Open Season
Posted on Sun May 21st, 2023 @ 9:58am by Charles Xavier & Scott Summers & Connor Bruin & Iris Walker & Cameron Hood & Elias Buckley & Tammy Thompson & Shinobi Shaw & Ethan Hale & Aurora Summers
Edited on on Sun May 21st, 2023 @ 10:34am
4,331 words; about a 22 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2: Northern X-Posure
Location: Canadian wilderness
Timeline: August 6th, 1990
Although the rescue mission had not gone as planned, there was still nobody left behind. Everyone who had not made their own egress to the Blackbird had been teleported there by Fable. While Scott had experienced far more than most people his age, getting warped to an entirely new location was something new.
Never before had he been so happy to see the Blackbird.
Tammy buckled up. She was happy to be back safe aboard the jet. It was a close call there. Her EM powers did not exactly work as she wanted them to. Seems to be happening a lot lately. Not her fault but various things keep jamming her. Not fun! Perhaps that's something that she can work on back home.
"ARE. YOU. O. K.?" The stilted speech of Connor's speaking device failed to deliver the concern he held on his face. Tammy had taken quite the hit before their tactical retreat.
"I've been better for sure! That hurt getting grounded like that! My head hurts some, well a lot and I am aching pretty much all over but I think a good night's rest will help a lot, thanks! Getting tired of that happening!"
Connor frowned at Tammy, wondering if any of her symptoms pointed to a preexisting condition. In the end, he didn't reply.
Fable did a second head count, and satisfied himself that everyone he was aware needed to be here, was indeed present. Not keen to end up babysitting anyone, he bounced back outside to keep a visual watch from atop the grounded aircraft. When it moved, he'd port ahead, but for now someone keeping lookout seemed like a sensible option.
Aurora had no memory of how she got aboard the plane she was now on, now she was conscious she sat silently taking in everyone onboard. She had one hell of a headache, and a slight nosebleed to go along with it, but otherwise she was okay.
Armoury had positioned himself at the ramp, looking out at the empty field. This mission was supposed to go far different from how the events had turned into. Part of his mind was still in the moment, scanning their surroundings from the plane, but another part of his brain was processing the events, where he made the mistakes that lead to them scurrying away instead of the triumphant saunter he had expected.
Ethan was no Wolverine, but he healed faster than normal folks, even more than some of his fellow mutants. So by the time he was back on board the plane the gash on his arm had disappeared. He flexed his previously injured arm just to make sure and turned to Levi.
"Are you okay?" he asked, "what just happened?"
Breathing hard and heavy, Levi kept his thoughts to himself and said nothing.
Jace walked on in and took a seat. He didn't let any excitement, if there had been any, show on his face. The fact that they had just barely escaped was still lingering and he was still on edge. He'd heard the other talking, but hadn't been really listening. It seemed like they all knew each other and he was the outsider...once again. A nagging thought took up homestead in the back of his mind, did he make the right decision?
"Get everyone strapped in," Scott ordered. "Not everyone is conscious." Looking around, he gave up and said, "Hoodwink, wherever you are, meet me in the cockpit."
“Already there,” Iris called over her shoulder; she had literally been climbing into the pilot’s seat as he spoke and now she was busily strapping herself in while completing the preflight checks.
While the engines began priming, the entire dashboard failed to respond. "Whoa!" Scott said, first to Iris's sudden appearance and then to the sudden realization that the Blackbird's instrumentation panel was fried. "Shit!" He rubbed his temple and took a breath. "Okay. I've seen this before. We've shielded the Blackbird's systems against Magneto before, and good thing, otherwise this thing would be a giant rock right now. The avionics need to reboot or we'll end up nose down in no time."
Iris knew how to reboot, but she had never done it before. “I hope it doesn’t take long,” she commented nervously as she began the process.
"You'll know when it happens because the readings will start making sense again," Scott replied. "Right now the needles are all over the place and that's no good, even for the autopilot."
"Excuse me," said a female voice. "I don't know how I got here, but I'm leaving." Dr. Heather Hudson looked quite adamant. "You won't want to face the consequences if I fail to report back."
"Yes, of course, Doctor," said Scott. "Armoury, please escort Dr. Hudson off the Blackbird while we get flight ready."
Cameron, Armoury, pulled his eyes away from the outside into the plane. "Right." He walked in and gestured for the straggler to lead him to the back. "We didn't intend to grab you, but things devolved rather aggressively within a short time frame. My friend simply pulled everyone out he could."
"Sure," said the doctor with a nod. She followed Cameron out of the main cabin and through the side passenger door.
When she reached the ground, though, she stopped short after just a few paces.
SNIKT.
"Come on out, Logan," the doctor called into the open air around them. "These people are safe. I am safe. There's no need to fight."
No answer, just the whisper of the wind.
Above them, atop the aircraft, Fable simply stood and silently observed. They go into the plane, they go back out again. He shrugged. People...
"I am going back to base," Heather said, forcibly keeping her voice steady. "Come with me, Logan."
"Director says these people are led by a telepath," said a gruff voice from a very well hidden location. "You runnin' your own mouth, Heather? From here it sounds like you're tellin' me to let the bad guys go."
"They're not..."
"Not bad? Is that why you helped them escape?" The voice turned from skeptical to angry. "You're mind-humped, darlin', and now they're gonna' pay."
And, at that moment, an orange and brown masked man with claws outstretched came flying at Armoury from the top of the Blackbird.
Armoury's hand rested on the handrail of the Blackbird's little exit stairs. It was the only thing that saved his life. Wolverine's words had drawn his attention up to the dark shape on top of the plane. And when the gleam of the claws registered Armoury's reflexes kicked in. Using his powers he shaped the handrail and a large chunk of the stairs into a steel spear. On it he caught Wolverine's lunge, allowing Armoury to extend it as he slipped onto a knee and then back a step towards the Blackbird.
Still atop the Blackbird, Fable ported from one position to another to ensure his own survival, and then watched to see if Armoury would need an urgent exit, or if he had this covered. This 'Logan' looked bad-ass so far.
Aurora heard a ruckus outside, getting out of her seat her eyes widened to see a man with what looked like metal claws attacking one of those who’d saved her. She was far too weak to try calling up any flames, and she wasn’t sure if she had the strength to use her other abilities to much effect either.
"We don't need to fight, big man. We just want our people back." Armoury said, spear point leveled at Wolverine, ready to fend off a next strike from those steel claws.
"Says you!" the masked man half-shouted, half-growled. His claws made short work of the spear, slicing it in half, before he brought both fists together for an outward dual slash toward Armoury's throat. "The one who attacked our base and made off with one of our people!"
"Logan, no!" Heather screamed.
A crimson blast caught the savage fighter called Logan right in the chest, knocking him back several feet onto his back.
"Keep him busy!" Cyclops ordered. "The Blackbird can't take off for another five minutes at the soonest."
Retracting his claws so he could kip uppright, Logan's feet flew up into the air and back down again. He landed in a half-crouch and extended his claws once more with a dual hissing SNIKT.
"Shouldn't 'a done that, bub." And then he let out a savage roar as he lunged once more.
“Wait! STOP!!” Aurora stood behind the others focusing everything she had on her telekinetic abilities, trying to hold back the clawed man. If anything she only caused a brief pause. “These...people...are not...Evil...”
But the man with the claws was overtaken by an all-consuming berserker rage that made his mind an impenetrable inferno.
Tammy was not in the best of shape but still, she couldn't sit by and do nothing. She sighed. No rest for the weary. Transforming in em energy, she zipped out a window and onto the roof as a hologram of herself. "Hey you! What's your problem anyway? All we want is to take our friends home. Your people were holding them against their will and that's not nice. If you leave us alone. we'll be on our way as soon as we can! Deal?" not that she really thought he would go for it but maybe it would buy them some time!
Snickering slightly at the optimistic appeal to fierce opposition's potential 'soft side', Fable vanished as soon as the next words were shouted....
"Fire in the hole!"
The words were nearly drowned out by a mag-dump of bullets from a submachine gun. A man clothed head to toe in bright red spandex blinked into existence next to Tammy's hologram and slashed two katanas through it.
"Well, whaddya' know? This ain't a real girl or my name is Pinocchio!" He sheathed his katanas and pulled out two submachine guns, one to match the first he'd used, and threw his masked head back to sing at the sky. "Where, oh where, has my little prey gone? Oh, where, oh, where could she beeeee?!"
....and Fable blinked back into position atop the plane's wing as Deadpool switched weapons around and sang. Well, wasn't this entertaining? He kept an eye on Armoury, waiting for his moment to call 'time'.
"What are ya' gonna' do, Deadpool? Sing 'em to death?!" shouted the first attacker as Armoury narrowly evaded his claws. "Make yourself useful for once!"
"Now, now, Weapon X," said the new arrival called Deadpool. "If that's how you're gonna' talk to me, we can't go steady no more."
Weapon X let out a growl that renewed the vigor of his attacks.
"I love it when he gets angry," Deadpool whispered to open air as if someone stood next to him.
"You, shut up!" Tammy said to Deadpool! She had to buy time. She would have to shock this Logan character out of his senses. it was drastic, but hopefully it would at the very least distract him. Changing to pure electricity she zapped Logan with enough electricity to knock out a normal man. She didn't want to kill anybody but they needed to get out of there and this guy wasn't letting them.
Jace watched all these powered people zip off and could hear muffled shouting. Part of him, most of him, wanted to just sit here and wait for the plane to wind up and take off. Whoever or whatever was on top would just blow away. Seemed like these kids weren't much different than the ones on the streets. They were always getting into fights with someone, getting caught, escaping, and getting into another fight. He was thinking he might just let them all battle it out. Then he sighed and unbuckled. There was probably nothing he could do except be a distraction anyway. He went out and poked his head up to see what he could see.
Weapon X roared in agony as Tammy's electromagnetic body surged through his adamantium skeleton into the ground beneath his feet. His knees sagged as he fought to keep standing while Tammy's flesh and blood form rolled on the ground where she had been discharged from her opponent's body.
Curious to see what effect the electricity had on 'Weapon X', Fable took advantage of the first split second that Deadpool wasn't firing rounds from those SMGs. The teen grabbed the slinky red-clad comedian from behind and ported out into a random dimension, then ported back again without him. Dropping back at the Blackbird, Fable mustered up his shield and, leaving Logan to Armoury, he moved to help the grounded Tammy.
With Weapon X hit by the electricity for a moment, Armoury closed the distance between himself and the rampaging monster. He sunk his fingers into the grassy dirt, imagining stone daggers. The shapes coalesced, and Armoury pulled out two quartz daggers. With a jump Armoury stretched his arms out, daggertips down. In a half-slice, half-stab the daggers tore through Wolverine's trapezius, lodging themselves in the armpits.
"Looks like I sprang from the penalty box just in time!" Deadpool teleported back into the fray, but not before he paused with his hands on his hips and posed in a random direction. "Now where's the world-hopper? The shithole where he dropped me was like if your taint became an entire ecosystem, Logan." His next words were spoken with giddy glee. "I feel compelled to respond with violence!" Katanas in hand, Deadpool began teleporting around the area in a rapid blur hunting his prey.
Spurred by Deadpool's shit-talking, Weapon X ignored his bloody arms which hung lifeless at either side and gave Armoury a savage headbutt. The clang of metal against bone sang out over the area.
Once Tammy was back on the plane, Fable felt that resonance unsettle beyond the confinded space. He silently kept very close tabs on Deadpool, bouncing from location to location immediately in the wake of the dual-sworded loudmouth. Behind him, below him, above him until Fable fell into a useful sync, and until he had chance to see that the mutant wasn't a natural jumper, but was using some kind of device. Now all Fable had to do was evade those katanas while he grabbed it, something that was less impossible than it was time consuming. First he had to get a hold on Deadpool himself, then it a matter of willpower and agility...
This just wasn't Tammy's day. She hurt and was very exhausted. She didn't know he had a metal skeleton. She would have tried a different tactic if she had. She sat there gathering her energy. The sooner they were out of there, the better. Unfortunately those two idiots on top seemed determined not to let them go.
It was at that moment that everything in the cockpit normalized and Iris knew they were ready to take off. “We’re ready to fly!” she announced loudly. “Everybody in whose leaving!” She flipped a couple of switches and the engines began to power up, hopefully announcing their imminent departure to anybody left outside.
Scott had hopped into the co-pilot's seat in desperate attempts to expedite the avionic system's reboot. His half-busted glasses had been swapped out for a spare visor kept in the flight crew compartment. When he put them over his face, his mussed hair sprang up like crabgrass, but at least he could see.
The Blackbird sprung into the air with its landmark Vertical Take-Off/Landing capability. As it spun 90 degrees, though, the orange and brown clad Weapon X embedded his claws into the fuselage and hung on for dear life. Deadpool stabbed his katanas into the top of the jet, failed to get purchased, and was sucked away by the forces of lift and thrust. His teleporter returned him to the jet in short order only for the cycle to repeat.
"Hey!" he shouted as he got sucked by a view port window. "Lemme in!"
"Stay low and head for the coastline," ordered Professor Xavier through the intercom. "I am blocking several dozen individual minds at once via Cerebro, but I can't do anything to prevent the scrambled aircraft in the area from firing should you trip radar."
Scott nodded with understanding. Until the avionics were at full capacity, their emission/reflection stealth capability would not spare them from any air-to-air missiles. At that moment, however, another problem presented itself.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP
The low cabin pressure alert went off like a screaming banshee. Scott jumped up and saw the red swordsman had managed to teleport inside the passenger compartment. Slashing metal from the starboard side indicated that his clawed companion was not far behind.
Aurora had rested long enough to get her strength back, she looked towards Scott. “Is there anyone on this bird who can form a shield to focus a jet of flame?”
"Flame on?" Deadpool asked rhetorically before letting out a snicker. "I heard a guy say that one before. You could say I carried a torch for him." His swords were coming down on Aurora who had identified herself as his first target.
"N-n-n-oooooooo!"
Before the katanas connected, Connor had unstrapped himself from his seat and flung himself feet first at Deadpool, dropkicking him against the side of the hull. Connor grabbed Deadpool's nearest forearm and slammed it against the headrest of the empty seat, forcing him to drop the katana.
"Whoa! What is your major malfunction?" Deadpool asked as he looked at Connor's face. "I think we got R-r-r-rain Man over here, Logan!" He thrust his remaining katana straight at Connor's chest.
In pure reflex, Connor pivoted sideways, seized Deadpool by the wrist, brute-forced the limb into hyper-extension, and slammed it down on his shoulder into a hard right angle. The elbow joint shattered with a loud crunch.
"MOTHERFUCKER!!!" shouted Deadpool in equal parts agony and amusement.
Without missing a beat, Deadpool caught the falling katana in his remaining good arm and stabbed Connor through the shoulder, pinning him against the empty seat. Still with only one good arm, Deadpool drew his submachine gun and pointed it at Connor's head. "You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig?"
“Ohh I dig!” Aurora stood behind Deadpool her body in flames, even her eyes as she looked at him appeared to flicker with flame. “Move away from him, Now!!” Her telekinesis was let loose along with her flames in her anger, Connor had been wounded defending her. She forced the gun away from Connor before heating it up enough to burn the hand holding it. While she was angry her rage focused everything, giving her the control she normally lacked.
"Toasty!" Deadpool shrieked as he dropped the now scalding firearm. "Time for a tactical retreat." He activated his teleporter and vanished.
But no sooner had Deadpool taken his leave than Weapon X finally kicked through one of the windows. The windspeed had ripped off his black cowl, revealing a face contorted in berserker rage. Blood from the wounds inflicted by Armoury had coagulated into a crimson goo but no other sign remained. He let out a bloodlust roar as he sailed through the air with his adamantium claws extended in his raised fist.
Aurora was almost out of strength, her fire starting to dull. She hadn’t got the strength left to use telekinesis again. She had little choice but to stay where she stood, if she moved Connor would catch the full brunt of a set of claws. She flamed out and managed to dive mostly out of the way, her upper arm getting caught by the sharp claws which sliced through her skin.
"Hoodwink, on my mark," Scott said to Iris while pointing at the rear hatch controls. They had already been set past halfway.
Winds struck up around them, pulling at anyone who wasn't buckled down. Scott stood near the cockpit, legs in a half-crouch and one arm braced against the copilot's seat. The other hand was raised to his visor, held steady for a moment until he was sure to get his aim. There would be no do-over. Not for him, not for whoever was on the other end.
"Hey, Freddy Krueger!"
The rear loading hatch had dropped to near full extension. Any lower and it would make the Blackbird drag and potentially crash. Weapon X braced himself from the onrush of depressurization, though they weren't at an altitude that would make much difference. For the briefest of instants, the two mutants looked one another in the face and exchanged the mutual respect of one warrior to another.
"Now!"
Iris pulled back hard, holding her breath almost automatically. She only knew what she was doing in theory; she’d never actually tried this. Hopefully nothing would go wrong.
And then Scott ripped off his visor.
"GET OFF MY JET!"
The Blackbird's nose shot upward as the rear hatch opened to full extension. Scott let himself fall several feet at a 45-degree angle directly toward Weapon X, yelling all the way as twin blazing crimson streams erupted from his eyes and propelled the clawed man out the back of the jet. Dust kicked up from the ground as the body of Weapon X cut a ditch through the topsoil until out of sight. The kinetic force of the unrestrained optic blast held Scott suspended in the air for a second before it flung him backward toward the cockpit.
"Close it!" Scott yelled.
Hastily, Iris flipped the switch controlling the rear hatch and then worked on leveling the plane out.
Utterly spent, Scott slapped the visor back over his eyes and collapsed back into the copilot's seat. He was barely able to fasten his harness.
Armoury had more or less slumped onto the floor, against the bulkhead near the rear ramp. One eye had caked closed from the oozing headwound Weapon X had inflicted with his headbutt. He was holding a classic arming sword made out of a piece of the floor of the Blackbird.
Aurora had sat down on the floor beside Connor during the final fight, she’d had wounds before living on the street so she knew how to bind and tie off a makeshift bandage for her arm using a piece of torn clothing. She was more worried about Connor, he’d saved her life when he’d jumped in-front of her. She offered a caring smile as she gently, yet firmly put pressure on his shoulder wound. “I need help over here!”
In a brief moment of lucidity, Bobby blinked his eyes clear and recognized the confines of the Blackbird. It had been so long... Someone cried out for help. The gritty smell of blood hit his nostrils.
"Jean? Hank?"
Bobby raised his fingers as if reaching for someone. Before he faded back to unconsciousness, a puff of fog strike a line between him and Connor. The gushing wound left by the katana frosted over in what could potentially become topical frostbite closed up.
The shock of cold elicited a yowl from Connor, but the numbing effect allowed the endorphins to lull him asleep.
"We'll get him hooked up to the autodocs at the Mansion," Scott said from the copilot's seat. "We're heading out to the Atlantic Ocean to get around radar and then we'll double back. ETA 30 minutes. Shorter, if we get stealth capability back. Everyone just hold on until then."
Iris had been surprisingly calm all through the battle and now she felt herself starting to crash. She quickly put the jet in auto pilot and took several deep breaths. “This is the part where my mum would make us all tea,” she commented with a tone of regret. Mum wasn’t here and she would just have to endure. So she kept an eye on the dials to make sure they were headed in the right direction as she continued to take deep breaths.
"Well done, my X-Men," the Professor said through the onboard comms. "Despite a few scrapes, you have rescued a number of captive mutants and didn't leave anyone behind. My observations through Cerebro show that the conventional Canadian authorities are descending on that facility as we speak. What you accomplished today is the stuff of legends, and I couldn't be prouder of all of you." Pausing for a moment, he added, "And it seems some introductions will be in order as well. Suffice it for now to say that tomorrow will be a safer day for mutantkind. I'll ready the hangar for the Blackbird's arrival. See you all back home."
"Hey," said a disembodied voice somewhere close to where Deadpool had rematerialised. Fable kept it short and sweet as he twisted the rules of dimension hopping by utilising a realm that had a useful property. He could be immaterial here, a ghost between the layers of other worlds. Not for long, not without consequences, but he didn't need much time now. He'd figured out what the comedic warrior was using, and where it was and he had two options. Destroy it, or steal it. Either worked. "I don't think you deserve this," Fable said, his voice now louder and closer, bending space and walking between the universe's regular options. "Maybe you should take a vacation, huh?"
His fingers moved through Deadpool's own, dark red fist now solidifying about the hand that held the teleportation device for the merest of milliseconds. It utterly crushed both - flesh and bone hand and magic-jumping-tech - and then Fable was gone, not even a pithy comeback whistling in the sword-wielding, wise-cracking mutant's ears.
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