Breaking Point - Second Facet

[Panthera]

When Sam reached the outside, she was caught by surprise by more mutants heading towards the mansion. Holy crap! There's more of them. She hid quickly trying not to be seen. Hopefully none of them were telepaths and could detect her so she slinked towards the scream, picking up the blood scent. Oh God, she's hurt. Please let me to get to her. Please allow the Gods to be watching over her and take me to her.

Sam continued to follow the scent back near the rubble that was left by the man with the helmet. With Logan trying to take care of him and Beast as backup, she could surely go quietly to find her.

The scent was stronger, more predominant and she knew she was closer. She seemed far enough away from the action to be heard. At least she hoped so.

"Miss Munroe, where are you? I hear you, but I can't see you."

[Gambit]

While Gambit fought with words, the Scarlet Witch did that voodoo that she did best. One second the fuzzy one was standing there, ready to fight, and the next there was a pile of rubble in his place. Impressive, but no way the Cajun was counting him out of this fight yet. He had come out of nowhere to start the attack, and could just as easily return there if need be.

Although he was always on the alert, Gambit found his enemies found it much more infuriating if he appeared to think all this was barely worth his time. So, for show, as always, he slowly, lazily, got to his feet. It was then that the first flash of lightening caught his attention. Lightening, wind, rain… if he had to make a guess, the Weather Witch was pissed.

“A light show? Now dis is more like it!” he said, grinning as he tilted his head back and ran his hands through his already wet hair. With his eyes skyward, he scanned the dark clouds above for the source of this unnatural storm. She would probably try to speak to them first instead of outright attacking, but he had to be ready just in case.

Another moment passed with another surprise attack, this one quickly thwarted by Psylocke. Not only did he have the best looking team backing him up, but damn, these femmes had skills. And how useful was it to have a telepath on the team? Perhaps it could be considered cheating to know your opponents move as soon as they did, but he wasn’t here to play fair. They were here for a reason, a goal. A goal that he was determine to achieve, no matter what. And they were prepared, working well together, fighting and defending each other. But the X-Men? Disappointing. What happened to all that team spirit? Did it only work when they were prepared? Because separate, unrelated attacks? Not the way to go.

The wind was howling in his ears now, and the rain was starting to sting as it hit. Not rain... hail.

“Now, now, Stormy! Dis how y’ wanna play it?” he called out to the sky, having to raise his voice to be heard over the wind. “Hidin’ out behind y’r powers? Hardly befittin’ a Goddess.”

[scarletwitch]

Wanda couldn't help but marvel at her own work as the dust plumed upwards from the debris that was sent crashing to the ground in search of the blue attacker.

My--I am good, aren't I?

And then a sudden light came to cut a blinding flash over the skyline. When she looked up she seemed surprised.

Well---I'm better than I thought! I was hoping for just a little wind but...I suppose the odds of a storm only increase when--

Musing about how her powers could have produced such an impressive effect. Because it was obviously her doing, after all. Who else could have done something like that? Gambit was talking about some weather witch.

A goddess? Oh--My how flattering but what was that about if that's all I've got. Who does he think he is saying something like that? Hiding behind my powers?!? Well I never...

However the do-it-herself praise party was cut short with a snarling, snapping sound cutting into her ears.

As she turned, a soft gasp filling up her lungs, eyes widened at being--for just a moment--face to face with a growling beast before he was thrown down to the ground like a bag of..well anything big, heavy, and dumb.

She was stunned and silenced for a minute, eyes blinking to try and wash the fear from them.

Finally she came back and her eyes were glowering at the heap of beastly flesh on the ground. Giving up on the quick, blue creature from before because there was no sign of him under all that smoke, she let out the shocked gasp as an angry puff of air while she came stalking slowly towards the seemingly unconscious being.

"How--How dare you?!? I should turn you into dust! You're already a little toad," the slender fingers of her right hand were dancing through the air at her side, crafting wondrous shapes, "That you would attack me like a coward!" tiny, pinpoint sparks of bright energy were centered at her hand--all forming power and intent slowly as she crafted a powerful hex. There would be no mistakes this time, "Let's see you even move after this!"

With rage and fear, shock and surprise, hatred and loathing all mixing into the concoction of her mind Wanda lifted up her hand with its crackling ball of power above her head--muscles tensed and stretched as she readied the final blow. A bestial sound of her own coming forth as she bent at the knees and began to throw the sphere downward--her and the energies moving like a fluid waterfall and she came crashing---

[Tatiana]

Things seemed to be getting out of hand, including the weather getting a litte bit worse as the time went on. Watching from her little corner of the shadows, Purity saw the strange women getting into it with what looked like an extremely animal like mutant she couldnt recall having seen befire. The bunch of them together seemed to be overpowering. She shrugged and sauntered out of the shadows a little.

Purity had to admit to herself she felt like a commentator giving a play by play as she watched the proceedings. Didn't these people ever get hurt? Even a little. She laughed, knowing that was exactly what she should be wishing.

Fiddling with her knife, she began to clean her nails. Her hands were of course her pride and joy. Those were what people saw when she did her thing. When they needed her at all. Oh well, sooner or later she would get her time.

[Callie]

The bad weather picked up and Callie scowled a little. As long as it didn't... the lightning tore through the sky, accompanied of course by the incredibly loud (particularly to her sensitive ears) crack of thunder, and it took all her self control not to jump a mile.

Why did it have to be a thunderstorm? Dimly, she realised Gambit was talking to...well, noone in particular it seemed, but Callie knew her enemy, and by the sounds of what he was saying this was no natural storm. God she hated the X-men.

To take her mind off the storm, she took quick stock of her team-mates. Wanda had been attacked, but Psylocke deflected it nicely, and now it seemed the Scarlet Witch was moving in for the kill.
She crouched down into fighting stance, looking for other enemies - Nightcrawler had disappeared under the rubble, but she wouldn't trust an enemy was out of commission until she saw it.
Her sharp eyesight picked up movement nearer the mansion, somebody had come out and was trying to stay hidden... she kept her eyes on the shape, trying to work out who it was and if they were a threat from this distance.

[wildchild]

"How--How dare you?!? I should turn you into dust! You're already a little toad,"

He could barely contain the animal fury welling up within him. His upper lip drew up in a snarl as she began to move towards him. His wound had already closed up, only a reddish stain remained across his abdomen as a sign of any injury.

KILL! KILL! KILL!

Wait......Wait......Wait

"That you would attack me like a coward!

She moved closer, spitting curses at him like venom, Kyle's heartbeat raced with the thought of tasting sweet blood again.

It was disgusting and exhilarating to him all at the same time.

"Let's see you even move after this!"

Only a few more steps. Then he would go in for the kill.

NOW! NOW! NOW!

Now!

Using his animal agility, Kyle sprung into action. It was the same tactic, Kyle knew a surprise ambush was always the best way to capture prey, but a different way of delivery. There was no woman in purple between them now. Then he lunged, catlike, directly at Wanda.

He unleashed a roar from deep in his core; a primal sound that would have stopped a deer in it's tracks with fear, that would have stunned most beings with it's sheer volume and ferocity.

Kyle had given in. The beast was in control now.

[scarletwitch]

Crashing down.

Wanda let out a chilling screech. This was no gasp of shock, no squeak of surprise. It was a wail that welled up from every pore of her frail body as she felt a wall of force and power come crashing against the palate of her flesh.

As her back hit the ground, a tremor ran through her as the blow knocked all wind from her lungs and forced out a brutal grunt of pain that cut off the music of her scream. Her hand flopped against the grass, her body losing focus and control of its appendages as it centered all attention on protecting her tender insides with tensed muscles.

Within these moments participating in primal fury, these seconds of dancing in nature's game, Wanda felt more than her balance slip away--but something altogether supernatural go sailing from her.

Her hex flew from her grasp as she came hurtling through the air and ultimately downward. It fully missed its intended target, passing by Kyle without so much as a shiver over his matted hair---

Or so it seemed.

Instead it sank into a simple light-post, flickering and dimmed with the shock to the nearby mansion. The glass cage surrounding the electrical bulb, blown out. Yet, the husk of light was suddenly inhabited by something more.

Before images of her own peril came plowing through her mind with the sudden attack, visions of Kyle's body twisting-contorting-turning in on itself were the basis of her hex. The very fabric of her reality-rending sphere were distortion.

So, it only followed that as it began to change, shift, and transform the very order of things around the metal shaft, that the beam would bend and shake. It slithered like a metallic snake until finally striking from the darkness and lashing out as a steel tendril. Blips of light the only warning to this electric eel of misshapen happenstance.

The now whimpering Scarlet Witch, unaware of anything other than her own attacker, could only squeeze her eyes shut. She titled her head to the side, straining to pull as far from the gnashing teeth and ripping claws while her own hands now came up to protect her features.

Her warped protector of steel and wire makes a sudden swipe at the beast bent on ripping her apart, to wrap him up in a cocoon of metal.

[psylocke]

Elizabeth was pleased with her quickness to come to Ms. Scarlet's aide, but in the process she looked down and found she had broken a nail. "Oh, now I'm pissed", she mumbled. Not only was her perfect hair soaking to her head, she had broken a nail that took her hours to get just right. Someone was going to pay for that one.

However, the weather caught her own eye and Betsy stood there concentrating, finding the source of the change in the skies. It didn't look like a natural storm, but almost like a.....

“Hidin’ out behind y’r powers? Hardly befittin’ a Goddess.”

She could hear the weather witch crying out in her mind for help. It actually pulled at Betsy's heart. Well, maybe only a little, but still they had been friends once, close friends. Now, she was really hurt. Still, so was Elizabeth trapped in that building, fire around her, smoke filling her lungs, and no one there to help her when she cried out. The little bit of pity she felt faded quickly with the memory flashes of her former team's abandonment. She would get her revenge, especially on the leader, the man she once called a brother in her mind.......Scott.

Closing her eyes, she continued to focus on the location of where the mental screams origins were, but that was a little fuzzy against the rising storm above. Still, something told her that she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, she was.....

"Don't worry Remy, the poor girl is trapped in her own fears, and hurt", she grinned.

That's when the attack behind them occurred. Why did she go back over to him? Uh, don't people ever learn? Turning, she saw the beast ready to rip her throat out. It reminded her of Logan and their trips into the woods, and.....well no one needed to know, it was a long time ago.

Psylocke needed to act quickly or Wanda would be his next meal. She knew in her mind that she couldn't get there quick enough on foot. But, with her telepathy came an added extra bonus. Concentrating hard enough would send an illusion his way and hopefully get him distracted long enough for the witch underneath him to escape. She reached deep within his feral mind, finding a lot of horrible deaths and fears. She fed on those for information. Smiling, she went to his inner brain and implanted the idea that his body was hot, getting hotter, then uncontrollably hot....on fire. He needed to jump off, drop and roll.....jump off, drop and roll, jump off, drop, and roll....jump off

[Kurt Wagner]

Kurt had barely met Kyle but he already felt a debt of gratitude for an assist that just might have saved his life. He was a little frightening...more than a little...but Kurt was not in a position to be choosy about allies.

He didn't know much about the crimson-clad witch - though he had lived with Margali Szardos long enough to form that opinion of her in his mind - but another attacker appeared that Kurt was all too familiar with. He knew she could be as deadly as she was dangerous. He couldn't see what she was doing to his new-found friend, but it was plain that she was interfering all the same. Kyle had his hands full with the witch.

And Kurt knew that two against one was simply not fair.

He was running.

Teleporting himself had become almost second nature. There were limitations in distance and the fact that anything out of his line of sight was very, very dangerous because he never knew when he might materialize inside a tree or a car or a wall. Teleporting with someone took effort, and it knocked the wind out of himself and whoever he took along for the ride.

He leapt and he spun. He disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He materialized again only for an instant, and as he did so Kurt grabbed ahold of Betsy's arm and swung her with all of his strength. Then they both disappeared.

It was excruciating, and Kurt fell to his knees as they reappeared outside the wall that surrounded the property. He let go of Betsy's arm. Her body slammed hard into the wall.

[wildchild]

It would have been a lie to say that Kyle wasn't enjoying this. The sheer release of all this animal aggression was like original sin; tempting, and dangerous.

But like the fabled forbidden fruit, he found the spoils of his primal hunts to be delicious. And whether the prey had been venison or human, his stomach had always been satisfied with the results. Only his all-too-human conscience felt the sting of remorse while he was satisfying his urges.

She was whimpering, nearly sobbing now. The beast felt a surge of triumph. It wouldn't be too much longer until her strength gave out, and he would be able to sink his teeth into her milky white flesh.

Flesh....sweet flesh.

He salivated at the thought, allowing a shiny thread of spittle to descend from his snapping jaws.

Then he heard the distinct sound of metal creaking, nearly groaning. A sound of something heavy moving through the air.

He rolled off quickly and hit the dirt as an animated light-post swung harmlessly over his head. The creaking metal sounded like some medieval dragon, and the sheer strangeness of it made Kyle's hair stand up on end.

Not right. This is not right. Metal sits still. Flesh moves.

The post reared up like a cobra, and struck, but Kyle dodged to his left. The pole sweeped, and the glass bulb struck Kyle's shoulder, lodging shards of glass into the right side of his face, down his neck and into his shoulder.

PAIN! PAIN!

He couldn't kill something metal. He couldn't rip it or tear it. He couldn't eat it, or roar at it until it got scared and fled. His frustration was growing as the pole took another pass at him, this time Kyle leaped over it gracefully, landing on all fours.

His right eye's vision was clouded by stream of blood running from his forehead, but his eyes found their mark. The woman in red had unleashed this thing on him.

KILL! KILL! KILL!

He roared again, the taste of his own blood in his mouth, and charged her.

[psylocke]

She grinned at the image she was about implant into the furry beast's mind. She would do this to other members as well. She particularly wanted inside a certain leader's head, mess with him, give him a piece of his mind in his own hand. Maybe, make him believe he's a monkey in a cage so he'll piss all over himself dumbfoundedly. These thoughts put a smile on her face, but it also deterred her from the job at hand.

When she opened her eyes, a puff of smoke was at her side and a blue hand reached and grabbed her arm. Before she could strike back, she had disappeared into an abyss of darkness. She felt like she was back in the darkness of the warehouse and for a split second she shook in fear, not wanting to return to the hell the X-men had placed her into.

Then it was light, but her body wasn't planted on the ground, but flying backwards at a high rate of speed. The bricks came up quickly and knocked the wind out of Betsy. She slumped down feeling the scraping along her back that would be another wound to heal, another scar to possibly have surgically taken care. On her way down, she thought of ways she get that little blue twerp back. Maybe stick that tail so far up his behind, he'd be able to scratch his brain with it. But right now, she couldn't breathe and she crouched for second, a moment trying to get air back into her lungs.

[scarletwitch]

Wanda took in, for a second's passing, a gulp of air as she felt a monumental weight be thrown from her. The beast had been driven off for the moment.

It was a calm moment, her brown eyes staring into the black night sky, stars twinkling before being swallowed up by hungry clouds. But all that calm came rushing away as the sound of metal hitting bone rang into her ears.

She twisted, turning her body to the side and digging claw-like nails into the soft dirt while taking in the scene from the ground, scarlet leather and silk pooling on the green grass.

The pole swung again and again, swiping and cutting at the creature. It was a powerful hex. It was surreal and all reality had abandoned the post. But nature abhors a vacuum.

Soon the true universe was sinking back in, physics and all the natural laws were wresting back their place from chaos's hold. The beam shot back into place as if it had never moved at all. Rigid and sturdy as ever a guard at its post.

A few droplets of the Wild Child's blood pattered down into the shattered light fixture as the only testament to the random moment.

Wanda wasted no time though, not in those few minutes before reality set back in nor had she in preparation for this momentous attack on the mansion. She slipped a hand into her jacket, moving down into an inside pocket and wrapping her fingers up in a strange powder.

It was a mystical recipe, a witch's dust if you will, of odd materials from newt's eye to brick dust. Perhaps the ground items had no power themselves, but to Wanda they held infinite mysteries. And if there were any magical tenant she had learned it was that Voodoo only worked if you believed it to.

Luckily for her only she had to believe in it.

And as she leaned forward, still laid out on the ground but propped up by a hand still pressed down to the earth, her fingers exploded open to expose the arcane creation. Yet, there had formed the final spark of the alchemical process--a new glowing ball of energy and differential probability.

As she let out a heavy gust of air from her lungs, the powder scattered out in a small cloud. The multi-colored patch of fog masked the hex that quickly burrowed into the ground in front of her.

The particles settled to the ground, being little more than a passing blanket on the lawn as the breeze blew her craft away. Yet the trap had been set.

Wanda only locked eyes with the now charging feral creature, staring him down but stretched out like a beast of prey--playing the wounded lamp or the broken bird.

She knew it was convincing though, because it was only then that she felt the quickly cooling sensation of a thick fluid pooling against the side of her neck. When the faint smell of iron tickled her nose the sensation of the deep scratch caused her to furrow her brow for a moment.

The trap had been set, but she wasn't exactly sure who it was for yet.

[Gambit]

Betsy’s words were both bothersome and reassuring, but Gambit was able to quickly push the former away. Whatever memories he held onto from a past long forgotten were useless; they only made him weak. He had chosen his fight and threw himself into it whole-heartedly. Now he was on a mission, and everyone that opposed him was his enemy. There was no room for conflicting feelings.

The storm was uncontrolled, and although it was growing worse, he knew that no direct attack would come of it. So far only two had met them to fight, meaning the majority were still inside, and those that were unharmed were facing Magneto. Betsy had disappeared and Wanda was facing off against Wolverine The Second. That left Callie still free to help them, and their secret weapon, a healer, hiding on the sidelines to fix up any injuries that might be sustained.

Gambit had full confidence in his team, and that made his choice easy.

“Keep dem busy. I’m goin’ in,” he called above the raging winds. It was doubtful that Magneto would require assistance, but Gambit was determined to be there to offer it. With nothing left to lose and everything to gain, he would do anything and everything in his power to make sure Magneto succeeded. With that thought in mind and burning determination in his soul, he continued toward the mansion.

((I’m a little all over the place tonight. Apologies))

[wildchild]

Kyle was moving rapidly, in his unnerving four legged gait, his lips curled up over long sharp teeth.

She wasn't even moving, she had given up.

But something happened, something that Kyle attributed to Wanda's strange abilities. Kyle's foot struck the earth, then his right hand, then his left, then....

Nothing.

Kyle plummeted down into a deep pit.

He glared up the sheer walls and roared in anger and frustration.

NO FAIR! WANT TO EAT! WANT TO BITE! WANT HER FLESH!

It was just deep enough to thwart any attempts at leaping out, and the edges were not stable enough to dig his talons into to climb.

So he sat, and began to pull the shards of glass out of his skin. He cringed as he pulled the biggest of the glass shards out of his neck, and threw it to the ground, taking little notice of the strange feeling of a wound closing itself up. He began to pull out the other shards, allowing those wounds to heal over as well.

If he was going to get out of here, he'd need to stop bleeding all over the place and focus, that was for sure.

He stood, and coiled himself into a high tension crouch. This jump had to make it.

He leapt, and dug his claws into the lip of the pit. Snarling as he pulled himself up.

"N-n-n-No....more.....tricks..." He spoke through gritted fangs, his face stained with his own blood. So now they knew he was more than the watchdog.

Kyle wondered how they would react to that little fact.

[scarletwitch]

Wanda both smirked and let out a sigh of desperate relief as the ground gave way under her attacker and sent him cascading downward into a hole of dirt.

The victory was short lived as she heard Gambit call out the dismissive command, snapping her head back over her shoulder to watch him.

It's bad enough I have to play the solider to that buffoon, Wanda scathed to herself, And now he expects me to stay here babysitting some hairy child?

And she stood then with all her pride and presence restored. She now lorded over the mystical pit-trap. On one hand she did wonder if he could make it out. She had no qualms, at least in her mind, about ending another's life--even if it might be hard, as it would be with this one--but she had no idea what would happen when reality set back in and this hole filled up again. Would it trap him? Or would it merely raise him to the surface with a pop? But there was little time for that musing.

She curled the edge of her lips upwards as she stared down into the hole where the ravenous animal was scurrying up at her. Like a squirrel trapped in a particularly deep trash can. It was fitting. "No more tricks, you say? No more tricks?," she let out a soft chuckle as a foot tapped near the edge, "My--My--My...you've not had much experience in war, have you little boy? That's all it is," as she spoke her fingers were contorting into rote arcane shapes, arms lifting slowly upwards, "Is tricks!"

As she jerked her arms out, pointing her fingers down towards the beast in his earthen cage. With only a few motions she sent out a series of three hexes rapidly after one another. One settled its effects into the very earth that Kyle held, another into the bottom of the pit, and the third onto Kyle himself.

However, her mind was fractured--torn between thoughts of Kyle's pain, her own bruises, the hexes effects, Gambit's words, her father inevitably inside the broken mansion. It all welled up into the knowledge that she had no idea just what these cantrips were about to do. She could only hope that at least one out of the trio of changed probability would keep him at bay.

With a dart of her eyes Wanda cast a glance over to the stalking Callie, hoping she'd take the hint to perhaps do something about the dog in the ground...but frankly not caring if she did at this point. She twisted on one of her long heels before rushing after Gambit. She came up next to his side, moving swiftly with him towards the crushed box of a mansion, staring into it with the knowledge that her own beloved father was at its heart.

"Didn't think you'd be going alone--did you? Just don't get in my way dear, thanks," was all she said as her heels clicked softly on the ground with each step.