District X Fair: Until things are no more fun.

[x-dust.livejournal.com]

Things take a turn for the worst later though.

Trigger warning for police brutality and hate crimes.

"What?" Sooraya wheeled around at the sounds of commotion from a few booths away. Several people were moving away from the spot and then she could see a few cops in uniform converging on a man with silvery skin...

She stepped over to someone who was hurrying away and had stopped to pull out his phone. "Excuse me, but what is happening over there?"

"Guy selling fake stuff... Couple of the City's Finest caught him..." He replied quickly, before hurrying away.

Quentin pushed his way through the crowds, too, eager to find out what the human slabs of bacon were doing. "Fucking fascists," he snarled when he overheard the stranger's explanation to Sooraya. Clearly selling bootleg goods in New York City called for this level of police involvement. Not like there were any actual crimes to handle.

Fear, panic, anger, nononorun--

Topaz clamped down on her mind and the sudden, overwhelming urge to get the <i>hell</i> away as she followed Quentin toward the source of chaos, watching the group of cops. There was a light tremor running through her.

Tabitha half-hid herself behind someone taller, wary eye on the police. Her experiences with cops hadn't ever been pleasant, but they seemed to be significantly rougher with their current target than with her. "What are they doing?" she asked in a horrified whisper.

"Oh my god," Xavin muttered, stepping half in front of Tabitha. "We have to get out of here." Because these were cops and they'd notice the mansion residents soon enough and oh god, if they got arrested... "We have to get out of here because if they think we're with them, they'll think we're mutants too and they're right and we're fucked."

"Everyone, keep calm," Megan suggested. Her heart was pounding. The words were equally aimed at herself, for when her adrenaline surged it took focus to keep her dust from forming. Her dust could have a very calming effect, but it would definitely get them into trouble here.

"Let's slowly walk away, shall we?" Megan hesitantly looked back towards the mutant, who was surrounded by cops.

Sooraya scanned the situation, gritting her teeth. She wanted to help the mutant in front of her... currently being held against the ground with a night stick in his neck. Suddenly she saw one officer pull back his feet and kick him, ranting about a possible weapon him.

No... she could not... Not when she was the only X-man on the scene and when there were students with her... There was nothing she could do here... With a deep sigh, she turned back to Megan. "You are right..." Scanning for the others around her, she called out in a low voice: "Time to head back everyone."

"The fuck?" Quentin turned to get in Sooraya's face. "You're just going to let those pigs assault an innocent person?! What the shit! You're supposed to protect mutants. Well, there's one who needs your protection. Fucking do it!"

Sooraya wheeled around and glared at him. "Just go, Quentin. We cannot help him now." She stated firmly. "Not without risking..." With her head she gestured at Tabitha and Xavin.

What came out of Quentin in response could be described as a growl. Whatever it was, he followed it up by turning back towards the police and the mutant they were pommeling, and spit angrily on the ground. "Fine, if you're going to be too much of a pussy to actually live up to the standards you pretend you're trying to teach us, then I will."

Xavier had insinuated that the traumatic events of his manifestation had led Quentin to subconsciously lock away much of his telepathy, and that their training would allow him to gradually unlock it. Now was the time to see if Chuckles was heading him down the right path. He inhaled deeply through his nose and then let out the breath, an exercise to steady himself as he reached into his own head to take hold of the power that coursed through him. No need for anything fancy like co-opting the cops' minds to make them leave the scene, or dragging them into an artificial psi-scape to intimidate and terrify them. Nah, all he needed was a good old-fashioned blast of pure psionic energy to scramble their nervous systems and leave them as drooling messes.

"We won't be victimized by you flatscans anymore," he muttered as the energy took shape in his head. "Hope you fucking pigs burn in Hell!"

Perhaps Quentin should have paid more attention in his lessons. As he prepared to release the attacks, the strain of the telepathic energy snapped in his head, like a rubber band stretched too far. Everything went black, and when his vision slowly returned, all he saw was a sea of feet. He'd fallen to the ground, he belatedly noticed, and was lying in a small pool of red that must have been coming from his nose. He weakly pounded the pavement in frustration.

Focusdosomethingrunnorunfightrun-

The inability to actually decide what to do had left Topaz frozen at the back of the group, shaking and trying to remember how to move her feet. The only coherent thought she could manage at that moment was, I should have stayed at the mansion.

It was Quentin falling flat on his face, ironically, that snapped Topaz out of the panic-induced spiral. She focused on him hurriedly, sensing his frustration but no panic or fear. He wasn't hurt. He was just stupid.

And with that she finally remembered how to move. She surged forward, grabbing Quentin by the back of the shirt . "Idiot," she muttered as she dragged him up. "Come on," she snapped in Xavin's and Tabitha's direction, a bit harsher then she meant to. "Let's get out of here." The police didn't care about a group of kids in the crowd. They could slip away easily.

But standing here doing nothing wouldn't get them anywhere.

Tabitha tried to follow Topaz' direction, but she kept looking back toward Quentin, and the police, and that poor boy getting the snot beat out of him. Her useless, useless power would only start the idiot cops shooting.

Shooting a grateful glance at Topaz, she put a firm hand on the shoulders of Tabitha and Xavin. "Come on, let's get out of here." Propelling them with the crowd, she glanced around, glad the find the pink haired final member of their group at her heels. "You okay, Megan?" As far as one could be okay under these circumstances...

"I'm fine," Megan said, pulling her hood up. She'd gotten lax about bleaching her pink roots since the quarter ended and way too comfortable. This was a wake-up call that any mutant faced potential harrassment at any time.

Xavin was taking long, shallow breaths, aware that at any second the illusion of <I>boy</I> could slip. The crowd was getting ugly and if the police saw mutants - or, hell, a girl in boys clothes... Xavin's control slipped and for a moment, there was a teenage girl in jeans and t-shirt and unbuttoned shirt before, a moment later, a teenage boy again. No one saw and Xavin leaned in closer to Tabitha.

Tabitha clung to Xavin, keeping them as obscured from sight as she could. The world started to swim, and she realized she was crying.

"Dammit, someone stop them! They're hurting him. They're going to murder him." Was Quentin the only one who could see this inevitable end? The only one who cared? He tried to reach out with his mind again, desperately clawing at whatever purchase in the Astral Plane he could find. But that feeble attempt only turned his world upside-down, and he would have fallen again had Topaz not been bodily dragging him along.

Sooraya quickly moved over and pulled his other arm over her shoulder as she saw him stumble, guessing what had happened. "Don't, Quentin. We cannot help him..." She asserted, her eyes glistering suspiciously. "I wish we could."

"Then it's on your head," Quentin spat.