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"It's Tokyo! Get the team moving!"
OOOOOOO
Like the other cities already hit by Magnum's demonstration attacks, Tokyo had begun to evacuate regardless of what the government might've wanted. But no city in the world could be evacuated that quickly, not even a city built with roads and cars in mind. Traffic was heavily congested throughout the city, the roads completely blocked off. Even the vaunted Japanese public railway system was overmatched.
The police had not been able to keep up with the chaos and carnage, and the JSDF had joined in en-masse, putting some order on the chaos and setting up evacuations zones, flying people out by the thousands. This wasn't the first natural disaster they had dealt with, and the SOP was well written.
Yet when the next earthquake hit, the entire city was paralyzed. Buildings began to fall, shattering into pieces, the roads began to crack, bridges collapsed. The ground quaked underneath the civilian's feet, and people began to die.
During all this chaos the Blackbird arrived, with the Custodes Mundi and the X-Men leaping out of it quickly, those with flight arrays flying those who couldn't survive the jump alone. Rogue helped Cyclops and Spyke, while Nightcrawler bamfed himself down. Psylocke aided Magma, while Colossus and Armor simply dropped like stones, slamming into the ground like them too.
The moment she touched down, Magma changed from her normal body into her energy form, leaning down and slamming her hands onto the ground. Almost immediately the earthquake began to subside, no longer shaking the very earth and the buildings apart, simply being a rumbling underneath people's feet.
She gritted her teeth, shaking her head. Whatever was happening was powerful, and pushing back against it like this was damn hard. But Magma could tell that she had a home field advantage so to speak, and was slowly using her control of tectonic energies to overcome whatever Magnum was doing.
Around her the rest of the X-Men had touched down at the same time, and Magma began to bark out orders between her teeth. "Cyclops, you can speak Japanese right?"
Scott nodded, and she went on quickly, not noticing his rather amused expression that she had taken command already. "Find the local authorities, start working with them, Spyke, Nightcrawler go with him. Rogue, Colossus, Armor, start moving from our position here and look for any survivors that need your help. Shadowcat go with them. Psylocke, you stay here, I can't speak Japanese, and I'll need your power to help translate. That'll put one Japanese speaker with every group."
"Niet," said Piotr shaking his head. "You may need a bodyguard Magma. If Magnum has people in the cities to watch his back, many megalomaniac maniacs like to watch their handiwork I understand, they may figure out you're the one blocking his powers."
Magma looked up from the ground for a moment locking eyes with her boyfriend, then smiled and looked away blushing slightly. "Thanks Colossus." The others raced off in every direction, and for a moment the trio of Betsy, Piotr, and Magma were once again alone, falling silent for the moment.
All around them civilians were getting up off the ground or coming out of shelters as they realized the worst was over, staring around them and shouting and gesticulating at one another trying to figure out what happened. Had Moses Magnum rescinded his ultimatum, had the Emperor agreed to hand over the rule of the islands? Or had the madman overestimated his power? Was this divine intervention? No one could tell.
Suddenly the power coming through the ground doubled, and the earthquake began once again, causing Magma to grind her teeth, bearing down even harder. Despite this surge, Magma still retained the advantages of both position and power, and fought back as nearly an hour went by.
Whatever device Moses Magnum was using to augment his abilities was no match for her power. She poured out more of her will into the tectonic energies roiling within the earth, and began to beat the attack back once again, several fissures in the concrete of the road nearby closing as she did, the magma that had been boiling up out of them receding.
Nonetheless those few seconds had been enough to wreck several more buildings, and now thousands of people were dead throughout the city. The worst sight was an overpass leading out of the city which had collapsed, bringing down all of the cars on it, and the people both within those cars and those who had been trying to run away on foot from the traffic jam.
It was to that disaster Cyclops and his team were racing, now in a local helicopter with Sunfire of all people, who had come in giving his word of authority to the local emergency rescue people. It was not fit duty for a samurai in his opinion, but he would do what he could to aide his people.
Now it paid off, and he listened as these new foreign heroes, who were apparently involved with Custodes Mundi if in a limited capacity, informed him of what they had discovered so far. "You will be taking me with you when you move against this Magnum madman in his den," he said briskly. "This kuso yaro (bastard)has attacked my nation, and it is only right and proper that I be among those to respond."
Cyclops shrugged. "That's not my call, but for my part, I'll say another flyer will be a major help. That's an area we're severely limited in at present."
"It is good that you know your limitations Cyclops," Sunfire nodded his head before pointing downwards. "Now let us get to work."
With that he barreled out of the helicopter flying down quickly, shouting in Japanese "Clear the way! Point out wherever anyone you know is buried, but remain calm! Help is on the way."
Rogue's group had a much harder time of working with the locals and had actually been attacked by some JSDF forces until they realized the mutants were here to help. But even then, they had trouble finding anyone who was willing to listen to them among the police and other emergency personnel. Then they had to wait until those people actually got in contact with Sunfire, and had him, rather reluctantly, speak up on their behalf. Then the man who had heard this declaration refused to speak to Armor, being an old-time misogynist, unwilling to talk to a young girl as if she had any authority.
Eventually the trio of girls simply shook their heads, heading off with Armor leading the way. They moved to the nearest collapsed building and with Shadowcat shifting into the rubble to find survivors beginning to dig into it even as they were shouted at by the locals. A time or two some of the locals turned on them angrily shouting things at the foreigners and throwing things, but none of them noticed, and soon it stopped as the trio worked on.
Not so with Magma and the others with her. Piotr had at first begun to help at one of the collapsed buildings nearby, digging into it, but Betsy simply shook her head sadly, telling him to come away. Her powers couldn't find any minds in there, nor even unconscious ones.
But there were other locals nearby, coming out of emergency shelters, coming out of buildings, even cars stalled in the traffic snarl that dominated the city.
None of the trio noticed when it started but a crowd had soon gathered on the street a ways down from where Magma was kneeling. After a few minutes one of them pointed at Magma, seeing her kneeling there on the asphalt of the walk path, hands almost burning into the concrete so intent was she on fighting back whatever tectonic energies Moses had released upon the city.
He pointed at her, shouting angrily, and Psylocke automatically translated for Colossus. "Look at her! She's one of those mutant freaks! She must be the one doing this she must be working for that madman! Get her!"
For a moment no one heard him, then several other men nearby took it up, and a woman shrilled "Kill her! Maybe if we do, the earthquake will stop!"
Colossus quickly moved from where he had been lifting up a piece of rubble to stand in front of Magma. At the sight of his armored form many of the crowd which had raced forward to attack Magma quailed, moving backwards, and he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Niet! Magma is trying to stop it! We are…"
But he was drowned out by several dozen of them shouting aloud "Kill them! Kill the mutant gaijin!" A makeshift Molotov made from a sake bottle flew out of the crowd at Colossus. He batted it aside shattering the ceramic though the liquid tried to set his hand on fire, but thanks to his armored form Piotr didn't feel it. Someone pulled out a gun, a soldier effected by the crowd's madness and shot at him. Other weapons were thrown his way, smashing into his body, rocks, knives and more makeshift weapons.
But Piotr simply stood there silently taking it. The only times he reacted were when the braver members of the crowd rushed forward to try and engage him. If they attacked Piotr, he simply took it, but if they tried to get past him to Magma, sitting on her haunches with a car and a wall protecting her back, then he would move, destroying their weapons. Even when people tried to pile onto him he simply stood there, unwilling to fight back, simply taking everything they could dish out silently.
Psylocke had jumped up to a second story balcony and was standing on its railing, using her telekinetic blades to bat aside any attack that came her way, which thanks to Colossus seeming a more dangerous threat were few and far between. She was also shouting at the top of her lungs and telepathic power, slamming each word out into every mind there, "No! We are not your enemies! We are the Custodes Mundi, we are here to help."
Soon this message and Colossus' perseverance got through. The crowd's anger and hate began to subside, and the people moved back away from Colossus, still angry and sullen.
But one of them at least wasn't finished, and he pulled out a rifle, either his own or taken from a soldier at some point. He aimed at Psylocke's side from her blindspot. For all her telepathic ability, Psylocke was still concentrating on the crowd in front of her and did not sense the assassin behind her. At least I'll kill one of you freaks, the man thought taking a brief moment to aim.
That statement and the intent caught Psylocke's telepathic attention and she whipped her head around but too slowly. At her psychic shout Colossus turned, also too slowly.
A circular shield like Vanguard's but painted red, white and blue rather than red with a white star slammed into the man side first, hurling him away with a loud crack of broken ribs and a cry of pain, his rifle clattering to the roadside. "You know, where I come from when people want to help you the proper response is to say thank you, not shoot them in the back," said a voice in English.
The crowd suddenly fell silent, every person within sight of this little tableau simply stopping and staring. Colossus stopped and stared, Psylocke stopped and stared, even Magma looked up from her task, only turning back when she felt the little rumble through the ground underneath her. There, on top of a nearby apartment's balcony stood a living legend. "Captain America," Colossus said softly, "Im, impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible my young friend," said the captain, leaping down from where he had stood, followed by several others who had been higher up the roof, smiling at Colossus.
Two of them, Avalanche and Hawkeye, the Custodes knew after looking past their outfits. But there were three they didn't. An older looking black man wearing an all-white suit with a wide brimmed hat and carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder stayed where he was, surveying the crowd from behind a pair of sunglasses. A man in a Kevlar suit of blue and gold with a gas mask covering his lower face with two submachine guns strapped to his side jumped down with the captain, followed immediately by the third, a man wearing a skintight suit of blue, his head covered similarly by a mask of blue and yellow.
"I was frozen, some kind of cryogenic sleep caused by the cold temperature I crashed into due to a bit of an adventure I had back during the end of World War II." He looked at Colossus, then Psylocke and Magma and smiled faintly, visible since his mask only covered the top of his face. "You'd be the Custodes Mundi I presume? Colonel Fury doesn't seem to like your boss much, but he can't say anything against your actions at least. So, fill me in on the situation here soldier."
"Sir," said Colossus, actually coming to attention. "We were waiting in the upper atmosphere nearby, believing that the attacks on the cities during Magnum's show of force seemed to indicate that the source of his attack was nearer to Hong Kong and Tokyo than any of the other cities. We were unable to figure out where that was directly before this attack, but hoped that our team member Magma could use her own powers to offset his assault. It's worked, but we only got here as the attack was going on. There's already been a lot of damage done to the city, but hopefully we've stopped it from being apocalyptic."
"From what we saw from the air you did, most of the city's still standing, but thank God the Japanese believed in building for earthquake prevention in the first place. Do you know where the command center for the emergency response forces is?"
"No sir, we stopped here because this was where we landed, and I believed that Magma would need a bodyguard just in case. Psylocke stayed to help translate."
"Well we did too," Psylocke said, leaning up from where she had been staring into her would-be attacker's mind. "This man works for Moses, he was sent to record the attack and interfere with public order any way he could. I can't see why he agreed to that, and he doesn't know where Moses is unfortunately, which means we're still waiting for that."
"Very well, Maverick cuff him, we might want to question that man later. The rest of us should start moving towards the control center. With the city like this we won't get far just randomly going around searching ruins or helping people, no matter how laudable that is. So once your specialist's done what she can, follow us. Kestrel, you said you had triangulated their position? Avengers, let's move."
Such was the impact of Captain America's presence that practically every able-bodied person in the crowd followed him despite most not having followed what he said. With the crowd behind him Captain America moved off, racing through the city with the somewhat older black man, Kestrel apparently, leading the way. At a nod from the other two Psylocke followed, wanting to move with the so-called Avengers to use her ability to translate so they could all understand the locals.
Colossus stayed back with Magma. He stood there as she reached up for his arm, taking it before allowing Colossus to pull her to her feet. The Neo-Grecian shook her head wearily. "That's the first time I've ever had to fight someone in a battle of pure wills like that. I wonder if that's how Jean or Emma feel when fighting another telepath."
"But you won," Colossus said smiling at her. "Very well done, dorogoy (my dear)."
Magma nodded, then slowly began to come out of her energy form, tapping a mark on her armor, a runic array which powered a spell that would cover her features with a series of spells intended to disguise them. Then she opened up a pouch, a feature all of their uniforms shared, pulling out a potion and downing it quickly.
At the sight of the potion Colossus snapped his metallic fingers, making a clanging sort of noise that resounded through the area. Pulling out his communicator he spoke to Dennis for a few moments, asking him to get in touch with Sage. At the same time, he and Magma began to move in the direction the others had raced off toward, noticing how empty this portion of the city was at present. They soon came upon Kitty and her group, helping to excavate a large collapsed apartment building.
When the information specialist came on, Colossus asked, "Are you able to divert any of Magical Minds shipments to Japan? I realize you would have to ask someone to remove the magical security on them first.
"Doctor Druid's up, though the others are still out of it apparently, according to Dennis," Sage replied after a moment discussing things with the spymaster in Camelot. While still coming to grips with all that Harry's magic could do, Sage understood how important it was easily. "He says he should be able to halt a shipment being sent to Ireland, then ask the United Kingdom to lend us some of their transport planes. Going by air will be much faster."
In fact," she went on after a moment "I'll ask Doctor Druid to relate to one of the house-elves that they should follow along just in case." There was a chance such a shipment, with its destination already changed, could be seen as a target of anyone trying to steal MM's 'medicines'.
Kitty spoke up, leaning over Colossus's arm to speak into the communicator on his wrist. "Make certain to specify that it needs to be one of the house-elves who's most at home with technology. None of the others will be comfortable doing it, and they might not pay as much attention."
Colossus nodded and after helping as much as they could there the group moved on. About twenty minutes passed as they moved through the city. Then Magma halted, the communicator on her wrist vibrating. While Colossus and Armor moved to help a bus out of a crack in the road, she moved into a nearby alleyway to talk into the communicator though in her case it was the magical version.
Coming back quickly she reported, "Professor X and the Diamond just called. They've been able to pinpoint Magnum." She frowned thoughtfully, staring all around them at the destroyed or badly damaged buildings and the growing crowd of people, wounded, in shock or simply afraid. "Shadowcat, Armor, Psylocke, you should probably stay here. Armor can stay to help translate and her strength is useful, and your powers, are invaluable for search and rescue ladies. Same goes for Nightcrawler."
After that she looked up at Colossus, he shrugged his shoulders indicating he understood what she was thinking. He didn't care one way or the other, it didn't matter if he would be involved in punishing the person who'd caused all this carnage, or help his victims. The first would be nice, the second was probably more important however.
Magma finally nodded. "All right, the team will be myself, Colossus, Cyclops, Sunfire, Spyke, and Rogue. We might need both of our strongmen in on this. Let's get in contact with them and…"
A gentle but firm hand landed on his metallic shoulder, and he and Magma turned, starting a little bit at seeing Iron Man hovering right behind them. "You lot have figured out a way to track Magnum down? I'm not even going to ask how, but don't think for one moment you're going to be leaving the Avengers behind."
"Some of us have to stay behind to help the people here," Colossus protested, getting over his surprise quickly. "Besides, Moses Magnum is a mutant, it should be mutants who deal with him. At least that way we might be able to mitigate some of the damage his actions have done to the cause of mutant human equal rights."
"Nice sentiment, and I might even agree with you, but you don't know what kind of defenses he has. Better to bring in more men than you need rather than get caught out."
To that neither of the Custodes could protest, and a few minutes passed while they all got in contact with their groups.
Captain America however brought up an important point that Iron Man had forgotten. "Tony, you've got construction droids coming in from the helacarrier right? Will they respond to anyone's voice, or just yours?"
Inside his helmet Tony clicked his tongue the noise coming out of his speaker faithfully. "Not at first." Tony's construction droids were not creations he had let out to the common public, much like Dr. Doom though he had shared them with Harry. None of them were willing to start flooding the civilian sector with such, knowing it would disrupt the economy. But unlike Doom's, Tony's were all voice activated, and even his own company couldn't use them without Tony first changing their base settings.
"In that case, you'll stay here along with Giant Man, Avalanche and Kestrel. Maverick, Hawkeye and I will join this attack group. Is that alright miss?" Captain America asked, turning to the young woman who seemed to be making most of the plans for the Custodes currently present. He'd hoped to meet Guardian himself, but that could wait for now.
Magma stared at him, falling back into the shock Captain America's presence head thrown practically everyone who had seen him into, stuttering for a moment. "That, I mean, you're asking me?" She squeaked.
While Tony and the approaching Maverick laughed, Steve just looked embarrassed. "Please Miss, I'm just a regular man underneath it all." He laughed self-deprecatingly. "In fact, when I was younger, before I volunteered for the program, hmm I was, well you could call me the runt of the litter and you'd be kind."
Magma frowned, but Colossus actually smiled, remembering Harry telling him about his own history, and what he had learned from it. "Because only those who have been weak, know when not to use their power."
Steve Rogers twitched, quickly looking up Colossus his eyes wide. "I heard something like that myself," he said cautiously.
Colossus waved his hand. "It was something Guardian said to me once, it resonated with me for some reason. Very well," he went on, looking at Magma who nodded. "I think you and your team members will be welcome additions."
"Huh that's true," said Ironman, snapping his fingers making a tone like that which Colossus had made doing the same thing a few moments ago. "Where is Guardian?"
"Something magical happened or he did something magical, the reports I've seen are rather confused on that score," Colossus said with a shrug. "None of us were around at the time so I'm afraid I can't give you any details."
Even if we wanted to, which we don't. Tony Stark might have become much more stable in the past few months, but Harry still was wary of the man knowing too much about his own operation, and had made certain that all of the Custodes Mundi knew both about him and about the Avengers as a team, which was tied into SHIELD. Dennis had found out about them watching footage from some of their battles in Argentina and elsewhere. From this Harry had decided to treat the Avengers as semi-friendly units, until they proved otherwise.
It took about 40 minutes or so to gather the people selected for the attack team. By which point Moses Magnum had figured out or received news that his attack on the city had fizzled out.
He was on the news once again ranting now about how the defense of the city was admirable, but it merely delayed the inevitable. "Your defenders can only protect one city, I can attack over a dozen! You have 45 minutes now, unless I hear about the Emperor of Japan stepping down, I will destroy Washington D.C., Rome, Hong Kong and Berlin! Then 30 minutes after that, London, Moscow, Paris and Hollywood! I will keep targeting more cities with each successive attack until my demands are met!"
"Forty five minutes," Captain America said grimly, racing onto the Avenger's quinjet, which had parked on the same rooftop helicopter pad as the X-men's Blackbird. Cyclops and the others were already there, and they stared at him, which he tried to ignore. "We can't waste any time then."
Cyclops shook his head quickly smacking his forehead several times to get over the sheer shock of seeing a walking, breathing legend in the flash. Coming back to his senses he raced onto the Blackbird, heading for the controls. "Strap yourselves in boys and girls we're going to fly!"
Once in the air the Blackbird, with the quinjet following, hit near supersonic within two minutes, and then slowed down dramatically within five, homing in on the target island as Charles using Cerebro directed them. At the same time Emma was filling Colossus and Magma in on what they had found, her thoughts a light whisper at the edge of their thoughts. "There are around ninety people down there, all of them give off the vibe of hardened criminals or soldiers, at this distance it's hard to tell which. We don't know anything about the physical defenses, but judging by their ability to almost mask their mental presences from us and what Magnum has been doing, assume a high tech base."
They could almost feel a frown through the mental link she had forged between them for a moment as Emma went on. "In fact, I'm tempted to see if I can get through that defense and simply shut their minds down from here."
Colossus shuddered, sharing a look with Magma, thankful that she wasn't sending to any of the others. The idea of a telepath simply shutting someone else's mind down like that gave both of them heebie-jeebies. Shaw had been a piece of work, a true sociopath and a clear and present threat to them, whose powers made him even more dangerous to most of them. But unless it would save lives, Colossus was not willing to let Emma do such a thing here.
Through the telepathic link he said as much, with Magma chiming in quickly. "It would set a very bad precedent, up to this point the limitations of a telepath's powers aren't very well known. But if Hawkeye or Captain America have mental defenses and can resist their memories being altered, or if someone else eventually put two and two together, it could paint all telepaths in a very negative light. After all, who would be happy to know there are other people who could reach out and shut their minds down?" Magma said, putting Colossus's thoughts and feelings into words far better than he could have.
Emma was silent at the other end, then eventually nodded. "I can understand that, and I actually agree. I'll withdraw my suggestion then. That means you lot will have to fight your way through however."
By this point the plane was within sight of the island, and several dozen small VTOL attack craft seemed to be heading towards them. Cyclops looked behind him towards Sunfire. "Looks like we've got some friends coming to meet us, are you ready to go?"
Sunfire nodded back slightly, very slightly in order to show his superiority over this foreigner, though Cyclops didn't realize that. At Sunfire's nod Cyclops flipped a switch, letting Sunfire jump out. "Banzai!"
Sunfire slammed into the first VTOL, coming out the other side having left a hole that looked as if something red-hot had shot straight through it. Then he turned, his hands forming into guns, shooting out several small blasts of solar power. The VTOLs didn't seem to have human pilots operating them, but they responded quickly, fanning out and firing at the flyer.
The island was a rocky one, based out of a small volcano, the sight of which caused Hawkeye and Spyke to both mutter about living in a James Bond movie. Hearing Hawkeye's comment, Captain America laughed. "I liked those when you showed me them Hawkeye. We need to do that again sometime." Even as he said it though, the rocky ground below them began to change, small apertures opening and letting out what looked like anti-air cannons of some kind.
And at one point on the island a cave door opened. Several beings trooped out wearing large armored suits the sight of which caused Captain America and Hawkeye to both scowl angrily. "Tony is not going to like this," muttered Hawkeye. "Bad enough we've got other militaries playing with power suit tech based off his design, now we've got criminals who have access to them?"
"No, at least not in any numbers, I don't think. Their performance probably won't be anywhere near Tony's toy. The power consumption alone would make that impossible," Captain America said shaking his head. "And look at the bright side, at least we know AIM isn't the one backing Magnum, if they had toys like that we would have already seen them."
Maverick, the pilot growled angrily as he was forced to circle away, the anti-air fire too heavy to get close to the island. "If you two could stop talking for a damn minute, we're kind of in a battle here!"
"Keep your distance for now quinjet. We need to knock out some of those defenses first." Cyclops' voice came from the radio as the Blackbird banked away.
"What are you going to do?" asked Captain America, watching Sunfire as he dodged this way and that. Need to think of putting some guns on this bird, or recruit more flyers to the team. That's an area we're badly deficient in.
Cyclops had turned over control of the Blackbird to Spyke, moving back to the still open entryway. Reaching up to his visor, he smirked. "I'm going to make us a landing spot."
With that he flipped his visor up off of his eyes, letting his beams out for the first time in a long time at full power. The actinic beam of pure force slammed into the ground in a wide radius, shattering, and crushing everything in its path, as Cyclops raked the ground of the island in a wide circle.
Immediately guiding the quinjet forward, Captain America shouted, "Rogue, Maverick Colossus with me!" leaping out of the plane. Maverick nodded, leaving the quinjet on autopilot as Hawkeye, taking his cue without need for orders set up a covering fire with his bow, destroying several VTOLs.
But the teams in the Blackbird stared at Captain America aghast, the man didn't have a parachute, and he wasn't that durable, was he? Nonetheless the two tanks charged out after them. As they fell they noticed Captain America was actually using his shield to defend himself from laser and flechette rounds, the impact of which was slowing him down. Seeing this Rogue shook her head. Did he actually plan for that!?
Then neither of them had any time to think. Landing on the ground that Cyclops had cleared they charged forward, ignoring the weapons bouncing off their bodies. Colossus chose to charge the armored defenders, many of whom had come out of a small ditch in the ground, using the lip of the ditch as cover to fire up at the invaders, nearly clipping both planes and Sunfire. Rogue used her greater speed to close with a few of the automated guns nearby, destroying them and moving on quickly.
Colossus smashed into the armored defenders, crushing their mass-produced armored forms quickly, before one of them caught him in the face with a punch that made Colossus' head ring. "Hah, we might not have much vibranium, but what we do have you're going to feel!"
Not replying Colossus fell back slightly, then when the same attacker moved in his hands came up in a Sambo grappling strike which flashed in past the armored suit's large fist. Ducking under another punch Colossus' other hand caught the back of his attacker's captured arm in the forearm, wrenching it to one side, and swiftly tearing the limb off entirely from the elbow.
Holding the limb up he shouted "They are not like Ironman at all!" Reaching forward he grabbed the center of the armored suit's chest, and even as it brought up the other hand, the end of which was now open showing an aperture for some weapon, Colossus ripped the front chassis off. The bolt collided with Colossus sending him stumbling backwards, but the juggernaut armor he wore and his own metal form handled it easily.
Staring at him aghast was a normal-sized human, at the controls of what was basically a giant robot that he was piloting from a small control area. His entire body was situated in the robot's chest.
Ducking underneath an energy blast of some kind Colossus reached forward grabbing the robots legs and lifting it bodily up over his head, shaking it and shouting "Look! They're some kind of robot suits, not armored suits at all!"
"Well in that case sugah," said Rogue, who had been having a difficult time with four of the other armored defenders having jumped her from a hiding place, "that makes it easier." With that she began to rip off limbs, along with the heads seeing as only the body needed to be preserved to not kill anyone.
Nearby Maverick also took advantage of this, having touched down as easily as any of the others, easier in fact since he hadn't made a crater like the two tanks had. Using his mutant power, kinetic absorption and redirection, with pinpoint accuracy he took out the robot's joints and the hatch covers, leaving the men operating them stuck inside.
By this point Captain America had already taken out two of them, and with the air space cleared for now the two jets touched down with Cyclops, Spyke and Hawkeye exiting quickly. Above them Sunfire started to land as well, having finished off the aerial defenses with the aid of Spyke and Hawkeye. There were still some gun placements taking shots at them, but Cyclops' attack had won them some space to operate, and the others had expanded that sphere quickly enough to give them a good idea of what they were facing.
Crouching down behind a rock Captain America began to bark out instructions over the continued chattering of automatic fire and the fizzling sound of energy weapons of some kind, their bolts a whitish yellow. "Cyclops, you stay back and use your attacks like artillery, take out any gun placements you see. Colossus, you move that way," he said pointing towards the direction from which at least half of the mech suits had appeared from. "Sunfire, if you would go with him, and you Magma, Spyke?" Sunfire nodded, and Captain America also sent Hawkeye that way. "Rogue, Maverick, with me. We'll go the other way towards that ditch Colossus was fighting in. Cyclops, follow along after us as soon as we're on the move."
The sudden overwhelming attack had already decimated the island's quick reaction forces, and now the two groups were able to press forward hard, pushing into the island's interior quickly meeting only a few automated defenses as they did. There however, both groups were bogged down in the security tunnels which had first disgorged the defenders, running smack dab into the second, third and fourth defensive teams, all of whom were using the same kind of powered suit that the people outside had.
Worse, there were several gun placements on the interior as well that had begun to fire at them whenever they could. The interior of the island was also a bit of a maze to the Custodes and their allies, slowing them down dramatically with every offshoot they had to explore, or backtrack out of.
It was after one such stop, as her team was taking shelter next to a wall from fire from both ends of a corridor, that Magma felt it: Moses Magnum had made good his promise to attack again. "Stop, guard this position for now!"
With that she knelt on the ground, ignoring Sunfire's furious expression at being ordered about like that by a gaijin woman. That feeling faded visibly however as he realized what Magma was doing. At the same time, Colossus had taken position in front of her, while Hawkeye and Spyke began to take out the automated defenses with pinpoint fire.
Concentrating hard, her energy form flaring an even brighter yellow/orange than normal, Magma growled under her breath. "I'm right on top of you now you bastard! You and your stupid afro, and your ludicrous 60's shirt! Let's see how well you do trying to overpower me now!"
OOOOOOO
Deep in his no-longer hidden control center Moses Magnum snarled, enraged, thrusting his arms deeper into the device he had created to augment his powers, forcing more and more energy into the device. His body generated seismic force which amplified his natural strength and allowed him to create and direct seismic vibrations from his fingers.
These were normally mid-to-major depending on his effort, and the device he was currently attached to allowed him to project that power further away from his body through the earth. Right now he was concentrating as he had never done before, trying with all his might to make good his threat, especially now that the governments of the world had sent their lapdogs to find him.
And yet all that effort got him absolutely nowhere. Whatever had stopped his seismic attack on Tokyo was now right inside his fortress, and he couldn't overcome it. "Damnit! Damnit! Now all of the world leaders will think it was all a bluff! I'll have to destroy more cities before they capitulate!"
Magnum pulled his arms out of the device shaking them quickly as feeling had begun to leave his fingers for a few moments there. He then snarled angrily shaking his head. "But before that I have to deal with these interlopers!"
OOOOOOO
His men could have told Magnum that was not going to be easy. The attackers were overwhelming them, bringing more force to each encounter than the defenders could handle. Despite running into problems with the automated defenses Captain America and his group didn't stay in one place for long, taking away the defender's ability to overwhelm them with numbers. And over the next 20 minutes or so, most of Magnum's defense forces were down, leaving only the automated defenses.
But these were still formidable, and now with the attackers becoming tired they began to tell. Hawkeye fell, a bullet taking him in the thigh, forcing Captain America to fall back with his wounded friend, with Cyclops and Maverick guarding them, both of them also sporting various wounds, though the attacks hadn't been able to penetrate their armor completely, not yet. Cyclops' visor had taken a blow to the side, and he was forced to close that eye, halving his beam's power as he fought on. And Maverick had taken a flechette round to the side of his knee, slowing him down considerably despite his body absorbing much of the impact.
Only Rogue remained uninjured, her armor, Juggernaut durability and Shaw's kinetic energy absorption were more than a match for any of the defenses they had come across yet. With her in the lead Captain America and Cyclops were soon pressing forward once more, Maverick taking his leader's place in guiding Hawkeye to follow them more slowly.
Magma and her group had a much rougher time of it. Having had to stay put in order for Magma to use her power, the defenders had been able to concentrate their nearby forces and encircle them.
Now they were held up in a corridor, with Colossus in front, exchanging fire with a Custodes rifle he carried in his pouch while using his metallic body to guard the backs of Spyke, Sunfire and Magma who were dealing with the attack from behind. These new defenders were using the same mech-suits as the others they'd run into, but their weaponry was much heavier, which made fighting in the narrow confines of the tunnel even harder.
Spyke howled in agony, as several plasma rounds slammed into him, getting through his bone armor and searing his skin. Luckily the suits the X-Men had worn had now all been given enough Orihalcum to cover the chest and thigh, much like Psylocke's, or those could have finished him off entirely. As it was he went down hard, thankfully falling unconscious from the pain.
"We aren't getting through this way!" shouted Magma, ducking back towards Colossus as the heavy weapons team that had boxed them in from behind tried to redirect their weapons on her. She winced as they impacted anyway, before hurling enough of her own small bits of energy back toward them to put them down permanently. At the same time Sunfire finished off his own opponent, moving to kneel by Spyke to check the boy for a pulse.
"What would you suggest?" said Colossus calmly, the calm of a person who had yet to face any weapon on this mission that could break through his juggernauts plate armor or metal form.
"That we make our own road!" Magma shouted, slamming her hands against one side of the cavern. There was a deep rumble and a cracking boom and second later a fissure opened up in the rocks there, leading downwards and away. "Follow me!"
Colossus did so grabbing up Spyke, trying hard not to jostle his injuries. He then turned, watching as the entrance closed behind them, several feet of rock closing them off from their pursuers.
Beside him Sunfire frowned. "I do not like this idea of skulking about, it lacks honor. Nonetheless, we are being slowed far too much and if this Magnum person is like most megalomaniacs, he will no doubt run now that the odds have turned against him. That must not be allowed, he must stand trial for his crimes against Nippon! Lead the way woman."
Rolling her eyes at the man's attitude Magma did so, her form and Sunfire's hands being the only light in the cavern for a moment until they broke out into another corridor heading somewhat further down and to the left of their original position.
Elsewhere, Captain America and his team had gotten bogged down once more. Cyclops had taken a hit to his shoulder from a sniper gun, though thankfully it hadn't penetrated. But when the blow threw off his balance his own eyebeam had nearly taken out the ceiling above them, forcing him to close his eyes for a moment, weakening their cover fire.
Captain America took the sniper out with an adroit throw of his shield, catching it as it bounced back to them using its momentum to throw himself forward to land in front of Cyclops to guard him from further fire from forward.
Rogue shook her head, "I'm never gonna get over that kinda thing."
She had gathered in quite a bit of kinetic energy up to this point, and now seeing they were being pressed hard took a page out of the Hulk's book. Cupping her hands together she slammed them down to the ground, creating a shockwave through the ground towards their attackers.
That threw them all off their feet, and before they could get back up and attack again, Maverick and Hawkeye took them all out. With that done the group moved on.
But even despite the group's success thus far, Sunfire had been correct. Moses Magnum was not the type to go down with a sinking ship. The moment he had stopped trying to overpower Magma with the help of his machine he had realized despite his bravado that his defenders were being equally overpowered, and decided to make a run for it.
Unfortunately for Moses, Magma's surprise escape had brought her team right on to the hidden docks which had been used to create this installation in the first place. As the men with Magnum began to fire at them almost immediately, Magma returned fire with fire, ignoring the energy blasts hitting her while dodging the solid slug projectiles while Sunfire rose into the air of the small cavern, doing the same thing. Magma shouted, "Sunfire, destroy that ship!"
"Do not order me about woman!" Sunfire shouted. But he followed her suggestion, turning his solar power on the boat that Magnum was racing towards. Only a few blasts were needed, and one of them caught the ships engines, causing it to explode gloriously.
"Damn you!" Moses shouted angrily, reaching down and grabbing up a piece of shrapnel and hurling it upwards, catching Sunfire in the shoulder and left pectoral, cutting deeply and sending him crashing to the cavern's floor.
With that done he turned throwing out a punch at the charging Colossus. But Colossus had been trained for months under Shiang Chi's harsh tutelage and even caught by surprise at the other man's speed, Colossus rolled with the punch moving his entire body with it to one side, coming back with a kick that caught Magnum in the chest.
A normal man would have been bent double by that kick, but Moses was far stronger than most men thanks to the seismic force his body generated. He took the kick with barely a wince, grabbing the foot and throwing Colossus through the air. But Colossus flipped in midair, grabbing at a nearby crate. It was empty, but large, and Colossus heaved it up, hurling it towards Moses as he landed.
Moses smashed the crate to splinters, but this obscured his vision for a moment, and Colossus had followed his projectile closely. The armored Russian smashed two hard punches into Moses' body, before moving for a hold. Moses was durable however and took the punches, moving the arm Colossus was trying to grab out of the way before kicking out, catching Colossus in the thigh. This threw off his attacker's balance, and Moses brought his fists down in a hammer blow on the back of the metal-man's head. "Fall damn you!"
"Nyet." Colossus growled, pushing himself to his feet and bull rushing the other man, slamming him bodily back through several stalactites. "Not before you!"
"Colossus get clear!" Magma shouted, having finished the last of Magnum's men, now kneeling over Sunfire, who was trying to get to his feet even as she tried to bandage his wounds.
"Nyet." Colossus replied, still pushing Moses back towards the wall at the far end of the cavern from the small docks. "This is my fight Magma, besides your powers are not good at capturing, yes?"
"Counting your chickens before they hatch fool!" Moses growled, even as Colossus slammed him into the wall of the cavern. His fingers glowed purple for a moment then a wave of shattering energy smashed into Colossus form.
His attack however was aimed at Colossus' chest, which was covered by the Juggernaut armor. The armor took it and Colossus skidded backwards, woozy but unhurt. His return blow was a feint causing Moses to guard his upper body, which left him open for a kick that took him in the side of the kneecap.
"GAAHH!" A normal man would have been crippled. Moses simply howled in pain, losing his balance enough for Colossus to get behind him and lock in a submission hold around Magnum's neck. One arm was pointing straight up, the other too far away from where Colossus stood behind the man to be of any good.
Feeling the metal-man's arm around his neck Moses panicked, bucking and trying to heave Colossus off his feet, but even when his feet left the ground, Colossus grimly kept his hold in place. Moses lashed out, using his seismic powers to shatter the wall beside them with his free hand, sending shrapnel at both yet Colossus ignored it. "Damn you let me go!"
"Nyet." Colossus said for the third time in as many minutes. "You must answer for your crimes madman, you will not escape me, nor justice."
No matter how strong Moses Magnum was, he still had to breathe. Within seconds his attacks began to weaken, and he could feel it. "No, damn it, no, this, this, it wasn't, it wasn't supposed to end like this…" the Afro-clad villain tried to keep fighting, and another minute went by before his body went still.
Colossus held his submission hold in place for another twenty count, before loosening it, and let the unconscious man slide to the floor. Magma moved over to her boyfriend, Sunfire leaning, rather reluctantly, on her shoulder. She smiled at Colossus and received a faint smile and a sigh in return. "I think his hair, it gave him delusions of grandeur, yes?"
Magma blinked at that as Sunfire stifled a snort then began to laugh.
OOOOOOO
Sinister smiled somewhat grimly as he sent a coded signal to his video gear in Magnum's base to self-destruct. The acid packs hidden in them would destroy anything that could possibly be used to find any connection between Magnum and anyone else. And his brainwashing machine would also leave no signs that an interrogator or a telepath would be able to find. As far as Magnum knew, the entire grandiose scheme had been his idea from start to finish.
For all his pawn's incompetence, Sinister was rather happy about how things had turned out. He had learned enough to understand the abilities of both the X-men and the Custodes. Pity that Guardian wasn't there, but I'll take what I can get.