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Further away from the point of impact, others react to the incident



Early morning runs weren't Amanda's idea of fun, but given the tone her training had taken of late and Angelo's own X-Men training, plus the hectic nature of their jobs, it seemed like the best way to spend time together was to combine the two. The park near the brownstone wasn't huge, but it was big enough to do laps of, especially at this time before things got too busy. Breath fogging in the slightly cool air, Amanda waved for a pause, stopping to place her hands on her knees and bend over, coughing once or twice between panting.

"Moira always said the fags would hurt my fitness," she said wryly, glancing over at her boyfriend.

"Nate's said the same to me", he returned easily. "'s why I really tried givin' up in the end, what with the way he hauls me up mountains an' such."

"And yet you still keep going back. I must be a bad influence or something." She chuckled, coughed again, then straightened, stretching her neck from side to side. "Maybe I should ask Pete for ballet lessons instead."

"You an' the Firebug both." He considered that image. "Well, long as it's Pete doin' the teachin' an' you don't go to a studio... I don't think you'd like a studio."

She laughed out loud at that. "What, can't see me in a tutu mincing around with a bunch of anorexics?" she asked, teasingly.

"Anorexic bitches", he corrected. "I've heard what Jennie says about them. An' I watch TV."

"Well, Jennie would know..." She paused, frowning a little, head tilted as if listening for something. "Wait, do you..."

She was interrupted by a loud BOOM, south east of them, a large cloud of smoke or dust rising above the buildings. Almost at once the air was full of the sound of wailing alarms as car and house alarms went off. Those people who were out and about were all turned towards the sound, expressions of fear and confusion on their faces.

"What the hell?!" Angelo snapped round to stare in the direction of the noise. "That wasn't even a car bomb. Too big."

A strangled gurgle was his reply. Amanda had dropped to her knees, both hands gripping her head. A trickle of blood was running from her nose and she was gasping for breath. "Not... a... bomb..." she grated out between clenched teeth. "Something..." A moaning wail forced its way out and she bent over, laying her head on her knees, body shaking.

Angelo almost leapt to her side when he saw her condition, one hand going to his phone while the other arm went around her, trying to support her.

"She's... screaming. So... much... screaming..." It was barely a choked whisper as she clutched at her head. "Can't..." Then her eyes rolled up in her head and she slumped heavily against him, the blood from her nose shockingly bright against the paleness of her face.

Thinking quickly, Angelo flicked through the numbers on speed-dial. No point calling 911 if this was a mutation thing, they wouldn't be able to help, so the best chance was one of the
Trenchcoats. But who would be nearest?

The last thing Sarah wanted was her phone to go off. She had been picking up breakfast in a bakery down the street, standing in a crowded room when it happened, and then the phone rang. That couldn't be good. Pushing her way out toward the street, she flipped the phone open. "This is Sarah."

"Sarah", Angelo said tensely, half-crouched half-sitting with Amanda's head propped on his knee. "I got a problem. How close are you to Tompkins Park?"

"Not far." She's only have to make it a couple of blocks to get over there. Unfortunately, people were starting to gather out in the street, causing even more confusion. She started to push her way through the crowd. "I could be over there in five minutes if these assholes would get out of my way."

"Whatever's happened in the city, it hit Amanda pretty hard", Angelo told her. "I need some help gettin' her to the mansion."

Shit. "I'm on my way." Sarah flipped the phone closed, shoved it into her pocket, and shouldered her way through the gawking crowd. Turning the corner, more people were beginning to wander out of their buildings sleepily, trying to figure out what had happened. "Go back inside," she grumbled, now with the park just within sight, "The sky isn't falling."

***

New York City was never quiet, not even at its latest hour. If New York had been a person, the ebb and flow of people and traffic might have been its veins, the island of Manhattan its beating heart. And upon that heart, in the early hours of the morning, an impact of possibly fatal proportions.

Jubilee woke with a start, various pillows dropping to the floor as she flailed for a second, before realising that what had awoken her was not in the room. It was a pity, since her immediate response to danger had just managed to singe a hole in the new sheets and pillow
case. She was almost positive that the guy currently blinking at her in confusion was going to be pissed in a minute or two, once he woke up enough to figure it out.

She swore softly as she pushed herself upwards into a sitting position and reached blindly in the pre-dawn dark for her cell phone.

All she got was static however, and she flipped the cover back down before stuffing it into her pocket. Carefully avoiding the hand that reached out to touch her back she walked unselfconsciously to the TV leaning against the back wall of the bedroom and switched it on,
surfing for a news channel. She ignored the voice of her companion, waving a hand at him in a shushing motion.

She caught a helicopter eye view of a crater that must once have been one of the tall buildings of New York. It appears to be smoking currently, and the news caster was almost babbling in their confusion as to what the hell had just happened.

Jubilee didn't need to be told twice, it was time to get dressed and get going; they were going to need information if they were to figure out what was going on.

***


Jubilee had finally managed to extricate herself from the rather uncomfortable position of having still been in the bed of the person she'd slept with the night before, come the morning. He'd been angry at her dismissal, and she'd been annoyed at the complication when she had work to do. Still, she'd finally managed to find her underwear and had escaped with only a few harsh words. She was now headed deeper into Manhattan, toward the place most people seemed to be moving away from.

It would take Remy awhile to get back into the States from wherever he was overseas; she hadn't checked up on where his last location was with the others. She'd need to go to one of the designated meeting up points later on but right now she wanted to get as much information as
possible about what the hell was going on so she'd have something to report.

She heard the noise of shattering glass before she saw several youths helping themselves to the electronics from a small computer store a little ways back on the street she'd just turned into. It always seemed to be the first thing anyone did after their initial panic. She could almost set her clock by human nature sometimes.

Jubilee gave them a wide birth as she walked past, feet hurrying her back into the shadows of one of the buildings as she decided to head for the rooftops. It would allow her to avoid any more scenes like that close up, and it would be faster in the long run as the streets became more crowded.

People were already starting to stream past on their way out of Manhattan, and it was only due to the smaller alleyways and side streets that she'd been moving along that she'd managed to avoid them this long.


***

Angelo was sitting on the ground when she came into view, Amanda's head on his knees. He'd been trying to wipe away the blood from her nose, but it hadn't stopped flowing and she was still twitching periodically.

Shit. Shitshitshit. There wasn't any physical damage to the park, so all of this had to be caused by her mutation. Sarah ran to them, kneeling down to get a closer look. "Something explodes somewhere else and she get's all the damage? I call foul."

"She's linked to the city", Angelo reminded her grimly. "So my best guess'd be whatever exploded, it was about the size of a city block."

"Motherfuckers." Sarah looked around quickly, and then started to stand. "We need to get her out of the city then, while we still can. It's going to be damn near impossible once people start catching on that there's trouble."

"You read my mind." He stood in turn, lifting Amanda in his arms. "The car's not far from here."

***


Jubilee frowned as she looked through the view finder on the digital camera. She'd stolen it, and several memory cards out of a camera store not far from where she now perched. Even with a good focus, she was still too far away to make out any real details however. There was a pall of smoke over the area around Madison Square Garden, and she could see the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles that must be having a hell of a time getting closer with so much damage to the streets in that area.

All that she could see through her view finder, but she needed a better, closer look down there. Details were what Remy and the others would want, not just vague impressions and 'maybes'. No help for it then, she just hoped that it wasn't some kind of 'Cloverfield' style
monster and she'd end up being first on the plate for its lunch.


It was the work of moments to get moving again, using the ladders, roofs and back alleys of the city to work her way forward through the increasing number of people milling in the streets. Jubilee knew it would take only a small spark to set all these tense and frightened people off, she just hoped she wasn't in the middle of them when they went off.


A little time later…


She heard it, before she saw it, the massive grinding of concrete and steel as she ran up the centre stairwell of an abandoned office building's fire stairs. She'd blown the door off its hinges at ground level, wanting somewhere other then ground level to take a look at the centre of the conflict. It was just lucky for her that New Yorkers rarely looked above head level most days, or she'd have been stopped by authorities about a mile back.


It took her awhile to get to the roof of the building, but what she saw when she got there froze her in her tracks. Something, an edifice of blackened steel, asphalt and concrete was slowly raising itself from a massive hole in the earth. She crouched quickly in the shadow of air vents and started snapping pictures. She'd drop off the memory sticks when she ran out of room, in one of the pre-designated spots.


***

"This isn't going to work," Sarah glanced angrily out the window at the traffic surrounding them. She could walk out of this goddamn town faster than they were moving. She sat in the backseat, Amanda slumped over in her lap, while Angelo drove. "This is why our cars need to be
equipped with fucking rocket launchers."

"I don't know what else we can do", Angelo said tensely. "Of all the times we could use Pietro, this'd have to be up there..."


In Sarah's arms, Amanda twitched. The bleeding from her nose had eased as they'd gotten at least away from the brownstone, but she was still obviously not doing well. "Don't belong here," she muttered, eyes still closed. "Don't put that there."

"Shhh," Sarah spoke softly, brushing hair clumped with dried blood out of Amanda's face. "We're getting you out." She glanced out the window again, squinted, and gasped. "What the fuck is that? Over there in the skyline.... things just got worse."

There was no need for Angelo to brake, since they weren't going anywhere. He turned almost reluctantly to see what Sarah was looking at, and gaped at the huge black tower rising of its own accord. "Ohhh, that really can't be good."

"City... screaming. Everything's wrong." The twitch became a thrashing, one hand nearly hitting Sarah in the face. "Someone's in my place and he's hurting the city."

"Sonofa..." Sarah didn't want to hurt Amanda, but really wasn't in the mood to get nailed in the face either. She leaned back as far as she could, nudging Amanda forward slightly. "We have to get her out of here. Sooner rather than later please!"

"I can't do anything!" Angelo retorted, in more frustration than anger. "Unless I call Clarice. Think she's up to a teleport?"

There was a crackle as Amanda's less-than-state of the art radio switched on. A voice, commanding and cold, began speaking, and at the same time Amanda herself stilled, eyes opening. "His master's voice," she whispered.

"...Manhattan. Your time is finished. Humanity has shown itself no longer worthy of the prosperity it has achieved, and the end times are upon you. Today marks Day Zero of the new world, a world where humanity no longer holds sway at the top of the evolutionary ladder. From this moment, every human in the sound of my voice is no longer welcome in this new world - a world for those who have replaced your kind. Beginning from this moment, I claim this city for mutantkind. This is your new kingdom.

"Humanity, you have twenty-four hours to vacate the island of Manhattan. This is not a threat, this is law. You have been conquered, and we are the new law of the world. Anyone found within the confines of this island one day hence shall be considered a hostile and unwelcome force, and will be executed. This is my law.

"The Apocalypse has come. Today is Day Zero."

Angelo's lips were tight, his face even greyer with fear. "My mom lives on the island. Miguel, too... Sarah, you're gonna have to take the wheel. I have to go get her."

Sarah shook her head fiercely. She was not sitting in this traffic if she could help it. "You need the car. Go get your Mom before things go south. I'll give Pixie a call."

"Okay." He knew Clarice would come if it was even remotely possible, for this. "Call me when you're out an' safe."

***

Jubilee stared at the cell phone in her hands in disbelief as it started to talk in a loud, harshly toned growl. How the hell? Power flared around her fingers and she dropped the phone as it melted, stepping back from it as Apocalypse's last words faded out as the phone sputtered and died with an electronic scream of static.


Not a monster from a movie then but something much worse, a mutant. Well, wouldn't this just fuck up all her party invitations for some time to come?