xp_logs | X-Men Mission: Riding the Night Mare: The Mobs

Of course, things won't continue to go that well...

With Tildie mostly drained, Rogue cradled the young girl in her arms carefully as she reached for her comm. "Hey Blink," she called into it. "Got a girl ready for a 'port. I drained her enough that there's no fight, but she's still kinda here. Y'all ready for her?"

"No problem," Clarice agreed, taking the teen and opening a portal. "Be back in a minute. Let the medlab know I'm incoming, too," she added. That was just a button to sound a noise at the other end.

"Uhm, Cyclops... I think that is not looking good." Sooraya reported after she had landed and returned to her normal form. "I can see a group of people coming this way and many of them are carrying things!"

"Yeah that would be the police," Angel reported from the sky. "Dressed up like the god damn military." You'd think they were going after a terrorist, not a freaking scared mutant.

Scott sighed, I really should have seen this coming, he thought to himself. "Everyone fall back and make for the Blackbird. We've done what we need to do, We need to get out of here, rather than risk getting drawn into a fight. Defend yourself and watch each other's backs as we extract."

***

"Well, I don't think they believe we're SHIELD anymore." Kane said as a bottle flew past his head. He plucked a second projectile out of the air right before it crashed into Logan, dropping the chunk of concrete at his feet. "Marie, get behind us. All we need is someone copping a feel and dropping like a dead man next to you." As they backed up, he reached down and tore a bench out of the concrete, holding it out as a temporary shield in front of them.

"Now what coulda given that away?" Logan sidestepped a thrown potted plant. Where the hell had that come from anyway? He'd tried to keep his claws out of it initially but the crap flying their way canned that idea pretty quick. He clawed a hefty tree branch into several pieces and scowled when a couple daredevils darted closer to toss crap at Rogue. He growled a warning and tried to block any openings but they were heavily outnumbered with their options severely limited by not wanting to hurt the idiots.

It was hard to keep the tatters of her uniform on, but it was made worse with the overwhelming panic Rogue felt at being so exposed. Trying to stay behind both Kane and Logan was proving to be harder than anticipated as the mob started to grow in size and intensity.

"Huh. You'd think a giant psychic horse projecting mutant just trashed Main Street or something." Kane said wryly, using the bench to keep the more aggressive ones at bay. The few who got too close learned unpleasantly that Garrison's uniform included pepper spray, which he dosed them liberally with. "Everybody, go home. This isn't going to go well for anyone!"

"Fuck you, you mutie cocksucker!"

"Prejudice and homophobic in one insult. Good on you sir." He said. Yelling and insults he liked. Yelling and insulted meant they were distracted. It was when it transitioned into the formless roar of rage that riots truly got rolling. "Logan, you want to... I don't know, drop a couple of streetlights across the street, make us a little less easy to follow."

"Wishin' you were a damn telekinetic right now," Logan grumbled before he lunged forward to scare the crowd back. It opened up more space between Kane and Rogue, enough that he was comfortable enough darting around the mob to the nearest streetlight. It clanged to the ground, away from the crowd, with a quick swipe of one hand. Several others followed in quick succession to distract and direct parts of the crowd away from his teammates.

One breath. ‎In and out. Rogue tried her hardest to quell the nausea in her stomach as she crossed her arms and hugged herself tightly. The path that Logan and Kane created helped, but the swarms of people were growing and so were the unhappy faces.

She attempted to dodge her way out of the crowds, but inevitably, a small stumble caused her to lose her balance. "Don't touch me," she screamed out. "My skin is poison!" To the angry citizens though, those words just managed to incite them more.   Soon, random memories coursed through her brain as she tried so hard to turn her skin off.

"Fuck." This was getting out of hand and there wasn't an easy way to stop it. Which meant it was time to go for the non-easy ones that the Professor hated. Kane grabbed the front of a parked car and swung it around in front of him. The display of strength made the mob back off, backpedeling further when he slammed it down in the concrete so hard the wheels shot off.

"Rogue, fly! Get out of here now!"

Rogue? Who was Rogue? His name was Tom. He was a carpenter whose wife left him for a mutant. Or was she Sylvia, ‎a normal middle aged vet technician who got caught up in the mob?

There were so many voices but they only lasted so long before stopping. Covering her ears, she barely heard Kane's voice. Fly? Could s/he do that?

Apparently.   Heading towards his voice, she floated and reached out a hand. "I don't know where I'm going..."

"Logan. Get out of here. Anyway you can." Kane peeled off a glove. He and Rogue were close, but this was betting the farm on their relationship. He reached out and grabbed her bare hand with his, willing what he knew of her back; thousands of hours and memories and moments forged between them.

Logan tapped his comm piece, "Copy that." He had no intention of leaving until Kane and Rogue were clear even as the space he had to work with kept getting smaller and smaller. But he was still faster than any of them. He'd have to make that work. At least some of the crowd was trailing after him. That was the best he was going to get without doing some serious damage.

Goddamn, but did she ever love healing factors. Touching Kane brought her back to herself, especially with the onslaught of memories.

"Remind me to thank Cyclops for making sure we're generally on the same squad," she said with a tired smile. Her powers always exhausted her, her brain needing that sleep to sort through the new memories and put them away. "Need a lift ou‎t of here? I have maybe five minutes before I pass out." She refused to look over her shoulder and see how many people were lying on the ground.

"Let's get the hell out of here." He said, willing the dizziness to pass.

Rogue nodded and cradled Kane. In a way, she was glad Logan had been sent off -- there was no way she'd be able to carry the two.   Lifting off, she cringed at the sight of everyone. Fighting, arguing....and no real mutants in sight. The hatred was palpable with no one to direct it to. "Today was not a good day," she said softly.