Welcome to Gaia! ::

His teeth were clenched tight together. His body slid slowly closer to the sentinel as he tried to increase the gravity more and more. He had to hold it in the blasts from it. He had to give the others a moment to get away. His boots fought against the friction as he slowly inched closer and closer to the sentinel with the force of his pull. He told the others to go, to run. And it seemed like they weren’t going to listen, at least not right away.

There was a familiar blast that came from behind him. One that had come from Seige. The moment the blast it, August was cursing up a storm in his head so big that it would have given his Momma a heart attack. He knew that the blonde didn’t have the energy to keep making shots like that. So he wondered why it was in that moment that he decided to rather that conserving energy and running. Why the ******** wasn’t anyone listening to him.

Smaller versions of the mutant killing machine came to the call of their master. Like a hive of bees protecting their queen. Lava lit up the room like fireworks. He knew that Playboy was still there too, and he almost wanted to pull his hair out. However, he had to appreciate the man for staying behind, because if they would have left when they were told, there was a chance that August would be dead.

He kept up his attack as much as he could until he heard Dimitri behind him. Waiting until the perfect time, August dropped the bubble that he had placed on the sentinel and put it on himself instead. He pulled the gravity surrounding him towards their escape, sending himself flying towards it. He entered the hall just after Dimitri and moved with him as the lava controlling mutant sealed off their escape.

Once they had a moment to breathe, they did. There was a grin on the southerner’s face when Dimitri complimented his gift. “Thanks, sug. Couldn’t have done it without ya. Thanks for gettin’ me out of there before sealin’ the place off.” It was a cautious walk to where the others had gone. August tried to keep his mind focused so they wouldn’t get ambushed by other baby sized sentinels.

He looked at Playboy when they heard Seige over comm. His teeth tightened together, his sharp jaw flexing as he tried not to get too annoyed. He finally unlocked his jaw when asked how he was doing. “I’m good, darlin’. Got enough in me to maybe make one big one into a twisted hunk of metal. Small ones are easy-peasy… But we should still avoid the big ones.”

He heard a sound coming from his teammate, and tried not to watch out of the corner of his eye. He was hit, and it had to hurt. For the sake of not fretting, he would wait until they were with the others before checking over the wounds of everyone. He wasn’t the most gentle-handed person, but in the least he could slap a bandage on a wound.

Finally, they reached their destination and entered the office space. He came in behind Dimitri and heard Gabe address him. “Well, ain’t you just strivin’ to break a boy’s heart. And here I thought you’d miss me most.” He grinned at Gabe, trying to make as much light of the situation before he started yelling at them like an angry mother hen. Dimitri helped Gabe out of his gear and gave Wraith a job well done about getting Gabe out of the fray. He watched the boys interact before Dimitri addressed the comm. August pressed on his own. “You know I ain’t down for the count, either. But we need a plan.” He rubbed his hands over his buzzed hair after releasing his comm.

Dimitri made the same sound he had made in the hallways and August moved toward him. The southerner mouthed the word ‘sit’ to the other. He waited as Dimitri slid down the wall before looking at his head with the same amount of gentleness as a mildly annoyed parent. “Hold still,” he said, trying to inspect the bump that was probably causing a hell of a headache to boot.

“I ain’t no medic, but I don’t think you’ll need stitches.” He rolled to the side and slid down the wall and sat next to Dimitri. His eyes fell on his other teammates. “And as for you,” his gazed honed in on Gabe. “Next time I say run, I mean run. Not play target practice. If my powers were working any other way, you could have hit me instead with that blast.” He gave them an opportunity to get the hell out of there. Not to try to take it down with one last hoorah. They learned the first time that it isn’t that easy. Not all the firepower in the world was going to be able to stop those sentinels, and none of them had the experience to know just what to do.

Now they had wasted important resources and energy and left to run with their tails between their legs, hiding out in the office of some psychopathic researcher that probably helped design the same monsters that were trying to kill them right now. “I need all of you to get your heads out of your asses and into the ********’ game. None of us have the same experience dealin’ with this s**t like the Omegas do. So, I need ya’ll to not act like some cowboy hero trying to write your own narrative and be a god damn team before one of us doesn’t ********’ make it out.”




xx

Luci watched as the man that had come before and the woman he brought with tried to talk to the metal man. They tried explaining that it wasn’t that simple to get into the cage that was holding her prisoner. Seemed like the man with the metal head had a thick skull. Figuratively and literally, it seemed.

Once she was on the other side of those god awful bars, she felt as if she could breathe for the first time in months. Maybe years. Time seemed to bleed together and she dreamed of the night that she was taken regularly. However, her subconscious seemed to twist the memory into something that she wasn’t sure was real or not. It was suggested that she return to the jet before the others were rescued.

This was the moment where she had to stand her ground. “No, not until the others are at least out of their cells. Some may be able to handle their own in a fight. I’m not sure the nature of their abilities.” It seemed like Daylia had a good head on her shoulders. She was witty and sarcastic, but she handled situations well. Luci liked her.

She tried not to laugh at the way the redhead spoke to the metal man. Pounding was happening as he tried to get through the door. Finally, it crashed open, spooking every person inside. She stepped up to the small cell block door and looked inside. She assured the others that they were safe, and that they could trust this man before returning to Aren and Daylia.

There were tears in her eyes and she swallowed the choking feeling back down. There was a time and a place for this, and it wasn’t now. She lifted her head and squared her jaw, holding herself together. “I don’t know what they can do, but there might be a reason why they are here to be studied. I don’t feel like they picked us randomly. There had to be a purpose.”

Attention was brought to what she had said about the labs. She nodded, turning to look past the other cells to a small door frame that opened up into a hallway. Her eyes were adjusted to the dark, so the red lights from the alarm system was taking some getting used to. “This way,” she said as she lead the way past the cells and towards the labs.

Without thinking about it, she let her eyes fall closed once they were through the door. She had to go off the most recent memories of being taken to and from the labs. She tried not to walk on clumsy feet as she wove her way blindly through the dark. They passed doors that were for other parts of the base before the hallway split into a T. She turned left, her eyes opening for a moment before closing again as if falling in and out of the memory. She tried to layer the map together with what she had seen and what she had felt.

Once they reached the end of the hall, they stood before a set of large double doors that were controlled electronically. “Here.” There were no markings on the door to indicate that it was a lab area. No windows to tell that they had reached the right destination. Just faith. It was all that was needed from her companions that they trusted her memory and what she felt and experienced. “I… I don’t know the passcode.” She looked to the small panel next to the door that would have a key code to be typed in. Her eyes swept away from the keypad to Daylia. She was the only one that could get them in and out of the room. However, she didn’t know what was on the other side of the doors either. The chances of there being threats within were small, most of the sentinels and their smaller cousins were probably fighting to protect the facility. There was no guarantee, though.

Gabriel Byrne
Location: Sentinel Base
Thoughts: And here I thought I was gonna have a last stand moment...

Gabriel’s vision was still blurry, to say the least. The arrival of August and Dimitri bolstered his confidence now that the seven of them were made whole. Or was it four of them? Damn double vision. His brain was still all kinds of ******** given the circumstances. He chuckled at August’s drawl when he also came in. Dimitri did him a grand kindness and got his tactical vest off of him. Soon August berated him for not running when he said to do so.

“The opportunity arose, I took it.” he replied, taking in a deep breath as his eyes rolled a bit, “The thin line between bravery and stupidity and all that sappy bullshit.”

With a sigh he added, “I’m sorry, any opportunity to put a dent in these metal ******** I want to take it.” he said with a growl, his vision coming into focus, “But not at the risk of putting teammates at risk. It was stupid and foolhardy.” Soon talks of a plan were underway, trying to figure out how best to proceed from here. Dimitri asked if he had anything in his gear that was explosive, but he gave a sad sigh “Sadly no, I’m a gun nut not an Alabama hick.” Scanning the office he had a thought arise.

“But I am also a bit of a maestro with computers...” he said, looking at the office terminal. Shuffling as fast as he could, he made nearly fell into the old computer chair. Taking note of the lights he knew there was still power, and he remembered seeing the terminal being plugged in. “This is an older office where researchers were likely on an intranet system. The sentinels built around the older R&D facility in terms of structure, and given that they are efficient… he rambled, his fingers dancing across the keyboard with lightning speed and precision. A couple minutes and bypassing the administrator system, and he was in.

“They built their network off the old computer system as well.” he finished. He started to go through the computer, looking for a building directory, a map of the old complex, anything that they could use.

With a whoop he shot his hands up “Hot damn! We’re in business!” he called out “I got a building directory. I can send this to everyone involved. If there are some others inside we can set a rally point near where the Master Mold might be.”

The sound of walls breaking, they prepared for the worst. He took out his communicator, and attached it to the terminal to download the directory. Once that was done, he struggled to flip the table into a position of cover. Uttering a simple “******** it” he simply ducked down and placed his forearm across the table. The flat surface gave him some stability with his sidearm, leveling his weapon as the drones came rushing in.

“Hold here, the moment they let up we move! I’ve got a building map, we can get to where the core is!” he steadied himself, firing off a few rounds.

God hoping they would let up.

OOC: Sorry for the s**t post guys!

XX【 】Name: Alexander "Lex" Magnus
XX【 】Codename: Wraith
XX【 】Team Affiliation: Alpha
XX【 】Location: Office
XX【 】With: Siege, Playboy, Jedi
XX【 】Actions: fired a shot at 4th sentinel head, lured 2nd and 3rd down the hall, used shadows to move 3rd's arm causing blasts to 2nd's back

Work smarter, not harder. That was the modus operandi that Wraith was trying to adopt. Brute force tactics were not working, and had in fact threatened more than one member of this advance team. If you could call it that. He carefully evaluated each member silently. Siege was the closest thing he had to a friend. However, the ballistic mutant was a glass cannon concerning his powers. A shot weakened him. A big shot wiped him out. Wraith remembered about how he considered himself a code monkey, so his computer expertise could come in handy. Jedi was one of the two he had no experience with. To that end, he could only base an evaluation on what he knew from this combat scenario. Jedi was brash, blunt, and not a fan of tact. Wraith gave him the side-eye when Jedi’s speech came up about working more as a team. Of course the gravity manipulator had a point, but delivering it with a brick was far less effective and pleasant than treating those in the same situation reasonably. That led to Playboy. That one was interesting with some sort of advanced heat creation and manipulation. If pressed, that was the leader of this little cadre. It was Playboy that was addressing each member of the team on equal terms- including Wraith. That meant a lot to him. Playboy got a bit of trust from the disillusioned young man. As Playboy went through the motions, trying to find some sort of plan, he even offered to create a barrier with both his lava and Wraith’s shadows. That would be awkward. Wraith can’t maintain them indefinitely and he was reluctant to tell somebody that was giving him a chance that there were things he couldn’t do. Still, while he was reluctant to offer information, the other three worked as a team to come up with ideas. Again, they talked about the two main targets- head and core.

It honestly surprised him to hear that Playboy was seriously considering his plan for using the building itself as a weapon with a collapse. It would likely not stop the sentinels, but it would significantly slow their movements and allow the teams to approach them in smaller groups. Wraith was able to offer a small smile as he considered it even as a backup plan. Successes where they came. Of course, that was all before the wall was destroyed. Wraith had run into the office across the way, and decided to take cover hiding as much of his body as possible while laying prone on the floor. That allowed him to use more stable objects to keep his aim from wavering. The rhythmic steps were approaching from down the hall. As they came into sight, the shadow mutant had to fight hard not to fire. Don’t shoot the first one. Wait. An ambush is most effective when you wait for them to spring the trap better. Sure enough, more than one human-sized robot came down the hall. One, then two. Three. It looked like a team of four. That made sense in a ruthless calculus sort of way. In theory, they should be more than a match for the mutants. All had been identified and they could adapt. Each one could have a chance at eliminating all four, so sending 1:1 was their way of ensuring that all offending individuals were pacified. Wraith watched their synchronized movements. Their efficient method of staggering formation. None were perfectly in line with any other. Wraith heard Siege behind him succeed at getting a map. The plan offered to upload a schematic to any friendly units for everybody to use. “Do it.” Wraith said quietly. The sentinels were likely to notice a mutant at the computer screen- but not as likely to see him until he fired. What was the right time?!

The choice was made when he started to see Playboy fire off several small fireballs. They flew true and garnered a lot of attention. Such was the risk of flashy powers. Wraith watched with great interest as the sentinels turned to pay attention to the attack nearly-instantly. They stared unblinkingly at the orbs as they stopped and returned to their origin point. Playboy started to get upset at how these things not only subverted but hijacked his ability. The hesitation was only for a moment. Wraith took aim at the rear unit. He aimed carefully and took a deep breath. He exhaled and put up the darkest shadow he could over the muzzle of his weapon. Wraith couldn’t do a damned thing about the sound, but he could eliminate the visual giveaway to his position. Between breaths- just like his games and fiction had told him. When totally still, he squeezed the trigger just as Siege had told him. The weapon kicked like a damned mule! Still, he had his entire bodyweight to absorb the recoil. Wraith had aimed for the center of the forehead, relatively speaking. Instead the shot landed through the right eye of the unit, and it went down. A .50 caliber weapon did massive damage, even to a robot. The sentinel staggered and collapsed. The team of four droids had lost one member and verified that the lavakinetic was in the area. The sound of the shot reverbed across the walls in such close quarters. Unable to easily identify the source, they began to scan in earnest. The lead one still concentrating on controlling the lava balls at an approximation of Playboy, the other two searching with arms raised. Wraith thought he could stay very still and hide. He was wrong. The second in line saw him and began to fire rapidly at his location. Each shot severely weakening his cover. “That didn’t last long!”

Wraith tried to roll away and gather himself, but the sentinels were configured for rapid fire rather than knockout blasts. A minor distinction but enough of one. The desk and cubicle were soon little more than abstract art as the blasts perforated the thin metal. The mutant scrambled to get out of the way, but for every handful of blasts, one got through. Several grazed him. Finally, he got his feet under him, and Wraith moved back into a further area of the office before going back toward the hall from a second entrance further down the hall. The blasts were now a swarm. More than one sentinel droid was firing on him- and that was what he wanted. He heard them thudding closer. That gave him an idea of where to focus. Wraith closed his eyes and felt out for shadows- hard. They were there! The sentinels were not solid, they had gaps. Small, not even big enough for a hand to fit, perhaps a few fingers. That didn’t matter. Wraith smiled darkly as he realized he had an edge. The two approaching him were still blasting. The walls were taking damage. He hadn’t moved far down the hall when he ran so they did not have far to chase. He reached into the second sentinel approaching, and grabbed its arm from the inside. Shadows became solid and pulled hard on the arm as it fired, the rapid blasts peppering the first in the back. He couldn’t be sure how they would damage one another, but it was worth the try. He could only hope that he hadn’t led them far enough down the hall to endanger Jedi and Playboy.

No one ever really seemed to notice just how slow time tended to pass until they had no choice but to take note of it. Hours seemed to pass by quickly when you had the entertainment and distractions of day to day life keeping you busy. It was only when you had absolutely nothing else to do that you noticed time itself crawling along. It was like an ever-present phantom that stayed out of sight until every once in a while it decided to show its ugly face and chill you to the bone, for no other reason than to remind you that it could. This time was one’s greatest enemy when you were strapped to a surgical table in an otherwise unoccupied room waiting for something, anything to happen. In that time he could feel the seconds crawl by him at an agonizing pace. He could feel his restraints cut into his circulation. He could feel his muscles twitch every few moments simply out of sheer anxiety. He could feel every trickle of sweat pour down from his body. He could hear every tick from the clock hanging over a wall he could not see from his position.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

It was excruciating. Rory was no stranger to constant, foreboding sounds. Pickman Manor was filled to the brim with strange sounds that often had very little, if any, explanation. There was creaking windows and doors, the fluttering of wings, the shuffling of something just out of the periphery of his eyes, the odd animal noises from the den where all of Layla’s taxidermy was stored, the chiming of that grandfather clock in Sutter’s office that always seemed to find itself an hour behind no matter how many times they’d fixed it, and the occasional ominous wind that may or may not have had whispers behind it. But those sounds were always more comforting than frightening to Rory. This clock’s ticking was maddening in a way he could not say he’d ever really experienced before. This sound was clinical and precise, and it was almost as if he could feel each second of his life be stripped away from his bones with every tick and every tock. He wanted to scream, but he settled for a muffled cry, as it was the only thing allowed to him. Any second now the doctors would return and vivisect him for their deranged and hateful purposes. He almost hoped they would return, so they could at least put him under and he would not have to hear that damnable clock anymore.

It was something of a relief when he heard the door suddenly fly open. At the very least the anticipation was over, even if it did not bode well for him. But from beyond the door he could hear something like all hell breaking loose, though he did not have enough of a vantage point to see anything beyond it. When a man approached the doorway, he cocked a brow in confusion. The man was no doctor; he could tell from what he was wearing. While the man was not the least bit familiar, the costume certainly was. He would know that distinctive X anywhere. He’d been a student at Xavier’s for some time now, though he’d never considered actually joining any of the superhero teams on campus. He was merely there to learn his ability, and little more. He was no fighter. But he certainly could not deny them his gratitude for this apparent rescue.

Rory let a loud exhale escape his lips once the gag was removed from his mouth. The man introduced himself as a member of the X-Men, and claiming that he was going to get him out of there. ”Th-thank you,” he muttered. He took a deep breath to collect himself before saying anymore, fearing that he might accidentally open his other mouth in his excitement. The last thing he needed was to give his rescuers a mental breakdown, especially while he was still strapped down to a medical table and exposed to any violent tendencies that could bring upon them. He couldn’t allow himself to be killed when he was this close to freedom.

Once he was finally freed from his restraints, he sat up. He twirled his wrists a bit to bring back some of the feeling and circulation he’d lost while trying in vain to pull himself free. ”I know a bit about you guys,” Rory muttered, unable to look his rescuers directly in the eye. ”I am- or was, I guess -a student at Xavier’s. I was visiting home when the mansion was attacked. I thought you guys were gone, so I went into hiding.” There was a notable quiver in his voice as he spoke. Rory had never been the best at addressing strangers even at the best of times, let alone when he was half-naked in a torture chamber. ”Not that it did me much good,” he lamented. The last few days were among the worst in his life for obvious reasons. He’d never felt so utterly vulnerable and helpless in his life. Even in his worst moments of mental instability, he’d always had the comfort of a loving family or people who cared to help him out of his attacks. Before now he’d never felt like he was surrounding by pure, clinical, cold hatred pouring from every corner of his periphery. He’d never before felt like he was trapped so completely.

Once he was comfortable with the blood flow in his limbs, he stood and walked over to the bin where his clothes and other belongings were placed when they were forcibly removed from him. He casually tossed on his shirt, not even bothering to button it up completely. He slid on his blazer, and slipped his camera strap around his neck, suddenly feeling a dozen times less naked than he did before. ”I’m Ro-,” he began to say before stopping himself. He did not doubt the people who ran this facility had his information, but it somehow felt wrong to say his given name here. Instead he opted for his codename, the one he’d randomly come up when being admitted into Xavier’s school but had never actually had the chance to use. ”Johnny Carcosa,” he corrected himself, hoping his rescuers would follow his train of thought.

He approached his rescuers and pulled out a pouch full of ear plugs, the disposable kind that came tied to cord to keep each pair from separating. ”I can’t help you guys fight our way out of here. I’m no good at that violent stuff. But I can talk to any people that get in our way.” He offered each of them a pair of ear plugs, though he still could not bring himself to look either of them in the eyes. ”You really, really don’t want to hear me talk to them.” A small part of him relished the idea of bringing torment to his torturers, but the largest part of him mostly just wanted to go back home to Providence. Without really thinking about it, he pocketed one of the scalpels on a tray beside the surgery table. He did not plan on using it, but it was better to have it and not need it than the opposite.

The Sentinels moved closer down the expected path. They were slightly larger, but they made sure they weren't going to miss a single thing. Get to a doorway, scan, and continue on. That was their search pattern, and they were going to be meticulous until they found every last stray mutant in their domain.

Their search pattern changed however. "System breach detected." All sentinels shifted and swiveled and stared down the hall. The path lead towards one of the offices that was utilized when there used to be humans in the building. This was their domain, terminal access was never used by a sentinel, not when they were all connected as a single electronic hive mind.

Gabriel would find that the terminal he was using locked itself out. Not only was he locked out of the terminal, having his comm hooked up while the terminal locked out not only bricked his comm device, but everyone's in the immediate vicinity.

As they made their way towards the prey they had been previously hunting, they were unaware of their back up. Two of the smaller sentinels were ambushed by Wraith, one having forced to fire upon it's 'partner,' the front sentinel had stopped. Not all together, but just forward progress. The plating of the smaller sentinels were more resistant to their own fire power, as they had adapted to respond better to Playboy's lava.

The sentinel in the front moved to the side, allowing the one that had previously shot it to take the point. The sentinel now repairing itself. It scanned the area of darkness that seemed to be the source of the misfire. It cycled through it's different scans. Nothing. Despite this, it unleashed a hail of blasts into the empty room for assurance. "No threat detected." It spoke aloud, returning it's sensors to the fore.

As the two larger sentinels were now being made work of by the new prey, one had taken the opportunity to fire upon the Telekinetic that was standing atop one of the larger sentinels.

Isolate and destroy. The mechanical monotone voice stated. Uncertain of who was where, the sentinels would not be able to handle their prey in force. The smaller sentinels began to fire at the base of doorway where Gabe's terminal breach was located. Another had fired a few times into the roof above before targeting another doorway. All four smaller sentinels were firing calculated blasts to bring down the ceiling enough to block off doorways and pathways without compromising the whole building's structural integrity.

(OOC: Again, sorry for the late response. Didn't want to auto who was with who in the which rooms/hallways that the sentinels managed to block off. Or if they even succeeded. I know several of you have powers that can prevent some if not all of it.)

Alice had to try to restrain herself when Blake had a small outburst at the idea of him planting cameras in her room. She grinned sideways at her friend out of the corner of her eye. “First of all, rude. You don’t need to say it like that. I’m plenty interesting.” She tried to hide the genuine laughter in her voice. “And besides, I’m only as boring as you are, bestie.”

Blake disappeared inside to report on what he could see from a different perspective inside of the building that they were all struggling to overtake. Instructions were fired back at them over the com from their team leader and Alice kept her focus on keeping the area clear for Blake to return back to. Once she was inside along with Blake, she looked at the gigantic mutant, and human apparently, killing machines.

They had to do something. That something was going to be playing dominoes with the giant, metal machines. The initial slam of her hands sent them toppling down to the ground. If they moved fast, then maybe they could strike before the hive woke up and started kicking their asses. She took off into a run, leaping onto the chest of one of the fallen sentinels. Fists pounded through the metal exoskeleton that protected the cores. Once she was inside, she ripped the core out and tossed it as far as she could. If anything, she could leave a pile of cores for Blake to walk through.

She moved on to the head, pounding her way through it when Roland made an announcement over the comm system. She retorted back to the omega to be careful, just in case any of the captured mutants had a vendetta against being rescued. She kept her focus on the task at hand, just as she had told Blake.

Finally, her friend asked about the Alphas and Alice had to keep her face blank. “As long as they ain’t dead or useless, then I wouldn’t worry about it.” Even though they were probably at least a little useless. Didn’t mean she wanted them dead. At least not all of them. There was one that she wouldn’t mind if she had gotten at least a little maimed in the fight.

Blake tried to get a good idea on the status of the hostages that Roland had rescued. She dove for another, adding to her slowly growing pile of cores and heads. She wasn’t as efficient at it as Blake was, and her hands were starting to hurt. But she ignored the pain. There were some things that were more important, and stopping the Sentinels before they can even start was more important than a fractured pinky.