Invasion!

[Warren Worthington III]

(( OOC: OK, here we go! Kicking off Invasion.

• Background is here
  
• General thread guidelines are here
  
• See the first “Enemy of my Enemy” thread for an example of what Strikeback teams are like, here:
  

))

It doesn’t take very long for Scanner’s failure report to make its way up the chain of command to Strikeback’s Chief of Operations, and it’s only a few seconds later that it comes to the awareness of Strikeback’s real leader as she probes her lackey’s mind.

Well, thinks Emma. That’s unfortunate… but not entirely unexpected. The truth is, she’d been growing increasingly impatient with the military’s snail-like rate of preparation; having her hand forced like this is not entirely unwelcome. Very well, then… let the game begin!

It takes her no more than half an hour to initiate Project: Strikeback. She hesitates briefly, considering whether she should spread her forces to deal with the Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood at the same time as the Institute, and ultimately decides it’s best to do so… leaving any of her enemies standing gives them too much opportunity to regroup.

Besides, once she has control over Cerebro, none of them can stand against her… not even the annoying Herr Lensherr with his cursed helmet. The only telepaths who could have hoped to stop her have been dead for almost a year now, and show no signs of returning from that state. Before the day is done, Emma Frost will be in control of every power in the world that matters.

---

To the uninitiated, the opening moments of the attack on the Institute would hardly be noticeable… some nondescript vans heading out from a variety of concealed locations to an obscure school in Westchester, some helicopters changing their flight paths, some intelligence assets being redirected.

Even when it begins in earnest, a normal bystander would hardly have their sleep disturbed. The Mutant Neutralization Teams hit the Institute grounds fast and silent with the rising sun behind them, disperse without a sound, each with a known target in mind.

Of course, the residents of the Xavier Institute are hardly normal, and the call from Warren and Josh has already alerted the XMen. Not that they were expecting to be invaded, granted, but they’ve been up for hours now preparing alternate transportation to Paris.

So, though it begins quietly, what was intended as a fast, by-the-numbers neutralization operation is about to get very, very loud.

[Ororo Munroe]

Ororo has been up for some time, after the call from the boys in Paris. She had been asleep when the call had come in, and she'd barely been able to get much of anything out of Warren before the signal had cut out.

But it had been enough. Shouting, and Warren sounding stunned and injured. Both of their cell phones were going directly to voicemail. She'd been able to get through to the Blackbird, thanks to its superior communications hardware... but no one was there to pick up. The next time a pilot signed on, a message in the main computer would flag.

Right now, she's in the computer center adjacent to Cerebro, trying to find a ride to France. For a while, it looked like the Worthingtons were going to be able to help out, but #2 was somewhere in South America and unable to authorize a flight.

She'd alerted all the available X-Men when the call came in that there would be a trip to Paris, but they'd not had any luck at this point. In desperation, Ororo had booked seats on a commercial jet, but she was still hoping to find something quicker.

Blink.

Her eyes stray to the main table, where a holographic representation of the grounds has formed. Several red patches are blinking on and off along the perimeter. Her eyes narrow slightly. Not good.

After Stryker's devastating attack on the Institute shortly before Alkali, a variety of defensive and offensive security features had been installed around the grounds. Specifically, it appeared that both pressure sensors embedded underground, as well as heat trackers, had registered something substantial. Human, then. Not an animal. The fact that two points across the grounds from one another had been triggered simultaneously was also telling.

"This does not look good." Ororo shakes her head, and looks over to where Logan was standing, watching her work. "Logan, I need you to - " He's already gone, most likely to scout out the grounds.

"Hank, we can't send out an alarm, if this is truly an emergency. It would only create chaos. Please round up the smaller children and find a safe place." If there is one... Beast nods and bounds away.

"Perhaps we should rendezvous with some of the senior students." Ororo regards the other faculty present.

[OOC - for anyone and everyone who's looking to kick this baby off!]

[nightcrawler]

*BAMF* Kurt teleports into the room, dressed in his old leather costume from the Alcatraz mission, once again donning the clothes of war and suffering, something he abhors with every fiber of his blue skinned being, but also something he knows he must do in order to lessen the evil which threatens to consume them all. Kurt had left the Institute on official grounds of not being able to handle the conflict of interests, but now...he was back and with that same conflict in his heart but this time around, he had learned how to deal with that and do the things which he was so suited to do.

"Zey are everyvhere," he said with panting breath as if he had been exerting himself somewhat, maybe running or confronting a few unfortunate and would be attackers, "Very organized and heavily armed....much like Stryker's unit vas," he said glancing to Ororo with his bright and eerie yellow eyes, "Ve cannot let zem get ze children," he said with a bit of worry in his voice, his German accent becoming more and more apparent with each word he spoke and judging by the way he fidgeted about, he would be spouting full blown German any minute. Kurt was worried, not for himself, but for the students, the children he had come to know so well as of late. He had seen the way Stryker treated the ones he took during the last invasion of the Institute and after rescuing them along side the other X-men, he made a vow to never let something like that happen again....no matter the cost.

Turning his head upward, looking at the ceiling, Kurt smiled, deviously....an unusual look for him, his tail swaying back and forth, as nervous as he was. "Damien....he can teleport as vell...Maybe he can take some ov ze others avay," he said glancing back to Ororo, a smile now on his face, apparently proud of himself that he had remembered something so useful.

[Tobias Smith]

Tobias is someone who does not typically thought of as caring about physique. Caring about appearances, what others think, and how to look as non-conformist as possible is a completely different story, but the point remains that anyone who meets Tobias probably will not expect him to ever do any sort of healthy activity, such as jogging or walking.

But Tobias has not quite gotten used to the environment of the Xavier Institute compared to San Francisco. The lack of smog and the temperature differences have been bothering him slightly, so he decided that he might go for a mild walk around the campus, and possibly get acquainted with his temporary home.

He wakes up fairly early, around sunrise and manages to walk through the halls without meeting or becoming aware of the Strikeback teams going through the school, ready to "neutralize" every mutant they come upon. He is dressed in black tennis shoes, sweatpants, and a hooded sweatshirt, also in black. The halls are silent, as he manages to walk all the way close to the entry hallway, before he steps directly into the view of three Strkeback soldiers: all armed, and rather menacing.

Tobias pauses, and stares at them as they stare at him. He has a look crossed between confusion and shock. At first he does not notice the guns, but when he does, he says rather loudly, "HOLY SHIT!" The military forces raise their weapons and ready to fire, when the black-clad boy flinches, and inadvertently stops time around him, which probably saves his life for a second time. The squad has not fired yet, but Tobias takes this opportunity and jogs to the invaders.

He looks around frantically, looking for some way to neutralize THEM rather than the other way around. He looks at the guns again, and manages to pry a gun from the closest soldier. It is hard for him to lift, due in part to his lack of strength, but uses it and gravity as a club, to bash each one of them in the back of the neck. He winces due to the weight and pressure of the time stop, and does not feel any sympathy for the most-definitely K.O.'d soldiers.

He focuses intensely, allowing time to start again. He chuckles as the soldiers collapse into heaps, and mutters, "Sleep tight, assholes." With that done, he slings the gun over his shoulder using the attached strap, and looks around frantically in case more of them show up. He realizes that within the peaceful silence of the dawn, the rest of the students are very likely, very screwed. He looks around him for some kind of alarm, elevator, or something, when he catches a glimpse of a camera hidden on the ceiling. He looks at it, and pantomimes urgency, waving his hands, pointing to the soldiers, and even lifting up one's head to point at his face. He mouths, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!? HELP. ME. SOUND AN ALARM OR SOMETHING! OR FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, TELL ME HOW TO GET TO A SECURITY ROOM OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!

He stops and thinks he hears the sound of footsteps approaching, so he crouches and hides in a doorway, still in sight of the camera. His normal apathetic facade has been replaced by a look of worry, concern, and a tinge of fear.

[N.P.C]

The sound of footsteps had come from the east, but the hand on Tobias’ shoulder appears from behind him, from someone fast and stealthy and, fortunately, allied.

"Nice moves, kid." The voice is quiet, humorless, and strangely reassuring. "But leave it to the professionals from now on, eh? Yer better off in one of the safe rooms ‘till we get the grounds secure." Logan points to a nondescript door with a keypad next to it, about a hundred meters away. " Code’s 7-2-3-4-5-6-1. Got that? Storm’ll take care of you from there, just tell ‘er Wolverine sent you. Keep your head down an’ your mouth shut ‘n you’ll be fine. Now scat!"

Logan crouches down over the unconscious guards, sniffing their bodies like an overeager bloodhound and riffling through their gear before extending his claws and looking back up at Tobias with a “you really don’t want to see this” glare.

[Tobias Smith]

When Logan comes up behind him and grabs him, Tobias nearly jumps in the air while clutching the gun tightly. He sighs with gritted teeth and wishes that the man hadn't done that. The youth listens silently, and glances to the door that is pointed at, before nodding in understanding. "7-2-3-4-5-6-1...got it.

He gingerly steps out toward the door, and searches for the safety on the gun. 100 meters wasn't too horrible, but bad things could happen. Tobias pauses to glance behind him, and meets Logan's glare. Tobias steps backward a bit, before he turns and jogs as quietly as possible to the afore-mentioned door. He holds the gun at the ready, looking around if any more of the military was around, before he punches in the code on the door.

Tobias has a look of surprise on his face when he meets a freakishly high-tech elevator, and thinks back to when he first made the guess that the X-Men had a base here back when he arrived. He adds this to an 'evidence chart' in his mind. The elevator is made out of chromed metal, and steps in hesitantly, before the door closes automatically and sends him down to where 'Storm' was waiting.

Tobias steps out to see the extremely futuristic interior of the 'sub-basement', the X's on the doors, and Ororo Munroe, a.k.a. Storm. His jaw drops, his eyes fly around absorbing that all of this was under his school and concludes that the X-Men really were based in this school. Tobias looks at the white-haired woman, gestures to the elevator from which he just stepped out of, and says, "The hairy guy with the anger problems sent me....Wolverine, yeah..."

[Ororo Munroe]

> Ve cannot let zem get ze children

"You're right, of course.The children should be our first priority. I've sent Hank to begin taking some of the youngest ones to safety. I'm afraid there may be too many of the teenagers to evacuate quickly..." Ororo stares blankly past Kurt for a second, her mind moving at lightning speed. "We need to try to hold them off on the ground floor. The security down here should hold for the time being." Her heels click on the silver floor as she strides across the room, pulling a bag from a cabinet, then turning to Kurt as she tucks it into her belt.

"Perhaps you and Damien can assist Hank when we discover some of the childrens' whereabouts. I need to coordinate with the older students on our defense strategy, as well." And find Jake! She tries to push the thought out of her mind. With a swish of her cape, Ororo heads out into the hall, looking over at Kurt.

As they head down the hallway, a side panel opens - one of the emergency elevators. A boy stumbles out - Tobias. He looks about as scared as one person could possibly be.

>"The hairy guy with the anger problems sent me....Wolverine, yeah..."

Thank Gaia for Logan. Despite his annoying tendency to skive off on the little things, Wolverine was consistent when it mattered. "Tobias, Kurt and I have to go back upstairs. If you want, we can try to find a hiding place for you down here. Frankly, though, I think you'd be much more useful with us - as long as you do exactly as we say." She regards the younger boy, and then turns to look over at Kurt.

This can't possibly be a coincidence. Josh and Warren, in trouble in Paris? And now armed invaders, here? Her eyes narrow. Whoever decided to attack this school - and injure my children - is going to be very sorry indeed.

[nightcrawler]

Damien and Kurt would both be the most beneficial for getting the young students away from this madness, Damien more so than Kurt, seeing as how he was able to teleport larger groups with a greater ease....or at least Kurt hoped it would be a greater ease and that Damien had been practicing as he had been instructed. A slight nod, indicated Kurt's agreement with having Damien assist Hank and while he knows some of the older students can handle themselves somewhat, he can't help but worry about their well being.

The elevator opened and Kurt flinched, ready for what may have ever found itself down here. Surely the invasion team wasn't already this far inside? The last time he saw them they were still moving across the lawn, but then again, Stryker's team moved quickly enough to take the mansion so why not these guys. A sigh of relief escaped Kurt as Tobias stepped out into the corridor, gun in hand and a worried look on his face, stammering something about a hairy guy with an anger problem. Kurt instantly knew who Tobias was talking about, after all, Logan was quite famous for his attitude around the Institute. Muttering something in German and under his breath, more than likely a quick thank you prayer, Kurt made the sign of the cross and then pushed himself on to do something he hated.

As Kurt slinked past Tobias, he regarded him with pity in his eyes. The boy was still in his teens and already carrying a gun, Kurt just hoped that he had not had to use it. "Children should not be subjected to such...atrocity," he said softly in that whispering voice of his, hanging his head now and heaving a great sigh, "Let the boy help in the evacuation of the younger ones.....he is not ready for such violence," he said, not really wanting to involve Tobias in all of this at all, but he like Storm knew the benefits of having someone such as Tobias around. In situations like this, seconds could mean the difference between one life and ten and someone who could stretch those seconds into minutes...well then, you do the math.

[Ororo Munroe]

> "Let the boy help in the evacuation of the younger ones.....he is not ready for such violence"

Ororo glances back at Kurt as she steps back into the elevator. "Ready? None of us are ever ready for violence - especially when it concerns our family." She hits the button, sending the three of them back up to the ground floor, and looks at Tobias. "As soon as we meet up with one of the adults in charge of evacuation, I want you to join them and help in whatever way possible. Until then, though, stay close to Kurt and do what he says - especially if the wind begins to pick up. I might get separated from the two of you while trying to find the seniors." The elevator gives a cheerful ding, and the shiny doors open to reveal carnage.

They're in one of the main hallways on the ground floor, and several black-suited commandos' bodies litter their path. Ororo seals the entrance to the emergency elevator and begins to lead the way. Gunfire and shouts punctuate the air, and she briefly consults a small PDA.

"It looks like there are two helicopters dropping off commandos out front, on the driveway. Perhaps we can do some good there." She strides quickly down the hallway, until a door just off the foyer is smashed open, revealing several troopers. "Tobias! Watch yourself." She spares a glance at the younger boy before springing into action.

Ororo closes the distance to them with a boost from the wind, and strikes the firsts' gun arm with an electrically-augmented jab. The crackle of energy is heard clearly over the noises of battle, and she smashes an armored knee into the man's groin. He falls to the ground with a crash, and she begins moving towards the next target.

[Tobias Smith]

> "Tobias, Kurt and I have to go back upstairs. If you want, we can try to find a hiding place for you down here. Frankly, though, I think you'd be much more useful with us - as long as you do exactly as we say."

Tobias nods, and replies, "Yeah, yeah...I'll go...God, its been a while since we talked, but give me a hand here... The last bit of his sentence is muttered, and he glances up at the ceiling as if staring past it to the heavens. The gun does not feel right in his hands, mostly because they remind him of the gang-shootings back home, and subsequently his own near-death encounter. His hand raises up to the scar beneath his eye, before he shakes his head, sighs, and enters into the elevator.

It is then that he realizes that he just witnessed Kurt again, and didn't seem distracted by it. Oh my God...I'm getting used to it already. Well, at least this has gotta be worth something...maybe I won't have to take that test next week for doing this. Yeah......and the saving lives bit... When the elevator opens again, he feels bile rise in his throat, as he made yet another mental note: Note to self...don't piss off the hairy guy with anger problems...

But then the door breaks down, and the soldiers come in.
>"Tobias! Watch yourself."
He glances at the white-haired woman, nods, and closes his eyes again, trying to tap into his power. He is still weakened from the last one, and he knows that he is not going to be able to hold time as long. The boy begins to perspire before the pressure begins, instatntly giving him a headache. He then jogs over to the squadron, muttering, Ow, ow, ow, ow, Christ, I need to start carrying pain-killers....ow.

He repeats what he had done with the first three soldiers earlier, hitting them at the base of the neck with the gun, but this time, he also steals their extra clips of ammo. After only a minute in the stop, Tobias is panting and sweating profusely. He limps over to a good cover point, finds the safety on the gun, and slips back into the natural flow of time.

He instantly begins coughing, before coughing out some of that previously mentioned bile. He wearily glances across the hall at Kurt, and gives the "OK" sign with his hand, before shifting to the right, aiming the gun at some of the remaining soldiers away from Storm, and shot...

[nightcrawler]

As the elevator took the three up to the ground floor, Kurt closed his eyes and crouched down on the floor, muttering a short prayer in German under his breath. Ororo and Tobias may not have shared his view on such things, but that hardly mattered at the moment and one deeply as religious as Kurt did now, what those like him did best....pray.

The doors to the elevator opened, just as Kurt's eyes did. Ororo was already out into the hall, wasting no time in taking charge of this defense of 'her' children and home. Tobias followed Storm, gun in hand and an all too serious look on his face. Kurt wasn't sure just what the boy was thinking or even why he was fighting but he just hoped he was doing this for the good of the younger ones and others and not for some misguided delusions of grandeur. Sure the news and media made the exploits of the X-men look fantastic and fun, but battle was a much harsher and colder reality than any of them who had experienced it wanted to admit.

Stepping off the elevator, carefully and his bright yellow eyes scanning the area around him, Kurt fell in line with Storm, giving her all the room she would need if she so needed it. Kurt's mind was racing with all sorts of dilemmas and problems, his emotions and thoughts conflicting greatly with one another. Kurt was not a man of violence by any means and yet here he was defending the Institute and those within with such force, but at the same time had he not taken a vow to always protect those around him. It was these thoughts which momentarily distracted him, preventing him from hearing Ororo's words and then totally being caught unaware by the commandos who flung the front doors open.

Kurt simply stood, stunned for the moment, giving Ororo time to dispatch most of the guards and then he witnessed something rather odd, three of the guards just collapsed in place but that mystery was soon revealed when Tobias suddenly appeared, standing not too far away from the fallen soldiers. The look of horror on Kurt's face as heard the shot ring out from Tobias' gun was unforgettable. Sure Kurt had been in several fights, but he had never willingly taken a life and he could not let Tobias either.

*BAMF* Kurt was gone from his spot in a cloud of purple black smoke, only to reappear a good distance away, just above the position of the man Tobias had shot at, grabbing the man with his tail and the *BAMF* they were both gone in the cloud of smoke only to reappear half a second later, the man spinning wildly out of a cloud of purple black smoke, Kurt, gone once again. This routine was followed twice more, one man being kicked in the chest as Kurt teleported right in front of him and then teleported away just as quickly, only to catch the third commando from behind to fling him wildly out into the yard with a well performed back flip.

*BAMF* Kurt was beside Tobias now, putting his large blue three fingered hand on the barrel of the boy's gun. "None of us are judge nor executioner," he said simply, applying a bit of pressure to the gun barrel in an attempt to have Tobias lower it.

[Damien Schwartz]

Damien wakes up, in need for water, and walks over to the roommate, who is still fast asleep, placing his hand on the boy's forehead, his eyes turning purple as he copies the memories of places the boy has been to. After picturing the Institute's kitchen carefully, he blinks, and, upon opening his eyes, is in front of the sink. After getting a glass of water, he turns around just in time to see a man dressed in black and heavily armed barging in through the window.

His hand relaxes, and the glass falls on the floor at the same time as his palms collide in a clap, and the man disappears suddenly. After replaying the whole scene in his mind, Damien concludes that the man will enjoy swimming in the water on a Hawaii beach, one drawn from his roommate's memory.

Before anyone else comes in, Damien snaps his fingers, and is gone in a split second, appearing right next to the whole action near the foyer, and then disappearing again, terrified, before reappearing in a corner, away, but still in sight, of the action.

His eyes had drifted back to green, and that deep shade of green now showed the ancient terror of one in mortal danger, his bare chest heaving up and down violently. Having gone to the kitchen in only a pair of black shorts was clearly not a good tactic to defeat so heavily armed an enemy, but the enemy was not expected.

Damien scans the room, and quickly spots the only familiar person, Kurt. He spots him several more times as the blue mutant uses his teleportation, and then he claps his hands before being able to withhold the reflex. He knows that Kurt should appear right in front of him now, but the unexpected use of his mutation might get his mentor confused. "Was zum Teufel passiert hier?!" he yells out in his native language, not really caring if anyone hears him or not.

Such fear he has never experienced, and this is obvious, thanks to the horrified look in his eyes and the rapid movement of his chest. His eyes dart this way and that, as if expecting to be killed at any point in time.

[Ororo Munroe]

Almost by instinct, Ororo flings a hand behind her, smashing it into the throat of one of the commandos. She quickly dodges to the side as gunfire rips through her previous position. She hears anothers' rifle click. Empty.

The time the man takes to frantically dig through his equipment belt is his undoing. Sloppy. Briefly, she connects the phenomenon with a panting Toby taking cover farther down the hallway. She throws out a hand, and a bolt of lightning flies at the man. Upon impact, the man flies back into the wall, unconscious for the time being. Ororo grabs another of the troops and smashes him into the hall's grandfather clock.

With a cascade of *BAMF*s, she and Kurt finish off the troops in their immediate vicinity. Silent, she listens to Kurt chasten the younger boy, but stays quiet herself. Ororo, for one, had no compunctions about killing the men invading their house tonight. However, if it was possible for the children to avoid taking a life tonight, all the better. Where she disagreed with Kurt was his method. It simply wasn't worth it to endanger their own lives to spare their enemies'.

"Let's see what other company we have, then. Shall we?" Ororo's eyes begin to glow as she reaches out with her powers to the skies above the Insitute. The early morning light streaming in some of the windows abruptly disappears, thunder rumbling in the distance. The wind plays with her cape, picking up strongly, and Storm stalks down the hallway towards the entrance. Rain begins to thud against the intact windows of the building.

[Tobias Smith]

When Tobias actually fires the weapon, the main thought that runs through his head is, WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING!? I'M NOT GONNA FUCKING KILL SOMEONE! JESUS CHRIST! .....Aw man.....I'm definitely going to need to go to confession after this...shit...

Thankfully, due to both Tobias' poor aim, and Kurt's intervention, the bullet misses completely and utterly, leaving Tobias crouching and shivering with a combination look of disbelief, shock, fear, sorrow, and guilt. He listens to Kurt's words, stands, clicks the safety on, and throws the gun as far away from him as possible. The boy looks apologetically and thankfully at the blue man, realizing that Kurt probably just saved Tobias' immortal soul.

The darkly-clad boy sighs, looks at the gun he just threw, and looks to the teleporting man and says with complete seriousness, if though with the slightest hint of humor, "...Thank you...if I ever make that mistake again, I'll just become a priest. With that he adds a slight smile, before wiping it away and cautiously proceeding to the closest incapacitated soldier. He crouches down rummages through the man's equipment, he pulls out a light-weight, collapsible, sturdy metal nightstick. It is roughly two feet long, and black, which suits Tobias just fine.

He stands up again, and looks back to Kurt and Ororo, really not knowing what to do. He stops panting, but he still feels the pain on his muscles and head. He thinks carefully and calculates that if he can manage to control and "time" his time-stops to under twenty seconds, he might be possible to stop time repeatedly, until he has time to recover. But that is if he can start and stop on the fly...in this state, it will take him a few seconds to tap into his power.

[Ororo Munroe]

Ororo continues blazing a pathway to the front door. A trooper makes an abortive lunge at her from a smashed-in door along the way, but is quickly thrown to the side with blast of wind. By the time she arrives at the front door, her mental control over the weather patterns of the Institute has multiplied. The wind gusts in swirls around her, with a hint of frost in the icy currents. Lightning sparkles around her eyes and hands.

She notices that the men who charged the front door broke windows out instead of opening the door itself. The careless damage to their building, coupled with the shouts of students, faculty, and troops alike catalyzes her into action. Ororo raises her hands, and with her cape fluttering out behind her, the doors fly open on their hinges, revealing the fight beyond it.

As soon as the doors are opened, a black-suited man charges around the corner and takes careful aim. Wires fly out from his weapon and land solidly in Ororo’s chest. She looks down, almost curiously, and the man triggers his stun gun. Storm feels a light tickling sensation, but no other effects present themselves. The trooper eyes widen as he comprehends her mutation.

“I imagine that would have taken care of most of the other mutants around here - perhaps even killing some of the younger ones. Maybe you’d like to see what would have happened, had you picked your target more carefully?” Her voice is ice cold. Blindingly fast, she yanks the wires towards her, and the man stumbles forward. Ororo places a hand onto his chest. With a flash and a crackling sound, the man flies straight back out the door, landing in the decorative fountain outside.

Without another word, Ororo stalks outside, and surveys the melee. There is a van parked outside, along one wing of the building, which appears to be disgorging commandos. A pair of helicopters was also dropping a few commandos from zip lines. Time to even the odds a little. …Oh. They seem to have detected my presence. Indeed, the commandos by the van begin to move in her direction at maximum speed.

As the thunder and lightning crash in the skies above, Ororo utilizes her control over air temperature, allowing the hot and cold air to intermingle. The spinning cloud vortex above descends straight onto her, and she rises into the air, whirling with the currents. As soon as she judges the timing to be correct, she hurls it and herself at the oncoming brigade, lightning streaming from her hands.

The cyclone rips into the commandos, throwing them aside with bone-shattering force. The unlucky troopers that come within striking distance find themselves transformed into glowing projectiles, propelled away by the sheer destructive force of her energy attack. As soon as she makes her way through the now-decimated commandos, Ororo fixes her gaze on the black van. Almost timidly, a panel in the roof opens to reveal a gun turret, and she snorts internally. A bright red flash in one of the second story windows catches her eye. Josh - John - and Bobby’s room. That’s certainly John. A man ducks out of the passenger window and begins firing at her. The turret rotates up to point at the boys’ window, and Ororo’s eyes narrow.

Ororo raises her hands and floats up into the air. Within a few seconds, the cyclones die out (though this hardly matters, seeing the damage they’ve already inflicted on the ground troops), though the wind continues gusting about. If at all possible, the sky grows even more threatening. The gun turret begins chattering at the window…

As she communes with nature, Ororo realizes she’s never generated anything quite this big. The sheer energy of it astonishes her, but pleases her at the same time. She will protect her charges, as is only right.

She is not Ororo Munroe…. she is Storm. Unstoppable.

With a multiple crash of thunder, the lightning bolt (the word itself somehow feels inadequate for this most delicate, yet phenomenally destructive creation) impales the van dead on, with a blinding flash that temporarily whites out everyone’s vision nearby. A huge explosion rips through the vehicle. Those caught looking directly at the blast begin stumbling around aimlessly. More importantly, however, when the light show fades away, the van is simply not there anymore. A charred crater filled with debris is all that remains.

Ororo’s eyes uncloud, and the lightning sparks in her vicinity slowly fade away. The storm still brews angrily over her, and she takes a moment to choose her next target.