Chapter 19
Everything happened in slow motion. Erik instinctively shielded Charles with his body. McCoy leapt over them both to pull Raven into his arms, she was pale and trembling, eyes wide she instinctively shifted to a thicker, more heavily muscled version of herself and clung to his thick fur anxiously.
Summers was trembling, clearly charging for a plasma blast as Armando and Moira flanked him on either side, weapons drawn.
The security teams of Earth’s elite had done the same and the dignitaries were flanked by heavily armed humans.
Erik’s lips thinned at the sight. That sound had been the Anti Aggression Shield powering down and given the fact that Charles was still at his side instead of having been teleported to safety, they were cut off from the fleet. Erik had no idea how that happened but it wouldn’t last long.
The humans responsible had to know that, he signaled McCoy- they had less than five minutes to wait for their tech to come back online which meant that whatever the humans had planned was about to happen.
For the next few minutes, Earth weapons were lethal and Erik could easily guess who was on the hit list. “Stay behind me,” he gripped Charles’ arm tightly. It might be for the best to send him off with the world leaders being hustled off the stage by their guards but he’d trusted the humans to arrange this ceremony and they’d failed spectacularly at that. He couldn’t put Charles in their care when none of them could be trusted to have his safety at heart.
The crowd had exploded into terrified screaming that rose up in a deafening roar. They were building up to a stampede though the police and security forces were doing their best to evacuate the grounds as quickly and safely as possible.
It wouldn’t be soon enough, Erik realized, whatever was about to happen was going to take out the stage and most of the crowd. It’s what any political terrorist would do.
By his count it had been just over one minute since the shield went down.
“Traitors get the bullet!!” came a loud shout everyone glanced around as the voice seemingly echoed from everywhere. A man was clearly speaking over the PA system but not from the stage.
Charles whirled around, pale and shaking he didn’t recognize the voice, but the hatred behind it set his body alight with fear.
Erik braced himself at those words and threw up a magnetic shield around the stage just in time for a barrage of bullets to imbed in mid air just inches away from their position at the podium.
The humans screamed and dozens of them froze at the sight. Erik would have sent the bullets ricocheting back into the crowd without hesitation had it not been for the surprising amount of concern he felt for the terrified humans alternately huddled in groups or running for their lives.
The importance of keeping them all safe and alive filled his mind with nearly single minded focus. The feeling was foreign, especially in regards to traitors which humans had shown themselves to be. He didn’t have time to parse the emotion so he melded the bullets into an amalgam and pulled it to his side to keep as a weapon.
“Erik!” Charles clung to him trembling. His head ached like it was going to burst. He’d never been in more pain in his life.
Erik reacted to the pain in his voice with pure terror. Had Charles been wounded in spite of his shield? But no he was physically unharmed; Erik pulled him close to soothe him and hustled across the stage to stand with Raven, Hank, Moira, Sean, Alex and Armando. Shaw was guarding the exit to the stage that the human elite had been lead through.
“LIVE FREE OR DIE!!” the voice echoed again, as another barrage of bullets hit Erik’s shield. The phrases seemed to be linked to acts of violence like military commands. He turned to Alex with a grim look, “I’ll take down the shield for three seconds. Take out the PA system, just the speakers.” He clarified, knowing Alex wouldn’t care to preserve the lives of traitors and would take out the media towers and reporters as well without hesitation or regret.
If he thought Erik’s orders were out of character he hid it well and gave a brisk nod, glancing at Armando out of the corner of his eye.
Erik understood his apprehension. It would have been better for him to show his powers during training where nothing could be damaged but there was nothing for it.
He lowered the shield and Alex wreaked havoc.
~~
The screams of terror had reached a fever pitch with Alex’s precise concussive blasts taking out the sound system. Erik quickly raised his shield just in time to block another barrage of bullets, though this time fire was returned by armed humans who had finally pin pointed the gunmen in the crush of the panicked crowd.
“You won’t escape justice, traitors!” A handsome young man dressed as a federal agent man yelled from across the stage, face twisted in hatred as he glared at the humans huddled together with the Genoshians. Moira’s eyes widened at the sight of him, “He’s rigged!” she twisted her body to shield Charles as Erik shoved the man with all his might but it was too late. He detonated in a fireball that would have left the building a smoking crater had Shaw not stepped forward and absorbed the blast in a shimmering, unsettling motion.
He turned his pale eyes to Erik and said with eerie calm, “I do believe that was nuclear.”
Erik had dropped his shields to shove the traitor aside but quickly raised them again as the gunfight in the crowd heated up but it was too late.
“Armando!” Alex cried. He was kneeling at the side of the injured man who had taken a stray bullet to the abdomen and been knocked to the floor with the force of impact.
Sean had also been hit but high up on his leg; Moira held him cradled in the protective curve of her body as an almost absurd amount of blood poured from his thigh.
Erik remembered him shielding Charles as Moira yelled. He’d taken the bullet meant for him.
“He’s bleeding out!” Charles cried in a panic, kneeling at his side and pressing trembling fingers into the bullet hole to staunch the flow of blood. It slowed but still pulsed out at an alarming rate.
Erik strengthened his shield, by his count it had been three minutes since the A.A.S. had gone down. He didn’t know how long Sean had but it wasn’t looking good. Moira was panicking, trying to keep him awake but he was fading fast, grey faced and trembling.
“MCCOY!” he yelled jerking around to see him with this huge palms wrapped tight around Raven’s neck, a sluggish trickle of thick cream colored blood steadily soaking his fur as it poured from what Erik could only imagine was a bullet wound to her throat. Her eyes were wide and panicked, glimmering dully in the weak winter sun.
Charles looked around the wreckage of the ceremony, terror printed on his expressive face, blue eyes filled with tears. He was horrified.
Whoooooommmmmm! The shield was back online and they were once again in contact with the fleet.
Erik had never been angrier in his life.
Heads. Would. Roll.