13470/A TIME TO ... Lose

A TIME TO ... Lose
Date of Scene:	04 December 2022
Location:	Nikashibetsu, Hokkaido, Japan
Synopsis:	The X-Men investigate missing mutants and discover technology and a portal from another time and place!
Cast of Characters:	Erik Lensherr, Rogue, Monet St. Croix, Ororo Munroe, Megan Gwynn, Jean Grey, Martha Johansson

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Erik Lensherr has posed:
It was Magneto who had first brought the odd silence coming from the mutant settlement on Nikashibetsu Island to the attention of the X-Men. A scan with Cerebro had confirmed the absence of any mutants on an island that once comfortably housed over a hundred of them. There was no immediate, obvious reason for the disappearance. The Japanese government had been content to let the mutants of Nikashibetsu live their lives in relative isolation, and their island was far enough off the coast of Hokkaido that transportation to the mainland was not a simple thing.

The Blackbird soars down through the cloud layer, the fog parting to reveal the island down below. Only a mile and a half wide, the settlement built on the beach is clearly visible from the air. As are the ruined buildings, their walls blown out and debris scattered across the sand and grass. From where he stands behind the pilot seat of the plane, Magneto narrows his eyes - glaring at the destruction down below.

"Take us in to land."

Not the leader by any stretch of the imagination, it doesn't stop the Master of Magnetism from assuming the role out of habit.

Rogue has posed:
With the X-Men team that was assembled aboard the Scout-Recon-77 'Blackbird' jet, Rogue had waited for the all clear from the team leader (Jean) and the all clear from the base controller (Forge or an A.I. system) and then the vehicle was off. Launching out the long tunnel, the Jet had set off for a pretty far trip across the globe.

The alien-tech-powered Jet was fast though, and with Rogue at the helm, you know it'd be pushing the limits of what it can do within Earth's atmo.

The bulkheads of the jet had rattled through turbulent winds, had shaved time off the trip by getting as high up as it could, and made some 'interesting' manuevers via the training that Rogue had in her mind from one Carol Danvers.

At the end of the trip, though, Rogue started to settle on a landing location. With her aviators on, she hears Magneto make that order, and it makes her smirk. "I was, I was... gosh..." The southern belle states, her hands working the controls as the ship starts its VTOL-assisted descent...

"Here we are, ladies and gents, and whatever else is with us today..." She states, and a second later the vehicle settles down on its landing struts upon the ground beneath... The heavy exterior engines wind down, causing reverberations to simmer through the ship, but it's all just standard procedure, and likely fun for those who enjoy flying... maybe unnerving for those who don't!

"Clear to disembark. Tip your flight crew." Rogue adds as she flips some switches and turns some dials on the control board.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
M is along with the trip. After the chaos of the last few months, dealing with something straightforward is a welcome, yet still terrifying change of pace. Anti-mutant attacks of any sort of scale are. But the type of raw power that could inflict this on an area..

And going along with Magneto, King of Genosha. This, for Monet, is a first. She has not interacted with Magneto to any real extent, so it is a time to observe him. SHe has read his very, very extensive files.. Now to see what he can do herself.

As the group goes to land and disembark, Monet is already going to sweep along the area, attempting to use her telepathy as the Blackbird lands and the team goes to deploy. Monet goes to close her eyes, taking some moments to center herself after having flown in and seen the damage and the carnage upfrom the sky. It would be worse now that they were on the ground, and not having the benefit of distance to shroud it.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Glued to the window as the plane banks to come around for a landing, Ororo scans the island below, muttering aloud.

"What could have done that? There were no tsunami reports," the most benign reason for the destruction that comes to mind.

Talking across the aisle to Monet,"Do you sense anything below, mon amie? It would be a miracle if someone survived that destruction."

She leans back to the window, frowning intensely at the remnants of a once thriving community as they drop in altitude. Then, anticipating landing, she stands to slip on a white leather jacket over a grey sweater and slicks back her white hair.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn is one of the more junior members of the team and as such she takes a back seat role, quietly surveying their surroundings as the Blackbird gets ready to land..She can't help but feel just a little anxious at the idea that *something* happened to all those people and could still be out there somewhere. But hey, she's an Xman now and she, along with the others can stop this thing and save the day..Maybe..She closes her eyes and opens her magic senses, wondering if whatever happened here is magical in nature..

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean can pilot the jet just fine, but Rogue *likes* to fly (OK, Carol likes to, but let's not split hairs) and so she's more than happy to sit by in the copilot position. It's a long ways to go - nearly as far as you CAN go on the planet, before you're wrapping back around - although the speed of the plane makes the trip a thankfully short one.

As they come in over the settlement, glancing back at Magneto with just the slightest hint of a reminder in her expression before resuming her post. In that second position at the helm of the plane, it's typical to take over the electronics and other such functions. Their scanners are less advanced than the ship's engines, unfortunately, but she does a quick sweep on radar, while simultaneously taking her own stock of the area via means that do not require those systems. BRAIN POWER.

Of course, even visually, they can see that there's damage.

Once Rogue brings the jet in, she's up and out of her seat soon enough. Like a recent trip that sent them nearly down to the south pole, she's got a rather normal looking puffy jacket on over her dark blue and yellow armored X-men suit.

"Well, let's take a look around. Careful, obviously, and don't separate too far from the group. Whatever did this could still be lurking."

Martha Johansson has posed:
Martha Johansson toys with a stray lock of straw-blonde hair as she looks out the window. She has been pretty quiet throughout this, although when the plane began to descend she took out her earbuds, briefly subjecting the entire room to clearly audible ear-destroying music of some kind.

Martha is in a yellow-and-black protective suit for the obvious reasons. There is even a helmet, matching, though she hasn't put it on, even if she bunched up her hair into a kind of fat bun to be able to stick it on without having The Cape Effect from it.

And speaking of the cape effect - "Holy crap," Martha says, which for her is a bigger cuss than an F-bomb. "What *happened*? Hold up," one hand raising up to the side of her head, "Uh, should we probe??" She picks up the helmet and carries it with her, which is actually worse than putting it on, as the group starts to move towards the gantry down.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
"Thank you, Rogue," Magneto says, returning Jean's glance with an impassive stare of his own before he turns and floats from the Blackbird.

A moment later he is in the air, hovering several feet above and regarding the ruins of the village with a critical eye. Telepathic scanning shows him as an uncomfortable dead zone in he usual 'hum' of the world, his helmet making absent event the dull noise of surface thoughts. It's a strange thing for telepaths not used to his presence.

"No tsunamis," he calls down to Ororo in agreement, "No hurricanes. Earthquakes. No natural phenomena beyond the norm. Which leads one to conclude ... human interference."

Not waiting, he floats swiftly through the air towards one of the ruined huts. A vague motion of his hand sends the ruined metallic frame of the collapsed building skipping across the sand and into the sea, revealing a messy bedroom of sorts. Beneath the bed, the telepaths among the group sense incoherent thoughts of fear. Wordless and terrified.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The rise of confusion and fear bubbling over is enough to let M pinpoint the location over of the individual as they go to clear the area. humans. . Did this. Very likely.. Seh's musing softly to herself for the others to hear. "Perhaps we can get the feed from a satellite that was orbitting past and review it?" They clearly weren't going to get any sort of data from anything locally.. Or emergency response. Her tone would be flat and her face passive.

Inside, she felt anger. But she kept it in check. Now was the point to save any lives left, sweep the area and ensure that the damage was contained.. Then find out who did it.

She moves to point in the direction of the rising sense of fear. But she goes silent. The others can pick it up just as easily, there's no need to reinforce it.

Rogue has posed:
Once the jet is settled, Rogue is the last to get up from her chair, and the last to exit the plane from its ramp. She's settling her leather jacket over her bodysuit worn beneath, adjusting the collar, as she joins the others outside, then goes on to stuff her gloved hands in to her jacket's side pockets.

Her eyes are scanning over the destroyed village, and a frown is shown at it, but not being a telepath, she just takes it all in visually. "Looks bleak." She does quietly comment before Magneto throws that wreckage away from a spot. She walks after the others, not really rushing or making a big show of things for now. She does spare a glance to Martha and her helmet, giving the new gal on the trip a soft smile before she looks back to the smile-removing-remains of this place.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
The white-haired woman floats not many yards behind Magneto, head swiveling side to side as she takes a measure of the destruction visited on the island. Voice pitched to reach him, "What, if anything, do you sense? Did anyone survive the...the attack.?"

For attack it had to be, one intent on wiping the community from the face of the earth. "Have we had reports from the people here of threats?" she asks to those close by.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn follows after the others, hovering in the air as she peers around with a soft frown. "Ahh, I'm not detecting any magical signatures either..What happened here?"whatever it is, it's kind of spooky..And hopefully it's not gonna turn out to be another Genosha. She co ti use to peer around in thoughtful silence, her iridescent wings emitting a soft humming noise as she surveys the scene.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean hikes along behind Magneto rather than doing the fly-y thing, following the progress of his shadow over the landscape.

"Seems like anything big enough to cause this much damage would be on the news, weather-wise," she observes somewhat idly. Also, they do not, in fact, have that kind of tech readily on hand, although she glances up toward their flying partner. "And I figure if he'd picked up anything from orbit, he'd let us know. That kind of thing can be tricky, anyway, getting the resolution and time-frame you need." But if anyone has some kind of fancy info of the sort, she leaves space for them to let the group know!

After walking a short ways, she pauses to check back on Martha. Student-trainee on the outing means extra care. <<If things turn dangerous, you head back to the plane and chaff anything that comes at you. Autopilot can put you at safe distance, if it comes to that.>>

Of course, she naturally hones in on the one mind that breaks the surrounding wasteland of mental nothingness. "Hmm. Someone in there. Survivor, maybe." And, naturally, before she even arrives, she reaches out: <<Don't be afraid. We're here to help.>>

Martha Johansson has posed:
Human interference.

Thoughts go through Martha's head. Is this just going to be inevitable? Is it a question of keep on this track and go to accidents and horrors like this, or try to get out and end up in the same space anyway? What is there to do? Try to get off the planet? Is it even possible - would you just die from a lack of hydrogenated frying oils or something?

Externally, it looks a lot like sullen walking.

She looks up when Jean addresses her. Bad habit, though it's perhaps excusable. She doesn't look towards her, either. Mentally a <<Got it>> shoots back, and she actually does turn the helmet upwards and put it on - perhaps confident that nobody's gonna see her wearing it down here. (It isn't THAT bad; it's pretty much anti-sniper armor.)

Her attention turns towards where Jean picks someone up, stepping nearer. She doesn't join the mind-messaging, though she is listening in.

She does shoot a thought up to Pixie. <<So would you detect something like if it was a bomb? Just like a bomb in the air or something.>>

Erik Lensherr has posed:
@emit
"I'd offer to acquire the data," Magneto says to Monet, floating back down to land in the sand, "But I'm afraid I'm on a good behaviour bond. Then again ... "

The Master of Magnetism's eyes turn skyward, and he extends a hand. It seems for a moment as though he intends to pluck a satellite from orbit, but then his focus returns to Terra Firma.

"No. Just silence. Last I heard, they were living comfortably. Who is that?"

When Jean confirms the presence of the survivor, Magneto turns his attention to the bed. The frame slowly lifts away, moving to one side and revealing a woman perhaps in her teens. She wears a t-shirt and jeans, but the most remarkable thing about her is neon-pink skin and a complete absence of hair.

"Iie! Tomaru! Anata wa sore o mezame saserudeshou!" The young mutant cries frantically in Japanese, lifting both of her hands up in front of her defensively. Glancing from face to face, she takes a sudden gasping breath and holds it before immediately disappearing in a puff of pink smoke. Those with keen eyes will see her several hundred yards down the beach, running away from the group.

And then, the sands begin to churn beneath their very feet. Undulating and rippling for a moment before something bizarre and serpentine emerges from it. An upward blast of sand like an exploding shell erupts at Monet's feet, the strange shape striking her in the haze of sand.

Individual, metallic scales twist and contort in the air to form something vaguely humanoid. A flared head like that of a cobra, with two pulsating embers of amber set in what might be a face. It scans the group for a moment, a digital voice emanating from somewhere within the strangely liquid form.

<Genetic abberation detected. Submit. Submit. Submit.>

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Any sort of comment that M might make "I'm sure that Doctor McCoy or Ms. Pryde can handle it" is cut off even before she can so much start to verbalize it. Monet is paying attention to things like damage control, the state of the area, and trusting her telepathy over to pick up anything that's a threat. Her attention is focused on the young mind that's in terror over that they're helping to clear.

So when the ground shifts under her feet, she thinks that it's just a tremor and her first action is to hover up in the air a few inches to not bother with it.

But the blast catches her totally float-footed as she doesn't even have time to yell as she would be flung through the air hard! Smashed over into the ocean, shrapnel and whatever sort of blast or cudgel that had hit her hard and sent her slamming dozens of meters away to hit the ocean at a brutal angle accompanied by a loud -SNAP-.

Rogue has posed:
Being the group's tank often means Rogue is on these missions as just a side character until something dangerous rears its ugly rear at them. In the now, the Belle ends up near to where that strange pink girl is found beneath a old bed. She observes it from a small ways away, and sees her puff away in a pink cloud. "Huh..." Rogue states, catching sight of her out of the corner of her eyes, she looks up to watch the scared girl running off.

"I could... try'n go get her." She offers, knowing however that that is likely the least best option in the moment.

A strong gust of wind sends Rogue's wild hair across her face, as she feels the ground shake. She responds by lifting up off said ground to hover in the air as the strange snake-like creature... or robot... makes its ugly rear reared.

Rogue's gloved fists ball up as she hears what it says. "Nice people never talk like that..."

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Before Ororo can answer the young woman dissolves into a pink cloud. In the back of her mind, Ororo finds it quintessentially Japanese that she is pink, the color of everything cute and cherry blossoms. The errant thought is wiped from her mind as what she identifies as a robot erupts in a stinging spray of sand.

"Genetic aberration?"

Storm rises straight up in the air above the surf, ready to fish Monet from the waves if need be. Lightning has already begun to globe her hands as she turns to face the thing.

Jean Grey has posed:
Telepathy can do a reasonable job crossing language boundaries, and Jean seems to get the jist. <<It's a warning>> she echoes back to the group. Well, the group minus Magento. It's his fault for being all fancy, and her instinct to use the most efficient means of communication in circumstances like this.

Maybe it gives some of them a moment's extra notice, although apparently not Monet, and ultimately, the scary thing bursting out of the sand probably ALSO communicates the point pretty well, by context alone. There's a quick ping to determine M's status, even while Jean frowns at the strange digital announcement. "Some kind of Sentinel knock-off?" she wonders, aloud this time. "That'd be the second time in a week." Whether it suggests any connection or not, she really can't begin to guess, although the impulse to try and form such patterns is natural and instinctive.

<<Look's like she's a teleporter, I'm not sure you'll catch her,>> she thinks over to Rogue. <<And frightened. Better to let her find somewhere safe, then try and say hello after.>>

She lifts slightly off the ground, adopting a more aggressive posture, with one hand brought to her temple and the other held out slightly, ready to telekinetically shield an attack. "So... it's a big metal snake, that happen to be anything you know how to deal with?" She's talking to Erik of course, rising further into the air. There's a hint of a challenge to it: c'mon, show off that Mastery of Magnetism!

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn blinks and pauses, peering around as the pink skinned girl makes an appearance..And then flees. "Hey wait! We're here to help...!" things happen quickly, with the girl teleporting away but Megan decides not to follow lest she scare her further..Besides something is attacking Monet, and she spins around to fly after her, before Storm gets there first.

And then something else happens, a vague tickling of her magic senses. Dark marroon eyes narrow, peering around, "Huh, what is this, some kind of teleportation or time travel magic..?" she peers thoughtfully at the pink skinned girl wondering if she has something to do with it..Or is it something..Else..?

Martha Johansson has posed:
The young mutant is revealed. Her appearance makes Martha think, whoa, did she get burned? But it takes only a couple of moments to realize, no, she just is that way. Perhaps she was born that way. Her lips thin and -

Pouf! OK, Martha catalogues, that's what she does. That's alright because that's okay.

You know what's not OK?

The robot snake!!!

Martha's eyes go wide at the genetic aberration talk as well as the fact that there is, you know, a god damn robot snake. She backs up a step despite being several steps back further. "This thing is ****ing problematic," Martha mutters, with her mouth and not her mind. Her arms come up into a defensive posture, staring at the robot snake *eveven if you probably shouldn't*.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
As the serpentine-sentinel begins to move, it suddenly comes to a jolting holt. It shudders, chunks of metal flying away from it as Magneto's eyes crackle to life with sparks of electricity. A superior smirk crosses his face, eyes locked on the machine.

"I've got it, Ms. Grey. You'd think these people would learn not to make these things from metal. It's almost too - "

<Adapting.>

Electricity crackles up and down the serpentine robot, and it begins to move of its own accord again. A lance of amber energy is fired from its eye, and though Magneto raises a shield before himself it seems to cut straight through. Struck in the shoulder, he topples back to the sand with a furious shout.

The electricity crackling up and down its scaled form slowly dies away, and those amber eyes can the group of mutants surrounding it.

<Decimation Protocol: Active.>

Meanwhile, that strange energy Megan sensed seems to have coalesced within one of the nearby buildings - in the opposite direction of the fleeing mutant. A larger one, possibly used as a town hall.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
She's been flung along over into the ocean, and has skippeda long it rather hard. Monet is going to get up and over, with one rib broken from a hard landing along the water. She takes a second or so to reorient herself and regather herself. She moves to then launch herself up and over into the air in pain..

But ready to return. It will, however, take her a few seconds to get back to th efield of battle from her position. <<What are these things?>>

Rogue has posed:
Rogue sweeps in from the side with part of the bed that the pink flyer had been hiding underneath. She uses it as a long metal bat to slam right in to the back of the Sentinel! A loud clang follows, resulting in the Sentinel stumbling forward from the hit, and the metal bed post being bent like a question-mark now. But, rogue doesn't stop. She delivers another powerful downward hit, making the robotic 'thing' bend forward and over, before she sweeps the pole around, and up to upper-cut it!

The bedpost breaks in to two halves then, and the Sentinel just lunges back up and grabs Rogue by the throat. His glowing amber eyes seem to glare at the Southern mutant as he squeezes his hand over her neck, trying to crush it, to choke her, but her strength is immense!

Rogue's hands come together in front of her, slamming upward to knock the gripping arm loose from her throat, but it doesn't work. The robotic menace just says 'Adapting' again, as it continues to try and crush the Belle's windpipe.

Rogue flies upward, while the 'thing' tries to root himself, and eventually he just throws her aside, sending her body flying in to the wreckage of one of the nearby structures with a crashing sound,and debris falling all around her.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Tracking Monet and the young girl, even from her vantage point, Ororo only catches the attack on Magneto from the corner of her eye.

In utter disbelief, <<Did you catch how quickly it adapted to the fight? Nano-tech and AI...>>"

The Queen of Storms cuts off her own thought. Overhead clouds begin to form in the clear sky and the wind picks up, making white caps. Fingers splayed, she widens her hands as a mini-storm coalesces before her. But Rogue is in too close for her to risk an attack.

"Noooo, Rogue!" she screams as the Nano Snake throws her aside.

Searing light leaves her hands aimed at the things eyes. Through the noise of the strike, Ororo hears a chilling "Adapting" as it transforms into a mirror, deflecting the lightning back at her.

The world blossoms into light. It blows her backward, her white leather jacket scorched black and smoking. She splats into the ocean, joining Monet in an involuntary swim.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn's eyes widen at the mechanized snake, which is clearly more powerful than it appears..But it seems the other Xmen are already on it, and so she turns her attentions towards that mysterious building instead, flying towards it while the others are preoccupied, keeping her senses peeled. She of course isn't stupid and taps into her comm to inform the others of her intent.

"I'm sensing strange magical signatures coming from that big building to the north..I wonder if it's to do wuth those missing mutants? I'm gonna investigate.." marroon eyes sweep the area for dangers as she nears the buildings, testing the front doors, moving slowly, cautiously, magic senses still peeled for any obvious signs of threats.

Jean Grey has posed:
The idea of adaptive technology and anti-mutant countermeasures on Sentinels is not new. And still, the furrow in Jean's brow deepens as she sees it react to Magneto's attack, countering with a blast of its own.

"Alright, gloves off. Keep mobile and don't get overconfident, and try to vary up your attacks," she calls across to her teamates. There's a telepathic echo to the verbal command, perhaps just in case it's listening to them: <<If you can, use the environment and external forces.>> She assumes Mags is smart enough to figure it out.

Jean flies forward, although not so boldly as Rogue, letting her draw fire as she's fond of doing. Not that she likes the idea of Rogue getting smacked around, but in the team, they all have their strengths and weaknesses, their roles. Tank.

And Mage.

Jean attacks initially in the opposite way of what she suggested. Like Magneto (if not as efficiently!), she's perfectly capable of just tearing a physical object apart with her mind, breaking it down to chunks... or less. And perhaps she will try that here. At first, nothing at all is visible, although after a moment there's a certain resonance, a crackling of energy, both at her temple where she focuses her concentration and through the creature. In places, it twists and pulls apart, although the result is not actually terribly impressive.

But that's because there's sort of a 'trick' to it. Inevitably, the creature adapts. Indeed, perhaps the adaptions its already made against Erik lessen what she's doing, diminishing particle interactions and what other esoteric forces operate to bring their powers to life.

But it's not her whole plan. As she's attacking it, she simultaneously finds the largest chunk of debris she can, and lifts it, waiting for an opportune moment. In fact, it comes as it's 'distracted' with Rogue, waiting just until it throws the woman aside...

...whereupon she drops that really heavy object atop it. Maybe it works, maybe not.

However, just like with Magneto, it also counterattacks her with one of those beams, slicing through whatever natural shielding she keeps up and right through the suit beneath. It's a reminder that Jean, like the proverbial party Mage, is pretty squishy under all those powers. "Agh!" She clutches her abdomen, just under her ribs, falling a short distance from the air to land in the sand. She looks injured, perhaps even 'feels' injured on the feedback of their psi-link.

...of course, she has a guardian 'angel' that generally gets final say over these things. She can feel it working, even as her vision briefly goes hazy. But that's not really a good thing.

She grits her teeth. <<Pixie, if you sense something->> She doesn't finish the sentence, but it seems like the woman is on it regardless!

Martha Johansson has posed:
ADAPTING, it says. The snake man thing then blasts the shit out of the master of magnetism.

****, thinks Martha Johansson.

Memories surge backwards. The pointers of what to do if you encounter hostile robots while not having, you know, the kinds of mutant talents that roll well against hostile robots.

1. Don't
2. Leave the area
3. Don't be there in the first place
4. See 1 through 3
5. Alright, if you're stuck, check the flowchart...

SUBFLOWCHART FOR TELEPATHIC/TELE-EMPATHIC:

* Autonomously operated machine-life forms are often receptive to psionic transmissions on a limited basis. While this is not reliable, it may be worth a try if you are not in active danger.
* If you are in active danger and can't flee, do what you can. Other mutants may be able to take advantage of even limited results.

EDUCATION HAS LEFT ITS IMPRINT. AND ONE OTHER.

In the real world, Martha watches M go flying. She stops trying to back up, hunching down for a moment as her eyes flick up towards Pixie but she's moving. Ororo speaks in the psychic extensions; she hurls a bolt of lightning and it gets *refracted* backwards, Rogue hurled aside as well.

FINALLY Martha starts moving. She keeps running sideways, moving approximately 'up' the beach even as Jean drops an even larger piece of debris on the thing -- but it slices through and upwards, and -

Oh my God, Martha thinks. Her eyes widen for a moment. (Don't be afraid to do little things to help you focus. You'll get past it when you need to.) Her right hand comes upwards, fingers curling into a sort of tight grasping as she grits her teeth, and she is then unceremoniously shot - a glancing hit along the back that feels like being hit with a red hot poker iron and sends her face down into the sand.

There's motion in the air. It's getting closer. Face down, butt up, Martha thinks bitterly, before she clutches the air again AND

>>INVISIBLE PSIONIC INTENSITY ROLLS OUT AT THE MACHINE MIND APPROACHING HER.<< Duplicates on duplicates, insinuating, throwing up confusion in every direction. A single message threaded ten thousand times.

>> DEFINITION INCORRECT - DECIMATION IMPOSSIBLE - <10 TARGETS - ERROR - REASSES - DEFINITION INCORRECT -

Is that how the thing operates? Martha has no idea. She is throwing crap at the wall. Footsteps come closer. Slowly, but too slow. She rolls onto her back with another hiss of pain and sees the looming figure above her. Her arms come up to cross over her upper body, staring--

Erik Lensherr has posed:
As Megan passes through the doors to the Big House, the 'wrong' nature of the place is immediately apparent. The room starts as a long town hall of sorts with benches and tables, extending forward until halfway it seems to change. A portal of sorts, or a window the exact size of the room, reveals a place beyond.

The place beyond is far more ruined than even the island town they now inhabit. Open to the air, looking through one can see skies of roiling and abberant clouds. And threw those skies flies machines like the serpentine sentinel outside. Hundreds of them in perfect columns, harsh light from their eyes lighting up the landscape like searchlights.

Standing in the ruins is a bizarre creature that looks like a human man twisted and transformed into a different shape. Something like an egg, with an inhumanly large mouth and several wicked-looking arms sprouting from his 'body' at odd angles. He stands over a machine, a long tongue running absent-mindedly over fanged teeth. He hasn't noticed Megan yet. Whatever he's working on, that's what's keeping this hole in space and time open.

Meanwhile, outside on the beach ...

The Sentinel has taken damage, for certain, but the way those metal scales work seems to fill in any gaps left by super strength, blasts of energy, or telekinesis. It keeps chanting to itself over and over. Decimation protocol active. It's no longer seeking submission, but rather destruction.

Focused on Martha, it stomps slowly across the sand to her. Her attack works to a point, the machine moving slowly and even pausing for a moment as rival instructions and datastreams confuse its programming. But then -

<Adapting.>

One heavy foot rises into to the air, bigger than Martha's entire body, and seems only a second from coming down on her. That is, until the young mutant is flung out of the way bodily by Magneto. His helmet cracked, he stands beneath the foot with both arms outstretched. His powers flare to such a point that anything even vaguely metallic begins to move towards him of its own accord, and technology for several miles around begins to sputter and complain.

It's doesn't last forever, only long enough to let Martha scramble clear, before the boot comes down on the Master of Magnetism with a sickening crunch.

The force tears the front of the Big House away completely, revealing Megan and the strange portal.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
All right, she won't be damaging this thing with raw strength. Rogue has that greater than she does in spades. She won't be hurting it that way. Her telepathyis so limited and this is an automoton, and thus has no mind to be read (perhaps in some ways like Ms. Lee or Ms. Smith). Then that foot is rising up and over towards Martha, and going towards Magneto. That has Monet getting -something to do-.

She hits supersonic, just a few seconds too late to save Martha or Erik.

She isn't remotly strong enough to hold up the foot, even as all she can so is try and catch Magneto to pull him away before the boot can stomp on more to grind atop him.

<<Suggestions! We require a level of co-ordination to take this entity down>> For once she doesn't have any, even as she's trying to take Magneto far enough away without injuring him further.

Then a quick analysis given to Martha as Monet goes to request a psychic situation update. And then she's running around, moving to grab up a street light. She goes to whirl it like a baton, moving to hack it along the edge to get a sharp side of the heavy iron. Then she's going to charge in with the eight meter long iron blade, going to try and slash, stab, skewer, and skirmish along the edge of the entity!

Rogue has posed:
Throughout all of that, Rogue was laying beneath a pile of debris from the ruined village. She starts to push some of it away, throw some of it off, and eventually is staggering back up to her feet, with her hands on her knees. "Who the hell has been turnin up the difficulty on these enemies lately?" She groans out in pain after that ordeal. Her left arm scoops her hair up out of her face, and tosses it back over her head as she sees the Sentinel creation still wrecking havock on her people. It has to have a weakness, these things always have a weakness of some kind.

Rogue shoots off in to the sky though, and lands beside where Jean is. She reaches out to her friend, but hesitates, knowing what might be coming from the redhead. "I think we might be needin' to consider a retreat here, maybe call for bigger guns. Maybe Superman is nearby... or able t'fly here in a jiff? Guy flies faster than I do, right?" She asks the team leader, assuming Jean is 'still there' internally.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Sputtering as she surfaces, Ororo wipes the hair from her face and shoots straight up in the air. The ruined jacket hangs in shreds, dripping water as she rises. The midriff of the sweater is gone, the skin burned underneath it. An unexpected lightning strike has that affect even on someone as close to invulnerable as she is.

Below the things adaptive abilities confounds them all. <<JEAN!>> she cries, despite her complete belief in their leader's ability to recuperate from the deadliest of attacks. She scans the beach frantically for the others, Pixie seems out of range. For a moment she can't find Rogue until she sees her pushing herself out of a pile of debris.

The battle bot advances on Martha, leaving Ororo no time to count who is down or up. Climbing higher into the sky allows her to see the bizarre egg-shaped man bending reality. Time twists, making the Mistress of elements's stomach twist as the natural order of the world contorts under its control.

<<Bundle up!>> she warns through their telepathic link.

Ororo's eyes blaze with power as water pulled from the ocean becomes a frigid fog around the Nano-Snake. Temperatures plummet around it. Ice forming as she sends the temperature to nearly cold space extremes.

<< Pixie, Jean, pull it apart if you can.>>

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Well..This is certainly different. Dark eyes widen in wonder and a bit of fear, staring up at the parallel universe or whatever it is, taking in the sight of hundreds more giant snake like robots, and quickly realizing she is already way out of her league..

Backing away at the sight, Megan seeks some form of cover as she watches the giant twisted looking man? mutant? hovering over a sentinel..Really at this point, she's hoping the twisted looking man is a mutant and not an enemy but you never know..

<<Everyone! Come to the Town Hall building! There's a weird inter-dimensional portal here and hundreds more snake like sentinels and a giant twisted man? Mutant? And..And I think maybe this is where the mutants were taken...!?>>

Of course with the sentinel they are currently fighting having torn off the very front of the building she is standing in, her eyes widen in fear and determination, hands glowing with pink energy. "We do t have time for this..Sihal Novarum Chinoth!" she exclaims, pointing a hand at the sentinel, using the blinding fog and freezing cold as cover, attempting to port either pieces or the entire sentinel into the nearby ocean..

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean gets up slowly, using Rogue for balance when she lands nearby. Anyone who takes a close look (Rogue is certain to see it!) will notice that there's a bit of a -hole- in her, which isn't, strictly speaking, a good thing. She covers it with her hand on one side, but it's visible on the other, through-and-through. Oops. The hole is also glowing. Or burning, maybe. Is that leftover from the shot itself? Maybe. Or maybe it's coming from the woman herself. On wobbly feet, she starts walking forward.

"I think we... need to keep it busy," she answers, when a retreat is suggested. She's re-buttressed the psi-link, meaning she's getting a sense of what Megan is seeing, at least second-hand. "And close where it came from. Unless we want more of them."

Then she looks over at the other woman, arching a brow. "A bigger gun?" She almost looks insulted! "'Sides, if he's not here, means he's... probably not coming. Too busy to bust every bank robber, you know?"

She takes a few more steps, and they're not closer to the damaged house, but toward the 'Sentinel.' Rogue and Jean had a discussion like this, once. It was another tank-dps themed one, in fact. Rogue should go first, draw fire, and keep Jean safe. It was good and sensible advice, mostly. But it missed something, and Jean had disagreed. And this is why. Ultimately, the rest of them, as strong as they are, they're at risk. And it's something that Jean really hates about her job. Taking friends and loved ones into fights. Giving orders that might put them at risk, for some notion of the greater victory. And why should she risk them when she's not even sure she's ALLOWED to die?

"I'll be alright." Her steps are steadier now, and she moves her hand, looking down. No more burning hole. "Shit, is this what it's like for Logan? Anyway, no. You, everyone, have to go help her... Close that thing? Go through and help? I don't know. But I'll keep it busy, and follow behind." <<The house.>> she echoes a moment later, reinforcing Megan's own message, just to be sure they all get it. "The House!" Again, for Erik.

And then she leaps up again, toward the seemingly much-taller robot-swarm-whatever thing. As she flies, the air crackles destructively, the edges of her TK fields, the place where the impacts happen, starting to visibly 'burn.' She doesn't spring to immediate attack, but covers the others, keeping herself between it, at least until they can make it where they're going.

Martha Johansson has posed:
Martha steels herself and -

Is flying through the air? Did I die? Do you fly to mutant heaven?

Thump, roll. Oh yeah, Martha thinks. I listened to too much Motorhead and Skull-****. I'm going to mutant -

Instead there is just a bunch of smears of luminous pink blood as Martha realizes she's not dead. She gets up despite the scream in her back because it feels like it's her skin and stuff and she's also now full of adrenalin, and just in time to see -- "Ah!! Magneto!! ****!!"

Rogue proposes a retreat. <<Superman's probably gonna get hit too and if it can beat Superman it's gonna kill everyone,>> Martha flashes back at Rogue with an increasing tone of iron, even as she grits her teeth in antipication of the incoming frigid, damp cold as the rime frosts out of the air almost instantly, leaving her own strewn-about blood as little glistening pink jewels! Surreal!

The others are rallying. They're fine! Oh god what do I do. There's another lash out with the psychic chaff -- this one not an attempt at some sort of ratiocination based on fun facts but just a straight up wave of unfocused hatred and fury. Rage; screaming disaster. If there is an imperative it's along the lines of "EAT YOUR FACE AND DIE" behind it.

Please go into the portal and die in Hell or something, Martha prays.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
<Ad-ad-a-a-a-ad-da-da-da-dap-dap ...>

The Sentinel, still stimied by Martha's intrusive programming, moves slowly. The strikes from Monet definitely hit it, though the scales seem to part like fluid enough for it to keep moving. Lurching forward, swinging widly at the air. Then the cold air swirls into a fog around it, the temperature dropping fast. Ice begins to form on the scales, freezing it in place.

<Ad ... ap ... t ...>

Stalled as it is for the moment, the monstrous machine stands frozen mid-motion in a sheath of ice. Then, rising from the sand, comes the bloodied and broken Master of Magnetism. Unable to walk, he simply floats there for the moment suspended by the metallic elements in his suit. The helmet he wears is cracked, allowing for flashes of his thoughts to seep through.

Cold fury. Desperation. A strong desire to save ... something.

As the X-Men tear the sentinel apart, parts of it vanishing to the depths of the ocean, it still doesn't seem to be down. Jean begins to actually burn through the expenditure of her power, and still the machine buzzes and reaches a clawed hand for her. The scales glow with heat, the ice around it beginning to melt. Those amber eyes flare, preparing to let loose another barrage of energy and then ...

SLAM! Magneto hurls himself at the machine, carrying it forward with him. The pair of them hurtling through the air, past Megan and destroying parts of the Big House as they go. His helmet topples from his head, bouncing onto the sand moments before he and the Sentinel pass through the portal. The egg-shaped man staggers back in surprise, opens his toothy mouth to say something and then the hole in reality snaps shut like an elastic band.

All that's left is his helmet half-buried in sand, and the inert remains of the Sentinel.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Going to slash, skewer, and rip along through the thing, M goes over to try and chase the egg shaped thing back over intow hatever hole it had come from. The man is gone, the Sentinel is offline, and the snakes have not managed to board onto the plane.

She closes her eyes and goes to speak the words to herself that are potentially on the mind of everyone else, if not given any particular form.

"What the hell happened?" She goes to shake her head over and moved to take her hand out to forcibly pop her broken rib back over into place, wincing a moment before using her telepathy to shut down the parts of her brain that would process pain for a few moments.

MUch better.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue glances over to the newbie on the mission, in the young Martha, but the girl seems to be getting backup from Storm, and from Magneto... though Magneto looks like he's having a roughe day here, like the rest of them. With a glance up to where Ororo is, then a look back down to Jean, the Belle sees Jean's injury, and it makes her concern spike higher. "Yeah... yeah..." She says about the Superman suggestion being thrown out. "I just..." A rush of the cold wind from where the Sentinel is, and from Storm's powers encasing it in that icy bubble cause her to look back to where Erik is. Rogue lifts up off the ground, flying back toward Martha, she offers the student a hand, still gloved. "Come on... time to get you back to the Jet." She says next, before Erik is engaging the Sentinel, and flying off in to that structure, tearing part of it to shreds.

And then they're through the portal, and the portal itself is closing. "Erik!" Rogue shouts after the man losing his ehlmet in his wake.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Ororo loses altitude in lurching jerks. Stars dance in front of her eyes as she directs all her power at the thing, dropping the temperature to extremes drains her of energy. Her feet get wet in a high wave before she begins to see some results. Finally.

Jean's TK fields strains it more, overworking the Snake's ability to adapt. Abruptly she stops the weather magic as Magneto tackles the monstrous robot in a sacrifice move. Astonished, she nearly gets flipped by the next wave.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn gasps, staggering back, trying not to get hit by stray shrapnel from all the attacks..Then suddenly Magneto is charging at the Sentinel through the portal, trying to finish it off. Still on the other side of it, Megan starts to rush towards the fleeing form of Magneto, the Sentinels and the other dimension and narrows her eyes. "No way! Sihal Novarum Chinoth!" she yells again, her gloved, clenched hands shimmering in pink orbs of magic, focusing on trying to reopen that portal with her own magic this time..At least she's been practicing a lot lately. Hopefully this works..

Jean Grey has posed:
And here's Jean all ready to go psycho mode on the thing, only for Magneto to swoop in and steal the martyr spotlight!

As he charges by, barreling the thing toward the portal, she spins in the air. "Erik!" There's shock and surprise as he flies through it, and she reaches out, as if to try and snag him back. As the telekinetic force grasps for him, it becomes a visible fiery claw, reaching out...

... only to clasp empty air as it falls just shy of grasping him, and flare back into nothingness as the portal closes on it, cutting that link between spaces. Also she owes Rogue a coke.

"Shit," she growls, flying to land near the house, landing near Megan. There's still something 'angry' about her aura, a faint nimbus. "Do you understand what was happening here? It was magic?" She walks right up to the empty space, even reaches toward it with her real hand, echoing where that talon had been a moment ago. She turns, as the woman pronounces her spell, and then back to see if there's any result. "If we can't follow... we need to figure out where he went."

Martha Johansson has posed:
The Sentinel struggles, but not enough. Even against Jean! The damaged helmet lets a little of Magneto's thought escape - he smashes into the thing, overriding its adaptation with the power of *three-dimensional physics.* And then with something more. Except that he's going into the hole and --

-- Then he's gone.

Rogue approaches her. Martha looks at her for a moment, hesitates, and then says, "I'm fine!" while half-jogging over towards the the cracked and fallen helmet. She picks it up, hastily, shaking off some of the sand.

She comes back to herself.

Forcing out breath, she turns round and starts to walk up the beach, back in the direction of the jet. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. She hoists the helmet up, holding it upside down in the crook of her arm.

"... Shit," she says, just within earshot of Rogue, but probably you get a pass in these situations. She also looks out towards the waves. <<are you good or>> she thinks out towards Ororo.

Erik Lensherr has posed:
The portal doesn't open. Whatever traces of energy remained there are gone now, faded away like the mutants who called this home and the Sentinel itself.

The waves lap against the sure. Some of the rubble is carried away by the ocean already, and with the sweeping winds it may not be all that long at all before the little town of Nikashibetsu is forgotten entirely.

But the inert chunks of Sentinel remain, and those traces of energy felt by Megan may help to work out just where the machine came from ...

... and where Magneto and the vanished mutants of Nikashibetsu are.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix is in pain, but it's minimized. <<Ms. Grey, I believe that us acquiring any satellite imagery of the area is of paramount importance.. And informing the Genoshan Embassy>> Focus on immediate matters. Investigation. Damage control.
    Salvaging as much of the remnants of the -thing- as they could for analysis.
    Even as Monet is trying to review what she -saw- when reality broke and went from one place to another. She's trying to parse it. Mathematically. The geometry of it.. It's awe inspiring. And terrifying.
    M waits to help the others wiht whatever it is. And inside herself she is scared.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue watches as Martha stalks off to go retreieve the helmet. She hears the curse word, but couldn't give less of a shit in this kind of setting. Instead, her hands just go down to her hips and she looks out to where Storm is. "You all right?" She calls out to Ororor, before looking around for everyone else. "Everyone who is drippin' vital bodily fluids, head back to the Blackbird. Gotta patch ya'll up. AFter that, I wanna know more about what the hell went on here. We gotta start recordin' everything that we can."

Rogue is over to Jean in a heart beat, dropping back down out of the sky on to her boots. She looks to the Headmistress, and whispers softly. "What the hell was this?" She asks, knowing Jean isn't likely sure yet. Her eyes sweep around quickly again, as she calls out to Pixie. "Keep tryin' t'get that gate back open. Magneto needs our help."

But then, Rogue just looks at Jean's wound, and exhales sharply. "Come on, lets get everyone patched up, and then deploy some drones from the Blackbird. We gotta ... I dunno, science the shit outta this place, or somethin!"

Rogue is one of the few X-Men who LIKES Magneto. Maybe not in everything he's ever done, but she likes his overall goals and his strong methods of seeing them through, so the annoyance of all of this is showing clear on her face as SHE at least heads back to the Blackbird to get some of the equipment off of it to start some more detailed research, or at least investigations here.

"And someone try'n find that pink girl we saw! She might know stuff!" The Belle calls out as she goes back to the team jet.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Wet and bewildered by Magneto's disappearance, Ororo floats back to the wind whipped sand. She walks slowly across the beach toward the others, broadcasting questions, ignoring her own wound which has already begun to heal.

"Where? I could feel the world distorting under the being's field. Magic or advanced physics? Are all of us...ah, left, in one piece?"

At Rogue's call, she lifts slowly and heads down the beach in search of the girl.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn blinks slowly, realizing that the other dimension is...No longer in the same spot..? "Huh? No way..This can't be..! It's always worked before?" she grits her teeth, trying one more time, pouring all her energy into her spell before giving up, lowering her hands in exhaustion.

"I don't get it.." she frowns, nodding to Jean, "I sensed time and space magic, does that mean this other realm can move in more than one dimension as well? Either way, the entry point is no longer here, I'm not sure what to do..Unless...?"

She peers at the Sentinel shrapnel, as well as Magneto's helmet. "There are still traces of he same magical signature on pieces left by that sentinel.."She picks up a piece of scrap metal, examining it thoughtfully, "I could scry for the portal entry point, using something from their realm..Failing that, I could scry for Magneto using his helmet..But it'll take some time to prepare myself.." she frowns, not sure how much time they have, exactly.

Jean Grey has posed:
"What? Oh. Sure, yeah, we can give it a try, maybe find out if SHIELD has anything," Jean agrees, albeit distractedly, as Monet suggests reviewing whatever imagery might be available. "Can't hurt."

She's clearly distracted, standing there, both by the strange circumstances themselves and whatever level of... well, whatever she deals with, when that other part of herself asserts itself more strongly. She seems... OK.

"Megan said it was some kind of magic?" And indeed, as she clarifies (or de-clarifies) by explaining all that time-space stuff, she can only shake her own head in equal disbelief. "I only really briefly saw it, tried to reach through even, but it was definitely some kind of portal, reaching through space to... well, I have no idea. Someplace pretty 'out there,' definitely. And yeah, maybe even out-when." As for Jean's wound, it actually looks fine at this point, at least in terms of the external signs. In fact, even her costume is healed, somehow. Bet Rogue wishes she had THAT power!

"I'm fine," she insists, whether it's true or not. "But we should get everyone back to the Blackbird who's injured, yeah, get some basic first aid done." Slowly getting a bit more of a grip on things, she does a brief psychic check, touching her forehead again. It's a typical ping of the group first, but then reaches a little further, to see if the young woman is in range still. "We definitely need to talk to her." Then she looks back to Megan. "I think -that- part can wait. If we're going to go invading some kind of else-realm to do a rescue, we need to be prepared and at full strength. Which we are very much not right now."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would nod over at Jean for a moment. Then slowly adding, "And what -was- that thing that.." Four arms that looked like blades. Body a giant head and teeth and legs underneath it. Like someone had taken a MODOK and thrown a demon over it. "Does anyone have any frame of reference on it?"
    She's never even heard of such a thing that looked like that. Something so twisted.. "It likely was responsible for the attack, destruction.." She would frown. "But if it is from elsewhere why simply -abduct-.." So many mutants from Japan to.. Another place? Dimension? Too much unknown. Too little to go on.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is back aboard the Blackbird, and preparing a first aid kit for anyone who'll eventually wander aboard who does want some medical assistance. Once she has that laid out on a metal table that folded out from the wall, Rogue steps back in to the cockpit... She leans over the controls, starts tapping a few things while she glances up out of the forward viewport... When her eyes go back down, the drone deployment is ready, she taps a affirmative button and a green light dings.

From the walkway of the Blackbird, two drone flyers emerge from the jet, Rogue glances back to watch them buzz their way out of the plane and then rise up in to the air to setup a video, and imagery patrol pattern around the site. "Drones are out, gathering more information and records of this place." She says. "I only got two out, two more waiting if we need more help tracking down that kid." Was it a kid? Rogue was 30 yards away from her or so, before she vanished in a pink puff.

Martha Johansson has posed:
Martha goes back into the aircraft without much complaint. She will surrender the helmet if another mutant wants it, but she doesn't put it down. The injury on her back is pretty much a big streaking burn/abrasion which has to get cleaned out, but isn't life threatening once taped up. She may be sitting funny on the way back.

"Are you sure it wasn't another Sentinel?" Martha offers, vaguely. Her own psionic senses reach out, mostly in the wake of Jean's.

"Why'd it look like a snake, though? It was like some kind of snake-man sentinel, like on an album cover," Martha muses aloud.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn shivers, still a bit shaken by..Well a lot of stuff today that seemed to defy both physics and magic, but she nods to Jean, peering at her and the others, grimacing. "Wow..Just one snake robot thingy did all this damage? And there were hundreds back there.." her smile fades, thinking of Magneto..He might already be dead..She doesn't know him as well a# the original Xmen but..

Shaking her head, Megan nods, heading back to the Blackbird. Spying the helmet in the new girl's hands, she sits down near to her, smiling weakly, "Heeey, I'm Megan. Mind if I take the helmet? I'm gonna try and scry for a magneto once we're all back home and safe. If I'm lucky, it might work despite time space discrepancies.." she's still fairly new to the laws of magic but learning quickly. Still she might just need a bit of magical help on this one..

Jean Grey has posed:
When she gets back aboard, Jean heads for the fold out medbay/console thing. It gets a lot of use, although at least this time it seems like they have a variety of smaller injuries versus one person in critical. So that's a plus.

She checks in on the progress Ororo is making, verifying once she's located their teleporting friend. If anyone, Ororo can definitely win over a frightened local. "I really have no clue what that was," she admits. "Here, come, sit." She's got some kind of spray thing she's going to use on Martha, pulling up the back of her shirt, before applying some kind of stick-on patch. "Could have been some kind of hybrid Sentinel, I guess. Could just be a totally DIFFERENT kind of life-annihilating sentient AI nanoswarm deathmachine." This should be encouraging to the new student! "Wherever it went, it looked full of them. Some kinda techno-world."

From there, it's a few more check-ups for the others, and then once their new passenger is back, she signals Rogue for take off.

... and Martha does not get to keep the helmet. Eventually, it will end up back on Xavier's desk to wait for it's owner's return.