xp_logs | Collateral Damage, part two

A news crew at Columbia that afternoon catches the battle, and goes live.

[Sound of screaming. Camera swings around to show burning cars in the parking lot, someone running on fire, then swings back to focus on a blond man in a suit crouched down beside the cameraman, staring out at the scene in horror.

BLOND MAN: Are.... are we on, Mike?

[More explosions, more screaming. The camera focuses briefly on a dredlocked man surrounded in flames walking along the edge of the parking lot. Cars explode as he passes, and the people running from him start bursting into flames.]

CAMERAMAN: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Shit!

[The camera moves in a different direction. Nathan is seen running across the parking lot, then being slammed to the ground by what looks like a giant golden claw. The camera skews to show a glowing, twenty-foot tall shape with two long, clawed arms advancing on him. There is a crackling noise and the camera swings in another direction in time to see crackling bolts of electricity slamming into one of the campus buildings, dropping running people where they stand.]

BLOND MAN: Oh God... if we're on, if you can hear me, this is Richard Willis with WNWY, we're at Columbia University, and there are mutants... some of them are fighting, but others are just... oh God, look at her! Mike, get the camera on her!

[The camera focuses on a girl in a Catholic school uniform, wandering through the parking lot and snapping her fingers at cars, which crumple inwards as if something has crushed them, then explode. There is the sound of gunshots from another direction.]

CAMERAMAN: Fuck, she's just a kid...

[More screaming.]

UNKNOWN VOICE OFF TO THE LEFT: What are you doing? Run!

CHILD'S VOICE: Moooommmy!

[The camera swings left, focusing on the source of the electrical bolts, a tall man with a shaved, tattooed skull. He is smiling, electricity arcing around him, into cars and people. The pyrokinetic is visible as well, and the two are very clearly killing as many bystanders as they can reach.]

BLOND MAN: This is unbelievable... this is just unbelievable... right here in the middle of New York... they're slaughtering people, just...

[A mangled car flies overhead, then abruptly reverses direction as if it's been deflected somehow, crashing back to the ground, landing atop another. The camera jolts, as if the cameraman jumped.]

CAMERAMAN: Rick!

BLOND MAN: Just keep shooting, Mike, whatever you do...

[The camera moves back to the center of the parking lot, where the mutant in the psionic exoskeleton is stumbling away from Nathan as the pavement beneath them explodes. A man in a baseball cap runs at Nathan, who looks at him, the air around him glowing almost white-gold. The light flashes out at the man, who turns into glass, shattering midstep.]

BLOND MAN: ... oh my God!

[The camera shows the mutant in the exoskeleton turning to retreat and another man with claws that glitter in the sun running at Nathan, screaming. Before it can show the results of that confrontation, the picture shakes wildly, as if someone's pulling at the cameraman's arm.]

BLOND MAN: Mike! Get up! We've got to go...

CAMERAMAN: But...

[The crackling noise is closer. More screaming.]

BLOND MAN: Come ON! We have to--

[There is a glimpse of a sheet of flame coming at the camera, then the picture goes to static.]