Start of the End; [for the mission goers -you know who you are]

[makesyoufeel]

{The slip had been handed to him first thing in the morning. And Evan had been a little confused. Sure, they'd told him his powers might be needed for certain operations of a delicate nature. What that had meant, he hadn't thought on

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[watch_the_nails]

His first thought on receiving the message slip had been that it was another prank of Rictor's, a trick to get him to walk in on the puppy and Martini going at it again; with a sneer, he tossed the note aside and continued to pick at his claws - which was what he'd been doing before one of Stryker's flunkies had delivered the message. It wasn't that they really needed cleaning but it was something he enjoyed doing, and it passed the time.

After a while, though, he got to thinking just what he could do if it was one of Rictor's games. Forewarned was forearmed, so the saying went. Shrugging to himself, he hauled himself up from his bed and left the room he shared with Logan, already dressed in the standard-issue Team X gear of black trousers and logo'ed jacket. Not much point taking them off unless he was rutting, it was too damn cold for that

[makesyoufeel]

Evan was leaning against the jeep they'd been allocated, tapping his foot impatiently. It felt like he'd been waiting for ages when in fact, he'd only been there for ten minutes.

When the noise of someone entering the garage alerted him to someone else being there, he tried to see who it was. He didn't have Victor's sense of smell. So it was a 'wait for them to pop up' sort of deal for Evan.

[watch_the_nails]

Like a large cat, he bunched himself over and tensed up, his hackles rising as he bared his fangs; his claws were now fully exposed, ready to slash and tear and rend if he needed to, ready to tear out the bastard's throat if he said anything, anything about Emma. He followed his nose as he moved closer to the jeeps, moving slowly and cautiously, finally catching sight of the other man and trying to gauge whether he'd been seen or not. From the way he was lounging against the vehicle, it didn't seem as if he'd been spotted; that, or Evan didn't care. Either way, he'd made one hell of a mistake.

Edging ever closer towards Evan, Victor gave a low, guttural growl, starting so suspect that the man had lured him here for some reason. A trap, maybe. He'd show that he wasn't so easily fooled. Stepping into a pool of light, Victor allowed Evan to see him, snarling, not even bothering to hide his hatred and distrust.

"Thought you could get the better of me?"

[makesyoufeel]

Evan just stared, completely dumfounded, holding his sheet of paper with his orders and shrugging. "I'm just here for the AA meeting." Let's face it. Joking with the feral who wants to remove your spine because once upon a time you had intercourse with the woman he's banging isn't a good idea.

"Seriously," Evan held up his sheet of paper, "I was told to come here." Peace offerings were hard to do when it came down to 'mates' and 'territory'.

[hunteroffreaks]

They got to the facility in a record amount of time, mostly due to Jack's maniacal style. He'd tuned out Evan and Pyro's nonsense conversation for the majority of the trip. Victor, thankfully, had stayed quiet. He made a sudden stop, which by the sounds coming from behind him had caused Pyro to slam into the back of his seat.

"We're here." It was all he bothered to say as he hopped out of the car, grabbing his rifle as he did so. He traced a crude map out in the snow, laying out a plan of attack. "The facility is up that road. It's guarded most heavily from the front, so our best bet is to split into teams of two. You two," he gestured to Evan and Victor, "can cause chaos around front, while me and the firestarter go around back and work our way in from there. We'll meet up in the middle, where the main systems are. Got all that?"

((OOC: Suggested posting order from this point on is Jack/Pyro/Victor/Evan.))

[codenamepyro]

Pyro was grumbling about the nature of the halt. Not cool by any standards. He wasn't thrilled at being sent anywhere with Jack, least of all alone along a road heavily guarded by anything.

"Oh, goodie. I get to watch gramps plug some idiots." Pyro wasn't a gun fan, ironic when he started fires that potentially killed. He hadn't exactly used his powers to do that, yet. And he wasn't really rushing down the road.

[watch_the_nails]

"You want me to go with him?" From the tone of Victor's voice, anyone would have thought Jack had just told Victor he'd have to strip naked and paint himself flourescent green with pink stripes before dancing the can-can across the facility. "No. I'm not fucking going, not with him."

He couldn't, wouldn't work with Evan, not in a million years. Not after everything that had happened between Evan and Emma, not after the way he'd found Emma weeping because of what Evan had done. Jack was either insane or a complete idiot for thinking Victor would accept his instructions. If Victor was left alone with Evan, chances were that the boy wouldn't survive two minutes, and he'd only survive for that long because Victor would want to take his time with him.

"I'm going with the firestarter."

[makesyoufeel]

Evan couldn't have agreed more. Sure, he might've rather been with Pyro, but hell, even Jack would've come before Creed. "I would like to approve of never being alone with him." Because he wasn't stupid, and when Emma said 'stay away from Victor' he listened.

The glint of claws, teeth or anything would probably make Evan flinch like a rabbit. Out of his depth, very much so. But he could see it, and knew it. He wasn't about to paddle further into the bottomless pond. "Can't I go with you?" And the utter look of desperation on his face as he looked at Jack would probably speak volumes.

[makesyoufeel]

Evan could hear all the noise at the other side of the facility. Trust Pyro and Creed to make an entrance. Although Pyro did seem the blow it up if it's there type.

Trailing a safe distance behind Jack, Evan kept the levels of endorphins to a low level, letting everyone remain calm and soothed. Although wasn't exactly useful, he knew how to isolate each and every person. Emma had taught him the year before, when they'd first started his lessons.

"Um, how far in do we go?" While Jack wasn't exactly terrible -probably because he had someone else to shoot at, Evan would feel a little better being around his room-mate again, since he was probably the closest to a non-threatening ally on the mission for Evan.

[hunteroffreaks]

"About the middle of the-" Rounding a corner, Jack almost bumped headfirst into a guard. A stupid, rookie mistake. He had been out of the game too long, and his skills were getting rusty. Fortunately, his instincts took over for his mind.

A gun would be too noisy for only one, draw attention to them. A knife. He clapped a hand over the guard's mouth, whose failing hands automatically tried to pry the hand off his face. It left his stomach exposed. Jack jerked the Ka-Bar knife out and plunged it in and out rapidly, the man's flesh giving way as his hands went limp. He finished the guard off with a slash to the throat and dropped him to the ground.

He turned back to Evan, his knife hand bloody up to the wrist, and clothes sprayed in red. "Like I was saying, about the the middle of the building." He turned and stepped over the corpse, continuing on his way.

[codenamepyro]

With Creed killing off a lot of the guards, Pyro setting fires almost randomly and dealing with all the sprinkler systems, they were pretty much wandering aimlessly while thinking they were going in the right direction.

"You know, this looks like the back of the building." Pyro stated, standing at a window in one of the many computer filled rooms. Creed had taken apart -quite literally- two of the guards and by this stage, Pyro just shrugged off the blood that had splattered his own clothes.

"Looks like a double back and actually take that right we were gonna take." It was all far too casual, and while standing there, the fires outside burned brighter and hotter, the pyrokinetic smirking slightly.

As they left the room, Pyro's hands still itching, he raised an eyebrow at Creed. "So, the whole 'tear you limb from limb' thing you've got going on, doesn't it cost a bitch in dry cleaning?"

[watch_the_nails]

"Cleaning?" He smirked, his mouth twitching upwards into a horrible smile as he wiped his blood-covered hands over his trousers. "Why the hell should I bother with cleaning? They're only going to get covered again the next time I go out."

That wasn't entirely true, though; he did have to change his clothes now again, but it wasn't by choice. Most of the time he would have been happy to wear a bloodstained uniform, seeing it as a status symbol, showing just what he was capable of and reminding everyone else that they should steer clear of pissing him off. At least until he needed to go on another hunt, in which case the smell of thr dried blood would have been a problem - then he'd change. That, and when Emma told him to, although he was still reluctant. One of these days he'd have to start wearing black so the blood wouldn't show.

"So you reckon we've gotta head back that way, huh?" He didn't really mind which way they were going, as long as there'd be more things to kill.

[hunteroffreaks]

"Not quite." He was close enough now. Stupid little fool, he had been more focused on casing destruction then the threat right in front of his face. He pulled his gun out, placing it against the mutant's head with a soft Click.

There was a grim look of satisfaction on his face as he did so. He had been waiting for this for months, and a smile was on his face. "You've outlived your usefulness. Nothing personal, but Stryker needs a dog put down. See you in hell....Pyro." He began to squeeze the trigger.

[codenamepyro]

And wow if that didn't sober him up. The flames behind Jack leapt instantly, going for the gun and engulfing the hunters hand, just as Pyro turned and darted out the door.

Years of avoiding FOH mobs and being chased by shop keepers gave Pyro an advantage. He knew how to dodge, he was quick, he was so out of there.

Every fire in the building reacted solely to Pyro, dancing along the ground and spreading along the walls while Pyro put as much distance between himself and Jack as possible. Hopefully the fucker caught fire and died.

If not, Pyro sure as hell wasn't coming out till he was sure.

[watch_the_nails]

As soon as Jack played his hand, Victor's entire body tensed and he drew back his lips in a snarl, his body coiled like a tight spring as he readied himself to pounce at the man - but just as he was about to strike, Pyro launched his own offensive, managing to fight back and make his escape before the mutant hunter could finish him off. Even as Jack began his pursuit, the feral was hurtling towards him, trying to take him down before he could shoot at Pyro again

[hunteroffreaks]

Jack yelled out in pain as the fire burned his hand and started traveling up the sleeve of his jacket. With reflexes built over thirty years, he jerked the flaming garment off and left it to smolder on the floor, putting the fire out on his hand. He dropped the gun, and pulled out another, shifting it to his unburnt hand.

It looked like the whole place was burning down now. Damn that little firestarter! Jack took off after Pyro, not caring what happened to Victor and Evan. Not caring if Pyro heard him or not, Jack yelled out, "You can run, but you can't hide, boy! It's hunting season now!" He let out a crazy sort of laugh as he went on in pursuit. The hunt was on, and he never failed to catch his prey.

[makesyoufeel]

Evan had been working his way through the fire just the same; he'd constantly heard the back and forth from Pyro and Jack, relieved that that firestarter was still alive and still in control of the flames around them. He didn't want to know just what could happen if Pyro lost that control

[codenamepyro]

Pyro had just released, pushing the lance towards Jack when Evan had stepped in between. There was nothing he could do, he couldn't deflect it, there was no chance to change direction or pull it back.

All Pyro could do was watch as the flame met flesh, and there was no turning back.

[hunteroffreaks]

As Jack pulled the trigger, somehow that damn other punk appeared from nowhere. Though later on Jack would make the claim it had be him who had killed the mutant, there was no way to tell. His bullet went right through Evan's skull at the same time. The flame meant for him seemed to go right through and incinerate flesh like it was butter.

[makesyoufeel]

There was pain, then nothing. The shock of being there dwindled, and then so did everything.

Evan had never been the one with the debilitating powers, he'd never used them so shamelessly to cause harm or ill. Not on a large scale. But as his heart stopped, and his skull was pierced with metal, Evan's last act was one concentrated thought.

Horror. Pure horror, despair, guilt, pain, shame. Ill feeling to reel someone's gut and the descending depression of blackness.

Everything that was left of him went to that, and seeped through everyone in the area, drowning them in the pure horror of death.