Recent Posts

Geo's grin stayed strong as Rebecca turned the joke around to the customers of the bar. A cough erupted from him as the beer caught in his throat mid drink. The coughing slowly turned into laughter as he caught his breath, working the drink out of his lungs. A older gentleman sitting down the bar seemed to catch his eye at the loud interruption. Still fighting through bouts of spasms the elemental held up his hand to dispel worry. Simply mouthing 'wrong pipe' to the man. His eyes, bright with fresh tears, then flashed over to the barkeep.

"Ought be careful there boss." His voice started with more grit that usual before clearing his throat brought him back to the usual gravel. "Don't want to say that too loud. Might hurt your tip percentage." As he spoke his eyes moved down, glancing at the well presented cleavage that wasn't too uncommon while she was working. Raising his eyebrows Geo took another drink of his beer as he averted his eyes back to the scenery.

"Though I think at this point that would be fair. Stacking the deck a bit don't you think?" He asked with a coy smile on his face as he gestured to her attire. Not that he would complain. Rebecca knew was a fan of her attire even if such things had remained somewhat buried over the years.

"And I do just fine thank you. Just know better than to ruin my favorite bar though." He spoke the half truth as he clicked his fingers against the bar, shaking a bit of sand onto the finished bar. "Could you imagine if every girl I've upset knew where I drank? I'd have more trouble than the whole team could manage." He sealed the thought with another quick swig.

As the stones fortifying his hand ground against one another Geo tightened his grip on the man. It was a familiar feeling, one that came easily to him. Opposing dominance onto a lesser for of humanity. Or one he had alway thought to be inferior. The ground around him swelled along with his anger. The access dirt at his feet rose up to cling to his body where he stood.

His attention was broken as a crimson appendage came from behind him. It shoved the man from his grip, the stone hand crumbled away with his attention. The thug skittered off into the pavement. Gasping for air as he came to a halt. Geo shot a look over to the girl who had manipulated the blood. The snarl still on his face though it dropped as her concern seemed apparent. He was left blinking, considering what exactly she had seemed to upset about though once he put a moment of thought into it the answer was obvious. Blood rushed to his cheeks as the sand around him fell limp as it went loose from his control.

Stepping back he shoved his hands into his sand filled pockets. Embarrassment rushed to the forefront of his mind as his mouth gaped and looked for the words to help defuse the situation. He had let himself get out of hand. In front of an X-kid no less.

"You're right, you're right." Was all he could muster. He looked out to the would be attackers who now were sprawled across the ground. Nursing wounds from the two. The people looking on from the store front had a similar look of fear, though it seemed to be focused more towards him. The twins, who he had been working with only moments before peaked through the dusty window with fear on their face. His first intinct was to turn to the woman and start making excuses, but excuses he didn't have. It had felt so practiced and natural to jump to such a level of response.

"I...I got out of hand."

Doc's voice breaking the radio silence caught the elemental off guard. Once the initial shock was aside a slight smirk formed on his face at the excited voice. As the team fell into place Geo kept watch on the far side of the hall, opposite the girl's entrance. He had a mental picture of the facility falling into place as Doc fed them the information he had collaborated. His small brethren became more apparent as he spoke. Small brown specs moving against the glistening surface and making their way over the security cameras and into the light fixtures.

As soon as the mention of combatants was heard Geo shifted mentally. Letting his stone limbs deteriorate into sand that hovered around him with a quiet hiss as the grains sifted over one another. They were trying to go for quick and quiet, hulking rock limbs were far from subtle that was for certain. But with the sand he could move quick. Touching his earpiece and speaking in a hushed voice Geo responded to Doc.

"Thanks for the heads up Roach. We'll see if we can get a visual." Removing his hand from the earpiece he looked over to the team. Raine was already going to work, unplugging security cameras and using her unique abilities towards a team advantage. He felt a bit of pride in their youngest member. They grew up so fast. Agnes of course was already well to work, making herself as hard to notice as possible. A deadly snake just looking to strike. They elemental looked between the halls. The far right was where the trouble was. They knew that. But the left was still up in the air. They weren't here looking for a fight. They were on a rescue mission and if they somehow alerted the forces before they were properly in place it could mean doom to anyone being held against their will.

"We start to the left, watch you're step because we don't know what we're walking into." The lights started to flicker over head, clicking off one by one as it slowly shrouded them in darkness. That would work to their favor but at the same time it only meant it was a matter of time until they had company of the unpleasant variety. The sand floating around him formed close to him, moving in sync with his steps as his bare feet padded down the hall to the left. Moving along the wall Geo came to the end of the hall where it branched off in either direction. Poising himself up at the corner Geo stole a glance either way down the hall. Both ways were lined with several doors. The elemental heaved a slight sigh. Why couldn't there ever be a door with a neon sign that said 'Mutants in Here'.

As the young X-man in training called into her com excitedly the small earpiece gave a sharp shriek in his ear. A smile formed in the corner of Geo's mouth as he chuckled softly at Astrid's exclamation. Had her enthusiasm for the mission not been clear before it certainly was now. She reminded him of himself when he had first joined the team.

"Good job Seraph. Thanks for being my eye in the sky." Geo pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose as he accessed the crowd. From where he one he didn't have a great vantage point so he pushed away from the wall. Sandy bare feet strode across the concrete and up to a guard rail overlooking the square. Luckily enough the landmark had a unique architecture to it. Layered stairs with wide terraces covered in pedestrians. It only took a few moments of crowd surveying to notice the man Astrid was talking about on the level below.

"Alright I've got eyes on the target." Moving back into the crowd. Years of living in the city had made him verse in navigating the crowd. Your average New Yorker wasn't dissimilar to a herding animal, easily falling into groups and moving as a singular unit. His exposed feet fell easily into pace though his tall stature allowed him to gaze over the crowd at the man who was moving against the crowd. It made him stick out like a sore thumb. As he reached the same plateau as the man Geo stepped away from the crowd, making a B line directly for their target.

"This guy has a history for violence, be prepared . I'm going to try and talk to him first." Not that he thought it would amount to much but he had to at least try. Being a mutant in this world was a difficult thing and Geo wasn't going to assume the worst on first meet. For all he knew this guy could just need someone to level with him for a change. Though he would never get the chance to. As he came up behind the man a long black tendril emerged from under the mans long coat and caught hold of the closest person it could find, a middle aged man who seemed a bit too plump for his suit. Reaching behind him Geo pulled back the seal of the bottom of his back allowing sand to fall around his feet as his pace quickened.

"Scratch that Seraph. On me, maintain a low altitude. We've got trouble." Catching the sand at his feet in his control he gathered the material around his feet churning it under him in a landslide effect to carry him forward quicker. More tentacles protruded from the coat as the wearer seemed to shrug it off and let the fabric fall to the wind. The man had a stocky frame, his coarse brown hair as much of a mess as the tattered green sweet suit he wore. He cackled loudly as another tentacle rushed out to swoop up a passing hipster girl. The remaining two tendrils lifted him into the air. His laughter grew louder as he rose above the panicked people fleeing the scene.

"Petty insects! Behold your species' next stage in evolution!" The target's eyes, hidden behind thick glasses, fell on Geo as he did his best to slide through the mob running for their lives. A snarl curled on his lips as he realized he had walked into an ambush. Coming up on the target Geo pulled the sand up from under his feet. As he ran it formed and pressed into his arms, hardening as it added to his hands and forearms.

The man stepped back at the approach, his tendrils carrying him across the platform. In a long swooping motion the tentacle holding the girl lashed out, lobbing her into the air as a intended distraction.

Geo looked between the two girls. Their simple responses leaving him with a conflicted conclusion. Either they understood him fully or he was just beating a dead horse. Rebecca made it look easier. Shifting uncomfortably the elemental shrugged before turning back to the wall.

"High ho high ho it's off to work we go." The earth began to break away again as he moved his hands out in front of him and continued to chip away at the tunnel. He adjusted their angle slightly as they went, assuring the reached the correct point of entry. As they drew closer he could feel the void in the dirt head, the pillar of absence rose up to the surface far out of his field of sense. Beyond the base of the elevator was an even more extensive void which stretched further than Geo could sense, their target. Of course they would try to hide their labs so far below ground.

Monsters like these people always made Geo sick. Having been with the X-men as long as he had this sort of situation had popped up time and time again. It was easy to get lost in a sense of anger for the people that were behind these warped facilities. As the final section of the tunnel moved out of the way a sleek metal surface was revealed. Giving a satisfied nod Geo brought up two large pillars on the the far sides of either end of the steel structure to assure the tunnels stability.

Striding to the far wall Geo plunged his arms into the wall of dirt. Pulling the material onto his flesh, adding to the structure and hardening the material around him he pulled two hulking stone arms back out. He flexed the stone limbs for a moment, pieces of stone crumbling away as the cracked surfaces ground into one another.

The steel wall peeled back easily for him. His stone hands crushing through the structure in a wide arc as he pulled off a large section. Giving them a wide entrance. Shining his light into the elevator shaft Geo was partially relieved to see the elevator was not at the bottom. It would have made a lot more noise to get through than Geo would have liked.

He dropped a foot into the bottom of the shaft, his feet meeting the concrete base as he assessed their surroundings. The doors leading to the labs stood on the far wall opposite their entrance. As the girls made their way in Geo slowly began to pour piles of fine dirt into the room along with them. Just as much as he could muster while maintaining his stone limbs so it didn't amount to much but it was enough to get the job done.

The elemental could have easily bashed his way through the second pair of doors though that would have created too much noise. The last thing he wanted was their targets to get a heads up to their arrival before they were ready to go. Sand worked its way between the door, slowly build as Geo clicked off his tactical light leaving them in darkness.

As he forced more and more sand into the opening he used the leverage to slowly work the door open. A small thread of light came from the other side of the door though slowly expanded along with the opening. Once there was enough room for Geo to get his hands inside he pulled the doors open the rest of the way. On padded bare feet the elemental stepped up into the doorway, quickly falling into a crouch as he looked through the opening.

The long hallway was lined with stainless steel, fluorescent lights hummed overhead magnifying on the reflective surfaces. It was a stark contrast to the dismal dark tunnel and it took Geo's eyes several moments to adjust. The hall stretched out on either side of them, coming to a 'T' at each end. There was no security on sight as of yet, but Geo wasn't going to wait around for someone to show up.

Signally the all clear back to Combatant and Zero the elemental stepped into the hallway, watching vigilantly as the rest of the team entered the facility.

Grav Bomb seemed proud of his innovation, as he rightfully should. Geo always had a respect for people who took their mutation to heart and adapted to their surrounds to be most effective. That's what separated them from the humans. They were the next stage, on a whole other level than their predecessors and embracing that difference was key.

The elemental's eyebrows rose as his companion reached into a fanny pack to retrieve a coin. He watched through curious eyes as the coin seemed to take a new orientation of gravity. It whizzed across the room to land against a wall with more force than it would have had he of just dropped the coin.

A weak feeling came to his stomach at the thought of being made victim of the effects. The horrifying thought of being pulled away from the earth. Falling endlessly up into the sky and away from his element. The very thought of it made him want to crawl into the closest patch of dirt.

"Remind me to stay on your good side Bomber." Geo half joked though was visibly uncomfortable at the concept. "I like to keep my feet planted firmly in some dirt. That'd be a hard thing to wrap my head around." Walking up to the table Geo line up his cue with the 5 ball hanging on the corner pocket before smacking it in. The elemental blinked for a moment after the shot as the cue ball rolled away. Reassessing the table now he took a minute he realized in his conversation with Grav Bombs powers he had just instinctively gone for the easiest shot...despite it not being his ball to sink.

"Oh s***. My bad man." Geo stood up, rubbing his hair in mild embarrassment at his airheadedness. "Paying attention has never been my strong suit."

On the wooded edge of the chain link perimeter Geo looked in at the target in the distance. He stretched his muscles in preparation for the task at hand as he took in the last bits of fresh night air he'd be getting for the foreseeable future. The elemental knew as soon as Becca said 'subterranean' he was going to be the man for the job. Of course he was more than happy to the occasion and display his skills for the team. Stepping back he cracked his neck as he felt out the angle he'd be plotting their descent.

"Alright ladies. Grab that cool air while you can." Thrusting a hand at the ground the earth began to churn. "It get's wicked stuffy down there." Pushing out his other hand the ground began to part, sections at a time as Geo slowly built a tunnel wide enough for him and the two other X-men to make their way through. Once he had burrowed down roughly six feet he looked in turn between Agnes and Raine before his bare feet trod into the sloped tunnel.

It was a slow moving process. It was a lot to try and make a tunnel sizable enough for a group of people let alone the fact he wanted an open escape route. The whole point of the mission was to rescue some mutants this twisted lab had locked up for Gods knew what. They had no idea what they were walking into and the last thing Geo wanted to do was leave everyone trapped underground because he went and got killed. Hardening the dirt on the edge of the tunnel as well as a stone support beam every dozen feet or so ensured the structure of the tunnel. It was always a strange place moving slowly through the ground when he moved so freely when submerged himself.

The scent of freshly turned soil was ripe in the air as the dwindling light began to be an issue. Taking a moment Geo reached into a pouch on his sleek black uniform and strapped a tactical light to a patch on his chest to give them light. It was something he had to adapt into his uniform as it's regular use became apparent. Just as the pack that was strapped to his pack had been. Though the amount of dirt they he had to work with was far from an issue so he instead had stashed the mirror Becca had given him for them to keep in contact with Jesse and Doc. He continued on for quite some time, careful to maintain the same angle until he could feel the base of the elevator shaft. It was still ahead of them. Roughly twenty feet, but he could feel the absence in the earth as he felt ahead with his senses. As he shift the last section of the next stretch of tunnel he stomped into the ground erupting a stone pillar into existence to hold the structure. Heaving a loud breath he turned back to the girls.

"Target's just ahead. Once we're in try to maintain cover as long as possible." He tried to sound like he thought Rebecca would in these circumstances. He never fancied himself the leader type so he went with the best example he knew. His gravelly voice tried to carry the same certainty that hers always did on the matter.

"Remember we're here for the mutants first and foremost. This is a rescue mission. Any last questions before we go in?" His eyes went between Zero and Combatant as he bounced slightly on the balls of his feet. The adrenaline of the mission starting to work in the anticipation before their start.