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

[jolie_aile]

Flandre bristled again as she rose up to stand, shaking her shoulders in an ineffectual attempt to get rid of the mud. It neither got rid of the dirt stains, nor the scorch marks on her clothes.

"I was going to ask if you were okay, Remi," she replied in kind.

[aile_noire]

Right. Concern. That was as important as not panicking.

"I'm," she took a breath, and the urgent note mostly left her voice. "I'm fine. Had worse," Remilia finished with a murmur, reaching down to feel where the chair hit her leg. Bruised, healing, a little dried blood, but no more indication of whatever surface injury it left. Her clothes were probably ruined, weren't they? No; priorities, Scarlet.

Remilia brought her gaze back up to her sister, noting the damages to her coat and "—your wings...?"

That was concerning. And they should also be moving out of the open, cover of darkness or not.

[jolie_aile]

"I didn't have time to put them on," Flandre said, shoulders twitching as she was reminded of it--even though the answer was relieving. Remilia seemed fine. But she had been conveniently ignoring the unpleasantly tense feeling in her back, like a buildup of static, until her sister had pointed it out.

"Did you tear the suit? They don't seem to like that." It was very, very difficult to not rush over and hug her sister. Flandre still had mud in her claws; what kind of greeting would that be?

[aile_noire]

"I don't know. I guess? My priorities were more along the lines of 'make them stop attacking you.'" Remilia glanced back at the one nearby, before startling as something flashed once in the distance. Her wings nervously unfurled and furled.

"And as long as it doesn't move, my priorities are elsewhere. Come along." She hurried passed her sister, gently grabbing Flandre's wrist and pretending that she wasn't trekking barefoot through cold mud.

[jolie_aile]

Flandre started from her spot to do just that, or make sure that the U-man's suit was ruptured to begin with when her sister grabbed her arm. She started to grumble and responded stiffly; she wasn't a child-

-but this was her sister.

Her knees relaxed enough for her to walk, and Flandre stepped a bit closer to her sister when she heard the rumbling of further conflicts, as if she could keep them away by standing next to her. Flandre wasn't terribly worried; the attackers this time didn't seem terribly...skilled. Whoever--or whatever--had kept Xavier from speaking to them hadn't materialized again.

[aile_noire]

Remilia made a beeline straight for the building—but for the girls' dorm wing instead of the main building; particularly Flandre's room. She only released her sister's arm to nudge her at the wall.

It didn't escape Remilia's notice that it was already pocked with claw-built handholds. They both had an aversion to using doors, it seemed.

[jolie_aile]

Flandre keyed in to where they were going quickly enough, though she never strayed far from her sister's side until Remilia let go of her.

"The window is open, Remi," she said, already moving to set her claws into the marks she'd already made in the wall, to save it from further damage. She started to climb, pausing to look over her shoulder at her sister only once.

[aile_noire]

When Flandre glanced over, her sister was peering into the night behind them. Remilia was more mobile, vertically; she'd make sure nothing more happened before starting up.

"I see it offended you," Remilia muttered as she slipped through the window, folding her wings. Though, she didn't have much room to speak, given how she smashed hers.

[jolie_aile]

The taller mutant kept climbing, trusting that her sister would see anything amiss before she did. The bricks in front of her nose kind of got in the way of that.

Flandre clambered in through the window after her sister. The creaking reminded her of how warped the frame was; she had almost forgotten.

"Can you help me put my wings on, Remi?" Of course she could manage it herself--but it would be faster with help.

[aile_noire]

"That's why I'm here," she admitted. Remilia didn't know where Flandre was keeping them, and simply stood nearby. "...because you're going back out there, aren't you?"

Remilia did her damnedest to keep apprehension from creeping into her voice, but she didn't entirely succeed.

[jolie_aile]

Flandre reached into the cabinet, where two sets of inactive wings were hanging next to her coats and shirts (totally normal closet contents). A spare set of wing caps was on the top shelf; Flandre was wearing the other set. She handed the wings to her sister, and started to take off her scorched coat. It was likely beyond saving now.

"I have to." Flandre wavered; too harsh? "I'm supposed to."

"I'll be okay, Remi. I wanted to make sure you were, too."

[aile_noire]

Remilia rolled her eyes as she waited for her sister to shrug off the tattered coat. "Give me more credit than that."

Carefully, she set about docking the wings. It was delicate technology, and Remilia knew the drill.

"If the universe couldn't get it right on the third charm with raining sentinels, I doubt it ever will," she muttered dryly. "Just... don't be so reckless." Remilia wanted to believe that she would be there every time; that train of thought was engraved in her as an elder sister. She knew—especially now that Flandre had signed on as an X-man—it quickly was proving false.

[jolie_aile]

Flandre made a little grumbling sound of protest when Remilia brought up the Sentinels--and obliquely all the other times she'd been shot. But:

"I will, Remi." At least she would do her best to try.

Putting her wings on was always a bit of an odd experience. It felt like there was something stabbing into her spine without any pain, before the sensation disappeared--even when Flandre thought about it. When the wing secured into place, the crystals hummed slightly as they lit up, channeling excess energy away from Flandre. She stretched the wing a little, though not too much; it wouldn't do to hit her sister in the face.