Players:
Summary: Scott takes some X-Folks to investigate the island, and to attempt a rescue of the student of a team member.
Date: February 25, 2009
Battle at the Bridge
Rating: PG
This afternoon, the island of Manhattan was covered by what appears, to all intents and purposes, to be an impenetrable barrier. Along with that, six figures have risen above the island, evenly spaced along the edges. The figures are androgynous and completely covered in fabric of black, white, or gray. One of the gray figures is surrounded by a flaming aura that may be rather familiar to a few of the X-people. People are trapped within. People are trapped without. Some have chosen to attempt to make it through the barriers, either for knowledge, or for other pursuits.
As the jet (piloted by Scott Summers) makes its way to the island, he hovers a distance away, looking out over it and letting the others on board with him make their own views. "Any ideas?" He asks the various teachers and X-Men with him. If there are any students about, he doesn't know it. After all, he would never allow such a thing… right now.
The resident Psychologist/Psychiatrist simply glares at the island. "I'm not the best to ask at the moment. My mind is not thinking properly. My son and my housekeeper are on the other side of that barrier and… I'm sorry. I just need to focus." Obviously, Jericho is rather annoyed by the situation. Despite his powers, he's never been much of a combatant, being more of a field medic.
"BRING OUTCHER DEAD…." A scruffy-looking man with a long, dark beard and bushel of hair wanders near the edge of the barrier, ringing a large and loud hand bell. He's got a sandwich board on over a dark brown robe. One side reads, 'The End is Near,' the other reads 'Eat At Joe's.' Kevin's been pacing back and forth on one of the bridges that goes to Manhattan for a few minutes now. This is just one of the many forms he's taken, and it soon shifts to a circus strong man -complete with handlebar moustache- wielding an oversized mallet. The strongman puts down that mallet, takes a moment to spit on his hands, rubs the spit together, grips the mallet, then sizes up a few practice swings. Looks like he's going to try and take a whack at it!
Strapped into the jet and propping her chin on one fist, glaring out the window at Manhattan, is our favorite Shadowcat. When Scott asks for ideas, she startles and looks up, forcing her way out of preoccupation. "Well, do we know what -kind- of barrier it is? I can try phasing through it…" she suggests dubiously, pulling her hair back away from her face and securing it in a loose ponytail. "Otherwise we can kick it. A lot."
A being of darkness stalks along the street near the barrier's edge. The obsidian figure bears a female form, glossy black and with a crown of blades for hair and long, bladed fingers. She is dripping with water a bit, and approaches the strong man. In an unearthly tone, she speaks evenly, "It extends underwater as well. I do not think physical force will disrupt this barrier." She moves forward to drag a sharp claw down its surface. Looking up at the sky, she states, "The six may be maintaining it. Must we excise them?"
Pryce is rather annoyed, he barely made it out of Manhattan when it was suddenly blocked off. Really, all they are trying to do is get to the school they are enrolled in and every step of the way something strange happens. Of course not being ones to let anything get in the way of curiosity or fun Pryce has to check out what is going on. After spending most of the morning fixing the suit of armor that was damaged by an attack from one of the weird invaders while he was smuggling it into the country he figures now is as good as any time to test it out. From somewhere behind the black bird comes a pair of armored people, who look for all the world like they based their equipment off of Iron Man's look with Dr Doom's green and silver color scheme. They come to a stop not far from the jet, impressed with the cool ride and debating invading thier privacy with his powers while he starts to scan the dome with what little equipment he has built into the suits so far.
Closest to the bridge, the floating figures are one in white and the one in gray with the flames.
The jet is stopped next to the bridge that Kevin and Victoria are on. Motioning to the lowering ramp. "I suppose all we can do is go check." Cyclops states with his normal, thinking tone. He motions for the others to go first.
Jericho nods silently as he stands and moves towards the bridge, cracking his knuckles. "No offense, Kitty, but I think my kicks might hurt it a little more than yours." Despite the severity of the situation, there's actually a little bit of humor in his eyes. "I just want my son home and safe, and my housekeeper, too, of course. Eddie wouldn't go anywhere without him."
The mallet SWINGS, then makes a comical spring sound as it bounces off the wall and sends the Strongman into a twirl. He spins for several rotations before dropping on his rump, leaving the mallet laying near himself. "Well. That did absolutely NOTHING," he grumbles as he pulls himself to his feet. His head grows horns, and the rest of him gradually shifts into a large, black bull. The bull trots a few yards away from the barrier, turns to it, then starts sizing up his target. In fact, a target sight drops down from his left horn and hovers over his eye while he stares forward. Fortunately, he catches sight of some nearby movement before doing anything stupid(er). The bull looks over at the jet and the woman, wondering which one to approach first. "HEEEEEY," he calls.
Obsidian drops the arm after the blade does nothing to the barrier. She watches the antics of the strongman/bull and states flatly, "Neither of us appear to be having any effect. I believe this calls for a reevaluation of the situation and the methods to be applied." She raises her arms in an uncertain gesture and a long straight blade forms in her right hand. Gripping the sword in both hands and setting its point against the barrier, she says, "There may be a weak point. Applying pressure to critical locations may weaken the barrier. Or more simply, we must remove the beings above."
"I *did* say 'we'," grumbles Kitty, halfway under her breath. "I know, I know. You *know* we'll get it sorted. Making doors where there aren't any is our specialty, remember?" She offers Jericho a fleeting smile, but instead of bothering to unstrap and get out properly, she just drops out of the bottom of the jet and starts for the barrier. Catching the tail end of the yell, she yells back at the ginormous bull and the shiny jet-black woman, cupping her hands around her mouth. "HEY YOURSELF!" Voice gets quieter as she gets closer. Conversational. "Do either of you know what the deal is with the floating guys? They say anything to you? Or just sort of float?"
Since the jet is landing Pryce figures it might be a good idea to be sociable. The two armored figures land, almost identically near enough to the jet they can be seen from the landing ramp while the X-People leave the ship. From both bodies produce a synthetic voice at the same time saying, {If that thing is created by some kind of technology I really want to get a chance to look at it.} After a second one of the two moves away from the other to get a closer look at the barrier and ends up right next to the Obsidian Woman. {Looks like I am not the only one that made it out just before the barrier went up.} The armored teen that is still near the ship looks towards Kitty, {No Idea they appear to have not moved at all.}
The figures have simply been hovering there. The white figure and the gray flaming bird-covered figure. As of yet, they haven't spoken that anyone knows. Though with the slam against the field, they both turn slightly inward to face the barrier.
Kev_Bull trots over to the obsidian woman and stares at the others gathering. "Well. Don't you guys make me feel comfortable!" He lets off a loud and strained 'moooooo' as his body takes on another transition. The cow head stays, but his torso bulks up and his legs grow a pair of tattered pants. He looks like a dark-colored minotaur now and hefts another oversized hammer over his shoulders, stooping down to better be in the conversation. "So, I'm thinking of taking another futile crack at it… Who wants to be the human battering ram I carry while running at this wall?"
The dark woman turns away from the field and dismisses her sword into nothingness. She approaches Kitty and shakes her head. Her 'hair' appears to be entirely rigid and sharp, unperturbed by her motion. "I do not know the identity or origin of the floating entities. Communication has not yet been attempted. They are too high up to communicate with at present."
"But which *one*, Scott?" asks Kitty, glancing back at her team leader; there's something apologetic but firm in her voice and her expression. She gives the armored teenager who spoke to her a quick nod, then surveys the barrier critically. "Either way, even if it's the full Phoenix force…" she starts, trailing off.
Then it's Victory, and Kity gives -her- a fierce grin. "Oh, we can get their attention."
Tugging at the hems of her yellow gauntlets, straightening them or tightening them or even just putting on a show, Shadowcat proceeds to crack her knuckles and then push, with both hands, on the barrier. Wait, 'push'? Nuh-uh. Phase. Easy and reflexive at first, and then with increasing concentration.
The metal clad teen standing near Victoria and now the Minotaur Kevin says in an emotionless synthetic voice, {I may be metal, but I am no battering ram.} He ignores the completely dismissive way he is ignored by the obsidian woman. The other one nods back at Kitty and says, {If its attention you want that is easy…although most of what I have may not be that useful against the flaming one.}
Warren swoops down from the sky, gliding and gently landing on the ground. Hearing Scott mutter "Phoenix" causes his eyes to widen, looking up at the figures with a look of trepidation. "No way, Scotty." His look of worry gives way to a constrained grin as he sees the familiar faces in the group. "Looks like I arrived at the proverbial nick of time…" He assumes a combat stance and begins to take off, turning to Scott. "What do you think - should I get a closer look?"
"Well, I dunno. We're known for being able to get a feel for things." Jericho says with a chuckle as his own gloves, fingerless, get tugged over his fingers. "And I'm no slouch with the beating of inanimate objects." He glances between the two. The one in white and the one in gray. "If I could get up there, I might be able to snag part of their powers. Just getting close enough is all I'd need." He offers.
The figures remain impassive, nothing revealed on their fabric covered faces. Slowly, they turn back to face the waters. As of yet, nothing seems to be truly piqueing their interest.
Cyclops looks back over to Kitty. "I don't know." He's second guessing himself now that he's unsure if that up there is his deceased wife. Either way, that flaming bird around the figure is enough to warrant extreme caution. The field leader looks to Pryce. "If it's who I think it is, you're in over your head. Get out of here while you can." He's being extremely cautious of that one figure. As Warren comes in, the grimaced face of Scott loosens somewhat. "You can, but at the first sign of aggression, get out of there."
You page, "If you are going to fly up, since you're quick enough, I'll tell you what you're going to see, so you can add it in." to Warren.
Kev-o-Taur scratches his head at Pryce's reply, then rotates to eyeball Obsidian. He stares so intently, you'd think he was planning to just grab her and start running. She does look rather sturdy so perhaps she wouldn't mind? But rather than a sudden grab, the minotaur drops his mallet and leans on the handle. "So." He nudges an elbow at Obsidian. "Want to introduce me to your friends?"
Obsidian looks around at all those present and finally turns to Kevin. She steps aside as he nudges at her. "Please do not do that. I do not wish you to harm yourself. I am afraid I do not know these people. I recognise the X-Men as an organisation but I do not know the individuals. These two in the armor were present at the Statue of Liberty but I do not know their identities either. As for myself, I am Obsidian. It is both my name and my nature."
That's definitely some pins-and-needles action goin' on there. Kitty's face is scrunched in a pretty obvious display of the amount of effort this it taking, and at -this- point, she actually *is* ignoring everyone else. Monofocus, and while everyone else's been talking, she's gotten… her hand. In and out. "I think I can manage taking one other person with me," she pants, leaning against the barrier and rubbing her hand. "It's— it's a few of them, up there. Not just one. Different wavelengths, running interference for each other."
A flash of annoyance at being told he is in over his head flashes along the psionic link connecting the two armor clad teens. Are they not Latverian and thus far more capable of doign anythign they wish than your average person? Ok, it is not as if there is any accent in his synthetic voice. The armor clad twins choose to ignore Scott telling them to leave, since a fight has yet to start, and he can't have a full idea of what interesting toys they have at thier disposal. To Kevin they respond with {We are Alloy.}
Hovering just above the ground, Warren moves closer to Jericho. "How about we get you up there so you can do your thing. I don't know about you, but the one on fire certainly has piqued my interest." Moving his wings just fast enough to hover just above Jericho. He extends his hand downward. "What do you say?"
Jericho nods quickly, as he extends a hand. "Just get me close, and I'll see what it's got." He says with a broad grin, moving along with Warren. As he's lifted up near the flaming one, he calls back over his shoulder, "Just a little closer. Once I get it, just let go, I'll be fine." After all, he can handle a lot of abuse. When they get near enough, he extends a hand. The power-sharing mutant gets just close enough…
Suddenly, his own body is surrounded by a flaming aura. "Telepathic. Telekinetic. That's all. Nothing else."
The figure's body suddenly bulks up a little, tight knit fabric splitting in places. A long trail of red hair comes from the back as the person lashes out with a telekinetic slap at the two mutants near it. The field itself is suddenly MUCH easier to get through, as one of the layers has decreased. The figure in white suddenly gets dropped to the ground, on the bridge, as if it was being held by some force other than it's own.
Looking to Kitty as she returns her hand. "One other person, Buff's son is trapped in there." He's more interested on taking out this barrier first. As the figure falls to the ground, Scott's brow raises above his eyes. Hoping that it's an exploitable weakness. "Try and take them out!" He calls, aiming at another gray figure and letting an optic blast try to take the figure off kilter.
Kev-o-Taur twitches his ears and nods to Obsidian's introduction. "Well, they seem pretty pre-occupied with their own gameplan, so what's say you and I come up with one, hmmm? We could totally be a team!" His fur changes from dark to milk white, and his mallet stretches into an electric keyboard on a thin stand. Shades form over his eyes and his head gyrates left to right as he warbles. "Ebony, and ivory! Work together in perfect, harmony…" He pauses when the twins address him, tilting the shades down to look at them. "Um… Hmm. Ebony, Ivory and Alloy? I'm gonna have to rewrite the tune…" He takes a pen and music paper from nowhere, then starts making corrections in between poking keys on the keyboard. Even as the figure in white drops, he seems to continue in his own little world.
Obsidian ignores Kevin's antics and turns her gaze skyward. Hearing Scott's voice, she states, "Perhaps multiple attacks from multiple directions will be sufficient to bypass the being's defenses. Engage the target with whatever you have. Perhaps it will be unable to deflect an assault from both the air and ground." She crouches down then springs upward, using the enhanced strength of her obsidian form to launch high into the air. Once at the peak of her ascent, Obsidian swings her arms forward to launch a barrage of monomolecular blades at the levitating being. Coming down again she makes an acrobatic landing, noticeably cracking the ground a little as she collides with it.
Ooh, distraction. Big distraction! The -feel- of the thing against her intangible self is different. No time left to muck about: Kitty gives Scott something vaguely resembling a salute, and then shoves her way through the barrier while Jericho's got the Phoenix-person occupied— it's *much* easier, yes. But it's still not effortless. In a couple seconds, Shadowcat's through. "Buff!" she calls. "I'm going to find them!" And she darts toward the city at a sprint. She can get a cab. She has pockets. In the belt. That's what belts are for. Cab money.
The figure in Gray with the flaming aura and the red-trailing hair is in the air, fighting against Warren and Jericho at the moment. The figure in white is landing on the ground, being attacked by Victoria.
As the Figure in white drops to the bridge Alloy steps backwards, with both bodies, and takes up a fighting stance as a small hatch just above their right wrists opens revealing the barrel of some kind of weapon. Since the guy with the odd visor seems intent on a fight starting, well who is Alloy to say no? Since he is focused on shooting at the guys still in the air Alloy fires a volly of expanding sticky pellets at the dude in white hoping to at least stick him in place for now. From both of the figures comes the synthetic voice again, {That was a tacky song when it was written, and we want nothing to do with it now.}
Warren releases Jericho. "You're on your own, buddy - good luck!" He turns his attention to the remaining white figure in the air. "Ok…" He lunges forward, gritting his teeth, gliding rapidly toward the figure. As he shoots across the sky, he pulls back with his left fist. Upon reaching the figure, he unleashes a fierce right hook at its jaw.
Warren releases Jericho. "You're on your own, buddy - good luck!" He turns his attention to the gray fiery figure in the air. "Ok…" He lunges forward, gritting his teeth, gliding rapidly toward the figure. As he shoots across the sky, he pulls back with his left fist. Upon reaching the figure, he unleashes a fierce right hook at its jaw.
Feeling the flaming around his body, Jericho tries to grip the telekinetic ability within his body, only to receive the full brunt of the telekinetic slap from the hovering figure. "Oh, is that how it's going to be?" He asks, turning his own abilities, now shared, towards the gray figure, gripping to push him down towards the ground to join the others.
The white figure at first extends a hand, causing a lethargic wave to START to sweep across the assembled heroes, trying to force them into sleep. However… the attack from Obsidian hits the figure full on at first, but then starts bouncing off the figure. The figure freezes, looking left and right. Reaching up, a hand rips at the fabric, revealing a diamond-crusted face and hair. One that should be quite familiar to the X-staff. "What? Oh, no…" She whispers, falling to her knees. The other attacks on her are fairly ineffective on her. "Please, don't hurt him. He's not under his own control!" She says, pointing at the figure fighting in the air.
The gray figure begins to fall, but reaches out to grip Jericho firmly with mind and body. The two slowly descend to the ground. Since it's already got half of Jericho's powers, it won't even feel Warren's punch. Warren will feel like he uppercut a brick wall. The blast from Cyclops hits, spinning both the gray figure and Jericho for a moment. A voice intones from the body. "Weak creatures. You should not stand in the way of Farouk." It's unknown whether the voice belongs TO the figure or is simply chanelling from him.
The diamond woman behind the white fabric is quite obvious, but Scott knows where Emma is at the moment, so it is not this worlds Emma. "He?!" The X-man asks. Relieved and somewhat disappointed that this isn't who he thought it was. Scott watches Jericho and the figure in gray wall to the ground, lightly. He does move closer to their landing area, his thumb on the trigger in his glove. Just in case.
"Yeah, I think I said something along those lines," Kevin mumbles as he makes one last change. He looks up when Obsidian takes off and stares in awe while his accessories fade away. "… You go girl," he whispers, then blinks at the shouting. "Huh? Attack? TO BATTLE!!" The Minotaur becomes a gritty-looking viking who shakes his battle axe fiercely. That is, until the woman covered in diamonds drops to her knees and starts begging. "…. What?" His shoulders slump.
Obsidian walks forward toward the diamond being confidently and swiftly. As she nears the few dark blades lying about the ground vanish as they touch her feet. She speaks in her unearthly voice, "Hurting him may be a necessity at present. He is a threat, whether he intends to be or not. As I am not very good at non-lethal methods, do you have any suggestions as to how we may disable him?"
Warren grips his fist as it connects with the solid jaw of the gray figure. "Jeez…" He listens to the voice eminating from the figure. "Farouk? As in Amahl Farouk? What the hell is going on here?" He follows Jericho and the figure as they decend, gliding overhead.
The armored twins unfortunately seem to be extremely ineffective at fighting off psionic attacks. As the wave of lethargic feelings sweep over them the emergency measures built into the suits lock them solid in place because the people inside of them have completely passed out. After 10 seconds of a lack of interaction with the pilots a final fail safe engages and both suits suddenly rocket off from location locking on to the homing beacon set in Pryce's car hidden a good distance away.
Jericho and the other figure are at a stalemate, finally landing on the ground, near Scott. The two are equally matched, due to Jericho's power-share ability. "Any suggestions would be good." He says, rolling and twisting, trying to keep on top of the guy.
The figure in gray moves with precision but not much grace as he tries to get himself separated. The mask is removed during the fight, revealing, indeed, a male face. One that some of the X-folk have seen before. Kitty would recognize it, even if it wasn't a real person in our world.
The fallen Emma looks up at Victoria, "I'm not sure what all of it is. But If you knock him out, the Shadow King should drop him from the meld. He's using our powers to control the others. Addison really doesn't have a clue what's going on. He sees it all, but he's unable to assert control. Only one person was strong enough to hold him back, and she was the first one taken." She begins rising from her kneeling position to look herself over. "And… I really don't kn
ow how -I- came out of it."
The field leader looks down at the man. Not recognizing him, but he's still a threat. He soon has enough of the struggle between the two supers. A hard punch moves down to knock the red-haired man out. Most of the other action happening at the moment goes unnoticed, for now. Main focus is this fellow on the ground.
Kevin the Viking shambles over to 'Emma' and stands close to Victoria. "How do we get past that barrier," he asks in his first semblance of a serious tone. "My boss is in there and he's gonna be pissed if I can't get him out! Not to mention my rent's due and I need to get paid!" So much for seriousness and concern.
Obsidian regards Emma for a while then turns away to head toward 'Farouk'. "The two appear to be perfectly equal in strength and abilities. Let us see if we can shift the balance." The long blade extends from her right hand once more. "I am certain the X-Men have excellent medical facilities. Incapacitation by loss of blood, shock or organ damage should be sufficient." She charges forward and aims a thrust with the dark blade, precise and backed with superhuman strength and sharpness.
Deciding that he does not have the physical wherewithal to bring this fight to a close, Warren decides that a bit of aerial recon is in order. Perhaps, he thinks, there is a weakness in the force field that would be better observed from the air. His wings wave in broad strokes as he takes off, rising to high altitude.
Between the distraction of the fight and the other things, Jericho's got his hands full holding onto this one. "I just hope that Kitty finds them." He says as he holds onto the other man, rolling to the side.
Emma pauses, "I'll try to add my strength to his own, to see if that's enough." she says, the diamond melting away as she pushes her mind to join Addison's.
The blast from Cyclops does connect to the man's head as he blinks, like awakening from a daze. The sword connects, but only slicing his back as the roll from Jericho turns him, along with his own telekinetic distraction. The red lash along his back wells with blood as he looks around. "Em… Ems? What? Oh… this is not good." Glancing about, he winces. "I'm… myself. Please. We'd like to request dimensional political asylum. Please." He says, his voice soft as he stops fighting altogether, focussing instead on holding his back together, where Obsidian cut him.
Cyclops looks to Victoria, yelling to the obsidian woman. "What's wrong with you?! Incapasitate, not kill, not maim, no organ shock." He's ready to get the hell out of here. Looking to both Emma and Addison he nods. "You're free to come with us." He holds out a hand to help up the injured man. Scott is pretty sure that Victoria is a bit off her rocker now.
Kevin just… stares. He's no fighter, he just wants to make sure his boss hasn't been turned into food! And that he's not going to have to look for employment elsewhere in the morning. He lets off a heavy sigh as he shifts to a bald man wearing a blue sweatshirt and jeans. "What about the barrier," he shouts to whoever'll listen.
Obsidian shakes the sword to her side to flick some of the blood off it, then the blade disappears and the remaining blood just drops to the ground. She steps forward to look at the wound. "It is only a flesh wound. He appears to have been broken from the control of whomever is behind this incident. It is fortunate that no further damage needs be done. If you wish I can close the wound with precise application of obsidian links, but you will need professional attention within two hours." The dark woman looks to Cyclops. "Do not fear. Between this one's enhanced physical state and my proficiency, there was very little risk of fatality." And to answer Kevin, she adds, "Two of the six have been dealt with. If the other four may be broken from control simply by injuring them, it should not be difficult to dispel the barrier by applying the same methods to them."
Jericho simply stares at the wound. "Christ, lady, what are you?" He asks, lifting Addison carefully. "Thank goodness I AM a doctor. I was just trying to take him down, not HURT him." He stares, looking at the red-headed young man. "C'mon. We'll get you fixed up. Maybe see if we have a healer available."
Addison goes willingly with the doctor, nodding. "I'll… tell you what I know when we get… " Of course, nothing more gets out of his mouth before he passes out.
Emma nods slightly, glancing around as if scared and skittish. "Of course. Thank you." She looks to Kevin briefly, though. "The only way to get through the barrier is to take down the other four Shadow Kings and Queens. Though, I'm sure they're not noticing some of the places that Addison was. You may be able to get in through the pipes or other systems." She offers helpfully. ((And we're going to assume that Kitty made it back safely with the teenagers as we're loading. I just can't stay up any later.))
