2014.05.01 - And Things Go South...(FoH)

The X-men were waiting in a cramped parked van. Logan was dressed in costume with his mask pulled down. His bomber jacket was over his uniform. Long before the stakeout he gave every person the intel: Kitty and Doug came up with a plan to talk down Stryker. The speech given would have moved Chuck to tears so Logan couldn't have argued the plan down even if he wanted to. Not the most trusting man on the block Logan insisted a team of X-Men waiting in case things went South. Doug was worthy of the X-men Uniform. He proved it many times over. So was Kitty. Against a hate mongering reverened with a military background and any number of followers, Doug may not have been so great. Knowing this Kitty and Doug came up with an extraction plan. At the first sign of trouble Kitty was going to pull them both out with her phasing. Illyana was there for moral support, distraction and cover fire in the case of an emergency.

The reason why the team didn't go in guns blazing was simple. There was a chance Kitty could have made it work. So here they sat waiting to see which way it went to.

Listening on a headset Logan kept a lookout on the place. Stryker's unofficial base of operations was a Catholic Church by the name of Sacred Heart in Glendale, in Queens. The church looked like a quaint little place with red bricks. Honestly people could have guessed the church for as a preschool due to the quaint size. Two younger men waited outside the doors unintentionally looking like bouncers standing at attention with their hands behind their back. How they carried themselves screamed some type of training. Both were 20s to early 30s, their jaws and faces screamed they either worked out or held active lifetyles. One was wearing a red spring jacket, a simple dark blue beanie cap and blue jeans. A five o'clock shadow adorned his face. Next to him was a Latino man wearing a NY Islanders, black hoodie.

Several trucks pulled into the Church. Men and women, all fit, started to pull out various big gym bags from out from the back, along with a few carrying cases for what looked like rifles. Sitting back in the front seat Logan narrowed his eyes. Seconds later his eyes shot open and he frantically pulled the radio receiver from his ear. "Something's wrong," he grunted. Somehow the radio went dead suddenly. Kitty, Illyana and Doug hadn't been seen leaving the church. Now it was up for the X-men to decide how to extract the trio.

In a van. With a few X-Men that she sort of knows, and of course.... Scott.

Well, Hope has been on the record for a long while now that she's more than willing to help. Hell, she flat out has wanted to help. At times she's had to basically force herself into things, like Genosha, but still...

Still she's made it clear that she wants to do stuff. And asking her to /not/ is not an option. Hence, somehow, the redheaded mutant mimic ended up here. In this van. But considering what she can do if it comes down to it, what she can offer power wise might be a big help, depending on the threat. And if the threat isn't that big...

"How wrong?" is asked as she makes a small adjustment to the energy pistol in her hands, before checking the sight. "We talking he start calling them demons again, or...?"

Sam Guthrie frowns as Logan calls that something is wrong. "I think we should stop those people in the vans there, before they add more threat to the inside." Sam...no longer a New Mutant, no longer an X-man exactly, but instead a member of SHIELD, he managed to swap places with his brother, for safety sake. Sure, Jay would have come if he could have, but the older brother made a good enough argument about why not...and might have pulled a fast one to get the kid to stay at home. He flicks his eyes from Logan over to Scott, lingering for a second before flicking to Bobby.

"There's some really screwed up energy in the church. Just sort of happened. At least one lifesign, but it's really dense and I can't make out more than that," Channel reports. She'd come dressed in her x-suit today and not in her costume. Her outfits were chosen based on what she was doing, and this wasn't exactly something she wanted associated with the cape. A glance is given towards the van, the woman's sight letting her see things others could not. "Judging by those guys with the gun cases and gym bags likely filled with weapons, I'm betting they're not going in for peaceful prayer. What's the move?" Channel was certainly not the senior X-Man here, and so she'd be leaving the official plan to the more senior members.

In uniform...which for him is not a lot at all...Bobby Drake's iced up too. He's glad he got out of watching as the detention students were made to wash all the cars in the mansion garage but being cramped in the van isn't the mission he had in mind. Idly sipping a bottle of water through a straw, Bobby is looking bored. At least until stuff starts happening "They went in to talk to a crazy zealot. How wrong do ya think it went?" Bobby asks. Faith in the speech aside, Bobby doubts Stryker will listen. He offers Sam a quick smile when he meets his eyes and then glances to Channel. "Well. Sounds like it's rumble time," Bobby remarks, drinking the last of his water.

Betsy Braddock is sitting with the others in the van, a Katana on her lap that she seems to be anxiously awaiting the chance to use. She off-offhandedly remarks, "You know, we could save ourselves a lot of trouble if we just killed this Stryker idiot today." As usual, she had no issues with killing, especially when it came to enemies who would continue to prove themselves dangerous in the future.

"Psylocke," Cyclops rattles off when his teammates sound the alarm, "can you give us telepathic recon? I want to know what's going on in there; if the others are in trouble, we need to start making arrangements to extract them ASAP. Hope--try to telepathically distract the guards while we're assessing the threat." The X-Men's expert tactician is currently squeezed in with a handful of his students, former students, teammates, and Wolverine; despite this, his expression is stoic and his tone collected.

"Killing him isn't an option, either," he adds, fixing his attention squarely on the Britishwoman. "A team of mutant paramilitaries storming his headquarters and executing him in cold-blood? Can you imagine what they would do with that? No--Stryker lives. It's possible that he'll be doing so in a prison cell after today, but he doesn't get to be a martyr."

Tossing aside his radio, "Everythin' went staticy, interference or losin' signal. Clear seconds ago," Logan said to hope. He looked at others as more reports came in. "No killin'. What would Chuck want?" It wasn't that Logan was against killing it was just so anti-Xavier plus everyone was in X uniforms. There would be no deaths today unless it was absolutely necessary. The second Logan felt mental links go up he slipped outside tossing aside the coat and pulling up the mask.

As the X-men conversed people kept going into the Church with various bags. Jocelyn, if she still had her sight up, could discern five additional people aside from the first one she pegged. The two guys continued to wait at the doors. If anyone was close enough to the door (or was good with scanning minds), the van they were in was across the street and a house down, they could hear a conversation go on, but only if they could do that.

A blonde hair girl asked "What does he want with the Kitty, girl?" One of the "Guards" shrugged. They had no clue why the innocent school girl was wanted more than the devil's harlot.

Standing at attention the two waited for more orders. With nothing better to do the girl looked between them, "Everything ready for tomorrow?" A smile pulled at the corner of her lips.

Most of the figures inside pushed to the basement with the many bags.

And as if to answer Logan's question, despite her not knowing Xavier that well (and possibly not thinking that highly of him on top of that), Hope murmurs, "Get everyone out alive?"

Then there's a *Snap-Hrm* as her 'gun' comes alive and charges up. That is before she pauses, and offers Betsy a momentary odd look.

"If need be, we can add a second telepath into the mix. I might not have the experience... But I can help confuse whoever is inside, unless they're shielded."

Sam Guthrie frowns as the men make their way more inside the place, and he looks to the mind-melters to see if they can stop them, like Scott asked. He looks to be itching to move, to get out of this van, and he shifts uncomfortably in his old suit. Totally was too tight around the thighs these days. He makes a frustrated sound, eager to act.

"I'm seeing five more inside," Jocelyn says, watching the church with her sight. "Those going inside are heading into the basement," she adds. She spots Logan push on himself and sighs. Yeah, she was sure Cyclops was going to love that. She hadn't gotten orders to move yet, however, so Channel stays right where she is, ready to act when the order is given.

Sitting next to Sam, Bobby nudges the Cannonball gently. "Chill, man," he whispers. Bobby's itching to go too but they have to wait for the others to move and the party to start. "And as pretty as I'm sure ya are in red, Psylocke...we don't kill," he chimes in with the others. Of course when Logan just starts on his own, Bobby gives Cyclops a silent 'well, what are you waiting for?' look.

Psylocke had been focusing on probing the enemy as Scott had suggested, only to hear the conversation. She remarks to the other X-Men, "They seem to be more interested in Kitty than anyone else from what I was able to pick up on.." She focusses her telepathic powers on distracting the guards as instructed before hopping out of the Van to join the others.

Cyclops levels a disapproving frown at the departing Canadian's back, but it's gone by the time Jocelyn reports in. |"Alright--I want two teams for this: one for the front, one for the back."| He slides from his seat to exit the van, but he lingers near the van for the moment. |"The team in back needs to be quiet; it's going to be their job to find Shadowcat, Magik, and Cypher and facillitate the extraction. Everyone else will be in position to back them; if Psylocke and Hope can help them blend with their reinforcements, it'll make getting in easier, but they might have to deal with having a lot of Stryker's soldiers behind them. The alternative would be giving the rear team a loud distraction, right off the bat."| Once he's finished breaking the scenario down, he gives his hands a preparatory flex, then sets off after Wolverine; quiet or loud, he'll be with the team in front.


 * "Split up however you see fit; anyone in front, feel free to chime in on how you'd like to go about this. Personally, I'd prefer not to be flanked, but I'm open to ideas."|

Not too long ago a strange order was given out. Stryker does not mind harm coming to any mutants...aside from Kitty. People were given orders if they saw her...to capture her. Other mutants do not have such a courtesy.'

In his mind Logan responded, "Headin' to the back. Was already en route," it was hard to be stealthy in a mostly yellow costume with blue accent. "Who's with me?" his mind chirped back at the others hiding in some high bushes toward the back. The back held most of the parker thus it was harder to get hidden, but once you made it to growing greenery toward the back it was much easier to stay hidden than the front.

People were in the basement looking over the bags' contents. Stryker took steps down in the basement. "Did we get everything in case we get pushed?"

"Yeah," a muscular female responded and flashed the Reverend an AK-47, the streets new 9 mm.

"I wish we could put a bullet in Magneto," one of the males in the basement cried out.

"We could be so lucky," another replied.

The people waiting in front were just waiting for the orders. They had the goodies they were all going to talk about what happens tonight.

As she slips out of the van, Hope glances back at Cyclops. That is before she lets out a faint snerk as she rolls her eyes and shakes her head. Then well...

She reaches out, and starts to mimic Betsy. And odds are it's a good thing that she's been working with several telepaths. Thus she isn't overwhelmed like she may have once upon a time. But still...

She knows she has limits. So for now, she sticks close to Betsy, just to make sure she stays in range. But once all hell breaks loose, she does try to reach out with her 'borrowed' telepathy, and tries to stick with simple things. Like making who ever tries to harm the X-Men see the walls as melting, and color changing neon clouds floating all around randomly?

Sam Guthrie is following Logan, hunched and sneaking around to the back in a uniform that is slightly more blendy than Wolvie's. He protects himself with his field while he slowly tests the doorknob for the back, to see if its still open, or if he has to use a 'lock-pick'...aka...make the door go byebye. "I'm here." He indicates to Wolverine, choosing his side without hesitation. Rescue the kids. That's what he wanted. For every kid that was saved...it seemed to make the one that was lost sting slightly less.

With the rear squad shaping up to be the Break Things And Make Lots Of Noise squad, Channel decides to go against her nature and go with the front squad, heading out with Cyclops as she boosts her physical attributes. She focuses on the weapons that the enemies have with them, attempting to shove a tiny bit of kinetic energy inside the guns to jam them, giving the shells a tiny little nudge. Not enough to set them off, but enough to keep the guns from firing. "I'm on gun control, Cyclops," is what he'll hear through comms. She also uses her infared energy trick to cloak herself from being visible on cameras. Yeah, her entire face was covered, but she was a touch camera shy. Channel didn't mind being shot at all that much, as it didn't really hurt her, but she did find it to be way too loud, and if people didn't have guns, they were a lot easier to deal with. Pre-emptively messing with the guns would make things easier, she hoped.

Going with Sam and Wolverine, Iceman's pretty sure he's a good choice for the 'break things and make a lot of noise'. And not just because he showed up in a video online pretty much specifically calling Stryker and his followers out on the 'mutants are demons' thing. Holy water hot tub. "Got me too," Bobby speaks up after Sam. He's ready to help with any 'make door go bye-bye' plan of course.

Psylocke warns the others telepathically, 'They saw Cypher and the others enter earlier. They think we're tools of the devil and have orders to harm us, all except Kitty. They seem to want her for something, be careful when you engage.'. She steps into a shadow near a bush and emerges near Wolverine and the others in the back.

Psylocke focusses her senses on what lay beyond the door, trying to determine exactly what they might be dealing with on the other side.


 * "Alright,"| Cyclops thinks when everyone but Channel heads for the back, |"change of plans:"|

Scott hooks towards one of the empty trucks in search of cover; if it's safe, he'll motion for Jocelyn to join him in crouching behind it. His mouth is a thin line of discontent at having his tactics turned upside down, but years of service with the X-Men have taught him to expect it; by the time he's joined by Jocelyn, the expression should be gone.


 * "Rear team, I want you to go in hot as soon as you're ready; once you do, Channel and I will slip in through the front and handle the extraction. Any guns that you can disable--"| He looks towards his former student, even though his mouth isn't moving. |"--disable them; I would wager that we'll have a lot of thugs to get through from this direction, but I can't confirm it. Either way, we want to keep the noise to a minimum if we have to subdue them." |

The backdoor opened for Sam with ease. It was not time to lock the doors yet. While Kitty and her friends alarmed people it did not force them to lock doors. Sam was the first to the door followed by Logan, Bobby, Betsy and Hope at the rear.

No one was at the back but since Hope was ready to hit someone, the man in the islander hat started to say, "The pretty clouds! Don't you see them!" he tried reaching out to touch non-existent colors. The other two people in the front looked to the Islander fan curiously. How he was talking, moving, describing things, it was like a bad trip. Jocelyn and Scott hid. The blond pulled out her gun looking around, "What the fuck is going on!"

Once inside everything was pretty quiet. The room was just a church with warm brown pews that went with the overall motif in the room, some place that was inviting as a thanksgiving dinner. Although what littered the edges of the room could be alarming, several protest signs that read, "NO MORE MUTANTS!" "FoH!" done in patriotic logos, "ONLY GOOD MUTIE IS A DEAD MUTIE!" and the like, it looked like someone was preparing a mass protest. As the back group pushed in forward they would hear the sound of boots hitting stairs hard. Peaking up at the entrance to the basement were two of the people from below who began to open fire.

AK rifles spat out bullets toward the X-men. Bullets bit into wood as the automatic weapons were held down. The pair moved forward clearly working suppressive fire to allow more people up. Every mutant that entered through the back was now facing fire.

Jocelyn would see the movement with her vision. Logan pushed himself forward taking a few bullets before taking cover behind a pew, "Under fire!" he screamed via the mental link. Every mutant in the back would have to think fast. As the weapons went off the woman yelled at the guy in red, "Get inside! I'll cover Dave!!!" Keeping her gun out she waited to see whoever, whatever would pop out.

The guy in the red coat joined the fray. There were now four people, five including him, on the inside taking fire. When the guy in the redshirt took the shot he screamed as part of his gun blew up in his hand taking a few fingers with it. Yes, the guy jammed, but it was something with the barrel that sparked when he fired again.

And if The Scarlet Witch were here, and Hope was merged with The Phoenix Force, they'd have to say 'More Mutants' at the sight of that sign.

Or maybe not.


 * Cough*

Anyways...

Something must of slipped through. Because Hope was trying /not/ to let that fun with pretty colors, clouds, and melting walls happen until /after/ the group was attacked. If they were. It was something 'at the ready'. But of well.

As that guard gets hit, and others come rushing in and open fire, the redheaded teen dives for cover. That is before she sort of switches tactics. After all, tripping out' might be good for a momentary distraction, but when bullets come flying.... Well.... Trying to telepathically trigger images that people aren't where they actually are. Or that they're in two, or three places at the same time. All though if this doesn't work...

Sam Guthrie is called Cannonball because he used to have trouble steering himself. Now there are other reasons why he is called that. Protected from a few stray bullets by his kinetic field, he enters the room quickly, so that the others aren't bottlenecked in the stairwell, trusting Bobby for a little bit of cover for those that remain still trying to come down. He clenches his fists and then punches them forwards, sending a more targetted blast in the direction of the bad guys coming down the stairs, hoping to topple them or at least disrupt their firing. As the blast shoots forwards, its draft picks up bits of signs, sucking pamplets and cardboard painted with the slogans, like leaves in the wake of a car.


 * "Let's go."|

Cyclops keeps his lean frame bent low as he hustles out from behind his cover. Logan getting shot up is a pretty good sign that it's time for the stealthy side of the mission to unfold, and to that end, he plans on slipping in through the church's front doors while Stryker's men are busy with the rear team; unfortunately, there's still a guard hanging around outside.


 * "Psylocke, Logan--can you tell us where they're being held?"| he asks as he tries to work towards the hat-wearing guard's blind spot; if he's able to get close without raising any alarms from him, he'll lunge to slap the guy in a chokehold in the hopes of quietly removing him from the fray. |"Channel, keep going; I'll be right behind you."|

The Iceman is indeed providing some extra cover. He creates an ice-shield that may or may not look like a certain Sentinel of Liberty's shield to block the bullets for anyone behind him. Once they're in a more open area, Bobby flings the shield at one of the gunmen and dives for some cover as well. In his organic ice form, he glances at the others. "Should I go all Polar Vortex on these goons?" he asks over the telepathic link.

Psylocke steps into the shadows nearest her and emerges behind one of the gunmen, attacking him with a rapid set of strikes, saying coyly, "Why, hello boys." She steps back in the shadow from whence she came, appearing closer to the rest of the team and reaching out to find the members of the X-Men being held as instructed; sending her telepathic reach throughout the church to search them out.


 * "Acknowledged,"| is Channel's response to Cyclops as she continues to work her way in. She focuses her sight a bit to filter out some of that distracting stuff and continues jamming guns with her energy manipulation abilities. She then starts stealthing around inside, moving more quietly than one might expect and keeping out of sight. She looks all around and there's a mental curse. |"Someone went and screwed with reality. I'm spotting a magical hole in reality. Center aisle, so watch yourselves. Could be an escape route. Definitely Illyana's work. I'm familiar with it."|

The Hope clones caused the first three in the room to start firing at people that just didn't exist. "THE MUTANTS ARE MULTIPLYING!" one of them screamed over the hail of gunfire that was ripping up the church rather well. The three were pretty open to the action targets as a few would start at one copy, then another before they actually focused on the real counterparts. An ice shield was quick to take out one. One of two people working up the stairs was suddenly knocked down by a wave from Sam. Their body went "THUMP-THUDTHUD-THUD!- as it fell down the stairs from the force. Pyslocke was easily able to sneak up on one. Her series of strikes easily subdued the man who could have blocked -some-of them had he not been blinded by the copies. Upon a mental scan of the room Psylocke would find no one except one mind in the basement. The mind kept repeating, "Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly." The quote from Deuteronomy 32:35 worked through Stryker's mind as he tried to think of way to sneak out. His footsteps echoed as he tried to push past a church that was now surrounded by brightly costumed mutants.

Logan stared at Stryker then asked, "Who's gonna interrogate em'? Me or someone that can get in his head? I'm sure Cyclops would wanna know somethings." He grinned like the cat that was about to eat the canary at Stryker. All that was left was that one soul guard outside and Styrker. Everyone else had been taken out or injured.

For those that went to the center of the room they would find it to be clean aside from the smell of brimestone.

And as her telepathic illusions are shot up, Hope stays behind cover. For the moment anyways. But she does start to reach for that gun of hers again.

Then again, considering how quickly the shooters are dealt with, she doesn't have a chance to do much.

Thus, if the teenager picks up what Logan said telepathically, or via good, old fashioned hearing, she doesn't say. Instead, she moves to take up a more 'on guard' position, gun at the ready, just in case.

Cyclops did manage to sneak up on the guard with no problem. By the time he saw Cyclops the man was one large mass of moving color. The guy went down quickly. The girl that had the gun pointed it at Cyclops. The gun backfired causing pain in her hand, but it was still attached with all of its finger. "SONOFA!" she was prone to another attack by Scott or Jocelyn. Whoever wanted to take the pleasure of taking out that target.

"Your way of interrogation isn't going to work on him. He's not the sort to piss his pants at the first threat of violence." Sam says to Logan, having witnessed the hairy man in interrogation recently. "Where are they? Where are the ones that came to talk to you in good faith?" He demands of the kneeling figure, since he hasn't heard them check in yet.


 * "Can you find out where the hole leads?"| Scott thinks as he feels the guard's body go limp in his arms. |"Led?"|

The career X-Man makes a face; holes in the fabric of reality tend not to portend good things, but at least this one is friendly. He's still frowning when the gun-toting girl's weapon explodes on her, but he isn't too dismayed to lean past Hat Guy and trigger the micro-switch in his glove that controls his visor. After a quick x*ZZAAKT!*, he lets the first guard fall and heads inside.


 * "Whatever gets us the most intel the quickest; I don't think we can afford to keep him in custody for any length of time."| Beat. |"So probably telepathy--probably Betsy; we need our most experienced mind on this."|

Since all the goons seem to have gone down, Iceman looks around with a nod. He spots where his shield ended up and frowns. "Aww..." it's broken. Indestructible adamantium-vibraniam hybrid it was not. Stretching, the man of ice walks over to join the others. "We could just cryogenically preserve him until there's a cure for murderous insanity," he jokes a little over the telepathic link.

Psylocke smiles wickedly as she steps towards Stryker, telling the others, "A delicate touch might be needed. I'll /try/ not to traumatize him." She reaches out a hand to brush against the side of Stryker's face and says, "You're going to tell me everything, just like a good little boy, aren't you?" She begins to invade the mans mind, searching for information on where the others were and for any other juicy tidbits she might find.


 * "It's an Illyana portal? Hell, most likely, was the goal."| Or Limbo, if that's what you want to call it. |"Chances are something backfired, given the residual that I'm picking up on, but I can't tell exactly what. I'm not a magic user myself."| Jocelyn couldn't track someone through a portal. Her powers didn't extend to that sort of thing. She'd ultimately end up on patrol, helping out as needed and checking things out for people, staying relatively quiet during the interrogation.

When Cyclops took down the first person their body fell in a heap. Stryker stared at Sam as he talked about interrogation methods. Oh yes the shield was not made of vibranium, Bobby would need to make another. His eyes widened at Pyslocke, "AND YOU WONDER WHY HUMANITY HAS TROUBLE TRUSTING YOU!" he spat with venom as her mental powers went out to touch him. Several memories flashed before her eyes. She could see a decorated career as a military man. The man was able to retire by the time he was in his mid-forties. By that time his son had shown mutation. The powers were so frightening the boy's skill could only be lessened if kept in a comatose state. Pulling in favors acquired over the years an accident was staged to put his son into coma and keep him there, at least until there was a way to get the boy to harness his abilities. Stryker feared the illusions would drive him or his wife insane.

Due to a combination of guilt the man turned to the good book. At first it was just a light in the darkness. Then as time went on Stryker started to give back to the community, then he just rose into the ranks. At first his message was of actual peace. He even suspected a few people in his parish to be mutants, but it wasn't minded. Although sometimes they made him think of his son.

Then in the Zod Invasion Stryker's wife died when a building collapsed and ell on her. He wandered the streets lost. Seeing shattered families he started to help them out while preaching methods of hope. After that Magneto's Genosha happened. More victims came in. The Heralds that followed, each major invasion by metas and mutants caused more human victims. Seeing all the broken families caused the hate in his heart to rise.

That hatred formed. At one point it was almost extinguished by Illyana. Had she not burned by that Holy Water everything that followed wouldn't have happened. She seriously got the man to question himself. When Kitty showed up with Doug and Illyana in tow, he could not deny Kitty's faith, knowledge, how she held herself. Deep down Stryker wished members of his parish had such zeal. As the argument became heated...Kitty held her own. Eventually the trio left thanks to a portal Illyana opened up in the room. Then Stryker started to think on something after. A plan...a long term goal. It was easy, to him, to make mutants look bad. All it would take was a few signs and the right incident to push things into motion.

The original plan was to rally a protest so large and full of energy it would have made Westboro weep, hence all the signs. Yet even now Stryker had one single thought, "My word and the word of former veterans...against theirs." Whatever bounced back to others was up to Psylocke.

Psylocke seems to sift through the memories of Stryker for some time, practically learning all there is to know about the man in her time spent lurking around his mind. When she is finally done, when she finally digs beneath all of the layers of memories to his plan, she feels disgust more than ever towards this racist.

She comments to him in disgust, "You put your own son into a coma and then you turned to God?" She gestures around the church and spits out with venom, "You're a hypocrite. Everything you claim to stand for, everything about Jesus Christ is love and understanding. This? This is an abomination. Mutants aren't the tools of the devil, you are."

She points at Stryker now, "You suffered at the hands of Zod, your wife was lost but who was it that stopped him? It was people like us. Who will stop the next Zod? The next Magneto if you try to wipe all of us out? You'll damn yourself. You don't know it, but..." She glares at Stryker, "You only serve the devil."

She turns away from the man and says to the other X-Men, "The others left.." She points to the portal, "Through that. We should probably go to." She doesn't reveal Stryker's plan just yet, not wanting to give away in front of the bad guy she knew his plan.

Sam Guthrie looks over to Bobby and then nudges the iced-up man. "Does this count?" He follows Betsy's pointing towards the portal and his blond brows jump upwards like she's nuts. "You have to be kidding."

The others left through...?

At that little anouncement... At what Stryker says out loud...

Yeah, Hope double checks her weapon, before she waits for that last second confirmation that they're going into the breach before she even tries to charge in.

Hope doesn't charge, however the energy was indeed residual as people could step into and through the area unscathed.

Iceman glances at Sam and blinks. "Count as what?" he asks. "A date?" he teases a little. He frowns at the news about the portal though. "Great...they took that," Iceman still is no fan of Illyana or her portals. "Yeah, we should get going."


 * "Let's see if we can't get a lock on their comm signals,"| Cyclops says as he comes to a stop the top of the stairs, |"collect as many of these people's weapons as we can, and get out of here; someone's going to come to investigate those gunshots, eventually. It's only a matter of time, given where we are."| Once the order is given, he'll linger up there for a few moments before turning away to start looking for guns to take with him.

"Right." Sam grins crookedly to Bobby. When it’s clear that the portal is closed, he props his hands on his hips. "They'll be alright. Illyana will take care of them." He reaches down to grab one of the fallen weapons, though he's going to sneak this one off to SHIELD, and then starts out. ~"Roger"~ which is the only thing he's said telepathically all night. Time to head out before the cops come.

"Sure, we can count it as number two. Want to get a drink after?" Bobby laughs. He gathers up some of the weapons in an icy backpack as he skates along to follow the others.

Logan starts to head downstairs going to where the smell is, "Telekinetics are gonna need to help if they got the skill!" Logan yelled hefting two of the bags. He looked at Sam. If S.H.I.E.L.D. would somehow get a black bag either one of them would know the other did it.

Cyclops did not get a radio signal on the radio's feed, but an X-Communicator may buzz if he tries a particular. Like to one of the individuals. Who knew what people carried in their pockets and purses.

The radio being the device Logan was using. A two way radio, mall, compact, a short range.

Sam Guthrie makes his way out of the basement. "I'll meet you later, Bobby. I have to do something first." He adjusts his goggles, and once he's clear of any little trees, he takes off into the sky with a crackling roar.