God Loves, Man Kills - Pt. 2b

Posted on Fri Feb 9th, 2024 @ 4:27pm by Connor Bruin & Jade Farwynd & Elias Buckley & Aurora Summers & Kennedy Kelly

2,504 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: Niagara Falls, NY
Timeline: August 24th, 1990 - Afternoon

“Reverend, something’s tripped the motion sensors in the diversion tunnel.”

The wizened face of William Stryker folded into a scowl. “Show me.”

His technician nodded and brought up the remote camera feed. “It’s the mutants from the school.”

Stryker could spit. “God damn those devils! Damn them to hell!”

“How did they find us?”

“Does it matter?” Stryker shot back. The mercenary Juggernaut had failed and cost a lot of Purifier lives in the process. “They’re here. Stop them before they reach our command post.”

“Notifying the men at our end of the tunnel to engage,” the technician reported.

“Negative,” Stryker said, all religious overtones disappearing from his speech in favor of militant ones. “Have our men hold their positions. Send in the hunters. Time for them to prove their worth.”

---

Team 2 advanced a little more boldly than before, thanks to their smaller numbers and Elias's forcefield which he maintained from the point position. Jade walked behind him, her blood sense outstretched and ready for anything, while Kennedy kept her bow at the ready. Aurora and Connor brought up the rear, their eyes, ears, and keen minds assessing the situation for all they could discern.

Something shifted. There was a ripple on the wall. "Now!" shouted a voice from nowhere.

The ceiling gave way as a furry beast-man tore through the stone with three-foot bone claws and forearms the size of timber beams. He landed with a snarl and made ready to pounce.

Behind him and to the side, the invisible voice from the wall said, "Amarok reporting. Talon has engaged the targets."

The dagger that was in Jade's hand cut skin and droplets that flowed from the cut coalesced into a chinese spear looking formation. She canted her head a little, her eyes and wrists glowing red. "Unexpected, they were masked from me."

Aurora stood ready balls of flame emanating from both palms of her hands. “Same here, I didn’t pick up on them at all. There’s only two explanations for that, part of their genetic makeup, or...” she paused. “The Professor.”

Kennedy raised her bow and fixed her sights on the area where the invisible voice came from, taking a few slow steps to better align the shot with the area behind the visible mutant. The clawed beast in front of them seemed the obvious target that most people would fixate on, she would go take her chances with the hidden figure. She didn't trust herself to charge the arrow with energy for fear that she might overpower the arrow and damage the tunnel, or worse, one of them. Demolition didn't lend it's self well to close quarters they currently found themselves in. Thankfully the arrows she brought today we fit for hunting, sharpened carbon arrowheads meant to take down an elk or moose. They seemed to be a good choice based on the adversaries in front of them. Drawing her bowstring she carefully aimed and waited to release the arrow as soon as the forcefield dropped.

Skittering sounds from overhead revealed another mutant-hunter crawling on the ceiling, his eyes aglow in the dim light.

“Interesting” Aurora re-focussed on the crawler, she could bring him down with a well aimed fireball, or her telekinetic abilities. Though she still needed more practice, especially when it came to heavy objects.

"Let's test..." Sanguis lobbed the spear at the beast man. The more blood there was around the more she could use it to their advantage.

The blood spear pierced Talon through the middle and pinned him to the wall. A savage, bellowing roar came out of his mouth. His blood rage flared up, prompting him to slice the spear at the shaft. Though he managed to pull himself from the wall, he was bleeding from a ghastly wound. He roared again in another charge.

From the ceiling, the crawler had darted sideways down the wall opposite from Talon. "Basilisk reporting," he said. "Engaging targets." And with that, he spat some kind of viscous fluid straight at Aurora.

Aurora had to react quickly, the fire in her palms distinguished as her instincts taking over as she telekinetically deflected the liquid. “Now that isn’t nice!... Let’s see if you can outrun fire shall we?” The flames returned only this time they were directed straight at Basilisk.

Despite his attempt to dodge, Basilisk still got blasted with fire. He slithered away with blistering flesh on one side of his body.

A passive force up until this point, Fable worked the energy levels around him in order to manipulate his protective shielding. He covered the places in between the others, watching their backs, sides and above and below them while they fought, pulling energy from the inbound enemies and using it to weave an ever shifting forcefield. The balance was something he was clearly confident in maintaining around moving targets, but it would never be perfect.

Alongside protecting the team's weaker points, he looked for any new targets entering their space. He looked beyond and between the walls, feeling the ripples of sentience ebb and flow amongst those material boundaries. If anyone arrived and wasn't hit by one of the team, he'd go for it.

Meanwhile Talon lunged toward Kennedy and Aurora, aiming his claws for both at the same time.

Connor did a side kick off the wall and laterally tackled the flying mutant-hunter from the side. They rolled together before coming apart with Connor bleeding from a few lacerations. He stood to his feet, gritting his teeth in pain, but he didn't back down.

When Talon shot for Connor's legs for a swift takedown, Connor jumped back and countered with a heel kick to the face. Talon was stunned by the blow, leaving him open. Connor stepped forward, grabbed Talon's nearest forearm, and then twisted it around Talon's back in a hammerlock, and snapped his shoulder.

Roaring in pain, Talon whirled around with a wild slash from his other arm, catching Connor across the chest. Connor stumbled backward a few steps before toppling to the ground.

Everything had happened so fast, one minute Aurora was preparing to defend against Talon as he lunged, the next Connor had intervened. She couldn’t risk attacking Talon without hurting Connor, until Connor hit the ground. “Caveman!!” A spark of anger at Connor’s injuries was enough to trigger an all body ‘flame on’. “Hey you! Get the hell away from my friend!!” She lashed out directing a full burst at Talon, combining it with her telekinetic abilities she enveloped him in a wall of flame.

Talon's skeletal structure twisted at unnatural angles, seemingly being set alight by the burst of flame surrounding him. In mere seconds, he was became immolated inside and out.

As much as Talon deserved it Aurora wasn’t going to watch the flames kill him, extinguishing the fire she gave him a warning look. “I suggest you stay down, unless you want me to let you fry!”

"Never, mutant trash!" Talon took a desperate stab at Aurora with his one good arm.

“I warned you!” There was the briefest flash of orange in Aurora’s eyes as Talon suddenly burst into flames, only this time Aurora didn’t put him out.

Seizing the distraction afforded by Aurora turning Talon into a human road flare, Basilisk slithered on his belly and wrapped his contortionist body around Aurora's legs. His mouth opened, prepared to spray his toxic fluid on her again, this time at point blank range.

Aurora stumbled as Basilisk wrapped himself around her legs, seeing his mouth open she focussed on forcing it closed to avoid getting his corrosive spray on her body. “You just try and spit, and I’ll send it right back at you!” She reached down to try and get herself untangled.

Amarok continued his shrouding effect to obscure his life signs and those of his time before going in for a strike against Elias. He angled for a blind spot between the mutant's zones of observation.

Kennedy ignored the incoming attack from Talon, she trusted her teammates to watch her back while she focused on her target. Without that trust, she would be worthless as a sharpshooter. Her blue eyes never left the area where the hidden figure had last spoken. Once the shields dropped, her fingers released the nocked arrow letting it fly through the air with breakneck speed towards the estimated location of the phantom voice.

Her arrow struck true and landed in the flesh of the cloaked mutant before it moved to a new location. While not a lethal shot, the arrow now hanging from its body gave her a marker for the rest of her shots. Kennedy began to fire arrow after arrow with lethal accuracy, creating a trail of fletching feathers across the mutant’s body. If the arrows weren’t enough to slow or stop Amarok's attack on Elias, at least he would be able to see him coming.

"Nice!" understated Fable as Kennedy did his job for him. He hadn't expected that, but it was a welcome move considering the current level of multi-tasking he was undertaking. Three bad guys, one currently just hot ash, the second full of lit arrows and the third... playing tag with Aurora. Split second timing was always part of the game, and Fable made his decisions swiftly, seeing the wounds Connor had just taken and not knowing how many more were coming.

Fable stole the energy from Amarok's momentum and sent the glowing arrow-stuffed mutant far beyond their current world. Death or not, he'd be finding out all by himself in another dimension. Maybe he'd come back, but that was a problem for later. Shifting position even he sent the fella packing, Elias moved to shield Connor, standing over the wounded man protectively while aiming to keep Kennedy within his sphere of influence too.

Kennedy watched as the Chameleon-like mutant was teleported to another plane of existence and made a mental note not to piss off Elias, ever.

Taking advantage of the shield Fable provided, Kennedy turned her attention back towards the remaining attackers. Her focus went towards the snake coiled around Aurora’s leg. With a steely gaze, she drew another arrow, this time she dared to charge the arrow with only a touch of her power, a dull gold rather than the brilliant glitter it normally created, before she fired it right into Basilisk’s open mouth.

Basilisk never felt the impact of the arrow nor the detonation which followed. Cleaning screws would be squeegeeing the residue of his head off the walls for weeks to come. His headless body toppled to the ground.

"OW!" Connor cried out. His face had turned pale while tremors overtook his head and limbs.

“CONNOR!” Aurora kicked Basilisk’s body away before moving over to her friend. She wasn’t a medic but she could try to dull the pain he was feeling. “Sanguis, We need you over here!” She gently placed her hand on Connor’s forehead, “Hang on my friend, I’ll try and help.” Aurora focussed on trying to dull the pain impulses from his brain to his body.

Panic began to resonate throughout Connor's mind. It projected thoughts only Aurora could hear. ~Tell Bliss... I love her!~

Aurora gave Connor a worried look answering his comment telepathically. ~You can tell her that yourself~ She reverted back to voice. “Hang on Connor... you promised Scott you’d look out for me remember? I don’t want to lose you, my friend.”

Jade, who took care of another attacker slid past Kennedy and next to Aurora, her eyes and wrists still glowing. "You three need to go, I'll take care of Connor." She said in a no-nonsense tone. Blood stopped flowing from his injuries, but the wounds weren't closing, per se. The blood was just being kept in place. "I can keep him alive, but he will need all of my focus until I can stabilize him."

“In that case I’m staying right here” Aurora gave Jade a look that said she meant it. “You said it yourself, Connor is going to need all your focus. I’m not leaving the two of you unprotected, unless you can protect them both?” She looked towards Elias.

"Of course I can," Elias snapped back. He looked to Jade and added. "Or I get you two outta here." He didn't make that call, but awaited Sanguis' response either way.

Kennedy shook her head in response to Aurora’s comments. This wasn’t a matter of opinion and emotional reactions, they were on a mission and had been given directions by their superiors. They each had a part to play and were being depended on.

“No.” Kennedy chided “Sanguis is in charge and she already gave us directions on what to do. She stays, we go. She knows what she’s capable of and you have to trust her directions. Not to mention our main objective, you can’t stay behind out of personal concern, we have to get to Xavier.”

“Falling behind could jeopardize everything, and a lot of innocent people could be killed. We do as we’re told and what’s expected of us, Sanguis stays with Caveman and we proceed so we can converge with the other teams, if we don’t show up, it could impact everything else.” Kennedy drew another arrow and continued forward down the tunnel towards the dam, she would follow orders and proceed. There was more at stake than Connor and Jade and she wasn’t going to waste time debating that, especially when she knew they would do the same.

"We don't have time for this," Elias stated, simply but with a definite underlying tone of impatience. He watched Artemis start to move on and pushed again. "Just let me know if I'm getting Cavemen out before we go further in?"

Aurora sighed. “Doesn’t seem like I can do anything right these days.” She gave Connor and Sanguis a worried look before turning to follow the others. She knew Jade knew what she was doing, but the offer had been there nonetheless. Now it was time to get to Xavier.

"Go!" Jade bellowed. "I'll be fine. Once I stabilize and secure, I'll follow."

Aurora kept going, Xavier had to be found and the sooner the better.

Though Connor's flesh wounds were still present, Jade had clotted them enough to stop the bleeding. He grunted in pain several times, but he slowly pushed himself into a kneeling position. The strain he felt just to stand and walk was as plain as the nose on his face, but he wouldn't let himself slow the team down.

"WE SHOULD GO," he managed to sign. Each limping step was an ordeal. Eventually, though, he found a shuffling rhythm that kept pace with the others who were proceeding warily.

Jade fell in step with Connor, both as support and protection, should they be attacked from behind.

 

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