2012-11-09 - Prime Anti-Mutant: Shedding

The world is not fair. But Fantomex himself learned that long ago. He went on his little co-ops mission some time ago with Havok and Gambit, and it took about three weeks before him and Havok return with the information and saying they took down the entire slave ring while they were at it. Not only that, but Fantomex made hints about being richer for it too!

Professor X actually speaks with Storm and Beast later on, reviewing the information and the buyer information with them, "Fantomex went to Paris to take care of some business. Keep a close eye on him, he has been acting strange lately."

Fantomex does return, and has a conversation with Kurt in the Staff Rec Room, bullet holes in his trench coat. After that, he retires upstairs for an early bedtime. Professor X reported it to his two senior members the next day before sending Cyclops off with a team to investigate some sightings of Sentinels in Germany. The next day after that before Cyclops returns, he sends Storm to gather a team to investigate a potential sighting in India. When the two think back to the data they reviewed earlier, there were divisions in Germany and India of buyers near where these sightings where stated.

India though is exotic and beautiful in a brown and dusty way. The Blackbird Jet is under Beast's skillful toes. Storm is announced as field leader, and Fantomex is currently appearing bored or perhaps distracted. He has not been his usual obnoxious and talkative self this trip.

The Beast is sitting in the pilots seat of the black bird. The autopilot was doing most of the work at the moment. He's got his feet propped up on the flight yoke, and is staring the black bird with his feet. He's got what looks like an I-pad that's seen better days in one hand. In the other hand is a soldering iron. He's trying to rebuild the device.

Ororo Munroe peers out the windows of the plane thoughtfully, silent for most of the trip. But that is hardly unusual, Storm has never been one for idle words. She occasionally glances back at Fantomex, studying him, her expression carefully neutral.

Blue eyes finally shift to Beast, grinning as she watches McCoy steer the ship and work on his little device at the same time, "Are you trying to show off, Beast?"

Fantomex reaches an idle hand out and traces the hilt of his sword from beneath his trench coat. He hrms idily beneath his mask, a mask never fully removed. "When does he non show off?" Fantomex sounds amused rather than lecturing about that. "That is part of his charm I believe." Fantomex is just as bad often, if not worse...course he would admire such a feature! Alright, so much worse. Though he finally speaks about his concerns, "So, how does he suspect we can stop this Prime Sentinel should we find one?"

Of course everyone here knows what Fantomex means by 'he'...Professor X.

While Mr. Fantomex needs his beauty sleep. The Blackbird almost flies itself. That and I'm trying to repair my Cybernatic organism detector from the other day. I was field testing it. It did not survive the durability test." That was him and Powergirl crashing into each other. "So it might make our quest a bit more simple. So I was multitasking. I would prefer not to infer what our mission is or what roles each of us will be playing in the outing. I would find it advisable that we have some type of battle strategy, even if its no more than a conceptual stage to combat this Sentinel."

Ororo Munroe tilts her head, "If we find this Prime Sentinel, we call for backup. It would be foolhardy to deal with it by ourselves." She looks back at Fantomex, "No initiating combat with it unless I say so. Understood?"

Her attention turns back to Beast, giving him a speculative look, "I had heard about your encounter with Power Girl. First Laura, now you. I'm curious as to why she seems to be interested in us..." A snowy brow arches, "Though if we encounter a Prime Sentinel... Hm. Do you have any method of contacting the Kryptonian?"

"Cyclops and his team is still in Germany, perhaps we should call the local police," and Fantomex rolls his eyes at that. Fantomex's fingers flex within his white gloves and he twists his wrist, exercising it. He does will containing himself, the amount of rage he feels at the situation is barely even betrayed. "It will attack us." Or perhaps not if Fantomex being part Sentinel himself doesn't scare it off like it did last the last one. "So, we just have aliens protect the lives of mutants? That's one way to a solution," humor and sarcasm in his tone. "Perhaps that Superboy, the Professor seems fond of the boy. We can use him as our little soldier." Fantomex turns to look out the window. This isn't like him...but he has become more tense as the plot thickens. Professor X seems to also know more than he lets on, just as Fantomex does.

"This sucks." A very American thing to say right then, even with his heavy Parisian accent. Fantomex then shrugs his shoulders slightly. "No one ends up a hero in this." He almost sounds compassionate as if toward the two of you. As if he has no interest in really being a hero. Or is he just lying to himself?

The Blackbird Jet makes a beeping sound, alerting Beast that they are drawing to the walled in dockyard they will be landing and storing the jet while they go tramping through the darker hells of India's crime ridden streets.

Hank eyes both Storm and Fantomex. "The Kryptonians have their own problems. So do the Avengers, We're not exactly delicate. I'm working on a theory that if we can captured organic and cybernetic components we might be able to reverse the process. Introduce a computer virus that causes the nano to eat themselves. It's only a hypothesis but I could see any other way to infect humans with the process than nano technology." He shrugs.

Ororo Munroe frowns, studying the scene below through the window, "Now is not the time to be snide, Fantomex. If we close avenues that might have opened to us due to the recent merger we are fools. I try very hard not to be a fool. It isn't about being a hero either. Trying to be a hero gets you killed. We do what we think is right. If people want to label us heroes, then so be it."

She glances at Beast, "This is mostly a scouting mission. We're not to engage unless we absolutely must. We still need to know more."

As the jet goes to land, Fantomex does not say anything more on the topic. He is the first to exit however. He debates finding a place to cough up E.V.A., but if his powers are deactivate, does that not mean his secondary nervous system could disappear and he could die from being seperated from her? Best not to risk it. "How do you wish to perform this search? Seperate, or stick together? And you getting a response on your toy Big Blue?"

Hank is finishing up his work and he's putting the last screw in. "Uno Momento Por Favor, Senor." He says as he turns on the sensor. Then he frowns as he turns the cardinal directions and as it gets closer to pointing at Fantomex it beeps louder and more angry., "I actually am. This can't be right.... " He pauses for a moment and tries to calibrate the machine, "It says Fantomex is a cyborg."

Fantomex frowns through his mask, "Non, you got a piece of shit equipment," he ends up growling out. He then starts to walk, "Let's do this the old fashioned way, oui?"

Ororo Munroe rolls her eyes and pats Beast on the shoulder, "I think your machine needs a bit more work, my friend." She follows after Fantomex, eyes moving constantly, studying everything within line of sight.

"We're not far from where the alleged sighting occured. About two blocks. Stay alert. If there is a sentinel here, I want to spot it before it spots us."

So staying together it is, but, Fantomex does offer, "I'll take point." Once outside of the dock walls, he starts to run, and soon leaps between two buildings, bouncing off the walls with his feet and twisting his body, until he reaches a roof for the short buildings in this area. He lands atop the roof and starts to run atop them in turn as he looks about. He does ask in the comlink, "How much attention should we draw? Are you taking to the sky Storm?" Though suddenly he pauses and can be heard the comlink, starting to speak in the local language, but his dialect is slightly off to some woman hanging clothes to air out on a roof top...well, considering she screamed, best to calm her down maybe?

Beast watches Fantomex as he leaps and bounds ahead of the pair of X-men. "I guess. I am certain the principles and the technology should work." He turns off the device and slips it into a pouch on his belt. He looks back at the French Thief, "Farm League." Then in a moment later, he's already scaled the building and is running along flanking Fantomex. His natural Mutantions taking be hard and make it looks easy. Parkour through this city? It's what Hank was born for." He's even careful to hide from residence taking full advantages of his agility, coloring, and senses to stay hidden.

Ororo Munroe puts her face in a palm, "Well. I suppose there goes keeping low. Not like we could anyhow." She raises her hands, summoning the winds to sweep her up into the air, she soars above the two fast moving mutants, using her height to look out over the city with a critical eye. Storm speaks into her comlink to Fantomex, "Don't bother with the locals. Just keep moving. Once we get to point zero we will start moving in an ever widening circle. Stay within radio contact."

Fantomex says something back to the woman and then keeps moving. "Not completely useless," he says in the comlink. "The woman said there were two boys killed at the time of the sighting, believed to be mutants. The Prime Sentinel was here at least." He then falls silent. Not because he is tired of bad mouthing, but because as he heads down the block he catches something out of the corner of his eye and something in his freezes cold.

Beast would likely get to react first, because while he is working to stay hidden, there is suddenly a woman near him that appeared with inhuman speed and seems to be using a police uniform. And Beast can start to feel his fur start to receed. << Mutant detected. Initiate: Remove Threat. >> The words are in the local language: Hindu. A hand raises with what appears to be a blaster having developed within her very flesh, lines imprinted on her face where the nanotechnology has taken over, and dead, seemingly unseeing eyes.

Beast notices his senses and ablities are beginning to fade. He rolls out the way. Then he takes off at a leap constantly trying to move and get out of range. He reaches down to his belt to turn on the detector and to have it recording. He then calls into his com, "I've made contact. It has the power to repress your mutant power if you grow too close. current Suggestion, move to my location. Storm hang back and see to throw a lighting bolt or two at it."

Ororo Munroe glides forward, high above the scene with Beast and Fantomex, "I read you, Beast. Prepare yourselves."

She comes to a hover and stretches out her arms, hands towards to the sky, "Lightning and thunder. Heed my call! Come my aid! Help me smite my enemies with your wrath!" Blue eyes turn nearly as white as her hair as the weather responds, the blue sky above rapidly fills with ominous, black clouds. Thunder grumbles within their dark shapes as lightning begins to flicker, illumating the area below in stark relief with each flash.

Fantomex then starts to run at his super soldier speed. He pulls out his guns and soon starts to shoot at the figure, the bullets pinging off. He is serving as a distraction while Storm gets ready to set off her own attack. His sword would likely be more effective at this rate, getting it at a joint between the armor pieces that generated....but he would only have his nano-technology to rely on. Not that his illusion are particularly working on the damn thing anyway! But he would only have one active brain...his one brain gets messed up, he's gone. Death has never concerned Fantomex in the past, but for some reasons, the Prime Sentinels bring it out.

The Prime Sentinel starts scanning the area as Beast moves about, the half wall he moved away from being blown away. The activation of the powers from Storm as the Sentinel looking up. << Mutant detected. >> It starts to boot jet toward the sky when the bullets begin to ping off its armor. It turns toward Fantomex and suddenly stills. << Error in identification. Mutation detected, but error. Action unknown. >>

Hank lets out a feral snarl as the Sentinel takes to the air. Then he comes about moving quicker than he should and leaping into the air to try to catch the Prime Sentinel and knock it off course. To give Ororo a chance to escape. His claws digging now where as sharp as Logans try to rip into armor with his 10 ton strength. That's until he realizes Fantomex has it confused. "Pull back!"

Lightning flashes through the dark clouds, thunder bellows, causing the buildings to shake and rattle. Ororo is just about to release a bolt of lightning from the clouds when Beast jumps upon the Sentinel. She curses loudly, her calm facade breaking, "Beast! Get away! I can't get a clear shot with you on it!"

The Prime Sentinel winces at the attack, and moves a hand to try and blast him off. << Eliminate Mutant. >> And Beast can already feel his fur receeding further, his senses dulling more.

Fantomex almost turns to run...almost! But with a curse of French beneath his breath he starts to run toward the Sentinel again. One of the guns are put away, having them ping off the thing now could only end up hurting Beast. "Let go!" He pulls out a clip out of his current gun and puts in a differnet clip. The power would be weakened, but he notices that Hank's fur doesn't disappear all at once. Perhaps, this will still work. He then skids to a halt, carefully aiming the gun this time as he draws in a sharp breath, ready to release it should Hank be unable to get away in time.

Beast goes diving away with a bit of metal and damage to the Prime Sentinel letting the other X-men take there shots. As He hits the ground,if they're quick to notice Hank is no longer blue and furry. He lets out a yelp of pain as he strikes the ground, That hurt.

The moment Beast rolls away the sky flashes with blinding brillance, lightning uncurls from the clouds and arcs down towards its target, guided by the will of the mutant hovering over the battlefield. However the lightning does not directly strike the woman, rather a few feet aside, but the sheer proximity is enough to cause severe pain and damage as half a billion volts of energy is disperesed nearby.

Beast stands up clutching his right side. "Ow... Ow... Man you guys feel that breeze?" He was just a white guy with ape hands and feet in a blue speedo now. He lips to the sentinels side. He pulls out his recorder between all the crashing and the lighting it was fried again. He frowns, "I'm hoping there's enough data on here thats not corrupted. We can start trying to find a way to revert the process." He grumps, "Owie, I think I broke a rib." Fun Fact. Hank's healing factor only when blue and furry. Right now only faster than an average human.

Except that the Sentinel is still moving, and lets out another cry of pain as it starts to zip toward Storm, firing blasts at her. Hopefully Storm can get out of the way and it will just keep on going.

Fantomex for right now is moving toward Beast. "Get back to the jet!" Fantomex is worried, though he hides it well, and he moves to grip Beast's arm. A powerful grip and starts moving him quickly along the roof tops. He curses, as the thing starts to approach Storm...Storm whom is flying....too close and....

Beast can perhaps see that moment that Fantomex makes a decision and lifts that gun. There is a loud sound as that bullet is fired, and them it's like a scream rents the very air.

This one doesn't ping off, rather, the Prime Sentinel seems to get flung a few feet back in the air, halted and looks down at its bleeding chest. Then it is gone, a blur in the air as it moves to retreat. Whatever was fired at the thing, wasn't a normal bullet. It was something that could badly damage a Prime Sentinel. Not that Storm's actions didn't cause it a great deal of damage itself, though it seemed to have been healing it even as it was moving to attack Storm.

Hank nods, "I wish I had gotten a chance to put a tracker on her." He sways with a nod. "I'll be getting that first aide out and make sure I'm healed. Before I get back in the mix. " He opts to make his way to the Black Bird. Where he would work out to make sure they all went home.

Ororo Munroe follows after Beast, though she gives Fantomex a look before going after Hank, a look that is full of suspicion and curiosity.

The gun is slipped away, and Fantomex continues to help Beast as they head back to the Blackbird Jet, Fantomex actually able to carry Beast if he has to. The guy is surprisingly strong, not that Beast is easy to carry! That guy is heavy! When they are back in the Jet, he heads toward the back to set help Beast down and goes to get the med-kit. "It depends, powers can come back in a few minutes to a few hours." He then offers, "I can fly back." He will let Storm handle their teammate. Fantomex doesn't seem willing to talk right now, and he will need to hide the clip that would have more than likely made his teammates curious.