2013-01-29 - Splitting at the Seams: Tell Him, I Said Hi

Today was a joke. That is likely what poor Alex Summers is thinking right now as he gets in the car and starts it up, Kensington Young already secured in the back with the crowd of protests with 'Down with Mutie Freaks', 'Down with Mutie Terrorists', as if non-mutant terrorists are alright. The court room was a publized event, where Kensington is placed on camera for the world to see as she pleads innocent due to mind control. She-Hulk is stunning of course as she lays down the starting defense, then again, she's always stunning. But those opposing She-Hulk? Vicious, painting Kensington as a terrorist that knew what she was doing and when, and was a willing participant. They want her as a scrap goat, no doubt about it.

Alex is finally able to pull the car from the crub and start down the street, and all seems fine at first and he only has to deal with his internal thoughts. At least until the world explodes around him and Kenzie.

The car not only rocks, but is thrown to its side and rolls over numerous times by the actions of Avalanche, and it is Sabretooth that leaps down from a building to land on the side of the car - crushing it further - as he rips a door off to reach in and grab Kensington. The violence of the spinning car before it came to a stop against another car was far from pleasent, and would likely give the Brotherhood the precious few seconds they needed for this attack and grab.

Kensington is grabbed by Sabretooth and easily tossed in the air like a rag doll to be caught by a leaping Toad. "Here baity, bait, bait," he Brit mocks, not caring if Kensington is alert or not to here it, before he starts leaping up along a building to the roof and for escape.

And that is perhaps the strangest thing next, Sabretooth just turns about and starts to run away. He does not attack Alex, he does not rip the car to further shreds out of sheer feral glee, he actually retreats! The sadist certainly does not normally act that way.

Kenzie's reaction was slowed due to the shaking of the car, the rolling of the frame and suddenly she was clutched up, snatched from the vehicle and thrown into the air! Her voice is shrill as she cries out. She had reached for whatever she can grasp, but it was too late to hold onto anything!

When the car shakes on it's foundation, Alex attempts to use his defensive driving to keep them on the street, but Avalanche's abilites prove to be too much for him. Though once the car rolls to a stop, he does hear Sabretooth's voice outside. Once Toad and Creed leave the area, Alex is able to blast the door off the car so he can exit. Pulling out his cell phone he calls the mansion. "Brotherhood's got Kensington." He rattles off where he is. "I suggest all hands on deck." Especially those that are currently not away on missions and in the mansion proper, no matter what X-team they're from. "Please, hurry." He pauses to wipe awya blood from a small cut at his hairline. "And bring my uniform."

In the meanwhile...

Kensington Young is getting to meet the Brotherhood of Mutants up close and personal. Sabretooth is pacing impatiently, growing ferally, "Why isn't Wolverine with them?"

Destiny merely shrugs her shoulders, "I can only see he is not, Sabretooth." She then preceeds to ignore the feral beast and concentrates on Kensington Young. She will be departing shortly, not wanting to be here when the blood starts flying.

Mystique twirls the anklet about her fingers, "They will be responding soon in either case," her tone dry.

A big guy wearing cream and white comes up behind Kenzie, who is currently tied to a chair and the wreak more than enough to leave her on the woozy chair. "Pity she doesn't have her powers," the large man says. But he then reaches out to pet her cheek, "I could have had more fun with her," a wicked grin spreading wide across his mouth, flashing teeth. "Do say hello to Charles for me, we are oooold friends, one may say," his accent thick, Middle Eastern perhaps? And that is when it becomes even more cloudy for Kenzie.

Hank has nothing to say about the signal. He probably figured the professor had simple read the FBI's mind. He did not mind. He taps the sensor screen tracking Kenzie. Then he looks back to Alex as he climbs aboard. The Black bird already silently climbing back into the sky. "Ol Fearless Leader Part Duex, Welcome aboard. I'm tracking her as best I can... Wait a second." He turns back and starts yelling at the FFA representative he's talking to channel., "I have clearance to enter restricted space. SHIELD Cleareance. No I'm not making this up. I don't care how often you hear that. Look my Clearance, it is Omega 12 Romeo...oh wait. It's all fine we're all fine.  How are you?" Hank had exited the air space and turned on the stealth abilities of the Blackbird, "It was a boring conversation anyway."

By the time Alex is picked up, the cut on his head is no longer bleeding, but looks all crusted over. Taking his uniform from Fantomex, he steps onto the plane. "Thanks for coming so fast, Hank. Let me know the second we get her location." He moves to the back of the jet and undresses down to his underwear. He's not even modest about it. Re-dressing quickly, he pulls on his headgear and then his jacket before he moves to sit in the co-pilot's chair beside Hank. "Once we hit the ground, Laura, I want you to track Sabretooth. Fantomex and I will go in behind Laura, followed by Husk and Beast. Odds are this is a trap, so everyone be careful and stay in constant radio contact via comlink. Do not aim to kill...but do what you have to, to make sure we get Kenzie out of there safely."

Laura amends quickly as they fly through the air, "It is likely then that they will have both superior firepower and superior numbers. And our team is not equipped over with someone for a fast extraction." They don't have a flier, so they'll have to likely fight their way out. Worse if Kensington is hurt and scared. She closes her eyes, "Paige, a question." As the Jet's engines thrum, she waits for a response from her Gen-X teammate.

Paige Guthrie looks confused. "Wait why did the Brotherhood kidnap Kenzie anyway, they're not trying to recruit her or something... are they?"

Paige Guthrie says, "What is it, Laura?"

Beast looks to Alex, "As you wish. Ol' Fearless... Oh alright Alex." He casts an eye back to Paige, "You really really don't read Yahoo NEWS or even the school news paper, Paige. We need to enroll you in a current event's class." He teases. "I should be hopefully getting the information uploaded any moment."

Laura takes a breath, "Husk, you can generate large amounts of acid, from your arms?" She's seen Husk do it, she just doesn't know in large amounts.. "When we attack the Brotherhood, they will likely be lying in wait. Flank them, and blast a hole with.. your arms as acid in the building and melt it. then shift to metal and charge in." And smash.

Paige Guthrie rolls her eyes, "The current events don't exactly explain why the Brotherhood would decide to kidnap Kenzie after everything that's happened. Burning hole in the wall, gotcha."

Beast continues to track via the PDA Kenzie's anklet. Fantomex on the other hand merely nods at Havok's order and stands ready at the door rather than buckling down.

As the Blackbird finishes zoning in on the anklet location, it is found outside of NYC at an abondoned coal mine. That may explain why the signal was weak or blocked for a while, being underground.

Just as the Blackbird settles down and Fantomex slides the door open for Laura to take off with her super sniffer, inside a passed out Kenzie is dropped off with her hands tied in front of her in one of the mining tunnels, her anklet dropped beside her before Sabretooth starts to walk away. He has a nasty grin on his face, "Fun, fun, fun..." If he thinks it is fun, it is far going to be a happy experience for the X'ers.

Elsewhere in the maze crawling on the low ceiling of some dark recess is Toad, eagerly waiting for his chance. Mystique is also checking her machine gun to make sure it is ready and fully automatic from down the tunnels. Blob, Avalanche, and Pryo are currently snarking quietly away deeper into the tunnels, ready to come barreling out at the right time. The bait is laid, and they will be waiting. Their whispers dark and ugly at the edge of hearing within the tunnels.

The outside area is mostly bare of trees and even a lot of grass as well. There are old bolders and mining equipment long abondoned and rusted beyond description. The tunnel is dark ahead, though the modern lights seem to flicker along the ceiling of the tunnels within, casting creepy shadows.

As the team arrives on the ground, X-23 is in full combat mode. She knows Sabretooth's scent. The fact the freak escaped so soon from his previous mauling is sign enough that she did not try and hurt him badly enough. As soon as the team deploys on the ground, she will be searching out his scent, trying to calculate what direction he went in. But the layout is difficult to follow. The stench in the air makes tracking things difficult, and narrowing down just what lays ahead even more dnagerous. She growls, hitting the ground and going forwards at a full sprint, regardless of orders.

Havok steps off and places a hand on Fantomex's shoulder to hold him back a second as Laura takes off on her own. Blue eyes watch her as he speaks to Jean-Phillipe in a low voice. "If she goes batshit crazy again...which is probably going to happen since Sabretooth is here...neutralize her as gently as possible." He then moves forwards and takes off at a job towards the entrance to the mine. Over the comlink he says, "Yeah, I don't need a super sniffer to tell this is definitely a trap. Be careful guys."

Paige Guthrie heads out with Laura, trying to keep up with her, grumbling about Laura 'run off first and ask questions never' approach. Well except the question she asked in the Blackbird, which is why Paige is running after her in the first place. When she catches up with Laura (assuming it's before they get to the side of the wall), she says, "So... that plan still one you want to follow or are we just chuckin' it?"

Beast was following Havoks plan. Then he looks to see the Gen Xers gone. This included his assigned Buddy Husk. He looks at Havok and then sighs, "I don't think the teenagers liked your assigned buddies for the buddy system. Shall I go forth to corral them into returning to mission perimeters or do you have other orders?"

As she bolts on ahead, Husk manages to grab Laura cold by the shoulder with enough force to get X-23 to stop and slow down. She takes a breath, forcing herself to focus. The hunt ahead.. "Sorry." Remindful. Stay with the rest.

Paige Guthrie heads back to the rest of the team once she got Laura to not go on her one woman wrecking crew thing. Takes a moment to catch her breath first. "Okay... the gang's all back again, what now?"

Fantomex pauses at Havok's touch and nods firmly once, silently. There are no walls to try X-23's idea with the acid, unless you want to risk bringing a tunnel down on top of your head; it's an underground coal mine. In either case, Fantomex moves to head behind Laura's point as per Havok's earlier order, though Paige was to be with Hank. He doesn't say anything about the girl not listening and Laura trying to undermine Alex's order with Husk, that is up to Alex to handle. Fantomex is of the mentality, well...if they get squished, real life lessons. Though he notices Husk passing him while heading back as he runs into the tunnel after X-23, and shrugs. He speaks into the comlink, < You going to tell us how we are tracking her Beast, or we just using X-23's super sniffer? >

Laura goes ahead, taking some deep breaths and closing her eyes as she goes to dart along. But not too far ahead. Restraining herself as she goes forwards then. The air, to her, is sitll. She knows there is something ahead. But she cannot pick up what it is. And that is driving her -mad-.

Beast slips an ear piece for a com unit in his ear. He brings up his Ipad mini that he's altered and repeatedly voided the users warranty with software and hardware upgrades, "Fantomex. I am tracking her gps from her tracking bracelet the FBI installed. I am uploading a software packet to everyone one's com link. It will not interfer with communication but they will now bounce a signal back to my ipad unit and trianglate your location in conjuncture to Firefly then it will broad cast a mostly unannoying ping that will become more rapid the closer you get to Firefly. So it is basically playing hot or cold like you were like you did as a child. Sorry for coming up on somehting on such short notice. He tucks away his ipad. Then goes to bring up the rear as instructed by Havok, "Havok we're within 300 feet give or take of her current location."

Paige Guthrie follows behind with Beast, stopping first to husk into vulcanized rubber - just in case Laura decided to take off running again. She peers at Beast's ipad. "I honestly didn't know there was an app for that." she quips.

Fantomex soon pauses again, as Laura passes him to go back to...he sighs dramatically and very Frenchman-like. "This is confusing." And he thought his lack of command made his missions chaotic...but he only deals with adults or has the others deal with the kids, so that must be why. He admires Havok's patience. He waits, once more for Laura to pass him again before he moves out behind her, only if about two yards behind. He has the strap holding one of his handguns undone, so that it will be free to pull quickly.

With Beast's guideance and soon Laura picking up the scent of Sabretooth and Kenzie, the team does find her without any mishap. That is most concerning, especially when in the shadowry tunnel that dead ends, the anklet is found resting beside Kenzie who's wrists are tied up.

Fantomex actually moves forward first, to untie Kenzie's hand and shake her awake, getting her to her feet groggily. Laura can smell the strong scent of Sabretooth, as if he purposely marked this area to taunt her.

As the team works to retreat the way they came, there is a rumble, the feeling of an Earthquake?! Avalanche's work, easy enough to pinpoint. As dust flies and the cieling spits rocks and chunks of dirt at the X'ers, suddenly from a side tunnel there comes a spit of something green and disgusting toward Kenzie's face. As it splatters and quickly hardens. Fantomex moves to pick Kenzie up, realizing he has to get that off her before she suffercates!

Even as Fantomex starts to run inhumanly fast to try and get Kenzie out of there so he can remove the disguisting slime, the world really erupts...

Husk can see in the darkness and on-coming firey lion charging, and she will only have so much time to stop it from closing off their path of retreat. Stepping forward from the darkness as well looks to be Polaris, but suddenly a machine gun is opening fire toward Beast and Havok. And as the dust flies...Fantomex and Kenzie are gone. Laura would have seen it at that last moment, the scent of Sabretooth strong here, a trap door, locked in place once more and the roof caving in toward it.

There's a hiss from Laura as the group locates Kensington. They have gathered Kensington, and she recognizes that Creed /wanted/ her to find this, he's playing a game, well she'll give him..

AMBUSH! And the Inferno itself breaks loose as the heavens thunder. Laura is split from the rest then, unable to get to the trap door after the fleeing Fantomex and Kensington, unable to pick out where everyone is, too MUCH!

She lets out a howl, "FACE ME COWARD!" Aimed at Sabretooth, "Or you going to flee from a youngling!" Desperate now, howling into her communicator then as she starts to slash around wildly with her claws then, having to STOP herself as things ollapse and go chaotic and the team is separated, trying to track the nearest to her - whether friend or enemy as the heavens clash!

Paige Guthrie shrrrips off her skin again. Taking it out in normal combat would take too long before it would be able to cut off the path of retreat so she husks into ... asbestos. At which point she tackles the fiery lion to try to snuff it out. "Yknow, I beat you last time pretty quickly, Pyro. Best two out of three?" she calls out.

If Mystique took on Lorna's form in order to get a rise out of Alex, it doesn't show. When the machine gun begins to fire, Havok dives forwards with his hands out in front of him. He fires a large plasma blast towards the female mutant. Then, he covers his head with his hands as the cave begins to collapse. Now that shook him up a little. He didn't see where Fantomex and Kenzie got to. But he does spot his blue furred partner nearby. "Beast! Are you there!?" The trap was sprung and the situation was dire. For the first time, Havok wasn't sure if they were coming out of this one in tact.

Down Below...Fantomex hits hard, but does not even grunt, having turned his body to protect Kenzie's. He then rolls over quickly, using a gloved hand to grab and rip the hardened slime shell from her face violently. It isn't going to be pleasent, it is going to hurt actually, but it will save her life. "We have to move," he says in a heavy French accent, "NOW." He knows he just fell in a trap with a depowered mutant, and Alex is going to STRANGLE him.

Down Below...Kenzie cries out as the goo is torn from her face, gasping for air as Fantomex grabs her. Kenzie moved to get to her feet, "Ahh know where we are!" she cried "They brought me down here!" she insisted pointing down a tunnel. Lightly flooded, a broken pipe spraying a stream of water into the air. It wasn't very high, so it must be draining somewhere. Kenzie pointed, "There's a tunnel out over there!"

Machine guns, earthquakes, Pyro, Toad, students falling off the face of the Earth with Fantomex. Oh, and Laura bellowing in bestial rage. It's all a bit too much for the good doctor to handle, that and the tight dark spaces. He hits the deck letting Havok destroy the bullets. Then he lets out a feral growl then goes bounding and bouncing off walls dodging and deflecting falling rubble even knocking a piece it away from Havok. The younger Summer's only response from the usually talkative Hank is a growl. s he goes to tackle maul Mystique in a feral rage relying on his shrap but not Logan sharp nor near as impressive claws. Rwar.

Mystique's eyes widen as Beast comes bounding down the tunnels, her first spray of bullets ineffective. As Beast launches at her, she drops down low into a split and falls backwards so he goes just over her, and she feels a tug and tear of her black leather trenchcoat that has appeared since she reshifted into herself. Her legs then snap close and she pulls them in, and then pushes them out with another snap while arching her back and pushing up with her fingers. She comes to her feet, and spins about to start shooting at Beast.

Just as X-23 starts to really lose it, Toad suddenly spits out another wad of disguisting slime to harden and stick Laura's right foot to the ground. This would put her in danger of being squished by the steadily caving in tunnel! "Well luv, looks like tonight isn't your night," the Brit mocks as he launches himself wall to wall to avoid the worse of the falling dirt and rocks before soon bounding down a different tunnel then the X-Men arrived down. Now if X-23 could just have something that fulgy to sink her claws into...

The fire is soon sprayed out, as another burst of flame is working to howl at her with a firey hiss, alright, that wolf isn't quite working out as planned. Still, Pryo can be seen in the wierdly lit darkness from his flames as he grins manically, "Sweetheart, you don't know half of it!" He actually laughs, not fearful of the absetos, he will just try....a BIGGER flame!

Down Below...Fantomex narrows his blue eyes at Kenzie, but then shrugs. She was passed out when they found her, but may have not been earlier. He heads for the area, getting a closer look at it. "Right...how about I stand on your shoulders and you walk through it? I don't want to get mud on my outfit." He then pauses, "Baiser, I have to carry you." He remember Kenzie's powers, and though they have not returned yet, who knows when they will. But yes, the man just cursed in French. He moves to reluctantly get into the water as if it is the worse thing he has EVER done! He then holds his hands out for Kenzie, "Come fille foudre. Let us hurry. Least you get carried Princess style, oui?"

London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down! My fair lady! Laura's in no position to attack. She can't cut through the goop without being crushed in the amount of time it would take to slash through, or risk being crushed in the cave in and having to slash off her foot to get free. So, Laura improvises.

She slashes her claw over on a piece of falling coal. Which acts as flint, which creates a spark. Which lights the piece of coal on bright, hot fire. Not enough to cause an inferno, but enough to cause a sudden burst. The flaming rock is put over on her foot then, the superheat hopefully immediately melting through boot, goo, and probably reducing her foot to a useless mess of bone for the next several hours, but freeing her to hopefully escape or race after the fat frog!

Paige Guthrie rubs the bridge of her nose then runs at where the flames are coming from, and then through them. "Asbestos you jackhole... fireproof? Hello?" she says as she sprays a stream of asbestos into the funnel of his blowtorches. "Fine... simpler chemistry lesson about chemical properties..." she says as she quickly rips off her asbestos skin again to reveal granite skin. Then punches Pyro in the face. "Stone is hard when it hits your face. Lesson over. Questions?"

Down Below...Kenzie's head was lowered slightly as she moved towards Fantomex, wading into the water and putting one arm around him for support. "Don't let go, kay shug?" She smiles slightly. It'll hurt less," she says before reaching up to pull at the flawlessly hidden cable. AS she grabs it, the cable sparks and endrils of electricity enguling the soaked girl!

Havok rolls to his feet and turns when Mystique turns to fire on Beast, Havok brings his fists together and fires at the mutant woman's back. "Watch your back, bitch!" He snarls out before releasing another large plasma blast. He says over the com. "X-Men, status report. Is everyone okay?"

Down Below...Fantomex frowns beneath his mask, "What are you," when Kenzie half falls into the water. He goes to pick her up, but then..., "Baiser." Yes, he just cursed again, and then he is shaking as electricity courses through his body, causing smoke to actually rise from his flesh. It completely fries his communicator, he never gets to hear Havok's words. As Kenzie's passive mutant powers still process the electricty to keep it from really hurting her, there is an issue of discharging it though the water helps a little bit with that.

Down Below...It is only when Kenzie finally pulls the thing back, and the votage decreases to not have constantly feeding electricty that Fantomex actually laughs unevenly due to the shocks still inside the water that are not going away, "Did...you...think that...would hurt me?" He then moves, having no sense of pain and his secondary nervous system is barely affected by the spasms caused by the electricity, while his nano-technology is also already working to enhance his healing system. He grabs the cable and Kenzie, a hand on each while he lifts Kenzie and tosses her up onto the embankment of where they came from and leaps out of the water before he drops the cable. He is dripping wet and muddy, and far from happy. "Suce pour etre vous." (Sucks to be you.) His tone is far from friendly. "Mystique, I presume, how unpleasent to meet you again," as he moves to pull out a gun to aim it at Kenzie.

Beast growls as he bounces to the ground rolls and is coming back towards Mystique like a gorilla. He's dodging the bullets for the most part but one or two do strike him. But they only cause a roar of rage. His only status report a growl. He'll regret the wounds later but they will heal.

Pyro is punched by a granite fist, blood spraying with his nose broken when he falls backwards, his flame thrower useless. "You bitch!" or something like that, it was muffled by him moving a hand to cover his bloody nose.

That is when Toad suddenly shows up around the tunnel, they are linked! He sends a couple spits toward Paige and then lashes out a tongue to capture Pyro and yank him backwards so the two can retreat where the X-Men have come out of.

Blob is yelling down the tunnels, "Come on, aren't they charging out yet? Can I squish them yet?!"

There is a cry of pain and surprise from Mystique as she is attacked from behind, and then a very, very angry Beast is soon in her face!

But then there is a blue clad figure with a gold masked face coming from the darkness, raising a crossbow up. Havok may catch a glimpse of her before she fires.

The crossbow bolt? It lands right in one man's furry behind, right buttock to be exact, and is likely not very pleasent before the sedative takes effect; one strong enough to bring down an elephant. Mystique is then running toward the blue clad figure, who opens her arms to the blue woman, bring her into them before they run back into the tunnels together.

Laura can hear the gunfire stop, it was more noticable when it stopped. The roar of Beast in anger and pain being the most powerful. She can hear her team mates in danger.

Down Below...The downed girl begins to whimper, covering her head, "Don't kill me! I didn't mean to!  I...I...I was just trying to pull my self up!" she whimpered more "I didn't know!"

Paige Guthrie guhs as she gets popped in the face with slimy Toad-spit gunk. Rather than try to get it off of her, she just rips off her skin a third time, in favor of adamantium skin, then runs off after Toad and Pyro, "Get back here ya jerks!" running away from where the other X-Men happen to be.

Down Below...Jean-Phillipe wants to SCREAM! The pounding is already in his head as he promises this quickly, ignoring the damage his body has taken already. The gun is slipped away, but that is only so he can leap at Kensington Young and grab her, twisting her about to slam her hard against the ground. He doesn't have much time. Clasping her wrists powerfully with one wet gloved hand, he raises the other to remove his mask and then moves to yank it down over Kensington's own head. As she twists about, all she may see due to the worse flickering lights due to the electrical surge is black hair. It is only when the mask is on does he release her wrists to better secure the mask and break the telepathic mind control.

Down Below..."Listen to me," he hisses. A click is heard and with her hands free, Kenzie can feel a belt pressed into her hands before Fantomex at least pulls the sword free from the shealth. His guns are still connected to the belt. "Take these things and run, fast and hard." His voice is low as he can hear Victor's feral laughter now as he is running down the tunnel toward the two of them. "Give them to Alex, /only/ to Alex along with my mask. Tell him hi for me, oui?" His voice had soften toward the end as he physically lifts Kenzie up and pushes her into the opposite direction. "Run!" The order is clear. Fantomex just realized...Kenzie was never the target, he was.

Havok rushes to Hank's side as he watches Raven get out with some blue clad female. He didn't bother to persue them as his only concern was his teammate. Hank was heavy and Alex didn't think that he'd be able to carry him out alone. "Husk! Beast is down. I need you here, NOW!" He is not aware of the situation with Fantomex as the white ninja's com unit was fried during his tousle with Kensington.

Bullet wounds and a crossbow bolt in the buttocks does not make for a happy Feral Hank. There's much snarling and growling till the sedative kicks in. Then theres a roar of "Roooorrwww??!" Then Hank lands face first on the ground with his butt up in the air with the crossbow bolt in his butt. He snores and drools as he dreams of a scantly clad Millie Collins, E=MC2, twinkees, and his happy warm lab."

Down Below...Kenzie whimpered, darting along the tunnel. She could barely remember the layout as she cried out for Alex. Her fear and anger at being used again had messed with her fiercely, looking for the exit was difficult. Every tunnel looked the same!

Down Below...the tunnels do look much the same, but the lighting increases a bit as Kenzie travels them. There is no simple exit though as she hears the rumbling above caused by Avalanche, but she does find a ladder as she runs hard, soaking wet, for a good minute and a half. There are roars heard down the tunnel, nasty things in the dark.

Down Below...And that darkness is where Fantomex is, trapped in close quarters with a live wire behind him in water, facing Sabretooth with a damn sword. The fight is intense with Fantomex pulling out moves that he has learned in The World, moves specially designed for a Super Soldier. He forces Sabrertooth back after manages to switch positions, ignoring the shallow wounds that Sabretooth has caused up and down his white and now blood stained form. Though just as Sabretooth's painful cries echo along the lower tunnels, Fantomex finds himself screaming as well. He is without the protection of his mask...

Outside...E.V.A. spins and awaits outside the main entrance near the Blackjet. Her lights flash with worry and panic. She cannot enter though.

Laura is still running, or hobbling over in her current state. Her foot still healing from the burns, but she keeps going along as she approaches where she can smell Havok. Still not there yet, comming in, "Approaching. Enemy not all present." She's not actually -fought- anyone yet on this excursion, and her own motion is crippled as she heads towards the other two she knows the position of.

Paige Guthrie runs after Pyro and Toad and smacks right into the Blob. She says into the radio, "Lost two of them but I found a third... I'll try to be there soon." As Blob starts gloating at her, to which Paige, who's read enough about Blob's primarily weakness, starts punching him with adamtnium fists in his face - especialy his eyes, nose, ears, etc.

Off camera, there's a lot of 'oof! Rrrgh! Agh!' coming from the tunnels where Paige and the Blob are located.

Havok growls under his breath and then bends his knees, attempting to hoist the heavy Beast onto his back. "You are going to have to lay off the homemade twinkies, buddy." He half drags-carries Beast towards where the two women disappeared. He's not trying to persue them, but hopefully a way out is in that direction. "Hurry it up, Husk. Anyone heard from Fantomex or Kensington?"

Nearing the top of the ladder Kenzie cries out again. She was on the edge of total shutdown. She couldn't handle being violated like this, it was too much. Finally reaching the top, she just curled up and called for help. She didn't want to move and risk endangering her life further, she was helpless without her powers.

Paige Guthrie comes out of the cave entrance, pulling along Blob. Fortunately, the Blob's unmovable ability doesn't seem to work if he's unconscious .... which he is, courtesty of Paige. "Got one...." she says as she stops dragging once they're outside. "Talk about dead weight..."

Beast drools on Alex, and as he hears the word twinkees he mumbles, "Millie Collins such a hottie want to touch the hinny."

Outside...E.V.A. is gone from the Blackjet by the time Paige exits. The tunnels are crumbling on its own, Avalanche having feld by now. Laura soon arrives to help Havok drag Beast out. She does not have the leverage he does with her foot still healing, but she has the extra strength he needs to get Hank out as the tunnels close behind them.

In the meantime...there is suddenly a silver hand reaching out toward Kenzie, grasping her wrist to lift her up out of the dark and terrible tunnel with ease. "E.V.A. is here now." As if that will make everything alright. That is when E.V.A. sees the mask on Kenzie's face and knows. She moves to wrap an arm methodically about the girl's shoulders if she permits it, to lead her back to the others. The woman appears to have jewel red hair, but it is hard and sticking up like petals almost. Her eyes glow with an orange energy, and she has a little bit of a computerized voice though feminine. She certainly wears no clothes, yet there is nothing indecent about her silvery body.

Kenzie doens't speak, simply being led by the strange woman. She can't understand why she felt safe but she did.

Laura shakes her head over at Havok, cocking her head over in the air then as she listens, "No, I cannot.. Hear him." She takes a breath, going to look over Hank then, "I can take him." She moves to, if needed, pick up Hank to free Havok to go and head up to the surface to reconnoiter, "The rest of the Brotherhood..?" Where are they?

As soon as Laura relieves him of Hank, he takes off like a shot back into the mine. He had to find Fantomex and Kensington. He didn't see either one of them come out. Any debris that bars his way gets blasted as he makes his way towards their last location. "Where are you, Frenchman?"

The two females are walking toward the group as the noise settles behind them in the mines. Kenzie wears Fantomex's mask and carries his belt which has his two guns attached to. The silvery female keeps an arm about Kenzie's shoulders, her expression blank. As the two soon stop by the others an almost stillness is there, giving Kenzie time to register them there, and for the others to perhaps get over their surprise at the silvery female:

"Jean-Phillipe is dead. I wish to go retrieve his body now that I have learned to take a humanoid form to do so." E.V.A. sounds so calm and practical, there is no panic in her any longer. What is done is done, and cannot be undone. "Is Beast of acceptable health?" Her head tilts slightly at the blue and snoring mutant before she then pats Kenzie's shoulder. "It will be fine child. Will you make sure no one plays with Jean-Phillipe's things till I come to claim them? They are very important to them, keep them secured so no one looks." As if that is important and she does not think that she could be tempting fate with teenagers.

Paige Guthrie looks at E.V.A. then at everyone else. "Uh.... what's going on now? Who's she? What does she mean Jean-Phillippe's dead?"

Havok skids to a stop as a sliver looking female walks out with Kensington. The words that Jean-Phillipe is dead reaches his ears and it feels he just got punched in the gut by Juggernaut. The words were on his lips to deny such a claim. Fantomex couldn't really be gone, could he? But he sees the belt with the guns and the mask that Jean-Phillipe would never part with and he realizes that it's true. He recognizes EVA and slowly sinks down to the ground with his hand over his mouth.

"E.V.A. I...I.." The words won't come. Havok's vision threatens to blur but he shakes it off for the moment. He could grieve later. Right now the team depended on him. He stands up slowly and takes in a shaky breath. "Get on the jet. We've got people hurt and we need to get them medical attention." He takes the guns from Kensington and then ushers her towards the Blackjet as he nods to EVA. "Will you bring his body back to the school when you retrieve it?

It's been an exhausting day. All the more strained and agonized by that she's just been running over from one point to another, and just falling over her face. There's a sharp, pained, look of anger oer on her face. Then of anguish. X-23 takes a breath then, and feels for Hank's pulse, making sure he's still with them. She scans the perimeter again, closing her eyes. She responds on autopilot, going along with Hank then as she heads upwards with the rest. To home.

Paige Guthrie shakes her head in confusion. "WAIT... WHO IS SHE AND WHAT DOES SHE MEAN JEAN PHILLIPPE IS DEAD?"

Blob groans a bit on the ground, which is responded by Paige kicking him in the face with an adamantium foot. No more groaning from him. "WHATS GOING ON?!"

Kenzie didn't speak when Alex took the weapons from her, shrinking slightly at everyones reactions before being ushered onto the jet. She crouched down, tugging an emergency medical kit into her lap and just absently begins to fish through it, her eyes looking nearly vacant from behind Fantomex's mask. It saved her from that man's control, and likely saved her life. She wouldn't let that sacrafice go to waste. Digging more and more, Kenzie seemed to be looking for something specific within the kit.

E.V.A. then tilts her head slightly at Paige. "I am E.V.A., Jean-Phillipe's primary nervous system, a Techno-Organism. I am his sentient mutation, I came from his mouth." It is almost as if she is repeating a story, it is ironically one that Jean-Phillipe has told Alex once. She holds up one hand, pointer finger a little bit away from thumb, "I was only this large at first, it happened when his voice broke for the first time. I was very excited about existing, though it appears Jean-Phillipe's death has jump-started my own evolution."

But she then nods to Alex and moves to send Kenzie up the ramp. "I will patch through the comlink to speak with you Alex. In the meantime, Jean-Phillipe has other plans for his body that I must put into motion. I will pick up his things later." She then pauses, before saying, "Thank you Alex."

E.V.A. then turns about and departs while a very firm metal-like rear sways. She heads back to the ladder that Kensington Young climbed up, and will decend in the depths of the tunnels while the Blackbird jet rises to the air with Havok at the controls. Paige is likely still turning over E.V.A. perhaps surprising detailed description that didn't quite answer her question, while also having to deal with a criminal, a hurt Hank, a grumpy Laura, a in-shock Kenzie, and an in-shock and grieving Alex.

It is only a fifteen minutes later before Alex can hear within his comlink alone, < I have found him. He appears in-tact for the most part. His sword is missing however. There are claw markings, but Sabretooth does not have the skill level to do this alone. My telepathic link was cut off to him sometime during the fight. I suspected a telepath involved when I saw Miss Young wearing his telepathic blocking mask. You will need to warn your school that the Brotherhood has a new member. > Again, so practical, but at least Alex knows.

On the Blackbird, Laura straps Hank over to the automated medical unit then, then glances over to Paige. She is not in any state now to deal with Kensington herself, and she takes a breath, pointing over at Paige, "Help her." She's emotionally ehxausted to the point of disintegration herself.

Paige Guthrie frowns. "Friggin vulcan immune system is telling me one of our own just got killed... this AINT NORMAL. Not enough answers." Too many things to do. She takes Kenzie on board and over to the seat, stopping to give the unconscious Blob another kick before putting Kenzie into her seat and strapping her in. "But we'll get some."

Kensington just throws the medkit across the jet before slaming her fists into the armrests. She didn't speak, but she likely didnt have to. Pulling the mask off of her face, Kensington moves to find Havok at the control panel in front of her, only to find that Paige had guided her to a seat and seat belted her. She will wait...having the empty mask to stare back at her for now.

Havok listens calmly to E.V.A.'s report and he replies. "I understand. Please tell his Mother to contact me should she need anything, E.V.A. hat goes for you, too." After setting the jet on autopilot, he turns around in his chair. "I know you all have a lot of questions, and I promise I will answer those that I can. We've lost one of our own today and though things are hard right now, our mission isn't over until we get back to the mansion." His voice cracks slightly, even though he's trying his damndest to be calm. "He is..was..a great warrior, teacher, and friend. He will be missed." He turns back around in the chair and contacts the mansion, letting Xavier know what their status is, and about the man who will never be returning home.