The Red Star

Part II; Chapter 42

Just as Crys had feared, her torturer came forward, the light from above casting a dark shadow over his face. He smiled and grabbed Crys's chin, turning her face towards him.
"Today's the day you tell me what I want. Doom is tired of waiting and so am I." He said.
"You know i don't give a shit what you want." Crys said weakly, "I'll die before I tell you anything."
"You know," the man crouched before her and added, "THat might just come sooner than you expect."
Crys wrenched herself away from his hand and he backhanded her. When she felt to the side she was shocked by electricity due to her pulling on one of the chains.
"This is going to be fun." the man said.
As Crys heard him rustling around with his devices of torture, she felt the fear return. It rushed over her like a cold shiver and she shut her eyes. It had happened before that Crow had emerged during the torture but never with such malice. Her eyes opened and she grinned, with Crys's plan and her hatred to power her, Crow was certain that she could escape. She heard his footsteps approach and she shut her eyes, letting her power build up and burn inside of her. The man came in front of her with the whip again and said,
"Last chance to get out of this."
"Yes," Crow said, opening her eyes, "It is."
With that, she let out a wave of energy that not only destroyed the light and launched the man backwards, but snapped the shackles off as if they were nothing. Crow was on her hands and knees for a moment, gathering strength enough to stand. She had been lucky that they left her alone long enough that she could gain her strength. They had come so often that she barely had time to rest. Whatever was drawing their attention Crow was thankful for. But these thoughts vanished when she realized that the room was black. She looked up and stood, the tears in her flesh all over her body making her groan in pain. She stood there in silence a moment then lifted her hands. She had been able to see what the ceiling was made out of, and she knew enough about it to understand why she could't use her powers to find Charles.
She let out another wave of energy, this time directed above her in a circular fashion. Parts of the ceiling fell and she did it twice after until she felt dirt fall on her. She smiled then looked around her. She knew that she couldn't keep doing this to get out before she had no strength left so she thought hard. An idea came to her and she let her blade form over herr hand. The orange glow served as a dim light but was sufficient for her as she looked for that mutant who had tortured her. She found him lying on his face, struggling to get up. She grinned as she watched him, then looked into his mind. She searched his mind and found out quickly that his power was fire and then her idea came to a head.
She cut off his arm and he screamed, but as he did so, she dragged him over to where she was chained down. SHe took the shackles and bent them around one of his wrists and the other she wrapped around his neck. sHe grabbed him and said,
"You had this coming."
She then punched him with an uppercut and at the same time let out a burst of energy, sending him flying upwards to the ceiling. The second before her struck the ceiling, electricity shocked him and he glowed red before there was a large explosion. Crow put up a force field and looked away until the light died down. SHe knew that others heard the explosion and she hurried to the middle of the room, looking up triumphantly at the crater in the ceiling. The rest of the ceiling began to tremble and she let out another burst of energy into the abyss, and she put up her force field as piles of dirt fell down on her. She stood on top of the hill of earth and decided to launch, not a wave of enery, but her force field up to force the top off. She gathered her strength then let it go, easily at first, until it hit more of the earth from below. She used all of her strength as she pushed upward, finding that it would not work. She then stopped and realized she was going about it wrong. She shut her eys and threw her mind upwards above ground, once there she saw the grassy fields all around her, then she looked down. Forming a forcefield above ground, she dug into the earth and with one final feat of stregth, pulled downward. She lept to the side and put up a feeble force field around her as it all came crumbling down.
Just then, the door opened from the side and men and women ran in. Crow hurried to the pile of earth and, using her powers, formed the earth into steps and cleared her path to the top. When she was there, she was engulfed in warm sunshine and shut her eyes.
"Don't moved!" a mutant shouted.
Crow opened her eyes to see that they all had weapons aimed at her. She also saw Erik standing in the doorway with a shocked but somehow relieved look on his face.
"Caio." Crow said.
Her wings erupted from her back and she was launched upwards with a wave of energy just narrowly missing all of the bullets. Her wings beat frantically as she stared up at the cloudy sky with eagerness. When she was above ground she felt a wave of relief and she dropped onto the grassy field. She was breathing heavily and her heart was pounding, but her body was weak. Suddenly she became calm, and she shut her eyes, only for Crys to open them quickly and struggle to her feet. She looked around her and heard a familiar whirring in the air. She saw, passing through the clouds, the Jet which carried all her comrades. She quickly sent a message to Charles and the jet swung back around and decended.
Yet she looked around her on the field to see men appearing out of the grass as if from doors in the ground and she frowned. She hated them, and she was going to kill them all. She closed her eyes and, through the whole in the ground, let her mind travel to all the corners of the underground base until she had a clear idea of its shape. She took in a breath and then lifted her right arm quickly. Far off, down the field, there could be seen an erruption of what looked like earth. She lifted her left arm and on her left about a half a mile from where she stood, there was another erruption of earth. She kept her eyes closed and she lowered her head and her hands moved together in front of her, yet as this happened, there were simultaneous eruptions along the fields. SHe then spun on her heel and completed the outlining of the base.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Jay running towards her with Bucky and Steve. She turned from them, surprisingly unaffected by their appearence and, without warning, thrust her fist downward, causing a large explosion in the field not far off. She did and uppercut movement and another explosion followed until she repeated these movements so that it looked like a mine field going off.
The others stopped, and had to try and avoid any explosions, more than one time narrowly missing them.
"What is she doing?!" Steve shouted.
"She's destroying the base!" Bucky shouted back.
"Crys!" Jay shouted.
Crys paused, dust and smoke filling the air. When they finally reached her, they stopped and stared at the mutilation of her body. She didn't heal quickly enough for the scourging slashes to be gone but enough to stop the bleeding.
"Crys?" Jay said, a sudden anger overwhelming her.
Crys turned around and looked at Jay, then struck the ground again. Jay watched her a moment then ran behind her and did the same thing. From above and below it looked like it was being bombed , and Steve looked at Bucky.
"Don't disturb them." Bucky said, "There's no telling what could happen."
"But we have to stop them!" Steve said.
"I know." Bucky replied. He paused then looked at Jay, "Jay!" he shouted, "Stop this!"
Jay only brushed it off and continued. But Crys was the one to suddenly stop and look at Steve and Bucky. Behind them she saw the others running up and she shouted,
"Jay stop!"
Jay turned and looked confused as she tried to calm her breathing. Crys looked at her feet and said,
"You will turn if you continue."
Jay lowered her head and and looked back up to see Bucky looking at her with pity. Crys tried to speak, but instead, she collapsed and Steve caught her.
Charles and the rest arrived and Charles looked about him saying,
"We need to get her out of here before she wakes up."
"Why?" Jay asked.
Charles turned to her and said,
"Because there is no saying what else she will do. You saw what she just did."
He looked down at the bruised and bloody figure of the young woman and furrowed his brow.
"Let's just hope she was strong enough."