Talons
Chapter 5
It did not take long for Kotoko to discover the natives' dwelling. It was a large structure with several floors, apparently made from the surrounding stones and trees as opposed to metal or resin. He could spend hours just examining the materials, let alone the architecture. There was an alien beauty about the place, curiously asymmetrical from the intrusion of vines and other organic matter.
Unfortunately, he was here to watch the natives for military applications, not their building methods. That could wait for a scientific crew, if they ever sent one. He had not seen evidence of the King's Own yet, nor had their equipment been activated since that first, initial reading. Kotoko had the feeling the natives were storing the equipment somewhere in this building, and they were smart enough not to turn anything on.
A few hours of watching showed many natives moving back and forth, in and out of the dwelling. Judging by the way the smaller creatures deferred to the occasional larger creature, it seemed that this was a nest of some kind, or perhaps a training center. He still couldn't tell male from female, assuming these beings had such reproductive differences, but that was only of minor importance. Of more importance was the fact that he had to carefully pick his way past sophisticated sensing equipment. For whatever reason, these people (for they were people, despite how alien they looked) felt the need to defend themselves.
Of primary importance was the strange array of power he found in this place, held in the hands of adults and young alike.
One of the natives could create ice out of the surrounding moisture. Another tossed small nodules of superheated, short-lived plasma. Another seemed to enhance the surface tension of an artificial pond to the point of running across it. Several times Kotoko recognized the first two natives he'd encountered, appearing behind the windows or on the grounds. So far, only the first, portal-generating native had a full compliment of five limbs, and only the second native travelling with it had the twin projections. If only he could tell something about their leadership structure….
An alarm went off in his suit, and Kotoko felt his hearts chill. A portal had been opened. He tried to trace the pulse, but it came and went so fast that he couldn't pin down a precise entry location. The King's Own had appeared somewhere on these grounds.
Things were about to get very, very ugly.
:
When Scott came up on Kurt late that afternoon, he found him perched on one of the marble benches outside, alternately watching the kids play baseball and sketching on a relatively small notepad. Kurt glanced back as he heard Scott walk up, then invited him to sit beside him by way of moving to the left. Both men were in their armored costumes. The situation seemed to warrant such caution.
"Has Isidro awoken yet?" Kurt asked, hopeful.
Scott shook his head. "Professor says soon, but not yet." He sat next to Kurt, facing the children. After a pause, he mumbled, "Why the backhoe?"
Kurt blinked. "What?"
Scott gave a frustrated, open-armed shrug. "I'm still trying to figure out why the hell someone would use those suits to steal backhoes. It just doesn't make sense. They're so paranoid about discovery that they willfully kill each other to keep things secret, yet they'll risk it all to grab a backhoe."
"Maybe they needed to do some landscaping, and they spent all their money on suits?" Kurt offered, grinning.
The batter hit the ball squarely this time, sending it arcing into the brush. Both Regis and Jamie ran after it as the batter tagged first base.
"Makes as much sense as anything else I've come up with," Scott sighed. "Kitty's offered to call up some construction crews, see if they've been hit recently. Maybe we should have her check for nursery heists, too."
Kurt cupped his hands over his mouth to mimic the muffled, static-laden tone of a police radio. " 'All cars, be on the lookout for a runaway birch. Last seen heading north. May be in the presence of a maple. Suspects are considered armed and deciduous.' "
Scott's lips curled into a disgusted snarl and he cuffed Kurt on the side of the head. "That was awful. You're not supposed to be good enough at English to pun like that."
"I'm hearing nothing but English here, and you wonder why I'm improving?"
Xavier's voice all but shouted in their heads. Scott, Kurt, get the children indoors! We've had a perimeter alarm on the west border!
Scott bolted to his feet and gave two short optic bursts over the kids' heads to get their attention. They looked back at him.
"Everyone inside!" he barked, motioning broadly with his arm. "Now! Let's go!"
:
Regis and Jamie plunged into the bushes, searching for the ball. They didn't have long to find it. If Cathy made a home run out of this, the rest of the boys would never let either of them forget it. Jamie considered making a few duplicates to help, but this was a "no powers" game.
"Found it yet?" he called to Regis.
Somewhere off to the left, Regis called back. "Not yet! Man, where is it?"
"Everyone inside!" Scott's voice shouted far behind them. "Now! Let's go!"
Now they had even less time. If it wasn't under this bush, Jamie was going to just forfeit. He looked under the last bush and saw a white sphere in the shadows. A-hah!
"Found it!" he crowed.
Just as he was crawling under the bush to retrieve the softball, he heard Regis frantically screaming. Jamie scrambled out from under foliage and jumped to his feet. He froze in shock at what he saw.
There were three of them. Three huge, monstrous, metallic...things. They looked for all the world like detached, armored, eagle talons. They had five limbs, symmetrically spaced and sized. Each limb had three joints, and they balanced on what seemed to be clawed tips. Each robot was a good five or six feet in diameter, and that was with half of their legs' length curled under so they could stand. A large creamy white blister sat on top of their center, where all their legs met. An eye?
One of them fell on Regis and completely enveloped him, curling around him with its massive body as a fist would curl around a small stone. The other two things stood off to either side as Regis disappeared into the robot's grasp. Then there was a flash of golden-yellow light from within Regis' mobile prison, and Regis reappeared six feet away, scrambling backwards on all fours like a crab. The three things responded in an agitated manner, issuing strange hissing and popping noises.
"Hey! You! Uglies!" Jamie shouted, jumping and waving his arms.
He couldn't really tell which way they were facing, but he knew he had their attention. One of them leapt his direction. Jamie deliberately slammed into a tree. As it landed, it stamped its feet in confusion as ten Jamies scattered in front of it. Distracted by them all, it lost its chance to grab one.
:
The kids were jogging back to the mansion when Regis screamed far back in the underbrush. Without hesitation, Nightcrawler grabbed Cyclops and teleported to the edge of the lawn. Regis had stopped screaming, and they could hear strange popping and hissing noises, sounding for all the world like a combined rain and hailstorm as heard from under a wooden awning.
"Hey! You! Uglies!" Jamie shouted from somewhere in front of them.
Cyclops and Nightcrawler ran into the bushes, the latter leaping up into the trees for a better view. Several Jamies ran out, two of them helping Regis, who was pale as snow. A huge spider-ish, metallic robot burst through the foliage. It was about to land on the Jamie-Regis-Jamie trio when Nightcrawler fell on them and all four disappeared. The thing gave a hissing roar as it landed on the ground alone. Cyclops revamped his estimation; that was a reaction of frustration. Maybe there was something alive in there? Whatever it was, electronic or organic, Cyclops blasted it, hard. It spun off and smashed into a nearby tree, all five of its limbs twitching.
Two more of the things leapt through the brush, right at Cyclops. Cyclops fell flat on his back and blasted up at one as it leapt over him. The center underbelly of its radially symmetrical body must have been a weak spot. It gave a distorted screech as Cyclops' beam hit, the kinetic force of the blow shoving it up and back before bursting out through the white blister on top. The remaining creature came to a complete halt, planting its five claws in the soft ground. A blue beam emanated from its dome. Cyclops rolled away just in time as the beam burned a trench by the side of his head.
Nightcrawler returned alone top find Cyclops in the middle of a firefight. There were two mechanical beasts up, and they had Cyclops pinned down. The white blister was some kind of sophisticated weapons platform, from which a single blue beam lashed out. That silent beam swept back and forth to follow their target's movements, burning as it went. Despite the recent rains, they were going to have a fire, and soon. But how could he get to Cyclops without becoming just another casualty to rescue?
Nightcrawler picked up a heavy river rock in one hand. It was too heavy to throw, but it might be able to crack the weapons pod if he got in close. Quick in, quick out, and once the thing was distracted, he'd get Cyclops and go. He appeared in mid-air "behind" one of the creatures, away from where it was firing, and brought the rock down on the white blister with all his strength.
He was prepared for a stinging physical shockwave down his arm, especially if the white dome was too tough for him to crack. He was not prepared for the electrical jolt that burned his fingertips and threatened to set his sleeve on fire. The white dome cracked under the stone, unleashing enough amperage to kill the mutant twice over, had he been touching the ground. His heart, his lungs, his muscles, his thoughts, everything seized up as crackling fingertips of electricity clawed at his arm, as if threatening to pull him into the fissure he'd just created. The shock came too fast for Nightcrawler to teleport away, let alone scream. A flash of blue, a rush of darkness. He fell unconscious, smoking and twitching, in the looming shadow of the mechanical talon.
:
It was not difficult for Kotoko to judge where the King's Own had come in. As he picked through the brush, slowly, so as not to overload his camouflage field's capability, he heard high pitched screeches from one end of the property. He picked up chatter on the enemy's frequency.
"What happened?" one demanded. "You had it! I know you had it!"
"It generated its own portal!" another shouted. "The little shit makes its own gates!"
"Don't let it get away, you idiot! It's too valuable!"
Kotoko heard more high-pitched screeching from not too far off. It was the distress sound of a young native, of that he was certain. The King's Own must have been collecting samples of the native fauna. Kotoko abandoned all caution and deactivated his camouflage field. He pulled his five limbs in tight, turned on his side, and rolled, zipping through the bushes and around trees.
"How in--!" came the second soldier's voice. "Now there's ten of them?"
"It's just a hologram!"
"Holograms don't leave footprints!"
Kotoko was getting closer with every passing second, leaving a trail of crushed branches and scattered leaves. He twitched one leg to leap over a log without uncurling from his tight wheel. He landed and kept rolling. The chatter on the radio was intermingled with a strange sound, like a chemical blaster of some kind. One soldier was slightly injured, while another's death scream was deafening. Now there was no more chatter, and Kotoko's sensors picked up the weapon discharges typical of the King's Own.
Kotoko rolled into the clearing. Two natives were trying to hold off two of the King's Own. One native was in a firefight with a soldier. It used a mechanism attached to its small nubby appendage to fire a powerful pressing beam. The native with five limbs had just broken the weapons port of the other soldier, but seemed to have electrocuted itself in the process. It fell to the ground next to the enemy. Though the enemy's weapons were gone, all he had to do was raise one limb and step down, and the native was dead.
Kotoko bounced up and slammed into that soldier full-force. His limbs still tucked into an armored wheel, he came down directly on the enemy's fractured weapons blister. The white shattered completely, the last of the stored energy arced around both combatants, and Kotoko left dents in his opponent's battle armor as he came down for a second time. With any luck, he'd fried most of the loyalists' systems with one of those blows.
Kotoko bounced up once again, spun, and unfurled as he came down on top of the five-limbed native, shielding it with his body. At that moment, the last loyalist got a good shot on the native who used the kinetic blaster. There was no way Kotoko could protect both natives. And as the last of the King's Own turned its attention to Kotoko, he wondered if he'd be able to protect himself.
"Traitor!" the loyalist shouted.
He shot at Kotoko, who knew his light scouting armor could not withstand a direct hit. He ducked down, digging into the soft soil with his claws. There was a way to save himself and both natives, if he did it right. He dug his claws further into the ground, clutching not only dirt and leaves, but the five-limbed native along with it all. Then he tucked, turned, and rolled, the loyalist still shooting at him as he went.
"Oh, no you're not!" the loyalist snarled. "You're mine!"
The loyalist tucked and rolled, firing away at Kotoko as he chased him across the tended grassy fields.
:
Storm was in her room when she heard Xavier's warning.
Ororo, get to the west border of the grounds! There's been a perimeter alert!
Scott immediately afterwards shouted something to the children. Whatever he said was in his "command" tone of voice. He didn't use that except for missions, or battle situations. Storm flew out her open window, heading for the disturbance. She heard Regis screaming, then Jamie, then all the kids. As she cleared the roof of the institute, she could see the western-most edge of the manicured lawn. Cyclops was in a firefight, battling two huge, silver, mechanical...claws? In the blink of an eye, Nightcrawler came in, both he and Cyclops fell, and Storm was still too far away to be of any use. She picked up speed as the skies darkened. A third, slightly smaller mechanical claw rolled through the brush, a greenish-white blur, and landed squarely on one of the other two, which was about to spear Nightcrawler through his chest. Thunder rumbled. The last silver claw fired at the white and green newcomer. With hellish speed, the newcomer dug into the soft earth below it, curled up its five limbs, flipped up on its side like a great wheel, and rolled away. The silver one flipped its limbs in and did the same, firing its weapon at the newcomer. There was a gaping wound in the earth from where the white and green claw scooped up a good foot of soil, and Nightcrawler was missing along with it.
Cyclops was still down, but he didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, and Logan was running towards him, claws out to defend. But Kurt had been abducted, and those two things were too fast to be followed on foot. Storm changed direction and increased speed. It was all up to her.
The first claw, the greenish-white "abductor", had made it to the road and was picking up speed. The silver pursuer was somehow still firing at its quarry, despite its incredibly fast rotation. The abductor weaved about, dodging right and left, and even making short hops, in an attempt to avoid being hit. The attempts were not always successful. Storm had to take out the pursuer first. Kurt was somewhere inside the abductor's body; if that blue beam penetrated, no telling how badly he'd be hurt.
A frosty-white gust came up, momentarily obscuring the distance between target and pursuer. In its wake the asphalt suddenly became slick with a wafer-thin layer of black ice. The pursuer slid the instant it hit the slick surface. It must have been going forty or fifty miles an hour at that point, for it went through one of the younger trees that lined the road before disappearing into the undergrowth. Storm kept going. She could follow the fallen pursuer some other time. Right now she had to get Kurt. Perhaps she could lift her new target into the air until Logan arrived. Then he could cut Kurt free with a few swipes of his claws....
Storm fought the urge to scream as her target disappeared in a flash of white light.
To be continued….