Sue Storm and Just Plain Storm round the corner to the room where the Illuminati meet.
The roof, and one wall, have been blown down. A red glow fades away in the direction of the wrecked wall, as if a glowing entity were moving away from the meeting room, through interior walls.
In the middle of the room, where the furniture used to be, Iron Man and Namor are clobbering each other with their fists. Their eyes are solid red energy.
Off to one side, Reed Richards is strangling Professor Xavier with all ten fingers, formed into ten nooses. But Professor X is frowning at Reed, blasting his mind repeatedly, forcing the fingers to relax and then re-tighten.
"TO ME, MY X-MEN!" the Professor's voice rings out. "DESTROY THE INVADERS!"
Storm hears this telepathic shout. No one else does.
She has never heard Professor Xavier this angry. It is so strange, so unnatural, that she does not -- quite -- become enraged herself. Shouting isn't very persuasive.
She does, however, just know that Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and all the other X-Men with anger/trust issues are flipping out right this moment. Iceman's probably fine.
Reed, during one of the pauses while his mind resets from Professor X's attack, stretches his head over toward Storm.
"The rage ... is external, " he manages to say. "Caused by a red stone held by the Collector. You can't calm Namor down by giving him what he wants ... he doesn't want anything. He's just angry. It was done to him, by a weapon which produces mindless rage."
"You'll need help. But you need people who are harmless when they're enraged. War machine, Falcon, ... people who use complex equipment. Don't call in anyone who can cause damage without thinking. Don't call Thor, or Ben. Or Johnny.
"And for the love of all that's measurable and quantifiable, in all the parallel worlds of the multiverse ..."
He draws a breath.
"... do NOT contact Bruce Banner."
Then another ripple shakes his frame, and his eyes glaze up red again.
INVISIBLE GIRL
ReplyDeleteDuring the moment when Reed is sane, and not strangling the Professor X, she erects a forcefield between the two of them, separating the combatants.
Sue Storm waits until Namor punches Iron Man across the room or Iron Man punches Namor across the room, and she erects an invisible force field between them, wall to wall, bisecting the room.
Sue then says aloud to Professor X, "Please break everyone else out of this terrible mind control. I -- I cannot hold them apart long -- they are too powerful -- ah!"
(Pretending that her force fields are always about to fail from stress is just something she does so that Reed does not feel useless and unmanly.)
Contact Bruce Banner, what a good... Okay. No.
ReplyDelete"Where is the Collector?" says Storm. "And whom do I know whom is harmless? Nightcrawler?"
Storm will move toward a communicator to call for help while keeping a sharp eye out for the man with the red gem.