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

[wherethelightwontfindyou]

Booker makes a note to check Adachi's mental and physical health more thoroughly when they're out of danger, but what matters right now is the "out of danger" part.

As soon as Adachi has loaded his gun, Booker's shield drops and he ducks to the ground to rifle through pockets and scour the ground for the best weapons. He comes up with two nice-looking modern pistols, and a fair amount of pilfered ammo. As soon as Adachi returns to his side he pulls the shield over them again, and holds up one of the pistols, "Trade for the Mauser."

This isn't going to be fun for Booker. He likes his old guns. But what matters is getting the job done, whether he likes it or not.

[denialism]

Booker has earned the coveted designation of "all right guy" in Adachi's book. Well, maybe it's not so coveted, but it's hard to get, and Booker is the first person to have gained that distinction at the school.

As the source of guns, he must clearly be paid some respect, so Adachi does exactly as promised. It's simple. He doesn't even have to unmake the pockets first. He steps in, and they assholes can't even see him inside the little worlds in which he reigns, since he controls what they can perceive. So, he shoots them. Then he unmakes the dead air, and there's only a corpse left behind.

While he's not inside the dead air, he keeps an eye out for Booker, but the guy can clearly take care of himself, and Adachi doesn't have to do much else before he rejoins him. He grins when he takes the new gun. "It's a deal!" Not that he doesn't like old guns, but he'd rather have a newer one. "We should do this more often!"

[wherethelightwontfindyou]

"I'd really rather not." He replies as he stows the Mauser away in its holster and loads his new pistol. 21st century pistols are something to get used to, but he supposes it doesn't matter if it's that or being out of bullets in the middle of battle.

It's not that he wouldn't want to hang out with Adachi more, but... not at the cost of lives. And with the level of excitement and efficiency he's showing for killing, that's surely what he'd enjoy doing most. Though it does sort of give Booker an idea.

"Maybe we can, uh... get Xavier's permission for a hunting trip. Go kill a deer or two, save the school the trouble of getting another attack." Some fresh air wouldn't kill them, either.

[denialism]

"Ah, I didn't mean every day. But something fun..."

When Booker actually suggests doing something together, Adachi blinks. He was just shooting off his mouth and messing around, as usual. He wasn't expecting Booker to take him up on it. He doesn't expect anyone to actually want to spend time with him. He's honestly startled, but he plays it off.

"I guess it would beat hanging around here!" He's mostly pleased by the prospect of shooting guns. The fact that he's actually killing people with them hasn't entirely sunk in yet, since this all seems a lot like one of his elaborate dream world fantasies. His pulse is elevated, his breathing fast, and he's still obviously agitated, in spite of the fact that he continues to speak cheerfully. His therapist will probably have many fun days ahead, dealing with the aftermath of this incident.

He's still following the rules, though! Not that he gets much out of it. "I don't know if the old man'd let me go off campus with guns..."