Chapter 42- Css 2 Emergency

  Citadel- Combat Training Hall- Oct 24, 2008 (noon)

  Anna Marie Hopewell- (Rogue)

  Anna Marie released a long breath as she reached for a towel, to wipe the sweat off of her face and hands. As she did, the teen frowned as she saw Gypsy only half-heartily form and unleash hex-blots at a training construct. All of the others, even Wolfsbane, who is usually quite tepid, were pushing themselves to try and outdo their regur training results in front of the junior X-men.

  Worried, Anna grabbed another towel before moving to be closer to the other teen. As she did, she could still feel the eyes of some of the boys from the X-men on her. Especially the dark-skinned boy, he seemed to be undressing most of their members with his eyes.

  Out of habit, she tapped her earbud, and it announced in her ear. "Suppression is currently off." So she stayed a little further back from Gypsy as she waited.

  She didn't have to wait long, and unlike her and the other members of the junior Brotherhood, the mage's disciple wasn't really even sweating, still, she tossed her the fresh towel, which Gypsy caught in a hex field rather than her hands.

  "Penny for your thoughts," Anna told the other girl.

  When the other teen got closer, she instinctively tapped her belt buckle. ”Suppression on.” was whispered into her ear.

  Just ahead of the now redhead teen looking around and whispering into her other ear. "I took your advice."

  Anna Marie frowned for a moment before recalling pushing the girl to make a move on the lord of the tower. Then she smiled and asked back in a soft tone. “How did it go?” The southern girl could see the answer in her friend’s depressed expression. So even before the other teen could answer her with words, Anna Marie reached out and pulled her into a hug.

  While the other girl didn’t break into tears, she did return the hug.

  After a moment the two girls broke apart, just as Anna was going to ask for details, the doors to the hall opened, and in floated Exodus. He opened his mouth and seemed intent on asking the Captain a question. However, he stopped when multiple copies of the Citadel appeared in front of everyone.

  “Alert, the young master has decred a css 2 emergency.”

  The hologram's hands proceeded to unroll a scroll that turned out to be a map of the Savage nds. The map then zoomed in towards the southern coast, and a red dot appeared, before the building could expin the situation.

  “There is an Atntean military underwater vessel parked off of the southern coast, it is near the borders of the Coral Signers and the Fall Peoples territories.”

  Anna Marie clearly heard Exodus growled at no one in particur. “They were warned.”

  Before a series of smaller blinking red dots appeared north of the rger first one, and the Citadel continued its expnation.

  “They appeared to have dispatched a diplomatic team into the Fall People’s territory, as I believe their vessel is too big for Sea-people’s only harbor. However, a rival faction of the hybrid-Altanteans, the Golden People, is currently attacking this team. They appear to have damaged their transport vessels with earth sorceries."

  "What do these Golden People gain from attacking Atnteans?” Her brother asked the hologram in front of him. He clearly was remembering the four sea kings better than she could.

  However, it was Wolverine who answered. "They're probably thinking that by making it look like the Fall people attacked their envoy, they can get rid of a rival and suffer no damage from it. Because Thakorr certainly won’t let someone not go unpunished for an insult of this magnitude.”

  “Don’t you mean Namor?” The super soldier tried to correct the X-man. When everyone frowned at him he realized that he had information that the rest of them didn’t. So he expined. “His grandfather died in his sleep three weeks ago. At least that’s what I heard while at SHIELD headquarters.”

  “Oh, hell that makes everything even worse.” The hairy X-man stated after hearing that.

  “Why?” Gypsy asked next to her.

  Wolverine answered the teen, expining. “Atntis is much more cssical from of government, so they would send a member of the royal family as their envoy. Meaning it is either Namor’s concubine wife, Droma…” But was interrupted by the Citadel, when she stated.

  "I am not detecting any female pure-blood Atnteans, in the team.”

  “Or his daughter.” Exodus guessed for the X-man.

  “The Atntean soldiers do seem to be trying to protect a pair of females. One is registering as a hybrid to my sensors, and the other is a gorgon.”

  “Gorgon, isn’t that the people that Nath'aniel and the other X-men went to go see?” Cyclops of the junior X-men asked.

  “All of the beastmen that live here in the Preserve were originally sves gifted to Atntis from the Olympians. So it would make sense that some of them may have still been inside their shielded cities during the final days of the war." Gypsy expined to the boy.

  "Are they still sves?" The skinny dark-haired teenage girl of their junior X-men asked everyone. As they didn't know, the mage's disciple just shrugged.

  "To be honest kid, I didn't even know about them having people besides their own, and I have been to Atntis several times," Wolverine admitted. Then everyone paused as the Citadel made an announcement.

  “Magneto has authorized the use of the Grey-wing, given the circumstances. I have my Utility constructs getting it fueled and prepared as we speak. However, the young master was hoping that Quicksilver would run on ahead of the craft, and dey the attackers as much as he could.”

  "Why do we not just portal us there?" Exodus asked his hologram, which she quickly answered.

  “While I am trying to get one ready, but with the current settings in the Control Room, it will take me over an hour to get a stable lock and enough power into the Portal Room to make a portal. And while a power cell can get me greater distance, the power cells just do not have enough output in them for the act of rushing an opening.”

  "And with them already under attack, we don't have an hour to wait." Anna Marie guessed.

  Then everyone heard Quicksilver ask. "Do I have to? This looks pretty far away, that it will still take me a couple of minutes to run there."

  However, before either Exodus or Gypsy could try and talk him into it. Nightcrawler teleported to be standing next to the speedster, and the blue-furred boy pointed out to the slightly older teen. "You know, she is the daughter of a king, and I recall that you still haven't gotten 'save a princess' off of your bucket list." Hearing that caused Quicksilver to smile, and then he started to do some stretches.

  As he did, Anna asked the boy. “Hold the phone. Ya have a bucket list at nineteen?”

  “Given what we do for a living, you bet your plump ass I do.” The speedster didn’t stop in his stretching as he answered her.

  And then before she could snap at him about his comment on her backside, he became a blur of movement as he ran out of the hall, after images of him winking and firing finger guns at his fellow Brotherhood members, pausing only for the doors to open for him.

  “We’re coming with.” Wolverine suddenly announces.

  Exodus squinted at the shorter man, but didn’t immediately reject them. Then the Citadel informed them.

  “Deadpool and Copycat are both requesting to join the battle, they also hope to get paid. Meanwhile, Ka-zar is worried about the Fall People. He apparently has friends among their royal family, and would also like to aid in this battle.”

  Exodus nodded, before he spoke again. “As you know the Grey-wing is smaller than the Bckbird, and we will need to keep some space avaible for those we are going to rescue. So you and two others, no more. Rogue, Nightcrawler, you will join me, Deadpool, and Ka-zar in five minutes outside. Also, Citadel, would you warn the merc, that if he dies on this mission, he is walking back.” After giving out his orders, the man floated out of the hall.

  The veteran X-man didn’t wait and called out two names. “Colossus, Armor you two are with me. Dazzler, keep the others safe while we are gone.”

  Then she and her brother led the three chosen X-men out of the hall and towards the re-locator, as the entire sub-basement had no physical means of reaching the rest of the Citadel. As they waited for the three of them to enter behind them she heard her brother mutter. "I guess it's a good thing that we are already in our costumes."

  As they waited their turn for the room to swap them out of the sub-basement, Anna looked at the three X-men. The rge teen towering over both the veteran and her teammate, during the fight earlier she had to spend all of her attention on the two Summers brothers so she didn’t really see much of what the others could do so watching them train she had learned that Colossus can turn his skin into some kind of metal, and the small oriental girl can generate a suit of psychic armor.

  So just as the room started to vibrate before it swapped with another, the small girl asked. “So I have seen he can teleport, and thus can rescue people, but why did they pick you… I hope I am not being rude, but I heard the others say that you took Cyclops’ powers during the fight."

  Anna and her brother shared a look, before she shrugged and admitted. "I steal powers and skills of those who I touch people, do so also tends to knock them out so maybe they want me there to disarm some VIP without killing em. Honestly though, kind of surprised they didn’t pick my sister with her mind control power."

  "You all don't smell like siblings," Wolverine argued.

  Nightcrawler waved his hands before he expined. “Oh, no, Rogue and Murmur were both orphans, who Mama Raven and Mama Irene took in.”

  “Oh, right I heard about your mom, sorry for your loss.” The short hairy man told them.

  Anna nodded, but didn’t say anything, while her brother muttered. “Thank you for that.”

  Seemingly wanting to change topics the big man, Colossus said. “It must be nice training and fighting with your siblings. I miss mine.”

  Savage Lands, Somewhere in the Fall People’s territory- Late Autumn, Namor 1 (Afternoon)

  Princess Namorita

  They were hiding behind a tree, and the wounded red-skinned Prince y over her shoulder, as she caught her breath. The man shifted a little, before muttering. "Leave me… I am… only… slowing you down."

  She didn’t even look at the man before scolding him. “Still your tongue, do I look slowed down to you? You weigh less than my mother.” When the brush nearby rustled, she shifted her stance so he was better protected if it was an attacker.

  Namorita released her held breath, when she saw that it was one of her men that disturbed the bushes. She frowned when she saw that one of the men that she had dispatched wasn't there. "You lost another?"

  Her captain nodded before speaking. “As soon as we saw the Nezin River, they cast the same spell that they used to cripple our boats. I don't know how they spotted us, but they did. And his armor was punched through as the stone spikes emerged from the ground.'

  “He was dead either way, so I refilled his hydro gun, and returned. Honestly we probably only got back to you because he drew all of the attention onto himself.”

  The princess took a gnce, not only to check her handmaiden to see if he was lying, but also because she could see blood trapped inside the water inside of his sealed helmet. Lythese shook her head, indicating that he was speaking the truth.

  Namorita took a breath, before asking. “What do we do next?”

  The captain looked at both the men that came back with him, and those that he left to guard her, he clearly doing the math of their chances before answering. “We either try and push through, or try the signal fre again. Mind you, we only have two left.”

  She didn't know how far they had already progressed, only that every battle so far had been a running retreat. The princess also knew that they were hurting the enemy, but that didn't mean that they could win the conflict.

  Then she came upon an idea, and flicked the bleeding man on her shoulders in the head.

  “Uh, ah, what?” The wounded man asked confused.

  “Where are your people’s troops?” Namorita asked him.

  He blinked a couple of times, before answering. “East or North… But can’t guarantee a lot… we have… most of our army north… fighting Corals.”

  Then the princess looked towards her captain, before asking. “Of those two directions, where is the enemy lightest?”

  The office took a moment to confer with his men, before reporting. “North.”

  "Then we break through that way, and hope to be reinforced and aided by his people," Namorita ordered, before she readjusted the man she was carrying and pressed on behind her men. Of the original ten only six remained.

  They jogged lightly for a good twenty minutes, before they made contact with the enemy. No longer were the Golden people dressed in the style of the local Fall People, instead they wore their own dark metal armor.

  “Take him from me.” The princess told her handmaiden.

  The gorgon had a hard time holding the wounded man upright, but with her arms free, Namorita joined her remaining guards, she held back at first, relying on her magic. She would conjure balls of water in front of the faces of the enemy soldiers, distracting and blinding them, so that her guards had an easier time fighting them.

  Their hydro guns fired short bursts of very high-pressured water, and while not always strong enough to kill the enemy, they could disarm or even remove the weaker limbs of surfacers. Meanwhile, these hybrid Atalneans seemed to retain some of the strength of their people. But only some, as her Captain and another guard looked like adults fighting children as they overpowered their opponents.

  This minor skirmish ended quickly. With the princess not needing to do more than conjure half a dozen globes of water. Even so, they quickly pressed on, and after another stint of running one of the guards pointed and shouted, not that his fully encased helmet let out more than a bubbling noise, when he saw another fort.

  This one was surrounded by something Namorita had never seen before, small farmhouses and massive wheat fields. Even from their current distance, she could see a pair of men at the top of the watchtower. One was pointing towards their group while the other was warning the interior of the fort.

  “What color is their skin?” The captain asked.

  “I can’t tell, but their armor is the same as the first group style, so it could be the Fall people." The leadmost guard answered.

  Suddenly Lythese startled her when she announced. "I will go check it out with one of the guards. Princess, you stay here with the captain and the others." Then she offered the weight of the wounded prince to one of the guards still using their hydrogen, before jogging off ahead.

  Namorita was stunned but still tried to move and stop her, but her Captain blocked the younger woman and shook his head. As the handmaiden and a guard jogged up to the fort, its doors, and some soldiers met and invited them in. A few seconds ter, they all heard a scream, and a bleeding Lysthese dove, as spikes of rock burst out of the ground, her legs and feet torn and cut by the sharp stone suddenly appearing.

  The princess pushed passed the captain and ran for the wounded woman. It didn't take her long to run the short distance, but as she neared a roar suddenly caused the spikes to crack and shattered. Its shards flew everywhere, even hitting her, only the rgest of them actually causing her pain, yet not penetrating her skin.

  On the other side of the once barrier stood a man in golden armor, holding a bloodied sword in one hand and the bleeding helmet of one of her guards in the other. His headless body and armor at the man's feet leaked more blood and the suits contained water.

  "Well, I guess I should be gd that you didn't fall for the same trick twice." King Tallis said, before dropping the severed head.