]] Finders Keepers // Lost and Found

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby sprinted across the rocky ground toward the two people. He was quickly overtaken by Rogue, but that wasn't because he was going slowly. She had a slight advantage over Bobby, though he decided to give himself a bit of a speed advantage too. He needed to get in there fast because there was no guarantee the sentinels would continue to be distracted by Storm.

He coated the ground a short way in front of his feet in ice, continuing to coat area's beyond that as he ran. When his feet his the ice, he started sliding over this, moving his feet as if he were skating and speeding over the ground that way. It was a little less direct since he had to avoid a few patches where there were holes or larger rocks in his way, but got him there just as Rogue was telling the girl it was going to be okay.

He bent down to take a look at the boy. He was unconscious so it was no wonder Rogue hadn't risked picking him up. It wasn't that she couldn't have carried him, just that she didn't want to risk making him worse. Bobby was the safer bet.

Bobby hoisted the kid into his arms as Rogue asked if they should try to make it back to the jet or find a place to take cover. Bobby glanced at the battle between Storm and the sentinels. His whole mind was cool and collected as he tried to assess the situation. He actually surprised himself with how his mind didn't lose focus in a fight. Part of that was nature, part of it was practice, all of it was good.

"Let's try to make it to the blackbird. Storm's got them for now and that might be all the time we need. Besides, her lighting doesn't usually do much to them. If we want to wait until they're not a threat we'd need me to freeze them."

In and unspoken agreement they headed toward the jet, but that was when the boy in Bobby's arms stirred, muttered something, and then bolted awake. "Drop down now!" the kid shouted. He went dead weight again, either returning to unconsciousness or trying to accentuate his command. Either way Bobby tripped and went down.

The others dropped too, and none too soon. There was a loud explosion and burning debris rained down where they would have been. Had they been there none of them would have survived, or at least it wasn't very likely any of them would have.

In the odd silence that followed the girl asked, "Is everyone alright?" Bobby didn't even stop to consider how he and Rogue were supposed to be doing the rescuing, and yet these two had saved both of them and now wanted to know if they were okay. They were surefire recruits for the team with how they were handling this. Unfortuantely, someone else also heard the girl's question.

One of the remaining two sentinels turned toward them and a tentacle whipped out. Bobby only had a few seconds in which to react, somehow pulling off the one maneuver he never could when he needed it in practice.

With a loud clink, the tentacle ricocheted off Bobby's body, now coated in ice. He raise his hand and blasted the sentinel, freezing it in place. He got back up an onto his feet, taking Christian into his arms again. "I'm fine, but we need to get back to the jet now. That ice probably won't hold forever."

[Ororo Munroe]

It had not been her intention to let one explode like that, and before she had a chance to try and catch the debris with a gust of wind, it had fired outward. She looked on in horror as it went in the direction of the kids, who all seemed to... well... drop. It zinged right overtop of them, which was perfect. Of course, that meant she'd taken her attention off of the remaining sentinels - a point accentuated by the fact that there was now a rather sharp burst of light catching her off guard.

She fell through the sky, trying to shake off the feeling. Before she slammed into the earth, however, it was as though a small cyclone kicked in to life beneath her, not only cushioning her fall, but catching her completely. She lifted herself back into the sky, already starting to smell the burnt material from her back. Yet another suit would have to be crafted, as it was hard to repair these. Nevertheless, her mind resumed the fight, and she used that cyclone to her own advantage.

It kicked up several large chunks of steel and stone, riddling the next sentinel's body with a volley of dents and holes. Followed up with an arc of lightning from her fingertips, the metallic thing didn't stand a chance - it started frying from the inside, as the lightning zipped inside its body. The shock absorbers didn't do so hot from the inside. Acrid smoke rose from the chest cavity, as the monstrosity fell, with a groan, neatly shaking the earth when it did.

Now all she had to do was catch up to the last one - Bobby was protecting the boy, and Rogue had the girl.

Setting her jaw, the winds carried her towards the last one, the air already turning cold in her wake.

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[Christian Micheal]

He felt very lightheaded now - his power never really took anything out of him, but using them under these conditions was very literally draining him. He was glad that he'd been able to help, though, as he knew things would have gone badly without them. Of course, when he heard Iceman, he'd wished he'd looked a little further into the future, he might have been able to warn him of that, too. Nevertheless, his vision was swimming, and he was heavily uncertain whether or not he'd even be able to stand up.

He was still reeling from whatever had happened with Red. Coupled with the Sentinel attack, he'd been physically and mentally overwhelmed by it all - this kid was not a battle-hardened X-man... he'd never even thought about the Sentinels until this very instant. So, it should have come as no surprise, when Bobby froze the Sentinel, and hoisted him back up, Christian didn't object. He might have felt emasculated or something under other circumstances, but right now, he was fairly certain if they'd left him to run for himself, he'd end up captured or squished.

Unfortunately for him, he was an imaginative kid - he could only think of all the horrible things that might happen to them all on his account. He felt kind of guilty about all of this, the saving, the helping... as if maybe he hadn't used his powers so openly, or if perhaps he hadn't come here in the first place, looking for Red...

Nevertheless, things were hopefully going to be okay. He had to put his faith in the X-men, and all in all, that wasn't a terrible place to put his trust.

So, in the protective - but cold - arms of Iceman, he let himself fall back into a less-than-blissful form of unconsciousness. He just hoped that when he woke, it'd be in safety, not... well... anywhere else. He was 14... he wasn't meant for the fight. Not yet, anyways.

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[Anna Marie]

Making sure that she kept the young girl in her peripheral vision, Anna launched into a run letting Bobby stay ahead this time so that she could watch his back while he carried the boy. It wouldn't take them very long to reach the jet so all they really needed was a little luck for them not to be spotted. Unfortunately, Lady Luck seemed to like to put them through their faces and decided not to smile on them today. When Rogue first the boy say to drop she had wondered if he was dreaming and had sent a questioning look at Bobby's back for a split second before she heard the loud explosion and the meaning behind the boy's words hit her.

Bobby and the girl beside her had dropped seconds before so Anna let her knees give out beneath her and crumbled to the floor just as the flying pieces of metal reached them. Rogue felt a piece of metal graze the shoulder of her uniform but other than that the rest of the dangerous projectiles flew harmlessly overhead. It was a few seconds after the whistling of the metal cutting through the air that Rogue dared to look up. She saw that the others were on similar positions on the floor a few paces ahead of her. Red asked the question on her mind before she could and Anne was relieved to hear the positive replies. They had barely stood back up when one of the sentinels pulled away from attacking Storm and headed for them.

"Bobby, watch out!" she yelled when she saw the tentacle heading towards him and cursing herself for not seeing it sooner and not being closer.

Relief flooded her when she saw Bobby take on his near impenetrable ice form. When he finished putting the freeze on the huge sentinel, she ran up to him as he spoke.

"Hold on a sec." she said "and keep back."

The young girl turned to face the frozen sentinel. A quick survey and she pinpointed where she wanted. With a quick tense of her legs she jumped into the air, way higher than any person could allowing her power of flight to come into effect. Without warning Rogue raised her leg and gave the hip joint of the Sentinels right leg a roundhouse. The ice had frozen the entire mechanism and weakened it so with a huge crash her leg broke through and in the next instant the leg fell away from the mechanical body. As Rogue flew back down she karate chopped the machine's outstretched, frozen tentacles and watched as they shattered.

"That should give us some time." she said as she landed, "Let's go."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than did she feel the heavy footfalls of the last remaining Sentinel coming towards them. They were under attack...again.

[Red]

For whatever it was worth, they were all alive. Not one of them suffering a major injury that required a hospital and a lot of panicking on her part. Just a few scrapes and bruises, that’s all. And damaged uniforms… she wondered to herself upon seeing the less than presentable suits donned by the women. And she had to wonder if they had bones of steel of sorts, there was no way that their uniforms got damaged that bad and they didn't even suffer a scratch on it. Though her mind is on it's way to accept the unacceptable if you based it on all she's seen thus far. A flying woman who throws electricity on her fingertips, another one who could smash a robot's leg who's exponentially bigger than her and a guy who projected ice out of his hands. Yeah, she's starting to process it but acceptance is still miles away.

Drawing a shaky breath, Red started to rise on her foot and tried to maintain her balance. "I…what's happening here?" Her voice sounded hollow and weak, feeling the exhaustion seep into her limbs. Remembering to breathe, Red started to move with the two teenagers. Everything was going too fast, her mind strained to take in all the info. And yet, strange that she was able to remember every single detail whence her encounter with Christian up to this point. "Who are you…what were those things?" To stress her point, her head swiveled in the direction of the sentinels, where the white woman still waged a battle.

"Watch OUT!!" She screamed upon seeing the lone sentinel raising it's arms to direct an attack. What made her react in such a way is that, it's attack was pointed towards them. Not knowing what she was doing, her hands rose up to shield herself from whatever it was that the gigantic piece of metal tried to use on them.

Tried being the operative word.

As soon as her hands came up, the sentinel froze in place. One would think that it was suspended in animation, frozen in time. And then she heard a deafening sound, it's like hearing nails on a chalkboard. But this time louder and with a lower pitch. With a last metallic groan, the parts of the sentinel started…dissipating. Like suddenly, cold hard metal started to evaporate in the wind into small…pebbles? No, more like sand. The parts assimilated a size with that of sand and was blown into the wind.

Dead silence.

The only things that were heard were their shallow breathing. Green awed and confused eyes darted to her hands…was that her mutant power? She can turn metal into…tiny particles? Particles so tiny and less denser than wind itself? That means…she's also a mutant right? But that wasn't what she felt when the back of her neck became prickly hot all of a sudden. The reason could be all the eyes that were pinned to her. What did she do? It was good right? She just saved their butts…well not really…she helped to destroy one huge robot…so why were they looking at her like she came from another planet?

What the heck just happened?

[Bobby Drake]

Anna's warning had come a little late, but that was okay. Bobby had managed the move that he couldn't do half the time he tried it in practice and he escaped unharmed. His uniform was a different story, but that could always be fixed or remade. They got damaged all the time and it wasn't like they didn't expect that to happen. You can't go into a fight and expect to come out without a scratch.

Anna told them all to stay back and then proceeded to break off the leg and the tentacles of the sentinel, flying back to them and then starting to run along with Bobby as the remaining sentinel turned toward the four fleeing teens. It didn't seem to be interested in Storm any longer, which wasn't good for the four of them because they wouldn't make it to the jet before that thing caught up.

The girl was shouting questions, and yet Bobby felt like any of them would be better answered when they had more time, when their lives weren't at risk. He almost shut her out and missed when she shouted to look out. He whipped his head around to see the sentinel flinging a tentacle out toward them. Suddenly the red-head raised her hands and, after a few moments, the sentinel began to disintegrate into particles no bigger than a grain of sand. The thing was gone in a matter of moments.

Bobby turned to face her, his mouth hanging slightly open. The girl had amazing power. He couldn't quite understand what just happened. What she'd done had felt familiar, and yet Bobby couldn't place his finger on where he'd seen it before. Not right at this moment anyways.

Finally regaining his composure he said the one thing he could think of. "Let's get out of here before any more of those arrive." Then he turned and carried Christian onto the blackbird.

[Ororo Munroe]

There was a certain level of surprise one displayed when they were truly caught off guard. She'd intentionally darted to the side, so that the Sentinel would lose track of her, fully intending to bring the full force of her lightning down on it, when, it seemed to groan.

She had kept close tabs on everyone - or as close as she could, considering the circumstances. Her power of flight was limited, as it was more along the lines of riding the wind. But she did it effectively, albeit with a little more concentration than others might have. It made splitting her concentration dangerous - but she had done so with just enough presence of mind to see that all four of them were safe.

The Redhead seemed to be the only one in any sort of problematic shape. Confused, even.

Then it struck the weather witch precisely why she seemed so familiar. It made her eyes widen, and her breathing paused. The implications were far too widespread - but there was no doubt about it. She had done precisely what... she would have done.

Storm let herself fall back to earth, gracefully. Her white eyes slowly returned to color, as her power allowed the weather to return to its natural progression. They danced first over Bobby and Rogue, both who seemed fine, to the shivering boy in Bobby's arms. Then finally, to the unknown girl, who had literally ripped the sentinel asunder. Not for the first time, she wished Xavier was here to help her understand exactly what was going on.

For now, she simply let nothing but a warm smile show. "Iceman, Rogue, get them strapped in. I'll take us home." With a voice that was kind and gentle, yet broached no room for argument, she started towards the Blackbird. "And guys...?" She asked, before turning back to see them. "You did a great job."

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