Template:Featured Articles/20-2021
 Artie flattened himself against the wall at the sound of footsteps. Someone was coming. Shit. Shit. He couldn't run, obviously, and fighting his way out would be ... challenging, at best. He took a deep breath and began to create an illusion of a blank wall. It was more complicated than he usually managed but maybe he could hide behind it. Usually, as an X-Man, he just settled for bright lights and flashes and distraction. The excuse was going down to check on the prisoners, but really what was happening was too much for Topaz at that moment. She hurried down the stairs, looking around, and saw the shimmering of Artie's wall. "Now, now," she called in a calm she didn't feel. "What do we have here?" Aww, crap. Hiding was apparently not on the cards. It had been a long shot, anyway. Artie shifted his weight and charged at the voice, illusion falling around him. He stumbled as he saw Topaz but managed a tackle. Maybe it was the magic still in the air. Maybe it was frayed nerves. Maybe it was being absolutely done with all of this insanity. But something in Topaz snapped as Artie hit her. Anger - pure, unfamiliar anger - flooded through her, momentarily blinding any common sense. She gritted her teeth, growling as she ripped into her attacker's head without a second thought, drained every emotion she could find, and hit him with a blast of energy, sending him across the room. Artie landed with a sickening thud, head and neck hitting the wall first. His arms and legs spasmed but he didn't get up. She heard the thud, saw him fall, but after everything that had happened, Topaz wasn't taking anything at face value. She gathered more energy in her hand, stepping forward, senses on high alert. Artie tried to move but the room was spinning and he just. Didn't care. It was more that he knew he should, training speaking louder than any actual feeling of urgency. She stood over him, watching him twitch, some amount of calm returning. "It's nothing personal," she informed him, as if that somehow made what she was about to do any better. "Wrong place, wrong time. You know how it is." She drove the ball of energy right into his chest, going right through his heart and causing it to rupture.
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