They were smaller than the thing that had called itself Samedar, but what they lacked in mass they made up for in numbers. The creatures poured from the vents in a glut of spidery arms and translucent wings, swarming and scrabbling over each other in a blind rush towards the intruders like bees responding to a wasp in their hive.
They were not immune from the increase in gravity. Their wings whirred, but their flight was erratic. One launched itself unsteadily at Bobbi, keening "Queen-killers! Queen-killers!"
A crimson beam struck the alien point-blank. The body struck the wall with a sound like a bug hitting a windshield, and with similar physical effect.
Namor, however, did not fire. He moved.
His rifle was reversed as he drove forward, smoothly settling into a ready position. Then, with a flick of disdain, he drove the butt of it into the nearest creature’s thorax. Chitin cracked. The body folded. He spun, then, and more bugs were routed.
"Redundancy," he said flatly, pivoting. Another thing struck – he parried it with the side of the rifle like a trident haft, then brought it down again, harder, until it stopped moving. "And poor listeners. Intolerable."
His eyes swept for chaos for more targets.
"I loathe repeating myself: see to the door. Stop wasting fire on mere insects."
"Well, at least he's found use for the rifle," Marius remarked as he turned to regard the door. There were no visible hinges, but this was not a problem. Finesse was for people who weren't being swarmed by extraterrestrial parasites.
One thing could be said about the Nevada desert: if one were borrowing solar-charged optic blasts, few places were better. The blast peeled the door inward like warped aluminum, creating an opening just wide enough for a person to slip through. An entrance, but narrow enough their attackers would be forced into a chokepoint.
"Ladies first–" Marius began to offer Bobbi when a chunk of ichor and exoskeleton slapped against the wall directly next to them. Namor appeared to be enjoying himself.
"Gross," she said after the splat sound morphed into a squelch as the alien viscera slid down the wall. Bobbi made her way inside and stopped by a conveniently placed control panel, which had an even more conveniently placed sign with instructions in English hanging beside it. "Here, this can't be . . . no, it couldn't be that easy, could it?" she questioned aloud, looking around at the dozen or so pods filling the room.
"Gonna try the defrost sequence, cover me, please?" she asked as her fingers went into action, following the sequence on the sheet as carefully but as quickly as possible.
A shadow passed over the room as the Atlantean stepped between the last skittering insect and the corridor's narrow breach. His rifle hung in one hand now, dripping and dented. His other hand swept back his hair, streaking it through with something unidentifiable and faintly glowing.
"You are both adequately covered. Offensively, defensively, and sartorially." A flash of teeth caught in the hallway light. "Try not to spoil it with gratitude."
2015: Clint texts Darcy to see how she's settling in. Darcy posts introducing herself. Alison texts Tabitha for help with a Halloween costume. Ausente sin Culpa ni Presente sin Disculpa: The Daily Bugle publishes an article about a new recreational drug called Rave which is replacing Kick.
2016: Sooraya emails Angelo asking for contacts in Algeria when she suspects something amiss.
2017: Garrison and Laurie spar and it goes badly. Jubilee posts about inter-dimensional travel. Wanda threatens the next person to mention how unlucky it is to have Lorna and Alex’s rehearsal dinner on Friday the 13th; Gabriel texts her to tease her about it. Green-Eyed Monster: Rogue emails the three Gen X members who went on the mission to congratulate them on a job well done; Gabe emails Hank and Reed to thank them for their help. Felicia posts a picture of her (almost back to normal) hair colour. Sooraya encounters Jean having a stress-induced panic attack in the wake of the Shadow King and Dark Dimension incidents and helps talk her down.
2021:X-Men Mission: Lone Sentinel: Cyclops posts an all-call alert about an emergency situation; the X-Men scramble at the request of SHIELD regarding an attack by Magneto and the Brotherhood on a government facility; Marvel Girl is the first to engage and quickly discovers things are not what they seem; Psylocke is working her way towards Magneto when the telepathic switchboard goes down and she finds herself under attack; Blink is the next to come under fire; Nightcrawler scouts ahead and discovers an uncomfortable situation; Wolverine has made it to the party to try and turn the tide, but finds his opposition ready for him; Dust finds an enemy uniquely suited to dealing with her sand form; Spectrum discovers that a form she thought was invulnerable very much can be endangered; Echo discovers that her powers aren’t always enough; Wildchild comes across an entirely unknown member of the Brotherhood, much to his regret; it comes down to Cyclops to try and bring down Magneto; Bevatron has multiple surprises waiting for him as the last X-Man standing; the X-Men come to grips in the aftermath of their defeat; Laurie posts about a medical emergency; Amanda texts Marie-Ange about heading to the med lab; Hope posts about available food.
2023: Sam texts Clint to tell him his mom sent him a stack cake if he wants to try some. Namor posts a picture of a failed shipping update, caused by the package falling into the ocean.
2024: A morning in the city has Beatrice and Haller catching up at a cafe.
2004:Casa Dulce Casa: Angelo sees news coverage about gang problems in his old neighbourhood and decides to do something about it; he asks Nathan and Paige to go with him to LA. Alison pranks Haroun with the Blackbird, incurring his wrath. Angelo trains in his powers with Moira. Pete and Domino retrieve an artifact for the Istanbul museum, with Amanda, Marie-Ange and Sarah's help. Charles gives Rahne permission to hunt deer on the estate.
2005:High Cost Of Living: Manuel buries Frank the Lizard and Dani helps comfort him in the time-honoured fashion; various people discuss what happened and the general consensus is that Amanda ought to be expelled; an argument breaks out on the journals between Amanda and the rest of the school and her access is cut off; Marie-Ange argues with Scott about the situation; Angelo questions Amanda about her actions and receives unsatisfactory answers; Alison sends a coded email to Dr. Stephen Strange. Marius attacks Nathan and has to be peeled off him by Cain.
2006: Logan and Medusa meet and argue about his treatment of Crystal; later, Crystal confronts Logan about his opinions of her and she ends up changing the air pressure in his lungs so he can't breathe before flinging him through the gym doors; Crystal then returns home to Attilan with Medusa whilst the staff discuss the incident; Lorna and Ororo go get drunk. The Gates: Nathan and Rahne attend a meeting at the UN about Prague and encounter protesters from both sides getting heated. Laurie suggests an outing to see Wicked. Jennie visits the Snow Valley offices for a training session with Wanda and is read the riot act about not using her powers.
2007: Laurie makes cupcakes. Clarice chooses a major and complains about one of her professors who is a bigot. Kevin and Noriko meet and there is much incomprehension.
2008: Amanda posts about how quiet things are which spawns the usual 'don't jinx it!' response from Clarice.
2009: Remy takes Jubilee with him on a negotiation and she demonstrates how much she's learned.
2010: Vanessa reports from Wisconsin that none of Nick's old high school cohorts know much about him and nothing about his whereabouts. Jean-Phillipe mentions a particularly dumb question asked by a student in the anthropology class he is taking. Garrison gives Angel costuming advice for her first college party.
2011: Amanda finds Bobby literally in the gutter and drags him home for sobering up. The Problématique: Warren and Jean clear the perimeter so the others can find their way inside; With the guards outside taken care of, Lex and Doug move in to take over the security station inside; Bishop and Laura follow her nose in search of their partner; Monet and Wanda set off the alarms and unintentionally take out the telepathy nullifier; Jean's telepathy finally reaches out to touch someone... only it's touching everyone; With an antsy Laura outside of Vanessa's technologically locked door with her boss, Lex scrambles to find a way to get them inside; With her telepathy back on Jean locates Bishop and Laura's minds and follows them to her friend; Doug passes on the news that Vanessa has been located and obtained, then directs Wanda and Monet to the servers where they can hopefully find out who was in charge and what they were doing with Vanessa and the others here; The group finds their way out of the facility, Vanessa in tow but unconscious, and Doug and Lex take it upon themselves to manually lock everyone in the building before blowing all of the electricity; The rescue team returns with Vanessa, and things take a turn; Warren posts in x_journal to let people know they've got Vanessa back, and she's in bad shape but hopefully will recover. Nick/John makes a journal entry about seeing Ringer and how it seems relevant to his life, and asks if anyone's up for a marathon of it this weekend. Adrienne mails Jean to check in on her. Doug makes a journal entry to say they got Vanessa back and how tired he is. Operation: Dasavatharam: Wanda makes a journal entry announcing both her return and her imminent departure to England the next morning, asking Amanda to come with her. Terry returns, and the first face Terry sees is a friendly face, sort of. There may be a reason Bobby and Terry are having relationship trouble, as it's not exactly a smooth welcome home when she first sees him.
2012: Billy posts something in French to demonstrate his new learning. X-Corps: Breaking the World The group goes to the Congo to meet with William Bastion. Tandy reminds people of the Film Fest next weekend and that she has tickets. Doug emails Billy regarding changing Clint’s keyboard to only type in Russian and why.
2013:Sarah V. makes a journal entry wondering how it’s already halfway through October.
2014: Cecilia posts announcing her imminent return. Marie-Ange texts Artie to inquire about his mental state. Wade texts Cecilia letting her know what's happened in her absence. Higher Than Hope: Goose finally breaks Laurie.
XProject Announcements and News:
We would like to welcome new player Bounce, who has taken over previously-played character Monet St. Croix.
Coming Soon to X-Project!Kaiten concludes in explosive fashion; Shiro Yoshida, Marie D'Ancato and others are drawn into a complicated situation with Asian gangs in San Francisco in The 10th Kingdom; and when an ex-girlfriend of Tommy Jones goes missing, the staff and students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters get involved in the search in Size Does Matter.
As always, you can contact the mods on xp.mods (at) gmail (dot) com if you have any enquires about the game itself.
New pages are appearing on the Wiki every day. If there's something as a player you'd like to see, use the Requested_Articles page to let us know what that is, or, if you're a non-player, please contact x-project-wiki (at) googlegroups (dot) com if you have questions, suggestions or want to volunteer to help.
Thanks to all those who have volunteered, and whose hard work made this project possible.
