4077/A Gruesome Rescue

A Gruesome Rescue
Date of Scene:	08 November 2020
Location:	Long Island/Abandoned Warf Warehouse (HFC Controlled)
Synopsis:	X-Men and some notable Avengers come rescue Kitty, Noriko and others from Emma's mess. Some got away.
Cast of Characters:	Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde, Janet van Dyne, Jean Grey, Noriko Ashida, Piotr Rasputin, Rogue, Henry McCoy, Scott Summers, Hope Summers, Scott Lang

---

Emma Frost has posed:
    The psychic scream is violent and explosive in its severity and then just as jarring is the suddenness of its silence. A thousand scared voices cry out into the night and then, are quiet. Obi-Wan certainly felt a disturbance in the --- mental waves. The collar around the blonde's neck was cold, the daring escape by Kitty and Noriko were well executed but the appearance by Shaw and the numerous goons made nearly any attempt at freedom seem near foolish.

    A dark night on Long Island, and a shivering wind blows off the Atlantic and the stealthy high end passenger car trolls away from the abandoned appearing facility. The squad of men and woman around the corrugated walls and chainlink fences give off the air of hired security around an old useless building secluded from the major city. Inside are several cages of poorly lit captive mutants, most appearing to not have visible mutations, but the odd one here and there are. A man with a stretcher full of deceased mutants is being moved to the end of the dock where they seem to be disposing of the latest victims. It's a horrible scene with a smell of decay and fear.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde sits in her cage, a hand reaching up to the power nullification collar. She can't get the best of looks at it with it on her neck, so she feels along it, searching for any weaknesses she might be able to exploit to remove it or turn it off.

Her gaze swings over to where Noriko is similarly caged. She hasn't said to much to Noriko, figuring their attackers probably know of their connection via the school. But if not, Kitty isn't going to telegraph that fact. At least beyond when she threw the keys to the cage to Noriko after taking them off the guard that Kitty had downed.

Her eyes swing over towards another the cages, her expression hardening as she eyes Emma Frost. Sporting an inhibitor collar like Kitty, but then her arrival in the facility was not after being hit with a tranquilizer dart like an unaware Kitty had been.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
It was with a little trepidation that Janet van Dyne went out in search of the source of that psychic cry of distress.

She hadn't seen Emma in weeks. Months, really. Barely even talked to her. Was it a cry of pain? Of despair? Was Emma looking for help or just screaming in frustration?

None of it stacked up to 'Call it in' but all the same, that niggling feeling in the back of her head prevented Janet from ignoring the call for help. Directing her driver in New York traffic to the source, navigating by 'feeling', had been an exercise in frustration.

Six blocks away Janet flew into the air and buzzed from rooftop to rooftop. Eventually she more or less triangulated the source of the cry and, sized on par with a dragonfly, moved to approach closer.

"Holy shit," Janet mumbles, and surveys the grisly scene from a safe spot. Her communicator's thumbed open. "This is Wasp to anyone on network, I'm at... I'm not sure what I'm seeing here. Looks like a bunch of power inhibitors. I don't..."

A soft gasp escapes her lips. "Relay to the X-men, priority. I see Kitty and I think that's... Nori with her? I'm going in closer."

Janet flits in, clinging to the shadows with a sense of camoflague no insect could produce. She buzzes a figure-eight in front of Kitty's face to get her attention, waves once, and moves to land on Kitty's shoulder so she can speak directly into her ear.

"Kitty! What the hell is going on?" Janet demands. It's a shout from the tiny Wasp, but at that scale, Kitty's the only one who can remotely hear her.

Jean Grey has posed:
EARLIER:

Although the X-Men had been tracking and investigating some of the mutant disappearances in recent weeks, the sad reality is that even their organization does not have the resources to protect every mutant everywhere, all the time. But the disappearance of several of their is a loss she /feels/. These are people to whom Jean's very first obligation is safety, and she will not rest until they're found. While she hears the scream, it's not enough to simply locate them, the thoughts too raw, too distant, too brief. But she has other options:

Beneath the mansion, Jean Grey sits in the midst of the Cerebro device, the expanse of the chamber surrounding her while the helmet is secure on her head with its many wires and attachments. While her mind is among the world's most powerful in its own right, the machine allows her to amplify her brainwaves, to reach out at an even greater scale. It is not without risks, as the data is overwhelming, but she is practiced, she is prepared, and she is willing. In an instant she touches a thousand, a million, and then even more minds, sorting between the mundane thoughtforms of the average human and the unusual ones of mutantkind. And among those, she narrows inward...

NOW: The X-Men have moved into action, sending out a call to their allies with what information they have. The Blackbird has brought them into the vicinity, landing in silence at a distance where they can make the final approach in stealth. The audacity of the situation might have provoked a more direct assault, but Jean isn't going to be reckless with anyone's safety but her own. She has the team linked as they approach under the dark of night.

<< While our priority is securing the abducted mutants, I do not want anyone being reckless. If they've managed to kidnap all these people, especially someone like Kitty - then they're not amateurs. We don't know what sort of firepower we're up against, or abilities. So stay smart and stay safe. We don't help them by being careless. The fences no doubt have alarms. Watch for enemies, call hostiles. I'm going to see- >>

And then the first thing SHE tries is reaching out to see if she can find those familiar minds within, to make contact over the now much shorter distance. << Kitty? Noriko? Are you here? Are you alright? >>

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko is curled up on the floor of her cage in a fetal position, her arms wrapped around her knees.  Her grip ha slacked, but she's still tapping her foot about every ten minutes.  It's gotten a little closer together over the last five minutes, like she's been nodding off randomly or something.  Her hair is rightfully a mess, clothing dirty, and her gauntlets are nowhere to be found.

Piotr Rasputin has posed:
<<Stealth is not exactly my forte.>> Colossus responds to Jean through the mindlink. His skin transforming to his powerful armored form as he too expects the worst, meaning its going to be a fight.

<<But, I'll do my best.>> he agrees as he begins the approach from where they landed, keeping as best he can to the shadows, though instincts tell him to just smash through walls to save Kitty, Noriko and the others.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had been in the Blackbird hangar when Jean had reached out to gather up a team anyway. She'd been working on the plane with Forge, or had been originally-- but when Jean's call came out, she was actually trying to throw a football at Forge on top of the jet while he was dancing and singing taunting her... don't ask too many questions.

Serious time was here now, and Rogue had gotten her uniform properly worn and was eager to get to the site and save, their people!

<<"One does not simply capture Kitty Pryde, and avoid my wrath.">> The Belle says to the others through the mind link.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's mind is extremely quiet.  While her mind has always felt like it's had a bit of something extra going on with the strange relationship her body has between her electro and biochemical signals, the electro thread is lower and the brain activity is just reduced.  No active thoughts though.

No answer.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Henry was in an almost Logan-esque mood at the news. Angry. Ready to kill. He paced back and forth, waiting to muster - once on the Blackbird, his claws extended and retracted repeatedly. The beast is most clearly at the forefront of Hank's personality right now - wanting to rescue his friends, and make the others pay.

The mindlink is awash with a slight growl from the feral Beast - there is no doubt what is on his mind.

Scott Summers has posed:
Saturday sounded a good day to spend some time with his mysterious granddaughter. That was Scott's plan. No classes today, so he could spare a few hours. They went to New York to see museums and ended arguing the finer points of the most important Napoleonic battles. Because... Summerses.

The call for the X-Men caught them in his (not stolen this time) motorcycle, on the way to a little pizza place Scott discovered in his college years. He changed route towards Long Island. Got chassed by the cops due to going at 120 mph in the middle of Manhattan. But he avoided them halfway Brentwood. He can drive like a maniac when needed, even with a passenger. <<E.T.A. in three minutes... I think I see the Blackbird.>>

Emma Frost has posed:
    Six men outside, several more on the inside, and even beyond that, there's a basement where the real meat of the operation is taking place, cold, sterile, but also, there's a great sense of almost idolitry and a poisoned mind working below, a joyous pleasure in working with the macabre, and the fiendish. It's like a living blackness below their feet and below the hollow dock-warehouse. There's a vulgar fear washing from those in the cages, and the stink of rot and death lingers in the air.

    Emma lays face down on her cage, still injured and hurt, and the sense of loss as she gasps at air like a fish wanting water, her mind reaching for something that's no longer there. She's not phsycially wounded, but the emotional trauma of having her telepathy taken and the sense of betrayal is choking the woman.

    Below a mind starts to hustle with adrenaline, and moving about hurridly before an alarm is raised. Not an active alarm with lights and sirens, but everyone at the facility reacts with that spike of adrenaline. It's time to earn their checks.

    Movement can be seen inside the fence as guards on the exterior react to the arriving teams, unaware of Janet, but the x-men are bit more on the Hellfire Club's radars it appears. Tactical positions are taken, with cover, and with weapons primed and aiming towards the approaching mutants.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty starts to move her arm to shoo the buzzing insect away, when she realizes that isn't a normal insect. Not even an insect!

There's a moment's look of elation though she quickly squashes the expression, glancing around to make sure no guards noticed it as Wasp lands on her shoulder. At the same time, Kitty hears Jean's telepathic calls and lets down her guard to help let the telepath in, sharing with Jean the same answers she gives Janet.

"They are capturing mutants for their powers. Some maybe enslaved, others experimented on and killed," she whispers quietly, and thinks clearly in her mind. "Hit me with a tranq dart to capture me. There was a middle-aged man leading them here, in his forties, black hair, about 200 lbs. Though haven't seen him hour or so ago. Noriko's over there in that cage. The blond with the rack was one of the bad guys, came here expecting to work with the mutants, only to have them slap a collar on her and toss her in a cage too." Kitty's eyes go to Emma's cage again to indicate who she means.

Hope Summers has posed:
Family time is weird for Hope. It's //extra// weird with Scott, but...Well, she tries. And at least they're both very good at avoiding anything that might seem like feelings. She's tight as a tick on the back of the motorcycle, taking in the update over the psychic link. "Just when I was starting to think everything was really good here," she mutters. Taking in the vision of all the inhibitor collars, she opens up her senses and her powers, ready to pick up on whatever she can once she's in range.

Jean Grey has posed:
<<I'm not reading Noriko.>> Jean reports, momentarily, although in a neutral fashion that doesn't indicate any automatically negative cause. She could just be asleep. But there's something more she DOES read, and it makes her recoil slightly, both mentally and physically beside her teamates. But she does get a response from Kitty, which is reassuring. <<Emma Frost>> she eches, recognizing the image through Kitty's own eyes. Or maybe 'blonde with the rack' was sufficient! <<We're coming in to help. See what you can do from the inside. And they have their own psychic, this probably isn't secure.>>

"Wasp?" The communication comes as only mild surprise, as it's hardly any wonder that she could get in a lot more stealthily than the rest of them. And because of what she just said, she just continues speaking that way. "I'm here with the team, we're just outside the fences. I think we're blown. I can feel something in there. Bust their collars if you can, and we'll hit them from both sides."

Which should also serve as enough warning to the team around her. "They know we're here. Go nuts, Pete. Lets tear down some walls."

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"Blonde with the--" Janet grimaces. "Oh, damnit. Emma, what are you into?" she says, mostly to herself. She shakes it off, a gesture visible to no one, and buzzes her wings again.

"I'm gonna break your collar, Kit. I think I know this design."

A beat. "This isn't the one with the tamper-proof explosive charge, right?" Hopefully that's some levity in Janet's voice. She buzzes away from Kitty's ear and shrinks into something smaller than even an ant, feeling her way along the collar's seams to find the most minute of crevices to crack into and start sabotaging it. Few devices are made with the intent of stopping tampering from within, after all.

Janet probably couldn't build such a collar if her life depended on her technical skills, but the redoubtable Wasp certainly has a talent for *breaking* such apparatus!

Henry McCoy has posed:
Once the jig is up, Beast does not dawdle. He bounds out of the Blackbird, galloping along in quadrepedal free-running motion. There is no wait on his mind, no hold up - he's out to do wrong to those who did wrong to his people. His claws are out, digging into the terrain as he vaults and pounces towards the enemies.

The reason is gone, just the animal remains.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott grunts at the information they suddenly know about their impeding arrival. <<Jean. I need to know how did they know. They might have Sentinel mutant-detection technology.>>

Scott briefly considers options. They know the X-Men are coming. The more stealthy X-Men are not here (except Kitty, and she is in the wrong place). So, no way to make this subtle. <<The rest: hit them hard.>>

Piotr Rasputin has posed:
Go nuts Pete. Well, Colossus doesnt need to he told twice. He charges at the building, he gives a low russian warcry as he slams through the fence and into the cluster of the six outside. Where he gladly begins to use the strength he has to begin disposal of the guards, <<Hitting them hard!>> he says, unable to stop the smirk.

Hope Summers has posed:
"You know, this is why we should have brought the car," Hope asides to Scott. "With the guns. In the trunk." Hope would very much like to have a gun right now. In the meantime, though...

While Scott drives, she actually hops up on the back of the motorcycle, balancing herself against his shoulders. One power is //definitely// within range. And almost as good as a gun in its own way. Borrowing Scott's power for the purpose of smashing? Yeah, that's an easy one. Her eyes glow red, cutting a crimson swath into the fencing ahead of the X-Men.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue was watching Beast the whole flight, really, cause she could see the killer desire inside of the man. When he rushes off of the jet she's flying after him. "Hank, you look worked up like a hungry dog outside a sausage factory. Lets try not t'leave a field'a dead people in our wake here, yeah? Lets just get our friends outta this weird-ass place?"

Whether her words landed with him or not, whose to say! But the Belle follows after the Beast to keep tabs on him, and of course to fight anyone that challenges them!

Emma Frost has posed:
    Hank and Piotr together are a force of primal rage, and a Russian juggernaut, neither are easily stopped by such simple things like bullets and chain-link fences, or communications. The X-men are on the scene and the stealth route is out the window and into the waters near by. The fence is demolished by the concussive blast from Hope, leaving the front door open for the rest of the x-men to barge in, or is this a possible diversion tactic to buy time for those able to use the elements of the darkness and the crashing waves near by to cover their sounds.

    Inside, Janet is more than capable of smashing a collar that lacks any kind of explosive, seems the HFC wanted their mutants alive, or they're prepared for the event that the collars come off...

    Emma remains on the floor, dazed and boardering sick as she continues to choke on the air, her blue eyes faded and unfocused in the dark, and yet, the woman's fear is beginning to receed and her breath and heartbeat begin to lower. She's coming around to normalcy. Slowly.

    Back outside, the six guards are busy with Piotr, Hank and Rogue, a few smalls arms fire ringing out from the smaller machine guns that they came provided with in the defence of the Hellfire Club's assests. "F****n muties!" Calls out a singular guard before the man's feet are locked in place with a large block of ice from the waist down.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
As Kitty feels control of her power return to her, she whispers to Wasp, "That's it, I'm back." She doesn't react other than that at first, giving Wasp time to get out of the collar again. "I can go and try to get Noriko and the others near her free. But there's guards still watching the cages so we need to be stealthy," she says.

Kitty glances up at the lights overhead. "Can you take out the lights, maybe zap the line running to them? And then start on the other set of cages? If so I'll wait so they don't spot me. I'm worried they might open fire if they realize we're freeing people."

Kitty will wait then. If Janet's able to take out the lights, Kitty quickly phases into the ground, having gauged the distance to travel so she can come up right by Noriko's cage, having gone right under Emma's cage on the way. With the other mutant lying on the ground, it's easy enough to phase the collar off of Noriko's neck, and then the lock on her cage. "Be stealthy at first," she whispers, before sinking into the ground again to head for the next cage.

Jean Grey has posed:
When Scott reaches her, Jean reacts with a touch of mental relief and bolstered confidence, although his question is met with less certainty. <<I don't know, but we haven't seen any sign of them. It seems like it was Emma and the Hellfire club tracking them down. You know how she is, all sweet promises and implied you know what. But it sounds like it backfired.>>

Once it's go time, Jean lays off on playing quarterback and joins the assault, in her own signature fashion. Letting Hank, Piotr and Rogue form the vanguard, she strolls behind them, walking with her hands raised on both sides, red hair fluttering, as her mind reaches out to /grip/ the space around her, and cause a bit of generalized mayhem: exterior searchlights explode to hinder the gunmen, and sections of fence, already torn by the optic blast, rips free and go flying- and not in a friendly way. One guard who has amazingly not been smashed manages to raise a weapon toward her. Normal machinegun? Tranq thingy?

Haha just kidding it doesn't matter. Lifting a hand, she raises a telekinetic barrier between them, robbing what turns out to be a spray of bullets of their energy, and then flings the gun from his hand, with a simultaneous mental impulse dropping the man to a slumbering heap.

<<Main structure is there, and there's more below. Lab probably. I have a feeling there must be more than these rent-a-cop level goons. Keep sharp.>>

Which brings things back to an earlier thought, and a task that she undertakes while her friends do the smashing. She reaches out, while still cautious of that /other/ mind that seems to be prowling nearby. <<Emma? Can you hear me down there? What is this thing?>> The others might be confident as they mow down the goons, but she's felt that mind, and it scares her a bit.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
"Good luck," Janet whispers to Kitty. The Avenger flies upwards and finds the power lines, then traces them back to an exterior junction box outside the view of the guards. It's disabled with a flicking of hot bioplasma jetting from Janet's fingertips. All that can be seen is a puftlet of smoke rising from the outlet as she shorts it out.

Job done, Janet goes to investigate the sound of the noise outside. She buzzes back to Kitty's shoulder. "Reinforcements are incoming!" she says in a gleeful shout that's inaudible to anyone else. Kitty seems to have the collars well in hand. Janet pauses mid-air for a few moments, contemplating Emma's prone form. Her face twists in distress, but-- Kitty did point Emma out as the villain here.

Janet zips away and towards the guards handling the cages. Disabling their weapons is easier than breaking Kitty's collar. Superheat a spring here, fuse a part there-- Janet's capable of mass destruction on a grand scale, but the subtle sabotage is often her most artful tool.

Piotr Rasputin has posed:
"Aieeeeeee........" some poor guard screems as Colossus tosses him across the area into the wall of the building with a thud.

"I do not think they thought this through if this is the guards left here. There has to be more." The Russian X-Man points out. "Right?"

Henry McCoy has posed:
Five hundred pounds of angry Beast is bouncing his way through any enemies in his way. People who've known him long, knows he has a flair for acrobatic fighting, coupled with lessons from Captain America. Style.

Not this time.

This is pure savagery, akin to Logan or even Sabertooth. His claws cut deep, no regard for the well-being or lives of those who are in his way. His attacks are wholly feral, taking only as much time as he needs to drop the goon - leaving them to bleed out as he rushes towards the buildings. While not as strong as Rogue or Piotr, he's still way above human standards.

Scott Summers has posed:
"No guns, you have an omega and five alpha class mutants to copy," grunts Scott. Guns are bad, okay? Except when they aren't. Which is rarely, and not the case. Also, is Hope copying him to make a point? Tsk.

The blast allows him to drive the bike inside the compound, though. Taking off his helmet and shooting forcebeams through one of his backups visors. <<It is worrisome. That club shouldn't have people able to do this, and sidestep Emma Frost. That damn club has President Luthor as one of its most prominent members. I am already smelling a massive coverup.>>

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko takes some seconds to rouse.  "Just a second," she whispers hoarsely like some teenager delaying the inevitable of having to wake up.  Only this is pure and utter exhaustion.  This is failure of consciousness.  But with each passing second, her body starts to revive.  Still weak from the need for food and charge starvation, she pushes up to her feet.  "She has absolutely no idea how to actually be stealthy at, well, below normal speed," which is to her advantage here if she weren't about to stumble.  Really all she knows is what she remembers from ninjitsu movies and she doesn't feel up for all that.  She grips the door as she Bambi-legs out in her window of time, suddenly now realizing she has to pre-plan these things.  She's frozen, right outside her cage.  Life without speed is hard.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is flying after Hank until her jacket gets caught on part of a chain link fence and tears the shoulder open. This, makes the Belle's mouth fall open as she gapes in shocked frustration that quickly turns in to anger.

"I'm so sick of the god damn fences!" She hates fences, apparently. And soon, the Belle is flying along the chain link fence just tearing it out of the ground and rolling it up and up and up and up and up, causing the electrical circuitry connected to it to burst, sparks flying arond.

Rogue flies up in the air, raising her arms up, holding a giant rolled-up burrito of chain link fencing! This burrito of metal death is now being used to smash guard posts, and shove guards down off of posts, while the southern flying tank does just so, flies, tanks, and smashes!

Hope Summers has posed:
"Why does everyone keep saying that? What do you people all have against a properly used gun?" Hope: Here for your second amendment mutant rights. She's hopping down from the back of the bike almost before Scott's even come to a stop, the red light fading from her eyes just before she reaches out to borrow a more close-combat set of powers. In the blink of an eye, she's grown a few inches and turned a lovely shade of organic steel, just in time for one of the guards to take a shot at her.

"Never mind," she calls over to Scott. "I'll just borrow one from these guys!" Because that's surely what was meant by 'guns are bad.' It was 'guns are bad to own, please feel free to borrow them.'

She breaks into a ground-shaking run, charging the guard and lowering her shoulder into him with a crack that...is probably more disturbing than a gun.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Locks are undone and prisoners are beginning to be let free, spirits and moods are looking up before one of the prisoners can't wait any longer and looks over towards Kitty as she lets Noriko out and whispers a bit too loudly, "Hey, what about me?" Demands a man's voice before another, and another each louder and louder. The voices are quickly silenced when the sound of a metal clack can be heard in the darkness of the prisoner's storage. "None of you are going anywhere." Warns the guard that slams a round into the chamber as if that's enough to make the mutants get back into their changes. The man is then slumping to the ground in a heap of bones and flesh as he is rendered unconscious by, Janet.

    Emma's eyes turn around as she rolls onto her bottom and frowns at the darkness and starts to try to control her breathing, she's terrified and alone, as she tries to kick her cage open and finds it too is still locked. No surprise.

    "My gun's broken!" Says one of the guys over the radio, all in the area can hear and it's even over the Avenger's and X-men's channels. Things aren't going well. The guards outside have stopped firing, they're easily defeated by the x-men without much issue, the fence is also ripped up across half the propery and rolled into a battering ram and used as a hammer. The two metal mutants and the blue blur. Not to mention the telepath and the man with the eyebeams. The entrance is no big deal for this team.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty Pryde has continued on, trusting Noriko will work her way to somewhere she can get herself recharged in quite literal fashion. Like a ghost she appears out of the ground, reaching up to remove a collar and then the lock. She hears the others and turns towards them in the dim light, holding a finger to her lips to try to silence them.

Though as the guards have taken notice, rather than go underground again, Kitty just darts over to the next cage to free the occupant, and then the one after that. "Get out of sight, stay safe. There are heroes come for us," she whispers to each, trying to keep them from getting hurt by trying to fight.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko, starting to get her sea legs about her, realizes Kitty passed over Emma's cage.  She looks over to Emma as she leans against her own cage.  She moves to go grab her discarded collar and then the guard calls out.  "Fuck," she breathes and then summons speed to use her collar and jam it down on the lock off the cage.  "Come on."  She reaches out a hand to Emma.  "I can go fast.  I just need go touch a light switch real quick.  Let's go."  She jerks her head to the side.  She certainly doesn't take off the woman's collar or even offer.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
The last of the guards are disabled by Janet and the Wasp appears in front of Nori and Emma. She's black in her black bodysleeve outfit, gold plated bustier creating an appearance of segmentation on her torso.

She frets her lip at Emma, unable to hide her concern. "Emma, are you--" she pauses. "Are you -injured-?" The rest of the questions can come later. For now, priority is making sure no one's on the verge of a permanent and traumatic injury.

Jean Grey has posed:
<<Everyone has their dark secrets,>> Jean echoes back at Scott. <<Its definitely something to investigate further, once we get our - and all of these - people out of here.>>

The upper area is leveled quickly, too quickly, perhaps, as Jean is definitely having the same 'funny feelings' about the whole situation as Piotr. There is definitely such a thing as 'too easy.' But they don't really have much choice about it, or about pushing deeper into this place, whatever it exactly is. And so, just as Janet promised, that the reinforcements arrive.

Of course, there's not much of a fight waiting for them, as Janet has seen to the minimal presence, but Jean is still on guard as she makes her way inside. "I'm glad to see you two are alright," she murmurs, truly grateful when she spots Noriko and Kitty more or less unharmed. "We need to get these people out of here. There's still SOMETHING below. And it's bad. It's telepathically active and was obviously a match for Emma. I've been trying to reach her but her mind is really-"

She shakes her head. "Whatever sort of expertiments they're doing down there, we're going to destroy them. Put an end to whatever this was, and see if there's anything linking back to the people who did it."

Henry McCoy has posed:
With all the enemies up top disabled, some permanently, Beast turns his eyes on the building. Hearing his people, he bounds over in that direction to reunite with the team. Blood mats his fur, the sign of dirty deeds done.

He's still in the fight or flight mode - clearly not looking to run. Eyes go to Jean, a growl issuing from him. "Then we kill the bad telepath. If it's Essex, I'll do it myself."

Rogue has posed:
Outside the windows of the building, the sight of the top of the metal burrito can be seen as Rogue is flying over it rapidly rolling it across the ground with her gloved hands, chasing three of the guards who'd been shouting all manner of anti-mutant slurs up at her. She's shouting back down at them now, just terrorizing them with the giant wrapped-up roll of chainlink fencing!

Piotr Rasputin has posed:
"Kitty!" The armored Russian calls out when he sees Shadowcat. "How is it you managed to get captured?" he teases lightly as he then begins to assess some of the others. "Perhaps you wanted to be rescued?" he tries to make light of it, his jokes arent exactly A+ material.

"Can this telepath be held in check long enough for us to..." he punches the palm of his hand. No words necessary.

Scott Summers has posed:
"Agreed, Colossus, they knew we were coming but resistance is minimal. These guards are poorly trained." And it might be because of Jean's explanation. But still... "how many mutants can you feel, Hope?" He frowns at Hank brutality too. That has been a growing problem. "Whatever is going on, Hank. I need you to focus now. I need you to think."

He glances at the others. Mental link allows for good coordination. He wants half of them to take point. The rest to stay within support distance, in the case it is an ambush.

Hope Summers has posed:
Hope picks up one of the fallen guns, holding it against her shoulder as she joins the others. It's not that she necessarily //needs// it or is even going to use it, she just...She just feels better with it. Too many years of training with one to just rely on powers, no matter how many of them are available.

"We should probably get these people out first," she says reluctantly at the talk of taking the battle further. "Make sure they're out of range of...whatever might be going on, before whoever's down there decides to wipe their tracks."

At Scott's question, she shakes her head. "Fewer than you'd think," she answers. "A cryokinetic, an embalmer...there is one really weird one that I've go the feeling would not be a good test case, so let's just...avoid that for now. Otherwise just us that I'm picking up. But depending on how far down the basement goes, there could be more out of range and I wouldn't know until the elevators were down that far. Unless I borrow Kitty and take a scouting mission down."

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma slowly looks up and crawls out of her cage after Noriko pops the lock off and the blonde woman slowly gets to her feet, but she takes a moment to look over Noriko and frowns at the teenager, offering to support the blue haired mutant "We'll get you something." She states, but fights to keep her other hand down, away, afraid to touch the collar. Then Emma freezes, "J-Janet..." She frowns, and her bottom lip quivers briefly before she tries to straighten her back. She's stronger than this. Than all of this. "No. I'm not hurt." It's a lie, but even without her telepathy, she can tell her friend is injured, in no small way by the White Queen's actions.

    The room with the captured mutants is still in darkness as the guards inside the warehouse collapse, incapacitaded, but the only thing left is the mutants upstairs that were in the cages and three minds below, but they're still seemingly paniced, and oddly enough, to Jean's theory, there hasn't been anyone seeking to contect telepathically, subtly or overtly. Nothing. Just, three minds working at their tasks below.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet offers a quick exchange of hugs and handclasps with willing X-men. "You guys have awesome timing. For real. Love it," she bids the assault crew.

The Wasp processes Jean's words and looks around. "Okay, I have very little to offer in the way of psychic-whatevers, but I'll help escort the evacuees somewhere safe," she suggests. "Can one or two of your people keep an eye on the guards? And I'll leave you to deal with..." She gestures down at the basement underfoot.

Janet pauses, looks to Emma. "I think... you should stay here. For now. Just while we sort things out," she tells the White Queen. Janet's face is oddly composed and lacks much expression to it. Trying to express a neutrality she clearly doesn't feel internally.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Nori suddenly shouts, but her voice still hoarse and it gives out.  "NO!" she repeats, having overhear Beast.  She suddenly steps to put her arms around the bad telepath and her body begins to crackle.  It shouldn't hurt Emma or anyone for that matter, since she built up the charge, but to humans, it'd be unpleasant to break away from her when she's like this.

It's hardly threatening, but it does start to grow as her absorption power starts to ramp up to more normal rates and beyond in her fight or flight reaction.  "YOU'RE NOT KILLING HER."  And then, just as strongly, "Sure.  She's awful.  Sure, she's a powerful mind-bitch, but I'm not going to stand here and let you kill someone.  You people take chances on lost causes /all the time/.  I should know.  I'm one of the more fucked up ones.  How could you resort to killing when there might be other options?"

Is she crazy?  Protecting this woman when her rescuers just freed a bunch of mutants?

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty turns from the person she's freed as she hears familiar voices. She runs over to the big metallic form of Piotr Rasputin, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. "I knew you guys would come for us," she says as she lets him go to turn to the rest. "Hit me with a tranquilizer dart before I knew anyone was there," she says.

She eyes everyone, attention soon going to Beast. She knows what he's going through, and moves over to him. Moving gently, calm expression on her face. If he lets her, Kitty rests a hand on his shoulder. "We can deal with them. Doesn't need to come to killing. We have their collars," she says. The ones that she phased off of people still work.

More quietly, a whisper to Henry McCoy, Kitty says, "Remember Charles' Dream."

Jean Grey has posed:
"Maybe, I don't know-" Jean shakes her head, still clearly a little disturbed, a little freaked out by whatever it was she encountered. "For a while, I felt some kind of, almost a collective presence... but its gone." It's not clear if she is -relieved- to say as much, or more concerned that she might have been wrong, or over whatever fleeting thing she felt and where it went.

But now, after a moment, she agrees with Hope. "That's all I'm feeling now, just those three. Mutants, somewhat powerful maybe, but nothing terribly unusual. I'm not sure what to make of the third either except... there's something, I don't know, biological about it."

Which is also weird and a little gross. But now there are other problems. She looks back. "We need to get the captives out of here. Including Emma. She can explain- and answer for -what she's done later. Noriko, you feeling up to that?" And then she looks toward Hank, speaking with a touch of softness, as if to reassure him more than get him under control, though it no doubt has the other goal as well: "He's not here. Whatever I felt, maybe I was wrong, but it's gone. We'll keep loooking for him, but that's for another day."

Henry McCoy has posed:
There is so much conflict right now roiling through Hank's mind. It's clear in his eyes, in his posture. His eyes narrow at Scott, head canting to the side as if sizing him up for the briefest of moments. That passes, the Beast looking over to Noriko - seeing the sparking and crackling teen. "She's to blame?" He scowls, claws twitching - extended and ready.

As Kitty steps closer, he half-flinches - not really wanting her to see him in such a state. Blood-soaked and ready to kill. Still, he nods once she enforces the request from Scott - and reminds her of Charles' dream. Add to it Jean's confirmation, and the Doctor lets his claws retract.

"If she causes more trouble..." He lets the statement hang.

Rogue has posed:
With the guards run off outside, Rogue has parked the rolling wire fence bundle and has settled down on top of it to cross her legs and just stare off to the horizon. With her hair flowing in the wind around her shoulders she raises up her hand and speaks in to the team radio. "Did we save them?" She asks, checking in as she stands on guard outside.

"Should I come in or stay out here? Is Kitty okay? Does Noriko need a battery? I got a double-A in my pocket." She waits a second. "Hello?"

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott studies Emma for a moment. The truth is it has been four months since Alex and Scott took Emma to Alaska. That didn't go well. What happened since? Looks like Noriko knows she is a telepath. "We should talk with you, Ms. Frost," he offers, cautiously. Avengers in the room. Secret identities and all that. He is not even wearing his uniform, just a brown leather jacket and his visor. It was his day off.

But later.

"Colossus, Marvel Girl. Make us a way down, if you will." He gestures for the others to stand ready, but they can also find alternative ways to get to the basement. It is allowed, encouraged, even.

Piotr Rasputin has posed:
The hug us returned to Kitty by Piotr and then when Scott suggests they find a way down he nods. "Excuse me. I need to make a hole." he says as he side steps from her moves to an open area. Then with a glance around to make sure everyone is ready he rises up and smashes both hands into the stone floor with a loud grunt of effort.

Hope Summers has posed:
Hope pauses as Noriko goes electric, letting Piotr's metal skin drop rather quickly. "Hey," she calls over to the other girl, shaking her head and stepping past the adults as they work on a way down.

"It's okay. No one's killing-" She was going to say 'anyone,' but given Hank's bloody state and the gun she took from a guard who's definitely not feeling his best right now, that wouldn't fly. "Her," she finishes instead. "Promise. Save some of that for that bad guys, okay?"

Scott Lang has posed:
     "Hold on guys, the Ant-Mobile is on the way," mutters Scott as he finishes checking his phone after the Avengers alert comes through and tosses it on the seat of the proverbial Ant-Mobile. Which looks suspisciously like a light blue Honda Accord with some fast food wrappers on the floor in the back. Rolling down the window he sticks his head out and hollers, "Hey! Avengers business! Can we...ahh nuts," New York traffic being its usual self in response.
     Thankfully his Accord does have one non-standard upgrade, while he didn't spring for the sunroof a push of a button suddenly reduces it to something more akin to an RC car as he starts driving underneath other vehicles, popping back to normal size when it's clear for greater speed. "Why don't we ever do heroic stuff in the suburbs?" he continues to chatter to himself as he turns up the radio, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel to the sounds of Thunderstruck by AC/DC. His phone's GPS directs him to the spot within a few minutes, something confirmed as he hears the 'BOOM' of a wall being smashed.
     "OK, walking the rest of the way then," he decides as he pulls over rather than risk whatever was making that smashing sound find his car. Changing quickly but awkwardly into his suit in the backseat he begins jogging the last couple of blocks to the warehouse, his helmet snapping into place.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma tries to stay strong in front of those she respects and might even consider friends, but it's not really going well when a smaller blue haired woman stands up and wraps her arms around the white queen and puts a charge around her. "Umm... " Emma barely gets out before she glances down to Noriko, and then to the x-men around her. "This isn't what I was told was happening, but we can certainly discuss that later-" She looks towards Scott as not only is a hole made, but a hole is partially found.

    A shaft from the previous occupants it seems it's not just the HFC nerds that have been down below the building.

    Slowly the sounds of the crumbling building above and the lights at the bottom of the shaft, of course seem to be stuck on 'flicker'. It's a eerie sort of feeling that washes over, as the dark hallways and the flickering lights illuminate nothing but concrete walls and a shadow obscured metal door at the end of a twenty foot walk from the elevator, had it worked or not.

    Inside the door is a low deep hum, but that is pierced by a sharp hiss every few seconds, and the smell, the dank air that doesn't seem to stir frequently enough to not taste stale. This place isn't welcoming or inviting. There's a crushing sort of aloneness.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko stands her ground, her jaw set more in her mind than in her body.  She compensates for it with a stern expression.  "Oh.  Thanks," to Hope.  Her breathing and heart rate slowing as she realizes her misunderstanding, but doesn't regret it.  One person or another.  It makes no difference to her, especially if everyone seems to be willing to shove what she just did under the rug.  Yep.  She shifts her gaze upward to Emma, then grabs her hand as she finally pulls away, clearly unafraid the woman will escape.  "If I let go of her she'll get zapped," Nori offers as a potential part of the security solution, tone surly.  It's more of an alarm system for the speedster than a means of containment, since that's all it needs to be.  It's clear her actions a moment ago have nothing to do with Emma personally.  Then she looks over to Jean, "Yeah.  I can do it.  Just need some juice."  Emma is brought along.  It isn't far.

Noriko simply reaches out to touch the light switch with her bare hand and shooop?!  The absorption of the electricity happens much faster without the gauntlets.  "Hahaha," she laughs quickly.  "I-forgot-how-fast-that-goes," without any explanation.  She's really talking to herself, even with Emma standing right there, like some explorer in a new world who has spent far too much time alone.

"Be my backpack," piggyback. "I can only push one person at a time, so you have to ride in the trunk.  Tuck your head down and tense as much as possible," Nori tells Emma with a sigh and an expectant look.  Running around without food is the worst.  Anyone knows that.

Kitty Pryde has posed:
Kitty looks over to Noriko. "No one's getting killed," she says. She isn't holding a gun, either. Though it doesn't stop Kitty from glaring at Emma. "Keep an eye on her, Noriko. She wasn't innocent in this," the Jewish girl reminds Noriko.

Kitty looks around to check on how Janet is doing with taking care of others. She jogs over to a few of the cages, pulling out the inhibitor collars she'd phased off of the necks of mutants, and left lying there. She brings them back, tossing them over to Piotr, Jean and Beast. "Here," she says, and she moves over to rest a hand on Beast's. "No need to kill with this," she tells him.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean gives Scott a little smirk as an answer to his order, before turning to carry it out: Piotr certainly doesn't need her /help/ to smash a hole in anything. Yet with fingers held to her temple, help she does, not in the smashing, but in what comes next:

Standing just behind the massive metal man, when the floor collapses with the forceful shockwave of his blow, Jean doesn't fall, but hangs in the air as the floor opens into a chasm below her feet. Reaching out, her telekinesis grasps the debris, transforming the results of Colossus' blow from unfettered destruction into something more like a shaped charge: the wreckage doesn't simply fall, but swirls outward, clearing the space for the X-Men as they leap into the breach. If there had been foes nearby, they'd have had a bad time of it, too.

As it turns out, all they find is another door. She gestures daintily ahead at said door, as if Colossus should just keep doing what he's doing. Why fix what isn't broke?

Well, the door will be broke, pretty soon!

As Kitty comes with the collars, she makes a quick telekinetic catch of one, hovering it into her hand. "I'll try and disable them psychically, as best I can-" But she's used to enemy mutants being better trained when it comes to mental defenses.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
Janet gets the evacuees clear and hands them off to Someone Else to deal with. There's more interesting things afoot- and once the medical priority is tended to, it's time to keep an eye on Emma. Janet flits into full size a little ahead of the X-men then buzzes a short circle and lands on Piotr's shirt, just behind his trapezoid muscle. He's as good a cover from damage as anyone else and easier to hide behind.

"Hitchin' a ride, big guy," Janet shouts at Piotr. Her tinny voice barely carries to his ear, but it does indeed carry.

<Wasp to anyone in range. ****'s sake people, does anyone even listen to their communicator?> Janet's irritated voice is broadcast to anyone listening on the Avenger's secure line.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is perched on the top of the metal fence she'd rolled up, holdin gher comm up to her mouth. "Team?" She asks. "Friends...?"

She notes the arrival of a man running toward the facility though and her head tilts to the side, her white bangs flowing around the edges of her face.

When Scott Lang gets close enough, Rogue stands up on the metal burrito of fencing and raises a yellow gloved hand.

"Halt." She says. "Who are you and why are you dressed like that?" One yellow gloved hand up, the other resting in a balled-up fist on her green-suited hip. She means business, clearly.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Henry's eyes are locked on Emma, the intent to harm is likely still quite obvious. But others have stayed his hand and calmed him to an extent. Then Kitty hands him a collar. He looks... confused when glancing it over. He should know what this is!

A growl, the man focusing as best he can - turning the collar over and over in his hands. Eventually, he does manage to open it, ready to slap it on a bad person.

Piotr Rasputin has posed:
This time Piotr gives the nod to Jean. "I may not be stealthy but I can open doors." he agrees as he ateps forward.

Metal hands dig into the door with a groan of the door giving way to his strength. Then a quick tug to rip it from the hinges, the door tossed aside.

Emma Frost has posed:
    The door is removed from the hinges with a bit of effort from the x-folks, but the stench of moldy air fills the room and there's a layer of ice coating everything, with an iceberg in the middle of the room, almost as if whoever was in here was trying to damage the computers. The room is empty of life, though as the breath of those who enter visible in the chill, and lining all the walls are ...

    Huge jars, tubes and what could be vats, where in each one is a different person. Mutant. Wires and plugs and breathing apparatuses fill the creatures within. There's no life signs from any of the containers and the stench of death slowly starts to fill the air again.

    Near the computer sits a man in a lab coat and with rubber gloves and a large shard of ice protruding from his chest cavity. On the floor next to him, is a man with an overly large throat and neck that coughs up blood. "We won." He says up to the first person he sees and coughs again.

Scott Lang has posed:
     A voice! An annoyed female voice. Scott knew what those are well enough from his ex-wife as he taps the communicator button on his helmet. <This is Scott! Ant-Man! I'm here I just, uhh, I'll be a second. There's another annoyed lady. Not that your, umm, communication breaking up, find you soon!> Scott hastily taking his finger off the talk button after fumbling his words and coming to a halt a couple dozen feet in front of the perched redhead that is Rogue.
     Raising his hands up to show they're empty he walks forward a few more paces saying, "Hey it's OK, I'm with the Avengers! I'm kinda new and all but, I'm Ant-Man! You know? The second one? We save the Earth and all? Look I'm just here to find out what's going on which...seems to be a lot," he understates as he looks at the chaos before looking back at Rogue with his red-tinted eyes. "So if I could just go in, have a quick looksee, fill out a report, be on my way," Scott (the Lang one) rambles in his typical manner, sidling his way towards one of the many holes in the perimeter.

Scott Summers has posed:
Scott nods and smiles at Jean when she makes the destruction look so... civilized. He jumps down and joins the others after a few seconds. "This seems old and..." he shuts up when Piotr reveals the lab. Was Hank right at mentioning Sinister? It looks like his kind of horror show butcher-shop/lab.

"First aid to that man," he says quietly. Heading to do it himself if Hank still looks half-crazy. <<There is one here. We talked about three mutants in the area. Watch out.>>

Hope Summers has posed:
Once it no longer looks like Noriko might zap her own side of things, Hope weasels her way back to the assault team. Because no way is she missing out on the good stuff. Or the gross stuff, as the case may be. "None of this look like winning to me," she mutters as she takes a look around.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's green eyed glare goes from 'Antman' to the building that her team had smashed their way in to. She looks back over, and down at him since she's still on that elevated level up on the metal fencing. "I don't believe a word'a that." She tells him. "But come on, I'll go with ya anyway."

The green and gold suited woman floats up off of the metal and swoops down in front of Scott (Lang) looking ove rher shoulder at him and motioning for him to follow her as she floats on in through the giant hole to find the cage room, and eventually another hole in the floor?

"Uh, you first, Darlin'." The Belle tells the Ant.

Emma Frost has posed:
    "No. NO!" Cries the man as the first aid order is given. He wants to die, with his ally it seems. The man squirms as he tries to get away and then, another hiss sounds above their heads and the man smiles a deathly smile before he coughs again. "It's too late. Mutants will rule the world!" He cackles twice before coughing again and water begins to drip on his head. Then more than a drip, a small stream begins to leak from above.

    Moments pass before the stream causes another crack and the stream is a gush and then a geyser. The room begins to fill up with water. Seems the third was more than ready and willing to drown the men, the vat-children, as they couldn't have been 'born' yet, could they? And to ruin the computers and data they have below.

Janet van Dyne has posed:
An expletive escapes Janet's lips and she flits off Piotr's shoulder towards the computer banks. She buzzes in midair for a moment then shakes her head and buzzes back towards the others. Again, she flashes to full size. "Everyone out!" she orders the X-men. "Unless you can breathe underwater-- and if you can, rip the hard drives before the machines short out!" she commands them.

The dead man is abandoned without much afterthought. After all, the dead can't talk. Janet leaps into the air and vanishes again, this time buzzing furiously back up into the main room to avoid the water surging and flooding below.

Jean Grey has posed:
This guy. Just... just this guy.

Jean couldn't really roll her eyes harder. Listening to people spout about mutants ruling the world while fighting her and the X-Men is always a bit of an odd one; sure, there's philosophical differences, but it's like, who is he trying to impress, or intimidate, or whatever?

What's also become immediately apparent is that their situation isn't much of a fight any more, so much as it is a race against time. For her part, she goes for the quick mental assault rather than risking anything more brutish or less efficient in trying to stop the remaing man and put him out for the count: the sooner as more gracefully he's 'out', the faster they can get moving to deal with the rest of this stuff.

"Grab as many containers as you can!" she calls out, toward to stronger team-mates, Piotr since he's nearby, and could presumably rip a couple of them free. The water is pointless to try and stop, even with her TK, but what she can do is rip several of the capsules free of the walls herself. This is a greater, and more destructive exertion, but she does it. And then, with the floating objects trailing behind her, she flies back toward the breach, ready to use her powers to pull up any teamates that need it behind her.

And the dudes. Because she's nice.

Emma Frost has posed:
    The water fills faster and faster as the structure continues to fail, allowing more and more of the ocean water to fill into the basement. The computer and hard drives are trapped beneath the large iceburg like structure and the vats full of adult sized people are being pulled from the walls by Jean's quick thinking, but the cables and breathing tubes are snapped during the move, leaving the figures within the pods trapped without the needed supplies for life.

Henry McCoy has posed:
Bulk lifting - that is something Hank can do. He snatches out a hard drive, moving then to grab a container as well. He's not got any mercy in his heart, not for the man gloating over victory. "We need to go." It's been said, but Henry is good for reiterating that fact. Once the goods are in hand, he starts for the exit, post haste!

Scott Lang has posed:
     "Yeah...I get that a lot," Scott readily agrees to Rogue's disbelief that HE was an Avenger. Still he apparently also doesn't come off as a threat either, still chattering away when he shouldn't, "Love the accent by the way. And the flying, that's neat too," as he gets the grand tour to the hole in the floor and looks down. Just in time to hear someone screaming 'No no' and a mad cackling noise.
     "Oh I am just, going to die here aren't I?" he deadpans before the water begins to surge and roil below. Well, he wasn't jumping down INTO that, especially as something small and Avenger-shaped zips by his head getting the Hell out of there. "Hold on, I think I can help!" he cries out excitedly as he runs back out of the warehouse before Rogue can unceremoniously dump him in the hole. Outside a length of coiled dirty PVC drainage piping had been left rolled up, the flimsy piping at least a couple feet across, meant for some long overdue construction project whether at the warehouse or a neverending road project nearby. With a 'WHOOMPH' he grows huge and grabs the pipe, uncoiling it and shoving it back inside the warehouse and down the hole. "Oh boy, here goes," he mutters, though his mutter is a bit more thunderours at this size. He presses the button on his helmet which causes it to retract, a weird sensation as the unfiltered 'normal' air hits his bare skin. Wrapping his lips around the other end of the pipe he gives a powerful suck...and then spits out a mouthful of filthy water, which continues to pour from the pipe as he shrinks back to normal size. It wasn't enough to keep up with the water flooding below but it might at least slow down how fast it was filling up down there. Coughing and gagging he drops on his butt, wiping his hand across his tongue. "Gah. Learned that one stealing...funneling gas," he explains to anyone listening.

Hope Summers has posed:
At Jean's instruction, Hope picks up Piotr's power once again, turning silver and moving to grab what she can of the equipment. "This looks...important," she observes of one device, disconnecting it as carefully as she can before hefting it for the escape.

Scott Summers has posed:
    Cyclops tries to drag the man away from the water. But happily lets Jean take care of it when the redhead begins to grab everything with telekinesis. He seeks the hydrokinetic to try to zap him, but no luck. "Hydrokinetic, Hope? You mentioned a cryokinetic." And there is a guy with a chunk of ice in his chest there. <<Jean. Hank. We need answers to what has happened here.>>

Rogue has posed:
Rogue shows a smile at Scott (Lang's) compliments toward her, her hands on her hips. "Well thank ya." She says back at him before she watches him rush off again which has her dropping her gloved hands down to her sides. "Where you goin' now?" She asks the random man who she doesn't remotely trust. A glance is given down to the hole, but she looks back after Antman and is, well, forced to get out of the way as he does what he does. "Good lord." Is just about all the Belle can summon in response to this display. She floats up in to the air and back out of the building to observe, hovering in the sky.
<"Anybody out there?"> Rogue asks over her comms again. <"There's a giant man out here, turnin' this place into a mixed drink...">

Jean Grey has posed:
Once Jean is free of the part of the structure visibly collapsing in on itself, her vision is sudden filled with the somewhat surprising sight of a giant man. Now it's not ALL that surprising that he's giant (they have a Wasp!), but that he's a /he/. Since when did they get a second bug person? The fact that he's sucking water out of the place like it's a slushie is something else entirely.

Yet she has little time to ponder these existensial problems, depositing the dying mutant on the ground as soon as she thinks she's at a safe distance, along with the several containers. "Hank, I don't think these things are- I don't know if they can survive outside the machines. Can we jury rig them to last long enough to get to a more permanent solution?" He's the medical doctor!

Her captive seems too far visibly gone to truly save, yet in her final effort, she kneels down beside him. "What were you doing? What was the point of all this?" The question is rhetorical- he's unconscious. But in his last moments, she tries to claim the last bit of 'data' they may have missed: whatever remains of his memories, before he slips into oblivion.