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Kitty, Jean and Ororo had stayed at the silk shop while the others had broken off for a while. Kitty had been engrossed with several conversations with the girls working there, while Jean was busy designing her new uniform, something Rogue had done earlier.
Ororo stayed with them as a chaperone for Kitty, knowing that her parents wouldn't like her to be without an adult around in a foreign city like this. She had also stayed because she and the manager were deep into a discussion about the culture of Vietnam, how it differed from its neighbors and why.
So they left about three hours after everyone else did, and ran into trouble almost as soon as they were out of the doors. It was a normal crowded street one moment, then suddenly it was not so crowded and ninjas wearing red and black suits were in their faces.
Jean gasped as she took a sword thrust along one arm cutting her lightly but she dodged enough of it to retain use of her hand. Despite her surprise at the sudden assault she summoned up a telekinetic shield that smacked that ninja as well as four others away from her, then reached out with her telekinetic power to grab their legs slamming them face first down into the ground and throwing them away like broken rag dolls.
Kitty phased involuntarily, saving her life when a sword passed through the space that her neck had previously occupied. Suddenly she was very angry, and she grabbed at the man's legs as she moved down into the ground, sticking him there.
Her first attacker immobilized Kitty reached into the pouch that she always carried with her, pulling out a stone that started to grow to a slightly larger size (about the size of a Frisbee) than her normal pebbles before she threw it into the midst of a large group of ninjas. Written on it was a runic array for a paralysis trap, the kind that would normally be part of a ward section for a small doorway or something like that, and unlike her smaller stones which were one shots initially powered by Harry this one had a bio-energy siphoning function, and she gasped, feeling weak and woozy for a moment as it sucked her energy out of her right before she threw it.
"That isn't something I will want to do again anytime soon," Kitty muttered, "but it was certainly effective." And it was, as her runic trap had taken out over half of their attackers, immobilizing them.
Ororo was good with knives. Very good. You did not grow up on the streets of Cairo or on the Serengeti without becoming very good at surviving and using any weapons that came to hand and in Cairo it was a very foolish girl who did not have at least one knife on her at all times. Ororo was no exception, and carried a small hidden dagger in her belt buckle, made of ceramic at this point. The ceramic idea had come from Logan who warned her that people took women carrying knives like that poorly in America and there were many metal detectors around.
The first ninja that came upon her tried to attack Ororo from the side but she simply sidestepped it slipped out her own knife and jammed it into the man's throat. Ororo then pulled the ninja's sword out of his now dead hands and using both against another one while summoning a gust of wind to protect her back, throwing three more ninjas to the ground before they were paralyzed by Kitty's array.
With that their initial rush was over, and Ororo looked around dropping the blade she had taken from the ninja distastefully. It was a little long for her, and while she was not against killing in self-defense, who knew what this blade done before under its previous owner?
Jean nodded looking at the blade Ororo was still holding her hand. "I have got to get one of those."
"I'll ask Harry to make you one Jean," Ororo replied with a smile, leaning over and kissing the other woman lightly on the lips. Then she reached forward to help Kitty to her feet where she had gone to her knees gasping. The younger girl's stomach began to rumble, and Ororo chuckled. "I think you need to rethink that one my Kitten."
Kitty nodded, but had seen the kiss the two older women had shared out of the corner of her eye. She leaned against the t African woman, whose arms went around her as she guided the now almost exhausted Kitty down the streets. Kitty however did have enough energy to ask "So what exactly is going on between you two and Harry?"
Jean and Ororo shared a glance then Jean replied simply, "Something wonderful."
Kitty giggled, and began to press them for details of how and when Jean had joined the original duo. Her parents were not anywhere near as religious as Jean's parents pretended to be, and she saw no problem with a girl being with another girl. Her family was in fact very progressive in that area. The Idea of three people being together was a little strange, but as long as all of them were happy Kitty was fine with it. And she could tell that Harry was good for Jean and vice-versa, and of course the love he had built with Ororo over the last few months was so romantic.
While Jean regaled her with how she had officially joined Ororo and Harry during the dance at the gala in Los Angeles, Ororo kept her mind on more important matters, scanning their surroundings for more attackers while guiding the other two girls back the way they had come to the hotel. She also wondered if the others had been attacked, or if this was directed at her in some fashion. Since neither Jean nor Kitty had ever been abroad and didn't have the history to have made enemies she figured it would only be her.
"Jean can you get in touch with the Professor? I think we need to know if this was an isolated incident."
Kitty pouted at their conversation being interrupted, but Jean merely nodded and began to send her mind out questing for Xavier's.
OOOOOOO
The Professor already knew they were in trouble. For some reason the Hand ninjas were completely immune to his telepathy, he couldn't get a read on them at all, or else he would have warned his charges about them. As it was however he was also taken completely by surprise when. Charles was wheeling himself around a local museum in Hoi An's old city with Harry, both of them rather interested in the history of the area, when over a dozen ninjas suddenly appeared, coming out of hiding from places that in no way should've been able to hold human bodies.
A small corner of his mind wondered how that had been accomplished. He could've sworn one of the men actually came out from under a display case a medium sized dog would've had trouble laying down in. The rest of his mind however was concentrating on trying to get a handle on their minds, but they weren't there!
This wasn't like Harry's mind where you could feel that there was something there. The ninja's attacking them simply did not have minds. There was nothing there to tell him of their presence on the astral plane. He wondered how the hell they were hiding their minds, some kind of mystic thing, or something else?
Without a mind to latch onto Charles was unable to do much against them, if he couldn't get into their minds or even touch their minds he was left with no other options. Except for his martial arts of course, which he showed against the first ninja who tried to stab him. The ninja in question jumped down from an overhead light whose shadow should never have hidden even a small child's body, sword pointing down at his target.
Instead of the man stabbing him in the chest Charles wheeled aside swiftly, grabbed the man's hands as he came down with one hand passing through the space he had previously occupied locked his other hand underneath the ninja's mask covered chin and jerked, snapping his neck before pushing the body into the legs of another ninja coming at him.
Harry was not having the same issue. Whatever mental immunity the ninjas had in no way covered magical attacks, though the fact that they had been able to surprise him like this was astonishing in and of itself. A few Stupefy's shot out knocking the first few ninjas down, then he summoned his sword of Gryffindor, using it in one hand while his other hand formed the Lacero spell, conjuring a whip of fire. It was one of his favorite close combat spells, and it proved its worth here as well.
The whip cracked out, smashing into one would-be assassin's chest, slicing a burning branch into it and sending the ninja flying backwards, while Harry used his sword to slice one man's hand off having ducked under his sword blow before coming back and decapitating him. Moments later the basilisk venom, one of the most poisonous venoms in any universe overcame the ninja's own built up immunity to poison, and the man collapsed, frothing underneath his mask.
He whirled the whip above his head, taking another assassin in the face while Harry used the sword to blast out several more spells, area affect Stupefy's this point since the bystanders had already made a run for it, knocking down the rest of their attackers.
Once the last ninja fell to the floor Harry scowled. "Of course, what's a trip to the bloody orient without bloody pajama-wearing ninjas? Any reason why these guys were able to sneak up on us Charles?"
"The simple answer Mr. Potter is that they don't have minds." answered Charles reaching down from his wheelchair to pull the mask off one of the stunned assassins, and was unsurprised to see a almost completely blank face. The man had Asiatic features but that was about all he could discern about it, there was nothing else about it that looked interesting, this man could blend into a crowd anywhere in Asia without any kind of trouble at all.
He frowned, trying to find the man's mind again, then pulled his hand back frowning faintly. "There's nothing there," he muttered. "This man was able to move around, attack us and hide in some very odd places, but he doesn't have a mind! I've never run into anything like this. It's not like yours." He looked up at Harry, "Where I can tell that there is something around, there literally is nothing here."
The wizard frowned as well, reaching down to touch the man. He thought maybe they were constructs, magical golems of an advanced construction that he could not match, and he did feel a slight tingle as he touched the man but that was all. The man was fully human, for a given value of human anyway. "Try again, I just drained him of a bit of magic, maybe that was what was protecting his mind."
Charles tried again and again shook his head. "I'm afraid not Mr. Potter." They both stepped back hastily as the body began to dissolve, turning into dust before their eyes.
Harry grunted, looking around to see that the other dead bodies were doing the same, though the ones he had stupefied were not. "Now the question is, was this an attack on you and I, or on all of us?"
That thought made Charles' eyes widen, and he immediately reached out with his telepathy, his mind flowing out from him like a fog to cover the entire city as he searched for the minds of his students.
He found Scott and Rogue almost immediately, Scott sending out the thought as hard as he could in order to contact Charles. "Scott, we were attacked as well, are the two of you all right?"
On the other end Scott frowned in thought and then said "We're alright professor, some wounds, nothing serious. "Can you link me up with the others Professor, I don't know if you're going to all be able to get back to the hotel?"
Charles frowned, his concerns and worries about how he was unconsciously influencing his students coming back to him. Yet under the circumstances he couldn't argue with the idea of connecting to their minds, he would just have to be on guard to make certain nothing flowed between them that he did not intend. "Very well, I'll see what I can do."
A moment of concentration wove a small connection between himself and Scott, and from Scott to Rogue, then his conscious thoughts spread out again, swiftly finding the three girls, who were already moving towards the hotel, and farther out he found Logan and even further out Evan and Kurt.
After communicating this to him, Scott had a good grasp of where everyone was in relation to one another and the hotel. He directed Jean Ororo and Kitty to continue their trip back towards the hotel, to an intersection a few blocks away from their current position. They would wait there for Charles and Harry, who they were closest to at the moment along the route back to the hotel.
Kurt and Evan were already making their way back to the hotel by way of the water, and should be safe enough out there considering there was no way that the Hand could sneak up on them. Logan however was nearest to Scott and Rogue, and he was still in combat.
"That tells me that he was probably the main target here professor. Rogue and I are moving in to support."
"Be careful Scott," Charles warned. "These are real enemies, not like the robots or other dangers that you face in the danger room."
"That is understood Sir," Scott responded brusquely, after all this wasn't the first time he'd faced living enemies. That baptism under fire against the demons with the Fantastic Four had done wonders for his self-confidence in the press, and Rogue held up well enough. She was still shaky now that the action was over, but in his estimation she was still good to go. Later on there would be time to talk about what happened, right now getting to Logan and regrouping was the most important thing.
While this was going on Harry had turned on his mage sight, not being able to join the conversation given his mental defenses. With his mage sight he was able to see lines from all of the unconscious ninjas leading off into the distance. He muttered, "Well I think I'm going to make like Dorothy and follow the yellow brick road here."
With a wave of his hand he stupefied the downed ninjas again, making certain they would stay there by also having the mall with dozens of uses of theImmobulous spell.
Charles reported what was going on elsewhere and Harry nodded. "In that case I think you, Scott and Logan have this in hand. I'm going to drop you off with the girls, then I'm going to come back here and figure out where the heck these guys came from." When Charles sent him an interrogative look he explained what he could see with his mage sight
The bald telepath nodded. "I wondered why do you had left them alive," he said dryly. "While I am in no way unhappy that you did, it just seemed a little out of character."
"True," Harry nodded, not even bothering to debate the point with him. Harry would in fact have killed them all, but he wanted to figure out what was going on here first. Sometimes you can learn more from a live enemy, and this is one of those times.
He moved to push Charles along, moving along and out of the museum then through the crowded streets, both of them wondering where the heck the bystanders had gone. Yet once more this was Vietnam, and like the three girls in the boat the bystanders around them new when to get the hell out of there. Screaming only brought more attention to you and when faced with armed killers there was never a good thing.
About 10 minutes later they came to the intersection where they met up with Jean and the others. Harry instantly began to cast healing spells on Jean's arm while explaining what he was going to do, and Jean and Ororo shared a glance. Ororo said "I'll go with you Harry, you may need someone to watch your back."
Harry shrugged. The ninjas really weren't that much of a threat to him, after all he was wearing his crysis suit underneath clothing, and even with it deactivated that was more than enough to stand up against their knives.
The two of them found an empty alleyway and Ororo shucked off her clothing, once more brazenly changing clothing in public to her X-Men uniform, whose chest portion she had worn underneath her clothing. After moment she was ready and Harry had also canceled the conjured clothing he had worn over his crysis suit.
Harry gently tapped Ororo's forehead, and as she disappeared leaned in to kiss her. Since they were connected like this the spell he had just used on Ororo to make her invisible also worked on him, and allowed him to see her when they separated. He smirked slightly at her and said "ready to go?"
Ororo nodded with a smile, and the two of them took to the skies flying out of the alleyway and back towards where Harry had left the unconscious ninjas. Once there Harry again activated his mage sight, and was able to see the line of magic leading out into the distance. He wasn't certain what kind of spell this could be frankly, but it lead away from that bunch of ninjas clumping all together and moving away from the city. It ignored walls and distances, which was handy for them allowing them to follow it from the air with ease.
As they flew Harry said "It was a good idea of Scott's to use Charles to link up their minds like we had Betsy handle communications with the Gurkhas in London. He is growing all the time."
"Indeed," Ororo replied absent mindedly, luxuriating in once more being in the air. This past week she had not had time to go flying, or even the energy most days.
But this was glorious, and she leaned in, pulling Harry kissing him hard on the lips for a moment as the sheer joy of flight once more took her. She could see it affecting Harry as well, and they began to do loops and curly cues around one another while still following the faint line of magic that Harry could see.
A moment later Ororo recalled what they had been discussing and said, "Though I have to wonder if Logan will take to his orders well."
OOOOOOO
Logan and not been having as easy a time of it as the others because he was indeed the main target for the Hand's attack. Rather than eight or nine ninjas or even a dozen as had attacked Charles and Harry, he was faced with several dozen coming at him from all directions.
The Canadian born wild man was good, very good at what he did. Yet it was only because of his adamantium laced bones and healing factor that he was still on his feet and a going concern by the time Scott and Rogue arrived on the scene.
Rogue gaped at the sight of their teacher fighting as if he was completely uninjured despite several swords actually stuck through his body, a few through his chest and out the other side, one in the meat of an arm, another in the meat of his thigh. Yet for all of that he was still moving fast, roaring, yelling, his claws and feet and even at one point his head taking a bloody toll on the ninjas attacking him.
Scott on the other hand didn't bother looking at him, he well knew that Logan had a fantastic healing ability and wasn't surprised that he could still keep fighting despite looking like a pincushion. Instead he simply pulled off his sunglasses again and fired a full strength blast down the street, clearing the way of ninjas, throwing their bodies and parts of bodies away. This wide beam wasn't exactly a cutting or penetrating force, but it still had much the same ability especially on unarmored targets.
Rogue shook herself out of her stupor then charged forward, slamming into a few ninjas smashing them aside. She ignored their knives and swords, which cut it into her clothing but couldn't actually penetrate her skin.
Faced with the two newcomers joining forces with Logan, the few remaining ninjas began to fade into the background, retreating swiftly. Seeing this Logan moved forward, but stopped when Rogue grabbed his uninjured shoulder and Scott moved in front of him. "Don't, we need to regroup with the others."
Logan growled and made to pull away but Scott came up and ruthlessly began to pull the swords that were still stocking Logan out, the pain of it grabbing Logan's attention. "We need to know what's going on Wolverine" he said, pulling out another blade while around them the dead bodies of the ninjas began to turn to dust. "The others were attacked too."
That information was enough to shock Logan enters moving with them, despite the fact that he didn't really like taking orders from Scott. Still his point made sense, but he resolved to sit down with the kid and tell him that there were in point of fact severe limits on how much actual authority he had over Logan.
OOOOOOO
Ororo and Harry traveled through the air for several hours following the odd line of magic moving northwest of their starting point of Hoi An. As the sun went down they came upon what looked like a hidden monastery deep in the jungles of Vietnam along one side of a mountain which had been transformed into some kind of fortress. The two of them flew higher into the air, and Harry used the spell he had used on Ororo to give her owl site during the battle in London which allowed them to stare down at the fortress well beyond what anyone in the fortress could see them from.
"Interesting," said Harry looking down. They could see over six dozen ninjas practicing martial arts outside, while one ninja in a slightly different colored uniform moved around in front of them. The ninjas however were not what had grabbed his attention. What had was the helicopter on a pad next to them, as well as over a dozen heavily armed men moving around. They weren't soldiers they looked more like mafia enforcers or something like that.
"An organization that deals in assassination would obviously be connected to the local crime syndicate," Ororo answered frowning thoughtfully as she stood in the air looking down past her feet at the fortress. Harry had decided to lay down in the air and stare down that way, but she thought that looked rather ungainly which was possibly the point, Harry had a very odd sense of humor at times.
"I understand that, but look there," he said pointing, and she looked down at the helicopter, from which two prisoners were being pushed. One of them looked like a young man, well-built and with Asiatic features who wasn't wearing a shirt. But the other was clearly white and was wearing a very nice suit but both of them had been roughed up badly. "I wonder what that is about?"
"Should we attack them now?" Ororo asked, her eyes crackling with power.
Harry frowned faintly, then he looked up as they both heard the sound of several more helicopters coming towards them. "I don't think so, let's head back and find out what the bloody fuck is up with these guys attacking Logan and us, find out what he can tell us about them before we charging blindly. Hostage situations are never a good thing, and charging blindly plus that would be even worse." Ororo nodded, understanding that information would help them quite a bit in their assault.
As he said that the lines of magic that they had follow from the ninjas he had taken out back in Hoi An to whatever was in this fortress shattered, disappearing quickly. Maybe they had some way of killing their men from a distance just in case they were captured. It wasn't by magical means though, I would have seen it.
Harry could still see over a dozen large bands of magic made by tiny thin lines bunched together, probably heading out towards other hitting training grounds elsewhere. This place was definitely the headquarters, though Harry could see a very faint line heading out towards where he estimated it would cross the ocean. He wasn't certain what to make of that one, and it faded as he tried to concentrate on it.
With a sigh he shrugged. "Let's head back quickly. I think with those prisoners there we need to get in there as fast as possible." Ororo nodded and Harry turned, racing through the air back they way they had come, with Ororo speeding along after him.
OOOOOOO
Jean met them in the air above the hotel, hugging them both briefly. Harry let his hands linger on the outside of her thighs, looking at her arm. "Anymore injuries while we were gone? Is that hurting at all?"
The redhead shook her head smiling at both his concern and his touch, which even as light as it was set her heart to racing. "Of course it isn't Harry, you've cast that spell on me quite a few times since we met, admittedly mostly in the Danger Room but still and I've never had pain afterward. What did you two find?"
Harry motioned her down to the ground, saying "Nothing much, just a whole fortress full of these ninjas and a couple of the local organized crime members we think, and two hostages, or at least prisoners. Has Logan said anything about what these guys were after?"
"He refused to until you two got back, he was actually very angry that you went off alone." Jean chuckled a little bit.
Ororo shrugged as the three landed on the beach moving swiftly toward the bungalow that the X-Men were gathered in. "As long as they didn't have the equivalent of an Aegis anti-air platform I doubt there was much they could've done to us as long as we stayed in the air."
Logan had heard this from where he would had been pacing by the door and grunted a little. "Hadn't thought of that," he muttered than waved them inside.
Besides the X-Men the three local girls were there, with the three girls sticking close to Evan and Kurt.
Charles was rather amused at their insistence that they were safer with the group now that they had been so close to the Hand's assault. He had already talked it over with the two boys, and had convinced them that he would need to erase their identities from the girls mind, as he had done with the witnesses who had seen who had been attacked, which had been rather difficult in the case of Scott and Rogue whose assault had taken place on the other side of the city from his own along the river.
The two boys had refused to let Charles erase their identities from the trio of girls until he asked for permission to do so whereupon the trio had again surprised the boys in agreeing to let it happen after they left.
Kym however stuck to Kurt like glue, loving the feel of his fur, and doing quite a lot for Kurt's opinion of his own body.
Afterwards, Charles was rather disturbed. Before, the two teens would've agreed to his suggestion without even questioning it, he had after all used his powers to erase their activity in the minds of witnesses before, most particularly when they gathered in Kitty and Rogue as well as a few times when they had clashed with the Brotherhood in public.
Now however they had refused to go along with it, and that not only because they liked the girls, but because they felt it was unnecessary at this point and an invasion of privacy. Doing it to random bystanders who they could not ask to keep their identities a secret was one thing, since it was in fact in the bystanders' best interest too. That way they would be unable to identify the X-Men later to any enemies who might be looking for them. But doing it to people they had come to know and trust was quite another.
Charles was in fact becoming more introspective as time went on and he realized how much his 'trust-me' field had effected the people around him. He decided to think about that more later;, right now they had other things to think about.
"So," said Harry sitting down in a wicker chair. Jean moved over to the wall behind him leaning against it slightly, while Ororo sat on foot rest in front of him. "What exactly is going on here Logan?"
Logan very briefly and without going into much detail explained his previous run-in with the Hand, finishing by saying, "I didn't think that they operated this openly outside of Japan, but I guess they must have expanded their operations."
After the hairy one was done Harry and Ororo filled them in on what they found, as well as telling the group how far away it was.
Scott frowned. "I'm having trouble visualizing this place Harry, can you do a spell or something to show us what it look like?"
The wizard nodded and began to weave a spell that showed his memories of the place like it was a projection on a screen against the far wall. Scott moved forward quickly, as did Logan. The two of them looked at one another and the rest of the group could feel a little bit of tension building between the two, but didn't know where it was coming from. Cyclops however turned his attention back to the projection quickly. "Was there any kind of early warning system set out in the woods around this monastery place?"
"Not a magical one," Harry said promptly. "The only magic in the area is coming from the ninjas themselves tied into something deeper into the monastery." He frowned then shook his head "and then from that to something else possibly in Japan from what Logan said."
Logan frowned scratching at his chin thoughtfully. "There was talk about something in the Hand called the Beast, some kind of ceremony to tie them to the Beast they worshipped that protected them from some forms of detection; that is probably why you can't find their minds Chuck. I'm actually surprised you can get that much from them Harry."
The wizard frowned. "That's the difference between amateur work and professional work I suppose. Though the connection from here to Japan is so faint I doubt I could get a handle on it. That at least was more professional than the ones around here. What do you think about the prisoners?"
Logan shrugged. "The Hand are able to indoctrinate people into their philosophy, somehow overriding their minds and thoughts and imprint the ones the Hand want them to think. It varies from a fast to slow though normally it's reserved for people they think would be of help to them. This young guy you describe sounds like he might be a candidate for it, but the old guy, no. It might he went on be some kind of business arrangement with a local crime syndicate. The Hand isn't into gloating over its enemies, but there are crime bosses who would do that kind of thing. It seems almost be a prerequisite for the job."
"Villains everywhere have that issue, trust me on that," Harry responded dryly remembering his fourth year, when he was stuck in that graveyard and Tom Riddle was gloating about it. If he hadn't gloated and simply killed Harry right then and there, well he would've killed his horcrux that much quicker, but he would also have had his minions around him to finish the job before Harry could recover.
Scott had continued to look at the map, concentrating on the area around the old monastery and eventually he pointed at a spot uphill from the monastery. "This place looks to be a good landing point if it's clear, but I don't trust it." He turned back to Harry. "How confident are you that no one would be able to see you under that spell you and Ororo used?"
Harry shrugged. "It would depend on what I was doing. The more frenetic the activity the more likely it is to fade." That was true even with a spell he overpowered, that particular spell just didn't work that way. It bent light around you, and if you were moving that meant you would be bending light in very odd ways.
"Do you think you could sneak in and find a place for us to teleport then? Somehow find a place come back to us with that port key thing?" Scott asked.
"Actually," said Ororo thoughtfully "we could use some of the house elves couldn't we?"
"A house elf" said Harry shaking his head. "Unless you want me to go back and grabbed them, we're way too far out of most of their ranges. In fact I'm not even certain if Cory could reach us here."
"Cory can!" said a high-pitched voice right behind him as a pop was heard, "Master calls for Cory?"
Harry turned and looked at the teleporting expert who was bouncing up and down in delight. "Have you been practicing?"
"Yes master" said Cory smiling widely. "I's not able to pop to places I not know, but I's practice popping from the Califroni place and back to Hogwarts then up to High Note."
Ororo's eyebrows twitched at Cory's lack of grammar, but decided that that little fellow was too excited to have remembered her teachings so did not make an issue of it at the moment.
Harry nodded. "Well good for you then, we could use your help with this one." The Wizard turned back to the others. "With Cory here I think I can figure out a place for you guys to land. Is this going to be a quiet operation or what?"
Charles frowned faintly. Originally he had wanted to simply say that they could retreat back to New York, but the fact that this Hand group had taken prisoners negated that idea. "I hate to say this, but I think we should go for a full on attack. It's obvious that someone recognized Logan, and they called in the local chapter or whatever. This place is the headquarters of their organization in Vietnam; if we take it out and they shouldn't be able to be in a position to bother us, or even know what happened as long as we take out all the witnesses."
Rogue shivered a little, not really looking forward to fighting again after having killed for the first time, and Scott caught the movement. "No offense Professor but if you can't use her telepathy then in an unknown place like that you'd be just a sort of glorified communications device, so I don't think you should come with us, and we probably should leave behind a bodyguard just in case." He looked over at Rogue said softly "Rogue do you want to sit this one out?"
Rogue stared at the spectacled youth, searching for some sign that he was looking down on her or was being facetious or condescending in any way, but didn't see anything like that there. For some reason that stiffened her resolve, and she shook her head firmly. "There's no way ah'm sitting out this out sugah."
Kitty spoke up from where she had been sitting at the small dining table this bungalow boasted eating a full plate of the local food, mollusks with something that she didn't recognize and a lot of vegetables in a sauce. She was actually on her fourth plate, the runic arrays she had powered to take out the group of ninjas that were attacking her Jean and Ororo had taken a lot out of her. "I want to go too. I know I'm not exactly a field agent anymore, but I think I proved that I still have a bit of a punch to make. Besides… Wait here I've got something I want to show you all." She grabbed up her bag and raced into the bathroom, shutting the door quickly.
A moment later he returned, though at first no one could see her. It wasn't until the chair she had been using scraped back across the floor that they knew that she was there again, and Kitty blinked into existence already eating the food that she had left.
"What was that?" said Scott intently.
"Well you know how even in my ghost form I was visible right? Well I put a invisibility array on my suit. It covers my body a sort of chameleon effect."
Harry and Scott exchanged a glance and actually shivered a little. Kitty already was a master at infiltration given her mutant power, making herself invisible like that? That just made her scary. "Kiss your secrets goodbyes!" muttered Harry to himself shaking his head and grinning at his apprentice. "An excellent choice Kitten," he said reaching over and patting her on the head.
Kitty nodded. "I can go in while you guys are causing a ruckus and find the prisoners and release them if possible. Then we can call in Cory to teleport them out right?"
Cory nodded his head fiercely. "Cory can pop anyone out Miss, so long as he is called to a place by his master." He frowned and tried to explain. "This whole thingy, it not be just a room, but if it be's in any way the same place House elf magic be allowing me to figure out where everything is, though I still not popping until I be called."
Again Ororo's eyebrows twitched, but it was obvious that Cory was trying to explain a process out loud and he didn't really know how to do, so she let it go.
"In that case I think we got the makings of a plan," said Harry. "Anything we should be on the lookout in particular for Logan?"
Logan shrugged. "Don't know much, frankly I'm lucky I can remember that time in Japan at all given what the weapon X program did to me a year later, but other than their ability to blend in and go to ground, they have a few sorceries, mind control techniques I think, that ties into the indoctrination expect. But other than that I got nothing."
Harry nodded. "In that case I think everyone should get their gear on. I don't think Kitty completed any of your other arrays," he asked looking over at her who and she nodded, "but they would still be better defense than your regular clothing
The others all nodded, and Jean stood up purposefully. "I'm going to go back to that shop would past, and see if they are finished with my uniform."
Rogue stood up to. "I want to see the same thing sugah."
The others hadn't really decided on a uniform design yet, but these two had and had worked with the people at the shop far more than the others had. Rogue had gone first allowing her to head off with Scott later, while Jean went second.
They were all soon back, and the others looked at what Rogue and Jean had decided on his uniforms with approval and mixed feelings.
Rogue had decided on a green and yellow uniform, skintight across her body, with a background of green with yellow highlights at her in the form of a wide stripe down the front and legs as well as her collar and cuffs. The whole thing looked rather good, and showcased her still growing body for good effect which she was happy with given the way, Scott was now looking at her.
In stark contrast to the green and yellow of Rogue, Jean had settled on gold and flame red. Her main color was gold, but it had a flame red sash around the middle, and the image of a bird of fire on her chest in red. (Does that sound like a good description of their uniforms – not quite dark or regular phoenix, but almost the exact same as Rogue's original uniform?)
"Mm very nice" said Ororo appreciatively. "It certainly fits your personality my dear."
Jean dimpled at her while keeping her eyes on Harry was looking at her appreciatively with something else in his eyes. She flushed a little under that gaze, but also smiled back brightly when he smiled at her.
Kitty noticed this as did Logan, and while Logan frowned wondering what the hell was going on there, Kitty merely giggled.
Charles didn't notice anything, since he was with Scott complementing Rogue on her choice of color, and Evan and Kurt didn't notice anything as they were being teased about their uniform by the Chi and the other two.
Harry raised his voice getting everyone's attention. "I think we're ready to go. I'll head out now, and then call in Cory and then he can pop back to you all and bring you in as well."
The others all nodded and Ororo leaned in to kiss him briefly on the lips. "Stay safe my love."
"You know it," Harry replied grinning at her. With that he lifted off from the ground and flew out of the bungalow and up into the air.
About thirty minutes later Cory popped out briefly before popping back in. "I now know the places sirs and ladies. I be able to take you four a time please."
The group split into two groups and a moment later Charles was left alone with three local girls. After a moment of awkward silence Chi asked "should we get you anything sir?"
Charles waved her off and moved over to where his bag was picking out a book. If he was going to be left behind to worry he might as well get some reading in.
Kym, Chi and Hoai Ai took one look at this, then nodded to one another and decided to go out and grab themselves some food. However they would be back, no way were they going to let this interesting group out of their sight for long, it was just too much fun.
OOOOOOO
Harry flew back to the Hand's fortress as swiftly as his magic could let him which it turned out was very fast indeed. When he not ten minutes after leaving Hoi An he noticed there were now four helicopters in the training field to one side of the fortress/monastery thing, and half the ninjas who had been practicing were gone while the other half seemed to be meditating or something.
This made it much easier for him to land in the surrounding forest, and from there he moved forward into the environs of the monastery itself. Before he did so however Harry took a moment to pull on his invisibility cloak, trusting in it more than he disillusion spell to keep out any magical eyes that might be around. Logan might not have known of any such, but the Hand did delve into magic, and that was enough to warrant a bit more caution.
There wasn't nearly enough people around to give him trouble in that way, but when he stepped out into the training grounds he stepped on gravel and realized that it made crunching sounds underneath his feet. Crap!
There was a brief moment there right after he stepped on the gravel that he thought that some of the closest ninjas had sensed them, for they all turned in his direction, their eyes opening from their previous meditative pose. Thinking quickly Harry cast a modified Avis spell behind him, summoning a small bird, which squawked and moved out and way from him. The ninjas were paranoid however and continued to stare in his direction for a few moments before finally turning away.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, and then cast a silencing spell on his feet. Just as a precaution he also cast a spell that got rid of any kind of smell, after all there was no reason to assume that there weren't dogs or anything like that around. This was proven to be a very good move when he moved towards the monasteries front entrance, which was in point of fact the only entrance it had.
On either side of the doorway were large statues or what he had thought were statues but were not in fact statues. As Harry moved closer he could see the they were breathing, and moving their heads slightly. One of the ninjas from outside stood up, and five others trooped inside within, though they all had to stop and be sniffed by the statues.
These were not regular dogs however. They were huge, standing as tall as a man sitting down on their haunches. Their features were a cross between a bull mastiff, a chow and some tentacle fiends from hell. What Harry had thought was a mane going down their backs was in fact small tentacles that rose with spikes on the end, moving under their own power. Their claws and fangs were huge and looked very sharp as well, and their skin looked like a rock covered with a kind of bronze or copper colored armor. Harry doubted that it was really bronze or copper however.
Yeah, let's not try my luck here. With that thought Harry moved around the wall of the monastery until he was directly below a window on the second story. He flew up to it which allowed him into the environs of the monastery, though he had to scoot around two ninjas who were meditating right by the window, then through a dozen more who were seated on straw mats all around the room.
The first two looked around, obviously able to feel his passing somehow, air displacement maybe, even if they couldn't see him. So to combat this Harry moved into the air again flying over their heads to the doorway. There he waited a moment, making certain none of the ninjas inside had realized he was there. After a moment the two by the window closed their eyes going back to meditating.
After that Harry started to move through the monastery fortress trying to find a place safe enough to do for a destination for Cory to bring the others. He was a little unnerved by the fact that there was literally no sound of voices or anything else at first. This faded as he found the staircase leading up and down. There was a murmur of voices coming from two directions, a weird odd droning cadence from downstairs and two one side, and the sound of at least one raised voice followed by a scream in another voice from the floor above. At the top of the stairs on the third floor stood four heavily armed gangsters, looking around themselves warily.
Harry's eyes glittered, knowing the sound of torture when he heard it, and he had to fight with himself for a second to stop from charging forward and starting something all by himself. It wasn't that he couldn't possibly have taken this whole place out by himself, but he was a teacher. This whole thing is a learning experience for the kids, and what kind of teacher would I be if I don't allow them to take the 'final test' so to speak?
He moved downward, finding an empty room at last on the first floor. It was right next to what looked like a storage room for food, but it was thankfully empty at the moment. He ducked inside, casting a low powered Notice Me Not on the open doorway, since it didn't have a actual door to keep anyone passing by to see inside. None of the rooms he had passed had one. With that done he moved to the center of the roof and said softly, "Cory?"
A second later the house-elf popped in his ears flapping exuberantly. "Master calls Cory? Is master wanting me to bring the exe-men and the missyies now?"
"Yes, get them here as quick as you can."
"Cory will do," the teleportation specialist responded quickly and popped off group. A moment later he returned with Ororo, Jean, Cyclops and Evan first.
Cyclops moved immediately to the door, one hand rising to dial down the setting of his visor. He looked over at Harry, while Ororo and Jean merely looked him over as if to make certain he was all right. Scott however looked over for a very different reason. "Did you find where the prisoners are sir?"
"Generally yes," Harry replied at while Cory popped in with the remaining three. "Rogue, you come with me. We'll get the prisoners free first of all. Nightcrawler, Shadow-Cat, head outside." So saying he hit them all with the dissolution spell, it wouldn't last long once the action began but it would make them unseen. "Just cause as much chaos as you can," he said looking at Kitty. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to but I want those helicopters out of commission."
"How many are there?" Cyclops asked, "Ninjas and helicopters I mean."
"There are about 15 gangsters I think, heavily armed from what Ororo and I saw, but that was all we saw, so take any force estimate with a grain of salt. Up to 200 ninjas maybe in a place this size? Four helicopters."
"Any kind of armory or any other target?"
Harry smiled again realizing that Cyclops had taken his lessons on tactics to heart. "Not that I saw, I think all the ninjas go around armed all the time, that would certainly fit their MO wouldn't it?"
Logan grunted. "Let's do this already," he said, extending his claws, the 'snikt' resounding in the room. "What do you want the rest of us to do?" Logan ignored Cyclops addressing the question to Harry like he was the team leader.
"Where do you want them?" Harry demurred, looking over at Cyclops. He was the team leader, and Harry had already given suggestions on the force dispersal, the rest Scott would have to come up with himself. He filled the group in on what else he had seen, as well as the noises he had heard.
The team leader frowned for a moment then said "I think we should get Storm outside to help in the open with Kurt, her powers are best used outside after all."
Ororo nodded thankfully at that, not having liked the idea of being inside in an enclosed space for long. This room was all right as it had a small window along one side, letting in a faint breeze and the door was open, but she was not naïve enough to assume that that would be the case everywhere, and the stone walls were not helping at all. The weather goddess cursed her claustrophobia again. For all the therapy Charles and put her through they had not made any headway on it. That memory of being buried underneath tons of rubble in the US Embassy in Cairo was the stuff of her worst nightmares, and it haunted her still.
"If Rogue is going with you to free the two prisoners then Phoenix and I should stay together to watch each other's back and move to the main congregation of ninjas. Wolverine and Spyke, work together to move through the rest of this place and clear it out one room at a time. Phoenix can also keep us connected like Professor Xavier did in the city, and once we're all in position we can attack from different directions, pulling their attention every which way."
"Sounds like a plan," said Harry nodding approvingly. So far Cyclops seemed to be passing this real world test, though that wasn't so surprising since it was his second real life battle (or third counting the action back in the city). Now they would see if the others could do the same.
Phoenix however frowned, not liking the idea of using her telepathy in such a manner, but after a moment she realized she didn't need to let anyone into her mind, she just had to open up her outer shell right behind the belsham trees. Jean experimented with it for a few seconds then opened up a path through her trees to the wider world of the astral plane. She reached out with thin tendrils of thought, connecting each mind to her own, and then sending a brief message along it to make sure that everyone was connected.
During this Harry made a decision, and concentrating briefly removed a portion of the invisibility cloak covering his mind. Jean felt that and looked at him in shock, knowing how much he valued the privacy of his own mind. Even that time he took her astral projection around his mind there had been defenses, and she could only see what he allowed her to.
Harry simply met her gaze levelly a small smile on his face and Jean flushed, realizing that for Harry this was a very intimate act, a sign of his trust in her. She gently reached out, forming a connection between the two of them, and responded by making that connection deeper, letting the tendril of their connection into the main portion of her mind rather than the outer area of her defenses.
"Everyone's connected," she said mentally, sending the thought out to everyone's mind even Logan whose mental defenses couldn't quite keep her from making this kind of connection.
Cyclops shook his head. "We seriously need to look into some kind of communicator built into our masks or something, this is a very odd way of using telepathy, it's like using a elephant guns to smash a fly.
"Agreed," said Phoenix crisply, "but that's neither here there. Let's get the show on the road."
Logan growled agreement, leading the way out of the room, with Evan hard on his heels. A moment later Phoenix and Cyclops moved out as well, turning tom ove down the hallway in another direction. Shadow-Cat took Storm and Nightcrawler by the hand, phasing them through the wall straight to the outside, a sensation that had Storm gripping the younger girl's hand almost tight enough to cut off circulation.
Harry and Rogue stayed put however and she looked at him quizzically. "Ahh thought we were going to go save the prisoners?"
"We are," Harry replied, pointing directly up. "But why take the route where they know people may be coming from."
Rogue looked up at the silent stone ceiling and grinned. Harry chuckled as well. "First rule of taking a building of any kind no matter the size or layout, never ever attack your enemies the way they want you to."
Outside Kitty had finished transferring Ororo and Kurt outside, and Ororo immediately took for the air, hovering over the area where the majority of the ninjas were located. Kurt was looking at the moving statues a little aghast. After she let them go Kitty rested for a few seconds, then moved over towards the helicopters.
Ororo motioned to Kurt to switch places with her seeing the monsters, and began to hover directly above them about 15 feet up. They began to move their heads around, as if they could almost sense her presence yet couldn't tell exactly where she was. "My loves," she sent telepathically to Jean and Harry. "I believe we are ready out here."