2013-11-13 - X-Force Returns

Hope would have received a message of a time and coordinates to body slide in by a note where she'd be sure to find it. Funny thing is James got the same thing but more. He'd gotten a bracelet, the coordinates, and a note from Cable saying it's time to begin bring your blades.

The temple dates from Ancient Greece in design but some of statues and marks are Egyptian and far older. Individuals both vampire and human servants gather around the temple dressed in cloak with Egyptian and Greek garb under. Upon a dais a priestess in a funky head dress sacrifices humans with a dagger upon a obsidian slab letting the blood run down through a drain. There's chanting in Ancient Egyptian.

There are guards seen patrolling with weapons and automatic guns just outside the gathering and the level above.

Meanwhile in the Sewer above, a now abandoned and dry section (your welcome Hope.) There's a flash of light as Cable bodyslides in... He's just outside the guards security sweep but not too far from an entrance.

Hope a.k.a. Traveler is not far behind Cable. She bodyslides in, her energy handguns strapped to her thighs, and an plasma rifle from Cable strapped to her back. She wears a new uniform and has matured in the last few months that Cable has seen her, older in a way, or perhaps it's her green eyes that are a little more haunted. But she arrives prepared and on-time, smiling a bit over at Cable, "Hey old man," she greets. "Traveler reporting for duty," and gives a smart ass, sharp little salute to Cable.

It had started with rumors spoken in the darkness. A coven here..a nest there. Blade had been gone from the States for awhile..tracking what he believed to be a cult that was trying to raise one of the Old Ones..or perhaps the one vampire that he's been wanting to get his hands on. Dracula. But he had been hitting dead ends..and nobody was talking. Journeying back to the States, he came across some information that told him that what he might be looking for is in Egypt. So, taking a trip back across the water, he's been in Alexandria for a couple days now, and his search has led him here. His vampire senses tell him that there are both humans and vampires in attendance. That was nothing new. Vampires loved familiars, after all. But the guards would have to be dealt with. So Blade begins to take them out stealthily...so that he can get closer to the ritual. If he was lucky, his search was over. If not, well this couldn't be good anyway and he was gonna bust it up on principle.

It took James longer than expected to arrive. What was this damn thing? How did it work? Why did it look so hi-tech? Why was Cable so beefy? And why is beef stew so good? Stop it, James, you're getting off track. Right. Put on the bracelet... what now... Hey, look! A button!

FWOOSH!

Bodysliding was weird, Discombobulating. Dizzying. He landed on his face. "Guh." Sand! Wait. Sand? He got to his feet, looking around. His eyes adjusted in a moment, and he saw he wasn't alone. Wiping off some of the dust, he lifted a hand. "Hey."

Blade was good at killing the undead and those that served them. So he hadn't been seen yet as he slowly works his way towards the ceremony. But he hadn't hit the main part of the temple and where the real vampires would be. These were young ones and human lackeys.

Cable looks to Traveler and then to Warpath. His normal gruff expression. "Traveler. Warpath. I've worked out a lead on a group I think are trying to raise Apocalypse. Around the corner a group called the order of Set has goons on patrol. Then will be an entrance to a temple under the city. The ritual has begun. We need to make sure it doesn't finish. If we want a chance for Xavier's dream to happen. Lethal force is fully authorized. This is not a X-Man mission." With that he pulls out plasma rifle. "Warpath, you good with your blades?"

A quiet hrm, Traveler nods, "Wish I knew one...could be a lead or dead end," she says. "I'm game for taking them out either which way." She checks her own knife in her boot, the one her dad gave her. It is secure just in case. She then says, "Approach plan? And any good snipering points? I'm a dead shot, taught by the best." She smirks a little at that. But she does also wander over to Warpath during this time and hugs him, clinging to him a few moments before she lets go and forces a smile to her face, "Hey muscle. Let's go kick some ass."

Warpath's vibranium knives were in his hands in a flash. "There's nobody in the world better with my knives than me." He wasn't going to kill the people that didn't have fangs - merely punch them out. He certainly had the strength to do it. But then, Cable doesn't have to know that. "Right ahead of you, finch." Did he just call Hope a finch? A damn songbird?

Blade continues to move silently towards the entrance. He's taken out the fledglings and their human cows as silent as possible, but he knew that once he went inside it would hit the fan quick. Which is why he throws stealth to the wind as he unstraps the guns on his thigh loaded with silver bullets. Stepping inside, Blade begins shooting. And he's got one for the brain pan of anyone getting in his way. "If you ain't got fangs, get out now. If you decide to stay, you'll get the same fate as your masters."

Blade's bullet finds the brain pan of overzealous neonate who in her excitement for the ceremony was about to turn one of her human chattel into a happy meal. The sound of the gun's report ringing through the chamber and drowning out the chanting and echoing up to where the fledgling All New X-Force has gathered. The cult stops looks up at Blade and the high priestess screams, "THE DAYWALKER! SLAY HIM! DO NOT LET HIM DISRUPT THE MASTER'S RETURN!" Then pushing off her last victim she grabs the next one and prepares to sacrifice him. The masses begin to press down upon Blade. It looks like a scene from those Kick-ass Wesley Snipe's movies from about fifteen years ago, you know the cool first one.

Cable looks at the pair and is about to give orders, when he hears the ruckus. He takes off at a charge, "Hell if I know what a Daywalker is. But the orders are kill everything that's not the Daywalker. We figure out if it's on our side, and if it's not then we kill it." He takes aim shooting a pair of guards as he runs.

"Works for me boss," and Traveler rolls her eyes at Warpath, "Finch? I play a harmonica for goodness sake, I do NOT sing." She is then heading toward a ladder. She slides down it, not even using the railing. When she lands she throws herself back to make room for the next person and whips out her handguns with professionalism. Wielding them two-handed she starts to kill anyone that looks aggressively at her which is...pretty much everything with hot powered energy rays.

Yep, not going to be pretty for those vampires!

"I know what a Daywalker is. I met the guy not too long ago. He's a badass, and a vampire hunter. Like, specifically. Don't kill the black guy with the swords and stakes. He's called Blade!" James seemed to know a lot. Mostly because he blundered in on one of Blade's hunts. He then dashed into the fray, giving a war-whoop!

Blade doesn't pay attention to the small team that just entered. Mostly because he's got a swarm of blood suckers who's sole purpose is his demise. But that was nothing new for the Daywalker. Running up the side of a nearby wall, his pistols bark as he makes every shot count. Kicking off the wall, he keeps firing as he flips end over end and by the time his feet hit the floor, he's out of bullets. Dropping the spent clips from his pistols, he reloads using the speed loader on his belt as he holsters one gun while kicking out behind him, sending a vampire flying backwards into a horde of more. Chambering a round, he reaches back to draw his sword as he alternates between kicking, shooting, and cutting his way through the masses. He had to get to that priestess, and that was the way he was going, though his progress is slow. Cable's team would probably see that most of the ruckus is centered around the black guy in dark sunglasses.

X-Force makes a beachhead at the entrance of the temple. The team not quite noticed by the vampires as they seem to rage around Blade and frenzy. He's in a sea of Undead. Though the human's with Machine guns start to to take notice of X-Force. Then bullets start to fire towards the team. Meanwhile the Priestess kills another sacrifice.

Cable makes it into the room firing a shot at the other swarming the guy in shades. His plasma weapons killing vampires just like a blast of sun. "You're kidding me right! Vampires are real?" He'd ran into almost everything else. Though as a squad of humans shoot at him and X-Force. He moves behind a pillar for cover then throws a grenade at them.

Bullets ping and plink and flatten against Warpath's solid, nigh-impenetrable hide. He intercepted shots headed towards Hope, protecting her as best he could. He hopefully gave her decent vantage points to shoot past him. He gave a bellowing roar - may as well draw the fire of the bad guys toward him.

"Shit! Yes they are! Don't let them bite you, that's all I damn well know about them!" Traveler though takes a deep breath, "Cable, Warpath, cover me!" She then slips her handguns into their straps and shrugs off the plasma rifle. She braces her feet, trusting her 'teammates' with her life as she lifts that heavy plasma rifle to one shoulder, situating her eye as she points it toward the Priestess. She closes her one eye so it doesn't interfere with her aim.

Blade's sensitive hearing picks through all of the yelling and screaming to hear a familiar voice. "Kid!?" He spares a glance over and sure enough, there's Warpath blazing through on a...well..warpath. "Kill the priestess! Don't let her complete the ritual!" He takes aim himself with his handgun, but it's knocked aside and Blade is forced to go into melee combat completely now. He moves as fast as the vampires. If before he was showing no mercy, now he's just downright brutal. Almost every offensive movement he makes produces ash in his wake. He quick-draws a knife from the small of his back and flicks it over Cable's shoulder into the chest of a vampire, which turns to dust right in front of the soldier's eyes.

Cable trains his eyes to what Hopes doing. He nods appropriately. Then he disappears and reappears beside her moments later. He pulls his own plasma rifle to his shoulder and starts to open up fire on the horde rolling to him, the vampires turning to dust. He's putting out a lot more shots then Hope but he's not spraying and praying. His augmented eye and his strength keeping nearly every shot a precision shot. "Take the kill shot, Traveler and you heard the man."

Warpath had his arms out, more to provide extra shielding for Hope as they were hit with barrages of gunfire. James was fine. But he had to distract the priestess somehow. He spun one of his knives, and threw it - with all the force of his strength behind it - aiming to sever the high priestess' hands from her arms, to prevent her from making another sacrifice. "Make the shot!" Even if it's a mercy kill.

Blade attempts to fight his way over to the group. He launches himself into the air and seems to float as he jumps nearly the entire length of the room. He lands heavily beside Warpath and then ducks behind him, using him a shield as he draws the pistol he holstered before and shoots around him. "I'm not even going to ask how you're here. I don't really care. But if someone doesn't shoot that bitch, we're all going to be in a world of hurt. If you think this is bad? You ain't seen nothing yet."

"I'm concentrating," Traveler complains!

Then Warpath throws his knife, but just as he does, a young neonate leaps out to catch the blade within their own chest! "My Priestess...is saved...," as her body starts to come apart into ashes and ascend upward before they cascade down.

Which leaves Traveler with her perfect opening, "Hot damn," and she doesn't hesitate to pull the trigger. The yellow plasma shot from her rifle kicks it back into her shoulder hard, but she doesn't budge from her spot and the shot remains straight.

The Priestess cackles and raises her knife to plunge it into the final victim! But instead of her knife falling into his chest, the victim gets vampiress brains splattered over him before her body starts to turn to ashes.

"Got it! Wipe out the little bitches!" There is no compassion in her tone when it comes to the cult. Rather, she is reslinging the rifle over one shoulder and pulling out her energy handguns to go cowgirl on these little monsters!

The problem with vampires is they aren't little monsters. They're fast, they're strong, and they're deadly. James was chopping many of them, left and right, with his other knife. But then he froze in his tracks. His eyes were on another vampire, and he simply stood there, prone. That vampire put the whammy on Warpath.

Cable says, "Nice shot, Traveler!" Then he he starts to shooting into the remaining vampire horde. His other hand reaching down to throw grenades every now and then. The Mutant soldier frowns, "This definitely has nothing to do with the Apocalypse." Though he keeps on fighting with the others. It seems to turn the tied and the cults back is broken. That's when the ashes of both the neonate and the priestess settle on the alter and the seal. Then moments later the ground starts to shake and break. Moments later something starts to climb up out of the hole. Then an Ancient Egyptian Vampire emerges with a metal Pharaoh mask with the face of a snake. His clawed fingers point at Hope, in Ancient Egyptian "You!" Then it starts super speeding across the chamber towards the girl. It's only problem, Cable, Warpath, and Blade Stands in it's way. Cable calls out, "New Plan kill their God!" Then he starts trying to shoot the undead monster.

Traveler is already moving, her handgun shooting at the vampire staring at Warpath to seize his mind, "Big Brother, wake up!" She's actually covering for Warpath right now, though her eyes slide toward Cable briefly and she starts to try and concentrate. Her shooting becomes automatic, the accuracy still amazingly good, but her mind is only half there. She's...doing something...to Cable. He can feel as if his skin is starting to crawl even as sweat starts to drip down Hope's face. Blade won't be alone in this battle, but he will only have a few seconds at most of powerful assistance, that Blade will just hope counts at the right moment.

Blade looks up as the ancient vampire emerges. "He's mine. Watch my back." He growls. Blade's teeth elongate slightly as he really taps into the darker half of himself. He is literally a blur as he moves through the vampires. Some of them he kills as he moves past, but most of them he doesn't have time for as he collides with the vampire elder, both of them bouncing off each other. Blade spits out towards him, "This world is no longer yours." He super speeds towards him again and then drops to his knees at the last moment, sliding under the elder's reach. He lashes out with the sword, cutting him at the knees. Planting a hand on the ground, he catapults himself upwards while performing a horizontal corkscrew flip in midair. The moment his foot touches the ground, he swings down, executioner style with his sword while having both hands on the hilt. There is a loud clash as his blade hits the ground having cleaved the elder into two halves that fall away from each other, turning to ash so that by the time it hits the ground, there is nothing left. Blade stands up and flicks his sword out to the side. Flawless victory.

Cable eye glows brighter and he doesn't know what's going on for a moment. Nobody told him about this but he can feel his telekinesis growing in him. He extends his hand out and lets out a wave of energy. It travels along behind Blade and any vampire he doesn't kill, gets caught in the wave that cuts their heads from their necks. Then dissipating before it gets to Blade. So when the Vampire hunter turns around he'll see a room of ash and X-Force. Cables on one knee looking tired as all get out.

And Hope's eyes roll up into her head even as her handguns slip from her hands and she crumbles to the floor, sweat dripping down her face as she breathes heavily. She will be out cold for a little bit, her body limp at Warpath's feet from where she protected him.

Blade sheathes his sword and walks over to where Cable is on one knee and Hope is unconscious. He looks at the girl for a moment before looking at Cable. "Mutants." He says pointedly, though from his tone, he's just affirming it. "When the girl wakes up..tell her it was a nice shot." He looks over at Warpath, then looks back at Cable. "What the hell are you guys doing in Egypt? I've been tracking this vampire cult for awhile now. You lot don't strike me as hunters..though you do have some interesting weaponry."

Cable pushes up to stand, and he looks down at Blade. He shoulders his plasma rifle, "I'm Cable. I'm a hunter of sorts but I hunt another type of monster. There is ancient mutant evil called Apocalypse. He is to bring the destruction of mankind. I had thought this cult had to do with his resurrection. We're X-Force, we believe in Xavier's dream but we know it can't be accomplished through peace." He moves to check on Hope, but he always keeps an eye on Blade.

Hope is fine, but sweaty, unusually so for the level of exercise she did. She moans though at the touch, her eyes flickering and her body twitches as it fights to wake up. One hand twitches as if to instinctively reach for one of her guns which are right now on the ground, and thankfully out of reach from any accidental shooting.

Blade listens to Cable. "X-Force. So you're the guy that took over from the Fantomexes. Interesting." He looks at Hope, then looks at Cable. "Xavier's dream. Right. I know the drill...I was part of the group at one time." Another pause. "Well, good luck with that." He turns on his heel to walk away.

"After Wisdom disbanded it. They asked me to take it over. It's mine, it's my operation. I don't know anything about the old team." He looks around, "So Vampires, they're real?"

Traveler jerks away with a gasp, breathing hard, "Da..," but her eyes rapidly blink, and she groans, raising a gloved hand to her head. "What hit me?" She sounds in pain, and instinctively reaching for her guns and searching for them even in pain to make sure they are safe and secure, slipping them into her straps. "So...you got them all? Good...knew you could do it," a smile twisting about her lips as she squints at Cable. She struggles to sit up. "Who's Mr. Grumpy Pants? He a vampire too? He moved like one, he don't feel like a mutant."

Blade grunts as Hope wakes up and calls him grumpy. She didn't know the half of it. "They call me Daywalker because I /am/ a vampire. But not like them." He turns to face Cable. "Name's Blade. I was part of the old team. I joined up mostly as a favor to Wisdom. I'm not really a team player. Every team I've joined ended up burning me or leaving me out in the cold. The Fantomexes were not good leaders. They were thieves..not soldiers..definitely not hunters." He steps right up to Cable, looking up at him. "To achieve your goals, you're going to have to be ruthless. You will have to do things that go against your nature. You will have to learn that sometimes to get the job done, some motherfuckers will have to burn." He hooks a thumb towards Warpath. "The kid is too straight laced for that kind of wetwork. He actually felt bad for this filth.." He motions around him, indicating what's left of the vampires.

Traveler actually laughs at Blade! She really cracks up laughing! "Oh...that's..priceless," she's holding her side. "Ouchie...ouchie....I heard of you...Blade, you are SUCH a goodie-goodie, don't even try to pretend," and then she groans and holds her head again, sitting on her rump. "Hurts...anyway, Warpath will learn, he will do what needs to be done, it's his path and one the world desperately needs. I've seen it. And Cable, there is NO one tougher than Cable. The WORLD owes him everything, and it doesn't even know it, and never will." She slowly tries to stand up, using Cable for balance.

"Listen, I don't know too much about you, but you are a softie for the world, for saving it. You do what needs to be done, even if it cuts you deep and bleeds you out. We are all the same in that way. Even when broken, we scream, we curse, and we pick ourselves back up again and move forward, cause we know the price if we DON'T," Traveler states. "So you can look at us as some crazies, or you can look at us as your fellows. Honestly, I think you are fucking nuts too if it helps any," and she smiles lopsidedly. "I really didn't know you were a vampire though, but definitely heard the name Blade and softie," teasing the man a little bit.

Cable sighs, "Traveler, see to your mouth about shutting it." He blinks at Blade. "Do I look like Logan? Running around in my long johns and saving the world. Tell you what, I ain't asking. But I'll make sure you still got access to the old base and their tech, I'm just an old softie after all." Cable doesn't feel like having a pissing match, "You need help with something leave me a message there. If not don't."

Blade turns his head slightly to look in Hope's direction. "Do you always talk this much, or only when you pass out in the middle of a fight?" He scoffs..yes, actually scoffs. He looks at Cable. "Whatever. I might come by. I might not. If I do, I only have one request. I will sometimes leave to hunt on my own. Without me thinning out their numbers, the vampires can and will devour human and mutant alike and plunge this world into darkness."

Cable shrugs and chuckles, its not a pretty sound. "Alone time, that's a novel idea. Professor bodyslide by three." He says before Hope can shoot Blade. He knows the Red Head and knows she'll probably attack. He leaves the Daywalker in the sewer. Warpath and Hope would find themselves at the locations they started out at.