Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tara followed along behind Leo as they made their way out of the Mall, cradling Bella in his arms. She was a bit shocked that there wasn't more resistance to them getting out, but then again there was a bomb threat. The group made their way over to Gambit who appeared to be more concerned about not being trampled by the masses running like mad men and women in an attempt to get away from the building. Thankfully, he accepted their wounded leader with little more than a confused look, Leo explaining what happened as Tara turned her attention to the running people. For some reason she couldn't escape the feeling that they were going to be involved in some sort of fight soon -- they'd made it out of the mall far too easily. Is this what being on one of the more active teams did to you? Made you paranoid when nothing went wrong?

Before she really knew what was happening, he motioned for them to head back to the mall, the brunette giving a nod before taking off after Leo. He seemed to falter at something, though Tara said nothing. As quickly as she caught the change in is demeanor, it was gone once more; replaced with the focused look of one who already had combat experience and knew what he needed to do. The rest of their teammates were gaining the upper hand against the Brotherhood. Of course, it was then that the attack she'd been anticipating happened. A set of twins attacked them, Leo engaging one (Aoi) while Tara turned her sights on the other (Miyu). She eyed the blades that protruded from where their hands should be, their insectoid appearance quite off-putting. Never-the-less, her stance widened slightly, her connection to the concrete below her feet flowing through her as she began to levitate several chunks of debris from around her.

Miya released a high-pitched scream as she neared the smaller group, Landslide making her dodge several chunks of flying debris as they swarmed in her direction. The girl was nimble, that was for sure, Tara abandoning large chunks of debris for smaller as she backpedaled away from the approaching mutant. Her body started to tense for impact when she finally caught a break. Two medium sized rocks swung around her, contacting with the flying twin to knock her to the side, Tara swiftly bringing another, larger chunk of debris up from the ground to swoop underneath the girl, swiftly lifting her up into the ceiling. Both concrete and twin fell back to the ground with a crash, leaving the earth-manipulator standing there, realizing she was holding her breath. Releasing the breath from her lungs, she turned to see the other twin, just in time to see him take the girl down for the count.

"Nice moves, Renaissance Man," she called out to him, her grin switching to a look of concern as she saw him stumble backwards, immediately moving towards him. One hand went to his back, offering to steady him, when a voice of one of their own came over the comms, calling for them to completely evacuate the area despite their apparent success in taking care of the bomb.

That didn't sound good.

"Let's get you out of here," she said simply to her weakened teammate, glancing back towards the others in her group. They seemed distracted, but she noticed the stirring form of Miyu as she started to get up from where she'd dropped. Tara growled in frustration - there wasn't any time for this. The tiny Asian girl glared towards her, brandishing her blade hands towards the pair as she started to move towards them. Her eyes narrowed as she took a step away from Leo, spreading her arms out to the side as the concrete underneath the floor began to crack and surge forward, forming a wave of sorts towards the girl. It would be enough to distract her, if not take her out, while she and Renaissance Man made their way out with the rest of the group. Turning towards her teammate, the Brunette lead him a few steps away from the fountain, supporting him as much as he needed her to.

"Just hold on - I'll get you out of here," she said simply, giving him a look as if asking him to trust her. Breaking a slab of floor away from the ground underneath him, it hovered next to her, just above the ground. She began to guide it towards the doors, motioning for the rest of the group (and anyone they met along the way) to remove themselves from the building as they had been instructed. Whatever was going on, she was sure she didn't want to be here when it all went down.

(( Apologies for Autoing people. If you'd like me to change it, please let me know. I didn't know how else to move anything along without moving people a little bit. ><'' ))

ℜ@√℮ +~+ Ѻмεgα- Something Clever

Just how many Morlocks were here? Seriously he knew Magneto was charismatic, and insane, but this was ridiculous. There was no way to justify the kind of chaos that was occurring here.

Copycat and Knoxx chimed in through the Comms, looks like the plan is for Copycat to throw something heavy and the rest gang up on Avalanche. Good enough, but unless that heavy object knocks him down they might have trouble approaching him. Leion wasn't confident in his ability to shoot at someone and make the blast solid instead of cutting through them like butter, especially since his main shooting practice so far had involved Demons and holograms, both of which would be just fine to kill. For a moment he entertained the idea of blinding Avalanche, but then he would probably just send heavy earthquakes out in all directions and that wouldn't be good.

He could do a burst of energy at him and knock him back a little ways, but that was risky too because he might screw up the others, ugh he was way over thinking this. He would just wait for the signal and burst a kick right at Avalanche's torso. Wait had they said there would be a signal?

"Well just say when!" Leion called into the comm as he kicked a two headed Morlock in the gonads to keep him from being shanked. These mutants who only had physical deformities were really very unlucky.

Leion + James ~ Evans

Name: Leonardo "Renaissance Man" Rossi
Team: Alphas
Location: Mall
Finally Getting Out… Good.

Leonardo wasn’t exactly aware of the world around him at the moment; his senses were dampened and his attention elsewhere. As much as he tried to focus on the task at hand, he just couldn’t. He used too much energy during the fight; relied too much on his adrenaline to block out pain… and now he was paying for it. His bruised ribs hurt with much intensity, but the cut on his chest was what was bothering him the most, obviously. Dark red fluid was growing in a feathered out horizontal pattern on his stolen white shirt… and to think, if that bug had gone an inch or two deeper… he wouldn’t be just bleeding. He’d be dead.

When he saw the Asian (Hoshi) come up to him, the animal mimic had the brief, distinct instinct to bat her away… for a moment, he thought that she was one of the bugs… but as his vision came into focus, he discovered that she wasn’t. She must have been an Alpha… or perhaps just a mutant bystander willing to help. There was a funky way in her wording though… the way that she asked if he ‘needed her anywhere else’, as if she were addressing a superior. So perhaps she was an Alpha… one that was extremely late to the party.

As he was getting ready to address the young girl and tell her what to do, Opaque’s transmission came over the comm… crap. It was rather confusing though… the bomb was taken care of… yet something else was wrong? Like what? Bomb was gone, and they could get out of there… It also appeared that Allegra was down. Leonardo cursed to himself. ‘Down’ could mean a lot of things; weakened, passed out, or even… he didn’t want to think about that at the moment. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of pain and guilt stab at his chest. Leo wouldn’t want to have anyone killed on the team… more so because Leo had been the spark that started this fire.

Tara came over just then, offering her assistance to help him get out of there, to which he greatly accepted. It was hard to move after all of the energy that he exerted; one could akin the feeling to sitting down after a long work-out; the limbs were stiff and heavy, as if they were made of stone. It was simply just so much that he had gone through in the past few hours was catching up to him… and he was finally just out of it.

But then again, someone might still be relying on him to give them an order or something, so Leo unsteadily raised his comm to his lips, saying, “Alright, you guys heard Opaque. Let’s move it. Carry who you can, punch what faces you need to, and let’s high-tail it as if the building still is about to explode.”

Letting his arm hang limp down at his side again, Leonardo touched his shirt, along with his chest, and hissed as the pain shot through his torso. Pulling his fingers back, he saw the blood on his fingers; his own blood. Before, it had just been Bella’s that was on his shirt and arms… now his own was steadily seeping into the fibers and hems of his shirt.

So much for a nice night at the mall.

He looked over to Tara, remembering the Halloween Town incident and how he had to guide her when she was blinded from not having eyes. Now it appears that the roles were switched. “Returning the favor, huh?” he laughed, coughing at the same time. Leo had been through worse before; he’d even lost limbs. Now he just hoped that this could all be over; they could all go back to the mansion, start a fire in the fireplace, and laugh all of this off. But it wouldn’t happen but so soon… it seemed that Leo would never find the peace that he was looking for when he left his other life and came to the Academy. This was just as hectic… and in some aspects, weirder.

Omega - Mall - Dying hurts like Hell.

The pain that was shooting through his body was easy enough to ignore; whatever cuts were on his back were superficial to a point. He honestly felt fatigued though from expending what little energy he had brought with him to this particular dance. But Christian knew that despite all of that, he could not give up. Not when the ‘bomb squad’ had moved on out and cleared up that particular situation, clearing up a bit of space for him to work. Especially not when the injured Siren had been removed from the scene as well. There was room for him to fight, to act without thinking if need be. And that luxury was a definite necessity.
With no one in the immediate vicinity, Christian was able to focus solely on the buglady (Miu). He could tell by the crazed look in her compound eyes that she was pissed and rightfully so; Christian did hit her with a concussive blast of energy guaranteed to make her limp around for a while. She hovered close to the ground, obviously wary about putting weight on her leg, and opened her mandibles in a display of ferocity. If Christian didn’t know better, he could have sworn Miu was trying to vocalize her displeasure with the junior X-Man. The combination of insect chatter and human noise did well enough to make his skin crawl, something he was careful not to show his opponent at all. But, he’d lost his footing when he felt the ground beneath him rumble slightly and a medium sized rock hit him upside his cranium.

What fog was there in his head was beginning to clear up, at least he thought it was, when he blinked a few times. An old, familiar face showing up at this time? Hoshi, to Christian’s surprise had shown up and was near the fountain, attempting to at least provide Leo an attempt to get out of the line of fire. Speaking of fire, the one that burned in his belly was starting to be stoked again, realizing that he was going to have to try and provide more cover til those that needed gone were. He was still a tiny bit dizzy when he pushed himself from the floor, evident by him landing square on his a**. When he hit the floor, he saw a brunette he’d never seen before (Tara) begin to assault the buglady with a bunch of debris, rocks she’d manipulated straight from the ground. Interesting in both ability and timing. Thankfully, the ringing in his ears subsided slightly when he heard Daylia’s voice and saw her hand extended out to him. Thank the Gods, it seemed the pendulum was beginning to swing in their favor.

With Daylia helping him to his feet, Christian was up and at ‘em again, raring to keep this fight raging on for as long as he possibly could. “Thanks, Chameleon,” Christian said as he took a brief inventory of how many rounds were left in his gun; six by his count. “But if we take the whore out, that means you have to pay for services rendered… AND the meal.” Miu stood gingerly and faced the two Omegas. If she could have been more pissed than earlier, she’d have been dead of a coronary. The insect lady straight wanted to cut Christian’s head off and Daylia, since she sided with Christian in this fight was an extra added bonus. “Tell ya what. Let’s start a dead bug collection, startin’ with this b***h,” Christian said, a wry grin forming over his face. He knew was he was doing in trying to rile the insect lady up again and it was working; Miu took a couple of slow steps forward before freezing in her tracks… obviously cowing to something or someone… bigger



**Elsewhere: Out of the shadows, into the light**


He drew overly sharp nails against the metal railing, causing the weaker steel bend up in fragile curls. He was bored… Restless. Angry. There was so much fear in the air…It smelled so…Perfect. Ripe for the taking. And finally…Finally he was permitted by his ‘Master’ to partake. He flexed, lips curled into a sneer…Onyx eyes were filled with a savage ferocity that was unmatched. It was like watching a tiger pace behind a flimsy cage…One good roar would set all of the madness free.

Victor Creed had spent far too much time in the shadows…He was good at lurking, but not for long. He preferred to attack, once his target was in sight. But…Magneto had ordered that he wait. Wait on the sidelines while Mystique, his children, and the little weaklings Pyro and Toad got to amuse themselves. He’d made sure to stay downwind of the Wolverine clone, and the mutant himself… He was a trump card, just in case things didn’t go as planned…

But since they were…He’d been given the signal by Mystique, that it was fine to help with the cleanup. That everything was already going to plan.

And of course, to make sure she wasn’t followed.

He vaulted off the railing, landing behind a boy in a long coat. He seemed to be wielding a gun… Pitiful. There were women near to him…But his sights were focused on the kid. He looked like a fighter, like a scrapper. One of Mystiques new little gang looked awfully angry with him.

He looked like fun.

But the insectoid woman took one look at his face, and backed away…He growled under his breath, announcing his presence to the boy… Perhaps a mistake on his part. But he raised his hand, claws gleaming as he snarled. “Gonna put a hole in you, just like Mystique put a hole in that girl.”

“Except wider. Larger.”

Sabretooth moved quickly, instead of hitting Christian with the hand he’d raised—He drew back and aimed for his midsection with his other hand—Conscious that the Xavier brat was armed and dangerous.


**


To his dismay, Christian didn’t hear the sounds of the animalistic behemoth landing on the ground behind him at all. In fact, he was about to start a mini-celebration upon seeing Miu backing down. It wasn’t until he heard the snarling, not unlike a mountain cat back home, that Christian turned around. Slowly, his eyes grew wide with terror; Christian had seen files and had heard legend of this particular brute… Sabretooth. And there he stood, towering over the younger mutant and threatening to gut the junior X-Man. Frozen with fear, he stood with his vision fixed solely on Sabretooth’s raised hand which was aimed straight at his face; he was nearly oblivious to the claws sailing straight for his stomach. The irony wasn’t wasted upon him at all when he heard Solaris’ message about him ‘staying safe’ piping through the moment he was attacked.

Feeling those talons hitting his stomach, even though the slash wasn’t that deep at all, hurt a thousand times worse than anything that Miu had hit him with. Christian stumbled back a few steps, right arm wrapped around his midsection momentarily, pain clouding his mind. He knew the situation just got a metric shitton worse and he wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. Out of a combined effort of fear and instinct, Christian leveled his gun straight at Sabretooth’s chest… doing his best to keep his aim steady and still as a rock.

“You got the stones to use that, boy?,” Creed mocked derisively, “Gonna take more than that capgun to put me down.”

“Really? Let’s test that theory,” Christian replied flatly as he squeezed the trigger, emptying four rounds straight into the beast’s chest. Sabretooth only took a few steps backwards, obviously not letting the pain get the better of him at all. The fear that had paralyzed Christian before had begun to slowly ebb away. It was at that moment, that instant that Christian realized exactly what Sabretooth was; an animal, pure and simple. And Christian had stood down more than his fair share of wild animals back home. Creed was no ordinary animal though, that much was apparent, when he began digging bullets from his chest and licking his fingers clean of the blood. There was a smirk on the villain’s mug, one that dared Christian to keep trying. This time, while he backpedaled and Sabretooth advanced, Christian took aim at his opponent’s knees. Two loud cracks permeated the air and Sabretooth was on the ground, kneeling.. obviously not going anywhere at the moment.

“Yer a cheatin’ b*****d, boy!!,” Sabretooth roared, trying to will himself to his feet. Until the beast’s healing abilities kicking in, it was a physical impossibility. Christian seeing that he had a few seconds replaced the empty clip in his gun with a fresh one. By his count he had one full and one half full clip left. Maybe that was enough to buy a bit of time. Of course, he did still have a trump card in his possession.

“Cheatin’ or not, it worked,” Christian said as he balled up his unarmed hand into a fest, a dark blue energy encasing the appendage. “And you’d do well to learn when to shut the Hell up.” At that, Christian let loose the final amounts of stored energy he’d been saving, sending Sabretooth flying backwards and crashing hard through a random storefront. It wasn’t over though, Christian knew, but here was a bit more time bought for his friends.

Even with the pain hitting him hard now, he fought to keep his rational mind about, realizing that with the fights raging on, that one bomb was diffused finally, and the sudden appearance of Sabretooth that it was time to move out. Yesterday. The orders that Leo were barking out to everyone didn’t fall on Christian’s deaf ears; retreat was the only option. Looking over toward’s Hoshi, Tara, Daylia’s and Leo’s direction, he spoke up as quickly and loudly as he could. “Whoever’s leavin’, do it now! I’ll cover…”

Christian couldn’t finish his sentence due to being blindsided from his right by the halfton snarling, pouncing mass known as Sabretooth. A snarling mass that, after a momentary tumble away from Christian’s friends, had the young man by the throat with his feet absent from the ground. To his credit, the gun never left his hand or hit the ground; he’d a deathgrip on the piece much like how Sabretooth had a deathgrip on his throat. Through the agonizing pain of getting his throat crushed, Sidetrack managed to jam the weapon’s barrel hard into Creed’s ribs. He had only one option for escape and he was damned if he wasn’t going to use it now. But, since Creed had Christian caught up in his left hand, that left the villain’s right to stop the weapon from being used. With a twist, a loud snapping sound akin to fireworks exploding, it was; Christian’s gun fell to the floor hard. Twas quite difficult holding a firearm with a shattered left forearm and wrist. Still, throughout the pain and quickening lack of oxygen, Christian couldn’t help but to fight for his life.

“Remember what I said,” Sabretooth snarled as he flashed a handful of claw, causing Christian’s eyes to widen further than they did upon the villain’s arrival. Nothing could have braced him for what was in store. In a split second, he felt four clawed fingers pierce the upper left quadrant of his chest, hitting the top of his lung and shearing straight through both ribs and clavicle. “Told ya exactly what I was gonna do, boy.” When Sabretooth said that, he let loose the grip on Christian’s throat, letting the young man hang precariously from his claws. Then, with a violent kick leveled at Christian’s stomach which effectively knocked what little air he had left out, Sabretooth forcefully removed his claws from his victim.

Christian hit the ground with a very soggy thud, landing oh so hard on his decimated left side. He had least had a bit of his wits about him and rolled himself over on his chest, despite the pain. He knew he was losing a lot of blood, too much blood. His breathing was beginning to grow heavy and labored; blood was quickly filling his lung. The crimson pool near Christian’s chest was simultaneously darkening and expanding. He didn’t even know when it was that shock over took his body and made him pass out.

Creed looked at the ground towards the dying Christian and only smiled in admiration of his handiwork. Another of Xavier’s little puppets torn to shreds, another one that was going to stuff a pine box. But he knew that his fun was only just in its infancy. The wicked smile never left the villain’s maw as he scoured the scenery around him before his eyes settled upon the departing group of X-Men. “Who’s next?,” Sabretooth snarled as he began to stalk towards his newer prey.

((OOC: Mod approved post. Sorry if I fudged anything up. Had to edit this a bit. stare ))

ALPHAS
The fountain in the mall

Major fail at coolness

Hoshi blinked at the suspious look that Renaissance Man gave her. She was sure they'd met before, but what with being sucked into two equally creepy dimensions, (one of which they didn't look like themselves), Catalina, and her having gone to Ireland for her grandmother's funeral, she wasn't really surprised he didn't recognize her once she'd thought about it. Hoshi bit her lip as a girl (TARA) came over and used some sort of telekinesis to help the temporary leader out of the mall.

Hoshi scanned the area for where she could help without turning into a dragon and spotted a long metal pole laying on the ground. Pouncing on it, she began twirling it around as a bo staff like Gambit did- and promptly smacked herself in the eye with the end. Owie. ow. ow. I seriously doubt I was lucky enough for no one to see that. she thought sardonically and rubbed her swiftly swelling eye. Note to self- do not try this again until you've been training as long as Gambit has. One semester of bo staff training does not make you an expert at the thing. She instructed herself.

Finally, it occurred to her to turn her com on- just in time to hear Renaissance Man confirm the order to get the heck outta dodge as it where, taking out as many bad guys as possible whilst saving people. Seeing that the majority of normal people had long since fled, Hoshi extended her wings and flew high as the ceiling of the mall would allow her to, hovering to look for someone to fight. It was then that she spotted the large furry mutant that stood over one of the omegas. She felt her blood drain as she recognized Sabertooth. When she'd joined the Alphas, Mr. Summers had briefed her on some of the X-men's major enemies and the most dangerous of them had been Sabertooth. Scott had told her that under no circumstance was she to engage the mad man, to run away and find someone much older than her- namely, himself or Logan. If all else failed, she could call on Veritas, but that was only as a last resort.
"Veritas, Sabertooth just seriously hurt one of the omegas, and now he's heading towards the others." She said, swallowing her terror.

Hoping that Gideon heard her, Hoshi flew towards the opposite end of the mall and began looking under benches for small children- she knew from dealing with her sisters that it was a distinct possibility. Sure enough, she found five children hiding in the little playhouse that the mall provided as a way to tire out children while their parents took a break from shopping.[/co "Hello. I'm Seriyu. How would you guys like to ride a Dragon?" She said, dropping her makeshift bo staff and kneeling so that she was level with a little boy who stood protectively in front of the group. "What dwagon?" he demanded, his fists slowly dropping. In reply, Hoshi shifted to one of her smaller dragon forms and crouched so the kids could scramble on. Moving slowly so as to not jar any of the kids, Hoshi flew into the air and towards the exit, wincing as she felt her back get very wet and very warm as one of the children became hysterical. Oh, I hope Sabertooth doesn't hear him until I get them out of his striking range.

(OCC Willing to change anything that is needed)

Code Name: Siren
Team: Alpha
Location: The Mall --> To the Academy Grounds
Ability: Sound Manipulation
Singing: Nothing. Bleeding to much, to sing.

Isabella woke up with a cry that nearly made Gambit drop her. His ears ringing, he stumbled as his head swam. Reflexively he tightened his grip on the woman he was holding, lips pressed into a grim line as dour red eyes glimmered. “Hush now, chere… Gambit doesn’t need to be deaf while tryin to keep you safe. Ca va?”

The songstress bit back another wail, silently apologizing…Murmuring reflexively, that she was fine…She’d been unable to help herself. Everything had been dark, Peaceful and quiet. That is, until suddenly everything was bright… So god awful bright, and loud. It had been the explosion going off that had woken her, though contained by Aurelie, her extra sensitive hearing heard it as if it had gone off right next to her head. Breathing through her mouth, her teeth ground together—She buried a whimper when her shoulder was jarred. She was disoriented, and good god the pain… She recalled being shot at a dozen times…

But Bella didn’t think the bullet had actually ever connected before. She’d always thought her luck would run out… But she hadn’t expected it to happen while at the mall, of all places. Not to mention that since her adrenaline had all but disappeared, so there was no buffer between her and the agonizing feeling of the bullet in her muscle tissue.

“God…G-Gambit, where is everyone? W-Where are we?”, she stuttered out, eyelids fluttering…Not quite there. Every other word was in Spanish…But she was awake, and at least alert enough to know that something was wrong… To know that the fight was still going on. Her shoulder had been bound, halting the blood flow…But the makeshift bandages were already soaked through. Thankfully Gambit was able to decipher her broken English.

“We’re pulling out, chere. I already called Emma for extraction. She said someone should be here soon.”, the swamp rat explained to her, ducking into the shadows of a building as an angry mob of humans went by. Siren was injured enough that he couldn’t put her down to fight. She was weak, losing a lot of blood… She couldn’t take anymore hits. Recalling the way Rogue had chewed out the Headmistress, he was confident that help would be coming soon.

“Explosion… There was an explosion. Loud. Mystique. Protocol is to fall back. Where are they? N-Not here…”, Isabella murmured, her eyes closed as she tried to reach out with her ears and echolocation to find her team. They were her responsibility… She had to take care of them. What kind of leader was she, the first one out in a fight? “Not here.”

“They’ll be all right. I promise. Rogue and Wolverine are with them—“

Suddenly Gambit stilled.

There was a very, very small man seated in a lotus position on the ground in all of the chaos. He couldn’t have been anymore than 80lbs, and his hair a particular shade of grey. He was older, his skin a deep tan. More importantly, he was holding a particular item that caught the Creole’s eye. A bullroarer. He didn’t move forward until Emma’s voice chimed in his head, vouching for the man.

Shifting Isabella slightly, he tapped his comm to his chin. “Rogue—You know how we thought Gateway was gone? Well, we were wrong.”

“He’s our extraction team.”

Behind the seated man, a portal, or gateway opened…Gambit couldn’t see through it, a white film preventing that…But he trusted the man, as much as he trusted some of the other senior X-Men. Though he was very curious about the great-grandfather of Bishop…It was said that the Marauders had killed him not long ago… But if Emma have the green light, he wouldn’t say anything against it.

Yet.

“Hang on, chere.”

Passing the little man, he walked into the portal…Blinded for a moment, only to find himself standing on the Academy’s front doorstep. The doors opened, and immediately Gambit was bombarded with questions as Isabella was taken to the infirmary.

It was time. He knew that some would be confused…News of his death, at the hands of the Marauders would have easily reached X-Men ears…But such a falsehood had become necessary. There were many, that would take his gifts as an opportunity to abuse them…And he couldn’t allow that. But new information had come to him, and it was time, once again, to step in and let his allies know of his presence. The things he had seen…The things he had heard—The madness, that was Magneto…The human penchant for violence…No, he did not wish the world to suffer that.

And the X-Men were one of the few groups that might have been able to defend the humans, and protect mutant-kind at the same time. He could trust them, to take his advice…To heed his warnings. To know how to proceed…Because the state of the world wasn’t going to get any gentler, anytime soon.

It was said that it was darkest before the dawn…But in this case, Gateway wasn’t sure that dawn was coming.

He closed the portal behind Remy LeBeau and the small woman-child he was carrying, and reopened another for himself as he shifted to his feet—Old bones creaking and protesting, but still moving in good working order. //Now for the rest.//

Emma would be a might sore with him, if he was too late and lost some of her children. A might sore indeed.

Gateway blinked in and out of existence, scouring the mall quickly for remaining hostage humans. At one point he even came in contact with a hairy monster that recognized him immediately. Victor Creed. No, that wouldn’t do. He opened portal after portal—And one the humans in the mall were safe he turned to the X-Men. It wasn’t his preference, it had been Emma’s command. No one would say that this group of mutants abandoned humans in their hour of need.

Rogue came down through the broken skylight…Seeing nothing but red as one of the Omega’s bled out on the floor. She’d heard Gambit’s message about Gateway, and prayed that the man was half as omniscient as everyone said he was. She hit Sabertooth in his sadistic jaw so hard that she swore she saw teeth fly out of his mouth as he sailed none too gently into an adjacent wall. The floor of the mall not far away seemed to slowly be caving…

As far as she knew, Allegra had managed to contain the worst of the bomb with the help of the others… But if that were the case, why would the floor be sinking?

Nevertheless, she didn’t have time to dwell on it. She’d seen a few of the Alpha’s carrying the telekinetic away…Her actions had likely saved hundreds of lives—But at what cost? Pressing her comm, her dark eyes were horrified as she used her coat to try and staunch the worst of the blood flow from Christian…Her pale skin was quickly painted red…There was so much gore. The meatier chunks made her stomach turn as cold fear ran down her spine. ”Elixir this is Rogue—Prep a few crash carts. Save your strength, get Angel—We have wounded coming your way in spades. Sidetrack is…He’s going to need you, stat. Allegra isn’t in good shape either.”, Her field medicine was limited—But she knew that the Omega didn’t have the time for her to experiment. She used her enhanced strength to lift Christian from the debris, ever so carefully.

‘Oh, god.’, she thought, unable to help the thought…Unable to stop herself from praying that moving the boy wouldn’t make it worse. He had a pulse, at least. Weak…But there.

Turning around, she was face to face with a white portal.

Thank god.

Rogue ran through it without hesitation, and it seemed that the Academy must have been forewarned—Perhaps by Gambit, because there were at least five stretchers with crash carts waiting. She lay him down on the bed, and immediately, they started to work.

Raising her comm again, she realized that Wolverine was the only staff member left on site. The Alpha’s might not trust Gateway on their own.

“Alpha’s and Wolverine—Evac is in the form of a mutant called Gateway. He will be opening a portal for you, that will immediately teleport you back to the Academy. He is a friend. Orders are to Retreat fully: Trust Gateway, and he will bring you home.”

No sooner had Rogue’s words gone over the comm, than the main group of Alpha’s would see a small, elderly man, only half dressed—Standing before them, where he hadn’t been before. After he collected this group, he would do a sweep to be sure that there hadn’t been any left behind.

So for the time being, a large glowing portal beckoned, waiting to bring the Alpha’s to safety. He did not speak…It was not his way…But he raised his bullroarer, and gestured towards the portal with a nod of his head.