Ausente sin Culpa ni Presente sin Disculpa | Pelea

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The X-Men show up to bail Cecilia out, and a fight naturally follows.

There were traces of the crowd that had been on the streets earlier, but there were few real people to be found. Locals here were smart enough to run away from the sound of gunfire; they certainly heard them often enough, and they knew the signs of trouble. If the well-meaning visitors or the police wanted to handle things, fine. The fools that rushed in didn't tend to last long around here.

Still, fools did rush in — which was what Cecilia was counting on. The gunfire was starting to slow — although, at the rate at which the pandilleros were coming even close to her, they didn't concern her. But this gang had clearly done something to incite fear. And with the members being mutants, she assumed there were powers at play.

Other forms of combat, she could probably handle. But powers were a coin toss.

So this was a time thing. She knew enough to defend herself against one attacker, but three? No way. Either the police or the X-Men would show up first. Given the odds, she was hoping for X-Men.

The gunfire tapered off gradually, then vanished altogether. Apparently infinite ammo was not one of the powers these men boasted. Oscar's voice rang out across the distance, demanding and frustrated, but even from Cecilia's retreated position she could hear the three closing in on her through the scattered drywall and old brick facade of her patient's home.

"~Stop wasting bullets,~" he concluded, "~It is time to get serious.~"

"Fuck," Cecilia spat out. Her head spun as she tried to come up with an escape plan. When she'd dropped behind the remnants of the wall, she hadn't thought about an exit route. And now, she was starting to feel drained. There was only so much abuse a human body could take; eventually, she figured, the shield would give away.

So running was her best option. She straightened her back against the wall and hit her communicator. "Guys. Seriously. Hope you're close." Then she sprung to her feet, wincing through the pain, and bolted into the street.

Right on cue, a blur of red swooped in. Angel had thrown caution to the winds and taken to the skies when they'd lost contact with Cecilia — a gamble, but one she was willing to take with her friend in danger. "Close enough for you?" She couldn't resist smirking as she landed, looking back at the approaching gang.

A cloud of furiously churning sand was only a few moments behind Angel, and Sooraya did not pause to make quips, instead heading directly for the gang that was approaching. Diving a foot ahead of the group, she forced herself under their shoes then pulled out again, making several of them trip on their own shoes.

A red force beam smashing into the ground by Oscar's feet raised a cloud of dust, heralding the arrival of the X-Men's leader into the fight. He walked up to Cecilia's side, never taking his now-glowing eyes from the gang as he came to a stop, "You okay?" he asked her.

"Been better," Cecilia admitted, with a strained voice but a relieved smile. "They're — they burned the clinic down." She followed his gaze, looking at the three young men on the ground as they scrambled to get up. "I don't... A mutant drug gang, Scott." Her disbelief was clear.

"~More gene traitors, doctora? We can handle them!~" Manuel's tone rang with bravado as he picked himself up after Dust tripped him. A foul odour was emanating from him, making those close enough to smell it gag and their eyes water.

Angel, unfortunately, was close enough. She kicked off into the air, trying not to throw up. "Dude, how do you say shower in Spanish?" She called down to him, coughing even as she readied for an attack. Not that she particularly wanted to set him on fire. That would probably just make it worse.

"~We can!~" Javier started, getting back on his own feet before looking around at all the newcomers. "~All of them!~" He spat on the ground as he shouted, taking a step back however at the same time. Checking his gun, he confirmed he was out of bullets and cursed under his breath, looking to his buddies for cues as to what to do.

"~No gringo tells us what to do,~" Oscar practically spat. He was still standing were Scott's force beam had struck, but he was now hovering over where the blast had left a crater. His tone was icy, and his eyes were narrowed hatefully. "~Spread out. Use the street. This is our turf.~"

He gave a small hand gesture, signaling for the attack to begin.

Another force beam arrived directed at the gun in Javier's hands impacting its center, the force of the attack sending the weapon flying out of the mutant's hands and spinning down the street. It came to rest bent almost at a right angle. Scott's eyes were cold as he looked across the street at the men. "You might want to rethink that plan," he told them quietly.

Javier balled his fists up, clenching them tightly as he ground his teeth and looked down at his broken gun. "~You don't know who you're messing with, man.~" Raising his hands, he opened his palms and yelled as he focused his mutant powers and... let loose two medium-sized trickles of water out of the palm of his hands. The water just pooled up at his feet, not even beginning to make its way toward its intended target.

Then was a brief pause for everyone to focus on Javier's clammy display before Oscar's voice rang out again, "~Let's go, gringos.~" The man stepped over the hole Scott had created previously. Well, "over" wasn't technically true — Oscar's feet were no longer on the ground as he moved slowly, hovering, before setting down to find some debris for cover in a much fast sprint.

Angel just stared at the gang, feeling like one of those cartoons where the character was entirely underwhelmed and a giant sweatdrop appeared on their forehead. "Ooooooooookay then," she mumbled, holding her hands and shooting off a quick blast of fire at the smelly one.

Sooraya hovered in place, surprised at the level of the powers displayed, before rushing at the guy who was hiding between the debris. Lashing out with a whip of sand, she drove him out in the open, careful to just use enough power that she would not wound him. Just sting him really bad.

It did. He went "ow," but with a much more vulgar Spanish vocabulary lesson, and ducked behind a wall in a vain attempt to dodge sand. To Oscar's credit, though, he did fire a couple shots in the X-People's direction.

Already seeing the path of the bullets, Scott stepped to the side avoiding the shots as he returned fire, blasting a shot on a path right next to Sooraya and driving Oscar back into her path, where he couldn't affect the fight and she could disable him.

As another shot rang out, Sooraya moved, taking the chance to flow in and around the gun, both disabling his weapon and taking away his sight. Feeling him stumble around, she pulled back from around his eyes and the gun and moved towards the ground, slipping under his feet and pulling away just as fast. With a thud, he hit the ground.

Manuel yelped as he threw himself out of the way of Angel's fireball, the stench around him intensifying. "~Think you're so high and mighty with your fire powers, you little bitch,~" he muttered mostly to himself as he began groping in his pocket. "~Let's see how you handle mine once I give them a boost...~"

"~What the fuck are you doing, man?~" Javier hissed, shooting a look at Manuel. "~Let's just get the hell out of here already!~" He nodded with his head in the opposite direction then spat towards the X-Men. "~Fuck these guys anyway, come on.~"

Manuel hesitated, but stopped what he was doing. "~They're not worth wasting it,~" he agreed, trying to save face, before scrambling to his feet. "~Oscar, let's leave it.~"

Oscar was happy to oblige — if by happy, one meant "the sneer that painted his face as he was still on the ground could have been used to kill insects if canned." He was already stumbling backward on the ground away from the dust that had once been a woman, and retreat was a really easy option.

He picked himself up, and the three's retreat was accompanied by a litany of threats.

"We going to remember you, doctora," he said in broken English in the X-Men's direction, but more specifically Cecilia's. "And," here he slipped back to a nastily intoned Spanish, "~if you cross Los Neo again we won't be so generous. Don't worry, though, pretty thing. We'll take this out on the traitors we have like you. And that'll be on you.~"

His voice trailed off, taking the promises with it, as the three pandilleros disappeared into the shanty town.