xp_logs | Noise & Confusion... Manhunt

Taking Place at Various Times Throughout the Night and Early Morning

Warren and Crystal have a run in with the neighborhood watch.

Crystal walked on the sidewalk, looking around the neighborhood for any signs of unusual disturbance. She and Warren were traveling by foot rather than air in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention from people outside late at night. In order to further this, Crystal was wearing a jacket, long pants, and boots. People who walked around in temperatures such as the ones had in New York in the winter were generally one of two things, crazy or mutant, maybe both.

Warren was similarily rugged up, his wings strapped down and hidden under the trenchcoat he was wearing. It wasn't the most comfortable, but he'd gotten used to it over the years. It still left him with an odd bulge at his back, one that he tended to ignore if he could. "It's been a long time since I was sober and walking around like this," he said with a little bit of a smile, making small talk as he kept his eyes out for anything out of the ordinary.

"Being sober is good," Crystal replied. "I know that the past few days cannot have been easy ones for you, especially with yesterday being the particular day it was. It is good that Jay will be able to get help at Muir, but I know how difficult this weekend must have been."

"Not particularly," he said with a shrug. "But Jay's getting the help he needs, and that's what is important. I'll be fine." That might have been a little bit of a lie, considering how much he already missed the other flier.

Now that sounded familiar, didn't it? "Yes, you will be fine," Crystal said, still looking around the area. It wouldn't do to be distracted and miss something or be taken by surprise. Searching for someone was not new to her, and she was well aware of the fact that letting down your guard in such a situation was never a good idea. "You will be fine, I will be fine, but that does not mean that we are perfectly fine right now. Life continues on, that is true, but sadness is allowed. Perhaps Jay will return soon, perhaps not, but unless one or both of you decide otherwise, you can still keep in contact and you could even visit him, yes?"

"Yes, possibly." Warren was still keeping in touch with Jay, but they'd both purposefully made no mention of the future - what happened would happen, and right now he was just taking it one day at a time. "What a pair we make," he said, his eyes returning to her for a second before glancing down a lane they'd just passed. "We both have perfectly good excuses to be complete wrecks right now, and here we are, out searching for some troublesome teenage mutant like it was any other day."

Crystal smiled a bit, continuing to walk next to Warren on the quiet street. "It is good to have useful distractions sometimes, to be able to do something to take one's mind off of unpleasant thoughts. I tend to keep myself busy with classes, both the ones that I am teaching and the ones that I am taking, as well as MedLab duty. I have been scheduling extra time to train in the DR as well."

Nancy Burge shined a spotlight on the pair of strangers, "Hold it, right there." In her off hand she held a steel baton, extended and readied for confrontation. Her two assistants Drew and Arthur were right behind her, both with cans of mace. "What are the two of you doing here?" she asked bluntly.

Warren blinked at the sudden light in his eyes, stepping in a little closer to Crystal as he did. He didn't miss the weapons in the hands of the people confronting him, and his most charming and disarming smile appeared on his face after a couple of moments. "We're just out for a walk, ma'am," he replied easily, one hand going to settle around Crystal's waist. "We thought we saw someone following us a couple of blocks, and we're a little paranoid about paparazzi. You haven't seen anyone lurking around, have you?"

"Paparazzis? Why would you two need to be worried about paparazzis?" Nancy asked in an abrasive tone.

"We are both from wealthy families," Crystal told the woman, deciding to go with partial truth. Given the choice, she would prefer to avoid outright lying, especially since they weren't in uniform and for all appearances did seem to just be out for a stroll. "Therefore, there are times when we are followed by members of the paparazzi. This late at night, we should be safe, but one never knows when someone with a camera will appear. We apologize if we have bothered you and caused you concern; we are simply passing through your lovely neighborhood."

Nancy gave them both an appraising glare, "Why our neighborhood? What's wrong with the one you're from?"

"Far too many prying eyes," Warren replied, flashing that smile again. "I'm terribly sorry if we're intruding, but it really is lovely here." He glanced around, before looking at their weapons. "Is something the matter? We wouldn't have come here if we thought we were."

"There's been a rash of robberies lately," Drew spat out. Nancy hushed him and continued with, "We've had some difficulties lately, just keep an eye out." She started away, putting her baton away, Drew and Arthur following her lead.

"Thank you for the warning; we will be careful!" Crystal turned to face Warren. "I think we should go elsewhere." Simon didn't seem to be here, and if those three had seen him they wouldn't have been so interested in the apparant couple walking down the street.

Warren nodded to the group of three as they left, his arm staying around Crystal as they continued to stroll along. "Agreed." Once they were out of sight he continued the conversation. "It seems we make a good pair, working together," he said to her with a flash of a grin. "We'll have to do this more often."

***

Angel and Sam search the woods around the mansion for an escaped super-powered prisoner and get creative.

The morning mist was just starting to lift off the ground as the sun peaked over the forested horizon- bright bands of orange and yellow shining through the towering timbers. Unfortunately, the mist was only going to make the task at hand harder for the two plain clothed X-Men- or one X-Man and one trainee- who were taking a break from flying over the wooded area.

"This is only going to make searching for Simon worse," Angel commented before sitting down on a fallen log. They'd been looking for ages the creep but to no avail - not one trace of him had popped up. And their comms had remained silent of any news, meaning that none of the other teams had spotted him, either.

Though she'd trained with the X-Men and firefighters combined, the search was proving to be tiring. The fire station she volunteered at was a big city one and while they'd done search and rescue before, it had been inner city only. Not only was it new and different, but Angel was still grumpy and tired from her ordeal with the police and the "little misunderstanding".

"I don't figure things can be too easy for us too often." Sam agreed, though being about as positive as he could be. "Otherwise anyone could do what we do and then were would we be?"

"I'd say the police do this thing all the time but they're highly trained and specialized, so I'm assuming you mean like the civilians?" And while she knew that on some forces were a mutant or two, hidden or not, Angel knew that the main reason the X-Men existed was specifically for this kind of thing. The police could have done the search but the powers aspect made it a lot more dangerous...

Sam ran his fingers through his hair, "I was just trying to lighten the mood a little and to put things in a positive light. I figure we're probably going to be out here for a while yet." He was very aware of how bad he was with jokes but sometimes people found that comforting. He had hoped this would have been one of those times.

Angel looked sheepish. "I'm sorry. I think my funny bone got banged up a bit. I mean, you know. Fighty time, fighty time in the cafe, then getting arrested and now searching for the guy who started it all..." She grimaced and shoved her hair out of her face. "The last day or so has so not been stellar."

"I understand that. Maybe we can make some sort of game out of it? Or... that's probably not such a great idea, actually. I suppose this will just have to be an unpleasant experience." Sam resigned himself to it, though he didn't like it when people were upset. He had to remember he can't fix everything.

"Thanks for trying, S - Cannonball, I..." Her voice trailed off as suddenly she exploded off the tree as if something had flung her away. "Oh god, trying. Trying! I know how to make this easier. We're losing visibility but I can see heat signatures and I can track him that way!"

Sam shot up into the air right behind Angel. "I'll keep high to make sure no one gets the jump of us; you just keep tracking that heat."

She wasn't far beyond him, even though she'd been a little shocked at how fast he'd listened to her. Despite the aches and worry, Angel grinned as her vision shifted just like Shiro had taught her how to make it. An X-Man had listened to her suggestion and she had a way to make their searching easier.

Things were looking up.

***

Hank & Catseye search the quarry near the mansion for Simon and end up discussing each others abilities.
The crunch of gravel under his feet made Hank nostalgic for times long since passed when the quarry was much smaller and the school seemed larger. It was peculiar for the doctor to get into this sort of state, especially while on the trail of a dangerous mutant teenager. "Smell anything familiar, Cheetara?"

"Rocks, rocks, rocks, and more rocks," Catseye answered, kicking them as she walked. She was still grumpy from being caged up in the jail and even the quarry, where she loved to play as BigCat since rocky terrain was a cougar's natural habitat, couldn't perk her up. "All I smell are rocks. And you because you are here. Do you ever come and play here?" she asked, wondering if the big blue feral enjoyed the rocks as much as she usually did.

"When I was younger," he smiled and paused for a moment, "you can learn a good sense of balance from jumping around from boulder to boulder. I take it you come here to enjoy the same sort of thing as a panther, hmm?"

"Yes. Jumping is one of my favourite things," she answered with a nod, sniffing the air and veering off to the right. "I need to learn better jumping in my girlform though," she admitted, and jumped onto a boulder. "Ick. SmellyBad beer can." She crouched down and reached under the boulder, pulling out a crushed can. "Sometimes I find lots of things here that should not be here. Did you find funny things here when you played here?"

Hank chuckled and shook his head, "The school was much smaller then and not as many people came around here. Occasionally we'd find something or other, but for the most part, it was just a playground of the imagination. Besides, I didn't have your fantastic nose for sniffing out treasures and trinkets back then...though I suppose I still don't."

Jumping from rock to rock as she sniffed, the catgirl paused. "But you are a feral!" Catseye protested, confused. "You do not have a fantastic nose?"

"It's a long story on how I became blue and furry, Cheetara. Bottom line, I may be feral now but it wasn't always the case, and because of that, your sense of smell, hearing, sight and so on will always be a bit keener than mine. Stop for a moment," Hank paused, looking around at the early morning sites and sounds. "I don't think he came this way, but we needed to be sure. While we're here, how about you tell me what you can see and we'll compare my old eyes to your young ones."

Catseye descended just a little bit more to be sure Hank was right, then bounded back up to where he was. "You are right I do not think he came this way either." She looked up at the blue man, studying him for a moment. It wasn't as hard to picture him looking normal as she thought it was going to be- maybe because she was a shapeshifter herself. "I see... houses. In Salem Centre. I see a bus! I see the trees and there is a bird in that one right there," she pointed. "And there is a bug just over there on that rock that looks tasty!"

"I can see the bird and the bus, but the bug," he shook his head. "You're very gifted to have such sharp eyes, Cheetara." Hank chuckled and put his hand on the younger woman's shoulder, in an approving, fatherly gesture.

Headbutting Hank in the chest as a return of the gesture, Catseye moved off towards the bug. "Do you like bugs Mister Beast? I bet I can catch it for you to make a lovely breakfast!"

Hank chuckled and shook his head again, "It's all yours, young lady. I'll call into the comm-center to let them know we didn't find anything." A fact he was both relieved and agitated about- because it meant that one of the other teams would find the troubled boy first...

***

Jan and Laurie search a public park for the escapee and have a run in with some local ruffians.

The rank smell of the park's public restroom was overpowering in the chill morning air. It was still a half-an-hour before sunrise and the magic hour of dawn was just starting to illuminate the otherwise dark night. Since it had closed, the parks artificial light had shut down, which actually served to help the efforts of the skulking duo dressed in dark clothing.

Laurie had only ever gone looking for someone once outside of training, and the night of the jailbreak had been very different circumstances, being enclosed in a building for one. She glanced sideways at her companion before moving forward silently, trying to remember everything she'd learnt with the help of Yvette and Logan on moving silently.

This was Jan's first mission in months, the first one since she'd been injured. She figured it was probably good to start off like this, going after one teenage boy who had already been bested by a handful of trainees, rather than going after a trained, organized group of violent criminals. Not that the kid wasn't dangerous in his own right, but full-team members had been paired up with trainees, and Jan figured that wouldn't have been done if it had been felt that this search was thought to be extremely dangerous.

Laurie moved further into the park, alert for danger but it wasn't till they'd passed an old pinic spot that she noticed figures outlined
in light on a children's playground in the distance.

"What do you think?" she asked Jan softly.

"He was alone yesterday, but I guess he could have joined up with some buddies," Jan said. "I'd think he'd want to move on or something, not hang out on a playground. I guess a playground late at night isn't a place that would have a lot of people, though. We can go check it it out."

"You might want to shrink down and ride on my shoulder, then we'll have the element of surprise if they try anything," Laurie noted, skulking forward, feet placed carefully as Yvette and Logan had been showing her.

"Sure thing." Jan wasn't sure that shrinking was such a good idea if it turned out that these people weren't Simon and friends. It would look like Laurie was a young girl walking alone in the park at dark, and they showed things on the news about that sort of thing. Of course, Laurie was hardly defenseless, and if anyone tried anything they might find themselves getting a nice dose of Sleepytime. Still, if the small crowd did contain Simon, it might be best to look like it was just Laurie coming after them, so Jan went into tiny-mode and crouched on Laurie's shoulder.

Lance drained the remainder of his beer and crumpled the can, tossing it at Alan's head. "Hey fuck-face, get me another," he said with all the confidence of an alpha-male. One of his compatriots whistled, drawing his attention to the rather pretty girl alone at the edge of the playground. "Well, well, boys, what do we have here?"

Damn, she'd been hoping to go unnoticed at least for a little while, at least until she'd figured out if Simon was among them or not. It looked like that option was not to be, and she'd have to go for option B, brazening this out.

"Hi, boys," she said, a smile gracing her lips as she moved out of the shadows and into view. She knew Jan was right there should they start any trouble, and between the two of them, a few human boys were nothing. "Nice night out, isn't it?"

"Lookin' nicer by the minute," Carter joked, cracking the top of another beer.

Lance sat back against the jungle gym he'd taken up as a sort of imaginary throne. "You a cop," he asked plainly.

"Do I look like a cop?" Laurie asked, tone obviously derisive, moving closer as she spoke, she needed to get close enough that her abilities would be effective if things turned sour. "I was just looking for a friend, he had a bad trip and took off before we could stop him. You seen anyone around like that?"

Laurie couldn't see Simon among them at all, so it was a bit of a gamble to see if he'd come through here but if she was lucky, they might just have seen him.

"Nope, nothing like that," one of them said, which earned a empty beer can tossed at him by Lance.

"Want a beer?" he offered as the he got down from his perch.

At one time or another in the past, Laurie might have asked herself what someone like Storm would do, or Scott, or any number of other X-men or friends who she admired. This time, she asked herself what she thought it best to do, and came to a decision almost immediately.

"Does a bear shit in the woods?" she asked, making her accent slightly rougher then normal, a little more New Yorker then Westchestian. She watched Doug and the others of X-force do it enough times to get the basics of how it was done, even if she wasn't particularly good at it. "Throw me one."

Lance sauntered over to the cooler and grabbed one of the precious few remaining beers. "What's a pretty lady like you doing out here all alone at this hour?" he asked, handing it to her.

"Looking for my friend," Laurie replied, taking the can and opening it with a 'scsssh' sound. "Like I said before, he had a bad trip and ran off, I need to find him before he does something stupid."

"Maybe you should let him do something stupid then," Lance smiled, obviously years to Laurie's junior. "Stay here with us and we can get to know each other better."

Laurie pretended a reluctance she didn't feel, taking a sip of the beer and then grimacing at the taste. If the beer she'd had since then had been quality then the stuff she was drinking now was to that what dish water was to clean, and she hadn't even liked the other stuff she'd drunk.

"I'd love to, boys, I really would. But I've got to find him, I'd never forgive myself if he got hurt, you know? You sure you haven't seen anyone at all go through here? Maybe if I find him fast I could come back later."

"No one's been through here though, honey." Lance smiled and with all the arrogance of youth, took a step toward her, starting to feel a little light headed. "So there's no reason to go anywhere."

"I think there is," Laurie replied, still friendly but with a slightly harder edge. "Thanks for the beer, boys. But I've really got to find my friend, and since he's not here, I'd better go."

She turned to leave, back straight as she walked away, keeping her pace regular. They hadn't known anything but as drunk as they were they might do something stupid.

Lance grabbed her wrist and jerked her back, "I'm afraid you're misunderstanding me. I think you-" he was cut off suddenly.

"Hey now, that's no way to treat a lady," Jan scolded the teen, suddenly appearing in view. "I recommend letting go of her right now."

"Boys, meet my little friend," Laurie noted with only a small smirk, the situation called for one afterall. "Now, you really don't want to make her angry, you wouldn't like her when she's angry."

"Let's get out of here!" Lance and the others started to run, leaving the beer and trying to get away from the mutant who had suddenly appeared. As they disapeared into the night, one of the boys shouted back at the women, "Freaks!"

"You guys forgot your beer!" Jan called after them. "Aw, they ran away and spoiled my fun. I wanted to tell them I was your imaginary friend or something. Or, you know, that they'd had too much to drink and I was all in their heads." Jan looked at the beer can still in Laurie's hand. "Ew, Laurie, how can you drink that stuff? That's, like, really cheap crap. Kids these days, they have no taste. The brunette shook her head sadly.

"I was undercover," Laurie replied, moving to pick up the rest of the beer and dump it in a trashcan. "Foul, cheap beer is acceptable when you're undercover."

"Can I quote you on that on the mission report?" Jan asked, pretending to be serious for a moment, then grinning. "I say foul cheap beer is foul cheap beer no matter what." Jan didn't think she would have accepted the beer or taken a sip, and not just because it was crappy beer.

"Only if you make me seem sophisticated and worldly," Laurie quipped.

She looked around, this was the edge of the park, a distance away was a carpark and the road back to civilisation.

"We should get back to the others, I don't think Simon went through this way, or if he did, he's long gone."

Jan nodded. "Yeah, at least we can give the all-clear for this area and see if anyone had any luck finding him."

***

Tabitha and Yvette search an old corn maze and end up finding something beautiful.

She took in the faded and weathered sign advertising to the Halloween past and bit back a groan. Why couldn't they be nice, normal farmers and take their corn to market instead of _turning it into a maze?_

She squared her shoulders and glanced over at her current partner. "You ready, short stuff?"

Yvette nodded, squaring her shoulders and trying to hide the nerves. Her first actual mission... In the near distance came the sound of dogs barking and men's voices - the police from Salem Center and their friends were doing their best to find Simon first. "It would be the very good hiding place," she offered, looking at the corn that stood higher than she did. Then again, most things did.

"This is your show, Knuckles. How do you want to start?" Meltdown stared over the silent field. The kid was right, it would be an especially good place to hide. She just really hoped they could avoid necking teenagers.

Yvette gulped a little and moved forward, crouching low over the ground looking for tracks. "Someone did go in here a little while ago," she said at last, pointing a long finger at some indentations in the soft loam. "But I cannot tell how many or if they were Simon. So I suppose we should check any way?" She made the last a question, looking to Tabitha for confirmation.

Tabs crouched close to Yvette, eyes on the tracks. "Sounds like a good plan to me, which way do they go?"

"This way," Yvette said with a little more confidence, pointing off to the left. She didn't bother to straighten - she could watch the tracks more easily from her all-fours position and she was faster that way any way. "Please to be moving as quietly as you can, Meltdown?" she asked politely. "Simon is not the most friendly person from what I am seeing."

She gave her silent assent and moved to a follow position. She let Yvette follow the tracks while she tried to keep an eye on the walls of corn around them. For a moment, she thought she saw movement, but dismissed it after a second glance.

They moved through the twists and turns of the maze, corn stalks rustling around them. Yvette would pause every so often, eyes glowing as she examined the ground, and then choose another path. Then suddenly she stopped dead and looked back at Tabitha. "Are you hearing that?"

She held her breath as she listened, but shook her head. "No, what do you hear?" She had no doubt the younger woman had better hearing than she, who had been making bombs since her teens.

"There is someone moving. In the corn." Yvette tilted her head, trying to catch the sound and triangulate it, like Logan had been teaching her, but it was hard over the wind rustling the corn stalks as well. "Over... there, I think?" She pointed off to their right.

Tabitha crouched again, following Yvette's direction. "Stay on my heels," she instructed. She noticed several broken and trampled corn stalks, moved forward. Then something flashed on the edge of her vision. She whipped her head around, but it was gone already.

Yvette squeaked just a little as Tabitha froze and jerked her head around, trying to follow close, but not so close that a stumble would impale the older X-Man. Then movement came from behind her and she squeaked again, spinning around to face it. "I think there is being more than one..." she quavered.

She tried to be logical. "Does Simon have friends who'd be hiding him, y'think?" She reached out to peek through the corn stalks.

"No, he is from California. I do not think he knows anyone who is here..." Yvette was definitely shadowing Tabitha now, trying not to clutch onto the other woman's uniform.

Tabs couldn't really see with the small hole she'd made, so she brought her other hand up to make it wider. The corn rustled loudly, startling whatever was on the other side. Half-rotted corn stalks fell like timber over the women. Tabs suppressed a shriek of surprise.

Tabitha's shriek might have been surpressed, but Yvette's wasn't as the trainee jerked back instinctively and landed on her butt in the mud. From out of the corn behind her came a flurry of movement as a deer came barrelling out, heading towards the open space beyond the pair of X-Men.

Tabs pushed the half-rotted corsilk away from her eyes. She stared after the deer, then down at Yvette, then after the deer again.

The giggles started small, but soon she dropped to one knee, holding her stomach as she laughed.

Yvette looked back at her with wide eyes. The corner of her mouth twitched, and pretty soon she was giggling along with Tabitha. "I think," she managed to say when she could catch her breath. "We do not mention this on the report, no?"

***
Julian & Monet search an abandoned farm and find more than they bargained for.

The mixture of snow and long, uncut grass crunched beneath his feet as Julian purposefully walked along the ruined stables of the old farm estate. It was obvious that no one had lived here for a long while, but there were tracks in the snow here- those of a human, though it was hard to discern anything else from them. "Think we'll find him?" he asked, plainly.

Monet nodded, half turning to scan the ground behind them. "Yeah... There are tracks going in, and we haven't found the ones going out yet." Snow, good for something, even if everyone could now see their tracks, too.

Julian sighed, half of him desiring to find his old friend before someone else did and the other half remembering the fresh bruises and cuts over his body- teek shields only did so much after all. "He's probably not going to just roll over and give himself up if we do catch up with him, right?" The tracks disappeared into the barn across the yard.

"You want the honest answer or not?" Monet asked. "Because, yeah, he probably won't." She'd never been out with just herself and a trainee before, so she concentrated on her surroundings even more than she would have, otherwise. Tapping Julian on the shoulder, she whispered, "We need to circle around the barn, make sure he hasn't left."

Julian nodded and started off around the perimeter of the barn, moving slowly, looking for tracks leading away. Through a gap in the wood he heard someone swear inside the ruined building.

Simon ducked back as he saw the opening darken with movement, he slammed his foot hard into a sack of feed. "Fuck," he hissed, and immediately turned back to where the movement had been. He felt the same insatiable need for the boost, but now it was overshadowed by a sullen desperation. He would not get caught. He needed to take out whoever was on the other side of that wall and continue moving. Without a sound he ran for the side of the barn, just ahead of where the hole was so he could hit the person who'd crossed in front of it.

The sudden rush of footsteps was enough of a warning that Julian started to toss up a telekinetic shield just as the side of the barn crashed outward, sending splinters of wood and metal flying toward him. "Shit! Em!" he shouted as a piece of scrap timber hit him across the face and sent him tumbling into the long grass. As the young teek recovered himself in a practiced roll he came up to face his enemy. "Simon, we don't have to-"

"Yes, we do!" Simon shouted, moving forward with slow intentional steps. He inhaled deeply and prepared to smash his friend's face in. "We really do."

Monet wavered for a moment, torn between Julian (who seemed functional, possibly even okay, now that he was back on his feet) and Simon. "Settle down, mate. That's enough, okay? Just settle down and we'll take this all nice and easy, okay? You with me, Simon? Nice and easy," she called, walking toward Simon.

Growling, Simon didn't heed her words. Instead, he tried to swat her like a fly. He put as much energy as he felt safely capable of and just backhanded her.

Monet swayed with the force of the strike, stumbling and falling to one knee. "Come on, Simon, don't be a fucking tool," she said, grabbing at his arm as she straightened.

The hand came up and Simon let him take hold of him. There was enough rage inside of him to annihilate the world if he had the power. He took the woman's arm with his other hand and tried to launch her through the side of the barn. As he released, he winced visibly.

Having never seen her powers in action, Julian was a little surprised by the fact she wasn't in the next county. With a massive windup, he released a blast of telekinetic force toward Simon, blasting him back through the barn.

Monet had gone flying through the barn wall and crashed through a stand of scrubby trees before she'd been able to right herself. Landing, she'd shaken her head, wriggled her shoulders briefly (stiff, sore and she'd have bruises tomorrow, while her right arm ached from gripping Simon earlier) before flying back toward the barn. She spared a moment to send ~Incoming! at Julian as she slammed back through the wall.

As he passed the woman Simon let out a roar of anguish. "You are so dead!" he yelled as he he crashed into the hay. Standing up he squared off to face the pair. His shoulders were tight and he felt tight from the exertion, but he was ready to kill anyone who stood between him and his goals. "If needs be I'll smash through your shields to tear you limb from limb."

"Whatever, mate," Monet said. "Sure you don't want to just settle down and take it easy?" She had to ask him again, as this was Julian's friend, and a kid, before flying forward and tacking him with one shoulder. They thudded back into the hay.

Waiting until they were separated again, Julian had a knee jerk reaction to use his TeeKay to grab onto Simon. It was only after the fact that he realized that the last time he'd tried this it'd broken the subject's arms- it was a true testement to his training at Xavier's. Their adversary firmly secured and hoisted off the ground, Julian spit out some blood and said in a low growl, "It's over, Simon."

"No," Simon yelled, writhing in a futile attempt to escape the telekinetic's grasp. "You have to die!" His voice was strained with effort and his face contorted into an expression of rage and despair. The strength was seeping out of him, fast, and he had very little time to finish what was required of him. "Let me down and face me like a man!"

"Fuck," Monet muttered, watching Simon. It was clear that he was trying to pull power and argh, if that was her, it would be the point she struck st Julian. She lunged in and touched his head, forcing a link between between herself and the boy, trying to force him to sleep. She'd managed that once and only once and it didn't work this time as she staggered back with a sudden, blinding stab of a headache.

The concern for his teammates wellbeing gave him a momentary lapse in his concentration, dropping the hold on Simon which he scrambled to reestablish. Unfortunately it wasn't coming easily and his whole body ached from head-to-toe, there was little he could do to stop the on rushing fraight train of a teenager.

The hook caught Julian in the chest, with enough force to send the boy reeling. Simon stood there, a tormented smile upon his face. He had to kill his former friend, it wasn't a choice. "You don't understand. Julian has to die. It's the only way--" He stopped abruptly, his eyes starting to tear up. No, he thought, stopping himself from completing the sentence. His mission was to kill Julian, and that is what he was going to do.

He took a step forward, staring down at the fallen boy. He'd stopped paying attention to the woman when she pulled away from him in pain.

Monet shook her head to clear it and, ignoring elegance while Simon was fixed on Julian, tackled him side on. The two of them landed on a pile of rubbish - broken furniture, old cans, rope and empty feed sacks. Monet's knee smashed through the front of an old tv as she grabbed for Simon's wrists, half sitting on the boy. "That's enough. Scion, we need to secure his hands while I've got him, okay?"

Shaking the cobwebs out, Julian rushed to Monet's side and pinned Simon to the ground with his TeeKay. "That's quite enough of that. Stay down!"

Simon writhed back and forth but the combination of telekinesis and Monet's hold had effectively neutralized his strength, for the moment. "No," he hissed, spitting in Julian's direction. He was supposed to kill the boy, and he'd failed twice. if his mother was still alive, she most likely would not be for long. "You have to die." Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke but he couldn't stop them.