12387/Jaketch's Gambit: Ancient Anchors

Jaketch's Gambit: Ancient Anchors
Date of Scene:	10 August 2022
Location:	Uncovered Zakhiku Ruins, Derash Mountains, Iraq
Synopsis:	...
Cast of Characters:	Warren Worthington, James Proudstar, Kurt Wagner

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Warren Worthington has posed:
Warren sits in one of the seats behind the pilot in the X-Men's blackbird as it streaks through night skies above Iraq. He has abandoned his usual blue and white uniform for a black X-Men one. He even took the time to get help using a temporary dye Beast made for him to turn his wings all black. It bothers him every time he does it, and he keeps glancing at his feathers.

"So the information I got from Jessica was pretty thin," Warren recaps and runs a hand through his hair. "Somehow some Chitauri opened a portal in Central Park a month or so ago. About 15 of their foot soldiers came through and were fought off and their portal generator might have been damaged."

"I don't know how, Jessica wouldn't tell me, but someone figured out that the only way the Chitauri could make that portal was with some kind of anchor... device... thing. A signal was transmitted into subspace just before the portal opened from here," Warren explains. He brings up a heads up display overlay on the front window but well to the side of James' field of view. "Derash Mountains, Iraq. Looks like a Chitauri skull might have been recovered in some mountains here decades ago in a ruin that was never followed up on. Satellites have not shown any signs people have been near it. The ruins were never excavate, some relic hunter found it and it was never picked up on. The entrance that we know about is a hole in a canyon wall. Scans are patchy, but it looks like the top layer is some kind of communal space with small buildings around it. Might be an underground village. Which is kinda neat."

The image changes to show a wireframe map that looks like a large village square with block shaped buildings around it.

James Proudstar has posed:
James Proudstar frowns and his works the controls. Jim is at ease in the pilot's chair. He doesn't need a lot of sleep and working training sims is one way to keep busy when everyone else is in slumberland. Though, it's rare that Jim actually gets to fly the plane between Scott and Rogue vying for the front seat. He has them on stealth setting, "We're cloaked, and I am keeping an eye out for patrols this is still a fairly volatile area. An underground cave city, so we send the guy with wings and the Seven foot tall apache?" Jim sighs, "That tracks, though it seems deserted down there, I will set us down a bit away so as to not disturb the ruins more than we have to." Jim also has a gift from Beast, he's on AV duty, carrying a hi-res holo-recorder pack, and several analyzers, along with some things that should provide real time translation of most alien and ancient languages."
    James pauses and turns to look at Hot wings, "Wait? Jessica? Shield is asking us to follow up on this? ... The closest we've come to teaming up with our 'neighbors' is when the professor psionically recruited a few help take out that Hydra base in the Bermuda Triangle. The one that was running the global trafficking ring and that was off the books. What gives, Hot Wings?"

Kurt Wagner has posed:
    Nightcrawler's outfit is already largely designed to be unseen in the darkness. Glowing eyes notwithstanding, he's usually gotten through quite a bit of sneaking without being detected. He sits in the co-pilot's seat, not touching the controls at the moment. "Ja," he says, "it does smell a little." He looks back at Warren, continuing, "I'm here for the mission, but if SHIELD is sending us in, it's something they can't do themselves or they're hoping to get eyes and ears on something of ours that will get them more access. They're sneaky that way."

Warren Worthington has posed:
Warren shrugs and spreads his hands unknowingly. "They're all secret spy agents, I have no idea what they're doing," Warren admits. "I don't actually know our informant very well, I met Agent Zanette at a party in March? We had a thing going for maybe a month."

"She called me up yesterday, and came over and seemed annoyed this was being ignored, but who knows. She's a new agent, she was in the FBI until last summer. Maybe it's all part of her training. Tall, nice legs, though. Runs marathons," Warren says with a grin and shrug. "I'm public and thought I might have some friends who could look into it. Said she doesn't know many superheroes."

Outside the arid mountains are indeed quiet. There was some sporadic gunfire in the foothills miles back, but there is no sign of movement here. Warren steps out of the blackbird. It is rocky scrubland here. Trees grow thinly and short across the slopes and brown grasses fill in the spaces between where it is not just bare rock.

There are no tracks or noises that suggest anyone is near. The ground here gives way slowly to narrow canyon carved millions of years ago by glaciers. It sports nothing but a thin trickle of water now. The peaks in the area do not give any strategic ground over anything important, being lower than their neighbours. There are no roads, making the area of little use for other purposes. Even the grass here makes for poor grazing. It is little wonder nobody comes here. But when water was more plentiful it might have been very green.

The air is dry and cool, especially this far up. Warren follows James, who is much better at everything outside. He does his best to be quiet, but the crunch of gravel and rock under his feet is annoyingly loud.

James Proudstar has posed:
James Proudstar comes down the ramp wearing a few hundred pounds of gear like it was nothing and still moving whisper quiet even over the gravel, it is in its on way every bit as annoying as Warren's crunching. He does chuckle quietly and shakes his head, "That's our Hot Wings. Did she work with Fred?" Jim uses the name of Charles and Kitty's FBI contact. "Friends?" Jim quirks an eyebrow, his enhanced senses are on the look out for any activity or anything out of the ordinary, in a place like this smells like gasoline or gunpowder can linger. Jim has been trained by the best and his ears, eyes and nose are top notch even if he hadn't spent a lifetime as a tracker and hunter. He even reaches out to touch the gravel and sand looking for subtle changes in texture that might reveal the passage of things hidden by other means. "This place defines desolate, it not a surprise everyone forgot about it"

Kurt Wagner has posed:
    Kurt moves along the underside of the X-Jet's fuselage, gripping imperfections and striations in the panels that keep it hidden. "Don't keep your head down too far," he tells James. "Even if there are no traps, I don't want you to miss the signs of a crumbling wall or something similar." He swings out and turns, landing quietly, though not silently, on the ground. At that point, he begins moving in a similar gate, moving on all fours to distribute his weight better, making about as much sound as a cat.

Warren Worthington has posed:
"There are lots of videos out there with me doing something with other heroes around New York," Warren reassures Jim. "I hope SHIELD doesn't know about the X-Men, I'm pretty sure she doesn't. Just a you're a public superhero, you must know people thing."

Warren takes Kurt's advice and keeps his eyes on the ridge line more so than on the gravel of the game trail they are on. It was not helping him be any quieter anyway.

"Don't know about Fred, I'll ask her next time I see her," Warren says. "Maybe I shouldn't though. Think she's spying on me?"

The trail shows signs of what one would expect. Wild boar, fallow deer, goat. At least two types of mouse. The air takes a wetter, stiller smell as they descend into the canyon. The rock walls show signs of occasionally giving way, leaving scree and boulders trailing down into the creek. Nothing recent.

About half a mile into the canyon the air has a new smell, faint at first. Jim is the first to notice it. It is like ammonia, but not quite. A little musky, but also sweet. It is not at all normal and the brain struggles a bit to place it. If someone spent time after the New York invasion around the invaders corpses and had the presence of mind to notice these things, the smell is familiar. It smells like Chitauri.

A little further ahead the canyon curves to the left and widens. The game trail wides a bit and descends right to the creek itself. A small avalanche, many, many years ago from the look of the debris, tumbled down the left wall above the game trail. It exposed an opening, about 10' wide by 5' tall. The entrance they saw on the scans. The cave mouth is about 20' above the ground and there is no trail up to the cave mouth. One can climb up the steep rock wall and through the larger rocks that kept their places over the decades. Descending from above would be a drop of more than 100', the canyon is deep here.

If everyone is very still, anyone with hearing as sharp as James can hear very faint sounds of movement. Boots on stone, but they are far away, until there is a flash of movement. Moonlight catches pale grey skin on the right side of the cave mouth. A Chitauri soldier comes from out of sight on the right, looks out of the cave, and seemingly satisfied the area is still deserted, disappears just inside the right of the cave mouth and goes still again.

James Proudstar has posed:
James Proudstar responds without comment, "Yes." when the question of whether the Shield agent is spying on Warren comes up. Given his love life, this is perhaps not surprising one does not date HellLords without becoming at least a bit cynical. Jim wrinkles his nose, the bodies were piled up like cord wood and the smell permeated the city for months at least to people like Jim, he could smell it in Wesctchester when the wind was right. "Chitauri." Jim inspects the avalanche tilting his head wondering on the options to get up there. Then he halts and raises his hand to signal a stop as he spots the motion. He even takes the time to press Warren back into shadow, casually, "Someone's in the cave, a sentry, there's more inside." His voice is quiet even over subvocal comms. "How hard are we cleared to go, Warren?" It's a casual question, with all sorts of ramifications.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
    "Mmmm," Kurt softly vocalizes after the chitauri disappears. "Tight ceilings in the hallways. I don't believe I could go unseen, even if these aliens look up as often as the average New Yorker." He considers for a moment, walking his feet up to just behind his hands, knees to the sides. "I may teleport out if nothing prevents it, but my instincts won't let me even force myself in. Too much unknown about the layout."

Warren Worthington has posed:
"That sucks, she's pretty fun, I had no idea someone could even..." Warren goes suddenly quiet when Jim forces him back against the rock wall and waits silently on Jim.

"It's the Chitauri, they came through portal in Central Park shooting at civilians," Warren subvocalizes. His face is set in a rare grim expression. Angel, not Warren, and a slightly sterner one at that. "Do whatever you have to. If it gets back to Scott or the Professor, I'll handle it."

The original five were known for avoiding casualties, and Warren has had no few heated discussions with teammates like Logan about deaths on missions. It is a change in tone from him.

Mentally, Warren curses himself for not getting Kurt better imagery. He turns his back to Jim to shield the small amount of light he creates with a highly muted projection from his wrist computer. It shows the wireframe of the top floor of the structure again. The ceilings are low for being a large excavated area in the mountain. Inside the cave mouth, which seems to be inside the back of a building, the ceilings are only 6' high. The buildings themselves are mostly two-storeys, about 14' feet tall, carved out of the rock. Carved pillars support the roof in the common area of the village which has a roof about 20' at best. Most of the buildings are built wall-to-wall, but some have passages between. A large passage on the far side from the group seems to slope downwards but the scans did not get farther.

James Proudstar has posed:
James Proudstar gives Angel a wry grin, "You're public." Then he is in motion, Jim is not the strongest X-Men, or the toughest, not the fastest or the most agile, not the best fighter or the best hunter but he is in the top five in all these areas and top three in most. He launches himself into the air landing lightly outside the cave entrance, you can see him drag his foot to make just enough noise to drag the Chitauri sentry out into the night, thinking it's some small animal. Jim moves silent and quick, not with the barely contained rage of Logan or the balletic grace of Psylocke. He moves with the instinctual ferocity of a jungle cat. The alien leads with his gun, The big Apache comes as a surprise, snatching the weapon and striking with his knife, the vibranium slides easily through the alien armor.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
    Nightcrawler watches, skulking through the night while Jim hunts and kills an alien. And then, because bodies lying around are bad news, he disappears.

*BAMF*

    Kurt reappears next to Jim.

*BAMF*

    Without a word, Kurt accepts the weight of the chitauri's corpse, picking it up with some effort. Then they both disappear. *BAMF*

    Then there's several moments of quiet for the others to stew in the faint smell of sulfur wafting from Kurt's shenanigans.

*BAMF*

    Kurt reappears close enough to where he left without hauling dead bodies around. "That's one missing patrol to raise alarm bells," he says, quietly. He looks at Angel, "I was under the impression this was an intelligence gathering mission, not a go-in-knives-blazing mission."

Warren Worthington has posed:
There is no sign at all that Warpath and Nightcrawler's intervention was noticed or has changed anything. They are in a room with smoothly carved walls. The floors are sandy and dusty, they have only the footprints of Chitauri. The path they follow is the same. To the beside the cave mouth. Watch. Leave.

"I was, too," Warren replies to Kurt. "But I wasn't expecting the Chitauri to actually /be/ here. Let's just find out what we can and get out without raising any alarms."

Warren takes off and flies quickly to the cave mouth, for once moving silently as an owl. He lands near Jim.

"Nice work," he subvocalizes.

Warren peeks out of the door way. Whatever was used to cover is long since gone. The next room is a small and has a door that opens to the square. Warren creeps forward and stays low so he is not seen out of the door to the village or the lone window square in that same wall.

It really is a small underground village at this level. Roughly twelve buildings line the rectangle and they find themselves at one end. Two technologically-advanced light sources are placed on tripods along the left of the village square. They cast an eerie bluish light on the grey stone. For the areas they light along the center of the village, they create just as many long, deep shadows in near the pillars, and in and between the buildings. The buildings all seem unoccupied. At the other end is a square-cut passageway about 10' feet tall and wide. In the weak light, it is still obvious the passage slopes downwards and to the right.

There is movement in the village. A pair of Chitauri soldiers walk side by side down the center of the square. If Chitauri can appear bored, these two have mastered it. They are armed, but judging from the state of this place and what keen eyes can see of the floor, the only foot traffic is from the passageway to guard the cave mouth and back. Warren ducks down completely below the window as the soldiers get about halfway towards the building the team is in. The guards simply keep walking through the strange half-light.

James Proudstar has posed:
James Proudstar follows Warren, senses on high alert as they hide from the patrol, he lets them pass and uses the cover of the buildings to move deeper in to the town and into the caves. Willing to chance having to fight their way past them on the way out. Jim shows Warren how to use the structures and they move deeper into the cavern. He raises his eyebrows at Kurt, curious if the elf wants to scout ahead.