Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 12
Chapter 5: Onset
Kurt Wagner raised his head from the counter of the security panel in the small security room on the first floor of the mansion. He swore mentally at himself sleepily as he rubbed his eyes, realising he'd fallen asleep whilst on security duty.
"You have one job to do and you botch it up…" Kurt uttered at himself angrily as he began to quickly view the monitors, nothing seemed to be out of place, the whole mansion was silent, and he seemed to be the only one awake. He switched internal cameras to check the most popular rooms, the kitchen, the library and the recreation room. Rogue was in the recreation room, watching a movie. He zoomed the camera into her, and examined her face. She looked tired, and pale.
Kurt pondered momentarily if he should go talk to Rogue. She did look as if she needed a friend – and a brother – right now, and he could use the company. He could take a fifteen minute break, get himself some coffee, and take her a cup, but he decided against it. From what he'd heard about Kitty's incident with the hacking, it was expected that within the next few days, something might happen, and no one was sure what.
Kurt sighed watching the cameras closely, he wished Kitty was with him at that moment. She was meant to have been on security duty with him tonight, but had somehow managed to talk her way out of it with the Professor with claims of exhaustion. Kurt was almost certain that she was just avoiding him.
It was understandable why she might, after all, he had been a little too candid given the current situation. There were several more important things to think about, and Kitty didn't need personal problems interfering, but whenever Kurt was near her, he couldn't help it.
He caught the reflection of something in the monitor in front of him only a moment before something hit him in the side of the neck, it felt slightly cool against the blur fur covering his flesh, but the fur did not dull the sensations of sharp pricks making their way around his neck, he placed his hand to his neck to feel what it was, gasping in shock, something round was against his neck, just as he touched it, an electric shock caused him to seize and he fell from the chair. He didn't have time to hit the alarms before he fell unconscious.
Kitty hadn't been able to sleep all night, and as the early hours of morning were arriving her mind was still full of panic. What would happen now? Her connection bouncing had failed her, and the trace tracker had picked up too suddenly to be able to respond as properly as she should. She should have disconnected as soon as she could, but instead she felt she hadn't had a chance.
Despite cleaning the logs of her activity, she couldn't help but think that somehow, she was still in very deep trouble for hacking into the GMCF server. And it was only a matter of time before they came looking.
With a heavy sigh, Kitty turned over in bed, she stared at the window, it was still dark outside, and through the large window, Kitty could see grey clouds forming over the crescent moon, promising rain.
No birds were singing, barely a sound occurred except the soft rustle of the drapes from the open window, Kitty tried to let that sound soothe her into sleep, but somehow, that silence only made her uneasy. Sighing, she turned over, facing the wall rather than the window, she closed her eyes.
Her thoughts drifted to Kurt. It was strange that despite she wanted to forget about the whole thing that it was the only thing that seemed to push itself into her mind, and she kept replaying it in her head even when she knew it would do her no good to dwell on personal problems right now.
I really hurt him, Kitty thought wearily. That look on Kurt's face was etched in her head now, she'd never seen him look so dejected – especially from something she'd said. She glanced at the digital alarm clock on the bedside cabinet, the red numbers indicating it was three am exactly. She had considered – very briefly – going to talk to him and apologising for being so abrupt about the situation. Kurt often stayed up late, and tonight he was on security duty, he'd be up until five am, alone in the security room.
Kitty finally decided against that, and she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Fatigue drenched her, and she felt herself becoming lighter, her body relaxing, mind becoming clear as the exhaustion pulled her in. She was not prepared when something cold and hard slapped against her neck, and seconds later a sharp pricking sensation followed by a powerful electric shock. Soon the blackness overwhelmed her. She never knew what hit her.
Logan had sensed something was wrong barely seconds before the attack occurred. With lightning quick reflexes he shot out of bed, spinning around to see the silhouettes gathered in the darkness, their red eyes burning through the blackness of his bedroom. Those eyes told him that they could see almost perfectly in the dark, and despite his own heightened senses, he couldn't see as well in the dark as he would have hoped.
He reached out and flicked the light switch as quickly as he could, but his attackers seemed to sense his urgency to know who they were, and one of them lashed out far too fast with a metal staff, smashing the lamp to the floor. Logan ducked, his extraordinary hearing catching the whipping of a staff coming in his direction, he kicked out at one of the silhouettes and watched the attacker come down.
"No more mister nice guy," Logan uttered, he unsheathed his claws and lashed out viciously, he felt the adamantium collide with flesh, and he growled, "who ARE you?!" he demanded.
Logan elbowed at one attacker, swung a fist at another, kicked out, claws slicing through skin. He felt the warm slash of blood upon his bare torso. For one moment, he paused and he let his mutant senses overwhelm his human senses, and took a sniff at the air. A very familiar scent caught him by surprise.
"Gambit?!!" Logan cried out, spinning around to look, as five pairs of red eyes stared at him wickedly from the blackness.
Horror struck him, the thought that he might have accidentally struck Remy LeBeau with his claws. There was no mistaking Remy LeBeau's scent, it was overpowering now. The surprise of the scent was what took Logan down in the end, as caught in surprise had momentarily stupefied him. From behind a hand grabbed him by the throat, and then something cold and tinny was pressed firmly to his neck, he felt tiny points of metal cut into his skin, and intense electricity surging through his veins. He landed with a hard thud to the floor, unconscious before he felt the impact.
Hank McCoy had been in his lab when he'd been assaulted by the assailants, they'd attacked the lights first, and he hadn't had enough time to make out who they were, but in the darkness, his keen eyesight caught their outlines quite clearly enough to let him fight. He leapt out of the way, gazing into those red eyes, eyes that he recognised. Even without his vision, his vast intellect and his knowledge of what had occurred within the mansion in the past weeks allowed him to quickly work out who was attacking.
He headed for the open door, something sharp and cold hit him in the shoulder and the arm, as he was halfway out of the threshold, the light caught the silver of the blades that had been thrown at him, he gasped took a hold of them and pulled them out quickly, blood seeping profusely from the wounds. He held onto the wounds with one hand, he still felt the agony of the remaining blades within his shoulder, the ones he could not reach and had no time to worry about right now. The nearest alarm was only a little more down the hall.
Running, trying to stop the bleeding, he was almost there, when the instrument was planted upon his neck, and soon he was being electrically shocked into unconsciousness. His assailants let out a chuckle.
"Two more to go," one of them said. "Leave Xavier 'til last, he won't sense us until the end."
Another stated in a low voice, "Rogue is in the recreation room, I saw her on the security monitor as I took out Nightcrawler."
"Leave her to me. She's gonna be easy."
Rogue hadn't heard any of the commotion going on in the mansion, as one by one her team-mates were taken down by the unseen assailants. She'd been in the recreation room far from the turmoil the whole time. She hadn't been able to sleep, and so she'd set herself down on the comfortable leather couch to watch an old black and white movie. She envied the romance of the movies, where everything seemed so magical and wondrous and love always conquered all.
Rogue shook her head at the thought. Real love was nothing like that at all, it was full of complications and heartache and the very thing that was supposed to hold you together was the thing that drove you further apart. Love.
Rogue heard a soft creaking at the back of the room – the doors hinges needed oiling. Someone was entering the room slowly, and Rogue jumped, slightly jarred.
"Chere…"
Rogue spun around and gaped as Remy LeBeau stepped into the recreation room, he looked smug, and well rested. She jumped up from her chair, "what are you…I mean…how…"
"Doesn't matter, cherie," Remy assured, he stepped over, "I got away…" he looked at her with dark intense eyes, as he moved slowly, his long brown hair caught the breeze of an open window and stirred softly. Rogue examined what he was wearing, a full black leather outfit, a tiny silver logo gleamed on the left side of the chest of the jacket, but it caught the light and she couldn't make out what it was.
"But…how…I mean…what about the clone…"
"It must have been so confusing for you," Remy approached.
Rogue stood up slowly to throw her arms around him, "god, I didn't know if I'd ever see you again," she pressed her face to his shoulder, tears brimming her eyes.
"You might just," Remy replied, in a very strange cold tone that made Rogue shiver.
"Hmm?" Rogue asked, then she gasped as an icy implement hit her neck, and something sharp dug its way beneath her skin. "REMY?!" she asked, panicked breath pouring from her mouth.
"Close enough."
Electrical shock hit Rogue, pulling her down to the floor like a ton of bricks, and once it was over, she was unconscious, like the others.
Charles Xavier had awoken with a start, his telepathic senses had picked up on something in the room with him, and it had brought him from his slumber into a harsh awakening, his senses coming alive at once. He glanced around in the darkness, his breath catching in his throat, he saw three silhouettes, red eyes glimmering in the darkness, quickly he scanned the room telepathically, recognising the mental signatures of the attacker, they were all the same and it made it impossible to determine if there were three in the mansion or more, and now he realised just what threat lay ahead. He pressed his hands to his head quickly, and tried to throw out a telepathic alert to the mansion that they were under ambush, but realised it was too late, no one was conscious except from himself, and he was about to befall the same fate they had no doubt.
In a flash with precise speed, he was ambushed from the side by one of them, cold steel hit his neck and for a moment, he was afraid he'd almost been cut with a blade. In panic, he sent out a fierce telepathic attack, , and the three assailants went down with a thud gasping in pain.
Professor Xavier experienced a horrific electric shock which took him down before he could use his powers any further on the three attackers. He was unable to even save himself.