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xp_logsThe X-Men finish their battle with the Brotherhood and the Sentinels, only to find it is the start of something more.
The facility itself was only a giant shell, like an automative factory, all gridded in steel cladding. The real power lay at the centre; a massive retangular collection of technology. Through the various gaps and open areas, they could see hundreds of waldos operating in automated fashion. The movement was like a thousand spiders spinning webs, as lines of monofiliment fought plates of ceramic composite and microprocessors for arrangement. In the centre, like a prop from a Frankenstein film, was a Sentinel. It was far from complete. A skeletal form of the ones they had just faced. But in the middle of the machine, the waldos worked incessantly on it, piecing it together, ready to push it out and build another and another and another.
"Well, that looks all nice and ominous." Sooraya hovered above the machinery, taking in all the equipment. "Easy to see where we need to go though." She spiraled up, quickly making her way to the center where the Sentinels were being put together. Threading her way through some cables, she spotted a black piece where many of them seemed to gather. "As good a place as any to start." She quickly transmitted to Nica before lashing out with sharp tendrils of sand, shearing through the cables and finally through the thing itself.
"We're clear. No Sentinels, except on the assembly line. Everyone come in and start breaking things," Nica relayed through her communicator. She hovered for a moment, considering her target. Lines of cables stretched into a section of the machines, and to Nica's senses, they hummed with electricity. Of course, the nightmare robot manufacturing line needed power. She took a breath and then dove into the mass of cables.
"And what an excellent power junction you have, it would be such a shame were something to happen to it," Jean-Phillipe observed drily as he came in behind the pair on point. He examined a pair of exposed wires and chuckled. "Let us see what kind of load this plant is rated for, and if it can handle adding le bevatron to the circuit." He grasped a wire in each hand and centered himself. "Spectrum, if you can hear me, try and find any circuit breakers. If you can fuse them shut, it will make overloading everything much simpler." After all, a breaker was designed to deal with an excess power draw by creating a gap in the circuit. Without the gap, he could keep pouring more energy in and cause a larger failure.
“Got it!” came Nica’s voice through the comm. She’d been studying basic electrical engineering with Jean-Phillipe, so she knew what she was looking for. A few seconds later, her response came through. “All done! Go for it!”, before she beat a hasty retreat.
"Tres bien," Jean-Phillipe replied. Crackling and sparks crawled up his arms as he began to add his own electricity to the system. The first sign of his effect on things was a series of pops coming from the small 120-volt outlets near the team. He kept going, and the industrial light fixtures above began to noticeably dim.
Sparks and the shriek of tortured metal filled the room as the X-men went to work like the machine they were. Scott and the other senior X-men had trained and drilled them till they were responding like a well oiled and capable machine. Speaking off. "Blink, Wolverine, those machines are yours, take it apart." The brown-haired man gestured turning away to observe the rest of the team, these two he knew were capable of handling any surprise that came their way.
Logan was happy to oblige. He made toward the nearest assembly line and along the way slashed anything that looked like it might be important or vital to functioning in half. Once he got near, he started methodically working his way down a line of waldos. The pincher arm was first then the strut holding it then it’s attachment to the pivot point then onward to the next. Pling, screeak, thump as metal sheared, rended, and bounced all over. He made quick work of things as he moved down one line and up the next, following the path of waldos ever closer toward the center of the build zone.
Unlike Logan's slash and destroy, Clarice was slightly simpler in her approach. Climbing up to a high perch, she began opening more and more tiny portals, taking out slivers of machinery until the section she was working on was nothing but a pile of scrap metal. Her lines were precise, but even still, there was no way to weld them back together, not with as many pieces as she left them in. Then, for good measure, she used a portal to remove parts of the pile at random, not only further cutting things up, but also sending pieces elsewhere. Let them figure that out!
It was almost a thing of beauty to watch the X-men take apart the machines that once had been so vitally important to this facility. However, they were constrained by time, by the limitations of their mission. Still, they'd done a good job here, there was no way that they were going to be able to fix the facility now, but...he could add to that, just a little bit. A blink of his eyes as Scott gathered energy, his voice crackling out over the comms. "Everyone out, now. We've done what we came here to do." He gave them a good 30 seconds to scramble away before a bright red beam of energy cut through the building, leaving a smoking wreck as he turned his back on it to join his team.
***
The Brotherhood had faded back and in front of the watchful eyes of Nightcrawler and the others, a portal flared to life behind them and as a group, they quit the field of battle. There was no way to know where they went, but they did know who they left behind.
"What the fuck." Kyle dropped into a crouch, wary and tense. "Okay, where the fuck are they hiding?" He cocked his head, listening. "I.. hear fuck all. Where the fuck are they?"
Kurt lifted his comm, looking around, as troubled as Kyle. "All team members, please gather at my location.”
It was kind of like playing with a doll, or a marionette perhaps, Betsy thought as she made Toad’s vacant form walk towards the rest of her team. His mind was still caught somewhere inside, in a personal nightmare that she didn’t really want to have to touch any further after giving it the initial push. He’d wake up from it. Eventually. She hoped.
The only sound that Jean made was footsteps as she rounded the hill with her opponent in tow. Bound and unconscious, Unuscione floated beside her idly. Despite winning, Jean looked less than thrilled. What did it matter, after all? They'd just be out to do it again eventually.
It had taken Maya some time to make sure Thornn was properly zip-tied and then she’d had to fireman carry the larger woman back from where they’d dropped her to the main facility where the others were waiting.
Frankly, having to listen to the woman threaten a truly interesting array of maiming the entire way had her almost reconsidering that whole ‘we don’t kill’ thing. Having finally made it back to the group she dumped Thornn none too gently at Kurt’s feet and then rolled her shoulders to stretch out of the cramped muscles.
“Someone take this bitch away before I stab her in the face.”
***
As the X-Men began walking slowly back towards the Blackbird, there was a disturbance in the air behind them. A gust of stale air heavy with the smell of exhaust and old sweat, the flapping of newspapers that hadn't been there before and the low rumble of trains and buses. Amanda and Gabriel stepped out of the opening portal, the witch immediately seeking out the two she needed.
"Jean. Kyle. I need you to come with me. Now."
Furrowing her eyebrows, Jean turned around, glancing between the two of them with confusion and a growing weariness. Great, what now?
"Daytripper? What the hell is going on?"
"Olivier. He's behind all this and we have the chance to take him down. But it has to be now." Amanda's entire body language screamed urgency.
"I'm sorry, the fuck?" Kyle's voice dropped into a harsh growl, hair on his neck standing at end. "Jesus this is some magic fucking bullshit."
"Should have kept it vague," Gabriel muttered. "'Hey guys, there's an emergency, I need you both.'" He sighed. "Apparently we don't have a ton of time to talk about this," he said, his voice louder now, his displeasure all too clear from his expression. "An insane statement coming from me. But it's now or never."
"I'll explain more when we get there," Amanda promised, already opening the portal as she spoke. "But right now, we need to go." Through the swirling energy of the portal, the front of the nightclub, AZTECA, could be seen.
The facility itself was only a giant shell, like an automative factory, all gridded in steel cladding. The real power lay at the centre; a massive retangular collection of technology. Through the various gaps and open areas, they could see hundreds of waldos operating in automated fashion. The movement was like a thousand spiders spinning webs, as lines of monofiliment fought plates of ceramic composite and microprocessors for arrangement. In the centre, like a prop from a Frankenstein film, was a Sentinel. It was far from complete. A skeletal form of the ones they had just faced. But in the middle of the machine, the waldos worked incessantly on it, piecing it together, ready to push it out and build another and another and another.
"Well, that looks all nice and ominous." Sooraya hovered above the machinery, taking in all the equipment. "Easy to see where we need to go though." She spiraled up, quickly making her way to the center where the Sentinels were being put together. Threading her way through some cables, she spotted a black piece where many of them seemed to gather. "As good a place as any to start." She quickly transmitted to Nica before lashing out with sharp tendrils of sand, shearing through the cables and finally through the thing itself.
"We're clear. No Sentinels, except on the assembly line. Everyone come in and start breaking things," Nica relayed through her communicator. She hovered for a moment, considering her target. Lines of cables stretched into a section of the machines, and to Nica's senses, they hummed with electricity. Of course, the nightmare robot manufacturing line needed power. She took a breath and then dove into the mass of cables.
"And what an excellent power junction you have, it would be such a shame were something to happen to it," Jean-Phillipe observed drily as he came in behind the pair on point. He examined a pair of exposed wires and chuckled. "Let us see what kind of load this plant is rated for, and if it can handle adding le bevatron to the circuit." He grasped a wire in each hand and centered himself. "Spectrum, if you can hear me, try and find any circuit breakers. If you can fuse them shut, it will make overloading everything much simpler." After all, a breaker was designed to deal with an excess power draw by creating a gap in the circuit. Without the gap, he could keep pouring more energy in and cause a larger failure.
“Got it!” came Nica’s voice through the comm. She’d been studying basic electrical engineering with Jean-Phillipe, so she knew what she was looking for. A few seconds later, her response came through. “All done! Go for it!”, before she beat a hasty retreat.
"Tres bien," Jean-Phillipe replied. Crackling and sparks crawled up his arms as he began to add his own electricity to the system. The first sign of his effect on things was a series of pops coming from the small 120-volt outlets near the team. He kept going, and the industrial light fixtures above began to noticeably dim.
Sparks and the shriek of tortured metal filled the room as the X-men went to work like the machine they were. Scott and the other senior X-men had trained and drilled them till they were responding like a well oiled and capable machine. Speaking off. "Blink, Wolverine, those machines are yours, take it apart." The brown-haired man gestured turning away to observe the rest of the team, these two he knew were capable of handling any surprise that came their way.
Logan was happy to oblige. He made toward the nearest assembly line and along the way slashed anything that looked like it might be important or vital to functioning in half. Once he got near, he started methodically working his way down a line of waldos. The pincher arm was first then the strut holding it then it’s attachment to the pivot point then onward to the next. Pling, screeak, thump as metal sheared, rended, and bounced all over. He made quick work of things as he moved down one line and up the next, following the path of waldos ever closer toward the center of the build zone.
Unlike Logan's slash and destroy, Clarice was slightly simpler in her approach. Climbing up to a high perch, she began opening more and more tiny portals, taking out slivers of machinery until the section she was working on was nothing but a pile of scrap metal. Her lines were precise, but even still, there was no way to weld them back together, not with as many pieces as she left them in. Then, for good measure, she used a portal to remove parts of the pile at random, not only further cutting things up, but also sending pieces elsewhere. Let them figure that out!
It was almost a thing of beauty to watch the X-men take apart the machines that once had been so vitally important to this facility. However, they were constrained by time, by the limitations of their mission. Still, they'd done a good job here, there was no way that they were going to be able to fix the facility now, but...he could add to that, just a little bit. A blink of his eyes as Scott gathered energy, his voice crackling out over the comms. "Everyone out, now. We've done what we came here to do." He gave them a good 30 seconds to scramble away before a bright red beam of energy cut through the building, leaving a smoking wreck as he turned his back on it to join his team.
***
The Brotherhood had faded back and in front of the watchful eyes of Nightcrawler and the others, a portal flared to life behind them and as a group, they quit the field of battle. There was no way to know where they went, but they did know who they left behind.
"What the fuck." Kyle dropped into a crouch, wary and tense. "Okay, where the fuck are they hiding?" He cocked his head, listening. "I.. hear fuck all. Where the fuck are they?"
Kurt lifted his comm, looking around, as troubled as Kyle. "All team members, please gather at my location.”
It was kind of like playing with a doll, or a marionette perhaps, Betsy thought as she made Toad’s vacant form walk towards the rest of her team. His mind was still caught somewhere inside, in a personal nightmare that she didn’t really want to have to touch any further after giving it the initial push. He’d wake up from it. Eventually. She hoped.
The only sound that Jean made was footsteps as she rounded the hill with her opponent in tow. Bound and unconscious, Unuscione floated beside her idly. Despite winning, Jean looked less than thrilled. What did it matter, after all? They'd just be out to do it again eventually.
It had taken Maya some time to make sure Thornn was properly zip-tied and then she’d had to fireman carry the larger woman back from where they’d dropped her to the main facility where the others were waiting.
Frankly, having to listen to the woman threaten a truly interesting array of maiming the entire way had her almost reconsidering that whole ‘we don’t kill’ thing. Having finally made it back to the group she dumped Thornn none too gently at Kurt’s feet and then rolled her shoulders to stretch out of the cramped muscles.
“Someone take this bitch away before I stab her in the face.”
***
As the X-Men began walking slowly back towards the Blackbird, there was a disturbance in the air behind them. A gust of stale air heavy with the smell of exhaust and old sweat, the flapping of newspapers that hadn't been there before and the low rumble of trains and buses. Amanda and Gabriel stepped out of the opening portal, the witch immediately seeking out the two she needed.
"Jean. Kyle. I need you to come with me. Now."
Furrowing her eyebrows, Jean turned around, glancing between the two of them with confusion and a growing weariness. Great, what now?
"Daytripper? What the hell is going on?"
"Olivier. He's behind all this and we have the chance to take him down. But it has to be now." Amanda's entire body language screamed urgency.
"I'm sorry, the fuck?" Kyle's voice dropped into a harsh growl, hair on his neck standing at end. "Jesus this is some magic fucking bullshit."
"Should have kept it vague," Gabriel muttered. "'Hey guys, there's an emergency, I need you both.'" He sighed. "Apparently we don't have a ton of time to talk about this," he said, his voice louder now, his displeasure all too clear from his expression. "An insane statement coming from me. But it's now or never."
"I'll explain more when we get there," Amanda promised, already opening the portal as she spoke. "But right now, we need to go." Through the swirling energy of the portal, the front of the nightclub, AZTECA, could be seen.
