18718/Through A Mirror Darkly: Madripoor Will Fall

Through A Mirror Darkly: Madripoor Will Fall
Date of Scene:	07 August 2024
Location:	Madripoor
Synopsis:	Madripoor has fallen to Stryfe and the MLF. Cable and his allies fight a rearguard action to evacuate as many people as possible while trying to deny Stryfe any tangible gains for his efforts.
Cast of Characters:	Cable, Monet St. Croix, Kurt Wagner, Sally Pride, Stefani Houston, Tabitha Smith, Divine, Bishop
Tinyplot:	Through a Mirror Darkly

---

Cable has posed:
In the aftermath of the destruction of Greymalkin -- Cable's futuristic orbital satellite base of operations -- the future solider has spent weeks travelling the globe, recovering the various supplies that he was either forced to teleport down to the surface of the planet, or quite literally eject from that orbital platform on various reentry trajectories.

While his efforts, and that of many of his allies have ultimately allowed him to recover many of the weapon and supply caches -- including the Bodyslide module that allows him to teleport around the globe at need -- he was not able to recover all of them.

In some cases the efforts of Stryfe and Mutant Liberation Front were enough to beat him to the punch. And while he would surely prefer that they did not have access to some of his high-tech arsenal, the real prize is deeply concerning. Because the MLF have managed to get their hands on 'the Professor', the advanced artificial intelligence unit that managed Greymalkin and did a great deal of the threat analysis that so often allowed Cable to be in exactly the right place at the right time to insure that he and whatever team he happened to assemble could counter that threat. It was a unique gift.

One that now can be turned against him, presuming that Stryfe and his allies can find a way to turn the Professor to their cause. To make use of it in their pursuit of greater power.

Unfortunately, just how they intend to start going about it does not take long to determine.

Madripoor is a city of stark, stunning contrasts. On one hand it is a technological haven in southeast Asia, a city of towering skyscrappers, glitzy and glamorous nightlife that mixes with ancient traditions and history. It is also, in keeping with it's roots, a hive of scum and villany, a malignant cancer on the land with people in some of the most abject poverty imaginable living only streets away from the rich, the powerful and the thoroughly corrupt.

Hightown and Lowtown. It is a stunning contrast between them, one all glittering glass and stainless steel towers mingled with some old world charm. And only streets away a shanty town where life is so very incredibly cheap.

But rich or poor, none likely expected the assault that began only hours ago.

It was hours ago when dozens of portals opened up throughout the city. Hours since the various mutant terrorists associated with the Mutant Liberation Front began to pour through, accompanied by that host of ADAM androids pilferred from future timelines to begin pacifying the corrupt island nation. Striking out not at the city's power structure, at the local government, instead the MLF hit at the real powerbase of Madripoor. At the criminal organizations and the mercenary companies that control the lion's share of both the wealth and firepower in the city.

While much of that effort was concentrated in Hightown and the outlying areas, as in any war the poor and destitute of Lowtown have paid the price too and fires rage out of control in that shanty town that dominates the city, the crude, wooden structures aflame and bodies lay sprawled in the streets.

Without his orbital home, Cable still has a variety of safehouses scattered amongst the world and with his Bodysliding technology once more up and running, he has the means to get to them -- eventually. Without that geosynchronous location from which to operate from, said jumps are necessarily shorter.

Still, Madripoor is the first and foremost of his bases and as the MLF rampage through the city, the mutant soldier from the future organizes what resistance that he can...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There are always some spaces that will be holdouts no matter how horrendous the carnage is, or how great the invasion. Places that have a default sort of natural resistance to them or simply not caring. Some places which for almost mystical reasons seemed to be eternally neutral turf, never bothered by such minor things. Places which almost seemed to be ignored. Temples of the Hand, which graced many locales. Ninjas which cared little for such minor things for who controlled a city of pirates and smugglers. The Princess Bar, somewhere that would be defended to the death by those exceedingly well armed and powerful and was given a wide berth automatically. A strange door in one building, a place that all ignored for reasons unknown, even to those that knew of it. Landau, Lachman, and Lake. Alays elements of strangeness.
    But, those places of defensibility are not what we are discussing tonight. Now, we are discussing places of conflict. One such brawl zone has Monet St. Croix doing quick hit and run attacks, going for high speed punch and runs while Reavers brawled with members of the Mutant Liberation Front or occasionally joined with them for fun and macabre misery. In Madripoor, there was no real worry of collateral damage - the city was a perpetual war zone.
    Monet goes to pick up a Reaver, slamming into into a member of the Mutant Liberation Front to send both flying down, before diving to the side to avoid the blast of yet another android that with continuous energy pulses would force her to fall back before she got into range wehre it's power neutralizers could effect her.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
When the invasion started Kurt was very much on the other side of the world. It might be a sunny afternoon on the island nation of Madripoor, but it is closer to the middle of hte night in upstate New York where he is. Still, one of the many advantages of being affiliated with a group like the X-Men is that little situations like this tend to get monitored.

It wasn't that long ago that they seemed to be anticipating these sorts of attacks, that they were there waiting for the MLF to show up, or approaching them only a short time after they appeared. At CERN, at Star Labs in Metropolis, they were already onsite and ready to react.

Not this time it seems.

While Kurt might be able to teleport, his range is a little limited. Still, when he awakes, he does reach out, does make himself available and with the help of that Bodysliding tech, he does arrive in Madripoor.

Eventually.

As has been the case on previous occasions on missions like this, the fuzzy blue elf's first and foremost priority is one of a mission of mercy. To save as many people as he possibly can. So while others seek out concentrations of those powerful androids and their mutant leaders, he focuses on getting people out of Lowtown, evacuating them to a beach on the outskirts of town where they can be evacuated to safety.

Just as soon as Cable can maybe spare a little attention.

Sally Pride has posed:
"The one small blessing is that they chose this hive of crooks and mercenaries and not a big populated city. Not that this place doesn't have civilians but you get the drift." Sally mutters as she's going through pre-mission preps. Magazines loaded. Spares securely strapped in until needed. The same of the power cells for energy weapons. She's got her claws and the reinforced studded knuckles of her gloves when she needs to throwdown physically. It's proved useful a few times in the past being able to get closer to the robots as her combat skills are not a mutant power that can be supressed. One rifle is lifted to rest against her shoulder. "Still, they can't be left to run roughshod over a population, Madripoor or otherwise." There's also the matter with the 'Professor' to deal with, if they get an oppritunity.

Stefani Houston has posed:
Stefani Houston had checked in with Cable via a texting method, and had deployed to low town awhile ago. She was actively in that deployment yet still.

Having found a new rooftop, she lays upon its corner, her eye pressed up to her anti-infantry rifle scope. She's been covering civilians in danger for the past several hours, darting from rooftop to rooftop, whenever she felt her cover was compromized.

In the moment, Stef hasn't fired a shot for a good twenty minutes, as she is simply observing. Beside her, her texts are open, her phone on and the last message sent to Cable read: <Any updates? Need me anywhere specific?>

She's sweeping her scope down a side street, watching a band of suspects moving along in a pack.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
While there are plenty of mutants that sided with Stryfe. Tabitha is working on dropping as many of the ADM mechanicals that brought the MLF in to start tearing up the place.

She had more of an interest in protecting low town.

And thankfully with a lot of the chaos that comes from such an open attack, it makes it easier for Boom-Boom to direct her streams of plasma at any robots she can see.

Not that she's ignoring the MLF. "That's right! Huntin' robots and MILFs! Dispensing Booms to the truly deserving!" she blasts out.

Long hair trailintg behind her in a ponytail while red tinted glasses. Black leggings, a cropped black and yellow padded jacket. Yellow boots. Tabby min maxing all that equitorial tropical weather with midriffs and climate controlled X-Suits as she blasts away.

Divine has posed:
Divine is working on getting fires under control. She's in Lowtown, using her freezing breath to keep some of the fire at bay. It's a desperate gamble, at at this point it's more about creating a line the fires will have trouble crossing than it is about saving buildings. She catches a flash of blue in her peripheral vision, and starts heading that direction, working on keeping the fires back from the areas Kurt is evacuating. Slow, deep breaths in come out in a band of hoarfrost, slowly pushing out a line of cold, wet, and soggy that the fires can't quite breach. One side, then the other, a slow effort to create pockets of safety for both evacuees and the people trying to rescue them.

Bishop has posed:
X-Men, X-Force, X.S.E..... Bishop wears a lot of hats these days and all of them seem fit to make sure he's right in the middle of whatever brand of chaos is set to harass the children of the atom to the point of near oblivion. Thus when word of the attack on Madripoor starts coming in over security feeds, monitors and news reports tied in to the computer's at the X-Men base, he's immediately on his feet and on his way to the hangar bay while keeping his comm link open for any banter and calls for assistance and deployment from any ally ready to leap into the fray.

Fortune enables him to catch up with Kurt and thus he's right with him when the Bodysliding tech kicks in and both are brought to the streets of Madripoor and the dazziing fireworks, colors, and shockwaves being unleashed by the wild warzone that's been dropped onto the island nation.

"Between the MLF and any criminal metahumans organized to try and protect themselves....this is about to be a damn near free for all.."

Kurt bamfs away to begin his missions of mercy and Bishop strides forward through the sulphuric cloud left by the elf's departure and immediately brings his guns to bear. His standard blasters, large and futuristic (...or medium and clasical by Cable's standards..) begin unleashing rapid fire bolts of concussive force towards the the swooping machines, blasting through with his practiced unerring aim. Working to attempt to draw their attention and to bring their energy assaults his way and away from the fleeing civilians.

Cable has posed:
At the best of times, Madripoor is a pretty chaotic, lawless place. Yes, there is a local government. Technically the island is a Principality, a legitimately recognized government.

The reality is, of course, a little different. The city and the island beyond are pretty munh ruled over by the upper crust criminals that seem to have their fingers into everything while maintaining an aura of legtimacy -- legitimate businessman on an island hardly reknowned for legitimate business dealings. But the various mercenary organizations that tend to operate out of the island and the lower class gangs that rule much of Lowtown have their parts to play as well.

Despite all that power and influence however, they are not exactly putting up a tremendous fight against the Mutant Lieration Front. Still, there are definitely poickets of resistance.

The tallest gleaming skyscrapper in Hightown, it's mirrored windows reflecting the fires of the burning shanty town only blocks away is fiercely defended by one of thsoe same mercenary companies, the well trained soldiers supplemented by a host of mini-mechs -- power suited mercs in physically augmented exo-skeletons absolutely bristling with weaponry.

Certainly X-Force has seen plenty of their like while they were battling John Sublime.

In other parts of the city gang members cling tenaciously to their ruined city blocks, peppering the white, featureless ADAM units with small arms fire, rarely doing much unless a lucky shot hits a vulnerable area while taking withering fire from returned energy blasts in turn. But it helps tie up some of Stryfe's forces.

Despite the sheer number of those androids that Cable and his allies have encountered in the past, their numbers seem, if anything, greater then ever before, roaming amongst the city in groups of four, their tracking protocols seemingly fixed on rooting out nests of opposition and annilihating them with swift, overwhelming response.

Where heavier resistance is expected there are usually two or more such groups working together under the supervision of one of the MLFs key members. Already most of them have been spotted in various palces where the fighting is most intense -- again, most often in Hightown where they seem intent on crushing the mercenary armies that are the most heavily armed inhabitants of the island. But all the players seem to be out. Reaper and Wildside. Sumo and Kamikaze. Thumbelina an Dragoness. Forearm and Strobe. Even Tempo seems to have been repatriated in the aftermath of Greymalkin's destruction, rescued from her captivity onboard and once again returned to the fold.

Nor can one forget about Holocaust and Abyss, though each of them seems to move about the city on their own -- Abyss seeking out key targets and leaders, leaving their bodies in the middle of the street practically ripped to pieces while Holocaust simply demolishes entire buildings where the resistance is a little too vehment and organized -- mostly on the outskirts of town where the mercenary encampments are most concentrated.

Bursting out of one of the secret entrances to his safe house, Cable sits behind the wheel of what appears to be an armored pickup truck, the vehicle positively loaded down with armor plating fastened to the front and sides, the windhiseld replaced by a metal shield with only a few strategic gaps in it to allow one to peer out. A rear-mounted plasma cannon sits in the flatbed as he roars down the street, neither the fires nor the debris seeming to pose much obstruction to him.

"Look for targets of opportunity. Thin out his ADAM forces where you can, harrass some of the key MLF members if you get the chance. Otherwise keep the evacuation cordone open. We want to evacuate as many people as we can. Nightcrawler, I'm turning control over the Bodyslide module to you. Also, lets target what key infrastructure that we can. Particularly power. They want this city, fine. But lets leave it in the stone age before we're done."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Wasn't Madripoor already close enough to that unless you were in Hightown? Monet goes to send a thought along to Cable as she goes to brawl with another member of the MLF, hurling them towards an ADAM unit before quickly disengaging. <<Take down the walls of Hightown. If they take the area they'll make it much more defensible. It will also make the evacuation easier.>> Then again, the few entrances to the walled off areas made for good chokepoints for defense and making killing zones, and leading into crossfires. And it wasn't necessarily like they had the firepower to take on all of them.

She goes to quickly focus, telepathically tracking over the bright psionic points that were Abyss and Holocaust. <<We should probably avoid those two. We can't engage them without all of us present, and we have to prioritize evacuating the city>> Engaging either of the two is an all or nothing circumstance. Monet moves to charge through another building when the Reavers go to put a crossfire on her as she skims through glass, it tearing into her as she would go evasive, moving to tumble part of it onto the Reavers.

<<Is there any indication that Stryfe is present?>> They still didn't know his reasons for targeting Madripoor - but for such a big operation that had him dedicating so many forces, he wouldn't just leave it to underlings, would he? He'd need to have some level of command over it. Holocaust and Abyss were enforcers, not leaders.

<<There has to be someone in charge here. If not him, then we need to find who or what. Taking it out will limit their ability to coordinate>> The MLF were trying to occupy here, not level the place. Holocaust and Abyss making targeted kills rather than rampaging was indicative of them wanting to take control of the city. They couldn't jam enemy communications - technological or telepathic, so if there was command and control they'd need another way.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
Taking a moment to offer a wave of thanks to those who are covering his efforts to clear out the section of Lowtown in the worst shape, the most fire ravaged or that have had ADAM units recently pass through leaving structures collapsed and shattered, debris spread everywhere.

It helps too that Divine is concentrating a lot of her efforts on fire control, that icy superbreath keeping the flames from spreading everywhere. So much of Lowtown is mad out of scavaged wood and even the sheet metal that is the other common building element doesn't hold up so well against rampaging fires. "Meinen Dank, Divine," Kurt says, flicking a little salute towards her, still able to muster up some of that jaunty spirit even in the midst of all this destruction.

But he doesn't linger for long, sifting through the burned remenants of another ruined hut, pressing aside some of that sheet metal to reveal the injured resident beneath who stirs weakly and moans. "Coming through with another injured one," he says over the comms, carefully picking up the young woman, cradling her in his arms before he bamfs back to the beach.

Soon he will have gotten out all of those he is likely to be able to. Then he'll turn his attention to getting those that he has helped rescue not only out of Lowtown, but off the island entirely.

Sally Pride has posed:
"Deny the enemy assets. Tactical enough for me." Sally salutes and takes off to do just that. She can wreck assets and keep enemy forces tied up so the big hitters on the team can get the big stuff done.

Gunfire already rages across the streets. But the cacophony gains a new chord as the mutant lioness joins in with her heavier assault weapons. Loaded with as much armor peircing rounds as she could get, and while still not enough to take down an ADAM in one shot the additional penetration does help against robots. Particularly when she can lead the burst of fire into joints and other less heavily armored parts of the combat machines.

Without the AI assistance she'll have to find any points of value the old fashioned way but that's okay. That's more oppritunities to gun down robots in the streets.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
With a whole bunch of telepathy, Tabby extends her own psychic link to the team, easier to maintain communication when some of the opposition has power to mess with things like electronics and radio reception.

Less likely to be missed purely by being drowned out by all the noise.

As far as the fight goes. Tabby is more than happy to do what she can to take down the ADM's <<Already on the robots. Totally my jam. Trick is like keeping them distracted and herding their teleports to where you want. Make them land on the bombs where you can!>> Thankfully a protracted street battle makes tracking life fire really difficult even with future tech processors up in those metal domes.

. And it helps Tabitha can redirect her bombs and streams mid flight. If she misses the first time, the shot isn't wasted.

Stefani Houston has posed:
In situations like this, it isn't even the main enemies that cause all the problems. Opportunistic assholes always creep up too, and in an immediate case, Stefani spots a man with a gun attempting to harass a group of civilians that seemed to be on their way to the evacuation region. With a quiet huff of a breath, Stefani disengaged the safety on her rifle, as she zeroed in on her target. She watched the rowdy man, with an AK-style rifle, raise it up to bash one of the woman across her back, and just before his gun would come down, Stefani pulled the firing trigger.

Some four hundred yards away, the man's neck was impacted by a less than lethal stunning round. SHIELD tech. It struck the man's neck, leaving a blanketing spray of electrical tendrils that lanced out around his body. His two companions turned to look at their comrade, as he suddenly began to dance in place. Utterly sizzling with electrical blasts, the man was quick to fall to the ground. This left the entire group, the two remaining thugs, and the three women, fleeing in different directions.

Stefani smirked, and swept her gun in a new direction, blurring the scope across rooftops, as she heard Cable's voice issuing different commands.

Stefani ejected her magazine, a second later she slapped a larger one in its place.

A large distance away from her sniper nest, in High Town, electrical poles were suddenly exploding, one after another, as she took aim upon the power grid, and its distribution transformers across the visible range before her.

Loud explosive sounds created a background cacophony, as lights inside of buildings began to darken, flickering out, with every additional transformer for that the sniper eliminated.

Bishop has posed:
"The entire population of Madripoor aren't crime syndicates and mercenaries. You'll be sending more then just the MLF into the stone age. It's not as simple as the rich live in Hightown and the poor in Lowtown. Valet's, cooks, taxi drivers, servers...there's more to consider here. We need a play on rooting the MLF insurgency out all together or providing sanctuary for these refugees."

Bishop is rare to counter Cable's tactical call outs but his mind is racing with the scenarios that could potentially unfold here and nothing is adding up to a positive outcome.

Plasma energy lances into him as he shields several fleeing civilians, granting them a chance to be seen and picked up by the others and as the energy crackles over him he turns and unleashes a raking blast of brightly hued kinetic force across the skies, returning the energy ten fold into a swarming group of attacking units.

When he sees a building go up into an eruption of fire and debris he turns his attention in that direction and then swings his large frame atop an abandoned, fallen, but still functioning motorcycle. The rider, a local thug, having been injured by passing debris and on the ground reacts furiously at this but is in no need to protest as Bishop revs it up and calls into the commlink "Monet, we cannot simply ignore Holocaust. His range and the sheer power at his disposal means he can immediately turn any extraction attempts into a nightmare scenario. I'm going to move towards his position. Our powers aren't dissimilar in some ways and I'm best suited to keep him occupied if need be, especially if I'm charged up enough before I arrive. If backup can be spared I won't complain."

The bike revs up as Bishop swings his arm around and sends another volley of shots into a group of incoming androids.

" With luck I should be able to harass him well enough but we need a goalpost here. Are we driving the MLF out or just praying for a large enough evac method to get the citizens out?"

He then spares a glance to the man on the ground, "Don't wait up."

Then he's off! With the rescue efforts under way and the area at least temporarily cleared out by Bishop - the poor guy should be picked up in time if he doesn't do anything stupid.

Divine has posed:
"Let me know when you're ready to move them," Divine spares a few seconds to smile at Kurt and speak. "I'll do what I can to help."

She's still focusing on evacuation and paths for now, but when a unit of ADAMs show up she bodily tackles the lead one, twisting the head off and tossing it into one of the areas still raging with fire. The other three meet similar fates, and then she chucks the bodies in as well. With luck, they won't be able to be repurposed for that use, but once the fire's out maybe some of the locals can scrap parts in exchange for... something. Food, shelter. She's pragmatic enough to know some of these people will be coming right back, because a change in regime likely won't change too much for them, otherwise. Still poor, still just trying to survive. Her lips pucker at the thought, and her next round of frost breath is cold enough that some of the more brittle sheet metal cracks under the onslaught.

Cable has posed:
One of the problems that is slowly becoming apparent? Well, one of the many problems that are slowly becoming apparent. That as the battle rages on, the enemy forces of the Mutant Liberation Front are, if anything, getting stronger. Not so much because they are portalling in even more ADAM units or additional mutants that have joind there cause -- though there do seem to be some of each of those -- but more because as the tide turns against the established power base of the city, a lot of the mercenary companies or gangs are seeing just what direction the wind is blowing... and are switching sides.

Working for the wealthy power brokers is all well and good. Who doesn't like a nice, big payday in whatever form that it takes. But most people who fight for money will usually chose to live when confronted with the choice, rather then dying for funds that they will never get to spend.

The fact that Abyss seems to have been assigned the task of hunting down a number of those power brokers, that someone clearly has the power to project what they see into the sky has allowed the MLF to show each of those grisly executions, the shadowy, stringing mutant with the claws gleefully holding up severed heads still dripping blood as he mugs for that unseen 'camera' that tracks his achievements for all to see.

"Agreed. We're not in a position for a full out war here. Avoid Holocaust and Abyss as much as possible," Cable says, utilizing both comms and the telepathic link provided.

That Bishop disagrees might not be a total surprise. Does that frustrate Cable? At the best of times he is hard to read and if he disapproves of the other man overruling him there is no sign of it either in the sound of his voice or in those thoughts. "Be very careful. We don't have a lot of leeway or backup. They do." Going against Holocaust on his own is risky. Going against Holocaust backed up by other members of the MLF could be deadly.

There is a brief hesitation before he continues. "The same goes for Stryfe. You're probably right, he is probably functioning as their Command and Control. If you get a telepathic impression of him so be it, we can try launching a ranged attack, maybe catch him with his pants down. But do not approach," he orders grudgingly. Finding an Omega level telepath that does not want to be found is no small undertaking. Trying to creep up on one is an even bigger risk. Maybe... *maybe* combined Monet, Boom-Boom and Cable himself might manage to do something to disrupt the leader of the Mutant Liberation Front.

But he doesn't like their chances.

"Keep your eyes open for smaller scale targets of opportunity," the future solider adds as he guides that armored pick-up through the streets, spotting one of those roaming groups of white, featureless androids ahead. His expression tightens a little and he casually taps at the fire control on the dash, the plasma cannon in the back suddenly firing great green gouts of energy into the quartet, one almost entirely vaporized by the discharge while the other three are sent hurled to the side in various states of disrepair as he roars on through, engine practically screaming.

"I understand Bishop. We'll evacuate everyone that we can. But Stryfe wants this place for some reason and denying it to him -- intact -- has to be a priority. Lets keep on evacuation protcols as the priority. But I have deployed EMPs to the following locations --" he says, sending a mental projection to everyone as he does so of where each of them can be found. "All in Hightown of course. But if anyone gets the chance, detonate them." It's a harsh way to do things. But Cable is used to fighting an unwinnable war from the wrong side of things.

Cable has posed:
Of course their efforts, small as they might be cannot go entirely unnoticed and while the chaos and other priorities on the field might keep Stryfe;s forces from immediately replying, they begin to do so before too long.

As Monet goes crashing through that building, one of the units of turncoat mercenaries turns those power-suited soliders against her, mini-cannons pointed in her direction and sending out a hailstorm of high-velocity rounds her way.

As Tabby rains down destruction on some of those ADAM units, she soon finds herself targetted by a small army of them -- 16 full units right along with Strobe and Thumbelina. Apparently someone has made themselves too big a nuisance.

Sally's more subtle approach allows her to flit through the streets unobserved, but the way ahead is blocked -- by Forearm and the 8 white androids under his control. An obstacle to get past if she is truly going to find suitable targets of opportunity.

The targetting of the power grid likewise seems to draw a response and in short order it is possible to make out untis of those androids taking flight, soaring over the rooftops of lowtown, trying to zero in on the one responsible -- in this case Quiet. She might be unnoticed -- for now. But how long can that last as the skies start to be dominated by the MLFs artificial soldiers.

The biggest problem though is perhaps foreseen by Bishop. Because Holocausts slow advance through the city seems to gradually be bringing him down one side of the island, closer and closer to where Kurt and Divine have been gathering up those displaced refugees for evacuation...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Blaster bolts pepper over Monet. They hurt, even as the building partially crashes and goes down around her, debris going everywhere. She has little room to maneuver and even she sin't strong enough tot hrow off the things raining down. And those bolts in concentrated firepower will cut her to ribbons. All she can really do here is charge!

She grabs up as big a chunk of concrete as she can, even as the corner of the building she was near would keep on collapsing in large chunks of rotting metal and steel and hold it in front of her to block the minigun blasts. The bullets would blast off chunks of it the size of basketballs with each 'ping'. The cover would only last for seconds before being shredded, and it was already pushing the limits of her strength to hold it up.

She goes to fly forwards as fast as she can, going to bowl through the cyborgs firing at her to send them tumbling if she could, and would then be blasting around the next building, going to try and get it between her and then. Not bothering to send in a report that she was pinned down - no one was near her and they all had their own problems. Making anyone disengage to support her would leave other sectors vulnerable.

<<Understood. But the more we keep spreading out, the more vulnerable we leave ourselves. We can only relocate so quickly here>> The mercenaries switching sides makes their timespan all the more limited.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
For the moment at least Kurt remains blissfully unaware of the impending doom marching down the coast, laying waste to any enclave of resistance as the psionically armored might of Holocaust draws nearer and nearer to that beach where the injured and displaced have been gathered.

It is a particularly incongruous setting to be sure. All white sand and crystalline blue waters as far as the eye can see, tall, thin trees swaying slightly in the afternoon breeze while that haze of smoke drifts by far overhead, promising a truly specacular sunset.

If only so many people's homes weren't burning only a couple of miles away.

"I want to gather up as many as we can," the fuzzy blue elf admits, never lingering long at that beach retreat before quickly bamfing back to the inferno and ruin that is Lowtown. But each time he returns he has to search a little longer, a little harder to find those cowering, hiding or hurt amongst the ruins of that shanty town. Too often all he is finding are bodies - some killed by the MLF perhaps, but even more by the same sorts of people that Stefani took exception to. Looters praying on their own.

"From now on if anyone stumbles over survivors if you can send me the mental location. This is getting too slow. I'm going to focus on getting the people already gathered out," Kurt offers up, vanishing again in another puff of inky black mist, heading back to the beach to start putting Cable's cobbled together Bodyslide technology to better use.

And hopefully the others can slow down that advancing threat before it reaches the beach!

Stefani Houston has posed:
With the sound of Bishop's lovely voice coming over the comm network, Stefani pulls her finger off of her firing trigger. She leans back from the scope, and glances at the texting device beside her. Subsequently she stops searching for the easter eggs of power transformers hanging from posts, or the sides of buildings, and instead just listens to the exchange between Bishop, and Cable. Her pink lips purse together, as she considers the ins and outs of that exchange... but Cable was her Boss on this mission, and ultimately she would follow what orders he lays down upon the field.

With a soft draw of breath in through her pert nose, the military sniper leaned back in, and drew down scope once more.

Lights in the sky, hovering drones of some manner, caught her attention... Sniper Finders. Bugs, really.

Stefani exhaled, her lips making a little smacking noise in repetitive fashion, as she knew this was going to be that much more tricky.

Her body moved back from her rifle, and with a hoist of it up over her shoulder by its strap, she gathered up the rest of her light gear, and vanished in to a puff of black smoke...

She needed a nest with more cover...

It took only a few moments, before she reformed, hidden behind a large bilboard ad sign for some kind of cigar shop in High Town, and from its shadowy refuge, the sniper once more took up position.

She began firing down upon the bots, the flying drone bots certainly having a direction to possibly key in on now, but her shots are well aimed, and delivered with deadly accuracy to at least three of the machines that buzz through the sky.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
That's a lot of robots.

Which along with Strobe and Thumbelina with them is a hell of a lot of amusement to Boom-Boom. "Wassup ladies. You might wanna like not be up in this mess. Gonna be straight up banging and clanging in here." There's some rolling of shoulders and hips in front of the two women, Tabby getting extra limbered up. Which leads to some hand wavy almost kata like motions as plasma leaves contrails from those motions. <<Really, GTFO Bitches, your boss like wants you to be all die for a cause that's gonna set us back decades. Wonder how long before someone catches all this crap on the news and sends sentinels after all of us!>> it starts as kind of a psychic command, but then gets punctuated by images of her own memories of the Genoshan Genocide that she got by actually being there at the time.

The ADAM units obviously miss that part as they get a sight of the air overhead Boom-Boom filling with basketball sized bombs. The crackling and hiss of plasma ionizing overhead with hands sweeping, fingers waggling.

She doesn't have to directly hit anything when splash damage is a thing. Strobe should largely be fine, it's whether she'll protect Thumbelina.

Bishop has posed:
Hailing from a future where his line of work and rank had him ready to arrest and even execute on sight his own kind for the sake of peace and order ...Bishop is used to the necessary pragatism of war and harsh realities.

His time with the X-Men, his inspiration, showed him there are other paths...

At least, most of the time. He can't deny that, ultimately, if there is something that Stryfe wants here in Madripoor...him getting his hands on it will mean more then just hardship for the people of Madripoor caught in the middle of this battle. It'll mean danger for the entire world. What must be done must be done.

Flashes of emotion over the mental link would reveal his satisfaction at Cable's word followed by unrelenting focus as his bike bursts onto a main throughway that leads towards the beach and puts him within sight, and more importantly range, of Holocaust.

"I've got eyes on Holocaust!" he calls into both commlink and mental link as his borrowed bike loudly burns its wheels into the rubble strewn streets.

The energy he's been collecting up to this point begins blazing from his eyes and dragging contrails through the air from one of his fists as he guides the bike with only one arm.

"Holocaust!" he shouts and instant before thrusting his arm forward and sending an enrmous blast of searing concussive energy of such force it would do Cyclops himself proud.

But the blast doesn't go for Holocaust directly but instead towards the evacuated hulk of a building nearby. The sustained blast rips through the lower floor, bursting apart support beams and foundational structures -- and the small office structure begins to tip over, starting a decent towards the terrible mutant warlord with a rain of glass and concrete and a sundering of the ground.

Sally Pride has posed:
Both Bishop and Cable have valid points. Which together boils down to this wasn't going to be a war to win. It was going to be a war to make the enemy lose as much as possible.

Sally is unsurprised to see mercs more willing to jump to line when they see what looks like the winning and more profitable side. While the locals not wanting to be involved are being evaced as best as possible. Less to wander into the crossfire, the better.

At the edge of an alleyway Sally presses her back up against the wall to peak around the corner, eyes narrowed at Forearm. Naturally he's not alone. <<Found one of the goon squads,>> she thinks over the telepathic link. <<I'll give them something to think about besides harassing the clearout ops.>>

A moment is taken to lock a fresh long mag into the assault rifle, ensuring she's got a full load ready. Then she steps out of the alley, pivoting as she does to open fire and strafe across the group with barrage of AP rounds, aiming at taking down or crippling as many of his android units as possible. The less support Forearm has on his side, the better her own options are.

Divine has posed:
"I will," Divine replies with a nod. She thinks there probably aren't that many left, but if she finds any she'll relay their locations... or just fly them herself. Her eyes track Kurt with a hint of worry, wondering how many more teleports he has left before ending up exhausted.

There's a burst of noise, and her ears pick up Bishop's shout far closer than she wants the man known as Holocaust to be. "Oh, no no no, time to go!" She scoops up a few stragglers - locals that have been keeping near her, calling out and extracting people between Kurt's teleports - and hauls ass towards the beach, setting them down on the edge of the group and hustling towards Kurt. "Holocaust. We've got to move them now." Her voice is grim as she relays the message, and she curls a gentle hand around his shoulder, pointing into the distance as a building falls. "How many can you port at once? Can we get everyone with one slide and a port? I'll fly us back after, or come get you after, whatever we'll need to do."

Cable has posed:
It is, unsurprisingly, something of a no-win situation for them here.

If they spread out as they have, if they each take on their own misisons, their own priorities to either cause or prevent some of the ongoing havoc currently ripping the city apart they are left more vulnerable, more exposed to counter attack. Less able to support one another if they really should require it.

That could be fixed y grouping up it's true. To concentrate their attention and firepower. But that in turn means that it would be even easier for the forces on the island to group up, to concentrate their attention on them.

And there is a heck of a lot more member of the MLF and their allies then Cable has been able to assemble on such short notice.

The numbers game is not one that favors them.

"Watch each other's back as best you can. As much as possible try to stay within Quiet's sightline and range, she can provide covering fire in a pinch," Cable suggests as that armored pickup he drives tears around the corner, rather casually plowing right over a pile of debris without even slowing down, that rear-mounted plasma cannon swivvelling to fire more gouts of that virulet green energy at a deployment of mercenaries located down one of those side streets..

"If you need to, put the bodysldie protocols to use. The limited range is still more then enough tocover the entire city," he adds, voice tense as he puts the additional mobility of his vehicle to use to present a moving target to his foes. "Just keep in mind, without Greymalkin the numbers it can handle at any one time are more limited so each time we use it, that is a delay in getting a civilian out of the conflict zone," he points out grimly.

It's a hard choice. War's full of them. But he is not entirely unsympathetic it would seem.

Afterall, he put Kurt in charge of the teleportation technology, surely understanding where his priorities would lie.

As it becomes clear that Holocaust's advance is bringing him periolously close to the gathering of refugees waiting to be evacuated on that beach, Cable grimaces, taking that armored pickup around another tight corner, sending him streaming towards one of those gates leading into Hightown. He has as good a chance as any at reaching those EMPs. And the team on the whole has a new priority now, though he might dislike the necessity of it. "Provide Bishop with any back up he needs. Long enough to clear the beach at least," he says over the comms and telepathic link.

Cable has posed:
Certainly one of the more dangerous gorups of mercenaries to operate out of Madripoor, the Reavers are still not really a match one on one for Monet, even with their enhanced cybernetics. But it only takes one lucky shot, right? And they are firing a whole lot of bullets her way. But that chunk of debris provides just enough cover to go plowing through their ranks, opening up a hole. Though she's unlikely to find safety anywhere in the city.

The fact that Quiet can flit around the battlefield with such ease does make the drone and android's jobs considerably harder and by the time they zero in on her previous position, she is already safely ensconed by that billboard, that new cover giving her the vantage point to take out their search parties, each shot seeming to send another drone or android plummetting down to the ruined streets below, leaving the MLF forces to start the whole process all over again.

But she's tying up resources that could otherwise go to securing their hold on the city.

Tabitha has her own means of dealing with the opposition. Means that, unsurprisingly involve pretty big explosions. As those basketball sized plasma bombs begin to explode overhead, the white, featureless androids start to scatter but there is no way for them all to get out of the blast radius.

As expected, Strobe at least shows some loyalty to her fellow mutant, stepping in to absorb the worst of that blast, leaving her glowing brightly. Then, grabbing hold of Thumbelina, she lifts her with surprising ease -- that weight manipulation coming into play -- before hurling her towards Tabby like a cannonball. At the same time she begins to glow brighter and brighter, the corona around her practically blinding in it's intensity.

Forearm and his ADAM units seem to be focused on holding this position for the moment, one of the few main arteries through Lowtown that hasn't been thoroughly destoryed in the fighting. With that open ground around them, they clearly aren't expecting a surprise attack. And Sally makes them pay.

That barrage of armored piercing rounds has over half of the androids down in mere seconds, limbs blown off in some cases, or otherwise sparking from headshots, and Forearm begins to charge her way, a trio of androids rising up into the air behind him to follow towards Sally's place of cover.

The beach has no real tactical value. Only the innocent victims of this invasion. But that doesn't seem to stop Stryfe from sensing their intentions, from directing forces towards it. And while Divine may stand as a formidable deterrent to Holocaust's approach, Kurt will find that the limitations of the reduced bodyslide technology at Cable's disposal means that only a maximum of sixteen people can be evacuated every ten seconds or so as the system cycles. That's just a little less then a hundred people per minute.

They definitely need to buy some time.

Fortunately Bishop is doing exactly that for them as he suddenly emerges in the path of the glowing engine of destruction that marched inxorably towards Kurt and Divine. "Bishop," come the roar of that inhuman voice, that manifestation of destruction already trying to bring his own firepower to bear.

And instead jerking arms up over his head at the last minute as all of that unleashed power from the future cop tears into the building at his side, sending it toppling down over him in a rain of debris that temporarily at least hides even Holocaust's glowing form from sight.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
She's just slowing things down in one sector. Monet's not quite badly injured, but she's still isolated from the rest of the group and isn't in a positionw here she has any backup. So she has to disengage at this point, as they're being beaten back. It means that whatever members of the MLF, the Reavers, the mercenaries.. Anyone that's going berserk in this area no longer has her in their way. But she'd be mobbed otherwise and there's only so much support if any she could get from Quiet, and would be fighting a losing battle. It only takes one lucky shot from a high powered weapon to take her out. It doesn't have to cripple her, it just has to slow her.

And then the third or fourth shot while she's injured will be the one that finishes things. Monet goes to smash wildly into two more buildings and knocks out support beams in them, not with the strength to collapse them, but to make them heave and to give herself a litlte more cover while she would retreat. She would head towards the beach rendevous, a sick feeling in her body.

She's already been part of one desperate evacuation in these last weeks where most had to be left behind.. hopefully this failure in the end won't leave those they cannot save in a situation that's so dire. Monet bounces off the sides of buldings until she can reorient herself, moving to fly to backup Tabitha.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
One hundred people a minute. It's a big number. Far more then he could manage on his own and even with it's limitations, the Bodyslide technology will get them off the island of Madripoor, will get them hudnreds of miles away to another of Cable's Asian safehouses.

But right now he would really kill for some true portal powers or tech, something that would let them mass move a whole lot more people a whole lot more quickly.

As the fuzzy blue elf reviews the limitations they are working with, he purses lips consideringly. "We perhaps need a little more time then we can manage," he says, keeping his voice low so not to panic any of the refugees as he converses with Divine. "Perhaps you can go an assist Herr Bishop my dear. I shall stay here and keep things as orderly as possible in the interim. And if he gets past you, well," he says, drawing his rapier and giving it a little flourish.

It seems foolish. One sword against a walking monstrocity?

But the fuzzy blue elf has done more with less.

"We'll be fine," he offers up with a confident grin before turning to the huddled masses. "Gather around. CHildred and the injured first."

Sally Pride has posed:
"Y'know, I didn't think this city could get much shittier, but you've all proven me wrong." There wasn't going to be a lack of witty remarks. Just Sally waited until after the shooting started and her presence was already shown. Several of the ADAMs go down, disabled. The remaining trio takes to the air as their commander turns on her position.

That's right, come deal with her. Away from the open space that could be traveled through.

When Forearm charges her way the lioness steps back into the alley, letting the appearance of a hit-n-run play out. That and while not tall the buildings (or remains of) in Lowtown were still enough to help her avoid getting easily flanked, the narrower spaces keeping the androids from just swarming her from overhead.

While upon stepping into the alley himself Forearm would find one of the dumpsters tumbling at him from being kicked, while Sally hefted up her weapon for another burst of fire at the remaining ADAMS while they have to navigate the narrowing space between structures to try and get at her.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"Wolverine and Colossus gonna be disappointed you stealing their move." Boom-Boom taunts as Thumbelina is thrown at her while the size altering mutant is shrunk down.

With ADAM units scattering or exploding it gives Tabitha a chance to focus on her biological opponents.

First it's not being hit by a very tiny woman with more punch. Hopefully Thumbelina can't fly. But might wish she could as Tabby sidesteps and leaves a bomb ready to go off in the middle of the shrunken Mutant's while she rushes the glowing Strobe, the bombastic blonde grinning. "C'Mon, I been doing flashbangs and bright ass blasts since I was a kid. Going full body ain't gonna help your shapely butt. And if ya don't fly over and catch your cuddly friend, she gonna catch a bomb herself." she warns while yelling mid dash to close the distance and throw herself a hefty punch while squinting to see through her tinted lenses still works.

Stefani Houston has posed:
Stefani had lived a life of relative isolation. She'd been trained as a killer since she was very young, and spent somewhere around 45 years enacting her training in a range of battlefields across the entire planet. She was a mercenary for hire, a soldier of fortune... but she had a moral code, which probably would have been the death of her decades ago, if not for the powers she gained through strange medical experiments performed upon her by a villainous monster not unlike those attacking this poor city tonight.

She hated villainous monsters, because of that very personal reason to herself. Sure, it saved her life, as she would be long dead by now... but they had done it without her permission, and she really wasn't even sure what she was anymore. Was she a Human still? Or was she just a puppet for someone else's killing game?

Right now, she knew what her role was, and it was to keep her 'friends' safe. Really though, these were all strangrs to her. Some of them didn't even know she was in the fight. But she was here for them, and through them, she was here for the people of the city.

Keeping her team safer was always the most important task for Stefani, and she tried to achieve that goal through the skillful use of her variety of weapons, and primarily her sniper system.

A robot attacker near to Kurt and Divine, that had been rushing in upon the blue fuzzy elf, is suddenly ripped apart by a well placed round from Stefani's rifle.

A pair of robots that land upon Cable's vehicle are suddenly torn to shreds by two more shots, the pieces of the bots scattering to the ground, along with the jagged bladed stun weapons they were intending to skewer the driver of said vehicle with.

Sally is set upon by two flying drones, firing down upon her, only to have the northern most drone be obliterated by a perfectly placed shot. The second one soon following in short order, its central body ripped in to two halves that scatter against a low-town building's wall.

And a man with a molotov cocktail, rushing toward Tabitha, suddenly has the bottle in his hand burst in to flames, the flames spreading up his arm, as he now frantically screams, and rushes toward a nearby body of water to throw himself within!

But, she over extended herself, and gave her position away.

The cigar bilboard is detonated by an incoming rocket, tearing the giant sign to shreds, sending splinters all across the building it adorned, and the road down beneath it...

But, minutes later, and a small little tendril of black smoke rolled across the alley floor behind said building, wiggling its way down the street like a scurrying snake, graceful and quiet.

Divine has posed:
Divine squeezes Kurt's shoulder lightly. "I will do everything in my power to keep him at bay until the last refugee is gone. Stay safe." She flies off without further comment, gaining speed as she comes into range with Holocaust. Her mind doesn't immediately recall all of his powers, but she does recall that his weird exoskeleton can be damaged, and that's what she aims to do as she comes speeding in from his back. Crack the casing. Knock him into another one of Bishop's concussive blasts. Anything that will buy her friend time to get more of the refugees out.

If she can get a grip, the thought of hurling the man as far into the atmosphere as she can manage comes to mind.

Bishop has posed:
"Nice to be remembered."

Bishop's quip is probably lost to the sound of the building crashing and the ground shaking. A debris cloud billows up, roaring a shockwave towards him as he brings his bike to a skidding stop but keeps the engines rumbling, ready to rev up into a rapid evasive effort on a moments notice.

His powers -are- indeed uniquely suited to serve as a distraction for Holocaust. He projects wild amounts of energy - Bishop absorbs wild amounts of energy. The precise limits of which have yet to be seen. Unfortunantely Holocaust is exactly the type of mutant to have a good chance at finding those limits and Bishop is in no mood to put that to the test. He's taken blunted strikes from Holocaust before and even those pushed his body to levels he'd care to not revisit with a single blast.

"Holocaust is down but I estimate less then thirty seconds before he recovers and goes on the offensive. Use that wisely, I can't guarantee much more."

He may not -want- to put his mutant abilities to their full test but that doesn't mean he's isn't going to try if he has to.

"Any backup incoming? Now'd be a good time." he suggests a mere instant before the sound of the Divine's approach fills the air.

Cable has posed:
Madripoor offers a wealth of possibilities to someone like Stryfe.

There is the obvious -- the money. While the majority of the population might live in absolute squalor, the residents of Hightown are a different story of course. There is a fortune in hard currency, in art, in technology and jewelery and just about every other sort of wealth imaginable.

While the tech available would be formidable to some, given that Cable is increasingly certain that both himself and Stryfe come from the same time, that is probably less of a goal for the man. Still, it doesn't hurt.

There are, of course, the weapons, the firepower. Already a good number of the gangs and mercenary companies are throwing in with Stryfe and the MLF. He might have a limited number of mutant followers. A larger number of androids true, but still there are limits. So adding a new force to his ranks? Not insignificant.

But perhaps Madripoor's most valuable resource? Information. So many secrets are trading here in this city, so many gathered by the shadiest of people. That might be of the greatest use to Stryfe, especially if he has managed to corrupt the 'Professor' unit from Greymalkin. What it could do with all that info is a disturbing thought to Cable.

So while the others fight their rearguard action, Cable plows straight through the gate into Hightown, that virulent green energy coming from the flatbed mounted plasma cannon clearing his path.

It is a little harder to avoid notice by this point, but he doesn't have far to go in truth and as he nears the building in question he practically leaps from the driver's seat of that armored pick-up truck, leaving the cannon on auto-fire, tracking anyone that comes near.

He walks determinedly towards the alley running up one side of the building, raising a hand and jerking the dumpster there aside to reveal the little hidey-hole and the high-tech EMP tucked away there.

An instant later waves of the blue-energy wash over the city as that electromagnetic pulse explodes outward, frying the nearby electronics. He can't do anything about whatever hard copies of the information might be out there. But he can keep Stryfe from getting his hands on any of the electronic records.

Cable has posed:
While Monet might not be in particularly good shape right at the moment, she has done a pretty good job of insuring that the Reavers won't be pursuing her at least. So while it might be tricky to avoid all the many and varied threats that are still very much scattered about the city, at least she has a chance of evacuating safely.

And there is always the emergency bodyslide if she should need it.

Sally likewise might have her work cut out for her, but the narrow, twisty streats and alleyways of Lowtown do give her the advantage of tight quarters, all the debris and the damage only adding to the mess.

So as Forearm goes tearing around the corner after her, he find himself slammed by that dumpster, sending him tumbling to the ground with a pained grunt. While he struggles back to his feet, the trio of Zero-units swarm after the lioness, pulling ahead and leaving him far behind. But leaving them more open to ambush as well as she begins to make her escape out of the combat zone.

It would appear that Thumbelina can't fly, it's true, as she goes soaring past Tabitha, unable to land her strike. But manipulating her weight does have advantages. Like the fact that she can become light enough that any fall won't hurt her. Or to allow herself to be carried along the shockwave of Tabby's plasma blasts. So long as she can avoid the worst of the burn.

RStrobe growls, the redheaded mutant launching herself into the air to hurl firey blasts towards her obnoxious foe. Not exactly Boom-Booms biggest weakness, though the heat from each of those searing blasts is surely quite intense.

The cover fire that Quiet offers up, the enemies she takes out before they can become a factor keep the rest of the team from being overwhelmed. So there might be a flicker of concern when the billboard perch that the sniper puts to such good use is suddenly incinerated, positively shreaded as all those airborn defenses finally concentrate on putting an end to her.

At least they might if there wasn't that telepathic link that makes the rest of the team well aware that Quiet lives to fight another day.

Holocaust remaisn the biggest threat to their primary objective and while Bishop takes him out of the fight at least temporarily, his instincts serve him well. He's not out of it for long.

In less then a minute the glowing, psionically armored shell of Holocaust is visible once more as he climbs out of the rubble left from that building and he begins to pick up some of those larger chunks, hurling them towards Bishop, one after another. The largest are the size of a mid-sized car and could crush the mutant cop. But even the smaller, basketball-sized chunks are hurled with enough force as to be deadly if they hit home.

Fortunately Bishop does indeed have backup in the form of a Kryptonian clone who sweeps in, either purposely or inadvertantly blocking one of those hurled boulders. Holocause unleashes one of those great blasts of energy that soars just wide, for the third time facing down the dark haired Kryptonian.

And once more Divine has his number, sidestepping the blast as she manages to get a hold on him and hurl him high into the air until he is a mere speck in the distance, plummetting towards the waters of the ocean.

He might be getting tired of that.

On the beach, the flood of people continue to line of, waiting as Kurt guides the evacuation efforts, helping to transport dozens, then hundreds as minutes begin to pass without any serious threat -- beyond the ones that Stefani neutralizes -- from showing their faces.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
She arrives with the others along the beach, ready to hold off any last attackers and goes to just watch Divine move to LAUNCH her opponent up and over into lower orbit. She never gets tired of seeing that - or terrified of it. And what is worse in it? That their opponent can survive it and is merely inconveienced by it? Or that in time it likely won't be enough to handle anything at the rate at which Stryfe's followers seem to be empowering themselves.

Monet arrives back on the beach, helping to fight a delaying pattern as seh goes to put herself a kilometer or so away from the bodyslide to help hold off any final attacks as they try to get as many people out of the city as they can . Which will likely be the same as it was on Tamaran. A depressingly small percentage.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
As the moments begin to pass, as more and more of the gathered refugees are teleported off this corrupt little island -- now a warzone -- Kurt begins to relax just a bit, though the fact that Stefani needs to intervene and pick off one of the androids before it can stumble into the clearing and cause trouble is enough to keep him on his toes.

"I take it that you have managed to deal with Holocause?" he says over the comm, the sandy beach growing less and less crowded by the moment. "The primary evacuation is nearly completely. There's only a few dozen people left to get out of here. Then I'll go hunting for any other pockets of survivors that I can find and get them to safety too," he promises.

It will be dark soon, and it is all but impossible to spot him in the dark. He will stalk through the city, his own eyes easily piercing the dark to get out whoever he can manage before he too will withdraw.

Though he can't hope but wonder just what Stryfe hoped to accomlish here today...

Bishop has posed:
For the second time, Holocaust resorts to physical assaults, using his vast strength to attempt to put an end to the future-cop and this fact isn't lost on Bishop.

"Looks like he's learned a little too much about me.." he muses. A directed energy assault would be preferred, risky or not. He could still potentially absorb it and send it back or use it to be super charged. Pieces of rubble and debris hurtled with enough force to kill? Bishop can physically enhance his body, even absorb the kinetic energy involved, but it wouldn't stop the actual momentum. The physical impact itself. So he goes on the defensive.

Energy blasts lance out as he revs the bike up to try and skid it out of the way of the first volley of incoming debris. His blasts lance through some and send others spinning away but a final one actually clips his bike and he's sent sliding to the ground, tumbling from it as the vechicle goes sliding towards another pile of rubble while Bishop rolls on the ground roughly.

He pushes up towards his feet, bruised and battered, just in time to see a massive piece hurtling his way --- and then Divine blasting into view, exploding through it to take on Holocaust directly.

When he manages to grip and hurtle him away, Bishop sighs a bit, relief hitting his shoulders as they sag and he shakes his head.

"..Glad you're on -our- side..."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
It's the lack of flying that is actually Tabitha's weakness here. But with Strobe hovering and mostly lobbing blasts at Tabitha. The blonde having had to ditch her melting sunglasses as they started to risk gumming up her hair, she grumbles a little since she liked those frames.

"Hey, get your ass back down here!" she yells at Strobe. Between the redhead's shielding and the blonde's innate resistance to each others blasts. Tabby has to think fast.

And move fast.

By which she jumps and blasts herself upward almost in an impression of Cannonball. Minus the nigh invulnerability.

She's just gotten super tough at the most as she rocket jumps to tackle Strobe and bring her down to the ground from probably a bit too high for the redhead.

Not that it would be fun for Tabitha but she's blasted herself waaay harder than a mere fall's impact.

Sally Pride has posed:
It wasn't a fight they could win. But it was a fight they could maybe move the enemy around more to their favor.

Forearm was delayed, and that gives Sally time to keep moving. The assault rifle is left to hang from it's strap as she doesn't want to waste the time reloading it while she's on the move.

But that's why you keep your options open.

She moves to grab what remains of a fire escape, considering climbing up to get a better view of the streets to work her path out. But that's when one of the ADAM units remaining gets a bead on her. Dives down at the lioness.

So instead of vaulting up Sally yanks down on the ladder with all her might, pulling it free from what little stable mooring it had left. That brings it crashing down on top of the android lunging at her, leaving it under a tangled mess of metal bars and broken mortar. It could probably pry itself out... But doesn't get a chance before Sally wenches one of the remaining bars loose, and rams it into the robot's head unit.

And then lioness already beating paws once more, making for the edges of what remains of Madripoor burning in the night.

Divine has posed:
Divine dusts her hands off, vision narrowed in to focus on Holocaust's path towards orbit. "He'll... be a while, I think." Divine grins at Bishop for a moment, but it fades into a more considering look.

Before she can ask if he wants a flight to the beach, she hears Tabitha's distinctive yells and sees the woman explode into the air. She's gone in a flash, heading to intercept the explosive woman before she can crash into the ground. "Gotcha, Booms." Her eyes narrow on Strobe, but hey. Free prisoner! "One more pick-up, and then we're outta here." She touches lightly on the telepathic link, finds Cable's location, and swoops to pick him up. "No wiggling unless you want to die!"

Cable has posed:
Sigh. He is used to a certain level of sacrifices in war. It's part of the job.

But he is most definitely going to miss that pick-up. Still, it got him where he needed to go and that denonated EMP should make Stryfe's task of consolidating his hold on Madripoor a little more difficult.

While he is confident enouogh that he could get out himself, the fact that Divine swings by when she does is helpful in insuring that he doesn't have that much to worry about and the white haired, future soldier only shoots her a brief, tight smile as he is whisked away. "Telekinetic. I'll be fine. But thanks for the head's up.

Giving her direction along with sending it out to the rest of those still in the field, Cable has the Kryptonian powerhouse drop him off at the uniquely camoflauged safehouse in Lowtown. "I'm putting the base in stealth, low-power mode. I'll keep it as a base of operations here on the island for as long as we can keep it unnoticed so that we can continue to gather information, help out those that need it get off the island, and run suitable sabotage missions," he sends out. "Regroup here or bodyslide out as soon as you can. I think we have done all that we can. For now."

Madripoor has fallen. But the fight with Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation Front is hardly over.