X-Traction

Jubilee motions towards the newly vacated cells.

"I think there's new openings on this cell block for our friend here. Anyways, I think we have enough shooters to shoot the choppers down. About time I got a real firework show going!"

Wolverine makes a satisfied grunt!

"Good thing we brought the brains along on this one!" he says, motioning for the man to be tossed into the cell!

Scott listens to the team's suggestions. "Agreed. Let's take down the choppers. Nightcrawler, can you port Wolverine up to one of them? Gambit, Jubilee, and I will handle the rest. Let's try to disable them if we can. We don't need an international incident." He heads for the door.

Gambit shrugs his shoulders at the guard and handily throws him into one of the empty cells, pushing the button to lock it up.

"Play nice or our new friends won't."

He jerks a thumb at the de-powered mutants and checks they can get the collars off before he follows the other's lead outside, readying some more playing cards for whatever comes next. He can't help but also think about Rogue and how similar Dr. Strain's technology was to her powers. Was he inspired by them?

The guard is tossed into the empty cell and the door locked shut by Gambit. The guard gets to his feet and shouts, "You won't win! Even with your powers, us regular humans still outnumber you!" Outside you hear the choppers circling the compound in a patrol pattern.

Jubilee rolls her eyes before heading out and shooting a stream of fireworks at the nearest helicopter.

"Blinkball Special doesn't have quite the same ring to it." Logan was too heavy for Kurt to lift comfortably, much less toss towards the helicopter the way Peter would have. He peeked out the door to get a bead on one of the helicopters, and the moment he could see through its window he touched Wolverine in order to teleport them up and inside!

Gambit throws his playing cards at mooks he sees and adds to Jubilee’s fireworks with some exploding cards.

While Jubilee launches her plasma burst "fireworks" at one helicopter, Nightcrawler teleports Wolverine up into the cramped cockpit. It's so crowded, Wolverine is sitting on the pilot's lap, while Nightcrawler sits on the copilot's. Even with Logan's short stature his head is almost brushing the ceiling, and both of your shoulders are dangerously close to pressing various buttons and toggles.

Gambit hears a cry of alarm go up and several FoH members running around. Gambit throws several charged cards and causes explosions, blowing away the members in various directions to land on the ground stunned.

"Just dropping in to say ‘Hi’, fellas!" Logan quips, just before he lets loose a whirling frenzy within the small cockpit! He lets his claws fly at the pilots and any other crew, as well as the console of the chopper!

Jubilee's fireworks short circuit the helicopter's controls as well as blind the pilot. He yells but it is impossible to hear him over the sound of the choppers. Wolverine meanwhile tears into the pilots and the chopper itself. It soon becomes apparent as they have a new problem: two helicopters spinning our of control! The rotor blades are likely to cut people to ribbons and the copters are looking to crash into some of the buildings below! Before the chaos had erupted, 3 guards in uniforms and weird contraptions on their hands have also started to surround the party!

Cyke rushes put into the open and looks skyward. He tries to target the tail rotor of a chopper to disable it and bring it down without killing everyone on board.

"Tight squeeze!" Nightcrawler smirked as Wolverine did what he did best. Kurt grabbed the joystick to the chopper even as the scene in the helicopter began to erupt into chaos.

"About to be a lot tighter, if we hit the dirt!" Logan warns; as the chopper heads earthwards!

"Got any juice left in you?" he asks the bamfing mutant, wondering if they even had enough time to disembark before they crash landed!

"I can control it!" Kurt yanked at the joystick, as if to tame the bucking chopper!

Cyclops has a difficult choice to make and makes it quickly. He targets the tail rotor with his optical blast. It blasts to pieces, eliminating the spinning blades as a danger to the people below. However without the tail providing stabilization, the helicopter starts spinning rapidly around the main rotor as it descends into a crash landing below. There is a small explosion as chopper crashes into the rocky island just on the outskirts of the compound, taking out a portion of fence and the communication tower. The pilot is most certainly dead.

Kurt preferred less wanton destruction if he could help it. Sure he could just get himself and Logan out of there, but he didn't want the the helicopter he was on to suffer the same demise as the other one Cyclops had to shoot down. He grabbed the cyclic stick between the dead pilot's legs, the one he was sitting on, and deftly pulled to regain a measure of control over the craft.

Despite Logan's destruction of much of the cockpit, enough is functional for Kurt to land the helicopter as softly was possible given the current circumstances. And just in time too as a few sparks in the shredded control panel ignite and start a fire in the cockpit. The smell of burning metal and plastic begins to fill the tight quarters with noxious fumes.

Outside the few guards remaining are shouting angrily as their helicopters are taken down. The rush Gambit, Jubilee, and Cyclops, arms outstretched, cybernetic gloves at the ready. All three are successful in grabbing the X-men members, who are surprised how strong these metallic gloves really are. They are equally surprised as they feel their mutant powers drained away!