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

B

[iaijutsu]

It's not another U-Man approaching, thankfully, but another teacher - one armed, a little disheveled but otherwise perfectly unscathed, and with little emotion on his face as his eyes flick across the scene, taking in the mess.

(Saitou doesn't show a great deal of emotion about most things in the first place, but the fact that he's no stranger to bloody messes or accidental kills certainly helps.)

He steps closer, though still back far enough to be well clear of any instinctive physical reactions if he's been a little too quiet in his approach. "Are you injured?"

[thirdarrow]

Takakage flinches at the sound of Saitou's voice, but did not have enough energy to move. He raises one hand to his face, still in shock - it comes away red. And that, somehow, manages to forcibly pull his mind back to reality. He opens his mouth as if to say something, but chokes on it and breaks into a coughing fit. It subsides after a few seconds, and when he next raises his head his gaze had regained its previous acuity.

Except not really. While he does seem to be of sound mind, his words come out in archaic Japanese. { No, I am unharmed. Thank you for your concern. }

It's quite an abrupt transition from a man whose mind had effectively blanked out just half a minute ago.

[iaijutsu]

That's...interesting.

And makes an even stronger case in his mind that the man quite probably should not be out here for reasons of mental stability, because that kind of code-switching doesn't really say "sound mind" to him so much as "something snapped," but when the fight is on their home turf, executing a withdrawal isn't necessarily an option.

His own response comes in Japanese, though the regular modern form of it, as he turns his attention back to the hallways. There hadn't been any further opponents in the direction he'd been coming from himself, but it might not take long for that to change. "Their target seems to be the sublevels."

[thirdarrow]

It's complicated.

Takakage's own mind had broken down, and he would have been sitting prey for the U-Men - if not for the fact that he had been reincarnated once. The recollections of his previous life are usually kept away, sealed in the furthest reaches of his memories - but without the presence of his current identity, they are now free to come to the surface. And of course, his past self had to take charge.

He gives Saitou a firm nod. { There is something they are seeking to thieve at all costs. But we cannot engage them head-on right now. } Just the two of them might be difficult, especially since he himself isn't exactly at peak capacity. { If we are to thin their ranks, it must be done with caution. }

[iaijutsu]

"Head-on isn't a problem in small numbers."

Granted, perhaps it's a bit easy for the guy who can stand around a few minutes and wait for a gaping hole in his abdomen to just close to say things like that.

"If you are more effective without having to defend yourself in melee range, I should be able to provide that much cover."