2013.04.22 - Barpha Narka

To the modern world, it started in 1984. The Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range, unoccupied for many years, became a sudden focal point between India, Pakistan, and a smaller country called Santi. To India and Pakistan it had always been a no-man's land due to its elevation ranges between 18,000 and 25,000 feet, an average winter snowfall of 35 feet, and temperatures which can fall as far as -58 degrees Farenheit. Since the dispute over which of the three sides claims the region, it has also become a primary target for the dumping of waste material, as well as contamination from heavy fighting and losses racked up on all sides.
The modern world is largely content to take this at face value and forget about it altogether. Despite Indian occupation Pakistan attempts to lay claims to it, so Pakistan can have it. What few realize is the tainted history that had plagued the region many decades before.
***
April twenty-first, 1912.
***
Twenty-one years prior to Pakistan's declaration. In Santi, a collection of eighteen souls possessing abnormalities are rounded up and taken deep into the mountains. Some have different colored skin. Some have protrusions from their bodies. Out of the group, not one of the eighteen fit in with the rest of humanity. All of them are considered Hellish abominations which must be pushed far away from Santi, lest they bring bad luck upon them all.
All eighteen are shot and left for dead. Years later their bodies will eventually come to rest between the mountains, frozen within the Siachen Glacier.
***
Present day.
***
A lethally cold windchill throws bits of ice no larger than grains of sand across the bleak, grey patch of the very same glacier, tucked deep within the Himalayan mountains. Few roads lead into this part of the world. Fewer human establishments exist. Any conflicts between the bordering countries are just as likely to be silenced from avalanches and the weather as they are from enemy fire. Breathing itself has become a wicked challenge in the area. Regardless of different regions all wishing to lay claims to the territory, it's still largely forgotten and ignored.
This makes it an ideal location to build a secret facility, dug deep into the mountainside. Even advanced thermal imaging can't detect any source of heat within the thick sheet of ice masking everything below. How such a facility could be located is not a matter which is easily answered. Even more of a mystery is determining which country had been responsible for its construction, and who makes up its current workforce.
There are no guards posted. External security measures are comprised of old, copied Soviet designs, little more advanced than a nuke-proof vault door set within the rocky surroundings.
Mystique, under the guise of a mountaineer, leads a small group of hand-picked mutants right through the comparatively diminutive front door which flanks the massive blast doors several yards away. Dim, naked yellow bulbs line the cold grey cement corridors beyond, fitted with rust-stained steel doors all finished in chipped powder blue paint with faded Hindi labels and numbers, suggesting that the facility doesn't belong to Pakistan.
No blueprint of the facility could be located, though Mystique's team has several objectives which all lead to the same end result: To shut this place down for good. An aged nuclear reactor which powers the complex. Old warheads of immense yield. Modern computer hardware filled with research compiled over decades. Various pieces of experimental tech from designs starting with Nikola Tesla and reaching as far out as modern day molecular disruption. Her team had been teleported in by another mutant, they've already breached the outer walls and pushed further inside, all of them tasked with causing as much destruction as possible.
They aren't going to be alone. Another group had been given notice of this facility days ago, as well as what's about to go down today. The X-Men's information network had received a collection of scraps, from rumors to documented facts, all pointing to these geographical coordinates and this day. With their highly advanced surveillance tech locating the main entrance from within the Blackbird only takes a little trial and error. There's even a flat, snow-swept plateau where the jet could touch down not far away, likely a buried extension of the facility. Greeting them a short way inside are a small number of dead guards, having only recently fallen. Several shell casings from rifle fire dot the cement, though whomever caused this trouble and breached the facility is no longer around.
Not far away, hidden within a snowdrift, lies an entirely modern phone, broken beyond repair.
Mutant research. It's become a siren's song to Kurt Wagner; something that can bring the blue, fuzzy mutant from the depths of .. well .. depths. All through the flight, Nightcrawler's been quiet- his usual banter silenced, his fur dulled, and his movement a little less than lithe and graceful.
Tired. Kurt looks tired.
As the blackbird sets down, and the gangway is extended down, he's got his coat on, boots, his hood pulled up and over his head before he greets the frigid air.. not to mention the thinner, more rarified air. There's nowhere to hide in shadows here, so there's no real point in 'tactics', other than the fact that the blue elf simply doesn't stay in one place long. He's constantly disappearing, only to reappear elsewhere.. and within a couple of heartbeats, he's gone.. and back.
Landing finally at one of the newly dead guards, Kurt exhales softly and whispers a prayer for the dead. Yellow eyes look towards the facility.. and he exhales softly.
"Not a very serene place, is it?" Doug replies darkly, glancing around Santi Valley. That Santi meant Serenity was an irony looking at all the dead bodies about. Still, the young man does what he can for the dead, moving from body to body to close their eyes, and to examine them- for even in death, their bodies could -tell- him things about the way they fell, who killed them... and perhaps other things.
A glint catches his eye, and Doug moves to pick up the broken phone. Tilting his head, he examines it, looking for its sim card. If that proved to be intact, he might as well try and access it at some point.
Dressed in her usual x-suit, Channel surveyed the scene quietly, taking it all in. "Place still has power," Jocelyn responds. "Running through a lot of it, actually, all told. All sorts of energy types inside," Channel reports through the x-link as she quietly surveys the scene with the rest of the team. "It's definitely active, if nothing else". She'll let the others dig around and deal with the bodies. She didn't have enough knowledge to tell much from that, and they were dead anyway, so there wasn't anything she could do for them. It was easier to just...not deal with them. However, she was mostly waiting for instructions from her team leaders on what to do next. She was definitely the most junior on the team here.
Not too far from Doug there is another mutant. Only this one is sort of examining the bodies. Albeit in their own odd way. There's a sniff here. A sniff there. The hands of the dead are lifted and their arms are occasionally lifted and put back down.
But all in all, Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23 is basically checking things out. To not only confirm that how these guys died, but to also to see if she can find anything abnormal at all. And considering her... Training, as well as her senses, finding that info might not be that hard. but then again, as she hears what Jocelyn says, there is a slight frown.
"Mostly," Polaris murmurs in reply to Doug, "it's just /cold/." She takes a moment to grimace at the hint of levity underlying those words, then shakes her head and squints at one of the walls. It doesn't make getting a feel for the electricity coursing through the strcture any easier, but it's a hell of a lot better than looking at, say, the ground. It's her first mission with the X-Men after years of sabbatical, and no amount of time logged in the Danger Room can prepare one for sight and smell of the freshly dead.
Eventually, her eyes roam up the wall she's been squinting at, and as they reach the ceiling, her brow furrows thoughtfully and she transmits, "Nightcrawler: lights on, or off?"
Also freshly back to the team, Alex Summers descends out of the Blackbird and slowly takes in the scene. His face is somewhat impassive as he looks out at what might be called a massacre or at the very least sensless death. He is wearing cold weather gear over his black containment suit today. He tugs the collar up a little tighter around his neck as he slowly walks forward. His feet crunch over the ice and snow still in the isolated mountains as he makes his way towards the facility and the door in the mountain. "Hard to imagine anyone was up to any good being this tucked away from the world. Only someone not wanting to be found..."
Well one person was ready to go with Mystique, and that was one of Jamie Madrox's rogue dupes. Yeah the dupe just met the blue lady the other day, but he already likes her. Plus she killed that other evil scientist guy that's totally cool for him! But anyway this dupe is with her, and of course he's dressed for the weather.
"Man it feels good to get out of that trench coat. I tell you that Prime he has no sense of taste. Among the other things he has no sense for. " The dupe laughs at that one. "But man he had no idea what it can be like out there for mutants. So what I'm trying to say is thanks for trusting a lil' ol copy like me along on this thing." Too bad none of Jamie's dupes ever learned how to be silent.
But once they have entered the facility the Dupe starts to make his own dupes. Man how cool is it that every dupe has the same power as the Prime. He starts off small, making 4 copies of himself. Figuring that should be more than enough for now.
From deeper inside the complex an animalistic roar bounces around the hallways followed by the screeching sound of tearing metal and the crashes of big pieces of furniture coming to sudden stops against walls. The cacophony of sound lasts a few seconds then everything goes quiet again. In one of the research laboratories Ricardo is rampaging, but not as himself but in the guise of a Yeti, and that is the cause of all the sudden noise. It doesn't take him more than a half a minute or so to completely destroy the room, making just about every piece of equipment in it a total loss. Then he walks back out into the hallway, turning into a wobbling mass of golden protoplasm for a second as he turns back into Ricardo, smart suit and everything, to be able to fit back into the hallway and follow behind Madrox and Mystique.
***
July twelfth, 1940.
***
The sun fills a brilliant blue sky, scattered with thin wisps of clouds. Harsh winds have calmed down during the early afternoon, creating a brilliant landscape full of blinding white snow which leads out to a backdrop of purple and blue hued mountains, jagged like the teeth of some great beast. It's a magnificent sight, filled with natural beauty and mystery. The snow offers a form of insulation, quieting down the local ambience into little more than distant memories.
It does little to silence the sharp crack of a lone pistol shot, quickly followed up by the rapid discharge of a dozen rifles. What few screams have a chance to sound out are promptly silenced as pristine white snow and pale blue ice become tainted with thick dye, most of it red. Once more the demons have returned. Once more they have been driven out.
***
Present day.
***
One part of the facility is home to a series of heavy glass tubes, kept within a constant state of natural refrigeration. Mystique's gloved hand sweeps across a thick layer of frost shrouding one of the capsules, revealing the silhouette of a dehydrated body, frozen within a block of ice. At one time he had unnaturally yellow skin, having since turned dark brown over the decades, though it remains sparsely covered in what look like long blades of black-hued grass. One of his legs had separated some time ago, frozen solid alongside him. Part of his skull is missing, a smaller puncture wound within his forehead leading into a larger exit wound at the back.
The capsule beside it reveals a short, delicately slender body of a woman, or perhaps a young girl. Peculiar tribal-like markings cover her own withered, paper-thin flesh, visible from within her own frozen block. A pair of beetle-like wings reach out from the backs of her shoulders, much of the delicate tissue that had made them up having been ripped and torn away. She, too, has a pair of angry looking holes through her body. One through the chest, one through the stomach. Not even the passing of time could erase the look of anguish that remains locked upon her face for so long.
One group of people left these poor souls to be forgotten. Another group had since discovered them, dug them up, put them upon display.
Only a short ways beyond reveals one of the facility's current living occupants, his life swiftly ended with a slash of a blade across his jugular then a violent piercing of his heart from five inches of razor-sharp steel. Once more bright red fluid stains a frost-covered environment, quickly dripping through the ice crystal-wrapped grates which make up much of the floor.
"These people are not worthy of your sympathy," Mystique tells her team, whether in person or over their coms. "Spread out and deal with them before they have the chance to do the same to you."
The blade is given a violent twist, opening the chest wound to an almost obscene level before the honed metal is yanked free, speckling tiny, delicate crimson dots across one of the many frost-covered capsules. Then he's standing beside his own dead body, the metamorph claiming his identity.
Being tired is not going to help any out in this hostile climate, as Nightcrawler will likely realize the instant the blackbird is unbuttoned. It's -nasty- outside, probably only going to get worse as the day drags on. There's already a buildup of snow upon the fallen guards, though with how quickly this bitter cold can sap the warmth from everything it's difficult to tell how quickly their bodies had started to cool off.
Doug won't find any of the usual suspects in that phone. Stripped clean, quite possibly by a professional.
The guards seem to have been taken out through different means. Blade, bone, bullet, brute force. It was done recently, too. Maybe only five minutes ago. X-23 is able to pick up some more subtle cues that the wind hasn't yet stripped away. Several bodies, further supporting the various ways in which they all happened to die. Seems like a small party passed through, everyone getting a guard of their very own. There may have been more than a one to one ratio, however. Going further inside, there's several scents lingering. Quite recent.
Channel's senses are going to show the hidden facility lit up like crazy. It's big. It's apparently fully, or mostly, powered, whether nothing more than strings of lightbulbs in a hallway up to some fairly spectacular fields that can be either generating, or burning through, electricity. That's just the simple stuff, there's other 'flavors' of energy at play. More subtle, but they exist.
Killing the lights around here would probably not be a very good idea. It's a huge underground structure, there's guaranteed to be some murderous people already inside, and anyone not able to see in pitch black conditions would quickly find themselves lost within the labyrinth. However, for one such as Polaris, there's also a lot of metal content to work with. A -whole- lot of metal. Heavy, solid, armor-quality metal. There's also an operating nuclear reactor, and a collection of other fields that could be lots of different pieces of equipment.
Mystique's masked eyes drift back to Madrox, chatty little fellow that he is. "You may wish to pay more attention to your surroundings, we are far from alone. Spread out, search for our big ticket items." Despite any irritation she may be feeling towards the kid, Ricardo's making quick work of the place. It's enough to bring the hint of a grin to her lips. There's the first alarm of the day to sound, she can already hear the frantic yelling of people going to investigate.
Those people running toward the ruined lab will be the first living obstacle for the X-Men. A few researchers. Most of them guards with automatic rifles. The dark skin looks a bit out of place with all of the pale, ice-hued colors, but they still know how to point and fire.
In case anyone's missed it, Kurt quietly recaps, laying out the information for all to do act upon and/or make suggestions. "Running through a great deal of power, und all sorts of energy types inside," though that one is more murmured.
Kurt looks to Polaris and shakes his head. "That would not give us an advantage. I cannot see in total dark, und we have no telepath with us," as much as one would be so very, very useful at the moment.
Kurt teleports through the door now, landing on the opposite side, clinging to the wall just above the door on the inside.
At the sounds of the bellowing roar, however, glowing yellow eyes widen, and he calls out, "Contact has been made.. Cypher, see if you cannot get into the systems und download what it is they have here.. und see if there is any way to track.." The sound of the crashes assails his ears, ".. that."
And the rest? Kurt teleports across the room, landing on the ceiling- not even his tail hangs down. "Fan out.. und do your best to stay in communication.. sing out if you need a partner.." Those here, well.. they're damned good, and some are even getting a little better.
With the researchers running, Kurt has to play the game of 'shoot/don't shoot' and it's to the guards that his attention turns. "There!" he calls out. "Guards!" and in the next instant, he's off the ceiling, dropping on one of them, landing heavily, and flipping the man up and over.. and behind him, only to have the non-mutant slam into the wall, and slide down, slumping into unconsciousness.
How the hell did they wipe the information -that- fast? Moving closer to Jocelyn, Doug murmurs, "Keep an eye out for some sort of electromagnetic pulse gun or user. We might have trouble with comms if that happens, so don't let them use it..." And then Kurt calls out his command, and Doug listens, before flashing a grin at Jocelyn. "Well, getting into the systems from out here is gonna be tricky, so get me in there, will you?" he asks, all set to follow his student/teacher.
Guardsmen. Researchers. Channel reaches out for some energy to crank her physical attributes up just as a bullet bounces off her forehead. Being able to withstand bullets was oh-so very useful. "Let me clear you a path, Cypher," Channel responds to the man, giving him a nod about electromagnetic communications.
The woman then rises a few inches in the air, holds out her arms, and starts flying at the armed men, attempting to knock them out with some high-speed clothlines, doubling back a few times while trying to draw bullet fire to give Doug space to manuever. Nothing that would kill them (she did know her own strength) but enough to put them out of commission.
"Let me know if you take a hit," Channel states into her communication device while she works on dealing with as many guardsmen as she can. She, much like Kurt, was trying to draw their fire away from those who couldn't take a hit quite as easily as she could.
Another statement comes through the communications device. "I got somebody changing energy signatures up ahead. Not quite sure who or what," Channel reports.
Of those smells that Laura picks up, one of the more interesting ones causes her to pause for a moment. That is before she adds something to her com.
"Killer changed from human... To animal... And back a few times." Of course what that could mean goes unsaid, since as far as Laura is concerned that's self explanatory. At least in her eyes.
Then again, as the team enters the facility, there's another sniff, and another transmission.
"There's others in here..."
Of course that could just be the guards. Right?
Of course as the guards arrive, X-23 rushes forwards and attacks. but... She holds back. Yes, that's right. No claws. No fatal moves. Instead she just tries to disarm and otherwise render the guards unable to fight.
"What the /hell/," Polaris exclaims over gunfire, "was that roaring?" Any bullets that come her way slow to an impossible stop, a few feet out from her palm, despite her eyes darting around to try and keep track of her teammates.
One thing the Danger Room /is/ good for: learning how to deal with being shot at.
"If anyone's got a lead on tracking it down, I'm with 'em; lemme just--"
Her head and gaze snap towards one guard in particular, just as he squeezes off yet another futile round; it only makes it a couple feet out of the barrel before abruptly coming to a stop, compressing into a dense lump, then jerking backwards to ricochet off of the guy's temple with just enough force to hurt - and, if she's lucky - drop him. The couple dozen other bullets hanging around her follow suit, becoming a stinging cloud that careens towards the guards who supplied it.
"--take care of something," she finishes as she works her way towards the exit.
Havok comes through the door just behind the others. His hands are in fists and begin to glow slightly. He is hesitant to bring them up as one shot would kill. As the others deal with the guards he moves out to the flank and looks for any straglers that X-23, Channel, or Polaris might have missed. "No worries, Kurt," he says over the X-Men's commlink. "At least no worries yet."
So she said to spread out, and that is something that any Madrox does really well. Him and the dupes just head out and start looking around at the place. Hey look the dupes have even stumbled across a few guards! Hey they know all the stuff that regular Jamie knows. So using some of that awesome Shaolin Kung Fu that one of the other dupes studied they are able to fight the guards and disarm them.
Yup so a few of his dupes are now armed! Fear the armed dupe army, as Dupe Prime makes more dupes, they are all now armed. Man that has to be explained one day, everything that Jamie has on him gets copied. But he also gets an idea and the dupes do the standard thing and steal some of the KOed guards clothes. It'll help with the search plus they have like access cards or stuff like that now!
Ricardo jogs up the hallway, ducks into the next room and runs into a group of guards on the way out. His sudden appearance is enough to make them pause and that costs them. Taking a quick look at the back of his hand, where the image of the yeti has been draw in permanent markers, it only takes about two seconds for the dapper Spaniard to be replaced with the massive yeti.
The room both he and the guards are in seems to be an office so the yeti grabs the closest desk and uses it as a combination shield and battering ram, running straight at the guards as they start shooting at him. The weight and strength behind the desk is enough to put any human guard down for the count and once they are all accounted for the yeti proceeds to wreck everything else in the room, tossing computers into walls, ripping desks in half, using chairs as baseball bats to clobber monitors, etc. For all the devastation he's causing surprisingly little debris ends up near the guards as if, regardless of Mystiques' encouragement, he's going out of his way not to unnecessarily kill them, even if he's not taking particular care to keep them alive when he's defending himself either.
***
October second, 1953.
***
Word of mutants has gotten out to the Santian public. Like a witch hunt more than thirty people, some mutants, some simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, are rounded together and placed within cages to be left out on public display. In the week that follows they are not fed, are given no water. Some die from starvation. Some perish from the treatment they receive from other citizens of their own homeland.
What had started as a warning to all other mutants to flee the country has quickly devolved into public torture and humiliation. After seven long days the survivors are hauled away, word being that they would be deported from Santi, once more freeing them of their demons. It's only partially true. Within the frozen glacial basin they are left alone, malnourished and dehydrated, completely unprepared for the deathly cold weather which quickly overwhelms them all. Most of their bodies are forever lost, frozen beneath feet of snow and ice.
***
June fifth, 1962.
***
Construction of a secret facility is completed, having been funded through any number of shady means, coincidentially located near what had played the role of a mass grave more than once in the past. The purpose of this facility is not for the security of the country of Santi, nor the continuation of government. Since its conception it has been created to focus on just one thing: Removing mutants from the modern world.
***
Present day.
***
Some of those lost souls had wound up here, similarly secured in a deep freeze on another level. The dates of when the four had been discovered are printed across the front of their respective capsules. 05/19/63. 01/02/65. 07/24/66. 10/13/71. Each of the four look like skeletons wrapped in cellophane, one having possessed a tail which now seems to be missing more than half of its length.
Progressing deeper inside the facility reveals various lab environments (one of them now completely destroyed thanks to Ricardo,) some of them populated with six inch tall stainless steel cylinders which are kept in sub-zero containment. More modern labels reveal a range of dates from 1997 to the present, including their geographical location. The most recent collection is marked 'Bavaria, Germany, 09/16/12.' There's also empty spaces where more of them would fit, one sectioned off area marked 'New York City, America, 04/__/13.
Mystique has gone her own way with the teleporter mutant, the pair easily disappearing into the labyrinthine facility. The further inside they all progress the more up to date the security measures are. Her team is a capable bunch, however. They can take care of some armed guards and scientists. They should also be able to slow down the X-Men, at the very least.
At least Doug would understand what the locals are saying as the burst into the trashed lab and encounter the likes of Nightcrawler and company. What they have to say is a far cry from neighborly. There's a lot of 'intruders' and 'mutants' mixed into a much larger, more colorful collection of slang best not repeated. Apparently these guys really -do not- like mutants! Needless to say, they're shooting. -Lots.- The lab's already a lost cause, they start emptying their weapons in search of racking up enemy kills.
Channel's clearing of the room is almost like cheating. The soldiers can't even touch her with their weapons and she can simply fly right at them and knock them down! Between her and Nightcrawler there's also a lot of talk about demons and hellspawn and various religious references that first strike terror into the men present, then outright rage. Seems like they're ready, and planning, to go down fighting for their beliefs.
It's a big ol' kick to the pride when they get taken out of the fight without dying, and without killing any of the intruders. Some of the knocked down fighters scramble back out of the room, probably searching for more substantial firepower. Even the smaller black haired girl, who looks normal despite her dress, refuses to go down as she plows through people faster than any human should be capable of.
They're here, the demons are here!
That one's even -stopping their bullets,- and -that- guy's hands are glowing! The one guard gets bowled over backward as a round fired from his own weapon smacks him in the forehead, knocking him out cold. It's just too much for these guys, their fighting spirit only further getting rallied. As the others duck out of the room one tosses a frag grenade in after the rest before closing the door and making a 'tactical' retreat. They're definitely going to need bigger guns!
The United Army of Madrox is in surprisingly good shape. The dupes themselves look normal enough. Highly out of place, but 'normal.' With their combat prowess and ability to duplicate items, along with the retreating mob of ticked off soldiers, it's almost..too..easy. There's also lots of side rooms to check out, maybe there'll be more lab equipment prone to showering lots of sparks when they're shot at.
There's plenty more trouble to be found down here than what the X-Men are facing. Now there's a yeti running around! People and furniture go flying. Computer terminals both ancient and modern get thrown about, exploding into expensive confetti. Same as with the others, if assault rifles aren't up to the task then they're going to fall back and find something else to bring into play. This is -their- home, darnit!
"Laura, point!" Kurt calls out, particularly after gaining the information- seconded by Jocelyn in terms of power signatures. The blue elf can understand scent and feeling so much more than energy signatures. Even though he's spent so much time with Amanda and her magic.
"The guards are not looking for us.." Kurt goes after another, and flinging the man against the wall, gives him the chance to also begin down the hall, on the ceiling.
"Polaris.. und Havok.. ja.." They know the drill. It's something Nightcrawler relies upon.
"Jocelyn.. keep an eye out for any spikes in energy.. und let us know.." As in.. *boom*
And there, in the lights, there are some that aren't quite running towards the sounds of destruction. A few.. that look remarkably.. alike. Minor bits here and there, but--
"Halt!" Kurt calls out the single syllabled word, but even there, his German accent so so very noticable. Fair enough to give a warning, particularly when there's fuzz standing on the back of his neck. Shapeshifter, Laura had said?
And there's the roar again, the growing-louder sounds of destruction. But his warning has the backing of action from those gathered with him!
"They're shooting to kill," Doug reports over the comm. "Don't hold back, they're going for the kill shots." And yes, that meant you too, X-23.
Keeping to Jocelyn, Doug falls in place, calling out warnings so she knew where to look while occupied with others, at least until he can get to -something- that resembled a terminal.
"Do not kill! I repeat, do not kill unless it is unavoidable." Kurt interjects, his voice filled with.. irritation. "I don't care what they are doing." Beyond that? Well, there'll be a chat later!
Channel can think of a certain someone who might fit that bill when Laura mentions the creature and shapeshifting, and it likely isn't the person Nightcrawler is thinking of. Of course, she's got other things to think about as she holds her hands out at the frag grenade. They weren't going to be able to stop it from going off, but keeping it from doing damage was her intent by yanking the energy from that grenade the moment it went off.
"I've got the shifter tracked. He or she just did some growing again. Judging by the sharp spikes of electrical energy I'm seeing, it looks like the shifter is going for the 'Smash Everything' approach to life," Channel reports.
Channel moves not to point, as that was Laura's job, but keeping up near the front to act as a meatshield for the others still, as bullets and other bad things were still being fired, and at least she could eat up some of those.
It doesn't' matter if they're shooting. In fact, it's almost as if Laura /wants/ to be shot.
Well, maybe she doesn't, but still... She charges on in, apparently trying to draw fire towards her. Especially as Kurt tells her to take point. Because it's then that not only that she's trying to follow the scents, to get at who ever is here, but she also pops her claws with a *SNIKT!*
Yeah. Then there's the snarl as the clawed girl just goes all out. She tries not to kill if she can avoid it, but well...
The snarl from her is all but inhuman. She stabs and slashes, blood probably flying everywhere. If the guards get clear and medical attention soon, then they won't die, thus Laura won't be the one who killed them. And she does try to leave them so they can get away if the wounds are bad enough. but for the most part... She goes for just enough to frighten and induce pain, if not unconsciousness with no permanent disabilities.
Of course that's just the guards. If she runs into someone or something that isn't just human, then the game will change.
Most of the bullets that miss Laura are caught before they can reach Channel, thanks to the faint ripples and subtle flashes of green distorting the space around the X-Men. Moving as a unit makes supporting the the team a whole lot easier for Polaris, whose curled hands glow with vibrant green light at her sides--even if Laura's swift, vicious handling of the guards makes covering /her/ a bit more complicated. Given the way she's fighting, though, Lorna is willing enough to leave her to it; if the feral girl needs to pull back, she can.
"Stay close," she tightly reminds the rest of the group as she winces at one particularly nasty takedown.
Havok keeps up with the group. He can hear the loud roaring from further in the facility even over the shots being fired. Whatever is making that noise is loud and sounds angry. "Lets see if we can find out what is making that noise and maybe," he says with a half smile on his face, "give these guards a little shock and awe as if we really weren't impressive enough." Keeping close to Lorna to protect him from bullets, he brings up a hand that begins to glow brighter with circles of energy. He aims it towards one wall where the growling of the unseen Yeti is the loudest. He narrows his eyes for a moment and then plasma energy is blasting forth from his hand towards the thick wall of the facility.
Well the Blue Furry guy calls out for one of the dupes that was posing as a guard to stop. But of course he does just that! But of course the guard dupe turns to face them and makes more dupes as well, so that there are 5 new guards facing the heroes, and they open fire. Of course the dupes and weapons are just regular stuff so well nothing that should be worried about!
As for Dupe Prime, him and the rest of the dupe army are searching, and using their new keycard access to look around. And hey the dupes got lucky, said dupe speaks into the comm, "Hey guess what I found. Looks like the guards armory. And man do they have some nice weapons in here.." Hey they searched the small rooms, so well they were bound to get lucky!
This time the yeti doesn't return to the form of Ricardo. Instead he takes the hand of one of the unconscious guards and focuses. Ten seconds or so later the guard has a twin, uniform and all, which is straightening up right as the wall next to him disappears courtesy of Havok's energy beam, which has punch through two or three rooms to get there. "Shit! Vamoose time!" Popping out into the hallway and once again out of sight of the X-Men he looks up and down his section of hallway, "Where'd they go?" Not seeing Mystique he starts jogging deeper into the complex without stopping to wreck any more rooms, yet.
When he encounters groups of guards or scientists he jogs right on past them but anyone that is unfortunate enough to run into him one on one is allowed to pass by then knocked out from behind by the expedient of getting hit in the back of the head with an assault rifle butt. "Where oh where can they be?" And that's when Dupe Prime's comment comes through the comm. "That sounds like fun? Where are you? and don't shoot at me, I look like one of the guards. Just look for the portraits on the back of my hands."
***
May eighth, 1977.
***
Day one of an 'ethnic cleansing' across Santi happens in secret. Large numbers of people are rounded together and tortured, executed, broken, burned alive, and destroyed. Their remains are all thrown into the Siachen Glacier. A select few are kept alive, yet their fates are among the worst. Transported to a secret facility, they are forced to undergo countless batteries of tests and experiments, only kept alive to further such research. Examination of the X-Gene, referred to in a much less polite way, consumes much of the location's ongoing studies. What remains of their bodies are still contained within the facility, kept on ice with the rest.
No longer were they just sending the demons away, they were sending them back to Hell. The Ice Hell. Barpha Narka.
***
August ninteenth, 1985.
***
Research into robotics is in full swing. Due to the growing paranoia of mutants and altered genetics an entire branch within the facility is opened up to constructing machines made to handle such experimentations and exterminations with minimal human involvement. No name for the project is given, though one of their more successful combat prototypes earns the name 'Bicchu,' Hindi for 'Scorpion.'
***
Present day.
***
Mystique borrows one of the keycards that Madrox had so helpfully copied and cracks open the proverbial safe, a pair of solid metal doors grinding open to reveal a massive airport hangar-sized cavern beyond, filled with machinery.
Automated assembly equipment remains cool and motionless, though more than two dozen scorpion-like drones had already been assembled some time ago. Where pinchers and a stinger would normally be these ten foot long machines have had high-power weapons of various types attached. One has a trio of large-caliber machine guns fitted, the housings for the heavy ammo belts disappearing into its armored carapace. One has a cluster of powerful looking missiles poised as if ready to strike. One simply has giant claws, perhaps more a proof of concept model than one meant for field use. Most have been installed with more advanced looking designs. Laser cannons. Particle beams. Lightning emitters. None of them are powered, though even silent and still they give the impression of having been built to destroy.
Within the back of the robotics wing are two massive constructions lying flat upon their backs. Both look humanoid in shape. Only a few exterior panels remain in place, revealing the complex inner workings of their designs. They don't appear to have ever moved. It's possible that they had never been able to move under their own power at all. To some, their appearance would not be very far off from another similar concept which had recently been field tested in another part of the globe.
Sentinels.
Mystique ignores the robotics, easily passing by the facility's inhabitants under the copied guise of that same murdered researcher. She's searching for one thing in particular, concealed within a cylindrical, glass-lined space near the center of the hangar like a misplaced display case from a museum. Modern fluorescent lights shine upon a small, peculiar looking device within, having a thin but elongated core with a series of electrodes branching off of it.
With a faint grin Mystique grabs a guard as he passes nearby, boldly throwing him against the rounded glass encasement. One of the panes is unable to stand up to the strike and shatters inward, fragments of material falling upon the lone man, cutting and impaling him as he struggles to get away, screaming in agony. A klaxon, isolated within the robotics wing, begins to ring out.
Nightcrawler's right, the guards -hadn't- been looking for them. Not originally. The sound of that bellowing roar only further brings the point home, there's something very big and very nasty already down here making a mess of the place.
Terminals aren't all that far away from where Doug's camping out. Problem is, one has to get through to Mister Yeti in order to access any of them. The good news is that the Yeti doesn't seem to sit still for long, in a few more seconds the office area should be cleared out and left ripe for the picking. Who knows what might be left behind?
Channel very likely saves some lives by pulling the energy out of that grenade, ending not with the expected pop but with the lightest of fizzles. It's anti-climatic, but oh so effective. Poor thing never knew what hit it.
A lot of the soldiers don't have any better of a clue. That black haired girl's using claws. -Claws!- Bright, fresh blood sprays across the pale hallways amidst a near-endless hail of automatic fire and a whole collection of different yells and screams. Try as they might, X-23 keeps pushing them back and giving the other X-Men more room to move around in.
Even if they did hold back, Polaris has the group so well covered that the soldiers can't do anything useful. Pull back, pull back!
Shock and awe, indeed. Havok's blast punches a hole clear through the aged concrete into the the office, throwing dust and debris all over creation. Now Doug has an easy way inside, too! Seems like the guys that built this place didn't go for the toughest of materials.
Unfortunately, the yeti in question is no longer there... Shifting takes energy, energy Channel can discover.
Madrox's finding the armory is just in time, as there's a swarm of military grunts all falling back to that very same room! Now might be a great time to upgrade the arsenal, as the first soldier around the bend says something that may well translate into You again?!
Mystique's quick on the comms, "Raid the armory, use their own weapons against them before they get to them first!" That, and it'll cause even more trouble for everyone Not Her. It really is nice how things all work out for her once she's rigged the game.
Something is wrong with slicing through the humans and pausing at the mutants. It shows an inherent.. preference for their own kind. And with Kurt, it is true, and it's something he's truly coming around to see.. to recognize. All are God's children, but.. mutants? He's meant to help them.. to keep them from those that would hurt and kill them.
Those figures that have been passed, well.. Kurt saw them as he went through, but should he stop, he would mourn them- deeply. And now is not the time! Nor the place. That is why it's so important for Doug to pull that information. Names.. they all have names.. and gifts. Their voices have been silenced, but in a way, they haven't. They still need to speak.
"Slow down, leibchen.." and the iron smell of blood begins to truly reach the fuzzy blue elf's nose.. and he wrinkles it. "Easy.." he murmurs.
Jocelyn's approach is given a nod; she'll be useful up front. Gone is the hesitation of using a child, now that it's been revealed to him that she is anything but. He still has those qualms, certainly. Someone not trained to X-Men's mores beyond 'don't kill'? It's more than words- it's HOW not to do so. How to make that decision, knowing that life and death lies in one's hand. To preserve life, because with that, there is hope. "So I hear," Kurt offers dryly, though it's not without some humour, tired as he may sound. "We will have to shut him down.. to somehow contain him und set him to his.. original state?" How, no clue.. but perhaps someone else has an idea? "Perfect idea, Havok!"
Kurt is on the ceiling, glowing yellow eyes searching the hallway, waiting for that response from the as-of-yet unidentified Madrox to his order. Request. Attention-gaining syllable.
Watching as the dupes beginning to duplicate, yellow eyes widen, and Kurt teleports back a couple of steps to dodge the bullets, working with Polaris' shield. He's had his fill of being shot with random bullets richocheting around a small, enclosed area! "Duplicates!" All bets are off in regards to killing them. They aren't human, mutant.. no souls.. Time to push forward now that contact has been made!
Hard to negotiate with pawns. "We'll speak to your .. master!"
Then.. the klaxon. The dancing red lights that blare their warnings through the facility. Forward! And it's only a second before Kurt asks, "Polaris, take them out?" Presumably with an energy push? It should be enough, yes? "Laura, hold back.."
Waiting for the Yeti to clear, Doug glances up towards Jocelyn, pausing to grin. "Good job," he notes. Curiouser and curiouser... he could try talking to that Yeti, but he hadn't the time, as his needed to keep his attention on -getting- through all this. And once he does... well, hopefully, he's barricaded himself against a wall so that he could keep an eye in front of him as he got down to work on analyzing just what was going on.
And as the guard that is 'Ricardo' comes out, there's a sniff, before Laura turns and looks directly at the him as she continues to press ahead. Only well...
She stops and points right at him, shouting a single word.
"SHAPESHIFTER!"
Then though, before she can chase after... before she can press on and do anything... There's the klaxon going off, as well as an 'order' from Kurt.
To be honest, it takes a lot of self control not to charge after him, but orders are orders...
Herhh, energy. There was her shifting target. Who that was? Channel wasn't quite sure of yet. However, someone on Team Mystique just went and did something that Channel just loves. Someone used the radio within Channel's line of sight. Remembering her trick from back when she teamed up with Captain America and company when she was on the run, she focuses on the radio waves being emitted. "Going offline to listen in on some chatter. Cypher, I'm sticking with you. Relay what I say to the group," is stated quietly over her X-Link before she starts running her own communicator through all available channels, muting herself. Catching their communication channel, Channel just starts listening in.
However, when Kurt gives the order regarding the duplicates, Channel pulls up some kinetic energy and launches some blasts around the duplicates. She's not trying to actually hit them; that'd require too much focus while she's listening in on the enemy. Instead, she's trying to corral them for the others to take out. A quick burst here or blast there to cut their routes of escape off.
"On it," Polaris exhales, bringing one glowing hand above her head. Her eyes dart around the carnage the Yeti left in its wake, until Laura's warning draws them to the fleeing guard. She takes a step after him, but between Kurt's request that X-23 stay back and the still-sounding klaxon, that's /all/ she takes, for now.
"Stay--stay sharp; shields are going down." On her cue, the ripples permeating the air cease, and she she turns her attention towards directing the currents running through the facility. The lights overhead briefly flicker for several moments before the blaring klaxon just explodes in a shower of sparks and glass.
Once that's out of the way, she glances towards Alex, and then the hole, and then Alex again; an eyebrow slowly rises to accompany her questioning glance, but no words are exchanged.
Alex meets Lorna's look and nods. As Laura calls out to identify the shape shifter and X-23 is being sent for the clones, Havok brings both hands up. Again circles glow as energy lances out of his fists and narrows to a solid beam. The plasma lances down the direction after the shapeshanger. The shot is not directed at the man, but rather at the roof just ahead of him as Havok tries to cut off his escape. "Got him," he responds to the non verbal cue.
Okay the dupes get corralled by Channel, and her energy blast is enough to get them to drop their weapons. But hey they are able to start making more dupes, trying to at least slow down the other mutants. The dupes look at them and speak, with each dupe saying a different word, "You shall not pass." But they don't have any weapons anymore, but they can at least make a dupe wall!
Dupe Prime that found the armory starts to load up, and yes he is making more dupes as he does that. They then open the door and open fire at the guards that are closing in on them. Hey they found some nice automatic weapons, see how awesome the armory is!
As the ceiling comes crashing down in front of him the guard that is Ricardo comes to a screeching halt and ducks through the closest doorway he sees, removing himself from X-Men sight for the few quick seconds he needs, "Rassum, frassum, energy projector. Ruined my disguise. Guess it's back to a good ol' bashing form since the dupes probably have the shooting side of things covered." Looking at the back of his hand again he focuses for a quick moment and returns to his Yeti shape. Having nothing to really make a mess of in the supply closet he ended up in he just takes the expedient of punching and kicking his way through the wall into the next room. Finding himself in another lab he grabs a stainless steel table, holds it up to his shoulder and starts using it to take the brunt of the impacts as he starts running through walls and anything else in front of him, headed towards the sounds of the klaxon Mystique set off, even thought at this point Polaris has stopped it from blaring.
He doesn't deviate from his path when he encounters guards but he does hope they deviate from his because if not they /are/ getting rammed and run over. If any shots are fired at his back he proves not to be invulnerable, although the bullets leave the kind of shallow wound that is more of an inconvenience than anything esle.
***
September tenth, 1981.
***
Extremists within Santi rally for a mutant-free country, however their goals aren't solely focused upon their homeland but the world at large. Hate and fear grow like wildfire, consuming the country and spreading to outlying territories. The movement eventually works its way into local military operations, once more leading to numerous captures and exterminations of both obvious and suspected mutants. Any caught trying to flee these countries are executed upon the spot. These demons, all of them, must be eradicated.
***
Present day.
***
Mystique removes the peculiar device from its display, carefully spreading out impossibly thin ribbon cables and electrodes until the device roughly resembles a palm-sized ant. It's brought up to the back of her head, the copied man's hair vanishing until the cables settle against bare skin. Just as quickly it begins to disappear from sight, a slight grimace crossing her face as it sinks in past the skin, then drawn inside of her skull, using her incredible morphing power to guide it right into place against her brain.
The instant that contact is made the device flickers to life, causing the mutant to bellow a sharp cry of pain and drop to her knees, hunched forward as hands clamp down around her head. The man that she had copied shifts then flickers out of being, patches of cobalt blue spreading like a virus as it sweeps across the skin, steadily replacing the copied morph into a completely undisguised mutant with red hair and glowing yellow eyes.
Technicians flee the hangar. Armed men begin to pour inside.
One by one the Bicchu start to power up with the heavy clunks of activated solenoids. Cores begin to warm up after very long naps. Eerie red lights begin to glow within the mechanized faces of more than two dozen giant metal scorpions.
Two of them begin to move.
As guards line up outside of the door and level their rifles they're quickly cut off by the thunderous chatter of three large-caliber chainguns ripping them and the fleeing techs to pieces, heavy shell casings raining down across the concrete floor as the first Bicchu stomps forward, its movements awkward and clumsy but heavy enough to cause the foundation to tremble with each step. One by one they begin to stir, yet no onboard artificial intelligence drives them.
Mystique does.
A thin trace of blood worms its way out of her ear as she slits her eyes open, seeing the world with her own pupilless stare but now also seeing the flickering red images of so many outdated electronic optics as their signals are wirelessly transmitted into the device nested against her brain. She sees what they see. With this experimental device, she now commands them. Today the mutants are striking back.
Something else is happening not far outside of the facility. Aircraft bearing Pakistani markings are streaking across the steel grey sky, masked within the heavy cloud cover and poor weather. Fighter jets. Gunships. Transport choppers. Somehow their nest nearby had been shaken, quite badly. A swarm of combat-ready vehicles has poured out of the hive, on direct approach to the very coordinates for this facility.
Nightcrawler's doing a good job of keeping the team together. No rogues. No one's getting injured (at least not on his side!) There's the emotional involvement, but that battle is his alone to struggle through. Probably after he figures out what to do about the Madrox Situation.
Doug's fortunate enough to find a yet operating terminal, all he has to do is clear the rubble off of the keyboard. Being in a foreign language is no trouble for him, soon he'll have access to records dating back to the point at which the facility was finished being built. There's..a lot of info in here. They've been at this, uninterrupted, for quite some time. Their sources for samples have been limited though they've dissected every last one about as far as they were able to.
X-23 nails it. There's a shapeshifter on the loose! Actually there's two, but the one is allocating minion resources in order to keep the others off of her back for the meantime. Still, Mystique's team is getting discovered. Still, she's way in the lead. Trying to track her through all of this, even by scent? Not easily done!
Channel's able to lock onto their mysterious enemy's com signal. There aren't many transmissions at the moment, but having access to their signal can only be beneficial in the long run. There are some major distractions involved, now that the Bicchu army is coming alive. Power spikes, massive ones, all coming from the same direction!
Just like that, the klaxon is no more. That's something which everyone can appreciate from each of the various teams. Without the alarm it's that much easier to hear the march of the awakening robotic scorpions and the call of their weapons, as well.
Havok is really starting to bring the place down, the next blast causing large chunks of the ceiling to collapse and cover large portions of the hallway. Passage is still possible, though now it requires climbing over a foot or two of rubble.
There's more than conventional weapons in that armory. There's some experimental sorts, as well. Lasers! Tesla rifles! Low-yield rocket launchers! So many fun toys to play with! Mind the fact that they're still experimental and likely haven't been touched in a great long time. One of Madrox's dupes triggers a particularly ornery weapon which suddenly explodes in a violent arc of violet-hued light, nearly vaporizing the mutant copy where he stands. It's ..messy. There's a healthy dose of red thrown about, mixed into the blackened scorch mark where he used to be standing.
With the armory effectively cut off the soldiers are between a rock and a Yeti. But, now there's also the trouble in the hangar for them to focus on. Surely it can't be any worse in -there-...
With the force of Polaris' push, Kurt blinks and shakes his head to dislodge any fuzziness, his fur rising at the energy expelled.. enough to shatter glass, shards flying.
Perfect. Everything is going.. so very well. So far. Kurt couldn't be happier- later. Now, his mind is in the game 100%, and there it remains. "Danke," he offers to the whole team. "Jocelyn, keep us informed.." Nothing better than to hear what the other team is doing. And, with the appearance of a shapeshifter, and a duplicator? Could the 'shifter be..
Mother?
Nothing to linger upon, certainly. There's no real threat of them killing that shapeshifter- mutant after all! And if it was Mystique?
It would be a long time before he could even begin to forgive himself.. if ever.
The dupes, thus unarmed, however, are of little threat now.. at least as far as Kurt is concerned. Wall of dupes? Ha! Reaching down with his tail, he calls out, "Take a hold!" for any who wish to forge ahead.. and--
*bamf*
*bamf*
The other side of the Madrii is gained, ready to continue. "If you can shut down their energy, do it.. make it such that they can't continue to duplicate?" Okay.. "Laura? Some old fashioned.. making sure they don't have the ability to duplicate? They are just a delay now.. und we don't have the time!"
"Just how long -have- they been at this?" Doug mutters as he keeps scanning the information. Transferring the information to a secure terminal he has attached, as much as he can, encrypting others, and hoping he had enough time to get the pertinent details. "They've dissected every single mutant they could've... this better not be a trap to get more experiments..."
Calling in to Kurt, he reports what he's got, as well as voicing his thought on just what this could mean. "We might want to not stick around too long, sir."
And with that... Order, Laura nods. And even if she does have her claws out, she does what ever she can to keep those Dupes busy. Or to be more exact, out of the fight.
Thus yet again... There may be blood. But the female clone tries not to kill. She tries to more or less... Knock out the dupes so to speak. As efficiently as she can. And well, if they get hurt as she does it, oh well. Just as long as the wounds aren't fatal.
Right?
After all, isn't that what Kurt just told her to do.
Channel can't just drain energy from the duplicates. Not that way, at the very least. But the duplicates, they were expendable. That, Channel knew. Without souls, there wasn't any reason to worry about what happened to them. Flying upwards, Channel drops a few kinetic blasts down at the Dupe Wall, attempting to blow some holes in it by knocking the dupes out. She's not going to do this for long though, really she's just trying to make a hole for people to get through while she pursues the real quarry at this point.
"Massive, massive power spike that way. Something big I haven't seen since the giant robots," Channel informs Doug and whoever else on the X-Team that is close enough for her to speak to.
Lorna goes from smirking at the collapsing ceiling to frowning thinly when Ricardo manages to continue eluding them. "Guess you'll get 'em next--" she begins to assure Alex before freezing at the sudden uptick of distant electrical activity.
"We have to get to the hangar," she sharply transmits after Channel delivers her warning to Doug. She takes off running to try complying with her own suggestion, then, magnetic field forming around her to try and hold off any dupes who might seek to make obstacels of themselves.
"Hanger? Wait...Lorna!" Havok begins to back up as quickly as he can without taking his eyes off of where the shapeshifter had ducked towards but still trying to follow Lorna back towards the hanger. "Kurt, something big has to be coming this way," he calls out over the commlink. He is too far away to hear Channel's warning about the power spikes here. Apparently we can't win for losing right now.
The dupe wall is disrupted by Chanel and even the Lil' Snikter who is fighting the dupes. Of course that does give the other heroes a clear path towards wherever they want to go. The dupes are unconscious, and not killed, see Laura is a good clone not killing them.
As for prime and his dupes in the armory, well they just keep firing at the people coming to the place. The dupe that died, well they just kinda ignore that. Maybe they don't care, or maybe the hive mind isn't as strong amongst a dupe making dupes. But they feel nothing from his passing. But they just keep firing, and hey look one found a bazooka, sweet! He uses that one to fire at the guards, "Hey this is fun. Can I keep some of this stuff?"
There's a big 'tunnel' heading towards the hangar. The Yeti was not being subtle in his approach to getting there. And once he gets there he comes to a full stop, dropping the mangled piece of stainless steel that used to be a table and looking back and forth between Mystique-of-the-bleeding-ears and the carnage the robots are inflicting on the facility's personnel.
With a couple of long steps he turns towards the room Mystique is in, ripping the door and half its frame out of the wall so he can get in instead of risking hurting Mystique with glass by getting in the same way she did. The door itself he tosses like a frisbee towards the Bicchu and the soldiers in the hallway with bad enough aim that it ends up hitting one of the robots instead of any of the personnel being attacked. "What's going on? We have X-Men hot on our heels, maybe it's time to get out of here?"
***
December fifth, 2002.
***
A secret meeting takes place outlining several design concepts for a new, advanced form of robot which could pose a threat to all of mutantkind. It isn't the only meeting of its kind. Ideas are shared across the table, several interested parties of particular financial backing working together for the first time. One group takes over the call for building the machines, themselves. Another group talks about weapon advancements. Another group discusses plans for creating the device's powerplant. Yet another team talks about creating a device which would allow for a neural link to these machines, allowing humans to remotely man the helm.
***
Present day.
***
One small section of the Himalayas starts to shudder as massive blast doors begin to rumble apart, cracking open years' worth of ice accumulation caked upon their surface. A white cloud of disrupted snow filters into the thin, bitterly cold wind waiting on the other side. Massive floodlights around the entrance click into life, struggling to cut through the blizzard-like conditions waiting for them beyond.
Inside, things are rapidly turning into a disaster for the facility's former inhabitants.
Three of the Bicchu stomp forward, hydraulic pistons humming in an industrial symphony as so much dust falls away from their rust-speckled hides. Tail-mounted floodlights sweep across the hangar, some of them broken or no longer working. Some have fused joints or broken hydraulic lines, causing an errant limb to drag across the floor with a horrific shriek. By and large though, the fleet is now mobile.
The rest of the facility isn't faring much better. Soldiers are swarming the halls, engaging anything that looks remotely like a threat. It isn't often that people arrive to or leave from this installation, spotting foreigners is quite easy for them. Unfortunately, all of the advanced tech which is developed within these walls isn't actually issued to them. Secrecy had been their primary defense. Having to fight on their own turf against a group of well-trained mutants had never fit into their plans! Once more it's an ongoing battle of quantity versus quality. They have the men and the bullets to throw at the opposition but not the necessary gear to really lay down some damage. That advantage lies within the visiting teams, and to anyone that happens to find some of that experimental weaponry lying about.
Outside, the first of the Pakistani forces begin to arrive. None of them are terribly happy to hear news of a secret Santi military installation having been built upon land which they claim under their own flag. Heavy choppers loaded with troops begin to set down upon the snow, disgorging armed foot soldiers left and right.
Their arrival hasn't gone unnoticed. This very glacier also happens to be home for an Indian military training camp, which is now aware of unannounced visitors arriving to the region.
It's difficult to stop a teleporter, particularly one that's backed by so many other mutants with various levels of skills. Leave it up to his mother to hire -another- shapeshifter, really helps keep the pressure off of her. Especially now that she's stick controlling giant killer machines. It's good timing on Nightcrawler's part that he chooses that moment to teleport, as a second later the area he had been standing in gets flash-fried by a powerful blast from an energy cannon. Right out of the hangar, through the walls, through other rooms, then -WOOMPH!- The air itself sizzles with the heat, anything nearby the beam's radius turned into charred slag.
Doug's research points out to the exact date the facility had gone 'online,' June fifth, 1962. It's been operating every day since, never once truly resting. As time progresses so does the scope of their research, as well as the number of test subjects. A recent shipment of samples was supposed to have arrived from a New York harbor by now, though it's listed as 'Pending, possibly Lost.'
Dupes versus X-23 and Channel. This isn't going to end well for poor Madrox. At least the dupes aren't armed now, right?
Channel and Polaris can both tell that the real party is now happening in the hangar. It's more than the Bicchu cores, it's the weapons, and the doors, and that peculiar energy signature now coming from the device stuck to Mystique's brain. If anyone's feeling daring enough they can get right to the hangar in question by following the path that energy beam had carved through the place, but who wants to do a thing like -that.- Maybe following the Yeti would be safer.
Havok's good at blasting holes through the walls, too. Such a power might prove to be useful when facing off against a bunch of giant, ornery metal arachnid constructs.
"Keep whatever you wish," Mystique's strained voice replies over their slightly less than secure comm channel. She's already going to lead by example, there! Enemy soldiers are getting utterly ripped apart by the various ordnance that Madrox has collected. The halls themselves are barely holding up to sustained fire. Many of the guys can no longer be identified as human, it's scary powerful stuff.
One problem with the Bicchu, they're not fast. Or graceful. The door connects with a resounding -THWANG!- off of one of the armored hides, shoving the robotic destroyer off to the side with a hefty dent now formed in its hull. It isn't quite so stable on its own feet anymore.
"What's going on," Mystique radios back with a ragged voice, "is revenge."
"Ja," Kurt calls back over the embedded mic in response. "Only, there are mutants that are trying to tear this place apart.." Call the X-Men opportunists, or what one will. The place should have been shut down long ago, just as Doug pretty much intimates. "Und we are here now.. just a little farther- we need to know what is here that is being hidden.. the fruits of their research.."
The siren song.
With his teleporting those who took a hold, Kurt is more than assured that Laura will 'catch up' in her own way.. and he's not the least bit surprised, or concerned when she does so! (Not at this point, anyway!)
Giant.. robots? Jocelyn is given a glance, a lingering one, and his expression registers.. shock. Surprise.. and dread. His tail whips swiftly, and he calls back to Doug. "Please.. tell me you have a map of this place.." he almost begs. "Do you see anything like that in the data?" Kurt curses softly but convincingly in German, and calls to his team as he stands on that opposite side of the Madrii, thanks to a double bamf. "Change of plans.. after a fashion. Do you agree that we need--"
And there's the answer. "But where is it?" They came in a different door! Still, he's in full agreement at this point!
"Ja.. I can't split the team, Havok. The other mutants aren't as big a consideration now.. the machines.. they are more important."
Why is it that Kurt so understands that thought.. can't win for losing. Off to the hanger!
The sound of military grade aircraft, weapons.. and the fact that Kurt's life is saved with a little bit of LUCK.. though as he lands, he flips in the concussion wave as it pushes out. It's easy enough to land on his feet after a couple of revolutions, however.. and yellow eyes are wide open.
"We have to take them out!" He hasn't quite gotten it that his mother is at the helm however.. but it's not that large a leap. Not with her son, anyway.
Filling in Kurt over the comm about the facility as well as the missing samples, Doug glances up towards the Channel. "Great. Lovely," he comments, trying to do a quick check on just what could be causing a power spike. Where were the base schematics and equipment suppplies...?
And while Laura may be a 'good clone', she does continue to sniff the air occasionally as she fights.
And by this point, she will remember the smell not only of that shapeshifter, but also the dupes. Which may be a bit of trouble for others down the road.
Of course with all that extra noise, and what's being said tossed about, well...
All X-23 can do is fight. If they want her to change targets, she can. Heck, all it'll take is the words to do it instead of trashing Dupes.
Finally! Someone talked on radio! Channel relays that information as she makes her way towards the room with the yeti and the giant...robot...things. Everyone through that was going through, that meant dupes weren't something she was bothering with anymore.
Spotting the source of the problem, Jocelyn reaches out to try and yoink the energy being transmitted from Mystique to the bots. She might feel a tingle of somebody trying to screw with her toy, but Jocelyn isn't going to be able to absorb that particularly energy. It was too strong or slippery, or something. "Can't stop the transmission, but that one is controling them," the woman states, pointing straight at Mystique.
Then there's a wicked energy beam cutting through things. Slipping to the side, Channel yanks some of that energy and sends it hurtling right back down the tunnel back at it's creator in a series of blasts, trying to buy some time if nothing else and moving up towards point, though if she managed to bust it up, she'd be okay with that too! She had no illusions she could completely soak up one of those blasts, but she had the ability to soak up enough of those blasts to allow anyone else to get inside who wanted in, or so she was betting.
About a quarter of the way to the hangar, Lorna's feet leave the ground so that waves of magnetic force can speed her along the trail the Yeti has left for them. She doesn't even bother telling Alex that there's no time /to/ wait; that she's racing towards trouble mere moments after finding it says it all. What she does say is, "Plenty of metal; nothing to worry about," in the best reassuring voice she can muster while trying to negotiate the vagaries of low-altitude flight in a ruined research facility.
That her statement is almost immediately followed by a laser scything through the complex is enough to send a chill down her spine, but she still flies on until she reaches the comparitively more open 'skies' of the hangar. "God," she hisses, ascending towards the ceiling and counting the Bicchus on the ground with a grimace. Stretching her hand downwards, she tries to seize all of one of the arachnids' legs in her magnetic grip, then twist each free from the chassis in turn. The air around her ripples with the tell-tale distortions of her protective field, but she would /really/ rather not have to test it against one of these monsters' cannons if she can help it.
Havok is quickly following Polaris into the hanger. He also comes up short as his eyes go wide as he sees the Bicchus. "Lord Almighty," he whispers. He is just caught flat footed for a moment until he hears the metal starting to scream with Lorna's manipulations of the spider's legs. Both hands come up and Havok cuts loose. Finally something to shoot that isn't alive. He aims at the nearest spider and goes to lighten Lorna's load. The air around him shimmers with heat as the plasma shoots out towards the machine.
Well the Dupe wall is done, so that just leaves the armory dupes. Man poor Jamie is going to have one heck of a time explaining what the hell his dupes were doing here. But the armory dupes are having fun as they keep firing at more of the guards that are trying to gain access to the armory. But hey they still have the bazooka and decide to use that one!
The yeti form Ricardo is using is no Hulk or Thing but it is scary strong in its own right. He looks at Polaris and Havok as they come into the hangar but decides that at the moment the approaching military aircraft are a bigger concern. As helicopters and attack jets start showing up on the outside of the big blast doors that are slowly opening he leave the control room he was sharing with Mystique and starts grabbing any Bicchu that didn't activate and any other piece of equipment he can lay his hands on and starts using them as missiles against the aircraft, doing his best to keep them, especially the choppers, from landing.
He's slinging machines and machine parts that weight several tons around like they're baseballs and if anyone has the time and inclination to pay attention they'd notice that once again he's aiming to disable machinery while trying his best to minimize deaths. Hitting tail rotors on helicopter, wings on jets, etc. He's not perfect, at least one chopper gets hit head on and explodes in a ball of flames but by and large he's causing mostly material damage.
***
February first, 2013.
***
The first Sentinels are field-tested against a group of mutants on a small island located within the South Pacific. Several casualties are reported, however throughout the operation the machines are only running off of their programming. The promise of a human-machine neural interface had not been completed in time. It's deemed as a non-essential device for the ultimate purpose of the project. Research on this branch project continues, code-named Aga Cinti, or Fire Ant, though at a more relaxed pace.
***
Present day.
***
What had started as the Santian military secretly plotting against the world has rapidly grown into a much bigger conflict. Mystique's team of mutants. The X-Men. Mystique and her teleporter companion on their own. The Santian military. The Pakistani military. The Indian military. Sides are becoming less defined and more chaotic, six facets of one very large problem all coming together at once. There are no on the spot alliances to be forged. Pakistan comes in fighting. The forces of Barpha Narka come out fighting. Mystique's robot army fights every which way, indiscriminately attacking all sides. If some of her 'allies' happen to get caught up in the crossfire, well... It might be unfortunate, but one must look at the bigger picture.
Missiles from one of the Bicchu streak out of the hangar and slam into one of the Pakistani troop carriers, throwing out burning, fast-moving pieces of shrapnel that shred as many of the incoming troops as the explosion, itself.
Another small group gets cleaved in half by the sweep of a particle beam, rapidly destroying the molecular chains wherever the shimmering wave of light pass. Those men are neatly cut in two as an inch-wide strip simply disappears from their torsos and weaponry, an almost colorful mist of disrupted genetic material spraying out behind them like stars twinkling in a clear evening sky. They collapse mid-sprint, the dust promptly carried away in the wind as they fall apart from the inside out.
For an instant warzone, add two parts military presence, one part secret weapons development facility, and an outside catalyst or three. Stir well, then agitate.
Pakistan, already rialed up at having discovered this Santian base within their territory, are now being attacked full-force by Santian war machines. To make matters worse, an entire facility hatched for the research and eradication of mutants is now -full- of them, killing, destroying, wrecklessly mowing down everything in their paths. In their eyes this is all a covert war operation against their country. Perhaps something went wrong, but the truth seems obvious. Research into mutants and weapons, and they're now being attacked by both. It's very likely that a new war is being born between these neighboring countries, with Santi learning all about one of these invading forces. These X-Men. A covert -mutant- military, attacking -them.- Then there's India, who -also- believes this glacier is theirs!
Still hidden within the hangar are Mystique and the teleporter, well guarded by her army of giant killing machines. "Tell the others to make their way here, right now," she says in a strained, weakened voice. "We leave soon."
The message is relayed to the others as more of the Bicchu step out into the frozen battlefield, unleashing an entire technological span of destructive energy weapons. One holds a set of giant tesla coils instead of claws, the emitters humming and sparking with thin blue tendrils before they lash out and fry another chopper, the bolts dancing from one conductive surface to another at random. Metal gets scorched. Some of the affected soldiers outright explode in place, their weapons melted into ruin.
Nightcrawler will be in for a bit of a surprise, assuming he can get his team into the hangar without getting cut apart by the heavy artillery. The closer they get the worse their chances get, though at this rate the Bicchu are tearing apart the inside of the facility on top of everyone remaining inside of it. The weapons are more powerful than the base which houses them!
Doug comes across a slight setback. There's lots of data to be had on this network. Practically none of it is organized. They weren't focused on keeping tidy, sorted files. Much like their tests, experiments, and designs, they're cobbled together any which-way until something sort of works in the end. Erasing the data is easy enough for one with his abilities, though even one as Cypher will have trouble piecing together all of the raw information.
X-23's heightened senses are going to pick up a whole galaxy of information. By following the scents of the original invading force she can gather an approximate number for their team, now that one of the shapeshifters has been identified. Madrox is..has been..almost everywhere. The sounds are downright overwhelming, they're loud and amplified and there's just -so many- different noises happening at once.
Channel is in for a surprise, much as Mystique is at the returning energy fire. Cold, glowing yellow eyes quickly snap around to -stare- at the other mutant across the hangar, smoke and explosions and energy weapons fire be damned. When Channel tries to attack her that quiet, obedient teleporter mutant that never left her side comes into play. The air distorts and rips apart in front of Mystique, swallowing the energy blasts, redirecting them out through the vault doors at the military units beyond.
Then Mystique returns the favor. One of the nearby Bicchu charges up massive Tesla coils, the air crackling with a tingling discharge as a thunderclap rocks throughout the hangar, blasting the mutant with untold volts of raw energy.
Polaris has an advantage over these machines, as the sudden groaning of stressed metal would be quick to suggest. There's a peculiar whining sound of over-worked pistons as it continues to try and fight, almost sounding like the wounded cries of a living creature before the groaning leads way to armored plating being twisted in half. The action isn't ignored. Seconds later a cluster of rockets streak across the open hangar toward where she levitates.
By the time Havok lands his shot there's not much left of -that- steel scorpion, fried much like the walls had been until the power core gets breached. One Bicchu goes up with a thunderous -BAM!- and a fireball to match.
When Madrox touches off the bazooka he's in for more than a simple old -bang,- as the other soldiers quickly discover. The rocket's explosive payload had been swapped out for a high temperature charge, blasting a searing wall of heat down the halls as a flash of pale blue vaporizes everything within a five foot sphere. The guys he targeted..are no more. The rest of them are running like Hell.
There aren't many ways to explain getting shot out of the sky by several tons' worth of giant metal scorpion. One of those choppers goes down with its tail shattered by a dead robot, rotors whining before it disappears into a thick cloud of snow. The choppers are fast, but they're also quite weak!
Kurt pauses ever so slightly to hear about 'missing samples', and remarkably, that bullet wound to the shoulder throbs. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing, however, there's only so long that such things go without notice, and he flexes his fingers, closing his hand to a fist on the affected arm. "Erase their data.. do anything to destroy it.." And then? "We are going to take out as many of these robots und leave.. when you are done, feel free to fall back to the blackbird. We'll meet you there."
Kurt's found the bay, and it's all he can do to keep busy now, moving. To encourage his team to continue fighting would mean death of them all.
Calling out to the rest of the team now, via mic, "We won't be able to take on the armies.. but we have to take out the robots.. und a receiver unit, if we can." Beat. "Polaris, good call.." Beat. "Watch out!" As if she has to be warned?
Now.. here's a change. The being, the shapechanger (must be!) isn't lobbing things at them (but honestly, he hadn't from the beginning!), but at the military as it comes in. Finding himself in an untenable position, a sort of 'brother in arms', or at least looking for almost the same goal. To get out alive. With the robots. Only.. that last bit is where their points may differ! It's becoming something of a violent free-for-all..
War zone.. and Kurt catches the attack on Jocelyn- how could he not? Immediately, the teleporter is on the move, and it's quicker than a heart's beat that he appears before Jocelyn and grabs her, only to disappear once again.. back to the Blackbird.
"Fall back.. we have to go!" It's not a call he wants to make, but it's one he has to. Kurt has no intention of losing anyone.. and the odds are less and less in their favour...
"Doing so, Kurt," Doug replies as he transfers what he can for a later analysis, before starting the erasing / overwriting data with encrypted fibonacci-like sequential junk to make it as impossible as it is to recover any sort of data.
After a brief moment of consideration, Doug does a quick addition, dumping a computer worm to automatically add a little backdoor if there was ever further work on mutant research within this network, before getting up and going. He'd fill in Kurt on this later.
Well, the blasts would have just knocked Mystique out. If they'd hit. Channel wasn't actually going for a killing blow on Mystique, much as the blasts may have looked it. But Mystique had a handy teleporter mutant. That was so not fair. Why can't Channel have a helpful, obedient teleporter mutant? Her? She's stuck with Nightcrawler.
Of course, Channel doesn't really have time to think about that as she's about to try and dive out of the way of the nasty electricity. That's when Kurt bamfs in and pulls her out of the way of the blast. "Thanks," she says to the teleporter. She blinks about, reaches around to grab a pair of spare communicators from storage and switches one to the military's signals.
Actually using the third backup communicator to speak with the team, she speaks. "Cypher, I'm attempting to monitor the military communications, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to make heads or tails of it. Starting a recording of it as well". But they might want to know what the military is saying about this mess. She might be out of the fight, but that didn't mean she had to be idle and useless.
Yes, all the noise... The smells... But mostly the sounds, threaten to overwhelm Laura. She even hesitates.
And well, then the order to retreat is made, and well...
The clawed mutant girl tries to fall back. heck, she even tries to take point, as much as she can. That way anything and anyone that gets in her way has to deal with.... The claws.
With a final sweep of her right arm, Polaris sends the twisted mass of metal that was a Bicchu skidding across the hangar floor, towards one of its fellows. The impact is fairly light relative to what it could have been, a sound wallop rather than a powerful crash; thanks to Ricardo the Yeti, she doesn't have much attention to devote to playing Demolition Derby with the constructs. Soon after tons of scrapped robot brings one of the choppers down, another salvo of debris is captured in a magnetic field /just/ as it's about to shear the wings from a plane.
"Are you /cray--/" she shouts down at the shapeshifter, before--
"--oh, /shi--/"
*KA-BOOM!*
--she's silenced by and briefly enveloped in fire and black smoke. Her force field is up to protecting her from the worst of it, but with her attention as it was, it can't keep her /entirely/ safe; the dazed Mistress of Magnetism falls from the heart of the explosions like a stone, bearing a host of fresh bruises beneath her singed costume. She manages to bring herself to a stop maybe five or six feet from hitting the ground, and slowly descends the rest of the way.
As for the hurled wreckage that precipitated her fall?
It comes crashing down upon the Bicchu she nudged the remnants of her first victim into, after hanging unmoving in the air throughout her descent.
"You," she then says, leveling narrowed eyes on the Yeti, "need to /go/." It's definitely more of a threat than a suggestion.
"You got it, Elf." Havok is making his way out of the hanger as he can. He is enjoying cutting loose actually as plasma is directed at one spider and then another as he moves to towards the exit. "Lorna and I can cover the retreat well enough. Get the 'bird humming." He is smiling for a moment before he sees Polaris drop from the blast. "Lorna!" he yells out as he makes his way towards her. "You alright?" A blast is sent in the direction of the Yeti to help persuade him that Lorna is correct in his need to leave.
Well that was unexpected, and the well armed dupe army drops their weapons once that bazooka is fired. They weren't expecting the amount of heat that thing put out. But hey it did the job. Once that the guards that were there have been scattered, the Rogue Dupe knows it's time to get the heck out of there. He collects the rest of his dupe army, and just heads off the rendezvous point.
The Yeti looks back at Polaris and answers her in a surprisingly human voice that would have been hard to imagine coming from it when compared to the animalistic bellows from a while ago, "No more than you! Do you /want/ us to be overrun by soldiers!?", an answer she probably doesn't hear thanks to the explosion enveloping her. Dust and plaster fly into the air as the Yeti stops his attack on the aircraft and punches his way back into the control room Mystique and her teleporter are in, both avoiding Havok's attack and in response to Mystique's call for a retreat. Then a desk is rammed into the whole a moment after to prevent anyone from easily following behind him, just in case. To while away the time until Madrox shows up he almost idly sets about making little piles of debris out of anything that might look like computer or electronic equipment that's around him, making the reestablishment of this facility every bit as hard as possible before they disappear.
***
April twenty-first, 2013. One hundred and one years after the first massacre.
***
Mutants strike back. Destiny's vision may or may not come true, but Mystique continues to have nothing but confidence in her significant other. Using the human's own technology she obliterates any and all that she finds, weakening herself further with every second that she splits her attention across controlling so many of the mechanized destroyers. This may well come close to killing her, though she's no stranger to brushing cheeks with that line. It wouldn't be the first time. It's more than worth it in order to have her revenge.
The destruction caused by her team is more for insurance. She knew the Pakistani military would be here today. She's the one that had informed them. They will find more than enough evidence here to draw their own conclusions, yet they won't find enough left intact to make use of what they find regarding mutant-focused research.
She knew the X-Men would be here today, too. She also fed them their scraps of intel, secretly manipulating them into joining her out here today. They exist to serve as the scapegoat, taking the ultimate fall right alongside Santi. Heck, they're even helping her to destroy the Bicchu! Such a useful bunch they could be, when one had the skill necessary to make them do what -she- wanted them to do.
She also knew India's forces would make a showing, last to the party but ultimately the best armed in numbers. She's lit the match. Now she's going to watch it all burn.
"Congratulations, children. You've helped make history today." Her lackeys may have been identified. It's possible that they may be interrogated about the whole ordeal at another time, but they would only have so much information to share. Who is the woman that had hired them? Everyone, and no one. She'll be long gone, vanishing once more to secretly bend the world around her in ways few others are able to comprehend.
Retreat. Nightcrawler puts the call out to the rest of his team. It's for the best, really it is. Mystique's stacked the odds way too far against the X-Men. They'd end up fighting people that aren't even enemies simply for their own survival. Retreating is the sane, intelligent choice. They've already served their purpose.
The data is officially trashed, thanks to Doug. Their system is not the most secure in the world to begin with. It didn't have to be. The network was isolated, the facility was hidden and well guarded. Now, much like the facility around the network, it all lies in ruin.
Channel is, quite possibly, very fortunate to have not gotten nailed by that attack. Where she had been there's angry charred marks upon the interior of the hangar, so much energy going wherever the atmosphere and its surroundings happen to guide it. There's plenty of military chatter going on over encrypted systems. Trying to make sense of any of it? Not so easy. People sound fairly shocked and outraged, anyway.
X-23 knows how to make an exit. Claws shred Bicchu armor like it was nothing more resistant than a block of cheese, she's able to whop off limbs and carve into its body while barely slowing down. Behind the clawed mutant lies a sparking, smoking wreck that looks as though the world's largest can opener just had a field day on its chassis.
Polaris smacks another one of the machines around with one of its manufactured siblings, one damaged and the other completely destroyed as they go sliding across the floor, breaking even more equipment in passing. They're substantial creations! Their passing also leaves deep furrows within the concrete floor, proving that there's a considerable mass to each of them.
Havok is ..well, he's got it pretty easy right now. A little too easy with how he's trashing those scorpions. The one sporting a three pair of chainguns decides to turn its attention upon him, guns lighting up as fist-sized holes are bored into the wall beside him. That machine probably isn't long for this world, but hey. Occupational hazard.
In a flash Mystique's small group of mutants are gone, Fire Ant and all. The Bicchu promptly stop working as the device's fairly limited range is passed, though the damage is already done. There will be no diplomatic resolutions here, perhaps not for years to come. The facility is doomed to fall, one way or another. The X-Men have already been discovered, immediately earning themselves the exclusive badge of being a mortal enemy to the entire country of Santi. Cutting their losses is the best way to go, lest they get more blood upon their hands out in this Ice Hell.
Category:Log