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xp_logsClint and Molly make it to the station - but somewhere on the ride there, they've lost their friends and classmates, and also - every other passenger in the subway.
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe then the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Molly slipped her hands out of her pockets, and kept them down low, balled into fists just in case as they waited for the subway car. She crept close enough to the edge so she could see if she could see the lights approaching but when she didn't see anything she scooted back another couple feet or so, tapping her feet as she waited with the others. She was a little sad that the grownups didn't believe them. Was it was because they were kids?
Clint watched Molly fidget and tried to stay calm because while she was moving around, he wasn't. He was trying to figure out what it was about this whole situation that had the hair at the nape of his neck crawling. Something wasn't right. The henna tattoos seemed to have helped, but then they'd gotten a little smudged and well. He guessed that impacted the magic's ability to function or whatever. Magic wasn't really his thing - he liked science. He liked facts and numbers and equations. He liked it when teachers and other adults believed him when he said he was seeing something weird.
Given his eyesight, the people who knew him usually believed him.
And there was just something so off about all this. Flickers out of the corners of his eyes, weird shadows, that creepily tall guy.
The subway car pulled in noisily, with a blast of hot air preceding it. The doors slid open, and the crowd entered, taking up seats and poles and breaking the group of teenagers apart into twos and threes. New York Transit, not home of politeness and decorum, but efficient, in its own way, and the subway train pulled out from the station only a few minutes later.
It dipped into the tunnel with a rattle, and as had happened hundreds of thousands of times before, the lights flickered and dimmed, and then went out, leaving the car in deep shadow punctuated by the lights of iphones and gameboys. The collective sigh of resigned frustration met with the squeal of wheels and air brakes as they came around a corner, and then the little lights left in the car winked out, blacking out the car for a few seconds before they came into the next station, silent and nearly empty, except for a girl in a bobble-topped hat, and a boy whose eyes could blink sideways.
When the lights started flickering, Molly rubbed her eyes as she sat up in her seat. She'd been looking out the windows before but the flickering got her attention. Then the old lady with the flowers disappeared. Then the man with the hat listening to music. Then the woman and her little boy. And Molly got worried.
"Where'd...they all go?"
The doors opened with a clunk and a thud and a screech, and the lights continued to flicker. It was hot and stuffy. The ground was covered with trash, and the walls had grime.
Everyone was gone but her and Clint. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get out of the car. But she didn't really want to stay either.
"Don't disappear, okay?"
Clint knew he should be worried about all the people who'd disappeared, but mostly he was concerned about the fact that all of his friends had vanished between one second and the next. Taking a slow breath, he reached out to take hold of Molly's elbow but he suddenly he couldn't quite reach her and that was weird, too, because she'd been right there. "Molly," he said, keeping his voice calm. "Stay over here, okay? Stay with me."
Things looked... slightly off center - he couldn't really describe it, but Clint knew something was wrong.
It was still hot but Molly found herself shivering. "O--Okay," she said. Hesitantly, she followed Clint off the subway car and onto the station, her head ducked low, arms drew in, clutching her stomach. The only sounds were their breathing, and the wind blowing through the tunnel. It howled like a dog trying to get in.
"I wanna go home."
The station's lights were that amber color that washed everything out to ochre and gray scale, and they seemed to draw the shadows in towards them, rather than creating areas of brightness and safety. At the end of the station they could see the turnstiles, and the little booth where the attendant sat, lit only by a flickering florescent light in the booth itself.
Still trying to figure out what was wrong with his eyes, why everything seemed a little bit crooked, Clint headed slowly for the booth near the turnstiles. He got a weird feeling, though, watching the lights flicker and the shadows gathering closer to them, so he fell behind Molly as he tried to blink away the dimness. Catching sight of movement, he figured the attendant must have seen them, must be wondering what they were doing there and whether or not they were lost. Clint tried to hurry so he could break even with Molly, but for some reason he couldn't get to her.
At first glance, the man standing in the rear of the subway station looked much like any other New York City commuter - a somewhat tall man in a black suit and tie, his head covered by a black hat. Only upon a second, more careful look, did the smooth featureless face and impossibly long arms become apparent. Where the average person's arms hang down to somewhere around mid-thigh, his fell somewhere past the knees. There was a rigidity to them, a sense that even if they were to extend to the floor, that rather than drag limply behind him, they would bend and place on the ground ahead of him, like an extra set of legs. The strange arms became even more unsettling when raised and extended, as they articulated twice, as if he was possessed of a second set of elbows.
Clint never got a first or second glance, though, despite his unusual eyesight. The lights in the subway station flickered, then dimmed, and when they came back up, Clint was the only one in the station.
Tandy, Billy and Sue manage to get seperated from the group, while riding the same car as everyone else. New York Transit is just not reliable anymore.
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe -then- the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Tandy paced the platform until the subway pulled up and opened its door. She was the first one on but continued to stand instead of taking a seat. "I don't see them. Maybe these symbols are working." She pulled up her sleeve to look at the henna tattoo on her hand and traced it with her finger.
"Of course they're working," Billy stated, though his voice sounded anything but confident. His own tattoo was on his forearm, covered now by sweater and jacket sleeves, which he resisted the urge to pull them up and check on it. The lines were faint enough as was. He peeked in the car, looking in for himself before stepping in after her. "Where are the subway mariachi bands when you actually want them around," he commented on the relative emptiness of the car.
"Subway mariachi bands?" Sue quizzed as she followed her friends into the car. "Please no, the last thing I need right now is a bunch of guitar players singing off-key. I'm not sure my nerves could take it." she babbled nervously. More than anything she just wanted to fill the silence in the subway car, the blonde wasn't sure what was really going on but the thought of being hunted again was almost more than she could bear.
The car rattled as it pulled out of the station, more as they sped into the tunnel - the air pressure making the doors and windows clank alarmingly. The lights flickered, dimming a few times before they went out entirely. For a few seconds, the car was lit only by the screens of smartphones and ipods and then those too winked out one by one, leaving the car in total darkness until it emerged into the next station.
It pulled in with no more grace than it had departed, and the doors opened on a subway car missing most of it's passengers, aside from the three teenagers still blinking against the sudden return of bright lights.
Sue looked around the now empty station with growing alarm. "Please tell me that those tattoos worked and they managed to transport everyone else away," she asked Billy, "cause I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Tandy gripped the metal bar tightly during the freaky experience on the train. She had been watching a woman looking at her iphone before it went dark, her skin was the only thing glowing. The teenager blinked several times from the sudden brightness of the lights and saw the entire car was empty. "No, we have entered the Twilight Zone. Where is everyone?"
Billy squinted as the lights came back on, gaping at the empty seats. He yanked at his sleeves, pulling it back long far enough to see the tattoo. He stared at it a moment and gave it a cautious tap. The design was still intact but he didn't sense anything. He gave Sue and Tandy a worried look. "I...don't think so. I think it's dead," he replied, then winced at his poor choice of words.
Sue shivered and stepped closer to the other teenagers as she glanced around the deserted platform, "So, they got us then?" she queried, her voice quivering slightly as the reality of their situation hit her. The girl held her arms slightly out to her sides, ready to throw up a forcefield at the slightest provocation, "I thought these tattoos were supposed to protect us."
"I thought they would too," Billy glared at the design a moment longer before rolling his sleeve back down. "Maybe...they got everyone else instead?" he wondered, but after looking around, he shook his head, "But I don't think so. This place gives me the creeps. It's just...wrong. I mean, it looks the same, but...it's wrong."
"Dead?" Tandy whispered as she walked towards the door that lead out of the train - her skin now glowed brightly. "I don't see anything." She moved closer to the window to get a good look. "It is empty."
Empty was never a word Sue would ever have used to describe New York's subway before. "So assuming that this isn't all one big illusion, or some kind of test of the Professor's, what do we do now? I'm guessing you can't just zap us out of here." She asked Billy falling back onto the logic that had served her so well in the past. Sue hadn't been comfortable underground for months now and had to keep a tight grip on her emotions now, the wrongness of the place combined with the emptiness had the blonde completely terrified.
"Not unless you want to risk, well, somewhere worse than here. Teleporting's a bit harder than summoning office supplies," Billy answered, wishing he'd spent more time practicing instead of just flashy parlor tricks. "We could end up anywhere. Or nowhere. Or stuck in a wall or something."
Tandy started to pry the doors open so they can get off the train. "Lets just get off this train and above ground. I don't want to be down here if those Slendermen decide to come down here." She got it open enough before it opened on its own before she tumbled out.
Sue rushed over to help her friend up. "Out of here sounds like a really good idea to me," she agreed quickly as she pulled Tandy to her feet. "If they went to all the trouble to get us here, I really don't think it's gonna be that easy."
Billy followed the girls out onto the platform, looking around for for any sign of movement, but even the subway rats seemed to have vanished. "I think above ground would be a really good idea."
"Thanks" Tandy dusted off her legs and then her hands. "Okay lets go." The teen walked quickly towards the stairs that lead above ground - afraid that she might catch a glimpse of one of the tall men lurking in the shadows. "Hey Sue when we..." Tandy turned around to see that she was alone, "SUE?! BILLY?!"
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe then the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Molly slipped her hands out of her pockets, and kept them down low, balled into fists just in case as they waited for the subway car. She crept close enough to the edge so she could see if she could see the lights approaching but when she didn't see anything she scooted back another couple feet or so, tapping her feet as she waited with the others. She was a little sad that the grownups didn't believe them. Was it was because they were kids?
Clint watched Molly fidget and tried to stay calm because while she was moving around, he wasn't. He was trying to figure out what it was about this whole situation that had the hair at the nape of his neck crawling. Something wasn't right. The henna tattoos seemed to have helped, but then they'd gotten a little smudged and well. He guessed that impacted the magic's ability to function or whatever. Magic wasn't really his thing - he liked science. He liked facts and numbers and equations. He liked it when teachers and other adults believed him when he said he was seeing something weird.
Given his eyesight, the people who knew him usually believed him.
And there was just something so off about all this. Flickers out of the corners of his eyes, weird shadows, that creepily tall guy.
The subway car pulled in noisily, with a blast of hot air preceding it. The doors slid open, and the crowd entered, taking up seats and poles and breaking the group of teenagers apart into twos and threes. New York Transit, not home of politeness and decorum, but efficient, in its own way, and the subway train pulled out from the station only a few minutes later.
It dipped into the tunnel with a rattle, and as had happened hundreds of thousands of times before, the lights flickered and dimmed, and then went out, leaving the car in deep shadow punctuated by the lights of iphones and gameboys. The collective sigh of resigned frustration met with the squeal of wheels and air brakes as they came around a corner, and then the little lights left in the car winked out, blacking out the car for a few seconds before they came into the next station, silent and nearly empty, except for a girl in a bobble-topped hat, and a boy whose eyes could blink sideways.
When the lights started flickering, Molly rubbed her eyes as she sat up in her seat. She'd been looking out the windows before but the flickering got her attention. Then the old lady with the flowers disappeared. Then the man with the hat listening to music. Then the woman and her little boy. And Molly got worried.
"Where'd...they all go?"
The doors opened with a clunk and a thud and a screech, and the lights continued to flicker. It was hot and stuffy. The ground was covered with trash, and the walls had grime.
Everyone was gone but her and Clint. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get out of the car. But she didn't really want to stay either.
"Don't disappear, okay?"
Clint knew he should be worried about all the people who'd disappeared, but mostly he was concerned about the fact that all of his friends had vanished between one second and the next. Taking a slow breath, he reached out to take hold of Molly's elbow but he suddenly he couldn't quite reach her and that was weird, too, because she'd been right there. "Molly," he said, keeping his voice calm. "Stay over here, okay? Stay with me."
Things looked... slightly off center - he couldn't really describe it, but Clint knew something was wrong.
It was still hot but Molly found herself shivering. "O--Okay," she said. Hesitantly, she followed Clint off the subway car and onto the station, her head ducked low, arms drew in, clutching her stomach. The only sounds were their breathing, and the wind blowing through the tunnel. It howled like a dog trying to get in.
"I wanna go home."
The station's lights were that amber color that washed everything out to ochre and gray scale, and they seemed to draw the shadows in towards them, rather than creating areas of brightness and safety. At the end of the station they could see the turnstiles, and the little booth where the attendant sat, lit only by a flickering florescent light in the booth itself.
Still trying to figure out what was wrong with his eyes, why everything seemed a little bit crooked, Clint headed slowly for the booth near the turnstiles. He got a weird feeling, though, watching the lights flicker and the shadows gathering closer to them, so he fell behind Molly as he tried to blink away the dimness. Catching sight of movement, he figured the attendant must have seen them, must be wondering what they were doing there and whether or not they were lost. Clint tried to hurry so he could break even with Molly, but for some reason he couldn't get to her.
At first glance, the man standing in the rear of the subway station looked much like any other New York City commuter - a somewhat tall man in a black suit and tie, his head covered by a black hat. Only upon a second, more careful look, did the smooth featureless face and impossibly long arms become apparent. Where the average person's arms hang down to somewhere around mid-thigh, his fell somewhere past the knees. There was a rigidity to them, a sense that even if they were to extend to the floor, that rather than drag limply behind him, they would bend and place on the ground ahead of him, like an extra set of legs. The strange arms became even more unsettling when raised and extended, as they articulated twice, as if he was possessed of a second set of elbows.
Clint never got a first or second glance, though, despite his unusual eyesight. The lights in the subway station flickered, then dimmed, and when they came back up, Clint was the only one in the station.
Tandy, Billy and Sue manage to get seperated from the group, while riding the same car as everyone else. New York Transit is just not reliable anymore.
Still rattled, the New Mutants had gone down into the subway anyway - consensus had been that if they met up at the right time, maybe -then- the adults would believe them. Maybe all of them together could talk some belief into the staff. Ten teenagers all agreeing couldn't be a prank, right?
New York subways were not the nicest of places. The improvements of the late 90's and early 00's had helped - the destruction when Apocalypse had attacked the city hadn't, and even with rigorous attempts to clean up the stations, they were usually smelly, humid and too warm, even in winter. The warmth attracted people who might not otherwise have somewhere warm to go, the smells and trash attracted the city's most common residents - rats and roaches - and even the cleanest stations, where trash was put in bins and the bins were emptied regularly still had grime if you knew where to look.
Tandy paced the platform until the subway pulled up and opened its door. She was the first one on but continued to stand instead of taking a seat. "I don't see them. Maybe these symbols are working." She pulled up her sleeve to look at the henna tattoo on her hand and traced it with her finger.
"Of course they're working," Billy stated, though his voice sounded anything but confident. His own tattoo was on his forearm, covered now by sweater and jacket sleeves, which he resisted the urge to pull them up and check on it. The lines were faint enough as was. He peeked in the car, looking in for himself before stepping in after her. "Where are the subway mariachi bands when you actually want them around," he commented on the relative emptiness of the car.
"Subway mariachi bands?" Sue quizzed as she followed her friends into the car. "Please no, the last thing I need right now is a bunch of guitar players singing off-key. I'm not sure my nerves could take it." she babbled nervously. More than anything she just wanted to fill the silence in the subway car, the blonde wasn't sure what was really going on but the thought of being hunted again was almost more than she could bear.
The car rattled as it pulled out of the station, more as they sped into the tunnel - the air pressure making the doors and windows clank alarmingly. The lights flickered, dimming a few times before they went out entirely. For a few seconds, the car was lit only by the screens of smartphones and ipods and then those too winked out one by one, leaving the car in total darkness until it emerged into the next station.
It pulled in with no more grace than it had departed, and the doors opened on a subway car missing most of it's passengers, aside from the three teenagers still blinking against the sudden return of bright lights.
Sue looked around the now empty station with growing alarm. "Please tell me that those tattoos worked and they managed to transport everyone else away," she asked Billy, "cause I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Tandy gripped the metal bar tightly during the freaky experience on the train. She had been watching a woman looking at her iphone before it went dark, her skin was the only thing glowing. The teenager blinked several times from the sudden brightness of the lights and saw the entire car was empty. "No, we have entered the Twilight Zone. Where is everyone?"
Billy squinted as the lights came back on, gaping at the empty seats. He yanked at his sleeves, pulling it back long far enough to see the tattoo. He stared at it a moment and gave it a cautious tap. The design was still intact but he didn't sense anything. He gave Sue and Tandy a worried look. "I...don't think so. I think it's dead," he replied, then winced at his poor choice of words.
Sue shivered and stepped closer to the other teenagers as she glanced around the deserted platform, "So, they got us then?" she queried, her voice quivering slightly as the reality of their situation hit her. The girl held her arms slightly out to her sides, ready to throw up a forcefield at the slightest provocation, "I thought these tattoos were supposed to protect us."
"I thought they would too," Billy glared at the design a moment longer before rolling his sleeve back down. "Maybe...they got everyone else instead?" he wondered, but after looking around, he shook his head, "But I don't think so. This place gives me the creeps. It's just...wrong. I mean, it looks the same, but...it's wrong."
"Dead?" Tandy whispered as she walked towards the door that lead out of the train - her skin now glowed brightly. "I don't see anything." She moved closer to the window to get a good look. "It is empty."
Empty was never a word Sue would ever have used to describe New York's subway before. "So assuming that this isn't all one big illusion, or some kind of test of the Professor's, what do we do now? I'm guessing you can't just zap us out of here." She asked Billy falling back onto the logic that had served her so well in the past. Sue hadn't been comfortable underground for months now and had to keep a tight grip on her emotions now, the wrongness of the place combined with the emptiness had the blonde completely terrified.
"Not unless you want to risk, well, somewhere worse than here. Teleporting's a bit harder than summoning office supplies," Billy answered, wishing he'd spent more time practicing instead of just flashy parlor tricks. "We could end up anywhere. Or nowhere. Or stuck in a wall or something."
Tandy started to pry the doors open so they can get off the train. "Lets just get off this train and above ground. I don't want to be down here if those Slendermen decide to come down here." She got it open enough before it opened on its own before she tumbled out.
Sue rushed over to help her friend up. "Out of here sounds like a really good idea to me," she agreed quickly as she pulled Tandy to her feet. "If they went to all the trouble to get us here, I really don't think it's gonna be that easy."
Billy followed the girls out onto the platform, looking around for for any sign of movement, but even the subway rats seemed to have vanished. "I think above ground would be a really good idea."
"Thanks" Tandy dusted off her legs and then her hands. "Okay lets go." The teen walked quickly towards the stairs that lead above ground - afraid that she might catch a glimpse of one of the tall men lurking in the shadows. "Hey Sue when we..." Tandy turned around to see that she was alone, "SUE?! BILLY?!"
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