(no subject)
Marrow does not see Kitty coming. She instead lets out an involuntary shriek of pain as the phased girl runs through her, dragging that tiny solid object with her. A series of convulsions suddenly wrack the spikey woman's body and she goes silent, collapsing into a heap on the wet grass. The remaining spike of bone on her elbow is broken off in her landing, adding a wet snap to the sound of her shocked body temporarily shutting down.
"Jubilee?" Mira says, her tone quiet and a little confused, as if she were reminding someone in a board game that it was their turn.So, the tables have turned, and Mira stoops next to Jubilee, but not to do something so time-intensive as to check for vital signs. She grabs the Asian girl's wrists and just pulls to guide her inside.
As he finally approaches the porch, he scans the area for James. Unable to spot him, he rushes onto the lawn, feeling a brief compulsion to stay where he was. He fights it however. Seeking a clever line to exclaim, he racks his brain to say: "Uh...remedy for your troubles? You know...anyone need healing?" He winces at the sheer stupidity of this.
Too eager! Way too eager! Hunger bubbles up in Rogue, a hiss of energy from her fingertips that pop and sizzle without a moments thought. She launches herself, pouncing at Storm the moment she's on the ground. Want, hunger, need. Not a moment is spared for rational thought. Bare arms crash down hard.
Aidan retches again. And again. There is not enough in his stomach to keep up; even with as little time as has passed, he is already violently dry-heaving rather than continuing to add to the puddle. The sense of 'wrong' continues to build, buffetting senses too new to have developed shields. He can no longer tell one person from another. This is, perhaps, a kindness, given the number of casualties.
The combined elements of bleeding body between Julio and his doorway goal and bloody murder screams piercing the air behind him are not good for his nerves. His steps lose any regularity they had, with bare feet over wet grass already not providing the best traction, and he slips not far from the porch. He's able to catch himself before fully falling, but feet and hands alike on the ground plus general fear and threat of personal injury make for a stronger shake than before. Still nothing damaging, but it gives the already-battered school an obvious shake and would be noted to any outside as well. It does not last long, as Julio manages to stand upright again and capture several breaths before continuing to the porch.
Kitty falls to her hands and knees on the ground, limbs shaking. Her whole body aches now that the adrenaline is subsiding and she's allowing herself to feel it. Logan's skeleton was still conducting electricity when she phased through him. Ow. Ow ow ow. "Ngn," she mutters as she falls onto her side. "I'm fine." Unlike some other people, she is at least not throwing up.
Storm lies unresistant and unconscious on the ground, rain slicking hair and skin and the close fit of ravaged black leather. There is bare skin, in the curve of her throat, her face, her hands; it's enough. The flood of rage-blacked memory from touch is the raw chaos of the world ripped through the door -- a world where Jean works for Magneto, Storm and Marrow rule the Morlocks, and Rogue is long dead. The flood of raw power comes in Ororo's sixth sense and the dark, wet, cold chaos of the angry sky.
Cassy charges up towards Julio, muddy grass causing her to skid and overshoot. "I've come to save you Julio! So you just chill out," she informs from a nearby flower bed. "No earthquakes or else."
With the imediate threat down, the false flames about Jea begin to subside, tempering themselves to first a flicker along the edges of her hair, and then a gleam in her eyes, before a tall and mud-streaked woman is all that is left picking her way towards the fallen Storm. "Rogue... no," she murmurs, but the pallor to her skin isn't just from the chill rain, 'nor is the woozy, hollow feeling just from the vomiting. Unconstrained power explosions: terribly inefficient, really. "She's down. She's -down-," she calls a little louder. And continues to walk.
Wolf spots a woman on the ground, bones scattered about her. Not understanding this was simply her mutation, he quickly scrambles over to her and angles his circle downward, waiting for a result. "Don't worry!"
At the first pull of powers, Rogue's eyes press close and a deep, content breath is gulped greedily. Her tongue just barely starts to slide across her lips when memories flood her, nothing like the world Rogue knows. She breaks off the feeding, pulling away and rolling off with effort. "No," the girl hisses. "M'not! Ah'm... /fuck/."
Julio would much prefer to have his path to the porch blocked by skidding Cassys than by anything else! Nevermind that he inhales sharply and grits his teeth as she skids past, tensing as if expecting further attack. As to the telekinetic terror's words, though, the teenage seismic hazard has it in him to respond, voice small and ashamed, "Kinda too late on the quakes..."
"No! Don't!" Kitty yells at Wolf. "Not yet. I can't fight her again."
Marrow had been face down in the mud, her body knocked into shock by Kitty's maneuverings. Her eyelids begin to flutter though, at the misguided youth's attempts at healing her. She is slow to stir though, leaving Kitty ample time to get Wolf away from her.
A patch of charred flesh flakes off of Logan's arm and falls away. Beneath the grime of the fall and the soot from his clothes, the shiny new skin beneath is all but invisible. But signs of life are at least there.
Wolf looks down at Marrow and then up at Kitty. "But why? She's hurt...my gift is not just for the good, but for all people!" He tried to sound like some cheesy superhero, managed the cheesy, but was way far from super. "Uh...right?"
As Rogue detatches, Jean is left without an immediate target. Thus, she stands, and thus she looks around unevenly for a moment, taking stock of bodies and vomit, but sensing no fewer minds than before. And one of them seems to being teenagedly noble. "Adelwolf Owl Locke!" she shouts, finding steadiness as she finds her place as A Professor. "You step away from that young woman -right this instant-. We'll look after her in the medical bay!"
Marrow's shoulders shudder as consciousness starts to creep back into her thanks to Wolf's attention. Her hands stir slowly, slipping beneath her body so that she can try to push back up to her feet. She is not, however, anywhere near capable of it. Yet.
Wolf fearing the use of his full name, Wolf steps quickly backwards in a disoriented fashion, before rushing behind Kitty for protection from Professor Grey. "Eep!"
Rogue turns on her stomach, face smeared with mud. Eyes flash for a moment before a gentle shake of her head clears the fire behind her eyes. "Jubilee?" she murmurs.
Aidan has recovered enough to be aware of his surroundings, if only just. One hand scrubs across his mouth, and he straightens. Hesitantly. Grey eyes flick towards Wolf, and the teen's expression pulls into one of contempt. Shaky contempt, but still. "Fucking retard," he mutters.
Raining, raining, raining.
With her healing cut off, Marrow remains there on the ground. She rolls ever so slightly onto her side, her eyes rolling back as she groans. She is not a threat, but she is at least now not completely inert.
"Get inside quick," Cassy orders, despite being sprawled out in the mud. "I'll cover you from here."
Hiding behind the girl who can become intangible. Smart move. Kitty groans, still fighting off the post-adamantium haze. "It's a good thought, kiddo, but one best left for after she's /safely contained/," she tells him. "I can take her down to one of the holding cells," she volunteers to Jean. "The quick way."
Wolf blushes in embarrassment. "Well...who needs healing then that won't kill me as thanks?" He scans the lawn, hoping not the scary looking man over there(Logan).
Quick survey: two hostiles down. Logan and Jubilee not in good shape, one of them getting better on his own. One vampiric Rogue, one ouching Kitty, one meeping Locke, a worn-out Aidan and a baffled James, and the rest seem to be functional. "Where's my partridge in a pear tree?" she murmurs to herself, distractedly, before giving Kitty a nod. "Do it. I'll get sedatives and meet you there. We'll have to put this Storm in the Danger Room... it's the only place shielded and grounded enough to handle what she might dish out. Wolf. Go to the kitchen, tell the others to go there with you, and tell Madame Vargas I'd like hot chocolate all around."
Jean, obviously.
Rogue lifts her head, eyes blurred by rain. "Jubilation?" she asks again, voice growling with realization. Thunder rumbles overhead as Rogue's eyes pale for only an instant. She stands, shakily.
Logan continues smoking. Without even a cigar. Totally not fair.
Kitty grabs hold of the barely-moving Marrow. "Struggle, and I'll let go and let you fuse molecules with the ground. It's a really, really sucky death, but its quick and means I won't have to hide the body," she says bluntly in warning before dissapearing into the ground with her, and heading towards the cells in the basement.
Luckily, to stave off a future as a part of Xavier's front lawn, Marrow is not yet recovered enough to do much struggling other than a little pissy groan of protest when Kitty takes hold of her. That though, is cut off as the phased pair head through the ground.
Wolf nods at the Professor, before rushing towards the porch. "Professor Grey wants everyone inside and in the Kitchen, pretty please! Hot chocolate all around! And...uh...marshmallows? Uh..." He gulped, feeling society anxiety. "P-please?"
If the medics are on the field, so to speak, that's some indication that the bulk of the bullets have been spent. Julio's slowing pace actually stops, then changes course toward Cassy. "I...think I got it now...thanks. /You're/ more down'n I am right now." He winces and offers a hand.
"Please don't kill anyone," Aidan mutters, to no one in particular. "I think it'll explode my brain."
The fire alarms do not yet believe the emergency is over, silently flashing lights of an indistinct orange-ish 'emergency' color. The house is still emptying, but far along in the process, the scattered remnants of furious action which, in the light of the fight abrupbtly halting, now seems pointless and only frightening. Mira hauls Jubilation Lee indoors as best she can, and while medical training was never her strong point, she knows the basics about don't move this, tie that off, get an adult. "She's in here," Mira calls back, sensing that the conflict is over, or at least over enough, that giving away where she is isn't a bad idea anymore. "Jubes is hurt, but I don't think bad."
"Then you can help me drag Professor Logan inside then!" Cassy decides, crawling out of the mud. "You grab one leg and I'll get the other."
Jean settled beside the fallen weather goddess, a quick check for vitals ensuing, and, in a bit of gory fact-checking, a look beneath the eyepatch to see if there's an eye missing, and if it's recently removed. Somewhere in the back of her mind, there's a little niggling thought about Hellfire Club Wars. << Go down to the medical bay. >> comes the call to Cassy and Mira. << Get the orderlies up here. I need... >> But what Jean needs is lost in a wave of dizziness. Sugar, apparently.
The inner edges of Julio's eyebrows press upward, creating a ridge of worry and surprise in the middle of his forehead. "Que? He hasn't healed himself yet?" Even as he questions he moves, following Cassy's directions.
The socket behind the patch is long empty. The haircut was also long enough ago that it is fraying and showing split ends.
Rogue spins, hands snapping to grab Jean's shirt. She pulls, hard. Memories swirl and mix, the immediate affect of an unprepared contact. "Traitor. Tell me-- Jubilee! What happened-- you will... stop tending to the enemy, you mind meddler! /Jubilation/! What happened?"
Mira snaps a little straighter up, seems to regret it, and puts a hand over her eyes when they show spots and a darkening tunnel around her peripheral vision. "I think... I'll go down there and stay there," she says, just a little uncertain. She snaps her fingers, not as a command but just the sort of single spark that will set Cassy into action better than words. "C'mon, let's go get the medics. I'll be Hawkeye and you can be Trapper John."
Wolf moved to the door and yet again exclaimed, "Inside to the Ki-TCHEN!" The last word made a sudden leap in pitch and became hoarse, Wolf feeling his regular shyness come over him.
Logan doesn't move. This is perhaps because he is kind enough to answer Julio, even while out cold: nope. Not healed yet, though the process has started. It is slowed by the extent of nerve damage, but it is not short-circuited entirely. And isn't this lucky for the students? They get to experience a real-life biology lesson concerning the difference of density between bone and metal!
"Kitchen?" James, after his healing is feeling astoundingly hundry, steps out of the garage for the second time that day. "Did someone say kitchen?"
Jean is not in the mood. "Rogue, sit down and get your head on straight," she snaps, swatting at the hand grabbing at her tank top. "Jubilee is being taken to the medical bay, where my nursing staff will prep her, and I will put stitches in her -after- I have made sure that 'Storm' here is secure. -Go with them-." Rawr!
Cassy telekinetically tugs on Logans legs a few times, dragging him a tiny way along the lawn. "Uhm Julio you're a boy, you get with the carrying. I think Doctor Grey wants me to head to the medbay!" Whistling innocently she heads back towards the porch in search of easier work to do.
After depositing Marrow in a cell, Kitty re-emerges from the ground. She is still in pain, but never let it be said that Shadowcat is not a trooper. "Okay, who's next?" she asks Jean, stepping in to the roll of transportation mutant.
is horrible image of Marrow just laying on the floor somewhere, face down and groaning. Poor thing!
Aidan shoots a hostile glance in Wolf's direction. Kitchen? No way. He pushes himself slowly to his feet, fighting vertigo. The number of injured are still enough to send him loopy. What is this balance you speak of?
James walks toward the mansion, still limping slightly, stepping around the pile of bones. "Is there food up? Oh, I am NOT cleaning up that mess," Looking up at the lightning stricken mansion.
Wolf nods and waves him over. "Professor Grey wants us inside. For hot cocoa...and stuff. Maybe we'll get cookies!" He beamed at the thought. He turns as Cassy requests Julio to carry the scary-burnt man. "Uhm...I'll h-help!" Wolf voiced quietly, walking over to him. "Eh, on second thought..." He looked down at his circle.
"/Rogue/?" The girl of the same name hisses, aggravated by a dull memory. "Don't you say her name, you piece of filth. Not after you--" Another gentle head shake clears her for a moment. But only a moment. She braces herself threateningly.
"Here, I'll help yall out." James steps over, and assists the carrying of the smoke-scored man. "Then I'll get cookies."
Jean still has a hand on her shirt. Eyes narrowing, head pounding, Jean reaches down, grabs Rogue's wrist, and twists gently to try and pop her fingers loose. "You are Rogue. -You- absorbed -her-. Now sit, and take a moment, and then go see Jubilee." Eyes sharp and focused on the younger woman, it's almost until Kitty's on top of her before she notices her. "Danger Room," she murmurs, snapped out of the look. "I'll have to set an override code..."
That first tug is indeed one of the simplest and clearest biology lessons Julio has had in his lifetime. "Woah," is his educated comment on the matter, but he does not drop continued study of the subject. Barefoot and all, he braces himself against the ground and continues to tug, not terribly gentle of a method of moving, but made safer by lack of true speed. James' assistance is met with a, "Thanks, man."
Wolf didn't feel like telling James that Professor Grey hadn't promised cookies, and helps carry Logan Instead.
James nods, and realizes that Logan is, in fact, kinda heavy.
Jubilee is bleeding, trailing slick tracks after her as Mira drags her inside. There is a large bone thing sticking out of her lower back. Ouch.
Rogue plops down on the ground, eyes blinking hard. "That ain't Storm," Rogue mumbles after a moment. "Can't be Storm. No way." The heels of her palms scrub into her eyes. "Jubilee's alive?" she asks, voice whispered and hesitant.
James continues assisting with carrying Logan to the house, realizing he still had the crazy womans dagger in his pocket. "It'd really hurt if I fell over right now, huh? Because I have that bone dagger thing in my pants."
Wolf eyes James. "Eh...T.M.I., dude." and continues carrying.
Julio keeps going, steps slow and metered, quite the opposite of his motion during the attack. He squints at James, "Why're you holding on to it if it's, like...someone else's /bone/? That's not the kinda thing I'd want in my room..." Or his leg, but that goes unspoken.
The dragging scrapes away more flakes of charred skin, and shreds away those patches of cloth on Logan's shirt that had not been destroyed by the lightning strike. And then, enter the cleric. Already revved up beyond conceivable limits, Logan's healing factor suddenly doubles, trebles. There is a body-shaking gasp at the sudden agony of such damage being reversed faster even than his system is used to. The regenerative mutant jerks suddenly upright, eyes snapping open, uncomprehending. His claws unsheath, and he lashes out at the nearest thing - in this case, Wolf's torso. Hey, Wolf. Meet Professor Logan.
"I dunno. Trophy?" James thinks for a minute. "Yeah. A trophy of...something. I haven't thought of it yet-WOA!" James grabs the writhing professor around his midsection, and does the best he can to pull him off of Wolf, switching invisible mode back on.
The next passenger on the Intangible Express is Storm, who is deposited in the danger room, which she then locks and programs to simulate a desert enviroment. Pleasant, warm, sunny and completely uneventful.
"She is," Jean confirms, moving away from 'Storm' to let Kitty take her unimpeded. "Just got a little stabbed. I'll get her patched up just fi-- Oh -shit-." Telepathy. So very handy for advanced warnings. So very useless when one is ten yards away. "Boy! Drop hi-- Wolf!" Hello, adrenaline, and the headache is subsumed and Jean bolts towards her ginsu'd new student.
"A trophy that's someone else's /body part/," Julio reiterates, as if using the disgust factor as a means of distraction from the past hour's mayhem. "Moose heads on walls and stuff are plenty creep--" His assessment of lodge decor is cut off as Logan snaps to life again. He tightens his grip on the professor's ankles all the while leaning back to avoid claws. The slash toward Wolf earns a loud Spanish curse.
You know, there is something about being stabbed by someone that really ruins a relationship. Wolf glanced downward in shock as the claws stabbed through him, not hesitating for a moment to shriek it utmost pain before falling backwards and onto the floor. His vision blurred as blood began to seep out, pain ever-building. "The definition...of..." He was about to say something witty, but found it a stupid thing to do.
Rogue attempts to push herself up, nose snuffling to herself. "Jubes," she mumbles and starts to stagger as Jean flips. She looks up, scuttling uneasily after her. "Oh, woah," Rogue breathes. "Touch him, quick!" the girl tries to explain, though pauses. That doesn't work for everyone.
While not precisely lucid, Wolverine is not writhing. There is something eerily alert in the way he twists away from the weight at his waist, snapping a kick at Julio - the force, at least, is diminished by the teen's hold on his leg. He pulls his claws out of Wolf's chest, but does not retract them. There are still threats, right? Right. Sorry, Logan isn't home right now.
Jubilee DIES.
James continues trying to restrain Logan, unaware of the fact that Logan is not at the phone. "LOGAN...rr...what the hell! Calm down!"
Wit and bleeding do not often go together, alas. "Wolf, kiddo... -damn- it, Logan!" Jean flings at the source of the stab founds, as she ends her sprint with a slide on her knees that will have the household staff despairing of ever getting her riding breeches clean again. Patting about looking for medical supplies she doesn't have on, she decides that sacrificing Wolf's shirt is in order. Rrrrrip. "Get down to the medbay and get me a stretcher and my nurses!" she shouts generally, as she sets about making something, anything, she can use to apply pressure to the wound with.
Aidan, who belatedly realizes that he's still there, stares. "Oh. Fuck..." And then breaks and bolts into the house. Nurses he can get. Nurses are /away/ from the chaos. Away, he can do.
A diminished kick may be preferable to a full one, but it's still no merry jaunt through the park, especially when the kick-ee was squicked by bone trophies even before getting squicked by sprayed abdominal blood. The kick catches Julio in the thigh, which would not do wonders for balance even if not for the seismic wave that comes to call at the bidding of pain. Another good shake rattles the mansion and ripples the lawn, still not of breaking things proportions, but noticeable to the point that it can't be written off as anyone else's fault. Julio releases Logan's ankles in the process, stumbling backwards as his hands fly to his own thigh. "Aagoddammit, help!" Nevermind that Jean's already there and helping.
James grunts with exertion as he tries to contain Logan's anger from behind. He attempts to put Logan in a headlock, hoping to do something to stop him.
Legs released, Logan finds his footing. There is still something on his back. This is perhaps not the best place for that something to be. Iron-hard hands close around one of Jame's arms and /tugs/, as the X-man makes to throw the teen over his shoulder. Fancy a flying lesson?
Rogue hovers behind Jean, thoughts of contact aimed at Logan. "Jean?" She wonders, bare hands flexing.
James finds himself no longer on the ground. "Wha...aaaaah!!!" Sharp pain shoots through James' arm, as Logan successfully hurls James off of his back. So much for a headlock. James lands on the ground around ten feet away ragdoll-style on his back, groaning. "Ooow...Haven't I been hurt enough for one day?"
Apparently not. Logan takes one stalking step forward. And then stops, something like clarity flooding his eyes. "...What?" The claws retract, and Logan shakes his head as though to clear it.
"Uuuurgh..." James looks up from his most recent resting spot. "Thanks a lot, professor. Flying IS fun, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." He clambers back up to his feet.
"-No-." On this Jean is firm, eyeing Rogue's flexing hands with just a bit of mistrust for her intentions as her own hands are busy keeping Wolf's blood mostly where it belongs. "Get James inside, and go see Jubilee. I'll handle this." And with Logan now free of students, she grimaces, reaches out, and asks a pointed << Logan? Are you there? >>
After a very small amount of prodding, Julio realizes that trying to massage the darkening bruise on his leg is more painful than letting it alone. He looks up from this minor injury just in time to see flying classmates, and that stirs him back into motion. He walks as quickly as he can manage with his newly-caused unevenness, keeping a far radius away from Logan but aiming for James. "Whoah.../you/ ok?"
James looks over at Julio. "Yeah. I think. I KNOW I'm gonna be sore in the morning, though. That bruise looks pretty damn grisly, though." He looks over at Logan, then back to Julio, then over at Wolf. "I'm gonna head back." James starts heading towards the mansion, giving professor Logan a considerably large berth.
Rogue shies back, hands clenching up as she blinks owlishly. Her meal denied. Eyes snap around, locked on James as he's mentioned. "Hurry, boy-o," she breathes uneasily, shooing at him. "Inside. Right now."
Logan's gaze tracks Julio's movements. It takes a moment, but recognition does trickle in. "Jeannie?" he asks, hoarse-voiced. His thoughts are not focused enough to project, a tangled mass of confusion and lingering pain snapping along his nerves. "The hell happened?"
James catches the notion, and begins trying to limp faster to the mansion.
It may be just a wee bit unkind, but cut Jean some slack. She gives Logan a fine example of what is commonly known as 'The Hairy Eyeball' and wonders "What does it -look- like?" with definite asperity and a sharp nod down at the unconscious Wolf. "Help me move him to the medbay."
"Least we can sleep in tomorrow, cause it's gonna be Saturday," Julio manages a rather flat smile as he follows James toward the mansion. "Sleep off the ache."
Logan's expression is unreadable as his gaze finds Wolf - with the scent of his own charred flesh hanging heavy in his nose, he did not even notice the blood. There is no reply as he bends to lift the boy, more carefully than most would give him credit for.
Jean doesn't speak beyond medical necessities, and if she's close out of the same -- a need to keep the pressure going -- there's little affection in proximity. But at least there are no accusations. And thus, Dr. Grey makes her way to her medical bay, and sets about starting the long hours of putting everyone back together again.
AU Storm and AU Marrow attack Xavier's School. Part 2/2