Standing rather awkwardly in a row, those gathered looked from the stationary plane beside them to the large space surrounding them. The hangar was rather devoid of life. Rather those that were present were at either end of the high ceilinged structure. But even then, they weren't concerning themselves with the small mutant group. The people had their own things to do, and it wasn't to interfere or question what they were doing.

"Where's Hank?" Raven had had enough of standing in rather awkward silence. They had been here for a few minutes and so far no Hank. So she thought she may as well ask to see if anyone had any bright spark idea and answer. From the looks which were sent down the line to her, the evident answer was no. No one had a clue as to where the whereabouts of the missing mutant. And standing in silence was just making it more awkward. They couldn't very well go off without him. Mainly because he seemed to be the only person present who knew how to fly the plane beside them.

"I'm here," from the other end of the hangar a figure slowly shifted forwards.

"Hank?" Charles questioned truly confused as he narrowed his eyes. His confusion wasn't just his. Everyone more or less donned a confused expression as they looked to the approaching figure.

Eventually Hank came to a stop and looked rather dejected and saddened as he looked from Raven to the ground. "It didn't attack the cells. It enhanced them. It didn't work." Hank's yellow tinted eyes flicked up and looked to the confused faces before him before looking back down at the ground. It seemed to grow increasingly interesting by the second.

"Yes it did, Hank." Raven said quietly while stepping forwards and out of the line. "Don't you see?" She asked while gently placing a hand to his cheek. "This is who you were meant to be. This is you. No more hiding." Raven said certainly with a nod. Hank looked truly perplexed, he seemed to inwardly debate whether to believe her or not. After all, unlike Raven, who put on the façade of a blonde haired girl, Hank had literally transformed into something else entirely. Although Raven's natural warm yellow eyes looked at him reassuringly, calmly and kindly, Hank still had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Never looked better, man." Whatever and wherever Hank's thoughts were, or leading to got ended when Erik spoke and patted him firmly on the arm. He sounded rather honest when he spoke, yet Hank seemed to believe otherwise as his yellow eyes narrowed dangerously as he stared at Erik.

"Don't mock me." Hank sharply said while with a sudden burst of speed he reached up and clasped a hand around Erik's throat. Tightening his hold he lifted him slowly up from the ground. Erik in retort let out strangled noises.

"Put him down," Hank gritted his teeth from the sudden cold which encased his forearm. Snapping his eyes to Liesel, he wasn't wholly surprised that she had reached up to grip onto his arm. "Put him down...or you will be walking around as a giant blue static fur ball. Would you like that, Hank?" Liesel smiled innocently while tightening her hold on his arm and even letting off a small current which caused some of the blue fur on his arm to start to spike up from the static.

"Hank? Liesel? Stop! Stop it now! Let him go, and Hank put him down!" Charles exclaimed while glancing from one to the other. Hank's eyes narrowed as he stared down at Liesel, whereas she smiled thinly and tilted her head to the side. He called out to the two of them again. His persistent calling seemed to pay off as Liesel sighed heavily through her nose and removed her hand and the charge, and Hank simply let Erik go. He collapsed to the floor on his knees from suddenly being let go.

Placing a hand to his neck, he rubbed the sore skin with a frown as he struggled slightly to get his breathing back under control. "I wasn't." Erik said while staring with hard eyes up at Hank, who just seemed to look down at him with very little emotion. Looking to the side when there was a metallic hand waved down at him, Erik looked to Liesel. She raised an eyebrow with a lopsided smile. Getting aided to stand he nodded at her as she shrugged with her smile still on her face. She'd naturally aid him if in trouble, that wasn't even in question, though the look he sent her way was one of thanks regardless.

Walking onto the jet, the cold darkness of the cabin was a somewhat welcoming feeling in comparison to the awkward tension which was in the hangar moments ago. This was a massive vehicle, more room was in here than needed. The small group looked somewhat out of place really, yet everyone found a seat, sat themselves down and commenced tightening the harnesses onto themselves. Whistling quietly to herself, Liesel held onto the harness which was strapped over her chest. The thick cords and the main buckle weren't exactly comfortable, but it was here for safety measures. And she was rather sure that safety was needed right now.

Even more so as the jet they were all in suddenly moved and was soon hurtling through the sky like a black blur. The pressure from travelling outside did cause a rather worrying groan to quietly echo through the cabin. Still with her lips pursed, and in mid-whistling, she looked up at the ceiling and then slowly rolled her eyes to Erik, who sat by her side, and commenced whistling again. There was no way this jet was going to go down, not with him still present. As if sensing her sudden unease, he glanced at her and then around the quiet cabin too. It wasn't quiet for long before another quiet groan and judder encased the jet. The pressure from outside increased it seemed as the jet did a turn. This caused those strapped in their seats to slip slowly to the side.

"You know, I think I would be having oodles of fun, if we weren't off to fight...it is like a fairground ride, is it not? Only with added fire power." Liesel smiled up at Erik as she righted herself in her seat. He for one looked suddenly unhappy with having her more or less leaning over her seat and into his. It wasn't her fault, everyone else was rocking about in their seats from the jets manoeuvring.

"Hm, well, you may be alone there. Not everyone seems to be having as much fun as you. I never knew you found being shot at by missiles so amusing." Erik replied thoughtfully while she sighed and hung her head.

"No, no. I did not mean it like that and you know it!" Liesel said while wagging a finger up at him, he merely smiled and looked at her before leaning forwards in his seat to see if he could get a look in at the cockpit.

Being the pilot of this jet, Hank naturally had the best view of the situation happening outside. There were no windows as such in the cabin. Or rather there was, but they weren't at seat level. They were positioned above the seats and allowed sunlight to stream in and down onto the occupants. Every so often a whizzing blur would go past, a grey cloud could be seen, but other than that, the outside world was a mystery; these two things alone were missiles, and more importantly: missiles blowing up.

Turning the controls and gritting his teeth, Hank looked over the situation outside. "It looks pretty messy down there." Hank's voice sounded from the cockpit. Messy was perhaps the wrong word to use considering the position of all the ships in their attack formations and awaiting orders to move into action, but messy would do for now to sum up the moment.

Giving a fidget, Charles straightened himself up in his seat and suddenly looked the most serious he had been since boarding the jet. So far, he had spent most of the time in completive silence. He didn't totally like where his thoughts were leading to; mainly dead ends and scenarios of a bleak nature. Lifting up a hand, he placed two fingers to his temple and shut his eyes. Receding back into himself, he concentrated on one of the ships below them. As soon as he was focused enough, and could make out the surroundings, was he so suddenly kicked out; literally. "The crew of the Aral Sea are all dead. Shaw's been there." Charles said at length after catching sight of Azazel killing all crew members he could see.

"He's still here, somewhere." Erik responded while looking down at the male by his side. Charles frowned slowly and seemed to be dwelling on something before looking away from those sitting opposite to the man beside him.

"But where, hm? There are many ships he could be on, yes? Not forgetting he has a submarine...he doesn't have a jet too, does he? Him swooping down from the air causes me to feel slightly...what's the word...meh."

"That's not a word!" Sean exclaimed with a laugh and looked at Liesel, he had looked dumbfounded throughout her ramble, only to exclaim this at her when she ended, looking most confused. She was sitting opposite to him so he didn't have to crane his neck, or lean past a fellow passenger to see her, or her still present confused expression. "Depressed could've been used though." He said with a nod, Liesel seemed to ponder on this and grinned. She nodded eventually agreeing that that word would be sufficient too.

"He's set the ship on course for the embargo line." Charles said seriously, catching both Liesel and Sean's attention as well as everyone else's, he wasn't won on the idea of them still being able to somewhat joke at a time like this. He decided it best not to comment on anything that had been said before he finally spoke. If he did, he was sure he'd get numerous retorts of no real importance. Looking over to Moira where she sat surrounded by monitors which were churning out readings, she seemed to cotton onto what Charles was saying, and the importance of it.

"If that ship crosses the line, our boys are going to blow it up; and the war begins." Moira said quietly yet her voice grew in volume as she realised what she was saying. Her eyes widened as she looked slowly to the side.

"Unless," Charles paused. "They're not our boys." He hated to state the obviousness, but he felt like he had to be the one to state it somehow. There was a heavy silence which settled into the cabin then. Inhaling deeply, and exhaling slowly, Charles shut his eyes and concentrated on one of the ships below; but more importantly, at the passengers on board. Those gathered around remained silent, not too certain what he was doing; yet not going to question it as what he was doing was clearly important. Though the silence did come to a sudden stop when Hank's voice exclaimed from the cockpit.

Hearing numerous warning alarms from the controls, it was clear something wasn't right. And that something came in the form of a missile, heading rather quickly in their direction. Hank had no option but to pull the controls tightly to the side; thus making the jet do a tight turn to avoid being hit. Being suddenly sidewards was an interesting perspective, one which no one seemed to appreciate as numerous groans and unsettled noises came from this action. If that wasn't bad enough, finding the ceiling being the floor all of a sudden with thanks to a barrel roll caused those unhappy noises to grow in volume. The jet was successful in avoiding the missile, and the dangerous path it was on though. The ship below was not as lucky. Fire erupted from the impact, decking caught alight and buckling metal melted under the sheer heat of it all.

"A little warning next time, Professor." Hank managed to glance over his shoulder and look back into the cabin at the slightly worse for wear passengers, who were still clinging tightly onto the seat harnesses.

"Sorry," Charles apologised with a quick smile while looking at everyone too. "Are you all right?" Raven merely blinked slowly, trying to register the fact that he was talking to her. She managed to stiffly nod, but as for speaking that was another thing completely.

"Yeah..." Sean managed to breathe out as he looked wide eyed by Raven's side.

"I don't want to go flying for a while, I think everyone here pretty much agrees." Liesel said while blinking slowly and finally managing to release the grip she had on her seat harness. The gauntlets on her hands seemed to give little resistance from the lack of grip on them all of a sudden.

After a small amount of praise sent in Charles's way, he struggled still to find the one person they were looking for. "I still can't locate Shaw." He said shortly, getting slightly irritated at the fact that one man could be so hard to find. He couldn't help but glance at Erik and Liesel, how did they manage to do this all this time? From what he had always gathered, they'd been hunting for years. And here he was with the man in question somewhere below, and he couldn't get a lock on him at all.

----

Edited: 13/June/2019

Reedited: 19/August/2021