Bethany looked over towards the others for a moment she had been pretty quiet up until now since they had left the mansion, everyone was separated into two three different groups. She really wanted to hurt Mesmero right now as well, she regretted what she had done to Carolina at least she was safe for now.
"So, whats the best way to take him out without killing his human shields?" Bethany finally asked.
Ayita padded along with the group, her amber eyes alert and there was no sense of mercy in them. This was nothing but a hunt. As brutal and serious as any she had done before and perhaps more so. Mesmero was plotting mass control which would not bode well for her family, or the rest of the world. That Mesmero was using human shields was a nuisance and she was sorely tempted to count them as part of the cost.
"We may not have a choice." Ayita pointed out, her lips tight with distaste about that fact.
"We avoid them best we can, take him out." And if taking him out meant killing him? Then she would make damn sure he would not get back up. It was brutal but sometimes that brutality was necessary. Nocking an arrow to her bow, the wild woman sighed.
"Or knock them out, disable them... Joints are a excellent place to hit." "Ayita, we are not going to kill any sort of civilian alright? Even if they attack us and get in our way, we always have that choice. It shouldn't be too difficult to just knock them out, smack a few heads around if need be to do that, but that should be it I would think... Odds are the civilians who are with him likely will be the ones attacking us. That's the thing about the way he works, he doesn't have any powers that are useful in a fight on his own, and just controls everyone else in order to defend himself. That's the other thing... Jean, think you can I don't know, protect our minds or something so that he doesn't get control of us or something with your telepathy?" "I believe so, it shouldn't be too difficult..." she said simply, using her powers to hopefully protect the minds of everyone else.
"So, do we have any sort of a plan going into this," Bobbi asked, hands tucked into her jacket pockets. She was used to fighting blind - not knowing much of anything about her opponent. In those cases, it had been life or death. Here they wanted her to make sure people stayed alive which put a twist on how she usually dealt with the enemy.
Sara remained quiet while the others talked. They were right, of course. Protecting innocent people caught under his control was important. But her thoughts raced to only one thing: Mesmero's death. He had caused her to nearly kill the people she was close to and see others attempt the same and she would not come to him in the hopes of capturing him. The old X-men team handled him and look what happened. He came back. No, a sure death was the only way to prevent this in the future. She hated that she was thinking along these lines now, but she could only see red.
"Yeah, well i'd rather not kill anyone right now. I did nearly killed Carolina at the mansion." Bethany said giving a slight shrug as she looked towards Marygold and nodded towards her.
"So some headbanging sounds easy enough then." Beth said, and started to make her way down the hallway to try and find Mesmero, she looked over towards the others for a moment before continuing forward.
Ayita stiffened noticeably, her fingers tightening about the arrow and pulling it back slightly. While they had been resting up in preparation for this hunt, Ayita had been forced into a talk with Marygold. It had turned out well enough, both women admitting their flaws and apologizing. Despite her brother sharing information that she hadn't wished Marygold to know Ayita had been thankful for the truce. It was uneasy, but she had thought they had come to a understanding. Ayita did not kill for enjoyment or because she was a blood thirsty animal. Ayita had always held killing off as a last resort when going against another predator, humans especially. Her mother, that horrid bitch, had drilled into the shifter's mind that it was her fault her father had left them. Her fault that her brother had left them to supposedly die all those years ago. Her fault a sister she had never met had died shortly after they moved to the furthermost reaches of society for her father's whims. She was a killer, a beast. A beast that kill a human was always labeled as dangerous and put down. So while Mary may have said those words before in misunderstanding, Ayita had thought she had explained herself enough that those cruel words would stop. Whipping her head around faster than was probably healthy, the younger Laine-Dyrkin bared her teeth and her voice whispered out in a all too quiet and warning growl. Her amber eyes looking wounded and there was no shortage of fury in them.
"And here I thought we had reached an understanding, human. I am not a killer." Ayita's voice held a unusual shakiness to it, as she whirled and followed after Bethany on quiet feet. Not sparing another glance towards Marygold. Her back stiff even as her eyes burned. Now was
not the time for this. They had the bastard Mesmero to hunt.
"That isn't what I meant Ayita at all, it was more of to everyone too. Killing is not going to end well, at all. So no killing, got it? And I am talking more than just deaths of any civilians..." she said, glancing around at everyone. Her eyes had shifted back the night before to her typical green, so it at least her gaze wasn't strange or anything anymore.
"As for plan, pretty straight forward... Take Mesmero down, and even though Jean is using her telepathy, as a precaution, if you end up getting really close to him, do not make eye contact, as that likely will result in him controlling you, alright?" she continued, as she followed along after Bethany.
As the group makes their way along the hallway, they will eventually find their target. Problem is that there were probably around 25-30 people in the way between them and him. That likely was not going to end well and Mary glanced back at everyone else,
"Yup, there are definitely a lot of civilians in this building... At least we aren't dealing with the bulk of the civilians like the group downstairs, be cautious, just knock them out and don't do anything else, once he runs out of civilians it should be easier to hit him..." she said softly to the group.
There was a small quibble again. It seemed that perhaps things were not as over between the two girls as they had been led to believe. She just hoped it wouldn't interfere with their objective. Bobbi reached her hand into the void and pulled out her trustiest of weapons, Captain K.O. She hefted the hammer experimentally and joined others at the front line. Maybe Marygold wouldn't be too mad if she broke some bones. No killing. Got it.
Without many commands from anyone, Bobbi figured it was better to start sooner rather than later. There wasn't a plan in place. So her plan was,
"Bobbi Smash!" She swung the hammer first down and then to the side. It seemed she misjudged the position of her hammer and the person's legs, whiffing miserably.
"Fuck me, cock blocked," she stated grumpily as she swung the hammer up into a more defensive position to prepare for the counter-attack.
Sara ignored the fighting. Mainly because she had already resolved herself to ending Mesmero. Regardless with what Mary thought or said, this battle would end with him gone. She followed them inside, coping Mary's power as she moved. It was the best crowd control option she had at her disposal. With it, she saw the one girl, Bobbi, whiff it and almost chuckled at her comment. She could see herself liking her. She moved and summoned vines from the ground, grabbing rougly 5 of the civilians and tying them up on the spot.
"Got some of them. Keep moving." "Well so much for being all quiet like." Bethany said as Bobbi decided to move forward and take out her hammer and failed miserably at hitting one of them. Sara took Mary's ability and managed to tie five of them up and smiled towards her friend, before turning her attention towards some more of the civilians. She extended the shadows forward and started to fling them across the room, watching as some of them hit the ground but they were still alive, and well as well as still awake to.
Ayita pointedly ignored Mary's words, wounded past words despite Marygold's intent. Eyeing the large group of humans, Ayita raised a brow as Bobbi charged forward with a giant hammer. Sara and Bethany following with their own contributes to the fray. It was going to be a pitch battle and such a shame. Eyeing the distance between herself and Mesmero, Ayita stored the arrow away in her quiver. It was too crowded to risk shooting him, but then her bow was not her only weapon. Making her way towards the threatening figure, Ayita whirled towards one man and slammed her bow into the man's head and her knee into the poor fellow's groin. He wasn't going to get up soon.
Mary was pissed off now,
Honestly why don't you just kill the little bird girl, honestly she's so annoying and no help, she's only causing problems for you in the long run and you know it! a little voice in the back of her head started saying. She knew that the voice was the same one she had heard the day before, the one that she hadn't been so sure was not something strange in the back of her head, but this was a bit ridiculous. She shook her head slightly, ignoring the words of the little voice. Instead she shot vines out from her pocket and sent them flying. They wrapped around five more people, knocking them to the ground, and a second later she had run up and slammed her foot into another one's stomach, knocking them down as well.
Jean knew what it was that Sara was thinking as she was partially connected to all of them in order for her to protect their minds, and let out a bit of a sigh, before telepathically conversing with her niece,
Death and killing is never the answer Sara, it will just result in more pain for you. Killing someone will change you as a person, and it is something that you can never take back. No matter how much he might seem to deserve it, you can't kill him. Sara flicked both Jean and Mary from her mind. They did not know what was going on with her even though her aunt tried. She had been forced to almost kill those she cared about. Surely her aunt understood that having dealt with Mesmero before. If you kept him alive, the chances of this happening again increase. They would be in danger constantly. She was fine with protecting humans who continued to hate her, but it was beings like Mesmero that caused them to be targeted. It was better he be put down.
Bethany started to move forward more as she extended more of the shadows around them, to make them more solid and looked around seeing three of the people there. She then hit them as hard as she could while not killing them, and watched as the three bodies fell down onto the ground. She smiled a bit to herself as she really wanted to get close to Mesmero and knock the guy around a little bit, she started to wonder how the others were handling things right now as well.
Ayita growled as she looked at the mass of humans between her quarry and herself. She did not want to shoot at the bastard and accidentally hit one of the humans, but there was no room in her for mercy towards Mesmero. He was a threat to her family, what she had now and what she hoped to build. Magneto? Scarlette Witch? Even Jakobsen! They all had walked away alive and she did not begrudge them of it. But Mesmero with her ability to work someone to his will? How could he be allowed to put what she cared about at risk? All he had to do was control her and then unleash the beasts within as he had done. Unintentionally, but he had done it. Her hand tightened about a her bow stave. He would not get another chance. Not again,
never again. Whirling into a group of humans she lashed out with her bow and kneeing them where it hurt again. Three of them falling to the ground. Just a few more, just a few more then she could finish off the threat.
Mesmero glanced over at the group, and he waved his hand slightly, the civilians with guns turned and started firing on them. Most of them were horrible aim, that much was obvious. Except for the last one, who fired off his shot and it slammed into Ayita's shoulder with enough force to knock her backwards. Mary saw this happen and sent vines flying once more, wrapping around the man and knocking him easily to the floor. The size of the group between them and Mesmero was shrinking, and she knew that this was going to end soon, one way or another, no matter what happened really.
Sara was having none of this, seeing Ayita get shot. She used the powerset she got from Mary to spawn a spore field around the remaining civilians in front of Mesmero. The spores, once up, unleashed a powder into the air, quickly entering into their airwaves. Inside, it would put them to sleep almost instantly. As one after the other fell, all that remained in front of them was Mesmero himself.
"Big guy is left!" Bethany watched as her friend Sara started to make some kind of field of plants, and watched them all launching various kinds of spores into the air. And one by one they all fell to the ground asleep and looked towards her friend and gave her a smile, that was pretty useful and she looked towards Ayita who had a bullet wound in her shoulder and winced slightly. She then tried to again use her ability, twice as both times she tried to make him hit his head on the floor nothing happened.
"Well this sucks really." Bethany said mostly to herself.
Ayita gave a shrill yelp of pain as a bullet ripped into her shoulder. Falling to the side, Ayita gripped the wound and gritted her teeth. First rule of survival was silence. If they couldn't hear you whimpering in pain, they would have a harder time finding you. Regaining her feet slowly after what felt like hours, Ayita looked at her blood covered hand and up towards Mesmero, careful to avoid his eyes. Her shoulder felt like someone had set it on fire. Worse than her ear had after the hunter had shot her, though it was not her first time getting shot Ayita chided herself as she staggered forward using the momentum of each step to give strength to the next.
"He. Is. Mine." Pulling an arrow free she nocked it to the string and pulled it back with practice, though the wound in her arm ached and screamed in protest. Her own voice raising a keening noise of pain. The bow clattered the the ground seconds later as the arrow slammed into Mesmero's own shoulder and she was a tiger that was upon him and clawing him with a single intent. His life. It was lucky that Mesemero got his arm in the way else she could have let him see what his innards looked like.
"That is enough Ms. Dyrkin," Jean said, finally speaking up and using her telekinesis to pull Ayita off of him. She still firmly believed that killing Mesmero was not going to solve any problems, and currently she was holding Ayita up in the air far away from Mesmero now.
"Killing him will not make you feel any better about everything that he has done, trust me there was a point in my life where I have thought like that once or twice. It will not solve anything." Mary was being quiet as all of this was happening, just watching Jean pull Ayita away. Her eyes were a spiral of colors before settling on the red that they had been the day before once more. As well as something else, and it would be a smell that Ayita was able to detect that the others wouldn't, and it was a smell she'd recognize. It was the same weird scent of sorts that she had picked up on yesterday before she had been controlled by Mesmero in the first place.
"Killing isn't the answer alright? The guy disappeared last time and was never actually arrested, so," she finally said with a slight shrug.
Bobbi did her best, knocking legs out from under mind controlled idiots. In the end, they were left with Mister Messy Toes and some self-righteous speeches about not killing. She rolled her eyes but used them to her advantage. She snuck around the unconscious bodies and swung her hammer up to blindside and knock the motherfucker the mother fuck out. Instead, she misjudged and hit the wall just over his head as he moved just barely out of the way.
"Oh come on," she growled at him.
"Sit still so I can hit you." Sara had red in her eyes. Her aunt was holding Ayita back and she couldn't understand why. Hell, even Mary said it best. He disappeared and wasn't arrested last time. She looked at her aunt and copied her powers, feeling the change inside of her. With Mesmero in her line of sight, she ran at him, holding her hand out and feeling the force from it. However, the figure before her shattered like an illusion. She started to get angrier before she realized she still had someone in her hand. Mesmero was hidden behind his illusion and she managed to latch on to him, pinning him to the wall.
She had him there. What prevented her from just snapping his neck?
"You controlled me. Made me hurt people. Give me a reason to end it here and now!" Part of her really wanted to, but she could hear Jean and Mary' voices of reason. And they were right. It would not make her feel better.
Bethany looked over towards her friend Sara and started to make her way over towards her to try and comfort her friend just so that she wouldn't do something that she'd regretted. Sure she really did want to maim and kill the guy for having her nearly kill Carolina and Annie back at the mansion.
"He's made us do a lot of bad things, but it will make us just as bad as he if we ended up killing him. Just knock him out and then we make sure that he's put behind bars for good this time." "A cage is temporary. A cage will not hold forever." Ayita thought coldly having shifted back to speak. She did not trust anything to do with the mind around this bastard. He, Mesmero, had attacked the school which was bad enough. That he took control of people with the intent of using them to kill each other.
"He would have us kill our friends, family. He tried to do that. And you think locking him up will solve things? You failed to do so the first time. You want to try again? To risk him escaping or Magneto helping him escape? Or someone else?" Turning her amber gaze on Jean, Ayita bared her teeth.
"Killing him will only make me feel worse, I do not hold the illusion it will make things better. His death will prevent more bloodshed. I greatly dislike killing, it is a waste. But if that is what I must do to protect those I care about? So be it. For if he kills again, let it be known their blood is on the hands that let him live." Struggling she shifted through several forms. Tiger to hawk. Hawk to her arguably greatest form of all, the orca. Shifting back to her human form, she continued the struggle.
"Then we would be no better than him." Jean responded, still holding her up.
"Ayita, if anyone here has a good argument for wanting him dead it would be me!" Mary snapped at her, glaring at her.
"Because if it wasn't for me we wouldn't have really had to come here and he wouldn't have gotten what he had wanted! You were made to try and kill people, but so was I! But unlike you I was also used as a pawn in his game to make it so that he could take control of the minds of everyone in the world. You think that you are the only who gets to want to do that? You think that you are the only one who has problems like that? So just shut your mouth Ayita, because you honestly act like you don't even WANT to be here!" she took a deep breath now before turning to look at Sara.
"Sara, we would be no better than him or people like him, so please... Don't kill him, okay?" Mary said, sounding a lot calmer now.
At this point, villains tended to monologue. Messy Toes had been oddly quiet. Everyone else seemed endlessly distracted with this kill don't kill thing. Really now, someone should just DO something. So, Bobbi took it upon herself to fix it. She swung back the hammer and continuously slammed it against his legs. She was going for maximum damage - knee caps, femur, ankles. Everything broken. Each time the hammer fell against flesh there was a sickening thud and crack. She hoped the sound would shut up her team.
Satisfied that Mesmero would likely never be able to use his legs again, Bobbi heft the hammer over her shoulder and looked toward the group.
"We should probably get him to a hospital or something before he bleeds out." That should fix everyone's concerns. Bastard was going nowhere. Aaaaaaand he was not dead.
Sara stared the man in the eyes. Even after Bobbi came and broke his legs, the man was oddly quiet. Still, she wanted to be the last thing he saw before she closed his windpipe and knocked him out. She unleashed her hold on him as he crumpled to the floor.
"There. He's out. Let's get them to pick him up before I change my mind." She turned to face Mary and her aunt. She was still angry, but they did have a good point. She would be no better than him. And she still cared about human lives, even bastards who didn't deserve it.
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