19178/Through A Mirror Darkly: Resistance Is Futile

Through A Mirror Darkly: Resistance Is Futile
Date of Scene:	01 October 2024
Location:	Madripoor
Synopsis:	Cable and allies put up a last defense of Madripoor, rescuing more civilians but ultimately being driven out by Stryfe and the MLF. Juggernaut makes another appearance and teaches Holocaust who the most dangerous man around really is.
Cast of Characters:	Cable, Monet St. Croix, Tabitha Smith, Kurt Wagner, Cain Marko, Divine

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Cable has posed:
Madripoor.

The island nation has ever been a contentious place. An island of unparalleled opportunity for a handful of it's rich and powerful residents. And a place of misery for just about anyone else happened to reside there. And despite the recent, drastic changes that have taken place on the island, that much has not changed in the least.

To a certain extent, the more things change, the more they stay the same would seem to be the appropriate mantra for Madripoor. It frequently finds itslef changing hands between the vengeful and the venal and while Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation Front might be the latest moxious overseers of the island principality, the nightmare atmsophere they have brought is only a chance in intensity, not form.

Human misery has always very much had a place on Madripoor. The inhabitants of Lowtown have long lived in virtual squalor. Life -- at least for those not wealthy and powerful -- has long tended to be cheap and little respected.

The past several weeks have shown that hasn't changed. From the 'reeducation' camps Stryfe has set up in particular to capture any mutants that might be found amongt the native population, to the various crackdowns made to try and stamp out Cable's resistance, the island has been wracked by conflict since the invasion, with the various allies of the future solider fighting a rearguard action to try and slow down the dangerous, Omega-level telepathy from achieving what he was hoping to.

And they've had some luck. They have kept any real effort at rebuilding the devestation from going anywhere. They have kept the island facing constant brown outs with it's unstable power supply. They have struck at the Zero Units and other members of the Mutant Liberation Front whenever the opportunity has presented itself. And they have rescued thousands of people, dozens of mutants, getting them to safety off the island and away from Stryfe's machinations.

And apparently that has pushed the armored tyrant to the limit. Because he has abandonned any semblance of concern for the island, for the people on it, in his efforts to wipe out resistance in Madripoor altogether. Emerging from the walled confines of Hightown, groups of the white, featureless androids that make up the core of Stryfe's forces, supplimented by the various mutant followers -- MLF and Marauders alike -- those forces began to pour into Lowtown several horus ago.

And set about demolishing the place, block by block.

Smoke rises in a haze above the city, making for a truly impressive sunset admittedly, but leaving more then half of the sprawling slum that makes up most of the city a smoking ruin. And still they advance, ruthlessly attacking and killing virtually anyone with absolutely no regard for whether the people they stumble across are part of Cable's resistance or not.

So for the last several horus Cable has been out amongst the city, saving who he can even while Stryfe's forces overrun position after position. Soot-stained and grim-faced, the white-haired future solider peeks around the corner of one of the few buildings still standing nearby, just up the street from the last bastion left to the resistance -- his hidden bunker. But it is only a matter of time before it falls too.

"Report in," he says over the comm, wary about relying too much on telepathy with Stryfe taking the field.

The end of the active resistance on the island has come. Now it's all about getting as many people to safety as they can.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
It's another rough evacuation. They can only get people out by the dozens, perhaps even hundreds. In a city that possibly had a population of millions. No matter what, it's going to be a wasteland even if Stryfe leaves and it's resettled. The upper city looks like a war zone, the downtown area seems to have been completely leveled. There is debris and broken everything everywhere. From what Monet might assume, simply anything of worth was looted or destroyed in the last months.

And after all the continuing chaos and suffering with Galactus, dealing with Stryfe puts things over in perspective. She goes to focus, trying to keep her mind on one thing. Time travel and alternate realities make linearity so confusing. She's using her slightly enhanced senses to try and pickup pockets of people - civilians, signs of the MLF, or those terrifying Zero robots. She speaks along the comm. <<Heavy patrols in my area. I can bypass them likely. I'm not picking up much activity.>> Though she's trying to limit the use of her telepathy inc ase Stryfe can home in on it. She's trying to firstly look for people they can rescue and evacuate.. Then be ready to come in and hit the first group that attacks the bunker from behind. But trying to get those few out that she can is her first priority.

The fact that they've lost hurts. Stryfe controls the island. Everything else here is just a quibble. They've gotten a scant few people out.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
<<Okay. I think I'm pretty much at my limit for all these milfs getting in my face.>> It's over comms that Boom-Boom is replying to the status update. A lot of her time in the rush to evac had been making sure anything large like buildings collapsing or abandoned vehicles being thrown around don't hit the people still on the streets.

Just to help make herself standout and be a better target than the average local, she went for a lot of pink. Leggings and halter top version of an X-Suit with a darker red for her boots, gloves, and utility belt. So many practical pouches. Snacks, first aid kit, good makeup. The green tinted shades on her nose keeping most of her hair out of her face while a high set ponytail does most of the work.

<<Really hope we're not herding people somewhere extra dangerous. That'd be straight messed up!>> she points out a pretty big concern.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
It takes a lot to dampen the spirits of one Kurt Wagner.

The fuzzy blue elf would seem to be an eternal optomist, always ready with an easy grin or a kind word for anyone that crosses his path. Always ready to look towards the brighter sort of things and do what he can to raise the spirits of others.

But the last few hours have taken a toll on him as well.

The soot from the fires that rage through the ruins of Lowtown - what little of it remains - don't leave a visible mark on his indigo fur as they might flesh, but it is still a stain on his soul. Watching people lives, no matter how desperate they might already be, simply trampled on is immensely disheartening.

But the mutant teleporter has continued to work throughout the day, seemingly constantly teleporting from one place to the next, always just a step ahead of the advancing forces that move ever closer to their final position, gathering up what people he can and teleporting them back to Cable's safehouse where the Bodyslide technoloy works overtime to try and get them out. Before their time is up. r
"Nightcrawler checking in. I'm going through the last few buildings now. There is not a great deal left standing out here, I fear..."

Cain Marko has posed:
Another kind fo monster lurks nearby. A one man natural disaster and an army unto himself. With a flash of teleportation energy and the signature of the mutant mercenary Vanisher - The Juggernaut appears in the broken remains of an alleyway within the remains of Lowtown . The Kaiju has arrived.

The power of The Juggernaut has been described before as dwarfing the combined might of entire teams of heroes and villains gathered to face him...

It's a good thing he's not out of his damn mind then.

Indeed his presence might be fortuitous for the island defenders even though he may represent something of a wild card. After all, it is pure chance that has once more brought him back to Madirpoor courtesy of the hired services of Vanisher. A cowardly Vanisher who voices a loud, "Alright, I'm out!" as soon as the teleportaiton effect fades away, leaving the titanic armored body of Juggernaut looming in the alleyway with a deep frown on his face and the the terrified expressions of several Lowtown residents, huddled together near his immense legs, having been unfortunante to have selected this particular spot to hide in. Naturally quite ignorant that it was these coordinates that Vanisher had chosen to deposit his cargo in.

"Just be ready to pick me back up when I yell for you." growls Juggernaut into his comm, "This should only take a minute... I just need to make sure they aint cracked my safehouse all the way open... I sunk a lot of money into that project before I got..distracted.."

Distracted as in, out of his mind due to demonic influence, a cult dedicated to an angry elder god, and other assorted factors but yes. Distracted. When he was last here that was plauging his mind but he still managed to rescue the very mutant that's been acting as his form of rapid transportation. Now that his mind is back to what -passes- for normal...it's time to get back to business.

"'Scuse me folks." Juggernaut rumbles before taking one heavy step forward and then another. Each footfall sending a huge crater forming into the ground and shaking the earth for the radius of a block or so. But at least he's polite about it. The Lowtowners just mutely nod, allowing the behemoth to slowly pass and move for the streets.

Divine has posed:
Divine focuses on what she can do, rather than letting herself get lost in the devastation.

What she can do is put her body between the advancing army and people like Kurt, tirelessly working to save everyone they can, even though the hope of reclaiming Madripoor is lost for now. She rips through Zeroes with the might of her Kryptonian side behind her, unafraid to swing or throw the various android parts at the human element also getting in the way. Every focus on her is a focus that isn't pointed at the people doing the really important stuff.

She's aware that she's still helping, but. Destruction is easy. Losing hope is easy. Perseverance is hard. But destruction gives them time, confuses the forces at hand, causes a little chaos.

Divine is pretty good at causing chaos.

Her hands twist and pull, leaving pieces in their wake. Her lungs take in more air than seems possible, and when she blows it out she leaves behind the Frost of her mother-figure, slowing or outright stopping some of the onslaught in its wake. It leaves her time to unleash her eyes, the least trained and most deadly part of her arsenal. Zeroes are turned to slag in her wake, their limbs cauterized as her gaze heads down a line of the creations. Always, always a part of her mind paying attention to her comrades to keep them out of the wake of the worst of her destruction.

Cable has posed:
It is entirely possible that Cable is a little more grim then normal.

Look, Madripoor is a pit. There is no denying that. It does not have a whole lot of redeeming value. But for over a year, Cable has more or less called it his home away from home, spending most of his down time -- that wasn't spent on Greymalkin, now also gone thanks to Stryfe -- he on this island. The originary people were decent, it presented a target rich environment and whatever else can be said about the atmosphere of the island nation, it's damn hard to beat the weather.

But one again Stryfe is going to chase him out of another home. Cable doesn't need the Professor to tell him the odds of them pulling out anything last minute here -- though again, the loss of his A.I. companion is another thing that he owes Stryfe for.

So he listens to the updates of the agents that he still has on the ground for what it's worth. Listens and keeps an eye peeled from his position, scanning the nearby streets and sky not only with his eye but with a low-level and very diffuse telepathic field designed largely to ping with the presence of thought.

"Understood," comes the white-haired soldier's grim reply. "The Bodyslide tech is going to take about another hour to get out the people we've already gathered plus whatever others we can find in what remains of Lowtown," Cable adds. An hour. That doesn't seem so bad. But as Lowtown burns, as those squads of featureless androids and mutant support sweep through the city, their pace begins to accelerate as any real resistance begins to collapse.

An hour might as well be a lifetime.

That cybernetic eye of Cable's cuts through the haze of smoke, cuts through the slow creep of twilight that threatens to descend upon the city, darkness surely bringing even more death, more destruction to the city, and he can see some of those patrols approaching. The one that numbers Nolocaust among them is unsurprisingly leading the way as he practically demonlishes entire streets himself, razing them in massive explosions of energy. BUt other squads supported by MLF members or turned members of Sinister's Marauders are close on his heels.

Headed this way.

Cursing under his breath, Cable begins to dig through his pack, to see what surprises he might be able to prepare for the advancing forces when he first feels it. That little rumble. That shaking in the ground. It could be minor tremors. A distant earthquake felt even here. But he's pretty sure it's not.

"Tighten up our lines. And keep an eye out for any surprises. We might just have an opportunity to turn a little surprise to our advantage," Cable says cryptically.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's way too many to fight, even indirectly. The city would set the stage for a wonderful urban battle if the war wasn't already over and resistance defeated. The place has been occupied and leveled. And they've barely even slowed Stryfe and have little idea as to what his long term goals are as he's nearly at the point of having complete control of the city. They can only hope that those who haven't gotten out can under thier own abilities. Not that there's much left of the city capable of holding anyone.

Monet goes to quickly stay out of the way of the advancing patrols, sending quick updates on their positioning from her maneuvers. She speaks along the comm <<Can you hack a military satellite? They should be fairly consistently overhead and I doubt Stryfe would care to block something so antiquated. That might be the best we can get for a view of most o fthe city.>> Monet evades another patrol, staying far away from Holocaust that she can pick up at a distance. She's almost too slow, though. She's not making a noise..

But she's still just a litlte slow when it comes to blocking her psioni signature. Hopefully Stryfe is too busy with stomping around with his legion of doom-bots to bother picking her up. MOnet is flying backwards as quickly as she can without drawing attention, even as she goes to try and scan along.. <<I'm not picking up anyone in this area that isn't too close to the patrols>> There might be people, but they're too close to the stomping Zero units - getting them out would rquire a brawl. And they have to pick and choose their fights.

This isn't a battle tehy can win. It's a skirmish that's so small as to not even count as a holding action.

Monet goes to quickly pick up the point of a sewer system entrance and amkes a face, going to dive down it. Then a thought hits her.. <<Tabitha, from the underground can you blast out buildings to collapse them?>>

Tabitha Smith has posed:
While she is providing support for anyone fleeing, Tabitha does try to keep some distance between herself and any mobs of civilians. The occasional push of directions sent to members of the group, letting them do the actual leading since actually knowing where anything is is still a pain for the Boomski.

If this was New York, yeah she'd know it like the back of her hand. <<Swear this town's streets change positions every time I walk outside.>> she mutters into her ear piece.

It's when Monet pops into a mind link, Tabby had been using her telepathy for crowd control and steering people clear of Marauders and MLFs alike. <<Depends on the building, but it's doable. Works better if I can get into a basement level. There's always basements in the bigger buildings.>>

Kurt Wagner has posed:
An hour.

That feels like a lifetime. Standing in that alleyway a moment longer, Kurt Wagner wipes the back of one of his arms across his brow. Usually teleporting is second nature to him. Barely any effort at all and while those he brings with him usually are not so lucky as it takes a lot out of them, the fuzzy blue elf is starting to have a fair amount of sympathy for them. Because he is definitely starting to get tired.

"That is not so short a time, I fear," Kurt says gravely. "Not unless you have a very good surprise for them," he adds, hoping in this case at least that Cable can come through. Nightcrawler might not have any great love of violence, but it feels like they need something to break their way. "I hope that we are not just gathering all of their targets together in one place. I know your bunker is secure, but they don't seem to be leaving very much standing," he poitns out.

The Kurt is bamfing once more, appearing at a structure several blocks away. The view through the window briefly shows Divine tearing into the ranks of those Zero Androids and Kurt smiles for am oment. Then he is peering into the darkness of the shanty structure around him. "It is okay," he says gently. I'm here to help you get to safety," he says, extending a hand to the shadows and the people cowering within them.

Cain Marko has posed:
".....Okay....this is nuts..."

The last time he wsa here, his addled state of mind and attempted focus on his task...kept him from truly acknowledging the scope of the damage and teh full scale of how entrenched THe Mutant Liberation Front is. Now that his mind is cleared of the mystic cobwebs and supernatural hanger ons - mostly - Juggernaut's eyes clearly see the devestation that has been wrought as he begins a slow inexorable tread down the apocalyptic streets.

"Yeah I know!" resounds Vanisher over his commlink. "Reeducation Camp. Remember? If you hadn't come looking for me---"

"I'll put it on th'next invoice I send The Brotherhood. Now let me concentrate." quips Cain, quickly cutting Vanisher off as he espies a squad of Zero Units racing overhead near his immediate area.

To the other side, the explosions and ruins of Holocaust's advance catch his attention, illuminating his immense body from the eruptions of flame and fury that billow into the skies a mere set of city blocks away.

The defeners, he does not see as of yet... It is pure chaos and perhaps to some the whole meaning of this insanity would be indiscernible, but Juggernaut is a veteran of war, both as a mortal man and as the monster he presently he. He knows an extermination push when he sees it.

"....Vanisher pop back into the coordinates you droppe dme off at. Grab those refugees and get 'em off island. Should take you all of ten seconds.."
"Are you kidding me-?!"

"You talkin' back?! Just do it!"

Juggernaut grits his teeth, rage building and boiling in him but restrained and tapped back down as he continues marching forward with the seismic shockwaves from his steps continuing to herald his movements. "I got a sight on where my safehouse was. Just do what I say. Damn." he growls out into his commlink.

Divine has posed:
An hour is a long time, and it feels like longer when you're staring down masses of enemy. Divine notes Holocaust among them and smiles grimly, wondering if she can yeet him hard enough that Galactus mistakes him for a planet and has a snack. She ponders this while she continues tearing through Zeroes, though much like Monet she's well-aware of how little it's actually doing as far as thinning the herd. It's still distracting them though, and that's good enough for her. It gives the others precious minutes - another group ported away by Kurt, five more minutes towards being able to Bodyslide, a chance to find a basement for Tabby - and that's what she's here to do, really. Buy more minutes.

She spins with the leg of a Zero in hand and THWACKS with force, sending the unit and some of the wind around it flying towards one of the groups nearby. Drawing attention to her and keeping it away from the others. She wiggles her fingers in greeting, a move copied from one of the fighters she's been watching on TV and accepts the turning of part of the force in her direction.

Cable has posed:
There is no guarantee of course that the sweep of Stryfe's forces won't bring them to Cable's one remaining safehouse on the island of course. The fact that they more or less have to make an effort to keep the enemy forces from it, also helps to narrow down just where it can be found.

And there is a good possibility that by now Stryfe has successfully hacked into the Professor A.I. that has been Cable's constant companion since arriving in this time. If so, he has indeed corrupted that artificial intelligence and now has it at his disposal, then Stryfe probably already has those patterns pointed out to him.

The others are definitely right.. An hour could be a very long time. And while Cable's surprises alone might not cut it, those seismic tremors registering on his sensors suggests that the MLF might have their hands full afterall.

Still, he can't count on that alone and the future soldier removes a helping of gravity mines along with more conventional explosives, deploying them in a peremeter around the fortified safehouse he guards.

Mini turrets and shield generators go next as Cable continues to dip into his stockpile, darting from shadow to shadow to begin to layer in those additional defenses. At Monet's suggestion, he pauses for a moment and then glances at the wrist computer that encircles his arm, beginning to tap at it. "That might take a few minutes. Without Greymalkin it isn't quite so easy to just hack through military encryptions," he says.

This is the kind of thing that he misses having the Professor for. But the sheer advanced technology at his disposal means that he will succeed sooner or later.

In the bunker itself, the number of waiting refugees continues to slowly reduce in number, the more limited teleportation technology still firing a half dozen times a minute, sending sity people to relative safety, far from Madripoor. Far from Stryfe's reach. For now.

Which is good. Because while Juggernaut might not have taken notice of their defenses, the same can't be said for Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation front.

With Monet being the most obvious target telepathically despite her attempts at being subtle and with Divine being the most obvious target physically, it should be no surprise that they attrack attention from the attackers first. And when the counterstrike comes, it comes hard and fast. From Stryfe himself.

For Money, it begins as a backgorund hum, a nagging in her ears, like she's been standing next to a speaker too long. But it swiftly grows, a sheer telepathic assault hurled her way, dampened only by the distance Stryfe must still be from her. That might be the onlything that saves her from those sharp mental needles that look to shread her defenses.

Even as he does that, Stryfe shows why he is an Omega level mutant, splitting his attention and directing a telkeinetic assault towards the cloned Kryptonian, an invisible hammer about a mile-wide simply slamming down against her, trying todrive her down to -- and through -- the ground.

In comparison to that, Tabby almost gets off easy. It is Arlight and her Zero units that spot her. Even as a quartet of those androids begins to stream towards her, the former servant of SInister raises hands and smiles grimly, battering waves of seismic tremors lashing out to lash at Tabby's position.

Even Cain proves a useful distraction as the headlong advance by Holocaust slowly, and then turns aside entirely. He hasn't forgotten their last meeting it would seem and the psionically encased mutant turns aside his advance, a mere block short of running into the outer layer of Cable's defenses, letting out an inarticular roar as he directs his Zero units towards the Juggernaut, beginning to glow brightly as he begins to suck in all the ambient energy from the area.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet's only engaged Stryfe in passing. She's felt him but not directly fought him. His appearance so casually here over on the battlefield is a sign of complete surprise. When the stakes were far higher, he never showed up beyond waving a hand and making some impressive gestures. So when he's out here for the sport of it? There is either something grander, larger at stake here than they can comprehend.. Or the supervillain has simply decided he's been bored on the sidelines for so long and he needs to get in on the fun himself, why leave his minions to all of it?

She can barely put up her defenses in time as that telepathic assault comes at her like a jackhammer yet the finesse over of one of Psylocke's butterfly knives in her consciousness. Very few telepaths can wield such immense power and with such skill, and Monet can only really count herself lucky that to Stryfe it's merely the equivalent of a dismissive mental backhand.

She squawks up an alert on the comms, and then goes in to counterattack. Monet has been through darkness these last several weeks.

Purifiers. Galactus. Stryfe. So many things threatening to consume and destroy the planet. She's in pain and it's pushing her. She can only focus, right before she charges in and swings.. Remember. What the Princess had told her. Monet trembles..

But remembers to not charge in with her fists flying. If she's going to deal with Stryfe, she needs to find ways to get under his helmet. She can't overpower him and he can turn her into psionic mist and miasma. But if he's from the future, and not paying particular attention to current events.. Monet grimaces. This will hurt.

But she goes to blast over at Stryfe with the /sensation/ of the Silver Surfer flying through the air. Just that passive beacon of cosmic energy and teh sensation of how everything is so small, meaningless in comparison. Then it turns into the giant fist of Galactus, going through the solar system of Tamaran to simply crush the planet like a bug.

Hopefully Stryfe isn't paying attention to things in this reality, and hasn't had himself a psionic investigation or pursued them. Because she's hoping that hitting him wtih the sense of meaninglessness in the thread of the Devourer coming and all that power.. Well, Madripoor and little games really don't matter.

It's a play to hopefully catch him by surprise and disorient him. It's all she has. She dies fast when he focuses on her and breaks her mind and her body with a thought, or when he goes to kill them all by mind controlling the Kryptonian.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
the sound of the fighting is getting closer and closer, even as Kurt works on coaxing the terrified residents of Lowtown out of the shadows. To trust the demonic figure in their midst and takes his hand to safety.

And maybe it is a telling sign of just how desperate they are that they take his hand, that they go with him as he teleports them to the increasingly questionable safety of the fortified safehouse. Still, it's another half dozen people rescued.

Still, it's just a holding action.

Teleporting out to the roof of the camoflauged structure, Kurt peers through the growing gloom without any issues, those golden eyes easily piercing the spreading darkness, looking for signs of survivors. But what he sees too much of are bodies, sprawled among the wreckage. Survivors are getting harder and harder to find.

BUt the fuzzy blue elf does see another opportuiy as that invisible telekinetic force pounds downward towards Divine and in a flash he disappears in a cloud of brimstone, appearing beside the Kryptonian powerhousedespite her being in midair, reaching out to grab on. "Do not mind me, frauline. But I think perhaps this is not the place to be standing," he suggests before they both bamf away, leaving that invisible hammer to smash downward at the already decimated city beneath them.

Of coure, they will have barely re-materialized before a small army of Zero Units are headed their way, but Divine has already shown that she has a pretty foolproof way of dealing with them.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Last thing Vanisher needs is a second annoyed voice, especially when it's someone he knows. That being Boom-Boom. <<Don't you be a wuss and bail on those people Telford. They gonna see you as a straight up hero. How you gonna miss out on that adulation!?>> she points out to the teleporting mutant.

At least she gets Kurt some better responses. <<Cable's usually got something up those sleeves. Shoulderpads, up his shoulderpads. Those pouches ain't just padding!>> she reassures Nightcrawler.

When she finally draws someone that's not just rank and file. Tabby grins at Arclight. The ground rumbling and knocking the blonde on her behind and forcing her to scramble a little.

Thankfully she doesn't need hands to return the gesture as she generates a number of volleyball sized bombs and directs them to blast at Zero bots and the Maurauder.

Between the two they might not need a basement to drop a building. But at least Tabitha's explosions tend to go off in the air if they don't hit a robot. She's trying to avoid that collateral after all. She might be a bit more durable than the buildings when catching one of Arclight's shockwaves. <<I may need an empty building if this busted ass ho tanks my blasts.>> she adds to the group link.

Divine has posed:
The thing about such a wide hammer? It hits his own forces too, the Zeroes and MLF and Marauders closest to Divine caught in the wide assault.

She gains her own personal savior in Kurt, fuzzy blue arms wrapping around her waist as they disappear with a 'bamf' and the lingering scent of brimstone before touching down safely. Relatively safely, at least.

Divine presses a kiss to Kurt's cheek with a quiet "Thank you" and a squeeze of his side before she turns back to the danger, striking out at the approaching Zero Units ruthlessly. Rip and tear, spin and throw. Really, this would be fun for her if the human element wasn't so prevalent, the devastating losses obvious even to someone who is frequently unaware of how much suffering exists in the world. She grips an android head like a bowling ball and winds up like she's the star pitcher for a championship fastpitch team, releasing the head-turned-ball with the built up oomf to send a trio of units falling over each other in a tangle of damaged limbs, then turns to the next in line. Part of her attention stays on Kurt, a little on the rest of the team. Just in case.

Cain Marko has posed:
<<Are you -kidding- me? What th'hell are -you- doing here??>>

Vanisher is -not- happey -- not to mention a bit discombulated and stunned at even haeringt Boom Boom's voice in his head. That's....an upgrade and not one he's comfortable with her having.

He -does- however, do as Juggernaut and his former, well he would say protege, insists. A flash of teleportation signature and he's whisked the refugees Juggernaut had first stumbled upon away, and out of range of being harassed by the bombastic blonde.

A massive crater greets The Juggernaut, enveloping the area where his safehouse once was. Unlke Cable, he didn't have the luxury of gravity mines, pulse cannons, or whatever insane firepower the Man With The Plan had at his disposal to defend his territory on the island. The warning and rumor of the words 'Juggernaut Wuz Here' had kept people at bay along with some minor security defenses but nothing that The Zero Units and the MLF would have had any trouble breaching. The tech he'd been stockpiling? Gone. Probably destroyed, disassembled and discarded as useless to Stryfe's intersts but to Juggernaut? They represented an investment of time and money and effort and now he's back to ground zero. Let alone the impact that his own escapades when not in his right mind have caused him.

"Vanish--" he begins only to pause as he hears sound of that telekinetic hammer and feels the earth roll and churn, boiling from the force of the impact with such a wild force even from this distance that he questions if Thor or The Hulk himself has arrived.

The volume of that thunder is only further amplified as he hears Holocaust and Juggernaut turns just as a score of blasts from the Zero Units begin strafing the area around him. The glow of Holocaust is briefly obscured from the flash fire of the plasma blasts and the ground exploding about the giants feet but he remains unbowed and un moved. Instead - a thunderous *TWHOOOOM* resounds as his hands whip around, slamming together to produce a valley cracking thunderclap that billows a shockwave out around him in a spherical shape towards the swarming Zero Units.

"Alright, you uglies! I'm -pissed- now!" he thunders, the volume of his voice matching that of the roaring Omega Mutant.

Juggernaut has distracted Holocaust from his march on Cable's bunker. That's good! --- Juggernaut and Holocaust might be about to re-enact Destroy All Monsters near Cable's bunker. That's bad.

Cable has posed:
Against another figure, Monet might have had more sucess with her gambit.

But Stryfe is more then just an Omega-level telepath. He is one with extensive access to future technolgoy. He is one that has been raised under the oft-times brutal tuteledge of Apocalypse himself. One with centuries more experience and amassed cruelty then even he has in this time. His mid is like an iron castle, walls stark and hard and unforgiving, hardly moved in the slightest despite M's best efforts. Brief surprise flickers over his expression that she in turn has managed to avoid his own crippling counter strike but then he flicks fingers irritably, turning his attention away from her and peering intently in the direction of the safehouse of Cable's that is no so secret any longer.

As he flicks those fingers, a figure streaks out of the air. Scaled green armor, wings and a breath of flame that lashes out towards Monet as she swoops by, Dragoness sweeps in to try and finish off the arrogant woman. "You are beneath the master," she hisses.

Tabby is having a little more luck, but then as dangerous as Arclight is, she's hardly in Stryfe's league. As she gladly sacrifices the Zero unit to avoid Boom-Booms plasma bomb retort, she launches herslef up into the air with that superhuman leap, directing that seismic force dowards in waves of pressure to try and force the blonde mutant to her knees -- or to simply collapse the gorund beneath her. "Haven't you figured it out yet blondie? You're on the losing side this time. If I were you I'd change sides while you still have the chance," she practically purrs, though both eyes and voice positively drip with malice.

As Kurt and Divine teleport to safety, that telekinetic hammer cracks down over an already levelled parted of the city. Still, it flattens the ruins even more, sending a shudder through the ground that even the Juggernaut takes notice of. And into that gap fly dozens of Zero units, the featureless androids streaking towards the Kryptonian and her personal escape mechanism, arms extended, power dampening already powering up. She might be able to resist them for a time. Kurt is less likely to be that lucky.

There isn't much that can frighten Holocaust it would seem. Not even the Juggernaut and he continues to charge forward even as he sends out the sacrifical force of plain, white androids ahead of him to hinder Cain, to slow him down. All the while gathering in more and more pwoer, sucking it out of the air itself, from what little life lingers nearby. Scattered grass poking through the cracks in the pavement withers and dies, all to feed the psionic beast before he unleashed an absolute torrent of energy, the blast ripping a line down the middle ofthe street, sending pavement flying, leaving a ten foot deep trench in it's wake before slamming into Juggernaut head one.

Meanwhile Cable continues to work, each passing minute bringing them closer to their goal. Finally the computer at his wrist chimes and he almost immediately disperses the feed from the military satellite orbitting above, giving them a view of the entire battle field. "Head's up," he says as he sends it.

They've bought precious minutes, but Stryfe's forces continue to advance, though slowed now as they are forced to engage in a half dozen smaller scale fights across the shattered remains of Lowtown.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet is nearly blindsided over by Dragoness as Stryfe waves a hand at her dismissively. She distracted him for a few tenths of a second but she's not remtely in his league and he can snuff her out with a thought. She's lucky that he has bigger fish to fry (or a city). So far the Zero units are staying out of the way, which makes the situation a bit more survivable. Then Dragoness is charging her and Monet is falling backwards, flying through the air to do her best to avoid those blasts of fire and energy bolts coming her way. The woman's getup is downright /bizarre/. Even having read her profile, seeing is still believing.

Monet goes to quickly fly backwards and comes up with a plan. She doesn't have the time for a full on melee, and the woman can hold her own. She has to take down Dragoness quickly. Her eyes flit over to the woman's power suit, and quickly assess the area. An effective way to combat it..

Monet gets an idea. She goes to charge over, expecting Dragoness to fly after her and easily keeping up, probably with blasts of fire. Monet's first move is to bash in a surprsiingly intact fire hydrant that also has water pressure to it. Water is blasting out and everywhere, likely soaking the two of them but doing little else. Perhaps if there's sufficient steam it might blind her - but the woman's helm probably has some advanced elecrtonics in it to let her still see.

That's when Phase 2 kicks in, and Monet goes to grab out a powerline that's also still got juice going through it, and she goes to fly towards Dragoness at high speed, intent on quickly wrappin git around the woman's robotic wings if she can, intent on shoving the live wire to the middle of the exoskeleton, and let the charge of electricity go through the hopefully completely soaked woman and her armor right over in a gap..

Well, that's the plan, and hopefully it avoids Monet getting Tabby-fied in the process.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The Shockwaves beating down on Tabby aren't fun. Feels like walls going through her one after the other. "Like you think this change in government gonna stick? The 'Throne' gets passed around more than I ever was! But not as much as you!" Tabby shouts back angrily as the ground around her does crack and make the blonde hold still. If it wasn't for Tabitha's own durability she might be a smear on the pavement.

That bare back of hers is definitely going to have plenty of bruising covering up fair freckled skin after this.

. At least like before she doesn't need hands as she looks up as best she can and with a flash of energy in her eyes making her irises glow.

In front of her, a few meters away the blonde floats a larger sphere. Beachball sized this time and sends it straight up. Using that psionic control to loop the future boom up and around Arclight to catch her in the back. And see how much heat and noise the woman can handle when it finally goes BOOM!

Kurt Wagner has posed:
While his priority may always to be to get out what innocents he can, they are already going to be hard pressed to rescue everyone he has already taken to the safehouse. At least in time. And it is becoming increasingly hard to find survivors as there are fewer and fewer places for the residents of Lowtown to shelter.

There is also the fact that the fuzzy blue elf doesn't love the idea of leaving an ally to their ow devices. And while if anyone is capable of dealing with a horde of Zero units, it would surely have to be Divine, he does not immediately bamf away. He doesn't even try to take her with him. Sometimes you just have to stay and fight.

Which is why Kurt draws out his sword, steel flashing in his hand as he twirls that rapier with a little flourish, a tight grin on his face. "So I shall take the two on the left if you're up for taking the sixty-two in the right?" he suggests slyly.

Then the fuzzy blue elf hurls himself amongst the featureless androids, twisting and turning in midair as they try to bring those power dampners to bear on him and find that he is difficult to keep up with. That blade flashes, definitely finding the weak spots in the Zero unit's construction, piercing hollow eye slots, sliding through the neck, or slashing at the extremities, keeping them occupied as long as possible.

Cain Marko has posed:
*THOOM* *THOOOM* *THOOOOOM*

The Juggernaut's footfalls increase with force and intensity as he begins an slow and steady march towards Holocaust as the pieces of Zero Units rain down around him or continued plasma blasts rain down. He lifts one arm up, pointing the massive swamp tree thick limb towards the approaching monster-mutant while roaring out, "You and me, big man. You and me!"

Both are giants and so the impending impact promises to be thunderous though in Juggernaut's cause his approach is a steady thundering walk. Not a run nor a charge. He's no less unstoppable after all. He'll get there eventually. That Holocaust seems to know no fear only further eggs the colossal brute on though and he simply gives a full toothed grin and continues his approach -- his smile remaining as the area lights up with the blazing brilliance of Holocaust's devestating assault.

The Juggernaut seems to vanish, engulfed by the torrent of energy as the entire scene around them melts away, blasted into slag and ripped apart in the island rupturing release of Holocaust's signature energy blasts. The blast continues on past where the giant armored behemoth had been upon point of impact, searing into buildings and ripping a canyon across the landscape in a horrendous assault like some sort of nuclear blast wave directed in a steady straight line.

Slowly, from Holocaust's POV, Juggernaut's mammoth hand begins to coalesce into view, pushing forward through the torrential outpouring of his mutant power as he looms in closer and closer. Imminent, inexorable, unstoppable.

He brings his immense arm forward, followed by the rest of his semi-truck cab sized torso, and leans in to try and bring his hand down with crushing force towards the top of Holocaut's own domed-helmet. His other fist clenches, producing a sound like concussive bombs going off from the sound of his knuckles cracking and his sinew tensing and muscles swelling. If he grabs the mutant successfully? He intends to actually hold him place while he brings his fist in for his midsection for the first foundation cracking swing.

Divine has posed:
The series of Zero Units bearing down on her and Kurt get a full angry face, and a laugh when Kurt pulls his rapier. "Of course, mein schatzi," Divine replies, carefully pronouncing the German even as they throw themselves into the fray.

Her heat vision makes another appearance, carefully aimed at the units farthest from her bouncing, disappearing friend while her hands pull apart the ones closest to them. The flashes of steel keep her focused, calculating angles so she can grab any unit that looks too close to getting a hand on the sly blue mutant.

The flash of slag as the Holocaust engages Juggernaut pierces her vision, and it's fairly awe-inspiring to see the large mutant emerge and continue trudging forward. "Remind me to only engage him in friendly spars!" she calls out to Kurt, swooping up into a spin before diving headfirst at a series of units like a battering ram.

Cable has posed:
Each passing moment gets another dozen or so people to safety, the Bodyslide unit working overtime. Each passing moment also lets Cable put all those resources that the juggernaut did not have for his own bunker to good use, bringing those defenses online, focusing on that while the others battle to give them the time needed.

Soon enough a whole paremeter of mines, turrets and shields awaits anyone that comes close, the first of the forward scouting Zeroes practically cut from the sky by the overlapping plasma batteries. Likewise when Forearm, Sumo and Reaper try to charge in, Cable is right there, perched on the roof of the bunker by then, scattering their rush with a heavy volley of energy blast fire of his own, breaking up their efforts.

Fortunately most of the Zeor units are already out in the city, though the original stands sentinel over Stryfe of course, guarding him and insuring that Monet will not get close to his master again.

Which is okay, because she has her hands full with Dragoness. The bursts of fire come dangerously close to Monet, chasing her through the sky with a certain ruthless abandon. But those metal wings on her back might give her the speed to keep up with M, but she isn't quite as agile. When the powerhosue mutant sweeps back around with powerlines in town, Dragoness slashes desperately with those claws, but can't keep the other woman from sinking them into those wings, the resulting pulse of electricty sending her falling right out of the sky, plummetting towards the ground still smoking.

Arclight meanwhile keeps up the attack. All of the Maruaders are rather good that that, making a dangerous addition to Stryfe's forces. Those waves of force batter Tabby without mercy, and the cruel grin that spreads over the woman's face is only wiped clean when that surprise plasma bomb detonates behind her with stunning force, driving her down out of the air, crashing into a pile of nearby rubble and leaving her sprawled and unmoving.

While the storm of Zero uits might be overwhemling for others, it is hard to take down a Kryptonian. Some of them are melted before they can even get close, others might get within arms length, might start to radiate that dampening field, only to be crushed, smashed and broken into little pieces. Either way, the massive pack is quickly thinned, giving the unlikely pair breathing room.

But it is the confrontation between Holocaust and Juggernaut that turly draws the eye. How could it not, with that sheer column of energy rising almost fifty feet in the air as the psionic mutant pours out that devestating blast.

Just not devestating enough to defeat the Juggernaught. Inch by inch he advances through that torrent, hands outstretched, reaching for his foe.

Maybe it is concern for a powerful weapon in their arsenal, maybe it is the knowledge that should Juggernaut actually get his hands on Hlocaust, should he breach that psionic shell that contains those whirling energies, the entire island might be at risk from the resulting explosion. But just as Juggernaut is about to get his satisfaction, a portal suddenly opens, swallowing up the raging energy beast, teleporting him out of his grasp.

And whilen ot necessarily intended, perhaps saving them all.

Back at the bunker, Cabl galnces at the wrist computer encircling his arm, the notification that the last refugee has been evacuated. He hates to leave anyone on this island, anyone under Stryfe's thumb. But they've done all they can. And more. "That's it. We've done it. Everyone fall back. Madripoor is Stryfe's. For now.

It's a bitter, bitter pill to swallow. But it's just one battle. Cable is hardly ready to concede the war.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Those slashes get to Monet, and dig deep into her. The other woman is strong, stronger than she is and those blades cut deep into her. Monet swears in pain, and looks down. She move sto rapily tear off a chunk of her costume to use to wrap over it to try and hold the blood in. As soon as they're out of here, she'll need to have it cleaned and sterilized. She was lucky the slashes didn't hit her stomach. As things explode and fire breaks out, she goes to fall back towards the bunker.

<<If things escalate, I might require an extraction. I'm not as mobile as I would like to be.>> She was only moderately hurt, but in a free fire zone with Juggernaut on one end, and Stryfe in the otehr and all the hcaos of a rampaging Kryptonian in between..

She was trying to be honest on her limitations here and to not push herself to do dumb things, as Diana ahd told her.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
As the Zero units fall around them - a few by Kurt's sword but most by Divine's boundless Kryptonian strength and heat vision - Kurt flashes a grin, that rapier sliding back into it's sheath once more.

"Impressive work as always," Kurt says, golden eyes glinting, a little of that trademark hurmor returning as he admired Divine's handiwork. "Forgive my presumption frauline, but I for one will not be sorry to see the back of this place. And getting us where we need to go is my speciality," he points out with a theatric bow.

Then his arm is sliding around her waiste once more, that inky cloud of black mist enveloping them, letting them reappear an instant later back in that bunker. Flashing another grin, he kisses the back of her hand and then vanishes again, this time going to help the rest of the team as they need, appearing at Monet's side a moment later to insure the battered woman gets back to the evacuation point in good time. before standing ready to do the same for anyone else that needs it.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
When Arclight hits the ground. Tabitha is slowly picking herself up. Her back already starting to darken while the young woman wobbles on her feat very unsteadily.

The downed Marauder gets a middle finger flipped at her before Tabby starts moving away. At least now she bought some time for the people she was looking after to get away. A finger tapping the earpiece comms with a tired look on her features.

<<Damn I hate that beeyotch. If we're porting out, yay. I need a bath, a bowl, and beer.>> she communicates to the team. Tired and sore, the blonde definitely sounds done for the month.

Alas they'll probably have to come right on back later on.

Cain Marko has posed:
It's a split second save. One that saves everyone on the island, no doubt...not that Juggernaut himself could have known the risk to everyone and everything about him that was about to result from his attempt to crush and sunder the armor of Holocaust.

But a save it is and the hand that was meant for Holocaust's head, meant to squeeze down and crush with strength to distort and treat Omnium Steel like putty, grasps at nothing at all.

The swing, on the other hand, doesn't stop so easily. He was mid punch. HIs monstrous patented 'Juggernaut Punch'<tm> coming forward for what should have been Holocaust's torso now finds nothing there at all...and Juggernaut suddenly brings his unstoppable momentum to a halt, causing the air that was distorting and the area that was warping from the sheer pressure of his movements--to suddenly explode outward from him as the shockwave carried by the wrecking ball sized fist blasts forward and then rips its way across the landscape away from the armored giant. Zero Units are sent tumbling like bowling pins, the ground is rent upwards in a cascade of ruin and any Marauders that happen to be in the way find their bodies flung in violent directions unless they are the likes of Blockbuster and Sumo and Forearms who may weather the incoming force wave upon being braced to do so.

Doesn't mean they're going to like how it feels.

"Where'd you go, punk!" thunders Juggernaut as he recoils from the force of his own swing and steadies himself. "I wanted to give yo a taste of my Sunday Punch!" No answer is forthcoming of course and the sound of the devestation likely drowns out much of his words.

"Bah. I'm leaving! This isn't fun anymore. Now I gotta start over! You mutant morons are on my LIST now!"

It's a bellow that's about as effective as 'Get off my lawn' at this point but ...sometimes just yelling at the sky can help you feel better. "Vanisher! Come back for me!" he grumbles into his comm link while turning to start to head back towards the agreed coordinates.

Divine has posed:
"Devastating accuracy," Divine praises in return as Kurt's arm slides around her and they reappear in the bunker. She takes to the skies as he disappears and reappears with Monet, swooping out to Tabitha and sweeping the woman up in a bridal carry. "Not nearly as flashy as our blue friend, but I do alright for short, low altitude trips," she says with a grin at the explosive woman as they travel the short distance necessary to rejoin the others at Cable's bunker. Divine comes to a slow stop, helping Tabby stay upright with a steady arm. "I think we all need a bath, this place is the worst for sand just getting everywhere."