Disclaimer: AU to X3! Not making any money from this. Corrinth owns Stifle and Vixen, Blaze is mine, Marvel retain all rights to all other characters, all knowledge of US military comes from watching Stargate SG1!
Above and Beyond: Scene 7About a hundred metres off shore the wind suddenly picked up. It was a prevailing wind from the sea, heading to the land. It slowed their progress, blowing in their faces, showering them with salt spray and making the rain pelt horizontally into them. The black dinghy and black uniforms were slick like sealskins in the darkness. The waves rose higher, the swell increased to three or four feet. Gambit hung grimly onto the tiller, muscles bunched across his shoulders and down his arm as he tired to keep the dinghy going forwards. Underneath the surface, currents tugged riotously to try and pull the ten-foot boat off course.
Remy used Wolverine's weight at the front like a battering ram, forcing their way through the never-ending waves. The water broke over the bow in a froth of white and silver spray. Visibility was down to maybe a metre either side of the vessel due to the spray cascading back over the boat's flanks. Gambit could see Stifle and Mystique, both scanning the darkness for a sign of Kincaid's vessel, both hanging on grimly against the possibility over being washed overboard. Gambit figured he'd go back for Stifle, but if Mystique lost her handhold, she was definitely on her own.
The bottom of the dinghy was now swimming with sea and rainwater. The precipitation was falling so hard it was splashing up again after impacting with the sea surface. Gambit glanced to Blaze, wiping his visor on the back of his sleeve. He couldn't see her expression as she wore the same balaclava and mask he did. He didn't need to see though; he knew from her body language that her eyes were closed as she held onto a guide rope with two hands. Gambit knew that not looking where she was going would only make her more terrified and seasick.
Remy put a hand to Blaze's shoulder in reassurance. It was a sentiment he didn't truly feel. This was insane. In weather like this was becoming, they could sail five metres away from the giant ship and miss it. This was going to get them all killed. Lost at sea in a storm when the X-Men were all depending on them to stop the rot. The Cajun squeezed Blaze's shoulder hard, more to reassure himself than the Englishwoman.
Terrified and trembling, hating the water, despising being cold and wet in this dark and turbulent oblivion, Blaze somehow still managed to put a hand on Gambit's. A quick breathe inwards through the saturated balaclava and she moved before she had time to think about it. She scooted sideways, moving closer to Remy. Peeling back the balaclava from her mouth, she reached up to his ear to speak to him.
"You're off course! Head about five degrees left!" she had to yell to make herself heard. She didn't need to see Gambit's face to know he was looking at her strangely. The truth was that Kincaid's ship had big engines, and big engines need large amounts of flammable fuel. Blaze could just about sense the ship as though its fuel was a siren calling out to her. It was too complicated to explain over the noise of the storm, so Blaze just bawled, "Fuel, lots of, that way!"
Gambit nodded and made the course adjustment. Blaze pulled her mask down again with a grimace. Rather than have to keep screaming instructions over the storm to direct her friend to the fuel she had sensed, she put a hand on his on the tiller. Taking the hint, Gambit slipped her hand under his, and then gave her a brief lesson in cause and effect with the boat's steering. Secretly he was hoping her driving here would be better than it was behind a conventional wheel.
Five minutes later they suddenly saw it, a great grey monster looming up out of the water. They approached the USS Eliminator on the lea side, using its colossal mass to cut out the worst of the weather. Gambit idled the dinghy in to the flank of the vessel. Faces turned upwards, the would-be boarders ogled at the scale of the next task they had set themselves. Somehow they had to get up on deck. Pirates of the Caribbean this was definitely not.
First things first, they didn't want to lose their only means of escape. Logan made a score with his claws down the side of the great ship, through which Stifle looped a mooring rope. The dinghy bumped against the side of the ship as the rope was pulled taunt. Mystique unlashed the rucksacks and opened them up. From within she pulled out four gas-propelled grappling hooks equipped with ultra strong and lightweight steel rope.
Wolverine and Stifle took a rucksack each for the time being. Gambit, Mystique and Blaze knelt up in the boat to fire the grappling hooks one by one. First time all three caught on the deck high above. Simultaneously the three mutants tugged back on their ropes to test the mooring. They held, and Stifle was readying the fourth for launch. The wire whipped through the air making a hissing noise, yet again the hook caught, and a tug made it secure.
One by one, silent as ghosts, the X-Men stood in the dinghy and started to climb the wire, slithering upwards not unlike snakes in the rainforest undulating up a tree trunk. Despite the howling gale and with the sea cavorting below, rain pelting so hard it stung and lightning periodically searing the sky, they made good progress. Wolverine had his own way of climbing up the side of the ship. After the other X-Men had begun he let his claws slip through his knuckles. Then he glanced to Mystique who was fussing with her rope.
"You comin'?" he shouted over the weather.
"I'll follow," she yelled back in reply. Logan shrugged and left her to it. Reaching as far above his head as he could, he slammed his right claw into the ship. So long as he pushed his weight forwards, he could puncture the panelling all the way up, like climbing a ladder. Off the ground now he used his left claw a bit higher and made a new handhold. Easy, he thought with a snort of determination.
Back in the dinghy, Mystique watched him go. So focused were all four of them that none of them noticed her cutting the rope that held the little boat secure. They would succeed, or she would see all the X-Men in Kincaid's hands. Mystique had little difficulty imagining herself blending in with the crew until there was a trip back to shore she could join. She doubted the X-Men she'd brought along would acclimatise so well to Kincaid's vessel. She reached up and hauled herself clear with the rope, as the little dinghy was graciously swept out to sea. Mystique watched it unblinking for a moment, her yellow eyes flashing in the darkness. Then she looked up and set off after the X-Men.
They were lucky in that they climbed onto the deck behind a military helicopter that was chained to the storm-lashed deck. It offered them a little shelter as they repacked the climbing gear, masks and sodden balaclavas. Gambit donned his infamous trench coat and checked his ammo supply. Stifle and Logan decided to keep the rucksacks between them. Darkly fascinated with the seething ocean now she was far above it, Blaze took a quick look back down whilst the others got organised. She'd done it; she'd survived this far… Her surge of adrenaline and pride in her hydrophobic non-swimmer's accomplishments was suddenly stopped a long with her heart. She grabbed Mystique by the shoulders as she climbed over the edge of the deck and threw the changeling across the slippery surface towards the others, shouting, "What the Hell have you done with the boat?"
"Blaze?" Wolverine asked, with the others looking equally confused.
"The boat, it's gone! Mystique must've let it go!"
"Of course," Mystique grumbled righteously. "It was likely to be seen and compromise the mission. Besides, did you really believe we could transport at the best dazed and confused, at the worst unconscious and badly beaten prisoners of Kincaid in that sorry heap?" The X-Men were quiet, they hadn't thought that far ahead. "We have to gain control of the ship and sail it into port. The only way to end this is to preserve Kincaid's madness and expose it to the entire world. Not unlike how he started this madness with Juggernaut and the X-Men in the first place."
"Not that we have a choice of actions anymore," murmured Stifle angrily. "Okay, so which way to the bridge?"
"I have no idea," Mystique announced. "From this point on, I will be following your lead."