Beginning of the End

[Nightcat]

(Liz nods her head at ECKS's words. She won't go against his wishes for her not to go outside, but that doesn't stop her from drawing her swords.)

Liz: I vill not leave zis house, but I vill not leave zis fight. Zis ist mein home und I vill do anyzing to protect es.

[Shadowcat]

(Kitty stands behind ECKS, ready to finish the fight. She nods her head at ECKS's words.)

Shadowcat: "Now or never, X-Men."

(Behind her, Christina also stands waiting to go outside.)

[Mindcontrol]

(Mindcontrol walks over ready to fight)

Mindcontrol:lets show these guys who there messing with.

[ECKS]

(ECKS stops at the door to take one last look at his group, just in case it is the last look. Then smiles, turns, kicks the doors wide open and rushes out into the fight, the others following close behind. Immediately after opening the door ECKS takes some damage from small arms firing, but without even slowing his pace he continues. His healing factor starts working overtime and has most of the wounds healed before he even makes it to the first soldiers. He shreds through a few of the soldiers before calling back to Magneto.)

ECKS: "Hey oldtimer, you gonna do somethin' 'bout these guns or what? This is still your fight ya know?"

(Ana sprints out the door behind ECKS, she dodges her way past the soldiers until stopping at one with a large assault rifle. She dives right toward him, hitting him in the chest and knocking him down. She uses her own momentum to handspring off as he hits the ground. As she passes over him she grabs the assault rifle from his hands then lands on her feet behind him. Taking the weapon she turns it against the soldiers and opens fire, she hits a few of them in the arms or legs, all non-lethal hits. The rest take notice and duck down, giving the rest of the group time to react. Then, to add a little flair, she uses her power to give the gun itself a slight charge. The gun glows in her hand as she takes and tosses it toward a totaled jeep that some of the men are using for cover. They hiding see it all to late as they try to scramble away just as it detonates and sends them flying in all directions.)

ECKS: "Nice."

(Ana just smiles back.)

[Shadowcat]

(Kitty runs and sees Lockheed flying still breathing fire at the remaining soldiers.)

Shadowcat: *whistles* Lockheed!

(Lockheed immediately changes direction and reunites at Kitty's side. A soldier hiding within the bushes surrounding the mansion switches his rifle for the cure weapon. Lockheed hears him and growls in the soldier's direction. The soldier fires the weapon, but Kitty doesn't even turn around to face the soldier and just phases the cure dart right through her. She then glances around her shoulder.)

Shadowcat: Please, like it would be that easy.

(She phases into the ground, disappearing from sight. Lockheed breathes fire to coax the soldier from the bushes. When in plain sight, Kitty emerges from the ground right behind him. The soldier doesn't have enough time to turn around when Kitty does a roundhouse kick striking him on the side of his face and propelling him into the side of the mansion. The soldier's head slams against the wall and immediately becomes unconscious. Kitty grabs the cure weapon from him and throws it up into the air. Lockheed sends a stream of fire and destroys the weapon.)

Shadowcat: That's one less cure weapon we have to worry about.

[Mindcontrol]

(Mindcontrol looks at two soldiers and uses his telekineses to lift the soldiers off the ground and slamming them into the against the mansion wall. a soldier slowly approaches Mindcontrol fires the cure darts but the darts just float there in the air. Mindcontrol turns to the soldier who fired the darts)

Mindcontrol: thats a big mistake.

(he uses his telekineses and sends the soldier in the air then trows him at a soldier. looking at the cure weapon, he uses his powers and destroys it)

[Nightcat]

(Liz runs to the windows and puts her back to the wall, flattening herself against it. She draws her swords and listens. A solider's head comes around the window and she jabs one of the swords through his temple. She withdraws it from his body and throws it back out to the others as a sign not to come in that way. She can see the fight happening outside, wanting desparately to join in. But she knew ECKS's orders were for her safety. She desides to prowl around the house to look for anyone trying to come in another way.)

[Oracle]

(Christina looks and sees everyone else is busy in his or her own fight.... <Perfect.> She looks and sees both Kitty and Jack destroying some weapons. Those must have been the cure.)

Christina: *to herself* Damn, why did they have to destroy them?

(Christina continues looking for a soldier, hopeful they would all be equiped with the cure weapons. She creeps along the side of mansion to go around the corner looking for soldiers in the backyard. She rounds the corner out of the others' sight and begins to search. It isn't long until she feels a barrel of a gun right behind her neck.)

Soldier: Hold it, mutie.

Christina: You hold it. You shoot me, big mistake.

Soldier: Is that so?

Christina: Yep, because I'm one of the mutants you're looking for. I'm Oracle.

(Christina glances behind her shoulder and sees the soldier has become hesitant. She sees him pulling out another weapon, probably the tranquilzer darts. She quickly spins around and slams her knee into the soldier's stomach. The soldier hunches over with the wind knocked out of him. Christina then does a back-walkover with both of her feet giving the soldier an uppercut. The soldier lands flat on the ground, landing first on his head knocking him out. And then Christina is alone with the unconscious soldier and the cure weapon at his side... or so she thinks. As she begins to bend down to pick up the cure weapon, she is obvious to the sniper hidden within the trees aiming a tranquilzer straight for her back.)

[ECKS]

(As ECKS disposes of yet another soldier by ripping him to shreds, a soldier sneaks right up behind him with a riot shotgun. Using the distraction he gets close and as his partner falls he fires the gun, hitting ECKS right in the back just below his ribcage. ECKS stumbles forward but doesn't go down. The soldier stands a little shocked as ECKS begins to turn around. He pumps the shotgun, loading another shell. But ECKS is too fast, by the time the man is able to fire the gun, ECKS kicks it straight into his chest, causing the barrel to point straight up toward his chin as the it off. The man drops to the ground in a heap, leaving ECKS standing alone. He spits out a bit of blood then looks to the already healing hole in his stomach.)

ECKS: "He messed up my favorite jacket. Hell, this was my favorite shirt, too. And I hate shoppin'."

(ECKS takes a second to remove the jacket, letting it drop to the ground. He leaves the collared short and tank top undershirt on then notices that Ana is looking at him, and at the man on the ground in front of him.)

ECKS: "What? I didn't shoot him. Technically."

(She goes back to the fight so he shrugs it off and gets back into the fray, himself.)

[Nightcat]

(Liz makes it back to the front room in time to hear the loud bangs of ECKS’s battle. She laughs softly as she hears his outburst about shopping. She limps over to the couch and somehow manages to flip it with one arm so that it makes a barrier for her to hide behind. She goes behind it and takes off the M1. She positions it so that she can fire it with one hand. As random soldiers run past the targeted windows, Liz opens fire at them. After shooting four or five of the men, she laughs evilly to herself.)

Liz: I am getting gute at using a gun.

[Oracle]

(Christina stares at the cure weapon for a long time, still trying to decide if she was making the right choice.)

Christina: It's for the best. Smith won't be able to use me, and I get another chance at a somewhat normal life. Win-Win situation.

(Christina holds the weapon in a better grip and holds the barrel to her arm. Her finger goes to press the trigger when she gasps and her eyes turn purple. She sees the soldiers when they were being deployed to attack the mansion. She sees some soldiers with rifles going to hide among the trees surrounding the entire mansion. And at last, she sees a soldier in the trees aiming his rifle straight for her own back. Her eyes return to their natural blue as she exhales deeply. She quickly lies flat on the ground and rolls to the side just as a tranquilzer dart flies above. She picks herself up and begins to run back around the corner. She straps the cure weapon to hang across her body resting on her back. She rounds the corner as another dart smashes into the mansion wall. She sees everyone still fighting and her eyes glance to the trees. Sure enough, there are soldiers hiding trying to keep up with a target to shoot.)

Christina: Watch out! There are snipers in the trees!

[Mindcontrol]

(Mindcontrol fighting off some soldiers when Christina cried out that there are snipers in the trees. looking around at the trees he spots several snipers who are looking at him ready to fire. He creates a psychic shield protecting him from the snipers fire. The snipers shoot round after round of shoots to see how long Mindcontrol can hold his shield up. He figures that he can't hold the shield forever, so he stops holding it. The snipers fire at him, using his telekineses stops the bullets from hitting him and the bullets just land on the ground.)

Mindcontrol: you guys are really pissing me off.

(in a brutal example of his powers lefts the snipers from the trees with his telekineses, keeping his hands wide open closes his hands in a fist, crushing the snipers bodies, then trows them away)

[Nightcat]

(Liz had stood at Christina's cry and had witnessed Jack's killing of the snipers.)

Liz: Heilige Scheiße! I never knew he could do zat!

(She hobbles over to one of the windows and takes off her sling. She positions her own rifle and begins to take out some of the snipers. She hears a gun shot and she rolls away from the window only to see that a solider had made his way inside.)

Solider: You dirty little traitor! Can't you see that we're here to help you! We're here to get rid of those disugs...

(His words were cut off by a shot by Liz whizzing past his left ear. She had not used deadly force yet, seeing as he thought that she was just a natural human. His face contorted with rage.)

Solider: Now you've gone and done it!!

(He raised his gun before Liz had a chance to react. The bullet hit her left shoulder square on. She screamed in pain, whipped out her the Colt and shot him between the eyes. He drops to the floor in a heap as Liz slowly makes her way back behind the couch barracade.)

[Oracle]

(Christina witnesses in shock and amazement at Jack's telekinetic assault. What amazes her most is that she has the same power to do that but no idea how to use it. She begins to return by the others to help finish the fight when she passes a window and a soldier crashes through it from inside the mansion, tackling Christina to the ground.)

Christina: Let go... Get off of me!

(As the soldier struggles to grap his gun to shoot Christina, she kicks the soldier off her and does a backroll to stand up. Other soldier grabs Christina by her arm as the previous soldier grabs her other arm while aiming his gun with the other. Christina preps her jump and then does a toe touch jump knocking both soldiers under his chin, followed by a loud crack from both directions. Christina lands in a crouched position as both bodies fall to the ground.)

(Waiting for her to land, a soldier fires a tranquilzer dart right for Christina's leg. The dart pierces through her uniform as Christina's yells clutching her leg. She notices the soldier and lets her pain and anger power her as she flings her arm at the soldier using her telekinesis to send the soldier smashing into a tree. Christina removes the dart from her leg and tries to stand up, but her left leg is already going numb. She staggers to the mansion wall and tries to hold herself up. The tranquilzer is spreading rapidly through her body as her other leg and arms begin to go numb as well. Christina is unconscious before she even hits the ground. Soldiers noticing that Oracle is down begin to fight harder to get to Christina to achieve one objective.)

[Magneto]

(Suddenly several of the snipers unwillingly turn their guns on each other, firing the darts from one to another until about a dozen or so fall from their hiding spots in the trees. They hit the ground unconscious. Magneto clinches his hands to smash the guns of the soldiers that he just forced them to use on themselves.)

Magneto: "Something's not right here. They're stalling us all for some reason. Keeping us busy while they execute the next part of their plan, whatever that is. And it is working. That have us all busy fighting them one at a time, we need to finish this while we can then regroup for whatever is coming next."

(Magneto starts to use his powers again then is stopped. He drops to one knee. With a puzzled expression he looks over his shoulder to see a tranquilizer dart in his shoulder.)