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Summary: Sinister's Marauders come to attack the mansion. Simultaneously with the scene here
Date: March 20, 2010
Attack On The Right Path
Rating: R
Xavier Mansion - Right Path
A brick path off the courtyard cuts through the grass to lead to the other areas on the outside grounds of Xavier's. There are a few benches that line the path so students can sit and enjoy outside. Either side of the path the grass is well manicured and has enough room for students to have a picnic, play Frisbee, or relax and study. At night there are small lamps that raise three feet off the ground to provide light.
It's early afternoon on this lovely Saturday, the sun is out and the weather is beautiful. It's a good day for people to be outside and just enjoy the day, especially since there are no classes. Despite the weather, there's still a bit of tension on the grounds and the security is still on high alert, even if it's not a total lock down.
Mike Drakos is in his human seeming, wearing a very loud red, blue, green, and yellow hawaiian shirt and a semi-loud pair of black suede board-shorts with bright red and orange flames embroidered and dyed, the design like one of the classic flame patterns frequently found painted on older hot-rods. He walks along the right-side path from the dining hall, showing the new girl where things are.
She's short but not one of your frail flowers, this new girl Tara, and he's animatedly explaining to her about the wonderful workshop they have in the garage and auto shop here.
Rashmi is settled on one of the stone benches, a book resting open in her lap. For the last couple of hours, she's simply wanted to enjoy peace, quiet, and a good book in order to take advantage of the brief lull in the chaos surrounding the Mansion. As Mike and Tara approach, she looks up, smiling in greeting.
There's a low pitched thrum in the sky tonight as Daisuke….no Howl…is flying through the air. He flies over the mansion and warnings start to trigger as he touches down on the school grounds. He's wearing a black bodysuit with white diagonal lines across the chest. As soon as he touches down though, alarms start to blare on the school grounds alerting to those that there may be trouble. He does't say anything as his eyes scan the area, falling on Rashmi, Mike and Tara. "Time for a distraction." He says in a voice barely above a whisper as he starts to walk over.
Tara has her cane folded up and stuck in her back pocket, having explained to Mike that she doesn't need to use it anymore since she can use her powers to kind of feel everything about her. She had no idea that Mike was using an image inducer, at first, which caused a bit of hilarity at the confusion. However, she found Mike's particular condition to be 'neat' and didn't seem put off by it at all. She's wearing a pair of sunglasses with round, lavender tinted lenses, which hides her icy blue sightless eyes. "So," she says to Mike, "How long have you been here for?"
There's nothing quite like an afternoon catnap out in the sun. At least that's what Chloe will be telling anyone who catches her sprawling near the edge of the roof, doing her best to relax after a brutal morning of training. Face shaded from the sun with a Savate magazine.
Mike starts to say, "Since the middle of Janu…ohshit. Tara, we may have a problem."
He looks directly at Howl, stepping forward so he can, hopefully, protect the new kid from the sonic marauder, who wasn't nearly so scary looking when he saw the older student before. And not even an afterthought: he activates the panic button on the cellphone in his collar. They know that Howl is here if the machines are working, now they know that students are being menaced.
As Mike approaches Howl, he simply looks at him for a second, before taking a deep breath and just letting out a scream. It's loud and forceful, designed to knock those out in front of him. "I can't let you stop us." He says in that whisper again. He has a very bored expression on his face, like attack his classmates is just another every day thing to him.
"NO!" As the sonic shockwave lashes out a half-dozen glowing spheres of force streak out in separate arcs, seeking to converge around about Daisuke's middle. In the same moment, Rashmi hops off the bench and is pelting down the path to put herself between the Marauder and the teens.
Tara turns around with Mike, as he faces the Maurader. "What?" she asks, curiously. "Who's that?" As if in answer, she senses Howl taking a deep breath, and when he lets go with his sonic blast, she has barely enough time to shout "OHCRAP!" and uses her telekenetics to throw herself out of the way. She doesn't have time to be gentle or pretty about it, so she bounces along the grass at first, before tumbling expertly to her feet, narrowly missing a stone bench. "We're being attacked?" she asks, and then fistpumps in the air. "Awesome!"
Chloe pokes her head over the edge of the roof. "Awh come on," she mutters to herself. "Why today of all days?" A few moments later, shoes and valuables safely stashed in her bag, she launches herself off the roof. Rolling into the cover of a bush as she lands.
Howl soon has someone to work with as a barrier wall is knocked down with a loud boom and a wide beam of crimson energy follow. Chrome and black are the colors for this marauder. A helmet protects his head and face, gauntlets, light plating and armored boots on the new suit. Silence is the game with Scourge, and soon Brian finds someone to attack, the one who decided to yell out; Rashmi. A bolt of pure concussive force plows through the air as it's aimed at her midsection, first a student, then the mansion.
Mike didn't expect that attack — he was in the medbay during any training session that might have been done explaining the powers of the former students — so it catches him. Not unawares, but two things happen: his ears and eyes explode, again, and he's knocked backwards, but he rolls with the blast, and ends up about thirty feet back and flat on his back. The damage is … deferred. Nice. Now if he could see and hear. Wait, the feedback from the highly durable voicebox comes to his rescue again. OK, now if he could get up.
Tara notes that Mike is down, but she doesn't know if he's out for the count. So she thinks of doing the only think she can, and yanks him to her with her telekinetics, getting him out of the way from the shouty guy. She props him back up to his feet and asks, "Are you okay?"
Without the spheres on hand to absorb some of the blast for her, Rashmi has only her combat training to rely on… and three months of combat training is still only three months of combat training. Thus, her dodge is clumsy and late, the blast catching her on the side and sending her spinning to the dirt with a pained squawk.
Daisuke walks forward and walks over to Mike and Tara. "Okay." He whispers. "I can finish you both off in two seconds, tell me where Summers is and I'll save my next scream for the headmaster." He says looking over at the other students as he puts up some armour made of sonics. He's not going to let anyone get a quick edge on him. He just waits, and stares, seeing if they're going to get him Summers or if he's going to have to attack them.
July drives somewhat slow and steady to the school. She wanted to speak to Hank about doing a physical, since she needs one to join the tennis club at college. As she approaches the gates to the school, she remembers the weird stuff that happened there while she was there. "Heh. That place sure can have weird things happen there…" she muses to herself, shaking her head ruefully. Her musings, though, are suddenly brought to a halt as she hears the sonic explosion and the blast, reflex causing her to slam on the brakes. "What the-!?" she exclaims, wide eyed, as she looks at the school front gates. She pulls over and leaves the car, rushing and jumping over the front gates, heading in through the right path, and she finds… well, chaos. And the name of the dhaos is Daisuke. Awesome.
Scooping up a clod of earth and a nice hefty rock from her hiding place in the bushes Chloe scowls, muttering sailor grade curses at super speed. Cranking her adrenaline levels she bursts out, zig-zagging towards Rashmi. "Leaveheraloneassface!"
Mike growls from his voicebox, "I can't move, you aszs, you broke my motorr," which is not completely true. "Besize I already called. He'z probably on hizz way."
His eyes smoke, gently, and he uses his surface-sense to try to locate precisely where Dai is. He might not be able to do much, as a fighter, but he MIGHT be able to just grab the guy and block his mouth. Not that there's a guarantee of any kind, but he trusts… or at least hopes… that something will happen, or that he'll be able to do something to save the new kid. And keep Scott from getting surprised.
Deflecting harmlessly off the sonic armor, the pale-blue orbs of force speed back to orbit above Rashmi as she struggles to push herself to her feet. "Brian," she croaks, "please… just… stop… I don't want to hurt you…" Her spheres, however, seem to disagree with her, streaking toward Brian in a staggered clump, aimed toward his ribcage.
Scourge takes this time to watch the zigzagging Chloe. Silence still, and Scourge simply extends his force out and blasts to make a clothesline for Chloe to trip on. Of course, it can only work if Chloe cannot get out of the way fast enough. But should she get blasted, it would hurt like a mo fo. Unfortunately for him, he can't look out for #1 and inflict damage on the speedster at the same time. The beam stops and the energy flows over Brian's body, protecting the helmeted Marauder from orbs of fury.
Hey, cool! Telekinetic bowling balls! Tara's going to have to figure out how Rashmi does that trick, one of these days. Oh, right! Bad guys! Clutching her fists and squinching her face tight to concentrate she reaches out with her mind to just /push/ at the back of Daisuke's legs, hoping to topple him over. Of course he's got his sonic wall up, which she can feel, so she uses all of her mental strength to do it.
July arrives to find her friends being beaten by… her friends. She looks at Daisuke and Brian, and she clenches her fists, "Daisuke!!" she calls out, and looks at Brian for a moment. She doesn't know the guy, so she looks back at Daisuke as she rushes to Mike's side. "Daisuke!! Stop this! You don't want to do this!" She approaches the mechano-guy, "Hey, Mike? It's me, July. You alright?" She keeps her eyes on both Daisuke and Brian, though.
Since the tk bowling balls his his shield, the tk push cause Daisuke to fall down on his back. "You're going to pay, and believe me July, I do want to do this. With all my being." He whispers to the two and pushes himself up, so he's still on the ground. He uses his sonics to wrap a band around Mike and Tara and starts to squeeze the two together. Applying pressure as if he's slowly trying to squeeze them together to make a Mike-Tara smoothie.
Not that anyone is looking up, but way in the distance in the sky, there is a very red star, pulsing and seeming to grow slowly.
Chloe skids under the line of crimson force at the last moment, tearing up the grass and grazing her legs. She hurls the clod of earth at Brian, followed by the rock. Springing to her feet, heedless of her wounds, she mocks "Oh come on that's the best you can do? /Lame/."
Rashmi's eyes flick from Mike and Tara to Daisuke as she gathers her legs under her, cradling her bruised side. "Oh God, no…" Deflected off the shield of psychic energy, the spheres hang in midair, orbiting in place like a cloud of hyperactive bees. "No, no, no…" Pushing herself past the pain, she sucks in a double lungful of air and cries out. "DAISUKE! LEAVE THEM ALONE!!" Heedless of the protective sonics around Howl's body, the spheres dart toward him; not content to simply rebound and return, they batter at the field in a desperate, sustained barrage, each hitting with all the force they can muster.
"Alright? Do I LOOK alright?"
That is the most exasperated voice Mike has ever gotten out of the voicebox. His image inducer turns off, and the damage to his body is fully visible, a big dent in front, eyes and ears no longer smoking, but his eye-sockets are empty. He's got a band of solid sound wrapped around his torso that's clamped the much squishier Tara to his body, and he can't move his arms, but he CAN move his legs and he does: standing, he bolts towards the garage, hoping to get inside where he can get at something he can use as a weapon.
Tara squeaks in surprise as she suddenly finds herself being squished against the robot boy. She squeaks again as he suddenly takes off towards the garage. Finding it hard to breath from all the pressure, she concentrates again, and pushes back as hard as she can. It's not enough to break herself loose, but it's enough to keep her from being squished to death. "Where are… *grunt*… we going?"
Anything July could have said to Mike is cut off as Daisuke now traps Mike and Tara together and starts crushing them. July mutters a curse under her breath and looks at Daisuke. It's just like Skyler. She better do something before she ends up a puddle again. "Let them go, Daisuke!!" she says, clenching a fist tight and throwing a punch toward the guy, her arm extending at a rapid velocity, aiming at the guy's face.
The red star continues to grow, and from a distance may be seen as a tiny bird-shaped flame, way up high in the sky.
As soon as it happened, the band around Tara and Mike vanishes as they run off. "As you wish." He whispers as he stands up and July's fist would hit a small barrier of sonics before hit made contact with his face. "Hello there." He says to Rashmi, grinning at her. "I don't believe we've met." He says to her as he uses a form of hypnotic voice to try to get her under his control via his sonics. "You want to help me out, I know you do. Those two are cowards for running away and leaving you to die, show them how mad you are at them and attack." His voice is that whisper the entire time but he's trying to use his voice to get her to attack Mike and Tara.
Scourge brings his shield down as the dirt clod and rock bounce off of the forcefield like ricocheting bullets. The energy hands that Brian is now left with send arcs of crimson energy up his arms. And as the speedster approaches Scourge, a bo staff appears in his hands, made of that energy, the six foot long staff is going to be the bat to Chloe's baseball. As that speedster gets closer and closer, Brian's going to swat at her, attempting to do some damage.
Chloe beams in a quite inappropriate way for someone in a fight to the death. Seeing the melee weapon she shifts the line of her charge, coming in about five feet away at a full hundred and fifty miles an hour. She makes a sound which might well be a whoop of glee or a battle cry only extremely sped up, it's not quite clear which.
The spheres freeze in place, as Howl's voice slips in under her defenses. "I… they left… why…" She shakes her head slowly, clearly attempting to fight the influence off simply by her basic nature; Mike is one of her dearest friends in the school, the little brother she'd never had… wouldn't she *rather* he run away? So why is she getting angry? It just doesn't make any sense! But, while not actively attacking the younger mutants, she's definitely out of the fight for the moment.
July's hand hits the mid-air, the sonic barrier, and flops against it like spilled yogurt, and she frowns, promptly pulls her arm back as apparently Rashmi is confused by something. She glances at the girl right now, but she doesn't have time now. So, Daisuke has a barrier around him, but what about the other? She frowns, and she tosses a punch toward Brian, her arm extending rapidly, hoping to hit the guy, not the mid-air, like what happened when trying to hit Daisuke.
Scourge decides to focus on someone a little more worth his time, July, and her extendo-arm. From the bo staff, comes a six foot long Katana. Being energy, Brian's weapons move as fast as he can move his hand. As July's fist comes at him, he brings the large sword down to slash and cut at the stretchy arm of July's.
Daisuke watches Rashmi, noticing she's not attacking but confused. "Worthless." He says as he looks over at Mike and Tara, then back to Rashmi. "Maybe you should join them." He whispers as he screams at her, aiming to hit her with a sonic blast. If it hits, he's hoping to send her flying forward, right into Mike and Tara. Projectile Students make for fun weapons.
As they run, Mike tells Tara quickly, "If youwant to helpme get inthe yellowtruck, driver seat, and I apologizeinadvance."
Rashmi may be shot their way but she's outside Mike's limited circle of "vision" so he doesn't notice. The jerk.
Inside, he spends a long ten breaths focussing, hard, on the image he wants: a fire suppressant truck with a full foam-tank. The tyres, hardened, the whole thing armored, the driver has armor as well… Tara gets in the driver's side and he touches the truck.
And it changes. It's now a rather futuristic almost-Tron-styled fire-suppression vehicle with a giant foam-shooter nozzle on top, straight out of the pages of Popular Science from the late 1990s. Tara is wearing a protective armor suit out of Bubble-Gum Crisis, and sharing Mike's senses. It feels… good. But not overwhelming. And she can drive it… even knows HOW to drive it if she relaxes. The reflexes are all there. Mike-the-truck surges out of the garage. He starts by preparing to a fire-suppressant foam
… He starts by preparing to a fire-suppressant foam blast at Dai. An area spray of smothering, slippery, soapy fire extinguishing foam. Of course, Tara is the driver, so she may override this.
Rashmi, BigSis, you better be out of the way …
Suddenly, the assault on Rashmi's emotions lifts, and she blinks away her confusion, her spheres already in flight to idle around her… But she looks up just in time to see Howl opening his mouth to scream, and the spheres clump up halfway between them, spinning rapidly in an almost drill-like spiral formation. The blast is vicious, however, and she cries out as the lead sphere begins to crack under the assault… but much of the force is dispersed, throwing up a plume of dust from the path on either side, sending her hair whipping out behind her. Thankfully, she is well out of the way of the foam's sludge, but visibly pained.
The bird of flame is clearer now, but still isn't interfering just yet. Though, the area is getting brighter and brighter as the flames reach closer and closer.
Tara, in fact, does not override this. "Blind girl behind the wheel!!" She shouts in joyful glee as she drives Mike towards the Maurader. She has no idea that this kid used to be their friend so she's actually aiming the truck to run him over.
When it becomes apparant Scourge isn't going to take the bait and swing for her Chloe cuts the whooping and slams into a brutal skidding turn that'll point her back at the action. Of course a turn like that leaves her running on increasingly torn up feet. Charging back towards Brian, only from behind this time and pushing herself at top speed. Fist raised for a lance like punch to the back.
July's arm is cut off. Just like that, leaving a clean stump where it was sliced, the rest of her arm falling to the ground like a wet noodle as the rubber girl screams in agony at having her arm sliced off like that. She quickly pulls her arm back, holding it with her good hand as she breathes hard, controlling her emotions, and slowly her arm regrows, but the stump on the floor remains. "God.. damn it! Not again!!" she pants, and she looks at Brian with anger in her eyes, while flexing her new hand's fingers slowly. One is protected by a barrier and can't be hit by her. The other can slide and dice at her if she gets too close. Awesome. She needs a new plan.
A hint of alarm feeds back along the link with Mike, a reluctance. He didn't have time to put his voice box into place so he can't talk right now, he IS the truck, and she's currently GOT the controls … But the sense is there, that might be bad? Are you sure?
Scourge cannot see the speedster coming at him so fast. No one can see the wince he gives as he falls to the ground, his hands lie on his chest. He's still breathing, that's a good thing.
The blast of foam hits Daisuke and sends him backwards a bit. He doesn't bother cleaning it off of him, but instead a thrum comes from his throat and he forms a dozen spikes of solid sound and sends them flying at Mike, Tara, Rashmi, anyone else in front of him at high speeds. He's trying to severely injure and/or kill right now, and isn't holding back.
The flying bird form finally lands, baring Addison in his full Phoenician glory. White suit. Gold gloves and boots. Gold phoenix logo on his chest. "Charming." He states while raising a hand to his mouth to cover a yawn. "Father, why do you insist upon this? You… of all people… should learn to stop while you're ahead." He states. Yes, there's trouble and danger around. His students are in trouble. That's why he came. ~I am here. All will be well.~ He states to the minds of the residents… or former residents in July's case… of Xavier's.
The attack upon Brian isn't especially well thought out on Chloe's part. As her fist hits the shock travelling up her arm knocks her clean off her feet, crashing through the gardens like a ragdoll that's been run through a tumble dryer. When she finally stops and somehow pulls herself to her feet she staggers a few steps before it hits that her right arm isn't pointing the right way anymore…. "Well… /Shit/," she notes with a dreamy look on her face.
Sonic missiles. She can do this. She's been in enough mostly-friendly snowball wars, that playing Missile Command with her spheres is a familiar thing. Blue light arcs down, then up towards the ripples streaking toward them, as Rashmi makes a desperate attempt to deflect as many of the spikes as she can. One, two, three, four of the spheres bounce off their targets, successfully deflecting their targets… but there was never any chance for her to get them all, and a flower of blood blossoms from the hole opened up in her shoulder. Rashmi is not a tough mutant, or a healer, and nothing has ever, *ever* hurt her this badly before. With a high, strangled shriek, she falls to ground, clutching at the fresh wound.
Tara shouts, "OHCRAP!" again when she senses sonic spikes coming towards them. She yanks on the steering wheel of the truck, hoping to get both herself and Mike out of the way before the spikes can pierce through them both. Unfortunately, this also means that she's headed right for the mansion, now.
July's arm hurts like hell, still, no matter if she regrew it or not. And she watches as Daisuke starts to form something to shoot at her friends. She can't let that happen. Addison's sudden arrival distracts her for only a brief moment, but long enough to let the flying sound spikes fly and successfully hit Rashmi. "RASHMI!!" the rubber mutant cries out, and then she also notices Chloe as well, and her arm's position that, if you're not July, it's not healthy at all. At least Addison is here. He can fight the two. She rushes in front of Rashmi and tries to see if there's anything she can do on her shoulder. "Rashmi? Rashmi!? Are you ok?" she asks, applying some light pressure on the wound.
Foam is jetted this time instead of cone-sprayed, aiming at Dai's face, at least maybe it'll get in his mouth and he'll gag on it. Mike hopes so anyway.
Meanwhile, though, Mike can SENSE the sharp spikes, and slaps down at them as he's spun to the side … he has his own kinetic bug-screen and it would really work better, really better, if he wasn't suddenly facing the wrong way. One spike gets through and hits his back driver's side tyre. Ow darnit that stings. Slow leak, even with the hardened rubber. He slams on his brakes, sensing the Mansion … GAH.
Reaching out with his mind, the first target for Addison is Howl. "Release your bind." He states simply. His mind grips Dai's in steel, blocking his powers if he can, first. He's not sure if he can block them through Sinister's abilities, but with Phoenix behind him, he's fairly confident. "Daisuke." He states, ignoring other things around himself for the moment. "We need to chat. Father has abused you. We can fix you." His voice is dual layered. His normal, along with a deep resonant voice beneath it.
Despite the fact that she's white as a sheet and down one arm Chloe begins to half stagger and half swagger back towards Scourge. "Ready for round two?" she challenges, high on chemical bravado. About this point she spots Addison and tries to wave her bad arm in greeting. "Oh yeah…"
There's a grin as he sees he's breaking those he's attacking, injuring them, slowly picking them apart. He's about to send another attack at them when Addison steps inside his mind and the scream comes out as nothing more than a glorified whisper. His powers being shut off by the Omega mutant. Something about the wording Addison used causes Daisuke's mind to become weaker than normal, even with Sinister's reinforcements. « I don't want to talk. »
Scourge looks through his darkened helmet as he lies there. The feign unconscious mutant bides his time, especially now that he hears Chloe coming back for more.
Rashmi curls up into a fetal ball, whimpering as pressure is applied to her already-wounded shoulder. "….Hurts," is about all she can force out, tears falling from the corners of her eyes. "Oh, God…. hurts so much…."
Tara wonders, for a moment, why Mike is slamming on the brakes. That is, until she senses the mansion looming in front of her. With another curse, she slams on the brakes herself, hoping that between the two of them they'll stop before making another doorway into the mansion.
Addison pauses for a moment to look to Rashmi. "There is no pain." He states, blanking out her pain centers for a moment. "Make your way to healing." He turns back. "Now… where was I. Daisuke. Your brain has been rewired. Let me fix this. Or at least… some of it. I can do a quick and dirty fix to bring you back to yourself and then do the rest later." He nods, raising an eyebrow. "Will that work for you?" Of course… he doesn't really care.
July mutters a wide range of curses under her breath as her free hand rips a long strip off her shirt, and she uses it to wrap around Rashmi's shoulder. "I never had any first aid classes… I'm starting to regret not taking any…" she mutters softly, "This… /might/ help, Rashmi." she says, and looks toward Daisuke and Brian and… Chloe? "Chloe!! Stop!!" She says, and grits her teeth. She extends her good arm toward the speedster, hoping to wrap around the girl's waist and pull her back toward her ad Rashmi.
Not going TOO fast, but too fast to stop. Mike doesn't want the feeling of hitting that wall. He does something very odd. Tara is connected to him, so he GRABS her, as he leaps out of the truck, and leaves behind all the damage … his eyes are back, his paint fresh and undented… Her armor goes away though. Along with that peculiar euphoria and the link to Mike's senses. And the truck? Hits the mansion. RIGHT under the window to the Atrium where Jono blew a hole … a couple weeks back? Fresh repairs? Good bye.
He holds Tara and lands moderately gracefully. Slips a little on foam, where did THAT come from?
"We need to discuss steering," he says diplomatically.
Just standing there with a blank expression on his face, Daisuke is having an interesting adventure in his head. There's a few levels to his mind, most of what Sinister put there and the real Daisuke, well he's in the back, hidden away in fear. « Stop it, I just want to be left alone. » He responds to Addison trying to get in there. « It's supposed to be like this. »
Already in a one armed semblance of a Savate guard, Chloe is remarkably hard to collar. Springing lighting around Brian in a wide circle, careful to stay a good three metres back. She's talking, although it's far too fast for anyone to understand.
"WHEEEEE!" shouts Tara as she's grabbed by Mike and tossed out of the truck. She wraps her arms around his neck in a classic saved-princess pose and says, "I wanna do that again!"
Rashmi's eyes snap open, the absence of pain every bit as much of a shock as its presence. Drawing in a deep breath, she starts to stir, pushing herself up with her free hand. "It's okay," she gasps, pressing the cloth to the wound. "I'll be fine… once I get to Medical. Thanks, July… but…. I think the kids should really get out of Addison's way, you know…?" There's a startled noise as she wavers on her feet. "…Yeah I should go to Medical…"
"It doesn't matter. I'm doing this anyway." Addison states as he begins to rewire Dai's mind, without permission. With his power level, the only permission he desires or requires is his own. Poor Daisuke. This will probably hurt, as well, but afterwards, he'll be alright. He'll be sane again. "Please. Hold him." He calls out to the others, pointing at Brian. "I will deal with him when I am done with Daisuke." He states.
Scourge remains lying down, not moving at all, simply breathing and waiting still.
July frowns and grits her teeth as Chloe starts circling around Brian. So she waits, "You're welcome, Rashmi.." she says in a pained voice, waiting for Chloe to circle closer to her and she lashes her arm, in an attempt to suddenly wrap her arm around Chloe's waist and pull the girl hard toward her, trying to save the girl and get her out of Addison's way.
There's a silent scream that comes from Daisuke as Addison messes around his mind. It's not pretty but it's a fix, for now. Once Addison is done though, Daisuke is on the ground, on all fours, breathing hard. "No…" he whispers to himself as he starts to shake a bit.
Chloe stops between Brian and the grounds. She can't tell what the words are, but Addisons pointing seems to be instruction enough. There is a shouted babble in super speed and a salute, which turns into a wave at July before shifting back into her guard position.
Mike shakes his head at Chloe, as he suddenly gets the replay of what she's doing. That… might be a bad thing. But July is dealing with that, so…
Mike just says to Tara, "Maybe later. Rashmi is hurt, We need to get her to the medical room."
He starts towards Rashmi, stops, and (turning on his image inducer again) grins at Tara, "You can WALK, right?"
He sets her down and trots over to Rashmi. Glancing at Daisuke, he murmurs, "Welcome back?"
Suddenly from the other side of the mansion, the entire sky lights up from a rather sizeable explosion, that takes out a good chunk of property over there. Debris from what was left of a section of mansion rain down on the combatants pelting them with bits of burning wood, drywall and rock.
Tara nods at Mike as she gets to her feet. "Yeah, I can walk. I'm fiHOLY HELL WHAT WAS THAT?" She asks as the other half of the mansion explodes, ducking her head under her arms reflexively to avoid all the falling debris.
Daisuke eventually gets up and looks around, trying to see if anyone needs help. "I'm so sorry." He whispers to everyone as he makes his way over to Mike and Tara. He's about to see if they need any help when the explosion happens on the other side of the school. "Oh no….Mr. Summers!" He whispers wondering if they got him.
July gasps as the other side of the property explodes, and there's debris falling this way! July curses again, and she quickly stands up and recoils her arm back, and she stretches herself wider and longer, sheltering Rashmi, Tara and Mike in a fleshy tent, so no debris fall on the group. The others are too far away from her to do anything.
Weaving her way down the path toward the Mansion, the explosion sends the wounded Rashmi onto her rear with a startled cry. Pressing her hand against her shoulder to stave off the worst of the bleeding, she tries to duck away from the falling debris, taking shelter under the canopy of July. "Please, Addison," she whispers as she squeezes her eyes shut. "Make this stop…"
"Help the others, Daisuke. I will help you come back to yourself fully, later." Addison says with a benign smile. "Now. You. Brian. My… partner." He states as he looks to Scourge. "You're next." He states, letting Dai do his thing as he begins to move towards the Scourge with a smile. "I will fix you as well." He hasn't reached out yet.
And it's a moment of admiration for Mike as he watches the kaboom… Wow. He shakes his head (which does nothing) and says to Rashmi, "I think we need to wait before we take you to the infirmary. Not sure the building is safe."
And now it's raining rubble. Joy. Thankfully Chloe is at least fast enough to dodge anything big enough to cause serious injury. At least she thinks she has, hard to tell when you're just about totally numb. As Addison approaches Scourge she makes ready with the supply of projectiles which someone has helpfully provided, just incase Brian takes Addison by surprise.
Scourge decides to blow caution to the wind and extend out a blade from his hand, seven foot long, and sharp as a razor, Brian slashes at Chloe as he jumps towards her, after all, he only took one good hit. And he's plenty pissed off at that female. They should have done what Addison asked them to do.
Moving slowly, Addison goes towards Scourge. "Brian. We need to talk. You need to come back to me. You kept me balanced and centered. And now…" He states, looking at his flaming-bird aura… that has gone predatory. "We must separate you from him."
Looking over at Brian, Daisuke whispers loudly. "Brian, this isn't us. He's got you again, like me." He knows it won't work but his mind is roughly repaired, he can't get his powers to work right. "I'm sorry, for hurting you." He says as he looks over and decides to rush over to Rashmi, she looks like she needs help getting to the medbay.
Once the dust settles, Tara finally uncovers herself, and stands up straight. She reaches out with her senses to try to get a handle of what's going on. She looks confused, however, when one of the teens that had been trying to murdilate her is now trying to talk the other one down. "Uh…" she says, "I think I'm missing something here…"
Chloe is still plenty fast enough to pirouette out of the way of Brians lunge, even taking the time to raise into pointe afterwards. It would be far flashier however if her dislocated arm hadn't flopped infront of the seven foot blade. Alas for Brian his satisfaction is likely to be dented by the /excessive/ blood spray which comes his way. Chloe meanwhile hits the dirt, surrounded by a rapidly increasing puddle.
Mike decides for the concise version. "Our friends were mind-controlled by a mad scientist who makes the idiots in that movie Igor look like models of professional rigor. He's a telepath and he got into their heads and twisted them around ohmygodCHLOEYOU IDIOT!"
He's now sprinting towards Chloe.
Rashmi's head rises, and there's a momentary flash of panic as Daisuke is seen running towards the group, sheltered under the stretched-out July. But it's only for an instant, as his words break through, and her expression melts into one of weary, relieved gratitude. "It's okay, Daisuke," she says slightly woozy from blood loss by now. "Just… don't do it again… and we'll call it even, okay…?"
"Thank Addison." Daisuke whispers to Rashmi as he doesn't notice what happenes to Chole. "Let's get you to the medbay, and I don't want to do this again, believe me." His voice is still no more than a whisper. He tries to help her down to the medbay if she lets him, letting her lean on him for support.
July remains in tent form until the debris rain stops, and she pulls herself back together, panting a bit and sweating. Holding off those burning and searing hot flying items wasn't good for her. She pants a bit and looks at Daisuke for a moment, then to Rashmi. "I don't know… if it's safe to go inside yet. What happened on the other side?"
Brian falls face forward in the ground, before his hands grab at his helmet. "NO! NO!" Shrieks the electronic voice. "ALL HAIL THE GLORIOUS SINISTER. YOU WILL KNEEL BEFORE HIM." He says, curling up into a ball and holding his head, the helmet does collapse and retreat back into his costume. He apparently doesn't want help.
"Brian. This is not optional. He has ruined your mind. I was in there before I could fix it. Now… I can." Addison says simply. He reaches out and grips Brian with a sigh. "You belong with us. You belong with ME." He says… with almost an upset whine mixed in there. "Please." He whispers. He's not blocking Brian's powers yet.
"We'll call it a draw," Chloe mumbles, pressing the stump of her wrist in a desperate attempt to keep the blood in. Curled up in a state that's way beyond shock.
Tara turns her head to mike to make sure that he can see her looking just as confused. When he runs off, she looks a little stunned and starts running off after him. "Who? What happened?" Unfortunately, Chloe is outside her sphere, so she isn't able to tell what's going on there.
Brian opens his eyes and looks to Addison. Partially pleading for help, he reaches his hands to Addison's face. "Thank you, Addison." Before the energy user touches Addison's face. "For being such a pratt." He says, smiling to Addison sinisterly.
Mike runs FAST. Not nearly as fast as Chloe, but he closes that distance in under thirty seconds, since Brian is not currently a hazard. He reaches her, wraps one hand around that wrist, and closes it with precisely the amount of pressure required to stop blood flow. Bruise? Probably. Broken bones? Not as likely.
He thinks to himself, "Glad I have my emotions turned down. This would make me really queasy."
He attempts to find a way to lift the girl without loosening the tourniquet.
"TARA! Please come this way and look for Chloe's hand, it's here somewhere."
Even with all the pressure Mike can apply Chloe's stump still drips quite a lot of blood, her blood pressure way off the chart compared with a normal persons. Her eyes are still wide open and she still has a slightly narcotic grin on her face. "My bag's on the roof," she forces out, putting her arm against Mike and leaving a bright red smear "Promise you'll fetch it for me."
As the numbness overtakes his body, Addison's body falls. But… the body doesn't control his mind at all. ~Ok. Now, we've reached a problematic point.~ Addison states, mental words flowing to everyone's mind in the area. ~But I don't need my body.~ He states as he dampens Brian's abilities as he goes back in. ~This time, I am NOT playing around. This time, I know what Sinister's done. I can fix you. And I shall.~
Rashmi turns rather green as she looks over Daisuke's shoulder, eyes widening. "Oh God… Chloe…" Pushing away from the boy's support, she begins to stumble toward Mike, searching the ground for the severed hand, regardless of just how much of her lunch she stands to lose, or how much blood she's *already* lost. "Over here, right…? Right… I think… come on, memory, work…"
July gasps as Mike rushes to Chloe, and so July rushes to Tara, "Are you alright?" she asks, but then she sharply turns her head toward Brian and Addison as the latter just falls to the ground, "Oh, my god! Brian! What did you—" but she stops as she hears Addison's voice in her head, and sighs in relief as the guy seems to still have things in control, and so she turns to Tara again, resting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Are you alright? I'm July. Former student here."
"Yes, I'm fine," replies Tara, sounding a little distracting, and looking a little green around the gills. "I'm trying to find a severed hand." She squinches her face in concentration, expanding her sensory field so she can pick up a wider area and finer detail. "I…. ew… think that's it over there." She points in a direction with a finger, her head still pointed at the ground.
That's no good. Blood still coming out. Mike squeezes HARDER. If it breaks a bone, fine, I want that bleeding to stop. Without her dying. Of course, repeating that over and over won't do Mike a lot of good. He says, "I will, but first I want you to help me pick you up." He glances over at Tara, "JULY! TARA, A little help this way please? Focus, people! Rashmi, stay where you are, you need to stay still!"
Is this what Rashmi experiences when her squad goes nonlinear?
Brian's hands go back to normal, and his powers are dampened. "No…No. Don't, stop it!" He yells out before he mimics creating a sword, and then a staff, and then a whip. "Forgive me, Sinister." He says, before kneeling on the ground and is that weeping? No, just frustration now that he's temporarily a flatscan.
"Rashmi." Daisuke whispers. "Stay still, I'm sorry I hurt you so bad, I don't want it getting any worse." He says as he joins the hand hunt, following where people are saying the hand is and trying to help find it. He stops and looks over at Brian and clenches his teeth. "Fight it Brian, fight it. We're not Sinister's…things. You know that." He whispers not really caring if Brian hears him or not. He knows who he is, who they are, now.
And that's when Addison begins to reconnect memories and realities in Brian's mind. It's a quick, dirty job. He's only been Phoenix for a few days. His control isn't perfect yet, but he will get there. "I'm sorry for the hasty job." He says as he begins to regain his solidity in his body. He starts to rise and move over to the mutant he knows better than any other from this planet. "But I will have you back." He growls, doing his best to reconnect this Brian to the one he's known.
July glances at where Tara poitns out, and she finds Chloe's hand, "Found it!" she says, standing up and stretching an arm to get Chloe's severed hand. Ew. "Or rather, she found it." she says, looking at Tara, while holding the hand. "That's bad… Rashmi and Chloe need medical treatment immediately! We gotta head to the infirmary!"
The bleeding eventually stops, but even the re-enforced bones in Chloe's arm have fractures running most of the way to her elbow. "That tickles," she informs. "Standing up, gotcha." Her grip is weak, more through lack of blood than anything else, but she does her best to cling on.
Mike nods, "Yes, but is it even safe? Can someone check to make sure the building isn't going on fire or going to collapse first?"
"I'll go!" pipes up Tara, adjusting her glasses on her face, and turns to face the mansion. "So when I go inside, where should I be headed?"
Brian stands up, his mind is still adjusting. And he's just tired. "Addison…thanks." He says, before trying to help him up and head into the mansion behind them, his surface thoughts are scattered, but he doesn't have the connection with Sinister anymore.
"Sorry it's so dirty." Addison states. "I'll finish later." He whispers, physically as he stands, leaning on Brian. "Thank you… for returning."He whispers, leaning fully against him. He's keeping an eye on the students and making sure they get down safely.
"We gotta get those who need help down to the med bay. You." Daisuke whispers talking to Mike. "Get her and bring her down, you." He says to Tara. "Help July, Addison, Brian and I'll help Rashmi." He says as he just knows he saw July's arm get cut off. He goes to Rashmi and tries again to help her down to the medbay.
"But wait," Rashmi protests without any strength whatsoever as she's led back to the mansion. "Didn't Mike talk about it being on fire or something…? I don't think I want to be on fire…"
Mike nods to Dai. "I have her."
He does a dip-and-grab maneuver that leaves him carrying Chloe, but may make her arm hurt worse when she stops being numb.
"I think we'll see when we get to the side, Rashmi. For now we have our friends back."
July indeed got her arm cut off, and then she glances at the limp arm on the ground, that got severed off her, and she reaches to grab it, "I know, but we gotta get you to the infirmary. I'm sure the place is heavily protected against such stuff." Well, it's mostly a safe bet. "Daisuke, what's going on the other side of he mansion? Who or what were you guys after?" she asks. Well, the girl has two normal arms, no sign of one of them being severed off, but one of her hands is indeed holding a severed arm, that hangs like a wet string.
"Looks fine to me," answers Tara to Rashmi before walking up to July. "Okay, squishy-girl, I gotta take you to the Medbay. Wherever that is." She reaches out and takes July's hand and starts to walk towards the mansion, her other hand taking out her white and red cane and snapping it in place with a practiced flick of the wrist. "C'mon!"
Chloe scowls. "Someone is buying me a new dress…" she mumbles. "And please be quick. If I die then who will wipe the smug look from Quicksilvers face? No-one that's who. Besides the medbay might have lollipops."
"Oh, good… So we're not going to be on fire…" Leaning more and more heavily on Daisuke, Rashmi allows herself to be carted back into the Mansion. "Hey… hey, hey… um…. oh right… Is everyone else okay…? It was *really loud* for a second…."
The path to the medbay is clear and all are able to get down there safely, and join the others that are down on there. On the way Daisuke answers July's question the best he can. "I don't know what happened on the other side, an attack, like here. We were sent after Mr. Summers, and cerebra as a secondary goal. I can't say any more right now." Cause he can't focus on that, he needs to get to the medbay and also his mind is still fuzzy.
The delerious rambling is in slow-world time, which means to Mike, HURRY. He does. Others will have to work to keep up, unless they fly or cheat in other ways.
"I will fix their minds. All… will… be… well." Addison states as he looks between the injured students and faculty. "Medbay first. Anything else can wait until morning. Sinister… well… I will have words with him later." He says with a growl.
July blinks as Tara takes her free hand and starts dragging her away, "Uhh.. I'm fine?" she says, watching as the girl walks away, dragging her arm and causing it to stretch. But soon July catches up, shaking her head figuring it's not worth it to complain.
"Now, now," Tara chides. "You've got one arm too many." With that she swings her cane back and forth letting it lead her way into the mansion and down to the medbay. *tak*tak*tak*
Mike is all focused on the task at hand. Still, somewhere underneath he thinks to himself, and anyone who happens to be listening, "Words? Please. Have small tactical nukes with him. Toss him into the sun. Feed him to a black hole."
Sounds like Mike's subconscious might have an opinion on the matter. And it has "faith" tied up and gagged. Reform? No, he's had his chances.
