Ready or 'Naut!
Posted on Tue Jan 9th, 2024 @ 9:58am by Connor Bruin & Bobby Drake & Cameron Hood & Jade Farwynd & Bliss Hawkins & Ethan Hale & Aurora Summers & Kennedy Kelly & Hayden Davis & Max Herrera
Edited on on Wed May 15th, 2024 @ 1:23pm
10,124 words; about a 51 minute read
Mission:
Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: X-Mansion
Timeline: August 22nd, 1990 - evening
Hours had passed since Professor Xavier and his select team of infiltrators had departed for the airfield. A copy of the briefing the Professor had given the chosen three was made available to whoever desired to review it in the War Room. Other than that, it was just another balmy evening in late summer. Dusk was approaching but the sun kept up a solid fight. Soon the dinner bell would ring for anyone who wished to join the formal dining room.
Aurora was in her room, doing her best to concentrate on some work she had to do for class, more so to take her mind off Scott not being there.
Hayden had just finished her homework and was taking a leisurely stroll through the halls of the mansion. She wasn't going any place, in particular, just passing time until dinner. She wandered into the library and picked up the nearest book on a table. The title was 'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White. She flipped through the book and stopped at a random page. The passage where her thumb rested read, “In war, our elders may give the orders...but it is the young who have to fight.” She paused a second and thought about that comment, shuddering. She quickly closed the book and tossed it back on the table, leaving the library. That was a book that she had no intention of ever picking up again.
Bliss has happily tending to the large kettle of stone soup simmering on the stove. The scent of fresh bread warming in the stove filled the kitchen. She adjusted her chef's hat with an expression of concerned curiosity as she peered into the bubbling brew, she shook a container of spice above the surface, then stirred it with a long wooden spoon. She tasted a sample delicately, considered for a moment with a quick smacking of her lips, then nodded with satisfaction.
"Magnifique!"
She added a chef's kiss to punctuate her satisfaction.
Connor flipped down from the ceiling where he'd been perched against the cabinetry. A chef's hat also adorned his head, though it sat cockeyed to one side due to his acrobatics. Only the chinstrap kept it on his head at all. He helped himself to a sip from Bliss's wooden spoon and immediately furrowed his brow. That was one complicated flavor composition. He sniffed and took another sip, then nodded favorably and stole a kiss from her cheek.
Tammy was in the Danger Room, trying to blow off steam and clear her head. The whole thing with Scott had her pretty worked up. Maybe it was her fault for caring so much but she couldn't help her feelings. She wasn't sure of much anymore. The whole thing had hurt her badly and feelings like that just don't go away. Much as she wished they would. Part of her was furious with Aurora for what happened. It wasn't right! Telepathic connection! Man, sometimes life just plain sucked!
Ethan was sitting on top of the roof, reading, a dog-eared copy of the Hobbit. It was one of his favorite books and the noise rising up from below didn't bother him. He hardly noticed it.
Irritated by the morning’s fight with Bobby, Kennedy decided that she didn’t want to see him or deal with anyone for the rest of the day. Packing a bag with a lunch, her book, and the latest issue of Cosmo she returned to the woods and the lake behind the school that Bliss had shown her the night before. Making herself comfortable by the sunny waters, she lost herself in her book for hours until she finally noticed that the sun was beginning to set.
Still daydreaming about the story she was reading, Kennedy began to collect her things so she would be back in time for dinner. But her lazy packing stopped when she heard the mansion’s alarms sounding. At first, she thought it might have been a tornado siren but the fair weather told her that was wrong. Shoving her things in her bag, Kennedy sprinted up towards the house to see what was happening.
Jade was in her room, reading a medical journal and enjoying the peace and quiet. The past few days have been way too rough on all of them and they all needed a break, much to her chagrin, the kids, did well too in the whole thing.
Running errands was part of his duties. Cameron did was needed to be done. Tonight that meant the boot of his car was filled with all kinds of postal packages. He had also done a much needed grocery run. It was a good thing the Institute credit card was black and issued by American Express.
Alarms began to blare all across the mansion. Intruder alert. Beyond the walls of the mansion, electrified netting shot up from the fence line to prevent anyone from coming in and out. The wrought iron gate had been knocked down in a grating twist of metal. Squads of armed assailants came pouring through the bottleneck in black duster jackets with large white crosses down the front.
At the head of the attack, the tip of the spear was a nearly 7ft tall, half-ton crimson behemoth with a rounded helmet that obscured the very existence of his neck. His size 25 bootprints left a trail up the driveway, making the ground quake with each stomp.
"Bingo! Bango! Boongo! The Juggernaut is back!"
The campus defensive measures sprang up with automated turrets and smoke grenades firing at the intruders. Most of the Purifiers were forced back to the gate and bottlenecked there, but a few made it through to run along the perimeter.
Nothing stopped the Juggernaut, however, who continued his charge straight for the front door.
Aurora hadn’t heard the mansion alarms before but she understood an alert when it happened. Getting to her feet she treated it just like she’d been trained to, heading to team up with everyone else.
When Tammy heard the alarm she rushed to join the others. She wouldn't shirk her duty. She would do everything she could to stop the Juggernaut.
From the apex of the mansion where he had been taking his evenings, Bobby watched the whole thing unfold. What shitty timing! The Professor was gone, Scott was gone, and three of the new kids were gone. Juggernaut didn't look like he was giving any quarter either. No doubt Cameron and the foxy nurse were rallying the students inside with defensive measures, but none of that was about to matter. Not if Juggernaut came crashing through everything.
Bobby had to do something if only to buy the others some time.
Ethan cursed when the alarms had gone off. If he'd been paying attention instead of reading his damn book (and stealing an occasional glance at Bobby) he would have seen the attack coming. He threw the book down, there would be time enough for self-recrimination later. He leaped in the air. Flying up higher and higher.
"Hey, Juggersnot!" Bobby shouted as he leaped from the rooftop. His body took iceform in midair and glided in a figure-eight pattern to grab the behemoth's attention. "You got the nerve showing your ugly ass face around here again!"
"If it isn't the human popsicle!" Juggernaut shouted back. He slowed his charge enough to throw a jeering laugh at Iceman but he didn't change his trajectory toward the front door. "I heard you went crying home to momma!"
"You wanna' talk about mommas?" Bobby fired back. "It took me a whole damn iceberg to sooth your momma's burning twat!"
Juggernaut dug his heels into the ground at that and skidded to a halt. With his oversized hands, he grabbed a fistful of pavestones and flung them straight for Bobby.
"Oh shit!" Bobby backflipped off his ice sled, narrowly missing the flying bricks. Juggernaut himself wasn't far behind, having jumped from a standstill in an attempt to swat Bobby out of the air. At least he had abandoned his charge at the mansion—for now.
Ethan was close to 150 in the air when he flipped his right wing turning himself back toward the ground. He saw Bobby in trouble and dove through the air toward Juggernaut, claws extended, with breathtaking speed, hoping to catch him unaware.
Juggernaut's attempted uppercut toward Iceman was intercepted by Gryphon's midair collision. The two of them took a slightly different arc with Juggernaut twisting in attempts to get his burly hands around his attacker. "Quit squirming, you shitbird!"
Ethan continued to twist and turn using both his wings and his claw to keep his much bigger enemy at bay, or at least attempt to. "Bobby was screwing your mother, so I did the same thing to your daddy. He liked taking up the ass. Do you?"
"Fly away, you fairy," grumbled the Juggernaut in his baritone voice, "before I pluck your wings for good!" He landed hard on the ground with a minor quake but was immediately airborne again, fists flying at his more aerial opponents.
"It takes one to know one," Ethan taunted, "at least I am out of the closet. Ethan was smart enough to know he didn't want to get hit by the behemoth. However, he thought he could use his superior speed both to keep out of his clutches and distract him long enough for reinforcements to come.
Juggernaut made a flying leap toward Ethan, but Bobby loosed a torrential double-fisted ice blast that encased him solid. While it made Juggernaut fall like a brick, the ice block was already shaking before it hit the ground. They had seconds at most to regroup.
At the first sign of trouble, Max had made for the tree line. He knew the animals in this forest well and he hoped as hard as he could hope that the wolves were nearby. They usually were, but were they near enough to hear him? He would find out.
He hurried several running steps into the trees and stopped a moment to catch his breath before calling out, “Wolf friends! I need your help!” Unbeknownst to him, it came out of his mouth like a long howl. He paused for a moment and heard answers from far away. To anybody around, it would just be howls, but Max heard, “We come at once!”
Kennedy arrived on the manicured grounds of the mansion just in time to witness the destruction of the front gate and the assault that poured in. While the focus remained on Juggernaut and averting his path of destruction, Kennedy’s attention locked onto the robed men with guns. She didn’t need to linger and gawk to find an explanation for what was happening, instead, Kennedy did the only thing that seemed reasonable for an inexperienced mutant. She decided to hide.
Reaching a tall groomed hedge, Kennedy climbed inside and waited. Fear began to overtake her and she did her best to stifle her shaking body, she hoped she would remain unnoticed until this was over.
At the sound of the alarms, Hayden made for the front door as fast as she could. Why did everyone have to be gone, she thought as she ran out into the grass. "Oh my god..." Acting more on instinct and emotion rather than anything else, she stretched out her arm and pointed the palm of her hand towards the fountain. The water came up and formed like it was shooting from a fireman's hose. And with the same amount of pressure, Calypso blasted the gunmen with the water.
"Sprinklers!" she yelled, "Somebody turn on the sprinklers!"
Jade groused as the alarm sounded off and quickly put on her trainers, grabbed the dagger and the sheath, and darted down to the main hall. There was no time to put on their fancy suits. She quickly signed to the younger kids to go and hide in the safe room, to avoid more collateral damage.
She quickly fished the small dagger out of its sheath and cut it into her hand. not even wincing, let alone feeling any pain. The blood dripped healthily out of the cut and began to coalesce into a sword. The communicator in her pocket chirped with chatter, helping her orientate toward the direction of the attack.
The Juggernaut was back? Oh, this was going to be more of a doozy than she imagined.
So, she kept to the walls and corners until she reached the front gate.
Aurora put her latest training to use, using her abilities to cloud the minds of the gunmen so she wasn’t seen emerging from the mansion. She frowned not being able to read the mind of the one called Juggernaut, she’d never encountered him before.
Kennedy felt like prey hiding in the bushes, like a rabbit in its warren; she waited for the hound’s teeth to find her. She couldn’t do this anymore, it was agonizing. She wouldn’t just sit and hope that she didn’t die. Kennedy had to do something despite how scared she was. She heard Hayden’s request for sprinklers, which seemed like an easy thing for Kennedy to help with. The only problem was she had no idea where a sprinkler box might be. The mansion was huge and she had yet to see all of it, it could be anywhere. She scanned the grounds in her line of sight. The entrance to a hedge maze and a shed not far from it. It was a gamble that the sprinkler system would be housed in the shed, but it was the only lead she had. Emerging from the bushes, Kennedy ran towards the shed.
Connor had followed the younger students down to the subbasement and locked them in the Danger Room with the vault protocol put in play. Maybe the Juggernaut could breach it and maybe he couldn't. It was the best that could be done. From there, Connor vaulted head over heels to the War Room and accessed the school grounds' defense systems.
A lot of what was displayed was unfamiliar but he could intuit the gist through association. Connor processed it all as fast as he could. Then he found an isometric map with an overlay from the automated turrets' targeting systems. He hit the switch that allowed for a mansion-wide broadcast and began signing with one hand so that his device would speak while he continued to assess the situation.
"ATTENTION: EXACTLY 23 HOSTILES HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED ON CAMPUS. 14 OF THEM ARE BY THE MAIN GATE WHILE 5 ARE MOVING WEST ALONG THE PERIMETER WITH 4 TO THE EAST FENCE. 16 MORE ARE DETECTED BEYOND THE PERIMETER WITH EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE."
The droll words of Connor's speech-generating device blared out across the campus. There wasn't much more he could do from here, so he disengaged from the computer and went in search of Bliss.
Hayden took a quick look around the combat arena that was once the front lawn. Everyone was too busy fighting their own battles to worry about the sprinklers. It was then that she remembered the big ass fountain in the courtyard. She left the little one alone for now and ran towards the big one. Unfortunately her proximity to water was still as such that she had to be close to use it.
As she got closer, she began to pull the water out and swirl it in the air. She formed it to about the size of sand particles when she was several feet from the fountain. "Hey!" she yelled. "You look a little thirsty!" Hayden sucked at trash talking. She sent the swirling water at high speeds towards the gunmen and tried to keep them trapped. It was like being stuck in a sandstorm, but more painful. Or so she hoped.
Aurora heard Connor's announcement, the one thing they didn't need was explosive ordnance anywhere near the mansion. "This is Enigma, I'm going after the ordnance!." With that she headed for the perimeter wall, there could be a way for her to use their own weaponry against them, at least she hoped so.
The shed proved to be a dead end for sprinklers, only garden supplies and outdoor recreational equipment were housed in the shed. Rakes and shovels, croquet and soccer balls, weed killer, and frisbees. None of it was particularly helpful until Kennedy saw something that made her eyes light up.
Archery equipment. Bows and arrows along with targets to practice with. A tool that she was more than familiar with. Kennedy examined the bow, not great. It was definitely of recreational quality, nothing like the bows she had at home but it was better than nothing. And the arrows, more of the same. They were dull-tipped, meant for hitting bales of hay rather than felling deer, she couldn’t do serious damage with these arrows but maybe that was a good thing.
Selecting the bow in the best condition and packing all the arrows into a single quiver, Kennedy left the shed and surveyed the grounds. Four assailants made their way across the side of the school. So far, the most manageable group that they had been informed of. Nocking an arrow into her bow, Kennedy aimed for the first assailant in the group. Her arrow flew true, as it always did, and it struck his knee. Crippled by the pain, he crumpled to the ground.
While Kennedy was pleased with her shot, she didn’t really expect or anticipate what would happen next. The remaining men turned their attention towards her. A different kind of fear washed over her and her instincts told her to run.
Using a dancer’s grace and stamina, Kennedy ran to the entrance of the hedge maze, the three robe-clad men following.
At that point, Max arrived with the pack of wolves. “Someone get then!” he called, pointing towards the men who had followed a tall girl into the hedge maze; two wolves followed, howling out warnings to their prey. “Everybody else can out. Go after the robes, but steer clear of the big one!” With that, he took off to find more help.
The problem with a maze is you don’t know which way to go. Another factor that Kennedy hadn’t taken into consideration when selecting the hedge maze. Making a handful of good choices, Kennedy managed to get a decent lead on the robed men and found herself deep within the maze before she finally made her first major mistake and had to double back. As Kennedy blindly rounded a corner, she found herself crashing into one of her assailants. Also surprised by the sudden encounter, the man reached out and grabbed her rather than opening fire on her. Kennedy screamed half out of surprise and half out of terror and an unpracticed and unrefined surge of power passed through her. The robed man took on a faint golden glow before he exploded, covering Kennedy in a fine mist of blood and gore.
Kennedy reeled back, horrified by what she had done. She felt sick to her stomach and immediately doubled over to vomit. But the adrenaline that now coursed through her body prevented her from standing still, as soon as the wave of sickness had passed she was back on her feet again. She had just alerted the other men in the maze to her location, spoiling her lead and advantage. Kennedy would have to fight rather than run.
Turning the corner, Kennedy nocked another arrow and let the adrenaline flooding her brain help steady and focus her. The arrow in her hands began to glow with that same golden light. She’d fire as soon as they rounded the corner. As the man appeared around the corner of the maze, he was distracted by something Kennedy couldn’t see. Her arrow hit his arm and the same destruction as before occurred. Kennedy managed to maintain her composure this time. The second explosion also punched a hole in the hedges, exposing the mansion grounds to her. Rather than continue running through the rest of the maze, Kennedy exited.
As she returned to the front lawn, a pair of grey coated wolves caught up to her and fell into place running by her side. Most days, Kennedy would have been dumbfounded by that act on its own, but today was already too ludicrous for her to comprehend and she decided she would interpret the boon later. Keeping in time with the canines, the trio moved together back towards the chaos.
A squad of Purifiers armed with energy weapons finally took out the turret that had been keeping them suppressed. Finally able to advance, they set their sights on Kennedy. The first one fired a canister that opened into a tactical net thick with webbing.
Kennedy was caught off guard by the flying net, had it been a bullet or any other small moving projectile it would have hit her. She would have been tangled in the web, had it not been for the wolf at her side. Moving with an animal’s grace the smaller wolf leapt through the air and intercepted the flying net. With a small yelp, the wolf tumbled to the ground, entangled in what was meant for Kennedy.
She knew she only had a moment to counter the attack before they fired at her again. Kennedy let her anger flow through her as she aimed another arrow and it soon shimmered. She didn’t aim for a single assailant, instead, she picked a spot on the ground in the center of the group. The golden arrow arched upwards into the sky before heading down and making impact with the ground. The arrow detonated upon impact, creating an explosion in the ground in the middle of the group causing the robed men to go flying through the air before being pelted with rocks and dirt.
“Are you okay?” Kennedy asked the tangled wolf who absolutely did not understand her. The beast was too busy gnawing at the net to pay attention. The tenacity in the wolf was confirmation enough for Kennedy that it was alright.
But she had learned a lesson, she wasn’t well suited for being out in the open. Distance or surprise was a safer place for her to be. Returning to the cover of the landscaping, Kennedy attempted to creep and sneak across the grounds.
Enigma reached the outer walls, having scouted the area from the outer side for several weeks prior to her kidnapping and rescue, she knew good places for cover taking the opportunity to scout out the bad guys and their ordnance. “Shit!” She cursed, these guys were armed to the teeth. She focussed on the closest guy, if she could convince his mind that his nearest ordnance was a mutant, she just might just cause some damage.
She watched as the guy blinked, shook his head, and raised his weapon towards the nearest stockpile, before anyone could stop him he let off a reel of weapons fire, a small explosion of ordnance going up. “Got you” she smiled as she quickly shifted position, she couldn’t afford to be caught off guard.
A second artillery team saw what Aurora had done and aimed three RPG launchers in her direction. Smoke hissed behind their heads as they fired.
Aurora scrambled for cover, but she knew she couldn’t outrun what was coming. She paused long enough to deflect one with her telekinesis, managing to change the direction slightly on the second. The third on the other hand landed close, but instead of leaving her mortally wounded she rose from the ground covered with dirt, and just a few cuts, and bruises. “What the...?” She didn’t take it for granted, diving for cover to count her blessings.
At this rate, Bobby was getting tired of the constant ice generation and acrobatics while Juggernaut seemed to know no fatigue whatsoever. If not for Ethan, Juggernaut might have gotten the better of Bobby by now.
"Juggernaut!" shouted one of the Purifiers. "Quit playing around and breach the mansion!"
"Don't you know who I am?!" Juggernaut bellowed from beneath his big, round helmet. "I don't take orders from you! I'm the Juggernaut!" Even so, he abandoned his stalemated fight with Bobby and Ethan, resuming his original charge toward the front door.
It was then that the sprinkler system kicked in in full force, how much does if somebody had heard the pleas of calypso.
Bliss stepped out of the school, still wearing her chef's hat. She skipped down the steps and placed herself between the school and the Juggernaut.
"Listen you big chunk of monkey poo, I don't know who you are and don't care. Get off my lawn."
She tossed the chef's hat behind her balled up her fists and assumed a boxer's battle stance and began to bounce on the balls of her feet and circle Juggy.
"Let's see what you got, you big bully."
Juggernaut stopped his charge and let out a deep, bellowing guffaw at the sight of Bliss and her boxing form and footwork. "You can't harm me, sugar tits, not even if you snapped me with your G-string." He tossed a wide backhand to swat Bliss out of the way.
Bliss ducked under the massive arm, but the sheer sense of power in that swing was impossible to ignore. She knew if the big lug connected, even she would feel it But if she could keep the big jerk occupied until someone got a better idea.
"What's your damage, Bubba? Why are you attacking a school? Couldn't find a playground or a petting zoo to trample?"
"I'm here for Charles! Now get outta' my way before I pancake you!" Juggernaut jumped up with his knee raised high for a heel kick or stomp, depending on how Bliss reacted.
Gryphon was more than a little concerned that he and Bobby's combined attacks had, at best, only slowed Juggernaut down. The thought gave him pause. It also pissed him off. This guy had to be stopped by any means necessary. He flew about 50 yards away, then wheeled in the air and hurtled towards the huge creature. He wanted to ram into Juggernaut like a middle-line backer blitzing a quarterback from his blind side.
As Juggernaut was preparing a power kick-stomp against Bliss, the high-speed impact knocked him off his lone foot onto the ground near Bliss. Ethan rolled across the ground near him.
Surge tried the obvious play. With her powers, she turned to blinding light and headed for his eyes. Hopefully, she would blind him.
"Hey! That tickles!" Juggernaut tried to rub his eyes but couldn't get his knuckles through the eye slits of his helmet. "Who turned out the lights?!" He got to his feet and began to swing wild haymakers.
Bliss saw Ethan fall down within reach of Juggy, so she had no choice but to press the attack so her schoolmate didn't end up roadkill. She vaulted up Juggy's raised knee to Juggy's back. She began to twist at the helmet like the big villain was a jar of pickles.
"Chuck's not here, so I'll let him know you stopped by!"
Ethan had done more damage to Juggernaut than himself, but that wasn't saying much. He had barely phased him Taking advantage of the other's blindness, he crawled away, got to his feet, and then flew his huge opponent grabbing at his falling arm to try to lift him in the air.
As he was virtually impervious to harm, Juggernaut shook off the impact fairly quickly. The blindness had him at a disadvantage but only at range. He could feel Bliss torquing on his helmet and tried to pry her off, but the little woman held on like a static cling. The familiar feathery rustle of wings against his arm alerted Juggernaut that Ethan had returned.
"Gotcha', shitbird!" Juggernaut cheered as he seized Ethan by the throat with his massive hand. His armored fist strained Ethan so hard it nearly popped his head off his shoulder. "What was you sayin' before about taking it up the ass? I got a big boot to break off up in there because I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" As he squeezed, he rag-dolled Ethan's body over his shoulder to try and knock Bliss off his back.
Kennedy had become tired, from the use of her untrained powers and the rush of adrenaline leaving her body, combined with how new and challenging today had been, it was all starting to affect her. For a moment, she was happy to hide and recover, that was until she watched Ethan being tossed about. That surge of disgust and anger moved through her again and she found the fortitude to leave her hiding place.
Ethan had thought he was being clever, but his cleverness had backfired. The young sem-mutant had many abilities and powers, but the ability to not breathe was not among them.
Kennedy aimed for the ground below Juggernaut’s feet, focusing on the foot that held the majority of his weight. While the Juggernaut may have been an immovable object, the world around him was. Kennedy’s arrow glowed before she fired it into the ground creating a crater under his feet.
Now it was time to see if the bigger they were, the harder they would fall.
The explosion certainly did knock Juggernaut off his feet—right on top of Bliss, though to her credit she managed to avoid his massive upper body. But Juggernaut wasn't down for long. He stood up inside the crater, little else visible but his flat domed helmet and his rage-filled eyes.
"Who had the death wish to pull that off?!" Juggernaut jumped out of the crater a couple dozen feet in the air, scanning the area on his way to the ground. He held Bliss and Ethan in either fist. He spotted Kennedy with her bow in hand while still in midair, so he threw both X-Men at her like an ambidextrous baseball pitcher, first Ethan, then Bliss, in hopes of keeping her from running before he could land and pounce again. With all three mutants right where he wanted them, Juggernaut took a squat and prepared himself for a final lunge.
"Yo! I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!"
The shout came from behind the real Juggernaut. Turning around, the villain saw an icy version of himself strutting forward with shoulders bowed out like a bulldog and hips tucked and swaying like something was shoved the ass. Bobby had created a rough imitation of Juggernaut's armor about himself which was so heavy he could barely make it move properly despite his power of the ice.
"Think yer funny there, Frosty?" Juggernaut put his shoulder forward and started to dash straight for him. "I'm gonna' put you on ice for good!"
"You cannot harm me! Don't you know who the fuck I am? He must not know who the fuck I am! I'M THE JUGGERNAUT BITCH. No comma. Just a Juggernaut Bitch!"
The real Juggernaut was practically snarling by the time he made impact with his swaggering ice clone. Ice shards and mist were flung in all directions. There was no sign of Bobby anywhere.
"Ha! So much for Chuck's X-Men!" Juggernaut skid to a halt and turned back to examine his path of destruction. He was met with an ice blast from above that encased his entire head in a frozen block. Without thinking, he started punching away at the block with full force. While successfully breaking himself free of it, he was stumbling about a bit. "Whoa... a bit woozy..."
Ethan, now that he could breathe was able to recover and start flapping his wings to first slow then reverse his involuntary movement toward his teammates.
The ground beneath his feet turned to a sheet of ice that dumped his flat on his back. "Now I'm pissed!"
"Yeah, I shoulda' figured you don't piss standing up!" Bobby shouted.
Juggernaut roared in outrage and returned to his feet by pounding the ground on either side of his body with his fists.
Enigma retreated through the grounds to the safety of the cover of the mansion, having nearly gotten herself blown sky high she needed a moment, she didn't understand why she wasn't lying dying in a crater. Right now she was wishing she had Scott or Xavier, or both, there to talk to. Right now this Juggernaut guy had to be stopped, she just wasn't sure how.
While the team focused on Juggernaut, the Purifiers made headway against the automated defenses and started attacking whomever they could.
But a new threat was upon them. Unseen by almost everyone, and silent in their flight above the action, eagles, falcons, and hawks circled above. A soft caw from the ground was the signal they had waited for. At once, they attacked the robed figures with claw and beak, pecking at any sort of flesh they could reach.
Several Purifiers grabbed at their faces, arms, and necks at the Hitchcockian barrage of birds of prey that took to them in an unnaturally coordinated attack. Rifles fell to the ground, screams went into the air, and perhaps a dozen men were flailing about on their hands and knees or swatting their winged attackers as they may.
Respirators went on and smoke grenades went off. Those who hadn't had their eyes pecked out hit the dirt and did their best to recover. Two flamethrowers ignited, sending 50-meter jets of burning accelerant into the sky, waving them back and forth in fiery fountains of death that roasted anything in their path. Automatic gunfire turned skyward, shooting the larger birds that hadn't fled and cheering as they fell to the earth.
Rested up Aurora knew she couldn't hang around and leave the others to defend the mansion. Heading back out he set her sights on the gunmen who were backing up Juggernaut. There was one way she could create complete havoc for them, by putting her telekinesis to use. If she could force the gunmen to go hand to hand then it would even the playing field. Finding a suitable spot she concentrated on the weapons, and mechanisms could be interfered with and she could do that relatively easily.
Many of the rifles began jamming up. Some of them squibbed, resulting in exploding muzzles as one bullet fired upon another stuck in the barrel. Those who didn't fall dead or maimed from their malfunctioning weapons took to one knee and began racking their slides to clear the jams.
Turning onto the long driveway to the mansion, the sound of gunfire filtered through the open windows of Cameron's Ford Explorer. His foot pushed down on the accelerator peddle. The 4-litre engine roared gamely at the demand. As the roar turned from parallel to the gate into the approach, Cameron drove his car onto the grass alongside the wall. Switching gears one more time, he pushed hard on the accelerator.
Purifiers looked up in surprise as more than four thousand pounds of Ford barreled at them. So much surprise two were not able to jump out of the way, being plowed over. The surprise also hid the fact that there was no one behind the wheel of said Ford. That distraction did not hold long, as two more Purifiers dropped limply to the ground, their skulls opened through the use of a West German pistol. From his kneeling shooting stance, a mildly roughed up Cameron rose, firing aimed shots at several other Purifiers.
With so many of them disarmed, disoriented, or otherwise halted, the Purifier advance hadn't made it much further than the gate. Between Aurora taking out the artillery beyond the perimeter and Connor who was still leapfrogging from straggler to straggler and tossing them over the fence, the main Purifier force concentrated themselves on defensive measures against the new threat that was Cameron who had now attacked them from behind.
Three more of Cameron's bullets found comfortable paths through skulls. After seven of their friends experienced a short and violent death, the remaining cadre formed a more cohesive battle line. This, Cameron had read in their positioning as he closed the distance with them.
Cameron's non-dominant hand slid against the side panel of his Ford. From it, he drew a large amount of the steel free. This formed into a Viking shield, the leather of the seats being drawn into form the arm straps. Moments later his Sig P226 transformed as well. The metal oozed, borrowing some from the other edges of the shield. Moments later an unassuming longsword formed in Cameron. He knew time would now be limited. His conditioning was excellent, but no form of cardio measured up to actual fighting.
Using the shield as a means to catch a wave of bullets, it was his mutant power that actually prevented them from breaking the steel. Each round was being absorbed into the shield. The kinetic energy effectively being dispersed all over it. As it was a nice, big target, the first gunman did not register the sword thrust straight into his throat. With a twist of the wrist, the blade slid free. The sharp edge and solid kilogram of weight, combined with the supreme mastery of the longsword Cameron possessed sent the second head flying.
Cameron reset his position, hiding behind the shield as he closed the last knot of Racist Zealots. Three quick steps and a jab over the shield landed the sharp end of the sword into the eye and out the back of a skull. At that, their nerve finally broke. The last of the Purifiers ran. Two could not run fast enough. Cameron had pulled clear the sword, took a step back, and shifted his grip. In doing so the sword turned into a javelin. And with the skill learned from a Finnish Olympian, the first Javelin sailed high and landed straight down into the opening of the collarbone. A second javelin followed, the steel taken from the shield, and landed in the same spot in the second Purifier.
With the attackers at the gate dead or running off, Cameron dropped what remained of shield. He took a moment to stare at the carcass of a car he was quite fond of. Three deep breaths. Then he ran towards and through the gate. In passing he pulled another longsword out of the car. On his hip also formed four throwing axes, a mix between a tomahawk and a Viking axe. "X-MEN! SOUND OFF!" Cameron shouted loudly as he circled around the mansion.
"Enigma, right here!" Aurora appeared at Cameron's side as she scrambled out of the cover of the undergrowth. "I thought I'd give our friends some equipment worries." she offered a smile.
Hayden heard the call-out and left her water cannon onslaught to join the team against Juggernaut. As she ran over, she made a mental note to thank whoever had turned the sprinklers on full blast. "Calypso on the way!" she screamed.
She paused over halfway there and knelt to feel the ground. It was beginning to show signs of puddles and saturated topsoil in spots. Hayden thought she might be able to use that to their advantage somehow. She stood back up and finished her jaunt towards Cameron.
"Hey," she said between breaths, "I could try to move the excess water to that crater and make a mucky mud bath to stick him in. Maybe it'd slow him down a little." She shrugged as she tossed the idea out for their leader.
"Sanguis." Jade sounded off from her position. "If I can gain control of his blood, I can try and cut off the oxygen to his brain. He may be overpowered but everyone needs oxygen in the brain to be conscious. Be ready, you'll know when he's slowed."
The Australian mutant didn't wait. She turned off her noise-canceling earbuds and focused all her attention at the biggest, loudest blood flow she could detect. Even through the myriad of bloodflows and spilled blood, she could smell him, see him, hear him. He wasn't like any other mutant, it all seemed off. Farwynd knew she couldn't tell why without actual tests, which would likely never get done.
She reached out with both hands, wrists and hands glowing a deep, bright red, her eyes covered in a thick, red sheen. "Oi, fuckface!" She bellowed at him, using all of her willpower to command his blood to do her bidding.
Stop! Slow down! Stop! her mind chanted as she dove deeper, seeing the veins and vessels, seeing the hyper-powered system struggle against her command. "You will obey. Slow. Slow. Slow. Jade dug deeper and deeper, to the point where all could see was his blood flow, all she could hear was his blood flow. All else ceased to exist around her.
To an onlooker, a red-haired woman in jeans, a tank top, and barefoot, with red eyes and red glowing wrists and hands, standing perfectly still, a grimace of anger on her face.
Aurora could see Jade standing where anyone could take advantage of her. She looked towards Cameron. "We need to protect Sanguis, she's a sitting duck out there!"
Tammy heard that and went in for another light attack. Just like before, another blinding light. That will at least slow him. With Sanguis slowing his blood flow that will slow him down considerably. Maybe even stop him! She let loose another blinding flash in his eyes!
Max returned, this time with three black bears following close behind. These had taken some convincing and he had promised them fish if they helped. So now he had to learn how to fish. He spotted a red-haired woman standing very still, a look of extreme concentration bordering on anger on her face. She was doing something, he could tell, but he didn’t know what. “One of you protect her,” he ordered, pointing towards the woman. “The other two, help the wolves chase the rest of the cloaked guys. And remember,” he called after them as they hurried off to do as he’d asked. “Steer clear of the guy with the helmet!”
"Already on it" Enigma responded from where she was covering Jade. If anyone tried attacking her they'd soon realise they'd made a bad mistake.
Looking at Juggernaut, Armoury recognised the helmet. Before the previous team disappeared, Cameron remembered a team briefing explaining the psychic blocking abilities of the headpiece. "Escapade, Enigma, when the helmet's gone hit him with everything you've got!" Armoury stabbed his sword into the dirt, then accelerated. It was only a dozen meters, but Armoury would need to make a substantial jump. He pulled out one of his throwing axes from his belt. The metal oozed from an axe into a sharp dagger with a cross guard.
One mighty leap and Armoury jumped on the Juggernaut's broad, muscle-bound back. Muscle that was pierced as Armoury slammed the dagger in deep as a handhold. His free hand he placed against the steel of the helmet. Immediately it started moving at his will, turning into marbles that were cascading off the Juggernaut's shoulders, back, and chest.
"Cyttorak!" shouted the Juggernaut with a touch of fear in his voice. His head was exposed.
It was working! She could see platelets slow, and the blood flow quieten. Juggernaut's movements became sluggish, laboured as he fought against her control. His breathing became harder. His heart accelerated its beats trying to keep the blood pumping. It too was labouring hard. It was almost fighting her. Jade dove deeper, and focused harder.
"OBEY ME! SLOW!" Sanguis's fingers bent further inward as she fought the mammoth mutant for control. OBEY!"
When Cam jumped on his back and removed the Juggernaut's helmet, Jade put everything she had into slowing the raging colossus, her hair now matted with sweat, beads dripping down the sides of her temples, her arms beginning to shake a little as her muscles exerted.
Bliss pushed herself up to a nearly sitting position, shaking off the effect of a couple of solid hits by Juggernaut. She looked down and saw she was covered with a gory mess. Aghast, she looked around to see Kennedy's body. In a panic, Bliss scrambled to get to her fallen Roommate.
" Kennedy! Oh Gawd, Kennedy, please be ok.... "
“Oh god! What?” Wide-eyed, Kennedy partially sat up and patted her hands up and down her body. She didn’t feel injured but based on Bliss’ response there had to be something wrong with her. She frantically continued to check her body until she realized it was the splattered blood that had horrified Bliss. She couldn’t help but start laughing, the absolute horror and then the subsequent relief. Kennedy needed to release that horrible tension that was knotting her inside.
“Oh! No! It’s not mine!” Kennedy looked up at her roommate. “It’s from a Purifier.”
She moved to stand, it hurt some and the sting of skinned elbows made itself present and the recreational bow she was using had snapped in half when they fell. Kennedy reached out to help her friend up.
“I’m fine.”
The relief on Bliss's face was clear. She gave Kennedy a quick check to verify she was in one piece.
"Try not to get killed, ok?"
She watched as Bobby skated away from them, he had distracted Juggernaut from turning her into a puddle and Kennedy was a little less mad at him, she supposed she should thank him later.
As Bliss got up next to her, Kennedy looked over at the now helmet-less Juggernaut, succumbing to the effects of slowing blood. “You should sound off.” The code name free Kennedy mentioned to Bliss.
Bliss gave Kennedy a wink.
"Escapade reporting in."
Meanwhile, Aurora was joining Jade in trying to stop Juggernaut, now his helmet was off she had free reign to get inside his head and that was just what she was doing. As Jade slowed down his blood, Aurora gave everything she had to shut down Juggernaut's mind. She focussed hard, with any luck he'd be down and out in no time.
Bliss bounded away from Kennedy to get to Juggernaut. Several teammates were already trying to suppress him. Hitting or choking him might work to get his adrenaline going. That would be detrimental to their efforts.
She leaned in to whisper into the struggling monster's ear.
"You're the juggernaut, bitch. And now, a bunch of barely trained children have made you weak in the knees."
This was unfortunately not the first time Juggernaut had faced such a fate. Damned Charles and his damned X-Men. If only he could talk! He would tell that little priss exactly what he thought of her! Only gurgles came up from his throat.
Connor finally made his way to the group after clearing the stragglers around the perimeter. He focused on the group dogpiling Juggernaut and on Bliss in particular. With his gloves on, he was able to communicate through his speech-generating device with sign language. "REMOVE HIS ARMOR. HIS POWER IS EXTRADIMENSIONAL AND THE ARMOR ENHANCES IT."
Bliss looked over to Cameron with a look of confusion.
"Extra dimension a what? Take the armor off, that I understand. Everyone look for fastenings, like Velcro or snaps. Wait a second, let me feel around in the armor. Maybe I'll find his wallet. "
Bliss puts her palms flat against Juggy's armor and begins to use her power to feel for the way to remove the crimson armor.
Jade could feel her muscles begin to shake violently. It was getting really hard to pull against the massive power of the Juggernaut. On the outside, her pallor had become pale, almost white, with dark streaks underneath her eyes, veins normally purple, blue, or green, and hidden underneath the skin were quite prominent now, making her look even more hollow, sunken in. If anyone had a look at her grimaced face, especially the mouth, they could see elongated fangs.
She wished desperately she could form words, but holding back so much power made it impossible. She couldn't form the words in her mind either as she had to keep focus to slow him down. The others needed to hurry, for Sanguis could not hold him much longer and yet that was all she wanted to do. That sweet sweet blood was one of the most alluring liquids she'd ever come in contact with....
Seeing the way everyone was struggling made Connor grit his teeth and decide to throw in with them. He took a few steps backward, hunkered down, and broke into a dead sprint straight for the Juggernaut. The way Bliss was twisting at the giant's armor meant Connor's impact would have to be precise. He was already calculating the angle of incidence before he'd reached top speed. In the blink of an eye, he had already cleared several meters. When the distance was right, Connor bent both knees and launched himself into the air, twisting his body so he could go fully horizontal. His boots struck Juggernaut right to the one side of his chest like a spinning bullet. Combined with Bliss's power grip, the armor plating popped up like the lid on a jar of pickles. The force of it sent Juggernaut reeling backward onto his hind end while the armor plating went spinning in the air like a graduation cap. A crimson red gem broke free from it, taking its own trajectory back to the ground with sunlight glinting off its sides.
The gem landed in Bliss's waiting hand.
Bliss lifted her hands in the air with a whoop of victory. And then in her mind, she heard the dry voice of the gem talking to her.
"You crave power over your enemies. I can give you power beyond your comprehension. You would be unstoppable. No force could contain you. You could crush your enemies in your bare hands. You would be unto a god."
This wasn't Bliss's first rodeo with offerings of things seemingly for free.
"And to get this power? What do I have to do?"
The gem's dry voice became more seductive echoing inside her head.
"There will be times when I will require your ... cooperation, and to use my power in my name. Otherwise, you have total freedom....freedom to crush your enemies at your whim."
Bliss considered for a moment and shrugged. The school could use a powerhouse...
" Ok, sure, what do I need to do? "
"Grind the gem into your chest and I will give you the power of Cytorrak. Then we shall leave this pitiful group of misfits behind and take your proper place as the Fist of Cyttorak!"
That made her pause.
"Do what? Grind the glowing gem into my chest? Then we're leaving? I'm not leaving my friends behind! "
The gem huffed incredulously.
"You would deny yourself the power to conquer the world because you would miss your friends? Your friends are of no consequence."
"They are to me."
She looked around at her friends. There was Connor and Kennedy, and all the rest. Even Aurora was looking around the battlefield.
"No deal, Rocky."
Bliss looked around and put the pulsing gem into a stray bucket. The dry voice protested as she crumpled the metal bucket around it. She could hear the muffled voice trying to convince her of her error.
She held onto the bucket by the handle and began to walk to Connor.
"Hey, we need to hide this somewhere safe, preferably somewhere deep and inaccessible."
"WHAT IS IT?" Connor signed before accepting it. As soon as he touched the metal, though, his mind flashed a stark crimson that rippled like a tesseract in his mind's eye. Both eyes rolled back for a moment while unspeakable things flowed through his mind on a subliminal level.
"I would rather die." The words came out of Connor's mouth as fluently as any native English speaker, though perhaps with a muddled and indistinct Gaelic twist. His hands dropped the metal onto the ground, at which point his eyes rolled back forward, though his pupils were dilated and out of focus. "WHAT WAS THAT?" said his speech-generating device. "IT WAS WEIRD. I DID NOT LIKE IT."
Bliss picked up the crumpled bucket to avoid risking anyone else. She kissed Connor's cheek tenderly.
"Bad juju, sweetheart. But you spoke normally for a moment. Are you ok, Connor?"
Connor nodded, then started signing for his device to speak out. "I FELT OUT OF MY BODY LIKE I WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE OR POSSIBLY EVERYWHERE AT ONCE. SOMETHING WANTED TO TRADE MY BODY FOR SOMETHING I CANNOT REMEMBER. ALL I WANTED WAS TO SEE YOU AGAIN."
Bliss listened, nodding with his words. She knew something of the choice that he made.
"Thank you for making a good choice."
She leaned in and kissed him softly.
"But seriously, we need to find a good place to hide this, like on the moon or the bottom of the ocean or someplace else more secure."
She rattled the bucket and the voice of the jem protested.
" Shut up in there. "
Cain Marko, for that was who he was without the Gem of Cyttorak or the Crimson Bands of the same to transform him into the unstoppable Juggernaut, knelt in disgrace as a mortal man, a disgruntled Vietnam War veteran with cloudy eyes and a permanent sneer. "Kill me already," he groaned. "Just fuckin' kill me and get it over with."
"NO," Connor said just before he cold-clocked him in the face. "BUT YOU CAN GO TO SLEEP."
The man formerly known as Juggernaut fell backward into the mud, unconscious with a big shiner.
When the fighting was done, Max called the fighting animals back over to him. “Thank you for your help, everyone,” he told them. “I only wish so many hadn’t died.”
“They are of no matter,” answered one Hawk, seated on a nearby rock.
“May we have them?” asked a wolf. “We have many mouths to feed.”
“May the wolves have them?” Max asked the Hawks.
“Do with them as you will,” they answered.
“Knock yourselves out,” Max told the wolves.
“Do not forget us, son of man,” one wolve told him as the others gathered the dead birds.
“I won’t,” promised Max, knowing this meant he owed them a favor. “Want me to take a look at that wound?”
“It is superficial,” said the wolf, and he, too, turned to gather the birds.
“I’ll get you your fish,” he promised the bears. “I’m not sure when, but I’ll figure it out. I promise.”
“We know you will,” replied one of them, and then they were off.
The birds took flight with no words. Birds were flighty. Which, he supposed, only made sense. With a grin at his weird pun, he turned back to the humans to see where he could help.
Hayden had watched everything that happened and decided to go ahead and put the extra water into the crater anyway. Even if it wasn't used to subdue Jabberwocky, someone could use it. Or something. She looked up at the sky for birds as she'd seen them use bird bath's before.
The sudden change from extreme power to extreme tiredness, barely clinging to the edge of life hit Jade like a whiplash and brought her to her knees. Contact was broken and the Australian felt her senses return to her, as well as the nearly unbearable noise of adrenaline-filled bloodstreams. Jade collapsed on the ground, holding her head as she fought to return to her senses. All she could think about was blood. Sweet sweet powered blood. She needed more...if she could just feel it again, she would do anything.
Her pallor was even more white-gray and sunken in, her hair matted and greasy, veins bulging under her eyes, on her neck, on her wrists. Her fangs seemed to phase in and out between normal and elongated.
"Nonononono!" Her mind screamed as she struggled against a primal call in her core.
"ARE YOU OK, JADE?" Connor asked, the voice of his device failing to convey the concern on his face. "YOU LOOK SICK."
Jade couldn't hear him, however. THU THUMP, THU THUMP, THU THUMP - went the life-giving liquid all around her, bliss and nightmare at the same time. Somewhere in the recess of her mind she was trying to force her hands to turn on her noise-cancelling earbuds but lust and desire for blood was at the forefront of her mind, not letting her re-assert control.
Connor was getting worried. What was wrong? Why was she—Oh. He noted her earbuds. Maybe that was why. Her hands were shaking near them. If it was just a matter of turning them on, Connor could help with that. So he did.
"IS THAT BETTER?" he asked.
Sudden silence amidst the delicious chaos gave Jade another whiplash, but one that was sorely needed. Jade took a deep breath, looking up at Connor, finally seeing a person again. Her skin had already begun to pick up some hue, but not a lot. She still looked pretty bad.
Deep breath, gasp, deep breath. "Yes..." Her voice came out raspy. "Thank you, Connor." She was still raspy, but at least she could smile now. Smile...and still want to sink her skills into blood.
"No! Stop it! No!" Her mind resolutely told itself off.
Connor looked around at the destruction around them. People were battered and bruised but otherwise still standing. That was more than could be said for a couple dozen Purifiers whose bodies lay strewn about. Despite their victory, Connor was left with just one question.
"WHAT NOW?"
Aurora was kneeling beside Jade, letting her own energy recoup. With her energy sapped her telepathy was picking up on the fight going on in Jade's mind, she could hear the argument Jade was having within her own mind.
She turned to Connor for a moment. "We should lock him up somewhere..." She motioned to Juggernaut, "or let the authorities have him."
Turning back to Jade she gave her serious look. "I know what you are Jade, I saw it when you operated me before. You need to regain your strength, if you need blood you can take some of mine."
Jade sighed and slowly rolled onto her feet, gingerly straightening out. Then she looked over at Aurora. "No, you don't know. It's the manipulation of it, not usage and I don't need to manipulate or ingest for any reason what so ever. Think of it like crack." Jade's visage continued returning to normal. "The more I do it the worse it gets, especially with overpowered blood like his. I'd give anything right now to play with it more, but I can't and I won't because I will kill him, or anyone whom I do this to." She made a rounding motion over her face. "This? This because of what I did, not because I haven't done it in a while. So I'd think very carefully before you even insinuate calling me what you're wanting to call me."
Aurora offered an apologetic nod. "I'm sorry Jade, I'm not calling you anything. I just misunderstood. Forgive me."
Ethan was now able to breathe without strain and the bruises around his neck had begun to disappear. "Is this finally over?" he asked.
"Yeah looks that way! Juggy is depowered and we just got to figure out what to do with him." Tammy said.
“Aren’t there holding cells in the basements?” suggested Max. “We could put him down there for now.”
Jade gave Aurora a nod then turned to the others. "We need him contained, and under watch. Anyone who's injured and can't self heal sound off, I'll come to you. The rest, get started on cleanup, we need to take care of the bodies and debris."
With the rush of battle over, the X-Men now turned their minds toward recovery. Those who needed assistance were taken inside. Others who were able-bodied took up corpse retrieval and piled them near the incinerator on the far end of the campus greens. The work was emotionally heavy and stole away what would otherwise have been a jubilant triumph. Come nightfall, everyone was spent in mind and body.
None of them were ready for the news which was to come.
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