Location: The street outside George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium Skills: Mixed martial arts & Electrokinsis
Well, that sealed it. The group sitting behind Andy were mutants, which made the knots in her stomach lessen just a little bit. That didn't last long. When she exited the auditorium, there were cops, as the stabby guy went after the green-haired girl, one of the people who had been sitting behind her protected the girl.
A moment of debate happened in Andy's mind. On one side was Ash's voice telling her to help the mutants. The other was Jamie telling her to pick her battles. She decided she was joining this fight. Purifiers were hurting a girl, a mutant girl, and she hated Purifiers. The debate was over. Andy took a quick drink from her coffee and then set it down and put what was left of her muffin in her jacket pocket.
Andy dashed forward to be near the girl who was bleeding out. There wasn't anything she could do to stop that, but she could at least try to get the Purifiers off of her. She punched one, letting her electrical power course through her arm. The guy dropped to the ground. She didn't know if he was dead or just unconscious. Part of her didn't care.
She turned and punched the next Purifier. Her electricity didn't give its usual crackle. The Purifier backhanded Andy with their gun; she winced in pain. Andy was frustrated in herself and imagining Jamie's voice scolding her for missing the opening that she had given the Purifier. He also would have scolded her for going into a fight outnumbered. Andy didn't care. Jamie was dead and gone, and the voice was just her trying to rationalize it all. She punched the Purifier again. This time her electricity did its job, and the Purifier dropped to the ground, joining their buddy.
Andy didn't care if both of them were dead. "Next?" She asked, turning to another Purifier. Anger and electricity were coursing through her, and she was ready to fight as many of these as it took. What her end goal was she couldn't say. Maybe she was ready to join her adoptive parents, or maybe she would kill every last Purifier in the world.
Location: George Washington University Skills: Radio Wave Manipulation and Interpretation, Sound Wave Manipulation, Police Code Knowledge, Stealth, Running
Waverley’s worn tennis shoes tapped anxiously on the floor as she and her group watched the lecture progress. She would always be the first to admit that she wasn’t a genius, but that didn’t keep her from having plenty of opinions on the subjects discussed, primarily about the morality of them. She didn’t speak up however, knowing that it was best for her and the others to stay under the radar. Though if she was being honest, she probably wouldn’t have been able to work up the courage to go up and voice her opinions even if they weren’t there on business. When Echo spoke up, however, Waverley nodded her head in agreement, his words pushing her to speak her own mind.
”Right? I mean, would it cure gingers of being ginger? Because that’s a mutation too,” she blurted out. That thought was likely the least deep and poignant one that inhabited her head, so she wasn’t sure why it was the one that managed to slip out. She was about to try to say something that’d make her come across smarter as she watched Sapphire question the scientists, but before she could do so, a loud blaring alarm began overhead. Waverley jumped in her seat eyes scanning the area for the fire. When she found none, she realized it must’ve been elsewhere.
“The fire is...” Waverley began, pulling her attention-drawing purple hair out of the bun she’d kept it in for the sake of subtlety, letting it fall down her shoulders. She reached out her mind, feeling for any sort of references to a fire. But she found none. Her eyebrows furrowed. ”...nowhere? I mean, there’d usually be a 911 call or a frat boy texting about it to his bros, but I’m not getting anything about a fire.” She opened her eyes back up, seeing that a number of people, including her own and a girl who was literally glowing began to file outside. Waverley followed behind, right into a scene of absolute chaos.
She did her best to evaluate everything happening, even as it raged before her. She first focused her attention on the cops, reaching out her mind once again. The feeling of the police communications had become all too familiar to her during her time in the Underground, so mimicking it wasn’t all too difficult. Neither was deciding what to say.
”10-19, I repeat, 10-19! All units return to station! Specialists are on their way!” came the voice from their radios in the voice of a gruff man who’d likely be a chief character in a police show. Suddenly, as she finished with their radios, she heard a gunshot from somewhere other than the officers, and her head spun to see the scientist’s daughter, bleeding on the ground.
”NO!” she screamed out. But when the word passed her lips, she felt her mind grab hold of it, doing something that felt oddly familiar, though she wasn’t sure why. It sounded louder than it should and she could see a number of the purifiers wince in pain. And then there was the feeling. It didn’t feel like the electromagnetic waves she was used to. When she manipulated radio waves, it felt like she was blowing on a leaf, trying to get it into a teacup. This felt more akin to grabbing onto a kitchen knife and stabbing a racist forty-seven times in the chest. It was more satisfying, more palpable. It caused Waverley’s eyes to widen as she paused for a moment. As she tried to figure out what had just happened, she watched a kid, fists cackling with electricity, begin to smite the purifiers one by one, like a genderbent teenage Zeus. Hoping she was enough of a distraction to keep the purifiers off her ass, Waverley quickly sped over to the fallen blonde girl, hoping to be both fast and stealthy. But when she got there, as she bent over to pull the girl up, she saw a number of the purifiers looking at her with malicious intent. She slowly stood back upright, and put her hands up. ”Please don’t shoot!” she tried, eyebrows furrowed in worry.
Location: George Washington University Skills Cryokinesis, Ice Attacks, Hand to Hand Combat
Her hair started to shift to be completely white at this point and she just shook her head at Watts, "Sounds like you're getting slow in your old age old man," Sapphire said with a smirk, though it was clear that she was joking. When Leda popped up, she was more then a bit surprised to see that the girl had super powers apparently, and that she just took off into the air. "...This can't be good... Nope not at all..." she said, before her attention was drawn by Watts going on a bit of a rant before telling her that they needed to get out of there.
"Come along Mercury, we've got to see about saving the day, just like old times," Sapphire said with bit of a smile as she grabbed his arm and created an ice slide, dragging him along with her, even though she figured he'd want her to bring him along with her. "Hey listen, once this chaos is over I need to talk to you, okay?" she added as she directed the slide out the door and towards the carnage.
"If we get my kid out of here in one piece, I'll buy you a fucking steak dinner," Watts growled. "She went through terrigenesis and thinks she's invincible, the stubborn little shit."
"Wow Watts... So nice... But I am being serious about it, it's kind of important, but you know I'll do the best that I can to get Leda out of there right? This area is not the place for anyone with powers, you have not seen some of the things that go on around here, and like hell I'd let a kid deal with that!"
"Of course I know, damn it! If the serum wouldn't kill me, I'd be using it right now and ripping the hearts out of everyone here... Things are different in England, better there, but Leda wanted to come and I can't say no to my little princess."
"Yeah well... Things are a bit worse then you might think, try to be with the group I'm with where you see the worst of it every day... You remember when OMEN was still around? Try getting caught and end up stuck in one of their labs, things have majorly changed since I last saw you," she responded softly as the slide touched down on the ground near the chaos, and Sapphire instantly had a rush of cold air surround her as she charged right into the fray and managed to at least somewhat Popsicle the Purifiers surrounding Waverly and Leda, and pulled Leda to her feet, freeing her as she put a hand to her injury and managed to more or less stop the bleeding.
"Hey Leda, remember me? We've met once or twice, I'm a friend of your dad's, listen do you want to help out or what? I need you to get her," she said, nodding towards Waverly, "Out of here, and find your dad okay? That injury needs to be treated better then my sloppy patch up job, okay?'
"My dad doesn't have friends," Leda said quietly. Unlike her father, she had a British accent.
"He thinks that, but trust me, he does whether he wants to accept it or not is up to him."
Location: George Washington University Skills Technopathy, Sword Fighting
Zari was a bit surprised when her plan seemed to work or something, and the fact that someone had somehow gotten in front of her and protected her from Mr. Stabby Stabberson's attacks. "Who are you?" Zarina asked Veil, really confused as to who the hell she was. Her mind went to Mr. Jaws, as she picked up the head again, and then threw him at a nearby Purifier, missing, but with her abilities she managed to curve the robotic head around as it's mouth opened up, and managed to bite the guy in a not so nice spot, in the crotch. She then proceeded to charge at the guy and whirled her sword around, disarming the guy and knocking him down, before she simply stabbed the guy with the sword, twisted it, and pulled it out again, killing the Purifier as blood dripped from her sword.
"...The Valkyrie don't back down from fights... Especially not when others who are innocent could end up hurting if I didn't. Nope, I'm not going to back down, this place is really weird, and people were attacking me first, so who am I to back down from a challenge?" she mused, before she picked up the robotic head again. "What do you say Mr. Jaws? Should we teach these guys to not mess with us?" she said, before she threw the robotic head once more, and this time the head ripped open the throat of another Purifier.
Location: Mutant Friendly Clinic Skills N/A
"Woooooooow Rookie you are so nice to meeeeeeeeeee," Jack said, the way he sort of was sounding was a bit weird, since he was more then a little bit loopy because of his illness. He wasn't doing the best from the disease, but that didn't seem to matter, since he still was wanting to protect everyone that he could no matter what, even if he was coughing up blood or something like that. Nothing made much sense as a few people seemed interested in talking about Casper having to have something removed while at this clinic.
He glanced over at the doctor who came into the room and spoke to the group, and he let most of the others do the talking, since knowing his luck he'd puke up blood or something if he opened his mouth again, but he didn't care at this point. "Anything you can do would be appreciated, and helpful..." he managed to say her direction as the doctor left the room to try and get some meds or whatever it was to help them out. "Of course Casper can't have the good stuff... Not even sure I want any of that, but anything would be better then this crappy feeling..."
Max gave Casper a loopy grin as he tried to wriggle his eyes brows and him and James. He snickered a bit, catching himself and stopping before speaking to the pair. "James did look good in that Red Guard uniform. Maybe later I can conjure you up a new one with handcuffs." His words were slurred as his tongue danced lazily in his mouth, trying its hardest to form words. Max's eyes widened as Casper posed the new question about the toy soldier. Not bothering to speak up and answer him as the words got caught in his throat. His mood began to sour as Capser told him that he wouldnt speak to him beyond the grave, showing Max that he would be just as lonely in the afterlife as he was here. James was sweet, but it was hard to form a good friendship when the one he loves was so adverse to even looking at Max in the eyes.
He turned his gaze away from the pair, staring off at a wall while Sunshine spoke up. His ears began to drip slightly as her words reached them, the sadness overwhelming his anger at her vitriol. "You know Sunny, in another world...another time line...I think we could've all been friends." Maxs words still slurred as the ending half of the word elongated and trailed off into thought. He clicked his tongue a few times before coming back to the subject. "I've been wondering Sun sun. Did your parents leave you like mine did?...: Blood dripped down onto his hand, Max barely noticing as he lifted it slowly, the weight of the world trying to hold it down, and wiped a tear from his eye as he accidentally smeared blood across his cheek.
Echo
Location: George Washington University Skills:Sound Wave Manipulation, Rollerblading
Everyone had seemed to make their way out of thr auditorium. A cold harsh breeze blowing past him as Sapphire created an ice slide out of there. "Man that is cool." Echo ran over to grab a can of ginger ale and stuffed a few in his bag before going back towards the exit. The door was now propped open by the chunk of ice between its frame. There was only three ways Echo was going to be able to leave, either he'd have to crawl under the slide, go to another door, or the most likely option, skate down the slide. Echo slid his designer bag in front of him so that he could reach the top pocket and into the bottom of his bag, pulling out a pair of clip on skates before climbing on top of the ice slide. "Let's boogie boys." Echo skated down the ice slide, turn and kicking up flecks of ice as he followed its path until inevitably going to the exit and having the transition from ice to road knock him flat on his ass.
Luckily for him he wore a pair of black designer jeans in the event he had to get dirty. He stood up and brushed himself off, skating into the scene as he heard Waverly shouting NO towards the purifiers. As the soundwaves resonated in the air Echo decided to pick up on their strong vibrations and condense the ones hitting empty air into lasers. The waves shifted on the spectrum creating dazzling beams of light that not only knocked out the weapons of five purifiers, but also melted them to that they couldn't be used anymore. He made a mental note to see about training the purple haired mutant, they may have had more in common than the recent deaths of a loved one it seemed. Veil seemed to be doing her best at sheilding the team while Waverly and Sapphire helped to get this girl out of thr situation. He watched in horror as she murdered a few purifiers and saw their trained guns.
"Shine, step into the light Shine, so bright sometimes Shine, I'm not ever going back"
Echo began to sing as he used his own voice as a tool to fight back. As the sound of his voice reached the purifiers it would once again condense and create dazzling beams to disarm another five brutes. He gave Waverly and Veil a wink as his finger remained pressed to his right ear and his singing continued.
“No, no puppies. Only medicine to make you feel better.” James rubbed Luna’s shoulder comfortingly. James watched as even the overwhelming threat of death failed to curb the inevitable awkwardness of people whose personalities clashed surfaced. Amazing truly. James couldn’t curb the sigh as Sunshine took her opportunity to verbally attack anyone who showed even the slightest opening. And of course, Casper had his priorities in order which made James laugh. “Sure, we can. As soon as you admit it’s more than a cold, you rest properly, and recover, sweetheart. It’ll be a present.”
James actually laughed out loud when Doctor Chan called Casper out on his previous shenanigans. It reminded James of the mermaid story from their first date and he couldn’t keep the fond smile off his face. No one could say being with Casper was dull. James knew not to expect anything from the clinic other than what the Doctor already said but a pang of disappointment ran through him anyways. The other team was in charge of hunting down someone who could help them with a cure; James prayed they didn’t run into any problems along the way. He couldn’t help but feel paranoid. With the rise of violence against their community and only two healthy members, they wouldn’t be able to help themselves much less the others. He wished Veil had left them with someone else as well because as great a defense Sunshine was, he was sharply aware of how vulnerable they were. Point in case, the puddle of vomit from Magick.
James leveled a withering glare in Max’s direction before he just sighed again and the tiredness crept back in. “Let’s not, Max.” James said tightly, sharper than he intended. James needed a roll of duct tape for him. James liked Max, he really did, but his propensity to foot in the mouth comments quadrupled while he was out of his mind sick. James could see this going poorly very quickly and he shot Sunshine an imploring look for her just to ignore Max. The sooner they were out of this and back to the Underground, the better. They didn’t need to deal with a dead body too. James had to wonder if this is what herding children was like and if so, why the hell did anyone have any?
Callie leaned forward slightly holding her head as her head felt really dizzy as the others continued to speak, and groaned a little bit louder as she looked at everyone. Right now she was really irritable as well, her stomach started to feel a lot worse she brought her knees up to her chest in an attempt to stop the stomach pains feeling like she could vomit at any moment. She looked at the others, hearing Sunshine's comment towards Max, and shook her head slightly it really wasn't a smart thing right now to piss off anyone really. "Everyone stop pissing each other off, or i'll make you all calm down." Callie said a little bit more than annoyed as she rested her head up against the wall.
Then Doctor Chan coming into the room, she wasn't sure how much she was willing to give them they weren't really swimming with money either. "Thank you Doctor." Callie said as she turned away seeing Magik vomiting onto the ground, which made her stomach churn even more she closed her eyes and swallowed a bit. She just hoped that Dr. Chan would be able to get the meds that they needed and then just leave she didn't like staying here for to long.
Kristina Smith
Location: George Washington University, Outside Lisner Auditorium Skills: Laser Vision
Kristina quickly made her way out of the Auditorium as soon as she did everything started to go into pure chaos, as both police and Purifiers started to show up. And then the gun fire suddenly started as well, Kris started to panic slightly she really wanted to go back to her dorm where it was safer for her there. Seeing the mutants starting to attack the Purifers as well in self defense, one of them ended up getting shot the rainbow girl fell down to the ground. And Purifers started to zip tie her, but was saved by some of the mutants that were in the auditorium apparently.
She wasn't going to be defenseless in the crossfire, as she focused on the closest Purifier only for her hair to suddenly get in her way, and suddenly she started to smell something burning and quickly closed her eyes and started to pat down the little bits of fire as best she could. Kristina quickly looked around for someplace that would protect her and went to hide behind a nearby car.
Life went on in a blur as the Hellfire Club moved on. It had been a pity that Leighton had to be put down but that was what one often did with disobedient pets who gave in to their primal desires. She did not weep, but she did feel some pain. Jinx's death was almost on par. The boy was a goof, an idiot, and often caused trouble for himself more than others, but he had been a member of their team regardless. Both of these deaths spurred her on, even more, to ensure she took control of the Hellfire Club.
And then she had gotten ill. The M-Pox, aptly name she thought, had hit her and hit her hard. She had done all she could to minimize the symptoms, but she still felt weak. That didn't stop her from showing up, dressed in all black, to the meeting. This device they were charged with was interesting and could be useful. They had the right idea. It would allow leverage to many dealings. Genosha was one thing, but Ana could think of the possibilities.
What unnerved her the most was that Polaris was leading the team. She was the White Queen, after all. That held some power. Even though Reeva was next on her target list, Magneto was proving to be a nuisance. She would have to deal with him too, which also meant his children, provided they were not all right with her taking him out or down.
"Ready when you are." She stood up, albeit slowly, and made her way over to where Pyro waited. She looked at Polaris, allowing the girl to lead them onward in their mission. She did so with disdain.
Location: Mutant Friendly Clinic -- Washington D.C. Skills:
Luna started to pout when James said they would not be getting a puppy today, even though she had always wanted one. Luna was about to protest when she got a wave of lightheadedness and the words she was about to say seemed to vanish as her head cleared momentarily. She blinked at the bright clinic lights, registering where they were now before the wave of dizziness hit her. She clutched onto James for a moment, the world coming in and out of focus. Her stomach clenched as she felt an almost motion sickness from her eyes trying to focus and she looked wildly around for a trash can or something to vomit into. She spotted one near a corner and dashed for it before emptying what little contents she had in her stomach. It burned coming out but her stomach kept convulsing even after there was nothing left. Luna slid to the floor after dry heaving more. She shut her eyes and tilted her head back against the wall. ”America’s not as fun as I last remembered,” she slurred, taking a deep breath after. Her stomach continued to roll a bit but that was at least easing. The heaviness in her chest though was at least manageable. She would have to take more breaths in-between long stretches of speaking. Luna cracked an eye open, tilting her head to look around the clinic. She then glanced around at her companions, wondering how many were infected. She had forgotten when she was in her state of looniness and everything was just starting to come back to her again.
Cayden Proudstar - Moonwalker
Location: George Washington University: Lisner Auditorium---> The Street -- Washington D.C. Skills: Dreamwalking - Induce Sleep
Cayden went out after Veil, following her out into the fray and paused a moment to get his bearings. There was chaos everywhere. Purifiers, cops, students running around and of course mutants. Cayden quickly tied his hair up and smirked when Havok mocked Veil before joining into the fray. He loved fighting with these people. They all took their tasks seriously but they all had good chemistry and re-pore. Cayden sized up some of the Purifiers wreaking havoc and tried a new skill he had been developing. He focused on two at a time, entering a portion of their minds and induced sleep upon them. Cayden managed to knock out seven unarmed Purifiers and four armed ones. They simply dropped to the ground in the middle of their battle. They weren’t dead but in a deep state of REM sleep. Cayden smiled triumphantly and looked around to see who else he could tackle. He saw a woman near Veil wielding a sword and widened his eyes. Now that was a neat skill you didn’t see everyday. He jogged over to them, ready to jump onto their team should they need the assistance. ”Now that’s something you don’t see everyday,” he noted.
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
Shaw Industries Building: Garage -
There was a nondescript black car waiting for them in the garage, complete with a driver. The driver's head was covered in eyeballs, his chest in noses, and there were mouthes on his feet. He was the sort of mutant that would fall in with the Morlocks, unable to live in normal society. Yet his worth to the Hellfire Club was readily apparent - he had a hundred hands. He was quite literally a handy man.
"Do you think Jinx would have liked this?" Pyro asked morosely, popping his bubblegum in the back seat of the car. Polaris sat down next to him, leaving the shotgun seat available for Ana next to the driver.
Polaris ignored Pyro's plight. She wasn't stupid and it was apparent that Ana wasn't thrilled she was leading this little job. "If you have a problem with me, go ahead. But you and I both know that you only received the title White Queen and not the position," Polaris said bluntly. "Franko, we need to go to George Washington University - quickly."
The driver nodded, the car pulling out of the garage and onto the street once everyone was seated and buckled.
"No killing anyone, that's rule one. We're going to find the scientists and extract them. Knock them unconscious if we have to. If we run into anyone, knock them out. We have to be clean here. Before we leave, we'll put some sort of tag on the building for the Brotherhood or maybe the Mutant Liberation Front, so that way the humans have a boogeyman."
Pyro pouted. "No killing? Laaaaame."
Veil
Location: George Washington University: the Street Skills: Invisible Energy Manipulation
Feedback's ruse worked - the officers got back into their cars and drove off, reassured that specialists would be coming to handle the ruckus. Most of the bystanders had fled the area by now, leaving largely just the Mutant Underground and the Purifiers out to play. Some of the bystanders though were standing in the doorways of various establishments on the streets, filming what was going on - no doubt this would all go viral later that day. One girl with a puff of thick hair made an X with her fingers, before reaching down and grabbing a brick and throwing it at one of the Purifiers.
"I'm fine, luv, really," Leda protested to Sapphire. She had been dazed at first, but she was quickly coming into a second wind, likely fueled by pure adrenaline as she had been shot. Her skin started to glow every color of the rainbow and then some as Leda broke the zip ties that had been restraining her hands. "But I'll get your friend out of here," she then conceded. Secretly, Leda was glad that Sapphire was there. She had always had a crush on Sapphire as a kid - she was, in fact, the reason Leda knew that she was fabulously queer. Leda put her arms around Waverley and tried to fly up into the sky, but it put too much strain on her injury.
"Actually... Can you walk, luv?" she asked Feedback. The three purifiers near them were frozen, but there were still plenty of mutant haters in the area out for blood. Stabberson was long gone now. Bullets went flying towards them and Leda yelped, reflexively sending out a blast of rainbow light that stopped the bullets before it would have hit the pair.
The three living disarmed purifiers ganged up on Sapphire, swinging punches and missing. "You mutie scum, why don't you go back where you came from?!?!?!" One of them got lucky, sucker punching Sapphire in the gut - that was definitely going to bruise. However, her assailant fell to the ground, a bullet hole in the back of his head.
"She's from Hawaii," Watts growled at the dead man, a gun in his hand. He rushed over to his daughter, freaked out and relieved at the same time. "Damn it Leda you aren't ready for this! Come on, we need to get to safety NOW!" The other two Purifiers near Sapphire fell to the ground as well, green arrows in their necks.
A Purifier shot at Echo and missed, the bullet going wide over his head. Cayden wasn't nearly as lucky. The Purifiers saw that he had sent a majority of their force to sleep and they fired on him, hitting him in the throat. It was a miracle that he was still alive, but he wouldn't be able to talk. And if no one gave him medical attention and fast, he'd bleed out before they could reach the Mutant Underground. A Purifier grabbed Kristina by the hair and slammed her down into the concrete. "Fucking mutie!" they growled at her, before kicking her repeatedly in the stomach. Havok took another bullet to the arm as he got a shot off, taking out two Purifiers.
Some more Purifiers had arrived on the scene. There were eight left alive and fighting - all of them armed.
"I'm Veil, I'm with the Mutant Underground - I'm here to help," Veil informed the green haired girl quickly. The display of violence against the Purifiers didn't surprise her, a lot of mutants lately had taken to direct confrontation and attacks as mutant-human tensions worsened. It didn't help that the X-Men were too busy to do much to help - but then again, they always were. No, what surprised her was the girl going on about the Valkyries. She had no idea what those were. Maybe they were some sort of rogue mutant group?
There were three Purifiers right in front of Veil and Zarina and they opened fire, one of them throwing a molotov cocktail. Veil threw up a massive bubble barrier around them, her force field keeping her and the girl from harm. A few years ago, Veil might have pointed out to the Purifiers that Zarina was just a kid. But she knew that appealing to compassion and empathy with these people was futile. She tried throwing a force field at them to knock them to the ground, but it was weak and the Purifiers remained standing.
A Purifier jumped on Andy, knocking her to the ground as he began to viciously beat on her head with brass knuckles.
Brief recap on the Purifiers there: -The one that shot Echo -The two that attacked Cayden -The one that grabbed Kris -The three in front of Veil and Zarina -The one attacking Andy So these are the eight left!
"It is just a cold! I am completely fine! Headaches are normal for colds. And so is feeling tired. I'm pretty sure feeling tired impacts millions of Americans each day... Hey, Jackie, if you aren't going to use your good stuff, I can take it off your hands," Casper offered, making puppy dog eyes at his brother. It wasn't like Jack could appreciate a good opioid anyways - his brother he was fairly certain had never gotten high before in his life. He could make do with some of the less pure stuff sold on the streets, cut with whatever was on hand - Casper, though, was a narcotics connoisseur. He could enjoy the pure, uncut drugs provided by Doctor Chan unlike anyone else in the room.
"Is it just me or has Max or Warlock or whoever gotten creepier? I swear, it's like he wants to be a part of you and James' sex life..." Ben commented, shaking his head slightly. Casper turned the page of the magazine again for Ben and the ghost shut up, completely fixated on the words on the page.
"You're right Ben, I think Max is trying to make my sex life with James into a triangle," Casper agreed. Of course, he was still a bit tempted to take Max up on the offer of a uniform with handcuffs. As long as he didn't have to look Max in the eyes or be around him too long, he could handle getting some supplies from him. Their other option was going to GoodWill and the last time Casper had gotten a costume there, he ended up with a rash down there that smelled like pasta sauce and burned for weeks.
Sunshine turned her head, looking at Max. Her eyes narrowed. She imagined taking an arrow from her quiver and throwing it into Max's left eye, twisting it around, and pulling it back out. She was pretty sure that human eyeballs were edible - they probably had a good source of protein in them. Maybe they could be grilled or something. Or smoked. "The only way I would be friends with you, Max, would be if Apollo came down from the heavens and told me I had to or I'd have to fuck Zeus in front of Hera. And even then, it'd be a hard choice," Sunshine told Max bluntly, venom in her words. "And my parents are none of your business, got it, Nazi Boy?"
Her mother had kicked her out when her mutant powers manifested - Sunshine had just been a preschooler. Her father had been dragged through time back to September 2020 before she had even been born. It was a complicated story and Sunshine didn't feel she needed to explain it to Max. She didn't care if the others at the Mutant Underground knew, as they were her family. She glanced at James and shrugged slightly. She hadn't really tried to ignore Max and let things go - but she didn't care. Max was like M-Pox, something that no one wanted around but seemed determined to stay and kill as many people she cared about as possible.
"Are you going to make them calm down?" Magik asked Spark Plug bluntly, inviting her to put her money where her mouth was. She wanted to enjoy Sunshine and Max's fighting, but her head was pounding and she felt incredibly drained. Magik felt like she had cotton balls stuck in her ears and she reached up to feel around, to see if maybe some hair had gotten there, and she pulled her hand away after touching something wet and sticky. Her hands were covered in blood. "Huzzah. Now I can rule Russia..." she mumbled. She held up her hand, showing it to James. "It is a sign. I must kill Catherine the Great."
The door opened and Doctor Chan came back inside. James struck her as the most mature and responsible one in the group, so she handed him a bag filled with medicine. "The pills are the antiemetics, for the vomiting and nausea. They can have one every twelve hours. The tubes are the topical steroid, apply to whatever area looks weird three times each day. And the vial is morphine. Casper can't have any. They can have 10 miligrams at a time, every four hours as needed. I put a shit ton of needles in the bag, don't reuse them, if you need more come back here."
Sunshine frowned, titling her head. She heard a door slam open and someone scream at the front of the clinic. She walked forward and opened the door, peering out into the hallway just in time to see some sort of gas or smoke enveloping the hallway. A flaming bottle of vodka then shot through the mist and hit the ground ten feet in front of her, exploding violently.
"Catherine is here!" Magik exclaimed, pulling her Soulsword. Its light looked dim.
"Purifiers," Sunshine bet. Her eyes were starting to sting - in fact, everyone's eyes would feel like they had just dipped them in hot sauce. Sunshine's eyes started to well up with tears, but the pain just got worse, to the extent where she wanted to slam her head up against a wall just to get it to start.
"Tear gas, shit!" Doctor Chan identified.
"Owww!!!" Casper exclaimed, rubbing his eyes with his hands vigorously. "It's like being fucked in the eyes by the Taco Bell chihuahua!"
Location: The street outside George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium Skills: Boxing & Electrokinsis
Andy hated being touched. It didn't help when the person doing the touching was a Purifier. She hated anyone who aligned themselves as such. He was on top of her punching her. That was bad for him. She let her electricity zap him, and he stopped moving. Andy had nightmares of killing people. She suspected today would be added to the litany of dreams, but for the first time, it felt like she had a purpose. Purifiers got to choose to be like this. They decided to hurt and kill people who had been doing nothing. It was time to stand up and fight back.
Andy looked around, assessing the current chaos around her. The girl with green hair had a sword, which was cool. There were seven of the purifiers left, and the cops were gone. That was good. Screw the police; they tended to take kids and put them back into places she hated being, like foster homes or special schools. And those were the nice ones. At least this meant she could focus on the Purifiers.
One of the mutants that had been sitting behind her had been shot in the throat. Andy couldn't help him. She had no first aid ability or way to fix it. Wishing didn't change anything, it wouldn't help the guy, but the next best thing would be taking out the guys who hurt him. Andy moved and punched one of the Purifiers, electricity crackling as she did. He dropped too. That was now four Purifier's she had taken down. They were dead, or their brains were rewired, and they would have a massive headache for the next week.
Andy turned and focused on the other guy. She swung a left hook, but it missed. Surprised, and a little miffed, Andy swung again, this time going for a right uppercut. He stepped back, and she missed again. "My father would have called you talented. I call you a dick. You choose to hurt people. You choose to be a dick." She, of course, didn't mean her biological father, she didn't remember him if she had ever met the man. She meant Jamie, sweet kind Jamie, who had taken in a street kid so she didn't freeze to death in the alley behind his shop.
James gave Casper a look, one suggesting the matter wasn’t up for debate no matter how cute he was, and gave the doctor his full attention. He would have some words with Sunshine later, even though they probably wouldn’t help anything. “Thank you so much. It means a lot to us.” James thanked her with a relieved sigh. It may not be a cure but if it would help them feel even a little better, he’d take it. The bonus of not having to clean up blood laced vomit every time one of them upchucked their guts was a major plus too but he wouldn’t admit that out loud. He made sure to repeat the instructions to himself a few times so he didn't mess them up, which must have been why he missed Sunshine going to open the door when they heard the scream.
And he immediately yanked her back, hissing through the pain. It really was like someone poured hot sauce in his eyes and then ground some dried chilies in there for good fucking measure! He’d been electrocuted before but fuck, at least as soon as he let go of the wire, it just tingled for a while after but this wouldn’t st―
Relief bloomed in his eyes and mouth and nose almost immediately. The building irritation on his exposed skin suddenly vanished, replaced by a flash of coolness. James blinked as the instinct to rub his eyes died away with the pain and he looked around. He felt… damp and gross. Like the humidity had been turned up to 110% and he’d just finished a workout. He looked down at his hands and gaped at the sheen across his skin. “What the fuck?” James swore. Nothing like this had happened before. Maybe he did have m-pox and the symptoms were just showing up? He didn’t know but it would have to be something they dealt with later. James pulled Sunshine away from the door and slammed it shut again.
“Okay, everyone out the emergency exit! Don’t rub your eyes Casper! You’ll just make it worse!” James said, running to the door and throwing it open. James shoved the medicine in his pocket so he didn't accidently leave it behind. “Once we get out of here, we’ll find somewhere to wash this shit off. Hopefully, we can get to the car.” He started guiding everyone out, starting with the loopiest of them. Hopefully, the rest would follow instructions.
Max continued to sit and wait for the doctor in his chair. His symptoms seeming to get better in some regards while new ones began to present themselves. The fog in his mind was clearing and he was beginning to recall what he had just said to both Sunshine and Casper. It was as if he was trapped in a bad dream, lucid enough to be aware but still incapable of doing anything about it. This was his sleep paralysis demon come to life. Casper made a comment on how Max must be trying to get into a threesome. Maybe it was the anxiety, or the awkwardness, or perhaps it was the M-Pox, but his veins began to bulge as his stomach recoiled and tightened. He weakly stood up and made it halfway to Glimpses trash can as he threw up.
The good news was it was only vomit, no blood. The bad news was he was in a nightmare. Max wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his coat, as he spoke out weakly towards Casper. "Thats a bit of a jump...I...I haven't even had a first kiss..." He propped himself against the wall, allowing his legs to falter and have him slide down onto the ground as he clutched onto his stomach. He wanted to say more to Casper but couldn't find the words. How does someone day they want to be helpful when it can sound so bad? He turned away from the mutant medium and ignored what Sunshine had said. She was right, theyd never be friends and only a dammed disease would cloud his mind enough to allow such a thought. Though her outright avoidance meant he'd struck a cord, and most likely she was abandoned much like he was.
In the blink of an eye shit hit thr fan. There was tear gas pouring into the room and ofcourse sunshine was at the forefront of it. Max's eyes began to burn more than they ever did at his family's Indian Curry nights. He turned to face the door and kept his bloodshot eyes latched and focused. A pink industrial fan appeared before it, jacks face lining the blades before it spun and blew the gas away from the room. James told them all to leave and Max knew that might prove difficult for some especially with the tear gas in their eyes. If milk helped with curry it was no reason it shouldn't work on eyes...right? He conjured a gallon of milk, full glad the haze of his mind had lifted, and poured a bit onto his eyes, capping back shut. Max moved as fast as he could towards Jack, offering him the milk for his eyes. "Let me help you out of here, I feel a bit better, must be adrenaline."
Echo
Location: George Washington University Skills: Rollerblading Combat, Hand to Hand Combat, SoundnWave Manipulation
Everything seemed to be happening so fast. Echo watched as three cowards teamed up to take on a single woman, Sapphire. Only one of which was even able to land a hit. His blood boiled and he wanted to make them pay. It was this hatred, this bigotry that caused the death of his love and he wasn't about to let it happen again. As soon as his skate lifted of the ground a bullet was shot towards his head. Echo allowed the blades to move as he performed a small split allowing the bullet to pass over him before he popped back up. Then a second shot was heard as he watched Cayden block it with his throat. Echo skated right towards him, spinning ok his heels and stopping as he looked at the wound. He was no doctor but he could tell that needed immediate attention and they had to wrap this up fast. He quickly brought out Barry, who took notice of the blood on Caydens neck and the wound left there. Barry placed one hand on the nape of Caydens neck and another over the wound, applying pressure to it in an attempt to help stop the bleeding until Sapphire or James could look at it.
Echo pressed forward, skating past Sapphire "Sapphire, Moonwalker needs immediate medical attention. Go help him and I'll deal with these crétins." He sped off towards the one who'd shot Cayden, and was currently occupied with Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. Instead of grinding to a halt, Echo used the moment to spin on one leg while the other attempted to kick the purifier, feigning the kick into a punch that was expertly dodged by the man. Echo kept moving, making himself a mobile target and harder to hit. His eyes glancing back at Cayden and knowing they were on borrowed time. "Its youre lucky day. You get to share in the spotlight." Echo caught his voice and shifted it into a beam of light, curving it so that it would hit both purifiers before him. The seemingly MMA adept man dodged the attack as the light continued and hit the other armed man knocking him unconscious.
Location: George Washington University Skills Cryokinesis, Perception, Medical Knowledge
She had been expecting retaliation of some sort from the Purifiers around her, however them surrounding her, ganging up on her, and then trying to punch her was beyond annoying. Sapphire coughed a lot when one of the guys managed to sock her in the stomach as they were yelling at her to go back to where she came from. Then an unexpected thing happened and the guy who socked her ended up with a bullet in the head and she looked over to see Watts holding a gun and making a remark about where she actually is from. "Gonna be honest a bit surprised that you remembered that and thought it was relevant enough knowledge to remember." she said to him, before whirling around to deal with the other two, but they dropped to the ground with green arrows in their necks. Going over and pulling one out of the Purifier's neck, a thought occurred to her that she'd seen arrows like this before, and she instantly glanced around to see if she could spy who had fired it off. Her eyes fell onto the roof of the auditorium, as she caught the glimpse of someone in a green hood up there. Sapphire couldn't help but smile slightly as she twirled the arrow a bit in her hand, "...Thank you Arthur," she muttered under her breath.
"Thanks for that Watts," she added towards him with a smile as he addressed Leda, "Yeah Leda, you need to get out of here, before things get a whole lot worse," she added, before seeing Cayden get shot in the neck and that definitely was not a good thing. She rolled her eyes Echo's direction, "You are not the damn boss of me so quit acting like I'm stupid!" she snapped slightly at him, before she raced over to look at Cayden's injury. Things weren't looking good, especially since no one really carried medical supplies around to treat injuries like this, so the best she figured that she could do was freeze the injury to stop the bleeding.
Placing her hand on the injury, frost emanated from her hand as she tried to stop the bleeding, but unfortunately for her, things weren't going to go well for her at all. Instead of just freezing the injury, she ended up freezing his entire neck. "Shit shit shit!" she said, her eyes going wide. "Okay, don't move, okay? Just... Just don't move at all!" Sapphire said, shaking her head somewhat, she was internally panicking, as one false move and Cayden's neck could shatter, and then he'd be dead.
Location: George Washington University Skills Technopathy, Sword Fighting
"Dette blir latterlig," she muttered, glancing around her. There was a lot of chaos going on around her, and she wasn't quite sure whether or not it was a good thing that there seemed to be a lot of people fighting, as Veil introduced herself to Zari, she figured she might as well introduce herself to Veil. "Oh, uh, nice to meet you, my name is Zari! I'm a Valkyrie! Or well, a Valkyrie in Training! Nice to meet you!" she said to Veil with a bit of a wave as she called Mr. Jaws back to her and she instantly threw the robot head towards the person that Echo and Andy were fighting.
The head headbutted the Purifier (named Sam) and she charged at him, "Du vil snart hilse på portene til Helheim i døden!" she yelled out at him before she ran up and slashed at him with her sword, only for him to dodge out of the way. Her second attack wasn't much better, as it only caused a small scratch of sorts on him. It was her last attack that finally did some big damaged as she whirled around and managed to chop the guy's arm off. Looking at the blood and the lost limb a bit curiously, she couldn't help but say, "Ohhhhhhhhhh, so that's what it looks like when someone loses a limb, cool."
Location: Mutant Friendly Clinic Skills N/A
Jack wasn't really paying much attention to what was going on around him, until he went a bit rigid when Max asked Sunshine if her parents had left her. That was a bit of a touchy subject, especially in his mind considering it wasn't his fault, but he still blamed himself for everything that happened. "Max, going to be blunt, maybe you don't ask people about things that they probably wouldn't tell you if you were friiiiiiieeeeeeeeends," he said towards him with a bit of an eye roll, but he started coughing a bit, trying desperately hard to prevent himself from vomiting at the moment.
Then of course came the whole thing where they got hit with tear gas all of a sudden, and he instantly shut his eyes from the burning sensation that instantly shot through his face. "Damn it!" he managed to say, before he heard Max offering something to him to help a little bit with the pain, and he opened his eyes a little bit to see that Max had offered him milk or something. "Why milk? What are there cookies somewhere or something too?" he said, his brain was still muddled and he wasn't feeling the best, "But uhhhhhhhh, I could probably use a little help or somethiiiiiiing," he said as he stood up somewhat, his eyes still burning as his brain didn't seem to process that the milk was supposed to help and he stumbled a little bit from it.
Callie leaned forward, her stomach feeling horrible now as she started to vomit not really caring if she had gotten it all over her shoes or on the floor for that matter. She could taste the irony taste in her mouth as she looked down seeing there was blood now on the ground, her ears started to tickle slightly as she started to pick at her ear seeing that there was some blood. Thinking that it was some kind of ketchup she licked it. "Ewww that's not ketchup.." Callie said as she looked at the others, the room was spinning to her ignoring what Magik had said as Callie heard a loud bang and a scream.
Callie's eyes started to water and she immediately started to rub them, but that didn't help at all as she groaned her vision now blurry from them watering, she squinted her eyes slightly to see Max creating a fan seeing Jack's face on the blades. Callie started to giggle a little bit and coughed. "Maaaaxi likes Jacky waaaaaay to much." Callie said with a slight laugh as she stumbled up to her feet and tried to make her way towards the exit seeing the jug of milk Max had made and instantly thought it was something else. "Is that a jug of jizz or something Maxi made?" Callie asked as she leaned herself up against James,
Kristina Smith
Location: George Washington University, Outside Lisner Auditorium Skills: Laser Vision
Kristina yelped loudly as a Purifier suddenly grabbed her by the hair and slammed her onto the ground, feeling the rough concrete of the ground being pressed against her face. Kris curled up trying her best to protect herself from the kicks of the Purifier attacking her, knowing that she'd probably end up with a lot of bruising or something. She was tempted to try and call her sister, but it was hard to get in contact with her a lot of the time. After the third or fourth kick Kristina had enough as she opened her eyes and waited for the right moment.
Kris then focused her vision on the Purifier's knees and fried them off hearing the man howling in pain Kris stumbled back up to her feet and started to kick him a few times as well to return the favor and spat on the Purifier's face. Everywhere was complete chaos, ever since everything had happened she didn't expect there to be any kind of violence on campus.
Location: George Washington University Skills: Radio Wave Manipulation and Interpretation, Perception, Stick Combat
Waverley opened her mouth to respond with a word of acknowledgement to the command that Sapphire gave her to get the other Watts girl to safety, but she stopped herself when she came to the realization that Sapphire was telling Leda to get her out of the fight. Waverley's forehead wrinkled in uncertainty. The confusion on her face was obvious enough to cover up the undertones of annoyance, but that didn't mean they weren't still there. She'd just asked an an injured civilian to escort a teammate away. Waverley wasn't exactly the best fighter in the Underground, especially since she'd left her rebar at home under the assumption that this would be a non-combative mission, but even so, she didn't like the fact that Sapphire asked generally wasn't the biggest fan of confrontation, especially with one so intimidating as Sapphire, so it was up in the air whether or not she'd mention her irritation once they were safe. But she was definitely not going to do it in the middle of all the chaos that raged around them.
Waverley tensed up when she felt the injured girl wrap her arms around her, and she felt blood pump to her face. Since joining the Underground, she'd learned a lot; a lot about combat, her powers, and living in the shadows of society. But when it came to being held by a pretty blonde stranger, she was still very much a socially awkward teenager. At first, she'd assumed it was because the girl needed help walking, but realized that wasn't the case when Leda asked her if she could walk. Waverley gave a quick nod.
"I should be asking you that. I'm not the one with a bullet in my si-" she said, before flinching as bullets whizzed at them. She raised her hand, as if it would somehow help protect the two of them, despite the fact that it likely wouldn't. Luckily, the other girl sent out a defensive rainbow ray. That was a cool power. It kind of reminded her of Echo's rave manipulation power. Without further ado, she grabbed onto the girl's shoulder in an effort to help her walk. It didn't much matter whether or not she actually needed help walking, as Waverley was desperate to prove that she wasn't useless. As she walked, she reached out her mind, sending out an emergency transmission calling for a number of ambulances. She was sure that more than one would be needed. Once she was sure she'd gotten one, she began speaking again. "An ambulance is on its way. I - Shit do you have health insurance? Ambulances are fucking expensive in the US. I can get you an Uber if you don't wanna spend a shit ton of money on a ride in a wee-yoo wagon." She blurted out the words, quick and rushed. She was always a bit panicked when they were caught in a fight, but she was sure that was normal. As she helped Leda, she caught sight of Cayden lying on the ground, Sapphire sitting over him. Her eyes somehow went wider than they already were.
"Shit, Cayden!" she exclaimed, him and Sapphire stealing her attention for a few moments. Her mind went into overdrive, scanning her surroundings for some sort of first-aid kit. Of course she didn't find any, given that they were outside, and she mentally berated herself for even thinking there might be. Her eyes turned to the buildings, where she was originally planning on going. Inside was probably the safest place for Leda, and was probably her best bet to find a first-aid kit. But she couldn't see a way through the fight. So it seemed like the only course of action was to stand ground until an opening appeared. So, as soon as she made sure that Leda wouldn't collapse once she let go of her, Waverley took a stance in front of her, Sapphire, and Moonwalker.
"Hey, Doc! I need you to look for an opening, and get your girl inside. While you're in there, see if you can find a first-aid kit." she called out to Watts, before scanning the battlefield for anyone looking like they were about to pounce on Cayden and Sapphire. She saw two such purifiers, and quickly scanned the ground for something she could use to fight. Not far away, there sat a Hello Kitty bat. She would've assumed it was the young green-haired girl's, had she not just seen her using an actual sword to cut a guy's arm off. Whoever's it was, she hoped they were okay. Scooping it up from the ground, she quickly turned it on the two purifiers, swinging at them threateningly a few times, before striking one so hard in the crotch that he seemed to go unconscious. She pointed it at the remaining one. "If you ever want to have to have kids, you better back the fuck off."
Location: Mutant Friendly Clinic -- Washington D.C. Skills:
Sitting on the floor, Luna actually seemed to start getting better. The nausea eased and the bleeding stopped. She glanced at her hands and arms, seeing the blochiness come back and realized that her symptoms had progressed back to the beginning but who knew how long that would last for. Especially with Casper and Max going back and forth about their brand of kink. She would think Casper to be suffering from looniness but it was simply Casper, Max on the other hand, Luna was having a hard time adjusting with him being back after everything. Luna looked over, hearing Sunshine open the door and watched as she was yanked back and the panic increased. Someone had broken into the clinic and was now throwing tear gas and who knows what else into the building. Luna managed to push herself up, only suffering a minor headache at the moment and looked at Spark Plug when she started to go off on Max, not sounding like herself. She pushed through the fatigue, something she had been feeling for days and weeks before M-Pox even hit her and grabbed Callie so James didn’t have to haul her around as well as the meds. ”Come along superstar,” she said and supported Callie out towards the emergency exit of the building. She looked at James as they started to make their escape. ”Can you drive?” Luna could try but as she was one of the worst ones on arrival, she wasn’t sure if she would be the most stable option but it seemed everyone’s symptoms were changing rapidly.
Cayden Proudstar - Moonwalker
Location: George Washington University: The Street -- Washington D.C. Skills:
Cayden was still smiles despite the chaos going on around him. There was a part of him that enjoyed the fighting and the exhilarating feeling, even though there was so much hate and pain from the Purifiers and those attacking him and the other mutants. The girl with the sword was a pretty badass fighter and Veil was doing her thing with grace and ease. He turned his head when he heard the gunshot go off, watching Echo miss it before another one went off and he felt the hit. Everything seemed to slow down as Cayden slowly turned his head and then felt the warmth sliding down the side of his neck and started soaking into his shirt. He opened his mouth and closed it repeatedly, trying to speak but the only thing that came out was blood dribbling down the side of his mouth. He lifted his hand to the wound in the side of his neck and pushed with as much pressure as he could but he wasn’t sure it was enough. He was in quite a bit of shock as he dropped to his knees, watching Sapphire running over to him. His vision faded for a moment and a memory popped into his head. His grandmother was standing on the deck, candles burned all around them and the night sky was clear, showcasing a million stars that Cayden tried to look at and give name to them all. ”Normally my little Tł'é'gona'áí, we would sit under the great mountain and have his shadow and those of the ancestors tell their story but we will stay here tonight, with the great mountain in the distance,” his grandmother said. His grandmother had always had a way with words and as an elder of their tribe and a healer, it was her duty to pass on knowledge. She used herbs to scent the air and painted the night sky with fire from a smoldering stick, always telling the story of the mountain and their people before she taught him more names of the stars and the mountain dance. As the sole caregiver for Cayden, it was her duty to teach him everything he would need to know to become a man and to become a healer in his own way. Cayden’s eyes fluttered as he felt an intense cold and then panicked words. He opened his eyes to feel pressure from someone else's hands and Sapphire was staring down at him, telling him not to move. His hand shifted and he felt the freezing of his neck. Sluggishly, he understood that he had no mobility in his neck at the moment. He rested his hand on Sapphire’s arm and squeezed it lightly, giving her a lazy smile. His eyes shifted as he tried to look around him and saw Waverley standing guard over them. How much fighting was still going on around them. He looked back at Sapphire, trying to ask her with a look from his eyes but he was sure he just looked dim.
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
Veil
Location: George Washington University: the Street Skills: Invisible Energy Manipulation, Invisible Energy Attacks, Hand to Hand Combat
The Purifier that refused to go down stared at Andy, before laughing slightly. "My name is Sam." There was no witty comeback, no insistence that he was doing a service for his country, nothing. He was one of those maniacs who had been dishonorably discharged and then decided to take out his anger and aggression on mutants, as if they had forced him to rape civilians while on tour. He didn't even seemed phased by his lack of an arm, not even screaming out in pain.
Could Sam even feel pain?
Veil was a bit confused still from Zarina's declaration that she was a member of the Valkyrie - or one in training. It reminded her slightly of the brief period when Deadpool was a trainee X-Men. It had not ended well. In fact, it had resulted in one of the occasions that Xavier's School exploded, meaning that Veil and the other students hadn't had to attend math class that week. It was a good memory. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Veil challenged Sam. He was, after all, fighting teenage girls largely - and Echo, who also was practically a teenage girl.
She manipulated the invisible energy around Sam, attempting to pick him up and throw him into a building, but Veil's grip slipped and Sam was only pushed backwards slightly. She then got an idea. If she couldn't throw him, there was something else she could try. She formed a force field around her fist like a glove as she approached Sam and swung, sucker punching him in the neck. His head snapped upwards and Sam saw stars briefly before collapsing on the ground, his neck broken from the impact. "Are you kids okay?" she asked Andy and Zarina, her voice filled with concern.
There were only two purifiers left standing now - the remainder of the trio that had been near Zarina and Veil earlier in the fight. "You lot have t-t-to pay for ambulances?" Leda exclaimed, her voice becoming increasingly unsteady as her injuries began to catch up to her. The adrenaline rush had started to fade, with the pain in her side from the bullet intensifying every minute.
"I don't take orders from you!" Watts snapped at Waverley, his ego bubbling up to the surface. He had been a member of the Uncanny X-Factor. He didn't need a girl telling him what to do in the middle of a fight. His protective instincts over his daughter happened to align with what Waverley wanted though. Watts scooped up Leda into his arms, cradling her gently, before running through the rapidly clearing area and taking shelter inside a Starbucks.
Sirens were coming into earshot again - the ambulances that Waverley had called, maybe?
"Guys, we need to get ready to leave NOW! Time's running out!" Havok shouted. He was drenched with sweat despite the winter chill, firing off blast after blast at the two remaining enemies. The bullet wounds were really getting to him as his shots were wildly off, not even coming near his targets. If he had been drunk, he would have had better aim.
He was right about one thing - time was running out. Cayden Proudstar, a.k.a. Moonwalker, breathed his last breath. And then he was gone.
"Hey!" Sunshine protested, as James yanked her back into the room. Her eyes felt like a thousand bees and wasps had conspired against her, deciding to sting her right in the iris. She had never been sick in her life and Sunshine had to imagine that this was what that would feel like. Injuries got better over time - especially with James around. She guessed that illnesses got better too, but they seemed to be a lot slower, especially M-Pox.
"Jackie, there aren't any cookies!" Casper pointed out to him. He was moving towards the exit when suddenly everything seemed to sway around him and he collapsed to the floor. His stomach felt like a thousand frogs had decided to start a fight club inside of him. He gripped his hands into fists, his knuckles a pale and ferocious white as sweat poured from his bodies. He couldn't move without an immense pain or nausea, with the heat in his eyes not even enough motivation for him to rub. This had to be hell.
Casper then promptly vomited all over the floor. Some of his vomit looked suspiciously like Froot Loops. Ben winced and tried to pat Casper on the back reassuringly, but his ghostly hand just passed straight on through - Casper wasn't in any shape to start channeling Ben as a physical entity that could interact with the world. "Max please tell me that isn't your cum or I think I'll puke all over again," Casper whined. It was a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy - just the thought of Max pouring sperm all over his eyes made Casper heave and wretch again. He was an island in a lake of vomit.
"Where is my armor? And my men? Catherine will be expecting me," Magik insisted. Her eyes were burning like fire and she continued to rub at them. She wasn't really coherent or sure of what was going on. She stumbled out of the room - not out the emergency exit, but into the smoke and haze, towards whoever had decided to attack the clinic.
Doctor Chan put an arm around Jack and escorted him out of the building. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, this is not good, agh this stings like hell! Fuck me!!"
Sunshine glanced at Casper. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as he was in his own puddle of vomit. She scratched at her eyes more and more, trying her hardest to try to get this stuff out. Yet she suddenly felt the intense urge to go after Magik, to go further into the clinic, and rescue her. She had a brief image of Magik calling her 'my hero' and giving her a kiss as a reward. She blushed - maybe from the heat in her eyes, maybe from hormones. Either way, Sunshine was blinking rapidly and crying as she held her bow at the ready and rushed off into the smoky haze to be Magik's Knight in Shining Armor.
The sound of gunshots followed. CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Location: The street outside George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium Skills: Boxing & Electrokinesis
Andy had been ready to throw another punch. She was considering a feint. Sam was well trained she was going to have to step up her fighting. But the lady with really fluffy hair broke his neck. Andy relaxed her stance as the woman asked if she was okay. "Oh, you know, just your average Tuesday. Some new bruises, but nothing is broken."
Andy glanced at the chaos around them. Several of the woman's group were wounded. "You should get your wounded out of here. I can distract the last two Purifiers." Andy looked at the green-haired girl with the sword. "Want to help?" Andy figured the green-haired girl wasn't with the woman since she had seen her outside earlier. She also guessed the green-haired girl was like her and liked to fight. This was when Andy felt most alive.
Andy looked around and saw two standing purifiers. She moved over to them and punched one of them, sparks flickering as her fist connected with the Purifier. They dropped to the ground. She let out a sigh. Her fighting at the shop hadn't included using her electrokinesis, it felt good to let the energy out.
If James hadn’t known that it would somehow happen, he would have thought this was as bad as the situation could get. He even left himself laugh at the jizz comment like an idiot. They had an easy out, they’d circle around, get to the car, Sunshine and him could keep the car defended while the others helped the less coherent into it if needed and they’d get running. But of course, the universe slapped a big fuck you across this because why not?
James felt his heart jump up his throat when Casper hit the ground and vomited. James grimaced. He bolted back into the room, grabbing Casper, and hauling him to his feet and doing his best to ignore the vomit. “Sorry babes, we’ll clean you up in a bit. Just gotta get you out of here for now.” James said sympathetically, supporting his boyfriend despite the disgustingness of it. James helped him outside, joining the other four and shouting for Max to join them.
“Okay, milk in the eyes apparently. The sooner the burning stops, the sooner we can go.” James instructed. Everyone needed working eyes for them to get out of this so he grabbed the gallon from Jack and started going down the line, starting with the Doctor first. The most lucid needed to be functioning to help move people. At least, he hoped he could convince the doctor to help and they could get out there fast enough to help Sunshine and Magik. Honestly, he wasn’t that worried about Magik as much as Sunshine. Call him biased but he actually likes Sunshine. James wasn’t too proud to admit that, despite her being doped out of her mind, he still held a bit of a grudge against her after the attack on the original headquarters.
“Okay, here’s our plan guys. We’re circling around to the car. If it’s safe, we get you guys into the car, I get Sunshine and Magik, and we take off. And yeah, I can drive Glimpse.” James replied to her earlier question. “Can you help us get there, Doctor? We can drop you off somewhere safe too.”
Callie didn't really argue when Glimpse grabbed her and let her lean against her, as her head cleared out somewhat, she was still feeling really bad of course still, and her eyes were still burning badly wiping the tears out of her eyes again. She looked over her shoulder as Sunshine and Magik bolted off in the opposite direction she looked over at James, she wanted to get everyone out as quickly as possible. "I'll help." Callie said as she stumbled back to her own two feet wiping away some blood that dripped out of her ears slightly, she still felt like vomiting, everyone at the clinic was still her responsibility.
Callie looked over at Glimpse and then over at the others. "Just get them into the car, leave if you have to." She said before turning back into the back of the clinic and into the room that they were all in. Callie leaned herself up against the wall slightly before pushing forward holding out her hand as a heavy gust of wind went through the hallway clearing out all of the smoke looking around for Magik and Sunshine.
Kristina Smith
Location: George Washington University, Outside Lisner Auditorium Skills: Flight
Kristina turned her attention towards the group as she started to hear sirens in the distance, deciding to go and check it out she flew up into the air getting a good view of several blocks down she could see what looked to be ambulances in the distance and lowered herself back down. Kristina wasn't sure who the group of mutants were, but she felt like that they could get some help as she landed back onto the ground seeing the man and the girl who had been shot making their way into the Starbucks close by.
"The sirens are the ambulances coming." Kristina said as she made her way into the Starbucks looking at the two of them for a moment, she wasn't sure what she could do, but she was willing to help out. "Is there anything I can do to help?" She offered looking over at Watts and then the blonde girl.
