Xavier Institute For Higher Learning

[Ankara]

"No, this is really too important for me to just leave to someone not on our medical staff. You can stay, but I really must give this to him, I've other things that I really need to get to." She pushed past the girl and began to roll up Jamie's sleeve. "Really, this will only take a minute."

 

[GentLi]

Jamie helpfully held his arm out for Annie. The protectiveness of the girls was cute, but he was anxious enough to get back on his feet that he wasn't about to take chances and go against nurse's orders. Besides that... well, he hardly contained his cringe at the thought of timid Amanda trying to properly stick him. The bruising would probably last longer than the bullet wound.

"Well that's that, girls. Maybe tomorrow we'll be able to get out for a bit." He gave the tiniest shrug to Annie when he was sure Bryn and Amanda weren't looking, a subtle apology. They were young and stubborn. He was sure the nurse would understand.

 

[rengadeirishman]

Logan had tracked the scent all the way back to the mansion. "What in the world?" he thought to himself. as he ran into the mansion. Whatever was going on, he surely didnt like it. He followed the scent to the infirmary and to the room where maddox was. "Drop it!" Logan said as he bursted in and saw the nurse the scent was coming from. He deployed his claws "You're not Kitty, or a nurse. Drop the needle or throwdown!" he said

 

[Ankara]

The nurse threw down Jamies arm. She looked around at the girls in the small room. She considered grabbing one, but thought better. She didn't know what their powers were, and didn't want to risk grabbing one she couldn't control.

She held on to the needle tightly and with a shrug. "Well, I guess its no longer necessary to keep up this little scherade." The face and body of the nurse began to shift and change, turning the skin blue and the hair red. Her eyes shifted to pupiless yellow.

Mystique grabbing the edge of the bed, tipping it, knocking Jamie over on to Bryn. She picked up the nearest chair and tossed it at Wolverine.

 

[Screech]

Amanda stood shocked as Mr Logan burst into the infirmery bareing his claws, and nurse Annie shifted her form, and skin colour. Amanda hadn't seen her before, but she had heard tales of a particularly nasty shifter by the name of Mystique. Could this be her? Amanda had no idea. Mr Madrox being flung at Bryn took her by suprise, and the flying chair would delay Mr Logan for all of one second. That left...

...Amanda.

Crud. She didn't know what to do! She didn't really have any combat training, being only a student, and there were no swords nearby. With luck, Mr Logan and Bryn would be able to stop whoever this was...

 

[Vixandra]

Bryn

I managed to catch Jamie and guided him down to the ground gently as I could, though his IV line and the heart monitor leads were ripped away from him.

Triggered by the danger, my wings flared out and I dropped the around the two of us, trying to create what shield I could from that strange woman on the other side of the bed. Though given Mr Logan's response- she was a bad guy.

"You do end up with the strangest people after you," I said to Jamie, cringing as a chair slammed into the wall somewhere. Peeking over the bed I saw the two of them gearing up for a fight and Amanda far to close for comfort.

Heart doing sumersaults, I summoned my swords by name, Hugin and Munin to my hands. Handing the gentler of the two, Hugin, to Jamie I told both him and the sword, "This should help keep you safe. I've got to go help."

Pulling Munin from its sheath, I left the sheath by Jamie, sword at the ready as I started inching my way around the room to Amanda. I figured Logan could handle the funky blue chick and if he needed help, then I'd offer it.

 

[rengadeirishman]

Logan slashed the chair into several little pieces. "I HATE SHIFTERS!!" he roared then leapt at mystique.

 

[Ankara]

The full force of Wolverine's body struck Mystique, but she rolled with him slaming him into the wall. "Ahh come on Claws, you know you missed me." She kicked him in the stomach, using the momentum to flip back landing on her feet. Wolverine lunged, knocking her out into the hall.

 

[Vixandra]

Bryn

I watched, eyes wide, as they fought and rolled out into the hallway, that strange blue woman and Wolverine.

Shaking my head I smiled at Jamie. "Never a dull day, huh?"

Without waiting for a response, I started slapping bandaids and gauze onto the duplicator, trusting Amanda to warn me if Miss Skin Changer waltzed back in.
I was smart enough to admit I was little fish, at the moment.

Absent mindedly, I patched Jamie up, whatever I needed lying around us in the mess of the bed.

 

[rengadeirishman]

"Ahh come on Claws, you know you missed me."

wolverine had tackled her into the hallway "Like a punch to the gut." he said as mystique delivered one "Youve always been a sassy one." he said, driving his claws toward her head, which she moved in time for wolverine to bury his claws into the floor.

 

[Ankara]

Mystique

Mystique sprung to her feet, while Wolverine struggled to get his claws out of the floor. She kicked him violently in the ribs, hopeing to break them. When he dropped to the floor, that was her cue to run, before he healed himself and freed his claws. "Can't say this hasn't been fun, but I've got other things to do than roll around with you." She kicked him hard again for good measure, and took off down the hall.

 

[rengadeirishman]

"Oh you know you love it!" wolverine said as he freed his claws and chased her. "Come back and fight!"

 

[Ankara]

"Well, Its kinda hard to enjoy myself, when you won't stay down. At least when you hit Ms. Pryde, she stays down" Mystique turned quickly on the fast approaching Wolverine and kicked him in the face. Wolverine grabbed her foot and pulled hard, making her wipe out on the floor. Mystique knocked his feet out from under him and kicks him in the face again, before jumping to her feet. She looked up and saw a startled student pressed against the wall. She grabbed him and threw him at Wolverine, before taking off again.

 

[Screech]

Amanda had stood blankly for too many seconds. Everything was so out of control! Bryn seemed to have Mr Madrox safely tucked away, and it sounded like all hell was breaking loose outside in the hallway. She hoped that Mr Logan would be able to aprehend the shifter easilly enough, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Walking slowly to the door, she peeked outside to see Mr Logan on the ground with a student draped on top of him! The shifter was getting away! She had to rectify that, x-man or not. "Bryn, keep mr Madrox safe, please" She then darted out into the hallway, using all of her mutation-granted agility to give chase with the blue-skinned troublemaking shapeshifter

 

[Ithica]

Surge

Nori sat in the co-pilot seat and looked out the window of the Blackbird. While looking down she noticed that the ground was closer and she looked over at Storm.

“In about five more minutes we will be able to see the school.” Storm said to her from the pilot seat. Nori smiled at Storm and turned her attention out the window. Nori ran her hands through her blue hair and scowled at the thought of starting classes again.

After such a long flight, both of them were anxious about getting home and finding out how everyone at the school was. It had been little over a week since the massacre at the school. That day Storm had received an urgent message from her surrogate mother, Ainet. Storm had decided that instead of weakening the X-men further, she would take a student with her instead. Nori had been thrilled that Storm had chosen her to go and jumped at the chance to go see Kenya; missing a week of school was just an added bonus.

The trip had been wonderful and Kenya was beautiful. Nori ended up spending most of her time with Ainet who was more open to talking than Storm was. Nori learned a lot from Ainet and had been surprised about how similar her background was to Storm’s. Both of them had ended up living on the street and stealing for a living. The big difference was that she left her family because her father couldn’t accept her as a mutant; Storm’s parents had died. That and Storm didn’t become a drug addict in the process.

During her time with Ainet, she tried to teach Nori how to meditate hoping that it would settle her down. Unfortunately Nori couldn’t sit still long enough to get anything out of it and Ainet quit trying after a few days.

“And here we are.” Storm said.

Nori looked out the front window and could see the school and watched as the basketball court opened up. Storm maneuvered the plane down and landed it safely inside the hanger. As soon as they landed Storm told Nori,

“Feel free to get you things and go inside. I’m sure you are tired of being stuck in here. I’ll be along shortly and thank you for going with me.”

Nori grinned and unbuckled her seatbelt and thanked Storm. Nori ran to the back of the Blackbird, grabbed her suitcase and stepped out into the hanger.

 

[GentLi]

Jamie Madrox

Things had happened faster than Jamie's wounds allowed him to react. Suddenly he was on the floor next to an overturned bed. Bryn was treating his stringing new wounds with all the gentle bedside mannerisms of a field medic in the heat of battle. It was a good demonstration that she could handle pressure, but Jamie suffered for it.

Taking only a moment to gain his bearings, he insistently struggled to his feet, leaning heavily the wall and clutching the offered sword to his chest. The excitement was making him dizzy in his current weakness, but he couldn't rest. There was trouble and students inadequately trained for this situation. He had to protect them.

"Bryn, get someone on the line," he nodded weakly to a phone that'd been thrown to the ground. "Page the X-Men to the front hall and put out a 'code black' warning, get the students in their rooms and out of danger. Amanda, close the d..." He sighed as he realized the feral femme had darted out. Naturally. "...Oooor run out there and hop between two world-class killing machines. Pah-tay-toe, puh-tah-toe."

He'd stumbled as far as the door before conceding to his current limitations, resignedly turning back to Bryn. Soon the two of them were doing their best to catch up to the fast-moving action, Jamie's right hand gliding along the wall and his left arm strung over the Norse mutant's shoulders for support. He winced each time that arm was inadvertantly pulled or stressed by his staggering, but refused to relent.

Stubbornly he clung to the blade in his left hand, as if he could actually make use of it at this point.

 

[Vixandra]

Bryn

I looked at the computer console with puzzled eyes for a moment, hit a glass covered botton marked "Code Black" and told the computer, after it asked what was wrong, that a blue shifter mutant was fighting with Wolverine after it tried to kill Jamie and would she assemble the Xmen in their path.

The computer chirped it would as I ran to help Jamie down the hall, since he seemed determined to help. I kept Munin in my spare left hand, grateful I was good with both when it came to sword fighting. It wasn't the usual hand for the sword, and he let me know it by keeping a steady stream of seething vibrations that I was mostly able to tune out, the promise of upcoming violence helping.

Trust my brother to forge me a pair of swords with one that loved violence and one that was all about defense.

We finely found Amanda, or at least saw the flash of her tail as she took off after the bad version of La Blue Girl. Wolverine was setting a student to the side and jumping up to tear after them on the way to the main enterance to the X-Mansion.

"So, tend the lady, or after the tiger," I asked Jamie, referancing the old story.

 

[Ithica]

Surge / Storm

Nori stepped off of the stairs and started towards the girls’ dorms when she heard the announcement over the intercom. “Holy crap, a code black. This must be serious.” Nori said to herself. The students around her started heading back to their rooms and Nori looked back towards the boys’ dorms.

Nori grinned and thought about dropping in on Thad. She could just walk in and throw her suitcase on the floor and give a “Honey, I’m home. I’ve decided to take up your offer. Just don’t hog the covers.” Nori started laughing but decided that she ought to follow the announcement and go to her own room. After everything that had happened before she left, it would probably be better to play on the safe side, at least for today.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Storm finished making the final checks with the Blackbird and got up and stretched. It had been a long trip and she had been glad that she had some company. It had only been a couple months since she had seen Ainet but it was good to be able to talk about Germany with someone who hadn’t been involved. She was glad that she hadn’t needed to get Nori involved with the reason for going back to Nairobi. The trip ended up being more personal than she had expected but it wasn’t anything that she couldn’t handle.

Storm walked out of the hanger and started planning what would be the most urgent thing that needed taking care of. How things were being run would need to be changed. She couldn’t spend her entire time being a doorman. It was distracting and was taking her away from more urgent work. She would also have to get Gambit and Rogue back so that work could be allocated. With the X-men vulnerable now they needed everyone they could get. Storm thought about Emma Frost being here. Because of her loyalties to Jean, she didn’t have the best relationship with Emma but they needed a psychic here to help protect the students. Emma could stir up trouble but she was a good ally to have and hopefully she would keep Havoc off balance.

“Welcome home.” Storm said as she heard the code black over the intercom and stepped into the elevator. At least she was close to the front entry. “This is ridiculous.” She thought, “We need to start training a new group so that we aren’t so vulnerable. We didn’t get attacked this often with Xavier in charge.” Storm started to go over in her mind the likely candidates to add to the X-men but with the problems that had occurred the last time they added a member to the X-men, they would have to be chosen carefully. Storm stepped off of the elevator and into the front entry.

 

[Ankara]

Mystique ran into a group of students heading towards the stairs, She slid into them and ducked as they all started screaming and heading for the stairs. She changed herself into one, and made a break for the front door. At least looking like this she might not attract another mutant trying to kill her.

She hit the front door with the full force of her body as she heard the ping of an elevator. She didn't bother to look behind, she knew it couldn't be good for her, She had to think, James should be here soon, but she didn't know if that would do any good, and having them both caught wouldn't help their cause. Having their first mission fail wouldn't impress their backers.

She looked up in the sky, and was releived to see the helicopter.

 

[Ithica]

Storm

Storm stepped out of the elevator and saw a student running out the front door. "Something's not right." She thought, "The students have been ordered back to their rooms." Storm dropped her bags and followed the student out to the front lawn and saw the helicopter.

"Stop!" She yelled as the clouds started to gather in the sky and blacken.

 

[GentLi]

Jamie Madrox / James Madrox

"Can't tend the lady til the tiger's dealt with," Jamie grunted, pulling Bryn past her moment of hesitation. At a glance the student didn't look too banged up, otherwise he might've rethought it. As it was, he needed to find out what the hell was going on and knew Mystique was the key.

With Bryn's help, he pulled himself to the front door. Head of him where a number of X-Men, Wolverine and Amanda having charged ahead while the likes of Storm and Havok chose to take more strategic positions. Beyond them stood Mystique.

Somehow, over the ruckus and the pounding of his head, Jamie heard a helicopter approaching.

-------------------------------​

James Madrox had been having a weeklong rollercoaster ride. He'd been on such a high at the beginning of it all, with the plan gliding along perfectly. They'd even gotten two X-Men (residents of the mansion, at least) to do the dirty work as they slipped out the door without so much crooked look shot their way.

Then came a week full of useless duplicates. Tracking them down, one after another, they found nothing but dupes who'd wasted their lives apart for the Core. Sure, some held helpful scraps of wisdom, but nothing like James had been hoping for.

Ups and downs abounded in the hunt before crashing to the ground with word that the Core Madrox had survived the attack. That was unforgivable, a fact that would have to be corrected. Things began to look up when his partner'd found a way to worm herself back into the Institute for a second attempt.

So it was that James found himself swooping in low over the grounds, coming around the side of the mansion just in time to see the chaos spilling out of the front doors. At the fore of it all was Mystique. The sight made the somber Madrox crack a smile.

The helicopter dropped in low over the blue mutant's head as a dupe rolled out a rope ladder. No time for landings. Scanning the pack of X-Men, James made unfortunate note of Storm. She was back a little early. That meant the Blackbird was as well. Oh well... it would no doubt be a while before it was fueled.

Even worse to note was his wounded counterpart standing(somewhat) at the door. The second attempt had failed as well. James expelled his anger in one long exhale, noting he had the Core Madrox's attention. Mimicking the cheeriest Madrox smile possible, he motioned to the Core with two fingers, firing an imaginary shot with a wink.

A sudden weight on the open side of the copter told him Mystique was on board. Wasting no time he picked up altitude and speed. There were dozens of ways this could go wrong, but with the confusion would give them enough time to slip out of range of their would-be pursuers. Even if the fast-approaching storms made the ride a rough one.

In moments the helicopter, Mystique, and the rogue Madrox were gone.

 

[Vixandra]

Bryn

My wings fairly itched to fly after the departing helo but I restrained myself, knowing that in these Storm-called winds I would be dashed to the ground or into the blades of the chopper. Being smushed or chopped for stirfry was not on today's menu.

I held Jamie up as another Jamie (a dupe?) made bang-bang motions at him from the helo's pilot seat. Eyes narrowing, I confirmed my first thought- it was a jamie, of sorts.

Looking to the man at my side, I flinched over how pale he'd become. "Come on, Jamie, we need to get you sitting down."

I pulled him over to a chaise lounge in the foyer, protecting him from a gust of angry wind with my wings as Storm entered the foyer. My own questions to him could wait for later, now there was stuff to deal with. Like how easily our security had been breached.

 

[Ankara]

The helicopter flew low and dropped a ladder. Mystique started to run towards it. She looked behind her shoulder and saw that Wolverine, Jamie, the little cat girl and her bird had all made it outside behind her. She just about started laughing. The perfect getaway, and she had an audience. Then she spotted Storm. Shit, what the hell was Storm doing here. They would never be able to take off now.

She turned back into herself and skidded to a halt. She had to think, there had to be something to stay Storm's hand. Mystique's mind was racing trying to think of a way to get out. She looked up at James, he didn't seem to see Storm. She turned back and looked at the cat girl. Mystique started to laugh. She had it!

She looked right at Storm, ignoring the others, her message had to be perfectly clear, and understood. "Ororo, You're going to let me leave here on this helicopter, and none of you are going to stop me."

 

[Ithica]

Storm

The wind from the helicopter whipped up Storm's hair and her eyes were glowing white as the thunderclouds gathered more strength. The student that Storm had been following suddenly morphed into Mystique and a Jamie was flying the helicopter.

"Ororo, you're going to let me leave here on this helicopter, and none of you are going to stop me."


"I can't let you leave here, Mystique!" Storm yelled back to the shape shifter.

 

[Ankara]

Mystique laughed, Ororo didn't have the strength to do what it takes. If Mystique had a gun she thought she would just shoot Ororo and be done with it, none of this stalling for time, but since she didn't, she had to use the only weapon she had, Ororo's fear for her companions.

"If you stop me, I'll make sure you receive your Kitty in small packages delivered personally to you for the rest of your life."