(A/N) - Well hello, and welcome back to my profile for the 19th volume in the 714 Universe - brought to you by myself and robbiepoo2341!
This is kind of a special volume for us, and I hope you enjoy it as we go through a whole. LOT. Of Very Important Things. So with no further ado - we would like to present the first installment of "Stars In Your Eyes".
Chapter 1: Missing, Wounded, And Dead
Jubilee was stuck on forced bed rest for the last part of her pregnancy, and she was fairly miserable about it. Not only was she carrying a speedy little half-Kree with a sped-up gestational period ... she was carrying two of them. And while it certainly explained why her scent had been off so fast and why she had been even sicker than with Sying... that just meant that now, a couple weeks from her due date, Hank was watching her like the proverbial hawk to make sure that things went as smoothly as it was possible for them to go, all things considered.
Which meant that she was miserable, curled on her side, and feeling rather bruised as a couple very strong babies were fighting with each other and her spine — and on her wedding anniversary, too.
It was only marginally more tolerable when she figured in that both K and Annie were helping to make her more comfortable, but they were quite a bit slower than the first time around, since from time to time, they would have to stop what they were doing, too. Occasionally, Annie had to sit down or lean on someone since the dizziness for her this time around was awful. K of course, was just irritating the crap out of all the other girls with her disgustingly mild symptoms. Or at least with her ability to ignore all but the very worst symptoms which she only really acknowledged when she was alone.
Which was the state of things when Kurt came down to visit — walking through the doors rather than teleporting. He and the bamfs were temporarily pulling back on all the brimstone and smoke because of all the sensitive noses around the place, which the ladies were all grateful for. He had his phone in his hand and a grin on his face, though, and he sat down beside Jubilee. "Kamala has been sending pictures of her little boy, and she says to tell you she won the race," he teased her gently.
"Oh, how nice for her," Jubilee grumbled as she hugged her pillow a little tighter, though the grump melted away when Kurt showed her the pictures of little Bashir and his perfect black curls. And on seeing the photos, she very unexpectedly teared up and started bawling.
This was, of course, very concerning to Sying, who escaped his dad's grasp, slipped under his arms, and rushed over to Jubilee with a look of pure worry. "What's wrong, Mommy?" he asked, clearly ready to help any way he could.
But Jubilee shook her head, unable to answer him as she instead pulled him closer and kissed his temple. In response, he reached up and hooked his arms around her neck and kissed her on the end of her nose.
Noh peeked over her shoulder at the pictures and broke into a grin. "He looks just like his mother," he said with a small laugh. "Perhaps he'll start a trend, and we'll have two little Jubilees."
"But then I won't get my little girls with white hair," Jubilee replied through a sniffle.
"Well," he said as he reached around to snuggle both her and Sying. "They can have my hair — and everything else shall be yours."
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes," Jubilee said as she tried to settle back in. "I'm so freakin' ready for this to be over."
"Hank said just a couple more weeks," Annie said, leaning against the chair. "Lucky you," she added with a teasing smile.
"Weeks my ear," Jubilee mumbled.
"I know it feels like years when there are two," Annie said sympathetically.
Jubilee grumbled and let out a sigh. "You're too … positive. Stop it."
"Can't help it," Annie teased. "Just how God made me."
"Want me to throw her out?" K offered. "Won't take but a minute."
"I will toss my cookies all over you if you try," Annie warned, one finger leveled K's way.
"That's more realistic," Jubilee giggled.
"Just being honest," Annie pointed out.
"Well, that's easier to listen to than cheerleading," Jubilee said. "And K probably would go beat someone up for me if I asked. Which is just nice to know."
"That's 'cause Grammy K is the best," Sying said matter-of-factly.
"Yes, she is," Noh agreed, ruffling Sying's hair before he scooped him up. "Come on; let's go find Krissy and Kari, shall we? They should be up from their naps by now." He glanced at Kurt, who nodded with a little smile at that.
"Okay," Sying said before he waved at the women. "Bye for now."
They were all sure to wave back, and of course, as soon as Sying and Noh were gone, Annie burst out with, "He is going to be the sweetest big brother of all time. You know that, right?"
"Of course he is. Have you met his father?" Jubilee pointed out. "He has no choice."
"And with the grandparents to spoil them ... those two girls…" Annie shook her head. "You'll never have a need for babysitters."
Meanwhile, outside on the mansion lawn, a small group of kids were already playing with Logan by the time Kurt and Noh arrived with Sying and the elflings. No one was surprised to see that Logan had Charlie dangled upside down and was tickling her, and all three of the newly arrived little ones simply rushed over so they could play too, little choruses of "me next" and "no me" already sounding out over the lawn.
Anyone who didn't want to try to take Logan down, though, had a nice swing to swing on, as Leslie Ann was up a tree nearby and was more than happy to make little swings out of vines and branches — which was where Cody was, contentedly sipping from a sippy cup and watching the others play, despite Magda's best attempts to cajole him into joining the fun.
Eventually, Logan was "defeated," and the kids went from celebrating their victory to playing tag with Noh and the bamfs. Kurt was grinning ear to ear as he helped Logan to his feet.
"They all love you," Kurt said, clearly enjoying himself. "And your army is only getting bigger — Kamala's little boy arrived last night."
"Yeah, Kate already hit me with the pictures," Logan said as he brushed himself off. "Apparently, Kamala got shy to send 'em to everyone herself."
Sying zipped over to where the two of them were with a wide grin as he tugged on Logan's sleeve and was already half climbing up Logan's side before Logan helped him up the rest of the way. "Miss Kamala has a pretty baby boy," he told Logan with a wide grin. "He's gonna be best friends with my baby sisters."
"You think so, kiddo?" Logan asked as he readjusted how the little boy was settled on his hip.
"Mmhmm." He nodded a few times over. "But he's gotta be nice, because they're my baby sisters."
"And you will be a very good big brother," Kurt agreed, taping the very tip of the little boy's nose.
"I'm gonna take care of my flickor," Sying giggled. "I asked Elin all about being bigger. And Chance and Charlie and Gerry and Krissy!"
"They're all very excited for you to be a big brother too," Kurt said with a warm smile.
Sying looked even more delighted at that before he wriggled to be let down then rushed over to go play with the others, laughter and squeals echoing over the lawn... right up until a shrill alarm split the air, prompting everyone with enhanced senses to cover their ears.
The adults all glanced at each other as the bamfs all rushed to try to teleport the kids out of danger — only to frown and look incredibly fretful when that didn't work. Leslie Ann's swingset fell out of the tree — and then she followed, landing on her feet with wide eyes. "What's going on?"
"Just move," Logan urged as he rushed toward the house — away from the kids. "Let the bamfs take you somewhere safe!"
But she fell into step with him — or as fast as she could, anyway — shaking her head. "They're taking care of the little kids," she said, gesturing to where Kurt and the bamf were trying to find the edge of the dampening field so they could teleport everyone to safety, the oldest in the group holding their younger siblings' hands. "C'mon, Logan. I'm on the team now — let me help."
He glanced over his shoulder and nodded. "Move it if you're comin'," he called back. "Gotta draw their attention away from the little ones."
"I could be more distracting if the powers were on," Leslie Ann said as she poured on a little speed.
"Never let it hold me back," he replied.
"Yeah, but I bet walking trees would be real distracting," she said with a crooked smirk.
"It'd be beautiful, little darlin'," he agreed. "But now ain't the time."
The two of them ran toward the house, passing Rachel and Bobby on the way with the rest of the kids who hadn't been outside playing, Bobby was carrying Amadi and Rachel had Jayce as they rushed to catch up with the others and beat whatever was incoming. The rest of the X-Men were pouring out of the house, too — though they were ready for a fight to defend the house.
Tyler caught up with the two of them first out of everyone that had been inside and looked to Logan. "K's got Jubilee — she and Annie are getting all the girls to the Danger Room," he said, a bit out of breath.
"She gonna stay there with 'em?" Logan asked, looking stressed, since he knew that there was no way K was going to ignore an all out attack on the kids and students like that.
Tyler frowned. "Annie and Lorna said they'd keep her there."
"With no abilities, how's that gonna happen?" Logan growled out.
With the slightest smirk, Tyler admitted, "Annie promised to puke on her if it would help."
Logan shook his head. "Yeah, that wouldn't stop her." The two of them headed toward where the invasion was moving into the house already — though the kids that were still attending classes were already rushed out into the safe rooms in the basement that Noh and Forge had designed.
Leslie Ann wasn't the only one of the students who had stayed behind to try and help with the fight, and as Leslie Ann flipped a soldier over her shoulder in a move she had learned from Logan, she glanced up to see that her best friend, Jana, was doing nearly the same thing nearby.
Jana was actually a much better hand-to-hand fighter than she was, too, since her powers didn't exactly do much in a fight, so Leslie Ann made her way closer to her friend, glad to have her around. Nearby, Logan and Tyler were fighting way out of her league, and she did not want to get close to the soldiers that were ganging up on those guys.
"Have you seen Sylvia and Brye?" Jana called out to Leslie Ann, but Leslie Ann just shook her head.
"I'm sure they're somewhere."
"Typical. First invasion with the team together and we don't actually have the team together."
Leslie Ann rolled her eyes at that. "What, you don't think we can take them?"
Jana snorted. "Just try and keep up."
From the hall that led to the lower levels, a growl echoed around them — and Logan immediately abandoned the fight he was in to rush toward the sound, clearly in a near panic. When he got to them, K had managed to clear out a pretty good swath of soldiers all on her own, but since their abilities were turned off, her recovery time to catch her breath or heal from the more minor bumps and scrapes was the same as anyone else's — and it was exactly what the soldiers had needed to get her down.
As was to be expected, Logan dove in headfirst in her defense, but it turned out that Weapon X had actually counted on him doing exactly that, and they were waiting for him to make his move. Without his healing working properly, it was a pretty simple matter of a few heavy sedation darts — followed quickly by some adamantium-proofed restraints as soon as he was even halfway on the ground. K was in a similar situation, though not drugged — and seeing the two of them was just enough to get Elin to try to rush from her hiding place, screaming for both of them.
She barely made it halfway down the hall before one of the soldiers slung his rifle and scooped her up, chuckling that the little girl thought she could get away from him so easily. She was struggling hard and doing everything her little size would allow her to do to get loose, crying for both of her parents as the three of them were carted off.
Tyler's fight, meanwhile, had taken him much further from the group, and while he had managed to get through a large swath of them, he wound up far from Logan, K, and Elin. He was fairly winded and just trying to get his breath back when he saw several of the soldiers rushing in a different direction as the rest, so he bounded forward to investigate.
He went from curiosity to concern, though, when he saw that there was a large group of them trying to break into the medical wing — and when he overheard the instructions about not drugging any of the pregnant women when they got hold of them, all he could think for a moment was that Tammy was one of that group before he let out a loud snarl that echoed the hallway, bounding forward with his claws out.
It didn't matter that he knew Tammy wasn't behind that door — since K had told him she had the girls under control down in the Danger Room. He knew this wasn't the only group trying to get to them, and by God, he'd tear them apart too.
The snarl was the only warning that the soldiers had. They had been so focused on breaking in that they didn't see him coming, and for as mad as Tyler was, that was no help to them at all. He tore through the group of them, his growl echoing the hall the whole time he was working.
In the middle of his rage, he had to stop, his hackles raised, when he heard Elin screaming for him — but only for a moment before the soldier carrying her covered her mouth with his hand. When he realized he couldn't hear Elin anymore, he broke into a roar and bounded toward where he'd heard her, somehow even more livid than before as he tried to cut his way over, though the closer he got to where he'd heard Elin, the thicker the soldiers were.
Until, very suddenly, they scattered.
Tyler was panting, half leaned against the wall as he tried to get it back. No powers meant no healing, and for as much damage as he'd done, it wasn't like the soldiers had been kind trying to fight back. He knew he didn't have it in him to go after them, so he reached for the comm, still trying to get a breath. "I can't find Logan or K or Elin," he panted. He was still mad, itching to go after them, but he just couldn't. He was spent. "I heard them take Elin."
"I've got it," Bobby replied. "I think I see them … I'll figure something out."
"We need someone deeper in the house, too. They're looking for the girls," Tyler said, already gathering himself to make a run for the Danger Room. Powers or no, he had to make sure Tammy was alright.
Inside the Danger Room, the ladies of the X-Men who were still pregnant — minus K — had holed up with Erik, Billy, and Tommy. It was really just a lucky coincidence that Billy had come down to visit and update his brother and Erik on how the adoption journey was going — still no hits, but they were hopeful. Or an unlucky coincidence, depending. Either way, it meant that the ladies weren't by themselves.
Billy had of course dedicated himself entirely to making Jubilee feel better, since now she was miserable and stuck in the Danger Room and there was an invasion. "Always on my anniversary," she was muttering under her breath as Billy tried to hold her hand and rub her back.
"Yeah, that sucks. I'm sorry," he muttered to her.
For the first little while after the alarm had sounded, the only sound in the room was Billy trying to make Jubilee feel better — and Tommy handed a bow to Kate "just in case" from the locker rooms outside the Danger Room.
But then there was a new sound — a sort of dull pounding at the door that had everyone inside on edge when they realized what it was. Someone was trying to get inside.
Tammy stretched out a hand and then frowned. "Powers still aren't back on," she muttered.
"If they were, we wouldn't have to worry about them getting in," Lorna agreed with a narrowed-eyes expression that didn't look like it quite belonged on her face.
The sound seemed to get louder and louder, and Tommy had settled into a fighting stance, with Kate holding a bow and ready to shoot whoever came through the door first, when Tyler's warning came over Tommy's radio — not only that the Howletts had been taken but that those in the room were targets as well.
"Oh, that is just not gonna happen," Kate said through her teeth as, to prove her point, she strung a fourth arrow, this one the more explosive kind, just waiting for the soldiers to either get through — or to get torn to shreds by someone on the other side.
There was a loud explosion, and the door finally started to sag, and they could see light starting to come in under the door as, with a loud scraping sound, the soldiers outside started to pull it back.
"I really need to have another one of those Stark guns put in here for stuff like this," Annie said with an expression that read she was ready to fight.
"Next time," Kate agreed through the corner of her mouth, her gaze on the door.
But when it peeled back further, the group of them all had to pause, and Tommy stepped forward slightly, his head tipped to the side. "Laura," he called out in relief. "Oh man, it's good to see you. We so need backup against these guys." He gestured to the girls and to Billy — who was hopeless with hand to hand combat — and Erik — who was powerful, but not nearly up to where he was in his prime and had really always relied too much on his powers anyway.
But Laura didn't acknowledge Tommy at all except to rush him — and in an instant, Tommy was silent, claws protruding from between his shoulder blades as the room rang with the snikt sound of Laura's claws. She pulled her claws free of him, and the white-haired young man simply hit the ground heavily, the thud muffled by the sound that Billy made on seeing Tommy fall.
For a long moment, everyone in the room simply stared, disbelieving, as Laura turned from Tommy and fixed her gaze on the rest of them without a word. A bit delayed, Kate let her arrows fly, but the explosives hit the soldiers who were trying to file in after Laura — the other three arrows hit Laura, though Kate's aim was off entirely and not a one of them was a solid shot. She was too shocked to aim right.
It was enough to set Laura back, though, and enough to draw the attention of anyone who had been headed down to the Danger Room to the fact that there was trouble — and an instant later, Tammy's eyes widened when she heard Tyler snarling outside. Though it was Cassie and Hisako that climbed through the ruined door to tackle Laura.
The only positive side of the dampener being on was that Laura wasn't immune to it any more than the others were. Even though Kate's shots weren't instantly fatal, they were enough to bleed her out — particularly when paired with how much blood she was losing after Hisako cracked her in the back of the head and pressed a spot on her arm that forced her to retract her claws.
With Laura down, the girls turned their attention to Tommy. Erik was the first to get there, kneeling next to the badly injured young man with a look of devastation ... until he paused. "He's still breathing," he whispered out.
That was all Cassie needed to hear as she burst back through the door looking for Tyler. The tall young man was leaning against the wall, clearly wiped and barely supporting himself as it was, but Cassie slipped under his arm. "Tommy's hurt," she said simply, her eyes shining and her voice shaking.
"I can't do anything to fix it until the dampener is off, but I can at least triage him," Tyler said as he gently knelt down next to Tommy and started trying to assess how bad off he was, quickly putting pressure on the wounds as best he could.
When the alarms had gone off, Scott had his hands full with James, since he'd offered to feed the little guy while K was helping with Jubilee and Logan had been fighting off almost everyone under the age of ten with the last name of Summers out on the lawn. It was the least he could do.
With the bamfs and Kurt unable to teleport, Scott scooped up the little guy, who was holding his ears, and rushed for the basement to get him somewhere safe. They were nearly there when the first few soldiers started to burst into the house, and Scott glanced at James for a second before he set the little guy down in an open classroom and motioned for him to stay put.
"Don't. Move," he said seriously.
James nodded back at him with a perfectly business-like look on his face.
Scott spared him one last look before he dove in to grapple with the soldiers who thought they could come into his school like this. Even without powers, for as mad as Scott was, the few who had come down those halls quickly regretted it.
He let out a little muffled oof when one of the soldiers got a foot in his stomach, but before the guy could follow it up with the shot he was clearly lining up, Scott grabbed the rifle as well and used it to pull the guy closer, slamming him into the wall before he wrenched the rifle from his grip and cold-cocked him with it.
That was the last of that group, but he knew that wasn't everyone who had been in the mansion, so he made a quick check of himself — he wasn't bleeding anywhere James could see — and ran back to the classroom to get his godson.
"You doing alright, bud?" he asked as soon as he had scooped James up.
James wrapped his arms around Scott's neck and buried his face, nodding.
"Come on. We're getting out of here, somewhere the bad guys can't find us," Scott promised, readjusting the way he was holding James so he could hold one hand on the back of his head and hug him tighter to his chest as he stepped out in the hallway and made a run for it, hitting the basement steps fast even as Tyler's report came over the comms.
Of course, that got Scott to hold James a little tighter until he hit one of the safe rooms and slipped inside with the little guy. "Alright, we're safe now," he promised, though he hadn't put James down at all. "How about we turn the radio on and see what's happening? When it's clear, we can go find everyone."
James nodded, and the two of them settled in, listening to the radio until Scott heard an unfamiliar voice over the air:
…. Pull back. We got at least part of what we came for. We can come back for the rest. There's still time. All the Howletts are packed up. The rest of them won't be a problem later.
He instinctively tightened his hold on James at that and went to his comm. "Who's missing?" he asked with a frown, worried already at the answer.
"We have not seen Storm since she and Bobby went with Rachel to try to retrieve our feral friends," Noh said, sounding winded.
"I'd like a check in from everyone," Scott said.
"The bamfs and I have the girls. Krissy, Charlie, Kari ... and Sying," Kurt said. "Cody is here too…" He seemed to be counting. "Amadi… Jayce…" He stopped. "That's all."
"Who has Chance?" Scott asked with clear strain in his voice.
He could hear Kurt arguing with a few bamfs before: "He's not here, and neither is Magda." He paused. "They might have followed Rachel. Chance was sticking close to his big sisters."
"Alright, regroup," Scott said. "I'm headed to the ready room see what I can find on intel on where they're going. Forge, get the jet ready."
"I'm on it," Forge said.
"Has anyone seen Henry?" Annie cut in over the comms.
"Is there something wrong?" Scott asked, comm in hand as he decided to reroute to the Danger room with James hanging on tight.
"It's Tommy; he's fading fast," she replied, sounding distressed. "Tyler's doing what he can, but he's going to need something much … more."
"Be easier if I had my healing," Tyler said, sounding strained.
"Who's outside to find the dampener?" Scott asked as he began looking up and down the halls on his way to the Danger Room for any sign of Henry.
"I can look," Noh said. "I cannot promise my usual speed, but I can look."
"I'll send the bamfs to the edge of the lawn to search as well," Kurt offered.
When he rounded the corner, Scott was surprised to see the door to the Danger Room wrenched open, practically off its hinges. "James," he said low to the little boy, "cover your eyes, okay?"
James nodded and immediately put both hands over his eyes before he leaned forward into Scott's shoulder.
When they got there, Scott was immediately glad he'd had James cover his eyes, because it looked like Tommy was in a very bad spot. Tyler was doing what he could, but the simple matter was that he needed surgery. And he needed it about ten minutes ago.
It was like watching Billy fall apart over the adoption all over again to see him leaning into Lorna, though it was Erik's expression that was the most telling. Scott had seen that exact look just before his team had been trashed. Likely the only reason he wasn't going after someone was that he was kneeling next to Tyler to help put pressure on Tommy's chest.
"I've found the dampening field generator," Noh's voice rang out over the comms, and an instant later, Tyler changed his focus entirely, putting his efforts into his powers to heal what he could.
"We're still gonna need Hank," Tyler said, sounding strained.
"If you can get him stable enough to move, I can get him there," Tammy offered. "Float him through the doors."
"Let me," Lorna offered, one arm still around Billy's shaking shoulders as she extended a hand to move the door aside and out of their way.
"Do you want me to take him?" Annie asked Scott gently as Tommy's family — along with Tammy and Tyler — rushed down to the medical wing with Tommy. Jubilee was a wreck, crying into Kate's shoulder ... and Laura was still out cold on the Danger Room floor.
"We can go with the bamfs," Kate offered over Jubilee's shoulder. "You guys go get our friends, and we'll keep you abreast."
James leaned forward a little bit and grabbed Scott by both sides of his face before he gave him a little kiss on the cheek and started to wriggle out of his arms. Annie caught him before he could wriggle too far, which freed Scott up to run to the war room.
Both Lorna and Erik were with Wanda's twins, but one of them would be his best bet at finding Logan and K… though he'd check the radar and satellite first. With Tommy in the shape he was, he wasn't about to pull them back from that.
In the medical bay, Billy was still half clinging onto Lorna's arm as the two of them sat nearby watching Hank and Tyler get to work. Hank had pulled the surgical drape, and while Tyler was doing his best to help, his body was prioritizing his own healing over Tommy's, so really, Tommy's best bet was how quickly Hank could get him fixed up.
Erik was pacing beside the two of them as Hank got to work, the sound of the monitors Tommy was hooked up to and the clink of Hank's instruments, as well as the low whispers between Tyler and Hank as they worked, the only noise in the room.
That is… until Scott got there with Laura — who was still healing and looked furious. She wasn't fighting Scott as he led her into the medical bay, nor did she argue with him when he told her she'd be staying separate from the others until they were sure she was clear of the department's hold on her. Though that might have been because Scott had already promised to call Gabby — who was worried sick about her sister.
"She was on a date when they found me," Laura said, clearly distressed and on the verge of some kind of emotional outburst. "And then… I could not stop them from forcing me to help them find my family."
"We'll get them back, Laura," Scott swore.
Erik stopped in his pacing after a moment, a frown suddenly creasing his face. It wasn't because Tommy's vital signs were erratic — that had been going on for a while — but because he had just realized... "Where is Elin?" he asked.
"She and her parents are missing," Scott admitted. He didn't look happy about it. "We can't find Magda or Chance, either — or Storm, Bobby, or Rachel."
"They were taken?" Erik asked, fury flashing in his eyes.
"It looks like it," Scott said. "I'm trying to track down anything on radar, satellite…"
But Lorna wasn't paying attention to what Scott was saying anymore, her gaze on Erik, her eyes wide — and she had positively forgotten to breathe for a moment. "Daddy," she said softly.
Erik turned her way to see the pure worry there in her eyes — and the look on Billy's face as he was still half watching the monitors. Lorna couldn't move for the fact that Billy was holding onto her so hard. When the instruments flatlined, both Tyler and Hank swore and redoubled their efforts and Billy simply fell apart on Lorna's shoulder, sobbing unrestrainedly as she tried her best to try and soothe him, even scooting their chairs further away so they couldn't hear the machines — metal-lined chairs were handy in a moment like that.
Billy was clutching Lorna to himself, not even trying to hold anything back — though when the lights started to flicker in time with the shuddering gasps, Hank had to tell Lorna and Erik to get him out of there.
Erik moved to relieve Lorna of Billy so she could actually get to her feet, and Billy didn't seem to really be aware of much as he leaned into Erik too, trying to get hold of himself enough not to wreck the medical wing for anyone else who had been hurt — and that was almost everyone in the house — holding his breath to do so.
