8004/X-MEN: They Hide Below

X-MEN: They Hide Below
Date of Scene:	22 June 2019
Location:	New York City subway yard
Synopsis:	Frank Castle and his Unpunishable X-Men take on a strange new type of maybe... Sentinel...? Nobody's really sure, even when its all said and done, they saved lives and fought some weird robotic spider things. But they got basically no questions answered!
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Elixir, Shadowcat, Storm, Punisher, Emma Frost, Blinkdog, Marvel Girl
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

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Rogue has posed:
Its late at night, around 9pm on a Thursday night. A migration of mutants with physical mutations who've all banded together into a single convoy of RVs, trucks, cars, motorcycles, you name it, has been stopped on its way through New York. They banded together to leave the city and to go find a new home where they believe they can be more welcomed, to leave the Sentinels behind.

But as thing go, not everything works out as planned. On their way out of the city, once the convoy of vehicles reached a quieter side street near the edge of the city's northern exit routes, they were bombarded.

Hordes of robotic monsters came down upon the caravan of cars and began to tear into them. Screams from the caravan's passengers began to echo out of their vehicles as the metalic spider-like machines unleashed laser cutting tools to slice into locked cars, while others used their metallic appendages to just rip the people straight from their open windows.

Many have been captured by these monsters already, bound within their metallic claws and carried off into the night. But many yet remain free and have begun to flee into an open subway exchange tunnel where they've vanished into the sewers, with the arachnid creatures in hot pursuit.

Charles Xavier, at his school for gifted youngsters, has caught wind of this event unfolding via the use of Cerebero and in a haste, he's called out to all available X-Men members to gather and go to the northern Manahattan subway and sewers to find these mutants in need of help, before they're carried off by these mysterious (Sentinel?) spider machines.

Elixir has posed:
Josh is in the Wellness Centre going over some of his homework with the evening nurse and talking about what certain procedures look like in real life when the call goes out. He gets Xavier's projected callout and excuses himself. He runs for the nearest secret elevator, avoiding any attention from students on the way. Once downstairs he scrambles into his X-Man uniform and runs for the jet to meet the others. From the sounds of it, there will be no pre-briefing. This is an emergency.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty rushed to get into her gear and meet the others at the jet. She slides a domino mask onto her face to help conceal her identity. Once at the plane she immediately begins the prep for takeoff, using the abbreviated list as there is no time to spare.

"Everyone load up and strap in," she'll call out as various X-men and others gather. The fuel lines are removed and Kitty runs up the ramp to board the plane. Once everyone is on board she'll head for the pilot's seat so the flyers in the group can act individually if needed.

Before long the Blackbird will be roaring down the long tunnel that allows it to emerge from the ground away from the school. It climbs and banks sharply on full afterburners as it turns to begin the short race into the city.

Once near, and following the Professor's guidance to the spot, the plane will slow and cut back engines to cut back on noise, and move for a landing in a train yard nearby to the sewer entrance.

Storm has posed:
Ororo is hard on Kitty's heels, diving into her costume. The sleek leotard goes on fast enough, jet black with gold accents and a bodice of white worked into the chestpiece. She's tugging gloves into place while up the ramp and helps Kitty rush the pre-flights, diving into the copilot seat.

Ororo looks over her shoulder. "Prechecks clear, secure the door. Doors open," she says, voice clipped. Her thick, curly white hair bobbles over her head.

The jet slices through the night and Ororo bails from the vehicle with a *thumpf* of discharged air near the landing struts. She soars on a rush of wind, cloak casting an invisible shadow like an owl's swath over the ground. The clouds overhead start to darken and crackle, plunging the night into deeper blackness.

"Night vision for those who need it. Be ready for the EMP strike," Ororo says.

She lands on an outcropping and turns her eyes skywards. Her gaze lacks iris or pupil, white as summer clouds. Fists grip and clench at the skies overhead. The thunder and rain answers Ororo's call as she prepares the field. It'll ground fliers pretty effectively and confound the robot's sensors.

The unpleasantly cold rain won't be fun for anyone, though.

Punisher has posed:
It wasn't ideal... but nothing about the Punisher's situation was ideal. He was right in the middle of a massive campaign against a citywide organization... but other situations do pop up that require attention. Even in the war, there are border skirmishes, after all.

Having been given word of the convoy, Microchip had been monitoring it via a stealth drone to keep an eye on matters. The Sentinels were still an ongoing concern, and these mutants were a prime target for them, if anyone... and it didn't take long for that situation to go south quickly.

Just minutes after the 'ambush', Microchip had informed Frank of the lead, and the Battle Van was quickly loaded up, with both driving out towards the convoy area. They had a trail to follow, and Punisher had a full anti-armor kit to handle it.

Loaded with an M4 Carl Gustav, M4A1, and various other explosives and subway friendly gear, Punisher was ready, "Micro, bring us to the entry and have the rockets on standby. This reeks of Sentinels." Punisher asked of Microchip as the Battle Van drove toward the disturbance.

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma's already found her seat, near the pilots seat but behind and she looks to Kitty with a lifted eyebrow, "You're still wearing that?" She says with a roll of her eyes afterwards. "Scott needs another talking to." Emma mumbles to herself as she double checks the harness holding her into her seat as the pulse of the engines pins her back to the padding.

    As they near the site, her hand lifts up and imperceptably, the minds of the x-men are linked as if they were using the comm systems, letting the electronics become a redundant backup, should anything happen to the telepath.

    Getting up and heading to the back of the jet to climb down the ramp, Emma bites at her bottom lip, looking at the rain and her incredibly white costume, "Any chance we can get an 'eye of the storm' Storm?"

Blinkdog has posed:
Bobby McFadden is just... well confused. It had to happen sooner or later, he just wasn't expecting the "sooner" part. He hadn't even been given one of those fancy uniforms yet. Though they did give him some 'work out' clothes for using during his danger room sessions. So when they told him to gear up, thats what he went for, that and a set of black combat boots. So its black&yellow workout clothes and combat boots, as he was still human-looking when he got to the Jet someone shoved a domino mask at him, and then night vision goggles, before he could even object before he was unceremoniously shoved into a seat and buckled in.

Bobby knows to keep his mouth shut, and just do what he is told. Its the best way to keep his... now... furcovered... skin in one piece. His transformation complete he tries his best to stay oriented and aware of where he is in "his world", the mental map of where everything he knows exists in relation to everything else. Blinkdog blinks as he feels the telepathic link connect and he hears Emma's voice in his head and the faint background murmur of the other's subconscious thoughts. "Whoah.. Don't think about girls... dont think abou... ack!" he quickly stops thinking 'aloud' in his head trying not to become a distraction as the plane whips itself about towards its destination point.

Rogue has posed:
The dark tunnels near to where the Blackbird lands are ominous in a way, though Storm's weather manipulation helps to bring the X-Men Jet some privacy as it makes it landing near to the entrance of the tunnels, it also leaves an eerie 'haunted industrial zone' feeling to the location. The lights around the area are bright, if isolated, the spinning yellow warning lights near to the tunnel entrances are casting glowing cones of illumination as they twirl inside their glass domes.

And the tunnels themselves loom darkly.

Inside the central of the three main tunnels something starts to be quite visible though. The blue / violet bursts of light that accompany the tell-tale sounds of bursting electrical explosions! Again and again, the bursts fill in the otherwise dark tunnel's interior with brief and sudden illumination, until they stop.

Seconds of blackness within the tunnel tick past before the sounds of screaming can be heard, growing ever louder, along with the presence of ever loudening metallic clicking noises!

Something is coming out of the tunnel, lots of somethings, and it sounds very much like a horror film. Those with the NVDs on would see it first, 10 Robotic Arachnids, six of them skittering across the ground, four of them skittering across the sides of the tunnel walls, and the ceiling. All 10 are carrying captured people underneath their metal bellies, many of whom are screaming in terror or pain!

Elixir has posed:
Josh eyes Emma curiously as they race toward the scene. He had heard rumours about the woman, everyone had, but this was the first time he worked with her. Then he pushes those thoughts aside.

<<Storm, want me to bring up the rear or go for the injured at the ambush?>>

As the jet lands Josh slips the nightvision goggles on. He mans the door and opens it the instant they touch down for the attack leaders to exit first. Then he comes out afterward.

<<Reavers?>> comes the involuntary thought.

Marvel Girl has posed:
It didn't take long for Rachel to get into what passes for a uniform. In truth, it's not much different from her everyday clothes, with a little more reinforcement. And it's on in a thought, finding her strapped into the Blackbird with the rest, a silent sentinel until they come to ground. She's unbuckling before they even land properly (she didn't even wait for the fasten seatbelt sign to go off!), though she holds back long enough to wait for orders.

It's not the sound of screaming that hits her so hard as much as the psychic static that comes with it. She winces, jaw setting as she takes in just what's attacking these people. For a moment, there's a globe of flame around her hand, though it winks out as soon as she realizes the people are currently in the grasp of the robots. Right. Collateral damage warning.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty unstraps from the seat, unable to hide a slight grin as Blinkdog tries to keep his thoughts off women. "Just be glad someone distracting like Betsy isn't with us," she tells him aloud as she heads for the ramp down to exit the plane.

<And if you thought that was a dig that Betsy is better looking, Emma? It SO was.>

Team psychic links are a bitch sometimes. The needling is left in the past though as Kitty pulls down her night vision goggles to see what is approaching. "Oh no, we need to rescue them," she says. She'll look to Storm for the lead, but whenever they get the go ahead Kitty will take off ahead, to close the distance towards the captured people. "I'd love to let one get away to follow it back, but can't risk a person like that," she fumes softly over the link.

Punisher has posed:
"Micro... do you have any idea what those are?" Punisher asks as they watch the incoming spiders through the night vision camera in the battle Van, "I've never seen those before. Certainly not from the Sentinels. I'll record the fight and we can bring back one to look inside when you're done." Microchip replies, before he keys a few buttons, and two M249 turrets go to standby, 'The autoturrets are on standby if you need support, Frank."

Without another word, the back of the Battle Van opens up as Microchip drives near the main tunnel and stops a few paces out... and out comes the Punisher; trenchcoat, skull vest and all.

It also doesn't take long for him to notice the X-men team coming out of the new jet, a little bit behind him. The Punisher is visibly a walking armory, with some sort of rocket launcher tube on his back, along with an assault carbine, and quite a few grenades of some sort on his gear web. "Fancy meetin' you lot here." He grates out in greeting as he watches the spiders with his own night vision goggles. "So, any of you have a clue what's goin' on with this?" His carbine is slowly being brought up, and the magazine exchanged for something else.

Storm has posed:
<< Behave, children,>> Ororo says. Projects. The tone is compassionate and stern all at once.

<< The tunnels are not safe. Shadowcat, you are on point. Rachel, you and Emma try to calm and direct the hostages. All others, hold back until my signal, and support Shadowcat as you are able. >> Ororo projects telepathically. << Be prepared for communications to malfunction. Emma, dear, we rely on you. >>

Crystals appear in the air with each breath from her lips. The wind whips and drives like lashes, flinging water ahead of the snapping breeze like coursing steeds. On the tip of her fingers sparks glimmering electricity like so many diamonds. Fingertips point almost daintily at the sewer tunnels. From her nails issues forth streamers of lightning, crawling snakes of electricity that behave in a wholly unnatural manner. They seek out those bustling nexus of microchips and steel, skating over the flesh of the victims. Ororo's sightless eyes percieve it as cavalcades of heat and light and cold, driving water vapor ever-deeper into mechanical bellies to attack vulnerable internal components.

The lightning flitters and dies and the night returns to darkness.

<< Now you may proceed. I will hold the rearguard,>> she declares.

Emma Frost has posed:
Stepping out under the rain wishing desperately she was a telekinetic, the white queen snarls at the downpour as she grabs hold of her corset and pulls it up and adjusts herself thanks to rain she complains inwardly. "You're going to get my dry cleaning bi-" Emma cuts herself off as she looks back to Ororo and spies the flairs of lightning around the African Queen.

    Frost turns her whole self and in that instant the teams mental connection gets severed and a diamond in the shape of a woman takes the full force of Storm's lightning, and gives it the fastest way down to the earth. Much faster than a gaggle of spider-bots with people held hostage. Seems she might have been reading minds and understanding her teammates movements and plans, because that was almost too fast for Emma as she looks to Ororo and shakes her head. "Lets not electrocute any hostages, do your professor that much at least."

Blinkdog has posed:
Blinkdog 's eyes go wide as he hurredly straps on the night vision goggles... to his forehead. He doesn't know how to even turn them on, let alone how to set them so they dont blind him with the lightshow that is going on. Besides things strapped to the face dont fit quite right when you have a muzzle.

He dashes out from inside the jet with the others and tries to keep up but once he is outside and sees the oncoming arachnobots he freezes in his tracks unsure what to do.

"Uh... uh.. rescue... right. Gotcha." he says staring into the confusing melee. He waits for a moment while the ranged types. "Or me... I gotta get in close if I want to rescue anyone..." and then he is gone. Appearing under one of the ones on the lead he clings to the victims and begins disolving their restraints as soon as they are loose he is going to take them elsewhere... but where. "New Hope okay? Hope so!"

Rogue has posed:
The spiders near to the exit of the subway tunnel where the yellow spinning lights continue to provide an extra amount of visible illumination, if in a bit of a ominous sort've way.

But its not until the mutants make their presences known beyond the tunnel that the spiders themselves start to react, and since Blinkdog is the first to engage them, he's the first to find the reactions.

The Spiders themselves are stunning. And not in the Looks Department.

The electrical bursting explosions from down inside the tunnel earlier? It happens again, but this time it happens all around Blinkdog. The mutant in captivity screams at him. "Don't touch!" But its too late, as soon as BD starts to try to disable the mechanical monster its stunning power goes off again, a flash of purple/blue energy will detonate against Blinkdog should he still be touching the Metal Construct!

The other's start to detach themselves from the walls and ceiling, landing back on the ground to start to run out onto the Subway train tracks while Emma deflect's Storm's blasts. Some of them stumble though, the ones most effected by the weather conditions that Storm did summon, they don't stop entirely, but they do trip up and start to move with less efficiency!

Elixir has posed:
"Bobby..." Josh starts out loud and switches to the comms. "Bobby order was hold! Get back!"

Josh stays at the door of the jet watching the scene unfold. He winces when he sees Storm's lightning re-directed into Emma.

"Oh shit, this is bad," he says off-comms.

"Kitty, guy on your right!" he warns Kitty on comms. Unnecessarily, he knows, but Danger Room training never favoured making assumptions.

But he stays put and waits for orders. The Danger Room never favoured disobeying orders either.

Marvel Girl has posed:
The moment Emma drops the psychic link, Rachel picks it up, looping in not just the mutants in the group, but Frank and the hostages as well. << First of all, everybody FOCUS. >> That part is directly largely at the hostages, and is sort of...Well. Rachel's not the must subtle creature. It's a like a sledgehammer hitting the off switch on the panic part of the brain. Whether that leads to calm or stupefaction...Well, some people have stronger psyches than others.

<< Gun guy. Spiders bad. Mutants good. Collateral damage bad. >> That one is directed at the Punisher. Brief, and to the point.

As the spiders start to spark and rush, she steps clear enough of the others to keep a clean line of vision, eyes narrowing as she tries to focus her mind without losing the mental link or getting into that 'bad' collateral damage. The best she can do at the moment is try to bat any that look like they might escape back into the grasp of her teammates.

Punisher has posed:
"Goddamned rain." Punisher grates out, mostly to himself and Microchip, before he turns, aims into the tunnel, and triggers the M203 launcher. A custom designed EMP grenade is launched into the tunnel, reloaded from the grenade sling on his gear web, and another is launched, further in, trying to fill the entire tunnel with them like a well-oiled machine. Another.

Within about ten seconds, there are three EMP 40mm grenades in the tunnel from the sling, and all three go off at the same time, timed by the onboard computer in the rifle.

With the area saturated with what he /hopes/ are disabling electrical fields, Punisher starts to single fire into the mess, taking on the spider-drones nearest to his position with anti-armor rounds, designed to penetrate light armor as he moves this way and that for better angles to keep friendly fire to a minimum.

He's a /very/ good shot, so he makes sure he doesn't hit the hostages, nor the X-men as they do their work.

He was expecting telepathy for this one, so Rachel does not get pushback on the mental link, <<I've been moniterin' this. I know the score>>. He even sounds grating over the mental link.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty sees Blinkdog surrounded by that flash. <Frank, think you can keep them pinned in while we free-> The trio of explosions from Punisher's grenades as he sets to doing just that belays the need to finish the thought. <Well alllright> Kitty thinks approvingly.

She runs forward, sending her thoughts back to the group, <Marvel Girl, perimeter on the other side, don't let them get away. Storm, water and ice? I'm going for Blinkdog.>

And true to her word, Kitty sprints forward towards the teammate who is getting electrocuted. She runs straight through the robot, grabbing the victim and phasing them free even as her body passes through the robot's electronics. Her phased molecules wreak havoc on electrical systems, Kitty hoping she takes it out completely, or if not, at least to get Blinkdog clear.

Kitty carries the mutant captive to him. "Get her out of here," she says to him, unphasing the woman only if Blinkdog seems coherent enough to seem like he can get her out. "Then meet me at the next spider," she'll say, turning to go towards the next closest if all of that goes as hoped.

Storm has posed:
Ororo's sightless eyes stare at Emma. Through Emma. Through the world. She sees all. << Emma, assist Shadowcat, >> Ororo projects, finally. No sense holding up the mission. << Remember we have a guest on the party line. >> Frank, of course, and Ororo flickers her awareness at Rachel. Time to tighten up the mental net, to keep errant identities from flittering out. She hovers closer to the door and twists her wrists overhead to gather wind and sleet and rain, and pours them all down the sewers in a surging blast of howling, near-arctic intensity. Unpleasantly chill for the hostages, certainly, but the rapid surge of heat and water creates condensation and flashing, brittle ice accumulation on robotic appendages and inside delicate microcircuits. Certainly, no driving wind ever pursued crevices and gaps in armor plating as relentlessly as that driven by Storm's iron willpower.

But she goes no closer to the sewer entrances.

Emma Frost has posed:
    .... <Dial Tone> Emma is not here right now. Or she can't hear any of her team or the hostages inside her head. The diamond woman gives Ororo a stern look once more before she turns back to the spiders and there's a whole party happening and the white queen is on the guest list.

    Emma steps forwards, her enhanced body marching across the gravel, crunching beneath her heels. Frost steps up beside Kitty and BD and lifts her hand up to grab at the robot and rip one of the legs assunder if she gets a decent enough grip.

Blinkdog has posed:
Blinkdog nearly pulls the arm out of the socket of the one yelling at him not to touch the spider. He had let go of the cable holding him but get just enough of a jolt from it before he let go to feel his entire arm go numb. He grits his teeth and growls, "Sorry..." and then he lets go dropping a short distance before vanishing and reapearing on his feet a short distance away. Just then Kitty does her hat trick and grabs the victim, getting her free. His right arm dangling almost bonelessly from his shoulder. He drops to one knee from the jangling nerves in his body barely managing to have pulled that off.

"Hey careful everyone, those things are like built in tasers all over!" he yells into the link. "Owie Christ on a cracker that hurt!" He then stands back up nodding to Kitty and taking the girl in his good arm and says vocally and locally to Kitty, "Yeah I've got her." Then he vanishes once more with the first victim.

Rogue has posed:
Kitty arrives to the rescue first, she sweeps through the spider-bot and snatches the young woman it was holding in its metal arms while the robot just continues to send out stunning power in all directions! The other 9 are on the ground and rushing away from the subway tunnel as Emma arrives and rips apart one of their legs, causing it to swirl and then spin around to try to lunge at her with shocking / stunning power, diamond form or not!

But its then that the Punisher's EMP grenades all go off like a synchronized fireworks display, except way more high tech than that! The pulse from the weapons blossoms out of the subway tunnel and passes over everyone and everything! The X-Jet even flickers its running lights as its protective defenses has to momentarily reboot its internal systems from that sudden EMP blast so close to where it had been parked...

And the 10 spider-bots? They all fall down. 8 of them slide across the gravel and concrete floor, their captured mutants are all squirming and crying out to one another or to those around them trying to save them (though a few of them are uuconcious).

It would appear that the X-Men (And Frank) have stopped this attack...

Several moments will go by here, enough time for the X-Men (And Frank) to share a few words with one another and inspect the spiders/free the captives.

But then something else will occur next, a voice inside the tunnel, female, young, screaming for help. She sounds at least 50 yards away inside the tunnel, deep into the darkness within it. Perhaps Storm's chilling weather effects into the sewers has harmed more mutants hiding inside!

Elixir has posed:
Josh's right heel bounces up and down as he watches the action and interaction in front of the subway tunnel. The football player inside him feels a deep pain. He sees the hostages in the grip of the spiders fall to the ground and grips the edge of the doorway tighter, fighting the urge to take off to them. He hears the X-jet systems flicker and something twinges in the back of his mind. He looks at the markings on the mouth of the tunnel and then runs to the co-pilot seat of the jet and starts checking systems maps quickly for any signs of subway trains inbound from either side. Regardless of whether there are, he queries the computer then he quickly dials through the radio frequencies until he gets the New York subway.

"All stations, obstruction at tunnel Alpha 1-8 Bravo in all directions. Obstruction at tunnel Alpha 1-8 Bravo in all directions. People and equipment on the tracks. Acknowledge."

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rachel keeps an iron grip on the mental link between the X-Men and the others, filtering information through to make sure that nothing goes through that shouldn't. She's ready to push the spiders back, but Frank's EMP makes sure she doesn't need to. She's almost ready to start crushing some downed spiders...until that voice comes from the sewer.

Looking to Emma, she quirks a brow. "You want to check that one for...not being a terrible trap?" she asks. "Or you want me to?"

Punisher has posed:
"Good to know they work." Punisher muses. With the transceiver on his ear dead, he takes a moment to replace it with the spare from the gear web, turns it on, and idles his rifle against his chest. "Looks like they work here, Micro. We'll have to test them against the Sentinels next, but this is promising. The new design has great range." Punisher offers in praise to his partner, before he starts to steps into the tunnel himself. The wind whipping his trenchcoat and hair about. "I think it's safe to come get one. I hear a potential trap down the way, and I'm the best chance to be ignored."

The carbine is readied once more as Punisher starts to jog inside, his rifle at the ready as he goes. "Goin' in. Keep the lights on for me."

As Punisher starts to head inside, The Battle Van accelerates slowly to the entry, and turns around so the back is to the tunnel. Then, the sounds of a winch unraveling can be heard as Microchip gets it ready to retrieve one of the robots.

<<I'll take point, for anyone interested in me bein' bait>> Comes the grating voice of Frank Castle.

Shadowcat has posed:
As the robots shut down, Kitty moves to help get the captives out, phasing each out through the metal bodies to safety. <Elixir, we have people in need of healing,> she'll send over to him through the link. She turns to check on Blinkdog when he returns, making sure he's no worse for wear after the shock he took.

Shadowcat looks about as she hears the sound of the voice crying out for help. She looks to Storm for confirmation of what she expects, that the woman may not find the narrow confines appealing. If she gets it she says, "Marvel Girl, you and I together with Frank. Try to both stay within arm's reach of me, but you two are the offense, I'm your defense," she tells them.

She looks back towards the Blackbird. "Need flares!" she calls out, heading back to grab some of the emergency equipment. She returns, distributing them and lighting one up. She keeps a hand on Marvel Girl, but gives Frank a little more space. Still prepared to phase them both, though.

Storm has posed:
Storm lands on the ground and examines the situation, trying to force dispassion onto her regal features. In truth, it's a struggle to contain rising terror at the sight of the gaping sewer maw looking up at her. For some reason she can't seem to move her feet an inch closer to it.

<< You're on point, Cat, >> Ororo agrees. She looks to Emma. "Emma, please go with Cat and the others," she tells the White Queen. "Be prepared for anything." The weather overhead starts to clear rather rapidly, though the clouds lurk with ponderous weight a few thousand yards off.

<< Elixir, assist me with triage, >> Ororo instructs the younger mutant, and moves to start doing just that. << Bring the emergency blankets from the plane and the portable radio relay. Make sure they know not to send any trains down these tracks, and listen for any emergency alerts from any other conductors. >>

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma's stoic face turns to Rachel as she drops the metalic spider limb onto the ground and helps the hostage out with no words to those she's helped. The diamond woman nods once to Rachel and then gives Kitty a stare down as well before she starts to march into the hole, no words, no complaints, Emma's scowl is fierce and aimed into the tunnel. The White Queen is beyond pissed at the moment. Not even waiting for Frank or Shadowcat to get back with supplies, and even going so far as to ignore Ororo, Emma is in a mood to end all moods.

Blinkdog has posed:
Blinkdog appears at the New Hope Shelter right in the middle of the area where they have set up hospital cots for those in need. There's been more than usual lately with everything going on and its crowded with extra cots and beds. A woman in front of him lets out a yelp "Madre dios!" she exclaims and starts crossing herself, "Diablo! Diablo!" Blinkdog rolls his eyes setting the woman he was carrying down on her feet. "Lady, I'm a mutant, so is she. We're not the friggin devil. Where's Sister Gladstone? I've got more coming. They're going to be very scared and some might be hurt." his words come across the link unintentionally not realizing it is still there. The woman lets out another "No me mates! Ella es roja! Diablo!" Her words dont come across the link but it is easy to guess at the context. Again Blinkdog rolls his eyes, "I don't care if she's got red skin! Help her for pete's sake! Oh thank god, Sister! Over here! We need your help! Educate this mundane I have to go! I'll be bringing more soon!"

"Oh crapola..." he growls aloud. "I didn't get a good look around. Where were we?" He vanishes and starts making his way 'South' trying to guess at where it was exactly. Then he hears Kitty over the link realizing its still connecting him. "On my way back, might take a minute." he says.

Marvel Girl has posed:
"I got it," Rachel says at the mention of flares, raising a hand as fire blossoms around it. As long as she stays conscious, that should stay lit, at least. With Blinkdog's confusion in the background, she takes a moment to share a clear image of the area before she's turning her attention back to the tunnel.

"Shadowcat, can you- Do we have regular comms gun guy can link in on? I'm going to keep feelers out for who's down there - just picking up hiding victims right now - but if we get jumped and I have to switch to TK, there's a solid chance we lose fire or the link. I've got all the balls in the air I can juggle right now." Especially since she really, //really// wants to crush some Sentinel things.

Rogue has posed:
What Josh will find inside of the X-Jet is that this particular Subway station has already sent its trains out for the night and they're not scheduled to return until morning. But all the same, the emergency message is received by the New York Transit Department's dispatcher who replies over the comms back.

"Who is this? Whats your operating number?" They sound almost angry, having some random strange voice take over their comm line, that would likely make sense!

--

Back outside, the telepaths would quickly realize that there is indeed people 'signatures' down inside of the tunnel. The mental blips that make up the presences of other people's functioning minds are firing down there in the black... the voice is still calling out for help! "Please! Please, god, someone! They took my brothers!" She shouts for the help of those seemingly on their way.

The shouts are coming not from the dead center of the tracks either, once the brave adventurers delve deep enough into the heart of the dark tunnel, they'll find that the shouts are coming from an off-shooting corridor, a cement tunnel that leads off of the train tracks and into a room that has emergency lighting on, bathing its cement walls in a blood red light from a red lamp in the uppermost corner...

Emma Frost has posed:
    Emma steps into the room where the loudest screams are happening from, mumbling about how ill prepared this team is, how they don't work as cohesively as they could and yet, here she is, fumming with rage that she went full John Wick and entered an unknown place without her team. The while queen lowers her head to meet the side of her hand and rub at her rocky eyebrows. "You have to keep your cool Emm." She tells herself before

    --SLAM!--

    The doors have shut and Emma is trapped inside a room created by the closing off of the tunnel.

    Emma's great strength and near impervious body could almost be on par with Rogue's but she's still light. A metalic spider catches Emma taking her off the ground and though it can't pin the telepath, it can hold her in the air, effectively incapacitating Emma for a moment.

Rogue has posed:
As Emma is ensnared by the spider-bot, it crawls its way down her and stares right at her face, still playing the sound of the girl shouting for help! Its still shouting loudly right into Emma's face. "Help! They're gonna come back! I'm in here!"

It would seem to be trying to lure in the rest of Emma's party on this adventure, but these adventurers are wise, well equipped now with the flares no-less, and (presumaably) the Battle Van's lights shining down into the tunnel.

Moments after the door slams to the room that Emma went into, there comes the next reaction, a series of bright blue bubbles flashing into existence on the ceiling of the subway tunnel. One after another, at least a hundred of them, and these brightly glowing bubbles are all racing across the ceiling toward the others who'd come down the tunnel behind Emma!

More of the metallic arachnids, lining the ceiling and starting to pour down the walls toward the floors, their skittering legs not trying to hide their location any longer, the clattering sounds echoing off of all the surfaces here-in!

Elixir has posed:
Josh holds his position until he gets orders from Storm.

<<Copy!>> he sends back, chuckling to himself about the subway telecoms answer. He cracks open the tactical store, tosses his goggles to the floor and drops on a fresh pair. Then he grabs the paramedic size med kit, a radio relay and some eblankets in plastic wrap. Josh runs down the ramp, drops everything but the paramedic kit and then starts triage. Critical bleeding, lack of pulse or respiration, major brain injury. Any of those will get a touch, a golden glow, warmth and healing. Others are provided with bandages for minor bleeds and told to compress. He marks the backs of people's hands with a grease pencil, H for ones he wants out first, L for those who can wait.

Punisher has posed:
The winch on the Battle Van is grabbed by some guy in plainclothes and wearing a mask coming out of the back of it, and he's back inside within moments. The winch starts to reel in the 'catch' as Microchip turns the Battle Van back around and the hi-beams turn on, turning the entire tunnel into daytime... just in time to see the incoming.

"Frank..." a scrambled voice can be heard over the X-mens comm network as they link into Microchip and Punishers transceivers, "Sentry Mode?" Microchip continues.

"Do it." Punisher grates out as he switches out his M4A1... and retrieves the M4 Carl Gustav from his back.

Meanwhile, two fairly large turrets pop out of the sides of the Battle Van, twist... and a steady rain of heavy caliber 5.56 begins to fire into the tunnel at the spiders, the onboard computer AI automatically targetting the spiders as they come with assistance from Microchip.

The sound is very easily heard for blocks... with the rain of brass casings as the ammo bins are run through pooling around the sides of the turrets easily seen.

Meanwhile, inside the tunnel, the M4 Carl Gustav has been loaded.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" One second... two seconds... the rangefinder finds the timing, and the payload fires into the door down the way as the Punisher aims it just so... exploding just near it as a massive sheet of thermite spreads all over it, and the hinges.

It'll be a few moments... but that door will be slag soon. "Give it a moment, and we're through." Punisher informs the team.

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rachel surrounds herself and Kitty in a telekinetic shield by sheer instinct when the guns start to go off, adding a handy thickening of the air as sort of earplugs to keep them all from going deaf. But she watches. Appreciatively.

"I //like// you, gun guy," she says once the racket has died down, letting the fire around her hand fade out now that the van is keeping the light going.

And now that the oncoming spiders don't have hostages, she doesn't have to hold back on the telekinesis. Raw force smashes into any of the spiders that are pushing past the gunfire.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty ducks at first, phasing as she hears the gunfire. But within seconds it is clear where it is coming from. Kitty shouts, "Going to get Queen!" to be heard over the gunfire. "Watch yourselves!" she adds, touching both Punisher and Rachel to make sure they know their phase-out-of-danger free card is moving further in.

Not waiting for the melting door, she phases and passes through, emerging from the smoke and fire on the other side suddenly to the robot inside. "I think you've made a terrible mistake," she says as she sees Emma's diamond body hanging there. "Crystal chandeliers should be hung much higher so no one bumps them," she says. She lunges forward, reaching for Emma to grab her and take her intangible to get her free.

Blinkdog has posed:
Blinkdog finds the Blackbird easily enough after a number of hops. The EMP pulse they sent out as it landed made it a lot easier to narrow down what part of the city its in. He arrives just in time to see... noone but Josh. Then there is all the stuff coming off the van, lights, explosions, and a one vehicle war front pouring its resources into the caverns. "Jeeze..." Bobby exclaims seeing that. Then he turns and looks at the people. He nods at Josh who shouts at him over the noise and then he repeats pretty much the same thing, "Critical first, I can get them to an ER with a trauma unit. Then the wounded for a regular ER, then the last to the shelter." he says bringing up four locations in his head including this one.... which will now be hard to forget.

He begins to take the critical ones first, one at a time, then the others two or three at a time depending on if they are walking or not. For him they are all light as a pillow, except for the one guy who seems to be made half out of globs of black iron and weighs half a ton, but he still manages.

Storm has posed:
Storm helps direct Blinkdog to the trauma cases. Josh is working swiftly and diligently, and between the two of them the worst of the injured are labelled and directed to Blinkdog: urgent medical care needed! She helps settle the rest under blankets and gets them calmed down, largely thanks to Rachel's telepathic assistance.

<< Cat, what is the situation?>> she asks with an alarmed 'tone', after the explosive blast from below. << Was that... explosives?! Is anyone injured?' >>

Rogue has posed:
When the sheer firepower unleashed by the Punisher and his Battle Van (thats a really great name by the way) starts to unload on the Robotic Spider Horde it becomes clear what those translucent blue energy fields surrounding them are. Shields. Honest to goodness, force, fields.

Sadly though, for the robots, they can only handle so much firepower before they short out. So every fourth or fifth round that splashes against the shining blue energy fields will cause the spider's battery powering said feature to short out, and then the metallic A.I. powered creature is devestated by the weaponry being unleashed upon it!

The other effect that Frank's Battle Van has... is it tells the NYPD exactly where this fight is going on. The Metro Unit on the radio had alerted them and told them the general idea where he thought the transmission was coming from based on what Josh had told them, but now the gunfire was leading them right there, and back outside? There's the blue and reds of police vehicles coming onto the industrial park that leads out to the train tunnels. The Cops are coming.

A cascading effect now, as the police--and Frank's firepower--along with the efforts of the X-Men who're attempting to push back to give the door-melting time. the Spiders? They're turning tail and starting to head deeper into the tunnels, to flee, while they get mowed down from behind, as some of their numbers are cut down by the gunfire...

Inside the room where Emma was locked, Kitty finds her being literally wrapped up inside of a spider-web cacoon. These robotic arachnids are very detailed in design, it would seem! When Kitty lunges for Emma, she manages to get the woman intangible and phase her out of the cacnoon, but this causes the Spider trying to web-up-the-white-queen, to cease its webbing and instead try to LUNGE at KITTY to shock HER! ZAP!

All in all, the spiders are trying to flee into the dark, the cops are going to be here in a matter of moments, and there's no sign of any more mutant survivors, but the ground is increasingly littered with wrecked spider bots.

Elixir has posed:
Josh zips up the paramedic bag as he wipes blood off his hands with sani-wipes. He looks up to Storm from where he's crouching.

"Doesn't look good. And still don't know if there's anyone down there, where those things came from or if there's survivors at the ambush. What's our move?" he asks Storm getting to his feet.

Blinkdog has posed:
Blinkdog appears and disappears, again and again, carrying the critcally wounded and then the wounded away. He adjusts as a few more arrive from hiding and are labeled and ready to be taken. Ocassionally he returns with some more blankets to hand out. When one of the victims tells him of another still trapped in a nearby vehicle he pops away to find and rescue them as well using his enhanced strength to unbend crushed metal where it is thin enough to free them.

As more booming sounds come from within the tunnels he finds himself thinking .oO(Hope I dont have to go in there without a guide.... uh oh.) "Hey we've got 911 and 5-0 coming on like a tidal wave..." he thinks and says loudly as he returns from dropping off a final few victims that had 'H's' on their hands/tenticle/whatever.

Storm has posed:
Storm's head whips around. She can hear the sirens. She can /feel/ the sirens, the pressure waves moving the air itself. << I will ensure the constabulary does not bother us, >> she promises the others, and flies into the air once more. Stormclouds billow and rumble overhead, but she does not call for rain. Instead, a fog-- thick as pea soup, utterly black, rolls as fast as an ash cloud. The roads, the serviceways, the highways-- everyone within a thousand meteres of their position would see nothing but the terrifying inky black of a foggy night, or blinding white from the fool who turns their flashlights on.

It'll buy them time, at least.

Punisher has posed:
"Micro, start moving forward. I think the weather queen out there has the cops busy well enough." Punisher barks as he starts heading backwards... and goes into the back of the Battle Van proper.

Six seconds later, and the Punisher is popping the rooftop hatch of the Battle Van... and out comes the M60 he was holding in reserve inside.

The belt from the ammo bin on the bracket is pulled out, loaded, and a 7.62 machine gun aimed by the Punisher himself begins to fire as they go. Looks like Punisher is going to keep going until the spiders are completely out of sight... or it's a bad idea to keep going.

"Do what you gotta do. We'll keep pushing them." Punisher shouts as he continues to fire. He really /will/ need to 'acquire' more ammo after this mission.

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rachel is just vindictive enough to reach her mind past the shields around the spiders and crush a few of them from the inside as they run. Because they deserve that. Besides, Punisher keeps to get destroying. She should too!

She keeps an eye out for Kitty and Emma though, standing guard over the doorway to make sure they have a clean escape route.

Shadowcat has posed:
After getting Emma out of the cocoon, Kitty backs up with her, bringing them both tangible for a moment as she tries to take a moment to recover before the long phase that it will take to get her and Emma back out through the fiery slag where the door used to be.

The giant spider lunges at her and Kitty dives, but part of the zap catches her, leaving her writhing before she manages finally to phase herself. Scorch marks are on her X-man uniform as she grabs Emma, the two of them walking each supporting the other as the spider lunges at them time and again.

Kitty stops and motions towards it to Emma, and both women reach out, stretching their hands deep into the spider robot's body, waving them around to disrupt it.

They can't stay long though, turning and both staggering back out the door into the tunnel. Once clear of the fiery mess, the two women collapse to their knees. Kitty falls forward onto her hands as well, groaning in pain.

Rogue has posed:
The mutants that Josh and Bobby are helping, the ones that are awake at least, are giving their thanks. They're tired, bruised, some of them even bloodied and battered but they're still thanking those who've rushed to help them escape these metal monsters of mystery.

A curious thing starts to happen then, as the remaining spiders start to disappear into the tunnel, fleeing from the fierce barrage from the Punisher's fury... the robotic carcasses on the ground start to spark, spark, sparksparkspark and then catch fire with white flames. The bodies of the individual spiders all start to flame up and flame hot, sending flashes of pure white light down into the tunnel where every metal body that Frank had shot down is like a guiding light into the dark where the Battle Van's headlamps can't reach...

They're burning themselves down to just their metal limbs and exterior metal shells...

And as the last glowing shielded bubble vanishes around a bend in the distant tunnel's path, those within the subway's bowels are left alone. In the distance outside, the fog still shows the blue and red flashing clouds where the police have stopped, unwilling to drive further for fear of smashing into all manner of random objects in the rail yard.

Behind Kitty and Emma, the red-lit room suddenly flashes white as the spider that they had disabled now catches fire just as all the others had, even going so far as to have the girl's voice on its external audio system scream until the audio speakers are melted away in a disturbing dying vocalization.

Elixir has posed:
Josh gives Bobby a thumbs up. "No problem, everyone move back and wait for the cops," he shouts to the remaining lightly injured. He runs back to the jet and up the ramp. He drops the paramedic bag, sits in the co-pilot seat and follows the checklist for emergency return in the autopilot. He leaves it a step short of execute and runs back to the door.

"Autopilot's prepped for emerg recall. Orders, Storm?"

Punisher has posed:
"Frank, EM sensors show they're completely out of range now." Microchips scrambled voice finally states over the comms, "I'm pulling us back to the entry." Punisher doesn't say another word... even as the spiders start to destroy themselves. The gunfire has died down, at least, but the hi-beams keep on the tunnel to allow the others to leave.

"Well, that was a hell of a thing." Punisher grates out, almost tiredly, as the Battle Van stops just outside the tunnel. "So can anyone tell me what the fuck I just saw?"

Punisher comes out of the hatch, closes it, and steps back out of the doors in the back of the van wielding his M4A1 again, "because those sure as fuck didn't look like Sentinels to me, and I've seen some /really/ weird fucking shit in my time, even for this shithole of a city."

Marvel Girl has posed:
When Kitty and Emma emerge from the room, Rachel turns to help them both, offering some telekinetic support along with a hand down to each woman. "Sounds like it's time for us to get moving," she says, glancing back toward the Punisher as well.

"Could be scouts," she suggests as they start to retreat. "Recon. The big guys are for making a point, but sometimes you don't want to make a point so much as get something done. They're definitely a level more sophisticated than what we've seen so far though," she grimaces. "Which doesn't bode well."

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty and Emma accept the help from Rachel with obvious gratitude. Well, from Kitty at least. Emma might have bruised pride and... other, more exposed parts. <It was a trap,> she sends to everyone. <If it was just about grabbing people from the convoy... they wouldn't have had all those extra ones hanging around waiting to ambush us. The ones we saved were bait, I think.>

They emerge from the tunnel with Rachel's help, moving into the dark, dank fog. <Think it's best to get out of here, shall we?> she asks. She'll be moving to the plane, ready to leave as soon as the others are.

Elixir has posed:
Josh is at the door when Kitty and Emma are brought in. "Jet's ready," he tells Kitty. Once the two women are seated, unless they object, he puts a hand on their arms. A golden glow spreads from him to either who accepts it, followed by a liquid warmth that melts away any pain. Skin knits back together, smooths, blemishes disappear.

Blinkdog has posed:
Blinkdog looks at Kitty and Emma, "I can get them to the Mansion faster, whoever wants it. Just step on my foot... lightly, and wrap your arm around... and we'll be there in two hops." he offers.

Punisher has posed:
"Gonna have to keep an eye on this." Punisher muses... before he gets back into the van. "Micro, time to haul ass. Weather queen girl, thanks for the assist." Punisher cuts off the comm network from the X-men, switching to their private frequency, "get to the warehouse while we can. We'll come back for this later. We ran through too much ammo to keep goin'." Punisher moves into the front seats as Microchip starts to drive using the thermographic and EM sensors to keep from hitting anything.