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

[yu_mad]

Yu turned back for a second. "There's someone in a costume down the hall. He waved his hand and the door shut," he explained.

His tone was pretty level, but he's running a pretty good balance of freaked out and fascinated right now. There was something important he should find out before things went any further, though.

"Just so I know, what's your mutant power?"

[endurancepoint]

"Telekensis," Alex said. "Damn, this could be tricky."

Not that there were any mutant powers Alex felt particularly strong against. Once people started shooting fire from their eyes and turning their skin metal, he had to get real creative.

"I do probability manipulation. Luck. But it's centered around me, so for the most part it's dependent on line of sight. A little precog, a little enhanced reflexes, to help it out, but the luck is the core thing. What about you?"

[thethirdspecies]

Think quickly, boys. It sounds like something big is moving out there, thumping heavily against the door.

[yu_mad]

"I copy other peoples' powers," Yu stated matter of factly, staring at the thumping door.

After a moment's thought and concentration, he grabbed the door handle and slammed it outward, hoping to luck out and hit whomever was trying to get in somewhere vulnerable.

[endurancepoint]

Well, Alex's power was pretty much useless for that. Not completely, but mostly.

"You can try to copy mine if you like," Alex said, "but it's not the most obvious sort for a fight." It had its uses, yes, even some advantages depending on whom your opponent was, but it wasn't as straight forward as shooting lightning from your hands.

"I'll keep it focused on me, you find a way to bash it over the head, aright?"

[thethirdspecies]

Unfortunately, that big thump was not a person, but a sofa being shoved up against the door to try and keep it in place. Yu manages to move it a bit, but not quite enough for a teenage boy to get out of.

From behind the door, there's a tinny, slightly nervous voice.

"Stay in there! If you know what's good for you, you won't move, damn it!"

[yu_mad]

"Do you know any other way out of here?" Yu muttered to Alex. Then he tries to talk through the door.

"What's out there that we need to stay in here?" he asked, trying to keep the intruder where he at least knew where he was.

[endurancepoint]

Alex pointed to the window behind them. They were only one story up and there happened to be small ledge and a handy drainpipe. Thinking of the ledge gave Alex an idea.

He pointed to Yu, then through the door. Then he pointed at himself, the window, and then indicated the room next to them. The idea was simple. Yu would keep the guy in the hall talking and Alex would creep through the other room.

[thethirdspecies]

Unaware of the boy's whispered conversation, the U-man shoved the couch back up against the door.

"I am, dumbass! Stay put, and you're not going to get hurt!"

[yu_mad]

Yu nodded to Alex, and turned back to the door.

"But why do I need to stay in here? What if I need to take a shower?"

[endurancepoint]

Getting out of their room was easy enough. Finding a room with an unlocked window was a little harder. After the first one proved to be locked, Alex cursed himself and used his power to check the state of the next four. The third one was open. Inching his way along the ledge, he carefully eased the window up far enough for him to slip inside.

Once he reached the door, he slowly opened it, working his probability manipulation on the hinges to keep them from squeaking.

[thethirdspecies]

As Alex snuck around, the U-Man was unaware, distracted by... honestly, by the stupidity of that question.

"Then you're out of luck for now?"

[yu_mad]

"I don't know, I don't think I like this arrangement," he said. "Can I come out and talk about it?"

Yu drummed his fingers, hoping Alex was about ready.

[endurancepoint]

Keeping his eye on the U-Man, Alex eased his way out into the hall, tweaking the probabilities around his feet to decrease the chance of making a noise. His eyes flicked around, identify anything the telekinetic had available to throw at him. Provided he didn't decide to throw Alex instead. Alex had though about grabbing something from the room to use as a projectile, but it was better not to bring anything that could then be used against him.

Once he'd looked at everything in the hallway, he turned his focus to the U-Man, trying to see what actions he was most probable to take.

[thethirdspecies]

Alex would find that among the U-man's probably future actions were: Shooting at a wall to try and shut Yu up, moving on to secure ground further down the hall, and going into the room to try and subdue him before moving on. He didn't seem to be leaning too heavily in any one direction, at the moment.

"Hell no, you can't! Shut up, you're wasting my time, it's starting to piss me off..."

[yu_mad]

"You're the one who started talking to me," Yu observed. "If you didn't want to have a conversation, you didn't have to mess with my door."

Yu was pretty sure this was how "provoking the enemy into making a mistake" worked.

[endurancepoint]

Alex didn't like that the U-man had a gun, especially in a dorm full of students. Disarming this guy was a priority. Counting on Yu to keep the guy's attention focused on him, Alex closed the distance, intended to deliver a hard strike to the back of the guy's helmet. If he could disorient the U-man, maybe he'd be able to get the weapon away from the intruder without the U-man using his telekinesis.

[thethirdspecies]

"Are you goddamn kidding me? You--guh..."

The helmet prevented him from taking much physical damage from the strike, but it still came as a shock, and still rattled him up substantially. As hoped, he dropped the gun -- but he turned around to face Alex, pushing him backwards with a heavy wave of force.

[yu_mad]

Yu waited for a second, but figured once he heard continued fighting from the U-Man that Alex would need help. Hoping the enemy was distracted (and not sitting on the furniture or something), Yu shoulder-heaved the door to try and get out into the hallway.

[endurancepoint]

Dropped gun, good. Telekinetic wave, not so good. As always, once he started working the probabilities, the various end results of an encounter started narrowing down. He still had no idea where this one would ultimately end up, but Alex was starting to suspect with a little infirmary time for him. He'd been far too close to avoid the telekinetic push, so all he could do was curl up a little to make the impact against the wall behind him hurt a little less and try to protect his head.

"You push like a girl," Alex quipped as he sagged against the wall, trying to keep the U-Man's attention on him.

[thethirdspecies]

The U-man turned away from the door completely, his focus on Yu dropping. The couch was still heavy and in the way, but no one was pushing on it now.

On the other hand, the telekinetic force was shaping itself into walls now, pressing downwards and inwards towards Alex. "You just keep your damn mouth shut! We're not here for you asshole kids, anyway!"

[yu_mad]

Yu pushed the door open and the couch out of the way as quietly as possible - which was probably not very quiet, but the U-Man sounded like he was too mad to be paying much attention.

He figured he probably couldn't really injure the intruder through that outfit, so Yu focused on distraction and misdirection again. Namely, he lunged forward and tried to get his hands under the back of the U-Man's helmet and either shove it forward or twist it around so that he couldn't see out of it.

[endurancepoint]

"Scarier guys than you have tried to shut me up," Alex ground out, his legs shaking. "And they're all dead."

Alex had been trapped in small spaces before, but he's always been able to see the walls, even when it was dark. So it was a little unsettling to feel something wall-like pressing him down, but not seeing anything at all. He pushed back as much as he could, but he didn't have sufficient strength. Bit by bit, he was forced down.

It didn't help that his attention was very divided now. The moment he saw the couch start to budge, Alex pulled on the necessary probabilities in an attempt to muffle the noise of the couch moving and to muffle Yu's steps as he ran forward. As Alex's knees hit the ground, he threw every shred of focus he could spare on his roommate's attempt to dislodge the U-men's helmet.

[thethirdspecies]

"You think you're tough, you little bastard? I'm shaking. Just shut--shit!"

Caught completely unaware by Yu, he didn't have time to stop him from twisting the helmet around. In a panic, he dropped his weapon, losing his focus on Alex and flailing at his mask.

[yu_mad]

Yu's first instinct was to keep attacking, but the goal here wasn't to hurt this guy - and a good thing too, since he was still in some kind of armor. Instead, he went for the U-Man's dropped gun, scooping it up and attempting to fumble his way into a threatening stance while the intruder was blinded.