xp_logs | Reality Coming Down

Emma's team meets the first group of attackers who break into the school foyer

Orders had been given. Mutants had been organized. Strategy had been discussed. This time, the battle was coming home.

Emma surveyed the group of students in front of her, thinking over the short, sharp list of attributes she'd been provided. Molly she knew well, but the others she barely knew at all. With a quick flick of her mind, she tested their capacity to receive her telepathy and noted that nobody was naturally shielded against her.

"You all know I'm a telepath," she started. "Before anyone starts tearing this place apart again, I'll make a link between us. You can keep your shields up, in case we've got incoming telepaths, but I can make a link that bypasses that. None of you have to panic if we get physically separated - I will make sure everyone can stay in contact." Unless you're dead, she didn't add. "So, Molly and I are our heavy hitter, invulnerable types," she nodded at Ty and Tandy, "I understand you two work with light and shadow. That seems... complementary."

Molly tried to listen to Ms. Frost the 2nd carefully, but inside she was a little nervous. Okay, a lot nervous. She'd heard a little about the bad things that was going on. The adults weren't saying much other than what they thought the students needed to know but she could tell they were in super serious mode. Some were also really sad. People had died. She let out a breath. Okay. She was the heavy hitter, unsquishable type. Time to be that way like... in her brain too.

"So we all need to work together and like... fight the thing, right? We can totally do that!" she said, then paused hopefully.

"Right?"

"Right." Tandy said to Molly with a smirk. The teen had been trained to work as a team but nothing this serious - but she had survived before and she hoped to do it again. "Just tell us what to do." The crescent moon around her right eye was glowing brightly. The blonde was ready.

Ty felt the side of his body closest to Tandy warm, and the constant, gnawing hunger in his gut faded away. "We can beat it down, Molly-girl," he said reassuringly.

"Of course we can," said Emma, briskly. "Nothing like self-preservation to ensure that we put our best efforts into this." She nodded around them. "The obvious point of entry is the door - no matter how much they're reinforced, they're always weaker than the walls. If I go there, I'll need to go diamond, and that will take out my telepathy. We may need to change plans suddenly depending on what turns up, so that's probably unwise. It's not something I'd normally ask, but Molly, would you be willing to be the guardian of the door? You'll need to be as strong as you can be, right from the start, because you'll be our first protector."

Had this been the first time she'd fought a lot of bad guys, Molly would have been very surprised. But she'd done a lot since she'd come to live with the X-People, in other dimensions and the city and the mansion and in her brain so...another fight in the mansion? No sweat. Maybe. Taking a deep breath, Molly adjusted her hat and brought up her fists with a super serious nod.

"O--okay. I can totally do that," she said.

"Let's rock. When do they show up?" It'd be nice if there was a big giant countdown clock.

Tandy would had laughed if their situation were different. She was secretly hoping that no one would show up and this was just a big exercise - or a dream she was going to wake up from. "Miss Frost..." She looked over at her guardian's sister, "Would you like Ty and I to back up Molly from the back?"

Ty rolled his shoulders and rubbed his knuckles. "We can cover her, keep her safe from this side."

"You can work together, yes?" asked Emma. "Light making shadow and shadows made real." She noted their affirmative nods and pointed towards place where they could stand, in corners where light already criss-crossed and split apart.

Tandy looked away from her group and towards the door, "Shh. I hear something." There was a brief moment of silence before the sounds of something that Tandy never heard before. Whatever it was slammed against the door and it buckled a bit. "Whatever they are. They are here. Get ready."

"Dun dun dun," Molly mumbled faintly under her breath, trying to be funny so she wouldn't be so nervous. It was totally going to be cool. They'd be fine. They'd---

The slamming stopped abruptly. It was silent for a few moments before a knock was heard at the door, three raps.

"Hello? Is anyone home?" a voice said, sounding extremely very familiar.

It was herself.

The door suddenly burst open, splinters of wood flying everywhere as a quartet of mutants made their way in.

"Hope you don't mind if we let ourselves in!" the other Molly Hayes proclaimed, this one sporting a cybernetic arm and eye. Her other eye glowed purple.

Ty knew his stare was the wrong side of idiotic, but he couldn't seem to get his eyes down from dinner-plate sized. It was him, granted a highly metallic and definitely edging into cheesy villain version of him, but he looked into that face in every mirror. "This is so w-weird," he said.

"Nope. Nope NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE." Tandy was shaking her head as she was looking at herself. But it wasn't really her, it was someone that looked like her. "That... is totally not me."

At least it wasn't a demon this time, thought Emma. Not that looking at a cyborg version of herself was particularly better. Some parts of her/it were organic diamond, seemingly permanently, some metal, some flesh. Emma stabbed out violently with her telepathy and noted that it skittered off the mind in front of her, falling into the hole where technology met mind. ~I think your alternate will try and come for you,~ she sent. ~But try not to fight yourself,~ she sent out to her team. ~You'll match too closely. Try and mix your opponents up.~

Noticing how weird it was that the cyborgs were all them and not evil versions of other X-People, Molly backed up, eyeing herself and their twins. For a few moments everyone stood there. It was quiet, except for people fighting in the background.

Molly noticed how her twin seemed to be realllly happy, like just super excited to be there. She squinted.

"So I act like that all the time?" Man this was so freaky.

Her twin grinned. "Totally!" she said. She grabbed a metal tray off one of the tables. "No more talking, let's fight now!" she then added, flinging it at Molly's head.

Her eyes widening, she let out a squeak, ducking as the tray embedded itself in the wall. The other cyborgs took off as well, engaging with their alternate selves. It was like something out of a TV show. But at least they had cybernetic parts so there wouldn't be much 'But I'm the real me! She's the fake!'

It was exactly as Emma expected - the Emma-borg came straight for her all-flesh twin. The things that had been her hands were not now; instead the Emma-borg raised things that looked most like angle grinders and aimed them at her dimensional sister. "Oh no," said Emma. "No you don't." Diamond washed across her features. "These are my people, Emma-mine, and you are not having them."