Sci-Fi Zone (Green)

[Bobby Drake]

> Change of plans, guys. Head to head with Storm is suicide. Regroup in the Neutral Zone.

Bobby grins at the tone of confident command in Josh’s mental voice. You were saying about his being willing to lead, Drake? He takes off towards the gate while continuing to gradually suck the heat out of the air surrounding Warren, meanwhile keeping an eye on Storm and looking around for the third invader.

All of which turns out to be one too many splits of his attention, and he’s caught flat-footed when an icy wind blows him and Josh away from the gate and into one of the troop bunkers. He winces as a couple of ice-chips get knocked off his shoulder by the impact – it’s not the first time that’s happened since he developed his new ice-form, and it doesn’t seem to cause any real damage, and he’s almost gotten used to it, but it’s still disturbing – and swears as his recently-borrowed energy-rifle goes flying off into never-never land.

Crap… so much for reaching the Neutral Zone, he thinks, stumbling a little before getting his feet back under him. So, OK… I’m an Iceman in the middle of a fucking arctic simulation, I should be able to come up with something clever, right? The problem, of course, is that any weather effect is just as much a weapon in Storm’s hands as it is in his. Throwing cold-effects at her is a waste of time, and while coating her in ice would probably slow her down, she’d see it coming practically before he got started… and when it came to trading ranged attacks, her lightning bolts vs his ice-sprays would be a pretty short-lived exchange.

Well, second-best defense is a good defense. He may not be able to strike back right away, but he can get Josh under cover… the cold part of her blast would affect Josh way more than Bobby, after all. And… where’d Jake go? Bobby can’t spot him anywhere, which is probably a good sign. Maybe he’s got something sneaky up his sleeve, he thinks, as he pulls Josh behind the bunker, wishing – not for the first time – that he could restore heat as easily as he eliminates it.

[Jake Sheppard]

< Jesus, since when can you teleport?
”Tele-*huff*-what now?” Still catching his breath, Jake doesn’t have time to process Bob’s question enough to offer an explanation before Josh has keyed the gate open and a streak of flesh and feathers launches through, the only *horrible thing* that seems to be happening being his team invading and stealing their flag. So much for waiting the battle out; looks like they bought it to us

His suspicion is confirmed as the weather shifts, the resultant chill which hits at his stomach having little to do with the deepening cold. Going up against ‘ro is, exactly as Josh *says* suicide[. Jake doesn’t need to be told twice, and confirmation of how hopeless taking her on would be makes him feel slightly less pathetic about bolting back to the protection of the troops…

< Regroup in the neutral zone
… even if that is, as it turns out, completely the wrong direction.

It’s not all lost, though (even if he is on his own, on the wrong side of the battle, with all sorts of hell breaking lose between him and their destination… and where have Josh and Bob gone?) – it’s easy enough to get the attention of one of the troop commanders and deliver some new orders, because while they’re doing an admirable job reacting trusting the computer to pick the *right* target never ends all that well.

”The, erm… the rebel witch is a great threat to the Empire. The Emperor demands that she be neutralised at any cost.” All sorts of weird, trying to deliver that, the words awkward and unwieldy… and sitting wrong, though all’s fair and all that jazz, right? Ororo’s playing to win, after all…

”As you wish, my Lord… Hey, you! Rebel scum!”

He tries not to wince at the sound of the blaster shots – all’s fair. Keep telling yourself that – or feel any sort of guilt at how this is… well, actually sort-of fun, really. The greatest dungeon-run-come-battleground in the history of the world ever…

… not all that perfect, perhaps. Because that really is one hell of a glitch; since when did Darth Maul belong on Hoth in the first place work for the Rebels? Tut-tut, Hank, that’s just not… oh. Doesn’t make sense for it to be a mistake on Hank’s part, not when the rest of the world is so complete. And isn’t this the term with their favourite Russian psychopath on? Oh… Not good. Very far from good… Gotta find me someone who can… ah, yep, he’ll do. Looks like all sense of their being Empire and the invaders Rebels’ll have to go on the backburner for the moment; homing in on one of the sims who seems ‘Jedi-ish’, Jake sends a quick mental poke – Sith, incoming. – praying his own telepathy’ll work on the things, and is paid off on both counts when the figure spins, drawing his own lightsabre, and launches off. Jake turns his own attention to spotting Nikk… with far less success than their little puppets, the Russian’s control too subtle and the duel over too quickly for him to track from that and the chaos of battle providing, it seems, more than ample cover for his target to avoid being spotted.

Shit… Josh, we might have a problem. Looks like Rasputin can ‘meld’ with the programme…? Might have to rethink… shit![/i] – Jake ducks back behind a nearby bunker as Warren brings down one of the Walkers – … sorry, rethink letting the troops deal with everything? Any bright ideas?[/i]

[Warren Worthington III]

Warren leaves the battle behind him, confident in his team’s ability to hold the line without him, and hugs the fake sky to avoid additional battalions and walkers as he soars toward the shuttle landing bay. There are several ambush-points along the way; he marks their locations just in case his team needs to take them out later, though he expects Storm can just bring Rasputin along the “high road” instead.

It takes no more than a few seconds to reach the landing bay by that route. There are several shuttles, but only one seems warmed up and ready to launch; that one has half a dozen Stormtroopers standing guard by the access hatch. OK… I guess that’s my target. Let’s see if I can make myself useful here…

He folds his wings tightly and drops like a stone, trying not to think about how he can be dropping hundreds of meters when he knows the Danger Room isn’t nearly that large, and snaps his wings open just a few meters above the ground, turning his fall into a controlled glide, adding its momentum to the strength of his wings to scatter the guards like bowling pins. Three manage to retain consciousness, judging from their breathing; one of them even manages to get a shaky burst off in his direction as he deals with the other two, which he dodges before first disarming, then dispatching, him. (Or “it”? Warren isn’t entirely sure what pronoun is appropriate for a holographic simulation of a clone of a fictional character.)

OK, he thinks, surveying the collection of unconscious guards, that was too easy… The access doors are invitingly open and unguarded, the engine is humming faintly, and he can’t resist muttering "I’ve got a bad feeling about this…" under his breath before he enters the shuttle.

He has time for a quick glance at the shuttle’s controls at the far end of the cabin – “control,” really, just a single launch button presumably intended to trigger a preprogrammed trip – before a dark armored figure detaches itself from the shadows to block it. How’d he – I should have noticed him? Warren shrugs off the question – it was probably meant to simulate some weird Force stealth ability from some fanfic only Hank and Drake would ever have read, or something – and concentrates his attention on the obstacle itself.

“We meet at last, young man…” it whispers between raspy breaths, and Warren resists the urge to roll his eyes. Hank, you are such a geek. “…but for you and your rebel friends, this will be the final meeting.” The low-pitched electric hum of Vader’s lightsaber echoes off the shuttle’s interior as he moves into a combat stance, then freezes there. Huh? Is that some kind of glitch in the – he stops wondering as a vice-grip seems to latch itself around his throat, and he stumbles for a moment before focusing his willpower on strengthening his TK-aura, keeping his breathing passages clear. "Come on… Annie… is that the best you got?"

Vader doesn’t seem to respond, but Warren hears a seat unbolting itself almost silently behind him, then feels it flying at his back. Oo… tricky. Not tricky enough, though. He whirls and ducks at the last minute, allowing the seat to pass harmlessly over his shoulder and scooping it up with a wing to hurl it at Vader, who deflects it with a wave of his hand. "Nice try, Annie… but I’ve sparred with real telekinetics. You just don’t measure up." He feints in Vader’s direction with his other wing, which he pulls back hastily as the lightsaber comes up blindingly fast to block it, and promptly finds himself losing ground to a flurry of lightsaber attacks. No fair; in the movies the other guy always has one, too… he thinks, dodging and backing up, realizing that this is a more serious threat than he’d initially thought. ...this calls for a lateral attack.

A quick scan of the shuttle’s interior, and the memory of Josh’s final strike at the mercenaries at the Paris airport, provides Warren with his inspiration… it will depend on split-second timing and unerring aim, but he’s good at both. A long jump backwards gives him a moment’s relief from Vader’s swordplay, which he uses to scoop up the bolts left on the floor from the missing shuttle seat; a flick of his wing sends them flying in Vader’s general direction, earning a condescending laugh as three are vaporized by a blindingly fast flick of the lightsaber and the fourth ricochets harmlessly off the wall, striking the launch button on the dashboard, precisely as Warren intended.

Warren doesn’t pause to see if his missile strikes; he’s already bolting through the access hatch as the door closes automatically behind him. It takes Vader no more than a second to carve an opening through the doors and leap out after him… which would give Warren time to flee if that were his intention. Instead, he pauses for just a moment to listen to the shuttle’s internal mechanism, waits another moment to properly time his move, then bolts around the back of the shuttle just as a lightsaber-stroke passes through the space his torso had formerly occupied. "Too slow, scarface!" he yells tauntingly, counting on classic Dark-Side anger to carry Vader unthinkingly around the edge of the shuttle… just in time to face the fiery exhaust as the shuttle takes off on its preprogrammed flight.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t vaporize the Sith Lord instantly… a combination of armor and last-second application of Force energy apparently protects him from the brunt of the blast, though his lightsaber goes flying off as he drops to one knee, stunned. But as soon as the shuttle leaves the pad, Warren follows up on his advantage with a merciless volley of wing-strikes that ultimately leave Vader unconscious and gasping for breath, his helmet shattered.

Feeling exceptionally pleased with himself, Warren calls over the team communicator: "Path to the shuttle bay is clear, if you stick to the air… it’ll take me a minute to warm up a second shuttle, but I’ll have it ready when you get here."

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh pelts across the snow underneath where Ororo was hovering. Fortunately, she seemed pretty distracted with whatever she was doing with the wind currents. Hopefully we can regroup in the center zone without much difficulty…

After a few moments, he realizes that he’s not really getting anywhere. It’s becoming extremely difficult to make any forward progress. Thanks, ‘Ro… Aaack! A particularly strong burst throws him backwards a few feet, and only a quick application of his telekinesis keeps him on his toes. Involuntarily, he’s wracked with shivers. God, that’s cold!

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Bobby lift off the ground, similarly, and tries to control both of their backward progress. “Waaaahhhh!” A brutally strong blast tosses both of them backwards into some kind of storage shed. Josh is able to stop himself from crashing into the wall, but Bobby collides with a shattering sound. He whips his head around just in time to see a few chips break off the other’s shoulder. Ow!!

Teeth chattering, Josh ducks around the corner of the bunker with Bobby. “Are you okay?” At the other’s nod, he quickly begins thinking of backup plans. “We’ve gotta distract her somehow, but jeez. I hadn’t realized how powerful she is!” He shouts over the howling wind.

Jake, can you do anything to distract Ororo? We’ve gotta get out of this zone. Josh glances around for inspiration. About the same time, a raspy voice comes on over everyone’s headset.

“Maximum firepower!”

A walker approaching the Alliance’s shield generator fires a bright blast of energy, rocking the surrounding area in the subsequent explosion. In the commotion, Josh grabs Bobby by the hand and drags him out into the windstorm. “Come on!” Josh extends a hand outward, warding off shrapnel and projectiles.

The two duck as a piece of piping wings its way across the field at them. Hey… that would work. They race across the snow field as Josh throws a hand out at the rebellious chunk of metal. It curves in a long arc and heads in at Storm.

Predictably, a blast of lightning lances out at the two of them from up above. Josh hastily erects a telekinetic shield between them and Storm, which partially absorbs, partially deflects the electrical barrage. The lightning bounces off and hits a small outpost, shredding it completely.

“Close one! Keep moving!” Josh continues to accelerate the conduit. Storm begins tossing lightning blasts at it directly. Unfortunately, the piece of equipment is built to handle energy surges.

It impacts her squarely in the torso, and Storm lets out a choked breath as the wind is knocked out of her, throwing her across the arena. Josh directs the piping, driving the ends of the u-shaped piece into the snowy cliff-face. When their visibility clears, Storm has an annoyed look on her face, and she’s pinned to the cliff about a hundred feet off the ground.

Josh drags Bobby across the entry into the Neutral Zone, breathing heavily. Multitasking with telekinesis tended to drain him.

[Bobby Drake]

> "Come on!"

Bobby’s not quite sure what the plan is, but he follows Josh’s lead without hesitation, keeping an eye on their flanks and rear as Josh clears the path ahead of them telekinetically.

A couple of Stormtroopers suddenly stiffen, turn, and aim their rifles at Josh – probably Nikk’s doing – and Bobby freezes them solid with a thought, slightly disturbed by how easy that was. He’s never actually done that to a real opponent – well, except for the Blob, but that was a special case – and he’s pretty sure it would kill anyone he did it to in real life. But, well… this is space opera, and killing off the bad guys wholesale is part of the genre, right?

He’s distracted from the mock ethical dilemma by an unconscious mental warning from Josh, and ducks without thinking as a metal conduit goes flying over their heads – then dives to the ground as Storm hurls lightning at them. Unnecessarily, as it turns out, since Josh deflects it telekinetically. "Nice save!"

Bobby watches astonished as Josh pins Ororo to the cliff-face, then follows him as he bolts towards the exit gate. Oh! He’s still heading to the NZ, he realizes, and pauses for a moment to revert to flesh and blood… no point getting himself disqualified for illegal power use. To his relief, the chipped area on his shoulder seals up as he transitions, leaving only a small scar behind, and he takes off after Josh again.

Wish I hadn’t lost that blaster, though. I’ll be pretty useless in there without a – he comes to a sudden stop as he recognizes the headless black-and-red shape he’s running past, searches the immediate area for the lightsaber-staff that just has to be there, and grins an evil little grin as he hefts it and cones of energy emerge from both ends. – weapon. Not that Bobby is particularly good at staff-fighting, but Logan introduced him to the basics early in their martial arts training… he should be able to avoid slicing off his own limbs, at least.

"All right," he says to Josh as he enters the Neutral Zone, a little out of breath "where to now?"