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

[icy_heavens]

"A ball can't dodge or counterattack and doesn't have powers." Why does he need to explain this? Why? It's common sense.

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "Do you at least have a ranged power or something? Getting in close when you don't know what you're doing is dumb."

[batteredbatter]

"Well, a curve ball..." Okay, no, that sounded stupid even to Koshi. "Well, people don't move at 80 miles an hour!" Well, at least normally they don't?

"Uh, no, not really. My power only does anything after things go wrong," he explained rather calmly, apparently not deterred by his lack of more useful offensive options.

[icy_heavens]

Yeah, he's just kind of dead-eyeing at that curveball excuse. No, Koshi. Just no.

So. No combat experience or training, armed with a bat, and a power that only works after something goes wrong. Which it most certainly would with all the other factors in play if this idiot goes in by himself. He's amazed by people's stupidity, even if he should be more used to it by now.

"And yet you were going to go in by yourself, with no support. That's stupid as hell."

[batteredbatter]

"Well, I can't just sit back and do nothing!" You know those really dumb shounen protags who run into situations with no plan and get through with nothing but guts and hard work? Yeah, Koshi looks up to them.

[icy_heavens]

Toushirou has a healthy respect for guts and hard work. He seriously does. But charging in blindly is just stupid and he can't respect that.

An irritated huff. He is done with this. So done. And there's no time to argue. "Well if you're going to insist on being such a dumbass, I guess I have to come along and babysit you."

Yep, babysitting. That's pretty much what he sees this as.

[batteredbatter]

Koshi's both so good natured and so worried about the situation, that the implied insult didn't even bother him - instead he brightens up, having seen what Toushirou can do before.

"Really? Awesome! With your help, I'm sure we can take down anyone!" he said before, well... charging off again. He's fast for a short kid - better catch up.

[icy_heavens]

Excuse him, he has to take half a second and blink in a mildly bewildered manner at the cheerfulness. It's so damn out of place.

Okay, confused blinking time is over, and he curses under his breath as he starts running after Koshi. Idiot, idiot, goddamned stupid moron. Fortunately, Toushirou is rather quick for a short kid himself and he doesn't have much trouble catching up keeping up.

"Just let me handle as much of it as possible; you don't know what the hell you're doing."

[batteredbatter]

"Don't worry, I'm pretty tough!" Koshi assured him - right before an of the masked assailants jumped out from around a corner and clocked him in the head.

"Eeheeheehee! Got one!" cackled the U-man gleefully, shaking the blood from his brass knuckles as Koshi hit the lawn.

[icy_heavens]

... Well, he'd better be tough, taking that hit. Toushirou clenches his teeth, reverses his grip on his sword, but doesn't slow down. With that momentum behind him, he smashes the hilt into the distracted U-Man's side, sending him toppling off his feet.

"Too bad there's two."

[batteredbatter]

Tanaka's already rolling over onto his front and starting to get up, as the U-man turns to face Toushirou. He's not fast enough to block that strike though and he falls, though he's quicker to get up than Koshi is.

"Yeah? Well, one more shouldn't be hard!" said the assailant, throwing out a hand towards the boy. Vaguely luminescent green liquid shot out from his fingertips, and by the way it hissed through the air, it probably wasn't anything nice.

[icy_heavens]

And then it doesn't matter what the stuff is, because it's suddenly frozen. If all this guy can do is toss liquid around, he's not going to get anywhere against Toushirou.

But you know what else probably isn't nice? That newly formed ice spike being suddenly sent forward and burying itself deep in the U-Man's still-outstretched hand. Yeah, that's likely to hurt pretty damn bad.

[batteredbatter]

"Eh? Wait, you can't- eaaurgh!" Whatever protests the U-man had were cut off by that icicle in his hand. It was already melting, probably due to whatever he'd tried shooting out from before but, it was too late with it already going all the way through his palm. "Why, you-!"

His attempt to throw out his other hand was interrupted by a baseball bat smacking his wrist, the sharp metal pop of the bat mixed with a more organic crunching noise. Despite the blood dripping down his face, Koshi seemed ready to get some back after that blow to the head.

"Get him!"

[icy_heavens]

Well obviously, he can do that, seeing as he just did, and all. People say the dumbest things.

It's good to see Koshi up, since it means he hadn't been blustering about being tough. That, and it got the other hand disabled for the moment, which means that the U-Man can't block the sword hilt to the gut that doubles him over. And that leaves his head in good range to either of the two kids if they want to take advantage of that.

[batteredbatter]

Koshi didn't consider himself a violent person, but he wasn't about to hold back when their lives and the safety of the school was at stake. Seeing the enemy double over to Toushirou's quick strike is enough to get him to take the opening, bringing the bat down on the back of his head, sending the U-Man down and out, completely unconscious before he even hit the grass.

"D, did we get him!?" asked Koshi, obviously a bit still shaken up by the sudden violent exchange, though apparently not even aware of the blood dripping down his face from where he'd been hit near his temple.

[icy_heavens]

He carefully prods the downed U-Man with his foot just to make sure he's out. "Looks that way."

Still, there's no telling when the guy might just wake up and start attacking again. He should do something about that. And so he extends one palm, concentrating his power over a small area, freezing both the U-Man's wrists and legs to the ground. That'd effectively keep him down, since he clearly needs his hands to fire off that acid or whatever it is.

That done, he glances up at Koshi, his own demeanour perfectly collected, as if the violence hasn't affected him at all. "Hey. You alright?"

[batteredbatter]

Watching Toushirou take care of the downed fighter helped Koshi stop panicking a little, as does the other boy's cool demeanor.

"Yeah, I'm just fine," he said, forcing a smile as he wiped his brow, thinking it was sweat. His expression faltered though as he looked at his hand, now smeared with red. "Uh, mostly fine."

[icy_heavens]

It's odd, maybe, that a detachment from violence can actually be comforting. Even if that's not Toushirou's intent. Just like with the bossing around, this is simply how he works.

"See, that's why you can't just go charging ahead all the time."

Sure, Koshi may be okay, but it's always ideal to not wind up taking the damage in the first place.

[batteredbatter]

"Yeah, okay, maybe..." he admitted, using his sleeve to try to clean his face off. At least it didn't seem to be bleeding profusely.

"But, I mean, we got him!"