Excelsior!

[Duke]

Duke sat down on one of the benches near the basketball court. Just a few days ago he and Deion had played a game of one on one here, but now the court was completely destroyed. The hoop had been ripped right out of the ground and was laying on it's side. The court itself looked like it had been ripped open by an earthquake.

Things were bad, real bad. Not just with Cybercide but with the X-Men in general. Duke wondered what was going to happen with the team, would they be moving or were they planning on rebuilding. Then his thoughts traveled back to the fight with Weapon Plus. Those bastards would pay for what they did to the team and what they did to Jill. Duke was stressed beyond belief so he pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. The nicotine patch he had been sporting for the last month was just not going to cut it this time. He took a long drag and instantly felt a bit calmer.

He knew that Gray was probably pissed at him from leaving in the middle of her talk but he just needed to get out of there. He had a feeling that Deion was probably going to be having a talk with him about his attitude.

He sighed and took another long drag and exhaled into the cool night air.

TBC

[Cybercide Roadblock]

"Now, you just let me talk to him first, OK?" Deion said to Paris as they made their way out of the temple and back onto the grounds of the mansion. "We went to shoot hoops the other day. Bet he went down to the court to blow off some steam," he said as they made their way to where the court was supposed to be. All he saw at first was the broken hoop and the ripped up court surface. "Oh shit! Stupid Sentinels! I hate those crappy tin can bodyguards! But at least I see Duke. You stay here, Paris. I'm going in."

Deion finally made it over to where Duke was. "Dude, was the Hulk out here playing you or something? Next time tell him we play on his court so he has to clean up the mess."

As he looked around, Deion picked up a chunk of the ripped up court surface. "And you should not be smoking. You know that, right? Your sister will kill you, and do I need to get into what your Mama will do to you?"

Deion looked at the asphalt and concrete in his hands and then looked back to Duke. "You know, you are like this rock to us, man. To me and Paris. You hold us up when it all goes nuts out there. Look, losing Jill spooked Paris. That and Mr. Snacky Vampire screwing around in her head. I want to smack his face so hard his fangs break. But we need you. Don't go off and do your Lone Ranger gig, man. Please. If not for me, do it for her."

TBC

[Cybercide Arsenal]

Paris held back as Deion requested, but it was eating her up inside not knowing what was going on. She was not about to be like Emma and tap into the conversation. If lives depended on it, she would, but right now things seemed to be on an even keel. Deion and Duke were doing what they always did. They talked. She envied them that closeness.

Sure, Cybercide was like its own little family, but she still felt alone at times. Being a Summers from another dimension was not all it was cracked up to be. She never called the Scott or Jean here her parents. They weren't. She lost hers a long time ago.

As Paris waited, she saw some upended flower pots and started to set them back up again. She didn't use her powers to get the job done. She used her hands, scooping dirt back into the pots as she set them to the side of the walkway. It was something normal to do in this otherwise crazy situation. The yellow and orange marigolds looked the worse for wear, but it would have to do.

"Jill, we will kill the bastards. I promise," she said quietly as she sat down on a rock and waited for Duke and Deion to call her over.

TBC

[Duke]

"I know, I know...." Duke said as he took one last drag off his cigarette and then stubbed it out on the bench. He tossed it into the flower bed, normally he'd dispose of his butts somewhere else but the flower bed was trashed anyways. "I ruined my no smoking streak." He said with a shake of his head.

"I bet I really pissed off Gray." Duke knew he should think before he opened his mouth, especially around Gray. Cybercide was his team and aside from his sister, his family. And he didn't want to get kicked out. "You're like a bro to me, D. I'm glad I have you around and I need you to keep me in check."

He glanced over in the other direction and saw Paris over there. He knew that she was probably waiting around for the all clear. He was in love with her but never had the balls to express his feelings to her. Duke wasn't scared of anything, except for her rejection. He looked at Deion. "You can let her know it's safe to come over here now. I ain't gonna explode in some psychotic rage."

[Weapon Alpha]

It didn't take long for Alpha to find what he was looking for.

He led his team across the basketball court and up to where the others were sitting on the bench.

"So, is this what defeat looks like?"

tbc

[Cybercide Arsenal]

Paris was coming over to Duke and Deion when she got a message on her cellphone from Aeryn that she and Jennifer were going into New York with one of the students to get supplies. Paris sent back a reply of some stuff that the team might need and ended the texting a group walked over to Duke and Deion. She had seen the leader before, but she had never dealt with him personally.

"Guys," she said as she saw Deion getting into what could only be called his defensive pose. "No, you are not doing that, Deion. And defeat? Which particular one do you mean? The fact the Sentinels trashed this place, the fact Weapon X handed us a bunch of shit and we lost a teammate, or the great possibility we are leaving this place?"

"Uh oh," was all Deion said as he looked at Duke. "And she thought I was going to Nastyville."

TBC

[Duke]

Duke was already in a pissy mood, so the little comment of defeat was not appreciated at all. "Did he just say what I think he said? Or were my ears playing a nasty trick on me? I'm hoping it was my ears, 'cause if not I'm about to kick some serious A." Duke said as he and Deion walked over to Paris and the 'newbies'.

"What's up?" Duke said looking at Alpha. He knew who they were but Cybercide had never crossed paths with them before. He looked over at Paris to make sure they didn't shake her up to bad, she looked more annoyed than anything. Duke could already tell that Deion was keeping a close watch on both the leader and him. D, knew that Duke wasn't in a great mood today, and that these guys could very well set him off into starting a smack down.

"You guys, Section X. Yeah we know who you are. Just like I'm sure you know who we are." Duke looked at the others in the Section X group and then back to the leader. "Now, you want to repeat that little comment about defeat again? On second thought. Don't."

[Weapon Alpha]

"No, I wouldn't think of it. I was just curious, if you were satisfied with the status quo? Or perhaps, you were looking for some payback?

If the later holds true, then I might have an opportunity for you. That is of course, if it is an operation you are interested in."


tbc

[Cybercide Roadblock]

"Oh hot cakes," Deion said as he looked at Weapon Alpha and shook his head. "You should not be chatting with us Three Amigos here. You need to take to Dr. Bradley and Gray. If we go wander off on them, they will be pretty ticked."

"Hot cakes?" Paris asked as she looked at Deion.

"OK, I'm hungry, but what I said is true. We can do the lone wolf stuff and risk getting schooled, or we can loop the brass into this. Duke? I think I know what way you're going to go. I am not sure it's the best thing, but then again, I could never stop you anyway."

TBC

[Weapon Alpha]

"By all means, take it up as far as you need to. The more guns we get on this the better."

Alpha narrowed his eyes.

"We tracked your aggressors to a facility. My end, I'm tasked with the recovery of a high priority individual being held there. There are many more mutants being held, and probably experimented on. The facility is underground and is going to be quite a difficult breach. And probably a more difficult extraction.

I just thought you might be interested in tagging along, and taking another shot."

tbc

[Duke]

"I say we just go." Duke said looking at D and Paris. He knew that wasn't going to go over well with them but it's how he felt. "I feel like we're just wasting time here. I didn't want to abort the mission before, I just feel like we should go with with Section X. Screw Grey and everyone, let's just do this." Duke grabbed his helmet that was laying on the ground.

Deion was giving him 'the look' and Duke shook his head. "Yeah yeah yeah. Me and my shit ideas. Always getting me in trouble. Alright, let's go through the proper channels." He turned to Weapon Alpha. "I'll all down with goin' with you guys even if Grey doesn't want to be part of your little mission. I'm ready to beat the shit out of the mother f*ckers for killin' Jill."

[Cybercide Arsenal]

"Oh, I am sure Gray will be very interested to hear all this," Paris said as she did a quick mental sweep of the grounds. "She's down on the shooting range. We can head down there now. I'm sure Doc Bradley will be down there soon if he isn't there already."

Paris put her hand on Duke's shoulder. "We will get the SOBs that killed Jill, Duke. We will make them pay. But to do that, we need to get everyone up to speed. Alpha, when we ran into those sickos, they had an illusionist with them and a vampire who uses magic. Do you have any intel on them? The illusionist was the one who actually presented the biggest problems, but I got connected to that vampire mentally. If you have scramblers when we go in, you might want to use them. That vamp has a mindscape no one wants to visit. Trust me."

As she looked over at Deion, Paris shook her head. "I know. Sarge will get all freaky on this at first. He'll calm down. Let's head down to see Gray then."

TBC everyone here in the shooting range thread

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