tell me,# he said over the link. #Quickly. They need me out there with them.#

#Th' boy 'as 'is own set o' xgenes but...they're odd, off. I dinnae know wha's wron' wit' them. But over top o' them is another set o' xgene. Kevin's.# There was a tremor and she closed her eyes tightly, fighting back hysteria. #Kevin's DNA is intermingled wit' 'is, which explains lack o' control. 'tis nay 'is power ta be messin' wit'.#

Nathan swallowed. Right at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to hold her to him, try to comfort her - but there wasn't time. He needed to be out there. #Is there anything we need to know going out there?# he asked, settling for a mental caress down the link. #Anything we need to do besides buy you time...#

#Buy me time, tha's all. Kevin originally 'ad a weakness ta a certain type o' metal. I cannae remember wha' 'tis exactly right now, we're doin' th' research as we speak. I'm 'opin' tha' Proteus will 'ave th' same weakness, considerin' 'tis th' same power.# She paused and drew in a deep breath. #'e's dyin', Nathan. DNA is breakin' down at an extraordinary rate.#

He stepped hard on the flash of anguish he felt for her. Later. Much later. #Then you get time,# he sent, and leaned forward, kissing her on the forehead. #But hurry. I don't know how long we can keep him busy.# He took a step back, letting go of her, but lingered for a moment. #I love you,# he sent simply, then turned away.

#I love ye, ta. Tell th' others they better bloody well come back wit' ye.#





Scots English, British English, Parasian French. Russian. Some mix of a Chinese dialect and some slavic language he wanted to say was one of the root languages for Russian, but at this point, it could've been garbled Vulcan for all Doug knew.

It was somewhat routine. Go into room with staff member, calm down frightened child, explain that there was an emergency and they'd all be fine but had to go to the shelters.

He was praying that he wouldn't find out later that he was lying through his teeth.

"Shh. Você será fino. A enfermeira tomará cuidado de você, nós apenas tem que ir aos abrigos." Doug ran a hand through his hair and knelt down to help a small girl - at least, he was fairly sure it was a little girl, since she had curly black pigtailed braids - seal the neck of what she was calling her "nenhuma roupa da água". Clothes for outside the water.

The girl's webbed fingers had been slipping on the tight material, and she was on the verge of panicing when Doug finally got the neck seal closed. "Vá com a enfermeira. Tomará cuidado de você."

"NÃO! Eu posso fazê-lo! Somente os bebês não podem pôr seus próprios revestimentos sobre." The girl stomped her foot and made a huffing noise.

Doug sighed. Aquatic mutation or not, kids were still -kids-. "Ajuda? Um. I mean, help?" He said plaintivly to the nurse. He didn't want to scold the girl, but they needed to get them out quickly, and he wasn't sure how much time they -had-.





The floor had just stopped melting underfoot and Alison looked up, stomach still heaving from the nausea inducing reality twist that had just ripped over her. Swallowing heavily she pushed herself back to her feet, taking in the action at a glance - and they weren't doing good, Proteus having advanced far more than was good, by any stretch of the imagination. Wincing at that particular thought she squared her shoulders and took aim again, hoping to distract him long enough that someone else might be free of his influence once he turned his attention back to her again, though the distance seemed to be helping somewhat, in terms of how strong an effect he could generate. Maybe. Some.

The warping of reality was still trying to scatter his telepathy, producing echoes that sliced into his shields like burning knives. But Nathan gritted his teeth, holding onto the patterns Askani had given him, stubbornly seeing the lines of force as they should be, not as they were. What is wasn't always what is.

He threw something - what, he wasn't sure. A tree? It looked more like a black, long-fingered hand - at the flame-wrapped figure. Keep up the pressure, he told himself. Break his concentration...

And it showed, if only a bit, as the floor stopped wavering under her feet and her skin stopped trying to crawl off her bones, allowing Alison that much more time to focus and fire off more lasers, this time at the structure surrounding the eerily glowing figure they were all trying to keep at the center of their admittedly meager ranks. Proteus was glowing, but in reverse - the energy Alison could sometimes make the antithesis of light, eating away at anything near him, making it hard to even focus on him as he slowly took another step closer.

#Nathan?# It was more of a whisper than anything else, the mind blind calling out to the still partially mind broken. They'd had to rush out again with barely any time to plan at all, beyond 'we have to buy Moira time to figure this out' really, and it was showing, the lack of any other tactic other than Keep Proteus Busy grating on Alison's nerves.

#At the ground, Alison!# Nathan sent back sharply, putting as much force behind the projection as he could. His vision, such as it was under these circumstances, was fading in and out, the lines of force going to blackness and then back again. #Try and make him stumble!# Nathan tore up more of the ground, flinging the debris at the flames.

And Proteus turned to him, all of his attention focused on him. Rock and dirt turned to dust, and Nathan found himself levitating helplessly, as gravity rapidly ceased to have any meaning.

But then, gravity didn't have to mean anything to a telekinetic in the first place. Nathan squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating on the feel of the lines of force, and pushed hard. A mid-air flip that Dom would have scoffed at, and he was suddenly back on solid ground, if some distance from where he'd been. As he landed, his TK lashed out seemingly of its own accord, ripping up more of the landscape and throwing it at Proteus.

#No floor! Oh! There it is!# Lasers burned through stone and mortar, destroying what was probably an irreplaceable portion of the castle in a heartbeat and for a brief moment everything stopped bleeding into everything else. She wasn't hurting yet though there was a faint dizziness at the edges of her awareness that had nothing to do with the reality warping Proteus was putting them all thought, and everything to do with the fact that she was out of shape and behind on training. Her reactions were still too slow and it was burning to realize it. Both she and Nathan taking hits they normally wouldn't, reacting just a touch slower than normal.

But they couldn't win, had known this the moment they'd stepped out to buy Moira time. All they had to do was delay him as long as possible - the ultimate solution wasn't in their hands. And in that one moment of pure lucidity that Nathan had bought her, Alison caught sight of Haroun heading for Proteus in a straight line, fire trailing behind him fiercely. And between those two distracting him, Alison could focus enough to be sure of what she was aiming at, and this time the lasers were that much brighter and hotter as she pointed directly at Proteus himself instead of his surroundings.

Nathan registered Haroun hitting the ground, even if he couldn't see him, and gritted his teeth, lashing out again viciously. Right at Proteus this time, but the TK attack was blunted somehow, shunted away to expend itself against what had to be a wall.

He wasn't even positive where he was. Damn it. Proteus turned back to him, the flames burning hotter, and the ground went liquid beneath his feet again.

Waxing and waning, reality phasing in and out constantly, playing havoc on their sense, perceptions and abilities. Alison hadn't gone full out yet, not sure she could and sustain it for any meaningful period of time. She'd have to do so at one point, she'd known that from the start and Haroun falling out of sight made the knowledge only more present. Liquid fire shifted in and out of focus, Proteus' attention wavering every now and then and she lashed out, desperately hoping she wasn't hitting anyone else in the process as well, mind still tracking where they should be even as the rest of her had no idea where anything was most of the time.

Levitate. Nathan pulled himself free of the sucking mass that had been the ground and into the stinging air. He couldn't get a grasp on anything to throw at Proteus, so he settled for another straight telekinetic attack. Deliberately, he kicked his perceptions down a few levels and saw the latticework of energy he remembered from the game of tag with Haroun over the lake. It was sadly warped and twisted, but still there, still tangible, and Nathan tore at it. Fight fire with fire?

But even as it ripped and the air around Proteus started to glow with a more familiar light, Nathan's vision went totally dark. The lines of force winked out around him and he fell, hitting the ground hard as his telekinesis deserted him.

The shift was palpable, everything suddenly seeming to pause as Proteus' full attention suddenly focused solely on her. Oh boy. Alison closed her eyes instantly, going on what memory had to give her rather than sight, drawing in every iota of sound she could manage as quickly as possible and in the next heartbeat letting lose with everything she had, even as the ground started to melt underfoot again, streamers of something brushing at her skin threateningly. Every second that could be bought for Moira would be. No matter the cost.



Place holder log



When the dust settled, Moira peered out from behind the door, staring as the tired group started to head to where Proteus had fallen. No longer on fire, he simply looked like a young, and dieing, man.

Something heavy hit her heart and before Nathan or anyone else could stop her, she found herself kneeling next to him. There was a faint glint of recognition in his eyes and she couldn’t help but wonder where his parents were. Gently, she pulled his head onto her lap and he closed his eyes.

The disruption of his power had probably shortened the few hours, a day at the most, of time he would have. And the only thing she could think to do was to hold him. No one should have to die alone and none of his was his fault.

Police having been called, all she could do now was to hold on and try not to panic. There was a head rush as everything started to hit and Moira struggled to hold onto the here and now.

Not the then, she couldn’t go back there just yet.

And right as she was about to crest the wave of panic, right as she felt the poor boy go limp in her arms, a familiar presence filled up her mind. With a murmur that spoke of love and rest, Moira found herself falling over as someone catched her, the psyhic suggestion to sleep not going unheard.