Reavers, Part 2

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Jubilee's face was smudged with dirt and her hair covered in snow that had fallen from tree limbs as she dashed past. She'd managed to make it to the bunker though and her luck appeared to be holding as the door slid open on greased hinges. She carefully made her way down the steps sideways, hitting the button at the bottom which would close the door and hide it from the outside world.

She appeared to be the only one here, so it was obvious that no one else had been caught out at this end of the school. Either that or she was the only person who had managed to make it to the bolt hole. She shook her head, not wanting her thoughts to go in that direction and sat down, quickly divesting herself of sodden runners and socks.

Then, on silent feet she padded over to the phone sitting on the wall. Picking it up, she heard a ring.

'Be there, someone' she thought as the ring went on for several moments.

***

Not all the Reavers were given the no-kill order. Bad men come to the boathouse, and bad things happen.


Silent treads navigated the narrow deer trail alongside the
brick-lined walkway to the boathouse. Two pairs of combat boots fell
into step behind them, occasionally turning to scan the woodline and
up by the mansion. The three figures stopped at the edge of the open
space between the woods and the lake, the back deck of the boathouse
in plain view.

"Bonebreaker here and in position," the shortest one spoke into his
collar mike, "heat signature's just reading one, as expected. Two
smaller signatures, pets or something. Negligible. What's the word?"

"You've got your orders, Bone," the accented voice responded, "fuck
him up. Skullbuster out."

Under his dyed-blue mohawk, Bonebreaker grinned, displaying
silver-capped teeth that spelled out "PUNK" across his incisors.
Shouldering a large submachine gun, he swiveled from side to side,
feeling the chassis respond beneath him, where his torso ended and the
treads began. Arching up like a spider, he and the other two Reavers
advanced on the boathouse.

Rather busy overseeing Mao and the fine art of pouncing on a mouse
daring to actually be in the boathouse, Catseye flicked an ear
back, an odd sound catching her attention. Mao's victorious pounce was
without witness however, as she turned to look over her shoulder, a
vaguely curious expression in her eyes. The sound was wrong. Not any
of the ones she'd come to associate with the mansion, and all the in
habitants within.

Curiosity sharpened, she ignored Mao's meep for attention and the
squeaks of the mouse, and instead trotted to a nearby table, hopping
on it so she could peek out the window. The sounds were getting
closer. And they weren't familiar in the least.

The low subsonic alarm vibrations roused Cain from sleep slowly. "Th'
hell...?" he mumbled, flailing about for his alarm clock before
realizing that it wasn't eight o'clock, it was dark as hell outside,
and even the light from the VCR clock was gone.

Power's cut, Cain realized, and that's the emergency signal. Fuck.

Sitting up, he caught a glimpse of the cats by the window, and
someone-someTHING rising up over the edge of the railing.

Bonebreaker's imaging enhancements picked up Marko's silhouette and
kicked into detail mode. He grinned ferally, lifting his gun. "Ye're a
big fucker, ain't ye?" he chuckled, taking aim in the center of his
target's torso.

The sound of the shots echoed like thunder through the boathouse, in
counterpoint with shattering glass and the smell of cordite. Cain
didn't even have time to blink before the bullets hit, knocking him
back into the wall. Glass broke in picture frames and fell like rain
around him as he stared unbelievingly at the muzzle flash, just before
his vision went black.


Not all the kids immediately get to the shelters. Some find opposition along the way, of a rather personal and unexpected nature


Shiro bolted up in bed when the alarm went off. "Kuso," he
muttered, throwing off his sheets and slipping on his flip-flops.
"Alex!" he hissed, shaking his sleeping former-roommate, who had
decided to spend the night in his old room since Lorna was off on a
mission. "Get up!"

Groaning, Alex rolled over and batted Shiro's hand away, until he was
awake enough to notice the alarms. Then he bolted up and grabbed his
sneakers from under the bed. "Dude, what's going on?"

"You are asking the wrong person," Shiro said quickly, opening the
door and leaving once Alex had his shoes on. "It looks like the others
are already out. You should go, too. I need to find my sister."

"Dude, We need to stick together, especially if there's something
really wrong." Alex answered stubbornly, following close behind Shiro.
He glanced up and down the hallway, trying to spot the source of the
alarms.

Shiro frowned, but didn't argue the point. If Wisdom's friends had
decided to have another field day in the mansion, then Shiro would
appreciate the extra firepower in the event that he encountered the
invaders. Dodging the students running down the halls to the various
evacuation points, Shiro led Alex to Leyu's suite. The door was open,
and Shiro nearly walked into Kitty, who was holding Leyu's and Nga's
hands. "Daijoubu?" he asked his sister, who just nodded,
clinging to Kitty.

Collecting frightened children during a raid or drill
was starting to become a habit, Kitty mused. She'd
heard crying from down the hallway and diverted from
her assigned path to the bunkers to make sure the
cryer got out ok. Her appearance had calmed the
girls, and she'd been about to phase them all down to
the next level when Shiro and Alex came in. "What are
you doing here?" was the first thing that came out of
her mouth, although technically she shouldn't be here,
either. "Never mind," she added, blushing. "Let's get
to the bunkers."

"Same thing you are Kitty." Alex responded to her first question with
a small smirk on his face. After watching Shiro make sure his sister
was alright, Alex stuck his head out into the hall, before waving the
others forward. "Come on guys, coast is clear."

The group made their way down out. As tempting as it may have been to
find out for himself what was going on, Shiro did not want to face the
consequences for not following orders. Again. Not to mention that he
had exhausted himself during flight class the previous day and still
hadn't yet regained all of his energy. But lucky for him, he was saved
the trouble as three men rounded the next corner, spotted them, and
drew their weapons.

Even though it was dark, Shiro could make out the military gear and
assault rifles. But what was odd was that these men had glass heads,
and Shiro could have sworn that he saw wires and circuits and stuff.
"Kuso," he swore again, stepping in front of the others.

As soon as she saw the men coming around the corner
Kitty phased, making the two little girls safely
insubstantial. She wanted to grab Shiro and Alex and
simply dive them all straight through the floor, but
she'd never phased quite so much mass and while in
theory she could do it, testing these things in life
or death situations was always chancy. Besides, Shiro
was out of reach.

The lead man smirked slightly as he saw Shiro move
forward. Without taking his eyes from the boy he
nodded to his companions and said, "You know the orders."

Glancing behind him, Alex saw that Kitty had safely phased the two
girls and he couldn't help but smirk slightly. With the suit, he'd
gained more control over his power and now, he'd finally have a chance
to prove it. Taking a step forward, he touched Shiro's elbow, both to
tell him he was there and to give him a power boost. Shiro had been
complaining earlier about a draining flight class and Alex knew he'd
need the power he had to offer.

When Alex stepped out from behind Shiro, one of the other's smirked
with vengeful glee. "Well, well, well...if it isn't Selene's little
power bitch? I say we scrap orders and have some fun..." He raised his
rifle, pointed right at the blonde boy's head.

The third man, if that's what he could be called, aimed his gun at
Alex as well. "No," he said firmly. "We kill him, neutralize the
others, and continue on." Reese was getting awfully fed up with Macon.
Was it so hard to just carry out simple orders without fucking around?

Shiro felt momentarily disoriented as Alex touched him, the sudden
influx of power not something he'd yet gotten used to. But it lasted
only a second, and taking advantage of these things' banter, he
quickly raised his left hand and fired off a wide burst of solar
flare, strong enough to fling them back a few feet, but not enough to
do any long-lasting damage.

Alex immediately flinched at the mention of her name and suddenly, both
fear and wonder crept into his thoughts, wondering who the hell these
people were and how they knew about that. But both the threats against
him and Shiro's solar flare brought him back to what was going on.
Frowning he allowed power to collect in his hands, before shooting off
two warning shots. "I don't know who you are, or how you know who I
am...but you'd better back off. She didn't call me Havok for
nothing..."

The wise-ass Macon only broadened his smile as he recovered from Shiro
and Alex's blasts. "Oh look, the children are attempting to fight
back. This will definitely be worth the effort." He aimed at Alex as he
taunted the boys and shot when he finished, straight for Alex's chest,
the odd white orb providing an excellent target. He would have enjoyed
letting Black Queen know about this.

Taking advantage of the intruders' distraction, Kitty
moved quickly. She made Nga take Leyu's hand and
whispered, "No matter what, stay close and do
not let go. You'll be safe as long as you hold
onto me." Now Kitty had a free hand, which would
probably help. With the two girls huddled behind her,
Kitty edged forward along the wall, hoping that the
men would be too preoccupied with the boys - much more
obvious targets. But when one of them sighted at Alex
she threw that plan out the window. Doing her best
impression of a clueless girly girl, Kitty stepped
forward and cried out, "Leave him alone, you brute!"
She sliced her hand through the air as though she were
going to slap the nearest of the men and her hand
passed through his helmet and cheek.

Cole was far too well trained to flinch away from a
little girl, but a hand ghosting through his cheek
were another thing, and the pop and fizz of his comm.
set shutting down along with the rest of his
cybernetics was yet a third. Not understanding what
the girl had done he reached to shove her away from
him and his hands got no purchase. With nothing to
counteract his force Cole overbalanced and stepped
back into Macon's shoulder, swearing.

Reminding himself to praise Kitty later, Shiro grabbed Alex's left
hand with his right, drawing power from him as he fed Alex himself.
"Get the other!" he ordered Alex. Taking but a second to focus, he
fired off another blast of solar flare, but this time enough to throw
Reese clear across the hallway, the heat and force of the blast enough
burn a small hole through his body armor and nearly melt his rifle.

Going on instinct, Alex let loose a blast from his right hand
disintegrating Macon's bullet before it could get near him, but he
still gapped at the fact the man had been aiming to kill him. Thankful
for Kitty's distraction, he took a moment to pull himself together
before he concentrated enough to give Shiro an extra boost. Then he
pulled his hand free to concentrate his energy in both hands, aiming
right for Macon's chest, a little bit of revenge behind the blast.

Macon had barely recovered from Cole running into him, that he nearly
didn't see the blast of energy streaking right for him. Throwing
himself to the floor, he felt the armor on his back melting painfully,
aware that the blast may well seriously injured him if he hadn't
ducked. Growling, he grabbed his rifle from where it had fallen and
fired recklessly at the two boys and the ghostly girl, not caring if
he killed all of them.

With his electronics off, Cole's vision was in serious
trouble. Luckily, the fiery stuff streaming at them
was bright enough to see really, really well.
Unluckily, when Macon dived to the floor he'd left
Cole open to it and not nearly as much time to get out
of the way. "Fuck!" he shouted as the stuff seared
through the armor over his arm and shoulder and his
skin began to blister. Dropping to the ground got him
out of the way of Macon's extreme reaction, but it
wasn't so much a planned thing - his legs had just
collapsed in a desperate attempt to get away from the
fiery stuff.

Kitty saw the man going for his gun and reacted
instantly. She lunged forward, phasing in for the
second it would take to get her fingers around Alex's
sleeve and then phasing them all back out as the crazy
man began to fire. Just in time, too, it turned out as
one of the bullets flew straight through her extended
arm. "Shiro, Alex, we've got to get out of here!" she
cried, keeping herself between the little girls and
the man with the gun. He couldn't shoot them while
they were phased out, but it would be for the best if
they couldn't -see- him either. From the quite sobs,
they were clearly frightened enough already.

"Agreed." With both hands free and Leyu safely phased out, Shiro took
the opportunity to attack. Aiming at the flailing Macon, Shiro fired
off a small blast powerful enough disable his rifle. Another brief
blast fried the circuitry in his head. With that one crippled, another
barely able to get on his feet across the hall, and the third almost
spasming, Shiro nodded in satisfaction. "Let's go. The X-Men will take
care of them."

Getting his anger back in check, Alex allowed Shiro to finish up,
afraid of what he would do if he continued, plus he didn't want to
test his powers while phased, suit or no. He still didn't understand
why he'd been targeted and he didn't want to dwell on it so instead he
concentrated on the two scared little girls. Moving over to them, he
picked them up, cradling one in each arm and headed the opposite way
down the hall. "Come on guys, let's get to the bunker before we find
any more!"

With the three men not making any more moves to get to
them, Kitty let go of Alex and phased herself and the
girls back in, letting Alex take the two of them.
"Agreed," Kitty said, her mind mapping out the fastest
escape route, and a few other options in case there
were any more men in their way.

***