New Mutants: Here Comes Tomorrow - Sunday

[x-penance.livejournal.com]

On their way home, the group encounters something that requires them to work together as a team - for real this time.

OOC note: Apologies for the lateness. Backdated to Sunday.



The little group were on their way home at last. The last camping site, Lake Sands, had been a little easier than their first, given they'd had practice with the tents by then, but it wouldn't be hard to say there wasn't anyone not looking forward to sleeping in their own beds that night. Especially after the rain of the previous night.

Kane paused as he reached the edge of the road, and noticed the first of the downed trees. The Canadian easily vaulted it, and looked down what had been a thinly wooded slope along side the road only the day before. Now it had slithered down like a dam had burst, covering at least a good kilometre of winding road under mud and uprooted trees. Behind him, the road snaked along to a small community, the few year round businesses in the national park, as well as homes for some of the full time residents, where they had left their vans parked.

He hopped back down to the road, noting the truck coming along to meet them, and gestured to Cain. "The whole hillside went down. The rain must have knocked the wrong thing loose and set off a slide. At least three bends of the road down the hill are completely covered."


The pickup stopped at the edge of the slide, and an older man with a baseball cap and windbreaker stepped out. "You folks doin' all right?" he called as he walked around the worst of the mud towards Cain and Garrison. "I'm Archie Wilson, from Cataqua, up the road there. Shit, the weather report said it was bad, but not this bad. Washout like this, we're going to have to evacuate most of the town. Damn shame, it's going to hit some of these folks pretty hard, 'specially when the state won't come out to clear it for months."

Tat stared at the landslide, her mouth actually agape before she looked back over her shoulder at the others. "Uh. Guys?" She'd never seen anything like this in the city. Not really surprising, considering that she'd grown up in a sea of pavement and buildings, but... this wasn't normal or anything, she was sure. "Aren't hills supposed to stay... hilled?"

Cess' eyes widened as she stared at the damage. "Ooh, mud slide. What do we do now?"

Cain shaded his eyes and looked at the destruction. Tons of rock and earth making the road impassable, and he knew full well what that would mean for the little town of Cataqua. Good hard-working folk forced out of their homes - evacuations didn't mean the bills stopped coming. People unable to get to work, having to get by on less in already-tough times, and if Archie was right, no help from the government coming with any kind of speed.

The big man began quietly rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. "What do we do?" he said to the silver girl. "We get to work."

Kane suddenly smiled. "You know, the kinds of braces that we'd need to stablize the banks of the road are about the same as the ones you guys built to get your bridges up. If we can brace the sides of the slope, we can dig out at least a single lane through the worst sections, so Cataqua isn't completely cut off."

Yvette blinked, and then nodded. "You are meaning the same work, yes?" she asked, clarifying. "We can use the trees that are falling for the wood!" She glanced at Inez. "The strong people can be helping to carry them, and I can cut them!"


Angel raised her hand and asked, "Would, uh, 'drying' it help any or would that make it worse?" she asked, eyeing the vast amounts of mud that seemed to cover everything. She wasn't sure if she tried to dry it help or hurt the situation at that point. Still, she started to tuck her jeans deep inside her shoes because no matter what, it was going to be messy.

"Good plan," Cain answered with a nod. "We got shovels in the truck. It's a good start, but slow."

Inez walked over and pulled on a pair of fingerless leather gloves as she stopped in front of a fallen tree that had split in half. She reached out and dug her fingers into the bark, ripping it the rest of the way out of the ground and turning with it in front of her. "Hey look," she chirped. "I'm a bulldozer. Just point me where I need to go, yo."

Karolina stood back, appalled at the damage, at the implications. Her aura hugged her close, like it was as afraid to be seen as she was afraid to speak. The rest of the weekend had been horrible. Sheer torture. She didn't even know how to get involved at this point. What good would digging do? They were just teenagers, not a full construction crew. Swallowing hard, she pulled her hood up over her head, hiding her glow even further and moved to the nearest of her classmates, "Do they really think that we can do something? I just glow. What am I supposed to do?"

Thinking quickly, Cain peered down the road. "You fly. Even if you can't lift or move stuff, you can relay a signal to the ranger towers. You know Morse Code?" Before the rainbow-hued girl could answer, Cain shook his head. "Of course you don't. Here's what you do - fly on down the road and take this compass. When you see where there's people stuck, aim yourself north-by-northeast..." he showed Karolina the compass and turned to point towards where one of the towers would be, "and flash three times fast, three times slow, three times fast. Keep doing that until they flash some kind of response, got me?"

Karolina stared at him, gaping then nodded, "I can...try?" How far was it to the tower? Could she even be seen at this distance? But she swallowed her questions and took the compass then lifted off the ground and flew off. As she did, it occurred to her that essentially this was a fool's errand. Just something to get her out of the way. Wonderful.

Angel peered up and watched Karolina fly away for a moment before trucking down through the mud. She managed to get herself a good distance away from the group before crouching down. She didn't want to go completely up in flames but instead, she just spread her hands out and forced just heat to waft away. It might not be fire but it was still hot enough to cause the mud to start bubbling and then slowly dry up, cracking as heat waves poured over it. Biting her lip in concentration, she slowly shuffled backwards - more difficult than it sounded at first, as the thick mud sometimes went up to her knees - trying to dry up as much of the mess in her range as she could.

Inez followed Angel's path, using the fallen tree like a dozer blade and pushing the now-powdery dirt to the side so that a path could be cleared. Her feet slipped a few times, but she managed to keep moving forward even though it felt like trying to push a boulder uphill.

For her part, Yvette had moved to the fallen trees and was busily cutting branches off for the others to use to brace against the remaining mud and hold it back. Chips of wood flew around her, her long hands carving away busily. "Nori, Tatiana, Catseye... can you be taking these?" she called over her shoulder.


Noriko was feeling particularly useless as her classmates all moved to help out, and for once she didn't even object when someone came up with something for her to do. After all, there were people who needed help. She wasn't going to just be a brat when someone needed her. Picking up a few of the cleared branches she moved them over towards the site Kane had indicated to start bracing the hill.

Cessily stood still, momentarily confused. Then she smiled. On the spot she melted right out of her clothes and sort of oozed over to where the other girls were setting the bracings. She spread herself thinly, creeping up the newly made embankment before it could crumble down. I might should have explained what I was doing before I became a puddle, she thought to herself.

Tat didn't really know what to do, but she followed Noriko's lead - mostly just moving the branches... while staying as far from Catseye as she could without being as rude as some people. Her eyes flicked to the sky for a second, looking for Karolina, speak of the devil. She didn't see her, and Tat wondered if she actually was going to do what Kane'd asked. She only had a second to wonder before she had to concentrate on where she was actually putting the wood Yvette had cut.


Curious, Catseye couldn't resist poking a clawed nail at the puddle that was Cessily as it slithered up the embankment, but she kept her mind on what Yvette had asked and started gathering up the branches with hands and tail. She kept her distance from Tatiana, well aware that the other girl had been avoiding her, and positioned herself next to Nori with her bundle of wood.

It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't a professional job, but between their mutant powers, hard work and the occasional technical assist from Cain, a rough road slowly came into being through the landslide. Inez, Cain, and Garrison used their strength to finish it off by buttressing the New Mutant's constructed braces with stone and wood to ensure that it would at least hold long enough to allow safe access to the town until a professional road crew could come an do the road properly.

Muddy, tired, and watching the sun going down, they assembled back at their van, only to receive a surprise. Most of the small community was around it, taking time to express their thanks. It was a scrum of handshakes and smiles, as the weary mutants received, for some of them the first time, the thanks of those they'd been able to help. Kane and Cain said a final goodbye to Archie Wilson before climbing into the van.

"We should be home in--" Garrison started, and stopped, as he looked at a van filled with teenagers who were already dropping off to sleep. He shook his head and belted himself in, sharing a look with Marko. "You know," he said quietly. "This just might work after all."