A Haven to Call Home: The Riot
Nov. 8th, 2023 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsSooraya and Clarice find themselves dealing with an out-of-control mutant and some extremely ungrateful protesters.
Sand hardened into a barrier as thin as an eggshell between the little boy with his dog and the crowd still rushing to get away as soon. People stepped on it, bumped into it and one even crashed into it, but it didn't break. As soon the press of people lightened a little the sand began to tremble and Sooraya reformed into her sandman form, boy and dog safely tucked away in her arms.
Scanning around them, she spotted the questionable protection of three large dumpsters and strode off, setting the boy down in the shelter of them. It was safer at least than in the middle of the crowd. Flickering back into her human shape, she crouched down next to him: "Stay here. Don't go into the crowds. Remember, it's your job to keep your little friend there safe." Sooraya nodded at the dog.
Suddenly the air was filled with pained moans and shouts, one or two even screaming. Sooraya rose quickly and took in her surroundings. "Now what..." She muttered, spotting everyone hurrying away from a spot. Dissolving into her sandform, a cloud of sand quickly rose above the crowds.
Using a portal like a shield, Clarice, now on the ground, was using it to 'catch' the projectile quills and send them back to their owner, ideally to hit him. "Not sure if I'm giving him his ammo back or hurting him," she called to Sooraya above her, but the only other option was to send people away and that would take more energy and power reserves.
Dust spun around, searching the source of the quills she could now see being flung around. The crowd milling about made it nigh impossible though. Finally she spotted a small space opening up by all the people trying to get away from the mutant and Sooraya dove. "Looks like he can only fling them. They come directly from his skin." She quickly reported as thinned out and inserted herself to catch another volley. "Doesn't look like the most pleasant process either."
Yeah, that didn't sound like a great power. There were downsides to all parts in some way, but this one was almost on par with Sarah's. "We gotta do something..." Clarice couldn't get a good visual with the people in her way and the quills flying through the air to teleport him away.
Huffing, she quickly send two members of the FOH that weren't very appreciative of their efforts to keep everyone safe, to her dumpster. Good riddance. But that still didn't stop Quill.
Quills bounced harmlessly off the sand shield while Sooraya urged people on the other side of the shield to evacuate with nudges of sandy tendrils. One guy wasn't that appreciative towards her, raising his fist and shouting: "Don't think you are some kind of alien tentacle monster! I know your kind!!!"
Mentally raising an eyebrow, Sooraya wrapped a tendril of sand around the dude's ankle and hefted him in the air before tossing him in a nearby dumpster. Hey, the metal would shield him from the quills. "These guys are getting very annoying." she commented. "And quill guy here doesn't seem to be running out of ammunition yet. Nor is he looking really tired, though I think it's hurting him."
"Can you get me closer?" Clarice asked. It wasn't a matter of distance as it was that she didn't want to accidentally clip someone with a portal. Even someone in the FOH. Maybe especially if they're in the FOH.
"Yeah, I can shield you from the quills at least." Dust glanced around, trying to locate Blink while she continued to nudge people. "I can't get a read on your location, Blink. Where are you? I can try to clear you a path as well."
Sending a portal up above her head that looked like the crystal thing used to control Sims, Clarice hoped Sooraya could see it and understand what it meant. The portal looped to nowhere in particular and wasn't shaped to catch quills, though two ended up going through it. Oops. Some farmers in Iowa were about to be a little confused. "I'm here!" she called.
"I know where you are, but getting through the people is gonna be impossible." Dust glanced around her, pushing the final people back before rising about the crowd. "Look above you." Her tricks with April weren't gonna work here, but another way might be possible... Flattening out into a solid thin surface, Sooraya shot forwards, ignoring everything thrown at her, till she hovered above Clarice. "Your ride has arrived."
"You gonna show me the world?" Clarice joked, scrambling up and hoping her boots wouldn't hurt Sooraya. Well, she'd apologize later if needed. This was both weird and very, very cool. Such was life. "Let's get this guy out of here!"
"Especially before he really hurts himself. I'm no medic, but this can't be good for him. The trick is gonna be to get close enough though. Hmm..." Sooraya agreed as she shot up, easily carrying Clarice above the crowd. "If we can get close enough, could you teleport him to a safe place?"
"As safe as Iowa corn fields," Clarice agreed. That was as safe as she could do right this moment. Most of the time, she teleported people really obnoxious places, like the middle of Siberia or the Mongolian steppe, or maybe the Sahara. Places where you could easily die... but could theoretically live if you worked hard enough. Of course, then you had to get home without a passport but... details. Iowa was practically polite.
"And just leave the poor guy there?!?" Sooraya objected almost immediately. "He can't help this. I was thinking of a safe place in DX where we can keep an eye out!"
"And have him attack there?" Clarice pointed out, "Let him attack corn fields and see what happens!"
"There are other places..." Possible locations flickered through Sooraya's mind as she circled around the quill-launching mutant. "The community center showers! No one is supposed to be there now, nothing he can harm there and afterwards we or one of the others can easily check on him."
Ugh, Sooraya was so.... nice. And reasonable. It was very annoying. "Fine," she agreed reluctantly, "But if I have to deal with this guy again in like a month, I'm sending him to Siberia. I don't like repeat offenders."
"Sounds like a deal to me." Sooraya replied absentmindedly. "I'll keep the quills from you, you teleport?" Slender tendrils of sand already formed at the front of the 'carpet' and almost immediately she turned inwards to get close to the quill-mutant. The tendrils easily batted the quills away. "You ready?"
Now in position, Clarice opened a portal to the community center showers, 'dropping' it over the mutant in question, removing him and his quills from the area. "Bye!" she called after him.
The crowd beneath them almost immediately surged together and Sooraya quickly rose above them. She was about to reach out to the other teams when an eruption of light suddenly filled the sky. Her only thought: 'Oh shit...'
While it is always morally correct to punch bigots, Kurt witnesses Kyle taking things a little too far.
The crowd had thinned slightly as people managed to escape the area, but that only meant there was more room to move, to observe and to interact. Such as the two younger men - in their twenties or so - with military-short haircuts and FOH t-shirts who spotted the brown carapace and insectoid wings of a visible mutant and were able to shove their way through the people dividing them. The taller of the two, whose arms were covered in tattoos of military crosses and knives and guns, as well as lines of Scripture, gave the man a push.
"Leave me alone!" the man cried out, stumbling away, flailing his extra limbs for balance. "I'm not hurting anyone!"
"Not yet, you aren't," rejoined the second FOHer, who had circled around and now shoved the man back towards his friend. "Look at what's going on, you freaks are out of control! Someone has to stop you!"
"It's our duty as citizens" added the other, pulling a black rod from his boot. He gave it a flick with his wrist and it extended out into a combat baton. His first strike caught the mutant across the face, while his partner kicked a Doc Marten boot into the back of a knee, sending him off-balance. The mutant dropped to the ground on one knee, raising his extra limbs up to ward off further blows and begging for mercy.
There was none, as the two FOH thugs laid into him with baton and boots, the brown carapace only doing so much to protect him from the blows.
"Oh fuck off." This was shouted as Kyle kick stepped off a fire hydrant and came down elbow first into the neck and shoulders of one of the men. His elbow glanced off the man's body, his other fist did not, smashing into nose and cheekbone with the full weight of a tall, muscled human who moments before had leapt several feet up. Blood gushed, the nose or cheekbone of the FOH member was broken and Kyle did not care about the red that stuck to his hand and splattered across his shirt. "You can...' He punched again. "shut the fuck up." and again.
Out of a puff of blue smoke, Kurt appeared at this side, grabbing his wrist before he could land another punch. "Wildchild. Wildchild. Enough. Have you forgotten why you were doing this?"
Before anyone could react - the attackers, the poor man who had transformed into a cricket - Kurt, Kyle twisted, and yanked his wrist away, spitting out a guttural snarl and landing a firm kick to the knee of his target before pulling in on himself, teeth bared and panting. "Fuckers think it's their job to hurt people, they can lose teeth."
Kurt had poised to leap on Kyle again, but eased back when he pulled in on himself. “You are frightening our friend over there. Was this not all meant to protect him?”
The mutant in question was curled in a ball, staring at Kyle with wide, terrified all-too-human eyes. "S-s-stop," he was stuttering, over and over, "P-p-please s-s-stop."
Kyle's leg twitched again, and he snapped his teeth shut, making firm eye contact with Kurt - not the insectoid mutant he'd intended to protect. "Only because he asked." He turned, letting the claws of his fingers all the way out and stared down the FOH member. "Get out. That dude didn't fucking touch you." And kept staring until the man mumbled something about crazy muties and fled.
Equally thrown by the blast, a mode-locked April and disoriented Maya collide.
It took several terrible, disorienting minutes for April to realize she wasn't still in the warehouse. Wasn't, in fact, anywhere near that horrible last glimpse of the two people she'd been closest to. But recognizing that didn't calm her down, and the chaos around her - the noise, the smoke, the panicked crush of people, the agitators trying to start things - all built up to an incredibly enraged woman.
Her dad's voice, the Parker motto, and the lessons she'd learned about the X-Men were still in the back of her mind, but her hindbrain was chanting a litany of the truly terrible things she could do to silence the worst of those around her, and it was getting increasingly loud with every jostle, shove, and hostile jeer. So... April made them put a sock in it. Her fist smashed into the jaw of a guy who'd pulled a knife with a satisfying crunch, some part of her pulling her strength back enough to damage and silence, but not to kill. The next person was tripped, her moves getting more fluid as her brain finally started to clear. It was slow going, but by the time she encountered the third person, she was lucid enough to wrap tendrils around their wrists, pulling them close so she could scream in their face.
The teeth would be scary if nothing else. She'd caught a glimpse of them.
Maya had ripped out her hearing aids the moment the bomb went off but not quickly enough to save her from the disorientation of the shockwave and noise. Her head pounded and she felt unsteady on her feet, unable to quite get her bearings as she tried to control the fighting breaking out around her.
She had no way to contact the others without her hearing, no way to hear any orders coming in. It was a scenario they’d covered in training. She was to work the problems one by one, deal with what was in front of her, and then the next, and eventually make her way back to a meeting point.
She’d been doing well until she’d run into April, and been grabbed before she could even try to orientate herself. Her eyes were still smarting from the flash, unable to completely focus and with her wrists held, she had two options, legs or a head-butt. Maya went for the head butt to April’s teeth.
It was lucky for Maya that April's mouth had shut after the scream. The headbutt hurt, but the sharp teeth stayed firmly locked into a snarl. She pulled one of the wrists closer, then swiped out with a foot. Her mind hadn't fully cleared yet, and her Spidey sense had gone haywire as the bomb went off. The combination was making it very difficult to tell the difference between friend and foe, but something – she wasn't sure what, but something – had her reverting to sparring movements, going for contain and counter instead of disarm and injure.
With a standard opponent, Maya would have pushed forward with her elbow in and wrist up which given her base level of strength would have broken the wrist lock April had, had April been a standard-level human.
Given that she wasn't, and given the tentacles instead of hands, Maya wasn't about to break out of that hold, but she could prevent the leg sweep, which she did by moving into April and pushing the other girl backward and hopefully making her think more about keeping her feet than holding onto Maya.
"Let go!"
Maya couldn't tell what her noise level was, being unable to hear it but she could remember what shouting felt like and aim for the same breath, the same forceful exhalation of her lungs.
April skidded back a few steps, tentacles still gripped around Maya's forearms. The other woman had yelled something, but in the chaos she couldn't quite make it out. But she wasn't actively fighting. Despite everything going on around them, three of her shoulder tendrils lifted into something resembling a series of question marks, and her grip on the other woman's forearms loosened.
Maya used the opening she’d been given to twist her arms to break out of the hold April had on her. She backed up a few steps and tried to get things into perspective despite the continuing chaos around them. She couldn’t hear, could barely see, her head felt like it had been smacked like a bell.
She reached down and pushed the alert button on her uniform. It wouldn’t take long for Clarice to arrive given that, and the sense of relief gave her brain a moment to reboot itself.
Tentacles. Big teeth. It wasn’t that others couldn’t have those mutations but she hadn’t seen anyone around her recently with those.
That meant…
“April?” Maya called out in what she hoped was a loud enough shout. “Is that you?”
She tilted her head to the side. April. Yes, she was April. And the woman in front of her... she knew–right, that was Maya. Maya had seen her form before, she could get April back to safety. She nodded slowly as she registered the words, then shrugged, knowing she wouldn't be able to say anything coherent and Maya probably couldn't hear her. One of her tendrils formed a wobbly M as she stepped closer, offering her elbow to the other woman.
Maya reached out and placed her hand gently on April’s elbow, relieved beyond belief that she wasn’t alone in what was a steadily growing riot.
She hoped Clarice would find them quickly.
Amidst the chaos, Scott and Monica find themselves responding to one crisis they could not have foreseen: Alex.
The comms were full of shouting voices, of panic and fear, the emotion of the crowd was almost like a palpable wave that washed over them and tried to carry them away. The X-Men had been trained to handle themselves in whatever situation they might find themselves in, but they'd been trained to work as a team. To rely on one another to cover their backs and provide support but in a crowd like this they were just too split apart. Scott knew that he should be trying to regain control of the comms, to gather the X-Men together, to establish order. He should.
Only he'd seen something else, something that drove that thought right out of his head. In the midst of the crowd he'd caught sight of a glow of energy, a blonde with his eyes screwed up, lips parted as he muttered to himself. It was like swimming against the current, the crowd milling and panicking as he pushed against them, answered their reticence to move with elbows and fists, dragging them physically out of the way as he forced his way through the crowd.
"Alex!"
Nica was airborne, trying to give the team a picture of what was happening and where they were needed, but for the moment it seemed like they were needed everywhere. People were shoving and pushing each other as they tried to get away from the explosion, individuals from opposite sides were facing off, each blaming the other for the situation, children and smaller adults were in danger of being trampled... And then Cyclops' - no, Scott's voice, full of fear and concern that the X-Men leader never showed - came through her ear piece and she whirled in the air, trying to pinpoint the younger Summers brother.
Alex vaguely heard his brother calling his name, but he was too distracted by trying to contain the power. At least the area around him had mostly cleared out - people were still running, but no one was running to the explosion site. And anyone who tried to come this way was immediately scared off by the glowing, out of control mutant. "Okay. Okay okay okay." Energy started running up and down his arms, rings forming around him. Not okay.
There! Nica caught sight of the increasing glow of Alex's mutant power and dived down at him. If he couldn't contain his plasma blasts, he'd kill scores of people, and from the looks of it, he was fighting a losing battle. He needed to get clear of the crowds, and fast, and since no-one else was near, it was going to be up to her, if she could do it. She concentrated on her hands, willing them to solidify while the rest of her stayed light - she usually did it the other way around, and it was counter to everything she'd done so far - and when she was satisfied she had a hold of it, she swooped in and grabbed a double handful of the back of his jacket.
"Hold still and go limp," she shouted into his ear over the noise of the crowd. "I'll get you out of the way." And with that, she slowly hauled him into the sky.
Alex yelped as he was lifted into the sky. He went limp, as told; staying tense wasn't actually helping with calming the flare, but it felt like a layer between him and the inevitable explosion. Without it, there was nothing for him to do but let go. Light flared around them as the pressure built in his chest, then released all at once. He yelled, half in pain and half in surprise, as the energy burst around him.
It was like watching a supernova go off, Alex's body was lost in an expanding ball of glowing light that seemed to fill the sky like a second sun. Scott could hear the crowd around him screaming, the pressure of the explosion buffeting them, knocking over members of the crowd while sand and dirt filled the air. It took everything Scott had to stay upright, bracing against the wind swirling around his body as he stared up at the explosion, hoping that both his brother and the brave X-Man who'd pulled him out of the crowd were alright.
As the light died away, the shapes of Nica and Alex reappeared, hovering in the air. Nica's form glowed brightly from the visible light waves she'd absorbed from Alex's blast and her hands were white-knuckled with the effort of keeping them solid when every fibre of her mutation was pushing her to phase out. Then she spotted Scott on the ground below and some of the tension showing in her shoulders seemed to ease and she drifted downwards, Alex hanging from her hands.
Alex nearly toppled over, only saved by Scott being right there when he touched the ground. He could already feel energy building up again, which should have been concerning - he didn't usually fill up that fast - but he was exhausted by the last explosion. "I don't know what's happening," he said, still holding onto Scott, half hugging, half using him for support.
The older Summers could feel Alex shaking as his arms came up, wrapping around his brother, could feel the way that he leaned into him, barely able to keep his feet under him. "It's ok, we'll get you out of here and back to the mansion, the docs will fix you up like that." Dark eyes snapped up, scanning around the crowd for a moment before glancing up at Nica. "Find me the shortest path out of here, we need to get Alex to the mansion asap."
Nica nodded, snapping to attention in spite of the extra energy thrumming through her. "There's a park a block or so that way," she said, pointing at a side street. "Do you need me to find Clarice? I don't think we can get him back any other way without another explosion."
Dark eyes flicked around the crowd as Scott held Alex against his side, feeling his brother shaking as the energy built up in his frame as he nodded, "Get her to meet us there, you're right, there's no way we'd get back any other way in time." Hopefully Alex could keep it together while they were teleporting, the idea of an explosion mid travel would be the icing on the cake. "Come on brother, you got this."
"Yup, I got this," Alex said through gritted teeth. He had this, he'd get back to the mansion, and everything would be fine.
Everything would be fine.
Sand hardened into a barrier as thin as an eggshell between the little boy with his dog and the crowd still rushing to get away as soon. People stepped on it, bumped into it and one even crashed into it, but it didn't break. As soon the press of people lightened a little the sand began to tremble and Sooraya reformed into her sandman form, boy and dog safely tucked away in her arms.
Scanning around them, she spotted the questionable protection of three large dumpsters and strode off, setting the boy down in the shelter of them. It was safer at least than in the middle of the crowd. Flickering back into her human shape, she crouched down next to him: "Stay here. Don't go into the crowds. Remember, it's your job to keep your little friend there safe." Sooraya nodded at the dog.
Suddenly the air was filled with pained moans and shouts, one or two even screaming. Sooraya rose quickly and took in her surroundings. "Now what..." She muttered, spotting everyone hurrying away from a spot. Dissolving into her sandform, a cloud of sand quickly rose above the crowds.
Using a portal like a shield, Clarice, now on the ground, was using it to 'catch' the projectile quills and send them back to their owner, ideally to hit him. "Not sure if I'm giving him his ammo back or hurting him," she called to Sooraya above her, but the only other option was to send people away and that would take more energy and power reserves.
Dust spun around, searching the source of the quills she could now see being flung around. The crowd milling about made it nigh impossible though. Finally she spotted a small space opening up by all the people trying to get away from the mutant and Sooraya dove. "Looks like he can only fling them. They come directly from his skin." She quickly reported as thinned out and inserted herself to catch another volley. "Doesn't look like the most pleasant process either."
Yeah, that didn't sound like a great power. There were downsides to all parts in some way, but this one was almost on par with Sarah's. "We gotta do something..." Clarice couldn't get a good visual with the people in her way and the quills flying through the air to teleport him away.
Huffing, she quickly send two members of the FOH that weren't very appreciative of their efforts to keep everyone safe, to her dumpster. Good riddance. But that still didn't stop Quill.
Quills bounced harmlessly off the sand shield while Sooraya urged people on the other side of the shield to evacuate with nudges of sandy tendrils. One guy wasn't that appreciative towards her, raising his fist and shouting: "Don't think you are some kind of alien tentacle monster! I know your kind!!!"
Mentally raising an eyebrow, Sooraya wrapped a tendril of sand around the dude's ankle and hefted him in the air before tossing him in a nearby dumpster. Hey, the metal would shield him from the quills. "These guys are getting very annoying." she commented. "And quill guy here doesn't seem to be running out of ammunition yet. Nor is he looking really tired, though I think it's hurting him."
"Can you get me closer?" Clarice asked. It wasn't a matter of distance as it was that she didn't want to accidentally clip someone with a portal. Even someone in the FOH. Maybe especially if they're in the FOH.
"Yeah, I can shield you from the quills at least." Dust glanced around, trying to locate Blink while she continued to nudge people. "I can't get a read on your location, Blink. Where are you? I can try to clear you a path as well."
Sending a portal up above her head that looked like the crystal thing used to control Sims, Clarice hoped Sooraya could see it and understand what it meant. The portal looped to nowhere in particular and wasn't shaped to catch quills, though two ended up going through it. Oops. Some farmers in Iowa were about to be a little confused. "I'm here!" she called.
"I know where you are, but getting through the people is gonna be impossible." Dust glanced around her, pushing the final people back before rising about the crowd. "Look above you." Her tricks with April weren't gonna work here, but another way might be possible... Flattening out into a solid thin surface, Sooraya shot forwards, ignoring everything thrown at her, till she hovered above Clarice. "Your ride has arrived."
"You gonna show me the world?" Clarice joked, scrambling up and hoping her boots wouldn't hurt Sooraya. Well, she'd apologize later if needed. This was both weird and very, very cool. Such was life. "Let's get this guy out of here!"
"Especially before he really hurts himself. I'm no medic, but this can't be good for him. The trick is gonna be to get close enough though. Hmm..." Sooraya agreed as she shot up, easily carrying Clarice above the crowd. "If we can get close enough, could you teleport him to a safe place?"
"As safe as Iowa corn fields," Clarice agreed. That was as safe as she could do right this moment. Most of the time, she teleported people really obnoxious places, like the middle of Siberia or the Mongolian steppe, or maybe the Sahara. Places where you could easily die... but could theoretically live if you worked hard enough. Of course, then you had to get home without a passport but... details. Iowa was practically polite.
"And just leave the poor guy there?!?" Sooraya objected almost immediately. "He can't help this. I was thinking of a safe place in DX where we can keep an eye out!"
"And have him attack there?" Clarice pointed out, "Let him attack corn fields and see what happens!"
"There are other places..." Possible locations flickered through Sooraya's mind as she circled around the quill-launching mutant. "The community center showers! No one is supposed to be there now, nothing he can harm there and afterwards we or one of the others can easily check on him."
Ugh, Sooraya was so.... nice. And reasonable. It was very annoying. "Fine," she agreed reluctantly, "But if I have to deal with this guy again in like a month, I'm sending him to Siberia. I don't like repeat offenders."
"Sounds like a deal to me." Sooraya replied absentmindedly. "I'll keep the quills from you, you teleport?" Slender tendrils of sand already formed at the front of the 'carpet' and almost immediately she turned inwards to get close to the quill-mutant. The tendrils easily batted the quills away. "You ready?"
Now in position, Clarice opened a portal to the community center showers, 'dropping' it over the mutant in question, removing him and his quills from the area. "Bye!" she called after him.
The crowd beneath them almost immediately surged together and Sooraya quickly rose above them. She was about to reach out to the other teams when an eruption of light suddenly filled the sky. Her only thought: 'Oh shit...'
While it is always morally correct to punch bigots, Kurt witnesses Kyle taking things a little too far.
The crowd had thinned slightly as people managed to escape the area, but that only meant there was more room to move, to observe and to interact. Such as the two younger men - in their twenties or so - with military-short haircuts and FOH t-shirts who spotted the brown carapace and insectoid wings of a visible mutant and were able to shove their way through the people dividing them. The taller of the two, whose arms were covered in tattoos of military crosses and knives and guns, as well as lines of Scripture, gave the man a push.
"Leave me alone!" the man cried out, stumbling away, flailing his extra limbs for balance. "I'm not hurting anyone!"
"Not yet, you aren't," rejoined the second FOHer, who had circled around and now shoved the man back towards his friend. "Look at what's going on, you freaks are out of control! Someone has to stop you!"
"It's our duty as citizens" added the other, pulling a black rod from his boot. He gave it a flick with his wrist and it extended out into a combat baton. His first strike caught the mutant across the face, while his partner kicked a Doc Marten boot into the back of a knee, sending him off-balance. The mutant dropped to the ground on one knee, raising his extra limbs up to ward off further blows and begging for mercy.
There was none, as the two FOH thugs laid into him with baton and boots, the brown carapace only doing so much to protect him from the blows.
"Oh fuck off." This was shouted as Kyle kick stepped off a fire hydrant and came down elbow first into the neck and shoulders of one of the men. His elbow glanced off the man's body, his other fist did not, smashing into nose and cheekbone with the full weight of a tall, muscled human who moments before had leapt several feet up. Blood gushed, the nose or cheekbone of the FOH member was broken and Kyle did not care about the red that stuck to his hand and splattered across his shirt. "You can...' He punched again. "shut the fuck up." and again.
Out of a puff of blue smoke, Kurt appeared at this side, grabbing his wrist before he could land another punch. "Wildchild. Wildchild. Enough. Have you forgotten why you were doing this?"
Before anyone could react - the attackers, the poor man who had transformed into a cricket - Kurt, Kyle twisted, and yanked his wrist away, spitting out a guttural snarl and landing a firm kick to the knee of his target before pulling in on himself, teeth bared and panting. "Fuckers think it's their job to hurt people, they can lose teeth."
Kurt had poised to leap on Kyle again, but eased back when he pulled in on himself. “You are frightening our friend over there. Was this not all meant to protect him?”
The mutant in question was curled in a ball, staring at Kyle with wide, terrified all-too-human eyes. "S-s-stop," he was stuttering, over and over, "P-p-please s-s-stop."
Kyle's leg twitched again, and he snapped his teeth shut, making firm eye contact with Kurt - not the insectoid mutant he'd intended to protect. "Only because he asked." He turned, letting the claws of his fingers all the way out and stared down the FOH member. "Get out. That dude didn't fucking touch you." And kept staring until the man mumbled something about crazy muties and fled.
Equally thrown by the blast, a mode-locked April and disoriented Maya collide.
It took several terrible, disorienting minutes for April to realize she wasn't still in the warehouse. Wasn't, in fact, anywhere near that horrible last glimpse of the two people she'd been closest to. But recognizing that didn't calm her down, and the chaos around her - the noise, the smoke, the panicked crush of people, the agitators trying to start things - all built up to an incredibly enraged woman.
Her dad's voice, the Parker motto, and the lessons she'd learned about the X-Men were still in the back of her mind, but her hindbrain was chanting a litany of the truly terrible things she could do to silence the worst of those around her, and it was getting increasingly loud with every jostle, shove, and hostile jeer. So... April made them put a sock in it. Her fist smashed into the jaw of a guy who'd pulled a knife with a satisfying crunch, some part of her pulling her strength back enough to damage and silence, but not to kill. The next person was tripped, her moves getting more fluid as her brain finally started to clear. It was slow going, but by the time she encountered the third person, she was lucid enough to wrap tendrils around their wrists, pulling them close so she could scream in their face.
The teeth would be scary if nothing else. She'd caught a glimpse of them.
Maya had ripped out her hearing aids the moment the bomb went off but not quickly enough to save her from the disorientation of the shockwave and noise. Her head pounded and she felt unsteady on her feet, unable to quite get her bearings as she tried to control the fighting breaking out around her.
She had no way to contact the others without her hearing, no way to hear any orders coming in. It was a scenario they’d covered in training. She was to work the problems one by one, deal with what was in front of her, and then the next, and eventually make her way back to a meeting point.
She’d been doing well until she’d run into April, and been grabbed before she could even try to orientate herself. Her eyes were still smarting from the flash, unable to completely focus and with her wrists held, she had two options, legs or a head-butt. Maya went for the head butt to April’s teeth.
It was lucky for Maya that April's mouth had shut after the scream. The headbutt hurt, but the sharp teeth stayed firmly locked into a snarl. She pulled one of the wrists closer, then swiped out with a foot. Her mind hadn't fully cleared yet, and her Spidey sense had gone haywire as the bomb went off. The combination was making it very difficult to tell the difference between friend and foe, but something – she wasn't sure what, but something – had her reverting to sparring movements, going for contain and counter instead of disarm and injure.
With a standard opponent, Maya would have pushed forward with her elbow in and wrist up which given her base level of strength would have broken the wrist lock April had, had April been a standard-level human.
Given that she wasn't, and given the tentacles instead of hands, Maya wasn't about to break out of that hold, but she could prevent the leg sweep, which she did by moving into April and pushing the other girl backward and hopefully making her think more about keeping her feet than holding onto Maya.
"Let go!"
Maya couldn't tell what her noise level was, being unable to hear it but she could remember what shouting felt like and aim for the same breath, the same forceful exhalation of her lungs.
April skidded back a few steps, tentacles still gripped around Maya's forearms. The other woman had yelled something, but in the chaos she couldn't quite make it out. But she wasn't actively fighting. Despite everything going on around them, three of her shoulder tendrils lifted into something resembling a series of question marks, and her grip on the other woman's forearms loosened.
Maya used the opening she’d been given to twist her arms to break out of the hold April had on her. She backed up a few steps and tried to get things into perspective despite the continuing chaos around them. She couldn’t hear, could barely see, her head felt like it had been smacked like a bell.
She reached down and pushed the alert button on her uniform. It wouldn’t take long for Clarice to arrive given that, and the sense of relief gave her brain a moment to reboot itself.
Tentacles. Big teeth. It wasn’t that others couldn’t have those mutations but she hadn’t seen anyone around her recently with those.
That meant…
“April?” Maya called out in what she hoped was a loud enough shout. “Is that you?”
She tilted her head to the side. April. Yes, she was April. And the woman in front of her... she knew–right, that was Maya. Maya had seen her form before, she could get April back to safety. She nodded slowly as she registered the words, then shrugged, knowing she wouldn't be able to say anything coherent and Maya probably couldn't hear her. One of her tendrils formed a wobbly M as she stepped closer, offering her elbow to the other woman.
Maya reached out and placed her hand gently on April’s elbow, relieved beyond belief that she wasn’t alone in what was a steadily growing riot.
She hoped Clarice would find them quickly.
Amidst the chaos, Scott and Monica find themselves responding to one crisis they could not have foreseen: Alex.
The comms were full of shouting voices, of panic and fear, the emotion of the crowd was almost like a palpable wave that washed over them and tried to carry them away. The X-Men had been trained to handle themselves in whatever situation they might find themselves in, but they'd been trained to work as a team. To rely on one another to cover their backs and provide support but in a crowd like this they were just too split apart. Scott knew that he should be trying to regain control of the comms, to gather the X-Men together, to establish order. He should.
Only he'd seen something else, something that drove that thought right out of his head. In the midst of the crowd he'd caught sight of a glow of energy, a blonde with his eyes screwed up, lips parted as he muttered to himself. It was like swimming against the current, the crowd milling and panicking as he pushed against them, answered their reticence to move with elbows and fists, dragging them physically out of the way as he forced his way through the crowd.
"Alex!"
Nica was airborne, trying to give the team a picture of what was happening and where they were needed, but for the moment it seemed like they were needed everywhere. People were shoving and pushing each other as they tried to get away from the explosion, individuals from opposite sides were facing off, each blaming the other for the situation, children and smaller adults were in danger of being trampled... And then Cyclops' - no, Scott's voice, full of fear and concern that the X-Men leader never showed - came through her ear piece and she whirled in the air, trying to pinpoint the younger Summers brother.
Alex vaguely heard his brother calling his name, but he was too distracted by trying to contain the power. At least the area around him had mostly cleared out - people were still running, but no one was running to the explosion site. And anyone who tried to come this way was immediately scared off by the glowing, out of control mutant. "Okay. Okay okay okay." Energy started running up and down his arms, rings forming around him. Not okay.
There! Nica caught sight of the increasing glow of Alex's mutant power and dived down at him. If he couldn't contain his plasma blasts, he'd kill scores of people, and from the looks of it, he was fighting a losing battle. He needed to get clear of the crowds, and fast, and since no-one else was near, it was going to be up to her, if she could do it. She concentrated on her hands, willing them to solidify while the rest of her stayed light - she usually did it the other way around, and it was counter to everything she'd done so far - and when she was satisfied she had a hold of it, she swooped in and grabbed a double handful of the back of his jacket.
"Hold still and go limp," she shouted into his ear over the noise of the crowd. "I'll get you out of the way." And with that, she slowly hauled him into the sky.
Alex yelped as he was lifted into the sky. He went limp, as told; staying tense wasn't actually helping with calming the flare, but it felt like a layer between him and the inevitable explosion. Without it, there was nothing for him to do but let go. Light flared around them as the pressure built in his chest, then released all at once. He yelled, half in pain and half in surprise, as the energy burst around him.
It was like watching a supernova go off, Alex's body was lost in an expanding ball of glowing light that seemed to fill the sky like a second sun. Scott could hear the crowd around him screaming, the pressure of the explosion buffeting them, knocking over members of the crowd while sand and dirt filled the air. It took everything Scott had to stay upright, bracing against the wind swirling around his body as he stared up at the explosion, hoping that both his brother and the brave X-Man who'd pulled him out of the crowd were alright.
As the light died away, the shapes of Nica and Alex reappeared, hovering in the air. Nica's form glowed brightly from the visible light waves she'd absorbed from Alex's blast and her hands were white-knuckled with the effort of keeping them solid when every fibre of her mutation was pushing her to phase out. Then she spotted Scott on the ground below and some of the tension showing in her shoulders seemed to ease and she drifted downwards, Alex hanging from her hands.
Alex nearly toppled over, only saved by Scott being right there when he touched the ground. He could already feel energy building up again, which should have been concerning - he didn't usually fill up that fast - but he was exhausted by the last explosion. "I don't know what's happening," he said, still holding onto Scott, half hugging, half using him for support.
The older Summers could feel Alex shaking as his arms came up, wrapping around his brother, could feel the way that he leaned into him, barely able to keep his feet under him. "It's ok, we'll get you out of here and back to the mansion, the docs will fix you up like that." Dark eyes snapped up, scanning around the crowd for a moment before glancing up at Nica. "Find me the shortest path out of here, we need to get Alex to the mansion asap."
Nica nodded, snapping to attention in spite of the extra energy thrumming through her. "There's a park a block or so that way," she said, pointing at a side street. "Do you need me to find Clarice? I don't think we can get him back any other way without another explosion."
Dark eyes flicked around the crowd as Scott held Alex against his side, feeling his brother shaking as the energy built up in his frame as he nodded, "Get her to meet us there, you're right, there's no way we'd get back any other way in time." Hopefully Alex could keep it together while they were teleporting, the idea of an explosion mid travel would be the icing on the cake. "Come on brother, you got this."
"Yup, I got this," Alex said through gritted teeth. He had this, he'd get back to the mansion, and everything would be fine.
Everything would be fine.
