Talons

Chapter 18

Storm set the Blackbird down on the top of another hill overlooking the battle. She watched the silvery chaos below her. By then all the hills around the switching station were coated with ice. Bobby was outdoing himself today. Occasionally, Cyclops' blast lanced over the crowd, and another large lump of vehicle went flying into the wormhole. She only had evidence of her teammates' existence; she was too far away to discern them from the masses. She was also still too shaky from her wrestling match with that other, red-skied world to have any hope of pinpoint accuracy with her powers.

She stumbled down the ramp and fell to her hands and knees on the new grass, breathing deeply of the cold spring air. Re-establishing her ties with the land. Behind her, she felt a static charge. It wasn't the leading edge of lightning; she was quite familiar with that sensation. No, this was something else. Something alien.

She spun around. A glaring gash of white was opening behind her, and talons stepped out. She stood and backed up. This wasn't happening. They were barely holding on as is. They couldn't take more of the King's Own, especially from a flanking maneuver.

But as the talons stepped away from the backlighting whiteness, Storm saw that they didn't look the same as the others. They were a bit smaller, and their hardsuits were green and white.

Cyclops fell to the ground as the world pressed in on his chest. He couldn't seem to catch his breath. His pulse was racing, and he couldn't get the taste of iron out of his mouth. He wasn't sure if he was still conscious or not as he felt himself lift off the ground, his body light as a feather. As he sped up and across the field of battle, he finally recognized the hallmarks of Storm's power, felt her arms around his heaving chest. Maybe he could get some good shots from up here before he passed out completely….

"We're going back to the Blackbird, Scott!" Storm told him. "This fight's over for us!"

"We can't let these things break through!" Cyclops shouted.

"We're not! Look again, Cyclops! We just got reinforcements!"

As she flew them over the field, raising higher and higher, Cyclops saw that the hills were lined with hundreds of other talons, all wearing green and white hardsuits. There were even a few tanks cresting those hills, also marked with a green and white insignia. Kotoko's rebel forces had arrived, and with their appearance, the King's Own turned around and made a hasty retreat through the wormhole, which was finally shrinking in size.

"Remind me to kiss Kotoko's knuckles when we get back," Cyclops wheezed.

:

"Hank, you know those things could have long range sensors, right?" Kitty asked nervously over their link.

"Yes," Hank replied.

"And if you can see them, they can see you, right?"

"I'm aware of that, Katherine. But I have to be sure no one else is on that road. The destructive force of this ordinance is extreme, to say the least."

This had to be the craziest thing he'd ever tried. The entire reason Hank wasn't with Xavier full time was so that he didn't have to do stuff like this. But there was no way he was going to risk catching innocent lives in a hail of missiles just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even if it meant letting those refugees from a giant robot flick get closer than he liked.

He sat in an oak tree, watching the road with his binoculars. They should be visible, soon….

Behind him, he heard something very big moving through the brush. He glanced back to see Isidro, curled up in such a tight ball that he had no larger a sensor profile than one of the bushes.

"Isidro, what are you doing here?" he asked.

Isidro extended an arm and pointed down the road. Hank turned that way again and put the binoculars to his eyes. Finally he saw them, a group of identical exo-suits running down the road in formation. He ground his teeth as he counted the number. There were twice as many there as the professor foretold. For some damn reason, they were all heading for institute, not just half. Did they have enough firepower to do this?

They were almost at his marker. A little further… a little further….

Suddenly the lead three suits stopped swinging their arms back and forth as they ran. Instead they extended both arms ahead of them, their speed unaffected by the awkward change. What the hell--?

Isidro sprang up and snapped Hank's tree, bringing him down branches and all. As he fell, a hail of bullets erupted just above him, digging into Isidro's armor. Hank crashed down to the ground and rolled away, the bullets following his path. Isidro jumped over Hank, landed between him and the road, rolled to his feet, and braced himself against the metal storm. Some of the bullets ricocheted off of his armor. Others struck and buried themselves deep. In the space of two seconds, Isidro lost an arm.

"NOW!" Hank screamed into his radio. "NOW KOTOKO! LAUNCH THEM NOW!"

Hank covered his ears. He barely heard the roar of the launch over the gunfire. He could not possibly miss the deafening, concussive booms of impact. The bullets stopped. Isidro fell to his knees and his hastilly-reattatched sensor head rolled off. Several of the bullets had passed through the chest cockpit.

Hank chanced a look back down the road, and saw smoking craters where the enemy suits had been. The only movement was single piece of glittering metal, falling to the side of the road.

Public Works was going to hate this.

:

Scott Summers laid on the floor of the Blackbird, oxygen mask over his face. At least there wasn't any pain this time. He was just so damned tired he could barely keep his eyes open. The oxygen helped; now he didn't feel so light-headed.

At first it was just he and Ororo in the jet, two exhausted combatants trying to regain their breath. Next up was Bobby, followed closely by Logan. Bobby promptly flopped into a chair and leaned his head back, gasping for air. Even Logan was winded. As they looked down at Scott on the floor, he weakly gave them a thumbs up sign.

"Where's Colossus?" Scott croaked.

Logan gave one of his patented half-grins. "Signing autographs, I think. Kotoko's guys really like him out there."

Bobby smiled weakly. "He scared the living shit out of the bad guys. Did you see the way they ran from him?"

"I guess drop-kicking a few tanks would give a guy a rep."

As if on cue, Peter walked up the ramp, unarmored and unharmed. It was as if that beating he took that awful night had inured him against all the damage to come.

"You done signing autographs, Petey?" Logan asked, dropping into a passenger seat.

Peter blinked, bemused. "Signing autographs? Nyet. I was showing them the hole I found in the mountain."

Scott sat up. "What?"

Peter pushed him back down. "Careful, Cyclops. There is no need to be upset. Those people who made the suits had made a base in the side of one of the hills. We looked in it, but …." His face turned somber and grim. "But everyone was dead. The equipment inside was melted, and the bodies were burned. It is good I do not need to breathe when metal, because there was nothing but smoke in there." He smiled again. "On the other side, I think we have found all those backhoes you were looking for…."

Someone was tapping on the ramp. Peter, the closest, looked back down the ramp, where a talon was tapping on a step with his claw. The alien motioned for someone to follow as he moved off.

"What's up, Peter?" Bobby asked, sitting up straight in his seat.

"I don't know," Peter said as he went down the ramp. "Let me look."

As he set foot on the ground, he glanced into the little valley where the switching station was located. The bleeding gash of light that was the wormhole had reduced to something the size of a small car, and was shrinking in front of his eyes. Ah, so that is what the talon wanted him to see. He smiled and pointed to the wormhole, signaling his understanding.

Apparently, that wasn't it at all, for the talon was still nudging him in another direction. Peter turned to see another talon walking towards him with someone curled up on its back. That person looked up, a sheepish smile on her face, and Peter recognized the distinctive white stripe in her long, matted, auburn hair. She looked like she'd been through hell itself, her usually fair skin smudged with black grit.

"Rogue, what are you doing here?" he demanded. "You are to be with the professor at home!"

"Long story, Petey," she said, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "Awful long story."

:

"Hey, honey, y'all wake up, now."

Kurt woke to the sound of Rogue's voice. He opened his eyes. He was in his own bed, under all the blankets and sheets. Rogue knelt nearby, her gloved hand on his shoulder. Her hair was still wet, and she smelled faintly of lavender.

He smiled. "It must have worked. Things are good enough for you to have showered."

"It worked mostly," she said. "I got there O.K., but I couldn't get all the way back. I burned out your power right quick with that first 'port. I woke up on the side of the road with a bunch of Kotoko's buddies around me. Turned out Kotoko also made that big battlesuit into a giant radio when he fixed it up, used it to contact his troops. Accordin' to Storm, they arrived just in time."

Kurt sat up against the head of the bed. His head felt like someone had used it for an ashtray. Rogue handed him a glass of orange juice.

"This aughta help," she offered. "Get you some potassium and all that."

"Danke."

He didn't even realize he was thirsty until the liquid hit his dry mouth. He speedily downed the juice, then leaned back and sighed.

"Isidro?" he asked.

"He got shot up a little savin' Hank's hide. Hank said the wounds weren't life threatenin', though. He's restin' now."

"Bobby?"

"Restin'."

"Peter?"

"Restin'."

"Cyclops?"

Rogue chuckled. "Sedated."

He looked directly at her. "Storm?"

"She's restin' too, sugar. Even Hank's restin'. The only one who ain't is Xavier. He and Kotoko's buddies are talkin' about stuff. I think they're talkin' about callin' this world 'out of bounds'. Looks like Kotoko's gonna be leavin' soon, too. Oh, and they'll take that poor bastard in the Danger Room, though I ain't got no idea's what they'll do with him."

"How much damage was done?"

Rogue winced. "The gov'ment's come out and cordoned it all off. Oh, man, I don't know how they're gonna cover this up, but they're tryin'. I think they're afraid to come up and ask us what's goin' on, 'cause they ain't showed up here yet, and Xavier says they ain't gonna."

Kurt nodded and sat up on the edge of the bed. He'd been placed there still in his uniform. He stretched his arms, then his back.

"Remind me not to sleep in this thing again," he grunted. "I think I will stick with boxer shorts."

Rogue watched him as he stood up, as if searching for something. He looked back down at her, curious.

"When you gonna tell her?" she asked suddenly.

He blinked. "Vas? What are you talking about?"

She looked away uncomfortably. "When I… imprint peoples' powers… I also get their feelings. I get their thoughts and their memories." She looked back up at him shyly. "I know how you feel about her. About Miss Munroe. You were awful worried about her. It was… kinda obvious for me." She paused, then hastily added, "I won't tell no one."

He smiled gently at her, a thing that let Rogue know all was forgiven. "There was a good chance you would find out, wasn't there? You did say you would feel my feelings. And I thank you for saying nothing." He looked out the window, where the evening shadows were deepening to night. "Perhaps I will tell her at some point. I am… not certain yet. It is so easy for leading men to see what leading ladies think in movies. It is not so easy for me." He shrugged, his smile returning. "I have time, I think. She is not leaving, and neither am I."

He turned deathly serious as he turned back to her. "What did they find at the station? Was there a base?"

"Yeah, what was left of one. It was dug into the side of a hill, all underground. Petey said it looked like they just dug it all out not too long ago and moved in a bunch of stuff, but it was hard to tell. He guessed they were playin' around with teleportin' or somethin', because all the equipment was fried. They had a big fire in there. Everyone was dead, about twenty bodies. They found the whole mess of stolen bobcats and backhoes in there, like they was storin' them or something."

"What about those trucks? Did they get any of the drivers alive to question?"

She shook her head. "They found a couple bodies in the rig we blew up, but that's it. The rest of the drivers were long gone. They probably bailed. I figure the feds got a manhunt going, but I ain't holdin' my breath."

Kurt sighed. "So we're no closer to finding the responsible people than we were before."

"Well, the professor thinks they were so rude to us 'cause we were too close to their little hideout. Might be they'll leave us alone after this. After all, we cost them a lot both times, and now the feds are here, too. It'd probably be right dangerous to keep after us now."

He nodded. "Perhaps so. It's just I hate loose ends. They make me nervous." Pause. "I must have missed dinner, yes? It looks late."

"Yeah, everyone was so tired they just kind of nuked a few burritos and went to bed. I made some spaghetti for the rest of the students. There's still a bunch left, I think. I could heat it up for you if you want."

"You don't need to do that for me, Rogue. I have figured out how to use a 'nuke'."

"No, it's O.K. I kind of need to talk to someone, anyway. Professor's busy, and Bobby's all wiped out and all… and I kind of think you'd be a nice guy to talk to…."

She blushed a little and looked away. He patted her on the shoulder and they walked out of the room.

"I am always happy to talk and to listen," he told her. "Let's go, then."

He spared a long look down the corridor, toward the women's wing of the mansion, before following Rogue down the stairs.

Next: epilogue………..