The attack came with no warning, that very day, shortly before noon.
Inside the mansion, everyone was interacting, having fun, talking. John and Roberto had teamed up against Amara and Tabitha for a game of pool, guys vs. girls. Scott and Jean were up in the room, studying for some big finals coming up and also some early preparation for graduation. Rogue was busy trying to avoid Remy, who seemed to be waiting around every corner for her with a smile and open arms. Piotr trained in the Danger Room with Victor, none of whom spoke to one another, except perhaps vague nods of approval or various sneers of disgust.
Charles, Eric and Hank were in the labs, studying the mutant cells, trying to find the cause of the mutant phenomenon. And the rest had become coach potatoes, watching Saturday morning cartoons in the lounge. KidsWB never had a more loyal audience than the New Recruits. Especially Jamie.
Suddenly an explosion went off, and another, big booms that sent everybody's attention towards them. Scott rushed to the window, seeing that the gates had been blown down, and a black tank-like vehicle was crashing over the twisted metal, driving down towards the mansion. To make matters worse, swat soldiers, like they'd seen before, were scaling the walls, marching towards the mansion in organized, efficient sweeps.
The automated defenses weren't working, inside or outside of the mansion... something had gone wrong...
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Kurt and Amanda were enjoying an early lunch in the dining room when they'd first heard the explosions. Suddenly the window was blown off its hinges by a small grenade, sending them both scuttling for cover behind the kitchen table. Two troopers stormed in, tasers raised as they took aim. Kurt, thinking quickly, grabbed Amanda and the two of them flipped the table up and ducked down behind it as the taser bolts slapped into the table harmlessly.
"Let's get out of here!" he shouted, as he grabbed Amanda's hand and the two took off with the troopers in pursuit. Midway down the hall they slammed into an astonished Rogue and Remy, who'd been running in the sounds of the explosion in the kitchen.
The troopers had brought company, four more joined them and piled into the hallway, the first two ducking down and taking aim at the same time as the second two behind them. Rogue and Kurt flipped backwards as four taser lines snapped off, narrowly missing their feet. Kurt landed awkwardly, still unused to his current form's lack of agility, while Rogue landed with the grace of an acrobat. Remy grabbed her and quickly got the two of them out of the line of fire in a nearby room.
Kurt was about to grab Amanda and perform a similar move when the last two troopers moved forward, one getting off a lucky shot and Amanda screamed as close to a thousand volts ripped through her system, dropping her like a sack of flour.
Kurt, enraged, his eyes almost burning with anger, did the stupidest thing he'd ever done in his life. So stupid the sane part of him wondered if he had been spending too much time watching Jackie Chan movies. He leapt forward, fist and feet flying, right towards the troopers, one of whom grabbed a cattle prod from his belt and slammed it into Kurt's chest, knocking him to the ground alongside Amanda.
"Scheisse," he cursed, struggling to try and get back up as the two converged on them. "Ich bin traurig, daß ich Sie verließ, Amanda."
Then all went dark.
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Troopers slammed in through the windows, and Scott yanked back his head as tasers lines burst down the hallway towards his head, sliding back into Jean's room, shutting the door and pushing her dresser in front of it.
Jean had already taken charge herself, climbing up on her bed and sliding a secret panel from overhead. Scott placed his hands together, giving her a foothold, and she slid up and into the upper passageway, giving him a hand up just as the door burst open and troopers filed in, narrowly missing them as the secret panel was slid into place.
"Okay we're safe," he whispered in the dark. "What now?"
"We have to alert the others... quick... I think some were in the rec room," she said as she started to crawl forward down the narrow passage. Scott's more, instinctive drives were quickly overwhelmed by the sense of danger, and he ignored watching Jean as he crawled after her.
"Okay... we alert them, join Professor X in the labs, and take elevator to the blackbird... we can escape that way."
The secret tunnels had been constructed with this sort of invasion in mind, all over the mansion, known only to the older students and the teachers themselves. They were completely soundproof, so no one could hear someone inside of them, and wide enough to accommodate even the Beast's broad shoulders if worse came to worse. Thus, Scott and Jean had no intentions of being caught.
Which is why, when they dropped down into the rec room, they were surprised to see half a dozen troopers waiting for them, and Tabitha, Amara and Roberto unconscious on the floor. John was nowhere to be found.
Tasers fired, Scott and Jean were hit...
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"Let go of me!"
"Chere come on, we can use the window, get the hell out of here..."
She shook him off angrily. "No, I need to help them!" she shouted, pushing him off and making her way to the bookcase. The two of them had winded up in the library after escaping the troopers, and Rogue hoped that her brother and Amanda had managed to escape. Angrily she grabbed a book of the bookcase (titled, ironically, the Great Escape) and the case obligingly swung open at the bottom. Rogue beckoned Remy to follow, which he did with much gusto as she got down on all fours to navigate the narrow tunnels. He slid along after her.
"You been working out, chere?" he asked, admiring the view.
"Shut up," she grumbled over her shoulder back at him.
The two of them emerged in the kitchen, out of one of the lower cupboards (which was, curiously, usually always empty) and thankfully saw no further sign of the troopers. They spotted Lance and the other brotherhood members milling about, unsure of what to do or where to go. Surprisingly, Kitty was with them.
"Rogue! There you are! What is going on?!" shouted Kitty, as if the goth girl knew anything more than she did.
Before she could ask that very question, another explosion went off and the front doors were blown off their hinges, showering the room with hot air and deadly, jagged glass. Cursing, Remy grabbed Rogue and yanked her back into the kitchen as Lance pushed Kitty into an adjacent hallway out of harm's way.
Troopers stormed in, and unlike the first couple of groups they didn't have tasers.
They had guns. Big ones.
And they didn't look like they were going to be stingy about ammunition.
Bullets rang through the air, forcing the Brotherhood to duck behind various pieces of furniture.
"Fred, couch now!" shouted Lance, and Fred grabbed the couch, flipping it over to provide better cover as the Brotherhood cowered behind it, safe but pinned down for the moment. Remy and Rogue watched from the kitchen. She started to head forward, but he grabbed her arm.
"You head out there now you're gonna get killed," he said. Angrily she shook off his arm.
"We have to help them," she yelled in his face. Standing their, her hair messed up from the explosion, her eyes flashing angrily, she was the most beautiful sight Remy had ever seen in his life. Cursing, he stood, smashing open the cupboard (not surprisingly, Logan had locked it) and grabbed a bottle of wine. Good year, he noticed. Grumbling, he uncorked it, crouching back down next to Rogue.
"What the hell are you doing?" she asked in exasperation. Her friends (alright, not exactly friends) were in trouble, and he was getting a drink?!
"Helpin', just like chere requested..." he replied, roughly grabbing her purple over-shirt and tearing off a sleeve as she watched in shock, scooting away from him. Now he was trying to rip her clothes off?!
But then she noticed he'd torn off a thin strip, sliding it into the open bottle, and recognized his plan immediately. Alcohol made for a halfway decent explosion.
"I need a light," he stated, glancing at her. She checked her pockets, but nothing.
Suddenly a lighter, lit, was thrust between them.
There stood their resident pyromaniac, crouched down alongside them, his sunglasses askew.
"This do ya, mate?" asked John, with a smirk. Remy didn't reply, just lit the trailing cloth, glancing into the room as bullets continued to fly over the Brotherhood's heads.
"Hey you! Got a present for ya!" he said as he chucked the flaming bottle into their midst.
The soldiers quickly withdrew as the bottle shattered, shooting off waves of alcohol and liquid flame all over the place. The sprinkler system kicked in immediately, showering the room and, best of all, obscuring vision. The Brotherhood made a break for the kitchen, but Lance hesitated.
"Lance, come on man!" shouted Todd.
"I can't... I have to go get Kitty!" he replied, taking off down the opposite hallway after his ex-girlfriend.
Todd and Fred grumbled, their opinions of the Lance's girlfriend well known, as they started to join Remy and Rogue. Before they got too far however, the soldiers returned and tasered them both, knocking them out as Rogue, Remy and John reluctantly fled back into the tunnels.
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Logan cursed as he grabbed his black coat and slid it on. He knew this was going to happen, but there was no way anyone was prepared. He wasn't going to be much use himself without his claws. He was gonna need a weapon.
In his room, so far safe from the troopers attack, he reluctantly got down and reached under his bed, drawing out something he'd hoped never to use again.
"They're gonna regret this..."
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Ray screamed as he was electrocuted (a previously unknown sensation to the hot-headed mutant) and collapsed alongside his fellow mutants, Jamie, Sam and Roberto. They'd all been knocked out in seconds by the quick, thorough motions of the troops, who seemed to know every inch of the Institutes hallways as well as they did, and had been well trained to deal with them, helpless as they were without their powers.
Barely retraining consciousness as his other friends were out cold, Ray watched as the troopers picked them up and lugged all of them outside. Overhead, black helicopters were circling, as the X-Men and their allies were being one by one taken out and loaded on board as prisoners. To Ray's shock, a pair of robots, great, lumbering red four legged spiders, armed with two long black tentacles that snaked out to grab some of the students and drag them into the machines, keeping them firmly under control. They'd already caught Sabertooth and Storm and were hauling them inside.
Damnit, what I wouldn't give for one lousy electric bolt, he cursed internally, as he was dragged into the great black maw and lost consciousness.
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Lance rushed down the hallways after Kitty, but couldn't find her.
Cursing his luck, wishing for nothing more than a mountain to fall on these goddamn soldiers, he pushed open the next door down the hall, but saw another empty room.
"Damnit," he growled, turning around...
... coming eye to eye with another trooper, with a taser at point blank range.
Lance barely had time to scream.
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Kitty heard Lance's scream but closed her eyes and kept running.
She had to find Mr. Logan.
Mr. Logan would know what to do, he always did. He'd be able to take care of all these bad guys, rescue those that'd been captured, and help them all escape. He had too...!
The door ahead of her opened and she skidded to a stop as a black-clad trooped slipped into view, right in front of Logan's room. She turned, tripped, crawled forward and jumped to her feet, running, even as the taser cable snapped off, digging into her back and sending volts of electricity throughout her petite form.
Suddenly their was a snickt sound, and then whoosh of metal every person at the Institute recognized as sharpened metal slicing through the air. Kitty felt the taser cable go loose and the charge stop, and she dropped onto her knees, glancing back to see what had happened.
There stood Logan, armed with a sword.
He'd cut the cable, spun around and sliced the guard's gun out of his other hand, then slammed the hilt right into his helmeted face, shattering it and sending the guy flying backwards to slam hard onto his back.
Logan growled and re-sheathed his katana, carrying the sheath in his hand, making his way over to Kitty to make sure she was alright. Apart from a little singed, she seemed otherwise fine, so he helped her to her feet and the two took off to the elevator as quick as possible.
Midway there came pounding footsteps, and Logan pushed Kitty behind him as he unsheathed his sword again, holding it before him in the manner of a Japanese samurai, growling low in his distinctive attack cry.
Thus, he quickly had to bring himself back under control and halt the blade before he sliced clean through Rogue.
She, the Cajun and the pyromaniac joined them as they headed towards the elevator and headed down to the Blackbird hangar.
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Eric, Charles and Hank burst out from the elevator as soon as they'd heard the alarms go off, rushing as fast as they could to the lounge, to be greeted by a decidedly unpleasant sight.
Troops, dozens of them, dressed in black with no visible insignia or ranks, armed and dangerous. And before them, on the ground, mutant children, some with tasers still locked in the sides, unconscious and in pain, wet from the still active sprinklers overhead.
Bobby, Todd, Pietro, Wanda, Scott, Kurt, and more lay on the ground.
Behind them, far worse, were the machines, as they lumbered in, their tentacled arms easily overpowering Hank and Charles as the soldiers came forward and stunned them with cattleprods, knocking them unconscious.
Eric was more fortunate, having remained in the back, and he fled, his dark coat whipping about him as he managed to reach the elevator and rejoin the others inside. The doors clanged shut instants later, just before the troopers could reach them. For now they seemed safe enough.
But it wouldn't last as long as they were in the Institute that was quickly turning into a battlefield.
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Kitty, Logan, Eric, John, Rogue and Remy finally arrived down in the hangar, where they quickly spotted Piotr. Evidently being caught in the Danger Room had allowed him to escape, locking the doors and leaving the room on maximum setting. Nobody envied the troopers fate.
"Anyone? Prof?! Hank?" shouted Wolverine into the comm unit. Eric cut him off.
"All captured... just like we'll be if we don't get out of here," he said. Wolverine growled, but Magneto was right. Run away, live to fight another day.
Suddenly the elevator hit ground floor again, and all around in the hangar watched cautiously. It could've been more who escaped, or it could've been more troopers.
It was worse.
Two machines piled out, humanoid in shape, standing a good five feet tall, about as big as Logan, but a lot thinner. They looked like some evil twin version of the battle droids from the new Star Wars movies. Their metal plating was black, covered with red armored designs and glowing gold eyes in the center of their heads, almost like Scott's visor. Their arms came up, and they were armed long rifles that looked almost downright futuristic. And downright dangerous. As was even more evident when a bright blue bolt shot from one and slammed into John, sending him flying into a pile of crates, out of commission. They were quick to do the same to Piotr.
Wolverine lunged forward, swinging his sword, but the blade snapped against the iron constructs thick armored plating, as the machine-soldier lashed out and sent Wolverine reeling. Rogue and Remy caught him and they turned to retreat, dodging more blue energy blasts as they ran up the pad to the Blackbird. Midway there Rogue stumbled and a bright blue bolt lanced into her back, sending her reeling. Wolverine suffered a similar fate, but managed to keep to his feet as Rogue was knocked unconscious. The machine-soldiers stepped forward after them, moving with cold, methodical precision.
"We have to go now!" shouted Eric from the controls, having figured out fairly quickly how to operate the Blackbird. Like most of Xavier's technology, he'd been fundamental in helping to design some of it, viewing the rest, and thus the controls were easy enough to figure out. He started up the engines.
"Wait, they've got Rogue!" said Remy, coming over to try and stop him.
"Then we leave her behind!" he shouted back at his henchmen, gunning the engines as Kitty and Remy quickly found seats as the jet started to take off. Cursing, Wolverine ran after them, blue bolts whizzing past his head as he took a flying leap, digging the tip of his broken sword into the plane's wing and hanging on tight as it cleared the waterfall and headed up into the air, away from the Institute and to the relative safety of the sky.
"Its gonna be a looooooong day," cursed Wolverine, hanging on for dear life.
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Authors Notes:
Curses. I wish I'd organized this better so this chapter was thirteen instead of the one before it. Would have made for more ominousness… or something. Anyway, for the record, I don't know what a flaming bottle of alcohol does, but it seemed as good an idea as any, and it makes sense to me it would spread like that. Wolverine's japanese sword is, of course, a reference to his brief time in Japan. And thought it is not mentioned, the security to the mansion was hacked so it was eliminated (if anyone caught that supposed plot hole). Well, most mutants have no been captured, with only a small, mismatched group having escaped. Oh, what are these poor mutants to do? Find out next chapter, same time, same website. Speaking of which, anyone recognize the machines attackers? Or rather, the basic design?
Just a reader: Oh don't worry that won't be the main part of the story. Glad you like the rest though.
Elisabeth Braddock-Grey: Seems that way to me too. Yay, Kisses and Kisses! Sweet.
Gyuumajo: Time for cute is over. Time for action and violence is now. Enjoy.
Todd Fan: Yeah, no Angel. Just a man, sweetie. But don't worry, the early scene I have him in you'll like. Next chapter.
Thunderfox 150: Glad you think so.
Unknown Source: My own predictions put Colossus and Gambit in the 20-24 age group (college, basically), Sabertooth, Magneto and Mastermind much older, as adults, and Pyro, well, something about him make me think he's just a rather psychotic little sophmore/junior. Mystique will appear in the next chapter, briefly, but I am slowly gathering all my chess pieces together. She is of course alive, Impact has not yet happened in the timeline of my story.
CrypticIdentity: Ah, untrue! I distinctly recall in the old animated series, episode "Weapon X, Lies and Videotape" that they came across the info that Wolverine was to be given the adamantium first, Sabertooth second. But Logan trashed the place before they could get to Victor. No adamantium for him.
Mayra: How's that blow your mind? Yes, Jason is in evolution, he was picked up by Magneto in Italy in the first episode he appeared in. No significant other for Hank, he seems to manage well enough on his own.
Son of Logan and Ororo: I know technically they'd be twins of some twisted variety, but yeah I agree, it would be weird. She seems more like a daughter to Logan because of the age difference. For the most part I'll stick to the X-Men characters, even in the cameos, and for the most part only those in Evolution. Of course Logan will contact SHIELD, what else is he going to do?
Jenny08: Oh, sorry about that. If it makes you feel better, the plot is doing the same to me