Xaviers!

'Samantha' calmly walks through the Point. She's wincing a little bit but she did just come out of the Danger Room, so that's probably what that is. She walks over to one of the terminals and starts tapping away on the keyboard as schematics and floorplans come up on the screen. Eventually she seems satisfied, the monitor showing blueprints of some sort regarding the holding cells as well as a large complicated spherical object labeled as 'Stable Fusion Generator Core' and various auxiliary systems. Then she heads off to the holding cells and not much later sirens begin blaring as alerts go out to all the X-Men.

Will jogged towards the point, looking for where the alarm was sending them to.

The alarm is calling everybody to the Point, indicating a security breach in the holding cells as well as [General Error 202] which isn't very helpful but can't possibly be a good sign.

"I'm en route!!! What the fuck is going on?" Haley blasted across campus telepathically to all the X-Men she knew. As soon as she got outside the dorms, she took to the air, flying at top speed to the point. She hit the ground hard, leaving a bit of a crater, and bolted inside towards the holding cells.

Bear entered the holding area, clad in one of the school training uniforms and her satchel.

"It's a touch of luck I was testing my equipment.." she muttered.

Once inside they would find all kinds of warnings flashing on the monitors in the central control room.

Code: Select all

>> Holding Cells Breached!
>> Intruder Alert!
>> Unauthorized Armory Access!
>> Computer System Connectivity Compromised!
>> Safety Measures Offline!
>> Central Core Overheating!
>> Main Systems Shutdown Sequence Activated!
>> A.S.H.L.I.E. System Compromised!
>> Power Surges Detected throughout Point Systems!
>> Danger Room Offline!
>> Workshop Elevator Disabled!

Someone really did a number on the system somehow and it's relatively obvious how. A section of the wall is torn open by brute force with rime still clinging to the edges and crawling up the walls. Behind it is an access tunnel of some kind, a crawlspace leading down, crammed full of cables and important bits, sections of it torn out and sparking.

"Oh geez.."

Bear rushed to the console, to see if there was any way to stabilize the cascade failure.

"If anyone knows the system well, please step up! I'm new here!"

"The holding cells. Shit," Will swore.

"Pair up. Don't let anyone out of your line of sight; we've got shifters on the loose. At least one, but god knows they come in six packs. You get seperated for a moment, you assume they are the baddies until proven otherwise.

Someone come with me; I'm headed to the cells to see if we can't cut them off before they get out."

"I was heading that way, I've got you, Will." Haley barked as she rushed into the room.

Bear worked on shutting down the systems gradually. The core exploding was her main goal to avoid.

"Right, you're with me, Haley."

And try not to think about anything that'll put me out of commission he thought as the two sprinted down the hall towards the cells.

As Will is barking orders and rushing off towards the cells there's the sound of a muffled explosion and the floor shakes for a moment before one of the monitors turns entirely red. Bear is on the right track at least, but it seems her intervention is coming too late.

Code: Select all

>> Reactor Output Exceeding Safety Limits!
>> Catastrophic Fusion Reactor Failure!
>> Breach in Coolant Layers 1 and 2
>> Breach in Plasma Acceleration Conduits 1 and 2
>> Evacuation Alert Malfunctioning
>> Breach in Coolant Layer 3
>> Breach in Coolant Layer 4, 5, 6

The screen starts scrolling rapidly with failing coolant layers as a reactor diagram pops up with numerous red indicators all over the place.
The monitor next to it explodes into a shower of sparks from a massive power surge.

"Ok, forget gradually!"

Bear frantically looks for the big, red shutoff button to press forcefully. She hoped the same system for emergencies was used in the UK as was in the USA.

"This is a serious failure," Natalie says, probably more outwardly passive than the situation warranted. She was trying to play router for the system, as dangerous as that was for her.

Will makes it to the holding cells and finds all except one of them still locked, with Isolde staring out in obvious confusion and possible fear. The cell that's busted open belonged to Business Mandy. There's another tremor, accompanied by more error messages popping up for Bear and Natalie. The later might pick up on the many emergency messages and evacuation alerts that got stuck somewhere in the system as well as the fact that Ashlie's systems that are slumbering somewhere below shut down.

What everyone feels is when the reactor suddenly goes critical. Screens are flashing red for a moment before the ground underneath them pushes up before tearing open to reveal nothing but the white light of an active fusion reaction! There's little time to react as the plasma sets the air in the room on fire almost instantly in a blinding flash of an explosion.

Bear had a microsecond to turn to Natalie with a look of sadness as she gripped the console, waiting for the firestorm to engulf them.

With no time to react, Will dove on top of Haley, basically enveloping her in clay, in a last, futile attempt to protect her.

From the outside and through the windows of the school buildings the Point suddenly seems to sag for a moment before the squat building is suddenly throw outwards. At least for a moment before the building fireball outgrows it's own explosion and consumes the building in a massive sphere of plasma. A moment later the ensuing shockwave crashes into the buildings of the school and shatters most windows and showering students in broken glass as two hulking figures, silhouetted against the massive ball of fire walk towards campus.

When the light of the blast finally fades what remains is an almost perfectly sphere carved into the side of the cliff, revealing a cross-section of a couple of cables and systems that were just outside the reactor going critical. The Lighthouse, standing just a little to the side slowly leans towards the crater, it's foundation carved out from underneath it and it crashes down into the ocean.

Natalie's lost in the failing system, trying to connect to the comms to tell everyone to get out when the fire hits her. It hurts intensely, but only for a second and then she's gone.

"No, no NOO!" Haley shrieked trying in vain to throw up a shield around her and Will before his form collided with hers and everything went dark.