Close Encounters
Overview: After a long dormancy, the mutants are awake, and seek vengance for those who wish their very demise.
The Main Characters:
Dawn - Font color: Deep Sky Blue
Silver - Font color: Yellow
Lauren - Font color: Green
Tabitha - Font color: White
Gabrielle - {Font color: Deep Pink
Que - Font Color: Silver
Hues of red and orange enveloped the temporarily quiet city below, giving the metropolitan area an almost welcoming appearance. It was a cool morning, and the smog in the air was considerable less prevalent this day, a change which few inhabitants would find disagreeable. Upon the streets, store owners (undoubtedly energized by the pollutant-free air) were beginning to open shop, and vendors too, were preparing to set up for the long day ahead.
But those average white-collar workers were not the only individuals awake at such an ungodly hour. The stillness of the morning, it seemed, was feigned. Unbeknownst to nearly all with tasks at hand - was a residual, almost obsessive bit of stalking that had gone on for nearly twelve hours.
Small hordes of the genetically-altered humans had swept through the street during the night, using the dark to stealthily creep upon their unfortunate mutant victims. Upon regrouping at dawn, the band of humans found that the veritable army which they had started out with had dwindled to merely a few dozen stragglers that had managed to escape their brethren’s fate. They simply did not expect the resistance they had met that night.
It was by mere happenstance that a sole mutant had caught wind of a malicious plan. (And by happenstance I mean that Gabrielle just so happened to find a genetically engineered human, and beat the information out of him.) The young woman barely had time to radio the Mansion, alerting them of the impending attacks. As a result, she was left to fight the human gangs alone. And with mutant toughness and superhuman strength and reflexes, Gabrielle had done quiet well, if she did say so herself.
“I think I’ve done pretty well!”
But the night had taken it’s toll. Sure, the young woman possessed a resistance that rendered her nearly unbeatable in a fight, but after an entire evening of nonstop life-and-death battles, it tends not to be an infinite source of protection. Which the young woman found out the hard way, a large gash along her left thigh a couple of busted ribs a testament to her earlier realization. Gabrielle however, was not one to quit. And the only way the evening’s events could come to close this day was for the entire human horde to be wiped out (or she would die from blood loss, but this thought was not allowed to be pondered upon).
The few humans that survived the onslaught indeed looked scared as they carried on towards a secluded, and rather oversized back alley that appeared to be a sort of predetermined regrouping area. A lithe figure watched them from the rooftop of an older apartment building that overlooked the alley. The leather-clad, gun wielding blonde stood out in the open, no shadow to hide herself, nothing to disguise her intentions (which was -quite simply- to kill them all). The bandage along her thigh had long since lost it’s effectiveness, as blood dripped freely from the super-saturated cloth now onto the building’s roof.
It was only a matter of seconds before the presence of the woman had been sensed by the humans below, and roughly three or four dozen sets of eyes glared up towards Gabrielle. The sound the hammers on handguns being pulled back in succession resonated throughout the alley. “Pfft. My gun‘s bigger.” And although the words she spoke were bold, the young woman could not help but wonder where in the hell the other X-Men had been, or if they’d show up now.
A slight giggle echoed into the still morning air as brown eyes watched Gabrielle closely from the roof of the building across from her. This girl -must- be crazy to try and take on so many at once... Still, such a feat deserved some respect. However, it was obvious that her confident demeanor was a cover for the fatigue upon her body. Whoever this girl was, she wasn't going to last much longer before she succumbed to death. The blonde was too worn out to take on so many, but Lauren was just getting started.
Lauren took a few steps back, judging the distance between the two buildings closely. Nodding to herself, she got into a running stance. Suddenly, a green, incandescent material began to form around her hands, forming up her arms and covering her enitire body over her clothes. After a few moments, her entire body was comparable to a diamond statue.
Lauren immediately ran forward, not faltering as the edge of the roof came into view. She tumbled forward, grabbing onto the edge with her hands and spinning around and pushing off so that she was now parallel with the ground and her feet were moving towards the roof.
As she reached the height of her arc, the material on her body began to crack, dropping off of her body in pointy shards as they fell towards the crowd of humans below.
Lauren landed on the roof that Gabrielle was on, sliding backwards slightly.
"You look like you could use some help," she said non-chalantly.
A sudden, bright flash of light signaled the arrival of a non-official member of the X-Men. Having heard Gabrielle’s signal a full twelve hours after it had been sent, Que was the first from the X-Mansion to respond. True, he didn’t think out any sort of plan, or grab any of the other, capable mutants … Quite frankly Que wasn’t sure if he’d be any help at all.
But he appeared before the two battle-ready females along the roof nonetheless. He was taken back momentarily by the green-ish color of the unfamiliar mutant, but quickly glanced over to Gabrielle. “Good god girl,” He remarked grabbing a spare gun that the blonde kept holstered her injured thigh, “You look like hell, as usual.” Before she could reply, being with only a small amount of weapons training took aim at one of the altered humans, and pulled the trigger.
And all that came from it was a sudden onslaught of bullets flying towards the small gathering a top the building. A somewhat apologetic expression followed: “What? I -looked- like I knew what I was doing.”
Dark brown eyes peered over the ledger that Que had ducked behind to escape the gunfire. “What the hell? Gabrielle, you said you were fighting humans. These people look like their on steroids.” He glanced down at his weapon and discarded it. He then looked to Lauren, “I sure hope -you- know how to use one of those…"
"Pssh," Lauren scoffed. "Who needs it," she declared, diamond spreading over her entire body again. "But if you two plan on staying up here shooting mutated fish in a barrel, you can count me out," she said, walking towards the edge of the roof. She flashed them a quick smile over her shoulder before she walked off, landing admist the group of humans.
She immediately surveyed the group before they had time to react. Only one human lay motionless on the ground, a diamond shard protruding from his head.
"Hmm.. Should have done better.." she commented just as the group moved in towards her.
What a brilliant morning ruined. Silver flicked the thought away irritably, so what if she'd had to give up her quiet spot atop a tall, central building to watch the glimmer of the ocean before her. If she had known better, Silver would still have glanced down behind her to the lesser streets below and inadvertedly closed her eyes as the wind rushed past her. She couldn't help it. Whenever she got a quiet moment like this, it was just a part of her nature to concentrate and make it happen. 'It', of course, was the use of her superhuman ability that could allow for her to see and feel the world entirely as patterns of magnetic or electrical energy.
Silver could remember. She'd furrowed her brow in confusion, concentrated a little closer on the moving currents below her, and concluded some sort of odd commotions was at hand. Opening her eyes, she still kept the concentration of patterns in her mind, but failed to see what could be going on about seventy stories below her. Of course it was directly below her, but now here she was, pulling at the Earth's magnetic field to alter her gravity, flying through the air towards the trouble.
Trouble was a good way to sum it up, because as soon as she was close enough, Silver could see two figures atop a low roof, and many more below. The blonde was recognised without too much difficulty, but the other still remained a mystery.
She found her way to the section of roof next to Gabrielle, and found another reason for her brow to furrow, as it did. "Hey, you look terrible," a glance downwards gave her the complete explanation, there was certainly no doubt who these humans were, and Silver had gotten herself acquainted with them more than just a few times, "How long have you been fighting them?"
Still Lauren was unfamiliar, and Silver was about to either speak again or actually do something when there was a bright flash fo light, soon followed by Que and an eruption of gunfire. "Oh, glad you joined us." She gave him a nod, and as soon as her gaze was back on the offending humans below her, a large, square metal rubbish tip went screeching across the concrete, flattening quite a few of the humans. "Criminey! It's more than steroids!"
"Don't you just love it when Que tries to go Rambo?" Tabitha asked as shel formed out of a shadowed corner. A corner that no normal person would be able to hide in without several appendages sticking out. Well, like anyone who would be up so early and hiding in shadows could be normal. The dark haired teen moved towards the edge of the building, her body sheding the shadows that had moved her to the rooftop. She watched as a large garbage can mauled a pair of the 'humans'. One could hardly call them humans.
"Watcha' need me to do, Gab?" Tabitha asked the older mutant, stepping out of the human's sight for the moment. She was only a trainee and technically she shouldn't even be there without permission. But that was a mere technicality and she was present already so she might as well help.
Silver raised her brows at the appearance of Tabitha, out of nowhere. But instead of blinking and questioning the logic of that sized woman, fitting into that teeny corner, Silver came up with the answer through final resurfacing of memory, and turned back to her rubbish bin, which had crashed noisily into an alley wall and fallen on it's side. "Doesn't -bother- me." She gave her input on the matter of Que, but kept the subsequent remark in her head, as Silver usually did with remarks of jesting nature when she didn't know the one concerned quite so well.
With a flick of her wrist, the large bin went skidding across the way it came, spinning as it went, contents flying everywhere below them and a mighty screech of metal on concrete followed it. She cringed again, as it hit the wall it had originally stood against, before it was bothered by the fight and probably dented beyond the point of anyone to have the sense to repair it. Why didn't she just -lift- it? Well... It could probably do more damage this way, Silver hadn't experimented with that yet.
"So, how are you doing, are you okay?" She asked Gabrielle, eyeing up the wounds the other sported with a concerned frown as she ducked back behind the roof again.
Now see, if Que himself were to retell the store of the day’s event’s, he would most likely leave out the part that his rather lame heroic attempt and subsequent sudden barrage of gun fire had left the former omnipotent (and currently useless) being on the receiving end of probably a few hundred fast-moving deadly projectiles. Since Que neither thought of the consequences of his actions, nor was he making any effort to take cover, it was clear that he was in imminent danger of realizing his own mortality.
And quite frankly, Gabrielle didn’t want to hear him whine about dying.
With the aid of her uncannily quick reflexes, she tackled Que, arranging their landing behind an protective outcropping along the rooftop. The young woman grimaced upon landing, already feeling the welts forming along her back from where the bullets had hit her ,“Goddamit Que, you’re damn lucky I’m still bullet proof!” She grabbed the back of his head, and with her other free hand motioned towards the perimeter that the small human horde were currently being held within, “Go, do your flashy thing and make sure that no one escapes. And for god‘s sake don‘t take any weapons with you.”
There. Now the most incompetent person that had come to her ‘rescue’ had some remedial task that freed the others from his uselessness.
The arrival of the -other- mutants, however, had indeed been a source of relief to Gabrielle. And ordinarily, the young woman would voice such sentiments, but this was hardly the time for pleasantries. The protective extension that sheltered the mutants from the barrage of bullet fire was quickly becoming obsolete. The sheer magnitude of firepower had begun to overwhelm the plaster structure, which was disintegrating before their eyes in a cloud of white smoke. Now was the time to act. And the mutant backup team seemed to be ready to do just that.
“Silver, Tabitha, glowing green girl,--” Gabrielle shouted, bringing herself to stand, positioning herself to she was standing directly over the human horde. She paused for a moment, casually and calmly reloading her handgun as the sound of bullets whizzing by her continued, “Back me up.” With nothing else spoken, the blonde leapt from the top of the building, into the middle of the fray below.
The reds and oranges of the city morning seemed to intensify the back streets of New York City where spots of blood stained every street corner that the night’s heroine had happened upon that night. “Oh Gabby, how you managed this…” It had been nearly twelve hours since the manor had been alerted of the massacre that would take place on the streets, and now, in the final act of this morning’s battle, Dawn landed on the top of a dilapidated billboard, overlooking the scene. The woman watched as her friend, injured far beyond what Dawn thought was possible, once again throw herself into the alleyway that was all too reminiscent of an arena.
Though she had been far above the scene, Dawn heard every word, and in an instant, she was speeding past office windows that were just now lighting as the average nine-to-five employees turned on the lights of their cubicles. Perhaps if she had looked into any one of the illuminating floors Dawn would gain a sense of exactly how the world now perceived her and her comrades that had so recently awakened. How were the mutants perceived now? Now, when humans themselves rip each other apart? It was undeniable to any sensible New Yorker that salvation came through the mutant force; however, the anti-mutant propaganda still pervaded the streets. But none of this mattered now. Now, was only the fight.
Before any others could leave their perches on the roof, and about the same time Gabrielle herself hit the ground, Dawn was by her side, “You know I’m always here to back you up,” she smirked in the split second she made eye contact with her friend. “I’m just sorry it took so long…”
It took only a moment for Dawn to realize that her mental powers had no affect whatsoever on the small horde of degenerate humans before her. Dodging a physical blow to the head, Dawn rolled over close to a nearby dumpster, grabbed a rusting metal pole and swung hard at the head of her attacker. The blow hardly phased the groaning beast..
“So I was reading today,” Dawn began rather casually, heaving her words ever so slightly as she mentally lifted the large dumpster behind her and slamming it into a couple of the humans in front of her, “these guys were supposed to be the new super soldiers. Not only were they to take out the mutant r---” A fist caught Dawn in the stomach, causing her to double over onto her knees, but not before she sent the aggressor flying, “Mm, the mutant race..” She growled, eyes flashing a shade of red, “There was going to be a full scale world revolution.”
“But now?” Dawn chuckled slightly, glancing to those around her, “Well, all hell’s about to break lose.”
Silver kept one eye on the genetically enhanced force below them, peering over the roof and ducking every now and again as a gun was pointed in her direction, while Gabrielle so heroically saved Que from a fate of non-existance. Inwardly she cringed, seeing her shot like that, but just as Gabrielle assigned Que to a job he might have less chance of getting himself and her killed in, Silver felt a shudder tear through the building below her. She placed two unsure hands on the roof as gunfire continued to rain down on them, the cause of this disturbance, and realised just a moment after Gabrielle what was inevitably about to happen.
Gabrielle leapt down to join the fray, and Dawn also appeared to aid her, Silver didn't even need the shout from Gabrielle to give up her perch, and was soon above the heads of them all, zooming from one end of the alley to the other in an irregular zigzagging manner, bullets whizzing past her constantly. It didn't take her long to realise that just as Dawn's powers of the mind didn't affect the humans, it was extremely difficult for her to concentrate on their magnetic and electric fields, the currents strangely erratic and distant. Confused as to how the hell this was possible, Silver was at least thankful for the fact that everything did have some kind of magnetic force, however weak.
"Watch out!" Silver called, as in an instant, bullets ceased their movement aroung her, all stopping a certain distance away from her, and flew back down to rain hard on the humans, special areas around Dawn and Gabrielle avoided, though one or two clattered near their feet on the ground.
It only gave her a moment, and she was down with both feet on the ground in an instant. Spotting her favourite metal rubbish tip lying battered against a wall where Dawn had willed it, the massive rectangular object was once again crashed into another wall, crushing a human with a particularly nasty-looking gun. Unfortunately, Silver soon noticed that her recycled bullets had done little to hinder the human's progress, and was herself concentrating particularly hard to try and find their currents, disturbing them and the Earth's natural magnetic field to send them flying into walls.
She was on her third, and trying very hard not to accidentally send one Dawn or Gabrielle's way, or worse, send one of them into a brick wall, when she heard a crack and felt herself get pushed off balance as a pain spread from her shoulder. Silver let loose a few very colourful words, fell into a drop-kick and quickly took the offendor's feet out from under him. A gun without bullets flew from his grasp, and if Silver hadn't been moving at the time, that gun would probably have given her a concussion instead of a badly bruised shoulder.
Now distracted by the pain, but angrier than ever, she tore into the next human, ignoring the dull ache in her knuckles as her fists collided with jawbone and other hard, inner materials. She didn't even notice that the humans she'd thrown into buildings were hardly affected, and the one's she was fighting were damn hard to keep down, even after sustaining multiple injuries each enough to kill any normal person. This was going to be a long battle.
Shadows enveloped Tabitha, covering her entire body. The shadows shrank down as she moved through them, reappearing in the alleyway below. Two of the altered humans came at her, one with a knife and the other with, incredibly, a katana. Several thin, tentacle-like tendrils of shadow shot out from her armor-like body, wrapping around the bodies of the psudo-mutants. More of the inky black creatures were joining the central construct of pure darkness, adding to the mass around Tabitha, who was beginning to get lost in the crying voices that only she could hear. Valiantly, she struggled to keep control as the tentacles began choking the life out of the two men, lifting them effortlessly into the air above the fighting as their grip gradually tightened.
Kill. The voices whispered incessiantly, and Tabitha let them finish off the two humans and drop them uncerimoniously before shedding most of her armor. She retrieved the katana from where the man dropped it. The dark haired teen was determined not to let her power control her but sometimes it was so hard to fight it. She would finish the fight with her own strength, theoretically restricting her power to purely defence.
The second Gabrielle’s feet touched the ground, she was welcomed by the arrival of her friend. “Dawn!” The young woman exclaimed while simultaneously delivering a back kick (with her good leg) to an altered human. Dawn’s concern for her was evident, but Gabrielle quickly explained, “Bah, if you were any earlier---” Momentary pause to dodge and grab the fist of an opponent, then pick him up by the solitary limb and tossing him hard enough into the brick building to leave an body impression forever indented along that wall, “There wouldn’t have been anything for -me-!” Although this was said satirically, it was not far from the truth; there was nothing in or out of this world that even stood a chance of survival against Dawn’s power of the Phoenix.
A soft clicking sound signaled that Gabrielle had run out of ammunition. She shrugged slightly, and turned the guns over in her hands, using the handled as melee weapons that gave her own physical attacks that extra oomph. The blonde listened intently as Dawn spoke, all the while adding her own victims to the heap of fallen opponents.
The other mutants seemed to be holding their own for the moment. From time to time Gabrielle would catch a luminous flash of light out of the corner in her eye, which meant that Que was using his teleportation powers to force those who tried to flee towards the Mutant Force. And Though Silver had been dealt a fairly heavy blow, she kept on fighting, bravely at that. And it appeared that Silver was now beginning to realized exactly how resilient these altered humans were. It was annoying, actually. Damn annoying.
“I said stay DOWN!” The young woman growled, noticing her latest foe begun to rise onto his feet. Well, before she delivered an elbow strike to his head. Then another. And another. And after the third time Gabrielle - with her super-human strength - struck the human, he finally fell unconscious. She’d hate to imagine how long she’d been there without the aid of her powers. Not that beating in someone’s head multiple times wasn’t fun, it just got redundant after awhile.
And it leaves one open to an attack. Though her invulnerability was still partially intact, it was loosing its efficacy with each blow that landed on her. Silver had managed to stop the bullets, but something just whizzed by Gabrielle from the large, red-haired female in the corner of the alley, but Gabrielle couldn’t quite tell…
“Bom--”
But there was no time. It was relatively small, and ingenious, really. Small, compact, almost like a grenade but without that jagged shrapnel that did most of the visible damage. This hand-held explosive did it’s harm internally, the force from the blasts usually either knocked the victim out (if they were insanely lucky), or liquefy their insides (not so lucky). And Gabrielle? Well, she was in between the two.
The blonde had been thrown forcefully yards away from where she had been standing moments before. Gabrielle was sprawled out on the ground, unable to move, or to think. Everything just… hurt.
“Alright, break hell loose without me for now... I’m done for a awhile, guys..."
Lauren got ready to fight when she saw figures leaping down from the building's rooftop. For a split second she smiled, yet immediately turned to the humans around her. She punched at the closest one to her, the diamond on her fists causing added damage to human's face. He faltered, though Lauren was surprised to see that he didn't fall.
"You've have gotta be kiddin-" she began to exclaim until he saw another man try to sneak up behind her. She spun around, just in time for a punch to land on her diamond-coated stomach. The human immediately pulled his fist back in pain.
"Obviously they're minds didn't mutate," Lauren said with a roll of her eyes. Yet one thing was obvious as she looked around; none of these people were going to give up easily. Lauren quickly realized the only way to stop them is to immobilize them.
As two more moved towards her, she reached out, grabbing one of their wrists and holding them against each other. Diamond instantly began to coat them, connecting them together. Before they could react she dropped down to a squat, doing the same thing with their ankles. With a shove to their stomachs she sent them falling backwards. She laughed just as the bomb went off.
Luckily for her, her diamond casing protected her as she went flying into the closest wall, leaving a large dent in the brick. She fell to the ground, not unfazed by the explosion. As she regained her composure she looked to Gabrielle, horrified by what her body had endured.
"Someone needs to get her out of here," she declared, yet unsure of the condition the rest of the group had ended up in.
With a vicious stomp of her foot, Silver managed to break the human's neck beyond him getting up -again-, and smiled with satisfaction. This was shortlived as she took a quick glance around, and found that casualties from her hand were about three in total, and though, knowing how hard these damn people were to kill, the mutants were doing quite well for themselves. The humans had begun to run out of bullets, but they were super-resilient and could hit hard as hell, and her determination to defeat them was basically all that stood between her and a very frustrated getaway.
Finding time between some well-placed kicks to pull a hand up and inspect the bruise on her shoulder, Silver found it increasingly hard to move her right arm, the numbing pain making it easier to just try and avoid using it at all. But it was difficult, and Silver found herself having to use it to defend herself every now and again from a well-placed punch from an attacker.
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! She thought to herself spinning around to kick a gun from one of her current two targets, there are still so many of them left! These buggers just can't quit, can they. Ahh, goddamn this shoulder!
When it happened Silver was in the process of reconsidering trying to use the heavy dumpster to get rid of the excess foes that she just couldn't defend against while trying to break the next guy's neck. It shocked her just as much as the attackers around her, and Silver was thrown forwards against the very object she was going to use to occupy the humans. She didn't even realise what happened when she was flying through the air, but the impact came hard, and unfortunately, Silver caught the edge of the side, painfully colliding with where the walls ended, and fell against it's side, to go sliding down it. She lay dazed for a moment, definitely feeling a lot more pain than just her shoulder could've caused her, and still not a clue what had happened.
"Hell?! Was that an explosion?" She lifted her sore arm to feel what was stinging on her face, and felt a graze along her jaw where she'd slid off the edge of the dumpster, and tried to use her other arm to get up. This caused her to cry out in pain, and she lifted the hurt arm to look at gingerly, oh god... is it fractured? She could only hope not, and stared at it dully for a few moments. Her abdomen hurt too, the side of the rubbish tip had absorbed the force of her flight and caught her stomach as well as her arm. Silver could not help to think that if she hadn't been standing that close she wouldn't have hit it so hard.
It was then she became of the world around her, after the few seconds in her pain and shock, and found a few dazed humans lying around her, but they didn't attract her worried gaze, it was Gabrielle. The X-Leader lay stilly on the ground, she also seemed dazed, but definitely didn't look so good, and Silver was seriously worried about what the explosive would've done to her already worn-out body.
"Gabrielle!" Silver struggled to a standing position, using the dumpster as support, and stumbled as quickly as she could towards her friend. She heard Lauren and silently agreed. But what was really convenient to do now? What was really POSSIBLE to do now? Most of the humans had recovered rather quickly, to Silver's extreme annoyance, but she couldn't help but concentrate on Gabby.
This was one fight she was going to have to forfeit.
"I don't know, we really can't keep going here, I could try get her somewhere safe, I've still got some strength left in me, enough to concentrate at least on that."
Was this what it had been like? This scene on the streets – was it a battle not unlike those that happened only days after the mutant force at the manor had been put under (so to say). These were the battles that massacred a generation of mutants within a year’s time. Bands of four or five were snuffed out by the almost indomitable altered assembly, night after night, until there was no longer a fight, but instead a cry into the darkness followed by the sickening squeal that marked yet another kill.
But this fight had lasted long into the morning – and what was left of the battle would be extinguished before the sun fully illuminated all that was held in the back alley.
For some time, Dawn hadn’t moved from her crouched position on the damp concrete. Head bowed and arms gracefully extended to either side, Dawn’s offensive maintained her ground and performed what physical damage the young woman could rally. Dense, broad doors were ripped from nearby walls, pinning the attackers in various degrees of anguish as several other artifacts found in the alleyway became weapons. Her death toll? Dawn preferred not to ponder it. Long had it been since the Christmas when she pleaded for absolution in the solitude of a decrepit sanctuary, but the pangs of being past forgiveness still haunted her.
She didn’t need to rely on pure vision to perform her attacks, but if she had, perhaps Dawn would have seen the small explosive in time enough to either pull her friends out of the way or send the device in some other direction. The force of the blast knocked Dawn herself off balance and back into a graying wall. Water from a rusting drainpipe above her slowly dripped, maintaining enough feeling for Dawn to keep her consciousness, although her head was spinning. Even with blurred vision, from both the pungent trickling water and a few of her own tears, Dawn could make out the crumpled form of her partner, lying a few yards away.
“GABRIELLE!”
Mind racing beyond even Dawn’s comprehension, the only piercing thought amongst the fog was that the battle had to end. Now. Otherwise there would be no new day for the mutants whom had taken up this campaign.
Hearing both the sentiments of Lauren and Silver, Dawn arose swiftly, pulling her damp red locks away from her skin. Will itself maintained her strong stance, for physically, she could do nothing more. Looking momentarily at Silver, Dawn ordered over the ringing of the scene, “Can you do it? Find Que, if possible!”
Without waiting for a reply, the area surrounding Dawn began to glow a deep red, as did the woman’s eyes. Floating a good five feet above the ground, Dawn tilted her head back, allowing a power so long dormant inhabit her once again. Nearby fire hydrants exploded, sending torrents of water into the air, and the entire area began to steam up…
Silver only hesitated to turn and look at Dawn and nod for the affirmative, then was back at Gabrielle's side, concentrating hard. "Hey, Gabby, hang in there!" Soon they were a few feet in the air, and then they rose above the buildings bordering the alleyway. Silver preferred her means of flight, it was like moving without effort through zero gravity, and would most likely give Gabrielle the least discomfort any flight could, except for maybe the strange sesnsation that you were moving without touching anything at all, or even thinking about it.
Without the strenght to dwell on her thoughts, find and pull at the magnetic and electromagnetic currents the Earth supplied, and spot Que at the other end of the alleyway, she gave up trying to think about what happened. Humans were readying themselves for battle below her, their guns long useless save for use as a metal club, and didn't seem so dazed any longer.
Silver had heard the doors break free from their hinges and crash forcefully into the walls, trapping humans, but it was the fire hydrants that surprised her. One had burst quite near her and Gabrielle, and Silver simply continued, her floating vertically, Gabrielle horizontally in front of her, Silver's arm underneath her shoulders to give some support, the other, possibly broken, arm outstretched just far enough to avoid making the burning ache worse in a gesture for her to continue flight. It was easier to make gestures like this while harnessing her power, and right now she needed things a bit easier.
A flash of white light alerted her to Que's whereabouts, and Silver found herself dashing madly to where he was, concentrating simply on getting there, and hoping Gabrielle wouldn't mind the sudden rush as she doubled speed. She landed behind him, just outside the alley, but kept Gabrielle floating at her waists' level. The commotion on the alley continued.
"We need to get out of here!" She spoke quickly, "Dawn's gone Phoenix and I'm not sure how badly Gabrielle is hurt, but it sure doesn't look good."
For Tabitha, there was little or no time for her to respond before the explosion knocked all sense of time and place completely askew. The armor of darkness would have been more of use if she'd been any closer to the blast although if she, or anyone else for that matter, had been as close as Gabrielle was their insides would be soup. Nonetheless Tabitha was knocked flat on her back into the slime and dirt of the concrete floor of the alleyway, staring up at the pink-blue morning sky and wondering just what it was that hit her.
How long it took for Tabitha's brain to kick back into gear was hard to tell, but it felt like a long time. Shaken, she sat up and rubbed her head, groaning slightly from the headache that had decided to make it's home in the back of her head where it had hit the cement, as well as from the knowledge that she would have to wash her hair again since she was, apparently, bleeding. Using the wall to help, she stood. "What the... hell was that?" Tabitha asked of the two mutants remaining in the alley as she stumbled over to Dawn.
As Lauren deduced that everyone was mostly okay, Lauren turned back to the humans.
"Let's finish this," she said as two diamond spikes formed began to emerge from her wrists. At about five feet long they cracked from the rest of the diamond, giving Lauren two diamond spears.
She spun one around, keeping the other one close at her side. Without hesitation she impaled the closest human in the gut, slid the spear out of its chest, and then jabbed it into the next closest one. As more moved in towards her she clasped both spears together in her hands, shifting into a batting stance. More diamond moved over the spears, spikes emerging down the length of them. She spun quickly, aiming for their heads and taking out the entire group that had surrounded her. It was at this moment that she heard fire hydrants exploding.
She looked into the air, squinting at the rising sun at Dawn's figure. Yet the sun's rays shining behind her did not appear to be the only cause of her brilliance as she floated in the air. A powerful force was eminating from her, something that could not be explained.
"What kind of people have I've gotten myself mixed into?" Lauren questioned, stabbing a diamond spear behind her into a human that had just risen to his feet. As the alleyway began to fog up from all the steam, Lauren shook her head.
"This cannot be good."
Que had absolutely no idea what was going on. He had dizzied himself teleporting around the perimeter of the arena in attempt to keep the genetically altered human from escaping their fate. There reached a point where is was just a blur of ambient light, no target in site, no humans left to herd. Que stopped for a moment, letting himself reorient with his surroundings. He threw out a pale hand to catch his fall, it slapped the wall painfully, but granted him stability.
His world was quite literally spinning. Dark brown eyes looked towards the battle taking place before him, but could not distinguish anything that was happening. Only one of his senses allowed him to grasp just how dire things had become.
Bomb…
Gabrielle!
Someone needs to get her out of here…
Find Que, if possible!
Hey, Gabby, hang in there!
As Que stared blankly forward, he allowed the fragments of sound to jar him back to an improved state of readiness. At least now his thought process was functioning. The fight scene ahead looked pretty gruesome by all standards, the unfamiliar girl made mincemeat out of two of her altered human opponents. And Dawn’s stature alone hinted to him as to what as to come. But what had caused Dawn to dip into the endless reservoir of power that was the Phoenix? The X-Leader possessed enough awe-inspiring ability of her own…
It was only after this thought did he notice a figure land behind him. Or was it two figures? Que turned around quickly, and his hardened face noticeably softened when he saw a limp female form hovering waist-height just in front of Silver.
“Oh god, Gabrielle…” He reached out and plucked the injured girl from the air. It was just so strange… Someone so strong just crumpled in his arms.
Gaze torn from Gabrielle, he glanced towards Silver, then frantically around the alley, “I can’t teleport anymore…”, He explained, quickly noticing the X-Jet that Gabrielle had hidden from view just hours before tucked inside an abandoned business building, barely visible through the heavily-dirtied windows, “Get everyone to the X-Jet. -Now-.”
It had been some time since Gabrielle had last spoke. Long lashes were matted shut by a hardened mixture of dirt, sweat, and blood. But she was still conscious. Her exhausted and beaten body simply denied her willful attempt to open her eyes or move.
But words spoken around her were still understood.
“Dawn’s gone Phoenix…” Was the phrase that set her dormant mind and body back into motion.
Slowly forcing her eyes open, Que’s not-so-handsome mug was the first image she focused on. ::“Oh god, anyone but Que…”:: She thought silently, and had she possessed the strength, she’d of pushed herself free from his supportive hold, but such was not the case. Instead, the young woman turned her gaze back towards the arena.
Tall columns of water shot into the air violently as Dawn’s power of the Phoenix slowly began to show itself. But the destruction of fire hydrants was absolutely nothing in comparison of what the Phoenix could do. Or had done. Those who did not bear witness to the events in the Alien Olympics could not fathom what strength and frightening ability that Dawn had with aid of the Phoenix Force. But that aid, one time, came at a cost: the entity dominated over her friend, an experience which no one dare wish to repeat.
“Dawn…” Gabrielle finally spoke, though the words themselves would be barely audible to Silver and Que, the two standing the closest to the young woman. What’s more, the X-Leader was still hovering over the battle in the arena, a fair distance away from the small gathering by the X-Jet. But Gabrielle knew her friend would hear her. And hoped what she was saying would come across as she intended: as an attempt to draw Dawn’s attention away from tapping into the Phoenix the completely obliterate those who opposed the X-Men, but rather to seek a more tactful way of ending the fight this day. “The large red-haired one is their second in command… We can question her.. At the mansion..."
And that was all. All the strength that had resided in the young blonde had finally left her. The promise of rest lured the Gabrielle to accepting her world darkening around her, and she once again slumped into Que’s arms.
For a moment, or actually a short while, Silver had a mind blank. She watched numbly as Gabrielle was taken by Que, and a few more crashing sounds were heard from the wide alleyway. However hard she tried, though, for a moment she couldn't move a muscle. Well, well, Kate Lytois. And you thought this would end cleanly? The sarcastic voice in her conscience was quickly silenced, and Silver became aware of everything once again. She was aware of it before, but was unable to take it in, now she could. Had her arm ever hurt this much? It was still held carefully at her side, muscles half-relaxed. Oh her ribs, did they ever ache! Her shoulder was now probably a blackened lump of bruising too...
There was more to think about than her pain now though, Gabrielle began to murmur something, Silver couldn't bring herself to bend down and try catch it, but she found herself hearing most of it anyway. She would've smiled, had the situation not been so grim. Ah, no one could get through to Dawn like Gabrielle could.
Then came the order from Que, of course Silver would have done something eventually, but if any stranger had walked up to her then and told her to do absolutely anything, she probably would've. She felt confused, her thoughts unfocused and too scrambled to make sense of anyway. But with the mention of X-Jet Silver thought of only one thing. Escape.
With barely a nod of acknowledgement she was around the corner once again, blinking her way through rain caused by the destroyed hydrants. The hazy mist the accompanied only made things a lot worse. She made out Tabitha, barely, at the other end, Lauren somewhere nearby. Above Dawn still raged in her all-powerful form.
"We need to get out of here!" She yelled, as loudly as she could, "the X-Jet is just around the corner!" Silver jogged into the alleyway towards the other two, blinking as water ran down into her eyes. She was sopping wet by now. Just what she needed. "Come on! We need to go, now!" She yelled again, "Come if you like as well." She told Lauren, knowing she was probably not a resident at the mansion, or a frequent visiter.
Unfortunately, Silver had falsely counted on the fact that most of the humans would either be knocked senseless or concentrating on Dawn. The injured woman was just too easy a target, standing around and urgently chatting as if it was all that mattered. Technically it was all that had mattered at that moment in time, but if Silver had eyes in the back of her head instead of magnetokinesis, just then it would have done her a lot of good. The poor girl was struck down by a piece of wood, a heavy, long board torn from the side of one of the doors Dawn had used to try and crush the humans out of fighting.
Ai, this was terrible. She was stunned only for a few seconds, but managed to block a second try from the assailant at cracking her skull open from above with her arms. Bad idea. This was really quite unhealthy for her broken arm, and Silver swore she felt the bone millimetres from breaking through the skin. It tore a cry of pain from her lungs, but it also filled her eyes with anger. Her attacker was kicked down and his big stick of wood rolled onto his neck. Silver wasn't usually one for brutal killings, but she was just so upset with these criminals who had to try and ruin every mutant's life, and then kill them. It didn't bother her in the slightest when her foot came down hard upon the wood and the sickening crack of cartilage echo faintly under the spraying of water.
Silver almost felt defeated.
She turned to see if Tabitha and Lauren had moved yet, having been totally unaware since she was assaulted. She was panting, and if Silver had been shot fatally that very moment, and had a few seconds left to think on it, she would have probably regretted the killing of the uman more than anything. Why? Did any of their kind deserve her regrets? No, no they didn't. But Silver might've just been one of those ignorant people who spend their lives on wasteful and kindly thoughts to heartless killers, or not. Who knows.
The steam permeating the air was so thick one could hardly see a hand directly in front of her face, and a glow, looking much like the sun rising in the midst of a war, began to permeate the scene. Hovering in the heart of the light was Dawn, who had herself, seemingly taken on the form of a large bird. Her arms, extended full length to the sides, seemed to take on a billowing grace of wings while the glow slid down her figure, billowing out like a span of feathers at her feet. The fog hid nothing from the eyes of the woman, even the street pests scampering around at the building sides registered in her senses.
One by one, the attackers that had encircled the woman (foolishly, of course) began to find it harder for them breath. Air itself was being stolen from their lungs as Dawn focused her gaze on each individually. If there was any sense in the brain challenged, zombie like creatures that pervaded the streets, the part of Dawn that still resided in the psyche of the Phoenix might feel a bit of guilt as reality set in for the beings. They were going to die. There was no other way; the world that was still preaching peace was in a kill-or-be-killed mentality.
It had been long since the Phoenix had been awoken, and, in a sense, she needed to ‘stretch her wings’ a bit. Seconds (that seemed much more like minutes in themselves) passed, and in movements that rolled from the core of her body smoothly to the extent of her grasp, Dawn began to slowly shatter the beings in the mist. Her actions, unless one had been right up close, were out of the sight of others. Perhaps it was better that way.
Hearing the voice of her friend, Dawn tilted her head to the side, allowing the words to register in both psyches. The red-head? The one with the bomb? Her. She’d live. Yes. She’d live a moment or two longer than her underlings. Long enough to make some use of her.
Whipping an arm to the left, Dawn snapped her gaze towards the woman in charge. As fierce as she had once looked, it seemed as if the woman’s composure was beginning to falter. Only a bit, though, for these were people conditioned to ignore fear, even if it was due to a stupor. A ray of light exploded from the Phoenix entity, encompassing the commander. Fingers composed of a spectacle of light tightened around the woman, lifting her high into the air, much higher than the Phoenix herself was floating. The only thing the commander could do was look down into Dawn’s turbulent gaze until she was tossed into a holding cell in the X-Jet.
As said before, Dawn knew of each and every being in the alleyway. Each ally was safe, while each enemy? They were no more. Along with the light Dawn had emitted, the steam began to diminish.. Visibility began to return to the streets, and the young woman slowly let her feet touch the violently cracked pavement. The entity that had filled Dawn still resided to a degree, keeping her standing tall – left to her own means, the woman probably would’ve collapsed as well, but they were so close to home, and once there, time to rest would come in time. The click of her boots echoed in a way that was almost unreal – as if Dawn wasn’t even walking fully on the street.
Taking in the scene, Dawn walked to the closest battle comrade and extended a hand. It was Silver, who, to Dawn, looked as if she were about to give up. Extending a hand (which was probably a little more warm than natural), the young woman bowed her head slightly and then returned her steely gaze towards the Jet. The words held two tones, one of Dawn and one of the entity still maintaining the woman. “It’s over, for now.” The hand was left open - a sign she would help if needed.
"Dude." Was all Tabitha could say, shedding the shadow skin that had covered her body automatically. The shadows had reacted to the Phoenix's presence, acting on their own rather than her orders. She looked around her at the no longer dim alleyway, where there was no longer any sign of the altered humans except small bits of what Tabitha (who shuddered at the thought) assumed to be people peices. It was the first time that the raven haired woman had ever seen Dawn access her Phoenix power and she was, honestly, in awe.
"We... should get out of here." Tabitha said, a bit awkwardly. Everyone was exhausted and bloody from the fight (or in Tabitha's case, from getting knocked on her ass when that bomb went off). Privately, she vowed to pester Mai into teaching her how to be more useful in a fight as well as practicing by herself more practical ways of using her umbrakinesis. She moved to help Silver, taking care that her boots didn't tread on too much of the human remains. It was damn hard to get off one's shoes.
Fortunately her sight was turned away, even if the thick fog would have probably prevented her sight, on the killings of the remaining humans, Silver would have most likely had long-lasting aftershocks from the horrific sight. She swore she could almost feel Dawn's power, the air was humming with it, her strength overwhelming. If she'd had been able to find it, Silver guessed Dawn's current wouldn't have changed, but just being near such raw power confused her still as to how well Dawn seemed to be able to control it.
Hardly even concentrating on Lauren or Tabitha, it took her a moment to register that the power seemed to have ebbed away, that the alleyway seemed a lot more empty, and the glowing light that had sprung from Dawn's frame now gone. The sky above was a bright, crisp blue, the sun had just risen, and the battle that Gabrielle had worked hard not to lose was over. It took her a while to even notice the extended hand after Dawn had spoken, and her mind took in everything in slow motion, the sharp ache in her lower back from the chunk of wood and the almost unbearable stinging that tore through her arm reminding her of what had just happened, helping to bring her back and realise they were safe, for now.
It was eerily still when she blinked, I seem to be spending a lot of time out of it this morning... She thought, again slightly sarcastic, but smiled at Dawn, the one who had saved all their precious little asses. Silver was positioned in an awkward expression of pain, one knee placed on the ground, and the other more extended than it would normally be, resting beside her. Her eyes took in Dawn, and her offered hand. She took it gladly, with here semi-undamaged arm and exerted some force to pull herself upright again.
"Thanks." She was aware of Tabitha, somewhere behind her voicing aloud just what Silver was about to think, as Dawn cast a lookat the X-Jet. "Let's go then." It was sort of awkwardly silent, a silence Silver found hard to explain, but you felt as if you'd just done something really risky and lost somebody. It was the kind of silence of a lesson hard-learnt. No, it wasn't, that's what it reminded Silver of. They hadn't really lost anyone, but Gabrielle especially was a dodgy case if you wanted to call her minorly injured. Suddenly it came to her. But it wasn't the reason for the silence, it was the reason Silver felt it that way. The reality had sunk in totally. They were hunted, hated, shot down. There wasn't much left for the mutants.
The slow motion dissipated as Silver made her way to the X-Jet, she walked up the ramp wearily and made herself comfortable inside. Dawn's words repeated themselves in her mind, and she had a sense that the battle for freedom and acceptance might never be over. That the mistrust and hurt caused to and among them never forgiven, let alone cease to begin with.
It was the beginning of the end.
|X| What information does the leader of the human horde have? Only time will tell... |X|
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