Darkness Within: Fighting Shades

[x-topaz.livejournal.com]

Molly and Jubilee are out in the city when they find themselves in the middle of a disaster.


Molly wasn't wearing her hat today as she circled the Bathesda Fountain, gawking at the angel statue in the center. She hadn't been wearing her hats since her birthday, and was a lot quieter when she came to visit Jubilee at the X-Force place. They hadn't seen each other in awhile and she'd just gotten ungrounded, which was nice.

"Dude, it's so pretty."

"How's it goin', short stuff?"

Jubilee had heard all about Molly's adventures from Kurt, but considering she'd made her own unwise choices during her younger years, she couldn't blame the kid, especially considering Molly had had helping people at the heart of her behaviour. Jubilee had done far worse things, and for much poorer reasons, so she figured the kid could do with some R&R from the mansion.

Molly sat down on the fountain edge. She pulled out a penny, then tossed it in. You were supposed to make wishes at these things, or so she heard. But she didn't know what to wish for. Maybe she'd figure it out sometime soon. She glanced over to Jubilee, then shrugged.

"Um....good?" she said. She ran her fingers through the water. It smelled like chlorine.

"Thanks for inviting me. I never got to come here before." It was kinda neat that the city was so big there were lots of things to do, even when you lived nearby for awhile.

"She reminds me of Mr. Worthington," Molly added, looking back to the angel.

"Warren's got better taste in clothes though,"

Jubilee sat beside the younger girl and nudged her with a shoulder, smiling slightly.

"That bad feeling you got? The one where you know you fu...messed up and people got hurt? That's there so you don't make the same mistake again. But like, it doesn't always feel as bad, you'll get to a point where the good things you've done outweigh the mistakes."

Folding her arms and hugging her stomach, Molly glanced down. "I guess," she said. She stared at the pennies in the fountain. Some were new and shiny, like her, some were green with age.

"How long have you been an X-Person?"

Jubilee thought about it, some days she felt she'd always been what Molly referred to as an 'x-person'

"Awhile," she said, after she came up blank with the exact number of years - she still had issues with maths, even after all this time.

"With a break for awhile there too, I was lucky Remy and Pete were around to drag me out of my mess, but mostly they can only help with the physical cleanup, the mental stuff you gotta do yourself."

Molly kept her attention focused on her hands. "How old were you when you became an X-Person? When...when did they stop seeing you as a kid?"

Jubilee didn't give voice to the first flippant answer that crossed her mind, which would've been 'they didn't' but instead gave the question the seriousness it merited.

"I had to be seventeen, I think. Scott made me go through all sorts of hoops to prove I was gonna take it seriously. Must of read an epic tonne of books on strategy and leadership and teamwork. As to the rest, I'm not like you short-stuff. I was like, a rotten teenager, all about myself and how difficult my life was. It's hard to treat someone like that as an adult when the first thing that makes you an adult is knowing the consequences about something before you go off and do it"

"They told me," Molly said quietly, nodding. "I understand. I can't--"

A loud scream followed by the sounds of a car crashing into another car came from down the street. Panic erupted quickly as people started to abandon their cars and started to run the opposite direction. A black figure jumped onto a car before a unearthly howl escaped from its lips.

Jubilee pushed the panic button on her mobile, knowing whoever was monitoring back at the office would investigate.

She needed to buy these people time though.

"Looks like you're about to get a crash course in adulting, kid. Think you can try to slow that thing down while I build a wall?"

It'd take it out of her, but it'd mean the people fleeing would have something at their back other then a demon.

Though Molly jumped up out of reflex, balling her fists, she was frozen, staring wide-eyed at the people as they ran. She was afraid, not of the monsters, but of putting what she had been told into practice. Even if she wanted to help.

"I...I can't," she squeaked. "You're here, I can't."

Jubilee took hold of Molly and shook her as gently as she could given the circumstances.

"I'm sorry, Molly, I really am. But we don't have time for you to freeze. You've got the power, it's your responsibility to do something with it. Now go stop that thing while I keep these people safe or they're going to die."

Jubilee stood back and started to build a wall between the demon and the fleeing humans. It wasn't solid like Marie-ange's projections but they'd been working together so that it least had a wall shape.

It also had the benefit of being hotter then a volcano. Probably not a deterrent for a demon but she knew her powers could hurt them.

"But--" Molly said, people running past her. Her breathing quickened. She knew people might get hurt but that wasn't what her teachers said. Adults were so confusing! "But--Rachel said when she tried to help people her parents died trying to rescue her! You're an adult. Mr. Haller said if adults are here to let them do it because I'm too young, or cops....or...."

Shots were fired nearby, causing another wave of panic as people ducked to avoid bullets. The Shade turned towards the officer and jumped off the car and landed a few feet away. A black mist formed behind the officer as he stepped back into it. As soon as he did, he dropped to the ground trapped in his own nightmare. Within seconds he fell to the ground and another Shade crawled out from his body. The two Shades looked at each other before turning their attention to the people around them and started to attack.

Jubilee winced at the addition of another shadow, it wasn't that she hadn't handled situations where everything ended up FUBARed all over the place but it wasn't exactly what she liked to be situation normal either. Especially not when she had a teen freaking the hell out on her about what her teachers had said.

"Molly, dude. It's like, yeah I'm an adult but I'm also an adult who really seriously needs you to work with her right now. Because like, we are in some serious dog mess here and Rachel was living in a world created by an ass...not a nice man so of course anything she tried to do that he didn't like got people hurt. I'm pretty sure if Haller was here he'd be telling you it's okay to help if an adult asks you too, right? I am totally giving you an order right now, and if you ever want to be an X-person, then you gotta learn to follow orders."

It wasn't a nice move to pull on the young woman, Jubilee knew that, and any order she currently gave might well get Molly killed but in the end, it wasn't about keeping her safe. It was about saving the rest of the city, and if what Jubilee had just seen was playing out all over, they were quickly going to have an over population of demons to deal with. That meant keeping random civilians and fuel away from these things as much as possible.

"I need you to pick up the heaviest thing you can find and throw it at those things, while I give them the light show to end all light shows. Then we're going to make a break for it and try to find more of our people, you got it?"

Biting her lip, Molly stared at the people running away, then the two shadow monsters, then finally nodded. "I...Okay," she said, nodding quickly. Save the city. She could do that. If Jubilee, an adult, said she could be a superhero just this once then she could. She didn't want anyone else to be hurt.

She saluted, then clinched her fists, taking off on a run as she looked for something to throw. When she saw something really good, she smiled broadly.

"How about this?!"

One of the two Shades turned to see the tiny girl running. It gave a screech before it took off after her. The Shade was upon her when the dump truck stopped it from delivering its blow.It disappeared into a smoke and it was done back to one.

The other one had cornered a young woman in her car as it tried to get to her through the open window.

Jubilee had already been moving when the dump truck took out the first one. She laid out a wave of bright plasma fire, aiming for the torso of the one remaining.

The plasma fired hit the Shade which it disappeared into a puff of smoke. The sounds of screaming continued on coming from the direction of the Empire State Building.

Molly's ears perked at the sound, though not because she thought it was fun. It was KINDA fun, even if she didn't want to admit it and get in trouble. Especially if the day was saved.

"So...we go that way, right?"

Jubilee frowned, making quick calculations in her head as to where the best tactical decision lay - heading further in and hoping they came across some of their own, or getting Molly safe back to the mansion. If she'd been someone else, there was no way in hell it would even be a question, you protected kids from stuff like this. She wasn't another person however, and she remembered what her life had been like around Molly's age. Molly was going to be useful, as was her power, and Jubilee wasn't about to let go of any advantage when she knew just how bad demon invasions could get.

"That's right, kid. Lead the way, and like don't spare the muscle, yeah?"
~XxXx~

The atmosphere got heavier near the Empire State Building. Dozens of New York Citizens were on the ground trapped in their own nightmares. Ever so often another Shade emerged from a citizen and started to patrol the area, as they were awaiting orders from someone. In the distance there were fighting as SWORD was fighting off the attack of Shades. Nearby them were the small group of Amanda and her students.

Skidding to a stop, Molly was distracted by all the people lying there. At first she thought they might have been dead, but she noticed one of them was breathing so it made her feel better. Hopefully the others were too.

"Should we try to get the shadow monsters away from the people?" Molly whispered to Jubilee. She didn't want people to get stepped on or anything if the fighting got too close.

"No, if they're gonna be saves, it'll be later, we have to join up with the others."

Jubilee pointed toward Amanda and her students, just a small distance away.

A couple more Shades appeared between them and the group. SWORD agents were also at the scene and dealing with their own problems. The Shades turned towards the girls and began their attack.

Hunkering down in to a fight stance, Molly brought up her fists. Amanda and some of the others had just appeared nearby (she didn't know she could teleport! Or did she?), so she was glad they were there to help. Molly getting a sleepy but she knew she couldn't let Jubilee and the citizens down. So as one charged toward her she jumped up, eyes flashing purple, and clotheslined it with her arm, causing it to disappear into a puff of smoke. She grinned.

"Two in the box, ready to go! We be fast but they be...whoa!"

She caught a peek at the sky, suddenly seeing just how close to Ghostbusters things were as a portal opened up. Her eyes bugged.

"Uh....Jubilee?" she shouted, then pointed up at the giant hole that most definitely should not have been there.

"I think this is gonna suck."

Rachel's and Ty's peaceful tourist day is interrupted when Shades begin attacking.

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