Inez & Crystal - Flood Relief

[x-desperado.livejournal.com]

While helping with the flood, Inez bites off a bit more than she can chew. Thankfully Crystal is there to help.



Inez grumbled to herself as she closed the tiny case that she kept her hearing aids in. All this water was making them go all staticky and she figured that she didn't need to *talk* to the big trees blocking the street. All she had to do was break them into small pieces and get them out of the way so that emergency vehicles could get through.

Remembering what Marko had been teaching her, Inez planted her feet in the silt and debris under the foot of water that covered the street. "Strength ain't no good without leverage," he'd told her early on. As she heaved against the large telephone pole up over one shoulder, she heaved it off the road and kept wading forward. When she saw a thick oak tree laying across the road, she smiled. Even training with Marko, she didn't get to cut loose with her strength often enough. She remembered her daddy taking her out into the desert where she first got used to her super-strength throwing huge rocks across the border.

This time she wasn't a little girl trying to adapt to her powers, though. Splashing muddy water with each step, Inez laughed out loud as she ran into the tree, throwing her weight into it. Unfortunately she forgot to plant her feet, and slipped as the tree began to move on some submerged car or something. An unseen branch caught her around the ankles and dumped her onto her back in the water.

Swearing loudly, Inez sat up, but before she could reach up to shake the dirty water from her hair, a shadow blocked out the sun as the thick-boled tree rolled towards her, pushing down on her chest and dunking her under the water.

Crystal hadn't been flying so high that she hadn't noticed Inez walking along in the water, moving large trees and telephone poles, but the young girl seemed to have a decent handle on things. The teen wasn't new to her powers; that was obvious. But now Inez had... disappeared? Crystal sped back towards the earth, towards the ripples in the water indicating where the tree had moved, and the spot where the superstrong mutant had been visible only moments before.

Inez tried to move her arms, but the tree was resting on her chest and pinning her arms to her sides. She couldn't get any leverage to push with her arms, so she tried sitting up, but her feet just thrashed about in the water. With only half a breath of air in her lungs, she tried not to panic, but could already feel her lungs start burning for another breath.

While physical super-strength was not one of Crystal's own mutant gifts, she could lift much more with wind than she could with her body. However, attempting to lift the tree off of Inez was not the most important thing at the moment. Inez was strong, but that didn't mean she could breathe underwater, and either the girl was under the water or someone had teleported her away, and the second option seemed unlikely. First things first, then. As the water was not clear, and none of Inez's body could be seen above the water, Crystal couldn't be sure exactly where Inez was. Hovering only a few feet above the tree, Crystal began to move the low but brackish water, making it flow away from the area around the tree.

Inez's lungs were just about to burst when she felt cool air on her face instead of the slimy water. Opening her eyes and mouth, she gasped for air, trying to rock back and forth. She didn't waste time wondering why the water was flowing away from her, she just knew that she was stuck. The sun was too bright up above her for her to make out exactly who her savior was, but she kept trying to wriggle out from under the tree. "I'm stuck!" she yelled up to the sky.

The water around the fallen tree continued to move, pushing back even farther away from Inez. From the two sides of the length of the tree, the water moved forward as waves, hitting the oak tree with great force. "Move!" Crystal commanded as the tree moved up and off Inez.

The rush of water budged the tree just enough for Inez to wriggle through the mud and brackish water until her hands were free and she could push the tree away from her. Soaked to the skin, she leaned over and panted briefly, then stifled a wretch at the smell from the stirred-up mud. Mud and... other things.

Looking down at her soaked clothes, Inez swore a blue streak before looking up at Crystal. "Oh. You totally, um... saved my life there. Thanks?"

"You are very welcome," Crystal replied, not showing a visible reaction to Inez's colorful use of vocabulary. "Are you all right? I am afraid that I do not know the extent of your abilities, so although you appear to be physically fine, I would like to make sure that you are fine rather than assume it to be true."

Inez hummed and ran her hands over her body. "Nothing's broken, I just feel all... gunky." Finally realizing who she was talking to, Inez self-consciously cleared her throat. "I mean, um, I think I'm okay. Your Highness... Lady... Miss Crystal?"

"That 'gunk' is one of the reasons I am concerned," Crystal told Inez. "This water is nowhere near clean, and I am not sure if your abilities will keep you safe from the contaminated water. Also, you do not have to call me anything other than Crystal. I am now a guest at Xavier's, not a teacher there."

"Ew, right," Inez said, turning her attention to the grime coating her. "I should probably hit one of the medical tents, you think? I mean, I haven't gotten sick since..." she thought for a while. "Wow, almost ever. But I don't want to take any risks with this crap. I mean..." she sniffed, then made a face. "Oh, ew! I don't even want to know what's floating in here!"

Crystal nodded, smiling a bit. "I believe that this is a wise decision. I will go with you, yes?"

"In case I get attacked by another mean tree?" Inez joked, smiling up at Crystal, then frowning down at the muck. "At least some people get to fly. Stupid flood. Stupid gravity," she griped.

"We are here to help because of the flood," Crystal pointed out gently. "Perhaps you would like a ride, then, so that you do not have to continue to walk through this mess?"

"Nah, I think I'll walk," Inez grumbled. "Not like I'm going to get any gunkier." She tried in vain to wring out her shirt, then looked up at the sky and a smile crossed her face. "Sun's out at least. Could be worse. Could be raining."

Crystal's own gaze turned to the sky above for a few moments, nodding once, before she looked back at Inez, a hint of a smile on her own face. Yes, it could be worse. "I can create rain and then cease to cause it to fall, and if a natural rainstorm occured now, I could prevent the rain from touching you. Hopefully, however, it will continue to be a sunny day." She began to float in the direction of the nearest medical tent.

Inez smiled up at Crystal and nodded. "At least that's something."