xp_logs | Lost and Found, part four: The Space Between Black and White

Alison, on her way to the crash site, is diverted. Light-manipulation and Darkforce shields do not mix. She runs into a Mistra operative who finds himself with a surprising amount of leeway - and takes it. A trend is definitely developing.

#Blaire... Dazzler?# The voice in her mind was definitely not Nathan. It sounded very young, tired, and very, very worried. #Elliot, I'm Elliot... you've got to stay away from the helicopter. Your powers, they'll interact with the shield, drain it...#

The tendril of reassurance was something Alison didn't even try to hold back, though it remained entirely wordless and quick - he was a telepath, that was hardly a problem. #The shield?# So the bubble of darkness was in fact shadows and not just an odd manifestation, and she stopped dead in her tracks, hissing in annoyance with herself. #Got it.# And because it was far too risky, she continued, thoughts crisp and clear even as the wind howled around her, not yet overcharing her though it would eventually. #Make sure I know where it is at all times - hook the awareness there. Don't worry about finesse.# He was tired and they had no time. She'd take the reaction headache later, when the hook was removed.

#All right,# Elliot sent back, fumbling the link in his weariness. Images flickered down the link, focusing on a young man with a splinted arm and shadows pouring from him, forming the dome. #There.. you'll feel it, but I don't know how long Bourne can keep it up--#

#Dazzler!# Nathan's mental voice was far crisper, more focused. #Nash is circling around behind you - watch yourself!#

#Keep your strength. We'll keep them away.# It was all Alison could afford to send the younger man, even as his presence slipped away from her mind. #Got it. Find and match for the others,# she thought for Nathan, even as she forced herself to not turn around and let on that she knew about the man trying to circle around her. Instead she made sure of the sense of 'where' the downed helicopter was and moved away as best she could, slowly enough to lure the Mistra operative with her while making sure she was being followed. And expecting, oh, a tree to be thrown at her at any moment's notice.

#I'll make--# And Nathan's presence was gone from her mind, all at once, with an almost audible snap.

At the same moment, something came flying at her head. Not a tree, but something around the size and shape of a large rock.

Expecting to have something thrown at you meant that avoiding it was a considerably easier proposition than if you'd had no warning at all. Still, ducking out of the way was an interesting proposition, what with the blizzard only letting go of the projectile at the last moment. Tracking back its point of origin, Alison touched again the knowledge of where was in her mind, there and then sent a low level laser in return, just enough to catch a glimpse of who was out there and not lose them from sight.

The form that ran towards her out of the blizzard was seven feet tall, easily, and resolved into a man built roughly along the lines of a small tank, with oddly gray-hued skin. Nash lunged at her with shocking speed for someone that big.

The blizzard actually made things easier for her at that point - the wind helped her dodge, propelling her out of his first strike, Alison not staying in close to see what the follow up would be. Range was definetely her friend just now, even though there was no guarantee she'd get it. Solid light slammed into Nash's upper body, even as the ground underfoot was lasered away as well to further get him off balance.

Nash stumbled on the suddenly uneven ground, but shrugged off the solid-light hit, ripples of darker gray moving upwards across his face but then fading again as he moved in on Alison. Close quarters, his tactical imperatives were telling him. Close quarters, so that she couldn't use her powers quite as effectively...

Tank, she realized - equivalent to Colossus, meaning it would take outright lasers to affect him most likely, which not something Alison was willing to commit to just yet, regardless of the situation. Instead, she pulsed light in the area around them, the millisecond needed to check on the location of the shield protecting Mac's team not slowing her down in the least as she kept moving, doing her best to stay out of his reach. Snow melted and puddled around them near instantly and the light was re-oriented in a blinding ray aimed specifically at Nash's head without warning.

Not the best match-up for him, Nash thought, cursing inwardly as he was blinded. The hissing of the snow around him gave him a warning, and he stopped, listening hard. Trying to pick out the sound of her footsteps in the snow over the noise of the fighting, hoping she wasn't going to shoot to kill while he wasn't moving.

Alison, however, was far from cooperative. The less he moved, the more he waited - the more time there was for the melted snow to solidify. As ice. She kept still, eyes locked on him while taking care only to generate the occasional zone of heat around him - more melted snow to slowly layer over the thickening ice surrounding him now, the ice cold winds buffeting them at unnatural speeds working in her favor. He wouldn't stay blind forever, though she'd packed a lot of light in that one blast. He was first gen, she knew it from his file. More melted snow covered the ice, solidifying almost instantly. Bobby would be delighted to know she was doing something like this, a corner of her mind noted.

"Nash." Why go for subtle? The ice was there now, and talking - had worked before. Whatever she said might hit a crack in the conditioning or not - there were no guarantees. "You were fourteen when they took you. Old, compared to the usual age range. They must have wanted you a lot."

Nash could feel the ground beneath his feet shifting. Freezing? He brought one foot up and then down again, cracking the ice. His vision was already starting to clear. If she was going to talk, let her. "Don't talk like you know me," he growled under his breath, trying to focus in on the source of her voice.

Well, that was a reaction. "I don't." She moved slowly, counting on the wind to distort her actual location just enough - oh, to live from sound that way she did was such a lovely thing. There - the resonance was just right there, the wind snatching her voice away just enough to place her elsewhere. "I'm just working from what's there to see. How did so many parents die, just conveniently enough for Mistra to pick up the orphans? So many kids, somehow slipping through the cracks of the system. Al of them turning out to be mutants. Including you."

"Conveniently." Despite the fact that they were in the middle of a tactical situation rapidly going to hell, Nash let a weary laugh slip. "You don't think we see the possibilities? We just don't dwell on them, Blaire. No point." Only spots, now, dancing in his vision, and he could see movement in front of him, in the storm. He took a careful, hard step forward, smashing the ice.

"No point." The wind shifted and Alison followed it. There was enough ice around him to require at least some care on his part, for a short distance. "Why, because they tell you so?" She dared to stop moving suddenly, ready to just shield herself as needed if he decided to take a hit at her. "They've already been proven wrong. Twice by Nathan. And again, not so long ago, by Mick." She didn't mention Anika, didn't even allow herself to think of the feral, just in case Mistra had a telepath on their team that was still unknown to them.

"Right. Because they tell us so." Nash lunged, knowing he'd slip, but hoping that momentum would compensate and he'd at least slip in her direction.

The wind behind her howled and Alison took a chance, even as Nash lunged towards her - dodging to the side, moving faster and further than she normally would have thanks to the gale boosting her momentum. She knew he was fast though, and wasn't entirely surprised when a hand locked on her ankle, not only stopping her but dragging her back along with him as he slid to the edge of the ice. Light wavered then solidified around her, the reminder of being dragged that way by someone else we're just getting started scream again nearly turning the shield to something far more lethal.

Nash gritted his teeth, losing his grip on her as something - a light-shield? - interposed itself. He backed away, sliding, not sure that he wasn't about to get a laser in the face. Not a good match-up, him and her, he told himself. Morgan would be better. His tactical imperatives weren't even resisting that.

A moment later, the realization actually sank in. His tactical imperatives were giving him the option to retreat. They were actually giving him the option to retreat.

He'd backed away? He had room to do that. Alison pushed herself up to her feet, bringing the light shelf in closer to herself, where it should have been if it hadn't flared up at the memory of... the body shield wavered again at the thought and snow hissed furiously in response for a heartbeat, until she toned it down again.

"You have no orders about me or those with me. But some of your people are down and you have orders there. Clear orders." She kept her voice low, hands at her side - non-threatening, not engaging in combat. Get him to focus on that, stay away from combat entirely, hopefully.

Nash hesitated for a moment, but... no, still no pushing from his tactical imperatives. It wasn't a good match-up. He did have people down, and Blaire wasn't actually moving towards the helicopter, wasn't getting between him and priority targets. Thank you, Tim... he thought dimly. Flexibility was their friend, indeed.

He actually mustered a smile. "Good point," he said quietly. "Good luck, by the way," he tossed over his shoulder as he ran off into the storm.

---

Nathan isn't so lucky. There's a long-standing kill-order out on him, and a fellow precognitive decides she's the one to carry it out. Given that Mistra knows each and every single one of Nathan's weaknesses, he finds himself in deep trouble.

Nathan stopped, breaking contact with Alison and slamming up his shields all at once as he sensed... fuck. He threw up a TK shield, but an instant too late, as the shot took him in the chest. The body armor saved him, but didn't save him from the impact, and he stumbled back against the tree behind him, losing his footing and hitting the ground. Reflex kept the TK shield up, and he stayed on the ground, trying to catch his breath, and listen.

Mel... why not a headshot? Konstantakis was out there somewhere, off to his left. He thinned out his mental shields very cautiously - he didn't know for sure that there was no Mistra telepath out there - and tried to lock onto her.

The shot had bought her the time she needed. Konstantakis stopped where she was, concentrating hard, letting her precognition tell her what Nathan would be doing ten seconds from now. Damn it, old man. You just had to come along for the ride, didn't you? she thought, not without regret as she Saw him get back to his feet and try to circle around her. The children were one thing, MacInnis' team another, and the X-Men something else entirely, as her orders went.

But there had been a kill order out on Nathan since late August. Neither she nor any other member of this team could ignore that. Konstantakis reached down to her belt for the EM grenade Dyson had pushed at her before they'd landed. Just in case, he'd said, then gone to pass them out to some of the others, the ones who had less capability to strike from a dsitance.

She set it for two minutes and ran silently across the path Nathan was about to take, dropping it where he'd be well within its range when it went off.

Nathan could feel her moving around. "Fuck," he whispered under his breath as he hauled himself back to his feet. A fellow precog, if one very different from both him and Angie. With all the tests Mistra liked to run, they had never once caught Mel in a mistake up to the ten second-threshold of her powers. Her precognitive sight was flawless, and an invaluable edge in close combat.

There were ways around it, but the woods were full of his teammates, MacInnis' people and the children... not to mention the fact that he didn't want to hurt Mel or any of the others, if that was at all possible. He couldn't afford to cut loose.

She was heading back the other way. He changed direction to follow her, keeping the TK shield up - getting shot once was enough for him, thank you very much - and trying to figure out precisely what the hell he could do to put her down without killing her. Something that pushed past the ten-second threshold, but it would have to be big, and...

There was something lying in the snow as he ran by. He caught it out of the corner of his eye, a small, round dark object with a little flashing red light, and by then, it was emitting a beeping sound, and...

Oh, FUCK--

There was nothing to see, when the EM grenade went off. Nathan's vulnerability, Konstantakis knew, was to specific frequencies and quantities of infrared radiation, and Dyson had very definitely taken that into account, tinkering at the back of the helicopter during the pursuit. She ducked beneath some handy rocks, just as Nathan lost control over his telekinesis and the trees around him exploded into splinters. Konstantakis counted to five - hadn't been as big an explosion as she'd feared, all she'd seen was a particularly bright flash - and then bounced back to her feet, running in that direction.

---

'Take out your enemy's command structure'. It's a common-sense sort of approach. Unfortunately, Morgan is the one in the position to take it.

Back amid the trees, Morgan's eyes narrowed as he watched al-Rashid land beside Blaire. There. The X-Men's two field leaders, there together, within easy reach. Precisely the sort of opportunity he couldn't pass up. Damn it. He concentrated, levitating smoothly as his exoskeleton took shape around him. Options, he thought as his tactical imperatives hissed at him. How many options, think it through... but he was already leaping forward, one claw reaching out and closing around al-Rashid. Keeping the flyer on the ground was a given.

Haroun's first instinct was to get airborne. And that would have worked well, except for the glowing interposed claw that smashed him back to the ground. Painfully. On top of all his other injuries, Haroun's back muscles clenched hard and did not want to let go. Despite this, he got up to one knee to push back against the claw of force, to see if he could dislodge it before it pulped him.

Light welled into view, slamming into the telekinetic's exoskeleton - hard, though not as hard as if even attempting to unbalance someone who could anchor himself in place with his power regardless of his environment had been Alison's intent at all. The brief moment of radiance faded only to be replaced by another steadier glow, this time located under Morgan's 'hand' in fact, a dome of light solidly locked into place and surrounding both X-Men, Alison's hands lost in the glow as she concentrated.

Haroun, being a carpe diem sort of a guy, wriggled out of the telekinetic claw. It was only pain, even if it did make breathing most inconvenient, and bipedal posture an exercise in sheer willpower. Luckily, Haroun had a lot of willpower to go around, so he did manage to pull himself to his feet. He was going to be useless against this new threat. He could tell already.

Hrm. Interesting. Morgan took a step closer, mentally running over ways he could crack the dome. Did he have to, though? al-Rashid wasn't showing any signs of taking off now that he was free. Blaire was clearly on the defensive, maintaining the shield... "I turned off the radio on our helicopter," he said, his voice resonating oddly through the exoskeleton. "When we headed into the storm. So, no specific orders regarding the lot of you. Where's Nathan?"

Helicopter. That gave Haroun an idea. As quickly as he could, he threw himself into a dive and activated his power. He wanted to get clear of Morgan, to loop around and find the Mistra chopper. ~Cover me! Going to neutralize helo~ he subvocalized on the command channel. ~I'm no good against this one anyway.~

The shield flared brightly, spilling light in a wide enough radius to give him just enough room to get out of Morgan's range, the lingering smell of sulfur locked within. ~Go. Both of us pinned down is useless. Having him focus on me keeps him out of things too. Ware the back-up at the helo.~ Alison tried actually draw in a touch more sound, not enough to kill the ambient soundscape however, and poured more solid light into the shield and in the light cover she was generating. "Nathan is here." She was biting out each word carefully, the shield taking effort to keep up along with more diffuse radiance around them now - but telling him Nathan was here might be enough to keep him focused on her. A mental check - yes, still far away from Mac's team. Just enough.

Morgan sighed, seeing al-Rashid take off. "Damn it," he muttered, and redirected just enough telekinesis from his exoskeleton to swat the flyer out of the air. Not nearly as hard as he could have, and he sure as hell wasn't Nathan, with the ability to yank aircraft out of the air - most of his TK went to the exoskeleton - but a glancing blow did the trick quite nicely. "Are you missing the point, Blaire?" he asked, smashing a claw down against the shield experimentally. "Loopholes. Aerial opponents who could take out our transport? Closed loophole."

Haroun went spiralling down in a swearing ball of flame. When he finally stopped moving, he lay still for a second while his abused body screamed at him and the cyberwear made a self-diagnostic. ~Get UP, al-Rashid! GET UP!~ he thought savagely, and forced himself to his feet. That was bad enough, but over in the distance he could just make out the Mistra landing pad. Something in his shoulder was grinding, which wasn't surprising considering how he had landed on it. So he broke out into a lope, staying on the ground this time and advancing on the helicopter. A shame he had no distance attack whatsoever - a few grenades and that chopper would be metal shavings.

Alison didn't look back, didn't activate the command channel - Haroun was either down or not, and if not he'd make his way to the helicopter. But either way there was nothing she could do now. The shield held under the blow and Alison decided to keep it as it was - keeping Morgan here was good. Very good. She sank shards of light into the ground underneath the shield experimentally to anchor herself, ready to let it go and switch to a body shield if need be. "No. Have a point in mind. Might not be what you think. You want Nathan, huh?" She sounded far more calm than she felt, or so she thought, not quite realizing that she was in fact far from panicking at the moment. ~Cable? Whoever you're facing off with now, mind a partner switch? I've got Morgan here...~

There was, alarmingly enough, no answer.

"No," Morgan said, "as a matter of fact, I don't want Nathan. Because I'm under standing orders to kill him." Nate could stay right the hell away. He hit the shield harder, trying to decide what would work, here. Tear it apart? He could probably do that, if he tried hard enough. Tear the shield apart, knock her out... yeah, that would work. He didn't have to kill her, he told the tactical imperatives, ignoring the beginnings of one of Those Headaches.