Disclaimer: Goes without saying but I do not own any of the X-Men characters, nor any other Marvel character herein included. They're the properties of the original creators as dictated by official documents, whom you can find out more about in Wikipedia or something. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics, etc.
Rating: T for a bit of violence. I censor profanity like they would in a comic, if I ever use it.
(This story happens in the same timeline/universe as Spider-Man: Repulse, Bruce Banner: The Abysmal, Avengers: The Galaxy's Mightiest, and The Mighty Thor: Moxy. but it's self contained!)
PART 5: A Close Call
Her eyes shone and her robes fluttered, and her head became full with the familiar connection that she had with the planet's will. Her mutant ability made it so she could influence it. She could convince the planet to breathe at her pace, and according to her whims.
Or at least, that was the ability she had.
The Jade Dragon came soaring across the air at great speeds. Tornados began descending from the cloud-crowded skies in great numbers. The dragon skillfully flipped and spun, zigzagging between them. However, they were too many, and so he was forced to fly away and go around, but Ororo's body turned to keep up.
The dragon roared, and fire shot out of its mouth to nullify one of the tornados. It actually worked, with the heat of the fire all but consuming the winds Ororo sought to control. She saw the dragon smile before the realization, albeit angrily, and then it turned straight towards her.
It blew fire ahead of itself, making a path.
That dragon is definitely thinking like a person, Ororo considered, all while concentrating on worsening the storm. She was bringing clouds from all over the country and stimulating the rain. All the while, she had to keep a bit of her attention on the information being exchanged past her ears.
"We're in. Some guy saw us and immediately disappeared, I think he's a teleporter," Rachel commented. "Couldn't get in his head. Karma?"
"Also missed it," Xi'an said, disappointed.
The dragon's flames lost some reach because of the rain, but not enough that it died out before the fast winds. It was still burning them aside. Ororo felt static coursing through her body, shocking her strands of hair straight, as she willed the clouds to grind together.
"Don't get out from behind the wall! Just focus on our flanks, and above us!" Bobby called, and Ororo hoped that Sooraya and Hisako would heed his instructions.
"Dei Guan," Hank said in her ear. "Storm, that's Dei Guan, the Jade Dragon. Mutant from China. It has been a rather long time since he was last seen in public."
She didn't really process the information, concentrated as she was. Lightning struck at the dragon, and while the fire breath wavered enough for the winds to put it out, the body kept barreling through to her, gigantic and heavy. Ororo disengaged the winds that were holding her and allowed gravity to drop her out of his way.
Ororo watched the dragon gliding above her, and the next moment, her body was thrown violently by the force produced by the massive body speeding past, and the flapping of the wings. Squinting hard, she as if reached for nature again, grasping at the powers she had let go.
With a grunt, she engaged again, and finally gave Henry's words some thought.
"How do we turn him back?" Ororo asked while summoning up another small whirlwind, so that she could hover. The dragon stabilized its flight and began turning back, shaking his head free of the stun and pain.
"I am not completely certain that we can, Storm," Henry reported.
All of a sudden, something flew past her, heading down at an extraordinary speed. Some kind of flier. Too fast for her to react.
Had the person been aiming for her and missed?
"Lots of turrets in this place. They have all the bombs in one place, underground," Rachel reported. "We'll get there soon."
Looking down, Ororo saw that the flier was not slowing down at all. She wasn't the target. "Iceman!" Ororo yelled, to make sure he noticed. "You have incoming from above! Falling fast!"
"What?" Bobby had heard her. "Armor, Dust, get back here, quick!"
Ororo turned her eyes to the dragon, intending to focus a lot of her will into catching him with uneven winds. If she could break his flight like she had before, she could end that fight.
However, her intentions, her thoughts, her senses. They were all utterly robbed by the shock of a massive explosion from below.
In the time it took her to recover from the stunning wince, and look down, the resulting winds reached and threw her away, dispersing her tornados. The concussive force was so strong that, for a long moment, all of the rain was pushed back above the clouds, and became absent.
When her senses returned, it was too late. A massive green hand enveloped around her body and snatched her off the air.
"I have you, now!" The monstrous voice said, but Ororo looked away, downwards.
"What was that?" Amara asked in her ear, near drowning in the panicked ringing as her hearing recovered from the blast.
"Iceman, Dust! Armor! Report! Are you okay?" Storm could barely see anything. Not only was she too high up, but the whole area was now filled with steam. However, the dark smoke in the shape of a mushroom was telling.
Goddess, what has happened?!
"Call off your people, Storm," the dragon demanded, with a voice booming hot enough to nearly burn her face.
"Oh my God," said Hisako, suddenly.
"Well. Haven't had that close of a call in a while," said Robert, his voice shaking. Ororo also noticed the whispered mumblings of Sooraya, praying under her breath.
"Oh my God," Hisako repeated. "Did that man just blow up?!"
"Dust is hurt," Bobby reported, with none of his usual joviality, as it always happened once things got serious enough. "I have no idea who he is but I got him on ice."
"I'm not that great either!" said Hisako, defensively. "Oh my God!"
"I am fine," Sooraya said, uncertainly.
"We're good. Miraculously," Bobby said, with a tone that seemed to indicate the man wouldn't just be frozen if that wasn't the case. "But you need to hurry, Phoenix," added Bobby.
"There's some guy stalking us! He knocked out Phoenix," said Xi'an, her voice filled with effort. She was dragging Rachel. "He has a lot of minds, somehow, I can't get control of him. They cleared the entire floor of everyone else, I can't use anyone to help us."
"Are we good?" Hisako asked, quite shook and completely forgetting about the communication, if she was even registering it. "I don't know that I agree with that."
"We do not need any help, Karma," Amara protested. "I am here! Come out and face us, coward!"
"Are you hearing me?" the dragon boomed, shaking Ororo.
Storm focused her opaque eyes on him, and squinted them. "Unhand me or I shall release fury such that you have never witnessed before. Fury of the likes you cannot contend with."
The dragon frowned in confusion, his wings flapping to keep his hovering levelled. After all, just because Ororo wasn't making the storm worse did not mean it got better. The winds were harsh and the rain piercing, just the same. The Jade Dragon squeezed his hand, hurting her considerably.
That was a mistake.
Reflexively, Ororo lashed out with her power. Not only was the hand struck with a variety of lightning bolts, but the rain turned to a hail of ice. The electric shock forced the hand open, and her body fell. Grunting with effort, Ororo forced herself back to full consciousness and almost immediately took an ice shard to the head. It hit across her shoulder instead.
"Ow!" Her temper flared, and winds moved again, not only catching hold of her but also creating a strong enough current around her to push the hail aside. The dragon was roaring in pain, grabbing hold of his struck hand, and incapable to protect himself from the hail. Ororo scowled at him, steeling her heart for what came next.
"I warned you," she said, fatally.
The Jade Dragon had remained still, so now, she was able to confound his wings with uneven, solid gusts of winds. The body jerked and dropped. The wings flapped, as did the arms and legs, and the man-beast yelled with his efforts to grasp at the tumultuous winds around him. The moments in which its wings could grab hold of some control were fleeting, since Ororo would adapt to confound him.
Bit by bit, the dragon fell all the way to the ground, accompanied the whole way by a heavy hail of ice.
"You cannot challenge the forces of nature, no matter who you are," Ororo said, spitefully.
Meanwhile, the communications continued. Henry had gathered control of the second blackbird, and was guiding it to pick Bobby up, as well as the girls.
And Rachel had woken up. "You think you can keep me from finding you…Collective?" Ororo heard Rachel ask, through gritted teeth, clearly.
Ororo heard a yell from far away, which mixed quite well with the dragon's spiraling drop far below.
"You're lucky Magma went easy on you, you idiots. Now go to sleep, all five of you," Rachel demanded.
"Ororo," Henry called. "Stark's Avengers have finished clearing their second base. He has asked me to inquire as to whether they should take over the base in the Artic which has been assigned to us. Apparently, it is located on the way to their next target."
Ororo frowned, insulted by the offer. At the same time, the massive dragon finally hit the ground, lifting up a mountain of dust. It cleared very fast, because of the ongoing storm, and showed a considerable crater. The dragon was gone, though. Ororo guessed it had turned back into its human form, which would be too small for Ororo to discern.
Whether he was alive or not was up to higher powers than hers.
"We're here," said Xi'an. "Should take us about ten minutes to disable all of them."
"Oh, only ten minutes?" Asked Amara, and she sounded hurt. Or at least tired. "Not a problem. I think I only hear ten of them running our way!"
"Go, Karma, help Magma. I'll take care of this," Rachel said.
"I have also learned how to do it. You help her, I will take care of the bombs," Xi'an argued.
Ororo didn't like that argument, or the fact that there was even an argument. Plus, Stark's offer was still on her mind, along with how narrowly they had survived the human bomb. The result was an affected temper which led her to intrude.
"Magma, block off the pathway leading to you. Karma and Phoenix, handle the bombs as fast as you can. Magma will then dig you out of the base to meet us. Stop hesitating, now."
"And what answer shall I give, Storm?" Henry pressed, in her ear. Inside her head. "They want to know."
Part End: Thank you for reading, please consider leaving a review if you have the time.
That was quite the - wait for it - close call. Next up, Storm has to make a decision on how to tell Stark to get pick up his hubris, pack it into his fanny pack, and take a hike. Also, she has to decide how to proceed with the next three bases. This mission is definitely not a walk in the park.