18620/DAMN, it's the Brotherhood!

DAMN, it's the Brotherhood!
Date of Scene:	18 July 2024
Location:	New York (State)
Synopsis:	When Deport All Mutants Now (DAMN) tries to take control of a train with mutant prisoners aboard, they draw the aggro of the Brotherhood! Jaxon, Lorna, Clarice, Spiral, and Madelyne all attack to free the prisoners! Kid Devil and Mary Jane show up to help. It was sometimes awkward!
Cast of Characters:	Sam Wilson, Mary Jane Watson, Spiral, Lorna Dane, Madelyne Pryor, Kid Devil, Clarice Ferguson, Jaxon Blain, Neena Thurman

---

Sam Wilson has posed:
Rolling through the picturesque fields and forest of upstate New York, the passenger train was on a mostly routine run. 54 passengers, five crew. All except for a train car in the middle. The Prison Express. Its windows are small slits covered with metal netting. It's more armored than normal rail cars. Inside of it are twenty seats - but only ten of them are filled today.

In those seats are six men and four women, all shackled and chained and wear power dampening collars. They're crimes were felonies, but mostly on the small side. One was counterfeiting (her blood could become any non-acidic non-narcotic liquid, so she made money ink. Three of them were on board for possession of a controlled substance. Two others for bank robbery. Three for grand theft. And one for vehicular manslaughter. They were all leaving the state prisons upstate to be moved to Bushwick, where the will be placed under supervised parole in an already overcrowded borough. There was supposed to be five guards with them - that's where the problem came in.

Ten passengers were not passengers. They were actually part of a local anti-mutant cult. Having boarded the train, they had help from a baggage handler and boarded the train where a duffle bag of weapons had been smuggled on. They had managed to overwhelm the guards.

One of them, a tall and imposing figure with a scarred face, stepped forward with a menacing grin spreading beneath his mask. He held a sleek device in his hand, its digital display ominously counting down. Behind him, the remaining terrorists spread out, their weapons trained on the stunned passengers who cowered in fear.

"We are taking control of this train," the scarred terrorist declared in a voice that cut through the air like a blade. "Anyone who opposes us will face the consequences."

In the midst of the chaos, the terrorists swiftly and efficiently secured the cabin. Their leader approached the driver's compartment, where the unsuspecting conductor was taken by surprise and overpowered. The scarred terrorist pressed a button on his device, causing the countdown to freeze at 15 minutes.

He looked into his phone where he was live streaming the attack to the world. "We have planted a bomb on this train," he announced, his voice echoing with grim satisfaction. "It is rigged to detonate if the speed drops below 70 miles per hour. You have 15 minutes to comply with our demands. We are members of D.A.M.N. - Deport All Mutants Now, and we are demanding that our government sign a treaty with Queen Lorna of Genosha to send all criminal Gene-freaks like these to her land where they can run free."

As panic and disbelief swept through the captive passengers, the gravity of the situation became painfully clear. Trapped on a speeding train hurtling towards a populated metropolis, with a deadly countdown ticking away, their fate in the hands of these terrorists.

Arriving on station first is Sam Wilson, the high-flying Falcon. "I have eyes on our runaway. Can't really see anything, but deploying Redwing to take a closer look!" With that, the small drone is launched and flies down to try to get intelligence on the train.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
One of the SHIELD guards was a redhead, a junir officer amongst the others. As the alert goes off she moves o swear under her breath as she hears someone calling it in. She goes to rpaidly move to grab at her weapons - in this case it's a strange quartet of things. Two large swords - one a strange style of basterd sword, one long and curved in the style of an Asgardian one.. A hilt over at her side indicative of some sort of porjected energy blade.. And a standard SHIELD ICER.

Mary Jane goes to then head towards the window of the armored train, going to take out her sword and then using one of them to smash the window of the passenger compartment. Then, she's going to rapidly hook herself up and flip over on top of it, bracing down against the rooftop of the high speed train.. And then is starting to race along the top of it even as the train is going.

<<Watson, moving towards driver's side. Going to take me a few minutes. ANd can someone try and confuse the idiot by saying that he needs to convert it into metric because the train's European?>> SHe would quip along. <<And they have a real poor choice of folks if they're using 90's Keanu Action Hero.>>

Spiral has posed:
Spiral gets wind of the runaway train, and choo-chooses to help try and throw available Brotherhood members at it. Those within range and reach and reception of the trouble.

It's a bit tricky.

The sorceress starts her gyrations, focusing all of her magic into broadcast planting souls, like seeds over a very, very narrow field.

"All trays in their upright positions." The occult energies build and pool into portals that act like can-openers in reality. The strain is immense as Spiral's attention tries to focus on the terrestrial ~where~ relative to the speeding vehicle. Faint memories of trains leaving stations at certain times carrying produce and when they'll cross each other at 2pm almost sabotage everything.

"Spiral Airlines is not responsible for lost personal items!"

VVvvvvaaaaaap! Snap-crackle-Pop and the portals show a multitude of destinations that are ~mostly~ of the train, in this dimension.

Lorna Dane has posed:
EARLIER

... treaty with Queen Lorna of Genosha to send all criminal Gene-freaks...'

It cuts through Brotherhood comms like a hot knife to the guts: there are MANY benefits to H&D - the twins responsible for handling cyber security and broad tech concerns - affiliated with the unit, and they include immediate access to valuable, viscerally upsetting news. Sure, there's a downside here: nobody WANTS to be exposed, abruptly, to yet another dose of the raw hatred boiling beneath the skin of Humanity, except perhaps for the Hatemonger; the intel advantages outweigh the discomfort, however.

< "This is Polaris to all points: scrambling a strike team in 180 seconds. If you need gear and are not that many seconds away from it, speak up so that you can be taken to GET it; otherwise, it's a collapse to the Asteroid then a two-point insertion." >

As does the team's unique and formidable access to a whole arsenal of teleporters with differing ranges, capabilities, and quirks-- including two of the best around, Spiral and Blink.

< "One on top; one inside. Inside team is on rapid subdual; top team covers in case of tagalongs and breaks in to reinforce. Ping back if you're available for scrambling..." >

NOW

While Spiraltrak sets up a string of access points near and on the train - spatially AND dimensionally speaking! - a bright lavender portal opens in the air above and ahead of it, yawning wide enough and long enough for a green-haired woman in shimmering, emerald garb complete with a fluttering cape and ruby-topped crown to emerge alongside a handful of allies. Crackling EM energies surround herself and any other Bros in need of transportation support as she rockets towards the train for a hard, but ultimately safe landing on the roof that sends shudders thrumming through the car she touches down on. Immediately upon impact - as magnetic waves radiate from her feet and hands to promote secure attachment to the speeding vehicle - she commences expanding her senses outwards, coursing through the massive metal structure of the train in search of one particular, precariously ticking passenger that doesn't belong.

Madelyne Pryor has posed:
Her first field operation. This is important. Both for her own confidence and for the innocent victims on the train, both flatscan and Mutant. So far, the hardest part for this is getting changed quickly. These boots are not easy to get on. Regardless, she's as ready as she ever could be. It's a trial by fire.

Moments later, Madelyne Pryor, the Goblyn Queen, exits a portal into the train. Her eyes are glowing a virulent green, her torso ablaze in green and violet psychic fire. Her voice echoes oddly when she speaks.

"How dare you. How -dare- you?! You want my people deported? How about this? I deport you from -life-!?"

She reaches out towards the nearest terrorist, but, well. It's her first time out, it's taking a second to get her powers spooled up.

Kid Devil has posed:
    It was supposed to be a quiet afternoon of lab work. But once Eddie saw the situation erupting all over social media he quickly turned off the sensitive experiments and set to work isolating the train's location from the livestream and geolocation data.
    The distance still made the prospect of teleporting tricky at best-- least of all onto a moving train. Instead of the train itself he aimed for a hilltop it should be passing by in a few minutes--
    --Or, as happens instead, he blips right into the opening of a tunnel directly in the path of the train. Eddie dives to one side and presses against the tunnel wall to avoid getting slammed by the speeding engine. At last he's able to recover his thoughts enough to reach out and grab the handrail on the trailing car and get yoinked along. "...this is less than ideal."
    He taps on an earpiece to try signaling other responders, but who knows how much will get through Electromagnetic Hurricane Lorna: << Uhh, hi, anybody lis<bzzt>ing on these frequ<bzzt>ies? I'm a<bzt>d. Well, kinda. Oh, yeah, this is Kid Devil. Hi. Oh, I said <bzzrzat>eady... Anyway, let me know <brrzzt> can help. >>
    Meanwhile he gets to work pulling himself properly onto the train, climbing up on top of the cars to make his way forward.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
It never fails. No one ever does anti-mutant terrorism with any consideration for /her/ schedule, or /her/ mood.

Which, Clarice Ferguson allows, would probably just make anti-mutant terrorists even happier to know. Being a mutant as she is and all.

Of course, she's not just a mutant. She's a trained assassin. A traumatized survivor of the original Genoshan government's Mutate program. And some level of social recluse, if she were to think about it.

Which really means that what's got her hackles up and her mood foul is that these bigoted losers interrupted a post-haircut shower, and now she's poised to spring into action alongside her Brotherhood comrades with damp hair. On the plus side, having just had it shortened dramatically, it's unlikely to wind up blowing into her eyes atop the train. Which is exactly where a shimmering pink-edged portal is aimed to deposit anyone brave and lucky enough to be joining her prong of this rescue mission. And hey, what's so risky about leaping through a dimensional tear to land on a moving train top?

Blink's not really worried. You pays your money, you takes your chances.

Plus, one of her ride or dies makes her own chances.

And so Blink finds herself leaping through her own portal as it hovers above and ahead of the train momentarily. Because by the time she's clearing the portal to feel the onrushing air the engine's plowed past the event horizon of the portal, so there's lots of train to land on. The fact that when her feet make contact with the narrow roof and she's instantly running full tilt like this multi-ton monstrosity of metal is like a treadmill or a hamster wheel? Not worth worrying about. She's got a few train cars worth of length to consider her next metaphorical steps.

And remember that she didn't grab a headset radio or anything. Not that she'd be able to be heard over the sound of rushing wind.

Oh well, improvisation was always more her style anyhow.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
Sam may be getting a nice bird's eye view of the top of the train, but Jaxon's gig is more of an inside job. Dressed head to toe in black, included a hood pulled down over his face, he at least looks ready for to play this game. Once he's dropped on top of the running train, it doesn't take him long to, well, not be on the roof.<<Give me a second to scope the layout.>> - as in how many terrorists, how many actual passengers and how many targets that need saving.

Jaxon is a man that, almost literally, lives in the shadows. He has no need to see one pocket of shadow to jump to it from another. It just needs to be there and the shadows between lead from there. Therefore, one moment he's on top and the next he's inside. It might take longer than one second, but it won't take longer than thirty before he's relaying information over the comms - information that includes the number of terrorists, their locations in each car, the location of the bomb and the condition of the mutants bound inside. For the moment, he's sticking to the shadows - peaking out from even the smallest of them. But... <<I think I can take the four guards with our targets and I know I can get those shackles off.>

Neena Thurman has posed:
Hark, a runaway train with a bomb and mutants in need of assistance! It's this last part which Domino secretly groans at. If there's potential friendlies onboard then she can't very well start blowing things up or introducing her favorite automatic weapon to everyone, but it all still sounds like a good time and it'll serve an adrenaline junkie well.

Really the worst part is having her internals go from a standstill to 70+ MPH. No matter how smooth a teleport may be it's those gorram landings which can be a pain to stick. Out she hops and down she goes onto the roof of the train, grimacing with a grunt as she catches up with momentum amidst some squealing of palms and boots.

"That's one way to catch a train" she grumbles, goggles shielding her eyes as she gives the area a quick look-around. Other than speeding down the line what first catches her attention is Falcon flying around nearby with what sure looks like a -very- handy drone.

It's a quick effort to tap into the Brotherhood's own comms network. <<Hey, think you can get me through to that guy?>>

Why yes, yes they can!

<<Yo, winged dude! Got anything on that drone of yours to help track down unexpected explosives?>> If they can narrow their search then why not give it a try?

Sam Wilson has posed:
<<Agent Watson?>> Sam asks as the contact information pops up. <<Can you give me a count on what's inside that tin can?>> comes the request as he gets Redwing to focus on on where the redhead is to follow along with her as she advances along the train. <<I can probably land on it, but I want to know what I'm getting into.>> And he was about to move in closer, when suddenly a figure appears on top of the train, followed by a second one, and he calls out to MJ, <<We have company. Sending visuals!>>

And now that is done, he does move in closer, because the figure in green is familiar as he closes the distance. "Not here to stop you if you're helping!" he calls to Polaris, "Just getting your intentions!"

As Lorna feels out, she finds the bomb. It's directly below her. Small problem that she will realize quickly - the bomb is on a dead man's switch, and if the man with the detonator doesn't press the disarm button, it too will detonate.

Madelyn arrives in, all hotness and power and calls out her threat. The terrorist turns to her in fear, but when... nothing happens. "It's not halloween, sweetheart. But I'll treat this like Christmas and open my present early." Taking out a switchblade, he flicks it open and starts to approach the redhead. "So, who you supposed to be?" he asks her mockingly.

Arriving on station, Jaxon teleports in as well. He takes into hiding, but apparently he didn't do a good job of hiding. "Peek a boo, I see you!" one of the terrorists says, lifting up his rifle and firing shots in his direction, apparently not caring if he hits a mutant prisoner or not.

There's static as Kid Devil breaks in to the conversation, Sam winces. "Are you with the Brotherhood as well? Already talking to them!" he calls out. There's a window opened on the back of the train that he can get in.

And Sam doesn't get much else out as Domino //too// jumps in to the conversation, "What is this, a party line?" he asks in frustration. "I'm already working on it, but my asset on the train is the first priority and I'm keeping an eye on her as she goes for the detonator!"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would be working her way along the top of the train, moving to throw along a grappling hook to the next car, moving to use it to yank herself forwards over to the next roof. Then going to repeat the process again, intent on getting her way through towards the engine room.

<<I think they've got the hostages down, Boss! And a penchant for narrating. When they're tossed in their cell make sure they only get to watch Russian documentaries for however many decades they're in Rykers.>> There could be such a thing as too horrible a fate.

<<I think some of 'em are from the Genoshan Embassy, Sir..>> Even as she would pick up the signature wild hair and limbs of some of the Brotherhood members. That meant they were allies. Mary Jane would turn her head towards the other ones on the 'rooftop' wtih her, getting ready to fire her grappling hook.

Identifying herself plainly with a flash of her badge, not bothering to yell in the sound and the wind.

Madelyne Pryor has posed:
The biggest problem Madelyne has right now is that she has a hard time using her powers at any combat ready level when she's calm. Luckily she's boiling angry right now. Her waves of red hair float upwards, wavering behind her like the flame of a candle. She scoffs at the knife, feeling things in her mind lock in.

"Me? I'm... I'm the Goblyn Queen. And you're going to pay for this."

It's like the last pin in a lock clicks in place. Maddy reaches out with minute telekinetic tendrils, viciously ramming them into the approaching terrorist bigot's brain. There's no finesse. Only ruthless violence fueled by outrage. It starts as a stroke, blood vessels starting to bleed on his brain, but it only gets worse. She savages the man's mind, telekinetic filaments -whisking- his brain like scrambled eggs.

It's as gruesome and terrible as it sounds. It's not a clean death. Nor is it painless, but at least whatever makes him -him- dies early. The rest is just meat.

Spiral has posed:
Spiral is not a part of the vanguard of this risky business. She'll bravely be the caboose of all those relocating. That it also helps to tighten her aim of teleportation is a complete coincidence. Squint twice, jump once.

And Blink is here. But there's no time for Spiral to devote time to childish competition. No, hang on, of course there is. <<Winners get to go to Denny's. And I'm getting a Grand Slam at this rate. These assholes won't regret this crap for long. Brotherhood gonna bitch-slap.>> she boasts as the roaring wind snatches at her words.

Spiral climbs the rear-most carriage, a multitude of hands an asset in clambering up like a spider. Over each shoulder an orb mounted on a mechanical armature. Like she needed more limbs. But these hold lenses, recording, perhaps even streaming for voracious audiences in far-away locales.

The two cameras poke up like the eyestalks of some cybernetic slug to sight down the rocketing train. Like she was taking a peek over some no man's land from a trench. It's a great shot of some of the incoming Brotherhood members making dramatic and awesome arrivals. Damn but Blink does make it look darn good. Spiral chews in the inside of her cheek, recalling a sparring session, and how it would be wise not to give into her poor and ravenous instincts.

Her gaze snaps up towards the non-Brotherhood entities, badges and decals, and she blows a raspberry. <<Looks like we got more cameos today! Hey, look at all us. Look at us, huh? Who would have thought? Not me.>>

"~Smile for the cameraaaas.~" Spiral clambers up to the roof and draws a set of blades, producing a eerie keening sound as the rush of wind plays over the monomolecular edges. She leans into the constant blast of air and starts running forward.

Kid Devil has posed:
    << Brotherhood? No, I'm not really with anybody. I've worked with SHIELD a couple of times? Maybe you've seen my social media channels! I've got almost twenty followers on Instagram... >>
    He leans over to peek along the side of the train, swinging over and diving feet-first through an open window. Once he's found relatively stable ground he unfolds his tablet to start surveying the train's course for especially dangerous turns that would require slowing down, spurs to divert it away from other rail traffic, or other opportunities.

Lorna Dane has posed:
<<It's a do-or-die switch.>>

Polaris' voice is distant and staticky despite a crystal-clear connection and high-fidelity equipment.

<<Which is terrible news for the person with the switch.>>

Lorna holds her hands out in front of herself, clutching the air so fiercely that her fingers tremble. Lights throughout the train flicker, die, reignite, flicker some more; freshly charged devices suddenly wink out, drained of battery life at the speed of needful thought. The air around her crackles, permeated with the rising scent of ozone.

"What do you think?" she asks of the Falcon, just as distant; just as static-cut as she spares a glance for the flying agent. "They asked for me by name; it'd be rude not to answer...!"

<<... is this you telling us you'd like a side of hot wings if you win, Spiral...?>> ripples through the connection a second later, just as distant and static-filled but softened minutely. The levity isn't QUITE there because she's focused--

-- on peeling the car beneath her open like a sardine can, exposing the inside to violently lashing winds and the sight of the woman D.A.M.N. summoned by name hovering above them wreathed in a crackling viridian sphere.

After which she shunts all that hastily harnessed power inwards, turning herself into an electromagnetically driven, human-sized slug rocketing down to the detonator's level and surging towards it, intent on gathering its holder's head in her palm and SLAMMING him forward, grinding his face against the wall nearest to the bomb point.

The detonator and the bomb need to stay together, after all.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Once the strike team, or... backup team? Tertiary team? There's a lot of moving parts in this literally fast-moving situation... well, once the people Blink's responsible for portalling onto a moving train are on that train, or at least through her portal it blinks shut and she slows her sprint to sway atop the train and take a moment to actually look around.

And engage in a little lighthearted telepathic banter with Spiral that everyone else has to endure.

<<But what about like, Moons over My Hammy?>>

With this important mental communication filed, Clarice realizes something. Not all terrorists don't think ahead. And while they've got a bomb on the train, Neena raises a good point. There could be other bombs. Bombs that don't care about the speed of the train. She glances over her shoulder at the albino and frowns slightly. "So! ...Should we go like... look for bombs up ahead? I mean, as a last ditch I could... try opening a portal for the train to go past any upcoming booby trap... once... maybe."

Except... how do bombs with speed-sensitive triggers respond to suddenly covering a lot of distance through a portal? Does it count as going faster? Does it just not care? Well, that's a problem for... yeah, okay, it's still a problem for Current Blink to consider as she begins to reverse her course and begin sprinting up the train, just in time to see Lorna doing her particular brand of Magnetic Mutant Mayhem!

Wellll... she wasn't really planning to stand on top of the engine anyhow. She'll adapt when she gets there.

Spiral has posed:
Spiral starts a-jumping the gaps between train cars. The comments coming through comms and brain-waves have her smirking and then grinning ferally. For a little extra oomph, she jams in the tips of her swords to help vault her forward with enough momentum to not die horribly. She's not exactly making a direct route to the terrorists and taking the edges of her swords to them. But she is shadowing her allies. Her efforts are going into capturing their exploits, greedy to capture anything gruesome. Willing to risk life and limbs to capture shots to die for. As long as it's the terrorists.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
Jaxon may get winged but it's really just a graze, particularly in his current form. Once he retreats back into the shadows, back into that realm somewhere between darkness and light - he's no longer a target. Not only because he can't be seen, but because he just can't be hit there. <<Fuck this>>, he mutters over the comms. <<I'm taking the guards in the target car. Unless someone else has dibs?>>

His intentions made known, that's where he heads. Without stepping from the cover of the shadows he calls home most of the time, Jaxon shoves them outward into the car itself. They swirl and dance as the inside of the car grows darker and darker swathing the car in shadows almost instantly, wrapped up in darkness that's just this side of too dark for his powers to work. It'll be enough to give him a fighting advantage, not only because it should hinder the vision of the guards inside, but also because it just gives him more room to work.

When he steps out of the shadow realm, he's holding a chain whip with a razor tip in one hand and a blade in the other - both formed of darkness made hard as steel.

This is what Jaxon lived and breathed under Stryker's 'guidance'. This is what he was 'made' to do, this is what Stryker wanted to unleash as his own weapon. His former 'master' might even be proud, if his weapon wasn't being unleashed to save mutants rather than to help end them.

He leads with the chain whip, sending it out to strike like a serpent, its sharpened end leaving a razor thin smile just beneath the chin of one guard. It doesn't bleed much, doesn't seem like much until the man's head drops back and nearly falls from his shoulders right before he sinks to the ground. Another gets a blade to the ear through to the brain and a boot to the torso to free the blade - that's two. The third goes down, split shoulder to hip diagonally by his whip - evisceration does a body ... bad. The last one, the man holding the bomb is dispatched by Jaxon's blade being thrown with enough precision to strike right through his left eye. For his final, and perhaps most critical move, he forms a horizontal shield from the shadows - a solid floor beneath the bomb.

<<Prison car secure.>>

Neena Thurman has posed:
<<Just wanted to get in on the action!>> Domino says with a grin to Sam. Then more to herself, "Cripes there's a lot of people here..."

The winged guy's got an asset who quickly comes into view showing a badge. Mary Jane's given a casual salute from the crouching albino who is right back to wearing her cheeky grin.

Clarice raises a consideration of other explosives which gives the pale mercenary a moment of pause. "Group like this? Odds aren't in their favor they were able to gather enough scratch for a second charge capable of causing a big enough problem!" Of course, there may be some unknown variables involved but from what she's currently reading? Probably just one bomb. Probably. "Maybe see if you can port some of the prisoners out!"

The rush of wind up top isn't enough to hide the sound of a rifle shot from below. Her first thought to draw and fire through the roof is halted, no way handgun rounds are punching through this car's armored hide. Damn! D.A.M.N. even! But it brings about another consideration: The armored car is in the MIDDLE of the train.

<<Falling back to disconnect some cars, move up if you want to keep riding!>>

If there's any unfortunate passengers stuck back there they don't need to hang around for the grand finale, as she sees it the problem starts at the engine up front and ends with the prison car. The 'tail' on this train might only cause more problems, especially when speed is a requirement.

Sam Wilson has posed:
"MJ, focus!" Sam hisses over the radio. "I'm talking to the Brotherhood, you focus on finding that detonator!" he reminds her. And with that, he keeps tryring to find said detonator, but. "Front car, Sonja, I can't get a lock on him to take him out. Whatever you do, don't let him activate the detonator!" And it's also at this time that a few gunshots rain down from above. Why? Because the terrorists hijacked a police helicopter for their getaway, and one of them is hanging out of the window with an AR-15 and firing shots down towards both Falcon and those on the top of the train.

Inside the train, as Madelyne's attacker is grinning wildly getting an eyeful of her revealing outfit - just before he gently hrks. Then he screams in horrible pain as blood flows out of his nose, then his ears. He claws at his head, for the few moments of life he has left, he gurgles and chokes on his own blood before everything just shuts off, and he falls to the ground, dead.

Spiral is getting plenty of footage, but between Madelyne and the guy she just killed, it just went from PG to R really quickly. Of course, she's just in time to get a shot of Lorna ripping the train car apart. And Lorna opens it just after Jaxon goes on his rampage.

Speaking of, as Jaxon tanks the hit and then goes on the attack, it's not pretty. Shots are fired, there's scream, there's carnage in C-Major all over the car. Somehow, in the attacks, with all the shots fired... one guard backs up, aiming his gun at the girl with the chemical blood. "I'll kill he--" he doesn't get to finish as Jaxon cuts him in twain and he slumps to the ground.

And that's when Lorna opens the can like a fresh tin. None of the hostages are hurt, all guards down. She finishes that and then... slam into the head guard. There's a yell as his face is ground into the wall, blood forming from wounds and injuries as Lorna crushes his skull. He tries to stab at her with a nasty looking combat knife, but it's too late, he's a goner, and the detonator floats in front of Lorna for the taking.

There's a snort from Falcon. "Is that all it takes to get your attention?" he asks as he's dodging bullets and rolling over to fire up at the helicopter. "I'll keep that in mind!" he calls out to her - as he sees what Domino's doing. "Whoa whoa whoa, if it goes below 70!" he calls out.

Clarice heads on her way towards the front. She'll need to teleport across the length of the prisoner car to get to it, but she will link up with Lorna and Sonja.

Finally, Kid Devil makes it in! All the civilians had been herded to the back, so he's in there with them. And Madeleyne Pryor. And a dead terrorist. Spiral and Blink pass by overhead.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Going to speak to her comm, Mary Jane goes to Sam <<Understood Sir>> As she's in the engine room with LOrna. She goes to snap out her rarely used photonic blade, it glowing as it would manifest. She goes to start to sing rather sadistically in an old, unfamiliar language to most unless they understood incredibly ancient, archaic, and forgotten tongues. It has a pitch unlike any languages of the modern era.

IT's backlit by laughter. Loud, roaring laughter that sounds like a scream going to a taunt, a challenge over as Mary Jane goes to estimate where her target might be over in the rather tight confines of the engine.. Then she SLASHES. Into the edge of one corridor with the blade. Into another.

Wherever the man is, she's intent on simply carving her way through room by room of the lead engine car to find him, blade cleanly going through steel and iron as she stalks through the corridors.

Kid Devil has posed:
    Eddie smiles his cheeriest smile to the civilians being herded into the back with him. Just your average teenage demon. "Hi, everybody! Please remain calm, the situation is being handled, and we should have you back underway any minute now!" He might be more assuring if not for the fangs. Maybe. The horns and the tail sure don't help.
    When he sees Madelyne and her fleeting terrorist acquaintance he looks them over slowly, his luminous eyes flickering when he blinks. But he just waves to her. He's about to say something when he catches a distracting message over the comms.
    He tilts his head at the announcement someone's going to be detaching cars. << Uhh, negative on cutting the cars loose just yet, please? >> he signals. << If there's a turn up ahead we're already going into it a *lot* faster than we should be. A few kph could be the difference between barely making the turn and this train serving briefly as a glider. >>
    Realizing he said that louder than he intended he flashes a meant-to-be-reassuring grin at the civilians nearby. Then he bolts for the back of the train to get at the rear engine. << And I should be able to use the systems back here to regain control. >>

Madelyne Pryor has posed:
Poor Kid Devil. He finally arrives to see nothing but carnage, a dead man bleeding from every natural hole in his head, and Madelyne in her borderline not safe for work outfit wreathed in green and violet psychic flames. Her eyes glow like balefire as she regards the young man's arrival.

He's obviously on Team Fuck These Guys, but she still crackles with power. They did, after all, just extrajudicially murder a bunch of dudes. They had it coming, but it's still a crime.

She transmits to the rest of the Brotherhood present over Think Comms. <<I turned this man's brain to goo. Now a literal demon just waved at me. ... He looks like he's helping. I'll help him. Is the bomb under control? Can we slow yet?>>

She looks at Kid Devil again, her eyes still glowing, her hair still floating. That loincloth's fluttering is dangerous. She's about to speak when he bolts. So instead she points her hand upwards and peels the roof open. "We've got this," she says to the prisoners. "Genosha and the Brotherhood are here to save you."

Then she just floats up and out of the hole to land on the top of the train.

Lorna Dane has posed:
<<Detonator is secured.>>

It settles right in Lorna's hand, drawn to her palm like it belongs there. After a quick, narrow-eyed skim, she punches the button to disarm the bomb.

<< ... aaaand the bomb is done, >> crackles across comms.

<<Are you okay, Madelyne?>> resonates along Astral frequencies a second later as Lorna absently knuckles at her temple and adjusts to the unexpected jag of psychic communication.

<< If you've got the controls, I'll back you-- make sure the train CAN slow down in time, >> she transmits, eyes flooding with green as she stretches her perceptions across the train's chassis. She isn't applying any force YET... but she's ready to help Kid Devil bring the train under control as needed, and channeling slithering lines of electricity across the train's surfaces in the process--

*SHHHNK!!*

-- all of which suddenly wink out when Lorna is forced to pitch and roll to the ground in order to avoid losing her head to the phenomenally advanced weapon wielded by a phenomenally old soul ripping through the engine car's walls.

"What the FUCK-- HEY! They're fuckin' DEAD--" she calls out, scrambling back to her feet with her hands at the ready in case the sword belongs to a bonus terrorist.

Neena Thurman has posed:
Back to Sam, she counters "And without the weight on its ass it'll go -faster- than 70! The bomb ain't back there!"

Not that it matters. Not as the prison car gets ripped apart from above and the inside. For a moment she stands there and looks around, arms coming up then dropping back at her sides. "These guys shoulda brought -way- more recruits. May as well have stuck with the day-drinking."

Wait, hang on. Are these terrorist dudes seriously shooting at them from a hijacked helicopter? A quick pause as Domino calls out to Clarice "I take that back, new variables discovered!" She didn't see that twist coming...

But this is good. Helicopters she can shoot at. This is so much more her speed. Aim for the tail rotor for maximum fun. She's not so good at that 'trying to limit collateral damage' bull, anyway. More fuel for the frickin' fire it is.

Jaxon Blain has posed:
Barely a glance is spared upward when the roof is suddenly torn off the prison car. But with that glance he shoots a crooked, toothy grin up at Madelyne and maybe a wink.

Jaxon can't do anything about the collars, but he can do something about the shackles. Whip and knife vanish when he releases them back to the darkness. A quick search of the dead guards ends with him finding the keys he needs. After all the blood, all the gruesome death he just caused, his voice is stark contrast - soothing, sweet even, as he murmurs to the prisoners.

"It's okay, we're here to take you home," be that the Asteroid or Genosha, they'll be safe. He works quickly from one lock to the next. "Just stay calm, someone will be here soon to get you all out of here and get those collars off when you're someplace safe."

It's probably a good thing he's still keeping the area bathed in shadows, even with the sudden appearance of a skylight in the roof. Criminals or not, the poor mutants might lose their shit a little if the carnage around them wasn't bathed in enough shadow to take at least make it all fuzzy around the edges, not quite so horrifying. Once he has them all freed, he calls for their ride out. <<Prisoners ready for extraction.>>

As far as he's concerned, once they're clear, the rest of these bitches can blow.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
For her part, Clarice mostly focuses on making sure the fellas in the helicopter have better targets to shoot at. Which is to say, expert in hand to hand combat that she is... she is /not/ going to portal herself up to jumpkick a guy in a helicopter when there's telekinetics and magnetokinetics, and also Falcon's got guns, and... well, there're a lot of people who can handle the helicopter. Like Domino, who helpfully begins firing at it!

Clarice focuses on closing in on Lorna, to keep the boss safe from any unexpected close in threats.

Also, you know, she's got magnet powers and bullets are metal. You always wanna be near the magnetic person when bullets are flying.

Still, she can't help but flash a wry little grin to the boss and chime out, "Do you think they got the message? I really hope if they didn't next time they... attack something stationary! This wind is killer! ...I mean, not as killer as..." She gestures around vaguely.

The wind's got nothing on the Brotherhood.

Sam Wilson has posed:
With the rear train car derailed, and turned into a convertible by Madelyn, Kid Devil is left to find the controls - which are easy to locate - there's a large panel for emergencies that passengers aren't supposed to touch. In fact, a lot of passengers, who were stunned into silence by the ferocity of Maddie's attack, are now getting terrified and scared. But with with Lorna's help they should get it slowed down.

Hopefully before the front comes to a halt as Sonja/MJ causes enough damage to start siezing up the engine. The train slows below 70 and no kabooom so everything is looking aces for the Brotherhood. As Spiral and Clarice head over to the prisoner car where Jaxon is working on freeing the prisoners, he was about to say something with Domino shoots out the tailrotor, sending the helicopter into a tilting spin.

"Shit!" Sam says as he tucks his wings and rockets upward. "Drop your guns and I'll save you!"

The pair look at Falcon... and flip him off, starting to fire at him. He manages to dodge the rounds slung at him, and he moves away from the area as the helicopter slams into the ground. "Guess if you're a bigot, yer an alaround bigot." he grumbles, that he was unable to help save them.

But this gives the Brotherhood the chance to get away cleanly.

Kid Devil has posed:
    Kid Devil scrambles toward the back end of the train. "Surely this can't be as complicated as a gamma reactor," he mutters. Once he slams open the door into the engine he studies the controls for a moment. "Well... shit."
    Hastily, he pulls out his tablet to scan the console and highlight the relevant buttons, knobs, levers. "Don't need to *stop* but if there's an autopilot I can engage somehow--"
    While he's working through all the controls he grabs a radio handset off the wall and flicks on the intercom. "Ahoy, mateys!"
    He pauses, and grumbles at his improvisational choices. "This is your captain speaking. Please, uhhhhh, remain calm and buckle yourself into, uhhhh, whatever seat you can find... If you look out the left side you'll see a beautiful, serene landscape and-- just ignore the helicopter, I know, it's on fire, but it's not a problem. They're gonna be fine. Oh, oh, no, they just exploded. Well. At least they got to enjoy this lovely view! We should be back on track (haha, get it?) shortly."

Lorna Dane has posed:
"Probably not."

Polaris' answer comes alongside an idle, two-fingered stroke down Clarice's cheek; the motion is instinctive, guided in no small part by her latent sensitivity to the exotic energies at Blink's command and her abiding fondness for the woman who took it upon herself to guard the Queen from her earliest days on the throne.

"... but we'll be ready fo--"

A sidelong glance arrests her soft, distant speech; the electric field coursing over the rest of her body jitters and pulses momentarily with a minor attendant fluctuation in the train's momentum. Threaded green brows arch.

"... cute hair," comes with a tight smile and a quick, flick of clipped, air-dried locks.

<< Excellent work as always, all of you, >> transmits broadly, even if it's MOSTLY for the Brotherhood.

And, << Looking good as ever, >> follows, just for Domino, thanks to the burning heap now dotting the landscape.