Chapter 4- Last Resistance

  Savage Lands – Mysterious tower- Oct. 21, 2008 (Morning)

  Anna Marie Hopewell- (Rogue)

  She heard one of the stones on her forehead tick off twice in a row rather quickly. So Anna shouted. "It's time!" then she dropped to the fetal position and covered her head as best she could.

  The sudden burst of light felt good on her exposed skin. While she waited for it to pass, she reached up and touched the choker around her neck. 'Thanks again, Nath.’ She thought, before standing up. On her left she saw her sister do the same, so she asked her. “You ready to shine?”

  "Oui," Murmur said as she smiled and leaned to the side to show off her previously bad side.

  It had taken the other girl the better part of two months, before asking the mage to heal her burn. It had taken the miracle worker only ten minutes to remove it and make her sister’s face perfect again.

  Before they set off for the enemies the two shared a giggle when they heard Deadpool scream. “My eyes! My eyes.”

  Rogue charged the first beast-man knight that she spotted. As she did she reached down and pressed the rune in the middle of her belt buckle. She shivered a little, as she felt the choker deactivate. Her earbud also warned her. "Colr deactivated." Then she jumped atop the female bull knight, and dropped her exposed knee into it’s face and left it there. She needed to take a breath as the beast's strength and memories were drained by her.

  In her ear, the earbud spoke with the Citadel's voice. "Two minutes of use, five, ten, twenty, the subject is unconscious." Sure enough, the woman's arms fell to the sides. Still, Anna left it there a touch longer. "Thirty-five minutes of use."

  "That should do it." Then she jumped and spider-webbed the ground on her nding. Then she punched two still-blinded beast-men squires. Her new strength sent them flying a god ten yards. She could even see breaks in their chainmail vests left from the studs on her fingerless gloves.

  She then looked around, to both see who was next, and to see if her sister had tagged someone yet. Murmur hadn't, she was having fun with the combat glove that had been her gift from Nath'aniel. Anna got a choker and belt, her sister a glove, and her brother a sword. Everyone that had joined the Brotherhood that day had gotten something.

  Her sister punched a failing knight in the leg, then his chest, and finally his face. On each punch a short metal bde extend from the back of the bracer attached to the glove for just a second, cutting through the armor and flesh. Rogue wasn't sure what adamantium was, but apparently, that was the metal that the mage used to make the bde. Anna was surprised to see that the beast-man was still trashing about after getting three inches of supposedly eternally sharp unbreakable metal into his face.

  Then Anna ran and intercepted a rge metal bde that had been swung at her sister. The palms of her hands bleed as she stopped the greatsword from cutting her sister in half.

  “I may not be able to see you, but I can still smell you.” The wolf knight said as he pulled his bde back.

  But Anna held on and pulled it back too, before she said. “Oh, don’t be like that sugar. We two can be so much fun if you py nice.”

  “Release my bde.” He demanded, his eyes blinking rapidly trying to regain his sight despite his words.

  A puff of smoke and sulfur appeared above the struggling knight. Anna smirked at the wolf-man’s sudden disgust at the scent assailing his nose. “Having trouble?” Nightcrawler asked them as he nded on the knight’s shoulders.

  "Not really." Anna lied. Her grip was getting worse as she bled more and more onto the weapon.

  “Don’t se dévêtir (disrobe) him brother, I always wanted a puppy," Murmur said as she got up. Anna could hear her sister's combat glove begin to hum as she got closer.

  “What? What are you doing?” The wolf knight asked before releasing his weapon. He started to back away, but Nightcrawler brought his tail bde down to the man’s neck, while also lowering his two swords to either side of his head.

  Murmur walked up to the man and grabbed his armored arm. Anna could see the gemstone in the back of the glove was glowing brightly with purple energy, and a second ter that energy shot into the man’s arm and up towards his head.

  Once it did her brother ported away.

  The knight then saluted her sister, pcing his closed fist on his chest. "My dy, you orders?" he asked as he moved to kneel. The two sisters shared a look, while they had used her glove in training before. This was the first time to actually see its use in a combat scenario. So they were both a little shocked at how drastic the change over the man was.

  "Um, protect me and my sister," Murmur muttered an order for him.

  "That goes without saying, my dy." He then rose back to his feet, and held out his arm, before adding. "I would be able to do my duty better, if I were armed ma'am." His tone was slightly rude to Anna, but she then saw that his eyes were still glowing that purple psychic energy that Murmur had pumped into him, and had to remember he was basically under mind control.

  Anna gave the knight back his sword, and as he took it she said to him. “Told you we can be fun if you py nice.” Then she winked at him, as he shoulder the weapon. Seeing her action, he grumbled but didn’t say anything,

  Then the ceiling above them rumbled and soon after, the whole compound shook. Then one of the stones on Anna’s forehead warned everyone. “The ship has unched. Magneto was still attached to it when it took off. So everyone brace yourselves.” Exodus expined through it.

  Screams and crying made the two sisters ignore the warning and run towards what they were hearing. The beast knight quickly caught up and started to outpace them. What they saw scared both sisters, but neither slowed as they continued to move to support their allies.

  Deadpool was in pieces everywhere, and several unarmed and unarmored beast-men were being shielded by a now eight-foot tall fire elemental, from a whole squad of knights and squires.

  "This is the end. The Great One has left us. They deserve to die with honor still intact." A tiger knight with exceptionally long canines demanded while swinging his sword into the elemental. Then his weapon and arm were dragged into the fire woman, his screams quickly joined the others as his body was absorbed by Curha.

  “Twenty minutes remaining.” Anna’s earbud warned her.

  Still, she leaped at them, her enhanced strength hurling her towards the madden beast men. She nded in amongst the warriors and she just started punching left and right, as her punches nded allowed her to momentarily drain vitality here and there, allowing her already severally cut palms to heal. Each squire hit just went down, while the knights were only pushed back.

  A bird-headed beast man raised his battle axe, but his weapon was intercepted with the wolf knight's greatsword. "Traitor!" the birdman shouted at the wolf.

  “You are the traitors here. What point or honor is there in killing the innocent?” the wolf asked before punching the other knight in the head. He followed up the punch with a pummel strike.

  Then he crossed swords with another knight, who asked him. “What happened to your eyes?”

  “They have been opened.” The wolf answered before he continued to fight on.

  Anna saw a squire out of the corner of her eye, line up a charge with his spear, but before he could run at her, a grappling hook hit him in the chest, before Murmur flew into him knees first. Magneto had made a grappling glove for her sister’s new costume to offset the mage’s combat glove.

  Two more knights were engulfed and consumed by the fire elemental, leaving only a handful of squires standing. When they saw one of their own knights trying to stop them, they backed off and shared looks unsure of what they should be doing.

  The ground shook again, before a series of vines grew up and ensnared all of the still-armed beast-men.

  Anna looked around, and at some point, she must have absorbed super sense from the beast men, as her eyes zoomed in on the She-Devil standing on one of the ndings of the stairwell. She watched as the bikini-wearing blonde took a running jump to try and get to them. Like one of the Brotherhood's fliers, the Servant sailed through the air, and nded on the side of a nearby hill, she slid a couple of yards down the hill, before jogging over to them.

  The usually quiet woman announced. “Those that wish to commit suicide will be allowed to, but so too will those wishing to continue living will get to as well." She ended her statement by smming the butt of her spear onto the ground.

  “She smells soaked in blood, yet looks clean, how?” One of the ensnared squires muttered softly, Anna doubted that she would have heard it without her currently enhanced senses.

  She-Devil walked up to the still-tagged wolf knight. She looked him up and down, before disappearing a puff of yellow sparkles.

  “What was that about?” Murmur asked no one.

  Anna still answered the question. "I ain't a clue, but let's disarm these guys before the others get here." Then she looked up at the still gigantic fire elemental and asked her. "You ok Curha?" she wasted the better part of a minute waiting for a response and then remembered that only the mage, telepaths, and Pyro could understand her while she was like that. And none of them were here, heck their resident fire starter wasn’t even on the continent.

  Then she moved to disarm the ensnared and still groaning downed beast-men.

  Savage Lands – Mysterious Tower Foundation- 2008- 10- 21 (Late Morning)

  Raven Darkholme- (Mystique)

  Raven flipped down the cover on her scope before shouldering her rifle. Before using her powers to adjust her skeleton to better handle the shock of jumping down several times onto rock. Once on the grass she reached up and pressed two of the stones on her forehead and asked. “Any word on Erik?”

  “We are still in a combat situation.” Exodus scolded her. He was clearly still upset at her over her lie to get her kids down here. To compin about such a minor mistake.

  Meanwhile, the mage said. "Nothing confirmed yet, but I can scry for him once we get back to the Citadel."

  She waited a bit before asking. “I thought you were limited to the pnet?”

  "My skills have progressed to a point I think I can safely push myself to sweep some of the sor system, if I have to," Nath'aniel stated.

  Raven wasn’t sure why, but she then pressed his stone again and asked. “It will take me a bit to walk to you guys, where are we meeting up?”

  “The main residential block, they seem to have some medical facilities there. Quicksilver is here. Shall I ask him to come get you?” The mage answered and asked.

  She shivered at the memory of the st time the speedster carried her, not only because of the speeds he moved at, but his the very obvious way that he grouped and touched while he did so. So Raven lied and said as an answer. "No I could use the time to calm down from this battle… let me know if you hear anything about Magneto."

  She continued to walk for a couple of minutes before she noticed the occasional puff of smoke ahead of her. So the shape-shifter waited, and sure enough, her son teleported and nded near her a couple of seconds ter.

  He was dressed in his new costume. It was a bck body suit with red armoered pieces added to it. Red gloves, boots, and a yer that covered most of his chest. She heard from Nath'aniel that her son's suit was technically the most costly of the new suits. Since the boy mutant was limited at how much weight he could teleport with, so the mage had allowed Erik to use some of his limited exsotic metal supply to make both the red items and the boy’s tail attachment. Raven should have asked what the metal was, and if she could get an upgrade.

  On the boy's hips was a pair of swords, one Erik forged from therium, or more commonly known as anti-metal, and the other was the mage's gift to the boy for being accepted into the Brotherhood. A fairy silver cutss, which could transform into an epee. So the boy could both ssh and thrust depending on what he was facing. The boy had discarded the various knives once he got his bded tail attachment.

  "I heard that you turned down Quicksilver carrying you back to the others." The blue-furred boy said to her.

  “I did.” His mother admitted.

  Nightcrawler nervously scratched his head, before saying. “I know how he can be…”

  “Who won?” Raven interrupted him.

  “Mmm?” he hummed at the sudden change of topics.

  "Everyone knows you two were competing on who could disarmor the most knights, so who won?" The shape-shifter expined as she crossed her arms waiting for an answer. Knowing the boss's son was handsy was one thing, but saying the boss's son was handsy was another.

  “Oh, yeah I guess we were. And he did. Twenty-three, to twenty-two." The boy admitted.

  "Would you walk back with me? You can tell me how your sisters performed." Raven asked the boy before she continued to walk toward the cluster of buildings.

  After a moment he jogged to join her and offered. “I could teleport us there faster.”

  "Sometimes it is good to take a break, and take things slow… So?" The shape-shifter told him and then asked.

  "Oh, right sisters…" He muttered and rubbed the start of the goatee that he was growing before continuing. "They both got through ok, and are getting used to using their powers. Murmur tagged a wolf knight. I hope she doesn't pn to keep him, he smells something awful. And I worry about Rogue, she still didn't wear the costume Magneto gave her today. Instead, she fought in a tank top and shorty shorts. I worry that she will get hurt doing this."

  Raven nodded in understanding but still said. "Leave her be for now, she spent years of her life in fear of hurting people with her powers, but now thanks to Nath'aniel’s gift she can live without that fear. It is probably the first time in a long while that she feels in control."

  “But our fights are bound to get harder and more dangerous. She is bound to get hurt one of these days. Hurt so bad even with her powers she will not recover.” Nightcrawler compined.

  "I know, and we need to be a family and be there for her when that happens," Raven admitted. then she used her powers to shrink herself a bit, before she took his arm into hers, before resting her head on his shoulder as they continued to walk towards the buildings ahead of them.

  DLRhanna

  A personalized combat construct using Zabu's soul as its core. not as big as the kitty was when it died, but its size can be increased as she gets older and stronger

  [colpse]