Oh man, fight scenes. Bear with me. XD
PS: Ashli Locknane - Ay thank you so much! I actually didn't even plan on her joining at all. I was just going to have her skirt around the edges and only help out if they practically begged. Or she really wanted something and had to suck up. I like your idea better though, to have her join and just not get along - I wouldn't have to change the POVs as much. I hate that, when I read it over it sounds confusing to me. Might have to fight you on the romance one though... but that was going to be a one sided love/hate type thing. If that even makes any sense XD
PPS: EpicGuestReview0001 :) - THANK YOU! (Sorry I didn't see you reviewed the first chapter). I was so worried that I had made it too choppy and hard to read. YOU HAVE BOOSTED MAH EGO!
~Thanks for reading! (and reviewing if you do)~
There is very little worth thinking about when you're sitting in direct sunlight on a tiny ledge, besides how nice it would be to jump into a river. Thinking about anything else would probably make your brain overheat and explode. Scientific fact.
Lorelei was currently in the above mentioned situation. Once again she was sitting on her perch, but her usual griffin-scowl had been replaced with a look of anxiousness - and anxiousness does not make a griffin look impressive; Lorelei knew this because she had made faces in front of a mirror for hours on end. Unfortunately, what was actually on the birds brain was not how nice it would be to jump into a lake. She was mulling over the last few hours… which explained why she was getting hot under the feathers.
The events that had transpired within the last ten hours were the most perplexing and brain exploding subjects that Lorelei could possibly think of at the moment. She couldn't wrap her head around the sequencing of it all, and the obvious facts only seemed to make the story more confusing.
The front door was clearly smashed in. That was a given and probably meant that the intruders were unafraid of being detected… or trying to make a statement. Lorelei ruled the statement theory out though; they had found the keyhole in the wall and walked all over the house. She figured that they must have found the keyhole rather than have known where it was because the footprints indicated they were looking for something. If they had known where the secret door was, they would have gone straight to it.
Now that rational was all fine and dandy to Lorelei, but where the hell where they and why did they stop when they were so close to raiding one the world's greatest crime organizations? Lorelei didn't believe that they had gotten annoyed and given up, that made no sense. They probably even knew that they were close… and giving up didn't seem to be a thing in their nature seeing as how they were adamant of busting down the door. So where were they?
They were still in the house!
No…
Lorelei had searched the house before even noticing that they had found the keyhole; there wasn't enough time to hide. So… they must have left during the confusion when Lorelei was looking for Garvey!
No…
That wouldn't work unless they were still on the first level of the house. Lorelei had only been in the cellar for two minutes tops, and she'd spent three minutes on the first step. So, she was only distracted for about five minutes. And if you're in a huge mansion that you've never been in before, you'd need more than five minutes to regroup and find your way back out.
So… where are they? And if they did leave before I left my post, why did they go when they were so close to finding us?
Lorelei felt her head start to pound. The heat was ridiculously overwhelming, and all these thoughts of conspiracies and robberies and… robberies. They had taken her sack of granite flakes. Now that just pissed her off. Why the hell did they need her granite dandruff? The only reason she set it aside in a bag was to keep it safe and dry if she ever need add it back onto herself. If she lost an arm or leg or useless freaking wing she could just add some fancy dirt and, voilà, new appendage.
If I ever find who took my stuff… The griffin-girl was so busy boiling from the heat and the thoughts of what she would do if she ever caught her skin-stealer that she didn't even noticed when the rocks near the edge of Loreley Cliff began to rumble…
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"Easy… easy…" Scott gently inched the jet up a mere five feet away from the cliff face. Even though the jet was pretty much invisible to the human eye, the explosion that it would make if it hit the cliff would not be. Also they would probably die. Or at least be greatly injured.
Once he had the iron bird hovering eyelevel with the edge of the cliff, he looked for a safe and slightly discreet place to land. There was a small forest and a large field to choose from.
"So… where do we park?"
"Next to dat purple flower!" Remy pointed vaguely in front of them towards the open field.
"O-o-kay…" Scott sincerely made a concerted effort to land the jet next to a purple flower, but once they landed, all Remy did was complain.
"I really wanted dat flower." Remy looked about and sighed. "It woulda looked pretty in Marie's hair, no?"
Kurt plucked a particularly large white wildflower from the ground. "There are hundreds of other flowers to choose from." He chided. "Maybe this one?" He extended the pretty weed towards his friend.
"Yeah…no… I wanted da purple one."
"Listen, guys, we can discuss this later. There are people who need our help right now."
Jean was irritable. The sound from all the prisoners was deafening; usually she'd be able to drown out a lot of voices - she did it on a daily basis. But that singing voice she had heard earlier had faded out into a very loud white noise, and it was making it hard for her to concentrate. She needed to stop whatever was making that sound, or go insane.
"Right." Wolverine grinned wickedly. "So let's set the captives free and fuck things up along the way."
"I'm with Logan on dis one." Remy concurred. "Anyone who kidnaps and sells people deserves a good kick in de ass."
Scott snorted. "Kidnapping, right now, is probably one of their most moral offenses. You should see what they're being charged with if they get caught."
"We're not here to actually catch anyone, are we?" Nightcrawler asked.
"No… but if we can… we should make a… uh, citizen's arrest. Or something."
Logan stared at the red-lensed mutant. "Citizens… what?"
"Just tackle them and try not to kill them." Scott answered. Dammit he's so thick-headed!
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei was incredibly hot. She was considering giving up her post to get some water when a cool breeze picked up, ruffling her stony feathers and making them grate together. Sweet Jesus that feels good, she sighed. If the draft could just stay like this all day she might be able to make it through. Unfortunetly, just like most good things, it came to an abrupt end. She was about to wail loudly and throwing a temper tantrum when she noticed that five people had just appeared out of nowhere and were standing nonchalantly in her field.
Oh. Griffin froze as she tried to comprehend the sight before her. Oh shit oh shit oh shit. She'd felt this before. It was the same terror she'd felt when she saw the front door busted open. Only now she had no plan of action and was free to hyperventilate. Which is exactly what she did.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"Right. I say we go through the backdoor this time." Logan announced.
"Why? The front door's already open."
"I feel like breaking things. And I don't like this house."
"Logan, these people probably have defenses set in place."
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
The Stillmans only external security system was stuck on its perch, heavy breathing, and on the verge on squealing and running for its life. Screw guarding the back door. They could have it. It didn't even lead into the house, it just extended underground and had pressure plates to reseal the door. Leave. Just go. Run. Just run away! RUN AWAY! RUUUN!
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"Heh, look at dat ugly statue. I'm glad we don't have one of those back home."
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
He's referring to that nasty-ass angel statue, right?
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"It's kind of creepy, actually. Maybe it would keep da trespassers away?"
"Yeah. An angel is gonna keep a bunch of crazy mutant-haters from storming the mansion. Right."
"He's done it before…"
"That's not what I meant."
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
What the actual hell is even going on? Are they here to steal the fountain?
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"Wait." Logan stopped the advancing team and sniffed tentatively. "It's that smell again…"
"What smell?"
"That sand and ashes smell…"
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei froze. Well, even more than she already was. Wait, He can smell… like a dog? Well. Anyone has the capability of smelling like a dog, but this guy can find a scent like a dog? Or... any other animal with a nose for that matter…?
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"It's close…" Logan continued.
"It's nothing, Wolverine. Hank said it was just a bag of…"
"Shh, shh, shut the fuck up."
"Don't you fucking-"
"I SAID QUIET!" Logan roared.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei watched the strange group of people advancing on the door. An angry short man was telling a man with funny red glasses to `shut the fuck up'. If she was going to act, it had to be now. She steeled herself. Okay Lorelei… it's now or never. One… she shifted her weight to her back right foot. Two… tilting her wings slightly, she found the best angle for an aerial attack.
"THREE!" Griffin flung herself from her perch above the door and aimed to snap Red Glasses neck.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
"RHEY!"
The X men's heads snapped to the sound of a voice. A large statue had fallen from the roof and was plummeting towards them.
"Scott!" Jean shouted from besides the jet. She grabbed a hold of him and Logan and telekinetically shoved them out of harm's way.
The statue crashed into the ground thunderously loud… and on its feet.
"The…?" Was all Logan could get out before a large granite fist slammed into his jaw and sent him flying.
"HOLY SHIT DIS TING MOVES!" Remy howled, charging up his metal staff.
The animate statue, however, was quick to realize that the guy with creepy eyes' stick had something to do with his powers, and slammed a wing into his right arm. Lorelei heard a disgusting crunch and figured that maybe her wings weren't completely useless after all... until a beam of red light vaporized the offending limb before her eyes.
In an instant, more than a thousand thoughts rushed through her brain. The first one was to scream. Not because she was in pain, but because it was weird to see a piece of her body get vaporized. The other nine hundred and ninety nine were mostly cuss words and tiny flash backs. Unfortunately, that same instant was all the creepy eyed guy needed to throw something that exploded in her face. Lorelei's world spun for a second, and she regained her balance when she came to a stop in the middle of the wildflower field.
Lorelei gathered herself together (minus one wing) and quickly darted back into the fray. And again. And again. And again. And aga- wait what? She stopped trying to go back and fight. Why was she moving backwards? Lorelei looked behind her and saw a blue demon looking thing holding onto her lone wing. It raised one of its hands and waved.
"Uh… hi?" it asked.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Kurt held on tightly to the creatures wing. It was staring at him with a look of intense concentration. "I don't like being looked at like this…" he thought. It seemed like the creature was counting all the ways it could kill him.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei had a strict rule when it came to animals when she was in her griffin form: "no touchie"; She was afraid she might accidentally hurt them. And it just so happened that this thing had an adorable tail. So… therefore animal.
Lorelei frowned. "Get off" She growled.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Kurt understood what the griffin was saying. It spoke like it was scraping two stones together, but he could just barely make out some consonants.
"Ah! You are a mutant then!" He exclaimed. "I thought you were some high level security golem or something!"
Lorelei had absolutely no idea what the monkey was talking about, but she needed to get these people away from her house. Bracing herself, she lurched forward and bucked like a bull.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Kurt was very acrobatic; he could have easily hung onto the flailing stone creature for hours. Unfortunately, the thing had gotten in a lucky shot; while Kurt was dropping down from the beasts' last buck; it had thrown its head back and bashed him in the eye. Kurt was flung from Lorelei's back and landed very near the edge of the cliff.
"Ow." Kurt covered the left of his face, which was now battered and dripping blood.
Lorelei looked back at her handiwork. At least it's not dead.
She turned and chased after the group that was now attempting to enter through the back door. She was just a few yards away when the angry swearing one pried the door open.
YOU. She seethed. He's probably the same guy who smashed the front door!
Lorelei didn't care if they got stuck inside the hallway, but she at least wanted to make the door-wrecker pay before he starved to death.
She gathered her strength and threw herself into his back.
Aw. She groaned. He didn't even cry. Must have gotten the angle wrong.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Logan had gotten over his punch fairly quickly; but he'd been thrown surprisingly far, and he wasn't exactly the fastest guy on earth.
Dammit. He got his legs back under him and made his way to the door while Scott tried to dismantle the statue and Kurt tried to teleport it away. He had heard the Cajuns' bones crunch when the beast hit him with its' wing.
Must've broken a few ribs too, there was more than one snap. Logan wasn't too worried about himself, but if that creature hit one of the others in the head or the neck too hard, they were done for.
He passed Jean sitting on the ground with her hands over her head. She looked tired and was concentrating very hard on something.
The statue was being taken care of by Kurt at the moment, so Logan instead opted for getting the door open.
No use in wastin' time I guess. He extended his claws and managed to unlatch the door just as something very hard and very heavy collided into him and pinned him down.
"Agh, fuck" he heaved.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei couldn't believe that the guy was still speaking. At the very least she should knocked the wind out of him. Man, I really fucked that angle up. She retreated from the smashed man as he slid to the ground. Okay one more time. Let's see how YOU like being kicked in.
Lorelei dug her talons into the ground and once more catapulted herself onto the crumpled man. Everything was perfect. The angle, the slight breeze, the sun on her back – until she collided with him. She didn't feel it, but when she looked down to see if she'd successfully pancaked him, she saw that he'd shoved knives into her chest.
Lorelei glanced between the knives that extended out the guys hands and his face.
"This it?" She asked. She didn't mean to be rude (okay she did), but if this was the best this guy had, she had been seriously overestimating everyone. Maybe claws and a bad attitude meant death to some, but it did shit all when you directed the two at a chunk of rock.
Logan looked at the stony birds face. He wasn't entirely sure what he had expected to happen. He knew the griffin was a mutant at the very least. Maybe he expected at least a little fear; hand-knives can be pretty scary.
"Guess so." He finished lamely.
"Hm."
Lorelei felt a bit bad. It was going to be hard to exact revenge upon someone who couldn't really even hurt her back. Oh well.
She grabbed the guy by the throat (she'd given up on smashing him), grunted and lobbed him into the red-glasses guy who was trying to sneak up on them. Damnit he's heavy, she thought.
The two men had collided, and even though there were no bone-shattering echoes, they did make a nice thump noise then they hit the ground. The red-glasses guy had been stunned, but angry man was getting up. Geez, he's tough to get rid of.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Logan rolled off of the team captain and got back to his feet. He was slightly pleased that he had managed to knock Scott out, but now he was the only one left. Well, besides Jean who was currently battling a headache. Kurt wasn't able to teleport without falling over first, and Remy was in some serious pain near where Kurt was attempting to get blood out of his own eyes.
He turned to face the griffin that was standing about a yard away observing the scenery. He had to get rid of this thing.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei was already celebrating her victory. She'd dealt with the intruders and all she had lost was a wing. Two were near the cliff edge tending to their wounds, and Knives Guy had just knocked out Funny Glasses. She could have sworn there was a fifth one, but maybe it was just the heat and stress that made her see five of them standing in the field.
Let's finish this up, then. Maybe Mama and Papa will be pleased if I not only stopped the intruders, but captured them as well…
Best. Day. Ever.
Lorelei readied for the last attack. Obviously it was going to be hard to knock the guy out, so all she really had to do was capture him. I need more rocks, she realized. She was too far away from the cliff to use those ones; she'd have to get Knife Man to go there for her… and she knew just how to do it.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Remy had thought the majority of the pain was over after the statue had broken half his torso and his arm; but when he'd thrown a card at the things face, the pain from overexertion crippled him. He'd had to sink to his knees, hiss and bare his teeth to keep from howling. Kurt had enough time to teleport him away from the midst of the battle, though, before taking on the beast himself. Remy watched in pity as Kurt was bucked off and had his face bashed in. He'd fought through the pain to get to his friends side and see if there was any brain damage or something. Not that Remy even knew what to look for.
"You're okay mon ami." Remy consoled. "Head wounds jus' bleed more dan normal ones."
Kurt gave a slight nod, his head was swimming and he couldn't see straight.
They had stayed in that same spot while Logan was rammed into a door and Scott was smothered underneath the Canadian. The stone beast was now squaring off with Wolverine and no doubt was already thinking that it had won.
But that's when something unexpected happened. The griffin turned and fled from Wolverine… now it was making a beeline for them.
"Shit." Gambit cursed.
"Vat?" Kurt asked. He was slowly regaining some of his vision.
"Is time to go." Remy grabbed Kurt and remembered that he couldn't teleport.
"Shit."
"VAAAT?!"
Remy watched helplessly as the granite creature extended a large taloned hand and slowly aimed to lop off his head…
Marie… agh, nooo…
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei snaked around the short man and made her way to the two on the cliff. He's going to have to save them, she grinned. They have no way to defend themselves...
She heard him swear and knew he was chasing after her. It's working!
What happened next was not what Griffin had planned on happening, though.
She reached out to Scary Wide-Eyes on the ground to add a sense of urgency for the Knife Guy to get there faster. Which he did, albeit a bit too quickly; he slammed into her side, claws and all, and knocked her off balance. Lorelei twisted in midair and made sure to roll land on top of him, which was a bad move because it exposed her face and gave him room to cut off one of her ears.
"AGH!" she yelped. "THAT HURT!"
Now I looked uneven. Fuck.
Logan couldn't care less what the thing looked like, human or not, and this time aimed for her neck.
Lorelei had no time to duck or even cover her face before his hand sank into her throat. This time Lorelei screeched very loudly because the whole situation was very weird, and she was kind of stressed out.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Logan's ears were very sensitive, and the thing above him was emitting the most horrific wail he'd ever heard in his life. Since he had no room to cover his ears, he went with the best solve-all solution he knew of…
cut everything.
~~~~~~~~OoO~~~~~~~~~
Lorelei was still crying when the bastard on the ground reached up and cut off the arm she was using to feel where her ear once was.
That was the last straw. Lorelei was beyond stressed and scared by this point. Really she just wanted them to go away and stop ruining all the nice illegal activities they had going on. The weeping griffin had reached her breaking point.
Who the hell are you? Lorelei thought, gripping the man on the ground and hefting him into the air one handed.
To come in here, she turned towards the edge of the cliff.
AND STEAL MY DANDRUFF? In her unthinking rage, she tossed the heavy man off the side of the cliff as if he were nothing but a sack of rocks.
"Fucking die" she hissed after his falling body.
She watched as Logan collided with the jagged ledges of Loreley Cliff on the way down before smashing into the unforgiving rocks at the bottom. She felt a certain sense of accomplishment when she saw his limp body sink to the bottom of the Rhine where so other many men had died. They died for Loreley, she mused, and you died by Lorelei. She grinned wickedly. Dammit I'm so poetic.
She stayed there for a minute, half expecting him to levitate back up. When nothing happened, she turned to where the two men were sitting, watching the spectacle unfold in front of them. Lorelei saw their looks of horror, and slowly realized what she had just done.
"…Oh scheisse…"