Below

by **Stitch** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:38 am

"Run!" Stitch shouts suddenly, "You have to get out of here befor—"

She was interrupted by a garrote of shadows whipping around her neck, choking her.

by **Nocturne** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:40 am

Nocturne smirks, "I've had enough of this sniveling little coward, Apophis. I'll pay you back with one of my girls. Someone with a little more fire, I think."

The shadow begins digging deeply into Stitch's skin, cutting into her.

by **Melody Martens** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:49 am

"Bitch," Melody growled, bombs flaring to brilliant brightness, "let her go. Now."

by **Nocturne** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:55 am

"Do not make an enemy of me," Nocturne says, "Get in my way and I'll have you in chains and sold to some of my more....special clients."

by **Melody Martens** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:14 am

"I'll get in your way if I damn well please," she said, taking a step forward, her eyes glowing brightly, matching the bombs held in either hand.

by **Stitch** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:25 am

Stitch tried to say something, but without air it was difficult. The shadows were becoming sharper and blood started running down her neck.

by **Nocturne** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:29 am

"What curious folks you are," Nocturne says with a smile, "You don't trust us. Don't wish to make peace with us. But then you fall over yourself to save one of our own."

"Pathetic and weak," Nocturne says, "A few months in the slave pits would do you all a lot of good."

by **Melody Martens** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:41 am

Melody snapped, and flung a bomb directly at Nocturne with a roar, "Shut. Up!"

The blast was blindingly bright, painfully loud, but didn't have too much force behind it--they were underground after all.

by **Nocturne** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:49 am

Unfortunately, Nocturne's strength wasn't focused on protecting the body at the moment. The blast dissipated the shadow and the redhead was burning.

"Connection...lost," the redhead said, falling to her knees and clutching her face, "Re-establ...re-es..."

She choked on the words, trying to keep from screaming out in pain.

by **Stitch** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:51 am

Stitch falls, freed by the disappearance of Nocturne. Probes rush to the wound on her neck, fixing it as Stitch rushes to the redhead's side.

"Oh god," Stitch says, "No...just hold still. I can fix this."

She starts to work on healing the girl.

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 1:25 pm

"Well... it seems you've forced my hand," Apophis sighed.

"Take them! And do try to leave some alive."

The Sun Eaters eagerly rushed the X-Men. Seven's blades launched at Renko. Passage opened fire on the group. Another sent bolts of lightning arcing from his hands towards Will & Sara. A large man charged the captain, deep red energy enveloping him that became brighter as he accelerated. Apophis himself stepped towards John.

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 1:54 pm

The boy made of clay and the girl made of rock glanced at each other from the lightning strike.

"Really?"

And then....the electricity arced around him, and he screamed, as he began to melt down, and bulge out...

by **Sara Stanton** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:25 pm

"Will!" she screams for the second time today. Though this time she has someone to direct her outburst at and part of the tunnel collapses above Lightning-Guy.

by **Melody Martens** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:55 pm

"Your shadow bitch forced *our* hand, dbag. Get the fuck away from us!" Melody sent more dazzling blasts down the hallway towards Apophis and the crony shooting at the group.

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:04 pm

Lightning-Guy failed to dive for safety in time and was buried, but obviously not crushed to death as the pile began to stir. A giant blue eagle burst forth with a shriek, lightning licking the tunnel as it returned to... a rather attractive human form no longer hidden by battle armor.

"Few see my true form and live," he sneered, zapping Will again.

Apophis rushed at John right through the blasts. After a flurry of blows, John was sent flying hard into a wall. "Pathetic," Apo scoffed as he went up to John and grabbed him by the throat. "I expected more from you," he said before throwing John... at Melody.

by **Sara Stanton** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 3:08 pm

And Sara tried to throw herself between Lightning-Guy and the puddle of Will to take the hit instead.

by **Janice Gilbertson** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:05 pm

"Nobody sees your true form, eh?" The captain said as she actually caught the Sun-Eater who was rushing her.

"Then let's cover you up..." She wrapped her force field around the assailant to bottle him up for a moment, then flung him at terrific speed towards the thunderbird...

by **Melody Martens** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:12 pm

John bowled into Melody before she could even react, and she felt a crack from her ribs as she landed hard on the floor with John on top of her.

by **David Renko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:13 pm

Renko's gauntlets glowed and time slowed as he dodged the swords. He didn't actually want to hurt anybody, so he was spending his time simply dodging trying to figure out how he was going to defeat fully trained mercenaries.

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 4:17 pm

"Fu..." is all Lightning-Guy got out before being knocked aside, the two hitting the ground hard. LG went limp, but the other stood up.

"You're going to pay for that luv," the now brightly shining Sun-Eater sneered, rushing again. This time he would prove many times stronger.

Seven came in on Renko swinging with high speed and frequency.

by **John Hino** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 5:55 pm

How is he so much stronger...

John shook it off and scrambled off of Melody.

"Oh God... please be okay!"

by **David Renko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:03 pm

Renko kept moving his form a blur. Still though one of Seven's swords caught the outside of his uniform leaving a small tear, a second caught the edge of his leg.

"I don't want to hurt you," Renko said desperately redirecting some of his focus to weaken the ground beneath Seven.

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:14 pm

"But I want to hurt you!" Seven giggled, strafing and slashing.

by **David Renko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:21 pm

The sword drew a deep red line across Renko's face. Renko moved back quickly dragging a gauntlet through the wall, and threw concrete chunks mixed with dust at Seven's face.

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:29 pm

"Gah! Not again!" Seven hissed, rubbing his eyes as he backed away. His mobile blades slashed blindy at Renko to keep him back.

by **David Renko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:32 pm

The cut on Renko's face began to close rapidly as he backed away. Figuring now was as good a time as ever he weakened the ceiling above Seven intent on bringing part of the roof down on Seven's head.

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:42 pm

Seven's vision cleared just in time for him to do his best Wicked Witch of the East impression.

Apophis pulled Stitch off of Nocturne's proxy. "Keep my men alive or I finish what she started."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:47 pm

Will crawled, dragging his body over to one side, taking deep breaths, and slowly reforming...

by **David Renko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:55 pm

Renko focused on the one's wielding guns seeing that Seven was out of commission for the moment at least. Guns would fall apart, shells would explode as they became unstable. Renko was hoping to disarm them quickly.

by **Stitch** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 7:53 pm

"And let you kill these people?" Stitch snaps at Apophis, "I'd rather die."

by **Janice Gilbertson** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 7:58 pm

"Built up a head of steam, have you? Must be hard to stop..."

She hovered in place, waiting for the last second to try to dodge while her opponent was 'unstoppable.'

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:12 pm

"You picked the wrong time to grow a spine," Apophis said as he grabbed Stitch by the throat and raised her up, his icy breath in her face. He was fully intent on crushing her.

Momentum, for lack of a name, rather predictably fell right for Janice's trick and went stumbling past.

The disarmed goons resorted to hand-to-hand.

by **Melody Martens** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:15 pm

Melody had tears in her eyes, but grit her teeth and sat up. Or tried to at least. "Fuck fuck fuck. I think there's at least one rib broken." she said in short gasping breaths on the floor.

"Get me up. I'll blow the hell out of these assholes."

by **John Hino** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:18 pm

John helped Melody up. "Go for it."

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:21 pm

Will, seeing the girl help up by the dragon----lunged forward, shouting, trying to save her, and slam his reforming body into Apophis.

by **David Renko** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:23 pm

Renko wasn't sure what to do since causing the whole roof to cave in might be bad for everybody's health. So instead he tried to trap a couple of them by dissolving the ground beneath their feet.

by **Sara Stanton** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:25 pm

Sara meanwhile melts into the ground entirely.

by **Melody Martens** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:26 pm

Melody practically screamed in pain while getting up. She saw stars and nearly fell over, but gritting her teeth, she managed to get through it, and once she was up, it wasn't nearly as bad. It just, you know, only hurt when she breathed.

"Thanks," she said weakly, scanning the battlefield for someone to blast.

by **Apophis** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:35 pm

Apophis spun around and spewed sub-zero "flame" at the clay man before punching the frozen mass with his off-hand, never losing his grip on Stitch.

by **Sara Stanton** » Sat Sep 17, 2011 8:44 pm

And while he was distracted by that the ground underneath him becomes less reliable than quicksand and actively tries to pull him down even.

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