trans_9 | The Battle That Ended The Century

"Tauf, it is a pleasure to meet you. Katara has told me quite a bit about you. This is indeed more 'nightmare stuff'." Sheeana said, bowing which put her nearer the little earthbender's height.

She held her tongue at the rest. This rain was making her irritable, having to step on her instincts all the time. Speak too soon and she would be disliked.

"I am going to Escherville. The Avatar is the only one who knows very much about this threat and that was where he was last known to be. It is your choice to join me or to stay here and shed water for what you presume to be your dead." Presume because what had truly happened, she was sure, wouldn't be sorted out until well after this. It wasn't that she felt anything but indifferent towards Kon-El but news here was very unreliable.

She turned and began walking in that direction, hoping at least Katara would follow.

Katara was about to reply when she heard an all too familiar noise: it was a gun shot, and though she knew her teacher was fast enough to avoid it, that didn't stop her instinct from making her charge into Sheeana so the bullets wouldn't hit her. This was followed by several shots in their direction, and the yell of "CHARGE," which they knew wasn't good.

"New plan!" Katara yelled, keeping her head down. "Let's get to a decent shelter before we start getting sh-" A stray bullet glance at her arm and she hissed, her eyes now showing smatterings of rage. "Why you!"

She threw her hands in the air, and the water gathered, turning to frozen projectiles which she launched in the directions of the bullets. From the screams of some of the men, she knew she hit her mark. She then gathered the water and erected a shield, which was immediately starting to get riddled with bullets.

"Let's go!" She said. "I'll keep it up a moment longer so we have some cover, but we need to get to a better vantage point!"

Sheeana flattened herself to the muddy earth in a blur, thankful for Katara's waterbending. Death in cold mud would be an ignominous one for a Fremen. Pieces of grit rubbed the cuts she'd gotten earlier.

She addressed the group as well as she could from that position. "I have a shelter nearby. Everyone cover your ears and follow me!" And then she slithered on her belly to turn in the direction of the fire. "Stop! Halte! Kill yourselves! Tötung sich!" There were a couple answering pops, a bit more time, but not all of them had obeyed the Voice and there were sure to be reinforcements arriving.

And then started running in the direction of the warehouse.

Sofia had been about to yell at Sheeana for being so cold, but then they were under attack. She took Kara by the arms and gently pulled her up.

"It's all right, Kara. Your cousin may still be alive but we have to get out of here before we find out. You're strong, you can do this."

"..." Kara nodded at Sofia's words and followed Katara's instructions. Artemis had once told her that it was alright to run from a fight, to keep on running until she reached a point where she could make it hers, and from there, she could stop and take over the fight.

Right now, Kara had none of her powers. No weapons.

So she ran.

Fighting for his mere survival. They story of his life. He didn't have time to really worry about that, though. He never really did.

"Let's go!" He grabbed Toph and yanked her along. He didn't have his powers or any weapons anymore either, but his entire day so far had been a continuous running gun battle.

"Hey - whoa - wait!"

She didn't like the fact that this guy had her by the hand, but at least she could figure out which way to go thanks to him. Keeping up wasn't a problem. Seeing anything clearly was.

"Katara," she said while she ran, "you know where Aang is? Are we going to get him?"

Katara was grateful for Sheeana's voice command, so much so in fact that she was going to overlook the whole "kill yourselves" thing. As far as she knew, they were both figments and working for the Nightmare King, not to mention shooting at them with guns. It would be very hard for her to feel sympathy.

Katara and Sheeana were the first to reach the shelter, and Katara started to gather the water in her hands again. It was still raining, which was good: it would give her a chance to level things for her team. She gathered the water until it became something to be reckoned with: it was starting to get very, very big, and so she waited until she heard more of the man gathering, waiting to try and take them. With a grunt of effort, she pushed the tidal wave forward: the screams of surprise and fear let her know that she'd gotten a few of them, and that was good: that shock was going to give them just enough time.

She drew a large breath and created a cloud of for for them: it wasn't going to last because the rain kept coming, but it WOULD give them just enough time to take the others by surprise. She motioned to Sofia, Julian, Sheeana and Kara.

"The cover will confuse them for a little while, and they're still recovering. You guys start taking them down quickly, while we have them unaware. Toph and I are about to make their terrain slicker, and start hitting them with mud balls. Try to stay together so no one gets injured by any of their guns. After that...well, we'll deal with after as it comes. Toph? Help me start gathering our earth. We're going to go after them catapult style."

They could talk about Aang later. Living was the important thing at the moment. Besides, she was sure Sokka and Zuko were looking for him right now.

Kara nodded at Katara's commands. The girl seemed like she knew what she was talking about, and she wasn't going to argue with logic.

They were taking the stance now - they were making the fight their own.

They could do this.

Kara moved into an offensive stance shown to her by Artemis. "Let's do this, then," she nodded.

Unpowered, no weapons, vastly outnumbered.

"This is familiar." Sofia muttered to herself.

Sheeana's shelter was a dying fire and some crude barriers built under the overhanging awning of a great warehouse next to a bombed out airfield. Inside the corrugated steel warehouse, her worm paced, uneasy from the moisture. Perhaps Toph could sense the seismic disturbance.

The fog meant Sheeana could not bring her worm into play now, but there was no time to explain that to Katara. So close too...

She had to flatten herself to the ground again as a spray of bullets whizzed over the spot she was just at. One had grazed her ribs, opening a cut there, an otherwise superficial wound. The fog made for spastic, inaccurate fire.

She crawled into the warehouse, reaching up to pull the door open. She felt as if she were much smaller again, being hustled away from the Honored Matres' attack. Darwi was not here to save her though, save in Other Memory.

The sound of boots came after her. They will come for me... She thought and they did, opening bursts of fire clearing the space. Sheeana had hidden herself though, behind the great shadow...

...Which resolved itself into the Worm, and crushed the three men, rolling over them until they were mushy pulp beneath their grey longcoats and oddly shaped helmets.

"Over here! Weapons!" She called from the doorway to her erstwhile comrades and began calming the worm with whispered words and strokes of its leathery hide. The blood and moisture it disliked immensely.

Julian charged into the fight, as he was prone to do. Despite the day having taken a severe emotional toll on him, there was still a determination to continue. Julian was capable of many things, but surrendering wasn't in his nature.

Besides, he owed it to Kon to make sure Kara got through this. Much as he had been hurt by her, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if something happened to Sofia. Katara was on his team, she was his responsibility, and he was going to get her through this alive.

He needed to find Nori.

So once more into the breech he went, heading in low through the fog and tackling one of the soldiers.

"Julian!" Damn it, he should have waited. They should have all gone at once.

Sofia followed, but there was no tackling. There wasn't even punching.

No, the greatest asset a dancer had were her legs.

There was an audible crack as she kicked a soldier right in the jaw. She shoved him onto the ground, making it all that harder for the others to take aim at her. She reached for the soldier's weapon while he was still stunned.

She scrambled into the warehouse.

It was still hazy, and Toph wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't, but she sprang into action, bending the available mud and stone into a lean-to of sorts, giving them all a bit of shelter.

"Get behind here!" she called to any of her comrades-in-arms who deigned to listen.

When the fighting began in earnest - when she saw the soldiers approaching - she took up her horse stance and began to throw mud-covered stones in their direction.

She wasn't a fan of ranged fighting, but given the circumstances, this was the best she could do.

Katara had hoped Toph would stick to the plan, but since earthbending pretty much WAS the pan, and they still had their abilities, it worked well for them anyway. The earthbending gave the troops something tangible to avoid, but Katara would use the water to follow up. The fog lifted and Katara sent a volley of water their way again, only she did that in her octopus water mode so she could attack multiple targets. When the men got close, she froze the guns, and so they either retreated (where Sofie, Kara and Julian would be waiting) or they stupidly tried to advance on the little girls who were using their bending to their full capacity. The former was getting men knocked out individually, the latter having them slip on Katara's deliberately slick walkway or getting hit with the mud balls.

The weapons, she knew, had to be given to the guys so they could start attacking long ranged. Katara took a deep breath, gathering some more of the water in the air and throwing down hail in the direction of the men. This was her chance. Sh ran into the warehouse, grabbed some of the weapons and then ran back into the fray, tossing them to her comrades.

"Guys, here!" She said, then ducked as some gunfire started falling in their direction. It looked as if the second wave of troops were coming. She threw up anther wall then ran back toward Sheeana and Toph to attack long ranged again.

Another bullet grazed her shoulder and she winced, but that was okay. She'd hopefully have a chance to heal it later.

Sheeana was firing over the top of the sandworm, unsteadily and innacurately (these weapons had a kick to them that a lasgun didn't have and what she wouldn't give for a holtzman shield right now...) but it made the psuedo-Germans think twice about advancing. Still, even with the Worm, they couldn't hold this position forever. The Worm bellowed when Katara got close, stung by the water and she had to take a moment to shush it.

"Tauf! Are there any underground passages below us?!" She called to the earthbender.

Kara'd gotten her weapon, and she was quite enjoying using it. She was envious of the fact that Katara and Toph still had their abilities, but she wasn't about to complain. There were more important things at hand.

"Underground passages?" What was Sheeana planning?

Julian had fought his way through the fog, literally, and for a moment he ended up a little bit away from the others. Not far, but far enough that he was on his own for the moment. The only good news was that he only had one soldier to fight against. Well, one soldier and a dark God, anyway.

They're all gonna die, a voice whispered in his head.

"Shut. Up," Julian spat out through gritted teeth, glaring at the soldier he was locking horns with. The soldier only grinned darkly at him in return.

They'll all gonna die and there's nothing you can do about it.

"I said shut. Up!" That was followed with a hard right that caught mid-swing. All Julian could do was grunt loudly as his arm was wrenched and twisted.

What's wrong, kid? Can't stand the truth? You don't have powers, kid, not that it would make much of a difference anyway. It didn't for Brian, Jay, Laurie, DJ, or any of the others. Hell, if Emma hadn't kicked your sorry ass into overdrive, Laura would've died in your arms. And it was only because X-23 was willing to do everything that you wouldn't that Cessily got saved.

Some hero you are. No wonder they all dumped your ass in the end.

You used to parade around like you were a God, thought the world was yours. So tell me, how does it feel to know you're so far short of being a God that nothing you do will ever matter?

Despite the pain, Julian stopped struggling after a moment as a realization hit him. Something someone once said to him-- that 'the X-Men are a lesson in humility'-- finally made sense, as did a few other things.

Apocalypse. The Phoenix. Magneto. Mr. Sinister. Whoever was behind M-Day. Every time mutants tried to play God, it blew up in their faces spectacularly. A lesson Scott and Emma failed to learn, considering how they thought they could overcome extinction by using someone else's baby.

The thought of the 'messiah child' suddenly mad him sick.

And he, himself, who thought he was invincible, only to be shown one thing...

"You're right, I'm not a God. I'm not a hero. I'm a goddamn X-Man!" Julian punched the soldier in the mouth, twice, then kneed him in the stomach. It was enough for him to finally pull his arm free, though he didn't let up. He pressed on, throwing one punch after another.

And, of course, he wasn't going to shut up while doing it.

"You know what that means?" Aside from making that guy eat fist, anyway. "It means that I'm just a mutant. Just a person, as screwed up as any other. It's not about powers, its about taking the talents I was born with, and use them to make things better tomorrow than they are today."

Grabbing the soldier by his uniform, Julian slammed him against the side of the shelter. Repeatedly. And each time was punctuated more talking. He was on a roll with this speech. "Not because I think I'm a God. Not because I need to be a hero. Not to make humanity feel inferior-- though that's an added bonus. But to show people what's possible when they use everything they've got." And fuck you both, Scott and Emma, for forgetting that. "And today I'm going to show you that I don't need my powers to raise some hell."

He reared back his fist to throw another punch, and there was a faint green flash of his eyes. His lips curled into an absolutely wicked grin, and he unloaded a punch that hit the force of someone twice his size.

That was still just a spark, just a glimpse of the power that he was still largely cut off from. The Nightmare King was still in his head, but his hold was slipping. But he didn't care. For the first time in a long time, he felt like himself again.

And he would have, even if he never had gotten his powers back. "...but having them certainly helps."

Now to really get himself back into this fight...

Toph felt the ground beneath her feet, felt the reverberations of the artillery fire and suddenly she could see.

There were passages, all right.

"Yes!" she called out to Sheeana. "A couple of them, right under us. Do you want me to open them up? It should be easy, I can --"

Then she felt something else. Distant vibrations in the ground, still a ways off, but all signs pointed to something big.

"Uh, guys? Something's coming..."

Katara was happy to have all the help, and she was they were grateful too. Within minutes, the men coming after them were reduced to a handful, and already they were backing away: the combined strength of Sofia, Julian and Kara with a giant worm was definitely wearing on their courage. At least, that was what Katara thought they were running away from.

"Something big? Like what?"

She didn't have to wait long for her answer. There was a roar that pierced the air, and now the group found themselves face to face with an entirely different and more deadly threat. Katara had spoken, and noted, Red Snout: he was clever, quick, and certainly an able warrior behind those eyes. What she saw towering over them looked like Red Snout, but bigger, dumber...and meaner. It did not mean to talk to them or to threaten them. No, its only mission was to kill them, and she could see that in its eyes.

She turned to Toph and Sheena. "You guys might want to start going underground, at least you'll be in a pair and Toph can help with the earth." She turned to the others. "I...REALLY think I could use your help here. Big ugly reptiles are kinda new."

The worm could feel it too and became agitated, shifting and roaring in short bursts. The t-rex was nosing at the immense doors of the hangar. Soon the flimsy corrugated steel doors would be open and it would go stomping through to eat them.

"I have to stay up here. Tauf, yes, please open one up and get everyone who doesn't have their abilities through..."

Bang, cronk, crank, roar, bang. An immense head poked through the doors like the 'HERE'S JOHNNY' moment in The Shining. Baleful, cold eyes regarded them the way a fat man regards a ham and cheetoh casserole. The mouth was filled with slobbery steak knives. The stench was like nothing any of them had ever experienced.

And the worm went slithering up to meet it. Sheeana could only exert limited control of it. The part that was Leto had ceded temporarily control to the part that was animal. Sheeana repeated the Litany Against Fear to herself.

"Sister, keep the rain off of shai-halud...We're about to be witness to a battle a hundred million years in the making."

And the worm was up against the door too, rearing up like an immense snake to present a faceless face, tripartite mouth that was just as big, a staredown between two ancient gargantuans that would make a pro wrestling promoter cream his suit.

Kara was confused. She'd gotten so used to having her powers, and doing everything with her powers that, despite all of her training, she was still lost on the battlefield.

That wasn't good. Like, at all.

And there was no way for her to fly up and survey it from above before shooting back down like a comet and attacking what needed to be attacked.

So she did what anyone else would do in her situation.

She followed the orders of her teammates and hoped for the best.

Sofia was too far away to hear any orders. She had kicked and scratched and even shot her way through the soldiers ranks until the Tyrannosaurus Rex arrived and scared the rest away.

She saw the dinosaur nudge at the shelter covering her friends. She thought back to what had happened just before she came here. Taking on the Zodiac, getting shot for it, probably dying for it.

Her fingers tightened on her gun. It probably wasn't going to do any damage, not unless she got lucky. And at the very least she might help distract it- along with that giant worm thing. And maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't get killed.

"Well," She said softly in Spanish. "There are worse ways to die."

Sofia lifted her MP-40, aimed for the dinosaur's mouth, and pulled the trigger. And she didn't let up.

And Julian made his way back to the others in time to--

Is that Sofia machine gunning a dinosaur?

...that was kinda hot, actually.

But he didn't have much time to gawk at her, though. What with the Dinosaur advancing despite being shot in the mouth.

"Katara! Kneecap the lizard!"

Sheeana cursed under her breath in Fremen as the scaly giant turned, stung by the German semiauto, cut a tiny bit but easily shaking it off. It bore down on its attacker. She's going to be eaten and all because she had to make the heroic self sacrifice for us.

"Toph! Get her underground!" She called at the earthbender, hoping for a last moment save.

The Battle That Ended The Century

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tl;dr "How Julian Got His Groove Back"

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