Blessed Are The Peacemakers
| Blessed Are The Peacemakers | |
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| Dates run: | January 14-16, 2008 |
| Run By: | Alicia |
| Read the logs: | Blessed Are The Peacemakers |
I have remade him, and he will make for me strife.
A consulting job in Budapest and a reconnaissance mission to Chechnya intersect with a shocking revelation - and more violence than anyone involved in either situation expected.
Contents
Cast
Cyclops, Storm, Forge, Cable, Phoenix, Nightcrawler
Angelo Espinosa, Cain Marko, Amanda Sefton
Tara Trask, Ilyas Saidullayev, Istvan Barath, Charles Xavier, Tanya Callery, Peter Lakatos
Timing
Plot Summary
When the Hungarians decided to organize a mutant special-response team of their own, Prime Minister Barath asked his old friend Charles for the consulting services of his two team leaders. Scott and Ororo were more than willing, inviting Forge along as well for his technical expertise, as well as his recent experience as an X-Man trainee. They departed for Budapest for a week of meetings, although the nature of their trip caused Forge, in particular, some thoughtful moments about the implications of this step on the part of the Hungarians.
Meanwhile, at the mansion, Nathan received an unsettling phone call from Ilyas Saidullayev while sitting a coms watch. Saidullayev informed him that he had parted ways with Magneto, but was still wrestling with the aftereffects of what had been done to him in prison in Dagestan. Though Nathan felt no particular obligation to help him, he knew that this might be the X-Men's only change to prevent the man from doing any further damage. Meeting with Charles, Kurt, and Jean, he proposed a reconnaissance mission - he and Jean would slip into Chechnya and evaluate the situation with Saidullayev, to find out whether extracting him and bringing him back to the US to face charges for the attempted nuclear destruction of San Francisco was feasible.
Around the same time that Nathan and Jean reached Chechnya and made their way to Shatoy, the village in the mountains where Saidullayev was waiting, the group in Budapest was suprised by the arrival of Prime Minister Barath, who invited them to take the morning off and accompany him to take a look at a new educational program. They agreed, although all three were wary at the appearance of Tanya Callery, Gideon Faraday's former chief of security, who was now filling that same role for the Prime Minister.
Nathan and Jean, masking themselves telepathically, slipped into Shatoy and located Saidullayev, who shocked them both by speaking in Askani to tell them "she" knew they would come. Before they could do more than begin to react, a Russian airstrike hit the town, and they were forced to flee, chasing Saidullayev into the mountains.
In Budapest, Barath's motorcade was caught in an ambush, killing most of his security detail. Scott managed to get the disabled lead car out of the way, allowing Forge, behind the wheel of the Prime Minister's car, to head for the safety of the Parliament buildings.
In Chechnya, Jean and Nathan caught up with Saidullayev at a house tucked away in the mountains, only to discover Tara Trask waiting for all three of them. She informed them that she gave Saidullayev an option other than Magneto, and arranged this to bring them here to offer them another chance to join her. Then, she quite calmly admitted to having masterminded both the assassination attempt on T'Challa and the one currently being carried out in Budapest, something that comes as a nasty shock to both Jean and Nathan.
In Budapest, Scott managed to take down a number of the assassins remaining at the original ambush site, including a female pyrokinetic. Forge and the other passengers of his car nearly reached safety after some very creative powers-assisted driving tactics on Forge's part, but an energy-projecting mutant in one of the cars chasing theirs put an abrupt and violent stop to their flight on Budapest's Chain Bridge. Callery managed to get out of the flipped car and charged the assassin, only to be blown over the edge of the bridge and into the Danube. In the end, it was Ororo, her powers returning at a particularly opportune moment, who was able to stop the assassin with a lightning bolt and buy them the last few minutes they needed for help to arrive.
In Chechnya, Jean and Saidullayev went head-to-head in telekinetic battle, Jean more than managing to hold her own with the Chechen, while Nathan wrestled with Trask, who had managed to find a way around his shields and into his subconscious. He managed to distract her with an image of Askani and push her out of his mind, but as he went to help Jean, Trask shot him in the back. He managed to knock her out and make his way outside, just as the Russian helicopters reached the site of the telekinetic fighting. He and Jean made their escape, heading back to Grozny.
In Budapest, Forge gave Callery some food for thought concerning the commitment of the fanatics who wanted Barath dead. Scott and Ororo celebrated the return of her powers, but the evening took a more stressful turn when Scott found out that his wife and Nathan were missing in Chechnya.
In Grozny, Jean stole medical supplies to tend to a badly injured Nathan. They made plans to leave on the same aid plane they came in on, and managed to arrive home the following night, Amelia teleporting them back to the mansion from the airport.
An enraged Angelo headed to Trask's home in New York to take whatever revenge he could find, but after being alerted by Amanda, Scott and Cain accompanied her there to ensure that Angelo got back home before he got himself into any additional trouble. Nathan, meanwhile, continued to recuperate in the infirmary.
Several days later, Scott and Jean went to Budapest, to finish off the consulting job, and discovered that Callery was planning to go undercover with Trask's people, something set up by her and Peter Lakatos, the precog and former Hungarian army officer due to lead the new Hungarian rapid-response team. Promises were made to share all intelligence on Trask, Saidullayev, and her 'Askani'.
Related Links
X-Men Mission: Trans-Siberian Hustle
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
Angelo's decision to break into Trask's house led to some friction between him and Amanda, and various 'what were you thinking?' conversations with Scott, Remy, and Nathan.
Nathan and Jean noticed Askani patterns in the minds of both Trask and Saidullayev, leading them to conclude that Trask had a telepath working for her, whom she had tutored in Askani techniques.
Lakatos revealed that in addition to being Scott and Ororo's future counterpart in Hungary, he had also been Jozsef Veres's commanding officer before the later's breakdown and discharge from the Hungarian military.
Meta
Plotrunner: Alicia
As Nathan is not a Summers or a time-traveler in X-Project, a more canon-compliant version of Stryfe wasn't feasible, but Saidullayev seemed to fit the spirit of the role. His relationship with Trask is a reference, however, to his canon-equivalent's relationship with Madame Sanctity.
All of the major plot logs included lyrics from Bob Dylan songs.
