Xaviers!

Kat is one of the first to throw herself into the brawl, rising into the air and strafing past the advancing line of villains. Dodging a blast from a Sentinel she swoops around and a concentrated blast of gravitation tears out a chunk of perfect round cross-section through the thing's chest, slamming the chunk forward and catching a vampire mid-run.

A giant metal tentacle from one of the Space Locusts comes down on top of Kat and drives her into the ground only for the ground to crawl up along the tentacle and constrict around it, severing the appendage as Sara condenses back into humanoid shape. Spotting Robin running towards her nods briefly.

Leaping forward Robin's foot lands right in her mum's hands and finds herself being catapulted up and over, right towards the Robot Locust, one arm forming into a long metal spike as she stabs into the machine.

Stan erupted in ionic fire, and took to the sky.

“Telepaths, linkup our minds, keep us in contact! Physicals, plow through their line, separate them for our fighters to pick them off!”

Seeing the Skrulls, Tereza lets out a howl and leaps into the nearest group of them, fists slamming the ground as ice explodes from the contact, grabbing and tripping her opponents as she begins laying into them with werewolf-anger-powered fists and claws.

Sam wades out into the battle, casting her mind out into the flow of it and touching the minds of all the others.

It's perhaps disorienting at first to those who haven't fought alongside the Morrigan before, but in brief flashes they get a sense of how Sam sees the battle, the ebb and flow of the chaotic forces, and it just clicks.

Sam herself may as well be dancing through the fray, though it's a quick, brutal dance punctuated by her slamming fists and feet as she goes.

Nailah is in the air, the mental presence unfamiliar, but not unwelcome, helping her make some sense of the chaos around her. Over to her side she briefly catches sight of an older version of herself looking strangely amused for a moment before pointing at something behind her. She drops and dodges a laser-blast that cuts through the air and she curves around to land on top of a Black Air agent, driving him into the ground and leaping back up to throw a punch but gets knocked out of the air by the giant metal fist of a Sentinel.

Skidding to a stop on the ground the shadow of the robot's foot hovers over her as it steps down...

Only to stop short at the last moment, a tiny Japanese girl next to her having somehow caught it and straining against the weight of the machine.

"Now!" she shouts and the black-skinned shape of Lumis hovering in the distance points a finger at her, blasting her with a concentrated beam of light. And suddenly she's not straining anymore. With renewed strength she grips the underside of the Sentinel's foot and swings the entire robot through the air, batting aside a group of Skrulls before hurling the robot way up into the sky where it collides into an alien drone, both exploding as they go flying towards the horizon.

Two figures take off from the pinnacle of the lighthouse, floating to a stop behind the friendly lines. Both are dressed in similar X-Men outfits and they look at each other before extending their hands towards one of the sentinels. The sky groans and the mother of all lightning bolts slams down out of the sky, grounding through the sentinel as sparks and smoke start spraying from its seams.

Sparks flew John and Apophis clashed weapons; a magic club against a high-tech khopesh.

"This time you die!" the orange reptile hissed.

"I have grown since last we met you pathetic gangster," John said, breaking away and coming in again to break the khopesh, "And my weapon is better." He bashed his evil self into an oncoming space robot.

Kevin hacked his way through doombot after doombot, grinning like it was his birthday and a very good one at that.

The sky flashed red and purple. High up above the fight, a figure dressed all in red shot up, slamming into the Harbinger of Galactus. They darted towards one another in a cosmic game of chicken, strikes and counterstrikes as the air itself thickened and thinned and crackled from the energy, sending shockwaves of cosmic power in all directions, in all dimensions.

The Champion of the Morrigan weaved through the battlefield, reacting as one with the thoughts send out by His Goddess -- well, not his Goddess, but close enough for government work.

"We need to keep a path clear!" he said, steel blade coming through and deactivating a Doombot. "The tech crew has to get to the Crystal Computer. We can't fight these off forever!"

"Speak for yourself, boy! I can do this all day!" Null shouted, slingshotting off the ground. He impacted, hard on the head of a Sentinal, bouncing off and keeping his momentum to ricochet through a squadron of Black Air shocktroops. "This is fun!"

"You both are CRAZY"! William shouted, ducking behind a pillar to avoid a blast of mystic energy.

He dashed off, ducking and weaving his way with unusually talented moves, towards one of the side buildings.

Chase exchanged rapid punches and kicks with a Black Lotus assassin, taking a hit before landing a kick to the head and knocking him out. He found himself surrounded by more and wiped blood from his lip as they drew their swords.

An armored figure strode onto the grounds

"Tomorrow may think he is in charge here...

But it was...is...and always WILL be...

DOOM who pulls the strings!"

"Oh...oh no," Katarina said. "Doom? Here?"

This may not be most people's first concern, but Katarina had other issues.

Roland Sackville, drawing Excalibur, strode through the fray, only to find his doppleganger.


"I told you! I told you, chaos would reign if the Three Tools of the Morrigan were allowed to remain together! You should have believed me!"


"Was I ever so naive?" Roland asked, taking a battle stance, as the two clashed.

Nika slides down the arm of a disabled Sentinel and lands in a crouch next to Katarina. Behind her a cloud of metal scraps hangs in the air, suspended and all pointing in DOOM's direction. Until they suddenly don't, rocketing towards the despot at blinding speed, embedding themselves in armor and punching through here and there, causing sparks to fizz out from the holes.

"It's never the real one. First lesson they taught us, y-- Katarina."

Nika Novak wrote:Nika slides down the arm of a disabled Sentinel and lands in a crouch next to Katarina. Behind her a cloud of metal scraps hangs in the air, suspended and all pointing in DOOM's direction. Until they suddenly don't, rocketing towards the despot at blinding speed, embedding themselves in armor and punching through here and there, causing sparks to fizz out from the holes.

"It's never the real one. First lesson they taught us, y-- Katarina."

And indeed, as "Doom" fell to the ground, his mask popped open to reveal...a monkey.

Well, that kind of lowers his intimidation level, doesn't it?

Shane's healing factor absorbed gunfire from a trio of Black Air troops. He smirked as vines burst from the ground to entangle them and pull them down to their necks in the soil.

"Enjoy being flowers, you c@#$bandits."

Diego feverishly slashed away at a swarm of demonic bone spiders. They screamed in arachnoid agony as they were consumed by spooky fire.

"It had to be spiders!"

Drake strafed the ninjas surrounding Chase with a jet of flame, sending two rolling on the ground trying to put themselves out.

Artemis had, apparently, had the robot equivalent of a panic attack; conscious of what was going on around her but unable or unwilling to interact. When the time came to scramble her lights flickered back on and her projector came back online, she turned and left with the other tech crew. But somewhere along the way she parted ways without a word.

The funny thing about the dimensions overlapping? Some places were totally replaced, and some merely merged. And after having done a little pre-mission scouting Artemis had been delighted to find that the particular room she was most interested had been dealing with the latter effect. So Artemis wasn't on the field when the two forces began to clash, and she wasn't with the tech crew, but it wouldn't be too long before her presence was known. With all of the commotion going on the breech alarm in the underground workshop would most likely have gone ignored, the crashing from the garage drowned out by the battle in the quad. With so many towering forms on Dr. Tomorrow's side, the X-men needed a little oversized muscle of their own, and Artemis took it upon herself to provide it.

And it was... horrible.

Thudding footfalls brought the thing towering behind the good guys, the head half-missing and sparks flying all over it's form. The chest had been torn open, half of Artemis' form clearly visible within the depths of the thing like some sort of junkyard Hulkbuster. And from the movement within it's chest and back she'd managed to ziptie a few robotic welding and assembly arms to the thing to try to continue the work she'd been too rushed to finish herself. It clodded forward and threw itself into the fray, focusing on the other sentinels with heavy, smashing punches and not an ounce of grace or cunning, crushing DOOM bots under it's boots and barely missing its allies in the process.

A craggy-looking dragon with glowing orange cracks in her rocky hide zoomed over a patch of vampires, flames trailing from her wings as she unleashed a gout of flame on the creatures, igniting them and sending them stumbling into their companions.

With his odds greatly improved, Chase's powers made him more than a match for the remaining assassins. However, a voice chilled him to the bone.

"So we meet again, traitorous whelp," said a large man wrapped in writhing shadows. He pointed a wicked looking sword at Chase.

Chase's mouth went dry. He couldn't beat Xianlong on equal footing even if he had a sword and he knew it.

Artemis was not about subtlety, using the confusion of the smaller and zippier heroes to push herself deep into the fray, treating the other towering mechs like this was some sort of barroom brawl. Every time the massive Scrapinel suit had a piece smashed off she would reach out and rip a piece off of her opponent and slap it on, the thing's auto-repair subsystems overclocked and still having trouble keeping up with the damage it was receiving.

-----

Meanwhile on the sidelines a well-dressed man took a long pull from a cigar as he watched the carnage taking place before him.

"Lookit all of those spinach-heads. It must be my Goddamn birthday." He tapped the ashes from his cigar into a rose bush before he slid the lever back on an obviously overcompensating assault rifle and began spraying led into the crowd, seemingly not overly concerned about hitting anyone on "his" side either as his tail snaked through the air behind him.

Chase Delacroix wrote:With his odds greatly improved, Chase's powers made him more than a match for the remaining assassins. However, a voice chilled him to the bone.

"So we meet again, traitorous whelp," said a large man wrapped in writhing shadows. He pointed a wicked looking sword at Chase.

Chase's mouth went dry. He couldn't beat Xianlong on equal footing even if he had a sword and he knew it.

Roland, who had been floored by the other Roland, saw Chase in serious trouble.

"Boy!" he shouted. "Do thou well with this!"

He tossed Excalibur across the battlefield, into the waiting arms of Chase.

Artemis wrote:Meanwhile on the sidelines a well-dressed man took a long pull from a cigar as he watched the carnage taking place before him.

"Lookit all of those spinach-heads. It must be my Goddamn birthday." He tapped the ashes from his cigar into a rose bush before he slid the lever back on an obviously overcompensating assault rifle and began spraying led into the crowd, seemingly not overly concerned about hitting anyone on "his" side either as his tail snaked through the air behind him.

"Um...I'm afraid you're going to have to stop that," Will said, from behind him. "Please?"

A van from the van pool busted out of the garage, plowing over Doombots and Black Air agents as it went.

"Woooooah woah woah woah woah!" William said, from behind the wheel. "Coming through! Beep beep!"

"Hrmm. No, no, no. Let's change the tempo," Dr. Tomorrow said, swinging his staff.

Will's van was caught up in a sudden tornado, and was flung at several of the other X-Men.

Had it been any other voice behind him, Simon would have just spun around and sprayed them full of holes. As it stood he was still half-tempted to do it.

"Only you would ever think to say the magic word. If it is you, that is. Between the clones and dimensions and all of that other shit, it's pretty hard to keep track. Actually..."

Just to be certain, the man lifted the rifle enough to fire a single shot at Will's knee.

A Skrull goes sailing face-first past Sam, slamming into a Doombot that was approaching her. Tereza seems to have been pulled into Sam's orbit, fighting around her in time with her own instincts and the information that Sam's providing.

Artemis wrote:Had it been any other voice behind him, Simon would have just spun around and sprayed them full of holes. As it stood he was still half-tempted to do it.

"Only you would ever think to say the magic word. If it is you, that is. Between the clones and dimensions and all of that other shit, it's pretty hard to keep track. Actually..."

Just to be certain, the man lifted the rifle enough to fire a single shot at Will's knee.

The shot went through Will's knee, and he fell down with a cry.

"Simon...please, put the gun down...You don't have to do this."

Aiden launched into the air to strafe the villains in dragonfire more than happy to simply cook villains where they stood.

Other Aiden meanwhile punched a Skrull in the face then fired a blast of energy into a second opponent he didn't bother identifying.

"They do seem to outnumber us rather substantially," Aiden said before grappling with another Skrull.

Aiden Mitchell wrote:"They do seem to outnumber us rather substantially," Aiden said before grappling with another Skrull.

"Then we fall back!" Will shouted. "Take them inside, where they can't get us all at once!

All we need to do is hold them off for long enough for the tech team to do their job!

Sean drew a design on the ground when he head Will tell them to fall back.

"I can cover the retreat... I think, maybe," Sean said drawing a knife and cutting his hand to let blood fall into the spell circle. The older Sean joined him adding his own blood to the mix. They began to chant in unison and the sky turned black, the smell of sulfur filled the air as they did so. It wasn't long before the first stone of fire and ash fell from the sky.

Tereza Rozanov wrote:A Skrull goes sailing face-first past Sam, slamming into a Doombot that was approaching her. Tereza seems to have been pulled into Sam's orbit, fighting around her in time with her own instincts and the information that Sam's providing.

"On your left!" the Boy shouted, extending a metal spike to pierce a Skrull that had been charging Tereza from behind.

He, too, had been drawn into Sam's orbit, as they continued to fight.

If Will was expecting Simon to drop his gun and rush to their side, regretting what he'd done, well that would have been dashed pretty soon. Oh there was that flicker in the eyes, a brief moment of hesitation and self-doubt, of empathy for another living being, but that was only temporary.

"Oh come on Willy, pull yourself together. You're not that good'a actor, and you know I've got no patience for sniveling and simpering." He poked Will's foot with the muzzle of his rifle, squatting down near them. At least they succeeded in getting him to stop firing at their friends, and getting too close for his own good.

"And if you can't do that, you're not much good to me. That's what made it work. Not that you could take it, that was only half of it. What made it work was that you enjoyed being treated rough. Maybe you thought you deserved it, maybe you were proud of how much abuse you could take, I dunno I'm not a shrink. I just know that at the end of it all, we were both smilin'."

-----

Artemis... wasn't falling back. Not that she could get inside in her current configuration. As more of them went inside, that left more to swarm the mech, until it was hidden from view.