(Two)
"Get the Siskans outta here!" Logan bellowed, stepping out and grabbing Seth like so much meat. He gave the boy a shove towards the house, giving up comfort for speed. In an odd twist of fate, it wasn't one of his teammates that responded to the order, it was Zander.
The Punisher dissolved Fallen's shield like it was nothing, making his former Mistress gasp in surprise. He tore away the shirt Lin had wrapped around his head and tossed it aside before standing strong and tall in front of Wolverine, as much a warrior as the man before him. "I kin fights!"
"Don't be ridiculous, it's you they want! Get yer brother outta here and down to the Danger Room on the double!" Wolverine answered, still a little awed by the change in Kimble. Zander was powerful and strong, Kimble's polar opposite, intimidating just in his stance alone.
Zander reluctantly obeyed, and that only because he knew Logan was right. He moved towards the house and his brother, grabbing Seth and hauling him inside with no more gentleness than Wolverine had. Logan had directed him to the Danger Room because it was the most protected room in the Mansion complex and the understood gathering place in times of emergency.
Seth struggled and clawed at his brother as he was carried away like baggage, but it was a useless gesture. This was the strong father figure who had always protected him, only with a different face and voice. The Punisher's expression was cold, all business as he rushed Seth to the elevators, actually hauling the guy up over his shoulder as Seth continued to thrash at the rough handling.
From his awkward position, Seth had watched his precious Mistress take flight, joining Warren up in the sky without hesitation. She was a powerful telekinetic and had wasted no time in shielding the house from further damage. The elevator chimed and the doors opened, Zander took them inside and they were gone.
Outside the house, Logan was busy. With Cyclops gone he was essentially next in command at the moment. He couldn't help but feel a surge of pride – in most situations like this, the attacked would be fleeing the enemy, but instead, students were pouring from the building and forming automatically into squads, just as he and the others had trained them. The kids might be teenagers or less, but self defense training was mandatory from their first day at school here. To facilitate this, they were often clumped into squads of four or five and made to learn teamwork and cooperation. It was paying off in droves this day.
"Red team, to the left! Green team to the right! Purple team in the middle an' I want white team up in the skies, now!" Logan ordered, pleased beyond words when he was instantly obeyed. There might have been some screwing around in class, but the kids were all business now.
"Need a hand?" Storm asked, swooping by overhead. She was already conjuring thick heavy clouds, a moment later it was raining, all the better to put out the fire. She also tossed him down a radio and a real prize, one of the restraining collars that had come from Cerise. Those collars had come in handy in situations like this and had been used quite a bit in the earlier raids. They were now standard operating equipment and given to the team leaders out in the field to assist in subduing the more powerful mutants who had tried to claim the bounty on Kimble.
Wolverine grinned his toothy smile up at Storm. "Yeah, how about some recon? Find out what are we dealing with out there?"
She nodded at him and was off after the others. Wolverine clipped the radio to his shoulder and off he was himself, conducting the perimeter defense.
Fallen had responded just as quickly as Logan had. As soon as Seth was safely in the house, she had flown up into the air and spread out as big of a shield as she could handle, trying to block the house from more bombs.
Fallen had performed well at the Friends of Humanity rally and since then had been asked to participate in a couple of practice sessions with the Blue team. Jean in particular had been working with Fallen, giving the pilot some formal training in shields and defensive tactics. Fallen was familiar with her own abilities, but had never worked with them in a structured setting, she had never pushed herself to see what her limits were. Truth be told, she had been having a blast and had recently been entertaining thoughts of officially joining a squad. The only thing holding her back was she wasn't sure if she could pass the physical requirements. Yes, she was probably the healthiest she had ever been right now, but she was no athlete. Her strength came from her telekinesis, she wasn't used to working without it and all the teams were expected to be able to do so, in case they were ever depowered or incapacitated during a mission.
Being on the team was the furthest thing from Fallen's mind at the moment, she was more concerned with saving the house. She could see two more fireballs on their way from the back acreage and over the trees, and did her best to move into position. She would have preferred to do the boomerang thing and sling the shots right back at who fired them, but the truth was this was still a residential area and she couldn't risk having a blast go in the wrong direction. Not to mention she'd probably set all those fine trees on fire.
Fallen swooped and caught the fireballs as they came, using her shield like a scoop. That was part one – she had stopped them from hitting the house, now what?
"Fallen! Down here!"
She looked down and smiled gratefully when she saw Iceman there, iced up and already forming two huge blocks of ice out on the lawn. He used the ambient moisture in the air, but having the pool close by was handy as well. She dropped the plasma balls down, careful lest they explode, and they landed perfectly into the ice blocks Bobby had made. They fizzled and popped, melting the ice down quickly before sputtering out harmlessly themselves. He gave her a thumbs up and she smiled, feeling a rush just from being so helpful.
Her defense was effective. The blast had been aimed right over where Kimble had been and designed to block retreat to the house. The first shot had gone high and the element of surprise had been lost. Now Kimble and Seth were safe and there was no further damage to the house. The fire was now out and more mutants were rushing to the fight. Whoever had started this was sure to regret it.
Meanwhile, Logan raced across the grass and to the tree line. Time and time again he had complained that the forest was kept too close to the house but it just looked so darn pretty he had been told. He had planted many motion sensitive cameras and alarms out there but clearly someone with talent had taken them out or bypassed them. The house alarms hadn't gone off until the first plasma ball hit the Mansion.
A moment later and Logan was in the thicket, scratched by brambles as he made his way through. He popped claws and hacked at the branches, feeling the sting and burn as the metal blades slid out. He didn't mind the pain, it meant a brawl was coming and he was never one to turn down a good fight. And it would be coming - he could already hear the shouts of a battle beginning just in front of him and was forced to scramble to a halt when a body went flying at him out of nowhere. It wasn't an attacker, Max was out in the trees just ahead of him throwing the enemy about with telekinetic shoves and slamming them into the trees. It was a good defensive maneuver, the attackers never laid a finger on him.
Logan ducked as the man hit the tree next to him with a bone crunching thud and fell motionless to the ground. Wolverine snatched at him for a closer look, the man was dressed as any merc but with a notable exception, he had a double dagger pin at his throat, the mark of the Assassins Guild. Logan snarled with impatience, he thought he had done enough damage to the Guild when Kimble had first come home - it seemed he had thought wrong.
He turned his head to the right and saw Max still at it, taking two assailants at a time with surprising ease. All those classes were paying off and it made Logan smile. Well, that was until he recognized one of them as belonging to the Thieves' Guild. That was unsettling, just how many Guilds were out there? This was more than just bounty hunters, he realized, this was a full out assault by Jael.
The thought angered him and made his hands twitch, he had done no actual fighting himself yet. As fate would have it, he didn't have to go far. He had taken only one step when there was a flash of light and an unexpected group of party crashers appeared right in front of him.
Logan got his confirmation of just who was in charge of this when the flash of light revealed Razel standing there with his companions, Shakra and Marcus, right on cue. They had teleported right up to the house and the flash of light had come from Razel's 'port. Before anyone could shout in surprise, Logan pounced, launching himself at Razel and grabbing him about the throat.
Razel's startled cry was choked off and he vanished, taking Logan with him. Because he used touch to teleport his passengers along with him, Razel was now moving not just himself, he had taken along a very irate stowaway. Razel 'ported and 'ported again in a hysterical panic, never going very far because he had to be careful about the trees. Like Nightcrawler, Razel had to know where he was teleporting to, a blind 'port could have him landing inside a tree or a rock, a rather painful way to die. Taking advantage of that fact, Logan hung on for dear life, grateful that a jaunt with Razel wasn't as nauseating as a 'port with Nightcrawler could sometimes be. He dug his heels in and growled into the ear of his host. "You can keep 'portin' all ya want, bub, you ain't gettin' rid of me so easy!" He next began to bite, breaking Razel's concentration.
Razel howled with pain and his next jaunt landed badly. They ended up on the grass closer to the house and tumbled to the ground as Razel's legs gave way. Logan wouldn't let him go. He flipped the smaller man onto his back and decked him hard, grunting with satisfaction when he heard his jaw snap. He had very little sympathy for this one after his kidnapping. He wouldn't kill, but he wasn't above doing some damage. He raised his fist, offering a second helping, and Razel surrendered with a whimper, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, some of his teeth had been shattered as well. Logan grabbed the restraining collar Storm had given him and snapped it around Razel's neck, finishing this. He called for one of the students posted at the house to grab Razel and haul him away. The words were hardly out of his mouth before he heard the rough staccato beat of automatic gunfire over by the waterfall.
(break)
When the first plasma blast hit the house, Warren and Fallen had wasted little time before leaping into the air. Fallen did her best to cover the house, but Warren couldn't help her there. He went right for the source of the problem, following the smoke trail that remained in the air from the first plasma bomb. From his high position, he could see a group of thirty or more men milling around the access road by the waterfall. They hadn't been there just a few minutes ago – the Mansion had patrol squads in the air circling the house at all times and they would have reported the activity in. The unwanted visitors must have been called for when Kimble was first seen by enemy spotters after Fallen had taken him to the flower field. Warren hesitated just a moment before making a defensive strike - as good as he was, that was too large a group to take on by himself - but smiled when Neal joined his side.
Neal was a plasma producer of high skill, he had learned how to manipulate small plasma explosions to create enough heat to keep him aloft. He could, in a word, fly. He was blasting through the air leaving his own small trail of golden smoke and with a whoop and a holler, called Warren on to join him. The pair swooped down on what looked to be the base of operations for this little assault.
Neal was quite effective, blasting his way through the center of them and scattering little plasma bombs the size of golf balls about. They hit the ground like grenades, sending ordinance and men flying. Warren did his best to cover Neal's back, looking out for armed men and blowing them down. They say the wing of a goose can break a man's arm. Well, Warren's wings, artificial though they might be, were just as powerful and he was doing the men some damage.
The pair were joined by students from the areal classes, Logan's White team had arrived and now trouble was raining down on the invaders from the sky. Like the flying monkeys from Oz, the kids were grabbing men and taking off with them, flying just high enough to stun them by dropping them back down. Most of the attackers gathered here were from the Guilds and they didn't have a proper defense for this. The plan had been that the mutants Jael had sent along were going to do some real damage to the house first, but that was wasn't happening, the fight had gotten turned around on them instead. They took some shots up in the sky with machine guns and flying knives, but there were more telekinetics among the flyers than flappers and they were just as handy with shields as they were with flight. When Storm caught up with them at last and the lightning started coming down, the men scrambled and fled, scattering in all directions.
(break)
In spite of his youth, Max was having a blast. This was better than training class because he didn't have to hold back out here. He was using telekinetic pulses to throw down the enemy, a new technique he had just been taught. He had to be careful with them, many of his classmates were out here going after the Assassins with as much gusto as he was. He had seen the flash of light as Razel appeared and had hardly taken a step that way when he saw Razel vanish, taking Wolverine with him. Unfortunately, Razel had left his companions behind and they were not pleased.
Max barely had to time to raise a defensive shield when Shakra let fly with her quills. Max wasn't the only one out here, he watched in dismay as a couple of his nearby squad mates cried out and fell, knocked out by her bio-toxins. He launched himself at her, shouting, but was met on the way by Marcus. They clashed in a tangle of feathers and limbs, an even match in powers but not in size and skill. Marcus was a large man and heavily muscled, his fists were like iron bearing down on him. This was no longer fun for Max as he was pushed back and bent down under Marcus' heavy blows. He screamed when he heard something snap and break in one of his wings, the fragile limb was crunched under Marcus' heavy boots and pinned.
Max was rescued when in a cloud of black and purple smoke Nightcrawler suddenly appeared by his side. Max fell on to his back, stunned and gasping, and could only watch in dazed amazement as Marcus feebly tried to defend himself against his unseen opponent. As fast as Marcus would try to strike with his fists, Kurt would vanish and reappear only to hit him from behind or the side, well out of reach. Nightcrawler was more than just an athlete, he was a top caliber acrobat, 'porting around Marcus and socking him in every pressure point he could reach with his thick, three fingered hands, grinning devilishly all the while. With each teleport, Kurt left behind little clouds of sulfureous smoke and right up close, they were as good as choking Marcus as well. Marcus didn't take long to fall, he was outmatched and outclassed, unable to fight what he couldn't see.
Shakra had come to Marcus' defense, but Kurt hadn't come alone. He had brought Manny along with him from the house. Manny might have only begun his defense training, but his invulnerability gave him an edge against the woman. He jumped on Shakra, using his larger size to toss her down. All was fair in love and war, he used a rock to stun her, doing his best to soften the blow but in truth didn't much care if he hurt her seriously. She had invaded his home with malicious intent and she was getting what she deserved as far as he cared.
Wolverine stumbled back through the brush just in time to see the end of this little brawl. He used his radio to call for someone to come and collect the downed villains, happy to see that not only did they have the upper hand in this scrap, but they had captured Jael's upper echelon, this had to be a crippling blow for the terrorist.
He moved on, following the last of the gunfire to the waterfall. There wasn't much left for him to do when he got there except play round up, most of the enemy had been scattered or captured. In spite of the size of the assault, the kids and their squads had taken care of business effectively. Their casualties had been light, no one had been lost, though some of the younger kids were beaten up pretty good. All in all, he couldn't complain. The kids had performed well and he doubted they would be attacked again any time soon.
Not all the fighting had been taking place outside of the house, some defensive work had been done from within. Charles Xavier might have been a cripple in a wheelchair, but he was hardly defenseless. Once alerted to the goings on, he played delightful turnabout and entered the minds of some of the Assassins and Thieves, driving them back onto their brethren with their minds warped and confused. They fell upon each other in insane frenzy, fighting and quarreling with each other. Savage fighting broke out and some of the Assassins slaughtered each other although that was not Charles' intention. Still, the damage was pretty complete and he doubted that they would dare attempt this again.
Those who hadn't been killed suffered psychological damage from the Professor's tampering. Charles didn't like to use his power this way, but this was self defense. A good number of the afflicted later found themselves morally compromised — they suffered from having a conscience and could no longer assassinate or steal without being wracked with guilt.
The group of Thieves that had allied themselves with Jael were from Henri's branch of the family. Etienne would never have agreed to anything against his dear cousin and friend, Remy LeBeau. The fallout from this fiasco was felt for weeks and Henri's Thieves soon fell under attacks from the heads of the Assassins Guild as if this whole thing was his fault. The Assassins hadn't liked their ranks being decimated by mutants or from crazed thieves. Later, when Etienne heard about it, he couldn't stop from laughing.
(break)
Moments after the fight had begun, SHIELD had been alerted and were even now sending a squad and a clean up crew. The X-men had this pretty much in hand by the time Fury's team arrived, capturing as many of the assailants as they could and packaging them up for shipment. All told, they had gathered well over fifty members of both Guilds and ten of Jael's top people, the most prized being his top three – Marcus, Shakra and Razel. They wouldn't be going free any time soon. While not as good as capturing Jael himself, the terrorist had received a devastating blow to his organization.
Nick Fury showed up twenty minutes later when the dust settled. He was pleased at his catch for the day, but had some questions, too. He glared at Logan who was now covered with blood. "This is about the bounty, isn't it?"
Logan opted for honesty. He didn't want to alienate this man who was so often his ally. "Yeah."
"What is so special about Kimble that Jael would send his top guys out to catch him?"
This was where things got tricky. Logan didn't want to even try to explain the Game to Fury, not when he wasn't so sure about it himself. He also couldn't go on about Jael wanting Kimble as a super weapon, that would only inspire the man to try and take Kimble for himself. Wolverine sighed and crossed his arms before answering, "Near as we can tell, he's got this idea that Kimble used to belong to him and he's takin' it all personal that he ain't bein' returned. It's more about savin' face than the fact that Kimble's really worth something. Kimble's just property, nuthin' more."
Fury squinted at him, chewing on his cigar thoughtfully. He couldn't help but be grateful that his team had been called in, they now had quite the load of wanted criminals to return to prison, some of them from the Most Wanted list. He was really in the X-men's debt, not the other way around, and wasn't in a position to push anything as far as Kimble went. The guy hadn't been involved in the fighting and he was still secure at the house. Kimble could be found anytime he wanted, so he was willing to let this go. For now.
"All right, but you're having a harder time convincin' me that this Kimble fella isn't something SHIELD shouldn't be looking into, Logan. I know you're not telling me everything. I'm only hoping this doesn't turn around and bite you in the ass."
"Don't worry, Nick. If we need you we'll give you a call."
"I'll be holdin' you to that," Nick Fury said with a nod and walked off, shouting orders to his men. They had a full paddy wagon to take back to the SHIELD prison and he was happy enough for now. He packed up his crew and left, leaving the X-men to their repairs.