2014.05.25 - Shadow King: War Room

Xavier sits at his desk as the sun sets in the sky behind him. He checks his watch for the time, he hopes that no one will turn up late; he has not got the time to waste on people who are tardy. He knows for sure that a couple of his X-men will be turning up for the meeting, and a couple of invited guests. He had hoped that more people would be coming for certain due to the utmost importance of this meeting. Xavier was planning on working on a strategy for the Shadow King's inevitable next move, whenever that would be.

The blue apparition of Doctor Strange appears in Xaviers office while he looks to be quite relaxed he speaks calmly as to not startle anyone. Although Xavier was a telepath, Astral Forms aren't exactly anything to read as a presence. "Professer Charles Xavier. Apologies for this form, I would arrive late but I do not wish to be rude towards your invitation. I am still en route. Are you expecting others?"

Lunair has no idea what is the Shadow King's deal is. Except that she shouldn't shoot him much? A lot? Nevertheless, she has been invited and will make her way over. She even brings her armor along in a duffle bag. Seriously, she needs some kind of henshin sequence or something. It takes her a bit to get in, but she will.

Although he hasn't officially re-established his membership with the X-men since returning from Brazil a few weeks ago, Roberto da Costa has been visiting the Xavier Institute frequently and getting back in touch with some old friends. So it's no surprise that he heard about Xavier's meeting, although his presence may not be expected. He pauses outside the office and peeks his head in through the door, making brief eye contact with the Professor and then scanning the unfamiliar figures in the room. "Ola," he says cautiously. "Am I too early? I don't mean to interrupt..."

"Right on time," Cyclops says as he twists around in one of the chairs in front of the Professor's desk. He did show up a few minutes early, as is his wont. His attire is half casual, half not: blue jeans, the upper half of his body-hugging, navy blue uniform, and a cowl outfitted with a ruby quartz visor. Yellow piping runs up his sides, but while it just loops over his shoulder on the right, it terminates at the X-bearing badge adorning his left shoulder, then splits into three from there.

"If anyone else is curious about today," he then says as he turns to face the Professor, "there should be minutes available for them later."

Xavier addresses Strange's apparition first, "Yes I am expecting others, and here they come now." He turns his attention to Roberto, "No. You're not too early, at least you're here physically." He shoots a glance at Strange. "We will have to wait for a couple more, but please take a seat." He points at a chair in front of him. "Yes, of course Scott, you are quite right. I will speak to anyone else to inform them of the details of this meeting, on a one to one basis as needed. But I think a summary of the meeting could be posted about to let all know of the basics, just to keep them up to date."

Strange grins a little as Xavier makes his quip, not as amusing as Spider-man's but he'll take it. His form still hovers there for the moment, waiting for the meeting to begin and for his body to come within range of teleportation.

Lunair smiles politely, tilting her head. She listens. "Sure." She is a good audience, and will let herself be lead in. "Hello!" She greets them, listening as usual. But - who're these folks? More famous than she's used to...

Roberto sidles in and leans against the wall next to Scott, not wanting to take too prominent a place when he's neither familiar with the situation nor Xavier's guests. The Brazilian is wearing nothing more heroic than a pair of Pumas, dark blue shorts, and a yellow tank top, but at least he's inadvertently repping the team colors. "Glad to hear it," he tells the senior X-man and the Professor, giving each a quick nod. "I know I haven't made it official yet, but I wanted to let you know that I am available for this sort of thing. Whatever I can do to help." He gives one last quizzical glance toward flying ghost-man and the girl with the clanky duffel bag, but waits for Xavier's cue rather than slowing things down by introducing himself.

Thinking that she might get a chance to ask advice, or show off some new stuff, Allison didn't just show up to the meeting as is. She was late of course, but only because she refused to ask for help when she was lugging what can only be called a coffin sized container filled with tech and armor plates and all that. So, a while after things begin... there's a sound outside the office... scrape.... scrape. Something is likely making marks on the floors, or scraping along the carpet. Sure, it was just a gathering to discuss some situations but ever the multitasker, Allison thought she might illicit some opinions or advice from the staff about her inventions. She's been incommunicado for a couple weeks working on them and she lacks the patience to like... wait until after folks are meeting to ask about them. So it is that the scraping sound ends and a knock is heard on the office door.

"Glad to have the help," Cyclops says to his former student with a nod and a small smile. Roberto's codename is on the tip of his tongue, but given the Brazilian's lapsed relationship with the Institute, he holds off; throwing the man's real name out there in mixed company never even occurs to him. He even grimaces briefly when the Professor uses his name, but the visor and years of practice at swallowing small annoyances for the greater good are enough to disguise it. Mostly.

"I need to review the AARs from the last incident," he says as he faces the Professor again, "but I think--"

His head whips towards the scraping noises when they're close enough to hear; before the knock, there are a few moments of visible tension in his frame, but afterwards, he's able to relax, stand and pull the door open. "Don't worry," he starts to say, "you're only a minute or so--"

His first full glimpse of the girl and her gear stops his greeting cold, and after taking a second to look she and it quizzically up and down, he just nudges the door the rest of the way open, takes a step back, and shoots a look and a questioning half-shrug to the Professor.

Xavier noticed Cyclops grimacing but holds off on mentioning anything. He watches as Cyclops walks to the door and looks perplexed at what he sees behind the door. He returns the shrug, "Please do come in." He says with a smile, "Great, now that I think we're all here. I will begin, firstly thank you all for coming. I am least somewhat familiar with all of you, and some of you may be aware of each other

Firstly we have Cyclops, mutant with optic blasts. The blue guy is Doctor Strange, master of the mystics, who believe it or not is still technically not here. Over there we have Sunspot, this is if I remember correctly Lunair, and the girl with the box is Interface"

He pauses for a moment to let that sink in. "Right I have gathered you all here today to talk about an impending threat known as Shadow King. Who knows about him?"

Lunair pauses. "I need a new codename," She admits quietly, nodding to Xavier. "Thanks." She settles in and listens. Her duffle bag keeps her gear, although she seems a bit puzzled by something for a moment. She looks to Roberto, seeming curious. But then, she only knows one or two faces. "I only saw him a little." And she wasn't supposed to shoot him. Or whatever. She's not really sure. She mostly remembers not to shoot people.

She's a lot like a parrotfish. When life gives you chompy teeth, you chomp corals. When life gives you weapon powers...

Ahem. "Pleased to meet you all."

Nodding, Interface looks a bit ruffled. She did lug about eighty pounds of gear up the stairs. And she's not exactly super strong. She sets down her .. uh... crate, and stands up straight, reaching to press her fists into the lower portion of her spine as she stretches. "Ahhh.." she mutters before looking around. "Oh hey." She says, apparently only just now taking notice of everyone in attendance.

Julius... she psionically says to her AI companion. ''Shadow King. See if you can dig anything up. 'Of course Allison. I am not finding much, aside from rumours and some unpublished fictional material being used for role playing games.''' She rolls her eyes visibly at that and shrugs, "It is apparently a popular naming theme in gamer circles?" She asks with a tone she's not used to using. That of someone unknowledgeable on a particular topic.

''Allison. You are not only being introduced, but you are being -greeted- by your peers.'' Adds Julius in her head. "Oh... sorry, yeah. Ally.. or yeah Interface works. Hi."

It's been a while since Roberto was addressed as Sunspot, but he straightens up, waves, and gives the group his most winning smile as Xavier introduces him. Codename or not, he looks and acts more like a star athlete than a superhero, which may not inspire much confidence. But at the mention of the Shadow King, he sobers immediately. "He's the one who possessed Xi'an back when we were students together."

Scott nodded politely throughout the greetings, but as soon as the main subject of the meeting is brought up, he sobers.

"He's a parasitic intelligence," Cyclops quietly supplies as he glances towards Lunair. "One of the most powerful telepathic presences in existence." The Professor, he trusts, will supply a better explanation, but of all the people here, Lunair is the one that he figures is most in need of the intel, given her lack of personal experience with the astral predator.

Xavier notices the disappearance of Doctor Strange's astral form and a look of worry appears on his face. Maybe something has happened on the astral plane, or his physical body.

"You are quite right Scott, I mean Cyclops." He turns to Cyclops "Look we're all allies here, and if I need to sort things out to then that's what I'll have to do." He glances at Lunair, and then he shakes his head, "Any way, I digress. Yes Shadow King is one of the most powerful telepaths, but he has been defeated before, but it seems that he has escaped his..." Xavier trails off, I look of shock appears on his face. "Oh no, he states."%r%r Suddenly, the wall behind Xavier blows up. The force of the explosion send Xavier and his wheel chair flying through the air, he knocks over his desk, and lands crumpled on the floor. The desk scatters its contents everywhere, documents and folders fall scattered around the room. In the centre of it all several folders contain the words XAVIER PROTOCOLS followed by a different mutant's name, should anyone care to look.

Behind the now destroyed wall stands a large group of men carrying weapons each, waving them around. A look of malice is seen on each of their faces.

Lunair is quiet. She looks to Roberto, frowning at that story. Hmm. "I see. Well, I - " She WAS there when they first bumped into him with Xavier there in the park. But she does lack any way of picking him up. It's a cruel reality. She got /hosed/ when it came to cool powers. She really wanted to fly or maybe those brain lasers or some super soldier serum. Still, she listens attentively. "He does weird brain stuff, yes." And then suddenly an explosion.

She doesn't scream, but she does jerk, startled and ducks to the floor. She looks worried as Xavier's wheelchair and him go flying. Right. And she doesn't even have her armor on. Again. Time to pull out a shotgun and mov to drag poor Xavier into cover. If he's not already behind some.

Well, that's unambiguous. Wishing that he had thought to wear the armor he just finished fabricating for this sort of situation, Roberto shifts into Sunspot form: an absolutely black silhouette wreathed in a fiery corona of solar energy. Cyclops may have orders to give, but Berto isn't waiting for them. Clamping his jaw shut, he springs forward off the wall, driven not just by super-strength, but an additional burst of coronal thrust. If his aim is true, he'll plow straight into the group of attackers. This always seems to work for Cannonball...

"Right, so dangerous and mindzappy. Understood." Allison isn't fond of the whole... telepath idea, but that's mostly due to -one- fellow student she took offense to. She started wandering her brain down a tangent when the explosion hit. '''Allison! Watch out!''' calls Julius in her head. Even as she's blown backward by the blast. Her legs catching on the box of gear she brought with... she tumbles over it and lands hard on the floor.

For a moment, she lies there still... and then mutters. "Ow..." Before she reaches over and presses a button on the box. The top springs open even as she sits up, looking back at the gun-toting maniacs... well, the ones that aren't Lunair. "Okay..." she mutters as the armor inside the box stands up seemingly of its own accord, and then the back of it opens like it had seams there. Ally's scrambling to make her way into the suit.... likely under fire.

The best that Cyclops can do is hurl himself to the ground when the blast sounds, and while that spares him from the worst of having positioned himself as he did - the desk and Professor sail overhead instead of plowing into him - it cuts into narrow slice of time that he has to coordinate a response. Sunspot is already hurtling towards the group by the time he scrambles back up to his feet, eliciting a small frown; not only is the Brazilian unarmored, he's clogging up the cowled mutant's line of fire.

"Kilo Double Aught!" he after Sunspot. Intercept hostiles while covering the Professor; week one Danger Room stuff, even if the particulars tend to vary depending on who's executing the maneuver. For now, since Sunspot is all over interception, he drops back towards Charles and Lunair's position, eyes darting through the crowd all the while in search of a clean shot on at least one of them.

"Lunair, I need you--" He catches a glimpse of one of the gunmen on the edges of the formation trying to draw a bead on Roberto and jerks his head a few inches to one side. An unseen gesture parts his visor just enough to release a slim ray of ruby energy towards the invader's armored chest with bonecrushing force.

"--to tell me what you can do," he finishes as the almost electric noise of his optic blast fades fades. "Interface, take--"

A quick look over at the student tells him that she's already obeying his order--if powered armour counts as cover, anyway. He doesn't bother finishing the thought; instead, he just tries to split his attention between looking for clean shots amongst the gunmen and keeping an eye on Allison while she armors up.

Jo had stopped by the Legion base, preparing to move his things to the Helicarrier. He hears the alarm from the Monitor Room and runs in. The monitor shows an attack on a school in Westchester county and the coordinates.

"Ultra Speed," Jo exclaims and runs out of the building. Once on the street, he exclaims, "Flight" and heads rapidly northwest. He can reach over escape velocity, it is a matter of seconds to cross to Westchester County. He sees the smoke rising from the building and hovers using his flight ring, saying "Ultra Vision".

Cyclops: "blah" Cable says, "Very articulate father." Nate Grey says, "what's up?" Hank McCoy says, "What's up Cyke?" Cyclops: "Cyclops to all points: the Institute is under attack. Students, follow the nearest faculty member to the Danger Room or any one of the other designated safe spaces. If you see hostiles, do /not/ engage." Cyclops says, "that" Bobby Drake says, "Under attack by what?" Cyclops says, "dudes with guns" Hank McCoy: "Cyclops... this is Beast on The Peak. Do you require assistance?""       Cable: "Eh? The hell's going on, Scott? You want me down there?"       Roberto Da Costa isn't wearing an earpiece. Anyway, he's loudly smashing people around on the east lawn and too busy to talk.        Cyclops: "Yes! The Professor is behind cover now, but he took fire. Sunspot, Interface, and I are on the scene with a young woman named Lunair; we'll take any help we can get!"       Hank McCoy: "Cable. I'm grabbing a shuttle now. Once I'm in range can you bodyslide me down there? I'll put the drop ship on Auto Pilot. It'll save me deployment time."

Several men go flying due to Sunspots attack; other men start wildly shooting at Sunspot. The men that Cyclops hit are knocked down, but more take their place and return fire. Other men enter the room at either side, carrying an assortment of melee weapons including baseball bats, and machetes. No leader is seen. Cable: "You are in range if you are on the planet. Give me 30 seconds." Hank McCoy: "I'm above the planet.... dropping into the Atmosphere now. I'm sending you coordinates."

Xavier struggles to turn himself onto his back, but it groggy from a very likely concussion, and falls onto his face. He is out for the count for now.

Lunair winces. Poor Xavier. Well, she is - pause. She is being asked about her powers. "... I create weapons." And explosives. She seems quiet about it, especially once Sunspot goes all Solar flares and there's eye lasers and mecha-somethings. Nevertheless, she's - probably going to hesitate to pull a shotgun and go to town. Although, out of nowhere, she does have one. And a staff with a cat's orb on the end. That is, a large circle with cat's ears and a tail. She is going to try to keep the minions off their position with shockwaves.

Sunspot hasn't cracked the handbook of numbered combat maneuvers in nearly two years. As he blasts out through the hole recently blown in the side of Xavier's office, he hopes that getting the rest of the X-men some breathing room by knocking these guys around like bowling pins fits into plan Kay Zero Zero. He doesn't want to rocket past the strike team, so he doesn't bother to maintain his initial burst of thrust. Instead, he rolls to a stop at the back of the enemy formation his wild charge just scattered, then bounces up into an aggressive, sure-footed stance that has served him well for years on the soccer field. He grabs for the nearest soldier's armored back: if the super-strong mutant can get a decent handhold, he'll be able to use the man as a combination human shield and human cudgel. He just hopes that in the meantime, unexpectedly flanking the attackers will keep them off balance and him out of their line of fire.

'''Allison. You are wounded. You should seek medical aid immediately.''' suggests Julius in Ally's head even as she reaches down, pulls the shard of desk that stabbed into her hip out with a grimace of pain. "Later." she mutters aloud, forgetting to speak mentally with her AI before she steps into the suit.. stray shots spalling on the ceramic-alloy plates. There are smears on the paint where cosmetic damage is done. But... the suit closes up around her and inside, she links up to a total psi-meld with the onboard computer. . o o O O (You like blowing things up eh?) she thinks as she flexes, and tiny little emitters pop up out of the armor's shoulders... glowing purple. Gravitic Pulse Cannons... and she goes for target lock on well... someone.... firing a pulse their way. "I can medevac." she says from within the suit after shooting. "I have flight systems on board."

"Non-lethal only, please" Cyclops immediately replies once Lunair reveals her power. "We don't need any more attention than this." Afterwards, he presses a hand to his ear and begins barking orders to--someone; nobody present, certainly. The intermittent *ZZAKT!* of his optic blast underscores the commands several times, but he never misses a beat in giving them; he could pick off gunmen and give orders in his sleep.

As more men pour through the gaping hole adorning the back of Charles' office - now with close quarters weapons, instead of just guns - he tries to repel the first wave of them with a wide-angled burst from his eyes. There should be enough bodies between he and Sunspot for him to be able to get away with firing a little less discriminately, now--although he's not doing the office wall any favours at this point.

"Do it," he says to Interface without taking his eyes from the invaders. "this isn't a safe place for the Professor; the infirmary should be secure. Get yourself--" A burst of automatic weapons fire sends him diving behind the cover that Lunair and the Professor are sharing, and after he pops up long enough to return fire on the gunman, he finishes, "--some treatment too, if you need it--or come back and pitch in if you feel up to it. We need all the hands we can get."

Jo is fairly certain that the large number of armoured guys are not the innocent victims here. It looks like they brought in some heavier weapons, though those are not currently in use. Well he can make sure they will not be used. He drops down by one of the heacy weapons and says, "Ultra Strength."

He should have no trouble picking up the weapon and throwing it into the other one. Hopefully the people are focused forward and do not get a clear shot at him while he is vulnerable.

The men carry on their assault against heroes. A few guys start taking their time aiming better at Sunspot trying to actually hit him instead of just keeping him at bay, but also trying to avoid hitting their comrade. A few guys also take notice of Jo destroying their heavy weapons, and turn, aim and fire.

Whilst this continues, others still carry firing at the heroes still in the mansion, clearing the way for the others entering the room. Some of the men carrying the melee weapons start searching through, the room, whilst others close in on the four heroes

Xavier unfortunately has not moved since his last attempt. He lies still, but he is still breathing.

Thirty seconds was a conservative estimate. While Hank is still within his shuttle, there's a temporal crack of energy, and manifesting in front of him in the midst of space is Cable; in a flash of telekinesis, he lands upon it, door ripped open in a hiss of dangerous depressurizing. Hank's probably going to be a little shocked by it, but before anything negative can take place, another hiss leaves him. "Bodyslide by two."

Over Xavier's mansion, the blue furball and the cybernetic son appear, Cable descending rapidly before flicking Hank to land somewhere convenient for a man of his monkey-acrobatics. It's not often an emergency signal is transmitted by Scott, and he wouldn't do so unless it was absolutely critical. A quick glance around confirms... well. Not what he expected. He thought there would be mutants. Insurgents. These don't seem to fit the bill of an anti-mutant terrorist cell.

Landing heavily in the midst of the area, an explosive pulse of telepathy rushes out in all directions. Those without malign intent might feel a sharp pain, but nothing more. "..." Nothing. What is this? Is Sinister sending shielded henchmen? Well. Plan B.

"Hank." he calls out, before hurling something in his direction. If caught, it reveals to be a pair of hard-plasma blades connected together at the base. They will cut through anything not organic, and amplify his crushing force on anything else.

And then -- damage control. Which involves his right eye flaring orange. All those present outside the mansion, he tries to grasp them within a sudden flash of blue energy, and yank them upwards into the air. "The hell is going on here...?"

Cable: "These guys... can't touch them with my telepathy. The hell is going on here, Scott?!" Cyclops: "You /can't/? We were about to discuss strategies for handling the Shadow King when these guys blew a hole in the side of the mansion." Cable: "Shadow King? ...Don't think I got forwarded the memo about him." Cyclops: "He's an ultra-powerful, parasitic psychic who--" Cable: "Don't bother explaining, I'll just... *sound of painful invasive telepathy*" Cyclops says, "Wait on who?" Cable says, "You" Cyclops: "Any telepathic personnel within the range of my voice, /please/ b--*ggk*" Cable always violates dad first

A short time ago he was launching from The Peak in a shuttle... and dropping through the atmosphere. But thanks to Cable he doesn't need to wait for the shuttle to reach the mansion. Beast growls in surprise though when Cable bodyslides in... as he didn't expect so much damage to the shuttle. Hopefully the Auto Pilot systems will still manage to prevent it crashing... though he has a lot of explaining and work to do to repair it. But saving Charles and assisting the X-Men comes before concerns about Abigail being cross with him.

The Beast sporting his S.W.O.R.D. Uniform takes the momentum generated by Cable flicking him and leaps in through the hole in the side of Xavier's Study with a feral growl... slamming his large beastial frame and prehensile feet into the back of one of the invaders and driving him into Xavier's mahogany desk. As guns will likely be targeting him now, Hank doesn't remain in one spot... using the chairs and other furniture in Xavier's office to bound and leap around.

"What?" Hank growls in response to Cable and backflips, grabbing the hard-plasma blades with his feet and landing on his hands. "I love you Cable!"

Lunair knows Cable! He's her TIME BUDDY! She thinks of him as a time cop, at any rate. And if she can see him, she'll wave cheerfully. "Hi!" Pause. But non-lethal it is. "Well, okay." She just sort of goes with what Cyclops asks. Any mooks who get too close to their cover are going to be swatted around like flies by a cat.

"Puta merda, do I ever hate being shot at," Roberto growls from behind his human shield, who is yelling and wriggling and generally trying to stop being stuck between the balrog mutant and his own allies. Berto's patience has never been all that great, so he shuts his new friend up in the most convenient way he can: by swinging him like the world's most reluctant baseball bat to collide with another soldier and send him flying into the side of the mansion. Unfortunately, this leaves the mutant open to return fire, and he's tagged once, painfully, in the shoulder.

He's got enough strength left to clutch his now-unconscious safety buddy back to himself defensively -- at least until Cable forcibly drags the soldier into the air. The godlike yank lifts Roberto off the ground and leaves his injured arm feeling like it's been pulled out of its socket. He bellows in pain and lets go, plummeting back to the ground with a thump.

The armored girl steps forward. She worked hard on that armor, and it's getting smeared and creased with weapons fire. But it holds for the moment. She bends down to pick up the professor and says, "Step back a bit please." to the others. When they do, she mentally activates her gravitic shielding. It'll hold for a few seconds, long enough to cover the Professor while she makes her way out.

Tapping the Comm frequency cuz she forgot her communicator and of course... she can do radio things with her brain... she says over the comms, ''Medevacuating the Professor. Heading for the infirmary. Is there a medic on hand? Or at least a medical textbook, preferably in digital format?'' Yeah, she's more focused on that than fighting. And she heads out the door, weapons hitting her shield and rippling it like a handful of pebbles being dropped into a pond all at once.

Her weapons aren't capable of firing out through her shield, but the shield is tough enough to hold off plasma blasts... briefly. However, her shoulder mounted cannons are pointed backwards, in case the shield is breached and they are needed during the course of her walking out. Yeah, she's not flying out mainly because, there's only so much room in the office, and she's not great at flight yet. She doesn't want to carry the Professor out, only to bang his head on every corner, every doorframe.... you get it. But once out in the more open hallway, she's about to kick in her anti-grav and take off when her head feels like it's going to explode. An incoherent yelp is heard over the comms, and that yelp is cut off all of a sudden as Interface, in armor, carrying the Professor in her arms, drops to her knees, the shield going down.

The first stab of psychic pain isn't so bad; uncomfortable, sure, but not enough to distract Cyclops from scooting clear of the Professor to give Interface space, or even to stop him from snatching the first set of ankles that approaches his cover and yanking their owner off his feet. Unfortunately, Cable chooses the moment when Scott is vaulting on top of his cover point to extract information about the Shadow King, and that intrusion - focused and deliberate as it is - is much harder to bear. He crumples to his knees immediately with a choked cry of pain; unfortunately, since he was hiding behind a sofa, this leads to him tumbling off the back of it, into the seat, then rolling to the ground, clutching his head for the agonizingly long seconds that it takes his son to learn what he needs.

When the pain begins to subside, he plants his hands on the ground to try and push himself upright, groaning all the while; once he's on his feet, he'll probably need a little more time to get his bearings. Which means no optic blasts, lest he slip and put even more holes in Xavier's office; the best he can manage right now is yanking a trophy from a shelf and swinging wildly for the head of one of a machete wielding man who's getting a little too close for comfort.

Jo have worked with, and fought against, telepaths before. The brief spasm of pain does not stop him from using his combat training to dodge aside.

Fortunately the ones targeting him are suddenly thrown up into the air. This gives him time to switch powers. He picks, "Invulnerability," it is generally a good choice when outnumbered, not much hurts him when invulnerable. Psychic attacks being an exception, but fortunately it did not seem to be aimed at him.

Being invulnerable does not really make him any stronger, but he can certainly exert his strength to the fullest. Ie will see if that is enough to damage these armored thugs...assuming he can reach them. Well he can use his flight ring to fly about 100 mph, that should help.

The closet men are startled by the arrival of Cable in their midst. They turn facing him, aiming their guns, but too scared to shoot. Men also continue to fire at Jo, and Sunspot. Meanwhile, others continue pouring into the mansion. Suddenly, two large pickup trucks crash through the gates fitted with heavy weaponry, and charge over the grounds, towards the fight.

Sensing the arrival of another powerful psychic in the area, Xavier wakes up to discover that he has been moved. He reaches out to Cable with his mind in attempt to communicate with him.

Information is extracted from Scott's head mercilessly. The reason is simple. He has no intention of allowing this to linger. Calling in Cable is the heavy cavalry; and the reason for such is demonstrated readily now. Arms heft up and then /slam/ down, all those he grasps striking the ground with dozens of tons of force, kicking up grass and dirt in great plumes. Before his body begins to crackle, telekinetic energy surging through every cell, the very control he has mastered to keep the Techno-Organic Virus at bay now instead centred to sheathe him at the atomic level in the strongest personal telekinesis he can manage. The entire grounds warble, sucking intake of power drawing debris, broken ground, and dropped weapons towards the Elder Nathan. He's glowing bright blue now, veins of metal rippling up his throat as teeth clench.

Stand back." is the only warning he gives. And then the air cracks, as the sound barrier is broken like a mirror thrown to the ground. A great wash of mist flies in all directions, rocketing towards the two trucks. The first is struck in the front, folding it beneath a metal fist like an accordion. Grasping it in both hands, it's then hurled as if weightles, spiraling wildly in the direction of the second to crash within it, hard enough for both to become some horrific modern art and skid brokenly awak...

Before he drives forward, towards the open hole in the wall. Hank might have some vague impression of a large presence passing by, an eruption of wind in his wake. The thugs are struck earth-shattering blows. Fists flying, breaking through armor like they were clay plates. Barely having time to register what is happening before he is gone, and moving on.

There's another great CRACK of telekinetic energy dispersing violently in all directions, Cable holding the last of the invaders by the face; broken helmet falling between the metal fingers of his left arm, panting heavily. The rest blow backwards into walls, denting them heavily, striking the ground with terrific force. It is over in a heartbeat.

"That all of them?" he asks, hurling the figure aside. Well. ...Scott probably should have called Cable in sooner.

"Charles!" Beast growls as he watches the one evacuating Xavier drop to their knees before they can evacuate him. And then there's the sound of the front gates being crashed through. It's really hitting the fan now. Though he will be out of the room before Cable's crazy power use happens. "Cyclops... are mansion defenses down? If not activate them and have them target anyone who doesn't have mansion clearance." Hank leaps out of his handstand, lashing out with the hard-plasma blades as he makes his way across the room to where Xavier is, and catches him before he even hits the floor. Hank tossing the blade with bestial might at one of the invaders as he scoops up Xavier and pulls him onto his back. "I have the package... heading for the medbay." With Xavier held on his back, Hank charges forward like a beast... crashing through the doors to the Professor's office and heading for the nearest access point to the lower levels. His plans to not even call the Elevator up from the lower levels... just to bypass the doors and leap down to the lower levels. "Cerebro. This is Beast. Prep the Medbay for Surgery and Activate Internal Security."

Pause. Poor Charles. Lunair winces. "Sorry..." And then suddenly HANK! She was near Charles in cover, keeping watch over him as she could. But she's wide-eyed, head aching a bit. "I'm not going to be zapped, am I?" Her eyes widen at Cable, too. Hey! She knows him. Beam. "Is he okay?" She seems concerned about Xavier. But then, Lunair is watching Cable fight. She feels a bit redundant, dismissing her staff. "Um. I guess I should go then." Yes.

Lying on the ground in a heap, Sunspot is in no position to avoid any gunfire. And he's sure as hell in no position to do anything about it when the armored soldier above him comes slamming down onto him with dozens of tons of force. He blacks out from the pain and what are sure to be godawful injuries. Medic?

Inside that suit over there, Allison is drooling and snoring. It's a good thing it's sealed. Julius locked up the arms and legs when he detected Allison going unconscious. He even locked up the gyro balance system so she wouldn't fall over and crush the Professor. However, over the comms, a male voice can be heard. "Allison is injured and unconscious within her armor. If someone could deliver her to the infirmary, it would be much appreciated." and then the voice is gone.

"We have an uncleared outsider on the scene," Cyclops hisses as he holds one hand to an ear and waves the other towards the wall he's staggering towards for a moment of stability. "Nnh--as far as I can tell, he's on our side--" Gritting his teeth, the X-Man shoves off towards a bat-wielding intruder, weaves beneath his swing, and retaliates with an uppercut to the thug's unarmored chin. "We can't risk it. We just n--"

After a deafening crack steals his words, the other men closing in on him hit the ground, forcing him pull his hands from his ears so that he can throw them up protectively as he's buffeted by the force of Cable's passing. When it's over - or seems to be, anyway - he tentatively drops his arms and scans around as he works his way towards the hole in the wall. He still reaches for walls, furniture--anything stable along the way, but he's moving a lot better now than he was moments ago.

"It seems to be," he confirms after peering around outside. "Can you pick anything up from them, now?"Fortunately Jo was invulnerable when the sky came falling down, it does not hit him hard enough to really hurt. He is kind of surrounded in rocks and metal though. He is wondering whether he should switch powers and dig his way out when he hears shooting start...

The henchmen all lie defeated on the ground. The grounds and Xavier's office are all torn up from the battle. Someone will to clean all this up. However, a telepathic voice roars out to all in the battle This is just the beginning

"No." Cable offers, kicking one of the fallen figures. "The Shadow King wiped them clean of anything to do with him. And shielded them, too. Good thing they weren't shielded from being punched hard enough to shatter a diamond." Again his telepathic scan goes out, orange eye flaring. "Huh. A lot of people seem to be taken down. Was it that bad? Someone outside seems to be in somewhat serious condition." Xavier is given a look, before the elder Nathan lets out an exhale. "Well. It seems you have everything in order here... Bodyslide by one." Poof! And then he's gone. ...Did he help more than he hurt? That's for Cyclops to decide.