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Summary: Vincent awakens from a decade of sleep to find himself in a battlefield between the Hounds & Sentinels and the Redeemers & Rebellion.
Date: June 13, 2020
Log Title: Reawakening
Rating: PG (LV)
The Future - NYC
The Metropolitan area, New York City, a city that once stood for diversity, freedom and liberty, a city that was once the largest city in America and home to the United Nations now stands for something else. New York City was the first city to get attacked after the Sentinel attack on Xavier's. Most of its residents have fled the area leaving many neighborhoods empty, shops forgotten about and the streets deserted. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, electricity is only in select areas. Sentinels patrol the streets of New York like clockwork making it almost impossible for any mutant to be safe. The United Nations building has been taken over as a base for those against mutants, for those trying to destroy the race of those born with the X-Gene.
Scene
The few remaining denizens of the city are no where to be seen right now. It might be from the sporadic rainfall, or it may be the fact that there are about fifteen Sentinels wandering around Hell's Kitchen right now. The machines stomp around the area scanning random buildings and alleyways for signs of mutant life.
The reason for all of this activity may have something to do with the downed Sentinel smoldering in the center of one of the intersections in the area. A woman is standing over the wreckage, speaking into a headset. "Yes, that is correct. I would say it was an energy projection. Some form of heat projection, a beam or fire." The woman is none other than Envy herself. She finishes speaking to whoever is on the other line and looks around the area, not even flinching as the light rain becomes a downpour.
Downpours are good things, to those whose stock in trade is fighting at a disadvantage. The rain covers the sound of detritus brushed against feet attempting to move in stealth, allows one to creep about with little less fear of being discovered. The insistent patter of raindrops pelting against metal walkways makes it difficult to make out the sound of a shaped charge being laid against the still-standing remains of the wall Eris stands closest to. Leaning over the rooftop to check her positioning, Rashmi Franklin, fighter of the Rebellion, breathes a whispered thanks to the rain, for allowing her enough cover to place the bomb and get clear… But no sound in the world can cover the dull roar sent up a moment later, spraying fire and rubble inward and skyward in an attempt to bury the Hound where she stands.
The explosion rumbles loudly through the air, and reverberates through the ground like a miniature earthquake. Vincent pauses in his digging as the dirt and rock around him shake violently, as he tries to figure out the cause of it. A moment passes before he shrugs it off with unnatural need to breach through the ground and get back to the surface he once roamed without fear. He presses two hands to the grimy dirt inches from his face and forces the dirt in a four foot radius around him to be pushed back behind him, causing a chunk of the pavement above to cave in slightly. At the second rumble, Vincent realizes he must be close due to the shift in the earth and stone above him.
The Hound looks up as the wall of rock falls toward her. Though the woman does appear slightly surprised by the activity above her she makes no attempt to move out of the way. The wall collapses upon the woman and things remain silent for a few moments as the dust settles. A few of the Sentinels nearby are drawn in by the sound and start to move toward Envy. There are two approaching from the North and three from the South. It will be a few minutes before they reach the scene.
A sodden red head peeks over the lip of the rooftop, the barrel of an SMG rising into position. The rubble of Envy's position watched like a hawk, the lack of a mutant power signature masking her place… at least until they get close enough to actively scan the immediate area.
Water starts to pour into Vincent's little cave from the cracks in the pavement just above his head. He slowly reaches a hand up to one of the trickles and cups some water before he takes a sip and a vicious grim spreads across his face. [freedom] is all he thinks before he puts his hands to the concert and with a great final push he blasts a deep red cone of energy forcing the pavement to bloom like a flower giving him access to the surface world for the first time in a decade. He looks up to the dark sky and blinks as the rain hits his face, and then draws a great breath before he spreads his arms and wings out to their full reach and screams a deep feral howl.
The pile of rubble Envy disappeared beneath suddenly erupts with crystal spires. The gemstones sending chunks of rubble flying away from the epicenter. Moments after the spires have formed they shatter and dissipate into dust, leaving Envy standing in exactly the position she was before the wall fell. The woman looks up toward where the wall fell and holds out a hand toward the building, causing several clusters of crystal spines to erupt from where the wall fell.
The Sentinels continue to move forward, though a few in the South appear distracted by a display of an ability. Two of the Sentinels move toward where Vincent came out of the ground, sending out a signal to the others in the area that something is happening in their general vicinity.
Rashmi closes her eyes, shaking her head and climbing to her feet. "Wrong building, Sparkle," she calls, eyes flicking outward toward the sound of the feral roar, her gun lowering to a level with Envy's head. "…I think it sounds like you're going to want to leave, very soon. …But I also don't think it sounds like you intend to do the smart thing… does it?"
Vincent steps out of the hole, onto the surface of the earth for the first time in about ten years. The faint smell of explosives remains in the air and Vincent decides that he's going to find either someone or something to eat in that direction. He starts to walk in the direction of Envy and opens his mouth to shout for help, but all that comes out is a raspy quite version, "Heeellp." His wings remain unfurled and yet they drag on the ground behind him, as he's not sure how to move the muscles to fold them onto his back.
Envy turns her attention to the building that Rashmi calls down from, causing a similar series of crystal eruptions to occur on that building. She says nothing and still shows no emotion as she hurls three of her crystal stars toward the other woman. Envy does not notice the approach of the winged being yet, but he and a few Sentinels are approaching her now. "Attention Servents of Ahab, confirmed target at my location." She presses a button on her watch and about ten Sentinels who were previously milling around turn and begin to head toward her. There are three within a block of Rashmi right now, their scanners will pick her up soon.
Rather than deflecting the stars, the redhead merely skitters backward along the rooftop, ducking out of the line of fire. Swinging over the side, she picks her way down the building's wreckage-strewn face, leaning around the corner to loose a brief burst of automatic gunfire. "C'mon, c'mon" she mutters under her breath, launching another three-round burst. "Come to Auntie Rashmi…"
Vincent approaches the downed sentinel and gets a smirk at the sound of gun fire, and the smell of gun powder. Still in his raspy voice he says "Ah, I know I find …" He trails off as his mind slowly degenerated due to the torture he has had to endure for the last ten years. He cracks his knuckles and flairs his wings, retaining his animal instinct to seem bigger than he is. His arm drops to his side as he spawns a long sword, entirely a crimson red color, before he approaches closer to the bits of sentinel.
Envy holds up a hand when she sees Rashmi move away. She knows this mutant is fond of using guns. A wall of diamond materializes between Envy and Rashmi, protecting the woman from the gunfire. When Envy sees the winged mutant moving toward her and the rubble she turns her attention toward him. "Second target acquired." She notices the sword and materializes one of her own, hers made of Ruby. The woman waits for him to approach her, keeping her wall between Rashmi and herself.
The Sentinels following Vincent are almost within range to begin firing their lasers at him. They will soon be able to fire upon him. There is one next to the building Rashmi is on now. It reaches for her, letting out an electronic warning of "SURRENDER NOW MUTANT".
Rashmi's lips pull back from her teeth as the wall goes up, the gun left to hang at her hips as she ducks away from the Sentinel's hand. Charging forward, she summons her half-dozen spheres and leaps, springboarding from globe to globe of telekinetic force, clearing the wall. In the half an instant before gravity carries her down, she registers Envy's positioning and the mutant she threatens. "Up here!" She cries, a staggered trio of spheres streaking downward toward the Hound's head, using the remainder to slow her descent enough to allow her to drop safely to the ground.
Vincent should be confused and trying to figure out what's going on, but the decade's worth of unreleased anger and rage instantly blind him to everything but the fight mere feet in front of him. Vincent surges forward propelling himself not only with his feet but also his wings, giving him forward propulsion that he's never known. He reaches Envy quickly and swings the blade with both hands in a diagonal arch starting above his left shoulder. Only after he has swing does he notice the sentinel behind Rashmi, but it doesn't register as anything in his mind, he's never seen one.
The wall next to Envy shoots out a crystal above her head, protecting the woman from Rashmi's orbs. She turns to see the winged man coming toward her and holds up her own sword to deflect his attack, catching the blade with her own and spinning the other man's sword to the ground before causing an eruption of spikes to come up below the man.
The Sentinel that reached for Rashmi turns toward her again, moving forward and firing energy beams toward her. The two that were following Vincent register that he is too close to Envy and also fire upon Rashmi.
Rashmi's back slams up against the crystal wall she'd just cleared, eyes flicking back and forth as Sentinel beams slam into the construct, throwing shards and splinters over the sidewalk. Three Sentinels opening fire, Envy engaged in battle with an unknown; a bleak picture, but time can be bought… nodding to herself, she takes a deep breath, orbs spinning wildly around her body as she readies her gun again… And charges the Hound the Scorpion spitting lead into the sidewalk at Envy's feet. If the towering robots aren't willing to fire upon the Hound, perhaps a use can be made for her.
Vincent's sword tip is planted in the ground and he wills the entire thing away as he forgets about it and throws a round cover over Rashmi, as she's not trying to hurt him and he was looking at the machine behind her open fired at her without cause. Even Vincent knows that's wrong. However distracted as he is, the spikes explode into the soles of his feet, but subconsciously he responds, spawning rudimentary foot ware and surging upwards with his wings at the same time.
Envy glances up at the male mutant as he flies upward, leaving him to the Sentinels as Rashmi approaches her. The crystal spines around her on the ground protect her feet from the girl, but Rashmi is getting closer now. "You have irked my master for far too long." A massive construct of crystal spines erupt around Envy on the side Rashmi approaches from. The affected ares is about ten feet from the Hound. Each spine is six to twelve feet
The Sentinels switch targets from Rashmi to Vincent. There are now four of them, each shooting beams at the creature as he flies upward.
Rashmi's eyebrow rises at the statement, taking a nimble hop up onto one of the spheres, using it to hurl her upwards and to one side. One booted foot rests upon the wall, pushing off to carry her around the barrier. "And we'll keep irking him until Captain America comes back to life," she spits, dropping to the ground in front of Eris and skidding a couple feet. Without pause, she begins an all-out assault, all six spheres arcing and battering down on the Hound as Rashmi presses forward, seeking to pin Eris between her six-pronged attack and the wall protecting her from behind.
Vincent realizes his foley rather quickly as lasers start arching towards him from four different directions. He instantly starts spawning red discs between him and the sentinels, taking the damage of the blasts for him, but are extinguished as soon as they are hit. Vince decides he has a better chance against the crystal lady and lets himself fall back towards her. His blood spills out over his makeshift shoes and he spawns two swords, one in his right hand that he points to Envy as he falls, and the next partially in the ground next to Rashmi… she's helping him, in a way.
Envy backflips through her crystal wall as the spheres come toward her. The wall splits around her as she jumps back and reforms to deflect the spheres. She lands and speaks into her com, "Sentinels, aim for the mutants use non-lethal force if they are near me, but fire anyway." She glances up and sees the winged mutant coming toward her. She holds up an arm to deflect his sword. The arm erupts with crystal spikes as the sword strikes, protecting her to some extent, though the blade slips between some of her quills to cut a deep gash in her forearm.
The Sentinels immediately react and begin firing toward the two again, even the one fighting against Envy. Two more Sentinels are approaching from the East, they will be behind Rashmi in a few minutes.
Rashmi presses the attack on the Hound, vaulting over the wall and remaining as close to Eris as she can manage to get. "It's not safe," she calls to the newcomer across from her. "We need to leave soon! I can get you to safety, but you'll have to listen!"
Out of thin air, in the center of the battlefield, Heather simply appears. Time seems to stand still for a moment as she adjusts to this destination. She resets one of her watches quickly, rolexes lining her forearms from top to bottom instead of the cheap plastic watches that Heather used to wear (she always said it was because she prefers the appearance of their alarms, but these new watches are gifts from her Master). The time manipulator looks around and blinks a few times, in the same way she seems to when she arrives at any new destination, whether spatial or temporal. It's like theres a few moments for her to adjust to any kinds of changes in the reality around her. "I just got back from a ten year trip. Let me tell you. My arms are tired," she says through the small speaker mounted on her chest, cackling slightly at her botched joke (her sense of humour is lacking at best) as she glances around to survey her surroundings.
"That's our cue," Rashmi mutters to herself, catching hold of a passing sphere and launching herself upward and away from the line of fire. "FOLLOW ME!" she bellows to the newcomer, gradually gaining momentum, if not precisely altitude, as she sets off on a highly randomized path in midair down a nearby alleyway, altering direction and elevation on the fly. As exhausting as her mode of travel is, one of the great benefits lies in not presenting a clear course for targeting software to track easily.
Vincent's sword hits truer than he could have hoped and he rolls before he lands, putting himself back to back with Envy, on his feet and swings the sword behind him, trying to hit the crystal-bender's abdomen. He puts a thin crimson red wall between himself and the woman controlling the giant robots, when a sentinel blast breaks the air inches next to him and Envy. Vince looks at the direction of the sentinel and puts up another disc just in time to protect himself and Eris from a direct stun shot. He Also replies to Rashmi as loudly as he can, but it only comes out as a raspy smokey, "HURRY!"
If the man could whistle, he'd be whistling as he walked along the tops of one of the more stable buildings a few blocks down from the battle. Instead Volk just walks with a sense of purpose, not rushing himself as he finds himself a suitable firing position. On spotting the Sentinels, the merc creates a gravity cloak around himself, blocking his normal emissions and the ability to see him by normal means, or to be detected on the casual scans of the giant robots. Most complain that bullets don't do any good with Sentinels. Most don't fight like the merc does. Settling in on top of a building and surveying the scene before him before picking his target. Then, he unslings his sniper rifle, and pulling an individual round from his harness, he loads the bolt without putting in a magazine. Sighting in in a crouch, he aims at the first of the Sentinels with a .50 Caliber HEAT Round.
The tracer head making it quite obvious where the bullet comes from as a generated excess of heat from the phosphorous-coated outer shell streaks out, strikes the Sentinel in the head, and the internal secondary material fragments, and starts bouncing around lethal shards of steel inside the Sentinel's head and sensor network.
Envy feels the other mutant press his back against hers and causes the rest of her body to erupt with crystal spines. The man's sword swings toward her and makes a horrible clanking noise as it strikes her spines. She spins around in preparation to strike the man with her own blade when she is struck with three of Rashmi's spheres simultaneously. She is sent flying to the side, hitting the ground with a terrible clanking noise. She has yet to see Heather, but she did hear her on the com. "Two targets con…Possible third." She states as the Sentinel's head explodes. That move she has seen before.
The three Sentinels near the fight immediately fire at the two mutants when Envy is knocked away. The two approaching Sentinels change direction to investigate the area that the gun was fired from. It appears that Eris is pressing some buttons on a watch and the nine other Sentinels in this section of the town take flight, moving toward where the other two were investigating at a rapid pace. Envy sent them there. If that is Volk, she wants him dead. The headless Sentinel seems to still be functioning, it is firing lasers randomly, aiming in completely the wrong direction at no one.
"That's our cue," Rashmi mutters to herself, catching hold of a passing sphere and launching herself upward and away from the line of fire. "FOLLOW ME!" she bellows to the newcomer, gradually gaining momentum, if not precisely altitude, as she sets off on a highly randomized path in midair down a nearby alleyway, altering direction and elevation on the fly. As exhausting as her mode of travel is, one of the great benefits lies in not presenting a clear course for targeting software to track easily.
Heather zips through and looks up at the mutants in the air. "Hmmm, flyers," says Heather, moving her speedshift to its maximum level. She dashes towards one of the Sentinels, climbing up onto it, and puts her hand over her brow, "What are their abilities? Who are we fighting? What is our goal here?" This isn't her battle, so she doesn't want to presume.
Vincent's wings pick themselves off the ground and push hard, repeatedly, over and over, giving him lift. As he gets about twenty feet up, he throws his sword down towards Envy as a going away gift. He isn't able to follow any kind of path like Rashmi, he's too new at this flight thing. Just before the sword reaches the crystal bender, it dissolves into nothingness. "WAIT" He tries to shout towards Rashmi, but she's beyond his vocal range. He has to continue to throw up his energy discs between himself and the sentinels, and his shoes have filled completely with blood, thanks to Envy's successful attack on his feet.
A bit of a snort and a grumble comes from the merc as Volk loads the sniper weapon's magazine back in place and slings it, and then looks around. He drops the cloak and vanishes, reappearing a moment later… with a drum. An oil drum of some kind. A drum right now loaded with a combination of gasoline, styrofoam and fifty pounds of small pieces of metal. Taking an road flare, he jams it into place, striking it off, and letting it start burning down on a rouch 30-count. As the Sentinels approach he undoes his FAMAS from his front and waits for them to get into range, identify him as a mutant, and bring up their arms to fire the merc vanishes once more… this time appearing on a building above where Rashmi has started her course down, preparing to give a little cover fire for the escapees.
Envy attempts to roll out of the way as the sword comes toward her, but the spines in her back keep her stuck in place. She holds up an arm to defend herself but it seems that the sword dissipates before it reaches her. She retracts her spines and stands, speaking into her com. "The one who can make spheres and a flying one with a power similar to mine. He can make weapons, but they appear weaker than my diamond." A massive explosion rocks the ground about two hundred feet away. "And the one they call Volk. He is here somewhere, it must be him. Kill him, capture the others."
The Sentinels seem confused when Volk vanishes, but they find him soon enough and converge upon him. While most are still out of range, six of them are near the explosion when it goes off. Two sentinels are down, a third is firing blindly along with the headless one, and the other three are now on fire. The headless sentinel sends a beam blindly into the sky, striking another Sentinel and sending it crashing down near where Rashmi is flying.
Eyes widen as the victim of friendly fire plunges toward Rashmi’s escape route. "*Shit,*" she breathes, grabbing hold of a passing sphere and launching herself up and back, reversing course in half an instant. "GET THE STRAGGLER FIRST, VOLK!" For the moment, the redheaded Rebel seems… if not content, then at least willing, to set up a holding pattern at the mouth of the alley, leaping from sphere to sphere in a frustratingly random sequence of movements.
"If you see Volk, point him out to me," says Heather, smiling slightly. She already has a plan hatched, which is perhaps her most dangerous aspect. "It's ambitious to capture all of them here without disabling him. Eheheheheheh…" says the time controller. She hops off of the sentinel and, while she lands as hard as anyone else would, she doesn't seem to notice it, landing softly if one was to judge from visuals alone. She dashes towards where Vincent seems to be flying, setting a time on one of her watches and then jumps in the air to try and catch him with a superspeed midair punch, using the strength afforded from her timeshift to propel her.
Vincent's ribs are unexpectedly smashed as the time traveling fist smashes into it. He goes sailing even higher, dodging the falling sentinel but he recovers mid air, flapping his wings once again. He looks around for Rashmi whining out a raspy "Heelp." while clutching at his chest and coughing up some blood from the last hit from Heather.
The sounds of his port as Volk appears right next to Vincent, picking the winged man up with one hand, the other one-arming the assault rifle, the blue-green glow of his energy effect surrounding the rifle and keeping it perfectly stable for firing. But instead of shooting at Heather, one blue-green eye meets her two, the silence only punctuated by the whirr-click of the HUD-eye that covers his other good eye. He doesn't move, holding the injured man close to him as he just… stares… the firelight behind him casting him as an ominous shadow of red and blue-green fire.
Envy glances up at the events taking place above her. She is too far away from any of the mutants to attack right now, even with her thrown weapons. She turns and faces the Sentinel closest to her. "Up." The machine bends down and extends a hand, allowing the woman to climb up onto its shoulder. She clicks her earpiece, "Male mutant, electronic eye piece. Lots of guns. I want him dead." The Sentinel she is riding moves toward the fray but is still too far to allow Envy to do much damage.
The flaming Sentinels seem to ignore the fire. They all shoot beams of energy at Vincent and Volk. Another Sentinel flies overhead and attempts to drop an energy net on Rashmi before landing nearby.
Where there's a wrecked city, there're wrecked cars. And where there're wrecked cars. There's big ammunition for those who can move them. The rain beats down on the aerokinetic as he walks up behind one of the cars; arriving on the scene with a little of silence as he can get before he looks over at the blind-firing Sentinel. Kael quirks a brow before he lines up his shot, with a grand blast of air; he sends the wrecked sports car flying directly at the sentinel. Hopefully, there's a good bit of gas in it for a nice explosion. He glances over at the Sentinel picking up Envy, and looks around on the ground for a second. He grins as he picks up a tire iron and floats it above his hand before he launches it with a blast of air. Hurtling it towards the woman.
A perfect setup, given a new wrinkle by the entrance of the aerokinetic. "Damnit," Rashmi grumbles, hoisting herself onto a nearby rooftop and crouching for a moment to catch her breath. "KAEL! WE'RE BREAKING! MAKE AS MUCH MESS AS YOU CAN AND *GET OUT!*"
As Heather lands she looks right back at Volk, her grin disappearing from her face as she stares at him. The timeshifter seems not only to continue the mercenary's silence, but punctuate it. Her body seems to vibrate in place, shifting slightly in location but staying in her same central point as she does nothing but considers. That is until the beams are fired towards Volk. She smiles slightly and her watch alarm goes off, this version of her timeslips away, ready to appear in another location and moment.
Vincent takes up the defensive tactic now that he doesn't have to worry about where he's going and when to turn. He has enough clarity left in him to put up a disc that barely catches the beam headed for Volk and himself. "Get somewhere safe?" Vincent barely works out sounding worse than Yoda, as he motions towards his feet and drops the shoe constructs he had causing the pooled blood to burst free like a water balloon. "Need help."
The beams converge on Vincent and Volk with deadly accuracy, and as Heather's alarm goes off, he at the same moment shrugs… and the winged man's form and his seem to be caught in the powerful array of blasts levelled on them. The air reeks of ozone, the area heated and sizzling the rain as it patters down. Nothing is there but a smear of darkness in a divot on the ground… it would be a victory for the Hound Envy… unless she looks up. Above her on the building close to where Rashmi is currently catching her breath, Volk and Vincent now stand. Pushing the wounded one towards Rashmi, Volk makes no other motion… he vanishes again. Unseen where he reappears…
Envy glances at her blind Sentinel as it is struck by a car. She follows the path of the car to its origin where she spots Kael. "Fourth target, wind user." She holds up a hand toward Kael, the Sentinel does the same. The Sentinel's hand beam charges up as Envy crafts a massive crystal lense in front of the weapon. When the Sentinel releases the beam it is intensivied by passing through the lense, slicing a deadly arc through the cement that moves directly toward Kael. With the rain, Envy does not see the tire iron until it is too late. It strikes her in the chest and sends her falling off the back of her Sentinel, the crystal lense cracking as she falls.
The Sentinel struck by the car is knocked down, but the car does not explode. Though the machine is still active it appears unable to stand. The others that were firing on Volk now turn their attention to Kael, seeming to have lost track of Rashmi and the others at the moment.
Rashmi says, "I—hey! Wh…" is about all Rashmi gets out as Vincent is shoved into her arms, Volk porting away just as quickly. "Oh for…. Okay…. let's get you out of here." Slinging Vincent's arm over her shoulders, she helps the wounded, dizzy, and far-too-heavy-to-carry winged mutant further down the rooftop… out of much less likely to be spotted by Eris as she sends up a pair of spheres to set up a trio of vertical orbits, to catch the aerokinetic's attention; a sort of target-like pattern, over the edge of the building to confuse Sentinel firing paths."
Kael grins as he's told to make a mess, and the aerokinetic is already running across the ground. Causing the Sentinel to drag that laser across the landscape. "Let's see how fast you can track me." The man bursts up into the air, winds wrapping around him as he puts on a burst of speed. Landing a bit roughtly within a wrecked building. There's a rush of wind inwards towards the rubbles, seemingly collecting under it as Kael smiles. An explosion of wind causes tons of rubble; rocks, metal bars, spikes, anything within that building just rockets out at an extremely fast clip. The swirling orbs catch his eye barely through all of the rain, and the aerokinetic bursts along the ground; flying low and fast towards the building as he uses the explosion as a cover.
The time manipulator timeslips back into the fray, paces away from where Volk reappears, her stare continuing. Her hands are resting loosely at her side as she continues to evaluate the man, her eyes narrowed slightly, her hair drenched from the falling rain. Her mouth is still quirked slightly upwards, but it's not a smile, it's a look that Rashmi would recognize: a move is being planned.
Vincent looks at Rashmi and blinks, as he's mostly confused as to why this person is helping him, he's never seen her. He hasn't seen anyone in ages. As she puts him over her he starts to flap his wings, trying to help her with his weight. Vincent holds his hand out towards Rashmi and slowly a crimson and black energy construct pistol forms in his hand and he motions her to take it and then he randomly asks, "Why?"
The rain washes over the pair, and Volk lets his assault rifle drop to his chest, as he reaches down and picks up a piece of white-painted metal from a car wreck between the two of them, and for some reason takes his eyes from Heather. The man surrounds the sheet metal in an intense aura, and suddenly it compresses with a half-ton of force being applied to it into a small cylinder. That basic shape begins to warp, widening towards the base, thinning towards the peak. In a few moments the shape resolves into a chesspiece. A Pawn. Then, the merc walks up to her and reaches down, placing the piece in her hand, and wrapping her hand around it. Then… he turns his back and in two steps he vanishes… reappearing on the roof once more and leaving Heather with his message and their battle to continue another time. From there, weapons up, and back to business as usual.
Envy falls from her perch and lands in the branches of a dead tree, the wood snapping around her as she crashes to the ground. She lands on her side and remains motionless.
As the wind shoots random objects out of the building. Stone and rubble fly out, as well as some metal spikes. They strike the Sentinels and do little damage to their metal armor. A few of the machines have metal spikes sticking out of them, but it appears not to hinder their movement too much. There is a sound above that of the wind and the rain and the clanking of stone against metal. It sounds like screaming. Out of the building flies an small child, two other young children and an elderly woman can be seen clinging to railings inside as well. It looks like that building wasn't quite as vacant as Kael had assumed.
"Because there's a war on," Rashmi says quietly, "and we have to keep as many people safe as we ca—" Almost as if in cruel mockery of Rashmi's sentiment, the shrieks of terrified children and elderly ring out. "…I'll be right back," she says, pressing the gun back into Vincent's hand. "Stay safe." And with that, the redheaded Rebel hurls herself off the roof of the building, leaping from sphere to sphere toward the ruined shell of the building. "VOLK! CATCH!!"
Kael skids to a stop, his eyes wide as he knows those screams. The aerokinetic immediately goes vertical. The force of the wind behind him causing the ground to crater slightly. The rain twisting under him as the man tracks that flying kid; catching up to him as winds swirl under the infant. The winds float the infant in the air so Kael can snatch it out of the air and head back down towards the ground.
Heather doesn't move to strike Connor as he touches her hand, opening up to see the object in her palm. She stares at it for a few moments and then clutches the piece in her hand hard, looking down and to the side, gritting her teeth. She almost seems to be ready to toss it aside for a moment, but stops, slipping it into her collection of belongings, pieces of waste that she picked up. The speedster sets her watch and zips down to the location of the building, climbing up its side using her momentum. She convinces herself that she doesn't know if the child is human or mutant. These could be humans. She convinces herself that this is what her Master would want. She has to, because Ahab is the hero here, isn't he? When Kael catches the child, though, she kicks herself off the side of the building towards him. "Look at you. Endangering the life of civilians."
Vincent slumps against the wall and takes a deep breath, as he's not used to the wings, and looks down at his pistol and then his feet, with pieces of crystals still in the soles of his feet. He looks at the stain his blood is leaving on the rooftop. "What's wrong?" He asks no one as no one is next to him. Vincent blinks hard as his body tries to slip into unconsciousness.
Leaving the old woman for Rashmi, the two young children that hang from the ruins of the building are caught with bolts of blue-green energy and floated free of the building safely. Cushioned in his field, they are not pulled back to the building, but rather floated into the hands of the leaping and determined Heather. Releasing his grab, he turns… but then stops and looking down at Heather he gives her a nod. Simple and poignant before moving to a position to create a portal on the stable building, unhooking a small packet from his side with a cross on it and tossing it to Vincent. A medkit. Then he holds up a small PDA that has the words, -30 Seconds. Be ready to move.- As he begins to establish his portal link for their getaway.
Envy is still not moving, though she is breathing. The woman appears unconscious.
The elderly woman somehow makes it down the stairs in all of the confusion to reach the people holding her grandchildren. "You monsters! Look what you've done! Give me my babies! If it weren't for you creatures, this city would still be alive!" She screams as the Sentinels turn their attention to the group on the ground, running for cover and looking back desperately for her children.
Kael's eyes center in on Heather as she shoots towards him. He clicks his tongue before winds swirl in front of him, then they disperse in a gentle gust as he grins. "Seems you have your own cargo." He chuckles a bit before he flies back down to the building; dropping off the child with the grandmother. "Sorry mam." He doesn't stay long before he gets back up into the air and heads to help pick up Vincent on the roof.
Heather holds the children brought to her arms in the air, landing softly on the ground as she usually does. To Kael, she just says, "Careful." She rights herself and wordlessly dashes off to collect Envy and bring her back to base, leaving this behind her. She doesn't care what the old woman has to say, only that her teammate is injured now. "You're going to be okay." She reaches down to collect the other Hound, "I'm taking you home." And with those words, she zips off with the unconscious Envy.
Vincent looks at the medpack with a puzzled look and looks back a Volk but he's gone again. Then he looks over at Rashmi as she comes over and starts to drag him. "What do I do with this?" He asks, and smiles a little as he noticed his speech improved, even if just for a moment. Vince winces as his feet start to sting again. "Why?" He demands of his own body, wondering why he's not healing like he always did before.
Before the group of disparate heroes a shimmer disc of blue-green light resolves into being, spinning out to full size before a small flash of energy spikes outwards. Volk motions the others through first, and as he makes ready to leave himself… he stops and looks back towards where Heather is going. Looking down at the assault rifle in his hands a moment, he then looks back. And offers a wave. That done, he turns and disappears into the swirling vortex… that energy emanation vanishing with a crash that could be mistaken for thunder.
The Hounds and targets gone, the remaining Sentinels seem a little confused. A few of them bark out "TARGET LOST". as they mill around searching for the missing mutants. The burning Sentinels fires are finally put out by the rain and the robots eventually disperse.
~ Fin ~
