2012-07-18 Baptism of Fire

The psychic cry woke those that were sleeping, or alerted those that were awake. Something is wrong. Moments later, the emergency radio at the school fires up, reporting dangerous-sized meteors potentially impacting all over the county. It's too late for evacuations, solar flares kept NASA and SETI from getting the data in time. The government is recommending sheltering in place, underground if possible.

Charles has mentally ordered all the students underground, leading them himself into the hanger beneath the mansion. He will have to alter their memories of it later, but it's as secure as a nuclear bunker and should keep them as safe as possible. The Professor has asked his X-Men, however, and their allies, to stop as many of the meteors as they can from damaging the Institute and the homes and businesses of Salem Center and North Salem, the areas in danger. He does not comment or reply to questions regarding the nature of the psychic warning, or how much it felt like Jean Grey. Instead, he focuses on calming the public in the surrounding County to prevent a panic.

Outside, the night sky resembles the 4th of July, only the fireworks with their firey tails this time only seem to get bigger rather than fade out.

Scott awakes with an intake of air as if he's been frightened awake. He reaches for his glasses to replace his blinders when he gets the message from the Professor. He's not worried about bunkers or meteors or homes or businesses. He knows what he heard. And he assumes he knows why the Professor has pushed away questions. His palm touches the glasses for a moment; then his hand goes for the drawer. Wearing a t-shirt and gym shorts he races through the hallway as fast as he can, not bothering to stop for shoes. He bursts through the back door of the mansion and out onto the large patio that overlooks the courtyard.

"Jean?"

Bobby was awake and working on unpacking when the psychic cry hit him. Once he was sure he didn't just imagine it, the cryokinetic was going to go see the Professor. Alarms and the bald dude's mental call itself got to him first. So it was out of bed clothes and into the X-shorts. He'd be angry with the Professor altering student minds later, right now he's got to worry about protecting the school. Ice-sliding out his window, he first sees the sky. "Holy snowballs," he mutters. When he hears Scott, Bobby looks down. "You heard it too? Oh good, not going crazy."

Kitty was in the midst of a side project, something to keep her mind occupied rather than think about the things she's seen and the person they've lost. Anything that diverts her attention, but it also keeps her from sleeping... So a cup of coffee sits on the table beside her gutted toaster and nintendo, which she is trying to combine into a nintoaster.

A functional, yet fashionable, toaster that also plays Nintendo games.

Because why not?

That's when the scream hits her and the solar flares disrupt the television signal which was just beginning to report the falling meteors...

Rushing out into the hall way, still rubbing at her temples, pulling off a pair of welding goggles, hair tied back.. She goes to check on the younger students first, until Charles directs her outside.

Rushing out the back doors, "Was that..." And Scooter says it as she steps up beside him... "Yeah..." Looking up to the firey tails in the sky.

Piotr rushes outside at the call, already transformed as the nature of the problem is relayed to everyone. Of course, once he gets outside, there's nothing he can actually do at the moment. "How does one fight meteors?" he asks no one in particular but looks to Scott for instruction. By the time he can affect them, they're less than a second from impact. He'll worry about the source of that mental call another time.

Outside already; it's a moonlit night, the stars are out.. little cloudcover, and strolls by the lake alone isn't unheard of for the resident blue, fuzzy elf. Particularly when he's coming from playing on Warren's boat. Still- And it's outside that he catches the news, and in looking up, he can begin to see the play, the streaking of those shooting stars across the sky, only- it's coming towards him. Them!

Catching Piotr, Kurt looks down from the roof, "If I bring you up, we can catch them, and I can teleport them into the lake." It's a rather odd idea, truth be told, but it's a shot? They'll be dragged towards the earth, and rapidly, but the elf is a rather quick teleporter. 'Porting down to where Colossus stands, he holds a hand out. "Shall we try?"

"Like this!" Beast calls out to Piotr's question as he climbs out on the roof. He doesn't really have the physical powers to be able to fight or repeal meteors. But at least he's got the brain power. All of the hidden mansion defenses suddenly start popping up all across the lawn and the walls, turning their attention towards the skies and scanning for incomming barrage. Shhhh, don't tell anyone about the concealed arsenal of defensive weaponry that is available should should someone attack the mansion. It's much funner for them to be surprised. Hank starts humming the Star Wars theme as he starts scanning the skies, his mind trying to focus on the task and not the psychic cry from what seemed so familiar and like Jean.

When Jean Grey said her final goodbyes, Logan was knee deep in the middle of a conflict between the Hand and the League of Assassins in Madripoor. Tying up those loose ends took some time, and none of it was in any way pleasant for any of the parties involved.

Ten days later, as he drives the scenic roads leading to the Institute, a familiar voice slices through his melancholy like a hot knife; as he tries to recover from the shock, his eyes drift upwards, to the fireworks display from Hell. He skids to a stop, tilts his head back to stare at the sky, and gingerly sniffs at the air; nothing but motor oil and yesterday's motel room. Growling, he revs the bike up and races to the mansion as fast as it'll carry him.

All that is there to greet Scott is the wash of disturbing orange light from above, where the burning rocks are descending like fiery hail from the night sky. The light glimmers off Bobby's icy form and Piotr's metal one, sending radiant little motes of illumination dancing on the ground like a Disco Ball. For Kitty, the science wiz, this is a meteorological and astronomical oddity. This shouldn't be happening. Meteor storms are documentable and easily monitored and predicted. This must have been caused by an outside force, throwing space rocks out of their orbits. For Kurt, a man of faith, it looks like the Wrath of God descending on the mutants below. For Hank, it might actually be a slightly happy occasion, as he gets to unwrap all the things that go BOOM, that have, thus far, not been put through their paces. For Logan, it might remind him of the War. Take your pick which one, he was in a lot of the damn things.

The smaller meteors were lighter, and moved faster from the impact that sent them towards Earth. They are nearing first, raining down all around the Institute and the surrounding area. Impact is imminent.

Scott is looking a bit worse for wear. He hasn't shaven in days and is now sporting an almost complete scruffy beard. His hair looks like it could use a washing. His /body/ looks like it could use a washing. Piotr's questions hit his ears, but he doesn't really process it in the right way. It's almost as if it's underwater. He, of course, is probably the most equipped to fire on meteors, but for some reason he doesn't. He simply stands there, looking up, with his hair blowing softly in the breeze.

For once, Bobby squishes down that urge to make a joke about a disco party or anything like that. When Hank starts making things pop out and shoot, he jumps. "Jeeze! Warn a guy before ya turn the tree he's by into a cannon, will ya," he mutters, pretty much just to himself. Apparently the school's defenses have been upgraded while he's been away. He looks down to Scott for answers too. When he sees his friend just stading there, he curses under his breath. The icy mutant fires off a few chunks of ice into the air in hopes of hitting meteors and breaking them apart before they can hit anything. "Hey! Fearless Leader! Wake up!"

"Okay, I don't want to bore everyone with facts, but Myth Busters is going to be all over this... like.." Kitty watches some of the meteors decend in a state of pointed fascination, "...These things are pretty easy to predict. Since they're huge hunks of rock floating in space and.. like.. you know we know where they are and junk."

Glancing to Scott, who probably isn't listening, "Scooter! Are you chargin' your lasers?" Reaching out to poke him in the arm with an extended finger. "Because, like... this is abnormal.. and short of trying to phase the entire city... I'm not sur- holy SHIT WHEN DID WE GET AA GUNS?!"

Screw talking... Shadowcat is running, one part because she just swore, one part because seriously... how many times do you get to fire an Anti Aircraft gun at falling meteors?

Do /not/ tell her they're automated either. There's got to be one that's not and she's definately getting on it, looking for the controls and going nuts on some falling space debrie! "BAZENGA!"

Piotr looks from Kurt to Hank up on the roof then over to Scott. At the complete lack of leadership, he looks back to Kurt, considering his offer. Catch meteors? But the energy just transfers to the catcher. Colossus is all kinds of familiar with transfer of inertia through direct experience, if not the science of it. It usually means he goes flying backwards. Or in this case, through the roof. "I need... a shield. Or a bat. One of the security doors from the danger room." Something built to keep super strong mutants from breaking through them, at least for a little while.

Bowling ball size and a bit larger- Kurt takes his friend's hand to teleport him quickly down to the doors in question. "Right. Let's go.." and it's down to get the door quickly, and back up in order to begin the batting of the meteors; first onto the roof for a good 'jump'. "Did you play baseball in Russia?"

Beast is trying to finish kitbashing a temporary command console on the roof. "I really should upgrade the defense systems again. We need some turbolasers or something. Though I suppose that's a bit overkill. Plus useless against small one-manned fighters. Maybe just a few Ion Cannons for fun." Hank comments or more or less rambles to himself, his feet grasping a couple of joysticks while he gazes toward the heavens with what almost looks like electrobinoculars. Did we mention Hank was a Star Wars geek? Hank takes note of Kitty's call about Scott. "Anyone near Scott. If he doesn't snap out of it.... just start aiming his head. You know where activation switch is." Hank calls out. "Where's your 'Daughter' when we need someone in Scott." Hank offers to Kurt.

Logan is hunched low in his seat as he winds his way towards the mansion; once it's clear that the meteors are threatening it, he refrains from looking up any longer. He doesn't need the reminder of what's at stake; he concentrates on psyching himself up to fight a meteor shower instead.

If only ninja were involved somehow; that would make things so much easier on so many levels.

"Petey," he growls into his helmet's communicator; it sounds like he hasn't used his voice properly in days. "Fastball special; you got 'till I get there to get in position." He cuts the link with that and drives around last bend, engine roaring as he approaches. Colossus will have a few seconds to get ready; Logan is driving straight down the road to the Institute--and once he's past the gates, he seems to be driving straight towards /Piotr/.

Thankfully, he cuts the engine well before there's any chance of collision; all the better to hurl himself from it, directly at the ferrous strongman.

While Scott stands, like an upright coma patient, staring at the sky, a small meteor about the size of a baseball comes shrieking down at him from above. The sound of its passage is like a whistle of the wind, and the heat of it increased the closer it gets. He only has moments to get it together.

Bobby's ice-projectiles slam into some of the smaller meteors, pushing them back upwards, slowing their velocity to something less lethal, and breaking apart some weaker ones. Gravel-like debris rains down on him.

RATTATTATTAT! Kitty goes all Rambo on some of the large space rocks, breaking them into smaller pieces. The AA guns don't reduce the velocity of the descent, they just deflect the shards into a wider arc. Sort of like rocks being thrown around by a tornado.

Kurt and Piotr are able to get one of the doors ripped off to use for batting practice.

Pewpewpew! Hank's guns fill the night sky with tracers every few shots to help guide his aim. Like Kitty, he breaks many asteroids apart, but the smaller pieces continue heading down.

And then a new missile arrives, in the form of Wolverine launching overhead towards Colossus.

In a start, Scott seems to snap out of it as if he has just finally opened his eyes. He releases a blast from his optic visor and blasts it into a thousand pieces. "Beast and Shadowcat," he starts, his voice eerily calm. "I want you to focus on the debris falling out over the populated areas of Westchester to the south. "I'll take those closer to the mansion. Whatever happens, there are going to be some that get through, so Piotr and Nightcrawler, I need you to start tag teaming to get the fire house in the south hangar hooked up to the water line in the basement. Then get it back up here and get it ready." Pause. "Bobby, be ready to put out any flames, I want you to shoot up ice as far as you can to see if you can head them off with a large wall and at least divert them away from the Mansion." The thought of shooting at Jean makes him sick to his stomach. What was it at the Battle of Bull Run? Don't shoot till you can see the whites of their eyes?

"Ow ow ow!" Bobby yelps, forming an ice shield for himself anf getting out of the way. Clearly that wasn't his best plan. He shoots Beast a look as he passes by him though. "Man...setting me up for so many good ones I can't use right now!" he whines, heading down towards Scott. Thankfully the leader of the X-Men wakes up before he gets down there and has to do anything drastic. Bobby smilels at the orders and gives a mock salute. "About time, Scott. One igloo of protection coming right up!" he calls, heading back into the air on a slide. Taking a deep breath, Bobby holds his arms out to the sides and then brings them forward quickly. A frigid beam issues forth, chilling the air as he starts building a protective dome of thick ice around the mansion.

It's ineffective, sure. At first, the fun of it was enough to keep her from considering that... But this was not getting them anywhere fast. And it would have kept going like that, too

Then the commands start filling into the receiver in her ear, "You got it boss!" Pulling one lever, pushing another, twisting the big whirling gun on it's swivel towards the further off lights of Winchester, "Beast, draw beads on some of them, huh? We're just bouncing them around, we need to focus fire.. Like hitting a baseball on it's seams!"

Or something smart, whatever.

Her AA gun batters into the larger chunks, breaking them apart to leave for Beast and his more advanced targeting array.

"Take that! AND THAT! You want some more! Nobody throws firey balls of space rock on my town!" BATTATTATTAT! "This is like Jinga... Only, you know, with fire... and AA guns."

"And people throwing Wolverines at the sky..."

"EUREKA!"

Doors are only as strong as what they're attached to. So Colossus tears down the wall from the side that isn't as heavily fortified until he can rip the door off. Once he has a good grip on it, he nods to Kurt and they're on the roof. "Nyet." Fortunately, a door has a lot more surface area than a bat. Considering the door for a moment, he squeezes one end of it from both sides till it's handle-like and now resembles a cricket bat more than a baseball bat. He doesn't play cricket either. He looks over at Kitty a moment and shakes his head. Great kid, don't get cocky. But then Logan comes through on the team's communicator and he blinks a moment. Fastball special? At what? But he jumps off the roof back to the ground, fracturing the porch and singking to his ankles in the ground under it. Glancing quickly at the sky, he ignores Scott for the moment to get a target. Once he finds a large enough meteor heading right toward the school, he braces, catches Wolverine then spins and uses the man's momentum to assist the throw directly at his target. Right. Done. Fire house.

So much for the door? Kurt looks a little disappointed in the fact that he's //not// going to be flinging very, very hot balls of rock into the lake, but putting out fires and not taxing Bobby isn't a bad thing. The blue elf begins to teleport over to where the fire suppression systems lie, but.. there's a pause. A familiar raspy voice comes on com- "Logan?" Brows rise, and he's quite surprised- but there really isn't any time. With a *bamf*, Kurt's out to get the systems, and he's pulling back the hoses ready to set the world on fire-- er.. douse it all in water.

As the meteors do begin to fall, the water pressure is great coming out of the hose, and it's all Kurt can do to stay grounded against it. "More water, Bobby!"

The various computer controlled weapons system on the mansion ground continue their beautiful display of chaotic destruction as Hank guides them like he was conducting the Philharmonic. It almost might remind someone of the turrets from Portal 2. A fact that is not lost on Hank, as soon over the mansion's sound systems... the 'Turret Opera' from Portal 2 starts playing. "Gotcha Cyclops." Hank calls to the order from Scott, turning most of the defenses towards defending Salem Center from death from above.

Once Colossus gives him the boost he needs, Logan locks eyes on his target and grits his teeth. Every muscle in his body is taut, ready; it won't make the next few moments any less painful. Once the raging heat coming off of the meteor begins raising blisters on his skin, he draws his arms back, and--

*SNIKT!*

--then there are /two/ chunks of burning debris falling towards the mansion; Logan's seems to be stuck on one of them, though. With fires mercilessly licking at his body, he frantically switches off between anchoring himself to the thing and just hacking away at it with his claws until there's nothing left.

Which leaves him on fire and falling really, really quickly; it seems, at least, that he'll leave a big hole in the lawn instead of the mansion itself, so there's that..

Alarms are going off all over the area now, as some of the smaller meteors have made impact. The heat of them has set off some fires in buildings and homes. Fortunately, with the rains of the last week, the wooded areas and fields are too wet to burn much, so the fires won't have a high probability of spreading.

As the smallest of the missiles begin hitting the grounds of the Institute, it sounds like a terrible hail storm, magnified, and issuing heat instead of cold. Windows get smashed, holes get bored through the roof, the pool begins to sizzle as the water in it heats up from the impact of several burning rocks.

Then Iceman's ice shield goes up and the brunt of the impacts strike that. The heat of the rocks begins melting it in places, some are large enough or heavy enough, or fast enough to punch through the dome, but all are reduced in their impact over the protected area.

Kitty's shots start taking apart the larger asteroids, now meteors, setting them up for volleys from Beast's guns. They make an effective team, deflecting the more dangerous bits and pieces away from populated areas.

One can just hear Charles now. Really Piotr, my porch? This manse has been in my family for...yadda yadda blah blah. The Fastball Special goes off without a hitch.

Kurt's refueling of Bobby's water supply gives Iceman plenty of material to shore up his dome.

Logan's skin blackens and blisters, but replaces itself almost as fast as the heat destroys it. He manages to deflect on half of the big rock and reduce it in size, but the other is still out there.

2008 HQ3 hurtles has trailed behind all the other meteors. It gets closer, and becomes clearly visible, now within one mile of impacting the Institute. It is not a planet-killer, like the one they suspect of causing Earth's first ice age, but it is certainly big enough to flatten the institute and have repercussions all across Westchester County. It looms like a fiery miniature sun of destruction above, but there is something odd about its tail. There is a bulge in the trailing flames of debris it sheds, something that almost seems to have its own form, and be riding up closer and closer to the once-asteroid.

Scott walks serenely out to the edge of the patio to a point where he can get more than a 180 degree vantage point. His right hand rolls a dial near his temple which open his optical beam to full tilt and full width. He holds the release down and begins moving back and forth, trying to catch as many meteors as he can. As he sees the gigantic meteor coming at them, Scott grits his teeth. He's muttering to himself and may or may not be audible to the others. "That's Jean. . .That's got to be Jean." He exhales and holds his hand up towards the visor. From his angle, if he takes a chunk of that asteroid, he's going to hit what's behind it. Just a few seconds more. He gives her just a bit more time.

"Thanks for the drink, Kurt! Next time how about a beer?" Bobby calls, joking around. He uses that provided water to quickly patch up holes in the dome, putting out fires with slushy blasts of ice and snow as he does. He's going to need a nap later but he's making sure he has a place to nap in. Dodging around really hot rocks, he continues his fire-fighting duties. He takes just an instant to make himself a firehat of ice, making the dome thicker and stronger to minimize punch through. Of course when he see that giant flaming form of 2008 HQ3, his jaw drops. "We're gonna need a bigger Wolverine to throw at that."

Kitty really is taking this business seriously, even if her chatter suggests otherwise. All the shouting and movie quotes are a means by which she's controlling the raging fear that's settled in her gut. Usually, Jean's voice would be in her mind, assuring her that everything was going to be okay. That they'd pull through this.

She never really understood how much she'd grown to dependant on that voice, until it was gone. Sure, she took comfort in the fact that Beast and her were doing their best to protect the people of Wincester, but it was impossible not to think about the last ten days.

Now more than ever.. and that's when seriousness took hold on the youngest X-Man's face. Her expression dire as she continuously glances up at the approaching sun, without actually turning the big guns on it... Scott hadn't given the word, yet.

She kept waiting for it... but when it never came, she had to ask, while smashing another huge chunk of meteor into less dangerous smaller chunks.

"Hey, Cyclops... I don't wa-... If that thing hits the ground, we're talking collateral damage for at least twenty miles. No telling what sort of microbiota will be introduced, either... or if it's some radiated element. I.." She wants it to be Jean too... Glancing up at the firey tail.

"I need to know if I should shoot it, Scott, it's almost at critical velocity... Do you copy?" No denying the pain.. not for her, so much as for him. What a decision he's got to make. Losing the Mansion or possibly firing on his lady... On the calming voice that Kitty wants so very badly to hear right now.

There are simply some things that Kurt cannot do anything about. One of them is doing something about large, hurtling asteroids. "I would rather we not waste the beer by spilling it all over the ground. I am German, and we respect beer." He's got the hose in hand, and he looks to the asteroid, to those on the roof; "Give me the word, and I'll get everyone out of the way, Scott," comes over the radio. "It is coming.."

Piotr watches Logan's trajectory but he's never missed a target like that and today's no exception. Kurt seems to have the firehose under control so he doesn't go to help with that. Picking up his 'cricket bat', he goes to stand guard over Scott and make sure nothing that does get through hits Cyclops. "Destroy it, Scott." is all he says. It's that or the school is destroyed instead and almost everyone in it.

Beast likewise trains the remaining guns on the approaching 'Mansion Killer'. "She's right Scott. If we start firing now there is a minute chance we can chip enough of it away and slow it'd descent enough that the others can minimze damage. But every moment that passes is eating away at our window. We need a decision." Hank growls just a bit over the coms, his fingers hovering over the execute command. "Shadowcat... prepare to fire with everything we've got left. One... Two... Thr..." Whatever is going to happen is likely to occur before he gets to three. That's just how these things work.

Logan hits the ground /hard/, and smoke wafts up from the resultant hole as he hauls himself out of it. He is down to his helmet, a bare chest and badly singed jorts, but neither that nor the grass sizzling beneath him give him any pause in trudging across the lawn. Even looking up up and catching a glimpse of HQ3's curious contrail, he does not lose a step; he just drags his blistered carcass to the AA battery and plops himself behind the controls of an unoccupied turret when he finally makes it there. He's tightens his hands on the controls as Hank does his countdown.

"Nice shootin'" he quietly growls as Beast counts.

The rest of the meteors have either been deflected, destroyed, or hit the Earth. All that is left is the 32 foot monstrosity hurtling at the Institute. 2000 feet. 1000 feet. 500 feet. The shape trailing 2008 HQ3 overtakes it, gets in front of it, and is discernible now. It looks like a massive bird made of fire. The flames surge back against the rock, slowing its descent, altering its course just slightly, towards Breakstone Lake. 100 feet, 50, 10, impact.

Water and steam explode upwards from the Lake as the asteroid and the firebird strike the surface at high velocity. An shockwave rushes out for a mile in every direction from the impact, sending 10 foot waves breaking on the shore of the lake, knocking down young trees and poorly built small structures, flipping small vehicles around, and making everything groan.

Everything goes eerily quiet as the dust settles. Then everyone's hearing returns and the alarms and sirens close in on them again.

The shockwaves knock Scott flat on the ground and it takes him a moment to clear the cobwebs. In a moment, he's up on his feet, however, a loud ringing blocking out much of the sound of sirens. He runs towards the edge of the patio, down the steps, out on the manicured lawn and towards the lake.

Bobby reacts before he thinks about it, all that Danger Room training coming to use. Icy beams lance out to make frozen barriers against the waves to keep the water from reaching his friends or the mansion itself as he uses more ice to keep himself upright. When things settle down, he starts heading higher to get a look at the lake from above. "Everyone saw tha, right? The big flaming bird?" he asks. When Scott starts running, Bobby curses and starts following. He may not be a genius like Beast but he's pretty sure the area around the lake is going to be way too hot so he's going to make sure he's there to make sure there's no crispy-fried Cyclops.

Shadowcat is caught completely by surprise when the firey bird wraps around from behind the monster of a hurtling rock and over takes it... Her fingers loosen on the controls of her AA gun and her jaw goes slack, "Oh my god... It's like a Phoenix..."

Then both impact the lake sending off a wave of water and a shockwave that smashes her back against the straights on the AA gun. Instinctively, she phases and is thrown through the hard metal, the ground, the concrete foundation of the mansion. Hurtling, at first completely out of control until she can right herself, scampering back towards the surface as quickly as she can since she didn't have a chance to take that large a breath before she was struck..

Her body appears out of the ground, flopping upwards and in a small flip that leaves her flattened on the ground gasping for air... "What the hell was... that?" Trying to make the ringing stop.. both shock wave and lack of oxygen has her a little light headed..

"Am I dead? I really need to go Synagogue... my mom was so right..."

As the meteor heads toward the lake, Colossus braces himself against the impact, leaning into it so he's not blown backward. Iceman's shield helps and once the initial blast is done, he runs after Scott, ready to get the fearless leader out of whatever trouble is waiting for him.

Kurt goes head over tail (literally) as the shockwave hits, flying through the air and finally landing with a *whoof* on the ground, knocked flat and out for a couple of long moments. It isn't until the dust settles where he begins to open his eyes. While the water didn't strike him, the shockwaves did.. and sitting where he is, he shakes his head to clear his head. Slowly, he gets to his feet and begins the *bamf*ing to rejoin his friends, and discover what has transpired.

"What the frell was that!?" Beast growls, a bit wide-eyed behind his glasses. His body tensing and feet clenching to keep him in place on his perch. And now instead of opening fire on the asteroid, all the weapons turn towards the lake. Well, any of them that weren't bashed, battered, or destroyed from meteor impacts or the giant wave of water. The silence is broken with the little servo-motors behind each weapon keeps adjusting and moving... as if scanning for whatever or whoever went into the lake. "Shadowcat, don't lose it just yet." Though he's performing a quick sign of the cross as well. Hopefully Kurt doesn't notice. Spectacles, Testicles, Wallet, and Watch.

"Put me on manual," Logan continues. "I got it from--" The firebird comes into full view, and once it seems that it's going to fly past HQ3, his hands slowly retract from the controls. He slides his visor up to squint at it.

"Is that--"

He clutches his ears and screams - howls, really - when the two celestial objects collide. All at once, the world around the lake is flipped upside down, and all of it - every roughly snapped tree, every collapsed building, every last blaring car alarm - melds together into a symphony of devastation for the sensitive X-Man.

When everyone else's hearing returns, Logan has to make do with not being in /complete/ agony anymore; those goddamn alarms are still going.

The surface of the lake ripples once, twice, then explodes as a figure launches upwards, surrounded by the shape of a fiery bird. At its center, ensconced in the yellow-orange light of the unnatural flames, is a woman, dressed in green and gold, with red hair whipping as if blown by some cosmic wind. "I am fire! I am life incarnate! I, who was Jean Grey, am now and forevermore, PHOENIX!"

With that sudden surge, she falters, having not yet fully healed from her ordeal in space, and having expended most of her energy stopping the asteroid. The firebird fades away and Jean, Phoenix, falls to the ground on the shore of the Lake, unconscious.

Scott continues to run towards the lake and once he reaches the beach he slides along the beach in an angry manner, catching some debris in his foot that will need to be looked at later. "Jean...Jean can you hear me?" He reaches down towards her neck to check for vital signs and uses the other hand to tap the side of her face gently. He leans down and tries to listen and feel for breathing.

Cooling the area ahead of Scott so he doesn't get burned, Bobby doesn't notice the ripples. When Jean bursts out of the lake, Bobby yelps and tumbles off his slide. A quick pile of snow saves his frosty behind from much more injury. When he pops back up and sees just who it is, Bobby's eyes go wide and he's quick to run to join Scott by Jean's unconscious form. "Holy..." he trails off, hand over his mouth for a moment.

She doesn't say it, because this is a pretty important moment and she's not entirely sure she's not really dead and this is all an intricately designed trick to bring her guard down so the darklings can drag her off to hell...

But she's thinking: NAILED IT. when the green and gold woman identifies herself.

Then she's pushing herself up and rushing along with everyone towards the fallen, unconscious woman. In the concern for her friend, the woman who 'was' Jean, Kitty kneels down and rubs at her face and pushes stray hairs back on her head. 'There's a costume shop in space....' it's irrational thinking, but sometimes in these stressful moments, that's the only thinking anyone can do. 'my knowledge of the stars needs serious work...'

'Stop that Kitty, focus, try to help!'

"MEDIC!" It's what they do in Call of Duty... They don't cry though. Tears roll down her face as concern washes over her.

Piotr stops short when he sees the fiery figure and doesn't go further when it winks out and Jean falls to the ground. Jean. "Kurt, we will need a stretcher. Hank, you're a doctor." Of one sort or another. Certainly more so than Scott is. "Bobby, there are many fires still burning. Someone needs to put them out. Katya, make sure everyone else is all right. Logan, you are well?" What else would he be. With Scott... preoccupied, someone needs to take the lead.

Kurt staggers a couple of steps after the teleporting, his yellow eyes pained in blow-back, though he does look at Beast for a long moment, his brows rising wearily. It doesn't matter, however, as he lands beside Jean, now, and he kneels down beside her. "The door, Piotr.. get the door and we'll put her on that. Then, I'll bring her back in.. and Hank can look at her." He's stunned, too.. but behind it all, there was more than a little faith that it wasn't going to be the end. Though, at second thought, Kurt picks her up gently, "Let's just bring her back now." What other damage could carrying her do? She RODE A METEOR...

Well... Jean doesn't have to defend from any of the weapons. Because Beast is jumping to his feet in suprise at seeing the flaming red-head emerge from the lake. Hank quickly moves to the edge of the roof and leaps down, landing in a crouch..... rolling forward into a run towards the edge of the lake. "Kurt, Prep the Medbay if you would." He's the fastet of them and can just pop down there. Hank is overstepping Scott's command before he even reaches the lake. "Thanks Kurt. Don't crowd her people. Let's get her to the medbay. And Quarentine. We don't wanna risk her bringing back some pathogen from Outer Space. Or the Space Between Spaces. Or wherever the hell she's been." Hank snappoints to Colossus. "Piotr should carry her, in metal form... he's less likely to be able to contract anything from her."

"What in blazes..."

Wide-eyed, Logan stares at the radiant ghost who just saved the mansion and tried to deafen him. He isn't showing too many signs of his asteroid encounter by now: a few first degree burns on his arms and some ugly whorls of flesh all over his chest. He quickly shakes his head, mutters, "Yeah, peachy," then tosses the helmet aside and takes off running for the lake.

Of course, so does /everybody else/; he has to tell himself to stop a few feet away and let them deal with bringing her in. He can do his part from here, anyway: he gingerly sniffs at the air, seeking a familiar scent amidst his team's panic.

When he finds it, he lowers his head and lets the relief wash over him for a few moments.

"Guess my timing's still pretty good when it needs t' be," he dryly says. "Be careful with her."

Jean is breathing, she's just deeply, deeply unconscious. Other than that, she looks whole and healthy, despite her new taste in costumes and being AWOL for over a week after being the Hulk's unwilling fastball special. She is limp when picked up, and offers no resistance.

Scott follows along behind Jean, ignoring both Piotr and Hank's insubordination for the moment. To be honest, he doesn't really give a rats ass. Jean's safe. And alive. Luckily they didn't shoot her.

Bobby grits his teeth. He knows the fires need putting out but he wants to stay with Jean and the others. Eventually he just gives a frustrated noise and turns to the lake for just a moment. More water is always helpful. He gives Hank a rare serious look before heading up on an ice slide to start putting out fires as quickly as possible.

Kitty nods, looking up to Piotr when he starts firing off orders... "I... okay." She's got no reason not to check on everyone, no arguement that would be sufficiant to convince even herself that it isn't a good idea. But she wants to be here.

Her hand lays on Scott's shoulder, then she darts off to check the scrapes and bruises of... people.

The ones who are scraped and bruised. Like Log- no he's fine. Or Piot- no he's okay too.

"Alright, everyone's alive..." Turning, smoothing her hair back from a sweaty forehead and falls right down onto the grass with her yellow gloved hands laid across her face and her legs tucked under her indian style.

Her shoulders start rocking a little, not really sure how to take all this.. It's a lot. And she's still pretty young.

"Kurt is already holding her." Piotr points out he's already been exposed to the space herpes. "He can have her in the infirmary in seconds." Which, accompanied by the look he gives Kurt, suggests he do so. "I will try to make sure everything is structurally sound." Hopefully he can spot anything about to fall down and make sure it doesn't happen on top of someone while others do medical stuff.

Kurt stares at Hank as if his friend has suddenly grown a second head.. and a tail. He's.. blue. Furry. Demon. Tail. Travels through the bits of fabric for teleporting, and can slip into shadows. Not even remotely human, being the spawn of a mutant and a demon. "I'm not worried that I will contract anything from her." He looks to Piotr, and nods, the next heartbeat, he's gone in a *bamf*.. as the fabric of.. being opens and closes rapidly, leaving behind the brimstone. Kitty, however, hasn't gone unnoticed- he'll be back for her, but sadly, later.

Beast nod to Piotr and Kurt, and turns to head back towards the mansion. He doesn't break into a run just yet, pausing enough to stop by Kitty and put his large hand on her shoulder. "You did good Kitty." He tussles her hair a bit and then breaks into a run, heading for the mansion so that he can get down to the medbay. "Good job everyone." Hank calls as he vanishes inside.

Logan heads for the mansion too, but he's angling for the front, where his poor, abused bike is waiting for him.

"Glad ya managed t' take care'a things the last couple weeks, Slim," he mutters he can get too far away from everyone else. "I'll be surveyin' the damage; lemme know if there's news."