<div class="floatleft">(http://images.wikia.com/xmenmovies/images/b/b4/Nightcrawler_creepy_smile.jpg)</div><hr/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: arial;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Name:</strong>   Kurt Wagner<br/>  <strong>Title:</strong>  Nightcrawler<br/>  <strong>Affiliation:</strong>  The Resistance<br/>  <strong>Location:</strong>   Mersa Matruh<br/>  <strong>Tags:</strong> Open<br/></span></span><hr/><br/>Kurt collapsed on the floor again as the toxin kept burning in his blood. He was standing up to it now, but it was taking so much out of him. It doesn't matter though, he grunts and just gets back up again.<br/><br/><em>You're just going to fail.</em><br/><br/>Azazel? No, more hallucinating. The demon tries to claim Kurt was his son with Mystique to make him do evil, but Kurt has no part of it. Mystique sometimes take male forms that actually work - that's his story and he's sticking to it.<br/><br/><em>Alright, so I'm just an hallucination. Doesn't mean I wouldn't be right. Just grab a few women and disappear. Bet real Azazel would even take you back if you asked nicely,</em><br/><br/>"<strong>No</strong>" Kurt quietly protests, whether to Azazel-Hallucination or to the SWORD agent trying to help him up not even he knows.<br/><br/><em>And honestly, what he says makes WAY more sense. If Mystique was your father, where did you get a y-gene?</em><br/><br/>Kurt doesn't pretend to know the answer to that. Dr. Hank McCoy tried to explain it once but it went right over Kurt's head. He trusts Hank, or did trust him as he's probably dead. Another friend gone, now that he thinks about it. That little emotional kick reopens him to something else.<br/><br/>In front of him, floating, is the visage of the man who gassed him like some sort of demonic being complete with eyes that glowed red. Mr. Fear's voice was mostly a guess, he knew that but that didn't stop him.<br/><br/><em>You really think you can beat this? The Fear?</em><br/><br/>Kurt collapses again, colliding with the handrail beside him - but it reminds him of something. Something he can use.<br/><br/>"<strong>You really think I've never had to overcome terror before?</strong>" he replies, determined. His memories reach back, back - back to the first time he truly overcame sheer unmitigated terror. Back, back to when he was barely a man - back with Amanda and the Circus.<br/><br/>He goes back, in his mind, back when he was first the Incredible Nightcrawler, a 15 year old trapeze artist performing with more skill and style them acrobats a decade older with more experience. He'd teleported only a few times before, always alone but now wasn't the time to think about it. In the audience was his first love, Amanda - and this would be his first show without using a net. Or so he thought. So wrapped up in his thoughts of his teleports he hadn't noticed that one of his normal partners had called in sick.<br/><br/>Amanda had suited up to take her place. A combination of the teenage belief in their own invincibility, a desire to be near her lover, the knowledge that Kurt was more then ready to take this leap, and the confidence that comes with having some bit of training but not nearly enough. He'd later learn that she's gotten her fortune read by Kurt's foster mother Margali, the circus's fortune teller, and she believed that it wasn't her fate to die that day. So she climbed up that later and took the the trapeze to keep the show going.<br/><br/>And Kurt, young and in love, embraced the idea of sharing the air with her - until she missed a queue and began to fall. The scream that left her lips, the utter dismay of the moment he knew that he was going to watch his first love die -<br/><br/>Or by all rights he should of. Kurt had took a leap of faith to save Amanda, high above that Circus crowd trusting in God and his Momentum to save her - and when they touch there's a puff of purple smoke, and they reappear just a few meters away but close enough that Kurt can grab onto the ladder and stop their fall. In his mind the memory continues, young Kurt had wrenched his shoulder but Amanda was safe and in his arms - the kiss convinced the crowd that it was an illusion and part of the show.<br/><br/>However, above the young lovers, the older Kurt and the image of Mr. Fear take their places at the opposite sides of the trapeze.<br/><br/><em>You can't get rid of Fear, Kurt.</em><br/><br/><em>&lt;Shut up, Idiot.&gt;</em>Kurt starts, grabbing the loose trapeze bar and beginning to cross the space, just like in old times,<em>&lt;Fear keeps you alive, Fear keeps you safe, Fear keeps your loved ones alive - I'm not trying to get rid of Fear.&gt;</em><br/><br/>The transfer to the next trapeze bar is smoothed as if he never stopped practising.<br/><br/>"<strong>&lt;Just need to put it back in its place.&gt;</strong>"<br/><br/>In his mind, Kurt propels from the trapeze bar and adds a spin to his momentum as he does it so that when he is back in line with the figment of his insane hallucination his leg is sweeping the man off his feet and off the trapeze platform, then he grabs onto the ledge so he can watch "Mr. Fear" fall down onto the Circus rings below. . .<br/><br/>In the real world, Kurt Wagner stands back up. The cold sweating has stopped, the hallucinations gone, and he takes a moment to put his uniform right and set his commlink back in properly. The Incredible Nightcrawler, ready for his next performance, heads for the cockpit of the Harrier.<br/><br/>--------<br/><br/>Abigail Brand wasn't the only one at a loss for words seeing the second battle of Port Said. In the cockpit, tiny parts of Agent Kang and Agent Tokoro were grateful that they were in the back away from - that. It was like Hell on Earth opened in Port Said, and the Devil had fallen in love with fireworks as jets and burst along a whole rainbow of colors over the landscape. This was a smaller force, but what they could do - the mind boggled. Was that a new active Volcano open in the City Hall?<br/><br/>When Kurt enters, the Agents look back not even looking for hope - just some validation for what they're feeling, like they're tiny ants that got exposed when a sadistic 4 year old turned over a rock, the kid just happened to be looking somewhere else for now.<br/><br/>And in a way, their feelings are validated. Kurt looks out the front window and knows - he knows there's no way he can have any lasting effect on anything that happens down there, not in the grand scheme of things. He's too small, his powers just minor parlor tricks compared to Apocalypse and Lord Nefaria, battle joined according to the sensors on the Harrier.<br/><br/>But there's a difference between being unable to make a noticable difference and a meaningful difference. Maybe he couldn't do anything on his own to save the world, but he could do something to save someone's whole world. For now, that would have to be enough.<br/><br/>"<strong>Agent Tokoro, can you lead me toward confirmed wounded?</strong>"<br/><br/>"<strong>You're going out into that?</strong>" Agent Kang is the first to ask.<br/><br/>"<strong>Mutant Heroes, Vowed to Protect a World that Fears and Hates us. I don't think I can do something spectacular, but I can do something. Besides, maybe God has a miracle of his sleeves. Heh.</strong>"<br/><br/>Agent Tokoro is the one that taps into the layout of the Harrier first and points to an area on the screen toward the back of the plane.<br/><br/>"<strong>There's a couple encounter suits in here, you just need one of the helmets. They have built-in HUDs, I can highlight where the medical evac teams and areas are, and SWORD suits have sensors that can detect lifesigns.</strong>"<br/><br/>"<strong>Everyone SWORD who is wounded but not dead, and where to take them. Understood.</strong>"<br/><br/>"<strong>And anyone else near them if the sensors in the helmets are working.</strong>" Agent Tokoro adds, and funny thing - there's that glimmer of hope. Maybe they're just tiny bugs, but things are never hopeless. Not completely.<br/><br/>"<strong>Good Luck, 'Crawler. I'll put some cold non-alcoholic ones in the Fridge.</strong>" Agent Kang calls back as he types away to open up some data streams.<br/><br/>"<strong>Wherever we end up.</strong>" Kurt smiles. In case they die, sure - but nobody was planning on it anymore. He turns to leave and just about flips a mental switch in his head when a hand stops him. Agent Tokoro leans in motions that what's next will come in a whisper.<br/><br/>"<strong>And I'm glad we got to fuck. If we both survive, look me up.</strong>" she giggled.<br/><br/>Kurt winks, then disappears. . .<br/><br/>----------<br/><br/><strong>Above Port Said</strong><br/><br/>The Helmet over Kurt's head completely covered him down past his jawline but the front was practically all glass with images and lights on his view. A cloud of purple smoke high above the city and he starts to fall out over the cityscape that's starting to look like it's a Van Gogh painting of a War Zone.<br/><br/>SWORD Icons appear, then a smaller number of Red Cross signs. Some Green, quite a few Yellow, and a lot of Red. Only a little wounded, pretty badly, and potentially lethally.<br/><br/>"<strong>Mein Gott, there's Hundreds.</strong>" he says quietly at first, but just at first. Men and Women that were Wounded but not Dead. That was how he could help. Med-Evac, like only a Teleporter can.<br/><br/>"<strong>Director Brand, this is Nightcrawler.</strong>" He speaks into the commlink, looking around as he falls to figure out where to start. When he sees it though its rather obvious. 3 Red SWORDS, 3 SWORD Agents that are critically wounded but still alive, at the Al-Abassi Mosque. When he looks at it directly it tells him that it was also the locations of the last confirmed sighting of the Deacon and Omega Red. That's where he's going.<br/><br/>"<strong>I've entered the Field, and I'll be working Medical Evac for as long as I can.</strong>"<br/><br/>And with that, a BAMF and a purple cloud mark him disappearing. . .<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Al-Abassi Mosque</strong><br/><br/>BAMF!<br/><br/>He pulls his swords, that's all the hesitation he allows himself before he enters the Mosque and even then it's too much as the helmet tells him that one of the Red SWORDS has gone out. He curses under his breath and breaks into an open run. He doesn't analyze it, doesn't think about if he could of saved that one if he was a little faster - there's going to be a lot of those tonight.<br/><br/>He tells himself that he isn't really rejoicing in the death of another, but the first good news he has he gives right away.<br/><br/>"<strong>I think I found the Deacon. He's quite dead, though without a head I suppose I could be wrong. Moving on.</strong>"<br/><br/>Come on, where were they? Another Red SWORD starts to dim when he finally gets past a mound of rubble enough to see people. It's hard to mistake the one with the tendrils coming out of him but he doesn't get closer. Someone else needed him first. BAMF!<br/><br/>The Red SWORD he comes across first is under rubble, but the blood pooling around the woman isn't good - it only takes a second to see that the only reason she's still alive is because the rocks and rebar that pierce her body are slowing the blood flow. If he removes her, she'll just die instantly.<br/><br/>He makes a choice. At least she was unconscious and not feeling any pain. A quick crucifix on her forehead and a quick prayer, and he moves on. Agent Mkombo dies about 30 seconds later anyway.<br/><br/>The last Red SWORD comes up as Agent Duchamp, and he's not a doctor but it looks like Omega Red got to him - but something interrupted him. Good, maybe he's got a chance. Then the helmet picks up something else.<br/><br/>Nearby there's two more people, the Helmet picks them up - also critically wounded, just now SWORD Agents. Looking a little longer and some data comes up.<br/><br/>The Shocker.<br/><br/>Bombshell.<br/><br/>Their arrest records start showing but aren't needed, villains. Another choice. But this choice is much easier to make. Kurt looks up, finds the nearest medical evac point, and puts his hands on Agent Duchamp's chest - the two of them disappear in a BAMF and puff of smoke.<br/><br/>Herman has it easy, with his blood loss he passed out first. Wendy's pulverized leg gets the blood in doesn't have the strength to even speak but she was still conscious but she saw him, and for a split second she thought that he'd left her to die in this mosque, far from home and alone next to a man who was probably already dead -<br/><br/>Then he reappears, next to the Shocker - just taking a moment to put his hand on Herman's chest then they both disappear. He was. . .he was. . .<br/><br/>When its her turn he must of caught her eyes darting around or something because he looks her in the eyes. She tries not to shed a tear as the demonic looking mutant suddenly looks like an angel in her vision. He came back. He came back for Them, too.<br/><br/>"<strong>It's going to be alright Wendy, I got you.</strong>"<br/><br/>And with that the Mosque is empty of anything alive.