Talons

Chapter 15

Kotoko stayed by the fallen soldier while Teacher Xavier and his students planned their action elsewhere. Whatever they were doing, he was in no condition to play a direct part in it.

A fine example of brutality and mindless strength, he thought as he looked at that which had been of the King's Own, reduced to an invalid. I wish the King himself could see you. If this didn't convince him to look elsewhere for conquests, nothing would.

The natives had been trusting enough to release the stricken one from his bonds. Their trust was not misplaced; all the soldier did was clench and unclench his arms like a small child. Sometimes he would moan softly. He almost surely deserved what Xavier had been forced to do. The King's Own were chosen for their cruelty. This one had probably committed heinous atrocities while in service.

And yet, Kotoko could not leave the poor man to suffer his confusion alone.

The door to the large training room opened. Teacher Xavier rolled in first, followed by Doctor Hank, Kurt, and one new (most likely male) native with whom Kotoko was not familiar. That new native stopped and made what Kotoko had learned was a voluntary intake of air, a gesture of shock. It must have been the first time he saw Kotoko.

"The others have gone on the mission?" Kotoko asked.

"Yes," Xavier answered. He turned and indicated the new male. "Kotoko, this is Isidro Delgado. He is one of the two we spoke of last night. He felt he was ready to see you."

So this was the pilot, forced to fight against his will. Kotoko scanned his body, but could still only find one mouth on the native, and it was the same type of multi-functional orifice the rest had. It could not possibly have connected to his nervous system as Kotoko's did.

"How did he connect to the vehicle?" Kotoko asked. "Your mouths are ill-suited for this."

Isidro glanced between Xavier and Kotoko. "Did he just say something?"

"Yes, he was asking how you connected to the exo-suit," Xavier translated.

"So… he really doesn't know? He had nothing to do with this?"

"Nothing at all. It appears someone on our world has been adjusting his technology to fit."

Isidro let out a slow exhale of breath and nodded. "You think I should show him the thingy?"

"It may help," Xavier agreed. As Isidro set his rifle on the floor and turned around, Xavier told Kotoko, "It was done through an artificial implant. Isidro will show you, if you wish."

Kotoko hesitated. "Just one implant? Only one 'mouth'?"

"Yes."

Kotoko slowly moved closer to the group. "No wonder you're having so much trouble. We need at least ten plugs for the most basic interface. My hardsuit requires thirty."

Isidro closed his eyes and exposed his small input jack. It meant turning his back on this thing and leaving himself wide open. His traitorous body started to tremble, and he forced it to stop. He won't hurt me… he won't hurt me… he won't hurt me….

The doctor was explaining basic human physiology to Kotoko, while Xavier translated Kotoko's questions. The creature's speech was nothing but percussion and hisses. Isidro stayed frozen in place, holding his short hair to one side. He could feel movement behind him; he kept expecting a touch that never came. Kurt moved into Isidro's field of vision and touched a hand to his shoulder. God, what weird fingers the guy had.

"This must be very hard for you," he said softly. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone so brave."

Isidro gave a nervous laugh. "Hey, what's the big deal? I'm just re-working my whole idea of what fits 'human', that's all."

Something beeped for attention in the cavernous room. To the group's left, a steel panel separated from the wall and slid aside. A monitor thrust forward to fill the space. When it activated, Rogue's anxious face filled the screen.

"Professor, we got ourselves a problem," she said quickly. "We just lost the Blackbird off the scopes, and I think the bad guys are callin' in reinforcements."

Xavier rotated his chair to face the screen. "First things first, Marie. What happened to the Blackbird?"

"I don't know. One second it was there, passin' over the switching station, and the next it's gone." She swallowed nervously. "Like it teleported or somethin'."

Kurt crossed himself, his worst fears realized. Dear God in heaven, let them be all right….

"And the supposed reinforcements?" Xavier went on.

Rogue turned her attention to some controls off-screen. "Here, let me punch up the satellite feed." The scene shifted to an overhead view, as if taken by a high-flying plane, and Rogue's voice said, "All right, here's the main road. See that little split, there? That's the little road to the switching station. The rest of the road comes straight down here." The view tightened, focusing on a convoy of six big rigs, each carrying double-trailers, heading down the main road toward the split. "Now, I know trucks do convoys, but not down this road at this time of day. It looks right suspicious."

Xavier's lips set in a thin line. "I agree. Keep that view up, Rogue. Let me do a bit of investigating."

He leaned back and closed his eyes. The view on the screen drifted up, and then shifted back down.

"Sorry 'bout that," Rogue apologized. "The satellite's startin' to orbit out of range. I don't know how much longer we'll have a decent feed."

A few other cars passed by the convoy as they watched. The shot was taken from so far away that everything seemed to move in slow motion. It was not yet possible to tell whether the trucks would turn onto the dirt path or keep going on the main road.

His eyes still closed, Xavier intoned, "Rogue's concerns are justified. Half of these trucks are going to the switching station. The others are coming here." He paused. "One of the trailers is a missile launcher. The rest are loaded with those piloted suits."

"That means there are at least five giant robots coming to this school," Kurt whispered in horror. "It took all we had to stop the first two. With the rest of the X-men out, how can we stop five?"

:

Cyclops and Storm both wrestled with the Blackbird's controls as the electrical systems went haywire. All around them was a pulsing red haze, thick and impenetrable like bloody clouds. The pilots pulled back on the yokes with all they had. They were nap of the earth when they entered the field. With the indicators all malfunctioning, no one could tell how close they were now, or how close they would be when they came out.

"I think we just hit Ko's wormhole!" Logan shouted above the alarms.

"Thank you for that blinding flash of the obvious, Logan!" Cyclops snapped.

They could feel the jet moving upwards, hear the turbines scream under the strain. The red haze abruptly cleared as they burst out into a orangish-red sky. The instruments instantly went back to normal operation. And once again, Cyclops was forced to make a dangerous, insanely fast turn as a craft of some kind flew in front of them. They avoided that one, but clipped three others in close formation. The sky was crowded with aircraft. Cyclops deliberately flipped the jet over for a moment, both as an evasive maneuver and to see what was below. He and Storm were in for a shock.

There had been a battle here. A long and protracted one, from the looks of things. The wreckage of at least thirty large exo-suits laid about, as well as the bodies of hundreds of silver-armored talons and other burned-out vehicles. A few large robots still fought on, but they were being overwhelmed. From a large, slow-moving ground vehicle, a beam lanced out and sliced off a robot's arm.

Cyclops flipped the jet back over. That was all he and Storm needed to see: the invasion had begun.

Storm knew Cyclops was the better combat pilot. She put her hands up. "Scott, you have the controls!"

"Hang on!" Cyclops ordered.

"I never stopped hanging on!" Iceman yelled from in back.

He rolled the Blackbird right and down, as fast a turn as he could manage. They were now being followed by the alien craft, being fired on from above and below. Storm reached out to the winds, but this wasn't her land. She didn't speak its language. What would she get if she pushed? How badly would she warp the weather patterns?

It doesn't matter here, she thought. We can't let these things come through the wormhole en masse. We've got to slow them down.

Her eyes turned white… then red. A low moan escaped her, unheard in the raging battle. She clutched her seat with her hands, even though she was securely strapped in.

Obey me! Obey me! OBEY ME!

She finally did something she had never done in her life: she forced her will upon the elements. The elements went wild, fighting back. She pushed harder, angering this world even more. Always she had control over her abilities. Always she knew what to expect. Here, her powers were like dynamite; she lit the fuse and hoped she could get away in time.

"Storm, what are you doing?" Cyclops shouted. "Aim the hail away from us before it clogs the intakes!"

"Get us out of here, Scott," she warned, her voice hollow. "I've lost hold of the tiger's tail."

To be continued….