Elizabeth "Betsy" Glorianna Braddock | "Psylocke" (psi_butterfly) wrote in x_aftermath_x, |
This so-called mission was quickly going South; odds were certainly not in their favor, considering Mars, Colossus and Shadowcat had just had their asses handed to them - figuratively speaking. As the chaos raged around her, Betsy kept her eye on the prize: Curing the infected and getting out of there alive... or in one piece, at least.
Thus far, she had been able to keep most of the Darkseekers at bay by firing long distance and using her telepathy; getting close too them would only present too many unacceptable consequences. Unfortunately, Psylocke could only handle multitasking for so long, before it became both taxing on her body, as well as her own mental capacity.
While she lowered her gun to take a short break and propped her back up against a wall, she kept both eyes on each of the exit/entrance points - just in case. One thing she had learned from Cyclops (as well as the other senior memebers of the X-Men) was to make sure you could see all points of entry (particularly in battle), just in case you needed to make a quick escape. This was one of those situation where it would certainly come in handy.
Seconds later, while Betsy lowered her head and closed her eyes for a moment, she heard something.... Her eyes opened and her head immediately snapped up, and that was when she saw it (or them, rather) coming at her: Three Darkseekers had spotted her during her "moment of weakness" and decided to exploit it. Betsy gasped and rose her gun again, firing quickly.
One, two, three... They each fell to the ground in turn, but before she could savor her small moment of victory, another one was upon her and before she could do much of anything, it leapt on her and sent her crashing to the ground with a small yelp of surprise; the impact of the hit sent her gun skidding across the floor, well away from her research.
Instinctively, the blonde telepath thrust her hands up in front of her face while the creature painstakingly tried to ravage her. The two of them scuffled on the floor for a few moments, until Betsy got an opening to knee the infected human in the solar plexus; which ultimately sent the Darkseeker rolling off onto its side in pain. It took Betsy a little longer to recover than she had expected, and as it turned out, it was one moment too long.
By the time she had got back up onto one knee, the creature had already recovered and had knocked her down again. This time Betsy's head hit the ground pretty hard - and had it been harder, it would've knocked her unconscious. However she had hit it hard enough for her to feel dazed and confused, and for a split second she actually forgot how to fight back.
As the creature's putrid breath filled her nostrils, Betsy looked up helplessly at it; it had her arms and legs pinned and its face came closer to her own and its mouth opened wide.
Oh dear lord...
Betsy struggled harder now, but it was all for naught.
With her face turned to the side and her eyes closed in fright, she felt its teeth sink into her neck. Her breath hitched within her chest; she couldn't remember how to scream, but if she had, she would've been doing so that very second. The pain was unparalleled to anything she had ever felt before. It hurt so severely that her stomach started to feel queasy; she was sure she would vomit.
There was a second when she thought that this was going to be it for her... but just thinking that made her realize she needed to fight harder. Betsy began wiggling her body with more determination and once she got her arms free, she threw a punch at the infected's face; and when it had connected, it let out a howl of agony and fell away far enough that she was able to get back up again - albeit with a bit more effort this time around.
Once she struggled back up onto her feet, she reached up with a gloved hand and touched where she had been bitten. It stung even more to the touch and she winced slightly, as she pulled her hand away and looked at the wet spot she was now sporting on her leather glove. The blood looked black against the material and the sight of it made her shudder involuntarily.