Muir Island, Monday Afternoon
The compound had been found with some ease.
The baby was inside.
You could tell by the large quantities of mutants, grouping up and ready for a fight just outside.
Luckily, Xavier knew a better entrance...
XavierThe compound, as it was, was silent.
That made this exercise a little easier-- even if it made Xavier somewhat wary. "Be careful." He strode in through the side entrance without much difficulty, however...
...and then heard the noise signifying a roof coming down just a few rooms away. "Stealth might be appropriate." Unlike his X-Men. By the sounds of it...
He hoped Cable took a little more care on his entry.
Arashi"Stealth is not a problem for us." Arashi nodded. Though it was generally easier when they weren't in a metal hallway.
InoIno's mood had pretty much settled to 'low rage' for the moment and, frankly, she wasn't best pleased with anyone at the moment.
She set her chin stubbornly and nodded.
Stealth they could do.
XavierAt least they were cooperative. "I'm sensing the baby-- or rather, her captors-- on the other side," Xavier spoke, and he was quickly forming a mental map of--
"It seems we'll be dealing with somewhat of a fight."
He picked a door. The space behind it... was empty. But the space behind that?
Mystique"--she's supposed to wake up now." A blue woman in white was on her knees, head in her hands. "Destiny told me that I saved her. And if I saved her, maybe she would love me again."
ArashiArashi used his flash step to get himself just at the edge of the door instantly as he pressed himself against the wall and just listened.
Gambit"She wouldn't, Raven." That would be a stereotypical Cajun accent there. "Rogue'd rather die than harm a child. She'd die to stop you."
There was a pause that was dramatic.
"And so would I."
XavierWith a keenness of feel for drama, Xavier took this moment to stride down the stairs, into the room. "I'm very pleased to hear you say that."
ArashiWell, so much for the stealthiness. Arashi blinked in confusion as Xavier just walked into the room, but stayed where he was.
InoGeez. People here totally didn't get the whole sneaking-thing.
He wasn't even trying.
She darted a glance at Hokage-sama, then refocused her attention on the moron who'd wanted them to be sneaky in the first place.
XavierIf Xavier was aware of their doubts at all (and he probably was) he passed no comment on them.
After all, this one had just fallen into their laps...
He strode up to Gambit, easily pulling the baby from still-wary arms. "Now we just need to clear a path to Cable..."
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XavierPeace time was definitely over.
The room was gargantuan. It might not have been so before, but with the roof and several walls gone, it approached a level of vast that was staggering.
And more of such words.
It was also filled with mutants blasting away at each other with their powers-- gouts of flame, purple light, claws and red visor beams...
Xavier'd seen it all before. He held the baby close as he neatly hurried through the empty spots.
InoIno? So hadn't seen all of this before, but at the same time it was a battle and she did know how to treat battles. With wide eyes--because for all of her training, and all of her anger, a part of her was still all: 'this is so cool'--she followed nimbly after Xavier and the baby that was the cause of all this.
...
Stupid baby.
Xavier"This is insanity!"
A Russian accent punctuated the words-- as did the sound of a gigantic metal wallop as he punched one of the Marauders in the face. "Can no one find the child?!"
Colossus.
"This way." Xavier motioned to a small passage behind a wall of debris. "We can't be seen."
InoIno shook her head slightly, even as she started picking her way over to the passage. "Sneaky," she said dryly, but quietly. "is more my peoples forte than yours."
XavierXavier did not answer her statement in the slightest-- but he picked up his pace as a stray beam of red light cut through the wall above their heads.
"Cable says he will meet us some fifty feet from here," he said-- "He can see us."
Ino"Good for him," she muttered, eyes darting up at the wall then back over to keep track of the rest of the battle. "I'm delighted, really." You know, only not. But at the same time really.
Fifty feet though. That was a doable amount.
XavierXavier, for his part, also cast a look that way, but he didn't linger on it.
Not even when, in a brilliant flash of light, several young New X-Men appeared on the battlefield, chased by a very large, scaled creature with a maw the size of its body...
He just kept on running.
Ino...
...
Running was very very good at the moment. Ino gaped for a second at the thing, then darted after the man and the baby.
What was that thing?
Predator XThe Predator-- for that is what it was-- roared, shaking the compound.
And then bit straight through the closest available mutant, whose scream joined its roar for the few seconds between her life and death.
Xavier"Cable!"
Xavier was fairly certain he'd caught sight of the mutant. Or had he--? Between them and their original path now stood a mutant set in perfect gold, lifting both of her arms to the skies.
InoOh. Ew.
Then she noticed the woman. Well, shit. "I'm going to take a wild guess that she's not on your side," Ino muttered, wondering if a kunai would do anything and doubting it in this situation but pulling out a few anyway.
And it was too crazy around for her to want to even think of trying Shintenshin no Jutsu...
Ino had no desire to get her body trampled while she was in someone else's body and guy-with-baby probably rated her importance at... well... nil. Fun times.
Tempo"Time to end all this!" Tempo declared, grinning down on the X-Men below-- Bishop, there, and Cannonball...
Cable"You're right," Cable deadpanned.
And smashed his gun violently against the back of her skull. She went down. "Xavier! Ino! What's your status?"
InoThis was so not the time to ignore him even if she really really wanted to.
"We're good," she said, eyes blazing but making herself focus on the battle. Keep your cool. "Unharmed, and mission objective achieved."
Not that she'd really cared about the mission, but whatever. They had the baby.
CableCable nodded. "Bright lady be praised," and there was some real, actual, human relief in his voice.
He leapt down, swiftly freeing the baby from Xavier's grasp. "Now we should--"
For a moment, the scene lit up so bright even he couldn't see; the next, there was debris everywhere, and he was running elsewhere.
InoBlinking furiously to clear her vision, Ino barely had time to register that Cable-san was gone again, as she tried to get a sense of where he could be.
She kept her mouth shut though. No point in making it really fucking obvious who she was looking for. Ino started carefully picking her way through the battle guessing, only guessing, which way Cable-san would've gone.
XavierXavier debated going after her-- but the truth was that, right now, his X-Men needed him. He disappeared into the shadows, as was such custom.
Malice/Omega SentinelIt wasn't as if Ino was given much time to look, anyway.
Bursting out of the fray, fists first, was the Omega Sentinel-- or rather, Malice, white and red and her hijacked body simply screaming with power. "Did they run out of full-sized X-Men?!" she hollered, "They're sending in the kindergarten class now? I hope you remembered to bring your lunch money!"
She enjoyed a good round of punching the kiddies.
InoIno supposed that the assumption of her being one of them was valid all things considered. But it still grated a bit.
"No lunch money," she said, almost lightly, totally focused and riding her anger. "But I did bring something else."
'Something else' being her kunai and Ino lunged--too close to throw them--using chakra to up her speed, and confident in her ability to hit the person at least once.
Once, and make it count.
Malice/Omega SentinelThe kunai pierced Malice's midsection with a disturbing skowwwww as it sliced straight through the circuitry, spilling oil everywhere.
"Guhhh..."
She crackled with electricity. Once.
And then slumped bonelessly to the floor.
InoIno took a moment, but only a moment to pause and make sure that the other was down for the count.
Then glanced up, looking over the fray and flinging herself back into it. She had to find someone she recognized in all of this.
[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, preplayed with the usual batch of total awesome flowering_mind, mouthy_merc and konoha_flash. almost done now... ]
The baby was inside.
You could tell by the large quantities of mutants, grouping up and ready for a fight just outside.
Luckily, Xavier knew a better entrance...
XavierThe compound, as it was, was silent.
That made this exercise a little easier-- even if it made Xavier somewhat wary. "Be careful." He strode in through the side entrance without much difficulty, however...
...and then heard the noise signifying a roof coming down just a few rooms away. "Stealth might be appropriate." Unlike his X-Men. By the sounds of it...
He hoped Cable took a little more care on his entry.
Arashi"Stealth is not a problem for us." Arashi nodded. Though it was generally easier when they weren't in a metal hallway.
InoIno's mood had pretty much settled to 'low rage' for the moment and, frankly, she wasn't best pleased with anyone at the moment.
She set her chin stubbornly and nodded.
Stealth they could do.
XavierAt least they were cooperative. "I'm sensing the baby-- or rather, her captors-- on the other side," Xavier spoke, and he was quickly forming a mental map of--
"It seems we'll be dealing with somewhat of a fight."
He picked a door. The space behind it... was empty. But the space behind that?
Mystique"--she's supposed to wake up now." A blue woman in white was on her knees, head in her hands. "Destiny told me that I saved her. And if I saved her, maybe she would love me again."
ArashiArashi used his flash step to get himself just at the edge of the door instantly as he pressed himself against the wall and just listened.
Gambit"She wouldn't, Raven." That would be a stereotypical Cajun accent there. "Rogue'd rather die than harm a child. She'd die to stop you."
There was a pause that was dramatic.
"And so would I."
XavierWith a keenness of feel for drama, Xavier took this moment to stride down the stairs, into the room. "I'm very pleased to hear you say that."
ArashiWell, so much for the stealthiness. Arashi blinked in confusion as Xavier just walked into the room, but stayed where he was.
InoGeez. People here totally didn't get the whole sneaking-thing.
He wasn't even trying.
She darted a glance at Hokage-sama, then refocused her attention on the moron who'd wanted them to be sneaky in the first place.
XavierIf Xavier was aware of their doubts at all (and he probably was) he passed no comment on them.
After all, this one had just fallen into their laps...
He strode up to Gambit, easily pulling the baby from still-wary arms. "Now we just need to clear a path to Cable..."
XavierPeace time was definitely over.
The room was gargantuan. It might not have been so before, but with the roof and several walls gone, it approached a level of vast that was staggering.
And more of such words.
It was also filled with mutants blasting away at each other with their powers-- gouts of flame, purple light, claws and red visor beams...
Xavier'd seen it all before. He held the baby close as he neatly hurried through the empty spots.
InoIno? So hadn't seen all of this before, but at the same time it was a battle and she did know how to treat battles. With wide eyes--because for all of her training, and all of her anger, a part of her was still all: 'this is so cool'--she followed nimbly after Xavier and the baby that was the cause of all this.
...
Stupid baby.
Xavier"This is insanity!"
A Russian accent punctuated the words-- as did the sound of a gigantic metal wallop as he punched one of the Marauders in the face. "Can no one find the child?!"
Colossus.
"This way." Xavier motioned to a small passage behind a wall of debris. "We can't be seen."
InoIno shook her head slightly, even as she started picking her way over to the passage. "Sneaky," she said dryly, but quietly. "is more my peoples forte than yours."
XavierXavier did not answer her statement in the slightest-- but he picked up his pace as a stray beam of red light cut through the wall above their heads.
"Cable says he will meet us some fifty feet from here," he said-- "He can see us."
Ino"Good for him," she muttered, eyes darting up at the wall then back over to keep track of the rest of the battle. "I'm delighted, really." You know, only not. But at the same time really.
Fifty feet though. That was a doable amount.
XavierXavier, for his part, also cast a look that way, but he didn't linger on it.
Not even when, in a brilliant flash of light, several young New X-Men appeared on the battlefield, chased by a very large, scaled creature with a maw the size of its body...
He just kept on running.
Ino...
...
Running was very very good at the moment. Ino gaped for a second at the thing, then darted after the man and the baby.
What was that thing?
Predator XThe Predator-- for that is what it was-- roared, shaking the compound.
And then bit straight through the closest available mutant, whose scream joined its roar for the few seconds between her life and death.
Xavier"Cable!"
Xavier was fairly certain he'd caught sight of the mutant. Or had he--? Between them and their original path now stood a mutant set in perfect gold, lifting both of her arms to the skies.
InoOh. Ew.
Then she noticed the woman. Well, shit. "I'm going to take a wild guess that she's not on your side," Ino muttered, wondering if a kunai would do anything and doubting it in this situation but pulling out a few anyway.
And it was too crazy around for her to want to even think of trying Shintenshin no Jutsu...
Ino had no desire to get her body trampled while she was in someone else's body and guy-with-baby probably rated her importance at... well... nil. Fun times.
Tempo"Time to end all this!" Tempo declared, grinning down on the X-Men below-- Bishop, there, and Cannonball...
Cable"You're right," Cable deadpanned.
And smashed his gun violently against the back of her skull. She went down. "Xavier! Ino! What's your status?"
InoThis was so not the time to ignore him even if she really really wanted to.
"We're good," she said, eyes blazing but making herself focus on the battle. Keep your cool. "Unharmed, and mission objective achieved."
Not that she'd really cared about the mission, but whatever. They had the baby.
CableCable nodded. "Bright lady be praised," and there was some real, actual, human relief in his voice.
He leapt down, swiftly freeing the baby from Xavier's grasp. "Now we should--"
For a moment, the scene lit up so bright even he couldn't see; the next, there was debris everywhere, and he was running elsewhere.
InoBlinking furiously to clear her vision, Ino barely had time to register that Cable-san was gone again, as she tried to get a sense of where he could be.
She kept her mouth shut though. No point in making it really fucking obvious who she was looking for. Ino started carefully picking her way through the battle guessing, only guessing, which way Cable-san would've gone.
XavierXavier debated going after her-- but the truth was that, right now, his X-Men needed him. He disappeared into the shadows, as was such custom.
Malice/Omega SentinelIt wasn't as if Ino was given much time to look, anyway.
Bursting out of the fray, fists first, was the Omega Sentinel-- or rather, Malice, white and red and her hijacked body simply screaming with power. "Did they run out of full-sized X-Men?!" she hollered, "They're sending in the kindergarten class now? I hope you remembered to bring your lunch money!"
She enjoyed a good round of punching the kiddies.
InoIno supposed that the assumption of her being one of them was valid all things considered. But it still grated a bit.
"No lunch money," she said, almost lightly, totally focused and riding her anger. "But I did bring something else."
'Something else' being her kunai and Ino lunged--too close to throw them--using chakra to up her speed, and confident in her ability to hit the person at least once.
Once, and make it count.
Malice/Omega SentinelThe kunai pierced Malice's midsection with a disturbing skowwwww as it sliced straight through the circuitry, spilling oil everywhere.
"Guhhh..."
She crackled with electricity. Once.
And then slumped bonelessly to the floor.
InoIno took a moment, but only a moment to pause and make sure that the other was down for the count.
Then glanced up, looking over the fray and flinging herself back into it. She had to find someone she recognized in all of this.
[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, preplayed with the usual batch of total awesome flowering_mind, mouthy_merc and konoha_flash. almost done now... ]