Carpe X-Treme
Posted on Thu Dec 14th, 2023 @ 9:15am by Charles Xavier & Scott Summers & Connor Bruin & Bobby Drake & Iris Walker & Cameron Hood & Jade Farwynd & Elias Buckley & Tammy Thompson & Bliss Hawkins & Ethan Hale & Aurora Summers & Armando Muñoz
4,205 words; about a 21 minute read
Mission:
Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: JFK Presidential Library & Museum | Columbia Point, Boston
Timeline: August 20th, 1990
Emergency alarms went off all over the complex. Security personnel were doing their best to evacuate those in the audience who rightfully wished to flee, but they were soon vexed by another complication. Armed men. Not the same protesters with shotguns and ArmaLite rifles from Baltimore. These were masked men with M4 assault carbines and 1911 pistols with laser sights. They hadn't fired yet, clearly seeking to take control of the situation before meting out extrajudicial justice.
Cyclops beat them to the shambles of the dais along with the other X-Men in his group.
"Professor? Professor!" He pulled apart the larger pieces of debris and found his mentor thrown from his chair onto the ground. "I've found X," he said into the comms. A bullet flew just past his head. He ducked down into a crouch and said, "Hostiles! Live gunfire! We need backup!" He managed to pick out the muzzle flash through the dust cloud and returned a pinpoint beam of his own. The meat whack was unmistakable. One down.
Return fire opened up immediately, but a wall of ice shot up between Cyclops and the attackers veiled by a literal smoky fog of war. Iceman fell into position along with the rest of the honor guard. "Is he alive?"
"Not responding," Cyclops said. "Enigma, confirm vitals."
Enigma was concentrating on getting the last of the fleeing civilians out, using her telekinesis to clear debris. Hearing Scott’s orders she had to change focus to Xavier. “Xavier is alive...weak, but alive!”
She was trying to keep the civilians moving, but focusing her abilities on protecting the crowds and herself, plus focussing on Xavier, especially with pregnancy hormones making her abilities tricky to control, it was proving too much. She didn’t see a shooter who’d crept around until a bullet nicked her side, making her drop a pile of debris she’d been moving. She quickly scrambled for cover to assess the damage, but not before throwing a flame ball at the sniper.
“I’m hit,” Her voice rang out over the comms as she inspected her side. “I’m good, just a flesh wound.”
She took a deep breath and channeled her emotions to her fire ability using it to sear the wound closed. She had to bite her lip, but she was soon back on her feet, the team had enough to do without having to worry about her as well.
"Escapade, clear a path for the extraction teams. Iceman and I will cover you."
Escapade was already on the move.
"Copy that, making a hole!"
She reached out and grabbed the two closest screaming racists and pushed them back hard enough to impact the people behind them. She expanded her tactile telekinesis field with each new contact. In a few moments, she had dozens of raving protesters in her grasp, and more joining by the moment. The good news was these people were protected by the field as well as extending it. The bad news was with each new person that was added the field got a little weaker.
The blonde mutant began to push and swing the mass of people like a huge broom, sweeping aside more protesters to clear that requested pathway. The people not in the protective field wouldn't feel good in the morning but at least they'd not need a hospital or body bag.
"Follow me!"
"PROFESSOR FIRST," Connor signed.
"Hoodwink, Surge," Cyclops said, "wherever you are, break their ranks and call out maneuvers!"
"Pff! Easy! As my friend Virgil Hawkins said, 'I'll put a shock to their system.' I can seek out the gunmen and zap them into tomorrow! You worry about getting the prof to safety. I'll start by clearing the way for you!" With that Tammy set about finding the gunmen in the way of getting the professor out of there and would shock them into unconsciousness.
“On it,” replied Iris as she began heading towards the nearest guard.
"I CANNOT SEE ANYTHING!" The words rang out from Connor's device which was embedded inside his chestplate. In addition to the dusty debris clouding the air, smoke grenades were being deployed.
"Gimme a sec..." Elias had dropped the team within a four-foot radius of the position he knew X to be in, himself closest to the Professor, the rest in surrounding combat ready squad positions as per their recent training. It took him a couple more seconds to bring a six-foot sphere of protection shield about them all, the energy reaching below ground to encompass Sanguis, Caveman, and the Professor. It took another second or two to port the smoke and debris out of the way so that they could assess the state of the wounded man. "Armoury said to get him home," Fable stated clearly, looking to Sanguis and Caveman. "I can't hold the shield for long."
"I WILL CARRY THE PROFESSOR," Connor said through signing with his device. "GET US —"
Connor was interrupted by a wall of debris that flung upward from the pile of detritus. What first appeared to be some sort of composite concrete or granite blob had appendages form outward into the shape of a man. And that rock-hard man knocked Connor aside in order to go straight for the Professor.
Elias had put himself up close and personal to the Professor, ready to port out when... Was someone inside his shield? Elias' senses sought answers as Connor was unexpectedly bumped. Maybe another traveler like himself? But there wasn't time to worry about it too much before...
For his efforts, the figure caught an optic blast straight to his chest that sent him flying. "Great," Cyclops muttered. "Just great."
"They're everywhere!" Flux called out. "Just checked inside and out. At least twenty armed men that I saw pressing their way inside. Panicked crowds made it hard to count."
"We're pinned down by enemy fire," Cyclops said through the comms. "Call it, Armoury!"
From the side door two bolases flew through the air. They wrapped around those gunmen between Armoury and the big part of his team. From the rubble Armoury and Flux closed half the distance. "Fable, do your bloody task and get your team and X out!" Cameron shouted before sliding under a third gunman who had rotated to the noise of the British voice. The rifle over Cameron's head smacked into the nose as Cameron popped up, then turned into a pair of kali sticks which were used to brain the said third gunman.
"Cover our arses then!" Fable snapped back. Biting back the next retort, he literally shouldered the Professor's weight and ensured both Connor and Sanguis were close enough to go with them as he left.
With a step that enveloped the four of them in a dimensional repackaging, Fable stole X, Connor, and Sanguis from the wreckage of the stage area and stepped them back out into a world where the sky was violet and the ground beneath their feet was cyan blue but firm and rocky.
"Might be another porter in the mix," Fable stated as his reason for them not being back at the Mansion. "Taking a detour to muddy the trail."
"I DO NOT LIKE THIS PLACE." Connor looked around in stark fascination. "BUT I WOULD LIKE TO COME BACK AND STUDY IT LATER."
The four of them ported to the lower basement of the X-Mansion. Hospital beds were nearby.
Jade placed her hand on the Professor's head, her hand glowing red, her eyes glinting with a red hue, iris, cornea and all. "I've stabilized him temporarily. Can't do much else till we getchim hooked him up." She then looked over at Fable, her eyes coming back to normal. She reached under her hood and tapped on her right ear, turning the earplug off. "I'll be able to hear them now. Ready when you are."
His attention on the geography around them, and the words of his teammates, Fable nodded as Jade's eyes shifted back to normal human colours. Her powers fascinated him, but he said nothing about that, just gave the woman a curt nod and blinked the four of them - Connor, Jade, X and himself - straight back to the Mansion. He put them inside the infirmary and then stepped aside, seeking any danger in the vibrations about this wider space.
Jade could hear hers, the Professors, Fable and Caveman's bloodstreams clearly, albeit not overly loudly, thankfully. "I think, we're fine." She said, not registering anyone else in her spectrum. "I need to stay with the Prof and get him hooked up. And I need to prep this place for incoming wounded. Pretty sure at least one of the others got hit. Take Caveman with you. I'll be fine." Jade said as she passed by a mirror on the wall and tapped a few commands to extend a medical bed.
The optic blast bounced the figure back. They hit the wall, and as if they were of rubber, bounced off again. The impact confused the figure for a moment.
Gryphon had always been impetuous prone to act first and then think. His training with his new team had removed a lot of that from him. But there were times when his old persona took control and this was such a time. He flew right into two of the armed gunmen, raking them both with his claws.
Both went down in a heap and slowly drifted into an unconscious state.
Iris had managed to yoink some ID cards from a few of the soldiers and was now sticking close to one of them that was headed more or less straight to where Xavier was. She pressed her earpiece. “I’m headed towards Xavier,” she reported. “I have some info on our soldiers.”
Aurora had heard Scott’s voice saying he was pinned, but there was little she could do to get to him at the time, edging closer she activated the comms. “Heads up on and around the stage.” With that she flung up a barrier of flame to try and give some cover.
"Civilians are clear! Escapade, get Cyclops out from under fire." Cameron took a moment to look around the area from some cover. From roughly twenty initial combatants at least five were now a non-threat. "Iceman, wall off the doors. Surge, jam their comms, and put them in bubbles of silence. Keep shocking where you can." Cameron reached into the concrete, pulling out another two bolases. "Enigma, knock them out as you can, don't use your flames!"
“Understood, Armoury.” Enigma lowered and extinguished her flames, she didn’t want any leftover flame setting fire to the area.
"Now that's a plan." With that Tammy jammed their coms and worked her way out from the stage shocking all who were hostile. Not enough to kill but enough so they'd be out for hours. "Let me know when X is safe ok?. No worries about coms. We can talk but they can't."
From up high the mysterious figure dropped onto Engima. It had changed from a rocky look into something akin to an eagle. It had claws aimed straight at the redhead.
Enigma was taken by surprise she hadn’t been expecting an attack from above, the attacker got in a couple of scratches from the claws to her arm, before she focused her telekinetic abilities throwing the bird-like mutant back away from her. “Come back again, birdie, and I’ll clip those wings for you!”
Ethan saw the winged man and since he wasn't facing in real threat flew towards him as fast as his wings and tried to bowl into him and tackle him like a middle linebacker sacking a quarterback.
Aurora was grateful for Ethan’s intervention, between her cauterized wound and the claw marks she was feeling pretty sore not to mention exhausted, having used her abilities so much in a short space of time.
Iris and the gunman she was tailing had almost reached the smashed stage and she was trying to think of how to stop him without being seen when his head suddenly flung back, followed instantly by the rest of him. Confused, it took her a while to notice that his right eye was missing in the most spectacular way.
He had been shot.
She scrambled backward, eyes wide, nearly tripping over something or other. She only just barely managed to keep herself from screaming, as horrified as she was. Then a second nearby guard shouted something and she thought she was caught somehow, but no. He was only shouting about his fallen comrade.
But for now, she had to get to her friends. So, shoving down her questions and emotions for the time being, she hurried past the fallen guard and in fewer than ten steps, made it to the stage and glanced around, trying to figure out what she could do to help. She spotted Armoury not too far away and hurried over to him, still concentrating on not being seen. “Need some help?” she asked by way of revealing herself to him.
"Always." Cameron cracked a smile at the small woman at his side all of a sudden. He then popped up, and threw a bola with the expertise that only comes from thirty years of practice. Or the perfect copying of someone with thirty years of practice. The rope whipped around an assailant who was trying to climb up the stage.
“They're talking in code and I can’t make heads nor tails of it,” she told him. “Weird stuff like ‘penguin’ and ‘elm.’ I’m assuming they’re maneuvers they’ve pre-named.”
Cameron offered a different possibility "Probably locations. That way they can push directions that are clear to them and leave us guessing." The crunch of small pebbles under a boot gave Cameron's newest opponent away. Armoury whirled around. While turning he got up all the way, and grabbed the rifle that was almost pointed at his head. The momentum threw this attacker off and away. This allowed Cameron to steal the man's rifle. A brand new US military M4 rifle. The sound was rather sharp as Cameron fired three rounds into the chest of his now-downed dance partner.
With the Professor extracted, Iceman had taken to the air outside to bottleneck reinforcements. His ice slid zigged and zagged sideways, up and down, and even a few loop de loops to distract and enflame the advancing gunmen who had shown up in slate gray vans.
One gunman who tried to lay down suppressing fire on Iceman got a face full of frozen atmosphere for his trouble.
"Has...he... lost his mind?!" he sang out, loud and proud. "Can he see or is he blind?!"
Another gunman had taken the chance to advance his position, but before he made it to the next cover point a block of ice had overtaken his legs clear to his knees.
"Can... he... walk at all?! Or if he mooooves will he fall?!" The rhetorical sing-song question was followed up by an ice spear that struck the gunman in the back and shattered against his ballistic vest. He teetered over like a felled tree, making Bobby laugh in mischievous delight. "I AM IIIIICEEEE MAAAAAN!"
"Armoury to Cyclops. We need a brand new exit." Cameron stood again, bumping into Iris as a way to check she was still in the same spot. He squeezed another 3 rounds off from the stolen rifle, hitting an assailant who was approaching Cyclops from behind.
After surveying the surrounding environment, Scott decided on the hundred-foot-tall window panes. He set his hand to his visor and let fly a wide-beam blast that shattered the glass from floor to ceiling while knocking out the support frames in the middle. But now he was an even bigger target. "I'll try to draw them away from the crowds!"
Escapade reached out with a collection of debris molded by her power into a wall to collect most of the glass shards so no one was endangered by the fresh fragments. A couple dozen escaping protesters looked up in surprise to see the woman they were just screaming hateful words saving their lives.
"Escapade, stay with Cyclops. Gryphon, Surge, push into the street. Iceman, stay near our new exit until we're out. Time to be a proper superhero people." Armoury ordered as he shot the last attacker, twice in the arm and once in the chest.
Gryphon who was still struggling with his winged opponent heard the called out instruction but was unable to comply at the time.
Enigma was on hand to give Gryphon some help just as he’d helped her. She telekinetically pushed their winged opponent back, giving Gryphon a chance to get a strike.
As soon as the Opponent felt himself being pushed he let go of Gryphon. Sailing away from the winged X-Men, the Opponent angled his own wings to turn again. His attention came back onto Engima. The Opponent opened his mouth, projecting from it a very loud, very targeted scream of high-pitched sound in the frequency that raked at the eardrums of the listener.
Even though Gryphon wasn't the target of the attack, his enhanced senses were a liability rather than an asset. And all he could do was hoover there with his hands over his ears.
Enigma had a similar problem, having to cover her ears with her hands at the sound that now pierced her eardrums. She crouched down trying to focus, when she eventually managed to turn and face their winged attacker her eyes momentarily glowed orange as she gave everything she had left to a final telekinetic push, slamming the flying mutant to the floor with force, before collapsing to the floor herself.
Tammy did as instructed and started making a pathway to the street. Generally a burst of heat made the civilians move out of the way. That and an emergency broadcast on all radio frequencies. Gryphon telling people to clear the aisle. Amazing what people will do if they think someone in authority is telling them what to do.
"This way," Gryphon called out to the milling and disoriented crowd. Follow me." Then he began flying toward the exit hoping some people would follow him.
The Opponent's voice was cut off as the air was slammed out of his chest. A heartbeat later The Opponent started sinking through the floor, as if phasing into it.
All Enigma could do was watch, her energy reserves were practically exhausted. She pushed herself to her feet knowing she had to, she couldn’t be the weak link in a strong chain.
Gryphon was in extreme pain but managed to get to one knee. The ringing in his ear was slowly dissipating, though he knew it would be a precious few seconds before he'd be back in the action.
"Hoodwink, while we're out there. Rifle through their pockets. IDs, notebooks, wallets. Grab whatever you can." Armoury then whispered to the place he remembered Hoodwink being.
Iris was already back to focusing on staying hidden, so this suited her just fine. “Got it,” she replied, but before she could turn to do anything, she spotted a gunman out of the corner of her eye. “Look out!” she warned, but too late; the assailant was upon them.
And then he was passed them.
As if he didn’t even see them.
Iris was used to that, but she wasn’t used to those around her being ignored, too. “What just happened?” she asked, staring at the now retreating gunman.
"I think you just shielded us both," Cameron said quietly, so as to not dispel the effect. And then he shot the retreating gunman four times, once in each leg, and twice in the back.
“I wonder if I can hide you while you shoot,” she mused, already focusing on hiding both of them. But, they never found out.
All at once, acting on some unheard order, the gunmen turned tail and fell into a tactical retreat. Those vans which were already filled began to speed away. If the Professor had been their target and they realized he was no longer present, then there was nothing to be gained by lingering at the present location. Not when all of the Boston area was undoubtedly on alert with law enforcement officers inbound.
Escapade stepped out into the plaza and saw the escaping vans. There were too many to stop all of them. But she remembered that the the professor once said that you can't do everything. So just do one thing and do it well and hope for the best.
She knelt and put her hand down onto the smooth marble of the plaza. She focused on one of the lead vans and reached out with her field through the ground. Do you want fancy or effective, she asked herself. She could focus on one can and wrench a wheel off its axle. Or she could take out three vans with a smarter use.
One van's driver found the steering wheel spinning out of hands to direct the speeding vehicle into a sturdy tree. Two other vans steered into one another before crashing into the reflecting pool with a splash. A crimson trickle of blood coated her lower face from the effort. She felt the extended effort making her dizzy as she sank wobblily to her side.
Porting back into the battle, Caveman and Fable took a moment to survey the exterior situation. Connor signed to Fable and his breastplate said, "GO FIND THE OTHERS."
It hadn't been that long, but the place was devastated, chaos and carnage everywhere, noise and odors telling a dangerous story of a battle fought fast. Fable tapped his right fist to his chest in response to Caveman, but he hadn't needed the instruction. He was already seeking out their team, pinpointing the coordinates of each remaining member, and planning a rapid exit strategy. Some could be ported out together, others solo, or they'd need a coordinated exit plan, something that didn't sound likely right now.
"TEAM!" He yelled. "WE ARE LEAVING!" Then he ported from that given-away spot to seek those in need to a rapid exodus
Caveman picked up Escapade's prone form and set her over one shoulder like a cavewoman to his namesake. He would get her to the Blackbird and make sure she was stabilized. But first, he needed to dodge.
That instinct had proven accurate. Juking sideways at an odd angle narrowly avoided the attack that had gotten the better of him last time. This metamorphic mutant, for that was what he had to be by Connor's deduction, was predictable in his ambush-centric strategy.
Throwing out a punch to the back of the mutant's head as he passed by, Caveman followed up with a dropkick that he turned into a springboard flip which carried himself and Escapade well outside melee range. With his teammate over one shoulder, Caveman landed in a crouch and set one fist into an open hand, raised the thumb, and then lifted both hands in the air. It made the sign for help.
"HELP!" his device rang out.
Fable appeared beside Caveman and instinctively ducked.
The Opponent had recovered and turned back for another attack. This time he met a sharp blast of optic energy. Rather than send the mutant flying as before, his chest turned to vulcanized rubber which made him skid back on his heels but otherwise didn't slow him down much.
"Get back!" Cyclops shouted, this time opening his blast to a steady stream of unbroken crimson stream of energy.
Before their very eyes, the vulcanized rubber on the mutant's torso began morphing into something quite metallic that directly absorbed the optic blast without a hitch.
"HELP!" Caveman signed again, this time making a run for it.
While the Opponent made his march against Cyclops, twin streams of frost shot down from the sky, one hitting his feet and the other his head. The cold snap met in the middle, merging two blocks of ice into a solid one. "That oughta hold the son of the bitch!" called out Iceman from overhead.
"Fable, get this glacier to the Danger Room!" Cyclops said into the comms. "Everyone else to the Blackbird!"
"See ya back at the ranch," quipped Fable stoically. And he and the ice sculpture vanished from sight.
Enigma joined everyone else in heading for the blackbird, energy expended she needed to avoid using anymore unless she relied on someone else getting her out of there, and she wasn’t going to put anyone in that position.
Without waiting to make sure Armoury was following, Iris hurried after the others. When the call came to leave, you leave. She had learned that rule long ago.
With more bumps, bruises, and scrapes than expected but overall none the worse for wear, the X-Men fell back and made a successful rendezvous to the waiting Blackbird. The return trip was less than celebratory, but for once it was clear they had made a difference. The day was theirs.
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