Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends. Once More.
Characters: Open to All
Date&Time: August 15th, all day long baby.
Setting: The Battlefield
Summary: WAR, BITCHES, WAR
Rating: Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Roll... oh, AND WAR!!!!!!!! <3
Status: OPEN
( {Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our Mutant dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest X-Men!} )
Date&Time: August 15th, all day long baby.
Setting: The Battlefield
Summary: WAR, BITCHES, WAR
Rating: Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Roll... oh, AND WAR!!!!!!!! <3
Status: OPEN
( {Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our Mutant dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest X-Men!} )
He was ascertaining her threat level before he got too close.
In truth he'd never really intended to end this with Iris trussed up like a Christmas Turkey in barbed wire with all the trimmings... she deserved more than such a simple impersonal death.
They'd been friends once.
And there, strapped to her thighs, were knives. Not metal, he could feel that. Ceramic, perhaps. She'd never been one of the stupid ones.
"It's called chivalry, my dear... giving a lady a fighting chance. You know me - ever the traditionalist."
And no matter how much she'd developed, how much stronger she was now, he knew in close quarters he'd still snap her like a twig. She might have grown, but so had he, and few could best him hand to hand.
"And you should have stayed with me! As Charles would have wanted! You betrayed him, Iris... betrayed the memory of him. He loved you once. In his own way." He yelled back to her, because really, whyever should he have followed the Shadow King?
There was nothing real of his Charles left in that body, because if there had been, if he'd still been in any small way Charles Xavier, Erik knew he'd have followed him to the ends of the earth and back.
Time was he'd have done anything for Charles, given up anything.
But that wasn't Charles. That was a monster wearing his friend's body like a comfortable suit.
"But you were always so weak Iris, so pathetic... always looking for a stronger mutant to protect you.
But you were never stupid.
Look at you now! Still the weak little girl hiding behind your King and hanging onto his coat tails... and stupid enough to think he'll give a damn like Charles would have, like I did."
He was goading her, nothing short of it. Ever the tactician.
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Nobody at the mansion had believed her capable of defending herself, of doing more than watching the sky. It wasn't until the Shadow King had opened her mind to all the possibilities her mutation had granted her - not just to see the spectrum, but control it - that she had understood just how little they thought of her before.
And she would be damned if she'd let Erik escape without learning that lesson.
With a crooked smile, she turned her gaze to the mansion, her eyes changing from rainbow to a violently bright white as she pulled and stretched the electromagnetic radiation around her, converting it into massive amounts of gamma and infrared. The best parts of a thermonuclear detonation, all at her control.
"This won't do a thing to you," she called, an almost maniacal look in her too-bright eyes. "But what about your precious children? How will they fare if I recreate Hiroshima for them, right here?"
It was something her former self would never have even entertained as a last ditch effort. But she had become something else now, something more. A shadow of herself, perhaps, but one full of a power she could never otherwise attain. Nothing mattered to her anymore; not Havok, not any possible future with Sam. All she wanted now was to see Erik Lehnsherr on his knees, bowing in final submission to the Shadow King's might.
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Erik was many things, had done so much in his life, killed so many, was feared and loved in equal measure.
But he'd never one been like her.
He would never kill - irradiate - a house full of quivering children hiding under their beds, too young to even defend themselves, fearful for the very existence.
He'd never do something so disgustingly horrifically wrong.
His fight was for the safety of those children, for all the mutant children out there in the world.
Her fight had been the same, once upon a time.
Evenings spent drinking Gin with Iris, smoking, and debating Mutant Politics and Rights with the record player on seemed such a very very long time ago now.
He knew he couldn't send barbed wire or bullets at her, she'd only melt them, and he wouldn't risk an electromagnetic pulse in case she somehow converted it for her own use.
"Still the coward, I see!! Killing a bunch of six year old children in their beds rather than facing me hand to hand like a grown woman! Pathetic!"
He wanted her, hand to hand, and he wanted to crush her.
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"At least I'm not hiding behind some silly forcefield," she called back. "Come now, Erik. Surely you're fast enough to stop little old me."
Let him come to her, she was ready. She'd cut him, burn him, whatever it took to make him suffer. Even if that voice was growing more insistent, telling her that this was wrong, that this wasn't the way. She built up her mental walls further, shutting the voice out so that she could keep her focus on him. Her body coiled, every muscle tight and ready.
She would end him, even if it killed her.
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So forgive me if I keep it up."
But he could still fight well enough with it up. That wouldn't stop him from hurting her.
He marched down the grass and towards her, drawing the sword strapped to his back.
"I miss you, Iris, if there's anything left of her inside you."
He told her, as he advanced upon her, sword drawn.
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"I would never be so rude to you, Erik," she chided, hands pulling knives from their sheaths. "Not after all we've been through."
She walked slowly toward his advance at first, before picking up into a light run, aiming to meet him halfway. Shield be damned, she would find a way to drive her knife home. And then she would silence that voice, once and for all.
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