xp_logs | Day Zero: New Mutants Fight Back

x-firestar.livejournal.com posting in

Despite trying their best to avoid the chaos, the time comes for the New Mutants to fight.

There was a soft sound as Angel angled her body to come into a soft landing near the rest of the group. Flying was sometimes tricky because of others with flight abilities or those that liked to knock fliers out of the sky but she'd kept low to the buildings. "We're getting close to Rockefeller Center," she said quietly, "and I still couldn't raise anyone on the radios from the station house."

"I do not think there is anyone who can be helping us except ourselves," Yvette said with a small sigh, glancing around. She was crouched down, her skin hardened almost to its limit, eyes blazing like twin headlights. "The Rockefeller Center has the open space, yes? Where the ice skating is? We will have to be very careful there that no-one sees us.

Meggan was standing nearby, watching for anything suspicious. She glanced over to Yvette, and nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s the place. Near the area they put the Christmas tree every year?” Occasionally, she was blending into the look of the wall, but for now she looked normal. Unfortunately, she might be able to blend in, but she couldn’t make herself completely camouflaged in to help out a bit more. And posing a distraction would just get them killed, she knew.

Musing more to herself, she crossed her arms, and added, “If there were trees right there now, we’d be able to go unnoticed through there.”

Walking, stumbling really, Famine made her way down the deserted avenue, panting heavily. Pain fogged her brain and it was difficult to concentrate through the red haze. Her arm dangled uselessly, but no matter, no matter. She had to get to her master. He would fix things, he would make it right...

To her left she spotted the girls as they crouched for safety. So young and tender, innocent. Glowing skin and bright eyes, like the girls she used to know--

They should pay. They WOULD pay.

Famine slowly raised her good arm.

Inez clutched her stomach and doubled over suddenly. "Owwww!" She fell to her knees and started dry-heaving as she fumbled for her pack of granola bars. "So hungry. My stomach's killing me, it..."

All around them, what lights had been dimly flickering around Rockefeller Square started dimming.

"Inez?" Cessily crouched down by the blond girl. "What's-"

The all-too familiar pain of an empty stomach had Catseye falling forward in a mirror of Inez's action. What was going on? Even the hunger pangs she experienced after shifting out of BigCat form weren't this strong. This was a nearly crippling pain. Crying out, she threw an arm out to take a can of tuna from Inez's pack, slicing the top off crudely with her nails. "Need meat. Meat now," she mumbled, rolling over so she was farther away from the others, hoarding the tuna can, worried she might get so hungry she would shift into her best hunting form, the BigCat, and forget the difference between friends and sustenance.

Angel was on her knees as she violently dry retched as waves of intense and painful hunger ran over her. "Not ... cool," she gritted through her teeth. It was a running joke, but truth, that she ate constantly; it was a side effect of her powers but now it felt like it was being turned around on her. She stared up at the strange woman through hair that flopped in her eyes and felt a cold wash of fear. This was not good.

Noriko gasped at the sudden shock of hunger, something she hadn't felt for real since before she manifested, not even after pushing her speed power to the limit or when she'd been living on the streets. Even then, when she'd occasionally had nothing to eat for days at a time, at least her power had energized her. But now... even the three day blackout couldn't explain this gnawing lack of energy. "Na...nani sore?" she stuttered, grasping at her stomach and staring at the woman. "Omae... Who...?"

Meggan was almost near tears at the sudden sensation of extreme and gnawing hunger. It was so powerful, and felt like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. Forcing herself to speak as she sat down hard, she ground out between clenched teeth, “What…is this?!” She was shaking, and was soon also staring at the woman the others had noticed first.

Tat had dropped to her knees when the wave of hunger hit, staring at the ground as she tried to get into her bag, tried to get some of the carefully rationed food even though she somehow was going to be sick even as she had no food in her stomach. She remembered this - when she'd been hitchhiking, but it'd never been this bad, and she wondered if this was what starving- really starving felt like. She looked up -for food, to be honest, but saw the others staring at the woman who was the only one standing through this, until she was staring, too.

"Poor lost little girls," Famine cooed as she approached them. "So small, so helpless. Famine will take care of you, oh yes she will," she limped towards them. Battered and broken, she was still stronger than them.

Yvette swayed, fighting to stay on her feet as her friends dropped around her. She was exhausted, tireder than she ever remembered being, even after six months of coma and there was something wrong with her skin... Holding up her hand, she flicked at the back of it with her finger and was shocked to see a small dent appear. "We have to get away from her," she managed to gasp, tugging ineffectively at the girl nearest her.

A hand grabbed for and twisted the collar of Yvette's shirt tightly while another did the same for Inez. Angel gritted her teeth, forcing herself to move as she jump started her powers. The others would be too easily burnt and she was too out of it to be careful but those two would just suffer crispy clothes and come out of it okay.

She managed to get airborne and into another alley before sputtering out, dropping all three roughly to the ground where she rolled and bounced awkwardly. Angel came to a stop against a wall and groaned - but the intense hunger had dropped to a more manageable level. Still, that was only the first problem taken care of.

The pain in Inez's stomach faded enough for her to stand upright. She brushed her hair out of her face and looked over at the skinny girl who was causing her friends all this trouble. Inez narrowed her eyes and looked around the alley before she saw what she was looking for.

"Watch your heads," she said to Angel and Yvette as she moved to the back of the alley.

Seconds later, a full dumpster came flying out of the alley like it'd been shot out of a catapult, casting a shadow over Famine before it landed on her with a crash.

Even as the Horseman staggered from beneath the mass of metal, Cessily took decisive action for a change. The silvery girl hit Famine in the midsection, knocking the other girl even farther away from the wasting students.

"That is being it!" Yvette managed to get upright, ignoring the singed state of her clothes. "She is needing to concentrate! So we need to be distracting her!" She picked up a bottle from an overturned trashcan. Normally she'd have issues throwing things at people, but this woman wanted to hurt them and in the most horrible way possible. Gritting her teeth, she lobbed the bottle at Famine's head.

As Famine's attention wavered, Noriko took the opportunity to turn and run, getting faster and faster as she moved away from the woman's ability to inhibit her powers. Briefly tempted to just keep going, it was Yvette's yell that pulled her up short, and glancing back over her shoulder she gave a brief shake of her head. No, she wouldn't abandon them. In a sense, the girls maybe really were her team.

As Catseye was scarfing down the first of the tuna she'd grabbed, her friends' attack on the woman lessened her pain and she staggered to her feet, abandoning the can. She knew she'd regret it later, but she couldn't do much to help as a human, so she shifted to BigCat. Before she could make a lunge at their opponent, however, she bounded over to Meggan to make sure her friend was now alright, giving her arm a lick with the rough mountain lion tongue. "Mrrt?" she rumbled in question.

Now that Famine’s attention was off them, Meggan was indeed feeling a little bit better. Feeling Catseye licking her arm, she grinned for a moment as the hunger lessened bit by bit. Sitting up to better reach the other New Mutant, she patted her back. She took another breath before she answered. “I’m better. You?”

Climbing to her feet, she made sure everything was okay—other than exhaustion and a some residual hunger, anyway. She also had to make sure Catseye was fine, before they were able to aid the others. Would throwing an empty beer bottle really help? It was the nearest thing in reach, and there was only one way to find out. She chucked it at Famine’s good arm.

Famine ducked the projectile with ease. She laughed, a harsh dry sound. "Poor little girls," she cooed again, and made to raise her arm again.

Not working, not working, not working. Angel shoved herself back to her feet and stared in horror - they were going to get their butts handed to them and the X-Men were not going to come in and save the day.

It had to be up to them.

She cast around for an idea, any idea, and then she spotted the shadow stretching across the ground. Angel looked up and spotted a massive billboard on top of the nearest building and an idea hit. "Guys, GUYS!" she yelled, getting their attention. "I've got an idea!"

Angel got a good hold of the back of Yvette's shirt again and grunted an apology as she rocketed them both into the air, towards their soon to be ticket out of this mess. She couldn't carry Yvette very far without burning her shirt right off her but she had an idea of how to get her up there.

Going as fast as she could, Angel twisted, spinning around and gaining momentum before arcing out - at the end of the arc, she let go and prayed a lot that her aim was good.

Yvette let out a girlish shriek as she flew through the air, before realising she was heading straight for the billboard. Curling into a ball, she punched straight through it before impacting with the roof and rolling to a halt. As she sat up, she gingerly felt her forehead, realising she'd actually managed to cut herself on something. That woman had messed up her powers, apparently, but this far away, she could feel her skin hardening again. However, there were other things at stake - why on earth was she up here? She peered over the edge of the building, seeing Angel gesturing wildly at the billboard and then Famine. She wanted her to do what?

Inez looked up and figured out what Angel was trying to do. "Oh hell yes," she murmured, backing away from the wall slowly and curling her legs, then sprinting forwards and leaping with all her strength straight up. She plunged her fingertips straight into the brick wall and kept on going, crawling straight up like a spider as fast as she could until she reached the edge of the rooftop, then flipped herself feet-over-head to stand next to the billboard.

With a grin to Yvette, Inez reared back a leg and kicked out one of the supports. "Ever seen The Wizard of Oz?" she called out. "We're the house and she's the Wicked Witch, yo."

Tat forced herself not to look at what was going on at the roof, and she looked around for something to use. It was her or them, that much was blatantly clear. She didn't want to- She didn't like this. Didn't like fighting, the fighting words, but it wasn't like she had a choice.

She didn't even think as the stick (more like heavy, pointed debris) was in her hand, as she turned and swung, not even knowing if it would be at the right trajectory - but it might.

Catseye gave Meggan an enthusiastic headbutt in appreciation of the beer-bottle-throwing move, and to show that she was feeling better, too. She focused on what the others were doing- Angel said she had an idea?- but she'd never seen the Wizard of Oz so the catgirl didn't understand what the plan was. So she just lunged at Famine and pounced, claws out, at the woman's chest before using her foe as a springboard and continuing through the air, attempting to get back at a distance that wouldn't induce the hunger pangs.

Up on the roof, comprehension dawned for Yvette, echoed by a flare of her eyes. Immediately she went to the other end of the billboard and started slashing away at the supports there. With several already gone, the board was starting to groan alarmingly.

Cessily was slow to notice, but eventually she realized that Famine's powers had absolutely no effect on her. Neither would Angel's crazy "squishing" idea.

The silver girl grabbed Famine around the waist and struggled to drag her into position.

Trying to figure out what the girls on the roof were doing, Noriko started heading back down the road towards where Catseye and the others on the ground still were, even if it was much closer to the woman than Nori really wanted to be.

With Yvette slashing at the legs of the billboard and Cessily dragging their foe seemingly into a particular spot, Catseye's BigCat brain realized that the big heavy thing was supposed to fall and squish the woman, and the woman needed to be in optimal squishing spot. Easy. The cat romped over to Cessily and tried to help by clamping her jaws around Famine's leg and moving in time with Cessily to help drag. Seeing how her stomach wasn't trying to devour itself, Catseye guessed that their opponent was sufficiently distracted.

Inez kicked at the supports of the billboard, denting the metal to the point of breaking. "Come on, you damn thing, go go go go go..." And with a crashing sound, the huge structure began to tilt. One more kick sent it toppling off the edge of the building downward.

Famine lashed out with her good arm, almost flailing at the girls and paying no heed to what was going on above. Every time she tried to push with her power, one of the girls - the silver one that she couldn't get a grasp on, or the giant purple cougar, or the lightning-quick one she could barely see - one or the other of them was knocking her off-balance and maneuvering her backwards...

A streak of blue erupted from around a building as Angel gained momentum and flew up and under the falling sign. Girl met hundred pounds of board with a crashing noise and for a moment there was no noticeable change in the fall besides flames licking the sides. Teeth clenching, Angel flamed to the next step, pure flames broiling around her - pushing through that barrier in her mind. She surged upwards with more strength and flames and the board came to a slow stop. Her friends were still below and they needed to move before she burned a her shaped hole right through the thing and it plummeted to earth.

She was vaguely aware of people scattering beneath her and she counted to ten before she blasted up and through it, leaving the burning billboard to fall down.

Nori stared, open mouthed as Angel caught the massive billboard and held it. And then she was up and through and the heavy thing was falling and Nori had a sudden, brilliant idea. The struts on the billboard were metal.

Seconds before it hit the woman who'd attacked them she let loose, flinging thousands of volts of energy out to supercharge the billboard as it struck.

The cat sprung one way, and the metal girl seemed to melt completely away as a shadow passed over the Horseman of Famine. She looked up just in time to see the arcs of electricity cross the billboard before hundreds of pounds of sheet metal and supports crashed down atop her, sparks and lightning flying.

When the dust and arcing voltage cleared, one red-armored hand could be seen twitching among the wreckage - then nothing moved.

Yvette looked down from the building and gulped, the enormity of what they'd done hitting her. "I think," she quavered to Inez. "That we should be leaving now."

Inez nodded, then rubbed her stomach. "With one pit stop," she groaned. As Yvette looked at her with bright blue eyes, Inez smiled weakly. "I'm starving, yo."

Meggan swallowed, and nodded with wide eyes. Her own voice wavered a bit as she added, "Definitely a good idea." Her one thought at the moment was that she really hoping nothing else attacked them tonight. She quickly looked away from the direction of the body buried underneath the sign, and took a deep breath. The sooner they were away from here, the better.

While waiting for Yvette and Inez to come down from the roof, Catseye started herding her companions into a group, dodging about almost playfully. "Mrrrrow!" She shifted back into girlform and continued to tug on sleeves and cadjole. "Come on, MutantGirlColony! Time to go! Time to find food! Meat meat meat! Come on Madame Hotpants! Come on SharpSkinGirl!" She was absolutely famished after shifting into BigCat. Eyes widening, she spotted her salvation. "HOT DOG CART!" There was an abandoned vendor cart a half a block away, and the catgirl prayed it hadn't been raided already.