The Ashes of the Phoenix [OPEN]

[thethirdspecies]

WHO: John Sublime, "No Girl", the U-Men, and their unfortunate target... The Insitute
WHAT: Sublime's U-Men attack the school. They're aiming for the sublevels. Stop them at all costs!
WHERE: Throughout campus
WHEN: Past midnight, Wednesday-Thursday
WARNING(S): Gonna get violent.


The time was now. The media attention over his followers actions was too much. And after all, Xavier's little henchmen in London had figured it out. He was sure of it. There was no more time to bide. No more room for hesitation. It was act now, or the revolution would end in a prison cell, festering away in the disgusting care of this unclean world. Sublime couldn't stomach it. Couldn't fathom it. And whatever god help those who stood in the way of him and his dream of Homo Perfectus.

"All units are in place," Sublime whispered, peering out over the immaculate green, covered in moonlight, staring a drilling, piercing hole into the mansion. "Martha... it's your turn now," another whisper, as the floating apparatus before him, holding a strange glowing orb, began to shine even more brightly.

Just like that, the security systems failed. And just like that, Charles Xavier gasped and sent out a short, psychic burst to all X-Men, perhaps to everyone in the school, before he was overwhelmed and silenced, collapsing from his bed to the floor, stunned into sleep by a psychic force even he was not prepared for.

"This is it, Martha... our dream... U-Men! Bring me the Ashes of the Phoenix!" And like that, dozens of the men from the blurred video that Glamour and Spy had managed to obtain swarmed the ground, organic and mechanical, using a plethora of stolen mutant powers, attacked.


[[ This is it! Our first major action post, and in X-Men tradition, it's a direct attack on campus. Feel free to start your own threads. The U-Men will be NPC'd by the mods. Their ultimate goal is the filed away genetic samples of Jean Grey in the sublevels. They must be stopped, before someone uses them to integrate Jean's powers into a U-Man. ]]

Comments

[turbedon]

Together they make the most unintimidating looking dangerous people ever.

"They're headed for the main building from what I can see. Probably not for the cafeteria so I'm gonna guess the sublevels."

[icy_heavens]

Just a couple of skinny teenagers, yep. Hell, Toushirou doesn't even look old enough for that. Damn puberty, giving him a mutation instead of a growth spurt.

Yeah, there are multiple reasons they wouldn't be heading to the cafeteria, aren't there?

"Meaning they're not here for just any of us." But the stasis tubes are in the sub-levels, and there are still people in some of them . . . "So, looks like we'll have to split them off ourselves. If they're smart, they can't expect a group that size to all make it in there, but they'll be easier to handle when they're not consolidated like that."

[turbedon]

They have much to bitch at puberty about together. This is probably what they whinge about instead of girls or homework.

"They've made contact with whoever was on ground patrol tonight, and I saw some of the teachers coming out from the school," he continues. "Problem is, some of the students are panicking and running out there. There's a chance the enemy might deliberately make splinter forces to get to the dorms to draw the teachers away from the main building by attacking us."

[icy_heavens]

He totally does not whinge. He broods like a mature adult! Because mature adults brood about being tiny, surely.

Stupid, stupid people. You're being attacked and you run outside to where the attackers are when you're trying to get away from them? Oi. People make no sense.

He blows out a frustrated breath. "My power's good for defense; it's possible I could block some of them off to buy a little time for getting the panicked ones under control and somewhere comparatively safe."

It'd take a bit of strength, but he could do it. So long as none of them counter ice too easily.

[turbedon]

That's precisely what mature adults do.

"I'm okay with avoiding attacks and know some martial arts," he shrugs. Biggest understatement of the century but since Batman's insisted- "So maybe I can try keeping the enemy distracted while we move the non-combattants?"

[icy_heavens]

See? They've got this mature adult thing covered. Absolutely.

"Good enough. If anything gets by you or you need help, call it out; I can cover multiple angles with no problem."

[turbedon]

"Cool," he agrees, glancing between the windows and the hallway. "Preferred exit route?"

[icy_heavens]

He's already at the window. Exiting with style? Nope. It's just more efficient this way, what with them each being small enough to fit through and the fact that it's on the first floor. He climbs through and hops down onto the lawn, moving aside for Dick to follow him.

[turbedon]

Dick's quick to follow, landing silently next to Toushirou and keeping his eyes peeled for the enemy. Of which there appears to be many all over campus.

"No shortage of lunatics."

[icy_heavens]

He might have said something about how there is never a shortage of lunatics at this school, invasion or no, but that requires a sense of humour.

It's the panicked shriek halfway across the courtyard that gets his attention first. Geez, what is that, four on two in favour of the U-Men there? Maybe it wouldn't have been such a mismatch if the students weren't either non-combatants or completely terrified. Unfortunately, they're at least one of the two.

"There."

He's off, confident enough that Dick will at least be able to keep up. And once he's a little closer, he calls on his power and swipes one hand down to direct it. A wall of ice crackles into existence between the U-Men and the kids. These assholes are going to have to deal with some actual fighters now.

[turbedon]

It would definitely be handy if the students were all taught basic self-defense, but that's not something to lament about in the here and now.

Dick flits through the shadows behind Toushirou, whistling with obvious impressedness at the boy's ice wall. Without pause, he jumps and flips over the ice with an echoing laugh, quick to land on one of the U-men's heads to knock him out instantly before kicking the helmet off the second and sending him crashing head-first into the wall.

[icy_heavens]

Yes, self-defense is an elective in this school -- hell, even Toushirou hadn't taken it when he'd first enrolled, since it hadn't been his intention to go with the whole X-Men thing at the time. Things have changed.

And that second one will smack his head pretty good on that wall; that ice is extremely solid despite its rapid formation and doesn't even crack. Toushirou may have had to work on getting back in shape physically after his stasis, but his power control is spot-on as ever.

The other two U-Men are a bit distracted trying to find the source of the ice wall, one of them finding his way around it as Toushirou approached. And while Toushirou might not be as acrobatic as Dick, he's quick and efficient. He reverses his grip on the blade and jabs the hilt upward to strike the underside of the jaw.

The force of that blow would have been enough to knock a normal person out, but this guy seems to have enhanced endurance, and only grunts in pain and starts stumbling back. Another quick concentration of power coats the ground behind him in ice, rendering it impossible to recover the shaky footing. The man falls backward -- coincidentally landing on his partner and knocking him over, too. How convenient.

[turbedon]

"Something's telling me these guys haven't been properly trained," he comments drily as he immediately tasers the two fallen opponents. "They're sloppy."