Day Zero: Search and Rescue

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A handful of volunteers engage in a job that, though not particularly glorious, is certainly necessary.


Dani was not a city girl to be sure, but even she thought the ruins of New York was just out of character. New York was...not this. Not quiet. New York was a hustling, bustling busy place all the time. This was wrong. Very, very wrong. They were there trying to get those out that they could, though it wasn't easy for the humans to tell who were the good mutants and the who were the bad ones most of the time. Then again, not everyone looked like a mutant either. She really wanted a shotgun right now. Even without bullets, she just wanted the heft, the intimidation factor, her powers were not defensive or even entirely offensive. They could do damage, yes, but nothing tangible and not to more than one or many two people at a time. She wanted a shotgun, though it would do more harm than good in helping prove their sincerity in trying to rescue people and get them to safety.

"Keep headin' that way -- Red Cross has a station set up, I believe." Flicking the hair from his face, Marius resumed his crouch a few yards away as a filth-smeared man began to shuffle towards the safe area. He'd discreetly neglected to comment on the still-in-the-box pocket DVD player the man had balanced atop his carton of unopened waterbottles, but under the circumstances Marius did not see looting as a major priority. The Australian closed his eyes and pressed his ear to the wall of the half-collapsed building, trying to listen.

"Think I hear someone down there," he muttered. "A sort of scratchin', down an' to the left." He paused, bringing his face closer to a fissure in the concrete and sniffed, then pulled back, shaking his head. "Can't smell for sure -- apologies. Too much in the air."

"I'll check on it. I don't think Kurt can see." Sam put his hand up on a ledge and hopped over, free falling the majority of the way so he didn't announce their position more then necessary. Once most of the way down he applied his powers, not even enough to really thrust but just enough to keep from getting hurt when he landed. He began to search immediately, calling up to let everyone up top know he was safe.

Jane slid down the side of a nearby building, her normally pristine white cloud form mottled and dirty looking from all of the dust and debris. #This one is empty.#

Marius peered over the ledge, eyes fixed on the point where the glow of Sam's blast field had died away. "I confess, whilst evacuation is undoubtedly a worthy endeavor I would prefer to be in a position featuring a certain amount of violence upon persons not myself. A popular refrain of mine, perhaps, but true -- there is much to be said for the simple immediacy of a fist to face."

"You are our tracker", Kurt said firmly. "It may be that violence upon other people will arise, but it is not something I will be wishing for, myself."

Tabitha kept close to Dani, moving carefully. "I don't know," she said quietly. "This makes me feel like committing a little violence." She gestured to the wreckage around them.

"A legitimate reaction, I feel," commented Marius, currently stacking enough hyper-sensory mutations that he could have eavesdropped from the opposite side of the block.

"We all wanna hurt something," Dani agreed, peering down the hole Sam had gone down. She didn't sense any fear, but she had never really played with the range of her powers. When she was awake her range was only a few yards, when she was asleep it was larger, but only slightly. Living at Xavier's where almost everyone had at least a basic shield had helped, "But not our job right now. And if we ain't doing our job, why bother being here?"

"I'm not seeing anyone yet!" Sam called up. He didn't want to bring on more of the violence conversation; it was people just being upset and they needed to focus on the job.

Marius sighed, taking the hint. Worried as he was, it was no excuse not to have his head in the game. Besides, in the X-Men nothing short of an actual corpse was going to convince him to upgrade Jennie from a MIA to a KIA. The Australian leaned over the ledge and shut his eyes, trying to strain out the ambient noise and focus on what was going on beneath. Faint. Very faint, compared to Sam's movements and the shifting rubble. But . . .

"Keep on," he announced, pulling his head back. "No words, but I just heard a moan."

Jane swirled around Marius and then down after Sam into the collapsed building. The rubble was loose and shifting, and the remaining walls looked none too stable. A hunk of concrete bounced out of the hole Sam was digging and into a twisted steel girder. It shuddered, and a small showed of dust drifted down onto them.#Hold on, Sam, let me see if I can figure out where they are so you know where to dig,# she said, disappearing into the pile of debris.

"Be careful down there!" she called, not wanting to end up with them or anyone else on the disabled list or worse. They had enough already there what with everything. As they worked, something flickered in her mind, claustrophobia combined with a fear of the dark, "I sense someone," she said, straining for more. She couldn't see what they saw or give any indication of the age or gender of the person, she just saw their fears and fears were indiscriminate of age or sex. "They're scared of the dark and in a small space," she said, wishing she could get something more coherant. Even if there was a fear of building stability maybe that could help pinpoint an age, but right now..only darkness and small spaces.

Kurt was hovering anxiously at the edge of the hole, looking down. "Do you think there might be room for two in that space when they are found, Dani? Even just for a moment?"

How was she to know? Dani's powers did not work like that at all, "Don't know," She replied, walking over to some debris a few meters away and staring at it curiously. It looked funny. "Don't work like that," she called, "Fear ain't spacial."

Tabitha stepped forward, concentrating on the space between her hands. "Hold on, I'm going to try something." She dropped the spherical bomb into the hole. It ignited with a small pop halfway down. Then it burned with an almost painful brightness, and stayed burning even as it touched down.

Tabitha smirked in self-satisfaction. "Flare bomb."

"Useful," Marius remarked as the rubble glowed to visibility. "Just have a care about slippin' back into the other sort, eh?"

Kurt was already on his knees at the side of the gap, squinting down into the hole. "There is space enough, I think. One moment."

"I think there is too." Sam pulled back some rubble, as much as he could without causing things to fall and considering how heavy it all was. He wanted to make just a little more room for Kurt and he did. With the light now, and everyone's contributions, this rescue was going to be possible.