Early morning sun peeked through the trees, a signal for a chorus of birdsong to erupt over the Academy lawn. Steve Rogers stretched down to his toes, before he began his daily jog around the perimeter.
“Morning, Bear,” Steve gave a nod to the half-conscious dog on the front porch, a smile on his lips as the furred layabout grunted. “Come on bud, it’s a new day! Join me for my run and we’ll see who can make the most laps in thirty minutes.”
Bear snorted and rolled to his other side, his back to Steve. Captain America just laughed and continued forward. The faithful dog was not a morning person, with most of his nights spent on guard outside the school.
He was on his second lap, when a puff of red smoke appeared in the centre of the lawn. Four figures stepped forward, while a fifth vanished in another puff of red. Steve slowed to a halt, eyes narrowed as he took in the odd group.
“Can I help you folks?” The Captain wiped his brow and waved to the grounds. “This is private property, but if you’re here seeking asylum then Charles shouldn’t mind the intrusion.”
Over the past ten years, he’d helped countless mutant and meta-human refugees. Many of them were rough around the edges, a natural thing after being on the run for much of their lives. The world at large was still relatively ignorant of mutants, but governments had long found an interest in them.
“Grrrrrr…” Bear appeared beside him, as if by magic. His hackles were raised, eyes locked on the intruders. He huffed at the air, normally sleepy face tensed as he continued to growl.
“I’m afraid Charles would be uninterested in helping the likes of me,” a pale skinned, bald woman snorted as she straightened her oversized business suit. The brown fabric hung off her frame, two sizes too large and cut for a man. “Now why don’t you and your dog go for a walk, we’ve got business with my hypocritical brother.”
A wave of fatigue washed over Steve’s mind, a psychic attack that threatened to drop him to his knees. He staggered to the side, only to jerk awake as a bark crashed against his eardrums.
Bear stepped between the Captain and the newcomers, teeth bared as he released a second, explosive howl. Sonic waves rippled against the woman’s clothes, her eyebrows twisted as she focused her attention on the dog.
“I’ll deal with the super-mutt,” a porcelain skinned man with red eyes stepped up, while the others moved to the side. “Go bring vengeance to your brother, but don’t forget the other reason we’re here.”
“I think you guys have got the wrong house,” Steve shook his head and squared his shoulders. His shield was inside, but against telepaths its value was limited. “This place is well defended, you're making a mistake…”
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“Sleep, you outdated buffoon,” a caramel skinned man looked over his sunglasses and darkness covered his senses. Steve barely registered a thump, his head on the well manicured grass. “This battle is beyond a scientifically enhanced propaganda project like you.”
Explosions, muted and dim, trembled in the background, punctuated by Bear’s enraged barks. The last noise to pierce his faded consciousness, before his mind fell to darkness, was the puff of the teleporter’s return and a familiar voice.
“Keep your hands off my Master’s dog, or I’ll rip them off and feed them to you…”
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“Who the hell are you guys?” Kara landed next to the unconscious Steve, while Bear danced around the chalk-skinned man in blue. The lawn was torn to shreds, flattened and broken by waves of psionic power. “You’re lucky the Captain is only asleep, or Bear would have torn out your throats by now…”
Red-black smoke manifested beside the invaders, a second group to reinforce the first. The bald woman turned her back, headed for the school, while the rest turned to Kara with a psychic maelstrom. The shields around her mind flexed, eyes narrowed as she blitzed towards the telepaths.
“Not so fast, little lady,” A massive fist reached from the red-black smoke behind the psychics, as large as her torso and trimmed with dull red armour. A domed helmet emerged as she greeted the oversized knuckles with her own, brow raised as she was hurled backwards through the air. “We’ve got business with my brother, so why don’t you sit down before you get hurt?”
Kara drove her feet into the damaged lawn, ankle deep as she carved a trench through the dirt. Her eyes lit up as she took in the hulk of a man. Armoured in red, with his face hidden behind a metre wide helm, he radiated a physical might she’d never encountered before.
“Sorry, big guy, but that school is the property of Krypton,” Kara cracked her neck, one eye on the telepaths that stood at the giant’s back. They still wormed away at her barriers, a pressure greater than any she’d experienced. “Why don’t YOU sit down, before I plant your oversized behind on top of your fragile, little friends back there?”
“Bwahahaha!” The oversized mountain of a human slapped at his knees and turned to the others in his group. “You hear that Farouk, she wants to crush your pathetic bones!”
“Just shut up and kill her, Juggernaut,” Farouk removed his sunglasses and tucked them into his coat pocket, eyes set on Kara. “The boy will be here soon, and his magic will be more of a problem than this brute of a woman.”
“Yeah-yeah,” Juggernaut waved a trashcan hand toward the psychic as he stepped forward. Each step shook the Earth, a thunder that raised Kara’s blood. “Come on, little one, it’s time for you to take your medicine.”
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“The Juggernaut…” Dan drifted above the clouds, a frown on his face. The unstoppable behemoth was trouble enough, but he came in service to four omega-level mutants. Telepaths all, they each thrummed with enough psychic power to match Xavier. “I wonder how Kara will do…”
A quick glance inside showed the students unconscious on the ground, with Charles face to face with a woman who could have been his twin. They waged a battle of the mind, while the others stood watch outside.
A puff of red-black smoke entered the manor, a red skinned teleporter that reached out for a group of fallen students. Dan sighed and pulsed his biofield, a wave of force that slammed the devil-tailed mutant face first into the oak floor.
“With Emma Frost and Azazel here, it looks like the Hellfire club is still going to make an appearance,” Dan gave the dazed Azazel a few more blows, before the devilish fellow lost consciousness. “It seems that Mr. Sinister is involved as well, I’d love to pick his psychotic mind, but that will have to wait.”
Kara charged toward Juggernaut, a blue aura of ki wrapped around her body. Thunder cracked as she levelled blow after blow against the bulky man, an expression of joy on her face as Cain Marko shrugged off her attacks without concern.
“Even if she can’t handle herself, Bear should be up to keeping her safe,” Dan settled in to watch the show, ready in case either Charles or Kara faltered. “I’m curious to see how this Juggernaut measures up…”