When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
- William Blake "Tyger Tyger"
***
"We're almost there," Logan said to the people on the plane, who were all partaking in various activities, to get their mind off the uneventful flight. "Buckle up guys. I'm gonna park this baby on the roof of an abandoned warehouse."
Everyone scrambled back to their respective seats and clipped themselves in. Only two people had remained seated in the flight, and that was Logan (who had to, or else the plane would crash), and Psylocke (who didn't seem to be interested in socialising with the rest of the group).
As soon as everyone was buckled in, Logan began to lower the plane onto the building. They landed with a soft bump, jolting a few members onboard the aircraft.
As soon as they were landed, everyone unbuckled; Logan pressing a few buttons on the aircraft to hide it. Kitty sunk through the floor so she was standing directly underneath the Blackbird. She then looked up, and all she could see was the darkening sky. It was Dusk. About 6 o'clock.
She waited patiently for the other people to emerge from the aircraft, and then watched as Logan locked up the aircraft. It looked slightly strange to see a man automatically locking thin air, but Kitty knew it was there. It was a precaution, in case their hologram was compromised and someone happened to see the Blackbird sitting there.
She heard Gambit ask: "Where is the Velocity parked?" Logan replied quickly that it was a few blocks away, and that their target was a building in between them.
The only problem was getting to the building. They could get to the ground and travel on foot, but that would be much more time consuming than travelling along the roof-tops. It would also be far too conspicuous for what they needed, and that was to keep their cover until the precise moment.
"Kitty, could you dive across?" Gambit turned to ask her. The gap between the two buildings was about 10 feet across. Kitty looked at the gap, but under her gaze, the 10 feet suddenly morphed into 50 and she couldn't see herself making the jump.
She shook her head and answered, "It's just a little bit too far."
"What if I tossed you?" Logan asked gruffly. Kitty decided that they really were desperate if they were really considering tossing her. And even if she did make it across the gap, how would the others make it across.
She shook her head again, and turned to look at the other members of the group, and then she turned to Psylocke. "Hey Psylocke, you could lift us over right? If you could hold the Blackbird to the ground, you could at least help us over the gap." In the fading darkness, she saw Psylocke smirk a little.
"I was wondering when you'd notice I was still here."
Logan growled softly, out of agitation. "Can you get us there or not?"
Psylocke turned to face the red-faced Canadian, and said in a sing-song voice: "Say the magic word!"
Logan growled again, and Psylocke laughed. "Close enough for me!" Suddenly, everyone began to lift off the ground, only about a foot, and they drifted slowly over the gap. Psylocke gently lowered them once they were over the other building.
"Now, was that so hard?"
Logan didn't reply, but Psylocke smiled cheerfully at him anyway. She then began to walk to the other side of the building, where she waited on the edge for the rest of the members to catch up.
Kitty followed almost immediately, then Gambit, and lastly Wolverine, who was still grumbling.
It didn't take long to get into within sight of the building. It looked like a normal set of Apartment blocks, a little run down, but normal none the less.
Logan had gotten over his mood swing, and was back in his normal combat mode. "Now we get into position and wait until Rogue gives us her signal. Radio contact will be impossible after the blast, so Jean and Psylocke will be linking the team psychically. Are you ok with that?" He asked Psylocke directly.
She nodded, and placed two fingers at her temple. Kitty immediately felt a shadow of something brush her mind, and suddenly she could talk to everyone.
Jean? Psylocke? Is the link secure? Logan asked softly.
Both replied that it was, and the subject was left at that.
"Kitty, can you take a few people to the ground? Multiple, Iceman, and me. The rest Psylocke can help onto the roof of the building and they can work their way in from the top.
Kitty nodded, "Everone grab on, and be prepared for some nausea!" Hands gripped shoulders and hands and she began to sink through the floor, pulling the people with them.
~~~
"Piotr is this way." The Doctor directed them down a sterile white hallway. "You got here just in time, he was about to be placed in the program. He's been on the waiting list for some time now."
"We were told he worked for Magneto, we think he might have some information we need." Emily lied to the Doctor, who didn't know any better, and unlocked a door to his right. He opened it to reveal a very tall, dark haired man, standing in the corner, wearing a very plain grey jumpsuit and an unreadable expression in his eyes. Scott walked into the room, followed by Emily. The pressure he usually felt from his eyes abated, and he had to resist the sub-conscious urge to take off his glasses.
"You'll have five minutes, and then one of our staff members will come and get you." The Doctor said before leaving and locking the door behind him.
"You are Piotr Rasputin right?" Scott asked, moving closer to the Russian. Who replied in a very soft voice:
"Da,"
He pulled the files of Kitty and Jean out of his jacket, and handed them to Piotr. "We know that you know these two individuals. What can you tell us about them?"
Piotr took the files, and flipped through them silently. He then closed them and handed them back to Scott.
"How many times did you face these two in battle?" Emily asked.
"You mean, how many times I faced you in battle," Piotr said calmly with a thick Russian accent, staring at Scott. "I faced you in battle, and you were on their team. Or don't you remember?"
Scott didn't react; he just placed the files back in the fold of his jacket and looked up at Piotr indifferently. "What did you learn about facing these two in battle?"
"I learned to watch out for other members of their team. They are a team, as well as individuals." Piotr smiled softly, "They may not be a tough adversary by themselves. But as a team, they are almost invincible. You of all people should know that Cyclops."
"Well, then, what are their weaknesses?" Emily pressed on.
"Their weaknesses are few and far between." Piotr said in his very calm Russian voice.
Scott began to ask another question when the lights when out suddenly and he felt the pressure behind his eyes build once again.
~~~
Ok, move in now. Watch your back; we don't want to have to take home any bodies. Wolverine instructed through the psychic rapport the group all shared.
Shadowcat and Iceman ran towards the side entrance, while Wolverine ran to the front door, where he met up with Toad. Multiple had quickly become 7 people, and they had moved around to the back of the building. Shadowcat and Iceman ran quickly and as stealthily as possible and as soon as they were about 10 feet from the door, a gust of something like wind blew over them, and the entire area, including the building was plunged into darkness.
Shadowcat paused for a few minutes, in slight shock that it had happened so quickly. Somehow she had thought that the Pulse would be a lot louder, and would take a lot longer than it had. Iceman had hesitated slightly as well, but had still kept running and reached the door first.
It was locked, and he was about to freeze the lock so that he could smash the metal and open the door, but Kitty just walked causally through the door. He shook his head sadly when he saw her hand reach through offering to pull him through. He decided it would be the better stealth thing to do, and grabbed it tightly. He felt a yank, and the next thing he knew he had landed rather ungracefully on the floor beside her.
There was no one in the corridor that they he had landed in, and even though it was pitch black, they could tell that there was a lot of commotion in the building. Footsteps echoed from the roof, as though many people were running around madly, and there was a lot of shouting coming through the door at the end of the corridor.
Shadowcat and Iceman are to go down to the lowest levels of the complex and see what is there. If there is anything dangerous, get out of there quick. Rogue's voice told them as soon as Iceman got to his feet again. She had begun to bark other orders at other people but both Iceman and Shadowcat tuned him out.
"Ready to ride the Shadowcat express?" She whispered to Iceman, who grabbed her hand and nodded, and then they both sunk through the floor.
~~~
Meanwhile, Jean received a little message of her own. Jean, Psylocke, get us access to the building. It's not safe for us all to be inside the building.
Jean, who was hovering directly above the conflict, scanning the minds of the people in the building. She knew already that they were assembling the graduated mutants of the Project Assassin program, and she also knew that there were at least 50 of them.
Psylocke had made her way over to where Jean was hovering.
"What do you say we take the roof off this place?" She said with a playful glint in her eye.
Jean looked down at the roof of the building with apprehension. Her powers weren't back to full power yet, and even if they were she wouldn't have been able to do that. She looked back up at Psylocke who grinned.
"Jean honey, if I can do it, you can do it. You're a stronger telekinetic than I am. We work together, it'll be easy." She smiled and with a wave of her hand she swept away all of the air-conditioning units that were sticking out of the roof.
"I dunno," Jean said quietly. "What would we do with the roof when we've finished?"
"Oh, we'll dump it in the sea somewhere. No one will know the difference." Psylocke waved the excuse off, and placed a comforting hand on the red-head's shoulder. "Come on, if you never test yourself, you won't go anywhere."
Jean nodded and began to concentrate. Psylocke did the same thing, and simultaneously, they began to pull up on the roof.
She heard it begin to creak and saw the cracks begin to appear in the solid concrete. Jean would have marvelled at the combined strength of her and Psylocke's telekinetic powers if what they were doing didn't require so much attention.
Suddenly, she felt the bond between the roof and the building break and with a jerk the roof flew upwards, revealing the maze-like walls and desks that littered the top floor of the building. The people who were in that level, all screamed and panicked and rushed towards the stairway, which was partially blocked.
As soon as the roof slab was at least fifty feet above the rest of the buildings, they both gave it a collective shove in the direction of the sea, which was only a few miles away, but because of the force of their push, and the velocity of the concrete slab, it managed to make it well over the coast and into deep water, where it fell with a resounding crash, and caused quite a large shockwave.
Great work guys. Wanna help us get in now? Gambit's voice echoed through her head, and Jean looked down to see Gambit waiting on the roof of a neighbouring building. She began to lift him off the building and into the now roof-less building, but when he was two feet off the ground a huge red beam of energy shot out through the building, and barely missed her by a few meters.
She lost her concentration on Gambit, and he fell, but luckily he was still over the building and didn't fall to his likely death.
It was only then that she realised that she recognised those beams and almost fell out of the air.
~~~
Scott closed his eyes, grabbed his visor out of his pocket and placed them on his face. Now that there was a hole in the roof that let in light, they knew what was going on. Emily stood beside him, looking up through the hole.
Piotr was sprawled ungracefully on the floor with three new bullet wounds in his head.
As soon as the negators had worn off, the Russian had tried to morph into the Colossus form he held, but Emily had been too quick for the man and had gotten three well placed shots into him. He had fallen dead to the floor straight away.
Scott had decided after about a minute that they didn't need the roof, and had told Emily to cover her head. Once she had done that, he had taken off his glasses, and the roof had received the raw power of his energy blasts.
"Lift me up there," Emily said to Scott, moving to be directly underneath the hole. Scott held his hands out as a step, and Emily took the invitation. She stepped up and with a bit of a jump she reached the ceiling, and hoisted herself up to the next floor easily.
She dropped a chair down to Scott who used it to get up to her level.
They were standing in an office. Probably belonging to someone of importance in the organisation, as most of the things in the room looked expensive.
"Someone is attacking the facility." Emily informed him as she walked to the side of the room, and looked out a window. "I can see one of our targets outside. Jean Grey is above the building, with another purple haired woman."
"Can you get a shot?" Scott asked.
She looked out the window, and checked her chances. "I could get a shot in, but not 100% sure it'd hit."
Scott moved over to the window, to see if he could get a shot in, when an explosion rang from above him.
~~~
It had taken a lot of convincing on Gambit's part to make sure that Jean didn't go into the building by herself. As soon as she had seen the optic plasma blasts, she had almost flown straight down the hole, but because of Gambit's quick thinking, and Psylocke's very fast reaction rate, she had been held in spot temporarily.
In the end, they decided that Jean and Malice were to try and locate Scott, and see if they could take him back to the X-Jet.
So Malice had sent a particularly strong lightening bolt into the hole created by the beam, and then floated down the hole. Jean felt Psylocke's hold on her release and she shot straight down the hole after the white haired weather-witch.
He looked exactly the same as she remembered. His semi-hidden face still looking as smooth as leather; his hair neatly brushed in exactly the same way; his posture, tall and astute, even his dress sense was the same, the red t-shirt and dark brown pants with the oh-so sensible shoes.
The only thing that had changed was his aura. He didn't let off an aura of kindness, and willingness to do what was right; in fact she could hardly detect him there.
She stood staring for a few seconds until he put his hand to his visor and let off a blast.
***
Disclaimer: [Insert standard disclaimer here]
Actually, I've noticed that I tend to be a bit biased when I'm writing the action scenes; does anyone want to see someone get some action? (Ooh… that could be twisted SO badly…*slaps hand* bad GELD… get your mind out of the gutter…) No seriously. If anyone wants to see particular characters get a good little cameo. (Providing they aren't dead) I'll see if I can accommodate that.
And people, I think I'll have the next chapter out next Sunday, But I'm right in the middle of my exam block, then in three weeks, I'll be free for two whole months!! TWO!! You have no idea how great that sounds to me :) So bear with me if the update isn't up by then. I do have a life you know.
Peaking of a life, I just got a livejournal!! Go Me!! GO check there for updates, www.livejournal.com/users/ittykat . Easy done.
Cool guys!! So cya round, and don't forget to review, they make me feel good, and make me update quicker!!