19640/Through A Mirror Darkly: The Four Horseman Of Apocalypse

Through A Mirror Darkly: The Four Horseman Of Apocalypse
Date of Scene:	15 December 2024
Location:	Cairo -- Egypt
Synopsis:	Stryfe and the MLF attack the Horsemen of Apocalypse in and above the streets of Cairo, Egypt, all in an effort to discover the location of the ancient mutant En Sabah Nur himself...
Cast of Characters:	Cable, Monet St. Croix, Hope Summers, Kurt Wagner, Sally Pride, Charles Xavier, Divine, Bishop, Sean Cassidy
Tinyplot:	Through a Mirror Darkly

---

Cable has posed:
There was a sense that this was coming.

It was never a certainty of course, the fact that the entire thing felt telegraphed did not guarantee anything. There was always the possibility -- at least in the back of Cable's mind -- that Stryfe might just be some catspaw put in play by Apocalypse himself. Certainly, what he knows of the figure from his own time has always suggested an association.

That the enigmatic armored psychic choose to go after Mr. Sinister, that he stole a chunk of the Marauders out from under him furthered those suspicions. But that was not proof either.

But as the first reports begin to trickle in, the first footage from the other side of Atlantic Ocean, from the far end of the Mediterranean Sea of the city of Cairo in flames, of members of the Mutant Liberation Front battling it out with mounted, flying figures that Cable recognizes all too well as the current incarnation of Apocalypse's Four Horsemen, well, the chances of this being some elaborate ruse on behalf of Apocalypse is rapidly diminishing.

And with that, comes an opportunity as well.

There is a ruthless part of Cable, that briefly considers not going to Cairo. To instead seeking to take Madripoor away from Stryfe, to take away his base of operations just like his mysterious foe took Greymalkin off the board.

But even for the future soldier the notion of leaving thousands to be caught, defenseless, between two battling forces like the Mutant Liberation Front and the Horsemen is a little hard to swallow.

Which is why Cable puts his contacts to good use, to round up those that he can. The various members of X-Force are relatively easy to gather. But there are others too who have helped him out, who he has established other, nebulous relationships with through the years. And while Greymalkin might be gone, the teleportation technology that he utilized to bodyslide about the world has been salvaged, even if in a more limited form.

It might be nearing dusk, back on the eastern shores of North America, but it is full dark as those assembled to try and intervene in the ongoing rampage through and adove the ancient Egyptian city fuzz into existence, the sky not so dark as might be expected.

PRobably because Cairo is burning.

Multiple fires light up the sky, blazing brightly in the dark night. All other illumination seems missing, the power knocked out and great black plumes of smoke rise up over the city, darkened the night sky above and blotting out any trace of the stars in the sky.

Here and there a brief flicker of movement in amongst those dark plumes allows one to catch a glimpse of a figure riding some flying mechanical construct designed to look like a hrose, to further the symbolism of the Horsemen. WHile in other great plumes of energy lance into the sky, signalling the presence of the MLF in those city streets...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Cable has told them, shown them the barest -glimpse- of what the coming Apocalypse is. The entity that in it's own way is an existential threat to humanity of the same tier as Brainiac. That he has cultists is not a surprise. That they are active is. That Stryfe is engaged in open warfare with them also is so. Open war on the city streets amongst powerful beings and all they can do is try to separate them and save as many lives as possible in the process. If there are any left to save.

Monet knows this city. She knows the streets. She has been there many times. She knows the spires of the Mosques. She knows the palace. She knows the districts. The city burns. It dies.

Her heart hammers in ways it has not done in a long time as the group teleport in to Cairo as Monet goes to take a breath and moves to try and focus her mind into the distance to get an idea as to what exactly they're up against. Just seeing fighting in one direction is one thing.. Knowing directly is another. The Horsemen, the Mutant Liberation Front.. That means Stryfe on the streets himself and the Horsemen which can challenge him in combat.

This could be the hardest fight that they are going into. Monet goes to make some assumptions as they deploy for combat. "They are potent mutants that will have been enhanced by genetic manipulation and technology." Just what -sort- of technology she does not exactly know. A fuzziness in her mind presumes it might be like Cable's, but she's not asked that.

"We have to get there quickly to assess damage and try to spread them out." Divide and conquer. And hope that the near baker's dozen of death don't kill them all in the midst of the fight that most of them are just fleas to.

Hope Summers has posed:
As a matter of fact...

Hope Summers is absolutely in favor of pulling the run out from under Stryfe back in Madripoor. So many arguments for it, and not only stealing it back so it can't be used as 'King's X' anymore by him and his ilk. There's been so much suffering, so much damage, and the power vacuums that have been created have the sucking power of a small black hole.

But where is she now?

Looking over the glow of what is, what was, Cairo, land of the ancient. She's got her red hair tied up in a ponytail, wisps in her face that she keeps pushing back, and is dressed in darkly colored fatigues, her cargo pants pockets filled with 'goodies'.

If they're all mutants out there? Hope is in for a ride, even as she holds her unslung gun down and in both hands, cradling it as if to 'shush' it before they're ready to move and use it.

"It's scary beautiful, and terrifying all at the same time," Hope admits the latter with a great deal of hesitancy, even as she shores herself up for what's to come.

The Mutant Messiah is to come. She just has to remind herself of that, however. THEY should be fearing her. Them.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
While not a member of X-Force, Kurt Wagner - the Incredible Nightcrawler - has nevertheless found himself lending his assistace to the battle against Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation Front on a number of occasions as of late. And while a little less inclined to rely on paramilitary tactics then some of Cable's more vigorous followers, he has still been able to put his abilities to go use. Primarily to evacuate those innocent bystanders that might otherwise get caught in the crossfire.

For him, his purpose is much the same on this particular trip. The night might be dark to others, but his golden eyes easily pierce the veil of night, the world almost as bright as it would be during the day and his exotic features sweep over the nearby city, a grave expression on his face. Teleportation might dramatically shorten the amount of time that it takes to get here, but it still takes some time to gather, to get whatever necessary supplies that might be needed.

And that is time that the Horsemen and Stryfe's forces have evidently put touse in their battle, unheeding or perhaps just uncaring about just who might get caught in the crossfire.

"I will scout and see if there are any surprises waiting for us. And start to get those that I come across out of the direct path of destruction," the fuzzy blue elf offers with uncharacteristic solemness, not waiting for any sort of sign off before he does just that, a quiet *bamf* sounding, a brief cloud of inky black mist left in his wake as he vanishes, no doubt headed towards the city proper and trusting that one of the psychics on hand will be able to link him in.

Sally Pride has posed:
Greymalkin may be gone, but that they had managed to recover the teleportation tech was a godsend. There was little chance they'd been able to unite a group, X-Force and otherwise, to deal with a problem this big.

Darkness wouldn't of bothered Sally Pride much. Feline nocturnal vision and all that.... but large portions of the city already aflame make that only necessary in the few shadowy places left. The lioness's tail flicks back and forth a few times as she surveys the cataclysm before them, followed by a soft sigh at Monet's rundown. "Yeah, that's reassuring." There's a bit of a twitch at 'enhanced by genetic manipulation and technology' as it makes her think of horrible things they've already dealt with in the past, but she keeps it shoved down and out of the way of the mission ahead.

"If Jackasses 1 and Jackasses 2 smear each other across the desert, no hair off my tail." Sally clicks the safety of her blaster off with her thumb claw, followed by the controls that normally keep it less-than-lethal, "but we're gonna have a fight getting to the people that need saving."

Charles Xavier has posed:
"When I formed my X-Men." Professor Xavier says, looking over the screaming, burning body of Cairo, his face a rigid mask of concentration, "I had a vision of a world devoured by the strong. Where mutants, post-humans, and the fantastic marvels that came in their wake sliced the planet up like a cake to stuff into unclean mouths chanting the Malthusian axiom of might having to make right."

"This is what I saw, here, in Cario, when I lobotomized the Shadow King and sent that terrible mind to a hell of its own design. A world on fire as brute gods fight over who can be cruelest." Xavier has not blinked since he arrived here: how could he? The mutated brain of the master of mentalism has been hard at work, assessing resources, touching on movements, lending little bursts of effort and support to minds weakening under the strain of their city under siege. The Egyptian government doesn't have a tremendous amount of super-resources, and Xavier can already feel cynical minds among its neighbors planning to exploit the disaster.

"Our first step is to find the participants in question. We cannot save this city until we stop its active destruction." Professor X says, wheeling forward and pulling a strange, wired headress from his golden chair's trunk. The portable Cerebro unit attaches itself to Xavier's head with a click, lights glowing on the chair to activate a wireless link with the core Cerebro back at Westchester.

Xavier's eyes turn opaque white as his mighty mutant mind expands itself:

Professor X extends his mind throughout the city, looking to pinpoint and identify locations of the Mutant Liberation Front and Four Horsemen. "They have nowhere to hide from my power." Xavier says, perhaps mostly to himself as he thinks through the open wound mutant warfare's left in this ancient city.

Divine has posed:
Divine's face is grimmer than usual as she surveys the city, her enhanced senses allowing her to take in a longer view of the destruction. "They could have built an arena in the unpopulated parts of the desert and sold tickets," she says sourly. People loved a good spectacle when it didn't impact them.

She sends a mental image showing a sliver of the chaos to her mother through their light telepathic link as a warning for the morning's headlines, then closes it off, widening the link that Monet usually has open on these missions. Sulfur hits her nose as Kurt disappears, and she rises a few feet in the air herself, ready to go where she's needed. "Point me at the worst of them," she says, flicking her eyes over to Monet and The Professor. "Unless they're magic, of course. I have plenty of energy to match up to whatever weird experiments that Sinister guy has been getting up to."

Bishop has posed:
"It would be nice to not be on the back foot and in a state of being reactive for once. I've had enough of Stryfe being one step ahead of us, seemingly at all times."

Bishop's deep voice is grouchy and grumbly as he materializes with the others and takes up a position near Xavier.

This is almost as bad as being back the mansion dealing with overly energetic students staying at the institute for the holiday season.

But only almost.

The urban battlefields and landscapes are his bread and butter and he well understands that the this conflict is rooted in the essence of time itself and such a thing does allow for the luxury of not being on 'the back foot'.

That doesn't mean he can't complain about it. Even Bishop can be afforded the occasional slip of open frustration and a crack in his visage of a stoic commander.

Bishop nods in approval as his comrades begin quickly asserting their own plans of actions and prepare to put their unique abilities to use. "Be careful." he warns as he hears Monet and Kurt while pulling his X.S.E. blasters out and beginning to charge them up with a soft whine to their energies building up. "...With two active battle groups trying to indiscrimantly kill each other, it could become easy to get swept up into the chaos and separated. Watch each others backs and use the landscape to your advantage to quickly work against them and put them down. The last thing we need is to give them a common enemy in the form of us so we'll need to be swift, brutal and effective. Pull no punches."

He nods his head and quiets upon hearing Xavier speak, waiting as the headmaster sends his will forth to telepathically scout the area and pinpoint their targets.

Sean Cassidy has posed:
Sean Cassidy has been here a little while, keeping an eye on things. But for the most part, he is playing just a scouting role so far, a watcher -- and staying out of general notice, though not sight. Blending in by just being another random guy, no glowy weapons, fur, or interesting appearance here. He's dressed to blend in as any number of the general population, face hooded against the dust and burning toxicity from fighting on the breeze.

For the most part, Sean is simply eavesdropping, narrowing in to pick up different conversations here and there, and getting familiar with the place, and where everything is.

Certainly a psychic like Xavier could pull a good layout from Sean's surveillance, if they chose. He is therefore mostly uninteresting, but an asset placed further out that is available, as a string to draw on for enacting some sort of plan. He's armed with general firepower - a few guns - but is traveling visually light and silent, in a mix of drab grays and brown gear, set of eyes and ears: well, mostly ears, due to the sonic power suite in subtle use.

Cable has posed:
He laments a great deal about the loss of Greymalkin.

There is enough sentiment left in the cybernetic soldier to regret the loss of what had become his ome in this time. Of his surrogate family -- at least beyond Hope -- even if it was just an A.I. and a set of five robots.

But it is at times like this that he regrets the tactical loss of Greymalkin even more. The near, instantaneous, global reach of his teleportation network. His ability to teleport in necessary equipment on demand. The live intelligence of the bird's eye view his satellite perch was able to provide. They don't have any of that.

Though on this particular outing they are at least fortunate enough to have the advatnage of one of the few psychics that might actually be a match for Stryfe -- at least mentally. They have someone who can sift through the hundreeds of thousands of minds out there and narrow in on the important ones.

Not that Cable and Monet haven't done much the same at times, but it is much riskier when such efforts can attract the attention of the considerably more powerful Stryfe in the process.

Of course the Professor isn't their only potential source of intelligence. Not with Kurt already vanishing to flit about the city, eyes on the ground and rooftops, relaying what he sees back. Not with the fliers amongst them, not with Sally's nightvision or Divine's Kryptonian enhanced senses. There's a reason that he's fostered some of the contacts that he has -- particularly since the MLF has made themselves a known threat.

Unslinging the oversized plasma rifle that is draped over his shoulder, Cable hefts the formidable weapon as he stares towards the city. "With luck Stryfe has left a couple of his heavy hitters at home. It would have been foolish to leave MAdripoor in the hands of nothing but his Zero-units," he asserts, his gaze briefly flicking towards Bishop and then Divine, a brief, tight smile sliding over his expression. "Maybe you two won't have the pleasure of having to deal with Holocaust yet again," he says with a brief smirk.

But it doesn't last.

"Make sure that you pair up and watch each other's back's. Like the Profesor said, the sooner we can stop them, the sooner we can start limiting the damage to the city. And if we can't out and out stop them, pushing them to the fringes of the city is the next best thing," he adds. "And don't take any chances. If the Horsemen are here there is always the possibility that Apocalypse is too. In which case Stryfe might have brought everything he has," he notes flatly.

Between those with enhanced senses and those playing scout, and with Charles' own psychic recon it won't take long for a pciture to form. Of multiple MLF members working together to try and take out the various Horsemen. Glimpses of some of the familiar figures -- Strobe, Sumo, Thumblina and others filter in. Almog with the Horsemen on their flying constructs. War. Famine. Pestilence. And Death. They dart amongst the alleys and streets. FLicker briefly above the roofline. They lash out at one another with energy blasts. An image of the deadly Abyss launching a shadowy attack on Death filters over the mental link that joins them, only barely fended off by a twist of the most deadly Horseman's scythe.

Hope Summers has posed:
Pair up? Hope looks up at her father and frowns in the dim glow from beyond. She can feel all the powers surging around her, some actually vying for primacy.

Eeny-meeny-miney-mo.

All the information that comes in, comes in pieces until pictures form. Alley-ways, survivors being moved to safety, which then identifies //where// is safe and where is potential, and where is ready to fall, thanks to Monet and Charles.

The question is now, offensive or defensive?

And there's the answer. It's a push.

"Dad, I'm going in."

Kurt hasn't been gone long at all, and the skill of teleporting lingers in her veins, coursing through her genetics.

In the next heartbeat, there is emptiness where the redhead had been. Once in, she'll be relying on pulling the mutant signatures...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's plenty of wheat to be fed to the chaff. The more the fight goes on, the more people die. They can only do so much when it comes to divide and conquer here. If they do too well against one group, the other will overwhelm. And the more they get caught up in the fighting, the more they get spread out and vulnerable. Monet goes to focus on what she can do for the first level. First order of business - try to minimize the mobility of the enemy.

There's one Horsemen over on a seemingly doom-empowered steed of war with a giant weapon. Whether the beast is alive or an abomination of technology she can't really tell. But the beast makes the wearer far more mobile. She goes to send in a quick mental connection to the others <<Engaging>>.

Then she's going to blast towards the steed at roughly Mach 3, fists out in front of her as she goes to impact it over as hard as she can. Monet can on a good day lift ten to twelve tons, and fly at supersonic speeds. She can hit very, very, very hard. She's expecting to stagger the horse and send the rider off of it and knock them both down.

So she's caught by surprise when her strike on the horse that has enough force behind it to topple a skyscraper is stopped cold when her fists come into contact with the thing, it seeming to not even have a dent. She goes to crumble off it like she had run into a high bar. The abomination of a steed goes to rise up and lash out over at her and goes to kick at her, from it's hoof a blade coming out made of a material known only to those that tinker with the universe as a petri dish and that seemingly the creator of these heralds has at his laboratory.

Pain floods Monet at levels beyond that which she can comprehend. She has been to hell. She has been punched by a berserk Kryptonian at full power and superspeed. She has been gutted by the magical Cheetah. This somehow eclipses all of them together as Monet's shriek of raw agony shatters glass around her - or well it would if there were any intact buildings left.

And from where she was just struck and drops over in total agony, her flesh is starting to bubble over from that quick slash of a blade as she drops down, clutching at herself as it seems almost like she's starting to boil and bubble over as her skin turns endemic.

Courtesy of PESTILENCE.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
This is far more daunting of a rescue mission then even evacuating Madripoor. As big an undertaking as that was, there are tens of thousands more people here. Hundreds of htousands more. Kurt could spend the next day teleporting the people he finds to safety and still barely made a dent in the sheer number of people that need to be rescued and carried to safety.

While scouting, while evacuating the civilians caught in the crossfire is normally his self-assigned mission on these types of outings, the reality is that the Professor is probably right on this occasion. The best thing that he, that any of them can do, is to try and deal with the cause of the problem instead of struggling to keep up with the symptoms.

Not that he'll be able to leave people in danger of course. But that is the advantage of teleportation right? He can get people out of harm's way and get back into the frey in mere seconds. For now the fuzzy blue elf blings to the shadows, that dark, indigo fur practically making him just another shadow as he creeps along, letting the psychics on the team see through his eyes, to mark the positions of the enemies when he spots them. He watches from those shadows as Dragoness swoops in towards one of the flying Horsemen, fire briefly lighting the sky, illuminating her masked face. And when the Horseman War turns towards her and unleases a powerful burst of energy that just barely misses, Forearm leaps from a nearby rooftop, those powerful arms grabbing hold of the Horseman's flying steed and trying to wrestle it towards the ground.

The beams of energy fired towards Dragoness break off, instead careening wildly down towards the city proper, teasing into brick and morter, demolishing the building directly beneath them and sending Kurt scattering for a better vantage point. "<< They're tearing the place apart >> he sends psychically over that link.

And a seldner rapier is drawn from the sheath at his side.

Sally Pride has posed:
It was situations like this that made Sally all the more aware of how she was surrounded by people with fantastical, in some cases near cosmic seeming powers, while she was just a creation of mad science with elite combat training. Sometimes it nipped at the back at her mind at times like this, but that same training made it a little easier to shove down the concerns and focus on the mission.

Besides, powers wasn't why she was part of the team. Being willing to put boots on the ground and push ahead was one of them. The other was putting that training to good use.

For a moment Sally took a pause, hunching down next to rubble that was so wrecked and burned it was impossible to tell what it was suppose to be. It gave her cover as she took a more traditional survey of the area. Sure the Horsemen and the MLF trying to kill each other was the big danger, but there was also a lot of those damn Zero androids patrolling the streets. Not individual threats, but if enough of them focused on another member of the team with their power-dampening fields it could be a big disaster in it's own right as it'd leave teammates vulnerable to both sides of the conflict.
And something else caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, and when she turned her head it made her smile grimly. "That's my kind of pair up," she muttered as she vaulted over the wreckage and sprinted off towards what she had spotted.

An armored patrol vehicle. By the looks of the uniformed corpses like the one Sally stoops down to pat the pockets of it had been part of the national defense force. Before they got caught in the mutant crossfire. But she finds what she was looking for, and the lioness takes an extra moment to respectfully tip his helmet down over his eyes before getting up and sliding into the vehicle's driver seat. Inserts the key she'd found and cranks up the engine.

Multiple units of Zeros are moving about the streets, taking up formations to turn their dampner weapons on other combatants. A squad stops at the roar of a large diesel engine and turn their head units to scan in the direction.... just before the armored vehicle plows through their formation, sending parts of robots flying in various directions.

Followed by the screech as Sally turns hard on the wheel, and bears down on another squad. The lioness yells out the window "KISS MY GRILLE AND EAT ASPHALT!"

These have enough time to raise their weapons and fire. Lasers are a bit more effective at burning through armor than the ballistic projectiles it is made to resist, but not enough to disable the vehicle in one volley before it slams through their ranks!

Modern Warfare vs Future Tech, 2-0 so far.

Charles Xavier has posed:
You can feel it, in your minds.

The faint wisp of Charles Xavier's mind touching you, and building a psychic map of the city. Little icons representing each MLF member and Horseman manifest into place, giving each hero a psychic map of the city, the damage that's being caused, and where the enemies are moving.

Xavier looks over at Cable when he mentions who might be hiding here.

"I'll look for him." Xavier says, softly. "If he's here, we need to change tactics. And he needs to answer to someone."

"I'll do, I suppose." Xavier wheels forward a little, and holds a hand out.

Death itself looms over a few useless flatscans. The drugs and surgical alterations to his brain do not give him the capacity to do much more than savor their impending doom. He can barely make out the shapes.

The mutate screams, stumbling backwards, holding his head with both hands as his deadly scythe drops to the ground. "What is happening." Death wheezes, "I feel. I FEEL! I feel everything! Stop it! Please! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

"The subject's resolve must be weakened." Professor X says, coldly, his hand slowly curling into a fist. "Before he will tell me what I want to know. Where is the First Mutant. Where is Apoclypse?!"

Bishop has posed:
"It's a hard life being one of your aces in the hole against a city leveling monster but yes, I could use a break." Bishop's response to Cable is swift and easy. A quick quip for the road before things get even more dire then they already are. It's good to maintain a sense of humor even when calamity is everywhere you look. "Professor." He addresses Charles aloud and nods his head before stepping forward and hoping forward to slide down several fallen pieces of rubble and to land firmly and roughly in the streets. The use of Xavier's title carried more with it empathically and psycnically then aloud. Bishop is loathe to leave the king chess piece unguarded in a situation like this but he knows he's needed further afield and despite his tendencies towards den mothering his comrades he knows that Charles has been taking care of himself for far longer then anyone else within their circle with the exception of Logan and Magneto. He'll have to trust the process.

"Don't forget, I'm your friendly neighborhood mutant battery. If you get a pinch with the zero androids, hone in on my location and direct their energy towards me."

No sooner has he said this does his blaster spin out and rapidly unloads a series of full powered kinetic energy blasts towards several Zero Units strafing overhead in their pursuit of one of the horsemen. War from the looks of it. It's not a favor for War as much as it is clearing out the skies. War will be next.

Then the ground explodes behind him, lurching into a massive seismic wave as Sumo drops down from some above and kicks off a shockwave that Bishop turns at the last second to brace himself against. The kinetic energy roars into him - the momentum of the blast sends him tumbling and he crashes backwards through a wall, augmenting his own body at the very last second in order to sustain the impact as rubble and dust tumbles about him.

"...Okay that was embaressing..." He had the intel. He knew where Sumo was. He did not expect that Forearm would have thrown him and cleared him across the buildings towards Bishop and undoubtly more may be coming. "Right... the ace.." grumbles Bishop.

Divine has posed:
She lets out a short bark of laughter at Cable's comment. "But it's so much fun to drop kick him from behind! Every time a surprise, and every time a yeet." It's a brief moment of levity before they enter the hell of battle, but her mind is already turning to what awaits them, eyes seeking and finding a group of the featureless androids that cause so much trouble for her mutants.

She takes off, heading towards one of the horses and a woman with dragon's wings. Her flight pauses at the echo of M's pain but she shakes it off, swooping down and in to grab a Zero unit before heading up into the fray in time to see the same thing as Kurt. Her flight changes trajectory multiple times as she chases Dragoness, turning in her flight to wind up the unit in her hands before letting it launch directly at the woman's back like a torpedo, shooting through the air at a high enough speed to be mistaken for a sudden draft.

Divine follows in the wake of the launched android, putting on a punch of speed as it knocks the woman off trajectory with a painful-sounding crunch. She sees one wing fold and follows, looking to use their injured foe as her next piece of ammo in a half-Kryptonian missile launch.

Sean Cassidy has posed:
Sean doesn't generally react without thinking, nor does he use his powers without thinking. In fact, power use really is always deliberate and specific, never accidental. He's fortunate in a way - to only exhibit his power on direct choice, when he chooses to be a mutant.

The choice is made here, as a low, horrifying and reverberating shriek pulses hard outwards, across Bishop and Sumo's position. It's from the side, a harsh raspy blast that rips upwards into almost out of human hearing, to buffer back against the rubble adjacent to Bishop, causing the pieces to shudder and hesitate in the air-- and pulverize it into dust. The broad band of the sonic scream flows across sideways over Bishop, as Sean made no attempt to exclude him from it. Just raw sonic energy over both him and Sumo.

It's nice to not need to worry about friendly fire, which is usually a massive problem for the sonic mutant. Sean himself stays in the cloud of dust he's made, though he maintains the low awful wail across Bishop and Sumo, relying on his on sonar to not be blinded.

Cable has posed:
There is certainly no lack of targets to choose from. That might be the only good news on this particular night.

While the city might be without power, it isn't solely limited to the light of the fires that burn amongst crumbling buildings. There are a steady stream of headlights of fleeing vehicles, escaping the urban combat zone that has developed. That, at least, gives some clue to those that don't have psychic gifts just where some of the greatest concentration of civilians in need of protection might be found.

But it isn't just civilians out there in the night tonight, as Sally has discovered. The city isn't entirely without a response, no matter how outmatched it might be.

Throughout the dark night, scattered sounds of gunfire echoes across those streets, other soldiers, other armored vehicles opening fire on those that have brought their mutant war to the streets of this usually bustling city.

The quiet rhythmic thumb of helicopter blades sounds in the night, growing closer, growing louder, lights flashing on the external hull of the craft as one streaks in over the city, zeroing in on where Strobe and the Horseman Famine wave through the sky, bright bursts of light hurled towards Famine even as she tries to close, tries to latch hold of the darting mutant and leave her a hollow shell filled with hunger.

Rockets launch, exploding amongst the pair and for a moment they are lost in the explosion. Then Strobe reappears, a bright burst of light hurled towards the military helicopter, searing the rear tail right from the craft and sending it plummetting towards a building full of people below.

Small groups of the ADAM Zero Units soar over the city, looking for targets and while most focus on their target of the various Horseman that battle against increasingly poor odds, as Cable's strike team makes itself known, more and more start to divert their way.

For his part Cable does what he can to provide sniper support for the others, making sure that no one finds themselves too outmatched. That no one finds themselves without any sort of backup at all. When the Zero units close in on Sally and Hope, burst of green plasma explode amongst them, making sure that the others have a few seconds to ready themselves. More of those green, virulet bursts of energy explode around Pestilence, around Sumo, around other threats, more cover fire then that aimmed at taking out any one single enemy in a focused barrage.

It is a question taht hangs in the air. Whether or not they are dealing with more then just Stryfe and his MLF. More then just the Horseman. If they can expect Apocalypse himself to take the field. And who better to get the answer then Charles Xavier.

Clearly Death was not expecting the assault and despite ebing Apocalypse's chosen, his psychic defenses are up to standing up to an Omega-level mutant. As the Professor shreads the outer layer of metanl defenses, Death screams. And the image of the withered shell of Apocalypse appears in his mind's eye for just a moment, laying in some dusty, unremarkable tomb.

A psychic laugh cuts in to Xavier's vision. << My thanks for doing my work for me, old man, >> Stryfe says before that mental sense of him cuts off.

Hanging in the sky above the city, the gleaming, armored form of Stryfe appears, held aloft on the waves of his telekinetic strength. "The future is mine APocalypse! I will be the Lord of Tomorrow! I will rule over this world and create a utopia you cannot begin to imagine! I know where you are now, En Sabah Nur and I will come for you!" Stryfe gloats, arms thrown above his head in triumph as the featureless android Zero-Prime hovers nearby, ever obedient to his master's whims.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet somehow even as her body almost looks like it's rotting in place has enough awareness to glare up and over at the man that's monologuing far off in the sky, narrating as if his victory is omnipresent. The grin needs smacked off his face. But she's not sure that Divine could do it. There's enough psionic back and forth going on that she has a sense that /something/ bad just happened telepathically, even if she's not sure of the details due to the whole being infected by whatever Pestilence stabbed her with routine.

The shots from Cable give her enough cover to even as small clumps of her body seem to be falling off to throw off the worst of the pain. She looks nothing like her mangificient self and more like Wade Wilson taken out of a wafflemaker. Pestilence is still nearby, shots from Cable's weapon hitting him and the general area. She goes to slowly dart her eye around to try and focus over on him.

She's going to die. The only reason she hasn't yet is that this thing wants to make her suffer. Well, she's experienced in suffering. She can't focus now to use her telepathy. She can barely focus at all now as she slowly rolls herself over, going to stand up as slow gunks continue to churl off her in breaking mass.

She goes to stagger her way towards Pestilence, seeming like a drunken sort of sailor on shore for the first time in months as she goes to slowly reach up and clamp onto him, getting the likely no doubt incredibly amused Horseman over in a bear hug.

Hope Summers has posed:
'Target rich environment'. That's what it is, and unlike other times, other places, it's not hard to discern the good from the bad, the wheat and the chaff. Hope is so used to urban fighting, the stick to the shadows and take shots of opportunity, and for the city, it's still her 'go to'.

The fires surge and ebb, the rockets' glare lighting paths as they streak across the sky to their intended, or unintented, targets.

Pulling a random mutant ability, as there are times when she doesn't have that total control, she finds her skin hardening even as she finds herself coming up to Zeros. Her weapon braces, and the grenades *lop* from her gun, heading towards their intended targets, even as she moves to hide in the shot-up doorways. The dirt and grime have already found her, coating her clothes, her face, her hair.

There is the tell-tale responses of green, and she grins momentarily, uttering a quiet 'thanks' towards Cable before her ears catch the unmistakeable, distant sound of a Banshee.

Stryfe, however, never passes up a chance to grandstand, and Hope, as she stands in relative cover, rolls her eyes. She looks up, and as the roughness of her skin dissipates, she can feel that familiar tingle. That grin reappears, though it's a little more feral in nature, and her eyes are on the prize, as it were.

A broad sweep of her arm is given towards that cadre of Zeros, a telekenetic *PUSH* towards Stryfe. Pressure exerted where perhaps he doesn't expect it. If nothing else, it could be leveled as an embarrassment to his grandstanding. At best, a dysfunction of his Zeros, settling them offbalance so that their own gyrostabilizing units have to compensate- but not before slamming into their Master.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
One can get spoiled by having a psychic link. It is so much better then even a reliable communications network in the thick of things. Having a glimpse at what others are up to, what their challenges might be does help in deciding in how one should prioritize.

It is particularly helpful for Kurt, as it also gives him a sense of spatial awareness, something to latch onto so he can more easily teleport about and concentrate his effort where it is needed most. With the mental assault on Death taking place nearby , it gives Forearm and Dragoness a chance to swarm over the Horseman, that flying construct disappearing beneath the roofline as it is dragged out of sight.

Not good for Death. But not Kurt's primary concern right at the moment.

Instead, that telltale bamf sounds again, and the fuzzy blue elf teleports over to where Monet finds herself locked in a struggle with Pestilence. Relying on his speed, on his reflexes and a rapid set of quick jumps that sends his appearing and disappearing all around the virulent Horseman, Kurt lashes out with the tip of his rapier, slashing at the figure grappling Monet, dozens of little wounds opened up in short succession, instead of one, fatal blow.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride has gotten use to the psionics keeping communications linked for the group, and Professor X's mental mapwork is accepted with equal gratitude. It and the sounds of gunfire across the city is all she needs to tell where she can be the most useful even if she can't throwdown with the big powerhouses.

Civilians trying to get out of the city. Soldiers doing their duty to try and defend them despite the overwhelming chaos surrounding them. A crank on the wheel rumbles the vehicle over some rubble and on route towards where the congestion of vehicles is trying escape the city.

Unfortunately some of the Zero units have caught up to her, and one flies up alongside the armored vehicle to aim its lasers underneath it. There's less protection down there and just blowing up chunks of the street under it is enough to cripple the undercarriage and suspension. Forcing Sally to veer hard in the other direction to keep from careening into the evacuation efforts, and instead the vehicle slams sideways into the a wall, dead and silent. Some shouts can be heard from the defenders as they see one of their vehicles crash.

And who is clearly not one of their allies climbing out of the top hatch and grab onto the roof mounted machine gun....r
And to their relief swings it around in the other direction to open fire on Zeros that had disabled the vehicle. This strange being was, unlike the others that rampaged through before, was trying to help them. That was enough to let her be, even if she had 'borrowed' some of their gear.

Sparks flew as machinegun rounds rattled across the Zero ranks. Not enough to easily penetrate their bodies, but the less resiliant joints and sensors readily shattered if they got hit. It was enough to keep them at bay for now.

Charles Xavier has posed:
Xavier stops as he's.

Outplayed. They completely misread the situation. Stryfe has been the true aggressor the entire time, looking to inherit the power and technology of Apocalypse! And he'd led Stryfe right to the old monster's door!

Worst of all, some part of Xavier sincerely wonders if the world might be better off letting Stryfe kill his old master. But there's no time to wonder: the awful truth is Stryfe must be stopped from gaining access to Celestial technology, even if it means saving a monster like Apocalypse.

"X-Men!" Xavier shouts, furious with himself, "Converge on Stryfe! Do not let the Mutant Liberation Front escape! They must not be allowed to pillage Apocalypse's lair!"

As for Xavier, he resumes struggling with Death's mind. He can't assume control: Apocalypse's conditioning is too powerful, but if he can trap the killer in unconsciousness that takes a dangerous flyer out of the equation and gives his X-men more control of Cairo's airspace. "Sleep, SLEEP you monster, I don't have time for your venial evil..."

Bishop has posed:
Plamsa explodes violently around Sumo. The giant staggers, falling backwards as his super durable flesh is yet burned and scored and his thunderous approach towards Bishop is disrupted.

A second intervention occurs. Sonic energy pulses across the husked out interior of the building the two mutants are in. Rubble vanishes into dust. The walls shake and the sonic energy distorts the very air itself as it washes over the two combatants like a tidal wave. Sumo's flesh ripples and warbles. Blob would be proud. His teeth grit and his eyes bulge. The giant staggers and stumbles, attempting a retreat, stumbling away.

Bishop rises, flush with energy that crackles over his form. Not having to worry about friendly fire indeed.

"Thank you." he says towards his unseen provider of raw power. His eyes light up, trailing fury behind him as he turns about and then unleashes a roaring blast of energy towards the staggered giant who attempts, too late, a counter of his own. Sumo's kinetic shockwave is blasted through and Bishop's assualt lifts the giant up and sends him tumbling backwards across the street - returning the favor of the wall crash by sending him through another structuer that in turn begins to come down around the MLF member.

Nearby the ground thunders again. Forearm leaps in, having just arrived after his previous epic toss. Sumo goes flying past him in a blur of movement and he turns, teeth bared in fury as more Zero Units begin to close in. Above Bishop and Banshee, War begins to circle as well - considering his targets.

As to the one that gave the assist? Bishop can't see who it is but he's well versed enough in the roster of those affiliated with the X-Men to hazard a guess. Scratch that - not just familiar - Bishop practically has everyones dossiers memorized in complete detail. A sonic pulse rifle is a possiblity as well but Cable is busy with the plasma discharges and the likely hood of such weaponry in the hands of the average Cairo defender is very low so: "Banshee. Thanks. Good timing." he rumbles while turning to face Forearm and the incoming Zero Units...only to freeze in place as he hears Xavier's telepathic call and the dire warning that comes piercing into everyones minds. It would seem the worst case scenario has arrived.

Divine has posed:
Seeing Kurt appear to assist Monet has Divine doing a sharp turn that makes Dragoness whimper, shooting into the night and towards a small cluster that seem to be stopping and moving faster than even her eyes can track. Stop. Move. Repeat. Similar to a stop-motion film or flipbook, her eyes eventually fall on a woman in gold rather than the man with the scythe arms near her. She circles high enough to be hard to spot before diving from behind the woman. Dragoness is tossed at the last second, barreling into both as Divine swoops up and into a circle, slowly inhaling until her lungs are full of thick, smoky air before she lets it out, building a stream of cold around the trio that stops them in place. For now. A second round of the same air fills her lungs and releases, layering the inky cold until there's a tight, solid barrier of frost and ice clinging to their skin and the surrounding ground.

The Professor's shout catches her ears and she turns sharply, eyes focusing into pinpoints as she scans the night to converge on Stryfe's location.

<<Does anyone need a lift?>>

Her question filters over the telepathic link as she flies above the fray in the direction of the Professor - and the man in his sights.

Sean Cassidy has posed:
While maintaining the sonic wail, the Banshee can't really communicate with Bishop verbally otherwise, except through the psychics that help with that-- unless, well, he wants to share his communication in a really loud way. But there are other ways than words to 'communicate' anyway: such as a pitch shift downwards into a hypnotic, flowing pattern, as they get the news of the change of plans. A hypnotic sonics shift certainly can communicate his intent.

The wail is headed into a lullaby of illness and incapacitation, fluxing between that and maintaining the flux of sonic pressure to keep all the dust in the air, to keep the dust-screen up.

This means there's this awful lurching shriek-growl, shriek-growl, to suppress and try to get Forearm and Sumo to get familiar with the sensation of being disoriented. And if their allies decide to come, catch them in the trap as well, and keep them out of the situation, as Xavier asked.

And, well, it may be a sonic power bath for Bishop, as long as he decides to stay in it to charge, for his next move-- either against the disoriented targets (and maybe dodge vomit, sorry, it happens), or take the charge elsewhere!

Cable has posed:
It's something that Cable doesn't really understand. The need to grandstand. The need to gloat.

Look, under the right circumstances it can be a valid tactic. It can enrage a foe, force them to make an error. To get overly aggressive. To walk blindly into a trap.

But what purpose does it serve in this instance? What does it accomplish besides alerting them all to the fact that whatever information the armored telepath has managed to glean, it is enough to find the information they seek. When he could have just silently slipped away. Could have just launched his assault onApocalypse's secret lair. To take him when he is clearly at his weakest.

Instead he opens himself up to this attack. To a chance to delay or thwart him entirely. Which is exactly what Hope tries, sending that wave of unseen telekinetic force outwards, sweeping defending Zero-units out of the way and indeed knocking him askew for a moment before the armored figure exerts his own telekinetic might to stabilize himself, that masked visage seeking out to source of the disturbance.

"The daughter," he growls, extending a hand towards Hope in return, sending an answering blast of telekinetic force streaking downwards before gesturing and directing a full dozen Zero-units to follow suit and begin to pursue her.

Of course Cable doesn't love seeing Stryfe turn his attention towards Hope. But she is better equipped then many on the battlefield to stand up to that kind of attack, to face it without being overwhelmed.

Still, a dozen Zero-units is a lot -- especially if they can surround her and bring that power dampening to bear. So that plasma cannon launches several more bright green balls of eenrgy into the mix, exploding amongst the androids.

"Monet and Kurt could probably use a hand. And you heard the Professor," Cable bites out, echoing the urgency of the situation. But before he can personally intervene that helecopter is cut out of the sky, trailing smoke as it begins to drop right down towards where Monet, Kurt and Pestilence battle.

Gritting teeth, Cable stretches out with one hand -- not really needed, but more instinctual at this point -- and he reaches out with his own telekinetic powers to slow that descent. But that much weight, at that distance is a strain and for a moment the creeping techno-organic virus that ravages him comes to life, the metal that envelops his arm, chest and part of his face almost seeming to writhe, to try and visually crawl a little further, to claim a little more of the future solider before he can force it back under control. Annd while the helecopter hovers there, just above the battleing threesome, there is no telling just how long Cable will be able to sustain it.

Death is taken out, Sumo and Forearm likewise being incapacitated by the team-up of Banshee and Bishop. Divine makes short work of Dragoness and Sally leaves a small army of Zero units out of commission.

In the skiesStryfe watches it all, that flare of anger dissipating, though those masked features are hard to red. Then he gives another curt motion with his hand.
Zero-Prime rises up to hover level with him. Then a portal opens, sweeping over them. And just like that, Stryfe and his foremost guardian are gone, no doubt pursuing their true target.

But for just a moment before they vanish that mind opens up and Xavier will get a glimpse at the image in Stryfe's mind. Not just some dusty rooom buried in some underground tomb. But the structure of the hidden pyramid that surrounds it and a glimpse of the sky beyond.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The fight amongst Monet and Pestilence is brutal. Kurt rapidly teleporting back and forth and teleport blitzing Pestilence is all that's saving Monet from being casually torn asunder. She has no real focus now beyond trying to make her enemy hurt as much as she can. She's aware of Stryfe teleporting away, and little more than that. Her body is continuing to peel, rot, sizzle, and break out in boils all over it, leeching off things around it.

She has a grip on Pestilence, her fists doing rather little if at all as she tries to warp the frame of the far, far stronger and wretched thing. Kurt's doing the work of keeping Pestilence occupied as Monet slowly falls down to the ground in a heap.

A hand goes to reach up, moving to flail to find the first thing that it can latch onto so long a she has fingers left that she can maneuver. In this case, it's something foot shaped. She grasps, clutches determinedly..

And for once, luck is with her as she manages to snap Pestilence's ankle.

The Horseman of Apocalypse treats this as but a minor inconvenience. Foot going to lift up while the entity says, "Such nonsense.." Plague-rifle pointing downwards.

Kurt Wagner has posed:
To put it mildly, Monet doesn't look like she is in very good shape, not after being locked in such close quarters with Pestilence, infused with those disease effects. And while Kurt does what he can to keep the Horseman off balance, to give her a chance to work despite the obvious pain she must be in, there is only so much that the fuzzy blue elf can do.

As that shadow looms above them, as Nightcrawler's golden eyes dart upwards, they widen slightly, seeing that smoking helecopter plummet right towards them. It us slowed for a moment - as if some unseen hand has grabbed hold of it - but it's still falling so Kurt does his best to time things just right. And as that mass threatens to land right atop them, the fuzzy blue elf finalyl acts.

-Bamf-

Appearing right behind M, he lays a hand on her ravaged shoulder, winching at the sight of her this close. "Discretion is the better part of valor here. You have done enough," he asserts gently.

Then they are teleporting out form under that mass of twisted metal, leaving a inky black cloud of sulphur-infused mist to surround Pestilence.

Right before the remains of that helecopter falls right on top of them. Really, it couldn't have happened to a nicer Horseman.

Hope Summers has posed:
There really are only a very small handful of people who would even consider going toe to toe with Stryfe and match him punch for punch. Hope might e hitting above her weight, as it were, but she's got the tools in which to do it.

The knocking the wind from the megalomaniac's sails was exactly what she was looking for- initially. To mock him, make him look the fool.

To take that moment of gloating triumph from him and make him look small.

Nailed it!

Of course, she knows that attention will come to her, but that's okay. It's fine. It's FINE.

The blast from Charles' mind, the identification of Stryfe's game doesn't surprise her in the least; she and Nathan have seen this iteration undoubtedly a few times. Time and time and time again. She nods quickly, though her attention is settling once again on those Zeros that are regrouping, reorienting and commanded to attack her.

"Oh no.. no, no, no.." and the words aren't given out in nervousness. There's force behind it. For what Stryfe can do, so can Hope. For what Stryfe can't do, if another around him can, so can she.

*PUSH* Hope has the telekenetic wall up, pushing back with a good amount of force. She's not going to allow them to circle her, however, and with that same force, she's moving up and up before her eyes spy Kurt once more.

It's a testament to her abilities, really, and in a heartbeat, Hope is teleporting out of immediate sensor view of the Zeros, but not out of range. And certainly not out of range for the telekenesis to be picked up once again.. and ready to be used to start pulling at extremities. *YANK.. PULL*

She's had practice with this particular .. skill set.

Charles Xavier has posed:
Well, he stopped Death.

Xavier collapses in his chair, wheezing breath in at the titanic mental struggle. A Horseman, even a new one, is exhausting. Dealing with Stryfe and other psychic horrors in the city while balancing the whole team and reading the minds of every human in Cairo?

Xavier takes a swig of the bottle of water he keeps in his cool ass hover chair, swallowing in a single chug and throwing it in his personal recycling bin.

A tiny touch happens in Stryfe's mind as Xavier spies the location he's moving towards: the tiniest of mental influences, a tracer to track Stryfe's bodysliding, hidden within the madman's thoughts of eternal victory. It'll have to be enough.

"I know where they're going." Xavier says to Cable. "We don't have much time."

Bishop has posed:
Thunder explodes through the air as War brings his hands together. A kinetic shockwave erupts from him in explosive force, barreling down towards the buildings above the staggering MLF members, Bishop and Banshee. Somehow these two X-Man managed to draw the 'Kinetic force users' cards from their CCG decks. All they're missing is Arclight to make it a complete set.

For the Horseman's part - Bishop and Banshee did him a favor by taking down the two MLF members ... but he is not returning it kindly. Instead the kinetic force blast explodes into the buildings - sending them fully collapsing and tipping over violently towards both X-Men and the downed mutant terrorists.

Bishop had already turned to begin searching the streets for a rapid path to try and assist Monet and Kurt when the explosive sound is heard and he turns to see the buildings tipping over and sending rubble falling violently towards him. The constant surge of energy from Banshee sends continues to build him into an overdrive and with a loud shout he brings his arms around and sends a huge blast of force scything through the air and into the top portion of ruined husk attempting to crush him and his partner in crime. The blasts rips through a sizable chunk of the structure but not all of it as debris is sent raining down towards them.

Sumo and Forearm disappear into a cloud of dust, cement and brick. They're big boys. They'll live though being buried under tons of rubble whiel also being sick and nauseous is probably far afield from what they signed up for..

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride glances over her shoulder to the national defenders. "Keep that traffic moving," she calls to them. "The city won't be safe even if the fighting stops!" Then turns back to her gun... Just in time to see a shaft pierce down the barrel of the machine gun and duck back down into the armored vehicle seconds before the weapon exploded.

Courtesy of Harpoon, whom had finally caught up to her after following her wild ride across the city. He already had another of his harpoons in hand, as a few remaining Zeros form up near him. Stryfe had what they had come for, now he just had to make sure the interference from Cable's little band was kept at bay while the boss worked. If he can put one of them down, all the better for him. "Come out and face us, creature!" He raises the harpoon ready to throw. The Zeros raise their weapons.

"If you insist." The back doors of the vehicle can be heard clanging as they're kicked open, and Sally steps out. The lioness mutant walks around to the side of it. With the rocket-propelled grenade launcher that was in the back on her shoulder.

"Yippy Kay Yay Motherfu--" The roar of the launcher firing and fumes blaring out the exhaust drowns out the rest of the quote. Harpoon threw his weapon as soon as he saw what she had, nearly at the same time, but without the chance to aim he had hoped for. Sally yowled as the harpoon dug into her left shoulder, knocking her over.

The RPG exploded as it hit at his feet, a plume of smoke and shrapnel erupting up into the flame lit night as the concussive blastwave blew Harpoon off his feet and scattered the Zeroes. The burly mutant smashed into a wall. Bits of Zeros clattered across what remained of the street.

After a minute Sally sat up, grabbed the harpoon at pulled it out with another snarl. The thickness of her jacket and mutant durability had kept it from piercing deep enough to ruin her arm, but it still hurt like a bloody bitch. It was chucked aside as she looked around.

But there was no sign of Harpoon, just a bit hole in the wall and chunks of android remains. Couldn't tell if he'd gotten crushed smashing through the wall or just ditched afterwards because his job was done, and frankly at the moment she didn't care. Only mattered that he wasn't there to continue being a problem.

Sally pulled herself to her feet, turned and gave a brief salute to the remaining soldiers overlook the evacuation. "Keep up the good work... and sorry about the vehicle." They aren't really about to complain about the help though.

She'd deal with the wound later. Right now she had to regroup with the others so they could do something about whatever the hell Stryfe was really after.

Divine has posed:
Stryfe and his ever-present Zero Prime disappear before Divine can reach them. Her curse is low as she scans the mess of fighting. It looks like most of the groups are handling themselves, though M's in a rather sorry state. The Zeroes surrounding Hope... she grins as the woman disappears from view, coming at the converging group from behind. Snatch one, rip the head off and toss it into one of the fires ravaging the city, swing the body into the back of the next one like she's wielding a particularly sturdy baseball bat. This is familiar territory, and it's easy to sink into a rhythm of yank, separate, swing.

Where she can, she's also sending frozen breath into fires, aiming to keep them from spreading further into buildings and alleys, freezing ripped off android appendages and stacking them as temporary barriers. Some of the buildings are too far gone to try and save, so she skips those, focuses on smaller fires and smoldering embers that she can soak with short, thick layers of frost that build into thinner layers of ice.

As the group of Zeroes shrink she hears the professor's words to Cable and gets ready to move to the next part of the battle.

Sean Cassidy has posed:
Forced to move due to the /building/ coming down at them, Sean dodges outwards and forwards, crossing the ground quickly and partially out of the sonic cloud he'd kept actively vibrating in the air. He switches gears-- also with a breath. He'd been breathing with his wails, and does a high nasal pitch with a big intake of breath, narrowing the sonic band to mainly fuel Bishop while Sean's repositioning.

Annnnnd then breathing out, shifting into a pure sonic shield instead, expecting Bishop to fall back into it if he chooses. He has to drop the shield to quickly say to Bishop's back, "We best danger room test our mix's limits anoth' time," in an amused, but strained tone. Like putting a smile on despite a tense situation. "I don' fly others ter much, makes 'em sick, but if ye want a lift, we'll get a move on." He hasn't directly worked with Bishop in this manner before, after all.

Sean resumes his sonic shielding, a rattling bubble of defense, with the similar harsh static-like hiss through his nose. He's maintaining the safe zone for the moment, in case Kurt and Monet need to teleport into it for a moment to collect themselves. And perhaps for a bit of time to listen to his own sonar and assess the mess going on! It's a lot.

Cable has posed:
Stryfe might have gotten away, might have left presumably to launch his attack on the vulnerable Apocalypse and claim his throne one and for all. But thanks to the Professor at least thry know just where he is headed.

Not that it necessarily makes Cable particularly happy. He has been quite literally fighting Apocalypse for his entire life. Killing the ancient mutant monster might be at the very top of his life's ToDo list, and given the sort of life that Cable has led, well, that really says something.

But Xavier's assessment of the situation is not wrong. Given Stryfe even more access to Apocalypse's technology, to his resources could well be a disaster. He has already undermined the loyalty of two of his most powerful lieutenants from another timeline in Holocaust and AByss. He has stolen Mr. Sinister's Marauders. He can't be allowed to claim the Horseman, to claim Apocalypse's thrrone as well.

But yeah, Calbe isn't happy about that. Not. One. Bit.

It is possible that the future solider shoots a glare towards Xavier, but he doesn't contridict his assessment of the situation, biting back any immedate retort and instead letting go of that helecopter once M and Nightcrawler are safe, letting it fall atop Pestilence before raising up his plasma cannon once more and firing off several more salvos at those figures still fighting, pelting War, pelting the Zero-Units that dart around the sky.

Other Zero-Units could only wish for Cable's attention, especially as Divine casually rips off their head, or his daughter sends them fly, ripped to shreads this close to her telekinetic force.

And still more of Stryfe's allies fall, Harpoon being the latest casualty to Sally's ongoing battle, thoughhe doesn't leave her unscathed. Still, the sheer chaos ripping Cairo apart is slowly being brought under control.

And that growing sense of impending victory grows as the remaining functional Zero-units begin to spread out. Like Zero-Prime, they seek out targets of opportunity, of MLF members, Marauders and Horsemen alike. And just like their advanced 'brother', when they lay hands of their targets -- still in fighting shape or unconscious -- they open portals, vanishing from the city, the havoc they've left behind all too palpable.

With the fighting dying away, Cable has no more excuses to hesitate. Moving to stand by Xavier, he opens his mind to take that glimpse of Apocalypse's location, using the information to feed coordinates into his salvaged components. "Professor, as soon as the main unit is recharged, Bodyslide all to the indicated coordinates," he orders, presumably speaking to the advanced A.I. unit salvaged out of the remains of Greymalkin, stolen back from Stryfe -- rather then the X-Men's Professor X.

They might still be reacting to Stryfe. But this time, this time his gloating might have provided an opening to set him back on his heels at last.