Attack on Xavier's ((Open to All X-ers on Campus))

[ngm_miscellaneous]

Class had only been in session for a couple days at Xavier's. Labor Day had come and gone. There were more students on campus than in previous semesters. The buzz from first day jitters had settled down. Routines were starting to be picked up. It was currently the small span of time between the end of classes for the day and the beginning of after-school activities.

A mile from the main house, a very determined man wearing purple and dark blue was setting up. He took note of various things like the range to the target, wind direction, wind velocity, air density, elevation, and the Coriolis effect. As well as the effect the window he was going to shoot through would have on his very special bullet. He peered through his scope. This would be an extremely tricky shot, but the entire operation was waiting on him to start it. He needed to take out the biggest problem on that campus. The new construction getting into his way didn't help matters.

He eventually lined up a clear shot and waited. He caught a flash of red in the window. The target must have been sitting at her desk. The sniper grinned slightly to himself. He took in a breath, let it half out, and then squeezed the trigger.
The one-of-a-kind bullet made of non-magnetic material blasted out of the barrel of the sniper rifle. His aim was dead on. He quickly tapped the signal to have the first ones launch their attack.

The walls along Graymalkin Lane were breached explosively in multiple places. Most near security nodes to delay the time the security system roused. Men and women in black tabards with white crosses poured through the openings. They ran toward the buildings and any visible muties on the grounds. They all had been itching for some action since the debacle at Veridian Dynamics. Being underground for this long made the need for mutie blood strong among the Purifiers.

Comments

[dolemeck]

The sudden pressure to an already wounded stomach was enough to cause him to turn his head to the side and vomit a combination of blood and bile. It felt as though his stomach were being torn apart as the Purifier dug his heel into the wound, making it worse. He spit up a bit more blood before speaking, his voice sounding pained and weak.

"Hurt me all you want... But I will not... give you the pleasure..." He struggled to speak. "Of giving you... what you want. I will not... let my last moments, be of your bloody faces."

The last things projected from Dolemeck's mind were a life not yet lived, and now may never come to be. His dreams... no, the dreams he shared with Ilya of a long, happy life together were the very last things he thought. All before lifting his arm up to shield himself from the bullet fired, after the Purifier's gun was cocked.

The bullet left the chamber, going into Dolemeck's arm. This helped to slow the bullet's speed. But not enough before it went through his arm and lodged into his right eye. Dolemeck's went limp after this happened and his body appeared incredibly bloody to anyone looking. There were no more thoughts going through his mind that anyone could pick up on.

For all intensive purposes... Dolemeck Night appeared to be dead.

[ngm_villains]

That was the funny thing about the Purifiers. You could use telepathic tricks on them, but the Purifiers knew what mutants were capable of. Usually, they even thought that mutants were capable of worse.

The Purifier stepped aside. One of them knelt down to check Dolemeck's pulse, while the first one kicked Dolemeck in the side a couple of times. The third Purifier cocked his gun down at Dolemeck's face, while the fourth aimed for his heart.

Couldn't hurt to kill him again, right?

Continued from Ilya's thread above at Dolemeck-mun's behest.

[kid_from_chukotka]

Dolemeck's telepathic cry out hit Ilya like a punch to the gut. For a moment there was nothing but terror, a terror much deeper than mere physical threats, the fear of there being nothing to live for, no one who loved him left alive. He'd only just gotten used to the idea that he had hope and love in this new century. And objectively, logically, Dolemeck's love for Ilya should be a good thing.

In the words of one philosopher, though, 'there's nothing like a good cause to bring out the worst in people.'

Ilya bursts out the hole in the wall, throwing furniture, chunks of the wall, chunks of the ceiling from the room behind him, and the bodies of other Purifiers into one another. He does not stop at any point to check if he should stop or if he's injuring people because he no longer gives a damn. In fact, that's now an acceptable loss. He brings the ceiling of the room behind him down - he'd already wrecked its' structural integrity, after all - and then the debris starts getting thrown at them, clumps of support beams, drywall, tile, twisted metal from the fluorescent lighting, everything.

When he's slammed a clear path forward, he runs, sprinting towards the library.

Anyone who he sees before then, he throws through walls with force the human body was never meant to endure, bones cracking and spines snapping with the impacts, not aided by the debris that'll probably be on top of them. Very long, very expensive hospital stays are going to be in their futures. He doesn't even register that he's supposed to care. He can only think about Dolemeck and how he can't lose anyone ever again. He's already lost his family, his hometown, his old country and his tribe, he can't lose anyone else, anything else, no matter what he has to do.

He hits the library with little preamble, and unceremoniously throws everyone one their feet into the nearest wall, angry enough that they should be grateful he doesn't just kill them outright-

Then he sees Dolemeck on the floor.

Ilya feels cold, suddenly, Arctic cold, sees the world tinged through the blue light of sunshine through ice. For a moment he isn't here, he's somewhere else entirely, a place his memory had previously locked down. And then he's back, but he isn't really, because he grabs ahold of one of the Purifiers telekinetically and yanks in two opposite directions.

Needless to say telekinetic force that brings down walls can rip bones out of sockets. The pain either knocks them out or leaves them too breathless and in pain to move. Again, and again, Ilya repeats the action, until there are no sounds left in the room but his own breathing, their moans of pain and the distant sounds of fighting throughout the Mansion.

He fell to his knees gracelessly beside Dolemeck, placed a hand on his head and, ignoring the blood and grime coating himself and his love, tried to get through to his mind. "Dolemeck? Dolemeck... please, please say something. Please.

If Dolemeck is truly dead, Ilya's next action will make what he just did look sane and rational by comparison.

[dolemeck]

There was a slight groan that escaped Dolemeck's lips. His arm still covered most of his face. He stirred slightly at the feeling of a hand on his head. Finally, he mumbled something.

"I'm not... dead yet..."

He spoke it out loud, instead of thinking it. His head was killing him, making it too hard to focus on projecting any thoughts.

"Are... are they gone, now?"

[kid_from_chukotka]

"They're knocked out." Someone groans in the background and Ilya amends, "They're mostly knocked out. The rest are injured. But just in this area. There's probably more..."

He trails off, not knowing what to do. He can't move Dolemeck to somewhere safe if he doesn't know where 'safe' is, and Dolemeck looks like he's on death's doorstep already. Ilya wishes he were better at transmitting telepathically, but he's always been a receiver, not a transmitter, and doesn't know who to call anyway.

At a loss, he just runs his hand through Dolemeck's hair in a vague attempt to be comforting. Ilya isn't sure what use he can be, but he's here, at least.

[dolemeck]

"You need... to remain calm." Said the man with enough heavy metal in him to start his own band. "I was trying to get into... the room attached to the library. From what I remember... there is... a panic room... attached to it. We would just need to... wait for help... after..."

It was becoming too hard to keep speaking. It was exhausting, but it kept him awake. Better to remain awake, then fall asleep at this point.

"If I am wrong... we can still barricade ourselves in there... until help comes. Help is coming, aye?"

[kid_from_chukotka]

"Trust me, I am calm. If I wasn't, there would be dead bodies everywhere." He gently tries to support Dolemeck into sitting up, cautious and mindful of the injuries, wishing he knew more about medicine or biology. "You need to stay with me. Talk to me, Dolemeck. Tell me where to take you so we can wait for health. I'm not sure it's safe here or how long help will take coming."

It's coming, undoubtedly. Ilya is sure that the Headmistress is terrifying a lot of people right now with her power, and that this won't last long, it'll only feel like it. But they still have to keep safe in the meantime and while he can carry Dolemeck so long as the adrenaline holds out, if it holds out, he needs to know where to take him to.

[dolemeck]

Dolemeck cringed as he was made to sit up. It was painful to do so, and used the last bit of energy he had to focus his telekinetic powers on getting his body to float. He was now looking almost like something out of a horror film, no doubt frightening the few remaining Purifiers who remained conscious.

"Follow... me." He spoke weakly, and started to float from the library, to the media room attached to it. He stopped every so often, coughing up blood, but forced himself to continue on. It was better than having Ilya try to carry him. "We're almost... there."

He was powering through his pain and discomfort to keep himself floating and guiding Ilya to where they could find one of the mansion's many panic rooms. It almost appeared as though he probably had been holding his powers back for sometime, if he could perform such a feat.

[kid_from_chukotka]

Ilya takes in the sight of Dolemeck with unprocessing eyes. This is happening. He is following, but he is completely unable to understand it, and unable to care. However it is that Dolemeck is floating, he just wants them to get through this and get somewhere safe. He keeps an eye out for any sign of movement or someone about to attack, knowing he's the only one out of the two of them who can fight back at this point.

[dolemeck]

The only thoughts going through his head were about getting Ilya and himself to safety. Once they were in the Media Room, Dolemeck remembered the location of the panic room, and how to open it. He was happy he actually read the student handbook and remembered this stuff, but still upset with himself for getting so injured.

He did his best to not show his physical and mental pain as the door to the panic room finally opened. He floated inside with Ilya, and closed the door behind them. Thankfully, it did not appear that any Purifiers saw them go into the panic room, or how it opened. This meant they would be safe for a time.

"We will be okay, now." He managed to choke out, before floating back down to the floor and laying down upon it. The worst wounds were to his eye, stomach, and forearm. His shoulder was not as bad, which was a strange blessing. "Now to wait... maybe I... I can go back to taking a nap, now."

Sneaking onto the internet at work to tag this. I feel vaguely irresponsible...

[kid_from_chukotka]

"No. Stay with me, Dolemeck. I can't have you going zasypat on me," Ilya told him firmly, in a tone laced with worry. He could just see Dolemeck slipping away from him like that - close his eyes and never wake up. He's not sure he could take it. He kneels beside him, looking over the other boys' injuries, feeling his stomach twist at the sight of each wound he should have been there to prevent.

"Besides, when the teachers get here, they'll want to know what happened. So do I, actually. I... I was just walking and suddenly those people were everywhere. Dole, what did they do to you? Did-" Ilya catches himself, but barely. It's an insane idea that any of them would have done anything sexual to Dolemeck, if they really hate mutants. But his blue eyes still study Dolemeck's lower half with a sort of private spike of horror. "Just. Tell me what happened? Please, I need to know."

Re: Sneaking onto the internet at work to tag this. I feel vaguely irresponsible...

[dolemeck]

Dolemeck fought to keep awake, and to tell Ilya everything that happened. He had been taken a nap in the library, and awoke to the sounds of panicking students fleeing outside of it, of how he tried to hide, only to be discovered shortly after. He explained how he used his powers to lifted and move bookcases to block in most of the gunmen, not wanting to hurt them, only to be shot at and hit multiple times.

He desperately tried to play dead, but the gunmen could somehow hear his thoughts and knew he was faking it. After that, one of the gunmen stomped on his wounded stomach, making his injury much worse, and causing him to throw up. Finally, Dolemeck told him of how he refused to look at the gunmen, when they wanted to see his face as they threatened to kill him, a gun pointed at his face. He remained defiant, covering his eyes with his arm, when he was shot... and then he was found.

"No one violated me..." He choked out, fighting the urge to throw up, again. "They wanted me dead. They wanted everyone in this school dead. I could have... I could have killed them. I could have saved myself.... but I did not want to hurt them... I tried... how could they hear my thoughts?"

[kid_from_chukotka]

"I don't know how they heard you. I'm not someone who can telepathically project, unless I'm in the rook with someone, so I don't know how other people pick up or send thoughts. The Headmistress will probably know, though; we'll ask her when she gets here."

Ilya gently runs a hand through Dolemeck's hair, trying to comfort him. "I'm sorry. I should have gotten here faster. But I'm here now, and I'm not leaving. Just stay awake for me." He doesn't want to be alone, doesn't want to face the silence and the possibility of losing Dolemeck. It's too much.

He doesn't tell him how he didn't care about whether or not he killed them, how everyone he fought is going to have a long hospital stay. Ilya is not like Dolemeck, not the same in his thinking; all Chukchi, male or female, would defend an attacked camp or settlement with any means necessary. This is his home now. The only reason he didn't skip directly to killing in self defense was because he knew Dolemeck wouldn't like it. If the situation called for it, Ilya is still, in this moment, capable of going too far. Only having someone with modern morals nearby is reigning him in.

[dolemeck]

"I am trying to stay awake." He coughed some more, turning his head to the side in case something came up. "This is not your fault. I should have not taken a nap in the library, and just... just floated away or something. I should not have engaged a group with guns, knowing I had no way to defend me-self. This is on me and not you, luv."

He would have squeezed Ilya's hand if he could, but one arm was too damaged to move, the other had that bullet in his shoulder, and he REALLY did not want to aggrivate his injuries.

"We're going to be okay. The teachers will find us, get me some medical attention, and chew me out for being bloody stupid, again. It will be just like it's always been. And then... then we'll go eat together..." He was rambling, trying to keep himself awake. Though now there was the possibility he was finally going into shock.

[kid_from_chukotka]

"I didn't know you could do that. The floating, I mean. Is it a new thing or just something you can only do when you've got an adrenaline rush?"

He has to keep him talking. Ilya keeps his fingers resting lightly to Dolemeck's head, even though the state of Dolemeck's body is making him want to be sick. And he's not sure why, but he has a brief pang of hunger, which is so out of nowhere he's beginning to wonder if he was hit and didn't realize it yet. Everything is so wrong he wishes that it was all just a nightmare. Ilya shudders, feeling cold.

[dolemeck]

"I never did it before." Dolemeck cringed a little as he admitted that. "I just... I remembered what Headmistress Ramsey drilled into me head. "It's not about the weight of the object, it is about moving it". I just... applied it to myself... so I could get you somewhere safe."

Ilya's body language did not fool him. Despite all the pain and dizziness he was starting to feel, it was hard for Ilya to fool Dolemeck.

"It must be hard... to keep looking at me like this. It is okay if you wish to move away. I would not be offended."

[kid_from_chukotka]

"No. I don't want to leave you." More accurately, he keeps having this disturbing memory wash over him of being completely alone in the cold. Even though it isn't cold here, he feels like it is, and the fact he's remembering something he knows didn't happen makes him feel like he's just as in need of medical attention as Dolemeck.

So he has to stay, has to keep Dolemeck company and focus on him. He's the only familiar and grounding thing in all of this even if Ilya feels ill. "I'm so glad you figured out how to float. I - I was scared for a second that I wouldn't be able to carry you and I was trying to figure out how to defend our position back there... I would never leave you, so I guess I could have taken weapons from those people back there and held the line. But truth be told, I've never actually fired a gun."

He's babbling, now, but he needs to keep Dolemeck awake and he needs to calm himself down now that the panic is sinking in.

[dolemeck]

"I knew you could not carry me." He managed a weak smirk on his face. "So... I used what energy I had to be somewhat helpful, aye? It was... the least I could do. I am not... totally helpless... I do not think..."

Dolemeck's good eye started to roll a little. His mind started to drift as Ilya began to babble about defending their position, and how he did not know how to use weapons. As he rambled, Dolemeck started to see things... things he knew were impossible to be in the room with Ilya and himself.

"Raven...? Ngukwa-Sikita...?" He asked out loud, as he saw them both before him. He must be hallucinating either from the pain or something. "Why are you both... here?"

[kid_from_chukotka]

Ilya's head shot up and he looked around, but saw nothing. This in no way kept Raven from moving over to Ilya's side, placing a hand on his back. The mutant relaxed without understanding why, struggling to try and sense with his mind what Dolemeck was apparently seeing with his eyes. Even though Raven's black-clad figure is behind him with those features that make it so hard for outsiders to tell if he's male or female, Ilya can't see him. "Dole? Stay with me, here." He bites his lip, unnerved by this turn in events.

Ngukwa-Sikita is tall and thin, his fur coat both extremely intricate in design and covered with dirt and ash from the waist down. His hair is long and falls in one thick braid to the ground, his eyes sharp and large - Chukchi eyes despite the gray tinge to his skin. His eyes are like dark mirrors, reflective and giving off no emotion.

"Dolemeck of the clan Night. You have passed every test, and endured. Malinatka feels you have endured long enough, and so in agreement I come on both our behalves. You do not have to endure any longer if you don't desire it." He holds out one hand, voice not unkind, glove worn bare by time, trickery and trials he himself had endured. "The night sky is ready for your arrival."

[dolemeck]

"Not yet... not yet." He sighs, finding himself waving his hand at what he is seeing. Wait... he can move? Is this one of those freaky out of body experiences he's heard or seen on TV? Yep... it appears so. That or he is truly hallucinating. Standing up, he looks at the two Gods, rather confused. "Bloody hell... this is not happening."

It took him a moment to get himself together before looking at Ngukwa-Sikita and Raven. The look on his face is quite serious.

"I know I am constantly tested, that I am made to endure more than most people... but I am not taking the bloody easy way out. I cannot do it, I cannot leave yet, when me life, our life has barely begun." He looked back on the mess that was his body, and Ilya who was still trying to get him to wake up. "There is still so much to learn, and many journeys that need to be taken. I have to learn to become stronger. Not just for myself, but for my "star" as well. So I ask that you forgive me for turning down the offer you both grant me."

[kid_from_chukotka]

"Malinatka is a kind goddess," Raven muses, still trying to calm Ilya down with simple touches as Dolemeck's body appeared to stop breathing temporarily. "But she never did understand love. This was in truth more her idea than ours. Ngukwa-Sikita simply gives her word more weight than mine."

Ngukwa-Sikita looked at his fellow god with something unreadable in his expression, then turned to Dolemeck and chose not to respond to Raven. "There is nothing to forgive. There is no selfishness in your answer. There is great potential within you, Dolemeck, for a life that brings fulfillment and comfort to many. I only ask that you live up to that potential despite the pain, if you truly desire to continue living."

He turned and is gone mid-step, though Raven lingers for a moment, silently, before stepping back and fading into the shadows.

Ilya has moved from 'fear' to 'true panic' and is sobbing openly, having not seen or heard Dolemeck's brief conversation and being unable to locate a pulse on him. His body shakes with the force of his tears.

"Dolemeck, please, please, don't do this to me... wake up..."

[dolemeck]

There was a loud gasp of air that escaped Dolemeck as he "woke" back up. His one good eye looked over at Ilya, seeing him breaking down into sobs by his side. He tried to force another smile, and even raised his hand, despite the agony that caused his shoulder. He just touched the side of Ilya's face before speaking.

"I... am not pushing up daisies quite yet... so stop crying." He continued to force that smile. "I... I think I fell asleep, or I hallucinated. Whatever it was... I was seeing things. Not a bloody good sign. We have to keep waiting for help... and hope it arrives soon."

[kid_from_chukotka]

"You stopped breathing!" Ilya's tears tumble down freely, and he hates that even under better circumstances. He takes Dolemeck's hand in his, squeezing it gently. "Stay with me, Dolemeck. They'll be here soon enough, okay? It's going to be alright."