2014.05.01 - The List: Retrival

Small fires flickered for several minutes along the underground corridors leading up to the room where the Hellfire Club keeps its membership list; most marked the bodies of fallen Hellfire Knights, while others just worked their way along the odd piece of flammable decoration. The thick steel wall separating the corridors from the chamber - a security measure enacted when the chamber was breached during a gala - was melted nearly in half by what(whom)ever set the fires down there, leaving a horsehoe-shaped hole whose borders glowed red hot for some time after the fires guttered out; the book within is gone, snatched and spirited away mere moments after the Lord Imperial left it.

All in all, it was something of a mess, and it was one that Xavin had no intention of sticking around to clean up. After triggering her signal beacon, she ran with the book in her invisible clutches, waiting out or just dodging past security forces as need be. Finding a way out of the sprawling estate was a time-consuming affair, but she suspected that her superior officer was unlikely to teleport directly onto the site of her undercover mission to extract her unless it was an emergency; it was as good an opportunity as any to practice her stealth drills.

Some hours after the operation, the skrull is sitting at the outer edge a window-adjacent booth in a small diner in Queens, and the book is sittinginvisibly beside her; the sign out front just says 'DINER', a sure sign of class. There are only three other booths and a few stools lined up along a counter a few feet away; none of the other seats are taken right now. Her middle-aged sommelier disguise is gone in favor of youthful features, brown skin, and shoulder-length black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail; she's wearing a purple and black Gotham Knights jersey with blue jeans.

It's been about half an hour since she arrived, enough time to order herself a few glasses of water, but not, apparently, enough to order; there's still an unopened menu sitting near the edge of the table. She's waiting for a friend, she told the waitress, mostly because 'I don't have any money, but I'd like a glass of water' tends not to work so well. Her posture's been impeccably straight for all of that time - just in case Cable shows up unexpectedly - but that hasn't kept her fingertips from tapping out soft, idle cadences against the table as she keeps watch over the street outside.

The little bell at the dinner door rang as a new customer arrived. It had been a few hours and in those few hours, Sebastian Shaw had changed out of his Hellfire Club regalia and into a more normal dark blue suit with a white ascot. He smiled at the server behind the counter and put a few hundred dollars on the counter, "Right now you're closed and you are not here. Do we understand each other?"

The server counted the money and looked at the near empty diner and nodded. She then ran towards the door and flipped the sign on the door so it said closed.

Sebastian Shaw looked towards the only other patron of this delightful little diner and walked towards them, "I have to admit, you are a hard person to find. But not impossible."

Xavin hadn't expected to have the diner to herself all night; late as it is, there are still enough people out and about that she was prepared for the possibility of she and Cable having to share the space. If it came down to it, they could always speak without words, and the book would be safe from prying eyes until they retreated to somewhere more private; simple enough.

Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly expecting the first person through the door to be Shaw, either; her eyes widen when she first spots him, only to be turned down to the table once the initial shock fades. Maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe rich humans crave unhealthy food after a night of drinking like other humans do; maybe the waitress is secretly his mistress.

All the same, Xavin is holding the heel of her palm firmly against her hip as that bell sounds, triggering the disc-shaped beacon hidden in her pocket. Just in case.

As he approaches her, she brings her hand up so that both can be cupped loosely around her drink. "Wha--?" she vocalizes, squinting up at the man with a bewildered expression. "Who--" Her eyes dart around the empty dinner surrounding them, and then as she tightens her hands around the glass and leans slightly away from Shaw, she refocuses her narrowed gaze on him and finishes, "Did my mom send--no, look, you know what? It doesn't matter, it--look, it's not even a school night, alright? I'm, like, an adult now, and it's Saturday, and you can go back to my mom and tell her to eff off because I am not going home until I am good and ready to go home."

Sebastian Shaw shook his head as he approached the 'teenage girl,' "I am Sebastian Shaw, child. I rule this world by proxy. Do not treat me like I am a fool."

He casually sat down in front of Xavin at the booth and said, "You've been telepathically tracked since you left my Club, child. Outside are ten men who would like nothing more than to shoot you full of little burning holes with their laser rifles. I generally abhor violence but I do want to give them what they want. I am a man of the people after all."

He steepled his fingers and set his elbows on the table of the booth, "But if you give me what I want, that won't be necessary. You have my property, I want my property back. It's as simple as that."

One beep was fine. Cable happened to be quite busy at the time, and he anticipated that if things were not a true emergency, Xavin could be trusted to handle it. Recovery of the list was certainly a priority, but an escape is an escape. The longer that the skrull has to escape and blend in, the more reliable it will be to meet them without drawing undue attention.

That is, until Professor states simply. "Xavin is sending an immediate emergency signal." "Armory." Cable states. A rack of weapons springs up. Two plasma pistols are holstered on either shoulder, before slinging a heavy blaster across his back. A nest of grenades follow, attached to a hip. "...Bodyslide by one."

Shaw might be a man who is meticulous and plans everything, but what happens next one would be hard pressed to foresee without true prophecy. There's a roar of blue temporal energy that shakes the windows, as the massive form of Cable appears mid-air only a meter away from Shaw. His trenchcoat whirls around, left eye glowing orange.

There's no chance that the Hellfire Club doesn't know this man. However, the files and information indicate he is an Omega psionic crippled by a virus, and forced to rely on physical combat and an array of high-tech weaponry. And Nathan Dayspring has been *very* careful about ensuring that has remained the global rumor.

"...Shaw." he states, landing heavily on the tile floor. "I'm not surprised someone like you is in the Club. Are you just a dog, then?"

"Yeah? All I see's some old white guy," Xavin shoots back as she flicks her eyes to the window. The glowering girl doesn't make any move to stop Shaw or vacate the booth, instead trusting that Cable will come as quickly as promised. Her posture is noticably stiff, though, even moreso than it was before he arrived; at this point, she's just trying to get under his skin and buy time for Cable, so the possibility that she might have to contend with a bunch of laser rifles should Shaw get impatient is lingering in her thoughts. "I don't know what you want, I don't have what you want, and if I did, I probably wouldn't give it to you--"

Blue energies split the air in the diner, rattling the windows and putting an abrupt end to Xavin's sass; despite shielding her eyes against the rift's glare, the skrull allows herself to exhale in momentary relief as Cable emerges from it. When she's given orders, she complies by fading from view without another word. A slight flick of her wrist summons an invisible bubble around the book so that it can float near her as she slides from the booth to take up a position behind the psychic.


 * "In position,"| she thinks as a number of floating daggers manifest around the two of them, |"and ready to support you."|

"Ah, you must be Cable. I didn't realize you were working for the Great Imperator as well," Sebastian said, not moving at all from his seat in the dinner's booth. He seemed rather... non-pulsed by the whole sudden appearance actually.

At Cable's comment about him though he couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "Please, I'm no one's dog, sir. Though I'm sure you'll take great pleasure in trying to figure out exactly what my role in all of this is."

Sebastian Shaw's mind was mostly static right now if Cable tried to come in, he had no idea how Xavin had managed to allude him before so he came prepared: the telepathic scrambler in his inner jacket pocket had only about a half-hour of charge but that should be enough for now.

He shook his head at all this naked display of power and bravado. He thought he was the over dramatic one, "Now then, there is no need for violence or showmanship. I want what belongs to the Hellfire Club. Once I have it back, you two can go back to practicing your posing in the mirror and I can go back to flirting with unbelievably attractive woman."

"Erik? Hardly." Cable states, dismissively. A casual flicker finds that wall of static. Which interests him, more than anything else. Someone who knew nothing wouldn't have a piece of technology considered so valuable. It's meant to hold secrets, like the clasped cover of a book.

"How about this?" is suddenly offered by Nathan. His hand raises, and there's a flash of telekinesis; blue energy moving to grip Shaw from head to toe, and immobilize him with nearly fifty tons of resistance. "I'm an independent operative. I work for me. And it just so happens... ...that your club is the kind of cancer I've sworn to remove."

Obviously, this is going to trigger a response, if Shaw truly has anyone outside who's prepared to attack if needed. "I politely decline your offer of amnesty, Mr. Shaw." And with that, Cable would twist, intending to hurl Shaw through the wall of the diner adjacent; if successful, resulting in an explosion of glass, wood, and support beams, and sufficient to send him a couple dozen meters into the parking lot proper.


 * "Telepathy, he said,"| Xavin thinks as the knives fly up, gather above her, then flow togetether into a cascade of invisible force that eventually forms a protective bubble around her. If Shaw does go through the window, her eyes are definitely on him until he's outside, in case his men open fire; if not, she's just keeping an eye on the window. Frustration is evident in her thoughts; she was sure that she'd gone undetected at the Club, and she certainly didn't feel any intrusion, although that's clearly just a sign that she needs more practice in handling telepaths. |"I wasn't careful enough."| A beat passes as her eyes momentarily drift towards the sphere orbiting her, and then she tentatively adds, |"And I don't want to leave you alone with them; these aren't street criminals, sir. Can you send his book back to your base...? I don't want to leave it unguarded, either."|

Shaw offers no resistance as Cable restrains him and then throws him through the wall. This was the sort of thing he had wanted earlier in the night when he almost faced the Cat. He stood to his feet and dusted himself off. Not even a little bit harmed by the crash, though his designer suit took some damage. Ah well, he could afford a new suit easily enough.

He then touch his throat, whispering into the com device underneath his ascot, "I'm fine. Do not move in until I say to."

He walked a few feet forward and said loud enough for the duo to here him, "I'm the type of cancer that you've sworn to eliminate? The one who politely asked for his property back. Are you sure the type of cancer you need to eliminate isn't actually people who attack others unprovoked and try to kill them by throwing them through walls."

He continued to approach the whole in the side of the dinner. He was already converting the kinetic energy from the impact in to physical strength, he was already stronger than when this started, "Or is it you just really hate philanthropy that helps millions of people receive food, shelter, clothing, education. Or perhaps its the endangered species habitats that I help preserve that you hate? Am I getting close yet?"

He gestures with one of his hands and that's when the Hellfire Knights move in. All dressed in full body armor and armed with advanced laser rifles. They move in, train their weapons on Xavin and Cable but don't fire. Not yet anyways, "I mean look at these lads here, if I didn't pay them a very generous salary, with benefits, they probably would be trekking through third world nations with some corrupt PMC, raping and pillaging any town unlucky enough to be worth some money to them.

"Don't bore me with your public relation covers. I don't look at years. Or decades. Or even human lifetimes, Mr. Shaw. I look at the future of humanity and society. ...And if you wish to interfere with that, I don't care if you cure AIDs and rain food across all of Africa. This eye..." Cable reaches up and taps the cybernetic one, glowing orange. "...can see through it."

"How nice of you. Instead, you have them working towards more malevolent ends. But I know a better way of settling this. I'll break you, shatter your scrambler, and rip the secrets out of your head... and if you're as benevolent as you say, I'll even give the Club a donation...!!"

There's a whirl as a telekinetic sheath covers Cable. Moving with superhuman speed, using telekinesis rather than his muscles or nervous system to move, two plasma blasters are in each hand. In the space of an eyeblink, he fires each a dozen times, sweeping them forward across the assembled Hell Knights. Each condensed charge would vaporize a piece of steel into slag... a good test of the durability of Shaw's forces.


 * "Is he powered, or is it some kind of armor?"| Her eyes are already searching the industrialist's body for some sign of added bulk from body armor or the bulge of a protective gadget, just in case it's the latter; technology, at least, can potentially be neutralized with a few well-placed force fields, provided that she can locate it. At the same time, Cable's flurry of movement causes her to drop back a couple of paces from the mutant to ensure that he has all the room he needs to do what he must; she's just settling into position by the time the last shot is fired.


 * "And where is this scrambler?" Her feet slide apart as she drops into a defensive stance, both hands raised with her palms turned towards the bubble surrounding her. <Can you point it out--guide me to its location? If I can visualize it clearly enough, I could take care of it for you..."|

Shaw's forces reacted rather quickly, they were the best of the best after all. Nothing else would do for the Hellfire Club. But even they can't match the speed that Cable is moving at right now. A few manage to get in cover, but most get hit by the incoming barrage of plasma weapon fire. Their body armor holds up but just barely, scorched, battered. cracked, melted. But all are still alive and return fire at Cable without Shaw even saying a word.

"All I see Cable is a thief and a blowhard. Claiming righteousness at the barrel of a gun. Like all tyrants do. Those who don't agree with you must prove their worth." Shaw said with disgust and then charged right at cable moving amazingly fast for sixty three year old man (even if he looked in his thirties.

The punch he unleashed at cable was strong enough to crush titanium in a single blow, the hope that even if it couldn't break through that telekinetic field he was generating it would at least be enough to shock him and give Shaw some sort of advantage. He truly hated psychics some times.


 * "Is he powered, or is it some kind of armor?"| Her eyes are already searching the industrialist's body for some sign of added bulk from body armor or the bulge of a protective gadget, just in case it's the latter; technology, at least, can potentially be neutralized with a few well-placed force fields, provided that she can locate it. At the same time, Cable's flurry of movement causes her to drop back a couple of paces from the mutant to ensure that he has all the room he needs to do what he must; she's just settling into position by the time the last shot is fired.


 * "And where is this scrambler?"| Her feet slide apart as she drops into a defensive stance, both hands raised with her palms turned towards the bubble surrounding her. |"Can you point it out--guide me to its location? If I can visualize it clearly enough, I could take care of it for you..."|

No more words from Cable. He has always been a man of action, not semantics. In some ways, that might be troublesome for Shaw. Obviously he has a hint of the Club's ultimate purpose, and obviously he is deathly opposed. One of the many questions is how dangerous that kind of intervention might be... and how powerful he actually is. All information Shaw believed to have on Cable went out the door. He shouldn't be able to use telekinesis like that. He should be crippled and near-powerless. Something's changed, and in only the last few months.

The blasts from the assembled Hell Knights crack upon the shield, destabilizing the barrier. And then Shaw's fist plants home on Cable's face.

One: He did not expect him to move that fast.

Two: He did not expect him to hit that hard.

Crashing backwards, shattering a new hole in the side of the diner, he tears through the main counter, rolling to a stop in another burst of shrieking steel and wood into the back kitchen. Blood pours from his nose, but he shifts to his feet, shield gone as he knocks aside a metal table.

In a flash, Shaw would feel an inappropriate sort of probe, like a gentle touch stroking every inch of him, including his clothing. After that frisky flutter of unseen wind, he offers to Xavin.


 * "Sir!"|

"Sir!"

A couple of the remaining Knights squeeze off shots towards the sound of the skrull's voice, but they dissipate in the air a few feet ahead of her; a series of hot orange discs score the air where the shots are neutralized, and rippling distortions spread out from each. Xavin's field is holding, but her position is still blown, and while they can't see it yet, she's clenching her jaw against the searing feedback it's giving her.

Sucking in a breath, she thrusts a hand straight up to send the book rocketing towards the ceiling, where it'll just hover for safe-keeping afterwards; at the same time, she tries to put some distance between her former booth and the counter both, hoping to get the Knights off her back while keeping clear of where she's figuring they're most likely to go next. |"Are you alright?"| she briskly thinks. |"I can deter the--"|

Shaw is frisked, and she hears the telepath's voice in her thoughts, cutting through her own and guiding her attention to the billionaire's breast. |"I can--"| she thinks, moving until her back is against a booth.

Her hands curl in front of herself, grasping at the air like talons as she visualizes the jump drive. She draws its dimensions from her memories of internet ads and seeing them laying around the Terminal, hoping that what she sees in her mind's eye is close enough to what actually is; once she has the image held firmly in mind, she begins to imagine more things. Growing things, sharp things--invisible things sprouting within the drive like a thicket of spikes destined to not only choke the life from their soil, but destroy it utterly.

With a sharp grunt of effort, Xavin clenches her hands shut. Shaw's pocket ripples, then explodes outwards; the scrambler within just hangs suspended in the air for a split-second afterwards before shattering, casting pieces of itself away from the industrialist. The spiny construct is pointed away from Shaw for the brief time that it lasts; all Xavin wants to do is take out the scrambler.

Afterwards, the air around her shimmers for a moment before she fades back into view, looking much worse than when Shaw first sat down. There's a little blood trickling from one of her nostrils, and by the time she's fully visible, she's already leaning against the nearby booth, clutching her head in the hopes that it'll somehow stop the pounding.


 * "His--I broke it, I--I'll cover you in a moment, I just--"| she thinks, the words coming in disjointed bursts thanks to her disorientation.

Sebastian Shaw doesn't really know much about telekinesis truth be told, and when he feels the shutter of Cable's TK frisking he thinks of it more of a rush from the battle than anything suspicious.

He charged forward at Cable and kicked the table infront of him to the side. He raised both his hands above his head intending to smash them down on Cable. And that's when Xavin destroyed his telepathic scrambler.

Shaw shouted, "Kill the other one!" as he shot his fists down towards Cable. The Hellfire Knights stopped shooting towards Cable and moved in towards Xavin, weapons training on her before opening fire.

Shaw's fists descend, striking Cable upon the upper back and shoulders. He's driven to his knees, denting the floor heavily. But still... he survived. Even without his telekinesis, the man's body remained whole. With his telepathy active, he cannot bring up his physical shields, and without those, Shaw is fully capable of damaging him, and he can't hope to hurt him in return.

But then he hears that order, as another blow knocks his head askew. "Like... HELL!!" Suddenly Cable roars, left eye flaring orange. The entire side of the building where the Hell Knights just entered is annihilated, ripped from the foundation; ceiling, debris, tables, booths, all of them are suddenly hurtled meters into the air. An impact force of dozens of tons, with no restraint. Xavin would stand only inches before the wake of destruction...

And then another blow from Shaw puts him on his back. His head reels. He's trying to think straight, but the blows keep raining down, organic arm feebly interposing itself.

Focus. Focus, Cable. This is a battlefield. A man is trying to kill you.

Instinct.

Suddenly Cable's body flashes with telekinesis once more, intercepting the blow. A hooking uppercut is aimed right for Shaw's family jewels. Pushing up to his feet, he twists into another blow, aimed at the temple. But as his metal arm rears back, the thrust forward stops...

And then his palm opens, unleashing a point-blank eruption of plasma energy, detonating in a good two meters in front of himself with catastrophic force. Blood runs down his face, half-conscious, little more than the machine of combat he lived and breathed for decades...

Xavin flings her arm out in a broad arc as the Knights advance on her; the resulting shield doesn't last beyond their opening salvo, though, and even it is only blunted, rather than neutralized entirely. The skrull screams when those first beams scorch her flesh, only to clamp her jaw shut to try and keep any more such sounds from escaping her; she also stumbles back into the booth, where she just lets herself slide almost bonelessly down the seat until she's beneath both the table and the next round of blaster fire.

This is not where she wants to be. She wants to be taking cover, rather than huddling beneath a table--no, scratch that. She wants to be fighting; taking Shaw's device off-line felt great, but the rest of her night has been spent hiding. Lying. Running. Waiting. Even burning through the guards in the basement was less a matter of honorable combat and more just the inevitable result of being backed into a corner; following of that up by struggling to get up off of her knees is just insult to injury. Molten, throbbing injury that she has to resist the urge to touch her hands to.

She starts scurrying out from beneath the table, intent on grabbing onto the first booth she gets in reach of to pull herself upright; by the time she makes it out, though, the ground shakes, forcing her back down to her stomach with a groan. The book flickers into view overhead when a piece of flying debris bounces off of the field; it dips a few feet before freezing and vanishing

When it's all over, Xavin tentatively pushes herself to her feet, takes a moment to gaze in awe at the destruction that his CO has wrought, then limps towards the kitchen as quickly as her body will bear her, only to stop just short of the door when plasma flares from within.

"Sir, report--are you alive?!" she exclaims as she lowers her arms from shielding her eyes.

The blows that Cable threw at Shaw didn't hurt him exactly, or rather at all. Instead of each blow just made Shaw stronger and faster. So he let every one of those blows hit. He wasn't expecting the Plasma blast though and that hurt! Shaw fell to the ground in pain, holding the burnt flesh on his chest where the plasma blast ht him.

He winces in pain as he works himself slowly to his feet. He glances about and sees his mercenaries on the ground, unconscious. Defeated by Cable's huge outburst of telekinetic might. He isn't entirely stable on his feet. That plasma blast had taken its fair share of the fight out of him.

"All I want is my property back," He said with rage, "Now this Diner is destroyed, your both hurt. And you both are seriously hurt. If we had done this my way. I we would have already been home. And none the worse for wear."

He stabled himself again, he was feeling better. It was going to take a long time to heal these wounds but the kinetic energy he had absorbed from the fight already was keeping him active. He could conceivably keep doing this all night if he had to.

Cable simply stands tall, arms somewhat limp. Looking down towards Shaw, with a strange look on his face. His left eye continues to simmer orange, and amongst the crimson are a few metallic drips of something... else. "I don't care about your property." Cable suddenly says. "What I want from you..." A finger slowly raises up, and taps the side of his head. "Is in here."

A moment later, Cable's left eye flashes orange. Sharp, condensed, like a missile; a psychic *snap* aimed in the midst of Shaw's head. A normal man would black out instantly. But the elder Nathan knows very well this is no normal man. Were it to succeed, a horrible feeling of nausea and vertigo would emerge. Up would be down. Standing would be falling. Left would be right. Blinking would be Tuesday. As if every natural motion were completely scrambled.

A heartbeat later, he moves to grasp Shaw by the face with his left arm, metallic limb shunting open countless vents. So he can begin sending hundreds of thousands of volts of plasma electricity surging into him, left eye flaring brighter and brighter, teeth grit against muddied blood as he tries to strip away Shaw a piece at a time until he blacks out.

He's too strong of will to crush or squeeze mentally. Too intelligent and experienced to do slowly. No. It must be done sudden, like a tiger ripping the throat from an elephant. But in terms of telepathic training and mastery, there are few alive as masterful as the Askani adept...

"Sir?!" Xavin repeats, dragging herself into the kitchen just in time to see the mutant cyborg retake his feet. She's just about to let out a sigh of relief when Cable's eye flares and he moves to seize the industrialist by his face, at which point her breath catches in her throat and she stumbles back a step. She catches herself on the inside of the doorway and slides a foot back, ready to give the man even more space in case he needs it.

It's an unnerving thing to watch; for all her training in the art of war, so much of her practical experience in waging it has come alongside young, idealistic superheroes that witnessing Cable's brutally effective approach is like being dipped in ice water. Still and all, though, once she has her bearings, she wills the encapsulated book down to herself hand and tucks it close to herself under one arm after freeing it from its cloaking bubble; the fingers of her other hand hang at her side, in case Shaw proves too resilient for Cable's onslaught.

Shaw was quick but he was also hurt. That made him very vulnerable to Cable right now and he didn't react fast enough to keep Cable from getting a hold of him. Then the pain of the electricity passing through him keep him in place. It was only with extreme willpower and perseverance that she managed to raise his arms to Cable's cybernetic arm. But he couldn't assert his strength yet. He was in too much pain, to focus to heavily... and that's when Cable's telepathy came barging in.

Shaw had spent the last ten years with two fairly powerful telepaths. They did teach him a thing of three about how to resist a mind coming in looking for secret. And even in the extreme pain he had a few tricks. His mind was like a labyrinth inside. He was thinking about his fiancee Millie. He was thinking about his illegitimate son Shinobi. He was thinking about how much he hated Lex Luthor. How much her wanted to mold Leo Luthor into being something more than his father. He was thinking about....

And then he could keep the labyrinth going. His thoughts were still guarded, Shaw was a powerful mind and extremely single minded. But the secrets that Cable were looking for were possible to find now.

Interesting details, lodged for later. And this mental technique... Shaw was trained very well. Just how big of a fish has Cable caught in his proverbial net? His approach is a simple counter. Multiple invasive tendrils of telepathy rushing in all directions. Barring passage to all of them would be a daunting task... only, the elder Nathan can keep this up for hours if he needs to. He has done this to people before. Leaders of Stryfe's armies. Omega Mutants, cocky until their eyes rolled back and white, bubbled spittle comes out. What he is seeking is the list. The true list. The one within Sebastian's mind.

Metal is creeping up Cable's face now, but he'd continue leveraging that electricity and psychic assault all the same, body tense. Break, god damn you... break... if he can manage it, then it will be simple.

He'll heal Shaw. Manipulate his memories. Make him believe he battled Xavin, who turned out to be a powerful alien in disguise. The Hell Knights were killed, but he prevailed. He got the book back, and slew Xavin before passing out. Cable would have never even been there.

The perfect story... the perfect cover... if he can /break through/...!!

Eventually, Xavin has to turn away from the psychic interrogation, and she swallows thickly as the sound and smell of crackling flesh reach her senses regardless. Soon enough, she tells herself, Cable will be finished, and then he'll be able to tell her what, if anything, tonight was worth. The book is shifted so that she can cradle it against herself in both arms, but she only lasts for a matter of moments before a fresh jab of pain forces her to uncurl her arms and let the thing dangle from one hand with a wince; shortly afterwards, she leans agains the door jamb, figuring that she might as well let it do some of the work of keeping her on her feet.

5r

Sebastian Shaw doesn't break! Sebastian Shaw does not yield. Sweat poured from his brow and he started to pull with all his strength, strength that could rupture steel and crush titanium. That strength was now focused on pulling Cable's metal arm off of head. He would not let some half-baked crusader violate his mind.

"Out of my mind," Shaw said through gritted teeth as he fought the elder Askani.

He was not going to submit, but Cable was right, no one can bar every one of those advances that Cable was making. So information was starting to slip through, "To the Revelation of the World!" the motto of the Lords Cardinal of the Hellfire Club. The shadowy cabal that lead the most influential club in the world. The secret masters of the world. And Sebastian Shaw was it's Leader it's Lord Imperial. He however managed to keep the faces and names of the other Lords Cardinals secret. Those were buried so deeply in his mind that Cable would likely have to destroy him to get it. The deepest of secret that he would not allow to be violated.

Slowly that metal indents, warps, and the electricity begins to stagger. There's a growl, before Cable suddenly shoves Shaw away, grasping the side of his face. Damn. Everything aches. But before him stood the head of the Beast. And it was a far worse beast than he had thought. He cannot waste further time here. "...Jenny. We're going." A hand extends, the book spiralling in a flash of telekinetics into his hand. He hurls it into Shaw, uncaring.

"You've... done well..." Cable states, shifting sidelong. "Even if I kill you... rip every secret out of your mind... I'd likely make the beast worse. You, at least... are a visionary. The greater good... we both believe that, don't we? That's why... I won't try to kill you." No. Even now, Cable does not make the presumption that the battle is his. "But that doesn't mean... I plan to let you succeed."

Suddenly, Xavin is gripped in a whirl of blue, and yanked over to thump against Cable's side. "Bodyslide by two." There's a whirling, temporal CRACK of blue energy. And as it disperses into dust... the pair are gone.